A Practical Journey to the 5th Dimension. Part I
10 years ago, no one was talking about the 5th Dimension. Well, maybe a few of us in the obscure circles, like those who read Barbara Hand Clow's "Alchemy of the 9 Dimensions" back in the day. Just in the last year, I have seen 5D talk on Facebook, or fifth dimensional banter in articles or heard it mentioned in conversation on multiple occasions…
Movement is Medicine. Move Into Your Best Self.
Qi is always moving. Like water our energy courses through our bodies. When we move, our energy moves. We we are still, our energy settles a bit. When we are always still or sedentary, our energy stagnates. Like water, our energy stays fresh and clear from movement through its course and when stagnates becomes murky, unclear and unhealthy.
“Discovering the perfect form and practice for you and your body is the sole intention of Movement and Medicine consultations.”
Movement is medicine. It is what courses our life force or Qi in a regenerative way. The medicine lies is finding a balance for yourself based on what your body needs. Too much exercise or movement can also be taxing and use up too many of our resources or fuel.
Consistent and loving forms of movement are the best medicine. We need to do what is appropriate for our bodies. We listen to our bodies. We move slowly and deliberately especially when working with injuries. We may use a gentle discipline and incorporate variety to reach maximum results. We may use an exhilarating practice when appropriate to increase organ function and performance. It is all custom designed.
Movement is medicine for mind, body and soul. When our energy stagnates as an effect of stress or lack of movement or injury, we become irritable and uncomfortable, and slow to heal, and all of this can effect many areas of our lives; our sleep, our digestion, our relationships and our ability to focus
Movement is medicine consultations work with you and your needs directly. What movement is in balance with your lifestyle, your healing intentions, your resources, and your body's capacity?
Appropriate, consistent, liberating and focused movement or exercise that brings joy to us can be just what the doctor ordered. Discovering this perfect form and practice for you, is the sole intention of Movement and Medicine consultations. They go hand in hand with your Brilliant Medicine treatments and can increase efficacy, speed recovery and healing and definitely enhance your life.
Herbal Consultations: Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine
I offer consultation in Traditional Chinese Herbal Medicine (TCHM) as a form of scientific artistry. The knowledge I have is based on one of the greatest preserved complete herbal systems of the world, with an unbroken tradition going back to the 3rd century BC. Throughout history the medicine has continually developed in response to changing clinical conditions, and modern lifestyle, and has been sustained by research into every aspect of its use. This process continues today with the development of modern medical diagnostic techniques and knowledge.
“My training is in the traditional form of Chinese Herbology. My assessment of your condition and symptoms, allows me to prescribe raw or patent herbs to you as a stand alone consult or part of your treatment plan. ”
Chinese Herbs are a safe and very effective way to treat many conditions. When I say safe, I mean safe. You can take the herbs I prescribe to you when you are taking other forms of medicine because I take into consideration all your medications as part of the assessment.
Do not take Chinese herbs from anyone, even an acupuncturist, who is not specifically trained for this. There are many acupuncturist who studied acupuncture techniques and not Chinese medicinals. It is a complex, sophisticated system that can be dangerous and can make you very sick if not prescribed by a qualified physician. Do not take Chinese herbs from a western doctor who is not Board Certified in Chinese Herbology. It is very enticing for other practitioners to offer advice regarding Chinese herbs to their patients because the Medicine is so effective, and because the regulations are still quite lax. It is also very common for doctors to tell you that Chinese Medicine is not safe for this or that condition. It is safe as long as you are working with a fully qualified practitioner. In the pharmacy, we source our herbs from US companies with the highest standards and testing procedures. Detailed information on our sources is available upon request.
The philosophy behind TCHM is very different from what we are used to in the West. Our modern health craze and supplement craze promote this or that miracle herb as the answer to everyone’s problems. Chinese Medical prescription are very rarely one herb, they are mixed in combinations called formulas. Formulas are specifically design for you and how your body is showing up. It can certainly be a miracle cure, but it is not for everyone. Just because something helped for your allergies, does not mean it is going to help your friend’s allergies. It would be so much simpler that way. But we are not simple.
