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Moving From Chaos to Coherence Webinar – A New Understanding of the Challenges and Opportunities our Planet is Experiencing with Gregg Braden and Howard Martin

 Moving from Chaos to Coherence

 View the Webinar  with Gregg Braden and Howard Martin

Healing Perceptions

  What Are Your Perceptions About Healing?

    Listen to Bruce Lipton, PH.D for his take  Click Here

Ever Need a Reason to Eat Chocolate . . .

Well here's one, not that most of us need a reason . . . Dean Radin Video | Intentional Chocolate Click Here

Storytelling, Healing and Ceremony

There was conversation today on the ideas that Lewis shared and taught us this past weekend. I  thought about it and agree that what Lewis shared with us could be viewed as two models of circle. One as ceremony, one as storytelling. The thing is though that the two are not really separate. And healing is part of both, and in my view they are one in the same.

The Women's Circle that meets in our community, in my mind, does the same thing. It has all of the elements. We have sacred space. What is shared in the Circle stays within the Circle, confidentiality and safe space are core.  There is a center with  a candle and talking pieces. The talking piece is a way to respectfully move us around the Circle so that all are heard and all are listened to without interruption. The sharing of stories, and a topic of some kind brings out the stories. We have an opening and a closing. I know that for myself that process is very healing and has been so for all of the time that I have co-lead or lead Circle over the years. That to me is ceremony as well as storytelling.

We come together, we create a sacred space through our intent. The differences that I see in what Lewis shared with us includes more focus on one individuals story, the use of meditation, dream, visualization, telling a story verses having a topic as the catalyst to healing. All of these things can be incorporated from the model that I shared from our womens Circle in a way that feels good to all. I don't think or feel we need to reinvent the wheel.

Some mentioned that they were really more interested in a healing circle. Well from my perspective this is both. It is neither just story, nor just healing. It is both and that is my take on how I hold space for the circle and what I would like to experience in it. It's a smaller model of what I am doing in my work as a Cantadora (keeper of the old stories) writer, healer, coach and teacher.

Story is extremely healing. It can boost the immune system, increase DHEA, support clearer thinking and actions and so much more. Story can also deplete energy. It can cause your immune levels to drop for hours and increase cortisol which is a stress hormone that can lead to weight gain around the middle, aging, and many other health related side effects. The American Institute of Stress cites that up to 90 percent of all health problems are related to stress. Chronic stress can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression, and sleep disorders. Our "stories" which are thoughts and emotions lead to the way in which we react and feel. What our bodies do and how they react can  be seen in our the story-thoughts.

It's all about what story you are telling. What do you believe? What are you living? How can you make changes? Ask for help? What story would you like to pass on to your ancestors? 

You can see the effects of a thought, the emotion of it in real time. A coherent, joyful thought (story)  can show up as smooth waves on a heart rate variability reading. It can recharge you. An incoherent story-thought, one that is stressful shows up as jagged waves, it depletes.

Which one do we choose? We have free will and we get to choose a new story. One small step at a time. Sometimes there are big aha's and we take bigger steps of understanding. Sometimes maybe we move like turtle towards the new or more true story and that is okay too.

These are my thoughts on this. From years of doing my version of the work, teaching it, modeling it, living it. And it is an ongoing process that I will always be working on.  I am by no means, done or perfect or have all the answers. In fact I have no answers for anyone else. Just my own experience to reflect upon and share and perhaps in that, a healing takes place. I fall down and get up just like everyone else. I have excuses that are valid. Just like everyone else. This is what I do as a writer, healer, coach and teacher. This is how I see me in my work. In Story. In Circle.

How about You? What is your story?

Warmly,

Nellie

Coyote's Visit

Owwwwwwwwwuuuuuuuuuuu!!!! to borrow a friends call, my version of it. That's probably not the best sounding Coyote call but as a two legged it's what I can do at the moment. They howl in the distance at night here but I've not mastered their call. I am a two l egged from Kinnickinnic ( a town just outside of River Falls, WI) Coyote sounding my call. The name of the town is an Ojibwe word which means "what is mixed," and refers to plants that Native American people mixed with tobacco for smoking.

