Browsing Tag

Manifesting

Inspiration, Q & A Series

Joe Longo Photography. The Manifestation Q&A Series.

January 21, 2012

Welcome to The Manifestation Q&A Series. 

I am Jennifer Pastiloff and this series is designed to introduce the world to someone I find incredible. Someone who is manifesting their dreams on a daily basis.

I first met today’s guest through the powers that be, also known as: Social Media. I noticed someone named Joe Longo was sharing my blog and tweeting my stuff so I checked him out. I come to find out he is an incredible and passionate photographer and yogi who shoots a lot for Dhyana Yoga, my home studio in Philadelphia. Dhyana Yoga is my family and apparently Joe Longo is their family, so the way I see it, Joe and I were family. Before we even met.

We finally met. I was right. It was like we had known each other lifetimes.

We literally had 5 minutes, just 5 minutes to take some pictures and he snapped some of my very favorite pictures I have of myself. To know Joe is to love him.

In an elevator at Dhyana Yoga West Philly where I will be teaching again Wed March 28.

I am very excited because he lives in Pennsylvania, but is planning a west coast tour to do shoots and we plan on having a yoga photo party. Yes, you read right. I mean, if I can do karaoke yoga, I can do a yoga partay!

Seriously, this guy is the real deal. I love him like a brother. Some of his answers blew me away and some humbled me tremendously. Joe Longo is inspiring, in a word. Please get to know him, and, if you can, book a session with this guy! 

Jennifer Pastiloff: What are you most proud to have manifested in your life?

 

Joe Longo: There is so much to be proud of and thankful for, including manifesting my inclusion in this Q & A. I am so inspired by everything you’re doing. Thank you for kicking ass. Life is blowing me away. Even as I type, your (Jennifer) Facebook status reads: “My dreams are becoming a reality faster than I could have ever dreamt.” with a link to your blog about Wayne Dryer being on the Manifestation Station. I am so happy to be living this life I have created

I am most proud of following my passion of photography and teaching yoga and being able to unite them both.

Jennifer Pastiloff: What is the greatest lesson that you have learned from being a yoga teacher? from your own personal practice? from being a photographer?

 

I love this guy. He truly emanates love!

Joe Longo: I’m learning something new in every class, but mostly I have learned to be grateful for the opportunity to share this practice with the world.

From my personal practice to photography, I’m learning how to let go of fear. I have been practicing yoga for about ten years and for about nine of them, I feared going upside down. All I could see was me falling on my head over and over and over again. Either way, I didn’t try. Whenever I was in class and the teacher asked us to do handstands, I would take a break, have some water, and chill out in child’s pose. Then one day last year, a good friend said, “I thought you we’re an athlete.” At that moment, my practice changed. My life changed.

I remembered, “I am an athlete!” and I was letting fear get in the way of who I truly am. Now, all I want to do are handstands. I’m still getting over the fear, but now I love falling on my face. I’m learning the same thing from photography. I was shy and quiet. But now, I talk to new people every day; not only do I have to talk to them, I make them feel comfortable on the other end of the camera. I believe, too often, we allow fear to control us so much, it changes our whole life. That athlete comment shook me out of a deep sleep. I woke up knowing I needed to be as awesome as I possibly could be, and I needed to love myself again. Do you remember when you were a kid and all the grownups would say you have to love yourself before anyone else can love you? Then all of a sudden we grow up and forget this; we think we’re not supposed to be awesome. Really?… Really!… Really?… I say be awesome! Kick ass! Do what you love and let everything fall into place. God, The Source, The Universe, whatever you want to call her/him… They have your back.. If you believe in yourself, be grateful, share your love with the world, and the universe will get your back. But YOU must BELIEVE!

Jennifer Pastiloff: I have a list of rules. See below. What would some of Joe Longo’s rules be?

Joe Longo: Joe’s Rules

1. Believe in yourself

2. Love yourself

3. Love everyone

4. Be Awesome

5. Give back

6. Give back some more and don’t let anyone know it was you

7. Inspire people. In the words of Yogi Bahajan: “Be the light house”

8. Sing

9. Don’t let anyone or anything stop you from doing what you love

10. Stop listening to the mind and start listening to the little voice inside of you, that voice that keeps you breathing and your heart beating when you’re sleeping. That voice will never lie to you.

