Thankfulness and the Aloha Blessing Way

In Hawaiian shamanism there is a little twist on the idea of an attitude of gratitude, which is: that which you bless increases–anything you bless, appreciate or acknowledge. If you see beautiful flowers and say a blessing for the lovely sight you increase your likelihood of seeing beauty or your sense of blessing. If a friend does something nice for you and you express your appreciation for the deed, you increase the likelihood that you will have good, kind friends and/or your sense of being blessed.

It took me a little while to realize that it’s essentially different words for maintaining an attitude of gratitude. And the fundamental principle behind both is that, since like attracts like, if you’re maintaining an emotional state of thankfulness, blessing, appreciation, etc. you’re pretty much in a positive, upbeat space and that attracts more good.

Early on I tried to keep some sort of track of whether the specific thing I blessed increased although eventually I got the ridiculousness of trying to keep an account. I can say, though, that when I remember to say a blessing for every easy parking space or green light it does seem like I have an ongoing experience of easy parking or getting green lights. Mostly what I came to love about remembering to say a blessing or a “thanks” for everything is how great I feel when I consciously recognize the abundance of good stuff in my life.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my challenge has been to find something to bless or feel thankful for when I have a migraine or the unwinding muscles in my head have kept me awake for the third night in a row. I’ve learned to find that silver lining and, if I’m mindful, I can manage to find gratitude even in those times when things seem hard. The unwinding, for instance, means that my muscles are healing and the vice grip feeling in my head is on its way out, so I can concentrate on being happy for what the process is leading to instead of the painful part. I’m not always that mindful.

It may be the great challenge for all spiritual journeys. Whether you call it thankfulness, blessing or lovingkindness (or ….), success arrives when you can stay thankful or feel a state of grace no matter what. It’s the ability to step aside from your reaction when your boss just pushed your button—when you just found out your daughter is on drugs, when a tornado just damaged your house, when your head is pounding—and hang on to feeling you’re in a state of grace. When you feel blessed or thankful or even calm and centered through whatever life brings you’ve accomplished a major piece of the spiritual journey. Blessings to you all. I’m thankful you’re reading.

This is my post for ABC Wednesday.  Today it’s “T”.

Healing Journey Monday: Practices for flow create many levels of healing

Last week I wrote about some movement practices that are good for balance and fluidity of movement: yoga, The Five Tibetan Rites, Flying Crane Chi Gung, tai chi. What I love about those practices is that they do so much more, physically, mentally and spiritually.

According to yoga philosophy a system of channels called nadis runs throughout our bodies. It corresponds roughly with the nervous system and it is these channels that carry prana (or chi, vital force energy) through the body. When muscles are tight or knotted up the nadis are blocked and prana can’t flow. That vital force energy is key to good health as it flows through. When you do practices that stretch the muscles or open the joints you help to open the nadis. When you do practices that build chi you help to keep that vital force strong and flowing through the channels.

When chi is balanced and flowing well it also has a big affect on your mental and emotional state. It’s hard for me to describe but when I’ve practiced yoga or chi gung or pranayama or the Tibetan Rites I’m calm and clear. If I start the practice with any sadness or anxiety or anger it is dissipated when I finish. I’m careful not to use practices to enable denial but you can use them to help maintain balance of mind and emotion.

Connection with the divine requires the free flow of prana through the nadis and the more prana you have the better. These practices do the balancing and building that you need. It’s one of the things I love about the ancient practices and especially the movement practices is the brilliant way in which they heal on every level. Whatever practice(s) you choose to help you with keeping good physical balance and fluidity, you will help yourself so much beyond those benefits.

Related articles

• Healing Journey Monday: Working with energy (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)
• Sway with me – flowing as you age (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)
• Pranayama and its healing power (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)

Why are we here… more pondering my philosophy

In contemplating my journey and my desire to go forward without big contradictions in my self-created path I keep coming back to various speculations I’ve seen about why we are here. No one can do more than speculate so I realize that when I choose one idea to believe it is just my belief and it’s possible that no one living has yet correctly surmised the truth.

