Fall 2011, Excerpt from my Newsletter

From Indianola, WA to Ojai, CA

Since the last newsletter in the beginning of summer Brian and I are in a beautiful transition into a new chapter of our lives. After the intensity of sorting out the house, packing everything and loading it into a container with the amazing help of good friends we had a relaxed drive south with meeting wonderful friends on the way. We arrived in Ojai mid August. I feel so blessed to be here and connect with the land, old and new friends, the Ojai community and the many inspiring places like Meditation Mount and the Ojai Foundation.

Maybe you are also in a transition. So many of us throughout the world are going through big changes. The fall season is the time, when we are most challenged to let go.

Fall and Harvest

Fall is the ideal time of the year to refine and release the past. Are your facing big changes in your life, your relationship, job, home, or are you confronted with an old pattern? Now is the season of letting go of what no longer serves you. This takes a courageous step. Grief and sadness might occur – they too will pass.

It is also the time to deal with details and to process experiences. Reflect on what you have learned and what has nourished you. Let go with gratitude, warmth and serenity, clarity and compassion.

Questions for your re-evaluation:

• What do you want to let go of?

• What open matters call for completion and clearance?

• What keeps you holding on to the past?

• What have you harvested so far?

• What have you learned?

•  What nurtured you?

•  What are you thankful for?

If you are balanced with the fall season, you find yourself grounded in reality, accepting ‘what is’, being centered and peaceful. You are a person with integrity and your life is about giving and receiving support. You can speak up or be silent when appropriate. You are precise in your thinking and open to new ideas.

An imbalance shows up as an ongoing grief, the inability to organize thoughts and resources, scattered attention and lack of focus.

Physical correspondence:

The corresponding organs with the autumn season are the lungs and the large intestine and the connected emotions of sadness and grief. The repressing of those emotions and the inability of letting go can show up in imbalances of the large intestine and the lungs. Both have to do with communication and the exchange of our environment: one through inhalation and exhalation and the other through our digestion. They are an expression of the assimilation, absorption, digestion and elimination of what you let in and out or hold onto. Just as you breathe easily thousands of times a day and letting go of the old and taking in the new. This may mean that you have learned what you can in a particular area and it is time to release, let go, and move on.

Inspiration:

• Be aware and acknowledge your feelings of sadness, depression, grief and/ or low self-worth, as they can come up easily in this time of the year

• Do journaling, have support, work with a therapist, do art, meditate, pray, take long walks

• Organize your priorities, schedule, finish projects.

Diet tips for fall

The fall is calling for more warming foods such as root vegetables, grains, nuts and seeds, which are high in fiber for the large intestine. The valuable flavor in autumn cooking includes spicy, hot, and aromatic flavors, as they have a warming energy and stimulate digestion. They stimulate the nose and the lungs, clearing them of mucus and dispersing sluggishness. White pungent foods such as onion, garlic, ginger, and horseradish can be especially helpful. Sour flavored foods, such as vinegar, yogurt, lemons, grapefruit, and sauerkraut can also be helpful during the fall season, as it has a gathering and contracting affect on the body.

Grain: whole brown and sweet rice, oat, millet, barley

Vegetables: celery, cauliflower, turnip, cabbage, pumpkin, Chinese cabbage, onions, watercress, mustard greens, garlic, cucumber, leek, carrot, parsnip, spinach, squash, broccoli, radish

Legumes: white beans, garbanzo beans, peas

Fruits: banana, pear, apples, oranges, papaya, pineapple

Nuts: peanuts, walnuts, almonds

Herbs and spices: dill, fennel, thyme, ginger root, horseradish, cinnamon, cayenne, basil, and rosemary

 

HEALING PLANTS

OAK (QUERCUS ROBUR)

The Endurance Flower – From Unflagging Duty to Inner Commitment

Key Questions:

• Are you exhausted but feel the need to struggle on against all odds?

• Do you have a strong sense of duty and dependability, carrying on no matter what obstacles stand in your way?

• Do you neglect your own needs to complete a task?

The flower essence of the Oak tree is for those who feel exhausted and have the tendency to never give up, regardless of difficulties. You might need the essence just for your present situation though you might be also a typical Oak personality, which is strong, courageous and has an intense sense of duty. You readily share another’s burden and take over their responsibilities. You are afraid to appear weak and might not know when to give up or how to give up.

The healing forces of the Oak flower will connect you with a balanced view and an acceptance of limitation, a sharing of the burden and the development of less rigid ways to express your will. It balances the male and female side within us.

• You fulfill your duty within the parameters of what is possible

• You deal creatively and skillfully with difficult, stressful tasks

• You accomplish a great deal but are also able to say, “That’s enough!”

• You master life joyfully, with strength and endurance

The Oak tree is a sturdy tree, and will not bend with the wind, yet it is the tree that endures and is steadfast. In older days the wood was used to build ships, great cathedrals, churches and halls.

The tree is a very nurturing tree with its acorns and offers shelters for many plants and creatures. It tolerantly hosts hundreds of different insects and they provide food for the birds and rodents. They are rich in undergrowth since Oak trees allow light through to the other plants beneath; mosses and even seedling trees grow on their branches.

