Yana Castle, Ph.D., Contemplative Counselor, Author
  • Home
  • Private sessions
  • Nepal pilgrimage
  • Book
    • Excerpts
  • ABOUT
  • Blog
  • Contact

Yana Castle's Blog

LuJong for Training the Subtle Body

7/28/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Lu Jong is an ancient practice from the Buddhist Tantrayana and Bön traditions. The exercises of Lu Jong are based on the knowledge of Tibetan medicine, which understands that humans are a unity of body and mind. If the natural inner balance gets disrupted, the whole organism will be affected. Diseases can be the result. Through the combination of position, movement and breath, Lu Jong opens the channels in the body and mobilizes misdirected energy. On the physical level, this leads to the activation of the body’s own self-healing powers. On the mental level, the exercises help us overcome negative emotions like anger and craving in order to achieve emotional balance and to increase our energy. On an energetic level, Lu Jong releases blockages and opens the subtle body channels. This will re-establish the proper flow of energy.

for more on Lujong
​

0 Comments

Are you Bored or Distracted by Lyse Mai Lauren

6/1/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s quite likely that few who read these words really understand what they mean. It’s not that this is hard to understand; it’s incredibly easy, but the mind has a way of circumventing simplicity. It has a way of by passing the present moment to seek out and constantly engage in either a projected future or a remembered past. 
“As it is, we are merely bolting our lives—gulping down undigested experiences as fast as we can stuff them in—because awareness of our own existence is so superficial and so narrow that nothing seems to us more boring than simple being.  If I ask you what you did, saw, heard, smelled, touched and tasted yesterday, I am likely to get nothing more than the thin, sketchy outline of the few things that you noticed, and of those only what you thought worth remembering. Is it surprising that an existence so experienced seems so empty and bare that its hunger for an infinite future is insatiable? But suppose you could answer, ‘It would take me forever to tell you, and I am much too interested in what’s happening now.’ How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such a fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself as anything less than a god? And, when you consider that this incalculably subtle organism is inseparable from the still more marvelous patterns of its environment—from the minutest electrical designs to the whole company of the galaxies—how is it conceivable that this incarnation of all eternity can be bored with being?”
~ Alan Watts, The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

Read More
0 Comments

Questioning Everything by Madisyn Taylor

5/7/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
Being open-minded means that we are willing to question everything, including those things we take for granted. 

A willingness to question everything, even things we are sure we are right about, can shake us out of complacency and reinvigorate our minds, opening us up to understanding people and perspectives that were alien to us before. This alone is good reason to remain inquisitive, no matter how much experience we have or how old we get. In the Zen tradition, this willingness to question is known as beginner's mind, and it has a way of generating possibilities we couldn't have seen from the point of view of knowing something with certainty. The willingness to question everything doesn't necessarily mean we don't believe in anything at all, and it doesn't mean we have to question every single thing in the world every minute of the day. It just means that we are humble enough to acknowledge how little we actually know about the mysterious universe we call home. 

Nearly every revolutionary change in the history of human progress came about because someone questioned some time-honored belief or tradition and in doing so revealed a new truth, a new way of doing things, or a new standard for ethical and moral behavior. Just so, a commitment to staying open and inquisitive in our own individual lives can lead us to new personal revolutions and truths, truths that we will hopefully, for the sake of our growth, remain open to questioning.

A lot of people feel threatened if they feel they are being asked to question their cherished beliefs or their perception of reality. Yet questioning is what keeps our minds supple and strong. Simply settling on one way of seeing things and refusing to be open to other possibilities makes the mind rigid and generally creates a restrictive and uncomfortable atmosphere. We all know someone who refuses to budge on one or more issues, and we may have our own sacred cows that could use a little prodding. Being open-minded means that we are willing to question everything, including those things we take for granted.
0 Comments

Why Silence Is So Good For Your Brain by Carolyn Gregoire

4/26/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture

In a loud and distracting world, finding pockets of stillness can benefit your brain and body. Here are four science-backed reasons why.

We live in a loud and distracting world, where silence is increasingly difficult to come by ― and that may be negatively affecting our health. In fact, a 2011 World Health Organization report called noise pollution a “modern plague,” concluding that “there is overwhelming evidence that exposure to environmental noise has adverse effects on the health of the population.”

We’re constantly filling our ears with music, TV and radio news, podcasts and, of course, the multitude of sounds that we create nonstop in our own heads. Think about it: How many moments each day do you spend in total silence? The answer is probably very few.