As is so often the case there are lots of variations but there are two that keep dancing around in my head and both start from the same place and then go in different directions. They start from a theory that back when consciousness was just hanging around being All That Is, it became bored with just being Conscious and decided to create the physical realm.* One version (again, with a number of themes) is that it was created as a playground and (1) physical life is for enjoying and/or (2) physical life is for learning how to live as a spiritual being in a physical body and thus be able to enjoy all there is to experience in the physical. The other posits the physical realm more as a test—can consciousness come here in a body and manage to remember itself and return to pure consciousness, which is basically non-duality.

I can see the latter has shown up in a lot of religious traditions. All love of great food or sex or sunsets or blue skies or anything in the physical realm is a distraction or a temptation; something to forego or detach from. Loving physical things or having a preference for one smell or taste or sight, etc., over another is participating in duality. To me this is the side of the equation that prefers transcendence (see earlier post). We’re not really here to be human but to pass the test of moving beyond the physical and back to the realm of being consciousness, the realm of non-duality.

The other basic theme posits the physical realm as a sort of playground. Some say we’re only here to enjoy. Some say we’re here to learn how to be spirit in a body; to enjoy the fun of the physical and also keep track of being part of All That Is. I’ve always resonated with this last theory and it has been my main aim, to learn how to both enjoy this physical existence and to re-connect with my higher consciousness so that I can live an ordinary life as a spiritual being.

When I explore these theories and see where I land I can also see why my forays into Buddhism and Hinduism have confused my path because I think they fit more with the realm of transcending the physical to return to pure consciousness. And I get that from the Buddhist perspective my beliefs are just the refusal of ego to let go so Buddha nature can take hold. But since I have no aim to get out of the physical and I believe that ego has a function in the physical, I don’t care if it’s my ego that makes me, well, not a Buddhist.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against Buddhists or any other practitioners of non-duality—in fact, I am awestruck by the people I know who have successfully traveled that road. It’s not that I can’t see the amazing results of believing what they believe. I just also see people who’ve had amazing results from traveling the path I choose as well. That’s the great thing in this world of theories and choices; we each get to choose what we believe and follow the path that aligns with it. Every spiritual path is right for those who choose it.

It’s taken me a long piece of my journey to let go of enough angst and anxiety to be able to enjoy and now I’m ready for playing in the joy of being here.

*Both seem to also assume that something about the pull of earth or the heaviness of the physical caused humanity to forget its spiritual nature but I’ve not seen an explanation of that that satisfied me so I don’t want to get into that.

Related articles

• Pondering my philosophy (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)
• Transcendent or spiritually human? (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)

Awards–again…

Every time I receive another award nomination I feel thrilled, so I’m excited to announce that I’ve been awarded some more.

First, I’ve gotten another nomination for the Versatile Blogger Award. For this I have to say a big thanks to MetaphyzGirl at Angela’s Space. Please be sure to check her blog out. I’ve been nominated for the Versatile Blogger before and I’m starting to have trouble coming up with nominations so I’m going the lazy route and linking you to the first post in which I accepted the Versatile Blogger award. Please check out the blogs I listed there as they’re still among my faves.

Next, I’ve been nominated for my second Sunshine Award which I accept with great thanks and appreciation to Genie at Geniespeaks. Her blog is inspiring so be sure to take a look. My last Sunshine Award was accepted on the same post as the Versatile Blogger and I refer you again to that post for all the nominees I made for this award and ditto on being faves of mine.

Finally, big thanks to FoodStories who has nominated me for a new award called The Illuminating Blogger. The rules for this one are:

Food Stories is pleased to present the Illuminating Blogger Award, a fabulous award that anyone can bestow on their fellow bloggers for illuminating, informative blog content.

Here’s how it works:

1. The nominee should visit the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/) and leave a comment indicating that they have been nominated and by whom. (This step is so important because it’s the only way that we can create a blogroll of award winners).
2. The Nominee should thank the person that nominated them by posting & including a link to their blog.
3. Share one random thing about yourself in your blog post.
4. Select at least five other bloggers that you enjoy reading their illuminating, informative posts and nominate them for the award.
5. Notify your  nominees by leaving a comment on their blog, including a link to the award site (http://foodstoriesblog.com/illuminating-blogger-award/).

Something random about me: I’m a huge fan of coffee and picky about the kind and the prep. I’m so in love with the coffee from La Coppa in Mill Valley, CA that I brought back five pounds of coffee in my suitcase plus two more pounds for friends I’ve enticed into the love… You can mail order but I saved a bundle and what’s a sore arm???

