HOLON BLOG

Brief story of Shiatsu and my approach

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Thu, 09 Jun 2022 17:14:00 +0000

“Shiatsu touch, in its stillness, depth and gentle compassion,

is able to support the whole person”.

In this article I will take you on a little journey through the history of Shiatsu, what is it, how is it performed, its different styles, and through this, I will tell you a bit of my own story with it and my own approach in my practice.

What is Shiatsu and how is it performed?

Originated in Japan, Shiatsu is a massage and healing system done in comfortable clothes. Shiatsu is a form of bodywork, a deep treatment, yet very gentle and soothing, based on traditional Chinese medicine and Western physiology. It uses a system of meridians and pressure points similar to acupuncture, and is based on Taoist and Eastern philosophies, such as the Yin and Yang. In Japan it is recognized as an official type of medicine developed since the early 20th century. Shiatsu was officially recognized as a licensed therapy type by the Japanese government in 1955.

By applying sensitive, mindful touch, the Shiatsu giver harmonizes the nervous system promoting a sense of relaxation and wellbeing. Shiatsu uses a variety of techniques to release tension in the body and improve and harmonize the energy flow. These include gentle holding, pressing with palms, thumbs and fingers on the meridian lines and specific pressure points, or simply following the resonance of the energy by touching lightly.

Regular sessions can calm anxiety, relax the body, improve sleep and concentration, reduce pain and stimulate the body’s natural ability to heal. Shiatsu can also be used as preventive medicine to prevent the build up of tension and stress.

Shiatsu is traditionally done on a futon on the floor in comfortable clothes

My encounter with Shiatsu

Before discovering Shiatsu I worked as a film director. High stress and editing in a studio for long hours a day I experienced severe back pain. When I started receiving regular Shiatsu treatments I discovered my body in a completely new way. As I improved, not only from my back pain, but also from what I thought were chronic conditions (such as bronchitis, which completely disappeared), I noticed my energy levels increasing, emotional expression expanding, and a new sense of openness, embodiment and grounding. I decided to learn it and give it back.

My practice

I started my practice in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2003 after completing my course. Although I learned to work on a massage table, I preferred to work on the floor on a futon as practiced traditionally and found my own flow of sensitive touch. Instead of focusing just on physical pain or symptoms, I was particularly interested in the subtle movement of energy and the connection between body tension and emotions. My background in yoga (which I practiced since I was 16), the discovery of qigong and tai chi, and my interest in Zen and Taoism supported this.

A friend who was a Bioenergetics therapist found that the sensitive touch of Shiatsu could help her clients gain awareness of their body and help them with embodiment and integration, and she referred me to her clients. I treated most clients weekly, as a complement of their therapy. This was a beautiful process as I could see them becoming more aware of their body, while expanding, relaxing, grounding and many conditions would find healing. This helped them also in their therapy sessions, as they became more aware of tension and moments of relaxation, providing a new sensitivity and life expression. Soon after I was also treating many of the therapists as we found how Shiatsu helped them release tension and relax, while caring for others. After practicing for many years, my clients included carers, dance teachers, artists, singers, highly sensitive people, trauma therapists and people of diverse backgrounds.

What to expect in a Shiatsu session

You will be fully dressed in comfortable clothes and covered with a thin blanket or a Japanese cotton cloth. Traditionally practised on a futon at floor level, Shiatsu can also be received on a treatment table or ergonomic chair. Usually I do it on the floor on a special futon, but depending on the setting or condition of the patient I might use a massage table or chair.

To help you relax more deeply, I use calming music and healing sounds. Usually I don’t speak much during the session to allow space for your rest, giving you time to breath, feel and relax deeply.

A typical treatment may start on the neck and back, using several techniques to disperse tension, such as slow pressure, co-ordinated with breathing, along meridians and pressure points. We also treat the legs, feet, head, face, arms and the hara.

In Japanese hara means abdomen. In Shiatsu (and Reiki) this is a very important element in a treatment, as beyond the literal translation, hara means our true centre. In Qigong we gather energy in the hara, in particular in the tanden (the point below the navel), that is the house where we store our Chi (vital energy). The treatment of the hara, besides treating several organs, it has a deeper meaning as it allows us to find physical and mental balance and increase our vital energy so we can rediscover our True Self = our essence. By becoming more centred and stable, we remember our connection with the earth and plant our roots in the soil of Life. In Zen Shiatsu the hara can also be used to find out potential imbalances of the meridians.

However depending on the person’s condition and needs, the treatment may be different. It is always unique, as I remain present with what arises, physically and energetically.

Shiatsu meridians and points | body maps

Styles of Shiatsu

There are many different styles of Shiatsu. I trained in Anma-Seitai Shiatsu with a Japanese master in Lisbon, Dr. Mitsuharu Tsuchiya, at the Portuguese Association of Seitai-Shiatsu Therapy. Anma was the oldest traditional massage technique in Japan, brought from China by a monk on the 6^th century; an intuitive hands-on treatment based on Chinese Medicine, passed on carefully though generations and often performed by blind people as their sense of touch was well developed. Seitai in Japanese means ‘bringing the body into balance’, which is one of the keys of my work.

In his clinic, my teacher practiced medical Shiatsu and often he used Shiatsu in combination with acupuncture. It was an effective treatment with focus on physical pain and treatment of medical conditions by working on a specific combination of points. As part of our course we also practiced Namikoshi style. Tokujiro Namikoshi (1905 – 2000), found that touch, using thumbs pressure applied to the body reflexes to the internal organs, releasing blockages and stimulating the body’s own healing power. He formalized Shiatsu as an official therapy, had a tv show and was the founder of the Japan Shiatsu College in Tokyo in 1940. Namikoshi Shiatsu is the official Shiatsu of Japan.

Tokujiro Namikoshi

In London, I learned Zen Shiatsu and Seiki. Zen Shiatsu, developed by Shizuto Masunaga (1925-1981), brings a Zen quality to it, going directly to the core of the receiver's present condition here and now, via its subtle system to balance yin and yang. The use of a “listening” hand, called mother hand, guiding, caring, holding, makes for great sensitivity and effectiveness.

Seiki by Akinobu Kishi, went beyond traditional Shiatsu. Not concerned with points or meridians, it takes the listening quality further and "returns to the heart, echoing the traditional healing arts, in emphasising inner work and resonance as guides”. This allows for spontaneity and a real sense of connection with the sutble inner processes, while bringing a simplicity that is at the centre of healing. In that sequence, it made sense to follow up with the studies and practice of Jikiden Reiki, a traditional form of Japanese Reiki, a very gentle healing method, which I sometimes combine with Shiatsu, bringing a soothing touch and safe hands approach to my sessions.

'Mind/body is one'

Kishi calligraphy, in the book 'Sei-ki, Life as resonance'

Shiatsu and trauma

To treat mind/body as one is key in my practice. Over the years, treating a variety of clients, and using Shiatsu for my own self-healing, I deepened my interest in the connection between emotion, energy, and body. This led me to study other modalities of energy medicine, Reiki and also took me in a deep dive into trauma healing, namely experiencial studies on somatic mindfulness and personal & collective trauma with Thomas Hübl. I am also influenced by the ground-breaking work of Dr Gabor Maté, Peter Levine, Dr Arielle Schwartz and various somatic methods on releasing trauma through the body, making my Shiatsu trauma-informed.

My approach

In my work I bring scientific and Eastern teachings, along with a solid meditation practice, to offer safe therapeutic touch, a mindful presence and compassion to my clients. Listening to the person as a whole, without judgement, I follow my intuition and empathy to help people release physical and emotional tensions while reconnecting with their own essence to bring out their potential and live life with more vitality, joy and freedom.

Shiatsu in London

O offer Shiatsu in Shoreditch and Central London.

More info and bookings at www.cloudhealinghands.co.uk

The depths of stillness - excerpt #6

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Sun, 21 Nov 2021 09:05:00 +0000

Healing: I was happy to hear my teacher Thomas Hübl explaining the healing process in a class, which resonated completely with this work. He said: "Healing is updating our experience. The fragmented parts of past experience and trauma are re-integrated into the central line, into the flow of life. When we are immersed in the flow of vital energy, the tension in the body disappears, the split of emotions disappears. Healing and integration benefit my life in every way, because the stress is reduced, there is an expansion of presence and potential." That was what I was doing in these new distant treatments. I was bringing back the fragments of the soul, bringing them back into the flow of life. And with this, the physical and emotional pain, tension and illness dissipated. I was seeing it again and again. I noticed how I was indeed bringing a safe hands approach allied with direct mind connection. Through developing this work it became clearer that the healer's work is this understanding of heart, body, soul and energy and its interconnectedness, through the intuitive perception, this seeing how things really are. The energy doesn't lie. I also see how my long-term practice of bodywork, healing touch, Taoism, Zen and meditation, appear in my gentle approach, this way of 'not-doing', this patience and sensitivity. And then to cut through, like a sword, into the root, the essence of things. This ability to listen to the person's soul and their deepest pain, with discernment and depth, while being in direct contact with their energy, with awareness, presence, non-judgement, compassion and care, brings a quality to the healing in which the work is done on the mind-body-soul-energy unity, which allows for a sense of wholeness. I believe this is what manifests the healing experience. Either I am working on clearing a pattern, on an electrical fluctuation, a particular organ, an energy centre, a meridian, or the nervous system, the focus of my touch - on the body or at the distance - is always in the deepest wholeness, the soul. When the person feels seen in their deeper truth, the healing happens. This is really the greatest gift.

More info | buy the book: here

The depths of stillness - Excerpt #5

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:21:00 +0000

Excerpt #5 of my new book 'The depths of stillness'

- From chapter The garden of the soul -

"On the second Spring of the garden of the soul, I listened to nature in new ways. The cold weather delayed the seeding and later there was much rain, with some spells of sun, thunder and wind. This time I asked the garden what it wanted and what I could do. These are some of the things I heard and followed through:

'Flowers for the bees'

'Re wild'

'Rest'

'Stepping stones'

'Give space for deeper roots'

'Regeneration'

I have been using a companion planting method, mixing vegetables and flowers, and letting the wild flowers go wild. The plants I had in pots, I've put them on the ground to allow for deeper roots. I've put some logs in the garden, where Suki and me sit each morning, to rest and commune with the plants and wildlife. I've put stepping stones in a circle, marking the 4 directions and the center as a portal to soul, but I know that the stepping stones are perhaps a metaphor for this entire work of listening and presencing. I am an apprentice of the garden. I continue to be grateful for the cedar tree, embracing my hut, a tree that I befriended and call The Wisdom Tree. She is my friend and teacher, protector and giver of visions. The grasses in the field were finally allowed to flower and are growing tall, dancing with the wind. I witnessed their beauty and change, turning from purple to gold. I am learning the power of not-doing, of humbly stepping back, doing less, letting the nature re-wild itself.

This is a huge contrast with the agricultural land on the hills near by, where no weed or even a single flower grows. The machines working on those fields look like war tanks and they spray pesticides that kill the wildlife to maximize profit. Seeing that brought up grief, but also the realization that the ecosystem I am helping co-create in this little garden is important. I am supporting bio-diversity and wildlife. The bees, birds and butterflies are coming, and there's also plenty to eat. Kale, cabbages, coriander, rocket, spinach, courgette, celery, broad beans, sage, mint, thyme, parsley and plenty of flowers of all colours and shapes, in particular an abundance of marigolds. I use organic seeds, and plant in a sustainable way. I don't use any chemical fertilisers or pesticides. The flowers do that job and I collect some to make medicine. I practice right reciprocity with the plants and land. I offer my care and tending. I ask when I take. I say thanks. I listen. I support the regeneration of the soil, the wildlife and I am mindful of my resources. I use water from the rain collected from my roof. I plant, not only to eat, but I plant for the future, for the healing of the Earth.

But I know how vulnerable and fragile the garden of the soul is. Nested in a land that is not mine, a temporary sanctuary.

Although I was hearing the call for re wilding the land, the grass was only allowed to bloom when the owner was held in another country due to covid restrictions. The other day, while I was away, a gardener came and cut my beloved Scotch Broom who had become a beautiful tree, taller than the house, with glorious yellow flowers, that brought much beauty to my life and protected my door from winds and sun. As an intuitive sensitive and a tree Bodhisattva I feel the hurt of nature in my own body. It physically hurts me. I had done a flower essence with its flowers and I took its essence into my body while I mourned its death. In the garden of the soul, we are one, we are equal. Also all the planted flowers and the wild flowers outside my house were cut as well. I was sad and I was furious. I felt an intense rage for the lack of care for the land, for feeling my sacred space invaded and disrespected, for seeing a tree killed and the land raped, right on my door step. No explanation was given and they kept coming around to cut paths and weeds, even though I asked not to. It is my meditation in action to make my path by walking it, without hurting the Earth or any beings.

The mindset of controlling nature without listening or realizing the soul of a tree, or the beauty of a wild flower, is well ingrained in Western culture, a conditioning that I believe is the basis for much of the current unbalance in our planet and the climate crisis we are living now."

