Gayatri Mantra

I memorized Gayatri Mantra on my 50th birthday by taping it to the steering wheel of my car as i drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park for a horseback ride.

Give in to her infinite power and truly believe in her ability to change your life.

Gayatri is a Sanskrit word, made up of the two sounds, “Gaa” (to sing) and “Yatree” (protection). Gayatri is a name for the Divine Mother, she who protects her children and leads them toward self-realization (fulfillment of one’s potential). Gayatri honors the Sun, source energy for life on earth.

Gayatri mantra is considered to be the essence of the Vedas, seed sounds which embody the collective wisdom of the Vedas. The Vedas venerate an intangible reality through hymns to a tangible cosmos. Gayatri is illuminating and liberating, by burning away impurities and filling us with the pure energy of the Cosmos.

Gayatri is traditionally chanted silently or in a soft voice at brahma muhurta (the Creator’s hour) between 3:30-4:30 am or at the sandhyas (junctures) of sunrise, noon, sunset.

Gayatri is written in the gayatri meter (24 syllables divided into 3 lines of 8 syllables each) and recited beginning with Om, followed by three seed sounds called maha vyahritis (the great utterances) bhur bhuvah svah, which serve as an invocation to the Gayatri. Bhu, Bhuvah, Svah are also referred to as the three worlds, earth, outer space, and inner space.

GAYATRI MANTRA

Om bhur bhuvah svah

Tat savitur varenyam

bhargo devasya dhimahi

dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

An extended form of Gayatri mantra awakens the seven chakras, blessing the seven realms, and activating the seven Lokhas (planes of existence or spheres of consciousness):

EXTENDED GAYATRI MANTRA

Om bhu (first chakra, earth plane, existence)

Om bhuvaha (second chakra, atmospheric plane, consciousness)

Om swaha (third chakra, solar region, inner space, bliss)

Om maha (fourth chakra, first spiritual region beyond the sun: heart vibration)

Om janaha (fifth chakra, second spiritual region beyond the sun: power of the divine spiritual world)

Om tapaha (sixth chakra, third spiritual region beyond the sun: sphere of the progenitors, realm of highest spiritual understanding while still identified with individual existence)

Om satyam (seventh chakra, the abode of supreme truth: absorption into the supreme)  

Extended Gayatri Mantra

Om bhu, Om bhuvaha, Om swaha, 

Om maha, Om janaha, Om tapaha, Om satyam,

Om Tat savitur varenyam

bhargo devasya dhimahi

dhiyo yo nah prachodayat

Translation of Gayatri Mantra

Sun who gives us life on earth, whose power extends beyond the cosmos,

who is present in us all,

Whose fountain of Grace is our Source, 

your Glorious Light purifies us when we focus upon You, 

may i merge with you in union; 

may i selflessly dedicate my efforts.

May you spread from my heart to my mind, 

may my prayers lift the whole of humanity, 

Please direct my energies in the right way,

and to your sanctuary of tranquility and peace.

Om (seed sound of the Universe, cosmic yes of unification) Bhur (physical world, earth plane, eternal nature) Bhuvah (mental world, subtle or astral plane, boundless nature) Svah (spiritual world, higher celestial plane, omnipresent nature) Tat (paramatma, selflessness) Savitur (sun, creator) Varenyam (the most adorable, highest) Bhargo (luster, effulgence, glorious light, purity) Devasya (the Supreme) Dhimahi (we meditate upon) Dhiyo (intellect, understanding) Yo (who) Nah (our, the whole world is one big family)  Prachodayat (enlightens, guides, removes darkness on our path and escorts us through the chaos of the world)

Transform the Poison into Precious Song

The COVID pandemic caused a collective trauma. How can we let go the trauma and fill up with the remembrance of all that is good and right and true? How may we transform the poison into precious song?

Yoga for Letting Go

Yoga asana is one way to release trauma held in the body. Moving the body in general is good for this, which is why humanity has always danced and stomped and shaken. Our bodies may be our unconscious minds, their intelligence historically underestimated in Western medicine. 

Guided imagery is another tool for letting go. Using the mind’s active imagination, we may shake off what doesn’t belong to us, like a wet dog shaking the water off his back after a swim. Imagine being in a helicopter flying above the sea, and dropping out all that doesn’t belong to you into the ocean. It is in a suitcase ( biodegradable and reef-friendly). Just toss it out.

Yoga for Filling Up 

Connecting with friends, family, forest, animals, sun, moon, stars and earth, is all yoga. Research shows that social support, exercise, gratitude, purpose, and altruism are keys to happiness.

Sounding meditation activates the parasympathetic nervous system and relaxation response. Nada yoga explores the chanting of mantras and specific primal sounds from ancient energetic and vibrational languages such as Sanskrit.

Goddess of America

Goddess was her original title, it was printed as such in a paper pamphlet distributed at the time of her unveiling. She is our Lady Liberty, her full name, “Liberty Enlightening the World.” 

We have many Goddesses of America. The Indigenous peoples Goddesses, and the Goddesses whom were carried in the suitcases and hearts of immigrant men and women.

Lady Liberty was created by a French artist who grew up by the sacred river Seine, and the Seine river’s Goddess Sequana. Both Liberty and Sequana wear a crown, symbolic of the sun. Liberty was a gift, it was 1886, a time when America had just emerged from the civil war.

Lady Liberty is a “beacon of promise” for all who arrive to the USA. She holds the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. She welcomes us with these words:

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

the wretched refuse of your teeming shore,

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”

She lifts a lamp with her right hand, giving us light. In her left hand she holds our constitution. A pledge for democracy.

Goddesses represent the divine and sacred feminine. Rivers, springs, volcanoes, mountains, forests, and the Earth herself are traditionally seen as Goddesses. When the Christian Church marched onto the lands of the Celtic druids, they perceived Goddess as a threat to their power and they condemned her. She was demonized, dismissed, and belittled into fairy belief and myth. To cut her out, and bury her, the Christians’ proclaimed her as evil or fiction. Under Christianity, Goddess was demoralized and destroyed. Well, almost. 

