Shhh...be still

The flu and the weather conspired to keep me from physically going anywhere
but did not deter our little neighbour Leah :-)

I am an information junkie with a voracious appetite!

I like to learn; I gather information like a squirrel. But information isn't wisdom. So I test what I've learned by applying these lessons to my own life. Direct experience is the best teacher so you might say that I am my own laboratory. Only when truths are experienced and understood do I share them with students through the workshops I facilitate. However, for body work treatments (Shiatsu, reflexology, hot stone massage and lomi) that I provide, over time the wisdom is wordlessly, magically, seamlessly, integrated.

It is both a blessing and a curse that the internet is open 24/7 and my FaceBook friends post some pretty amazing and intellectually stimulating information. Through my FaceBook connections I find inspiring posts and positive news of what's going on in the world, or at least what could be going on if we would only look outside the box.

More and more e-mail my clients arrange appointments through e-mail. Advertising is a hands on affair that I maintain through e-mail and my website. I post entries on this blog for fun and on AWAKENING CHOICE DREAMS to educate the public about dreamwork.

I am the thing that lives at the bottom of the stairs.

Fortunately for my physical health, my body has a huge need for movement and so I break away to do my yoga, go for a walk, fly, skate or kayak depending on the weather or perform some menial physical chore. But lately while engaged in these activities my mind is in overdrive. Instead of coming away refreshed I just feel busy, busy, busy.

I don't know when I slipped into multitasking as the order of the day. I watch some T.V. and do dishes or throw in a load of laundry during the, far too many and too lengthy, commercial breaks. I study Spanish or pour through hypnosis magazines during "brain candy" programs.

Restless by nature, the default of my brain and body is set for constant motion. With all this exposure to information, information itself feels like movement and incessant noise in my head.

After recording and working with my dreams, I consult the Voyage to Kanaka Makua cards each morning upon arising to ascertain the tone of the day. Over the past weeks the cards have been imploring me to return to meditation, listen to my breath, my heart, my body, be in the present, be still; NOW.

I have been paying heed and have cleared time and space to just sit and be. This has shown me that my senses have been bombarded with information to the point of overload and that my revved up brain is filled with a cacophony of urgent thoughts all clamouring for attention.

This is what silence feels like to me.
the woods at Mosswood Hollow

20 minutes of meditation a day isn't cutting it; I return to my old patterns for the rest of the day. More downsizing has been the remedy in the form of: increased visual, auditory and physical silence; decreased time on the computer and T.V. and more discriminate and limited use of my time on FB. More time for writing and reading books with actual pages.

It's so easy to get caught up in it all and in all my striving (striving for its own sake is another default state of mine) I have forgotten to just be.

Lengthier periods away from all this info/noise means, on my return, I'm greeted by an e-mail inbox spilling over with messages. Twitter and Linkedin kindly remind me that during my absence LOTS of interesting info has been zipping around cyber space that I absolutely must see. Important people everywhere are saying important things and since I probably don't want to miss any of it they kindly supply me with tid bits to tempt me to dive into the fray.

What are you missing?

Out from the silence I answer, "Nothing".

Dreams & Synchronicity - our teachers

SATURDAY JAN 7/12:
There were no dreams hovering around my awareness as I awakened this morning. Disturbing myself as little as possible, I lay on one side and then the other, but none came to call or even brushed by me. But, I'm not disappointed as there are many different ways of accessing the Dreamtime. One of my favourite is to pull a card from an amazing deck that I've used since the lomi training with Harriette and Birgit in 2005.

My mind drifts and floats in nothingness as I shuffle the Journey to Kanaka Makua cards. Unless clarification is needed I will only seek guidance from one card today. This deck is stunning in its clarity and accuracy, so one is usually sufficient. The deck fans out in my hands and my fingers find the one in 49 that is the vibrational match.

AHI - Fire emerges.

From within the message, these words feel important and right and are recorded in my journal:
"Burn away what stops you. Make way for the new." and "To create and destroy".

I don't seek out what is stopping me, from what am I being stopped, nor what new thing is coming my way. Rather I feed the cats, move to my mat for my yoga session, prepare for and treat my clients and later clear the bathroom for Rod to begin our long planned renovation. I keep Flippy and Maya company downstairs as bashing and crashing resounds from their upstairs lair and open up the book  AWAKENING TO THE SPIRIT WORLD - the Shamanic Path of Direct Revelation, to where I left off last night. At the top of the next page - page 103 is A FIRE CEREMONY. Authors Ingerman and Wessleman describe this ceremony used to release core beliefs that are blocking one from using their creativity to its fullest and living ones' life purpose. Fire with the power to destroy, transform, transmute and create is the perfect vehicle for this task. They describe how to discover your blocking belief(s) or attitude, create a symbolic power object and imbue it with these qualities. The object is then burned in ceremony releasing these blocks in the process.

As I was typing this blog I referred back to my journal entry to make sure that I have the wording of the message from the cards correct and I'm drawn to glance through my previous night's dream. Something, I can't recall just what, is calling me. My last recorded dream describes a small fetish wearing blue and wrapped with a leather cord. I can call up the image as vividly now as I experienced it in the dream. I was curious about it but gave it no other thought once I began my day. Ingerman and Wesselman describe such a stick with some yarn wrapped around it and perhaps a letter or picture.

The synchronicity of these events is staggering. I have been given an answer to the question I'd posed before dreaming the other night How can I move forward and manifest my dream workshops? and was shown a vehicle to help make it so. To make it all the more clear I was provided with a book that explains just what this is, how to make it and its ceremonial purpose.

As I walked today I meditated on these blockages, recalled my dream object and later crafted it out of found and natural objects. The monthly fire ceremony in Ancaster is tonight, I will go as planned and burn it all away.

Note: I haven't taken a picture of the object. Once it has served its purpose it is meant to be destroyed.