June and Reconnection

It is one thing giving someone a ' treatment ' and getting feedback, but now I really wanted to feel
what it was like to be on the receiving side of the table. So I did  some research, found Elsa Lee
( www.vividheal.com), and made an appointment with her in Galway. Elsa is warm and welcoming
and connects beautifully. I liked her immediately and was so glad I had come to her for my session.
Here are my ' notes ' after my treatment.

My first session with Elsa.

Calm very strong  registers in my eyes.
Very warm energy around my heart.
Later strong registers in my right arm.
Then very strong registers all over my whole body.
Very strong breathing and a sensation that reminded me of giving birth.
Then very calm again.
Later it felt as if Elsa was using electrodes on my body and I heard a crackling sound like static electricity.
There was a bubbling or fizzing sensation all over my body.

I was completely absorbed during the session and sorry when it ended. My body felt  alive and tingling for the rest of the day similar to how it would feel after a really good Shiatsu massage.

What an amazing session! I wanted more and very quickly decided to have ' Reconnection' with Elsa

Two weeks later I returned to Galway to be Reconnected.


Back to Galway and  '' The Reconnection '' with Elsa.
I had my reconnection two weeks ago ,  so glad I went ahead and did it . It takes two sessions to
 be reconnected and both were equally interesting, again I had intense feelings and responses to the
' Energy' almost as if I was being straightened out !
 I don't want to go in to all the details but it was intense and I feel it has made some big internal shifts in my being. Life seems to be supporting my efforts in everything related to Reconnection. As soon as I decided to work with the energy Joan ( one of my taichi students ) arrived with a fabulous massage table ! It just feels like something bigger than me is helping all the way.

What an amazing time and journey this last year must be one of the most interesting and enriching of my life so far.

Highlights from March

We had our first outdoor pushing hands in March.


 "Stillness Speaks"

Silence is helpful, but you don't need it in order to find stillness. Even when there is noise, you can be aware of the stillness underneath the noise, of the space in which the noise arises. That is the inner space of pure awareness, consciousness itself.

You can become aware of awareness as the background to all your sense perceptions, all your thinking. Becoming aware of awareness is the arising of inner stillness.

* * * * *

Pay attention to the gap -- the gap between two thoughts, the brief, silent space between words in a conversation, between the notes of a piano or flute, or the gap between the in-breath and the out-breath.

When you pay attention to those gaps, awareness of 'something' becomes -- just awareness. The formless dimension of pure consciousness arises from within you and replaces identification with form.

* * * * *

True intelligence operates silently. Stillness is where creativity and solutions to problems are found.

* * * * *

Is stillness just the absence of noise and content? No, it is intelligence itself - the underlying consciousness out of which every form is born. And how could that be separate from who you are?

The form that you think you are came out of that and is being sustained by it.

It is the essence of all galaxies and blades of grass; of all flowers, trees, birds, and all other forms.

* * * * *

Stillness is the only thing in this world that has no form. But then, it is not really a thing, and it is not of this world.

* * * * *

[...] What is wisdom and where is it to be found? Wisdom comes with the ability to be still. Just look and just listen. No more is needed. Being still, looking, and listening activates the non-conceptual intelligence within you. Let stillness direct your words and actions.

--Eckhart Tolle,

I'm  having a little (or maybe it will turn out to be long ) review of my year as seen through the blog.
What an amazing year this has been.  The clip below was taken at our T'ai Chi  practice in Mallow Library in January.



Unlocking a New Sphere of Reality


Being attentive unlocks a sphere of reality that no one suspects. If, for instance, I walked along a path without being attentive, completely immersed in myself, I did not even know whether trees grew along the way, nor how tall they were, or whether they had leaves. When I awakened my attention, however, every tree immediately came to me. This must be taken quite literally. Every single tree projected its form, its weight, its movement—even if it was almost motionless—in my direction. I could indicate its trunk, and the place where its first branches started, even when several feet away. By and by something else became clear to me, and this can never be found in books. The world exerts pressure on us from the distance.

