By Debra Basham, on April 29, 2013
It has not quite yet been a month since we arrived back home in Michigan. Today I am somewhere beneath the hustle and bustle of the world of spring and window cleaning business. The sun did come out to lure me away from my lists of tasks. A pair of ducks seemed grateful the April showers of the past couple of weeks had left a puddle about the size of a two-car garage on the property at the corner. They were not so sure I meant them no harm, and much quacking between them made me think one of them must have told the other, “Get out of the water. Now!”
Waddling along the edge of the puddle, she was the first to slip back into the water. I am guessing he was the one who had given the warning, much like the Lost in Space robot’s calling, “Danger, Will Robinson!”
But taking her lead, he soon joined her, with an still-ever-so-subtle attention to my whereabouts.
In my mind I am watching the two ducks who often come to visit outside my window so I wonder why they did not recognize me as the one who watches them with a heart full of wonder and a fist full of corn.
As a tribute to all of nature, including my own human nature, I will share a poem.
I Found A Feather
I found a feather on the ground
Who left it there for me?
Was it a gift of yonder god
To see if I can see?
Do I miss the other gifts
While busy in my head?
Planning what I still will do
Rehearsing what was said?
I pray I find
One soon fine day
I am right where I am
I put the feather by my bed
As I lie down to sleep
I dreamt of love so sweet
Indeed, it nearly made me weep
Now when I look up to the sky
Each winged one I spy
I pretend within my heart
I know the reason why
That lovely feather came to me
To call me to my heart
That I may live in peace and calm
Today’s the day I’ll start!
2/5/2013 by Debra Basham
“All ducks have a grace upon water, and as a totem they can help you to handle your own emotions with greater grace and comfort. They serve to teach you how to maneuver through various waters of life. Many psychologists and therapists could do no better than to have a duck as a totem to assist them in helping others move through their emotional tangles.” (Ted Andrews, Animal-Speak, p. 136)
May today be the day all beings start to live in peace and calm. That will be just ducky!
By Debra Basham, on April 23, 2013
Legend has said that one day many centuries ago, Tara was meditating and chanting her mantra in her Lotus Buddha Field, when some monks happened by. They felt her powerful vibrations and profound meditational energy, and they said, “Oh, Yogini [female practitioner], you are such an excellent spiritual practitioner. In the future may you be born as a man and become a Buddha.”
And Tara replied to those arrogant macho monks, “May I throughout all my lifetimes always take female form. Until all beings realize the nirvanic peace, bliss, and freedom of full enlightenment,
may I always embody the sacred feminine and be a female Buddha.”
Awakening the Buddha Within: Tibetan Wisdom for the Western World (p. 247), by Lama Surya Das
This story catches my eye (and heart) quite fully right now as I was just reading a powerful poem by a woman writing about the sacred balance of ebb and flow of human live—some lives ending all too soon, and some lives beginning all too soon, yet each coming and going in just the perfect place of no-time.(The nuclear disaster in Chernobyl occurred in April of 1986.)
The Years We Will Know Them
Soon I will know if I am pregnant.
I watch my blood, so willing
to fill the vial, and the tiny blue bruise
that instantly forms
where the needle entered.
In this waiting room I sit
with a Lifemagazine—
Victims of Chernobyl in bold
and photos of men without hair,
skin peeling as if they’d lain
too long in the sun.
Some glance hopefully at us, wide-eyed,
a part of History.
But how young—
they must have mothers
who’d want to hold such heads and weep
for the years they have known them,
the ones they will not.
Each morning nurses collect the hair
in great clumps from the pillows
till each bare scalp gives up
boyhood scars and birthmarks,
a shell bony and domed.
Uncovered, the nape of the neck
is a place a woman remembers
putting her lips to.
My name is called.
Soon I will know if the tender bone
of a skull is bedded
like a pearl in my womb.
—by Lauren Mesa
What strikes me as significant about this poem and the story of Tara, is the truth of how each of us is capable of touching life with such awareness that our very breath tells a story of our larger destiny.
