Tweet the Good News!

I've been looking at the surge? upsurge? tsunami wave of interest in social networking lately. The numbers are growing exponentially every single day.

At a previous stage of life I might have said - well I would have said "hooey!" to such vast amounts of time spent sending inane messages to friends far and wide every time I took a sip of coffee.

On the other hand, is that what you or I are actually doing it for these days? Of course not. I'm actually wowed at the loving kindness I receive every day from my facebook and newly emerging twitter groups. I can't tell you how many times I've posted something and watched just the right person step forward with just the right kind of support. Sometimes it's as simple as a thumbs up.

You matter. I matter. We all matter to each other.

Whether we are giving shout outs, smiley faces, comments or "follows", we are giving...and I do believe we can never give too much.

Like the breath, there is always more. Like the exhale, we can go long and deep, and in the giving we enlarge the circle of return.

Now who doesn't need that?

If you twitter I invite you to an experiment using a new application that creates tribes, or "twibes" as they are called. (Twitter w's everything if you haven't seen that before. Kinda cute - kinda silly - but always recognizable.) I just created a new one at http://twibes.com/PracticalSpirituality.

I wanted to create something else out of my presence there - another out breath - that can make a difference to someone, somewhere who can use some of that cumulative knowledge we all carry within. Tweet your favorite authors, titles, practices, thoughts, prayers, and everyday keys to successful living in 140 characters or less. Another wonderful way to give what you've got and spread the good word.

Thank you for your support.

Big hugs to you,
oooooooohhhhhhhhhhhmmmmmmmmmmm

;)

Isn't Self Care Selfish??

I remember one of my teachers saying "so you think you're going to fight the good fight now, eh? Go heal the world and make all the difference you came here for? How do you think you're going to do that if you don't think highly enough of your self in the first place?"

Well then. There's some heavy pondering going on there.


I don't believe I thought badly about myself exactly...just that I was being lots of things to please others. I was a good wife, a good daughter, a good student, a good friend. Isn't that what you're supposed to be?

When I had thoughts of doing for myself, especially when it collided with what others wanted or needed, it seemed selfish. Not only that, I got satisfaction from the results of my successful "other care!" Most healers do. And most women. And most good men.

I gave it my best shot I suppose, but didn't really understand the true implications until I studied Energy Anatomy...and recognized the desire to find Self as the software of the soul.

How then does caring for self rise above ego gratification to land at the top of the heap of positive Mystical traits?

The Mystic embraces the quality of self that resides within, and in his gentle support and listening care hears the truth of his own beating heart and the rat-a-tat-tatting of Self-awareness, Self-worth and Self-esteem. He stops denying and starts expressing Self as a vehicle in service to the Divine genius within.

Now he is strong enough - finally she is ready - at last we are honed through the realization of our power to take up the journey and carry our weight, not based upon other's approval, but on the strength of our own higher truth.

There's a beautiful poetic book called There's a Hole In My Sidewalk by Portia Nelson in which she describes the moment of recognizing the difference between loving the man she has lost and realizing the truth that they were both hiding inside the relationship.

"If I just pay enough attention to you, I won't have to look so hard at myself..."

In this territory we often experience grief - an ill-at-easeness that signals the emotion of letting go. If we are to be authentic and powerful then let go we must.

Marianne Williamson quotes from A Course in Miracles "It is not our darkness we fear most, it is our light...you are a child of God and your playing small does not serve the world."

In this way our Self care becomes Other care of the highest degree.

May you have ease releasing all that is no longer needed in your life and move gracefully into the life that is waiting for you to embrace...

...and may your choices always reflect the best possible result for all concerned.

Carry-on now!

Till next time,

ooooohhhhhhmmmmmmmmm

BEST Remedy for Allergy Season

I used to live with allergies. A lot. Sometimes they defined me.

I had the sort of reactions that went from a little itchy-eyed nose run with discomfort to a full blown version of Niagra Falls for days on end. Dust, pollen, perfume, candles, mold, mildew, even the cats I love would send me into a frenzy.

Wouldn't you know, being the holistic health care goddess I am, research into natural remedies became my holy grail and the day I wound up canceling patients because I couldn't stop blowing my nose was the final straw. Wanting neither a life sentence on Claritin nor any replication of the boy in the bubble, living without a cure was simply unfathomable.

That's when I ran into Gary, my former yoga student who said "you know I thank you every day for turning me onto the Neti Pot. I haven't had any allergy symptoms since I started using it daily!!"

WHAT?! Me?? The Neti Pot?? I said that??

And here, my friends, is a perfect example of someone (well, me in this case) having knowledge enough to teach this stuff but skidding right past it in my own life. I just didn't connect the dots.

Anyway, it's been several years since seeing Gary again and I've Netied every day. I still get triggered if I visit with cats for too long, but allergy season is no more and the difference is profound in my quality of life.

I learned a couple of things here that I'll share - the first is sometimes you already know what you know...you just need to remember, and the second is don't give up and don't give in. You have the ability to attract what you need to know and it may come in the most unlikely of packages.

Now I feel to be fair in my total assessment of complementary healthcare that not mentioning changing your diet, getting enough rest, moving yourself AWAY from the cause of irritants, and going green in your household are significant factors in improving the life of an allergy sufferer, I'm keeping it simple for the moment and passing along the good news.

Go get yourself a Neti Pot.

Click here for a video of what to do.


Have fun!!
oooohhhhhmmmmmmm