Oak

 

For as long as I can remember I have been draw to the Oak tree. I have, over the years, collected leaves, twigs, windfall wood and two years ago was gifted three tiny oak saplings. When I say tiny I really do mean tiny as none measured more than six inches.

The saplings were planted in pots and nurtured over the last two winters. Sadly one didn’t make it and so I now have two. They haven’t grown much but are producing new leaves which I hope is a good sign.

Last year I was told they grow best with company and as they are in individual pots I may now move them to a larger pot, all together and with a holly sapling for company. In the wild they grow alongside holly so I figure this is worth a go. I have space in the garden but they are too tiny to plant out and as we have rabbits I wouldn’t rate their chances very highly if I did.

There is a lot of tree lore related to trees and much can be found online but I want to share this with you: OBOD Tree Lore Oak

New Experiences

I am just back from holiday and like all holidays it has been full of new experiences. This can be something as simple as trying a new cocktail but in my case included seeing an Ocelot on a night drive, mastering how to stand up on a paddle board and making tamales and tortillas with a women’s co-operative in a Mayan village.

I really do appreciate I am very lucky to be able to travel and I have come back home full of enthusiasm for trying new things whenever I can.

I am also very lucky in my work as every new client or student brings me new opportunities to grow, develop and learn as I work. This is the nature of shamanic work and of teaching anything.

I make no apologies at all for highlighting how important new experiences are to us.

New experiences help to:

• keep our brains functioning
• slow down the appearance of time passing quickly – our brains take longer to process new information
• stop us being bored
• help to alleviate fear and build courage
• open up new possibilities
• help us to grow
• develop new skills
• keep us up-to-date
•  enhance self esteem
• feed creativity
• breaks us out of ruts
• provides new perspectives

So how can we gain new experiences on an overcast day at home when we have empty pockets?

These are just some of the things that come immediately to mind

• walk a different way when you go out
• turn left instead of right
• pick up a different type of book when you go to the library
• talk to a stranger
• try drawing/singing/painting/dancing/skipping/something you don’t usually do – do it when no one else is around
• write with your left/right hand, the one you don’t usually use
• walk to somewhere you don’t usually go
• write a book/an article/a letter/anything

I was going to keep going but if this has wet your appetite Tiny Buddha has 50 ways to Open Your World to New Possibilities 

Go, experience and enjoy, I certainly will be.

 

Meditation

I am not sure if I have mentioned this before or not but I don’t meditate. This is something that often comes as a surprise to people, especially my students when they first hear it.

I have a theory about it though and that theory is connected with my shamanic work. In shamanism when I shift into light or deep trance there is always a reason for it. I am always seeking insight or information or am carrying out a task of some kind in either ordinary or non ordinary reality. Were my intention to be to empty my mind and for it to stay that way then I would not  be able to do my work.

It’s not as if I haven’t tried. I can clearly remember when I was training  in Chios Energy Healing talking to my tutor about the difficulties I was having with the meditation. The meditation in Chios is an important part of the practice and in it the mind is cleared while the energy of the human body shifts to energetically become what is required of it. However, when I practiced when training my mind would fill with images, with scenes unfolding, information being imparted as they did so. I would push them away only for them to return almost immediately. Discussing this with my tutor I was told to just allow them to be, for they were there for a reason. And so I did and still do. None of this affects my ability to free my energy from its human bounds to allow it to be something else in any way.

What I do instead of meditating is I do Reiki. Through self treatments I am able to be still and even though I follow the energy, am aware of where it is working in me and yes sometime receive information and insight even when self treating it still brings me into that meditative state. Fortunately there have been studies that have shown practicing Reiki to have the same effect on the brain as meditation so I am completely content with what I do.

Life Between Lives

One off the things I do is Past Life Regression Therapy which is a really useful practice to find out and clear anything that doesn’t feel as if it belongs to this incarnation, to gain insight into something such as life purpose, or why someone is drawn to a particular time or place for example. There are many reasons to undergo a Past Life Regression and if you would like to know more there is information on my website 

One of the by products of a Past Life Regression, for some people though, is the chance to spend time in the ‘Life Between Lives’. This is the space that we go to between incarnations and where we can reflect on the life past as well as prepare and plan for the life to come. I am not going to spoil it all for anyone reading this, as it its lovely to find your own meaning of this space and also to find out for yourself what it feels like to be there. The best way to think of it is as a space out of time, a border between two lives as it were.

What I will say though, is that I have never met anyone who doesn’t like it there, who doesn’t enjoy being there and I am always happy to find myself in this space even if there is sometimes work to be done. All I really wanted to do here is to introduce the idea that such a space exists and that it its possible to visit it during regression work.