Making Eden Energy Medicine Our Own

Standing in Love

One of my absolute favorite Eden Energy Medicine (“EEM”) techniques is standing in love.  The premise is simple.  When I stand in love those around me are positively impacted.  It’s relatively easy to execute and the effects are profound.  In fact I’m not really sure if this is actually a technique or more a reminder of how to live. 

I have always been careful when disciplining my children to remind them that while I don’t love a particular behavior I always love them.  One day when I was expressing these sentiments my oldest son pointed out that I sure didn’t look like I loved him right at that moment.  I assessed my scowling face and the tone of my voice and realized that he was absolutely right.  There was a huge incongruence between what I was saying and what I was screaming nonverbally.  Anger and frustration cannot be confused for love no matter what the words.  I thanked him for sharing this insight and decided to look at ways to work with this.

Just say HA!

Each year when my sister and I were kids our family would embark on a month-long road trip to visit West Coast relatives.  These trips were mostly a grand adventure.  However, in each trip there would be moments where boredom and crankiness would collide and we felt sure that we had been trapped in the car forever.  When fighting with each other didn’t resolve the tension we would often resort to one of our favorite road games:  HA!

HA! is easy to learn.  One person says the word, “HA!” and the next person repeats the phrase, “HA! HA!”  You keep going back and forth adding on one more “HA!” each turn.  The object of the game is to make your opponent laugh before you do.  It’s fair game to mug, pull faces, and cross your eyes, anything to make your opponent laugh first.  The only two things you can’t do are sing the words and/or touch the other person.  Laughing is contagious and usually when one person starts everyone else gets the giggles too.  Subsequent rounds of HA! are usually fairly short.  HA! can be played with any number of people. 

I was remembering this game recently when everyone was tense and out of sorts.  The kids and I played for a few minutes and you could see the tension dissolving.  My belly became soft and relaxed and I became much more open and receptive.  It felt good.

Scientific research has long documented the positive impact of laughter on our immune system.  In yogic philosophy the syllable ha is considered a bija or seed syllable representing the sun, Shiva, and the exhalation of prana (life force energy).  The literal meaning depends on the context of the mantra in which it appears.  Yogis throughout the centuries have used sound as a way of working with energy to bring healing and vitality.  Similarly, Eden Energy Medicine ("EEM") also uses sound in many exercises, such as Expelling the Venom, to facilitate the movement of energies in the body.

Whenever I'm cranky I play this game.  It takes me less than thirty seconds to crack myself up.  I imagine the laughter sending little shock waves from my belly into my belt flow (the energetic area around your belly where a belt would cinch) and into my aura.  I like to think of my giggles as messengers reminding my body and energies that all is well.  All is well.  All is well. 

So if you find yourself just a bit uptight and in need of laughter, I hereby formally invite you to just say HA!  May you giggle yourself into wellness.

In love and light,

Jill

 

 

 

 

Mama's Soundproof Booth

My life is filled with sound. Some sounds I really like: children giggling and singing, squishy baby kisses, music, and kitties purring. Some sounds I find painful: my children’s screeching, whining, screaming, gnashing teeth, and cats yowling. On those days when the kids are out of sorts there is way more of the latter than the former. I usually try various energy exercises (such as the Eden Energy Medicine five minute routine) to balance both myself and the kids in hopes of calming everyone. Often it works but sometimes despite best efforts the noise persists. After a while it feels like a physical assault and my nerves get jangled. EEM teaches that pain is the result of constricted energies and a lack of space. Since neither Calgon nor the men in the white suits have yet to rescue me from this cacophony, I’ve developed my own energetic coping methods. It’s time for Mama’s soundproof booth!

