It's Friday. So I'm declaring this Favorite Things Friday. I'm taking a moment to acknowledge one of my favorite things. To celebrate an occurance, which causes me to stop what I'm doing and focus my attention on nature--and in so doing, allows me to come back into my body and suspend time. I think the sound of Geese in flight is such a magical sound. No matter how many times I hear that sound (and I hear it often, because I live near a lake), I drop whatever I'm doing and run to catch a glimpse of them, if I can. Sometimes I can only hear them because they are flying low over the lake, and I have tall trees. But other times I am rewarded. My favorite is when they fly right over the roof of my house, when they are still low enough to see very clearly. There is just something about that sound that makes me feel like a kid on Christmas morning. Just like the sound of sleigh bells. I'd love to know what one of your favorite things are. Please share, either by commenting or leaving a link to a post of your own that celebrates a favorite thing. Have a lovely Friday, in this Blue Moon time.
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Yesterday I wrote about having a burn healed by a plant in a collaborative way using the resonant frequency of the healing gel, without actually applying the gel or even cutting into the plant. Today I'd like to continue in that theme, by telling you stories about the healings I have experienced by Non Human BEings. I ended with this...There is this wonderful exchange of energy and work and healing that takes place where ever two or more are gathered, if that is your intention. But what happens if it's just one person? I've done work on myself lots of times, with no one else around. The beautiful things is this...Consciousness is everywhere. It's in all things. The "Observer" is everywhere. Let's start with more about plants. When my mother was battling leukemia and in the critical care unit in the hospital, I would spend long, long days at her bedside. Her room was fairly dark, and it was very closed because she was in isolation, which meant I had to be gowned up, mask, etc. You can imagine what that does to your body. Sitting or standing with only a little room to walk around in. Indoors all day, mostly in the dark. Come to think of it, for many people that is what their offices are like. After about 3 or 4 weeks of that, I would leave at the end of the day, hardly able to walk. My tissues were absolutely rigid from inactivity. You may know what I'm talking about. Physically, emotionally, mentally...all those aspects of myself were shutting down so I could keep doing what I was doing day after day--so I could be my mother's advocate and protect her, and watch out for her interests while she was unable to. (That's another story). But I would leave that hospital everyday, and hobble stiffly out into the evening sunshine to the parking lot to find my mom's car, which I was using. And the thing that I am grateful to this day about that daily experience, was that when they built that hospital and parking lot, they left all those old amazing Cedar Trees. It is like parking in a forest. Those incredible trees would reach out to me as I passed and I could feel them nourishing me and revitalizing me as I passed them. I would walk very slowly, and allow my fingers to lightly contact them as I went by. I would breath deeply that beautiful scent of Cedar and my burden would lift just a little. Their energy would speak to my cells, and remind my fascia to release and all the rigid places to soften, and they would remind me to hold my head up and walk taller, and move my feet differently instead of stumping stiffly along. Oh my God, if you've every felt that, you KNOW what I'm talking about. They are amazing BEings, and SO generous and supportive. Think of all the people they offer healing to, everyday in that place. I have nothing but the highest regard and gratitude for those beloved Trees. And I have had healings from animals. You may have experienced this yourself. I'm thinking in particular about the 4 days I spent at Loesje Jacob's place in British Colombia, Canada. I was there for an inter-cellular communication class called Linking Awareness. And the classroom was a paddock with chairs for the humans and at least a half dozen dogs and three horses, all in together. It was the best classroom I've ever been in. The first morning, we were seated and going through our introductions and there was quite a bunch of us, so it took a couple of hours. While this was all going on, these three horses would wander around and stop at someone and start running healing frequencies on whoever. Speaking of my experience, I found myself seated