It’s All Good- and so are You!

With the latest shootings, the pandemic, job insecurity and political and societal upheaval, it looks like it’s the End Days in the U-S-of A. I’ve been waking up angry or weeping or fearful many mornings these days, searching for answers to these very pressing problems! However, I’m an optimist with faith in the inherent goodness of humanity and a few tools that I love to share with people to help them ease their suffering. Allow me to share with you my view of these times we’re experiencing.

Keep perspective: For thousands of years, people felt the world was going to hell in a handbasket (“Kids these days! In my day, my father would NEVER have allowed me to take the chariot out without first going to the Lares Familiares to pay homage to the ancestors. What is this world coming to???”) The world didn’t go to hell; instead, it contains both hell and heaven, depending on our choices. Our world society has evolved as human thought evolved to enshrine ideas that humans all over the world could pretty much agree on: everybody wants and deserves to have a roof over their head, enough food, security to live in the world without fear of violence, and the freedom to pursue that which gives them a sense of purpose. There have been some great strides in the past 150 years in the U.S. itself: protecting the weak or disadvantaged (child labor laws, animal protection laws); conserving land for habitat and recreation (the creation of our national park system); recognizing the endemic racism in this country (the beginning of intense conversations about the lives of people of color in the national and local media); and understanding the importance of mental health- that the body and mind are inextricably linked, and that a healthy body creates a healthy mind and vice versa. Yes, things have always been “screwed up” and always will be. It’s by making mistakes that we learn. The truly wise path is to look to history to recognize what didn’t work and discard it, while seeing the good and nurturing it!

Keep the faith! There are and always have been in every society a few ‘bad apples’ who create havoc and mayhem, disregarding life whether it’s human, animal or plant. Sometimes they’re citizens with access to guns of mass destruction, or perhaps they’re politicians who disregard the wishes of their constituents and instead bend to the will of powerful lobbyists. But remember: your neighbor is one of the 99.999% of people in this country who will give you a hand when you need it. Think of all the ways strangers have come to your aid in the past: helped you with a flat tire on the side of the road, or jumped your car; lent you that cup of flour or milk for your baking project. The other day as I was walking with an older friend of mine, the woman pedestrian- now in her car- who had given us directions just 10 minutes earlier pulled up beside us, rolled down her window and offered us a ride: “I was concerned that you and your mother wouldn’t make it to your destination, so I went home and got my car. Do you need a ride?” Never mind that my older companion was miffed that the woman thought she was old enough to be my mother AND thought she couldn’t walk that far(!)- I was touched by the woman’s thoughtful action. When we reach out to others, even though they may be ‘strangers’, we normalize connection between people: kindness is our true nature.

Keep your glass at least half full: When you’re depleted mentally, emotionally or physically, you will be less effective. Literally keep your faith- that which you know is true and wholesome. In Buddhism, there is the eight-fold path: right view, right resolve, right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right meditation. We received through Christianity the Golden Rule- do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. You get the idea. If you don’t follow an organized religion or philosophy, I’m betting you adhere to your own standards of conduct and connection with All That Is. Spiritual connection fills us up and gives us energy and a foundation from which to act in the world. Do the things that give you joy- even if they’re little things, like taking a walk in nature or enjoying a cup of tea. Rest and replenish your body and mind; then you’ll have the energy to have a more optimistic view. The Heart and Stroke Foundation says “A review of 15 studies with over 200,000 participants found a 35% lower chance of getting heart disease and a 14% lower chance of early death in people who were optimists.” (https://www.heartandstroke.ca/articles/how-optimism-benefits-your-health).

So what’s the thread that links these ideas? Here it is in one sentence: Change for good can be painful, but we survive and thrive when we stay rooted in our love and care for each other and for ourselves. You are amazing, as is every other human, whether you like them or not. It reminds me of a story: when my eldest child was perhaps 4 years old, she and her daddy were in the post office. She was skipping and prancing joyfully around, chanting, “The miracle you live, the miracle you die, the miracle you live, the miracle you die…” A woman standing in line asked her, “What does that mean, little girl?”, to which my wise daughter replied,

“That means you’re amazing!!“

Delving into mindfulness

Although I’ve been a practicing Buddhist for a few years, it’s only recently that I’ve really read some of the Buddhist sutras- the texts that are fundamental to Buddhist thought and philosophy, and which have been passed down over 2,500 years. Stemming from my desire to get the skinny from the Buddha’s own mouth, I’ve been reading the Long Discourses of the Buddha (the Digha Nikaya), the Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha (Majjhima Nikaya), Full Catastrophe Living by Jon Kabat-Zinn and The Awakening of the Heart by Thich Nhat Hanh. This latter book is an excellent resource for anyone who’s interested in mindfulness, the practice emphasized by the Buddha as the foundation of the path to enlightenment. Mindfulness is a buzz word these days, but who really knows what it is? Here is my understanding of mindfulness, from putting into practice what I’ve read and heard. Try out the breathing exercises and you will be on your way to Enlightenment!

Mindfulness as a concept is quite simple: it is simply knowing what you are doing while you are doing it, and then choosing whether or not we want to do that thing. Ever go into a room and not know why you went there? Chances are, your mind was off on a tangent, effectively distracting and derailing you from your purpose! Think of mindfulness as following your thoughts and actions from point A to point B, and being aware of the journey in between. In relationships we use mindfulness to be aware of our reactions and thoughts,  dealing more skillfully with our feelings in reaction to those qualities that we find difficult in others. What we need in order to practice mindfulness is a roadmap; lucky for us, the Buddha laid out the Four Foundations of Mindfulness to give us just that roadmap: Body, Feelings, Mind and Mind Objects (or Perceptions).

1- Body: Normally, we aren’t aware of our bodies, but rather spend a lot of our existence trying to ignore them. Mindfulness of Body consists of knowing what’s going on with your body- what position it is in, following your hand and arm through space as you go to grasp something, being aware of- and sitting with- pain and discomfort, etc. Sometimes, we spend more effort and time gassing up, changing the oil and polishing our cars than we spend being truly aware of our life vehicle, the Body. Try this: as you brush your teeth tonight, become aware that you are brushing your teeth. Investigate the sensation of the brush on your teeth and gums. Get curious. Say to yourself, “I am brushing my teeth.” Feel the position of your body. Notice little things that normally go unnoticed: hmm, I’m pretty forceful with my brushing; I can feel the little bubbles around my lips from the toothpaste; I’m kind of slumped forward and craning my neck. The cool thing about mindfulness is that once you’re aware of something, you have the choice of changing it – or not. 

2- Feelings: I think you’ll agree with me here- feeling drive how you live your life. They can take us from a relatively calm state to a triggered state of rage in seconds! The secret to understanding feelings is to realize that they live in the subconscious for the most part, and the subconscious mind ‘drives our cars’ so to speak, until we bring that content out of the subconscious and into the conscious mind. Here’s an example of how mindfulness helped me not get in a car wreck once: I was driving down the road with my husband in the passenger seat, when he said something that really ticked me off! I was probably cruising for a blow-up due to other factors, and his comment was the last straw. I felt a surge of anger, and noticed that I had the urge to gun the car and make him feel as out of control and subject to my whim as I felt in regards to him! That would serve him right, I thought. But I was aware of those thoughts; I breathed, gave myself a little space, and didn’t act on my feelings. I just noticed them. I was still angry, but now I had a choice: do I act out my anger and create more bad feelings, or do I notice my anger and listen to what it has to tell me, namely that I’m feeling disregarded and belittled? Once you notice your feelings, you can ask yourself, “What am I going to do with that?” If you can remove the emotional juice from your noticing, it becomes the noticing of an observer and not a participant. Thus the Buddha asked us to categorize our feelings, to foster that role of observer: is my feeling pleasant? Unpleasant? Or neutral? Then, we can notice whether we’re clinging to that feeling or pushing it away- and by the way, we can cling to or push away both pleasant and unpleasant feelings! For example, when I was so angry at my husband in the car, I wanted to cling to that anger and get really stoked up! Anger is a powerful feeling, and it helps us feel very alive very quickly- which can be addicting, like a double shot of espresso. When I was growing up however, anger was not something that I felt safe expressing- so I repressed it. Same person, two different ways to relate to anger.

