Becoming whole, soul retrieval

| Nina

Re-membering

When immersed in the here and now, so intensely that past and future fall away, I somehow subconsciously merge bits of myself with what I’m doing, and sometimes forget to take them with me when I move on.

Recently, I was feeling all hollow and dizzy, not very functional. After having attempted a few mental explanations that didn’t fit, I did an energy body scan on myself, and noticed that I’d left/bound my 2nd, 3rd and 4th energy center (chakra) with our place in the Auvergne. I was surprised – and not, at the same time.

 

Soul retrieval

In shamanism there is a technique called soul retrieval, which is needed whenever a person has lost a piece of their soul due to a traumatic experience. The physical or emotional discomfort or shock is ‘too much to handle’ and a piece of the soul exits its dwelling, the body, in order to avoid the pain. The shaman can, through shamanistic travel (“trance”) set on a journey in order to track down the lost soul piece and negotiate with it for its return.
(A coma is a state where the whole of the soul has more or less temporarily left the body)

 

Self help and more

So what does one do in order to re-member, regroup, gather oneself together? How do you know if a piece of you is missing?

Often, in these heady times, all that is needed is grounding and alignment.

If, after really connecting with your surroundings, you’re still feeling a bit hollow, wonky or out of balance, perhaps you’re suffering a case of missing pieces.

I bet there are many ways but this is a fast and effective technique that often works for me:
in meditation I am present and aware, then state my full name, the date and place where I’m currently at, and invite all of me back to me. You can do it with this all-encompassing statement, but visualising the missing things, knowing (or guessing?) what is missing, puts extra power into your action.

Try it out and let me know how that went!

You can find more hands-on or energy healing help here.

becoming whole

Gathering

| Nina

events(3)

Before the Gathering I was asked: “What is it?” and “What do you do in a Gathering?”

There is a general description about the Gathering (here), but let’s look at it a bit closer.

Who is it for?

  • the Gatherings are for mentally stable people from 14 to 150 years (I hope I made the margin wide enough at the end), who are genuinely motivated to understand Life, and their role therein better.

Although every Gathering is different, it always has some common features

  • a Gathering needs a minimum of two people. Otherwise there is no conversation, and no Gathering. I haven’t experienced a maximum limit of participants yet, but if that happens, I’ll revise this post.
  • A safe setting. The Gathering is a circle, and there is only one rule: what is spoken in the circle, stays within the circle.
  • Sharing. You need to share if you want to move forward at any speed. By coming out with your vulnerability, you hold the space for others to do the same. By bringing our ‘stuff’ into the light, we can transform it.
  • By the very special quality of the conversations and sharing, respect naturally follows. These are tender things we’re touching upon, and we respect the right of our fellow Gathering-member to have their opinion. We can ask questions or share our own experiences as a reaction to something we have questions about, but the respect is there.
  • A participant of a Gathering emailed me afterwards: ” It is special how a seemingly small happening can have so much impact.” That’s exactly what a Gathering is for! It a place for examining, clarifying and ultimately transforming things that need to evolve.

So what do we do?

  • Depending on the combination of people who come, the themes that we touch upon vary greatly, from spiritual growth and personal development to sexuality and raising children. Every Gathering is different because the people who come have their own dynamic together, and create a different ambiance together. It’s not even just the people, but also the time of year, the seasons, that affect the vibe. The themes ‘set themselves’, but there is always the opportunity to steer the conversation to a direction you wish to talk about.
  • We ask questions and receive answers. We share experiences and think. The very natural things we humans were born to do, together.
  • We can meditate and learn from each others techniques and experiences.
  • We often laugh and sometimes shed tears. These conversations shift to coming from the Heart, even if the beginning of the session starts in the Mind.
  • We see each other. Deeper than the outside shell. It is a Heart-connection of Souls.
  • We also enjoy silence when it falls, and have some snacks and herbal tea.

You’ll find the upcoming dates on the Gatherings page.

If you wish to organize a Gathering with your group at your place and would like to have me there, get in contact.

 

On illness, health and healing

| Nina

Life energy – chi –  flows everywhere, also in and through our bodies.

When we are aligned with our Soul Paths – the things we came to Earth to do – we experience joy and ease, positive coincidences, we’re in a state of flow and synchronicity with Life.

When we are not aligned with that what we came here to do, it causes a discord, discomfort, imbalance, blockages and ultimately, illness. A physical state of illness is a shout from the Soul to pay attention, it’s done with whispering. And we’d better pay attention, if we want to get back to health.