in a triangle of horses at one point. Another time I would have a horse nose pressed to my forehead. And another time I would have a horse nose pressed into my back. They all have unique energy. This is Frenchy on the left and Pete on the right. Pete is a Reiki Master. Our first day there, Frenchy did quite a bit of work with a dog named Vincent who was visiting. Vincent had issues with his back end not working as well either due to a spinal injury or nerve damage...I don't recall the details anymore, but Frenchy went right to him and began to work. He would lick and then he'd go into the zone with his eyes half closed and hold his nose on the area. Frenchy would also hang out under the wind chimes. Come to think of it, I did too. The tones made my skull vibrate. In these photos you can see that in photo 1) Lyra is just as involved in this session as the human practitioner Paula is. And in photo 2) Pete is doing Reiki on me from behind. But I have a story I want to share with you about the session going on with Paula and Lyra. Paula and I decided to trade BodyTalk sessions during one of the breaks. We found the treatment room occupied so we decided to use the porch, and I lay down on a rail, which was made of 6" boards. Paula started the session and Lyra came over. In the picture you can see her eyes are half closed because she's in the zone doing her work. I could feel two or three flies buzzing around my throat. They would land and I would brush them away. They were so persistent, and suddenly I had a thought. What if they were part of the session? So I stopped brushing them away and allowed them to settle in the hollow of my throat. I began to see the most amazing turquoisey blue color in my mind's eye. My inner vision was filled with it, I mentioned it to Paula, and she told me one of the links for my session was my thyroid. I marveled to myself that the flies were involved in that process, then Lyra who had been holding her chin on me, suddenly brought her head up and slammed her chin down onto my chest, causing an explosion of that turquoisey blue in my inner vision. I heard laughter (either we had an audience or it was coincidence), and I was laughing too. Then she walked off, I guess her work was done. And Paula finished the session. Later I was doing a session in that same spot, and I was working to clear a fear, when suddenly the only cat on the place who had been playing in the overhead beams of the porch, landed right on the person I was working on. It turned out the fear we were working on was fear of cats. So many more wonderful things happened that weekend that I wish I could tell you all of it. All I can say is if you like working with animals, and you really want to change your perceptions about reality, take Linking Awareness with Loesje Jacob. What I took away was a profound realization that this landscape we live and work and play in, is an interactive BEing. In my version of it apparently even flies want to be involved in healing, and Loesje told a story about working in the jungle, where she noticed that the insect bites on people were on acupuncture points. So to me that just proves that nothing is random. So what I really want to share is this...Plants and animals are amazing healers. But they are subtle and you have to be paying attention to get this understanding. As humans living in the culture that we do, we are so distracted by things which really don't even matter, but that hold our attention hostage. We have to begin making room in our perception to notice the miracles around us. Because some of these miracles are small and subtle. For instance, you are a miracle. Make room in your perception to notice this. Clear out some of the distraction--the noise from your life and really focus your attention on SEEING the miraculous. If you haven't been doing this, you won't be sorry. And if you already live this way, you know what I'm talking about. And if you're like me, it helps to be reminded. Time for some credits: Loesje Jacob can be contacted at http://loesjeglobal.ning.com/ Photos by Heide Schmitz taken at 2010 Linking Awareness. Heide is a BodyTalk practitioner and can be found on the IBA website as a practitioner in Germany and the U.S. She can be found at this link https://www.bodytalksystem.com/practitioners/details.cfm?id=672 Paula Carter is also a BodyTalk practitioner in Ontario Canada and can be found here https://www.bodytalksystem.com/practitioners/details.cfm?id=32339 Any questions? Contact me here or at http://www.heartstarmindbodyconnection.com/Page_1.php Any thoughts? I would love to read about your experiences with this, and I invite you to share by leaving a comment or a link to your blog post on this subject.
