Welcome to a World of Spiritual Harmony

An article in the New York Times today caught my attention: Forget What You Know About Good Study Habits. Being a natural anarchist, I’m always happy to learn about times when traditional methods / the way we’ve always done it has been proven not to work.

A number of journals and scientists were quoted. Special study areas, focusing intently all evening long on one subject, and on only one part or problem of that subject aren’t effective. You might cram all night and pass the test - but you won’t know much about any of it at the end of the week. Better to move around a bit, from one room or area to another, during a study session. Better to look at several parts of perhaps several topics, and let your brain make various connections between them. Better to study hard an hour a night than do all the studying at one time. And take a test before the test if you can.

All of these worked way better than our traditional picture of students sitting there for hours going over and over the same material. “The contrast between the enormous popularity of the learning-styles approach within education and the lack of credible evidence for its utility is, in our opinion, striking and disturbing,” the researchers concluded.”

The article drew this awkwardly phrased conclusion: “None of which is to suggest that these techniques — alternating study environments, mixing content, spacing study sessions, self-testing or all the above — will turn a grade-A slacker into a grade-A student.” Since we weren’t talking about motivation, we could have just skipped this part.

But I liked the article, because it suits the way I have always learned. Popping into the subject and then out, reading 3 or more books at once, looking at all aspects of questions, and finding ways to take it all apart and put it back again. All done at my own pace and timing.

So all those kids and parents making themselves crazy trying to learn by the rules - which are also really disruptive of family life - need to start paying attention to what feels right to them, and allow learning to happen in a more natural way.

Another reason why we need the paradigm shift - so we can quit living by other folks’ rules. And pay attention to our own inner wisdom.

So I wrote the blog a couple of days ago about the friend who, to me, is giving her power away, insisting that the only healing that can happen will be done by doctors / medical folk over there somewhere who have all the right answers. In other words, the power to save and make her well is outside herself. And I was definitely giving up - didn’t see the point in trying, since she can’t hear me.

So at Reiki Healing Circle on Sunday evening, at the mini card reading after the healing work was done - I drew a Faery Oracle card called Lys of the Shadows. Lys is all about healing the shadows, addictions, bondage, self-esteem. We were all puzzled - didn’t seem to refer to me at all. I found a line that said ‘If you call upon Lys for assistance in helping another, she will always give it, often by encouraging that person to be receptive and others to also be helpful. She always has time to support those who have time for others.’ That made sense to me, since it is a lot of what I do.

And then I woke up Monday morning, understanding that the message was telling me not to give up on my friend, and to ask for help both here and in spirit to move her to wellness.

I love the way Spirit works in the world. Thanks, Spirit!

I have a good friend facing major abdominal surgery, and don’t feel I can say anything more to her about how to handle the situation / her body / her belief system. But I am still working away on it in my mind, looking for the words that could lead others to a different understanding of healing and how to be well.

The looks she’s giving me now seem to mean - you are being totally unrealistic, you don’t want me to be better. The statements she’s making are that once this surgery is done, it will all be taken care of and finished. And yet the evidence is not there to back up those statements. She’s still living with the effects of a major surgery over 10 years ago. And what I know of the surgery she’s facing now is that it will happen again and again and again, as the situation continues.

And of course I do want her to be better. I want everyone to be better. I just think that to be better, the most important thing we have to change is our minds. What in our beliefs and choices is calling this dis-ease in? What change in our thinking is needed to cause it to exit?

In the case of abdominal disease, for instance, one might ask - what is going on with the garbage in my life? Perhaps I am holding on to material that needs to be released. Or I might be letting go way too soon, before the situation is dealt with, and ending up with diarrhea and dehydration.

In any case, of course we have to do what’s necessary to be well. So if, after you sleep on a medical problem for a few days, you make a decision for surgery. But don’t take it as a label for yourself, take it as a working theory, and entertain other theories as well. And certainly add in the possibility that you can heal it by changing your beliefs, even as you move toward a medical solution. Or simply believe in miracles.