Recently I was playing a game of dominoes with some friends. This was the third game over a few weeks with the same five players. It became obvious one player was playing AGAINST me even though I was not winning. I was aware that did not feel good. After shifting into a more neutral observer, as she was even saying things about the focus of blocking me, I mentioned what I saw that was happening: “You are playing against me as though i was winning.”
Her reply was, “It feels like you are.”
At the moment I was able to acknowledge I was experiencing my own energy from the previous two games…. I offered up a silent prayer for this awareness and wrapped my heart in forgiveness as I remembered my higher purpose was to enjoy the game.
I am witnessing one dear friend support her beloved husband as he navigates a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s. She sees the challenges as opportunities for love and respect and tenderness and patience for both of them.
I am also watching another dear friend (long since grandmother age) raise a baby. She finds delight in each busy moment rather than feeling overwhelmed by the responsibilities.
I also hold that space for Carol after the transition of her beloved daughter, Lizzie.
No matter what we do for a living, the purpose of our lives is to use our heads, hands, and hearts to help others. Thank you, blessed friends, for doing that day after day….
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| Daffodils in bloom: Walking the labyrinth at Still Waters with Carol. |
By Debra Basham, on April 16, 2013
I was blessed to spend the weekend at a “no-frills” meditation retreat at the Howell Nature Center with nine others. The format for the weekend is silent practice. In fact, you have precious little free time, but I found amazing freedom.
The schedule mixes sitting meditation with active meditation, and much of the weekend was cold and rainy, so I practiced walking meditation up and down the stairs, sometimes with my eyes open, and sometimes with them closed; sometimes going backwards with eyes closed. It was my version of being led on a trust walk, only there was no other doing the leading.
During the Friday evening opening I learned that a woman I had met on two previous meditation retreats had died in March. I remember her as a wonderful spirit. I knew she was undergoing treatment for breast cancer but I admit that I was stunned to hear of her transition.Godspeed, Shelia….
I kept my phone plugged in, watching for text messages from my friend Carol, who was bedside by her 27 year-old daughter, Lizzie. (See previous blog) I knew the family had been called together and the process of easing Lizzie off life-support had begun.
On Sunday morning, the weather was cool but it had stopped raining, so I went out-of-doors for my walking meditation. As I turned the corner, coming out of the parking lot, following the “wrong way” signs, I saw this amazing piece of art: a single heart-shaped leaf was floating in a mud puddle. The puddle was surrounded by gravel, each piece seemingly having been placed there by some artist for its sheer aesthetic value. The tree silently standing watch had been reflected in the water in such a way you could imagine you were seeing the arteries from that heart.
It was so beautiful, it almost took my breath away.
I had the immediate knowing, “Lizzie is free.”
For sure, much of my weekend was tinged with the humble gratitude for my own life. I was reminded of the answer my friend Rabbi Rami Shapiro provided in his column (Roadside Assistance for the Spiritual Traveler) to the question, “What happens when I die?”
Where does an ice cube go in a tub of warm water? You are the cube, God is the water. For a while you seem separate from the water, but eventually you melt – you die – and discover that you, too, are water. Have fun being a cube; just don’t forget that all cubes are water, and everything is God.
I had previously shared with Carol another of Rami’s columns about our transition from this life:
Imagine that the universe is a rope and you, [and Lizzie], and all things are knots in that rope. Each knot is unique, and all knots are the rope. When we die our knot unties, but the rope that is our essence remains unchanged: we become what we already are.
Life after death is the same as life before death: the rope knotting and unknotting. The extent to which you identify with a knot is the extent to which you grieve over its untying. The extent to which you realize that the knot is the rope is the extent you can move through your grief into a sense of fearless calm.
For me, the rope is God, the source and substance of all reality. When [Lizzie] dies she relaxes into her true nature, and realizes who she always was and is: God. I believe this realization comes at death regardless of who we are or how we live.
