Spring/Summer 2017 Spirit of Change

HOLISTIC NEW ENGLAND

SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Rendezvous with Pain Relief Balance Your Body To Relieve Pain • A Critical Thinker’s Guide To Zika Treating Pain Without Drugs • Journal of Natural Healing Stories Be a Kindness Activist • Empower Your Adrenals • Advice For These Times

2 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

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MAIN OFFICE PO Box 405, Uxbridge, MA 01569 Phone: 508-278-9640 Fax: 508-278-9641 www.spiritofchange.org ADVERTISING INFORMATION Phone: 508-278-9640 x 1 E-mail: advertise@spiritofchange.org PUBLISHER & EDITOR Carol Bedrosian Phone: 508-278-9640 x 3 E-mail: carol@spiritofchange.org BUSINESS MANAGER Michella Brudner Phone: 508-278-9640 x 2 Email: Michella@spiritofchange.org WEB EDITOR Laurie Johnston Email: laurie@spiritofchange.org CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS Editors of E/Environmental Magazine, Eric Linter, Hilde Larsen, Annie B. Kay BOOK REVIEWS Gail Lord E-mail: SOCBookReviewer@gmail.com DESIGN & PRODUCTION Janice Nadeau, Steve Sedam, Amber Routten-Mitchell PRINTING TCI Publications, Seekonk, MA

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Departments Features Departments

Features

Musings

Tribute to Benjamin Creme.............................................................................. 10

by Carol Bedrosian.................................. 8

Starspeak

by Eric Linter............................................12

by Annie B. Kay ..................................... 16

Develop Chi the Taoist Way by Mantak Chia................................................24 Hungry in New England by Mark Matthew Braunstein.................................26 The Inaction Model of Action by Raymond Lesser......................................28 Four Easy Ways to Try Out a New You by Jill Rogers............................... 30 Be a RAKtivist and Help Change Your Community

Power Up

by Hilde Larsen...................................... 20

Book Reviews

Copyright ©2017 Spirit of Change. All Rights Reserved. Spirit of Change distributes 45,000 magazines throughout New England semi-annually (Fall and Spring) and accepts paid advertising as an advertising service.

Responsibility for the products, services or claims of our advertisers rests solely with them; advertisers are liable for any claims made against Spirit of Change Magazine as a result of their advertisement. The information in Spirit of Change is intended as a sharing of knowledge about holistic health for educational purposes. Health care decisions requiring medical advice should be made with the help of your health care professional. Subscriptions are $20.00/4 issues. Article and artwork submissions are accepted for review and will only be returned if accompanied by a SASE. To receive bulk shipments of Spirit of Change to distribute to your clients & customers, please email carol@ spiritofchange.org.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 • Vol. 30, No. 136

Healthy Cooking

Online at: SpiritOfChange.org

20

by John Monfredo...................................................................................................34

Balance Your Body to Relieve Pain:

by Gail Lord............................................. 66

An Interview with Lee Albert, NMT by Carol Bedrosian...................................36

Calendar................................................. 74

Treating Pain Without Drugs By Dr. Joseph Mercola................................. 44

Classifieds.............................................89

Empower Your Adrenal Glands to Treat Pain with Traditional Indian Healing by Vera Kaur........................................................ 48

Directories Yoga Practitioners of New England..........................................39 Holistic Logo Directory...................... 78 Holistic Specialties Directory..........88

Journal of Natural Healing...............................................................................52 A Critical Thinker’s Guide to Zika by Ann Tomoko Rosen, LAc................58 Poetry by Pamela Bongas McIntyre and Richard Baydin............................... 64 How to Live in Interesting Times: A Message from Vywamus channeled by Andrea Siever.................................68

Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda.................. 70

Advertiser Index................................... 90

Cover Art “Delight”

by Janey Hyun www.Etsy.com/shop/JanetHyun

6 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Upcoming in Fall/Winter 2017

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 7

MUSINGS

BY CAROL BEDROSIAN

Meditation on Meditation and Country

A

discouraged friend of mine once described meditation as “underwhelming,” disappointed it did nothing for him. Apparently he was expecting a show.

The prospect of sitting around doing nothing except breathing and contemplating your navel is, admittedly, a tough sell.

Despite reading about all the remarkable benefits of meditation for a solid thirty years as a holistic magazine publisher, it’s only within the last couple of years that I’ve actually been able to maintain a daily practice. Before then, I’d start every so often and then lose interest; like my friend, I didn’t feel much happening and my time was way too valuable to sit and do nothing. But on my most recent foray to the source, I found my balance fairly easily and this time the daily habit took hold, just like taking off on a bicycle. As weeks turned into months of experience and settled into a routine, the sense of sinking into a deeper, relaxed state was predictable and it felt good, like the let-down reflex a nursing mother feels from her suckling infant when oxytocin floods her system.

Pain relief specialist Lee Albert confirms that feeling in his interview this issue: “Different states of meditation give you different brain wave frequencies. As you get a little deeper into meditation, your brain wave frequencies change and your body starts to produce feel-good chemicals like oxytocin. Because people don’t know how to meditate and produce that in their own body, they start looking for it in a drug, which is going to be harmful in the long run. Even breathing exercises release these feel-good chemicals in your body. Science can show that your body is making these chemicals; we are made to have them in our system.”

Which is why I don’t give up, even some days after sitting 15 or 20 minutes patiently bringing my mind back again and again and again to focus on breathing as it flits after more interesting thoughts and engaging emotions. But when I persist, I eventually land gently in a space where my body feels light, and even tingly, my mind pleasantly at peace. The longer I’m able to stay in this balanced and focused state, easily breathing in and out, the longer my cells bask in the uniquely transformative energy of meditation.

8 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Elizabeth Blackburn, president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, is a Nobel Prize winner for her work identifying the telomeres at the ends of each chromosome as the key to fending off disease and aging. She recently reported in AARP Bulletin that while it’s well known that stress deteriorates telomeres, studies now confirm that meditation aids telomere maintenance. “The better your telomeres are protected, the less chance you’ll have of getting any of the big diseases,” Blackburn says. “In addition, it’s good to know that they respond not just to impairments but also to improvements.”

People routinely underestimate the power of meditation because the results are subtle and cumulative. Yet mystics, masters and yogis have been filmed using meditation to raise their body temperature enough to dry wet sheets in freezing temperatures, precisely control breath and heart rates, and block out extreme pain. What other possibilities might be inherent in our untapped — dare we say — superpower?

The latest apocalyptic TV series boasting the ultimate doomsday title, “How The World Ends,” offered a surprisingly uplifting segment amidst all the notorious predictions of death and destruction. Fade out Nostradamus and cities burning around the world; cut to people participating at a new age meditation retreat. In addition to building bomb shelters and prepping, meditation makes the list as a possible path to altering the course of history. And why not? For all we know — and we don’t know at this point — meditation might develop powers of mind allowing us to access skills we have only dreamed about mastering such as flying, telepathy or bi-location.

Or seeding a new America. On the surface it’s hard to comprehend how the cosmic forces-that-be would want to rollback progress for women, minorities, immigrants, the environment, renewable energy, consumers, children, workers, veterans, sick people and world stability, and replace it with authoritarianism, war, racism, disregard for science and the environment, vulgarity, lies, chaos and the theft of vast amounts of money, resources, time and morale from the American people.

Continued on page 87

TRIBUTE

Spreading a message of hope in words, images, and spiritual connection Benjamin Creme, 1922-2016

B

ritish artist, author and lecturer Benjamin Creme died on October 24th, aged 93, peacefully at home in London with his family around him.

Benjamin Creme inspired millions throughout the world with his ‘message of hope’ about the emergence of Maitreya, the World Teacher and the Masters of Wisdom. Maitreya has been expected for generations by all major religions under different names: the Christ, Messiah, Krishna, Maitreya Buddha and the Imam Mahdi.

As a student of the Ageless Wisdom Teaching presented by Helena Blavatsky and Alice Bailey, Benjamin Creme expanded and brought up to date this ancient knowledge.

Under the tutelage of one of the Masters of Wisdom, he dedicated the last 40 years of his life to his work for the Emergence of Maitreya. In response to his message, a worldwide network of volunteer groups, under the umbrella name Share International, formed to assist him in this task.

His public work began in 1974 with his introducing Transmission Meditation, a potent and dynamic group meditation by which the Masters are able to send spiritual energies into the world for the good of humanity. It is form of service activity now practised worldwide and also provides powerful, personal, spiritual development.

Benjamin Creme began to lecture in the UK in 1975 and then soon around the world, only finally ceasing at the age of 91. His talks were engaging and compelling, envisioning a new world of oneness and peace, under the guidance of Maitreya. At the end of every lecture he was mentally overshadowed by Maitreya, who gave His blessing to the audience; the spiritual energies were palpable to many and convinced them of the truth of his information.

He was the author of 16 prophetic books translated into many languages and was interviewed on hundreds of TV and radio stations, particularly in the USA, impressing with his sincerity, intelligence and humour.

In 1982 Share International magazine was launched with Benjamin as chief editor.

It presents the teachings of Maitreya and Benjamin Creme’s Master, and demonstrates the relationship between the esoteric-spiritual and the political-economic domains, and advocates sharing as the only way to create justice and therefore lasting peace.

Benjamin painted all his life, until he lost his sight in his late eighties. Under the inspiration of his Master his painting changed profoundly and became a way of expressing the spiritual reality underlying the phenomenal world. In 2015 the Benjamin Creme Museum opened in Los Angeles to present both his art and its relationship to the Ageless Wisdom Teaching.

Share International magazine and the worldwide groups are committed to continuing the work of Benjamin Creme with steadfastness and resolve.

“In the midst of war, fear, and famine, new hope is in the world for us all”

Above: Benjamin Creme Far left: “Meditation” is symbolic representation of the chakras involved in esoteric mediation: the heart, the throat and the two head centers.

Left: Solar Angel” represents our true identity as an individualized part of one great angel.

Reprinted from Caduceus, issue 95, January 2017. www.caduceus.info 10 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 11

STARSPEAK

BY ERIC D. LINTER

Astrological Forecast for Spring/Summer 2017

S

PRING COMES EVER SO SLOWLY TO NEW ENGLAND, but once the lengthening days and climbing Sun encourage the first flowers to peek out and songbirds return, all of life moves in a great rush. Astrologically, the warmer, greener and more fertile months of 2017 are a time when rapidly evolving realities command attention. The celestial indicators show a lively intellectual and spiritual climate. Passions are consistently high. Debates will be fierce. Socio-political and environmental changes are sweeping the planet. We can either stay informed and involved with the movement of ideas and power, stand up for what we believe in or ignore the developing opportunities and challenges at our own peril.

MARCH

T

he Pisces Sun joins forces with Neptune as the month opens. The pairing is mystical in nature and opens the hearts and minds of many souls to new levels of caring and compassion. Reveries are quickly shattered as one of the year’s most pressing themes dominates the heavens.

Jupiter forms the second of three upending oppositions

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to Uranus on the 2nd. The unthinkable is not only plausible, it is quite possible! The dynamic opposition pits freethinking visionaries against strong-willed conservatives. On either side of the political spectrum the alignment also fuels a need to find truth and experience freedom regardless of the cost. Laws and conventions will be rejected if they stand in the way of progress. Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, has been out in

front of the Sun since late last year. On Saturday, March 4th she turns retrograde in Aries, giving the Sun a chance to catch up. There’s plenty of nostalgia this weekend as mental Mercury is conjunct Neptune. Expect many affectionate reunions in the next six weeks.

Be prepared to make compromises at the time of the full Worm Moon, exact the morning of Sunday the 12th. Love and wisdom win out over stick-in-the-mud adherence to the letter of the law. Be realistic this week but listen to the callings of your heart.

Spring begins with the Sun’s arrival in Aries at 6:29AM EDT on Monday the 20th.

Plans may be all over the map until the invigorating Aries new Moon a week later. Clarity and determination are notable toward the end of the month although diplomacy is more conducive to growth and progress than unyielding pride.

APRIL

J

esters and April fools laugh heartily as the playful Gemini Moon holds forth on the 1st. The flush of springtime receives a mighty push forward on Wednesday the 5th when Mars forms a trine to Pluto but things soon slow. That night Saturn turns retrograde, prompting a pause for thoughtful reflection. With the Aries Sun testing Jupiter and Pluto, and Venus at odds with Pluto, as well as Mercury turning retrograde on Sunday the 9th, plus a full Moon brewing, anything goes!

The full Pink Moon is exact during the early morning hours of Tuesday the 11th. It enlivens early spring flowers and the Jupiter/Uranus opposition. Faced with chaotic uncertainties, a false move may be catastrophic, so think things through. Hoary-headed Saturn remains a guiding light. Listen to more experienced partners and elders. Use common sense and move slowly.

Love bug Venus resumes forward motion on Saturday the 15th while under the conflicting influences of a sextile to Mars and a simultaneous square to Saturn. The weekend of the 15th and 16th has great romantic potential but don’t rush things. Make love new. Take time getting to know the object of your affections.

After testing the last quarter Capricorn Moon the morning of Wednesday the 19th, the Sun enters earthy Taurus that evening. Other cosmic changes are imminent. The Sun overtakes retrograde Mercury just after midnight on the 20th. Pluto turns retrograde later in the morning and Mercury backs into Aries after noon. With all of this activity overhead there are multiple reasons to look back at recent happenings and come away feeling confused! Mars arrives in fickle Gemini Friday morning, setting mental gear wheels to spinning at full tilt.

Making sense of life is at last possible late in the weekend, as Mercury nears a trine to Saturn. The Taurus new Moon of the 26th is a green light for planting hearty, frostresistant seeds and launching enduring endeavors.

MAY

O

n May Day a cardinal sign grand cross encourages frenetic activity. Minds race as Mercury, the still-retrograding planet of thought and communications, is in the thick of the planetary action. Avoid making decisions in haste. The winged messenger is again in forward motion as of the 3rd and has surprises in store due to a conjunction with unpredictable Uranus on Wednesday the 10th. Wednesday evening brings the full Flower Moon in Scorpio. Controversies rage this week as a secret deal is revealed and shifting personal relationships and political alliances impact countless lives.

Calmer nerves and cooler heads gradually gain the upper hand after Mercury arrives in Taurus on the 16th. Possibilities are clarified and hopes fortified by Saturn’s trine with Uranus on Friday the 19th. Technology can be a lifesaver but with Venus in an opposition to Jupiter Friday morning, some folks are in for a disappointment. Dream of the future but stay grounded in the present.

The Sun enters the transitional sign of Gemini on Saturday afternoon the 20th. The sign is transitional in that it serves as a bridge between two seasons, spring and summer.

Famously curious and restless, many souls set their minds on upcoming travels and other learning adventures. This trend is reinforced at the Gemini new Moon on Thursday the 25th. Factor budgetary realities and time constraints into trip planning as Venus is at odds with Pluto the same day.

The Gemini Moon kicks off the Memorial Day weekend via a Friday evening conjunction with Mars. The open road is calling! However the Moon is at odds with Saturn just after midnight Saturday. Don’t burn the candle at both ends. This theme is further emphasized by Mar’s opposition to Saturn on Monday. Fatigue is a factor. If

Continued on page 14

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 13

SPRING/SUMMER ASTROLOGICAL FORECAST Continued from page 13

you need a nap while driving, pull over and take a rest. The month ends with a string of upbeat alignments on the 30th and 31st. Friendships are notably warm and enjoyable.

JUNE

J

une bursts onto the scene with two fantastic trines. Loving Venus and stalwart Saturn form one on Thursday the 1st, just hours after the stressful first quarter Moon redirects attention towards responsibilities and goals. The Gemini Sun and optimistic Jupiter form the other on the 3rd. These trines are very favorable. Enjoy easy social ties and prosperity but don’t get lazy or cocky. Respect loyal, long-time companions and be prepared to roll up your shirtsleeves for an extra effort on Friday the 2nd. Venus is also conjunct Uranus during the wee hours of the 3rd, the classic love at first sight aspect. A tricky solar square to Neptune requires levelheaded thinking on Sunday the 4th. Stay focused.

Activity levels soar the week of the 5th. The Moon and life itself are waxing full. The fevered pitch culminates at 9:10AM on Friday the 9th with the full Strawberry Moon in Sagittarius. Yum. It is fresh strawberry season and Venus is forming a delicious sextile with Mars. Affections are warm but the swollen Moon stands close by Saturn, and philosophical or political differences can have an adverse impact on some relationships.

Founding Father Thomas Jefferson wryly noted, “I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion, in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.”

Mixed messages carry us through the mid-month period. Mental Mercury forms an uplifting trine to Jupiter the morning of Tuesday the 13th. The go-go alignment is great for travelers, teachers, writers and sales personnel.

However, later that same day Mercury is in a testing square with Neptune. Don’t be in such a hurry that you leave essential items behind.

A solar opposition to Saturn marks a turning point. Evaluating one’s status, achievements and life trajectory is in order but making substantial — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe direction changes will take time. Be gentle with yourself as well as partners. Neptune, now in Pisces, turns retrograde on the 16th and backtracks until November. A dream or reverie may impart significant knowledge or inspiration.

Mercury’s opposition with Saturn on Sunday the 18th is a timely reminder. Kudos to Dads! A nearly simultaneous solar sextile with Uranus invites spontaneity and the pursuit of fun. The Sun enters Cancer and summer officially begins minutes after midnight on Wednesday the 21st. There’s no place like home during the new Moon in Cancer on the 23rd. Lively and engaging trends dominate through the 24th. Too much of a good thing and thin-skinned hyper-sensitivity can lead to problems on Sunday the 25th. Try to see the spiritual lessons hidden in stressful tests and encounters.

Travel is tempting as the month nears its end. Winged Mercury is part of a dynamic cardinal T-square and for many folks, new horizons beckon, physically, spiritually and intellectually.

“Nothing is worth more than this day.”

JULY

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here is an abundance of energy on the 1st. Channel and use it for constructive purposes. Political and philosophical differences can be extreme, so tread carefully.

A Mars/Pluto opposition, exact on Sunday the 2nd, adds to tensions. Tuesday the 4th sees another stressful aspect, a square between Mercury and Uranus. Some folks feel thwarted. With the Sun preparing to test Jupiter on the 5th, the divide between partners and rival political groups is likely to be pronounced. Take the high road rather than contributing to hostilities.

The lunar cycle culminates over the weekend. Saturday night Moon gazers are in for a treat. On Sunday at 12:07AM the Buck Moon is full in Capricorn. The opposing Sun and Moon are part of a larger configuration, a T-square that also involves Mars, Pluto and Jupiter. We all do well to live by the Golden Rule this weekend and do unto others as we’d have them do to us. Balance familial needs and responsibilities with career demands.

Things mellow out for the week of the 10th. Savor this relatively quiet stretch of

high summer. The last quarter Moon on Sunday the 16th raises a few eyebrows. A motivating cardinal grand cross is in play. However, hostilities may erupt at any time.

Proceed deliberately and cautiously. Stay away from untenable and volatile situations on Monday the 17th. Use cars and other machinery with care. A trine between Venus and Jupiter during the afternoon of the 18th is a healing bright spot and may be cause for a celebration. The 19th is a good day to reach or sign an agreement.

The Sun is at odds with Uranus on the 20th and lightning quick changes can demand equally fast responses. No one is in the driver’s seat. Circumstances dictate what action to take. Be prepared to adapt and improvise. Find ways to relax and catch your breath on Friday the 21st.

The Sun arrives in his own sign of Leo on the morning of the 22nd and joins with the Moon early Sunday morning. This new Moon is hot stuff as fiery Mars is conjunct the Sun/Moon union. Follow the dictates of your heart but don’t neglect important partners.

Excessive egotism can be a strain on ties. The second half of Monday the 24th offers a chance to restore damaged friendships.

Passions flare up when the Sun and Mars are conjunct on Wednesday the 26th.

Overbearing behavior is a real turn off for less confident personalities. Leaders are advised to acknowledge their supporting staff. Evening plans may change Saturday afternoon but an easy-going sextile between Venus and Uranus early Sunday morning suggests that all ends well for those who go with the flow.

AUGUST

T

he busy stars mean serious business this month. Uranus turns retrograde on Thursday the 3rd. The eccentric planet governs friendships, community organizations, computers and intuitive abilities. If you haven’t done so recently, back up important files. Expect the unexpected, especially with Jupiter also in a testing square to Pluto, becoming exact the very next day. Rules, regulations and laws can seem onerous, used for retaliation rather than to promote fair play. The full Sturgeon Moon in Aquarius, exact during the afternoon of Monday the 7th, is eclipsed. Powerful emotions can bubble up, befuddling minds. Events may not go as planned.

More agreeable and productive trends hold sway over the ensuing week. The Leo Sun, along with Saturn and Uranus, form a potent fire sign grand trine. Mental Mercury’s retrograde on the super-charged 12th complicates and delays some matters but with the Sun making a trine with Saturn on Sunday, it’s wise to patiently stay the course. Commitments are tested on the 15th when Venus opposes Pluto. It may be impossible to please a partner. Talk over differences. Later in the week a satisfactory resolution is possible.

The Leo new Moon/solar eclipse on Monday the 21th casts a shadow that extends from the Pacific Northwest to the southern Atlantic seaboard. The shadow reinforces the political divides impacting our nation. Again, a fire sign grand trine configuration suggests that a true populist movement, one that serves the people, may yet save the Union. On a more personal and mundane level, this new Moon is a call to celebrate life by nurturing the spontaneous yet wise and creative wild child within. Tune in. Listen.

Have fun!

The Sun reaches industrious Virgo and we are again faced with a seasonal transition as we pass from summer into fall. Lovers encounter rough seas when Venus tests Uranus on Thursday the 24th. A breakup is possible. Thoughts turn to post-vacation realities when the Sun overtakes retrograde Mercury on Saturday. Jupiter’s sextile to Saturn on Sunday helps make planning sound. Seek out and heed the voices of reason and experience.

The waxing Moon reaches its first quarter stage on the 29th. Goals may be unclear and energy scattered. Recall the intentions you set at the time of last Monday’s solar eclipse.

Your inner self knows the route to take. August ends rather quietly, a pleasant respite before summer’s last hurrah. Keep looking up!

At lea st

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Eric Linter offers a complete range of astrological services including readings, classes and his “On Top of the Stars Monthly Guide” for making inspired career and personal decisions. Contact Eric at ericlinter.com and read his daily forecast on the Spirit of Change homepage at spiritofchange.org

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 15

HEALTHY COOKING

Ramps are a seasonal delicacy, a delicious connection to Spring.

BY ANNIE B. KAY

Spring Food RENEWAL Lighten up with nutrient-dense, plant-based eating this spring.

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he wheel of the year turns again. A wild ride of a winter is finally in the rearview mirror and spring is announcing itself everywhere.

With it comes plant medicines we need now, springing from the earth itself: dandelion, garlic basil, ramps, and other bitter greens. I love how obvious and clear that invitation is. Simple and direct.

The invitation to heal, clear and reconnect is one of relationship. Many of us, when it comes to food, are not always so relational. We feel hungry, see it, enjoy it and move on with our day. We don’t think much about what our food has to say to us, if it has desires or needs. What do you think your food would ask of you if you could only hear it? How might that conversation go?

For many, food is our primary interface with nature.

By waking up to the two-way relationship potential you have with each bite you take, you may find yourself more deeply aware of your place in the magnificent web of life and nature that holds you and everyone else.

How might you hear what your food has to say? Begin by heeding the messages of your own body. How does your body feel, what is the quality of energy and thinking like after a particular meal? While it takes some time and attention (journaling and meditation can help), you can become skillful at discerning your body’s food-related messages.

Several years ago I learned a shamanic technique for communicating with plants. In plant spirit healing, as taught by herbalist and educator Pam Montgomery, you learn to open your heart to a plant, court and honor it, then connect and communicate. Through that practice of opening energetically to the wisdom of plants and nature, I know that if you listen they will speak to you. I find that connecting is a practice of remembering, and is

the codification of an approach to something many of us do naturally — talk directly to plants. Green beings often ask you to show up more deeply for your own true nature and to be in deeper alignment with the natural world.

I’m still in mild shock at last year’s news that we may be loving ramps, once a common wild plant found growing in forested areas throughout the country, right onto the endangered list. Can we enjoy the gifts of the earth but not consume the last, or even close to the last of the gifts?

Can we instead tend and share and cultivate and enjoy? It’s human nature to go overboard, to give in to the belief that if some is good, more must be better. If you feel that desire to consume, which is our nature, just know we can operate differently and find joy in a tending relationship with food and nature.

The whole political upheaval of this last year tells me that it is time to cultivate strength and clarity, time to get off the sidelines. It’s also about acting in deeper alignment to your true calling. How you eat is a part of that.

So go ahead and lighten up this spring. In addition to taking a sabbatical from sugar, alcohol, and processed foods, you can keep it rolling and clean out your closets, your kitchen, your home and life. I often find that when I take a sabbatical from a food I’ve been overdoing, after a while I can reintroduce it without going overboard.

Here are a collection of recipes that can help you lighten up and lean toward nutrient-dense, plant-based eating this spring. Enjoy the season of clearing and awakening.

Annie B. Kay, MS, RDN, E-RYT500, is an integrative dietitian, yoga therapist, and plant spirit healer. She is an award-winning author of 2 books, Senior Faculty at Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health, teaches internationally, and blogs at anniebkay.com.

Spring Renewal Recipes

Let Me Read You,Then Heal You

BLACK BEAN SALSA SALAD

Ross J. Miller has been giving psychic and past-life readings and healing sessions worldwide for over 25 years.

Here’s an extremely versatile recipe that you can modify by adding your favorite vegetable or herb.

During a reading he communicates telepathically with his numerous angels and spirit guides who read and interpret the client’s aura (the spiritual light surrounding one’s physical body). Ross also communicates with the client’s own angels and spirit guides (most people have several of each).

1 16 oz can black beans 1 cup frozen corn juice of 2 limes two or three slices of red onion, chopped, makes about 1/4 cup 1/4 red pepper, chopped 1/2 cup fresh cilantro 1/2 tsp Tabasco or other hot sauce 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil salt and pepper, to taste Toss and enjoy. Could not be easier. This is a recipe that, while delicious, can be better the second day due to marinating.

These angels and spirit guides then convey the information that is most needed or desired by the client. All of Ross’s readings are positive and constructive in nature. In addition to answering all of your personal questions pertaining to love, health, relationships, soulmates, business, career, relocation, dream interpretation, parents, children, and pets, he covers topics as diverse as: your life’s purpose, your undiscovered talents, as well as your past incarnations and how they relate to this life.

Ross can also help you to identify and communicate with your own guardian angels and spirit guides. After your psychic or past-life reading, Ross can then heal the various issues that come up during the reading.

Ross J. Miller

Psychic, Medium Healer

Ross is well-known for healing people of migraines, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety attacks, anger, grief, abuse trauma, drug and alcohol abuse, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, phobias, ADHD, anorexia, bulimia, PTSD and more.

Ross is available for psychic and past-life readings as well as healing sessions in person or over the phone.

For more information or to schedule an appointment, visit my website at www.TheMysticWay.com or call (617) 527-3583 1075 Washington Street, Newton, MA 02465

CASHEW CREAM Would you like a recipe that can, in one fell swoop, transition you joyfully to a more plant-based diet?

Cashew cream just might be that recipe. It is a fantastic vegan substitute for dairy cream and creamy cheeses like ricotta or cream cheese. It makes a killer Alfredo sauce over vegetables. It is absolutely divine in a lasagna, as a whole or partial substitute for ricotta. Best of all, it is very easy to make (though you do need to soak the nuts overnight).

Whip up a batch and you’ll see what I mean.

1 cup raw cashews water for soaking 1/2-3/4 cup additional water juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 tsp nutmeg salt and pepper Soak cashews in water overnight. Drain and rinse.

Place all ingredients in a blender, and process until smooth and the desired consistency is reached.

Use less water if you are aiming for a thicker cheesier consistency, and more water if you are aiming for a creamier consistency.

Variations: add garlic, ginger, scallions or other herbs and spices to taste.

Recipes continued on page 18 www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 17

SPRING FOOD RENEWAL Continued from page 17

Recipes WILD MUSTARD ASPARAGUS SOUP Please resist the temptation to spray weed killer on your lawn, as it is filled with nutrition free for the taking. Eat your weeds instead! Wild garlic mustard, for example, is considered an invasive weed that grows profusely throughout the U.S., but is also a nutrient-dense green with a flavor similar to basil plus a little added garlic. If you use garlic mustard in the spring as an herb or salad green, its leaves are quite delicate and loaded with antioxidant vitamins and minerals. Eating a little something wild everyday connects us more deeply to nature. This light green spring soup recipe is perfect for spring nutrition: the garlic mustard and asparagus is bursting with glutathione, the mother of all antioxidant and a detox power food.

15-20 stalks asparagus, snapped into 2-inch pieces 5 stalks celery, chopped 2 Tbsp good quality olive oil 1 scallion, chopped 15 oz chicken or vegetable stock 2 cups fresh wild garlic mustard leaves (or a mix of fresh basil and chive for those without wild garlic mustard growing in their yard) 2 tsp Dijon mustard 1 Tbsp grass-fed butter 4 Tbsp toasted sunflower seeds salt and pepper to taste Saute celery in olive oil in a heavy soup pot until soft.

Add scallion and asparagus, and continue to saute until vegetables are soft. Add stock, garlic mustard leaves and Dijon, and simmer on medium-low for 15 minutes. Blend with an immersion blender. Stir in butter until melted into soup. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve warm, topping each bowl with a tablespoon of toasted sunflower seeds.

SPICY SWEET POTATO COCONUT SOUP This soup is delicious, ridiculously nutrient dense, and is easy, but takes time. So, it’s a great soup if you are hanging around the house for a half day. It entails making a base of sautéed vegetables and spice, then cooking and blending the base with sweet potatoes, and stirring in a blended cream of coconut, cashews and fresh ginger. Yum — sweet and spicy and creamy and healthy. Serves 4. Freezes well. Takes about 2 1/2 hours start to finish.

4 medium carrots, chopped 4 large stalks celery, chopped 7 scallions, some separated whites from greens, diced 1 large red pepper, seeded, chopped 3 tsp (heaping!) turmeric 1 Tbsp coconut oil or cream 2 tsp toasted sesame oil 5 cups water 2 med-large sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed 15 oz canned coconut milk 1 cup raw cashews 3 Tbsp fresh ginger (about 4 thumb-sized pieces) 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper black pepper to taste sprig or two of fresh cilantro In a heavy soup pot, melt coconut cream or oil, and add carrots, celery, and 4 chopped scallions. Sauté over medium heat until soft. Add turmeric, a few twists of the mill of black pepper, and continue sautéing until this base is soft and smells flavorfully roasty.

Add sesame oil, water, and sweet potato to the vegetable mixture. Simmer over medium heat until sweet potatoes are soft, 30-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, combine coconut milk, cashews and ginger in a blender. Blend until smooth. Pour this delicious mixture into a small bowl or cup.

Then blend the sweet potato mixture – use a blender on the cooled soup or use an immersion blender. Return to pot. Top with chopped scallion greens and sprigs of cilantro.

Stir the coconut mixture into the sweet potato soup. Season with cayenne pepper to desired heat.

Top with chopped scallions and cilantro.

VEGAN RED LENTIL STEW Here’s a nutrient packed red lentil soup or stew for a warm early-spring infusion of tasty goodness. Coconut and tahini make this rich and satisfying.

1 large yellow onion, chopped 5-6 medium carrots, cleaned and chopped Small bunch celery, chopped 1 cup dry red lentils 2 1/2 cups water 1/4 cup turmeric

2 Tbsp olive oil 2 Tbsp coconut manna or coconut cream 3-4 thumbs-sized piece of ginger, cleaned and chopped 1 large clove garlic, chopped 3 Tbsp tahini 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

Toss onions, carrot and celery into a large stockpot, add olive oil and sauté until vegetables are soft and there’s a smidgen of browning. Add remaining ingredients, except parsley, and simmer on low for 40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in parsley and enjoy.

18 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

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HEALING • GUIDANCE • INSIGHT

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detoxification W

hen we are in pain, we are blessed with sensing the body’s unique language. It is speaking to us, telling us something needs to be done. It needs to heal. By not listening and masking our pain instead, we only dig a deeper hole of potential misery. Pain is my friend; through pain, I am able to connect intimately with what is going on in my physical and emotional bodies. When I team up with my body, we grow closer and I find solutions as I listen and change.

Much pain is rooted in acid imbalance in the body with the cells not being able to properly eliminate and regenerate. Cleansing the body through detoxification allows pain to be carried out with the waste. While this process requires discipline and diligence, nothing feels as good as feeling good!

Try these tips that work in harmony with your body to detoxify and ease many varieties of pain.

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Sauna The skin is the largest organ of elimination in the body and acts like a third kidney, so it is crucial for your skin to be healthy. When we are pulling on the lymphatic system through detoxification, releasing toxins and acids into our lymphatic system, we need some highly functioning kidneys to filter out that extra waste. When the kidneys are not up for the task, the waste will show up as rashes and boils.

Sitting in a sauna can be a great asset to skin detoxification, but limit the time or temperature, as heat is acidic in nature and may not be the best thing for a body already running low on adrenal energy. Any type of sauna will do, as long as it is making you sweat, but the far infrared (FIR) sauna is my favorite. Far infrared saunas emit energy waves that can penetrate all layers of the body including tissue, muscles and bone. The rays are used to heal, detoxify and relax the body.

The sun, our bodies, and particularly our hands, all emit far infrared energy at all times. The FIR sauna operates on low temperatures and is more gentle to the body than a regular sauna.

Skin Brushing Skin brushing is just as simple as it sounds, but don`t let that fool you. An ancient practice for beautiful, glowing skin, skin brushing is also called dry brushing, as the brush is dry and so is the skin. Depending upon your preference, use a soft or firm natural bristle brush with a long handle that will allow you to be able to reach your back. You can find natural bristle brushes in any health food store. An energizing part of any morning routine that is best done right before a shower or bath, skin brushing takes no more than 5-10 minutes once you get the hang of it. The benefits are many: • Exfoliating your skin will allow old, dead skin to loosen and be removed, giving the new skin cells fresh air and light. Your skin will look and feel firm and fresh with regular brushing.

• Stimulating the lymphatic system is important for detoxification. By brushing the skin with natural bristles, you will assist in improving blood circulation and lymphatic drainage.

• Skin brushing increases circulation and energy, and rejuvenates the nervous system by stimulating nerve endings. Pain sufferers often report that any sensation different than pain is a relief from pain.

How to skin brush 1. Always start with your feet. Brush upwards towards your hips and use gentle but firm strokes. Do one leg at the time, from under your feet, upwards towards the heart to get the lymph flowing upwards in its natural direction, brushing each section about ten times.

2. Do the arms in the same way as the legs. Brush towards the armpit with firm strokes, each section about ten times.

3. Brush the abdomen from the right side to the left, which is the natural flow of the intestines. Gently massage the colon.

4. Brush downward over the top of the chest, making sure to work on the large concentration of lymph nodes around the armpits. Keep doing each section of the body about ten times.

5. Brush from the neck down to the lower back.

6. Finish around the neck. Avoid the face, as the skin is very sensitive. You can use a soft cloth to gently rub your face.

7. In general, brush from the extremities towards the core. Be gentle and mind any sensitive areas.

Epsom Salt Bath An Epsom salt bath can easily become your best friend when relieving pain. Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) gets its name from a bitter saline spring located at Epsom in Surrey, England. It is unknown exactly how Epsom salt soaks relieve pain, other than that they have been a traditional healing remedy for generations, with millions of satisfied users testifying to their success. Since neither magnesium nor sulfate can readily be absorbed through the skin, researchers have speculated on whether it might be inhaled through the salt water vapor of the hot bath or absorbed through mucus membranes or other as yet undetected mechanisms. Perhaps it is the well-known absorption qualities of salt that provide the expectation of healing, which fuels Epsom salt’s phenomenal healing reputation, for it is said that there is nothing that a long cry, a good sweat, or a dip in the ocean cannot heal.

When you are in pain or feeling overloaded, an Epsom salt bath can do wonders. It will relax the whole body and stimulate the lymph system to aid in detoxification. Essential oils add calming and healing benefits.

Fill the bathtub with warm water and add : 2 cups of Epsom salt 6 drops peppermint essential oil 6 drops lavender essential oil

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Spend about 45 minutes in the bath, or until you feel you are done, and then shower. Repeat as needed. This is a great evening wind down practice.

Castor Oil Pack Castor oil comes from the castor seed, which is extremely high in ricinoleic acid. This is the active ingredient that holds the benefit of this amazing oil. The castor seed itself can be toxic, so do not ingest this oil. The practice of applying castor oil packs is mentioned in

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Continued on page 22

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 21

DETOXIFY Continued from page 21

texts from ancient India and China. In more modern times, the “sleeping prophet” Edgar Cayce, revived the castor oil pack’s popularity by frequently recommending it as a cure in his channeled health readings.

A castor oil pack is simply a cloth soaked in the oil and applied to a specific area of the body. It can be laid over your liver to enhance the liver’s detoxifying abilities, over your abdomen to relieve gastric or menstrual cramps, or placed over an injury to relieve inflammation. Most often heat is used to let the oil penetrate easily into the skin and tissue.

Castor oil packs are used to improve circulation, reduce inflammation, provide pain relief, and to stimulate lymph flow. Avoid castor oil packs during pregnancy.

How to make and use a castor oil pack You will need: organic castor oil, a piece of wool, flannel or unbleached cotton cloth large enough to cover the affected area, a hot water bottle, a large plastic bag or piece of plastic, a glass jar with lid large enough to hold your cloth, a towel and a washcloth handy, and the time and space to lie down comfortably for about 1 hour.

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1. Soak your cloth in castor oil in the glass jar.

2. Put the soaked cloth in a pot to warm up on the stove or warm the jar directly in the oven. Avoid microwaving. Make sure the cloth is warm and not hot, as it will be going directly on your skin.

