For the past two years I’ve devoured Louise Fletcher’s free online art course.
This year she says she got hit by a lightening bolt instructing her to create all new content. She tried to negotiate, but failed, claiming the bolt to be a “harsh mistress”.
It sounds like her muse and mine are cut from the same cloth. There’s no arguing with a lighting bolt. (Trust me, I’ve tried. 😆)
This makes me even more eager to join this year’s series of classes.
I don’t know how to paint. Not really. But I sure do enjoy putting color and shapes on paper and seeing how it turns out!
Creative expression is a fantastic way to alchemize emotions and drop into the moment. Pleasure and joy are tremendous medicine for many ailments. They all open us up to the flow of life-force energy.
If you think that sounds great but don’t know how to begin, I highly recommend signing up for the Creative Reset. What do you have to lose but inhibition, self-doubt and fear?
Louise Fletcher, lovely human being and art teacher
For the past two years I’ve devoured Louise Fletcher’s free online art course. This year she…
Maybe you’ve heard about the amazing health benefits of ginger. It’s been shown to support better digestion and decrease inflammation.
Yes please!
To get the rewards though, you need to be consistent with your efforts. A client tells me she eats lots of ginger because they get Indian takeout every week. While that is no doubt delicious, it’s far from medicinal.
Fresh is more effective than dried. So even sprinkling some powder on every meal will have questionable results.
What about prepackaged teabags? Meh. It’s pretty weak, most likely pretty old, and don’t get me started on the bag itself. Why are they shiny? Plastic. Hard pass!
If you’ve ever bought fresh ginger with good intentions only to throw it out a few months later when it’s all shriveled up, I get it.
It’s shaped weird. Why can’t it just be smooth and … organized? It’s all lumpy and chaotic.
Well, for starters, it’s a root. That’s what roots do.
But it doesn’t have to be as complicated as you might think.
First of all, you don’t need to peel it. Whew! I give it a good scrub with a vegetable brush under cold running water.
You don’t have to grate it either. Pu-lease! After massaging people all day, the last thing I want or my arms and hands need is intensive kitchen labor. And I could go the rest of my life without ever cleaning the grater again and be quite happy.
I slice it thinly. Easy peasy.
You don’t even have to simmer it on the stove if you have an Instant Pot. (btw consider getting one if you don’t! I use mine several times a week.)
The problem with simmering is you need to keep an eye on it, adjusting the temperature, making sure it doesn’t boil over or boil dry. I don’t have the energy for babysitting my tea.
But you can pop it in the IP, pressure cook it on high for 12 minutes, and enjoy tea for days.
I like to make my extra spicy and use it as a concentrate. I fill up half my mug with the ginger juice and top it off with hot filtered water. Voila!
The day that I finish the last drop, I start a new batch. It’s become second nature and now I almost always have some on hand. If it’s there, I’ll gladly drink a cup or two every day.
I’m all for healthy living, but it has to be simple and doable if I’m going to keep it up. This is my latest shortcut victory. What’s yours?
Maybe you’ve heard about the amazing health benefits of ginger. It’s been shown to support better…
I saw this question raised online last week. A woman was inquiring about the dreadful statistics of Americans given that everyone she asks claims to eat healthfully.
It really got me thinking about the state of the world in which people try their best to look after themselves and fail.
Unsurprisingly, I have a lot to say about this!
In fact, I could probably write a book about my thoughts on this subject. I don’t have the energy to do that as I spend some much time on cultivating my own health. But as I pondered, two key factors have floated up to the top of my list of key offenders.
One. Chronic stress. Stress is normalized, even celebrated in our culture. It’s normal for people to spend more than half of their waking hours in a toxic work environment. The more you work, the busier you are, the more stress you have, the better. That’s the upside-down message we receive in this crazy society.
This is not healthy! If this describes your everyday reality, know that you’re going to need to take action to mitigate the effects of chronic stress by learning to regulate your nervous system and/or metabolize the physiological impact of being chronically disregulated.
We now know the damaging effects of a constant cortisol drip, but for many of us, there doesn’t seem to be an alternative. The system is rigged against us. Dropouts, misfits, and revolutionaries are able to escape this insanity, but you need to be a risk-taker to go this route.
Two. We’ve lost touch with our inner wisdom and turn to external “experts” for strategies about health. With so many doctors being specialists in one narrow corner of medicine, few have the big picture of wellness in mind. If you’re lucky enough to be able to afford a functional medicine doctor or homeopath, you’re still having to battle uphill against societal norms.
So often I hear people talking about their “healthy choices” and feel surprised at what they consider to be healthy. Low fat? Low carb? There’s so much conflicting information out there. So many of our strategies are influenced by advertisements sneakily disguised and normalized by repetition.
