Gong bath meditation is a different way to meditate. I have recently attended two gong bath meditations with Kenny Kolter of Buffalo Grove, Illinois. He plays the gong differently each time going with the energy of the group.
I always enjoy music but I was not sure how I would like listening to one hour of the gong. Kenny had a gong and a drum. We brought our sleeping bag and a pillow. Everyone arranged their bags on the floor with our head facing the gong. He told us that by having our head facing the gong the sound washed over the entire body. I was with several friends so it seemed very comfortable. I would suggest bringing a friend if you are timid about new situations.
As he played, I felt the sound in different parts of my body. I felt it in my head, then my throat, and down my arms. My hands and feet felt energy. At one point I felt it move through my entire digestive system. I felt very peaceful and relaxed. When he stopped playing everyone present felt like it was just a few minutes. Time seems to pass quickly. I felt energized and peaceful.
Many of the people present felt the energy move through different body parts just as I did. I thought that was very interesting. They felt it in their throat when I felt it in my throat. Several of us felt it in our digestive track at the same time.
My second gong meditation was this week. It was a different group of people. I felt the music in different parts of my body again. I also had a strong desire to get up and dance. I did move from laying to sitting. I was amazed at how quickly the time passed.
Kenny was saying that the gong helps you to meditate because the sound surrounds you.
I did experience ear pain at one point but was able to breath through the sound and the pain passed. Several other people had this experience also.
The best part of the experience is that the time is all about yourself. There is no work to be done, no phone or computer to distract, no tv, no children. Everyone that I attended with felt sad that the hour passed so quickly.
If you can find a gong bath meditation near you, I would recommend that you try it. Meditation is just time for you and your body. In this hectic world it can be just what we need to become centered.
Blessings, Eileen

“The Alchemist” is written by Paulo Coelho. This book was a very enjoyable read. It is the tale of Santiago, a shepherd boy who wants to travel so he convinces his parents that he wants to become a shepherd. As he travels with his sheep he becomes very connected to nature. As he becomes connected to nature he is able to learn the universal language that allows him to communicate with all people.
He is able to see parts of his country as he moves his flock. He eventually has an experience that leads him on a journey to the pyramids. It is the story of how he learns to listen to his heart and learns to trust his heart. While on his journey, he meets people who teach him some of life’s lessons. He meets a man who is searching for a man who is an alchemist. He travels with him until they meet the alchemist. During his travels, he reads many books but he learns that what he needs to know is already in his heart.
This story encourages us to follow our hearts. We often look outside ourselves for guidance perhaps in the form of books, or teachers or other people. We may not learn to listen to our hearts. It is possible that the work that brings us passion can be lost as we are directed by knowledgeable adults to look for a career that will make a lot of money. We may bow to what our parents want us to do for a living or even some belief we have in our head that keeps us from pursuing our dream. We may let responsibility guide our life,or our shoulds or our musts but especially our fears.
This story is an enjoyable read and one that reminds us to listen to our heart.

This is a great little book to inspire someone you love. It is written by Rachel Naomi Remen, M.D. She took parts of her bigger book and made this inspiring little book. Her big book is called the “Kitchen Table Wisdom”. Dr. Remen believes that we learn wisdom through sharing our stories. What one person has experienced may be just what another person needs to hear on their personal journey. In one or two sentences she shares thoughts on becoming whole, teachers and healers, loss, suffering, aliveness, choosing life, love, connection, refuge and holiness. These are the can opener thoughts…I mean the kind of thoughts that resonate at a heart level and help you to feel a response to what she says. They may resonate with me because of personal experience but since so many people have read her other book, I think it is more likely that she helps us to feel the connectedness we have to other human beings and their experiences. Many of us learn and grow through what happens to other people and how that affects us. Our experiences become part of the fabric of who we are and sometimes those experiences help us to know who we do not want to be in this life.
Her section on love really jostled me. I read, ” Approval is a form of judgment. When we approve of people , we sit in judgment of them as surely as when we criticize them.” p.99 Wow! This was something new for me to think about.
If you need some discussion starters or just a thought for the day, this little book is for you.
Blessings, Eileen

One thing that always makes me feel good is cooking and eating. I enjoy all the partying with friends and eating yummy food. One of the best places to eat in the world in New Orleans. On our last trip there I picked up a copy of Crescent City Cooking by Susan Spicer. I have been told by several New Orlean’s natives that she is the best chef in the city.

