This Blog is closing...see new blog link below

Hi all
this is just to let you know that I have moved this blog to a different blogging system which is much more user friendly for me, and for you, as a reader, as well. the link is below and I hope you enjoy the new format and will make use of the options available. You will note that there are "pages" on the top toolbar: Home, Reiki, Mindfulness, Poetry, Quotes and hopefully there will be more...so if you are looking for specific information, it is easier to find. These pages are also listed on the sidebar with their subpages, so you can navigate more quickly through the blog. I am still working on the format, but even now, it is a much cleaner and more professional looking blog. You can check it out at this website: http://mindfulnessjournal.wordpress.com/
You can subscribe to this blog as well....see the sidebar window to do this easily. Just click on the link as noted and follow the directions.

Please put it into your favorites as I will no longer be posting to this blog. You can also post comments on the new blog if you feel like it.
My love to all and thanks for being loyal readers
Jane

An Angel Returns Home

ABDELLAH IN PARIS - MARCH 2006

This is for me the beginning of a personal effort to recapture and understand the rhyme and reason, insight and lesson, and even beauty associated with what would appear to be a single event but which is really the culmination of a long series of synchronicities which lead up to, and even followed the event itself.

So, where to I begin? Well, those of you who have been following my blogs know of my wonderful friend Abdellah and our very special relationship, which included not only the lovely times we spent together in India, but even a 9 day visit I made to Paris to spend time with him in March of 2006. You can read a short account in the blog posts: http://mindfulnessjournal.blogspot.com/#114495322641587364

Abdellah is the only person I ever knew who truly and literally lived each day as it if was his last…truly lived in the moment.

The only meaning money had for him was as a means to bring happiness into the lives of people (not just “others”, himself as well, as he was a person who truly loved and respected himself).

NADDI


He lived each and every day fully, and worrying about “having enough for the future” was a completely alien concept to him. He was my living lesson in non-attachment.


BHAGSU WATERFALL CAFE 2003

Abdellah’s quest during the short few years I knew him, was to get closer to God. This was his reason for pursuing the different philosophies he pursued, such as Kriya Yoga. He was looking for the best way to connect to Him. Well, he is now where he always wanted to be. With God - and I am happy for him as I know he is at peace and content. He was just an angel here on Earth waiting to get back home.

A PUJA AT BHAGSU WATERFALL


And the lessons I learnt from him, I was able to put into action in my own life by using money “I did not have” and “could not afford to use” – to bring joy and happiness in a surprising way, into the life of another person. And this small act snowballed and the effects of my one small action continued to bring further happiness to others as well.

The lessons I learnt from Abdellah, the days filled with joy and laughter we spent together, the deeper meaning of living life to the fullest which I was permeated with every time I spoke to him, the smiles of joy on the faces of all those who knew him every time his name was mentioned, are all things which will remain with me forever.

He will always be with me. Abdellah was a practicing Buddhist, and I just have to maneuver my way over a bunch of ants so as not to step on them, or watch a mosquito fly by without "clapping" it between my hands (I did that once instinctively when Abdellah was with me (!)...I have NEVER done it again!), and I think of him. [Abdellah's Mother is Muslim, and his step-father, who he grew up with, is Jewish (he has relatives in Israel), and one of his favorite foods is kneidlach, which I happily made for him with chicken soup one evening in McLeodganj. I also taught him how to make challah when I was in Paris with him. ] I just have to think of sausissons which he introduced me to at Kailwood in 2004, and I am in food heaven. The wonderful meals we shopped for, cooked and ate together, the movies we watched with his wonderful insights - he studied film in university in the States - the insights into Buddhist philosophy I received from him, but more important, in daily living...all these things keep him alive within me. Showing true loving-kindness, compassion and goodwill to all - not an easy thing to do ALL the time, was something that he could never NOT do. It was simply part of his essence. A living lesson in truly loving and respecting all living creatures, including himself. Like the wonderful plans he had drawn up for his new home in India, originally planned at the farmhouse in Kangra but later moved to an area near Palampur that his friend the Banker in Dharamsala was helping him with. A beautifully planned home, lavishly furnished with the best of everything including giant full wall size plasma TV screen.







AT KOKILA'S FARMHOUSE IN KANGRA WHERE HE WAS ORIGINALLY PLANNING TO BUILD A HOUSE

Well, let’s start with the fact that the last time I saw Abdellah was when he left Dharamsala to go back to Delhi and home to Paris, last year sometime in May 2007 if I am not mistaken. We had spent several really fun days together as usual, but his time in Dharamsala was short and we didn’t have the intense type of visit we usually do in India, where we spend extended periods of time together. So when I decided to go back to India in February 2008, we knew we would be meeting up for 2 weeks the beginning of March before he flew back to Paris after his several months studying Yoga in Mysore. He would come up to Rishikesh, and it would have been his first visit to Rishikesh and I knew he would love it, and was excited about seeing him.

I wrote to him from home to confirm the visit, but when he didn’t reply I didn’t think twice about it, as this was part of who he was and I never was disturbed by his lack of response to my e-mails. I always knew he read them all from the conversations we would have afterwards when we met. He just hated writing. He would prefer to call me by phone, which he did every couple of months, usually calling on a Friday night and saying “Shabbat Shalom” and throwing me off balance for a few seconds before I realized it was him calling.

I then wrote again when I arrived, and again as the beginning of March got closer, but still received no response. Someplace deep down inside I felt a twinge of worry, but ignored it, thinking that he perhaps had changed his plans, and would certainly be in touch with me when he was able to. And then the beginning of March came and went and no word. I even met our mutual friend Nikolai in Rishikesh and asked about Abdellah. He also said he had been strangely silent for a long time…even for him.

ABDELLAH AND NIKOLAI AT KAILWOOD IN MCLEODGANJ - 2004

But he also agreed with me that there was no reason for worry as this was typical behavior for him…Abdellah was my big lesson in true non-attachment, and I tended to agree with Nikolai, but something still didn’t seem right to me. But I brushed it aside. I would be home in Israel soon (it was a short trip to India) and if I hadn’t heard from him by then, would call him, or call a friend of his in Paris, which was the only other way I had of contacting him. And I continued with the short remaining time I had in Rishikesh, disappointed with not having seen Abdellah, but figuring there was a good reason for him not being there with me. I was after all, enjoying the company of Ben tremendously, as well as my healing meetings with Dudi, and was being kept quite busy and happy as well.

When I arrived home, still not having heard from Abdellah, I went to call his friend in Paris several times, but something always “got in the way” of the phone call. It just seemed to be something which would not happen. And then one day, I forwarded an e-mail to a group of friends, and when doing this, Abdellah’s name would always appear in the ”TO” window as he was alphabetically first on my list. The rest would be BCC , but anyone who opened the mail could see I had sent it to Abdellah. One of the recipients was Nikolai, and he sent me an e-mail simply saying “do you know-just in case- that Abdellah passed away about a month ago?”

Well, first of all it is not an easy thing to write and I certainly don’t envy Nikolai for being the one to write it to me, and second of all, what do you do when you read something like that? You go into shock and denial at first, I can tell you, and then you begin to feel guilty about not knowing about it sooner (but how could you?), and then you begin to think “Why didn’t I call sooner” (but what good would that have done), and then you burst out in tears, and then uncontrollable sobs, and you need to sit down, you need to speak to someone, you need to understand, you need to comprehend what you just read, and you cry and cry and cry until everything hurts and there are no more tears…and then you begin to cry again. And finally, you can breath once again and you begin to realize the impact of that simple sentence. You will never see Abdellah again…not in India, not in Paris, not anywhere. He will never call again and surprise you with a “Shabbat Shalom”. He will never come up behind you on the street , say “How YOU doin’ my friend” and when you turn around, see his amazing smile in front of you. You will never cook another meal together with him,


KITCHERI IN MY ROOM AT KAILWOOD - 2003

drink coffee with him, go shopping with him (shop until you drop style) again, never watch another movie with him again, never have him watch you dance folkdancing in the guesthouse room, never listen to music again with him, never just sit and talk with him or travel with him, or laugh with him, never go to Udeechi Huts in Naddi for fried chicken with him, never, never, and more never!

UDEECHI HUTS IN NADDI 2004


And then I began to do my best to put together a story of how this all happened. Being in touch with other mutual friends I was able to put together the sad story of his illness and surprising death. I will not detail it here, as there is no reason to do so, but will simply say that he contracted pneumonia in Mysore, and by the time he was flown home to Paris by his insurance company, quite some time later by the way, the virus had done too much damage and he was unable to recover. He was 47 years old. I further checked with them and his family, found out some precise dates of events etc., read stories many people had written about him, collected pictures etc.

I refuse to dwell on the “what if” questions etc., as there is simply no point in it, and prefer to put together for you a series of small synchronicities surrounding my arrival in India in February, my stay there, some unusual things that I realized through hindsight which show the interconnectiveness of our souls even after his death. I can truly tell you that I “see” Abdellah more now than I did when he was alive…he is with me very often. Watching me at folkdancing, attending a recent silent retreat with me, and during one of the meditations sat next to me, and in his typical fashion of never taking anything in life too seriously, said to me “Well, I see someone has finally got you to shut up!” (He very often commented that I talked too much!). He is actually sitting with me now and has already made a couple of comments about what I am writing. I wear a bracelet he once bought for me (by surprise…sending it to me by mail after I had already left India…after I had admired it in a jewelry store where we were shopping together for presents for his family members)…and I can feel him physically with me. His presence is powerful and loving and gentle and brings me great happiness…whenever I am feeling down, he comes around and brings a big smile to my face. I can truly say that I do not miss him , as I very rarely saw him anyway. When I return to India in a couple of months, I’m sure it will be difficult, but I am also sure that he will be there with me as well, just as he is now.

So now, just a small list of those things discovered in retrospect, bringing things more into focus and understanding.

I arrived in India actually quite ill, having fallen sick at home several days prior to my flight. Upon my arrival in Rishikesh, I actually began running a very high fever, which is very unusual for me, I rarely, if ever, have even a low fever when I am ill. After two days the guesthouse people took me to a doctor as they were quite worried about my condition, and he said there is extremely serious congestion in my lungs and he suspects pneumonia. He was an ayurveda doctor and gave me certain herbal medicines to take, but also recommended 3 days of antibiotics due to the extreme severity of my condition. I was quite surprised as I don’t usually get this ill. This was around the 14th of February. Later on, checking back on my blog, I realized that the first day I felt well enough to leave my room, or the small area near it in the guesthouse, was on February 22nd. This was the first day when, all of a sudden, all of the symptoms I had been feeling, completely disappeared, as if I had never been sick.
A couple of days after that, I met Ben and one of the first things he brought me to read was a booklet called “Do Not Grieve” which he had picked up at a local ashram in town. At the time, I simply read it and found many interesting ideas regarding life in general, and graceful acceptance of all that happens etc., without ever thinking that I would actually need it for true grieving. But there is was…in my room….
another thing which happened to me and is also documented in a blog post is a feeling of sudden and deep sadness for no reason which overcame me, and brought me to tears which could not be stopped. I had to leave the company of friends and run up to my room. It lasted for a few days and only when I did a full energy cleansing of my room did I begin to feel better and start sleeping again at night. I tried finding a reason for the sadness, but simply could not….everything was just beautiful in my life at the moment. It is something that came from a deep deep place within…only afterward I understood what it was and what had caused it to service.
Upon returning home to Israel, I began my Reiki Sharing group and at the first meeting, one of the people working on me said she felt a deep, profound sadness within me, so intense that it was difficult for HER to bear. I again said I could think of no reason for such sadness to be sensed as I was in an extremely tranquil and harmonious time in my life and all seemed to be going really well for me.

Once I found out the dates connected to Abdellah’s illness, his death, his memorial services etc., I went back and checked the above things by date as well. I was SO intensely ill just at the same time that Abdellah was at the most critical part of his own illness with pneumonia. The day he passed away, and no longer felt the suffering from the symptoms, was February 22nd! The same day I first was able leave my room, feeling complete relief from symptoms as well.
The booklet “Do Not Grieve” came in very handy the first day I heard the news at home as it helped me to put things into perspective and come to terms with what had happened.
The day of the Reiki Sharing Group turned out to be the same day that a Memorial Service was held for Abdellah in the States, and again the sadness was felt by me. And the sadness I felt in India, well, my soul KNEW what had happened…it just had no way of communicating it to me on an intellectual level, so even not knowing, I also KNEW, and the sadness already enveloped me.

And of course Abdellah continues to do things for others even though he is no longer here with us physically. The lessons I learnt from him, and continue to absorb, lead me to understand that someone near and dear needed immediate help, and that even though everything common sense told me said I could not help them, Abdellah said I could and should, and so I did, and wonderful things have happened to an entire family through that help but with thanks to him.

I will end this post with my thanks to God and the Universe for bringing Abdellah into my life, and to Abdellah himself for all the wonderful days he spent with me, and for the lovely moments he still spends with me to this day.

Goodbye My Friend!

MORE ON FORGIVENESS

This will be short and to the point. I was watching a (really kitschy) TV program on my PC the other day, but one sentence of dialogue just popped out at me, despite the fact that I was barely paying attention. It was as if it was played on a loudspeaker at full volume and written in neon lights all at the same time. It was a lesson for me regarding a "test" I had been given the day before and which I failed miserably (and was frustrated with myself as well as very unforgiving of my own behavior, as well as the behavior of the other parties involved). It was also a direct message for a client who arrived just a couple of hours after I watched the program. It was a perfect case of synchronicity, being complimented by a card reading she did with me regarding a certain issue, and everything just flowed together to form a perfect answer to her confusion and uncertainty about how to move forward. Here is the quote:

BEING UNFORGIVING IS LIKE DRINKING POISON AND WAITING FOR THE OTHER PERSON TO DIE!

I wish I could give credit to the person who wrote it but have no idea who he is. Think about it and then perhaps take a moment to reread the following two links to other posts on this blog regarding the same issue:

Living in the Shadow of the Past and the Power of Forgiveness

Another Golden Opportunity to Get Yourself out of the Shadow of the Past

With much love, light, joy and laughter

Jane

From Moscow to Israel with Love or...

...follow your heart!

A short story but a lovely one. About a month ago my phone rang, I answered, and on the other end a man’s voice asked if he could speak with Jane. He said his name is Z and he is calling from Moscow. Staying as cool as possible I said, “Yeeeeeessssssss…..?”. He asked if I teach Reiki and I replied that I do. He asked if I could do a workshop for just two people and I said, no problem. He asked if I could do it over a weekend and again I said no problem. He asked if he could reserve the weekend of July 11-12, and I checked and again my answer was no problem. He said he would be in Israel for a week and wants to do a workshop with his 27 year old daughter.

And then, and only then, did I ask how he got to me? Where did he get my phone number? He said that it was simple. He googled “Reiki Israel”, and my name came up first (I know this is true as I’ve tried it myself in the past….). And so he called me, and that is the beginning of the story.

Seems that his daughter has been living in Israel with her Mother and step father for 18 years, as her parents divorced many years ago in Russia. Z., was remarried for many years with another family in Moscow where he is a successful businessman, and he was coming to Israel to visit her and decided they would do a Reiki course together.

When I spoke to the daughter, she said that her father's wife from Moscow, had actually done a Reiki course here when she came for a visit , and that she did it with one of the most well-known Reiki Masters here in Israel. But she could not do just the two of them (Z. and the daughter - she generally does large groups) and also not at the time convenient for them, so Z. decided to find someone else, and it was ME he found!

Well, they DID come and we spent a lovely weekend together. It was, as each Reiki Workshop is, unique, and the special relationship between these two people was very deeply felt in the energies present in the room when they were together. I still did not know much about them, very little as a matter of fact, so on the second day, when we took a lunch break, I gently began asking questions, and the first question I asked was “How often do you get to see each other?”. To my surprise, they said once a month!! I commented that this was more than many fathers see their daughters if they are divorced from the Mother. And to make such a long journey to do this seemed amazing to me…so here is the full story in short.

Until about 5 months ago, they had not seen each other over 20 years! The daughter barely remembered him and the only things she really knew about him were what her Mother had bitterly told her over all the past years. But about a year ago she decided that she wanted to make contact with him, but fearing his rejection, she put it off each time she felt like doing it. It was simple to actually find him, as she just googled his name in Russian, and because he is a successful businessman and lecturer, his name and details came up over and over again. So she had his phone number, and one day just got the courage to place the call, almost certain that he would hang up when he heard her voice. To her great relief and surprise, he was overjoyed, if somewhat cautious, to hear from her. I asked HIM how he felt when he heard her on the phone and he said, in his broken English that “it was the best thing that has ever happened to me in my life!!”. So both of them received a lovely surprise, and since then, have made the effort to see each other either here or in Moscow, once a month, and just get to know each other from a new place, without prejudices from the past interfering.

They seem to be doing extremely well and look so lovely together. It is truly inspiring to see what beautiful things we can find if we truly listen to our heart’s desire, to what our soul is telling us to do. Without fear, move ahead, take the leap, be adventurous, and trust that you will never be misled if you truly listen to that loving Inner Voice, your Higher Self, your soul, your Divine guidance, whatever you want to call it.

I would love to share their pictures with you, but of course that is impossible, but they truly look so loving and content with their newfound relationship. It is sooooooooo beautiful to see and it was my great privilege to bring them one step closer through Reiki.

Much light, love and joy to all
Jane

Retreat, Meeting My Guides and Channeled Messages

A few months ago I made a decision that the time had come for me to attend a silent retreat. But there were all kinds of “conditions” I felt were necessary to make it suitable for me, and knew I just had to wait until the right retreat found its way to me. I checked periodically on the internet, but there was always something “wrong”…the type of retreat, the participants, the location, the weather, etc. And then one day, “ chance”, I found something which seemed just like what I was looking for, the location was perfect, the price right, the participants seemed compatible and of course when I read the story of the person running the retreat, I knew I had to attend. You can read more about the retreat, the idea of “Hatmara-Merkava”, and the woman who is the person “in charge” of it all. Her name is Naomi Feinberg and her story is simply amazing. You can read about her and the development of “Hatmara” on her website, in both Hebrew and English at the links below. The English is not very good, but if you read just her story, you will understand I think what drew me to the retreat in the first place.

http://www.hatmara.org/

http://www.hatmara.org/person.htm About Naomi-English

http://www.akatar.com/HatmaraINDEX.htm Hebrew

http://www.akatar.com/Hatmara_noami.htm About Naomi-Hebrew

I will not go into any details of the amazing days I spent there, but will say that since I began integrating Hatmara into my daily practice, my day in general, and combining it with my work with Reiki on all levels, amazing things have been opening up for me.


I will just say that the power of silence, of being completely in touch only with your OWN voice, not relying on input from the outside, for feedback from others regarding your experiences, increases their depth and power many many times over. It was a true awakening experience for me on all levels.

One of the Meditations we did during the retreat was a meditation to help us meet our Guides and receive messages from them. I’ve been doing this for years and had no specific expectations from the meditation. To my great surprise, it was an very deep spiritual experience which took me to places I’ve never been before, and which ended with a beautiful personal message. We did it twice during the retreat and I received a message each time.




I assimilated the first two meditations and this past week decided to do the meditation again at home (I have a recording of Naomi leading it), and to my great amazement, even more powerful things happened and I received a second message!

I am including all three channeled messages here, and if any of you would like further information, or would like to learn how to use Hatmara (it is really soooooooo simple) in your daily lives, you can contact me. We have all been asked to pass the information on to as many people as possible. No need to take courses, study in workshops (of course it IS possible to move forward and become instructors and advanced practitioners as well, but this is not necessary to use it in our daily lives), and it has worked beautifully with all those I have tried it with so far.

Here are the messages:
FIRST:
Believe what you know!
I come now (my guide speaking) because you are now ready to receive the higher “knowing”. I will be bringing you.


SECOND:
You are in this place now
Continue to move in it
No need to go back
We will guide you forward in the light
You ARE the light and joy
This IS your place
Believe your knowing.

THIRD:
You know all you need to know for now
Relax into your new-found peace
Each moment is precious
Do not allow any of them to be lost
You are doing all you need to do for the moment
You are highly regarded and loved
Each day is complete as it unfolds with all its wonder and mystery
We are always with you – never doubt it.

I will end with the Hatmara “mantra” which can be sung beautifully as well but which simply says:

I AM light, love and joy.

The Power of Positive Thoughts, Manifestation and Faith

While beginning the planning of my next sojourn in India, I realized that regular readers of my blogs must be under the impression that nothing inspirational, thought provoking or exciting happens to me when I am back in Israel!

Well, the opposite is true. Every single day is an amazing adventure, a mystery waiting to unfold in amazing and quite surprising ways, full of synchronicities, messages and blessings. The reason I do so little posting while in Israel, is simply that I have less time to dedicate to my blog and so these articles, which are just waiting to be posted, accumulate in my notebook and in my head to the point where I don’t know where to begin first…right now there are AT LEAST 4 I would like to share with you. I will begin with the current place in my life and work my way back, but the posts will deal with the following which start from the most recent and work their way back:

1. My moving to a new flat
2. The story of my teaching Reiki to someone from Moscow who found me on the internet!
3. The Retreat I went to “by chance”, meeting my Guides and the messages channeled to me.
4. The Passing of my dear friend Abdellah
5. The idea of “Fear and Faith…you can’t have both”

And of course all the subsequent messages and lessons learnt from each of the above.

Soooo….let’s begin with the “simple” fact that I am moving to a new flat in a month’s time! This happened “all of a sudden” after a very long series of events and synchronicities leading up to it.

First of all, for many months now, perhaps a year, I have been manifesting more comfortable living arrangements. I have been living in my current flat











for almost 4 years, when I came back from a trip to India with no home, no job and no money. This flat was “given” to me as a temporary solution and I actually lived here the first 6 months free of charge, until I found proper work and could begin paying rent. This was not something I asked for. At the time I had simply asked for solutions to the no home, no job no money situation and this was part of the solution prepared for me by the Universe.

But the flat, even at that time, was completely dilapidated and in a serious state of deterioration after being neglected for years by the owners, who’s only desire was to rent it out and make money. Now, 4 years later, the condition of the flat is, obviously, even more serious, despite my doing many repairs over the years at my own expense. (The owner refuses on principle to put any money back into the flat).






Some time ago I realized, that despite the inconvenience it would cause me, I must find myself a more comfortable, pleasant form of living arrangement. The current flat is right in the heart of a lovely city in Israel called Raanana, which is generally very expensive, but the area the flat is in is consider an undesirable complex of very old flats built in the 50’s, and so the rents here are much lower than the rest of the city. It is also located smack in the middle of town so that I can easily walk to anything I need or anyone I need to see. I’ve never had such convenience. And although it is a flat, which I am not used to living in, it has lovely open grassy and tree filled spaces right outside and although near the main street, is extremely quiet and always has on the street parking available.

What I began to manifest was an apartment, which would not involve and long-distance move, perhaps even in the same city if possible at my current lower rental fee, with access to all conveniences by foot, with open space and green natural areas outside, but that the flat itself be in good condition, with new kitchen, bathroom and shower facilities, with closets, heating and air conditioning, clean, well painted, light and clean. With the same number of rooms so that my daughter could continue to live with me if she chose to, and with a room large enough as well to act as a clinic and workshop area. With lovely neighbors, easy access (either on a low floor or with an elevator)…etc. The list goes on.

I did this in my daily practice for months and months, always imagining myself living comfortably, but still enjoying my current situation and never feeling miserable that no changes had yet occurred.

And then, the time came closer for a renewal of my lease and I knew the current landlord would want to raise the rent (again), and I already felt I was paying to much considering the condition of the flat. So the first thing I did towards physically getting more energies into my manifestation process , was to begin asking neighbors how much rent they were paying (and all the other flats are redone and pleasant and clean etc.) and also told the person who is in charge of the building here that I am looking perhaps for another flat if the landlord wants to raise my rent again as, to put it mildly, I was already fed up with the place!

I found out how much others were paying and saw some really nice looking flats in the same building, and then I was told that there actually was a flat vacant but that the owners were not happy about renting it out (the parents had both passed over 6 months ago and it’s been empty since then) because they had recently redone the entire flat and were afraid of having tenants who would not care for it. So, the person in charge got in touch with them and recommended me as a possible tenant and put the idea in motion in their heads to think about renting it out.

Turns out, “by chance”, that this same flat is just one flight up from my current flat, directly above me!! And I was invited to come see it last week and if I did not see it with my own eyes, would not believe it was the exact same flat I am now living in after renovations. It was everything I had been asking for in my manifestations daily for months, and would not involve long-distance moving expenses, gives me the same conveniences regarding location and open space etc. that I have now, and , in effect, is everything I’ve been asking for including closets, heating, AC, whatever.

