There are a great many ways to perform color healing, but I feel that the best way, by far, is projecting color through intent.
Color is light, and so is associated alchemically with the realm of fire a – a realm of change, mutation, transformation and transmutation. Color used as medicine can uplift the spirit, and as this energy steps down into the denser levels of ones being, can bring profound healing to the mental, emotional, and physical levels of one’s being.
I have been fascinated for a long time by the many different devices and modalities one can use to perform color healing. One author says to sit in the light streaming through a sheet of stained glass. One company produces a pen that shines colored light through a quartz crystal. I know a practitioner who has a box you look into that projects light into your eyes that shines through slices of different gemstones, depending on what you dial in – ruby, emerald, etc. The problem with all of these techniques is that if you wish to change colors quickly, you can’t. The only technique that allows quick and fluid changes in color is projection of color through your imagination.
Americans like their gadgets, and they definitely feel more comfortable with material, tangible paraphernalia, especially when it looks professional. New Age tools have an allure, and can also impress ones client. But there is no tool like the imagination, even though it isn’t expensive and you can’t show it to a client.
I have spent over four decades studying color and the means of various colors. It’s an extremely interesting and worthwhile branch of knowledge, but when it comes to color healing the ultimate way to select a color is just to go with what feels right, with whatever colors it occurs to you to use at the moment. The intuition is capable of far faster assessment and selection than the rational mind.
The problem is most people lack the self-confidence needed to listen to their intuition, and then to follow through by using the color that comes to them. People have such a fear of being wrong, of not “doing it right,” and of failing that signals from their intuition are drowned out by all these misgivings and apprehensions. If you find yourself having this sort of problem, I recommend that you take the Bach Flower Remedy larch, which helps one to be more self-confident.
Another problem that can happen is that a person who wants to perform color therapy says, “I’m not getting any color at all.” In this case, the best thing to do is to just start the healing work. Set the intent that you are going to project the most needed color, that the Spirit of Healing will select the right color for you, and that you don’t even need to know what the color is. In fact, you could work for a whole lifetime as a color therapist and never once see in your mind what color you are using. Not seeing the color does not mean it’s not there. The healing may be totally effective without your ever being privy to the details of it.
And a very important point is this: you need to allow the color to change, whenever it feels like it, and however it feels like it. When I engage in color healing I often see more than one color at a time, and they often change, sometimes returning to the original color at some point. At other times there is little or no change in the color. The most important thing to remember is that you need to allow the color to do what it wants to do, go where it needs to go, and last for however long it wants to last.
Always see yourself as the vehicle, the conduit. You are channeling the color from Spirit to the person you are working on, and all you need to do is to relax, be open, and let go of extraneous thoughts.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Just got through doing a reiki session. The reiki energy is something you find. Once you feel it you just let it be, let your attention be with it. Allowing it increases the flow of the energy.
When I finished the person, who had never had reiki before asked me if I was drained. I said no, in fact, I felt like I had had a treatment. This is as it should be. By channelling the energy the practitioner is in the energy him/herself and can be just as refreshed and healed by it as the person receiving.
Reiki is not about doing, its about being -- being in the energy. It is very influenced by your beliefs. If you believe that extraneous thoughts will disrupt the flow of the energy, they can,and will. So don't believe that. My reiki works best when I allow my emotions generously into it. How much I love the person I'm working on! How good this feels! How I can feel it creating harmony, and how wonderful that feels.
The last thing you want to do is wonder if you're doing the right thing. You can't make a mistake. Know the energy is there, know you are accessing it, and know that it's going to the right place.
When people are doing reiki they are always wondering where to put their hands. Never, never forget that the reiki energy has intelligence. It will go where it needs to go, go to where it can get through at the time, and will modify the person's energy field in such a way that as the energy works, they will become more open and accessible to it.
Let your hands go wherever they want. Let them say as long as they want in any one place, or change as often as they want. It is sometimes true that if you find yourself changing hand positions alot, it may be because you are insecure or uncertain about where to put them. If you find this to be the case, just leave them where they are, and don't move them until you truly feel the impulse to do so.
The feet are such a nice place to work because they have reflexes on them to every single part of the body. When you work on feet the energy can move easily from there to anywhere else it needs to go.
As I am writing this I can feel reiki energy coming out of my hands into the computer and onto the screen. So I am giving you a reiki treatment as you read these words. The energy knows who's going to read the words, and will wait in them until you come to read them, and will stay in the words until each and every person who is going to read them had read them! Don't try to make sense of this. When you try to make sense of reiki, you interrupt the flow of the energy. The energy is the essence of sense, a deep, far-reaching sense beyond the limits of logic as we know it.
I have wanted for so long to write this blog on reiki, and have hesitated wondering what I was going to say. Now I realize that its the reiki energy that wants to speak, and all I need to do is let it.
When I finished the person, who had never had reiki before asked me if I was drained. I said no, in fact, I felt like I had had a treatment. This is as it should be. By channelling the energy the practitioner is in the energy him/herself and can be just as refreshed and healed by it as the person receiving.
