Spiritual Health Magazine

SHM S P I R I T U A L I S S U E

H E A L T H 0 1 .

J A N

M A G A Z I N E 2 0 2 0

CONTENT

03 ED ITOR’ S LET TER

05 ATARANGI MURU

09 M EGAN DOUGLAS

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JOANNE HAKARAIA- OLSON

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25 P EGGY DAWSON

33 VIC KI GRILLI

37 SHANA LEILANI

41 ERENA T E PAA

47 GAIA C HINNIAH

Spiritual Health Magazine Editor Gaia Chinniah Design Victoria Faith www.spiritualhealthmagazine.com spiritualhealthmagazine@gmail.com instagram.com/spiritualhealthmag

EDITOR’S LETTER This project is a divinely inspired one. As I sat in a conference, the words ‘Spiritual Health Magazine’ came to me. Guided to look up the URL , I found it waiting there, ready to be brought.

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I have come to a point in my healing career where creating resources for everybody is vital for understanding spiritual health. Because their creation offers the opportunity to find yourself through your spirituality as you walk through the physical realm. There is an opportunity for you to pick and choose the parts that work for you. To grow these into ideas and thoughts that you have never been exposed to before.

I am tremendously excited about this publication. These volumes will be resources for you to read back on, to save, re- read over your lifetime. This first issue is particularly special as I have chosen spiritualists who have played a part in shaping who I am. Each of them with their own views expressed in their own ways.

This magazine was created for two express purposes. Firstly, it was created for you. Whoever you are, you will find a piece of your spiritual health within these pages. Secondly, it was created to be a platform for healers of the world to speak. Each of them have been carefully vetted. They have true gifts to see and heal. They understand both the human experience and the journey of the soul. We are all here to guide each other.

Enjoy!

Gaia

Gaia Chinniah, SMH’s Editor

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atarangi muru Atarangi was raised in the small coastal village of Ahipara and is affiliated to Ngati Kuri, Te Aupouri and Te Rarawa tribes. Her name translates as ata (dawn) rangi (light) and in the old language means ‘the realisation of one’s visions’ (Naida Pou attributed the korero). Atarangi ‘s work is driven by her desire to support the growth of people using specific tools for self-healing. Her passion for the healing arts was ignited by her elders where her training began at an early age as it did for many in those times. Being taught at the knees of her many Kuia (Elder women) and Koroua (Elder men), is the traditional method. Today, she passes on these healing arts onto her family, both biological and spiritual.

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Raising a Boy

By Atarangi Muru www.maorihealers.com

When my son was a young age, I realised that I was not raising a boy to become a good man.

Rather, I was here to instill teachings for him to become a great man for the woman in his life.

To behold the feminine energy and connect as much as any man can to his life partner on a deeper level.

As his Mother, my role was to help him gather these skills, that went beyond sex and sexuality.

So, along with the normal child rearing, there were teachings around how to take care of his female companion, especially during her ikura (cycle). These lessons included: • He learnt the cycle of his partner 28 day cycle, more, or less.

• Whether her bleeding was consistent or sporadic.

• If sporadic, he was to have available a hot water bottle for back or womb pain, soup, Rongoaa (native medicines to aid recovery or pain).

• For the first 3 days of her cycle he took on the household chores.

• When the moon is in its first phase of enlightenment (showing itself in the first quarter), he would modify his words and tone.

• He would make sure he did the cooking.

Because most woman can attest to, her energy being acidic, and this would affect her cooking.

• Even if she cooked this meal many times, during the cycle she is ‘charged’ and it changes the energy of the food we cook.

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• He would keep the house clean (to the best of HIS ability) and this is a must when a woman is bleeding, her nesting instincts are to the fore .

• His touch would be softer.

• He would learn her ‘go to’ foods and have them on hand.

• Make sure she bathed in the mornings winter time and in the evenings summer time (heat for the body).

When my son turned 17, I wanted him to learn how to love and look after a womans body. In the heat of sexuality, it would also highlight his own sexual gratification.

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08 I asked him if he’d like me to find an older woman who would initiate him. This is a common practice in many indigenous cultures. I didn’t want him fumbling around in the dark somewhere and the loss of his virginity or just plain pleasure for them both would be hindered by lack of knowing, or understanding the female (and male) body. He said he was good and happy with how things were.

I made the same offer on his 18th birthday. And again on his 19th.

He said it was ok, he’d been with someone and he felt comfortable with himself in all he did.

I ask you to consider and perhaps reframe your mind as you raise your son. Many relationship issues can stem from a lack of knowing what the other needs to satisfy their primal instincts.

My son is now 39, and this has been his mainstay in life. And as he has a son, I believe he will teach these on.

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Megan Douglas 09 S H M

Megan Douglas is a naturopath, medical herbalist and company founder from New Zealand. Her heritage is firmly rooted in natural healing practices, coming from a lineage of 5 generations of medical herbalists and spiritualists, with her great grandfather William Anderton having established the spiritualist church in New Zealand in 1921.

Megan is a mother and also has been a successful business entrepreneur, brand and product creator for the last 35 years, including being the founder of the international organic cosmetic brand The Organic Skin Co. and World Organics.

She has spent many years of her life living and working in different countries, including England and also India, a country which has inspired much of her own spiritual education and contemplation.

