Author: Aerin Alexander

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Community

Being Energy in Bulgaria!

Dear Community,

Below, Pavel Pavlov, a Being Energy® teacher from Bulgaria is sharing his experience teaching a workshop in his home town. Enjoy it! Aerin

“Hello Friends, I am writing to you to let you know about our most recent workshop in Bulgaria. I can say that it was the most successful event led by BE instructors in Bulgaria. We were able to procure a beautiful event site, which served good food at a reasonable price of 45 EUR for the workshop, accommodation and full board. Have you heard of such a price? It is possible here. And half of the price covered the workshop, which was a normal hourly rate for yoga studios here.
We are, of course, just beginning on our path as BE Instructors in Bulgaria, so we did not ask for a higher price. Patience. Our group consisted of 12 practitioners plus the two Being Energy Instructors, Sergey Velev and me.

Let me say a little about the event site. It is a little rustic, but a very pleasant place in a small town with mineral springs. It is actually a small ceramic factory where there is a studio for designing different figures from clay. Every year the factory holds seminars for children, which gives them the opportunity to work with their hands in the studio. They also hold seminars for different kinds of artists—painters, sculptors, etc. There are beautiful pieces of art all around the studio that were made during these seminars.

We had the whole place for the weekend, and we ate meals cooked especially for us, based on a menu we provided to them.

The mood was heartfelt and sincere; everybody worked hard and got the best for themselves from the event. There were six newcomers who expressed excitement and happiness to be there.

At the end of the workshop we left some time for everyone to ask questions or just to say how he/she felt. Most people shared that they now had a new vision for their lives. One of the newcomers explained that she was expecting to practice yoga, since we also announced the event through our yoga teacher friends. At first the movements confused her. She was astonished when we spoke about Carlos Castaneda, as she had recently begun reading Castaneda’s books. Upon making that connection, between reading the books and this event, she realized that she was not here by chance.

The theme of the workshop was “In the flow of Power.” That theme was generated by me and Sergey before hearing about the next Path With Heart series theme! During lunch, I heard a practitioner report about a video clip she had seen on YouTube about a mother duck that led her ducklings across a very busy, 6-lane highway. This story hit me. When, at the end of the event, we redefined for ourselves the meaning of personal power, I wrote in my notebook, “Personal power is to lead your little ducks across a busy six lane highway to get to the other side together.” And, why not through the Unknown?

Can you imagine this bird passing through, flying and killing monsters with her ducklings? What can drive this incredible act? After the workshop, I found the clip and shared it on the Being Energy – Bulgaria Facebook page. You can see it here https://www.facebook.com/BeingEnergyBulgaria – A CNN Report.

I even bought a ceramic family of ducks that are in front of the tree house in the forest now, next to where I am writing this blog post to you—a beautiful chain of ducks. And of course it is now my desktop picture.

During the preparation of the workshop, I had a very strong feeling that I had to keep certain the intent about the theme and then develop everything around it. It definitely came, but at first I felt my energy was scattered and things didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked. It is a learning process, and I am grateful to my dear teachers, Aerin, Miles and all the incredible beings of the lineage, whom I feel are supporting me, and all of my comrades from Being Energy!” – Pavel Pavlov

Categories
Stories of Power Tools and Tips

Leaving the cult

Carlos Castaneda would often talk, and even joke about the cult of “me, me, me”—the self-centered, human, ego-driven obsession of self-importance.

In my years of training with him, I had the opportunity to observe myself worry and be obsessed with my “self-presentation”—taking extra time to fix the way I looked, which I judged harshly. I spent so much energy in seeking external approval, and in trying to “fit in” with friends and people at work. The self-presentation, the idea I created about myself, was a heavy load to carry around. I could never feel fully satisfied. In fact, it made me feel joyless, worried and stressed out.

out of this,” Castaneda told me one day, smiling at me, aware of my misery. “You need to leave the cult of Me, Me and create a new reference point for yourself, a new way of being by thinking of yourself as a mystery, as something to be discovered, unfolded.”