However, the rent they were asking for was much too high and so I began sending Reiki, and having all my Reiki friends so the same, to ask for a fair and just solution for all parties involved. I began mulling over the idea of spending much more in rent than I currently am, but even if I stayed in my current flat, the rent would be raised with no justification. So I decided what amount I would be comfortable with and that was my specific goal for a solution to the rent question. I was still not sure however, about the amount of money (fear was overcoming faith in this instance, and I found it difficult to overcome this…after all, we have to be practical, don’t we?) . My daughter shlomit surprised me completely one day when I came home. She had been telling me all along that there should be no question in my mind about the rightness of moving into the flat upstairs…that I deserved it…that I am worthy of much better living conditions than I have here etc) What she told me was that SHE would take care of the extra rent money. How? She is a student? She decided that she would get a student loan if she continued to study and use it to pay the difference in rent, and if she ended her studies, and began working, she would pay the rent difference from her salary!! So, everything seemed to be in place except for the landlords upstairs agreeing to the lower price. But I was still wavering in my decision of spending the extra money…perhaps convince the current landlord to do some minor repairs to make the place more livable? Do I really want to spend the extra money? Etc. Deep down inside, I already KNEW I deserved to move to the flat upstairs, but again, the fear / faith issue had arisen to shake my confidence in my soul’s knowing!

A couple of days ago, during my morning meditation practice, I was simply told to pick two cards, one for goddess guidance and one for angel assistance, and I sat down immediately and did so. These are the two cards that came up with a short explanation of each:

RHIANNON: Sorceress…”You are a magical person who can manifest your clear intentions into reality”: With these meanings intended:
Have absolute faith that your dream is manifested
Make a clear decision
Put your energy into manifesting your dreams
Know that you deserve to receive good
When you win, others win too
Keep your thoughts focused on your desire and away from fear.

I could not have a received a message more clear than the above!!! So before even checking out the angel assistant card I had picked, I decided conclusively that the flat above was prepared especially for me as part of the overview, many months ago, even before I KNEW I would have to move. I knew that the rent question would be settled to everyone’s satisfaction. That FAITH was the only way to go now and asked for complete freedom from fear in this matter, and then, using a new technique I learnt in the retreat I went to “by chance” a couple of weeks ago, called Hatmara, I did further energy work on the entire situation. And then opened the second card:

OMEGA: “Victory! Your desire is coming to fruition. Keep up the good work!”
Congratulations! You have chosen to follow your Divine guidance, and the Universe is flowing in natural rhythm with your decision. When you listen to the messages that your heart whispers, you swim in natural synchronicity with the tide of your life’s purpose. Stay relaxed and confident, and keep moving forward with happiness and grace. ….Your victory is inevitable in this situation, so you needn’t worry that temporary problems will thwart your desire. …Release your doubts to Heaven, and rest assured that a happy outcome is yours.

NEED I SAY MORE ABOUT THE ABOVE????!!!!

I immediately placed a phone call to my current landlord and explained that I was considering moving, but wondered if there was any possibility of basic repairs being done on the flat. The reply was that not only would no repairs be done, the rent would also be raised, and if I chose to leave, it would be OK as they could charge even higher rental fees to someone new. Hmmmmm….

I then called the NEW landlord, asked if they had considered their final offer in reducing their initial request for rent, and , quite pleasantly, they replied yes…and it was exactly the amount that I had already decided I was willing to pay!!. I asked all the questions I had to ask, she asked hers, and when we were both satisfied, she said she would get a lease prepared by a lawyer and get it to me for my approval and signature.
So I will be moving into my new home before the 1st of September!!!

And that is it for today….I will do my best to catch up with my posts here and ask your forgiveness for not being more attentive to this blog.

Much tranquility and harmony
Light love and joy
Jane

DISCOVER

The Power of Thoughts, the Wonder of Reiki, the Joy of Mindfulness, the Magic Powers of Forgiveness....

A Skeptics Story

HAVE TO! MUST DO! TIME OUT!

Just for Today I Will Not Worry Part I

Just for Today I Will Love and Respect Every Living Creature

Embracing Life with a Smile

Reiki Questions - FAQ

The Cumulative Effects of Reiki

Reiki Stories

I will sum up here on this first post the order of topics and how to easily find them. For now, I have posted below in a series, general posts about Reiki. Following them are all the recent posts from India with chanellings, messages and insights which everyone can learn from, and after that, just various postings which will eventually be organized differently. At the very end, as always, family pictures.

From now on, this will always be the first post on the blog. Just as a frequent reminder about how powerful our thoughts are. My plans for the blog include a discussion of the Reiki Principles in detail, ideas for manifesting our dreams, learning more about our soul and connecting with it, working with the Universe, God and the Angels to bring our lives into harmony and much, much more. I am on an incredible journey, and would like to share the things I've discovered with as many people as possible. It brings me great pleasure to know that I have been able to help others, even in very small ways, find more peace in their lives.


Thoughts become things...choose the good ones.

A Skeptics Reiki Story

It has been quite a long time since I have posted anything here and I ask for your understanding. Many things have been happening in my life since my return just two months ago from India, and I will be posting more often now, hopefully giving you all much food for thought. What I am attaching here is a story I received from a participant in one of my Reiki I workshops designed especially for Conventional Health Care Professionals to allow them to facilitate the use of Reiki in their hospitals and clinical settings. This participant was probably the MOST skeptical person I have ever had in any workshop I've ever given, so when I received her letter, it was even more moving for me. She is an IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant), and BPharm MSc. She has given me permission to translate the letter from the original Hebrew and to share it with the world.
So here it is: (The pictures in this post have no direct connection with the letter below)




Since our meeting last August at the Reiki I workshop taught by Jane, there have been many upheavals in my life and although I tried to doing self-treatments each day, as Jane suggested, I didn’t stick with it for very long. At some point I gave up entirely. Partly due to lack of time and partly due to lack of patience. And, also, due to the fact that, as you well know, I am skeptical…VERY skeptical.

For the path month I have been working with Esther at Lis (aside: Lis Maternity Hospital in Tel Aviv where Esther is head of the on going and very successful lactation consultant program). The work is fascinating, challenging and very difficult. After Esther (who also certified in the Reiki I workshop) continued to encourage me to use Reiki in my clinical work, one day I finally gave in and decided to give it a try. I was not having any luck with this particular Mom anyway using standard clinical techniques anyway. She was 3 days postpartum, had not breastfed at all because she was exhausted after a C-Section, and she now decided she wanted to breastfeed.

I could not get a single drop of colostrum from her breast…zilch…she had terrible edema in the nipple area…So, I asked her if she would agree to my trying Reiki. “Whatever you want, just as long as I succeed in breastfeeding”:.






So, I placed by hands on her breast while continuing to talk to other women in the room about pumping, breastfeeding management etc., and after 5 minutes (actually, I have no true idea how much time actually passed), I removed my hand, pressed as usual (exactly the same thing I had done 10 minutes earlier), and MILK STARTED FLOWING!!.
We managed to get the baby latched on and he breastfed beautifully!!

On the other side, the Mother had terrible edema and there was no chance the baby would be able to latch. Several hours later she herself came around and asked (!!!) that I do Reiki to the second side! I of course agreed but at the same time told her I don’t really believe in it and that I have no idea what I am doing. To my surprise, total and complete surprise, when I removed my hand we saw a drop of milk dripping from the nipple…and I really really put no pressure on the breast. Actually, through most of the “treatment” I wasn’t even touching her!!!

The same day, I did Reiki to a baby who was unable to latch earlier. A baby with locked jaws after a great deal of Pitocin. The Mom was very very disappointed, miserable and scared by the fact that her baby did not want to breastfeed. Again, I have no idea what I did, but it worked! Hours later, (on Thursdays I am there for many many hours), after many different types of experiences, I touched him from a distance and shortly after that the Mom took him, placed him at the breast and latched him herself, AND HE SUCKED!


This week a Mom arrived with her fourth baby. She breastfed all the others but this time but she never experienced the pain she was feeling this time. The baby’s jaws were completely locked and the Mom was having excruciating pain during breastfeeding. I quickly did Reiki to here (the Mom was very happy as she believes in “these things”) , and shortly after, the breastfeeding experience was completely different. As the Mom described it “This is MUCH better!”.




I of course used it over and over again for engorgement and it works. I have no idea what I am doing, and if you will allow me to say this, I still don’t believe in it. But apparently it works!

Jane, I want to thank you for exposing me to all this and promise to continue to use it and update you.

Ziva Gilat
BPharm MSc, IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant)

What is Reiki?

You can read many interesting articles about Reiki, it's background, Reiki success stories etc., on the Reiki Website. See the link in the list of my favorite links on the sidebar.
In the next post I will also give you a list of suggested reading for both casual interest, beginners and experienced Reiki practitioners.

The knowledge that an unseen energy flows through all living things and is connected directly to the quality of health has been part of the wisdom of many cultures since ancient times. The existence of this "life force energy" has been verified by recent scientific experiments, and medical doctors are considering the role it plays in the functioning of the immune system and the healing process.
Reiki is a technique for stress reduction and relaxation that allows everyone to tap into an unlimited supply of "life force energy" to improve health and enhance the quality of life.
An amazingly simple technique to learn, the ability to use Reiki is not taught in the usual sense, but is transferred to the student by the Reiki Master. Its use is not dependent on ones intellectual capacity or spiritual development and, therefore, is available to everyone. It has been successfully taught to thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds.
A treatment feels like a wonderful glowing radiance that flows through you and surrounds you. Reiki treats the whole person including body, emotions, mind and spirit and creates many beneficial effects including relaxation and feelings of peace, security, and well-being. Many have reported miraculous results. Reiki is a simple, natural, and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use.

A (Very) Brief Introduction to Reiki

Reiki is one of the most ancient healing methods known to mankind. It is referred to in Sanskit writings (the ancient Indian language) dating back 2500 years and has been used traditionally throughout Japan and India since ancient times. It was Dr. Mikao Usui who rediscovered this almost lost healing system in the mid-nineteenth century. The Usui System of Natural healing has been passed down by Reiki Masters since that time and is today practiced worldwide.

Reiki is a Japanese word consisting of two words “Rei” meaning Universal Life Force and “Ki” meaning Energy and refers to the enrgy that permeates and sustains our entire world. This life force energy is given to all of us at birth. We bring a certain amount of “ki” to life, and we use it up in the business of ordinary daily living. We then have to create a daily supply of new energy. When we are unable to make up for our energy consumption for a prolonged period, we may become physically or emotionally ill. If our supply of life force energy is very low and depleted, we suffer from physical, emotional, mental and spiritual exhaustion.

Reiki is a natural and simple healing method which allows you to absorb more life force energy. Reiki is used for both self-healing and to heal others. The Reiki method vitalizes your life force and balances the energies in your body. This natural healing energy flows in a powerful and concentrated from through the hands of the Reiki giver. The laying on of the hands directs the healing energy into the body of the receiver. The Reiki giver is used as a channel to conduct the Universal Life Force Energy. As a result, no personal energy is drawn or drained from the giver, who is simultaneously charged and strengthened.

Reiki Treatment

Treatment is done with the recipient fully clothed, either lying down or sitting. Reiki energy passes through anything and can easily be used through plaster casts or any other obstacles to direct hand contact. The givers hands are held either on or above the receiver. Treatment can last from 45 minutes to 90 minutes depending on the treatment required. There is no pressure on the body making it ideal for treating all ages and conditions and the energy flows wherever it is required.

The receiver does not need a problem to be eligible for a Reiki session – it is great for relaxation and overall health and well-being. The vast benefits of regular Reiki sessions are innumerable and completely encompass the entire mind/body/emotion/spirit connection.

Reiki usually helps healing of all kinds and relieves pains and acute symptoms quickly. Reiki affects each person differently, but it always acts wherever the receiver needs it most. If you suffer from stress for example, you may react with physical symptoms such as headaches, stomach aches, frequent colds, kidney pains and general digestive disorders. These symptoms are the expression of excessive negative stress, accompanied by an imbalance of the energy system. To relieve these symptoms your energy must be restored and balanced. A lowered immune system or a weak organ that is not functioning properly will need recharging with extra energy. Reiki balances the energies in the body, strengthens and harmonizes the immune system and can have a profound effect as well on your emotions. Emotional “blocks” are often released and the receiver comes into closer contact with feelings that may have been suppressed in the past, perhaps sadness, pain or anger. Once these are released and the negative feelings accepted, they transform themselves into creative forces.

During the treatment, sensations of heat, cold, vibration or tingling may be felt. At other times, there may be no experiences at all. Whether or not any sensations are experienced during the healing session, you can rest assured that the energy has flowed correctly and effectively. This is one of the amazing and beautiful gifts of using Reiki, it is always beneficial to the receiver, and no matter what is actually felt, the receiver always leaves a session feeling relaxed, at peace with himself and energized. Receiving Reiki is a very relaxing and soothing experience.

Is Reiki Safe?

The purpose of Reiki is to supply the body with additional energy which it can use for healing itself. Reiki can be used safely regardless of what type of illness you are suffering from. Reiki makes no diagnoses and is intended to be used as a complementary healing method. In cases of acute disorders such as inflammations, flu, colds, digestive disorders, gall or kidney stones, backaches and headaches, Reiki acts very quickly and directly by easing the pain and accelerating healing. Reiki can be applied as first aid as it stops bleeding in open wounds and has a very calming influence on the nervous system, particularly when people are in shock after accident or trauma . Reiki provides relief from allergies, arthritis and other chronic disorders as well.

Reiki supports and complements all other medical and natural healing techniques and works very well in combination with them. Reiki is particularly effective in conjunction with Bach Flower Remedies, as both work on the same subtle but powerful energy frequencies and are most suited to each other. Reiki is suited as well to energy healing of all sorts, homeopathy, counseling and other psychological therapies, massage therapy etc.

Reiki is a simple and effective method available to all of us regardless of age and a powerful tool to enhance our quality of life in these very troubled times. There is no one today who cannot benefit from Reiki, either through treatments or by taking a Reiki workshop and learning to use Reiki for yourself and your loved ones.

The Reiki Principles

• Just for today, I will not worry
• Just for today, I will not be angry
• Just for today, I will give thanks for my many blessings
• Just for today I will love and respect every living creature.
• Just for today, I will do an honest day’s work.

These five principles, which appear above in the blog Title as well, are simple, but profound. In a future post I will discuss them each in more detail, but just to give you some food for thought, a quick hint into some of the deeper meanings of each principle:

I will not worry - implies faith

I will not be angry - implies learning new ways to respond to situations and percieve the world

Give thanks for my many blessings means living each day, each moment, in an attitude of gratitude

Love and respect every living creature - including yourself

Do an honest days work - on yourself

Reiki – the Powerful and Gentle Healer

• Promotes natural self-healing
• Balances the energies in the body
• Balances the organs and glands
• Strengthens the immune system
• Relieves pain
• Clears toxins
• Adapts to the natural needs of the receiver
• Enhances personal awareness
• Relaxes and reduces stress
• Promotes creativity
• Releases blocked and suppressed feelings
• Aids meditation and positive thinking
• Heals holistically
  

How I Found Reiki or....to be more precise

How Reiki Found ME!
This story goes back some way to around 1998 when I began working in a Hi-Tech Company, and one of the computer engineers was called Nicky. I had actually heard of Reiki before that but never had any interest in finding out exactly what it was or what it did. It had always just sounded to me like one of those “in fashion” New Age things that people were talking about, and held no real interest for me. I had become involved in alternative medicine, and alternative ways of dealing with life in general, but it was all in very down-to-earth practical ways-as I had always been a practical, down-to-earth “I’ve got to see it to believe it” kind of person.
At one point, Nicky and I began talking and he seemed an interesting, albeit slightly strange kind of person. But the more we spoke, the more I began to enjoy speaking with him. Something about his “energies” (would not have described it as such in those days I’m sure) attracted me. I don’t remember the exact sequence of events, but at some point, I was not feeling well at work, and he offered to help me. Had no idea what he was talking about but we went into a quiet room and I sat on a chair and he began “doing” something to me while my eyes were closed and I was relaxing. (I had already been doing meditation and yoga for many years so relaxing was not a problem for me). At some point I felt myself just “collapsing” from being so relaxed and he had to catch me before I literally slid sideways off the chair. Later, I began coughing terribly but when that was over, I felt fine. No more headache and fluey feeling. He explained that he had “done” Reiki on me, and I guess that was the first time I began wondering about what this Reiki business was. There were many times when the computers would have glitches, and Nicky would just walk pass, run his hands over them and they would be fine. Really weird. (It wasn’t until years later, that I found myself rebooting my computer a couple of times and even fixing an electrical problem in a friend’s car which got stuck about 1 hour away from the nearest garage in India by using Reiki all by myself!!)

And then the clincher, for me at least.
The company was doing clinical trials and they would bring these cute little piglets to do the trials on…and one arrived in a sort of pen one day and was quite frantic and running around from side to side etc. It was very sad to see. Nicky came down, together with another fellow worker who didn’t believe at all in all this “healing nonsense”. Nicky held out his hands in the direction of the piglet, and slowly, in front of our eyes, first the hind quarters of the piglet dropped in complete relaxation, and a minute later, his upper body dropped as well and he went straight to sleep! When they came down to use the piglet for testing some kind of instrument, nothing worked right as it seems that there were certain physiological changes in the pigs systems which did not allow the instrumentation to record what it had to correctly.

Nicky was eventually fired!!
But, after that, I began having more serious discussions with him and at some point he suggested I begin reading the Kryon channelings, - claiming they would give me a big jump forward in my spiritual development. I did, and they did!!
Shortly after that, I did Reiki I with Nicky, and following that, was directed towards Bach Flower Therapy which I became certified in, followed by a year of Energy Healing Studies including Color Therapy. While studying healing, I met Daniella, another Reiki Master, and did my Reiki II training with her.
And then my whole life began to change. Long long story short – at the age of 54, I left my job, went off to India and “by chance” met Akhilesh, Yoga and Reiki Master. (I was eating lunch at Nick’s Restaurant in McLeod, Dharamsala, when a lady asked if it would be OK if she joined me. And we began talking, and she started telling me about her learning Reiki I and II with this amazing person….and one thing led to another). I became a Reiki Master under his guidance over a very intense, 4 hours daily for 3 months sojourn with him. I will write about the experience perhaps at a further date.
I began doing full Reiki treatments to myself each day, and over a period of time very subtle, but enormous life changing events began stringing themselves together for me. I have not been the same since then, and each new day brings new marvels of Universal direction, guidance and loving balance into my life.
And now that you know how I became a Reiki Master, in short, I will go on to explain more about what this thing called Reiki is. In the next posting.
Much love and light to all of you

Jane

Challenges to the Reiki Prinicples

This will be a short post, just to give you some idea how our daily reciting of the Reiki principles helps put things into perspective, and how difficult situations challenge these principles…

Just for Today…

I will not worry…

as I have complete faith in God and His Universe and that EVERYTHING that is happening is unfolding exactly as it should for the Higher Good of all…no matter how difficult, and even cruel it may seem through our limited human depth of understanding

I will not get angry….

this is fairly easy when we are talking about our boss, some crazy driver on the road, a clerk in the bank or any other “simple” challenging situation. But in this kind of situation, it is very easy to fall into a pattern of anger…at everything that is happening and that we have no control over. Overcoming our anger in this type of situation is a challenge, and finding myself truly anger free at this time is a great blessing.

Count my blessings….

they are numerous and gratefully received….see

http://mindfulnessjournal.blogspot.com/#116082114114869094

for more details…I AM truly blessed

Love and respect every living creature…..

including myself. I am doing my best at this time to keep my own health intact and to respect my feelings by being in touch with my soul and only those people who can provide me with positive energies and insights…go to the gym everyday, do my practice every morning which includes yoga, pranayama , meditation etc., eat properly, rest when I feel the need ( find myself needing enourmous amounts of sleep) and be alone when I feel it necessary

on myself as well….again, my daily practice sustains me and for the present time, the most important daily work I can do, as everyone benefits from it. It is an anchor in a churning sea-like the eye of the storm- granting me harmony in chaos and tranquility in turmoil.

Just for Today...I Will Not Worry Parts I,II and III

The full series of posts on the first Reiki Prinicple, "Just for Today I will Not Worry", are now available, Please just scroll down and see the next 3 posts for the full series.
Enjoy...
coming up next: The second Prinicple: Just for Today...I will not get Angry.

Much love and light, peace and tranquility, harmony and balance, good health, love and laughter.
Jane

Just for Today...I Will Not Worry - Part I

This post is long overdue, but everything happens exactly as it is meant to and in the most suitable time frame, so a little background as to the reasons for the delay, and how those reasons themselves add further clarity, strength and understanding to the whole concept of worry as we generally understand it.

Following a very difficult period, not only because of my Father's passing (see my new blog for further details, updated postings etc.) In Memoriam, but also due to the new harsh reality of my Mother's financial situation and the need to find new living arrangements for her, the whole concept of "Just for Today I will not worry" was put to the supreme test.

There were some shaky moments to be sure, very shaky actually, but the constant use of Reiki, meditation and prayer have proven themselves once again. It took some time, more than my problematic impatience could stand at moments, but things are slowly working their way out in ways of course that I could never imagine.

Which is all part of it! Let GO and let GOD! Don't worry about the "how's". Don't set limits as to how the solution will present itself. Just know that ..."when we release our needs and prayers to the universe without strings attached, the heavens take care of coordinating the outcome."..."Look upon everything from the end of (your) prayer onward as having a part to play in the answer to your prayer..." (Caroline Myss, Invisible Acts of Power).

Hopefully the following will give you a deeper understanding of the principle..."just for today I will not worry"...and I am sure my own personal involvement over the past few months precisely with this principle, was not by chance. Nothing Is. It was all meant to give more depth and concrete understanding to me before presenting it here to you.

My Father passed away on Octber 16th, following almost 6 months of a difficult and lingering death, during which time I had also left my job as administrative assistant in a Hi Tech Company to be able to care for him and spend more time with him, as well as my Mother...it was an extremely difficult and stressful period. In addition, I had cancelled a 4 month trip to India just 2 days before I was meant to fly out, as it was obvious that the situation was very serious. (He passed away 10 days later). I had planned to spend the time in India to make better use of my months of unemployment payments, but as things would have it, that didn't work either. My Mother also was in a very precarious financial situation as mentioned above, and it was all getting to be too much.

Even saying "Just for Today I will not worry" became difficult...but I continued to do it! I found myself in a very strained position, financially, emotionally, physically, even spiritually...completely drained. When I simply could no longer ignore the fact that I was worrying about what would happen, I began meditating and praying (pretty much one and the same thing for me) in a more focused direction, asking for renewed strength, continued faith in God and trust in His Universe, for clarity, guidance and direction, as well as the wisdom to "see" the solutions as they were presented to be (as I was sure they would be). On October 27th, after a full prayer/meditation session, I fell asleep as usual...and that night had the following dream.

I don't remember it in its entirety, even though I wrote it down immediately upon awakening, but it was very long and quite lovely, involving much pleasant company, beautiful places, food, pleasure...But the two points which were brought home for me to "see" and understand from the dream, the answers to my prayer, the clarity, guidance and direction I was seeking, are as follows:

• Finding myself all of a sudden completely alone and in someone else's clothing (dreams are like that aren't they?) actually typical Indian men's clothing, and coming outdoors from wherever I was and feeling cold. The clothing was not warm enough for the sudden change in weather. Feeling quite chilled and not knowing what to do, I was all of a sudden given a shawl to keep me warm. Telling me, as I see it, that you will ALWAYS be provided with whatever you need to keep you comfortable in every new and unexpected circumstance.
• I next found myself confused while walking through alleys of what seemed like some old part of town, (not lost, frightened confused), just confused that I didn't understand how to get where I wanted to...as if it was something I already knew and couldn't remember...When I asked the first person I met, he simply said "Follow your instincts". I think that needs no explanation...but was for me at that point so profound that I woke in tears of joy.

To be continued shortly in Part II

Just for Today...I Will Not Worry - Part II

"Worrying about something that may never happen is like paying interest on money you may never borrow. "

Let's continue where we left off in Part I following my dream...

The above quote is very apt for what we are discussing now as it brings home the absurdity of worrying! But we are human, and worrying is something we are very adept at, and do often. So how do we train ourselves not to worry? By training! By practicing...and by understanding where worry comes from and why it is just simply an energy draining, non-productive, past- time.

Not worrying implies FAITH. Implicit Faith in the Universe to always supply us with all we need…without understanding the means by which this is done. It is simply beyond our human comprehension.

Faith...it is like a plant...it must be nurtured and cared for or it will whither and die. We can nurture our Faith by talking with God, but talking WITH does not mean monologue. It is not enough just to talk to God...we must listen as well. Be aware...or we will not hear what the other side is saying, as with any conversation, it must be a dialogue.

