Join us for a free healing Saturday, August 13th at the
Be Yoga Studio
(formerly Sangati Healing Arts)
2205 Park Road
Charlotte, NC 28203
Email me for an appointment:
anne@ourplaceintheuniverse.com
Friday, August 5, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Healing Wave Update
Well, the Healing Day in Charlotte was booked solid, with the overflow booking almost all of the next one in August! Also, look forward to news of upcoming workshops in Energy Healing at the BeYoga studio in the next couple of months.
Meanwhile, the next Healing Wave is in Charlottesville, VA, Saturday, July 23rd! To follow the Healing Wave go to http://thehealingwave.blogspot.com/
Meanwhile, the next Healing Wave is in Charlottesville, VA, Saturday, July 23rd! To follow the Healing Wave go to http://thehealingwave.blogspot.com/
Friday, June 24, 2011
The Healing Wave
Purpose and Intention
As I was asking for guidance about the direction or feeling of my life’s work I received a very clear image of a wave. “Your path is a healing wave that will spread across America,” I was told. In my vision, this wave would initially bring Brennan students and graduates together in a consistent pattern and frequency, a life pulse, to offer education and healing to those in need, following a course across the United States. The next night the guides returned and told me I should start this project now. I said, “No way.” I did agree though, to do an East Coast Wave for my 3rd year Art Project starting last January, 2011.
What I envisioned was a wave consisting of five cities, five months, with five days of healing. Choosing a Sunday of each month, from January through May, we would start in Vermont, and go on to New York, Washington DC, North Carolina and end up in Florida. Sunday afternoon was chosen as a quiet time for many, and the states were chosen because of the students in my year who live there and had agreed to help me in this creation.
The purpose and intention of this wave of healing is to create a pattern of vibration. This vibration, upwelling from those of us who are already joined through the Community of Heart created by the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, would initially help connect the sacred space of practices already existing in the area, strengthening and bonding them. It would then begin to spread from city to city down the east coast and radiate out on the left into the Atlantic Ocean, and on the right into the rest of the country as preparation for next year.
Beginning with people we wee already acquainted with, our clients, friends and family, the container of healing generated by this wave would assist in their education and support, and become a point of referral for others associated with those we love and work with. Eventually, I can envision working in conjunction with other healing modalities and with those who may not have the resources for or access to healing.
This Healing Wave was an enormous success, and has subsequently taken on a life of its own, generating a second round of Healing Days in each state. Stay tuned for more information, as I begin my 4th year project to take the Wave across America and Beyond!
As I was asking for guidance about the direction or feeling of my life’s work I received a very clear image of a wave. “Your path is a healing wave that will spread across America,” I was told. In my vision, this wave would initially bring Brennan students and graduates together in a consistent pattern and frequency, a life pulse, to offer education and healing to those in need, following a course across the United States. The next night the guides returned and told me I should start this project now. I said, “No way.” I did agree though, to do an East Coast Wave for my 3rd year Art Project starting last January, 2011.
What I envisioned was a wave consisting of five cities, five months, with five days of healing. Choosing a Sunday of each month, from January through May, we would start in Vermont, and go on to New York, Washington DC, North Carolina and end up in Florida. Sunday afternoon was chosen as a quiet time for many, and the states were chosen because of the students in my year who live there and had agreed to help me in this creation.
The purpose and intention of this wave of healing is to create a pattern of vibration. This vibration, upwelling from those of us who are already joined through the Community of Heart created by the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, would initially help connect the sacred space of practices already existing in the area, strengthening and bonding them. It would then begin to spread from city to city down the east coast and radiate out on the left into the Atlantic Ocean, and on the right into the rest of the country as preparation for next year.
Beginning with people we wee already acquainted with, our clients, friends and family, the container of healing generated by this wave would assist in their education and support, and become a point of referral for others associated with those we love and work with. Eventually, I can envision working in conjunction with other healing modalities and with those who may not have the resources for or access to healing.
This Healing Wave was an enormous success, and has subsequently taken on a life of its own, generating a second round of Healing Days in each state. Stay tuned for more information, as I begin my 4th year project to take the Wave across America and Beyond!
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Life is serious.
Life is serious. That has been my premise for 56 years. It takes hard work and responsibility. “Diligence enhances”: that has been our family motto for generations. To be successful, gosh, even to be loved and appreciated, to be valued one must work hard and prove one’s self.
It’s a fight. That has been my hook for 56 years. I must fight to prove myself, to change and grow. My goodness, I must fight just to survive, and fight harder to get ahead.