I love it when something magical happens. Something small and unexpected. Just one of those things that taps you on the shoulder and causes you to notice and ponder in your heart. And makes you question the things you think you know. Yeah, it's story telling time. One day almost a year ago, I was in my kitchen cooking. I had removed a cast iron skillet from the oven (temperature 425° F.) and set it on the stove top. My attention was divided, because I was multi-tasking, as all cooks do, and the skillet was in my way, so I grabbed the handle to move it. Well you can imagine, how badly I scorched my hand. Yup, second degree. I immediately turned the cold water on my hand and let it run about a minute, then wrapped a cloth bathed in cold water around my hand. Then I did what is called fast aid in the BodyTalk System, (a kind of emergency energy technique) and I must admit, my focus wasn't very good at the moment. I went back to cooking, but my hand was still really hurting. I have an Aloe Vera plant in the Kitchen, and so I thought I'd better try some of the gel. But I have to tell you, I rescued that plant (which had been neglected at someone's office and was on it's way to the bin), and I just didn't have the heart to cut into it. I was standing there wanting to ask permission to take a leaf, and wanting it to show me which leaf to take. And I'm really glad that I took the time to do that. Because what happened was this...I was inspired to think about working with the resonant frequency of the healing properties of the plant. So I asked the Aloe Vera if it would work with me in this way, and before I even finished asking the question, I got a very clear yes. A resounding yes! A JOYFUL YES! I didn't need the actual physical gel of the plant, so I didn't need to cut into it. I just held my hand over the top and the pain went away within seconds. My job was to hold space for the belief that the resonant frequency of the healing gel would have the same effect on my burn, as putting actual gel on my hand. It was amazing. There is something about receiving healing from unexpected sources, which gives you a deep, deep feeling of reverence. Because I asked for help, with respect and true concern for the well being of the plant I got a very enthusiastic, joyous response, and healing beyond what I was expecting. Not only did my hand stop hurting, but I had a sense of deep peace on a cellular level, and I felt like I was over flowing with love and joy. A little while later, I looked at my palm. The only evidence that I had been burned, was a small heart shaped red mark just below the base of my thumb. By the following evening, even that was gone. I even took pictures. I don't have a very good camera on my laptop, so I hope you can see the "heart". It's not science. I know. But I experiment with things like this all the time. My life is my laboratory. And why not. If everything is energy, and energy carries a frequency, why wouldn't you be able to tap into the frequency of a gel that is known to have a healing affect on burns? Doesn't it just seem logical? And let's talk about the plant. The plant is not the subject of study here. The burn is the subject. The plant is my COLLEAGUE in this experiment. We two conscious beings (and I use the word "two" loosely) work together to create a healing. That is exactly how it works for any type of healing to take place. When you come to me for energy work, you are every bit as much involved in the process as I am. If you bring your animal friend, the animal is every bit involved. There is this wonderful exchange of energy and work and healing that takes place where ever two or more are gathered, if that is your intention. But what happens if it's just one person? I've done work on myself lots of times, with no one else around. The beautiful things is this...Consciousness is everywhere. It's in all things. The "Observer" is everywhere. Oh I have lots more to say on this subject. I have other stories to tell, which will have to wait until tomorrow. This subject really excites me, so I can't wait to continue. I would love to read your views on the subject. If you'd like to share, I invite you to leave a comment. Or email on the contact page.
Is it possible? That at last I may be running out of things to say? No, I think I'm just tired, or my Muse is...maybe both of us. The truth is, that today's post came from a journal entry I made in April of 2011, which I felt compelled to share. Maybe it is still timely and will speak to your heart. (I Think the "anonymous person" I wrote about was someone in a car-probably something that happened while I was driving.) So now back to April 2011... This past week, I found myself in a situation, where the actions of another person triggered an anger response in me. It didn't feel good to me, so immediately my rational mind took over and my inner psychologist started telling me that no one could make me angry, and that it was all in my perception, yadda, yadda, yadda. And yet I kept going back to it. My mind kept replaying the experience, and trying to analyze the event, which was impossible because I didn't actually know this anonymous person with whom I was angry. I began to get annoyed with myself at my inability to shake off this experience. And the harder I tried to let it go, the more insistent it became. The more "life" it took on. Suddenly I remembered my heart. I put my attention on my heart and the nagging creature that had become my anger, melted instantly away. I was astonished. Even though it was my intention to neutralize my anger by going to my heart, I have to admit, that the results were quicker than I had expected. And it is a tribute to this "technique" that I can't remember the event which caused the anger in the first place. When I was a kid, we were taught that we should forgive and forget. I never could get the forget part until this experience of connecting with the heart. And how very important it is to have that piece of the puzzle--that ability to forget. Because without it, we just go round and round. True forgiveness, really does mean being able to forget. To neutralize the memory of the "wrong done", so that it truly did not take place. The human heart is a very powerful tool, to