Spirit of Change Magazine Spring/Summer 2018

HOLISTIC NEW ENGLAND

SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Charting your

Horizon Qigong For Everyone D 21 Questions Answered About Going Solar LGBQT Glossary D How To Cure A Cough Naturally D Your Brain on Hypnosis Cook Up Sustainable Seafood Delights D Calm Mind Meditation

2 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

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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 ADVERTISING DIRECTOR Carrie Rowan Phone: 508-278-9650 x 5 Email: carrie@spiritofchange.org WEB EDITOR Laurie Johnston Email: laurie@spiritofchange.org CONTRIBUTING COLUMNISTS Editors of E/Environmental Magazine, Eric Linter, Annie B. Kay BOOK REVIEWS Gail Lord E-mail: SOCBookReviewer@gmail.com

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26

Departments Features

Vol. 31, No. 138

Departments

Features

Musings

Twenty-one Questions Answered About Going Solar

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

Starspeak

PRINTING TCI Publications, Seekonk, MA

by Annie B. Kay ..................................... 14

by Eric Linter........................................... 10

Healthy Cooking

Journal of Natural Healing

by Sheila Rajan........................................18

Book Reviews

by Gail Lord..............................................68

Copyright ©2018 Spirit of Change. All Rights Reserved. Spirit of Change distributes 50,000 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 2018 •

DESIGN & PRODUCTION Janice Nadeau, Samantha Angeli, Amber Routten-Mitchell

Online at: SpiritOfChange.org

44

by John Boiano.............................................................................................20

The Qigong Experience: An interview with YingXing Wang

by Carol Bedrosian...................................................................................... 26

How To Build A Culture of Good Health by Gabor Maté, MD ....34

Stubborn Wishes for Ruby Slippers by Trish Whynot............38

Your Brain on Hypnosis by John Koenig.................................................40 What Do Essential Oils And Hypnosis Have In Common

by Carolyn Jenkins...................................................................................... 42

Calendar................................................ 70

Spirit Bear Hypnosis Session by Janet Dwinells.................................44

Directories

Busy is the New Addiction by Sherri Snyder-Roche..........................48

Yoga Practitioners of New England...........................................31 Holistic Marketplace............................ 74 Holistic Logo Directory...................... 75 Holistic Specialties Directory......... 84

Classifieds............................................. 85 Advertiser Index....................................86

6 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Cover Art

Calm Mind Meditation by Josette Lumbruno........................................46 The Inspiration of Breath by Jean McClelland......................................50 Divorce: A Conscious Perspsective by Loren Constantini..............54 Why Gender Matters: It’s About Every Student

from GenderSpectrum.org....................................................................... 56

What I Want For My Son….And the Daddies

Who Adopted Him by Mariah MacCarthy........................................ 59 LGBTQ Glossary from Trans Student Educational Resources...........60 Speak the Truth, But Not to Punish

by James Hoggan with Thich Nhat Hanh............................................ 62

The Great Transformation: A World Awakening

by Saharadevi................................................................................................66

“Journey Kayak” by Gleb Tagirov

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MUSINGS

BY CAROL BEDROSIAN

Expanding The Horizon of Healthcare

M

y daughter, Michella Brudner, producer of the Natural Living Expo, had emergency brain tumor surgery last September at Mass General Hospital on Labor Day (who knew brain surgeons worked on holidays?) to remove what turned out to be a large, but benign, meningioma. I was startled to learn MGH removes about 15 of these per week, just one hospital among scores in the country removing these tumors, about 95% of which are benign. I asked her surgeon, Dr. William Curry, a highly skilled specialist, whose giftedness as both a brain surgeon and human being are breathtakingly apparent, whether he thought there was any connection between these tumors and cell phones. He flat out said, “No.” When I had the opportunity at a different time to ask the same question of another MD who was part of the team, he said, “I don’t have any definitive evidence to prove the connection, but I am aware and concerned.”

Meningiomas, which are slow-growing tumors, are believed to be caused by ionizing radiation, the kind found in dental x-rays. Non-ionizing radiation is the kind emitted from our cell and cordless phones, microwaves and other devices. All objects, even our bodies, emit electromagnetic radiation, but the strength of the radiation depends upon the temperature of the object. Guidelines establishing safe radiation levels vary greatly from country to country and continue to evolve as we learn more about the ubiquitous EMF matrix we live within, and that lives within us, as technology burrows ever deeper into our bodies with implants of every kind imaginable.

Do cell phones cause brain tumors? Why doesn’t everyone who gets dental x-rays grow a tumor? Why are so many people developing brain tumors? The fact is that science cannot provide these answers, but our bodies know exactly the effects of cell phone radiation on our biology. The question is how do we access this information and what do we do with it? Science has discovered in the study of epigenetics that an individual’s unique genetic make-up is a biochemical fingerprint influencing what makes them sick and what makes them tick. The era of personalized medicine and drug therapy has arrived; scientists can even genetically modify your own immune cells to perform specific functions customized to fight your disease.

While Big Pharma has delved into the complicated and expensive business of nano-medicine, manipulating our genetic code with some impressive results, it has also left billions of casualties in the shadow of its pharmaceutical side effects, including addiction, debilitating disease and death. If science is manipulating your body to make 8 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

it heal itself, this means that your body is already designed to do that in the first place.

Healing is as natural to the body as sleeping, eating and breathing. Your body was born to heal and you are a natural born healer. If you were diagnosed with a brain tumor, there’s no better place to be than in the hands of cutting edge medical technology. But barring such extreme medical conditions, there’s an entire universe of healing options outside conventional “standards of care” that are life-saving, real and effective.

As science catches up with humanity’s evolving consciousness, the horizon of healthcare is expanding. Yingxing Wang reports in her interview this issue, “The Qigong Experience,” that within two to five years all citizens of China must practice tai chi and qigong as part of a new national healthcare policy to keep people healthy mentally and physically. In response, they are building tai chi learning centers all over the country, especially in outlying rural areas, as a way of providing affordable healthcare for over one billion people well into future. In a bold and visionary move, China has embraced its rich legacy of healing miracles and qigong masters to unleash a healthcare revolution in the 21st century. But it is not by magic that this policy will succeed. Only with mandatory daily qigong practice will the physical, mental and community health of the nation improve. As Yingxing notes, “Only China, a dictatorship, can do this.”

While China dictates its citizens learn inner healing qi practices to strengthen their immunity, the US mandates that every child receive 74 doses of vaccines by the time they are 18. This is up from 24 doses required in 1983, and the highest by far of any other country in the world. Yet we are the least healthy among the world’s wealthiest nations.

I like to think we all come into this life with an invisible expiration date tattooed somewhere on our person, and we’re not leaving this planet until that date arrives.

However you choose to take care of your body during that time is up to you; whether you use alternative medicine or western medicine or no medicine, you’re going to be here until that date and your body will make do with whatever care you provide.

I choose alternative medicine because I enjoy being in charge of my health and am regularly expanding my health routines with safe, effective treatments I can afford. We cannot have a great country if our citizens are unhealthy. Now is the time to expand the horizon of healthcare in America.

Carol Bedrosian is the publisher of Spirit of Change Magazine. www.spiritofchange.org.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 9

STARSPEAK

BY ERIC D. LINTER

Astrological Forecast

Spring/Summer 2018

I

“Spring: It is a natural resurrection, an experience of immortality.” — Henry David Thoreau

n the natural world, rebirth and realignment are under way. Important shifts in planetary emphasis continue as we head into spring. In recent months key planets have moved from conceptual air and fire signs into more grounding water and earth signs. First was Jupiter, arriving in Scorpio last October. Then it was Saturn’s turn, with a late December entry into Capricorn. Next up is Uranus, moving into Taurus during May. The new concentration in earth and water elements directs attention towards physical needs, environmental concerns and financial realities Expect public scrutiny to focus more sharply on safety issues, the need for well maintained roads, bridges, rail lines and schools, as well as more effective gun control.

Clean air and adequate water supplies are on the minds of millions of drought-stricken and fire-ravaged inhabitants worldwide. Affordable health care is another concern. Talk will not be enough. Solutions will be demanded.

When eccentric Uranus enters Taurus on May 15th, it will be the first such visit since the Great Depression and World War II era. Economic inequality stands to be a hot button issue, and bull markets may quickly turn bear.

Financial security can prove elusive to increasing numbers of people. Don’t be surprised when talk of “taxation without representation” crops up around April’s tax day. Deep soul searching makes many folks aware that there are things money cannot buy. Happiness is but one example.

At a time when government fails to represent the will

10 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

of the majority, the stage is set for a more motivated and outspoken electorate. This can only be a good thing, if we are to move into the future as a working democracy.

MARCH

True to form, March comes in like a lion, roaring to life with the full “Worm” Moon in Virgo on Thursday the 1st.

Hopes are infinitely high on this optimistic day. Dreams continue to be powerful motivators through the weekend of the 3rd and 4th. The Pisces Sun is closely aligned with idealistic Neptune while Mercury and Venus foster much kindness and goodwill by virtue of trines with Jupiter.

Hints of springtime and imminent beginnings are felt on Tuesday the 6th. That’s when, first Mercury, and then Venus, enter the zodiac’s first sign, Aries. On Thursday the 8th, the start of Jupiter’s four-month long retrograde could

occasion a rethinking of an alliance or a sudden need for additional financing. Money matters preoccupy many folks through mid-month, as Mercury and Venus test Saturn. Be prepared to make do with less. Some commitments could also come to disappointing ends or remain unfulfilled.

Mars joins Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn on the Pisces new Moon day of Saturday the 17th. As you set intentions and take on new challenges, be aware that a large amount of practical knowhow and technical expertise is available.

The Sun enters Aries around midday on Tuesday the 20th. Spring has arrived! The vernal equinox represents that brief point of balance between the forces of darkness and light.

Mercury is conjunct Venus and will soon turn retrograde on Thursday the 22nd. Take time to let loved ones know you appreciate them. Actions speak louder than words.

Saturday the 24th is a day of numerous challenges. The late morning first quarter Moon could mandate a change in strategy. Solar tests to Mars and Saturn bring delays and obstacles through month’s end. Despite ensuing challenges, Wednesday the 28th may see slumbering hearts reawakened, tuned to the chords of love. Goals are likely to shift. The full “Blue” Moon on the 31st sheds light on a fast-changing landscape. Be ready to rethink, retool and respond to emerging needs.

APRIL

In the wake of yesterday’s full Moon the Sun overtakes retrograde Mercury the afternoon of the 1st. Minds are more pliable than usual. Second opinions can be helpful, second thoughts instructive. Pragmatism is a force to be reckoned with on Monday the 2nd.

Mars and Saturn are conjunct. Do what has to be done. Retrograde Mercury soon tests the no-nonsense duo. Conform with pressing needs, rules and regulations, for there will be a price to pay if you veer off purpose.

Long time love is acknowledged on Saturday the 7th. This is a good date night, although insomniacs must contend with the restless last quarter Moon energies during the wee hours of Sunday morning. Mixed trends bring battles, rewards, surprises and victories during the mid-month period. It’s a series of busy, up and down days. The Sun’s square to Pluto on Tuesday the 10th can set off fireworks. Power struggles become more intense.

Venus calms roiled waters on the 12th.

On Saturday the 14th, stately Jupiter’s sextile with Pluto facilitates healing and peace making. Commonsense rules are more easily followed. The same day Mars and Neptune join forces to encourage creativity as well as self-sacrifice. Evening plans tend to fall flat.

The Aries new Moon on Sunday evening the 15th follows Mercury’s early morning return to forward motion. The Moon’s phase signals the start of a new activity cycle but Mercury is in square to Saturn. The ringed planet hovers, preparing for its own retrograde, which begins on Tuesday the 17th. Confer with friends and business partners. Don’t make unrealistic promises you can’t keep. Wednesday the 18th can bring amazing ideas and breathtaking advances. The following day the Sun arrives in fertile Taurus. Spring fever is irrepressible. Let your senses luxuriate in the sights, smells and sounds of the season.

Pluto shifts to retrograde motion on Sunday morning the 22nd. The reversal, followed by the waxing first quarter Moon in Leo that afternoon, increases the odds of a change in goals or intentions. Be thoughtful and thorough this week. Don’t hurry. Use resources wisely. The full Moon in Scorpio on Sunday the 29th will either reaffirm one’s plans or point the way to a better, more efficient strategy.

MAY

The merry month begins under a quiet void-of-course Scorpio Moon. By midday of the 1st, the Moon is in Sagittarius, quickening minds as well as the flow of information and travel. The first few days of May are mellow. More energizing trends only gradually take hold as mid-month approaches. On Tuesday the 8th, the Taurus Sun’s opposition to Jupiter arouses curiosity and raises expectations. Some hopes are probably ungrounded. However, when the Sun trines Pluto on Friday the 11th, prayers are answered. Partners come to the rescue. Things soon change again.

The weekend of the 12th and 13th has its challenging moments. Mercury is conjunct Uranus and both planets test Mars, a potentially dangerous configuration. Err on the side of caution. Drive carefully and use appropriate tone and language when speaking. Watch your temper and guard against impatience.

The Taurus new Moon the morning of Tuesday the 15th starts us on new adventures.

Just before noon eccentric Uranus reaches Taurus for the first time in eighty-four years. Financial and social instability can be noted worldwide, particularly with fiery Mars forming

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 11

SPRING/SUMMER ASTROLOGICAL FORECAST Continued from page 11

a square to Uranus on the following day. The heavens grow calmer on Thursday the 18th. Take advantage of excellent social possibilities through Saturday afternoon.

The Sun enters Gemini the night of Sunday the 20th. Dreams and longings are intense when, during the early morning hours of Friday the 25th, retrograding Jupiter aligns with Neptune. Travelers want to be on the move this week. Political debates are lively. A consensus is reached Friday morning but there may be a few notable holdouts. Tricky trends warrant extra care on the highways this holiday weekend. Saturday is challenging. Check out engine warning lights and other mechanical issues. The waxing Moon fosters much happiness on Sunday. Mother Nature welcomes and renews sensitive spirits.

The Sagittarius Moon is exactly full at 10:19AM EDT on Tuesday the 29th. Speak plainly, without being overly self-righteous. Putting others on the defensive only hinders communications. Be a good listener, despite raised excitement levels and eagerness to get on with and overcome new challenges.

JUNE

From the start, June feels busy. Moods are extra cheerful on Friday morning the 1st.

Optimism attracts opportunities. The hours are productive. Warm feelings spill over into Saturday the 2nd. Love is splendid. Out of the blue, Saturday night brings unexpected challenges and stresses. Follow the Golden Rule and everyone will remain friends.

Emotional and mental intelligence are heightened on Tuesday the 5th. Hearts and minds can function as one. Relationships benefit from casual small talk as well as more probing discussions. If pressed, stand your ground Tuesday night. Fantasies multiply on the 6th. Don’t put yourself at risk by trusting indiscriminately.

A realignment of the cosmic chessboard comes as mid-month approaches. Mercury enters protective Cancer the afternoon of Tuesday the 12th. The Gemini new Moon launches a fresh activity cycle on the 13th. Venus enters regal Leo the same day. The new party atmosphere has its trials. Venus is square Uranus on Thursday the 14th and Mercury is at odds with Saturn on Friday. Love and life don’t always follow a smooth course.

Make sure your door and heart remain open.

Harmony between the Sun and Leo Moon help make Father’s Day enjoyable. Neptune turns retrograde Monday evening the 18th. This could be the week to clear up a misunderstanding.

Summer begins just after sunrise on Thursday, June 21st. The solstice Sun enters Cancer and is in an opposition with Saturn. Other planetary aspects energize relationships but also test key ties. A festive mood graces Saturday night social events but quieter, more introspective feelings dominate Sunday the 24th.

The Moon is waxing full and the last week of the month is busy. Curb extravagant tendencies on Monday the 25th. Mars turns retrograde in Aquarius late Tuesday afternoon.

The event could trigger numerous groups of people to take a more active stand promoting causes and rights. On Wednesday the Sun opposes Saturn, a once-a-year reality check encouraging us to give pause and ask tough questions. Who and what are essential? How is time best spent? Minutes after midnight on Thursday the 28th the full Moon in Capricorn sails high overhead. A lunar conjunction with Saturn indicates serious decisions are being made. But matters may still change.

On Saturday the 30th, a month-ending square between Mercury, newly arrived in Leo, and Uranus in Taurus leaves plenty of room for second-guessing. Intuition may falter.

New information can come to light. Nerves are on edge. Breathe. Relax and adapt to changing circumstances.

JULY

A mellow period opens the month. Holiday travel is facilitated by a lunar trine to Jupiter the afternoon of Tuesday the 3rd, but watch your speed, as the Moon is also close

by Neptune. Rain, fog and wind may delay nighttime motorists. Wednesday the 4th is exceptionally quiet. A void-of-course Pisces Moon fosters laid back, even lazy moods. A pending trine between the Sun and Jupiter instills a desire to enjoy the festivities, whatever the place and circumstances.

Be careful if you’re on the road or using machinery Thursday morning. The afternoon is far more promising, both for travel and communicating. Mechanics and engineers also find their work goes more smoothly. Security issues loom large the weekend of the 7th and 8th.

Protect your assets. Optimism increases on Sunday but guard against unrealistic expectations.

12 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Jupiter resumes forward motion on Tuesday the 10th. The directional shift could occasion welcome financial news for some folks. Venus’ Wednesday night trine to Uranus is another good omen for money matters, as well as friendship and romance. However, this is eclipse season. Not everything goes as planned or promised the week before an eclipse.

The Cancer new Moon the night of Thursday the 12th eclipses the Sun. Both stars oppose Pluto. Expect intrigues and abuses of power to be spotlighted. Look inward for revelatory personal insights.

The middle of July is relatively quiet. The Sun enters Leo on upbeat Sunday the 22nd.

Unstable conditions make a big impact, as the Moon waxes full. Trust issues strain some alliances on Tuesday the 24th. The next day a solar square to Uranus could trigger a new round of economic uncertainties. Mercury in late Leo turns retrograde on Thursday the 26th, complicating negotiations and bedeviling planners with indecision. Delay commitments if at all possible.

The powerful full Moon/lunar eclipse in Aquarius is exact Friday afternoon. The eclipse could yield a new round of penetrating insights. Personal ambitions may be temporarily frustrated by apathy or a lack of support from peers. Whatever differences surface, keep striving to communicate. Two heads or two hearts are better than one as Venus trines Pluto late in the day. Protect your privacy as the month ends.

AUGUST

A jarring square from Mars to Uranus cautions against acting without forethought. The risk of accidental injury is elevated, so proceed with care. A waning Moon reaches the last quarter phase during the afternoon of Sunday the 4th. Handle chores and responsibilities early, and then plan to enjoy summer fun during the second half of the day.

Pleasing others can seem like a relatively simple thing to do on Monday the 6th. That evening Venus arrives in socially minded Libra just as the Sun tests Jupiter. Some folks will find that despite their best efforts, there’s no way to satisfy everyone. A change in strategy may be helpful, as Uranus turns retrograde on Tuesday the 7th. Focus on successful friendships and other partnerships as Venus moves into a trine with Mars that night. Later in the week Venus is at odds with Saturn, increasing financial concerns and straining some partnerships to the breaking point. Resist issuing ultimatums.

The Leo new Moon of Saturday the 11th eclipses the Sun. Many people are likely to backtrack on previous claims and stories. Still retrograde, mental Mercury squares Jupiter on the 11th. If something doesn’t make sense, reject it. Look for additional facts and newly released information before making up your mind.

Sunday the 12th brings a personal favorite, the Perseids meteor showers. The same day marks Mars’ entry into Capricorn. If the weather cooperates, viewing of both meteors and the red planet should be excellent. Following yesterday’s new Moon there is little moonlight to obscure the celestial action. Mars in Capricorn is a plus for timing, pacing and taking care of business.

Mercury’s retrograde ends just after midnight on Sunday the 19th. A way forward soon becomes clearer. Jupiter makes a glorious trine to Neptune hours after the winged messenger changes direction. Magic is afoot. Dreams are vivid and Sunday’s waking hours prove wonderful for socializing and fun.

The upcoming change of seasons is heralded by the Sun’s arrival in Virgo on the 23rd.

There are plenty of late summer pleasures to savor as the Moon waxes. Saturday the 25th finds the Virgo Sun in a grand trine with Saturn and Uranus. Apply knowledge and experience, vision and cutting edge technology to advance towards goals. Network with friends of all ages. Conceptualize, plan. However, with the Moon void-of-course, it may be wise to wait until another day to begin building actual foundations.

After brightening the Saturday night heavens enough to keep some folks awake, the full Moon in Pisces is exact Sunday morning. Moods can fluctuate so much that partners become frustrated. Be considerate. Respect the emotional space and privacy needs of loved ones.

Mars returns to forward motion on Monday the 27th. Now in the late degrees of Capricorn, the fiery planet continues to be at odds with Uranus. Tread softly. Don’t overreact.

Use words to bridge divides and promote understanding. Summer playtime is rapidly dwindling. The Labor Day weekend comes early this year. Minds are firmly set on enjoying the pleasures of the harvest and outdoor fun as sunny August ends.

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 2018 | Spirit of Change 13

HEALTHY COOKING

BY ANNIE B. KAY

Navigating Sustainable Seafood for Taste and Health — It’s Complicated

M

y first experience with sardines was as sensually pleasing as you could ask: grilled whole. I was on a glistening beach, seated at a table under a blue canopy to shade the hot midday sun of Ibiza, Spain. Their rich oiliness, and tiny, crispy, salty tails were, as I recall years later, perfection alongside cold local white wine. Little did I know that my sardine experience was a glimpse of seafood fare to come.

Featured prominently in the Mediterranean eating pattern (the diet with the greatest scientific research support), enjoying seafood should be a no-brainer.

Seafood is healthy — filled with anti-inflammatory omega-3s, protein and other nutrients. Omega-3 fatty acids boost immunity, and their anti-inflammatory action helps prevent cardiovascular disease, stroke, some cancers and other disease. Omega-3s are particularly important to pregnant and nursing women for neurological health.

Yet, seafood is a product of our changing oceans, which are, like Earth itself, under unprecedented environmental stress. National recommendations that cite an ever-expanding list of seafood to avoid or limit due 14 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

to high levels of mercury remind us of the relationship between the ocean environment and our health. Can we enjoy clean seafood in a sustainable way?

Yes, we can, so long as we are informed seafood consumers. Seafood absorbs its aqueous environment, and particularly for larger fish swimming around eating smaller ones, over time that means higher levels of mercury and other contaminants in their flesh. Mercury is a neurotoxin and exposure can cause a wide array of serious health issues. I remember a time when there were no Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warnings on mercury levels in fish. Now, particularly if you are pregnant, you need to keep an eye on the types of fish to avoid. The FDA reports that over the last decade, according to national data (NHANES), the blood mercury levels of women of childbearing age have actually gone down, perhaps because of awareness around avoiding certain types of fish during pregnancy. These include king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, tilefish and bigeye tuna.

Climate change and warming oceans means that the seafood we enjoy today will not likely be the seafood we enjoy in years to come. Sustainability — being

responsible for how fish and seafood are caught or farmed — is critical to the future of the oceans and to the fish we eat. Where and how fish are caught, and best practices for how they are farmed is complicated.

A number of watchdog and advocacy groups, including Seafood Watch from the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, report on innovations and controversies in these industries.

What’s a thoughtful person to do when it comes to eating seafood? Adapt. Be nimble. Enjoy and appreciate the fish and seafood you eat, and keep an eye on the safety advisories. Embrace the complication as part of engaging fully in this ever-changing life we live.

When it comes to fish, think small; sardines and other small fish tend to be much lower in mercury than their larger counterparts like tuna, swordfish and others listed by the FDA. Beyond that, we need a little help from our friends. Luckily, we have them in advocacy groups who are studying the issue of balancing human health with environmental health and sustainability.

We want to eat seafood rich in omega-3s and low in contaminants, that is sustainably raised. Seafood Watch’s Super Green label includes fish that are both caught or farmed responsibly and also are excellent for health. This includes Atlantic mackerel, freshwater coho salmon, Pacific sardines, and Alaska salmon. Another food watchdog group, the Environmental Working Group, has a Good Seafood Guide to help people make smart seafood choices. Their report weighing a balance of safety and health factors leads to a similar list, with the addition of muscles, rainbow trout, oysters, pollock and herring to the good choice list.

I’m a fan of keeping it fresh and simple when cooking seafood. Fish is so delicious, that a warm oiled pan and a bit of salt, pepper and citrus are really all you need. If you are more familiar with cooking meats rather than fish, my one piece of advice is that fish cooks very quickly and is easy to overcook. Just a few minutes can be the difference between perfectly cooked and mushy, strong-tasting fish. Less is more.

If you are a values eater, seafood choices can be complicated. The good news is that your choices matter; they are critical not only to your own health but also to health of our world’s oceans. You can honor and appreciate the seafood you eat through the way you select and prepare it. You can sign up and get involved through an advocacy group. However you choose to experience your seafood, bless it and thank the ocean for allowing us to be nourished by its bounty.

Stay on top of seafood health and sustainability with these three resources: 1. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and FDA (Food and Drug Administration). https://www.epa.gov/ fish-tech/2017-epa-fda-advice-about-eating-fishand-shellfish 2. Environmental Working Group. https://www.ewg.org 3. Seafood Watch. http://www.seafoodwatch.org/consumers/seafood-and-your-health Here are my favorite recipes that can help you bring healthy, sustainable seafood into your kitchen and onto your table. These recipes can accommodate a variety of shes; you can adjust the sh or seafood you use. ey are nimble and exible. Enjoy.

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HEALTHY COOKING Continued from page 14

LINGUINI WITH CLAM OR SARDINE SAUCE This is an easy version of a classic dish updated to accommodate that seafood darling — the sardine. Change it up by adding green herbs like basil, parsley or tulsi (a type of basil).

Zest is the flavorful, oil-filled, outer skin of citrus. There is a tool called a zester that will help you peel lovely curls of zest from an organic lemon or orange. Or use a paring knife to slice thin pieces of zest and then dice, or scrape the skin with the tines of a fork. Serves 4.

Ingredients 1 4.5-oz can sardines in olive oil, or clams in their own juice 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil 1 small bulb fennel, sliced thin 3 large cloves garlic, peeled and diced 1/4 tsp red chile flakes 1 15-oz canned peeled crushed tomatoes 2 oz white dry vermouth 1 medium lemon, juice and zest 1/2 lb linguini 1/2 tsp salt or more, along with black pepper, to taste 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese Instructions 1. Bring a large pot of water (with 1/2 tsp salt and 1 tsp olive oil) to a boil for the pasta.

2. Drain the oil from the sardines, or the juice from the clams and reserve.

3. In a large skillet, place olive oil (you can use the oil from the sardines and subtract that from the total olive oil you use). Warm oil over medium heat, add the garlic and fennel, and sauté for 5 minutes or until fragrant.

4. Add the chili flakes, sauté for another minute, then add the tomatoes, clam juice (if using) and vermouth. Cook until the liquid is reduced and thickened a bit.

5. Add the sardines or clams (or both!). Add lemon zest and juice. Taste and add salt and pepper.

6. Add the linguine to the boiling salted water, cooking it until it is almost al dente (a smidgen firm). Using tongs, transfer the linguine to the sauce to finish cooking, adding a little bit of the starchy pasta water and tossing gently to combine.

7. Serve in large warmed serving bowls topped with a drizzle of olive oil and Parmesan.

Recipes SARDINE BUTTER Compound butter, made when we work herbs, spices and other flavor-enhancers into soft butter, is a delicious way to enjoy the frothy flavor of sardines in a subtle form. Add your favorite herb, spice or citrus juice and zest for your own signature butter. Serves 8 or more.

Ingredients 1 stick salted organic butter, soft 1 small can sardines packed in oil 1 medium lemon, juiced, and tested 1 Tbsp chives, diced 1 tsp parsley, diced Pinch black pepper Instructions 1. Drain oil from sardines.

2. Place all ingredients in a medium bowl and mash together.

3. Serve sardine butter in a ramekin or small bowl and enjoy with crackers or over steamed or roasted vegetables.

SEAFOOD STEW Here is a quick and easy fragrant stew that calls for a variety of seafood, so you can modify and use fish that is sustainable and available to you. Serve this stew with a crusty French or Italian bread and a simple salad. Serves 6 to 8.

Ingredients 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil 5 crushed garlic cloves 1 small yellow onion, diced 1 15-oz can crushed tomatoes 1 cup fish stock or clam juice 1/2 cup dry white wine 1 pound skinned saltwater fish (pollack, cod, halibut), cut into 2-3 inch pieces 1 pound shrimp, shelled and deveined, cut into 2 inch pieces 1 pound sea scallops, sliced in half or quartered 1/4 cup fresh basil, chopped 1/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped Salt & pepper to taste Instructions 1. Heat oil in a 4 to 6 quart sauce pot. Add garlic and onion, and sauté on low heat for about two minutes or until the garlic is fragrant but not browned.

2. Add the tomatoes, stock and wine and simmer for about 10 minutes.

3. Add the fish and seafood and simmer for about 5 minutes until just done. Stir in the parsley and basil, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

16 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

PAN-SAUTEED SALMON TACOS These tacos are an excellent choice for a casual meal with friends. You might have your favorite hot sauce on hand to heat things up, or add beans, avocado and your favorite taco filling to change things up. Serves 2-4.

Ingredients 1 pound fillet of salmon, skin removed 2 Tbsp grapeseed oil Pinch cayenne 4 corn tortillas 1/2 head savoy cabbage, sliced very thin (shaved) 3 scallions, diced 2 Tbsp mayonnaise 1 tsp sweet pickle relish 1/2 tomato, diced 1 lime, juiced Salt and pepper to taste Instructions 1. Warm oil in a heavy skillet over medium heat.

2. Place fish in skillet and sauté until fish begins to firm, 4 or 5 minutes. Turn fish over, sprinkle with cayenne, cover, and turn heat off, leaving pan on burner.

3. In a second pan over medium-high heat, heat tortillas one at a time by placing them (no oil) in the pan, and turning them after a minute. Once warmed, place them on a warm plate.

