How Meditation Might Help You Control Your Weight

The Neurobiology of Bliss—Sacred and Profane

Meditation May Prevent Psychiatric Disorders, Study Suggests

Selfless Gratitude

8 Astonishing Benefits of Walking

5 Ways To Enhance Your Emotional Intelligence

Psychology and Spirituality: One Path or Two?

And in this Season, whatever Holiday (Holy Day) you celebrate may it warm your heart and spread happiness to you and your loved ones. May you also have the healthiest and most prosperous New Year!

With the opening of the New Year, all the closed portals of limitations will be thrown open and I shall move through them to vaster fields, where my worthwhile dreams of life will be fulfilled.

— Paramahansa Yogananda

Pamir Kiciman

Grace isn’t a little prayer you chant before receiving a meal. It’s a way to live. —Jackie Windspear

Thanksgiving comes to us out of the prehistoric dimness, universal to all ages and all faiths. At whatever straws we must grasp, there is always a time for gratitude and new beginnings. —J. Robert Moskin

Being thankful is timeless. One can be thankful for the past and for the future. It’s one inner quality that actually negates the truth that the present moment is the only moment available to us. Kind of… Being thankful is such a deep appreciation that it can lift one up and out of the metaphysics of time/space. Yet it must be felt and practiced in the present moment. Thankfulness can’t be allotted to specific experiences and areas of your life. Either you’re all in, or you’re not.

We cannot be grateful unless we are grounded in the present moment, and we cannot be grounded in the present moment unless we are grounded in the body. Much of the time we live like disembodied minds, not even noticing what’s around us, but preoccupied with past and future. But when this mug of tea warms first our hands and then our stomach on a cold day, or the cat purrs contentedly in our lap, we are suddenly present and grateful.

We can learn to cultivate the joy of this awareness, but it may not always be easy. Illness, poverty, old age, or abuse can make it a great challenge for us to accept embodiment. And yet, bringing ourselves back into the body again and again is central to the practice of grateful living. When we do so, we allow healing power to flow through us, and we appreciate our aliveness as the great gift it is. —Gratefulness.org

Sanskrit has this wonderful word and truth: santosha or contentment.

So, what is contentment, and how do we incorporate it as an “observance” in our lives? Contentment is serenity, but not complacency. It is comfort, but not submission; reconciliation, not apathy; acknowledgment, not aloofness. Contentment is a mental decision, a moral choice, a practiced observance, a step into the reality of the cosmos. Contentment/santosha is the natural state of our humanness and our divinity and allows for our creativity and love to emerge. It is knowing our place in the universe at every moment. It is unity with the largest, most abiding, reality. —Swami Shraddhananda

© Pamir Kiciman 2010

We can be grateful in the past, but this can only be felt in the present. We can also be grateful for difficulties in the past. There lies the greatest treasure of gratitude. Not only is there treasure within the difficulties, there’s much to be thankful for that’s occurring simultaneously with those life moments that are troublesome. Similarly, we can be grateful for the future and again this can be only felt in the present.

What is this present? It’s where your body is right now. Your mind may be elsewhere and it may be pulling your body to go there too, but your body has the power to stay where it is, and call your mind home to itself. Your mind may be affecting your body by being somewhere other than here, but your body has the means to settle into itself and be in balance. The body is weighted in the present.

Thankfulness is to be contemplated and understood. It is to be deepened and dwelled upon. It’s a practice, an ongoing positive habit. Once established, it blesses every moment you breathe. Thankfulness isn’t only in hindsight. It’s real power is now, today, the current inhale or exhale that’s happening in your body.

Reframing exercise

Sit. Feel the physical boundaries and weight of the body. Let yourself settle. Let the body settle like an anchor settles on the ocean floor. Follow your body’s breathing, without changing it in any way. As the sense of this deepens, the mind follows suit. Keep calling the mind to settle with the body. Let all of you BE HERE.

Now recall a past difficult experience. Gently turn it over in your awareness until you notice a new angle, one from which you’d never sensed this experience before. Be open to the possibilities of how it actually enhanced and enriched you, despite the trouble it also gave. Note also that you’re on the other side of it today.

Sit in appreciation.

Now direct your awareness to the last month of your life, including the present day in which you’re practicing this. Reframe any difficulty that’s currently in your life.

Journal about your gleanings. You can take all major trouble spots in your life into this process. Once you’re clear and empowered, establish gratitude as the ground that your feet touch when you get out of bed each morning, and the ground on which you lie down each evening.

