Vol 111, 2021 Essential Wellness Magazine

Vol.III 2021

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resources for inner peace, health and healing

staff

Vol.III 2021

essential wellness digital magazine

4 My Turning from Doing to Being

6 Twin Cities Wellness

The Matrix Is Real

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8 Is There a Line to God?

10 Choosing Your Friends Form and Color

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My Turning from Doing to Being

By Connie Zweig, Ph.D.

E

Each day, as sunlight dims and dusk falls, I stop. For more than 50 years, I’ve watched the light turn to darkness, then closed my eyes to make the transition from doing to being, from fast to slow, from outward to inward.

For me, dusk, the time when the glare of the day diminishes but the blackness of night has not yet blanketed the sky, is a sacred time. So, I have paid attention to dusk, the time between the world of light and the world of darkness, and I noticed a feeling of loss as another day wanes and a feeling of eagerness as another evening embraces me.

Eager for what? I’m eager to immerse myself in the expansive ocean of silence that is simply there as I close my eyes and enter meditation, breathing in, breathing out, releasing the day’s stimulation, emptying the internal noise that goes with it, and sinking into the vastness.

After some years of feeling precious intimacy with my breath, I realized that each meditation is like practicing 4 www.esswellness.com

dying, going deeper within, letting go of it all, and breathing out one last time. Then I realized, while writing this paragraph, that this ritualized practice has helped me to prepare for the greater Dusk—for aging consciously into the twilight of my time here.

Before we cultivate pure awareness, our inner world is splashed with the colors of intense emotions, we believe our fleeting thoughts, and we unconsciously identify with the shadow character that is emerging in the moment. In the context of aging, the result is grief, paralysis, shame: “I’m too old or weak for that,” rather than “I’m feeling weak today.” Or “I am useless,” rather than “I’m not feeling like doing much today.”

We become lost in the shadow character—and have no portal to silence.

After we cultivate pure awareness and learn to witness those characters, we can watch the feelings of the moment and notice our thoughts without believing them. They float like clouds through the sky of our minds. Our deeper identity remains clear, uncolored by the passing phenomena. We might say, “I feel sad with this loss, but I know it will pass.”

Or “I can’t do that anymore, but I know that it doesn’t

detract from who I am.” Or “I can accept that this is how it is, even though I wish it were different.”

As we open daily to this state and watch, breath by breath, we begin to realize that we are not those thoughts, those shadow characters that are complaining, judging, or rejecting our circumstances. We are not those feelings that ebb and flow. Rather, we are that simple, silent, observing awareness. And the more we identify with it—rather than with the noise—the quieter the mind grows, the wider the heart opens, and the deeper we sink into the timeless emptiness. And the more we embrace life as it is.

This capacity to break our unconscious identification with the shadow character and return to pure awareness or the silent vastness brings many gifts: It provides the body with deep relaxation and recovery from stress, as our heart rate and blood pressure go down. And meditation alters brain waves in positive ways, as indicated by years of research.

In addition, more recent studies demonstrate that meditation may slow aging at a cellular level. Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, who won the 2009 Nobel Prize for the discovery of telomeres (the protective caps on chromosomes whose length is a metric for aging), has linked stress to shorter telomeres, meaning shorter lives. If meditation reduces stress, she reasoned, it could increase telomere length. In a series of studies, she found that it did.

Meditation also appears to slow age-related degeneration in our brains. Neurologist Eileen Luders at UCLA looked at the link between age and the volume of the CONTINUED PAGE 8...

Vol. III 2021

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The Matrix Is Real

By Matthew Wood, Interviewed by Gail Torr

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You are a world-renowned professional herbalist with over 35 years’ experience. Your new and highly anticipated book is called Holistic Medicine and the Extracellular Matrix; what is the

extracellular matrix (or ECM) and why is it vital to our understanding of how the body works holistically?

Thank you, Gail. The extracellular matrix (ECM) is important for a number of reasons. First, it is the foundation of physiology in the organism, from the cell to the whole being. Without knowledge of the matrix there would be a yawning gap in our knowledge of how the organism works. This gap would be right in the middle, the focal point, the foundation for all physiological activity because the matrix provides the regulatory system for all the cells: they are completely controlled by it (feeding, elimination, migration, reproduction).