Megan’s passions are to create products and encourage and share lifestyle practices that are uplifting to Mother Earth and also uplifting to all of its inhabitants spiritual health and wellbeing.

A Spiritual Journey

By Megan Douglas Photographer: Sherry Roberts

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I look back at my life and can say I have lived a life of much variety, one where I have worn many different hats and played different roles. It’s true that those that don’t know me well will probably describe me first as a businesswomen and successful entrepreneur.

insurmountable obstacles, (which it often does when it’s time for us to end one phase and start another), I ‘temporarily’ shut up shop in London so as to travel to India, where I was hoping to find the answers that would heal the sense of incompleteness that I felt.

However, my deepest purpose in this life is spiritual enquiry and the exploration of who I am, which joyfully results in a deepening of awareness of also, who I am not.

It is my belief that we are all born to take a spiritual journey and that we are here on Earth to wake up to who we truly are, which is not what we ‘think’ we are. It is our journey within that is the

I lived in India more on than off for the next three years and so grew a series of events which literally helped start dismantling the person I thought was me and gently (and sometimes forcibly) replaced it with something that felt brand new. I was almost like a baby again, I had shed a skin, the first of many, and it was there that I started to learn how to go within.

greatest adventure, the one that completes the circle and that which brings us the deepest peace and joy. Sometimes it’s easy to forget and get distracted to this, as we live our life in the busy marketplace of work, creation, friendships and responsibilities.

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However, the most beautiful and true moments are undoubtably those that contain an expanded connection to the whole and a quietening of the mind into deepened stillness and awareness.

But how do we start on this journey and why?

From my experience there is normally something that initially pushes us to ask the questions and start the eternal, internal quest.

As for me, this spiritual adventure started in my early twenties.

At the time I had moved to London from New Zealand and was juggling a successful and demanding career as a fashion designer with an often hedonistic, glittering social life. However, I found myself unfulfilled and searching for a certain “something” that was missing and also an end to ongoing emotional complexities and the uncertainties I felt I faced.

I looked for answers where I hadn’t before. I started attending yoga retreats, devouring books on spirituality, taking regular energy therapy sessions and I also developed a passion for channelled writing, writing that eventually became my guide to a new way of living. And then when life threw me some seemingly

You may recognise yourself somewhat in these words, maybe not the actual events or timeline, but in some way, some of this may mirror your own explorations to find peace and awareness? You may also recognise it in some of your friends journeys right now?

It’s true that at this time in humanity more people than ever are waking up to who they are and in reading this you will certainly also be on this path of enquiry. It’s a truly exciting time to be alive, but as always there can also appear to be challenges and shadows along the way.

Individually many of us are recognising that outer success, compulsion and impulse for ever more material possessions or for body perfection in no way satisfies us, or eases emotional pain, and it is then that we start the journey of waking up to that which truly heals. It’s the most amazing journey to be on and also essential to the welfare of the human race that collectively enough of us embark on it now.

Luckily, we don’t need to go to India, to be in an ashram, to retreat to a cave or leave our present life behind to make the journey. I have learnt that our ashram is in the here and now, quite simply this very moment and we don’t need to go anywhere to find the awareness we seek.

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So how do we start the journey of turning within? Firstly, this journey starts where you are now, in this very moment.

Because it is here in this moment that we find the peace and the sheer sweetness of the awareness which we seek.

There are so many tools, so many techniques and so many teachers that have lit up the path before us. However, the one path that I have ultimately found to be the unifying base of all techniques and teachings, is simply to honour, to be aware and to be present to our breath and the infinite space within. Consciously, carefully, respectfully staying aware of our breath and also the breathing of what we witness around us. Breathing in with calmness and breathing out with maybe a small, simple smile, while focussing our awareness towards the depths of our being, the “who we are” inside.

When we breath with awareness we find we rest most easily

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into the moment of now, a moment where we can be exquisitely peaceful, joyful and expansive. This to me is the most profound way to be within and to calm the distractions of the external chatter and noise of the mind and the limited ego.

However, we find, especially when we are starting out, that the busy mind gets in the way and distracts us from our conscious awareness of our breath and the depths of the moment.

This is where a daily meditation practice can be invaluable. Even at first if its just ten minutes a day, these moments of quietness start to have a profound effect on our experience in the world, just by simply allowing us the space to be the watcher. Then life starts to become an act of meditation itself, growing in depth, potential and presence.

The mind and its constant chatter of thoughts is so used to dominating, that it literally cuts in on this unified dance of life.

The mind is very sticky, it wants authority, it wants control and it always wants to be the boss and listened to.

So, it is necessary to apply consistency and gratefulness to the path to help still the chatter of the mind and find balance.

There are no instant awakenings, no instant gratifications or

We can’t force awareness, so patience and practice are necessary.

However, with grace and kindness we can continue to dismantle the ego and bring more joy and peace to life’s experience.

I am on this journey too, which doesn’t seem to have a linear path, but I can say that life just gets better and better, in the most unexpected ways while I take the adventure within.

enlightenment, but if we apply ourselves, with the utmost love, patience and tenderness and with consistency, our journey of spiritual awakening brings forth the most delicious present of presence.

Happy journey, fellow travellers, may many blessings light your path and your adventures be luminous, full of love and awareness in this very precious moment of now.

