OAK PARK and Evanston, ILlinois | 708-289-3899 | nancy@lyricalhealing.com
"I wish I could show you,
when you are lonely or in darkness,
the astonishing light of your own being." ~ Hafiz
Photograph by Gregory Colbert
May your life be free from suffering
May your heart be open
May you know ease and joy in your body
May you share your gifts with the world
May you know your true self in this lifetime
Thai Buddhist blessing
Art by Henri Matisse
The shadows in this shell delineate its lovely curves,
just as your shadowy parts enhance your radiance.
EMDR, in effect, brings light to the dark places in our psyches.
CranioSacral therapy involves "listening" to, and honoring, our pain and discomfort (and also our ease). We created the dark place(s) in an attempt to protect ourselves or others. We have needed the dark. Let's honor that. And also honor the comfort... and joy ;-)
"Be conscious of this unconscious prayer (of your breath),
For she is the most holy place of pilgrimage.
She wishes for you to enter this temple,
Where each breath is adoration
Of the infinite for the incarnate form."
Shiva Rea,
from Radiance Sutras by Lorin Roche
Art by Mark Rothko
The maiden has a menagerie. An emu, a camel, two dogs, a mink, and a noisy but cute skunk. On her walks she takes along the emu, the camel (sometimes she rides on its back), the mink (on a leash), and the dogs. She leaves the skunk behind. She walks every day, enjoying the animals’ company. The dogs skamper, smiling, and wag their tails, the camel carries her belongings with a professorial air, the mink slinks silkily, and the emu rests often.
The skunk, with every missed walk, becomes more and more noisy and bothersome. She bites the camel’s (and the girl’s) legs when they come home, squeaks angrily, and of course sprays her nasty noxious spray. Every day the bites get meaner, the noises get louder, and the smell gets smellier.
The maiden contemplates giving the skunk away. It’s cute, but, of course smelly and annoying. One day, while the maiden is on her walk, a boy walks by her home and notices the skunk. He sits by her cage and admires her. The two gaze at each other for a long time. The skunk quiets down. The boy relaxes.
When the maiden comes home, she sees the boy and the skunk gazing at each other. She is surprised. The boy notices her and smiles. “Is this your skunk?” he asks. “Yes, why?,” she asks, wondering. “She’s a beauty!,” he says. She looks at him quizzically. “She hasn’t sprayed you or squealed at you, or tried to bite you?” she says. “No! Why, does she do those things to you?” “All the time,” she replies. He invites her to sit with him and look into the skunk’s eyes. As the maiden looks into the skunk’s eyes, the skunk gazes back at her. The maiden sits quietly. She looks intently. She sees yearning, spunkiness, softness, longing. They gaze into each other’s eyes for a long time.
The next day, the maiden takes the skunk with her on her walk. The skunk glances up at her gratefully every few minutes. She walks obediently by her side. Sometimes the skunk notices a snake or a scorpion a few feet ahead and warns the maiden by brushing her tail against the maiden’s leg. The skunk never sprays, squeals, or bites again. Well, maybe a squeal now and then….
We can use your imagination to bring healing. Click below to listen to “Secret Friends: Tapping into the Power of Imagination”
"One thing you should know about her; she never explains anything."
From "Mary Poppins"
Image from Polygon.com
Mary Poppins is a conjurer; when she is around magic happens. The results of CranioSacral therapy and EMDR can also seem magical. Come experience the magic! But if you'd like an explanation, here are some links: https://www.emdrconsulting.com/what-is-emdr/, https://www.upledger.com/therapies/index.php, http://www.lyricalhealing.com/services.
Your light is more magnificent than sunrise or sunset.
Rumi
Photograph by Cher G.
https://thechicagofiles.com/about/
Let your light shine!
My news -- I finished the first of 2 levels of EMDR trainings and am thrilled to have joined Spring Practices part time!
EMDR is a powerful body-centered tool for processing negative emotions, sensations and beliefs, and accessing our right brain/frontal cortex/Inner Wisdom. By using bilateral stimulation, the EMDR therapist helps the brain heal itself, using the same mechanism that happens during REM sleep. I think of it as a dialogue between the right and left brains, the limbic brain and the frontal cortex, or between our "lizard brain" and our Wise Self. Come access that Wise Self ~ either in my Oak Park office or at Spring Practices.
"My great religion is a belief in the blood, the flesh, as being wiser than the intellect. We can go wrong in our minds. But what our blood feels and believes and says, is always true."
D.H. Lawrence
Photograph by Robert Mapplethorpe
...that's why we tune into your body during a Lyrical Healing session. And the wisdom of your body is that we are wonderful yet wounded, magnificent yet marred, divine... and human.
Wu wei is a state of being in which our actions align with the flow of life. One way to know wu wei is to commune with a tree. Sense its ease; how it yields. Trees don't will their leaves to grow, they allow.
Or watch gentle waves; no force, just flow.
One way I describe Lyrical Healing sessions is that clients heal by "relaxing into their magnificence." ...Kind of like wu wei?
Photograph by Hiroshi Sugimoto
Find your wu "wei" to peace ;-)