One day it hit me: I don’t want to get ahead. I’ve been operating from my head all of my life. Now I want to get a heart. It’s not like I didn’t have a heart before. I recognize that I am a very kind, loving individual. However, when the going gets tough, the tough close their hearts and try to figure it out. If that doesn’t work, you fight.
See, even when I was getting a head, I was fighting. One day I was doing a healing exercise. The only thing I had to do was to remain present. Since I like presents, I had no problem just sitting there and being with the other person. Afterwards, that person thanked me for being so present. That was all it took to open her heart to healing.
No fighting involved. No thinking involved. Hmm, what seems to be missing here is balance. To be truly present, I must become balanced: intellect, emotion and will. To get rid of this hook of the seriousness of life that requires me to fight to survive, I must be present to the wonder and enchantment of life.
This happens when curiosity overtakes the firm grip control has on my life. When I awaken to the experience, I realize there is an expectation, not for perfection—a perfect job, a perfect score—but an expectation of more to come. Being present means that I am aware. Being aware means that I am conscious. Being conscious means that I am creating my own life and destiny. That is a responsibility that I want to embrace with imagination and originality.
Unearthing a consciousness of being, who I am, at this moment, and allowing it to be enough is all that is needed. In being now, there is no fight to understand how to do it right, how to take responsibility. Exploring with optimism replaces the fear that the more I learn, the more I will be responsible for, the more I will have to prove.
Just being, replaces the need to fight to prove myself, even the need to fight for myself—because I already Am. I have been led all of my life—fearful of taking that responsibility on myself. It wasn’t really the partnership that I imagined, but more of an immaturity that kept me at arm’s length for fear of failure.
In balance there is no need to fight. A partnership with the Beloved requires this balance—a maturity of intellect, emotion and will that allows Divine intervention and grace, but with complete understanding that this is my life, and I am conscious of the decisions and choices that I make, and therefore responsible for them. This is how being led becomes gold.
This is not a heavy burden, for, as Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light! The yoke was on me the whole time! Gibran had it right when he wrote that your joy is your sorrow unmasked. Behind the fighting, behind the seriousness, behind the “I have to get this right and perfect”, is the joy and wonder of creating a beautiful, delightful life.
During this time of transition, during this time when, as a species, we are becoming more conscious, more aware of our responsibility, when we are becoming more mature in our actions, let’s not get ahead; let’s not get serious about the problems and difficulties of our times. Let’s not let fear be our guiding force—fear of destruction or damnation.
Holding on, digging in, fighting produces a stagnant energy that does not flow or change or evolve. Evolution means taking that hook and rather than bating it, abating it! We are being handed the keys to the kingdom. Let us receive them with love, gratitude and support for all of creation around us, which has loved, supported and shown us the way to flow since its inception.
Let us become excited to create a partnership with the Beloved, as well as with each other, while taking responsibility for our own lives and decisions and heart growth. And since the purpose of life is joy, then if that serious, “I’ve got to fight to get a head” attitude is not producing laughter, perhaps the secret, as I have discovered for myself, is to let go, and know in the face of reality that the only answer is Yes.
It’s a fight. That has been my hook for 56 years. I must fight to prove myself, to change and grow. My goodness, I must fight just to survive, and fight harder to get ahead.
One day it hit me: I don’t want to get ahead. I’ve been operating from my head all of my life. Now I want to get a heart. It’s not like I didn’t have a heart before. I recognize that I am a very kind, loving individual. However, when the going gets tough, the tough close their hearts and try to figure it out. If that doesn’t work, you fight.
See, even when I was getting a head, I was fighting. One day I was doing a healing exercise. The only thing I had to do was to remain present. Since I like presents, I had no problem just sitting there and being with the other person. Afterwards, that person thanked me for being so present. That was all it took to open her heart to healing.
No fighting involved. No thinking involved. Hmm, what seems to be missing here is balance. To be truly present, I must become balanced: intellect, emotion and will. To get rid of this hook of the seriousness of life that requires me to fight to survive, I must be present to the wonder and enchantment of life.
This happens when curiosity overtakes the firm grip control has on my life. When I awaken to the experience, I realize there is an expectation, not for perfection—a perfect job, a perfect score—but an expectation of more to come. Being present means that I am aware. Being aware means that I am conscious. Being conscious means that I am creating my own life and destiny. That is a responsibility that I want to embrace with imagination and originality.