4. In a medium bowl, mix mayo, relish and lime juice into sliced cabbage and scallions to make a slaw.

5. Construct tacos with tortilla, fish, slaw, and tomatoes.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Annie B Kay, MS, RDN, E-RYT500, C-IAYT is an integrative dietitian, yoga therapist and shamanic plant alchemist who directs programs and retreats at Kripalu and internationally. She has a telehealth private practice in Western MA. www.anniebkay.com

Arthur N. Gertler M.D. Holistic Medicine 6 6 6 6 6 6

Holistic Medicine Lyme Literate Chelation Therapy IV Therapies Detoxification Oxygenation Therapies Office located at:

D’Arcy Wellness Center 63 South Main Street, Natick, MA 01760 phone: 781-752-6378 fax: 508-653-3283 agertlermd@yahoo.com www.agertlermd.com

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 17

JOURNAL OF NATURAL HEALING

CURE A

LINGERING COUGH A Methodical, Multifaceted, Natural Approach

A

few years ago, I successfully recovered from a one-year bout of moderate depression. I thought my health was back to normal, but I then developed a follow up problem. I found myself coughing for several minutes at a time, several times a day. The cough was deep and wet with a lingering wheeze. At first I attributed it to a cold, but it continued on for several months and got worse over time. Eventually, my co-workers, family and friends began bringing it to my attention. My immediate gut reaction was to reply “it’s due to stress,” but I couldn’t quite explain the connection.

After several months of coughing daily, I realized the cough wasn’t going away on its own. I decided to get to the root cause. I opted to take a natural/holistic approach since my instinct was telling me that there was an underlying emotional component that medicines alone couldn’t address. After a year of diligent work, I can now happily report that I’m completely cured of my lingering cough!

Finding a Complete Cure My approach to curing my cough was to treat it is as a symptom of a deeper disturbance in my entire mind/body system. I decided to find possible theories to explain why a cough could be occurring, then try any and all remedies (dietary changes, exercises, spiritual practices, etc.,) associated with it. This process included: • Doing extensive amounts of research by reading countless articles and even entire books to find theories and remedies • Learning remedies, incorporating them into my daily or weekly routine and evaluating their effectiveness • Finding well-reputed local specialists, meeting with them regularly and implementing their remedies The key was to keep implementing new remedies while continuing the existing ones.

This required persistence, patience, discipline and motivation. Quitting along the way was often tempting, but understanding the issue completely and ridding myself of the problem always won out.

Cure Components

1. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle

I’ve always been passionate about maintaining physical and emotional health, so I kept my existing habits. For physical health, this included a plant-based diet consisting of whole, high quality unprocessed foods with a proper protein/carbohydrate balance, anti-inflammatory foods, probiotics, etc. In addition to diet, I continued doing regular exercise and keeping a routine daily schedule with an adequate amount of sleep.

For mental/spiritual health, I maintained a daily de-stressing practice after work consisting of meditation and yoga. I spend several hours a week maintaining my home to create a clean and positive environment. In addition, I consciously resolved to conduct myself correctly and maintain the highest level of happiness by finding pleasure in my work, spending time with close friends and family, taking on meaningful projects, going to interesting events and activities, etc.

18 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

BY SHEILA RAJAN

2. Making dietary changes

I found several articles proposing that excess phlegm could be caused by consuming dairy. I cut out as much dairy from my diet as possible and saw an instant reduction in the wetness of my cough. The improvement was immediate and definitive. Eventually I was able to add back a certain amount of dairy that was below the level that created phlegm.

3. Seeking help from specialists

The first step in getting help from specialists was to find good practitioners whose approach matched my own. This required finding holistic healers in my local area, then reviewing their websites to determine if they were a good fit for me. I ended up working with three specialists, all of who helped in their own unique ways.

ACUPUNCTURIST/HERBALIST/NUTRITIONIST First, I went to a holistic practitioner who was a trained acupuncturist, herbalist and nutritionist. She prescribed Western herbs, Chinese herbs and did several sessions of acupuncture and cupping.

Unfortunately, none of these techniques worked! In one of our sessions, she explained that my cough was an irritation in my lungs, which hold grief according to traditional Chinese medicine. This theory made sense to me intrinsically, since I could feel some lingering sadness in my system from my previous bout of depression. At our last session she concluded, “If the issue is fundamentally emotional in nature, no amount of treatment will cure the problem. The negative emotions will just bring it right back.

The emotional issues need to be resolved since they are the ultimate root cause.” That statement was more powerful than any treatment technique because it made me realize that I had to work on releasing sadness that I knew I was holding onto.

ACUPUNCTURE SPECIALIST Next, I went to an acupuncturist that was more specialized and experienced in traditional Chinese medicine. She was able to confirm congestion in my “sorrow meridian,” which runs along the tops of the arms and upper back. She pressed one point on the meridian that was unexpectedly very sore. She also used small cups to do cupping along my sorrow meridian, which all left dark bruises, indicating energy stagnation. This was a second indication that I needed to work on opening my lungs somehow to release sorrow from my body and mind.

ENERGY HEALER Lastly, I consulted an Eden Energy Medicine practitioner. I first read a full book on her style of energy healing to understand and evaluate it for myself.

The book also mentioned lungs as a repository for sad feelings, confirming the theory that the other two practitioners had proposed. The energy healer pressed on points in my rib cage, which were all unusually sore. She explained this could be a buildup of lymph and energy, and instructed me to massage these sore spots daily to unclog them. This massaging was surprisingly effective, causing the soreness to subside after only a few weeks. The healer also prescribed a five-minute energy routine consisting of short exercises. Some claimed to be extremely powerful. I was skeptical so decided to test them out to see for myself. Although I can’t confirm their effectiveness, I also can’t rule out their role in curing the cough.

4. Opening up my lungs to release sorrow

RUNNING I once went to an herbal apothecary to get herbs to treat my cough. The herbalist wasn’t in but her assistant gave me some unofficial advice. He said, “I’m not a trained health practitioner, but the most straightforward way to breakup phlegm in your lungs is to start running. Your lungs will flush themselves out from exertion.”

His remedy seemed plausible so I decided to give it a try. The big problem was that running was excruciatingly unnatural for me, always leaving me gasping for air. I consulted with my brother, who is an excellent runner, for instructions and tips on how to run. Although I dreaded it, I forced myself to run every other day, and after I few months I can now say I honestly enjoy jogging!

SINGING I began to ask myself how I could remove sadness from my lungs. One day it occurred to me that I had stopped singing to the radio, something that I had done almost every day in the car before my depressive bout. I forced myself to start singing to fun and uplifting songs even if I didn’t feel up for it. I felt its effects on a subtle level after a few weeks.

BREATHING EXERCISES In the past I had done pranayama (yogic breathing exercises) intermittently as part of my daily de-stressing routine. I decided to do it every day and incorporate several types of breathing exercises, including some that were moderately strenuous. As with running, I felt exerting my lungs was a direct way of flushing out phlegm.

INCREASING POSITIVITY I decided to make my life as enjoyable as possible. I found a new job that was very satisfying. I moved to a nicer apartment and spent time decorating it in a way that was meaningful to me. I found a network of local positive people and spent much of my time helping them and enjoying their company. I’m not much of a traveler, but I planned short and simple vacations to spend time with and explore new places with close friends and family.

5. Miscellaneous Remedies

As with the other remedies, I have no direct proof that these miscellaneous remedies worked. I can only say that they may have contributed to the overall solution.

HIMALALYAN SALT LAMP I bought a Himalayan salt lamp, whose shape was appealing to me, from a salt cave. I replaced the light bulb with an LED bulb to feel really good about it! I began turning this lamp on every night for a few hours before going to sleep. Everything I had read on the Internet about salt lamps said there was no scientific proof of their effectiveness in improving health, however their color and light are pleasant and they cause no harm. The cough went away two months after starting the lamp.

REDUCE EXPOSURE TO WIFI SIGNALS Like most people, I’ve heard mixed things about the safety of cell and WiFi radiation. From an energy perspective, some sources say this radiation can interfere with the body’s subtle energy system. I couldn't control my WiFi exposure in public places, but I could at home. I decided to turn on my wireless router only when I needed it (about 3 hours a day), which was also energy and cost efficient! To reduce cell signal exposure, I turned my cell phone off at night.

Cure Realization One day I realized I hadn’t coughed in a couple weeks. I monitored myself daily and observed that the cough had indeed completely gone away! For additional confirmation, I massaged my rib cage and all previously sore spots were painless. Upon introspection, I felt an intuitive inner shift in my body and emotions, further confirming that my health was fundamentally different.

Finding a complete, holistic cure to a moderately severe cough was a long journey, consisting of almost a full year of coughing, of which I spent eight months finding a cure.

It required lots of hard work including research, dietary changes, strenuous exercise, seeking out and consulting with multiple health practitioners and emotional work in eliminating negative feelings and creating joy.

Overall, the benefits far outweighed the laborious effort. Through the process of creating a recovery plan, I gained a better understanding of the mind/body system as well as intimate knowledge of my own system. I cultivated character traits that I can apply to solve any problem in life such as creativity, discipline and persistence. Most importantly, I achieved better overall physical and emotional health, creating a higher quality of life.

Ultimately I will never be able to determine which remedies cured the cough, but I know I eliminated the root cause, and as a result, I am a smarter and healthier person! www.spiritofchange.org

JOURNAL OF NATURAL HEALING Email your natural healing story to editor@spiritofchange.org to be included in the Journal of Natural Healing online. Read more natural healing stories at www.spiritofchange.org/journal.

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 19

TWENTY-ONE QUESTIONS ANSWERED ABOUT GOING

Solar power pioneer John Boiano invites you to join a peaceful revolution by taking the mystery out of going solar.

W

e live in challenging times. Mother Earth is hanging in there, waiting for our commitment to jump into action as peaceful warriors on the path of preserving a healthy and vibrant planet. And fortunately, we are at the perfect time in history to take peaceful, but powerful revolutionary action as individuals — simply by changing how we access our energy and installing solar energy at home. When We the People use our collective power against the industrial institutions that are trying to keep traditional — and most often dirty — energy at the forefront of controlling how we source and how much we pay for our energy, we can revolutionize the world.

The solar movement is a peaceful revolution, giving us the reigns to take control over our energy access and costs. Let’s face it, your contract with the utility company basically says they can charge you as much as they can get away with, change the rate at almost any time (with utility commission complicity), and shut off your power if you don’t pay your bill. Controlling your energy supply and cost by going solar contributes to a peaceful and healthy planet, as well as providing you with the peace of mind that you are doing something towards that goal on a daily basis.

When my wife, daughter and I went solar seven years ago, we were pioneers in the solar revolution. Today our planet is now a year or two into the early stages of a worldwide switchover to sustainable and less costly renewable energy. Bill Nye, The Science Guy, believes that with today’s technology in solar, wind, geothermal and a little bit of tidal energy, we could be using 80% renewable energy worldwide by 2050!

Let’s dig into some of the most common questions about installing solar energy at home.

1. WHAT ARE THE TOP REASONS WHY PEOPLE GO SOLAR? 1. Save money and take control of energy costs 2. Collect state and federal rebates 3. Save the environment (or more like save humanity; Mother Earth will be fine without us here) 4. My neighbors, family or friends have gone solar 20 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

2. IS INSTALLING A SOLAR SYSTEM TOO EXPENSIVE FOR AVERAGE HOMEOWNERS? Solar myth #1: Solar is too expensive. Fact: In most cases, solar actually costs less than staying with your current energy supplier. Going solar means taking control of your energy costs in the long term. Your agreement with the energy company lets them charge you however much they can get away with. According to eia.gov, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island round out the top five most expensive energy states in the country after Alaska and Hawaii. Data tracking website Ycharts. com shows Connecticut has raised their utility rates 21.8 percent from 2013-2017, with Massachusetts raising theirs 16.5 percent in the same time frame. On CT.gov is a Letter of Intent filed with the Public Regulatory Authority to increase existing distribution rates $336 million over 3 years, beginning May 21, 2018, with a 6.79 percent increase in the first year alone. When you go solar, you have lower locked-in rates and you’ve taken control of your energy costs.

Installation costs of a solar system will vary greatly from home to home because every single house and its location is unique, however the average installation is between $20,000-$60,000 before any federal or state rebates. Many homeowners lease panels instead of buying them, which is the perfect option for those who don’t want to take ownership and simply want to buy power at a lower rate than purchasing it from the utility company. Leases offer locked-in rates that give a homeowner financial and environmental satisfaction. Leases are even transferable for the remainder of the term if you sell the home to a new owner.

Many factors determine the installation price of a new solar system including the type of panels, amount of equipment needed (large home versus small), ground mount trenching, electrical upgrades to the home, or roof work. Each home is unique. Owners should rely on a trusted solar professional to give them all the facts particular to their home. A house with a little shade will need more panels to produce the same amount of energy as a home with no shade. Hence, the home with more panels will cost more for the same amount of kilowatts produced. A solar professional will help make it feel like a seamless process instead of overwhelming to the homeowner.

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TWENTY-ONE QUESTIONS ANSWERED ABOUT GOING SOLAR continued from page 20

.

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3. ARE STATE AND FEDERAL REBATES STILL AVAILABLE? The federal rebate is currently 30 percent of the cost of the system, applied to your tax liability, so check with your tax preparer to see how you can best take advantage of the credit. State rebates are continually changing and each state has its own program. In addition to being in the top five most energy expensive state, Massachusetts and Rhode Island are among the top five states in the country for the most favorable clean energy incentives. Massachusetts offers the SREC (Solar Renewable Energy Certificates), soon to be the SMART (Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target) program. Currently slated to begin mid 2018, the new Massachusetts SMART program will not be as generous to the homeowner as the current SREC program is. SREC and SMART credits are both commodities sold on the open market. A homeowner is paid quarterly for their SRECs. Rhode Island’s Tariff program works on the same principle as the SREC program, plus the homeowner gets compensated by the state to install solar panels. Connecticut currently offers a rebate through its Connecticut Green Bank, which is calculated using an in-depth formula of energy production factors, best left in the hands of professionals to translate for homeowners.

4. CAN I MAKE MONEY BY GOING SOLAR? Yes and no. You can save a lot of money by going solar because your solar costs stay the same year after year, while utility costs rise. With solar on your roof or groundmounted in your yard, you are buying your energy at a lower retail cost than buying power from the utility company. But the days of adding more solar panels beyond your current or projected energy usage to your home or business is no longer a valid option for an extra money stream. Utility companies are set up to make it challenging for alternative energy “outsiders” to replace their income stream and commitments already in place, so the grid will pay you back at wholesale value for your overproduction.

Beware of any solar company that tries to put more solar on your roof than what your historical or projected energy usage is. There are only very specific scenarios where you can add extra panels and assign the extra production to another party and have them pay you.

5. WILL I STILL HAVE TO PAY THE UTILITY COMPANY? Yes, you still have to pay the utility company. The amount you pay depends on how much energy is created by solar, how much shade you have, what direction the panels face, etc. Solar production is calculated against the amount of energy you use in your home or small business. Once calculated, then you will know an estimated utility versus solar cost. If a solar system can produce 100% of your energy, all you would have to pay the utility company is a small monthly connection fee for the ability to net meter. All of the utility companies charge a monthly connection charge.

6. WHAT IS NET METERING AND HOW DOES IT WORK? Net metering is a term used to track the solar energy produced by the panels that is not immediately used by your home or business. Example: On an average sunny day, your solar system may produce more energy than your home is using. At that time, the energy goes past your home and out to the grid, which is tracked by a two-way net meter that spins backwards and tracks every kilowatt that you send to the grid. Later that day, week or month, when you need the energy, the grid sends back your banked or credited kilowatts at no charge to you. The two-way net meter tracks this activity, which will show up on your electric bill.

7. ARE THERE FINANCIAL RISKS ASSOCIATED WITH GOING SOLAR? There is a slight risk that utility rates will go down. We have seen decreases in rates, only to have them go back up and exceed the previous high rates in a six-month period.

There is also a risk that the utility will try to end net metering. This happened in Nevada for a short time, only to be reversed after public outcry. It was an incredible show of support by communities and politicians in overriding the ruling.

8. IS THE PRICE OF SOLAR INSTALLATION GOING DOWN? The panels themselves are getting less expensive to manufacture, because as production ramps up you can produce more panels in the same production facility that has already been paid for. However as panel wattage and efficiency increases, they

22 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

“We have this handy fusion reactor in the sky called the sun.

You don’t have to do anything.

It just works. It shows up every day and produces ridiculous amounts of power.”

– Elon Musk cost more to produce. Production facility costs keep going up. Labor, installation and delivery costs keep going up. As you can see, the panels themselves may cost slightly less to produce, however, when you add in all of the other factors of a delivered and installed product, you can see that it actually costs more for solar today than it has in the past. It’s unlikely this trend will change.

In addition, the solar industry and many bi-partisan allies will vigorously fight for repeal of the new solar tariff imposed by a White House administration hostile to the success of clean energy in the United States and around the world. It is too early in the process to know how this will play out for homeowners. In the meantime, many solar suppliers have a fair amount of panels and equipment already warehoused and ready to install minus any new tariff. For those thinking about going solar, the time is now.

9. WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOLAR PANELS? The most widely used type of solar energy for residential and small scale commercial is photo voltaic (PV) panels. Those are the panels you see on people’s homes and the large arrays in fields and along the highways, which can either be ground or roof mounted. A roof mount is attached to your roof with a small streamlined rail system and the panels are attached to the rails. Ground mount systems are more costly because holes have to be dug for the mounts, a rail system to support the panels needs to be built, and then a trench needs to be dug below the frost line to run wires from the panels to the home where the electricity will be connected. Ground mount panels are built on either fixed mounts or the more costly tracking system where the panels follow the sun from sunrise to sundown to achieve the most energy possible from the panels.

Thermal panels heat water pipes inside them and transfer hot water to the home’s water system to save electricity for heating water. There is small emergence of these integrated into PV systems, mostly in Maine and Vermont.

10. WILL I GET ALL OF MY ENERGY FROM THE SOLAR PANELS? Every solar home is unique. It depends upon roof direction, roof pitch, shading and energy usage, which are just a few of the variables considered when designing a solar system. A knowledgeable solar consultant can evaluate and discuss your particular situation with you.

11. DO I NEED A SOUTH-FACING ROOF? WHAT ABOUT SHADE? Although 180 degrees south is the most efficient way for solar panels to face in New England, with today’s Tier-1 panel technology (highest grade panels) there is plenty of solar access to the east, west and even lower pitched north-facing roofs that can benefit from the power of the sun. As far as shade goes, the less shade the better, but some shade is usually acceptable.

12. WILL THE PANELS PRODUCE POWER ON CLOUDY AND SNOWY DAYS? The panels will produce limited energy on cloudy days and they will even work with

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TWENTY-ONE QUESTIONS ANSWERED ABOUT GOING SOLAR continued from page 23

a small amount of snow on them. Because the panels are made from tempered glass you will find that snow slides off quite easily.

13. WILL SOLAR EXTEND MY ROOF LIFE? In most cases your roof shingles will last much longer with solar panels covering them. The panels are now taking the weather hit rather than the shingles. Snow will also slide off of your roof faster with the glass panels. They are much slipperier than the sticky/gritty asphalt roof shingles.

14. WILL I NEED A RE-ROOF BEFORE GOING SOLAR? It all depends on the integrity of your shingles. Before solar is installed, a site surveyor will evaluate the current condition of the shingles to make sure they are safe and secure to install solar on. If, in the future, you decide to do a home upgrade or to re-roof after the panels are installed, most solar companies offer a low-cost service to take the panels off and re-install them after the work is completed.

15. DO SOLAR COMPANIES OFFER EQUIPMENT WARRANTIES IN CASE OF ROOF PENETRATION? The better companies offer a minimum of a 10-year install roof leak warranty.

Basically, if your roof doesn’t leak in the first year or two, there’s a great chance that it never will. If the technology that’s available today is installed correctly, you should not have any leak problems at all. Most companies offer a full lifetime or at least a 20-year comprehensive warranty on their equipment. Make sure these terms are clearly laid out in your contract with the solar installer.

16. WHAT ABOUT AESTHETICS AND RESALE VALUE? I don’t know about you, but I love the way solar looks! It looks like the future.

It looks like taking control of your energy costs. My home will sell faster than the neighbor’s because I have the added option of a lower electric rate that competing homes for sale can’t match. One of the top four reasons people go solar is because their neighbors are doing it. If aesthetics is an objection to get past, my suggestion is to look around. The industry is growing fast. It won’t be long before the majority of homeowners have solar on their roof.

17. HOW DOES A HOMEOWNER GET STARTED WITH SOLAR INSTALLATION? The time frame from an initial solar consultation to turning on your solar power is usually less than three months. After your home is evaluated for solar access, roof direction, pitch, shading, etc., you will choose your equipment, financing and rebate options. Next, you will move through a site survey and permitting process and get your system installed. The utility company installs a two-way net meter and your system is ready to produce clean energy.

average of 68% growth per year. That’s enough electricity to power over 9.5 million homes. In 2016, solar installed 39% of all new electricity generated.

2015 was a pivotal year, with more people employed in renewable energy than were in the oil and gas industries combined. Currently over 260,000 Americans work in the solar industry, although other countries are leading the way, such as China with over 3.5 million employed in renewable energies. Canada, Iceland, Sweden and Germany — over 50 countries in all — have recently vowed to be 100% renewable energy by the year 2050.

There’s a reason that we are seeing states, townships and cities like Portland, Maine, investing in solar as a lower cost option to access electricity. It’s simple to implement and it costs less. The municipal planners look at short and long term money saving goals along with the longevity/integrity of infrastructure systems.

Once laid out in spreadsheets, it’s pretty easy to see the value of going solar. If it didn’t save municipalities a significant amount of money, they would not be investing in the technology.

20. WHAT ARE THE NEW HOME BATTERY AND CHARGING STATION TECHNOLOGIES AND ARE THEY WORTH INVESTING IN? The batteries available today are deep cell batteries that typically hang on the wall either indoors or out. These batteries can store electricity generated by solar panels and draw electricity from the grid when rates are low to store for later use. A single battery can cost upwards of $5,000-$6,000 with an average nine-year life span. For example, if you have a 2,000 square foot home with air conditioning and a pool, the Tesla website recommends that you use two Powerwall home batteries that will cost approximately $12,000, plus an additional $800-$2000 for installation and other miscellaneous expenses. The Powerwall’s size is 44”x24”x5.5” and weighs 276 pounds.

There are other battery solutions that vary from a deep cell marine size battery to the size of the Powerwall.

Home batteries are becoming a little more main stream as the technology develops. There is still quite a long way to go before battery technology reaches a point where it will be as economical and accessible as solar panels are. Some utilities will currently only let you access the battery storage during a power outage. As battery technology moves forward, we will no doubt see many homes equipped with the storage units. Charging stations are also becoming more popular as electric cars make their way to the forefront of auto sales. Charging stations range in size from a small garden hose reel size to a tall stand like a mini gas station filling pump. Most are in the $500 to $800 range.

Electric cars are hitting the roadways in force with almost every carmaker getting in on the new market of electric and hybrid vehicles. What better way to charge these cars than with a solar array and battery back up at your home? Norway, touted as one of the happiest countries in the world, along with the Netherlands and Switzerland next in line, are leading the way towards countries mandating clean vehicle reform.

18. WHAT ARE THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF SOLAR ENERGY? Solar energy creates clean, renewable power from the sun and benefits the environment. Alternatives to fossil fuels reduce our carbon footprint, helping to reduce greenhouse gases around the globe. By investing in solar energy, you can help reduce our reliance on fossil fuels in favor of one of the most abundant, consistent sources of energy we have available: our sun. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, one home switching from fossil fuels to solar power in the state of Connecticut has the same emissions reduction effect as planting 155 trees and not driving your car 17,640 miles. Plus, fewer air pollutants from burning fossil fuels means less cardio health risks.

Unfortunately, the federal government is rolling back regulations that promote renewable energy so it’s more important than ever to fight for a green future. We will not accomplish anything by continuing to support and pay into the traditional energy producing systems. Solar makes sense for your personal well-being, the environment and your wallet.

21. SHOULD I WAIT FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF SOLAR TECHNOLOGY? The best time to go solar is now! Sure, technology changes and there will be updates to rebate programs. When you buy a new computer, the technology changes before you leave the parking lot. If you waited, you would never buy a new computer. Solar technology doesn’t change that fast. Once a new prototype is created, it takes years of research to verify its viability, and an even longer time to ramp up production for the growing industrial, municipal and consumer markets. Renewable energy entrepreneur Elon Musk recently unveiled his new solar roof, displaying a few homes with prototype panels on them, but mainstream accessibility at a reasonable cost is far in the future for most homeowners for this product.

Regardless, the solar energy revolution is here to stay! New York City recently announced plans to divest its $191 billion in pension funds from fossil fuel investments, and are filing suit against the industry for damages caused by climate change. It’s up to all of us to take whatever steps we can to serve as Earth protectors. As solar becomes mainstream, the question is not “Are you going to go solar?” but “When will you be going solar?”

19. WHAT IS THE EMPLOYMENT OUTLOOK IN THE SOLAR INDUSTRY? Solar creates jobs. Homeowners and utilities alike are choosing solar energy at a faster rate than ever before in the United States. In the last decade, solar has seen an

John Boiano is a motivational speaker and solar energy advocate with 180 South Solar, a solar energy consulting, design and installation company. Learn more at 180southsolar. com or contact John at john@180southsolar.com, 860-798-5692.

24 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 25

An interview with Yingxing Wang

by Spirit of Change publisher Carol Bedrosian

Yingxing Wang, practicing qigong under an Australian sunrise, receiving qi and universal love from the cosmos.

It is free and available to everyone, like water and horizon, the elemental qualities of qi.

ild Swans: Three Daughters of China is Jung Chang’s memoir of several generations of her family’s history, including her account of a difficult life during China’s Cultural Revolution. During this time of great poverty and deprivation for the Chinese people, most rural villagers, and even some city dwellers had no access to medical care other than the folk and traditional medicine offered by the untrained “barefoot doctors” of that era. Despite hunger, brutality and only the most meager of medicines, herbs or supplies, an entire nation of humans healed from their wounds and sicknesses mainly through medicine from within their own bodies. I credit this book with crystallizing my own confidence in the power of natural medicine as a viable form of healthcare for all but the most extreme medical conditions.

When I met YingXing Wang, founder of Eastover Estate and Eco-Village, a holistic retreat center in Lenox, MA, I was fascinated to learn she grew up in China during this time. She had experienced the hunger, the political uncertainty, frequent nightmares as a child, and the terror at the age of nine of following her mother — a teacher — to a remote village in the countryside where her mother was to be “reeducated.” While she found healing and soothed herself with the freedom of fresh air and water, being outside in nature with other village kids, and the kindness of teachers and lots of creativity in school, she endured the unending stress and anxiety that every student did over whether they would be admitted to the Young Communist League. The stress and feelings of not being good enough as a teen exacted a health toll she did not fully realize until adulthood. When the extraordinary health benefits 26 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

of tai chi and qigong daily practice became apparent to her, she started her advocacy on behalf of sharing these healing arts.

Because of the successful holistic healings she had gone through herself and the many qigong masters she had met, Ying wanted to share these healing practices and authentic masters with others. From an impulse of compassion she founded Eastover as a retreat to host teachers from many different healing traditions, inviting only authentic masters of demonstrated quality. A labor or love, over eight years of infrastructure building have gone into making Eastover an eco-friendly center offering group and individual accommodations including healthy meals, classes, retreats, studio spaces and individual Chinese medicine and qigong energy treatments. It is still a work in progress, and every person who goes there as a guest or teacher is part of building that healing community together.

To my great delight, Ying suggested we introduce the healing skills of these qigong masters to a larger audience at the Natural Living Expo in November. All have dedicated their highly developed skills and years of experience to sharing with others how to access the healing power already inside us; we just need to learn how to turn it on and use it. I proposed this interview as a way to learn more about the qigong experience.

Carol Bedrosian: Can you tell me a little bit about your history with qigong and how that unfolded in your life?

Ying Wang: I first started with tai chi. When I started to study qigong — or

Chinese breath work — I had already been practicing tai chi for almost twenty years.

But at the time, I didn’t fully understand what I was practicing — like going through the motions — until after I started qigong. Tai chi is actually a form of qigong; it’s considered qigong in motion, and is a really enjoyable practice for me. It has helped me tremendously so I’ve practiced it for a long time.

By coincidence, I was looking for a class to attend during a weekend that my husband was away on a business trip. I happened to see in a brochure that Robert Peng was teaching qigong that weekend for a retreat, so I decided to go. I saw that he is Chinese and I am Chinese and thought I could learn in a similar way that I learned tai chi. That was the weekend I began learning qigong.

I’ve noticed that people of middle age who are from China, like me, might have a tendency to shy away from qigong, and that perhaps the reasoning is historical.

During the Cultural Revolution that we lived through, people showed superstitions towards a lot of older practices, and at that time the Chinese government wanted people to stay away from such things. There was a belief that people who practiced qigong might become misled or insane. A lot of us were brainwashed by the government at that time. As an advocate to learn qigong, I still run into people who are similar to my age and from China, who will say things like, “Oh, you be careful with qigong; you might really get into trouble.” (laughs). All of this was why it took me so long to decide to learn qigong six years ago.

And it was pretty amazing. Right before I went to the class, I was working so hard [setting up Eastover], that by the time I arrived at Robert Peng’s class location my back was so stiff I was having trouble even climbing out of my car. But I went to the class and by the end of the weekend I noticed that all my pain went away. I was moving and flexible and I said, “Wow, this is pretty amazing.” When I got back home, I continued to practice my tai chi in the morning and felt a totally different feeling.

I began to feel the qi ball of energy between my palms, and I realized what had happened. I realized that in this weekend of learning qigong, I got the qi moving in my body. We call it “my qi got activated.” (laughs) We all have this energy. Our body is an energetic body; it’s just that you don’t realize that your energy body is moving. Your energy is moving all the time but you don’t feel it. Or it may be that your body is so tight all the time that your energy is not really free-flowing. Once I realized what happened, I’ve continued to practice tai chi because the moving meditation works really well for me. Plus the feeling after trying qigong has become totally different. Once you become aware of the energy, you feel the qi ball between your palms. I was like, “Oh my God, I’ve wasted so much time.”