To buy the book:

https://www.claudiatomaz.com/books

The depths of stillness - excerpt #4

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Wed, 10 Nov 2021 09:10:00 +0000

Excerpt #4 of my book 'The depths of stillness'

"When I started giving Shiatsu in 2003 it was natural for me to create a self care practice to cope with treating many clients each week. Shiatsu is done on the floor, on a special futon mattress and requires a very flexible and grounded body and a concentrated energy. We work with pressure points but the pressure is not done with the hands and fingers only. The pressure is done with the whole body. We use often a Zazen position (sitting on the knees) and change into other postures, moving quietly around the patient. It is very important that the practitioner uses the correct position to protect their body and also to apply the pressure perpendicular to the body of the receiver. At the same time, the attunement with mind and energy is very precise and requires complete mindfulness, accurate sensing and presence. I developed exercises and practices for my own self-care as a practitioner, to keep flexible, without tension or pain in my body, and maintain a balanced energy to give the best treatments. I used a combination of chi gong, self-shiatsu and somatic movement. At the time, this became also a group class called 'Integrated therapies for relaxation' which I did in psychotherapy settings, namely as an introduction in bioenergetics group workshops run by psychotherapists, to help participants to relax. I also used the practices with my shiatsu clients, as I felt important to share with them strategies to cope with stress outside the massage room to empower them to look after themselves in their daily life situations and health challenges. We gathered as a small group and met weekly. But often I felt their resistance; people would forget or wouldn't find the time to do the exercises when they were alone. The group sessions naturally faded away, but I continued to work on myself, developing new techniques and practices over the years, always going deeper, creating a sophisticated self care system. When confronted with health conditions and challenging life situations, these practices were my anchor for very deep self-healing. For me, self-care goes way beyond a little bit of exercise. In my sessions I integrate physical and energy exercises, including self-massage, and mindfulness, for the care of body, mind and soul, in a holistic approach. I also discovered that the psychology of thought transformation is essential for healing. This includes awareness, shadow work and to move beyond limiting beliefs. Often the daily life situations that we call problems oblige us to develop our mind and our inner qualities. However self-care is not the same as self healing, self care is the first step, it is a daily thing, a stepping stone for self-healing, which needs dedication and time to go deep.

I observed that in general, people do not take care of themselves very well. That's a fact. Most times when people come to me for a treatment, they are usually at the end of the rope. They say they have been too busy, they have no time to rest, they have to keep going - very often these are kind people who care for others, and in the end they deplete themselves, by putting everything and everyone first, and themselves last.

(...)

But lately this tendency seemed more visible, as if people were abandoning themselves, perhaps due to the imposed isolation and the personal and collective trauma that has been triggered. I also wondered about the conditioning of our culture and history, the social and environmental roots of illness and of this pattern of disconnection from our own body. Perhaps our body has been exposed to the consequences of a broken world, a culture based on continual growth and competition, preparing our body for threat, danger, defence, resistance, instead of peace, relaxation and connection. Perhaps this conditioning is creating the imbalances in our bodies and environment that is the source of global unease and disease in humans, and the planet."

to buy the paperback* book & e-book go here:

https://www.claudiatomaz.com/books

* I just discovered that due to Brexit the tax and customs become too expensive to ship the printed book out of the UK, so if you're not in the island, I do recommend buying the e-book, which is available for all devices, computers, ipads, phones etc.

The depths of stillness - excerpt #3

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 20:43:00 +0000

Excerpt #3 from my book 'The depths of stillness'

"With the fatigue of long covid, I could slow down enough to gain access to the Akashic Records to investigate my soul from a new perspective. I entered my past lives in these new underworld explorations, to feel myself in a wholeness that was unknown until then. As I lay down, with my eyes closed, on those warm Spring afternoons, my mind was active going into distant places of my psyche, discovering and remembering forgotten layers of my soul. This started a new series of soul encounters, what I could describe as time travelling..."

The book has 300 pages and it's now available to buy here:

https://www.claudiatomaz.com/books

The depths of stillness - excerpts #2

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 20:35:00 +0000

Excerpts #2 of my book "The depths of stillness"

"To learn and practice how to do this, feels very important in the times of ecological collapse that we are living. I read that 200 species went extinct today. I feel the grief of loss and at the same time I feel this deep appreciation for the nature growing stronger around me. How do we embody our belonging and unity with the Earth? This is not just about going into nature to have a relaxing moment, what I mean is to be fully and completely with nature, to become nature, because we are. Our separateness is an illusion, created by thousands of years of disconnect, of treating nature as a resource. Now we are being asked to listen to the soul of the Earth, to care for her, to heal her. By planting this garden of the soul, I was doing that. At least a little of that. The damage done to Mother Earth has been huge. To be the caretaker of this piece of land might not heal the planet, but it's an act of appreciation and of love, a recognition of her power of regeneration and a teaching on my humble presence as planet-people. Following the pace of the plants and supporting their growth, I became intimate with the language and soul of this land. Intimacy with the natural world and the more than human, expands the heart. It is a relationship that is both subtle and powerful, with a rare quality of reciprocity and depth.

In a book by Robert Johnson, I read this, and everything fell into place: "Feminine wounds are almost always cured by being still. Any woman who exercises her feminine genius of stillness will find her way to the garden, the most feminine of all symbols, the centre of her being." Then, I understood more completely the healing powers of this stillness, the way I planted in circles, and how I was beginning to occupy the centre of my being. I practice staying in my feminine stillness, with the gentle and subtle movements of the garden. The garden of the soul, was bringing me a calming and soothing physical and spiritual healing, helping restore the balance of the feminine and of the land, and our deep wounds."

More info & Buy book:

https://www.claudiatomaz.com/books

The depths of stillness - excerpts #1

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 08:46:00 +0000

Excerpt #1 of my book "The depths of stillness":

"I breathe with the trees, the light, the sun and the fog. Staying with each moment. Each element. Each breath. I understand that each place has a soul. I listen.

At some point I was listening to sea, to tides, to water, to change. In some places I was listening to silence, in others to death. Here I listen to wind. The wind is strong on top of the hill. Strong and loud. At first, the wind came with a strength that made me feel vulnerable. With time, I learned to receive the wind fully, with gratitude and humility.

I notice it coming in waves, like the sea, sometimes the wave crashes over my little hut and it shakes the house. I also notice that each storm seems to be stronger, more violent. Some nights we cannot sleep, because of the scream of the wind. I just listen. By being present with the wind, I start to notice reciprocity. It is a cosmic law that things do not go just one way. Now I start to know it better. The wind doesn't recognize boundaries. The wind shares blessings of liberation and unconditional freedom. The connection with the elements is direct."

More info & buy book here

The depths of stillness

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 15:51:00 +0000

I just received a few paper copies of my new book 'The depths of stillness'. It is now available to buy either as a paperback book and as an e-book, with immediate download anywhere in the world. The links to buy are on this page of my website: https://www.claudiatomaz.com/books

In this page, find out more about my books - 'The depths of stillness' (2021) and 'Travelling like clouds, the art of being present' (2020) with a little context on the journey that initiated them. Partly memoir, partly environmental practical sacred activism, these books approach many different subjects, from healing to Earth protection, from soul to shadow work, from collective trauma to the feminine and surely will bring much inspiration for the times we're living. To be a pioneer is not always easy. The books are dedicated to travellers of the soul and people in transition. They are based on a real life journey, self inquiry, meditation in action, vision quest and radical soul work. Slowing down, un-learning, healing and making sanctuary are all part of this soul journey that started in 2016. Although my story is only a starting point to hold the deep questions... They are available as paperback and e-book.

This is a D.I.Y. Self-Pushished on Demand book. I have no publisher or distributor. The book is available from Blurb. This website deals with the printing and shipping of the paperback book and they host the e-book. I receive a percentage. Please support this independent book made with all my heart and Soul.

THE ART OF SELF-CARE

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Sat, 17 Oct 2020 08:04:00 +0000

In the beginning of October I started my first online course The Art of self-healing and care. The course is self-paced and can be taken individually, to start anytime. People have access to a crafted beautifully edited video, where they can follow embodied and regenerative practices, for body, energy and spirit, in an integrated holistic combination. Being also a filmmaker I wanted to offer inspiring videos that can transmit serenity. I filmed myself doing the gentle practices and explaning the exercises, and sometimes also the Nature around me, bringing the I Ching elements and different energies each session. In each session I offer also some Meditations in Action and introspection / writing exercises that people can do through the week, at their own time and pace. These are mindfulness exercises applied to daily life, focusing on specific themes each week to raise awareness and notice patterns.

Through reading participants notes, I noticed that many people are/were caregivers or work/worked in the helping professions, like therapists, nurses, etc. I noticed a common starting point, an affirmation, an intention - After many years taking care of others, now is the time to take care of myself - and through that, I could hear a deeper question - Why do so many people who care for others, struggle to care for themselves? or even sacrifice their wellbeing to care for others?

I have considered and researched this question before, but this time I looked at it with a new clarity, associations and insights. I thought I would take this up into writing to help me expand and share it as I realized this is a very complex and deep question, with many layers. A few books poped out of my shelf to support me with this task, including Judith Orloff, and Bill Plotkins's books and When the body says NO, the cost of hidden stress by Dr Gabor Maté.

Self-healing and self-care

When I started giving Shiatsu in 2003 I had a busy practice in Lisbon. To cope with many treatments each week I develloped exercises for my own self-care as a practicioner, to keep flexible, without tension or pain in my body and with a balanced energy to give the best treatments. I used a combination of yoga, chi gong, self-shiatsu and movement. This became a group class called 'Integrated therapies for relaxation' as I felt important to share with my clients strategies to cope with stress outside the massage room to empower them to look after themselves in their daily situations and health / life challenges. But often I felt their resistance; people would forget or wouldn't find the time to do the exercises, and often would carry on doing too much for other people - or the job, or the new project, or whatever, pushing themselves way too hard, but wouldn't care enough for themselves. I wondered why.

For me, self-care goes way beyond a little bit of exercise. In my sessions I integrate physical and energy exercises, including self-massage, along with mindfulness, for the care of body, mind and soul, as I don't see these as separate. The psychology of thought transformation is also essencial for healing. Often the daily life situations that we call problems oblige us to develop our mind and our inner qualities. Self-care is a daily thing, a stepping stone for self-healing, which needs dedication and time.

In general, people do not take care of themselves very well. That's a fact. Most times when people come to me for a Shiatsu treatment, they are usually at the end of the rope. They say they have been too busy to take care of themselves - usually they care for others, and in the end they deplete themselves, by putting everything and everyone first. Does this resonate?

In the sequence of the global pandemic, I feel that self-healing and self-care is more important than ever and perhaps a teaching of the virus. As we navigate these challenging times, to nurture yourself and practice self-healing and self-care is more essential and precious than ever.

The nurturing adult and its shadow

To care is a natural ability. If you provide care for yourself, or another being (human, animal, plant), you might experience a particular good feeling for dedicating yourself to nurturing - as a parent, a healer, a mentor, a therapist, a nurse, or by caring for the environment, by planting trees or participate in a volunteering community project, for example. Every human being has this capacity to nurture and to care, however some find this easy and natural, while others might struggle with it and find it challenging.

To care and give, from our innate human wholeness, means that we are rooted in a 'nourishing and resourceful love'. This is the kind of care that is heart centered, life-enhancing, and is embodied in healing, teaching, protecting, encouraging, it's based on generosity, understanding and compassion. This sort of care is creative, resourseful and whole - we discern, but not judge, we encourage, but not make the other person dependable. This sort of care enables us to care for ourselves, while staying centered and grounded, as we embrace our full being and psyche, our wholeness, without judgment - including the awareness of our wounds, the immature parts of ourselves, and our shadows, in order to heal towards being fully human.

According the the Nature-model of the Psyche by Bill Plotkin, the caring actions of the nurturing adult can however be acted out by those immature subpersonalities that operate from invisible wounds formed in early childhood, if we are not aware of those.

These subpersonalities are like the shadow side of the nurturing carer, they are the inner critics, the people pleasers, the rescuers, the co-dependents, the caretakers, who might give with a hidden agenda, in order to get something, even if this might be a sense of belonging, love and safety (or something else, like money, power, entitlement etc). These shadow figures migh be triggered by a new relationship or a new or old situation. Or they might even become a way of being and cause much continual stress. These subpersonalities act out, sometimes in dramatic ways, but more often by playing small, by hiding their true essence and repress their emotions, by withdrawing, or by giving too much in a sort of anxious manner, in order to feel safe.

These behaviours had a very intelligent function when we were children, which was to help us survive and to protect us, but in contrast with the centered nurturing adult, these child-like parts of our psyche, act from a fear based motivation - the fear of emotional or physical harm, the fear of rejection, the fear of abandonment, the fear of neglect - in this case, the person might offer care to be accepted, to be liked, to avoid abandonment, or criticism.

Eco-psychologist Bill Plotkin calls them 'The loyal soldiers', and at some point we need to tell them that the war is over (in case the war is really over, if not, we might need to make peace with our inner child). We can tell our inner soldiers that we don't need to fear and protect ourselves in the same way we did as infants or children, now we can parent ourselves, and care for ourselves from a heart centered resourceful compassionate place. To build these resources and to apply them in our lives is very important.

Easier said than done! As all self-healing, this is a process that needs dedication and time, to learn and to integrate it. These processes are largely based on unconscious patterns and pockets of trauma, that we might be completely unaware of [read more about Understanding trauma]. Once it starts to be revealed, and comes to the surface, we might experience deep sadness, and grief about the ways we do or did things, ways of being and actions that seemed the normal way to do things. Be very gentle with yourself!

