Category Archives: Breath

You – yes, YOU – are your own best healer!

You, my friend, are your own best healer because you live in your body and know what foods you eat, what movements you make, what thoughts, feelings and attitudes you usually indulge in.

Start now, if you haven’t already begun – learn everything you can about health and healing. We can coach you, if you wish. Taking care of your body is not only fun and empowering — it will also save your life and life savings.

To keep your body and mind in a healthy chemical balance, do not study medical books, but nutritional healing books… books on natural foods, vitamins, minerals (throw out your free-flowing sodium chloride and use only full-spectrum salt), cleansing, food combining, the acid-alkalinity balance, and herbs.

Study exercise systems like yoga and Feldenkrais — movement systems that help keep your spine aligned. Study books about acupressure points that stimulate the lymph and nervous systems. Go to YouTube and find videos about EFT — emotional freedom technique — to keep your mind and emotions flowing in a healthy way.

Learn all you can about birth. There’s no need to think of a natural bodily process as a medical emergency.  Animals don’t go to hospitals to have babies — and they seem to do quite well without intrusive tests, labor induction and surgery. Wild animal babies are not subjected to premature cord clamping and cutting, circumcision and manufactured baby formulas. Animals in the wild eat simple, natural, raw foods and not usually more than they need to stay alive. Only in captivity do animals eat cooked foods — and get human diseases.

Do research on the Internet concerning your specific complaints and what natural remedies — foods, herbs, exercises, sunshine, etc — have been found helpful for your condition. Get a copy of Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Body and see what thought patterns correlate with your (and your family members’ & friends’) physical conditions and think back through the years… do her ideas ring true to you? Read the stories of people who have successfully overcome specific diseases… what did they do? Read about spontaneous remissions; sometimes there’s just a little nagging thought that needs to change and people get well when they change it.

Once you learn how to take care of your precious human body, you will no longer confuse the medical industry with health. Surgery and pharmaceutical drugs are helpful when you fall down and break your leg or are in an auto accident, but the fact is, medical schools teach only disease and pathology, not how to attain vibrant, radiant health.

You want health. You deserve to be healthy. You can be healthy. You can make a healthier body and keep your body healthy with simple methods. You only need tools, understanding.

We are happy to share a lifetime of learning with you. Contact us if you need a little help to practice letting go of fear and embracing the Love that you are. Miracles happen.

Only one thing can exist in one place at one time.
Let that one thing be the Love that you are.

Spirit is the healer

Some say Spirit is the healer and they are right. But what does that really mean? Is the Spirit that heals, a ghost? An amorphous being, a specter, phantom, apparition or halloween spook? No, the spirit that heals is far more than that — and far more readily available to all.

The word spirit comes from the Latin noun spiritus, which means breath and from the Latin verb spirare, which means to breathe.

Spirit is the breath that breathes you. Spirit is the life that lives you. Spirit is the motion that moves you. Spirit is always there — filling you from within you holding you all around, about. There is nowhere spirit is not. You are never alone. Every breath you take is a gift of love.

God breathed life into Adam and God breathes life into you every moment of every day and all night through.  Breathing freely, fully and deeply is your natural condition.

When you are afraid, your breath becomes quick and shallow — you hold your breath. In essence, when you are afraid and hold your breath, you are saying No! to life.  At that point, tensions get stuck in your body.  When you recall the point at which you held your breath, you breathe again – the dis-ease, fear and tension are released. When breath is restored, ease is restored; Love returns to fill the place where the fear had been lodged. You are free.

And that is why they say,

Spirit is the healer.

Birth & Rebirth – Why Are We Here, Now?

Ancient birthing statue

We humans are usually born head first and even though we are most often caught in a pair of loving hands before our heads strike the ground, we are routinely stricken with a deep case of amnesia as soon as we reach the planet — or shortly thereafter. There is usually enough of a memory of our Source to keep us going for a few years, despite the delights of barbaric hospital births, primitive toys and condescending baby talk.

The adults who came before us forgot who they are too, so they cannot know who we are. Quickly we forget that we were made in the image and likeness of God and have traded infinite love for finite loneliness. It is rare for anyone on planet Earth to remember for very long. The ones who remember

We dive into a swirl of people, places and things, are thrown around like a Spanish dancer — this way and that — until we get to that place where we want to stop the world and get off. We have tired of feeling less than love and aliveness. We become determined to remember who we are, to sort out which voice inside our head is our friend or foe. We promise ourselves to turn our lives around to ground zero and reclaim our original identity, our dignity, and compassionate nature. After all, “God is love”, and it is our job to “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”

It is my humble opinion that “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” might have been more accurately stated, “Ye are perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”, for the same image and likeness that we were created in was, is and will always be, perfect. Pure light. Pure love. Spirit. That is what we are. It’s a true adventure to reclaim our heritage. The secret to our healing from our mistaken human identity is to rediscover, remember our original Identity.