TALK to God (Universe, Source) every day. I make it a habit to do this morning and night and in between very frequently. Not just asking for things, but "seeing" and "hearing" and being aware when they happen in answer to our requests. Thank you for the parking space, the short line at the supermarket, an answer in only 5 minutes when calling technical support. these things are all orchestrated for us but we need to be aware of this and acknowledge our awareness....our "hearing" the other side.

Once we send our request out, things are set in motion by our Partner, our co-creator. Nothing "just happens". And once we cultivate this living, working system, and truly believe in it, there really is NO NEED TO WORRY.

Here another quote which I also like to use when trying to explain the futility of worrying to my clients and the need for manifesting solutions, rather than worrying about "what is going to happen?...what if I can't?...what if it doesn't?"...etc.

"If you take your eyes off your goals, all you see are obstacles."

This helps us to see that we must look beyond what we perceive as obstacles and focus continually on our goals, visualize them in detail, often, not only when praying or meditating, but throughout the day. To believe they will be manifested, but in ways we, as human beings, with our limited senses and understandings could never contemplate.

Not worrying implies FAITH.

Faith in God, however it is you perceive him, in the Universe, in your Higher Self.…There is an "overview" (a term used by Kryon:…see next post for further insights into this whole idea from Kryon), a full picture, which we as human beings can never see. We live in the world of linear time, where past present and future are just that: past (what has already occurred), present (what we see this moment), and future (that which has yet to happen). But this is again because we are limited by our human capacities. In effect, all time is NOW. (That also makes it easier to understand how we can use Reiki, or other methods, to bring about change not only in the future, but in the PAST.) For in Universal terms, there is no past present or future, but only NOW. This is the Overview that we are unable to see.

What we need to understand is that although we cannot "see" the actual ways in which solutions will unfold, we can manifest these goals by "Seeing" the end result exactly as we wish it to be. And once we have done this, we must leave the "how's" to God and his Universe, with complete trust. And when we do this, there is NO REASON TO WORRY!.

Always remember: "Thoughts become things...…choose the good ones", and you cannot go wrong. When we worry, we incorporate negative thoughts into our manifestations, into our prayers, into our requests, and this negative energy is received by the Universe and incorporated into the solution which is being formulated (or has already been set in place!).

Please continue with the post

Letting Go and Letting God- Parable of the Missing Bridge which follows these 2 posts.…It will give you considerable food for thought and more in-depth understanding of the idea of Trust in the Universe and the futility of worrying.

I would like to end this Part II of the First Reiki Principle with the following from Carolyn Myss' Book, Invisible Acts of Power, pp. 141-142 as it is so appropriate:

A Third Chakra Prayer

I realease into this universe my trust that my journey in life and all who walk my path with me are there by divine design. Therefore, I trust that along this path, others will always be there for me, even when I cannot see them waiting for me. And I open myself to be of service to those who m ay provide me the gift of empowerment.

THE PRAYER OF THOMAS MERTON

Dear God, I have no idea where I am going.

I do not see the road ahead of me.

I cannot know for certain where it will end.

Nor do I really know myself...and the fact that I think that I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.

But I believe this:

I believe that the desire to please You does in fact please You.

I hope I have that desire in everything I do.

I hope I never persist in anything apart from that desire.

And I know that if I do this You will lead me by the right road, thought I may know nothing about it at the time.

Therefore I will trust You always, for though I may be lost...I will not be afraid, because I know You will never leave me to face my troubles all alone.

Continued in Part III....next post...Parable of the Missing Bridge-Kryon

Do Not Worry Part III - Parable of the Missing Bridge from Kryon

Let Go and Let God

Following the previous posts which hopefully gave you further insights into the Reiki Principle “Just For Today-I Will Not Worry”…I am including the following from a Kryon Channeling. If you choose to read it, you will be taken further along into the idea of Trust in the Universe…the ideas presented are not unique in any way, but the parable of the Missing Bridge is one of my favorite examples for understanding the concept of “Letting Go and Letting God”. If you want to delve further into the channelings of Kryon and get further information, you can check out the Kryon Also note that the word “Spirit” is used frequently in these channelings, but God, Universe, Higher Source etc., could all be used just as easily…do not let semantics confuse you.


The first (thing to understand about trusting the Universe) is this: As you see and acknowledge the fact that the solution already exists even though you cannot see it, visualize the solution…. Now, this is important. Don't visualize what you THINK you need to create the solution. Let that be your partner's job (Spirit). Let US do that. If a human is going to run a race in the morning and wants to be one of the few who finishes, but doesn't know how he is going to get through that exhausting hill or around that tight turn, he might pray to God about the tight turn and the exhausting hill. We're here to say instead, he should be visualizing only passing easily over the finish line. Let US figure out about the exhausting hill and the tight turn. That's our job.

Let us review for a moment the parable that was given to you regarding Henry and the Missing Bridge. Some of you will remember that this was a story about Henry who was speeding toward a bridge that he knew was out. Everything that Spirit said to him was, "Continue on, Henry. Things are not always as they seem, Henry. You will be taken care of, Henry." The missing bridge was a metaphor for what human beings cannot fathom or see in the future that God has already taken care of. ….. For the solution to Henry's problem of the missing bridge had already been taken care of. You can read that parable again, (Kryon Book 7- “Letters from Home”, pp. 226-229)

As Henry approached the area where the bridge was supposed to be, he opened his eyes and realized that it was still gone. His fear increased... it was the last moment! It took everything he had in him not to stop right there, yet Spirit said, "Henry, continue on, continue on." So Henry in all his faith, continued on even faster than before, trusting God, and the partnership within. Just as he thought he was about to have his vehicle careen over the cliffs to a certain death in the valley below, he saw workmen on the road guiding him around to an area he had never seen before - an area completely out of sight that he had never, ever observed - hidden. And standing in full glory there was a beautiful new bridge! It was a bridge that was so big and so awesome that Henry realized that it had been under construction long before his need. He crossed it in ecstatic joy, realizing the power of his partnership with God.

Dear ones, this is the key to the parable. There are solutions … to problems you don't even have yet! By the time you get around to asking Spirit for the solutions, they've already been built, you see.... already been built. It's part of the balance. There HAVE TO BE solutions for the tests that you've agreed to... and there are.

Henry didn't visualize how his bridge dilemma was going to be solved. The thought of a miracle bridge popping before him was silly. The thought was beyond his human reality. So instead, he simply visualized moving to the other side... the end result. The runner visualizes breaking the tape. Regarding your problem? Visualize it all taken care of and then leave the details to us... but YOU do the energy visualization... often!

The second attribute, therefore, is that "things are not always as they seem." The answers may come in very shocking and unusual ways. Sometimes the miraculous energy will astound you. Sometimes the answers seem complex. In retrospect you might say, "long ago if person A hadn't done this, and person B hadn't done that... then my solution would never have been possible." There is something in you that realizes that person A made his move BEFORE you ever needed it. How complex this was, you might say. How elegant and perfect! Not only that, but within your solution, no matter how complex the interaction is with others, somehow everyone seems to win! Dear ones. That's the mark of a SPIRITUAL solution. Visualize, therefore, the solution as having been taken care of.

The third attribute is Don't LIMIT GOD. You don't know what we do. There are so many of you who are standing here asking for a bush when Spirit stands with …a whole forest (for you)! You don't expect it since you don't feel the self-worth of it. The solution to your little problem may contain the whole forest as a gift for you! Things that you don't even know about yet will be solved within the solution of the one problem you have on your lap... perfect within the simplicity of the physics and love of Spirit, and the complexities of your humanism.

So let US do the work. That's the overview of your partner (Spirit), the one you're holding hands with. That's the golden one in the golden chair - the one who knows everything about your potentials - about your contract - called the golden angel, or higher self. It has the energy of Spirit, yet it also has your name. Don't limit Spirit.

WRITING – From the Heart or From the Head

The following is posted on my India Blog as well, but felt it needed to find its way to this blog also. There is a more intense and thought-provoking post in the process dealing with Fear and Faith, but it is not yet ready for posting...perhaps it will be before I leave India...and then again, perhaps not!

I’ve come to an interesting understanding… My blog posts this trip have been fairly dull and uninteresting and whenever I sat down at the computer to write about my day, there was no true desire to write at all. So I simply put down the basic facts of the day’s experience and left it at that. The “heart” of my experience literally never got put down “on paper”. And that was the problem.

I am now sitting in a coffee shop along the Ganga, feeling the energies, absorbing the atmosphere, and, with pen in hand, FEELING the words for the first time this trip. I cannot go back and “fix” what has already been posted, but I would like to believe that the rest of the trip will, as in the past, first find its way through my heart and hand via pen, to paper, and then later simply be transcribed to the computer. The full range of feelings and insights can only be felt in this way it seems.

I truly have had an amazing journey here. So many things have happened in so short a time, that I honestly do not feel the need to be here longer than the originally planned 7 weeks ( which end in 2 weeks!). Everything I could have dreamt of and imagined to make this short time perfect, whole and complete, has happened. Healing on deep levels, great joy and laughter, unexpected surprises on all levels – physical, emotional, mental and spiritual – all coming together in perfect harmony to bring full and profound meaning to this trip.

I have been blessed with all those people (angels) necessary to initiate and facilitate different processes whose end results are complete tranquility, harmony and balance. A feeling of wellbeing on all levels which I haven’t experienced in a long time, and was in desperate need of.

There have been those who have been guided to me to find answers to their own issues through the Divine guidance I am always offered. And there have been those sent to ME to help ME move forward in healing issues which have plagued me for too long. Issues which I have been asking for help with for a long time.

I now sit overlooking the Ganga, with a feeling of deep contentment, knowing that once again I have journeyed inward through Divine Grace and discovered further unexplored territories and landscapes in the depth of my heart and soul.

I look forward to returning to the “real” world and continuing my journey, knowing that I have all the faith necessary to fearlessly continue to travel the new paths opened before me. I am surrounded always with loving protection and guidance from God and His Universe, my Guides, and the angels.

I amy be writing further posts…but I doubt there is any way to truly put into words the full depth and range of feelings and insights I have experienced over the past short month.

INSIGHT: It is interesting that this first “writing” comes in the wake, and seemingly as another result of, the healing in the form of past-life regression and Tikun (fixing) I experienced 2 days ago. It fits into the pattern…my meditations are deeper and more tranquil of mind, my yoga asanas are easier with a newfound flexibility of joint and muscle, my quiet, still poses, are effortless and can be held indefinitely without loosing my balance, my pranayama (breathing exercises) are much deeper and exhilarating, so ti makes sense that as a result of this deep cleansing, unblocking and release of accumulated “toxins” from the past, my words would also begin to flow as well!

HAVE TO! MUST DO! TIME OUT!

To all those who have been wondering where I’ve disappeared to, and to those of you who know I am in India “recharging”…but still perhaps wondering why I haven’t posted anything lately…well, let me clear things up.

For the last couple of months before leaving for India, I had many insights for posts for this blog having to do with the question of “fear vs. faith”, taking our blessings for granted, additional Reiki stories etc…but never seemed to be able to find the energies to sit down at the computer. But I figured I’d have plenty of time in India and so did not feel pressured.
But since I’ve gotten here, I have done NONE of things I imagined I would (but this is generally what happens in India…things just “happen”…generally quite differently than you imagined…and you flow with them…it’s the beauty of being here).

But NOT doing these things I felt I “had to”, was really getting me down, and feeling guilty, and not pleased with myself. Thinking what my subscribers must be thinking of me, thinking how I am letting people down etc. And yet I still could not get to “doing”…so I asked for guidance, as I very often do. Yesterday,I bought a couple of new decks of cards as you might know if you read my other blog, and last night, before going to sleep, after consecrating and preparing the decks, I decided to try my new “Messages from your Angels” deck.

The first card that came up had the following message which has completely released me from guilt and the “must do” feeling…I will cherish each day of the last few weeks I have here and , as always, am blessed in many ways to be so lovingly guided at each step along the way

“Time out! You’ve been so busy taking care of everyone else’s needs, but now it’s time to stop and take care of yourself”

and the continuing message reads:
“Dear one, you’ve been working very hard! You’re very tired now, yet you keep pushing yourself to work more, more, more! I am here to firmly and lovingly take your hand, and tell you to “stop!” Cease working for a moment and take a respite. You have certainly earned it, and you will be more efficient and productive after taking this rest.

You give so much to others that at times like this you become unbalanced. Your inner child yearns for nurturing, and no one is going to give you that loving care but yourself and the angels. So, give yourself permission to take a much-needed time-out. Please don’t delay this guidance. We assure you that your responsibilities will all be met, and you will gather new energy and ideas during your time-out. “

So, the message is absolutely clear, and I WILL listen carefully to it and devote the rest of my time here ENTIRELY to me.

Love and light to all
Jane

Just for Today I Will Love and Respect Every Living Creature

…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…leviticus 19:18

If we look at this, as it is worded in the fourth of the Reiki Principles, it appears to be fairly straightforward. It is pretty obvious to us that one of the most important things in this world is to love and respect others, show compassion and tolerance, patience and understanding etc. We also know that we must be kind to EVERY living being and this would of course include animals, insects, plants etc., etc.

The original wording of the principle as stated by Dr. Usui is slightly different, but the message is more easily understood with the above paraphrase which I prefer using in my Reiki classes and in my own daily meditation practice.

And the profoundness of the principle, if we truly think about it, opens the door to an entirely new way of perceiving the ups and downs of our lives, of relating to instances where we feel we have been wronged by someone, or taken advantage of, even purposely hurt or embarrassed, or injured in any way. Of relating to the different people who come into our lives and the way we accept and embrace all that is sent our way by God and the Universe.

In addition, if we add just two small words to the above principle, it changes the impact and intent even more deeply. Just for Today I will Love and Respect Every Living Creature…INCLUDING MYSELF!! If we do not truly love ourselves, how can we possibly love and respect our neighbor??

I will try and give insights into the following two questions we must try to answer:

1. Can we truly love and respect others if we don’t do the same for ourselves
2. Can we truly be expected to love and respect EVERYone??


Before going any further into the idea of loving even those who we perceive as causing us pain or wishing us ill, let us, just for a moment, think about our relationship with ourselves.

Do you love yourself? Are you proud of yourself? Do you respect yourself? Do you take yourself for granted? Do you put yourself down? Do you say unkind things about yourself ? Just for the next week, in addition to saying this principle each day with your daily prayers, meditation or whatever your regular practice is, try delving a little deeper into it. Pay attention during the day to the thoughts that you have regarding the things you do. Check the impulse to criticize yourself, or be compassionate with yourself. Note how you feel when you make a wrong decision, or get lost on the highway, or break a dish you are washing, or burn the supper, or simply forget to do something important. What feelings do you have, what words fill your head at the moment (stupid, clumsy, thoughtless, lazy). What sensations do you feel physically in your body? Where? Are you automatically hard on yourself, or, perhaps, compassionate and understanding.

Think about this for a week, and I think you will be quite surprised at what you find. Many of us cannot even say out loud “I love myself”, “I think I am great”, “I am perfect just as I am”, etc., but even those of us who CAN say these things and truly mean them, are still too often overly critical of ourselves.

I would even think to perhaps state the principle in a little different way. Instead of “Just for today I will love and respect every living creature…(including myself)”…How about: “Just for today I will love and respect myself in the same way I imagine I love and respect every other living creature” . Said in that way, it might make it easier for us to realize how much more compassionate we can be with others, how much more tolerant and understanding, how much more patient and loving, than we tend to be with ourselves.

Like a caring mother
Holding and guarding the life
Of her only child,
So with a boundless heart
Hold yourself…. And all beings

…Buddha

“We might quite readily offer such care to others, but we can learn to offer this same kind of gentle attention to ourselves. With the tenderness we might bring to stroking the cheek of a sleeping child, we can softly place a hand on our own cheek or heart. We can comfort ourselves with words of kindness and understanding. “ Radical Acceptance”, Tara Brach, PhD.

For once again, if we do not GENUINELY love and respect ourselves, our pretense at loving and respecting every living creature is just that…pretense… Self love is the first step in truly loving our fellow creatures. And when we love and respect ourselves, everything and anything that happens to us, can be dealt with in a healthy way.

Only when we come to terms with our own shortcomings and learn to accept ourselves exactly as we are, to extend unconditional love to the beautiful person we are, to be compassionate with ourselves even when we are not all we expected of ourselves, to love and respect ourselves and recognize the beauty of our soul within…to feel worthy and deserving and freely offer praise and genuine respect to ourselves…only when we cherish our own being, no matter where we may find ourselves at a particular moment, or stage in our lives, only when we offer ourselves encouragement and love at each step along the way and appreciate our accomplishments-no matter how small, only when we stop taking ourselves and our own needs and wants for granted and understand that we are just as worthy and deserving as everyone else…only when we truly love and respect ourselves can we begin to truly love the next person.

Many people will say “I don’t expect anything from the next person (my children, my spouse, my co-workers, etc.) that I don’t expect from myself.” Well, perhaps we are much too hard on ourselves! Others find it easy to extend loving-kindness, compassion, patience, tolerance, understanding, forgiveness and encouragement to others, while they dole out to themselves judgment, blame, anger, belittling words, harsh accusations, lack of forgiveness, etc.

But it is only when we can find the way to love ourselves unconditionally that we can truly understand the words:

…thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself…leviticus 19:18

The idea has obviously been around for a long time and is not a new concept developed by Dr. Usui… The Great Hebrew Sage Rabbi Akiva said “This is the most important point in the Torah…the rest is just commentary”.

The idea of loving the next person as we love ourselves becomes very easy as we simply extend the same gracious and loving attention to everyone that we do to ourselves.

And that will bring us to the second part of this discussion…loving and respecting EVERY living creature:

Let us look at this idea of loving and respecting EVERYone …. This would seem almost impossible when we think of some of the strange, difficult, inconsiderate, spiteful and even abusive people who we meet in our lifetime. But there is a profound lesson in extending understanding, forgiveness (see the post re: Forgiveness ) , compassion , patience and tolerance to those who truly wish us ill. It brings us once again in contact with the idea of FAITH…faith that God is sending these people into our lives for a loving purpose…no matter how difficult that may be for us to see.

We must learn to Cherish those we dislike, even those we perceive as enemies, for they are gifts from God and we must be thankful for this blessing and pray for the wisdom to learn the lesson these people have been sent to teach us

We draw to us those who will help us learn about ourselves. Each time we are presented with a challenge dealing with another, we are really being presented with an opportunity to look inside ourselves to see what about us it is that needs working on, so that we may grow.

The idea of loving each and every person, no matter what, is quite difficult, almost impossible, but I present the idea to you for further thought and consideration, together with the following collection of quotes and insights, and perhaps your comments will lead to further discussion which will benefit us all:

Every person sent to us is a blessing meant to teach us a lesson we need to learn.

In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher.

Dalai Lama

Everything that irritates us about others

Can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

Carl Jung (1875-1961), Psychologist ~

I have learned silence from the talkative,

tolerance from the intolerant

and kindness from the unkind.

I should not be ungrateful to those teachers.

Kahlil Gibran

What angers us in another person is more often than not an unhealed aspect of ourselves. If we had already resolved that particular issue,we would not be irritated by its reflection back to us.~ Simon Peter Fuller (from 'Rising Out of Chaos') ~

No-one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) ~

Nothing can hurt you unless you give it the power to do so.

~ A Course in Miracles ~~

The main teachers of patience are our enemies."
Dalai Lama

and with this I wish you all much love and compassion, patience and tolerance, and freedom from fear to accept and embrace all that is sent your way by God and His Loving Universe.

Jane

NEW FEATURE-EASY NAVIGATION

Hi all
Just a quick post to let you know that in trying to find ways to make it easier for you to find the information you are looking for on the blog, and since the scope of the blog has grown, I have listed at the end of the very first post, a long list of available topics. If you click on one of the labels at the end of the post, you will be taken to ALL the posts dealing with that topic. (The first post to appear will always be the FIRST one but then just scroll down and choose the post you want to read). At the end of each INDIVIDUAL post, are additional labels which you may also wish to explore. To get an idea about what I am talking about, I have randomly listed some labels at the end of THIS post for you to try out.

Hope this makes it more convenient for you to find what you are looking for. comments welcome.

Peace and tranquility to all
Jane

EMBRACING LIFE WITH A SMILE

Below is a meditation which I recently began using and which I find to be a beautiful way of feeling the beauty and joy of each and every day. Even the ones which don't seem to be going the way we would like them be going, a few minutes with this meditation puts all things into an entirely different perspective and leaves us feeling much more accepting of all that comes our way. For in effect, EVERYTHING which is sent to us, in any form, is a blessing from God and the Universe...we just don't always perceive it as such.

I'd love to get your comments on this meditation and hope you WILL try it.

Credit to the author:

"Radical Acceptance – Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha" - Tara Brach, Ph.D

I would suggest that you record this for yourself so that you can hear the guided meditation several times before trying it alone without the recording. Also, when you imagine the smile, try to picture a half-smile, similar perhaps to the Mona Lisa or if you are familiar with it, the Buddha as he is pictured in statues and pictures (see above).





Sitting comfortably, close your eyes and let the natural rhythm of the breath help you to relax. Take a few moments to let go of obvious places of tightness and tension. Now, listening to sounds and becoming ware of the space around you, allow the curved image of a smile to appear in your mind. Notice how gentleness, kindness, openness and ease arise with the idea of a smile. Sense the curved relaxed smile fill your mind and extend outward into space.

Now imagine a smile at the corner of both eyes and feel the sensations that arise there. Allow your brow to be smooth, the flesh around your eyes to be soft and relaxed. You might sense your eyes floating gently as if in a pool of warm water. Continue to soften and let go through the whole area around the eyes. Can you perceive a relaxed brightness there?

Now bring a small but real smile to your lips, the half-smile of the Buddha, and allow the feeling to relax the muscles of your face. Let the jaw be relaxed and loose, and let the tip of the tongue lightly touch the roof of the mouth. Feel now how the eyes are smiling…the mouth is smiling…

Bring the image of a smile to your throat and notice what happens. There might be a relaxing and opening. If there is tightness allow it to be held in the sense of the smile. Feel again the corners of your eyes smiling, your mouth smiling, your throat smiling.
Let the smile drift down into your chest. Imagine the shape and feeling of a smile spreading through the area of your heart. Whatever feelings might be there, allow them to float in the openness and kindness of a smile. Continuing to relax, sense the smile in your heart sending ripples of ease throughout your body – through the shoulders, along the arms and down into the torso and legs. Can you feel the openness and vibrancy of a smile at the navel, the genitals, the base of the spine?

Allow yourself to rest in the spacious and kind awareness that is engendered by a smile. When thoughts, sensations or emotions arise, can you sense how they are held with unconditional friendliness? If your mind wanders or you find yourself tightening, you can gently reestablish the smile in your mind, eyes, mouth and heart.

With practice, you will find that the smile is a simple and powerful way to reawaken the heart at any moment of the day. Rather than a full “smile-down” as described above, you can also explore simply assuming the half-smile of the Buddha whenever you remember.

Hope you find time to use it ...it is really a powerful tool towards inner peace and loving acceptance of life, ESPECIALLY when things are not going well in general, or you are just having a "bad day".

Reiki Questions- FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions:

What do people use Reiki for?

People use Reiki for a variety of reasons since the energy heals on an emotional, mental, spiritual, and physical level. Some people use Reiki during very emotional or stressful times, so that they are able to focus or think with more clarity and to maintain balance in their lives. Reiki is a wonderful tool to use as a support to therapy or counseling. Reiki can provide the emotional healing that needs to take place to eliminate destructive patterns and heal past traumas, and to give us the needed energy to let go of things that are no longer contributing positively in our life.
Others use Reiki as a means to manage chronic pain or to facilitate healing in an area of the physical body for a variety of reasons - broken bones, sprains, back pain, cancer, arthritis, migraines to name a few.

Reiki is also safe for pregnancy and is a good option for pregnant women who choose not to take prescription medications during this delicate time, and are suffering from pain and discomfort or women and babies experiencing complications during the pregnancy. Reiki is especially good at helping to lower blood pressure and relieving nausea. Babies love Reiki!

Reiki allows the body to rid itself of toxins too and counteracts the negative effects of radiation and chemotherapy without reducing the treatment's effectiveness.

Reiki is a preventative measure to ensure increased wellness and vitality. Reiki can eliminate areas of stagnant energy that can contribute to "dis-ease". It also plays a vital function in balancing the chakra system and releasing energy blockages. When our chakra system is unbalanced, our body is unable to funnel our body's healing energy to the rest of the body, thus contributing to the onset of significant health problems.

Reiki is a very personal experience, sometimes leading to profound spiritual awakenings and insight. Many people have wonderful meditation or journeying experiences during their session due to the increase in higher vibrational energy.

Finally, a Reiki treatment feels fantastic and is in such a relaxing atmosphere that people plan a treatment as part of their spa day or to treat themselves at the end of a difficult week or difficult day!

How often should people get Reiki?