The seeing commit a strange error. They believe that we know the world only through our eyes. For my part, I discovered that the universe consists of pressure, that every object and every living being reveals itself to us at first by a kind of quiet yet unmistakable pressure that indicates its intention and its form. I even experienced the following wonderful fact: A voice, the voice of a person, permits him to appear in a picture. When the voice of a man reaches me, I immediately perceive his figure, his rhythm, and most of his intentions. Even stones are capable of weighing on us from a distance. So are the outlines of distant mountains, and the sudden depression of a lake at the bottom of a valley.

This correspondence is so exact that when I walked arm in arm with a friend along the paths of the Alps, I knew the landscape and could sometimes describe it with surprising clarity. Sometimes; yes, only sometimes. I could do it when I summoned all my attention. Permit me to say without reservation that if all people were attentive, if they would undertake to be attentive every moment of their lives, they would discover the world anew. They would suddenly see that the world is entirely different from what they had believed it to be.

-Jacques Lusseyran

I posted this in January and think it is well worth reading again.
I am really loving this review and it is reminding  me of what a truly wonderful year it has been.

He AND I

My brother  ( a catholic priest who lives in Fiji ) is home with us for Christmas and brought me  He AND I.
I love some of the 'dialogues' .



" November 27- Holy hour.
I was returning from a tea at the home of Count S

" Now forget the world and look at Me. I was pleased that you spoke
of the prisoners and their fruitful solitude that brought them nearer to
God. Did you notice how the conversation remained at a higher level
right to the end ? In this you were My instrument. Be so again, often.
 You see , I have few instruments on the earth. . .  Ask the spirit to
 guide your mind . Don't talk out of yourself, but out of Me. Speak
in My place.
My little girl , do you know when you speak like Me ?
When you put goodness and charm in your words. When you
touch hearts. When you give a gracious answer to an acid remark.
When you give excuses for someone. When you serve. When you
give. When you calm an angry person. When you comfort. When
you keep an even temper in all circumstances. When you remain
 humble without seeking to shine. When you are grateful for the
kindness of others. When you are generous . Who was more
 generous than I ? All this is yours. You are part of My mystical
body. "



Gabrielle Bossis (1874-1950) was a Catholic Mystic and layperson who lived in France in the 20th century.
On very rare occasions in her early life, Gabrielle had been surprised by a Mysterious Voice, which she heard and felt with awe, and sometimes anxious questionings, which she perceived to be the Voice of Christ. It was only at the age of 62, however, that this touching dialogue with the "Inner Voice" began in earnest, continuing (at least in her notes) until two weeks before her death on June 9, 1950.

Candles and Changes

       When I was growing up candles were for birthday cakes, church
        ceremonies, and for the window, to be lighting there on Christmas
        Eve and the following days to show that the holy family  " Mary ,
        Joseph, and baby Jesus " were welcome in the house.
        Nobody would think of lighting a candle to create an atmosphere
       or to enhance a space .
       I think that  the change in our attitude to candles is also reflected
       in our new approach to spirituality. Again when I was growing up,
       nobody I knew spoke about meditation,  this was something
       reserved for monks, nuns and yogis in India. It certainly wasn't
       available to the general public. It was tor a privileged few.
       How lucky are we to live in this age when knowledge which
       was secret for so long has become available to us all.  No
       longer do we need to take vows or travel to Tibet we can learn
       and practice just where we are.
       This I think must be one of the greatest advances of our lifetime.
       The opportunity to learn about and to train one's consciousness.



     

         Here is Suzie waiting for everyone to arrive and  " Oming " to begin.
         Sadhguru explained how to intone Om and then we " Omed " along
        with him and 10,000 of the meditators who were gathered there
        with him.
        I loved the peace that settled around us before,  during, and after
        the chanting.  It felt good to be part of such an uplifting event.
         It seems to have set a tone of ease and relaxation to my Christmas
        this year. No fussing just a sense that the most important aspect of
        the this special ' Feast  Day ' is the welcome we have for
         each other.
        The Namaste to everyone we meet. Finding the peace inside and
        hopefully to helping to spread it outside.
        With Love to all for Christmas.
       