The cells are not autonomous entities but act as a whole. Thus, the cell theory, for 150 years (and still in many circles) the foundation of biology and medicine is proven to be wrong. And, at the same time, the basic premise of holism, that the organism acts on a whole entity, is now demonstrated. Despite this importance, the ECM is grandly ignored in biology and medicine, or 6 www.esswellness.com

only described in a reductionist, non-holistic fashion.

This is not just due to the prejudices of science, against holism, but derives in part because the matrix is hard to visualize. This book remedies that problem, describing the matrix both holistically and in detail, in an easyto-visualize manner, for both the layperson and the interested professional.

Your book explains that while cells are individual entities they don’t function on their own; how does the matrix regulate cells?

Yes, the mechanism is called the “ground regulatory system.”

The cells are united by polymers (molecule wide ‘fibers’) that hold a charge until there is a change (nutrition, hydration, temperature, etc.) This alters the charge on the polymers and the change is registered simultaneously, throughout the organism, in all cells. There is a slight variation in the local matrix, from organ to organ, so that some areas are impacted more or less than others—justifying the ancient and modern, holistic and conventional idea that organs can get sick individually.

Can you describe in simple terms how the extracellular matrix is involved in healing?

The matrix is so all-important in the life of the cells that

even aberrant cancer cells need and follow the signals received from the ground regulatory system. Without input they usually shrivel up and die—leading in an important new area in cancer research. How much more so the healthy cells of the body. They require direction. I provided a chapter on wound healing because it is easier to visualize how the matrix supports local healing at the surface of the body. We can then see how it supports healing in the invisible interior as well.

What is the importance of the extracellular matrix for science?

Not seeing or understanding the matrix, or including it in our calculations, is like having a blind spot in the middle of our vision, keeping us from understanding the basic foundations and whole processes of physiology, cell biology, medical analysis and treatment, and holistic science and medicine.

How can the discovery of the matrix affect traditional allopathic and complementary medicine in the future?

This is a very good question. As Alfred Pischinger, the discoverer of the ground regulatory system pointed out, conventional therapy directs the drug to a

Why, if you believe the discovery of the extracellular matrix is so critical in the body’s holistic healing, is the concept so little known or celebrated?

Pischinger himself was a holistic physician on the staff of the medical school at the University of Vienna. He addressed this question, and his answer was simple: it is much easier, in the current intellectual environment, to think in a simplistic, cause-and-effect, linear fashion than to grasp all the parts and the whole which they form. As an artist, as well as a healer, I present it in terms of perspective. The amateur artist cannot get the correct relationship between the foreground and the background. It is the same medicine. The wrong perspective has been in vogue for so long that the vast majority of doctors and biologists simply cannot see the gaping whole in their model of biology. Holistic healers have an intuition of the truth—of the right perspective—it is time they realized also that their approach is founded on scientific reality.

Not seeing or understanding the matrix, or including it in our calculations, is like have a blank spot in the middle of our vision, keeping us from understanding the basic foundations of physiology, cell biology, medical analysis and treatment, and holistic science

molecular bonding cite on the cell wall, thus bypassing the self-regulatory system of the organism. This can only weaken self-regulation and self-healing. In other words, modern medicine is largely founded upon health-wrecking practices. In holism, so the other hand, treatment is geared to the whole—even if it can only be perceived through the symptoms, rather than the molecule-based analysis we are used to in reductionism (analysis based on the smallest part). Remarkably, science is now on the side of holism, while traditional reductionism is no longer justified as a scientific basis

and medicine.

for medical practice.

CONTINUED PAGE 8...

Matthew Wood has been a practicing herbalist for over 35 years. An internationally known author and lecturer in the field, he holds a Master of Science degree in herbal medicine from the Scottish School of Herbal Medicine.

A professional member of the American Herbalists Guild, he is the author of several books, including The Earthwise Herbal and The Book of Herbal Wisdom.

He lives in Spring Valley, Wisconsin. https://www. matthewwoodinstituteofherbalism.com/ Vol. III 2021

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 5... brain’s white matter, which typically shrinks with age.

She reported that this decrease was less prominent in meditators as compared to non-meditators. On average, the brains of long-term practitioners appeared to be seven and a half years younger at the age of 50 than the brains of non-meditators.