Lady Liberty is a Goddess who personifies the qualities of liberty and justice for all. Lady Liberty’s feast day is July 4. We celebrate with picnics and fireworks in the night sky.

Holding Mother Earth

My friend, Sifu Stephen Joffe (martialworks.com), teaches three treasures which need to be cared for in order for us to, like Atlas, hold up the world. These three treasures are the Taoist basic virtues of compassion, frugality, and humility. To care for these treasures requires us to care for our jing (body), qi (energy) and shen (spirit). 

  This self-care is something that all mothers, caretakers and healthcare professionals learn, that first we must fill up our own cup. Learning to nourish and protect our body, energy, and spirit allows us to show up for others in a genuine, beautiful, and responsible way.

How do we care for our treasures? We all instinctively and intuitively know how to do this in our own personal and genuine ways.

Vitamins from the Cosmos

The rhythms of our bodies are linked to the rhythms of our cosmos. The sun provides us with the essential vitamin D. Do the earth and the moon give us vitamins too?

Vitamin G (Earth)

The surface of the earth is full of free electrons, in an unlimited and continual supply, as they are replenished by the sun. These free electrons are medicine for human beings (and all animals and plants). Research finds that coming into contact with the earth and these free electrons reduces inflammation, pain, and stress, and improves blood flow and sleep. 

Grounding (sitting, laying, walking barefoot for 20-30 minutes/day on the earth) is what we could name as vitamin G, (as Vitamin E is already taken). A 2017 review on electric nutrition from biological grounding (earthing) concluded that it was an accessible clinical tool for degenerative and inflammatory-related diseases. These diseases include Multiple Sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s disease, Diabetes, Cancer, Arthritis, Crohn’s disease, and Coronary artery disease.

We are as much electrical beings, as we are biochemical beings, who function by electrical signaling. Electrons take center stage in these signaling processes, which is why replenishing electrons in outer orbitals by grounding may work. Our next frontier in medicine may be understanding health and disease on electrical and electromagnetic levels.

  Electrical fields or electrical currents automatically create magnetic fields and visa versa, which is why we refer to them as ‘electromagnetic’.  There is an electromagnetic field around your heart and your brain, which is what an EKG or EEG reads. When you ground, you in essence, balance or harmonize your electromagnetic field with the earth’s electromagnetic field. 

Vitamin D (Sun)

Sunlight provides a well known essential chemical transformation in our bodies; that of Vitamin D synthesis. Sunlight entering our bare skin creates Vitamin D. The part of sunlight responsible for this synthesis is the UVB wavelength, and the form of Vitamin D made is cholecalciferol (Vitamin D3). After it is made in the skin, Vitamin D3 is transported to the liver, where it is metabolized into its storage form, calcidiol [25(OH)D ]. This stored Vitamin D in the liver is increasingly becoming recognized as very important to have. 

Vitamin D functions to (1) maintain blood calcium levels, (2) make proteins essential to fighting cancer, and (3) prevent depression. Sunlight has been found to reduce colon cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer risks. Vitamin D has also been found to reduce the risk of multiple sclerosis (MS), and vitamin D supplementation in clinical trials for MS has been shown to prevent exacerbations of the disease. 

Glass (windows) blocks virtually all UVB preventing vitamin D synthesis but not visible light allowing for bilirubin isomerization. This is why sunlight is typically useful to newborn babies, whose livers are not immediately efficient in working on their own, indicated by jaundice, and due to high levels of bilirubin which have accumulated in the blood. 

Our bodies naturally optimize health needs with feedback loops which maintain proper levels, and studies find that no matter how long we stay in the sun, we maintain about 20,000 units of Vitamin D during exposure. 

How much vitamin D do we need? Opinions vary, however, we know that breastfeeding women need blood levels of 40-50 ng/ml vitamin D in order for baby to receive adequate vitamin D in breast milk. And vitamin D deficiency in newborns has been associated with increased risk for respiratory syncitial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract infections in the first year of life. Low vitamin D levels have also been correlated with increased upper respiratory tract infections in adults. 

Vitamin D has been called the sunshine vitamin since we make it from the sun. When UVB light strikes our skin, our skin synthesizes vitamin D. Season, time of day, cloud cover, skin melanin content, and sunscreen are all factors that effect vitamin D synthesis. If you live at the equator year round, you generally generate adequate vitamin D. However if you live in Northern latitudes in the winter time, you do not generate adequate vitamin D and so it is a good idea to supplement, especially if you have or are at risk for MS, cancer, liver disease, colds/flu or depression. Trials have utilized doses of 1000-10,000 IU/day. 

A general recommendation of supplementation with 1000 IU/day of vitamin D in the wintertime is a standard minimum. In the summertime, get at least 20-30 minutes/day of sunshine exposure on your arms and legs to make adequate vitamin D (this is 20,000 IU/day). Sunshine cannot be patented by drug companies-some of the best things in life are free.

Vitamin M (Moon)

I propose that moonlight may provide an essential vitamin, which we could name, vitamin M. I think it is probable that we will discover a Vitamin M, with skin synthesis in response to moonlight. My hypothesis would be that Vitamin M is beneficial to our bones, specifically bone marrow, which house our stem cells.

Do we have any evidence for a Vitamin M? Well, there is no doubt that we are effected by the moon. Statistically we find both higher birth rates and higher murder rates on the full moons. Women experience the pull of the moon on their fertility cycling, and the moonlight can be of benefit to women seeking to stabilize or regularize their cycling. Just as sunlight turns on serotonin in the morning and darkness turns on melatonin at night, so too does moonlight influence estrogen.

What else? Traditional herbalists and shamans gathered certain herbal medicine in the light of the full moon, causing us to wonder if the moon issues an environmental cue on plants as well as people. Ancient yogis collected soma by moonlight on certain mountains. May moonlight enhance perception, fertility, and mood, through estrogen and other yet to be evidenced hormones and information substances?