He taught me endlessly about dropping off the mask that I used to wear and to dream a new mask for myself, a new mask that would make me feel lighter, joyful, and more open. “You need to build your personal power,” he said, “and that is something that you intend, that you call upon, that you dream about.”

It has been almost 20 years since that conversation. I have been practicing tools and recapitulation to free myself from ideas of unworthiness and feeling unlovable—slowly releasing my “idea of myself,” the “me, me, me” inside me. Then something special happened to me just a few weeks ago.

Recently, I have been taking my son to the ocean for daily swims. He loves the water, and I get great pleasure watching him swim. However, every time my son asked me to join him, I resisted getting my head under the water.

I made the decision to look deeper into what was preventing me from submerging myself in the water. I immediately started remembering a time in childhood when I really enjoyed swimming. Then a memory came up about an experience in the ocean: One afternoon when I was 14, vacationing with my family, I got in the ocean and got paralyzed. I remember standing on my tippy toes, with the water just below my nose, being completely unable to move. After 20 minutes of struggling, I was able to wave my arms and was rescued by a lifeguard. It was scary, embarrassing and traumatic. I knew how to swim, but I got paralyzed by fear.

Since then, my relationship with water had somehow been frozen in time. I realize now that I’ve always found excuses for NOT going swimming. “Too cold,” “too hot,” “my hair is done,” “I don’t look good in a bathing suit,” etc, etc. It turns out that I was numbed by fear, not able to enjoy the water for more than 30 years.

So this is what I did last Friday: I went into the ocean, and I recapitulated right there in that spot, my experience as a 14-year-old. I called on my “personal power”—the part of myself connected to Spirit—and I cried (and didn’t care about people watching me). I prayed to Mother Ocean and I released a big chunk of self-defensiveness and stress. I’d been holding fear deep down in my bones without even being consciously aware of it. After that experience, which lasted around an hour, my body completely changed. I felt much more relaxed and my belly was softer. I have been sleepier and have allowed myself to take naps (something unthinkable to me just a few months ago!). I am still processing, but something fundamental shifted in a very deep way.

Getting out of the cult of “me” and awakening to my higher self has been a journey. It’s a process. It doesn’t get done in one weekend. But I can say that thanks to the consistent practice of movements and knowledge given to me by Carols Castaneda and inherited from his teacher, and to the Path with Heart classes that I have been guiding with my husband for the last five years, I have been able to release this thing that was so old and deep.

Our Path with Heart series has been especially effective in supporting this process and sustaining my energy levels and my commitment to transformation, growth and expansion of awareness.

I am a happy fish again, free from the obsession of the Me, Me, Me.

Love,
Aerin

Categories
Tools and Tips

7 Foods (and a Recipe!) to Strengthen Your Joints

Create a strong foundation for health by nourishing your bones, muscles and tendons. Not only can you do this in simple ways, you can also do this in delicious ways.

These seven common foods can help revitalize your joints and tendons:

  • Tomatoes
  • Kale
  • Eggplant
  • Red Bell Pepper
  • Blackberries
  • Basil
  • Brussels Sprouts

The bonus? This is the season for most of these fruits and vegetables—at least in California. Head to your local grocery, farmer’s market or even your own garden to gather up ingredients for a supercharged meal.

Here is a tasty, easy recipe that incorporates some of these key ingredients. For more nutrition tips, subscribe to our Feed Your Body & Soul Video Library.

Summer Garden Pasta
Serves 4

Pair this with a raw kale, shaved Brussels sprout and blackberry salad, and you’ve got the perfect meal for joint health.

Ingredients

  • 1 medium eggplant (1 lb), cut into ½-inch dice
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • ¾ teaspoon salt, plus a pinch for the pasta water
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 lb cherry tomatoes, stems removed
  • 8 plum tomatoes (1 ¼ lbs), peeled, cored and quartered
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 4 red bell peppers
  • 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1 lb spaghetti or perciatelli
  • 1 cup loosely packed fresh basil leaves, chopped
  • 1 ounce parmesan cheese, grated or shaved