Remembering is the first step, but intellectual understanding and one or two flashes of clarity are not enough to sustain us for long. Frequent reminding is essential because we tend to forget to remember. A lifetime of identifying with who and what we aren’t is not usually overcome in one instant, but practicing, bringing the instants closer together; our thoughts, behaviors and communications change for the better.

That is why I recommend knocking off big chunks of false identification with a few great counseling sessions or deeply transformative workshops, attending ongoing groups affiliated with your favorite church or being part of a Twelve-Step Program (AA, CoDA, ACoA).

Between times of becoming aware of, working with and releasing the big chunks of old fear and forgetfulness, we recommend staying in touch daily with our true nature by practicing feeling the feelings we love to feel. That’s what real healing is all about… releasing old fears (false evidence appearing real) and becoming accustomed to feeling peaceful, happy and content.

Here you will hopefully find helpful information, practical tools and inspiration regarding the nuts and bolts of real healing that will help you stay in touch with the love in your heart. There is something called Knowledge… Knowledge of the Soul or Knowledge of God, which helps us remember Who and What We Truly Are. Some find it to be the best gift of all, ever.

Depression is not irrational – Suicide is not a solution

I was depressed from an early age. As a child, I always wanted to be dead. I know now that it was probably after my clitoridectomy. I was bereft. Life didn’t seem worth living. I went to the kitchen to get a knife to cut out my heart, but I was too small to reach the sharp knives – I didn’t even know where they were kept.

When I went back to my bed that night, I heard a voice say, “What makes you think it would be any different if you were to die?” I had to admit I had no guarantee. But I saw the implication was that I would have to live through those early childhood years again – no way! – and so I have stayed. My teen years and early twenties were no better. But after that, each year my heart has grown more full and rich and happy. I have no external possessions to brag about, but peace of mind and joy are my priceless treasures.

Depression is not irrational. It is a diagnosis that is like that drawer in the kitchen where you put everything you don’t know what to do with. Depression is an accumulation of legitimate, but unreleased fears, angers and sorrows. Our society does not allow grieving and does not offer anything much better than “you are born, life is for suffering, technology advances, and then you die.”. Religion often makes life on earth sound like a prison sentence, a valley of tears, after which – if you are perfect – you get to go to “heaven” and experience something that might or might not be all that much better than what you have known on earth… but there are no guarantees on any level.

lovely lady in flowersWhat finally brought me out of my depression was the discovery that when I was very very quiet, I could feel my heart.

“In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer… no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back.” ― Albert Camus

Another way to say that is, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” It is! And it can be known NOW. But only one thing can exist in one place at one time, so as long as we hold on to negative feelings from the past, we do not feel that beauty that already exists in our own hearts.

I came to understand that I had something important to do here on planet earth. Until I released all that old baggage, I might just come back over and over again – no way! And so I began to do my work and began to let go of all that old and ugly stuff.

We are fortunate in this age to have lots of help – from people and healing systems like Jed Diamond, Byron Katie’s “The Work”, Gary Craig’s “EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique”, Hale Dwoskin’s “The Sedona Method”, and many others. It’s all about healing – letting go of fear/anger/sorrow. It’s why we’re here and why “stuff happens” – so that we feel the old stuff and release the past – to “forgive”, which is “for giving ourselves peace of mind, joy and health.” Feelings got stuck when we held our breath in fear. So whatever feelings come up, breathe into them… that’s how we tell ourselves that we’re safe here and now.

See the “Tools” tab, above and release one little thing today, here and now. You will be so glad you did. Then move to another… and let it go…

EFT – Emotional Freedom Technique

Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
– Carl Jung

All healing is essentially the release from fear.
– A Course In Miracles

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), also called “Tapping”, does exactly what it says: it is a simple, easy way to release fear. It is a deceptively simple, yet effective tool for healing the mind, emotions and even the body.

To keep it simple, let’s call everything that is not at ease and peaceful, “fear”. Pain and dis-ease indicate a lack of ease, a lack of peace, and we can often track disease to its origin in fear.