Unearthing a consciousness of being, who I am, at this moment, and allowing it to be enough is all that is needed. In being now, there is no fight to understand how to do it right, how to take responsibility. Exploring with optimism replaces the fear that the more I learn, the more I will be responsible for, the more I will have to prove.
Just being, replaces the need to fight to prove myself, even the need to fight for myself—because I already Am. I have been led all of my life—fearful of taking that responsibility on myself. It wasn’t really the partnership that I imagined, but more of an immaturity that kept me at arm’s length for fear of failure.
In balance there is no need to fight. A partnership with the Beloved requires this balance—a maturity of intellect, emotion and will that allows Divine intervention and grace, but with complete understanding that this is my life, and I am conscious of the decisions and choices that I make, and therefore responsible for them. This is how being led becomes gold.
This is not a heavy burden, for, as Jesus said, my yoke is easy and my burden is light! The yoke was on me the whole time! Gibran had it right when he wrote that your joy is your sorrow unmasked. Behind the fighting, behind the seriousness, behind the “I have to get this right and perfect”, is the joy and wonder of creating a beautiful, delightful life.
During this time of transition, during this time when, as a species, we are becoming more conscious, more aware of our responsibility, when we are becoming more mature in our actions, let’s not get ahead; let’s not get serious about the problems and difficulties of our times. Let’s not let fear be our guiding force—fear of destruction or damnation.
Holding on, digging in, fighting produces a stagnant energy that does not flow or change or evolve. Evolution means taking that hook and rather than bating it, abating it! We are being handed the keys to the kingdom. Let us receive them with love, gratitude and support for all of creation around us, which has loved, supported and shown us the way to flow since its inception.
Let us become excited to create a partnership with the Beloved, as well as with each other, while taking responsibility for our own lives and decisions and heart growth. And since the purpose of life is joy, then if that serious, “I’ve got to fight to get a head” attitude is not producing laughter, perhaps the secret, as I have discovered for myself, is to let go, and know in the face of reality that the only answer is Yes.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
The Stillness Within (Part 2)
Jeremy Taylor writes in Where People Fly and Water Runs Uphill, “All dreams reflect society as a whole, as well as the individual dreamer’s relationship to it.” In America, we have entered a time symbolized by the expansion of a fast and furious existence that is lived on the fast track, that is reflected in our entertainment, our fast talking “got to have it now” sales pitch for consumerism, along with a fast food life that we are living in the fast lane even in our leisure moments. But the world does not operate at such a rate.
The slow, methodical growth, evolution and change that is the pattern of life is being disrupted, leading to the dis-ease of society as a whole, and America in particular. Our dis-ease may well be reflected in the difficulty that we have had in going from a state of the “individual” to that of “individuation”, from a selfish narcissism intent on a blind rebellion that mimics the flight of the lemming, to an expanded self whose aim is to uncover individual gifts and development that benefit the whole.
It would reflect the difficulty in America’s challenge to evolve our “melting pot” culture into the beautiful tapestry that is created when creative energies are connected through the web of life. As in my dream, our landscape is radically changing. The expansion is reaching its peak. The stillness is about to commence, has already begun with many individuals seeking that still spot in green living, spirit-oriented practices, community service, healthy eating and ecumenism.
This relationship with stillness, a time of setting an intention before going within, is also reflected in a growing understanding of the role of dreams in American society. The current psycho-social-ecological trend allows the “universal language” of dreams to speak volumes to our present generation and describes the unfolding creativity of self and the interconnective resourcefulness of Self and Other that we find increasingly present in the current generations of Americans who are taking the time to stop, look and listen to a more internal call for health and wholeness.
In this way energy is taking form—creativity is taking shape—purposefully shaping communities and connections. More and more people are seeking alternative forms of health care that involve uncovering these energies. Perhaps America will allow the inclusion of dream work in the Wellness Centers that seem to be the next step in our health care communities.
I have just spent the summer in an intense search for my Shadow self. What I have discovered is that there is a definite connection between what I am able to accomplish and the time I am living in. This going within to discover the fullness of myself has been mirrored in my dreams.
I was in a city at night, lit by streetlamps that were reflected in the puddles at my feet. Arising in front of me were three pyramids with a light shining behind the largest that eclipsed the whole city. I traveled to this place through a tunnel on the back of a translucent blue snake, and as a pillar of light and energy rose up in front of me, I became a pillar of wind. Robert Johnson’s explanation in Owning Your Own Shadow seems to fit: “ . . . if our consciousness is sufficient, we can synthesize these warring elements and come to the all-knowing eye at the central point.”
