Independently Healthy

HOLIDAY NEWS FROM SHANTI, NEW ZEALAND GRADUATE

Theron and Shanti were students of School of Natural Medicine in Boulder, Colorado a few years ago, and worked, saved, studied and self healed toward their vision of emigrating to New Zealand. After a year of travel and work exchange they landed in Golden Bay (I visited there and reported on what a wonderful place this is in a previous post) on South Island a couple of years ago. They report on life there after birthing their first child Isla a year ago and continuing the development of Shanti's naturopathic, herbal, iridology and reflexology practice and products! Read on!

The lovely picture is from a trip to Bali to visit Theron's brother's Balinese bride and their family. 

"Shanti has returned to her health practice of providing reflexology, iridology, herbalism, and the occasional body massage for one day per week.  She heads to the local market on Saturdays and promotes mainly her organic and wildcrafted herbal teas. In between being a mother and all the other things she likes to do; Shanti harvest herbs, dries them, and sorts them for her yummy tea blends. She has also just finished re-doing her website, check it out and pass it on. 

Theron continues to promote his rock work, track (trail) building, and property maintenance services.  After a slow winter, his projects are stacking up and recently he created a very unique rock alcove (see below). In order to enable Shanti to return to work, Theron is Daddy-on-Duty Fridays and most of Saturdays.  He really appreciates the opportunity to rest his body after all his heavy rock schlepping and to spend valuable time with Isla; time we realize most father's are unable to spend with their children.

Theron has also been writing about his experience of being a 'First time father' for our friend's on-line magazine called Happyzine where you can view his most current article and link up to all his past ones ones. Theron intends to next find parenting magazines that will pay him for his articles, so he can have a passive source of family income.  

Their dream is to buy land and develop it is a natural and herbal source of inspiration, service and creativity in their wonderful community.

ANOTHER MAGNIFICENT SNM GRAD IN PERTH, AUSTRALIA

Elspeth Taimre participated in the first School of Natural Medicine in England and graduated during 1984-1989 with Diplomas in Iridology, Herbal Medicine and Naturopathy. (The school was named British School of Iridology and Natural Medicine during those years when I lived in Cambridge.)

She returned to Australia and began living the teachings, raising a family, living raw, vegan and herbal diets, creating gardens and eventually brought me out to teach seminars several times. I have very fond memories of my visits there, swimming in the sea, hiking in the bush, staying with Elspeth and her family, being part of their life over several visits.

It is always wonderful to see Elspeth as her eyes are so bright, her skin so lustrous, her energy so strong and fully of enthusiasm and positive energy. She raised her children in the Waldorf system and gave them almond milk every morning and massaged their feet every evening, amongst all the other wonderful natural ways of bringing up a family.

She teaches naturopathy, has a diet educational company called Indigo Bean, works with Young Living Essential oils, reflexology, iridology, herbal products and is a very creative community person who enjoys travel and camping. I last saw her in Tao Garden in Chiang Mai when we both took the Chi Nei Tsang abdominal massage training.

Love you Elsepth and congratulations on becoming a magnificent teacher and practitioner - an inspiration to all. Check out Elspeth's website for her beautiful work with her Heartstar Herbs.

SNM STUDENT SHARES YAM KRANG FOOR FIRE THERAPY!!! WOW!

School of Natural Medicine student Patrick Cusick shares his training and skills with amazing pictures of Yam Krang foot fire therapy as he is the first Westerner to be certified as a master of this Thai fire therapy.

"Dear Farida. Just read some of the extracts from your new book and like it (chapter on fire transformation).

I have grown to love the use of fire for natural healing. I am the first Westerner to be certified a master of the Thai fire therapy known as Yam Krang. The treatment involves the practitioner immersing his foot into the juice of a wonderful medicinal herbal root called Prai that is grown only in Thailand. The foot is then then placed onto a hot iron plough that has turned the soil for more than a hundred years. This alchemy technique involves capturing the healing energy of fire and then transforming it with with infusion of hot sesame oil and the Prai herbal extract that is massaged onto the patent's body by foot over the main meridian lines.  

Check out Patrick's healing center in the mountains above Chiang Mai, Mon Doi Wellness. I visited in the early construction stages and it is a beautiful location with a spa and nature accessibility in the Hmong tribal area.

The Thais use "fire spirit" chants to prevent the foot from burning or blistering. I found that by engaging fire - and not fearing it - the heat of flame can be harnessed and then transformed without any burning or discomfort. I get as much benefit from the treatment as does my patients who are always astonished by this powerful treatment involving the fire element, Prai herb and sesame oil.

Happy Christmas and much love,   Patrick"

EARTH CLIMATE - OUR FUTURE - DISASTER OR OPPORTUNITY?

EARTH HISTORY - THE NEXT TIPPING POINT by Patrick Cusick

School of Natural Medicine student, passionate self-healer and chi gung practitioner, Patrick Cusick, attended the Copenhagen Earth Climate Conference and sends his earth history overview and comments on our place now in the continuum of time and the question - Are we facing disaster or opportunity? Are human beings a plague or a potential race of noble intelligent conscious beings that can live in harmony with their environment? Learn more about Patrick’s work in his Daily Planet Media eZine as well as his vision of planting a tree for every person on the planet.

"In the macro universe cosmic order follows chaos or universal disorder. Here on Planet Earth the energies of chaotic disharmony are balanced when patterns of energy come together and form synergetic relationships based on proximity and attraction. This union of orbs in space was explained by Pythagoras, the great mathematician and master of sacred geometry, as the co-connective nature of the spheres.

These patterns of co-connectivity change over time. Temperatures on Earth may rise 10 degrees during a hot period or drop 30 degrees during an ice age. Or there could be an extinction of all life forms, as would have happened if the comet that smashed into Jupiter in July 1994 had hit Earth instead.

Apparently, destruction is the opposite duality of creation in a time-space continuum. The impact of meteors on the planets that opened up molten rock from under the planetary crusts also resulted in life supporting atmospheres on Earth (and previously Mars) that could support complex life forms like human Beings.

Too many impacts, however, such as occurred on the planet Venus, released vast amounts of iron from the inner core that destroyed the planet’s magnetism and poisoned the Venetian atmosphere.

Periodically a major catastrophe occurs on Earth that is caused by both pole shift and slight changes in the Earth’s tilt towards the sun.

Planet Earth’s seven continents were formed when large portions of land broke away from the original continental matrix, caused by movements of the Earth’s underlying tectonic plates. What triggers the movement results from the triad co-connectivity of the Sun, Earth and Moon.

The changed position of the Earth’s poles and equator in epochs past is common knowledge as can be seen in the ancient writing from the East, and amongst those who specialize in this history. There is also evidence that at some point in the Earth’s more recent history the planet acquired an extra five days in its solar calendar year, Earth having previously taken just 360 days to compete its annual cycle.

A slight alteration to the Earth’s orbit, changing its proximity to the sun, would account for the difference in the length of the year. Had the Earth been jolted out of its former position - which seems likely to have happened - then this would have been a direct affect of the moon’s influence.

In Egyptian mythology relating to the birth of five great Gods there is an account of a drama played out between Earth, Moon and Sun. The drama portrays the change of the Earth’s orbit involving the moon, which precipitated a change in the Earth’s axis and being responsible for the five extra days now included in all calendars.