Reiki is not about doing, its about being -- being in the energy. It is very influenced by your beliefs. If you believe that extraneous thoughts will disrupt the flow of the energy, they can,and will. So don't believe that. My reiki works best when I allow my emotions generously into it. How much I love the person I'm working on! How good this feels! How I can feel it creating harmony, and how wonderful that feels.
The last thing you want to do is wonder if you're doing the right thing. You can't make a mistake. Know the energy is there, know you are accessing it, and know that it's going to the right place.
When people are doing reiki they are always wondering where to put their hands. Never, never forget that the reiki energy has intelligence. It will go where it needs to go, go to where it can get through at the time, and will modify the person's energy field in such a way that as the energy works, they will become more open and accessible to it.
Let your hands go wherever they want. Let them say as long as they want in any one place, or change as often as they want. It is sometimes true that if you find yourself changing hand positions alot, it may be because you are insecure or uncertain about where to put them. If you find this to be the case, just leave them where they are, and don't move them until you truly feel the impulse to do so.
The feet are such a nice place to work because they have reflexes on them to every single part of the body. When you work on feet the energy can move easily from there to anywhere else it needs to go.
As I am writing this I can feel reiki energy coming out of my hands into the computer and onto the screen. So I am giving you a reiki treatment as you read these words. The energy knows who's going to read the words, and will wait in them until you come to read them, and will stay in the words until each and every person who is going to read them had read them! Don't try to make sense of this. When you try to make sense of reiki, you interrupt the flow of the energy. The energy is the essence of sense, a deep, far-reaching sense beyond the limits of logic as we know it.
I have wanted for so long to write this blog on reiki, and have hesitated wondering what I was going to say. Now I realize that its the reiki energy that wants to speak, and all I need to do is let it.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Some Gems from Kabbalah
Water: The Universal Healer
Water. It moves, if flows, it warms, it cools. Water takes on the imprint of the energies around it. Through our intent we can both clear water of the vibrations already in it, and imbue it with whatever thoughtform we want. Because of all the negativity on planet earth water has become polluted. Not just by chemicals and physical toxins, but by psychic toxins as well, our collective worries, fears, and stress.
In Yehuda Berg's book "The 72 Names of God" there is a name for purifying water. (To learn more of the 72 names see the brief summary in this blog under "The 72 Names of God"). This name consists of three Hebrew letters: vav, mem, and bet. To use this name to purity water visualize the letters in that order -- vav, mem, bet, and visualize them from right to left -- this is the way Hebrew is read. See the letters as either black or white, or maybe gold, whatever your intuition tells you. Visualize them within a container you've filled with water. Use your intent to see those letters glowing within the water and filling it with clarity, cleaning and clearing the water of all impurities, restoring it to its original pristine state. You can do this for a moment or two. or for a few minutes, or longer, whatever you want. Once you have purified your water in this manner you can drink it -- it will give you energy and help you in every way. You can also use it for cooking and cleaning. You can also spray it around your house to energize and bless. Use it anywhere and everywhere you would use any other water. If you don't know what these Hebrew letters look like you can go to http://www.hebrew4christians.com/Grammar/Unit_One/Aleph-Bet/aleph-bet.html and see them. This website is a wonderful source of information, history and lore for the Hebrew alphabet. And by the way, you can also visualize these three letters inside your own body to purify all the water that's there. And while you're at it, visualize the whole earth with vav-mem-bet glowing deep through all the oceans.
The Ultimate Sin
A Great Rabbi said that the Ultimate Sin is not having fun. God wants us to enjoy life. Maybe the reason that Eve ate that apple in the first place is that she got bored and wasn't having any fun any more.Have you had fun today?Fun is often trivialized, but in spiritual terms it's serious business. People of the current world spend a lot of time, energy and money trying to have fun, but I think they often don't achieve their goal. It's hard to have fun when you're carrying around bundles of worries. The solution? Stop worrying! I know it's easier said than done, but the attempt to cease worrying is one of the noblest pursuits there is. Remember: the soul doesn't worry. Only the ego can worry. You may think you can have fun yesterday or tomorrow, but the truth is, you can only have fun now. The ego delights in the past and future. In fact, the Ego is afraid of now! The ego loves to live in nostalgia (past), guilt and remorse (past), fears (which are fantasies about the future), and idealized visions of what could be (future). Drop it all and drop in to the present. Try some cheap, spontaneous fun!
God is not a CEO
Many people think, "why would God be interested in my little problem when there are so many others in the world who have far more dire problems than I, and so many bigger challences he/she has to address?" This question is based on a misconception. God is not a CEO working within a limited time frame and with limited resources. The head of a multimillion dollar corporation would not be expeccted to worry about how sharp the secretary's pencils are -- because that CEO probably has a very tight schedule. There are only 24 hours in a day, and the more important you are the more important your time is! This is how relativistic reality works -- it's all about limits.But the sages have told us that God is infinite.Let's say we're going to visit a place that is an infinite number of miles away from earth. The fact is, that if we take ten paces toward that place we're no closer to it than if we travel 50 million light years toward it. So in those terms ten paces and 50 million light years are equal. And by the same token God is just as concerned about the life of a blade of grass as he/she is about the whole earth. God has enough caring to go around, and far more than that -- more than is possible for us to even conceive.The Kabbalists tell us that everything we do is important. Smiling at someone as you pass them on the street sends powerful waves of love through the spiritual realms. Every thought you think generates energy that is having an effect on the spirit realms.Our physical reality is what Kabbalists call the 1 percent realm, in contradistinction to the 99 percent realm which is the realm of spiritual realities, other universes, abode of angels, etc. It's easy to get so embroiled in this 1 percent realm that we slip into thinking it's all there is -- that we are limited by time and space, that there'se not enough to go around. The truth is that if we allow ourselves to become a conduit for the spiritual light we realize that all limitations are ultimately illusions, that we can access infinite love, wisdom and power. And that everything matters.As one Kabbalist said, each and every blade of grass his its own individual angel that watches over it.