Once again, this is very personal and depends highly on what levels you would like to obtain healing. Reiki will meet your "highest need" first. Once that has been addressed it continues down the line addressing needs on all levels of your being. The more Reiki you are exposed to, the more healing is able to occur.

If you are using Reiki as a support to counseling and therapy, then it is suggested to schedule an appointment around the same time as your planned therapy appointments.

For chronic pain many people find that once a week to once every two weeks helps them significantly and effectively reduce their pain and increase mobility. I always try to see people same day on their "bad days".

To promote healing of sports injuries, sprains, cancer - come as often as possible.

For fun and relaxation, whenever you want to treat yourself!

To maintain optimal health and wellness, try once a month.

The bottom line is that no matter how often you come, you will leave better than before you came - so even if you come once a month or once every 6 months, it is worth it!

What happens in a Reiki session?

During a Reiki treatment session you are resting comfortably on a massage table with a leg pillow and head pillow if needed. Your eyes are closed as you possibly enjoy meditation music and the babbling of a feng shui fountain. There will be times when your Reiki Practitioner will have their hands resting lightly on your physical body and other times when their hands will be working directly with your energetic self in the aura.

A Reiki treatment is a time for you to rest and relax and allow yourself to be nurtured and cared for. You have no duties in the session but to WANT to heal and to allow yourself to rest and remain open to the Reiki experience in whatever form it may take for you. Some people feel tingling, warmth, coolness, or even see flashes of colors or report seeing their chakras. Many people fall asleep because the Reiki energy is so soothing!

While each person's experience of Reiki energy is unique, the most common physical sensation reported during treatment is warmth, tingling, or light pressure. There are also people who “feel” nothing, but that has nothing to do with the fact that Reiki is “doing” what it needs to. It is not uncommon for people to fall asleep during treatment, including those who specifically report being "high anxiety."

Many people experience a dramatic reduction or complete elimination of pain post-treatment!

If you have further questions, please comment here or send me an e-mail and I will be happy to reply to you personally: janetrip2001@yahoo.com

New Feature for Your Convenience

Just a quick post to let you know that there is now a new feature available on the blog to make navigation easier for you, especially if you are looking for a specific topic. At the end of each post, there is now a list of "labels". If you click on one for example "reiki" you will be transferred to a page which contains all the posts with information regarding Reiki. If you click on a label "pictures" for example, all the posts with pictures in them will be sorted together for you. At the bottom of this post for example, the only label is "General Information" and if you click on it, this post and any others with general information will appear. There is probably only one other post like that, but this is just an example. Use this feature as it will make things easier if you are looking for a specific topic. You can still use the categories list on the side, but eventually I will remove these as the way they function is not really efficient and can be annoying to say the least.

If you are not sure what "label" you need, just skim over the first few posts, or further down if necessary, and you will see all the labels at the end of each post which will refresh your memory as to what you are looking for. Click on the specific label which peaks your interest and lo and behold, all the posts with that label category will be sorted out for your reading pleasure!

So far, the labels available are as follows: (there will be more as I finish the blog revamp)

blessings, Carolyn Myss, channeling, disease, dreams, Faith, General Information, God, In Memoriam, India, insights, inspiration, Kryon, lessons, messages, Panchakarma, personal stories, pictures, Poetry, prayer, Reiki, Reiki Principles, Reiki stories, service, surrender, Tarot, thoughts become things, trees, Truth, workshops, worry

Enjoy!
And pleasant reading to all of you
Jane

The Cumulative Effects of Reiki and Dis-ease

Reiki, and its effects, are cumulative. Done on a regular, continuing basis, it will keep dis-ease from developing, and if it has already developed, will remove it at the source.

If you begin a series of 3 consecutive treatments, the first one simply leaves you with a feeling of complete relaxation, as it is beginning to remove blockages by removing their source, which is very frequently, stress. (Some estimate [The American Institute of stress for example], that 95% of doctors visits are stress related). Releasing stress, hence the relaxed feeling after a Reiki treatment.

If you continue, the second consecutive treatment the following day brings those issues being addressed to the surface and the third begins the true detoxification and removal of the issues which are causing the blockages, and could lead to disease, or have already precipitated disease.

If you do just one treatment, the initial results, removal of stress, are the same, but the cumulative effects take much longer to achieve as compared to consecutive daily treatments.

Many people cannot allow themselves the luxury of several daily treatments, logistically or financially and so at best, do a treatment once a week or even less frequently, as conditions allow.

Therefore, learning Reiki yourself is the ultimate way of maintaining good health and preventing disease, as well as relieving chronic conditions which you may already suffer from.

See the next post for a series of Reiki stories from people who have recently done Reiki I workshops with me.

If you would like to receive further information by e-mail, just write to me.


My best wishes to you and your family for the New Year. Much good health, prosperity, peace and tranquility, balance and harmony, patience and understanding, and most important, love and laughter.

Jane

Reiki Stories

Just a collection of stories from people who recently did Reiki I workshops with me.



Just about a month ago I taught a Reiki I Workshop to a small group of professional health care providers who work in both private clinic and hospital settings. Needless to say they were quite skeptical of the practical applications of Reiki, but decided to see if it could facilitate the work with their patients, and gave the workshop a try.



Little did they suspect the impact it would have on themselves personally or on their families. I will not share any patient feedbacks here to respect their privacy, but I have permission to share the following short stories with you in the hope that others will try Reiki for themselves and their families as well



So here are firstly some stories from these participants : (without names of course)






Want to share something very significant that happens to me.
As you might remember, It is really hard for me to wake-up in the mornings. The truth is that usually, when it's possible and I'm at home I take a nap in the middle of the day.
Otherwise I can't finish the day....
Well, since our workshop I don't have the need for so many hours of sleep.
I find myself very active with 6 hours of sleep. No problem waking up in the mornings and no need for a mid-day nap....
It's great!!!

Hi Reiki pals: I have to share with you: yesterday was our grandkids day; Maya was bitten the night before by a mosquito, she is very allergic and it was VERY swollen; she gets fenistil drops and cream, and it usually makes her very cranky and miserable (I also react that way so I know what this means); we went to a performance and she sat with me and got reiki all the time, for 1 hour; it was much less swollen, she didn't complain, once I put some cream, she didn't get the drops and slept well all night through. WONDERFUL, thanks Jane and to you all, have a wonderful day,

This morning I hit my baby toe on the leg of the metal chair in my computer room. For those of you who know me well, you know how many times I have broken toes. It was not broken ( I did not hear the crack) but it really hurt since it has been broken so many times. I was already trying to decide which shoes I would have to wear for the next few weeks.
Instead of running for the ice pack, I Reiki'd it and guess what……after about 2 minutes, the pain was gone…….not even a hint!! Normally, I would have a huge swollen toe, difficulty walking and unable to put on shoes for a long time, even if it was not broken. Wow, this thing really works!!



A month ago I did a Reiki workshop with Jane Abramovitz specially designed to help with breastfeeding problems. I have to share with you some examples of how amazing this is in my work.



1. Mother had terrible edema on day 2 after delivery. Nipple areola complex resembled tire rubber, and the pressure of the lymphatic fluids on the milkducts was so intense that not only was the mom in great pain, but no milk came out. All attempts to express milk by hand, pump, or any other way failed. There was no way this mom could latch the baby on the breast. RSP did not even help. This was a day after I finished the workshop and I was excited to try using my new skill. The result was amazing. For the first time, milk started to pour out of this mom's breast!! WE were able to give the baby mom's milk in a little spoon and later even latch him on the breast.



2. I had a mom with her second birth who has such horrific pain from her stitches that she could not sit in any way that was comfortable. Again,Reiki worked like magic. After a few minutes with my hand in the area, she said that suddenly the pain went away, and now she could concentrate on breastfeeding.



3. Baby after vacuum extraction.. all contracted against pain, face all scrunched up, and looking very worried. He was refusing to latch or breastfeed. I Rekied him and within a few minutes the furrowed brow relaxed and he started rooting and latched!!



4. Today I had a mom with the worst case of engorgement I have seen in a long time. Breasts were tight, hard and so loaded with milk that pumping was useless and painful. I told the mom that I had no choice but to try Reiki first before we did anything else. Nipples were abraised and sore and mom was afraid to even try to latch the baby, and had given artificial milk al lnight. I Reikied her and suddenly, with no pressure whatsoever, the milk started dripping out of the breast that I was working on. Within a short time, we were able to get the baby latched on and she helped drain the breast. The mom said that this was simply magic. Until now, nothing had helped and only made it worse and nothing had come out!!



It is useful not only in breastfeeding.

Tuesday I got an message from my daughter that her 9 month old had fever since 4 in the morning, and felt really yucky, could I come and Reiki him. He was burning up ( 38.8) and acting really sick and miserable. I reikid him while he was breastfeeding and after a very few minutes my daughter touched his head and it was cool and he was sweating. Suddenly he sat up and was his usually jolly happy self, smiling at everyone and ready to play. He has been fine since.I know this sounds too good to be true, but I am amazed every time I do it!







And now below a couple of stories from participants in a workshop just last week!(sorry, no pics)

I did Reiki to myself first after getting home and told my daughter that I can't wait to do Reiki on her. She usually rolls her eyes the most in the family whenever I mention something like Healing or Reiki, but she agreed to let me do Reiki on her. She then asked how long it takes and said "I don't think I'll be able to lie on my bed for more than a minute or two without getting up." (she has shpilkas, or ants in the pants - which you could call ADD or just simply say the girl can't sit still for very long and has a very low tolerance for boredom). Well, after the first 3 minutes, she became so still I thought - hmm. Better not laugh! Then as I progressed (and realized that her bed wasn't good for me but I was committed and since you said some Reiki was better than none, I continued) she then fell asleep! When I finished, I asked her if she realized she'd slept and she was very surprised

...and more stories....




Friday I had a presentation in my class with another student. Before the presentation, my partner told me she hadn't slept all night, her eyes felt awful, she was extremely agitated and nervous and just felt jumpy and out of it. I asked her if she'd mind if I did a bit of Reiki on her (I'd told the whole class about the experience). She said - sure!
So I had her sit in a chair (we only had a few minutes because our breaks are only ten minutes long and half the break was over) and I placed my hands over her eyes (I was standing behind her). I held that position for a few minutes then placed my hands on her shoulders for the remaining few minutes. When I backed away, I didn't even ask her how she felt, she turned to me lifted her shoulders up and down a few times and with raised eyebrows said: Wow - I feel totally relaxed right now - that was exactly what I needed! We then proceeded to give our presentation (our "final work" and we were the first to do it) and it was absolutely excellent. She did a bang up job and we almost got a standing ovation - the class LOVED what we did.

a few days ago I took the train to M, where my husband's cousins and his aunt live. I did Reiki to his aunt, who is 80 and having a lot of health issues, his cousin L, and his cousin E. His aunt wanted it done but was suspicious, and she didn't have much of a reaction afterwards. I felt a strong flow over her heart and her daughter said she'd had a very bad year, a lot of relatives died and she takes everything "to heart". As she said that, it kind of made sense. Then L had it done and she fell asleep and felt extremely relaxed and refreshed afterwards. Then E called from his home and his wife, who was supposed to be next, said that E has been sick for two weeks and has horrible sinus problems, can I do him instead? I agreed and we went to their house. I did Reiki on him and he said the minute I laid my hands on his face his sinuses cleared up and he felt a lot of heat from my hands in each position I put them. Then when I got to his feet he said afterwards that he felt like he was being enveloped from the feet on up to his head. He told me that he suffers from muscular aches in both of his arms and asked me to do it on one arm. I put both hands on the spot he had problems with and we talked for a bit. He said he felt a tremendous heat and when I lifted my hands from his sleeve, even his shirt was hot! He said he felt immediate relief in that arm and was blown away with the whole treatment. He said his sinuses haven't been clear for over 10 days and he was able to breathe through his nose through the whole treatment.




My mom also told me she has felt energy go through her feet and after the 2nd session she was able to stand up straight, which is something she hasn't been able to do in ages due to back pains. She ended up crying with relief thinking that maybe she wouldn't have to live as a cripple the rest of her life. She asked if crying was common and I told her it was.

After I told my youngest son (who suffers from an eye condition that has him legally blind in one eye and beginning in the other) about how I no longer have fibroids and a cyst, he asked me to do another session with him. The first session he laughed from beginning to end, which I told him is a release, and not to worry. The second session he told me he felt a tremendous amount of heat on his eyes, on his ears and on his chest, which when I looked up what chakras it is it said this is where the stress is and he is one stressed kid. He said he felt heat in his eyes even afterwards and all the next day he "felt" his eyes. He asked me to do it again the next night. And last night we decided to only do the eyes for 15 minutes (which turned into 20 when the flow became so strong and I didn't' want to stop) and the chest for 6 minutes. We will continue with his eyes when I get back from vacation

Cat Reiki story: my friend has a cat that was sick awhile back and doesn't quite look like himself anymore. He is sort of wild and won't let anyone touch him, except for my friend, and even that is reluctant. When I told my friend you can do Reiki on animals she asked me to do her cat. So I put my hands on either side of the cat (not touching him) while he was laying on a chair. At first he gave me "the eye" then closed his eyes, rolled on his back and purred. My friend stood over me and kept exclaiming that this is a wild cat and hates to be approached - it's amazing!

...yesterday I got my finger jammed in our sliding glass door for a mini-second. My pinky - which already is crooked from a time that it broke when I was a child- hurt like the dickens and I grabbed the pinky with my left hand thinking - oh boy, I hope it's not broken. I took a peek at it and saw that it was beginning to swell and looked oddly crooked - at the top part. I thought - here's the test! I will Reiki it and see what happens. (while seeing stars I said this to myself). I sat in front of the TV and watched a 40 minute program and I just held my left hand over it and asked for the "best outcome" for me. After 40 minutes I took my left hand off and thought - hmm, no pain, that's good. It looks pretty good too. Swelling went down. It looks "slightly" off - a tiny bump that you have to look close to find, but I'm able to bend it (wasn't before). So I'm a happy camper. That was yesterday. Today it's like new.

... I went to my annual gynecological exam a few days ago and every year they tell me I have a cyst, that is getting larger every year, on my ovary, a fibroid that is huge in my uterus, and I always end up doing a few more exams with the ultrasound and bloodtests (to check for cancer) and whatever. So I was prepared for the doctor to tell me to make further appointments and he says: well, you're fine. No cyst, no fibroid. I asked how he could explain it and he said something about maybe the cyst was water filled and the body absorbed it, or maybe the fibroid went away because of the menopause. Could be. Then again, I'm convinced it's the Reiki!

I did Reiki long distance on a friend with a brain tumor who lives in Chicago. Yes, you told me that sometimes it could wake people up if they are sleeping, but since she didn't specify a day and a time for me to do her, yet she was very eager for me to do it, I decided to do it in the afternoon here when it was 5:30am her time. I figured it probably doesn't wake everyone up and I thought I'd take the chance. I told her afterwards that I did it when it was 5:30 am her time and she wrote back: So THAT'S the reason I woke up so early!

I did Reiki on both of my parents and they both had interesting reactions. My father felt his heart race before he fell asleep, and I told him I'd imagined my putting my hands over his heart, since this is where all of his problems are.




Then my mother told me that she felt an energy enter her through her feet and then her leg twitched which she says never happens. Had she asked me the question: Do you know what happened to me?
I would have said: Your leg twitched. Because I first imagined my hands on her back (she has back problems among other things) and then imagined my hands on her knees for the rest of the time since most of her problems concern her knees. I saw her leg twitch. So hows THAT for voodoo? (cue the Twilight Zone music)

WHAT IS SURRENDER?

"At the center of the Universe is a loving heart that continues to beat and that wants the best for every person. Anything that we can do to help foster the intellect and spirit and emotional growth of our fellow human beings, that is our job. Those of us who have this particular vision must continue against all odds. Life is for service."

-- Fred Rogers (a.k.a., "Mister Rogers") 1928-2003

After many attempts at putting my ideas and thoughts into words for both you and myself, I finally turned inward for Guidance and Direction and the same day receieved a beautiful article by e-mail, which I will simply share here with you with credit to the author. It says all that needs to be said about what we've been talking about for some time now, and how my homecoming has taken shape. You can read about the homecoming on the India Journal and see some photos as well. Enjoy!

What is surrender?

Is it subjugating your will?
Is it not caring what happens?
Is it giving up?
Well, not really.

In every situation, we have the option to act, to attempt change, to apply our will to the given situation. Sometimes that application of intent and energy bears fruit and sometimes it doesn’t. The trick is being able to discern when it is appropriate to act or push, and when it is appropriate to let go and surrender to the flow of life. Sometimes we give up too quickly and sometimes we refuse to surrender, even when surrender is the very thing that will set us free.
So when is it the right time for us to choose surrender? Let’s say you always wanted to be 5’ 8” tall. You get to 5’7” and that’s it. This is an example of karma that can’t be changed. Well sure, I suppose you could go have the bones of your legs stretched through surgical intervention, but why? Does it really matter that much?
Or perhaps you have a beautiful and expensive shirt that you wear to a party. Someone spills grape juice on it, and you can’t get it out. You can try and try, but it’s not going to be the same color again. Sure, you can let go of the fact that you can’t wear the shirt any more, but will it serve you to still be angry and the person who spilled it? Probably not. This is the principle of surrender; letting go of that which you can’t change. Being angry will never bring that shirt back.
Anger or frustration is a choice; a choice to be attached to things, beings or situations being a certain way. Through detachment we are free to have peace regardless of what is going on. This is true surrender. It is the path of grace. By making surrender a conscious choice through positive attitude, awareness and acceptance, we are able to gracefully set ourselves free from the things that we can’t change. This gives us more energy to apply to the things we can and should change.
This frame of mind is particularly pertinent to those of us who always want to be in control of a situation in order to be safe. Really, that tight rein on reality is only creating a smaller box of what we are willing to accept in our lives. When we become more spacious with the things that ultimately don’t matter for our bottom line, we are freer to have more peace and joy regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in. Really, it’s not the situation that ultimately affects us… it’s what we choose to do with it.
Where are you pushing against your life and resisting reality? How are you imposing your will on life instead of embracing life? By moving towards love instead of pressing against fear, you partner with life and the Divine as it is expresses itself through your life. When your eyes open to love, love is what you get to see and experience with more and more frequency.
May you have the graceful discernment to know when to accept what life is offering you, and when to act to create positive change. May you move towards love, and release your fear of life. May you live fully here and now, with the greatest bliss possible.

© Sylvia Brallier
Author of the award winning book,
Dancing in the Eye of Transformation, 10 Keys to Creative Consciousness

MESSAGES FROM THE OTHER SIDE-India, May 26, 2007

Had breakfast this morning with a very nice lady who I had briefly spoken to before and we were each telling each other what we did in "real life" and she was explaining that for the last year or so she has discovered she has the gift of a medium and has entities coming to here with messages for people. We were discussing this and some of the messages I've received lately as well for other people, when all of a sudden she looked at me funny and said someone just came to talk to me!

First she just described her...an old crone, long white hair, walking stick, looks like a wise woman (I suggested medicine woman and she agreed). Says she is here to help me along the journey and that she has been with me for years now. Said that she was walking with me along the way until we came to the edge of a mountain, and for 6 years (!) I refused to go any further because of my fear. Then, the fear dissipated, and even though there was still a black cloud over me, I continued easily with her further along into the bright sunshine and the top of the mountain. (This would fit in just right with my first trip to India in 2001 when I KNEW I had to go in a new direction but fear sent me back to my hi-tech work and kept me away from truly serving...it is only now since I quit my job last August that I know for SURE I will never go back to that place again and only move forward to higher places ). But I can never stay long at the top and must always descend to continue learning new lessons before going further back up. And she will always be there to guide me if I let her. Even when I get to a quiet place, I will never be there long as there will always be new things to learn in order to go even further along the path.

She had a present of two doves for me (which represent lovebirds to me and I imagine deal with the new partner who is coming into my life soon...also had a powerful dream about my first meeting with him last night after my second Aura Transformation balancing)...and she also showed me an old, huge tree which to me represents, as trees always do, the stability of being rooting but still reaching for the heavens and continuing to grow in peace and tranquility.

She then said she would come talk to me personally, without using a medium, and I should just be open to hearing what she has to say to me...And then the lady I was eating with said she'd had enough and asked her to leave....

For me, this was very powerful as it made alot of sense. It's been years now that I've felt a certain affinity for Native Americans and particularly for medicine women...and I think in some past life I must have been connected in some way. And this medicine woman is just a new guide who has come into my life recently to help me along the tricky path...She seemed very real to me when the lady described her, as if I already know her...and I now have the feeling that she is the one who sent the previous 2 messages from the trees I received in Rishikesh.

I will be open to the messages she is bringing me, and give thanks for the continued guidance and direction I receive almost daily these days.

MESSAGE IN A DREAM - INDIA MAY 15T,2007

I am again sending a link to a post in my India Journal, as it brings home once more a profound message of how "things" work...

check out this link about a dream I had, and it's obvious relationship to my beginning Aura Transformation tomorrow....

click here

Love and light
Namaste
Jane

More Insights From India You may Find Interesting

I know I have been neglecting this blog, and you all have my apologies....but if you go to the link below, you can read something which I think belongs more here than on the India Blog, but it IS part of the journey in India, so I have published it there with
THIS

link for you to follow to read it.

As always, your comments are most appreciated and lovingly accepted.

Jane

INSIGHTS FROM INDIA-April 15th-McLeod, Dharamsala

You can read this post at the following link on the India Journal, but thought some of you might be particularly interested in it so am linking you to it from Here


Namaste
Jane

Confusion and Comprehension...New Insights from India

Some extremely powerful things have been happening to me this trip, and I'd like, once again, to share them with you. If you are interested in this latest story, please follow this link:

New Insights

Namaste to all
Jane

Cnntinued Answers from the Universe-My Need to Serve and Those Needing my Service

I have posted a couple of things you may find interesting on my India Journal and the links follow. They say God works in Mysterious Ways but there is nothing mysterious about what is happening to me here...receiving channelings for other people, instructions for healings, and now the following two stories about Reiki, are all direct results of my intensive prayers and meditations over the past months that all those in need of my special services be guided to me. And they are!! They just come...and I serve...in the best way I can, for each of their individual, unique, Higher Goods, according to the guidance and direction I am given in each case, without fail. The messages and signs have been coming in many different and unusual ways, but when we listen, they are always there. From the moment we ask with pure intention for something, things begin to happen. We just need be aware of them.

So enjoy the following 2 links with my love.

Setting things in Motion


Reiki Classes

FINAL VALIDATION FROM THE CARDS

I will continue this post in the same vein as the previous 2, the Message from the Trees and the First Lesson from India and Poem, as it is a continuation of these two previous signs sent to me and is a final validation for what I now know to be my new direction...

Friday Afternoon, March 9th, 5 PM

After the profound events of the past couple of days, and my reviewing them while posting earlier in the day...after not sleeping most of the previous night, I am exhausted.

Sitting on my terrace, listening to classical music and the constant chanting fromt he Temples, I decided it was time for a new Tarot reading relection this new move forward in my understanding and the "path" I am now moving along. I opened the cards and found myself moved to tears as each came up. For those familiar with the Osho cards, I'm sure just the titles will move you as well, but I will give a little background further on for those unfamiliar with the cards.

The order they were picked represents their placement and each card has a different meaning within the reading, but that is not as important as the cards themselves right now...so if you don't understand about the placement, it will not make the cards themselves any less amazing as they fell into place...here they are in order:

THE FOOL
RIPENESS
BEYOND ILLUSION
RECEPTIVITY
MATURITY

I tried to photograph them with my camera but had no luck...wish you could look at them while reading this post...

I was simply brought to tears of joy as they appeared one after the other, without even delving further into their meanings...I will give you a little idea of what each card speaks of, but the words which keep repeating themselves in these cards are the exact words in my poem and lesson: Trust, knowledge, knwoing, truth, obstacles...Read below for a little more about the cards.

Just as I was choosing these cards, another sign was sent to me....The sky had been overcast and hazy all day today. Not nasty, just hiding the clear blue of the sky - the clarity of the heavens. Just as I opened these cards, the heavens cleared. The haze cleared and formed into puffy white clouds which drifted apart to reveal the clarity of the sky. The puffs of clouds are almost pink on the pale blue of the sky at sunset. Clearer and bluer than it has been since monring. a further final validation of all that has been "clarified" for me in many differnt ways. The Truth being revelaed through the haze.

To the Cards:
THE FOOL is the very first card in the deck. "...with every steop, the Fool leaves the past behind...he is in harmony with all that surrounds him. His intuition is functioning at its peak. ...the fool has the support of the Univers to make this jump into the unknown. Adventures await him in the river of life. This card indicates that if you trust your intuition right now, your feeling of the "rightness" of things, you cannot go wrong. Your actions may appear foolish to others,...if trying to analyze them with the rational mind. But the "zero"(the number of this card) place occupied by the Fool is the numberless number where trust and innocence are the guides, not skepticism and past experience."