Carol Bedrosian: If you had practiced tai chi for twenty years before going to this workshop, perhaps this had something to do with opening your energy channels, although I’m sure some people could get their qi activated first time without ever having done any class before.

Ying Wang: Absolutely, yes. In my case, I had a good teacher to learn tai chi from for one or two years, but the teacher moved away and for almost twenty years I didn’t have any teacher. I remembered the movements and was just doing it myself.

That’s why now I tell people that even though they’ve been doing their practice by themselves or watching videos, go to a teacher. You commit yourself to the practice when you have a teacher, who can also give you guidance. You are saving yourself so much time because your practice becomes so much more effective.

Really good teachers have an energy around them that can easily be transmitted to you. You can feel their energy when you’re in the same room with them; it activates your own energy. When you get that feeling and then do your practice, you’ll notice it’s totally different.

Carol Bedrosian: Is there a difference between teachers who are trained in China and teachers trained in the United States?

Ying Wang: I do not feel there is too much of a difference. There are many teachers in the United States that are very highly cultivated, and there are a lot of masters in China who are also very highly cultivated. In the United States we are very lucky because tai chi and qigong, relatively speaking, are not as well known as yoga, for example, so there are a lot of very good qigong teachers that have very affordable classes here. There is very much talent in the United States. If these teachers were in China they would get paid so much money because people in China pay a lot to go to a good teacher. They understand the value of it. In China, they have a natural respect for teachers; that is in their blood.

Carol Bedrosian: What was it like living in China during the Cultural Revolution?

Ying Wang: I was born in the beginning of the 60s, which was the height of the

The Qigong Experience

November 10, 2018 Royal Plaza Trade Center, Marlboro, MA An exclusive opportunity at the 12th Annual Natural Living Expo to learn qigong from four authentic qi masters in one day.

At 80 years old, MASTER JUNFENG LI is considered by many to be qigong’s spiritual leader. He is the principal teacher of Sheng Zhen Meditation and Healing Practices — the Qigong of Unconditional Love — an integration of many different healing traditions. Master Li is the former head coach of China’s National Martial Arts Team and now travels internationally to train and certify Sheng Zhen Gong teachers or simply spend time with his students and share the joy and healing that permeates his entire being.

DR. MING WU, AOBTA-CP, Ph.D., founder of Wu Healing Center, is a doctor of Chinese Medicine, a third generation Chinese herbalist, tai chi and qigong master, who has studied tai chi and qi gong in China and US for more then 40 years. He received authentic Yang Style Tai Chi instruction from his Sifu Grandmaster, Gin Soon Chu, disciple of Yang Sau Chung. Dr. Wu has dedicated his life to healing and teaching others how to live healthy lives, where qigong is an integral element of that practice, supported by many years of research in energy medicine and meditation.

JING LI began learning Wushu, a Chinese martial art and fullcontact sport, from her father, Junfeng Li, at the age of 8, where she went on to receive two gold and one silver medal in international competition by age 16. An accomplished meditator, Jing is now a head teacher of Sheng Zhen Gong, where she teaches opening of the heart through qigong so others can experience this true well-being and healing. Her doctoral research work in Sweden is focused on creating methodology to understand the benefits of qigong.

SIFU TERRY DUNN is the lineage holder for several monastic qigong and tai chi forms. In 2000, he wrote and implemented the first qigong protocol in American medical history for the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. In addition to Tao Tan Pai Nei Kung and Flying Phoenix Qigong, Terry primarily teaches Yang Tai Chi Chuan in the manner of Grandmaster William C.C. Chen, Liu He Ba Fa, Tao Tan Pai Kung Fu, and the ultra rare Eight Sections of Energy Combined.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 27

THE QIGONG EXPERIENCE, continued from page 27

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Cultural Revolution. By the time I was 5 years old, it was full blown. We saw things being burned and abandoned. Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors are typically required to have training in tai chi and qigong, but not this generation of them. The colleges for TCM didn’t require the doctors to practice those things during that period. They also did not require spiritual cultivation. This was not even allowed to be mentioned.

Carol Bedrosian: Have those things returned? Do the doctors now talk about qigong?

Ying Wang: Oh, yes, it’s so amazing. Because tai chi is like a meditation in motion, even if you don’t know how to practice it properly, you’re not going to get yourself into any kind of trouble doing it. So tai chi was always practiced, even during the Cultural Revolution, although it wasn’t emphasized during that time, just considered a general exercise. In the parks, people could teach or practice tai chi. Qigong was not. I had a classmate during school in China who practiced it privately. No one knew; I didn’t even know until after we graduated.

But in the last fifteen years, a lot of the old, traditional practitioners have come out and taught students privately. But while everything is coming back now, there are some things that aren’t so great going on in China. Some people worship qigong and act as if it’s so mysterious. Some people charge others to learn very little of qigong and require a fee of 30,000 or 50,000 Chinese yuan to even accept them as a student. That’s how hot it has become. And under such circumstances, the Chinese government has, in a way, tried to step in. They established a guideline that does not allow people to collect money just for accepting somebody as a student. Some of the masters get paid so much money that ordinary people are not able to learn. But in the United States, we have all this luxury because the top teachers have learned from Chinese traditional teachers and now we have the chance to learn from them.

Carol Bedrosian: You founded Eastover retreat center out in Lenox, Massachusetts, where you are bringing many of these qigong masters there to teach.

Ying Wang: We bring in teachers whose main objective is to help others master the art of qigong. We avoid teachers who use qigong as a tool to make money. The main qualification we look for is the teacher’s desire to pass on what they know to people who want to learn the self-healing aspect of the art themselves, rather than having to depend on the teacher. And this is, of course, in addition to the fact that they’re just really good at qigong.

Carol Bedrosian: What is the healing potential of qigong in the body?

Ying Wang: Qigong and tai chi have been included in many clinical trials in places such as Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, etc. But first of all, qigong is a way of cultivating energy, or as I said earlier, our energy body. So the healing aspect of qigong is the energy that can be cultivated. The Chinese, from ancient times until now, have discovered and practiced specific ways to cultivate this healing energy so you can become aware of it and feel its movement in your body.

When a teacher conducts group healings, they are basically able to harmonize this enormous amount of energy with the people who are present. Each person will experience the energy and vibrations differently and at various levels. For example, people with depression may experience lower energy vibrations. You can achieve a healing effect through a good practice where you will feel the vibration of a higher energy. Through practicing qigong, that vibration can be raised. A teacher with good, positive energy can both in person and remotely affect a person that has studied with them.

Carol Bedrosian: Since inflammation is the basis of many diseases within the body, how does qigong work with inflammation?

Ying Wang: Through practicing qigong, inflammation can be lowered. Healthy cells have a vibration that is much stronger than diseased cells, which calms down the other cells. Master Zhao Xue Zhong was one of the first qigong masters to open an official clinic in China; I believe that this was in 1981. He is able to meld his energy body with the patient’s and can feel the patient’s pain and help calm their nerves down.

Carol Bedrosian: Can qigong actually revive diseased organs or negative patterns in your body and revert them back to healthy functioning?

Ying Wang: Yes, absolutely. Actually, the cells in our body change all the time.

It is common to hear of miracle healings of cancer and other diseases through a combination of traditional medical intervention and qigong practice. First we need to relax the mind, let go of expectations and learn to trust the universe. Once activated, Continued on page 30

28 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

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THE QIGONG EXPERIENCE, continued from page 27

Within two to five years, 1.3 billion people in China will be practicing tai chi because the government is requiring all citizens to learn qigong and tai chi as part of their healthcare system. qi — this moving energy in our body — is very powerful. It can travel through blockages, it can travel to cells or blood vessels where hand acupressure massage cannot reach, to where Chinese herbal tea medicine cannot reach, to where the acupuncture needles cannot reach. A good acupuncturist who cultivates qigong can use the needle as a guide to deliver the right qi beyond its physical point. Then it’s up to us to do the daily practice to do the same. Through positive conscious direction, we can learn to accept cancer and be with cancer, and let positive qi permeate throughout the body and surround the cancer.

When you cultivate qigong, you tap into the qi field. Through the practice, first you are able to receive cosmic or universal energy, which is free and present all the time; you just have to learn how to receive it and let it pass through your body. That’s number one. Second, all the negative energy is being sent to the ground. The ground is so huge. It’s the most generous living body besides your physical body, and it’s there for you to be grounded to so you can recycle negative energy.

The ground can also pass on positive energy to you. One of the techniques in qigong uses the middle of the palm, called the lao gong xue, open to the sky and you can feel the tingling of your fingers. That’s when qi in the universe is passing through the lao gong xue, an acupuncture point. Through this passing, we receive good, clean and fresh qi from the universe.

Another qigong practice is to use qi to cleanse the body by sending energy through the lao gong xue in your palm, placing it at the crown of your head, called the bai hui xue. This energy passes through the middle of your body and bathes you in beautiful qi, which passes through to your feet and into the ground.

You can also take the beautiful and nourishing water energy from the ground through the bottom of your feet, called the yong quan xue, or spring bubble acupoint, and nourish your organs, like the heart and liver. You circulate this through your arms and whatever you don’t need is returned to the ground. Your body is a conduit for this qi in the universe. Your body becomes the conduit between the sky and the earth.

Carol Bedrosian: Can you do this wearing shoes or do you have to be barefoot?

Ying Wang: No, you can do it with shoes on. It’s a conscious feeling. But let’s say that on a particular day, you really feel like you need to be grounded, that you need to feel the connection physically. Then you can be barefoot, standing on the ground or standing on the grass. Yes, you definitely will feel a much stronger feeling, especially if you find a spot that is an energy vortex on the ground. There are spots like that. I have found one at Eastover.

Carol Bedrosian: How are tai chi and qigong different? Tai chi is said to be particularly helpful for seniors.

Ying Wang: Tai chi practice has a lot of things in common with qigong practice.

For example, the way you stand in tai chi is called standing post, and in qigong there’s a standing post meditation that is one of its most powerful meditations. Your mind calms down as your energy is moving, and your muscles are strengthened quietly while you stand there. In tai chi, throughout almost the whole practice, you are in that standing post position. It’s as if you’re standing near the edge of a chair, poised in a semi-seated position with your knees slightly bent. This allows movements to originate from the center of your body, building the strength of your legs, back 30 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

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and the whole center part of your body, from which you want all movement to be generated from. That builds natural stability for the practitioner. Everything else is just an extension of the center.

I had the lucky experience of having a tai chi session in New York City where I saw a woman of 92 who had fallen and broken her hip two years before. She went to the tai chi class after that broken hip in a wheelchair and two years later she was fully practicing tai chi again. That’s how effective tai chi can be.

Carol Bedrosian: Can you see qigong and the internal energy arts becoming mainstream medicine in the United States?

Ying Wang: I think it’s possible, but it depends on how open minded the healthcare system will become. I heard some encouraging news when I went to a conference this year that a hospital is experimenting with giving a prescription to practice tai chi for three months for pain management. That’s very encouraging.

Probably within two to five years, all of the 1.3 billion people in China will be practicing tai chi because the Chinese government just passed what would be called www.spiritofchange.org

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a bill here, that makes tai chi and qigong practice a part of their healthcare system.

What they will do is very similar to what happened during the Cultural Revolution.

In rural places, they will establish care centers with what they used to call “barefoot doctors” during the Cultural Revolution, who weren’t college trained but had some training to do things such as give shots or deal with an emergency. They are training tai chi instructors everywhere. They’ve made this a part of the healthcare system and now require what is called tai chi learning centers everywhere, and all citizens are required to go there and learn qigong and tai chi as part of their healthcare system.

Only China, a dictatorship, is able to do this.

Carol Bedrosian: But think of the benefit for increasing the vibration of the whole planet with that many people pulsing qi energy daily!

Ying Wang: Yes, because China has such a huge aging population, for them to be able to take care of all these people, they know that tai chi is one of the best preventative medicines for the mind and the body. But the old ones that have really mastered this art and know it very well are aging. These people are 80 to 100 years old

Continued on page 32

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 31

THE QIGONG EXPERIENCE, continued from page 31

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and the Chinese government is realizing this. They’ve also passed another bill that Traditional Chinese Medicine doctors don’t need to go and get a college education to practice, which allows these masters to pass on their information to younger kids without the college requirement. So that’s very encouraging because the art will be preserved and people will have the chance to pass it on to other countries, too.

Carol Bedrosian: Which is why I was very excited by your idea to bring these masters to the Natural Living Expo in Marlboro this year in November for people to meet and work with.

Ying Wang: Yes, one of the masters who’ll be at the expo is Sifu Terence Dunn. He is an amazing master. Another amazing master is Junfeng Li, who at 80 years old, is like a living encyclopedia of qigong. This year in October at Eastover, he’s conducting a thirty-six day retreat where he will pass on his knowledge about how to cultivate and heal yourself and others.

Sifu Dunn is a graduate of Yale University and Harvard Business School, but he is a descendent of China even though he wasn’t born there. He loves this art so much that he studied with many of the top masters of the world, but he is very modest. Even though these masters can make quick money doing healing for other people, in their hearts they are here to teach others because they really want these arts to live on and help others heal.

Carol Bedrosian: The way that humans were naturally meant to heal with energetic self-healing.

Ying Wang: Yes, exactly. These are experiential studies. You can gain some knowledge from reading books or watching videos, but working with a master provides experiential studies. You want to find a good master, one where you can feel the energy of the master and whether or not you have a connection with that specific teacher. All of us are at a different level of vibration; sometimes it’s not until your vibration level is raised to a certain point that you feel a connection. All of us feel a different natural connection with the people around us. It’s the same thing with masters.

At the Medical Qigong and Eastern Medicine Symposium at Eastover in May, we gather masters together who have different traditions and ways of healing to give people a chance to come and experience this in a short five to seven day time period.

This gives you the experiential opportunity to see with whom you naturally connect.

Science has advanced greatly to help us understand human potential, but there’s so much potential in our own human body that we can cultivate ourselves. I just came back from an anti-aging conference in Las Vegas where I met one of the lead researchers at Yale University who discovered that the temperature in the center of our heads — one of the main meditation qigong cultivation spots called the ni wang — has the most stable temperature in our body. He measured the temperature through a light tunnel from the middle of the head to the front, in between the eyes— what we commonly call the third eye. The Chinese have known for thousands of years that you can see light through the ni wang, and when the third eye is open, you can see everything in light speed; you can see scenery on the other side of Earth!

This researcher found a very strong correlation between the temperature of that spot and the sleep quality of a person. If a person is able to practice techniques to calm down the temperature of the ni wang, they can fall asleep right away and have a good quality of sleep. One of these is to open your arms wide and collect qi in the center of your palm. Then moving towards the top of the head, use your palms to push the qi through the center of your head, washing down through the body to dan tien [just beneath the navel] and down to the earth. Keep doing this until you feel empty in the head, stillness in the heart, your eyelids falling down. These highly cultivated masters have the ability to do that and that is why they can sleep well and immediately fall asleep. They don’t even have to worry about jet lag. When a person has the ability to help themselves sleep well, that boosts that person’s longevity and health.

We live in a very exciting time period. Not only do we have these ancient tools to help us cultivate good health, but we also have science to help us understand why these things are beneficial for us. They can help us save a lot of money in our healthcare system, and produce no negative side effects, just healing.

For more information on qigong classes, Master Li’s 36-day training in October or the Medical Qigong Symposium in May, contact Ying Wang at events@Eastover.com. Eastover Estate and Retreat, PO Box 2282, Lenox, MA 01240. www.eastover.com. (866) 264-5139.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 33

How To Build A Culture Of

Good Health

By Gabor Maté, MD

When we take on too much stress, whether at work or in our personal lives, when we are not able to say no, inevitably our bodies will say it for us.

“I

never get angry,” says a character in one of Woody Allen’s movies. “I grow a tumor instead.” Much more scientific truth is captured in that droll remark than many doctors would recognize. Mainstream medical practice largely ignores the role of emotions in the physiological functioning of the human organism.

Yet the scientific evidence abundantly shows that people’s lifetime emotional experiences profoundly influence health and illness. And, since emotional patterns are a response to the psychological and social environment, disease in an individual always tells us about the multigenerational family of origin and the broader culture in which that person’s life unfolds.

We human beings are biopsychosocial creatures whose health or illness reflects our relationship with the world we inhabit—including all the variables of family, class, gender, race, political status, and the physical ecology of which we are a part. A recent article from the National Institutes of Health called for a new foundational theory for medicine, based on a “biopsychosocial-ecological paradigm.” Given the ideological limitations of mainstream medicine, this forward-looking initiative is not likely to be heeded soon.

As early as the second century, the Roman physician Galen noted the connection between emotional burden and illness, an observation repeated by many other clinicians over the centuries. The pathway from stressful emotions, often unconscious, to physical disease was often driven home to me as a family physician and palliative care practitioner, although nothing in my medical education even remotely hinted at such links. People I saw with chronic disease of all kinds — from malignancies or autoimmune conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis or ulcerative colitis to persistent skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis, and neurological disorders like Lou Gehrig’s Disease (ALS), multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s, and even dementia — were characterized by certain unmistakable emotional life patterns. Among these was the chronic repression of so-called negative emotions, especially of healthy anger, as in the Woody Allen character’s wry confession; an overriding sense of duty,

34 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

role, and responsibility; an undue concern for the emotional needs of others while ignoring one’s own; and, finally, a core belief—again, often unconscious—that one is responsible for how other people feel and that one must never disappoint others.

The expression “the good die young” has—sadly—more validity than we sometimes appreciate.

Exemplifying the characteristic of an overwrought sense of duty, role, and responsibility, New York Times contributor Julia Baird recently reported her diagnosis with ovarian cancer. “I have always been healthy and strong,” she wrote in a recent column. “I regularly do hot yoga and swim a two-kilometer stretch in a bay teeming with fish near my home in Sydney, all while caring for my two little kids, hosting a TV show, writing columns and making the final edits on the book I am writing.” Inadvertently, Baird depicts precisely the “I can do anything, I’ll be everything to everybody” multitasking persona I found in everyone I ever met with her particular malignancy. People are unawtare, and their physicians rarely know to inform them, that such self-imposed stress is a major risk factor for disease of all kinds.

Can Dutifulness Make You Ill?

But is it purely self-imposed? It is not accurate to see it that way. A materialistic culture teaches its members that their value depends on what they produce, achieve, or consume rather than on their human beingness. Many of us believe that we must continually prove and justify our worthiness, that we must keep having and doing to justify our existence.

Lou Gehrig, the baseball great after whom ALS is named, embodied self-abnegation to the nth degree, as do all people with ALS I have ever treated, interviewed, or read about — or have been described in medical papers. His famous record of consecutive games played was not about his indestructibility, but about his unwillingness to surrender his self-identity as invulnerable, with no needs. He suffered injuries like

A recent article in the journal Pediatrics well summarized the notion that early childhood coping dynamics may result in adult illness and dysfunction: “Short-term physiologic and psychological adjustments that are necessary for immediate survival and adaptation … may come at a significant cost to long-term outcomes in learning, behavior, health, and longevity.”

During our dependent and vulnerable childhoods we develop the psychological, behavioral, and emotional composite that later we mistake for ourselves. This composite, which we call the personality, often masks a real person with real needs and desires. The personality is not a fault; in stressed environments it evolves primarily as a defense, a defense that can turn saboteur.

The separation of mind and body is an erroneous view, incompatible with science.

Personality traits — that is, psychological patterns — conduce to disease because the brain circuits and systems that process emotions not only exert a profound influence on our autonomic nerves, as well as our cardiovascular, hormonal, and immune systems; in reality, they are all conjoined. The recent, but no longer new, discipline of psychoneuroimmunology has delineated the many neurological and biochemical mechanisms that unite all these seemingly disparate systems into one super-system.

A somewhat breathless report in Science Daily outlined the latest such finding, from the University of Virginia: “In a stunning discovery that overturns decades of textbook teaching, researchers have determined that the brain is directly connected to the immune system by vessels previously thought not to exist. The discovery could have profound implications for diseases from autism to Alzheimer’s to multiple sclerosis.”

In effect, when we repress emotions—just as when we are completely at their mercy, such as in moments of untrammeled rage—we are playing havoc with our nervous system, hormonal apparatus, immune system, intestines, heart, and other organs. The result can be chronic or acute illness. As repressed anger eventually turns against us, the immune system can as well, as in autoimmune disorders, for example.

Interactions between the brain and body also determine that adverse early childhood circumstances—even in utero experiences—leave us in the long term with more than psychological and emotional effects. The physical impact of early childhood experiences can also directly promote disease. Studies from the United States and New Zealand have shown, for example, that healthy adults who suffered childhood mistreatment were more likely to have elevated inflammatory products in their circulation in response to stressful experiences. Such overactive stress reactions are, in turn, a risk factor for conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, and a host of other illnesses.

It is impossible to overstate the impact of childhood trauma on adult mental and physical health. Myriad studies have demonstrated that early-life suffering potentiates many illnesses, from mental diseases such as depression, psychosis, or addiction to autoimmune conditions to cancer. One Canadian study demonstrated that childhood abuse raised the risk of cancer nearly 50 percent, even when controlled for lifestyle habits such as smoking and drinking.

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Childhood Coping Dynamics May Result in Adult Illness

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all other athletes: All his fingers had been broken at least once; some more often. He would play even when wincing with pain and sick to the stomach with the agony of it, but his dutifulness would not allow him to rest.

Gehrig’s story, as those of many people with chronic illness, leaves us with the question of how such emotional patterns help potentiate physical illness. Why do people develop and maintain such self-harming traits?

Compulsive self-disregard and emotional repression are never deliberate or conscious — nobody can be faulted for them. They begin in early childhood as coping mechanisms. Gehrig, for example, had an alcoholic father and a highly stressed mother. As a child, he assumed the shell of invulnerability because the responsibility thrust upon him was that of being the emotional caregiver to his parents. Such role reversal, said psychiatrist John Bowlby, the pioneer of attachment research and theory, is inevitably a source of pathology for the child later on. Gehrig was compelled in his childhood to develop a persona that, in time, became his ineluctable self-identity. This is how he adapted to his dysfunctional environment; he knew himself no other way.

S IN

CE

Continued on page 36

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 35

Give yourself, as best you can, what your parents would have loved to grant you but probably could not: full-hearted attention, full-minded awareness and compassion.

Addictions in particular are responses to early trauma. Whether to drugs, food, gambling, or whatever other form they take, all are attempts to soothe stress and emotional pain. The first question is never why the addiction, but why the pain? We cannot understand the addictions that beset our society without recognizing the suffering and stress they are intended to alleviate, or the childhood trauma at their source.

In this light, the obesity epidemic now facing us reflects primarily an epidemic of pain and stress.

Astonishing to say, most medical students never hear the word “trauma” in all their years of training, except in the sense of physical injury. “The medical profession is traumaphobic,” a well-known colleague in San Francisco once told me. The results for patient care are devastating, whether in the treatment of physical or psychiatric conditions—a distinction that, given the mind/body unity, is in itself misleading.

Individual family dynamics unfold in the context of culture and society. Just as families have their histories in which they transmit trauma across the generations, so do societies. We can see, then, why the poor and the racially oppressed and the historically traumatized are more prone to disease. Need we mention the high rates of alcoholism, violence, obesity, diabetes, and overdose deaths amongst aboriginal populations in North America and, say, Australia, or the relatively unfavorable health outlook and life expectancy of black Americans?

The Effects of Trauma Can Become Multigenerational

The effects of trauma become multigenerational through repeated psychological dysfunctions. The new science of epigenetics is identifying the mechanisms that even affect gene functioning. The children of Holocaust survivors, for example, have altered genetic mechanisms leading to abnormal stress hormone levels. Animal studies are showing that the physiological effects of trauma can be passed on even to the third generation.

Finally, family stresses, trauma, and social and economic deprivation can also affect human brain development in ways that lead to behavioral problems, learning disabilities, and mental illness. CT scan studies at the University of Wisconsin showed that brain centers responsible for academic performance were up to 10 percent smaller in children who grew up in the poorest homes. Why? Because the human brain itself is a social organ, shaped in its neurophysiological and neurochemical development by the child’s relationships. In the words of the above-cited Pediatrics article: “The interaction of genes and experiences literally shapes the circuitry of the developing brain, and is critically influenced by the mutual responsiveness of adultchild relationships, particularly in the early childhood years.”

Parents stressed by multigenerational trauma, relationship issues, economic insecurity, maternal depression, or social disconnection are simply unable to give their children the “mutually responsive” attuned interactions that optimal childhood development requires.

The result is the epidemic of developmental disorders among our children that we are now witnessing. In line with the prevailing ideology, the medical response is mostly pharmaceutical. Rather than considering the environment that, throughout childhood, shapes the brain, we seek to manipulate the child’s brain chemistry instead.

What then are people to do when doctors, the gatekeepers to health care and its primary providers, are blind to the basic realities of what generates health and what undermines it?

When their training denies them knowledge of the unshakeable unity of mind and body, of emotions and physiology? When they do not recognize that social factors are far more powerful determinants of health than genetic predispositions? When they are unaware of the powerful role of psychological trauma in human life?

36 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Social Factors Are More Powerful Than Genes In Determining Health

On the societal level, we must understand that health is not an individual outcome, but arises from social cohesion, community ties, and mutual support. In this alienated culture, where friends may be virtual electronic entities rather than human beings, too many suffer from what University of Chicago psychologist John Cacioppo calls “the lethality of loneliness.” We need a broad attitudinal and practical shift, consciously willed and created, toward a culture based on the fundamental sociality of human beings. We know all too well, from data too persuasive and too somber to be disputed, that emotional isolation kills.

Policymakers and community leaders need to be taught that economic and social disparities, insecurities, and stresses, as well as racial or ethnic inequalities, inevitably result in health problems and vastly increased health costs. In truth, almost all diseases are social diseases.

Health promotion must begin at conception. In the womb the growing human is already affected by maternal stress. Pregnant women need much more than blood tests, physical exams, and ultrasounds. They require emotional support so the hormones of stress do not chronically flow into the fetus via the umbilical cord.

Current birthing practices, egregiously over-medicalized, interfere with natural physiologic processes and maternal-infant bonding.

With the role of parental presence and attunement being recognized in brain and personality development, young mothers and fathers must be helped to spend much more time with their children. In advanced European countries even fathers are accorded parental leave.

Adults need to know, even if their physicians often do not, that their health issues are rarely isolated manifestations. Any symptom, any illness is also an opportunity to consider where our lives may be out of balance, where our childhood coping patterns have become maladaptive, exacting costs on our physical well-being.

When we take on too much stress, whether at work or in our personal lives, when we are not able to say no, inevitably our bodies will say it for us. We need to be very honest with ourselves, very compassionate, but very thorough in considering how our childhood programming still runs our lives, to our detriment.

Ultimately, healing flows from within. The word itself originates from “wholeness.”

To be whole is much more than to experience the absence of disease. It is the full and optimal functioning of the human organism, according to its nature-gifted possibilities. By such standards, we live in a culture that leaves us far short of health.

The importance of nutrition and a healthy ecology, of an environment free of toxins and pollution, need hardly be stressed. They, too, are social issues more than individual ones.

I’m often asked how people should approach their physicians, who may be very adept at their craft but limited by the narrowness of the medical ideology. “It’s the same as going to a bakery,” I reply. “When you enter a bakery, don’t ask for salami, just as when you go to the butcher, it is no use to ask for cookies.” Receive, I suggest, what the physician can offer—and often that can be miraculous—but do not seek what the doctor cannot. Find alternative sources for what most physicians cannot provide: a holistic approach that considers not organs and systems but the entire human organism. Take responsibility for how you live, the food you ingest, your emotional balance, your spiritual development, the integrity of your relationships.

Give yourself, as best you can, what your parents would have loved to grant you but probably could not: full-hearted attention, full-minded awareness, and compassion.

Make gifting yourself with these qualities your daily practice.

“A culture can be toxic or nourishing,” writes Thom Hartmann. If we wish to take full responsibility for health in our society, we must not only be vigilant guardians of our personal well-being, we must also work to change structures, institutions, and ideologies that keep us mired in a toxic culture.

Gabor Maté, M.D., frequently addresses lay and professional audiences across North America and internationally. His books include When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection, and In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction. drgabormate.com. This article was reprinted from Winter 2016 issue of YES! Magazine with permission of the author. www.spiritofchange.org

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By Trish Whynot wish this health issue would go away. I wish I were in a relationship. I wish I made more money.

Why are some of our wishes more difficult to fulfill than others?

Because some personal goals require radical change. As Einstein reminds us, the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” If diets haven’t worked, a new way of controlling your caloric intake or expenditure won’t likely work either, because new forms of control are not a radical change. It’s the same old track. Have you ever explored the possibility that maybe it’s not only about the weight? Or the chronic condition? Or the relationship or lack thereof?

Or…? Or…? Or…?

Sometimes a stubborn personal goal will reveal how we have mastered a way of living or loving that is completely unproductive. Did you know that it takes 10,000+ hours to master something? Just because you have mastered something doesn’t mean it’s valuable or that you are even aware of what you’ve mastered. I remember realizing that I had more than mastered sucking up my feelings when a friend commented, “I can’t even picture you raising your voice.” In my case it didn’t mean I never got angry; it meant that I had gotten so good at holding it in over the years, that even I was unaware of my mastery until this comment brought it to my attention. I was seeking to understand the nature of my chronic sinus problems at the time.

Holding feelings in is an unhealthy form of control. I’d dare say I had a PhD in it. (So is spitting them out, but that's for another article.) Chronic sinus problems in my late 20s were one of the effects for me. TMJ tried to bring it to my attention in my early 20s, but physical therapy succeeded at teaching me a way of keeping my mouth shut that didn’t hurt my jaw. Not bad, but it didn't address the deeper issue. When it popped up in my sinuses it was harder to ignore. A desire to be cherished in a relationship presented me with an opportunity to revisit it years later.

In hindsight I can see how sucking up my feelings was an intimacy blocker — not a facilitator. Saying I was fine when I wasn’t made me untrustworthy — not strong. And holding feelings in made me sick and caused me physical pain — it didn’t make me a saint. Realizing the unproductiveness in these areas convinced me to pursue retiring sucking up my feelings completely. I had become so unconsciously good at it that it took a while for me to become aware of how I did it in different situations. And I can be a little stubborn at times. How about you?

