Our Brain

Our brain only sees, hears, feels and thinks what we allow.

Pins And Needles

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You’ve probably had one of those moments where you were reading something or you heard something and it about dropped you dead in your tracks. One such event did that for me and before I could even begin to finish what I had started reading, my heart was pounding as if I were running for my life. In some ways I was running for my life, but the event had occurred many years earlier.

In 1991, when I was going through all the hospital tests trying to determine the cause of my paralysis, there was one test that just about did me in. I had not thought about it much until I read an account by an online blogger friend of mine. As I read her detailed account of a very similar test she went through, it was all I could do to keep reading what she wrote. I wanted to read it but the fears, the horrors and the emotions of a lifetime came rushing up. Even as I write this, I can feel my heart racing and so while I feel I need to record this, it is not easy.

The doctors had tried many tests on me trying to determine the cause of my paralysis. At first it had been proclaimed that I had Multiple Sclerosis. At age 26, that seemed like a death sentence for me. I wasn’t prepared to hear these words and I had no way to know how to react to them. As the days wore on though, that diagnosis began to prove itself wrong. My symptoms weren’t common and so specialist after specialist did every test under the sun.

The latest test they did was where I believe they were checking my muscle and nerve reflexes. I’m not 100% certain if that is exactly what it was they were doing, and someone with a medical background may be able to shed more light on this than I can. I remember being taken into this room from my hospital bed and placed upon an exam table. There were instruments and electrical-looking machines and a lady in a lab coat that I don’t even think introduced herself. Most of the time during the test, she was facing my legs and some electrical machine with her back to my face. It was almost as if she didn’t want to see me as a person but that’s just my perception.

Realize that during this time, my movements were almost nonexistent and speech was extremely slow and labored. To get a word out every few minutes that made coherent sense was quite an accomplishment for me during this time. So communication for me was almost impossible, and trying to communicate really zapped the energy from me. At that time, my energy was in a very limited supply and I did not want to waste it. So as I laid there on the exam table seeing these machines around me, with this person who I didn’t know sitting there as if I didn’t exist, I was frightened beyond belief. I had no idea what was going to be done to me, and I felt as if I had no say in it anyway.

She began her test and I felt these little pricks of what must have been a needle. You see, needles were not something good to me. You could show me a needle and I would pass out, and in fact had passed out many times for stuff like that and more. So I was doing all I could and using every ounce of energy I had to make it through this test, for this might have been the one that told the doctors what was wrong with me, I thought.

As I felt these little pricks on my legs, I would feel a little electric type jolt through them. It didn’t seem to be a large jolt of electricity, only a little buzz. The pain of the needle pricking my skin along with the uncomfortable feeling of the electricity I felt, made this very difficult to endure. Prick by prick, little buzz by little buzz, the lady in the white lab coat continued her testing procedure. It seemed like an eternity which would never end. With each prick of the needle, the pain would intensify.

I could feel the tears want to well up within my eyes, but of course my eyes had cried so much there were no tears. I could feel my voice wanting to scream out, “STOP”, but the words and the voice were lost in the void. I could feel my arms wanting to grab the lady in the white lab coat to make her stop, but my arms had no ability or energy to move. My mind knew there was nothing to do but take what was being done to me, while my body just wanted to run out of the room.

Even though I could barely speak, I do remember trying to say to the lady in the white lab coat, “please stop for a minute, please stop. Please stop.” She never heard the faint and few words of my dull voice. She only continued on, one needle prick at a time. There was no stopping her. My mind thought of a million things I would call this lady if only I could speak, and these things weren’t pretty.

The next thing I knew, I saw these doctors working around me on the table. I’m not sure where I was, but the room was full of people in white coats and much more equipment than when I initially came into the room. Seeing all of this, I didn’t really feel any pain in that moment, and actually it felt more freeing and nice than when I was on the table. The one thing I couldn’t understand, though, was why all of these people were so concerned about me and why I was watching all of this.