“We are complex beings with very unique things going on. And this medicine matches your complexity. That is why the medicine is so Brilliant. It is intelligent and works in accord with the intelligence of your body. It is specific and unique, and the herbal treatments or consultations that I offer you are custom designed for you. That is the secret to their success. ”
We Are What We Eat. Be Your Own Medicine with Food as Medicine Consultations
Food is our medicine. Our food choices can be medicine that is working for us, or it can be working against us. The kicker is having the tools to know the difference. When we have the tools to know, and make choices based on the knowing, then we get to be in a really groovy place with what we eat. I offer Food as Medicine consultations to help you uncover your own unique tools so your relationship with food becomes an empowering, healing and joyful aspect of your life.
Food as Medicine consultations can work in cahoots with your treatments or be a separate experience all together. The underlying foundation of the work I do is that there is no "one way" that works for everyone. Our journey of discovery is successful and sustainable because it is focused on the unique you; what works for your body, what works in your life, what proves to be enjoyable for you.
There is so much information out there about what is 'good' for us and what is 'bad' for us. It can be challenging to weed through all the diets and supplements, and rules, and programs. My feeling is that 'diets' and 'programs' don't work for everyone, they are too generalized and too rigid, and not custom fit for the individual. We all have very unique digestive systems. We all have very distinct preferences. We all have varying amounts of time available to buy, prepare, and cook our meals. Like every other form of therapy I utilize, food therapy is the same in that it has to be custom fit. Food as Medicine consultations are brilliant, because they rise up and meet your unique self and body needs.
“Food is the number one infatuation of the western world. We have an abundance of choices. This is a gift. We have the privilege of being picky. We have the privilege of making choices that are right for our bodies. We have the privilege of putting together unique ways of operating around food that are enjoyable and doable for us. The enjoyment is how we rise up and meet the gift. ”
There are 'many reasons' why we do not enjoy our relationship with food. There are many reasons why we don't feel nourished by what we eat. There are many reasons why we don't take responsibility for our choices around food. There are many reasons why we have acute or chronic digestive ailments.
The 'many reasons' are rooted in one or more of the following:
We are not listening to the intelligence of our bodies.
We are following rules that do not apply to us.
We have lost interest in the sourcing, growing, preparing, cooking relationships with our food.
We have wrapped our choices up so tight around weight management that we don't see another way.
We are overwhelmed with the amount of information about food and diets and programs that we just give up.
We have forgotten that we are the one that knows the most about our own body, we are our own expert.
The importance of pulling these out one by one by their tap root, weeding out the 'many reasons' for dysfunction is paramount to the Food as Medicine journey.
A consultation can be a one time stand alone meeting to discuss direction and choices. A consultation can be a year long journey together; a possible combination of treatments, classes, and one-on-one consults all with the specific purpose of supporting your body's healing and your goals for thriving.
Consultation design and timing is based on diagnostic findings and your personal desires and goals; how much you want to learn, and how much you already know, how deeply you want to move into and shift your relationship with food. You tell me what you want and I rise up to meet that with a custom designed curriculum, with the intelligence of Eastern Medicine and Western Nutrition and food therapy, with mindfulness and body awareness techniques and ways to 'check in' when making choices, with clearing and cleansing, planning, shopping, preparing foods, even growing if you want to go that deep.
This process is an distinct opportunity to leave habits, discomfort, digestive disorders, old stories, and ways of relating to food behind and move into an incredible relationship with gratitude and enjoyment of your Food as Medicine.
5 Clues from the Natural World, 5 Brilliant Ways to Respond To Them
Why don't we ask our Western doctors how much they charge for their services?
7 Burning FAQ about Acupuncture
Re-Spire: Find Heaven on Earth Simply by Breathing
Do You Know That You Can Create Heaven on Earth Simply By Breathing?
With Reya and Karuna and ReSpiration, you can! ReSpire is our dynamic and generally unconscious capacity to inhale and exhale. Our breathing is a function of our autonomic nervous system, but it is a unique function because unlike the pulse of our heart, we can take conscious control of the pulse of our breath. Our breath is our life. In Asian philosophy and medicine the air we breath in is Qi. Qi is life force and has many forms. We gain usable nourishing Qi with our inhalation and we exhale Qi that no longer serves us.
