More than I paid for!

    For years I have been taking herbal and homeopathic remedies.  At first I was solidly in the "Yeah, right" category.   Since nothing else helped and they were recommended by a trusted friend, I continued.  I gathered data that pointed to success, moving me to "Yeah, right!"  Since I firmly believe in the power of the mind, this could be the placebo effect.
     When my cat's began experiencing health problems, their results really changed my mind.  It began the summer I bought the pottery fountain. It had a large reservoir in the back with an opening that easily accommodated a cat head.  Joy and Lucy loved to drink from it.

     Both of them began to act strangely.  Not only were their bathroom habits different, but also sleeping and personality.  We tried air diffusers with calming scents and diets recommended by the vet.  Nothing worked. So I took the saliva sample and a picture to my reiki master, JoAnn.  She recommended several courses of homeopathics and vibropathics for heavy metal toxicity.
     Not only did the cats not know what they were being given, they fought receiving it tooth and nail.  Only someone who has given a cat medicine knows what this truly means.

      So I gave the cats the vibropathics that they resisted immensely, but their behavior began to change.  Slowly they returned to the normal, curmudgeonly Lucy and the normal, playful Joy.  The only thing that changed was the remedies.  This was definitely out of the placebo territory.
       A week ago I purchased a Nu|vision computer program to dowse and send remedies to my family.  What I did not realize was that it comes with a silver box called a Holographic Connector device.  This allows me to create homeopathics or imprint water and other substances with homeopathics and affirmations.  Now all of the things I purchased to help the cats, I can make at home.  Not only that, I can create wristbands like the power/balance band.  The first one I made was to help me go to sleep on time and awake refreshed.  Though I hate to admit it, it is 10:05 and I am so ready for bed.  Hope it works this well tomorrow.

Very Genki Indeed or How to Live Your Values

        Very often I get caught up in the drudgery of doing, rather than the joy of being.  I have all these things to accomplish sometimes I forget that there is more than one way to do things.  A few years ago I heard a lecture by Dr John Demartini.  He gave a 10 question values determination that changed my life.  These are not the overarching principles of your life, more the values that set your course each day.

         I have always loved to teach, but used to be a bit more like the strict nun we all loved to hate rather than the fun teacher.  The first time I completed the values determination, having fun was my fourth most important value.  Now my classes are more light-hearted, full of laughter and movement.  This cartoon http://reikimarketing.com/ captures the flavor.  I love the look on the middle woman's face.   Five years ago, that was me....

        Another interesting thing I learned was that any human interaction fills my social needs.  It is great because I can derive great pleasure from just talking to the check out clerk and bagger at the grocery store (you know who you are...).  It is not so great because I tend to neglect my family and friends.  When I figured this out, I could make a few remedies, be more conscious in my interactions.  My calendar is now full of scheduled time with friends and family, because we all know I am the least likely person to pick up the phone just to say hi.  Now I need to figure out how to translate this to social media (sorry Facebook friends...)
       My Japanese tutoring students have tried for years to explain the word, genki.   The English translations range from healthy to energetic to lively.  The best description I ever heard was the feeling a dog expresses as he sticks his head out the window with ears streaming back in the wind.  May living your values make you very genki.

Reiki: From Dull to Dazzling

       You know how there are days you spend waiting?  Sometimes it is for the repairman, the call from the doctor or news about a new job.  Today was one of those days, and unfortunately I'm still waiting.  In this waiting I was given a great opportunity.
      The day felt just like this picture we took on a lovely winters drive to regionals.

It was a grey winter's day, over cast, and a bit snowy.  The road stretches out in front of me, but I can't see the end, though I can see the other drivers trusting the road to still be there.  I felt a little lost, lonely and unsure, but friends came to the rescue.

      I received several emails  from friends asking for reiki. It couldn't have come at a better time.  If someone were to ask me for a one word translation for reiki, for me, it is joy.  Joy feels good. it radiates in spirals and in spikes.  It expands in balloons.  If the above picture is my mind on waiting, this is my mind on reiki.

       This picture was taken at a Chilhuly exhibit in Columbus, Ohio in 2010.   So much of his work is expansive (or explosive).  This is the feeling that reiki gives.  Yesterday I found a website called Vibrant Reiki.  The name of the company, the pictures on the website, all capture the feeling of reiki.  Who couldn't use a bit more of that in their lives.

Beginner's Mind

        Today's yoga class was wonderful!  There were 4 new students, two of them who had never attended a yoga class and one who spoke English as a second language.  As a teacher, a class this diverse absolutely focuses you  (or sends you into a blind panic).  How to engage both the new students and those who have studied for years?  It sounds like time to cultivate beginner's mind.