3. Put a towel on the surface you will be laying on to catch any oil drips.

4. Fill your hot water bottle with hot water.

5. Lie down and place your soaked cloth over the desired body part. Cover the cloth with plastic. Place the hot water bottle on top of the pack and cover yourself with towels and blankets to stay warm.

6. Relax in place for about an hour, with feet elevated if possible. Shorter sessions are also fine if that’s more fitting for you. Breathe, meditate, and visualize your body healing and regenerating.

7. Remove the pack and wash off the leftover oil on your skin.

The pack can be stored in the glass jar in the refrigerator and re-used several times, as it is recommended to do a treatment course of at least three to four consecutive days. Just add more castor oil each time. Using the pack in the evening allows you to be able to rest afterwards. It is also great to put castor oil on your skin before going into the sauna.

Hot/Cold Therapy Alternating applications of hot and cold temperatures has been used for centuries to aid in detoxification and increasing circulation in the body. When we subject the body to very cold temperatures, it will direct its flow of circulation inwards, towards the vital organs. Once we change to hot, the flow of circulation turns outwards, towards the skin. This alternating inwards and outwards motion helps release blockages and increase blood flow, nutrients, oxygen and the whole process of detoxification. The hot and cold also causes the muscles to expand and contract, wringing more waste from the muscles themselves. This healthy circulation booster is a great way to start the day.

How to do a hot and cold shower therapy 1. Get in the shower and start with the temperature that is most comfortable for you.

2. Very slowly increase the temperature of the water. Let it get as hot as you can tolerate.

Make sure you invite your whole body to the party.

3. When you reach your absolute tolerance of heat turn the water down to as cold as cold as you can get it. It can never get too cold. Again, your whole body has to go in.

4. Slowly turn the water hot again, trying to make it a little hotter than the last time. You should not be scalding yourself, but a good dose of hot water is very tolerable when you build up slowly.

5. Go back to the cold again, even colder than last time, and repeat seven times alternating between the hottest you can do and the coldest you can do.

Deep Breathing and Rest No matter the symptom or crisis, breathing deeply from the diaphragm will be of great benefit. From opening blockages and obstructions in the energetic field, to bringing more oxygen to the tissues, deep breathing will soothe and provide relief. The stress that follows

any type of discomfort, especially fear, will be lessened with deep breathing, which helps of return to center, relax and restore.

Going to bed by 10pm will ensure the highest amount of quality sleep as the period between 10pm and 2am is said to be the optimal time to sleep. During these hours the adrenals function best in recharging the body, the gallbladder is dumping bile and hormones are being regulated. Try it and see how you feel.

The Neti Pot The term neti pot derives from an ancient Yogic technique of sinus rinsing called jala neti, where salt water is poured into one nostril and leaves through the other. This technique not only clears the nasal passages but also contributes to the drainage of toxins from the whole head. You can flush your sinuses any time of the day, and many times each day, also. It is great for relieving head pressure and any blockages in the nose or ear.

How to use your neti pot 1. Standing over a sink, fill your neti pot with a saline solution of about 1 teaspoon of sea salt to 2 cups of warm water. Use distilled or boiled, then cooled water to avoid any possible contaminants. Stir well until the salt is dissolved.

2. Lean over the sink and tilt your head to the side. Insert the tip of the neti pot into the upper nostril and slowly poor the water into it. Breathe with an open mouth as the water slowly begins to poor out the lower nostril.

3. After using about half of the prepared water, stand up and blow your nose.

4. Repeat the same procedure using the other nostril.

Essential Oils To The Rescue

Experience holistic healing, profound personal transformation, and acquire the skills and tools to make the energetic, emotional, nutritional, and lifestyle changes needed to create and maintain exceptional health.

Learn how these magical natural healers can benefit you on your journey! Always use organic, therapeutic grade carrier oil with your essential oils, such as fractionated coconut oil or jojoba oil. Here are some specific detoxification symptom helpers. Choose single oils or blend them together.

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Aches and pains — Choose from marjoram, birch, peppermint, rosemary, lavender, frankincense, juniper, sandalwood, wintergreen, and thyme on the affected area.

Anxiety — A few drops of lavender and chamomile on your chest, inhaled, or using a room diffuser is wonderful.

Bloating — Some peppermint and fennel on your tummy or a few drops of peppermint in a glass of water can help.

Coughing — Try melaleuca and lemon.

Depression — Inhale lavender, peppermint and wild orange.

Dizziness — Peppermint, cypress and basil in a diffuser can help.

Diarrhea — Put a few drops each of peppermint and ginger in a glass of water and drink.

Hair loss — Use a few drops each of rosemary, thyme and lavender in a carrier oil and massage into scalp.

Insomnia — Try some chamomile and lavender in a hot bath. You can also inhale them, diffuse them and put them on your skin.

Itching — Use a carrier oil with peppermint, lavender and oregano on the affected area.

Leg cramps — Massage clary sage, cypress and lavender with carrier oil into the legs.

Nausea — Apply ginger topically behind the ears and above the navel as needed. You can also diffuse it or put it under your tongue.

Rashes — Dilute lavender, Roman chamomile and sandalwood with carrier oil and apply topically to affected area.

Sinus congestion — Diffuse melaleuca, rosemary and eucalyptus and inhale several times a day.

Tension Headache — Dilute a few drops of peppermint, rosemary, eucalyptus and lavender with a carrier oil and rub into chest, neck and forehead.

Hilde Larsen is an author, journalist and certified health and wellness coach who spends her time between Norway and Florida exploring health, healing and the human connection to nature. After years of being bedridden with severe chronic diseases, she is inspiring many to take back their power. Visit inspiredbyhilde.com. www.spiritofchange.org

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To find out how you can make a difference in your own and other people’s health, visit thefourwinds.com or call us at (877) 892-9241 SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 23

June 9th - 25th, 2017 Universal Healing Tao Teacher Training USA Center Join Qi Gong Master Mantak Chia at Eastover, Lenox, MA June 23rd - 30th Eastover Medical Qi Gong and Eastern Medicine Symposium

Booking www.eastover.com/mantak-chia.html

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June 9 - 14 • Inner Alchemy Qigong Tao Basic June 14 -19 • Fusion I, II, and Buddha Palm Qigong June 14 - 19 • Chi Nei Tsang I (with Karin Sorvik) June 19 - 25 • Tok Sen and Life Pulse

Develop Chi The Taoist Way The Inner Smile meditation has been recognized as one of the best exercises for stress management and self-healing, easily inducing a state of deep relaxation. It was brought to the Western culture through a Taoist master named Mantak Chia. Deep relaxation dissolves physical and mental tensions that can cause energetic blockages and illness. For this reason, the Inner Smile is always used as a preparation or warm-up in other meditations and chi kung (English translation — energy work) exercises that circulate chi. Your smile will help cultivate good chi!

The basic foundation of Taoist practice teaches us how to conserve physical energy within our bodies so that it will no longer scatter and weaken as a result of our worldly interactions. Full emotional independence requires that we avoid being drained of this energy through the eyes, ears, nose, and mouth. The novice in the Taoist system begins with a wide range of exercises that develop the physical body into an efficient and healthy organism, able to live in the world and yet stay free of the tensions and stress of daily life. One aspires to return to a childlike state of innocence and vitality, to regain the original force that is our birthright. Specific goals of this level are to learn how to heal oneself, how to love oneself, and how to love others.

Master Chia says: “In the Universal Healing Tao System, we start the practice of bringing balanced energy to the body and emotions into balance with the Inner Smile. We often get so out of touch with our bodies and our emotions that we do not notice inner disharmony developing until it finally manifests as a serious illness. There are well over 500 different forms of chi kung that were developed In China. Many people think that www.spiritofchange.org 24 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

chi kung has to involve moving the arms and legs. But the most important part of chi kung is actually being aware of the chi flow in our body. Practicing the Inner Smile daily gives us a regularly scheduled time to look inside, to keep in touch with the state of our inner organs, with our chi, with our breath, and with our emotions. We can then spot problems at their inception, making it easier to make adjustments when they first arise and nip them in the bud.

“Low self-esteem is becoming endemic in our society. If we are not taught or encouraged to love ourselves, we cannot have a healthy loving relationship with other people, or with our Mother Earth; witness the state of the society and environment today as proof of this imbalance. The Inner Smile teaches us to recognize our inherent positive qualities, and not just our negativity. With regular practice, we get to know ourselves as we really are; we can discover our virtues as well as our afflictions. This helps us to form a truer and healthier self-image, one that stays in close touch with reality. The Inner Smile exercises our ability to love, starting with ourselves, with our own bodies. As we learn to love and accept ourselves, it becomes natural and easy for us to extend this love outward and to begin to love and accept other people, creatures, places and things.

“Because the first level of practice is to develop a healthy body, we also learn how to circulate and refine our smiling energy through the Microcosmic Orbit meditation. We learn to store our life force in a chi ball (energy sphere) so it will not dissipate. As people grow older, their life force weakens, often resulting in illness and suffering. Using drugs to combat illness drains so much of the body’s life force that there may be not enough energy left to maintain health. The basic practices of the Universal Healing Tao ensure that we retain enough vital energy.”

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 39

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 25

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Hungry in New England Ode to a baked potato

T

by Mark Mathew Braunstein

he flourishing number of vegan and vegetarian restaurants that dot the culinary landscape throughout New England are a blessing for us all. Add to our good fortune the several online guides that help us locate those veg eateries. Naturally, all those directories omit from their listings the chains of greasy fast-food restaurants on whose menus meat predominates. Just because McDonald’s serves salads (hold the bacon, hold the chicken, hold the mayo, hold the dressing) hardly makes it a worthy venue for enjoying a meal. Best to drive through the drive-thru. Yet same as for vegetarianism, fast food is here to stay. During long road trips, there might be times when you do not want to go hungry. In those dire cases, you can resort to the takeout window of a fast-food joint and have delivered right to your car window a gluten-free, oil-free, salt-free, dairy-free, wholesome and filling meal, all embodied within the humble oblong form of a baked potato.

So next time you’re famished and a long way from home, drive up to a Wendy’s outlet and order a Baked Potato with Nothing on It, meaning no sour cream and chives, no butter, and no margarine. Or as expressed in the vernacular, “no nothing.” While a Baked Potato with Nothing on It does not appear on Wendy’s menus or signposts, the tidily uniformed cashiers have never been baffled by my order. They all inherently know to enter into their computer and to charge for my charming Baked Potato with Nothing on It the same as for the basic Sour Cream and Chives Baked Potato.

With a base price of $1.59 (your own local mileage may vary), after tax and tip that comes to an even $2. Sadly, few carnivores ever tip the staff at fast-food joints, so when

26 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

I do the recipients really do appreciate it. And they don’t just say it, they actually show it. When I say, “Keep the change, sir!” their mouths broaden into smiles and their eyes light up. In more opulent food establishments, 20% may be standard, but when the norm is zero percent the staff consider that especially generous. Tipping generously, indeed excessively, is a strategy I long have employed during those rare events when I live dangerously and risk eating outside of the safety zone of a veg restaurant.

First, I identify myself to the waiter as a vegan. A generation ago, when not even vegetarians knew the word “veganism” or its tenets, vegans had to define its meaning.

But times have changed. Next, upon ordering I accordingly seek the waiter’s advice about what on the menu is either already vegan or can be veganized. (A baked potato or any other food that does not require a list of ingredients is likely a trustworthy food that requires no such interrogation.) Later, when I leave a large gratuity I also leave the waiter with the impression that vegans are very generous tippers and maybe even very nice people. Count that as one vote for veganism.

Yet by patronizing a burger eatery, are we not voting for and subsidizing the sales of burgers? Not quite. Wendy’s actually loses money on me as a solo driver. Think of all the staff time taken and, sorry to say, all the packaging wasted on a single transaction for a single low-cost item. Is not my time, too, wasted? Not quite, again. On a long car trip, weary drivers need to take breaks to perk up their flagging energy not with the short-lived spike of caffeine but with the lasting sustenance of a simple meal.

Ungarnished with any glop, a spartan baked potato is a wholesome food high in vitamin C, potassium, dietary fiber, and antioxidants, yet it contains no sodium and no fat or oil. That is, when it is baked, not half-baked, not boiled, and not fried. And not microwaved. Thankfully, as boasted on its online menu, “All of Wendy’s baked potatoes are oven-baked for a full hour.”

On the downside, the Wendy’s baked potato is not organically-grown, which is especially unfortunate because potatoes are one sure food where, especially in the peel, you can taste the difference between OG and not. On the plus side, the baked potatoes served at Wendy’s are not products of genetic modification. In 1996, Monsanto first marketed GM potatoes but Wendy’s, along with McDonald’s, refused to buy them primarily due to consumer skepticism. Monsanto soon dropped that hot potato. In 2015, another company has unleashed into the marketplace a potato genetically modified to be optimized for frying, not baking. Yet Wendy’s has not yet rescinded its past ban.

You might not relish the simple taste of an unadorned, naked potato. If so, ordering a Potato with Nothing on It then provides you with the perfect opportunity to put something on it yourself. When you place your order for your primal potato, you can request at no extra cost some mustard or catsup or salad dressing or pepper.

You can even ask for a double dose of any of those condiments. I prefer the mustard.

Unlike catsup, the mustard contains no sugar or corn syrup. And unlike dressing, the mustard contains no motor grade oil nor dairy. The mustard comes in a plastic cup, not a tiny sliver of a foil packet, so a single serving of mustard is proportionate to the size of the potato. The full order I recite is, “One Baked Potato with Nothing on It, and some mustard on the side, please.”

While the size of that container of mustard is uniform, the size of the potato does vary from region to region. In order to standardize the price despite the wide range of costs of living nationally, the price stays the same. It is the size of the potato that changes. For instance, if you embark on a trip down I-95 starting in snowy Maine and head to sunny Florida, the potato grows larger as you travel farther.

In addition to getting your potato, count on receiving some novel responses from the wait staff, ranging from the positive to the amazed, but never the negative. Smiles or chuckles, yes. Sneers or snickers, no. One smiling server, not the cashier I had tipped, with one hand gave me my takeout bag and with her other hand gave me an enthusiastic thumbs up. Maybe she was thinking, “Now there’s a customer who knows what to eat!”

Mark Mathew Braunstein is the author of three vegan books and contributes to many holistic health magazines, including twice to Spirit of Change. Though sworn into the Secret Brotherhood of the Baked Potato, neither he nor anyone he knows is affiliated with Wendy’s nor with any potato farmer. He profits nothing from the sale of Wendy’s baked potatoes and recommends them solely on their merits. Visit www.MarkBraunstein.Org. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 27

The Inaction Model of Action

ANDY SINGER

...or How to Let Problems Take Care of Themselves

P

by Raymond Lesser eople often ask me, “How come you always look so calm and centered? I’ve seen your desk and it’s piled with stacks of bills, manuscripts, clown noses, leftover food containers, plumbing parts… I just don’t understand how someone with so much on their plate can approach their life with so much serenity. What’s your secret?”

Years ago I was like most people: stressed out, continually late, a full agenda with no place to park. I spent my day rushing to solve one problem only to find two more cropping up before I was through. I had two jobs, with barely enough time in between them to drive home for a few hours of shut-eye before I was stuck back in a morning rush hour traffic jam. Yet I was still falling behind in my payments, in a constant state of dishevelment and confusion, hyper and exhausted at the same time.

Then, almost by accident, I discovered a basic 28 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

principle of life that saved me from a nervous or physical breakdown. Because I was trying to do more than was humanly possible, and therefore running so far behind schedule that I’d never be able to catch up, eventually a natural consequence occurred. Some of the things at the bottom of my to-do list never got done. There simply kept being more urgent things that would get added to top of the list. Eventually the portion of the list that had some of these delayed action items got lost, but I didn’t even notice. I just kept scrambling to catch up. Then one day I stumbled upon that lost part of my to-do list, and as I looked at each of the undone items realized something profound. I didn’t need to do any of them anymore! It was either too late, or the problem had taken care of itself. Even though I had done nothing I was able to cross all these projects off my list.

I thought about how hard I would have had to work to take care of many of these to-do items. For example, one of the projects had been to rebuild the carburetor of my

car. But subsequently I’d lent that car out to a friend who had gotten into an accident and totaled it. I’d already collected the insurance money and gotten a new car. If I had been conscientious and fixed that carburetor my friend would still have totaled the car, and the result would have been the same, except for the hours of painstaking work I’d put in to rebuild the carburetor. By not doing anything I’d saved myself tons of work and wound up with the same totaled car. What a revelation! Think of all the time, effort and mess I’d saved!

Or how about my gardening project. I’d been intending to dig some beds in my yard to plant a garden, but never had the time to do it. Then one day my sewer backed up and it turned out I needed to have the plumbers come and dig up my entire yard to replace the sewer pipes. If I’d had a garden planted there they would have destroyed it. Instead, by procrastinating, they wound up digging up my yard for me. By the time they were done, all I need to do was hoe for a few minutes and then stick some tomato and pepper plants into the ground.

Then there was the table that I had promised to build for my girlfriend. But before I got around to it she dumped me for a furniture salesman. So I was really off the hook. I let him worry about getting her a table.

Once I began to see the pattern emerge, I started to have a different attitude about my to-do list. Instead of rushing around trying to take care of everything at once, or working feverishly to finish things before their deadlines, I decided that a far better tactic would be to only do the things on the list that I really wanted to do. I would pick the item I most wanted to do first, and then work my way down the list of favorites. Now, each project I worked on made me happy, and I didn’t want to rush to finish it; I wanted to savor each

Instead of rushing around trying to take care of everything at once, or working feverishly to finish things before their deadlines, I decided that a far better tactic would be to only do the things on the list that I really wanted to do. experience. The rest of the projects on the list would just have to wait, either until I was inspired to work on them, or until they became obsolete, impossible, or morphed into something more fun to work on.

OK, there were some consequences. I lost one of my jobs. But I never really liked being a pet food taster to begin with. I was only test tasting Fido’s dinners to try to get ahead on my various payments. Now I was forced to downsize because I could no longer afford to have a castle with a moat and drawbridge, equipped with cable TV in every room, including the dungeon. But the truth is I couldn’t afford all that even when I had it.

Instead of working my butt off to try to pay for a life I didn’t have time for, I found that I had plenty of time to enjoy the life that I could afford. The more I simplified, the shorter my to-do list became and the more time I had to create a to-do life. I stopped making a list of what I wanted to do in the future and just did what I wanted to do in the moment.

So you’re right, my desk is a mess. But I can still find what I need when I need it. It’ll be exactly where I last left it. Occasionally I will dig into the bottom of some of my piles, kind of like an archeologist doing an excavation of an ancient civilization. The civilization of the old me. Usually I’ll find some long lost project, the reason for which I can only guess at, that doesn’t mean anything to me anymore. Into the recycling bin it will go, to make room for something more exciting on the top of the pile.

Raymond Lesser is the publisher of Funny Times, America’s funniest newspaper ($26 for 12 issues available at funnytimes.com). ©2016 Funny Times Inc. Reprinted with permission. www.spiritofchange.org

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FOUR EASY WAYS TO TRY OUT A

by Jill Rogers

A

h, March — the finicky fickle month that can’t decide whether to mark the death of winter or herald the birth of spring. It’s a time of blustery, bonechilling winds, mud-ridden grounds, and a sneaky sun that teases us with its cheerful brightness while reneging on its promise of warmth. At this point, we New Englanders are fed up with the cold, dark, and dreary. We are ready — already! — to don our warm-weather clothes and renew our weary yet restless spirits with sunshine, warm air, green grass, and color.

Luckily, May is on the way, and it will be soon be time to get out — not just out of the house or the office, but out of our comfort zones as well. Here are a few ideas for shedding the wet wool blanket of winter — and your same ol’ self — and encouraging the warm spring breezes of imagination, fun, and new-you possibilities.

30 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

INVITE NOVELTY INTO YOUR LIFE “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” ~ Henry Ford Spring is a wonderful time to explore something that is totally unrelated to what you do for work and preferably outside your normal comfort zone. Your comfort zone is basically that cozy place where nothing can provoke or heighten your anxiety levels. While most of us continually seek ways to decrease our anxiety — and let’s face it, we all have more than our fair share — there are a few good reasons why stretching toward something new and allowing ourselves to feel a bit of unease can actually be beneficial:  It helps you grow as a person. When you can conquer your anxiety long enough to try something new and succeed at it, you get a great feeling of accomplishment, which increases your self-confidence and your desire to keep trying new things.  It increases the size of your comfort zone. If you live in a small comfort zone, you may often feel anxious or miss out on much of life’s excitement. By getting out of your comfort zone regularly and increasing the number of things you’re comfortable with, you’ll also expand your life’s possibilities.  Doing new things motivates you and helps you learn more easily.

By seeking out originality and fresh ideas, you can increase your brain’s level of dopamine, a neurotransmitter that motivates you to act by encouraging you to go looking for rewards. Novelty has also been shown to improve memory and increase learning by making our brains more flexible and better able to quickly acquire new skills and think outside the box.

So if your nose is typically buried in the latest issue of Science magazine, learn to paint with watercolors or dance the Bachata. If you’re often lost in the alternate worlds between book covers, sign up for a cross-country skiing class or hit the go-kart track. If you’re always on the hunt for the next great adrenaline rush, attend a classical music concert or take a quiet walk in nature instead. All kinds of amazing things can happen outside our comfy, everyday worlds.

TRAVEL TO PARTS UNKNOWN “A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for” ~ John A. Shedd While some people make a habit of jet setting around the world, you don’t have to get on a plane or even drive very far to see something new. If hitting the Galapagos Islands and making friends with a sea turtle isn’t your cup of tea, pick a place or perhaps even a tourist attraction in your own home state that you’ve never seen before and just go.

Traveling out of your hometown, state, or country, allows you to disconnect from your everyday world of work, issues, and familiar people and helps you gain a broader perspective on your life and how you fit in to the bigger picture. It can also help you discover solutions to problems that are normally too close for you to see clearly. And the memories you make while you’re out of your normal environment will have a greater effect on you and last far longer than the ones you make through your normal daily activities.

CATCH SOME RAYS “When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome.” ~Wilma Rudolph Many of us sit inside in front of a computer for so many hours a week that we often forget there’s a world beyond our four walls. The trick to staying happily sane is to get outside for at least twenty minutes every day to absorb all that free energy our sun is dishing out – and be sure to leave your shades behind. When ultraviolet rays hit your bare skin and enter your uncovered eyes, they trigger at least two happy-health occurrences: the synthesis of vitamin D and an increase in our body’s level Continued on page 32 www.spiritofchange.org

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FOUR EASY WAYS TO TRY OUT A NEW YOU Continued from page 31

of serotonin (a neurotransmitter that regulates appetite, sleep, memory, and mood).

In addition to promoting healthy bones, vitamin D has also been shown to lower your blood pressure, reduce your risk of diabetes, and lower your chances of heart attacks, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and even several forms of cancer. Researchers have also found that serotonin levels in many people are lower during the winter and suggest that these low levels directly correlate to seasonal affective disorder, or winter depression. In short, more sunlight equals better overall health and happier moods, so let the sunshine in!

MOVE YOUR BODY “Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate. The world wasn’t formed in a day, and neither were we.” ~Lee Haney There are people out there who cringe at the word “exercise,” who shun the very thought of having to actually move in such a way as to bring on pools of sweat and shortness of breath. And oh, the boredom of it all . . . the sheer waste of time that could be so much better spent doing, well, absolutely anything else! If this sounds like you, maybe you just don’t know what you’re missing. You’ve probably heard that regular physical activity can:  Help you lose weight  Increase your energy and endurance  Reduce your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure  Keep your joints, tendons, and ligaments flexible

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But it can also:  Create new brain cells and improve overall brain performance  Boost your memory and the ability to learn new things  Increase your creativity  Reduce anxiety and stress  Release endorphins that can alleviate the symptoms of sadness and depression And the best thing about it is that you don’t have to sweat, grunt, burn, gasp, and generally suffer your way through a WORK OUT to reap the many benefits. The only thing you really need to do is move. And you don’t have go all out for 30 to 60 minutes a day either. Studies have shown that breaking up your daily exercise into smaller sessions throughout the day can be just as beneficial as packing those moves into a single period of time, and shorter, less rigid exercise sessions are much easier to maintain in the long term.

Give these activities a try:  Hop on a bike and go for a leisurely 15-minute ride.  Play a musical instrument.  Wash the kitchen floor.  Work in your yard or garden.  Stand up while you’re on the phone and pace a bit while you’re talking.  Take the stairs for a flight or two instead of the elevator all the way.  Walk during your lunch break or hold your next one-on-one meeting outside and walk while you discuss the topic with your colleague.  While you may not make it to the Olympics, you will be a healthier, smarter, and more creative person overall.

So many of us want to lead more interesting lives, to have a purpose for being that goes beyond our jobs and family responsibilities. But change is hard for us humans. It’s so much easier to give in and stay with the familiar, maintain the status quo, and just keep on keepin’ on, isn’t it? But you don’t have to make huge scary leaps to transformation; you can take small, easily manageable steps that will lead you steadily and surely to the life you’ve imagined. Start now. Take a step.

Jill Rogers is a freelance writer and editor who specializes in helping spiritual, self-help, and health and well-being authors to creatively express their concepts in clear and interesting ways and ensure that their writing is of the highest editorial quality. Visit her at assuredword.com.

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 33

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D

id you think that headline was a misspelling?

RAKtivist is short for Random Acts of Kindness activist. Think of RAKtivists like kindness ambassadors; like all ambassadors, they’re an active member of the community. The name was generated by the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, whose main goal is making our world a better place for all. According to the Foundation, anyone who believes kindness can change the world, who reminds everyone around them how much love there is in the world, who inspires hope and generosity with their actions as much as their words — is a RAKtivist.

Scientific studies have shown that random acts of kindness are good for you! They improve your life satisfaction by increasing your sense of belonging and self-worth, and they improve your health by decreasing your anxiety, depression and blood pressure. Here’s the best part: According to the Foundation, these benefits apply to the giver of kindness, the recipient of kindness, and anyone who witnesses the act! Every act improves the lives of at least three people.

If you’re like most people, you’re tired of all the negativity in the news, frustrated by the politics, and sad

to hear about all the pain and suffering out there. We need to get back to the importance of being kind to others; to show that love is the strongest emotion in our hearts, and that kindness is the antidote to all the bad stuff. Our country during this past election has been assaulted by a lack of kindness and humility. The election cycle was devoid of both. Many individuals reported that they felt stressed, nervous and fearful and just wanted the election to end, and believe me, it does filter into the lives of our children, too.

Perhaps we need to start modeling kindness in the schools. Every school teaches math and reading, but what about mindfulness and kindness? The best way to promote kindness and caring behaviors in our classrooms is to model them. When we show students what it looks like and sounds like to be kind, there is a far greater chance they will repeat those modeled behaviors.

It is so important to remember that children watch their teachers all the time and listen to everything they say.

Essential caring behaviors and kindness are more often “caught” than they are “taught” in the classroom.

However, we don’t make children happy when we simply have them be receivers of kindness. In order to

escalate their feelings of happiness, improve their well-being, reduce bullying, enrich their friendships, and build peace is by teaching them to be givers of kindness.

There are a number of studies that show the importance of engaging students in acts of kindness. One study showed that when students performed acts of kindness or took notice of the pleasant places they visited, their happiness quotient increased. However, those who performed acts of kindness received an extra boost. The study showed they gained an average of 1.5 friends during the month-long period — good support for the idea that nice guys finish first.

Like other studies, this research showed that being kind to other people benefits the giver. For children, it nurtures their well-being and increases their positive connections with peers.

When children learn to be caring and kind they also benefit developmentally.

Well-liked children display more positive, less bullying behaviors when they become teenagers. Happier kids are more likely to show higher academic achievement. Being kind makes you feel good about yourself and improves your outlook on life.

In Worcester, through the 365Z Foundation there is an organization that encourages acts of kindness. This foundation started several years ago when Rosemary Ford was invited to be a guest lecturer at Quinsigamond Community College by Professor Paul LaCava in a course entitled “Death and Dying and its Effects on Families.” Mrs. Ford lost her son at the age of 20, and in the days and weeks following his passing, his family heard stories about how Zach, through his own acts of kindness, had made a positive, lasting impact on the lives of so many others. At the college seminar Mrs. Ford stated that in memory of her son she performed “acts of kindness every day.”

Picking up on this concept, Professor LaCava started the 365 Foundation amongst friends and colleagues within the community to inspire everyone to bring more kindness into the world on a daily basis. The Z was added on in memory of Zach.

The Foundation has information for teachers and administrators on how to help their students understand what it means to be kind in very creative ways. Many schools have embraced the concept and some have banners on kindness, kindness bracelets, and even kindness quotes for the day.

Participating schools in Worcester include St. Peter’s Central Catholic, Venerini Academy, Union Hill School, Tatnuck Magnet, Nelson Place Elementary, City View School, Quinsigamond Elementary, Woodland Academy, Seven Hills Charter, Forest Grove Middle School, St. Peter Marian Jr/Sr High School, Claremont Jr/Sr High School, Doherty Memorial High School, Worcester Technical Vocational High School, South High School, North High School, and Burncoat High School. St. Anna’s School in Leominster also participates in the program. The schools all have varying degrees of implementing kind deeds within the school community.

Union Hill, where Mrs. Ford teaches the second grade, will expand their acts of kindness plans this year. One of the many ways they will celebrate and encourage student participation is by organizing monthly teacher lunches that give the students the opportunity to share a meal with their teacher as a reward for making positive choices. The school also has four celebrations after grades close for students from all grade levels who have exhibited the 365Z behavior. This year the school has started a 365Z Club after school program for 27 fifth and sixth graders. Those students will be doing community service projects in the Union Hill area.

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Students who exhibit 365Z qualities do the following: •Are daily role models and exhibit respect, acceptance,

perseverance and responsibility

•Are honest and show integrity •Behave in a caring, and kind manner toward others •Demonstrate gratitude and forgiveness toward others

Wouldn’t it be great if all schools worked on having their students exhibit those traits? Let’s all engage in daily acts of kindness!

John Monfredo, a retired principle of Belmont Community School in Worcester, MA, is an at-large member of the Worcester School Committee. He is a regular contributor to GoLocalWorcester.com from which this article is reprinted with permission of the author. John can be reached at Monfredoj@gmail.com. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 35

Balance Your Body To Relieve Pain

An interview with neuromuscular therapist and Integrated Positional Therapy founder Lee Albert

L

by Carol Bedrosian

ast year in April I attended Marilyn Taylor’s monthly Wellness Roundtable Holistic Networking meeting in Northborough, MA, and heard two local practitioners speak about therapeutic stretching. I wasn’t particularly interested in stretch therapy at the time, but both Pat Lebau’s presentation on Integrated Positional Therapy and Judy Malcolm’s follow-up with Fascial Stretch Therapy ignited wonder and fascination for me. How could something as simple as stretching relieve excruciating pain?

Two weeks later I found out. It was Sunday afternoon and sudden debilitating pain in my right heel prevented me from walking or barely even bending my foot. While I had been experiencing foot and ankle issues for the past five years due to ankle sprains on both feet, I had learned to live with it, walk gingerly, and use my feet wisely. No running or jumping. I couldn’t live with this pain, so I hobbled over to my desk to read online about my symptoms.

Oh! So this is plantar fasciitis, which up until now had just been a condition with a name I couldn’t pronounce. Everything I read online told me to flex my toes up against a wall or flat surface to stretch out the plantar fascia along the bottom of my foot, which I dutifully performed without relief.

Pat Lebau popped into my mind so I emailed her for some advice. As fortune would have it, she emailed right back and instructed me, above all, not to stretch my toes upward. Curl them under.

This helps slacken the plantar fascial muscle, which is already overstretched and the cause of the pain in the first place. Very quickly the pain subsided to the point where I could at least walk on the foot. I scheduled a full Integrated Positional Therapy session with Pat for the next day, and continued curling my toes under for instant, though temporary, relief from the pain.

Integrated Positional Therapy, also known as “Yoga on the Table,” involves the practitioner gently stretching and positioning the imbalanced muscles to relieve pain. Using what looks and feels like simple lying-down yoga movements and an advanced knowledge of muscle and bone anatomy, the practitioner identifies exactly which overstretched or contracted muscles need attention, and holds a muscle in place for a minute or two with precise movements that are extremely gentle and never painful. The result can be miracu36 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

lous pain relief, like my five years of swollen ankles and foot pain completely disappearing.

While Pat sent me home with a protocol of five stretching exercises I should do at least once daily — just a seven-minute regimen — my feet, ankles and legs felt so good I hardly even gave the stretches another thought. But within a month, I was calling Pat for an emergency session to relieve serious pain issues again and resolved to do the daily exercises at home. Once again, her therapeutic touch relieved my pain and I promptly forgot all about the home stretching, despite the gradual return of painful twinges in both feet and ankles.

Not long after, Pat sponsored a local lecture and yoga class with Integrated Positional Therapy founder Lee Albert, NMT. Lee is a highly popular neuromuscular therapist and yoga instructor at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA, who is on a mission to deliver self-help pain relief tools to as many people as possible.

Trained in neuromuscular therapy, orthopedic massage, positional therapy, yoga therapy, and myofascial release, Lee created, practices and teaches Integrated Positional Therapy and has conducted seminars with thousands of people from all over the world.

Having lived through pain personally and worked with it professionally for decades, Lee shares his wisdom about pain relief as readily as common sense. It’s easy and fun to learn new things that provide instant results. I learned so much during Lee’s presentation, I couldn’t wait to start doing my daily stretches at home. And the good news is they have worked. For the past six months my feet and ankles have been pain free. I hardly go a day without doing my stretches because I am so grateful for something that works so well to keep me walking and pain free — all without an office visit, filling out a form or even paying a dollar.

I asked Lee if he would share his story and insights here in Spirit of Change, and also in person at the Natural Living Expo, November 11-12 in Marlboro, MA. Lee will give a keynote presentation and IPT demo, plus an additional yoga class for more intensive movement training. New England is fortunate to have medicinal muscleman Lee Albert among us.

Carol Bedrosian: You have a very inspiring story about pain to tell. Can you share that?

Lee Albert: Sure. About thirty years ago, I was on vacation driving in Canada in the

province of Quebec, when I came to a stop sign and the guy behind me did not. He actually hit me going sixty miles an hour. He was fooling around with a child in the back seat, didn’t see traffic stopped, and whack! To make matters worse, my car was three weeks old!

Fortunately I escaped from that accident with nothing broken and nothing bleeding, which was a miracle at the time, because I thought for sure I was going to die when I saw him coming in the rear view mirror. The car protected me somehow, despite the fact that it was totaled.

I actually had no symptoms for the first three weeks after the accident, but on the fourth week I started getting migraine headaches. I had never had a migraine before in my life, and little did I know I was going to have these migraines off and on for the next three years. So I started trying everything I could to find some relief. I tried physical therapy, I tried the doctor route, I tried numerous therapists, all to no avail.

Carol Bedrosian: What were the symptoms, your experience of the migraine?

Lee Albert: The migraines are what I call a headache on steroids. I could barely function at times. It often made me nauseous and it was hard to do just about anything. Even the meds from the doctors only took the slightest edge off, but they didn’t really help all that much. And the headaches were quite debilitating; sometimes they lasted for two or three days. When I had them, it was almost impossible to function.

Carol Bedrosian: Was it a pounding headache?

Lee Albert: Sometimes it was a pounding headache and sometimes I felt nauseous.

People who have had a migraine know exactly what I am referring to.

Carol Bedrosian: So you had tried all kinds of different therapies?

Lee Albert: I tried many different therapies, including physical therapy, massage therapy, neuromuscular therapy, craniosacral therapy, Reiki, acupuncture, and acupressure just to name a few.

Carol Bedrosian: And because you are a massage therapist yourself and have many professional colleagues and friends, you had access to the best in the business.

Lee Albert: I absolutely only sought out the best ones in the business and I did that pretty consistently for almost three years. Of course it cost a lot of money, because the best practitioners are also the most expensive practitioners. But that didn’t matter to me because I would not spare any expense to relieve those migraines. I was seeing two or three practitioners a week.

Carol Bedrosian: How often were you getting the migraines?

Lee Albert: I would usually experience them at least once a week. But sometimes it was two or three times a week.

Carol Bedrosian: Did you try anything dietary?

Lee Albert: Yes, I changed my diet to a more vegetarian, raw type of diet. I tried all sorts of diets but changing my diet did not help the headaches. Most therapists I went to were pretty sure it was coming from tight muscles in my neck, which is a classic whiplash symptom. Even though they knew these muscles were causing the problem, they could not find a way to relieve it permanently. Sometimes the work they were doing would make it go away for a week or ten days, but nothing that would make it last.

About two and a half years after the accident, I decided maybe I should just be looking into pain management because it didn’t appear that anyone had a solution to these headaches. Although all the therapists thought they had a solution, no one was addressing the root cause and giving me permanent relief. So I started thinking about exploring pain management and learning how to live with my condition.

At the time I didn’t know about a fundamental little principle of the universe. That principle is that when you are looking really hard for an answer, you often find it when you stop looking so hard. Two days after I decided I was not looking for a cure for my migraines, and had made the decision to seek pain management, somebody came up to me and said, “You know, I heard about this woman doing this incredible work. Seems like people go to her once or twice and they come back and they don’t have any more pain.” I said, “Great, where is she? I’m going.”

As it turns out she was a physical therapist in Hartford, Connecticut, and her name was Sharon Weiselfish. I didn’t know what kind of therapy she was going to administer.

I just went and hoped for the best. At the time, I was also working at a physical therapy clinic myself, doing massage on some of the clients of the physical therapist, so I knew how a physical therapy clinic worked and what everyone does there.

Continued on page 38 www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 37

BALANCE YOUR BODY TO RELIEVE PAIN

Irene Wong, LMT

Continued from page 37

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During the session with Sharon, she was treating me in ways I was not familiar with.

During the session I was thinking, “What is this? It’s very strange, it’s very gentle, and it doesn’t hurt. She’s barely moving my body and she’s telling me after one or two sessions there’s a good chance those headaches will be gone.” And of course I didn’t believe that for a minute. I thought, if anything, this was a total waste of time and money. I remember to this day, the first appointment I saw her for was forty minutes and it cost $300.