Earth has experienced many climate changes over its 6 billion year history. While sudden swings in climate destroy some life forms the cyclical recurrence of ice ages cleanses the planet and brings about new beginnings. The accelerating movement towards an Ice Age is a phenomenon called albedo. It occurs when more of the planet is covered with ice and snow. During an ice age cycle temperatures on the planet fall faster because white surfaces reflect rather than capture Sun's rays.

The second largest extinction in Earth’s history resulted in the destruction of two thirds of all species. This was not caused from meteor or comet impacts. Instead it came from the intense heat of ultraviolet radiation from a star when stellar gamma rays - the hottest light in the universe - destroyed the Earth’s ozone layer. Many cosmologists, who draw on historical documents, assert that a supernova exploded 10,000 light years away from Earth - destroying the chemistry of the atmosphere and allowing the sun’s ultraviolet rays to burn up fragile, unprotected life forms. The intense heat from the supernova not only penetrated Earth but also totally destroyed the atmosphere on Mars as the Martian atmosphere had a much a thinner ozone layer than Earth. According to University of Kansas astronomer Adrain Melott there is strong circumstantial evidence that just before Earth’s big ice freeze occurred there were life-destroying burst of gamma rays.

Ancient Egyptians kept yearly weather records, as did the Greeks and Romans. All these records show that since 3000 BC the Earth’s weather has been overall getting gradually colder.

But in more recent time average temperatures on the planet’s surface have been rising. That’s partly to do with the fact that Earth has lost much of its forest lungs due to the excess consumption and greed of the human species. Earth and humans no longer co-exist in natural harmony, which is of major concern because we know that within a distance of 100, 000 light years Earth is the only planet with an atmosphere that can sustain complex life forms like human beings. Earth is the only known planet with a surface temperature that finely balanced mostly above freezing and below water’s boiling point.

While water and life is in abundance on Earth there are troubling signs that the planet’s protective atmosphere is in a chronic spiral of decline. And credible environmental authorities estimate that over one million plants and animals - or a quarter of the life on land - will become extinct within the next 50 years due to climatic changes brought about by the toxic deterioration of he atmosphere caused by the greenhouse emissions churned out by carbon combustion engines and the fossil fuel burnt carbon from industry, factory and power plant emissions which trap heat in the atmosphere.

Arctic sea ice is fast declining in both the winter and summer seasons, and the greatest concern is that the meltdown of ice will add further to the global warming as more sunlight is absorbed by a dark ocean and won’t be reflected by white ice. The Greenland ice sheet is near to the tipping point and, for the first time in recorded history, Barents Sea is ice-free.

We appear to be on the brink of having Republican science and Democrat science.
ROGER PIELKE, University of Colorado

The established view of climate science is that greenhouse gases spawned by industrialization, emissions coming from the burning of fossil fuels, have warmed the Earth because these emissions gases trap heat in the atmosphere. While the greenhouse effect is undisputable it’s also known that Earth's climate does vary over time, mainly due to variations of the angle that the Earth faces its and the slight variations in distance the Earth rotates around the Sun.

Global climate is macro co-connected to the sun’s movements around its galaxy and its interactions with the Earth. Climate is micro-managed by the emissions created on Earth. Comprehensive studies carried out since 2000 during the past decade to ascertain the changing state of the planet’s environmental condition all reached the same conclusion - that human-made hydrocarbon emissions are provoking unprecedented extinction of plants, animals, insects and birds.

It’s been estimated that the current extinction rate caused by the human race is 1,000 faster than in the past. Over the last 500 years some 844 animals and plants have disappeared. There is little doubt that the rising human population of 6.9 billion is seriously threatening sensitive environmental structures.

The UN report on Global Biodiversity in March 2006 concluded that humans were creating an alien-type devastation of the planet’s eco-system. This report identified the major impact from the yearly felling of one million hectares of primary forests and the catastrophic loss of mangrove swaps – down by one third since the 1980’s.

Current environmental devastation is most severe in the ocean waters where the acid levels of the seas are directly linked to the 23 billion tones of carbon dioxide emitted annually by human activities such as power plants, automobiles and jet aircraft. About half of the carbon emissions from human machinery are soaked up by the oceans.

In 1996 scientists first noticed that the ocean pH - the basic measurement of acidity - showed for the first time that the oceans were becoming much more acidic. The pH of the oceans has fallen by 0.1 units and could fall by 0.5 units by 2100. A change of just 0.1 units represents a huge shift in ocean chemistry. Furthermore, it represents a 30% decrease in the amount of dissolved carbonate which marine creatures must extract from the water to build their shells. As a consequence the hard coral cover in the Caribbean has dropped from 50 per cent to 10 per cent in the last three decades.

Earth has had hot cycles before, but never has its atmosphere been so polluted by hydrocarbon emissions. Nor have the oceans ever turned so acidic.

A small minority of people continues to deny that the increasing levels of human-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are having a warming effect. There is no doubt, however, that human-made toxic gas pollutants like methane and long living carbon dioxide concentrations are destroying the planet’s habitat for many life forms by denigrating Earth’s natural climate harmony.

Satellite images show that the ice at the poles and glaciers worldwide has thinned substantially over the past 30 years threatening the destruction of low lying islands.

Earth’s climate is becoming more extreme directly as a direct result of human emissions caused by the excessive burning of fossil fuels into the atmosphere. And, consequently, the planet’s environment is racing towards the tipping point of severe climate change.

I believe that that there is a collective presence of life on Earth that function as a self-regulating system and impartially checks processes, which threaten to destroy its balance. Life as a whole acts together to maintain a livable environment. For three and a half billion years this collective force has kept Earth’s average temperatures mostly friendly for the existing species on the planet to live and evolve. This could only be done by the abiological constraints set by the sun’s output otherwise the heat balance of the Earth’s atmosphere and surface would eliminate all life.

The concept of planet consciousness, known as Gaia, has been researched and documented and, more recently, has been embraced by scientific theory based on past and present observation. Modern science is finding out that human-made climate change may have put the entire natural life support system out of balance and the concern by scientists, naturalists and “enlightened” beings on Earth is that the planet may have already passed the “carrying capacity” and that the increasingly damaging effects of climate change are simply the system’s initial efforts to push back.

Various computer models of changes in the atmosphere have concluded that the planet is poised for a very rapid temperature increase up to four times larger than previous predictions. Should this happen it will open the door to an environment that is unfriendly to mammal species, including human beings.

The universal nature that’s alive with Earth has no favorite species and the overriding truth is that either humanity takes care of the planet or Earth will take measures to take care of its self.

Peace on Earth and much love to all, Patrick Cusick

 

SHARING ANOTHER EXCERPT FROM MY LATEST BOOK

My latest book "The Old Man & His Soul" is near completion. An artist in the UK, one famous for a sculpture unveiled by the Queen in Stratford & Avon, the home of Shakespeare, is gifting the project with a cover drawing. Copy editing begins today. Formatting by the end of the month. Thrilling completion in the midst of recreating the school and healing temple here in Boulder. Enjoy!