With practice, one day we can sit in silence, watch the flow of thoughts and feelings come and go, and distinguish the voice of a shadow character from the whisper of the soul. In the context of aging, we can identify age—but not identify with it. Rather, the changes that inevitably arise with age become a vehicle for the soul’s evolution.

On the other hand, when we hold on and resist change, a wave of grief arises. Everything changes; we don’t want it to change. Everything ends; we don’t want it to end. We cling for dear life. And we feel terrible grief to the degree that we resist ever-changing change.

Fortunately, in our time, with the democratization of mystical and contemplative methods that used to be kept hidden for a select few, we can now explore many practices and choose one that fits our natural tendencies and/or beliefs. We can cultivate a state of mind— pure awareness or nonduality—that opens an internal space where we can notice how thoughts come and go,

how shadow characters come and go, and how bodily sensations come and go. Here, the ego has no agenda and no goal. It’s not trying to get anywhere, fix anything, or resist anything. Instead, we let go of the contents of the mind and rest in pure awareness itself. As George Harrison sang to us, “When you’ve seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.”

So, from a spiritual perspective, we can’t choose the circumstances of our age. But we can choose the quality of awareness we bring to those circumstances. We can open the portal to silent vastness and experience our thoughts and feelings as a quiet witness, freed of the grasp of the shadow.

Connie Zweig, Ph.D., is a retired psychotherapist, former executive editor at Jeremy P. Tarcher Publishing, former columnist for Esquire magazine, and contributor to the LA Times. Known as the Shadow Expert, she is the coauthor of Meeting the Shadow and Romancing the Shadow and author of Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality and a novel, A Moth to the Flame: The Life of Sufi Poet Rumi.

She lives in Topanga, California. https://conniezweig.com

To learn more: www.conniezweig.com

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About The Book: Holistic Medicine and the Extracelluar Matrix: The Science of Healing at the Cellular Level, Matthew Wood ISBN; 9781644112946, October 2021.

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Vol. III 2021

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Is There a Line to God?

By Carmel Niland

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Scientists are beginning to unravel many of the mysteries and codes behind our physical world, making it easier for us to understand who we are. We know now that every human possesses DNA—the genetic code that

As I learned more about Saint-Germain, I became increasingly interested in what I saw at the curious links and connections between significant historical figures. Great circles of illuminated beings began to enthrall me—especially when contrasted with the darker circles of light who opposed them—Churchill

makes each of us an individual. But, our spiritual world remains mostly incomprehensible, and the answers to the age-old questions of who am I, or why am I here continue to mystify us.

Over the years, as I tried to discover, who I was, I became increasingly fascinated with who everyone else was. Before long, I found myself on a quest to discover the true identity of an eighteenth-century diplomat and magician called Comte de Saint-Germain. A man who was long hidden in the shadows of the occult tradition and with whom I had become completely captivated. What began as a fascination with this alchemist became a search for buried treasure and an accidental discovery of the genealogy of God. In other words, I believe after many channeled discussions with him, I found the line to God and the real possibility that just as we have physical DNA, we all possess spiritual DNA as well.

and Roosevelt, who opposed Stalin and Hitler, or Sir Thomas More, who opposed King Henry VIII. I found myself asking, why do we have golden ages of enlightenment like the reign of Queen Elizabeth I surrounded by Shakespeare, Marlow, Spenser, Raleigh, Drake, and Bacon? Or of Lorenzo de Medici and his contemporaries Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, Machiavelli, and Botticelli? What created the unfettered imagination of the Romantic era with Wordsworth, Keats, Byron, and Shelley?

What mysterious forces were at hand in bringing together the visionary Washington, Adams, Franklin, Paine, Hamilton, and Jefferson to found the United States of America? Or the spiritual awakening in Asia with the lives of Buddha, Lao Tzu, and Confucius: all born within 50 years of one another?

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Could it be a mere accident that people of such genius

bloomed simultaneously in glorious bursts of creative energy? Or was it by design, part of a larger plan, a plan with elegance and complexity, a Divine Plan? And if so, what was that plan, and why did evil have to fit into it? Why are people born so different—some with towering intellects and creative gifts while others are born into lives where death extinguishes them almost before they begin?

If there was evidence of a line to God, through a spiritual DNA, that exists in every one of us, how could I find it? It is said that characters who act out the human quest for self-knowledge, like Hamlet or Faust, have sooner or later dealings with angels, demons, and spirits. And I was no exception.