The unity of emotions, physiology and illness

When I worked as a live-in carer, I seemed to attract the most difficult jobs. My soul always called me for big challenges to avoid boredom(!) and take me into new growth! After healing myself from many illnesses, including a 6 months recovery from an heart operation in which I lost the capacity to walk (read the story here), I was being called to care for women in late stages of Alzheimer's and end-of-life. My kindness, compassion, deep presence and softness made my care effective and appreciated, I could connect with the human essence of those beings and the families trusted me, but by the nature of the job I was not able to go home, work on my own self-care, and rest. Although I never took long jobs (usually I would do 2 weeks to a month), the work was demanding - there's no weekends or days off, days are long and we need to be always available, making it a 24/7 job. I felt exhausted and drained, and eventually had to quit the job as my body was saying NO. I listened and I stopped. I saw many colleagues getting seriously ill, living in continual 'fight or flight response' who didn't stop. And I see spouses of very ill people who simply can not stop.

Dr Gabor Maté, in his book When the body says No, the hidden cost of stress, describes many human stories relating the mind-body connection and the role of stress and our emotional landscapes that are common to many illnesses such as cancer, arthritis, MS etc. Dr Maté explains in great detail how psychological traits influence the biology of stress - organs, nerves, hormones, immune system - in particular how emotional supression can damage the body. He also talks about the impact of chronic stress and trauma on caregivers.

"We must differentiate between acute stress and chronic stress. Acute stress is immediate short-term body response to threat. Chronic stress is activation of the stress mechanism over long periods of time when a person is exposed to stressors that cannot be escaped either because she does not recognize them or because she has no control over them. Stress responses triggered chronically and without resolution, produce harm and even permanent damage. Chronically high cortisol levels destroy tissue. Chronically elevated adrenalin levels raise the blood pressure and damage the heart." Dr Gabor Maté also refers a study about the effect of chronic stress on the immune system in spousal caregivers of people with Alzheimer's, showing an "inhibited immune system".

So if we are acting from fear, live in chronic stress, act out from our wounded subpersonalities, our unconscious psychological coping styles, our personal and collective trauma, without taking appropriate nurturing care of ourselves, we are more susceptible to disease. I believe that illness is often the body sending a message or screaming for us to stop doing whatever is not in alignment with our essence.

Most of us, had little opportunities to simply stop and see what is inside of ourselves, beyond the conditioning, the trauma, the coping mechanisms, the attachment styles. I did some of that in a long (ongoing) soul journey, along with many hours of meditation, reading, writing, online programs, often living in wilderness, sometimes with no internet connection, going deeper into the cycles of Nature to unlearn and rediscover myself. It's uncomfortable and it takes time to unpack the many layers. I know many people can't do that. And I wonder if the lockdowns and these times of crisis and stillness can offer that opportunity?

I also wonder what would happen if, since childhood, we were taught to take good care of ourselves, and the trees, and the land? to be interdependent of the web of life, but not dependable, or co-dependent? to find our power within, but never to over-power other beings. If we were taught to be resourful and resilient, to express our emotions, to care for body and soul, to be creative, to be kind, to think with the heart... What if we were taught to be in touch with our essence and our intuition, and would learn to trust ourselves, the people around us, the Earth and the elements, so we were in alignment, in harmony and belonging? Would illness still manifest? How would the world be like?

The original course is no longer available but there is a self-paced Online version on my Wisdom Tree School page - Sign up for it here: https://wisdom-tree-school.teachable.com/p/the-art-of-relaxation

read more Musings on healing and self-healing - an ongoing series of texts

JIN SHIN JYUTSU

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 09:24:00 +0000

I first came across Jin Shin Jyutsu in 2015, in a conversation about Shiatsu and healing with a woman from South Africa in an online course by Charles Eiseinstein, The Space between stories. I have never heard about it by then, but having a natural curiosity for all Japanese things and healing systems, I did some research and was fascinated by the profound simplicity. And also by the fact that it is a self-help / self-healing art (although we can also do it to another person), which is a side of healing that always interested me, as I believe we have our own natural, innate ability to heal ourselves by connecting with our essence.

I bought a book and started studying it and practicing it on myself daily, sometimes a few hours a day. The results were surprising and extremely beneficial. At the time I was experiencing fatigue, and a lot of pain, in particular on my right side. I followed some protocols, worked with the Organs flows, the Depths, the Main central flow, the numbers... and discovered other combinations, through my own experimentation and intuition. Later on I discovered someone teaching Jin Shin Jyutsu in London and did a workshop. I continue practicing it and sometimes use it in combination with Shiatsu and Reiki in my treatments to myself and clients.

The story

Jin Shin Jyutsu (last word is pronounced “jitsu”) is a healing art that facilitates the flow of energy in the body. It is based on the idea that the cause of all illness—mental, emotional, and physical—is a blockage in the flow of energy, a common principle to other healing arts and systems such as Shiatsu and acupuncture.

Based on ancient principles of naturally harmonising the mind, body, and spirit, it is based on acupressure (of usually two points on the body) - it descends from ancient techniques that were developed in the Taoist and Buddhist temples of China and then brought to Japan, where they merged with indigenous techniques of self massage and also mudras. In the early 1900's, Jiro Murai rediscovered and developed these techniques and organized it into a coherent system of healing, calling his art Jin Shin Jyutsu.

Master Murai was inspired to do so after healing himself of a life-threatening illness using what he knew of the art when he was only 26 years old—through the mudras depicted in temple statues associated with Tantric Buddhism, while practicing Zen meditation. His discovery was made when he retreated himself in a hut in a mountain in preparation for death, but instead of dying, he healed himself.

In gratitude for the gift of life, he dedicated his life to the study of healing and to the study of Jin Shin Jyutsu which he first called the 'Art of Happiness', the 'Art of Longevity' and then evolved into 'The Art of the Creator through the person of Compassion'. He treated equaly members of the imperial family in Japan, and the homeless, and he taught seminars.

One of his students, a Japanese-American woman named Mary Burmeister, is responsible for collecting his teachings into 3 main self-help books and sharing the knowledge with students in the US and all over the world. Dr. Haruki Kato was also his student and continued develloping the art of Jin Shin Jyutsu in Japan, although it became almost a forgotten art after WWII.

Energy system and SELs

To restaure the body’s energy system, we rest our hands or press slightly on specific points on the body that facilitate the flow of energy. After a little while these points start to pulse and we feel the energy moving. Points located along the central energy pathway in the body restore our “source” energy. The Main central flow works on this central channel.

Points along the secondary energy currents are called Safety Energy Locks (SELs). There are 26 SELs / points. The Safety Energy Locks are related with organs and emotions / attitudes (somehow similar to Shiatsu and Chinese medicine), and these, relate with the 9 Depths - which associates with different states of energy from the original potential of Source energy to the physical, where energy is contracted and more dense - being the 9th Depth the limitless pure energy in the universe and the 1st depth the physical nourishment and sustenance in the body, the Earth element.

There are many ways to work with the points and the philosophy underlying. Being an art and not a technique, there is space for creativity and intuition.

Here are 2 simple and effective practices for you to try.

Practice 1

Encircling the fingers

In this practice, we jump-cable the Organs by encircling each finger (with the fingers of the other hand). A daily practice of 3-5 minutes per finger, as simple as it might seem, has tangible physical and emotional results, and it is very relaxing. If you are struggling with a certain emotion/attitude you can do the correspondent finger for longer or more often. See the chart below.

Practice 2

Harmonizing Chaos and Quiet Regeneration

The figure 1 is called Harmonising Chaos (SEL 24 on side of the feet). This is very useful in these times of shock, confusion and chaos, it promotes balance and understanding. The figure 2 is called Quiet Regeneration (SEL 25 on sitting bones) and has a calming, soothing effect, regenerating body, mind and nervous system, allowing grief and time for regeneration.

Take some quiet time to do this.

You can do it sitting or laying down.

1 - First take 10 long deep breaths.

2 - Rub your hands to activate the chi. Then rub the sole of your feet to help you grounding.

3 - Harmonizing Chaos - hold the points on the side of your feet (figure 1). You can do both feet at once or one foot at the time (cross your leg to lift foot if easier). This is not about pressing the point, just hold with finger tips with very slight pressure. You will start to feel a pulsing. Stay with each point for 5 mins or more.

4 - Quiet Regeneration - lay down and put your hands under bottom to touch the sitting bones as in the picture. Press a little. You can bend knees to reach the points if easier. Do both points at same time until you feel the pulsing - wait until the pulsing synchronizes on both sides.

When you finish this, take another 10 deep breaths and rub the sole of your feet again.

These are very very calming and help the regeneration of nervous system. The effect is almost immediate and can be done for long, several times a day as needed, either sitting on the floor, on a chair or laying down.

Going beyond hands-on treatment,

this art of living also includes discovering how to live in harmony with what is.

#healing #self-healing #jinShinJyutsu

read other Musings on Healing and Self healing here

JIKIDEN REIKI

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 10:42:00 +0000

In September I gave the first treatment as part of a volunteer project of Distant Reiki for NHS staff called Reiki Medic-Care that was created to support the wellbeing of hospital doctors, nurses and paramedics, as we start the second wave of the pandemic. This project is also part of a research with Ann Baldwin PhD, Department of Physiology, University of Arizona, to study how Distance Reiki is effective in reducing stress and burnout.

This was interesting and a little different than how I normaly do a session, as we did it as a team of 8 practicioners sending Reiki to 1 person, for 4 days in a row.

Also last month, I treated my friend's cat Hugo, who hurt his paw and was in agony. The vet said he couldn't see anything and if he would not improve he could put him down. Hugo came to me in the garden and without thinking too much I just started giving him Jikiden Reiki. He really enjoyed it; he was really there, present, simply receiving. This cat is very active and usually doesn't stay still for long. But he was so docile, calm and quiet in the sessions. I gave him a total of 3 sessions of an hour or more, and saw him improving after each session. After that he completely healed.

BRIEF HISTORY OF REIKI

The Reiki I learned and practice is called Jikiden Reiki.

Reiki was discovered by Mikao Usui in 1922 on Mount Kurama, northwest of Kyoto, Japan, on a 21 days meditation practice. Sensei Usui's Reiki practice was subsequently formalized into a healing system and he taught his students in person who could then teach others. It is done by the gentle laying of hands on the head and body and is based on the idea that universal life (rei) + energy (ki) flows through all living things.

Reiki has its antecedents in Japanese folk medicine (Shinto) and Buddhism. However, as a spiritual and healing practice, it was kept fairly secret in Japan, and after the main teachers had died, for many years Reiki was lost in Japan.

Although it travelled to the West through the contributions of Chujiro Hayashi and Mrs Hawayao Takata. Crystals and chakra healing were added to Reiki in the West, but was not part of the original method.

Jikiden Reiki teaches the original Japanese method. It was re-discovered and is now taught by Tadao Yamaguchi (my teacher and author of 'Light on the origins of Reiki') through the lineage of Chiyoko Yamaguchi, his mother, who studied the original method from the age of 17, becoming herself a teacher and practicing all her life.

'Jikiden' means 'direct transmission'. Tadao Sensei founded the Jikiden Reiki Institute in Kyoto and travels the world teaching this method in person.

Jikiden Reiki uses the concept of 'Byosen', which can be translated as an accumulation of toxins or tension in a certain area. This is felt by the practioner, perceived as a warmth, strong heat, tingling or pulsation. By placing the hands on the area we are able to sense different cycles of energy until the tension is released.Jikiden Reiki can also be done at the distance.

HOW THE DISTANT REIKI WORKS?

Enkaku Reiki (distant Reiki) is a method used for giving Reiki energy to someone at a distance, the person might be in another place or in another country and receive the benefits of the treatment.

This method was used in Japan during the World War II when men were sent to war and women at home would send Reiki to their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons in the battlefield. By feeling the Byosen they also would know if they were alive.

It is important that the receiver makes the time to actively receive the treatment, so we always set a time (no online connection). I vizualize the person and use a symbol and a Jumon (mantra). Then I lay my hand in the areas to treat and the person receives the treatment, wherever they are, feeling relaxed and calm.

The treatment is subtle but very deep, you may feel sleepy, and usually people feel very calm and present after a treatment.

***

I am offering Distant treatments.

If you would like to receive a treatment please read more and book here:

https://www.cloudhealinghands.co.uk/therapies

To read other Musings on Healing and self-healing go here

THE ART OF REST

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Thu, 30 Jul 2020 15:52:00 +0000

“Be as disciplined about your sleep as you are about your work.

What could possibly be more important than your health and your sanity, from which all else springs?”

Why is it so difficult for people to stop and rest?

'Historically, bed rest as a therapeutic treatment was used to recover from illness or exertion, or to gain general health benefits. It was something that you did even if you were generally well but wanted to increase vitality and vigour.' Bed rest was a popular treatment for patients with tuberculosis, and for those diagnosed with nervous exhaustion.

The term convalescence might not be common these days. Convalescence comes from the Latin word ‘convolescere’ which means ‘to grow fully strong’ and it was once considered a distinctly separate and essential stage of aftercare and recovery from illness.

I remember to visit water spas sites in Portugal, where medicinal water and rest was prescribed, for those recovering, for a gradual return to health, in quiet beautiful places with clean air and natural surroundings.

In times of Covid, global illness, extreme stress and fatigue, is very important to learn how to rest and how to make rest a priority. Most of us run around on stress reaction, on fight-or-flight mode, not sleeping enough and not feeling truly rested. Burnout, chronic fatigue, high levels of cortisol, hormone imbalance, adrenal fatigue, irritability, insomnia, and pain, are all health issues related with high levels of stress.