RIPENESS
"...all you need to do is relax right where you are, and be willing for it to happen. ... It is simply the right time."

BEYOND ILLUSION

"...move inside. There, you can relax into your own deepest Truth, where the difference between dreams and reality is already known."

RECEPTIVITY

"The Queen of Water brings a time of unboundedness and gratitidue for whatever life brings, without any expectations or demands. Neither duty or thought of merit or reward are important. Sensitivity, intuition and compassion are the qualities that shine forth now, dissolving all the obstacles that keep us separate from each other and from the whole."

MATURITY

Just interesting to note here that the first card I picked is the FIRST card of the Tarot deck, and the last card I picked is the LAST card of the TAROT deck...giving even further meaning to this reading...perfect beginning and end.

"...has come to a time of centeredness and expansivenss....all of life's experiences have brought him to this time of perfection...this moment carries a gift-for hard work well donw. Your base is solid now and success and good fortune are yours for they are the outcome of what has already been experienced within".

And that's it for now....I am still living in a glow, surrounded completely by the love of God and the Universe, my Guides and the Angels who are always with me.

I am truly blessed.
Namaste
Jane

FIRST LESSON FROM INDIA 2007 / POEM March 8-9 2007

Rishikesh, India

LESSON ONE: TRUST IN THE DIVINE AND PUT YOUR FAITH IN TRUTH

Well, for those of you who have been following my travels over the past 6 years, you know that every trip holds certain lessons for me, and each trip is different in character and unique in the ways these lessons are shown to me.

This trip is no different of course, and, in spite of all the busyness of the past week (or perhaps because of it), I remained awake almost the whole night last night (and that is part of another story which will eventually follow on the India Journal), and while awake, some wonderful things and insights presented themselves to me. I will share them with you, but since they are more concerned with things other than travels, I am posting them on the Mindfulness Journal ...I will try to keep this as chronological, consecutive and straightforward as possible, but please forgive me if things do not come completely together...

Let's go back a little while, even before I left for India. In my prayer/meditation sessions each day I have been asking that all those who are in need of my special services, be guided to me by the Universe, wherever they may be.

So far several people have found their way to me right here in Rishikesh, in very strange ways...I will not go into details of all these stories, but a couple are particularly outstanding, including the one already posted, and one to be posted shortly.

But while all this is going, the God and his Universe are still working to move me along the path further with each new day. Note the previous Post about the message from the tree embracing the rock...and this brings us to yesterday and last night...so here we go:

After several discussions with "the girls" here, I have been considering a change in plans. I will, first of all be staying longer in Rishikesh than I had originally planned, and am now thinking of coming back in October!! And then yesterday, while waiting in my room for "the girls" to come back from a wedding they were attending, I received a message from one of my daughters that she decided to become a Mother. No further details, and this has also become part of a new equation. coming back in October involves many new concepts and ways of looking at my life. How will this all sit with my family? With my work? I have often strayed from what I know is the right path for me, either because of laziness, fear, or critism. Will I be strong and rooted in what I know is my destiney, like the tree embracing the rock?

Is there any way I could work here? AND THEN THE FIRST THING DAWNED ON ME:

The reason I found my way to Vivek, is because THERE I will find the solution to earning some money here in India. I will speak to him about working with him, or having him send people to me. And how is it that I have not thought of this until this minute?

And then again, trying to fall asleep with the idea that I will go down and see him the following morning....I tossed and turned and at 12:30 AM the following poem was lovingly "given to me"

The Sudden Need to Know-

But knowing is not what it seems to be
Is knowing knowledge?
or is it understanding of TRUTH!
To know what your personal truth IS, is the most profound
form of understanding.
And when what you know to be TRUE is what guides you
along your path,
Then you may stumble at times, you may even feel a momentary fear
when faced with some new obstacle,
But you will never stray

Because you KNOW!!

LESSON ONE:
TRUST IN THE DIVINE AND PUT YOUR FAITH IN TRUTH

My TRUTH is service to others! I have know this for a very long time, but it was shot with an arrow which hit the target bull's eye this time!!

And, just as all this came together, I read the following in Paulo Coelho's book which I am now reading:
...Death is possibly THE most important thing. We are all walking towards death, but we never know when death will touch us and it is our duty, therefore, to look around us, to be grateful for each minute. But we should also be grateful to death, because it makes us think about the importance of each decision we take, or fail to take: it makes us stop doing anything that keeps us stuck in the category of the "living dead" and, instead, urges us to risk everything, to bet everything on those things we always dreamed of doing, because, whether we like it or not, the angel of death is waiting for us.

So, this is the poem, and the lesson, and I will now work and making things move along, always following the guidance I am so lovingly given each and every moment of each and every day (and night)!

Namaste

MESSAGES FROM THE TREES- March 3rd, 2007, Rishikesh India

I spotted this tree on one of my walks in Rishikesh in March 2007, as well as the tree later in this post. They were directly across the mountain path from each other.

I knew they were a message for me in response to my recent requests for guidance and direction, clarity and understanding. I've already learnt from past experience that replies from the Universe come in many forms, so am always alert to answers that are sent my way.

Two days after seeing this tree, and contemplating its message, I received the following insight:

Every obstacle that comes our way is sent to us lovingly and with purpose by the Universe. Do not seek an alternative path in order to avoid the obstacle, but stand firm in what you know to be your chosen path, even when the going seems almost impossible. Embrace the obstacle lovingly, learn the lesson and continue to grow and thrive.


This is the second tree on the other side of the road and if you look carefully you will see it is two completely separate individual trees which have grown together as one at the top, but still maintaining their own identity where they are rooted in the ground. I think this says it all quite clearly regarding the success of a loving and intimate relationship.

Namaste
Jane

Thoughts, Insights, Understandings and Channelings from India

I would like to apologize to everyone who follows this blog regularly for the lack of posts, but as I mentioned, I am in India for an extended visit.

However, as usual, on these journeys, amazing things open up for me, and I'd like to direct you to the India Journal where you might find some interesting things to read.

If you are interested in my Panchakarma treatments, check the sidebar where there are categories listed and check out the "treatments" category for daily posts regarding the treatment and the results.

If you are interested in other things which are occuring to me on all levels, check out the topics which interest you.

I'd like to draw your special attention to two posts re: channelings I've received so far: First Channeling

and this one, even more interesting...I have not noted the details in the post but it is the first time I have EVER received a request to pass a "message" on to a third party!! You can read about it : here

Saab Kuch Maliga

I have not written in quite some time, actually since I finished the 3 part article on “Just for Today I Will Not Worry”. There are reasons for this, and the past few months have been a well needed, well deserved, and very much appreciated hiatus in my life for reflection and “digestion” of lessons learnt, and blessings received.

I have seen miraculous Divine plans fall into place with solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems for myself and my family members. I have seen the true power of our thoughts and prayers and my faith in God and his Universe have once again been strengthened….fortifying everything I wrote in the articles about “…I will not worry”. It is a powerful statement and no surprise that it is the FIRST Reiki principle. It is truly the basis for all that follows. You might like to reread the articles, especially Part II which deals with the role of Faith and its importance in “not worrying”.

I have learnt lessons in grief, faith and the blessing of being able to give unconditionally and without worry for my own future….knowing that all will always be provided for everyone, whenever it is needed.

It is a time of change for me, of dynamic and yet peaceful moving forward…I am without a job, my unemployment payments are coming to an end, and it is my 60th birthday next week….all signs of moving forward.

And of course, I am finally leaving for India…saab kuch maliga, Hindi for “anything (everything) is possible”.

For all of you who are used to receiving my journal entries by e-mail, they will now be found on my new Journal Blog (http://indiajournal2006.blogspot.com). I hope it will work properly and be easily accesible with the slow internet connections in India. If not, I will be forced back to sending the entries by e-mail. Time will tell. However, the blog idea will allow you the freedom to receive the posts or not. You can either check out the blog when you feel like it, or you have the option to subscribe to it (as you are subscribed to this one) and be sent e-mail notification when I post a new journal entry. Daily, interesting as well as mundane travel information and activities will be found on this travel blog. Insights, inspirational things, channelings and lessons learnt, “aha” moments, etc. will be written on this, the mindfulness journal blog.

Whatever this 4th trip holds in store for me, on all levels, I will gladly share with all and any interested parties. The choice this time is yours.

I will beginning this trip in an Ashram in Rishikesh for the first few weeks, perhaps month for Ayurveda treatments (panchakarma) for complete cleansing of toxins for health in general, and more intensively for treating my arthritis which has gotten very bad this winter. Perhaps see Dehradun and Nainetal while still in the area. Then on to Dharamsala and whatever that holds in store for me. May get to Amristar (Golden Temple) and even do some shopping in Jaipur this trip. Who knows?

But as they say in India: SAAB KUCH MALIGA!

Much love and light
Jane

In Memorium 1916-2006

As I have created a new blog in Memory of my father, this post can now be found at the following link:

http://daveyscheiman.blogspot.com/2007/11/death-is-night-between-two-days-rabbi.html

Life’s Detours, Their Blessings and Lessons

My life has taken a detour, again (what we perceive as a detour in our journey, is only OUR understanding of the turn of events. Truth is, things are unfolding exactly as they should and all things occur as they are meant to at the moment in the Universal plan of things)…and has, at the same time, given me the opportunity for further growth through new lessons learnt. When one is forced to take a detour on a planned journey, it does not mean that he cannot enjoy the scenery on the new route. Perhaps pleasant scenery is not part of this detour for me, but certainly blessings to be found and lessons to be learnt are.

And as such, this blog will once again take a detour away from the planned in depth discussion of the Reiki principles until this current period comes to an end. You can however see a very short personal look at how this period is challenging me and my personal daily work with the Reiki principles in the next short post.

I am, at the moment, NOT in India as planned. As things worked out, two days before my scheduled flight, I cancelled my plans.

I had every intention of going to India to revive my spirit, recharge my batteries so to speak and gather new and fresh energies to help me continue caring for my ailing father, and give support to my Mother at this most difficult of times in her life.

However, the situation being what it is, I simply could not have achieved any of these goals in India due to the deterioration in my father’s health and the need to be here at this time. I would have been unable to release to the magical powers of the Mountains and it would have been a simple waste of time and money.

It is my privilege to be here now and help in any way I can to make my father’s passing as easy as possible and provide support to my Mother at the same time. I will not go into detail (for reasons I will write about shortly), beyond saying that my father has not been granted an easy and dignified end to his life. It is truly amazing to witness the power of fear, concern, worry and guilt, and how they can keep a soul, already cleansed and ready to depart, prisoner in a physical vessel which is, for all intent and purposes, no longer “living”.

I myself have entered a new stage in my relationship with my father, just as lovers do when the dimension of physical intimacy is added to their relationship. It changes things forever in ways that cannot be described in words. If the relationship is a truly loving one, the new intimacy is profound and felt well beyond the physical level-as deep as can be-two souls meet and commune and become one. And in the same way that these lovers would want to share the essence of their new relationship without sharing the intimate physical details, so I myself have found it fitting NOT to share the technical details of the my father’s condition- not to go into the very intimate details of my father’s last days, but will just say that the essence of this added dimension to my relationship with him, the wonder and new depth in our relationship is a gift beyond words.

This is the blessing this detour has given me with my father.

To see his physical distress, pain and frustration, to feel his raw emotional distress and anguish, is probably the most difficult lesson I have had to endure so far in my life. To watch this gentle loving man go through this lingering, undignified end to a proud and honorable life is almost beyond endurance. My helplessness is unbearable at times-the frailty of the physical body vs. the tenacity and strength of the mind, and our thoughts and beliefs, incomprehensible. The will and determination of the human mind to survive in the physical is beyond rationale, especially when the body in its physical form has just about completely shut down.

I do my best to comfort him with Reiki when he is willing to accept these loving energies, as he is granted respite from his physical and emotional torment. There is a visible change in his entire façade, his breathing, his muscle tone and he seems to enter a state of complete relaxation and release. However, he very often refuses to receive Reiki. His fears overwhelm him…he is drowning in fear, the fear that if he relaxes his grip for a moment on his physical reality, “something” will happen. What that something is he is unaware of, but the fear prevents him from allowing himself the luxury of release.

Like many Western people, my father has never talked about, or even thought of, Death and certainly has never contemplated his own passing. He has no concept of “soul” and the only thing which is real for him is the physical realm. He has never questioned his own mortality or the essence of the soul vs. the physical body needed to keep that soul here on Earth. And as a result, he is paralyzed by fear, of the unknown, of his own helplessness in his situation, by the complete breakdown of everything physical, and yet the rational mind will not, or is incapable of, giving in or releasing its grip. The only thing we can do now is to keep him as comfortable as possible for as long as necessary for him to finish his own processes. For those lucky enough to feel no fear of passing over, the final moment becomes a peaceful one-but for those who are completely unprepared, the need to cling to the familiar, to the physical, is overwhelming.

This is a lesson which challenges my beliefs to the core, and to my great joy, I find my beliefs unshakably strong . That knowledge is reassuring and I am most grateful to God and to the Universe for allowing me once again to be in a difficult and unsettling situation which COULD have shattered all I’ve held to be true. For allowing me to look in the mirror , see my professed beliefs held up for scrutiny, and still find them steadfast.

All DOES happen for our Higher Good, ALL things are a blessing, and the human mind, our intentions, our thoughts, CAN and DO make seemingly impossible things happen on a physical level.

Insights and Empowering Experiences, God and Nature

And yet one more profound journal entry which I must share with those of you who do not follow my India Journals....

Today is October 5th, 2001 but yesterday the weirdest thing happened to me...I wrote a very long letter which first of all thanked all of you who took the time and energy to either call or write to me during the last few really rough days here...I love you and really appreciate your efforts. But I also wrote many deep "inside" thoughts and wrote and wrote and wrote and when I tried sending it, the whole thing disappeared...this has never happened to be before...I always do copy before I send and so if something happens the letter is still there..but thistime, someone else's letter came up on the screen...really weird.

So I wrote again, not quite so in depth and still refused to be sent...so I came to the conclusion that those thoughts were not meant to be put down on paper, but rather savored within and staying within just for me to experience.

I am first amazed at the resiliency of the human spirit. From feeling guilty about feeling happy – to exhilaration at dispelling a lifetime myth about myself, all within the same day. Life does go on and that is the beautiful part about living it to the fullest!

In spite of crises and difficulties with coping with a situation, life goes on and the beauty of discoveries about ourselves and our inner strengths carry us through.

Perhaps this inner awakening occurred simultaneously in me precisely on the same day as hearing about the terrorist attack on my daughter’s house almost as the Universe’s way of getting me through the last couple of days OR - as a RESULT of my getting through the last couple of days!! Don't know which! Whichever-it has been an incredibly rewarding experience for me and I will never be the same as I was.

No matter what I do when I get back to "normal"-normal will never be the same for me as it was just 2 months ago.

The revelations of my childhood memories during my first long walk made me realize that many things we believe about ourselves and allow life's experiences to reinforce for us over the years with our owninterpretations, we are erroneously basing on false perceptions of ourselves as children and adults. This creates modes of behavior and beliefs which stifle our very physical being for as much as 1/2 a century of our lives!!

To be finally released from these beliefs-to dispel a myth about myself and who I have always believed myself to be-is like being released from the shackles of a certain type of bondage and being freed to discover and develop all the wondrous things just waiting inside!

That a walk in nature can do this to a person is again proof of what I wrote awhile ago...the green of nature is God's way of showing his love for all creatures on earth and it is there, surrounded by his love that we can truly find our selves and achieve a true feeling of LOVE for ourselves.

I don't remember a time in my life when I felt so invigorated and alive. And not just physically...all my senses were totally involved in the experience bringing me into my most inner being as well asfilling an expansiveness of my aura itself with amazing energies, tingling through me and expanding outward to join with the trees and mountains etc.

These days, spending time with others is almost an intrusion... This precious gift of being with ME is a blessing and it will be over in just a few days. I will have a different kind of experience traveling now with someone else which I'm sure will be no less important and revealing to me.

I am just sad that this beautiful period of isolation by choice is coming to an end. I feel as if I could live for months like this and not get tired of it. There are always people here if I want them, but being by myself has thedistinct advantage of allowing me to NOT speak with or see anyone by choice without insulting any one or feeling bad about going off by myself. And no explanation is ever required! It is a true luxury.

Tomorrow I have agreed to try a real trek with Darya up into the mountain...3-4 hours up the mountain but with tea houses all along the way...she understands that if I feel it is too much, we just come back down without getting as far as the waterfalls which are allthe way up there some place. This will be an additional "test" for me and I am really looking forward to it excitedly...alot of the walking is in the forest so I hopefully will not have trouble withthe heat, and we are both taking lots of snacks along so I guess it will be OK.

Another Lesson From India so Appropriate Here as Well

Still working on my journals from India, and again came across the following, which happened in 2001 but is so appropriate to what I have been writing about here on this blog. Particularly the post about "Living in the Shadow of the Past". Hope you enjoy this personal insight and would love your comments.

Much love to all of you...and success on your own inner journeys.

Monday October 8th, 2001-8 AM

I didn't really know how to write about what just happened but it has been another turning point for me in my work with myself and my quest to come to terms with my painful past experiences which have had such enormous impacts on my whole life. To know the past
and to perceive it in a neutral light and to truly be able to forgive and put it all where it belongs...in the past...and not have it always accompanying me in subtle forms in all I do and in my relationships up to this day......I very often felt I had managed to do just that, but certain memories would keep coming back to haunt me and the same painful emotions were always still there...dealing with this and freeing
myself from this has eluded me… until today.

The fact that this happened on the very last day of my 2 months alone is for me, at any rate, very significant...it means to me that this was the time I
needed to purge myself and it is now perfectly suitable for me to be getting on with my travels with someone else...I no longer so desperately need this time "with myself". It is just another proof to me that we must never worry about "what will happen
when..." as the natural flow of events, the overview, is always in place and perfect for our needs...we do not need to waste all of our valuable energies worrying if we made the right decisions and analyzing each move before we make it and what if it will not "work out" and maybe we should have done something else. The idea is to just "DO".

I just read a quote by Ray Bradbury (of all people)
which is quite appropriate:

"Make your journey be a joyous one!
Don't think! Thinking is the enemy of creativity
It's self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is
lousy...
You can't try to do things.
You simply must DO things!"

Very apropos for all of us actually.

I really am still working on quieting my mind but that will still take time but the basic idea is "to do" and "enjoy" without thinking so much. All will always happen for our own personal best interest.

Now...What happened was I have been trying all kinds of techniques and exercises and processes to rid myself of several poisonous memories which have been keeping
me from truly feeling completely forgiving of the past and these memories were still preventing me from fully getting on with my life and with certain
relationships. I felt that none of the things I was doing was helping and again went to sleep last night feeling quite disturbed by the fact that I couldn’t overcome these feelings which always flooded back to me every time I tried working with the past.

One particular memory headed the list always and perhaps is representative of the injustices I felt as a child and I could never seem to see it in any
perspective other than a child being unjustly treated. No matter how I approached it, it just remained the same and hurt me and angered me every time over again.

It is an incident involving an ice cream tart and probably I am the only one who even remembers it, but, I have finally broken free of not only that incident,but every feeling of pain, anger and injustice it represented from my past.

In the early morning hours when we have "those kinds of dreams", a kind of video film of my childhood started to play. But it included feelings, smells, sounds, sights and impressions which placed me in the role of both participant and at the same time neutral
observer of the events and scenes. Places and people and sights and events and memories arose going back to when I was as young as 2 up to about the age of
10-12. So detailed was the "video" that I was actually there once again. I can still feel the
essence of the places and smell the food and hear the traffic noises while I sit here and write!! Most of the places and people I had not thought of in 50 years
if ever, and these came flooding back to me, candy stores, movie theaters, my grandmother(!), dancing school, on and on and on...friends, neighbors, it was unbelievable!! I wish I had some kind of dream video recorder to save it and replay for all of you to see!! But I guess the idea was just for me to BE there just once more and live through it as well - and neutrally observe it in order to finally purge myself.

Now this all sounds clever and nice and I know even while still watching it that it was working to finally get me moving on without the burden of my past...but as I opened my eyes (at first I had to rub them to be sure I was now really awake) a sparrow sat on the string which acts as my closet here and just looked at me...When I opened my eyes, it chirped as if to say "Oh, now you are a "free bird" just like me!!" (sparrow in Hebrew is called a "tzipor dror" meaning a "bird of freedom") and this is truly now how I
feel. I helped the sparrow find his way out of my room (don't know how he got in...was he here all night??) and then had an enormous cry of overwhelming joy and here I am writing!! I feel "light as a bird" inside and cannot truly believe that this happened to
me. Having the bird here to confirm it and physically emphasis the impact of what happened is almost unbelievable. But true!! So...that's if for
today...must truly assimilate what has happened to
me...it is quite amazing!!

Tuesday...October 9th (still in Mcleod)

After reading something by the Dalai Lama now I had an even greater insight into that ice cream tart incident I mentioned yesterday. It says when someone hurts you or angers you...not only to see it from the other persons point of view which is obvious...but to think
what opportunity it gave you to grow or something positive from YOUR point of view. Up until today I had actually not seen anything positive from my point of view in the incident...when all of a sudden it dawned on me...just now...and I burst out laughing...Am still smiling as I write this... I was given the opportunity at a VERY early age to learn
that you "cannot fool Mother!!"..a fact which probably made the next 15 years of my life a lot easier for me (or maybe you CAN fool her but you've got to be very clever and subtle to do it...so I was forced to develop some very useful tools for the rest of my
life!!)

The Jewish New Year and Another Golden Opportunity to Get Yourself Out of the Shadow of the Past

You don't have to be Jewish to use this opportunity. It is simply another chance to journey within and see what we find, explore the inner workings of our soul and try and move forward into a new place. There will always be things which need to be questioned and challenged, and always new ways and opportunities to make profound changes which will help us move forward in our Sacred Contract, our reason for being here.

Let us all pray that we be granted the guidance, clarity and direction we need, as well as the wisdom to understand and perceive the blessings given to us, no matter what form or disguise they may take.

This would be a good time to take a minute and go back and check out the previous post on Living in the Shadow of the Past and the Power of Forgiveness and finding the ways to release all that is no longer necessary or healthy for us in the coming New Year. It would also be a wonderful time to begin doing the forgiveness exercise explained in the post for all those in your life who you still need to forgive. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to discard everything which we do not need to move forward in peace, tranquility, love, laughter and good health. Let's move out of the Shadow of the Past into a beautiful, sunny and tranquil New Year.

I am now reading a book which I highly recommend to all by Caroline Myss, author of Anatomy of the Spirit and Sacred Contracts. Her latest book is called Invisible Acts of Power-Personal Choices That Create Miracles-quite amazing and highly recommended. I would like to end this post by sharing with you the following quote (pp.58) from the book since it gives amazing insights into many things we have discussed and opens doors to much further thought. If you already know these things, than think about them often. If this is the first time you are encountering these ideas, than think about them deeply and begin to question and contemplate. You will get much joy from understanding the ideas.

• You are where you are supposed to be and in every moment there is an opportunity to seerve another or to receive support.
• There are no such things as coincidences or accidents. Look for the meaning in your synchronistic encounters.
• Any form of assistance you offer is an act of healing.
• Anything you do for others, as well as the support you receive in your own life, has healing consequences for the whole human community.
• You will always receive help within a second of a prayer. To recognize the help, you must see everything in your life from that second on as a part of the answer to your prayer.
• Everything you do consciously is an invisible act of power.
  
  SHANA TOVA TO ALL...A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR!
  

FIRST LESSON FROM 2003 INDIA TRIP-SO RELEVANT TODAY!

I have been working very hard to get my India Journals posted on my other blog, and in doing so, came across a post originally written just 3 years ago, but it is a channeling experience which is so relevant to my life today, I decided to post it here as well for all of you who are not subscribed yet to my India Journal blog to easily see.
If you would like to subscribe to my India Journal Blog and easily follow my past travels, as well as my upcoming trip (I am leaving on October 6th), then you can do so by going to the following link. Jane's India Journals
I have not as yet completed my past journals, and still have many photographs to add to the posts, but it will give you some general idea of what to expect in the future....hope you enjoy, and forgive me for neglecting this blog for now.

August 20th, 2003

Didn't take long to learn...just a little over 3 weeks and one day...

"THEY" have probably been wanting to tell me for ages, but knew it was
something I had to "realize" first on my own before they spoke with me....
and as usual, it is SOOOOOOOO obvious it is embarrassing to think it
took this long to figure it out!

I've already begun caring for myself as I know I must, yoga in the late
afternoon, and beginning my morning with full Reiki, sounds for my soul,
pranayama, yoga, meditation in the morning (missing a hot shower for my
joints but you can't have everything in this life)

So why did I have to be here in Kodai to get back to this? well...this
whole thing just flooded before me in neon light clarity...