Mysticism intrigues me. As a Catholic, that most supernatural and mystical of faiths, I was well versed in miracles, mysteries, and prophetic teachings and in the prophets who had a direct experience of God, or others who communicated with angels like Isaiah or saints like Theresa of Avila. Through their experiences, I gained fresh insights into the human dilemma. Why not ask them or other historical characters directly for firsthand accounts of what happened to them? Surely, after their deaths, they would have all the answers and perhaps help me to demonstrate the existence of spiritual DNA.

After researching the life stories of about 500 people, both historical and contemporary characters with a worldwide spread of birthplaces, I found repeated patterns in these lives and with the Gatekeeper’s help, discovered the presence of 12 distinct energies that reflected their life stories. It soon became apparent that with each incarnation, these masters brought into their lives specific qualities and purposes. You may be familiar with their names, from your own spiritual work, but what you may not know is that every human being is an aspect of one of these energies from the very instance of their creation.

These Master energies are called Mary and St. Germain, Lady Portia and Master Kuthumi, Lady Nada and Hilarion, Pallas Athene and El Moyra, Lady Leto and Serapis Bey, and Djwahl Kuhl and Lady Fortunata. I wrote Our Spiritual DNA to help you discover who you are and what gifts, surprises and challenges there might be for you in your energetic line.

Carmel Niland is the former CEO and leader of various government agencies on gender, racial equality, human rights, and child protection in New South Wales, Australia. The author of A Darker Magic This Way Comes, she lives in Sydney, Australia. www.ourspiritualdna.com

The question was, how? Wherever possible, I interviewed them using a channel, an obliging, disincarnate Gatekeeper who contacted them. He was a Tibetan llama who could move into other worlds and there he would persuade famous people to participate and reveal their secrets.

To learn more: ourspiritualdna.com

Vol. III 2021

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Choosing Your Friends Form and Color

By Kathryn Hudson

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Sometimes we choose crystals, but at other times it would appear that they choose us! A perfect example of that would be the strong reaction I had to the chlorite phantom crystal I found in my hands “accidentally” (literally!) at the Kona shop. When we have a Soul contract with a particular crystal, the Universe sets things in motion that will ensure the “meeting”: of course, we still have the free will to accept the crystal’s invitation or not!

For a person who is strongly intuitive, the question may not seem to be a question at all. As with other “choices” that seem more like a natural flow, obvious next steps, when we are aligned with our highest good and the channel is open, we are more likely to step into alliance with crystals that are best for our needs at that time!

When we are aligned, we ourselves become the experts for our path. Our Soul, with Divine assistance, embedded the Truth of our path and being within us before we were born. When we access that Truth, no 12 www.esswellness.com

one—not even the amazing Dalai Lama himself—has more wisdom regarding our path and choices than we ourselves do!

This is why when crystals choose us, when we are aligned, things happen so easily. Our choice is the obvious YES! On the other hand, when it is our turn to do the choosing, the easiest way to effect choices will be to ensure that we are aligned and clear in our intention before we begin our search for the appropriate crystal allies.

Reading other people’s books (even this one) only takes us so far, as the descriptions and suggestions in another person’s book stem from their own experience with crystals. But we are not the same, and sometimes it is what makes us unique that makes the difference between the efficacy of one stone or another.

Our bodies, our “instruments,” are unique, so just as we would never tune a piano the way a guitar is tuned, we should not imagine that someone else’s reaction to

a particular crystal will be a good predictor of how we will react. The energetic of the interaction will not— cannot—be the same.

LAWS OF ENERGY GOVERNING CRYSTAL INTERACTIONS When you begin to work with crystals, it is important to note two laws of energy that apply to all energetic interactions, including your work with crystals: 1. Energy Seeks Equilibrium This law explains why sometimes we can be pulled down in energy by another person, or by a place or a thing.

Conversely, it also explains why sometimes we can also be uplifted by a person, place, or thing. And it explains why we are attracted to certain people, and to certain crystals.

Everything (not just everyone, but everything) has an energetic field that holds the physical aspect. Simply put, when our energetic fields play well together (are in sync, or equilibrium), attraction is triggered. Energy seeks equilibrium and finds it through that attraction.