So, when dealing with your feelings, notice whether the feeling you have right now is pleasant, unpleasant or neutral, and whether you’re clinging to it or repressing it, then make the choice: what choice creates the best outcome for all? Labeling feelings comes in handy when you’re meditating: “Oh, that’s a pleasant feeling” (now follow your breath and let the feeling go); “Hmmm, a feeling of fear” (now follow your breath and let that feeling go). Like Morris Albert’s 1975 song goes, ‘Feelings, nothing more than feelings’.

3- Mind:  Mind is different from feelings, in that it’s more of a background state of mind, such as agitated, distracted or grounded. It’s the flavor that’s present, the set dressing already onstage when feelings come up. Mind will collaborate in creating a feeling; if my mind state is pretty cool and comfy, then I won’t react as strongly to a verbal jab from someone; but if I’m depressed or vulnerable, it might set me off like a Roman candle! Being familiar with your mind state is a great mindfulness tool; again, it will help you make choices that support you rather than sabotage you. I was asked recently to give a talk on mindfulness, and I was aware that my mind state was somewhat nervous. My urge was to get myself hyped up on chai before the talk (why? I’ve noticed my tendency is to want to amplify what I’m already feeling), but I knew that my talk would be scattered and not at all mindful if I gave in to that urge. So by noticing my mind state, when that feeling came up I could then make an intelligent choice to support myself.  Here’s another example: someone invites you to a party, and you’d like to please her but you’re aware that there’s a subtle yet undeniable background flavor of being frazzled. You could acquiesce to your friend and go to the party, but would that choice support you and the other people in your life? You get to decide.

4- Mind objects (perception):  Buddha reminds us to “guard the sense doors”: understand that when your 6 senses come in contact with the world around you, they trigger feelings, help to create your experience and add to others’ experience in the world around you (for better or for worse). What are the six senses? Taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing and consciousness. What does Buddha mean by guarding the sense doors? Buddha knew that our senses lead to longing for things and people and experiences; they create craving. They also create aversion. And so he reasoned that if we don’t listen to music, go dancing, drink or eat intoxicants, gamble or otherwise seek out strong stimulants, we’re less likely to struggle with the clinging and aversion these stimulating experiences engender in us. Sound like a real buzz-kill? The question is, does the buzz help or hinder you?

Let’s investigate the sense door of sight. When we meditate, we’re encouraged to either close our eyes or look down through half-open eyes at a spot 45 degrees in front of us (“where the cow lies down”, in some cultures!). This will help us ‘guard the sense door’ of the eye and decrease outside stimulus in order to still our mind. How about the sense door of taste? Here’s an example from my experience: I’m addicted to the taste of Bhakti chai, a local, spicy chai I really enjoy (you’re getting that I struggle with my addiction to chai, huh?) Recently I was driving my son back to college; we’d stopped on the way there for a Bhakti chai. It tasted pretty good. Then as I drove home alone after dropping him off, missing him already, thinking about how grown up he is and probably struggling with my mortality and parenthood, etc., I was gripped with a strong desire for ANOTHER Bhakti chai! Now, I had already opened the sense door of taste by buying the first chai; now my need for comfort was screaming at me to get another chai, and now! Instead of caving in to that desire, I recognized it as a stress response. I asked myself (as my mind was screaming, just get me the frickin’ chai NOW!), what else can I do that would provide comfort, that’s not loaded with sugar and caffeine? I pulled into the parking lot for a trail I’d always wanted to explore, and took off down the trail. It took me half an hour to placate my loud mind, following my breath and repeating to myself, “Breathing in, I am here. Breathing out, I am nature” as I walked through the prairie along the sunset-lit path. Because I was aware of what was happening in the Chai/Sense Door of Taste scenario and decided to walk instead of buying another chai, I witnessed an hour of the most gorgeous sunset I’ve ever seen, pulling its healing powers into my bodymind. I also had the satisfaction of being in the driver’s seat of my own life.

The purpose of mindfulness is to bring you into the present moment, which is the only moment you have any agency in. You can’t do anything about the past, because it is gone. You can’t experience the future right now because it doesn’t exist yet. But you can look deeply into what is happening right now, influence the future and heal wounds from the past by mindfully experiencing the present moment. According to the Avatamsaka Sutra, if you live one moment deeply, that moment contains all the past and all the future in it. All these concepts are intertwined into a kind of quantum physics existence, where the Observer changes the observed phenomena and all phenomena are interpenetrating. It gets mind-twisting pretty fast!

But to simplify: mindfulness means that by being aware of our doings and thinkings through mindful practices, we have a lot more control over our own lives, and we can choose to act and think with compassion, love and equanimity. It’s not about being detached from our lives or others’ lives and levitating in our living rooms, but rather about being deeply involved in the world. It’s about making choices that support us rather than sabotage us, and we can do that only when they are conscious choices. Feelings, body sensations, mind states and perceptions that remain in the subconscious mind will continue to drive our actions whether we like it or not. But when we are aware of them, we have a choice.

So how to practice? The foundational practice of mindfulness is to be aware of one’s breath: “Breathing in a short (or long) breath, I am aware I’m breathing in a short (or long) breath.” “Breathing in, I’m aware of my whole body. Breathing out, I calm my body.” This is a wonderful template for mindfulness practice. It can be used as an observation, or as a tool for stress reduction: ‘Breathing in, I am/feel ____. Breathing out, I am/feel _____.” For example, here’s a tool to help you observe yourself- “Breathing in, I notice I’m dissatisfied; breathing out, I sit with that dissatisfaction.” As a stress-reduction tool- “Breathing in, I notice my dissatisfaction; breathing out, I embrace and comfort my dissatisfaction.” We practice when it’s easy, so when life gets hard that ‘muscle’ has been exercised, and will work for us. And our inner physician can surface from the subconscious, giving us sage advice and insight when we pause and breathe, watching our breath.

If this practice (which comes straight from the Buddha, via our modern master Thich Nhat Hanh) is new to you, I  encourage you to start with this exercise: Breathing in, I am here. Breathing out, I am aware. As you continue breathing and repeating this phrase silently, drop the first part so that now you’re thinking, “here, aware” as you breathe in and out. The beauty of this template is that you can create a meditation for yourself at any time and anywhere, based on what you need right now in your life!

Create a meditation for yourself, and if you don’t respond to it, change it up. And if all you can manage is to notice that you’re breathing in, breathing out…enjoy each breath, and let it nurture you.

Harp Strings, Heart Strings

I was tuning my harp recently, and started thinking about all the metaphors that are present in a harp. My harp is a double-strung harp, meaning it has two rows of strings instead of one row, and so it takes quite a while to tune, so I had some time to think about it.  Read on, and consider how harps and harp music illustrate- with a little metaphorical imagination- the human condition. After every statement, please insert “just like with humans”.