I didn’t know at the time that she was the top person in the field of what I later found out was strain/counterstrain, which we now call Positional Therapy. She was just moving my body parts into unusual positions and holding them there for a minute or two, and then going on to the next position. The problem was she wasn’t explaining it to me, and when you put a muscle into these positions, you can’t really feel it. It feels like absolutely nothing is happening. So I’m thinking, “What a waste of time this is.

This is never going to work.”

But it did! Actually, after just one session she said, “You know what? I think your migraines might be gone. I think we got it.” I was really not buying that at all. After three years, it was such a simple, easy therapy — and I’m thinking, “That couldn’t be.

I’ve never seen any other physical therapist practice this therapy.” Although I know a lot of them do it now!

So, I figured I’d get a migraine any minute, or at least the next day. Well, a day goes by, no migraine. A week goes by, no migraine. Hmm, a little unusual. I’m still sure it’s going to come back. Two weeks, no migraine. Very unusual. Three weeks, no migraine, I couldn’t even believe that was happening after all I had been through. When four weeks went by with no migraine, I got on the phone and called her and said, “What did you do to me? I haven’t had any migraines! She said, “I did strain/counterstrain on you.” “What is that? Can you explain that to me?” I asked. She explained it to me and it actually made sense.

In a nutshell, basically, you can think of muscles as a bunch of strings. As everyone knows in stretching, you’re taking those strings and making them longer by pulling the two ends farther apart. What she did was the exact opposite. You take the two ends of the muscle and bring them closer, which effectively puts the muscle into slack. Then you hold it there for one to two minutes.

This technique was actually developed by an osteopath named Lawrence Jones in the 1950s. He discovered it by accident, and after he figured out the principle of bringing the two ends of the muscle closer, which is the exact opposite of what everyone else was telling him to do with a tight muscle, he spent a good fifteen years finding positions that could effectively put any muscle in the body into slack by bringing the two ends closer together. The beauty of this is that you can do most of it yourself with little to no effort once you know what to do.

Carol Bedrosian: That is revolutionary!

Lee Albert: Yes, it totally is revolutionary. Even though Dr. Jones was a Western doctor, this was an Eastern approach. It allows the body to reset itself instead of trying to force it to release when the body isn’t ready yet. Excited and intrigued by Dr. Jones approach, I immersed myself in acquiring an understanding of the healing mechanisms involved, and began to explore a more comprehensive approach to neuromuscular pain that incorporated other effective techniques. I call this Integrated Positional Therapy.

Carol Bedrosian: What exactly is Integrated Positional Therapy?

Lee Albert: Integrated Positional Therapy — IPT — is a gentle self-care approach that has been shown to be effective in addressing a wide range of common acute, and chronic neuromuscular conditions and associative pain. IPT delivers simple, therapeutic self-care techniques that help identify and correct muscular imbalances and hone in on many of the root causes of pain.

Carol Bedrosian: I experienced that first hand this year with my first bout of plantar fasciitis. The attack happened right after I heard a talk by Pat Lebau, who is one of the trained practitioners of this method. Everything I read online was telling me to take my toes and put them up against the wall.

Lee Albert: Yes, the information you were reading was telling you to stretch it.

Doctors and physical therapists will usually tell you to stretch it and ice it. With the IPT approach I have people slacken and heat it, and the results are typically much better. I tell people to put heat on it by soaking their feet in warm water and Epsom salt. There’s nothing wrong with the ice because it makes it feel better temporarily, but as you know, when tissue gets cold it gets even tighter and contracts. Eastern therapies like Traditional

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Carol Bedrosian: Isn’t the common wisdom to rest, ice, elevate and compress?

Lee Albert: There’s new thinking on that now. Let’s say you’re out it the woods and you trip and your ankle swells up. The doctor is going to tell you to do the RICE protocol: rest, ice, compression and elevation. And will that make it feel better? Absolutely.

However, the body never makes a mistake. It doesn’t do anything that’s trying to harm you. So when it puts that fluid and swelling there, it’s actually nature’s cast. It immobilizes that joint so that it can’t move so well. If it can’t move, it will heal quicker. And if you walk on it, it hurts, so you tend not to, and therefore you heal quicker. But if you do the rest, ice, compression, elevation, you’ll feel better and walk on it as if it’s healed and, of course, it’s not yet. It just feels better because the swelling is down and the inflammation is reduced but the tissue hasn’t healed completely yet.

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wrong with that because you want your symptoms treated to get some relief. But you actually need to get to the cause, otherwise it will take much longer to fully heal.

Carol Bedrosian: Why do so many of us experience chronic pain?

Lee Albert: In the final analysis, most pain is foundational, resulting from imbalances in the musculoskeletal system. We are in pain because we are misaligned, or crooked. Even if you think you have good posture, you probably don’t, as misalignments are often not obvious to the untrained eye. IPT teaches how to quickly identify the most common misalignments and to develop a quick and simple approach to getting back into balance.

Carol Bedrosian: I believe I read somewhere that low back pain is the number one reason people go to their doctors.

Lee Albert: I’ve been a therapist for thirty years and it’s rare to see a person who’s never had low back pain. It costs the country billions of dollars a year plus loss of work Continued on page 40 SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 39

BALANCE YOUR BODY TO RELIEVE PAIN Continued from page 39

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40 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

— and it has nothing to do with the back! That’s the interesting thing. It has to do with the two hip flexor muscles in the front, which are the psoas muscle and one of the quadricep muscles on the upper thigh. Those muscles, when they are too short, pull the pelvis into a forward tilt, effectively jamming everything in the low back, which is where the pain is felt.

That can cause a disc issue, a nerve compression, inflammation, etc., but those are only the symptoms. A disc issue is not a cause; it’s a symptom. It’s often caused from that forward tilt of the pelvis, and every time you sit in a chair, you train those two muscles to go short and pull your pelvis forward, which would be absolutely okay if we got up and stretched them, but, of course, we don’t.

Carol Bedrosian: So the cause of this lower back pain epidemic is sitting?

Lee Albert: Sitting, plus every time you exercise such as walking, hiking, biking, swimming — all of these things work the muscles on the front side of your body — your psoas and your quads — much harder than the ones on the back side. When they are worked harder, they get shorter.

The ancient Chinese actually recognized that this imbalance existed thousands of years ago. What they recommended was for their people to walk backwards up hills to strengthen the muscles on the backside of the body, because they were out of balance.

This is all about balance. Since your muscles are attached to your bones, when your muscles are out of balance your bones are out of balance and misaligned. It is estimated that eighty percent of the muscular pain that people experience comes from being misaligned.

Carol Bedrosian: What would be some solutions for rebalancing that?

Lee Albert: The first thing I would recommend to everyone is three stretches to balance the pelvis. One is a quad stretch. This will help correct the forward tilt in the pelvis.

That tilt is often responsible for low back pain. A quad stretch is what we call a runner’s stretch. It’s basically standing and holding onto the back of a chair and pulling your heel towards your buttocks.

Now, having said that I have to be careful because people will often stretch their quads as I describe and they feel pain in their knees because they stretched their quads too deeply. In other words, half my clients cannot do that stretch because their quads are so tight and they try to force it, which is the worst thing you could do. No pain, no gain does not apply to stretching. So I have them hold onto a chair, then get another chair behind them and instead of bringing their heel to their buttocks, put their foot on the chair behind them. It’s about meeting your body where it is. Stretching should never hurt.

I like to tell my clients and students, “Do not stretch like a human being.” Humans do not know how to stretch. Stretch like a cat or a dog, because when you watch them stretch they look happy. When people stretch they look like they’re struggling.

No pain, no gain only applies to weight training because in weight training you have to rip the muscle to grow the muscle bigger. That’s what you are doing in weight training.

There’s nothing wrong with that as long as you know what you’re doing. But when it comes to stretching, there should be no pain while you are stretching. We don’t want to rip anything. You will get a far better result at a sixty to seventy percent stretch than a hundred percent. That’s just muscle science. In other words, if you’re stretching at one hundred percent, you’re stretching the tendons on either end and that is usually not a good idea. You should stretch mostly in the middle, the belly of the muscle. You get a far better result with much less effort.

The second stretch corrects the elevation in the pelvis. Many people have one hip higher than the other. So if you look in the mirror, one hip is riding up higher than the other one, which now means that one leg is functionally shorter than the other. So if the hip goes up the leg is going to be a little shorter. It actually gives you a little scoliosis right away because when that hip goes up, your pelvis tilts to one side and your spine curves as well. That is due to a tight muscle in your low back called the quadratus lumborum; in yoga they often say the QL. The stretch that corrects that is called the half moon as a yoga pose. Your arms are up over your head and you bend to one side, and then the other, at the waist. You could have both hands up or hands clasped above your head.

Some people don’t have that shoulder mobility, so you can also have your hands on your hips. It’s just about stretching that muscle, which helps compensate for one hip higher than the other.

The third stretch is for a rotated pelvis. A lot of people have a rotated pelvis, which means one part of the pelvis moves forward and the other part on the other side moves

backward. It rotates a bit. This is due to muscles on the outside of the upper thighs being too short. So if you lie down and your legs turn out, which is almost everybody, you have a rotated pelvis. That’s about stretching the muscles on the outside of the upper thighs.

There’s a couple of ways to do it and one is the yoga pose called knee down twist.

For this you lie on your back and bend your right leg so your right foot is flat on the floor at the inside of the other leg. Then pull your right knee towards the floor with your left hand and feel the stretch on the outside right thigh. Remember, none of these stretches should hurt. If they do, you are stretching too deeply.

Carol Bedrosian: How long should you hold it?

Lee Albert: There’s a science behind that. A stretch is not very effective under thirty seconds. So it needs to be at least thirty seconds and a minute is even a little better. At thirty seconds the muscle starts to stretch, and at one minute, the fascia starts to stretch as well. I recommend thirty seconds minimum, but if you can, hold it for a minute. If you can’t hold it for 30 seconds or one minute, you’re probably stretching too deep to start with or your life is way too busy. It’s like the guy who went to a Zen master and asked, “Master, how long should I meditate?” And the master said, “Twenty minutes a day, unless, of course, you don’t have time, then you should meditate an hour.” But it always, needs to be emphasized that stretching should not be painful. People hurt themselves and then they never want to stretch again.

Carol Bedrosian: What about breathing when you are stretching?

Lee Albert: If you breathe, you’re going to be able to stretch better. Swami Kripalu would recommend half an hour of pranayama (breathing) before any asana (stretching), because the pranayama balances the nervous system. When the nervous system relaxes, the muscles relax as well and then the asana is much easier.

Science is now confirming what the yogis knew long ago.

Carol Bedrosian: Doesn’t oxygen play an important role in pain relief?

Lee Albert: The way I phrase it is, you can go thirty days without food and you will not die. You can go five or six days with no water and you will not die. But you won’t go much more than ten minutes without oxygen. I’m pushing the envelope there, but you can’t last very long without oxygen.

The role of oxygen is so huge to our wellbeing, but, of course, we are all chest breathers from a lifetime of sitting, so we are oxygen deprived. If you are sitting all the time, your diaphragm can’t go down far enough; in other words, you’re breathing with just the upper third of your lungs, which is enough to keep you alive but you will not thrive.

Chest breathing is associated with “fight or flight.” You are releasing adrenalin into your system and all your muscles are tightening up. This may increase the pain you already are experiencing. When you take a full belly breath you are creating “rest and digest.” Your muscles and nervous system relax.

Ten minutes of belly breathing will completely take people out of fight or flight. Ten minutes, that’s all it takes. And yet people are taking pills and all sorts of things for their stress when ten minutes of slow, deep breathing can accomplish the same thing.

Babies breathe a belly breath; that’s our natural breath. Most of us need to relearn how to breathe fully.

Let’s say you have a tight spot on the top of your shoulders and it’s painful. It’s not the tight muscle, per say, that’s causing the pain; it’s the lack of oxygen causing the pain. The medical term for that is ischemia. In other words, the muscle gets tight and it reduces blood flow. It’s that lack of oxygen that’s causing the pain. So that’s why people often feel better after exercising, because they’re getting more oxygen to their tissues. We’re not getting as much oxygen as our ancestors got. We have become too sedentary.

Carol Bedrosian: And there’s less oxygen in the environment itself maybe?

Lee Albert: Yes. Scientists have measured the oxygen content in places like the Berkshires where it’s pretty clean and there is a lot of plant life and not a lot of pollution and

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A stretch is not very effective under 30 seconds, so it needs to be at least 30 seconds, and a minute is even better.

S IN

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We meet monthly on the second Wednesday, Sept-May, 9-10:30 a.m., in Northboro, MA. Members gather with the intention of creating collaborative relationships and building a professional community. Meetings are opportunities to be inspired, stimulated and educated for the greater good of our respective professions. Together, we join to increase the level of well-being, body, mind and spirit, for ourselves, our clients, our communities and our world.

Continued on page 42

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 41

BALANCE YOUR BODY TO RELIEVE PAIN Continued from page 41

Carol Bedrosian: Pushing the shoulder blades back?

Lee Albert: Yes, exactly and holding that. That’s essential. When you are looking down

not too many cars, and the oxygen levels are in the low twenty percents. In cities like New so much, your chest muscles get short and collapsed, and it drags your head forward.

When you stretch your chest, it brings your head over your shoulders and all the chest York where there are many more cars and fewer trees, it could be ten, eleven or twelve fibers start to open up. It could be done standing in line at the grocery store. It can be percent oxygen. Still enough to keep you alive but…Scientists have also measured the done anywhere. Anyone that tells me they don’t have time, I say, “If you’re standing in oxygen content of the air they found in ice that was formed thousands and thousands of line, you have the time.” years ago, and depending upon which sources you refer to, it measured some thirty-five Carol Bedrosian: These are all things you can do with yourself at home, natural medicine. percent. We are cutting down a lot of trees, especially in the rain forest, and that is reLee Albert: It’s absolutely natural medicine. With the skyrocketing costs of our healthducing our atmospheric oxygen levels. Of course it doesn’t matter how much oxygen you care system, it’s not sustainable, and it’s not affordable. If everyone did what I’m suggesthave if you’re a chest breather; you’re still not getting optimal oxygen. ing and knew how to apply these principles I am speaking of, we would cut healthcare in Carol Bedrosian: What are some things we can do every day that will help us lead a half.

I have no doubt about that. Yes, we still need doctors, but we can save the doctors pain-free life? for kidney diseases, cancers and other serious issues.

Lee Albert: The goal is to keep your muscles in balance. Equal Carol Bedrosian: What about the opioid epidemic? length and equal strength.

Lee Albert: Well this is a big problem. In my new book, Yoga The cause of many muscle imbalances is simply the way For Pain Relief, A New Approach to an Ancient Practice, I take and amount we are sitting. the three-fold approach: asana, pranayama and meditation.

Carol Bedrosian: TV, desk and car — that’s the life of What science has discovered is that when we add meditation most people. to these natural therapies, we can achieve phenomenal results.

Lee Albert: Yes, all of those activities require sitting. Sitting Different states of meditation give you different brain wave incorrectly puts a lot of tension on the neck, shoulders and frequencies.

As you get a little deeper into meditation, your back that can lead to headaches, back pain and other common brain wave frequencies change and your body starts to produce painful conditions. Sitting with a cushion in your back that is the feel-good chemicals like oxytocin.

Because people don’t precisely placed will dramatically help. know how to meditate and produce that in their own body, I recommend a bed pillow or a travel pillow, something they start looking for it in a drug, which is going to be harmful like that. You roll it up and place it in your low back. And in the long run. you play with it; if it’s too thick it will be uncomfortable and Even breathing exercises start to release these good chemiif it’s too thin your head will be forward of your shoulders. cals in your body. If you want to lead a pain free life, keep your Keep playing with it until you make it thick enough so that muscles in balance, breathe deeply, fully, gently, and meditate. your head comes over your shoulders, the chest opens, the It doesn’t take much time or effort. Some of the science is shoulders unround and your pelvis goes right up under your showing that ten minutes a day of breathing and meditating sitz bones. So I’m calling it Seated Supported Mountain Pose. starts to bring results, and when people start doing ten minutes But please do not use the pillow if it is causing you pain! of this practice, they often start doing a lot more because they The other way people sit I’m calling slumpasana. People like the way they feel. look like they’re ninety, but it’s not because they’re ninety.

Science can show that your body is making these chemiIt’s because they’ve practiced slumping for so long. Sitting is cals; we are made to have them in our bodies. We miss them still not that great for you, but if have to sit, Seated Supported because, although we don’t know intellectually what we are Mountain Pose is the way to do it. The good news is that your missing, our bodies crave them. Drugs will give you shortmuscles will do exactly what you train them to do. Most peoterm relief, but in the long term we need a self-care program. ple train their muscles to be bent over, but it’s much better to When sitting at your desk, keep your The ancient yogis had this knowledge; they just didn’t have the train them to be straight. elbows by your side.

Arms should be bent science to explain it.

I have a free video of this on my website where I have idenabout 90 degrees. To find this position, Carol Bedrosian: What is the relationship between yoga tified the big three offenders: sitting in a chair, sitting in a car stand normally with your arms at your and IPT? and sitting at a computer. In the video, I show you how to sit side.

Bend the elbows to 90 degrees.

That Lee Albert: IPT supports some of the most important with a pillow in your back and how to position your arms for should be how it looks and feels when foundational principles of yoga — centering, balance, and maximum comfort you are sitting. The computer monitor strength — and is physically and mentally empowering as Carol Bedrosian: Do these things really make a difference? should be eye height and straight in front one comes to embrace the potential of applying self-care Lee Albert: Huge. People say, “I can’t believe it. I drive for of you so you are not bending your neck. techniques to achieve a state of holistic well-being. hours now and I don’t hurt.”

Feet should be flat on the floor or on a Not all yoga postures are suitable for all individuals.

Carol Bedrosian: Where should you hold you hands on foot rest. Dangling feet can cause low Depending on your postural imbalances, you might need to the steering wheel? Ten and two? back pain and poor circulation. avoid certain poses. IPT can help to identify these imbalances, Lee Albert: Four and eight. Actually every state is now explain how current poses might be causing or contributing teaching four and eight. They’re doing that not because it’s - Live Pain-Free Without Drugs Or Surgery to pain, and show you how to develop a yoga practice that can more ergonomic; they’re doing it for safety. They’ve discovachieve the right balance for you. ered that if you drive at ten and two and your airbags go off, I’m on a mission to reach as many people as possible with your two fists are going to end up in your face. Since they’re these self care tools. I’ve experienced them in my own body and many people have told being launched at two hundred miles an hour, it’s not a good scenario. But if you’re at me how effective these tools are. This is the information that many people are looking four and eight, your fists will end up on your ribs, which is a much better scenario. for. Fifteen or twenty minutes a day is all you need to get started. Your body is just like Carol Bedrosian: What about texting and all of the looking at devices? your car. As long as you are using it, it needs maintenance. It doesn’t need a lot, but in Lee Albert: Everyone’s heads are forward and this is happening at an earlier age. It’s the long run, it pays to be proactive. more important than ever that everyone would benefit from what I call the big four for better posture. We need to be stretching the chest at least three or four times a day for at least thirty to sixty seconds. Add that to the three pelvic stretches I already gave you, and Learn more about Lee Albert, Integrated Positional Therapy protocols and recommended stretches at LeeAlbert.com. if we just did those four, the health benefits would be huge.

Proper Computer Position

42 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 43

treating

pain without drugs

By Dr. Joseph Mercola

A

NEW FEDERAL REPORT revealed that the majority of U.S. adults (more than 54 percent) had some type of musculoskeletal pain disorder such as back, joint or neck pain in 2012 (the latest year for which statistics are available).1 Its prevalence is indicative of the significant price Americans pay for pain — it’s a leading cause of disability and major contributor to health care expenses and disability compensation.

44 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Also revealing, people suffering from pain were significantly more likely to have used a complementary health approach compared to people without pain — nearly 42 percent versus 24 percent, respectively. The reason wasn’t addressed by the study, but time and again, conventional medicine fails to relieve many people’s pain.

Congressional testimony from the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP) stated that Americans consume 80 percent of the pain pills in the world,2 and in a survey of more than 2,000 pain patients in the U.S., most said they were taking a dangerously addictive opioid pain medication.3 Research suggests, however, that these drugs work for only about three months, after which changes in your brain may lead to increased feelings of pain along with added emotional upset, including feelings of hopelessness and desperation.4 Many pain sufferers have tried virtually every treatment that conventional medicine has to offer — medications, injections, surgery and more — only to find that their pain hasn’t

gotten better and they may be struggling with treatment-induced side effects as well (one of the worst of which is opioid addiction). At that point (and for many far sooner), it’s only natural that you would begin to seek other options, which brings many people to holistic, complementary or alternative health care options for relief.

Science-Backed Natural Pain Relief Options A recent study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings evaluated several complementary approaches for pain relief.5 The options that follow have been scientifically proven to help with relief, according to the report.

Q ACUPUNCTURE One of the most common uses for acupuncture is in treating chronic pain. One analysis of the most robust studies available concluded that acupuncture has a clear effect in reducing chronic pain, more so than standard pain treatment.6 Study participants receiving acupuncture reported an average 50 percent reduction in pain, compared to a 28 percent pain reduction for standard pain treatment without acupuncture. It’s likely that acupuncture works via a variety of mechanisms. In 2010, for instance, it was found that acupuncture activates pain-suppressing receptors and increases the concentration of the neurotransmitter adenosine in local tissues7 (adenosine slows down your brain’s activity and induces sleepiness).

Q MASSAGE THERAPY A systematic review and meta-analysis, published in the journal Pain Medicine, included 60 high-quality and seven low-quality studies that looked into the use of massage for various types of pain, including muscle and bone pain, headaches, deep internal pain, fibromyalgia pain and spinal cord pain.8 The review revealed that massage therapy relieves pain better than getting no treatment at all.

Q RELAXATION TECHNIQUES Breathing exercises, guided imagery, meditation and other relaxation techniques may provide relief, especially from pain from tension headaches and migraines.

Research by an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Herbert Benson, found that people who practice relaxation methods such as yoga and meditation long term have more disease fighting genes switched “on” and active, including genes that protect against pain and rheumatoid arthritis.9 Q EXERCISE Among people who had experienced back pain, those who exercised had a 25 percent to 40 percent lower risk of having another episode within a year than those who did no exercise.10 Strength exercises, aerobics, flexibility training and stretching were all beneficial in lowering the risk of back pain. Motor control exercises (MCE), which help to improve coordination of muscles that support your spine,11 may also help. One systematic review found MCE led to reductions in pain and disability and improvements in perceived quality of life compared with minimal intervention.12 Q YOGA Yoga, which is particularly useful for promoting flexibility and core muscles, has also been proven to be beneficial if you suffer from back pain. People suffering from low back pain who took one yoga class a week had greater improvements in function than those receiving medicine or physical therapy.13 Yoga Journal has an online page demonstrating specific poses that may be helpful.14 Q MEDICAL MARIJUANA There are cannabinoid receptors in your brain, lungs, liver, kidneys, immune system and more. Both the therapeutic and psychoactive properties of marijuana occur when a cannabinoid activates a cannabinoid receptor. Research is still

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TREATING PAIN WITHOUT DRUGS Continued from page 45

ongoing on just how extensive their impact is on our health, but to date it’s known that cannabinoid receptors play an important role in many body processes, including metabolic regulation, cravings, pain, anxiety, bone growth and immune function.15 Some of the strongest research to date is focused on marijuana for pain relief. In one study, just three puffs of marijuana a day for five days helped those with chronic nerve pain to relieve pain and sleep better.16 Also revealing, in states where medical marijuana is legal, overdose deaths from opioids like morphine, oxycodone and heroin decreased by an average of 20 percent after one year, 25 percent after two years and 33 percent by years five and six.17 Q TURMERIC Turmeric was once most known for being a flavorful and colorful addition to curry, but in the scientific world, turmeric has earned a reputation for being a multi-faceted healer. Turmeric contains curcumin, which has notable anti-inflammatory properties. It can inhibit both the activity and the synthesis of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX2) and 5-lipooxygenase (5-LOX), as well as other enzymes that have been implicated in inflammation. A 2006 study found that a turmeric extract composed of curcuminoids (curcumin is the most investigated curcuminoid) blocked inflammatory pathways, effectively preventing the launch of a protein that triggers swelling and pain.18 Turmeric has been found to significantly improve post-operative pain and fatigue,19 and in a study of osteoarthritis patients, those who added only 200 milligrams (mg) of curcumin a day to their treatment plan had reduced pain and increased mobility. Time magazine even published the story of one doctor who marveled at one of his older hip patient’s lack of pain and remarkably swift recovery from surgery. The patient took turmeric regularly, and the results so impressed the physician that he began taking the supplement himself.20 Q ESSENTIAL OILS Essential oils are concentrated, aromatic plant extracts that have been used for thousands of years for emotional, cosmetic, medical and even spiritual purposes.

One of their most popular uses is also for relief of chronic and acute pain. There are a number of ways to use essential oils, including via aromatherapy. Lavender aromatherapy, for instance, has been shown to lessen pain following needle insertion21 while green apple scent significantly relieves migraine pain. Other essential oils noted for pain relief, including relief

National Health Statistics Reports, October 12, 2016, cdc.gov Mayo Clinic Proceedings, September, 2016, mayoclinicproceedings.org University of Maryland Medical Center, Low Back Pain, umm.edu Nutrition Facts, November 9, 2015, nutritionfacts.org National Health Statistics Reports, October 12, 2016, www.cdc.gov Congressional Testimony May 24, 2011, www.asipp.org 3 Pain News Network October 14, 2015 4 MinnPost October 31, 2014 1 2

46 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

HOMEOPATHY FOR LOW BACK PAIN Homeopathic solutions contain miniscule doses of plants, minerals, animal products or other compounds that cause symptoms similar to what you are already experiencing. The remedies have been diluted many times over, and the idea is that the substance will stimulate your body’s own healing powers. One study of 129 people with chronic low back pain found traditional homeopathic treatment was effective for treating low back pain, leading to improvements in health-related quality of life and decreases in the use of conventional treatment and health care services. The number of patients using drugs to treat their back pain was cut in half after homeopathic treatments.24 It’s best to work with an experienced homeopath to guide you in treatment for pain relief, however some common homeopathic remedies for back pain include:25 • Aesculus, for dull pain with muscle weakness • Gnaphalium, for sciatica that alternates with numbness • Colocynthis, for weakness and cramping in the small of the back • Arnica Montana, for pain as a result of trauma • Lycopodium, for burning pain, especially with gas or bloating • Rhus toxicodendron, for stiffness and pain in the small of the back

Finding the Right Balance Between Relief and Healing If you’re in severe pain or struggling with chronic pain, it can quickly sideline your life. You’ll need relief fast in order to function, which is why I recommend seeking the help of a pain specialist who is familiar with alternative treatments. A knowledgeable practitioner can help you to both relieve pain in the short term while also facilitating healing by identifying the underlying causes of your pain. It’s important to understand that medications are not the only option for pain relief, nor are they frequently the best such option. When used cautiously and correctly, prescription pain relievers do have their place in medicine, but they become dangerous when used long term.

For many people, lasting relief comes not from one modality but several, and it often includes making dietary changes as well. It may take a process of trial and error for you to find what combination works for you — but please stay hopeful. You can break free from chronic pain and, ultimately, many people find they don’t need drugs to do it.

• Lavender • Spruce • Marjoram • Chamomile • Sandalwood • Wintergreen • Fennel • Clove • Ginger • Frankincense Sources and Notes

from joint pain, are listed below22 Indian frankincense, or boswellin, has even been found to significantly reduce inflammation in animal studies and work well as a natural painkiller for rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Other essential oils that may be particularly beneficial for relieving rheumatoid arthritis pain and inflammation include peppermint, orange, ginger, myrrh and turmeric.23 For relief of chronic muscular pain or joint aches, try mixing 15 to 60 drops of your chosen essential oil with 1 ounce of carrier oil, then massaging it into the painful area. You can also mix three drops of thyme oil with 2 teaspoons of sesame oil to use as massage oil and apply on your abdominal area to relieve pain. This may be used as a massage oil to treat other types of pain, including insect and animal bites and stings. You can also use essential oils in the bathtub to relieve pain. Add 2 to 12 drops (depending on essential oil) into a teaspoon of honey, whole milk, vegetable oil or other dispersing agent then add to the bath once you are in the tub.

Dr. Joseph Mercola is an osteopathic physician and New York Times bestselling author. He is a popular natural healthcare expert for many major news networks, health shows and magazines. Visit www.Mercola.com for more helpful health articles.

Mayo Clinic Proceedings September 2016 Archives of Internal Medicine 2012 Sep 10:1-10 [Epub ahead of print] 7 Nature Neuroscience 13, 883–888 (2010) 8 Pain Medicine May 10, 2016 9 PLoS One. 2008 Jul 2;3(7):e2576.

10 JAMA Internal Medicine January 11, 2016 11 Medicine Net January 7, 2016 12 The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews January 7, 2016 13 Ann Intern Med. 2011;155(9):569-578.

14 Yoga Journal, Poses for Back Pain 5 6

Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 2006;46:101-22.

CMAJ. 2010 Oct 5;182(14):E694-701.

17 Reuters August 25, 2014 18 Arthritis & Rheumatism November 2006: 54(11); 3452-3464 19 Surg Endosc. 2011 Dec;25(12):3805-10.

20 Time July 13, 2009 21 Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2014 Feb;20(1):1-4.

22 Chicago Tribune May 6, 2016 23 RheumatoidArthritis.org Essential Oils 24 Clin J Pain. 2009 May;25(4):334-9.

25 University of Maryland Medical Center, Low Back Pain 15 16

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 47

Rudra Mudra

Empower your

ADRENAL GLANDS to treat pain with traditional Indian healing

By Vera Kaur

Prithvi Mudra

T

HE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM is a collection of glands that include the hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, thyroid, parathyroid, thymus, pancreas, adrenal and reproductive glands. These glands work in harmony to manufacture and secrete the vital hormones that influence almost every cell, tissue, organ, system and function within the body to maintain the equilibrium essential for life and good health.

48 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

The adrenal glands are powerful little organs located at the top of each kidney. They produce a variety of hormones and assist in governing blood flow and oxygenation within the body. They work with the nervous system to respond to short or long term stress.

The endocrine glands are interrelated and all work together to mobilize the body’s innate self-healing capacity — the immune system. The glands act as buffers to absorb the negative impact of physical, mental and emotional stress upon the body, to protect it from disharmony and disease.

In times past when life was lived in resonance with nature, our adrenal glands prepared our body for fright, fight or flight. In modern times, as we have unknowingly become detached from nature through breathing impure air, eating unnatural food, drinking chemical laden water, smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, using inorganic

body and household products, being exposed to environmental and electromagnetic pollution and so forth, our adrenal glands are constantly overstimulated by low level stress, fear and tension.

Traditional Indian energy healers know that the energy systems of the human body operate in harmony with the energy systems of the universe. Ancient methods of healing were based upon cleansing, balancing and strengthening the body’s energies to resonate with the universal energies, so as to instill physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well-being.

The stress and strain of modern life affects the vital energy within the adrenal glands.

This causes them to become weak and imbalanced and unable to effectively secrete their numerous hormones, govern blood flow and properly oxygenate the cells of the body.

The result is an array of symptoms including the accumulation of impurities, excess moisture and inflammation within the tissues, which is experienced as pain.

When you nourish and empower your adrenal glands, you treat the root cause of pain. Try these traditional Indian self-healing practices for adrenal glands.

Healing Mudras

Bringing Body, Mind and Spirit into Balance

Mudras are hand gestures that are used to balance the five elements in the body and encourage the natural healing response. Pain-relieving mudras include: The Rudra Mudra (facing page, top) increases the earth element to strengthen the adrenal glands. Place the tip of your thumb, index finger and ring finger together. Relax and extend your middle and little finger. Practice for ten minutes twice a day.

The Prithvi Mudra (facing page, bottom) energizes the root chakra to strengthen the entire endocrine system. Place the tip of your thumb and the tip of your ring finger together. Relax and extend your index, middle and little finger. Practice for ten minutes twice a day.

Traditional Indian Healing Plants India has a rich history in the holistic use of leaves, barks, roots, seeds and fruits to heal and prevent disease of the body and mind. Each one contains a unique variety of natural chemical compounds that act upon the body to promote well-being in specific ways. You can order these powdered herbs online or at any herbal store; be sure to specify organic for your healing purposes. Mix half a teaspoon of herb powder in a little warm water and drink with meals three times a day.

Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera), also known as winter cherry or Indian ginseng, is an adaptogenic herb, meaning it helps your body adapt, most notably, to stress. It is a calming and restorative root, helping you recharge your adrenal glands.

Amalaki (Emblica officinalis), also known as Indian gooseberry or amla, contains a very high level of vitamin C and antioxidants, and is widely used in traditional Indian healing, particularly in strengthening the immune system.

Turmeric (Curcuma longa) is a powerful root and strong antioxidant that contains an active ingredient called curcumin, which is a natural anti-inflammatory and pain reliever. Tumeric is used in traditional medicines to reduce inflammation and ease the pain of bruises and sprains, as well as alleviate chronic muscular, joint and nerve pain.

Energy Healing Practices Try out these energy healing techniques for supporting adrenal health to find the one you like best. Then focus on practicing that technique for a couple of minutes twice a day. Over time you might discover that your body changes and a different technique feels more soothing, energizing or healing.

Firmly massage the fleshy area at the back of each knee using the fingers of both hands. In traditional Indian healing, this area is the pathway through which the bladder energy flows, which is linked to the adrenals. Massaging this area supports the adrenals.

Firmly massage the inside of each lower leg. Using small circular motions, start around the inner anklebone, continue up the side of the shin and end on the inside of the knee. In traditional Indian healing, this area is a pathway through which the kidney energy flows. Massaging this area also supports the adrenals.

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EMPOWER YOUR ADRENAL GLANDS Continued from page 49

Firmly massage the base of the middle toe on each foot. The amount of accumulated stress and tension within the body and mind will be reflected by the degree of pain when it’s massaged.

Massage the webs between your fingers and toes for a few seconds each. These are acupressure points that restore the nervous system.

If you have a partner available, a gentle massage on either side of the spine, starting at the base of the neck and ending at the lower spine, will stimulate the lymphatic system to flush away stress and pain. Use the thumbs in small circular motions.

Traditional Indian Pain Relieving Remedies To prepare a pain relieving balm, gently warm three and a half ounces of organic ghee or cold-pressed coconut oil. Add one tablespoon of organic cayenne pepper and mix gently. Pour the mixture into a sterile jar and allow it to cool. Do not refrigerate. Apply liberally to the affected areas to increase circulation and assist in the removal of impurities, cold and excess moisture within the tissues. Avoid contact with the eyes and do not apply to broken skin.

To alleviate severe pain apply a thick paste made from turmeric root powder and warm water to the affected area. Cover with a bandage and leave for twenty four hours. Remove, wash the affected area and re-apply if necessary. Tumeric is a pain-relieving herb.

To alleviate chronic pain, apply red light to the affected area. The sun is comprised of seven colors, each of which possesses a unique energy vibration and healing property. Red is the color associated with healing pain. Hold a red glass up to the sunlight and direct the rays to fall onto the afflicted area, which should be unclothed and free of sunscreen. Keep the body warm and absorb the concentrated red rays for ten minutes twice a day.

To boost circulation, reduce inflammation and relax the body before bedtime take a twenty minute, warm Himalayan pink salt bath.

Self-Massage with Essential Oils Self-massage with essential oils assists in restoring the endocrine glands, detoxifying the organs, and calming the nervous system to release emotional and physical pain.

Essential oils to calm and support the adrenal glands include frankincense, sandalwood and cinnamon. Essential oils to alleviate pain and muscular tension include ginger, turmeric and holy basil.

Gently warm two ounces of organic ghee, jojoba or other carrier oil, add five drops of essential oil and allow them to infuse. Ensure the room is warm and apply the oil mixture to the entire body, starting on the soles of the feet and ending on the head.

Allow it to remain on the skin overnight and wash in the morning. Continue daily for up to one month.

If applying a full body massage is not practical, a ten-minute back massage around the kidney area can be effective in restoring the adrenal glands. Infuse half an ounce of ghee or oil with two or three drops of essential oil.

Healing Breath Controlling the breath using different breathing techniques increases the vital energy within the body, improves oxygenation and assists with the detoxification of impurities within the tissues to relieve pain. This breath retention exercise strengthens the adrenal glands, releases stress, invigorates the body and calms the mind. Practice it for several minutes twice a day.

Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Inhale for a mental count of four.

Retain your breath for a mental count of four. Exhale for a mental count of four. Pause for a mental count of four. During the retention and pause of breath, do not inhale or exhale.

As the lungs strengthen with practice, gradually increase the mental count to twelve.

The Om Mantra Chanting ancient sounds stimulates the body’s innate healing abilities by regulating energies to instill inner peace and harmony. The traditional om mantra assists in 50 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

KN

G LED OW

E • COMPASSION • W IS D

O

M

regulating the nervous and endocrine system.

Sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes. Inhale deeply through your nose and retain your breath for a few seconds. As you exhale through your mouth, chant the sound “om” in one long out-breath, separating the sound into three distinct parts. Start the sound loudly as an “aahh” at your solar plexus. Raise the sound into your chest more gently as an “auhh,” and end quietly as an “mmm” at your throat. (One chant may take up to thirty seconds, depending on your lung capacity). Practice for several minutes twice a day.

Healing Stones Earth’s natural stones can assist in healing the body by removing negative energy and raising the body’s vibration. Stones can be taped or held to the area on the middle back, close to the adrenal glands or on the area of pain.

Rose quartz supports the adrenal glands by balancing the emotions to relieve fear and anxiety.

Amethyst strengthens the adrenal glands to relieve chronic arthritic and rheumatic pain.

Garnet nourishes the adrenal glands to relieve pre-menstrual and lower back pain.

Black tourmaline empowers the adrenal glands to relieve stress and fatigue.