       Shoshin (初心) is a concept in Zen Buddhism meaning "beginner's mind". It refers to having an attitude of openness, eagerness, and lack of preconceptions when studying a subject, even when studying at an advanced level, just as a beginner in that subject would.- Wikipedia

       This attitude of eagerness is everything we work so hard to let go of as children.  We want to be knowledgeable, deft, adept, in command.  Beginners mind requires forgetting what we know, letting go of the past, and being willing to fall down in the attempt to try something new.
        Mountain pose, or tadasana, was where we began.  My challenge was to make just standing up brand new.  The best thing is just living life helps me with that one.  Emotions, both good and bad, leave impressions on the body.  Worrying about a son down in college can make the shoulders and rib cage tight.  This means that each week we bring a different body to class even though the same feet walk us in.  Today my neck hurts from worry, next week my arms ache from gardening.  This makes each mountain pose a revelation.
       We begin to stand before our first birthday.  I learned to stand at attention in 1984, when I joined the Navy.  I learned to stand with attention in 1998 at my first yoga class.  After standing for 44 years, still I learn new things.
        Tonight at dinner I was given another example of beginners mind.  My husband had been working on a project for a while.  Most of the components are in place, but they were in two different computer programs that did not talk to one another.  He had so many "not possibles" in his recent past that he couldn't find a work around.
        A work colleague came over to talk about something completely different, but ended up solving the problem with existing resources.  He was both grateful and irritated (you know how it is).
       I'll leave you with my favorite story of beginner's mind.  When my husband as a very young child, his mother let him out in the back yard to play.  The yard was fenced in with the gate securely latched.  Since he couldn't figure out  the gate, he simply unscrewed the hinges.  His parents found him, hours later, happily playing in the creek.  Now that's beginner's mind.

Start Your Week by Being

           On Sunday, as I was helping my son pack to return to camp, he asked me if I could write up a few things to do with the campers to create a community and (hopefully) use that sense of community to encourage both better behavior and more fun.  Over the years I have done a lot of substitute teaching, working with the children at church and have taught yoga at daycare.  This means I have a lot of resources for community building games that are fun, but don't require any "stuff," just a sense of adventure and a bit of leadership.  One of the things I pulled out was my Yoga Pretzels (Yoga Cards).  This has been a lifesaver on many occasions. The authors and I have very similar styles, mixing education with fun and down right silliness.
           Taking some ideas from the cards and others from experience, I wrote up a one page team building blueprint.  Somewhere in the back of my mind I was both happy and sad that I wouldn't be the one doing these things.  When I returned from dropping him off at camp and began to clean up, this is what I found on the bottom of one of the yoga cards.

"The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are."

                                        - Joseph Campbell
           I can't imagine a better way to organize my week.  Concentrate a bit more on being and a bit less on doing.
 


     A little addendum....  I wrote this post just before my run, but waited to publish so that I could review it.  While I was running (or to an outside observer, staggering), I had an experience that I have not had since leaving Italy in 1996.
           One thing I loved about living in Europe is that European men have a way of letting you know that you are appreciated as a woman without being threatening or suggestive.  It was a nice feeling.  There was this one Greek waiter in Pippo Pappo's restaurant in Aci Trezza, Sicily who flirted outrageously with me the entire time I was pregnant with my first son.
          Back to today, I ran by some men who were fixing the sidewalk. One of them, without ever taking his eyes off my face, let me know that I was a beautiful woman.  For a short, rounded, 45 year old woman, it was unexpected and oh-so-nice.  It takes so little to make someone's day, I hope to pass the gift on to everyone I meet (the feeling, not the noticing them as a woman, I'll leave that one to the guys...).                          

Back to Reality

      Have you ever caught yourself being a bit pretentious?  Maybe taking yourself a bit too seriously?  I was totally caught this morning at church.
      Our readings today were all about prophets having a hard time, culminating with Jesus saying "A prophet has little honor in his hometown, among his relatives, on the streets he played in as a child." (Mark 6:4, The Message)  Needless to say, I don't consider myself a prophet, but reiki is not quite hit the mainstream here in Kentucky.  I was feeling Jesus' pain and composing this blog post during mass.  
      Fortunately for us all, I have gotten over my delusions of grandeur.  Also good for me since no one has tried to crucify me today.  Instead I offer you a little rake-ey cartoon...

The Power of Music

      I have been asked a lot of questions recently about house clearing.  How to do it, how often it is necessary, and why to do it in the first place.  Today I had an experience that answered all those questions in one fell swoop.
      One son is working as a camp counselor this summer.  This week his cabin was the perfect storm.  The mix of personalities was explosive.  The kids fought with each other and did their best to ignore the counselors all week.  They would rather complain than fix the problems.  We've all been there, sometimes in the leadership role and sometimes (that we'd rather not admit to) in the role of the irritating child.  It was one of those times that a parent says, what a valuable learning experience, so glad I was not there.
      As soon as the car doors closed, full of dirty laundry and enraged counselor, the venting began.  It went on and on and on.  I wanted to let him go on till it was all out.  Each camper and experience was described in exquisite detail.  When he was finished we moved onto our day.  I went upstairs to finish quilting the remake of the World's Ugliest Quilt.  As I sat down, it came to me that my son really enjoys music, choosing tunes to make us feel better.  So I grabbed my iPod and gave it to him.
     Pretty soon great songs were wafting up the stairs.  He played "Bite My Tongue,"  "Tambourine Man," and "Waiting Around to Die" among others.  By the end, he was in a great mood.  It was quite a transformation.
     Later in the day, I thought to check the house.  Did it need to be cleared?  There had been a lot of negativity going on.  The neat thing was, his work to transform his mood had also transformed the energy of the house. It didn't need any work.
     We constantly give off energy.  Any kind of positive energy can clear out negativity.  Sing, ring a bell, clap your hands, dance, move the furniture, or fill the place with reiki.  All of these can transform the energy in the house and how it is expressed in your life.