“This represents a whole new order of consciousness . . .” With these words Johnson describes what I believe is not only my own awakening, but a pattern that I see emerging in our society as well. The roadmap is set before us every night. In the stillness, as the sun sets, and before we begin the descent into the Underworld, we must set an intention to remember our authentic self, experience the presence of the Divine and awaken to who we are and who we are becoming.
The slow, methodical growth, evolution and change that is the pattern of life is being disrupted, leading to the dis-ease of society as a whole, and America in particular. Our dis-ease may well be reflected in the difficulty that we have had in going from a state of the “individual” to that of “individuation”, from a selfish narcissism intent on a blind rebellion that mimics the flight of the lemming, to an expanded self whose aim is to uncover individual gifts and development that benefit the whole.
It would reflect the difficulty in America’s challenge to evolve our “melting pot” culture into the beautiful tapestry that is created when creative energies are connected through the web of life. As in my dream, our landscape is radically changing. The expansion is reaching its peak. The stillness is about to commence, has already begun with many individuals seeking that still spot in green living, spirit-oriented practices, community service, healthy eating and ecumenism.
This relationship with stillness, a time of setting an intention before going within, is also reflected in a growing understanding of the role of dreams in American society. The current psycho-social-ecological trend allows the “universal language” of dreams to speak volumes to our present generation and describes the unfolding creativity of self and the interconnective resourcefulness of Self and Other that we find increasingly present in the current generations of Americans who are taking the time to stop, look and listen to a more internal call for health and wholeness.
In this way energy is taking form—creativity is taking shape—purposefully shaping communities and connections. More and more people are seeking alternative forms of health care that involve uncovering these energies. Perhaps America will allow the inclusion of dream work in the Wellness Centers that seem to be the next step in our health care communities.
I have just spent the summer in an intense search for my Shadow self. What I have discovered is that there is a definite connection between what I am able to accomplish and the time I am living in. This going within to discover the fullness of myself has been mirrored in my dreams.
I was in a city at night, lit by streetlamps that were reflected in the puddles at my feet. Arising in front of me were three pyramids with a light shining behind the largest that eclipsed the whole city. I traveled to this place through a tunnel on the back of a translucent blue snake, and as a pillar of light and energy rose up in front of me, I became a pillar of wind. Robert Johnson’s explanation in Owning Your Own Shadow seems to fit: “ . . . if our consciousness is sufficient, we can synthesize these warring elements and come to the all-knowing eye at the central point.”
“This represents a whole new order of consciousness . . .” With these words Johnson describes what I believe is not only my own awakening, but a pattern that I see emerging in our society as well. The roadmap is set before us every night. In the stillness, as the sun sets, and before we begin the descent into the Underworld, we must set an intention to remember our authentic self, experience the presence of the Divine and awaken to who we are and who we are becoming.
Friday, September 18, 2009
The Stillness Within (Part 1)
Did you ever watch the sun go down? This fiery red-orange orb glows larger and larger, slowly descending toward the horizon. Its color spreads throughout the sky reflecting on all it touches: clouds, trees, and buildings alike, until the world itself takes on that flaming hue.
The sun hangs for an unspeakable moment—a moment when the whole world holds its breath. At this moment each being present knows that it is at the center of the universe beholding a sacred rite of passage.
To attend to this moment allows that you are Now Here. The expansion has slowed and has come to a standstill. The contraction has not yet begun. You wait with bated breath, open to the miracle of transition amid abundance. (For why would one want to change unless they were safe and secure in their affluence?)
And in their being supported. For although this sacred moment is an individual act of reverence, one stands in the midst of a world of worshipers, paying homage to the sun god who has been honored since that first rising and setting once upon a time ago.
And with the release of your breath, the orb begins to move again, slowly sinking beneath the surface of reality, offering promise of another day to come.
However, don’t miss the inviolability of this moment. This is the chance given you by the universe for self-care. This moment of stillness is the occasion when you know where you are, and you know who you are in relation to all others.
This is the moment of strength and support. You have spent the long day in preparation. You have witnessed the moment of expansion. And with this one last long breath in, you have come into the awareness of communion with the world, as well as with your uniqueness. Your soul’s purpose is laid bare at that instance of rest, in preparation to be changed and rearranged during the long dark night of the soul.