Problems: What are they?
There was a man with lots of problems. He didn't get along with his wife or his kids. He had health challenges. He didn't like his job. His employer didn't like him. He felt like everything in his existence was a mess.So he decided to go to a famous Rabbi, a holy man who had deep spiritual insight, and to ask the Rabbi why he had all these problems, and how he could get rid of them.When he got to the Rabbi's house the Rabbi was with someone else and the Rabbi's wife showed the man to the parlor and asked him to wait. There was a comfortable chair in the parlor and a warm fire (it was winter), and the man sat down in the chair and soon fell asleep.And he had a dream: In the dream he saw a host of beautiful angels marching past him in a solemn procession. Thy were glowing with light and he was mesmerized by their glory. He saw they were proceeding into a dark wood.And after them he saw a host of dark demons marching, ugly, nasty-looking creatures. There was a lot of them, and they were following the angels into the dark wood.This all made him very curious so he followed the demons and angels deep into the wood until they came to a great circular open area in the midst of which was a gigantic balance scale.All the angels climbed into the right-hand pan of the balance scale until the pan was near full and touching the ground. Then the demons began to climb into the left-hand pan. As they were doing so the man began recognizing the demons. Each one of them had been given birth to by a negative deed which the man had committed in his past. If he looked at any single demon he could even begin to remember which negative deed it was.Turning to the angels he realized that he had given birth to them also through his positive deeds. As he watched the demons crawl into their pan he saw the pan growing heavier and heavier, and as they weighed the angels down, their pan began to rise into the air. "Oh no!" thought the man "I am witnessing my own judgement!"But then a most wondrous thing happened. A motly host of beings burst through the trees into the open circle. They were dressed very colorfully in a variety of clothes. They ran over to the pan which was loading up with demons and began pulling them off one by one. "Who are these strange people?" thought the man. And as he looked at them he realized that these beings were his problems. There was his hernia, all dressed in red. And that one there who was all in tatters were his bills he couldn't pay. And that one there was obviously the embodiment of his problems with his wife. And that dark one there was his depression. And he realized that all of his problems, every one of them were actually his allies, were helping him to clear negativity, were neutralizing his bad karma.And just then the Rabbi's wife came in and woke him and said, "The Rabbi can see you now.""Oh," said the man, "Uh, well, that's O.K. I think I found the answer to my question. I know the Rabbi's time is valuable, so I think I'll be on my way. But thanks anyway."
Resistance: A Key to Spiritual Growth
Resistance correctly applied is a key to spiritul growth. There is a lot of students I have taught Kabbalah who have had problems understanding this idea of resistance. For one thing, we tend to put a negative connotation on this word. The type of resistance of which Kabbalah speaks, though, is purely positive, in fact wonderful!Resistance is all about going against any force which holds us down or back. Resistance is what balances the yin and the yang. for instance, water is yin and fire is yang. Put them together and either the water evaporates, if the fire is stronger at the time, or the fire is put out, if the water is stronger at the time. But lets put some resistance into the equation, lets put a steel cooking pan between them, something to resist the fire totally evaporating the water, and to resist the water spilling onto the fire and putting it out. Now we're cooking!Resistance is not saying something negative when its come to mind and you have the impulse to do so. Resistance is not eating that piece of chocolate cake just because it's there. Standing up is an act of resisting gravity. Maybe you know you need to meditate, but it's easier to just turn on the T.V. Can you resist the impulse to do so, and go ahead and meditate? Resistance engaged in at the right place and time is what makes your spiritual light burn brighter.One of the most important forms of resistance is that which occurs inwardly -- resisting the impulse to place your consciousness in the past or future. The only way to do this is to be in the NOW, to place your awareness in the moment. This act of resistance, repeated over and over can eventually clear all karmas and lead us into higher and higher states of consciousness.
What is Kabbalah?
The word "kabbalah" comes from an Aramaic word meaning "to receive." There are two ways of receiving: (1) receiving for the self alone, which is what the ego wants. This way will always create suffering and cut us off from the light. (2) receiving for the sake of giving. This is the key to attuning to the light and reaching total fulfillment. God is about giving, and if we are to become like God, then we need to overcoming the selfishness of the ego and share what we receive from the universe, be it time, energy, intelligence, money or anything else. Through sharing we dissolve the boundaries of the ego, heal conflict, and affirm the fact that we truly are all one and are all manifestations of God.The thing I find so interesting about Kabbalah is that it is at root so simple. All you need is love! Now it is true that kabbalah can be very complicated, and for those of you who delight in learning and studying all the details of our miraculous reality, Kabbalah can take you into a very intricate world to show you all the subtle workings of energies.The fact that Kabbalah is at once totally simple and yet very complicated is mirroried in our own bodies. On a chemical level we are elaborate beings consisting of a myriad of organic compounds all working together in a vast symphony. But on another level you don't need to understand chemistry, physiology and psychology to smile at someone. Really the simplist definition I can give for Kabbalah is that it's the art of continually being kinder and kinder to other people! That's the universal medicine!