Milk- it does a body good. Remember this campaign from the 80’s? It an advertisement paid for by the dairy council! Milk may or may not be good for your body- we’re all different. But that isn’t a catchy slogan that people will recall for decades.
Trident- it’s what 2 out of 3 dentists recommend for their patients who chew gum. Another ad from my childhood. It sounds like dentists are promoting sugar-free gum, right? But I don’t think any dentist suggests chewing gum. They are definitely opposed to sugar-laden gum like good-ole Hubba Bubba, but I can’t see that any are promoting gum itself.
And 2 out of 3? Not out of every dentist, just those surveyed. Do you think that Trident was careful in its selection of dentists to survey? Yeah.
I don’t remember much from my college days, but I took Statistics and the professor spelled out all the different ways you can lie with numbers by carefully crafting statements to reflect the preferred outcome.
We’ve been overtly and covertly influenced by information that is designed to mislead us, to make us feed bad about ourselves, to believe that if we just purchase this or that, all will be well. But capitalism is about selling stuff, not creating wellness, and there’s a heck of a lot more purchasing going on by people who want to be well than by people who are well.
Ok, one more reason I can’t ignore.
Three. Our food supply is full of crap. We tinker with the genetic material of plants in a lab. If that doesn’t freak you out, one of the reasons for this tinkering is to make plants strong enough to survive a chemical pesticide that is so deadly, it would kill the plant otherwise. Then those plants are manufactured into “food”, along with residue of that toxic chemical.
Yum.
Labels are deliberately misleading. Recipes are engineered to be super-addictive so people buy more and more and more.
The whole system is whacked.
If you’re struggling with health despite doing your best, it’s not your fault. Billions of dollars are invested to fool you.
Please don’t despair! That’s not good for your health either. The situation isn’t hopeless. I wouldn’t be writing this post just to leave you feeling depressed.
Reiki can help.
It can help relieve stress, detoxify your body, and amplify your connection to your inner wisdom, clarity, motivation and intuition. Every day it helps me figure out my priorities and move in the direction I want to go.
It’s not your fault that this world is so unhealthy. But if you want to have a different experience than the one you’ve been having, it is your responsibility to do something different. That could mean changing your job, shopping at a farmers market and preparing more of your meals at home, or working with a naturopath.
Or schedule a Reiki session for yourself once or twice each month to build up your life-force energy and manage your stress. You don’t even need to go anywhere- distance treatments can be received from wherever you are with very little effort. Just click a few buttons, share your goals, and sit back to soak it all up.
I saw this question raised online last week. A woman was inquiring about the dreadful statistics…
Interested in giving yourself daily infusions of spiritually-guided life-force energy?
It’s so easy to learn!
Anyone can gain full-time, forever access to Reiki healing energy with minimum investment of time and money.
It’s the most affordable way I know to get consistent treatment for physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and energetic issues.
Chronic pain, anxiety, depression, fatigue, digestive issues, fertility issues, sleep challenges, focus, creativity, peace, joy and freedom are some of the myriad goals it can be used for.
I know because I’ve done exactly that every day for 21 years. And IT’S WORKING!!
Reiki is an ancient healing technique that uses universal life-force energy to cultivate body-mind-spirit balance, stimulate the relaxation response, and relieve stress and tension.
It’s a seemingly magical reset that helps all systems come back online and integrate for maximum wellness.
I’m offering a Reiki 1 certification training, the starting point for those who want to learn how to treat themselves and their loved ones.
We begin on Thursday, October 17th at 6pm in my Mt. Airy (neighborhood of Philadelphia) studio.
This can be the beginning of a new phase in your life if you commit to blending Reiki into your life.
Interested in giving yourself daily infusions of spiritually-guided life-force energy? It’s so easy to learn! Anyone…
As we come to the end of 2024, I’m hearing a lot of talk about discovering one’s purpose for the new year.
This is causing a lot of stress to some people.
Just so you know, if you don’t have a clear directive as to what your life purpose is, you’re not alone. I don’t know many people who do! My nephew wants to be an astronaut and for several years, his sister wanted to be a dog. Most of the adults I know are much less certain.
If you’re wondering what your purpose in this lifetime is, I have a suggestion. Think about how you want to feel as you go throughout your days rather than a particular role you think you should play. In my eyes, purpose is much less about a career, and more about the qualities we bring to our everyday activities.
You don’t need to figure out if you’re supposed to be a doctor or rockstar or teacher or… a dog. ❤ But it might be nice to make a commitment to being patient or compassionate, perhaps a good listener, nonjudgmental or an all-around kind person.