As I pulled into my driveway, this message popped in from Carol, “Lizzie made a peaceful transition around 2:45 pm CDT. Her husband (AJ), his mom (Linda), Lizzie’s older sister (Amanda), and I were there holding her hands.” Godspeed, beautiful Lizzie…
Because I was alert to messages from Carol, I had my iPhone with me on my walking meditation. I am so thankful the sacredness of nature’s artwork was captured to be shared….
By Debra Basham, on April 12, 2013
Every day I say prayers for those I know are going through challenges of life. Sometimes is it for one of my grandchildren, navigating the potholes along the road from childhood. I maintain contact with friends and with colleagues and several “prayer circles” so I often share those requests for support. Prayer has been second nature to me, but since my own surgery in November, I realize how palpable that healing intention is.
Today I received a tender, touching, intimate photo of a my friend, holding the hand of her gravely ill thirty-something daughter. I can only imagine the agony of sitting bedside day-after-day, longing for a liver transplant, yet knowing that today your child is too ill to receive the very organ that is the hope for her life to be a viable option.
The following poem was written to honor my dear friend and her beautiful daughter, two women for whom I pray today. Two women whose hands and hearts are entwined in this sacred journey of their souls. It is a journey too profound for words.
Heart Breaking
Sitting here holding your hand
Heart breaking
Can you hear me calling you, asking you to stay a while
Where are you
Do you still dream
My mind wanders, but there is nowhere to go
Escape is not possible
Tears falling from my eyes
Heart breaking
Do you know I am here with you
I am here
I still dream
By Debra Basham, on April 5, 2013
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| Cover of Encore Magazine, picked up April 4, 2013, at breakfast book club. |
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At the age of 12, poet George Leslie Norris (1921-2006) says walls began to speak to him and his life as a writer was born! As he tells it, “I put my finger on the wall and it was rough and I could feel the individual grains, and then I put my hand against the wall and little grains fell to the ground, tiny things, and I suddenly knew that my life was going to be the recognition of solid things like this and making relationships of the real world, of the material world, and that the only way to do that was to have the words that stood for stones and rocks and mountains, and that the rhythms would create the formation of such things, and I was going to do this all my life”
I have loved Nature deeply for years, and I now find myself being called to love the Earth as though she is an entity. When I am very still, I can feel her heart beat, and I am inspired to write about the passion I feel as I honor the truth that my life as a writer has also been born.
How is it that my senses are so acute to you? Are we connected on some mystical plane that is hidden from both you and me?
I breathe and it is your breath I catch. I stretch my dawdling body and feel the sinews of your thighs tighten around me. I am held in the loving memory of your touch!
Does our being together stretch beyond time and space? Can we actually be present with one another when our bodies are separate? Is this sensation of oneness madness at my door or a peek into reality?
I dance with your presence and heat begins to rise within me. Oh, you are able to make me come out and play when my desk is piled with work and my phone is ringing! You can capture my wings and spread my legs at will! You are the devil himself come to force me to face the desire I have long denied!
I cease to struggle against the yearnings. I begin to fondle my thoughts and allow the memories to wash over my barren flesh. Hunger and thirst fade into lust. I long to be held by these memories and to merge into them in such a way that I am blind to anything else…
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| Double rainbow seen out my front window November 9, 2012. |
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Today, as I am here in Southwest Michigan working on the computer, I am looking out my window watching the birds feeding. The male Cardinal seems very red, the Goldfinch makes a lovely match to the kernels on the half-eaten cob of corn, and I see the beauty in the iridescence of the shimmering feathers on the head on the male Grackle. I am wondering if the reason writers thrive is because the mundane has somehow become supra-mundane, and you see more meaning in everything, where ever you are.
By Debra Basham, on March 27, 2013
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| Seen on the door exiting the exam room at Michiana Hematology and Oncology… |
The African Proverb, “When you pray, move your feet,” has often been used to encourage Christians, or other people of faith, to take appropriate actions in the world. In fact, faith is intended to guide our choices in ways that is consistent with a greater meaning of life.