The 72 Names of God
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
"The 72 Names of God" is a book by Yehuda Berg. These names of God each have three letters and are derived from three consecutive verses found in Exodus.The names can be used for healing and blessing and are very powerful. Rather than being spoken, the names are to be visualized. When I visualize one of them I like to see it emanating light in all directions. Of course the more feeling and intensity you put in to the visualization the more effective it will be.There is one of these names that most strongly corresponds to your own energy. To find out which one it is call 1-800-kabbalah and they'll be happy to tell you once they have your birthday. To learn more about the 72 names, go to 72.com. At this website, if you click on "free tools" you will be shown a Name of God and a meditation pertaining to it.
"The 72 Names of God" is a book by Yehuda Berg. These names of God each have three letters and are derived from three consecutive verses found in Exodus.The names can be used for healing and blessing and are very powerful. Rather than being spoken, the names are to be visualized. When I visualize one of them I like to see it emanating light in all directions. Of course the more feeling and intensity you put in to the visualization the more effective it will be.There is one of these names that most strongly corresponds to your own energy. To find out which one it is call 1-800-kabbalah and they'll be happy to tell you once they have your birthday. To learn more about the 72 names, go to 72.com. At this website, if you click on "free tools" you will be shown a Name of God and a meditation pertaining to it.
Spontaneous Movement
1
Spontaneous movement has the power to heal all illnesses. Many cultures have methods of spontaneous movement therapy – this type of bodywork can be found throughout history in many times and places. The purpose of this book is to encourage you to engage in spontaneous movement, and support you in healing yourself through this wonderful method.
Illness is always caused by an imbalance in the energy field. An organ or joint is either suffering from trapped energy, or is not receiving enough energy flow. The Chinese, in their wonderful simplicity say that energy does four things: it flows up, it flows down, it comes in, it goes out. Wherever it is impeded in these four movements, we tend to develop pathology, be it minor or major
Spontaneous movement allows ones physical energy system to clear trapped energy. This is more likely to happen gradually than quickly, because the body is a creature of habit, and responds more readily to habits being changed in small increments over time than it does to sudden shifts. Therefore you must give spontaneous movement a chance to heal you by doing it regularly over an extended period. I don’t think of spontaneous movement as something I’ll just do for awhile, but as a part of my lifestyle which I’ll do until I die.
Sudden shifts, though, can and will happen WHEN YOUR BEING IS READY FOR THEM. Don’t try to make them occur. DON’T FORCE ANYTHING. Just let the spontaneous movement happen.
2
The biggest problem with spontaneous movement that I have found is that when I suggest to someone that they engage in it, the person is often too inhibited to allow the spontaneous movement to be effective. Most people have developed a relationship to their body which is highly patterned and deeply fixed. We tend not to be aware of this, for our body is our environments, and as Marshall Mcluhan says, “environments are invisible.”
One way to help a person over their entrenched psycho/physical patterns is to suggest that they engage in EXPERIMENTAL MOVEMENT, that is, PLAY WITH THEIR BODY – try out different movements. See how many movements you can think of to perform. Think of how many ways you can move your body. And as you this be aware of how some of them will feel much better to engage in than others. These are the ones you need.
You are best off moving slowly and fluidly at first. Slowly because when you’re being slow its easier to be aware of the physical feelings you are having as you move, and fluid, that is, not pausing, because you are then less likely to be consciously controlling the movement through choices.
3
I thought a long time about writing this book before starting it. I wasn’t sure what structure to give the book, but then decided that the book needed to be structured in the same way as spontaneous movement – spontaneously, as it unfolds.
4
Your body is a vast entity. It is a universe. It contains all your karma and your past lives. Your physical body is only a part of your body, actually a small part. As I describe to you some of the many possibilities of spontaneous movement I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. Don’t try to do too many things at once. Stay with what you’re doing in the moment, and relish the release! Spontaneous movement is where fun and healing meet!
My suggestion is to start with just your head and neck. The neck is made to move in many directions, it is a being which loves flexibility. In astrology it is ruled by the sign Taurus, whose negative characteristic is stubbornness and rigidity. The challenges of living can certainly make a neck rigid. As we try to hold out against the difficulties and negativities we have to deal with, our neck can so easily go stiff.
As you move your neck slowly and fluidly you will experience places of restriction. These painful areas are boundaries of movement, where your body is telling you that this is a place of tension. Respect that message and proceed lovingly.
5
Here is one of the most important points in this book: YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE TYPE OF PAIN YOU ARE EXPERIENCING WHEN YOU MOVE SPONTANEOUSLY. This is the key to your success. There is a pain which actually feels good. The good pain is your body telling you that you are helping it. An example of this good pain is getting up in the morning and stretching. You do this because your body wants to do it, because it feels right and good.