Copyright: Farida Sharan 2009  - The Old Man & His Soul

TRANSFORMATION BY FIRE

And then one morning as the Master was passing he looked at the old man and spoke to one of his aides, and so it was that he received his instructions to report to the service of the fires that flamed beneath great copper vessels of dal and vegetables, hot metal plates that toasted the chapattis clapped into shape by the hands of radiant, singing women, and pots of boiling oil for the making of sweet sugar julabis.

Unlike water, the old man took to fire with an immediate passion, as he had always harbored a desire to build fires, tend fires and dream with fires. Unlike the changeable moods of water, fire was constant. While water adapted to influences, fire drew everything into it, transforming raw materials and releasing heat and energy. He loved the warmth, the colors, the sounds and the vigilant attention required to protect fire from going out or going out of bounds. He tamed fire. He formed it to his will and his increasing focus was a reflection of his spiritual practice. Fire was pure joy for the old man as it made him feel like a child, not the child he was but the child he always wanted to be, not the child of constraint but the wild child of freedom, the child of living life in the open in the company of the elements, the child of his dreams.

And so it was that he entered the soaring song of the kitchens and the ever-rising flames that require consummate attention. The fires must be of an even heat, but not too hot. The fuel must be added at the right time after the appropriate selection of wood, rice husks or thick dry grasses depending on whether it was dal, chai, vegetables or chapattis. The awakening of fire, its taming to perfection for the required task, its damping down and preserving of coals was mastered by subtle observation, constant adjustment and fine attunement to both the fuel and the flame.

Fire became the old man’s service of devotion. Inwardly and outwardly fire leapt upward, transforming fuel, resting at times but never going out, always in service under the ever-filling pots of dal and vegetables and the never-ending chapattis placed upon the hot griddle of the clay oven. When the chapattis were toasted, turned and toasted again they were lifted off the griddle and thrown them in baskets. Merry young girls carried the baskets on their heads, chatting and laughing, proud of their service, to a room where they emptied the chapattis onto a large white sheet.  There young men with glowing eyes brushed the chapattis with melted ghee so they would not stick together when they placed them by the thousands into spiral mounds to await the blessing of the Master.

As supplies funneled toward the flame to be transformed into food and drink for residents and pilgrims, a steady stream of trucks arrived full of bags of grains, ghee, oils, vegetables, flour, sugar and tea. The supplies were carried to sheds and piled in stacks ready to be carried to the kitchens where sevadars cut and chopped and patted and stirred, preparing the foods for the fires. The cycle of continued through day and night, an endless stream of service, of giving and receiving.

Tractors driven by young men laughing with joy as they revved the rough engines to a roar as they drove into the lanes between the ovens and fires to deposit wood and dry grasses from construction sites and lands being cleared for orchards and gardens. At other times they deposited mounds of rice husks from a nearby mill that provided the dense even heat for the vast copper pots of dal.

Fire was essential to the alchemy of transformation of the grains, pulses and vegetables that delighted the eyes and warmed the bellies of countless pilgrims. The free kitchen, the langar, was a miracle of love from a fountain of divine grace. All who participated in the river of loving nourishment were blessed by a love beyond all understanding, the love of participating in selfless giving and receiving.

The sounds of fire, the crackling as it gained strength, the roar of its strength and the smooth heart of the flame as it steadied delighted the old man. Even though his focus was on the fire he tended, the old man also absorbed the loving joyful activity around him. Chapattis emerged from the clapping patting hands of singing women. Jokes, chatter and laughter accompanied the cutting of vegetables. Men of all ages and castes sang the songs of the saints as they stirred dal, chai and pots of boiling oil. The roar of hearty flames enlivened by the snapping of twigs and grasses that fed the fire and the rush of air that lifted sparks into the sky were the living essence of the old man’s service of love. His passion mingled with the fire that he tamed to perfection so that as one serving was completed another took its place with ease. When the Master appeared the songs soared like flames into the heart of heaven as He blessed the food and offered His glance of love to the hearts and eyes of all who served in the kitchens of the Holy City.

The old man tended his fire so that chapattis toasted to perfection, dal became the golden liquid of love and chai the elixir of blessing. The songs of the women and the deeper men’s voices rose with the flames from faces radiant with joy, eyes shining, hearts radiating gratitude. The songs and the food and the Master’s blessings wove into a dream of love and the promise of a new world. Transformed by the joy of ecstatic service grains, ghee, vegetables, and sugar were forged by living fire to enter the bellies of those who lived in the Holy City and all who came there seeking nourishment.

When the great satsangs were held and multitudes arrived the old man lived by the fire through the day and the night, roasting chapattis through the hours of darkness, heating dal and chai for breakfast, adding vegetable subji for the evening meal and then repeating the cycle. On Sundays he boiled vats of oil for julabis, delighting in the smiles, cries and laughter of the women as they dropped the dough into the oil and watched fantastic shapes emerge before they removed them with ladles. When he made julabis it seemed as though the flames carried a mist of sugar that crusted his beard and added a dust of sweetness to the knowing that the julabis would be placed before the Master for his darshan blessing.

When the three a.m. siren rang he wrapped himself in his shawl and retreated into meditation and his renewal at the soul source of his practice. The inner and outer flames offered all that was needed for his sustenance. He often wrapped himself in his shawl and slept by the hearth, leaving his fire only for the call of nature and essential self-care. The Master came near him daily when he blessed the food, and the workers knew that they must bring him meals or he would forget to eat in his passion for the fire.

When he repeated the mantra during his spiritual practice he offered the words as fuel for transformation and his love soared into his inner sky. This love merged into his outer world and became one with the songs, joy and laughter of his spiritual companions. During the long days and nights tending his fire, images from his life flared into his mind and he remembered women cooking over their village fires, farmers burning crops in the fields, travelers circled around their fires as they sought warmth and protection. The fires of his life had been lit and tended by others, restricted, grated and shielded from sparks. He had felt warmth from those fires but they had never been fierce or powerful as the fires of the langar and he had never been the fire keeper.

The heart of fire entered through the old man’s skin into his bones and his laughter knew no bounds. His longing surged like a roaring fire burning a path into his inner world.  And then one day he understood that it had been the power of fire hibernating in his long abandoned roots of longing and the tangled waters of his family traditions that had finally leapt free, giving him the clarity and will to leave his home and find his way to the Holy City.

The old man knew he was being prepared to leave his body and this world but fear did not contract him. Like fire he longed to merge into all and everything. He imagined his body falling like a husk to be fed to the fire and his soul rising like the brilliant flickering edges of flame before vanishing into invisible spiritual realms.

MALAYSIAN SNM STUDENT PRACTICES IN THE UK

Kassem Karim appeared at my School of Natural Medicine clinic in the 1980's in Cambridge, England and requested to sit in on my consultations and learn from me. I was able to include him during one week and was surprised and delighted when he invited me to teach in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His center, Natural Harmony, sponsored the visit and we had a mixed enrollment of 55 Malaysian, Chinese, European, Indian and Thai students. It was an amazing teaching experience, multi-cultural, muti-racial, multi-religious and everyone brought together in harmony because of their interest Iridology & Natural Medicine. I went several other times, often sponsored by Mr. Wong who also became a leader and teacher of natural medicine, iridology and fasting in Malaysia.