It takes a long time to tune a harp.

Each string has its own tuning peg. You have to turn the peg until the string is tuned to the chosen key.

Harps are sensitive instruments; temperature and humidity changes can make them go flat or sharp.

You can tell when a harp string is in tune with its fellow strings: when you pluck it, all the strings around it resonate and sing.

One string, when plucked, sounds lovely; but play many strings together, and you get a whole variety of interesting music: melancholy, uplifting, mysterious, sweet, cheerful…

If you want your instrument to last and play well, you really have to treat it with care and respect.

There’s a sweet spot for every string, where it resonates the most and sounds best.

Harp music has been used for thousands of years to heal and soothe. (Listen to the Hurrian Hymn, written in about 1400 B.C.)

A harp is a very expressive and flexible instrument! You can play almost any kind of music with a harp. (Check out Dorothy Ashby’s jazz harp, paraguayan folk harp harp metal, a wunderkind on classical pedal harp  West African Kora, pop music, and of course, celtic music! )

Please remember this: our ultimate destiny as human beings is to realize our capacity to love, heal and make music together!

 

 

 

 

I’ve got a gut feeling…

Of course you do! This post is all about your gut: also known as the viscera, digestive system, gastrointestinal tract or the alimentary canal, the gut is where we digest and absorb ingested nutrients from our food, and excrete the waste products from that digestion. The organs and structures that do this for us are the esophagus, stomach, duodenum, gallbladder, liver, pancreas, intestines, kidneys, bladder and rectum- and that list is not inclusive of other structures in your belly that contribute to digestion and elimination. Consider the fact that an adult’s digestive tract is about 30 feet long! But the gut is so much more than these factoids; researchers during the last 20 years have been discovering just how important the gut is to your physical and even mental health.

The gut is where we have deep responses to the outside world: from the outside world, we take in food and drink through our mouth into the alimentary organs, environmental toxins -or clean air-through our nose and mouth into our lungs and blood stream, and vibrational input through our skin and ears into our nerves and fascial system (the sticky web that holds everything inside our bodies in place). All this input is processed through the interactive universe of the gut! You may have heard of the gut-brain axis, and references to the gut as the ‘second brain’; here is a quote from the National Library of Medicine:

“The gut-brain axis is a bidirectional communication network that links the enteric and central nervous systems. This network is not only anatomical, but it extends to include endocrine, humoral, metabolic, and immune routes of communication as well. The autonomic nervous system, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, and nerves within the gastrointestinal tract, all link the gut and the brain, allowing the brain to influence intestinal activities, including activity of functional immune effector cells; and the gut to influence mood, cognition, and mental health.” (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6469458/)

In other words, the gut and the brain are intrinsically linked, and that connection includes all major systems of the bodymind (immune, hormonal, vascular, nervous, etc.). The purpose of this connection is to allow conversations and responses between the brain and gut, so that you can respond intelligently to your environment and keep your body and mind working smoothly. The gut microbiota-brain axis regulates the development and function of the immune, metabolic and nervous systems, and profoundly influences mood, cognition, and mental health. A diverse and healthy population of gut bacteria is crucial to your health! For this reason, if you’re suffering from mental health issues, you can affect your mental state by altering your diet and thus the bacteria in your gut: eating fermented foods, probiotics and other polyphenol-rich foods and foods rich in Omega-3 fatty acids may improve your gut health, which may benefit the gut-brain axis.

Your viscera are part of a complex data processing system; you feel your emotions first in the gut, then in the brain. Emotions are also stored in the gut’s viscera: when you’re in a physically or emotionally traumatic situation and there is no immediate resolution possible to the perceived or real threat, you’re likely to store those emotions in various organs until you can safely process them later. That’s one way you can experience dissociation from a situation, a common occurrence in childhood trauma: if it’s not safe to be in your body while something is happening to you, then your gallbladder, stomach, liver, etc. will store the event for you, while your mind ‘leaves’. Unfortunately, the norm is for those traumas to remain frozen in the gut for decades, sublimated, unresolved and unprocessed. They may come back to consciousness when your body is triggered by a similar situation (PTSD), or even when you find yourself in a safe place, and your bodymind takes that opportunity to shed the burden it has been holding for years. Physical and emotional blows- like a TBI or a bad divorce- travel through the bodymind like a pinball, leaving restrictions in the fascial web as they go and lodging somewhere in that web, sometimes far away from the original injury. Some examples of physical trauma are childhood abuse, surgeries, investigative procedures like colonoscopies, infections, and overwhelming stress. It’s believed that Alzheimer’s, dementia, Parkinson’s, IBS and autoimmune disorders start in the gut, decades before they manifest symptomatically.

Stress can cause lots of physical problems, first registered in the gut. Seventy percent of our immune system is embedded in the lamina propria, or the innermost part of the mucous layer lining the digestive tract. When you are overwhelmed by acute or chronic stress in your life, your body’s ability to deal with it becomes compromised; for example, when they are overcome by stress, the neurons in the small intestine- yes, there are more neurons throughout the gut than there are in the spinal cord- interpret the food they receive as poison, which induces vomiting. And we are learning that stress creates an overproduction of the hormones, peptides and other biochemicals associated with emotions; this in turn can overwhelm the bodymind, leading to states of chronic depression and anxiety. Often, after years of different medical and alternative interventions, even when other parts of your life are better, you may still be experiencing diarrhea or constipation, cramping, colitis, bloating, etc. The gut was the first to register the injury, and it can be the last part to heal.

The good news is that the bodymind is very plastic: it is programmed to thrive, and does its best to do so, even in the face of lots of injury! If you’ve sustained multiple injuries which are lodged in your fascial web and in your gut, there are practices you can undertake to turn the tide for your gut: taking your gut bacteria for walks in nature, where you are exposed to different kinds of good bacteria; changing your diet to include more fermented foods as mentioned above; massaging your diaphragm, because a dysfunctional diaphragm= a dysfunctional gut; and breathing practices like ‘box breathing’ that encourage long exhales and positively influence the vagus nerve, a big player in the relaxation response to stress. Of course sometimes it’s too difficult to address these ingrained problems by yourself; in this case, it can be a real game-changer to release your gut injuries and trauma through the skilled hands of a craniosacral or visceral manipulation practitioner. Visit the Upledger Institute (www.upledger.com) or the Barral Institute (www.barralinstitute.com) to find a practitioner near you.

If you live in the Denver, Colorado area, you can book a session with me to address some of your no-fun symptoms: https://www.massagebook.com/biz/SoundHealsHolisticHealth

We now know a little more about the gut, and how important it is to nurture a healthy population of diverse bacteria. Be a friend to your gut- give it the love, attention and food it needs, and it will reciprocate by loving you back your whole life!

A Circle of Caring- reaching out to Veterans

In this world and society where much of our thinking revolves around ‘what’s in it for me?’, I admire and am grateful to anyone who goes out of their way to help another person, even if that means inconveniencing themselves, or in more extreme circumstances, even putting their own life at risk. I don’t always agree with the policy decisions that send our military off to other countries, but I do appreciate my brothers and sisters doing what they feel is right; I like to think that those people have chosen this career or stint in the military because they harbor feelings of protection and care for the citizens of their country.

