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The Giving Tree

12/21/2013

72 Comments

 
"Free yourself from mental slavery, no one but ourselves can free our mind"

- Bob Marley
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One of my favorite children's book is the The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. This story, while simple, in fact holds a very powerful message. As a healer, I often use this book to see how people identify with the story. Do they see the boy as selfish, do they see the tree as naive, or do they see something else? 

In the holistic healing arts, perspective/perception of mind dictates how our life unfolds. If our mind is clouded in pain, we will see pain, if our mind is consumed in stress, life will mirror this stress. If our mind is a pool of peace, the world is seen as kind.  All of the great teachers throughout the ages have commented, in one form or another, that the path to salvation lies within.  The book The Giving Tree offers a simple and effective mirror into the lens of our own mind and can serve as a wonderful teacher in life perspective. 

For me, what seems true about this story, is the focal point of the Tree. The boy, over the course of the tale, simply takes and takes and takes from the tree, and yet at every turn, and with every offering, the Tree, in its place of pure generosity, is Happy.  This Tree asks nothing in return for this boy, and only finds love in being a source of support and sustenance for this boy over the course of their lives.  This Tree yields every fiber of its being and in the end when the Tree has been reduced to a stump, here sits the Tree offering its stump as a loving stool for an aged boy.  

I encourage you to read this story and sit in an honest place of contemplation about how you truly feel about this story.  In this place of honest connection, ask yourself if your perspective and or thoughts serve you, or do they feed a lens of pain and stress?  

If the Tree can be happy at every offering, how can you discover the depth of this unconditional Love in your life?   

As I write this, I do not have the answer for you, and all I can do is ask you to read the story and begin the dialogue with your heart.  Teachers come in so many shapes and forms, and to me the message in all of the teachings is clear, reconnect with your heart, use your heart to feel your truth, and in your truth you will be free.  Go within and see what unfolds.  Go within, inquire and see what feels true to you. Go within and be free! 

I look forward to hearing from you.  Blessings on the journey. 



 




72 Comments

Emancipate and Celebrate  

10/30/2013

46 Comments

 
What would happen if we, as a modern day culture, departed from the assumption that our current culture is the apex of human achievement?  What would happen if we viewed reality through a lens of creativity versus progression?   

For me, as a healer and as a human, I have found it refreshing to release the belief and assumption that there is a right and wrong way to approach life,  and in doing so, my eyes have opened up to the infinite possibilities of human expression. 

In the end, what divides our unity, is our underlying beliefs and assumptions about reality. 

Why do conventional medical professional not believe the healing powers of Shamans?   

Why is not socially acceptable  for same sex couples to openly love?  

Why does our culture have faith in money, and yet not faith in the miracle of the spiraling milky way? 

If we investigate our inner landscape the answer to these stated questions becomes clear. The only wall obscuring our perspective is our landscape of beliefs dictating how we see reality. Hence, if we drop these assumptions and disconnect from the belief of "This is Right, and That is Wrong", we immediately open our mind to a life much greater than possibly considered. 

In the TED Talk link below, Wade Davis, Ethnobotanist, explores the myriad ways cultures view reality.  His voice and message is clear. Let us not look upon the differences through a lens of wrong and right, but rather celebrate the achievement of the human mind in creating infinite ways of navigating and dreaming life into being. 

Surrender to the notion of right and wrong and go out tonight under the starry sky and communicate to the sky, the moon, and stars while dancing with the ancient ones singing beneath your feet.  

If you believe it, it is real, and the only one limiting your vision is yourself.   In the beautiful words of the late Bob Marley, "Emancipate yourself from mental slavery, no one but ourselves can free our minds".    Enjoy the liberation, enjoy the Ted Talk. 

TED Talk: Wade Davis 
46 Comments

Domestication of Mind

7/29/2013

30 Comments

 

"The Path to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions" 
- Anonymous

Lately I have been reflection upon the teachings of the Toltecs, the wise teachers of the Aztec tradition.  In their teachings, there is a fundamental principle of allowing creation to unfold in an unobstructed manner without interference.  

If we take this principle and apply it to our relationship with others, we quickly realize how often we obstruct life and persons as we strive to change others for some hidden agenda.  Changing persons to comply to an inner belief structure,to the Toltecs was defined as domestication. 

For me, as a healer, early in my career, I often tried to change people, or bodies, or disease conditions to acquire some validation of my worth.  From my point of view, "How could I be a healer if people did not get better? " 

However, over the years I have learned that this motivation was truly oriented on satisfying a personal agenda and was not oriented on the well being of the other.  In other words, I was asserting my point of view of health and healing on others in an attempt to make myself feel better.  I was trying to domesticate others to feel good about myself.  Yikes!  

In the end, this point of view and the action that stemmed forth from this point of view led me into a total collapse of energy and coerced me to re-evaluate my belief structures.  The Toltec teachings, among other wisdom teachings, were instrumental in supporting my mind to a place of harmony with the way life is, versus always trying to domesticate life to comply to some inner agenda or blue print on how life should unfold. 