Kassem just appeared in my life again today and here is his news and enjoy the pics from the past. I always love it when students send their news and how their lives have grown and changed as they developed their profession in natural medicine. He attended all the trainings in Malaysia and integrated his studies with a passion for Chinese Medicine and Unani

"Dear Farida. Hope you are well. You look well indeed. I was moved to contact you after seeing pictures in your www.purehealth.com website. The pictures really took me back to your visits to Kuala Lumpur in the 90’s. I use what I learned from you every day and am continually grateful for your sharing of knowledge.

I live in Inverness, Scotland now where I practice classical Chinese medicine (acupuncture and herbs) with a few specialties (fertility, facial rejuvenation and treatment of eye problems), and I am one of the only people using Unani (Greco-Arab medicine). I make my own electuries and oxymels whenever I can.  

The clinic is very busy despite the down turn in the economy with three rooms on the go all day. I work in Inverness, Findhorn and London with regular visits to Capetown, South Africa. Take a look at our website wellbeingnaturalmedicine.com. I am married and have two children. Kassem Karim

SNMI STUDENT IN COPENHAGEN CLIMATE COUNCIL

Patrick entered the School of Natural Medicine Self Healing stream in Bangkok, Thailand where he was publishing a magazine called Spa Asia and building a healing retreat called Mon Doi in the hills above Chiang Mai in Hmong nature. He received depth healing that helped him in his busy life as journalist, writer, TV presenter, and world management representative for Muay Thai boxing.

This photo shows Patrick deep in the Elemental Air Chakra dance in Summer School, very fine when a person practices Chi Gung and then transforms those potent and graceful movements into internal dance - just like a class in Kuala Lumpur once where I closed my eyes imagining over 50 men in white shirts and black plants would find the dances crazy only to open my eyes to the most beautiful movements and then the most amazing testimonials of their inner experiences. Live is full of surprises.

He attended SNM Naturopathy Herbal Iridology Summer School 2004 in Boulder and helped film the classes and support the creation of the Home Study Videos. When he returned to Thailand his life opened in new creative directions and he now represents Global Ecology with his e newpaper, Daily Planet Media, and he also plants trees around the world with his Earth Charter Foundation. One tree planted for every person on the planet is his goal and his work in China and Australia and other countries to find waste land, organize donations for reclaiming the land and planting trees shows the practical results of depth self healing.

Patrick is a student of health and healing, a depth practitioner of Chi Gung who lately has made visits to China to Taoist masters and other teachers. This trip to Copenhagen to meet and exchange with ecological activists and political figures is part of Patrick's world of co-connectivity and creativity. A Gemini you will find him often in the skies, traveling the world, leaving this world a better place. He once had a TV series in Australia a wore that black hat before Crocodile Dundee in a humorous series that still plays reruns. I look forward to posting his report later.

MEME WIZARDRY PLAY IN SELF HEALING ADVENTURE

Meme Wizardly is that lovely place in evolutionary change (Spiral Dynamics) where nothing works, you are on the cliff and you have to leap into a new paradigm cause there is no where else to go except where your instincts, trust, love, wisdom, experience, faith and will will take you. There is a lovely space where fire swells up - it almost feels like anger but it isn't, it sort of has a form of irritation, fed upness that is totally positive, but if you focus on the swelling of energy required for change, transformation, creativity instead of interpreting it as any of the old paradigm it gives you the fuel for the leap in a playful magic way and it seems to happen spontaneously once you open the pathway.

I got a cough in the damp seasonal change in England and as my schedule was so full it kind of got hold of me and after the flight I moved in during the snowstorm and got chilled and before I knew it this cough had taken over my lungs. I was being taken care of beautifully in a lovely friend's home, I let go of moving in and settling, rested but it was majorly uncomfortable and when you are not used to being sick you just want to move it through.

So Saturday I moved in my new space and lay in the sun for hours on my Bemer, using the pain applicator for my lungs, and resting and drifting down deep into the ground of being thankful for the opportunity to dive into the present presence. Anyone interesting in renting to try or purchasing a Bemer I can't recommend them highly enough and you can get one through me. I have used it for post surgery with friends, recovery after traffic accidents, pain of all kinds and general microcirculation well being and relaxation - several settings. Explore it on the web.

Lo and behold what came out was a gorilla. Before I knew it I was standing up beating my chest, slapping it hard, using my fingers and thumbs and making wild sounds, not just a few minutes, friends, but for over half an hour till my hands couldn't take it anymore. I was laughing and whooping like a gorilla and it felt wonderful. And then the shift was immediate. Relief. A night without coughing for the first time in days as everything loosened up. I also said hello to my thymus and gave it strong instructions to shape up. It obeyed. Fun in self healing adventures add up to evolutionary learning and growing and empowerment for becoming independently healthy

Lungs recovered. I discovered a new healing modality. Gorilla wizardry for all lung, bronchial, flu symptoms and then re=membered the Taoist way of beating the body with bamboo and steel. Must be something in loving your self with gorilla pounding as they seem to love it too.

CADUCEOUS MESSENGER OF THE GODS JOURNEYS

Having five planets in Geminii and been gifted with Mercury winged heels and an airy nature that thrives on change, transformation and travel, my healing teaching journeys have taken me around the world again and again. Mercury carries the caduceus, the staff of Hermes, and of course loves risk and flies close to the sun.

However as much as I travel for me though the anchor, the true home is within, and being at home wherever you are is a great blessing and grace. The only problem - suitcases - it is those that pull me back to closet, bed, bath and my own kitchen - joy to pack them away and then pull them out again.

Now back in Boulder settled in a new live/work loft and enjoying the space, privacy, quiet and solitude whilst connecting world wide I trust I am in for a hibernator incubator time to finish my book, enjoy enrollments and creating my new healing temple.

The next trip is India in March, via UK so I can steam and soak in the Porchester Turkish Baths in London and stay at my Mayfair club to recover mid journey, and then on to Delhi where I will meet with my publishers and see my new book born, The Old Man & His Soul. The train then takes me north to on my spiritual colony in the foothills of the Himalayas for three weeks.

Teaching invitations from Malaysia and family in Thailand beckon and we will see how long it feels right to be away. So many journeys and those of us with winged feed can fly off at a moment's notice. We find it easy to let go, enjoy the adventure and love best the coming home.

The only place I haven't been to on this sign post picture sent to me along with Ruscha's drawing of me is Moscow! Sometimes it is like that - where am I?

Sharing these lovely images, a drawing and this card, I received as a delightful surprise from my dearest Devon friend, Ruscha, a past attendee of several Puerto Rico living foot mystic yoga retreats reTREATS!!

SNM GRAD SHARES HER SELF HEALING TRANSFORMATION

Portia came to the School of Natural Medicine Summer School in 1991 in a wheelchair and left dancing. A gifted healer and teacher in her own right she was hit by lightning, pronounced dead, then came back to life and discovered over time the weakness developed into Lupus that wouldn't respond. Portia was a person of knowledge and experience but life had given her something that wouldn't heal so we had a firypotent mentoring that resulted in deep friendship, powerful self healing and a success story that continues year by year. Portia is doing some great work with ethnobotany projects so I will report on that with another blog very soon. Portia writes:

"We are all Teachers, we are all Seekers, we are all Healers, we are all on a journey of Healing. Our task is to know when we are called to each element of our Being, to honor that calling and take action. Every part of us is imperfect and perfect at the same time. And so our Journey is ever unfolding.

