Last night I listened to an interesting perspective on what's happening in our world due to the coronavirus pandemic.  
The world is being forced to stop.  
Stop all the busyness and looking outward.
Schools and institutions are closing, businesses coming to a trickle or closing altogether. Countries are being quarantined. 

We are being forced to stay home and face ourselves.  

Who are we when we are not constantly in motion? 

When we're not chasing after the next shiny thing to catch our eye? 

Life is saying it's time to stop, listen, and go a little deeper.

 A Quote for These Times

"And the people stayed home.  And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.  And listened more deeply.  Some meditated, some prayed, some danced.  Some met their shadows.  And the people began to think differently.  And the people healed.  And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.  And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed."
- Kitty O'Meara

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Easy, Natural Tips to Support Your Immune System

Meditation or Exercise:  A recent study known as MEPARI  (Meditation or Exercise for Preventing Acute Respiratory Illness) demonstrated that meditation or exercise were both effective at reducing frequency of colds and flu.

Gentle yoga postures: Yoga and spinal twists first thing in the morning realign the body and can be invigorating.

Balance in wake/ sleep cycles:  Best sleep occurs between 10 pm and 6 am keeping the body in sync with nature's rhythms.  One study even showed an association between nap taking and increased life span.

Hydration:  Before coffee in the morning, hydrate the body with a glass of warm water with lemon.  Hydrating foods include cucumbers, celery, watermelon.



Look on the Bright Side:  Negativity can put undue stress on the immune system.  By some estimates, the rate of complaining in American conversations is 70-84%.  Studies have shown that positivity and joy boost both innate and adaptive arms of the immune system.

Vitamins D3 & C:  Vitamin D3 assists the immune cells.  Low levels of vitamin D3 have been linked with increased susceptibility to a number of infections.  The Public Heath and Medical societies of U.S. and Canada recommend 600 - 2000 IU per day. Vitamin C also contributes to immune defense. However large doses can increase risk of kidney stones.

Olive Leaf Extract: A potent virus, bacterial and fungus killer.  Has anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that may reduce rates of upper respiratory infections. (Over-the-counter supplement).

Weight Management: Maintain a healthy weight through diet and exercise.  Obesity contributes to increased inflammation and compromise of the immune system.  A normal BMI (body mass index) is between 18.5 - 24.9 .  Google:  "How to  calculate body mass index" .  A BMI  over 25.0 is considered overweight.

Healthy Diet: Some sources say your body absorbs and uses vitamins and nutrients better when they come from a dietary source rather than supplements.  A Mediterranean diet or diet high in fresh fruits and vegetables is considered optimum.

According to Qigong Master Chunyi Lin, certain foods are also beneficial to the body's subtle energy systems.
- An apple in the morning detoxifies the body, strengthens the lung energy and is good for elimination.
- 1/2 tsp of vinegar daily helps protect lungs and skin. (Organic, unfiltered apple cider is best).
- 1 Tbl honey in late afternoon helps protect the liver.

Master Lin also suggests tapping or bumping the inside of both wrists together firmly for 3 - 4 min. daily or several times a day.  This enhances the body's vitality by increasing kidney energy.

Best foods in winter months:
- slow cooked hot soup
- stir fry
- mushrooms twice a week  (helps cleanse the intestines)

Most importantly!  Always listen to your doctor and your body's own intelligence in order to determine what's best for you.
.

Everything you do makes a difference.

Everything you say makes a difference.

Everything you are makes a difference.

In a world filled with chaos and turmoil, there is little time for

procrastination, indifference and complaining.

Don't be drawn into the swirling fear around you  

because fear does not solve problems

 or create cohesiveness

or inspire a sense of well-being.

It only tears you apart and 

fools you into believing you are powerless

when nothing could be further from the truth.

When you know how powerful you are

you cannot be a victim

because you will know who you are.

And everything you are makes a difference.

Always Into Love

On this voyage of

the soul, may we be

bridge builders,

our common ground

visible beneath the

surface differences.

May we braid the

threads of reconciliation

into a chain of possibility

that joins, heals, and

includes what once

seemed separate.

May our shared prayer

be answered:  to grow

so open that there is

no "them" or "us,"

only the One, moving

always into Love.

- Dana Faulds

An Alternative Remedy for the Times in Which We Live

In these turbulent, chaotic times, we often wonder what can be done?  Perhaps take a stronger stance, exert our rights more loudly, tweet profanity at what we do not like?

Or hum?

Recently, I attended a meditative yoga class at a little yoga studio I rarely visit due to its location in the suburbs of Detroit where my daughter and her family live, about an hour drive from home.  While visiting my daughter last week,  she suggested we attend an evening class that sounded interesting and I jumped at the chance for a break from our hectic, fast paced day with my adorable two year old grand-baby.

That evening, upon arriving at the yoga studio, we entered a low lit room with brightly painted walls and began setting up our yoga mats with blocks and an assortment of other props. Soon the instructor and a musician took their place at the front of the long, narrow room.  Behind them stood an altar with flickering candles, prayer beads, and numerous photographs of eastern gurus serenely staring back at us.

 After a series of slow deep stretches with a handful of other yogis and yoginis, we prepared for meditation by sitting cross legged on our mats with eyes closed.  While one instructor played an instrument popular in both India and the west called a Harmonium, a type of tabletop size organ with bellows, a second instructor softly guided us through deep breathing exercises followed by a period of sustained humming.