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Joanne Hakaraia-Olson Joanne Hakaraia-Olson (Ngāti Raukawa, Ngāti Whakaue) is from Aotearoa. She is a traditional Māori healer, teacher, and writer covering metaphysics, spirituality, and new thought concepts.

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16 For the last twenty years, Joanne has dedicated her personal and professional life to the importance of self-care by teaching from her own experience and considers Rongoā Māori as a way of life. She is a mentor and spiritual coach. She works with rākau (plants) to help facilitate the deeper healing that needs to take place.

Joanne has been interested in natural medicine since she was a child. It’s been a part of her life and in her family for generations.

Her ability to see wairua (spirit) was brought into balance by a strong and loving grandmother who encouraged her every day to live her life to the best of her abilities.

“I was extremely observant as a child. I would watch and observe the people around me, especially my grandmother. She taught me the practice of karakia (prayers/incantations) and showed me the beauty and magic of nature. She constantly expressed to me that we are spiritual beings and that ‘there is no sensation in matter’. She was my first teacher and still teaches me today in wairua.”

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Joanne teaches Rongoā and regularly delivers lectures and workshops around the country and has presented at international forums promoting traditional healing.

“Our inner wisdom is authentic. We know when we are walking our true path when everything in our life aligns. There is a resonance that harmonises with everything around us. We hold the answers to all of our questions.”

Self-inquiry is essential. Applying the practice of stillness can assist us in profound self-inquiry by connecting with rākau (plants). The rongoā (healing) that rākau provides can assist us by unraveling, unwinding and detaching things that no longer serve us. It can support us to be present and centred so that we can observe and be fully aware of our surroundings. It also supports us to see the tohu (signs) provided to lead a balanced life. To know the tohu in our environment we must be able to interpret its symbolism and to do this we must know who we are.

https://www.tewakarakau.com/ KO WAI AU? WHO AM I? Knowing who we are is one of the most important questions we

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can ask. It’s not about what we do for a living. It’s not about the roles and responsibilities that have been given to us or what we have placed on ourselves. It’s not about what our beliefs are or what we have been taught to believe. This is not who we are.

We are more than we think you are. Self-inquiry is a life journey.

The best place to start is where we are now and begin the journey of unravelling the many cloaks that have been placed upon our shoulders. First, look at the cloaks on top which is the most recent cloak placed, and simply ask if we want to wear it. How does it feel? Is the cloak heavy or light? Is it ours or did someone else want us to wear their cloak for them?

These reflective questions will take time to contemplate. Our inquiry into the meaning of the cloaks is pivotal to knowing who we are so allow it to unfold. The more we sit with it the more will be revealed. Some of our responses may be uncomfortable and some may reveal deeper truths for us to reflect on. The more we reveal about who we truly are the more we know the universe.

Rākau (plants) will reveal their healing properties when we connect to them on a deeper level. We must be an empty vessel to receive sacred information. An empty vessel simply means to be detached from the mind and to feel from the heart. Our beliefs, opinions and mamae (pain) may be a hinderance to the transference of information so we need to unravel and unwind information that may not be our truth. Deep reflection on everything we have been taught to be true is required to really know our truth. The heart must be an empty vessel. It must be free from pain, sadness or anger. For it is through the heart that one perceives what rākau is communicating.

Mamae (pain) is an indication of something not in balance with our path. Our body is the perfect symbol for letting us know when something is out of alignment. Mamae is a signal, an indicator that something is amiss. When we reflect on what mamae is trying to portray it may reveal to us new paths to forge. Are we ready for that?

We may learn the medicinal properties of rākau but the most important part of all is te taha wairua (spirituality) and connecting with the mauri (essence)of rākau. When we connect with rākau through wairuatanga (spirituality) we can learn everything there is to know about all rākau.

Knowing ourselves deeply is pivotal so that we can discern our mind from our heart. The mind is the part of the self that keeps us thinking as an intellect.

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It limits transference of wisdom from within the heart. We must allow the mind to fall away and come from the heart as the heart is the space of spiritual communication.

To communicate from the heart without any interference it is essential that our vessel is ‘empty’. It must be empty of any impressions that may hinder the transference of information.

Every one of us who commits to walking this path makes the journey into te taha wairua (the spiritual dimension) by ourselves.

For those of us who have felt the call to go deeper into the forest, we can find solace in the teachings of those who have gone before

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us, but we ourselves make that journey alone.

This work calls for more courage and deeper internal work. We don’t realise how challenging it can be to sense everything around us and how hard it can be to remain balanced. There are wounds to be healed and much grieving to be done. There are dark days where the waiting of upliftment can feel so testing. But I have always known that the rongoā (healing) of a trauma faced and healed is carried within our vessel, so we can provide it for our people. The rongoā being the medicine of vibration in the patterns of our physical vessel.

When we open the portal of our sensory organ we are opening ourselves to a constant influx of sensory experiences. It can feel overwhelming with so much information coming at us so it is crucial to do inner work first, before shuffling blindly through the portal.

Knowing who we are is necessary for this work so that we know what belongs to us in the form of feelings and sensations. It’s imperative to know how we feel and not what someone else is feeling. We are all connected and we can easily pick up on how

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others are feeling especially when we begin working with our higher sensory organs. We must be able to distinguish what is ours and what is not ours.

There are many ways to approach self-inquiry.

