Self-Awareness and Meditation Newsletter
March 2006
In this issue:
Is The World Becoming More Holistic?
Energy Balance in the Body is a Key to Better Health
How does Dream Analysis Help Self-Awareness?
Meditation Tips.
What does the Self-awareness and Meditation Logo Mean?
Is The World Becoming More Holistic?
In his book, “Soulution: The Holistic Manifesto” (2004), Bloom’s definition of holistic includes, open-hearted, open minded, and welcoming diversity. He also states that the essence of spirituality is to connect with and experience the wonder and beauty of all life, and that we are all beings in a developmental spiritual process. Bloom goes on to say that there are many ways of exploring the meaning, purpose and mystery of life and all of them are equally valid.
Statistics show that in the US in 1965, 5 million people were holistically inclined while estimates show that this has now reached 50 million. In 2000 an opinion poll in the UK showed that two thirds of the British are instinctively holistic in their beliefs, while in Norway Holism is growing so fast that it has state recognition as a faith and worldview (Bloom, 2004).
It appears that the world is becoming more violent with terrorism increasing. However, at the same time, the number of individuals who are more 'spiritual' in their perspective is also increasing. Fortunately, the spiritual minority actualize more power for change in the world due to their more consistent wholeness and balance and although less obvious on the world stage, world consciousness is shifting as a result. This is rather like the hundredth monkey syndrome where once a critical number of individuals behave in a certain way the rest follow automatically.
The coming years should therefore see some noticeable changes in spirituality in the world. If you look around you can see it is already happening.
Energy Balance in the Body is a Key to Better Health
By
Conny Young
Historical references to a universal energy field date back as far as 5000 B.C. to India where prana was considered to be the basic source of life. In China it was called chi and was believed to be in all matter. Two polar forces were recognized, yin and yang. When these two forces were in balance, one was considered to be healthy. More recently Western medicine has begun to recognize energy within the body with the advent of devices capable of detecting its effects in the body. Energy fields associated with the human body have been detected by electroencephalograms (EEG), electrocardiograms (ECG), and very highly sensitive devices such as superconducting quantum interference devices (SQUID). Even biomagnetism has been recognized, as more sensitive devices have been developed to measure very weak magnetic fields.
Practitioners of alternative forms of health care often believe much of the illness we see in the human body is the result of either a blockage of the flow of energy of the body, or an imbalance in the energy from one side of the body to the other. When the energy balance is restored, the body begins the healing process. Often, symptoms seem to almost miraculously lessen or even disappear. Conditions such as migraine headaches, the cause of which is poorly understood anyway, respond remarkably well to a restoration of the energy in the body.
Energy imbalance is the result of too much nerve energy being sent to a part of the body in response to pain or dysfunction. Nerve energy, as I have called it here, is an electrical signal that is sent along the path of the nerve. All electrical signals also have a magnetic field. The magnetic field is so weak around this nerve impulse that it would seem to be undetectable. When measures are taken to restore proper balance to the energy of the body, a clinical result can be measured. A definite beneficial change takes place. If balance is not restored, the body gets caught in an endless loop of trying to make corrections. The result is an imbalance in which the deficient side develops painful trigger points. These trigger points are formed in the areas where acupuncture meridians are located. Therapies have been developed using these points to release blockages of energy and allow the proper amount of energy to flow. One does not need to use needles. These are the same acupressure points used by massage therapists, and other touch type therapies, to release tension, increase blood flow, and strengthen the body’s natural life force to assist in healing.
When energy is flowing to one side of the body more than to the other, it can be easily felt in the form of muscle tension. Nerve impulses are sent along the nerves to muscles and other locations in the body. In the muscles, this naturally causes them to be more contracted. A muscle that is contracted is shorter than a muscle that is relaxed. Remember as children how we showed off our muscles by forcefully contracting them ourselves? As a result of the increased muscle contraction, one entire side of the body will often feel tighter and tenser than the other. How can we balance this energy and cause both sides of the body to be equally relaxed? The method is simple.
Trigger points are located by their tenderness, and once located, gentle pressure is applied. The initial stimulation of the trigger point sends a signal to the central nervous system to send more energy to the deficient side. It is like saying, “Hey, look! There is a problem over here too.” The side that was getting the excessive energy suddenly has energy diverted from it, and the deficient side begins to receive an increase in energy. After a short time, a balance is achieved. The body is then able to use its resources for healing instead of continually attempting to bring the flow of its energy back into balance.
Dr. Conny Young has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and a Master of Arts degree in Physiology and Biochemistry. He did postgraduate work in Neurophysiology and Phamacology. He worked as a research scientist for a major pharmaceutical company for 17 years before becoming a chiropractor. He attended seminars on Touch for Health, Logan Basic Technique, Bioenergetic Synchronization Technique, Reiki (Level III master), Network Chiropractic, Brimhall 10 Step Protocol and has studied the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT), Shiatzu, Kiatzu, and Reflexology. He maintained a private practice for 17 years, and taught Neurophysiology and Toxicology at Palmer College of Chiropractic. He conducted research on the effectiveness of energy balancing for the treatment of migraine headaches. He can be reached through his website at: http://www.healthandwellnesssolutionsonline.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Conny_Young
How does Dream Analysis Help Self-Awareness?