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine eggplant, 1 tablespoon oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/8 teaspoon pepper; toss to combine. Spread in a single layer in a baking pan.
  3. In a second baking pan, place all tomatoes and garlic cloves.
  4. Transfer both pans to heated oven. Roast garlic and tomatoes until garlic is soft and tomatoes are shriveled, about 30 minutes. Roast eggplant until brown and tender, about 40 minutes. Remove from oven, and set aside to cool.
  5. When cool enough to handle, squeeze soft garlic from cloves.
  6. Meanwhile, place peppers over a gas burner with a high flame and roast until charred on all sides, turning as needed, about 5 minutes. Place the hot charred peppers in a metal bowl and cover with plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
  7. Using a paper towel, rub charred skin off peppers. Remove and discard seeds and stems. Place 2 peppers, and any liquid collected in the bowl to a the bowl of a food processor. Add roasted garlic, plum tomatoes, vinegar, cayenne, remaining tablespoon olive oil, and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and 3/8 teaspoon pepper; process until smooth.
  8. Cut remaining peppers into 1/4-inch-thick strips; set aside.
  9. Fill a large stockpot with salted water; bring to a boil. Place pasta in water; boil until pasta is al dente, about 11 minutes. Drain in a colander; transfer to a serving bowl. Pour puree over pasta; toss to combine. Add basil, roasted eggplant, cherry tomatoes, and reserved pepper strips; toss. Serve immediately, garnished with grated or shaved Parmesan cheese as desired.

Enjoy!

Categories
Stories of Power

How Did My Heart Open?

What does it mean to have an open heart, and how do you get there? Here is how it happened for me, and why I’m inspired to help others open their hearts and lives.

I have almost always been connected to my emotions. It started in childhood as a survival mechanism: I was tuned to the emotions of those around me so that I would know when to approach them, or when to run! Emotions were my guides for making decisions, for taking action, for almost everything I did.

What I didn’t realize was that being aware of my emotions didn’t mean that my heart was open.

From the age of seven, I was a spiritual seeker. Back then, I didn’t feel connected to my mother or the rest of my family, and so I began a journey of seeking some greater connection and meaning. I explored the abstract ideas of God, Universe, and so on. When I was around 15 years old, my search brought me to the writings of Nietzsche and Carlos Castaneda, and to an examination of Zen Buddhism. At 19, I joined a Sufi dance group and then, finally, a few years later I actually met Castaneda and became one of his students.

Deep spiritual practice opened my whole being to a different way of thinking and seeing the world and myself. It expanded my idea of who I was, and of the possibilities in my life; it awoke my inner resources. I learned to speak a new language, earned a University degree, committed to my practice, became enthusiastic about my work, and started to learn what it means and how to love someone.

Castaneda was the most loving human being I have ever met. He was filled with energy, and was AWAKE. He was not only charismatic, incredibly funny and a true thinker, but he was also a very loving being. He truly cared for his students; he cared for others. He suggested to me that I get out of the “Cult of me, me, me” as he used to sing it, and truly care for another human being.

The “me, me, and me” fixed me to my “old news” story, and tied me to feeling sorry for myself. “Pobrecita,” I thought—no one loves me.

The proposition was, “Can you love someone, truly, unconditionally?” So I made the decision, 20 years ago, to truly open my heart and love unconditionally. That was the first step on a long process that continues unfolding today.
I fell—or actually, stood up—in Love with my dear partner, Miles. At the beginning, it was not easy. I didn’t want to date an Argentine guy, and was filled with so many opinions, judgments, fears an suspicions about his feelings towards me. I have many funny stories about how much I resisted being in partnership with him. The one thing that helped me to stay with it and with him was his unbending presence, which later on I experienced as his unbending love.

When my son was born, I experienced a blast of love, as if a dam that had held so much love suddenly burst open. Through the first years of raising our child and the related challenges, my heart has been continually opening. Opening, opening, opening. Every day gives me the chance to go deeply into my loving.

When someone I love says something that “I don’t like,” I know that I have the choice to “feel hurt and go on the me, me, me path” or to “go deeply into my loving.”

Lately, I have been choosing to go deeply into my ability to love everyone and everything: the parking ticket, the mistake I made at the bank when signing a check, forgiving my “forgettings” and loving each precious moment as it comes, as it flows inside and outside me.