Some people

approach self-inquiry through their pain or sorrow. And some people approach self-inquiry through a desire to attain peace. One thing is certain for most, is that there has always been a constant

the voice. Numbing the voice has been the usual way to fix things quickly, so that we can get on with existing. The voice of the body is the pain that we experience. Pain is our friend. It’s the body’s way of telling us something is not right. It’s a signal to address something important. And before the pain was an emotional event that took place which had an effect on us. That emotional event had not been addressed or wasn’t able to be played out naturally so the energy of the deferred emotion solidified.

inkling of something deeper and more meaningful to life. The sad part is that most of us are caught up with the motion of trying to make a living. We are so busy going through the motions that we don’t have the capacity to think about who we really are let alone what we want. Our minds are so full of meaningless information and trivial chatter that everything else influences us. We don’t have time anymore to stop and smell the roses. We don’t have

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the capacity to be present. Our nervous system is being led on full throttle with no way of slowing down until we are forced to.

Our bodies are communicating to us to slow down but the external noise is so loud that we can’t hear it. Our bodies start shouting at us and still, we can’t hear it, until suddenly the body literally stops us in our tracks and forces us to listen.

We can respond by listening to what it is trying to communicate through self-inquiry or we can place a band-aid on it and numb

If you have been through something traumatic in your life that has not been attended to, this journey will certainly be an opening for you to work with the pain.

Stored within our cellular memory are all the conscious and unconscious patterns of behaviours. The unproductive patterns impair our ability to feel well, happy, healthy, attain our goals and fulfil our destiny.

By developing the ability to listen to and access the information stored in our body, we can let go of what’s holding us back from living our highest potential.

If we resist “what is” and our current feelings, we won’t be able to digest the experience. This will inevitably translate into an extremely unpleasant, sometimes unbearable, sensation. These emotions are stored in the body and if not addressed will turn into pain or disease. Our bodies use pain as a signal to get our attention that something in the body is off balance. This pain either becomes stronger or worse.....turns into dis-ease. We must not deny the pain in our bodies. We MUST release the pain, hurt and suffering.

We MUST FEEL .

We have a resistance to working consciously with the pain body, either because we ignore its existence or because we don’t know how to do it. The pain body can be released only when we transform the negative emotional charge that is stagnated in our system.

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The synergetic combination of bodywork, plant medicine and emotional therapy helps people access long buried unconscious patterns.

Nurturing touch offered by a holistic practitioner can calm the nervous system, which integrates the mind-body pattern.

This calming effect leads to enhanced self-awareness, giving freedom for feelings to come forth and be released in a safe environment.

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As a RongoÄ Practitioner and healer I have been trained to notice where emotions are held in the body. I can see the emotional block and I know that if left unaddressed, these longterm emotional blockages often result in muscular tension, changes in posture, chronic pain. When certain emotional release points on the body are stimulated, or when pressure is applied skill-fully to chronically tense areas, long suppressed memories, buried in old structural patterns are released.

Emotional releases can take many forms. Sadness, grief, anger, fear may come to the surface during a session. Some emotional releases are associated with specific traumatic events while others reveal more chronic thought patterns.

What’s important to know is that freeing the body is creating an opportunity for positive change in both body and mind.

The value of touch with plant medicine as an integral part of the healing process is age old, and valued in every culture. The re-integration of these two healing modalities is long overdue.

In today’s fast paced life, our ability to slow down, listen to, and care for our bodies, conjoined with our willingness to work on ourselves, will lead to unexpected healings.

To truly live a life of freedom we must face our emotional pain and any trauma that has occurred. We must face it and move through the e-motions so our body becomes free.

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Take the time to listen to your body. Where are you in pain?

Where are you hurting? What part of the body do you cover with your hands?

When you are ready to release the blockages and move through the emotions safely write down your intention to heal. Write down your desire to be free and ask for help. Know that when you ask for help internally you will be guided to the right person to help you or to start you on your journey.

Tihei Mauri Ora!

Peggy Dawson 25 S H M

Being an International Trainer of Infant massage with the International Association of Infant Massage for twenty five years, has been a precious journey for me with Parents and their babies. They have been my teachers.

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Vimala Schneider McClure from Boulder, Colorado, is the Founder of The International Association of Infant Massage.

The purpose of The International Association of Infant Massage is to promote nurturing touch and communication through training, education and research so that parents, caregivers and their children are loved, valued and respected throughout the world community.

I did my training in the U.S. in 1991 and later in 1993, with the support of my husband, set up a Trust here in New Zealand, and at the same time, one in Sydney, Austrailia.

After receiving my Certification in the US, I was invited to do some work with Crack/AIDS/Cocaine/Alcohol Syndrome babies in a shelter in San Francisco. It was in this shelter I became aware of birth trauma.

At the same time I came in contact with a Dr. William Emerson, PhD., MFCC who is a world authority in Birth Trauma.

After discussing some of my experiences in the shelter with him he was deeply interested in the work I was doing with massage. His next training was to be in Dorset, England. I felt I needed to be on this training and was amazed that I was going to be in England at exactly that time. I went through his training, which confirmed for me my intuitions were correct, that nurturing, caring touch could trigger, release and heal the deepest emotions held in the body. Even, trauma from the womb.

When I returned to New Zealand I was visiting a friend whose son, whom I used to massage, had died of AIDS. While we were speaking, her other

Memories we hold from childhood trauma.