When I look back I can see that the retirement process spanned a couple decades and there could still be more. My initial mastery of sucking up my feelings spanned 38 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

about that time too. But who’s counting? I’m just grateful that I figured it out in this lifetime. The dismantling didn’t affect everyday but it would pop up in different settings for me to see it by way of its effects. Dismantling an unproductive way of living is a process, for certain, often beginning with something we can’t shake and have nowhere else to turn. Through radical change, as Glinda would say, we eventually realize how we had the power all along.

My radical change was my pursuit of emotional accountability. Learning to feel my feelings authentically and to respond to them productively was radical compared to how I had controlled them by holding them in. When holding them in their only outlet was to cause me internal harm or harm to others passive aggressively. When we hold something in it’s got to come out somewhere. (FYI, I didn’t know that I was passive aggressive at the time so if you can relate, you probably don’t either.)

Staying the course with dismantling my old way of being while creating a new way happened simultaneously. These fresh tracks were not only radical as to how I was brought up to hold everything in, but life altering — so life altering that in the midst of it, I changed careers. I wanted to teach what I was learning. Being sensitive is beautiful and valuable when you know how to navigate the territory.

What I had learned was so liberating for me that I wanted everyone to know about it. In response to my desire to share, a holistic counseling course appeared “out of the blue” to help me find my words. I’ve been teaching people how to use their feelings as fuel for learning, healing and growth ever since.

I’d rather be in kindergarten in the School of Authenticity than have a PhD in Suck it Up. Learning to be authentic with my feelings, which includes learning to use them to heal rather than to hurt, has been just as valuable as learning to walk. Believe me, I’ve wrestled with it, had my ego busted where I didn’t even know it was inflated and been

deeply humbled in the process. But in the end, guess what? It deepened my capacity for intimacy, attracted more trustworthy people into my life, my health issues went away and so much more.

10,000 hours may sound daunting but you don’t have to complete it to start receiving benefits and you don't have to do it alone. The number of hours you have put into your radical change only comes up to cut you some slack when you fall down. You might still be in kindergarten with the process. Or to show you where you haven't been applying what you know so you can address your resistance. Be gentle with yourself, but if you keep making the same mistakes get some help. Sorry only goes so far. Others will get tired of being gentle with you and that's not a bad thing. You can take as long as you want to develop emotional maturity, but it does take commitment, discipline and practice for mastery.

I’m grateful for my health issues and relationship struggles that showed me I was off course. That doesn’t mean I’d want to repeat those assignments from the School of Hard Knocks, but that wisdom is born of experience and I graduated. And just for the record, this does not guarantee no further issues, but at least if they show up you'll have a plan in place that will continue to bring out the best in you that had previously gotten buried, open your heart more rather than close it, and all while continuing to increase your faith and trust in God or whatever your term for Something More. Emotional accountability and spiritual wisdom do not come with merely controlling calories, symptoms or people.

From all of this, I have learned that when I no longer need something is when it is most likely to happen. At that point, my desire is pure — as in free of fear — no hidden agenda. I didn’t need to find a holistic counseling program. I didn’t even know such a thing existed. It found its way to me as if on angel wings. That's where the Something More steps in. Need indicates fear. When someone no longer needs to be thin is when the body has its best chance for losing the weight for good. When someone no longer needs that desired relationship it has its best chance for manifesting. When someone no longer needs to increase their finances they will be most likely to find themselves out of the hole. When someone no longer needs to store their anger and unshed tears in their sinuses they may realize that the chronic-ness of their sinusitis has vanished.

We often need something to happen to avoid a feeling. That’s a hidden agenda. It taints our desire with fear and that can send us down the control-the-symptoms-to avoid-the-feelings track if we aren’t aware.

A personal goal gives us something to journey toward but it’s what we learn about ourselves along the way that matters. If you have a stubborn goal it could be time for a radical change. And once you’ve made that change, the fulfillment of your goal could be just a click of your heels away and so much more. Follow the yellow brick road!

Trish Whynot, D.C.Ed, is a holistic counselor and author of Why Me? Why Now? Why Not? Finding Opportunity in Your Obstacles, an illustrated guide to living that expects opportunities even during challenging times.

She works with clients remotely and in person from her central and southern New Hampshire offices. For more info visit www.TrishWhynot.com. www.spiritofchange.org

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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).

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.

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By John Koenig

Your Brain on

Hypnosis

E

veryday I see miracles. People come to me as smokers and leave as non-smokers. They free themselves from fears and destructive habits that have troubled them for a lifetime. They lose weight and gain confidence. These people have benefitted from the power of hypnosis.

You don’t have to understand how hypnosis works or even what it is to allow it to empower you to make important and lasting changes in your attitudes, emotions and behaviors. Hypnotism is most commonly defined as an altered state of consciousness resembling sleep in which the subject’s susceptibility to suggestion is increased. The hypnotist’s voice takes the place of the client’s consciousness, where old negative ideas adopted in childhood can be replaced with new ideas introduced into your subconscious. You might say hypnotherapy is a way to reprogram your cognitive software.

A Stanford University study in 2016 using MRI technology demonstrated a significant difference in brain activity while a person is under hypnosis versus ordinary consciousness. MRI measures brain activity by detecting changes in blood flow; the results were significant in validating hypnosis as a real, measurable phenomenon.

The researchers found that at least three parts of the subject’s brains were affected during hypnosis: 1. Dorsal anterior cingulate showed decreased activity.

This is the part of the brain that takes the information from our senses and decides which is the most important.

By decreasing activity in this area, you are less concerned about the outside world and more focused on your internal world.

40 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

2. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and insula showed increased connections. This is the connection in the brain that helps control what is going on with the body.

3. Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, medial prefrontal and posterior cingulate cortex showed decreased connections. This “disconnect” partially explains why during a hypnosis show a person can be doing something pretty silly and not be embarrassed. The subject’s brain awareness (consciousness) is disconnected from what they are actually doing.

The experience of being hypnotized itself usually includes some or all of the following: feeling of relaxation and disassociation, heaviness or lightness, time compression or expansion, physical sensations such as tingling or numbness, partial amnesia (certain things are forgotten like waking from a dream and the memory quickly fading), euphoria or deep mental relaxation, hallucinations including colors and scents. There are also observable measurements of hypnotism such as catalepsy of eye muscles or even limbs. Bottom-line? You can expect a pleasurable, relaxing experience.

It is important to know that everyone of normal intelligence can be hypnotized. About 20% of people are natural somnambulists: they can enter the deepest stage of hypnosis very quickly, often with complete amnesia, but somnambulism is not necessary for outstanding results. It is well documented that you cannot be made to do anything against your will and that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. In fact, any hypnotist no matter how skilled is nothing more than a facilitator trained to help you find your own power.

G LED OW

E • COMPASSION • W IS D

O

M

Certified hypnotists and hypnotic coaches represent a distinct, separate profession in the United States. Here is the U.S. Department of Labor’s Dictionary of Occupational Titles description.

KN

What Is A Certified Hypnotist?

079.157.010 Hypnotherapist Master Hypnotist | Alternate Title: Hypnotist • Induces hypnotic state in client to increase motivation or alter behavior pattern through hypnosis.

• Consults with client to determine the nature of problem.

• Prepares client to enter hypnotic states by explaining how hypnosis works and what client will experience.

• Tests subjects to determine degrees of physical and emotional suggestibility.

• Induces hypnotic techniques of hypnosis based on interpretation of test results and an analysis of client’s problem.

• May train client in self-hypnosis conditioning.

This is a national definition of the profession. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Hampshire, the term hypnotherapist is not used unless one is also a licensed mental health counselor. However, both hypnotists and hypnotherapists are happy to work in consultation with psychiatrists, psychologists and other licensed mental health providers under their direction as part of a team.

Many people won’t even seriously consider a hypnotist until everything else fails and they are desperate for relief. That is very unfortunate, because a certified hypnotist should be the first professional you call, not the last, for everything from smoking cessation to stress management.

The Internet makes it very easy to get a sense of a hypnotist before you even call.

Here are a few tips. Remember, you are the boss and are shopping for someone who may become very important to you. Your choice of a hypnotist is certainly at least as important as the issue you are looking to address.

Tips For Finding A Good Hypnotist Visit their webpage. You will get a feel for them and get answers to many of your questions.

Look at comments and reviews from former clients online.

Referrals from your doctor, therapist and friends. If you are lucky, you may get a referral to a hypnotist from a professional. A few physicians refer to certified hypnotists. A traditional therapist may point you to a hypnotist with a good reputation.

You may have friends or family who rave about the results they got in quitting smoking or losing weight with a particular hypnotist.

Call a prospective hypnotist and ask questions. Get a feel for them over the phone.

Are they rushed or interested in what you have to say? Do they seem to have a solution that will work with you? How many sessions do they recommend? Are they forthcoming about costs?

Take advantage of the offer of a free consultation if you have any doubts. Many hypnotists will gladly either spend time with you on the phone or invite you to come into their office for a 15-30 minute free consultation.

Look at qualifications. Hypnosis is not a licensed profession in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire or Connecticut. Education and training in hypnotism and coaching vary. Most professional hypnotists — but not all — are certified by national associations like The National Guild of Hypnotists with ethical and ongoing educational standards. Time in practice is another indication, but not the sole criterion for a hypnotist’s suitability for your issue. You want someone who has been in practice for a while working with issues similar to yours, but that doesn’t mean a newcomer to the field with specific experience may not be the perfect person to help you achieve your goals.

Consider life and professional experience. Find out if the hypnotist’s background is a good match for your life experience and needs. Often hypnotists are best at helping people handle issues they themselves have overcome. At the least, find out if the hypnotist has worked successfully with people with your issue.

Continued on page 42

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 41

What Do Essential Oils and Hypnosis Have In Common?

They both work at the subconscious level, says hypnotist and aromatherapist Carolyn Jenkins.

We have five senses. Four of them — sight, touch, hearing, and taste — go through interpretive areas of the brain. They are filtered. But when you smell, tiny molecules drift high up into the nose to a set of receptors linked directly to the olfactory bulb and a primitive part of the brain associated with emotions and memory. This provides a subconscious, unfiltered link between strong memories and aromas.

Hypnotherapy, like aroma, also works at the level of the subconscious to alter or influence behavior. Think of the brain as a big circle. At the base of this circle is the primitive brain, focused on fight or flight. Above it sits the subconscious, a vast reservoir of pluses (positive experiences and associations) and minuses (negative experiences and associations). The subconscious is indiscriminate in terms of what it allows in — the true, the false, the imagined are all welcome here.

At about age 8 or 9, a shield of critical thinking and filtering develops, which separates the subconscious from the developing conscious mind — the repository of logic, reasoning, decision-making, and willpower. This separation is both useful and problematic. On the one hand, it prevents falsehoods and unexamined beliefs from becoming true on a subconscious level. On the other hand, it prevents direct communication with the subconscious.

In hypnosis, however, that shield is penetrated so the subconscious can be directly accessed and altered. A conscious decision to eat healthy shouldn’t be hard, but the subconscious associates pasta with energy, ice cream with stress reduction, and so on. These positive associations are deep-seated. Since the subconscious controls about 90% of our behavior, that means we need to get through to the subconscious to change behavior.

Using hypnosis and essential oils simultaneously offers multiple access points to the subconscious. Certain aromas — for example frankincense, myrrh, and sandalwood — enhance meditation. If an individual associates an aroma with meditation, at some point the aroma itself — or even just imagining the smell — can place that person in a meditative frame of mind. This occurs because the subconscious doesn’t distinguish between what is imagined and what is real.

Likewise, the smell of grapefruit essential oil, a natural appetite suppressant, can be associated with feelings of satiety. At first, one might need to actually smell the oil to curb one’s appetite, but with familiarity, feelings of fullness can be initiated just by imagining the smell of grapefruit.

The effect would be even stronger if the association is made in hypnosis. Here the subconscious enters a state of heightened suggestibility where it is receptive to the logic and reasoning of the conscious mind. By harnessing the power of the subconscious, hypnotherapy leads to permanent, positive change.

Carolyn Jenkins leads several programs designed to expand and enhance spiritual practice and physical well being through hypnotherapy, essential oils, and other healing modalities. Visit EssentiallyHoly.com.

Do you have good chemistry? A therapeutic hypnotic relationship is built around rapport. While there are certainly exceptions, if you are 65 and facing retirement issues, you probably won’t relate as well to a 20-something just starting her life as you would to someone closer to your age and life experience. If you are gay, you would be wise to avoid a hypnotist with repressed homophobia. If religion is important to you, find someone who seems to have a spiritual approach. If you are in 12-Step recovery, you’d be well advised to find someone who understands what is involved, whether he or she is in recovery themselves or not.

Does gender make a difference to you? Do you prefer a male or female hypnotist?

Gender may not be a factor in your case, or for an issue like quitting smoking, but if it is for you, listen to your instinct.

Beware of exaggerated claims. No one can guarantee 100% success from any human intervention. Be cautious of those who claim to do so. Be aware of phony credentials. There is no such thing as an accredited doctorate in hypnotism or hypnotherapy. Be very wary of someone who claims to have earned one.

What is your price point? A hypnotist should be clear about how much hypnosis sessions cost and how many he or she recommends for your issue. Most hypnotists will offer you a free 15-30 minute consultation in the office or on the phone. Why not take them up on the offer?

Be aware of very expensive and very cheap. Beware of attempts to lock you into programs for dozens of sessions in advance at thousands of dollars. Generally this is more marketing hype than sound hypnosis. And don’t expect too much from low priced hypnosis groups.

Seek professional mental health care when needed. A professional certified hypnotist is not a psychotherapist unless otherwise credentialed. If you are suffering from a genuine mental illness, a properly trained certified hypnotist will refer you to a licensed professional. He or she may work under the direction of your therapist, but professional hypnotists are trained to only practice within a well-defined scope of practice, required by their professional ethics. As the National Guild of Hypnotists notes: “Hypnotists work with everyday people on everyday problems.”

Issues Handled By Professional Certified Hypnotists HEALTH AND WELL-BEING Stress Management • Smoking Cessation Childbirth Hypnosis • Pre-surgery Hypnosis Confidence Building • Alcohol/Drug Habit Problems Pain Management (under medical supervision) Weight Loss (other than diagnosed eating disorders) Complementary Medical Support (under medical supervision) Fears (flying, driving, public speaking/performance, social fears) CAREER AND EDUCATION Sales Skills • Creativity Organization/Motivation • Memory Improvement Test Taking (K-12, college, boards, civil service examinations) RELATIONSHIPS Forgiveness • Bad Break-ups/Divorce Recovery Difficult Relationships (family, friends or workplace) SPORTS Mental Game Improvement (Focus, Concentration, Competition) Keep in mind that hypnosis is about giving you back your own power. You are always the boss. If you don’t feel a hypnotist is a good match, don’t be afraid to tell the hypnotist you will not be continuing. Look for the one that is right for you.

John Koenig, BCH, is a board certified hypnotist who has practiced in Seekonk, Massachusetts and Warwick, Rhode Island since 1998. He is also a certified instructor who trains people to become professional hypnotists as a part-time or full-time career. John’s work has been featured on both NBC and ABC National News and he is the co-author of The Hypnotic Coach. Visit http://possibilitieshypnosis.com.

42 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 43

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44 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Therapist: Welcome. Let’s help you find some pain relief from your headaches. Begin by settling into a comfortable space where you can relax, shifting around until your body is totally sculpted into the couch, muscles softening with every breath you take.

As you close your eyes, take a deep relaxing breath.

Imagine the delightful scent of balsam pine wafting up, immersing you in the feeling of a moment in nature, peaceful relaxation saturating your body, breathing in deeply, its rich and satisfying aroma. With every breath notice how easy it is to fall into a deeper and deeper state of relaxation.

Allow your inner gaze to move upward to the space between your eyebrows, your inner center of light. As if on a movie screen, watch yourself take up a wooden staff, gently stirring a bubbling pot of golden healing elixir, stirring around, around, around, infusing this staff with golden healing energy.

Taking up your staff now, notice a magical pathway winding up a nearby hill. Pointing your golden staff ahead, lightening your path, swirl it around in circles, spirals of golden sparks flying out in all angles in front of you, like fireflies in the shadows of the woods, brighter and lighter the path becomes before you, for you have all the power to create your new path now.

Knowing you are safe and protected by your magic staff, delve deeper into the forest, stumbling upon a charming garden of peace. Look around and notice the sun is shining on your favorite flowers, in brilliant reds, pinks, greens, purples, oranges, and yellows. You are completely at peace as you notice a comfortable space in which to lie down and take an undisturbed nap. Easily, you fall into a dream.

Now that you are totally relaxed and at ease, bring your awareness into your head. Imagine your head as an inner room. Take your staff of light with you and enter the room. Look around and tell me whatever you are noticing now.

Me: Well, this is pretty strange, but there’s a bear in a cave in my head.

Therapist: Interesting. Ask this bear if it has a message for you?

By Janet Dwinells

Me: Hmmm, so bear, do you have something you want me to know? He says he’s here to help me remember to meditate every day, even if it’s only for a few minutes. This will help me quiet my racing mind and I won’t have as many headaches.

Therapist: Great, is this something you can agree to?

Me: Sure, a few minutes a day is easy.

Therapist: Ask the bear if he has any other messages for you?

Me: So bear, is there anything else I can learn from you?

This bear thinks this is pretty funny. He says he has loads to share with me if I’ll just slow down to listen. He says he’s a guide for me to work with and will always be here for me.

Therapist: That’s great. Does he have a name?

Me: It’s Spirit Bear.

Therapist: Ask Spirit Bear how to contact him so he can share his wisdom.

Me: How can I connect with you? (Pause) He says it’s best in the morning before my day has started. I can call his name and he’ll be there to answer my questions. I just have to listen. He says this is good training for me, to learn to relax and look inside for answers. He also wants me to make sure I meditate every day.

Therapist: Okay, thank Spirit Bear for helping you and let him know you agree to meet with him each day and meditate afterwards.

Me: Thanks Spirit Bear. I appreciate you helping me with these headaches. I agree to listen to your wisdom and meditate every day.

Therapist: In a moment I’ll bring you back up to waking reality. Always remember you can easily call upon Spirit Bear and meet with him whenever you want. I’ll count from one to five and when I reach the count of five you’ll awaken feeling alert, refreshed, even better than before.

One, two, three, four, five. Alert and refreshed. Open your eyes when you’re ready. Great work!

Janet Dwinells, MA, CCH, is an Alchemical Hypnotherapist and soul guide whose mission is to empower others by helping them explore their inner world, transform obstacles, and create resources so they can live a life of possibility. Visit www.voyageofyoursoul.com.

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By Josette Lumbruno

CALM MIND

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46 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

am often asked why I mediate and my answer has remained the same since I began in the 1970’s. I meditate because it works to calm my mind. The meditation I do entails learning to quiet the mind by focusing first on the inhale and then on the exhale, slowly repeating the mantra calm.

Learning to regulate and calm oneself is that simple, but not always easy to do. It is simple because you always have your breath with you, and it is not easy because of all of the excuses — too busy, no time, no quiet place, or I forgot. Think of this practice as your daily spiritual vitamin, something you take every day to feel healthy.

Many people have the same frustration starting out; their minds wander and their thoughts take over. I completely understand because even after thirty years of practice I still have similar experiences. It helps to remember that meditation is a practice, and like anything else, if you don’t practice, you will not develop the habit or expertise. While we cannot always choose what our minds think about, we can choose to make time to practice meditation daily.

Try using a polished stone to serve as a reminder to mediate. Place it where it will be seen first thing in the morning — maybe near your toothbrush, your coffee or tea cup.

When you see the stone you will remember to meditate. Of course you can simply set a reminder on your smart phone or write it in your planner, but then meditation might begin to feel like an obligation or chore. Instead, the stone is a beautiful piece of nature that reminds you of the real intent of meditation — not to endure but to thrive.

Another frustration that people experience is trouble calming down, even when they are following their breath. Many people are not able to relax, and then as each moment passes they begin to feel more anxious about not feeling calm right away. Rather than setting yourself up to fail, start slow. Just aim for 3-5 minutes at first and increase the practice as you become more comfortable with 20 minutes a day. Sometimes one single meditative breath is enough to reset and begin to calm.

Meditation provides a safe place to become quiet and still, and allows us the opportunity to listen to what the mind and body are communicating. So often we forget to listen to ourselves, to trust that inner voice that guides us on life's journey. Meditation offers a powerful combination of honoring yourself through loving-kindness and the realization that all we yearn to be is inside of us already.

Through a regular practice of meditation, we calm and free our minds and hearts of what we do not need (anger, envy, hatred, sorrow etc.) and thereby create a place in our heart for love, compassion, joy, happiness, and forgiveness. By obtaining present awareness we can recognize the actuality of things, not the story our minds create, thereby achieving a mind and heart that is calm and stable and can remain peaceful if a struggle should arise.

Josette Lumbruno teaches the Calm Mind Meditation to students in CT. Visit www.calmmindmeditation.com.

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BUSY arissa! Hurry up! Get your shoes for soccer!â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;AJ! Stop fooling around!

Hurry up! Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re late for basketball practice!â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hurry up. Get in the car.

Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m going to stop for fast food on the way to drop you off!â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;Oh no! I just got a text from the coach. We have to be there in five minutes!

Oh @%&*! I forgot the _____!â&#x20AC;?

Does this sound familiar in your home? We are a culture that is constantly in a hurry, rushing everywhere and filling every single second of the waking day. Rushing and hurrying in all aspects of our lives and in our childrenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lives has created an impact that is more far-reaching and destructive than we would like to imagine. Letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s take a peek.

When we rush and hurry, it affects us emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Our mind and body go into hyper-alert, a mechanism of the fight-flight system in our brain. Our brain thinks we are in danger or in trouble, so it sends out a burst of adrenaline from the adrenal glands to protect us. Adrenaline is a hormone that increases our heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and numerous other physiological symptoms to give us the resources to react quickly. These symptoms fade as the danger signal clears, but when we are constantly rushing, our brain believes that we are in constant danger.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter carrying messages between brain cells that gets released when we experience pleasure. Dopamine is like a reward; once we get rewarded, we want to do that same thing again and again. Even just thinking about doing something exciting releases dopamine, which can create pleasureseeking behavior.

In “Exploiting the Neuroscience of Internet Addiction,” (The Atlantic, July, 2012) Bill Davidow writes: “Much of what we do online releases dopamine into the brain's pleasure centers, resulting in obsessive pleasure-seeking behavior…Thanks to neuroscience, we're beginning to understand that achieving a goal or anticipating the reward of new content for completing a task can excite the neurons in the ventral tegmental area of the midbrain, which releases the neurotransmitter dopamine into the brain's pleasure centers. This in turn causes the experience to be perceived as pleasurable. As a result, some people can become obsessed with these pleasureseeking experiences and engage in compulsive behavior such as a need to keep playing a game, constantly check email, or compulsively gamble online.”

The Internet, texting, social media, videogames, rushing from one event to the next, hurrying — they have all become one big addiction.

There is a natural inclination to avoid discomfort, to avoid stress, to avoid danger.

As we are rushing (running from danger), our brain is seeking relief from that sensation. So, of course, we turn to pleasure. Once we engage this teeter-totter pattern of discomfort/pleasure, we often become stuck. Unless we are actively taught how to cope with discomfort, we may constantly avoid it and seek pleasure. In Smile at Fear: Awakening the Heart of Bravery, Chogyun Trungpa describes our culture as “a world of neurotic comfort where we use everything to fill up our space.”

Not so long ago, during a slower time, families sat together for dinner. We did one thing at a time. Not every waking moment of our lives was filled with busyness. Technology did not consume our lives. Teenagers did not have four hours of homework a night. This was a time before fast food and sports took over our children’s lives and smart phones notified us every few minutes.

I have been incredibly fortunate to know a Mennonite family (the modern Amish), to befriend them, to learn from them, to watch the children grow up in this busy culture. I have observed how they honor Earth, honor each other, honor family, honor meal times together and honor nature’s pace. Yes, they do use technology, but only when necessary. It is not used as a distraction or as entertainment. They share meals together. They grow their food, all contribute to the garden, and each family member takes responsibility for a piece of their homelife. They invest in their family and their home and their community.

What would happen if we re-assessed how we live our day and how we invest in our own life? How we prioritize activities? What would happen if in between each activity, we “took three long, deep breaths,” as American Tibetan Buddhist Pema Chodron suggests? This pause allows one to be present, rather than running away from the moment or running away from discomfort.

What if we paused when we felt frustrated or hurried? Our frazzled self says, “But I don’t have time to pause!” The reality is that when we pause, we relax, and we give space to feel and think. When we honor the moment and become aware of our emotions, we find that we no longer have the need to run away from the situation.

We can sit with the discomfort or the unknown and be okay with what is. We are not avoiding the situation nor are we running toward an immediate pleasure. As we give space for that breath between our words, allowing ourselves to really listen to each other, we may find that we have more patience. We may develop a deeper understanding of our self, fostering more self-compassion.

So now imagine that you are stuck in traffic or waiting in a long line at the store.

Rather than getting frustrated and irritated and distracting yourself from that frustration by turning to your cell phone and checking social media or emails, what if you simply breathed? Slowly counting your breaths, feeling gratitude for your breath, appreciating the time you have in this moment, taking three long breaths. Now notice how you feel. Your life has change immensely in just three breaths.

Rather than rushing around and hurrying, what would happen if we slowed down the pace? Had dinner together? Put away our technology? We might find that we actually have the time and space to connect with each other in person, be less frenetic and more organized and patient. Slowing down gives us more time to breathe as we’re learning how to cope with discomfort and release our addiction to being busy. It gives time to just be, to connect, in the stillness and peace of silence.

Sherri Snyder-Roche, MA, LMHC is a licensed psychotherapist in private practice in Mendon, MA, with over 30 years of clinical experience. She specializes in the treatment of anxiety disorders, trauma recovery, eating disorders, children/adolescence, grief/loss and group therapy through a variety of art, play, breathwork and yoga techniques. Visit www.IntegratedPsychotherapy.com www.spiritofchange.org

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OF

BREATH

BY JEAN MCCLELLAND

“

ll life begins and ends with the exhalation," intones the breathing expert Carl Stough at the beginning of his film "Breathing: The Source of Life," a riveting documentary on his life and his discoveries in the art and science of breathing. It is stunning to contemplate that statement, and it is revelatory to begin to recognize, and experience, the power of exhalation. This is the gift that Carl Stough gave the world. And for those of us who were fortunate enough to work with him while he was alive, Carl gave us tools to guide us through a lifetime of breathing discoveries.

Carl Stough was an extraordinary person as well as a superb musician blessed with a remarkable ear. While a conducting student at Westminster Choir College in New Jersey in the 1940s he became fascinated with breathing. As a singer, he knew that voice was ideally produced on a constant flow of air — what singers call "supporting the voice on the diaphragm." He pondered how that support could come about, and furthermore, how he could attain it in himself and his students. Immediately upon graduation from Westminster, Stough was hired to conduct a chorus in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. Within a very short time the choir achieved recognition, performing with the North Carolina Symphony and on radio. Listeners and critics alike commented on the beauty of tone and expressiveness of the singers and heralded Stough for his outstanding conducting. Soon the choir was known as the Carl Stough Singers and, when asked how he brought about such an excellent blending of voices, Stough said that his technique was to give a weekly voice lesson to each of his singers!

It was during his time in North Carolina that he began making important discoveries in voice and breathing.

In 1953, Stough returned to New York City hoping to organize a professional group of singers and to continue his own vocal studies. Word of Stough's success in North Carolina preceded him and soon he was invited to resurrect a dormant choir school in Bayridge, Brooklyn. Stough repeated the success he had in North Carolina and by 1958, the Good Shepherd Choir School was recognized for its excellence and became firmly established in the musical life of New York City.

It was around this time that a veterans’ hospital in East Orange, New Jersey, contacted the Musicians Emergency Fund, which sponsored music therapy for veterans, to find someone to work with their respiratory patients. The Fund recommended Stough. Stough's success with singers was of such high repute that it was assumed that he must know a great deal about breathing, and when he arrived in East Orange he was asked to "have a look" at the hospital's bedridden emphysema patients. Emphysema is an extremely debilitating and progressive lung disease that causes shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.

At that time Stough knew very little about emphysema, but as he began observing the patients he was struck by the unnaturally high position of their chests as they labored to breathe. He knew from his work in singing that one’s rib cage should sit low and relaxed in the chest, otherwise breath cannot flow easily and the voice will be restricted.

Instinctively Stough placed his hands on his patient's chest to begin to release its tension. He also noticed that the patients were engaged in "paradoxical breathing." That is, the muscles of respiration were doing just the opposite of what they should be doing.

The diaphragm, instead of rising in exhalation, was pushed down, and the ribs, which Continued on page 52

50 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

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S

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ri t C a m

THE INSPIRATION OF BREATH, continued from page 50 DANCING JAGUAR’S

DANCING JAGUAR’S

should expand laterally in inhalation, were pulled in. Carl knew if he could somehow get the diaphragm to relearn how to work in the right way, he might be able to bring about better health and breathing in his patients.

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52 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

In order to understand Carl Stough's discoveries, and our own work with breathing, we first have to know how we are designed to breathe and what is happening as we breathe.

Our diaphragm is our muscle organ of breathing. It is incredibly strong. The only thing like it in the human body is the esophagus, which is not so surprising because in the developing fetus the diaphragm starts out as the esophagus. As the fetus grows the diaphragm differentiates from the esophagus and slips down the spine, leaving behind it a trail of two phrenic nerves. The phrenic nerves connect to the respiratory center in the brain stem, which in turn responds to our blood gases. Our blood gases are carbon dioxide and oxygen. As you may know, we exhale carbon dioxide and we inhale oxygen. Carbon dioxide is considered a waste gas, and a build up of it in the body tenses nerves and muscles. On the other hand, oxygen relaxes nerves and muscles. In healthy breathing, the diaphragm rises in the chest cavity in exhalation pressing against the lungs to rid them of carbon dioxide. Then, when our body needs oxygen, an impulse is sent from the brain stem, down the phrenic nerves to the top of the diaphragm, telling it to contract. In this way oxygen from the atmosphere is drawn into our lungs.

Inhalation is a reflex under the control of the brain stem. We don't need to try to inhale; we are breathed. Stough observed that this natural way of breathing was completely impossible in the emphysema patients. Their weakened diaphragms forced them to use their upper chest muscles and their shoulders to breathe, causing them to grab and gasp for air in a struggle to stay alive. The exhaustion and physical weakness that resulted from this way of breathing was profound.