As with other things, the truth of this idea is reflected in our physical world. All movement consists of two distinct (and seemingly unrelated) processes: relaxation and contraction. Relaxation is only half the equation for a meaningful life, because contrACTION is also needed. Here are the words to Mountain Top, by singer/songwriter, Amy Grant:
I love to sing and I love to pray
Worship the Lord most everyday
I go to the temple, and I just want to stay
To hide from the hustle of the world and its ways
[Chorus:]
And I’d love to live on a mountain top
Fellowshipping with the Lord
I’d love to stand on a mountain top
‘Cause I love to feel my spirit soar
But I’ve got to come down from that mountain top
To the people in the valley below
Or they’ll never know that they can go
To the mountain of the Lord
Now, praising the Father is a good thing to do
Worship the Trinity in spirit and truth
But if we worshipped all of the time
There would be no one to lead the blind
[Chorus]
Now, I am not saying that worship is wrong
But worship is more than just singing a song
It’s all that you say, and everything that you do
It’s letting His Spirit live through you
[Chorus]
Worship is more than just singing a song, and if you are to develop a life that has meaning, you are required to do more than to meditate in a vacuum. So as I prepare to reenter the world of my life back in Michigan, here are three actions I intend to take as a way of honoring the relaxation I have been so thoroughly enjoying this winter on Pine Island, here in Florida:
1. Get involved with the new Hospice at Home “No one dies alone” program
2. Work to bring Art/Poems (collaboration pairing visual artists with poets) to our area
3. Join and/or create a writers group/s to keep me inspired and writing
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| Patty Reddy representing Stories at the Women’s Expo in South Bend. |
It is exciting to face the changes that greet me on my return, one of which is welcoming my sister, Janis Smith, to the office space where I practice at 815 Main Street. She has a massage therapy practice and has rented the room right next to mine. I look forward to being on her massage table, and to our walking downtown together, and sharing life. What gift that we get to be neighbors! Additionally, I will start getting our home ready for sale and start looking for a mobile/modular home in the park on Glenlord Road. We plan to downsize and make it easier for us to continue to enjoy spending winters in Florida.
The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it,
move with it,
and join the dance.
Alan Watts
By Debra Basham, on March 19, 2013
I am not preoccupied with death, but it would be true to say that I have a hyper sensitivity to mortality, meaning to the passing from the current. The reality is that everything changes form, but it does not mean an end to us, it means a new beginning: “…the caterpillar has the heart of a butterfly.”
InThe Anatomy of the Spirit: The Seven Stages of Power and Healing, Caroline Myss writes of the parallels between the sacraments (Christian), the chakras (Hindu), and the Sefirots of the Jewish Kaballah. Growing up as a Protestant, reading her book was the first time I heard the term extreme unction, but I already knew the blessing of prayers for healing and anointing with oil.
Extreme unction today is associated most often the forgiveness of sins and preparation for physical death known commonly as “last rights.” In the Roman Catholic sacrament the anointing and blessing is of the organs of the five external senses (eyes, ears, nostrils, lips, hands), the feet, and, for men, the loins. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the sacrament is done by multiple (seven, five, or three) priests (when it is absolutely necessary it can be done by just one); anointing the forehead, chin, cheeks, hands, nostrils, and breast. You can certainly see why Myss associated the sacraments with the chakras.
The crown (seventh) chakra is located at the top of the head, and is the energy from which our physical manifestation is said to come. It is seen as eternal, having neither a beginning nor an ending, and is the expression of our devotion (as in to a deity or cause), prophecy, and inspiration.
Symbolically it represents the process of retrieving one’s spirit from the various corners of one’s life that still hold unfinished business. One calls one’s spirit back in order to end this world and return to the spiritual dimension complete.
The sacred truth in the seventh chakra is Live in the Present Moment.