As someone on the River Falls planning committee for the Healing Stories, Healing Communities event that took place last weekend I thank Dr. Mehl-Madrona for his visit and teachings. There were many wonderful and talented people on our Committee and I thank Lewis, Coyote,  and the Committee as well as our community and All Our Relations for being present this past weekend. It was a wonderful event and many blessed things took place. Several in our community are moving forward to create a storytelling healing circle and we have even more tools than we had last year. Speaking for myself, I feel a much clearer sense of what is needed through Lewis's visit.

Thanks to everyone who made it possible for him to be here, and to the Spirits for clearing Lewis's way through the weather and delays to get to us, and his safe journey home. I'll be posting here as we go along sharing some of our journey.

Thank you Lewis!

To learn more about Dr. Lewis Mehl-Madrona  click here .

To learn more about the Healing Story Community being planned in River Falls, WI, please visit our Unitarian Universalist Society of River Falls Website by clicking here . As we build the Storytelling community we''ll share information on the UUSRF website.

Blessings to all,

Nellie

PS, Coyote is definitely here. For no obvious reason my computer shut down a few minutes ago before I could complete this post. Thank goodness for TypePad's auto-save feature and Coyote's willingness to give the post back. Thank You!

Healing Stories, Healing Communities

 

Unitarian Universalist Society of River Falls is proud to present "Healing Stories, Healing Communities"--a workshop presented by Lewis Mehl-Madrona, M.D., PH.D.  Dr. Mehl-Madrona is an internationally renowned Native American physician and a leader in the field of integrative medicine.

 Dr. Andrew Weil, of the University of Arizona's Program in Integrative Medicine, wrote of him - saying: "Lewis Mehl-Madrona has much to offer [here], since he combines the heritage and experience of a Native American healer with very thorough training in allopathic medicine. On top of that, he has great passion about replacing the reigning biomedical model with a new paradigm...".   

Each illness tells a unique “story”, with its own heroes, villains and adventures. Healing and illness are shaped by the community and the person experiencing them. Join us Saturday, April 18, 2009 and Sunday, April 19, 2009 as Dr. Mehl-Madrona leads us in an experience of healing community. Come for your body, your mind and your spirit!  Learn to use storytelling and other tools to care for self and  others. Topics covered:  Narrative Therapy, Guided Imagery, Healing Circles, Ceremony and Ritual.  To learn more or to register please visit UUSRF and click on the Mehl-Madrona lin in the left hand column .

To learn more about Lewis you can visit his website Healing Arts

 

The Prayer Wheel

The Prayer Wheel can be an incredible tool for meditation and spiritual  growth. Visit the links below to learn more.

Om Mani Padme Hum

"Behold! The Jewel in the Lotus!"

Advice On The Benefits Of The Prayer Wheel by Lama Zopa Rinpoche
Given at Land of Medicine Buddha, June 1994
The Prayer Wheel above is courtesy of Gleb Galkin page under GPL License

What God Hath Wrought

The story I'm sharing with you today is one written by my mother-in-law Frannie Moore who passed in 2004 at age 97. As I've shared before,The Cantadora is the keeper of the stories. We all have the ability to be keepers of story and as it is turning out she has kept her share.

As I move into this wonderful writing space, my place as a Cantadora and keeper of story, I'm finding many wonderful things coming into my life. My own remembered stories, and now the gift and trust to hold others stories and help them to save and share them.

Frannie's story below speaks to all the moving and miraculous moments in our own lives. Moments that are life changing. Moments that leave an impression with us for the rest of our lives and can't help but touch those around us. They are part of the fabric that shape our families and future generations.

"What God Hath Wrought" is a story about an event like this in her life.  Can you think of a time in your own life when you felt like this? How and who were you before it happened and what changed after?