As my eyes began to open again, I saw the doctor with the little shock paddles and heard the words “clear” as he brought the paddles close to my bare chest and stomach. They had pulled my hospital gown down to expose my chest and abdomen. As I opened my eyes, I remember seeing such a bright light that it almost hurt my eyes to look at it. It was one of the clearest, brightest white lights I had ever seen. At first I chalked it up to the lights in the room, thinking that was obviously the source. It wasn’t until many years later, when I experienced this same bright white light in a healing session from a lady in South Florida, that I put together what the white light was all about.

As my eyes began to focus on the room, I could hear the people giving out the blood pressure readings and the pulse. Everyone seemed to breathe a sigh of relief as they began to leave the room. One nurse who stayed in there with me commented that they had thought they lost me. That’s about all that was ever said or all that I remember being said. Again, this didn’t quite connect with my brain for many years of what really transpired on this day.

While you may be reading and feeling sad for all of what I went through, this is ok. However, there is a much broader reason why I share this. You see, the body is like an electrical box full of circuits. If we overload the circuits with many devices or stresses in our lives, sooner or later the circuits will overload and trip the individual breakers. If you overload too many circuits at the same time, than the entire circuit box begins to trip and shut down.

This is exactly what was happening in my body. My body had endured a lifetime of stresses, events, pains and abuses. I had ignored these for years and thought I was being a strong man by just handling things. After all, everyone I knew understood just how together I had life. There was nothing that could stop me. I was invincible. I was all powerful, not the weak person that was lying in a hospital bed. There was also what I had been taught every day of my life, that you just handled your problems on your own. You didn’t go to others for help because that was not only a sign of weakness, but these people would then use your problems to their advantage in future dealings with you. You could not trust these people from that point forward. I so remember one whipping in the middle of the night to bring this point home in a very clear way.

As Peter Levine talks about in his book, “Waking The Tiger”, our bodies will react to all that we experience. We can try to run from it, hide it, analyze it or mold it into some sort of religion, but if we don’t deal with that which we have endured, it will deal with us. We may go years, like I did, before it begins to rear its ugly head but it has our days numbered.

Many of us go through life having all types of experiences throughout our years. Some of these are horrendous and are further cemented in the experience by strong emotional components, or by our young age of not knowing and understanding what is going on. We then find ways to compensate for these experiences, sometimes not even consciously knowing that we are doing this. We continue to live our lives adding more events, and more stress during each day.

Our body and our mind tries to get our attention with its many warning system lights such as headaches, pains, stiffness, sickness, disease, and other health conditions. We run to the doctors out of fear, wanting to be fixed and wanting some medication, surgery or therapy to fix us. So the doctor in their vast knowledge gives us something that will help. They often give us a name of the condition we are experiencing, and at last we know that we can wear our badge of what we have with pride. We know what it is and we can be cared for. It gives us a spring to our feet and a bounce to our step.

However, the condition does not necessarily disappear. It might be suppressed or it might give way to other conditions. Medications and surgeries with all their side effects may welcome other unwanted and undesired guests into our bodies and our minds. All the while, we’re still not cured. The condition is still there. It is just masked and covered up.

Please don’t get me wrong here, as I’m not saying all medication and all surgery and all medical intervention is a bad thing. We sometimes need this to stabilize our lives so that we can move to the point of healing. However, so many of us stay in this mode and never move on to the healing part. Masking the pain or the condition is never healing. It’s like using a band aid to cover a blood-gushing wound. While it may help temporarily, the wound needs further attention to heal.

While this may sound unreal and difficult to even contemplate, going into the pain and all the fears that may come up will ultimately release what is beneath that which you are sensing. By doing this, we are able to take the power that the fear possesses in the condition, or the pain, and use it to move us forward through this point in our lives. Otherwise, the fear and the pain of the condition remain as stored energy, locked within our cells, holding us back from realizing our true potential. The fears can be strong but the rewards of doing this are much greater.

We should not view pain as something that we must fix, but something that we need to accept. Through acceptance we take the power back from it, so that we more fully integrate ourselves into a complete person. The greatest gift we can give ourselves is to know our self in the fullest possible way. For the more we have fully integrated ourselves as one mind, body and spirit, the more we are human.