As with all Initiatory places along my journey, the Universe draws me to just the right place at just the right time. Such was the case when I made a simple inquiry about the School of Natural Healing one day about 14 years ago. I'd been a traditional herbalist, psychotherapist, writer and business owner (Global Academy of Natural Healing) for years. These are just some of the roles I chose as expressions on my spirit. My journey had taught me that "when the student is ready the teacher will appear". Ethnobotany (the study of how cultures use natural plant and food medicines) was a strong element in my life. Learning from Traditional Healers of many native paths had added to my life and to the lives of those I helped along the way. My own healing journey was at a cross roads.

After being struck by lightning,(and being clinically 'dead'), I thought my recovery would be as easy as most other injuries I had experienced. The white hot electrical fire of lightning seared through my nerves, leaving scars, pain and eventually a change in my immune system that resulted in a diagnosis of System Lupus. Years of pain wore down my resolve to allow nutrition and natural forms of therapy to guide my medical experience. Pharmaceutical interventions became my main focus, and multiple hospital stays each year from being critically ill became "the norm". I was given a maximum of 10 years to live in 1991.

By the time I found my way to Farida Sharan and the School of Natural Healing, I'd given up. On choosing to take a leap and go to the School of Natural Healing in Boulder, Colorado, I was choosing to face that I had gone as far as I could go on my own. I closed my full time healing practice, my years of research in ethnobotany sat idle in my home office, I was over 200 pounds, exhausted from years of being on high doses of Prednisone to combat the Systemic Lupus, plagued with daily migraines, using a cane (when I wasn't in my wheel chair)... basically I felt done with life. I felt empty, unable to offer anymore to those around me, unwilling to participate in life as I knew it. Little did I know how my life was about to change - and oh, so much for the better! But change did not come easy. Resistance to healing did. Thankfully the teacher, Farida, showed up with a deep well spring of love and patience and the strength of a drill Sargent. I was to do what every one else was doing, albeit a bit modified, learn and master the knowledge and skills in order to earn my diplomas, and put this into practice within my own life... no excuses. Well, I had come prepared with plenty of excuses! So, this Teacher (me) struggled to stay in the Student Seat, and at every turn I managed to whine with yet another excuse. Farida did not cave in her resolve to press forward with wisdom, high expectations and love."

The last time I saw Portia was about 8 years ago when I was driving through Flagstaff. I arrived to find she had booked me into a fine hotel and as it was mother's day, treated me to a fantastic breakfast and gifts, and showed me over her school, herbal clinic and practice location. It was beautiful to see what she had created and how well she was. What a transformation. Proof that even teachers need to be students again - hey this teacher, me, is always a student and I love that!!!

Although Portia has creative interests shown on her website www.ThePeakLife.com, she also work as a family therapist, consultant in natural medicine, and id very active in ethnobotany (a life long journey). She is working with other naturopaths to bring volunteers together to serve under-served Native American locations on Reservations, disaster locations, crime victims and women/children who have been victimized as sex trade slaves worldwide.

Portia says: "The body of knowledge and wisdom I earned prior to SNM was greatly added to by your expert and compassionate teaching. You have forever added to my life, and therefore to all the lives that I touch, and all the lives that they touch."

RAINBOW SURPRISES IN THE SKY & IN THE HEART

Yesterday the misty rain ocean clouds opened to a blue sky with a brilliant clear rainbow directly over where I was working on a project, thrilling, completely beautiful, like a portal into a new world, and then it doubled, like a mirror, intensifying its presence in the sky.

When I returned to the school an email awaited me, a rainbow portrait from a loving child, a gift for a day of rainbow surprises just as completion and new beginnings come together as one.

The drawing is a child's portrait of me, an offering from a loving heart wishing me a safe journey back to Boulder and the dream of my heart to come true. Lovely to know a child sees me this way. I close my eyes and imagine the beauty of being transparent radiant light!

Rainbows have always blessed and surprised me and my time with the Rainbow Tribe in the early 70's in California set me well on my way to self healing and naturopathy after a 40 day fast and several months on wheatgrass and raw food in the desert.

The most mystical rainbow was the night rainbow gifted after a 10 day Frankincense deep sea water cleanse I co-created with Dr. Frankincense, Randyl Rupar of Mana Kea Sanctuary near Kealakakua Bay, at a lovely home in Kohala on Big Island in Hawaii several years ago. The night before departure with everyone gone but my dear friend Merrin the full moon shone through mist and created a night rainbow that hovered before us. In awe we watched the miracle of rainbow light and then bravely danced into the color, the light and the mist. Truly these magic moments reveal a beauty in times of transition that let you know you are doing your work, are on the right path, you have persevered to completion and you are ready for the next cycle of transformation and service.

WE DREAM OF A PARADISE ON EARTH - A HEALING RETREAT

Over the years many students of health, healing and their own life and body dream of a temple in nature, a community, a place where harmony restores us, brings us back to happiness and peace. It is not paradise it is on this earth and it is born of effort, work, dedication,  service, vision, power, discipline - it is the work of love - it is a true healing center. We dream of lotuses, and temples, and healing waters, and kindness and service. We know it is possible and we seek for the path in a world that values indulgence, materialism, power and desire, but those that seek, they will find. Our beloved School of Natural Medicine is a step toward this dream.

Enjoy this picture of a temple in Bali, a place of lotuses and beauty that reminded me of my dreams. I arrive Monday in Boulder, Colorado to create my next temple of healing, truth, beauty and loving service. All are welcome

With self healing the first task is your own life and body. Until you have transformed your life into health giving and health loving how can you create a healthy family, work place or community?

Here are a few words of a beautiful new student dreaming of her vision, her future and what she wishes to create and offer the world. I say YES! go for it and enjoy the process and do the work of transformation and self healing and create an oasis and a temple of healing and nourishment for others.

"This is my goal that I have been blessed to vividly visualize and believe this is going to be a reality, a goal I needed to help me through my studies!!!  I just have to tell you the visions I've been getting and that I have shared with my husband and this is what is giving him more confidence in what I am trying to accomplish!

We want to purchase a beautiful peace of land, I don't know where YET, but it exists somewhere I just have to find it.  Through my experience thus far, I have realized that its been a personal upward hill struggle to organize and adapt to this new way of thinking, living, and understanding....SoooOOoo...this place will be a retreat like place that someone who is searching for what you teach and that I have learned, will be engulfed in the lifestyle, with every aspect being taught to them, hand held through the process so that they can feel more confident in their journey of newly discovered health.  I am realizing that I needed or need this and am learning so much through the discovery part, but for those that just need the more hand held help approach it will all be there. 

 The property will be like a living community, a place my family can also be with me and see with their own eyes the beauty of healthy living.  It will have a teaching facility, meditation area surrounded with nature and beauty, chronic healing center, dispensary and garden, lodging for those who take classes, natural products being produced for the items that will help in the additional therapy recommendations, a home for where my family will stay, and the best part a special cottage or living quarters for you when ever you are able to teach or want to stay to be close to this retreat, no one else will be allowed in this place it will just be there for you whenever you want!!!  Doesn't this sound so beautiful.  It is so vivid in my visions that I cannot deny that this is attainable. 