In service to their country, these military service people experience sounds, actions and sights that none of us would wish on our worst enemy! Regardless of the impetus that led them to join the military, these vets are now traumatized and need our help, as the people they pledged to serve. In addition, so many vets do not receive the help they need from the government, or the recognition they need about the nature of their hurts. One in four veterans are affected by mental illness; the effects of PTSD are quite real, and they manifest in mental, physical and behavioral ways. These symptoms are sometimes diminished or dismissed by medical professionals, who are frustrated that they don’t know what to do to help. Western medicine is best when a person is in a state of crisis; and though things are slowly getting better as more medical professionals recognize the connection between our minds and bodies, it isn’t great at evaluating the whole person’s mind, body and spirit, and how they affect each other. (In reality, we should be calling ourselves something like ‘crystallized vibrational beings’, but we prefer to separate things into discreet packages). So most medical interventions won’t take into account the interrelated elements of what it is to be human.

It’s for these reasons that I want to bring my hands and skills into service for vets! In my own studio I’ve seen how Visceral Manipulation, craniosacral therapy, energy work and sound healing help our veterans tease out the wounds they have sustained, and which are causing havoc in their lives. When a therapist works on a vibrational level, they can bypass the conscious mind where behavioral patterns and beliefs reside, and they can identify the stored emotions and very subtle physical restrictions that are causing significant symptoms. One by one, therapist and patient peel away those layers of trauma so that the patient can once again engage holistically in society, find meaning in their lives and heal from the physical, emotional and spiritual wounds they received while in service.

I have a favor to ask of you- as you read this blog post, think about veterans you know who are still suffering from their wounds, old or new. Whether they served long ago or are currently serving; whether they’re in active duty, the reserve or national guard, or in some other capacity; the important thing is to notice when life might be difficult for them, and they are struggling on some level. Now that you’ve thought of someone like this, please tell them about the Barral Institute, the Upledger Institute, or other organizations where they can find a practitioner of the more subtle modalities, in their own community or nearby. I know that when our vets address their hurts in a more subtle way with modalities like craniosacral therapy and Visceral Manipulation, they’ll likely experience subtle and powerful shifts as ‘crystallized vibrational beings’! Below are some resources for you to pass on to your veteran friends; may they find relief and hope as they experience this wonderful subtle work!

Barral Institute: http://www.barralinstitute.com

Upledger Institute: http://www.upledger.com

Wetzler G, Roland M, Fryer-Dietz S, Dettmann-Ahern D. CranioSacral Therapy and Visceral Manipulation: A New Treatment Intervention for Concussion Recovery. Med Acupunct. 2017 Aug1;29(4):239-248. doi: 10.1089/acu.2017.1222. PMID: 28874926; PMCID: PMC5580370. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5580370/

Article	Description
CranioSacral Therapy, Visceral Manipulation and Neural Manipulation Helping People with Brain Injury and PTSD; Integrative Manual Therapy Treatments from Upledger Institute International and Barral Institute

https://www.iahe.com/docs/articles/PTSD-MTBI-UII-BI-Brief-Social-Media-1.pdf

EMFs: The Good and the Bad

I recently read a wonderful 2014 article published in the National Library of Medicine, PubMed Central, entitled Life Rhythm as a Symphony of Oscillatory Patterns: Electromagnetic Energy and Sound Vibration Modulates Gene Expression for Biological Signaling and Healing, by David Muehsam, PhD and Carlo Ventura, MD, PhD. You can access it here.

In their article, these two scientists in their review of 138 studies, were able to encapsulate and validate my 30 years of bodywork and sound healing practice! They point to the future of medicine morphing from a Newtonian, structural model of crisis management, to a vibrational model of human interconnectedness.

I heartily encourage you to read the above article; but since it can be somewhat difficult to parse at times, I’ve summarized the main points of interest to me, highlighted in italics what I considered exciting and important, and inserted in blue type my own thoughts and takeaways. I apologize if in doing so I’ve watered down or gone astray from the authors’ intent; but since I’m a big fan, I hope they’ll forgive me. I hope you enjoy reading this, and become as excited as I have about the possibilities before us!

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Rhythm = Vibration= Life

All life exists within a sea of vibration, and rhythm is fundamental to all of life. The thread that connects the various studies noted in this article, is the impact of rhythm and the notion that rhythms can communicate bio-information that governs a wide variety of functions, including that of guiding living beings towards health and well-being.

For example, respiratory output is coupled to a complex interaction between the brainstem and higher centers connecting the limbic system and cortical structures, thus creating a basic link between breathing and the emotions. (Breath is vital to emotional regulation: mindful breathing is an easy form of health insurance- Breathe!)

Nature created subcellular clocks to guarantee an exquisite regulation of the Ca2+ (calcium ion) dynamics essential for embryonic development, neuronal plasticity, cell memory, and differentiation of various types of stem cells. When the rhythm of these tiny ‘clocks’ is impaired, health suffers: this phenomenon plays a central role in the so-called “metabolic syndrome”, a spectrum of disorders whose incidence continues to increase across the industrialized world. Comprised of several metabolic abnormalities, including central (intraabdominal) obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia, and hyper-tension, this syndrome has affected 25% to 40% of the world’s population between 25 and 64 years of age. (It is possible that exposure over the decades to exogenous (outside the body) EMFs has created or at least contributed to this phenomenon by negatively influencing our subcellular clocks.)

Vibration creates EMFs- All life exists in a sea of EMFs (electromagnetic fields). Modern humans are constantly immersed in both natural and human-made fields, including the geomagnetic field, globally propagating waves in the earth-ionosphere cavity (Schumann resonances), EMFs produced by power transmission lines, microwave communication relays, and fields from a wide variety of commonly used mobile telephones and radiofrequency Wi-Fi stations. Effects on biological systems from these weak EMF signals has been firmly established, and the mechanisms by which constant and extremely low frequency (ELF) μT-range magnetic fields can directly influence biological processes have now been more clearly elucidated. A growing body of evidence has shown that effects can also occur at much lower field strengths, on the order of nanoTesla, including effects on development in chick embryos, in vitro (lab cells studied outside a living organism) breast cancer cell proliferation, in vivo (within a living creature) tumor growth, planarian fission and regeneration allergic encephalomyelitis in rats; gravitropism of plants, MCF-7 breast cancer cell growth, and an Alzheimer’s model in mice. A significant point about these extremely weak EMF bioeffects is that their interaction with out bodies is not thermal- they are not influencing our cells through the more measurable medium of heat- suggesting the existence of a more subtle level of bioinformation transduction operating at extremely low energies. For the experiments quoted in this study, the EMF amplitudes and frequencies were below the thresholds required to evoke nerve firing, suggesting that the specific rhythms and patterning of weak EMFs are detectable by the nervous system at this more subtle sub-threshold level. (Both ancient and contemporary energy workers from all cultures understand that they are tapping into an extremely subtle and powerful system that has yet to be easily measured; this doesn’t mean this system doesn’t exist! We are inferring its presence through the effects we notice, and the undeniable connection we feel through our hands.)