Her cookbook is wonderful. The dishes are unique New Orleans dishes with a flair. She gives a lovely list of things to stock in your pantry so you can make these extra special meals. Her pictures are mouth watering. I have tried several recipes and they are very good. If you love New Orleans cooking, I recommend you pick up this cookbook.

On page 61 she has a recipe for layered crepe gateau with prosciutto, ham and cheese or you can make it with crayfish and spinach….yum or try the recipe on page 315 called Bayona extra cheesy spoon bread, or on page 23` Seared Yellow fin Tuna with walnut red pepper sauce. Oh it is a feast.

Eat well, blessings , Eileen

This is a Great Little Book of Afformations which I found on Amazon.com. It is written by Noah ST. John and Denise Berard. The premise of this book is that affirmations may not work if we do not really believe the affirmation we are saying. By changing a negative belief into a positive question, the authors state that your mind will search to find the answer and bring about a change in your circumstances.

Now that the holidays are coming up, family situations that create stress can be reworded to bring about a change in the situation. So if your family fights all the time, as I interpret this book, you would make an afformation something like this: Why is my family so loving and joyful and love to be around each other? Why do I have the most wonderful mother or father or sister or brother or aunt? Why do I have the perfect family member for me? Why am I such a loving and caring person? Why is my brother such a loving caring person? Why does my brother always listen to what I am saying?

This book is a very quick read. The authors recommend teaching it to at least two other people.

They also have a website which sounds interesting called SuccessClinic.com

I am going to try it but not just for the holidays. I am going to apply it to my work life, my spiritual life and my physical health and well being. If you try it let me know how it works for you.

We are in the month of December and many of us are celebrating the holidays by getting together with family and friends. These are times that should be filled with peace, joy and fun!

Do you need some ideas for staying peaceful and joyful?

Start by eating right. Too many sugar laden treats can cause mood swings as your blood sugar level goes up and down. The fiber in fruits and vegetables can help keep the blood sugar level even so you do not get a lot of highs and lows. When your blood sugar spikes after eating something sugary the body sends out more insulin. Insulin helps to move the sugar into our cells and a couple of hours after that sugary snack, your blood sugar falls. When the blood sugar gets low we need to eat and if we eat something sugary we start the cycle all over again. When our blood sugar gets low we can feel crabby, jittery, wired, tired, shaky, or sleepy.
Watch out for the caffeine buzz. It can hit and make you loose your cool as you get jumpy or wired. Add caffeine buzz to low blood sugar and you may have react by growling or acting out because you need some food! Some good substitutes for caffeine are water, lemonade, herbal teas and juice.

Get some exercise. Walk and extra couple of blocks. Dance! around the kitchen as you make dinner or while dinner is is the oven, turn on some music and dance in the living room.
Remember to laugh…. it helps us feel good. The more we can laugh at our life the lighter we become.

Essential oils or aromas can help us feel calmer. My friend simmers cloves, cinnamon and vanilla in water on the stove and it smells yummy. I like to use essential oils to scent the room.

Essential oils come from plants. They are very compatible with our bodies. Essential oils have been used as medicine in England, Germany and France for many years. Many have anti viral,anti fungal and anti bacterial properties. We use herbs in cooking that have many of these properties. For example, a powerful herb is oregano. Love oregano in cooking? Well, the oregano in an essential oil is much stronger because it is in liquid form that retains the original properties because it is not dried and it is more concentrated. I know that the spices in my cupboard are not fresh. And when we buy spices we do not know how long they have been on the shelf, if they have been stored properly ect. That is an advantage of essential oils is most will not breakdown and if stored properly they will last a long time.