 

Jennifer Pastiloff: Who/what inspires you the most?

 

Joe Longo: You! The light you shine is contagious. I see how you inspire people and it makes me want to inspire people. People following their dreams inspire me.

Jennifer Pastiloff: I teach many of my classes to the theme of gratitude. If you could say thank you right now to one person who would it be?

 

Joe Longo: This question really made me think. I have to thank everyone who has ever come into my life. Good or bad, they all helped me get to where I am today. I thank you all!

Jennifer Pastiloff: What is one message you would pass on right now to someone looking to manifest their best selves?

 

Joe Longo: Know that you already are your best self, believe that you’re awesome and you’ll be awesome. My friend Mike Barata has this great little saying, “You have two choices in this life. You can choose to suck or you can kick ass. Which would you prefer?”

I prefer kicking ass and you should, too.

When you believe in yourself, the universe will get your back. When you follow your passion and listen to the voice inside with an open and grateful heart, everything will fall into place.  

Jennifer Pastiloff: What brings you the most joy? Your joy list, as it were.

 

Joe Longo: My dog Timber… singing, cold weather, fireplaces, friends, family, teaching, learning and then some more learning, photography, yoga, nature, and inspiring people who believe in themselves. 

Jennifer Pastiloff: What can we expect Joe Longo to manifest in 2012?

 

Joe Longo: For 2012, I am manifesting some creative photography work with fun inspiring people and companies. Doing a photo shoot with Ellen Degeneres because I have a feeling she would be a lot of fun to photograph. Getting a photo agent, a book, A Yoga Photo Party Tour.. Yoga workshop on an island (well this is happening just not talking about it yet…hehe…stay tuned.) Developing a large kickstarter yoga photo project with a huge gallery showing, limited edition book and a creative photo layout in Yoga Journal. Oh, and let’s not forget co-teaching a Kundalini / Vinyasa manifestation class with you! 

Jennifer PastiloffCan you tell us a little about your journey. Giving up your 9-5 job to pursue your dreams…..

 

Joe Longo: It has been a long journey, from failing my first photography class to getting my first professional photography gig. For some reason, I left my passion of photography to follow the standard path. You know, the 9-5 401K joy crushing real world work force path? After about 10 years, I started to wake up and realize this was not the life I wanted. I had a failed marriage, a 9-5 job making good money and I was miserable. Sounds great… I was working with people who somehow we’re able to just follow the standard, show up for work at 9 and stay till 9… The crazy thing is they expected me to sit in my cube just like them and do the same damn thing.

Yada yada yada, I woke up one morning and decided it was time to plan my escape. I made a little sign that read “I AM A PHOTOGRAPHER” and put it on my bathroom mirror. I know sounds so cliché, but I looked at that note every day. I was already doing some freelance music photography. I had been practicing yoga for a couple of years, and had a lot of good friends that were teaching. After about a year of having this note on the mirror, it hit me. START PHOTOGRAPHING YOUR YOGA FRIENDS! It was also at this time I had decided to enroll in a Kundalini Yoga teacher training program. I had a new job managing a customer support department for a small software company. I thought everything was falling in to place. I recall thinking to myself, “I got this job. I’ll be able to pay for the training. I’ll save some money and in a year or so, quit the day job, teach yoga and be a photographer.” It sounded like a great plan, until about two months into the teacher training. While on a trip to Vermont with some friends, I received about 50 phone calls and 150 emails from my “great” new job. Something in me changed.  Maybe it was almost being taken out by carbon monoxide poisoning the night before, but a fearlessness showed up in my life.

I arrived at the cabin around 11PM and by 11:30, I decided I was never going back to that job again. Crazy, I know. I got home on Superbowl Sunday, called my boss, and quit. I told him I could not live this way anymore. He asked what I was going to do; the first thing I said was, “Photography.”

