Fairness
Equality goes beyond race, creed or color.  Fairness is a human right which needs to be maintained by everyone.  Treating each other with the same respect, compassion and understanding as we would ourselves only creates a world of unity and peace.  To have peace with others we must first be at peace with ourselves, demonstrating respect compassion and understanding.  How we treat ourselves is how others will treat us.

Persistence and fairness are two main ingredients for success.  We can easily make the decision to reach our goals come what may, weathering the fiercest of storms, but at what cost?  Do we sacrifice relationships, comradery and integrity just to achieve such?  Do we step on others just to reach an end?  What is success without being about to share it with others?  Lonely maybe?  Fairness keeps us honest and respectful – of others and ourselves.  Persistence keeps us committed, disciplined and true to the way – helping others as we help ourselves.

Considering the choices we make as we look to attain the rewards of what we seek is the way of budo.

- Michael Aloia

Check out Michael’s book How Aikido Can change the World - now available
Asahi Schools of Aikido www.asahidojo.com
Want to make a difference: Aikido United International www.aikidounited.org

When the going gets tough,
you’ve had more than enough -
everyone seems overly daft
what can you do but force a laugh?

 When you’ve repeated yourself time and again,
you feel your patience wearing quite thin.
Can you find a reason or half
to cause yourself and others to laugh?

Confrontation is near
as is the anger and the fear.
Take a moment or a while
and train yourself to smile.
 
When uncomfortable emotions arise
as you sift through truth and lies,
the feelings seem to want to lurk
yet you push them away with a smirk.

That’s the start of something new -
expel the negative with a positive cue.
Humor can change the moment for all
you just need to be aware, is all.

   – Pamela Aloia

Sol Angel www.solangel.com
Look for Pamela’s book 52 Pick Me Up now available!

It has been said that humans can grow in consciousness in one of two 
ways: 1. through suffering and 2. through increased awareness and 
mindfulness. Option 1 typically includes a push factor – a situation 
that pushes us into another space – another perspective – perhaps 
repelling us from one state and moving us consciously into another - 
sometimes with great resistance or no other feasible choice.

Option 2 seems simpler – however this option requires discipline and 
time. One may consider option 2 easier, but let not simplicity cloud 
the perspective of ease. With awareness comes a responsibility to 
change, act, or be. Moving from one place to another without 
suffering as the catalyst per say requires great trust in self and a 
belief to carry out what one has set out to do – internally and/or 
externally.

There is no right or wrong option. Both paths lead to greater 
consciousness. If you have a choice – which option will you choose?

  – Pamela Aloia
Sol Angel – www.solangel.com
Check out Pamela’s book 52 Pick Me Up

Each and every day holds challenges.  Even more so, each and every moment is filled with decision to whether or not accept the challenge and conquer it.  The choices we take decide the life we make.  It is easy to allow things to pass us by and not take ownership of the things in our lives.  Often it is easier to just turn and look away, pretending not to see or acting as if we do not know.  Ignorance is bliss – but is it?

The things we never confront or never accept may be the things in life we miss out on.  These opportune moments may be what change everything.  They may be the things in life that propel us to new heights, open new doors and allow us to become a better version of our current self.  It may be the fine line between living and just existing.

Aikido is a world of moment by moment decisions and challenges are never in short supply.  An opportunity exists every time each of us steps into the dojo to train.  A difference can be made by the choices we make.  Showing up may not be enough.  Actively taking a participating role may be required to experience, expect and to excel at the moment of choice. This moment – your moment.

Make the decision to make each moment spent at the dojo a personal challenge to shine and surpass your last time on the mat.  Expect more and you will receive more. Challenge yourself to do more and your experience will be more. Allow yourself to excel and you will simply excel more.

Each moment holds the chance of a lifetime.  To find what it holds the challenge is on you.