Counterintuitive as it may seem the first step in building my soundproof booth is for me to put on whatever music I’m craving. No Barney, no Elmo, and no Veggie Tales! It needs to have a good beat and it needs to be loud. (My one concession to the kids is lyrical language as I’d prefer them to be older before developing a colorful vocabulary.) If my senses are going to be assaulted they may as well be assaulted by something I enjoy! I dance and stamp my feet and sing along at the top of my lungs. I belt out the lyrics and feel space bubbling up inside of me. My dance is primal and with each beat I feel myself connecting to the earth. I stamp the noise right out of my body and trample it into the ground. With my arms I push the space around me (aka the aura) out and at the same time I invite the swirling pulsing rhythm of the music deeply inside of me to entrain with each cell of my being. Standing at the silent center of all the noise and madness I feel a sense of inner calm and peace. I am refreshed and nourished at a deep level.

You might be wondering what the kids are doing when I act in such a manner. At first they pause and gape at me and then they join in the revelry. Afterwards we may turn down the music a bit and dance and sing for a few more songs or we may turn off all of the noises and enjoy the newfound quiet. I’m grateful for the respite.

So if you ever feel like noise is pushing in all around you come join me in my energetic soundproof booth. Or better yet, find your own way to convert the noise in your life to music. And then go dance with wild abandon and celebrate this loud thing called life!


In love and light,

Jill

When the writing doesn't arise . . .

As anyone who read my last blog entry on twirling may have surmised I’m not always a whiz at managing all of the competing demands on my time.  I do the best I can and try to have a sense of humor when it becomes glaringly apparent that I am still human despite best efforts. (wink wink)  This week I have been feeling particularly stressed as I had committed to writing eight blog entries before the end of July and to date have only succeeded in drafting two. 

Now I love to write and usually have a lot to say so my husband and close friends have been surprised that I’ve been struggling to get these blog posts done.  I carved out time in the early morning hours specifically to write.  Strangely nothing happened.  So I tried carving out longer periods of time.  More nothing resulted.  I was both tired and puzzled.   

As a college student I had excelled at showing up to the computer and banging out whatever pithy paper was required.  The only prerequisites for writing were that there had to be an impending deadline and I had to be able to twiddle and play with my hair throughout the writing process.  I usually allotted just enough time between writing and deadline to tame my post writing Don King like coif before zipping to class, completed paper in hand.  I was a writing superhero able to draft off tall stacks of papers in a single bound.  I was a legend in my own mind.  Writing was a faucet I turned on and off at will.

Twirling with Life without Getting Dizzy

My life is full.  With three young children, two dogs, two cats, a husband, acreage to care for, yoga classes to teach, and an increasingly busy energy medicine practice I have an incredibly rich and blessed life.  It is never dull and even more rarely quiet.

However, there have been times when I have found myself in the midst of a strange and unusual phenomenon: my body twirls in a circle while my mind is suddenly freed of all rational thought and has no conscious recollection of which of the multiple requests I was attempting to fill at the moment.  It’s not a proud confession but it is true nonetheless.  Perhaps some of you can relate to this odd behavioral pattern as I’m certainly hoping that it’s not isolated to just me.  For those of you who still all have all of your brain cells fully functional I commend you and assure you that the condition described above is in no way painful or harmful to others should you encounter a loved one in such a circumstance.

Family Fun with Eden Energy Medicine

I’m an energy medicine practitioner but more than that I’m a mom.  Or to my kids I’m MOM!  So it’s only natural in the context of my daily life that I’ve woven my passions for energy medicine and parenting together.  My kids have been and continue to be some of my best teachers. 

So with this in mind I thought I’d share some of our family’s favorite Eden energy medicine adapted and inspired fun.  While these were inspired by and created with my kids my hope is that these will resonate with the kid in each of us.  My thanks to Jared (age 6), Elena (age 4), and Liam (age 2) for their ready enthusiasm to always try new energy medicine creations. 

Pinkie Shoot Your Problems to the Moon (or Sun)!

When your heart is feeling heavy or you’re feeling overwhelmed Donna Eden teaches that you can put one hand on your heart and the other arm outstretched as if you’re dancing with a partner and then have all of your problems go down your outstretched arm and off your heart meridian.  In our house we’ve revised this technique