Can you imagine that your loved ones will appreciate hearing this story about you, from you? Now and in generations to come.

Story heals. Story shares. Story forms community. We've been telling story since before we could write, with pictographs. On leather and papyrus. Charting the seasons, when it was time to move to warmer lands, when it was time to come back.

I invite you after you read Frannie's story to think about how you might relate to her experience and consider sharing your life changing moment.

If we gather enough of these wonderful stories, I may place them all together and write a book (with authors permission), sharing these stories of life change and strength. I can't think of a better time to do this than now. While we may experience fear or worry over the state of the world at this time, there is so much to be grateful for and story can remind of us of that and lead us back to that peace within as we remember and recall our stories.

What God Hath Wrought  -  © Frances L. Moore - Nellie P. Moore  - 2009

There were nine of us on that unforgettable night. We were seated at the table enjoying dinner and engaging in the usual causal chatter. Suddenly a deafening roar, complete darkness and the sound of wood breaking brought us to our feet. I looked into the living room (which we had vacated only ten minutes earlier) and saw an enormous tree lying across the living room and part of a bedroom. It had crashed through the roof and water was pouring in. It was caused by a tornado, the first I had ever seen and I sincerely hope the last.

Wires were down everywhere, the children were terrified and we adults just a little less so. Why had it happened to me? Holding a very small frightened boy in my arms, I tried to soothe him and I thought perhaps it was one of God's little tests of my courage and that of the eight people with me. I had always feared thunderstorms. Now I could not show that fear lest I impart it to my son.

We all huddled together in a small closet until the storm, which had lasted one hour, subsided. We came out of the closet and looked out on Lake Winnepesaukee, usually so beautiful, but now completely obscured by the darkness.

Now we put our heads together and tried to decide our next move. It was finally agreed that we would try to reach the cottage next door. With flashlights in hand, we very carefully and gingerly threaded our way between broken electric wires, uprooted trees and general debris until we reached our "Port" in a storm. Once inside we found that, except for flooded floors, the cottage had not been damaged. We all went to work mopping up water, tucking the children into bed and finally just sitting there and talking and hoping that our emissary had been able to reach the town of Meredith and phone our husbands. Yes, he made it and in the wee small hours of the morning they arrived. I know my husband was the most welcome sight on earth at that moment.

In the light of day we were able to see the destruction all around us. A car (station wagon size) could have driven into the hole left by the uprooted tree which had invaded our privacy. One of the more beautiful views of the lake was the one seen through a cluster of eleven White Birch trees. Now there was none. All had been leveled and I felt sad when I realized how much of the beauty of his summer home my host had lost.

Now some twelve years later, I am still puzzled as to why we were spared. Why had we left the room moments before, a room where we most certainly (would) have been crushed to death had we been occupying the chairs so recently vacated? My only conclusion is that God must have had a purpose for me. He must have let me live in order that I might perform service for Him.

I took a bit of license that night when instead of thinking, "God is my refuge. Of whom shall I  be afraid?" I thought; God is my refuge. of what shall I be afraid.

Frances L. Moore was my mother-in-law, but more like a mother to me. She, her young son and her friends lived through that tornado on Lake Winnepesaukee in the early years of the 1950's. That scared little boy is now my wonderful husband and the father to our three wonderful children.

I can't say what answers she received as she asked her questions of God about why they all came through that storm unharmed.

I found her story last week while gathering papers for the family genealogy we are working on and read it and I was deeply touched and knew I wanted to share it. All of our kids read it and then later when my husband came in I shared it with him and he was equally touched because he had never seen it before.

What I can say is what I feel is the reason for her living though that night. She raised a wonderful son. She gave a great deal of her time and energy to the needy and charities, helping others, and she was a wonderful and very funny women and friend. She threw some of the best parties in her neighborhood, and to me she was always a women ahead of her time and a real inspiration.

