My new Vegan, Celiac, Candida Water Diet

Diet is a powerful way to transform your health. I've been having some health challenges for awhile. Personally, I believe there is always a way through to good health.. even when the docs say something is "incurable." I am trying a new diet suggested by Master Wang, a Shaolin Master healer from San Francisco. Want to hear about it?

The job is stressful, the kids are screaming like banshees, dinner is boiling over on the stove, and the cat peed on the couch again. Life can sometimes be like that... so many things are not going as we'd like, and in the process, we get dragged down into a maelstrom of negative thinking and feeling that sucks the joy out of life. When difficult situations and interactions happen, we can get negative and energetically "heavy" in response to life not behaving itself. Of course, it's not what happens to us, but what we do with it that counts. So how can we do something different that can help us to change the channel?

We have an incredible resource in nature. All the craziness of the mind and heart, the heaviness and confusion are all products of the human condition. We get all wound up, and a healing solution is right outside the door or a short walk, drive or bus ride  away to the nearest park.

The natural world doesn't obsess. It's not in cahoots with an ego. It's not plotting and planning. A tree is not thinking about what's got to be done next. It just IS. Most of us can't help being a bit mental, particularly in today's fast paced world. It's so helpful to step outside of the agitation and remember what's really, real, true... at the essence of it all. Nature can help us remember how to be a human BEING instead of a human DOING.

Being in nature can help us to recalibrate our souls, to gain healing, rest, and rejuvenation. Just by getting out and away, we can achieve a bit of a reset, but there are ways we can get more out of the experience depending the mindset from which we approach the experience. Here are some tried and true techniques that can help you to get the most benefit from the experience:

Be Here Now - When you are out in nature, STOP THINKING ABOUT WHAT'S STIRRING YOU UP! Give it a break for a little while. Instead focus on being fully present with where you are. Really drink in the experience. Take in the beauty, the mystery,
the little surprises and joys. Know that you can pick all those details back up when you head back in if you need to. Right now, this is your time the rejuvenation of your body mind and soul.

Breathe Deeply- Breath not only re-oxygenates your system, breath also re-energizes you with life force energy. The air around you is filled with energy. In nature, there is more life force energy available. The closed environments of homes, workplaces, schools and other institutions
can become dead energy environments that can decrease your vital force. The moving living energy of wind, water, of life aligned with living fills the natural world with negative ions which are known to increase a person's health and well being.

Be Permeable - A lot of thinking, worrying upset and stressing out can make a persona's energetic field very dense. This denseness can make it difficult to shift one's state and come to a place of "lightness" even if that's what is consciously desired. When we get present, breath deeply and just "be" in nature, we can vibrationally entrain ourselves to a more permeable energetic state, which brings greater health and happiness to the whole being. As you are walking or sitting, imagine you are being more permeable... as if the air, the sunshine the very essence of nature can pass right through you. Become one with the natural world. By harmonizing with the natural world, we can harmonize with that which is sane, sacred and wholly whole.

Sylvia Brallier
http://SylviaBrallier.com

Many people wish they could develop some sort of meditation practice, but don't  where to begin. One of the best places to begin is the beginning.  The beginning starts with you, through the agent of self inquiry. This most basic of practices requires no elaborate ritual, fancy props or complicated shenanigans. It does, however, require patience, willingness and a desire to be compassionately present with the unvarnished truth of your inner most self.

Witness consciousness brings our awareness home to ourselves. We can be aware of sensations, we can be aware of thoughts, We can be aware of our inclinations, we can be aware of our emotions. There are so many things going on in our inner ecosystem, there is no need to seek beyond the doors of your own self to find a pathway through to the sacred. Any external door will always lead you back to yourself anyway, so you might as well take the short cut.

So what's the big deal about noticing that stuff? I notice all those things all the time!

There is a big difference between being the thinker of a thought, and a perceiver of the thought that's being thunk. There is a difference between having an emotion and witnessing the emotion being felt. A difference between a short check in with sensations, and really being present with them. It's that one step out, moving from being the doer to the watcher that transforms everyday consciousness to conscious meditation.

An essential part of  witness consciousness, is the ability to be compassionately aware of one's self. It's way to easy to allow that perception to be about judging, fixing or changing one's self. Simply by watching one's actions, motivations, emotional and sensations with a gentle curiosity and kindness, the whole self is embraced. and in that embrace, miracles are possible. When we go in with judgment or fixing on our mind, what we often get instead is the ego rearing it's head to defend one's self, and in that position, nothing can really change. It's the old "punishment to get change scenario, and that often gets no headway at all. On the other hand, a person might sink into some form of self loathing when the judge comes out, which also creates more problems than it solves. 

When we gently embrace ourselves as we are in the moment we're in, then the inner self can bask in the light of love and shift because the light of consciousness is assisting its transformation instead of demanding it, and that's when the magic happens.

I've just returned from our phenomenal Mexico retreat. Every time I go down there, I fall in love with the land and the wonderful Mayan people all over again. This year was no exception. This time, we stayed right in Sian Ka'an federal bio-sphere reserve, so we really got to experience the bounty and beauty of coastal Mexico in a way that many people never get to do.

There is something really special about being in deep relationship to land, and living on that land in a gentle way. This was not some big fancy resort spa with all the decadence within hands reach and I was happy for it. Being closer to nature helps a person to really settle down and receive the gifts that being connected to the essence of life can give. The land here defintiely is traversed by a number of people, but it still retains a sense of wildness that is both deep and powerful. Perhaps part of what I love about that is how it helps me to connect with my own deep and wild self that is not fully domsticated... it is true to its self. Being deep in nature is a perfect locale for returning to one's own truth and to move outside of where we've been so we can easily see wahere to go next with out the disturbance of external influences.

This retreat was a remarkable opportunity for postive change. Not only did we reach some of those heights, but we also had a fantastic time. as you'll see from some of the pictures from this years retreat! Click here to enjoy those pictures in this year's retreat gallery. Enjoy!