But what attracts me won’t necessarily attract you, right?

EXAMPLE: John and Mary, a happily married couple, are out for a walk when they meet their neighbor, Bob. The three chat for a while and then continue on their separate ways. As they walk away, Mary says, “Bob is great, isn’t he?” John replies, “Are you kidding? That guy is a jerk!”

One might assume that since Mary and John are happily married, they should have a similar reaction to the third party, Bob. But since humans are volatile, the Bob that Mary met and the Bob with whom John interacted may not even be similar. Their energies do not interact in the same way.

Two people will never have the same exact reaction to a third person because of this. How many times does Life hear us saying something similar like, “You don’t like him/her? I think he/she is great!” From our position, our opinion is Truth, but we often fail to realize that it is not the Truth but our Truth. That’s why when two people differ on an opinion of a third party, it is rarely a question of who is right and who is wrong, but rather, a question of who is in sync with the frequency of that person, and who is not.

Our interactions with crystals are the same! Of course, since crystals are less changeable than human beings, we may come into agreement with like-minded people as to the efficacy of certain crystals as partners for a particular objective. Their energetic fields are not as volatile, and that in itself has a stabilizing effect on most of us, even if we are unaware of it.

2. Where Our Attention Goes, So Follows Our Energy The second law of energy will also impact our work here, but more in the section on protocols. Still it bears mentioning here: attention directs energy. If we focus our attention on a person or a thing, we impact that person or thing. (Just think: have you never felt someone’s eyes on you?) We will use this law when we work with crystals to attract qualities we value more and more into our Life.

CHOOSE YOUR FRIENDS: CRYSTAL FORM Now that we recognize the importance of making our own choices to find crystal allies that are in resonance CONTINUED PAGE 14...

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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13... with our personal energetic field, let’s begin to explore what the choices we have before us as we do that.

When we look for crystals, it is important to recognize that there are many different forms that may or may not appeal to us. In crystal work, size is important, sometimes! Additionally, crystals may come in various forms: rolled, natural, geodes, sculpted, with inclusions; we can even work with images of crystals!

SIZE MATTERS, SOMETIMES! Perhaps the easiest of choices to make with regard to our crystal search is size. While a massive geode may feel more powerful than a small, rolled crystal, the latter is portable and can accompany us all day, so each really has its advantages. That leads us to other sizes, from very small to medium-sized. How to choose?

In choosing size, insofar as possible, allow yourself to simply choose the stone that appeals to you (unless a stone that doesn’t appeal to you, such as my example with the chlorite phantom crystal, chooses you!).

If you are anchored and connected with the intention of finding the right stone for you, you will be attracted to the ally that will be most effective. Never mind when your head tried to tell you (perhaps) that you are “only” picking a stone because it is pretty or shiny, and so on.

There is no “only” about it!

What you find attractive is what is in sync with your energetic field as it is in that moment (which is why it is important to do the preparatory exercise just beforehand). Allow yourself to pick the stone that makes your Heart skip. If you will, let your inner child pick the crystal ally that is right for you. That child essence is the part of us most closely tied in to our Soul!

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We may also lead with size; that is, choose crystals by their size first and their attractiveness second. This is desirable in two situations: when price is a factor and when the work we plan to do dictates size.

CHOOSE THE SIZE THAT FITS THE WORK 1. If we want a crystal we can keep with us, such as in a pocket, all day, it makes sense to use a small, round one.

2. If we want a crystal to fit into our wallet, or to lie flat on a person’s supine body, we may opt for a flat one.

3. If we want a crystal that will catch our eye, for our desk or night table, a somewhat larger size is in order.

4. If we want to place a crystal under our pillow, it is best to again turn to smaller sizes, and important to note that sometimes crystals move when we do, in the night. This is especially true if you have someone in bed with you. And especially especially true if that someone is not into crystals.

PRICE Of course, sometimes price can play a role in our choice, and our choice is made for us. The good news in this case is that even small crystals can have a very powerful impact on us, which we will feel more and more clearly as we continue to open our channel and work with them.

Kathryn Hudson is a certified Angel Therapy and Crystal Healing practitioner and teacher. Also a Reiki Master teacher, Kathryn writes, speaks, and teaches all over the world on opening up to the spiritual side of life. She lives in France and in the United States

CLICK HERE to learn more

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