Listen to your body. When you feel a place of restriction, gently stretch into it. Try either holding the stretch, or you might try backing off from it and repeating the same stretch again, maybe even a number of times.
John Barnes, who is an authority on stretching says that you may hold a stretch anywhere from 90 seconds to 5 minutes! Always remember though, if your body says STOP, or THAT’S TOO MUCH, then stop.
6
Most people love to receive massage. Spontaneous movement is giving yourself an internal massage. And in fact self massage is another facet of spontaneous movement. As you stretch your neck you may reach up and massage it .
There is a chiropractor who has based a whole therapeutic system around stretching the neck forward and then with both hands gently pulling it down toward your chest. Try this, and then as you do it gently move the neck from side to side.
7
As you move your neck in all directions, try opening your mouth, stretching your jaw. Move it from side to side. Your tongue can stretch out – it too can go in many directions. When you stick your tongue out as far as you can you automatically constrict your throat, which massages your throat. This is a traditional yoga exercise to alleviate sort throat. As you do this you may what to open your eyes as widely as you can, as if you were surprised, and also stretch all your fingers out as far as you can.
8
The muscles of your face can also make many motions. Raise and lower your forehead, pucker your lips, make funny faces! Half of all the acupuncture meridians either begin or end on the face, and through massaging your face you can stimulate them.
9
The facial muscles are used to give social signals – smiling, frowning, recognition, as in a wink. It is social unacceptable to contort the face in all sorts of directions. This is one of the greatest inhibiting factors to spontaneous movement – the fact that we are all instilled with the idea that we aren’t supposed to move our bodies when we don’t have a purpose to do so. Moving the body randomly is something a child does until they grow up enough to learn to “be still.” When children engage in all sorts of random movements they are releasing pent-up energy, giving themselves some intuitive therapy. An adult can recapture the ability to do this.
10
For spontaneous movement to have a therapeutic effect the movements needn’t be big or drastic. Subtle, small movements can have much healing power. It can be hard for people to believe this, especially Westerners.
A lovely example of the power of subtle movement is cranial sacral therapy. In this healing modality the therapist makes very gentle and light contact with the patient and simply tracks with and supports the subtle and oftentimes almost imperceptible movements that his or her body is making. The results can be profound, healing all sorts of problems, from skeletal misalignment to difficulties with organ functioning.
Your body is always moving in an attempt to heal itself. If you can listen to it and allow it to engage in these movements, great healing can be the result.
Movement increases circulation, both of blood and chi, and it is smooth, unimpeded circulation that rids us of infection and can correct problems of misalignment.
11
I said earlier that spontaneous movement is giving yourself an internal massage. It can also be giving yourself in external massage as well. For instance, you can massage your face with your hands. You can tap your face with your fingers. How much sinus trouble would be helped simply by tapping the sinus areas with the fingers! Slap your cheeks. Pull your ears! Slap your neck up and down from the bottom of it to your skull, back and forth! Directly behind the bottom of your ears is an important acupoint called gall bladder 20 which helps the low back, ears and eyes, and which calms nervous energy. Slap in this vicinity.
12
I’ve studied a lot about acupoints and anatomical features of the subtle anatomy, but as I write I’m going to try to bring as little as possible of this into what I’m telling you, because I don’t want you to intellectualize the activity of spontaneous movement, or to try to figure out what you need. Such activities are fine, but my goal is to get you to move, and to do it in the way that a poet writes -- from your soul! Experimentally! You can’t do anything wrong when you spontaneously move. Can a grain of sand in the desert be out of place? Ha ha! And even if it is out of place, the wind will make sure to put it back where it belongs!
13
If you’re ever sore from doing spontaneous movement, it could be either because you did too much, pushed your body too far, or maybe because you are going through a process of detoxification. When you are moving spontaneously, you are feeding yourself with fresh energy as you release old, stagnant energy. If you overfeed yourself, that is, try to make the process of release happen too quickly, you can get energy indigestion. Listen to your body, for it will tell you how fast it wants to go.
14
Have you thought of spontaneously moving your vocal chords? Let’s see what they do! Do they have some funny sounds to make? Some words to say? Remember, your conscious mind doesn’t have to be involved with this, or try to make those words or sounds make sense. Let the sounds out, and see what comes out.
Here is a fun exercise: Say a bunch of two letter words that consist of a consonant and a vowel, for instance bo, me, do, la, ja, ha, ro, etc. You may chant or sing these rhythmically, at any speed you want. Just enjoy the texture of the consonants, and the way all the different sounds feel. Repeat the ones you like best. You can also make up nonsense words, or say any words that come to your mind, be they single words or whole sentences.
Doing exercises of this nature encourages the unconscious aspects of your being to express themselves and can trigger the release of pent-up energy.
15
When I was around 25 years old I was seeing a doctor, an osteopath, who gave me an article he thought I might be interested in. It was about another osteopath who had put together a room with padded walls and a sort floor. He had done this to give his patients a room in which they could be alone to engage in spontaneous movement. The room was totally private – it had no windows, and had been soundproofed – in case a person wanted to scream or make other loud noises in it.
