Your Biography is Your Biology
Posted: December 28, 2014 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: 12 weeks to self healing, Biography, Biology, Candess Campbell, Carolyn Myss, Chakra, communication, Domingo, emotion, Energy, fifth chakra, healing, intuitive, iwannabeaskinnybitch, journal, Medical, Medical Intuitive, Myss, Self-Healing, thyroid, ultra-sound 5 Comments
The soul always knows what to do to heal itself.
The challenge is to silence the mind.
First of all I want to wish you a Happy Holiday!
There has been so much that has happened in the last few weeks and my apologies for not staying on track here.
Finally, after two years of ultra-sounds and watching the lump near my thyroid grow, I decided to have my thyroid removed. The self-healing tools I used were helpful in some areas, but did not heal the thyroid.
This was a difficult decision because I believe in self-healing, but in my book 12 Weeks to Self-Healing: Transforming through Energy Medicine, I also write self-healing is sometimes the decision to use medication or allopathic medicine.
Carolyn Myss, a medical intuitive, says that “your biography is your biology” and I believe this to be true. I have been journaling and reflecting and looking at what emotional and energetic patterns are related to the problem in my fifth chakra (The Power of Communication.) I am clear on some and not on others and will be sharing this in the future.
Prior to the removal of my thyroid and the plum size lump, as well as the new lump that the doctor said looked “suspicious,” I communicated with my thyroid and could clearly see that the lump was encompassing it. What the doctor said was that is was what they call an “angry” thyroid. It made sense to me that I would be tired all the time because my body was doing everything it could to heal the thyroid.
For now though, I am grateful that my energy is much better. I wake up feeling energized and at night I am “sleepy” not the usual “tired” all the time.
I am on track again and my focus is to increase my energy by even more movement in the next month. I will return to weight training next week, and Domingo is waiting for the long walk I promised him.
- Mom, let’s go!
Here is a Journal Exercise I often use. I think you’ll like it.
Inventory
Your journal is a great place to inventory yourself. If you need to be uplifted, write things about yourself that make you feel good. If you are stuck, you might find it useful to write about what you would like to change. I love what Caroline Myss recommended at a workshop I attended. She suggested, “Write out everything you are doing you know you should not be doing and everything you are not doing you know that you should be doing.”10
Iwannabeaskinnybitch.com
7 Steps to Intuitive Healing
Posted: October 8, 2014 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA, Iwannabeaskinnybitch | Tags: attitudes, beliefs, Candess Campbell, Candess M. Campbell, Candess M. Campbell PhD, daydreaming, diagnose illness, divine light, dreams, Energy, etheric field, guardian angel, guidance, gut feelings, healing, heart, higher self, images, information, internal coach, intuitive, Intuitive Healing, medical intuitives, Meditation, perceptions, Radha, realities of the dreaming mind, REM state, Self-Healing, self-talk, sivananda swami radha, sounds, Spokane, subtle energy, Swami, Swami Radha, thoughts, trance, ultradian rhythms, values 4 CommentsDon’t try to comprehend with your mind. Your minds are very limited. Use your intuition.
Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle in Time
When you hear the words intuitive healing, what comes to mind? Many people are searching today for information, healing, and guidance. Although I am an intuitive healer and reader, my focus is empowering others to use their own intuitive abilities.
Intuitive healing can happen on many levels. You can receive a healing on a spiritual, mental, emotional or physical level. These levels are all related, but illness begins in the etheric field (the energetic field around the body) before it happens on the physical level. Therefore it is important to take steps to heal on all levels.
Intuitive healing has a deep connection to the heart. You have a gentle, loving voice inside that guides you. This voice is a quiet voice and does not fight with or try to overcome the voice of the ego or the other voices within. Often we carry within a voice of a parent or authority figure. In psychology this is called an interject. It is important to discern between the voice that is coming from your intuition and the others.