The rest, as they say, is history…

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Follow Joe on Facebook here. https://www.facebook.com/JoeLongoPhotography

Joe Longo Website https://joelongophotography.photoshelter.com/

Joe on Twitter https://twitter.com/#!/joelongophoto

Dhyana Yoga ( I will be teaching here Wed March 28. Sign up asap. West Philly Studio.)

https://www.dhyana-yoga.com/

My family in Philly. My home studio there: Dhyana Yoga. John and Dhyana, shown here, are the owners. They are expecting their first child late April 2012. Mazel Tov!

Jen’s rules:

1. Be Kind.

2. Have a sense of humor especially when it comes to yourself

3. Write poems, even if only in your head

4. Sing out loud, even if badly

5. Dance

6. If you don’t have anything nice to say… you know the deal

7. Find things to be in awe of

8. Be grateful for what you have right now .

9. Watch Modern Family

10. Duh, do yoga

11. Don’t worry. Everyone on Facebook seems like they have happier and funner lives. They don’t.

12. Tell someone you love that you love them. Right now.

13.. Take more pictures.

14. Forgive yourself for not being perfect. no such thing.

15. Thank the Universe in advance.

Guest Posts, Self Image

The Magic from Within. Guest Post by Curvy Yoga aka Anna Guest-Jelley.

January 10, 2012

Dear Manifesters, today’s guest post is by the lovely Anna Guest-Jelley, founder of Curvy Yoga.

From the Curvy Yoga site:

Curvy Yoga is about living in your body – plain and simple. (Except that, it’s totally not.)

As someone who has been on 65 diets in my life, I actually find embodiment, or really getting grounded and listening to that inner voice, to be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But it’s also the most transformative (notice I didn’t put that in past tense – the process is very much ongoing!).

Having dealt with a serious eating disorder myself, I  found it refreshing to see someone so honest out there in the yoga world in regards to body image, weight, and the process of learning to love oneself. Anna’s voice spoke to me so loudly that I asked her to guest post. I found myself constantly drawn to her so it seemed fitting that she be a part of the Manifestation Station.

It’s a brilliant essay and the timing is impeccable as she speaks about why she, at first, was skeptical of “manifesting”. Just yesterday, at lunch with a friend, he told me of someone who was critiquing “manifesting and the whole trend of manifesting.” I semi-laughed as I thought to myself “There is a trend? Is it ‘trending’ on Twitter?” I simply know it is a word I found helpful to embody what it is that I am doing in my own life so I named my company that and am attempting to share it with whoever is interested. If it is a trend, well, better that than texting and driving, Ugg boots or botox.

Enjoy Anna’s essay and be inspired to live in your own body and embody your own truth. 

Gorgeous Anna Guest-Jelley

The Magic From Within by Anna Guest-Jelley.

I’m just gonna be honest. Until recently, I thought manifesting was a crock of you-know-what (feel free to fill in the blank here with your favorite expletive because, well, I’ve probably used them all).

The reason why I didn’t believe in manifesting? I believed in something else.

Hard f’ing work.

Vision Boards 

I really do kind of hate to admit this now, but whenever I used to hear someone talk about manifesting, I’d roll my eyes. I did this despite the fact, of course, that I (secretly!) love making vision boards. And somehow, every few months, without ever looking at it consciously after I finished making it, I’d catch a glimpse of my board and realize everything on it had come true.

But I shrugged that off.  I figured I made that stuff happen – nothing more, nothing less. My thoughts weren’t involved, the universe wasn’t involved, it was just all me. Off my own (often breaking) back.

As the daughter of two parents who value work above pretty much everything, and a well-known (at least by the friends and family who I made time for) workaholic myself, I just couldn’t believe there was any more to life than working it out. All of it.

Bitten in the Butt

That is, of course, until I was forced to come to terms with two things simultaneously – how all my hard work was killing me (pretty literally) and how I had slowly and gently begun to set intentions that were seeping their way, wordlessly, into my life.

Here’s how it went down – first about the work: I was working a busy-scheduled, always-politicking, constant-“emergency” kind of job. And my health spiraled down. And down. And down. I got to the point where I wasn’t sure what it felt like to not be anxious. I had to start wearing a nightguard I was grinding my teeth so much. By some miracle, I took a deep exhalation one day and realized that I was holding so much tension in my belly, as though guarding against life, that my stomach was hard like a brick – and not in an abs-of-steel kind of way.