1 Billion Oms

          What would happen if a Billion people

       were all unified in meditation, prayer, and celebration

        through a single sound vibration at the same time?

       My dear friend Deb pointed out to me (thankfully) 

       that the event is happening at 6.30 am Greenwich

       mean time . So our gathering will be at 6 am not 7am.

       Click   here   for more information including time zones.

       I hope You join in with all us us who want to make the 

       world vibrate with Om.

Ballyhigue strand after the funeral

        His brother read the poem I wept with it's beauty and truth.

                                        Love's Philosophy

                            The fountains mingle with the river,

                            And the rivers with the ocean;

                           The winds of heaven mix forever

                           With a sweet emotion;

                           Nothing in the world is single;

                           All things by a law divine

                           In another's being mingle--

                           Why not I with thine?

                           See, the mountains kiss high heaven,

                           And the waves clasp one another;

                          No sister flower could be forgiven

                          If it disdained its brother;

                          And the sunlight clasps the earth,

                          And the moonbeams kiss the sea;--

                          What are all these kissings worth,

                          If thou kiss not me?

                                          Percy Bysshe Shelley

                         
                                 
              The view of the ocean called.

                Birds were feeding by the waters edge.

 Heart overflowed with love and gratitude.

               Stood in wonder at this beauty.

 
    Spirit filled I turned for home.

 Knowing I was not alone. 

Thanks to John Connell for sending me this really interesting link.
Pushing Hands link sent by John Connell

Counting down  to the 1 Billion Oms  what an opportunity to
connect with like minded, hearted, ans spirited people all around
our world. Do join in and experience  a few moments when we
are all focusing on  our true nature. We are not separate you and I
are always connected , intimately bound ,but in our busy lives we
forget to pay attention to this most important aspect of our nature.

1 Billion Oms

Just a minute to relax in the sound of the winter stream

                           The important thing is not to think much

                            but to love much, and to do that which

                            best stirs you to love.

                                           St Teresa of Avila

A mystical experience is not any more unique than a modern experiment in physics. On the other hand, it is not less sophisticate, either . . . The complexity and efficiency  of  the physicist's technical apparatus is matched, if not surpassed, by that of the mystic's consciousness . . . A page from a journal of modern experimental physics will be as mysterious to the uninitiated as a Tibetan mandala. Both are records of inquiries into the nature of the universe.

Keep  I Billion Oms   in mind.

A Pusshing Hands gathering for Christmas

                  We gathered at my place to push hands.






   
     To investigate uprooting .

       To catch up with ' Taichiers ' who had moved far away.

       
   Of course Suzie was part of it all.





   

            We had fun.

             

            And more fun.

        Some quiet moments.







All in all a great morning.


Keeping in mind  I Billion Oms  on December 22'nd  I Billion Oms

Resonance

Resonance is the response of a body to vibrations of it's own natural frequency.
Bridges have collapsed when soldiers marching in step across them
 caused the bridge to vibrate at it's own natural frequency.
Resonance is also the reason a glass shatters when a singer holds a note
at the natural frequency of the glass.
Those examples are on the ' down ' side of resonance.
On the ' up ' side there is the recorded evidence of the positive effects
of meditation  ( when we meditate we vibrate at a particular frequency).
Studies carried out when large groups ( thousands) gathered to meditate,
show that crime rates and hospital admissions dropped dramatically in
 those cities while the groups meditated.
Can You Imagine what would happen if 1 Billion of us meditate on Om
simultaneously ? I am so excited by the possibilities for us and our planet
when we decide to combine our positive intentions to raise our vibrations
to Love.

Here is the link to Sadhaury Jaggi Vasudev  page on the Om meditation.  
 1 Billion Oms
We here are planning to join with him think about it . This amazing
opportunity to really do something wonderful for our whole planet.