When we bring conscious awareness to our breath we enhance our connection to this vital life force. This is our Soul living through us as us; or God's breath, breathing itself through us as us. Our breath is always divinity moving through us, but as we bring our conscious awareness to the dance of the breath, then we enhance our connection to the space within us that is grace, or God or divinity. And with an enhanced connection, we vitalize this relationship with our higher knowing centers, our body intelligence, our deeper, richer life experience. Just by breathing. It is really quite amazing. This is what ancient breathing practices like pranayama create in us; Enhanced relationship with and recognition of our own divinity.
“With Reya and Karuna’s gentle guidance, your breath techniques gradually shift awareness from surface layer processing in the frontal brain to a deeper experience of your rich and wise inner reality.”
This is what we mean by Heaven on Earth. It is bringing our awareness back to our divinity in these bodies, in this life, on this planet. This recognition allows us to understand at a deep level that everything we need it within us. Guidance and teachers and information are great, but ultimately everything that is worth it's weight brings us back to the riches within. To our capacity to discern our own truth. Through the recognition that our divinity is our breath, breathing us, we catapult ourselves into an ocean of personal truth, potential, intelligence, and humble brilliance! It may sound fantastical, but it is actually very practical... it is just our breath, right?
ReSpire Sessions allow you to use simple conscious breathing techniques to enhance your vital life force and move deeper into your body's living experience of divinity. With Reya and Karuna's gentle guidance, your breath techniques gradually shift awareness from surface layer processing in the frontal brain to a deeper experience of your rich and wise inner reality. The change in oxygen distribution throughout your system and brain, allow a transfer of the more active aspects of thought to shift from the cortical functioning (our more analytical mind) to the more archaic brain. Day to day functioning of our frontal brain shields us from vast sources of input: the cosmic, the visionary, the creative, the body-centric earth wisdom. This is an opportunity to let the shields down and connect with those sources. It is not an out-of-body experience. The environment enhances your in-body cosmic experience.
“The opportunity to breathe with yourself in this way provides a deep sense of connection to your own wisdom, an indescribable sense of well-being, access to other dimensions of your own reality, and a deep sense of belonging and calm.”
The breathing nourishes your rest and digest, relaxation centers, and vitalize your meridian system with the enhanced rhythm. Outside of your rich internal experience, a safe space is held for you by Reya and Karuna to choose your own adventure, simply breathe and relax into your own deep knowing. Many say this creates an opportunity for deep healing according to your own intentions. We call it a space for grace. With breath we allow grace to show us a way, offer a vision, send a message, create a solution. Without any force or active 'try', the process unfolds. You simply get to stay aware and continue the breathing technique.
The opportunity to breathe with yourself in this way provides a deep sense of connection to your own wisdom, an indescribable sense of well-being, access to other dimensions of your own reality, and a deep sense of belonging and calm. Many speak to remarkable visions that offer solutions and guidance from a level they had not accessed before. Many feel a shift in their physical body. Many feel at peace. These are all common results from an extraordinary and quite simple medicine. It is Brilliant! Join us second Friday's of the month and give yourself the gift of ReSpire.
Create Your Personal Heaven on Earth.
Want to Move From Survive to Thrive? With Grounded Confidence You Can!
For the past 20 years, I have guided many river trips in the Grand Canyon. Working on the river is back breaking and non-stop for 8 days; we rig the boats, we load the boats, we set up the kitchen and toilet, we cook, we unload the boats, we take people on hikes, we ride big rapids, we offer medical care, and stories, we load the boats, and on and on.... During my most recent trip, I managed to utilize just a few minutes in the mornings for a short meditation by the river's edge. In each of my meditations I was drawn to the river bed; the channel of earth within which the river flows.
The Colorado is a mighty river with an unbelievable force and power. I felt the river bed as mighty as well; a steady, unwavering, solid ancient power. I felt deeply connected to the essence of the river bed.