An oak tree can easily become hundreds of years, sometimes over 1000 or, as I found in North Florida, over 2000 years (see photo above). For all the strength of the Oak tree, however, it is noticeable that they can crack open, branches can break or die back. The Oak tree never gives up: they can still be struggling into leaf when the tree is rotten with age. It represents abundance.

Empowering Statements of Oak are (The Encyclopedia of Bach Flower Theraphy, Mechthild Scheffer):

• I relax

• I finish easily

• I feel free

My best wishes and blessings for your fall. Warmly, Lisa

Summer 2011, Excerpt from my Newsletter

I just returned from a wonderful, inspiring Shift-Retreat at the Noetic Science Center in Petaluma, CA. About 100 participants arrived from all over the world: Australia, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, Great Britain, South Africa, Mexico, Venezuela, India and the US. I experienced the commitment from the organizers of The Shift Network and openness of each participant, to make a significant personal shift possible by letting go of beliefs, ideas, emotions, and life patterns that no longer serve us.

I felt blessed by the heartfelt atmosphere and was truly inspired by the great visionary and voice of Barbara Marx Hubbard, for the collective shift in the world. Hard to believe she is 81 years. I expe- rienced my deepest inner work through the Holotropic Breathwork by Stanislav Grof. He was one of the facilitators and I was breathing for a whole day through all the layers who wanted to be shifted. I came home empowered and now I am in a continuation of this retreat through the big shift of moving to Ojai, CA. This is coming up for Brian and me in the beginning of August. It seems to be the Shift-Retreat’s implementation.

Wherever you are in your shift right now, I am sending you my best wishes and blessings. If you need some support, let me know. I will continue my counseling work here until the end of July, and by phone and Skype once we have settled. Just write an email to: lisa@bermanhealingarts.com to schedule.

I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your loyalty, openness, warmth, trust and most of all your willingness to heal and to evolve. I am looking forward to stay in touch with you through my counseling, our newsletter, our workshops, and programs.

Enjoy my summer tips.

Light, love and blessings! Yours, Lisa

 

 

Enjoy the Summer

Nature blossoms into its fullness finally here in the Pacific Northwest after a long and cold spring. The plants become what they are meant to be and all the fruits are ripening. The warmth and light of this time of the year is the basic component from which all life originates, develops, heals, and evolves. It is the most expansive and fullest outward expression of Nature. It shows itself in us, as we are also that Nature.

It is the time for reaching out, connecting with people and enjoying life. By giving and sharing, we build our own inner fire, open our own flower, and bring more of ourselves to the world.

Questions for the season:

• What do you observe in regard to your fire and passion?
•  In which areas would you like more joy and laughter?
• Do you experience close and warm friend- ships?

Physical correspondence:

As the sun is the center of our solar system, so is the heart of our body. Both make life possible and radiate warmth, light and energy. Take a moment to tune into that energy. Feel the power, dynamic, and life force, which influence every cell of you. Feel the warmth of your heart and the sun, the microcosm and the macrocosm, sense the rays of the sun, the pulse of your blood in the rhythm of your heart. What does it feel like? How is your fire burning? Do you spread out your passion into the world around you?

The summer’s energy corresponds in our body with the heart and the small intestine, which is known as the “separator of the pure from the impure”. Its job is likened to an internal alchemist who puts everything through an ordeal by fire, sorting what is good and pure from what is gross and impure. Its responsibility is to ensure that only that which is good, pure, and worthy of consideration gets through to the heart. The small intestine sorts on every level.

If your inner ‘summer’ energy is low and you experience no inner “blooming,” you might feel the lack of something to share, like joy or compassion. Though you might crave these qualities, your relationships may be based on anxiety and fear of rejection. An imbalance can also manifest in over expansion, like a never-ending summer: too hot, too much, always laughing, joking, talking, being “on”, never allowing a decrease.

Summer is a reminder to open your heart to the knowing who you are and entering fully into rela- tionships. Be completely in the moment and ready for a new warming heart connection. Joy is the perfect ingredient to open your heart to another. Love life fully.

Inspiration:

• Create joy in your life. Laugh, play and have fun on a regular basis. Consider fun as important to your well-being as work or anything else you do.
• Connect with yourself and to others, love and have compassion. Take time to listen. Open your heart and give unconditionally.
• Live your passion, whether it be the choir, rollerblading, writing poetry or whatever you are interested in. Be fully alive! Be in your body, dance, swim, run, be vital and vibrant.

The best medicines to get your fire burning bright are love, the company of good friends and a sense of humor.

Diet tips for summer

Take advantage of all the fresh and abundant local foods, which are full of vital life force. Use quick cooking methods like sautéing, steaming and blanching and enjoy more salads and raw foods. Live raw foods provide the enzymes needed for healthy digestion and assimilation and have a positive impact on your heart health.