Each night, an average adult requires 8-9 hours of sleep for optimal health. When I lived in London, due to neighbours or housemates' noise, I never had a proper full night sleep, for years. I was sleep deprived, without being able to have proper rest.

Sleep recovery is possible, but takes long time. Only when I started to spend long periods in Nature, and feel more in tune with the light of the sun and the cycles of the moon, the seasons, the subtle nuances of the natural world - and the silence! - could I really slowly rest my nervous system and recover from those years of noise around me.

But only recently, through the lockdown, Covid post-viral syndrome, and more recently, through a Sound healing course and receiving treatments of Biofield Tuning, did I allow myself fully extended periods of bed rest and quiet, sometimes through the day. If I feel tired, I simply rest.

I realize this is difficult for most. As if we should feel guilty for taking time off, for stopping, for saying 'I can't do it, my body is saying no', and really listen and honour to that. To listen to what our body is really saying. It takes time, time and practice to make yourself a priority.

In his book 'When the body says NO', Dr Gabor Maté, offers many human stories and medical cases, in which he finds the true origin of certain diseases in the incapacity to listen to one's body, to stop and to say No. Most people run themselves into exhaustion, and ultimately illness, and even death, because we were programmed to just keep going. Even if we're sick, even if we are exhausted. And if you are an empath, you naturally will put others first.

To learn how to stop might be a teaching of this virus.

When I did stop the 'normal life' and went off on a radical soul journey in 2016, or when I was in the stillness of illness in 2012 (read this story here), or the big shift of grief that started in 2008 - my perspective changed. I felt everyone was going so fast, everyone was so busy, increasingly busier through the years actually, with the technology getting faster and people getting addicted to it. It felt lonely for sometime. I droped the projects, the film ideas, the next thing, and I began a journey of Presence - meaning to be present in the present moment - a journey of healing, de-programming, un-learning, connecting.

I was in a deep time, re-learning my relation with the cosmos, the stars, the ocean, the trees, the animals, the stones. I started to realize and feel the energy connecting all things. And I noticed how human beings, in general, were becoming more separate from the Earth and Spirit, while others were walking towards fusion, union, communion, in a movement of co-creation with the intelligence of Nature.

Perhaps the lockdown, the Great Pause, is the time needed to rest. To catch up with ourselves, our soul and re-establish right relationship with the Earth. That might be the key if humankind is to survive in this planet. And for this, self-care and rest are extremely important.

Of course, if we are running on adrenalin and cortisol, as a result of trauma or chronic stress response, it is very difficult to rest. Anxiety narrows thoughts and blurs perspective. When you are in fight-of-flight mode you are in a state of survival, it's like everything is an emergency, and we don't see that there is a better way to manage emotions. The amygdala in our brain has taken control. People tell you 'You must relax!' - but How? Easier said than done.

I assure you that it can be done. It does require some attention and persistence. Over many years of self-healing and working with my Shiatsu clients, I found many ways to find more inner peace and be able to rest and heal.

Sometimes we need to reach out and ask for help to rest, and avoid unecessary suffering.

I can offer Remote treatments - see here: www.claudiatomaz.com/distant-healing

#Musings on Healing and Self-healing

#rest #selfcare #timeToStop

HEALING THE HEART

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 09:51:00 +0000

This is a story of self-healing. I share it today via an excerpt of my book Travelling like clouds, the art of being present, as it is 8 years since I had my heart operation...
"It was the summer of 2012. I had moved to the new shared house in the co-operative after we were evicted from the previous building, our dear community in Hackney, at Shakespeare House. The energy of eviction is similar to rejection, but besides the personal, emotional, traumatic aspect of it, it also takes out the ground under your feet, quite literally; your home, your shelter, your security is robbed by property developers.

In the new place, I tried to settle in and get my feet on the ground. To live in a room and share the house with people I did not know was challenging. But in a few months, I was able to move forward. I bought a brand new camera and laptop (both had broken) when I got a new film commission with the charity I worked with, making videos about low carbon eco-homes, a project called SuperHomes. That was a lovely job I had since I arrived in London, which lasted many years. I was also teaching my course on creative editing at Space Studios and other film workshops at the Victoria &Albert Museum.

Things were starting to look good. So that summer, I decided it was time to do the much delayed heart operation. This was not an emergency, it was part of a process to heal my heart as I had suffered from an heart condition all my life and wished to be able to live without the tachycardia attacks, and be free of the medication I had to take daily for the last 15 years. This was supposed to be a simple procedure and I should be fine in about one week, so the doctors told me.

The actual operation is discrete, done through radio frequency; x-ray monitors and internal cameras guide the process to find the exact point for ablation. The tachycardia is induced, in semi-consciousness, then, is like what I can only describe as a cold explosion inside the heart, quickly sedated with more morphine.

This treatment breaks abnormal circuits in the heart and destroys areas of the heart muscle which are triggering arrhythmias which might happen if you have extra electrical pathways in your heart that could be causing abnormal heart rhythm, which I did since birth.

However, something went wrong. After the operation, while in hospital, half of my body went numb, I fainted and I believe I had a small stroke - afterwards I lost the ability to walk. For weeks I could barely stand up and it took several months to be able to walk again. I was forced into stillness.

Nothing had warned me for this; the doctors could not explain it, and never assumed the possibility of the stroke. I could not leave the house, my heart felt worse than ever; I was scared. Most friends were away on holiday, others were busy with their lives and could only visit occasionally. For a while I was angry, blaming the doctors and how unfair life sometimes is. Researching online, I found a group of people who, like me, had the same procedure - called catheter ablation - and there, I read that the recovery was at least 3 months, just to heal the heart, not to mention any other complications. I felt moved reading other people's stories, most of them a lot more terrible than mine, but 3 months for recovery was a real shock to me. In fact, it took 6 months to be well again.

It was frustrating to have to cancel the freelance jobs I had lined up. I had no income and had to ask for state benefits. I continued feeling angry. Why was this happening to me?

Time became slow and fuzzy. Not sure how long had passed but at some point I just felt absolutely exhausted, not just physically, but I mean, completely drained. Will I be able to walk again? was just one of the questions. I could not listen to music as the sound vibrations interfered with the heart in a very uncomfortable way. Still and silent, I tried to let go of the anger.

One day, I gave up, I surrendered that I simply could not do anything. I used all the energy I had left to go down the stairs and just sat in the garden. I thought if it would be better to be dead. But it was a beautiful day. I sat on a chair for a long time feeling the warmth of the sun. I loved this garden since I moved in and had been taking care of it, clearing weeds, trying to grow food but in that moment I realized I haven't just sat there.

I looked at the squirrels, the birds, the trees, the soil; we were the same being, part of the same nature, there was a sense of wholeness, a grace, a depth; somehow, in that moment I could let go of the pain, the worry, the anger. The trees and the animals were there with me. In that moment I could embrace the simplicity of it all, of really being there, present in that moment. There was an essence that radiated through the green of the plants and the songs of the birds, which met with my own heart beat. I was part of something, something greater than myself or my pain. I felt complete. I felt a calm that I joyfully accepted. The difficult emotions came and went like waves in the sea. I was in harmony with all the living things in the garden. Then I saw something shinning on the ground amongst some plants. I was attracted to it and slowly moved in that direction. It was a raw pink crystal, quite big.

I picked it up and just sat again, exhausted from the few steps I had taken; I held the crystal in my hands, wondering how it got there as I have never seen it before. I started to feel the stone's vibration, radiating warmth through my hands and going up my arms, directly into my heart, soothing it. This was unusual. I felt a little like Alice in Wonderland, suddenly entering a new dimension. By then I did not know anything about crystal healing, I just went with it, without questioning, just feeling it. That day I took the crystal to my room. I searched online for 'pink crystal' and found out it is called 'the stone of the Heart' and it is indeed used to heal the heart. 'Is the stone of unconditional love, it carries compassion and peace, tenderness and healing, allowing for a true capacity to give and receive love'. I thought that was quite extraordinary.

I then put up a tent in my garden and spent most days outside, just hanging out, being one with the garden, with Nature. That same week I found more 3 crystals. And a cat started to come visit me every day; he would play with me or just sleep in my tent or run after the birds and butterflies. His movement was gracious, joyful, relaxed and fun. It made me laugh. Although my walking was still very slow and stiff, this little cat was inspiring me to move and smile.

I understood the universe was providing me with what I needed to heal and it was up to me to accept its gifts and use them to heal myself.

With this graceful support, I took my healing in my own hands. Once I was a little stronger, I started doing tai chi walking, chi gong, self-shiatsu and exercises with small weights on my ankles, to rebuild muscle strength, flexibility, balance, qi, and slowly, very slowly, literally step-by-step, I taught myself to walk again. It took a long time. With patience and discipline I practised my steps until I began to improve.

Through the process, I asked the doctor for the images of my heart (ECG, x-ray, the graphs from the actual operation) and I made a little film about it. I called it, Inside my heart. The first part of the film represents how it felt to live with tachycardia and to do an operation to fix it. The second part of the video is a poetic approach of the after-op recovery period. I filmed the tree outside my window, seeing the seasons passing by. Then the metamorphosis happened.

In that summer of idle travelling in the micro cosmos of my garden, I started to understand the deep meaning of friendly beings, as I lived supported by animals and trees. There, I felt truly at home.

I could not see it then, but this was the time my system needed to reset, to heal the heart break, the loss, the grief and to start a new road towards unity, self-love and unconditional love.

This was the start of a conscious deep self-healing journey, which set me off to a new story. This was the key moment of profound shifting and inner transition that allowed me, years later, to manifest other bold changes and external transitions such as this soul journey. This time in my garden was the seed.

I like how Dr Gabor Maté expresses spirituality - as an alignment with the intelligence of Nature. I use this quote in the film as it reflects so well the meaning of my experience and posterior insights.

'There is an intelligence in

Nature and in Creation

that if we ignore we create suffering for ourselves and other people

and aligning with that intelligence, and aligning with that connection

is really what...

weather we do so consciously

or weather we do so

because we are called to that,

in ways that manifest compassion and connection and love,

that's the way we are meant to be.

and so,

the recognising that and the striving for it,

is what I call spirituality.'

If you'd like to read more stories and what unfolded after that, you might like my book Travelling like clouds, the art of being present - it's available as PDF and e-book for immediate download anywhere in the world or as a printed book made for you - this is a self-published on demand book using the wonderful services of Blurb and you'll be contributing to support me in writing and sharing more stories like this. In times of Covid that would be very appreciated and helpful indeed. Thank you in advance!
To buy the book go here.

To read more Musings on healing and self-healing, and a lot more, all links from my website: www.claudiatomaz.com

CLOUD HANDS SHIATSU

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Thu, 23 Jul 2020 15:44:00 +0000

Master Yuichi Kawada, defines Shiatsu this way, in his inspiring book ‘Essential shiatsu for troubled times’: “Shiatsu is a form of therapy that involves loving contact and manipulation of specific points on the body. Shiatsu manipulation uses thumbs and the palms of the hands to put pressure on a particular meridian to adjust the balance of yin and yang within an individual and promote a free flow of ki energy.

Since the dawn of time there existed different ways of caring for the body in China. Shiatsu grew out of combining old Japanese healing methods such as ankyo and do-in, which stimulated energy flow in the meridians, with Chinese forms of acupuncture and medicine. In the 1920’s, it was recognized by the Japanese government as an official form of medicine.

Shiatsu is a way to live with the interconnections between heaven and earth as they manifest in your own body. Today our relationship to heaven and earth is disharmonious. This imbalance is caused by human beings. If we are to live harmoniously with heaven and earth we must develop personal insight and an understanding of their delicate balance. If we can experience this intricate harmony, we may be able to find a way to successfully participate in it.”

This very much resonates with me and my Shiatsu.

my shiatsu room in Brighton

I have studied Do In Anma Seitai-Shiatsu in Lisbon with Japanese master Dr. Mitsuharu Tsuchiya and give treatments since 2003. When I discovered Shiatsu, it changed my life. I first found Shiatsu when experiencing back pain myself while working in my film. I received weekly Shiatsu treatments and discovered my body in a completely new way, as I improved, not only from my back pain, but also from what I thought were chronic conditions (such as bronchitis, which completely disappeared). I noticed my energy levels increasing, emotional expression expanding, and a new sense of openess, embodiment and grounding.

I decided to learn it and give it back.

Coming from a film background, to be able to offer treatments using simply my hands (no equipment) was very liberating.

In Lisbon, I developed a thriving practice, treating a wide range of clients, many of them weekly, including integrating Shiatsu to complement Bioenergetics therapy. I also supported people's journeys through chronic illness.

I continued to learn new Shiatsu forms and other energy and healing arts, which helped refine my touch and the sensitivity to energy. In London, I also studied other forms of Shiatsu, Zen Shiatsu and Seiki, and also Jikiden Reiki and Jin Shin Jyutsu (also Japanese healing systems).

Healing means wholeness, a whole person approach is my focus. I am interested in the connection between emotion and how it manifests in the body. Using pressure points and meridians, I connect the dots and work on harmonizing and balancing; restoring the energy flow. It is a deep treatment, yet very gentle.

my shiatsu room with Zen garden at Tree of Life (Hove)

I continued doing Shiatsu over the years, but now with the soul journey, a new sense of service comes with it. With the new insights and practices, my Shiatsu changed too. I left the Tree of Life holistic clinic where I worked, and started my own, very small practice, which I called Cloud hands. Cloud hands is the name of a tai chi movement and seemed to resonate well with the softness of my Shiatsu, and to where, my journey of travelling like clouds, brought me.