Solar-Geomagnetic Rhythms and Life on Earth:

In addition to the substantial literature on animal navigation via Earth’s magnetic field, recent experiments report a functional role for the ambient geomagnetic field in a variety of biological processes. Changes in solar radiation directly affect Earth’s magnetic field, with effects that can be strong enough to disrupt communications and power distribution networks. Solar-induced fluctuations in the ambient geomagnetic field have been correlated with a wide range of biological effects, including changes in heart muscle cells, changes in blood pressure, heart rate and heart rate variability, changes in power in the gamma (>30 Hz) and theta (4–8 Hz) brain wave frequencies in humans, coherence of human EEG oscillations, pain perception in mice, and mortality due to limbic brain seizures in rats. Societally, a correlation has been observed between both the US gross domestic product and Dow Jones Industrial Average and the number of sunspots, and a majority (80%) of the most significant historical events from 1749 to 1926 occurred during solar maxima, which correlate with the highest periods of geomagnetic activity. These results show that in addition to diurnal and seasonal solar rhythms, biological coupling with transient solar storm activity and the 11-year solar cycle also occurs, with clinically and socially significant effects. (We are an intrinsic part of Nature, the planet and the solar system, and our bodies respond to the rhythms of cosmic bodies and our own planet!)

Cell communication matrices:

Each biological cell is embedded within an interconnected environment of oscillatory patterns; for health, there must be widespread intercellular synchronization between cells that helps determine the long-range functional assembly of tissues, organs, and the entire individual. (Everything is connected by endogenous EMFs- vibration!) Of particular interest to cell-cell communication with regard to EMF sensitivity is the messenger molecule nitric oxide (NO). A vascular powerhouse, NO plays key roles in the rapid regulation of microcirculation, inflammation, cell growth and repair process and gene expression, and in biological EMF transduction across the cellular matrix. Effects on NO expression and NO-dependent pathways have been reported for a wide variety of nonthermal EMF amplitudes, frequencies, and signal shapes. (The ancient Egyptians used in religious ceremony an instrument called the sistrum, or in the ancient Egyptian language, ‘sekhem’ or ‘sesheshet’ because of the sound it made when it rattled. According to cymatics scholar John Stuart Reid of cymascope fame, ancient Egyptian texts mention using the sistrum as a sound healing instrument; it was shaken close to the face of the ill person. Research reveals that the ultrasonic sounds created by the sistrum encourage the production of NO in the sinuses. The sound of ocean waves, bird song and singing the vowel ‘EE’ seem to create these ultrasonic frequencies as well; and singing and humming also activate the parasympathetic vagus nerve- known as the calming nerve.)

The recent characterization of the nearly ubiquitous network of telocyte cells in connective tissue suggests a fundamental role for intercellular communication played by networks of microtubular structures: TCs have very small cell bodies and extremely long and thin tubular processes called telopodes (up to 100 micrometers long, yet only 20-200 nanometers wide), forming a 3-dimensional network linking TCs with one another and with many other cell types. It is theorized that TCs play a fundamental role in EMF signaling at the cytoskeletal level. Of particular relevance, a recent, comprehensive review suggests that electrical signaling activity within the cytoskeletal framework of neurons may carry information and could be essential in order to explain the “very fast and complex changes of functional neuronal connectivity necessary for cognition.” (In other words, your mind– thoughts, feelings, etc.- is not located in your brain, but rather in your whole body throughout the web of your connective tissue! This makes complete sense to me: as a Visceral Manipulation practitioner, I sense images, words and even smells through the communication between my own body’s intelligent web, and that of my client.)

Light, as a vibration, also creates EMFs, and vibrating cells create light. (The acoustic energy- biosounds- that cells generate produces ‘inelastic collisions’ or collisions between cells whose energy ‘loss’ occurs as infrared light. The author calls these ‘biophotons’.) Cell-cell communication via cellular biophoton emissions has been demonstrated in several studies; EMFs generated by the biophotons of living cells can play fundamental roles in cellular function and intercellular communication. In vivo observations of electric field absorption and emission suggest endogenous EMFs as an indicator of the physiological state of living organisms; this information can someday be used to detect abnormal cell growth. (You are a being of light; your health is affected by, and indicated by, the health of your electromagnetic field. As a being of light, you are also affected by light, which, like sound, can be used therapeutically or not.)

Healing using EMFs: (Therapeutic use of EMFs – the medicine of the future).

Research results suggest that human non-stem somatic adult cells can be reprogrammed- using EMFs– to a pluripotent state (pluripotent means ‘able to give rise to all cell types in an adult’- “many potentials”). This concept is crucial for the development of regenerative medicine- the results suggest a new method to counteract in vivo aging of tissue-resident or transplanted stem cells, playing an important role in clinical treatment of age-related processes. (The adult human body does have stem cells in small numbers throughout the body; these cells are retained for cell maintenance, repair and regeneration and thus are valued for their regenerative healing properties. But they are difficult to harvest and grow. Here, the authors are saying that non-stem cells can be reprogrammed using specific EMFs, opening up a whole new possibility for non-invasive methods of healing using vibration.)

Resonance occurs when a vibrating object causes another nearby object to start vibrating at a higher amplitude: resonance produces enhanced effects when the frequency and/or amplitude of an applied EMF matches specific values for which cells or tissues have increased or decreased sensitivity. (In acupressure theory: jitsu= state of too much energy, kyo= state of depleted energy; mechanical pressure is exerted by the therapist to normalize these states. Sound ‘waves’ exert mechanical pressure on your body’s cells. My theory about sound healing: if those cells are in a jitsu or kyo state, they’ll respond and move from their out-of-alignment state to resonate with the rhythmic periodicity of the singing bowl sounds.) Optimal effects seem to be linked to specific amplitudes and duration of exposure. Related results reported that 6-hour EMF exposures yielded significant effects on gene expression, whereas 48-hour exposures produced no effects, suggesting “compensatory mechanisms at the translational and posttranslational level.” (Less is more! When your body is subjected to sound that is too long in duration or too loud, it goes into protective mode and ‘turns off’.)

Using Electromagnetic energy and sound vibration to modulate (stem) cell gene expression, potentiality, and fate-

The rapidly growing body of literature regarding EMF effects on cellular gene expression is too large to summarize here, but research on stem cells reveals that there are both positive and negative outcomes on stem cells subjected to EMFs, including the possibility of using EMFs to reprogram stem cells toward specific destinies different than their native fates (such as the reprogramming of human dermal skin fibroblasts into cardiac, neuronal and skeletal muscle lineages). (Pregnant women, pay attention! Stem cells in utero guide the fetus’ growth and health; will exposure to EMFs in utero alter or compromise baby’s stem cells? At the very least, it wouldn’t hurt to limit your own exposure to EMFs while pregnant.)

Sonocytology and cell reprogramming with sound vibration:

The intrinsic dynamic properties of the cytoskeleton and the role it plays in cellular regulation through amplitude and frequency modulation of spontaneous oscillatory patterns (eg, by fluctuations in intracellular calcium homeostasis described above) also make cells exquisite detectors of mechanical vibrations. There is now ample evidence that mechanical forces and audiofrequency stimulation can alter gene expression, determine cell fate, and promote the healing of injured tissues. (The nature of a cell is to detect changes in rhythm. When applied therapeutically, sound vibration exerts mechanical pressure on cells, their cytoskeletons, and the network of telocyte cells, promoting healing as the sound travels through the connective tissue web of the body).

