Slow Down and Heal
When was the last time you allowed yourself to truly, completely rest and recuperate?
You need a deep healing rest.
For now, it is time for reclusion or retreat. Find a quiet space and seek solitude.
A question arises: What needs to heal? How much time will it take?
This isn’t just an ordinary rest. This rest involves your body, your mind, and your spirit.
Slow down. Take time to transform and transmute your experiences as you renew. And, as you renew your body, mind, and spirit, encourage those around you to participate in this renewal.
Is this a time for faith? Deep healing and new beginnings rely on faith for unexpected outcomes.
This is a time for deep rest.
Remember, rest is a birthright.
DO THIS
Do you practice Reiki? Do you receive Reiki? Do you meditate? Or…Do you have a mindfulness practice?
If not, try something easy and accessible. Choosing Reiki or meditation is a way of choosing yourself.
MEDITATE
Sit down and relax. light a candle. Burn incense. Listen to calming music. If you have one, hold a crystal or rock.
You need a private and safe space to focus your breathing. After each complete inbreath and out breath, let there be a moment to let yourself just be. Breathe deeply from your abdomen to let quiet and peace seep in.
This is a time to completely slow down and relax.
You notice that you are holding a small amethyst crystal in one hand. It begins to grow warmer in your hand. The power of this crystal radiates out into your hands, up through your arms, into your shoulders, and, finally, into each body part.
As it radiates its healing warmth, you feel comfortable and safe. After a few moments you feel the full power of the violet flame in this crystal. You feel this flame purifying, forgiving, healing, and transmuting every cell of your physical, mental, emotional, and energetic body.
You visualize it traveling through your emotions, your thoughts, and your memories. You notice it cleansing any recurring patterns of negativity in your complete body.
As this happens, you release negativity into the flame of the candle. You see it transformed into light. The negativity is being consumed.
You are lighter now. You feel this moment holds your world in divine order.
You accept this perfection in deep gratitude.
You rest in this healing moment. You feel safe. You say to yourself: “I love and accept myself just the way I am. I belong in this peace.”
You realize it’s time to return to the outside world. You know that you can return to this space any time you want.
You thank your crystal for its healing energy. You slowly shake your arms and legs now.
You gently return to the world – healed. You can share your peace and calm with others now.
Thank you for reading this article and meditation. Please share and forward it to anyone you think will enjoy it.
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thurmangreco@gmail.com.
Learning as Self-Care With 3 Stories Featuring Maria Talamantez and Sister Athenasius
As we grow up and experience adolescence, or adulthood, many of us leave our religious beliefs behind. Or maybe we never had a childhood religion to leave behind. This can create the experience of having no beliefs at all.
Mother sent me as a young child to local Vacation Bible Schools every summer. That meant I spent a week each with Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and the Church of Christers when I was quite young. The Catholics didn’t have Vacation Bible School and I never quite understood why.
I absorbed different things taught by different Christian Sunday School teachers in an unsophisticated format intended for preschool and elementary school children.
Elementary school influenced my religious beliefs, but not how you might think. This was the American Bible Belt in the early 1950’s. In the classroom each morning, right after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, a student recited a prayer.
For some of my classmates, this experience may not have been so bad. For others, it was excruciating.
Standing in front of the class is hard on a lot of little kids. Standing in front of the class and reciting a prayer can be excruciating, especially if they don’t really know a prayer. It was hardest on the Catholics because they began and ended each session with the sign of the cross.
My memory always brings up Maria Talamantez when I recall the morning prayer. Standing at the head of the class, Maria appeared embarrassed, flustered, frightened. And, while she struggled with the Sign of the Cross and the Our Father, I was over at my desk praying quietly and fervently to God and Jesus and anyone else I could think of just thanking them that my name hadn’t been called that morning.
Meanwhile, Maria prayed as fast as she could and so quietly that she couldn’t be heard by most of us in the room. I don’t think the teacher cared, really. She was simply filling a slot required every morning and looked forward to escaping into a math exercise or reading a story.
For me, this was a time of pure torture. And I was so grateful that I was an Episcopalian because I didn’t use the Sign of the Cross. And the Episcopalian Lord’s Prayer seemed shorter and faster than Maria’s Roman Catholic version.
This is part of my journey into adulthood.
Both adolescents and adults spend time thinking and rethinking things they read, heard, and believed as children.
To dismiss these experiences as part of the move into adulthood is a gross oversimplification.
Abandoning our childhood beliefs can be difficult. It’s challenging to move beyond the childhood religious stories we either grew up with or didn’t experience at all.
As a pre-adolescent, I attended a Catholic School in my middle-school years. (The Sisters didn’t call it middle school.) Sister Athanasius had a whole list of books we weren’t supposed to read. And, since I wasn’t from a Catholic family, Sister suspected every book she saw me carry.
Several years later, as a student at St. Mary’s University, I found all of those books she was looking for in my book bag. They were in the university library, sitting on those shelves for the students. Amazing! Forbidden fruit in middle school became the main course in college.
Later in life, my best Reiki therapy and Reflexology students admitted to me that they were struggling with their meaning-of-life path.
Now, as an octogenarian, I find myself smitten with Mother Mary and the birth of Jesus Christ.
If you find yourself at a moment in time where you are taking a look at your life, now can be a good opportunity to explore your childhood teachings. They may be holding you back from focusing on things you otherwise might be interested in.
This place in time opens an opportunity for self-care.
As an adult, you can slow down, seek the solitude, and listen to the silence. Allow your intuition and life experiences to guide you along your path.
The answers you seek may not come immediately but they are there. As you journey on your path, you may encounter changes to your lifestyle which help you connect with your own truth.
You can develop an understanding of your own experience.
Thanks for reading this article. Please share it with your friends and family and forward it to your preferred social media network.
You can find out more at www.thurmangreco.com.
Want more information on self-care? Check out some older articles on this blog.
You may also enjoy my YOUTUBE shows: “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco”
Thanks again!
Thurman Greco
www.thurmangreco.com
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Visit the website and see what books might interest you. The first edition of “But for Gabriel” is available as an eBook.
Finally, include a Reiki therapy or reflexology session this week.