My nominees (I’m trying as always to present new ones but I’m losing track):

• Whispers of the Heart
• Momentum of Joy
• Be.Love.Live
• Susartandfood’s Blog
• The God Franchise

Since it’s AlphabeThursday and the letter today is “A”, this is my contribution for that too.

Don't Wait To Be Freshly Pressed

Reblogged from Spirit Lights The Way:

• 

Tired of waiting around to be discovered by the Freshly Pressed crew?

Here’s a new way to get noticed on WP . . . A Post for Your Thoughts!

WP recently added the “Submit a Topic” page to the Daily Post menu.

Via the “Submit a Topic” page, you can send WP suggestions for new posts or submit your story for any one of three new series:

Read more… 47 more words

Sway with me–flowing as you age

During my California trip two friends of mine—who are considerably older than I am—had falls. One received the advice that she needs to build her core muscles or she’ll keep losing her balance and falling. All those present for the conversation later were older and for all of them this was a revelation. I was a little surprised until I realized that I’ve been building an inner sense of physical balance since I started taking tai chi in 1977 and I think I’ve assumed that most other people know it too. While I agree with the doctor that strong core muscles are important I think aging well with physical agility and balance requires more than just a strong core.

In tai chi we talked a lot about moving from your center, or sea of chi. One of the main reasons a lot of dancers really like tai chi and chi gung is that the flowing movements build a strong chi and help you move from your center, which is key in dancing. After a few years of studying tai chi I injured my knee in a car accident and all the bent knee work caused me to drop the practice. I made my way to yoga eventually, where I began to learn a lot about the importance of having flexibility as well as strength in your muscles. When I added Robert Masters’ Psychophysical Method and reorganized his work to create my trigger of release sets, I began to really understand how crucial it is to have fluidity in your joints and your movements.

I internalized so much as my body learned all these things over 35 years that although it informs a lot of advice I give to students and the way I perceive people’s exercise needs, I haven’t consciously formulated and expressed my thoughts until now. In order to move through the world with physical ease and balance, to minimize the likelihood of falling and to fall well (lightly with minimum to no injury), you need to be centered and flexible and fluid as well as strong. I’ll be 60 soon and I’m stronger, more fluid, more flexible and more centered/balanced than I was in my 20′s. I’m old enough to be seeing how well that is serving me now and, even more, how well it is going to serve me as I grow older.

I was fortunate that the troubles with my muscles and my health started when I was young so that I was pushed to do all this work. Unfortunately most young people (and yes, I know there are many exceptions—still not the rule) aren’t suffering the effects of stiff muscles or poor balance or pain so they don’t see the value of practices like yoga or the triggers work. If they’re interested in exercise at all they’re usually following the peculiarly American prescription for exercise that’s hard and fast—and will most likely lead to painfully knotted muscles, stiff joints and poor balance as they grow older.

I never gave the core muscles piece a lot of thought. I’ve always worked on abs (literally since I was about 14) and my yoga practice includes a lot of strength postures. The Five Tibetan Rites actually do a nice job of working the core muscles. So I feel like my core muscles are in good shape but I haven’t assigned as much importance to that as I have to having a strong center and ability to stretch and move fluidly, so I’ll have to contemplate the core muscles and how they fit. My theory at the moment is that a strong sea of chi is more important but since it hasn’t become measurable or of scientific interest, the focus of the medical community is on the core muscles; I also think most of the practices that build chi also work on the core muscles but I don’t think the reverse is true – exercises that purely build the core muscles often don’t build and center chi.

I do know that if you want to have a healthy old age the earlier you start working on creating a balance between strength and flexibility in your muscles and keeping your joints fluid and your sea of chi holding strong, the more easily you can flow into being a senior without losing your mobility or suffering a lot of needless falls. The work is up to you. You can’t take a pill or get a shot for this.

C’mon. Dance with me. Sway with me. Let your body flow. Your spirit can’t really flow if your body is stiff and out of balance. Take care of it. Sway with me…  

This post is for ABC Wednesday, which is “S”.

Related articles

• Healing Journey Monday: Working with energy (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)
• A Balanced Body (fibromodem.wordpress.com)

Healing Journey Monday: Finding a practitioner

You may have gathered that in 25 years of searching for answers about my health and trying to sort out my muscles I’ve seen a lot of alternative practitioners. While there’s no one piece of advice that can guarantee that you’ll get the best practitioner, I’ve learned a few tips to pass along.