Michael Aloia
Asahi Schools of Aikkdo www.asahidojo.com
Aikido United International www.aikidounited.org

Hope is something we have or feel for some identifiable event or outcome in the future.  Hope is something we latch onto when everything or even some things seem to be falling to pieces.  Hope is used to perceive a better tomorrow, or to maintain a preferred status quo. Hope ushers in new perspectives, new ideas, new ways of being.  Hope is eternal. 

Imagine Recreation as a dove, and Hope as another dove.  The two doves spend a lot of time together.  Recreation softens some of Hope’s attachment to a certain outcome.  Recreation also tugs on Hope’s heightened sense of self and helps keep her grounded.  In turn, Hope expands on Recreation’s endeavors.  Hope helps Recreation line up many series of recreational activities and non-activities to best support his Spirit. 

Recreation and Hope appreciate and explore each other’s characteristics until they are familiar with them.  They learn to understand that even though each embodies different energies separately, they each benefit greatly from experiencing and sharing the other’s characteristics.  As they stay within each other’s physical space, they notice their characteristics meshing more closely together until they become each other – one in Recreational Hope. 

Recreational Hope resides in each of us.  Recreational Hope resides in the present and the future simultaneously.  Recreational Hope expands our options, enhances our experiences, and lightens our hearts.  Recreational Hope manages our expectations and perfectly releases our attachments to specific outcomes.  Recreational Hope brings our Spirit closer to expressing ourselves authentically.  

Recreational Hope brings truth to the moment – all moments become truth.  We can anchor in Recreational Hope and realize the expansiveness of who we can be, who we actually are. 

Recreational Hope is like playing basketball without keeping score.
Recreational Hope opens that window or unlocks that door to a new way of being, a new way of perceiving;
a relaxed method of giving and a grateful heart in receiving. 
Recreational Hope is like riding a bike
Traveling a trail we really like.
Recreational Hope gets us from A to B with a lack of resistance and more complacency.
The more we use it the more we see
Hope and Recreation improve life’s quality.   

 - Pamela Aloia
Sol Angel – an energy center
www.solangel.com

Some of us may have striking resemblances with another family member or even a close friend – whether in looks, mannerisms, or tastes. Sometimes we enjoy sharing these traits with another and other times we do not.  The times we do not are the times we’ve judged a certain quality as non acceptable or unwanted.

A striking resemblance is usually one that is completely out in the open, very obvious, and almost amazing or surprising.  As a society, we have come to train ourselves to look for the differences, the defects, and the needed improvement, that sometimes striking resemblances affect us moreso than they would if we were more attuned with our similarities. 

While we quickly judge a trait as good or not so good, we have, on a subconscious level, already identified with that trait within ourselves.  Although outwardly we may focus on how negative or positive a resemblance someone has, we may really be negatively or positively commenting on our own selves.  When our buttons are pushed, it’s quite likely we’ve hit upon a striking resemblance of a trait within ourselves that we may not accept or appreciate.  It’s during these times where inner reflection – both intellectual and emotional reflection – can be of great benefit.  Realize that in these moments the potential for great growth or passive denial can occur.  Which will you choose?

 - Pamela Aloia
visit www.solangel.com for more information and check out Pamela’s new book “Nurturing Healthy Change”.

Many situations find us holding anger.  Whether it is an unfair work situation, tension among family members, lack of finances, inability to do something physically, etc.  There are so many reasons we find to be in anger.  What is the source of the anger?  Often, the source of our anger is that we cannot control the situation.  We have a specific way in which we believe the situation should or should have played out, and it is not, or has not.  Yet, we remain attached to whatever we believe it should be.  Although we may have adatped on the outside to some degree, we still have not fully addressed the anger we feel about it.  Here’s where letting go comes in.

Letting go of a situation completely means that we have acknowledged that something didn’t quite match our expectations, but we’re able to move gracefully with full acceptance to the next phase.  While we do create our own reality, much of our reality is co-created. We can acknowledge which part of the co-creation we are responsible for, and then determine how we could change our participation in the next opportunity if it so arises. 