She was a blessing to me and the women she grew older with. She did not become a grandma till her late 70's and you would have thought she was 50. Full of life, playing games and chasing the kids with the best of us. In her last two years I was blessed with one of the challenges of my life as her daughter in law when we brought her to live with us after she could no longer care for herself, by herself in her 90's. Neither she nor we wanted a nursing home for her so she lived with us the last two years of her life.  She taught me, and our children much about unconditional love, play, stories, service and the dying process. She was diagnosed with cancer just a month before she died.  With the help of Hospice we were able to care for her at home where she died with our family around her.

I feel like she lived to gift us with all of these experiences, and I can not imagine my life without her and my husband and the father of our children.

Love, hugs, and blessing's Frannie wherever you are.

Nellie

Cantadora Speaks . . .

It's been almost a year since my last post. The past year has been a bit like the journey of Odysseus  for me. Some call it the hero's way or the shaman's passage.

Ann Linnea in her book "Deep Water Passage" speaks to this in her experience of seeking herself as she sea kayaked around the whole of Lake Superior. It's a powerful story of one women's journey to herself and I feel like many women can identify with her. I know that I did.

I had my version of deep water passage last year, especially in the summer months. At times feeling like I was drowning in deep water.

With loving support of family and friends and wise healthcare providers I came through that time, stronger, wiser and healthier than I have ever been.

I now know the next steps on my path. To walk it fully and joyfully I have released a career that I've had for over 19 years, therapeutic massage. I realized this past fall and winter that it was time to move on. To pass the reins to those now coming up in the profession.

I'm now following my passion, which I've reawakend after more than 35 years. That passion is words, story, keeping story, sharing story, understanding lineage and the role our families play in our stories and how we might learn from and understand what has been and choose what will be.

You might remember my first post where I shared about the Cantadora (scroll down). She is the keeper of the stories. This is my path. My passion is to keep stories, explore my own and help others to explore, tell, and keep their own.

This work, my passion, is linked hand in hand with my work as a Wellness Coach through The Wellness Inventoy and HeartMath (R). These wonderful tools can be very helpful in discovering our stories and living well.

Through understanding our stories we can explore what is true for us and make new choices.

I'll be posting on a regular basis now, as I move deeper onto my path of keeping story. I'll share more each day. I'm looking forward to sharing with you and having you share too. Keeping the stories.

Besides the blog I'm working on my first book and I'll be posting bits and peices of it here in the days and weeks to come.

Through the loving support of my husband, our wonderful kids, and my sister, the best sister anyone could ask for, I'm walking this path fully supported. My friends and fellow coaches as well as our community also inspire me and lend me loving support.

Come . . . let us share our stories

Nellie

The Path of a Healer . . .

Happy, Blessed Spring! Well, it's been a whole lot longer than I ever planned in making my next post to you. Life has a way of showing up and shifting the best laid plans of mice and women.

My first two posts were about things and people, near and dear to my heart. Those things and people are still near and dear, and they continue to teach and inform me in ways I never thought possible.

My last post to you was about my sister and her journey with a brain tumor. In that post I shared a bit of what she was doing to address the tumor, and what I was doing to stay in balance.

Within a few days of my making that post she finally received authorization to begin treatment. That treatment began with seven and a half weeks of radiation therapy, daily, with weekends off, until she completed her treatments a couple of days before Thanksgiving.

Since that time she has been dealing with the side effects of high doses of radiation to the brain. Things like swelling, forgetfulness, extreme sleepiness, double and triple vision, exhaustion. The last time I talked with her she was still waiting to be approved for her retirement and for disability benefits that she has paid for for over fifteen years.

If you sense frustration in my words, you would be right.

How does this link to the path of a healer . . .  because life is a teacher, and there is something to be learned and maybe, something we can do to make a difference in the healing of others, and in our own life balance and well-being. I shared with you in my last post that I was doing all kinds of wonderful things to remain in balance and to care for myself, but the long and the short of it was that I was still doing too much, caring too much (yes it is possible to do that - it's called OverCare) and I had a mini meltdown for a couple of weeks. I could not eat and lost a lot of weight, all I could think about was doing enough to help her.