Indian Yoga Asanas

Regular practice of yoga asanas (postures) detoxifies and regulates the endocrine glands, soothes the nervous system, increases cell oxygenation and strengthens the body’s stress response to alleviate chronic pain.

Salabhasana (Locust Pose, above) tones the adrenal glands by increasing blood flow and oxygenation to the flexed back. It also stimulates the solar plexus chakra which is linked to the adrenal glands and pancreas. Lie down on your abdomen with your forehead touching the floor. Stretch your legs and rest your arms by your sides. Inhale and lift your chest and legs away from the floor. If you can’t lift both legs at the same time, alternate raising one leg at a time. Bring your awareness to your breathing as you relax in the posture, and then let it all go. Repeat.

Viparita Karani (Upside Down Seal Pose) is a restorative pose that allows the adrenal glands to rest and recharge. Lie on your back with your hips close to the wall. Rest both legs vertically against the wall. Loosen your shoulders and relax your arms bent at right angles at the elbow.

Bring your awareness to your breathing. Close your eyes and relax in the posture for up to twenty minutes in the evening.

Vera Kaur is an author of Sikh Indian origin, who grew up using traditional Indian therapies. In her twenties she lived in ashrams in India where she observed the positive results of the self-healing practices used by traditional energy healers. Her book, Diagnose, Treat and Cure All Dis-ease with Traditional Indian Holistic Therapies, is available at www.verakaur.com. www.spiritofchange.org

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My experience with pain has taught me that it’s completely possible to treat an acute pain condition entirely naturally.

By Sheila Rajan

L

ike most other Americans, I learned driving shortly after my 16th birthday. After getting my license, I drove very infrequently, mostly just to school and to run errands.

I didn’t bring my car to college so my driving decreased to almost never for the next four years.

After I completed college, I moved to Boston to start my professional career. Like most working people, I began a schedule with a daily commute requiring me to drive approximately 30 minutes a day. For the first 5 years everything was completely fine. The only clue that something was wrong was at a chiropractic session. The chiropractor put light pressure on my lowest vertebra, which caused an unusual amount of soreness. I didn’t think much of it and continued my daily routine.

One day I began feeling pain in my right knee and lower right back area. Over the next few weeks the pain increased to the point of constant discomfort. I noticed the pain was the worst after driving, which led me to the conclusion that the two were directly related.

I did some research online and surprisingly there were very few articles written about such a condition. The few articles I did find gave the following suggestions: 1.) adjust the car seat position to find the optimal one, 2.) use cruise control as much as possible 3.) do weight-bearing leg exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee. I incorporated all three suggestions into my routine and saw some improvement, but the pain was still significant and increasing daily. On the weekends I tried driving less, which decreased the pain (making me almost certain that the pain was coming from driving), but it would just return when I began driving again on Monday. I was beginning to seriously worry that I would be in constant severe pain; I could not give up driving, as my job was not accessible by public transportation.

The next thing I tried really changed my life. I decided to go to a physical therapist. I had to try out a few therapists before finding the right one. Although my therapist told me that he had never heard of such a condition, he was completely open to the possibility that

it was real. We first had an x-ray done of my knee and back which came back completely normal (the only thing that it revealed was a slight crookedness in my right knee). The therapist concluded that the pain must be coming from stress on the muscles around me knee. Over 6-8 weeks he taught me 3-4 simple stretches that completely alleviated the pain — entirely naturally, no medication or surgery required!

In addition to the stretches, I have incorporated the following natural remedies into my daily routine: 1.) using a special foam roller with protruding edges (available at thera-roll. com), 2.) meditation/reiki specializing in chi/prana circulation, 3.) consciously incorporating anti-inflammatory foods into my diet.

With the use of my daily natural regimen, I can now happily report that I am pain free. If I ever skip a day of stretches, I can feel the difference so I know it’s working.

My experience with pain has taught me that it’s completely possible to treat an acute pain condition entirely naturally!

Self-Hypnosis Ankle Sprain Healing No swelling, no bruising, no discomfort — just the power of the mind, helping the body to heal itself.

By Kathryn McGlynn, CHt

O

ne rainy Saturday morning, I was racing out of my house to drive 30 miles to teach an all-day hypnosis seminar. I was late. I was off balance, toting a large bag of class materials, a small sound system, and provisions for the day. Then I slipped and fell on the brick walkway. I twisted my right ankle and landed on my shoulder. Owwww.

I gathered myself and my gear together, pulled myself up and continued in my haste to get on the road. I had no time to feel sorry for myself or get an ice pack, an Ace bandage, a homeopathic remedy or an aspirin. Vroom! Off I went. I feared that, by the end of the day, my ankle would be so sore and swollen that I would be unable to walk or drive home.

So, while driving — fast — in the rain, I put myself into a light trance and did some eyes-open self-hypnosis. Kids, don’t try this in a car by yourself. Because I had had many years’ worth of experience with hypnosis, I was able to be in trance while focused on driving safely.

Hypnosis works with the power of the subconscious mind. The language of the subconscious mind is metaphor, imagery, pretend, imagination, feelings and emotions.

So, I imagined that there were three little medical teams taking care of my body. One team had special needles that could sew up any torn tendons, muscles and ligaments in my ankle and shoulder. Another team had a fire hose and was able to pump out any excess fluid build-up in the injured areas. The third team was applying medicated bandages to the areas that already hurt and that were anticipated to hurt later in the day. I felt so relieved that these wise inner paramedics were taking care of me, and would continue to do so throughout the day, even when I was unaware of their ministrations.

I schlepped up and down several flights of stairs when I arrived and when I left, carrying all my gear. And, at the end of that long day of teaching, there was no swelling, no bruising, no discomfort. Just the power of the mind, helping the body to heal itself.

Healing End-Stage Lymphoma with Macrobiotics My innards embraced the nourishing whole food, and I started to discover energy I had not felt in years. I went on to recover completely.

Help Shift the Healthcare Paradigm.

Natural medicine is safe, effective and affordable.

Learn from other people’s natural healing success at spiritofchange.org/journal Add your story to this live database of natural healing at editor@spiritofchange.org

By Judy MacKenney

I

was a fashion designer and homemaker in New England and was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma that developed to stage IV within a few weeks. The tumor was situated on the right side of my abdomen, the lymph nodes on the left side of my neck were swollen, and cancer cells were found in my bone marrow. I agreed to take oral chemotherapy, but the side effects were devastating. My body swelled up and contorted, I developed ulcers, and my stomach burned with pain. Jackie Kennedy Onassis had died from a similar type of cancer, and I did not want to experience her fate.

Journal of Natural Healing

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 53

Journal of Natural Healing Continued from page 53

While attending a support group for exceptional cancer patients inspired by Dr. Bernie Siegel, I came across The Cancer Prevention Diet by Michio Kushi and started macrobiotics. The book promoted a plant-based way of eating centered on whole cereal grains, beans and bean products such as tofu and tempeh, a medley of vegetables from land and sea, and fruits, nuts, seeds, and a small volume of natural sweeteners such as brown rice syrup and barley malt.

I also took several medicinal preparations, including Sweet Vegetable Drink that stabilized my blood sugar levels and eliminated my ulcers. Another special drink, Ume-ShoKuzu (made from umeboshi plums, shoyu and kuzu root), strengthened my digestion and restored my energy. Compresses dissolved stagnation and stimulated blood circulation and energy flow.

After two weeks, I felt noticeable improvement. The pain in my joints and feet disappeared. My innards embraced the nourishing whole food, and I started to discover energy I had not felt in years. I was also experiencing peaceful sleep at last. I went on to recover completely. I have been cancer-free for the last twenty-five years and am pleased to be a featured speaker at the Macrobiotic Conference held at Eastover Resort this summer in Beckett, MA, July 5-Aug 30, 2017.

Melting Defense Mechanisms Through Ceremony If ceremony healed my wayward attitude to bureaucratic paperwork it can heal anything.

By William Bloom

T

his year I was part of a significant breakthrough when Ofqual, the government body, accredited their first UK qualification in spirituality. Yes, this is a success, but it was a process that took me right out of my comfort zone.

Throughout my life I have been disturbed, nervy and irritable when I have had to order my thinking so as to fit into other people’s boxes. I am okay with simple forms, but I am not okay with anything longer or more complex.

Ask me to place a strategic business plan into a sequence of boxes in which you have to distinguish, for example, between “aims,” “purposes” and “outcomes” — and I react like a nervous horse being saddled for the first time. I also have a challenge looking at databases and excel sheets. My vision blurs and I get a headache.

For decades, therefore, I have avoided this kind of paperwork, but for the Ofqual accreditation I was faced with months of it. It was a recipe for angry depression.

I knew I had to do something about this and self-manage my process. So, for the first time in decades, before beginning work, I used ceremony. Before opening my computer I lit a candle, put on background music, meditated and said a prayer asking for help. This soothed me and I was then able to do the form filling without freaking out.

This went on for months, as versions of the course application and policies were edited and revised. Slowly, gradually, I became comfortable with the process. After a while I no longer needed the ceremony and could just sit quietly with the paperwork, even enjoying it.

During this period I also had a moment of uncomfortable personal insight. I have a background in special educational needs and I realized that I had a cognitive challenge related to my learning style. My brain is not wired easily to manage visually boxed information. It’s a very minor form of dyslexia. Plus I have tendency towards impatience.

The insight was uncomfortable because I then looked back at my life and noticed how often I had disrespected people who are comfortable with boxed information, detailed specifications and databases. I had at times, under the guise of humor, even been rude and disruptive. Now many years on and after reflection I could understand that my negative behavior was a defense mechanism protecting me from my own low self-esteem because I could not do that kind of work myself. Argh!

54 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

I squirmed because I well knew that this kind of behavior is typical of people with undiagnosed learning difficulties. As well as managing their learning challenge, they also have to manage their psychological backstory and compensatory defensiveness. I knew about all this in others but had not seen it in myself.

Fortunately I could take all of this into my daily practice of meditation, compassionate awareness and healing. And of course I have prayed for forgiveness. We all have our histories and challenges. Being open about them can really support us in the highest possible way.

I now embrace administrative paperwork. My defensive negative behavior has been brought into the light and healed. These are good outcomes. More love, more awareness. But is there a more general and useful lesson that can be gleaned from my process?

I think there is.

Most of us know that whenever we are emotionally reactive we are meeting an opportunity for personal growth. But this growth requires intelligent care. We need to step back, take responsibility and put into action practical strategies for self-management, healing and transformation.

At the same time there is a mysterious and benevolent flow to life, so it is crucial too that we ask for and are open to receiving help. If it healed my wayward attitude to bureaucratic paperwork it can heal anything.

Plantar Fasciitis Foot Pain Relief Using Integrated Positional Therapy I hardly go a day without doing my stretches because I am so grateful for something that works so well to keep me walking and pain free — all without an office visit, filling out a form or even paying a dollar.

By Carol Bedrosian

F

ive years ago I sprained my right ankle walking Scruff, the dog, the evening before my daughter’s wedding rehearsal dinner. With much icing and resting and elevating and Reiki over the next 36 hours, I was even able to walk down the aisle in my fancy, strappy, mother-of-the-bride sandals. But the full swelling never really went down and I continued to experience weakness in that ankle and developed a sharp tearing pain in my arch.

A year later, I sprained the other ankle, again walking Scruff, and wearing the same favorite, most comfortable pair of Crocs all weather plastic clogs. In both sprains, it was the shoe’s rounded sole design that allowed my foot to roll under when stepping on an uneven sidewalk, violently twisting my ankle along with it. Reluctantly, I recycled the Crocs that day.

I’m fairly certain that the initial weakness in my right ankle caused me to over-rely and weaken my left ankle, ultimately resulting in its own injury. As time passed, I noticed a greater variety of twinges, stiffness and swelling on both feet and ankles that seemed to come and go at will. Good walking days and bad ones. Feet hurt more, feet hurt less, but they never really felt good.

Having used acupuncturists as my primary care practitioners for the past 30 years, my acupuncturist and I worked with various treatments to alleviate the pain and reduce swelling, resulting in only isolated successes. As a 20-year yoga student, I asked my yoga teacher for exercises to help strengthen my feet and ankles, however, I admit that I did not do them earnestly. The pain seemed bigger than something exercises could help and I lost interest.

Since some were poses we did fairly routinely in class once a week, perhaps I also thought that was enough.

But the pain in my feet continued to worsen and became a constant companion. The ripping pain in my right arch often prevented me from going places that involved even a little extra walking. However, there was no way I could resist the call of the warm, sunny

beach in Truro with my 1-year-old granddaughter on it! As we were leaving the beach, I remember climbing barefoot up the very steep and very hot sand dune, wondering if my feet were going to make it. It was a big stretch, in more ways than one. It wasn’t until the next morning that I realized the searing pain in my right arch had inexplicably vanished.

Was it the heat of the sand? The vertical stretch on the dune?

At least it was gone, but far from forgotten. Before long, other pains, stiffness and swelling in both feet and ankles replaced the instep’s insistent voice, “Help! We need attention!”

Only in my mid-fifties, I worried this was the start of feet problems for the rest of my life.

Then in April 2016, I attended Marilyn Taylor’s monthly Wellness Roundtable holistic networking meeting in Northborough, MA, and heard two local practitioners speak about therapeutic stretching. Even with my sore feet, I wasn’t particularly interested in stretch therapy at the time, but both Pat Lebau’s presentation on Integrated Positional Therapy and Judy Malcolm’s follow-up with Fascial Stretch Therapy ignited wonder and fascination for me. How could something as simple as stretching relieve excruciating pain?

Two weeks later I found out. It was Sunday afternoon and sudden debilitating pain struck my right heel, preventing me from walking or even flexing my foot. While I had learned to live with foot and ankle pain for the past five years by walking gingerly, and no running or jumping, I couldn’t live with this pain, so I hobbled over to my desk to research my symptoms online.

Oh! So this is plantar fasciitis, which up until now had just been a condition with a name I couldn’t pronounce. Everything I read online told me to flex my toes up against a wall or flat surface to stretch out the plantar fascia along the bottom of my foot, which I dutifully performed without relief.

Pat Lebau from the Wellness Roundtable popped into my mind so I emailed her for some advice. As fortune would have it, she emailed right back and instructed me, above all, not to stretch my toes upward. Curl them under. This helps slacken the plantar fascial muscle, which is already overstretched and the cause of the pain in the first place. Very quickly the pain subsided to the point where I could at least walk on the foot. I scheduled a full Integrated Positional Therapy session with Pat for the next morning, and continued curling my toes under for instant, though temporary, relief from the pain.

During my IPT session, Pat first assessed the way I held my body and moved, asked lots of questions and then had me hop up on the massage table for the work. Very gently and completely painlessly she stretched and moved my body into precise positions to relieve pain. Even very minute repositioning of a muscle could mean the difference between feeling pain and no pain; it was that precise. Pat worked on my entire body during the session, holding each pain relief pose for a minute or two, while focusing most intensely on my feet, legs and hips. When I blissfully stepped off the table and onto the floor, my feet and legs were so light and pain free, I felt like I was floating.

While Pat sent me home with a protocol of five stretching exercises I should do at least once daily — just a seven-minute regimen — my feet, ankles and legs felt so good I hardly even gave the stretches another thought. All of the stretches were extremely simple, and even felt good, such as windshield washer feet: Lie on your stomach, feet up in the air and wave them side to side like windshield wipers. Your feet will instantly be relieved of pain and you even get a gentle internal organ massage on the front of your body. Or try sitting on your feet: Kneel on a rug or pad and gently lower your bottom towards your heels with the tops of your feet flat on the floor (plantar fascia slackening position). Place as much padding or pillows under your bottom so you can comfortably sit on your heels, making sure you are adjusted high enough so your knees or feet feel no pain. Sit and breathe for at least one minute.

Despite the gradual return of daily pain in both feet and ankles, I was reluctant to add yet another caretaking step to my day, and only occasionally made half-hearted attempts to do the stretches. Within a month, I was calling Pat for an emergency session to relieve serious pain issues again and resolved to do the exercises daily. Once again, her therapeutic touch relieved my pain and I promptly forgot all about the home stretching.

Not long after, Pat sponsored a local lecture and yoga class with Integrated Positional Therapy founder Lee Albert, NMT. Lee is a highly popular neuromuscular therapist and yoga instructor at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in Lenox, MA, and for good reason.

Having lived through pain personally and worked with it professionally for decades, Lee shares his wisdom about pain relief as readily as common sense. It’s easy to learn something new when it works on the spot. I learned so much during Lee’s presentation about pain, I couldn’t wait to get home and start doing my daily stretches.

And it worked. For the past six months my feet and ankles have been pain free. I hardly go a day without doing my stretches because I am so grateful for something that works so well to keep me walking and pain free — all without an office visit, filling out a form

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 55

Journal of Natural Healing Continued from page 55

or even paying a dollar. Lee emphasizes doing the stretches at least once daily (preferably more), holding each pose at least 30 seconds to a minute (since a stretch is not very effective under 30 seconds), and breathing deeply down into the belly throughout each stretch.

Deep belly breathing floods the internal organs with prana (life force) while carrying waste out of the body through exhalation. For a multi-tasker like me, giving myself something productive to do (deep breathe) during the whole impossibly long minute I’m standing there holding each stretch is an added bonus and motivation.

As an Aquarian, a sign supposedly vulnerable to weakness in the ankles, I once thought I might be resigned to an early unwelcome fate, but my IPT stretches confirm that my health is grounded firmly on my own two feet.

Victory Over Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Through Reverse Therapy My symptoms were the result of a chronic over-firing of the sympathetic nervous system, caused by my refusal to even hear my inner voice, a voice that had been drowned out for years by rules and roles I made myself live by.

By Susan Sullivan

I

n retrospect, I think that the first signs of my chronic fatigue syndrome began in my first pregnancy, when I was 34, but they were so episodic and mysterious I didn’t think of them as part of a larger picture. I only began to realize that something was seriously going wrong with me when I caught a virus on my 45th birthday in the fall of 2009, a virus with an inexplicably tenacious cough and deep fatigue that I could not shake, not with rest, supplements, antibiotics, Traditional Chinese Medicine, or acupuncture treatments.

Gradually and with a change of the seasons, I finally began to feel more or less recovered by the following summer. Over the next five years, I played out a cycle of recovery and relapse, crashing when I would push myself to do as much as I used to be able to do, then recovering eventually but to a slightly lower level of functioning, all the while adding more and more symptoms and dysfunction to my story of what was going wrong with me.

My symptoms started out as a recurrent cough and unholy fatigue and later expanded to include bouts of digestive upset, GERD-type reflux, recurrent vertigo, hyperventilating in my sleep, tachycardia, palpitations, skipped beats, exercise induced angina, a diagnosed candida overgrowth, severe rosacea, blepharitis, clinically low vitamin D, and massive brain fog and other cognitive impairments.

Finally, unrelenting fatigue, brainfog, and autonomic dysfunction hit me at the end of 2014, leaving me bedbound, unable to even sit up without my heart racing. A shuffle to the bathroom became an anaerobic workout laced with the fear of low-blood-pressure-caused white-outs. I needed to lie down twice on my way up a single flight of stairs, and watching a TV show or having a conversation for more than 15 or 20 minutes left me physically exhausted and unable to think clearly for hours.

I had gone from being a constantly busy, active, do-everything-myself-and-do-it-thehard-way person, to a completely helpless, bedbound, terrified shell of my former self, where suicide seemed the only way out and the emotional needs of my family the only thing preventing me from doing it. That and the complete inability to line up the means of self-annihilation. I don’t know what was more stunning — that I could fall to such a low level of functioning, or that I could recover so quickly, once I finally found the right template for understanding what was happening to me and why.

Over the course of the five years of my decline, I tried many therapies and regimens.

After exploring what little my HMO doctors had to offer me (this ranged from a dismissive shrug to a battery of tests which ruled out all the major diseases and conditions that feature extreme fatigue and/or facial rashes) I explored acupuncture, naturopathy, holistic medicine and integrative medicine. None of them provided more than a short-lived and minor improvement, followed by an eventual crash to a lower level of functioning. Increas-

56 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

ingly severe dietary restrictions, vast quantities and varieties of supplements, B-12 shots, prescription-strength vitamin D, genetic testing for hypothetical metabolism-undermining mutations, Buteyko breathwork, strictly enforced rest, restorative yoga postures, meditation — nothing could provide any sustained improvement.

It was my integrative physician’s baffled observation (made via e-mail because I was afraid the effort of leaving the house would trigger another crash to an even lower level of functioning) that I ought to be getting better because I was doing absolutely everything right, that marked the turning point for me. In a hail-Mary-pass sort of way, he suggested a book called The Last Best Cure about the documented improvements that mind-body approaches had on chronic illnesses and pain.

Something about his suggestion, or perhaps the utterly miserable depths to which I had descended, freed me from what felt like a years-long trance — a fiercely clutched belief that what was wrong with me was entirely physical, couldn’t possibly have its roots in any mind-body connection. For someone who had early on embraced yoga and meditation as effective practices to help me cope with a stressful journalism career and later, the demands of motherhood, I was bafflingly unwilling to consider any explanation or cure for my chronic fatigue that involved a mind-body cause. I was so in thrall to the analytical part of my mind, and it was so certain that it could research and analyze its way to a cure (not to mention its vehement refusal to believe that it was the actual cause of the entire health crisis), that I was unable to believe the recovery stories I read that involved cognitive therapies, even though I ran across dozens and dozens of them in my endless search for a medical therapy or a supplement that would help me get better. I credited instead the fatalistic belief of the CFS/ME [myalgic encephalomyelitis] community that one could never really recovery from CFS, but could at best work towards symptom management, and that all cognitive therapies were fraudulent, insulting and a waste of money and time.

In retrospect, I am truly gobsmacked that one part of my intelligence was able to so completely hijack my thinking and for so long. The part of my brain that did my thinking, planning, and worrying had for decades run me ragged, setting up hoops and obstacles for me to jump. It insisted I had to do things perfectly, the hard way. To always extend myself, regardless of whether I was even asked directly to do something. To never say no to others.

To save the planet with every decision I made. To be the perfect mother, wife, and daughter.

It insisted that I fear failure and imperfection so much that I could never risk being truly creative. It told me I should be endlessly frugal and self-denying.

This hectoring, perfectionistic, fear-driven part of my brain had so completely taken over my life that I was blinded to its very existence and to the shattering effect it was having on my happiness, creativity, and peace. It became so dominant, it drowned out my deeper inner voice so thoroughly, that I had no idea that there was any other part of my intelligence that I could access. I had no idea what I wanted to do any more or what might make me happy. I simply waited for other people to ask me to do things for them or with them.

This overdeveloped frontal cortex — the part of the brain that made me so smart, so competent, such a good multi-tasker and planner — had eventually created so many rules and so much worry and outright fear, that I could no longer feel joy, creativity, spontaneity or happiness. It spun me around in a dizzying teacup ride of over-thinking, catastrophizing, and other cognitive errors that were intended to protect me from harm or loss of esteem but instead set me up for a chronic triggering of my fight-or-flight response that went on for so long that I exhausted and disregulated my endocrine systems to the point that I was completely incapacitated.

Once I was willing to consider that a mind-body approach might help, I suddenly remembered the dozens of CFS recovery stories I’d uncovered over the years, stories that had sounded crackpot to me at the time, or too mysterious to be truly helpful. There were indeed stories of CFS or ME sufferers who had changed their lives dramatically — leaving a terrible job or a deeply-wrong-feeling marriage — and had crawled out of the abyss of fatigue and sickness to become totally different people, energetic and fully functional again.

People who had literally dragged themselves to yoga classes until they regained enough strength to become yoga teachers themselves. There were also a number of testimonials from people who had pursued Mickel Therapy and Reverse Therapy, and something secretive called Lightning Process that was considered to be complete hocus pocus in the online CFS community. But these were, in fact, the only stories I’d ever heard that featured a full

recovery from chronic fatigue syndrome.

In my desperation and nascent hopefulness about the power of the mind-body connection, I decided to try one of the programs that had the clearest and most-rational sounding testimonials — Reverse Therapy. I contacted a practitioner in England, a former nurse named Lyn White, who had herself succumbed to severe ME and then recovered via Reverse Therapy and retrained as a recovery coach. We had a half-dozen coaching sessions lasting an hour and a half each, via Skype, over the course of five months.

As soon as I made my first appointment with her, she sent me an e-book on Reverse Therapy written by the psychologist who created the program, John Eaton. I devoured it in the week before that first session. Within a couple of days of reading it, I was able to get out of bed and sit upright for several hours during the day. By the end of a week, I had left the house for a sightseeing drive (courtesy of my patient and very supportive husband), a short walk at a county park, and a delicious plate of French fries at a diner.

My recovery seemed stunningly rapid to me, though it did take me almost a year to feel that the disregulation caused by the chronic over-firing of my fight or flight response had subsided completely. I have written out a handful of long and detailed blog posts with the specifics of my decline and recovery via Reverse Therapy on a blog for others to find (mychronicfatiguerecovery.wordpress.com.)

But in a nutshell, I needed to understand that my symptoms were, in fact, ignored communications from a deeper part of myself about how I wanted to be in the world. They were the result of a chronic over-firing of the sympathetic nervous system, caused by my refusal to even hear my inner voice, a voice that had been drowned out for years and years by the part of my mind that created and enforced the rules and roles I made myself live by.

The basic process of recovering via Reverse Therapy was to reconnect with what might make me happy and start doing it, and to listen when a symptom flared, to get quiet and ask myself through a body-centered meditation what deeper message I was ignoring in that moment. It was a simple process, but not easy. Over the months of my recovery, I got better and better at understanding myself — how I would push myself or deny myself without ever seeing clearly what I was doing, that I didn’t have to live this way under all these onerous rules. I reconnected with what made me happy by doing as many things as I could think of that were fun, creative, satisfying, joy-sparking.

I have returned to full functioning. I walk 2-3 miles a day most days. I sleep well and I rarely need to rest or nap. In March, it will be two years since I first started my Reverse Therapy recovery. I have gone through several major life crises since then, including the unexpected death of my father, a significant loss of income and major dental trauma. I got through them all, not only without a relapse, but growing in my own self-realization and becoming even more happy, open, curious, connected, energetic, and in touch with my heart’s desires.

Send your personal natural healing account to editor@ spiritofchange.org. Read more stories at spiritofchange.org/ journal. www.spiritofchange.org

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A CRITICAL THINKERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GUIDE TO

ZIKA

By Ann Tomoko Rosen, LAc

58 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Z

IKA will most certainly be remembered as the

pandemic of 2016, but like many pandemics of recent memory (think swine flu, avian flu, Ebola), it failed to live up to the inflated numbers and

devastating statistics that the Centers for Disease Control ceaselessly projected through mainstream and social media.

As a narrative, the Zika crisis of 2016 rivaled Hollywood blockbusters with its global threats and dramatic turns, but as our villain, the Zika threat remained elusive. As the year came to a close it seemed that perhaps a better detective and less of a S.W.A.T. team might help us navigate the medical mysteries that plague us in the 21st century.

Zika Crisis: A Year in Review In January 2016, health authorities in Brazil reported an explosion of microcephaly cases and noted that they coincided with a Zika outbreak. In February, the WHO declared an international health emergency prompting President Obama to ask Congress for $1.9 billion to stop the spread of Zika. Two months later, a “scientific consensus” was reached by the CDC, WHO and National Institutes of Health (NIH), confirming Zika as the culprit for these microcephaly cases. In May, the House of Representatives introduced the Zika Vector Control Act to loosen restrictions on toxic pesticides (linked to birth defects) so we could manage the coming Zika storm.

Then, over the summer, scientists quietly admitted that other factors may have contributed to the cluster of microcephaly cases in Brazil as numbers of microcephaly cases failed to rise in other Zika-stricken countries, but the scientific community forged ahead with multi-million dollar plans to kill mosquitoes and make vaccines. By November, the WHO acknowledged that the Zika virus was no longer an international emergency, but rather another infectious disease to be managed globally. To that end, a vaccine is scheduled to come out in 2018 and Oxitec will soon be releasing its GMO mosquitoes in the Florida keys.

Fast and Furious The long-term solutions for what the WHO has now determined to be “an ongoing threat” have been in the works for some time now. In fact, the race for a “cure” began before most of us had even heard of Zika. On January 29, 2016, just days after the Zika story first made headlines, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was reassuring the public, saying, “We are already on our way on the first steps to developing a vaccine.”1 In fact, the World Health Organization had set up an incident control center in May of 2014 to track the virus, six months before a November meeting that addressed concerns about a microcephaly spike.

It is likely that a program for managing Zika will precede a comprehensive understanding of the true cause of an alarming cluster of microcephaly cases in Northeastern Brazil. In November, the NIH announced that a vaccine could be rushed to the market as early as 2018 and, according to the WHO, there are 26 other experimental Zika vaccines in development, but many of us are still trying to understand why a virus that has been around since 1947 and was previously considered one of the milder mosquito-borne illnesses is now being linked to serious health problems.

We have reason to be concerned about this given the cast of characters in the Zika narrative. The CDC, WHO and NIH have yet to explore other suspects in the medical mystery behind Brazil’s microcephaly cases and, to date, their resources have gone primarily towards a global Zika awareness campaign, research to confirm links between Zika and a growing list symptoms, data collection to track Zika outbreaks, methods of testing for Zika, and, of course, vaccines. This is a very fortunate coincidence for the pharmaceutical industry, producers of toxic pesticides, and synthetic mosquito-maker, Oxitec, who are among the www.spiritofchange.org

other suspects in Brazil’s mysterious microcephaly spike.

They are all poised to make billions from the Zika crisis and, in our fear, we are speeding up clinical trials and bypassing environmental laws and precautionary measures that were put in place to protect our health, safety and ecosystem, to make it easier for big corporations to expedite “solutions.” In sharp contrast, these corporate interests and the government organizations that are working with them, would face some dire financial consequences if it were determined that any of them had a role in exacerbating Brazil’s health problems.

The Birth of a “Crisis” On January 20, 2016, Brazil’s health ministry reported 3,893 cases of microcephaly had been recorded since the start of 2015. The greatest number of cases (1,306, or about 35%) came out of Pernambuco. Mainstream media jumped on the story and some staggering statistics were soon reported. By February 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported 4,443 “suspected and confirmed” cases of microcephaly.

On January 29, 2016, The New York Times reported that the Zika virus was “spreading explosively” through the Americas, claiming that as many as four million people could be infected by the end of 2016. The story referred to Zika as a virus that “may cause birth defects” and then went on to note a sharp rise in cases of microcephaly in Brazil as Zika spread. But, even then, the “strong circumstantial link” seemed pretty flimsy: “The (Brazilian) Health Ministry said it had examined over 700 reported cases of microcephaly and found Zika in only six of the infants, though what that means exactly is unclear.”2 But Dr. Marcos Espinal, director of communicable diseases and health analysis at the Pan American Health Organization, considered the Zika virus “guilty until proven innocent.”3 The medical community followed suit and quickly incorporated Zika theories into its literature.

The NIH website added the following information to its Microcephaly page: “Some children with microcephaly will have normal intelligence and a head that will grow bigger, but they may track below the normal growth curves for head circumference. Some children may have only mild disability, while those with more severe cases may face significant learning disabilities, cognitive delays, or develop other neurological disorders. Many, if not most, cases of Zika microcephaly will be very severe, possibly requiring lifelong intensive care.” 4 The CDC also made immediate changes to the “Causes and Risk Factors” section of their Microcephaly page adding, “Researchers are studying the possible link between Zika virus infection and microcephaly.”5 And in less than four months, the CDC went from reporting a “possible connection” between a Zika virus outbreak and a surge in microcephaly cases to putting out press on April 16, 2016 concluding that Zika does in fact cause microcephaly,6 based on “rigorous weighing of evidence” as reported in the New England Journal of Medicine,7 despite the protests of multiple scientific organizations.

Based on that report, however, Zika earned its infamous reputation not by having the most conclusive evidence, but by incorporating both “presumed and confirmed” cases of Zika virus infections and giving a nod to “biological

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 59

A CRITICAL THINKER’S GUIDE TO ZIKA Continued from page 59

plausibility.” Incidentally, presumed cases can include people who merely recalled having a headache, fever, joint pain and/or conjunctivitis. In other words, there is no “mounting evidence,” unless we are willing to accept the conveniently low standards that have been applied exclusively to Zika virus research (relative to other speculated causes).

Inflated numbers early on also amplified Zika fears.

Most people still don’t realize that Brazil’s Health Ministry had implemented a “more case sensitive” definition of microcephaly to assist with “surveillance” of the emerging problem, changing the parameters from < 30.3cm (for full term females) and 30.7cm (full term males) to <33cm. This surveillance system, initiated in November 2015, was implemented both prospectively and with retrospective review of records dating back to January 2015, resulting in a significant overreporting of microcephaly cases.8 In February, 2016, the New York Times had some new numbers to report: “Of the cases examined so far, 404 have been confirmed as having microcephaly. Only 17 of them tested positive for the Zika virus ... Another 709 babies have been ruled out as having microcephaly ... underscoring the risks of false positives making the epidemic appear larger than it actually is. The remaining 3,670 cases are still being investigated.”9 Many of the suspected cases were based on women recalling Zika-type symptoms or coming from areas where alleged outbreaks had occurred. However, these symptoms (fever, rash, red eyes, muscle aches) are vague and can be reflective of many conditions, including other mosquito-borne illnesses common to the area that are more likely to cause symptoms. Subsequent stories frequently mentioned “presumed cases”, “traces of Zika” and “Zika-linked microcephaly,” but confirmed cases were few and far between.

Furthermore, the numbers did not stack up in other parts of the world where Zika has been prevalent. The New England Journal of Medicine published preliminary results from a study involving 12,000 pregnant women infected with Zika virus in Colombia showing zero cases of microcephaly.10 By the year’s end, 47 microcephaly cases were reported in the country with the secondlargest Zika outbreak. So it seems reasonable and responsible to consider other possible culprits in these microcephaly cases in Brazil. Here are some other theories that other groups and organizations have proposed:

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Sprayed Towns (PCST) and the Association for Collective Health (ACH) questioned the government’s claims that Zika was to blame for the birth defects coming out of Brazil. They pointed to the widespread use of an endocrine-disrupting larvicide, pyriproxyfen, in areas where the largest numbers of birth defects were reported.

Eighteen months prior to the surge of birth defects, the Brazilian Health Ministry injected pyriproxyfen into the reservoirs in order to prevent mosquito larvae

from growing in drinking water tanks. This was done throughout the state of Pernambuco, where 35% of Brazil’s microcephaly cases were reported.11 In October of 2012, Brazil also lifted its ban on the spraying of Imidacloprid, a neonicotinoid shown to cause skeletal malformations in animal studies.

VACCINES In October of 2014, Brazil’s Health Ministry launched an aggressive vaccination campaign, mandating that all pregnant women must receive the pertussiscontaining Tdap (tetanus, diptheria and pertussis) vaccine, called Boostrix. The label on the vaccine clearly states that “there are no adequate and well-controlled studies in pregnant women.”12 Despite this, the Brazilian government has vaccinated tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of pregnant women since the campaign began.

The pertussis vaccine has previously been linked to brain inflammation and neurological damage in infants. The Tdap vaccine contains thimerosal, aluminum adjuvants and polysorbate-80, which compromise the blood brain barrier and may allow toxins (and possibly viruses) to access the brain and nervous system.13 PBS’s “Frontline” featured an 18-year-old mother of a child recently diagnosed with microcephaly who, along with many other women in her community, believed that vaccinations were a likely culprit. She never had any symptoms of Zika virus, but did receive a monthly shot from her public health clinic throughout her pregnancy. According to this mother, “I don’t believe it’s a mosquito that causes (microcephaly). That’s an invention of the government… They’re pushing this story about the mosquitos because they’re worried about indemnity — they don’t want to have to pay everyone for the damage their vaccines are causing; it would be too expensive to tell the truth. So they say it’s mosquitos causing microcephaly.”14 GENETICALLY ENGINEERED MOSQUITOES British biotechnology firm, Oxitec, had been conducting experiments with genetically modified Aedes aegypti mosquitos in Brazil since 2011 and opened a mosquito facility in Piracicaba. These mosquitoes were designed to mate with wild female Aegypti mosquitoes (potential Zika carriers) that would produce larvae that could not survive to adulthood in the absence of tetracycline.

Hundreds of millions of these mosquitoes were released in Brazil in the hopes of reducing the mosquito population. However, as an internal Oxitec document reveals,15 even a small amount of tetracycline in the environment could result in a 15% survival rate of these self-destructing mosquitoes. Tetracycline is an antibiotic used in food animal productions and Brazil is ranked third in the world for its global antimicrobial consumption in food animal production. Since up to 75% of antibiotics are not absorbed in the body, they are later excreted as waste, providing GMO mosquitoes a potential means for survival. We do not yet know the repercussions of releasing those mosquitoes in nature, but we do know that Brazil is ground zero for this particular experiment.

Choosing Solutions from Suspected Causes Interestingly, when it comes to Zika, the suspected problems and the proposed solutions are eerily similar.

Throughout 2016, Oxitec both denied responsibility for the Zika outbreak and offered its mosquitoes as a potential remedy. In fact, in the same week that the Zika-microcephaly link was making headlines, Oxitec put out a press release boasting unprecedented success in suppressing the Zika, dengue and chikungunya carrying Aedes aegypti mosquito population in Brazil.16 However, the success of the their mosquito technology failed to prevent outbreaks of mosquito-borne disease.

In Februrary 2014, Jacobina, Brazil, one of the locations where Oxitec conducted research, experienced a dengue emergency.17 Brazil also experienced its first chikungunya and Zika outbreaks that year in the midst of Oxitec’s most extensive open release GMO mosquito trail. The company has met with resistance in its pursuit of clinical trials in the Florida Keys since 2011, but with Zika fears heightened, residents finally agreed in November to the limited release of the genetically modified mosquitoes.

Billions more will also be released in Brazil.