PTSD Awareness

I had a dream that I was in the midst of warfare. This made rest difficult, perhaps impossible, because sleeping was the time when we would be most vulnerable to attack. I was searching for a safe place. A place where I would not be seen and killed. I found a closet and decided to hide under a blanket inside. 

Insomnia may result from post-traumatic stress due to a nervous system which is wired to stay vigilant in order to survive. Our nervous system has two branches- one which allows us to be awake and alert (sympathetic branch) and the other which allows us to relax and sleep (parasympathetic branch). When living in a war zone, our nervous system is on high alert, ruled by the sympathetic branch. When we are no longer in the war zone, we may need to re-train our nervous system to re-engage the parasympathetic branch. 

The good news is that we have tools to alleviate the hyperarousal of the nervous system and switch back on the parasympathetic branch. These are easily learnable skills which you can practice, master, and experience immediate and long-term benefits from. What I want you to know is that you don’t have to live with the recurring flashbacks and nightmares, the lack of sleep, feeling numb, jittery, on edge, or guilty.

The breath is a master key which regulates the two branches of the nervous system. The tool for healing is built right inside of you. It may be a part of what the Jedi knights in the Star Wars movies call, “training with the Force.”

Yes, the force is in you.

The combat zone you survived may have been in the middle of a war in a distant country, or it may have been right in your own home, as a child or spouse with an abusive parent or partner. It is traumatizing whenever we are assaulted or witness an assault.

We have lots of treatment options for trauma. What I know for sure is that we can retrain our nervous system by re- training the breath. We can name and express the emotions and resolve the deeper issues of trust, fear and worthiness. 

The VAs National Center for PTSD has made June PTSD Awareness month. Awareness leads to healing. If you or a loved one are suffering, please reach out for help. We are honored to serve you.

Black Elk Speaks

    I am thankful to my student who recommended the book, “Black Elk Speaks,” to me. Black Elk was an Oglala Lakota medicine man and holy man (1863-1950). He speaks with a poetic voice and gives us insights into the Native American life and perspective of the time. It was a sad, tragic, disgraceful, completely unjust, and deplorable time in American history, when the arriving European forefathers murdered, massacred, robbed, and cheated the Native Americans, though Black Elk speaks in a poignant, observing and elevating voice.

    Even after all of these years I still wonder how we can make Ho’oponopono (Hawaiian making things right) with our Native American brothers and sisters? How on earth can we make sufficient amends, heal, and be forgiven?

When I first moved to the Western United States in 1991, Arnold Rice blessed us in the central park of Prescott Arizona, with, “you are all Native Americans, as you were all born here on American soil." I felt humbled by his generosity and kindness.

Seven years later, I was invited to Lakota prayer lodge in Colorado. I found Lakota prayer lodge to be exceptionally powerful ceremony for purification, connection, and healing. The experience of physically sweating was linked to psychological sweating, with the stripping away and release of the ego and all that doesn't belong to us. I felt like I emerged from the womb of lodge a soft, tender, pure soul.

The drumming, praying, and singing, combined with the heat in lodge put you in a trance. In this altered state of consciousness, we melt into a complete surrender. We are immersed with the elements, ancestors, and Great Spirit who feed us the necessary strength to endure the physical hardship of the sweat, and whatever awaits in the outside world when the flap lifts.

    Endurance is a divine quality which the Native Americans seem to recognize well. When we are in the midst of enduring anything painful, we often turn to something above and higher and more than ourselves in order to bear it. This greater Source has many names in many languages. But it is in this surrender to and allowance of a greater Source where we ultimately find miracle, mercy, grace, magic, comfort and relief. 

We visited the Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills of South Dakota with our children. The mission of Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation is to protect and preserve the culture, tradition and living heritage of the North American Indians. 

We are all indigenous peoples. We all came from and are connected to some land somewhere, including wherever we are living now. I have a Powhatan 9th great grandmother (Ontonah “Mary” Arroyah Wahanganoche) and a Cherokee great great grandmother.

Life Sentence

    I give my patients a life sentence, “you are a beautiful, whole, and complete human being." This may come after the death sentence they received from another doc, “you are deficit, disordered, diseased.”

    Surprisingly, death sentences are still handed out by medical professionals. Drug companies are the only ones who may benefit.

   When I see children (or adults) who have been diagnosed with ADHD, I reframe the condition as brain diversity rather than brain disorder. The truth is that the human brain is beautifully diverse in neurological brilliance which bestows us with our native gifts.

     The US military recognized that post-traumatic stress is not a disorder, and dropped the ‘D’ in the former diagnosis of ‘PTSD.’  What everyone needs to know is that the vast and innate intelligence of their body seeks homeostasis and strives to heal, including from trauma. We can assist the body in doing that.

    Caroline Myss points out that words either empower or disempower us in our health and healing. If the words that we use to diagnose a condition are essentially harmful in nature, then we, as a medical profession, are breaking the first cardinal rule of  “first, do no harm.” 

    What would happen if the words that we use in both diagnosis and treatment were essentially healing in nature?

    The language we use speaks to the connection between mind, body and soul. What a patient’s mind hears from a doctor is relayed to their body with chemical signaling. So if the doctor’s message is, “you will be well,” the patient’s mind immediately begins to drive the body process towards wellness.

    A life sentence is life affirming. Affirming in the belief of you and your inherent ability to heal. Affirming in unshakable trust and knowing that joy, happiness, health, love and peace belong to you. It is possible to grab the reins of this wild steed called life, steer her in the direction of your choosing, and enjoy the ride. 

    A life sentence reads that it is possible for you to know and to unquestionably love each and every part of yourself. It inspires you to continually link the little you with the big You, your soul with the world soul, your spirit with the Great Spirit, and in so doing be nourished and fed all the goodness, wonder, grace, mercy, joy, hope, inspiration, creativity, wisdom, and awe of this majestic, mysterious, magical Universe.     