The tricky part comes in when we believe we’ve participated eloquently in the situation but the other person or people have not.  Depending on our level of attachment to the end result, we may blame the other participants for our position in the situation.  We must be careful to not give full control to others in our belief systems.  We always have a choice – a choice to be angered and a choice to let it go.  We have a choice to allow others to be who they are without infringing upon our own self truth.

As we learn to let go more frequently, our attachments fade as well as our anger.  We find great pleasure in simple moments and allow our dreams to flow rather than making them happen.

For many, this awareness, detachment, letting go, and allowing, is a lifelong series of experiences.  Having others who understand what we’re doing on an energetic level, and who support us in doing so, makes the path a bit easier and compassionate. 

  - Pamela Aloia

Check out the book 52 Pick Me Up by Pamela Aloia

For more information visit www.solangel.com

Love flows in all sorts of ways. Often, we stand and wait for the love we have knowingly or unknowingly defined, which completely limits the amount of love we allow in.  If the love doesn’t follow the specific path or trail we’ve laid out for it, that love may not ever make it to our hearts.

It’s like a water slide – if we’ve set expectations to only accept love from the blue water slide, we subconsciously or consciously dismiss any love flowing from the red water slide. 

Love comes in all shapes, sizes, and manifestations.  We recognize love by its complete fearlessness – its ability to wash away any form of discomfort or hurt; its ability to allow us to expand in who we are and in our expression of who we are.  Great inner joy, for no particular reason other than being, accompanies these waves of love. 

May Love flow graciously and abundantly into your lives. 

Check out the Pamela’s book 52 Pick Me Up – available now!
More info can be found at www.solangel.com

 The times in which we live offer multiple means of communicating with each other – phone, fax, cell phone, email, webcam, etc.  To some degree, we all take these communcation methods for granted as they’ve become such an integral part of the way we live.  Yet, we know when something is awry with our technologic connections – whether there aren’t enough bars on the cell phone or the email server is down, and so on. 

With such focus on communicating with each other, we may neglect our own personal communication with ourselves.  Are we noticing when our mental, emotional, and physical bodies are in line or not?  Are our thoughts matching our physical speech and actions?  Having regular objective conversations with ourselves is healthy and keeps our bodies in balance.  We know when we’re out of balance – literally our equilibrium may be off or we obtain a physical ailment of some kind. 

By bringing items to the surface in our own internal conversations we maintain inner balance.  We also enhance our external conversations - they become much clearer – regardless of technology used.  Plus, when we learn to understand our own self communication, we’re able to understand and read other people’s communciation, sometimes without even saying a word. 

For more information visit www.solangel.com
Check out Pamela’s book “52 Pick Me Up” – available now at www.solangel.com

The Asahi Schools of Aikido, located in Collegeville, Pa, recently held a benefit to raise funds for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital.  The event, a Fall-A-Thon, consisted of participating members of the dojo, Japanese for school, receiving financial pledges based on the number of Aikido falls they performed during the two and half hour fundraiser.  The School teaches the Japanese Martial Art of Aikido, the way of harmony.  The regular practice of ukemi, falling in Japanese, is common place and used as a way to enhance balance, coordination and awareness.  Both children and adult alike took part in achieving a combined total of 1,000 falls and raised close to $1,500.00 for the cancer research cause.  Local area businesses, including Merck, Sol Angel and Beatrice’s Inferno, also made pledges to assist in surpassing the financial goal.  “This was our first time doing something of this nature. We had set a base goal of achieving $500.00 for the event”, says School Director Michael Aloia.  “Tripling our goal could not have been done without the support and participation of our members.  The success is theirs,” he adds.  “We hope to make this a yearly event”, mentioned the School’s event Coordinator Jess Bennett.  “It’s a great cause and a great opportunity for us to come together as a community.”  The School is now working on hosting a Members Art Show as part of their Annual Spring Fling Celebration in May.  Proceeds from the sale and auction of the artwork will go towards the Japan Disaster Relief Fund.  More information can be found at www.asahidojo.com.

ASA Fall-A-Thon April 2011