By Peggy Dawson.

son, in his early twenties, came through the door in an anxious state.

“Mum, the baby is screaming non stop, almost 20 hours out of 24.

The pediatrician says there’s nothing wrong with him! We don’t know what to do?”

I pricked up my ears and saw in my mind’s eye, a red flag. “How old is baby? Have you ever tried baby massage John?” I asked.

“He’s two months old. No, we’ve never massaged him but we’re willing to try anything right now,” he exclaimed.

“Could you check with your wife if it’s o.k. for me to come and show you how to massage the baby? I’m only too happy to come.”

His wife was very happy for me to come. I walked into their home

“Oh, do you like this?,” I asked. Baby kept talking to me in earnest.

“Oh, my goodness, you do have a lot to say. Just keep chatting while I continue massaging you.”

Baby relaxed into the massage and continued talking to me in gurgling tones.

I showed the parents how to do the legs and stomach, chest and arms – just a few strokes on each part. I then turned baby over to show them strokes for the back, - long, slow, gentle strokes from shoulders to buttocks, which are so good for brain organization, then from shoulders to feet.

at 5pm. I was thinking it could easily be a bad case of colic. Baby had stopped crying, which was a bit frustrating for the parents who wanted me to see how painful it was for him.

I asked the parents to put him in a warm bath and I would show

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them how to massage for colic. Usually the IAIM way is to show parents how to massage with my using a demonstration doll. But today, I felt we had a tricky situation. Both parents were hugely frustrated and exhausted and hadn’t had a nights sleep since baby was born. I felt baby needed a quiet energy. When baby had emerged from a warm bath I placed him on a towel over a couple of soft pillows. I introduced myself to him, had good eye contact with him, rubbed my hands together and said, “Hello sweetheart, would you like to have a massage?”

Baby looked at me and smiled a big smile and reached out his hands to me and kicked his feet in glee. This is a bodily sign that it’s o.k. to touch. Asking permission is a mark of respect. If baby doesn’t want to be touched he might cry, or turn away and not make eye contact.

I rubbed my hands together again and picked up his leg, placed my hand on the foot and another hand at the top of the thigh, and began to milk the leg slowly, one hand after the other, from thigh to foot. He started to gurgle and speak to me in baby language.

At this point I was quite amazed at how much massage the baby had taken over about twenty minutes, but he was so relaxed and loved being touched. The parents looked wide-eyed in wonder at how baby had loved and had settled in to the session. I went to pick him up around the hips to turn him around. His body gave a violent, sudden kick, and the screaming started. The parents heaved a sigh of relief because, now I would be able to see what he was really like all the time!

I held baby in my hands at eye level and looked into his eyes. He was in agony but he held my eye contact. When a baby can hold eye contact, I know this is birth trauma.

If a baby has colic, the eyes try to escape out of the head.

I look into baby’s eyes and talked to him during the screaming.

“Tell me all about your pain sweetheart. We all want to hear about your pain. You go for it darling!”

I give him permission to scream and I want baby to see in me, a quiet, calm face, who wants to hear everything he wants to tell me, and I wait while the screaming continues. It may be three, four or five minutes. I wait patiently to all he has to say to me. I become intuitively aware that this baby has been terrorized.

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Without taking my eyes from baby, I tell the parents, “This is not colic. This is birth trauma? What sort of birth did you have?”

Immediately the mother says, “Caesarean………… and that’s the way he was pulled out of the womb!”

Mother had seen me take baby by the hips to turn him around.

Baby had been pulled out of the womb by the hips to bring him into the world.

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I want to explain here, that most parents will want to either put baby to the breast, or shove a bottle in his mouth to shut out the screaming. Some parents might want to throw baby at the wall because they can’t cope with the crying – they just don’t know what to do? Understandable! How wonderful it is to have this new baby in your life, but you have no idea what you’re in for when you don’t get your sleep at night for several weeks! And the pediatrician says there is nothing wrong?

While I am still holding baby and looking into his eyes, suddenly his body drops, the screaming stops, and he nestles in my arms.

The trauma has been released. Something mystical has happened between the tri-unity of baby, me, and mother. Mother has acknowledged baby’s pain. Baby was able to release.

If that pain is not acknowledged from birth, then we continue to carry it in our body during our lifetime.

I wrap him up firmly in a warm shawl and pop him inside his bassinette. I walked out of the house at 6pm. Baby fast asleep.

The following morning I phone the mother to find out how baby is doing?

“Peggy, this is the first night’s sleep we’ve had since the baby has been born! He slept all through the night.”

“I wondered if I could come over and go through the strokes with you. It was a pretty dramatic session yesterday and I feel it would be nice if I can bring my demonstration doll with me, so you actually do the massage on your baby so you can remember all the strokes.

I also have photos and notes of all the holding techniques you can use.”

Mother was delighted. We went through all the strokes together and there was no repeat of yesterday’s drama. The trauma had been released in one session, but this is not always the case. Some cases may well take two or three sessions.

IAIM is most encouraging for Dad’s to learn to massage their baby.

Many Dad’s today are wanting to learn to develop the bonds of love and trust between parent and baby through nurturing touch.