Grains: Buckwheat, rye, corn, amaranth, quinoa

Legumes: Red lentil, sprouted mung beans, chickpeas

Vegetables: Asparagus, chives, endive, radicchio, okra, scallions, dandelion greens and root, kale, collard greens, watercress, mustard greens, aru- gula, radicchio, lettuce, frisée, eggplant, artichokes, cauliflower, green beans, beets, okra, red bell pepper, scallion, artichoke, chicory, olives

Fruits: Cherries, grapefruit, wild berries, blackberries, strawberries, elderberries, mulberries apricot, peaches, apples, lemon. Depending on where you live: papaya, mango, pineapple, melons, guava, persimmon, banana

Dairy: Goat or sheep cheese, goat milk Herbs and spices: parsley, basil, cilantro, chili, curry, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cayenne, ginseng, sage, sorrel, hawthorn, paprika, nettle, rosemary, thyme. Spices in general are recommended.

 

HEALING PLANTS

IMPATIENS (IMPATIENS GLANDULIFERA)

The Time Flower – From Impatience to Patience

Key Questions:

•Are you impatient and irritable with others who seem to do things too slowly for you?

•Do you feel a sense of urgency in everything you do, always rushing to get through things?

•Do you prefer to work alone?

The blocked Impatiens energy is connected to time and being always in a kind of hurry, driven by: ‘Wasting no time’, ‘time is money’, ‘life is to short to waste’. If you are easily running out of patience, if it is difficult to stay calm, peaceful and tranquil with others or in situations, weather in your job or as a parent with your children, the Impatiens flower will help you to balance the energy. Other symptoms you might experience are:

• You’re mentally tense; you feel driven by time

• You expect everything to go quickly and smoothly

• You find it hard to wait for things to take their natural course; you want to finish everything quickly

• You talk, eat, and work faster than others

• People who work more slowly than you drive you crazy – you have no patience or diplomacy for them

• You cut off other people and finish their sentences before they can

• You don’t finish your own sentences

• You impatiently take things into your own hands

• You make rash decisions

• You prefer to work alone at your own pace

• You have a great desire for independence

• You easily flare up and are curt and brusque, though your anger passes just as quickly

• You bring an end to jobs that aren’t completely finished because you just want to get them done

Healing path

As the name of the flower implies, this essence addresses the challenge to be in the flow of time. It is like you wanting to push the river; you are far ahead in your mind. This pattern of yours is calling for a transformation, to immerse fully into the Now, which will give you a new rich experience of the moment as well as a deeper connection with others.

The healing power of Impatiens will reconnect you with great empathy and an angelic patience. You will understand and tolerate the different temperaments and place the quickness of your mind‘s decision-making and intelligence into a patient, gentle and diplomatic way. You will be able to wait for things to take their natural course. You are one with the moment and with ease in time.

Empowering Statements of Impatiens are:

• I have time
• I am patient
• I am relaxed

Spring 2011, Excerpt from my Newsletter

SPRING & AWAKENING – GROWTH & CHANGE

The days slowly become warmer and brighter and nature rouses from its winter sleep. It is preparing for a next growth and is initiating a new beginning and cycle. Spring is a surge of rising energy, an expression of life at its strongest. The seedling is bursting from it’s casing, pushing through the dirt or moving around rocks to reach the light. Plants, like the dandelion can even burst through concrete. This growth process is sometimes with ease and joy, and other times with growing pains, which stretch us beyond our comfort zones. Spring represents an outward movement from ourselves into the world.

Spring is also inspiring us to renew, clear, regenerate, grow anew and getting ready for the next evolutionary step. Look ahead and make plans, formulate new ideas, make decisions, and determine your direction, and take action. Be aware of the contribution you want to make.

Questions for the season:

• What seeds (intentions) do you want to plant?

• What is your vision, what do you want to harvest?

• What are your concrete steps and plans?

• What are your gifts that you want to bring into this year?

• With how much joy and passion do you go about it?

Physical correspondence with the season

On a physical level springtime is associated with liver and gallbladder. The liver is the strategic planner of your direction and vision, and the gallbladder helps you to make decisions and gives wise direction. If there is imbalance, your vision might be stifled and blocked, you might feel anger, frustration, restlessness, or passive aggression. It will be hard for you to experience growth, rebirth and your springtime within. If your liver and gallbladder system is strong, you are able to re-adjust and create new visions easily.

If there are no visions and plans there is no movement possible and you might experience confusion about where to go and why.

The physical manifestation of an imbalance and a sluggish liver can result in many ailments. The liver is one of the most active organs and a powerhouse with its detoxification functions. A malfunction can lead to serious fatigue, weight gain, water retention, gall stones, poor fat metabolism, poor detoxification, headaches, tightness in the shoulders and upper back, sides of the body, sides of the legs, pain in the hips, allergies, stiff groin, and digestive issues.

An emotional imbalance can show up as anger, frustration, feeling ‘stuck’, and depression. The liver is also the provider of bile so that the gallbladder can do its job.

If you are having concerns or questions regarding your health, please contact me.