Young Living is a brand of essential oils that I prefer to use. They are produced according to AFNOR and ISO standards. Many other oils do not meet these standards. “The… AFNOR( Association French Normalization Organization Regulation) and ISO ( International Standards Organization )standards are standards used in Europe that outlines the chemical profile and principal constituents that a quality essential oil should have.” For example, Thyme can may contain different chemotypes depending on where it is grown, how it is grown, climate, harvesting, altitude. These factors can affect the thyme oil and when it is distilled into and oil it may contain Thymol or linalol or eugenol….
By purchasing an oil that has been distilled by the AFNOR standard, the purchaser is able to determine the characteristics he or she is looking for in Thyme oil. * from Essential OIls Desk Reference

Essential Science Publishing has a book called the ESSENTIAL OILS Desk Reference. There is much more information available about specific essential oils particularly which oil to use, if it can be taken internally, topically or inhaled. It also tells which oil to use for different situations.

If you want to purchase a different brand of essential oils, I recommend that you find a brand that can be taken internally. If it says for external use only, it has probably been mixed with petro chemicals and it will not be effective as healing agent.

If you think that what you put on your skin or wash your hair with or chemicals in your environment do not affect you, try several experiments. Put a clove of garlic between your toes. How long does it take before you can taste it? Chemicals that we come in contact with on a daily basis can store in the fat under our skin. It may be possible that all the chemicals that we breathe in on a daily basis in the form of cleaners ect can have long term effects on our brains. And we want to use the purest things around our kids. The “Essentail Oils” desk reference has information on chemicals that can store under our skin that are in products we purchase. My reflexology teacher told us to take mineral oil and soak a saltine cracker in it. After it sits in the oil a bit the cracker becomes hard as a rock. So her question to us was DO you want to put mineral oil on your skin?

Back to peace and calming. What makes you feel happy? Make some gingerbread cookies, or chocolate chip cookies. Maybe its the smell of soup? How about bread? Using oils in our environment can make us feel better and bring up happy feelings.

One of my favorite oils is called Peace and Calming. It literally brings a sense of calm to my body when I smell it. I also love lavender. I use lavender spritzed in water on my pillow case. If I can’t sleep I apply it to my feet and top of my head. I also feel wonderful when I use a young living oil called JOY. It smells fantastic. If you have fragrant sensitive people around use oils sparingly. You can still apply them to your feet, put socks and shoes on and enjoy the effect.

Essential oils can be applied topically, inhaled or eaten. Smells particularly can affect our mood. Find some scents that elevate your mood. Avoid scents that contain petrochemicals. Would you like to sit and inhale bleach or varnish..I would not. So my point is avoid buying products that are not pure plant based scents.

I am a distributor of Young Living Essential oils. There was a one time fee of $50.00 and I get the lowest price forever. If you would like to know more about it email me. If you would like to sign up under me my distributor number is 847488.

May your holidays be filled with Joy, Peace and Calm. Blessings, Eileen

When we exercise we may attain the same mind state as meditation. In this space we no longer think or focus on our thoughts. It brings us to a centered, calm place.
All types of exercise can bring us to this place. Runners, walkers, swimmers, yoga, dancing ect can take us to a place of calm. Any activity that focuses us and keeps us from thinking is good for the mind and the spirit. It creates a space that allows us to get in touch with the life force energy that connects everyone. Brain chatter is more difficult to stop noticing especially when you try and quiet your mind during meditation. Even after practicing meditation for many years, there are times when I am not able to quiet the mind.
Running, swimming or doing something that is physically difficult allows us to focus our attention on the physical activity but keeps us from focusing on mind chatter.
Gardening is a wonderful way to mediate. Nature is very calming and healing for many people.