I was happily minding my business, busy-busy, barely noticing the discomforts of constantly cold feet and fatigue, when – bam! – out of nowhere I sprained my lower back and was sent to the couch for a week.

My initial irritation of all the things waiting on my to do-list soon melted into curiosity and probing; what is my Soul telling me, what was I failing to notice?

 Illness is a blessing in disguise. Use the time of rest and recovery to dig to the root of the matter, and honour your wonderful chance of being here on Earth right now with the other twinkling souls, by re-setting your values and priorities.

Simperi offers holistic healing to individuals and small groups. Get in contact and ask about the possibilities for your situation!

Strengthen Boundaries: go to Hawthorn

| Nina

hawthorn berries

It is my direct experience that Plant allies have two functions: the physical and the energetic function.

The physical aspect communicates with our bodies, supporting it with nutrients, regulating hormones and stimulating or relaxing the nervous system, helping us to cope with our imbalances.

The energetic aspect communicates with our Soul, our energy field and our connections with Spirit.

I’m not scholarly nor a very good writer, so I do not offer you a list of reference or lengthy explanations. I’m reading my herbal books and online sources, communicating with the plants myself, and forming my own Herbarium of experiences. It is these experiences that I wish to share with you.

Hawthorn is a dear ally to me, as it helps me to lift my blood pressure and soothe heart palpitations when ever they occur.
It is a heart medicine, regulating blood pressure (lifting if low, lowering if too high) and strengthening the Heart. You can find plenty of descriptions about Hawthorn’s herbal medicine qualities in books and online – read a good selection of sources to get a well-informed understanding about her qualities!

But today I would like to look deeper into the energetic aspects of Hawthorn.

She typically stands at the edge of the woods, or in a hedgerow between fields. She is a ‘gatekeeper’, the watcher over boundaries. She is thorny, giving shelter to birds and small mammals from their predators. She is the protector.

She stands in full blossom in May, and has plenty of berries in the autumn, marking the transition seasons, Spring and Autumn.

Hawthorn has the reputation to be, together with Elder, the favourite tree or bush of fairies, elves and other etheral creatures.

For me Hawthorn is the ideal Plant ally for protecting my personal boundaries and for transiting between our seemingly solid visible world and the etheral Spirit world. I go to her and use the berries in herbal tea for the energetic aspects, and as a tincture (blossom, leaves and berries) for the physical aspects. Why? Mostly because I feel that the alcohol in the tincture doesn’t rhyme very well with the aspects of Soul, and yet it does get the medicinal components out of the plant material and into the liquid so that they are more readily available for our physical body.

So to conclude: whenever you feel you could use some stronger personal boundaries, seek Hawthorn and hang out with her, in any way that appeals to you. Visit her, drink her, think her.

 

 

 

Your higher Self is communicating with you – all you have to do is listen

| Nina

“Oh, I wish I’d have intuitive guidance as well!”

But you do!! All you have to do is listen.

The more you do it, the easier it gets.
Listen to your intuition. Ask a question to yourself and listen to the answer. Or, before making a decision, ask your higher Self and listen or feel for the bias – yes or no, warm or cold, light and spacious or heavy and crammed?

I was somewhat used to hearing my inner voice when I’m cooking, making perfumes or creating remedies. It would say: “You need that, that and that. One drop more. One teaspoon more. OK, stop!”. But quite recently I was going to do something I very rarely do, sewing delicate silks with a sewing machine, and I was surprised and then amused by the quite loud inner voice insisting that I’d change the sewing machine needle for a thinner one. “The thinnest you can find!”, it was yelling inside of me in its quiet voice. See, sewing silks isn’t a skill I’m fluent in, and my brain had never ever even thought about the thickness of a needle on the sewing machine – I had forgotten there even was a variety in that. But luckily my inner voice kicked in and warned me in time. Thanks, higher Self, we finished the project successfully in time – together!

Let’s find out what your higher Self has to tell!

 

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When the Shift gets personal

| Nina

Guys, I’m floating upwards. Without drugs. High on Life.

Quite literally; the shift*, or a shift, is upon me and I need to shift with it. Feeling buoyant, so light it feels like floating upwards, but then the movement slowed down and stopped. I was weighed down by some old things and ideas, both of which I’m now quite rigorously parting with.
This is a very visual experience, with my inner eye I see strings coming from my hands and feet, and all that old stuff hanging there, holding me down. The action of clearing is like cutting through the strings with scissors.
So I’m sorting through my things and thoughts, tossing everything that doesn’t feel right. A lot goes, cut-cut-cut, creating space, light and more buoyancy.

