September 30: Blessings

Hola, All! You never know where blessings are going to come from. Our house is about 32 years old and so is/was the grout between the tiles in our bathrooms. I had heard about Grout Doctor and how they will take out the old grout and caulk, put in new grout and caulk, and make the tiles look brand new. Something else that needed help was the bathtub, which was showing its age since the porcelain had worn off on the bottom which made the tub look dirty, even though it wasn't. So, I called Grout Doctor (managed by Chad) and American Porcelain to give the tiles and tub in the kids' bathroom a new look. Richard, who works for Chad, from Grout Doctor came yesterday, and I have to say that the tiles look brand new! While he was here, he asked me about the tub, and I told him that another company was coming on Friday. He told me that he has been in the tile business for 25 years, but used to work with porcelain, and offered to fix the tub for $40, which saved me $210!! What a blessing!
I'm also talking to Chad, Grout Doctor, about replacing half the tiles in the master bathroom (which only has a shower), putting in a little shelf, and of course, regrouting and caulking everything. But, since Richard told me that he would do it on his time off, I'll be getting a bid from him also!
Not only was Richard a blessing to me, but I returned the blessing by encouraging him to follow his dream of being an architect. He said he never finished high school, dreams about architecture every day, and that I have been the only person who has encouraged him to pursue it. You never know how 'chance' meetings can turn into real blessings.
Chao for now!
Dawnie

Sept 29: Qigong Sword Fingers

Hola, All! Qigong is a healing process developed by Chunji Lin, who says that the underlying cause of any pain/sickness is an energy blockage. It is a simple process to use but may not be as simple to explain. Let's say that Person A has a pain in her shoulder, and Person B is the healer. To make it easier for me, I numbered the steps:
1. To make the sword fingers, extend the index and middle fingers on one hand, then bend the other two fingers and hold them down with the thumb, making the cub scout salute.
2. Person A smiles (Start My Internal Love Engine).
3. P-A can sit, stand or lie down. Breathe deeply and relax, closing her eyes.
4. P-B, while visualizing healing engery flowing from her heart to her sword fingers, moves her fingers in a circular, slicing or chopping motion around the area of pain on P-A, but doesn't touch her. Do this for 1-3 minutes.
5. Then, P-B opens her hand, visualizing energy coming out of all fingers, while she visualizes the pain as smoke coming out of P-A's shoulder. P-B takes the 'smoke' in her hand and throws it away, repeating this jester for 1-2 minutes. She also repeats something like: the pain is gone, you are completely healed.
6. P-B then opens her hand, still visualizing the energy coming out of her hand. She moves her hand close to the shoulder, then backs her hand away, repeating this motion 9 times.
7. The last thing is that P-A takes 3 big breaths, rubs her hands together and massages her own face.
Last night at meditation Hefina asked me to use the Qigong Fingers on her, but she wouldn't tell me where her pain or discomfort was. After a minute of trying to figure out where her energy might be blocked, I settled on the area around her stomach. I wasn't prepared to do this, so didn't remember all the steps, but I got the most important ones. After I was finished, Hefina (who had her eyes closed the whole time) told me that her blockage was in her stomach and she could feel me pull the 'smoke' out! She isn't completely healed, but at least I helped her to feel better. Thank you, Hefina, for giving me the opportunity to start using some of the things that I am learning.
Chao for now!
Dawnie

September 27: Loving my pain

Hola, All! I want to continue the discussion of my last blog, which is 'Love your Pain' because I have a personal story to tell you. Some years ago, I had the 6th crown put in my mouth. That crown has never really fit well, even though I went back to the dentist a couple of times. He could not find any reason why I was having some problems with it. Since having that crown, I have never been able to eat anything hard, like a raw carrot, on the right side of my mouth. Also, since the alternative was to have a root canal, I knew I could live with it. When Ed and I drove to Chicago recently, my mouth started hurting whenever I ate, even if I only ate on the left side of my mouth. And, it would keep hurting even after I had eaten. I didn't say anything to anyone because I didn't want to waste any more energy on the pain than I had to. Also, I had the baby to distract me. This pain was something that I had not had before so still don't know what I did to cause it. I am careful not only about what I eat, but also about the hardness/softness of the foods I eat. For instance, anytime I eat granola for breakfast, I let it soak in the milk for 5 minutes or more. That way, it's softer when I eat it which my teeth are happy about. After coming home from Chicago, still in pain, and listening to Jo Dunning talk about how she healed herself, I decided to try her method. Whenever my mouth would start hurting, instead of trying to ignore the pain, I sent it love and made up a little song to the tune of "You Are My Sunshine". It went something like this:

You are my sunshine, I love my sunshine,
You make me happy when skies are grey,
You'll never know just how much I love you,
I love you today and everyday.