Some refer to this inner voice as their Higher Self, their Guardian Angel, their Internal Coach or many other names. Whatever you call it is fine. Just know you are a reflection of the Divine and this voice is your connection to your own Divine Light. This Intuitive Voice is quiet and it guides you in many ways. It can also work with your intellectual or analytic mind when you are able to calm the constant mind chatter. The Intuitive Voice has access to Oneness and when you learn to hear and understand, you will begin to feel peace.
There are several ways to begin to hear your Intuitive Voice and to heal yourself on many levels.
Step 1. Be Still
Take time several times a day to stop and close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Scan your body from the top of your head down to your toes and just notice. Pay attention to any sensations and just notice. Be present in your body. Your body feels safe and you heal when you are consciously present in your body.
Step 2. Allow Yourself to Fall into Trance
You have a natural ability to heal and come into balance when you allow yourself to fall into trance. Just as when you dream, you have “ultradian rhythms” while you are awake. You may notice yourself falling into trance when you are at a stop sign or when you are washing dishes. This daydreaming or spacing out regulates your mind and body and allows you to access your Intuitive Voice without effort. Honor the natural rhythm of your body. This is a vital part of self-healing.
Step 3. Notice Your Beliefs and Self-talk
Your beliefs are attitudes, viewpoints, ideas, thoughts, values, perceptions and more. They are not the truth, but how you organize your view to make sense of the world and give it meaning. Notice your beliefs and what beliefs hold you back from having your desired life. Notice your self-talk. When your self-talk and beliefs are negative your whole mind/body/spirit responds with a loss of energy and you attract to yourself negative life experiences. You can increase positive beliefs and self-talk and allow yourself to be more open to hearing your Intuitive Voice and receiving healing on all levels.
Step 4. Listen with Your Body
Your body is an incredible intuitive receiver. In order to heal fully and receive intuitive messages, you need to be awareness of and listen within. Your intuition can come through images, dreams, sounds, gut feelings, a sense of knowing, hearing or sensing. In the beginning, it is common to receive messages through your gut feeling. Once this happens ask yourself “what does this mean?” You may or may not get an answer, but it is important to use your gut as a tool. If you begin to do something and your gut alerts you, know it has to do with what you were doing or thinking. Last week I was going to go downtown Spokane and have dinner, a movie and listen to a friend play music. As I began to get ready I felt a sense of alertness and I heard a voice inside my head saying the word “alarm!” I had no idea what was happening, but the sense of alarm would not stop. Having had many experiences with my intuition, I knew to listen. I made the decision to stay home that night and the alarm ceased. Now, I could try to guess at what might have happened, but instead, I just affirmed myself for listening and went on. The more you listen to your Intuitive Voice, the more it shows up for you and the easier it is to hear.
Step 5: Access Your Self-Healing Energy
We all have subtle energy around us and we can use this energy to heal. Have you ever stubbed your toe and noticed when you put your hand on your toe it felt better. When you have been in pain has the healing touch of a loved one made a difference. You have this natural healing energy within you and you are a powerful healer. Tap into your body’s subtle energy and feel the energy in your hands when you put them on a loved one. You are surrounded by a colorful energy field that comes from the chakras in the center of your body. Take a moment to rub your hands together and then put them together palm to palm. Pull them away from each other gently and feel the powerful energy you have in your hands. This is your healing energy. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.
Step 6: Practice Accessing Your Intuition
The best ways to access your intuition are throughMeditation and through Viewing. With meditation you are able to quiet your mind and allow your Intuitive Voice to come through. This can happen either during the meditation or you can journal for a few minutes afterward and just let your intuition come through. Another way is to View. Viewing can be by being in your heart or the center of your head and imaging a white screen. On the screen allow yourself to see images and when they appear you can ask what they mean and just receive. You can also use Remote Viewing where you close your eyes and you can move through time and space. You can go into the past, the present or into the future. With remote viewing you can see someone at a great distance. This is often used by medical intuitives to help diagnose illness.