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While I write, I’m listening to NPR’s stream of the Newport Jazz Festival. This too is a form of receiving through the ears and the soul. As a longtime jazz aficionado, I’ve never been to this historic festival but since I’m open to technology and noticed updates on Twitter about the streaming, my weekend is being enriched.

Receiving is traditionally pooh-poohed. Probably because it’s a developing nation, Hindu spiritual teachers invariably advocate feeding the poor. In Christianity there’s the ethic of charity. Even in social media, the blogosphere and new business models, the mantra is give, give, give! And giving is vital. Giving is a great way to live. It’s necessary, powerful and inspirational. We’d be nowhere without givers.  The question is, can there be true giving without also receiving?

Culturally, morally and spiritually we’re programmed against receiving. There’s a lot of judgment against receiving. It’s deemed unsavory. Receiving has been made “wrong.”

• Help and serve others.
• Share and give.
• Don’t be selfish.
• If I accept something, I’ll be expected to return in kind.
• Accepting something is a sign of weakness.
• Be self-sufficient.
• Don’t be indebted to anyone.

This is all one-sided. The ‘flow’ is absent. Without flow there’s stoppage, blockage, constipation and rigidity. We become dry and humorless. Our edges get sharper and sharper and pretty soon everyone is pointedly staying out of our way!

And it goes against natural law. Flow can’t be one way. Penetrating and yielding, action and stillness, the lingam and the yoni, giving and accepting, speaking and listening, pushing and pulling…the list is endless.

Another layer of this is that we all have broken parts, parts that say, “I don’t deserve,” “This will never happen for me,” “Everyone else has better luck!”

The universe will fill your cup — if you carry a big cup, a little cup, or a thimble! — Sonia Choquette

There’s this too: Imagine you’re a person who has a one-way flow, outward…You like to meditate, enjoy spiritual practices, are into healing, want to be a better human being. Yet after sincere attempts your practices seem to hit a wall, time after time. There’s an opening, a great sigh and then the same humdrum returns. It’s discouraging and confusing.

The divine qualities you so want to engage can’t enter if you’re ability to receive needs work. If that’s the case, take that into your practice, bring the light of awareness to that until there’s a balance. Then see how your inner experiences broaden. Notice the wisdom and power that comes through, the sweetness of unattached love, the mesmerizing light and arcing joy.

Rumi says it really well:

Open the window of your heart

Do not worry if our harp breaks
thousands more will appear.
We have fallen in the arms of love where all is music.
If all the harps in the world were burned down,
still inside the heart
there will be hidden music playing.
Do not worry if all the candles in the world flicker and die
we have the spark that starts the fire.
The songs we sing
are like foam on the surface of the sea of being
while the precious gems lie deep beneath.
But the tenderness in our songs
is a reflection of what is hidden in the depths.
Stop the flow of your words,
open the window of your heart and
let the spirit speak.

Each post for the Reiki Help Blog can take anywhere from 1-5 days to write/research, proofread/edit, and post with an appropriate image and formatting. If you leave this space with any value, knowledge, joy or understanding, please consider making a donation of your choice.

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Climate change is a part of the ecology of our planet, and it’s in this ecology that we live. It’s not so much about a specific aspect of our ecology, but the “placeness” of it. If we’re talking about spiritual practice, well…We practice in this place, this earth, this moment. As for Reiki specifically, there’s this Reiki One-Liner from the first 50 published:

Reiki is an inner and outer ecology.

We live on holy ground. The only version of humanity that doesn’t recognize this is the technological, urban, gadget-obsessed, bot-like iteration. All other versions of humanity, modern and ancient know that this place, this cosmic home is holy ground.

Many times when I get out of my car in a parking lot and walk to some store in the endless sprawl of strip malls, I make a point to wonder what lies under the tarmac. What was here before? What wilderness would I have encountered here even fifty years ago?

I just have to look with new eyes to know. Recently I started a photoblog as an avenue of self-expression. Creativity and spirituality are sisters, but that’s for another post. You can subscribe to the new blog just like this one. It’s a growing ode to nature. Here’s a slideshow of the initial glimpses of my neighborhood. Holiness dotted in between the concrete…

(You may need to click back to the original post to see slideshow if you’re reading this in an email.)

This holiness isn’t limited to what’s natural around you. Wherever you are, it’s holy. Your home, the home of a family member or friend, workplace, place you stay when on vacation. Nature definitely has it’s own, undeniable spirituality, but greater than that is wherever you are.

