Hello 2016!

Hello 2016

With a brand new year comes a brand new Letter of the Year for me.  As the 16th letter of The Vimala Alphabet is Ii, my overall focus for 2016 will be the Ii Soul Quality of Clear Perception. Not surprisingly, this invitation to maintain a centered view, based on facts rather than emotions and opinions is coming at a perfect time.

When I was growing up, news could be obtained from the newspaper, various radio channels at specific times, and three television networks.  The quality of the news source was determined by how successfully it maintained a neutral stance, presenting stories in as unbiased a way as possible.  Then it was up to the individual reading, listening, watching to draw conclusions and form opinions from the facts presented.

 Boy do we do things differently today.  Now we start with our opinions and prejudices and look for the news source that supports them.  24/7.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Plenty, unfortunately.  Whether it’s junk science or partisan politics, distinguishing facts from opinions has become a minefield, especially in a presidential election year.  Open minds are in danger of becoming an endangered species.

The Declaration of the Letter Ii, “I see as God sees and love as God loves,” is a gentle reminder to never compromise one’s heart and soul in search of that clear, unbiased perception of whatever life throws at us.  I may not always meet this challenge, but at least I can hold the intention to do so.  Isn’t that what the best New Year Resolutions are all about?

In this age of keyboard communications, a daily handwriting practice is a wonderful path to your Self.  All it takes is paper, pen and a few minutes of time each day.  For more information on this remarkable avenue for personal and professional excellence (including a downloadable version of The Vimala Alphabet), see www.ahigherperspective.com/graphotherapy or www.alphabeticalblessings.com or www.iihs.com.  

 

 

Wistful Thinking?

 

My little granddaughter has just learned to shift from her tummy to a sitting position. 

 

 

 

Up until now, her parents would bathe her, feed her, put her in her crib, and Dahlia Lucine would just go to sleep. Well, that's over! Apparently last night she spent quite a bit of time just sitting in her crib and clapping.  Cute, right?

 

Today in my Bikram Yoga practice, I was lying in the long savassana between standing and floor postures when the image of my dad popped into my head.  Dad passed 24 years ago; this week, actually. He often "visits" me in Yoga and I figure that's because he was really big on exercise and for most of the time he was alive, I was a total couch potato.  I'd like to think he's proud of my Yoga commitment and just drops in to cheer me on sometimes. This always gives me great pleasure and peace but today my Third Eye gave me an even sweeter image.

 

As I lay there on the floor, eyes open, a very distinct image formed in my mind's eye.  There was my dad by Dahlia's crib playing dzappig (Armenian for pat-a-cake) with his great-granddaughter. Tears came to my eyes with this crazy, beautiful scene. A moment later, my Third Eye perspective widened to include the door to Dahlia's room.  Standing there was her dad's dad, Grandpa Andrew, watching what I was seeing.  Andrew transitioned almost exactly 7 years ago. As Andrew seemed reluctant to enter the room, I saw my dad motion to welcome him to the crib. And there the two of them helped clap Dahlia to sleep.

 

Sometimes we think, "Oh, how wonderful it would have been if so-and-so had been alive to enjoy this!"  I realize that my experience this morning could have been a total hallucination, brought on by an inner longing and the outrageous heat of the Bikram Studio.  But I prefer to hold fast to the idea that I was given a view of something very special that truly happened.

 

 

 

 

 



Long Time No Blog

How is it possible that I have not added a new blog since May? May!  That's seven months ago! Did you miss me?  Probably not. You're probably as surprised as I am that it's already December.

Okay, well, we did become grandparents for the first time on April 17 and  the brightness of life has turned up several degrees. So has our busyness as we have put thousands of miles on our car getting our "Dahlia fixes" as often as possible. As we trudge down and up I-5 sometimes two weeks in a row, I have to remind myself to be grateful that our daughter and son-in-law live in LA and not Boston. 

Of Dahlia's many gifts to us, one of the most precious to me has been the playfulness that she brings out in me.  As a recovering perfectionist,  spontaneity is not as natural for me as self-consciousness. But when I'm playing with Dahlia, I really just play -- no thinking, no analyzing, no hesitation. As a result, being with her is wonderfully relaxing.

Perhaps you've experienced the phenomenon of a room full of adults all being thoroughly entertained just watching a baby do the simplest things. Oh, wow, she rolled across the room! Look how she holds that spoon! Aw, she's blowing rasberries at herself in the mirror!

These days I'm just as likely to be blowing rasberries as she is.

The Body Knows!

Several woo-ish resources confirm my experience over the past few years:  When it comes to transformation, the body is the last to get on board -- even more stubborn about adapting to change than the subconscious.