Altered States of Consciousness

    Sometimes maybe we must lose our mind in order to change our mind. Perhaps this is why we naturally seek altered states because we naturally seek healing. It is in altered states of consciousness that healing and transformation may occur.

    Altered states of consciousness involve moving from logical, rational, cognitive thinking to a instinctual, creative, imaginative, and intuitive receiving. In an altered state of consciousness we may access and dwell in the unconscious or the collective realms. Altered states of consciousness are induced by things like chanting, drumming, dancing, running, psychedelic plants, the nighttime dreaming, giving birth and dying. 

    We initiate altered states when we activate the limbic brain- and we do this by rhythmical activity. When we go into an altered state, we are able to to effectively change a subconscious imprint or unconscious belief.

    Altered states may be needed in healing because the conscious mind often does not have the kind of power needed to change things, as behavior is typically driven by the unconscious mind. When we push the small, limited and fixed conscious mind out of the way, even briefly, we create room for the hidden or masked to take center stage. We make room for something grander, all-encompassing, expansive, mystical and inclusive.

Changing our mind may not always be easy,  but it can be a healing step. Thoughts may not be serving our general well being, however, they have become rigid, and well established. In therapy we aim to loosen and shaken them a little bit, unleashing their hold, and freeing the mind to romp and play in a more beautiful and happy place.

    Altered states of consciousness play a major role in our original medicine. Fortunately one can still enter a Lakota prayer lodge, visit a Peruvian shaman, or participate in ecstatic kirtan. We can also enter altered states using mind body therapies. When the unconscious surfaces and enters into the territory of consciousness, then we may encounter real metamorphosis and profound healing.

Love Story

    Every good story is a love story. And every love story is a story of freedom. It is love that frees us from captivity, oppression or brutality. 

    When we really love someone we set them free, sometimes even risking our our life to do so. When that someone really loves us, they take us with them, not wanting to let us go.

    The Sufi know 99 names for love. Each of these names hold properties of freedom, delivering the heart from bondage or restriction. The sufi call it remembrance. For it is not that we don’t know love and all of her qualities, it is only that we forget.

    Love may unlock imprisonment or self-imposed limiting beliefs. We may forget that we are worthy, deserving, joyful, and peaceful human beings. 

    True love greets us with a complete acceptance for who we are.

    Love’s attention turns us from a particle into a wave. Seen like this, we are moved to share the essence of our being with the whole world. Love frees us into our own true nature and personal destiny. 

    There are many types of love: brotherly and sisterly love, motherly or fatherly love, conjugal love, self-love, and spiritual or Divine love. Love wants the best for us, it is not at all selfish. But in this selflessness a lover finds all her needs are met too. Love resonates with us because we are love. 

    Love breathes everywhere around us and everywhere inside of us, we may practice to allow and receive. We may recall love as a steady stream,  continuously filling our own tank from the pumps of our choosing. 

    Love is allowing not controlling. Love is gracious and spacious. Love cares for you and cares about you. You know when you are with love because you can breathe easy;  you feel enlivened and awakened. Love brings out your best or better self. 

    Love is meeting someone whom we recognize, even in a first glance. We feel an electricity in the spaces between our fingertips and palms of our hands. We feel deep stirrings in the sacred groves of our hearts.

    This is belonging. There is no ownership in this belonging. There is only freedom. The freedom to love and be loved. To live and create a love story. 

Will

    Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released by rhythmical activity and that feeds the prefrontal cortex and goal-directed behavior. Dopamine is associated with our will to live, some certain and powerful, yet invisible and intangible, quality of us. When we harness our will can do just about anything, and when we lose it, it seems to lead to some inevitable defeat. Our free will is perhaps known best by the soul, we treasure and protect free will, knowing it is an essence to our vitality. 

    My dad used to say, “When there’s a will, there’s a way,” continuing with, “and you’ll always have will because your name is Williams.” And so it is, as if by English Magic,  the quality built into the surname would always stick with you. It should not have surprised me that when my dad died, he used the word Williams to signal me and as a sign of his continual existence.  

    Will may be described as an intention, desire, request, or wish. The proverb, “When there’s a will there’s a way,” suggests that determination will overcome any obstacles. We are resolved when we engage our will. We are focused and deliberate. 

    For healing to occur, the will must be engaged. Do you have the will to heal, to live, to care for yourself, to try something? In therapy we ask, are you willing to try it? For the tool must first be acceptable. 

    We value free will when it comes to our own lives, although sometimes with others we lose this generosity or awareness. When the movie, “Free Willy,” came out, it raised our consciousness to the utter cruelty of capturing and containing our fellow sentient beings, the Orca whales. Indeed, we have ample scientific proof of the intelligence of animals, with examples including the large and complex limbic brains of whales and dolphins, and the photographic memory of chimpanzees.

    In truly holistic and integrative medicine, free will will not be overlooked. Practically speaking, aspects of our healthcare system require examination. Once admitted into the ER, hospital, assisted living, or psych ward, free will may take a back seat. There is most certainly good intentionality, but it is authoritarian approach.We may harm others when we impose our will onto theirs.    

    Is there a remedy? I think so. But it is a radically different choice to give patients choices, to ask for their voice, and allow their free will. If we do indeed include this soul quality, however, then we have struck closer to home in providing actual medical care.

Some look to discern a “personal will,” with a “divine will,” distinguishing the ego self from the spiritual self, collective, or God. This may lead to the practices of "not my will but yours,” or to "surrender your will."

My opinion is that personal will is a part of the Divine will. I believe that you are a part of God and God is a part of you. What you desire is what God desires for you. When you follow what you are attracted to and interested in, your bliss, you are following Divine will.

In the Womb

    As she sang to me that first time, i began to understand the importance of being in the womb; of allowing ourselves and others to be in the womb.

    There is so much rushing in America to get out. As there is with anything else in America, rushing. But there is so much value in not rushing. There is so much value in being in the womb when we need to heal.