Being practical and realistic seems to mean for many people being negative and seeing only the worst case scenario. And of course believe in your doctor. Just realize that if you ask ten doctors, you will likely have 10 different opinions and 15 different options - that the surgeon will recommend surgery, that another physician might recommend physical therapy, that a third may recommend drug treatments, all for the same condition.

I also believe that anyone facing a major disease, and certainly facing surgery, needs to get one or two of those second opinions from an alternative practitioner and from an energy healer. I have seen over and over again dis-ease disappear, and heard stories from the healed about doctors not even asking what happened - just saying, for instance, that someone must have read the scans incorrectly. That attitude of not inquiring as to cause seems very unscientific to me.

I continue to wrestle with cutting through all this fear, and with making clear what seems simple and fairly easy to me. We are self-healers, truly. We can practice wellness body, mind and spirit. We can support each other in health and healing. Yes, we can.

I teach White Light Meditation in virtually every class on my calendar - yet I’ve never written it down. So I thought the easy way to do this would be to blog it first, and then turn it into a formal document afterwards. And what an excellent way to spend a very hot late summer Sunday afternoon!

White Light Meditation

This meditation and its visualizations work best when standing. So stand up, get comfortably set on your feet, shake out your arms and legs - and then take 3 long slow deep breaths.

The closest we can see of the protective white light is when the sun breaks through the clouds some distance away from us after a rain. That pillar of light coming down from heaven to earth is what the sacred white light looks like. Now visualize that wonderful light coming into your crown chakra, your fontenelle, the soft spot on the very top of your head when you were born.

The light pours in, beginning to fill you up. You may feel it in your fingers and toes, or you may not. Whether or not you feel it, it is pouring in. Now you are so full of white light that it is pouring in and pouring out at the same time - so you are now a fountain of this beautiful light. It is creamy white, and gold, and silver, as well as transparent and irridescent and sparkly. Keep breathing, and picture this beautiful scene. Makes you smile, doesn’t it?

When you are calm and peaceful in all your radiance, talk to Spirit about how you want the white light to help and protect you. My favorite is to say - ‘Spirit, I want the information and not the energy.’ In other words, I want to see everything that’s coming at me, all that I need to see of what’s going on around me - but I don’t want anyone else’s energy, good or bad, getting through the white light barrier. Some folk say - ‘I want the information and the good energy’.

If you’re driving, you could put this energy around the car, and cause it to spin, deflecting any problems - like radar. You can make the energy thicker, less transparent. You can make a concrete or stainless steel barrier of it if you’d like - and tell Spirit which energies need to be blocked from getting through that barrier.

I usually do this in my living room, and put the protection first around me, then around the house, then to the edges of the property. I end with taking it clear down to the river and up to the major street behind me, to keep my whole environment in great order.

When you’re comfortable that you’ve done all the work you wanted to do, say Thank You for all the spiritual assistance, and bring yourself back to normal time and space. The white light will stay after you end the meditation. You can refresh yourself with it whenever you choose. It’s a good idea to take a few minutes to do so if you’re going into a difficult and stressful situation. I do it at least once every couple of week or so, or more often if I need to be calm and centered.

Back in the day when I first started using Rescue Remedy (sometime in the pre-historical era : > ), it only came in one form: a small brown bottle, with an old-fashioned dropper, mostly yellow label, 27% alcohol - though only 4 drops were used at a time. Great for shock / upset of any kind, being overwound, not sleeping. Whatever had us out of balance, Rescue Remedy, a Bach flower remedy, would help us to center again. Physical or mental, this homeopathic remedy could take care of it.

Now it comes in all kinds of formats, still with the same label on all the products. Rescue Cream is a tube of soothing and healing for the skin: hands, body and face. There’s Rescue Sleep, a spray bottle for when we wake up and can’t get back to sleep, Rescue Spray, less alcohol-y, 2 or 3 sprays right under the tongue. And my current favorite - Rescue Pastilles, alcohol-free gummy bears-type in a very old fashioned yellow tin, which I appreciate in and of itself! They come in original and pomegranate flavors. Natural Stress Relief is on the label.