WHENEVER there are others around, no matter who they are, my healing,
caring for, "worrying about" energies will ALWAYS go to "the others"
and be depleted before I get to myself.

The lesson, as channeled to me while just finishing writing the previous
post and still sitting in the internet cafe is:

Learn to reserve your energies for yourself as well. STOP denying
your OWN needs when confronted with others in your life. If the next
relationship you will be in (hopefully the final one) is to succeed
(with whomever it may be)... you must first understand that you must
never again "lezalzel" , belittle yourself and your needs...You know
this in your mind and would NEVER allow ANOTHER person to take advantage
of you, to take you for granted and to always place their own needs
above yours. So why do you continue to do it to yourself when in the
presence of the needs of others. You know it brings you to the point
of exhaustion and dysfuntionality (word?) each time both physically,
emotionally and spiritually, and yet you persist. DESIST!...Learn to
be with another, and still be completely with yourself as you must.
Do not automatically “DO” for another first, before you've taken care
of your personal health and spiritual needs. It will do no one any good
in the end. You know that for a fact and yet have not yet managed to put
it into action. It is very easy to put aside the couple of hours you need
a day for Jane, when only Jane is around-the hard part is doing it when
there is someone else in your life needing you. This is the lesson. Learn
it well or you will remain alone for the rest of your life to safeguard
yourself. You will be unable to live in good health, physically or
spiritually for any length of time if you do not care for yourself and
continue your self growth and inner quest...These are things which even
the most loving people cannot do for you and the more you will love,
the more you will "need to do" for this other person. There is enough
time in any day to "do for all" ...stop neglecting YOU in the overwhelming
need of yours to “be there always" for others. Allow another to BE with
you and still BE completely with yourself. This is the lesson. Learn it!
You do not have to BE by yourself to CARE for yourself.

This whole "admonishment"- "nu, nu, nu" part was channeled directly to
me while I was still writing. Realization was my own...THEY could not
just "tell" me this. I first had to realize it...it took an awfully
long time and a trip to India.

Ravin was part of their plan in this as well…

No one before has ever been so aggressively "nudnicky" with me in
the past and succeeded. Quite the opposite-it always puts me off-the
more someone insists, the more I do the opposite-he is definitely a
part of their plan!...

It's always been sooooooo obvious and yet I never saw the pattern
until just now! They have probably been wanting to tell me this for
ages but knew it would be ineffective until the "AHA!" first came
from me.

It's not just needing to "take care of" others. It's always accommodating
needs and wants of others before my own. As I am uncomfortable saying
"not yet-I haven't finished my yoga yet" or whatever...and always prefer
"going along with" rather than confronting even when I don't always
necessarily want what the other wants...I am easy to please...but
don't always please myself...

I have never been able to say "I can do anything you like provided I
have my 1 -1 1/2 hours of alone in the morning and one more hour in
the afternoon as sacred times for me”… with nothing urgent enough to
change that!

So, now that I have learnt that lesson...what else is in store for me....?

Again...time will tell. As always, my thanks for this enlightening
experience and my sincere request for guidance and the wisdom needed
to "activate" this newfound understanding in my daily life and in all
my encounters with others...no matter who they are...friends, relatives,
co-workers, etc.

Time Off for Family...and India Journals

Hi All, Sorry to have deserted you but wasn't sure anyone would notice. It's only since several of you have asked that I'm writing to let you know what's been going on for the past few weeks and why I haven't continued my postings on Reiki. Two of my daughters and their families have relocated, one from the city to the country, another coming back after 3 years of work abroad, and I spent several days with each of them helping them move in and organize their new homes. At the same time, my father is still going through a serious crisis after being, regretably, placed in a permanent nursing care unit. It will take him time to adjust but his complete dependence on others has taken a great toll and it is very difficult to see him, care for him etc. And of course, my Mother has been deeply effected by this as well. They have spent their entire life together as a couple, meeting each other something like 75 years ago and being married for 65 years. And the last 30+ years they have been retired and have spent every single day together just about all the time. The separation for them, beyond the difficult state my father is in, would be enough to create a serious emotional crisis leading to physical symptoms. It is like have part of your body ripped out. But they are both in the same assisted living building, my Mother in her own apartment still, and Father just downstairs, and they are both learning to come to terms with the situation. What the entire past year has created for all of us however, including myself, without our even being aware of it, is a chronic state of stress which has pretty much lasted for about 1 1/2 years actually, and only now have I understand the debilitating effect it has created in my life, on all levels, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. It has been devastating and only this week did I realize to what extent it has effected me. I am now working things through and putting myself "back together" as well...including going to the gym, (in addition to my daily practices of yoga, pranayama, meditation and Reiki) and, finally, working on my India Journals blog. All of the above has taken up my energies, both physically and mentally, and have therefore not posted anything new here all this time. My apologies....but part of the living in the now is living in the now! And doing what is right at each moment...flowing...learning...understanding...creating new ways of dealing and always opening the new doors of opportunity which present themselves to us along the way...no matter how twisted and complicated it may seem sometimes. So, if you are interested in seeing what I've done so far on the India Journals (about 1/2 way finished but no photos yet)...and also a very interesting sum up post of Lesson's Learnt from my travels at the beginning of the blog...you can do so by following this link: Jane's India Journals Hope to get back to my regular blog entries shortly. My love to all Jane

FINAL MANDALA

Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous

This picture was originally posted by mistake as a test for a new photo website I am checking out and before I realized it was there, some of you received notice by feedblitz. I have since removed it and am now posting it with the full story, thanks for the inspiration I received from Leena in Moscow!
I was attending a Yoga and Meditation workshop in February 2006 and during the workshop we were all to get together and make a Mandala….all of the symbols have meaning in Tibetan Buddhism as do the shapes, directions etc., but I honestly don’t remember what are.

This is a picture of the unbelievable Tibetan Manadala we made at that workshop in February 2006. We started with a blank white piece of cardboard and ended up with this fully completed Mandala. Here are pictures of the Mandala in progress as well as of the most important part, the brushing away, teaching us the importance of non-attachment and impermanence of everything in this life. It was probably close to the most amazing thing I ever took part in in my life to date and hope I will be privileged to do it again. It is all made from colored sand which we poured using little funnels made from pieces of plain white paper as you may be able to see. There were 7 of us and it took us the better part of 2 days to complete and about 2 minutes to brush away. Much like cooking a wonderful meal over a couple of days and then having it all eaten in 1/2 hour! It was most satisfying and we were all quite surprised that we actually did it...as were all the other people staying at other workshops at the Kibbutz we were at.

At any rate, the person in charge, the yoga instructor’s husband, explained what we would be doing and my initial reaction was “No WAY I am doing that”. But in the end, I seemed to have been drawn to the group of “senior” women, hunched down on the floor with their haunches in the air, ove a white plastic like board, holding self-made funnels of white paper in one hand and gently tapping with the other. They were using these funnels to gently deposit colored sand, grain by grain into pre-drawn spaces which were made on the blank white plastic page using string and thumbtack for drawing circles and rulers for the lines. Each space, no matter how small, was lovingly filled with the chosen color of sand, agreed upon in advance by different “teams” working on opposite sides of the Mandala at the same time. At one point I simply found myself drawn into this group and eventually the tap-tap-tapping with the finger on the funnel to release the sand became almost hypnotic, and the need to stop an intrusion. I found myself completely in the moment with my whole being …it was quite an amazing experience…what could be called by Maslow and “peak experience” in life. So I want to thank publicly to two wonderful people who made it possible for me, Sue and Ed and also to relate the following incident which is just an interesting “coincidence”. I remembered that the same week of the yoga workshop was also the Kalachakra teachings in India with HH the Dalai Lama. They were held in Amaravarthi and Tibetan Buddhists came from all over India to attend, the main tent holding over 100,000 at a time. I received a lovely e-mail from a friend with the subject line “mandala”(!) where he described how he was fortunate enough to get a quick look at the Kalachakra mandala which the monks had been working on and chanting over all week just before it was dispersed…He says it was about 3 meters by 3 meters or maybe larger. It was the same day and almost the same hour as when we brushed “ours” away yesterday. There has GOT to be some significance to this “coincidence”…

Yoga Poses at Your Desk

Sitting all day at a desk can really work havoc with our bodies. Believe me, I know. But I have found a way of working yoga into my daily office routine, and it can be done even if you work in an open space with others around. Even if you have never done Yoga, just think of them as office exercise. They will have the same effect! And if you DON"T work in an office, you can do them at home, even if you do no other form of daily exercise, and still benefit from them greatly. Nothing too "weird" about these exercises and you can split them up, do them all in sequence, do them a few times a day, whatever works for you. Just do them. They really make a difference in how you feel at the end of the day.
Check out these two links (just click on them and they will take you to the proper website) and while you are at it, click on the link on my sidebar named "Yoga" and see the other great things offered on the full website . You can even sign up for a daily tip. Really nice.
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/231.cfm
http://www.yogajournal.com/practice/949.cfm
With much love
Jane

Thoughts Become Things...Choose the Good Ones

A collection of interesting, perhaps inspiring, certainly thought-provoking quotes for your enjoyment. Would love to hear about the ones you liked the best, or the ones that effected you the most, and why.
With Love to all.

"There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." William Shakespeare

"If you take your eyes off your goals,all you see are obstacles."

One of the secrets of life is to make stepping-stones out of stumbling blocks.- Jack Penn

Some of us are like tea leaves: We don't know how strong we are until we are placed in hot water!

The best place to find a helping hand is at the end of your own arm.-Swedish Proverb

Worrying about something that may never happen is like paying interest on money you may never borrow.-Unknown

Coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous.-Unknown

Snowflakes are one of nature's most fragile things, but just look what they can do when they stick together.-Vesta M. Kelly

My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just to enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate.-Thornton Wilder

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering."St. Augustine, 354 430

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.W. M. Lewis

One who makes no mistakes never makes anything.Unknown

These difficulties are intended for us to become better not bitterUnknown

When one door closes another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
Helen Keller

Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out."
John Wooden

"Worrying is like a rocking chair, it gives you something to do, but it doesn't get you anywhere."
Unknown

"Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy." Thich Nhat Hanh

Growing old is inevitable, growing UP is optional.!

There is no key to happiness. The door is always open.

Silence is often misinterpreted, but never misquoted.

Do the math.... Count Your blessings.

Faith is the ability to not panic.

Laugh every day, it's like inner jogging.

If you worry, you didn't pray. If you pray, don't worry.

The most important things in your home are the people.

A grudge is a heavy thing to carry.

He who dies with the most toys is still dead.

We do not remember days, but moments.

Nothing is real to you until you experience it, otherwise it's just hearsay.

It's alright to sit on your pity pot every now and again. Just be sure to flush when you are done.

Surviving and living your life successfully requires courage. The goals and dreams you're seeking require courage and risk taking. Learn from the turtle, it only makes progress when it sticks out it's neck.

Life is uncertain; eat dessert first.

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are.

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong."
Mahatma Gandhi

When a man is wrong and won't admit it, he always gets angry."
Thomas Chandler Haliburton

A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else."
Len Wein

When you come to the edge of all that you know, you must believe one of two things: There will be earth upon which to stand, or you will be given wings to fly."
Unknown

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of its strength."
Unknown

In the long run, men hit only what they aim at. Therefore, they had better aim at something high."
Henry David Thoreau

When your heart is in your dreams, no request is too extreme…\Jimminy Cricket!

"The man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd."
James Crook

A leader's role is to raise people's aspirations for what they can become and to release their energies so they will try to get there."
David Gergen

A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be."
Rosalynn Carter

"How far would Moses have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt?"
Harry S. Truman

Your future depends on many things, but mainly on you.

In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities.- Janos Arany

Remember: Most smiles are started by another smile!

Don't wait for your ship to come in. Row out to meet it.

There ain't no cloud so thick that the sun ain't shinin' on t'other side.- Rattlesnake,an 1870s mountain man

Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.- Will Rogers

Thoughts become things... choose the good ones!

habit is a hell to which people cling in an attempt to stop the flow of change

You can always change how you feel, and you can always feel whatever you like.

My Poetry

Before I post the poems, just a quick explanation. I've been writing all my life, as long as I remember myself-even won honorary mention in a short story competition once when i was in Junior High School for a sci-fiction story I wrote as an English Class assignment. Think it was with Mrs. Bacher in 9th grade...However, I don't remember writing poetry at all. The poems started coming to me the first time I was in India, but they come in a very strange way. Already completely written. I am "told" to get out paper and pen and they are kind of "dictated" to me. Very strange. But when I read them back the first time, it is really like reading something that someone else has written. They all came about at very specific points and relate to whatever was happening in my life at the time. I am sorry I never dated them, but will try to do so if there are more in the future. For now, these are what I have, and I myself enjoy rereading them often. They have great personal meaning for me but I think at least a few of them are quite Universal and that anyone can get some meaning from them. You are welcome to comment (or not) on any specific one which seems to have special meaning to you. I'd like to know that these poems weren't given to me for my own personal use only but that they are meant to touch something in others as well. I give them to you with my love and will add to them as they come to me.

New Poem from India Journey 2007- March 9th as well as insights at same time:

The Sudden Need to Know-

But knowing is not what it seems to be

Is knowing knowledge?

or is it understanding of TRUTH!

To know what your personal truth IS, is the most profound
form of understanding.

And when what you know to be TRUE is what guides you
along your path,

Then you may stumble at times, you may even feel a momentary fear
when faced with some new obstacle,

But you will never stray


Because you KNOW!!


LESSON ONE:
TRUST IN THE DIVINE AND PUT YOUR FAITH IN TRUTH


My TRUTH is service to others! I have know this for a very long time, but it was shot with an arrow which hit the target bull's eye this time!!


And, just as all this came together, I read the following in Paulo Coelho's book which I am now reading:

...Death is possibly THE most important thing. We are all walking towards death, but we never know when death will touch us and it is our duty, therefore, to look around us, to be grateful for each minute. But we should also be grateful to death, because it makes us think about the importance of each decision we take, or fail to take: it makes us stop doing anything that keeps us stuck in the category of the "living dead" and, instead, urges us to risk everything, to bet everything on those things we always dreamed of doing, because, whether we like it or not, the angel of death is waiting for us.

So, this is the poem, and the lesson, and I will now work and making things move along, always following the guidance I am so lovingly given each and every moment of each and every day (and night)!


ALONE
Why?
Why are others always an intrusion?
I don't seek them yet they find me...
Must I become invisible to be ALONE?
Or is this part of who, what I am
Flowing along and blending into the river of common pain
Floating as a log for those drowning to latch on to.
Where is the log meant to keep me afloat?
Or have I been given the strength to stay afloat ALONE?
Do I draw my strengths from my ALONENESS?
Or from the giving OF myself?
Who will be there to keep me from drowning
When there is no more strength to draw on?
I am surrounded by heavenly love and protection...
Spiritually I am never ALONE...
But...
I am physical as well
As is my life...
All the new that awaits me...
All the changes to be made...
All the wonders still to reveal themselves...
Are not meant to be experienced ALONE
My soul, my heart, my body all yearn
For the one with the same yearnings
To continue the journey together in our ALONENESS...

Can there be such a miracle?

HOME
Not a place.
A feeling!
You find it once and then have it with you always
It is mobile and goes with you everywhere
No one can take it from you
As it is nothing you can touch or hold physically
What is inside is yours alone
And you make it what it is
When you have truly found the feeling - Cherish it!
It is a precious gift you have worked hard for.

MY LOVE
My Love is whole
My Love is true
My Love runs deep
Deeper than ever before
But where will it flow to If it has no banks to direct it's course?
YOU must be the banks.
Strong, dependable, guiding the course of my Love... and our lives
I can now only be the river of love which flows within your banks
My energies can no longer determine the course
Envelope me in your banks of loving strength and direction
YOU must be the master of our love
If the banks collapse, the river of my Love will disperse
and may never find a true course again.

LOST
I've been lost for years
Seeking
Without knowing what I would find
Was I even aware that I was seeking?
I think so…
But seeking what - I did not know

Lost
Still lost
But no longer seeking
The search is over
But I am still lost

Lost in love!

I LEARNED TO BE PATIENT
I learned to be patient
I trusted your judgment
I believed in your wisdom
I joined in your dream
I embraced your love
I overcame my fears
I desisted from worry
I relied on your strength
I shared your desires
I felt your despair and your sense of betrayal by your lack of control over the Universe
And was stunned by your surprise in crude awakening.

LIGHT
Growing from within
Joining without
Becoming one with
And part of the Whole
Expanding into the oneness of the Whole
Bringing forth from the depths its love and protection to surround and enfold me
To make me one with Divine Spirit, Almighty
Our joining in partnership-
the supreme miracle of the Universal forces of Love and Light!

LETTING GO
Release anger,
Release fear,
Release Worry
Embrace love
Embrace faith
Embrace calm acceptance.
The river will take you swiftly along at certain points
And allow you periods of motionless calm
But the current will always be there to move your boat along
You may see places you would like to stop at
But the choice is not always yours
Release into the flow of the river
And calmly and joyfully accept whatever direction it takes you.

July 29th 2005
GET ON-BOARD!
Alive
Being
Wholeness
No more thinking to be done
It is all in place
And the river is flowing
The trees are rooted
The mountains majestically peaked
So it is with you…
Be Alive…
Be…
Be Whole.
Mind and soul are one, flowing together-
moved along by the same current of light, of love, of joy, of delight, of peace
The choice is made
The vehicle ready.
You just need to give your agreement and all will begin
Say YES! Smile and get on-board!

October 18th 2005 (Sukkot-Arcaffe)
SOMETHING NEW
New Year…
New Feelings…Some heavy, some light.
Take a deep breath.
Feel them all.
Feeling all is part of the lesson.
A wallop of an ending to Last Year!
A hint of things to come THIS Year?
New Energies.
New Direction
New People…New Love
New Awareness
New Car? New Clothes? HA!! YES!!
NEW REALITY!!!

November 11th 2005
WHERE HAVE I BEEN
Where have I been?
Where am I going?
In place-the right place for now.
Too much thought
Just believe-trust-have faith
Nothing else is needed.
Relaxed, calm, peaceful place if you let it be so.
Remember the silence.
Move toward it-move into it.
It is your sanctuary, your safe place.
Let it embrace you.
Hear it, feel it, become one with it.

July 24, 2006
TEARS
A wellspring trying to break loose,
And release its burden of unshed tears.
A lifetime worth of sorrow and pain...
Loneliness and Aloneness...
Of being known and understood by no one but You.
I've chosen my own way-no complaints.
But at times the burden is unbelievably heavy.
Can I get a porter for a few days????

New Poem with Background Story-Tears

This poem will find it's way to the "Poetry Post" with all my other poetry, but since it is new, I am posting it here as well for all to see. A little background. As mentioned on the poetry post, I do not "write" poetry. It seems to be sent to me already written, and I am just asked to get paper and pen and record what is being "said" to me. It goes straight down on the paper with no changes or work involved. What you see here is just as it went onto the paper this morning.
It comes after a month of dealing with my Dad's hospitalization, nursing facility and finally being released home today. In addition, I have left my job, (a true blessing I assure you), one of my daughters has moved in with me (forcing me to give up my clinic room), another daughter is leaving to set up her life in Boston and is also staying with me the past 2 weeks, another daughter arrived this week after 3 years of Embassy work in Uruguay with husband and 3 children. As they are Gush Katif "homeless", they have no home, no job, etc., and also find themselves in what will be a very stressful month until they find a place to live, get their kids registered in school and find work. Another daughter is also moving with her family from her city home to a country home and are also dealing with moving. And of course my youngest, my son, has moved in together with his wonderful girlfriend in Jerusalem (you can see pics of them on the post "A couple of lovely couples"). So, it has not been a quiet period and I guess the events have finally gotten to me in some way. Although my daily meditation, pranayama, yoga etc., has kept me generally quite relaxed and unstressed...just flowing...and my complete faith in God and His Universe has kept me from worrying about the future, as well as my daily dose of Reiki and the 5 Reiki principles which I meditate on each morning (see the blog title for a list of them), which give me much strength to deal tranquily with whatever comes my way, knowing that all is for the Higher Good of all concerned. However, we are human, and so, apparently the following poem found its way to me today...

TEARS
A wellspring trying to break loose,
And release its burden of unshed tears.
A lifetime worth of sorrow and pain...
Loneliness and Aloneness...
Of being known and understood by no one but You.
I've chosen my own way-no complaints.
But at times the burden is unbelievably heavy.
Can I get a porter for a few days????

Disappointment is Hell

I have just finished reading, as I do on a daily basis, an article from the Yoga Journal. (A link to the website is on the sidebar for your information). At first I thought I would summarize it here, as it relates in many ways to what we've been discussing recently re: mindfulness, getting out from the shadow of the past, living in the present moment etc. But it is so well written, I have simply given you below a link to the article. It is quite long but I hope you will have the patience to see it through to the end. There are some very important truths in it, very well written, and quite thought provoking. Just click on the link below and it should take you directly to the article.Your comments are most appreciated.Enjoy with my lovehttp://www.yogajournal.com/wisdom/445_5.cfm

Beyond Dish Washing-Mindfulness Continued

"The Soul Always Knows What to do to Heal Itself. The Challenge is to Silence the Mind"

Now that we've all had a go at washing dishes with mindfulness and seen that it is in no way as simple as it sounds, we can move on to further understanding and practical applications of mindfulness in our daily lives.
Firstly however, after a comment I received regarding my previous post which had led to some misunderstanding, I would like to clarify for all of you, so I am posting here the comment, sent by Avik, as well as my reply, in the hope that it will lead to a better understanding of the dish washing exercise for all of you.

"I have been reading your blogs (what a terrible word!) with great pleasure, and now relate to the one about Living in the Present.........Like anything else of value, when taken to extremes it loses some of its lustre. When trying to fit Washing Dishes into this scheme of things, I think that kind of blew the fuse. How can you enjoy washing dishes, that mindless, energy sapping fruitless task? This is a typical time when one can skip into another world of thoughts, memories, future expectations. Yes, I believe that there is a place for these in life, apart from most of the time living in the present in an enjoyable way. This is what distinguishes us from the animals. As long as one does not transfer the main spring of life into the realm of wishful thinking, I think there is much pleasure in little episodes of reflection and remembering and designing plans for future projects. Let us not lose these jewels altogether, even while recognizing that they are not a substitute being Here and NOw."
...and my reply:
I think you miss the point. No one says you have to enjoy washing the dishes. If you begin to think about enjoying it, again, you are not thinking about the act of washing the dishes. This is just an example any way, as to how people can learn to be mindful of each moment….be completely in the moment. The idea is just, every once in awhile, to focus completely on the task at hand…not in order to enjoy it, but in order to experience it fully. I actually tried this over the weekend with something else which I hate doing and try to get it over as quickly as possible to move on to something else. Folding clothes. And it turned out that when I completely focused on it, I found great tranquility in the exercise, much as I do in any other form of meditation. The whole idea of completely focusing is to bring us to a point where we can move on to using this concentration the moment in our meditation practices.
The act itself is all we need to focus on…not to involve any feelings of enjoying, boredom….no form of judgement or thought, just paying attention to what is happening and focusing on it….I agree with what you say about taking things to the extreme and certainly finding myself thinking of anything but the traffic I am driving in to work each morning, is a wonderful way to get through the drive each morning. But every once in awhile I become completely mindful of the drive and then find that it also can become almost meditative in effect…I look at the sky, see the buildings, read the bumper stickers, everything which is part of the drive itself. This is all the post was trying to get at…Dreaming is wonderful and a very pleasant way of getting away from the present which is not always as pleasant as we would like it to be…but learning to focus is the point here…
I hope this explains the idea a little better…if not, I’m open for more discussion
Nice to hear from you…hope life is treating well “every moment of every day”

OK, now back to some practical ideas about bringing mindfulness into your everyday life...the idea is to try, as often as possible during the day, to really be completely in the moment, no matter what is happening at that particular moment. So here are a couple of further ideas to try which may help bring you more into the now.

• Once every hour, stop whatever you are doing for 1-3 minutes and bring your focus, your awareness to your body and any sensations you have-feel your body completely from head to toe, inside and out. Allow the sensations to flow over you for a minute or so, with no comment or judgement. Just feeling. Then bring your awareness to the room around you, to your surroundings, and take stock as well. What do you see, notice, sense that you didn't before you became aware. And finally, bring your focus to your breathing. Just notice the inhale and exhale. Is your breathing full and deep, or shallow and weak. Don't judge, just notice. Do the above, once every hour (set a timer or put a note on your computer at work) for a few days. Just flow with the exercise. This will help prepare you for the next step in using mindfulness.