be able to do that. Because how often have we tried to "forget" and "push things down", etc., etc. Pushing down isn't actually neutralizing the memory. Instead it is activating it, so it becomes like a hidden explosive devise in a mine field, armed and dangerous. We may have forgotten it, because it has gotten buried very deeply, but it's still there-very much alive, with the potential to do great harm. By working with the heart, we have the ability to take the charge out of an experience, and we are able to live life in a more objective, and more loving way. It's not impossible to find 5 minutes out of every day to begin working with the heart field. It's a pretty easy exercise to engage in. Try spending 3 to 5 minutes sitting quietly with attention on the heart center (the energy field around the heart), then bringing awareness simultaneously to heart and mind as if one was superimposed on the other. One way to do this is by picturing the ability to merge the mind into the heart. Try practicing it throughout the day. Just by putting attention on the heart and then bringing heart and mind together for about a minute, occasionally throughout the day. It seems like such a small thing, yet is wonderfully transforming. It soon becomes very natural to do this in situations of all kinds. What a powerful tool for transformation is the human heart. Rita Tortorello journal entry April 2011
Intuition is my most important tool, speaking as someone who practices within the BodyTalk System. When I get into the zone of doing a session with a client, that interfacing is happening between us. Then my left and right brain hemispheres are sharing their unique points of view about the information coming in--I just get a flow of communication which is valid to the session. I've long since stopped being astonished by what I pick up on, because the information is coming from an internal receiver that we all have, and I allow myself to open up to it. It's a bit like tuning in to a radio broadcast. The first time I had a BodyTalk session, I was a little freaked out thinking that the practitioner could read my mind. Well let me assure you. For me, it's nothing of the sort. It just seems like it, if you're not used to people knowing stuff about you. And as soon as the session is over, it just sort of fades from my memory like a dream. I have had to do a lot of work, just to allow that information to flow. It's been more a matter of removing layers, which distract me and get in my way. It's very much all about just allowing-not "efforting", as one of my instructors likes to say. And practice. With practice, confidence is gained. It needs to be a comfortable process. Finding what works to receive information. There's been a lot of scientific research done on this subject, but I've just never been interested in reading about it from that angle. I guess I prefer to experiment on my own and see what feels good to me. Early on, when I first started training my mind to pick up intuitive information, I was so impressed by everyone else's ability. They all seemed like they were born with second sight. It made me feel like I really needed to work hard and train myself diligently. So not only did I train in MindScape which is offered through the International BodyTalk Association, but I checked into the Silva Mind courses, and searched online for whatever I could find. That's how I met my friend Sibylle. She was offering courses in Witchcraft on line. And I'm really glad she has resumed them after taking a couple of years off. I thought, if anyone knows about intuitive development, it's a Witch. So I started by taking her free sample course, and I had so much fun, that I signed up for her 101 class, and then her 102. The thing I liked about it more than anything else was that she was responsive and available via email. I would send her emails about how I had done the assignment, and what I got out of it; or I could ask questions which she always responded to very quickly. Over time, she and I became friends. I expect it's that way with most people who meet her. She has a very loving heart, and is very supportive of her friends. I suspect she is also a force to be reckoned with in World of Warcraft. I will include her contact information below. Some of the other things I did to develop intuitive function was to play with the landscape. I would look at the clouds to see what shapes they suggested, and I would gaze into my coffee cup, or look into the fire, or just pay attention to what my surroundings were telling me through nature. These are all really good ways to blow the dust off of your right brain function. By using your imagination, and engaging in creative pursuits, you make the right side of your brain very happy. It get's more "exercise", and you become better able to access intuition as a result. Another thing I did was play with oracle cards. I would get pretty good information, and then after using the deck awhile, I'd get bored and want to find a different deck...I can see why people have lots of different decks. I went through two oracle decks and then I thought I'd try Tarot. I just never took to it, so I haven't really played with cards for a while. But thanks to Sibylle's Blog Post, I felt inspired to try it again. This time I got the cards out, but NOT the book. I just want to see what my intuition tells me and not worry about the traditional meanings. So far, it seems to be working pretty well. In addition to these other ways to stimulate your intuition, the best way of all is meditation. And now, if you're interested in playing with tools to help you increase your intuition, I'll include some links below. And because Sibylle came into my story today, I'll include some contact information about her, as well. Sibylle offers Witchcraft courses online at The Hag's Den http://www.thehagsden.com/# Read "The Three of Pentacles" here http://www.thehagsden.com/#/blog/4565945385/The-Three-Of-Pentacles/3295441 Have fun exploring her site, which has loads of good stuff to read there. Other good tools to exercise your right brain are meditation, creative pursuits of any kind, using your imagination, playing games, and what ever inspires you to get out of your thinking/rational mind exclusively.