My current purpose seems to be standing for self-empowerment, particularly regarding holistic wellness. Being a massage and Reiki provider is indeed part of that, but only just a part.
When I’m off the clock, it’s still my intention to take inspired action and cultivate the most physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and energetic health available to me and to model that to others. It’s a large part of my lifestyle and conversations as well as my business. I endeavor to embody the essence of self-empowerment and wellness, regardless of what I’m doing.
So rather than stressing out and taking all the online quizzes about what you want to be when you grow up, you might find some relief in thinking about how you’d like to feel today and taking a step in that direction.
As we come to the end of 2024, I’m hearing a lot of talk about discovering…
ohmygosh! I just found this article buried in my files. I wrote it four or five years ago while serving on the Health and Wellness Committee at my local food co-op. I have since learned that my personality is not a good match for committee work, but still the words I wrote then ring true today.
Cultivating Wellness
Just as we all have our own gifts to share with the world, we each have a unique recipe for cultivating our own wellness. There are countless paths to choose from. While it may seem like an impossible feat, every action taken towards wellness brings us closer to our goal. If we are willing to pay attention, our bodies make requests for the nutrition, movement, rest, connection, and pleasure they require. Sometimes these requests arrive as symptoms informing us of having lost our way.
As an adolescent, I suffered from low back pain that ranged from uncomfortable to debilitating. It interfered on a daily basis with my activities, and looking back it was one of the best things that ever happened to me! It may sound absurd, but this seeming tragedy changed the trajectory of my life in a dramatic way that led to tremendous growth. When western medicine was unable to help me, I sought out alternatives. I began to understand that wellness was something that I could cultivate with my behavior and thoughts.
Understanding health as more than just the absence of major disease, I began to explore techniques that would improve my comfort and vitality. I discovered the joys of yoga, affirmations, and meditation. I soon realized that spending an hour in the morning practicing self-care set me up for feeling centered and energized throughout the day. I became interested in nutrition, the concept of food as medicine, and an anti-inflammatory diet. I enjoyed so many benefits from receiving bodywork that I went on to study massage and Reiki.
I’ve noticed that choosing activities which bring me joy are easily incorporated into my daily routine. Those that I think I should do but dread have no staying power. I’ve experimented with a wide variety of wellness therapies over the past two decades and have learned that will power is limited, but devotion to fun, harmony, balance, freedom, and vitality comes easily. Just as symptoms alert us when we have strayed from our wellness path, joy points us in the right direction.
Over time my back pain dissipated and now occurs as a message from my body that something is out of balance. When I feel that first twinge of discomfort, I’ve learned to slow down and check in with my thoughts, words, and actions. Where am I not honoring myself, my values, my health, or my intentions? How can I take better care of myself? Rather than ignoring or suppressing this valuable clue, I investigate it as an effect pointing me toward an unhealthy cause.
Remember the Chinese proverb, “A thousand mile journey begins with just one step.” Why not begin today?
ohmygosh! I just found this article buried in my files. I wrote it four or five…
Feeling tense, frazzled, stressed, anxious or overwhelmed? Utilize the body-mind connection to upgrade your internal chemistry.
1. Stop doomscrolling. You can always come back later. Nothing has changed in months anyway, it won’t hurt to take a break.
2. Decide you want to feel better.
3. Take action.
Today I used Pandora Radio as an Oracle. What music will help me lift my vibration? When everything seems to be going wrong, music is the perfect remedy.
I offer this song that got me moving and endorphins flowing. If you need some relief, it might help you too. Get your groove on and let the mind go quiet. You might need to purge some thoughts first, preferably in a journal where they won’t cause any damage but can be released from your head, where they can also cause damage.
Feeling tense, frazzled, stressed, anxious or overwhelmed? Utilize the body-mind connection to upgrade your internal chemistry.…
Teaching Reiki is one of my absolute favorite things. It’s up there with chocolate, laughing, books, and trees. It’s a true joy to introduce students to this magical practice and help empower them to participate in building their own health, happiness, and creativity.
Reiki is a holistic technique that stimulates the body’s innate healing abilities by activating the relaxation response. It balances body, mind, and spirit, integrating and harmonizing all aspects of ourselves for greater wellbeing. It can be used to reduce stress, tension, anxiety, and pain and to promote digestion, sleep, immune system function, detoxification, and recovery from illness, injury, and medical procedures. What many people don’t know is that it can also be used to align folks with their goals and release limiting beliefs that get in the way.
Over the years, I’ve used Reiki for critters, plants, food, finding parking spots, electronics, and finances. Actually, it would probably be easier to list the things that I haven’t Reiki’ed! That would be a short list: people who don’t want to receive it for whatever reason, and … well… I guess that’s about it.