Step 7: Listen to Your Dreams
Your dreams are the place of Intuition. You receive symbolic images, messages and gain ideas and receive answers to your questions. You have access to the whole collective unconscious. Whether you remember them or not, you have between seven to nine dreams per night. This is during the REM state, where you have access to information and healing you cannot access in the daytime. Your dreams are a way that your Intuitive Self communicates with you! When you begin to honor your dreams and listen, they will show up for you more fully and guide you. There are many guides to dream work, and what I recommend is Realities of the Dreaming Mind by Sivananda Swami Radha (2004). It is helpful to have paper and pen by your bed to collect your dreams as soon as you awake. They tend to fly away until you train yourself to catch them.
These seven steps can help you to be guided by your Intuitive Voice and create healing on all levels of your being. You cannot increase your intuition with your mind, but can access it through your heart. You must allow it to happen through ongoing gentle practice. Use the tools daily and validate your experience of Intuitive Healing.
Previously published in Live Encounters Magazine January 2012
Staying on Track
Posted: August 28, 2014 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA, Iwannabeaskinnybitch | Tags: bitch, blog, Candess, Candess Campbell, chemical dependency, dependency, exercise, gym, healing, Hydrocodone, iwannabeaskinnybitch, one foot in front of the other, quail, skinny, skinny bitch, Staying on Course, stride, Tom Hiddleston, trainer, wake up, weight, weight loss Leave a comment“You never know what’s around the corner. It could be everything. Or it could be nothing. You keep putting one foot in front of the other, and then one day you look back and you’ve climbed a mountain.”
― Tom Hiddleston
It is easy to start something and not so easy to keep at it. Often something happens that breaks your stride and you fall off. You move from feeling successful to feeling like a failure and then give up.
What if when something happens, whatever it is, it becomes a ‘wake up’ to transition?
That is what is happening to me. In this instance, I have blogged daily about my progress to health and weight loss since July 30th.
The first several days were in a word document and then posted on August 8th.
It has been over a month now and I hit my bump in the road.
Candess healing a quail that hit her windshield.
I was doing well when I had the oral surgery and was on hydrocodone. I weaned myself as soon as I could because as a chemical dependency counselor (and a woman of many hats!) I knew the risk for dependency. It has been the last couple days that I realized how much pain I was really having.
This shifted my high motivation to blog and exercise, but it also solidified that any change in my life (and yours) is not an ‘either/or’ process, but just that, a process.
The two ways I have motivated my experience have been 1) hiring a trainer (Luke) and 2) blogging my experience.
Truly, with this downward shift in my energy level and upward shift in my pain level, I am so grateful I had these who checks in place!
I have given myself a couple days to rest and took this week off from the gym. Nevertheless, I am still on track, feeling stronger (in body) and I am losing weight!
My blogging has given me the impetus toward my goals and kept me on my path. Already on course, my transition now is to blog once or more a week and focus on sharing the gems. I will increase the time I spend moving, whether it be walking, dancing, gardening, or having fun with Luke at the gym!
Thanks for reading and keeping me accountable!
Iwannabeaskinnybitch!
Sixth Chakra Wisdom
Posted: August 13, 2014 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: bitch, Candess, Candess Cambpell, Caroline Myss, Chakra, consciousness, enlightenment, healing, Health, insight, insights, inventory, iwannabeaskinnybitch, Myss, peace, power, sixth chakra, skinny, skinny bitch, Soul, spirituality, Spokane, Spokane River, weight loss, wisdom 2 Comments“What drains your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body.”
― Caroline Myss, Anatomy of the Spirit
My senses are heightened on my early morning walk with the mist of the summer storm hanging in the trees! I plugged in my headphones and listened to Caroline Myss’s CD on the Sixth Chakra in preparation for a class I am teaching this evening on Journaling. We are focusing on the Sixth Chakra– the Power of Insight.
![photo[1]](https://candesscampbell.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/photo1.jpg)
Mist over the beautiful Spokane River
The sixth chakra emphasizes wisdom and as I walked I began to inventory what gets in the way of my health and weight loss. I have known for a long time it has to do with stress, but today I became clearer on the stress. It’s not so much what I do, but what I think about what I do. I have shared before I love my career and that I enjoy the creative freedom I have.