More formal types of training would be MindScape offered by the IBA at https://www.bodytalksystem.com/seminars/?yo=0&course=20&instructor=0&course_m=0&course_y=0&continent=&country=&state=&city= Or The Silva Method http://www.silvamethod.com/ I invite you to start using more of your brain...have fun playing with your intuition. It's a really healthy thing to do. Why do I care so much about offering people the opportunity to choose Wellness over disease? Why do I care so much that we have holistic options for our healthcare choices? I was having this discussion with my friend Robin Olson Mayberry one day, hanging out in her wonderful healing space at Body Nirvana. (I will share her link at the end of this post). She was trying to get me to verbalize my reason for what I do. In my mind I saw an image of me - walking the plank, and behind me with cutlasses drawn, (or syringes poised), and armed with stethoscopes and pharmaceuticals, were a crew of Pirate/Doctors in their white coats. I told her I wanted to avoid the long walk off the plank of disease which leads to the hospital. And I want that for my family. And I want that for you, if that's what you want. So I'm going to tell you a story, and I want you NOT to read it as a "rant", because it's not. It's just some of my experiences...part of my story and I'm going to use it to make a point. From the time I was an infant, whenever I would go to the doctor, I would have a bad experience. It started with a severe ear infection, which went undiagnosed by a doctor who would soon after lose the right to practice medicine. Fortunately for me, I only had to go to the doctor a few times growing up. As an adult in my twenties, I began to have physical issues and pain so severe it would wake me up in the night paralyzed. So I saw doctors to try to get to the bottom of this mystery. After all, I had insurance. (Don't even get me started on health insurance. Now, we have better laws than we had then.) The end result was that I got no help...no relief...no answers, and the insurance company cut me off, because they decided to classify this whatever-it-was, as a pre-existing condition. So in the end, not a whole lot to show for my experience but a lot of medical bills. Then there was the time I fell at work. I was blacking out from the pain, so I got someone to take me to the emergency room. After cooling my heels for 2 hours, I wasn't in pain anymore because I was numb. The doctor who saw me heard my story, and assured me if anything was broken, I would be screaming. (Why would I be screaming when I knew there were people just a few beds away, struggling with life and death? What do they teach these guys anyway?) When I insisted that I needed an x-ray because it happened at work and I needed documentation, he stated "I'm a 100%"--and then corrected himself "no make that 99.999% sure that you don't have any broken bones". And he refused to x-ray. (Don't ask me why. These days they can't wait to do a CT Scan, MRI, or Mammogram, so what's a little x-ray ). I kept insisting, so finally to get me to leave, he gave me a sling for my arm, and a referral to another doctor in case it wasn't any better in two weeks. I had to spend the next two weeks unloading merchandise freight off of trucks with one arm. When I finally went to the referred doctor, he took an x-ray, and said to me, "You've been doing WHAT for the past two weeks? I wish you worked for me." Because sure enough, my shoulder was broken...but healing nicely according to the doctor. So are you seeing a pattern here? By the time I reached 30, I felt like there was NOTHING western medicine had to offer me. I also decided it was all up to me. I needed tools and skills to "protect" me and my family from illness. I began to explore other options. For one thing, I started practicing Yoga and my mysterious pain which baffled doctors and which even chiropractics had been unable to fix went away. Proving to my mind, that I had the ability to succeed where western medicine had failed me. I spent the next decade of my life avoiding doctors at all costs. For one thing, I was too poor to afford a doctor, and for another, I had no health insurance. But I did begin to develop an interest in alternative options for health care. Still, my focus was on how to make a sick person well. Which is really where our focus is in Western thinking. Not so much on Wellness, where we might be able to avoid all the suffering and expense. Now in case you're thinking I don't like doctors, that's not what I am trying to convey. I'm not against doctors. Doctors are people, and I like people. Some doctors work really, really hard and have a strong desire to help people. They have a story about why they became a doctor in the