I was doing everything I knew how to do to offer her care from a distance. She lives in Texas, I live in Wisconsin. I told myself in the back of my mind somewhere that as her big sister, and as a healer, that if I prayed enough, worked with non-local healing enough, that I could somehow make a difference and help her. Perhaps I did help her. I know that she loved the care I was able to offer. Care packages I sent, many phone calls I made, but in the end, it is not up to me. And that was a huge aha for me when I finally got it.

Lots of things came into play in all of this. Our family history, my role as a healer, mother, wife, etc.. The thing that turned the corner for me was going out and getting the care for myself that I was working so hard to give to her.

I worked with an amazing energy healer in my area and she helped to ground me and make it clear to me what I was carrying, and that I had a choice and the ability to shift it and let it go. She was the final key after completing two years of personal work with another amazing healer. Grounding it into physicality and working with my chakra's (more on chakra's and grounding in another post) was the final piece. I was not giving up on my sister or her healing in letting go. Just letting go of the idea that I had to be the one to fix it.

That day was a turning point in my life, on many levels, and it shaped who I am as a healer, as much as my sister's journey has done the same for me.

I'm now studying with that energy healer, learning her ways and wisdom and it is a gift I am bringing into my own family, as well as a gift I will be able to offer to my clients.

And that leads me to the next part of my post. As part of my path as a women and healer I have been asking myself this question for many years, more so recently, and it seems like in the collective wisdom of things, perhaps in the wisdom of women,  in the divine feminine, there might be an answer  . . .

What is the question?

In a country where the people who often need health care (or wellness services) the most, can not afford them, and often forgo care, what kind of a solution can we create?

I've talked with so many people in the health and wellness fields in the past couple of years and it is clear (as if it was not obvious) that the system does not work. As I shared previously, my sister has health care benefits and it still took her almost four months to get authorization to begin treatment. Did those four months of insurance hoop jumping make a difference in her outcome? I don't know if we will ever know that for sure. Could it have? What do you think?

I had a conversation with a friend and fellow health care provider today and the same subject came up. How do we meet the needs of the people who need it the most, and still manage to support our own families? Here's one example, Working Class Acupuncture . The model comes from an acupuncture practice based in Portland, Oregon. Someone shared this model with me a while back and in the midst of busy life I placed it in a folder and relegated it to the back of my mind.

The model involves delivering acupuncture in a group setting to clients. The model works and works well. Another example, The Integrator Blog offers News, Reports, Opinion, and Networking for the Business, Education, Policy, and Practice of Integrative Medicine, CAM, and Integrated Health Care. John Weeks is the Publisher/Editor. He profiles some wonderful activities in this arena and there is much there to be inspired by.

So how do we apply these models to our work? How do we meet the needs of people who will often not bother to go to the doctor until it takes an emergency room visit because they do not have insurance, or the money they would use for a copay needs to go to pay for something for one of their kids?

The Working Class Acupuncture (WCA) model works because it's delivered to a group. Go to the WCA website and you can download a free copy of Love Your Micro Business (just 13 pages) to see the model. There are other models profiled at The Integrator Blog.

Can a massage therapist deliver this model? A medical doctor? A psychologist or a physical therapist? We traditionally see these professions offering their services to one person at a time. Or do we . . .

In an emergency room setting we see a large room that accommodates several patients at the same time. Sometimes separated by curtains, sometimes by walls, and they generally  are cared for by one or two doctors (and some wonderful nurses) at most. Everyone receives care (though sometimes slowly - there are bugs with the model) everyone is cared for, medicated, billed, and sent on their way. Most chiropractors have several treatment rooms that they move in, room to room and can see several patients in the course of a couple of hours. I've seen the same thing in physical therapy clinic where the therapists have patients set up on stations around a large gym like therapy room and they move from patient to patient.

Professionals who choose group work as a part of their practice can also address the therapeutic needs of the many in this way.

