Steve Kramer

Meditation is supported by fully including the body.With Step 8 of Spirit Fire's meditation practice, The Practice of Living Awareness, we bring attention to alignment and we start with the body.It is a common misconception that meditation is a way to escape or "check out" from physical reality. We would say that the contrary is true, that meditation is the full immersion into the now, and that includes the body, the mind, and the spirit. As wemore effectivelyinclude our body in meditation sittings, our meditations will immediately improve.Asana is a sanskrit word that refers to one's sitting position. We would extend that to include one's posture in life.Our physical body is a resource, it will provide us with much information on our state of being. This week we invite Carol Martin back to our show to discuss, among many things, The Alexander Technique, which offers instruction on ridding the body of unnecessary tension and learning to move through life with ease. We love it.

We have reached the 7th step of Interlude this week in The Practice Of Living Awareness. Interludes are easily taken for granted or mistaken for "time-off." Much can be gained from an intentional pause. The following words from the Chinese prophet Lao-tzu offer some wisdom in this regard.ldquoFill your bowl to the brimand it will spill.Keep sharpening your knifeand it will blunt.Do your work, then step back.The only path to serenity."This is an excerptfrom Verse 9 of the Tao Te Ching. For Step 7, westep backand let our work thus far report to us.Here is text from our website about the interlude:"Meditation is an experience, not a thought process.We simply pause for step 7 to allow steps 1 through 6 to find their productive connectedness in the whole of our meditation practice. We begin to experience the efficacy of the steps we've learned and we begin to recognize that, in fact, we are learning to meditate.Interludes are important, they are integrative. An interlude has no agenda other than itself, it is a space between. We also begin to grow comfortable with the space that is not being filled by words or tasks. We allow ourselves to simply be present and comfortable."We are so excited to be joined by Jessica Kern to chat about the ancient Chinese practice of Qigong.Presentandcomfortableseems to describe the state of qigong practitioners. Thisis apractice of coordinated body posture and movement a moving meditation of sorts that allows for activation, observation, and integration of Qi, or Life Energy. Qigong is practicedforrecreation,exerciseandrelaxation,preventive medicineandself-healing,alternative medicine,meditation and self-cultivation, andtraining for martial arts. Checking-in with your experience is key to Step 7: Interlude. We know that Jessica will offer a wonderful take on the graceful interludes that come forward from the Qigong experience.Beyond teaching others the joy of Qigong,Jessica Kern is a licensed massage therapist LMT in the state of Massachusetts. She is also a certified Neuromuscular Therapist CNMT, American Version. After completing a B.A. at Brandeis University in American Studies in 2003, she went on to receive her professional license in massage therapy in 2005. Shortly thereafter in 2007 she became certified in neuromuscular therapy American version. Jessica continues to study regularly with mentors as part of her professional practice in order to explore and fine tune her skill set. Orthopedic massage and myofascial release, Zero Balancing, AIS Active Isolated Stretching, equine and canine massage, AND BEE KEEPING are included in that skill set. Yes, bee keeping. We hope to chat about that too

This week in The Practice Of Living Awareness we are meditating with the natural response to the previous step ofSoften, Open, and ReceiveStep 5 isSoften, Open, and Release.We breathe in and we breathe out, this creates flow. We are constantly receiving and releasing this is the basis for our personal growth, for manifestation, for evolution, for healing... the list goes on.Here are a few sentences from our website that describethis step within our meditation teachings: The flow of receiving continues in step 5 by going into the experience of release. Release requires softening and opening aswell - our lungs prove this every time we breathe. Sharing, adjusting, allowing, giving, forgiving, recognizing, and accepting all incorporate aspects of steps 4 and 5.Release makes flow possible by creating space for a new receiving. We are given many opportunities for release during a meditation sitting - the experience can move from settling to healing to sublime.The birthing process could be one of the most magical experiences of release... releasing a human soul to the universe. Jacqui Morton is a birth doula and a freelance writer. We will chat with her this week about the many forms of release involved in pregnancy and birth. We'll also talk about releasing or redefining the notion of the perfect conception, the perfect pregnancy, or the perfect birthing process. JacquicreatedHolding Our Space, a memorial for any and all kinds of reproductive loss. Her writing has been published in places such asCognoscenti, the Guardian,Huffington Post,The Mom Egg Review,Recovering the Soul: A Journal of Hope and Healing,Role Reboot,The Rumpus, andSalon.Find out more about Jacqui's heartfelt work atjacquimorton.com.