1 Billion Oms

I'm really excited by the 1 Billion Om event  I came across it on The Shift Network Website. Click on 1 Billion Oms below for more information. I am planning to organize an event here in Mallow and am hoping that You may be inspired too and organize an event in your owm area and help Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev to reach the 1 billion.
Do let me know if you like the idea and also if You would like to join us here or from where ever You live.

I One Billion Om's Globally Synchronized Meditation, an unprecedented effort to unite us all to meditate, pray, and "Om" at the exact same time for three minutes (simultaneously around the world) on December 22nd. Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev, the renowned yogi, mystic, visionary, and humanitarian, will provide the hosting and leadership role for the event. A spokesperson for the effort said, "Our goal and intention is to have one billion people chanting Om simultaneously. By aiming for a billion people, we are reaching out to enough people to have a massive impact on planetary consciousness. It is our intention to continue these 'global meditation days' every year until the one billion goal is reached."

1 Billion Oms

Term review for Monday night's class

Can Awe Buy You More Time and Happiness? --by Stacey Kennelly

More Heartwork from Our Workshop

Always plugged in and constantly juggling tasks at work and at home, many of us feel like there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all the things we need to do.

But wouldn’t it be awesome to feel like you had more time? In fact, a new study suggests that experiencing awe—which psychologists define as the feeling we get when we come across something so strikingly vast in number, scope, or complexity that it alters the way we understand the world—could help us do just that. What’s more, awe might make us more generous with how we spend our time and improve our overall well-being.

In one part of the study, researchers induced feelings of awe in participants by showing them video clips of people encountering tremendous things like waterfalls and whales; among members of a comparison group, they induced by showing them video clips of people surrounded by confetti in a joyful parade.

The results, published by Psychological Science, show that members of the awed group were more likely to report feeling like they had more time than those who felt happiness.

Awe-eliciting experiences might offer one effective solution to the feelings of time starvation that plague so many people in modern life,” write the researchers, who were based at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business and the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

This led the researchers to predict that people who experience awe would be less likely to feel impatient—since people feel impatient when they think they’re short on time—and would be more willing to devote time to activities like volunteering.

To test this hypothesis, they instructed participants to write stories about events in their lives. One group was prompted to write about an experience that was vast and altered their perceptions of the world, while the other group was told to write about a time when they felt contentment or joy. Then, all participants completed a survey assessing their impatience and willingness to lend time to others.

As the researchers predicted, people who felt awe were less likely to feel impatient and more likely to volunteer their time than study participants who felt happiness.

However, awe did not make people more likely to donate money, suggesting that awe does not make people more generous in general. Instead, it was the sense that they had more time to spend that seems to have made participants more willing to lend a hand.

In another experiment, the researchers induced awe in some people—by having them read a story about ascending the Eiffel Tower and getting a high-up view of Paris—but not others. Afterwards, they found that members of the awe group reported feeling more satisfied with their lives than the other group. Also, when given a choice between material goods and positive experiences—such as a watch vs. tickets to a Broadway show—the awe group was more likely than the other group to choose the positive experiences.

Prior research has found that positive experiences are more likely than material objects to bring us happiness. After analyzing their data, the researchers conclude that the awe group’s higher life satisfaction and preference for experiences over objects could be explained by the fact that they felt like they had more time on their hands.

Melanie Rudd, the lead author of the study and a PhD candidate in marketing at Stanford University, says the results show how something as subtle as our perception of time can have a big influence on our lives.

“It impacts our willingness to volunteer to help other people and even our well-being,” she says. “The idea that an emotion can alleviate this problem is an incredible idea to me.”

She suggests that people evoke more feelings of awe in their lives by exposing themselves to nature, art, and music.

“Put yourself in situations where you’re experiencing new things,” she says

Healing Heart Work from Blackrock

We worked on healing our lives through heart connections with sitting exercises and with John Kells' amazing Figure 8 heart exercises. Wonderful energy and love filled day.