Inspiration for the season:

• Feel the sunshine pull you up and out, like plants and animals do. Feel the life force within you thrust you out of

darkness into new possibilities.

• Begin new things – Reinvent yourself, at home, in your work. Be creative, make things, do things.

• Visualize your intentional harvest. Use spring’s bountiful energy wisely, so that the crops you sow in yourself, in

your work, and in your life are those you wish to harvest.

• Do a detoxification and cleansing program with teas, fasting, or increased raw foods.

Diet Tips for Spring

Note:

People are getting more and more concerned about the possibility of radiation fallout and the need for iodine. Know, that there are foods that contain high levels of natural iodine. The best choice are sea vegetables. They can provide sufficient levels of iodine to help prevent radiation poisoning of your glandular system. Table salt is not a recommended choice for iodine!

Some sea vegetables with natural iodine are:

Kelp, Nori, Kombu, Hijiki, Wakame, Dulse, and Sea Spaghetti.

General tips:

Eat organic whole foods, many fresh fruits, raw vegetables, sprouts and whole grains. The more your body is saturated with quality foods, the less susceptible it is for harmful influences. Combined with a peaceful inner mind and heart your body stays stable and healthy.

If you want a spring cleansing as a preventative medicinal approach, March, April, and May are the great months for it. You might eat less or do a fast. Green is the color of the season and you might eat as much as possible to supercharge your cleansing diet. The spring diet should be the lightest of the year.

Include also the fresh greens that nature provides in great quantities all around you: like minor’s let- tuce, dandelions, nettles, sorrel, and daisy for ex- ample.

• Drink generous amounts of water

• Prepare fresh juices, green smoothies with citrus fruits, pear, apple, celery stalk, carrot and other greens like

spinach, kale, chard

• Eat sprouts from seeds like beans, mung, and radish

• No refined carbohydrates such as white flour, pasta, cookies, cakes, and crackers. They all gunk up the colon and

rapidly increase the blood sugar. The liver helps to modulate blood sugar, so keeping blood sugar low is a good

strategy for a liver cleanse

• No deep fried food, fast and junk food during this cleansing time

• No late meals

• Reduce or avoid salty foods

• Be aware of your eating habits: For many people, emotions are closely tied to food, some tend to eat more when

they are joyful, while others tend to eat less.

• Understand your craving and how various emotions affect what and how you eat. What do you need instead? How

can you nourish your soul’s longing?

HEALING PLANTS

VINE (Vitis vinifera)

The Authority Flower – From Leading to Being Led

Key Questions:

• Are you inflexible and feel you know more than anyone else?

• Do you feel the need to always be right?

• Do you tend to be domineering and overbearing?

Vine people are the born leaders and they are very strong-willed. In a healed and balanced way they are the wise leaders and serve the world.

In an imbalanced way they are the ‘boss’ or ‘dictator’ personality. They insist that others do things their way. They act and think hierarchically, which is an obsolete pattern in our days. It causes more and more trouble in all kind of relationships and seen all over the world, not least in the uprising of the people against totalitarian regimes.

Dr. Edward Bach, the founder of flower essences, said that those who dominate require ‘much help and guidance to enable them to realize that great universal truth of Unity and to understand the joy of Brotherhood’. The imbalanced Vine state loses sight of compassion and fellowship in the sureness of their will.

Analogy in the Vine plant:

Vine is one of the oldest recorded plants. Wild and cultivated vines are found throughout the world where the climate is right. The common grape vine is a perennial, trailing climber. It is usually seen in the cultivated form when it is pruned back to a stubby rootstock. In the wild state stalks can be a considerable length of 50 feet. It needs careful tending and if wrongly selected may bear bitter and unpalatable fruits. The pruned and restrained cultivated vine has a twisted and cramped old stock forced by the growers to their demands. Compared to the free stretching of the trailing stalks of the wild variety it is a harsh treatment. Yet both forms of Vine reach out and grip whatever is nearby, twisting the tendrils to fasten hold.

Vine is a climber that is extremely strong, with tendrils that bind themselves around the host plant pulling itself up by using others for support. It can become several hundred years old (up to 600 years) like a tree but does not have the trunk, so it comes to a position of dominance by a will to expand rather than through a natural stature. The flower is colored green, which suggests a connection to the heart centre, a balancing through the heart. It is in the heart that the Vine state becomes positive and the dominant becomes supportive, the assertive becomes receptive and the demanding becomes generous. In its positive potential it provides, great riches for mankind, like the Vine plant as is grape.

The Bach-Flower essence of Vine is strengthening the mind’s wisdom and heart’s compassion, which will lead to:

• accepting the rights of others and paying attention to their needs

• helping others to help themselves to find their own way

• an understanding, a wise leader, who has natural authority.

Empowering Statements

• I empathize

• I show respect

• I value and support

My heartfelt wishes for you in this new season. Be, who you really are and let your light shine.

Warmly, Lisa

Winter 2010/2011 Blog, Excerpt from my Newsletter

Winter is the time of stillness and quietude; nature’s energy turns in during this most inward looking of all seasons. Trees and plants look skeletal, the sap has sunk, and outward signs of life have disappeared. The energy is latent and potent, resting deep within, collecting and held in reserve. It is the concentrated, internal force that enables a seed to burst in spring growth.