Carl's intuition and experience led him to realize that the problem in the emphysema patients did not lie in their inability to inhale but rather in their inability to exhale. The pattern of breathing that Stough observed in his patients (grabbing for air with the upper chest and shoulders) had caused their diaphragms to weaken profoundly. When a diaphragm weakens it cannot rise in the chest cavity during exhalation and carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs. In this situation, bad air (carbon dioxide) stays in the lungs, and good air (oxygen from the atmosphere) can't get in. Our lungs have to empty before they can be filled.

This struggle for air resulted in a sense of panic in the emphysema patients and contributed to their extreme exhaustion and muscle fatigue, so much so that they could hardly move from their beds. Stough felt that the only hope for the emphysema patients lay in trying to redevelop the strength of the diaphragm so that it could begin to function in a healthy way. The pulmonologists associated with the hospital scoffed at Carl's claim that he could effect a rise of the diaphragm and a release in the chest, but Carl was persuasive, and since at that time there were very few treatments for emphysema, he was given grudging support to continue his work.

Within six months, Carl had spectacular success. His patients were up and about and some were even able to leave the hospital. Moreover, Stough's work changed the way medical science viewed the diaphragm. Before Stough's work, pulmonary specialists felt that once the diaphragm became weakened it could not be redeveloped or directly influenced. Carl proved otherwise and showed that it was the exhalation that influenced inhalation. Inhalation can take care of itself, but it's the strength of the exhalation that is the more important element in breathing. This led Stough in the years that followed to say that most people worked on the wrong end of the breathing spectrum, focusing more on inhalation than exhalation, barely recognizing that they were holding their breath and not exhaling.

When we contemplate the work of Carl Stough we are struck with the implications for our own life and breathing. I have found patterns of breathing similar to the emphysema patients in students with asthma, spasmodic dysphonia, back pain, tendinitis, anxiety, and malaise, as well as in musicians, singers and actors. Carl Stough found that even the Olympic athletes of the US track team that he worked with in 1968 had distressed patterns of breathing. The athletes were amazingly sensitive and disciplined and made improvement very quickly, but when they initially worked with him, the stress associated with their level of

competition had produced some of the same diaphragmatic weakness as his patients in respiratory failure. Grabbing for air with the upper chest as they ran caused enormous tension in their muscles and their recovery post race was prolonged. What these athletes came to realize was that if they could focus on their exhalation, their inhalation would take care of itself. They recovered much more quickly and began to best their own track records. In the Mexico City Olympics in 1968, a number of runners on the track team that Stough worked with won gold medals and set Olympic and world records.

How We Can Help Ourselves Breathe

One of the most powerful ways we can work with our breathing is to observe it. This is much harder than we might imagine because breathing lives in an area between consciousness and unconsciousness and we need to learn how to connect to it. When you begin to sense how your body breathes without your interfering in its reflexive process, you will automatically begin to slow your rate of respiration. If your rate of respiration slows down you will automatically be exhaling more carbon dioxide. If you exhale more carbon dioxide, you will, by design of the body, be inhaling more oxygen.

Let’s experiment with observing your breathing. Many of you may have found that when you tried to observe your breathing in a meditation or Yoga class that it was very difficult. But how were you actually observing your breathing? Did you go inside yourself to try to feel for it or to try to see it? That can sometimes cause tension. There is a different way that you may find more creative and freeing. It involves using your hands to sense how your body breathes you.

Working seated or lying down in a semi-supine position with your knees bent and the soles of your feet on the floor, rest your hands on the sides of your ribs if that is comfortable. Or if you prefer, you can place one hand on your upper chest and one hand on your abdomen. Feel free to move your hands around your body as you work. This is just an exploration and you should feel free to experiment. Make sure your hands are as tension free as possible. That will make them more able to sense what is going on underneath them. It’s helpful to keep your eyes open when doing this exploration.

Next, notice with your hands the rise and fall of breath in your body. Really let your hands do the work of noticing. Some people find it very difficult to stay present in this way, but that, in itself, shifts our breathing and deepens it. Don't try to do any thing to change your own breathing. Just notice it: an expansion in inhalation and a release in exhalation. It's remarkable to work in this way, with an awareness meditation that you can call upon any time. When we use our hands rather than our heads to sense our breathing we begin to lay the groundwork for deepening and strengthening our breathing. This is the essential first step that is the basis for all the work you will do with breathing.

There is enormous power in working with breathing. Just now, when you used your hands to notice your body’s ability to breathe itself, I hope you were struck by the great gift of life that was flowing under your hands. It is a profound realization.

Working with breath can be life changing: physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Carl Stough passed away in 2000 but he left us with an extraordinary legacy. He often said that the tools he gave us to work with in breathing were all we needed for a lifetime of discovery. When we first connect to and experience the upward flow of breath, which is our exhalation, we may feel great joy. And we may also feel great joy and freedom when we experience our backs opening and widening in a true diaphragmatic inhalation. With this we are truly opening up to the incredible inspiration of breath.

References Stough, Carl and Reece. Dr. Breath: The Story of Breathing Coordination. New York: The Stough Institute, 1981. Print.

Breathing: The Source of Life. The Stough Institute, 1996. Documentary film.

Jean McClelland is a renowned teacher of voice and the Alexander Technique, who has appeared on Broadway and in numerous musicals and operas. She studied extensively at the Carl Stough Institute for Breathing Coordination, Psychosynthesis Institute of New York, and the Michael Chekhov Studio. Jean is one of a small group of teachers personally approved by Carl Stough to incorporate his principles of breathing coordination into their work. For information visit www.JeanMcClellandVoice.com. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 53

DIVORCE:

A Conscious Perspective

By Loren Costantini

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www.alternatives-4health.com 54 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

oing through a traditional divorce is highly emotional, extremely stressful and ridiculously expensive. It is a major life transition for the entire family.

And like any transformative event, it isn't easy. During these times of transition, humans are emotionally fragile. People of divorce don't need to be injected into an adversarial battlefield. They need support and guidance.

Our traditional family law system is by definition adversarial. It is invasive, expensive and filled with pitfalls. There is a much healthier way to approach a divorce and it begins with the way we understand it. Divorce is not a battle, but rather, a family in crisis and transition. We need understanding that during this transition, individuals and families are emotionally vulnerable. We are susceptible to friends, family, television and attorneys advising us to fight for our rights!

While this advice may seem to have merit, it only encourages a mindset of victim looking for vengeance or sympathy. Being upset and angry is natural but they are not there to justify the fight. Those emotions can help us recognize where we need to let go of misunderstandings and resolve issues from a heart-centered approach.

Divorce is not about who is wrong. There is no right and wrong, just different perspectives. Two spouses see things differently; that's why they are getting a divorce. If you are considering a divorce good advice will go like this: Seek peaceful alternatives to your disagreements, solutions that are aligned with both perspectives. Release attachments to your limited ideas of blame and punishment.

Keep your ego in check. Practice listening. The answers you seek already exist and will present themselves once you let go of your old way of thinking and open yourself to higher possibilities.

Visualize and focus on positive outcomes and solutions. Let go of your ideas of morality and justice. This is about you, your family and your future, not proving a point.

The answers you seek already exist and will present themselves once you let go of your old way of thinking and open yourself to higher possibilities.

Trust your inner knowing and be committed to peaceful resolutions. Be generous. The more you give, the more you will receive. Be kind to yourself and others. Practice every day to let go of conflict and the peace you achieve will be reflected around you.

Focus on the redefinition of your family and the division of major responsibilities like raising your children. Remove your idea of sole custody and understand that the best interest of a child includes all family members. A legal battle over custody is very expensive and exposes you, and more importantly, your children, to the microscope of the court. The quantity of time with your children is far less important than the quality of the time you spend with them.

Having gone through a divorce myself, I recognize the desire for more time with your children, but understand that accepting the situation, letting go of the fight and making the most out of the limited time to create memories and simply love your children is the healthiest solution. Let the time away from your children be a time to heal and re-create yourself. Taking care of yourself is one of the best ways to care for your children.

When you battle over your children, you place their future in the hands of the court.

You and your spouse know what is best for them; not complete strangers. Find respect for your spouse as a parent of your children, even if he or she thinks differently than you. Set an example of integrity by not bad-mouthing your spouse. If you can't say anything nice, then don't say anything at all. Or challenge yourself by replacing negative thoughts or statements with positive ones. Like it or not your spouse will always be your children’s parent. It is in your and your children’s best interest to learn to communicate.

Teach empathy and compassion to your children by example. See beyond the lines of the imaginary battlefield between you and the in-laws. Be the peacemaker. Support healthy relationships between your children and their uncles, aunts and grandparents.

The greater the supportive family network, the better.

If you are concerned about negative family influence on your children, bring them to a good therapist and educate yourself on the best way to neutralize that influence.

Using the court system to try and remove the influence will more than likely cause more harm, not succeed and cost significant money. Redirect the money you save by not going to court towards therapy for you and your children to help you through your transition, begin healing and creating your new life.

As an attorney who has been through, and practiced in, the traditional family law system for decades, I can honestly say that placing your divorce in the hands of our legal system will not serve your best interests, unless abuse or violence is involved. In such circumstances the system can be efficient and appropriate, and immediate relief should be sought through law enforcement and a restraining order to ensure the ongoing safety of all parties involved.

Outside such circumstances, private, emotional family issues are not meant to be decided by a public adversarial system. Attorneys are trained to be adversarial and to be counselors of law, not counselors at law. If you cannot solve your issues without help, seek support from a therapist with a family law mediator as a guide. His or her legal experience can generally predict what the outcome of your case would be in court and can outline your best options.

Divorce doesn't have to be a nasty word or process. It is a challenging time of major change in your life, but also an opportunity for rebirth into a life defined by a healthy new you. Ultimately, the choice is yours. Peaceful resolution is the result most advantageous to you.

Loren Costantini is an attorney, artist, entrepreneur and father who maintains a mindful law practice in Milford, CT. www.LorenCostantini.com. www.spiritofchange.org

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WHY GENDER MATTERS It’s About Every Student

Photo: Clockwise from top: Liz Haan, Ruby Rae and Hailee Levias. From “The Future Is Fluid” project by Wildfang and The Tegan and Sara Foundation. (blog.wildfang.com/the-future-is-fluid/)

s one of the most fundamental aspects of self, gender impacts everybody.

All of us can point to a time in our lives when we were burdened by unfair limitations or expectations because of others’ beliefs about our gender.

Where this crucial aspect of self is narrowly defined and rigidly enforced, individuals who exist outside of its norms face innumerable challenges. Even those who vary only slightly from the norm can become targets of disapproval.

Although gender diversity has existed throughout history and all over the world, most societies view sex as a binary concept, with two rigidly fixed options: male or female, both based on a person’s reproductive functions (genitals, sex chromosomes, gonads, hormones, reproductive structures). This idea that there are only two genders is called the “gender binary.” If a child has a binary gender identity, that means they identify as either a boy or a girl, regardless of the sex they were assigned at birth.

But a sex binary fails to capture even the biological aspect of gender. While most bodies have one of two forms of genitalia, which are classified as “female” or “male,” there are naturally occurring Intersex conditions that demonstrate that sex exists across a continuum of possibilities. This biological spectrum by itself should be enough to dispel the simplistic notion of the “gender binary” — there are not just two sexes. Gender is a spectrum and the relationship between a person’s gender and their body goes beyond one’s reproductive functions. Research in neurology, endocrinology, and cellular biology points to a broader biological basis for an individual’s experience of gender. In fact, research increasingly points to our brains as playing a key role in how we each experience our gender.

56 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Bodies themselves are also gendered in the context of cultural expectations.

Masculinity and femininity are equated with certain physical attributes, labeling us as more or less a man/woman based on the degree to which those attributes are present.

This gendering of our bodies affects how we feel about ourselves and how others perceive and interact with us.

Understanding of our gender comes to most of us fairly early in life. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, “By age four, most children have a stable sense of their gender identity.” This core aspect of one’s identity comes from within each of us; it is an inherent aspect of a person’s make-up. Individuals do not choose their gender, nor can they be made to change it, though the words someone uses to communicate their gender identity may change over time. Naming our gender can be a complex and evolving matter. Because we are provided with limited language for gender, it may take a person quite some time to discover, or create, the language that best communicates their gender.

Gender identity is our internal experience and naming of our gender. A cisgender person has a gender identity consistent with the sex they were assigned at birth. For example, a child whose sex was assigned male on their birth certificate and who identifies as a boy is cisgender (or “cis”). A transgender person has a gender identity that does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. So, a child who was assigned

male on their birth certificate and who identifies as a girl is transgender (sometimes shortened to “trans”).

Descriptors for gender identities are rapidly expanding; youth and young adults today no longer feel bound to identify strictly with one of two genders, but are instead establishing a growing vocabulary for gender. More than just a series of new words, however, this shift in language represents a far more nuanced understanding of the experience of gender itself. The 2015 Fusion “Millennial Poll” (“millennial” defined as individuals aged 18-34) revealed that more see gender as a spectrum than as a binary. Other research indicates that today’s teens are even likelier to see identity as a spectrum. There is a generational divide in our fundamental understandings of gender and how we think about this aspect of who we are.

Regardless of a student’s age, gender impacts a child’s experience at school across the grades. There is abundant research about the relationship between students’ sense of safety and their ability to succeed in school, and gender is one of the factors that greatly impacts perceptions of safety.

As a primary socializing agent, schools have a tremendous opportunity and responsibility to be inclusive of all students, regardless of their gender identity or expression. In this role, educational institutions and the professionals associated with them can significantly impact the degree to which gender diversity in children and teens is viewed — either positively or negatively.

Beyond supporting our young people as individuals, we cannot afford to have any of our students cut off from interests, talents, or intellectual pursuits that may ultimately contribute to our society. School is the place where our children should be exploring ideas and discovering new skills. It is inexcusable that any child might be prevented from pursuing their passions simply based on others’ perceptions of their gender. By sending a message that certain pursuits are off limits simply because of a person’s gender, we lose access to an incredible source of human potential. How many great discoveries, new inventions, cures for disease, or works of art have we lost simply because people believed they couldn’t, or shouldn’t, do something because of their gender?

The right for every student to attend school in a safe and supportive setting regardless of gender is supported by a vast number of legal protections at the federal, state and local level. In April 2014, the US Department of Education made an historic announcement reaffirming a 2010 declaration that “Title IX’s sex discrimination prohibition extends to claims of discrimination based on gender identity or failure to conform to stereotypical notions of masculinity or femininity,” and emphasized that the department’s Office of Civil Rights readily accepts such complaints for investigation.

This guidance builds on court decisions and a 2012 opinion by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that gender identity discrimination falls under sex discrimination, which is barred by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Equal protection language in the US Constitution and special education laws (under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) are also increasingly being used to guarantee the rights of gender-expansive students to access educational services. Across the country a growing number of states (Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington) have enumerated gender identity and expression protections in schools.

At least 160 cities and counties have passed their own laws prohibiting gender identity discrimination including Atlanta, Boise, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Louisville, Madison, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, and Pittsburgh. Additionally, state and local educational institutions are issuing clear guidelines and expectations about best practices for ensuring that all genderexpansive youth are supported at school.

There is a reason the legal protections described above exist. Our society’s limited understanding of, and appreciation for, gender diversity has a very important consequence: bullying. Individuals who are seen as different are frequently targets for mistreatment. But unlike many forms of diversity, when individuals perceived as different with regards to gender are the targets, there is frequently an indifference, if Continued on page 58 www.spiritofchange.org

You are cordially invited to join us in chanting HU!

Singing HU can. .

     

Help you experience Divine Love Expand your awareness Heal a broken heart Make you smile Offer solace during times of grief Bring peace and calm

Anyone can benefit from chanting HU, regardless of faith or belief

To find a HU chant near you go to: www.eckinmass.org/hu

A presentation of the Massachusetts Satsang Society, Inc., A Chartered Affiliate of ECKANKAR. Copyright © 2017

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 57

WHY GENDER MATTERS, continued from page 57

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not overt approval, for the mistreatment they face.

Of late, a great deal of attention has been paid to the bullying of LGBT students, particularly at the secondary level. Teen suicides have been all too familiar in the nation’s headlines. However, what is critical to recognize is that much of the mistreatment leading to these tragedies is in fact grounded in issues of gender that are present almost as soon as our children enter school. Not being masculine or feminine can be cause for real cruelty among kids beginning as early as pre-school. Long before sexual attraction or orientation are even being considered, elementary school students are targeted based on their perceived lack of conformity to their peers’ gender norms. Even more frightening, in addition to bullying by peers, students sometimes find the teachers, coaches and other school staff charged with protecting them indifferent to the cruelty they face; in some cases they are the perpetrators of bullying themselves.

Data related to gender-based bullying paints a frightening picture. Moreover, beyond the daily challenges gender-expansive young people face, there exists a far more dangerous and longer-term impact. When bullied in school based on perceived gender differences, young adults face many challenges including health disparities, depression and reduced life satisfaction. Once again, our society’s biases around gender hurt individuals, and exact a price for all of us as we deal with the consequences of our misguided and narrow perspectives.

Schools that explicitly recognize gender diversity establish conditions in which conversations and activities exploring other forms of difference become possible. In embarking on a path to expand students’ understanding about gender diversity, schools set a tone in which the examination of differences across multiple domains is accepted and encouraged. Exploring gender becomes an on-ramp for students to consider complex issues in other aspects of their lives. Racial, cultural, religious, linguistic, socioeconomic and many other forms of difference can now be examined from the perspective of critical analysis grounded in this initial study and understanding of gender.

Coming to recognize gender in all of its complexity allows students to see concepts in more realistic terms. Helping them understand the idea of a spectrum — a range of possibilities and not simply the “opposite ends” of a binary — builds their capacity to critically examine concepts in other areas of learning as well as building their appreciation for gender and other forms of diversity. In building students’ perspectives about gender and gender diversity, schools are able to introduce notions of ambiguity and degree that will serve them as they explore other complex topics for the rest of their lives.

Through a thoughtful consideration of the uniqueness and validity of every person’s experiences of self, we can develop greater acceptance for all. Not only will this create greater inclusion for individuals who challenge the norms of gender, it will create space for all individuals to more fully explore and celebrate who they are.

Reprinted with permission from GenderSpectrum.org, helping to create gender sensitive and inclusive environments for all children and teens.

By Mariah MacCarthy

...And the Daddies Who Adopted Him

I

want my son to know that families can look like anything. Families can be a mommy and a daddy, one parent, four parents, or — in our case — they can look like an interracial gay couple and a birth mother who visits every couple of months, not to mention all his godparents, aunties and uncles, and grandparents. I want his concept of family to exist independently of any gender norms or expectations.

I want my son to have male role models, which he fortunately has in spades; his daddies are kind and brilliant.

With a surgeon for a daddy and a papa in theater, he’s growing up with both art and science in his home, and truckloads of love.

I want my son to have female role models — also covered.

The two men raising him have plenty of sisters and friends, all of whom are warm, hilarious, and accomplished badasses.

And I’d like to be one of those role models. I’m working hard to be someone my child can be proud of, even though I’m not raising him.

When my son has his own kids (not for a while — he’s 3), I want it to be intentional. I want him and his partners to grow up with awesome, comprehensive sex education and free birth control. I want them to be able to enter a Planned Parenthood without being harassed. And if their procreation is unintentional, I want them to have more options than I did.

I had no money, no partner, two roommates, and no desire for an abortion. How was I going to live with a newborn without leaving behind the life and community I’d spent the previous five years nurturing and fighting for in New York?

I want my son to grow up in a world where paid parental leave is a given. I never want my son, or his partner, to

do the same mental math I did when I was pregnant: calculating how much unpaid time I could take off from my job, wincing because even two weeks would cost me dearly.

And if his partner is a woman, I want them to live in a world where nobody expects her to take on the bulk of child care.

I want my son to graduate college without the debilitating student loan debt his mom had. As a writer, I want him to be able to pursue an artistic profession without accepting poverty as his default. I want him to enter a workforce where the women make as much as he does. I want him to know single mothers who raise their children with nary an eyebrow raised in their direction, free from slut-shaming or single-mother-blaming. I hope some of those single mothers are artists and that they don’t live below the poverty line.

I want my son to know that I love him more than I knew was possible to love another human. I want him to know that him having the best life possible was more important than my getting to see him every day. I want him to know that I couldn’t come up with an equation where one loving parent made more sense for him than three loving parents. I want him to know that relinquishment is not abandonment and that I will always be there for him, no matter what.

And, of course, I want a million things for my son that have nothing to do with the circumstances that led me to place him for adoption. I want him to know he can love anyone, be anyone, change his gender identification and his pronouns and his name if he wants. I want him to follow his dreams, to live a life that is exactly as exciting or stable or weird or conventional as he wants.

Mostly, what I want for my son is a shiny, loving, explosively happy life. Just like any other mom.

Mariah MacCarthy wrote this article for “Gender Justice,” the Summer 2016 issue of YES! Magazine and is reprinted under Creative Commons license. MacCarthy is a playwright, producer, curator, storyteller, burlesque dabbler, rapper, birth mother, immersive-partyplay-maker, and creatrix-of-all-trades. Her work has been featured everywhere from The New York Times to Upworthy. www.spiritofchange.org

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LGBTQ GLOSSARY AFAB AND AMAB Acronyms meaning “assigned female/male at birth.” No one, whether cis or trans, gets to choose what sex they’re assigned at birth. This term is preferred to “biological male,” “female bodied,” “natal male,” and “born female,” which are defamatory and inaccurate.

ALLY Someone who advocates and supports a community other than their own. Allies are not part of the communities they help. A person should not self-identify as an ally but show that they are one through action.

BISEXUALITY An umbrella term for people who experience sexual and/or emotional attraction to more than one gender (pansexual, fluid, omnisexual, queer, etc.).

CISGENDER/CIS Term for someone who exclusively identifies as their sex assigned at birth derived from the Latin word meaning “on the same side.” Cisgender does not indicate biology, gender expression, or sexuality/sexual orientation. Note that cisgender does not have an “ed” at the end.

DYADIC Not intersex.

FTM Abbreviation for female-to-male transgender person. This person most likely prefers masculine pronouns.

GENDER AFFIRMING SURGERY; GENITAL REASSIGNMENT / RECONSTRUCTION SURGERY; VAGINOPLASTY; PHALLOPLASTY; METOIDIOPLASTY Refers to surgical alteration, and is only one part of some trans people’s transition. Only the minority of transgender people choose to and can afford to have genital surgery. The following terms are inaccurate, offensive, or outdated: sex change operation, gender reassignment/realignment surgery (gender is not changed due to surgery), gender confirmation/ confirming surgery (genitalia do not confirm gender).

GENDER BINARY A system of viewing gender as consisting solely of two, opposite categories, termed “male and female”, in which no other possibilities for gender or anatomy are believed to exist. This system is oppressive to anyone who defies their sex assigned at birth, but particularly those who are gender-variant or do not fit neatly into one of the two standard categories.

GENDER EXPRESSION/PRESENTATION The physical manifestation of one’s gender identity through clothing, hairstyle, voice, body shape, etc. Someone with a gender nonconforming gender expression may or may not be transgender.

GENDER FLUID A changing or “fluid” gender identity.

GENDER IDENTITY One’s internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or other gender(s).

INTERSEX Term used for a variety of medical conditions in which a person is born with chromosomes, genitalia, and/or secondary sexual characteristics that are inconsistent with the typical definition of a male or female body. Replaces the inaccurate term “hermaphrodite.” Parents and medical professionals usually coercively assign intersex infants a sex and have, in the past, been medically permitted to perform surgical operations to conform the infant’s genitalia to that assignment. This practice has become increasingly controversial as intersex adults speak out against the practice. Note that intersex does not have an “ed” at the end.

LGBTQQIAPP+ A collection of identities short for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, pansexual, polysexual (sometimes abbreviated to LGBT or LGBTQ+). Sometimes this acronym is replaced with “queer.”

MTF An abbreviation for a male-to-female transgender person. This person most likely prefers female pronouns.

QUEER Term describing people who have a non-normative gender identity, sexual orientation or sexual anatomy. Can include lesbians, gay men, bisexual people, transgender people, and a host of other identities. This term has a complicated history as a reclaimed slur.

QUESTIONING The process of examining one’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

SEX ASSIGNED AT BIRTH The assignment and classification of people as male, female, intersex, or another sex assigned at birth often based on physical anatomy at birth and/or karyotyping.

SEXUAL ORIENTATION A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction to others.

TRANSGENDER/TRANS An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term transgender is not indicative of gender expression, sexual orientation, hormonal makeup, physical anatomy, or how one is perceived in daily life.

Note that transgender does not have an “ed” at the end.

TRANSITION A person’s process of developing and assuming a gender expression to match their gender identity. Transition can include: coming out to one’s family, friends, and/or coworkers; changing one’s name and/or sex on legal documents; hormone therapy; and possibly (though not always) some form of surgery.

TRANSPHOBIA Systemic violence against trans people, associated with attitudes such as fear, discomfort, distrust, or disdain. This word is used similarly to homophobia, xenophobia, misogyny, etc.

GENDER ROLE Norms of expected behavior for men and women, which varies from culture to culture, assigned primarily on the basis of biological sex.

TRANSSEXUAL A deprecated term that is often considered pejorative, transsexual often — though not always — implicates hormonal/surgical transition from one binary gender (male or female) to the other. Unlike transgender/trans, transsexual is not an umbrella term, as many transgender people do not identify as transsexual. When speaking/writing about trans people, please avoid the word transsexual unless asked to use it by a transsexual person.

HETERONORMATIVITY Processes through which social institutions and policies reinforce the notion that there are only two possibilities for sex, gender and sexual attraction: males attracted to females, and females attracted to males.

Definitions courtesy Trans Student Educational Resources, a youth-led organization dedicated to transforming the educational environment for trans and gender-nonconforming students through advocacy and empowerment. Visit www.transstudent.org.

GENDERQUEER An identity commonly used by people who do not identify or express their gender within the gender binary.

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 61

Speak the

Truth,

Photo: Geoff Livingston/Flickr.com

By James Hoggan with Thich Nhat Hanh

But Not to Punish The world’s most famous Buddhist monk speaks on how to build community in a state of toxic public discourse

A

couple of years ago, my wife Enid and I participated in a five-day program at the University of British Columbia with the renowned Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat Hanh.

“As activists we want to do something to help the world to suffer less,” Thich Nhat Hanh said, but when we’re not peaceful, when we don’t have enough compassion in us, we are unable to do much to help the world. “Peace, love, and happiness must always begin in us, with ourselves first. There is suffering, fear, and anger inside of us, and when we take care of it, we are taking care of the world.”

Thich Nhat Hanh used the example of a pine tree and suggested, what if that tree asked us what it could do to help the world? Our answer would be very clear: “You should be a beautiful, healthy pine tree. You help the world by being your best.” That is true for humans also.

The most basic thing we can do to help the world is to be healthy, solid, loving, and gentle to ourselves. Then when people look at us, they will gain confidence and say, if he or she can do that, I can too. So anything you do for yourself, you do for the world, he said.

“Don’t think that you and the world are two separate things. When you breathe in mindfully and gently, when you feel the wonder of being alive, remember that you’re also doing this for the world. Practicing with that kind of insight, you will succeed in helping the world. You don’t have to wait until tomorrow. You can do it right now.”

62 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

During the retreat, lectures invariably touched on the subject of anger, and I listened as he encouraged me to examine the anger I felt toward special interests that mislead the public about the environmental challenges we face. One day Thich Nhat Hanh told us Buddha’s story of the second arrow: When an arrow strikes you there is pain, but if a second arrow drives into the same spot, the pain is excruciating, much worse. The Buddha advised when you have pain in your body or your mind, breathe in and out and recognize the significance of the pain but don’t exaggerate its importance. If you are full of anger, worry and fear over the pain, you magnify the suffering.

This is the second arrow — and it is directed from within.

The Buddha proposed many ways to practice reducing pain in our bodies and in our emotions, to become reconciled within ourselves. Pain increases as tension increases, and it can be reduced when we release the tension. The monk said that this can be done while lying, sitting or walking. “Walk like a free person ...The skill we need is how to lay down our burden in order to be light.

The Buddha said that you shouldn’t amplify your pain by exaggerating the situation ... So when you experience pain, whether physical or mental, you have to recognize it just as it is and not exaggerate it ... When you can make peace with it, you won’t suffer as much.” When we get angry and revolt against something, when we worry too much and imagine we are going to die soon, our pain

is multiplied 100 times. “That is the second arrow.”

If we want to help the environment suffer less, we have to reduce the suffering in ourselves, Thich Nhat Hanh explained simply. “Be loving, and gentle to yourself.”

Avoid the second arrow. He talked about a heart of understanding that is beyond intellect, that is discovered by looking so deeply we touch the seed of understanding and compassion within. Compassion can neutralize anger and hate, and meditation can burn away afflictions such as fear, despair and delusion. “Deep meditation helps us transcend the notion of being and non-being.

Nirvana is not a place we will arrive at in the future, but the nature of reality.”

He suggested we should listen more deeply, and allow others to speak as this helps to reduce their suffering.

“Water the seeds of compassion; don’t water the seeds of anger and hatred.” Use non-accusatory language so it is easier for others to hear our message. Effective listening does not involve hearing something and comparing that information with our own views. We learn nothing from such an exchange.

Grassroots success is effective and possible only if activists and leaders first deal with their own anger and fear. Spiritual practice is needed to transform society and give courage to leaders so they will speak out. He said a mother would die for her children because of her great love, and similarly, if a person has great compassion they

Continued on page 64

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 63

THICH NHAT HANH, continued from page 62 will not fear being ostracized or ridiculed if they decide to challenge the status quo.

I

had been asked to moderate a conversation between David Suzuki and Thich Nhat Hanh. The day of our taped interview, following the five-day course at UBC, started with an extraordinary experience.

Thich Nhat Hanh arrived at the pre-arranged location while David Suzuki and I were in another part of the building, so someone quickly found us and explained that the famous monk had gone for a walk in the garden.

We rushed to catch up with his small group and strolled about 20 paces behind. Walking in this peaceful space, he touched some of the flowers with great tenderness, and as I watched, the garden became intensely green.