And - like most alternative healing products and modalities - no harm is done. I’ve heard that if you ate a bunch of them, you might get a mild laxative effect. Since one or two pastilles will do the trick, no problem there. And, of course, also like almost all of alternative healing - it’s all very cheap. A tin of about 50 pastilles is $6.95 at Clifton Natural Foods. All health food stores carry Rescue Remedy - it’s a staple.

If you want to know more, google Bach flower remedies, homeopathy, Rescue Remedy, alternative healing.

It’s what I use when I forget to stay calm, forget it’s all lessons down here, and don’t stop to remember that there is nothing to fear anywhere. : >

I just realized I’ve never written about being a Reiki Master Teacher - and it’s definitely time to download some of my thinking and feelings and beliefs into the computer - the short version, since this is a blog.

For those not familiar with or Attuned to Reiki hands on healing, Reiki First Degree, or Reiki I, allows you to work with about 20 or 25% of the available universal energy (and, as we know from physicists, the universe is all energy). Reiki Second Degree (Reiki II), allows you to channel all the energy you could ever need to assist with healing - 100%. Reiki, by the way, does not require you to let go of any of your beliefs - it is definitely not a religion in any way, shape or form.

Attaining the level of Reiki Master Teacher can add nothing to that 100%. The only change when a healer becomes a Master Teacher is that they can then teach and Attune students themselves, thus passing on the miracle of Reiki to a broader and broader audience. My personal goal/hope/dream will be achieved when everyone on the planet is a Reiki healer. And Reiki is right now growing exponentially worldwide.

Back in the old days, the 70s and 80s, no one would Attune you as a Master unless you agreed to be a teacher. and the going price (which people I know paid) was $10,000. So I was Reiki II for a long time, then suddenly one morning in the late 90s, I knew it was time, and went on a personal odyssey to become a Master, still not considering teaching. Woke up one fall morning 5 years later, and knew it was time to start teaching, So I did.

But Reiki Mastery for me is not about teaching - it is all about transformation, about deepening and widening, about becoming a river, no longer an intermittent stream. About my choosing to be in a different relationship with Myself on the spiritual path, about allowing my Reiki practice and the fairly continual use of Reiki energy to take me to a new level.

I no longer say I believe anything. I know what I know, what I have personally seen and experienced. I expect miracles in my life everyday - and they come. Folk are astonished when their slamming headache is gone in a minute and a half of Reiki - I expect it. I also know now responsible we are for all that goes on in our lives - and am more at peace with allowing each of us our own free will choices. And a bit less impatient with the pain we end up in as a result of those choices.

Becoming a Reiki Master Teacher really is about creating a partnership between you and the Reiki energy, so that Reiki becomes a major supporter as you move along your spiritual journey. And a great way to stay healthy and happy on that journey.

p. s. for more on Reiki, check out the rest of the website.

At my birthday party, lots of folk were asking how come I don’t look 70, when I am. The answer I gave then was that I basically do very little that isn’t fun for me to do. And since I’m always having fun, that’s what I look like.

I’ve been thinking about that answer, and still like it - here are some expansions of it. For one thing, I love my left-brained work: community development - and my right-brained work: spirituality, healing, readings, teaching. I love eating food that makes my body feel good - so I don’t eat like most folk. I pay attention to my body, and if I notice a twinge or new nuance, I pay attention to that. So I don’t have to end up with magic-bullet doctor-prescribed remedies. I love re-cycling and just can’t handle all this wastefulness any more. I love stretching and gardening and going to plays and eating out at wonderful restaurants with all of my wonderful friends.

I’ve also started to add more walking into my life - and will sometimes suggest a walk in place of a meal. This is such a great walking city. I wear clothes that are comfy and fun and elegant - gave away my high heels a long time ago. I’m doing more and more writing, and I love that. I have an entire yard and woods full of animal friends, and a great organic garden. I am doing almost exactly what I want with my life, with the people I want to be around. And those people / family / friends are a rich source of joy in every shade and stratum.