The doctor found that patients with incurable illnesses, as well as patients who weren’t responding to any of the other treatments he offered were greatly benefited by going in this room and doing exactly whatever their impulses told them to do.
The question is, since this treatment was effective, why didn’t it catch on? Why aren’t many practitioners using this technique?
The same doctor who had given me the article on this technique said that he had known a number of other osteopaths who had learned homeopathy and who had stopped practicing it after awhile. “Why did they do this?” I asked, “is it because it didn’t heal the patient?” “No!” was the answer I received, “it is because it was too effective, because it worked too well! The cured patients didn’t come back. Homeopathy was bad for business!”
16
Years later I was taking a shiatsu class and the teacher gave us a hand out on a Chinese therapy known as “Re-do,” which is spontaneous movement therapy. This is identical to what the aforementioned osteopath with his padded room was engaging in.
The only difference is that in the practice of “re-do” you start out with two preliminary exercises to warm you up: First you sit in a chair and as you inhale you twist your whole spine to one side as you turn your neck and look behind you. Then you let out your breath you come back to a forward facing position. Next you inhale again and twist around in the other direction, then letting your breath out and coming back to the forward facing position. You do this over and over, twisting one way and then the other, for a number of times. This helps to limber up the spine before you engage in the spontaneous movement.
Next you spread your arms wide above your head as you lean back and take a deep breath in, and then as you exhale you lean all the way over from the waist and put your arms between your legs and your hands on the floor. You repeat this movement again several times. Once you’ve done this you flow into the spontaneous movement, doing whatever you want.
17
The three positions for engaging in spontaneous movement are: (1) lying down, (2) standing, and (3) seated. The value of lying down is that you don’t have to maintain your balance. A bed is good, as well as a carpeted floor or a floor mat. The down side of using a bed is that if you get too spontaneous, you could fall off, and so you’ll need to control yourself -- at least a little!
A great spontaneous exercise to do in bed involves working on the hara, which is the area between the pelvic bone and the ribs, that is, the whole abdomen and all those organs below the diaphragm.
A good time to do this exercise is in the morning before you get up. Simply press all around on your belly! It’s just that simple. When you find a place that is sore or sensitive, gently massage it. You may also press down and hold. Don’t, though, cause yourself discomfort. Go at this in an easy, gentle manner. This exercise can stimulate all your internal organs, and as you work on your large and small intestines absorption of nutrients can improve, and elimination can be enhanced.
By the way, as you work on the hara its best to proceed in a clockwise position, as this is the directional flow of your colon.
When we engage in spontaneous movement in a standing position we can allow the i[[er limbs to have full mobility, stretching the shoulder muscles and joints, and bringing greater flexibility and freedom to the whole arm.
A great stretch for the arm is to hook the fingers over the high ledge of a doorway and allow oneself to hang a little bit. You can also bend the fingers backwards and place them against a wall, pushing against it to stretch the arm.
18
Do not assume that spontaneous movement is only for affecting the body. Our body is a reflection of our personality, as we release the pent-up stress in it an inevitable reaction will occur in our emotional and mental bodies. This is a wonderful process, for our body is a mirror of the other aspects of our being. Our body allows us to know ourselves, if we will just observe what is going on in it – turn our attention to what we are feeling.
The Tibetans have a meditation discipline known as dzogchen. Dzogchen is not practiced for a certain time each day, but is meant to be practiced all the time. It is the continuous attunement to the void, to the source of all existence. It is living in the moment.
Spontaneous movement has the power to heal all illnesses. Many cultures have methods of spontaneous movement therapy – this type of bodywork can be found throughout history in many times and places. The purpose of this book is to encourage you to engage in spontaneous movement, and support you in healing yourself through this wonderful method.
Illness is always caused by an imbalance in the energy field. An organ or joint is either suffering from trapped energy, or is not receiving enough energy flow. The Chinese, in their wonderful simplicity say that energy does four things: it flows up, it flows down, it comes in, it goes out. Wherever it is impeded in these four movements, we tend to develop pathology, be it minor or major
Spontaneous movement allows ones physical energy system to clear trapped energy. This is more likely to happen gradually than quickly, because the body is a creature of habit, and responds more readily to habits being changed in small increments over time than it does to sudden shifts. Therefore you must give spontaneous movement a chance to heal you by doing it regularly over an extended period. I don’t think of spontaneous movement as something I’ll just do for awhile, but as a part of my lifestyle which I’ll do until I die.
Sudden shifts, though, can and will happen WHEN YOUR BEING IS READY FOR THEM. Don’t try to make them occur. DON’T FORCE ANYTHING. Just let the spontaneous movement happen.
2
The biggest problem with spontaneous movement that I have found is that when I suggest to someone that they engage in it, the person is often too inhibited to allow the spontaneous movement to be effective. Most people have developed a relationship to their body which is highly patterned and deeply fixed. We tend not to be aware of this, for our body is our environments, and as Marshall Mcluhan says, “environments are invisible.”
One way to help a person over their entrenched psycho/physical patterns is to suggest that they engage in EXPERIMENTAL MOVEMENT, that is, PLAY WITH THEIR BODY – try out different movements. See how many movements you can think of to perform. Think of how many ways you can move your body. And as you this be aware of how some of them will feel much better to engage in than others. These are the ones you need.