When we try to domesticate others, even in the name of good intention, we assume a posture of superiority and this posture fails to see the inherent beauty of life in the moment. I can remember arguing with my parents over why eating non organic foods was harming their body.  Yes, in the end, it is probably better to eat organically, however, if my agenda asserts itself without harmonizing with the relationship at hand, then a war ensues and this war divides hearts.  To be honest, as much as I would love my parents to eat better, I have found that it is better to be in harmony with the way they are and to simply love them for who they are.  This reminds me of a passage from the Beatitudes, "Blessed are the Peace Makers". 

Lately, I am finding that we need to exfoliate our minds of beliefs that divide our relationship with the present moment and to simply live fully engaged in the miracle of this moment as it is.  This is not a new teaching, in fact it is an Ancient teaching beyond time and space, and because of this timeless nature this teachings renews itself in our hearts and mind with every moment.  

My challenge to you in this moment, is to examine your struggles, your dramas, your pains and look to see what belief lies beneath the surface dividing your heart from Life.  My challenge, like the challenge of the Toltecs,  is to ask you to see what happens when you just let life unfold as it is without trying to domesticate it. Many questions of the mind will arise, but these questions are simply the mind struggling to relinquish control. Place yourself in your heart and just let life be.  The mind will struggle, however,  if it is of any use,  during these times of mental doubt, remember there is a sun, a moon, a planet and an entire Universe completely unfolding, miraculously, without a need for control.  This Universal energy is organizing this life in your kitchen, car, bedroom, or workplace, and it does not need to be domesticated in order for it to beautifully do its thing.  

Step back, take a deep breath, and be at peace with life, In fact just Be!! 

Peace and Blessings on the Journey...: ) A
30 Comments

Stress, the Silent Assassin 

3/30/2013

26 Comments

 

"You can blow out a candle, but you can not put out a fire".

 - Peter Gabriel 



So many clients that we  work with at Studio Avani enter the studio not realizing the level of stress that their bodies are enduring.  Many, request services to reduce pain, diminish emotional re-activeness,  lower high blood pressure, improve immune dysfunctions, and improve digestive discomfort, and yet at the bottom of all of these symptoms lies stress, slowly accumulating, undetected, impacting every facet of life.  

Our beautiful bodies are equipped with a neurological capacity to adapt to the stimuli of the environment.  This adaptive strategy, known as habituation, is a wonderful evolutionary skill that supports our brains  in filtering out data so that we, as humans, can live in this ever engaging world without becoming overwhelmed by the constant noise of the world around us.   



However, while this brain skill serves as a filtering device, it, on the other hand,  impacts our experience in a detrimental way by diminishing the experience of stress to such a level that we literally lose touch with stress. Stress becomes habituated, and soon becomes observed as the normative experience of life.  

There is a scientific commentary that captures the habituation of stress in the story of the boiling frogs.  If we take a frog and place a frog in boiling water, the ftog will immediately jump out.  Yet, if we take a frog and place the ftog in tepid water in which we slowly bring the water to a boil, the frog's nervous system will slowly habituate to the increasing of heat and sadly boil to death.   Yikes! 

While this story, and scientific conversation about the silent impacts of stress on the body appear grim, there is hope.  We do not have to wait for the boiling point to be reached before we respond to stress and its associated bodily influences. We can be proactive. 

By slowing down the mind and, tuning back into life, we can learn to listen to the body at a subtle level supporting a disengagement  from habituated stress before the boiling point is reached.  Tools such as acupuncture, cranial sacral therapy, yoga, and meditation serve to help our awareness in waking up to the silent assassin.  


If we return to the quote at the top of this blog, and embrace its imagery, let us consider this question.  If a breath can blow out a candle, then what could a conscious breath do to the frame of the human mind and body?  
26 Comments

Intelligence 

3/2/2013

25 Comments

 

How do we define intelligence?  Is it merely the understanding of facts and data? Is intelligence a domain exclusive to the human experience?   

For thousands of years indigenous cultures have spoken of an animated world in which the voice of life, if connected to, could be heard in trees, rocks, animals and air.  These cultures believed that the whole world was teeming with the knowledge of the cosmos and for these cultures, they guided their living based upon the communication between their community and the larger natural world. 

This view, and way of life slowly faded from the world paradigm as Western civilization spread itself upon the landscape, and yet, now, modern day scientists and thinkers are beginning to return to these ancient roots to reanimate this natural relationship with the living voice of nature.   Could the answer for global climate change, poverty, human injustice , Cancer and modern day illness be offered in a return to the ancestral point of view that all is living and all is intelligent? 

Consider the audio conversation in light of this Blog passage.  

Perhaps if we begin to listen, we can move forward as a technologically advanced culture tempered by the roots of our ancient heritage.   
25 Comments

    Author

    Anthony Percoco 

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