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SYMPTOMS OF BIRTH TRAUMA Dr. William Emerson, a world authority who deals with infants, children and adults suffering birth trauma, talks about 150-175 symptom patterns of unresolved birth trauma. Here are a few: Symptom Patterns

If untreated, potential symptom

1. Prolonged, Intense screaming 2. Nocturnal awakening 3. Digestive problems 4. Colic 5. Feeding problems (fluid trauma) 6. Tactile defensiveness 7. Lack of eye contact 8. Startle responses are reflective which stem from the sudden penetration of medical intervention.

Aggressive behaviour Intensive anger Feels stuck Pulling hair, pinching Abusive behaviour Tearing books Possible colic

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9. Feet and torso sensitivity. (Being forcefully grabbed, painful procedures examinations and tests. Sudden frightening lifting).

10. Sensitivity to touch around the head.

To describe spirituality, Dr. Emerson talks about the various qualities that emanate from the baby/child that is treated.

1. A closeness to spirit.

2. A calmness, peacefulness and a radiance.

3. Joyful.

4. Full of light.

5. A wise, old soul.

6. An inner knowingness.

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Dr. Emerson continues to say: Turmoil, rebellion and fear have been released, so these feelings are not available to these children.

They are free at an internal emotional level, eternally free to develop relationships. Free from obstructions of trauma which are a serious impediment to our uniqueness and greatness.

What can we do to reduce Birth Trauma?

Suggestions: 1. Use forceps compassionately.

2. Explain the undesirable effects to parent/baby.

3. Empathise as they go through the birth.

4. Increase empathic understanding.

5. Talk to baby and acknowledge difficulties, grief and pain.

6. Our tone of voice, and gentleness of touch and good eye contact are very vital and powerful tools of communication.

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Vicki Grilli has been a spiritual medium and spiritual counsellor for over the past 30 years.

She helps many people around the world with her gift and is able to get them inspired and empowered about their lives as well as connecting them to those they love on the other side.

She has the ability to feel, sense and smell things around people so they can awaken to all the wonderful things life has to offer them. Vicki is also a wife and a mother of two kids - she is also a Reiki practitioner and a yoga teacher.

The question what is my perspective on spiritual health?

By Vicki Grilli vgrilli411@gmail.com

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Spiritual health generally begins with individuals desire to give life purpose and meaning through the internal examination of their world view.

It’s truly what you believe in, one higher power or praying every day or meditation or silent focus on their inner being is necessary for finding a path to enlightenment that elevates their spiritual health for the duration of their lives.

Vicki Grilli

Spiritual health can also consist of a more broad concept such as hope, purpose, and peace.

Practices often associated with health for me are prayer, meditation, and yoga.

Spirituality is personal yet universal. Staying grounded, focused, open-hearted and always listening to the curiosity of your inner wisdom.

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Connecting with your very own true self at all times, even in hard times or good times.

Honesty, trust, and faith not only in each other but also our faith in a higher being.

What I would like to tell you all is the tools are within you, within the breath, with your perception and conscious awareness.

We have a great intelligence within us and we must nurture this. The only way out is in, so go within and heal old wounds to move forward and find inner peace.

Trust in the flow of life, if something doesn’t work out it’s just a redirection or learning.

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Let me tell you about the start of my spiritual journey. At the very beginning of my life, as a young girl, as early as I can remember I have always been able to see spirits and angels and hear voices.

I would dream a lot and then the dreams would happen, so that made me afraid so I would Astro travel out of my body and travel in a dimension called astral plane where I felt safe.

I remember being in the astral plane above my body looking down at myself sleeping.

I didn’t really notice at that young age that spirit was trying to communicate with me.

As time went on at the age of sweet 16 I became a hairdresser and I look back now working with my clients I would be doing readings for the people in ways without even knowing! I was very popular.

I would always be telling my clients that they were pregnant or unwell, or if they were going to meet their soulmate. I was helping people even then. My bright, bubbly personality helped me connect easily with people. I was finding my life purpose.

Growing up as a child my mother never thought anything of it apart from me having an over-active imagination.

When my grandmother was dying I could smell her illness a long time before she told the family she was sick. When she passed away she came to see me in spirit sitting in her rocking chair I was scared to start with but I was with my brother who loved me and he understood me.

I spent a lot of time talking with my imaginary friends, I did this all the time. I was a happy little girl and loved dressing up and dancing and boy could I tell a story.

After my grandmother passed over I was very lucky to hear her and she would give me messages or tell me if loved ones were in trouble or just to tell me she loved me and she believed in me.

I could always feel and sense things around people and would often get messages from spirits or angels.

Over the years there were so many times when people were surprised by the messages I would bring through for them. I would practice meditation regularly, eat a healthy diet and always try to come from a place of love just a few things that made me happy and blessed.

But from a young age, I learned not to tell anyone about my gift, as I was very shy and didn’t want to ever stand out or be different and also I thought everyone could see what I could see but I told my best friend often and she thought I was trying to be funny.

So, for now, I leave you and I hope I can share more love and light.

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Shana Leilani 37 S H M

Shana Leilani is sweet, feisty and bites with honesty. She began down her spiritual path at an early age when she first discovered her love of Tarot cards, she later moved on to study dice casting, energy healing, animal communication and the magickal practices of her Hawaiian and Italian heritage. Today, she blends her knowledge and skills to craft custom candles and other spell workings to fit, fix, soften and enhance the unique needs of the situations we find ourselves in during our life. Along with readings and custom tailored magic, Shana has found her calling as a teacher in the mystic arts and also performs a blend of healing modalities to help soothe the body, relax the mind and heal the heart and spirit.