You are best off moving slowly and fluidly at first. Slowly because when you’re being slow its easier to be aware of the physical feelings you are having as you move, and fluid, that is, not pausing, because you are then less likely to be consciously controlling the movement through choices.
3
I thought a long time about writing this book before starting it. I wasn’t sure what structure to give the book, but then decided that the book needed to be structured in the same way as spontaneous movement – spontaneously, as it unfolds.
4
Your body is a vast entity. It is a universe. It contains all your karma and your past lives. Your physical body is only a part of your body, actually a small part. As I describe to you some of the many possibilities of spontaneous movement I don’t want you to feel overwhelmed. Don’t try to do too many things at once. Stay with what you’re doing in the moment, and relish the release! Spontaneous movement is where fun and healing meet!
My suggestion is to start with just your head and neck. The neck is made to move in many directions, it is a being which loves flexibility. In astrology it is ruled by the sign Taurus, whose negative characteristic is stubbornness and rigidity. The challenges of living can certainly make a neck rigid. As we try to hold out against the difficulties and negativities we have to deal with, our neck can so easily go stiff.
As you move your neck slowly and fluidly you will experience places of restriction. These painful areas are boundaries of movement, where your body is telling you that this is a place of tension. Respect that message and proceed lovingly.
5
Here is one of the most important points in this book: YOU NEED TO BE AWARE OF THE TYPE OF PAIN YOU ARE EXPERIENCING WHEN YOU MOVE SPONTANEOUSLY. This is the key to your success. There is a pain which actually feels good. The good pain is your body telling you that you are helping it. An example of this good pain is getting up in the morning and stretching. You do this because your body wants to do it, because it feels right and good.
Listen to your body. When you feel a place of restriction, gently stretch into it. Try either holding the stretch, or you might try backing off from it and repeating the same stretch again, maybe even a number of times.
John Barnes, who is an authority on stretching says that you may hold a stretch anywhere from 90 seconds to 5 minutes! Always remember though, if your body says STOP, or THAT’S TOO MUCH, then stop.
6
Most people love to receive massage. Spontaneous movement is giving yourself an internal massage. And in fact self massage is another facet of spontaneous movement. As you stretch your neck you may reach up and massage it .
There is a chiropractor who has based a whole therapeutic system around stretching the neck forward and then with both hands gently pulling it down toward your chest. Try this, and then as you do it gently move the neck from side to side.
7
As you move your neck in all directions, try opening your mouth, stretching your jaw. Move it from side to side. Your tongue can stretch out – it too can go in many directions. When you stick your tongue out as far as you can you automatically constrict your throat, which massages your throat. This is a traditional yoga exercise to alleviate sort throat. As you do this you may what to open your eyes as widely as you can, as if you were surprised, and also stretch all your fingers out as far as you can.
8
The muscles of your face can also make many motions. Raise and lower your forehead, pucker your lips, make funny faces! Half of all the acupuncture meridians either begin or end on the face, and through massaging your face you can stimulate them.
9
The facial muscles are used to give social signals – smiling, frowning, recognition, as in a wink. It is social unacceptable to contort the face in all sorts of directions. This is one of the greatest inhibiting factors to spontaneous movement – the fact that we are all instilled with the idea that we aren’t supposed to move our bodies when we don’t have a purpose to do so. Moving the body randomly is something a child does until they grow up enough to learn to “be still.” When children engage in all sorts of random movements they are releasing pent-up energy, giving themselves some intuitive therapy. An adult can recapture the ability to do this.
10
For spontaneous movement to have a therapeutic effect the movements needn’t be big or drastic. Subtle, small movements can have much healing power. It can be hard for people to believe this, especially Westerners.
A lovely example of the power of subtle movement is cranial sacral therapy. In this healing modality the therapist makes very gentle and light contact with the patient and simply tracks with and supports the subtle and oftentimes almost imperceptible movements that his or her body is making. The results can be profound, healing all sorts of problems, from skeletal misalignment to difficulties with organ functioning.
Your body is always moving in an attempt to heal itself. If you can listen to it and allow it to engage in these movements, great healing can be the result.
Movement increases circulation, both of blood and chi, and it is smooth, unimpeded circulation that rids us of infection and can correct problems of misalignment.
11
I said earlier that spontaneous movement is giving yourself an internal massage. It can also be giving yourself in external massage as well. For instance, you can massage your face with your hands. You can tap your face with your fingers. How much sinus trouble would be helped simply by tapping the sinus areas with the fingers! Slap your cheeks. Pull your ears! Slap your neck up and down from the bottom of it to your skull, back and forth! Directly behind the bottom of your ears is an important acupoint called gall bladder 20 which helps the low back, ears and eyes, and which calms nervous energy. Slap in this vicinity.
12
I’ve studied a lot about acupoints and anatomical features of the subtle anatomy, but as I write I’m going to try to bring as little as possible of this into what I’m telling you, because I don’t want you to intellectualize the activity of spontaneous movement, or to try to figure out what you need. Such activities are fine, but my goal is to get you to move, and to do it in the way that a poet writes -- from your soul! Experimentally! You can’t do anything wrong when you spontaneously move. Can a grain of sand in the desert be out of place? Ha ha! And even if it is out of place, the wind will make sure to put it back where it belongs!