Using hypnosis and Energy Psychology techniques, we can ease the subconscious into alignment with one's desires.  But the body?  The body holds on to the "old ways" with a tenacity that has taken my breath away at times; literally so when I've fallen and twisted myself into painful ankle, knee and shoulder injuries.

Two weeks after moving from Fremont to San Ramon, I fell in an airport restroom, spraining my left knee and ankle and breaking my right shoulder.  That was in 1994, two years into my path as a hypnotherapist and just at the start of my training as a Handwriting Coach.  I'd embraced my middle name, Grace, and was healing family-of-origin patterns through changes in my handwriting.  Vimala Rodgers still talks about how I was obliged to take class notes with my non-dominant hand after limping into class with a single crutch under my left arm and my right arm in a sling.  A deeply transformative time for me in just about every way.

Think about your body and history of notable injuries.  Chances are good that any significant injuries align with times of change in your life.  Even not-so-significant physical challenges such as colds are symptoms of the mind-body-spirit connection. Louise Hay's seminal Heal Your Life is a perennial bestseller on the subject, a dictionary of emotional components that may contribute to a wide spectrum of physical conditions.

My friend Paula Conley is a devotee of channeled messages from Eloheim (www.eloheim.com) and often shares them with me.  Eloheim suggests the phrase, "I don't need to process this through my body."  I've used this phrase several times recently and find that it works very well.

I'd love to hear from you about how your body reacts to impending change.  What have you noticed?  How have you dealt with it?

I received this email today that really tickled me. 

I've edited it somewhat to protect the writer's privacy:

 I believe it may have been a couple years ago, my older daughter told me about a very spiritual woman she sat next to on a plane, This woman worked in the fields of hypnosis and writing analysis. She looked at M's handwriting and was quite accurate regarding her personality. M was very intrigued with the process and eventually saw a hypnotist in her hometown, which is in [a different part of the state.]

Fast-forward to this weekend over brunch with M. I was again lamenting about [younger daughter's] complexion. E is 13 now, and she is the one I am concerned with. During our discussion, we simultaneously, brought up the idea of hypnosis for E to help her break her habit of "picking her face." I told her about how I had once talked to this lady name Lucy, and M told me again about the "lady on the plane." She said that she had her card in her wallet, but had since cleaned it out, and didn't think she had it anymore. Low and behold, there's your card! As she passed it across the table, we both read your name, Lucy, one and the same! We both sat there quite stunned at this coincidence, and that's when I realized that maybe it was time I tried to set something up with you for E.

 

My response to the writer included information about TAT and EFT, as well as hypnosis to help E.  My approach would include stress management strategies and behavior modification in addition to hypnosis for clear skin.

 

How fun that here, two roads led back to "Go see Lucy!"

 

 

 

 

Feeling Left Out

One of my young clients sent me an email about an incident with good friends over the weekend that triggered some old patterns.  The result was that she was stuck in feelings of sadness and exclusion.  Here's my reply:

My suggestion is for you to take a few moments to yourself and try the following:

 

1.      Go into TAT heart pose (left hand on heart/chest, right hand over left)

2.      Say: Everything that led up to this feeling excluded happened.

               Notice what, if anything comes up for you. Then:

3.      Say:  All that happened, it's over.  It's now safe for me to feel good.

               Notice what, if anything comes up for you. Then:

4.      Think about how you'd like to feel or be and put it into this sentence:

               I choose to be/feel _________________ (happy? calm?  connected to my friends? okay?)

 Aside from this TAT intervention, think about your need to be by yourself sometimes, or with one friend and not the other.  It doesn't mean you don't like them or want to stop being friends.  Consider that in this case, your friends may not be very different from you.

Let me know how you're doing.

We Truly Are All One

Last week one of my TAT Professionals colleagues initiated an interesting discussion on our forum. 

Her initial question was, "How does TAT work?"  This morphed into, "How is it that we can do TAT on behalf of others," and elicited several testimonials about how we practitioners experience benefits as a side effect of our work on our clients.

In a chapter entitled "The Quantum You," Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself, author Dr. Joe Dispenza offers a simple but profound explanation.

Essentially once two particles can be initially linked in some way, they will always be bonded together beyond space and time.  As a result, anything that is done to one will be done to the other even though they are spatially separated from one another. This means that since we are made up of particles, we are all implicitly connected beyond space and time.   What we do unto others, we do to ourselves.

 This Golden Rule effect (as I think of it) underscores the importance of intention in every aspect of our lives.  This is why a strong rapport between you and any healer, body worker or partner is so crucial to the success of  your joint endeavor.  If the person who's working with you, touching you, healing you is truly holding your highest good in mind and heart, the result can be magical.  For both of you.