The triage model of the old TV show M.A.S.H. comes to mind. Adapting that.

In the indigenous traditions, a community comes together when someone needs care. A healing (however that happens) takes place through the power of community and ceremony. These events often include a sweat (where the person is well enough to be able to participate) prayer, storytelling, and attendance by many people in support of the healee. Often family members, and many members of the community.

In Narrative Medicine, Lewis Mehl Madrona, MD, Ph.D insists that we are made up of stories. He says, "Stories involve a whole person in a historical context, and in a whole environment." Lewis teaches us to learn our own story and use it to  heal ourselves and to appreciate our soul's path. Likewise, as I've shared here before, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D speaks to the same thing in her work "Women Who Run With The Wolves".

I attended a one day training earlier this year with Lewis (as people who know and care for him refer to him) who is of Cherokee and Scottish ancestry. He is a wonderful and powerful teacher and his work inspired me to do something that I had wanted to do for a long time, create a healing circle. Lewis came in January through the invitation of a wonderful community member who organized the event and made it possible. Lewis encouraged us to begin a circle in our community. Together, this women who organized the event and I, with other members of our local community, drew the elements of our healing circle together. March 8th, 2008 we had our first healing circle. A group of people came together, shared stories and, and experienced healing in the way that worked for them. It's possible to make a difference in small steps, and it's another example of group healing.

I co-lead a local WyseWomen Circle community each month and something similar happens in that community too.

Another question to ask, with all of the professionals I cited above in the medical models, do any of them, or the institutions who run them (in the case of hospitals or medical offices) pass the savings on to their patients? Are they too busy hoop jumping to do that? Are there any savings for them in the way they work the model? Or are they too busy hoop jumping with insurance providers (and sometimes losing sight of patients needs in the process) to see the possibilities? Have they even thought about how they could do this?

I've looked at non-profits as a model and there are likewise so many hoops to jump through there that you can end up becoming an administrator instead of a wellness professional. I prefer devoting my time to my clients, thank you.

The WCA model works, and reaches the working class citizen because it does just that. It only does a particular kind of acupuncture. One that can be delivered well in a group setting. They do not work with insurance so there is no overhead that goes along with paying someone to administer all of the paperwork that goes into insurance billing. No waiting for claims to be paid. No requirements to meet for insurance companies. No headaches related to filing. They are able to work directly with the patient and pass the savings on to them. And the client receives healing.

At the time of the writing of the e-book they were seeing an average of 70 patients per week. If I do the math right (calculators come in handy) $15.00 x 70 comes out to $1050.00 per week. And she did not sell her soul to do it. There are some clients that can not even afford that fifteen dollars, and that is where Pro Bono can come in. But many more can manage that fifteen dollars than not. Read the details of how they are doing it in the thirteen page e-book.

How do we work with these models? How can we adapt them to work in our settings? We know our clients and patients would benefit from our services. In some cases they really need our services. What we can offer in the way of help or services could potentially help to heal the whole family by assisting that one person. How do we address these needs and keep our business doors open? And one step further, offer programs and services that are actually preventative Wellcare models.

In this process we also nurture ourselves. We might be able to slow down. I seem to recall a conversation today where the speed with which we are moving as healers came up. We are often moving so fast trying to do so much, that we leave ourselves out of the mix. And then who are we good for. How are we modeling for our clients and patients . . .

Which leads me back to the beginning. It's a new season, Spring you see, and I'm wondering, just like the new shoots and leaves waiting to burst forth, what fertile ways can we come up with to create a model that meets the needs of the many, and supports our own healing, living life joyfully path . . .

Blessings,

Nellie

Disclaimer:

Please Note, the information and services provided by or through WyseWomen LLC, WyseWomen.com, WyseWomen the Blog, Magdalene Abbey, and Nellie P. Moore are not to be used to treat or diagnose any condition, disease, client, patient, or individual. The ideas, information and services provided are not intended to be a substitute for consult or treatment with a qualified physician, therapist, or other qualified helping professional.