The Sanskrit word Patra means a goblet, a dish, a vessel... a river bed; anything that has the capacity to hold the focus of meditation. For this last river trip, the focus of my meditation was the river bed. It was a very powerful and grounding experience for me. The environment in the Grand Canyon is very extreme; the weather, the cold, the hot, the winds, the dryness. And the work as a guide is very challenging. Yet this connection to the mighty river bed allowed me to flow within the trip with grace and ease, it allowed the work I was doing to be sustainable.
During our goodbyes on the last night, one of the passengers gave me a good honest hug and looked into my eyes and said "You move with such a grounded confidence. I see you take a little time for yourself and because of that you are able to do your work and serve the rest of us in such an authentic way, thank you for this."
This is exactly what these classes are about; an opportunity for us to find our own way of grounding, and experience the deep and natural confidence that naturally grows from that. From Grounded and Confident we make our choices, we take our actions, we do our work in the world.
This is the most sustainable form of living…
This is how we move from feeling like we are merely surviving, to feeling and knowing that we are thriving.
(I am currently writing about this so... stay tuned.)
Grounded can mean many things…
It can simply mean that we feel our feet. It can mean we have awareness of what is going on in our body. It can mean that we feel connected to the place we are in, or feel the connection with the very core of the planet, and that we may be receiving energy from this core.
Being grounded offers a sense of stability and strength, a rootedness, a groove, a general inner calmness engendered by a sense of belonging where we are, in these bodies, in this life, on this planet. When most of our awareness is in our head, in our thoughts, or we spend too much time in our intellect we get a little top heavy. We are easily blown around by life's circumstances. We get out of our groove. Our mental awareness is a kind of buzz. Our body awareness is a slower frequency, a calming rhythm. With grounding, we move down into this steady, rooted place.
Confidence can mean many things…
There is a surface confidence that is kind of like a story we need to keep telling ourselves about all the things we have accomplished, about what we have, about our successes. This is how we 'big ourselves up', right? These stories live in our mental zone and they offer a buzz that can keep us going for awhile, like good cuppa Jo.
There is a deeper more sustaining confidence that is not based on our fueled by the stories we tell ourselves. This confidence is based on our capacity to ground. It is based our the awareness we have of our connection to place, our connection to our body and our body's intelligent design. It is a confidence that comes from the Love we have within us.
Our deep confidence comes from our daily practices of grounding into the deeper, slower, richer aspects of life. We feel the confidence because we know we belong here. We feel the confidence because we know we are worthy. We feel the confidence because we are choosing our life. We still can get blown around, but we have direct access to our roots, and they keep us grounded even when life's ride gets really challenging.
Every day we make so many choices. We make choices about what we eat, what we drink, where we go, who we connect with, when we sleep, what we watch, what we wear, how we want to show up, what we want to do with our lives, with our time. When we make our choices from Grounded and Confident, we make choices that work for us. We make our own unique and sovereign choices. We make empowering choices. We make choices that serve our intentions, serve our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our dreams.
In the classes we talk about food and eating, we talk about movement and exercise, we talk about our dreams and intentions. We talk about practical techniques for grounding. We practice feeling the confidence that comes from using our techniques. We get really connected to the mighty force that is the river bed of our own lives and utilize that energy to create what we want to create. We stop swimming upstream, we stop clinging to the rivers' edge, we stop feeling like we are being pushed around by the currents and actually start enjoying the ride. With a grounded confidence we flow within our own unique river, make our choices, move through our challenges, stay in our own groove.
The premise of the class is not to give you more to do, but allow you to do the things you are already doing with more grace and ease.
These classes are a great way to access my Consultation work and reap the benefits in a group setting. It is a body-centric class where we work with what is real and showing up in your life more that with ideas and theories. And like all the medicine of offer, the class will respond to your unique needs.
Each class…
uncovers and enhances Grounding techniques
covers one of the following topics:
food as medicine
movement as medicine
self-care as medicine
self-love as medicine
resourcing as medicine.
allows you to leave feeling empowered instead of overwhelmed
I offer the class every first and third Friday from 5:30 to 6:30pm.
Choose one class as a stand alone OR participate in the 5 topic series.
See you in class!
Reya
