September Brings a New Season.
September is a time to honor your health – your wellbeing.
Have fun with this! Celebrate the season!
LOCAL FARMERS’ MARKETS offer a bounty of fresh and local fruits, vegetables, and artisanal products.
September’s markets bring my favorite foods.
Tomatoes, potatoes, squash, apples, melons, figs, and beets are in season this time of year adding color to your plate and your soul.
Stick with these new fresh produce options throughout your Autumn and into Winter. Two fruits which I make a point to buy and eat in September include pears and pumpkins. I love both these foods and they taste best during September.
Find a farmers’ market and plan your meals around the seasonal produce you discover. A bonus on this food is that you’ll boost your antioxidents when you eat fresh seasonal produce.
Cook up a soup or stew.
I think of my breakfast as a September food. Every morning I have a serving of muesli topped with yogurt and blueberries or other seasonal fruit.
Visit your LOCAL HEALTH FOOD STORE for what you can’t find at the farmers’ market.
While you’re there, stock up on immune-boosting supplements. Go for a multi-vitamin, calcium, D3, a protein, and probiotics.
Commit to staying hydrated with lots of water.
It’s sweater time! Is your wardrobe ready for that extra layer you’re going to need? Consider LOCAL THRIFT SHOPS AND YARD SALES. Make eco-friendly options a priority.
Is someone in your house returning to school? Check the backpacks and lunch boxes. Are they in good condition?
SLEEP BETTER in this cooler weather. When September rolls around, I enjoy renewing tranquility with soothing colors in my bedroom.
I look around the room and remove any and all electronic gadgets that have somehow sneaked in during the year.
September is the time of the year when I ban TVs, computers, phones, and anything else with an electromagnetic field which can produce irritating attitudes and challenge my sleep.
My goal is to refresh my bedroom so that it’s a retreat where I escape from the noise of everyday life. This sanctuary reminds me that meditation, rest, and contemplation are important for a renewed state of mind.
Nourish your mind and rejuvenate yourself for the coming winter months.
Go a step further and schedule a regular reflexology or reiki session. Better yet, get one of each!
ENRICH YOUR LIFE a bit. September is a good time to learn to play a musical instrument, visit a museum, investigate your family history, take a walk, or just daydream.
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The summer book sale ends on September 22nd. That’s the date of the autumn equinox.
Spirit is a Change Agent: 5 Ways to See. 6 Questions. 3 Lists.
Sometimes, when spirit reaches out, we rejoice.
Spirit speaks, whether or not we are interested. The message may be loud or soft, depending on your self-care situation.
Lately, I’ve been hearing from people, each of whom is in dialogue with spirit. One thing, spirit brings change. I think about change this way:
When I choose change, the words in my life are different:
I can love myself more.
I release resentment so forgiveness can become part of my life.
I move from the old to the new.
I express love in more ways.
Today’s article focuses on one prompt instead of the usual list of 5-7 self-care suggestions I’ve been offering. I’m interrupting the series with this one focus because it needs attention.
Do you feel resentment when a client, a relative, a neighbor, a manager, a stranger asks something of you?
Do you want to spend more time with someone but cannot?
The tendency is to swallow your feelings and press on. Whatever the message, spirit speaks truth. However spirit reaches you, the message is an opportunity. Eventually, when spirit bubbles your feelings up, you cannot pretend you don’t feel the tug. Spirit is a change agent.
How does spirit speak to you? Do you feel anger, depression, fear? Do you feel love, calm, excitement? Do you smell roses?
Do thoughts enter your head? “I really don’t want to do this job, see this person again, drive this commute, feel this stress, stay in this apartment, live in this town, put up with this pandemic stress even one minute more.”
Do you see answers in clouds, on pages of books you find open?
Eventually, spirit convinces you to honor your situation and yourself. It’s time to honor change.
A good next step is a list. After all, “if it’s not on the list, it doesn’t exist.” Right?
For starters, I propose two lists. A heart list comes first. This is an ongoing document you create while traveling on your life path.
I first found the Heart list in a book, “Fireflies” by Coleen Murtagh Paratore – a successful and spiritual writer:
Take a piece of paper and draw a large heart on it. What words make you happy? What words make you smile? Put those words in the heart you just drew.
Set this heart list aside for the moment while you create your Change list.
On a second piece of paper, list things to change in your life. You are creating your Change list.
Now, ask yourself:
How can I turn the Change list entries into action?
What should I do to improve my situation?
What can I give away, move, rearrange?
Change is a gift. Is it time to allow gratitude into my life?
Can I get comfortable with change? Do I even want to get comfortable with change?
How long do I want to live with negativity in my life: Ten minutes? Ten days? Ten weeks? Ten Months? Ten years?
Put your two lists away. But, don’t hide your heart list. Place it where you can see it whenever you want. Add add words to your heart list often.
When tomorrow comes, look at your Change list. Your positive future may lie in this list. Seek ways to create what will work for you.
Find ways to graciously and generously reduce contact with stressful people, places, and situations.
Are there people and aspects in your life you want to draw closer? Do you want to spend more time with others? What places do you want to know better? Are there positive activities you want to include in your life?
What are the best ways to remove unwanted habits? Changes shift outcomes. Situations move and create a rejuvenating ripple effect in your life.
The third list, my Ben Franklin Change List, is important now. I’ve used this list for years when taking action becomes confusing. .