As our internal and external environments become louder and louder, more people are beginning to seek out silence, whether through a practice of sitting quietly for 10 minutes every morning or heading off to a 10-day silent retreat.

Inspired to go find some peace and quiet? Here are four science-backed ways that silence is good for your brain ― and how making time for it can make you feel less stressed, more focused and more creative.

Read More
0 Comments

Emergence by Toko-pa

3/7/2025

0 Comments

 
"It helps to think of our swamps of despair as the necessary muddle before clarity. Actually, swamps are incredibly fertile places full of life. In mythology the heroine must cross such a place in her darkest hour, where she comes to face her unlived life - meeting each of the divine allies disguised as regret, doubt, and insufficiency which swell up from the mud of her despondency. If she is willing to consummate the full encounter, they will reveal themselves in service to the vitality of her true being." 
Picture
0 Comments

Ah, the luxurious full moon

2/12/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture
0 Comments

Where wild nature blends with ancestral tradition

1/8/2025

0 Comments

 
Picture


I am Gintvilė Giedraitienė. Sister of grasslands. I live in my ancestral homeland, Lithuania. Here are the most beautiful meadows, forests, lakes and rivers. To me, nature is beauty, joy, peace, tranquility, source of inspiration, wisdom, water of life, poetry and endless love.
​
The connection with nature and my forefathers' old Baltic sacral culture inspired my art from wild plants and meadows. I started creating in 1997, when Suns, Trees of Life, birds, crowns and accessories began growing to life through my hands. read more

0 Comments

Doe a Deer, a Female Deer: The Spirit of Winter Solstice

12/8/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Long before Santa charioted his flying steeds across our mythical skies, it was the female reindeer who drew the sleigh of the sun goddess at Winter Solstice. It was when we “Christianized” the pagan traditions of winter, that the white-bearded man i.e. “Father Christmas” was born.

Today it is her beloved image that adorns Christmas cards and Yule decorations – not Rudolph. Because, unlike the male reindeer who sheds his antlers in winter, it is the doe who retains her antlers. And it is she who leads the herds in winter.

So this season, when we gather by the fire to tell children bedtime stories of Santa and his flying reindeer – why not tell the story of the ancient Deer Mother of old? It was she who once flew through winter’s longest darkest night with the life-giving light of the sun in her horns.

Ever since the early Neolithic, when the earth was much colder and reindeer more widespread, the female reindeer was venerated by northern people. She was the “life-giving mother”, the leader of the herds upon which they depended for survival, and they followed the reindeer migrations for milk, food, clothing and shelter.

read more of this article by Danielle Prohom Olson From Gather Victoria magazine

​image by Chesca Potter
0 Comments

Sukhasiddhi

12/6/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Sukhasiddhi painting by Lasha Mutual.
Sukhasiddhi is a revered figure in Tibetan Buddhism, celebrated as one of the wisdom dakinis and an enlightened yogini. Her life exemplifies the transformative power of faith and spiritual practice, as she attained full realization later in life despite humble beginnings and personal hardships. Guided by the teachings of the Mahamudra tradition, Sukhasiddhi's story highlights the accessibility of enlightenment to all who cultivate devotion and inner realization. Her name, meaning "Blissful Attainment," symbolizes the union of wisdom and compassion, offering inspiration to those on the path to awakening.
0 Comments

Motanka dolls

11/29/2024

0 Comments

 
Picture
Motankas are ancient Ukrainian family talismans. They are the symbol of prosperity, goodness and hope.

The name "motanka" comes from the word “motaty” (to wind) ie to make a knotted doll out of fabric, without using a needle and scissors. Motanka served as a talisman of human destiny and our ancestors believed that destiny cannot be pierced or cut. Generally dolls were in the shape of a human figure, usually a woman or a child, and were made from pieces of fabric from old clothes of family members connected by knots.
​
Each doll is unique and made with only good intentions and sincerity as it was believed that it has power and will act as a protector of a household and it’s inhabitants.

0 Comments
<<Previous

    Welcome to my blog... 

    Here you will will find posts on consciousness expansion, folklore, poetry, articles on healing practices, Eastern thought, and other topics. I hope you enjoy these offerings as much as I have had collecting them. 

    cover: emily balivet

    Archives

    July 2025
    June 2025
    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright Yana Castle © 2025
  • Home
  • Private sessions
  • Nepal pilgrimage
  • Book
    • Excerpts
  • ABOUT
  • Blog
  • Contact