• Raise your awareness anew every time you eat. What you will find is that every apple, slice of toast, or meal in your favorite restaurant has its own unique, subtle qualities that often slip by, unnoticed, when you eat habitually or in a distracted state of mind.
  If you can bring yourself back to the present moment for just an instant and pause to see how your food aligns with you deep in your core, you'll find you have an another unfailing tool for knowing what the moment is truly about.

• Another idea you may like to try is a Walking Meditation. Try out this link Walking Meditation and see if it is something you may enjoy. I find it sometimes quite difficult, but if I stick with it, get enormous pleasure and tranquility from the exercise. (You might enjoy this website as well and you can even sign up free for a daily insight as well as a monthly newsletter. There is lots of interesting stuff here, not just about yoga. The link is on the sidebar of my blog as well...check it out!)

Now, I'd like to try working with you using a very simple technique for beginning mindfulness meditation per se. Not just an exercise for become more aware in the day to day, but the actual beginnings of a meditation practice. Once you've tried the following, and would like to delve even more into this type of meditation, find more insights and practical use of this form of meditation, a good starting point is a book mentioned in my last post by Jon Kabat-Zinn "Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday Life"...check it out of any of 1000's of websites on the subject which you can Google and start going through them.

And now...let's begin...this is the type of meditation practice which is done even with large audiences during teachings by Tenzin Palmo, and I quote part of it from her book "Reflections on a Mountain Lake"...

"Now, I would like us all to sit quietly for about fifteen minutes. If your mind has strayed away, bring it back into the room. Then bring it into the body. If there are sensations in the body, just note them. Don't comment on whether you like them or dislike them. Just know that they are present. Know the body. When you have become settled in knowing the body, bring your attention to the in-going and out-going of the breath. Just be one with the breath as it flows in and flows out. Don't try to make the breath longer or shorter. This is not really concentrating, in the sense that we are not looking at the breath from a distance. We are just becoming one with the breath, knowing it as it comes in and as it goes out. When thoughts arise in the mind, don't be concerned. It is the nature of the mind to have thoughts. Don't give them any energy. Don't get caught up in them. Ignore them. If people try to attract our attention and we ignore them, eventually they will give up and go away. Thoughts may come and go, but we are not interested in them. We just bring the attention back again and again to breathing in and breathing out. We will do this for about fifteen minutes. When sounds occur, they are just sounds, just vibrations moving across space. No problem. Sounds are naturally there, and it is natural for the ear to hear them. Don't give them any energy. Just go back to the breath."

• If you find this difficult to do for 15 minutes, a suggestion for beginning this kind of practice from Jon Kabat-Zinn is to begin by counting the breath in series of 10. Count each breath as 1 count (you can either count inhale 1, exhale 2...or inhale + exhale as 1 count, whatever you like). When you reach ten, go back to one. If you get confused in the middle, go back to one each time. This gives a little bit more focus on the breath for beginners and makes it somewhat simpler to move along.
• In addition, do not try to EMPTY the mind. Try to learn to be stronger than the mind...to rise above it...only then can we begin learning to hear what our heart/soul/intutition is telling us.
• Don’t meditate until you are bored. Then you will not feel like doing it again…stop while it is still pleasant so you will look forward to doing it next time and as soon as possible, instead of viewing it as a chore. Like reading a good book and having to put it down at the best part…you can’t wait to get back to it again.

I have concentrated all the recent posts on mindfulness together as well so you can easily refer back to them for more clarification.

I know this has been a long post but look forward to hearing your comments and suggestions. I am thinking of now moving on to a discussion of the 5 Reiki Prinicples as noted above in the description of the blog...that is my next direction for this blog.

Love to you all

Jane

My Meeting with Tenzin Palmo

Below you will find a journal entry written November 7th, 2004 following my meeting withTenzin Palmo in Tashi Jong. Anyone wanting more information about her can comment here and I will get back to you. Also, in the previous post about Mindfulness, there are a couple of recommendations for books as well as a link to her website. Enjoy!



Tenzin Palmo

It's still Sunday and back after going one more time to Naddi. but it's been a strange day and strange kind of feeling for me...abdellah actually complained to me that I am too quiet(!) today!!! I feel this strange sense of inner calm about me since yesterday's meeting with this amazing western nun who spent 12 years in a cave in retreat and has since become THE representative of womens rights in Tibetan Buddhism, and is now finishing the construction of a nunnery in Tashi Jong (which has already been running for 3 years, I believe) which is the first of its kind in Buddhism. It offers full studies to women including debating and all aspects of Buddhist study generally reserved until now for men only. I won't go into any
more details but she is highly respected by HH the Dalai Lama and has received his blessings for all her pursuits in this direction (although she says it is not of her doing and if it were up to here she would still be in retreat)....

Anyway, I will write a few words about what happened yesterday but nothing can really
capture the way I feel right now....it would be interesting to see if I can keep this
feeling of calm once I get home....

Saturday, 6th November-sitting outside the nunnery after having a light lunch following our meeting with Tanzin Palmo. We came up to Tashi Jong (about a 2 hour drive from McLeodganj), by jeep which carried Abdellah, Nicolai, Shachar, myself, and 4 russian ladies who spoke no english.
I came here with a question prepared (at the suggestion of Nicolai)...but didn't
need to ask. As soon as this amazing woman began answering questions from the others...I received an answer to what has been troubling me for the past 2 weeks or maybe longer. Truth is, I couldn't really put the problem into words anyway, and yet I received an answer which went directly to the core of the matter.
I received this answer without ever having to speak the question in words. It was enough that I had understood it in thought. Didn't quite know why I was coming today except it seemed interesting, after I had read the book about her when I first arrived here. But it is no coincidence that I lay awake most of the night pondering the question and towards morning asking for some clarification or direction.

Funny thing was, as soon as she said whatever it was she said, (to everyone sitting there it seemed) I was overwhelmed with tears of relief and joy (and this feeling has been with me ever since...it is now sunday evening) She looked directly at me and gave me a kind nod as if saying "yes, I know!".... Everyone else was firing question after question at her, which she answered with an emormous amount of patience and understanding, but it was as if she knew that the whole reason for the meeting that day was to "hear" my question and give me the reply I so desperately needed.

At the end I went up to thank her and she immediately took both my hands in hers, (she did this to no one else) even before I began to say anything...and then I thanked her for what she gave me. The strength and compassion which flowed simultaneously from her hands to mine was astonishingly powerful. She beamed at me...gave me a one arm around the shoulder hug and I was on my way. It was quite humbling to sit in her presence and feel her total awareness and assurance that all is precisely as it should be, without any sign of ego whatsoever.
Truly an amazing morning!

Mindfulness-Living in the Moment

It’s been awhile since I’ve sat down to write…and the truth is, there are so many things I need to put down here in this blog that it has been difficult to know where to begin. So I have simply let time go by, hoping that the inspiration would come. I’ve been going through some difficult, but interesting and rewarding personal experiences the past few weeks which culminated in my being ill this past week, apparently as a final cleansing following certain processes which have been set in motion. While spending time feeling miserable, as we tend to do when we are not feeling well, I realized what should be the next matter of concern on the blog and will begin writing about it today. It may take more than one sitting to get it all done, but I feel the time is right to begin exploring together with you the matter of Mindfulness. Before discussing Mindfulness itself however, just some food for thought which will lead us into a full discussion of the topic… Previously I wrote about the power of forgiveness in helping us get out from under the Shadow of the Past. (See earlier post). Well, let’s say we have figured out how to release the past and its control over our present. That’s great! But now the big question arises…We’ve managed to escape the past, but where are we NOW living…Being? Are we now able to focus on the present, on the day, on each special, precious moment which comes our way and is over instantaneously? Can be catch the wonder and beauty of each second? Can we experience our life as it unfolds in the moment in all its amazing wonder? Or, are we still living in a place which is not NOW! And if we are no longer burdened by the past, then where are we? Truth be told, most of us are probably abandoning the now for the dream of what will be in the future. Always longing for the time when…always planning for the time we will be able to…always looking for the opportunity which will allow us to…We dwell on things that happened in the past or anticipate future events. But we almost never experience the moment itself. It is for this reason that we often find our lives boring and meaningless. This sense of meaningless does not come from our lives, but from the quality of awareness with which we live our lives. And where does that leave us today? Craving, discontented, unfulfilled, lonely, jealous and completely unaware of, and unable to experience the joy of each moment. Waiting to finish school, waiting to get out of the army, finally going on our travels but then thinking all the time about what we have to do when the trip is over, waiting to find that special someone, waiting for the baby to sit up, to walk, to say his first word, waiting for the kids to leave home, waiting to retire….and before you know it, life is over and we are still waiting for…what? And what happened to all those precious moments in between? How many of them do we remember? How often did we savor the delicious moment? How often did we look at the sky, at the grass, feel the breeze, notice the insects, examine a flower, see the animal tracks on the path, feel the hand of our lover or our child, REALLY listen to someone talking or to the sounds of Nature, hear the hum of the electric appliance running in our house (!)…notice the silence when there is an electricity cut. How often do we actually HEAR, pay attention to, enjoy the music we are listening to? How often to we see the smile, or sadness on our childrens’ faces, pay full attention to their stories when they come home from school…How often do we really fully experience the moment? Mindfulness is a concept in Buddhism, but is something which all of us can benefit from understanding. In Buddhist terms “Mind” is defined as awareness of objects or events, rather than “mental factors”, which contain the content of thoughts etc. And from this definition of “mind” comes the simple yet amazingly powerful concept of “mindfulness”. Mindfulness is being completely and totally aware of everything you are doing as you are doing it. From simple everyday things such as brushing your teeth in the morning, to driving to work, to sitting at the computer and writing this post. (I make it a point to notice everything that I feel, see, touch, sense at each moment. The breeze from the open window to my right, the hum of the computer, the feel of the hard plastic on my finger tips as I touch type, the growl of my stomach as I put off eating just to get a drop more of this written, the tenseness in my shoulders (which I instantly relax to avoid pain later in the evening), the birds singing outside the window as dusk begins, etc) It means living in the now, savoring every moment, as the moment is ALL we truly have. Just a couple of examples, one from my own personal experience…I remember my walks in the mountains which I usually did alone, and did not truly appreciate the pleasure of these walks until I started walking with other people. It seemed that everyone who went walking, was walking in order to get somewhere! The walking was goal orientated and they didn’t begin to experience the day until they “got” where they were “going”. I found this all very upsetting, as they walked at a brisk pace, totally unaware of their surroundings, talking about inconsequential things, never once experiencing the walk itself. It was only after several walks like this that I began to understand the beauty of my isolated walks…I would sometimes walk fast, but mostly just move with the flow of the surroundings. I would look around, hear my footsteps and the noises of the forest, notice the color of the undergrowth, hear the far away ripple of a brook, see the sun shining through the trees…as a matter of fact, I will post right after this a Journal entry I wrote describing one of these walks…which in itself becomes a kind of Mindfulness Meditation. An exercise in BEING in the NOW! You can skip over the following Journal Entry and go on to further discussion of Mindfulness and the example of washing dishes and come back to reading this later, or read it now to get a better feeling for what I am trying to describe and then continue on with the rest of the post. Just walked up TIPA road to Dharamkot after not taking that road in about 2 weeks. And it's as if I am walking someplace for the first time. Seems familiar but no place I've actually been this trip No more whizzing rickshaws to jump aside from or taxi's rushing up blowing their horns. And only 2 other people were seen the whole way up. As a matter of fact, the only human sound accompanying me the whole way up was the occasional scrape of my hiking boots on the road or the soft rustling of my jeans as my legs brushed against each other. And so the forest came alive! At one place there was a tree standing alone with 18(!) ravens on it just enjoying their perches in the sun and "chatting" quietly with each other. None of their usual shouting and squawking to disturb the peace of the day. It's as if the change has relaxed them as well. Further up a little hollow in the wood filled with layers of flitting butterflies. Also seeming to have been invited as well to enjoy the peace of the forest. And the foliage has all become richer and greener and more luxuriant. The fronds on the ferns are enormous with brown stems running through their centers. Some as large as huge banana leaves. And the mosses have spread to cover enormous spaces that used to be just dark damp earth. One kind had little "leaves" in the shape of stars with miniscule white pointed "flowers" almost like sitting atop the "leaves". The cicadas no longer competing with the vehicles or human voices are heard in full force. And many different kinds of bird calls can be heard from the trees. The sun is gloriously warm and blessedly obscured from time to time by the shade of the forest. Making the walk the perfect combination of cold crispness and warmth. As I approached Dharamkot, even the lilting voices of the school children seemed almost in an intrusion. A few sparse lower branches seem connected by enormous spider webs. One lone butterfly disappearing inside a clump of low lying rhododendron. A few lonely rays of sunshine manage to beam their way through the thickness of the 20-30 meter high pines to rest on the forest floor which is a combination of pine needles, low greenery, rocks and moss covered earth. Surrounded completely on all sides by total silence, except for the ever present cicadas and distant call of ravens and the occasional magpie. I feel embraced not only by the splendor of the trees all around me, but my Mother Nature herself! The trees soar upwards like needles topped with triangles of green pointed at the sun as if striving to reach the heights of heaven itself. And I sit insignificantly here but knowing that I am just as much at home here as the trees!

I am adding a video here taken this year (2007) while once again in my beloved mountains with my new digital camera...it will give you a further feeling for what I am referring to in the above...

The Above is one of the reasons I so miss being in India, as I have been 3 times in the past 5 years just at this time of the year. It does something to my soul...seems to awaking things which, try as I may, usually find hard to arouse when taking a walk anywhere here at home. Although today (this written about year later after taking a walk in the middle of Raanana) I DID have a very pleasant walk, with much mindfulness of my surroundings which actually brought tears to my eyes, allowing me to feel for a short few minutes the intensity of being in the moment that I feel so much more in the mountains in India. Now back to the very famous example of simple every day Mindfulness presented by the Vietnamese Zen Master, Thich Nhat Hanh who writes about the benefits of washing dishes to wash dishes. This is a very important point because normally we wash dishes in order to have clean dishes. Whenever we do anything, we do it to get a result. We write a letter in order to produce a letter which we can then send; we are washing dishes not to wash dishes, but so we can have clean dishes and go on to the next task. As we wash the dishes we are thinking about what we will do next, how e will have a cup of coffee, what somebody said to us this morning, what TV program we watched last night, what our kid is doing, what our husband said to us before he went to work. The last thing we have on our mind is the dishes. Then when we come to drink the coffee, we are thinking that after that we have to go shopping and what we are going to buy…or we might even go OUT for coffee with a friend but then we are talking to each other (perhaps even listening to the other person talking), but not really being there with the cup of coffee and its wonderful aroma and taste. Our entire lives pass in this way. Even when we are doing something nice, like eating a delicious meal, we are thinking about dessert. We never even truly enjoy the good things. Tenzin Palmo (the first Western woman to be ordained as a Buddhist nun in the Tibetan tradition*) speaks about this in her teachings and books as well…” I like Tirimisu very much with coffee and lots of cream-totally degenerate, but I love it. So when I eat tiramisu, it is a very pleasurable thing. At the first mouthful, I’m completely with the Tirimisu. But by the second mouthful, I am comparing it with a Tirimisu I had somewhere else which was my idea of the perfect Tirimisu, and I’ve lost this one. For the rest of the mouthfuls, I’m not really eating it anymore. It’s eating itself. I’m already somewhere else, with former glorious Tirimusus which this one should have been but isn’t. We do this every day, not only with what we think of as unpleasant things like washing the dishes, but also with pleasant things. We’re not there. We don’t experience it.” Back to Thich Nhat Hanh who asks “Why not wash dishes just to wash dishes?” We get clean dishes anyway! But it means that while we are washing the dishes, we are completely with it. There is no action in the world more important at that moment than washing the dishes because that is what we are doing. Everything else is just our thoughts. But the thing happening in the moment is the actual reality and, therefore, the most important thing. If we miss it now, we miss it forever, because we can never get that “now” time back once it has passed. So let’s try to wash the dishes and just know we are washing the dishes. It’s not a big deal. We are conscious that we are standing at the sink. Now the hand is picking up a dish. We can feel the water. We can feel the soap suds. We are conscious of what we are washing. We are completely attentive to what is happening in that moment. In this way we become centered in the moment, and that moment is all we ever really have. Our whole life is made up of moment after moment after moment. If we miss these moments through thinking about something else, they are gone forever. If you try this, you will discover that it is extraordinarily difficult. It sounds very easy, but after the first minute the mind is already either thinking, “oh, this is easy, very easy to be mindful..I can be mindful anytime….” And where are you? You’re not with the dishes, you are thinking ABOUT the dishes. Or you may be thinking “Hmmm…where did I get this dish? Ah yes…it was part of a set…where is the rest of the set…?” etc. It is very difficult to remember to be present. It’s easy to be present once we remember. But if we can do that, if we can bring this quality into our daily lives as often as possible, even for a couple of minutes each time, we will open up whole new vistas of awareness. Each moment will bring new understanding and pleasure to us, and we will truly begin to understand the wonders of each moment, of BEING in the present, which is all we truly have. In a future post I will write about Mindfulness Meditation**, which takes the above exercise one step further, but for now, even washing the dishes, or walking to the supermarket, or working on the computer, can be a form of meditation if it is done with mindfulness and if we remain completely in the moment. Remember: We have nothing if we don’t cherish and enjoy each moment. Live as if we may die tomorrow-make the most of each day. Enjoy the beauty of every minute. Live with youthful enthusiasm for each thing that comes our way. Experience things with all our senses as they happen. Be Mindful. BE…LIVE… * Recommended reading either about or by this amazing English born woman- who lived for 12 years in a cave in the Himalayas and has become a living legend: “Cave in the Snow” by Vicki Mackenzie; “Reflections on a Mountain Lake” by Tenzin Palmo. You can also check our the website of the nunnery she founded and find more interesting information: http://tenzinpalmo.com/ I met her on my last trip to India at the nunnery and will post a journal entry about that visit at a later date. If you are interested in hearing more about her, you can comment here and I will get back to you. **Good first book on the topic: “Mindfulness Meditation for Everyday” by Jon Kabat-Zinn

Reality-Smack Between the Eyes

This will be short and to the point. Yesterday I came face to face, literally, with how I appear to others these days. Not friends or family or even co-workers who are either not completely objective or don't want to offend in any way, but by someone completely and totally with out alterior motives...a bus driver asking a simple question. Just a little look back before the question however:
When I was in my early to mid twenties, and walking around the neighborhood with 3 little kids in tow, I was very often mistaken for their teenage baby sitter and asked how much I charged per hour.
When I was in my mid to late 30's and out and about with my teen age daughters, I was taken for their older 20 something sister.
When I was in my late 40's I was generally taken for much younger, probably late 30's early 40's (although by this time the gap was slowly closing), and once out with my first granddaughter, was confronted with someone who was not quite sure if I was Mommy or Granny.
When I was in my early to mid fifties, the gap closed even more and I was generally taken for 5-8 years younger than I was, but that was still quite pleasant.
As I passed my mid 50's, suddenly the gap closed very quickly and I began hear "you look very good for your age" type comments.
Now, in Israel, a person is considered a "senior" when he reaches 60, and one of the big advantages is, he is given a card which, among other things, buys him 1/2 fare on all public transportation, and bus drivers need to see them in order to know to charge you 1/2 price when you board.
Yesterday, as I boarded a bus, the drive looked at me and without hesitation asked "Are you a senior?".
Getting a more objective of how I look would be simply impossible. And as I said, Reality, smack between the eyes. I will be 60 in about 1/2 a year and I guess the gap has closed for good...so keep those comments about "looking good for your age" coming. They are most welcomed.

And Remember: It is not how many years you live, but how you live the years that counts.

Living in the Shadow of the Past and the Power of Forgiveness

Like your shadow on the sidewalk when the sun shines behind you,

holding onto painful past memories

darkens each forward step

which could instead be filled with light.

The above statement may seem obvious, and simple, but it is most profound and warrants further thought and attention.

Holding onto the past is probably the most universal of all human behavior patterns. It is the rare individual who lives his life entirely in the present, unburdened by influences from the past. At the same time, it is one of the main causes of worry, tension, pain, sadness, depression, anger, grief, hate, jealousy, discontent,even physical illnesses - just about everything and anything that each of us would be much better off without.

So, how can we rid ourselves of this terrible burden? There is only one way.

Forgiveness!

Forgiveness does not necessarily mean condoning things that happened to us or that were done to us by strangers, and even more difficult to deal with, by those close to us. It means reaching a point in life where we simply decide "Enough!". I will no longer allow the past to rule my life and take possession of my thoughts, feelings, reactions and dictate the way I live each day. The burden of the past is heavy enough to weigh us down until we are bent over and unable to move, stuck in a place we do not wish to be but which we do not have the energy to move out of. Only by dumping this terrible burden can we again feel light, joyful, fresh, young, energetic, enthusiastic, creative, loving, caring, compassionate, patient and tolerant, content, vibrant and full of peace and tranquility.

I am attaching some wonderful short statements, dealing with the power of forgiveness...and how our past effects each step we take in the present. They are taken from a very long list of ideas for further thought called "Your Biography Becomes your Biology" which I will post in full in a later post. For now I am just "picking and choosing" for the particular idea of forgiveness.

There are also many wonderful techniques for releasing the past, and I will explain at the end of this blog the one which I find most effective. This is from both personal experience and the experiences of many of my clients who have moved on to wonderful new places in their lives after combining the technique with other subtle forms of energy work such as Reiki and Bach Flower Remedies-but it is a technique which can work entirely on its own if taken seriously and done properly and with intent.

Look for it at the end of this post!

• "Healing requires taking action--it is not a passive event.'

• 'What drains your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body.'

• 'We have converted our wounds into a type of relationship currency that we use in order to control situations and people.'

• 'Healing means getting over the pain, not marketing it.'

• 'Therapy is a boat to cross the river, we just have to remember to get off on the other side.'

• 'Master your responses to external events--don't attempt to control them.'

• 'Forgiveness is like a rough diet with no payback -- you won't like it until it's over.'

• Just let go. Let go of how you thought your life should be, and embrace the life that is trying to work its way into your consciousness.’

• 'Forgiveness doesn't look attractive until we get to the other side.’

• Present time energy is its own transformer. The more energy you have in present time, the more voltage you can move through you.

• ‘Call back the energy you are wasting on events of the past.’

• We are never being punished, only being taught. Everything is a teaching.

• ‘It goes without saying that not every healing crisis will have a 'fairy-tale ending,' but every effort you make, regardless of how insignificant it may seem to you, will always bring you closer to a state of spiritual and physical health.’

• What is wrong with us that we have to have yesterday's grief with us today?

• Forgiveness is a path to my inner laboratory.

• Get bored with your past, it's over! '

• Release the need to know why things happen the way they do.' '

• Never look to another person to make you happy--happiness is an internal, personal attitude and responsibility.'

• 'Life is essentially a learning experience. Every situation, challenge and relationship contains some message worth learning or teaching to others.'

• 'Practice forgiveness of others.'
• 
  'Positive energy works more effectively than negative energy in each and every situation.' '

• Our emotions reside physically in our bodies and interact with our cells and tissues.'

• 'Nothing empowers our ability to heal as much as our love and forgiveness.'

• 'The soul always knows what to do to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind.'

• 'Spiritual teachings encourage us to grow past and through painful experiences, each of which is a spiritual lesson.'

• 'Illness can develop as a consequence of behavioral patterns and attitudes that we do not realize are biologically toxic until they have already become so.' '

• I am forgiving not for you, but for me. I am forgiving because I want my power back.'

• 'Get over it.'

• 'Feeling victimized only adds to your illness, and should it become a full state of mind, would qualify as an illness in itself.'

• 'We are addicted to the power of the wound.'

• 'Release victim consciousness and embrace forgiveness.'

• We can achieve a genuine sense of peace about life only by releasing our need to know why things happen in terms of human reasoning and by embracing Divine reasoning.'

• ‘We cannot seek to heal an illness without first looking into what behavioral patterns and attitudes need to be altered in our life.’

• For every time zone that we are in, other than here, we drain our life energy.

• Law of the gods: get bitter or better.

• A forgiving heart is an honest heart.

• Blame is a form of energetic cancer.

• If anyone tries to complicate your life - turn and walk away from them

• If it's not about you, it's not about you

• You can't understand what you can't understand

• Don't make simplicity hard

• Your task is to learn the lesson that the teacher has for you rather than to resent the teacher

• Seen symbolically, our life crises tell us that we need to break free of beliefs that no longer serve our personal development

• Our lives change externally as we change internally

• View every experience as a blessing and a remedy that serves your well-being.

• Illness can be a teacher, companion, or challenge-but not a punishment.

• Healing requires that you admit the truth about yourself.

• Embrace the changes in your life.

• Bless your difficulties and ask to see their hidden guidance.

• Be mindful of how often you judge others.