Clients come, try it, but the beginning is slow; but one, very kind woman, commits with her healing and I commit with her. She comes regularly, sometimes weekly. Her trust and our mutual presence, allow my treatments to blossom, into something New.

I now call it Cloud Hands Shiatsu.

The treatments become more Yin, more profound. I find a slower flow, following my intuition, often focusing on tonification and source points, developing a healing touch that is more and more refined, allowing me to sense the bioenergy of a meridian or point, and of the person as a whole.

I sometimes include other healing arts - Jin Shin Jyutsu, Jikiden Reiki and tuning forks; sometimes I simply hold, feeling the pulsing, the chi, or wait for two points to synchronize, allowing for alignment and for the energy to harmonize, freeing the body and the soul from accumulated tension and pain, layer by layer. I also allow for integration and grounding, offering the person a sense of deep relaxation while being rooted to the Earth. The work is done with a lot of sensitivity, kindness and respect.

Through the years I notice how I developed receptivity, sensitivity and presence. Some clients refer it as 'attunement'. The essence of this work is clarity - between the heart, the breath and the hands, plus mutual trust between myself and the receiver.

My treatments become more effective than ever. I see people transforming. Some become pain free, sometimes in one session. I feel I'm on the verge of something good!

I feel it's about resting in intuition, with safe hands - master Akinobu Kishi (Seiki) says: 'in safe hands, the heart naturally rises to meet the touch. Safe hands bring resonance. This happens without effort'

In his poem he explores further this concept of Safe hands (In Seiki, life in resonance, the secret art of shiatsu, by Akinobu Kishi and Alice Whieldon) :

Hand
Soft and warm when touching
Spreading and reaching to every level and space
Knowing where it has to touch
No doubt, no hesitation
Soothing
Heart-centred fullness
`brings a feeling of cradling
It lets ki from heaven pass through you
Drawing out disharmony
Reborn through touch


drawing I made after a session where a client was in so much pain that she couldn't lay down, she chose the child pose. after the treatment she felt reborn

When Covid-19 comes, I can no longer see clients in person. I continue developing my intuition and develop remote treatments, at the distance. However I miss the touch and the presence. We will return when safe.

#Musings on Healing and Self-healing
#Shiatsu #CloudHandsShiatsu

related:
www.claudiatomaz.com/shiatsu

A CLOUD OF ENERGY

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 18:10:00 +0000

A cloud of energy, excerpts from my book Travelling like clouds:

"I had walked to the long beach. The winter was nearly over and the temperature was mild. There was no wind, and being a week day, almost no one was on the beach. I had been doing tai chi exercises on the rocks. I was calm. I started walking along the sea, on the wet sand, as the tide was low. The sea was of a blue grey, deep and constant. The horizon line was brighter as the sun flooded its light through a gap in the clouds. I stopped looking at the sea. Each day, each moment was a new beginning. Immersed in the landscape, my mind became as deep as the ocean. Listening to the soft waves, I was taken into a vision.

I had this felt sense that I could see the energy field around me; like a cloud. There were all these little things hanging, fragments of memories, pieces of emotions, experiences and situations; they hanged around me like parts in a suspended mobile. This is what we are made of, I thought. It was like a cloud of stuff. I could see distorted faces or just bits, like holograms. Relationships. Heart breaks. Unfinished projects. Ancestors. Like pieces of broken glass reflecting energetic residues of the past. All hanging there. I thought that possibly most of us walk around through life inside a cloud of energetic clutter, things that we can not see, stuff that might not even be ours; karma from past lives, trauma from our culture and families, conditionings from our up bringing, plus our personal struggles, obstacles, unresolved emotions... I was so absorbed into this, that I did not realize that a dog had sat next to me. A woman approached laughing, calling the dog's name, waking me up from my vision, while the dog looked at me attentively. Perhaps he seen it too. The cloud of energy. Before leaving he licked my hand and we laughed.

After this, a new flux of information came my way, things that blew my mind; I was cracked open. I truly surrendered my head and all I thought I knew. Things accelerated. I took in as much as I could. Through a series of online courses, in particular at The shift network, and an ongoing program with Thomas Hübl, I listened to hours of conversations, summits and webinars on Trauma healing, Collective trauma, the Soul, Ancestral Healing, Evolutionary Empaths, Epigenetics, Shamanism, Sound healing, Energy Medicine and so much more.

What I was learning confirmed and expanded the vision I had on the beach.

Through one of the programs I discovered a teacher, who created a system, based on Chinese Medicine, to clear personal energy fields and to clear the energy of spaces, homes and land. This spoke so directly to me, and I felt so inspired by it, that I started learning her method of energy clearing; this clears the energetic fragments left over in the field, just as I had seen it at the beach - fields of emotional stress, disturbing effects of others, ancestral and inherit stuff, and other personal fields. To do this felt so natural to me as if I had been waiting for it all my life. I embraced it and started working with the quantum field.

Through this process, I discovered myself as an intuitive-sensitive and empath. An empath is someone who has a very sensitive nervous system, who can feel another's joy or suffering - person, animal, tree, landscape. Because of this sensitivity we pick up other people's subtle energy and emotions, which is good in a healing context, however, it can be very overwhelming in daily life situations, in particular when we are not aware of it.

I can really feel the energy of people and places strongly, so to learn more about this was very relevant and I plan to do a retreat to develop this work with the teacher, in person. Somehow this gave yet another meaning to my journey - what if all the places and people I met on my way, while travelling like clouds, were teaching me to became aware and more sensitive to a vast range of situations, people and places? I did feel different energies in each house, I was affected by it. Sometimes, those energies made me ill, sometimes it was fine.

This was the piece of the puzzle that was missing, the lesson to be learned through the narcissists and toxic people I have been encountering. Somehow they were my teachers. This realization took me on a path to find ways to manage this sensitivity, to turn it into a gift, instead of being exhausted by it. I found new resources for sensitive souls in a world that rarely welcomes these gifts - instead, our society asks us to be tougher, faster, multi-taskers, or forces people into numbness. By understanding and welcoming my sensitivity, I can support and develop my empathy in more authentic and healthy ways, protecting and nurturing my soul, instead of using filters, avoidance or becoming overwhelmed. I must say this is not an easy task and it is an ongoing daily practice.

Along side the Shiatsu work with clients, I continue my personal inner work, and explore new methods and biofield maps for personal clearing, experimenting it mainly in myself, with very radical and tangible results. Quantum physics is not a new concept, however the use of its notions for healing is still quite new and revolutionary. The quantum field, electromagnetic field, and the biofield, is like a sea of energy, that is beyond notions of material time and space. I enjoy learning, discovering, experimenting. I start doing distant treatments for friends; energy clearing and reiki. Doing this work is like connecting directly with a person's soul. Even if people are in another part of the world, they can receive the treatment. Again, this is done with great respect. I only do it with the person's consent, by appointment, and I ask permission to the field as well.

As I sensed at the beach, distortions and clutter in one's energy field can create patterns and structures that influence our lives, often creating anxiety, disease and pain, or a feeling of being stuck. I was finding out that a positive interaction with these subtle energies allows biological and physical responses. After a clearing many things shifted and I noticed, it also had a positive impact on trauma; I was feeling in my own body, how clearing helped to bring balance. After cleared the stuck energy in my system, things start to move forward. My life changes completely and very fast.

As new gates of energy opened, the change was tangible, within and without. I moved house and could have the time and space for new discoveries."

(excerpt of my book Travelling like clouds, the art of being present)

Read More #Musings on Healing and self-healing
#story #energy #empaths

REMOTE HEALING AND THE QUANTUM FIELD

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 18:09:00 +0000

I notice how the Soul journey continues in the stillness of the days, quietly, idle, travelling in time instead of space, mainly offline, through mind connection, engaging with the Earth, and other aspects of the subtle Life, going deeper in the inner layers and the connection with Nature.

I realized it was time for a complete new approach - to everything!

Feeling into what was emerging through me, I re-read my notes of a shamanic journey I did at home in mid February, before the state of pandemic was announced. By then I could feel something was going on, the matrix had changed. So I entered the field to ask for guidance, as I sometimes do. At the time it all felt a bit enigmatic and mysterious, and I couldn't yet understand it fully, but now I get it!

I was taken to a place where everything was unfamiliar, it was dark like in outer-space, I couldn’t see people but could feel their energy, and could see impressions of them, like colours passing, sort of northern-lights moving slowly.

And this was the message I receive:

"You will be working with the invisible. Direct mind connection is your focus. People will be dispersed and technology might fail. For you to help them you must establish direct mind connection. This way you will heal their body and their solitude. You have been practicing invisibility, now you will be physically remote. You should not attempt to look at the invisible energy by applying the same notions of matter. You will develop a new seeing. The Nature around you will help you”

With the break out of Covid-19, the pandemic and social distancing, I started offering more distant treatments. It felt natural, the right thing to do, it was effective for people and I love doing it! I can feel the person's energy as if they were here. When I studied Jikiden Reiki in 2018 and learned Enkaku Reiki (distant Reiki) I could not yet imagine a pandemic would come. But when it did, I understood these were stepping stones for the future.

I’m always happy when people report great improvement of physical symptoms and great calm and inner peace, after a treatment. A client texted after the treatment saying ‘that was amazing, you are an angel!’ which made me smile. This method was first used in Japan during the World War II when men were sent to war and women, at home, would send Reiki to their husbands, brothers, fathers and sons in the battlefield. By feeling the Byosen they also would know if they were alive.

The treatment is subtle but very deep, you may feel sleepy, tingling, relaxed; usually people feel very calm and present after a treatment. Some people feel a lot, feeling specifically the areas that I am treating, some might feel less. Often people zone out and have little memories, sensations or images coming up, like if they are in a dream-state. Some people fall asleep.

The treatments, although remote, are effective for many physical issues, including pain, stiffness, headaches, Covid-19, and also for stress, anxiety, insomia, trauma, overwhelm, panic, depression and more.

At the same time, a UK wide project to offer Distant Jikiden Reiki to NHS staff came up and I joined the team to support those on the front lines, working in difficult and traumatizing conditions, many of whom have chronic health conditions or have the virus themselves. This was very exciting, however the project has been delayed.

In the meantime I applied for a bursary for a online course with my teacher Eileen Mckusick at the Shift Network, to deepen a method I have been learning for about a year called Biofield Tuning. This uses tuning forks and can also be done at the distance.

I have now completed a 7 weeks course 'Sound healing Alchemy to transmute difficult emotions' and received treatments too. This is a very powerful and transformative sound and energy healing method, using tuning forks. Some times after sessions the release can be uncomfortable, needing a lot of rest until the energy-body re-arrange themselves. Then the shifts, release and transformation are very real!

In early June I receive the news that all my family got the virus. They are in Portugal, I'm in the UK. I treated my mum everyday. For 8 days in a row. Using Enkaku Reiki and a light version of Biofield tuning, using the tuning forks to clear the lungs, the energy around the head and the throat. After a few days she was breathing better, the nervous system was more relaxed, she was sleeping well and energy levels were improving. She was having difficulties breathing, cough, fever and fatigue. I continued a combination of Distant Reiki and Tuning forks tuning and sometimes used another method of Energy Clearing (with a pendulum). Suddenly after 8 days she got suddenly better. After 3 days she tested again and it was still Positive, however the main symptoms were gone after the daily treatments. Having had cancer several times in her life and suffering of several chronic diseases, with a compromised immune system, she was at risk. I think the Distant treatments saved her life!

Other people I’ve been treating remotely, for overwhelm, anxiety, insomnia, pressure in the head, heart-ache and pressure in the lungs have reported: ‘I feel calmer and more present’', 'head pressure nearly disappeared', 'I could sleep really well and feel rested', 'I could feel my chest loosen and feel relaxed', 'had a vision of myself in the future, feeling lighter!'

How is it possible to do this at the Distance?

Some people still ask me “How is it possible to do this at the Distance?” We are energy! Quantum fields, electromagnetic fields and the biofield, is like a sea of energy that is beyond notions of material time and space. People still split body and soul, matter and energy, when in fact everything is connected and one.
We are energy, made of the dust of the stars. Quantum physics is not a new concept, however the use of its notions for healing is still quite new and revolutionary.

In Enkaku Reiki I vizualize the person and use a symbol and a Jumon (mantra). Then I lay my hand in the areas to treat and the person receives the treatment, feeling relaxed and calm.

With Biofield tuning I use a hologram of the person on an empty massage table and work in the biofield (energetic field around the body) with tuning forks.

In his book Human Tuning, John Beaulieu explains the concept of non-locality:

"Quantum physics teaches us that quantum particles are also waves that travel over a very large region of space. The idea that something is both a form confined to a small region of space and simultaneously a wave spread out over a very large region of space is counterintuitive. For this reason we tend to identify with form and distance.

A radio or television station can be thousands of miles away, and we can tune into it without thinking about the distance (...) In a similar way, we can tune into a person through resonance.

Quantum physicists call the property of tuning into phenomena at a distance 'non-locality'. The term refers to the ability of a quantum entity such as an electron to influence another quantum particule instantaneously over any distance."