Pesticides and vaccines also share the dubious distinction of being both suspects and potential heroes in Brazil’s microcephaly narrative. Unfortunately, it may prove difficult to come to any definitive conclusion about the origins of the surge in birth defects in a developing country that is riddled with poverty, disease and environmental pollution. Much of the country’s population suffers from widespread vitamin A and zinc deficiency; both nutrients are required for healthy fetal development. The majority of women who gave birth to babies with microcephaly were young, single, black and poor. Taking this initial vulnerability into account, then adding toxic pesticides, the introduction of genetically modified mosquitoes, a mandatory vaccine campaign and outbreaks of Zika, dengue and chikungunya, it is easy to imagine how any number of toxic combinations may arise. Yet, mainstream media sources report that theories about these other possible links have been debunked due to lack of scientific evidence. Others argue that the jury is still very much out on this. What is especially troubling, then, is that the proposed solutions may be complicit in the spike in microcephaly cases and there is big money at stake.

Revisiting Numbers and Redefining Crisis In September, 2016, President Obama approved a $1.1 billion budget to address this crisis, but the proposed distribution of resources was based on the assumption that Zika remained the solitary problem. Meanwhile in Brazil, some new theories were emerging. When microcephaly cases failed to turn up in anticipated numbers throughout Zika-impacted countries, Fatima Marinho, director of the noncommunicable disease department at Brazil’s Ministry of Health, acknowledged, “We don’t believe that Zika is the only cause.”18 As late as July, 2016, 90% of Brazil’s 1,709 confirmed cases of microcephaly occurred in a relatively small www.spiritofchange.org

region in the northeast. Dr. Adriana Melo, who first reported an association between Zika and mircrocephaly has since raised the question of whether bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV), which causes serious birth defects in cattle, may play a role.

Other scientists suggest that co-infections with other mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue or chikungunya, could be contributing to birth defects. According to research from Imperial College London, previous exposure to the dengue virus may increase the potency of Zika infection.19 Professor Gavin Screaton, senior author of the research, said: “Although this work is at a very early stage, it suggests previous exposure to dengue virus may enhance Zika infection. This may be why the current outbreak has been so severe, and why it has been in areas where dengue is prevalent.”

The Zika virus is strikingly similar to the dengue virus, which has four different strains. They all belong to the Flaviviridae family. Research from the NIH’s Biomedical Research Centre suggests that, due to similarities in their genetic make-up, pre-existing dengue antibodies can amplify a Zika infection through a phenomenon called antibody-dependant enhancement (ADE). This same phenomenon explains why most people who get dengue fever have a mild first infection, but can experience severe, hemorrhagic symptoms with a second infection. Immunity from one strain of dengue does not protect someone from the other strains; instead antibody-dependent enhancement allows other strains to piggyback into the immune system undetected, leaving the body more vulnerable. This has plagued dengue vaccine efforts for decades, as vaccine antibodies can act like a silent initial infection, making way for a severe reaction if a person is exposed to a different strain in the future.

In September of 2014, vaccine developer Sanofi Pasteur also announced that it had conducted the final landmark efficacy study of its dengue vaccine candidate in dengue endemic areas in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Honduras and Puerto Rico,20 all significant sites of Zika outbreaks.

This is particularly relevant since a York University study suggests that vaccinating against dengue could cause additional Zika outbreaks.21 “We concluded that vaccination against dengue among humans can significantly boost Zika transmission among the population, and hence call for further study on integrated control measures on controlling dengue and Zika outbreaks,” says Professor Yanni Xiao, who was part of the research team. Clearly, this has some far-reaching implications as clinical trials go forward with both Zika and dengue vaccines and should be watched closely.22 Despite these possibilities, the CDC seems to have doubled down on Zika, and Big Pharma, Oxitec and pesticides producers are all heavily invested in the new long-term plan. About $400 million will go towards developing a vaccine and diagnostic tests and, not surprisingly, over a dozen pharmaceutical companies have vaccines in the works, some teaming up with the CDC, NIH and WHO. According to FiercePharma.com: “Analysts estimate a Zika vaccine could be a $1 billion opportunity, or more, because travelers from the U.S. and Europe would be able to pay a high price for protection.

In endemic areas, disease experts envision vaccination

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Continued on page 62 SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 61

A CRITICAL THINKER’S GUIDE TO ZIKA Continued from page 61

campaigns targeting girls before puberty, because of the virus’ links to birth defects. In boys, a vaccine could protect against future sexual transmission. Larger companies in the Zika vaccine R&D effort are Sanofi, GlaxoSmithKline and Takeda, which each have paired with U.S. government entities to advance their research.”23 Oxitec, which currently has a monopoly on geneticallymodified insects, has already shown itself to be somewhat ethically-challenged, having done its first field trial with this new technology in Grand Cayman amidst the island’s uninformed public in 2009. And new conflicts of interest are already surfacing as we develop a plan here.

In response to the strong resistance Florida residents have demonstrated with regards to GMO mosquitoes over the last five years, Oxitec’s parent company, Intrexon Corporation, launched the Florida Keys Safety Alliance, a political action committee “dedicated to informed decision-making on the use of genetically engineered mosquitoes to suppress the invasive mosquito that carries the Zika virus.”24 As part of this campaign, Intrexon hired one-time lobbyist, Stephen Vancore, and posted an ad in Craigslist, offering $15/hour for door-to-door canvassers to help with “an education awareness campaign”25 aimed at residents in Monroe County who were to vote on a non-binding referendum related to the use of genetically modified mosquitoes to suppress the mosquito population. In November, following months of pesticide spraying and aggressive fear campaign, Key residents voted in favor of the referendum.

Florida governor, Rick Scott, who signed an executive order in June allocating $26.2 million in state emergency funds to combat Zika, may also reap some personal benefits. He failed to disclose his wife’s multimilliondollar stake in Mosquito Control Services LLC, through a private investment firm she co-owns.26 The pesticide industry has also benefited from the Zika scare. The industry has been pushing for relaxed restrictions on pesticide use since 2011, when the EPA determined that pesticides should be treated as pollution under the Clean Water Act. In response it proposed the Reducing Regulatory Burdens Act, which never made it out of the Senate. But in May, the bill resurfaced as the “Zika Vector Control Act,” ostensibly to help fight the

potential spread of Zika virus.

However, the bill does nothing to facilitate emergency response with regards to pesticide use for combating Zika; the Clean Water Act permit already approved pesticides for mosquito control in emergency outbreak situations. “The reality is that the majority has been pushing this legislation for years under whatever name is convenient at the time,” claimed Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-CA) in a debate prior to the vote. “This bill has nothing to do with combating Zika.”27

Learning from the Past We may never know precisely what caused the unusual cluster of microcephaly cases that initiated what ultimately became the global health crisis of 2016, but there is a lot we can learn from reviewing some very inconvenient truths. Brazil is a country that has been riddled with health problems, many of which were rooted in environmental problems. In the years leading up to the Zika outbreaks, Brazil’s Health Ministry chose to welcome the assistance and intervention of vaccine developers, biotechnology companies and pesticide producers to combat mosquito-borne illness and pertussis. And in 2015, despite those efforts, Brazil experienced the world’s largest Zika outbreak, as well as outbreaks of chikungunya and dengue. Brazil also experienced an unusually high number of microcephaly cases. Despite the many solutions implemented by these organizations, Brazil’s health crisis remains and a new global problem has emerged.

Today, the same organizations and corporations have some very similar proposals for new problems they claim may devastate us. Perhaps we should be asking ourselves if we really want what Brazil got.

Ann Tomoko Rosen, LAc, is co-founder of the Center for Acupuncture and Herbal Medicine in Westfield, NJ, and an enthusiastic proponent of healing journeys that engage curiosity, critical thinking, empowerment and compassion. www.centerforacupuncture.com

We may never know precisely what caused the unusual cluster of microcephaly cases... but there is a lot we can learn from reviewing some very inconvenient truths.

62 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Footnotes nytimes.com/2016/01/29/health/zika-virus-spreading-explosively-in-americas-who-says.html 2 nytimes.com/2016/01/29/health/zika-virus-spreading-explosively-in-americas-who-says.html 3 npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/02/18/467138913/ did-a-pesticide-cause-microcephaly-in-brazilunlikely-say-experts 4 ninds.nih.gov/disorders/microcephaly/microcephaly.htm nytimes.com/2016/01/29/health/zika-virus-spreading-explosively-in-americas-who-says.html 5 CDC Concludes Zika Causes Microcephaly and Other Birth ... www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/s0413-zika-microcephaly.html 6 CDC Concludes Zika Causes Microcephaly and Other Birth ... www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2016/s0413-zika-microcephaly.html 7 nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsr1604338?query=featured_home& 8 Increase in Reported Prevalence of Microcephaly in Infants Born to Women Living in Areas with Confirmed Zika Virus Transmission During the First Trimester of Pregnancy — Brazil, 2015 Weekly / March 11, 2016 / 65(9);242–247 9 articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2016/02/16/ zika-virus.aspx 10 sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160624150813.htm 11 techtimes.com/articles/133548/20160214/monsanto-larvicide-not-zika-virus-true-cause-of-brazilsmicrocephaly-outbreak-doctors.htm 12 thevaccinereaction.org/2016/02/tdap-vaccinations-forall-pregnant-women-in-brazil-mandated-in-late-2014/ 13 naturalnews.com/043710_vaccines_toxins_blood_ brain_barrier.html 14 pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/as-brazil-confronts-zika-vaccine-rumors-shape-perceptions/ 15 libcloud.s3.amazonaws.com/93/de/e/986/MosquitoDocOriginal.pdf 16 oxitec.com/oxitec-vector-control-solution-in-brazil-attacking-source-of-zika-virus/ 17 genewatch.org/uploads/f03c6d66a9b354535738483c1c3d49e4/Oxitec_GWbrief_Mar15.pdf 18 washingtonpost.com/amphtml/world/the_americas/ scientists-are-bewildered-by-zikas-path-acrosslatinamerica/2016/10/25/5e3a992c-9614-11e6-9cae2a3574e296a6_story.html 19 imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/ newssummary/news_22-6-2016-19-15-52 pnas.org/ content/113/28/7852, 20 sanofipasteur.com/en/articles/sanofi-pasteur-s-dengue-vaccine-candidate-successfully-completes-finallandmark-phase-3-clinical-efficacy-study-in-latin-america.aspx 21 www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161031110854.htm 22 sciencemag.org/news/2014/09/dengue-vaccine-shows-promise-latin-america 23 fiercepharma.com/vaccines/bharat-biotech-poised-toenter-clinic-zika-vaccine-report-says 24 floridakeyssafety.org 25 flkeysnews.com/news/local/article98875267.html 26 floridabulldog.org/2016/08/gov-scotts-undisclosed-interest-in-zika-mosquito-control-company/ 27 huffingtonpost.com/entry/zika-pesticide-bill_ us_57447ddfe4b0613b512b535a 1

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 63

POETRY

This is it, Sugar

Hopefest

“This is it, sugar,” the doctor said in that endearing Southern way, looking wistfully at me from across the bed.

Everything was so white, White walls, white sheets, White johnny, Blowing up over her From the fan in the room.

I am relaxed, warm and still Nothing I need to do, just be

“This is it, sugar.”

I am 29 And I have never been in the room with death.

And here it is, and I am alone with my mother.

It felt holy and still.

I didn’t know what to do.

I knew I was there, the only one there, and there was something to be done.

Semi-comatose as she was, I knew she could hear me.

And I didn’t want her to feel alone during this big inevitable thing she was doing.

This death.

It was as if I was holding her in my hands And could carry her only so far And then would have to open my hands and let her go.

Wherever she was going.

Alone.

But I would walk with her As far as I could.

I combed her hair.

I thanked her.

So lacking In response to a lifetime of loving me.

But nothing felt like enough.

I was at a loss.

In loss.

“This is it, sugar.”

Thinking back, I wish I had done more.

I wish I had crawled into the bed with her And held her.

Why didn’t I do that?

Why didn’t I give her that?

I was 29.

She was my mother.

And she was dying.

It was so big.

My mother, my greatest and first love.

It took years for me to acknowledge The irreparable hole in my heart That was torn open In that moment, In that white room, In the holy stillness.

“This is it, sugar.”

– Pamela Bongas McIntyre

I am healing — love is inside me Protects me, surrounds me Let in life’s goodness, sweetness, possibility May dear and darling and, even dire acts of tender loving kindness given and received, raise our spirit Let go of yesterday’s shackles, locks Limitations and old identities: Fear, hurt, anxiety, anger.

Hope breaks their inner ice Into whispering springs, flowering flows All life born and reborn and reborn Grows and glows Hope is a yes to life A yes to a baby step forward And even the smallest victory At times hiding its smiling face Hope is the bold yes that opens gates and doors to yes Yes I can dream, I can be, I can feel all who I am, I can become, I can believe, I can do, I can make my self up.

Make myself new.

Revelation is the creator of love and love is pregnant with faith and faith is the mother of hope.

Let us be a hoping and healing community, Helping one another Hoping for each other Hope on the tip of our heart spirit Hope, hope, hope always Hope, hope, hope Nothing but.

– Richard Baydin

64 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

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Hans Christian King

Guided: Reclaiming the Intuitive Voice of Your Soul Enliven Books, New York, NY 2016

BOOK REVIEWS Thich Nhat Hanh

At Home in the World: Stories and Essential Teaching from a Monk’s Life Parallax Press, Berkeley, CA 2016

The compassion crisis infecting our nation is, unfortunately, not a new story. Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh has walked this path of turmoil, and with his hallmark simplicity, humor and kindness he shines a light to illumine the way in At Home in the World. Now ninety years old, Nhat Hanh’s life story is an inspiration. Born in Vietnam, he was ordained at sixteen as a novice monk in the Vietnamese Zen tradition, practicing being present in every moment and staying in full awareness. This mindfulness training couldn’t completely buffer him, though, when several countries, including the United States, no longer honored his passport during the escalation of the war in Vietnam because they believed his peace campaign was in opposition to their war against Communism. For lack of a transit visa, this soft-spoken monk was locked in a Seattle airport detention room, walls covered in felon Wanted posters, not allowed to speak to anyone for several hours before being escorted back to the airplane. Revered by Martin Luther King who nominated him for the Noble Peace Prize, Nhat Hanh wasn’t allowed back in South Vietnam even after the war was over. Nhat Hanh had come to tell the world of horrors happening in his homeland, trying to speak for the masses of unheard people of Vietnam. Having traveled to the U.S. intending to give only a three-month series of lectures, he was exiled for forty years, separated from his family, friends and co-workers.

At first Nhat Hanh was lonely, but his suffering ended when he discovered his true home was not a particular country or a place. Few of us, even if we’re lucky enough to have citizenship or a passport, feel truly comfortable, we may often feel like we don’t belong. Like Nhat Hanh, we can find our true home is the present moment. We can reach this true home with every step, with every breath, and we don’t need a ticket or to go through a security check. Just two minutes of mindful breathing connects us with our true home, Mother Earth. Though our fundamental need to belong hasn’t changed in Nhat Hanh’s ninety years, families have. In the past, children lived with grandparents, cousins, 66 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

By Gail Lord

aunts and uncles all under one roof. Now families are smaller and when there is trouble the whole family is affected. If parents are fighting there is often nowhere for a child to escape. The upset child, with no grandma or favorite uncle to run to, may go into the bathroom and lock the door just to be alone; but the heaviness in the house remains and the seed of suffering permeates the child. How can we keep that from happening? We can extend our family to include friends, the sky, the sun, trees, and birds. We can transform our own household into a safe and welcoming place by practicing smiling together, drinking tea together in mindfulness, and even ringing a bell to bring us back to the present moment, back to a place of belonging.

Nhat Hanh suggested a practice of mindful breathing to India’s Parliament to bring deep listening and loving speech to government sessions. Imagine if the current powers-that-be in Washington D.C. took sixty seconds to read out loud Nhat Hanh’s suggested text before each meeting: “Dear colleagues, the people who have elected us expect us to communicate with each other using kind, respectful speech and to listen deeply to each other before sharing our insights so that (the parliament) can make the best decisions for the benefit of the nation and the people.” Anytime a debate gets too heated, or there are insults among representatives, a bell could signal a request for a moment or two of mindful breathing so everyone could calm themselves down. Nhat Hanh’s teachings are as simple as they are profound, and have healed many wounds, including the wounds of war. We think of the persecuted as victims of war, but the attacking soldiers also suffer.

Nhat Hanh once reminded a veteran who had killed five children with poison sandwiches that many children, due to violence and poverty, need saving. Working in the present moment can heal the past. The veteran then devoted his life to helping children, and in the process helped heal his past.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s disciples love him so much they asked if they could build a stupa for his ashes when he dies. He told them not to waste the temple land, and also said he didn’t want to be put in a small pot! Better for his ashes to be scattered outside to help the trees grow. The disciples asked if they could include a plaque. Nhat Hanh said the plaque should read, “I’m not in here.”

He suggested a second plaque also be added, “I’m not out there either.” And in case people still didn’t understand, he said a third plaque could be added, “I may be found in your way of breathing and walking.”

You are not alone. Hans King, a direct-voice medium for over sixty years, knows you have helpers in the world of spirit to assist you. In Guided he shares how, with a little dedication, intention and training, you can hear from your guides directly. The channel to the other world is open 24/7, but no matter how intently you listen, all you’ll hear is static until you quiet your mind chatter.

Mind chatter is energy-depleting harassment that keeps us from our intuitive heart chakra. Quiet meditation is a lovely helpful practice, but sometimes it makes us feel more crazy then calm. To quell mind chatter, passionately repeat loudly whatever you’re saying inside your head. Do it until you feel the ridiculousness of the statements or until you burst out laughing.

Laughter changes the vibratory pattern around you. Make your own laughter be your mantra. It’s a great human connector and a great way to connect to those in spirit, too.

As little children we are deeply connected to the world of spirit, it’s where we came from and where we’re going home to.

Around age five or six we begin to lose that connection to our source as society, the education system, and the voice of other people and what they think of us drowns out our inner knowing. We come into this world carrying a birth suitcase filled with deep memory and soul knowledge of our life’s purpose. Misguided parents don’t realize this and often try to shape a child into whom they think the child should become. A young child’s comments and intuition needs to be taken seriously or his connection to guidance may begin to erode. Spirit guides may also back away since they won’t impose on anyone.

To keep a child connected to her inherent wisdom and nurture her intuition, starting around age three, and again at various stages, ask questions and video or voice record the child’s answers. “Who are you?”

“What have you come to do in this lifetime?” and “What can we do to help you?”

These questions, asked with respect and love, encourage ongoing connection to the child’s magnificent inner knowing and to the world of spirit.

Anna Brones

Hello, Bicycle: An Inspired Guide to the Two-Wheeled Life Ten Speed Press, Berkeley, CA 2016

Want to start a revolution? Hop on a bicycle. That’s what women of the late 1800s and early 1900s did. Using the newly created two-wheeled vehicles as a means to freedom, bicycles were essential in the women’s rights movement. Women’s independence increased as they traveled distances by bike to meet and socialize with other women. Fashion changed to accommodate biking, from long skirts to bloomers, and then to pants. Viewed by men as a new toy, women embraced bicycles

Jacqueline Freeman

Song of Increase: Listening to the Wisdom of Honeybees for Kinder Beekeeping and a Better World Sounds True, Bolder CO, 2016

Jacqueline Freeman is a bee whisperer. She listens, observes, and as a biodynamic farmer, creates supportive places for bees to live. In Song of Increase she reveals herself as a “relational beekeeper” and shares the direct teachings she receives from the bees. Bees don’t have big enough brains to do everything they do. Contrary to this scientific opinion, bees do it anyway, and they do it marvelously. Perhaps the hive’s shared consciousness makes the need for a larger brain unnecessary. Through unified intelligence bees measure and construct. Draftsman bees using their own bodies, hundreds latched arm to leg, measure height and

Henry Grayson, PhD

Your Power to Heal: Resolving Psychological Barriers to Your Physical Health Sounds True, Boulder CO 2017

You’ll be healthier if you can make your body listen to your mind. Or so we’ve been told. Your Power to Heal turns that thinking on its head; it’s actually your mind that should be listening to your body! Symptoms and sickness start with a message the body receives. Medical drugs and treatments don’t address the message; instead they work by covering over the cause. But to prevent illness and reduce stress you don’t want to “re-cover” the symptom, you want to dis-cover, or uncover, why the symptom is there in the first place! Uncovering the source, clearing it, and replacing it with something positive is what’s needed for healing. Whether the physical symptom is a headache, sniffles or a serious diagnosis, a dialogue with your body is the starting point for healing. To begin the conversation, self-assessment questionnaires help you locate subconscious beliefs and answer the overarching question “Why might I need this symptom now?” If you find your answer seems childish, it could signal an unfulfilled childhood need, while excitement or relief at an answer means you’re probably quite ready to replace being sick with an alternative. Not wanting to answer or blaming yourself most likely means your ego mind is blocking your healing. It’s also possible you’re not healing because staying sick has benefits. Remember, the thoughts you’re uncovering are subconscious, so you should never blame yourself for creating a symptom or being sick. By making them conscious you can bring them forth for healing. www.spiritofchange.org

as the sudden democratization of transportation. Like the early suffragettes, Hello, Bicycle celebrates the freedom, empowerment and fun of bike riding. With this guide you’ll learn how to select the appropriate bike for your needs, do basic maintenance, consider health and safety tips, and understand bike lanes and etiquette.

Confidently take a two-wheeled tour of a new city. Include the kids in family bike trips; it’s healthy exercise for everyone and a little planning keeps it fun. Once you get rolling you’ll find biking opportunities everywhere. Commute to work, or start an eco-friendly business, such as delivering produce or sweet treats from a bicycle mobile vending cart. Or volunteer to cart around books via bike like Los Angeles’ Feminist Library on Wheels. Whatever your reason for riding a two-wheeler, bicycling makes you an activist for a cleaner, healthier world. width and placement of a comb. The maidens who will construct the comb receive a mental picture at the start from the draftsman bees, complete with measurements and pattern. The build starts from either side, miraculously meeting exactly in the middle of the comb. Always willing to give one hundred percent, bees are amazing in what they do, and also in what they say. Their familiar buzzing is bee sing, and different songs have different purposes. The Territorial Song alerts there is need to defend the hive, while The Song of Assertion is the cry to battle. A mournful bee song of sadness and wailing tells a beekeeper, before even checking inside the hive, that the queen has died. The joyful Song of Increase is the sound of abundance; it’s the robust health song of the hive working together at full steam. It’s the celebratory song of a new egg-laying queen, the alchemist maidens turning nectar to honey, the house bees making and repairing wax, the expression of all the hive activity. The harmonies of the bee songs help keep the colonies in good health.

Sometime symptoms are unknowingly downloaded from parents or other early caretakers. Up to age two, the brain utilizes slower delta brain waves, which are like those of a person in a trance; as children we just take on whatever is there around us. We learn to walk and talk, but also may take on feelings of not being good enough or not being worthy. If you accept “everyone in my family gets this disease,” you know you’re dealing with tribal beliefs or parental downloads. Tribal mind keeps us thinking the source and solution of what ails us is not of our creation; it says, if only circumstances around me were different I’d be healthier, I’d be happier. We experience these core beliefs at a cellular level. To keep them from being triggered and causing illness we need to delete these downloads, actually remove them with consciousness and energy and replace them with new information.

Recognizing that everything is composed of subtle energies opens up a whole new level of healing not practiced by modern medicine.

We can work on the field of energy that surrounds the body, the energy meridians of the body, and the non-local mind. The non-local mind, beyond the skull or the brain, messages to the cells in our bodies each time we have a thought. Thought Field Therapy, which includes tapping, works on clearing blockages from the body’s energy system. The Emotional Freedom Technique, for clearing traumas, negative beliefs or downloads, also includes tapping. The Thymus rub, EFT step two, invites you to place your right open hand flat just below your collarbones (over your thymus gland) and rub your chest in a soothing clockwise circle, including over your heart, repeating aloud four statements (including “I deeply love and except myself even if I think I might not deserve to be free of this problem.”) This simple comforting exercise dispels barriers to clearing the root of your discomfort or symptom.

Rachel Blondel

Forgotten Ways for Modern Days: Kitchen Cures and Household Lore for a Natural Home and Garden Perigee, New York, NY 2015

Would you rather clean your home with a bowl of lemons on your counter or a stash of plastic bottles under your sink that are so toxic they can’t even be recycled? Forgotten Ways for Modern Days will inspire you to kick the chemical cleaning habit, treat coughs and colds naturally, and make a few crafty projects to use throughout your home and vegetable patch. If you’re already into natural home keeping, you’ll find new, old ideas to incorporate kitchen and garden ingredients to solve everyday problems.

In the laundry room sometimes you can get by with doing very little. In the case of fabric stains, speed and a soft towel is the first line of defense. By gently pressing on the stained area, most of the damage can often be lifted away.

Coffee stains get a treatment of glycerin and warm water, while blood stains go in cold, salty water before washing.

The fix for dingy whites is time-tested white vinegar, or a muslin bag filled with eggshells added to the wash cycle.

Eggshells are not only good in the wash, mixed with a little lemon juice, they’re great for cleaning glass vases, and make unique candles when filled with wax, a favorite fragrance and a wick. Food has been used to treat ills and chills since Hippocrates said, “let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

Taken three times a day, equal parts onion juice and honey will stave off a cold, while a spray of chopped garlic is an instant disinfectant when germs and bacteria in the home need banishing. Whether you’re curing what ails you, mixing up a fragrant peppermint shampoo, or stitching up a 1940s style harvest apron for an extra pair of hands in the garden, using things around the house produces less waste and brings simplicity into your home.

Gail Lord is a freelance writer living in Massachusetts. Please send book review copies to 51 North Street, Grafton, MA 01519 or email socbookreviewer@gmail.com

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 67

How to Live in Interesting Times A message from Vywamus, January 2017 | Channeled by Andrea Seiver Your Turbulent World Today: Wild Energies At Large

M

y friends, you are indeed living in interesting times. Politically and otherwise, the recent past has been most stressful for many of you. I’m not just referring to effects of the campaign and election in the United States and to other developments around the globe. They are just the tip of the iceberg. The U.S. election and the run-up to it, for example, are only a clear mirror for the pain, fear, and anger that you have all been feeling in a world full of upheaval and change. All of you are feeling pushed and pulled and battered by the turbulent energies around you, and are longing for a less insane world to live in.

When you look at your everyday world, it can be disheartening. You see an incredible number of events and crises around the globe that you haven’t found ways to effectively handle. And with the worldwide media, you’re more aware of all of these than ever before.

Many of you, even those of you who are evolving most rapidly, may be having a hard time.

For most of you, your immediate response to all this is that you are paralyzed or polarized.

Faced with the extent of your problems, some of you feel overwhelmed and helpless to cope, and so you may stop trying to understand or to take any action. You may be just hoping that it will all go away, or hoping for someone to rescue you. On the other hand, many of you feel the pull to oversimplify, to reduce many issues to manageable terms of black and white, and then to polarize into militant opposing camps. But so far, none of these ways is actually working.

A Better Prospect I’m writing this to offer you hope, support, and the broader perspective you need. And to offer some suggestions on how all of you may more easily navigate the turmoil in your dayto-day life.

First, I want to give you a heads up. Pay attention! What’s causing you so much stress, and may even seem to you to be disastrous, is actually a big boost for you. Recent events are giving you a real opportunity to see more clearly than ever before what needs change.

And you’re feeling stirred up, shaken out of your inertia, and moved to make that change.

Many men and women currently on the world stage are doing you a service by giving you a chance to see more clearly what’s going wrong, and to see the further extremes that taking certain paths may lead to. What they say and do is actually helping to speed up the breakdown of the old forms that no longer work. You’re spurred to look around for alternatives, for other possibilities of what could be. And that’s good. This is a time for all of you to look at these other possibilities, to look deeper into your hearts and see what you really care about, what you value most, what kind of world you want. And to find also in your hearts the passion and energy to work for that world.

Before you start to work, though, it will be helpful to have a wider perspective of what’s going on in your world. All this you’ve been going through is precisely what can be 68 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

expected when your current social, political, and economic systems have failed you. Times have changed, you yourselves have changed, and your old forms and ways of dealing with social, political, and economic issues no longer work as they used to. You’ve outgrown them and they no longer serve to promote your growth and general wellbeing. You feel a push toward change — and also a real resistance to change. And so, there is widespread dissatisfaction, and widespread unrest, fear and hostility.

This breakdown of your old forms and ways of doing things, and all the turbulence that accompanies it, is the rough beginning of a huge transition humanity is making. You’re at the beginning of a shift in human consciousness that will eventually lead to a more joyful and deeply fulfilling life on Earth for all of you. Still, even if you know that, this beginning stage is a rough time, where old forms are breaking down and you haven’t yet found new ones to replace them. So I and other guides at my level are here to help you get through this stage, and to offer you guidance on how to make the changes you need, and how to heal the divisiveness and the pain you’re inflicting on each other.

To begin with, in this turbulent time, we invite you to look at some of the patterns you have now — ways of thinking and feeling and ways of operating in your everyday world — which actually keep you from making changes for the better. Certain belief systems and world views you have serve to hold in place the old ways of doing things, and to prevent your seeing clearly which useful new forms are arising and need to be embraced.

Here’s one example: Most of you are brought up from birth to believe that you live in a world where “survival of the fittest,” “dog eat dog,” “every man for himself ” is the rule.

In this world, every individual is essentially separate from every other, and one person’s gain is another person’s loss. Or, if some of you band together, it may be that one tribe’s gain is another tribe’s loss. In any case, you believe that competition for resources, power, attention, and so on, is the natural order, is how the world works, is the reality. There are many examples around you that seem to confirm those beliefs, and you don’t even question them, do you?

In this world view, your success is currently measured by material wealth and power.

The more of these you have, the more of a success you are. But you must compete against others for them, or if you already have them, you must compete to keep them. And, you are always under pressure to be a good competitor, to win out over others, to move to the top. Yes, you may form alliances with others when doing so, but you are expected to discard these if at some point they might obstruct your (or your group’s) reaching the top. Yes, you may resist this pressure to compete, and make other values a priority in your life. But from the standpoint of this widespread belief system, if you do not then rise to material success, you will be looked at as second best.

This belief system of winner take all has led to the inevitable: You are set against each other in the upward struggle to reach the top, or near the top. Some of you do. The rest of you, who are not in the winners’ circle, are altogether disappointed and have a sense of failure. You may feel your government has failed you, or the economy has failed you,

or that somehow you yourself have failed. Things have not worked out as you were led to expect. And you may naturally feel powerless or frustrated, or angry, or fearful.

Well, beliefs aside, let’s look at the real situation. Theoretically anyone can reach the top, and you may have been encouraged to believe that you are one of those who can. But, do the numbers: In actuality, what happens in any competitive system is that there are a few winners and many losers. If you’re among the many who have not reached the top, you may be a talented, responsible, hardworking person and still feel left behind. This is not usually because of any fault of yours, but because in your system the top is not big enough.

An altogether new system is needed to replace the one you are using now.

Could there be a new form, where everyone could more easily share in the beauties and riches of your world, where, in a sense, everyone could win and be at the top? That can happen. It is no fantasy. You can create such a world. But for that to be, the old mindset based on competition and tribalism will no longer work. It will have to go.

Now, in your everyday world, this competitive winner take all model is only one of the underlying belief systems that shape your current ways of doing things, although it is a major one. I’ve used it as an example, and I encourage you to look deeper at this and many other social/political/economic forms in your society. Are they what you want?

You have always taken them for granted as the reality. They are one reality, certainly, but is that reality one you want? How might it be different? Now is the time to ask these questions. You are gradually moving into a new phase of your evolution in which all of you, and all of your systems, will be much changed. The changes will be up to you.

Of course, it’s likely that some of you nostalgically want to go back to the way you remember it used to be, and will fight hard to resist change and make the old systems work again. Go ahead and try if you feel you need to. But you will not succeed. Once a chicken grows to a certain size, it cracks the egg it came from and you can’t put it back. You can only leave it as it is — or, you can feed it and help it grow.

Your Personal Path I encourage you, don’t give up. There are things you can do, personally, and in conjunction with other likeminded people, to live with this present chaos, and find your own path through it. I offer you here some suggestions about how you can survive and move forward in these interesting times, and how you can even help grow the chicken.

Start from where you are. You have certain beliefs about what’s true and not true, and about what should or should not be done, and you probably have strong feelings to go with those beliefs. Respect the beliefs and feelings you have. Accept them and hold them all.

Your views, your anger, your fear, your pain, are all worthy of respect. Your hope, too, is worthy of respect. You need them all, to help you move forward.

So begin by accepting where you are, but then realize you must go beyond that, you must broaden your focus. You will get nowhere if you stay in a limited mindset. The problems you and other humans are facing cannot possibly be solved at the level where they have arisen. You have to get to another level to resolve them. The more you keep that in mind, the more quickly you’ll be able to move through this period of turbulence and upheaval.

Your own current ways of thinking, your beliefs, opinions, and emotions — accurate, interesting, and absorbing as they may be — are limiting to you, and are what keep you stuck in those persistent everyday problems. Luckily, your beliefs and emotions are not all there is to you. They’re only a small part of who you really are. There is much, much more to you, and if you dive down deeper, beyond the waves of opinion and emotion you experience every day, you can reach that fullness of all you really are, the deep aliveness that is the foundation of your very being. This deeper level is there in all of you, although not all of you are aware of it. Some of you are, and already go there regularly and consciously. Others of you have probably been there many times, whether you were aware of it or not.

You reach this level of yourself it in many ways. Sometimes it’s in meditation. Sometimes it’s in peak moments of great joy or understanding or accomplishment. Sometimes it’s when you find yourself caught up in creative work or art. Sometimes it’s at a time when you feel at one with nature. Sometimes it is even at a moment of great danger. Often it can be a bodily event that goes beyond your usual experience. And sometimes it is when you feel a sudden burst of love for someone dear to you. All these moments may be gateways into the deepest level of your being. And even if you can’t recall having any such moments, meditation can get you to this deep level of yourself.

Now, why am I recommending you make this excursion into the deeper level of your consciousness? Isn’t it just a detour from getting down to the nitty-gritty and dealing with your issues in a practical way at the everyday level? On the contrary. You cannot create new www.spiritofchange.org

forms or a new reality that lasts without going to this level of yourselves.

It is from here, from this deep level of creative energy, that every change in your dayto-day reality begins. The new forms and systems you need in your world will not come as a result of your scurrying around at the everyday mental/emotional levels to prop up or to rearrange and re-rig the old forms you have now, and fighting over which is the best. Rather, what you need will emerge from this deep level of your being, where all true creativity originates. And it is also from here that you will be able to generate the deep compassion, empathy and concern for each other that will help you act together to make the new forms actually work in your everyday physical reality.

Spend time here, even if you can only do so for five minutes a day. Here there is great power. Here you are connected with all other beings, including those who think as you do and even those whose beliefs seem incompatible with yours. Here, reach out to all of them. At this level you go beyond your differences and are able to understand and truly communicate with each other. Spend time here, opening your heart and mind. Spend time here allying your energies with those of all other humans, so that together you can send out your intention and your energies to create the world you want to live in. Doing this is crucial if you want lasting change for the better.

Working in the World: Forming the Future After working together with others at the deep level of yourself, go back to your dayto-day life in the material world, and bring this energy of your deeper self with you.

The flow of this deeper energy through you, as you go about your everyday life, has a powerful effect on everyone and everything around you — more powerful than you imagine. Who you are, at this deep level of yourself, is more powerful than anything you actually say or do, and it will help move you and others in the direction you need to go.

So keep that flow going.

Next, let yourself experience the world around you with new eyes. As you go about life in your everyday settings, take moments now and then to resist jumping immediately into your old patterns, your old ways of thinking and acting. Step back and notice these habitual ways you have of looking at and reacting to things. Then temporarily set them aside. Make space for something new to emerge. You are no strangers to this process.

Artists, musicians, scientists, healers, and others of you who create engage in this creative process all the time. Whatever new thing you’re creating, whether it’s a painting or a song or a political system, you have to get your mind and its usual patterns out of the way and make space. And then notice what emerges.

When you make this space, you’ll begin to see many new possibilities, possibilities for new political forms, for new economic structures, for new ways of relating to each other, and more. Keep an open mind, observe, let them emerge. You’ll find you’re asking yourself, “What if, instead of the way we do things now, we did ______?”

Notice which of the new possibilities you care more about, and are more excited about.

These will be the ones that fit best with your own life path and your own work in the world.

Commit some of your energies to playing with these new possibilities, trying them out, seeing whether they work and what can be done with them, shaping and reshaping them, critiquing and improving them. And while you’re doing this, notice which other people around you are on a similar path to yours. These are the people you can ally with to bring in the new forms, and to take concrete, practical steps in your everyday world, to create the changes you need.

As you work together in the world, do the obvious things, of course. Make use of even the old political forms (e.g., staying informed, voting, contacting your representatives in government, running for office, contributing time, energy and money, demonstrating, and other forms of activism). Find common ground with those opposing you when you can. Work to guide and educate others, or to oppose them, to limit their power if it seems harmful, and to support what you see as good in them — but always with your eye on the goal.

As best you can, work for rather than against. Let your passions and feelings fuel you to move forward, rather than let them blind you and bog you down. Keep a compassionate sense of humor. Don’t let yourself be distracted by getting involved in personal attacks.

Rather, move toward the new forms and systems you want, and keep that momentum going. This is all common sense.

At the same time, it’s essential to remember that the good new forms you want to foster can only take root if enough humans give them space and adopt them. You must eventually let go of polarizing, and ally with each other for this to come about. So while working steadily for what you believe in, do your best to keep an open heart for all other Continued on page 72 SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 69

Indivisible A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda Former Congressional staffers reveal best practices for making Congress listen

W

e wrote this guide because we believe that the coming years will see an unprecedented movement of Americans rising up across the country to protect our values, our neighbors, and ourselves. Our goal is to provide practical understanding of how your Members of Congress (MoCs) think, and how you can demonstrate to them the depth and power of the opposition to Donald Trump and Republican overreach. This is not a panacea, nor is it intended to stand alone. We strongly urge you to marry the strategy in this guide with a broader commitment to creating a more just society, building local power and addressing systemic injustice and racism.

Together, we have the power to resist — and we have the power to win.