• Become mindful of your reasons to stay angry

• To be unable to forgive is to live in hell, burdened, miserable, angry

• Get in present time and forgive the people who have hurt you

• We are not meant to stay wounded

• To blame the other players in our drama for helping to teach us what we need to learn is the height of foolishness

• Understand that all experiences either make you bitter or better

• Practice the art of transformation

• Become mindful that remaining in a conflict is a choice

• Learn that the way to set change in motion is to bless and appreciate even the most difficult parts of our life

• Recognize whether you love yourself enough to heal

• Realize you choose to stay angry when you can choose to heal

• Sometimes the strings to our past are burned because we need a new beginning

Forgiveness Exercise:

1. Using a full size notebook or pad (A4, letter size), take a page and fold it in half lengthwise.
2. Number each line from 1 to 70.
3. Choose a person you wish to begin forgiving. This can be as simple as a teacher in the first grade who made you stand in the corner or as deep as an abusive parent. It can be yourself (but this is better left until later on in the forgiveness work) or even God! You may want to begin with something small and move on to the heavier duty things once you get the hang of the exercise, but there is no reason why you cannot “jump right into deep water” if you so choose.
4. On the left hand side of the page (remember, there is a fold line down the middle of the page), start on line one, and on each line up to 70 write: " I (your name) completely and totally forgive (name of other person)."
5. You will write this 70 times.
6. While writing this short but powerful sentence, thoughts will begin to come up into your head “Why the hell am I doing this?” “This is silly” “There is NO way I will forgive this person”> “Look at what he did to me when he….” Etc., etc. Every single thought, without censorship and without comment or contemplation, you simply write down on the RIGHT side of the fold. As they come, as they flow, just write and then immediately go back to writing the other sentence 70 times. DO NOT STOP TO READ OR THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE WRITING ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FOLD LINE.
7. Once you have written this 70 times, take the piece of paper and BURN IT.
8. Do this for a full 7 days FOR EACH PERSON. And burn at the end of each day.
9. At the beginning of a new week, choose someone new to work on.
10. As the days go by, the thoughts that immerge from the depths of our subconscious will become less and less. There will probably be no more left by the end of the week regarding the person involved. If there ARE still many thoughts, do the same person for a second full week! But this RARELYhappens.

Once the person is taken care of and the papers are burnt, you will feel an enormous lightness overtake you. It is quite remarkable. It really does work!

If something is unclear about the above, please feel free to comment below and I will explain further. I wish you all wonderful new days filled with the relief of "dropping" the weight of the past from your shoulders, and standing tall of joyfully embrace each new day.
With much love, light, health, tranquility and laughter.
Jane

Short and Sweet:Reality of Past Present and Future

I just HAD to send this to everyone. This Note from the Universe came through today (I receive one everyday, as you can as well. ) and it fits so well in with what we've been discussing, I want to share it with everyone.

You see, Jane, most of the time when people think the present could have been different than it is, it's because they think the past was different than it was. Happily, the future can still be anything.

These daily notes do wonders for me. If you want more information, just check out the link listed on the sidebar and follow the instructions. You won't regret it...
Much love to all

90 YEARS YOUNG! And Still Going Strong!!

As I have created a new blog in Memory of my father, this post can now be found at the following link:

http://daveyscheiman.blogspot.com/2006/11/90-years-young-and-still-going-strong.html

Gay Paree-and...El Al Security!

All three pics, with Notre Dame in the background, were taken on the "nicest" day weatherwise in Paris. And then read the full story below!!

Me and Abdellah...


Well, I would have preferred writing this closer to the “real-time” event, but it seems like 2 weeks have just gone by and I haven’t had any time to sit down and write this. It is now Thursday evening, after the first Holiday of Passover and have decided no matter what I will get this down on “paper”.

I returned home from Paris almost 2 weeks ago and, as expected, found myself sick for the first week I was back. This always seems to happen to me when I travel, or change environments, and I always am grateful actually for these periods of being unwell, as it is a wonderful opportunity for my body to cleanse itself of everything unhealthy that has accumulated during the change. New foods, new air, stress of travel etc. This time the whole process was shortened by a long-distance Reiki healing I received from Michal, one of my newest Reiki II students with enormous energies and powerful healing abilities. Much thanks to her.

And then of course the second week went by getting ready for the Holiday, finishing up work, cooking and finally a lovely Seder evening with Shlomit and Aviva.

And now, back to Gay Paree where I spent a wonderful 9 days with my dear friend Abdellah. I arrived early in the morning on Friday, and as expected, the weather was cold, rainy, windy for my entire stay. There was a solar eclipse the week I was there and my daughter asked me if I had seen the eclipse of the sun. My reply was: “What sun?”. Abdellah picked me up and took me to his brother and sister-in-laws home in a small village about 45 minutes outside of Paris by train called Seugy. They also have a 2 + year old son named Yanis and none of them speak a word of English. It was a fascinating journey into the world of body language and non-verbal communication. Especially with Yanis who did not even comprehend initially that there is such a thing as a “foreign” language and was quite amused at the funny way I spoke and began imitating me by speaking gibberish. I finally understood the amazing way my father always gets along with his great-grandchildren who speak no English and his speaking very very limited Hebrew. I found myself unconsciously using the same methods I always see him using to connect with the kids and I had a wonderful time with Yanis. We bonded quite easily, and although they were away on a ski trip the whole week and we actually only spent 2 full days together, I already had begun learning simple French. I commented that if I stayed for a full month with him, I’d be speaking French. (Like a 2 year old, was the reply!!).

Abdellah and I caught up on 1 ½ years of our lives since we last saw each other. Went almost everyday into Paris by train, found ourselves in cold nasty weather, rain, train strike one day and demonstrations another…all in all, quite interesting. But I had been to Paris 20 years ago and didn’t really come to be a tourist. Went to Paris to visit a friend and that is mostly what we did. We strolled around for awhile, went to see a couple of movies, window shopped a little, but mostly just enjoyed each other’s company and ate great food. (I had lost 4 kilo over the past couple of months-unintentionally-when I began eating really healthy meals which I have delivered to me each day at work-and gained it all back in just 9 days in Paris-eating much pasta, bread, enormous quantities of cheese and all kinds of deli and meat and sausages which I never eat at all!)

On Sunday we went to another one of his brother’s, Rashid, and I got to eat my first real French dinner which took about 5 hours to eat. Abdellah apologized that it was a “light” meal, but I hate to think what I would have done if it had been a “full” meal! We started with aperitif, and I drank my first Champagne! It was wonderful! But since I never , or very rarely drink, and I was on an empty stomach, it got to me right way. Add to that the wine during the meal and you can imagine my state when I finally got up from the dinner table. But the food was wonderful, even to the strange (for me) course of salad and cheeses and bread AFTER the main course. And then of course dessert….not to mention the entre before the main course…but the company was interesting, most people spoke some English so I was not completely in the dark all afternoon, and all in all it was a wonderful day. Another day, Abdellah wanted to learn how to bake challah, so we stayed home and that’s what we did!

It’s the first time in a very long time that I was able to just relax and enjoy each day, and I came home with enormous reserves of energy. I look forward to seeing him again one of these days, but who knows where? India I guess…

Just one quick story before I end this… For all those who insist on flying El Al for security reasons, you will most appreciate this story. When I got to the airport together with Abdellah, I made sure to get their early so as to get a good seat on the plane for the flight home. Although I was 3rd on line, I was one of the last to actually get to the ticket counter and wound up sitting in the very last row in the tail of the plane, near the bathrooms and kitchen!! Let me tell you, riding in the tail of the plane is an experience I hope I never have to go through again. Anyway, how did I wind up there? Well, as I said, Abdellah escorted me to the gate and when my turn came, the girl asked “are you together?” I said yes, but only I am flying, and Abdellah went to wait for me with my promise to him that “This shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes!” When I approached the desk where the security girl stood, she asked me who that was who escorted me and I replied that he is a friend of mine…and she asked me what his name was. Well, before I realized, or had time to think, of course I automatically said “Abdellah” and then both of us looked at each other and realized that an interesting script was about to be played out!! To make a long story short, before I left the desk, she knew the names of all my children, grandchildren and sons-in-law, their ages, addresses, and where they work, the whole story of my life in America and then my Aliya, my divorce, my current job etc. And then of course the questions about my suitcase. The tricky one being, “in the whole time you were in France, did anyone ever have access to your suitcase when you weren’t around?” I explained that we stayed at his brother’s house, but that they were away and just the two of us were there alone in Seugy. (Seugy??Seugy??-anyone here ever heard of Seugy??) So then of course the obvious look of question when I explained that I had my own room and my suitcase was always there with me (“You slept in SEPARATE rooms???” ) except for when we went out and we always went together. At this point, quite skeptical of my explanation, she walked over to consult with the 3 other security guards, pointing to me, pointing to Abdellah sitting on the side and explaining to them that I claim that we slept in separate rooms, and the look on all of their faces as they looked over at me obviously saying “yeah, right!”…. Well, after some further questioning, about where we know each other from, what I was doing in India alone, etc., etc., they finally released me to the baggage check. I had to go through a check where they use some kind of hand held detectors that they use to check every single item individually in the suitcase. I had to remove (after a guarantee from the girl there that she would make sure everything got back in again) everything from my suitcase, and remove everything from the smaller cosmetic, medicine etc., bags inside the suitcase, and from inside those bags, everything from the smaller zip lock bags they were closed in, tell them what each medicine, cream, etc., was used for etc. Then the same thing for my backpack….Then, before finally releasing me to the ticket counter, the head of all El Al security at the airport arrived and asked me if it would be OK if they also questioned Abdellah. I said it is OK with me but of course you’ll have to ask him. He doesn’t have to speak to you if he chooses not to. (He did answer their questions and, of course, since we were both telling the truth, our stories checked out!) I can understand finally why Abdellah has never come to Israel even though he says he would love to. He has family here by the way, as his mother is Muslim but his father is Jewish…. Several of his relatives came to Israel over the last few years to visit the relatives in Ashdod, but after what they went through , advised all the others not to do it. I can now understand, that if this is what was done to me, an older lady, Israeli citizen, what must be done to people with Arab sounding names or looks….I understand the reasons for this security, but must tell you that it is not funny at all….I wasn’t angry with anyone, or even annoyed, but it was not a pleasant thing to have to go through for sure.

Anyway, I arrived home safe and sound, if somewhat exhausted from not sleeping all night on the plane, and as we landed in Tel Aviv, we all thought the pilot had made an error and returned us to Paris! It was 14 degrees, and raining!!! The worst rain storm of the whole winter (which was supposed to be over by this time)…actually causing terrible flooding which killed a few people…unheard of. I finally arrived home cold and wet and quite disappointed that this is what I came home to instead of warm sunny weather. But it changed quickly, and now just 2 weeks later, spring/summer has arrived and it is glorious.

So, a Happy Passover to all of you, and there will be more to come shortly.

Websites, Google, Osteoporosis, Chi Kung: HUH?

Hello All,
This is going to be a long and convoluted post and there is no way I can tell this story without starting from the beginning and going all the way through to the end step by step. So bare with me...there is a very good reason for my writing it and hopefully it will be of service to others. It involves many diverse topics (Google, medications, Chi Kung, to name a few) but they all come together in the end. Pleasant reading.
I began practicing 7 Lotus Chi Kung about 6 months ago with a wonderful lady named Edwina, and every Wednesday evening would meet with a small but lovely and fun group of people, which got even smaller as time went by, but I always enjoyed going there, not just for the wonderful feeling I would get from the Chi Kung, and the energies the group gave me, but for my weekly meeting with a wonderful guy named Carl. He was there in the hope that Chi Kung would be the answer for him after a kidney transplant, and perhaps one day I will write more about him, but he was definitely the fun part of the week for me. In addition, I would do my best to practice Chi Kung at least 3 times at home during the week.Well, Chi Kung almost immediately began doing wonderful things for me by opening energy blockages, balancing me in many ways and in general giving me a higher level of energy than I had felt for a long time. I won't go into any specifics here but it had extremely powerful effects on me on all levels-physical, mental, energetic etc. that perhaps will be a story for a future post. About 2 months ago I was "graduated" from level I to level II and found the second level even more lovely than the first. It's purpose was to work gently on the energy level, balance chakras, balance ying and yan, and further awaken the kundalini. The movements were very different from the first level but the effects very powerful and I most enjoyed it. I had a few strange things happening to me but assumed they were part of further blockages being released and happily continued doing my Chi Kung. As the weeks went by, I began having very uncomfortable physical effects from this new level of Chi Kung (or so I believed since there was nothing else new or different in my life which could have accounted for these things)...

(you will absolutely NOT believe what just happened! Last time something like this happened to me was in my early days in India when I used to write long e-mails directly in Yahoo and have them disappear when the electricity went off or the connection was lost etc. I finally learnt to write them first in notepad or whatever and save them on the local computer and then just cut and paste later) Well, I am sitting here at work writing this very long post and thinking to myself all the time “Jane, you really should save this someplace…and kept thinking, yes, in a minute…I am in the train of thought now, don’t want to stop…Well, I wrote sooooooooooooooooo much and then, out of the blue, my computer stalled (it does this often during the day) and when I finally got it back up and running, the above is all I was able to retrieve of the post…actually, I was thankful even for that as I assumed it was all gone having been written directly on the blog. So, now I am in Word, will continue from , again, to put this all down in writing. A definite lesson in “just for today I will not get angry (with myself)” and in calm acceptance of everything that comes along!!!

OK, where were we…oh yes, strange symptoms:
Terrible leg and foot cramps, fatigue and drastic drops in blood pressure which left me completely incapacitated at times. I spoke to Edwina about these things and she assured me that Chi Kung was not dangerous in ANY way and I was sure she was correct. She even spoke to HER teacher who was somewhat surprised by my reactions but explained to Edwina ways to help me get past this period of change and still do Chi Kung. I DO believe that whatever was happening was for good reasons, and could only benefit me, but knowing myself and the extreme reactions I’ve always had to all types of treatment whether it be conventional medicine, or healing and energy work, I decided that at this very hectic point in my life I could not afford the energies I was expending on these changes and decided to stop doing Chi Kung. When my life quiets down in a few months (ha, ha) I could always go back to it. In the meantime I would spend more time on Yoga and meditation in place of and although it saddened me, I felt this was the right decision after much deep thought and deliberation. Someplace inside I felt something was not quite settled in the matter, but was at peace with my decision.

Now, onto the next, seemingly unrelated topic. A little over a year ago when I moved to Raanana, I of course found myself a new doctor who I was quite pleased with, and it turned out that he is also one of the country’s top experts on osteoporosis. After the poor results of my last two bone density scans, I discussed the matter with him, particularly since there is a serious family history of osteoporosis, I have already broken my foot with no apparent trauma to account for the break other than twisting my foot during dancing, and the fact that I have been taking calcium and vitamin D for many years as well as dancing and yoga, all seemed to suggest that perhaps I needed further treatment. In the past I had declined the suggestion of medication as what was available had serious side effects on the digestive system and as this is a particularly sensitive part of my body anyway, was not willing to take the chance. This new doctor suggested I try a new medication now available in Israel, Actonel, which has proved to be very effective in halting the advance of osteoporosis as well as rebuilding bone density after a period of use. He suggested I try for 3 months to make sure there is no digestive system problems and promised my that at the end of year, I will see positive results on my next bone density scan. I of course went and did a Google search, (and, as most of us do, looked at the first couple of pages the search produced) was convinced that it indeed has proven itself effective with much less side effects than the previous medication available and decided to give it a try despite the fact that I have always stayed away from medications. I simply had to take it once a week on an empty stomach and then sit up straight for 30 minutes. No problem at all as I do my meditation in the morning anyway. Well, I began taking it with no ill effects and was quite pleased that I was doing something positive to halt the invasion of osteoporosis and looked forward to the new bone density scan to see the wonderful effects this Actonel was having on my body.
A couple of weeks ago a full year went by since my last scan, and I went to do a new one, anxiously looking forward to the wonderful results I would see in the report. Well, when the scan results came back, not only was there no improvement, there was slight advancement in the osteoporosis! I was quite surprised and disappointed to say the least. I decided to go back to the doctor and ask for his comments (this medication is also quite expensive as it is not included in the list of subsidized medications). I mentioned this to Elisheva and she said something which really disturbed me and which I found quite unbelievable, but she says it is well known that doctors receive kickbacks from drug companies for there pushing certain medications and that probably, when I go to see the doctor, he will simply say that the medication worked because there was no SERIOUS deterioration in my condition and that I should keep taking it for at least another year. He will probably say that if I hadn’t been taking it, the condition probably would have gotten much worse over the year. Well, I was skeptical about what she said, but until I made a decision, decided to stop taking the medication for a month, since I had to refill the prescription and didn’t want to spend the money until I was sure of what he said. Now, perhaps some things are starting to fall into place for you guys out there but I had still made absolutely no connection between these two completely different parts of my life….the Actonel, the Chi Kung and the physical symptoms.
Anyway, this was all happening at the same time that I also stopped doing Chi Kung and amazingly started feeling better. Once I stopped the Chi Kung, I had no more leg and foot cramps, no more fatigue and no drops in blood pressure. I reported this to Edwina and told her for the time being I would not be coming back, began doing more yoga and meditation. Now, during my more frequent meditations, the question kept arising regarding these symptoms, Chi Kung etc. but I could not figure out what the messages were saying other than that something was still not settled here. I took it to mean that I definitely must go back to Chi Kung, but at a later date when I could manage the symptoms of change more easily.
At the same time, I tried to make an appointment with the doctor a couple of times with no luck (my time is limited, as is his, and I was not in any rush to speak to him and try and explain why I didn’t want to continue the medication since it appeared not to be having any effect and it was quite expensive and I hate taking medications anyway). And so the bone scan sat on my bed waiting and Elisheva’s comments kept coming back to make me think, and finally I decided to do a Google search again to see what the expected outcomes of taking Actonel are and how long one is expected to take it before seeing results. I figured this would give me a better understanding before seeing the doctor again. So, yesterday, I went into Google and began my search again. Now, since the last time I had done a search, was before I had started inquiring regarding creating a website etc. When I began my investigations into websites etc., I also found out a lot of information regarding getting ratings for your website on the search engines like Google, Yahoo etc. And it seems there are definite ways to get higher ratings so that YOUR website will appear on the first page of the search etc., so that more people will see it. Once I understood this, I also realized that all the websites you find on the first page of a search for a medication for example, are either for the drug companies themselves, for suppliers of the the meds, or for studies done BY the drug companies. All you have to do is pay and you can get someone to give you a higher rating for your website etc., So, I decided that for this search I would go well into the deeper pages of the search to get more unbiased information and found myself on an Actonel Forum! Well, I almost fell off my chair when I began to read not only the forum, but links to other places with more user comments regarding use of this drug. I am listing 2 here if anyone would be interested in checking it themselves. If the links don't work...I don't know how to make them work here, just do cut and paste.

http://www.askapatient.com/viewrating.asp?drug=20835&name=ACTONEL

http://www.topix.net/forum/drug/actonel

At any rate, symptoms described by person after person, include: severe leg cramping, fatigue and joint pain. Now, the joint pain I’ve been having this winter I never thought to relate to Chi Kung (so at least I didn’t blame everything on it), and assumed my arthritis had gotten much worse, spent a lot of money on treatments by an osteopath who could not understand why I continued to have almost continual pain even though he was sure his treatments should have solved the problem (and I DO trust this guy…he has treated me in the past with wonderful results). I generally have a few of these arthritis attacks a YEAR, and the past few months it has been with me almost consistently!! On another website I also read that you absolutely should not take Actonel if you suffer from low blood pressure. My doctor KNOWS I have low blood pressure and yet never mentioned this to me. I had also never read the flyer that comes with the medication as I generally just throw them away, figuring if I READ about something that MIGHT happen, I might just start having symptoms. So This morning I read the flyer, and sure enough, it mentions side effects of cramping, bone and joint pain, fatigue etc.!!!
So now, it is all falling into place for me, finally. Since I had begun Chi Kung about 4 months after beginning Actonel, I guess the side effects of Actonel began showing up around the same time I began Level II of Chi Kung, but I never associated the symptoms with the Actonel, as this was a constant in my life while the Chi Kung new level was the NEW thing in my life.
Ah, one more thing. Before I checked into this whole Actonel thing, remember I said I had not taken it for a month. That was the same time I had also stopped doing Chi Kung. When the symptoms ceased, I of course concluded it was because I had stopped Chi Kung. Now, interesting enough, I started taking the Actonel AGAIN 2 weeks ago (since I had already bought it and decided “why not” until I get to see the doctor-this, before yesterday’s revelations on the internet) . And, just by chance, my leg cramps started again a few days ago!! And I obviously have not been doing Chi Kung, so this seems to close the matter for sure.
What this all means, is I can go back to doing Chi Kung, which I love…and even get to see Carl each week again!!

So, all’s well that ends well, and hope this will be of service to someone else out there.
My love to all
Jane

Aviva's Departure Pics

"Your Future Depends on Many Things, But Mainly on You"

Well, Aviva has left us and moved on to Boston. It's been a very trying period for all of us, myself included. Shira coming back from Uruguay with her family, my Dad's long hospitalization and recuperation (he is now home but suffering from malnutrition and very weakened body, but I am sure he will come through this as well...it is just a matter of time), Shlomit's moving in with me, Elisheva and Moshe moving to the country, my having to leave my job (shortly) and then of course Aviva leaving us to start a new life in Boston. The whole family is on the move, in all different directions, but many new roads are opening us for all of us, and this is always very intense, even when the predicted outcomes are for wonderful things for everyone.
I have not really done any writing here on the blog as I simply have not had the energy left for anything other than the basics this entire period, but I would like to share some pics with all of you which were taken the day Aviva left. I had finally decided to buy a digital camera and after much research chose the model I wanted, found a good price on the internet and ordered it. "By chance" it arrived the same day Aviva left and we were all together...so many nice photos. Only no pics of Eyal as he was in a bad mood and refused to be photographed!!
Enjoy
Be well all
Will hopefully get back to this blog project shortly. I am planning next to begin discussing the wonders of Reiki, but you never know...something else may come up before I get to that ...

My love to all
Jane

Eyal-Before and After!

Eyal finally agreed to have his long hair shorn. We knew it would change him, but none of us were prepared for the totally new little person who emerged from behind the long hair. This is the real Eyal finally revealed. I hope to have some better pics shortly and will post them here as well for all to enjoy. I've included a cute one with Gaia as well.

A Couple of Lovely Couples

I am posting here some pictures of some of our family's beautiful couples. These are the first pictures we have of our newest lovely couple, Shai and Dani. We are all mad about her...she is very very special and we are overjoyed that she has joined our family. They have just moved in together in an apartment in Jerusalem and we all wish them much happiness and love together.
And of course pictures of our "oldest" and most amazing couple, my parents, still managing to smile after 65 years together. There is also a lovely picture of Chanale and Yaniv that was caught on during our Independence Day celebration at there house. And one surprise couple for your enjoyment.

Avni's in Brasil

These are pics from the Avni's last vacation in South America before finally coming home this July. The children have changed enormously in the past 3 years. It is going to be interesting have them back and getting to know them again!
Remember to click on the pictures to see them in full size on your screen!

The next 3 posts are new pictures-explanations at the bottom of the page

A really cute picture of the two little ones at the computer...their concentration is amazing...I love this new age! Also a couple of pics of Shai, one of Yali soooooooo happy during his recent visit to Eilat and finally, Eyal and myself making swedish meatballs! The next 2 posts have more pics also with explanations at the bottom of each page.
Enjoy with my love.

The Federman's-Some New Pictures

As I mentioned earlier, I will be adding new pictures as they come along. I've put in this picture of Eyal as a "before" shot since he will be 3 on April 1st and will be getting his first haircut. This is also a picture of Roni which was taken especially for a project she had to do for school "roots" which all Israeli school children do when they are at the Bar/Bat Mitzva age. Very nice tracing their family roots as far back as possible and writing about their relatives etc. Having Shai's digital camera available makes this also much easier. Hope you enjoy.
Love
Jane

More from the Omri's

Recent photos of the Omri's including, finally, a picture of Yaniv, and also a "before" picture of Yali when he still had his long hair. There are also pictures of the kids on a visit to Eilat...where they will be returning at the end of the school year apparently.
More to follow....
Love

The Avni Family-Latest Pics

This are pictures which I received recently from Shira, in Uruguay which were taken around the time of Shajar's Bat Mitzva. They will be coming home in July...time seems to just fly. I can't believe it will be three years soon since we saw them off at the airport. Perhaps I will put some of those pics on also so we can all see the difference in everyone. Quite amazing how time flies.

and still more...

But the others were taken very recently at Yali's 5th birthday party. Now I still need pictures of Yaniv, and Elisheva's 3 girls, Roni, Adi and Shaked, and hope to get them soon. Shai brought back a digital camera with him from China and the whole family is really enjoying it. I will ask to have pictures taken soon of the those missing, and then will know that at least there is one picture of everyone on this blog.