If you would like a treatment, I am currently doing it on donation

To Book and for Frequently asked Questions - please see here

#Musings on healing and self-healing

#remoteHealing #SoundHealingTuning #EnkakuReiki

HEALERS & PIONEERS OF HOLISTIC MEDICINE

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Wed, 22 Jul 2020 18:03:00 +0000

Healing is perhaps the greatest gift that can be desired - Harry Edwards

Through my continuous research on healing methods, and lately, due to Covid-19 and social distancing, trying to find ways to help people remotely, I have been searching more information on remote healing and self-healing, and finding interesting holistic perspectives on the way. In my research I discovered 2 healers (Harry Edwards, and Edgar Cayce) that I didn’t know about (however they were very famous) that I would like to refer here. Plus a third one (Dr Edward Bach) who I studied previously, and recently came across with again.

The 3 of them use very different methods and distinct practices, but I noticed interesting associations between their philosophy and how they see healing and the nature of disease, which I find is key for Holistic Medicine, and an important reminder for the global moment of Humanity that we are living.

In these times I think it is crucial, not to separate or polarize things, but instead find the inter-dependency of all things - of humans, plants, animals and the planet. Of body, mind and energy. The medicine of the future must be wholistic, not only within our own organism, but must include the health of the Earth, rivers, oceans, land, soil, and all beings.

One key point for these healers is to look, not at an symptom, but at the person as a whole - including their soul, energy, spiritual connection and Earth connection.

This is very important, and is also the foundation of Shiatsu, Reiki and other healing practices I do.

In this post I selected some quotes from books I have been reading by these healers, that express some fundamental and interesting ideas. I do not practice their modalities but I would like to share some of their principles on health, disease and healing, as an inspiration.

Although they lived over a century ago, their approach is still radical and often still taken with disbelieve. I say again that I feel this is key for an understanding of the principles of holistic medicine and the importance of such approach in the challenging times we are living in. I also noticed how so many innovative ideas and healing practices happened around 1920 - these healers were working then, psychology, Reiki and Shiatsu in Japan, etc, it was all happening at the same time - right after WWI and the pandemic of Spanish Flu.

Western mainstream medicine continues a materialistic approach of looking into the physical symptoms individually, without connection with other symptoms, or the person’s life and situation, and leaving completely out the personality, mental health, trauma, not to mention soul, spirit and energy.

Body, mind, emotions, energy are not separate. We are not separate from our environment, from the Earth, from Nature, from each other, from our soul, from the cosmic energy that runs through us. It is essential at this time of global pandemics, illness and collective trauma to take a new approach based on inter-dependency, connection and unity. Of course we cannot forget the origins of holistic healing in native and animistic cultures, and Eastern medicine, from China, India, and many other places.

HEALERS & PIONEERS

Edgar Cayce (1877-1945) was an American man who worked on his family farm while young, and then as a photographer. Often called ‘The sleeping prophet’, from 1920’s, after healing himself from losing his voice with a method similar to self-hypnosis - he started to tune into the Akashic Records, discovering himself as a seer, tapping into medical knowledge as well as the secrets and mysteries of the universe and any common questions about people’s lives, the past and the future, offering help to those in need. By going into a meditative state he could unlock knowledge and give advice to clients. Science and history have validated concepts and ideas explored in Cayce’s psychic information.

* The Akashic Records* are a sort of library of everything, past and future, where all lives, deeds, thoughts, are recorded, but they are not static, they can also be transformed and changed. *

The Edgar Cayce foundation, called Association for Research and Enlightment, in Virginia, USA, continues his work, with an archive of all the volumes of Edgar Cayce’s files – while in meditation he would speak out loud and a stenographer would write it all down.

The other healer I would like to present is the English healer Harry Edwards (1893-1976). He discovered his talents as a healer while on WWI, helping his fellow soldiers in the battle-field. He had a printing business, and no medical training, however with thousands of requests for healing, both in person and ‘Absent healing’ (at the distance) he then dedicated the rest of his life to the healing arts, founding the Healing Sanctuary, in the village of Shere, Surrey, in 1946, as the family moved there during the war to escape the bombings in London. The Sanctuary continues to offer healing and courses to the public, and I recently read some of his books.

I also would like to mention Dr Edward Bach (1886-1936) known for his Dr Bach Flowers Remedies and the famous Rescue Remedy, the father of homeopathy and Flower Essences. His approach to health and disease is very interesting and underlies the philosophy behind his remedies, using the power of Nature to go to the root of the problem, which in his understanding disease is the result of a mis-alignment or conflict between soul and action. Perhaps his books on the nature of disease are less famous, but really worth looking into.

Although I do not practice these modalities, I do find inspiration in these extraordinary pioneers of holistic and energy healing. Here are some selected quotes from their work, as food for thought:

QUOTES

Edgar Cayce quotes

- On the nature of healing -

“Keep the physical fit, the soul never die. Keep the physical fit so that the soul may manifest longer. The physical must be fit and then the spiritual forces may manifest the better. (He gives two reasons)

(1) Keep the physical fit for through the physical, other beings can benefit from our presence in their lives.

(2) This life is an opportunity for our soul to grow and having grown in love, wisdom, and understanding to live beyond this life. This new life is an opportunity for souls to resolve karma and change patterns of thought and behaviour. This is true for each soul and each may also play an important role in helping other souls resolve their karma and change some of their patterns’

‘The mental state influences the physical condition. Thoughts and attitudes can directly affect our physical bodies. Keep the attitude that as the physical body is a manifestation of spiritual life and influence, it is to be used in a constructive manner as to bring hope and cheer into the lives of others. This is a reasonable service, as an appreciation, as a duty, as an opportunity for expressing the divine in self. Be expectant in the opportunities.’

‘Let those things that cause the doubts and fears be far removed from you, through just the little kindness, the little service you may do here and there. For as you keep your mind and your body in service, so will joy, peace, and harmony come into your experience.’

‘Body, mind and spirit work together for health and healing. We cannot have wellbeing if one of these is out of sync with the others. Therefore, awareness of the mental and spiritual forces is as important as attention to physical foods, exercises, medicines and therapies.

‘Edgar Cayce presents a vision into what he calls - “continual life”; life that continues when it is in harmony with the forces of Nature. When life is being lived mindfully and is lived in a balanced manner, it cooperates with the universal life forces. Then the whole being hums along healthfully. When a body and mind are in cooperation and coordination with the natural forces in the body and the environment, then there is a rhythm that runs smoothly, bringing nourishment and rejuvenation. But when it is in contention with its various systems and subsystems, then it is at dis-ease with itself and its surroundings, and if left that way too long it leads to disease.

When the infinite life force is flowing through an individual life, then that individual is very likely to be healthy and of sound mind, living life purposefully and contributing to the lives of others.’

‘Think of our body as a musical instrument. In the case of illness it is out of tune. When it is healthy it is in tune. Consider the universal life force as an orchestra. When we tune ourselves with the universal essence of life, then we are in harmony, causing the symphony without and within to sound ideal. We need to feel the frequency of the life force and then we must tune ourselves to that frequency.

This is not to say it is easy. Life is often difficult and surroundings not ideal. But if we really thrive to tune our instrument to the life force within us, then little by little, day by day, we will get on the right frequency’

Harry Edwards quotes

- On spiritual healing and absent healing -

‘Many people wish to know how they can develop the gift of healing the sick. Healing is perhaps the greatest gift that can be desired. The desire to heal is a natural talent.

It is contended that our hands possess no healing qualities of themselves, and that we use our hands as part of our minds to express the healing intention.

Generally speaking, all who inwardly feel for those who suffer, may possess the healing potential, and absent healing is often the way through which the gift is awakened and developed. Absent healing is, as the name implies, healing from a distance.

It may be that absent healing is thought by some people to be the Cinderella of healing, something that is not so realistic as contact healing, possibly because it seems more abstract and less tangible than the personal contact with a patient. I assert this is a mistaken idea; absent healing is very real, and as effective as contact healing – in many cases, more so.

It only needs a little consideration to see that when a patient is healed from a severe or ‘incurable’ malady without any physical contact, we have the evidence for a more evolved science. As absent healing and all its implications become more fully appreciated and practised with understanding, so in days to come, this form of healing will assume ascendency over other methods.’

‘I have been conducting absent healing practice for over thirty three years, and for nearly thirty years this has been my main mission in life. It has been said that I have the largest absent healing practice in the United Kingdom, and for a number of years I have received over half a million healing letters annually.’

‘The first conclusion I would offer is that absent healing is a thought process, as far as the healer is concerned. This must be so, for the healing originates from his mental request for help to reach a given patient; this is the primary factor, which sets the healing in motion.

The healer does not heal of himself, healing comes through him, and is not of him. A state of attunement needs to exist between the healer and his healing guides. This state of attunement can be achieved through meditation. This faculty becomes easier with practice and experience until it is as a ‘second nature’.

‘While instantaneous healings are not infrequent they are not the rule. No healing can take place until the cause is first overcome. If it should be that the cause is simply organic, which can be dealt with quickly, and the symptoms removed, an immediate healing is seen. Generally speaking, it takes time to overcome a cause, especially if it originates in some form of inner-self frustration or long-standing fear. Then time is necessary to induce the corrective changes. If there is wastage, such as with paralysis, it takes time to replace the lost tissue and stimulate cellular reproduction. Thus healings are, as a rule, gradual yet progressive. Everything depends upon the cause and nature of the sickness, and receptiveness to the healing is particular to each patient.

It is commonsense that if a patient can be advised to live rightly, and to take simple measures to help himself, much can be done to make the patient an ally to the healing purpose.”

Dr Edward Bach quotes

- On the nature of disease -

“To understand the nature of disease certain fundamental truths have to be acknowledged:

The first of these [principles] is that man has a Soul, which is his real self.

The second principle is that we, as we know ourselves in this world, are personalities down here for the purpose of gaining all the knowledge and experience which can be obtained through earthly existence, The Soul knows what environment and what circumstances will best enable us to do this, and hence He places us in that branch of life most suited for that object.“

Thirdly, we must realise that the short passage on this earth, which we know as life, is but a moment in the course of our evolution

Then follows a fourth great principle, that so long as our Souls and personalities are in harmony all is joy and peace, happiness and health. It is when our personalities are led astray from the path laid down by the Soul, either by our own worldly desires or by the persuasion of others, that a conflict arises. This conflict is the root cause of disease and unhappiness.

“The next great principle is the understanding of the Unity of all things: that the Creator of all things is Love, and that everything of which we are conscious is in all its infinite number of forms a manifestation of that Love, whether it be a planet or a pebble, a star or a dewdrop

Separation is impossible, for as soon as a beam of light is cut off from its source it ceases to exist.

Thus any action against ourselves or against another affects the whole, because by causing imperfection in a part it reflects on the whole

So we see there are two great possible fundamental errors: dissociation between our Souls and our personalities, and cruelty or wrong to others, for this is a sin against Unity. Either of these brings conflict, which leads to disease.

It is humbly hoped that [this book] will be a guide to those who suffer to seek within themselves the real origin of their maladies, so that they may assist themselves in their own healing.

The main reason for the failure of modern medical science is that it is dealing with results and not causes. For many centuries the real nature of disease has been masked by materialism, and thus disease itself has been given every opportunity of extending its ravages, since it has not been attacked at its origin. “

“Disease will never be cured or eradicated by present materialistic methods, for the simple reason that disease in its origin is not material. What we know as disease is an ultimate result produced in the body, the end product of deep and long acting forces, and even if material treatment alone is apparently successful this is nothing more than a temporary relief unless the real cause has been removed. The modern trend of medical science, by misinterpreting the true nature of disease and concentrating it in materialistic terms in the physical body, has enormously increased its power, firstly, by distracting the thoughts of people from its true origin and hence from the effective method of attack, and secondly, by localising it in the body, thus obscuring true hope of recovery and raising a mighty disease complex of fear, which never should have existed.

“Disease is in essence the result of conflict between Soul and Mind, and will never be eradicated except by spiritual and mental effort.”

No effort directed to the body alone can do more than superficially repair damage, and in this there is no cure, since the cause is still operative and may at any moment again demonstrate its presence in another form. “

“This is true healing by attacking the stronghold, the very base of the cause of suffering.”

“Five hundred years before Christ some physicians of ancient India, working under the influence of the Lord Buddha, advanced the art of healing to so perfect a state that they were able to abolish surgery, although the surgery of their time was as efficient, or more so, than that of the present day. Such men as Hippocrates with his mighty ideals of healing, Paracelsus with his certainty of the divinity in man, and Hahnemann who realised that disease originated in a plane above the physical – all these knew much of the real nature and remedy of suffering.”

#Musings on healing and self-healing
#research #inspiration #holisticMedicine

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FLOWER ESSENCES

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 12:08:00 +0000

Flower essences, or flower remedies, are infusions made from the flowering part of a plant. The process of sun steeping, in water, captures the energy imprint of the flower. So, unlike essential oils or herbal remedies, which contain physical substances extracted from plants, Flower essences contain their energetic vibration. It's effects are subtle, but potent, stimulating personality traits, clearing patterns, releasing emotions, enhancing energetic qualities of renewal, transformation and spiritual growth. I always used herbs in my self-healing, and used Dr Bach remedies and Australian Bush Flower remedies, but to make my own and discover new plants has been really very special.

I started making Flower Essences since the beginning of the lockdown and continued through the Spring. For me this has been a beautiful process of discovery of the plants, of alchemy, and a deep self-healing process. Most of the flowers I used were growing around in the garden, some of them were plants that I grew from seed, making the relationship with the plant even more special and close.

