Month: September 2015

Categories
Community

GONGS: Creating Balance, Health and Harmony with Sounds

We are beings of energy, and we are vibrational Beings. Because we are energy, we vibrate. Everything in the Universe is vibrating, moving all of the time. This motion generates frequencies, which become sounds.

A sound, vibration or frequency can be harmonizing for us, or can create disharmony, leading to physical and mental dis-ease. Conversely, a vibration that has a certain resonance can spark a fundamental balance in our being, affecting powerful healing for our bodies, minds and emotions.

Enter gong healing. We’ll be featuring this transformational and time-tested healing experience during our October workshop weekend in Amsterdam. We think you’ll all love the feeling of harmony and Inner Silence that the gongs so immediately activate.

Gongs have been made and used by people from a variety of cultures for many centuries, dating back to at least the Bronze Age. Yet their demonstrated ability to create a sense of peace has never been more needed. We are bombarded by all manner of vibrations in our modern lives. The sound frequency of the gongs can help us feel more harmonious, and balance the experience of energetic chaos that puts roadblocks in the way of our true energy shining forth.

The ripples of sound from gongs that are played with intention bathe your body in waves of balancing vibration. You can think of it as a sound massage that has a positive impact at the cellular and even molecular levels. The effect can be both subtle and dramatic.

The vibration of the gong creates a bridge to connect to your energy being. It penetrates to the subtlest levels of our physiology. We could compare the effect of gongs to the flow of energy crossing the assemblage point and illuminating a segment of fibers.

Christof Bernhard, the gong master who will be with us in Amsterdam, says that, “Every sound we encounter is a painting, a painting created by vibrations of varying complexity. These paintings act on our bodies, minds and emotions.”
Every sound has an effect on us. The sounds that gongs create resonate in a very positive way. We can use the sound of Gongs to dissolve blockages that prevent our full expression.

Categories
Tools and Tips

Boost Your Immunity in ONE Simple Step!

Imagery for Immunity

Research shows that our thoughts and feelings impact our physicality, from increased cortisol levels when we’re stressed to lowered immunity if we’re feeling depressed. Most of the time, we don’t consciously direct our thoughts for the benefit of our health, but we do have the power to do just that.

Visualization is a practical tool we can use at any time to deliberately and positively influence our immune system. When we say “visualization,” we really mean much more than seeing with internal eyes. Some of us are not visually oriented, and may not connect to the idea of seeing images with our eyes closed. Instead, let’s think of visualization as image-feeling. The feeling, whether we can cognize images or not, is really what we’re after. The emotion is what has the greatest influence on our health. (For more on that, see Dr. Reid’s blog post: The Power of Words.)

For example, visualize a tree. If you can’t see the trunk, branches, etc. in your mind’s eye, then cognize the feeling of a tree. In either case, when we imagine a tree, there is a feeling that we likely associate with concept of tree. This is what we mean here by visualization. So even if you can’t see that tree, you can still use visualization techniques for your benefit.

How does visualization impact us physically? It becomes part of the chemical conversation going on in our body, creating a blueprint that influences our neuro- and immunotransmitters.

From our earliest moments of life, the brain and immune system are engaged in a constant dialogue. Each influences the other by means of chemical messengers. In fact, the immune system has neurotransmitter receptor sites in white blood cells, lymph nodes and elsewhere, and the brain has receptor sites for immunotransmitters called cytokines.

Three important cytokines are:

  • Interferons
  • Interleukins
  • Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)

Examples of neurotransmitters include:

  • Seratonin
  • Norepinephrine
  • Dopamine

Neurotransmitters circulate throughout the body with specific immune system receptor sites, as mentioned. Emotions impact neurotransmitters and thus affect immunity specifically, and our health generally.

The immune system responds to messages from the brain formed by images or emotions. We can deliberately create mental images or encourage emotions to impact our immune systems in a positive way. Instead of letting our unconscious thoughts steer our health, we can consciously direct thoughts and feelings for greater energy and vitality.

You can use visualization in any moment to influence your experience, or you can use guided visualization for a different and often deeper effect. One of the simplest approaches is to use a counterbalancing visualization. Let’s say, for example, that you feel nervous—you can imagine yourself being calm and strong. Or maybe you feel tired—consciously imagine yourself being active, feeling what it feels like to have more energy. If you’re cold, you can imagine sitting in the sun on a tropical beach, or if you have high blood pressure, you can visualize your blood pressure going down.