Feeling Happy

On one of the Facebook groups I am a member of, the discussion was on "happy". So here's my response to what "happy" means to me. If you wish to check out the facebook group regarding this, the link is Enlightenment

I've had plenty of moments in life that I've been severely depressed, suicidal and then times that there was so much joy in my life that I was extremely happy. However, as I have been learning in life, feeling happy, sad, joyful, or many other ways is a state of where I'm at for that moment. It is a state of feeling, of emotion of connecting to things within me, around me or through me.

At one time I measured my life by these things and did things to make sure I could feel happy, etc. There was even a time in my life when I did not even understand what it meant to be happy and when I first started to feel "happy", I was fearful. I had no idea what it was and was so afraid of it. Can you imagine that, being afraid of being happy?

My focus now in life though is to understand myself more each day that I get to live on this life. I want to understand what makes me happy or doesn't make me happy. I want to understand just exactly what it really means to live in my body, fully and accepting it with all of its parts and functions and pain and freedom. Of course, it goes without saying that all of this involves feeling every moment of my life to the fullest through every cell of my body.

In The Garden

http://www.donshetterly.com - This was one of my Mom's favorite hymns and so this song is played in her memory as a tribute to her. The Hymn, "In The Garden" was written by C. Austin Miles in 1912. The video you see is my mini concert playing this hymn. And to you, Mom, I Love You and miss you.

Creating Our Moments

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Some days I wonder about my life and where it is heading. While I can see specific steps in my path, it seems like there is just so much that I haven’t discovered and as if I’m at the beginning of the journey. In some ways that is most likely true and in other ways it feels as if I’ve been walking for many life times. Almost as if this isn’t the first time through this journey.

But as I know, all things that I encounter and all the experience I have had up to this point in my life, have made me what I am today. It is the sum of all the parts of myself with the good, the bad and the pieces I would greatly like to discard. Without any of these parts, I would not be who I am today nor where I am at. Each part played a role in getting me to this one moment in time that I am at today. And so, while I revel in the great moments of my life and the great experiences I have had, it is those dreaded parts that have been just as momentous for me.

The other day I was thinking that I just really had not done enough for others around me. I felt as if I didn’t really have anything to offer those around me in my community or the world for that fact. I felt inadequate with just not having enough. A mindset of lack, not of abundance even though I know I’ve been so blessed in so many ways.

Than it struck a chord with me, just as if I put my fingers on the keyboard. I was not lacking and inadequate and failing others. In fact, the past year, I’ve helped some people out selling a estate record collection for them. Even though I knew very little about this, my job was to do the physical work to get it sold. Others around me knew the ins and outs of doing this and so their help and assistance made it all possible.

More importantly though is that the people I was selling this for and myself included were in dire straits and needed the extra income. The extra income both ways helped each party make it through a year that would have been even harder to get through. The timing of how these things came together was not of this world because it all happened at the right moment and with the right set of circumstances.

So as I thought about all of this, I realized that I was doing more than I gave myself credit for. That’s not unusual for me to do this and it is one of those things in my life, I’d love to give up. It is my beloved and hated twin – that of not giving myself credit. If I would have not done my part in this entire scenario, than not only would I have suffered but so would others involved with it. They would have been deprived of something that greatly helped them through a very difficult year.

Maybe sometimes we don’t need to put helping others and being there for others in a non profit organizational sort of way. Maybe these things come in all shapes and sizes and allow ourselves to be enhanced in life while we help others. After all it doesn’t have to be one or the other. It could be both!
Putting this in perspective, I can now look back at the previous year and see things that weren’t obvious to me each day. I can now look back and know that I did add to the overall good of others, the community and our world while I also helped myself along. I can now look back and realize that my skills and time used to do this were exactly what was needed. Nothing more! Nothing less! Those skills don’t say lack either. They are abundance because they gave so much to so many.

Sometimes we want to fit life into our own little molds and through our filtered eyes view it as a picture film already created. We fail to see that our life has not been designed but is created with each passing moment. It is in the individual moments where life is lived to the fullest, not in the unrealistic expectations that we may place upon ourselves.
And we can always know that if what we created today is not what we wanted it to be, that we can always create something different tomorrow. Tomorrow will always be a clean slate for us. The important part is to create and live in the moment we have right now.