    The womb is a place where we are both nurtured and protected. There is solitude and silence. In this warm and quiet place we grow, heal, develop and transform. The womb may be considered as  the heart of feminine wisdom. It is a receptive place-in the womb all we do is receive. There is a retreat from giving, and a primary purpose of receiving nourishment for body and soul. We are being fed and protected by a mother. 

    The deep psyche of feminine wisdom knows that in times of  life transitions, illness, injury, giving birth, or dying. that womb time is needed. Just as the wild animals know to do, and our grandmother’s cattle. They hole up somewhere away from the herd in some grassy bank of earth.

    The isolation, break from everyday routine, internal focus and biochemically induced changes may all lead to altered states of consciousness. These altered states of consciousness are powerful, our bodies are able to do things in them that they wouldn't normally or otherwise do. Altered states of consciousness are inductive to healing. When we come out of the womb we are transformed. 

    Celestial cycles offer us natural times for retreat into the womb. The winter season in the northern hemisphere is a good time for rest in the cave of regeneration. The new moon each month invites us to turn inwards.

    The ideal womb is a safe container of unconditional love and complete acceptance. In the water of the womb you may dream and imagine. You may feel deeply all that you ignored or suppressed.

    I saw my 22 year-old daughter in the womb. She quietly knew that this is where she needed to be after her accident. Initially I wanted to coax her out into the sunshine and fresh air. Encouraging movement and the light of day. I wanted to save her from the sadness that she was feeling, even though i know that it is in the depths of sadness that a holiness may be found. That this journey belonged to her. Who would i be to rob her of it?

    I noticed an urgency from the whole world it seemed, to rush my daughter back out into classes,  streets and buses. To be seen when she didn’t want to be seen. 

    Why would we all be using this as a marker of progress or success so early in the game? When clearly, womb time was needed. 

    I decided to be completely okay with my daughter’s womb time. To relax around it entirely without worry or fear. To fully embrace the absolute rightness, need, value and worth of it. Although I counsel other parents on respecting the dignity of their children's lives, there is no objectivity when you see your own child in pain. But your own child in pain needs you to have an absolute and unshakable trust in her and in life. 

    I consciously created some womb time for myself. I understood then, that my role, like a midwife, was to see the light at the end of the tunnel, and the birth of the new baby, steadfastly holding the vision of the the end goal, the desired result, when, in so much pain, the woman in labor cannot. 

    The womb is a sacred place. We can hear that still quiet voice within, or if you like, the Divine.

    It was my dear friend and Sufi sister, Cynthia R., who was like a mother to me while I was in the womb, singing me healing prayers in Arabic over the phone, a remembrance of all the Divine qualities of Allah that I needed. It was an experience which I will always remember, one of those you imagine will flash before your eyes when you pass.

Forgiveness

    Forgiveness is the pardoning of a wrong-doing by another or even mistake made by self. To forgive another does not justify the action nor make the harming right. We forgive in order to let go of the burden that we may otherwise carry in our heart. We forgive in order to heal. When we forgive, we are rising above the pain and the injustice. It is not about denying the pain. It is about seeing the path of pain and making a conscious choice to forage another trail. 

    When Nelson Mandela was  released after 27 years in prison, he said to his oppressors, “I forgive you.” He knew that he had to bring the whole country to light. This was the only way to defeat the darkness of apartheid. And he did it. When he became president, he chose reconciliation rather than retaliation.

    Bill Worth believed that forgiveness was essential to his healing from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). He observed, “holding a grudge is like swallowing poison and waiting for the other person to die.” In other words, ill will or resentment is self-destructive.

    When Quaker children were  shot in their school classroom one autumn day in rural Wisconsin, their parents went and forgave the killer immediately. This automatic response to such a personal tragedy is remarkable. But the Quakers believe in and practice forgiveness daily.

    It is up to you whether or not you want to forgive. Forgiveness generally results in a heart which feels more comfortable and at greater peace.. But it is your decision. I want you to know that forgiveness can be a process, even, a life-long journey. 

    If you want to embark on the road to forgiveness, but are unsure how, just begin with the first step of setting the intention that you want to forgive. If you are beating yourself up over a mistake that you made, try this silent meditation from Hawaiian Ho’opono’pono (making things right):  “I love you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you.” For small children, see “The Forgiveness Elephant Book,” an ebook available on Amazon.com.

Chanting in the Heart

      Relaxed states and altered states are conducive to healing, that is, eliciting the body’s natural and innate healing responses and mechanisms. Chanting may arouse these states.

     Chanting is a part of nada yoga, or the science of sound. Chanting has been an integral part of human lifestyle for thousands of years, some say since the beginning of time. Chanting is both a sounding meditation practice and a listening one.

Seed sounds or mantras are sung or chanted in primordial energetic languages of Sanskrit, Gurmukhi, Arabic, Hebrew, and Hawaiian, for examples. These languages differ from English, in being vibrational, and thus believed to act on vibrational levels, perhaps we will discover, electromagnetic levels.

Sound codes are thought to create movement, raise frequency, and ultimately serve to dissolve feelings of separation. Chanting and singing activate dorsal vagus nerve and the parasympathetic nervous system relaxation response.

Sound codes are thought to have specific properties and effects. Mantras are considered to be keys to different doors which all lead to the same sacred place- inner peace and joy. The effects of sound codes may be studied empirically. For example, the sound, “AH,” which we naturally make when we see a beautiful sunrise or vista, is believed to awaken or open the heart.

We make the sound, “AH” when we come see, feel, something deeply touching, beyond words. “AH” is in sacred words, such as the Hawaiian, “ALOHA,” which may translate as “open your heart,” and “the Creator is here.” The Arabic, “ALLAH,” which Sufis chant to return the heart to the Beloved.