“Ask and It Is Given” by Esther and Jerry Hicks is a book based on channeled teachings of beings called Abraham through Esther Hicks. If you are uncomfortable with channeling as something that is or is not possible, I can understand. I read this book with an open mind though and found that the information is intriguing even though part of my mind wants to reject the possibility that it is coming from beings from beyond.

The basic premise is that what we focus on in our life is what we attract. For example, if we focus on lack of money the energy that is created is lack of money and we will attract more bills, more lack of money. The more jobs we work to pay off the bills will only attract more bills.
But if we switch to a mode of gratitude for what we already have, we will attract positive things..blessings. If we bless every bill, our money as we spend it and we see that money is just energy that goes out and comes back if we let it. As we spend money we prosper others and as we prosper others we prosper ourselves. As our money goes out it makes room for more money to come in to us.

Many older adults grew up in the depression. They save everything because they may need it some day. They have experienced lack and they do not want to experience it again. They always want to buy things on sale. When my aunt died, her children paid for my aunts and my folks to stay at a hotel and paid for their meals. The hotel meals were expensive so my aunt refused to eat there and complained to the waiter and bus boys that the food was too expensive. When I picked her up she shared her story with me.

I understand where she is coming from, but I also know that she had received a gift that she did not let herself enjoy. The waiter and the bus boys made less salary that day because she did not spend her gift. They have bills to pay too and won’t be able to work there if people do not eat. She had not really thought about it this way. Everything we do or do not do affects others around us.

I think that all of us could agree that we have met people who seem to have good things fall into their lap. What Abraham would say is that things “fell” into their lap because they have focused on what they want, not what they do not want.

If you are in a bad job and you are looking for a different job you must start your search by focusing on the things you like about your current job. It is also helpful to make a list of all the things you would like in a job. To make it more specific you make a list of things you do not want in but you write it in a positive way. For example, instead of saying do not want to pay for parking you would write and I would like a job with ample free parking. You turn the negative around and describe what you want in positive terms.

If you want to get along with someone in your family who drives you crazy start by making a list of all their good qualities. Sometimes this in a difficult task but persevere. Then when you think of this person focus only on the good qualities. The difficult part of this is keeping focused on this when talking to your friends.

A way to keep us healthy is to be thankful for the health that we already have. Mentally make a list of all the wonderful healthy parts of your body. I try and wake up each day and give thanks for the wonderful bed I slept in, the great sleep I experienced, my toes, my feet, my ankles, my calves, my knees, my thighs, my abdomen, my but, my chest, my arms, my hands, my head, my neck…. ect,

This is an helpful way to think when our financial markets are swinging up and down on a daily basis. Stay focused on all the blessings in our lives not on the things we worry about. Whatever is going to happen with our economy will not be stopped by our worrying.

I would like to put the thought out that capable people running our country will come up with the best solutions to help our country prosper and grow. That all the people in our country will have a place clean place to live, enough food to eat, access to good schools, parks, access to good medical care ect. I am thankful for all the blessings we have day to day. We can go to the store and purchase food, water, clothes. We drive our cars on beautiful roads. Most of us have houses with heat and beds and tvs and radios and phones and the internet. We are able to choose how we want to live,and worship and where we want to work. I am thankful for our freedoms, the freedom of speech, the freedom to choose how we want to live, freedom to vote for the candidate of our choice. Yehaw!!!!

Anyway, check out Abraham and Esther and Jerry Hicks. They have several great books and some audio selections. There is also some audio sessions on Hay House radio archives that you can download to your I pod.

Have a peaceful, joyful, wonderful day. Blessings, Eileen

Angels are such an interesting topic. I do believe in Angels. I believe that Angels are there to help us when we need them if we just ask.

Doreen Virtue is a therapist that also is able to communicate with angels. She has a tape or cd that is called “Divine Prescriptions”. I listened to it this week and I found it to be very enlightening.