I eventually realized that continuing to work this job would mean (a) becoming a person who I hated and (b) dying young. So I chose Option C: quitting. And I did. And wouldn’t you know it? My jaw released its death grip in a week or less. I remembered what it felt like to digest my food well. And I was able to wake up without butterflies in my belly.

Taking the Credit

I’d really, really like to be able to take the credit for making this bold decision. But alas, I really can’t. The reason I was able to do it was because for about a year (again, totally secretly!), I’d had that change on my vision board, and I’d been quietly, internally setting things in motion to be able to feel okay with doing it.
Because the me from a year before? There’s no way in h-e-double-hockey-sticks that she could have released a “good” job with a steady salary and benefits. Even if the alternative was bleak.

But the me from right now? After working with my thoughts, and putting out the intention and doing the internal and external work to support it? Yeah, I was ready to make the leap.

And what I realize now is that, while I’d always dismissed manifestation as too magical for my liking, I forgot how the real magic comes from within.

Anna Guest-Jelley is the Founder of Curvy Yoga, where she writes and teaches about yoga and embodiment as the foundations of a live well-lived (and body well-loved). She is also the co-teacher of 30 Days of Curvy Yoga, a course on crafting a yoga practice for your unique body and needs. Connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Guest Posts, Little Seal

Closing the Exit Door. Guest Post by Emily Rapp.

November 20, 2011
The following guest post is by my favorite writer and dear friend, Emily Rapp. Many of you know her already because I talk about her endlessly. Some of you may even follow her own blog Little Seal.  Emily is a great source of inspiration and love for me. I urge you to take the time and read her words. Also, my Manifestation t-shirts are an effort to raise money for Tay Sachs, as well as Prader Willi Research. It is my greatest honor to introduce you, Dear Manifesters, to the brilliant and gorgeous Emily Rapp.

Closing the Exit Door by Emily Rapp

When I first learned that my son, Ronan, would die before he turned four years old of a rare, progressive neurological disease called Tay-Sachs, I felt too sad to live. I thought I cannot stay awake.

I thought I want to die.

All of the self-destructive coping mechanisms I had relied on in the past – binge drinking, starving, extreme exercise, overworking, impulse shopping – were no longer any use to me. There was no place to go where I did not feel pain. There was no method of transformation available to me, which is another way of saying that there was no exit door. For several months grief became my life, and for the rest of my life grief will be a major player in it.

How do people survive a world when every step forward feels like dropping through a trap door? Some people don’t.

In 1944 my grandfather, a man from whom I inherited my red hair and many other traits (I’m told), shot himself with a rifle in a hot barn. Nobody knows the full story; nobody knows why. Was it depression, addiction, or a combination of these? Did the same fate await me, the recipient of at least some of his genetics? He was a unique man in a unique position in a unique period of time: an Irish Catholic father of two who, if he had asked for help for his depression or addiction or other problem, would have had limited resources. Depending on what he needed he may have been judged harshly by his conservative rural community, maybe even been outcast. The fact that my grandfather took his life makes me much more likely (if you believe in statistics) to do the same. I understood this in the first thunderous days after Ronan’s diagnosis, and I was afraid.

I understood the deepest shadow side of myself.

But when I looked at my fear straight on, a strategy I learned, in part, from yoga, I found something I hadn’t expected – not an exit, but an entrance.

When I looked into the fire of my grief and despair, and then sat down in it, then got familiar with it (tasting, touching, breathing, smelling, eating it) I found a new coping mechanism – my vocation as a writer – to be the only one that offered any assistance, any help at all. I couldn’t have been more surprised. Up to that point, most of my life as a writer consisted of procrastination, spurts of inspiration, cross country trips to residencies where I spent the bulk of my time “getting settled in my new environment,” racing to meet deadlines, and hours and hours logged at coffee shops in Austin, Texas and Provincetown, Massachusetts, and then West L.A., staring at a painfully white screen and longing to write while simultaneously wishing I’d already written whatever it is I was attempting to write. Not anymore. Writing became (and perhaps it always was) a compulsion, a necessary ritual fueled by a desire as strong as wanting that next drink, that next award, that next expensive sweater, that next (and even lower) number on the bathroom scale, only instead of tearing my world down to its most destructive components, it made my world huge, massive, much bigger than I ever thought it could be. I wrote a book about my son to keep me in the world, and I’m still doing it. Writing closed that particular exit door. It kept me in the room of my life.