Yes, humming.

We followed instructions to begin "humming like bees" and were encouraged to be playful in our discovery of different octaves and tones. Moving up and down the scales, it took me a few minutes of experimenting to find my "perfect pitch" - the one I could sustain without much effort.  I noticed how my humming floated in and out and combined with the other vibrating notes in a soothing, harmonious euphony of sound that pleasantly moved through my body as it filled the room. 

 Our collective humming was a balm to my nervous system.  I did not want to stop.  Soon however, when the bell rang, our voices were replaced by a sparkling silence in which the reverberations of each unique hum rested. We sat for several minutes soaking it all in.

Not wanting to disturb the effects of our practice, my daughter and I remained silent as we rolled up our mats, put away the props and walked back out to the car.  Who would have guessed something as simple as humming in unison with other like-minded hummers, could create so much peace and tranquility. We savored the quiet drive home under the twinkling stars.  And as we wet off to bed that night, we smiled, hugged and whispered "good night".

Me and Laura Dean

Last night in a somewhat puzzling dream I see myself mulling over a decision as to what direction to take after retiring from my life's work some years back.  In my dream I am speaking with a woman by the name of Laura Dean whose name is emblazoned in bold black lettering across the screen of my dream world.  Laura is young and stylish and somehow we know each other, sort of, although I can't quite place her face. 

Next morning, out of curiosity, I decide to Google the name "Laura Dean" since I do not know anyone by that name.  What I discover is an American modern dancer, choreographer and composer by the same name who was born in 1945.  In her early years, Dean danced for a short time with the "Paul Taylor Dance Company" in New York, a modern dance group I saw perform in the 1970's.  This piqued my interest even more especially since, as I'd shared in a previous post, I have always been a huge fan of modern dance. 

I learn that Laura Dean eventually started her own Dance Company with a style all her own and is well known in modern dance circles, interestingly, for her "structured movements of spinning and whirling".  In addition to spinning and whirling, her choreography at times would include stomping foot patterns, chanting, and singing from the dancers themselves (odd yet wonderful).  Dean once remarked:  "I spin because I remember spinning and whirling as a child.  These childhood memories of whirling came back to me when I was working on movement by myself in a studio in San Francisco in 1968."

As I continue scrolling down on my computer, noting all of her many accomplishments, I come upon another quote by Dean, this time elaborating more fully on her notable love of spinning:  
"Spinning is a central fact of the universe.  Not only are the planets spinning, but the galaxies are spinning too, and the Milky Way, our galaxy, is a in a spiral pattern.  Even our DNA is a spiral.  Whatever the universal force is, I feel a kinship . . . "  ( "Me too!", I hear myself say out loud.)

She then had this to say:

"I've always in my choreography had a love of grand design and pattern, but at the same time a love for the individual inside of that.  That is precisely what we are.  We've been placed in this grand design, and it's up to us to decide what to do with it."

As I read this last sentence, a big smile spreads across my face, taking in the serendipity of it all as if the dilemma in my dream, of what to do with my life, had been answered in some strange way by the life and words of a dancer I'd rendezvoused with in my dream.

It answers the question many of us ask at some juncture in our life as we consider the gifts and opportunities before us.  What to do with this life we've been given?  Will we squander it on distractions and superficialities or take what we've been given and go with it, no matter how odd or simplistic it may look or seem.  Laura Dean knew from the time she was a child that she loved to spin and whirl.  And later in life, she became a modern day whirling Sufi in her own amazing right.    

It got me thinking that what we do doesn't have to be big or complex or even life changing.  It can be that one simple thing we just love doing. Like singing, or planting

or writing. Maybe that's part of what we're here to explore on this spinning, whirling planet of ours. 

                                  When you attune yourself to nature, a magical quality is there that sparks your creativity.  Your love expands to include new qualities of consciousness.  When you bring light through your being and allow yourself to receive nurturing from nature, there is a blending of your most divine eternal self and your most human.  

                                   - Richard Goodman

When I lived in Virginia, the Blue Ridge Parkway was literally minutes from my back doorstep.  I loved walking the trails, especially in the spring and fall.  It was my sacred sanctuary.  I loved to watch the dance of autumn leaves as they fell from the trees on a sudden gust of wind and marveled at how each one's letting go followed its own perfect timing.

Nature teaches us so much.

It teaches me about rhythm and flow and how to slow way down. It teaches me the value of carefully  listening to each pregnant moment and to the silence of my own Heart, but mostly it teaches me to trust.  Writing is a lot like that.

I am learning to trust that when I show up to write the process will inform me as I listen, open and get out of  my own way.  I've learned to become quiet so the most intimate and subtle nudgings may be sensed.  

Spiritual teacher OSHO writes in his book on creativity that the creative act is not a "doing" but rather an "allowing".  He states that if you wish to write from a truly authentic place, you must become a hollow bamboo. In other words, you become a passage so the whole can flow through you.  It is action through inaction.  And when you become hollow something wonderful begins to happen.  

You become like a river - flowing, melting, streaming.  No matter what you are doing - writing, walking, driving, scrubbing - you're alive!  A song will start coming through you but you are not the creator of it because it comes from the beyond.  And this is when  magic begins to happen and life takes on wings. This is where the divine and human meet, not unlike a breathless walk in nature.