    The Hebrew, “AHAVAH,” which translates to “love,” may be used in Kabbalah, teaches Catherine Shainberg PhD in her book, “Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming,” as it returns the heart to the positive vibration of love anytime that we feel darkness (ex. fear, anger) creeping in. Dr. Shainberg teaches the simple practice of singing “AH HA VAH” to the tune of “MI DO RE” three times.

    The Sanskrit MAHA (great) mantra are: “HARE KRISHNA, HARE KRISHNA, KRISHNA, KRISHNA, HARE, HARE, HARE RAMA, HARE RAMA, RAMA RAMA, HARE HARE.” In the Vedic Tradition of India, this is a transcendental sound vibration of three holy names. My friend, Gopal Damerla MD, (https://prabhupadaresearchinstitute.com ) teaches that chanting this mantra brings to you fresh life energy. Dr. Damerla’s research on the effects of chanting the Maha mantra found that it may balance the nervous system and improves heart rate variability (HRV), predictive of a person’s willpower to create health-promoting lifestyle and self-care. Participants reported increases in feelings of love and connection.  

I was introduced to sound healing by friends in 1998.  2001, I guess is when I began my study of nada yoga with Shanti Shanti Kaur Khalsa PhD, of the Guru Ram Das Center in New Mexico, at the “Therapeutic Applications of Yoga,” conference in Estes Park CO. It was the day after 9/11, and we chanted a healing light mantra, “RA MA DA SA SA SAY SO HUNG,” into the world. 

Integrative Cancer Care

    I was a pre-med student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, studying cancer and doing bench research at the McArdle Labs for Cancer Research. There, we explored oncoviruses, viruses which carry oncogenes, or genes that can be a causative factor in the development of cancer. I learned of the available cancer treatments, and was immediately dissatisfied with them. I thought that chemotherapy and radiation were barbaric, as they destroyed the immune system.

    Although the only legal cancer treatments in America today are surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, I have since learned of other safe and efficacious non-toxic and natural treatments for cancer. I would like to share some of this information and resources with you. It seems to me that in a free and democratic country such as ours, that there is both an ethical obligation, and a human right to choose the medicine that we want to, or don’t want to, put into our own body.

    Let’s begin with some basic information about cancer cells. Cancer cells differ from healthy cells in several distinct ways. What we know about cancer cells is that they are heat sensitive, obligate anaerobes (grow only without oxygen), and feed on sugar and glutamate (glutamate is found in MSG, and hydrolyzed soy protein). Most people with cancer have chronic inflammation. We also know that chemotherapy and radiation do not kill cancer stem cells, and that this is why cancer remains in the body even after chemotherapy or radiation.

    With this understanding and using these basic principles, other cancer treatments have been developed and are used around the world. These include: Hyperthermia and near infrared sauna (this treatment involves heating the body and selectively kills cancer cells as cancer cells are heat sensitive while healthy cells are not), Ozone Therapy and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (this treatment involves infusing oxygen into the body and selectively kills cancer cells as cancer cells cannot grow in oxygen while healthy cells do),  Pulsed Electro-Magnetic Field (PEMF) Therapy (this is FDA approved and selectively targets cancer cells based on cell voltage) , Fasting (cancer cells can’t survive without food, and they die, while healthy cells can survive without food), Diet/Nutrition, and Natural Supplements. The dietary/nutritional approach commonly involves detoxification (removing toxins), sensible dietary changes and flooding the body with readily absorbable nutrients. There are specific nutrients that turn on cancer suppressor genes and turn off cancer promoter genes. There are nutrients which decrease inflammation in the body and increase cellular ATP (energy) production. 

    Many of the natural supplements used in integrative cancer care act by boosting or optimizing the immune response, (available upon request), although some are evidenced to directly kill cancer cells. We know that the constituent, curcumin, in the plant medicine, Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), kills cancer stem cells. Hemp Oil (THC and CBD) kills cancer cells. The topical cream, Curaderm (from the plant, Solanum linnaeanum) can be effective for non-melanoma skin cancer (90% of skin cancers).

    Clinics which utilize dietary and nutritional approaches in cancer treatment include: the Gerson Institute, the Northern Baja Gerson Center, the Jimenez Hope Clinic, and the Hoxsy Biomedical Center.

    Other resources to know about in the United States are: the MD Anderson Center with Integrative Cancer Care, Moshe Frenkel MD and Integrative Oncology Consultants, Veronique Desaulniers DC, the Center for Advanced Medicine, the Center for Medicine, Nalina Chilkov OMD, Kokolulu Farm and Cancer Retreats, and the Burzynski Clinic. The Burzynski clinic treats terminal brain cancers, including children’s brain tumors, with anti-neoplaston therapy.

     Resources in Europe include: Robert Gorter MD, PhD and the Medical Center in Cologne Germany, the Centro Medico in Hilu, Spain, and the Dr. Rath Research Institute.

    There is no scientific reason not to legalize these other cancer treatments in America, it is solely political. In America today, our pharmaceutical industry (BigPharma) determines our government’s rules and regulations in medicine and healthcare. Many see this as a vested interest and abuse of power. 

    I am thankful for all of what we now know, and for all of the choices that we have. Clearly chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery can be useful treatments in cancer care. Certainly hyperthermia, hyperbaric oxygen, pulsed electromagnetic field, nutrition, and natural supplements can be useful as well. For truly integrative cancer care, we can also address the emotional and spiritual needs of cancer patients. Many find relief from counseling, mind-body techniques (meditation, stress reduction, imagery) and spirituality (prayer) based on a personalized treatment program. I am thankful to live in a free country and exercise free will. May we, as people, community, and country, do no harm, and try to do some good. 

Truth

Speaking our truth is vital for our health. Women may not speak their truth, or speak up at all, in order to prevent an argument or attack, keep the peace, or refrain from hurting feelings.

   Women have not always been raised to speak their truth or to speak up at all. Often times, women have been raised to be silent.

    I raised my own daughter to be wild and unruly. This I did primarily by allowing herself to just be. I never imposed upon her the idea that she not speak her mind. That she conform to being “nice.”