If a person is dealing with cancer and thinks “I’m doomed,” it certainly doesn’t help the immune system. Indeed, fear may be the most weakening emotion for immunity.

If we let negative thoughts run unchecked, they can weaken us, versus consciously visualizing life and vitality. We can use the tool of directed visualization on the spur of the moment when there is a need or when we notice an unhelpful thought.

We can also use guided imagery to potent effect. Being Energy, our educational program on health on vitality, recently released the CD Into Your Heart, a guided visualization from Dr. Reid.

The visualization is designed to help you regulate the flow of your hormones and neurotransmitters in a way that reduces stress in your body and increases happiness. Dr. Reid guides you to opening yourself to the energy of your heart, to heal emotional hurts and find out what really matters to you.

Available for purchase from the Being Energy online store, it’s a tool that you can turn to again and again. Listen to a sample:

Dr. Reid also created a wonderful CD entitled Guided Explorations to Our Internal Organs, which is also available from the Being Energy online store.

In addition, you can try this guided visualization, or “recapitulation” for resolving past hurts. It guides you to evoking the feeling of safety and nourishment that one experiences in the mother’s womb for greater energy and vitality in daily life: Remember that you can use visualization to benefit your life any time you like, whether it’s a quick image that you form in your mind to help you manage a situation, or whether you sit down.

Categories
Community

Change, Release and Free Your Story

Dear Community,

Below, Tom Reavley, a Being Energy® teacher from US is sharing his experience teaching this work and facing his fears. Enjoy it! – Aerin

“As a BE teacher, I often have to face all of my fears and insecurities when I begin to plan a class. I find myself asking: Who am I to be offering instruction to others in something so elusive and difficult to talk about as turning the wheel of time? How do we create a pause in the seemingly unceasing repetition of our own stories? How can I honestly stand before others when I really don’t understand anything myself?

Carlos Castaneda used to say that no one “understands” anything. A real understanding would require going behind or beyond the assumptions on which all attempts at understanding are based—something that we can never do because at the base of everything is pure mystery, the unknowable. It’s like the child who responds to every step of an adult’s explanation with “Why?” until finally his parent has to tell him that there is no “why” for some questions. However, even without understanding anything, we can handle and enjoy life and the world perfectly well; we can function wonderfully.

When I guide Being Energy classes or teach it to others, my only option is to suspend my own story—which includes plenty of self doubts about handling something that can’t be reduced to logic or reason—and let the spirit channel through me, even if only for a while. Under the pressure of my commitment to present something, I have to relax at some point and let ideas flow—what to emphasize, how to express it, what sequences of movements to do—and then connect to the energetic feeling that the movements and practices create. This is especially true when presenting the Code or guiding a recapitulation session. It is a complete mystery why the movements of the Code silence the mind, but I do experience that silence and I feel it as a direct connection between me and those who I am guiding, even when we are on different parts of the globe, communicating by Internet but also through our energetic link.

Recapitulating in a group is even more mysterious. If each one of us is reviewing his own distinct life experiences, what is the value of pursuing this as a group or class activity? For one thing, we are conditioned to the discipline of a schedule and an agreement to meet together, so the class format helps us take that initial step—just do it! Beyond this practical advantage, the group format helps create and reinforce a certain mood—of silence, of courage and determination to face ourselves without judgment. The suspending of judgment also applies to the act of recapitulation itself. Even when nothing comes to us as an experience worthy of recapitulation, we accept this without self-criticism and with a mood of curiosity and wonder. Even the most seemingly mundane experience we happen to remember can lead to discovery and self-knowledge.

The challenge of integrating our innermost core, the essence of our being, with our behavior and choices is not a goal against which we judge ourselves as winners or losers. It is a path, a process that continues throughout our lives. Everyone has doubts, and each of us loses the feeling of fluid energy and silence over and over. However, if we have tasted this energy and silence, we know how to find it and keep coming back, trying to go deeper and maintain this position longer.
By deciding to teach, you are committing yourself. You are choosing to put yourself on the line and rally your energy each time you lead others, even though you have no guarantees that you will succeed. When a class approaches and you feel lost, the commitment comes to your aid. It focuses your attention and activates your intent so that you can genuinely connect to the inexhaustible source of life and creativity. You stand before others not knowing exactly what you will say, but with a feeling of certainty that expresses itself in your voice, your eyes and your movements. And in that moment you have changed your story—you are someone or something else, an expression of the infinite.

What a great gift is this opportunity to share beauty of spirit with others!” – Tom