Winter is also emphasizing the essence of life. Without the external ornamentation of leaves, flowers, and fruits of the growing season, the plant is just bare essence. As it is for all of nature, it is also for our internal work: meditation, containment, concentration, self-recollection and the storing of our energy. Use this season to deeply rest, fill and maintain your reserves and discover the essence of your self.

With all the upcoming holiday celebrations this is not always easy done. Our Western culture is not anchored in this understanding of nature’s circles, as it was in the Celtic culture, for example. The Druids, their spiritual leaders, found that winter solstice is more than an astronomical point of the year. They believed that the moon-change as well as solstice with its magnetic storms on the sun create a strong electromagnetic force, which initiates a huge life change on earth with a powerful influence on all life. These solstice forces reach their full strength on earth on December 24th, fol- lowed by an integration time of 12 nights. The historical tradition tells us that it goes from sunset December 24th to sunset January 5th. The night from the 24th to 25th is the birth of a new life, a new start, the beginning of a new year. The following time of integration demands a lot of energy for every life on earth and challenges our body. I observe an increase of colds and other health issues in those days, as many other healer do as well.

Please observe this cycle for yourself. You might want to follow the following recommendations in order to stay healthy and well in this time of transition.

Tips:

• be less active

• get more rest: go to bed earlier, sleep late

• allow yourself to be still, quiet and empty enough to be filled

• reflect and meditate about the essence of who you are

• gather strength, ideas and plans

• deepen relationships with those closest to you. Keep gatherings simple and relaxed

• eat healthy, fresh and whole foods

• don’t overeat (in the Celtic cultures people would even fast)

• be mindful with alcohol and other drugs

Other Diet Suggestions:

Choose “warming” foods. As the weather cools and the body needs to generate more warmth, include more cooked foods, as soups and complex carbohydrates. Eat dishes made with whole grains, squashes, beans, peas, and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and garlic.

Please read more winter tips in former 2008 and 2009 Newsletters:  http://www.bermanhealingarts.com/publications.htm

I would like to share a beautiful meditation:

Meditation: Catch and Release by Dzogchen Ponlop Rinpoche

Sitting Meditation

One of the most effective methods of meditation is the practice of following the breath. To begin, you simply sit in a meditation posture and watch your breath. There’s nothing else to do. Your breathing should be natural and relaxed. There’s no need to change your normal breathing. Start with bringing your attention to your breath, focusing on the in- halation and exhalation at your nose and mouth. There is a sense that you are actually feeling your breath, feeling its movement. When you do this, you’re not just watching your breath. As you settle into the practice, you actually become the breath. You feel it as you exhale, and you become one with it. Then you feel the breath as you inhale, and you become one with it. You are the breath and the breath is you. As you begin to relax, you begin to appreciate nowness, the present moment. Breathing happens only in the present. Breathe out. One moment is gone. Breathe in again. Another moment is here. Appreciating nowness also includes appreciating your world, your existence, your whole environment, being content with your existence.

How to Begin

To begin a session of sitting meditation, first you need a comfortable seat. You can use any cushion firm enough to support an upright posture. You can also sit in a chair. The main point is to have a relaxed but erect posture so that your spine is straight. If you are sitting on a cushion, cross your legs comfortably, and if you are sitting on a chair, place your feet evenly on the ground. You can rest your hands in your lap or on your thighs. Your eyes can be half-open with your gaze directed slightly downward a short distance in front of you. The most important point is that your posture is both upright and relaxed. Once you’re sitting comfortably, the main thing is to be fully present — to give your practice your full attention.

Catching Your Thoughts

During meditation the chatterbox of mind will open up, and you’ll have lots of thoughts. Some will seem more important than others and evolve into emotions. Some will be related to physical sensations: the pain in your knee or back or neck. And some will strike you as extremely important — things that can’t wait. You forgot to respond to a critical email, you need to return a call, or you forgot your mother’s birthday. These kinds of thoughts will come, but instead of jumping up from your cushion, all you have to do is recognize them. When a thought tries to distract you, just say, “I’m having a thought about forgetting Mom’s birthday.” You simply catch your thought, ac- knowledge it, and then let it go. Sitting in meditation we treat all thoughts equally. We don’t give more weight to some thoughts than to others. If we do, we lose our concentration and our mind will start slipping away.

You may wonder why I’m talking about thoughts. We’re supposed to be focusing on meditation, right? Thoughts deserve a special mention because we tend to forget that the practice of meditation is the experience of thoughts. We might think our meditation should be completely free of thoughts, with our minds totally at peace, but that’s a mis- understanding. That’s more like the end result of our practice than the process. That is the “practice” part of the practice of meditation — just relating to whatever comes up for us. When a thought ap- pears, we see it, acknowledge its presence, let it go and relax. That’s “catch and release.” When you meditate, you repeat this catch-and-release process over and over again. One minute, you’re resting your mind on your breath, then a thought comes up and pulls your attention away. You see the thought, let it go, and go back to your breath. Another thought comes up, you see it, let it go, and go back to your breath once again. Mindfulness, catching your thoughts, brings you back to the present and to a sense of attention, or non- distraction. You can strengthen the power of your concentration with repeated practice, just as you strengthen the muscles in your body every time you exercise.