What I notice though, is that I have an automatic resistance pulling at me as my creativity soars. For instance, rigidity takes over if I am on a roll finishing up my latest book and a neighbor knocks on the door and wants to talk. My whole body tightens up and I have a difficult time changing gears.
As I walked in the door after this misty walk with Caroline teaching me along the way, I realized how a simple gesture, comment or just being attentive can elevate someone else’s day.
Today I am going to focus on being resilient and not resistive. My heart and mind will open to whatever presents itself and I can take the few minutes to redirect my attention. This is the wisdom of the sixth chakra!
Iwannabeaskinnybitch!
Sixth Chakra Clearing Audio
Reiki Healing
Posted: January 25, 2014 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: 12 Weeks, belief, cancer, Candess, Candess Campbell, Eldon Taylor, Energy, Energy Medicine, genie, God, healing, heart, Medicine, pain, power, reiki, relationship, Self-Healing, Source, students, surgery, transform, transformation 2 Comments“The power of belief, the absolutely awesome incredible power of belief, is the genie in your life. Let me say that again.
The absolutely awesome incredible power of belief, is the genie in your life.” — Eldon Taylor
12 Weeks to Self-Healing: Transforming Pain through Energy Medicine shares about self-healing and healing others.
This is an excerpt from my #1 Best-selling book. (p. 149)
When teaching Reiki healing for many years, I have told my students that we all have the ability to heal. Many clients experienced their own ability to feel energy and heal themselves as well as others in this process.
An illustration of this principle involved a client of mine with cancer who was in the hospital preparing for surgery. I asked my students to meet me there and use Reiki to help calm her and assist in the healing process. When the doctors located a blood clot and could not operate, I invited my students, as well as the client’s mother and sister, to assist me in laying hands on the client. After talking with the nurse in charge, I understood the clot needed to dissolve before they could operate. We all imaged this as we did the healing. A period of a half hour or so went by, and when I felt an immediate sense that the healing was complete, I asked the nurse to check again. They did, and the clot was gone. The client was subsequently able to receive the needed surgery, the mother and sister of the patient were able to be helpful, and my students’ confidence in their healing ability increased. It was a glorious day!
We are all connected to the Source, and we all have the ability to channel this love. Here are some exercises to practice so that you can define your beliefs and connect with the God of your heart, as well as get in touch with your own healing abilities.
http://www.candesscampbell.com
7 Steps to Intuitive Healing
Posted: January 31, 2012 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: attitudes, beliefs, Candess Campbell, Candess M. Campbell, Candess M. Campbell PhD, daydreaming, diagnose illness, divine light, dreams, Energy, etheric field, guardian angel, guidance, gut feelings, healing, heart, higher self, images, information, internal coach, intuitive, Intuitive Healing, medical intuitives, Meditation, perceptions, Radha, realities of the dreaming mind, REM state, Self-Healing, self-talk, sivananda swami radha, sounds, Spokane, subtle energy, Swami, Swami Radha, thoughts, trance, ultradian rhythms, values 2 CommentsWhen you hear the words in
tuitive healing, what comes to mind? Many people are searching today for information, healing, and guidance. Although I am an intuitive healer and reader, my focus is empowering others to use their own intuitive abilities.
Intuitive healing can happen on many levels. You can receive a healing on a spiritual, mental, emotional or physical level. These levels are all related, but illness begins in the etheric field (the energetic field around the body) before it happens on the physical level. Therefore it is important to take steps to heal on all levels.
Intuitive healing has a deep connection to the heart. You have a gentle, loving voice inside that guides you. This voice is a quiet voice and does not fight with or try to overcome the voice of the ego or the other voices within. Often we carry within a voice of a parent or authority figure. In psychology this is called an interject. It is important to discern between the voice that is coming from your intuition and the others.