That being said, my daughter is probably one of the most polite and respectful kids on the planet, with all her elders, her aunties, uncles, and kupuna. With me, of course she falls apart, but this is to be expected and a part of the honor and privilege of being a mother.

   Parenting daughters has changed in America. Was this because more mothers began going to college, gaining a higher education? Education plays an important role. We know that educating women improves the health and wealth of the entire community.

    Amal Clooney seems to concur in her UNICEF ad, “holding back women is holding back half of every country in the world.” So the question is, how do we let loose our women? How do we free, foster, and encourage women to speak their truth? 

    What I have learned is that speaking one’s truth is a skill like any other, to be practiced. A first step can be awareness. This may be followed by the question of how to do it skillfully. It is very possible for us to learn how to speak our truth clearly, honestly, compassionately and nobly.

    It is a huge accomplishment to grow aware of our own wants and needs, particularly if you grew up or live in an environment where your wants and needs are dismissed, belittled, minimized or ridiculed. To survive, you may have unconsciously learned to suppress what it is you truly want or believe, it may be you were trained to not make waves, to cater to the needs or desires of others first, to place yourself second, if at all. It may be that silence was a very good survival strategy, as it prevented you from being beaten up emotionally or physically.

   You may feel like your voice is rusty and squeaky, scratchy and uneven. Lubricate it with milk and honey, begin the practice of using it, your voice will become smooth, capable, confident, and even.

    Your voice may or may not have been allowed by your parents, spouse, religion, or culture. Begin here, with this awareness, and move forward with self-compassion. Completely accept, approve of and appreciate yourself. The truth is that you are an important part of the equation. The only one you truly need permission from to speak your truth is you.  

Death, Enlightenment, and The Circle of Life

    Ever since I was a small child, I accepted death as a part of life. It is in the natural order of things. I held death in the palms of my hands, learning how it feels. The body grows very light, and then grows cold.

    I had a dream (April 9, 2013) that felt like a teaching dream. A dream that showed me something of death and the circle. In the dream, i was making paper pictures of each season in the cycle of life. 

    I came to labeling them and found myself in dialogue with a voice who sounded much like God, or, an old Sage-Like Osho?

    I knew the answers, and God, or the Divine Sage, whom i was hearing, seemed more or less to be confirming me. Although on the last stage-just prior to waking up-i wonder if the voice gave me the answer? Because i was so surprised. "Awakening"- wow! How curious. 

    In this extraordinary dream, I was gifted with a secret. The secret that Awakening is a stage in our lives between death and rebirth. I had never before seen or heard of a cycle of life depicted as this. (And where i wrote “life,” in the diagram- i feel like it may have been another word but can’t remember):

                Rebirth

   Awakening                 Life

                Death

    I think that we are all born enlightened, awakened before birth. Maybe some, like the spiritual masters, stay awakened or enlightened. Whilst most of us simply forget. As we live our daily lives, with whichever hardships, pain, sorrow, obstacles, traumas and disappointments come our way. We temporarily lose sight of or forget this. Things happen, life hurts, we all have something to contend with. Darkness can loom large, even overtake us.

    This, it seems to me, is the purpose of spirituality or religion. Each time we walk our respective spiritual paths, we recall and remember our true nature. Our soul nature of love and joy. We are filled with light. We reawaken. 

    My dad died (April 2, 2017).  He used to say that when he came back, he wanted to either come back as my pet dog or a rock. 

    Nothing prepared me for my father’s death. I sat with him and placed my hand on his heart. His eyes opened partway and a tear rolled down the corner of his eye. He blinked his eyes and twitched the corner of his mouth several times to communicate that he knew I was there, likely saying, "I love you," in morse code, the language he used often as a HAM radio operator (W9GXR).

    I felt my father and I had an unspoken agreement that I would be there when he died. I think that I reminded him of his mother, a nurse who sat with dying people, before there was such a thing called hospice. I never knew if it would turn out this way or not, but it did. I arrived Saturday afternoon and he died Sunday morning. 

    My brother told me the night before that dad was afraid of dying. And so that morning as I sat with him, I told him that there was nothing to fear. I told him of Ram Dass’s “Spiritual Disneyland,” that he would be in a place of pure and absolute love and joy.

     I let him know his parents would be meeting him, and that it was comforting to me to know he would be there for me when my time came. I told him that I would always hold him in my heart and in my consciousness. I let him know that he was free to go whenever he was ready. And then I heard that he needed to hear that he was a good person. And so I told him that he was a good person. 

    In turn, dad said he wanted everyone to know that he loved them. That was important. We were speaking in our original language, the language of telepathy. 

    Dad died about an hour later. 

    My father gave me many gifts in his dying. I saw how our body is just a shell. How we inhabit these bodies while here on Earth as terrestrial beings. Hours after my dad died, his body became like the exoskeleton of an insect. He had clearly left it. 

    Grandmother Flordemayo teaches that we are both terrestrial and celestial beings. I have now witnessed this. My dad continues to be with me from the other side. Our celestial nature is one which must be pure consciousness.

Patience

I heard a song in the morning air, one that was popular when I was a teenager. I remember playing the album, some songs I liked and some I didn’t. But in those days of listening to records, one just listened to them all as they played, patiently awaiting the favorites.

    I think of how today I can instantly purchase any song I want to on iTunes. There is no waiting and no patience required. I can choose which songs of an album I want even, no putting up with the unfavorable.

    My husband and I watched two men hunting a gazelle in the African grasslands on a BBC television show. The hunters patiently waited near a watering hole for several days. Then after shooting an animal with a poison arrow, they spent a day tracking her. In all, it was a seven day affair for meat on their table. 

    I went to the post office to mail a package. The computer was down and the mailman apologized to me for the wait. It was a rather long wait of 15 minutes, long because we are so accustomed to instant gratification. We are so accustomed to no wait. It has become everyone’s expectation. We now must apologize to each other if there is a wait.