first place and they remember that story. And a lot of people really feel like they have benefited from modern western medicine. What I have a problem with is the Machine. This crazy, monstrous, corporate system which passes for medicine in the United States. This is NOT medicine. This is NOT healing. this is not Wellness or anything like it. So what I am here to do, is to remind people that they have a choice. Because we have been programmed to think that we have NO options. This is how it works: you get sick, you go to the doctor, you have tests, you get drugs or surgery or both. If you don't get better you get more tests and more drugs, and eventually you go to the hospital, where they tell you if you'll live or die. This is our programming. I know this is how most people in the U.S. think, because even my clients who are interested in holistic practices always choose whatever their insurance will cover as their first option. It's all about what you can afford, and how's that for a great way to keep people trapped and powerless and in that cycle? "So what's your point here, Rita?", you ask. Well I'm glad you asked my dear one. My point is this--Find a way to break the cycle. Go to my friend Robin Mayberry, or work with me, or find a practitioner who you really relate to and really like. One who knows that you are a powerful being who's body was made to heal itself, if given the chance, and if given the attention by someone who knows how to be Present with you. Start on your healing before it manifests as dis-ease. So since I brought her into my story, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Robin Olson Mayberry. She owns a holistic practice in Ellensburg, WA. USA, where she offers BodyTalk and Massage to her growing clientele. She is very active in her community, including volunteering her time and services in her home town during a recent wildfire which left much of the countryside blackened, and many people homeless. She is also an artist, a wife and mother of two (one of which she home schools). She also gives great workshops. The woman is unstoppable. You can get to know her at Body Nirvana in Ellensburg WA. Her website is http://www.mybodynirvana.com/ I made a discovery. Never Land has REAL Clouds. Beautiful fluffy Clouds tinged with a rosey blush from the Sun rising over the horizon. The Sky is not criss-crossed with chem trails. It is a magnificent blue with amazing large fluffy Clouds. And there are the smells of Plants and the Sea on the Wind. Fresh and lovely. A pleasure to breath. And there are no motor sounds here to obscure the Bird Song which is everywhere on the Air. And I can almost see Joy in the Place rising up to meet me, as I bank left and touch down. On the beach of the Lagoon, I see the inhabitants of Never Land busy with work, with play and some just hanging out. So I hang out too, and I watch. There is a flock of tiny Birds which fly in total synchronicity, barely skimming the Water as they speed back and forth over the surface. I watch them doing it for about 20 minutes. Then suddenly they're gone. I decide it's time to explore. Walking in the Forest, I see amazing BEings disguised as Flowers and Dew Drops and Tall, Tall Trees. Everything in this Place is so Alive and Present. And there is so much Prana here that you can live on it. You can shape whatever you wish to eat with Prana and your imagination from out of the very Air, Landscape or Water around you...or you can simply breath it in and be completely satisfied. I walk and explore and visit with the Folk of this place. I meet a Chihuahua named Roxie. who teaches me how to understand her Language of the Heart, and talks to me about her family. We have a good conversation, and she is so happy that I can understand her. She tells me that I'm a good student. Soon after that I feel that it's time to return home to my family, and so I say Good Bye to Never Land-for now. What I want to say about this story is this. From the moment I decided to take the day off yesterday, my Land Scape shifted for me. I stood in the doorway of my house and looked at the sky and it seemed different than usual, and I realized I WAS in Never Land. Everything about yesterday felt different. It felt like even though I was going through my day in my usual surroundings, that I was simultaneously in a place of magic and adventure. Perhaps you've had that same experience. It feels like one is overlaid upon the other and that you're playing in two dimensions at once. I have the feeling that, that is how it's supposed to be. Maybe that's how it really is. And we just unlearn how to experience it, the longer we are human. It is a challenge, isn't it? To be fully human and relearn to experience the wonders around us.