Sharing this gift with people who want to optimize their wellness, joy, peace, pleasure, comfort, and productivity makes my heart sing. I get a wonderful Reiki buzz just thinking about it! Which is why I’m super-excited to announce some upcoming online classes.
I’m offering Reiki 1 & 2 Certifications, back-to-back, on Wednesday evenings beginning in September. Reiki 1 is the starting point; no experience or special skills are necessary. It’s possible to follow up immediately with level 2 training for those who are feeling the pull. Some people prefer to pause in between. Anyone who has taken a level 1 training before, even with another teacher, is eligible for my level 2 class.
I’ve also crafted a 3-hour Reiki for Self-Carecourse, distilling the most essential material for those who are only interested in treating themselves. This is the simplest and most affordable route for being able to access powerful healing energy at will.
I particularly enjoy the personal interaction of teaching, so I keep classes small to personalize the content and answer all the questions. Over the years I’ve learned that breaking a workshop into several segments helps students to digest and retain information. Recently I’ve really come to appreciate the online format, as it allows for greater comfort and convenience for everyone. I’ve put a lot of energy into maximizing class structure for your benefit. You just need to show up with an open mind; I’ll do the rest.
Learning to use Reiki for myself, as well as my clients, nearly 20 years ago massively shifted the trajectory of my life. Getting in touch with my calling and finding the courage and motivation to follow my own path has empowered me in ways I never could have imagined before I began. I want everyone to have the same opportunity to do so! You can find details here. I’m offering an early bird special, so have a peek soon if you’re interested.
Teaching Reiki is one of my absolute favorite things. It’s up there with chocolate, laughing, books,…
During a recent guided meditation, the facilitator shared the 5 Reiki Principles for us to contemplate. I realized that they are universal guidelines for all people, practitioners and non-practitioners alike, who desire to cultivate more happiness, peace, and wellness.
I especially like the version that she shared. While we have access to the original material written by Usui Sensei, the founder of the Reiki system of healing that is most widely known today, translations vary greatly. I’m guessing it’s not easy to transform Japanese, a complex and highly nuanced language, into meaningful text while accounting for vast cultural differences and the passing of 100 years!
In case you’re interested in being more happy, peaceful, and well, I’ll share the principles here.
Just for today, I will not be angry.
Just for today, I will not worry.
Just for today, I will do my work honestly.
Just for today, I will give thanks for my many blessings.
Just for today, I will be kind to my neighbor and every living thing.
I so appreciate the simplicity of committing “just for today”. That seems very doable! Tomorrow you can go back to being angry or worrying if you want, but I suspect that the benefits you reap might convince you otherwise!
Notice the first line says that I will not “be” angry. In my mind, there is a difference between “getting” angry, and allowing the emotion to flow and dissipate, and “being” angry, as in stuck or attached to it. I might suggest “I will not hold on to anger” as an alternative if that seems useful.
How in the world can we not worry? Perhaps it’s easier if we define worry as obsessively thinking about things we cannot control. It’s not helpful! Nor healthy. And very different from paying attention to what’s going on, taking the necessary steps to protect yourself, and making plans for things you are unable to affect now, but might in the future. If you can’t exert any influence over it, dwelling and wallowing will only weaken your life-force energy and subsequently, your immune system.
I want to point out that “work” here refers to any activity that you offer in your home or community that benefits yourself or any other. It need not be a paying job, but that is included as well. Whatever you’re doing, make a choice to do your best and be honest- especially with yourself.
Giving thanks for blessings is a wonderful practice for connecting to Spirit and attracting more things for which you can be grateful. Our brains developed over the millennia to notice problems as a way of surviving. Even though we’re no longer in danger of becoming lunch for a saber-toothed tiger, our default thinking is still negatively biased. Rick Hanson, meditation teacher and neuropsychologist says, “The mind is like Velcro for negative experiences, and Teflon for positive ones.” We have to make an effort to be aware of the blessings but it gets easier with practice.
As the facilitator read the final line about being kind to neighbors, mine were hammering on our shared wall. How curious! It reminded me that there are consequences to thoughts as well as actions, and putting out annoyed vibes is not an act of kindness. It was a lovely opportunity to exchange irritation for acceptance, and remember that I am also sometimes noisy. The neighbors probably don’t love it when I turn up disco music while bouncing on my rebounder!
While these words were written a long time ago in an immensely different world, there is much wisdom that can be gleaned from them. Even if you have no interest in learning Reiki, you can still benefit from contemplating how and why you might apply these principles in your daily life. Each and every effort will bring its own rewards in the form of greater happiness, peace, and wellness.
Luminous Heart Reiki & Massage 