This is the time to set your intention before you sleep (perchance to dream). Before the long expelling of used up air and opportunities, the serenity of this separation allows for new visions to emerge. What plan do you have to be guided into the future? What has inspired you that can germinate into an idea of innovation and evolution?
How you will be directed by your dreams and revelations is decided in this moment of stillness before the world contracts, the sun goes down, and you are forced beneath the surface like Persephone in the underworld. Will you use this time in frantic searching like her mother, Demeter, or will you, like Hades, only see what you have at the moment and forsake any preparation or training before the approaching dawn?
Or will you, like Persephone, find the deeper meaning of your life because you allowed the stillness to pervade your being, opening up a deep hollow for the truth of your dreams to reverberate within you? And in the contraction, use the narrowing and expunging to focus your power and fine-tune your discernment so that you are ready for the exhilaration of your blooming at dawn.
These thoughts and feelings stream through me as I reflect on my own life and the dream I had last night. My front yard, in fact the whole neighborhood was being excavated, rearranged and landscaped. My friend (my self) was inside fasting and vomiting and washing, while I was successfully discovering the secret of how to ride in the elevator. I use the elevator to get to school and find my friend, concerned with her lack of self-care.
It is obvious to most that our world and our selves are in need of healing. James Hollis writes that, “We cannot heal ourselves by act of will, intellect or right conduct, but we can experience healing when we are in harmony with some great rhythm. Then we are living the symbolic life and find consonance with the universe, rather than a void.”
My dream portends a great upheaval, one that is already underway. Inside, in stillness, I am preparing myself in order to uncover the offering in my life. What are the gifts I have to offer, ones that are needed at this time in history, that serve to make the world whole?
The sun hangs for an unspeakable moment—a moment when the whole world holds its breath. At this moment each being present knows that it is at the center of the universe beholding a sacred rite of passage.
To attend to this moment allows that you are Now Here. The expansion has slowed and has come to a standstill. The contraction has not yet begun. You wait with bated breath, open to the miracle of transition amid abundance. (For why would one want to change unless they were safe and secure in their affluence?)
And in their being supported. For although this sacred moment is an individual act of reverence, one stands in the midst of a world of worshipers, paying homage to the sun god who has been honored since that first rising and setting once upon a time ago.
And with the release of your breath, the orb begins to move again, slowly sinking beneath the surface of reality, offering promise of another day to come.
However, don’t miss the inviolability of this moment. This is the chance given you by the universe for self-care. This moment of stillness is the occasion when you know where you are, and you know who you are in relation to all others.
This is the moment of strength and support. You have spent the long day in preparation. You have witnessed the moment of expansion. And with this one last long breath in, you have come into the awareness of communion with the world, as well as with your uniqueness. Your soul’s purpose is laid bare at that instance of rest, in preparation to be changed and rearranged during the long dark night of the soul.
This is the time to set your intention before you sleep (perchance to dream). Before the long expelling of used up air and opportunities, the serenity of this separation allows for new visions to emerge. What plan do you have to be guided into the future? What has inspired you that can germinate into an idea of innovation and evolution?
How you will be directed by your dreams and revelations is decided in this moment of stillness before the world contracts, the sun goes down, and you are forced beneath the surface like Persephone in the underworld. Will you use this time in frantic searching like her mother, Demeter, or will you, like Hades, only see what you have at the moment and forsake any preparation or training before the approaching dawn?
Or will you, like Persephone, find the deeper meaning of your life because you allowed the stillness to pervade your being, opening up a deep hollow for the truth of your dreams to reverberate within you? And in the contraction, use the narrowing and expunging to focus your power and fine-tune your discernment so that you are ready for the exhilaration of your blooming at dawn.
These thoughts and feelings stream through me as I reflect on my own life and the dream I had last night. My front yard, in fact the whole neighborhood was being excavated, rearranged and landscaped. My friend (my self) was inside fasting and vomiting and washing, while I was successfully discovering the secret of how to ride in the elevator. I use the elevator to get to school and find my friend, concerned with her lack of self-care.
It is obvious to most that our world and our selves are in need of healing. James Hollis writes that, “We cannot heal ourselves by act of will, intellect or right conduct, but we can experience healing when we are in harmony with some great rhythm. Then we are living the symbolic life and find consonance with the universe, rather than a void.”
My dream portends a great upheaval, one that is already underway. Inside, in stillness, I am preparing myself in order to uncover the offering in my life. What are the gifts I have to offer, ones that are needed at this time in history, that serve to make the world whole?
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