This week within The Practice Of Living Awareness we are meditating with Step 4: Soften, Open, and Receive. This meditative toolcalls the creative process to mind. Creativity requires a softening and opening to each and every experience in order to receive all that it has to offer in the way of fodder. Inspiration needs a permeable mindHere are a few sentences from our website that describe this step within our meditation teachings:Step 4 teaches the process of receiving. We receive a new breath every few seconds... there are great teachings within this natural occurrence. Softening makes one receptive and magnetic to meditative experiences. Softening is necessary to experience union.As this step permeates our living awareness, we begin to sense whether we are rigid or soft, closed-off or open, defensive or accepting. Examples from nature and common daily experience are offered to illustrate the necessity of this process. Exercises from this step can be practiced throughout your day. Softening, opening, and receiving are choices and these choices create powerful shifts toward being fully present in the moment. From the present moment, the possibilities are endless.As you can see, the correlations are all there an artist is always looking to experience a sense of union with the moment - that really is the core of the creative spark. Often the process of softening allows for creative expression to reveal itself. What is inspiration if not softening the mind so as to allow the moment to unfoldAll of us at Spirit Fire love music. We often settle ourselves in the evening with a nice documentary and the subject matter often revolves around musicians. It Might Get Loud, Searching For Sugar Man, and Stop Making Sense have been in heavy rotation. This weekrsquos show has us very excited as we will speak with award-winning guitarist, musician, and songwriter Tom Yoder. He is a master of the acoustic guitar His latest CD, Twisted Circles and The Theory of Everything, honors symphonic music of the masters, such as Bach and Mozart, with all the parts arranged for and played on electric guitar and bass guitar. Herersquos what David Hodge Of Guitar Noise said about this album, "What I find myself marveling at each time I listen to this is how much the ldquogimmickrdquo of this disc ndash the playing of all the parts by guitars ndash makes me not think about guitars at all. Rather, I find myself totally caught up in the music itself. Irsquove heard guitarists who have made me marvel at the guitar as an instrument and way too many whose music is all about putting the focus on the guitarist. With ldquoTwisted Circles and the Theory of Everything,rdquo Tom Yoder manages to put the music itself first and foremost. And the results are awe inspiring." Tom has given us a few new tracks to sample on air... they're awesomeWe look forward to speaking with Tom about all things creativehellip the softening and opening and receiving process, the business, making music in the digital age, and yeshellip what inspires himTom Yoder has released four studio recordings: Eat This Its Safe, The Moment the Apple Falls, Tomfoolery, and his fourth, Twisted Circles And The Theory Of Everything. His first effort, Eat This Its Safe, was very well received. Tunes from the CD get plenty of airplay on regional public radio as well as NPRs daily program All Things Considered. Four songs from the CD did well in songwriting competitions: ldquoMashu Mashurdquo was a finalist in the2002 Independent Music Awards and the UK Songwiting Competition as well as the Great American Song contest. ldquoThe Weddingrdquo, ldquo94 Lettersrdquo and ldquoJennahrdquo were all finalists in the MOVA Arts Festival songwriting competition. The title track from ldquoThe Moment the Apple Fallsrdquo was the winner of the 2004 Independent Music Awards New Age category. He followed that up with another win in 2010 Independent Music Awards New Age category for the song ldquoLocked Inrdquo from the ...

Life is in motion, constant motion. Is there a flow to your moment to moment experience Are you flowing with life's persistent current or fighting it By simply noticing the gentle flow of the breath in meditation, we can begin to entrain ourselves to its natural rhythm. Rhythm stabilizes the emotions and steadies the mind. Soon, flow begins to permeate our awareness and the omnipresent cycles of life become apparent: day to night to day again, season to season and year to year, the rise and fall of waves, the migration of animals. All things come and go, not unlike the breath.We though it would be fun to think outside of the box for this week's show. Flow... we thought, where do we encounter flow in an interesting way Social media Talk about constant, ceaseless, neverending flow Our forefinger has become the metronome to the visual song on our smartphones as we scroll Instagram and peruse our Facebook feed. Our attention peaks, or attention falls. Our attention peaks again. And who within social media observes the ebb and flow of popular culture, or better yet, who influences it Public relation specialists We love the word relationSo we contacted Beth Berdofe-White. She's heads PR for Straight Arrow, Inc., the makers of Mane nrsquorsquoTail. We love their products, we love that they are a family run business, and we love Beth. Wersquore gonna chat about social media and what it takes to keep the publicrsquos attention on their companyrsquos product. We sense it will have a lot in common with keeping onersquos attention on the bodyrsquos best-seller, the breath.Beth got her start in NYC with Allure Magazine, then Barneys New York. She became PR Director at Philosophy Cosmetics, and on to Global PR Director of Straight Arrow. Beth brought her experience, media savvy, expertise and her long-standing relationships with the media to help create a buzz to all the different audiences that Straight Arrow markets to. She has a passion for bringing knowledge and brand awareness to all media outlets.Beth Berdofe White lives in Bethlehem, PA. She loves the little town and is also passionate about her kitty boys, listening to music, helping others, her family and dear friends, the practice of living awareness and still has her pulse on the fashion industry when need be