Place is spiritual because it’s where we breathe. Our life is detailed in its locations. Our being is expressed in all the nooks and crannies made possible by the power of gravity.

You may be thinking, “what about nonlocality?” It’s true, we’re not only local, we’re multidimensional. And it’s all spiritual.

This word, this idea of “spirituality…” Isn’t it all-encompassing and all-embracing? If it isn’t, we need to reconsider. When one part is cutoff or hierarchically put above or below any other part, fragmentation ensues.

Personally, my gratitude starts with thankfulness for being here, today, standing on this ground, breathing on this spot. Without those conditions and premise, I’m unable to experience anything else. Sure, my higher Self can, but for me in my body to go along for the ride, I sit here in meditation, contemplation, visioning, Reiki’ng, loving…

If spirituality is all-inclusive, then the care of this place, its appreciation and longevity is under my wing too. Heaven is handled, angels have it under their wings. Earth? Let’s just say, we’re responsible for what we use.

You and I are living in the dimension of form at this time.

Without the body, the wisdom of the larger self cannot be known. –John Conger

Embrace place and see what it yields. Truly.

There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub. –Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Each post for the Reiki Help Blog can take anywhere from 1-5 days to write/research, proofread/edit, and post with an appropriate image and formatting. If you leave this space with any value, knowledge, joy or understanding, please consider making a donation of your choice.

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Exactly one week ago, Oasis Reiki (yours truly) and several practitioners I’ve trained shared Reiki at Barry University’s Health Fair, in Miami Shores Florida. The fair was put on by the Division of Nursing.

Our booth was very popular with a constant stream of people all day. Demand was so high that at times it felt like having a few more hands would’ve been extremely helpful. There were five of us there and most of the day we had to seamlessly continue with the next person.

The only real break we got was when the whole fair had lunch. Even then we talked about Reiki and I answered some questions that puzzled practitioners.

It was interesting that before lunch things were a little chaotic insofar as organizing recipients, sticking to first come first served, and crowd patience wasn’t always available.

After lunch, the wait became self-organized! People signed in of their own accord and waited in proper order by the table given us.

This was the influence of the divine energy of Reiki, building up through the morning and really filling our corner, spreading out from there with its balance and harmony.

When I got there first thing in the morning, the thought that appeared independently was: Reiki is the way of gentleness. It is a corner of peace in your life.

This proved to be true all day, starting with the first two practitioners to arrive thanking me for Reiki on their traffic-less morning commute. One also reported: “the night before, during and after I was filled with an overwhelming sense of peace, love, happiness, sweetness, and eternal gratefulness.”

One highlight moment for me was when I felt the movement of an expectant mother’s baby. We helped people who were seeking relief from:

• knee pain
• shoulder and neck tension
• high blood pressure
• digestive disorders
• high cholesterol, headaches
• cataracts
• all over pain
• cervical concerns
• getting ready for surgery
• lower back pain–”amazing how it can work right through a chair”
• rapid heartbeat
• sciatic nerve pain
• low energy and so many more

One practitioner shared this:

One of the last receivers sat on the chair looking a little nervous and incredulous about Reiki. He stated he had lower back pain and high intraocular pressure. I left it in God’s hands…when I stood in from of him to focus on his eyes, a cold, practically tactile and almost painful sensation went through my hands. It was so physical that my eyes opened and I saw how his expression changed to a surprised and excited one (his eyes were closed). The sensations decreased in intensity and when they stopped completely I finished the session. When it ended, he was excited to know how Reiki works.

We also saw a high amount of:

• life, work and school stress
• worry
• mental confusion
• family tensions
• grief
• relationship anxiety

One practitioner shared this:

I intuited some sadness, loss, and even scattered energy. Those who were emotionally hurting made me feel more awareness of LOVE flowing through me. I knew they needed healing and wanted it to be powerful for them.

What else can we learn about life, being human and Reiki from this day? Well there’s nothing quite like a good Reiki story. Let me tell you some more, for Reiki’s benefits are far-reaching. One of my practitioners is in nursing school. She’s overworked and her time isn’t her own. Yet:

Later my mom and I spent some time together and she commented how she had been stressed and worried, sad, with a migraine the whole day but suddenly realized she’d changed to a calmed, more positive state with no more headache. She insisted it was my presence. She told me that this state had lasted the rest of the day. Maybe I just felt so blessed with the Reiki experience that I could still transmit healing without conscious intent. I not only felt calmed for the rest of the day but very “awake” too. It’s so easy to “fall asleep” and become connected to this world, that trying to remember to be conscious is very hard and “work” for me. Today, after all that Reiki, I was very awake.