As the monk was appreciating each flower, petal and leaf, Suzuki leaned over and said softly, “Do you know what I see? I see photosynthesis: the sun pouring down, creating energy, turning it into all this green, all these plants that allow us to breathe.”

The conversation began when I asked for Thich Nhat Hanh’s reaction to a 1930 statement made by a Wall Street banker: “People need to be trained to desire, to want

There is suffering, fear, and anger inside of us, and when we take care of it, we are taking care of the world.

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new things, even before the old things have been entirely consumed. Man’s desires must overshadow his needs.”

I was expecting an answer about consumerism and the destructiveness of clinging, but he gently turned the conversation in an unexpected direction by saying how the desire for more can be a deep and noble desire in each human being. “Like the desire to love, to protect, to help, to serve, the desire to be loved, to understand, to learn. These are very deep desires in each human being, in every one of us, and you cannot set a limit on that kind of desire ... You can continue to learn, to understand more about yourself, about the world outside you. You can continue to develop your love into the infinite. In Buddhism we say that love is something that has no frontiers.”

I asked how we can bring about the collective awakening needed to stop destroying our planet, and Thich Nhat Hanh told the story of a similar longing for change in a five- or six-year-old child who stood up in front of a large audience in Plum Village (the spiritual community he founded in France) and asked why his father continued to smoke, knowing it was not good for him. “That [wanting change] is a theme, a subject of meditation, and I think if we can answer that question

we will have a lot of insight about how to handle the situation of our planet. It’s very difficult to offer an answer to the child if you do not have the time to look deeply into the situation.” But Thich Nhat Hanh told the child that in order to stop smoking the father must feel his child’s love: “Your love will be an important force in order to help him to stop.”

D

uring our UBC interview, Thich Nhat Hanh said we must build communities that model how to live sustainably, and that requires inspirational, confident leadership. Vancouver mayor Gregor Robertson said it was a compelling concept, but the challenge is how to reach consensus for a higherlevel commitment in a city that is a very culturally and politically diverse community. He added that politicians are often criticized for trying to set big goals, such as ending homelessness or becoming the greenest city in the world. Robertson said many citizens are disillusioned with issues of climate change and poverty.

The monk explained that people should remind each other that this is the way of life that guarantees a future. Senior members of the community — the mayor, city council, people in government — should set an example and show people “that they are abiding by the spirit and the way. I think it’s very important.”

He said citizens should vote only for those who adopt the kind of lifestyle that sets an example to inspire hope and confidence. Leaders should be people who not only have the talent to run the country’s business but also represent our global ethics.

Feelings of despair must be dealt with, because they overwhelm and paralyze people, said Thich Nhat Hanh; he added that this is a key reason why people do not respond to the threat of global warming, despite mounting and devastating evidence. They cannot raise themselves out of the pit of despair, let alone save the world. “Despair is growing in our society, and because of that we feel helpless. We don’t believe that we can do anything to reverse the situation. Again, I think community building is very important, to show people that living simply and happily is possible.” When we understand the interconnectedness of all life, when we recognize we are not separate, we can expand our compassion and ourselves so that we embrace Earth and protect it.

The monk said that people are deluded into thinking fame, power, wealth or sex will bring them happiness, and these become refuges from the truth and challenges facing Mother Earth. Today’s addiction to consumerism and a frantic lifestyle is a mask behind which people hide their emotional and spiritual wounds. It provides only a temporary respite from fear and unhappiness: “They suffer deeply even if they have a lot of these kinds of things. Many of them commit suicide.” Without love, brotherhood and sisterhood, people destroy themselves, and Thich Nhat Hanh urged people to step onto the path of love and understanding if they want to find the strength to let go of the mask and awaken to reality.

A life of consumerism is not life. “We have to help people learn how to live again. We just sit down and breathe and enjoy each other.” He said this is one of the best moments of a retreat: when people don’t consume anything, don’t have music, don’t have sound, don’t have alcohol, don’t have anything but a chance to sit and enjoy

each others’ presence. He said everyone knows how to breathe, to appreciate they are alive on this beautiful planet, and that can bring joy. “So we have to educate our citizens to see that happiness does not lie in consumption but lies in the fact that you are free enough: You have enough time to enjoy yourself, to enjoy each other, to enjoy the environment.”

The simple acts of life are treasures, and we should savor them, knowing everything we need to be happy is right here, right now. “In the Buddhist tradition we have a practice like a tea ceremony. We just have one cup of tea but we spend one hour and a half together. Why do we need one hour and a half in order to enjoy a cup of tea?

Because the tea ceremony is an art. If you know how to sit, how to breathe, how to look, how to listen and how to be together, that ceremony can bring a lot of joy. And you don’t consume much, one cup only. We have lost our capacity of being happy, because we are so busy. And busy in what? Busy trying to cover up the suffering inside.”

I

mentioned that there are climate scientists and political leaders who want to do something positive about climate change but have a difficult time because so many people stir up mischief about these issues.

When the public is misinformed and unaware that a problem exists, it’s very difficult for leaders to lead, I said, and while I understood what he said about community building and agreed that is a solution, I explained I still worry about taking our eyes off the people who are up to mischief on larger levels.

This took us directly back to the issue of despair, and Thich Nhat Hanh said if we don’t deal with despair the situation will get worse. “We have to accept this civilization can be destroyed, not by something outside, but by ourselves. Many civilizations have been destroyed in the past, and to accept that can only be helpful, and it may give us a sense of peace so we can become a better worker for the environment.” He said that many people know what is happening but do nothing because they are just trying to survive. “If you help them to sort out the inside, you can help them to have hope, to have peace in themselves and suddenly they have the strength to come back to themselves ... and that person could be an instrument for the protection of the environment.”

During our interview David Suzuki asked if accepting the reality that this could all end disastrously means we retreat into passivity.

Thich Nhat Hanh said a century or two is nothing in geological terms. “This civilization might be destroyed, and it may take a billion years more in order to have another civilization. That already happened in the past.

We have to accept reality, and acceptance like that can bring us peace. And with that kind of peace, we have force and it can flow, and it can reverse the situation. Meditation plays a role.” He said that to meditate means to look deeply, and by looking deeply we have insight, which frees us from despair and anger. This allows us to become a better worker for the environment.

Suzuki added that he understood the cycles of extinction of species, as a natural part of evolution.

Species become extinct as conditions change, and new species evolve, “but many of us have children and grandchildren who are precious, and when we see the approaching calamity it is difficult to accept.” Again Thich Nhat Hanh stressed the importance of building community and living in a way that can become a model for others. “If everyone can live like that, truly there will be a future for our children. Our society needs a lot of healing and this is not possible without a good environment. That’s why, when building a community, you build also an environment where you can see hope, brotherhood, sisterhood and a future.”

He said we should bring a spiritual dimension to the work of protecting the environment. “The role of meditation, the role of community building, the role of healing and transforming in our daily life is crucial for the environment. You cannot just have projects and initiatives without taking care of the suffering inside.”

A

t the end of our interview I was worried that Thich Nhat Hanh had been saying that we should simply withdraw and meditate, so I mentioned that one of his monks had told me his Bay Nha monastery in the central highlands of Vietnam had placed pictures on its website of bad police who were abusing monks and nuns. I pointed out that this seemed like the strategy of activists. Was he saying we should not be activists?

He looked at me in a quiet, piercing way that stopped my breath, and said slowly: “Speak the truth, but not to punish.” It took me some time to realize that I had been given a Zen koan by one of the most important Zen masters of our generation. I’ve been thinking about it ever since. It was the most profound moment of this entire three-year journey of research and writing, the seminal moment, because it gathered together the deepest voices and most profound threads of this long book into one elegant sentence.

Understanding this koan is a work in progress for me but the more I ponder it, the more it seems to be about balance, speaking up against injustice with courage and passion but with greater awareness of the dangers in becoming overly adversarial and treating those who disagree as foes.

It is important to educate the public about the PR campaigns, but it is equally important to ensure, as Rabbi Hillel encouraged, that our argument is for the sake of heaven. We must be willing to stand in the shoes of others if we are to debate controversial issues with equanimity and avoid gridlock.

Thich Nhat Hanh’s koan brought me back to his advice to hold our anger with an energy of mindfulness, like the sun shining upon a flower, penetrating deeply until the petals open. Anger can give us the mettle to speak with courage and conviction, but also the venom that blinds us to the views of others.

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James Hoggan is president of the Vancouver PR firm Hoggan & Associates and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation board. A tireless advocate for ethics and integrity in public relations, he founded the influential website DeSmogBog to expose misinformation campaigns that pollute public debate around climate change and the environment. Excerpted with permission from I’m Right and You’re An Idiot: The Toxic State of Public Discourse and How to Clean It Up by James Hoggan with Grania Litwin (New Society, 2016). Reprinted from Utne Reader, Spring 2017. www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 65

The Great Transformation:

A World Awakening

W

By Saharadevi

e are currently living in the most profoundly transformative time in the history of the planet. Never mind the Industrial Revolution or even the advent of our current techno wonder-world: this is a time of awakening consciousness on a planetary level, and not one single being or location on Earth will remain untouched.

Of course, you may not be remotely aware of this, as we each experience life depending upon where we put our attention — and right now there is a reality show of international proportions grabbing the spotlight from nightly news to social media. However, those of us looking in another direction are perceiving an expansion in consciousness of a cosmic magnitude.

In 2008, after a 13-year unexpected sojourn living on the street and being carried around the world with no visible means of support, I returned to Bozeman and wrote a little book called The Evolution Revolution/The First Peaceful Revolution In The World, A Handbook for Personal & Global Transformation.

It was a work based on my own awakening and recognition that “whatsoever we do to or for another, we are doing to or for our own selves — for good or ill.” It spoke of a way of cultivating self-awareness and expanding consciousness, and was published in the midst of the Great Recession — a crisis that demanded a rethinking of priorities and a recreating of systems.

66 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Unfortunately, rather than accept that uncomfortable truth and the accompanying challenge, the powers-that-be scrambled to recreate the status quo with all haste. Nine years later we are experiencing the consequences of those decisions with a vengeance — a nationwide dissatisfaction of such profound depth it has led to an unprecedented rejection of establishment thinking and the elevation of an antihero into a position of power.

Meanwhile, the energetics of transformation — not to be trifled with by out-of-control egos of any stature — are barreling on and showing up globally: from the astonishing upstart in the Vatican speaking a Christ-like rhetoric of caring for the poor, to alternative energy becoming a new norm, and governments around the world granting rights to animals, water and Earth herself.

In all this we are witnessing what I call the Great Transformation: a period of societal upheaval and political antics indicating the death throes and approaching dissolution of the old paradigm on the one hand, and a greater acceptance of our interdependence arising in the multitudes, leading us toward a new way of being in harmony with all life, on the other.

So where does that leave us as individuals, the “little people” who may feel powerless to have an impact in the face of such great turbulence? Where does the average Joe or Jane, a decent, hardworking, live-and-let-live kind of person, who abhors how things are but doesn’t have a clue what to do about it, find the power to make a difference if they are not a protester, activist, billionaire, celebrity or CEO?

We needn’t wait for a natural disaster to evoke a sense of “all in this together” because we really ARE all in this — life—together.

If we are not simply reactive organisms, responding to stimuli like Pavlov’s dogs, we have the profoundly influential power (and empowerment) of intentional, conscious choice. We can choose where to put our attention, we can choose what to feed with our energy, we can choose what to support with our money, we can choose how to respond to what we perceive, and we can choose the words and tone of voice in our speaking. We can choose the attitude and intention we bring into our world, and more specifically, our community.

It’s actually quite simple: the key to the power of the individual (those who en masse make up the overwhelming majority) is in relationship — because the basis of a harmonious life in any society depends upon our inter-relatedness and how we choose to treat each other on a daily basis.

We needn’t wait for a natural disaster to evoke a sense of “all in this together” because we really ARE all in this — life—together. We needn’t wait for a catastrophe to inspire kindness, cooperation, consideration, generosity or compassion. We can choose to embody those qualities and express them in every encounter, every day — and race, religion, nationality, gender or even political affiliation need never come into play.

Start where you are. The simplest way to say it is: Be friendly. We can choose to be friendly and pleasant when engaged in transactions with the cashier or waitress who serves us; we can choose to be considerate of others when we’re driving down the street; we can choose to be kind, supportive or complimentary in every human transaction.

In a world that has speeded up exponentially, just being willing to spend the moment it takes to be still and listen to what another wants to express is a kindness.

All around us are folks working at jobs we’ve done, or jobs we would never want to do. These people are not nameless ciphers; they are our neighbors — someone’s mother, father, sister, child or loved one — and they are serving us in the positions they occupy.

What if we expressed appreciation for their service and made their encounter with us a moment of warmth and connection? What if our default intention as we go about our daily life was making people feel good about themselves? What if our speaking elicited the response: “You made my day.”

The change we want to see in our world is not something that can be legislated or imposed from without; it is not something we can achieve through protest. It is something that can only come from within each one of us choosing to bring a little more kindness into our way of being as we go about the business of living our lives.

Quantum physics tells us how the observer affects that which it observes; this is the way as individuals we affect our collective reality. What if we started to observe through the eyes of love? In the same way that the reward of patience is patience, the reward of kindness is finding oneself living in a kind world. Verily: whatsoever we embody and express creates the world in which we live.

It’s a question of critical mass. Small numbers have the power to affect collective consciousness and do, as when TM meditators demonstrably reduced crime in cities by their focus. When we recognize we are part of a whole and continuously contributing the quality of our energy to that whole, we can begin to choose to embody and express more kindness, raising the vibratory rate of the collective and contributing to a transformed society.

Change yourself and you change the world.

Saharadevi is the author of The Evolution Revolution/The First Peaceful Revolution In The World, (currently available as an eBook) and the rap: The Evolution Revolution, found on her YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/Saharadevi/videos www.spiritofchange.org

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SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 67

Rick Shapiro

Hope Never Dies: How 20 Late-Stage and Terminal Cancer Patients Beat the Odds Innovative Healing Press, Scottsdale, AZ 2017

BOOK REVIEWS Edward Espe Brown

No Recipe: Cooking as a Spiritual Practice Sounds True, Boulder, CO 2018

When you go to your kitchen to cook always bring someone with you: yourself. Otherwise, who is it that standing there doing the cooking? As cook at The Tassajara Zen Mountain Center in the 1970s, Ed Brown shared his beginner’s enthusiasm for the art of bread making in a cookbook that inspired other beginners to bring wheat, flour, salt and water to life. A burgeoning artisan bread movement of home bakers and bakeries dedicated to pure ingredients and freshly baked bread followed.

Decades later, Zen cook Ed continues to remind us in No Recipe that the best foods are ones we cook ourselves while experiencing all the tasting, chopping,

M. Amos Clifford

Your Guide to Forest Bathing: Experience the Healing Power of Nature Conari Press, Newburyport, MA 2018

The special relationship between trees and humans has always been reciprocal. Trees breathe the carbon dioxide we exhale, and in turn we improve our moods, immune systems and our hearts by inhaling the mix of freshly-minted oxygen and aerosol exhalations of trees. Your Guide to Forest Bathing shows how our DNA recognizes the forest as home, and offers guidelines for establishing a healing relationship with nature. Known as shinrin-yoku in Japan, forest bathing differs from hiking or walking in the woods in that it isn’t a strenuous activity. The pace is much slower and you don’t go very far; ideally, in two to four hours 68 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

By Gail Lord

cutting and baking that is cooking. Skip over plastic wrapped “pick me, I’m quick” pre-made, pre-prepared packaged foods and ground yourself in the experience of cooking. You are the cook, enjoy the ingredients!

Include spirit and a good heart. Taste as you go, asking what does this dish need — more salt maybe, or maybe some sweetness? Tasting keeps you present and engaged with your senses, with the smells, sounds, textures and tastes of the food you’re preparing. If you cook only to get to a final result of eating, you won’t notice the vibrant green as you chop the romaine lettuce, or see how the lettuce on your cutting board is simply being lettuce, while over on the counter the onion is onioning. Don’t lose the moment to your head which asks; will others enjoy this food I am making? Some people will like what you cook, some people won’t. You can never please everyone with your cooking so cook for yourself and enjoy. “When you are sincere, you offer what you have to offer, making your best whole-hearted effort, and let others receive it as they will.”

you’ll only travel a half mile or less. Your intention is to work with the forest as a partner in connection with the more-than-human world. Rather than exploit nature by only extracting wellness and pleasure from it or observing it primarily to learn scientific facts, enter the woods knowing you’re in a web of relatedness to all other living beings. If you stay silent as you go, experience only what the forest offers. Don’t allow concepts such as walking meditation or mindfulness to trick you into efforting. In fact, you’ll want to minimize efforts to achieve anything. Speaking with what you encounter is a wonderful way to start a dialogue with all that’s around you. Though you’ll want to limit conversation, both in your head and with others if you’re forest bathing with a guide or group, talking out loud to the woods enhances your connection to being part of the forest. Say “Hello Tree,” then wait for a response. You may even want to sit with the tree and ask a question.

Slowly breathe in the forest as the tree answers you.

To engage in this way is giving and receiving, an act of positive support to both you and the forest.

When physicians say the dreaded word “cancer,” patients often go into panic mode.

Unfortunately, the premature fatalism that pervades the cancer world, combined with a rush into conventional treatment, means that patients overlook personalized integrative and alternative options that can be tremendously beneficial to their survival.

In his new book, Hope Never Dies: How 20 Late-Stage and Terminal Cancer Patients Beat the Odds, Rick Shapiro, a leading cancer treatment consultant, interviews 20 cancer survivors and five trail-blazing cancer specialists to share how personalized, integrative and alternative cancer therapies are saving lives. While the conventional standard of care for treating cancer remains essentially unchanged over several decades, individual patients’ cancers are anything but standard. Shapiro describes compelling options that are worthy of investigation and, where appropriate, of implementing as part of a personalized cancer strategy. He strongly encourages cancer patients to selectively use the tools of conventional and alternative therapies. Following a cancer diagnosis, people are better off taking the time to learn about mainstream and alternative treatments, and to self-advocate for whichever makes most sense to their unique condition.

The types of alternative therapies described in the book often are meant to work synergistically with the standard surgery-chemotherapy-radiation protocol. For example, some patients chose as a first step to undergo testing of their biochemistry to show what nutritional interventions and supplements could support their immune systems, make their bodies inhospitable to cancer and help them recover from whatever standard treatment regimen they underwent. Another out-of-the-box option described includes use of chronomodulated chemotherapy treatment, which means chemo drugs are given at the time of day when they’re most effective and least toxic to the body. And a further option involves pre-testing chemo drugs on patients’ own tissue samples to find which drug will be most successful. Unfortunately, it’s rare that any mention of integrative or alternative options will come up at an oncologist appointment. Most physicians will resist, and even discredit, anything that isn’t approved by the FDA. Shapiro attributes this reluctance to the medical industry’s insidious profit structure and the influence of Big Pharma on choices outside the mainstream.

But yet, the so-called “proven” therapies have made only minimal progress in prolonging survival rates. Hope Never Dies makes the case that a more customized and integrative approach will bring about better results than confining those battling cancer to the narrow path of strictly conventional strategies. Unfortunately, for now, many aren’t widespread and aren’t covered by insurance.

The 20 patient profiles each conclude with a section, “Transformations and Pearls of Wisdom,” in which they reflect on what made the difference in their survival. One reoccurring theme was that statistics do not foretell the future — they apply only to groups, and not to individuals. Many also attributed their survival to never giving up hope. Part 2 of the book presents enlightening interviews with five cutting-edge physicians and practitioners offering innovative approaches that are saving lives. Hope Never Dies brings to light the limitations of established cancer care in our country and empowers anyone with a cancer diagnosis to look beyond the medical establishment for innovative and hopeful ways to beat the odds.

Richard Katz, Ph.D.

Indigenous Healing Psychology: Honoring the Wisdom of the First Peoples Healing Arts Press, Rochester VT 2017

Reconnecting psychology with its wholistic beginnings, Indigenous Healing Psychology is a respectful collection of Indigenous traditions, ceremonies and stories including wisdom of the Kalahari Desert’s Ju/’hoansi, the Lakota people of the Rosebud Reservation, and Fijians native to the islands of Fiji. Though diverse in practices, Indigenous pathways to healing include connection, vital spirituality and enhanced states of consciousness. In contrast, modern psychology, with its fixation on measuring outcomes, is dominated by a Western mindset that values accuracy over meaning. Mary Lee, a Cree elder from Pelican Lake First Nations in Saskatchewan, describes her work, “Visiting...that’s what we do. Just visiting.” Mary counsels those who are troubled, especially Indigenous

Ann Larkin Hansen

youth experiencing depression, identity confusion and loss of hope, sometimes worsened by substance abuse.

As an invited guest at a seminar for clinical psychology doctoral students, Mary’s humble description confuses some of the students. The Ph.D. candidates she is sharing with come from a world of mainstream psychological therapies, such as cognitive behavior approaches, which emphasize technical aspects more than the process and values of relationship. How can visiting be considered counseling? Mary explains that sometimes young people get overwhelmed and find it hard to cope. She sits with them. And listens. She doesn’t see them as her patients or clients; they are people who are out of balance, people who need to be heard. What’s the diagnosis code for “overwhelmed” or “out of balance”? The clinical students realize that the core of their training — a commitment to diagnosis — medicalizes life’s challenges. Indigenous healers assume interconnectedness. Modern psychology is biased towards a middle-class, white male perspective, measured by an intelligence or psychology test. This is counter to Indigenous perspectives, which sees wisdom as intelligence.

Jonathan Glass, M.Ac., C.A.T.

The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner: What To Do and When To Do It

Total Life Cleanse: A 28-Day Program to Detoxify and Nourish the Body, Mind, and Soul

Storey Publishing, North Adams, MA 2017

Healing Arts Press, Rochester, VT 2018

There’s a lot to learn for a first-time homesteader. Along with time in the dirt, success growing field crops includes keeping bees and orchards, raising livestock plus plenty of planning and experimenting. The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner organizes the most common activities found on small diverse farms into twelve seasons, dividing the four major seasons into an early, middle and late period. Prioritizing chores for each microseason into categories is a great reminder for what needs to be done when, and spreads tasks throughout the year. Working with the seasons, doing a task when it would naturally occur or when conditions are most comfortable, produces better results, and requires less money and labor than doing things out of season. Consider a New England winter tomato — greenhouse grown, grocery store bought, expensive and often disappointingly mealy and bland. Compare that to a tomato planted in season which is bright red and juicy, plucked fresh from the garden on a sunny August day — less effort, less money and far better results. Just a few generations back farmers looked not at a calendar but out the window to find the appropriate time for tasks. Observing nature, and what the local birds, plants and wildlife are doing is the best guide for determining when to sow crops and take on other farm chores. While these signs differ depending on where you live (spring returns for some with the red-winged blackbird, while those to the south may wait for skunk cabbage to sprout), soil and air temperature are fairly precise universal indicators of the seasons regardless of location.

To be healthy and happy we want to eliminate toxins, both physical and mental, that block connection to our soul essence, the source of our vitality, love and healing.

Total Life Cleanse is a gradual and incremental approach to give the body, mind and soul a rest from a continual bombardment of toxins and challenges.

Merging nutritional science with Ayurveda, its sister practice Yoga, Traditional Chinese Medicine and other wisdom, this 28-day cleanse is broken up into four one-week long phases, using plant-based foods and other supports to detoxify the digestive system and other major organs of the body. More than just removing toxins, the cleanse also restores the body’s innate wisdom in keeping the body functioning at best levels. Ignoring that wisdom blocks your access to good health. According to Ayurvedic principles, passing gas is an expression of your body’s wisdom, along with pooping, peeing, burping, and ten other natural urges. Repressing or unnaturally forcing these urges can lead to disease. Other human urges, however, such as greed, lack of self-control and excessive desire are urges that we do want to suppress, as they are obstructions which prevent us from reaching our divine potential and expressing our essence — pure health. It takes a total life cleanse to get there.

www.spiritofchange.org

Tae Yun Kim

Seven Steps to Inner Power: How to Break Through to Awesome Mountain Tiger Press, Medford, OR 2018

Tae Young Kim started life as a culturally unwanted and subsequently abused child in rural South Korea. She defied five thousand years of tradition to pursue her passion when she immigrated to the United States and happily cleaned toilets in Vermont (“in Korea I was cleaning the house and the toilet and getting beaten.

Here I was getting paid for it!”), then helped pave the way for women to compete in martial arts in the Olympics. She is now one of the highest ranked martial artists in the world. In Seven Steps to Inner Power great grandmaster Tae Young shows us that the same power she cultivated to achieve her goals is a power available to everyone — the power of inner strength. No matter where you are on your journey, these seven steps to inner power will give you the focus to bring your inner strength forward: act as body and mind are one; uncover the truth of your strengths and weaknesses; attain purity of body, mind and spirit; love yourself; maintain loyalty; sacrifice to achieve your goals; and seek patience. Some of these qualities may seem vague, such as loyalty, but they are not. Loyalty to your own self means being loyal to every part of yourself — mental, physical, spiritual and emotional — and recognizing when you’re tempted to follow other people’s dreams and wishes instead of your own.

Well-intentioned parents sometimes suppress a child's loyalty to her or his own self by asserting what the child may or may not want, or may or may not be able to do. While parental wisdom is loving and necessary, children must follow their own dreams to cultivate their inner power. Used in martial arts to break through stacks of cement blocks with a bare hand or foot, inner power breaks through mental blocks to our personal and professional goals as well. We often associate power with aggression, yet we know that a tree growing through a giant rock or a green plant sprouting through the sidewalk aren’t being aggressive, they are simply growing true to their own inner purpose.

It’s the rock and cement that crack around the tree and plant. Gentle persistence is the strength of the tree and the plant. Gentleness isn’t weakness; it has its own kind of force.

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 2018 | Spirit of Change 69

3/24-3/24 — EXPERIENCE BREEMA EVENING AND WORKSHOP. At Shambhala Meditation Center of Boston.

Breema helps nurture vitality, aliveness, non-judment, presence and well-being. Breema Retreat at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health, 4/20-22. For more information www.breema.com 3/24 — 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: 3/25.

SPRING/SUMMER

CALENDAR MARCH 3/1 & 1/8 — MIND-BODY HEALING & RELEASING FEARS. Join Judith Swack Ph.D. to learn Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), an effective way to quickly and reliably release irrational fears, phobias, and traumas. NCE, Newton Center, MA. 7-9pm. For a list of future classes go to www.hblu.org.

3/4 — WILD WOMEN WEAVING THE WORLD: MARCH FORTH! 10am - 4pm. Calling sacred activists, artists, musicians, magicians, change agents, authors of destiny, leaders, lovers of Earth! www.spirithollow.org for details.

3/3 — 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: 3/4.

3/7 — FREE LECTURE: READ & PLAY MUSIC. World famous seminars (www.understandingofmusic.com) turns beginners into musicians, revitalizes and inspires even pro musicians. 7:30 pm, 169 Mass Ave. Boston. (781) 599-1476. http://signup.understandingofmusic.com or sallee@dlorien.com 3/10 — 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: 3/11.

3/10 — MEDIUMSHIP/PSYCHIC FAIR. Mediumship, psychic, tarot readings, aura imaging. 11am-4pm. Messages from Heaven Healing and Learning Center, 272 Central Street. Leominster, MA. (978) 297-9790.

Bonniepagemedium.com.

3/10-3/11 — TINA D'AMORE, SHAMANIC PRACTITIONER AND TEACHER is offering Intro to Shamanism and the Shamanic Journey, a two-day workshop at Metta

70 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Studios, Biddeford, ME. For more information email 3crowshealing@gmail.com or visit 3crowshealing.com.

3/15 — MS. CARRIE'S BEE KIND MUSIC CLASSES FOR LITTLE ONES. Southborough, MA. Come see what all the buzz is about at a free music class with Ms. Carrie. Bring your little ones (babies - 4 years old) to an enchanting experience where we sing, dance and create joyful bonding with your child using Ms. Carrie's Award Winning original music and well loved classics. Ms. Carrie will also share some quick calming/meditative techniques for moms to use throughout their busy day. 10:15am. Enrollment is open for 8-week spring classes starting 3/30-5/25 at Playtown Express, 150 Cordaville Road, Southborough, MA. (508) 480-0022 for more info. www.merrygomusic.com 3/17 — 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 3/17 — SECOND LEVEL ADVANCED HERBAL TRAINING. Advanced Intensives on Cleansing the Liver, Stress and the Neuro-endocrine Cascade, Addressing Major Mental Health Issues, Cannabis, Pain and Inflammation, Medicinal Mushrooms, and Immersion in the Plant World: Foraging, Deep Botany and Ecology and the Alchemy of Cooking with Medicinal Plants. Boston School of Herbal Studies. (781) 646-6319 or bostonherbalstudies.com.

3/20 — PEACEFUL GUIDED IMAGERY MEDITATION CLASSES the third Tuesday of every month! 7:15-8:15pm, $10. A wonderful way to dilute stress and heal yourself with peace. Wisdom of the Ages, Simsbury, CT. (860) 651-1172. www.WisdomoftheAges. biz www.Facebook.com/WisdomoftheAgesStore 3/22-3/25 — SIFU DUNN’S FLYING PHOENIX QIGONG PART 1. 3-day immersive workshop on this powerful medical qigong system. Part 2 June 28-July 1. For information and registration, www.Eastover.com (866) 264-5139.

3/24 — DYING AND EMPOWERMENT. We’ll all experience that ultimate journey called death. Through releasing and balancing our perspectives and fears, we empower ourselves to experience greater peace and grace approaching transcendence. Details: www.starwalkervisions.com 3/24 — HEALING THROUGH IMAGINATION. Learn techniques to manage pain and stress in this experiential workshop. 10am -12. $50. Norton, MA. Janet Dwinells, MA, CCH. Transformation Coach, Alchemical Hypnotherapist. (508) 776-2620. janet@ voyageofyoursoul.com. voyageofyoursoul.com for registration and details.

3/24 — NATURAL APPROACHES TO MAJOR MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES. Herbal and nutritional protocols for ADD/ADHD, obsessive compulsive disorders, autism and major depression and anxiety. Boston School of Herbal Studies. (781) 646-6319 or bostonherbalstudies.com.