As I organize and pack, in preparation for leaving Pine Island next week, I will hold loving intention for this home on Skipper Lane (and Katey, its owner), the kitties I have visited (Sonny and Hector), the Eagles, the Tortoises, Grandmother Tree, and each of the people I have met. I will remember Dave, from Pine Island Cycles, who brought me an innertube at 9:30 on a Saturday night so I could ride bikes on Sunday with Linda Higbee, visiting from Michigan. I will remember Scott and Diane Lampitt, owners of Earth & Spirit Garden Gallery, where I held a book signing and workshop around Stories. I will especially hold intention for the other members of Pine Island Writers, each of whom have touched my heart.
On my rides, I will sprinkle blessings of loving intention along the bike path just as the priests sprinkle holy oil on the specific areas of the body. I will be mindful of calling my spirit back in order to leave this sacred place and return to Michigan complete.
By Debra Basham, on March 14, 2013
Nature lets you create a cocoon of silence inside.
In an interesting way, the “sounds” of nature are part of what I experience as “silence.” Today I am listening to the wind. I admit that I love the sound. I am sure there would be an upper limit, meaning I am not delusional to think I would enjoy the sounds of a hurricane. I also value being safe and comfortable inside. To me, Nature isan inside job.
Last night I was treated to the most amazing cotton candy cloud formation. I don’t think I have ever seen anything just like it. I found myself (I love that phrase!) giddy watching the changing shapes and colors. One friend, humor author Sherri Conor, commented on my photo saying how cool it is that God never paints the same scene twice. Just like the sunsets, we are unique.
This winter has been a delicious time of self-discovery for me. I have been intentional about that, accepting the healing from surgery to be about a lot more than just having had that tumor removed (along with all of my feminine plumbing). It is not so much what happens to us in life, but what we make out of that. I chose to make this a time to reconnect to my core, and Nature has been the avenue for my doing that.
So what do you discover when you spend time with Nature in a cocoon of silence? You discover what you forgot: There are no accidents. Your life matters. You are loved. Life is worth living. There are myriad opportunities every moment to celebrate and be in joy.
Seeking nature’s truth for your life through quiet appreciation
offers you an important view of your own life
as tied to Nature’s support systems
and in turn to the spiritual support system of the Universe.
(Meredith L. Young–Sowers)
Angelic Messenger Cards: A Divination System for Self-Discovery
By Debra Basham, on March 7, 2013
“If you have a penny and I have a penny and we exchange pennies,
you still have one cent and I still have one cent.
But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange ideas,
you now have two ideas and I now have two ideas.”
– Unknown
It is wonderful, isn’t it, how you can give a blessing and then you have more than you previously had. I was pondering this idea while I was bike riding here in South Florida. The ride truly presented some interesting ideas, so I will share some of them with you.
We saw a tiny carcass on the side of the road. I took a photo of it, unsure what it was. A Google search for baby mouse images brought up one that looked just like this one we found, so I know that it was a mouse.
A grave marker beside the road caught our eye. It marks the spot where a young woman died when her car plummeted into the canal. Her family is raising money (and awareness), working to get a guard rail installed. There have been five crashes at that exact location in just seven years, two of them resulting in fatalities due to drowning.
As we were looking at a map, and the end of the bike lane, pondering whether to go on or turn around, a motorcyclist pulled over to the curb, hopped off his bike saying something about being stung on his leg. He unzipped his boot and a wasp flew out! It was mad as a hornet, and so was he! His comment was, “Too bad I did not get the satisfaction of killing the SOB!”
That got me thinking… so here is my “top five” list of things it is a miracle any of us survive:
1. Sneezing. We know your heart stops.
2. Anesthesia. We know your heart can stop during that, too.
3. Airplanes. It can’t be natural for something as big as a house to fly.
4. Slides. Why do they let a toddler climb to the top of an eight foot ladder?
5. Birth. How does a 7-10 pound baby get out of there alive?
Regardless, of why else, we survive because the highway of life is Miracle Parkway. Give thanks today… and every day!
By Debra Basham, on February 27, 2013 This past Saturday morning I went to a Peace River Center for Writers at Edison State College. I met another writer there, Irwin Schinkel. We had a phone conversation this morning and he asked me to answer what I want my book/s to lead to. Did I want consulting jobs, to be hired as a speaker, or….