Something else I did was to send healing energy to my mouth whenever I listened to my healing meditation cd. After a couple of days, I noticed thatI wasn't in as much pain as before, and now, everything's back to normal! I'm still going to soften some of my food before I eat, since that one crown still is not right, but it's no worse than it was before. And that's something I can live with.
Please remember that healing myself resonates with me, and is my truth. Your truth may be totally different; I just want you to be aware that there are so many ways to approach pain.
Chao for now!
Dawnie

Sept 23: Love your pain

Hola, All! For the past two weeks I have been listening to a webcast called Healing with the Masters. Every Tuesday and Thursday from 6-7 pm for 12 weeks, I can listen to a different expert talk about different subjects. For instance, tonight's expert was a woman called Jo Dunning, who some years ago had so much pain in her right arm that it just hung limply at her side. After consulting with different doctors who could not help her, and complaining about the pain in her arm regularly, she decided to change the way she was approaching her pain. Jo started sending love and compassion to where her body hurt. She not only felt the love and compassion go from her heart to her right arm but also talked loving to it. In three days, the pain had subsided and as she continued to send love and compassion, she no longer had the pain in her arm and she was healed. There are so many documented cases of people healing themselves through different techniques. There are different ways that we can heal ourselves with the combined power of our mind and the power of love. Sending love and compassion, and talking lovingly to where you hurt is just one of the tools you can use to heal yourself.
Chao for now!
Dawnie

September 22: Family stories

Hola, All! I want to continue the conversation about 'telling your story'. Do you realize that when you say something like "migrains run in my family" that it is another version of 'telling your story"? Have you caught yourself saying "dementia or alzheimers runs in my family"? What you are really saying is that somewhere in your mind, you believe it's in your future. Well, it is if you continue to talk about the diseases that 'run in your family'. My dad suffered with dementia and now my mom has it, but you won't catch me referring to it as a 'family disease'. I am not about to set myself up for that nasty future. Obviously, just because both my parents have/had dementia, I don't believe that I will also fall into that category. Our minds are very powerful, but so are our words. There is alot of truth in the saying, 'what you think (talk) about, you bring about'. Pay attention to the words that come out of your mouth and the thoughts in your head; you are foretelling your future whether your words/thoughts are positive or negative. Change your record from 'arthritis runs in my family' to 'I am healthy, wealthy, and wise'.
Chao for now!
Dawnie

September 10: Peace

Hola, All! Recently I read something that I have been thinking about and I wrote it down so I would remember it: To have peace, teach peace to learn it. My understanding is that in order for me to really learn about peace and have it within, I have to teach peace. That doesn't mean I have to get on my soapbox and blab about it. What works much better is being an example of peace, living a peaceful life. For me, that can mean staying calm and peaceful when someone else is aggitated, looking for a scapegoat and I happen to be their target. Not only am I teaching the other person how to react in a different way (with peace), but I am reinforcing that lesson for myself. Or, it can also mean that when I'm in a hurry and drop a jar of pickles on the floor, I don't react in the 'normal' way. I try to stay calm by taking some deep breaths, talking kindly to myself, and cleaning it up. The more I do this, the easier it becomes, although I have not mastered it yet. Other things I do to have peace inside is I don't watch movies that have violence. Do you think that watching a movie or the news that portrays violence doesn't affect you? Everything you see, say or hear is recorded in your memory, whether you realize it or not. When you watch violence, you are ingesting it into your body through your ears, eyes and emotions. Doesn't sound appetizing, does it? Remember, to have peace, teach peace to learn it; it's a great way to live!
Chao for now!
Dawnie

September 3: Taking things personally

Hola, All! I've been thinking about how we were taught, unconsciously by our parents and other adults, to take things personally, and then we taught our children, unconsciously of course, to do the same. This has been happening for generations, probably since the beginning of time. But, now, I want to do my part to stop this insane cycle. For instance, if Ed snaps at me because I'm driving slower than he does, my normal reaction used to be to snap back, which he might answer by saying something unkind, then it would be my turn, etc. I feel offended because I have taken what he said personally; in other words, I felt that it was all about me. What I have come to realize is that anytime Ed says something to me, it is TOTALLY about him. Of course, the same is true in reverse. When I snap at Ed, I'm not really mad at him, I'm mad because I just stubbed my toe on the table and it hurts like the dickens. If he chooses to take it personally, then the cycle starts again. This could go on all day, with different people as the actors. When I stop and think about it, why in the world would I think that the guy who just pulled in front of me on the highway was, in any fashion, thinking about me? He wasn't thinking about me at all; he was in the wrong lane and needed to take the next exit so he darted across the highway instead of going to the following exit and making a u-turn. One of my goals is to stop my crazy thinking that everything that happens in my presence has something, anything to do with me. One way I can work on this is by keeping in mind, "What you think about me is none of my business". By doing this, I can stop the insane cycle in my life, which means I am a calmer, happier, more peaceful person. And, by sharing this with you, maybe it'll influence you to work on this also.
Chao for now!
Dawnie