3/31 — FAUST FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS presents The Constellation Approach™ Seminar with Jamy & Peter Faust, healers and facilitators. All issues with family lineage, career, relationship, illness and more are set up through the lens of this unique approach to Family Constellations. Seminar is experiential with multiple opportunities to participate and experience Ancestral Healing and Soul Agreements though your own Family Energy Field.

Saturday 9:30 - 6 pm. Belmont. To register www.faustfamilyconstellations.com/seminars/

APRIL 4/2 — WHY ME? WHY NOW? WHY NOT? Study group for Dr. Trish's book, "Why Me? Why Now? Why Not? Finding Opportunity in Your Obstacles.” Teleclass meets first Monday of the month. 9-9:45pm. Visit www.trishwhynot.com for details.

4/3 — LYME DISEASE SEMINAR guides you through the treatment practices of a Lyme-literate medical doctor along with the Eastern perspective of acupuncture and Chinese medicine protocol, plus incorporates nutritional aspects that cool the inflammatory fires that feed Lyme. D’Arcy Wellness Clinic, 63 South Main Street, Natick, MA. 7-9pm. $40 includes handouts. (508) 650-1921. www.darcynat.com.

4/4-4/6 — ANGELS' REST RETREAT. Leyden, MA. Osteoporosis Retreat with Cindy Brown. The retreat will discuss wholebody treatments, give you delicious meals, and expose you to yoga postures that are safe and help to build bone density, balance and strength. www.osteoporosisyoga.com

4/5-4/8 — HAND ANALYSIS INTENSIVE CLASS. Burlington. VT. Learn to read hands with the masters of hand and fingerprint analysis. Modern palmistry with a scientific basis.

Call Janet Savage, MHA, MPH, Master Teacher to learn more at (802) 279-8554. HandTales.com.

4/6-4/8 — READ & PLAY MUSIC in a weekend! World famous seminars (www.understandingofmusic.com) turns beginners into musicians, revitalizes and inspires even pro musicians. 169 Mass Ave., Boston. (781) 599-1476. http:// signup.understandingofmusic.com or sallee@dlorien.com 4/7 — REIKI MASTER CERTIFICATION. Wilton, NH. Libby Barnett, MSW. 38 years experience. Reiki Energy Medicine author. Notebook, certificate awarded. Credit cards accepted. Call (603) 654-2787. www.reikienergy.com. Reiki Master Teacher: 4/8.

4/14-4/15 — DAMANHUR, PAST LIVES. WORKSHOP. This Damanhur, Italy course explores past life experiences that affect your personal current life strengths and challenges. 16 participants. Cut-off date to receive info is March 15. Details: www.starwalkervisions.com 4/25 — TOTAL LIFE CLEANSE WITH JONATHAN GLASS, Ayurvedic practitioner. Concord, MA. Presenting a 28-day program designed to initiate and maximize detoxification and nourishment of your body, mind and soul, inspiring results that can last a lifetime. For more information www. healingessencecenter.com or www.totallifecleanse.com 4/28 — PLANT BASED COOKING CLASS with Rawbert at the Organic Garden and Café. A Taste of India: Gourmet recipes that are wonderful raw, warmed or cooked. Vegan nutrition for a fit body. Creating a balanced New England plant-based diet with raw and macrobiotic Foods. Beverly, MA. For more info visit www.organicgardencafe.com or (978) 922-0004 4/28 — AKASHIC JOURNEY TO SOUL MASTERY SERIES with award winning Author Nancy Smith. Starts April 28th, Women of Wisdom, North Easton, MA. 7-month certification program about Akashic records. One Saturday a month, 10 AM - 4 PM. $860. (508) 230-3860. womenofwisdominc.com.

4/29 — NEW ENGLAND VEGFEST. Free family fun event featuring socially responsible exhibitors, vegan food court and plenty of free vegan food samples and products.

Cooking demos, children’s activities, shopping, fundraising raffles, speakers and more. DCU Center, 50 Foster Street, Worcester, MA. www.NewEnglandVegFest.com. info@ VegWorcester.com.

MAY 5/3-5/5 — HOLY FIRE II REIKI CERTIFICATION TRAINING. Three day training including new techniques for Advanced Reiki Training, Reiki Master Training, and Holy Fire II Upgrade.

Includes discussion, demonstrations, practice time, manual and teaching certification. 10am-6pm. $1025 ppd. Women of Wisdom. (508) 230-3680. womenofwisdominc.com.

5/5 — HOLISTIC HEALTH AND PSYCHIC FAIR. 10am5pm. 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.

www.spiritofchange.org

5/5 — INTRODUCTORY PSYCHIC DEVELOPMENT, ANGEL COMMUNICATION AND PAST LIFE REGRESSION 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.

5/5 — FAUST FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS presents The Constellation Approach™ Seminar with Jamy & Peter Faust, healers and facilitators. All issues with family lineage, career, relationship, illness and more are set up through the lens of this unique approach to Family Constellations. Seminar is experiential with multiple opportunities to participate and experience Ancestral Healing and Soul Agreements though your own Family Energy Field. Saturday 9:30 - 6 pm.

Belmont. To register www.faustfamilyconstellations.com/ seminars/ 5/5-6 — MARCONICS SPIRITUAL ALCHEMY HEALING SEMINAR. Level 1 in Barre, MA. Level 2 in Concord, NH Jun 22-24. Also in Chester, VT July 13-15 and August 9-12. More information at www.Marconics.com.

5/11-5/13 — YOU CAN SING! Weekend workshop with renowned teacher of voice and the Alexander Technique at Rowe Conference Center in Rowe, MA. For more information http://rowecenter.org/wp/events/youcan/sing.

5/12 — FREE LIGHTFIELD SESSION. Support our local community! Chester, MA. Lightfield Foundation welcomes you to come have a free Lightfield session and leave a donation for Grow Food Northampton. Contact scheduling@ lightfieldfoundation.org to schedule your appointment (required). www.lightfieldfoundation.org 5/18-5/20: CHILDLIGHT YOGA AND MINDFULNESS FOR CHILDREN TEACHER TRAINING is incredibly fun, interactive and educational! This comprehensive training program is designed to provide you with the tools and knowledge to share the gifts of yoga and mindfulness with children.

Friday 5-9; Saturday 9-6 and Sunday 9-4. http://www.balancebethlehem.com/workshops/ 5/19 — 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: 5/20.

5/19-20 — AWAKEN EVENT 2018. Join Rhys Thomas at the biggest healing and energy medicine event of the year.

Heal your life and unleash your potential with two full days of awakening. Tickets only $50. Dedham, MA. For more information www.AwakenEvent.com 5/25 — MEDIUMSHIP DEMONSTRATION with Scottish Medium: Dominic Boag, 7:30 – 10pm. 440 Post, 295 California St., Newton, MA. Tickets online:dominicboag.com or call (617) 861-1440.

March 22-25 — Learn the powerful medical qigong Flying Phoenix practice from Sifu Terrance Dunn in a 3-day immersion workshop. See March listing or www.Eastover.com

JUNE 6/2 — 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 6/9 — 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: 6/10.

6/9 — THE 4 SOVEREIGN TAROT QUEENS. Invoke the counsel of these four wise tarot queens to inform and enliven the divine feminine within yourself through nature, circle, play, dream and tarot. Details: www.starwalkervisions.com

Continued on page 72

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 71

CALENDAR

8/13 — 8/21 - NATIONAL HYPNOSIS CERTIFICATION with NLP Training and Master Healer Certification. Marlboro, MA. This course is specifically designed for healers of every modality. For information call (646) 606-9935 or visit www.

AscendedHealer.com

Continued from page 71

6/15-7/2 — QI GONG MASTER MANTAK CHIA at Eastover in Lenox, MA. Universal Healing Tao Teacher Training, USA Center. Session I: Inner Alchemy Tao Basic. Session II: Fusion I & II. Session III: Women’s Qigong and Health.

Register for all or part. Also, Jun 29-Jul 6: Eastover Medical Qi Gong and Eastern Medicine Symposium. Info and registration at eastover.com. (866) 264-5139.

8/24-8/26 — 31th 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 $285 and includes tuition, camping and all workshops. www.newomensherbal.com or (802) 332-3550.

6/16 — 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: 6/17.

UPCOMING

6/16 & 8/18 —SWIM KAYAK WALK RUN OR PADDLE AGAINST THE TIDE EVENTS sponsored by Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition. Proceeds benefit work towards breast cancer prevention and education. June event in Hopkinton; August event in Brewster. More info and register at www.mbcc.org. (800) 649-MBCC 6/21-6/24 — 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. Early Bird deadline: May 18 to receive $150 off if you register with a friend.

Special one-day add on: History Trauma: Learn How To Heal PTSD, Monday, June 25, 9am-6pm.

6/21-7/1 — WOMEN’S YOGA RETREATS in beautiful Rockport, ME. Relax, rejuvenate, rediscover. 3 amazing options: Kundalini Summer Solstice Jun 21-24; Gentle Yoga Jun 24-28; Let Your Soul Shine Jun 29-Jul 1. Contact nancy_reallifeyoga@comcast.net or (508) 990-6795.

6/30 — CANNABIS, PAIN AND INFLAMMATION. Material medica, proper usage and preparation for medicinal purposes. An exploration of pain pathways and how to interrupt them. Boston School of Herbal Studies. (781) 646-6319 or bostonherbalstudies.com.

6/30-7/5 — WISDOM OF THE DIVINE NATURAL WORLD. Margaretville, NY. Plant Spirit Medicine as Spiritual Exploration and Discovery with Eliot Cowan. For more information www.bluedeer.org.

JULY 7/21-7/22 — THE NEW ENGLAND METAPHYSICAL AND HOLISTIC FESTIVAL, NEMHoFest, is New England’s premiere metaphysical festival. This year’s line-up includes world renowned guest speakers and vendors from across the globe! www.nemhofest.com for more information.

7/20-21 & 7/22-23 — ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS & ASTRAL TRAVEL. Damanhur, Italy presents Alien Civilizations & pre-Atlantean History, followed by Insights into Astral Projection as a plane of reality. Prepaid discount deadlines for attending both. www.starwalkervisions.com

72 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

9/1 — WE INVITE YOU TO OUR NEW MASSAGE THERAPY PROGRAM OPENING at Coastal Career Academy in Fall River this coming September. Click the link through our website to see our massage program! www.walkinbalance.com.

March 15 — Come join Ms Carrie’s Bee Kind music classes for little ones and see what all the buzz is about in Southboro, MA. See March listing or www.merrygomusic.com.

9/7-9/9 — DISCOVER THE POWER OF YOU MIND BODY SPIRIT FESTIVAL. Point Sebago, Casco, ME. Psychic readings, Reiki, massage, Latin dance, learn to dowse, yoga, meditation cruise, crystals, aromatherapy, mediums, reflexology, free workshops, meals, lodging and much more! For information and registration www.powerofyou-now.com.

(207) 939-2436.

7/21-7/22 — THE WORCESTER GLUTEN FREE AND ALLERGEN FRIENDLY EXPO returns to the DCU Center. Sample hundreds of gluten-free products, attend presentations, and take home a goodie bag! Get 30% off tickets through 6/20: http://ow.ly/zuia30ibYr4.

9/8-9/9 — EASTERN MEDICINAL THERAPIES EDUCATION CENTER. Natick, MA. Asian Bodywork Therapy: An Introduction and 9/9 The East and West of Headaches. Both events held at 317 N. Main Street. For more info www.

EasternMedicinalTherapies.com.

7/23-8/3 — DANCING JAGUAR’S SPIRIT CAMP. Ancient wisdom for a child's mind, body, and spirit. Unity of Greater Portland, Windham, ME. July 23-27, ages 5-10; July 30-Aug 3, ages 11-16. $275. 9am-3pm. With a holistic approach to integrating mind, body, and spirit, this program teaches children how to nurture their inner and outer worlds. www. spiritcamp.net.

9/11-9/24 — WALKING WITH MA’AT. Join Sandy Corcoran and Indigo Ronlov throughout ancient Egypt. Fall equinox ritual at the Sphinx; Philae ceremony to Isis; Sekhmet at Karnak. Private seven-day Nile sail to multiple sites.

Details: sandy@starwalkervisions.com

AUGUST

9/15 — 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: 9/16.

8/10-8/19 — PERU. Visit sacred sites throughout Peru sharing the Chaupy Karpay rites, for the prophesized return of the Inca. Rites enliven heart centered energy, between Andean magical and mystical teachings. Limited. Details: www.starwalkervisions.com

9/22 — REIKI I CERTIFICATION. Weston, 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: 9/23.

8/11-8/12 — 7TH ANNUAL PSYCHIC AND BEYOND EXPO. Readings, healings, vendors, presentations. Saturday and Sunday, 11am-pm. Free entry. Hilton Garden, 85 Glastonbury Blvd, Glastonbury, CT. More info at www.theBeyondCenter.como

9/22 — YOUR IDEAL LIFE BEGINS TODAY with life-changing intuitive development training with internationally renowned medical intuitive and master healers/teachers Sue and Aaron Singleton. This exceptional 7-module program initiates healing that enhances all aspects of your life. (978) 834-0341 or www.theWayToBalance.com.

8/13-8/14 — AWAKEN YOUR 3RD EYE AND EVOLVE YOUR SOUL TRAINING. This fun and exciting healing workshop guarantees you valuable knowledge and powerful skills to keep you in a higher vibration of energy and flowing with infinite intelligence and eternal wisdom. Presented by Geozuwa. For information call (646) 606-9935 or visit www.

AscendedHealer.com

9/30 — 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. (774) 242-2112. BHWellnessGroup.com.

10/1 — A JOURNEY OF HEALING AND PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION. Enroll at the Barbara Brennan School of Healing October program in Florida and learn from skilled and compassionate teachers. Blossom into the heart-centered being you came here to be. www. barbarabrennan.com or (800) 924-2564.

10/12/18-5/6/19 — FAUST FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS presents The Constellation Approach™ Immersion Program. Join a like-minded community working toward personal awakening in relation to family, ancestry and Soul agreements. Through the processes of family constellations, energy medicine and evolutionary Soul work, you will have the opportunity to experience all aspects of your life and heritage in a safe, healing and supportive environment. Enrolling now for classes October through May. Visit - www.faustfamilyconstellations.com 11/10-11/11 — 12TH 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. Shopping, readings, mini healing sessions, sound healing, yoga, free Natural Products Sample Bar to try out new products. www.NaturalExpo.org.

ONGOING BOSTON SCHOOL OF HERBAL STUDIES. Arlington & Lincoln, MA. Affordable, evening and weekend classes, aromatherapy certification courses, Lyme disease practitioner training, herbal apprenticeship programs and advanced training. Call (781) 646-6319 or see bostonherbalstudies.com.

SUPPORT FOR PARKINSON’S DISEASE. If you are worried about getting Parkinson’s or have beginning symptoms, check out a free intro on how to rewire your brain from the inside. 1st & 3rd Wednesdays of the month, times flexible. RSVP Walter Ness, neuropathways@msn.com or www.InteractiveMindfulness.com/parkinson CLASSES IN CHANNELING AND SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION with ascended master Vywamus, channeled by Andrea Seiver. Have a personal reading/ Join Spring Learn to Channel class/ Enjoy Evenings with Vywamus April 12 , May 3, June 7, July 5. (617) 332-1541. www.andreaseiver.com THE CENTRAL MASS LYME FOUNDATION, INC helps educate the general public about Lyme disease. 2018 monthly meetings are held at 90 Holden Street in Worcester. March 10th, April 14th, May 12th, June 2nd, July 14th, August 11th, September 9th, October 13th, November 10th. For more information, visit www.CentralMassLyme.org.

CENTER FOR PSYCHIC HEALING UPCOMING EVENTS: Psychic Fair March 24; Women’s Clairvoyant Immersion, April 28-29 and May 26-27. Come to one or both

www.spiritofchange.org

Aug 24-26 — Join the circle at the Women’s Herbal Conference in New Hampshire, a special celebration honoring women, healing and herbs. See August listing or www.newomensherbal.com weekends; Miracles, Manifestations and Mary Magdalene Retreat, July 17-21; Kundalini 5-hour Training, Aug 1. All events held at the Center in Harwich on Cape Cod. www. centerforpsychichealing.com.

PERSONAL AND PROPERTY CLEARING CLASSES THROUGH SKYPE. Learn how to clear your personal space.

The classes will be held in 3 one-hour sessions. Techniques for clearing yourself, others and property will be taught. $120 for three classes. www.bringhealing.com DOWN TO EARTH CRYSTAL FAIRS. Held monthly: March 25th, April 22nd , May 20th , June 24th , July 29th , August 26th, September 30th, October 28th , November 18th, December 16th. 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 NORTHEAST REIKI CENTER FREE COMMUNITY REIKI CIRCLE. Second Sunday of every month, 5:30-8pm, Framingham, MA. Learn how we all have the ability to heal with our hands and also experience a free Reiki session. (508) 808-5696. northeastreikicenter.org HILLSIDE HERBALS FULL MOON WORKSHOP SERIES. 3-4:30pm. Held at Hillside Herbals in Jefferson, MA. March 18: Spring tonic herbs, circulation and tincturing. April 29: Healing herbs for seasonal allergy relief. May 29: Healing herbs for women’s health, part 1. June 24: Healing herbs for women’s health, part 2. Refreshments served. To RSVP contact herbalist Rachel Ross, RN CNM. Hillsideherbals.com or visit our FB page for the latest events.

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.

THE ECLECTIC INSTITUTE OF AROMATHERAPY AND HERBAL STUDIES offers the Introduction to European Based Aromatherapy Certification in Arlington and Sturbridge, Level II Aromatherapy Certification in Arlington, Soap workshops in Sturbridge and Holyoke, and Herbs for Wellbeing in Holyoke. www.aromatherapyandherbalstudies.com NEED GUIDANCE FROM ANGELS? Allow us to help! Our loving community of expert teachers will show you how to use divine guidance for big decisions and every day life.

Visit: AngelsTeach.com for our free webinar.

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.

IPT INFORMED YOGA CLASSES WITH PAT LEBAU. Discover how to relieve your pain. Monday-Friday in Northborough and two Westborough locations. See www.PatLebauYoga. com for complete schedule or call (508) 393-5581.

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 73

New England Company With A ‘Bee Cause’ Whimsical, Inspirational Greeting Cards, Journals, B-shirts, Onesies & More!

Eco-friendly: recycled paper, orgnanic cotton & local printing.

We support and donate to the ‘Save The Honeybee Foundation’.

www.JustBeeAndMe.com Wholesalers call 617.510.8479 or go to the website to fill out an application.

74 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Spiritual healing is for everyone, everywhere, every day!

NEW ENGLAND’S

HolisticDirectory SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Categories Acupuncture and Asian Medicine . . . . . . . . . 75

Colon Hydrotherapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

Nutrition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Astrological Consulting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Consciousness Transformation . . . . . . . . . 77-78

Readings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82-83

Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75-76

Counseling and Therapy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78-79

Retreats and Retreat Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Children's Health & Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76

Healing and Bodywork . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79-81

Salons and Spas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Classes, Certifications & Schools . . . . . . . 76-77

Healing: Combined Modalities . . . . . . . . . 81-82

Spiritual Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

Coaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Herbs and Gardens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Yoga . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

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.

Astrological Consulting Astrology

& 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

?

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.”

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: 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

Westford’s Center for Counseling and Holistic Therapies Vita Therapia caters to helping businesses that need flexible space licensing options. Be part of a community, without taking on the risk of a long-term commercial lease. We love working with holistic businesses because we support the work they do in helping others. If you are looking for a supportive, flexible office solution, schedule a tour today.

Looking for a space? If you are in need of a warm, welcoming space to host your next workshop, class or retreat, give us a call. We have packages to meet all budgets.

Looking for a practitioner? We have many wonderful businesses at our center, including therapists, massage therapists, Reiki practitioners, Tai Chi classes and coaches ­— all available to assist you.

We are open every day by appointment only. Contact us for a referral to one of our great practitioners.

Westford, MA o info@vitatherapia.com 978-228-5330 o vitatherapia.com

Centers, continued

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 75

Centers, continued SCHOOLS OF WISDOM

C

ng elebrati

Years!

20+

Women of Wisdom HOLISTIC HEALING CENTER

Usui & Karuna & Holy Fire Reiki Hypnotherapy G BARS G Massage Crystal Healing G Past Life Regression Integrated Energy Therapy Akisni G Inner Child Healing

Holistic Practitioner and Professional, Earth Medicine, Angel Alignment; Holy Fire II Reiki; 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

womenofwisdominc.com 508-230-3680

With Deborah Gilmour Meditation is a practice that calms the mind. It brings focus, clarity and intuitive insight. I use breath, relaxation techniques, guided and mindfulness meditation in class.

Whether you desire to decrease stress, integrate positive use of self talk, or connect to your intuitive/higher self, meditation will be helpful and easy to learn. I teach one-on-one with your particular needs and experiences.

DEBORAH GILMOUR 207-730-1781 G skybluemeditations.com skybluemeditations@hotmail.com

28 Worcester Lane, Waltham, MA 02451 info@advaitameditation.org www.advaitameditation.org G 781-647-0020

Touchstone offers: Small, mixed-age classes Thematic studies that integrate subjects Dedicated, expert teachers A diverse community and highly positive culture Parent-teacher-child partnership in educational development To learn more about our holistic approach to education for children ages 4 to 14: www.touchstoneschool.com 508-839-0038

100-Hour National Guild of Hypnotists Approved certification course

RHODE ISLAND HYPNOTIST CERTIFICATION TRAINING

Includes 1 year FREE NGH Certification upon graduation

You will learn: 1 How to hypnotize

1 How to use hypnosis to help clients

make personal changes

1 How to turn hypnosis into a profitable

part-time or full-time business

Ample parking and wheelchair accessibility.

Children's Health & Services

Touchstone Community School offers a progressive, child-centered approach to education. For more than 30 years, we have nurtured and inspired children to be creative, independent partners in their learning.

Class Taught Online Over Skype

This helps us to relax and let go of daily tension and be in the present moment.

Hours: M-F 10 am-8 pm, S/S 10 am-6 pm 118 Washington Street, N. Easton, MA

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

Meditation

Certified Instructor John.Koenig.Hypnotist@live.com GreaterRhodeIslandHypnosisTraining.com 401-374-1890

New England Institute of Reflexology & Universal Studies ~ Now teaching throughout New England ~ www.walkinbalance.com v 508-317-3044 v

Instructor John Koenig has practiced hypnosis in Rhode Island since 1998—his work featured on national television and author of The Hypnotic Coach.

Spring 2018 Class Starts March 12 Apply Now!

v

v

v

of Aromatherapy and Herbal Studies Instructor Linda Patterson offers over 20 years of experience in the science, art and principles of herbalism and aromatherapy.

www.aromatherapyandherbalstudies.com 978-297-4502

NCBTMB provider

Our goal is to act as a bridge between complimentary and conventional medicine through the training of qualified holistic practitioners. Join us!

❖ ❖

Eclectic Institute

Integrative techniques strengthen foundations and create a balanced treatment style

AFFORDABLE HERBAL EDUCATION THROUGHOUT THE YEAR

Classes, Certifications & Schools 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

Approved Continuing Education in Reflexology, Massage, and Reiki

❖ ❖

Herbal Apprenticeships Advanced Training Aromatherapy - Levels One and Two For more information on all of our classes: bostonherbalstudies.com Arlington, MA ❖ 781.646.6319

Intensive 7 Month Herbal Apprenticeships

Advanced Training – Levels two and three Aromatherapy Certification – Two Levels

Weekend Intensives with Phyllis Light and Tammi Sweet HERBAL CLASSES

February 24 – Aromatherapy Level One March 3 – Aromatherapy Level Two March 24, 25 – Major Mental Health Issues April 28 – Creating an Herbal Garden June 30, July 1 – Cannabis; Pain & Inflammation

Classes, Certifications and Schools, continued

76 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

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

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.

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

Accredited. Licensed. Financial Aid available for qualified students.

stephanie@healthyspiritcleansing.com 781-860-5116

DEBRA GRAHAM, ND, CT I-ACT Certified (Advanced) NBCHT Certified

800-262-8530 v www.spatech.edu

2 Narrows Road Suite 104 Westminster, MA 01473

Coaching Are you ready to make more money in your business? Master sales conversations at Conversations To Clients Live™ , where I teach everything you need (including mindset) to enroll more ideal clients.

The Breakthrough Expert & Founder of BRILLIANCE Builders™

Benefits of the Sedona Method® G Eliminate your stress, fears, and tensions

LETTING GO

G

Face whatever happens with a new feeling of inner strength, ease, and confidence.

Coaching Using the Sedona Method®

What is the Sedona Method ?A simple, powerful, easy-to-use technique that shows you how to tap into your natural ability to let go of any uncomfortable or unwanted feeling in the moment. ®

Call Today

Experience the Angel of Water, the premier colon hydrotherapy system.

413-522-0061 q deb@drdebma.com www.drdebma.com

Consciousness Transformation

617-469-3114 | Info@KateBeeders.com ConversationsToClientsLive.com

Life Coach can free you from hurt, anger and fear.

COLON HYDROTH E RAPY

For additional savings, SOC community use coupon code YES17

Kate Beeders

CHERYL WRIGHT

* Reasonable Rates * Flexible Hours

G

G G

The Lightfield Foundation

www.lightfieldfoundation.org

Improve your relationships Be radiantly healthy

Have financial security

Drop addictions and bad habits

G Gain emotional wellness and intelligence G

The Lightfield™ produces a coherent information field using sacred geometries and other leading-edge technology. When inside this harmonious field, an individual reconnects with his or her higher awareness and begins to jettison stress and feel a greater sense of well-being. For more information, visit www.lightfieldfoundation.org.

Have inner peace, joy, and happiness Offices in Watertown, MA and Cumberland, RI Available in-person, by phone, or Skype

617-448-8749 www.WrightHereNow.com

The Free Universal Spirit is the Teaching of Love for God and Neighbor Toward People, Nature, and Animals TheUniversal-Spirit.org Gabriele Publishing* House – The Word 800-846-2691 publishes the 2221, prophetic wordNH of the present P.O. Box Deering, 03244 time given through Gabriele, the prophetess and emissary of God, in written, audio, and visual form.

* TheFREE Inner Path to the THE SPIRIT – Cosmic NOT AConsciousness RELIGION! – Into the All-unity with People, Nature * NEW! The Soul on Its Path to Perfection and the Animal World. * NEW! My Life that I Chose Myself * Inner Path to the Cosmic –Consciousness * The Divine Prophetic Healing Awaken the

- The Path toforces God inin Usyou, through the self-healing direct divine ray of Christ.

- The and Levelmighty of Order * Find the Primordial Light in You * Living and Dying in Order to Keep Living

Check out the bookstore website

for these titles and many * The Path of Forgetting – Themore!

Microcosm

in the Macrocosm The Gabriele Publishing House – The Word gabriele-publishing-house.com 844-576-0937 Consciousness Transformation, continued

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 77

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

Are you ready to

Live Your Possibility?

JANET DWINELLS, MA, CCH Transformation Coach Alchemical Hypnotherapist 508-776-2620 o Norton, MA janet@voyageofyoursoul.com voyageofyoursoul.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

Barbara Madden Johnson

“Barbara has a unique gift. She really helped me find the person I was meant to be buried under the layers of what people wanted me to be.”

Certified Master Hypnotist NLP Practitioner Energy Medicine Practitioner

You can do this. You can find peace of mind. You can make positive changes permanent. You can heal your body, mind, and soul. You may not know how to connect to the part of you that knows the way, but that part of you is still in you.

Barbara will help you reconnect and guide you on your unique healing path.

Barbara brings a rich blend of deep experience as a clinician, clinical supervisor, college administrator, and professor. She helps individuals resolve health issues, including learning disabilities, dyslexia, immune and auto-immune diseases, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and depression, as well as issues relating to career, identity, relationships, and more recently, gender identification.

– Sheryl C., Boston, MA

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

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.

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.

GLENN BIGONET, M.A.

Mental Health Counselor Clinical Hypnotherapist

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

“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

Certifications: LICSW, EMDRIA Approved Consultant, National Board of Certified Clinical Hypnotherapists.

Visa/MC acccepted.

HELPING PEOPLE

live better lives

Barbara Madden Johnson, MA, CAGS, LPC 617-484-1716 u UcanEmerge@aol.com

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.

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.

294 Pleasant St. R Ste. 103B R Stoughton, MA www.eaglespirittherapies.com 781-297-2003

Be at your creative potential now.

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.

Visit my website to sign up for a monthly newsletter to learn about upcoming groups and workshops and receive a free guided meditation.

I use a combination of traditional, body centered and energy therapies to increase the speed and deepen the level of holistic healing.

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

Holistic Counseling Concepts

My Offerings include: Private Sessions, Sacred Women’s Circles, Groups and Workshops using Guided Imagery, Healing through Imagination, Mindfulness Meditation, Inner Child Rescue, Archetypal Personality Work, Past Life Regression, Energy Clearing, Values and Vision Work

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.

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

Counseling and Therapy, continued

78 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Counseling and Therapy, continued

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,

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

unexplained body pain, nightmares, flashbacks, and dissociation

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,

www.GentleReprocessing.com

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.

Bodywork modalities include: Swedish Relaxation Massage Therapeutic Deep Tissue Massage Couples Massage r Hot Stones Pre-Natal Massage “Body and Soul” Session – Massage + Reiki Elements Elements Hot Hot Tub Tub Spa Spa is is an an independent, independent, Ayurvedic Bodywork locally-owned spa in 2017

by Diana locally-owned spafounded founded in 2017 by Cranio-Sacral Therapy and Jeffand Krauth, former proprietors of Beyond Diana Jeff Krauth, former proprietors Myofascial Releae r Kinesiotaping Words book shop.

Webook are dedicated to health of Beyond Words shop. We are Our Spa Services include: and wellness, use only thewellness, highest quality, dedicated to health and use only natural ingredients all products, and retain Professional Facials and Skin Consultation the highest quality,innatural ingredients in a highly dedicated and experienced team of all products, and retain a highly dedicated Relaxing Bio-active Face Treatments fourteen healing practitioners. and experienced team of fourteen healing Sugar Scrubs r Herbal Wraps practitioners.