Doreen explains through examples of different clients and what their angels say how to better deal with difficult events in our lives.
An example that really struck me was a young male teacher that was being picked on by the administrator. HE went to see Doreen to see if she could help him deal with this woman.

Doreen was able to connect with the woman’s angels. She found out that the woman was going through a bitter divorce. This young man looked just like her husband. The young man was sent to help her to heal by learning to forgive. The angel told him to send loving thoughts to her whenever he was around her. After several stressful months, she one day hit a turning point and told him about her divorce. None of the staff knew about the divorce. After that day, they were able to have civil discussions and he could tell that she was healing.

Another interesting thing she said is that we can ask our angels to talk to another person’s angels and ask for help if we are having trouble getting along. I tried this one day and had almost instant results. It was a 180 shift in the situation. Other situations have taken longer.

There were many other interesting insights. Doreen has a radio show on Hay House Radio. If you go to Hay House Radio online you can listen to old shows as well as new shows. She also has interesting angel books which I will discuss later in the book section.

For now, if you feel so led, ask your angels to help you. They will help you find a wonderful place to live. Doreen says make a list of what you want and what you do not want. Add areas you want to live. They can also help with jobs, lost items, healing relationships, life purpose, and many other things.

Have a great day and remember to thank you angels for all their help.

Blessings, Eileen

A few years ago I attended a channeling. A psychic from England named Paul came to Marengo. HE channels an American Indian named RED CLOUD. A friend encouraged me to go and I was hesitant. I did not really believe in “channeling”.

When I arrived, I took a seat in the back of the room. I recognized many of the people who had come.
Paul is a very gentle and mild mannered man. HE explained that he belonged to a meditation circle. After one particular mediation, the rest of the group told him that he had been speaking during the meditation and the voice belonged to RED CLOUD. HE now travels around and does readings for people and then had a channeling or two depending on how he is guided.

Paul went into meditation. His demeanor changed and he started talking in a deeper, slower voice.
This voice was RED CLOUD. I continued to feel skeptical.

Then someone in the room asked about our life purpose.

RED CLOUD stated that we are here to love each and every person we meet. He said that every person we meet mirrors some part of us and is here to help us heal thoughts we have about ourselves. Though this is not exactly a new message, I felt a huge resonance with what was said.

I have read stories of people that are so loving that they have healed people by just being in their presence such as people in prison. They love all equally. Though I try and do this, I find that I still avoid or feel afraid of people that are scary or different from me even though we are really from the same creator.

I have wanted to be able to be that loving person.

I want to love others like Jesus did. I want to see them in their pure holy light. I think my religion at the time focused on going to church, praying and following rules. Rules that at times seem against Jesus’ teachings to love others as we love ourselves. Rules that let us think that as long as we are going to church we are saved even if we are not loving in our lives.

So, I started to practice heart math. It helped me to shift into neutral, take a breath. I learned that many times we react because a part of our brain is wired that way. It learns as we grow up how to react to certain events. I also learned that we can short circuit that reaction. We can shift to neutral.
This process takes lots of practice. And even if we practice it all the time we will still have setbacks. The more stressful your job or your family is ,the more practice you need.

Last week I was going for a test at the local hospital. Two days before the test, a hospital rep called to tell me that I would have to pay my deductible. Did I want to put it on my visa?
Boinggggg! I just snapped and told her in a not so loving way that she could wait until I got there the next day! (How would you like to have her job!) She told me that I was not scheduled the next day, but actually the following day. She did not react to my crabbiness at all. She transfered me to scheduling and they confirmed that my test was two days away.

Afterwards, I felt terrible that I had been unloving. As it turned out she had been an angel to me because I found out that I had put the wrong date on my calender.

Besides apologizing, one of the things I did is relive the conversation and see it the way I would have liked it to be instead of the way it was. It is practice.

It also shows that at times we react and we do not even know why we reacted the way we do. We can relearn but it is a slow process .

Well, I hope you have lots of love and joy and smiles today. Blessings, Eileen