Renzo, The Teacher

Note:

This is from a guest writer, Quayny Porter Brown. She is a good friend of mine who works with Dr. Paul Canali at Evolutionary Healing Institute. (read the following blog entry if you have not already read it - A Life Changing Moment)

She sent me this the other day about the loss of their dog, Renzo whom I've had the pleasure of meeting a few times. What she wrote really said a lot to me and I think it really fits the nature and purpose of this blog. So I'm sharing what she wrote with her permission and hope that it impacts you as much as it did me. Thank you Quayny!

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(c) Quayny Porter Brown (1/9/09)


Suffering is not feeling pain or feeling despair or feeling sadness. It is not feeling it. It is resisting it. This is linked to fear of course. The fear to open oneself up to what we perceive is suffering. But it is not suffering to feel the pain of separation, and it is not suffering to mourn death or loss or a break up or a misunderstanding or lack of connection. It is not suffering, although we call it that. There is a difference in the type of suffering that is resisted and the type that is accepted. The type that is resisted requires judgment, repression, guilt, fear, among other qualities. If you are already suffering with a loss why expend the extra energy to resist the feeling, internalize it, destroy oneself with it, limit ones perception by denial. When you realize this there is less fear. There is now less fear because you have allowed yourself to go in and accept and feel whatever is there. Sadness then is sweet and wrenching but does not develop into despair. There is trust and there is faith in the process of living and experiencing what it offers. There is then a direct experience of not dying or collapsing from allowing yourself to feel what is there. Suffering as we come then to understand it is an opportunity for transformation. This is meant to be there. This is meant to tell me something. It is not that I am meant to feel pain necessarily, but it is absolutely true that I am meant to feel.

All week my chest has felt tingling and buzzing. Through the grieving and even before it I recognized that Renzo was teaching me. I have some regret that he had to die to do it, or, rather, that I did not realize his gift to me until he was on his way to die. I have been trying to be present all the time. My feet feel planted on the ground and no one is scaring me. If I fall into my old pattern of looking for approval I immediately apply my new and previously unrealized knowledge that there is nothing to fear so I do not need approval. Why is that. I guess because I am not afraid of not having the approval anymore, at least during these days of clarity.

I used to come home and Renzo was forever on top of me trying to get my attention. I used to brush him off and feel annoyed that he seemed to me to be so dependent on me. I didn’t want that. But no matter what I did or didn’t do, he was always there the next time with a happy loving attitude toward me as if each time I greeted him with the same love and unconditional acceptance. I see now why I rejected his loving advances to me. Why it seemed like a burden. I was afraid of his love, afraid to receive it, afraid to be responsible for it-of course that was an illusion because he was just as happy no matter what I did. Even with the fire trucks going by he would sing. If I did not sing he would come over and find me and look at me as he sang. He’d throw his head back and point his nose to the sky as he sang and sang. He’d stare at me until I did the same. He was trying to reach me, always holding a space for me to join him if I found it in me.

Before he died he was in the hospital and his hind legs were paralyzed. This is how he suddenly woke up early in the morning on Tuesday last week. He spent one night in the hospital and although he was not in pain, he was lying on the floor of the operating area and was not so happy there. The Doctor told me that he watched everyone though and got many pats. He was such a gentle creature, loving and giving. I see now that he was exercising my heart, perhaps not consciously on his part. But his nature, instinctual nature, finally broke through to me during his last two days.

I spent two hours with him the day he had to be put to sleep. It was in the morning and so I got time by myself with him. We just existed together. Him on the table on a stretcher unable to move much, and me standing by him or sitting and talking or crying, or patting or hugging him. I told him all that I had learned. Luckily I realized these things soon enough to say thank you to him for all the lessons he has taught to me. I asked him if he wanted to come back a race horse or a bird or a bumble bee. He didn’t do much but just rest his head on me. It seemed like he’d just like to be a dog. I fought with feelings of injustice at his short life and his sudden decline. And mostly my feelings of guilt about the things I didn’t do during his life. Somehow I just thought there would be more time. There was no more time. But there was time to just be with him and feel it all for as long as I wanted-the hospital did not rush me. I offered him some water with Rescue Remedy. He showed very little interest in it. I rubbed it on his paws. You might say I suffered with him, but you also might say I just grew with him as we went through this unexpected situation together. Together. That was the key, and the only key.

