Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Power of the mind

Because I was recently reminded that I am the power I have devised a unique plan of action just for me. First and most important is focusing on the thought that I have the power to accomplish anything.

I am on day 10 of the 21 day Chopra Meditation Challenge currently offered on line. This is a first for me as meditation is something I have never been able to do well.

I also begin each day with a short chakra focus and reading the day's message from The Language of Letting Go. I dabble in Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) when I am in the mood.

A few days ago I was introduced to healing magnets. They are little spots meant to apply exactly where it hurts. I realized that because of previous manipulation and stress my muscles were screaming out in pain. The magnets help to calm them, giving the body time to heal itself.

Of course, drinking water and eating sensible meals always helps whether one is in pain or not.

Attitude toward pain is very important. The first response should not be STOP IT I DON'T DESERVE THIS! What you focus on gets bigger. The first response should be accept it and try to do whatever will make you feel better for a few minutes. Relax, breathe, lay down or do nothing.

Finding a way to communicate with the pain is very helpful. Pain isn't your enemy it is trying to tell you something. When you can figure out what that is you are talking the same language and healing can occur.

After adding up what I have paid professionals over the last few months I decided it was time to take a new simplified approach. If it really is true that I have the power to heal myself the results should be amazing.







Thursday, July 12, 2012

That old chest of drawers

Our writing group comes up with some great writing prompts that we take home write about and bring to our next meeting. This is the latest. At first I thought this one would be hard until I started writing. Every journey begins with one step.


That old chest of drawers

Looking around my house I noted that I don't have a chest of drawers either old or new. What stood out was the china cabinet that had belonged to my mother. Not being much of a collector she mostly used it for keeping her bills and papers in one place. When my mother died we had it shipped from Seattle to New Mexico. When it arrived we realized the glass shelves were missing so we had new ones made.

Being the collector that my mother was not the cabinet now houses a variety of meaningful mementos. The top shelf is filled with Precious Moments figurines. The most endearing is a little mouse sitting on a bed of lettuce in a prayerful position. The caption is "Lettuce Pray". The most unusual is a small pink and white chest with the word mother on top. It originally contained a pair of pink earrings and was a gift from my daughter. 

The second shelf is overflowing with my grandmother's Hummel collection. It was passed on to me by my grandfather after she died. I remember dusting these little figures as a child and they have always been a part of my life. They would be the last thing I would  sell if I needed money.

Memories of my life sit on the next shelf. There is an ivory gavel made for me when I was the presiding officer in Job's Daughters and the International Order of Rainbow for Girls as a teenager and the Order of Amaranth as an adult. My daughter used it when she was a Rainbow Girl. There are two miniature Avon President Club statues and a clear plate stating "Best New Performer Award" 1996-1997. Several blown glass pieces and a couple of glass hearts also make their home on this shelf.

The last shelves mostly contain the beautiful cut glass dishes and plates that were among my grandmother's prized possessions. They are still used on special occasions. I remember the day they became mine. It was my grandfather's 90th birthday and we had gathered to celebrate. He told me to take what I wanted because he would soon be moving to the Masonic Home. My choices were lovingly packed in our luggage, carefully wrapped in clothes to keep them safe on the flight home.

 My china cabinet holds memories of four generations and oddly has a special little quirk of its own. The back wall of the cabinet is inserted with glass which had a flaw in the shape of a Kokapelli; perhaps indicating that my house in New Mexico is exactly where it is supposed to be.





Sunday, July 8, 2012

Books books books

This week seems to be about reading books and stories others have created. I decided to give a copy of my first book, Wake Up!, to one of my current healing team. After signing the book I flipped it open and this is the page that came up. I have decided to share with my readers what I wrote in 2004.

Healing

     On a beautiful September morning, after talking with a new spiritual friend, I had an urge to take a trip to a place I had never visited. I closed my eyes and felt a cool breeze pass by my face. I became weightless and seemed to move effortlessly through space and time. There was no up or down, left or right, simply quiet space.
     As I opened my eyes I saw I was on the softest of clouds in the middle of a magnificent intense blue sky. No other human was seen. I felt the presence of arms around me accompanied by a sense of powerful unconditional love. The air was clean and fresh and absent of earthly scents.
      I was not afraid because this was exactly where I was supposed to be in this moment in time. Away from the distractions of human life and the interpretations of other people. Free to decide for myself what I would do about the condition of my present life.
     I found a comfortable place and took off my shoes, dipping my toes in the middle of the cloud. I lay on my stomach and rested my head on my arms. I thought about the goals and desires I had set up for myself and wondered aloud if it was the best I could do or was I cheating myself? 
     As I rolled over on my back I was startled by the appearance of my friend and soul mate who was staring at me. Had I wished him there or did he come of his own free will? He smiled an impish smile and sat down in front of me dangling his feet over the edge of the cloud, removing his hat.
     I  sat up and once again felt the overwhelming spiritual love between the two of us. I massaged the back of his neck and temples as he had once done for me. I tried to remove the stress of his needing to be in constant control of himself. He relaxed as the negative energy began to leave his body.
     I had once been there so I knew how he felt. Letting go of anger and hurt allows freedom to tear down the wall and trust again.
     A quiet voice whispered in my ear, "Do for him what he did for you."
     With no hesitation I gently pushed him off the edge of my cloud. It was time for him to take care of himself by himself. His negative energy was interfering with my positive growth. 
     Wishing him only the best, I trust he will fondly remember the bond of spiritual love between us. He will need it when we meet again in this life or the next. I heard the word peace floating in the breeze and felt the wings of an angel transporting me back to earth as I opened my eyes and went on with my day.