While geography plays a big role (some places have few choices*) the key piece of choosing a practitioner is intuition – both as to being drawn to a particular modality and to being drawn to a particular practitioner. And probably the most important thing about a given practitioner is their ability to tune in to the problem and understand it on more than one level. But those are also the things that are hard to define. Word of mouth really helps on that part but I’ve loathed some practitioners that others loved and vice versa. Credentials give you some guidelines but I learned over the years that there are some things you need to know about credentials.

Most modalities that are widely accepted have some sort of school or program that involves lots and lots of hours of classes and lots of hours (usually somewhere in the hundreds) of clinical practice in order to complete the requirements and become certified. And some of them have more than one level of certification (CranioSacral has something like five levels plus some specialty courses). Many also have week long or weekend workshops in which some piece of the modality is taught. And it turns out that lots of people will take one week or a weekend and start putting “CranioSacral therapist” or “neuromuscular therapist”, etc. on their business cards and other materials. So you have to ask some questions or do some research if you want to know the true qualifications of a practitioner and whether he or she is really certified in the technique you want.

Some schools, like Upledger Institute, have an on line listing of practitioners that also tells you what levels the person has been certified in (although it only works if they’ve gotten all their CranioSacral training at Upledger; anyone who has been trained in some levels or courses by a CranioSacral teacher somewhere else will not have all their credentials shown on that site. Sometimes you can tell by looking at the credentials they’ve put on the wall of the office– generally the only healing modalities in which they’re officially certified will be seen in certificates on the wall.

For me it has always been some mix of what modality I am drawn toward and/or which practitioner seems right and then I’ll look a bit at what the person’s background is and whether they’re certified and, if so, at what level. My advice is really trust your gut and then also do some research. And if, after carefully choosing, you don’t like the person or don’t feel good about the treatment, don’t be afraid to move on.

I’ve been blessed to have some great practitioners from acupuncture to massage to CranioSacral, etc. and their assistance in my healing process has been invaluable. I’ve also here and there gone to someone who just really didn’t suit me or whose “bedside manner” ruined the excellence of their treatments and sometimes I stuck it out too long. Particularly with alternative health practitioners I think you really have to take charge of your own process.

* When I moved to Lexington there were not a lot of practitioners around and for many modalities there was only one choice and yet the people I found here have been some of the best practitioners ever and I’ve had great success with their help, so small numbers doesn’t have to mean that you don’t have a great choice awaiting.

Related articles

• The unwinding head saga (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)
• How was CranioSacral Therapy Developed? (bowentherapyrd.wordpress.com)
• Healing Journey Monday: Pineal Gland and Sphenoid Issues (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)

Transcendent or spiritually human?

I didn’t get as much opportunity to hang out contemplating my spiritual path as I’d hoped while in Marin, but I managed to do a bit. A long conversation with a dear friend clarified a few things. At a key point in our talk, we realized that her desire for her spiritual journey is to”not be here”–in the sense of moving to that expanded space where the self disappears—while my desire in spiritual life is to be me with a stronger connection to my divine essence.  The way we see it most people lean toward one or the other (with variations on the themes).

Now a long argument could be made that the two places are the same and/or that spiritual practices will lead to the same place regardless of your goal. I don’t completely disagree as I think a lot of arguing over spiritual matters is really a war of words rather than concepts. But I also think a lot of traditions divide along the same lines, some being more about transcending the physical and others being about creating a bigger version of your human self. And I think that generally speaking it helps if you know which of the two goals suits you and then to choose the tradition and/or practices that align with your goal.

Part of the reason my eclectic path has contained some confusion is that I’ve studied traditions on both sides of that line and I find that they don’t mesh that well, at least not for me. It feels so much better just to have seen so clearly what I’m aiming for (we can talk another day about whether aims or goals are OK…). A friend who’s great at right listening is a wonderful gift.

Do you know what your spiritual goal is? Are you following a path that aligns with your goal?

Related articles

• Straddling two blogs… (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)
• Pondering my philosophy (bluegrassnotes.wordpress.com)

Ritual

Ritual used to bore me. I couldn’t see the point, had no comprehension of why it might be important. As I came to understand mindfulness and focusing energy, I started to realize that in spiritual matters ritual serves the purpose of bringing your attention to the sacred goal of what you’re doing.