This week we are meditating on Step 2, Tip of the Nose, in The Practice of Living Awareness. As a tool, this step is designed to bring the practitionerrsquos attention to a point of focus. As the mind often drifts or follows a thought, it is helpful to remind practitioners, ldquobring your attention back to the tip of the nose.rdquo We often discussed this step in terms of focus. This week we're going to talk about the effects of the step as opposed to the tool that creates the effects. The effect within the practice is that your world opens up to the dynamism of the breath. You begin to notice the usually not noticed. You become engaged, thus intrigued, by the present moment and all that it has to offerhellip instead of the thought that you were chasing that is most likely the same thought yoursquove been chasing for a yearEngagement in the present moment means there is no separation in your mind. Wouldn't a world beyond separation be sublime This week we invitedpsychologist, social change specialist, and spiritual coach, Dr. Dorothy Riddle, to talk about her new book, Moving Beyond Duality. Much of her work centers on correcting the harmful effects of prejudice and visioning a world free of an "us vs them" mentality. To "notice the usually not noticed" is another should be a joyful act of discovery as opposed to a limiting act of judgement. Dr. Riddle, take us there

We started a new round of The Practice of Living Awareness meditations this week. Now that makes us smile For six years Spirit Fire has been offering free online daily meditations. We often end the sittings by saying, "create your day" Your sitting, your day, your entire life is up to you to create. And we guarantee that anything created with a smile is a joy to behold.This week we will chat with the ever-smiling Elyse Jolley. Elyse is an advocate for creative living. She's a Reiki practitioner as well as an Esoteric Healing practitioner. She is also a New Yorker who uses devised physical theatre and dance as a conduit for healing and change. Elyse traverses the line between fine art and healing art. She incorporates each into her practice to transform, educate, and empower the individual and the community.

"The time is now," but then again, how can it not be Being present to one's life keeps this tagline vibrant and full of potential this is Living Awareness.We start a brand new round of The Practice of Living Awareness meditations on June 6th. Our organization's founder, Donna Mitchell-Moniak, dedicates each morning to offering a new meditation to those who would like to partake. They're online, they're free, and they take you through 14 weeks unfolding a greater participation in the daily life you that you are creating as you go.This week, Donna will join us to chat about her time on the meditation cushion. Each round of the practice is unique... the live practitioners are new, the inspirations are new, each and every meditation is new. What doesnowhold for her in this moment What do the next 14 weeks have in store energetically, astrologically, seasonally We're looking forward to the new round of Living Awareness and the delightful variety of guests we've got lined up to discuss the myriad of ways that the tools of meditation express in the world around us. But first up... Donna Our conversations with her are always a joy

A few weeks ago Tim and Steve had an amazing conversation with Matt O'Grady on Spirit Fire Radio. As we were talking about his new book, Living Gratitude, The Law of Attraction came up. Well, we were all so passionate about this subject that we invited Matt back to the show to dedicate an hour to dive deep into this incredible manifesting principle. Heck, Spirit Fire Radio is the result of LOA What is the Law of Attraction In simplistic terms, it is the energetic law that says what we put out is mirrored back to us... that our thoughts create our experience and our emotions are a barometer which tells us whether those thoughts are working for us or against us. But we're gonna let Matt explain He's been working with this principle for years

Every meditation practice teaches us tools to be present in our body, to be calm in our emotions, and to have greater control over our mind. But what happens when we get off of the cushion Itrsquos called a meditation practice because it need not be limited to twenty minutes every dayhellip mindfulness can be practiced all day long.