It surprised me at first to discover how much easier it is to be with my heart wide open than to resist love. To keep the heart closed takes tons of energy!

Yes, it is a practice, and it is much more fun to do with other people. We’re so lucky to be with people to share the practice. Thank you to our lovely Path with Heart community for gathering every Sunday so that we can help each other open our hearts!

Are you interested in walking a Path with Heart? I invite you to join our classes, and wish you an open heart in whatever journey you undertake.

I love you all,
Aerin

Categories
Tools and Tips

Three Ways to Create the Relationship You Want

Dear Friend,

Have you ever wondered how to fall in love again with your husband after 20 years of being together?

What about how to renew your view of your friends, and let go of misinterpretations and judgments?

How can you rebuild new, long-lasting, loving relationships?

Our intimate relationships present rich learning opportunities for healing and inner growth. They make way for an inner awakening and spiritual development. Yet we can get stuck.

When something is not working, when we are not getting our way, we can choose to:

Blame the other person or situation

Take responsibility and acknowledge what we can change in us

At some point, we all fall into blaming the other, or pointing the finger at the situation. It happens! But there’s another way—a way that we can consciously take toward growth.

Is your friend to blame? Does your mother, father, friend or sibling need to change so that you can get along? Think again! What is the true issue? Could it be your interpretation of the other’s behavior rather than the behavior itself?

You can take charge of your thinking and create the harmonious relationships you want. And it’s easier than you might think.

One of the greatest gifts of consciousness and being self-aware is that we can choose what to think.

Let’s look at our relationship with money. Does money go out faster than it comes in? Is making money something that is only for others, less spiritually oriented? Can we only earn money through hard work? Are we deserving?

Unconscious beliefs about money can boycott the effort you make to pay your bills on time, or cause you to say no to a great job opportunity that would bring you more money.

Changing your relationship toward money, and toward everyone and everything comes down to three things:

Release any negative thought, image or feeling you are holding about the person or situation or thing

Rebirth your thoughts, images or feelings. Allow yourself to think, “Yes, money flows to me with ease,” “My partner is thoughtful,” or ”I can do well in that job.”

Rebuild a new identity for yourself that has a value and is grounded in truth. For example, you may want to donate money to an organization that’s important to you, or take a class that you feel will change things in your life, or be the person who spends quality time with your family.

Break free from beliefs that may be holding you back so that you can experience abundance in life. Explore the relationship between your ability to manifest and your beliefs about yourself, love, sex and money, and observe how your life changes.

How can we manifest wealth in all things when we feel that we’re not good enough? How can we let go of unhealthy relationships and be open for new ones? What needs to die so that something new can be born?

Birth and death are natural processes, and part of all of life. Everything dies at some point—everything has an expiration date. Sometimes you have to let go so that something new can come forth. If you hold onto things inappropriately, it can create disease-causing toxins accumulate in the form of shame, blame and judgment.

By understanding these processes and learning to organize your experience in new ways, new possibilities and awareness have room to unfold.

You suddenly find a solution to a long-standing financial issue, or an infection that took root heals at long last, or you find the right partner after having felt stuck around intimacy.

We invite you to join us beginning on Sunday, April 12th, for our new Path with Heart series and release, rebirth and rebuild!

We’ll use movement, ”now-ing” and more to successfully transform our relationships and clear the path for your energy to flow.

Categories
Community

The Healing Power of Drumming

It is a great gift to know Suzanne Tribe, and to be having her join us for our BE workshop in Italy. She’s an amazing person, with a special ability to teach, inspire and guide others to heightened states of consciousness.

We share here her thoughts on the power of drumming, its history on the planet, scientific validation of its healing effects and its place in modern culture and the Shamanic path.

Suzanne’s insights on drumming for health and vitality:

Drumming was at the core of community life and healing in most ancient cultures around the world—from the Tuvan shamans in Siberia to the Machis in Chile, the Anatolian culture in ancient Turkey to the Shuar in the Amazon Rainforest, the Inuit in Alaska, the West African Yoruba people and the First Nation’s people in America.