The Eco Witch

By Shana Leilani http://intuitiveshana.com Witches and spiritualists are the original tree huggers. We spend our time hoarding rocks and crystals, herbs, miscellaneous feathers and the occasional acorn. It’s also not uncommon to find us in a garden up to our elbows in soil or having a lengthily conversation with our favorite plants and trees. We understand that everything has a spirit, energetic influence and connection.

We honor that connection and harness its power with each spell

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we cast. The earth provides for us and nurtures us an in return we acknowledge and honor her power and beauty.

The resources provided by our planet are a vital part of our magical and spiritual practice and sadly they are dwindling. If we are not careful, some of these resources may disappear forever. It’s time that we go beyond just honoring Mother Earth and start taking steps and precautions to protect her in both our magical and mundane lives. Making our magic cleaner boosts our connection to Earth energies, helps our planet and can even boost the strength of our practices.

The rise of spiritualism has brought on a heightened interest in keeping our vibrations high and our bad juju low. Many people

Collecting the tools needed for esperging is very simple and the practice of cleansing and purifying is even easier. Submerge the sprig of your plant ally into the water and allow its leaves to collect tiny droplets of water and use the herb to sprinkle the water around your space or yourself. If you would like, you can say a prayer, affirmation or mantra while you go through the cleansing or you can simply keep your mind balanced and be open to feeling the shift in the energy around you. Once you have completed your new cleansing practice you can leave the bowl of water on your altar and hand the herb above your front door for added blessings and protection, switching both the water and herb out during your weekly or monthly cleansing. If you do not wish to keep the waters and herbs you may also give it back to the earth by leaving it outside under a bush or tree.

turn to smudging to keep the energy in their homes and aura in

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check. White Sage, Frankincense and Palo Santo have become the poster boys of smudging. Unfortunately, they have also become endangered. Let’s kick smudging to the curb and give esperging a try. Much like smudging, esperging helps energetically purify and boost the energy of our home, office, sacred space and even ourselves.

Much like smudging, esperging is the art of working with plant essence to create change in the energy around you. In my path as a Strega, we traditionally use a fresh spring of Rue but I encourage you to find an herb that grows local to your area. A few plants that work wonderfully in esperging that are usually easy to find or even grow in a small pot are Rosemary, Basil, Lavender and Roses.

The idea here is to find a plant spirit that you have a relationship with or one that is known for its protective, cleansing or calming properties. Once you have selected the plant spirit you wish to work with you will need a small, fresh piece of the plant along with a bowl of either a type blessed water such as holy water, waters created or gathered with specific intentions like moon water, snow water, even rose water, or simply sea salt and water.

Esperging is simple, powerful and more importantly, eco-friendly.

Together the spiritual community can make a difference by being innovate and finding new ways to “go green” with our practices and to create cleaner magic for ourselves and the Earth. We can and we must do better for ourselves, our brothers and sisters, our children and our Mother Earth we must raise our vibrations and lower our magical carbon foot print.

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Erena Te Paa Erena Te Paa is a stylist, wife and Mum to two boys, Costa and Sol. Like many multi-tasking woman you’ll find her doing it all with the lightheartedness of someone who knows that she can’t or rather who appreciates that nothing is straightforward because something will always have to give. Aside from juggling motherhood she also manages two side hustles including running a successful airbnb accommodation and when time allows, you’ll find her turning her expertise to styling for both fashion and interior clients. Based in the Waikato, Erena has always loved the

idea of home but at it’s heart is having a place you can retreat to where you can truly be yourself and find your centre. And

business careers and who like me, loved nothing more than to talk about clothes, relationships and our future plans.

while time and space isn’t always on her side you’ll often find her doing what she does best; sharing her gift for turning spaces into mini retreats with her DIY attitude and eye for an amazing find. “I am and will always be a creative at heart and have always believed that my calling is in my creativity.

It challenges me, stimulates my brain, my growth and makes me happy so wherever possible I try to share more of it.” To connect with Erena or to see what she is working on next you can find her on instagram @erenatepaa or by visiting her blog www.erenatepaa.com.

I will be the first to admit that my understanding of the world at least in my late teens and very early 20’s was one that could only be described as being very black and white, that there

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was always a reasonable explanation as to why things were the way they were and that was just fine by me.

As a child growing up, I had a wonderful upbringing. I was nurtured by two loving and supportive parents who I knew I could turn to for help and whose love and support in many ways gave me no cause to question anything beyond what I knew or could already see. Things were just right or wrong, fact or fiction.

Admittedly, spirituality wasn’t a word I’d ever been exposed

Unlike me however, Gaia was innately spiritual from day one. I can’t explain it other than just always thinking that there was something all-knowing about her and while she would talk openly about her gift and how it had been passed down through generations, she was still coming into her own in discovering it and I, while poles apart and much less self-aware was also still learning how to be me in the world too. Yet, as the years went by and our friendship blossomed I slowly began to educate myself on spirituality as Gaia’s gift exponentially grew.

In fact, knowing Gaia helped me to know that spirituality looks different for everyone and that spiritually-gifted people look just like anyone else. To my mind, to be open to it is to simply have the courage to believe that there is more to life than what we see and that by trying to understand ourselves on a far deeper soul level might just help us to answer the greater questions of why we are and how we can move past old hurts so that we can grow.