Some refer to this inner voice as their Higher Self, their Guardian Angel, their Internal Coach or many other names. Whatever you call it is fine. Just know you are a reflection of the Divine and this voice is your connection to your own Divine Light. This Intuitive Voice is quiet and it guides you in many ways. It can also work with your intellectual or analytic mind when you are able to calm the constant mind chatter. The Intuitive Voice has access to Oneness and when you learn to hear and understand, you will begin to feel peace.
There are several ways to begin to hear your Intuitive Voice and to heal yourself on many levels.
Step 1. Be Still
Take time several times a day to stop and close your eyes. Take a deep breath. Scan your body from the top of your head down to your toes and just notice. Pay attention to any sensations and just notice. Be present in your body. Your body feels safe and you heal when you are consciously present in your body.
Step 2. Allow Yourself to Fall into Trance
You have a natural ability to heal and come into balance when you allow yourself to fall into trance. Just as when you dream, you have “ultradian rhythms” while you are awake. You may notice yourself falling into trance when you are at a stop sign or when you are washing dishes. This daydreaming or spacing out regulates your mind and body and allows you to access your Intuitive Voice without effort. Honor the natural rhythm of your body. This is a vital part of self-healing.
Step 3. Notice Your Beliefs and Self-talk
Your beliefs are attitudes, viewpoints, ideas, thoughts, values, perceptions and more. They are not the truth, but how you organize your view to make sense of the world and give it meaning. Notice your beliefs and what beliefs hold you back from having your desired life. Notice your self-talk. When your self-talk and beliefs are negative your whole mind/body/spirit responds with a loss of energy and you attract to yourself negative life experiences. You can increase positive beliefs and self-talk and allow yourself to be more open to hearing your Intuitive Voice and receiving healing on all levels.
Step 4. Listen with Your Body
Your body is an incredible intuitive receiver. In order to heal fully and receive intuitive messages, you need to be awareness of and listen to your. Your intuition can come through images, dreams, sounds, gut feelings, a sense of knowing, hearing or sensing. In the beginning, it is common to receive messages through your gut feeling. Once this happens ask yourself “what does this mean?” You may or may not get an answer, but it is important to use your gut as a tool. If you begin to do something and your gut alerts you, know it has to do with what you were doing or thinking. Last week I was going to go downtown Spokane and have dinner, a movie and listen to a friend play music. As I began to get ready I felt a sense of alertness and I heard a voice inside my head saying the word “alarm!” I had no idea what was happening, but the sense of alarm would not stop. Having had many experiences with my intuition, I knew to listen. I made the decision to stay home that night and the alarm ceased. Now, I could try to guess at what might have happened, but instead, I just affirmed myself for listening and went on. The more you listen to your Intuitive Voice, the more it shows up for you and the easier it is to hear.
Step 5: Access Your Self-Healing Energy
We all have subtle energy around us and we can use this energy to heal. Have you ever stubbed your toe and noticed when you put your hand on your toe it felt better. When you have been in pain has the healing touch of a loved one made a difference. You have this natural healing energy within you and you are a powerful healer. Tap into your body’s subtle energy and feel the energy in your hands when you put them on a loved one. You are surrounded by a colorful energy field that comes from the chakras in the center of your body. Take a moment to rub your hands together and then put them together palm to palm. Pull them away from each other gently and feel the powerful energy you have in your hands. This is your healing energy. The more you use it, the stronger it becomes.
Step 6: Practice Accessing Your Intuition
The best ways to access your intuition are through Meditation and through Viewing. With meditation you are able to quiet your mind and allow your Intuitive Voice to come through. This can happen either during the meditation or you can journal for a few minutes afterward and just let your intuition come through. Another way is to View. Viewing can be by being in your heart or the center of your head and imaging a white screen. On the screen allow yourself to see images and when they appear you can ask what they mean and just receive. You can also use Remote Viewing where you close your eyes and you can move through time and space. You can go into the past, the present or into the future. With remote viewing you can see someone at a great distance. This is often used by medical intuitives to help diagnose illness.