Irwin is United Methodist, so he was curious how I went from my United Methodist roots to Unity. I was sharing how much passion I have around serving God by helping us integrate physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. We spoke of the chaos in the field of medicine, and how social institutions are being challenged at this time in human history. Some of you know that my personal mission statement is Living, encouraging, and enjoying a conscious spiritual journey.
Over a decade ago, when my Joel and I formed a partnership and started developing materials and leading workshops together, my goals were more in the realm of wanting consulting jobs to train professionals in what we call “Subtle Communication Systems.” We got our program approved by Association of Massage & Bodywork Professionals (ABMP), and we saw ourselves creating a legacy by training trainers and having them help to spread this integration. We also produced the audios and expected sales of our CDs and books.
At this point, I do not want to travel extensively to teach and train, and both of our homes have closets stuffed with about 800 copies of Healing with Language: Your Key to Effective Mind-Body Communication. We have talked of putting out boxes (like they do for puppies or kittens): FREE TO A GOOD HOME.
Having not been successful in building a sustainable audience for our trainings, but still desiring to make a positive difference in the world, my goals shifted to creating a more passive revenue stream from books and audio files. This led to the creation of http://ImagineHealing.info (for patients), and http://SurgicalSupport.info (for professionals).
I admit that it can be very challenging to provide a service or product to those who do not know they need it!
Below I have copied an article from the November 2010 edition of our monthly Beyond Mastery newsletter. I shared it with Irwin, as an example of what is important to me.
Inner asking led to some significant answers to Irwin’s question of me: I realized if something (book sales would be great) could generate enough money, I would build a space where people could come to heal. Some would come to learn meditation, some would come to teach it. Some would come to receive integrative medicine therapies, some would come to provide those services.
Many of those who have the desire to serve holistically and have learned the skills to do so have too few people access their services to make a living. Integrative doctors, such as those in the AHMA (American Holistic Medical Association), or ICIM (International College of Integrative Medicine), represent about 2 percent of the field, but everyone deserves to have truly integrative care, and our planet will benefit, too.
The insurance industry and big pharmaceutical firms have created a culture of illness and we have called it “health” care. Dee Edington, (his book is Zero Trends) says medicine is now the largest employer in the US, and illness the most lucrative industry. Because illness is the money-maker for the industry, no one within that industry is really invested in helping people avoid illness.
But it is not just about medicine, and I am not just militant about all of this. I am called to empower individuals to wake up. Patch Adams said we could stop the insurance industry immediately if groups of 100 would pool resources and share risks as cooperatives. That was the idea behind the original Mutual of Omaha. There was no self-serving industry getting rich off the people.
I am all for people developing wealth. Richard Bandler says the best way to help a poor person is not to be one. I am for living our lives from soulful principles that alleviate suffering where we can, provide support where we can, empowering ourselves and inspiring ourselves to live with peace of mind, as well as peace in the world.
I told Irwin that I am honored he has taken care to make contact with me. I consider that an answer to prayer and I trust that there is some divine movement happening that we will watch with deep joy. You can access all the archived issues of the newsletter, but here is the November 2010 issue I sent to Irwin:
Culture Shock
People keep asking me if I have recovered from my trip to Thailand. Some may be asking about jet lag. Some may be checking to see if I have readjusted to being back to work. I think I have some sense of what they mean, but I usually tell them that in some ways I hope that I never do.
Dealing with reverse culture shock was the subject of a CNN Internet news article by Tas Anjarwalla, “ Dealing with Reverse Culture Shock” (August 24, 2010). I have begun to put notes together for a book about the trip, so looking back at my Facebook entries and reviewing the video log are helping me make sense of things. In some ways, what I am experiencing now is helping me make more sense of the way I was affected by my first trip to Brazil to see John of God back in 2000.
As the article says, people expect to experience culture shock when they go toa foreign country, but coming home can actually be harder than going abroad. I miss the food. I went for Thai food the night I got back to US. I had my leftovers the next day, then I went for Korean food. I asked my friend at the Thai restaurant if he could make sweet buns. He said they are too labor-intensive, but I can get them in Chicago.