We react to fear by contracting muscles in our body; we fight, flee or freeze. Synonyms for “fear” might include shock, terror, horror, dread, panic, anxiety, anger, rage, fury, sorrow, grief, angst, overwhelm, boredom, loss, frustration, irritability, loneliness, broken heart, longing, desire, jealousy, regret, envy, revenge, or any other feeling that is not peaceful and loving. Fear enters the mind, the body reacts by contracting. After that, if the fear is not released, it remains lodged in the muscles and even the cells of the body.

“Fear” is not our original condition – love is. Look into the eyes of any baby who was gently born and not circumcised and you will see eyes overflowing with unconditional love, aliveness, enthusiasm, and joy. Babies who have not been terrorized by intrusive medical procedures, drugs and scalpels, are relaxed. They can fall to sleep in a moment, no matter where they are or what is going on.

Yet a baby who was poked by sonogram, whose birth was medically induced, who was cut out or pulled out of his mothers, whose umbilical cord lifeline to mother was cut before he had downloaded his full allotment of oxygen and blood, who had monitoring devices attached to his head and body, a baby who was separated from his mother at birth and fed cow’s milk, not breastfed, a baby who was exposed to any number of unnecessary procedures such as blinding lights, heel pricks, injections of toxic chemicals into his pristine bloodstream, a baby who had surgery such as circumcision or open heart surgery… This baby, on the other hand, had a head start in the accumulation of fear. He learned to contract and withdraw, to distrust and expect betrayal.

After birth, fear messages are sent directly and indirectly, intentionally and unintentionally, from family members, friends, school, religion, television, movies, society; we make decisions based on things that happen to us and to others, etc and we carry all this fear forever – on our shoulders, in our stomachs or chests – until and unless we let it all go. We carry unconscious fear in the subconscious and the subconscious is the body. Muscles we tensed up long ago when terrible things happened, still hold the tension. They are the spots where we feel pain, tension, weakness. The good news is, we can let it all go and EFT is a very helpful tool in releasing fear. Letting go of fear is letting go of tension in the body and most disorders, disease, are caused by stored fear, tension.

Emotional Freedom Technique is the most effective way I’ve found to quickly and easily loosen and release uncomfortable bodily sensations from the mind and body – both ancient and current.

EFT is also called “tapping”, and you will be tapping on acupressure points to relax the inner organs that have been holding the “fear” you want to be free of.

Steps for using EFT to release fear:

1) Identify a feeling or attitude that causes you discomfort, a “fear” you want to release. Put it into words. If you cannot find a descriptor for it, just identify it by its location in the body. Examples might be: sense of anxiety, pain in my stomach, tension in my shoulders, anger at my mother.

2) Give it an intensity score. Zero means it does not bother you at all, ten means it is very much present, in your current awareness, and is occupying your mind and giving you pain and discomfort at this very moment. The goal is to use EFT until the intensity is gone and the score moves to zero.

3) Make it into a statement:

Even though I have this
[pain in my stomach],
I deeply and completely love and respect myself.

This statement serves a few purposes:

  • Naming the emotion or locating a feeling in the body is an important step in letting it go, for you are no longer unaware of it – you are now conscious of it. You have given the “demon” a name.
  • You can only release something that you already “have”. If you are unaware of a feeling, then you do not “have” it; it “has” you. But once you have it, you can release it.
  • “Even though” minimizes the importance of the “fear” you have named. It says that this “thing” that has been burdening you for a very long time is now inconsequential and you are ready to let it go.
  • To say that you love and respect yourself, even though you have carried this feeling, is a way of saying that you forgive yourself and love yourself enough to live without the burden.

4) The simplest way to perform this “exorcism” on yourself is to repeat the statement in #3, above, and tap 8-10 times on each acupressure point (see diagrams below). Some start by tapping on the side of one hand (karote chop point, in diagram below), using the palm of the other hand, and repeating the statement a few times, adjusting it for accuracy, if necessary. Then, starting at the top of your head, tap each point several times while repeating the statement. Some people shorten the statement after a few repetitions to the ‘complaint’, such as:

Even though I have this [sense of guilt], I deeply and completely love and respect myself…
Even though I have this sorrow, I deeply and completely love and respect myself…
Even though I have this sorrow, I deeply and completely love and respect myself…
this sorrow… this sorrow… this sorrow…”  – concluding with,
Even though I have this sorrow, I deeply and completely love and respect myself.