Step 7: Listen to Your Dreams
Your dreams are the place of Intuition. You receive symbolic images, messages and gain ideas and receive answers to your questions. You have access to the whole collective unconscious. Whether you remember them or not, you have between seven to nine dreams per night. This is during the REM state, where you have access to information and healing you cannot access in the daytime. Your dreams are a way that your Intuitive Self communicates with you! When you begin to honor your dreams and listen, they will show up for you more fully and guide you. There are many guides to dream work, and what I recommend is Realities of the Dreaming Mind by Sivananda Swami Radha (2004). It is helpful to have paper and pen by your bed to collect your dreams as soon as you awake. They tend to fly away until you train yourself to catch them.
These seven steps can help you to be guided by your Intuitive Voice and create healing on all levels of your being. You cannot increase your intuition with your mind, but can access it through your heart. You must allow it to happen through ongoing gentle practice. Use the tools daily and validate your experience of Intuitive Healing.
Previously published in Live Encounters Magazine January 2012
6-Muscle Testing with Tomatoes
Posted: November 15, 2011 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: Candess Campbell, Chakra, DNA, Energy, Energy Medicine DNA, healing, intuition, Kinesiology, Medicine, muscle testing, Self-Healing, tools Leave a comment
This is the 6-Muscle Testing with Tomatoes. This video is a great follow-up to the fifth video, Muscle Testing. In this video you can use your new tool of Muscle Testing to test the life force of the food you eat. Dr. Candess demonstrates with a tomato!
1-Grounding Your Energy and Manifesting Video
Posted: September 15, 2011 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: Campbell, Candess, Chakra, clearing, DNA, Energy, grounding, healing, manifesting, Medicine Leave a commentIn this Energy Medicine DNA video you will learn a simple tool of grounding your energy. This will assist your body in feeling safe and also help you to manifest your creations.
Soul Mates
Posted: September 6, 2011 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: healing, mates, perfect, relationships, self, Soul, trust Leave a commentWhen doing readings I often get asked about soul mates. It seems there is a lot of confusion about the concept of soul mates. Often a soul mate is thought of as a perfect mate; one who truly is the love of your life, the other half of you. I believe a soul mate is more like the person in your life who is your mirror. Through relationship with a soul mate you are revealed to yourself. The ways in which you hide are revealed and the shadow side of your personality is exposed. A soul mate is one who comes into your life, tears down the barriers to your full self-expression and intensifies situations so your true self is revealed. You find another layer peeled away and often this person then moves on. If you can stay present and learn from this experience, totally acknowledging and owning who you are, this person can end up being your best friend and one whom you love deeply. If you are not able to see yourself with the veils pulled down then there will be chaos and struggle and the relationship can end up as a painful memory. Relationships can be intensely healing, especially when we know that they bring up all that we have left to heal so we can become our Highest Self.
Interview with Swami Samayananda Part 3
Posted: September 3, 2011 Filed under: Energy Medicine DNA | Tags: 12, 3-month, Asaas, ashram, breath, Bridge, Buddhist, Change, chanting, Christian, community, course, development, dimension, Divine., Facing, gift, Hari, harmonium, Hatha, healing, imagery, Invocation, Jewish, Karma, library, light, Mantra, Muslim, namaste, of, Om, Options, pain, perspective, pose, prayer, Radha, relaxation, renew, rest, retreat, Samayananda, Self-Healing, spiritual, Swami, symbols, Tags:, Temple, The, to, Weeks, West, Workshops, YDC, Yoga Leave a commentThis inteview was conducted at the Yashodhara Ashram in British Columbia, Canada on the beautiful Kootenay Lake.This is part 3 of 3 parts.
(Some sections have been edited for grammar.)
Candess: When you are talking about that, some of the yogas like the Divine Light Invocation is one of the tools I have been using here and there are so many tools. It has been incredible. What is one of your favorite tools?