We know this because we’ve seen it before. The authors of this guide are former congressional staffers who witnessed the rise of the Tea Party. We saw these activists take on a popular president with a mandate for change and a supermajority in Congress. We saw them organize locally and convince their own MoCs to reject President Obama’s agenda.

Their ideas were wrong, cruel, and tinged with racism — and they won. We believe that protecting our values, our neighbors, and ourselves will require mounting a similar resistance to the Trump agenda — but a resistance built on the values of inclusion, tolerance, and fairness.

Like us, you probably deeply disagree with the principles and positions of the Tea Party. But we can all learn from their success in influencing the national debate and the behavior of national policymakers.

THE TEA PARTY’S TWO KEY STRATEGIC CHOICES The Tea Party’s success came down to two critical strategic elements: 1. They were locally focused. The Tea Party started as an organic movement built on small local groups of dedicated conservatives. Yes, they received some support/coordination from above, but fundamentally all the hubbub was caused by a relatively small number of conservatives working together.

2. They were almost purely defensive. The Tea Party focused on saying NO to Members of Congress (MoCs) on their home turf. While the Tea Party activists were united by a core set of shared beliefs, they actively avoided developing their own policy agenda.

Instead, they had an extraordinary clarity of purpose, united in opposition to President Obama. They didn’t accept concessions and treated weak Republicans as traitors.

H Groups focused on local congressional representation. Tea Partiers primarily applied this defensive strategy by pressuring their own local MoCs. This meant demanding that their Representatives and Senators be their voice of opposition on Capitol Hill. At a tactical level, the Tea Party had several replicable practices, including: • • Showing up to the MoC’s town hall meetings and demanding answers • • Showing up to the MoC’s office and demanding a meeting • • Coordinating blanket calling of congressional offices at key moments

USING THESE LESSONS TO FIGHT THE TRUMP AGENDA For the next two years, Donald Trump and congressional Republicans will control the federal government. But they will depend on just about every MoC to actually get laws 70 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

passed. And those MoC care much more about getting reelected than they care about any specific issue. By adopting a defensive strategy that pressures MoCs, we can achieve the following goals: 1. Stall the Trump agenda by forcing them to redirect energy away from their priorities. Congressional offices have limited time and limited people. A day that they spend worrying about you is a day that they’re not ending Medicare, privatizing public schools, or preparing a Muslim registry.

2. Sap Representatives’ will to support or drive reactionary change. If you do this right, you will have an outsized impact. Every time your MoC signs on to a bill, takes a position, or makes a statement, a little part of his or her mind will be thinking: “How am I going to explain this to the angry constituents who keep showing up at my events and demanding answers?”

3. Reaffirm the illegitimacy of the Trump agenda. The hard truth is that Trump, McConnell, and Ryan will have the votes to cause some damage. But by objecting as loudly and powerfully as possible, and by centering the voices of those who are most affected by their agenda, you can ensure that people understand exactly how bad these laws are from the very start – priming the ground for the 2018 midterms and their repeal when Democrats retake power.

IT’S ALL ABOUT REELECTION, REELECTION, REELECTION To influence your own Member of Congress (MoC), you have to understand one thing: every House member runs for office every two years and every Senator runs for election every six years. Functionally speaking, MoCs are always either running for office or getting ready for their next election — a fact that shapes everything they do.

To be clear, this does not mean that your MoC is cynical and unprincipled. The vast majority of people in Congress believe in their ideals, and care deeply about representing their constituents and having a positive impact. But they also know that if they want to make change, they need to stay in office.

This constant reelection pressure means that MoCs are enormously sensitive to their image in the district or state, and will work very hard to avoid signs of public dissent or disapproval. What every MoC wants — regardless of party — is for his or her constituents to agree with the following narrative: “My MoC cares about me, shares my values, and is working hard for me.”

— What every MoC wants their constituents to think.

WHAT YOUR MoC IS THINKING To make this a bit more concrete and show where advocacy comes in, below are some examples of actions that a MoC might take and results that they do not want to see happen. Some MoCs will go to great lengths to avoid bad outcomes, even as far as changing their positions or public statements.

H MoC sends letter to Constituent and Constituent posts letter on social media saying it didn’t answer their questions or didn’t get answered for weeks/month, calls Congressman Bob unresponsive and untrustworthy

H MoC attends In-district event and local newspaper reports that protestors barraged Congresswoman Sara with questions about corruption in the infrastructure bill H MoC hosts town hall and local newspaper reports that angry constituents strongly objected to Congressman Bob’s support for privatizing Medicare.

H MoC votes on a bill and Congresswoman Sara’s phones are deluged with calls objecting to the bill. A group of constituents stage an event outside her district office and invite press to hear them talk about how the bill will personally hurt their famililes.

WHAT YOUR MoC CARES ABOUT When it comes to constituent interactions, MoCs care about things that make them look good, responsive, and hardworking to the people of their district.

In practice, that means that they care about some things very much, and other things very little.

WHAT YOUR MoC CARES A LOT ABOUT

WHAT YOUR MoC DOESN’T CARE MUCH ABOUT

Verified constituents from the district (or state for Senators)

People from outside the district (or state for Senators)

Advocacy that requires effort — the more effort, the more they care. Call, personal emails, and especially showing up in person in the district

Form letters, a Tweet, or Facebook comment (unless they generate widespread attention

Local press and editorials, maybe national press

Wonky D.C.-based news (depends on the MoC)

An interest group’s endorsement

Your thoughtful analysis of the proposed bill

Groups of constituents, locally famous individuals, or big individual campaign contributors

A single constituent

Concrete asks that entail a verifiable action — vote for a bill, make a public statement, etc.

General ideas about the world

A single ask in your communication — letter, email, phone call, office visit, etc

A laundry list of all the items you are concerned about

SHOULD I FORM A GROUP? If you’re reading this, you’re probably already part of a local network of people who want to stop the Trump agenda — even if it’s just your friends or a group on Facebook.

How can you take that energy to the next level, and start fighting locally to take the country back? This congressional map tool (https://www.govtrack.us/congress/members/map) shows the boundaries for your district. To help you make connections on your home turf, you can list your group or find one to join in the public directory of groups at www.indivisibleguide.com. You will also receive updates to help build your local congressional action plans. If you look around and can’t find a group working specifically on local action focused on your MoCs in your area, just start doing it! It’s not rocket science. You really just need two things: H Ten or so people (but even fewer is a fine start!) who are geographically nearby — ideally in the same congressional district H A commitment from those people to devote a couple hours per month

FOUR LOCAL ADVOCACY OPPORTUNITIES THAT ACTUALLY WORK Begin with these five steps to gather intel. Before anything else, take the following five steps to arm yourself with information necessary for all future advocacy activities.

1. Find your three MoCs, their official websites, and their office contact info at www. callmycongress.com. www.spiritofchange.org

2. Sign up on your MoCs’ website to receive regular email updates, invites to local events, and propaganda to understand what they’re saying. Every MoC has an e-newsletter.

3. Find out where your MoCs stands on the issues of the day — appointment of white supremacists, tax cuts for the rich, etc. Review their voting history at VoteSmart.org.

Research their biggest campaign contributors at OpenSecrets.org.

4. Set up a Google News Alert (http://www.google.com/alerts) — for example for “Rep. Bob Smith” — to receive an email whenever your MoC is in the news.

5. Research on Google News (https://news.google.com/news) what local reporters have written about your MoCs. Find and follow them on Twitter, and build relationships. Before you attend or plan an event, reach out and explain why your group is protesting and provide them background materials and a quote. Journalists on deadline — even those who might not agree with you — appreciate when you provide easy material for a story.

OPPORTUNITY 1 TOWN HALLS/LISTENING SESSIONS MoCs regularly hold local “Town Halls” or public listening sessions throughout their districts or state. Tea Partiers used these events to great effect — both to directly pressure their MoCs and to attract media to their cause.

H Find out when your MoC’s next public town hall event is. Sometimes these are announced well in advance, and sometimes they are “public” but only sent to select constituents through mailings shortly before the event. If you can’t find announcements online, call your MoC directly to find out. When you call, be friendly and say to the staffer, “Hi, I’m a constituent, and I’d like to know when his/her next town hall forum will be.” If they don’t know, ask to be added to the email list so that you get notified when they do.

H Don’t give up the mic until you’re satisfied with the answer. If you’ve asked a hostile question, a staffer will often try to limit your ability to follow up by taking the microphone back immediately after you finish speaking. They can’t do that if you keep a firm hold on the mic. No staffer in their right mind wants to look like they’re physically intimidating a constituent, so they will back off. If they object, then say politely but loudly: “I’m not finished. The MoC is dodging my question. Why are you trying to stop me from following up?”

H Reach out to media, during and after the town hall. If there’s media at the town hall, the people who asked questions should approach them afterwards and offer to speak about their concerns. When the event is over, you should engage local reporters on Twitter or by email and offer to provide an in-person account of what happened, as well as the video footage you collected.

OPPORTUNITY 2 OTHER LOCAL PUBLIC EVENTS In addition to town halls, MoCs regularly attend public events for other purposes — parades, infrastructure groundbreakings, etc. Like town halls, these are opportunities to get face time with the MoCs and make sure they’re hearing about your concerns, while simultaneously changing the news story that gets written. Tactics for these events may be similar to more traditional protests, where you’re trying to shift attention from the scheduled event to your own message.

H Identify, and try to speak with, reporters on the scene. Be polite, friendly, and stick to your message. For example, “We’re here to remind Congresswoman Sara that her constituents are opposed to Medicare cuts.” You may want to research in advance which local reporters cover MoCs or relevant beats, so that you know who to be looking for.

H Hold organizational hosts accountable. Often events such as these will be hosted by local businesses or non-partisan organizations — groups that don’t want controversy or to alienate the community. Reach out to them directly to express your concern that they are giving a platform to authoritarianism, racism, and corruption.

If they persist, use social media to express your disappointment. This will reduce the likelihood that these organizations will host the MoC in the future. MoCs depend on invitations like these to build ties and raise their visibility — so this matters to them.

Continued on page 72 SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 71

INTERESTING TIMES Continued from page 69

humans, even those who oppose you. No one of them is perfect, and no one of them is totally bad or worthless. Try not to label or categorize them, since there is so much more to each of you than what you ordinarily perceive in each other. If others are less conscious than you, or if they seem to be going wrong, if they seem even to be holding beliefs that to you are totally irrational, it is a part of their path and of their learning. And of your learning too, since they are in your life. Accept that.

Look at the people around you, then, put yourself in their shoes. See how they got there. And look deeper, see beyond their words and behavior. Call up your understanding and compassion both for those who agree with you and those who don’t. Notice always your deeper level of connection with them, even if you’re very much against what they’re saying and doing in the everyday world. At the deepest level, they’re human like you, and you can meet them at that level and let them into your heart, even if you’re not in agreement with their thinking, and even if you’re actively working against what they do. When you maintain your awareness of this deep connection while moving steadily forward toward what you believe in, the changes you all need will happen more easily.

You notice I’m not giving you here any stepby-step recipes for how to make good changes, how to examine and let go of old outmoded forms and how to find and nurture more useful ones.

That would be a pseudo solution, at the ego level.

Rather, I am suggesting a process that will help you go beyond ego, where all the problems are arising in the

INDIVISIBLE Continued from page 71

OPPORTUNITY 3: IN-OFFICE VISITS / SIT-INS Every MoC has at least one district office, and many MoCs have several spread through their district or state. These are public offices, open for anybody to visit — you don’t need an appointment. You can take advantage of this to stage a sort of impromptu town hall meeting by showing up with a small group. It is much harder for district or DC staff to turn away a group than a single constituent, even without an appointment.

H Politely, but firmly, ask to meet with the MoC directly. Staff will ask you to leave or at best “offer to take down your concerns.” Don’t settle for that. You want to speak with the MoC directly. If they are not in, ask when they will next be in. If the staffer doesn’t know, tell them you will wait until they find out. Sit politely in the lobby.

Note, on any given weekend, the MoC may or may not actually come to that district office.

H Meet with the staffer. Even if you are able to get a one-off meeting with the MoC, you are most often going to be meeting with their staff. In district, the best person to meet with is the District Director, or the head of the local district office you’re visiting. There are real advantages to building a relationship with these staff. In some cases, they may be more open to progressive ideas than the MoC him/herself, and having a good meeting with/building a relationship with a supportive staff member can be a good way to move your issue up the chain of command.

Follow these steps for a good staff meeting: 1. Have a specific “ask” — E.g. vote against X, cosponsor Y, publicly state Z, etc.

2. Leave staff with a brief write up of your issue, with your ask clearly stated.

3. Share a personal story of how you or someone in your group is personally impacted by the specific issue (health care, immigration, medicare, etc.).

4. Be polite — Yelling at the underpaid, overworked staffer won’t help your cause.

5. Be persistent — Get their business card and call/email them regularly; ask if the MoC has taken action on the issue.

72 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

first place, and into the depths of your own being, where you will find your real source of power and from which you can, together, create the kind of world you want to live in.

Following the suggestions I’ve offered here will not only help all of humanity to progress out of the turbulence in which you find yourselves now, it will help you personally to move along more peacefully and more steadily on your own spiritual path. Why do you think you are on Earth at this time and are facing these challenges? Did you really sign up for this? Well, yes. You did. Because it’s the perfect environment for you to grow and evolve your own consciousness. And at the same time, you will be helping humanity in general to also shift into a greater consciousness. So, take advantage. Take a deep breath. This is a challenge for you, yes, but it’s also a blessing and an opportunity. Be with it.

Finally, let me assure you that of course you are not alone. You have help, not only from other like-minded humans, but also from us guides at our level. If you choose to follow the process I’ve outlined in this article, we thank you and will give you extra help. But for all of you who are living in the world right now, know that we love you and are always ready with our guidance and support. This is a huge work you humans are undertaking at this time, no less than a shifting of who you are, and of how your world is to be.

You, personally, have been asked to be in the forefront, if you agree. Trust in us and trust your own deeper self to enliven and comfort you, to bring you support from others, and to help you move forward on the path you have chosen. Call on us at any time.

Andrea Seiver is a conscious channel for ascended master Vywamus, a teacher of higher consciousness, and offers classes in channeling and spiritual development, as well as private readings. She is the author of The Next Big Bang: The Explosion of Human Consciousness. Visit andreaseiver.com or call (617) 332-1541.

6. Advertise what you’re doing. Communicate on social media and with the local reporters you follow what is happening. Take and send pictures and videos with your group: “At Congresswoman Sara’s office with 10 other constituents to talk to her about privatizing Medicare. She refuses to meet with us and staff won’t tell us when she will come out. We’re waiting.”

OPPORTUNITY 4: MASS CALLS Mass office calling is a light lift, but it can actually have an impact. Tea Partiers regularly flooded congressional offices with calls at opportune moments, and MoCs noticed.

Find out who you’re talking to. In general, the staffer who answers the phone will be an intern, a staff assistant, or some other very junior staffer in the MoCs office. But you want to talk to the legislative staffer who covers the issue you’re calling about. There are two ways to go about doing this: H Ask to speak to the staffer who handles the issue (immigration, health care etc).

Junior staff are usually directed to not tell you who this is, and instead just take down your comment instead.

H On a different day, call and ask whoever answers the phone, “Hi, can you confirm the name of the staffer who covers [immigration/health care/etc]?” Staff will generally tell you the name. Say “thanks!” and hang up. Ask for the staffer by name when you call back next time.

This guide is intended as a work in progress, one that we hope to continue updating as the resistance takes shape. We are happy to offer support to anybody interested in building on the tactics outlined in this guide, and we hope that if you find it useful or put any of the tactics described into action, that you will let us know how it goes. Feel free to ping some of us on Twitter with questions, edits, recommendations, feedback/stories about what is helpful here. @IndivisibleTeam, @ezralevin, @angelrafpadilla, @texpat, @ Leahgreenb. Or email IndivisibleAgainstTrump@gmail.com.

Read or download the full text of Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda at indivisibleguide.com.

SPRING/SUMMER

CALENDAR MARCH 3/1 & 3/8 — RELEASE YOUR FEARS. 7-9pm.

Newton Continuing Education, Newton Center, MA. Join Judith Swack Ph.D., to learn Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), an effective way to quickly and reliably release irrational fears, phobias, and traumas.

For a list of future classes go to hblu.org.

3/4 — THE CONSTELLATION APPROACH SEMINAR with Jamy and Peter Faust, healers and facilitators. Any issue with family lineage, illness, career, relationship and more are set up through the lens of our approach to Family Constellations.

Seminar is experiential with multiple opportunities to participate and experience the family energy field, one's soul nature and ancestral healing. Saturday 9:30-6pm. Belmont/Waltham area. Registration/ info: www.ConstellationApproach.com/seminars.

3/9 — FREE LECTURE: READ AND PLAY MUSIC. World famous seminars (www. understandingofmusic.com) turns beginners into musicians, revitalizes and inspires even pro musicians. 7:30pm, 169 Mass Ave., Boston. Advance registration http://signup.understandingofmusic. com. Questions sallee@dlorien.com. (781) 599-1476 3/11 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Concord, MA. Libby Barnett, MSW. 38 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded.

Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 3/12.

3/15 — CLASS 1 OF MASTERING THIS LIFE: EVOLVING INTO YOUR LIGHT BODY. 6-7pm. This is class one in a series to bring yourself from living as a human being with a spirit to living as a spiritual self in a physical body. At The LoveLight Center, Wells, ME. (207) 216-9584. Visit LoveLightIlluminations.com.

3/17 — SPRING EQUINOX CELEBRATION: YOGA MEDITATION WITH SINGING BOWLS. Bask in healing vibrations to regain cleansing awareness during this midpoint when light and dark are in balance, balancing the light and dark within ourselves. Ebb’n Flow Yoga, Northborough, MA. (508) 393-0188. Ebbnflowyoga.com 3/18 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Wilton, NH. Libby Barnett, MSW. 38 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded.

Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 3/19 www.spiritofchange.org

3/19 — INTRODUCTION TO AYURVEDA with Sara Casteneda. 2-4pm. Learn the basics of Ayurveda: factors that affect health, the 5 elements, the 3 doshas of your unique biology and how to apply Ayurvedic principles.

At Union Street Yoga, Worcester, MA. More information: (508) 317-2323 or www.unionstreetyoga.com.

3/19-8/13 — GIVING BIRTH TO OURSELVES, an intensive 6-month one weekend/month journey of self-discovery incorporating drumming. Featuring Inanna, Sisters in Rhythm. March 19, April 30, June 4, July 9, Aug 13. At Wiccadgood Wellness in Freeport, ME. (207) 869-5438. Facebook.com/wiccadgoodwellness.

3/21-3/26 — YOGA THERAPY FOR THE STRUCTURAL SYSTEM. Functional Anatomy Training: Experience the Therapeutic Power of Yoga with world expert Sherry Brourman, PT, E-RYT 500. An in-depth immersion.

Release pain and balance the body. Open to Yoga teachers of all traditions and serious students.

YogaAtTheAshram.org. (508) 376-4525.

3/24 — SPRING EQUINOX CELEBRATION with crystal singing bowls. During this time of powerful transformation, seek to balance your inner light and dark in order to manifest your desires. Inner Light & Soul Yoga, Windsor, CT. (860) 869-6408. Innerlightsoulyoga. com.

3/24-26: SPRING EQUINOX RETREAT. Relax, rejuvenate and renew at the Royal Plaza Hotel in Marlborough with Bhavna Srivastava, healer and teacher using the Golden Light to bring peace and love everywhere. Experience a variety of classes, meditations and healing sessions during the weekend. Register (508) 970-5620. BHWellnessGroup.com.

3/25-3/26 — SECOND LEVEL ADVANCED LEVEL HERBAL TRAINING. Immersion in the plant world with foraging, deep botany and ecology, and the alchemy of cooking with medicinal plants. Advanced intensives on Stress and the Neuro-endocrine Cascade, Enhancing Immunity, Addressing Major Mental Health Issues and Cleansing the Liver. Boston School of Herbal Studies.

(781) 646-6319 or bostonherbalstudies.com.

3/25 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Newton, MA. Libby Barnett, MSW. 38 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded.

Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 3/26.

3/31-4/7 — 7-DAY HEALING OF THE HEART SHENG ZHEN GONG TRAINING with Junfeng Li. Sheng Zhen Gong is a method of self-healing involving a series of moving and non-moving forms. It is designed to remove negative qi and gather positive healing energy. Register for 1-7 days. Eastover Estate, Lenox, MA. (866) 264-5139. Eastover.com.

APRIL 4/1 — THE CONSTELLATION APPROACH SEMINAR with Jamy and Peter Faust, healers and facilitators. Any issue with family lineage, illness, career, relationship and more are set up through the lens of our approach to Family Constellations.

Seminar is experiential with multiple opportunities to participate and experience the family energy field, one's soul nature and ancestral healing. Saturday 9:30-6pm. Belmont/Waltham area. Registration/ info: www.ConstellationApproach.com/seminars.

4/1 — HEARTSONG SPIRITUAL WELLNESS COMMUNITY CENTER ONE-DAY RETREAT for inspiration, rejuvenation, peace, serenity and fun.

Great speakers, meditative activities, holistic healing, good food, and lots more. Held at the beautiful HeartSong Sanctuary in Milford, MA. See all details: heartsongspiritualwellness.com.

4/1 — RESTORATIVE YOGA with Ann Bissanti.

Selected sequences, fully supported by props, allow you to be the recipient rather than the activator of the renewal process. Noon-2pm. $25. Worcester Yoga Center, 21 West Street, Worcester, MA. (508) 829-6300.

Worcesteryogacenter.com.

4/2 — HEALTHY LIVING EXPO is an inspirational conference in its 12th year featuring highly respected wellprenuers like: Michelle Fleming, Rhys Thomas, Judith Swack, Frankie Boyer, Val Voner, Jill Jardine, Leontine Hartzell, Seth Monk, Heather Keay and Mary Kim-Garrity. Passionate heart-based educators share empowering practices of living well and in balance. A daylong unique opportunity of education and community-building. Connect, share and gain a deeper understanding of self. 10am. Free admission to exhibit hall and most lectures. Hotel 1620 (Formerly Radisson), 180 Water Street, Plymouth, MA. Free parking. Info: Candita (508) 615- 9805. myhealthylivingexpo.com or myhealthylivingmag. com.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 73

4/7-4/9 — READ & PLAY MUSIC IN A WEEKEND! World famous seminars (www. understandingofmusic.com) turns beginners into musicians, revitalizes and inspires even pro musicians. In Boston, http://signup. understandingofmusic.com or sallee@dlorien.com.

(781) 599-1476.

5/13 — MOTHEREARTH FEST! Get your yoga groove on with Answer the Muse live music, conscious shopping for moms, dads, grads. Games for kids, food court, and much more! www.YogaAtTheAshram.org.

(508) 376-4525.

5/13-5/15 — DAMANHUR PAST LIVES RESEARCH. Uncover why certain life talents, personal strengths or challenges are present for your soul’s learning.

Birth info needed. No registration after 4/20. Cost $320. Limit 16. Details sandy@starwalkervisions.com.

4/8 — JAPANESE REIKI TECHNIQUES WORKSHOP. 9am-5pm. Deepen your Reiki practice by learning the traditional Reiki techniques Mikao Usui taught his students for self-purification, cultivation of ki and spiritual self-development. (508) 808-5696. northeastreikicenter.org.

5/20: REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Wilton, NH. Libby Barnett, MSW. 38 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded.

Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 5/21

4/21-4/23 — MARCONICS SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY AND HEALING SEMINAR. Levels 1 & 2. Boston, MA. To register visit marconics.com.

4/23-6/4 — HOW TO MEDITATE EVERY DAY. Learn the essentials, shared by all traditions. Sundays 10:30-12:30. (no class 5/14 and 5/28). 5 classes, $90.

Worcester Yoga Center, 21 West Street, Worcester, MA. (508) 829-6300. Worcesteryogacenter.com.

4/26-4/29 — HEALING FROM THE BODY LEVEL UP™ 1 TRAINING. Healing Trauma and Installing Boundaries. 9am-6pm each day. With Judith Swack, PhD. Learn how to heal PTSD. HBLU™ integrates the best of biomedical science, psychology, spirituality, applied kinesiology, NLP and energy psychology techniques along with original research to rapidly transform and heal your clients and yourself. (781) 444-6940. www.hblu.org. info@hblu.org 4/29 — HOLISTIC HEALTH AND PSYCHIC FAIR. 10am-5pm. Free admission. Sponsored by the Canton Spiritualist Church. Held at the Blue Hills, Canton, MA. Psychics, mediums, readings for a fee.

Free healings. (617) 469-2568.

4/29-4/30 — DAMANHUR ALCHEMY 1. This research activates a transformational process within yourself, utilizing outside substances, in this case water and fire. Limit 14. Cost $250. Class mandatory for November Damanhur journey. Details: sandy@ starwalkervisions.com.

4/29 — THE SCHOOL OF AKASHIC SOUL MASTERY AND PRACTITIONER CERTIFICATION. Start a sevenmonth program at Women of Wisdom with Nancy Smith, author of best selling book Divine Love Affair, An Akashic Journey. Explore the mystery of your soul, past lives, soul contracts, your soul’s plan for this life.

Meet Nancy at open houses on 3/16 and 4/9. Contact Women of Wisdom in North Easton, MA (508) 2303680 or Nancy Smith: nancy@angelscapes.net. Visit angelscapes.net 4/30 — WOMEN OF WISDOM PSYCHIC AND HOLISTIC FAIRE. Psychics, mediums, angel readers, spirit art. Reiki, chair massage, IET, Gaiadon Heart, crystal healings, etc. Sign yourself up for a few appointments and bring your friends! Appointments recommended/walk-ins welcome! Call to book!

(508) 230-3680. www.womenofwisdominc.com 74 74 Spirit Spirit of of Change Change || SPRING/SUMMER SPRING/SUMMER 2017 2017

April 29 — Join the seven-month School of Akashic Soul Mastery and Practitioner Certification with author and medium Nancy Smith. Meet Nancy at open houses on March 16 and April 9 at Women of Wisdom. See April listing or anglescapes.net.

4/30 — NEW ENGLAND VEGFEST 2017 is a free festival celebrating an animal-friendly, environmentally sustainable and healthy lifestyle. Now in its 8th year, the event will feature 120 socially responsible exhibitors, inspiring national speakers, vegan food court, children’s activities and complimentary samples of foods and products. Held at the Worcester DCU Center, 50 Foster Street. 11am-5pm. (315) VEGAN-55 or newenglandvegfest.com.

MAY 5/4 — HAVE I FORGIVEN? EIGHT CHECK POINTS ON THE JOURNEY. Discuss the importance of forgiveness, its process and its completion with Trish Whynot, D.C.Ed. in this teleclass. 7-8:30pm. Register at TrishWhynot.com.

5/6 — THE CONSTELLATION APPROACH SEMINAR with Jamy and Peter Faust, healers and facilitators. Any issue with family lineage, illness, career, relationship and more are set up through the lens of our approach to Family Constellations. Seminar is experiential with multiple opportunities to participate and experience the family energy field, one's soul nature and ancestral healing. Saturday 9:30-6pm. Belmont/Waltham area.

Registration/info: www.ConstellationApproach.com/ seminars.

5/7 — DINNER WITH THE PSYCHICS. 4pm-8pm, J.Anthony's Restaurant, Auburn, MA. Enjoy a delicious buffet dinner getting to know your psychics and mediums, receive a personal reading, and participate in a chakra healing session. Come and meet like-minded people, or bring your group. Tickets: Call (860) 963-9500 or visit thecosmiccat.com.

5/20-5/25 — ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY: INTEGRATING ASTROLOGY AND THE HOLOTROPIC with Keiron LeGrice and Grof Holistic Breathwork staff. Guest House Conference Center, Chester, CT. Info at holotropic.com or gtt@holotropic.com.

5/21 — CRYSTAL WISDOM AND WELLNESS GATHERING. All-day, includes meal, Yoga, morning and afternoon sessions (experiential learning and shares) and crystal shop. Location: Arlington, MA. Preregistration required, email Kyle@CrystalConcentrics. com. Limited number of spaces, early bird pricing. www.CrystalConcentrics.com.

5/25-5/27 — MARCONICS SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY AND HEALING SEMINAR. Levels 1 & 2. Concord, NH. To register visit marconics.com.

5/27-6/1 — THE POWER WITHIN: THE PRACTICE OF HOLOTROPIC BREATHWORK with Diana Medina and GTT staff. Guest House Conference Center, Chester, CT. holotropic.com or gtt@holotropic.com.

JUNE 6/3 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Newton, MA. Libby Barnett, MSW. 38 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, pin, certificate awarded.

Credit cards accepted. CEU's/contact hours. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki II: 6/4 6/3 — PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT, PAST LIVES AND ANGEL COMMUNICATION WORKSHOP with Ross J. Miller, psychic healer, medium, regression therapist.

In this unique, experiential workshop you’ll learn how to identify your guardian angels and spirit guides by name and receive their guidance, healing and inspiration; discover your soul’s life purpose; experience two of your past lives and heal the residual karma from them; give psychic readings to others in class and more. 10am-5pm, Newton, MA. To register for the workshop or to schedule a psychic or past-life reading or healing session in person or over the phone, visit our website TheMysticWay.com or call Ross J. Miller (617) 527-3583.

Continued on page 76

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 75

CALENDAR

UPCOMING

Continued from page 74

6/9-6/25 — QI GONG MASTER MANTAK CHIA at Eastover in Lenox, MA. Universal Healing Tao Teacher Training, USA Center. June 9-14: Inner Alchemy Qigong Tao Basic. Jun 14-19: Fusion 1, 11, and Buddha Palm Qigong. June 19-25: Tok Sen and Life Pulse. Register for all or part at eastover.com.

(866) 264-5139.

8/3-8/6 — WOMEN’S SUMMER YOGA RETREAT. Kundalini yoga and meditation in beautiful Rockport, MA. $450 with early deposit before April 1. Info: (508) 990-6795. Nancy_reallifeyoga@comcast.net.

8/10-8/13 — MARCONICS SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY AND HEALING SEMINAR. Levels 2 & 3. Chester, VT. To register visit marconics.com.

6/14-6/19 — AMERICAN SOCIETY OF DOWSERS ANNUAL CONVENTION/EXPO. Open to all seekers. Over 40 lectures, workshops and courses. Vendors. Great networking opportunity all rolled into one week of awesomeness! Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY. dowsers.org/convention.

8/25-8/27 — 30th ANNUAL WOMEN’S HERBAL CONFERENCE. A special celebration honoring women, healing and herbs with over 70 workshops for all levels of interest and expertise. Held at Camp Wicosuta on Newfound Lake, NH. Registration is $275 and includes tuition, camping and all workshops. www.womensherbalconference.com or (802) 479-9825.

6/15 — HOMEOPATHIC COURSE REGISTRATION NOW OPEN! Register now to begin your homeopathic education at Baylight Center for Homeopathy in Portland, ME. Registration open from June-August for courses beginning Fall 2017. info@ baylighthomeopathy.com. (207) 774-4244.

BaylightHomeopathy.com.

6/17-6/18 — A WEEKEND OF SOUND HEALING. Singing bowls workshop, sound healing meditation, private sessions. Understand how to play and use singing bowls for healing, experience healing sound meditation and private sound healings. Eastover Estate & Retreat Center, Lenox MA (866) 264-5139 6/21 — SUMMER SOLSTICE CELEBRATION: YOGA MEDITATION WITH SINGING BOWLS. Celebrate and embrace your own inner light. Ebb’n Flow Yoga, Northborough, MA. (508) 393-0188.

Ebbnflowyoga.com.

6/24 — JOURNEY INTO SPIRITUAL GROWTH & GOLDEN LIGHT DAY. A day filled with meditations and spirit-based activities. 10am-6pm in Shrewsbury, MA at Bhavna’s Wellness Group. Info at BHWellnessGroup.com. (508) 970-5620.

JULY 7/5-7/9 — PATH OF THE HEALER ENERGY MEDICINE CERTIFCATION PROGRAM with Deborah Wilson. Join us for a life-changing 5-day course. Immerse yourself in energy medicine for healing on all levels. CEU's. Level 1. Litchfield CT. pathofthehealer.com.

7/7-7/9 — WOMEN’S SUMMER YOGA RETREAT. Gentle hatha yoga in beautiful Rockport, MA. $350 with early deposit before April 1. Info: (508) 990-6795.

Nancy_reallifeyoga@comcast.net.

7/14-7/16 — MARCONICS SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY AND HEALING SEMINAR. Levels 1 & 2. Chester, VT. To register visit marconics.com.

76 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

April 29 and May 13 — Join two classes offered by teachers from Damanhur, Italy, creators of the Hall of Mirrors, pictured. See April and May listings or email sandy@starwalkervisions.com.

7/16 — WOMEN OF WISDOM PSYCHIC AND HOLISTIC FAIRE. Psychics, mediums, angel readers, spirit art. Reiki, chair massage, IET, Gaiadon Heart, crystal healings, etc. Sign yourself up for a few appointments and bring your friends! Appointments recommended/walk-ins welcome! Call to book! (508) 230-3680. www.womenofwisdominc.com 7/22 — ANDEAN CONCEPTS INCLUDING CHUMPI RITES. Workshop awakens perceptions of the Kawsay Pacha-world of living energy, and includes aligning energetic chumpi belts within your biofield. 10am4:30pm. Early pre-paid offer $125. Details: sandy@ starwalkervisions.com.

7/22 — REIKI CERTIFICATE TRAINING LEVELS 1 AND 2 all in one day with Matthew McDonald. Second degree includes distance Reiki training, as one learns how to send healing energy across time and space.

Includes vegan, gluten-free homemade lunch. (508) 376-4525. YogaAtTheAshram.org.

7/29-7/30 — CULTURAL SURVIVAL BAZAAR featuring the clothing line, jewelry and gifts of Rosanne Menard of Four Winds One Breath. Four Corners Arts Center, 3852 Main Road, Tiverton, RI. For bazaar info: bazaar. cs.org. Complete line at 4winds1breath.com.

7/30-8/5 — THE 2017 MACROBIOTIC SUMMER CONFERENCE will be held at Eastover Resort in Lenox, MA, featuring 50 cooking classes and presentations on diet and health. Come for the week, the day or the gala.

To register, call (866) 264-5139 or visit Eastover.com.

FALL 2017 — 2-YEAR BIODYNAMIC CRANIOSACRAL THERAPY TRAINING. The most comprehensive education of craniosacral therapy available. Open to professionals as well as those without any prior training as practitioners. Dr. Kate’s Cranial School, Northampton, MA (413) 221-8454.

DrKatesCranialSchool.com.

9/5-9/12 — HATUN KARPAY CHAUPY, PERU. Sacred initiatory journey throughout Peru sponsored by Sandy Corcoran with Juan Nunez del Prado. Ayni Rimanakuy, conscious preparation. Limit 12. Cost $2000 covers everything except international flight.

Details: sandy@starwalkervisions.com.

9/15-9/17 — MARCONICS SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY AND HEALING SEMINAR. Levels 1 & 2. Boston, MA. To register visit marconics.com.

9/17 — CRYSTAL WISDOM AND WELLNESS GATHERING. All-day, includes meal, Yoga, morning and afternoon sessions (experiential learning and shares) and crystal shop. Location: Arlington, MA. Preregistration required, email Kyle@CrystalConcentrics. com. Limited number of spaces, early-bird pricing.

CrystalConcentrics.com.

9/20 — FALL OPEN HOUSE AT BAYLIGHT CENTER FOR HOMEOPATHY. Join us for wine and cheese, and bring your questions about homeopathy and our programs. Our faculty, staff and students/alum will be on hand to share their experience. 5:307pm. 222 Saint John Street, Suite 238, Portland, ME. info@baylighthomeopathy.com. (207) 774-4244.

BaylightHomeopathy.com.

9/23 — WELLNESS DAY. A day of wellness discussions, meditation, and mini sessions of Reiki, massage, acupuncture, card readings, and more.

10-5pm. $40 pre-register, $60 at the door. Bhavna’s Wellness Group, Shrewsbury, MA. (508) 970-5620.

BHWellnessGroup.com.

10/19 — AQUARIAN TEACHER KRI LEVEL ONE CERTIFICATION IN KUNDALINI YOGA BEGINS. In this 220-hour, one-year program with lead trainer Hari Kaur, you will become an instructor and learn the fundamental principles and practices of Kundalini Yoga. Yoga At The Ashram, 368 Village Street, Millis, MA. (508) 376-4525. Yogaattheashram.org.

11/11-11/12 — 11TH ANNUAL SPIRIT OF CHANGE MAGAZINE NATURAL LIVING EXPO. Royal Plaza Trade Center. 181 Boston Post Road West, Marlboro, MA. Saturday 9-6; Sunday 10-5. Featuring 275 exhibits, 90 workshops, readings, shopping and fun.

Enjoy the spacious Healthy Foods Tent for delicious breakfast, lunch and dinner meals throughout the weekend. www.NaturalExpo.org.

ONGOING FULL MOON HERBAL WORKSHOPS. This 10-month series is content-rich and intensive. Held monthly on Sunday evenings, 7-9pm (except July/August). $20 includes all materials. March 12, April 8, (Saturday workshop), May 14, June 11, Hillside Herbals, Jefferson, MA. (508) 847-8615. Hillsideherbals.com.

THE NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR GEOCOSMIC RESEARCH (NCGR) is a non-profit international astrological organization with local chapters.

Membership is open to all who share an interest in astrology. Members and non-members can participate in workshops. Upcoming schedule for the Boston Chapter: Saturday, March 11: Arielle Guttman, Discovering and Working with the Venus Star Point. Saturday, April 1: Ronnie Gale Dreyer, Forecasting Techniques that Really Work: Dashas and Transits. Saturday, May 6: Eileen McCabe, Love, Sex and God. Saturday, June 3: Liane Thomas Wade, The Complexities of Relationships Examined. Meetings are held at Beech Street Center, 266 Beech Street, Belmont, MA. Register: http://ncgrbostonastrology. org/meetings.php. Information on joining NCGR: www.geocosmic.org. For information, contact Boston Chapter President Joyce Levine at (617) 354-7075 or joycel@joycelevine.com.

