energy healing

The wall and the water

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A creek in central Iowa

The facade, the wall you’ve created to protect yourself and your heart must crumble. It has become the most poignant of prisons. Built to keep yourself safe, but in reality, hemming you in, trapping and keeping you a captive.

Can you feel the subtle tightness in your neck and chest? It restricts your expression, your voice and breathing, your experience of life. Feel the tense muscles in your gut and back and butt that create a sense of heavy armor… As if the tight energy could keep an arrow or mean word from penetrating the tinder pink center of your being.

Only you know how to open this prison and set yourself free. I know you can pretend. You did it as a child, and you were really good at it. Who did you pretend to be then? Who are you now?  When did you build your wall?  Do you know your wall is optional?

Practice becoming water, waves on a lake, ripples in a stream, falling rain, a drop in the ocean. Don’t just think about being the water, become the water, the flow, pulled by gravity. You can’t be water and be tense. You can’t be both water and a wall at the same time.  Become water each day and feel the walls of your prison dissolve and wash away.

Grief

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GCW speaks of injury, loss, and grief

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Have you seen? I have lost many branches in my long life, The dead sumps and scars are here to be seen, the bark still protruding where it once protected a dear limb, now white and rotting on the earth at my roots.

Have you lost something precious, someone dear? Does your heart grieve? All living things know loss. Sickness and health. Injury and healing. Having and losing. Grasping and letting go. Falling and rising again, perhaps to a new reality you didn’t ask for and don’t want.

Can you sit and breathe through the tears? That is enough for now, simply sit and feel and breathe, even though your tears may fall. Can you love yourself, the part of you that feels what all others who have walked this earth have felt? Can you simply love yourself as you sit and breathe and feel?

For love heals. The breath heals. Feeling heals. Tears heal.

Expect nothing. Simply sit and feel and breathe. Like waves on the shore – in and out in and out, the rhythm of life.

Fear of moving forward

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GCW speaks of moving past your fears:

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Winter sunshine and shadow

Do you feel stuck in the mud, glued to the spot, relegated to the shadows? Is taking action painful? Do you allow yourself to be distracted by shiny blinking things, physical pain, TV sitcoms, murder mysteries? Do you worry about things that will never come to pass in this world or the next?

If you look in the mirror and see a body and a familiar face looking back at you; if you reach out and touch yourself and feel warm skin and a pulse; if you take sweet air into your lungs and breathe; if you exist in this place and time in a human body, you are meant to take action when inspired. You are meant to move forward into the unknown when called, and fearlessly reinvent yourself in each moment.

You are meant to dissolve the invisible barriers that keep you small. You dissolve unfounded fears by shining a light on them, loving them and moving forward past the doubt, the heaviness in your chest, into what you know in your gut is right for you.

You do this in response to your heart’s desires, the driving force behind all existence. You are spirit and body, and the heart is your navigator. You must get out of your chair, out of your head, and into the place where magic meets the material world. Surrender to your heart. You know it is where your true wisdom lies.

Tap in to the powerful energy of your heart. Listen for guidance. Act!

Anger

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GCW speaks of anger:

Have you cut yourself off from feeling anger? Are you afraid you will hurt others and run roughshod over the neighborhood? Then you misunderstand the flow of emotion. Your inner being must express itself with feeling and emotions, your body must move and bend freely like a willow in the wind.  Daily.  You must allow your emotions to flow daily, hourly, each minute, if needed.  They are not to be feared.  They are simply moving energy.

Yes, as a human in a body you feel anger at times. But your kind is not meant to suppress anger within your physical self until you explode with rage. You are meant to recognize, feel and then let go of feelings like clouds moving with the breeze on a spring day.

You must not hurt others as you feel and express your anger. Express it to get it out of your body through sound, through visual art, through words on a page, through punching or kicking a bag, and breathing as you move, through throwing or kicking a ball, through running. Express what you feel in safe ways when you feel it and your body will be healthier, you will be happier. Life will unfold before you like the flow of a stream.

GCW asks that you teach these simple ideas to others after you have mastered them. You will help make this earth a safer happier place for all beings.

You are not alone

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GCW speaks to those who feel alone.

You have never been alone! You are surrounded by the loving spirits of this earth, the magnificent cottonwood, the oak, the maples, all trees, all growing things, all animals, birds, insects. The earth herself envelopes you in her sweet embrace and has done since before you were born. Your ancestors who have crossed to the light have been with you since before time began.

You have been trained away from the knowing and feeling and sensing these dear energies from your earliest childhood by practical efficient mothers and distracted fathers. It is those among us who walk between worlds, who connect deeply and root to the soil, who also rise up to know the light who are finely tuned to the frequencies of these spirits. These sensitive ones bridge the worlds of spirit and matter for you. They interpret what you do not see or know with your five senses.

If you think you are alone, unloved, forgotten, think again! The whisper of the wind in our leaves and branches, the path of sunlight across the sky, the twitter of birdsong and flutter of wings, the sighing of tall grasses, the murmur of the flooded creek are all messages to you from all that is! Learn to read this unwritten language, the language of love and you will no longer feel alone. It is a gift, a love letter from the earth and heavens to you, my beloved.

You can learn this language if it is your desire, for it is part of your heritage and your innate wisdom!

Expand or contract?

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GCW speaks of expansion and contraction:

It has come to my attention that your human hearts, the center of your brilliant selves can expand or contract, depending on the fear or joy you feel. The joyful loving heart fully expanded can encompass the universe and all its inhabitants with light.

Do not think you are insignificant! Do not think your feelings, your transmissions of emotion have no effect, for each of you sends powerful signals to all that is, the the web of all things. Emotion and feeling are the messages. All particles in the universe are affected by you!

Do you wish you hadn’t read that? You can’t go back to pretending you are powerless; you can only move forward with the knowledge that you are a being of light, that you matter, that your existence is meant to be. Step up and claim your power!

When you close your heart to this knowledge and squeeze off the muscles of your chest, cave your shoulders in around your center, shut off your feelings, wall in your energy, you inhibit the flow of your natural joy! You contract and subtract from the sum total of well being available to you and those whose lives you touch and outward into the great web. Perhaps if this becomes a habit, your heart has no choice but disease and decay.

Heal those breeches, tears and blocks in your energy. Turn inward and notice what is happening within you. Healing is possible. Reach out and ask for help so that you too may feel the expansion of love and joy and power throughout your being and have it mirrored back to you ten fold.

You too are a shining star at your core. Allow yourself to know it, feel it, and live it!

An old cliche

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Milkweed blossoms

GCW speaks of an old cliché: “Bloom where you are planted”.

That is the motto of all good plants and rooted things, but for people? Bloom and go where you are called? Then bloom there too?

You have been planted here on the green planet, Earth.  Make the most of your circumstances, let life unfold from your center outward, for it is within your heart that all blooming begins. Your heart, the deep center of you is connected to all that is and if you listen to her quiet messages, you will be steered effortlessly toward your highest good.

So many things pull you away from your true center and heart, the embedded bud of growth within you; sugar, in thousands of tempting disguises, shiny objects, moving pictures on a blinking screen, drinks that inhibit your light, drugs that dim your brilliance, worries that swim and flit in your brain like a school of fish.

My beloved, you are capable of being the light, of transcending those whirlwind thoughts, of gently letting go of those distractions that sap your growth and wilt your blossoms. You have the power to put into perspective those emotions you are afraid will engulf and drown you. You can release the fear, you can let that energy flow harmlessly and release it once and for all! You need not live in fear! Ask for help if it feels too big. No-one on this planet is meant to exist in isolation or live in the dark.

Can you see yourself from a tree’s eye view, a newer, higher, loving and understanding perspective where the entire tapestry and web of existence is visible and your energy is integral to the structure of the weave?

Above all, see yourself with compassion and know you are meant to be here now in all your brilliance. Rooting and growing and blooming with ease and delight is your birthright! Claim and become that! Yes, it is possible for you!

Weather

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GCW Speaks of the weather:

I have noticed how humans love to comment on the weather. It is not often good enough for you is it? It is too cold, too hot, too wet, too dry, too humid, too windy, too much, not enough.

Can you simply bless each day as it comes to you? Do you know what a blessing each day of this life is? Can you feel the power of the meaning of you in this body in this place at this time? You have chosen to manifest as a physical presence here on this earth! This is an honor to be cherished and acknowledged….but I digress into a speech….

Can you bless even the coldest windiest day of the year? Can you feel joy within you during an overcast week, or is the cloud cover a mirror of your human atmosphere? Have you allowed the clouds of fear and stuffed feelings to accumulate in your energy field until they block your light? Do you clear them? Crying, like rain, can clear and air. Let clearing be your daily practice, for your health and the health of the planet. Simply feel, as you were born to do. Allow yourself to feel. Acknowledge your feelings and locate them in your body, and this will help to clear them.

Hurt no other in this process, for violence of thought word or action is a gross misuse of nature.

What is emotion but energy; like wind and breeze it needs to flow and move. If you stop it up the layers of cloud get thicker and thicker. You may feel a storm coming on. You may feel restless, unhappy, sad confused, anger may build within you if you squeeze and hold back and stifle and pretend it is not what it really is.

You are meant to clear the clouds daily and shine brightly like the sun! Create your own weather! Let it flow and all the earth will be blessed.

Focus

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GCW speaks of focus:

All of your being- mind, body, spirit, and heart is concentrated in this moment. That is focus. With focus you are doing one thing. ONE THING. You and the one thing become one and form a unified field. Whatever you are doing – writing, playing a new piece on the piano, knitting a sweater, raking leaves, conversing with your beloved grandchild, washing the floor, the entire beingness that is you is doing only that. “Multitasking” as you humans call it, is for those who with to diminish their power and effectiveness.

With focus you become like a column or beam of light. All other thoughts, actions, words leave your mind as you do what you have been created to do; be fully present here and now in this moment. Your full attention is required to do your best work and live your lives fully!

Do you find it difficult or nerve wracking to pull yourself together and let go of those extra thoughts and ideas and sudden feelings that distract you from the very power you came here to express? The oneness of purpose that is required to keep your focus?

Practice! For only you have access to the power of your physical being. Take it slowly, put down the shiny thing in your hand, unplug your ears from the music player, bring your scattered self into your heart center where all is one; where your true power resides

Now, focus on the one thing you’ve chosen. It could be your breath, a new song to learn, enjoying your child’s beauty and perfection, an intricate knitting pattern you want to learn, a round of yoga poses- the list is infinite, as you are.

This is a paradox. Learn to focus your awareness in the here and now and feel your life expand into new dimensions!

Illness

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GCW speaks of illness

New life from old

New life from old

Do not blame outside forces for your illness. How is it affecting you? Are you tied, achy, is it hard to breathe? Go inward to the mirror that knows all things. Ask what you are tired of. Ask what is making you ache with emotion. What is preventing you from taking in life fully and allowing it to express through you? Where do you feel these things in your body? Pay attention. Befriend your body.

Your body is not separate from your emotions, feelings, thoughts, spirit. Take care of all of you. That includes your spirit. Acknowledge and befriend your infinite spirit, the essence of you. Pay attention to your feelings and emotions for they are your true guidance in all things.

If you persist in doing something that feels wrong, or too much, or unpleasant, something in you will send up an alarm. Pay attention! Address it before it mirrors itself in your magnificent body. Then you will be forced to pay attention!

Do those things that feel good and make your heart glad! If that means resting, sleeping extra, curling up with a book, closing your eyes while the sun shines, find a way to do it! Do not be contrary! I know you will try to argue and say you do not have time! Grandmother Cottonwood wishes the best for all living things, that this community, this mother earth may continue to bless all who dwell here. When you make time to do what is right and healthy for you, it strengthens the exquisite web in which all things are one.