There are many books on dream symbolism and these often approach dreams from the perspective that they contain a message that the unconscious mind is giving to us and that if we find out what the symbolism means we receive guidance from them. The reality is that dreams actually indicate to us where we are at. Most dreams will give us an indication of our current state of awareness, and most of the information received is simply a reflection of our day to day data. Symbolism does play a part in this but it is greatly overrated. There is no need to try and interpret every symbol that appears in a dream.
Dreams are an excellent indicator of where we are on our paths without the interference of the rational mind. For example you may feel that dreams are showing that you are quite psychic or that you have a connection with your higher self, yet in the waking state this may not appear to be the case. Obviously, the rational mind is blocking this awareness during the day.
There are seven types of dream which can be grouped as follows and these may overlap:
Spiritual Need
The spiritual need represents the underlying desire to merge back into the permanent Source from which the individual came. Through the individual's identification with the physical body and the material world, the spiritual need gets converted into attachment, lust, need for objects of love (mother) and so on.
Hunger Need
Having identified with the non-permanent psycho-physical body a strong need develops to sustain the body. Through reaction to family and society various desires and reactions form around this need including greed, possession, cheating and stealing, etc.
Security Need
The need for security is also related to the psycho-physical body and results in the fears and desires springing from a need to preserve and protect oneself. These include fear and possession.
Violence Need
This need appears when the previous three needs are not met. This leads to a blockage in the flow of psychic energy in the nervous system and a desire to remove the 'denier'. This leads to feelings of inferiority and jealousy and the ideas of competition, and worthlessness.
Ego Data
From childhood our ego is developed which is basically the need to be somebody of value in society. It is a repression of the acceptance of basic desires and reactions in place of a self or 'individuality' which can be acceptable in the world.
Collective Unconscious of Past Lives
There are dreams which do not fit into the the five categories mentioned above and which do not seem to fit into present life experiences. Assuming a belief in past lives it can be accepted that there are a category of dreams in which experiences relating from past life experiences can surface during dreams. An alternative to the past life theory is that as a whole, humanity has a collective unconscious database of experiences which can be accessed during the dream state of any individual.
Spiritual
There are also Psycho spiritual or transpersonal dreams in which contact is made with the 'Higher Self'. Other terms include 'Spiritual Self', 'Transpersonal Self', or Soul. This does not represent a group or cluster rather than a spiritual connection made during the dream state. These spiritual dreams are distinctive in their character and provide guidance and solace to the individual, as well as encouragement on the spiritual path.
Finally, an important symbolism in dreams is that of positive or negative polarity, where the positive polarity represents a connection in which we are more unified or holistic in our nature while the negative polarity represents that we are more fragmented and individual in our experience. This will vary from day to day and may present a challenging perspective but is worth checking out. Whether we are male or female this symbolism is the same. Dreams of male figures represents the positive polarity while dreams of female figures represents the negative polarity. I must admit I found this challenging to accept at first. Regardless of the content of the dream, dreams in which female figures are present indicate a more materialistic focus while dreams of male characters tend to be more unified and holistic in their focus. This does not, of course, refer to males and females in day to day life but to the symbolism in a dream context and even if it someone you know in your day to day life. Remember, we are looking at symbolism here. Try it out.
You are welcome to share significant dreams in the forum at www.lifepathsolutions.com/solutions/forums. I am unable to discuss individual dreams privately, except in the coaching environment, but am prepared to do so through the forums where others can join in and benefit from the experience too.
Meditation Tips.
As this is the first of many meditation tips to come, I would start by saying 'Just Do It'! It doesn't matter how long, where or when; take the time to be still and observe yourself. Watch what you are doing, thinking, feeling or experiencing from an observer's perspective and you have taken that valuable and rewarding start on the road to Self-awareness through meditation. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose. Yes!
What does the Self-awareness and Meditation Logo Mean?
The logo at the top of the newsletter and also on the Life Path Solutions web site is quite distinctive. The upper triangle points upwards and represents the higher self or soul consisting of spiritual will, higher mind and intuition. The lower triangle represents the personality consisting of physical/etheric body, rational mind and emotions. The two triangles are linked by the rainbow bridge (antahkarana). The seven coloured balls represent the seven chakras or energy centres of the etheric body while all are enclosed within the vertical shaped eye which represents the Third Eye or Spiritual Eye.
Notice that the central, green chakra is that of the heart centre and is considered to be the link between the soul and personality.
Best Wishes
Charles
Accredited Life Coach and Counsellor