 

HEALING PLANTS

RED CHESTNUT (Aesculus Carnea)

The Cutting-Free Flower – From Symbiosis to Autonomy

Key Questions:

• Are you distressed and disturbed by other people’s problems?

• Are you excessively concerned and worried for your loved ones?

• Do you constantly worry that harm may come to loved ones, family members, or others you care for?

Red Chestnut people are gifted with great empathy and compassion. Like the flowers of the Red Chestnut tree they radiate a clear, warm strength that is both loving and powerful.

If the described potential is in imbalance, the fear and concerns for the safety of others are taking over and you are challenged with the following symptoms and behaviors:

• You worry too much about the problems of others

• You don’t go to sleep at night until your close ones are safely home

• You feel the life of another as if it is your own

• You are unable to ‘cut the cord’ with someone close to you

• Your inner bond with another is too strong

• You know the feelings of another better than your own

• You are afraid that behind the harmless symptoms another is dealing with is a serious disease

• You burden others with your worry

Healing path

Negative thoughts for safety, health, success, even if unexpressed, have a powerful impact. They can help to create the pattern that brings misfortune about and do harm not only to yourself but also to those you care for. They create a connection at a wrong level out of to strong symbiotic bonds, if between parents and children, couples or other connections.

The healing power of the Red Chestnut flowers is to balance and calm the mind in feelings of concern about the well-being of others. They reconnect you with the potential of:

• having compassion and empathy without making sorrows of others your own

• knowing how to balance your concern with a respect for another’s autonomy

• radiating to others positive thoughts of security, well-being, and courage in difficult situations

• trust. You might begin thinking in terms like: ‘I hope s/he does well. Let’s hope the best for her/him. S/he’ll find the right way’.

Empowering Statements of Red Chestnut are:

•I am myself

•I stay with myself

•I am me and you are you

I am wishing you warmth and inner light during this dark and transition time of the year. May your life go smoothly and the New Year bring you a deeper fulfillment of who you are.

Warmly, Lisa

Summer Blog, Excerpts from the Summer 2010 Newsletter

The summer season has started and slowly the days are getting warmer and sunnier. The sunlight is the basic component from which all life originates, develops, heals, and evolves and the human body depends on a twenty-four hour cycle of light and darkness, depending on the light that enters the body.

The sunlight triggers an overall feel-good atmosphere for most people. This is because sunlight stimulates the production of serotonin, which controls our sleep patters, body temperature and sex drive. A lack of sufficient sunlight and thereby less serotonin is enough reason for people to fall into depression, especially Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). Sunlight also triggers the body to produce its own vitamin D, which increases the oxygen-count in the blood and results in increased energy, sharp mind, strong bones, and healthy teeth. The ultraviolet rays of sunlight help in breaking down cholesterol, which at high levels damages the lining of arteries and cause serious heart disease. However, an over exposure to sunlight has also a side effect as the risk of skin cancer, and looking directly at the sun can cause long-term vision damage.

As the sun is the center of our solar system so is the heart the center of our body system. In the world of scientific materialism, the heart is merely an important muscle. Though in Chinese medicine, the heart is considered the center of wisdom, and, in the ancient Vedic tradition, the heart is the mediator between Heaven and Earth. Nevertheless, the sun and the heart make life possible. They represent the fire element and radiate warmth, light and energy. I invite you to take a moment to tune into that energy. Feel the power, dynamic, and life force, which influence every cell of you. Feel the warmth of your heart and the sun, the microcosm and the macrocosm, sense the rays of the sun, the pulse of your blood in the rhythm of your heart. What do they mean to you? What does it feel like? How much strength and fire do you have? How much passion is spreading out from that source into the world around you?

If your fire element is balanced and strong you love to reach out, be in relationship with people, like laughing and joy. A lack of fire might physically show up as stiff joints, dry skin, bad eye sight, and poor circulation. Do you feel tired, have a lack of passion and experience panic, anxiety and fear about the future?

What might help if you have low fire energy:

• go outside during the day and take in the light of the sun.

• build a fire, light candles or incenses

• bring red flowers into your life.

Too much fire energy in your body can manifest as volatile, critical thoughts and actions, which angrily incites disputes and arguments. You might see red, have inflamed thinking, anger, frustration or fear. On a physical level it might manifest as an acute or chronic inflammation. An inflammation expresses the increased heat, showing too high a pace with a lack of relaxation and cooling down.