I miss the sounds. I don’t wake up to cuckoo bird, and I don’t go to sleep to gecko here. I miss my new friends from Thailand. They feel like my new family, and I don’t know if or when I will ever see them again.
There is something deeper that I miss, however, and that is the part I hope I never “get over.” I miss the kindness and the respect I experienced in the Thai people. It still brings tears to my eyes when I feel the way I was cared for. That feeling produces longings of its own….
They say if you want to know about water, don’t ask a fish. And if you want to know about air, don’t ask a bird. In a way, having grown up in this culture, I never really saw it. I know it has some benefits, too, otherwise people would not come here. My friend, Jimmy, who owns the Thai restaurant here in my home town of Saint Joseph, Michigan, grew up in Bangkok. He graduated from law school, and took a job with Volkswagen, and traveled to and lived in 22 different countries. He determined the U.S. was the best place in the world to live. I am glad he is here…. He is helping me recover from the reverse culture shock.
I am sure part of the longing is to be with people who value something I value—meditation. Once, in a far, far away time, as the hunger for this inner experience began to drive me, I ended up leaving my home church because an adult Sunday School class called “Listening for God” that I wanted to teach was such a radical offering it threatened the director of Christian education.
“You feel so rushed in this culture and bombarded with things,” said returned Peace Corps volunteer coordinator Jodi Hammer. Even though scientific research has been proving for years now, few Americans have any idea that their lifestyle is killing them. Interestingly, I even think of it as killing them, not as killing “us.”
The chronic disorders: heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure; as well as cancer, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, etc., have all been shown to be preventable with lifestyle changes. Dean Ornish, M.D., included one hour per day of yoga, meditation, or guided imagery (along with just a healthy diet and 30 minutes of exercise 6 days a week), and over 500 genes were positively influenced—cancer-causing genes were turned off along with cancer-prevention genes being turned on. This was after just three months! A bit more of the reverse culture shock article reads:
Anyone who’s been abroad, even for a short period of time, knows how hard it can be to keep quiet about your adventures, but you want to be careful not to sound pretentious or affected about your stay abroad.
Every time the word “recycle” is mentioned, no one really wants to hear about the Indian village you taught environmental basics in, but that doesn’t mean what you learned overseas isn’t important or interesting. In most situations, preventing that glazed-over look comes from knowing when and where your worldly knowledge is wanted.
People keep saying to me, “Debra, you are so quiet. What is going on?” I resist the urge to say that my heart is breaking just being back home, but in some ways it is. My heart is breaking that I have been teaching this stuff for a long, long time and yet, too few of the people I love have an understanding of the importance it has for their lives. My heart is breaking that we are offering a $2,500 NLP course for just $500 and people think they are too busy to take the time to attend. My heart is breaking that people die too soon, too scared, and too ignorant and yet the culture I live in is, for the most part, too arrogant to notice what they are missing.
Maybe 40 years after he clinically discovered that humans have the capacity to elicit the relaxation response rather than live in fight-or-flight, the new book by Herbert Bensen (author of The Relaxation Response) will tip the scales and wake up the medical community. The new book is called Relaxation Revolution: Enhancing Your Personal Health Through the Science and Genetics of Mind Body Healing. In it, Dr. Benson and William Proctor present the latest scientific findings, “revealing that we have the ability to self-heal diseases, prevent life-threatening conditions, and supplement established drug and surgical procedures with mind body techniques.”
The online information about the book says that in a special “treatment” section, Benson and Proctor describe how these mind body techniques can be applied—and are being applied—to treat a wide variety of conditions.
I heard once that the heart only breaks in one direction—open.
I hope that is true … and I hope that someday those of US who think we have all the answers because we have all the stuff will be able to look at ancient cultures and notice that things like chanting, and meditating, and laying on of hands, and enjoying dreamtime, and revering nature have a place in relieving us from this modern madness.
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