Cells have electrical, chemical, and biological activity taking place inside them, which causes nanoscale vibrations at the cell membrane. Mechano-sensitivity observed in cells might be tied to an endogenous cellular language of vibration wherein cells express nanovibrational signatures of their health and differentiating potential. The developing field of “sonocytology” uses atomic force microscopy (AFM) to record audiofrequency nanomolecular vibrations at the cell surface, which can indicate the health or lack of health of a cell. A wide range of bioinformation “sounds” from cells/tissues/organs might be gathered, suggesting the possibility of applying such sounds or “biomusic” toward targeted outcomes from suitable cell populations. These strategies may represent a new tool to allow selective tuning of cell/tissue/organ homeostasis, paving the way for the use of sound physics and music for optimization as a cell therapy in regenerative medicine. (This targeted therapeutic use of sound is already in use- see the work of Sharry Edwards: https://soundhealthoptions.com/)

The importance of water: Hydration has been shown to play a fundamental role in conformational dynamics controlling protein function, suggesting that EMF interactions within the aqueous medium itself could modulate protein function. (Help your internal communication network to function well: drink water to keep hydrated!)

Takeaway: The human body is able to distinguish at the molecular level between different mental states: Human feelings, thoughts, psychological attributes, and perhaps even life choices resonate with the molecular cellular level and affect even these most subtle processes of life. (Mindfulness and meditation, self-love, self-care and wholesome life choices- these are ways to keep your vibrational being in tune with itself and with its environment.) The authors suggest the possibility that the cytoskeletal biofield information system described here may be merely a narrow glimpse of a much larger view of the role of mind and body in the connections between individuals, society, our planet, and the Cosmos.

Announcing Colorado Dharma Group: tools to be a happier person!

Colorado Dharma Group is an organization I founded in 2021 to provide folks with tools to be happier and live a fuller life. Here you can find free workshops, lectures and seminars featuring presenters who are excited to share with you what they know about their subject. Our seminars are geared to be pertinent and timely, reflecting what’s going on in the world and the issues people are dealing with on a daily basis.

In December 2021 we hosted a seminar on grief called Mysteries of Grief: Tools, Techniques and Rituals. This seminar was held in response to the grief caused by the pandemic: the losses of people, jobs and reality as we’d known it, all over the world. This workshop is available on the CDG YouTube channel: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqeGNp4NX4Q)

In May of 2022 CDG hosted Naikan: Gratitude, Grace and the Japanese Art of Self-Reflection. This workshop showed participants how to use Naikan practices to get to know ourselves better, as we continued to deal with uncertainty and anxiety.

On February 18th 2023 Colorado Dharma Group offered Deep Listening- Understanding Yourself to Understand Your Neighbor : a 4-hour workshop exploring the fundamental nature of communication. This workshop is also available on our YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcEJF7HtaXo).

We dove into questions like: how can I talk to people who just push my buttons? How can I maintain my cool while talking about things that are difficult? What does it mean to really communicate?  How can we understand the relationship between our inner experience and our politics? From this felt sense, how can we more fully attend to one another and to the places we live? Our presenters were:

Christina Hildebrandt, author of this blog and presenter for our Deep Listening seminar, led us in practices for tuning in to your mind, body and general state of being.

Fitzhugh Shaw provided individual practices to help us deepen in listening by proceeding stepwise through: listening to ourselves, listening to others, and listening to the places we individually inhabit.

Adam Lobel  PhD, who practices at the intersections of ecopsychology, Buddhist meditation, philosophy, and political transformation, gave us a taste of the “Four Fields”. You can find out more about Adam’s work at https://www.releasement.org/

If you find these workshops intriguing, contact me to join the mailing list for future presentations: Christina Hildebrandt, soundheals@earthlink.net.

The Emotional Life of Your Body’s Organs

Your body, your storage unit

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), each organ in your body stores specific emotional states when you cannot process those emotions entirely; these emotions are joy, anger, anxiety, contemplation, grief, fear and fright. There is a residue of emotion that has not been ‘digested’, and it needs to go somewhere! Our organs kindly do this for us, but the upshot is that we are then living with the energy of those stored emotions in our bodies. In TCM this means that there will be “internal injury caused by the seven emotions: excessive joy impairs the heart; anger impairs the liver; grief impairs the lung, anxiety and excessive contemplation impair the spleen, fright and fear impair the kidney.” (Here’s the website for this information) I’ve seen different accounts of which emotions ‘go’ with which organs, but the main point is that we’re all walking around with stored stress in our bodies; this stored emotional content is commonly known as a person’s “baggage”! Do you know of anyone who doesn’t have baggage? Me, neither.

Over the past very stressful few years for our country and even planet, many clients have come to see me, complaining of dizziness, headaches, pain in their abdomens, strange and ‘inexplicable’ nervy sensations in their bodies…and the Western medical establishment doesn’t know what’s causing all these symptoms. Often, neither the patient nor the doctor thinks of these pains as having an emotional cause, but our emotions and physical bodies are inextricably connected- they are essentially ONE. The emotion you feel will express itself in your body, especially if it’s a strong emotion, and especially if you suppress it. Experiencing and acknowledging your strong emotion is healthy, and often, expressing it is healthy as well; but suppressing your emotions just forces them to hide somewhere in your body. Then, the only way that emotion can get your attention is to express itself physically. Whether it’s pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, muscle tightness or nerve pain, you may experience symptoms at a particular time of day or night. Pay attention to the time when these symptoms surface- the body clock for organs, used in TCM, can give you a clue about what’s going on.

Body clock for organs

Organ Body Clock

There are many resources on the web to see images of the Organ Body Clock. I’ve chosen the one above from Nirvana Acupuncture and Integrative Medicine- their website has an excellent description of the life force energy, or ‘qi’, moving through the body’s organ system. If you’ve ever awakened consistently at 2am every night, wondering why this was happening, consider that there may be a dysfunction in your liver- physical or emotional. Acupuncture, Visceral Manipulation and craniosacral therapy are all beneficial modalities to address these messages from your body.

Self-care for emotional blockages

Sometimes you can’t seek out the help of a professional. In that case, there are many ways to address your emotions yourself. I’ll highlight just a couple below.

It’s safe to say that our emotions want to be addressed- nobody likes to feel constrained and restricted, and our bodies are programmed to thrive! The first step in healing emotionally is to pay attention to and care for your emotions; those physical symptoms- including addictive or self-harm tendencies- can be a sign that your poor emotions have remained uncared for and unseen, for way too long!

Tuning in to your body. What does that mean to you, and how can you do it? ‘Tuning in’ means having the intention to bring your mind and heart back home to your body, just like tuning your radio dial to a particular station that’s broadcasting. In this case, it’s your body that’s broadcasting, asking for help and sharing its wisdom with you. Another metaphor: your body’s always on the phone, calling you to tell you how you can live your life in a healthy way, in alignment with your potential. Like a child that’s crying and needing attention, you can pick up and hold your emotions as a loving parent or friend, comforting and listening to them. Once you feel you have the true intention to listen to your body with compassion, let’s look at a few ways to ‘tune in’ or ‘pick up the phone’.