What might help if you have high fire energy:

• slow down and let the body cool and regenerate

• get enough sleep and rest

• drink a lot of fresh water

• visit lakes, rivers, streams, oceans, and water fountains

• walk and exercise outside

• be outside during the evening and take in the light of the moon

• relax, meditate and reflect on your inner heat

Whenever you are out of balance, strive for shifting your perspective and reconnect with yourself. Shift from fear and survival energy to an evolving energy of unity and love. Give yourself compas- sion and loving kindness. Hold yourself in your heart and allow yourself to feel that you are evolving to the new you. YOU CAN DO IT!!!

Summer Diet Suggestions

During the summer months, life is at its most expansive, full manifestation. Take advantage of all the fresh and abundant foods full of vital life force. You might use quick cooking methods like sautéing, steaming and blanching and enjoy more salads and raw foods. Live raw foods can provide the enzymes needed for healthy digestion and assimilation and have a positive impact on heart health.

Foods that nourish and support the fire element

Grains: Corn, amaranth, quinoa

Vegetables: Asparagus, chives, endive, okra, scallions, dandelion greens, kale, collard greens, watercress, mustard greens, arugula, radicchio, frisée, eggplant, artichokes, corn, cauliflower, peas, green beans, sprouted mung beans and lentils

Beans and legumes: red lentils, chickpeas

Fruits: wild berries, blackberries, strawberries, elderberries, mulberries apricot, peaches, cherries, apples. Depending on where you life: papaya, mango, pineapple, melons, guava, persimmon, banana

Herbs and spices: chili, curry, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, cayenne, ginseng, sorrel, hawthorn, paprika, nettle, rosemary. Spices in general are considered fire foods

Nuts: Particularly almonds, pecans and walnuts. Nuts can reduce the risk of heart disease and a good source of healthy fats that can lower bad cholesterol and are also high in antioxidants, essential for cardiovascular health.

The best medicines to get your fire burning bright are love and friendship, the company of good friends, a sense of humor and a good laugh.

HEALING PLANTS

Star of Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum)

The Comfort Flower – shifting from shock to reorientation

Key Questions:

• Are you numbed or withdrawn as a result of traumatic events in your life?

• Have you suffered a loss or grief that you have never recovered from?

• Have you suffered a shock in your life such as an accident, loss of a loved one, terrible news, illness?

• Are you frozen by what is going on in the world?

Many people experience a crisis these days through huge personal changes and the global shift we are part of. The Bach-Flower Star of Bethlehem is very comforting in this phase on an emotional, spiritual and physical level, as well as for traumas experienced recently or in the past.

Star of Bethlehem is a beautiful six-petalled starlike flower, displayed in a perfect geometry of a hexagram. The shape symbolizes matter and divinity: one triangle represents the divine world touching to earth, the other the material world reaching towards the divine. The perfect relationship in the geometric form represents an ideal attunement. If we are out of harmony and balance due to shock and crisis, Star of Bethlehem can realign the energies. The word shock here means any impact of energy on us that is too strong for our energetic systems to handle so that distortions result. Shocks often live on in our energetic system and cause a certain degree of paralysis, frozen tension or a kind of inner numbness. All the impressions we haven’t integrated can become poisonous psychotoxins, and over time might cause parts of our system to cease proper functioning.

Star of Bethlehem relates to the soul potential for resurrection. It has the strength in its bright white flowers to re-harmonize and unify us so that the natural healing process can take place. It vitalizes energy links so that the psycho-toxins begin to dissolve. This means in practical terms, you

• feel comforted and soothed so that your pain and trauma are eased

• will reintegrate on all levels, become livelier again

• find that you can breathe again and release tension

• grow mental clarity, and inner strength

• use crisis as opportunities for transformation

• can handle extreme situations without allowing harm to your soul

• regain the ability to cope with normal external energies

• know the right moment to take action and the moment to let go

If you have any questions about the use and dosage of the Star of Bethlehem essence or want my counseling in Indianola or the Pioneer Building in Seattle, please call for an appointment: 360.697.2288.

May we all have a heart-full summer with plenty of warmth and inner light. May you have a summer blossoming that leads to a rich harvest season.  L i s a

Lisa Berman’s excerpt from the 2010 Spring Newsletter

Spring Awakening –

Having a Vision and Planting Seeds

Everywhere I see the spring energy bursting forth with a rising force and creating new buds. Spring stands for a new life, new cycle, new vision and growth. It is the season for planting seeds:

• What seeds do you plant?
• What do you want to harvest?
• What are your true gifts that you want to bring into life?

The Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, describes how we each have ‘near gifts’ and ‘true gifts’. Near gifts, he says, are those things that we are pretty good at doing. Often we make our living and have our lives absorbed in our near gifts. He also speaks about our true gifts, which are:

• those things in which we are soulfully gifted
• activities in which we feel at ease
• where we naturally excel
• that brings happiness in our personal lives

and the lives of others

By living your true gifts you experience joy, inner peace and that life can be sweet. These are the attributes who nurture and keep your liver and gallbladder healthy and in balance. Spring and the liver/gallbladder system are energetically connected. The liver is the strategic planner of your direction and vision, and the gallbladder helps you to make decisions and gives wise directions. If your vision is stifled and blocked, you will feel anger, frustration, restlessness, or passive aggression. Then it will be hard for you to experience growth, rebirth and springtime within. If your liver and gallbladder system is strong, you are able to easily readjust and create new visions.