As if opening the shutters on a bright sunny morning, I’m staring into the bright, light space and not really seeing much. But it feels very, very good – expansive. I’m floating.
It’ll take some time to acclimatize. Will you join me in this space?

This coming Sunday I’m organizing “The Gathering“, a meeting to really get together and talk about things that deeply matter.
A sub-theme is the ripening of seeds and harvesting them for the coming season. I will bring some with me, if you have fresh seeds to spare, bring them along to share!
If you can’t come, consider arranging your own Gathering! Read more about it here.

 

*the what?! the shift, ascension, awakening… All these words point towards an other way of being.

Instead of living from the old paradigm many of us were indoctrinated with -that we should work so very hard, earn our living (<- ! ), do what we’re told and fit in – I (and many others, I didn’t invent this stuff) suggest that each and every one of us stop to re-consider and think for them selves about what truly inspires you and feels good to you and heals our world. We’re creative beings! We’re loving beings. We enjoy community, and the energy of Love. So Shift! Attract a new life! Awaken! Become totally free!

PS. I didn’t know about Wayne Dyers’ film Shift before I had written the rough draft for this blog post and started researching the internet for suitable “further study”-links. After watching the movie last night, I’ve included the link above.

 

 

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Passion, inspiration and joy

| Nina

What brings you joy? So much that, at the thought of it, your heart makes a little leap of joy and you can’t wait to begin?
Here’s my passionate, almost pressing advice: follow your joy, that interest that tickles you so deliciously. It will lead to true value and profit – it will bring you real happiness, meaningful connections and lasting value.
As you’re happily skipping along the road of your inspiration, you’ll meet others who share your special kind of craziness. Cherish them, they are your tribe.

Seeds and plants bring joy to me – well hello there, friends! Yes, I’m the crazy plant lady with a garden crammed full with plants in the ground, in pots, in the air and as seeds, overflowing my storage boxes for them. I invest in plants.
This plant-lover of yours here is a hermit, but I can enjoy an understanding remark like this for days on end: on the plant market at the local botanical gardens someone answered to my question about a *special plant* that it can not survive the local winter. “I’ll have to wait until I’ve saved up a greenhouse” I said. “Or keep it in your house in the winter” he said and there was a suspended silence as we grinned and looked into each others eyes and then burst out in laughter exclaiming together: “it’s already full!”

When we moved here ten years ago, I dived head-on into gardening. As a complete beginner, I watched in awe the poppies and tomatoes taking over my little plot of land in the first season. Seeds germinated and grew into these fantastic beings!

Since then I’ve changed my mind about “what my garden is about” a gazillion times. Every time I turn my idea around, I’m honing it, from “aesthetic” via “edible” and “healing” to “beeplants”. Currently it is all four of these.

There is a deeper meaning to this play.
Your passion contributes to a bigger picture.
There is a social, spiritual and/or ecological aspect to it that helps our world evolve.
Can you see your “hobby” as a seriously meaningful practice of healing this dear world of ours with your special flavour of passion?
What if you’d bow in respect to your joyful Heart and commit to your happiness? Make your inspired practice your path = fulfillment and happiness.

Plants are a promise of a greener future, in every sense of the words. I allow myself to get carried away with new ideas, as long as I tend to old acquintances. I’m a novice and an old soul master at the same time, depending on the depth of connection I have with what I’m doing. Time loses its meaning, seasons mark the rhythm of life. I’m gratefully raveling the beauty of green shapes and colourful flowers, the sweet and strange scents and tastes, and marveling the shapes of seeds and how they’re packed by nature. I do my best in “paying back” by tending the gardens, loving individual plants with my warm breath and keeping an eye on the wellbeing of these green companions.

The knowledge and finetuning I acquire in the garden seep through into other areas in my life. Into the kitchen, where flavour, texture and colour bring nourishment and satisfaction to our bodies. Into the Gatherings – I love a deep, meaningful conversation with another, reflecting on our uniqueness and sameness as Souls on Earth at the same time. Onto the massage table, where pressure, touch, warm scented oil and skin – so many kinds of skin and bodies! – speak the language of chi, life force flowing through our world.

What is your passion?

Thank you, Mia, for pressing the “launch” button of this thought-rocket, and for Grytsje for laying the table for play.