I have a clear vision of what I can accomplish and that is helping me study more and more.  What do you think?  For now I am starting to log and putting daily, weekly accomplishments or just a journal entry into my discovery of this journey so that someone can see my story and know that anyone can walk this path, and it gives validity to my story For a person like me just opening the door to this new world...it is a dream come true.

I believe in my heart this will be the greatest gratitude to you that I can blossom your teachings into this reality.

SEEDS OF GRATITUDE FLOWER IN SOUL GARDENS

I believe our relationships are flowers in our soul garden. This lovely image from Go Gratitude shares the same idea.

When new students enter the field of the School of Natural Medicine they are like buds longing to flower into all they can be and it is a joy to nourish and be part of that unfolding. In this way the field of creation blooms and each one of us is an offering.

When learning is growing we become more of who we are. When studying is the joy of unfolding we radiate love and gratitude. All the good things grow more of the good things.

FEBRUARY CLASSES AT SNMI IN BOULDER, COLORADO

Self Healing Adventures & Naturopathy Teachings

with Farida Sharan ND at the

Boulder Center for the Healing Arts
Healing Diets – February 13 – 16
Essential Oils Therapist – February 19 – 23
Master Touch Reflexologist – February 26 – March 3

COLORADO BOARD OF EDUCATION APPROVED

PRIVATE OCCUPATIONAL SCHOOL

email for information

OUR NEW HERBAL STUDENT FROM SANTA FE NEW MEXICO

Megan was searching for a new home when she enrolled in the School of Natural Medicine Master Herbalist diploma program, and after some traveling she has settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Here Megan shares about her life and her reason for beginning her training. There is a happiness when we discover our purpose especially when we know we can be of service and help others.

"Joining the school is definitely a turning point in my life, and I have never been more excited! Things keep opening up, the magic is crystal clear, and now I can put my energy into something fully, knowing that it is helping myself and others live a happy, healthy life! I am so, so glad that I found this program. The school seems very unique and I can't wait to get started!!! The stories are so inspiring and together we can support each other in our endeavors. 

I was born in Sitka, Alaska, the youngest of six children.  I absolutely love having a big family, and even though we're all in different places now, we still get together as often as we can. When I was four years old we moved to a small, beautiful valley in eastern Oregon, where I lived until graduating high school then went on to college at a university in Oregon. I spent a lot of my time drinking and feeling very alone, getting more and more depressed. On Christmas Eve we found out that my brother Sean had died, and I was more confused than ever about life. I felt completely lost, and I didn't know if there was a God. I felt frustrated that I was alive, feeling absolutely miserable, with no explanation as to why I was there. Since I was alive I felt I had the right to know the purpose of my existence. I wanted answers! I completed that year, and went part of the next year. 

A friend opened my mind to a much better life, and showed me that God is not separate from us, and that we are creators of our own lives. I realized that I felt incredibly trapped in college and the energy was not supportive of a healthy lifestyle.  I didn't even know how unhappy I was until I decided to drop out and explore the world.

I went to Ethiopia and my time there opened my eyes to what true happiness is: already being happy without the need for material items to create that emotion. Despite the sickness, overpopulation, less than ideal living situations and for many, experiencing the loss of family members at a young age, I saw that Ethiopian people had a natural light that showed in the sparkle of their eyes and their genuine smiles.  I volunteered at an orphanage and school for a few months and it was one of the most beautiful experiences of my life.

I continued traveling, going to New Zealand, Fiji, Peru and Chile, coming back in the summers to fish in Alaska.  I was in exploring mode, getting to know myself more and more through different experiences, having a great appreciation for other cultures and learning new ways of living life.  I began to get more and more interested in healing.  Sometimes I would forget about or ignore the pull I felt towards it, but it has always come back to healing.  Of course, this started with myself, and is an ongoing process, and I have come a long ways.  It is so exciting to learn more and more and see the connection of everything. The healing process continues to amaze me and I want to share what I have learned with others, so that humanity and Earth can live in harmony.

IRIDOLOGY TRANSVERSALS & PROFOUND SELF HEALING

The Eyes of the World have always been my teacher as the universe sends profound classes with each student self healer or client and I am in awe at how much one can see and feel and know if one opens to messaging revealed in the iris in relation to symptoms and history.

Dearest Sandra, School of Natural Medicine graduate, taught me about iris transversals. Way back in the eighties she asked me for a consultation as she was having pain and discomfort in her liver and kidneys. When I looked in her eyes there were swollen transversals in both areas.

I learned about transversals in the early 1980's when I visited Joseph Deck and Willy Hauser in Germany. Willy Hauser showed me around his fantastic clinic and then we joined Joseph Deck for dinner at a restaurant in a castle. Joseph Deck had had a stroke so I was unable to talk to him but I was able to share some of my ideas of how the iris changes in response to depth purification and regeneration naturopathy cleanses and diet changes in combination with individual herbal formulas. 

Joseph Deck took me to his office where he had the expensive Leica iridology equipment and magnified an iris over six feet tall to show me the swollen fibers of transversals that branch out like antlers or forks in areas of pain, inflammation and stress. I began to notice them when I returned to England and my practice and teaching, but Sandra's transversals were the most swollen I had seen and the first associated with such symptoms of distress. I enjoyed sharing transversals with Dorothy Hall, Bernard Jensen, Harri Wolf & Denny Johnson of Rayid when I brought them to England for seminars and conferences. It was a time of sharing and learning what iridologists were doing in different parts of the world.

Willy Hauser stayed up all night reading my Iridology home study course and said it changed his life as he had never thought about emotions and purification and regeneration in that way. He learned English so that I could bring him twice to offer seminars in Cambridge sharing his work and understanding of Iridology. They were exciting times as we worked together to enlarge the field of iridology with individual discoveries.

When symptoms were relieved strength and health returned, Sandra enrolled in the school and became a Naturopath, Master Herbalist & Iridologist and studied many more things besides, becoming a radiant example of the teachings. Sandra always appeared for classes beautifully dressed in rainbow outfits, a pleasure to behold. This picture must be from one of her turqoise days, the color of wisdom.

When I was seeking a cover for my book Herbs of Grace I sent out a call to the universe, telling the gods of all things that I would not write another word till I had a cover. That was on a Friday and on Monday morning Sandra appeared and unrolled a canvas. "In my meditation I received a message that I was to paint the dream you told me about the turtles and the sky, and there is was, the cover of Herbs of Grace," she said and I burst into tears and hugged her. A true soul sister, Sandra is also a dear friend and a radiant example of self healing and the truth of the teachings of School of Natural Medicine.

Sandra is now retired in beautiful Estes Park, enjoying high altitude, her art and natural health and living. I see her from time to time and always love sharing what she has created from her passion, love and effort.

SNM GRAD BUILDING CLINIC & HERB COMPANY IN MEXICO

Ofelia attended her School of Natural Medicine Summer School in 1994 and attended other trainings to complete her graduation as a Naturopath, Master Herbalist and Master Iridologist with SNM in Boulder Colorado. After graduating Ofelia developed a practice in Colorado and looked after the Herbs of Grace SNM pharmacy for a time before Heidi took it on.

Because of her Hispanic background over the years her family has developed a clinic and herbal company in Mexico. Due to educating her children they shift back and forth and it is wonderful over the years to hear from Ofelia and keep in touch.

Her love of herbal and natural medicine combined with her creative energy and dynamic family blend all the ingredients for passion, commitment and self healing into a successful enterprise.