When the fair was over and all other booths had packed and left, we still had a waiting line. Slowly chairs became empty and we starting folding up our stuff too. None of us disagreed that it was an intense day.

I felt great at the end of the day, with a lot of energy and very peaceful. I prayed and gave thanks for this blessing. Since this was my first time giving Reiki intensively, to so many people, I was worried about having enough energy to do this. How little did I know…the more I gave, the more energy I felt!

All in all we gave Reiki to about 125 people, maybe more. Like I said it was intense. Yet so worth it:

Yes, it was rather intense. I did indeed feel peaceful and honored to give Reiki. I felt like time flew! I felt joyful while doing it, and since.

And:

All I want to do, all I ask the universe is the opportunity to help others through love. My dream, my purpose, what I want to do the most, was realized today. I felt this the entire time to the degree that I was almost euphorically happy!

This is the efficient beauty of Reiki. The giver and receiver are both enriched. I wish there was more to report directly from those that sat under our hands. Mostly it was nonverbal, but faces all expressed the mysterious wonder of each brief encounter.

There was the physician who wants to integrate healing with allopathic medicine. There was the woman who waited patiently for me to finish with someone else to find out how we know which areas are troubling the person. There was the young student who simply said, “I really liked it!” but it was her face that I can’t convey here: those words came from a sincerity of soul. There were multiple thanks from the organizers. Then there were moments like this:

One of the ladies I gave Reiki to spoke no English. She was so sweet and spiritual. She communicated with me the whole time using her eyes (this communication occurred with several of the receivers). After the session, she desperately wanted to tell me something. I tried and tried to understand what she meant until I got it…”You prayed for me but I also prayed for you” meaning she knew somehow I was praying for her inside and that she will pray for me too.

What else can be said? It took me a week to distill this experience and I feel so much has been left out. May silence now convey the rest.

“When you help you see life as weak, when you fix, you see life as broken. When you serve, you see life as whole. From the perspective of service, we are all connected: All suffering is like my suffering and all joy is like my joy. The impulse to serve emerges naturally and inevitably from this way of seeing.”

–Rachel Naomi Remen

Related:
Anatomy of a Reiki Training

Update 7/31/08:
This Reiki outreach has been mentioned in The Reiki Digest, a regular roundup of news about Reiki from around the world.

The word “Buddha” comes from the root buddh, which means to wake up. A Buddha is someone who is awake. When Buddhists greet one another, we hold our palms together like a lotus flower, breathe in and out mindfully, bow, and say silently, “A lotus for you, a Buddha to be.” This kind of greeting produces two Buddhas as the same time. We acknowledge the seeds of awakening, Buddhahood, that are within the other person, whatever his or her age or status. And we practice mindful breathing to touch the seed of Buddhahood within ourselves….

Our true home is in the present moment…The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment. Peace is all around us—in the world and in nature–and within us–in our bodies and our spirits. Once we learn to touch this peace, we will be healed and transformed…We need only to bring our body and mind into the present moment, and we will touch what is refreshing, healing, and wondrous.

–Thich Nhat Hanh

Each post for the Reiki Help Blog can take anywhere from 1-5 days to write/research, proofread/edit, and post with an appropriate image and formatting. If you leave this space with any value, knowledge, joy or understanding, please consider making a donation of your choice.

Donate to this blog. Thank you!

Today I’m grateful that:

• The Atlantic Hurricane season has been uneventful in my area. Living in Southern Florida, this is big.
• There aren’t any reports about people taking shelter from fires in Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, as there were at the time of Hurricane Katrina.
• There’s been only one reported death from these fires.
• My home and my son are safe.
• Al Gore has stimulated such widespread awareness of global warming and climate change.
• While the fires in So. Calif. may in part be nature rebalancing itself, we’re also informed and empowered to approach our relationship with nature in an entirely new and sustainable way.
• CNN is airing Planet in Peril, today 10/23 and Wed 10/24 at 9 p.m. ET. Although I’m not a major news outlet consumer, it’s significant that the concerns are being mainstreamed and will reach a huge audience. (There are many resources on CNN’s site so make sure you visit.)
• I have the support of all my readers, clients and students.
• Blogging makes a difference and the Internet has power.