I think too often the ritual becomes so routinized that it loses feeling and meaning and becomes boring and that’s how a lot of ritual seemed to me. It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the stole or robe that must be worn and/or the way the altar must be set up and/or the kind of flowers that must be placed in a certain spot that people forget that all those things were just there to serve as reminders of the sacred; they aren’t the sacred thing itself. All too often the need for the exact stuff and the precise order of events eventually trumps the meaning of the rite.

I’ve learned to remind myself that the precise steps and the things like altar objects or the clothes don’t matter as much as my ability to bring my mind into the deeper meaning of the ceremony. When I cast a circle I use the stones I collected for my medicine wheel when studying with a Hopi teacher. I don’t put the stones down in the order of the wheel and the wheel isn’t exactly the same thing as the circle created in Wiccan ritual but the laying down of the circle for me is the act of creating a sacred space in which to meditate or say an affirmation or the words of a spell. As long as I allow the circle to focus my mind on the sacred purpose, to me the exact composition of the circle doesn’t matter.

Sometimes on the way to that understanding I think it serves a purpose to follow a ritual as it has been laid down, especially because your belief and focus on its power is often greater when you follow what you’ve been taught by a master. But ultimately once you’ve learned how to move your mind into sacred space I think you can create your own ritual and allow what you’ve designed help you to focus.

This is for ABC Wednesday, which is “R” this time.

Healing Journey Monday: Working with energy

This is yet another one I posted a long time ago.  It’s been on my mind lately since I’ve reached a place where I’m really seeing the good results of sticking with this plan.  I’ve tweaked this new version a bit as well.

A few years ago — 20 some years into struggling with chronic fatigue and the twisted muscles issue — I hit a new phase in understanding the “energy-ness” of being (see previous post).  It occurred to me that maybe instead of massages and acupuncture and supplements, etc. that work on specific physical aspects,  if I worked on balancing and raising energy I might have more success. Since a good flow of prana through a body that is balanced is a key aspect of good health, it seemed that energy practices could take me there.

I reviewed the many practices I’d learned over 20+ years of workshops and classes and chose three:  (1) the Eight Key Breaths; (2) the Five Tibetan Rites; and (3) Flying Crane Chi Gung.  I picked the Key Breaths because they build a strong energy — enough to start pushing open closed spaces — and they raise vibrational level too.  The Five Tibetan Rites are very balancing and they address the endocrine system which has been one of my major problem areas.  Flying Crane Chi Gung also balances energy, but specifically it — like other forms of Chi Gung and Tai Chi, etc. — builds chi, or prana.

About four years ago I began doing those three practices.  The Key Breaths I’ve done pretty faithfully every day.  With the Rites and Flying Crane I often did one or the other every day but I tried to do all three practices.  What a difference!   In fairness, over this period I was also regularly practicing the routines I’ve designed (and been teaching) combining triggers of release from Robert Masters’ Psychophysical Method with traditional yoga and receiving amazing Body Patterning treatments, both of which are clearly contributors. Recently I’ve gotten into Ravi Singh’s Kundalini yoga and I find the yoga done to breath of fire creates a lot of energy and balance.

Over the years I found that all three balance but the feeling tone of each is different and I really like the overall effect produced by doing them all.  It’s hard for me to put in words because it’s more something I feel, but the key breaths build a huge energy and the movements move it throughout the body so there’s an energized sense of balance.  The rites feel like they literally balance my body.  Flying Crane Chi Gung creates a beautiful flow of energy evenly throughout my body.

The process of healing until the point that I began these practices had been incredibly slow and it sped up amazingly in these last few years.  I give a huge amount of credit to the effects of the energy changing practices.  As my muscles return to normal I’m much more able to feel nuances of what the practices do and I feel their power ever more.  I can feel the powerful force of the Key Breaths pushing on blocked places.  I can feel how much my chi has improved.  I can feel the balancing effects of each practice and that there are subtle differences in each.  I’ll never know how things would have gone without the Body Patterning and the triggers of release, but  I think that building and balancing the energy changed everything.
See also http://www.scribd.com/doc/249007/Ti-Bet-an-Exercises