13
If you’re ever sore from doing spontaneous movement, it could be either because you did too much, pushed your body too far, or maybe because you are going through a process of detoxification. When you are moving spontaneously, you are feeding yourself with fresh energy as you release old, stagnant energy. If you overfeed yourself, that is, try to make the process of release happen too quickly, you can get energy indigestion. Listen to your body, for it will tell you how fast it wants to go.
14
Have you thought of spontaneously moving your vocal chords? Let’s see what they do! Do they have some funny sounds to make? Some words to say? Remember, your conscious mind doesn’t have to be involved with this, or try to make those words or sounds make sense. Let the sounds out, and see what comes out.
Here is a fun exercise: Say a bunch of two letter words that consist of a consonant and a vowel, for instance bo, me, do, la, ja, ha, ro, etc. You may chant or sing these rhythmically, at any speed you want. Just enjoy the texture of the consonants, and the way all the different sounds feel. Repeat the ones you like best. You can also make up nonsense words, or say any words that come to your mind, be they single words or whole sentences.
Doing exercises of this nature encourages the unconscious aspects of your being to express themselves and can trigger the release of pent-up energy.
15
When I was around 25 years old I was seeing a doctor, an osteopath, who gave me an article he thought I might be interested in. It was about another osteopath who had put together a room with padded walls and a sort floor. He had done this to give his patients a room in which they could be alone to engage in spontaneous movement. The room was totally private – it had no windows, and had been soundproofed – in case a person wanted to scream or make other loud noises in it.
The doctor found that patients with incurable illnesses, as well as patients who weren’t responding to any of the other treatments he offered were greatly benefited by going in this room and doing exactly whatever their impulses told them to do.
The question is, since this treatment was effective, why didn’t it catch on? Why aren’t many practitioners using this technique?
The same doctor who had given me the article on this technique said that he had known a number of other osteopaths who had learned homeopathy and who had stopped practicing it after awhile. “Why did they do this?” I asked, “is it because it didn’t heal the patient?” “No!” was the answer I received, “it is because it was too effective, because it worked too well! The cured patients didn’t come back. Homeopathy was bad for business!”
16
Years later I was taking a shiatsu class and the teacher gave us a hand out on a Chinese therapy known as “Re-do,” which is spontaneous movement therapy. This is identical to what the aforementioned osteopath with his padded room was engaging in.
The only difference is that in the practice of “re-do” you start out with two preliminary exercises to warm you up: First you sit in a chair and as you inhale you twist your whole spine to one side as you turn your neck and look behind you. Then you let out your breath you come back to a forward facing position. Next you inhale again and twist around in the other direction, then letting your breath out and coming back to the forward facing position. You do this over and over, twisting one way and then the other, for a number of times. This helps to limber up the spine before you engage in the spontaneous movement.
Next you spread your arms wide above your head as you lean back and take a deep breath in, and then as you exhale you lean all the way over from the waist and put your arms between your legs and your hands on the floor. You repeat this movement again several times. Once you’ve done this you flow into the spontaneous movement, doing whatever you want.
17
The three positions for engaging in spontaneous movement are: (1) lying down, (2) standing, and (3) seated. The value of lying down is that you don’t have to maintain your balance. A bed is good, as well as a carpeted floor or a floor mat. The down side of using a bed is that if you get too spontaneous, you could fall off, and so you’ll need to control yourself -- at least a little!
A great spontaneous exercise to do in bed involves working on the hara, which is the area between the pelvic bone and the ribs, that is, the whole abdomen and all those organs below the diaphragm.
A good time to do this exercise is in the morning before you get up. Simply press all around on your belly! It’s just that simple. When you find a place that is sore or sensitive, gently massage it. You may also press down and hold. Don’t, though, cause yourself discomfort. Go at this in an easy, gentle manner. This exercise can stimulate all your internal organs, and as you work on your large and small intestines absorption of nutrients can improve, and elimination can be enhanced.
By the way, as you work on the hara its best to proceed in a clockwise position, as this is the directional flow of your colon.
When we engage in spontaneous movement in a standing position we can allow the i[[er limbs to have full mobility, stretching the shoulder muscles and joints, and bringing greater flexibility and freedom to the whole arm.
A great stretch for the arm is to hook the fingers over the high ledge of a doorway and allow oneself to hang a little bit. You can also bend the fingers backwards and place them against a wall, pushing against it to stretch the arm.
18
Do not assume that spontaneous movement is only for affecting the body. Our body is a reflection of our personality, as we release the pent-up stress in it an inevitable reaction will occur in our emotional and mental bodies. This is a wonderful process, for our body is a mirror of the other aspects of our being. Our body allows us to know ourselves, if we will just observe what is going on in it – turn our attention to what we are feeling.
The Tibetans have a meditation discipline known as dzogchen. Dzogchen is not practiced for a certain time each day, but is meant to be practiced all the time. It is the continuous attunement to the void, to the source of all existence. It is living in the moment.
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