So far I created 15 different Essences. 4 from trees (Elderflower, Hawthorn, Apple and Cedar). 5 wild flowers / weeds (Dandelion, Gorse, Comfrey, Red Poppy, Blackberry) and the others from: Lavender, Lupin, Camomile, Marigold, Thyme and Coriander). They all have different properties and came to me in the exact right moment when I needed their specific healing. Some of these flowers work on the release of trauma, others are calming, others bring qualities of focus or resilience. Each of them has its beauty and its very own properties.

Apple Essence - the power of simplicity, love, presence, release of the past, resilience.

This is what I wrote about my first Flower Essence, of Gorse and Dandelion, which instead of the Sun, I used the energy and Light of the Full Moon of April 2020:

'The silence and quiet of the world is making me go deeper within and without, developing my intuition. On the full moon I was called to make a Flower essence remedy of gorse and dandelion, which are both growing around the house.

The gorse is a very resilient plant that blooms all the way through the winter until June; it went through storms, extreme wind and long nights. Well rooted, its leaves are like needles, and the flowers are bright yellow like the sun, almost the same yellow as the dandelions, who bloom spontaneously wherever the wind takes the seeds, reminding us of the impermanence and fragility of life.

Associating the 2 flowers brings balance between the spontaneity / being in the flow of life of the dandelion, with the endurance and strength of the gorse, helping opening to new perspectives beyond the uncertainty.

Making this through the moon light, the essence brings acceptance to darkness and the dark times we are facing, as a fertile ground does for new seeds to grow - a release of old patterns, fear, worry and uncertainty, opening to new perspectives, in a gradual discovery of a gentle power, grounding, calming, bringer of Harmony, fairness and healing of the injustices of the power of domination.

From the silence of the night, to the dawn of the new era.

Acceptance after shock. Resilience after uncertainty. Re-arrangement of the subtle body. Finding new solutions through peace. Finding inner strength through solidarity and support.

The pale light of the moon brings a liquid sensitivity, to the sun accumulated in the flower through the day. The clouds filter the moon light, giving access to the soft stillness of the inner truth.'

#Musings on healing and self-healing
#inspiration #flowers #selfhealing

UNDERSTANDING TRAUMA

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 10:19:00 +0000

In this post I am sharing a few excerpts of a chapter called Patience and trauma from my book Travelling like clouds, the art of being present. Having experienced trauma myself, as most people, I have been dedicated to the study, research and healing of trauma for a few years. Being a huge and complex field, I hope I could make it succint enough for anyone to understand it.

In this post, I am sharing two podcasts and a video of some of my teachers and experts in trauma that I very much respect: as Michael Stone, Thomas Hübl, Gabor Maté.

The corona crisis is triggering huge levels of trauma, personally and collectively - some of it relates with the present situation, some might be triggering past events of our personal, ancestral and historic past. The process of trauma is mainly unconscious and has the function to protect us. However to understand it is key for how we will respond to this moment and create a new future.

Some of you might be feeling tearful, in panic, running away, dissociating, or numb, not able to concentrate, overwhelmed... these are signs of trauma, even though you might not realize. Please read on.

"It was in the podcast ‘Awake in the world’, in a series of talks by Michael Stone and Molly Boeder Harris, that I learned important information about trauma; how the brain and nervous system react, its key symptoms, and the concept that trauma is imprinted in the body-memory and the nervous system.

I had read about trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but this seemed to speak directly to me and brought an entirely new perspective to my own experiences.

I listened to these talks, only a few weeks after I left the caravan, while still healing my wrist, still a girl without hands, trusting the help of kind strangers, feeling at lost on my journey. It was almost shocking to listen to it, a profound Aha! moment, full of insights, and also some confusion. However, finally, there was language and words to frame and explain certain feelings and emotions that have been very challenging over the years.

I learned that trauma is not the story of what happened, not the shocking event but an automatic function of the nervous system, an unprocessed energy residue that stays in the system, that is living in your body, that is living inside of you right now, creating a split, a fracture, a fragmentation. And most often we are not even aware that is happening because it falls below the zone of consciousness. The body feels unsafe, in its own skin and in the world. Panic reactions, anxiety, fear, shame, lack of confidence, are trauma symptoms; Dissociation keeps us separated.

I felt I needed to dive deeper to understand trauma, and signed up for an online course, a few months later, with the same teacher, Michael Stone, called ‘Healing trauma through the body’.

The course coincided with a care placement. I didn't have much time for myself, and in many ways it was not the ideal way to take such a profound course, as it was triggering a lot of stuff. Or perhaps because of it, it was indeed the right thing to do and the right moment.

The new insights about trauma, and all that I was learning in the course, were bringing shadows into the light. I could see not only my own trauma but I could also unveil the traumas of my clients. I started to see the gifts hidden below the shadows, and with that, a new confidence started to appear. I realized that by holding space for vulnerability, I offered my clients, and myself, a safe space to simply be ourselves, with our circumstances, traumas, limitations, gifts, kindness and all. By seeing trauma and respecting what was hidden, I could be more present, and I noticed how my attention and soft presence, would relax them as well, as they felt seen.

So, what is trauma?

Most people confuse trauma with a shock or an extreme event - such as a car crash, a shipwreck, a war - but trauma is not the painful experiences we have had, it is the impact that those experiences have had on us.

“Trauma can be defined as a breach of one’s protective barrier. It can be physical, mental, energetic, or spiritual. The event that caused the trauma passes, but the body still believes it’s under threat. This taxes all of its systems and we begin to experience wide-ranging symptoms and imbalances that can become chronic. Because trauma increases stress and decreases trust, it not only takes a huge physical and emotional toll, it also deeply affects how we relate to each other.” (Michael Stone)

Thomas Hübl describes it as a frozen energy that becomes undigested. 'We might organize our life around the trauma, the same way a tree grows around an obstacle, distorting its branches'. Often we are unaware of this.

In trauma, much of what the brain does is unconscious. Its function is actually to protect us in a situation of danger. The trauma reaction of our nervous system was designed when men were wild creatures and there were real life threats, such as a bear attack. In our modern world we rarely have that sort of life-threatening experience, but our nervous system has not evolved into something more adequate. So fight, flight and freeze is the programmed human response to danger. The main goal is survival. Dissociation follows as a protective mechanism.

If the trauma is not released, it just works behind the scenes, responding automatically, encoding protective memories and responses to danger, even when there is no danger.

The brain behaves in the future the way it behaved in the past, like a loop that you cannot control, it highjacks your life. Any similar situation, or even a sight, smell, sound, or fragment of the original scene can trigger the trauma response and get you into a fight or flight or freeze mode without warning. Our logic brains can not control that reaction. It Is not a choice.

In trauma, the brain is constantly scanning for danger, not allowing true rest, bringing our nervous system and adrenals, into a state of constant vigilance, stress and fatigue. We enter the surviving mode, we feel we don’t belong to this world, we feel isolated, displaced, ashamed, we want to go back to ourselves, but there is no way home. Trauma disconnects us from our roots; we become a stranger in our own body, a homeless to our own soul.

If the individual that experiences trauma is not given the time and resources to work through it adequately and to integrate the experience in a healthy way, that unprocessed unconscious energy will remain in the body, in the nervous system, and it will affect not only their life, but the lives of everyone around, it will remain in the collective field. It will impact our relations, it will be passed on through generations.

Thomas Hübl has been working in intergenerational trauma, and explains that second and third generations of survivors from the Holocaust carry the burden of the trauma from their ancestors. Personal and collective trauma leave an imprint in the body and in the energetic field. Each human being carries a piece of this, in different scales and depths, that contributes to unresolved and un-integrated unconscious energies that lay beneath our ‘social architecture’ and our relationships with each other, and with Nature and other species. If we feel threatened, isolated, and fragmented, we might not feel in harmony with the world. The refugee crisis, wars and climate change are part of this collective trauma, they result from this fundamental separation.

*

I also found that all these women carried the trauma of care giving and the loss of their husbands. Dr Gabor Maté points out that continuous low impact stress, such as care giving, dysfunctional living situations, sleep deprivation and uncertainty, create the same trauma impact and symptoms, as more violent or shocking experiences.

Trauma is not our fault, but we do have a responsibility to heal it. However being an unconscious process for most of us and so widely spread across society, institutions, and every aspect of life, this is not an easy task.

The first step is to become aware of it. Dr Bessel van der Kolk, author of ‘The body keeps the score’, explains: ‘the only way to resolve trauma is to get to know yourself and cherish yourself. That is very hard to do as long as your body feels unsafe. Most traumatized people try to get away from their bodies as fast as they can (through addictions, sex, food, internet, etc) because their bodies stir them up. The body is where the panic is – the fear and the rage. But you need to get to know your rage and your fear and to learn to take care of it."

(excerpt of my book Travelling like clouds)

In this video Thomas Hübl and Gabor Maté explain trauma in more depth.

#Musings on healing and self-healing
#trauma #healing #research

COVID SELF-CARE

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 18:11:00 +0000

During the lockdown I created a COVID SELF-CARE page on my website that I updated each week, where I shared some short videos with practices. The page is still available. I made these videos very short to make it simple, with practical self-shiatsu and other healing arts practices to help calm the nervous system in a time of panic and anxiety. On the page there are also mindfulness suggestions, inspiration, plus occasional links to my teachers' work / relevant information, namely on trauma (you can also read another text I wrote: Understanding trauma).

In these challenging times to keep the body healthy, the immune system strong and the mind balanced is key. To take care of ourselves is more important than ever. It is a necessary and radical act of self-love and care. When we care for ourselves, we care for the world. To learn practices to support self-care, self-regulation and healing is essencial right now.

My hope is that this resources page can be a sanctuary with practical holistic tools to navigate the pandemic through heartfelt connection, compassion, resilience, creativity and human kindness. In times of physical isolation and social distancing, it is vital to bring touch and embodied practices into our daily life.

To support people over time, with more guidance and direction I am preparing an online course called The Art of self-healing and Care - at the moment I am taking expressions of interest to make sure it is viable to do this. If you are interested in taking part please see the program and simply email me to register your interest.

I got the virus myself in March and used all the self-healing tools I could: self-Reiki, self-shiatsu and tuning forks, herbs, vitamins (D+C+Zinc) and plenty of rest. Being somehow a mild version, its prolonged effects (now they call it post-viral syndrome) continued for months: shortness of breath, fast heart-beat and extreme fatigue, were on and off for a long time, slowing me down enough to get closer than ever to Nature - and to myself.

Through a colleague's recommendation I started a course of a natural antibiotic called AlliTech a natural alternative to help fight microbes such as viral, bacterial & fungal infection and boost the immune system. At the same time I also received Biofield Tuning treatments twice a week for 7 weeks during the course 'Sound healing alchemy' I did - the symtoms have disappeared and I feel good!

I have been offering Remote treatments - combining Jikiden Reiki and Sound healing tuning / Biofield tuning (read more here) - I treated people with positive Covid-19, others for anxiety and other mind issues triggered due to the personal and collective impact of the virus.

I am doing these treatments on Donation at the moment. Please see Frequently asked questions and how to book a session if interested - go here

#Musings on Healing and Self-healing
#selfhealing #selfcare #resources

SOUND HEALING TUNING

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 17:59:00 +0000

Sound will be the medicine of the future.
— Edgar Cayce

Sound healing is not new, for thousands of years sound has been used to treat illness and bring a state of calm or ecstasy and transformation. Chanting, drumming, tibetan singing bowl, gongs, flutes, have been used to bring individuals and communities into harmony, regulating the nervous system and balancing dissonance. Sonic healing methods can also harmonize your biofield — the electromagnetic field around your physical body.

In this post I will explore sonic healing methods using tuning forks.

A tuning fork is a resonator that emits a pure musical tone through vibration. Traditionally was used to tune musical instruments, such as a guitar. However the tuning forks used for healing are different and many different frequencies can be used. But the principle of tuning through sound vibration and resonance to bring coherence and harmony is the same.

Tuning forks can be used on the body (in person), or to clear energy patterns on the biofield (in person and remotely / at the distance). I use them as a self-care practice on myself and with clients, in some Shiatsu sessions, using the physical vibration of sound on the Shiatsu points, muscles and joints - and also in treatments done at the distance, tuning the Biofield.

In a physical treatment, the sound vibration applied to the body will stimulate the area, relaxing it, reducing pain, balancing the nervous system and increasing nitric oxide which reduces tension, creating deep relaxation and regulating the immune system.

John Beaulieu, was the pioneer of tuning forks. In his book 'Human tuning' he explains how he discovered that the tuning forks could tune the human nervous system.

Working at Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital in New York City in the early 1970's, with an interest in sound, he started doing experiments in an anechoic chamber at the psychology laboratory in the university - 'An anechoic chamber is a scientifically engineered room of complete silence and darkness.'

With a large meditation experience and interest in the pursuits of silence by John Cage, Beaulieu started spending time in the anechoic chamber; however he realized he could hear 2 distinct sounds, one was high pitch (the sound of his nervous system) and the other a low-pitched sound (the sound of his blood circulation). He observed that the sounds of his nervous systems changed according to his physical, mental and emotional states.

One day after an argument on the tube, he noticed his nervous system was really out of tune. So he went to a musical instruments shop and bought a C and A tuning forks (at the time that was all that was available). Tapping the forks on his knee and bringing them to the ears, the sounds merged into a third sound and he heard his nervous system matching the sound of the tuning forks. From there, and a few synchronicities later, he created with a sound lab his first set of tuning forks: 'I had them tune the forks to Pythagorean ratios and a lower fundamental tone then the current musical standard.'

