Tag: heart

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Embodied Joy

Embodied Joy

Yesterday I danced in the kitchen and felt JOY.  Earlier this week, I watched a funny movie and felt JOY moving through me as I belly laughed again and again. Last Saturday I got sweaty hiking up a mountain and felt JOY.  And who could forget the sex that left me breathless with JOY?

I think I’ve had it all wrong about JOY. For years I believed that JOY was an emotion that lives in the heart. If you had asked me what JOY was a month ago, I would have said something about JOY being a loving emotion of the heart. But now I’m beginning to think JOY is a full body emotion. JOY is embodied.

Why are little kids so JOYful? They live in their bodies!  Little kids don’t think their way through life, they jiggle and wiggle and dance through life. Life is a full body experience for little kids. Why are many adults so serious and JOY-less?  I’m guessing it has a lot to do with thinking their way through every experience.  By adulthood, body has become secondary to brain and life loses a lot of its JOY.

When I manage to get out of my head and allow myself to experience life through every sensation in my body, JOY spontaneously bubbles up inside of me. JOY fills me.

Hmm, even the language we use to describe JOY is body centered; we are JOYful = our body is full of JOY. We don’t feel JOY so much as fill with it!

Life is a full body sport. So, now I am on a mission: I want to embody JOY as often as possible. To feel myself fill with JOY every day. My body already knows how to do this. I simply need to get my head out of the way and allow my body to do what comes naturally.

If you pass me on the street next week, I hope I’m wiggling and jiggling with JOY.

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I Stand with Standing Rock

Maced Woman at Standing Rock Original Image by Kelly Daniels, Modified by Kat Williams
   Maced Woman at Standing Rock                   Original Image by Kelly Daniels, Modified by Kat Williams

“On one side is the unquestioned assumption that land is merely a warehouse of lifeless materials that have been given to (some of) us by God or conquest, to use without constraint. On this view, human happiness is best served by whatever economy most efficiently transforms water, soils, minerals, wild lives, and human yearning into corporate wealth. And so it is possible to love the bottom line on a quarterly report so fiercely that you will call out the National Guard to protect it.

On the other side of the concrete barriers is a story that is so ancient it seems revolutionary.  On this view, the land is a great and nourishing gift to all beings. The fertile soil, the fresh water, the clear air, the creatures, swift or rooted: they require gratitude and veneration. These gifts are not commodities, like scrap iron and sneakers. The land is sacred, a living breathing entity, for whom we must care, as she cares for us. And so it is possible to love land and water so fiercely you will live in a tent in a North Dakota winter to protect them…” 

~Robin Wall Kimmerer & Kathleen Dean Moore

☾☽

❤️  LOVE YOUR MAMA  ❤️

☾☽

Find Robin and Kathleen’s entire article here: The White Horse and the Humvees—Standing Rock Is Offering Us a Choice

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Web of Love for West Africa

Ebola Virus
Ebola Virus

The Ebola virus is wreaking havoc on the people of West Africa. The number of people infected is doubling every few weeks. But despite the endless media coverage, this epidemic seemed quite distant to me – until I heard that two nurses in Texas had become infected.  Suddenly Ebola seemed to be right at my doorstep.

I began my career as a nurse; one of my first nursing jobs was in ICU, caring for critically ill patients. That’s probably why every new report about the 2 nurses infected with Ebola upset me so much. I remember all too well how hard a hospital nurse’s job is under ordinary circumstances – and there is nothing ordinary about an Ebola infection. At first, I was so angry about these two young nurses infected with Ebola; I wanted to find someone to blame for their pain and suffering. But it doesn’t accomplish anything to play the blame game, does it? More and more people continue to catch Ebola and suffer while we sit around and debate about who should get fired. Anger is a waste of time.

For the last few days, I’ve been asking myself, what can I do besides sit around and wring my hands about Ebola? What can I do to help? I actually considered joining Doctors Without Borders and heading over to Africa myself; nurses are always in short supply. But 9 months abroad is not very practical when I have a daughter to raise. Sacrificing my own family’s well being isn’t the answer.  But I want to do more than just donate some money – I want to personally DO something! Once a nurse always a nurse, I guess.

This epidemic teaches me how interconnected our world is today. Our fates are interwoven with the fates of those suffering in West Africa, whether we acknowledge it or not. So, why not USE our interconnections to help those suffering?

I am a spiritual healer, I have spent the last 20 years learning how to send the healing energy of love out to people in need. Remote healing techniques make it easy to send powerful healing love and prayers to people suffering with Ebola on the other side of the world. And as a nurse, I know that NOTHING is more healing than the energy of love and compassion.

I need your help with this. Can you join me in creating a healing web of love and prayers for West Africa? You don’t need to be a healer or know anything about energy or spiritual healing. You don’t even need to leave your home!

Simply join me by phone, and I will guide you through a simple process for offering love and healing light energy to those suffering with Ebola on the other side of the world.

We are all connected. Why not use our connections to help those suffering with Ebola? Let’s shine the healing light of love on this epidemic. 

Web of Love for West Africa

Sunday October 19, 2014
2:oo PM Mountain

✧

Love and Ebola: Web of Love #2

Saturday October 25, 2014
1:oo PM Mountain

You can be part of this healing web of love via phone or internet connection. Please send an email to me at: nancy@nancylankston.com if you’d like to participate. I will send you simple instructions for joining this event.

The power of this Web of Love increases exponentially
with every person who participates.

I hope you can join me. 

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New Moon Forgiveness

Moon Phases

Look up tonight. The sky will be dark and the stars should be especially bright. This is new moon time.

Each month, our moon cycles from dark phase to full, then back to dark again.  This particular new moon occurs when our moon is in the earthy sign of Virgo. Traditionally Virgo represented the Priestess, keeper of sacred timing and rituals. Our ancestors who lived closer to the earth and in synchrony with the moon and sun cycles, liked to place rituals during this potent new moon time.

Forgive and Let Go

“We are all like the bright moon, we still have our darker side.”
~Khalil Gibran

The dark phase of the moon is the perfect time to let go of inner darkness and make space for more light and love. Many times we hang onto dark events in our past because we cannot forgive another person. Or we cannot forgive ourselves. When it comes to forgiveness, ritual can be a great help to us. Ritual can help us amplify our intentions. Ritual can put a little extra power into our prayers.

When most people think of rituals, they picture an elaborate high Mass at church, or long drawn out funeral. But ritual does not need to be elaborate to be meaningful. I share below a simple ritual to help you forgive and let go.

10 Minute Forgiveness Ritual

  • Create a list of 3-6 things you want to forgive and release.
  • Light a candle.
  • Offer up a short prayer; ask Spirit to help you forgive and let go.
  • Breathe slowly and deeply.
  • As you breathe, offer yourself love despite some mistake that haunts you.
  • Then offer that same love to others who hurt you as well.
  • If tears come, allow yourself to cry and release.
  • Burn your list.
  • Dance to release even more; put on a favorite song and move. Dance and shake!
  • Think of one intention you want to hold for the months ahead.
  • State your intention aloud.
  • As you blow out the candle, thank Spirit for helping you forgive and move on.

In this potent new moon time, let’s choose to consciously let go of past troubles and mistakes. Let’s release our heavy baggage, so we can “lighten up” and flow joyfully into fall.