May 13 — Get your yoga groove on with Answer the Muse live music, conscious shopping, games for kids, food court, and more at MotherEarth Fest in Millis. See May listing or www.YogaAtTheAshram.org.

GREATER BOSTON CHURCH OF SPIRITUALISM. Services Sunday mornings 10:30am; no service on 4th of July or Labor Day weekend. Spiritual development classes. Mediums days last Sunday of the month. We have moved! Our new address: Arlington Masonic Temple, 19 Academy Street, Arlington, MA (just off Mass. Ave., easy access by T via Harvard Square). Visit our website for current events/address information: greaterbostonchurchofspiritualism.com BOSTON SCHOOL OF HERBAL STUDIES. Arlington and Lincoln, MA. Herbal apprenticeship programs and advanced training, levels one and two of aromatherapy certification, Lyme disease practitioner training. (781) 646-6319 or bostonherbalstudies.com.

INDIVIDUAL APPRENTICESHIP IN SHAMANIC HEALING AND TRANSFORMATIONAL SOUL THERAPY at Spirit Hollow in Bennington, VT beginning in 2017. Details at spirithollow.org.

WELLNESS ROUNDTABLE HOLISTIC PRACTITIONERS NETWORKING GROUP. Please join us at our monthly meetings, second Wednesday each month Sept-June in Northborough, MA. A welcoming community working for the greater health and wellbeing of all. Contact marilyn@confident-directions.com.

ONGOING MEDITATION CLASSES AT WICCADGOODWELLNESS. Early morning Mon and Wed at 6:30am. Afterwork decompression Fri at 6pm. Freeport, ME. (207) 869-5438. Facebook.com/ wiccadgoodwellness.

LEVEL II AROMATHERAPY CERTIFICATION, Sturbridge, 3-19; 7-month Herbal Certification, Harwich, 4-15; Introduction to European-based Aromatherapy Certification, Harwich, 7-16; Flower Essence workshop, Harwich, 7-22. aromatherapyandherbalstudies.com.

CRYSTAL SALE WITH PSYCHIC READINGS AND CHAIR MASSAGE. March 12, April 2, May 7, June 11, July 9, September 10, October 8, November 5. Huge selection of quality crystals. 9am-3pm, 7 Mystic Street, Arlington, MA. Details: Kyle@ CrystalConcentrics.com or CrystalConcentrics.com.

PRANIC HEALING WORKSHOPS, MEDITATIONS, AND HEALING SESSIONS with Miriam Smith, Certified MCKS Pranic Healing healer/teacher. Level 1: April 7-9 or June 2-4. Level 2 and 3: April 21-13. Pathwork Workshop: April 29-30. (978) 807-1634. mgsenergy@comcast.net.

PranicHealingNE.com.

www.spiritofchange.org www.spiritofchange.org

YOGA WITH ANN BISSANTI. Mon, Multi-level, 6-7:30pm; Tues, Basic 6-7:30pm; Wed, Basic 2/Int 9-10:30am; Thur, Int/Exp 5:40-7:10pm; Fri, Basic 9:30-11am and Gentle Yoga 11:40-12:50; Sat, Basic 10-11:30am. Worcester Yoga Center, 21 West Street, Worcester, MA. (508) 829-6300. Worcesteryogacenter. com.

DANCING JAGUAR’S SPIRIT CAMP. Ancient wisdom for a child’s mind, body and spirit. For ages 5-10. 3 sessions: July 24-28 in Nashua, NH; July 31-Aug 4 in Windham, ME; Aug-7-11 in Keene, NH. dancingjaguarinspirations.com.

DOWN TO EARTH CRYSTAL FAIRS. Held monthly: April 23rd, May 21st, June 25th, July 30th, August 27th, September 24th, October 22nd, November 19th, December 10th. Cape Cod Center for Whole Health, 116 State Road, Sagamore Beach, MA, 10am-3pm, cell (508) 680-6195. Free admission, 10%-20% discounts! Quality crystals, minerals and jewelry! downtoearthcrystals.com. capecodcenterforwholehealth.com.

GENTLE & JUICY YOGA on Tuesdays. Monthly Friday night Restorative Yoga. 4-day Thai Massage training for practitioners and students enrolled in certification training in April. West Concord, MA. Details at SamanthaBakerHealing.com CLASSES IN CHANNELING AND SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION with ascended master Vywamus, channeled by Andrea Seiver. Have a personal reading/ Enjoy Evenings with Vywamus April 13, May 4, June 1, July 6. (617) 332-1541. andreaseiver.com

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NEW ENGLAND’S

HolisticDirectory SPRING/SUMMER 2017

Categories Acupuncture and Asian Medicine . . . . . . . . . .78

Colon Hydrotherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Herbs and Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

Astrological Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78

Consciousness Transformation . . . . . . . . 81-82

Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78-79

Counseling and Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82-83

Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Children's Health & Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

Crystals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83

Salons and Spas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

Classes, Certifications & Schools . . . . . . 79-81

Healing and Bodywork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83-85

Spiritual Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

Healing: Combined Modalities . . . . . . . . . . . .85

Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

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Acupuncture & Asian Medicine ACUPUNCTURE OF WORCESTER Holistic Health since 1974

Dr. Yvonne Chen, Lic. Acupuncturist One of the first practicing acupuncturists in the United States, Dr. Yvonne Chen began her acupuncture practice in Washington, D.C. in 1973, moving to Worcester one year later. Trained in China as a medical doctor, Dr. Chen’s years of study and research included in-depth work with both traditional Chinese and Western medicine.

Her approach to health incorporates keen knowledge on the nature of disease, use

of energy balancing, nutritional counseling and the promotion of spiritual well-being.

Acupuncture is especially effective in the treatment of: • Pain: migraine headaches, stress relief, tendonitis, arthritis, lower back pain, neuralgia, whiplash, accident and trauma injuries and TMJ syndrome • Improving bodily functions: respiratory ailments, insomnia and impotency • Nervous system disorders: Bell’s Palsy, paralysis, multiple sclerosis and stroke recovery • Behavioral changes: weight control and smoking cessation.

Located at 110 June Street, Worcester, MA 01602. For an appointment or for more information, please contact Dr. Yvonne Chen at 508-755-5557.

Questions?

Astrologer Eric Linter has answers.

Changes in relationships, career, health, finances or spiritual practice are inevitable.

Eric’s clarity will help you stay on the right path. His insights help you better understand and appreciate life’s challenges. His clients say Eric Linter is “profound and enlightening” and “one of the best astrologers on the East Coast.”

& Esoteric

Psychology Monique Pommier, M.A., Ph.DE

Astrology illuminates one’s psychological landscape and journey. It times life developments and reveals their designs for the soul.

I offer astrological services and ongoing psychospiritual counseling with astrology, Jungian and esoteric psychology as a comprehensive ground of exploration and guidance

on current issues and lifelong questionings.

By accessing the deeper order of your life, you gain transformative insights into the evolutionary meaning of particular challenges and new perspectives to direct your choices.

My background includes an MS and PhD in Esoteric Psychology and Philosophy. Jungian psychology, Eastern and Western Traditions are key foundations in my approach.

I have been in practice for 25 years.

U Astrological Consultations U U Psychospiritual Counseling U www.astrologicalpsychology.com 617-524-7072

stars@ericlinter.com X 508-541-4115 X

“I learned more from one session than I did from 5 years of analysis.”

- J.G., Cambridge, MA

Centers

Astrological Consulting Astrology

Eric, a professional astrologer for 25 years, works with individuals, couples and businesses. Specialties include career moves, personal creativity and karmic relationships. Consultations are available in person, by telephone, or on cassette.

Eric also offers classes, lectures and appearances at parties and special events.

For more information and to schedule a private session, contact Eric by email or call:

OUR SERVICES b Bowenwork b Craniosacral therapy b Facial rejuvenation b Laser skin care b Laser hair removal b Life and nutritional coaching b Reiki b Yoga - Restorative and Gentle (Chair)

We offer an inclusive selection of holistic health services provided by credentialed, compassionate practitioners. Our centers embrace the benefits of scientifically-proven treatments along with the healing modalities of touch, movement, energy, and mind-body techniques.

All of our serene, convenient locations promote harmony in the mind-body-spirit and offer educational opportunities for your wellbeing journey.

31 Main Street, Plaistow, NH 270 Lafayette Road, Rye, NH 944 Calef Highway, Barrington, NH To learn more or to make an appointment: 603-974-1630 info@stillpointwellbeingcenter.com stillpointwellbeingcenter.com Don’t forget to visit us on Facebook!

Centers, continued

78 78 Spirit Spirit of of Change Change| |SPRING/SUMMER SPRING/SUMMER2017 2017

Centers, continued

Classes, Certifications & Schools

q Yoga, meditation, Qigong q Wellness workshops q Cancer support q Veterans’ Yoga

UPCOMING COURSES

q Youth programs in public schools & beyond

AFFORDABLE HERBAL EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Advanced Herbal Training begins March 25, 26 Immersion in the Plant World: foraging, deep botany and ecology; the alchemy of cooking with medicinal plants. Advanced Intensives on Stress and the Neuro-endocrine Cascade, Enhancing Immunity, Addressing Major Mental Health Issues, and Cleansing the Liver.

bostonherbalstudies.com Arlington, MA ❖ 781-646-6319

Herbal Apprenticeship begins April 22, 23 Hands-on experience making tinctures, teas, salves, oils, herbal sprays, and flower essences, etc. Each month we cover a different body system and the herbs that nourish and support it. We focus on plant walks and do plant identification each weekend.

q Interfaith gatherings

q An annual Weekend of Spirit retreat

q Gardening, composting, foraging, caring

A Multi-Faith Center for the Wider Community Join us… as we seek to heal the world holistically… one person, one relationship, one community at a time.

for the planet

39 Edwards St, Framingham, MA 508-877-8162 q info@openspiritcenter.org www.facebook.com/openspiritcenter www.openspiritcenter.org

Intensive 7 Month Herbal Apprenticeships Advanced Training with Prominent Herbalists Aromatherapy Certification – Levels One and Two Weekend Intensives and Evening Classes

❖ ❖ ❖

We are a nonprofit Center devoted to teaching meditation and exploring Advaita, the spiritual tradition of self-realization.

To learn more about us, go to our website or visit us at our lovely, historic house in Waltham.

Wednesday Evening Open Meditation Introductory Classes Reading Groups and other Activities

Celebr

Years!

20+

Women of Wisdom HOLISTIC HEALING CENTER

Usui and Karuna Reiki G Hypnotherapy BARS G Massage G Crystal Healing Integrated Energy Therapy G Akisni Inner Child Healing G Past Life Regression

Yoga

Ample parking and wheelchair accessibility.

28 Worcester Lane, Waltham, MA 02451 info@advaitameditation.org www.advaitameditation.org G 781-647-0020

SCHOOLS OF WISDOM

ating

❖

Holistic Practitioner and Professional, Earth Medicine, Angel Alignment, Akashic Soul Mastery, Hypnotherapy, Mediumship, and Animal Communication; Training for Reiki, IET, Gaiadon Heart, etc., plus workshops daily GIFT SHOP

Unique Jewelry G Healing Tools G Statues Crystal Bowls G Ritual Items G Angels Mediums or Psychic Readings Hours: M-F 10 am-8 pm, S/S 10 am-6 pm 118 Washington Street, N. Easton, MA www.womenofwisdominc.com 508-230-3680

Children's Health & Services

AT THE ASHAM

Study ~ Stay ~ Meditate Upcoming 2017 Professional Certificate Trainings

Foundations of Kundalini Yoga Therapy March 16-19; open to Level 1 KRI Kundalini Teachers Yoga Therapy for the Structural System March 21-26; Functional Anatomy Training: experience the Therapeutic Power of Yoga with world expert Sherry Brourman. Open to Yoga Teachers of all traditions and serious students.

The Aquarian Teacher™ KRI Level Two Teacher Training Program April 7-9 and 21-23; Conscious Communication Reiki Training Levels 1 & 2 July 22 SuperHealth® Yogic Science to Heal Addictive Behavior October 8-15

relate effectively with others and foster their natural enthusiasm for learning.

S Child-centered preschool program S Nurturing, small group setting

S Developmentally appropriate, standards-

limited openings available At Small Miracles Preschool the unique spirit of each child is acknowledged and cherished. Our mission is to provide a loving, supportive environment where children thrive in an atmosphere of security and mutual respect. We strive to nurture children’s self-esteem, guide them in learning to

based curriculum

S Ages 2.9 to 5 S Two or three days, 9 am - 1 p m (5-day

option available)

Ellen Kerstein, M.S. in Ed S Holliston, MA ellenkerstein@gmail.com ellenkerstein.com S 508-429-5764

Spiritual Wellness Community Center WEEKLY PROGRAMS

Yoga for all levels including Body Matrix Vinyasa Flow and Gentle Hatha c Tai Chi for all levels (great for beginners) c Zentangle Mindful Drawing c

The Aquarian Teacher Begins October 19, 2017, graduates June 2018; KRI Level One Certification Program in Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.® The Aquarian Teacher Certification program is open both to yoga students ready to become teachers and to those who wish to immerse themselves in the science of Kundalini Yoga as taught by Yogi Bhajan.

This 220 hour course includes 180 hours of classroom instruction in a well-defined curriculum. Lead Trainer Hari Kaur of NYC has been training teachers since the 1970’s.

She was recently honored by Yoga Journal as one of the “10 Influential Teachers Who Have Shaped Yoga in America.”

Note: By choosing a KRI Certified Kundalini Training, your option is open for Levels 2 and 3 in the future.

LATER IN 2017:

Trainings In Kundalini Yoga Therapy Open to Level 1 KRI Kundalini Teachers The Elements & Alchemy of Kundalini Yoga November 30-December 5 Origins & Identity of Kundalini Yoga as Therapy December 7-10 368 Village Street, Millis, MA 02054 508-376-4525 G info@YogaAtTheAshram.org yogaattheashram.org

Yoga c Tai Chi c Zentagle c Chakra Healing Coffee, Tea & Chat c Angel Card Readings One-Day Retreats c Chanting Sanskrit Mantra Psychic Medium c Vegan Cooking Demos Shamanism c Musical Performances

New classes, workshops, seminars and retreats added daily. Located in a beautiful spiritual sanctuary with free parking.

23 Pine Street, Milford, MA View full calendar of events at heartsongspiritualwellness.com

Classes, Certifications and Schools continued

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER2017 2017||Spirit Spirit of of Change Change 79 SPRING/SUMMER

Classes, Certifications and Schools continued

Massage | Aesthetics Polarity | RYSE Ipswich • Plymouth • Westboro You deserve an education that honors who you are and who you are becoming.

A great education is spiritually transforming: You overcome your limitations and realize your highest potential, at the same time you learn the foundation and skills to succeed.

Excellent education is not by chance; it comes from years of listening to employers, graduates and students to find the best way to teach the most valuable information to make you successful.

As a leader in energy medicine and

Eclectic Institute of Aromatherapy and Herbal Studies Instructor Linda Patterson offers over 20 years of experience in the science, art and principles of herbalism and aromatherapy.

energy based education since 1980, Nancy Risley recognizes that your education is a transformational healing process. As a successful therapist, author and teacher, her vision is to help you realize your dream of work that is creative and supports all aspects of who you are. Whether you work in a spa, clinic, or have your own business, you gain the required skills to create satisfaction as well as increased flexibility, control and income.

The next step to fulfilling your future is to call for a no obligation, information interview with our Career Advisor. We look forward to meeting you and learning about your future.

Programs take from 4 to 12 months, depending on your schedule: Full-time, mother’s hours or part-time evenings.

Accredited. Licensed. Financial Aid available for qualified students.

800-262-8530 ❖ www.spatech.edu

Ongoing certification courses offered throughout the northeast including: ✴ 7-Month Herbal Certification ✴ 4-Month European-Based Aromatherapy Introduction ✴ 4-Month Advanced Aromatherapy Course ✴ 3-Month Conscious Nutrition Course ✴ Palmistry a tool of diagnoses

Learn more and apply at: SamanthaBakerHealing.com/ thai-massage-training

AARON & SUE SINGLETON, FOUNDERS

Internationally renowned Medical Intuitives, Authors, Visionaries, Inventors and Founders of The Energy of Life® (EOL) Integrative and Intuitive Healing Process, Sue and Aaron Singleton offer a diverse variety of Training Programs to complement all medical and holistic modalities, and to empower practitioners and laypersons.

EOL I.D.E.A.L. Process for Creating a Life You Love! Workshop Series A totally unique intuitive development and healing process that transforms lives for healers, doctors, executives, and fulltime parents. Apply the EOL Process alone, or to enhance Reiki, Pranic Healing, etc.

The EOL Process for Discernment is prerequisite for medical intuitive training with Sue Singleton.

Technology for Quantum Healing: Revolutionary technology imbedded in The Rings of Oden accelerates light resonance and provides modulating energy frequencies for healing. Users resport rapid resolution of chronic pain, injuries, glaucoma, chronic emotional patterns and illnesses. The Rings combine Crop Circles, and DNA Holographic Re-Patterning to create specific vortices and frequencies for various conditions and spiritual transformation. Powerful for self-healing, as well as helping others.

Other Workshops and Programs

F F F F

Workshop Series This fusion of ancient and modern techniques makes a quantum leap to address trauma and illness, without relying solely

EOL Radical Hands-On Healing™ Introduction to Medical Intuition BioMorphic Geometry™

Stone Play™ Crystal Matrix Technology

Classes as online webinars, DVDs/CDs, home-study manuals, and in-person in MA/CT. 21 Water Street, Amesbury, MA 01913 www.TheWayToBalance.com BioMorphicGeometry.com 978-834-0341

EOL Visionary Acupressure System

Licensed Massage Therapists, Certified Yoga Teachers, Massage School Students and Yoga Teachers in Training Would like to enhance your practice with Thai Massage?

Q improve your skills Q amplify the healing value you provide Q attract new clients and boost your revenue Thai massage combines acupressure with assisted stretching and rocking of the body.

It is a complete therapeutic modality on its own, and may also be incorporated into other modalities of massage or yoga classes.

New England Institute of Reflexology & Universal Studies

Follow us on Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Professional Psychic-Mediums, Authors, Teachers

• Book and workbook: “The Key to the Contemporary Medium” and “The Student Guide to the Daily Medium” (available on Amazon.com) • Workshops and certification in Evidential Psychic-Medium Studies • “Your 6th Sense Today” presentations • Demonstrations of mediumship and exclusive “Double-Double” PsychicMedium reading services

…helping you walk into your own “a-ha” moment

Rochester NY | 585-427-8110 PurpleDoorSoulSource.com

v

v

v

Approved Continuing Education in Reflexology, Massage, and Reiki Integrative techniques strengthen foundations and create a balanced treatment style NCBTMB provider

www.walkinbalance.com v 508-317-3044 v

Our goal is to act as a bridge between complimentary and conventional medicine through the training of qualified holistic practitioners. Join us!

WANT TO CHANGE LIVES ?

The Restore workshops take you to a completely different level of ability and insight on the connectiveness of the human body and how you can reset dysfunctional health patterns for everyone. Restore also supports children and young adults with disabilities, pathologies, and special needs, to meet everyday challenges and situations.

~ Now teaching throughout New England ~

“Everyday Conversations” A signature program of studies for the 6th Sense

Connie Wake & Susan Fiandach

EOL Rings of Oden™ Net-Neutral Ionic

www.aromatherapyandherbalstudies.com 978-297-4502

ATTENTION:

Next Thai Massage Training --> April 2017

Training Programs to complement all medical and holistic modalities

on linear meridian techniques. Learn powerful protocols for deeper, more rapid release of the Root Cause. Our easy to learn 60-point number system includes detailed diagrams; no prior acupressure experience or knowledge required.

Restore 1 and Restore 2 Advanced Light Touch Therapy Workshop RESTORE FOR LIFE is a system of effective innovative health techniques with proven results. Restore supports you physically, mentally, and emotionally on all levels.

Everyone will receive a certificate.

Nurses and Massage Therapists receive CE’s For workshop dates, locations, and to register, visit our website: 603-770-6177

i

restoreforlife.com

Classes, Certifications and Schools continued

80 Spirit Spirit of ofChange Change| |SPRING/SUMMER SPRING/SUMMER2017 2017

Classes, Certifications and Schools continued TRAIN. Acquire essential skills. Earn your certification as a Transformational Life Coach and open new doors to meaningful professional work.

Looking for…

Purpose? ~ Meaning? ~ Direction?

2017-18 Psychosynthesis Training The Will To Grow: Transformational Life Coaching Fully Accredited Life Coach Training Program Intensive Weekend Sessions Beginning this Fall STUDY. Learn the theory and methods of Psychosynthesis, a holistic model based on principles of spiritual psychology. Find a deeper, more authentic expression of self in the world.

GROW .

Exceptional opportunity for self development and personal growth. Let new dreams, possibilities and ways of living inform your path towards wholeness and health.

YOU. You are drawn to a life fully lived. You want to help people thrive, to reach their highest potential. You may be in the field of mental health and wellness, education, social services, management, or any of the helping professions. You want to make a difference and make your own best contribution to those around you.

Psychosynthesis training prepares people to work in the expanding field of life and business coaching and its many variations. The training process itself is deep and rich, supporting each participant in stepping fully into the field, through personal and shared processes, experiential training and co-coaching practicum.

Learn more about the Synthesis Center’s upcoming professional training programs and how you can get involved. Our teaching staff is available to answer questions and explore program options, including in person groups (southern Vermont, Florida and San Francisco), independent study, and online, distance learning formats.

Life Reboot Coaching DIANNE BISCHOFF JAMES Author, Speaker, Certified Life Coach, Tapping Healer, and Akashic Reader dianne@dianne.net

312-994-2446 o www.dianne.net

Dianne Bischoff James is a national speaker and the bestselling author of The Real Brass Ring.

As a certified life coach, EFT practitioner, and Akashic reader, I will help you reclaim your clarity, permanently remove blocks, and rediscover your passion for life.

If you are ready for change and want to reach your goals, contact me today for Life Reboot Coaching to find the happiness, prosperity, and fulfillment you truly deserve.

Colon Hydrotherapy Experience colon hydrotherapy in a safe, relaxed environment using state-of-the-art FDA registered equipment.

Stephanie Dumas

I-ACT Certified Colon Hydrotherapist, Owner

Lexington Medical Building 16 Clarke Street, Lexington, MA

Cleansing for the body, the mind, the spirit

THE SYNTHESIS CENTER

stephanie@healthyspiritcleansing.com 781-860-5116

DEBRA GRAHAM, ND, CT I-ACT Certified (Advanced) NBCHT Certified

A leading center for psychosynthesis education and training in North America since 1980 training@synthesiscenter.org synthesiscenter.org V 413-256-0772

2 Narrows Road Suite 104 Westminster, MA 01473 * Reasonable Rates * Flexible Hours

Coaching REIKI R LIFE COACHING YOGA R CRYSTAL HEALING

COLON HYDROTH E RAPY

Call Today

Experience the Angel of Water, the premier colon hydrotherapy system.

413-522-0061 q deb@drdebma.com www.drdebma.com

MEDITATION LISA HASSETT Reiki Therapist, Life Coach, CYT

HEALING F O R B O D Y, M I N D & S P I R I T

160 School St., Suite 1-1, Waltham, MA reikiofgreaterboston@gmail.com

Consciousness Transformation

www.reikiofgreaterboston.com 508-335-3814

* The Inner Path to the Cosmic Consciousness

– Into the All-unity with People, Nature and the Animal World.

find “us” again with Come Back to Love Coach™

Private Coaching, Intimate Puja Circles, Workshops

Rediscover the true connection that ignited your passion for each other when you met. Tantric intimacy coaching and psychotherapy tools will help you find the “us” again in your relationship.

* Divine Prophetic Healing – Awaken the

The Free Universal Spirit is the Teaching of Love for God and Neighbor Toward People, Nature, and Animals Universal-Spirit.org * 800-846-2691 P.O. Box 2221, Deering, NH 03244

self-healing forces in you, through the direct and mighty divine ray of Christ.

* Living and Dying in Order to Keep Living * The Path of Forgetting – The Microcosm

in the Macrocosm

www.RobynVogel.com phone/text: 508-380-9254 Consciousness Transformation continued

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER2017 2017||Spirit Spirit of of Change Change 81 SPRING/SUMMER

Consciousness Transformation continued

Andrea Seiver, Ph.D. Channeled Readings Classes Have you spoken with an ascended master recently? Vywamus, channeled by Andrea Seiver, is a master and teacher who is working to help all humans make the shift into the higher levels of consciousness.

Readings with Vywamus cover your life work, relationships, past lives, and other

issues with his characteristic warmth, humor, and practical advice.

Channeled Classes and Spiritual Tutoring help you personally evolve and begin to live in a state of higher consciousness.

Evenings with Vywamus: Vywamus shares his energy and discusses your questions on topics of general interest. Donation $10.

Other Classes: Learn to Channel • Advanced Channeling For information, contact Andrea at 617-332-1541 • www.andreaseiver.com

Available Now! The Next Big Bang: The Explosion of Human Consciousness A Vywamus Book Read more at www.andreaseiver.com

Counseling and Therapy

Holistic Psychotherapy Lori Miller-Freitas, LICSW Get to the core — Transform your life!

You are on this earth to be happy and realize your true potential.

EMDR R TAT R Hypnosis R Reiki

Holistic Counseling Concepts Trish Whynot, D.C.Ed. Doctor of C.O.R.E. Education Dr. Trish Whynot’s way incorporates

ASAT™ C.O.R.E. Counseling, meditative

techniques and wise guidance that comes through the Mineral Kingdom.

Eliminate the root of physical, social, and financial problems: Discover, address, and release issues blocking health and wealth.

G View relationship discord and illness as opportunities for growth and change.

G Open to an array of extraordinary futures.

G

Body-Centered Psychotherapy Listen to your body…follow your heart.

The heart is the first organ to form in the body, and is the organizing factor for physical formation, including brain formation. Trauma, deprivation or neglect creates heart wounds, which keep us from accessing our deepest selves.

Emotional-Kinesthetic Psychotherapy (EKP) facilitates an emotional, energetic rewiring, helping us activate and express the power of the heart. Emotional safety,

Dr. Trish Whynot is a holistic counselor, speaker and author of “Why Me? Why Now? WHY NOT? Finding Opportunity in Your Obstacles.” Paperback and electronic versions available.

“What impressed me about Dr. Trish Whynot was her ability to see through the chaos of life’s web and identify the root cause of any problem.”

— Bob Olson, Editor, OfSpirit.com Workshops and Sessions Available In Office, Phone or Skype Windham, NH G trish@trishwhynot.com www.TrishWhynot.com G 978-314-4545

words, touch, meditation, movement, presence and silence facilitate verbal and non-verbal expression. Meaningful work, fulfilling relationships, self-esteem, purpose and passion, love, intimacy and sexuality follow. Straight, GLBT and poly-friendly.

Coaching for soul-centered living. Body psychotherapy groups Sunday nights in Newton. Apprenticeship training.

Books: Living with Vision, and Healing the War Between the Genders Blog: www.heartspacecafe.com/blog Mediation for couples and families.

Coaching for soul-centered living. Body psychotherapy groups. Apprenticeship training.

Newton, MA www.healingheartpower.com LSMHEART@aol.com 617-965-7846

Certifications: LICSW, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists.

Visa/MC acccepted.

I use a combination of traditional, body centered and energy therapies to increase the speed and deepen the level of holistic healing.

294 Pleasant St. R Ste. 103B R Stoughton, MA www.eaglespirittherapies.com 781-297-2003

HELPING PEOPLE

Glenn Bigonet brings a rare level of compassion, acceptance and hope to his work. As a relationship specialist, his clients report increased connection, intimacy, better communication, and more joy. In addition, he is skilled at helping clients with trauma, abuse, anxiety, depression, addiction, grief, self-esteem, anger, and co-dependency.

live better lives

GLENN BIGONET, M.A. Learn perspectives for living and loving that expect opportunities even during challenging times. You can’t thrive on problems but you can thrive on the wisdom, understanding and compassion gained from them.

Brainspotting A neurobiological tool for releasing traumatic/emotionally-charged issues within the brain.

Holistic Psychotherapy Clinical Consultation Using extensive professional experience to resolve issues related to: Trauma, Grief, PTSD, Anxiety and Phobias.

Mental Health Counselor Clinical Hypnotherapist Initial consultations are free.

Counseling Individuals, Couples & Families Weekly Group G Workshops Offered

Conveniently located in Wellesley.

Just a short drive from Rte. 128/I-95.

www.CompassionateAcceptance.com 617-462-6642

COMPASSIONATE ACCEPTANCE

Center of the Heart Whole Health Integration

Joan Holzman, Psy. D. Lic. Psychologist, Lic. Marriage and Family Therapist Dance/Movement Therapist From the time we are very young we take life’s experiences to heart. Over time we may forget our core, hurts and feelings, but they remain with us. Our heartfelt experiences help shape our sense of self and our interactions with others.

PATH TO THE PRESENT Diane Spindler, LMHC, LMFT Healing and teaching for over 25 years h Relief of PTSD and depression h Elimination of phobias h Reduction of anxiety, panic attacks,

unexplained body pain, nightmares, flashbacks, and dissociation

I offer a variety of modalities such as: EMDR, Sandtray Therapy, Relaxation Techniques, Therapeutic Movement & Psychotherapy to help heal our core issues and attain a more integrated sense of health and well being. I look forward to meeting you.

Client Comments: s Sandtray – “Sand tray therapy helped me see my life more clearly.” s EMDR – “I had insights I never had before.” s Therapeutic Movement – “It was great to feel the freedom in my body after working with you.”

42 Thoreau Street, Concord, MA 01742 978-369-6138

Psychotherapy clients have reached a point where they know why they feel badly, but don’t know how to release these bad feelings that keep them attached to their old stories and in the past. Using Gentle Reprocessing and other leading edge therapies, I help clients let go of these old stories so they can move on to a happier future.

If you’re a veteran, a first responder, a victim of physical, mental, or sexual abuse, a victim of a disaster, a person with a traumatic background, a person who has anger issues, or a person who is afraid of public speaking, this process could be for you. h 508-886-0007 h

www.GentleReprocessing.com Counseling and Therapy continued

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Counseling and Therapy continued

Barbara Madden Johnson M.A., C.A.G.S., L.R.C., L.P.C. Do you have a belief that, inside of you, you have the potential that yearns to be released?

For most, a fleeting glimpse is all they’ll ever have. For others, there is a way. Just imagine…releasing your true potential.

Working together, one-on-one, you can over-

come problems that have kept you from achieving your goals and desires.

Unlock your potential! Restore inner balance!

Come alive!

Barbara Madden Johnson, M.A., C.A.G.S., L.R.C., L.P.C., a certified master practitioner and licensed trainer in Neuro Linguistic Programming, has over 25 years experience helping individuals with: u Career and identity issues u Immune and autoimmune illnesses u Chronic fatigue syndrome u Depression u Learning disabilities and ADD u Relationships u NLP Certification Training Program u Belmont, MA. Some insurance accepted.

For an appointment, call 617-484-1716.

Crystals Crystal Concentrics

R Open Houses

Bringing Crystals into your Life

R Meditations and Workshops

Learn how to work with crystals KYLE RUSSELL, FOUNDER

R Free Webinars

MINDFULNESS WITH THE

Alexander Technique The Alexander Technique helps you reduce stress and tension by bringing more consciousness into all your activities.

Like a form of embodied mindfulness, the Alexander Technique expands your awareness of how you think and move so that you experience ease in your body and clarity in your thoughts.

THE JOHN HARVEY GRAY CENTER FOR

Reiki Healing

R Individual Sessions R Large Showroom Sales R Winter, Spring, and Fall Retreats

Kyle@CrystalConcentrics.com 617-771-5119 R CrystalConcentrics.com

Lourdes Gray, Ph.D. Awaken your healing skills immediately and be a powerful channel for Reiki energy!

Andara Crystals Raise your Vibration and Expand Consciousness www.Andarawakening.com www.Andaraoraclecards.com G Automatically expands your state of awareness

G Increases access to universal knowledge G Activates channeling abilities

G Accelerates the spiritual development process G Creates a bridge between ethereal and physical dimensions

G Manifests and creates by inserting your intention into the Andara Energy Field G Clears and balances chakras

G Raises your frequency of energy, raising your overall vibration

The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing was established by John Harvey Gray and Dr. Lourdes Gray in 1996 to empower and develop a student’s capacity for healing. The Center offers the most thorough Reiki healing training available, ‘with no cut corners’, as it was taught by Mrs. Hawayo Takata. John Harvey Gray received his entire Reiki training from Hawayo Takata. He was one of the original 22 Reiki Master Teachers trained by her.

He was also the longest-practicing Reiki Master Teacher in the Western Hemisphere until his passing into spirit on January 12, 2011.

Learn to make new and constructive choices so that everything you do— walking, bending, computer work, yoga— becomes easier, lighter and more enjoyable.

Anyone who is self-motivated, curious, and open to change can benefit.

Contact me to arrange a free 20-minute ‘taster’ session for an opportunity to find out how I work, how you might benefit and to ask any questions you may have.

HARRY HOBBS

335 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139 harrymhobbs@gmail.com 813-245-5155 b harryhobbs.com

Lourdes was initiated by John Harvey Gray as a Reiki Master Teacher in 1996 after intensive one-on-one training by John Harvey Gray. As a Reiki Master Teacher, Lourdes has taught over 700 Reiki workshops and trained more than 8,000 Reiki students to date and serves as the director of the John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing.

Each workshop consists of two full days of learning and hands-on practice. You will immediately be able to effectively channel Reiki healing energy for yourself, others and pets. In Reiki First Degree you will: ✴ Quickly and easily develop your natural,

intuitive powers. Within minutes, be able to scan and feel a person’s aura and chakras for analysis. ✴ Effectively treat any condition with Reiki energy— physical, emotional or spiritual, chronic or acute. ✴ Immediately be an effective Reiki healer, confidently bringing comfort and calm to family, friends, clients and pets ✴ Receive a training manual & certificate.

The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing P.O. Box 696, Rindge, NH 03461 Visa/MC Accepted

See Full Class Schedule: www.learnreiki.org ✴ 603-899-3288

Healing and Bodywork Bringing complimentary and alternative care to our community... We are a dedicated and professional group of practitioners providing compassionate care to assist our clients on their journey to wellness.

38C Park Street, Medfield, MA 02052 www.holisticwellnesscenter.org 508-359-7400

Our offerings include Acupuncture and Cupping, Ear Candling, Facial Rejuvination, Holistic Health Coaching, Mayan Abdominal Massage, Massage Therapy, Reflexology Reiki, Polarity, Eden Energy Healing, Wardrobe Consulting/Coaching and Holistic Life Counseling. And if all that wasn’t enough... crystals and gifts too!

22-Strand DNA Activation

Bring your Divine Blueprint into Physical Plane Manifestation and experience greater empowerment, improved health (mental, emotional physical and spiritual), increased utilization of your brains potential, greater creativity, and increased energy and clarity.

Also, bring forth your greatest talents and abilities, clear many karmic and genetic patterns, hold greater amounts of light in your physical body, and much more.

Great for those who feel ready to shift out of those “stuck” areas into tremendous empowerment, improved health on all levels, and living your higher destiny agreements and highest potentials.

Rev. Claire Luft Master Teacher/Master Healer Ancient Mystery School Guide & Ritual Master Heart's Singing Healing Center, Woburn, MA 781-281-2888 v www.heartssinging.com Healing and Bodywork, continued

www.spiritofchange.org

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Counseling and Therapy, continued

Learn the Original Japanese Reiki Techniques Northeast Reiki Center

61 Nicholas Road, Framingham, MA 01701 508-808-5696 northeastreikicenter.org Experience Reiki free, second Sunday of month

Patricia Warren Reiki Jin Kei Do

Our comprehensive training provides instruction and practice in the life-enriching way Reiki was originally developed and taught. Reiki’s rich, traditional Japanese techniques are designed to help you express your human potential more fully by: v caring for your heart, mind and body v bringing healing to your loved ones v realizing your true spiritual nature Learn this life-transforming method from a Reiki Master-Teacher with 14 years experience. Receive a manual, practitioner certificate, and lots of after-class support.

Already Reiki-certified but feeling something is missing? Deepen your practice by attending our one-day, life-enhancing Japanese Reiki Techniques Workshop on Saturday, April 8, 2017.

Union, returning 13 times, as well as to thousands of people in medical, religious and educational settings throughout the Caribbean, Europe and Middle East since 1989.

All Levels of Reiki Jin Kei Do Training Buddho Healing (advanced Reiki classes) “His Garments Hem” Christian Healing Touch Gung Fu Chinese Tea Ceremonies Past Life Regression Justice of the Peace Spiritual Director

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New Englands most InternationallyExperienced Reiki Master since 1989 Patricia has taught healing techniques of Buddhist, Sikhs and Christians for over 25 years. She is the appointed East Coast representative of Reiki Jin Kei Do ~ Buddho Healing, authentic and advanced teachings of Usui Reiki in the lineage of Buddhist Monk Seiji Takamori. Patricia was the first woman to teach Reiki in the former Soviet

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Divine Intervention is “Where the Impossible Becomes Possible.”

Divine Intervention

Spontaneous Remission Advanced Energetic Hands on Healing from the Mayan Lineage. Miraculous Healing for all issues that require attention.

Reiki Inspired Healing REIKI FOR PEOPLE & PETS K A R E N TA L B OT

Usui/Holy Fire II Reiki and Karuna Reiki Master/Teacher Offering Reiki Sessions in office or remotely for both people and pets. Also unique combined sessions with parent and child, or parent and pet.

Large Animal Reiki also provided at homes/barns. Prices determined on an individual case basis.

Rev. Claire Luft is a Master Healer and Master Teacher of Divine Intervention Healing. This healing technique is sacred, powerful, and produces Physical Plane Results.