    I responded that it was no trouble, for it really wasn't at all, and we spoke about our lives. With a computer down, suddenly we have time for humanness. We see each other. 

    I wonder if we Americans truly know what patience is anymore? Do we ever need to exercise patience, get to practice patience? Do we ever have to be patient?

    There is some noble quality to patience. I am sure of it. It may be something that we need to consciously nourish in our lives these days. Patience may no longer be a given, built in facet to our living and lifestyle.

    I was patient with my Hawaii license. From start to finish it took a year. All the paperwork was still actual paper, that had to be mailed back and forth. I was patient for my daughter. I remember 23 years ago I was ready for another child, but my husband wanted to wait a year, and so we did. I considered naming my daughter, “Patience,” since I needed to be patient for her.

    When we are recovering from illness, accident or surgery, we need to be patient. Certainly this is where our word, “patient,” comes from, the art and practice of being patient with our healing. The doctors expect us to be patient. What choice do we have? It takes time.

    The Webster dictionary defines patience as “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset.” Perhaps in this definition we may understand the noble quality or spiritual value of patience.

    How to be patient?  “Live your life as moments,” Ram Dass advises. Place your focus on the now, enjoying and cherishing the moment.

Sexuality

    I was on Waikiki beach, thankful to sunbathe. In my twenties, I happily discovered that in the South of France you could lay out topless. What freedom! A freedom which still awaits America’s embrace.

Sexuality awaits America’s embrace, our acceptance and celebration. Sexuality, which is a natural part of ourselves, a part of our wholeness and oneness, a basic life force of birth and creation. Sexuality, which is playful, passionate, sensual and surrendering, which longs to be included.

    Sexuality may be embodied in many ways, it does not require body exposure nor imply nakedness. Muslim women, completely covered from head to toe, may express her sexuality through her eyes. Sexuality is about knowing, accepting, and appreciating yourself. In essence, you are connected to and comfortable in your own body, mind and spirit.

    Sexuality is controversial, and we have diversity in what is culturally acceptable. What is allowed by the tribe and what is disapproved of, forbidden, or criminalized? However, human beings are sexual beings, whether this part is hidden or undisguised, conscious of or oblivious to, pampered and paraded or left unattended and closeted.

    I grew up in a culture of modesty, an upbringing with little, if any, recognition or accentuation of sexuality. My father did not allow me to wear shorts to high school. I put on lipstick for the first time at age 30. 

     In healthcare, we understand the importance of raising girls with education and empowerment about her lovely feminine vessel, with love, acceptance and appreciation, and without shame, fear, or guilt. Thankfully, we are including sex education and birth control in school. Women understand her body to be her sovereign domain, and that it is her right to choose.

     What happens when we deny or suppress sexuality as a part of the human condition? Look what happened in the Catholic Church. I think that if the Catholic Church acknowledged and integrated this authentic part of human nature, it would have helped to prevent the horrific sex abuses by Priests. It seems to me that it would be a good idea for the Catholic Church to allow Priests to have sex with consenting adult partners. 

   Celibacy is simply not required for spiritual life in all cultures. Indeed, some believe sexual ecstasy leads to enlightenment. Tantra is one such ancient wisdom tradition which teaches techniques to expand consciousness. Sacred lovemaking is honored as a form of divine worship.

Everything in life is sacred, including our sexuality. Integrating our sexuality improves our lives, allowing us to be healthier, happier, and holier human beings. Every act of love is an act of creation. May we rise in love, and create beauty and goodness.

Inspiration

I am inspired by the shapes of the clouds moving across the early morning sky, the arc of a white dove, and the sway of palm branches in tall old trees. 

    I am inspired each morning when I see the Sun rise, which I await in eager anticipation like at child at Christmas. It seems that Hope is the Sun rising each morning, warming and enlightening every being of Mother Earth.

    To inspire is to breathe in, to give rise to, to animate, to fill with urge and ability. We are inspired by beauty, by youthfulness, by newness, by wonder, by love. We are inspired when we breathe in something new, pure, beautiful and hopeful, such as a baby, a puppy, a gypsy jazz concert, or a good story in a movie or a book. 

    The maiden is an archetype of inspiration in stories. She is beautiful and fresh, with a pure heart and a seeing recognition of the knight who is inspired by her to do his good. Without her muse, his action in the world would not happen. 

    This knowingness, albeit perhaps in Jung’s collective unconscious, is embodied in women who are all naturally beautiful and hence, naturally inspirational. This beauty takes different forms dependent upon culture and generation, such as how sexually open or provocative she is in wardrobe and mannerism. 

    Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf schools, knew that beauty was important for children in school. He knew that beauty feeds the soul. So Steiner placed a significance on creating simple, natural, lovely, warm, and aesthetically pleasing classroom environments for children to learn in. 

    Inspiration feeds creativity and purpose. Inspiration is essential to health and healing. Without inspiration we may be stuck in depression, grief, loss, hopelessness, or despair. This may show up in you or your life in various ways. If you are feeling anything like this, then I recommend that you seek mental health counseling. You may also consider going on a trip, anything from an hour at a coffee shop to a week’s vacation in the Bahamas, and greeting your senses-what you are seeing, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting, with something new. Gift yourself with new people and alternative ideas.

    I am inspired learning the ways of others, the words and songs and prayers of others. Sometimes when I am out walking in the fresh, open air, I breathe in inspiration like I am sipping in a long cool drink from a straw. Each inhalation truly does animate each of the cells in our body, bringing it to life-to do it’s job, it’s function, it’s part, for our total health and happiness. 

    Notice what inspires you and encourage your inspiration each day. May you create an alluring and arousing vessel (your body), and living space (home, office, and garden). The simple act of placing a vase of flowers in a clean room, gazing at the sunset, beholding your child doing summersaults in the park, or listening to your favorite Beethoven. In the culture of my ancestors, the Goddess Brigid is the bright light of inspiration, the muse who whispers poetry in our ears. She is here to whisper sweet nothings to us all.