Some seeds, bulbs and dried herbs are now available!

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A call for a mindful transition

| Nina

Back in the suburban September. Enjoying apple pie, the last plums, saving seeds, organizing the gathered and dried herbs and casting a glimpse at the near future: the Gathering, and planting more trees in October, and a workshop amulet making in November. As the storm wind tears at the green foliage outside, I re-read my words from the summer:

“Sweet summer time.
The lush greenery, the golden heat of the Sun, the mellow rhythm of days and full, sweet, juicy flavors of ripening summer fruit… soak it all in, now is the time!
It’s also time to harvest herbs, store the abundance of fruit in personally useful and appealing ways and to ponder about where all the haste and to do lists have gone.

I found myself noticing that this deep relaxation had brought about a very natural rhythm in the days, a seemingly continual focus in the here and now only. No plans, no worries, no stress. And my questioning mind comes up with the question:”Why isn’t this our state of being all the time?”
Why do we let ourselves be tricked into should-be’s and to-do’s? Why do we long for more?
Why is this, that-what-is, not enough?

I’m minimizing the visual impulses to sunsets and flowers, the things around me that are truly real and worthwhile, including a selection of books.”

Wow. The contrast is certainly present, but the imprints of summer are still so easy to reach. And there is more:

“In – between

In between seasons, past and future, the plans in the past, reflecting a future yet unfolded.
A stillness so profound there are but a few words.
Gratitude. Present. Awareness. Sharing.

The gift of the present moment. In this moment you are the most-experienced you’ve ever been. From this present moment you create the future world. What kind of a world do you envision for us all in the future? What can you do now to co-create a Loving world?

These things can be small. It is your attitude, choice of words, the quality of your energy that counts.“

The autumn equinox is drawing near, the balancing of day and night, outside and inside, yang and yin.
In preparation, I’m seeking the solitude and silence of meditation, in order to balance out the imprints of the past season, and to discern what I really wish and hope for the coming seasons to offer, and what I will express in return.

The alchemy of intent. The weaving of worlds by casting a vision ahead of us, mixing the now and future with the richness of the past, then stepping forth, bringing the vision to life by actively daring to expand. Excitement. Yes, let’s do this!

PS. You can find little nuggets of summer vibes in my Instagram feed

Five Elements: Fire

| Nina

The Five Elements principle comes from ancient Chinese tradition, teaching us that all life energy also corresponds with the Five Elements of nature: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.

Come with me as I quickly walk you through my personal encounters with the Elements.
The first time I learned about the Five Elements was through Chinese astrology.
I was curious to learn the corresponding Chinese zodiac signs of my family members, lovers and friends. And I still am, it tells me a lot of their character and the possible compatibility in our relationships!
Find your Chinese zodiac sign through the same link as above (just scroll down the opening page).

Then, much later I came into contact with the Five Elements again via Touch For Health.
I learned that the energy lines in a body – the meridians – are connected to organs, moods, the Five Elements, times in day, and yin/yang energy.
At the same time I was studying herbal medicine, as in Western herbal medicine and Ayurveda.
The Five Elements correspond also with the moods or temperaments of a constitution, and have their most (and least) compatible herbal remedies.
It’s all intertwined in a deeply logical sense, but also so much information that I’m still (forever) in the process of integrating it to my practice.

And now most recently my Tai chi tao teacher revisited the Five Elements in her Fire element workshop.
Only there I learned that this principle originates from a deep study of nature and its laws over countless generations, adding up knowledge and practices as the tradition developed.
With a renewed enthusiasm and respect I’m diving into the wisdom of the Five Elements, in yet another cycle in my life.

 

FIRE

Summer, at its hottest, brightest and lightest, belongs to the element of Fire.
This is the season of ‘bathing in nature’, either literally in wild waters, or figuratively during a walk in the woods, meadows and along streams.
It is a time of song, dance and merriment, sharing good times with friends and family, getting together with the ones we love.

Outward-going (expanding), highly transformative and intense, this is the time to burn away the useless things of the past, shine a light into the shadows and dance wildly just because you can.
Step forward, express yourself, share your talents, participate.

Too much: as with all things in Life, it is also very well possible to over-do this energy.
The result will be a feeling of being overwhelmed, it’s all “too much”, and if you have a sensitive nose, you can smell a slight scorched scent. Too much fire!

the wisdom of this moment:
The Path unfolds,
unfold with it.

 

What are your associations with this season and its element? Do share in the comments below!