Never have I been reminded of this more nor asked myself the deepest of questions than when I lost my daughter Penny in March 2015. It’s impossible to forget that day or the months that followed when what I thought would be a time of sheer joy and expansion was instead a time of painful self-reflection, of mourning the loss of my first born child and in many ways of losing myself.

to. It wasn’t talked about as much as it is now and so perhaps even if I had wanted to understand it I couldn’t think of anyone able to enlighten me besides the stereotypical idea of a whitehaired woman with a crystal ball!

But in the process of unmaking who I was, and unlearning all that I thought I knew, was a deepseated desire to look beyond and go within given that the real-world answers I’d previously relied upon made no real sense.

Luckily fate as they say would intervene and I would meet that spiritual someone in the form of Gaia Chinniah who like me at that time was in her early 20’s and studying towards a degree of which we both thought would launch our respective

Perhaps you might even call this monumental turning point in my life my spiritual awakening. To learn through what I’d endured

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and to dare ask the bigger questions of my part in the universe.

What was I here to learn and why me?

The idea of learning about the soul or communicating with the human spirit might sound far-fetched to some and to me once upon a time it would have too but then how do you explain that inner voice that we so casually refer to as our intuition which seems to know even before we do if something feels truly right or eerily wrong and how do we speak to this all-knowing side of ourselves so that we might better know what we need in order to prosper.

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I’m in my late 30’s now, and Penny, bless her would have almost been 5. My friendship with Gaia is now 15 years strong and I have two young boys who continually stengthen and test my spirit.

No two people’s paths look alike and no two experiences are the same which is why spirituality is at times hard to grasp but at it’s core there are questions that we want answered about the world and about ourselves and circumstances that occasionally force us to look for those answers on a much deeper level. At least this was my journey to spirituality and as hard and as confronting as those feelings were the place it brought me to was a place of acceptance, of peace and of feeling like in spite of it all that there would be happiness and gratefulness and immeasurable growth beyond.

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Gaia is an internationally known healer and business women who has travels the world with her healing work. She founded Soul 33 a healing company and the modality of Soul Progression Therapy ® when she had an awakening at the age of 33. She channels messages from spirit guides, uses energy healing and is able to speak to your soul and see your past lives. She reminds you who you are in a very practical way. Gaia has a Masters in Management Studies, is a Reiki Master and has a qualification from Omega Institute New York in Past Life Regression Therapy. She has a product distribution company in Asia to fulfil her business desires and she lives her life wanting to be the best that she can be. She is the founder of Spiritual Health Magazine to help others understand the journey. www.soul33.com www.spiritualhealthmagazine.com There is one thing that I have learnt, is that life it is not easy. It is not easy for any-body. We have all been brought to earth, this human, physical plane to discover ourselves through the character we play which is the person you see in the mirror. He or she is your Avatar – and we see a lot of those these days on Facebook and our phones to create an alter ego – this is how I am learning to view myself. I am connected to my soul but detached from my body.

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We are a physical manifestation of our souls to have experiences, learn lessons, test our will and strength, to receive and end Karmic cycles, to feel feelings deeply and to evolve and go back home. Each and every person has chosen to come here for their own unique purpose. This isn’t home. We have only been groomed to believe it is. Earth is a borrowed space, she doesn’t belong to us. Nothing really does. Our life as us is very insignificant on the grand scheme of what the Universe has in its database of knowledge and the many realms that co-exist at the same time.

Spiritual health in my opinion is the only way to understand life and

learn this? This is not an exercise to over think – they are questions for your soul, or higher self. The answers to be received through the journey of life, not in an instant and not expecting to understand right away. Over time and the unfolding of your own spiritual health the why am I questions start being answered almost immediately.

As things happen in my life now I can see it for the truth. The more you strengthen the spiritual health muscle, the more this will happen for you too. The reason of the experience. As a healer, many of my experiences are for me to know how to teach you. For you to find your own unique spiritual health formula. Are you up for the challenge?

its challenges. Being able to connect with something more than ourselves. I have seen thousands of clients over the years while many more continue to wait to hear their conversation with their soul through me as the medium. People come from near and far to

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know why they are the way they are, to understand what on earth they are doing here? Why are things playing out the way they are?

Spiritual health is understanding that there is so much more to life than what you see. The moment we all realise this, things become easier to cope with. The breakups, the deaths, the sicknesses. All of it. While it may not make sense, there is an underlying learning.

Spiritual health is not about walking barefoot in the soil while chanting, it’s not giving yourself a Sanskrit name. It may look like that for some people but for me, I still remain myself with my personality characteristics, my Avatar. A strong, controlled woman who has much drive and motivation to create. A personality that wants to be the best that she can be, to follow my soul guidance to ensure I am the greatest good for my souls contribution to have come to earth in the first place. Was it to suffer? No. Was it to experience pain – yes. We all experience pain but it is through our spiritual evaluation of the human life that things start to make sense. Looking beyond yourself, looking at your soul and the order of the Universe. The wholeness of you from what you have on the inside not only what it is on the outside. The question of who you are is so important but as is why am I? Why am I here? Why am I experiencing this? Why am I meant to

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Spiritual Health Magazine www.spiritualhealthmagazine.com spiritualhealthmagazine@gmail.com instagram.com/spiritualhealthmag