I try to imagine myself, years from now, without my son, and I try to envision what I want that life to look like: chaotic, filled with dogs and children and books and good food and cheap wine and brilliant friends and travel and hours of contemplative thinking time. Space. Room. Joy. Light. A life of the mind; a state of the heart.

Some may believe this is heartless or cruel, to fast-forward to my life without Ronan, to try and manifest a vision of this happiness, but without this future-directed act of manifestation, an activity I’ve learned much about from Jen’s yoga classes and from her presence in my life, I couldn’t imagine and I couldn’t write, and if I couldn’t write I couldn’t live. Without the hint of this promise, we look to our lives and see only ways out, doors to the outside, an overabundance of possible exits.

Yoga teaches us that we are both limited and enhanced by our desires, and the energy behind them can serve you – through breath, meditation, mindfulness. Sitting in a room with other people, moving and making shapes with the body is a kind of magic, but it’s also a kind of meditation, manifestation, a kind of necessary work that can last throughout your life and also help you live it.

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I hope you will all consider buying a t-shirt or spreading the word about them in an effort to raise money for research and to help with any costs Ronan many need.

Order one here. https://www.jenniferpastiloff.com/PayPal.html

Manifesting Your Life,

One Laugh at a Time,

Jen (JenPastiloff on Twitter)

Delight, Guest Posts, Inspiration

She’s Got Cans! Guest Post by the Author of The 365 to 30 Blog.

November 9, 2011

The following is a guest post by my student Kate, who has now become a dear friend. I started following her blog (‘stalking’ would be a more fitting word) and I knew instantly that she was someone I wanted to know better. I am so inspired by what she is doing in 365 to 30. She is truly taking the bull by the horns and living the life she has imagined for herself. She is manifesting her dreams and sharing them with us daily. And let me tell you, her dreams rock! Here is a taste of why I love Kate McClafferty so much. The fact that she is stunningly beautiful, inside and out, is an added bonus. 

www.365til30.com

 When Jennifer asked me to write a guest post for Manifestation Station, I was beyond excited considering I love Jennifer…I love her blog…I love her spirit…I love her humor and I love her honesty.

Like Jennifer I am a firm believer that we can manifest our deepest desires, dreams and destinies if we set our mind to it.

Why do I believe this?

Because I have been living it for the last 120 days.

Four months ago I started a project entitled 365 til 30 and I have been changed by the experience.

You see four months ago I was feeling BLAH. I had a good case of “poor me” and I was totally indulging it. A few days before my 29th birthday, I was sitting at lunch with my best girlfriend going on and on about everything that was wrong with my life. I didn’t own a house…I didn’t have a savings account…my career wasn’t where I wanted it to be and I felt like I was being punished for some reason.

I was just totally depressed by it all. Actually, I was exhausted from it all. I was tired of comparing myself to other people. I was tired of feeling less joy in my everyday life because I was so focused on what was missing instead of focusing on what I had to be thankful for. I just hated the way I felt and I knew I had a part in creating my reality. I felt heavy and I couldn’t handle feeling that way anymore.

So in an inspired moment I wrote a list of 10 things. These 10 things represented things I wanted to experience, accomplish and manifest. I admit, some are silly but some mean so much to me that I would just explode with delight if they happened. 

All I knew is that when I looked at the list I couldn’t help but grin. I saw the life I wanted. I saw my deepest desires in writing.

I wrote the list from a joyful place. I wrote the list from a silly place. I wrote the list from a grateful place. I wrote the list from a “it is totally possible and has already happened!” place.

In 4 short months I have been amazed by what is possible when you take an active role in manifesting your destiny.

I am not trying to say that every day has been easy or that some days I haven’t felt discouraged. But, I can tell you this…I have never felt so inspired or alive.

I have also never felt so sure that everything is unfolding exactly as it should.

Kate McClafferty

www.365til30.com