Now it is time to re-evaluate the intensity score you gave to the emotion in the beginning. On a scale from 1 to 10, how intense is the sensation now?
Some issues will resolve in one short round. Others may require several rounds, alternating tapping on both sides of the body. And some very old – or very fresh – issues may need to be addressed several times for several days. The good news is, it will all go away and stay away, once you have tapped it away. A little bit of attention now prevents years of discomfort in the future.

Here are two helpful sheets that you can access at any time from your phone or computer to remind you of how to use EFT:

EFT mini instructions

and

instructions


“Killer Germs” Obliterated by Medicinal Smoke Smudging

Patricia says: I have smudged in the past and will be smudging more now. I also diffuse essential oils. You can sprinkle them around, put them on a diffusion ring and place them on the top of a lightbulb, use a diffuser, or even wear the yummy ones as perfumes. Different ‘flavors’ perform different functions. Cedarwood and lavender are a good combination for bugs that bug pets. I am becoming quite fond of geranium oil. Eucalyptus encourages you to breathe fully and freely and deeply. Some scents perk you up; others calm you down for a restful sleep.

Sage Smudge SticksThe following is an excerpt from an article by Sayer Ji, founder of the fabulous website GreenMedInfo.com

…The burning of herbs and plant resins for medicinal and spiritual purposes – so-called ‘smudging’ – is an ancient practice among indigenous people around the world; one increasingly adopted by Westerners. Smudging is a technology believed to unlock the ‘spirits’ of various plant allies to restore balance and ease to the individual or group. Some liken it to taking a ‘spiritual shower,’ enabling you to wash away emotional and spiritual negativity that accumulates in your body and the spaces you live…

First, we uncovered a 2006 review published in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology titled “Medicinal smokes,” that looked at single and multi-ingredient herbal and non-herbal remedies administered as smoke from 50 countries across 5 continents. The researchers found, with surprising overlap worldwide, medicinal smoke is mostly used to address the following specific organ systems: “pulmonary (23.5%), neurological (21.8%) and dermatological (8.1%).” They also found that “ambient smoke,” which is the type of passively inhaled smoke generated by smudging/incense, is traditionally believed to be an effective “air purifier.” The review argued that modern medicine should investigate medicinal smoke as a drug delivery system, owing to the following advantages: “The advantages of smoke-based remedies are rapid delivery to the brain, more efficient absorption by the body and lower costs of production”…

The researchers reported their amazing findings:

We have observed that 1 hour treatment of medicinal smoke emanated by burning wood and a mixture of odoriferous and medicinal herbs (havan sámagri=material used in oblation to fire all over India), on aerial bacterial population caused over 94% reduction of bacterial counts by 60 min and the ability of the smoke to purify or disinfect the air and to make the environment cleaner was maintained up to 24 hour in the closed room. Absence of pathogenic bacteria Corynebacterium urealyticum, Curtobacterium flaccumfaciens, Enterobacter aerogenes (Klebsiella mobilis), Kocuria rosea, Pseudomonas syringae pv. persicae, Staphylococcus lentus, and Xanthomonas campestris pv. tardicrescens in the open room even after 30 days is indicative of the bactericidal potential of the medicinal smoke treatment. We have demonstrated that using medicinal smoke it is possible to completely eliminate diverse plant and human pathogenic bacteria of the air within confined space.

Did you catch that?

Not only did the burning of medicinal herbs clear aerial bacterial populations by 94% within one hour, but a full day later, the closed room was still effectively decontaminated. Even more amazing, a full month later, seven other pathogenic bacteria in the open room were still non-detectable.

When one considers that modern urban air has been found to contain at least 1800 diverse bacterial types[1] – including families with pathogenic members – this finding could have profound implications for combating a increasingly deadly array of antibiotic-resistant bacteria against which even the CDC itself has acknowledged its impotence. Consider also that a recent microbiome of NYC’s subway system found close to 1700 different microbes, including those responsible for Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) and Bubonic Plague (yersinia pestis).[2]

Also, considering that conventional methods of air and surface sterilization and odor neutralization use chemical cocktails (e.g. Lysol) that are much less effective than advertised (one study found them up to 10 times less effective than believed), smudging or the use of natural incense products might constitute a far safer and more effective approach…

Read more and see study abstracts from the Journal of Ethnopharmacology here: “Killer Germs” Obliterated by Medicinal Smoke Smudging, Study Reveals | Wake Up World