Congratulations Ofelia on your Mexico clinic and I look forward to seeing you in Boulder at the new school location.

TOUCH THE SOLES OF THE FEET, TOUCH THE SOUL

How beautiful these past days, sharing in a small class Master Touch Reflexology in England with depth, profound touch experiences in a School of Natural Medicine certification training. The beginning is the natural touch, allowing each student to feet at home with their feeling quality and how they sense and know and move and what feels good. Then we progress to developing quality of touch with the focus always on sensing, feeling, knowing and each session being a unique creative process of communion. From the first those receiving felt the sessions were fantastic Very beautiful!!

"The wisdom and knowlesge or your body is deep and profound. In this reflexology course we have gone beyond the mind, out of the head and into the heart, connecting with the energy within, encouraging the body to open, to release, to express and to heal within a safe space. Katrina"

Each student progresses in self connection as they seek connection with the other. All information is informed from inner attention and learning to align with energy pathways such as the spiral, long currents, polarity therapy balancing, pulses and expansions and contractions makes even the deep work effortless especially when combined with weight of the body and dynamic two hand and use of bones and knuckles is integrated with long slow deep parasympathetic movements. Wonderful! This is the best way to build a practice.

"Such a powerful and fantastic class! To be able to let yourself go and drop into that relaxed natural state. Such a lovely feeling the powerful connection between giving and receiving, the class had an incredible energy. Just exploring the different areas of the feet was just so amazing. Thank you so much for the class. Melissa

"Learning for me is always a profound reflection of where I am in my life and what I need. The course has demonstrated this explicitly. Resistance, courage, letting go, finding space, giving, receiving, experiencing, healing and ultimately gratitude. What a gift to realize how much I have to offer, how Much I already new, though experience, and to receive in peace."

NEW SNM STUDENT ENROLLEE HAILS FROM NEW ZEALAND

The latest School of Natural Medicine student, Katrina Brundsen, hails from New Zealand but has been creating, teaching and traveling around England and Europe for a few years and is now moving to Vancouver to begin a new cycle of offerings and will attend classes in 2010 in Boulder, Colorado. Students are being drawn from several different countries for our new cycle of teaching at the Boulder Center for the Healing Arts.

Katrina is a creative magnetic force. Her website, twitter, linked in and youtube videos reveal a dynamic personality full of the passion of life for yoga, weight loss, raw food and other creative areas of communication and teaching. Since her degree in business several years ago she has wanted to become a naturopath and even enrolled in several schools only to be disillusioned by their academic and medical approach, that is until she found School of Natural Medicine.

She came to the UK this week for the Master Touch Reflexology class I am teaching in England and I will see her in February for Healing Diets, Essential Oils classes and again in June and October as this is one passionate student who loves achieving goals and recognizes depth training. This summer she was teaching in Greece and Italy at retreat centers. Katrina will be a great inspiration for other students to create an abundant work life that allows you to live your dream.

EVOLUTION, WISDOM & THE CALL OF THE SOUL

What is Evolution? Some months ago I received inspiration about Evolution and enjoyed creative time designing ideas for classes, seminars and logos, and lately almost every time I open my computer I hear of others playing with these words and designing seminars and courses and icons based around personal and feminine evolution. I love the unfolding universe and how it reveals the time for collective consciousness to recognize and bring forth the idea of the time.

Today an email from Women on the Edge of Evolution connected me with several high profile women speakers on the same wave edge of consciousness and a month or so ago I heard about the Integral group that has evolved out of Ken Wilbur 's teachings and are now presenting iEvolve.

While personal evolution has always been a part of my depth individual work with students, graduates and clients I feel it is now entering a larger domain both with web presence and media strong speakers and leaders. I salute that and honor their presentations and also feel grateful that my work is with individuals and small groups and those committing to profound self healing.

I think it is interesting to dialogue and discuss ideas however to really evolve requires a deeper process, a willingness to work on all levels: physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual. It is necessary to prepare oneself to receive resonant vibrational levels through physical purification and regeneration, to release emotional wounds and enter the realm of forgiveness and forgetting beyond power struggles and the need to win or be right, to clear the emotional field and enter the heart of compassion, to purify the mind through practice and enter into communion with the personal aspect of soul that is waiting for us and calling for us. However the question remains. Truly, what is evolution? How does it get activated? What is its purpose? Do we truly evolve?

Today I remembered Proverbs and a magnificent writing that speaks of Wisdom calling our souls to return to their original home. Although I haven't read the Bible for years, this passage is included in a Treasury of Mystic Terms from the Science of the Soul Research Center. Wisdom is described as the cry of the soul, the call that pulls us forward to evolve toward our highest purpose and our return to our soul home.

"Does Wisdom not call meanwhile? Does discernment not lift up her voice? On the hilltop, on the road, at the crossways, she takes her stand; Beside the gates of the city, at the approaches to the gates she cries aloud: Oh men, I am calling to you; My cries go out to the sons of men, You ignorant ones! Study discretion; And you fools, come to your senses! Listen I have serious things to tell you, from my lips come honest words. My mouth proclaims the truth, wickedness is hateful to my lips. All the words I say are right!".... and then further on "Accept my discipline rather than silver, knowledge in preference to pure gold, For Wisdom is more precious than pearls, and nothing else is so worthy of desire".... Proverbs 8:1-11

These beautiful biblical sentences describe the inner call of the soul, the wisdom that awakens us to look at our lives and begin to prepare for the greater journey, to face ourselves and our purpose and enter on to the path of personal evolution that will lead us home. It is this call from our soul wisdom that opens the path to personal evolution. It is there within each one of us to listen and heed this call. Wisdom has many faces, forms and appearances and Kwan Yin is one of those. She pours the milk of compassion and calls with her grace and beauty toward spiritual truth.

I am most pleased once more to be in tune with the great unfolding and the wisdom of the universe within and without. We all hold our place and our truth and once more gratitude fills my heart at my return to Boulder, my opening of a healing temple and the new cycle of the teaching. I am always thankful for the privilege of knowing and being part of the wondrous personal evolution of self healing students, graduates and clients. May we all evolve together in love, consciousness, compassion and truth.

SELF HEALING EVOLVES ALL LEVELS OF BEING

This letter from a School of Natural Medicine Naturopathy student explores some of the learning growing feeling sensing facing self and transforming self that goes on during their Self-Healing. It is entirely appropriate that as we evolve we develop our connection communion with our inner world and become more able listen to its messages and guidance with feeling sensing and develop full brain integration whenever discrimination and decisions require attention. When we transform our selves we transform the world around us.

Thank you so much Farida... I have finally organized myself "almost" completely as it has taken me some time to finally focus on myself and not have to worry so much about my family. Please understand the immense load their healing has taken off my shoulders.  I am working on every aspect...at this point it has been to either mend or get rid of all the toxic relationships I have allowed to pollute my mind and soul and I tell you it has been a bigger feat than I thought it would be, but it is allowing me to shed the old skin of my old self and is bringing more clarity as I clear my path. 