One of Libby’s passions is teaching hospice staff and volunteers. Fueled by Reiki energy, their healing touch is enhanced, creating greater effectiveness in calming agitation, soothing pain and providing comfort. ©

Libby Barnett, MSW, RMT Awaken Your Healing Touch Libby is a gifted, knowledgeable Reiki Master with 38 years experience. Libby learned Reiki from John Harvey Gray in 1979, and is the longest practicing Reiki Master Teacher on the East Coast. Her book, Reiki Energy Medicine, Bringing Healing Touch into Home, Hospital, and Hospice has sold over 75,000 copies in five languages.

Use Reiki to create more joy, ease, and happiness. Let Libby’s warm, heart-centered approach help you take your next step toward self-love and inner peace. Reiki brings balance and harmony, supporting you doing the work you were born to do.

Reiki facilitates transitions, promotes creativity and wisdom, and accelerates spiritual growth, helping you manifest your magnificence.

Libby has been teaching Reiki at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health for 15 years. She has taught medical and nursing students at Harvard, Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Brown, Tufts, and Yale, as well as staff at Mass General, Brigham and Women’s, Beth Israel, Mt. Auburn, Emerson, DartmouthHitchcock, Southern New Hampshire, New York Columbia Presbyterian hospitals, and social workers at the University of Maryland. Libby was featured in a Reiki segment for the PBS nationally televised series, Body and Soul.

“Libby has a beautiful way of teaching and creates a perfect atmosphere for healing and learning.”

232 Chandler Street, Worcester, MA Above the Living Earth store By appointment only ReikiInspiredHealing@gmail.com www.ReikiInspiredHealing.com 774-272-2717

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Reiki I, Boston Area Classes: Newton, MA: March 25 or June 3 Concord, MA: March 11 or June 10 Reiki I, Wilton, NH Classes: March 18 or May 20 Reiki II Class: on day following Reiki I Class Reiki Master, Wilton, NH Class: April 8 Graduates of other Reiki teachers welcome.

Additional Reiki training dates can be found at: www.reikienergy.com All credit cards accepted.

Social Work, Nursing and Massage contact hours/CEU’s available. Reiki Master Teacher Training info available on request.

To register or for more information: www.reikienergy.com reiki@reikienergy.com • 603-654-2787

WHAT HER CLIENTS SAY:

REIKI CLASSES

Centrally located in Central Massachusetts

"My commitment to teach the Usui System of Reiki Healing in the authentic, traditional manner inspired me to visit Japan to retrace the roots of Reiki. I am dedicated to teaching this sacred healing art to promote health and conscious living on the planet. I invite you to give yourself the gift of Reiki. It is an easy, effective self-care tool to love, heal, and empower yourself. I look forward to meeting you and sharing Reiki.”

Deborah is a dedicated practitioner committed to the health and wellness of her clients, and a devoted teacher gently guiding her students into their own experience of Reiki through attunement and training.

Heart’s Singing Healing Center Woburn, MA 781-281-2888 u www.heartssinging.com

Usui/Holy Fire II Reiki I Reiki II z Advanced Reiki Training Master/Teacher and Karuna Master Teacher Levels

In class, a powerful slide presentation captures the essence of Reiki and highlights the latest research. Reiki stories from Libby’s extensive experience will uplift and inspire you, showing how anyone can learn Reiki. You receive attunements and practice giving and receiving Reiki. You leave class with an illustrated notebook, certificate, and Reiki pin, fully trained and certified to do Reiki on yourself, family, friends, and animals. “Hands on, Reiki’s on.”

DEBORAH STRAFUSS Reiki Master and Teacher, Usui Reiki Ryoho Creating a Personal Path to Inner Healing through Reiki Crystal Reiki offers traditional Usui Reiki, Crystal Chakra Balancing, Space Healing and Clearing and Reiki Training, Shares and Classes for those desiring to incorporate Reiki into their lives and work.

“Deborah is a caring professional who puts a new client at ease.”

- Brenda “I felt so at peace last night. I slept through the night and am still at peace this morning.”

- Steff

WHAT HER STUDENTS SAY:

“I love your space, the location, the energy of it, how prepared you were. I think you are a very professional and comforting presence.”

- Bonnie Find Crystal Reiki at The Gentle Place Wellness Group in Framingham, MA R 508-353-5136 R www.CrystalReikiEnergy.com

Healing and Bodywork, continued

Healing and Bodywork, continued

Reiki Satellite, LLC

Altering disruptive short circuits so that energy may flow more easily throughout the body.

Kimberly Pacek, RMT

Create a balance for a healthier habit of everyday living.

8 years experience

Life Coach Facilitating Death and Dying Horse and Pet Therapy Traditional U.H.T. Methods

By Appointment Only In person or long distance healings by phone: 603-897-5979 R Nashua, NH www.reikisatellite.com

Healing: Combined Modalities Benefits of Shamanic Energy Medicine b Ends the influence of the past on how we

Cathy Stubbs, RN Four Winds Society Certified Light Body Healer Reiki Master Shaman Shamanic Energy Medicine is beneficial to anyone in any walk of life, especially those who have experienced traumas, are feeling stuck, inhibited, and unable to enjoy life.

engage the future and the present moment

b Brings vitality and a grounded sense of

self by returning parts of our essence lost in having accommodated relationships and life for security and survival.

b Raises our energy of vibration through

the clearing of our light body.

Feel present, positive, peaceful, able to dream, and live consciously in the moment. eagleflighthealing@gmail.com 203-535-8849 eagleflighthealing.wordpress.com

Sessions offered remotely via Skype or phone.

Vibrational Transformation

By increasing your Vibrational Frequency, you’ll transform the denser, heavier energies within your system allowing you to: G

CHERYL WRIGHT

We are vibrational beings.

Your Vibrational Frequency informs your entire reality.

Vibrational Transformation is a process whereby vibrations are introduced into the physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and energetic bodies for transformation.

intuitive HEALING

Wendy Marks

M.Ed, C.A.S., FAPA R Medical intuitive sessions, energy heal-

ing and integrative therapy

R 30 years of experience in traditional and

complementary healthcare

www.spiritofchange.org

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LIGHT & LOVE

HEALING Reconnective Healing® The Reconnection® and Reconnective Healing® with Animals

HEALING

with Lisa

G Come back into harmony with your true

desires in all areas of your life

Offices in Watertown, MA and Cumberland, RI Available in-person or by phone Cheryl@WrightHereNow.com 617-448-8749 G www.WrightHereNow.com

R Improve your physical, mental, and

spiritual health

R Works with individuals to develop their

own intuitive skills “By healing ourselves we create changes that have a ripple effect on the world around us.”

Looking for practical guidance to create your own spiritual path? You’ll find it in Wendy’s book Your Soul’s Companion, available on her website and at amazon.com. www.wendymarks.com R 781-449-5368 wlm922@wendymarks.com

www.lightandlovehealing.com RUSSELL RICCIO r 603-935-9106

Assistance with weight loss, addictions, Arthritis, Lyme disease, PTSD, allergies, sleep issues, focus, pain, chronic health conditions, depression, sleep apnea, anxiety, public speaking anxiety and relationships.

LISA SEMLE

Health, Life and Nutrition Coaching

Energy & Mind/Body Healing, Nutritionist, Medical Intuitive Life & Wellness Coach

Uxbridge, MA Lsemle@msn.com 978-877-1226 G healingwithlisa.com

Barbara Fe Spirit / Psychic Medium Inspiration Coach Environmental Balancing intuitivebarbarafe@gmail.com barbarafe-inspire.com * 207-619-0581

Embody and reveal who you truly are Unleash your innate gifts, talents and abilities

Give yourself, a loved one, or beloved animal a Reconnective Healing,® uniquely customized by the intelligence of the universe, whereby you or they will receive what is needed — emotional, spiritual or physical healing, not merely just what you think you should have.

The objective of The Reconnection® is to return the body to balance, while tapping into the universal healing intelligence.

What is keeping you from the joy you desire?

Barbara specializes in using her intuitive gifts to inspire and uplift; remove emotional and physical blocks, work through loss, and balance the environment you live in.

Also, learn how to tap into your innate abilities through classes and mentor sessions.

A session with Barbara over the phone, or in your home in Southern Maine or New Hampshire will empower you and help you re-align with your soul’s path.

Please e-mail or call Jay for an appointment Shamanic Practitioner/ Energy-Healer

Received Altomesayoc Rites from Q’ero Paqo Don Sebastian in Peru

Chakra Illumination G Soul Retrieval Entity Extraction G Object Extraction Cord Cutting

$60 per session ~ Sliding scale available healingshamanic.com G 617-340-9593 G healingshamanic@gmail.com

Herbs and Gardens

Hillside Herbals Rachel Ross, RN, CNM Classes, Herb Walks, and Consultations 30 Wahlstrom Lane, Jefferson, MA 01522 508-847-8615 k hillsideherbals.com

Hillside Herbals offers healing through herbal care for the whole family. I craft healing teas, tinctures, and skin care from certified organic herbs, locally grown herbs, and mindfully harvested wild herbs.

Full Moon Herbal Workshops Sign up for one or all. This 10-month series is content-rich and intensive. Held monthly on Sunday evenings, 7 – 9 pm at Hillside Herbals. $20 includes all materials.

March 12, April 8* (Saturday evening workshop), May 14, and June 11

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Nancy Johansen

Nutrition Holistic Nutrition Services, LLC BETH COLON, M.S., HHP Nutrition and Wellness Counselor Certified GAPS Practitioner Specializing in digestive wellness and gut repair.

Come on a journey with me to improve your health with holistic nutrition.

RN, CCH, RMT

Connecting you with your Angelic Dream Team, creating your Happily Ever After Angel Readings S Past Life Regression Angel Therapy® S Reiki S Hypnotherapy

PROGRAMS FOR:

at Angeltouche

S Practical Nutrition

S Digestive Wellness S GAPS

S Cancer Recovery Nutrition

Private sessions in person or distance by phone and e-mail.

Classes and workshops ~ North Attleboro, MA Nancy@Angeltouche.com www.Angeltouche.com S 508-577-4552

Psychic Intuitive S Angel Therapy Practitioner ®

S Brain Health

S Detoxification

978-340-0448 www.HolisticNutritionServices.com

READINGS AND SESSIONS IN F F

Readings Archangel Messages Sessions by phone, skype, facebook chat, email or in person!

Testimonials and pricing here: www.angelicteachings.webs.com Contact Asia S. at asia333@sbcglobal.net

KELLE SUTLIFF

by

$225 for an hour appointment. Call for Readings: Z 978-420-8213 Z

psychicmediumkelle.com Kelle Sutliff’s work has been seen on ABC, CBS, and FOX, and in The Boston Herald and The Boston Globe.

Kelle’s psychic predictions for 2016 were #1 on Google out of 1.5 MILLION psychics making predictions for the new year.

Her award-winning book, Listen UP! The Other Side is Talking has influenced people around the world, showing them how to connect to their loved ones. Kelle writes like

Angels are with us 24/7, giving us guidance and support.

With over 23 years of experience, Asia works with these angelic guides to help you to find the peace you seek. Accurate readings on life decisions, including romance, career, health, family and more!

she is having a one-on-one conversation with you. She shares her world, making it relatable to your own life, and connecting you to loved ones. Her book has won two very prestigious awards, “Reader’s Favorite” and “Mom’s Choice.” It is available through her web site, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble book outlets.

…In the presence of loving Angelic energy Connecting to Spirit for inspiration, sustenance and support for your life’s journey

My show “Psychic Cup of Coffee” was affiliated with CBS radio and Transformation Talk Radio for three years. I am currently connected with the #1 talk show host in Boston as a permanent guest on “Night Side With Dan Rea” on WBZ radio.

I conduct in-person readings at my office at 505 Middllesex Turnpike, Suite 13, in Billerica, MA. I also take appointments for national and international readings via phone and Skype. I look forward to having the opportunity to read for you.” ~ Much blessings, Kelle

Nancy guides you into a connection with spirit and your soul for guidance, healing and direction. If you want to connect with a loved one who has passed, or work through questions and challenges, allow spirit to inspire you in a reading session with Nancy.

North Andover F nancy@angelscapes.net www.angelscapes.net F 978-835-0005

Salons and Spas Creative Strands HAIR

&BODYWORKS

Chill Out, Ease Stress & Restore Balance Treat yourself to the ultimate in relaxation!

“I am a psychic medium, author, psychic investigator, and former radio show host who has been practicing for over fifteen years. As a psychic investigator, I have provided accurate information in missing person cases using my expertise for private investigators, individual families, and national missing persons organizations.

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Spiritual mediumship Spirit portraits of loved ones in Spirit Akashic record life readings Group sessions and classes Free “Wing Tips” at angelscapes.net

Skin care and hair care products for all skin types and hair care needs. Our whole team continues to keep up with the latest trends and state of the art techniques.

Check out our monthly specials on our website, www.creativestrandsllc.com, or check out our page on Facebook at Creative Strands Hair and Bodyworks.

3 Boston Road, Sutton, MA www.creativestrandsllc.com i 508-865-1141

You will LOVE your glowing, smooth, healthier looking skin after a gentle and nourishing Holistic Facial with Ellen at ‘Love Your Face!’

Ellen O’Donnell

Licensed Aesthetician & Reiki Master 20% off first-time clients Reiki Facial a Perfect Pumpkin Phyto Facial Seasonal Phyto 5 Facial a Anti-Age Phyto Facial a Decadent Chocolate Phyto Facial

This is a deeply relaxing experience and a perfect time to start caring for your skin. Facials are preventative wellness for the skin…you are worth it! No parabens, sulphates or chemicals.

To schedule your appointment: 978-457-1431 a ellen.design16@comcast.net 110 Haverhill Road, Amesbury, MA www.healinghands-ellen.com

The Oneness Blessing frees the senses from the constant chatter of the mind, bringing clarity and spontaneous feelings of love, joy, peace and inner silence. It dissolves negative patterns, releases traumas stored at the cellular and energetic levels, and facilitates deep emotional physical healing. Eventually the process brings a permanent end to personal suffering and full Awakening to the very highest states of consciousness.

Spiritual Practices The Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism We have moved! Our new address: Arlington Masonic Temple 19 Academy St., Arlington, MA (off Mass Ave., easy access by T via Harvard Sq.) Our mailing address: 40-44 Spring St., Watertown, MA 02472

An affiliate of the Spiritualists United Network

(SUN) and the International Spiritualist Federation.

617-923-4334 GreaterBostonChurchofSpiritualism.com

The Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism embraces a religious and spiritual belief blending ancient wisdom with contemporary thought. Services are held at 10:30 am every Sunday, with mediumship, live music, inspirational talks, and healing by laying on of hands.

As an evolving spiritual community, The Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism offers weekday evening classes in mediumship, healing, and meditation; mediums days held the last Sunday of the month; and seminars and workshops through the year.

For a brochure with upcoming events, or to speak with the Pastor, call us. Visit our website for current events or more information.

Start your Neurobiological Shift www.onenessma.org/awaken The Oneness Blessing is a direct transfer of intelligent sacred energy, which causes the heart to flower and the mind to quiet. It initiates a neurobiological change in the brain.

We have regular large group events and smaller blessing circles within the Oneness Massachusetts group – check our website: OnenessMA.org for details and locations.

Sign up for our newsletter and get email invitations to our large events.

Meet us at the Natural Living Expo, November 11-12. Visit Booth #16.

Yoga Brahma Kumaris Learning Center for Peace

When we change ... the world changes.

Methods of achieving stability and clarity of mind become more and more essential as our social, political, and economic structures change dramatically. Raja Yoga is a simple but powerful form of meditation that can help you to develop peace of mind, resilience, and inner strength.

The Brahma Kumaris Learning Center for Peace is a worldwide spiritual organization, affiliated with the UN and recipient of seven Peace Messenger awards. Classes include meditation and a range of other practical tools for self-transformation.

Workshops, group meditations, and retreats are held regularly.

All activities are offered free of charge, as a community service.

The meditation center is at 75 Common Street in Watertown MA. For information or to schedule an appointment, visit the website at www.bkwsuboston.com, e-mail: boston@bkwsu.com or call 617-926-1230.

MUSINGS Continued from page 8

Yet, these are exactly the disastrous circumstances the world awoke to on November 9, 2016. In “American Winter,” an essay by Krista Bremer in The Sun (February 2017), the Gambian cashier working in an affluent American neighborhood supermarket remarks, ““Of course Trump won. God sees the suffering America has spread around the globe.” She felt Trump would be a fitting representative of a rich country that pursues its interests with callous disregard for vulnerable people at home and abroad.” Is the new president what Americans deserve, a harsh mirror of the self-absorbed, ill-informed citizens we have become?

Suddenly we are paying attention. All over the country, children are being ripped from their mothers or worried sick about it happening on a daily basis. Muslims are being targeted and banned from entering America. Protections for workers, consumers, sick people and the environment are gleefully being stripped away as victories. Perhaps the election of the current president and his administration reflects our collective wisdom in knowing that pain and danger are the two triggers we cannot ignore, ones that would compel us to go deep and go global.

Vywamus, a teacher of higher consciousness, notes this issue on page 68 that, “Many men and women currently on the world stage are doing you a service by giving you a chance to see more clearly what’s going wrong. What they say and do is actually helping to speed up the breakdown of the old forms that no longer work. You must make the excursion into the deeper level of your consciousness, where you will find your real source of power. Who you are at this deep level of yourself is more powerful than anything you actually say or do, and it will help move you and others in the direction you need to go www.spiritofchange.org

Ann Bissanti

Worcester Yoga Center Hatha Yoga begins with refining the physical body but does not stop there. The exercises involve slow precise stretching, strengthening, and breathing techniques, which not only tone the muscles but affect internal organs, nerves, skin, and virtually

all body systems, making Yoga a superior wholistic method for physical fitness and preventive and corrective health care.

Certified Yoga teacher and therapist Ann Bissanti, trained in India by B.KS. Iyengar, has studied Yoga and meditation for the past 30 years. She has taught Yoga at Leonard Morse Hospital in Natick, at various fitness centers and adult education programs, and privately.

Call us for more information.

Worcester Yoga Center 21 West Street, Worcester, MA 01609

WorcesterYogaCenter.com | 508-829-6300

to make the new forms that actually work in your everyday physical reality. You cannot create new forms or a new reality that lasts without going to this level of yourselves.”

The protests against the current US president are not just limited to America; they are global. Humanity is simply responding to its own evolutionary call. We want to evolve, not devolve, and this election is proving to be our catalyst. It’s time to engage the powers we were born with and rekindle our commitment to truth, justice and the American way in every way we can. That means work and paying attention on a daily basis. Americans must also take the necessary civic actions to help create the new forms that we wish to see inaugurated in this country. “The most important political office is that of private citizen,” said Louis Brandeis, Supreme Court Justice from 1916-1939.

Each one of us plays a vital role in this group momentum; your actions matter. For this purpose, suggestions from Indivisible: A Practical Guide for Resisting the Trump Agenda are included in this issue.

No topic is more appropriate for discussion in Spirit of Change than one that has added so much stress to the lives of so many ordinary and extra-ordinary Americans.

Now more than ever during this time of political upheaval is the time to boost your own health. Meditation enhances any other treatment you are using, and best of all, it’s free.

Apply liberally. The new Spirit of Change Journal of Natural Healing is now available online at spiritofchange.org/journal with first person natural healing success stories. We’ve included a sampling of the accounts for you to read in this issue beginning on page 52.

Learn what works by reading other people’s successes, and then contribute some of your own to this natural healing database online. Help shift the healthcare paradigm back to mainstream natural healing available to everyone.

Carol Bedrosian is the publisher of Spirit of Change holistic magazine. www.spiritofchange.org.

SPRING/SUMMER2017 2017| |Spirit Spirit of of Change Change 87 SPRING/SUMMER

ANGELS Ross J. Miller, psychic. Meet your angels and spirit guides. 617-527-3583.

Visit www.The MysticWay.com

ANIMAL SERVICES MASH Integrative Veterinary Care, since 1982.

Dr. Margo Roman & Associates. 508-435-4077.

MashVet.com

ASTROLOGY Eric Linter, over 25 years experience. Readings, classes, daily forecast. stars@ericlinter.com.

508-541-4115.

CERTIFICATIONS Hypnotherapy, NLP, Reiki, IET and Crystal Healing.

508-539-2885. Clinics and crystal fairs. www.capecodcenterforwholehealth.com Schools of Wisdom Hypnotherapy, IET, Holistic Professional, Usui, Karuna, and Shamballa Reiki. 508-230-3680. WomenofWisdominc.com

CHILDREN’S HEALTH Touchstone Community School. Education for ages 4-14. Grafton, MA. 508-839-0038. www.touchstoneschool.com.

COLON HYDROTHERAPY Genesis Alternative Health. 34 years of experience.

I-ACT certified instructor. NBCHT certified.

603-347-1861. detoxgenesis.com Debra Graham, CT, ND. I-ACT and NBCHT certified. Westminster, MA. 413-522-0061.

DrDebMA.com Body Balancing Center. I-ACT and National Board certified. 508-868-3624. www.bodybalancingcenter.com

Constance Jones. Since 1980. I-ACT certified instructor. NBCHT certified. Manchester, CT. 860-287-4558. www.cleanmycolon.com

CRYSTALS

Kyle Russell, 30 years experience.

Classes, retreats, one-on-one, crystal showroom.

Kyle@CrystalConcentrics.com, 617-771-5119 88 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

DEPRESSION & ANXIETY TREATMENT Healed in 2 Hours. Ross J. Miller, psychic healer.

617-527-3583. www.TheMysticWay.com

EMF PROTECTION The Rejuvenizer®, protection from EMFs and other damaging frequencies. www.lighthealing.com. 512-301-2999.

FENG SHUI Urban Eden. Transform and empower your home/work spaces. 401-351-5632. karenfeldmanurbaneden.com Feng Shui Services of New England. Julie PelletierRutkowski, MS, RN. Consulting and education. www.FSSone.com.

GHOSTS REMOVED From Your Home/Aura. Ross J. Miller, psychic medium, healer. Call 617-527-3583. www. The MysticWay.com

MEDICAL INTUITIVE Sue Singleton. 20+ years accurately finding Root Cause. 978-834-0341. TheWayToBalance.com Intuitive Healing with Wendy Marks.

Over 25 years of experience. 781-449-5368. www.wendymarks.com Elizabeth Thorson, RN. Certified by Carolyn Myss and Norman Shealy, MD. elizabeththorson.com.

207-712-9495.

PAIN RELIEF Pat Lebau, MA, ERYT-500, Kripalu Yoga teacher, offers Integrated Positional Therapy sessions.

Discover how to relieve your pain. PatLebau.com

REIKI Libby Barnett, MSW, MSW, Reiki Master Teacher and author. 38 years Reiki experience. 603-654-2787 www.reikienergy.com. CEU’s.

Patricia Warren, Reiki Master Teacher. All levels of Reiki Jin Kei Do training plus Buddho Healing.

508-528-5888. PatriciaWarren.com The John Harvey Gray Center for Reiki Healing.

603-899-3288. www.learnreiki.org Sacred Song Reiki and Sound Healing. Priscilla Gale, Reiki Master/Teacher. SacredSongReiki.com.

Northeast Reiki Center. Learn original Japanese techniques. www.northeastreikicenter.org

RETREAT CENTERS Wild Dolphin Swims. Yoga, healthy food, Atlantean legends. www.wildquest.com. 800-326-1816 Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Retreat Center.

Haines Falls, NY. 518-589-5000. www.peacevillageretreat.org

REFLEXOLOGY Dee MacLean. Comfortable and relaxing. Home visits for your convenience. Whitman, MA. catlinggirl@aol.com. 508-562-0813.

YOGA Raffa Yoga and Urban Sweat. Plus residential healthy living retreats. Cranston, RI. 401-463-3335. www.raffayoga.com.

Worcester Yoga Center. Ann Bissanti, CYT. 30 years experience Iyengar yoga. 508-829-6300. worcesteryogacenter.com

PAST LIFE THERAPY Ross J. Miller. Relive past lives and release blocked energy. 617-527-3583. www.The MysticWay.com

READINGS Rachel Perry, Psychic Medium. (508) 681-0320. www.RachelPerryMedium.com.

Add your listing!

Next deadline: July 31, 2017.

Email advertise@spiritofchange.org.

AKASHIC RECORDS

DOWSING All About Dowsing. Through dowsing discover more about yourself and your health. Self-instructional DVD’s, books, instruments. www.dowsing.com.

(805) 649-5721. Catalog: PO Box 30305, Santa Barbara, CA 93130.

FENG SHUI Searching for answers? Order your Akashic records reading and start living your truth. Spiritual life coaching through psychic readings and astrology. www.Etsy.com/shop/MysticalSynergy

BUSINESS FOR SALE Established 20-year 5 Element Acupuncture practice for sale in beautiful southern Maine (Springvale). Currently working 3 days/wk.

Majority cash basis. Accept credit/debit cards and some insurance billing. Income $106K. Furniture for 1 treatment room, supplies, patient files, patent herbs. Getting ready to retire and will stay on to introduce you to loyal patient base. $60,000. Currently housed at the Gate of Hope Holistic Center, which is also for sale separately. It is a 3285 sq. ft. medical office building with ample parking.

Building is fully leased on the right side with long term tenants. Left side has potential for 3 additional offices. Highly visible location and handicapped accessible. Visit www.gateofhopeholisticcenter.com. Great investment opportunity $279.9! Serious inquiries only please!

BUSINESS SERVICES DeVoe Accounting and Bookkeeping.

Various business services to assist you at reasonable rates. Call Brian or Linda.

(781) 599-8275.

Boston Feng Shui with Lynn Taylor.

After decades of studying many different feng shui traditions, as well as teaching and consulting both nationally and internationally, I have blended what I believe to be the best of many approaches. For more information or to arrange a consultation please contact me at (617) 924-4205, or e-mail lynntaylor@bostonfengshui.com. www.BostonFengShui.com. Residential, business and staging services.

HERBAL TRAINING Herbal Apprentice Program! Moore Farm, Alton, NH. Starts April 2017.

Fun, exciting, hands-on program! Visit our website at www.moorefarmherbs.com.

(603) 859-0464

HYPNOSIS Kathryn McGlynn Hypnosis. Past life regression and metaphysical hypnosis.

Schedule your private session today or gather your group together for an illuminating experience. (781) 3402146. http://www.hypnosis.ws

ONLINE RESOURCES

COACHING Choices in life — A Creative Insight provides intuitive life counseling. Let me assist in problems solving. $35 per session. Contact Indala. (781) 599-8275. www.spiritofchange.org

Newton Center Office Space For Rent. Full-time/part-time availability.

Inviting, furnished psychotherapy suite includes private office, waiting room, clerical space and bathroom.

Contact Chris Gruener (617) 965-6552, crossroads-counseling-services.com, chris.gruener@comcast.net.

Office space available in Arlington. Two separate office spaces available for rent.

Perfect for massage therapist. One room includes sink. Both spaces approximately 250 square feet. Call (781) 648-9867.

Beautiful space for rent in the center of Shrewsbury for practitioners of body and energy work, consultations, classes, meetings, etc. Full, part-time and hourly rates available. Please contact Becky at Bhavna’s Wellness Group: (508) 970-5620.

Two bright and sunny spacious 210 sq. ft. and 230 sq. ft. offices for lease in five-office suite. Suite amenities: client waiting area, kitchenette and bathroom. Join our growing community of fifteen independently owned health practitioner businesses.

Pleasant Health Center for the Healing Arts,

294 Pleasant Street, PO Box 745, Stoughton, MA 02072. (781) 341-3416.

Email eggrockrealty@gmail.com.

All About Pyramids. Wellness, meditation/ experimental tabletop models. Worldwide research. (805) 649-5721. www.dowsing. com. Catalog: P.O. Box 30305, Santa Barbara, CA 93130.

Please visit us at www.facebook.com/ PHCHAStoughton.

REFLEXOLOGY

Massage or Complementary Health Practitioner opportunity: Join our circle of complementary practitioners in beautiful space in Sterling, MA. Private office with shared bathrooms, kitchen, and conference space available. Contact: cindypopphager@comcast.net or (978) 422-8891.

Rosalie Cryan, Reflexology, advanced certification. Reiki Master. Promoting balance and stress relief for 15 years. Experience bodywork for the first time or change your current routine. Only the feet are exposed.

Quincy, MA. (617) 471-4190.

Mention this ad: $60. Quincymassage.com

TRAVEL LOVE IRELAND? Native to Ireland and founder of Spiral Journeys, LLC Ann Quinlan consults, designs and leads small group (max 14) land journeys in her homeland, Ireland. Since 1988 Ann shares Hidden Ireland while imbuing the traveler with mythology, folklore, megalithic history, nurturing organic food and the welcoming culture of her people. www.spiraljourneys.com. ann@ spiraljourneys.com. (207) 899-2606 for a chat with Ann.

Seeking experienced licensed or eligible to be licensed naturopaths or health practitioners.

Contact John P. Ando, Sr. at Eggrock Realty Corporation,

PYRAMIDS

Beautiful hand painted angelic and spiritual wall hangings, banners and altar cloths. Divine designs and mandalas with a magickal twist! Visit www.etsy.com/ shop/MysticalBanners, email Marsha: reikimsdm@gmail.com.

VOLUNTEER

Stoughton, MA.

294 Pleasant Street (Route 139), just minutes from Routes 24, 128, 138 and 27.

Amenities: 1000 sq. ft. function room, and a conference room.

Visitors always welcome.

CLASSES Upper Cape Tech in Bourne, MA, near Cape Cod Canal is a leading provider of career and wellness training offering Culinary Arts, Health Careers, Nurse Aide, Medical Assistant, Real Estate, Computers, Aromatherapy, Professional Reflexology, Decorating and Design, Digital Photography, Nail Tech, Art, Graphic design. 600+ online courses and more.

Visit www.uppercapetech.cc or call 508 759-7711, ext. 211 for details.

SPIRITUAL GOODS

SPACE FOR RENT

Make a Difference and Become an Ascend Hospice Volunteer in Massachusetts

Contact one of our Volunteer Supervisors for more information Lisa O’Clare: Lisa.oclare@ascendhealth.com Jenn Fenuccio: Jennifer.fenuccio@ascendhealth.com Visit our website to learn more about our specialized hospice care and services AscendHospice.com

WILD DOLPHIN SWIMS Swimming with Wild Dolphins. The ultimate human-dolphin connection.

Meditative, healing Caribbean Island retreats. Yoga, healthy food, Atlantean legends. www.wildquest.com.

(800) 326-1618.

call 508-278-9640 x 3

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 89

A

Q

Abra Therapeutics...........................................49 Acupuncture of Worcester.............................78 Acupuncture Practice of Lisa Desrosiers.....18 Advaita Meditation Center.............................79 Ageless Yoga.....................................................60 Alternatives for Health...................................52 Alternatives For Healing.................................89 Akashic Record Readings...............................89 American Society of Dowsers........................33 Amma...............................................................63 Andara Crystals...............................................83 Angelscapes......................................................31 Angeltouche.....................................................86 Arvigo Massage................................................30 Ascend Hospice...............................................89

Quantum Wellness Center.............................60

B Libby Barnett....................................................84 Baylight Homeopathy.....................................16 Beadniks...........................................................59 Bhavna’s Wellness Group..................................3 Glenn Bigonet..................................................82 Biofield Tuning................................................38 Blossom Healings............................................60 Body Balancing Center...................................49 Boston Predictive Analysis.............................37 Boston School of Herbal Studies, The...........79 Bhanma Kumaris.............................................87 Mark Braunstein..............................................65 Kelly Buckowski...............................................12 Susan Burdick..................................................80 C Nancy Canning................................................29 Canton Spiritualist Church............................20 Amy Caparco...................................................61 Catholic Medical Center.................................43 Circles of Wisdom...........................................30 Cold Spring Wellness......................................59 Constellation Approach..................................13 Cosmic Cat.......................................................29 Creative Strands Hair & Bodywork..............86 Crystal Concentrics................................... 15,83 Crystal Reiki.....................................................84 D Dancing Jaguar Inspirations..........................14 Dr. Sharon Doolittle........................................34 E Eagle Flight Healing........................................85 Eastover Estate and Retreat............................24 Eclectic Institute of Aromatherapy and Herbal Studies, The...............................80 Enchanted Fox.................................................51 F Barbara Fe.........................................................85 Four Winds One Breath.................................28 The Fourwinds Society...................................23 FrogPond Yoga Centre....................................39 G Gemstone Therapy Institute...........................40 Deborah Graham.............................................81 Andy Grant.......................................................20 Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism........87 Grof Transpersonal Training.........................12 Groton Wellness Center.................................45

R

Index of Advertisers Spring/Summer 2017 Fall/Winter issue advertising deadline:

JULY 31, 2017

H

M

Harmony Farm................................................52 Healing Choices...... 49Healing from the Body Level Up............................................................25 Healing with Lisa.............................................85 Healthy Spirit...................................................81 HeartSong.........................................................79 Hillside Herbals...............................................85 Harry Hobbs....................................................83 Holistic Nutrition Services.............................86 Holistic Oasis...................................................52 Holistic Wellness Center.......................... 22,83 Joan Holzman..................................................82 Hug Patrol........................................................60

Marconic Recallibration.................................27 M.A.S.H............................................................65 Massachusetts Satsang Society, Inc...............32 Massage Envy.....................................................2 Maha Yoga Center...........................................39 Tina Marian......................................................41 Linda Marks.....................................................82 Wendy Marks...................................................85 Metrowest Thermal Imaging..........................43 Ross Miller............................................ 17, 38,55 Lori Miller-Freitas...........................................82 Andrea Montgomery......................................59 Paula Muran.....................................................34

I

N

Infinite Source Hypnosis................................11 Inner Traditions...............................................65

Natural Living Expo..........................................9 Nature’s Rite......................................................47 NE Institute of Reflexology............................80 New England Forever Aloe............................61 New England Veg Fest....................................75 Dr. Jody Noe.....................................................28 Northeast Reiki Center...................................84

J JLJ Spiritual Healing........................................15 John Harvey Gray Center...............................83 Barbara Johnson..............................................83 Johnson Compounding and Wellness..........22 Joy de Viv..........................................................55 Just Bee and Me...............................................59 K Dr. Kate Klemer...............................................17 L Pat LeBau..........................................................37 Lou Lessard......................................................35 Life Reboot Coaching.....................................81 Light and Love Healing..................................85 Light Unlimited.................................................4 Eric Linter.........................................................78 Living Earth, The.............................................26 Lotus Flower Living........................................34 Love Your Face Holistic Skin Care................86 LoveLight Illuminations.................................21 Claire Luft................................................... 83,84

90 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2017

O Olson Media Group..........................................7 Oneness.............................................................87 Open Spirit................................................. 79,39 Opening Lotus Yoga........................................39 P Path to the Present..........................................82 Rachel Perry.....................................................47 Pets and Spirits.................................................14 Jay Cern Phua..................................................85 Planetary Health..............................................18 Pleasant Health Center For The Healing Arts..................................................89 Monique Pommier..........................................78 Purple Door, The.............................................80 Pure Science Lab..............................................47 Pyramid Books................................................32

Raffa Yoga & Urban Sweat........................ 19,39 Reiki Satellite....................................................85 Reiki of Greater Boston..................................81 Relax Sauna......................................................21 Relaxed Pet, The...............................................16 Returning to Wholeness.................................29 Rhys Thomas Institute....................................92 Lynn Robinson.................................................14 S Sacred Song Reiki...................................... 35,40 Salve Regina University..................................57 Samantha Baker Healing................................80 Sanctuary for Celestial Empowerment, The.....50 Science of Spirituality.....................................35 Asia Scudder....................................................86 Andrea Seiver...................................................82 Simply Energy..................................................20 Small Miracles Preschool...............................79 Miriam Smith...................................................26 Spa Tech............................................................80 Spirit Hollow....................................................31 State of Grace Yoga and Wellness Center.....39 Stillpoint Wellbeing Center............................78 Kelle Sutliff.......................................................86 Synthesis Center, The......................................81 T Karen Talbot.....................................................84 Teachers of God Foundation............................5 MaryLee Trettenero.........................................50 U-V-W Union Street Yoga............................................28 Tina Vesely.......................................................12 Robyn Vogel.....................................................81 Dot Walsh.........................................................18 Pat Warren........................................................84 Way to Balance, The.................................. 43,80 WellFit Studio..................................................55 Wellness Roundtable, The..............................41 Nancy West.......................................................16 Westborough Yoga..........................................39 Trish Whynot...................................................82 Wiccadgood Wellness.....................................33 Wisdom of the Ages........................................65 Women of Wisdom................................... 51,79 Women’s Herbal Conference............................7 Irene Wong.......................................................38 The Word, The Universal Spirit.....................81 Worcester Yoga Center............................. 39,87 Cheryl Wright..................................................85 Wu Healing Center..........................................91 X-Y-Z Yoga at the Ashram.............................. 39,57,79 The Yoga Studio...............................................39 Your Health Matters........................................26

Contact Us: (508) 278-9640

advertise@spiritofchange.org

Dear Friends, We have some good news for you if you’re into herbal medicine and natural healing.

Dr. Ming Wu is now offering 15-minute Distance Herbal Healing Sessions. As a 20th generation herbalist he can quickly determine what imbalances are present in your body using the well-known TCM technique of tongue diagnosis.

You can also tell him everything that’s going on and what you are experiencing. He then formulates an herbal formula specifically for you, which will work to effectively address your condition(s). He’ll also connect you to his trusted herbal supplier in NYC, who he has been working with for 12+ years, to source your herbs.

His clients across the world have found tremendous relief from their problems with this service, and often one session is all that is needed. You get all this for only $50.

If you would like to book a session with Dr. Wu, please text him directly at 978-790-8888. This is the best way for him to respond to you quickly. Simply send him a picture of your tongue (smartphone picture is fine), name, your address, and telephone number. He’ll give you a quick phone call afterwards.

Many thanks and wishes of good health, Wu Healing Center

WuHealing.com | Email: center@wuhealing.com 45 S Main St, Suite 100, West Hartford, CT - 860-606-0578 76 Nason St, Maynard, MA - 978-790-8888

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 | Spirit of Change 91