The Emotion Code- When I discovered The Emotion Code, I recognized a way to address vague and hidden- but potent!- energies in my own body that were holding me back. The Emotion Code is a method created by Dr. Bradley Nelson; it uses muscle-testing to tap into the subconscious mind and reveal and release stored emotions that are affecting your life and health. Emotional content can be as varied as specific emotions from your own past, to long-hidden epigenetic or ancestral energies, stored in your body in this life. Not familiar with this concept? Check out this YouTube video, Healing Ancestral Trauma: What is Epigenetics and Why Does it Matter? with Erva Baden

Dr. Bradley’s Emotion Code method is available through his books (The Emotion Code: How to Release Your Trapped Emotions for Abundant Health, Love, and Happiness, and The Body Code: Unlocking Your Body’s Ability to Heal Itself) and in a 7-module, on-demand course through the Shift Network. As they say in their description of his work: “After more than 30 years as a holistic chiropractor and teacher, Dr. Bradley created the Emotion Code to help… everyone alleviate physical discomfort, ease emotional wounds, restore love in relationships, and break through potential self-sabotage to live the lives we’re meant to live.” (The Shift Network course is here)

Journaling Conversation with Your Body-

Another technique I’ve used to access the hidden information within the subconscious mind (and therefore the body itself) is journaling with your body. One could even say that you’re ‘channeling’ your own body. It’s akin to trying to have a conversation with an animal or even an alien who communicates on a whole different level- you have to rely on your intuition and that quality of ‘tuning in’. Let’s say there’s a problem area in your body where you’re experiencing pain, unease or disconnection: you can tune in to that part of your body and ask it questions, then ‘channel’ the answers. It’s a very interesting exercise, but it must be undertaken seriously and with compassion- after all, you’re dealing with a part of you that’s hurting!

To do this exercise, you must first center yourself and set your intention to listen to your body. It’s helpful to drink a little water beforehand- water is grounding and keeps you hydrated. You may light a candle, say a prayer or do anything to create a space of listening. Take a piece of paper or a page in your journal, and with your dominant hand (are you a lefty or a righty?) write an open-ended question. “How are you feeling?”, “What do you have to tell me?”, and “I’m listening- please tell me why you’re hurting” are some examples. Accusatory or unkind questions are not helpful, like “Why are you hurting me?”, or “Stupid body- why do I have abdominal pain?”

Next, keep very quiet, give yourself permission to receive information from your body, and listen; you’ll be surprised by what pops into your mind as a response! Whatever the message is, don’t second-guess it, however weird it comes out, just write it down with your non-dominant hand. This is a real pain- it’s difficult to write with the hand you don’t normally use to write with! However, it’s through the non-dominant hand that you can access the information in your subconscious mind. You might come up with something like, “I feel abandoned by you”- that’s the message my heart told me on one occasion. Or, you might ‘see’ an image; when I tuned in to my lower left leg, in my mind’s eye I saw an image of cobwebs, and I knew that meant “no-one’s been here for a long time.”

The power of listening to your body is undeniable. Whether you tap into your innate wisdom through journaling or The Body Code work; whether you seek help from a professional bodyworker or do your own work on yourself, you’ll find that your body has the answer. Do your best to listen, and you’ll enjoy better physical and mental health!

Thank you, COVID

Recently I joined the club of those who have contracted COVID-19. My experience being host to this virus was pretty tame: I was ‘taken down’ for a full day and a half, and for the next few days, while my immune system battled the enemy, I was allowed small periods of standing, then walking around, then longer periods of ‘doings’. Meanwhile, I had cancelled all my clients and accordingly had a week off of work. I found that I enjoyed the downtime overall: I could do things like catch up on emails, weeding etc., but mostly I took joy in edifying and educating myself, nurturing and being kind to myself in my enforced vacation. DIsclosure: I live in my little sanctuary with several other people who kindly cooked for me and took over my chores; that made a huge difference! Also, the weather cooperated by offering me gorgeous, mild fall temperatures so I could stay outside and not be cooped up, isolating in my bedroom.

How could I take joy in being sick?? As I’ve stated, where I live is a little enclave and sanctuary, with a hammock, a couple lawns and a pretty courtyard; I made full use of those areas to read my Buddhist books, listen to podcasts, etc. But it wasn’t just where I was that allowed for the joy; it was the enforced slowing down, the creation of wholesome mental space, the need for careful breathing without coughing. Because I had the time and space, my inner ‘religious ascetic’ came out to play, and I found myself experiencing spontaneous moments of gratitude. This made even the worst moments of sickness bearable, easier. And because I was living in gratitude more and doing less, when someone did something annoying, I was able to meet them with a touch of equanimity; I was almost able to avoid diving into the rabbit holes of negative mental stories in which I often engage and indulge. Funny- I could feel those negative neuronal pathways beckoning to me, saying “These are the stories we always revert to when we don’t get the outcome we want”; but I had the extra time and space to consider: maybe the reason I didn’t get the outcome I wanted was, something happened that I don’t know about. Yep- I got that right!

The outcome in question was this: I wanted organic strawberries, but since I was isolating, I couldn’t get them myself (that’s another wonderful thing about being sick- I loved creating a nurturing and comforting environment for myself to help myself get well- and the plan included organic strawberries!) So I asked my dear husband to go to the store and get them for me. When he got home, I asked, “Did you get the strawberries for me?”, and he directed me to the fridge where I found to my horror- conventional, pesticide-laden strawberries!! Oh, great, I thought, thanks a lot: now I have to eat pesticides! My poor immune system is going to have to struggle with this, along with the virus! Petulance can be my middle name in times of duress, and I was not pleased that this part of my self-care plan was being foiled. Negative mind path #1: “Hey, I’m sick here! I guess you’re going to not come through for me- again!!” Negative mind path #2: “You don’t even care about buying organic produce to save the world; your actions fly in the face of my concern!” But that more spacious mind that was enjoying the downtime suggested that perhaps there was an explanation; maybe he really did care and had tried, but just couldn’t find my precious organic strawberries; maybe I will just need to deal with this disappointment of not getting what I want. Breathe. Of course, what really happened explained the pesticide-y strawberries in my fridge: when he couldn’t locate organic strawberries in the store he had especially visited for that purpose, my husband asked his friend to pick up some from another store- but, that friend got me conventional strawberries.

Now, I could repeat the negative thinking all over again, transferring those thoughts to my husband’s friend instead. Like a toddler having a tantrum, I could say, “But I want my organic strawberries!!” Instead, my inner ascetic guides me to consider that there’s an unfathomable, cosmic reason I didn’t get my organic strawberries, and encourages me to exchange my reaction of “But I want them!” to acceptance: “Yes; this is the way it is now. Just so.” The former feels like a toxic sledgehammer that shatters me; the latter feels like a butterfly that rides on my shoulder, whispering reminders in my ear that I won’t always get what I want, but I will always get what I need. Thank you, COVID.

Fail Forward

I’m a not a fan of being wrong or making mistakes, especially if it means I’ve hurt someone. As a young person, I had an obsession about being perfect; that created some problems later, as you can imagine! Now, at the age of 56, I’m learning to forgive myself for my foibles, and to apologize authentically to those I’ve hurt- as opposed to apologizing preemptively as a ‘perfect person’, without truly feeling it in my heart. The following post is from my friend and fellow local healer Dan Liss. You can visit his website here.

I just recently came across the term fail forward and I like it.

Every one of us has some instances in our earlier stages of life where we would do differently next time if we had a do over. But we rarely have an opportunity to have that do over with the same person in the same situation, so how we use that lesson is to conduct ourselves differently next time, or treat this person better than we treated that other person in our past. In essence, failing forward.

When we make a decision and take an action, at the moment we may have felt that we did the right thing. With a little time and perspective, we may later realize that we could have made a better choice.

None of us is without mistakes, but by learning from our mistakes, we will not keep making the same mistakes, so the term failing forward shows progress on our path. When we look at the story of successful businesses, we often see how success came after a person changed their initial concept and offered a different product or service than originally planned, and then found popularity.

Some of these errors were poor choices or mistakes, but rebounding from them is how we find our way forward.