Foot Treatment with Reflexology Visit our website for information, Visit our website for information, coupons, and instant gift certificates. coupons, and instant gift certificates.

ElementsHotTubSpa.com 373 Main Street, Amherst, MA ElementsHotTubSpa.com

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.

Newton, MA www.healingheartpower.com LSMHEART@aol.com 617-965-7846

Reiki Jin Kei Do

✦ ✦

InternationallyExperienced

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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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 S

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Patricia Warren, Reiki Master Teacher 508-528-5888 ✦ warrenhealing@gmail.com www.patriciawarren.com

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

We are a dedicated and professional group of practitioners providing compassionate care to assist our clients on their journey to wellness.

18 North Meadows Rd, Unit 12B, Medfield, MA 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.

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.

Bringing complimentary and alternative care to our community...

Healing and Bodywork Patricia Warren

Hot tub rooms include private, indoor and outdoor state-of-the-art hot tubs, Far Infrared saunas, and aromatherapy steam.

holisticwellnesscenter.org | 508-359-7400 Come see us in our spectacular new location on Rt 27 in Medfield!

PRACTITIONER TRAINING in the

complete system of

Reiki

Whether you want to become a Reiki practitioner just to offer sessions to your family, friends and pets, or to establish a professional practice, we offer comprehensive training in the complete system of traditional Japanese Reiki. Learn how to apply this life-transforming energy healing method for your own healing and as a daily self-care and spiritual self-realization practice.

Acupuncture and Cupping o Reiki o IET Facial Rejuvenation o Massage Therapy Holistic Health Coaching o Meditation Community Acupuncture o Reflexology Polarity o Wardrobe Consulting Coaching Far Infared Therapy o Classes and more

And if that isn’t enough, crystals and gifts too!

Reiki allows you to express your full human potential using the life energy of the Universe to take control of your health and to feel less anxious and more content in life. Experience training in the inspiring tradition in which it was meant to be taught from a Reiki Master-Teacher with 16 years of experience. Receive a manual, Reiki practitioner certificate and ongoing instructor support.

Experience Reiki free—the second Sunday of each month

NORTHEAST REIKI CENTER 61 Nicholas Road, Framingham, MA 01701 508-808-5696 • northeastreikicenter.org

Healing and Bodywork, continued

www.spiritofchange.org www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER SPRING/SUMMER 2018 2018 || Spirit Spirit of of Change Change 79

Healing and Bodywork, continued

MANAGE YOUR

Back Pain

80% of People Experience Back Pain at Some Point in their Life 1. Does it hurt to shave your legs?

2. Can you drive more than 10 minutes without intense pain?

3. Were you told never to lift anything heavier than 10 pounds?

4. Can you walk the golf course or swing a club without pain?

5. Were you prescribed an opioid and afraid you’re going to be hooked?

The good news is most pain will resolve with doing the right movement and with positional changes.

THE JOHN HARVEY GRAY CENTER FOR

Reiki Healing

Lourdes Gray, Ph.D. Awaken your healing skills immediately and be a powerful channel for Reiki energy!

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.

Consult an MD if: 1. The pain is unrelenting.

2. The pain is worse in the middle of the night.

3. You’ve had recent unexplained weight change of >10 lbs.

4. You have weakness or numbness in both extremities.

In 2017 treatment guidelines started to move away from medication and rest as being the first line of treatment for back pain.

Now the recommendations are returning to normal activity, exercise, manual treatment, acupuncture and yoga.

Find positions that decrease pain even for a minute. You CAN get back to doing the activities you enjoy, for life.

Visit our website for more information on how to manage your back pain.

LAURA TURNER, PT DPT MoveBetterLLC.com v 507-571-8239

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.

©

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.”

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

Eastern Medicinal Therapies Education Center Professional Programs for Acupuncturists, Asian Bodywork Therapists & curious minds

LAUREN PAAP

NCBTMB Provider #1535 NCCAOM Provider #166720

AOBTA®-CP, DIPL. ABT, NCCAOM®

Therapy for the Body, Mind, and Spirit 335 Broadway, Cambridge, MA 02139 www.LaurenPaap.com Lauren.Paap@gmail.com r 617-435-3586

www.EasternMedicinalTherapies.com Events@EasternMedicinalTherapies.com 617-435-3586

80 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

"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.”

Reiki I, Boston Area Classes: Newton, MA: Mar. 24 or June 16 or Sept. 22 Concord, MA: Mar. 10 or June 9 or Oct. 13 Reiki I, Wilton, NH Classes: Mar. 3 or May 19 or Sept. 15 Reiki II Class: on day following Reiki I Class Reiki Master, Wilton, NH Class: Apr. 7 or Oct. 6

Graduates of other Reiki teachers welcome.

Reiki I, Reiki II, and Reiki Master classes offered at Kripalu Center for Yoga and Health in March.

Additional Reiki training dates can be found at: 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: reikienergy.com reiki@reikienergy.com • 603-654-2787

Deborah Strafuss 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.

WHAT HER CLIENTS SAY:

DEBORAH STRAFUSS

Acupressure and Shiatsu Therapy

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.

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.”

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 - Brenda new client at ease.”

“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 Center in Framingham, MA R 508-353-5136 R www.CrystalReikiEnergy.com

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Healing and Bodywork, continued V

How Can

Shamanic Healing

Help You?

For over a decade, I have dovetailed various healing techniques including Hypnotherapy, Guided Meditation, Sound Healing, and the Unconditional Love Vibration into my Shamanic Healing sessions.

I work with adults, children, animals, homes and land. Shamanic Healing can shift depression, anxiety, emotional dysregulation, PTSD, localized and chronic pain and illness or generally feeling “stuck” in your life. I have much success doing remote phone sessions and in-person healings.

TINA D’AMORE Shamanic Practitioner and Teacher 3 Crows Healing Shamanic Medicine and Animal Whispering

V

Nicola

Kehoe-Barbosa

TRUE QUANTUM HEALING ON ROOT CAUSE LEVELS Healing sessions via phone or skype. See our website for more information and youtube videos. info@nicolakb.com nicolakb.com V 857-526-1651

Divine Intervention is “Where the Impossible Becomes Possible.”

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.

REIKI &

AROMATHERAPY

Mind Body Spirit Well-Being with Reiki and Essential Oils

with Lisa

Through True Quantum Healing, I use pendulum dowsing and a series of charts to identify where the problem is within your body and its root cause.

I use sacred geometry tools to amplify this healing to deeper levels.

Effective on mental, emotional, physical and spiritual levels.

REIKI CLASSES

Usui/Holy Fire II Reiki I Reiki II z Advanced Reiki Training Master/Teacher and Karuna Master Teacher Levels

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

Heart’s Singing Healing Center Woburn, MA 781-281-2888 u www.heartssinging.com

MAKING SOUND TO TRANSFORM AND HEAL

Gong Meditation v Soothing Sounds Reduce Stress v Balance Energy Expand Consciousness Promote Self-Healing Using gongs, singing bowls, flutes, drums and channeled vocals, Gongmaster A. Michelle supports harmonic attunement and transformation on all levels of body, mind and soul. Gong training starting soon.Check website for events.

A. MICHELLE HOGAN

401-954-4674 v soundingspirit.com

Centrally located in Central Massachusetts 232 Chandler Street, Worcester, MA Above the Living Earth store By appointment only ReikiInspiredHealing@gmail.com www.ReikiInspiredHealing.com 774-272-2717

Healing: Combined Modalities LIFE FORCE

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Do you want to heal the root cause of your problem?

3crowshealing.com 3crowshealing@gmail.com

HEALING Divine Intervention

V

Do you suffer with pain or anxiety? Are you feeling down or have no energy?

PAULINE KOSOWAN

Reiki Master Practitioner and Teacher Aromatherapist 67 Coddington St, LL2, Quincy, MA 02170 508-737-1384 G lifeforcereiki.com pauline@lifeforcereiki.com

Barbara Fe Spirit / Psychic Medium Inspiration Coach Environmental Balancing intuitivebarbarafe@gmail.com barbarafe-inspire.com * 207-619-0581

CAROLYN JENKINS

Hypnotherapist Aromatherapist 781-608-6462 a EssentiallyHoly.com carolyn@essentiallyholy.com

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.

Both aromatherapy and hypnotherapy work at the level of the subconscious to bring healing and hope to troubled areas of the body, mind, emotions, and soul.

With specialties in weight loss, smoking cessation, inner child work, spiritual practice and development, I also support general vocational and personal growth and development goals. Call today to schedule your private appointment.

Healing: Combined Modalities, continued

www.spiritofchange.org

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 81

Healing: Combined Modalities, continued

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

Nutrition

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

I will travel to you, your loved one, or furry friend with prior appointment requested and scheduled!

S Practical Nutrition

BETH COLON, M.S., HHP

S Digestive Wellness

Nutrition and Wellness Counselor Certified GAPS Practitioner

S GAPS

S Cancer Recovery Nutrition

Specializing in digestive wellness and gut repair.

S Brain Health

S Detoxification

978-340-0448 www.HolisticNutritionServices.com

Come on a journey with me to improve your health with holistic nutrition.

Readings KELLE SUTLIFF

RUSSELL RICCIO lightandlovehealing.com r

PROGRAMS FOR:

Holistic Nutrition Services, LLC

603-935-9106 r

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.

q

b Bring well-being and a renewed sense

of self.

Light Body Healing – Shamanic Energy Medicine Cathy Stubbs, RN, Shaman, Certified Light Body Healer eagleflighthealing@gmail.com 203-535-8849 eagleflighthealing.wordpress.com

b Feel present, positive, peaceful, able

to dream and live consciously in the moment.

b Release constricted emotions from past

events and traumas that influence our choices and behaviors.

b Mention this ad to receive a 30% discount

on your session.

Sessions offered remotely via Skype or phone.

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.

Herbal Workshop Series This 10-month workshop series is held on or before the full moon each month.

Sign up for one or all. 3-4:30 pm at Hillside Herbals. Drop in fee $10. Tea and refreshments served. Please RSVP. Mar. 18 – Sap Moon, Apr. 29 – Pink Moon May 27 – Full Flower Moon June 24 – Strawberry Moon

PSYCHIC MEDIUM | NEW AGE AUTHOR $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

“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.

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

READINGS AND SESSIONS IN F F

by

F F F

…In the presence of loving Angelic energy Connecting to Spirit for inspiration, sustenance and support for your life’s journey

Spiritual mediumship Spirit portraits of loved ones in Spirit Akashic record life readings Group sessions and classes Free “Wing Tips” at angelscapes.net

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 Readings, continued

82 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Readings, continued

Nancy Johansen 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

at Angeltouche

Psychic Intuitive S Angel Therapy Practitioner ®

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

Retreats and Retreat Centers a Newly built main house with five guest

rooms and 3.5 baths

a Outdoor water-view dining deck

An artist-owned bed and breakfast retreat center with your hosts, Tao and Amy LaBossiere.

Still Waters is nestled among 100 acres of conservation forest and a private, 12-acre pond. We offer artfully appointed, rustic and comfortable lodging and retreats for small groups and individuals/couples.

Mid-week Bed and Breakfast Retreats Monthly R&R Retreats Small Group/Wedding Weekends

a Two seasonal, unplugged waterfront

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 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.

HAIR

&BODYWORKS

Chill Out, Ease Stress & Restore Balance Treat yourself to the ultimate in relaxation!

b Brahma Kumaris Learning Center for Peace

75 Common St, Watertown, MA 617-926-1230 • bknewengland.org boston@us.brahmakumaris.org

b Inner Space Meditation Center & Gallery

1110 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 617-547-1110 • innerspaceharvardsq.org info@innerspaceharvardsq.org

b Shrewsbury @ ATFS Center

433 South St, Shrewsbury, MA 617-926-1230 shrewsbury@bknewengland.org

b Providence

123 North Main St, Providence, RI 401-354-2693 providence@bknewengland.org

b Manchester

575 W. Willow St, Ste 209, Manchester, NH 603-622-5500 manchester@bknewengland.org

cottages

a Art and yoga studio with massage room a Private hiking trail in 100 acres of forest

Yoga

with art and sculpture

a Sunrise yoga platform

Grand re-opening in Spring 2018 after a four-year renovation.

Voluntown, CT a stillwaterspond.com Instagram: @stillwatersretreatcenter Facebook: Still Waters Pond

What makes our yoga school special?

K Spiritual environment where yoga is our

lifestyle, not just an exercise program

K Gorgeous facilities with showers,

Salons and Spas Creative Strands

Please contact us or visit one of these New England locations:

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

BORN FROM A BURNING DESIRE FOR CHANGE At Burning Wheel Yoga we’re passionate about the practice and have an intense need to share it with others. Each one of us has been transformed by the journey. We are committed to helping those who want to grow and to find the right path.

lockers, and large practice rooms with natural lighting, multiple bathrooms and a cozy reception area K Variety of yoga lineages from traditional Hatha to modern Power and every where in between K Years of experience as Yogis and Instructors prior to opening our doors BURNING WHEEL YOGA SCHOOL 120 N Meadows Rd, Medfield, MA 02052 burningwheelyoga@gmail.com facebook | instagram @burningwheelyoga 508-242-5588 K burningwheelyoga.com

Spiritual Practices The Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism 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

www.spiritofchange.org

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 are 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.

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

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 83

Directory of Holistic Specialties ANGELS

FENG SHUI

REIKI

Ross J. Miller, psychic. Meet your angels

Urban Eden. Transform and empower your home/work

Libby Barnett, MSW, MSW, Reiki Master Teacher and

and spirit guides. 617-527-3583.

Visit www.The MysticWay.com

ANIMAL SERVICES MASH Integrative Veterinary Care, since 1982.

spaces. 401-351-5632. karenfeldmanurbaneden.com

Feng Shui Services of New England. Julie Pelletier-

Rutkowski, MS, RN. Consulting and education. www.FSSone.com.

Dr. Margo Roman & Associates. 508-435-4077.

MashVet.com

GHOSTS REMOVED

ASTROLOGY

medium, healer. Call 617-527-3583. www.The MysticWay.com

Eric Linter, over 25 years experience. Readings,

From Your Home/Aura. Ross J. Miller, psychic

classes, daily forecast. stars@ericlinter.com.

508-541-4115.

HEALING

CERTIFICATIONS

Moxibustion. hynotherapycomfortzone.com.

207-934-4133

Hypnotherapy, NLP, Reiki, IET and Crystal Healing.

Barbara Foss, CH. Kinetic Chain Release. Reiki.

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. All levels of traditional Reiki

training. www.northeastreikicenter.org

Holy Fire II Reiki Training. Women of Wisdom. Katie

Malloy Ramaci, Holy Fire II Advanced/RMT. 508-230-3680. WomenofWisdominc.com

508-539-2885. Clinics and crystal fairs. www.capecodcenterforwholehealth.com

MEDICAL INTUITIVE

CHILDREN’S HEALTH

Identifies and heals Root Cause, eliminates pain/illness to regain health. 978-834-0341.

TheWayToBalance.com/medical-intuitive-readings

Wild Dolphin Swims. Yoga, healthy food, Atlantean

Intuitive Healing with Wendy Marks.

Haines Falls, NY. 518-589-5000. www.peacevillageretreat.org

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

DATING Tantra Speed Dating: Leading the way to healthier

relationships. Monthly at Arts at the Armory, 191 Highland Ave, Somerville, MA. http://bit.ly/tsdboston

DEPRESSION & ANXIETY TREATMENT Healed in 2 Hours. Ross J. Miller, psychic healer. 617-

Sue Singleton, over 28 years, 8,500+ readings.

Over 25 years of experience. 781-449-5368. www.wendymarks.com

PAIN RELIEF Pat Lebau, MA, ERYT-500, Kripalu Yoga teacher,

Brahma Kumaris Peace Village Retreat Center.

SOUND HEALING Sounding Spirit with A. Michelle. Relax and

heal with gongs, singing bowls, flutes, drums, and channeled vocals. Events: soundingspirit.com 401-954-4674.

PAST LIFE THERAPY

SoundAlchemy.org with Nina. Gongs, singing bowls,

Ross J. Miller. Relive past lives and release blocked

meditation. Groups and private. 978-874-0005.

energy. 617-527-3583. www.The MysticWay.com

YOGA

QIGONG

Raffa Yoga and Urban Sweat. Plus residential healthy

Eastover Retreat and Eco-Village. Classes, retreats,

energy healing with authentic qi masters. 430 East St., Lenox, MA. 866-264-5139. www.eastover.com

READINGS

EMF PROTECTION

Rachel Perry, Psychic Medium. (508) 681-0320.

damaging frequencies. www.lighthealing.com. 512-301-2999.

legends. www.wildquest.com. 800-326-1816

offers Integrated Positional Therapy sessions. Discover how to relieve your pain. PatLebau.com

527-3583. www.TheMysticWay.com

The Rejuvenizer®, protection from EMFs and other

RETREAT CENTERS

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

www.RachelPerryMedium.com.

Nancy Smith, spiritual medium and Akashic life

readings. 978-835-0005. www.angelscapes.net

Add your listing! Next deadline: July 31, 2018. Email advertise@spiritofchange.org.

84 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

Place your Classified ad!

Email: Advertise@spiritofchange.org Spring issue deadline: July 31, 2018

AKASHIC RECORDS

PSYCHICS

SPACE AVAILABLE

CLASSES

Zandalee Psychic Life Coach. Call (929) 2620342. Email zandaleelistens@outlook.com.

Internationally and nationally recognized clairvoyant that guides with accurate readings. 34 years experience in healing and addressing all questions in love relationships, career goals and intuitive healing. http:// misszandaleepsychiconline.com. Contact for daily special. Take the first step today toward realizing your potential and achieve clarity!

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.

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’s Aide, Real Estate, Computers, Technical/Trade, Professional Reflexology, Art, Jewelry Making, Releasing Stress, Weight Loss and Smoking with NLP. 600+ online courses and more. Visit www.uppercapetech.cc or call (508) 759-7711, ext. 211 for details.

Psychic Entertainment with Wally the Psychic Comedian and Clairvoyant.

Why comedy? Wally the Psychic Comedian combines his genuine psychic abilities with his comedy performances, creating unique entertainment for your parties and other events. Great Energy teachers always told jokes and humorous stories. Email: laughter_guy@msn.com website: www.wallypsychiccomedian.com

COACHING

PYRAMIDS

Nature to Nurture Life Coaching. Life, soul, mindfulness and nature-based coach. I help you shine a light on your inner knowing, discover peace and create joyful change. Free session with ad mention. Contact Tracie @ http://www.naturetonurturelifecoaching. com; (575) 224-2051; www.naturetonurturelifecoachingstore. mybigcommerce.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.

DOWSING All About Dowsing. Through dowsing discover more about yourself and your health. Selfinstructional DVD's, books, instruments. www.dowsing.com. (805) 649-5721. Catalog: PO Box 30305, Santa Barbara, CA 93130.

REFLEXOLOGY Rosalie Cryan, Reflexology, advanced certification. Reiki Master. Promoting balance and stress relief for 17 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

REIKI

FINANCIAL

Kathryn McGlynn, Certified Hypnotist. Past life regression and metaphysical hypnosis.

Schedule your private or group session today for an illuminating experience. (781) 3402146. www.hypnosis.ws

PET PSYCHIC

www.spiritofchange.org

Are you looking for a flexible office solution for your holistic, counseling, or helping business? We are looking for you. Join Vita Therapia, a welcoming co-working office space, where you can book office space by the hour, by block, by day either monthly, bi-monthly, or as needed. We also have a great group room for classes, workshops, and retreats. Call for a tour and learn more about how we can help. Jenna Amara at (978) 228-5330 or info@ vitatherapia.com. Vita Therapia LLC, Westford’s Center for Counseling and Holistic Therapies, 234 Littleton Road, Westford, MA.

SELF STUDY Take the next step in mindfulness, using chi-energy awareness. Learn to connect to your brain’s “peaceful spot.”

Create 3-dimensional holograms inside your brain, so you can consciously explore your past, present and future experiences. Connect to your internal intelligence that activates deeper abilities within you.

For more info, see the website of energy awareness teacher Walter Ness: www.InteractiveMindfulness.com.

Click-Training, Click-Adee.

Mystical Banners. Beautiful hand painted angelic and spiritual wall hangings, banners and altar cloths.

Sacred symbols, angels, mantras and mandalas. Divine designs with a magickal twist! Please stop by, new paintings are always brewing. https:// www.etsy.com/shop/MysticalBanners. email: reikimsdm@gmail.com.

VOLUNTEER

Make a Difference and Become an Ascend Hospice Volunteer in Massachusetts

Contact one of our Volunteer Supervisors for more information

Stoughton, MA.

Seeking experienced licensed or eligible to be licensed naturopaths or health practitioners.

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 nineteen independently owned health practitioner businesses.

Pleasant Health Center for the Healing Arts, 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.

Drowning in credit card debt? If you owe $10,000+ call to speak with an experienced debt relief counselor today! 1-855-716-8352

HYPNOSIS

SPIRITUAL GOODS

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.

YOGA

Contact John P. Ando, Sr. at Eggrock Realty Corporation,

294 Pleasant Street, PO Box 745, Stoughton, MA 02072. (781) 341-3416.

Email eggrockrealty@gmail.com.

Please visit us at www.facebook.com/ PHCHAStoughton.

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 Bhavna's Wellness Group: (774) 242-2112.

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 for more information.

Worcester Yoga Center 21 West Street, Worcester, MA 01609 WorcesterYogaCenter.com (508)829-6300

SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 85

Path to the Present.......................................... 79 Pets and Spirits................................................. 52 Pleasant Health Center For The Healing Arts.....85 Monique Pommier.......................................... 75 Power of You Weekend................................... 15 Pure Science Lab.........................................15,61 Pyramid Books................................................ 51

A Acupuncture of Worcester............................. 75 Adidam of New England................................ 74 Advaita Meditation Center............................. 76 Ageless Yoga..................................................... 64 Alternatives for Health................................... 55 ALNOBA.......................................................... 13 Amma............................................................... 63 Angels’ Rest Retreat......................................... 25 Angels Teach.................................................... 45 Angelscapes................................................13, 82 Angeltouche..................................................... 83 Arvigo Massage................................................ 48 Ascend Hospice............................................... 85

Index of Advertisers Spring/Summer 2018

B Balance Bethlehem.......................................... 59 Barbara Brennan School................................. 25 Libby Barnett.................................................... 80 Baylight Homeopathy..................................... 59 Beadniks........................................................... 64 Kate Beeders..................................................... 77 Beyond Center, The......................................... 55 Bhahma Kumaris............................................. 83 Bhavna's Wellness Group............................... 43 Glenn Bigonet.................................................. 78 Blue Deer Center............................................. 44 Boston School of Herbal Studies, The........... 76 Breema Center, The......................................... 32 Kelly Buckowski............................................... 37 Burning Wheel Yoga..................................31,83 C Nancy Canning................................................ 49 Canton Spiritualist Church............................ 40 Amy Caparco................................................... 74 Cartomancer, The............................................ 40 Center for Psychic Healing............................. 40 Central Mass Lyme Foundation.................... 64 Yvonne Chen.................................................... 75 Circles of Wisdom........................................... 25 Cosmic Cat....................................................... 67 Creative Strands Hair & Bodywork.............. 83 Crystal Enchantment...................................... 74 Crystal Hope Reed.......................................... 85 Crystal Reiki..................................................... 80 D Tina D’Amore................................................... 81 Dancing Jaguar Inspirations.......................... 52 Dr. Sharon Doolittle........................................ 59 E Eagle Flight Healing........................................ 82 Eastern Medicinal Therapies Center............. 80 Easton Yoga Center......................................... 31 Eastover Estate and Retreat............................ 33 Eclectic Institute of Aromatherapy and Herbal Studies, ..................................The76 Elemental Energies.......................................... 53 Elements Hot Tub............................................ 79 Enchanted Bazaar, The.................................... 21 Enchanted Fox................................................. 37 Essentially Holy............................................... 81 F Barbara Fe......................................................... 81 First Church of Christ Scientist..................... 74 Four Winds One Breath................................. 10 The Fourwinds Society................................... 23 FrogPond Yoga Centre.................................... 31

Fall/Winter 2018 issue advertising deadline:

July 31, 2018

G

L

Gabrielle Publishing House, The Word........ 77 Arthur Gertler.................................................. 17 Deborah Gilmour............................................ 76 Gluten-Free Media Group.............................. 17 Deborah Graham............................................. 77 Greater Boston Church of Spiritualism........ 83 Groton Wellness Center................................. 11 Gracelyn Guyo.................................................. l9 Groton Therapeutic Massage......................... 57

Pat LeBau............................................................ 9 Lightfield Foundation, The............................. 77 Light and Love Healing.................................. 82 Light Unlimited............................................... 87 Eric Linter......................................................... 75 Little Beaver Dream Catchers........................ 44 Living Well Life Coaching.............................. 22 Lotus Flower Living........................................ 40 LoveLight Illuminations................................. 13 Claire Luft...................................................79, 81

H

M

tHandTales....................................................... 55 Happy Spirit Wellness..................................... 64 Healing Choices............................................... 54 Healing Essence Center.................................. 37 Healing from the Body Level Up..................... 5 Healing from the Heart.................................. 85 Healing with Lisa............................................. 81 Healthy Spirit................................................... 77 Helfand Retreats, LLC..................................... 44 Hetherman Health.......................................... 65 High Purity Extractions.............................49,74 Hillside Herbals............................................... 82 Holistic Campus.............................................. 21 Holistic Nutrition Services............................. 82 Holistic Oasis................................................... 19 Holistic Wellness Center...........................35,79 Joan Holzman.................................................. 78 Anne Hoye........................................................ 41 Hug Patrol........................................................ 74

Marconic Recallibration................................. 36 M.A.S.H............................................................ 32 Maha Yoga Center........................................... 31 Magical Yoga Arts............................................ 65 Tina Marian...................................................... 32 Linda Marks..................................................... 79 Wendy Marks................................................... 82 Massachusetts Breast Cancer Coalition........ 61 Massachusetts Satsang Society, Inc............... 57 Massage Envy..................................................... 2 Jacqueline Mathers.......................................... 58 Jean McClelland............................................... 51 Medical Aesthetics of New England............. 33 Metrowest Thermal Imaging.......................... 10 Ross Miller.............................................28,39, 54 Lori Miller-Freitas........................................... 78 Move Better, LLC............................................. 80 Andrea Mulcahy.............................................. 19

I

N

Infinite Source Hypnosis.................................. 4 Inner Traditions............................................... 51

Natural Living Expo.......................................... 7 Nature’s Rite...................................................... 47 NE Institute of Reflexology............................ 76 New England VegFest..................................... 58 Northeast Reiki Center................................... 79

J Jack Press.......................................................... 65 John Harvey Gray Center............................... 80 Barbara Johnson.............................................. 78 Just Bee and Me............................................... 74 K Nicole Kehoe-Barbosa.................................... 81 Marianne Knox................................................ 53 John Koenig...................................................... 76 Pauline Kosowan............................................. 81

86 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018

R Real Life Yoga................................................... 30 Rhys Thomas Institute.................................... 88 Erica Rock........................................................ 74 S Sacred Song Reiki......................................48, 53 Salve Regina University.................................. 39 Sanctuary for Celestial Empowerment, The....................................40,45 Science of Spirituality..................................... 40 Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine...... 58 Andrea Seiver................................................... 78 Sheepskin Mama............................................. 30 Sirius Community........................................... 22 Soul Being......................................................... 28 Sounding Spirit...........................................53,81 Spa Tech............................................................ 77 Spirit Hollow.................................................... 40 State of Grace Yoga.......................................... 31 Still Waters Retreat.......................................... 83 Maureen Sullivan............................................. 51 Kelle Sutliff....................................................... 82 T Karen Talbot..................................................... 81 Tantra Speed Date........................................... 17 A Touch of Magic............................................ 49 Touchstone School.......................................... 76 MaryLee Trettenero......................................... 45 U-V-W Universal Shamanic Energy Healing............ 45 Tina Vesely....................................................... 65 Vesta.................................................................. 54 Vita Therapia..............................................74, 75 Voyage of the Soul........................................... 78 Pat Warren........................................................ 79 Way to Balance,The........................................... 3 Wellness Roundtable, The.............................. 35 Jane Wentzell.................................................... 85 Westborough Yoga.......................................... 31 White Sage Boutique....................................... 67 Trish Whynot................................................... 78 Wisdom of the Ages........................................ 40 Women of Wisdom...................................41, 76 Women’s Herbal Conference.......................... 61 Worcester Yoga Center..............................31,83 Cheryl Wright.................................................. 77 Wu Healing Center.......................................... 29 X-Y-Z Yoga at the Ashram....................................30,31 Yoga Studio, The.............................................. 31 YogaLife Institute............................................. 28 Your Health Matters22 Zandalee........................................................... 49 Ztarf Arts, LLC................................................ 57

O Olson Media Group.......................................... 9 Opening Lotus Yoga........................................ 31 Organic Garden Cafe...................................... 15 P Bonnie Page...................................................... 21

Contact Us: (508) 278-9640

advertise@spiritofchange.org

THE REJUVENIZER Phyllis Light, Ph.D & Telepathic Healer

®

A LIFETIME OF HEALING AND PROTECTION

“Since wearing the Personal Rejuvenizer, I’ve seen a real difference in my health and energy level. When I’m around people who are sick with colds and the flu, I don’t get sick anymore, like I used to. Also, I used to be so tired, I’d practically be dragging myself around, and I don’t feel that anymore.”

THE REJUVENIZER IS DESIGNED TO HELP :

• Protect you from EMFs and other

R.R., Manchester, Connecticut

damaging frequencies

(from computers, cell phones, microwaves, TVs, satellites, wireless internet, etc.)

BEFORE

• Combat fatigue, headaches, and eyestrain

• Protect you from other people‘s negative energies

• Strengthen the

This woman had only a few hours sleep the previous night and felt exhausted at the time this photo was taken.

immune system

• Uplift you spiritually

AFTER

and more!

After wearing the Personal Rejuvenizer for only 20 minutes, she reported feeling more awake, energized and refreshed.

Light Unlimited www.spiritofchange.org

(512) 301-2999

www.lighthealing.com SPRING/SUMMER 2018 | Spirit of Change 87

88 Spirit of Change | SPRING/SUMMER 2018