And when I do stress myself out - I’ve gotten a lot better at admitting it to myself. Always the first step in recovery. And there’s Rescue Remedy to help out if I really go over the top.

Thanks, Universe, and everyone around me… It is Truly a Wonderful Life.

There is a lot of spiritual stuff on the web about stopping the oil spill, saving the environment, cleaning up the mess.

None of it has felt exactly right to me. We meditated on it at Healing Circle last week. Some of us felt real pain from the situation, from the Mother. The Earth’s blood is pouring into the Gulf, with a pulse beat as it spills.

The last two days, Jovius.org’s channeled message has been about sending love to the Gulf - and not sending anger and hate toward BP, the failed equipment, the corporate world, others involved. Sending love to everyone and everything involved and affected - which is really all of us - that’s what Jovius is asking. That was one of the themes at Healing Circle as well.

Fellow healer Mary, along with her brother, was shopping with her favorite crystal dealer a few days ago. When she got home, she realized that all the stones were ocean-colored. She poured them out onto a table, and wandered around the house picking up other stones and adding them. She tried building a grid, but just kept wandering off. Meanwhile, her brother, a physician, got the idea and built the grid - and though he would deny his intuition, that is certainly what he used to put the stones in place.

A grid is a builder, collector and holder of energy, which can then be directed to where it’s needed. It’s much like an altar, in the sense of being focused on a particular intention, often within a particular time frame. The grid is both beautiful and powerful. So I’m now adding my energy to the grid, and seeing change coming in the Gulf, a real reduction of harm at every level. Please feel free to add your energy as well.

There was a woman in my class last night who could not even bear mention of the spill. She feels acutely powerless. And is also, I think, feeling the pain of Nature/Gaia/the Sacred Ocean, as Mother Earth sways with pain so acute it almost cannot be borne. I think a lot of people, especially women, are feeling very close to the brink, and are afraid they’ll tip over with fear and pain.

What my problem solving mind wants to do is find a solution. I keep picturing the huge spill as calming way down, just a little oozing out, everything else stopped. That’s the picture I get, so I’m holding it. Others are starting group meditations, one email going around talks about meditating on healing the spill every Thursday, whenever we think of it. No psychic / intuitive / empath I know has yet been given a way to move the situation. As one says - this is a lesson for us on caring for the earth, and it won’t change until we learn that lesson.

At Dream Group last week - which I did not manage to attend - all the dreams were about collective responsibility - that we all have to take responsibility in our neighborhoods, and finally, for the planet, to change this situation. Waiting for ‘them’ to do it just won’t work this time.

I have not even been able to write about it. And can feel physically ill when it’s on my mind. Right now, I feel like begging The Goddess - or even God - to fix this for us. To stop those awful plumes and to stop that oil, never meant to be mixed with water, gushing from that pipe. It’s good that more and more of it is being captured and sent to a ship. But I just want it to stop. Now.

So this blue bottle of nasal spray has been sitting on the counter at Clifton Natural Foods for probably a couple of years. I always think it looks right, but haven’t bought it. But with Cincinnati sinuses and with son Brian’s cats living downstairs until just recently, I was thinking about a neti pot and other nose solutions. But I knew using a neti pot, while great, was going to be, at least initially, more work just to learn than I was likely to put in.

So, finally, I bought a spray bottle of Xlear, which says ’soothing and moisturizing saline nasal spray with Xylitol.’ Which is a natural sugar.

The stuff is great, as I knew it would be the first time I looked at it. Should have picked one up two years ago. Might have been a case of overthinking,general busy-ness, my usual aversion to anything that looks like medicine - even though this is pretty natural (water, saline, xylitol and grapefruit seed extract). Whatever.

I’m certainly glad I managed to get over whatever it was, and buy the stuff. Sure works for me.