Signed books are now $10.00 for a limited time.
contact: Barbara Gunn -  begunn37@q.com
 

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Full of pride

I am so proud of the writing group Write On People that I initiated last November. We have proved that a small group with no money can accomplish big things. All it takes is a desire to inspire and encourage others. Someone recently asked me what I saw for the group and after giving it some thought my answer was, "That everyone ends up better than they were when they walked through the door."

During June we offered a one week, one hour per day, writing camp to kids who spend their time at our local family center.  Being mostly grandparents we felt that students don't get a chance to use their imagination to express themselves through writing during the school year. It is not the fault of the teachers. They have too much curriculum to fill to spend time on creativity. During the camp we gave the kids a taste of different ways of writing such as: interviewing, dialogue, poetry, reporting and creative writing. Each day the person from our group who was the most skilled in a particular aspect of writing was in charge and given free reign of how they wanted to fill their hour.

For a group that had never done something like this before I think we did a great job! The kids came in every morning quietly sat down and were ready to learn what we had to offer. The only rule is one I set up on the first day and that was respect; for each other and for the adult in charge. Its simplicity got their attention. When the week was over I believe our group members learned as much as our students did. Perhaps the most important thing was that the generation gap is all in the mind!

When the camp was over we sponsored a writing contest for area kids in grades 3 to 6. The topic was, Who I Am. After the first week with only a few submissions I got a phone call from a teacher that informed me she was encouraging her summer school students to enter our contest. What a life saver she was! It gave us a total of 34 entries. The entries were judged on creativity and imagination by three people from the community who had no connection with the kids.

Our local Bureau of Land Management office provided wonderful volcano posters and Frisbees for all the kids who entered the contest. Literacy Volunteers of Cibola County provided certificates and a book of their choice for all the winners. Future Foundations Family Center also helped us out with our printing needs. We are very grateful for the assistance of these organizations because our group has no money.

I am really looking forward to this coming Monday as we are having an award ceremony for the winners and get to see the faces behind the creative kids Write On People helped to inspire. I am full of pride for what we were able to accomplish and I hope our efforts will inspire others to follow our lead. Below is the poster and Frisbee donated by BLM.





Friday, July 6, 2012

...but it could

In the last few days I have been told by three different people that things are not going to change overnight; they could but probably won't. My thought on the matter was, but it could.

It isn't that I expect a powerful angel to spread its wings over my house and shower me with abundance in every area of my life. I am not sure angels are even that powerful. I see no reason that a complete change cannot take place overnight, especially when I have done everything in my power to follow every suggestion that has come my way. In my opinion I have been a very good student.

Last night we had a violent thunder storm that lasted about an hour. As a result my car got a much needed bath, my fruit trees were watered and the birds and wild life have plenty of drinking water. As a bonus the ground was so wet this morning I was able to pull some rather big weeds with little effort just in time for the trash truck to pick them up. There was a bonus to that too because the effort gave my back some much needed exercise.

The storm brought a bolt of lightening that knocked out my TV reception last night. I called Comcast to report an outage. I had to deal with a rather rude customer service man who did his best to make me believe I was stupid. I didn't feel he was going to do anything so I called back this morning. The first thing I did after reaching a pleasant sounding woman was report the dude. She took me seriously and after determining that I did have a problem set up a service call for Monday afternoon. Great I thought no TV all weekend.

My last question to her was, "is it possible that it could just come back on?" Her answer was, "It could but probably not."

 I made some plans to catch up on some things like reading and basically just let the situation go. In the back of my mind was the thought...but it could.
A couple of hours later I turned on the set just to see if I had reception. A perfect picture came into view.  What did I learn from this? First of all, if there is a thunder storm don't be stupid- turn off the TV and computer. Secondly and probably most important never ever let someone else talk you out of believing that anything is possible. Abundance in every area of my life is just around the corner. It may not happen tonight...but it could.


Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Celebrating a me day

Today is a day set aside for celebrating independence. Ordinarily I would have driven into town to watch the parade. I have lost track of the number of years I have done just that. This morning I chose to stay home and take care of some important personal things I had put off for some time. I decided to make it a me day.

If you have been following along you know that I have been on a new path to healing. It is called Pattern Release Energetics, created by Dr. James Rolwing.  Although I have made a great deal of progress in a very short time I felt that there was something from my past that I have refused to let go of. Why am I resisting healing I wondered. Am I trying to punish myself for terrible things I have been talked into believing? Could be, self talk can be very cruel. Then I thought maybe it was fear. I have dealt with all kinds of fears during my life. Fear of abandonment, fear of the unknown and fear of finding someone to trust are just a few. My third attempt was thinking that guilt, imagined or real, was the culprit.

Then this morning as if answering my question I accidentally read tomorrow's meditation post in the book The Language of Letting Go. The first two words were Survivor Guilt. I took a deep breath and read on. It is a symptom of co-dependency. I may have found gold! It went on to say that when we begin to heal we can also feel guilty about those we left behind. They are the ones who were not as fortunate to find a new path. We can even question why we were so lucky. As I read on I realized this is what I had done my whole life. Taking responsibility for everyone else at the cost of my own well being.

I began looking at the significant people in my life who have never changed and realized that their recovery is none of my business. I am only responsible for my recovery. So today I celebrate the steps I have already taken to heal and look forward to the rest of the journey.