California

I'm currently in my cousin's beautiful apartment in Emeryville, CA. My time so far in the Bay Area has been wonderful for the most part, even though Mercury is in retrograde and with traveling you should be extra cautious and aware. When I arrived yesterday I was greeted by a lovely soul, my friend Katherine, who hosted me for Saturday night in her home in the hills of Orinda. The air was fresh and the views were stunning and gorgeous (pictures to come). We ate delicious split pea soup and salmon. Then on Saturday evening we went to the Niroga Center in Berkeley for a youth sangha meditation sitting and discussion, which was enlightening, even though I was pretty exhausted from traveling. We discussed the question "Is there suffering?" and defining the ego, among other things. Because we are all part of the collective consciousness, since we are all one, every single action we take leaves an imprint on the collective consciousness, and therefore affects everyone. I'm really glad this was brought to the forefront of my thinking again because I had kind of put it on the back burner for a while, it was getting muddled with so many other thoughts. But now I'm definitely going to be more conscious of each action I take, and just how it will affect others. When you do things that are good for yourself, positive things, you are doing good for everyone.
This morning we visited the Nyingma Institute, also in Berkeley, for some morning Tibetan Yoga, after a nutritious breakfast of amaranth with wheatgrass green powder, agave, flax oil, and bee pollen. I had never done any Tibetan Yoga before, but I enjoyed it, this session was like a mix of kundalini yoga and tai chi, as well as a good amount of guided meditation. We worked on opening the heart chakra for most of the class and I really was able to feel the shift in my energetics. I also liked when we were standing and did an exercise in which to "sway like a water plant" which was a pretty neat analogy, to pretend to be a water plant for a minute. :) After class we walked around the bookstore at the institute, and the garden, which was lovely.
Before I parted ways with Katherine we ate lunch at Cafe Gratitude, which was awesome because when she was describing it to me, I remembered that earlier this summer I had read a very inspiring article in Ode magazine about this same restaurant! (Everything is connected).
It's an excellent vegan/raw foods restaurant in Berkeley with positive vibes and wonderful energy. I really liked the artwork and the taoist quotes on the walls.

Quote of the day (from Cafe Gratitude): By letting go it all gets done. The world is won by those who let it go. But when you try and try and try, the world is beyond winning. -Lao Tzu