I also finally recognize that I really have neglected myself for way too long and I didn't realize that I was not doing as much as I should, with my own program, I just put so much attention on my family's healing that I put myself to the side a bit more than I should have, BUT I'm sorting out my life as best as I can along with the drama of clearing all of this negativity that I have surrounded myself with; furthermore, it really is such an eye opening experience to understand that it is not my destiny or my responsibility to carry other peoples' burdens and/or fix them.  I'm recognizing all of this dysfunction that I couldn't believe I put up with and I believe made me not be as positive and loving as I could be...now instead of dealing with things "my old way" I can now take time to sort these things out, and after praying and meditating about a particular issue, I don't respond to an unhealthy situation from a shadowed place; rather, a loving place and it has made me feel so much better about things, to where I can just allow the outcome to happen instead of assuming or yearning for a specific result. 

Now with all that has happened with my own health, its God putting it all front and center, and that it is my time to finally embrace what they have guided me to and now I have the answers (much gratitude to you) I just have to put full effort, I have to be honest though...I don't know if its because this is a whole new life style, new language, new everything that I did have a lot of resistance towards it because it just felt overwhelming and bad habits are hard to break.  I am making big strides though towards fully completing my program, and am starting to see images of myself, healthy and thin and more importantly HAPPY, when I meditate (yes, I am incorporating lessons from our meeting together), I think that my mind, body, and soul has just adapted to being in this unhealthy state for so long that it was just such a far fetched idea to finally see an image of me, when I was healthy, active, and energetic. 

I do count this as a HUGE life lesson though because without all that I am going through I would not be able to sympathize with my future clients and this is a most valuable lesson that I am finally looking at with a total shift of perspective.  Thank you for that...I owe you more than I think I could ever give back to you in this lifetime.  TONS OF LOVE

NEW NATUROPATHY STUDENT ENROLLS FOR 2010 STUDIES

Renaya, our new School of Natural Medicine naturopathy student, enrolled while visiting Israel.

"I am interested in studying natural medicine including learning to prepare remedies from herbs and plants. I just completed a six month program on a sustainable farm in Modi'in Israel. While on the farm I studied permaculture, natural building and took a few courses on herbal medicine. We prepared Lavender oil, Calendula oil and salve, Nettle and Milk Thistle tinctures, and were taught about the medicinal properties of many other herbs that were indigenous to that area.Through that experience I discovered where my interests lie. My research has led me to your school and I would like to talk to you about how I can further expand my educational and career path by studying with you."

Yes, she called me from Israel where I am in the UK and we talked, and her knowing, commitment, passion and our connection was immediate and she enrolled in all three home study courses and all three February classes - essential oils, reflexology and healing diets. I just received her beautiful photo and plans today. Renaya returns to her family in Chicago during December and then on to Boulder to settle near the school. Our other student, Megan plans to settle in Boulder also during her studies. SNM attracts the most wonderful students. Welcome Renaya!

SNM GRAD JOURNEY FROM GRATEFUL DEAD FOLLOWER TO AUTHENTIC LIVING EXAMPLE OF HEALTHY LIVING

Dearest Amy, School of Natural Medicine Naturopathy Graduate, was following the Grateful Dead when she saw my Herbs of Grace book in Taos, New Mexico, in the bookstore run by another SNM Grad and recognized me as her teacher. She called her mom, and they met in Boulder and came to see me and her mom signed Amy up for everything the school offered. Amy of the clear loving heart, large open eyes, and sweet nature had a dream for a life of truth. After her studies she apprenticed and worked as my assistant in the school for a couple of years.

When I met her the first day I asked her to tell me about her life goals, and aside from wanting to be a healer and live a healthy life she said she wanted to marry an Indian. This dream came true during her studies when I took a group of students to a sweat lodge and she met her future husband. They married in style, her in a buckskin dress, and he in full regalia, and when they moved back to North Carolina to be with her family, they hosted their own sweat lodges and ceremonies. Amy still visits the yearly sun dance in Colorado and when I talked to her recently she said she did the dance this year, instead of acting support as she had for years.

Amy is a practitioner, teacher, leader, authentic healer having accomplished profound self healing and transformation both during and after her studies. I have a special place in my heart for Amy and she feels like a daughter. This picture I share during the Air Heart Chakra Elements dance in a Summer school in 1998 was when she experienced an angel coming into her and bestowing angel wings. Amy is a true angel in human form and those she nurtures and supports are fortunate she found a path of loving service. Love you dearly beautiful Amy. After posting Angie I was reminded of Amy and found this wonderful photo.

YOUNG GENERATION OF STUDENTS SEEKING HEALING

Angie, our new School of Natural Medicine International student in Vancouver BC, works at Gaia Garden Herbals pharmacy. She was drawn to natural medicine, completed a year course in Alberta and soon after arriving in Vancouver landed a job in Gaia, a most wonderful herbal company with its own gardens, lab and retail outlet both on Broadway an in the Granville Island Market. Robert, our other Iridology student, has worked there for over 16 years, and our new student, Michelle, manages the dispensary. Angie keeps advancing in the company and loves her work there.

Angie carries the magic, strength and vulnerability of the young and her passion for natural medicine and her own personal self healing is a joy to be part of. Angie and Robert as well as Jennifer on the Sunshine Coast are planning a trip to Boulder to participate in studies during 2010.

Gaia Garden offers an exclusive range of over 200 dried herbs, over 150 single herb tinctures (practitioner-grade) and a wide array of therapeutic tincture formulations and tea blends. Other remedies also include creams, salves, liniments, essential oils, aromatherapy gift items and other herbal formulas. Gaia also supply cosmetic ingredients, massage oils, vitamins, minerals and a range of books on natural medicine and self-care.

THE PHOENIX RISES WITHIN FRACTAL UNFOLDING

Phoenix energy is very powerful when it rises from the ashes and the fire with a pure clear light  in harmony with the fractal unfolding of the universe. Whenever a cycle diminishes or ends a new one emerges. Whether we choose to cling to something that is past its prime or whether we are able to release with joy and move on change, transformation and fractal unfolding are realities of the universe we live in. A beginning emerging out of the old, a fresh opportunity to create in a new moment of time, self similarity there but creatively emerging as a renewed pattern - very exciting!!

I let go of School of Natural Medicine in Boulder July 1st 2008 because a student I had known for five years wanted to buy it. I thought what a wonderful solution to allow more time for writing and teaching but within a year she closed the school to the loss of all. I released twenty years of dedication and focus to provide the opportunity of a healing oasis of truth and light and healing to another only to find myself returning to a new cycle of creativity and transformation with a sense of thrilling excitement. Just like the fractal unfolding there is the similarity and yet the difference. It is a new cycle.

The school will be aligned with School of Natural Medicine International, with reciprocity to SNM UK and accreditation with the UK and EU, and will be renamed in Boulder as the School of the Healing Arts receiving the same benefits and connections nationally and internationally as before.

The new wave of students are co-creators as their contributions to the school will be the funds to rebuild a new cycle for the benefit of all. Today Renaya from Israel enrolled in all three homes study courses and sent deposits for all three of the classes in February. Today I honor her for her trust, passion and commitment. It is an exciting time as day by day the new students appear to become part of the phoenix beginning and I bow in gratitude knowing that I am in tune with my dharma, my destiny and the universal unfolding. I hope to add Renaya's picture soon. Also many thanks to the graduates and teachers who offer such dear love and firm support for the new beginning. I arrive back December 1st to begin in the new location. Look for invites and news!!!