What happens when you ignore what your heart is calling you to do? Well my personal experience is that life gets pretty intense, no two ways about it. You might be able to get away with it for a while, but you can't hide indefinitely. To say that I ignored my calling is not quite acurate. It was my nature to make myself kind of invisible. I would go along and kind of draw my energy in and hide my light under a bushel, and not draw attention to myself...that is unless someone I loved was in trouble. Then I would jump into the fray! It's like I was a whole different person. I always felt bigger, and more powerful, like I was channeling a host of Walküre, Guardian Angels and the forces of nature all rolled into one. I'm sure you've been there...you know what I'm talking about. I knew what I was here to do, I just didn't know how to go about it. Whenever you have a natural ability to do something that means IT'S WHAT YOU CAME HERE TO DO - duh! I thought I needed to be some kind of apprentice to a "HEALER", or go and live in a mountain cave and meditate for 30 years. I was waiting to have a near death experience, or to reach saint hood, or for the heavens to open up and give me the divine download. I was just too busy walking around, clothed in my garments of insecurity and low self esteme, with my cloak of invisibility drawn up snugly to cover every exposed inch of me, to GET that I already had the tools I needed to do my life's work. I just needed to start using those tools. So I think the Universe just got tired up waiting for me to step up to the plate. All the gentle proddings, and coaxing and whisperings "Go on, get in the game" from the Universe ended and were replaced with a three ring circus juggling act, dodging ponies and acrobats and clowns. So while I was juggling two or three minor crisis, the Universe would say "I'm just getting warmed up with you. Here! Take that! And THAT! How many balls do you have in the air? How about another?! And ANOTHER! MMMWAHAHAHAHA!" And all the juggling balls had to do - coincidentally - with illness in the ones I loved. And each ball would get more serious. (See there's that mirroring thing I was talking about yesterday). And then I stopped being able to simultaneously juggle and dodge the ponies and clowns which were also in the ring with me, so I started to get hit by things myself. Sorry if this is a confusing metaphor. What I'm saying is that I started trying to deal with illness in my family members, and I was rolling up my sleeves and pitching in and doing actual physical work, but I was also trying out healing tools. AND I thought I needed to give my energy away for people to get better. (Hey-I didn't know...I was wingin' it. And it all turned out OK, of course it did. This is the version of my story where I get some sense knocked into me!) So to wrap it up, and present it neatly with pretty paper and ribbons, I found out that when I stepped out of the circus ring and began to consciously and seriously participate in my life's work (not too seriously, because I do love to laugh) then my life gradually came back into balance. Everyone goes through these times of intense struggle (a lot of times it's referred to as, "the dark night of the soul"). I know you've been there. If you survive it, you come out on the other side with your light shining brightly, and your power amped up, and your purpose in life streaming from you like the rays of the sun. You are transformed into a force to be reckoned with. I salute you for this. And I support you. The world needs the work you came here to do. Love your brilliant self for this.
Yesterday I wrote about my cat friend Esmerelda. And today I want to talk about the way our animals mirror our stuff back at us. I adopted Esmerelda in the aftermath of losing my beloved cat guru of 14 years. He had lung tumors. So when I showed up at my vet's office with another cat that had breathing issues within a couple of months of losing him, the doctor said, "What is it with you and your cats with lung trouble?" We both thought he was kidding... Honestly, I can't say if my cats were mirroring some kind of lung issues for me, because I've had a lot of energy work done on myself by me and by others, and sometimes things get resolved before they have had a chance to manifest as disease. But now, I have gained a little bit of an understanding about the "psychology of the lungs" from Chinese medicine, which is all about processing grief, and about suffocation, reactiveness, vitality, surrender, release, and so on. Based on that understanding, I can see a correlation in my own life at the time. I can give you another example of how "mirroring" came into the story of one of my clients. I did a series of three sessions for a client on her newly adopted puppy to resolve some elimination issues and some behavior issues. The woman gave me great feed back, and was really really pleased with the results of the sessions. But what was even cooler for me was this--the woman discovered that her puppy's behavior issues would show up during her own times of "intense personal struggle." This is what it's all about for me. You can have all the work you want done on your animal friend, but if you're not working on your own stuff, you may not see LASTING results. My wonderful client with the puppy, was perceptive enough to realize this. And that rang the bell for me! Think about what that can mean to you. If what you're seeing in the "out there" world of the external landscape becomes a kind of diagnostic screen which gives you clues about what is going on in the "in here" world of your own internal landscape...If you're paying attention, you could really use that information to actively write your story.
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