Healing isn't restricted to physical discomfort or ailments; healing occurs in our mental and emotional systems, which are often the precursor to whatever physical issues befall us.  Even more significant is that our own healing is not restricted to our individual selves; as we heal, we affect all energies that surround us. 

Those of us who live with animals and wish for their  maximum health and wellness are able to manifest those wishes through spiritual and meditation tools, the…

Most people have accepted the societal notion that we must establish separate places for the mundane and the holy. This would mean then that we rely on external structures to feel somehow spiritually elevated, that we ourselves are not by our own nature holy. Instead we must construct an artifice to sanctify a space as if by osmosis our presence within it would in turn sanctify us.  Holy, sacred, sanctified, Divine: do we need to invent accessories to make us…

     “Well, I didn’t see that coming!”  “What goes around comes around.”  “I hope he gets what he deserves."

     We can all identify with having uttered or heard these phrases after falling victim to someone’s ill intentions or witnessing an unprovoked self-serving or predatory act.  Every such action has more than one victim but we will likely not see the justice we crave in this lifetime. While we might want to even the score, we are better served by allowing the laws of…

Reiki is a healing tool developed by Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese spiritual scholar who, challenged by his students to discover why people weren't gifted with the healing power of Jesus, set out to answer that question through study. Years of Western study and finally cloistered meditation on a mountain top brought him the realization that we all do, in fact, have healing ability but we need to activate it through sacred Tibetan symbols and conscious connection to the Universe. Thus the system…

We are equipped with different ways of seeing, and if we are fully open to them, then we are much more than equipped; we are blessed.  Here is a (true) parable to illustrate the point:

A middle aged man, devastated by kidney failure and the stressful wait for an organ transplant, collapsed into seizures and suffered a breakdown that manifested in an unexpected bout of amnesia. He was subdued in his confusion as family members visited him in the hospital, speaking very little,  so they…

A pioneer in the self-help movement, Shakti Gawain taught us to harness the power of creative visualization in her seminal books, Creative Visualization and Living in the Light.  Once we can calm ourselves down through breath, we can enter the realm of the imagination and use our capacities to visualize for healing and well being, not just…

As a child, did you delight in the exotic, mystical stories of magic carpets, manifestation through puffs of smoke, and genies?  Most of us did, either through storybooks that unleashed our imagination or through colorful and hypnotic animation in movies and on television.  The names, the clothing,   The Arabian locales and cultural accoutrements increased the exotic appeal of the story, which appeared, like many other compelling tales, in the 1001 Arabian Nights.  Who wouldn’t desire a…

In human form we embody the essence of the Divine, and that essence, according to multiple religious and spiritual traditions, is love. On this single point, diverse devotional adherents usually agree. They affirm that the human being is a spark of Divine light, a segment of the universal whole, and our journey through life is to make our way back to that greater Divine entity. Of course, karmic debt complicates the individual journey to varying degrees, but our ultimate purpose on earth is…

In human form we embody the essence of the Divine, and that essence, according to multiple religious and spiritual traditions, is love.  On this single point, diverse devotional adherents usually agree. They affirm that the human being is a spark of Divine light, a segment of the universal whole, and our journey through  life is to make our way back to that greater Divine entity.   Of course,  karmic debt complicates the individual journey to varying degrees, but our ultimate purpose on…

Adult Survivors of Child Abuse:

Removing the Splinter

by Lisa Shaw

Consider how a splinter, a tiny foreign object embedded in a finger or foot, can cause discomfort great enough to immobilize us. Its size so disproportionate to the rest of our bodies, that sliver exerts an overwhelming power. This is what it feels like to be an abuse survivor, even if the abuse occurred and got buried in childhood. The sting returns as we carry on our normal routines…

by Lisa Shaw

Consider how a splinter, a tiny foreign object embedded in a finger or foot, can cause discomfort great enough to immobilize us. Its size so disproportionate to the rest of our bodies, that sliver exerts an overwhelming power. This is what it feels like to be an abuse survivor, even if the abuse occurred and got buried in childhood. The sting returns as we carry on our normal routines later in life. The same happens with an uninvited pebble in a shoe.…

When we suffer what we perceive as loss or defeat, we can abandon hope and retreat from the world. Yes, it stings.  But for some, the  loss feels insurmountable, plummeting them into  long term despair, an understandable, permssible human response after a loved one's death, a breakup, unemployment, homelessness.   In fact, not sinking into grief  would make us appear suspect.  But outside of those severe circumstances, how often do we prolong grief over self-inflicted rather than…

Near the conclusion o  The Wiazard of Oz,  when Toto unmasks the Wizard as fraudulent, Dorothy and her companions continue requesting the characteristics they still believe they lack. Only when the Wizard is revealed to be an ordinary man (“a very bad wizard but a very good man”) -- only when he is authentic and natural -- can connect with his higher self and impart great wisdom,  offering sage advice that the travelers have been unable to see by themsevles through the road's many…

Modern meditation is encouraged as a healing tool, even prescribed  by medical doctors and scientists to calm the mind and body, reducing stress and subsequently decreasing the effects of illness or pain.  This use of meditation, certainly lauded by spiritual practitioners, somehow overlooks the true purpose of the practice: to align with the Divine and channel its pure, loving energy into the physical world.  I often think of the chiropractor’s bumper sticker, which reads, "Healing the…

There are those who warn us, “don’t look back” unless you want to become a pillar of salt.  Then there are others who see rear-view glances as a waste of time,  locking  us in an unproductive “shoulda woulda coulda” mode; the cliche, “hindsight is 20/20,”   illustrates the  futility of  over-examining  past decisions. Other spiritual perspectives give much attention to our use of time. In leading us toward the elusive state of happiness, the Buddha instructs us to look…

Animal Chakra Tune Up

Like people, animals love energy work, but unlike people, they create no barriers to etheric healing because it’s the plane on which they comfortably exists, whereas we have to work at suspending our reliance upon the concrete and visible first.  Animals feel energy and sense vibrational change before they see solid matter and experience earth-level activity (think about early earthquake warnings, pre-thunder jitters,  character detection in a person…

Once again we see a blueprint for our lives in the Wizard of Oz.  The first time we meet the Tin Man he is standing alone, immobilized, in desperate need of the oil can.  In fact, even his jaw is locked to the point that he can’t articulate his need, and Dorothy somehow understands his closed-mouth muttering and frees him, joint by joint, enabling him to move.   Many of us go through life like the tin man, not to his extreme, but enough of us suffer from knee pain, hip pain, TMJ, and various…

Reiki (pronounced Ray-Key) is Universal Life Energy, a healing modality that permeates body,  mind, and spirit.   While all healing techniques do come from the same Universal Source, Reiki involves a three level training program taught by a certified Reiki Master.  It acts as a healing agent on all natural elements, not just people, and in many Reiki training classes, students leven earn to purify water and remove toxins from foods.  The mjulti-level  healing Reiki promotes is unlimited,…

Breath gives us life. In Sanskrit, that life force, prana, is considered the equivlaent of "chi" energy or the "ki" in Reik . It is the breath of life that permeates our entire being and moves up the spine touching and vitalizing each chakra, healing by its very nature. Various systems concentrate on the breath as a healing agent, from yogic breathing to holotropic breath work (rebirthing) to the science of LaMaze childbirth or rebirthing, which uses a series of uninterrupted breaths to…