Sometimes I’m trying to decide what to do. My options have narrowed down to two or three and I’m still trying to decide. I haul out another piece of paper and draw two or three lines on it. I list everything that can happen if I move down path A, and then I list everything that can happen if I move down path B.
I include “the best thing that can happen if I…” in each option of my Ben Franklin list. I also include “the worst thing that can happen if I…”
After I’ve written down everything and anything, I examine the opportunities these lists created. One list will be longer than the other.
Listing all the options and then seeing them for what they are on the page clears my head and my heart. This information usually points me in a direction.
And, finally, if I’m at a yes/no point and have not reached a decision, I dowse for an answer. My trusty pendulum always helps.
If you don’t dowse, there are still things you can do:
Several years ago, I was in a real quandary. I felt I was going in circles. Confusion reigned.
Someone invited me to visit New York City for a weekend. On that visit, I wound up walking through Washington Square Park late on Sunday afternoon.
I’ve been there many times – there were always people enjoying themselves in this park. People sat around visiting with one another. People walked their dogs. Watching everyone was always fun.
On this afternoon, the place was deserted. Seated all by himself on a bench, sat a smallish, older man wearing an unusual hat.
I was drawn to him. How could I not be? The dogs, the college students, and the tourists were gone. Even the pianist playing songs for tips on his grand piano was gone. There was only the quaint little man and me. As I got closer, I saw a tarot deck next to him on the bench.
You know how this story ends.
I walked over to him and we chatted. He read my cards. His words coaxed my own intuition to pull what I needed from his message. His voice, his posture, his cards, were perfect for me at that moment.
– – – – – – – – – – –
My book, “Healer’s Handbook,” dealing with the spirituality of health, discusses change in several entries.
People get angry when they aren’t comfortable with change. Sometimes this anger surfaces as health issues or disease. Arthritis, boils, burns, carpel tunnel syndrome, cold sores, depression, diarrhea, kidney infections, laryngitis, menstrual problems, obesity, pink eye, sprains, and warts are just a few.
Sometimes, when contacted by spirit,, we see our souls hanging out in front of us. Messages we didn’t ask for show up at a time when we don’t want change in our lives.
When that happens to you, acknowledge the situation and move on. Maybe you’ll be up for change soon.
Take whatever steps you can when you are ready.
Consider this: You may be more ready than you think. After all, spirit is connecting with you and you are listening.
I’m reminded of the old children’s game: “Ready or not, here I come!”
Change is the journey we travel.
Change is opportunity in the face.
Change is a naturally occurring life event.
Change surrounds us all.
Change can create joy. Joy allows you to love yourself and everyone else.
Doing what you can, connect with however many things in your life bring joy.
Change can sometimes be ungrounding. That’s where reflexology comes in. Schedule a session. Grounding is something to appreciate during stressful times.
Reflexology sessions bring the change of homeostasis. With homeostasis, you can take responsibility for your health and find the person you are meant to be.
When working for change, I focus on the immune system and nervous system together for the first part of the reflexology session. This can be transformative.
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Thurman Greco
Your Own Guided Meditation: Relax and Enjoy the Journey
A guided meditation awakens, transforms, heals. It creates a journey so you can fulfill a purpose or reach a goal or answer a question of some kind. In short, a guided meditation helps you solve a problem you may be experiencing.
Many guided meditations use quiet, calming music to support your journey. I like music which doesn’t have abrupt changes. Whatever music you use, you need something which will not interfere with your visualization.
Guided meditations work well in groups with one person reading or speaking the meditation aloud. They also work well for a person alone who reads the meditation or who is listening to it on an audio device.
The best time for a guided meditation is whenever or wherever it works best for you.
Don’t worry if you feel you have fallen asleep during your meditation. Usually, you have not.
Pauses guide and pace the journey. They can occur throughout a meditation. How many, and how long each one is depends on the meditation and the group. I like to schedule the pauses in the meditation when I design it. .
Breathing tempo is established at the beginning of each meditation. Many people do not breathe deeply enough. Although shallow breathing is common, meditations call for deeper, slower breathing. Belly breathing is part of the event. I set the breathing tempo early in the meditation.
A first step in a guided meditation is to spend a few moments encouraging your recipients to get comfortable. Try not to rush this part. Many people are not comfortable in their bodies and may not recognize when they are comfortable – not for a few moments anyway.
Then, the scene emerges. This can be in a secret room, in a meadow, on the edge of a lake, an the foot of a mountain. The scene is described. Meditation recipients are often invited to add their own details mentally as they listen to the unfolding journey.
After the introduction which sets the scene, the meditation generally involves a journey…walking down a path, riding a canoe on a lake, taking a trip on a balloon. Again, a few moments are taken to include details. Descriptive paragraphs tell the story as it unfolds. And, again, your meditation recipients are often invited to add their own details through their thoughts.
Sometimes, a guided meditation may introduce a character – an angel, a wise elder, one’s inner child. This character’s job is to listen to any questions a person may have and offer an answer or response which may be received during the meditation or at some time later in the day or even the next day.
With a guided meditation, you and your recipient’s job is to relax and enjoy the journey. You reach your destination when you receive an answer or solution.
The final step allows a recipient to slowly return to the present moment knowing that she can return to the meditation at any time. There is no rush.
Assure your recipients that they can return to this meditation whenever they desire. It is time to stretch, yawn, open eyes, and return to the present moment.
heart with wings
Thank you for reading this blog post. I hope you enjoyed it.
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Thurman Greco