Through systematic experimentation, focusing his research on the effects of tuning forks on the body, the nervous system and consciousness, John Beaulieu develloped other sets of tuning forks, unweighted and weighted tuning forks, of different sound frequencies, which produce different resonances and intervals. He developed different protocols and started a new healing art based on the tuning of the nervous system, which he used successfully in the treatment of psychiatric patients, addiction and other medical settings.

Since last year I have been learning a different approach to Sound healing tuning with tuning forks, a method created by Eileen McKusick about 23 years ago. Through her work and research, Eileen found out that the energy field around the body carries an imprint of our lives: memories, emotions, patterns and trauma, where stuck energy distorts the field. She calls it Biofield Tuning.

The biofield is the energetic field around the body and has a toroid shape, going around and through the middle channel.

Scientifically it can be defined this way: “Here, we define the term ‘biofield’ as an organizing principle for the dynamic information flow that regulates biological function and homeostasis. Biofield interactions can organize spatiotemporal biological processes across hierarchical subtle and gross levels: from the subatomic, atomic, molecular, cellular and organismic, to the interpersonal and cosmic levels. As such, biofield interactions can influence and be influenced by a variety of biological pathways, including biochemical, cellular and neurological processes related to electromagnetism, correlated quantum information flow and perhaps other means for modulating activity and information flow across multiple levels of biology.”

These morphic fields have their resonance, which in the Biofield tuning come up as sounds. If the field is clear, the energy is flowing and the tuning fork sounds clear. However, as we go through life, there are situations and trauma that gets stored on this field as distortions or 'noise in the signal'. They are frozen emotions and stuck energies, which are uncounscious for the most part.

These distortions have all kinds of implications in our health and how we run our lives, the patterns we fall into, the tensions and diseases that manifest in the physical body. Eileen created an anatomy map of the biofield and she uses tuning forks to harmonize the tones.

So to clear the stressed energy and old patterns will bring us into more harmony, freedom and vitality. As a lot of these patterns are unconscious and we are not aware of them, these method is incredibly effective in releasing trauma and other unconscious blockages.

With trauma the mind might forget, but the frozen pain remains in the body and/or energetic field. There is wisdom in that protection, but if the energy is frozen we can not move forward, and might end up going round in circles, not fullfilling our potential. (To read more about trauma see also my blog post Understanding Trauma)

Biofield tuning seems to gently clear and wake up the sleeping forgotten areas of trauma, layer by layer. With sound healing tuning, we tune the body and the nervous system, to the poetry of its own music, by clearing the noise and distortions in the signal, allowing the body to harmonize with its own resonance.

In this short video (9 mins) Eileen explains the process.

When I came across her work last year, I didn't have a tuning fork, so I started using her Biofield maps with a pendulum to clear the stressed energy that I found in the energetic field around a person. Well, like John Beaulieu, I started experimenting in myself, for my own self-healing (I use an energetic hologram which is how Eileen does her distant sessions to groups and individuals). I've been learning / experimenting with this method for about a year, and I just completed a 7 week course with Eileen 'Sound healing Alchemy' at the Shift network.

Doing the treatments to myself and receiving treatments from Eileen, I can testify that this is a very powerful work and very needed in these times of chaos and global disease, where personal and collective trauma are at peak levels. Because the work is so deep and profound, it is natural to experience some detox process and for some people might bring some (or a lot of) discomfort (physical and / or emotional) for a day or two, but once that passes, the healing and shifts are very real and for the better, I can assure that! It is adviced to do several sessions to cover the entire biofield map and its various areas, with at least 3-7 days in between sessions for the body to integrate and re-balance itself. So far I have been combining this method with Jikiden Reiki for a more gentle process.

If interested in having a treatment at the distance, please read more here:
To book & frequently asked questions

#Musings on healing and self-healing
#soundhealing #tuningforks

HEALING GARDEN

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 12:08:00 +0000

"The land ethic simply enlarges the boundaries of the community to include soils,

waters, plants, animals, and humans, or collectively: the land" (Leopold, 1949)

"All members of the land community are equal" (Naess, 1979)

During the lockdown I started my second garden. Growing food, herbs and flowers from seeds is a very grounding and healing process. I thought of a question I was asked once by a child - Could you just sit there and watch a flower to grow? Yes, it is an exercise of care and patience. I started with the seeds. Discovering how they looked so different, and had so much potential. The land is in my ancestors lineage, my grand parents were self-sufficient, planting everything, and also did it as a profession. While living in London, before having my own garden in the co-operative house, I was part of a Guerrilla gardening group and grew plants by the windows in my flats. Over the years I also studied and practiced permaculture, deep ecology and spiritual ecology.

In this new garden, I experimented with 'Companion Planting' for the first time. Meaning that I grew plants together that support and are benefitial to each other. I love this concept of co-operative planting, and think humans have much to learn from plants. Everything is organic. Instead of pesticides, I used flowers! French marigolds are specially effective in detering pests and they look great amonsgt the vegetables, with its bright uplifting orange in the middle of the greens.

This Spring was specially dry and hot, with some days of heavy rain and crazy winds, but plants are amazing, strong, resilient; they quietly keep doing their thing. That was especially inspiring during the pandemia. I decided to stay with it, to be grateful, to focus on the little things each day, the life vibration I felt through and with the plants. To put the seed in, to allow for potential, to learn from it, to transplant to allow growth, to care. And now the delight of simply going out to pick my dinner. To walk bare foot on the grass under the sun and stars. Living at one with the Earth and All beings. We are Nature.

While sorting out a pile of papers I found a little magazine from 'The healing sanctuary' founded by famous and fascinating english healer Harry Edwards. I was pleased to find this little text about how he started a garden (during the war) and the healing powers of a garden:

"In the daily round of life, spiritual healing has, as one of its main functions, the calming and soothing of fears and frustrations in order to restore balance of outlook. If one can get this in a garden, as one so assuredly can, then this must be healing, too."

In my garden I also allow some weeds to grow. My friend with whom I share the allotment, laughts and tells me I'm growing weeds with love! But who am I to say that some plants are more important than others? They might be clearing the soil, or bringing important nutrients. A lot of people use toxic products to 'exterminate' weeds. My approach as that we are all equal in the Land. So I simply manage them, if they over-grow I take some out into the compost. Otherwise I let them flower for the bees. And have been using some of their flowers to make medicine.

For example, Comfrey has many healing proterties and as a Flower Essence is grounding, and helps the nervous system, fear and trauma. Dandelion makes a lovely oil for muscular aches and pains, and as a Flower Essence brings harmony, spontaneity, balance and joy, helping to be in the flow of life. Healing flower medicine for the times we're living!

All it takes is to connect and listen. To quiet the mind enough in order to listen to Nature. Not just with the ears but with your whole body. To feel the vibration of the Earth with the feet, to listen to the songs of the birds, to allow the plants and trees to speak to you. For this you will need to quiet your mind, quiet your judgements, and be really open to listen to the silence.

"The more I listen, the more profound the silence becomes'

#Musings on healing and self-healing
#Land #Earth #companionPlanting #inspiration

* If you'd like to see my previous gardens and learn a little about Spiritual ecology, you might like this page with photographs of some of my Land practices

TRAVELLING LIKE CLOUDS - book

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 10:51:00 +0000

I have finished my film The soul Journey and also my book Travelling like clouds, which is available since January 2020. Those were very long projects, that somehow express insights of the real life experience that this journey has been. However I feel that the real journey only started after I finished those...

The book is 270 pages and includes some of my photos too. It follows the inner journeys of the soul and my worldly nomad travels. I explore themes such as uncertainty, simplicity, loss, healing, energy and trauma. This can be read on its own or as a companion with the film The Soul journey, as they explore aspects of the same journey; the film is a meditation through insights, images and sounds, while the book goes into the depth of things and beyond.

TRAVELLING LIKE CLOUDS - the art of being present is a self-published book available online as an e-book, PDF or as a printed book! You can Buy here.

CREATING SOUND for a film-meditation

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 11:21:00 +0000

The sound of my latest film-meditation The soul journey was created over time, waving meditation insights, music, healing sounds and texts by some of my teachers.

For about 5 years I study online and have participating in many Online course, webinars and listened to podcasts. Music is always present in my life and was an important part of the journey. In the film, I use some sound excerpts of webinars of various teachers and speakers that are influential to me, and who inspired me through the journey, allowing new insights and expansion. In the film, I add these teachings as short sound quotes, in a subtle tapestry of connections and insights that mirror my own; giving voice to my own feelings and discoveries. I mix those with music, images and stories.

Below I add their names and links for their pages, and also links for all the musicians.

Another important layer of sound was my own voice. At first I felt too shy to use it, but also felt this narrative of poetic images and meditation insights, sometimes needed a storyteller. So I started to write down notes, and doing recording sessions and see how they fitted with the images. I started to enjoy this discovery of my voice, this 'speaking out my truth' that was happening in the process.

I created the sound design along with the editing of the images, as a process of oneness, in which one would influence the other. It took years to edit, find the sounds, record, re-record, edit again, to create this organic mix of subtle truth.

As this is a film-meditation, I recorded tibetan bowl and bells which are present throughout the film, often marking a transition or a revelation, a reminder to stay Awake.

I also used Sound healing sessions, namely by Calm Whale, someone I found on youtube and got in touch with, who had beautiful soundscapes on the element of water which fitted the last part of the film, in which I wanted the viewer to receive the healing. So I mixed in the sounds of the waves of the harbour where I was living, the sounds of distant planets, shamanic healing sounds, and my own voice; This is just an example of the layering of sounds to create an atmospheric ambient for healing.

To complete the sound, I worked with Tim Cowie on the Sound Mix. Tim is a sound artist and electronic musician using modular synths, aka Audio Dependent, also a member of The light Surgeons. I traveled to his studio where we worked together and then we continued working over the internet, through very careful sessions of listening and precise feedback. Tim's work was precious in this final stage of the sound work, with his precision and creativity, bringing clarity and brightness to the sound, texts, my voice, and the suble details that make the sound tapestry of this film.

Sound quotes

Along the journey I was supported by many people, teachings and learnings, sometimes

through books, online courses and podcasts. Charles Eiseinstein, Bill Plotkin, The tree sisters,

Clarissa Pinkola Estes were very important and somehow were my travel companions

and teachers. With them, and many others, I studied and embodied the transitions

of a new paradigm, through eco-psychology, soulcraft practices, trauma healing, deep

time, spiritual ecology and the awakening of the wild feminine and sisterhood. Here are

their names with links for their work and deep gratitude:

Charles Eisenstein, Michael Stone, Alan Watts, Joana Macy, Thomas Hubl, Gabor Maté,
Chris Johnstone and Rob Hopkins, Clare Dubois / Tree Sisters, Grandmother Flordemayo
and a special thanks to Ian Mackenzie for the sound excerpts of his films 'The gift of our
wounds' (with Michael Stone) and 'Humanity's new story' (with Thomas Hübl).

** having trouble linking to pages :( if links don't work please go here:
www.claudiatomaz.com/soul-journey )

Music

I always carry music with me. I traveled with my headphones and the music for the film

was carefully selected. Most of the music is made by friends, or people I met on my journey,

it's an amazing soundtrack with the music of the underground and independent music

from the many places I lived and travelled to, from London of course, Berlin, France,

Philadelphia, Brighton... Ambient, techno, drum'n'bass, healing sounds, beautiful voices,

meaningful music.

With many THANKS to the fellow travellers, who kindly allowed me to use their music in this

film it was such an important part of the journey itself. Here are their names with links for

their music pages to help spread independent music and their good work!

Links for musicians
( * if links do not work on blog please see them in that page *
www.claudiatomaz.com/soul-journey

Audio Dependent / Tim Cowie

69db / Sebastian / Dharma Techno

CALM WHALE

BOE HUNTRESS

Full Moon Scientist

KODE9 & THE SPACEAPE

52 commercial road

CZENTRIFUGA FALLEN STARS | czentrifuga

OLAN MILL ft JANE WILD

ELEMENTZ OF NOIZE | M Ocean Records

SLIPPING INTO SUBLIMNITY

IMAGES ON AIR (Seve & SleepingWater)

RUBY TAYLOR / YUMI AND THE WEATHER

* Watch the trailer * read more * at www.claudiatomaz.com/soul-journey
* if links do not work on blog please see them in that page too *

THE SOUL JOURNEY - TRAILER

noreply@blogger.com (claudia tomaz ) — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 11:10:00 +0000

I am happy that I finished the trailer of my film The Soul Journey, a very personal film-meditation, a reflection on our world and transitions, a visual poem on Nature, a contemplation on grief, loss and the impermanence of (my) Life.

The journey started as a real life experience of uncertainty. Although I started this in 2016, only now, during the lockdown, I could complete the film. Actually, when I started the soul journey I did not know I was going to make a film or write the book Travelling like clouds or that I would be working with women with Alzheimer's and help people crossing the bridge to death or that I would live where I live now. Indeed 'uncertainty gives us the present moment' as Joanna Macy puts it. What unfolds is often surprising. I also didn't know I was making these for the times we are living now. One thing I learned, was that uncertainty and crisis, however challenging and very uncomfortable, can open powerful roads for growth. The film is not yet available; the plan was to show it in film festivals but the situation is uncertaint at the moment.

Please watch the trailer for a taste of it:

To read more about The Soul Journey go here.