Metamorphosis and Craniosacral Therapy

Last night, I was reading through one of my cranio text book, "Craniosacral Biodynamics, Vol 2" by Dr. Franklyn Sills when something interesting jumped out at me - a paragraph that describes something that is very similar to Robert St. John's Metamorphosis.

In that book, Dr. Sills wrote that by orienting to vertebrae dynamics, these dynamics may reflect the whole of our history including past life and generational family line issues (generational karma). This is what Metamorphosis practitioners do too - orienting to the patterns that we are born with via the spine or spinal reflex on the feet, hands and head.

Isn't it interesting that two very different schools of modality meeting a similar conclusion?

When You Are Most Powerful

"When you do not seek or need external approval, you are at your most powerful."
- Caroline Myss in Sacred Contracts

"To thine own self be true"
- William Shakespeare in Hamlet

Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide

Last week, while browsing for a book on yoga, another kind of book caught my attention. It was a book on Reiki, titled Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide by Reiki Master Pamela Miles.

Do I want to read another book on Reiki? I have lots of Reiki books already and thought they are pretty much the same. Reiki, after all, is ... Reiki. But I was so drawn towards this particular book that I brushed those thoughts aside and bought it.

Now, I'm glad that I listened to my inner guidance that day because Pamela Miles's book is unlike the many Reiki books I've read. Drawing upon her many years as a Reiki Master and her experiences with the teaching and training of Reiki with medical staff and their patients, Pamela Miles has written a book that is so useful to those new to Reiki, right up to medical practitioners and Reiki Masters.

Reading this book affirms my stand on the practising and teaching of Reiki: that there are no such thing as "speedy" or "instant" Reiki practitioners or Reiki Masters. Instead, it takes life-time practice of daily self-treatments. There are simply no short-cuts. Period. To those who think that the Reiki initiation process makes them immediate automatic healers, well think again. The initiation process is exactly what it means: it initiaties. After that, is the daily discipline of practising the Reiki self-treatment. Besides that, the search for the right teacher, attending classes, spending sufficient contact time with the teacher, all these matters a lot to the Reiki students.

These are the underlying message that Pamela Miles brought forth throughout the entire book. There are no psychic, esoteric stuffs, no further revealing of the Reiki symbols, no mix-and-match with other New Age healing modalities, but plain simple guidance on how to practice Reiki, the importance of daily self-treatments, how to use Reiki personally and professionally, the many research done on Reiki within the medical community, and yes, Reiki as was handed out to the whole world through the work of one courageous woman: Mrs Hawayo Takata.

Read this book, and you'll be inspired by Reiki over and over again.

(Note: If you are interested to purchase this book, click here: Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide)

Menopause from a TCM Perspective (Part 2)

More from Dr. Northrup:

"According to Chinese medicine, diet is the most effective way to relieve many symptoms. All heat-producing foods and substances should be eliminated. Caffeine, alcohol, refined sugar, food colouring, preservatives, and additives(including antibiotics and hormones fed to animals during the production of most meat, chicken and eggs) will cause excess heat and yin depletion. Red meat should be consumed in small quantities, but being a complete vegetarian (vegan) is not recommended. You should eat at least 2-4 ounces of meat or fish every week or two, depending upon your size and lifestyle. It is also helpful to limit spicy, pungent foods, such as curries or chilies, and greasy, fried or oily foods.

Foods should be lightly cooked, not raw or cold. The body has to work much harder to digest raw food, which creates heat and chi stagnation. Cold food, contrary to popular belief, doesn't cool the body in a balanced way. Instead, cold and ice create blockages in the chi channel, which creates chi stagnation. The following foods are especially cooling and helpful: melons, bean sprouts, tofu, white ocean fish, celery, apples, asparagus, and grapes.

Smoking obviously makes everything worse. When you smoke, you are quite literally breathing in fire and toxins that enter the brain and bloodstream directly. It is also well documented that smoking poisons the ovaries, decreasing our estrogen levels about two years sooner than would normally occur.

Practitioners of TCM also discourage the regular use of ginger and Asian ginseng (panax ginseng) and Siberian ginseg during perimenopause because both are considered heat-producing."

Menopause from a TCM Perspective (Part 1)

Interestingly, this information about menopause from a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) perspective was found in Dr. Christiane Northrup's book, The Wisdom of Menopause: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing During the Change, 2nd Edition. Although she was trained from the allopathic medicinal school of thought, she had no hesitation in referring her patients to TCM doctors. In fact, she herself has her own personal acupuncture team. This was what she wrote:

"According to Chinese medicine, the part of us that is referred to as yin - our vital fluids - begins to diminish as we grow older. This leads to an excess of yang - vital energy and heat - and/or stagnation of chi (life energy). Ideally, when our yin, yang and chi are in balance, our body acts something like a kettle containing liquid (yin) heated by fire (yang). The resulting steam (the enhanced chi flow) circulates throughout the body, warming and nourishing it.

How much and to what degree yin becomes depleted depends upon our lifestyle, diet, and genes. Depletion of yin causes the vital liquid in the kettle to burn off, so that the fire burns without producing the steam necessary to moisten and nourish.

Excess heat leads to hot flashes, the most obvious symptom, as well as to dryness of the skin, eyes and vagina. Excess heat can dislodge the shen (spirit) from the heart, causing restlessness and insomnia. If excess heat enters the blodd, it can cause heavy menstrual periods. Chi stagnation can cause pain anywhere in the body, as well as moodiness and emotional instability. A combination of excess heat and chi stagnation can lead to restlessness and anxiety."

So, what can we do? The answer is in Part 2 of this article.