A key in this concept is separating the fail from our concept of self. When we fail at something, that does not mean we are a failure, it means we have to find a different way to do things. When we do that, and find greater success, we can be proud of what we did.

A quote that makes the point is from basketball great Michael Jordan: “I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

He was constantly aware of what he was doing and constantly looking for ways to do it better.

By the way, tools that were used by that great championship team included positive thinking and meditation. When people first heard about that, they thought that was weird for a sports team, but then after witnessing years of winning streaks, they thought there might be something to it.

Not talking about failures could bring up fear. Fear of failing again which could also discourage others from trying again. Thomas Edison said that genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration. Keep going.

Mistakes offer us teachable moments. Stepping out of our comfort zone to take another risk can be the key to opening the door for growth and success.

All of us make mistakes along our way, and in fact, you could say that we have to make some mistakes on our way to success in order to learn what we can do. If we have never failed, we have never tested our boundaries, abilities or capacity.

Of course we are not perfect on the way to creating our lives or our businesses because there will always be some trial and error and we should not be afraid of that.

Thank you, Dan!

Cowboy up!

 The time is now 

We’re living in a pivotal time. During the past many centuries, humanity has evolved from the tribal, every-man-for-himself world of humankind’s beginnings to our present-day global community of relative abundance and safety. And yet in America, as gunmen continue to mow down our children in school and people in grocery stores, we seem to be holding on to that tribal world, unwilling to take the next evolutionary step.

Despite the 2020 pandemic’s demonstration to us of our interconnectedness, we continue to see the world as if we were cowboys in some Old West movie: don’t tell me what to do, don’t take away my rights, I’m out to take care of myself and to hell with everyone else! When in reality, that evolutionary step we need to take is to see all people in the world as our family- we are all part of the same community, and need to take care of each other. Sure, there will be some people we don’t like or agree with; can we let them be themselves without being threatened by that? Can we love ourselves, our neighbors and our planet? In politics, our families and our communities, it’s time to move beyond the ‘What’s in it for me?’ mentality and ask ourselves, “How can I better understand myself and my fellow human beings so that we can live in peace together?” Be the peaceful change you wish to see: start with yourself and how you interact with others, and you will see that change happen!

People’s “rights” vs. people’s lives

Right now we live in a society where the ‘right’ to own a gun is more important than a peaceful direction for our country and world; it’s more important than the life of a child we don’t know, or a grocery store clerk in some ‘other’ community. We live in fear of those ‘bad actors’ with guns, so we arm ourselves.

We believe that owning a gun will protect us from strangers with guns, but this is untrue, according to an Annals of Internal Medicine study at Stanford University. They followed 600,000 Californians who did not own handguns but began living in homes with handguns between 2004 and 2016: the study showed that people who lived with handgun owners were more than twice as likely to be fatally shot. Living with a handgun owner particularly increased the risk of being shot to death in a domestic violence incident (especially for women, who were 84% of the victims), and it did not provide any protection at all against being killed at home by a stranger: “We found zero evidence of any kind of protective effects” from living in a home with a handgun, said David Studdert, lead author of the Annals of Internal Medicine study.

We feel so alone in American society, separated from each other by political or religious beliefs, video games, our smart phones- any activity or belief that separates us from our community makes us feel alone and isolated. In Buddhism we refer to the sangha, the community of people we rely on for support, and to whom we give support; that could be a church group or your close buddies. But how about the human Sangha? We often talk about people we don’t like or understand as ‘those people’, or in my circle ‘those God-damned Republicans’. Remember, those people too are your sangha, part of your human family. They want and need the same things you do: food and water and a roof over their heads, a sense of purpose and a secure place to live. One thing we must agree upon is how to create a secure community.

Creating a secure community

When we insist that we have the “right” to own a firearm, that may be true according to one interpretation of the second amendment (a document that’s in urgent need of reassessment). But even if you are sure that owning firearms is your right, stop for a moment and ask yourself: is your need to own a gun more important than the life of a child? Does that need weigh more than protecting that child’s right to life? Even though your gun may never see the light of day, much less kill someone, just by having a gun you are saying that violence is the answer. 

Guns and the fear that motivates owning them do not make us more secure; they make us less secure, more fearful, more isolated and separated from the human Sangha. Why do Americans cling so desperately to their guns? I think it’s because we live with the unresolved and unhealed shame of slavery, and the continuing racism that slices like a knife through our society. 

Nobody nowadays owns slaves; but we all carry the heart- disconnected, emotional legacy of slavery in our minds and bodies, and the unresolved guilt and rage associated with it. As far as our subconscious minds are concerned, we are still slave owners and slaves on some level, and painfully separated from each other.  A common reaction of having done something hurtful  is to be defensive of that wrongdoing, and point the finger at another person or group of people: “I’m not racist! The ‘elites’ are importing immigrants to replace me!” Then we have to live with the often subconscious guilt and shame of that wrongdoing; we fear the people we’ve wronged  will ‘come and get us’, so we’d better protect ourselves- with a firearm.  

Racism has created a false sense of ‘others’ in our communities; our souls and bodies-which are programmed to love- register the wrongness of that separation. Compassion is deeply rooted in human nature; it has a biological basis in the brain and body, and when we’re not in alignment with who we really are, we suffer depression, anxiety and rage. We express and push against that misalignment with violence. Violence begets violence; it entrains us to expect it, we live in a state of hypervigilance and fear of attack, and our nervous systems become worn out- thus the cycle continues, as our society becomes weaker and more diseased in mind and body. 

There is an antidote to this craziness: love, joy and connection. “Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love; this is the eternal rule”, Buddha said. We all recognize this truth; the more we truly love ourselves, the more we are filled up and able to love all humans. Loving oneself takes the courage to be vulnerable. In our ‘cowboy culture’ that values individual strength and perseverance to beat ‘the bad guys’, we can turn that cowboy icon around and present to the world a different kind of strength: the power of love, compassion and community.  We are each of us both the bad guy and the good guy- it’s just a question of choosing which of those guys you wish to be, cowboy! 

Image of cowboy and horse by kalhh from Pixabay

Don’t stagnate: Movement keeps you alive and well!

When you’re not able or willing to leave your house during this pandemic, keep moving anyway: put on your favorite music and dance in your living room! Movement is important for self-expression; self-expression is important to mental health; and good mental health is important for a vibrant and meaningful life and adds your positivity to society.

My favorite music for cardiovascular movement, or when I feel I have to blow off some steam, is big band or swing music from the forties. I move my body to work up a sweat in my living room when I know I’m going to be spending a lot of time at the computer and can’t get outside. Listen to “Sing, Sing, Sing!” played by the Glenn Miller Band, and you’ll start moving, too!

When it’s evening, or if I’m feeling contemplative, meditative or even sad, I’ll find some classical Indian music featuring instruments like the tabla, tanpura and sitar. Classical Indian music is often organized into moods called ‘ragas’, and I can usually find one that’s meant for early morning or evening, and is thus calming and quieting in nature. My body wants to move in fluid and graceful ways to express the deeper currents of feeling that may not be so apparent on the surface. Type “Ragas for Relaxation” into your browser and see if this ancient musical style appeals to you.

No matter how you move, practice the art of mindfulness and pay attention to your limbs moving in space, your heart beating, your breathing. Listen to your body and that small, still voice: you’ll find music that speaks to you, drawing forth your creative expression that will help you slough off the stress and breathe in the joy! Keep moving!

Like the mountain stream, keep moving!