The physical manifestation of an imbalance can result in ailments like gall stones, poor fat metabolism, poor detoxification, headaches, tightness in the shoulders and upper back, sides of the body, sides of the legs, hip pain, allergies, stiff groin, and digestive issues.

As a preventative and supportive step I recommend some dietary changes or even a cleansing and fasting in spring.

How to Strengthen your Physical Health through the Spring Season

There are many spring foods, which serve the purpose of soothing, freshening and cleansing. GREEN is the color of spring:

• Eat a lot of green and leafy vegetables,

preferably if the plants are young

• Eat solely grains and greens for some days,

while drinking generous amounts of water

• Give yourself a break from fats, salt, sugar and

any refined products

• Use dandelions, milk thistle and nettles as

a body cleanser- raw, as tea or an herbal extract

• Prepare fresh juices, green smoothies with

citrus fruits, pear, apple, celery stalk, carrot and

other greens like spinach, kale, chard

• Sprouts from seeds like beans, mung, and radish
• Be aware of your eating habits: For many

people, emotions are closely tied to food, some

tend to eat more when they are joyful, while

others tend to eat less.

• Understand your craving and how various emotions affect what and how you eat. What do you need instead of eating and how can you nourish your souls longing?

If you are interested in more spring tips please read our Spring Newsletter 2008 and 2009.

Changes that are Happening in Nature, within You, and our World right now

For many years there has been a discussion about a global shift in consciousness. More people are experiencing  this change in their own individual way.

How is it affecting you? How is your body and consciousness adjusting to these change that are within and all around you? Are you dealing with crisis these days? Are your behaviors and strategies that worked in the past, not working anymore? Are you having new physical aches and pains? Are old trauma and blockages showing up? Do you feel foggy in your thoughts, a lethargy, emotional rawness, vulnerability, and lack of groundedness? Do you feel more sensitive to your surroundings? Do you pick up more thoughts of others, experience more déjà vu moments, and feel connected to the future and the past at the same time?

Many of us deal with “growing pains” and a little assistance from a friend or practitioner might be needed to make these changes painless and easy.

An observation is that many are confronted with their true purpose. Are you starting to connect with why you are here? Do you get different messages from your heart and head? Are you feeling anxiety and stress about letting go of what doesn’t serve your purpose? You might be ready for moving towards your magnificence and living your full potential.

What might help you:

• Allow these new wonderful changes to come into your life
• Give yourself permission to become bigger and greater than what you already are
• Honor and acknowledge your brilliance and how powerful and great you are
• Relax and let go of old pattern
• When you feel stuck, upset, and overwhelmed by change, stay with your breathe and allow yourself to relax.
• Do this a few times and allow the changes to come into your life.

New Office in Seattle

I am very excited to let you know that I am now offering my services in Seattle on Wednesdays. My office is in the beautiful Pioneer Building downtown on 1st Ave.

Please help spread the word to family and friends on the east side of the Puget Sound.

Thank you!

HEALING PLANTS

The perfect Bach-Flower Essence in times of change is WALNUT (Juglans regia)

The Giving-Birth-Flower – from Vacillation to Inner Steadfastness

Key Questions:

• Are you experiencing any change in your life – a move, new job, loss of a loved one, new relationship, divorce, puberty, menopause, or giving up an addiction?
• Are you distracted by outside influences?
• Do you need to make a break from strong forces or attachments in your life that may be holding you back?

Walnut can be described as ‘the flower that helps you to break through’. It supports you in any kind of expansion, growth, and self-realization. It relates to the Soul potential for following the inner call to a new beginning. It helps you to gain absolute freedom to listen and act out of your inner truth. It enables you to live and give freely of your own accord and not being easily influenced by others.

Walnut will give you constancy and protection when convictions or strong opinions of others hold you back. It will give you a kind of immediacy, if you feel that the past prevents you from getting on with a new life. It gives a defensive strength and inner stability, which allows each new life circumstance to be like a new conception. It gives you a thicker skin to withstand outside influences to manifest your natural abilities and potential.

If you can’t express yourself in the deepest soul-purpose, you will experience aggression, frustration, depression, psychoses, neurosis, or physical illnesses, depending on the extent of self-alienation. The more freedom you give yourself to follow your inner rhythm, the more freedom you will have to express your unique qualities, and you can follow your life’s path more seriously and with more determination.

True Walnut personalities are like pioneers and having certain ideals and innovative ideas. They have firmly defined life goals and are likely to be rather unconventional in bringing them to realization. They have set themselves free inside, and are able to set sail for new horizons, making progress in fulfilling their purpose in life unaffected by outer circumstances and the opinions of others.

The Romans dedicated the tree to their god Jupiter, which is also representing the liver. In taking the Walnut Bach-Flower you will also strengthen your liver energy.

If you have any questions about the Bach-Flower essences, please contact me: lisa@bermanhealingarts.com