Swami Samayananda: For me, one of my favorites is Mantra. I have had a mantra practice since early 1980s. I also do my practice with a harmonium, which I like. There is that whole practice of having an instrument. I tend to be restless by nature so it gives my hands something to do. Also, singing has been a big part of my life. To be able to channel all of that into the mantra and to have a practice like that that doesn’t get old, it just keeps getting deeper and deeper and it feels to me like a dear friend. It is where I go each day and it offers me tremendous support.
Candess: I love the Satsang. The chanting and the mantra is so beautiful. I have a book coming out in January that is called 12 Weeks to Self-Healing: The Gift of Pain. What way would you say that one of the Yoga practices would be helpful in self-healing?
Swami Samayananda: Swami Radha wrote a book called The Yoga of Healing. In it, there are several chapters. Some I remember are working with the Light. It is a small book and at the end of each chapter it has four practices you can do. The first one is on the Light and the Divine Light Invocation is one practice. There is also a section on breath. We know that connection with breath and our own healing and when we get anxious, the breath shortens, shortens, and shortens. That is not healthy for the body. Working with breath is healthy and calming for the body. Also, Hatha Yoga, especially when it I approached from more than the physical. What is my body saying to me as I am going into the pose and doing the pose. Mantra, absolutely for sure. Especially the Hari Om mantra is a healing mantra. Using mantra is healing as well. Relaxation is very healing. Those are a few.
Candess: That is great! One of the reasons I came her is to rest. I had been pushing myself too hard. We had a whole day on learning to rest. I learned so many tools that I would not have known before. It’s been very helpful.
If someone wanted to go on retreat here, what would be the best way for them to find out about the programs?
Swami Samayananda: The best way would be to go to our website and just take a look at what we offer. There is a whole range from weekend workshops to 3 day retreats, 4 day retreats, 10 day retreats like you are on now, to our 3 month Yoga Development Course. There is just about something for everybody. Our basic retreats really introduce people to the practices we offer here, Swami Radha’s teachings. There are some specific ones, like we have one coming up called the Inner Life of Asanas which is a way of going deeper with the Hatha Yoga practice. We had one this summer not too long ago called Facing Change, Exploring Options, so there are lots of different ways for people to come and be here. People can also come on private retreat and join with us for a couple hours in Karma Yoga so they feel connected in the community. The rest of the times, they can enjoy the prayer rooms. It is beautiful as you said. The trails, the lake, the Temple, the library are all available for people when they are here.
Candess: I went to the Temple the other night and I could just feel Swami Radha there. I thought, this must be her favorite place.
Swami Samayananda: – It is.
Candess: It was so clear to me. It was so beautiful there.
Swami Samayananda: – She said when she died, that is where she would go.
Candess: I have another guide that I work with and I was connecting with this guide, but Swami Radha was right there, so I thought OKAY!
Is there anything else that would be helpful for people to know about being a Swami or your life path or being here at the Ashram.
Swami Samayananda: I think one thing that is important for people to know about coming here is it is a time of renewing, learning some practices, some tools as you said to take away. There is no dogma in yoga. There is not doctrine. It is not a religion. I think it is really important. We are an Ashram; it is a spiritual community, so we have people who come who are Buddhist, who are Christian, who practice in the Jewish faith, Muslims, and people who have no particular tradition that they follow but are open to that spiritual dimension and they just want to take a step further. I think that is often a relief.
When people come, we do have imagery around. Imagery and symbolism whether we know it or not is very important to us. We live it anyway and symbols are there simply as a symbol that is reflecting some in ourselves so sometimes for some people, and part because of our Christian Judaic background in the West, images can be a little off-putting; but they are so beautiful and the have so much to say to us if we open them up and take them apart. I think the biggest thing is it is a beautiful place to be, to heal, to renew, to gain perspective and then take what is meaningful back out; bridge it back out to your life, back home, family, friends, work, whatever. Often people will come back and get a little bit more and take it back, back and forth. That is what I did for years.
Candess: That is wonderful! It took me probably to day eight until I started feeling myself again, so it was such a wonderful place to renew and relax. Thank you so much.
Swami Samayananda: Namaste
The end. . .
candesscampbell 