Drumming was a way to communicate from one village to the next; drumming expressed the joy of gathering in celebration; drumming was the fabric of connection, collaboration and healing. Shamanic drumming was, and is, a key component of creating sacred space, honoring the earth and its directions, and intentionally shifting states of consciousness to retrieve information for healing, wellbeing and survival.

In certain parts of the world, particularly more secluded areas, this is still a way of life. I witnessed this when I traveled to the Andes in 1997 to do fieldwork on pre-Columbian drumming and chanting. In the small and beautiful town of Iruya, high up in the Andes, at a time of the yearly festivity, people travelled for days from afar, on foot or by horse, to come together in ceremony. There was drumming, dancing and singing for celebration, reunion, healing and in their words “to connect with mother earth and the cosmos.”

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I learnt from the Aymara and Quechua people in the Andes about the importance of the drum in everyday life and in ceremony. The drum is our connection to mother earth, Pacha Mama, our groundedness. The sound of our voices projected in singing or toning are our connection to the cosmos, to our dreams. And our heart is at the center, allowing the flow between earth and sky/cosmos. I have carried these teachings with me ever since and they are part of who I am as a music therapist, as teacher and performer, and overall as a being dreaming on this earth.

In the 60s and 70s, a return to drumming as a community experience took place. In the United States free form drum circles sprung up at beaches, in parks and at indoor facilities. Simultaneously culturally specific drum circles were generated, and soon to follow came the facilitated community drum circles. In the 80s, with the shift in health care to more complementary and integrative models, a growing interest in drumming as a holistic tool emerged. Nowadays, there is a growing focus on drumming for health purposes in clinical settings, hospitals, psychiatric facilities, schools, private practices, etc.

As a music therapist, I have experienced the healing power of rhythm and drumming in helping patients to relax or become more energized as needed; in supporting premature infants to stabilize their heart rate and breathing rate; and in promoting parent-infant bonding (with the ocean drum and toning), drumming for stress release, drumming for caregivers in ‘caring for the caregiver’ programs, and in other situations.

Research has been conducted on drumming effects on health. A groundbreaking study by Barry Bittman, M.D. published in 2001, found that one hour of group drumming according to a specific protocol called HealthRHYTHMS, boosted the immune system and showed an increase in NK (natural killer) cell activity in participants. Subsequent studies by Bittman showed evidence that group drumming can lower stress, improve mood states and reduce burnout. (For more information about these studies, see http://www.remo.com/portal/pages/hr/research/index.html.)

The present trend shows that drumming for health and wellbeing seems to be making its way back into our culture. What about shamanic drumming?

Shamanic drumming for intentionally shifting one’s state of consciousness and journeying to other layers of awareness is a path I have been learning, practicing and guiding others along for the past 10 years. It includes creating sacred space, honoring the directions, setting intentions and journeying to non-ordinary states of consciousness and back, and includes the process of integrating the experience.

I’d like to conclude with these seven reflections on drumming:

  1. Drumming brings us into the here and now. Babatunde Olatunji, often considered to have inspired the return to the drum circle experience in North America, is quoted as saying: “Yesterday is the past, tomorrow is the future, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”
  2. Drumming is communication and expression without words.
  3. Drumming energizes us and can help us release tension.
  4. Drumming can intentionally shift our consciousness (assemblage point).
  5. Drumming with intention is powerful.
  6. Drumming can align us with our natural rhythms and the rhythms of nature.
  7. Drumming can align us with the rhythms of the universe.

Suzanne Tribe MA, MT-BC

Suzanne Tribe is a music therapist who conducts group empowerment drumming events for wellbeing and community building in the US and Argentina. Suzanne has performed extensively in a variety of world music genres, and at the University of Buenos Aires she taught dance majors the use of creative vocal expression. Her most recent CD with traditional songs from the Andes is Songs from Mother to Daughter.

“MY INTENT IS TO BRING THE HEALING AND TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF DRUMMING, CHANTING and MUSIC INTO THE WORLD!” says Suzanne.

Visit Suzanne on Facebook

Hear one of her songs: