Happy Days...Don found a refurbished Mac iBook G4 online that happened to be at a home business in the Phoenix area. We went to pick it up on my birthday a week and a half ago. We have also been busy during our weekends looking for a new clinic space. Although I have or had several ideas for posts in mind, they tend to slip away like the memory of a dream quickly when our focus gets pulled in several directions.
I have to admit as well to my having learning curve issues on my new computer. I was working all this time on a mini net book with Microsoft Works software, and wasn't exactly super proficient with technology to begin with.
But holy Macintosh, I think it's the first time I am actually seeing my own blog!
As another interesting aside, while off-topic of food, for a couple of months prior to my birthday, I kept seeing the numbers 331. Don and I were frequently waking up around that time, and it seemed that when I would step out to the living room to see what time it was on our only clock, the digital numbers rested on 3:31. (This is considered lung time according to the circadian clock in Traditional Chinese Medicine, or TCM, and we have endured quite the allergy season with a huge Mulberry tree in bloom right out of our bedroom window!)
At one point, (while gas was still a tad cheaper), I kept seeing the price at the Chevron on the way to our clinic at 3.31.
To sum up, after quite some time spent searching for a new clinic location, we finally came close to taking a place walking distance from our apartment. The very helpful realtor suggested to do a Google search by zip code. Both markets near our present clinic and our apartment are already pretty saturated. We had a sudden realization that we should look up Tempe, which surprisingly had relatively few acupuncturists. That day, we looked online and found a place that looked like the right size and cost. The next day, on our day off last Saturday, we saw the space, and decided to take it.
The Saturday prior was my birthday, 3/31. The address: 3100 Rural Rd., Ste. 3. Hmmm. After an arduous search, spending countless hours on days off, once we came to the conclusion to take the risk of possibly moving to an area less served by our profession, everything clicked. We had the ah ha that the new location was priced comfortably enough to keep our present office for now as well. Once we got clear about what we wanted, it snapped right into place.
I love how the Universe works!
A couple of times we came so close. We almost took a house, and at another time, an office. Each time we were ready, it fell through. Or it had so much of what we wanted on the inside, but not very convenient on the outside. Something random blocked us on other occasions before we even had a chance to look at a place. We began to question if we were missing some opportunities from over-thinking it all, or not being willing to compromise enough on our list of wants. Yet nothing screamed out to take it either. There wasn't any immediate feeling that a place was right, until the Tempe location (I'll affectionately dub 3/31.)
I'd like to say we were being guided all along, and the timing was now. In Buddhism there is a saying, "When the conditions are right, things will manifest."
I think we are all being guided through our major challenges, but we have to lighten up enough to receive, or read the signs. It is like the movie, Bruce Almighty, when Jim Carey is driving, pining out loud for a sign, meanwhile so caught up in his own needs and mental ramblings, he misses several neon signs along the highway, cautioning him to slow down! Of course, he crashes.
Life does send us signs all along. We just have been erroneously trained to tune-out the real signals trying to make contact. We easily lose our sense of direction because we receive so many messages throughout our lives that in essence teach us not to trust what we really already know. The higher part of us is in alignment and oriented with our inner compass, but we let our thinking minds step in and second guess everything. We don't trust our feelings. We get caught up in our heads.
How can we catch the incoming messages while our heads are full of noise? It's like trying to tune into a radio station, getting nothing but static.
I may have said this before, but I will repeat it here. It is said that the longest journey we all have to take is from our heads to our hearts. Of course by saying that, we are speaking of the awakened heart, filled with compassion for ourselves as well as all of life. We can just as easily get caught up with emotions that tug at our heart, and are entangled with the human dramas. An awakened heart is aligned with our higher will and spirit.
So for Don and I, despite all of our pondering and contemplating with each place we considered, I think we had our answer immediately. I can look back with the crystal clear vision of hindsight and see how there had been subtle nudges all along. They came in flash insights, or sensations that would come over me almost like a vision. Don would get a 'hit' while meditating. I would have a clear realization pop in while doing a Reiki session that I would quickly try to get out of my head while standing over my client.
As we considered various neighborhoods, houses, or offices, they all had a particular vibrational quality. It would feel like a sense of peace, or something quite the opposite. Yet it is easy for the mind to take over as you walk through a place, observing with some mix of mental-emotional soup trying to discern if the place was right, or we just were enamored with certain features, like the sweet yard, nice tile or wood floors, or a gas stove.
For some places, we just kept trying to make things work in our minds, despite certain features missing. However, it still served us to go through this process, as it kept bringing us closer to our ideal match. Sometimes you learn more from recognizing what you don't want. It can bring in greater clarity about what you do want.
It seemed to take a convergence of things that helped us realize that a lot of what we enjoy personally is in Tempe, so why not live there and build on the sense of community we are already creating? We want to live as close as we can to work, stores, and places we frequent. We go to a Zen center weekly for meditation practice, and monthly for longer 12 hour retreats that begin at 5:30 AM. The last retreat we also helped as participants by offering acupuncture and Reiki to all who attended.
I think it has been a great lesson in connecting with the part of ourselves that registers what we are being guided towards. The intuition, or inner radar speaks softly, but knows quickly what is right for us or what may not be best. We have a rush of instant knowing that can pass as we go from our gut 'knowing' to our mental thinking. The messages are felt as physical sensations that can be easily missed if we think all knowledge comes from the brain.
As humans, we rationalize, ponder, analyze, and try to 'figure it all out' by incessant over-thinking. Who among us has avoided these mental traps?
I immediately 'knew' the place we looked at last Saturday felt right. We still found a second place right after that. After months of finding things that just were not the ideal layout or use of space, suddenly we were hitting the proverbial jackpot.
Each of us has our own way of connecting to this vast reservoir of divine knowing, or higher guidance. We are all part of a unified field of energy, and you could say that all energy is light, or vibration. Wave movement. It is all carrying information.
We have to learn by trial and error, and practice how to tune into our higher frequencies, and not only receive, but interpret the messages. Some get a strong 'gut feeling', others may receive messages while they sleep in their dreams. Some see images or visions. I feel energy, which is hard to articulate. But it is like a deep listening. I go to a still and deep place and just feel sensations, translating what I feel as openly and as purely as possible.
And since this is a blog about food, and how it effects our moods and our ability to lighten up, figuratively and literally ~ physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically ~ than I would be remiss not to mention how much our diet influences our ability to receive the incoming guidance and messages.
It is all vibration. Animal foods are more nutrient and caloric-dense, heavy foods. It is so easy to over consume protein and fat. There is also a biological drive that pulls us to these denser foods, and an addictive component to meat, dairy, sugar, and fat as well. (Read: The Pleasure Trap) The over consumption is the cause of most of our chronic illness, pain, and premature degeneration.
It also keeps us mentally and emotionally more dense.
If you lighten up your diet, and fuel your body with nutrient rich, caloric-light whole plant foods that are natural, and unprocessed, your whole being will lighten up. It can usher in such a profound awakening of your heart as well as inspire compassion, in addition to a major physical transformation.
So, happy days. We meet this Saturday to sign a lease. Ideally we will begin to offer workshops in nutrition and weight loss, teaching plant-based whole foods dietary strategies for improving health. This June, I will begin taking courses to get certified in plant-based nutrition through T. Colin Campbell's Foundation and eCornell University.
Perhaps better still we can share our own experiences by teaching classes in mindfulness meditation, and learning not only how to best feed your gut, but read your gut as well.
May you be in tune with your inner compass, eat nourishing foods, and feel enlightened!
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