I left after two hours to go pick up the children at school. I asked them if they wanted to go again to visit (we had all gone the night before), and they said No. The night before we all had to sit on the floor of the operating room with the machines beeping and a dog on the table having surgery. It was a hard environment, but we all got Renzo’s head on our laps and his earnest stare into our eyes.

Later that night I met Wyatt at the hospital after he had had a chance to be with Renzo alone for a while. We just sat with Renzo, again on the table on a stretcher. I turned off the fluorescent lights and the room was much more peaceful after that. But Renzo was very calm and so he slept a bit on the table. When he woke up we were just there with him and patting him and crying intermittently. It was such a hard moment knowing that he needed to be put to sleep whenever we asked the Doctor to come in. I offered him Rescue Remedy again and this time he lapped it up, wanting more and more and more. He almost consumed a whole bottle actually. After that he just got very quiet and he lost interest in the remedy. I rubbed some on his paws now and then. We just stayed with him for a long time-maybe an hour after I arrived. He was calm and didn’t raise up his head that much. I told him that it is OK to go-that we will be OK without him and he should feel free to do whatever it is he needs to do. Also to let us know if he comes back to us in another form by some kind of recognizable sign. So I told him these things, and of course we both told him how good he was and how we loved him.

When the doctor came in she was very respectful and quiet and calm. She gave him three shots through his intravenous site. Before we knew it he was gone. He just lay there as usual, but limp and his eyes were open. He was still warm and we hugged him. Then it was time for us to go. In my mind came a picture of a little dog with pointy ears dancing about outlined in neon white. He was playing and saying to me not to be sad, that he can jump again now. Who knows if my mind made it up or if it was an image from some other place. It obviously doesn’t matter. The fact was I felt a little lightness and a sense that he was free of his crippled body.

We left the hospital and we walked up the street. The experience had brought us together in a different way than had been available lately. We walked for a while and then got in our cars to go home.

That night we had dinner with the kids and as we all sat together at the table missing Renzo we had one of the nicest times we had had in months if not ever. The children opened up with their own stories of this and that, and it seemed that we all had the feeling of going through life together, as strange as it does sometimes seem.

Perspective

Perspective is what you have that may or may not change from the current moment to the next moment. Doesn't that sound a little confusing and convoluted? Yes, but it is a true statement.

You see, right now if you each of us thinks about some issue, some event or something in our lives, we have a perspective about it. That's right. Our perspective is colored by how we see things and how our minds filter the information that we receive. Not all of our minds sees the information in the same light. We're at different points in our lives and places and learning. We've all had different experiences which bring us to our current moment in time. Even if your experiences were almost identical to someone else, you still have a different mind that sees things through your own filters.

So does that make your perspective wrong and my perspective right or does it make my perspective wrong and your perspective right? I would say no to both statements. Sure, there are some things that could fall into one of these two statements but that's not my point here. We're beyond that point for the purpose of this discussion.

What I am referring to is how do you view the world? How do you view your body and its relationship to every day life? How do you view where you are going in the world and what you are learning? These are the questions from which give us all perspective and from which the perspective really matters in my view. Beyond these walls, there is so much noise and if were not careful, that clanky noise can convince us that it is a symphony.

It is up to each one of us to know ourselves and to know as much about how we tick, how we think and where we are headed. It is our own perspective about ourselves and the more we know, the more complete we are. Many times, we fear that which we do not know and so instead of going into these things, we stand on the outer edges of all there is to experience in life.

So my challenge to not only myself and to everyone that reads this is "to thine own self be true".

New Beginnings

I love new beginnings because they are full of possibilities.

Congratulations President Obama

Buddy Helm Drumming

Buddy Helm was a drummer for many years for different bands and has studied the drum beats with intensity. We had the unique opportunity of sitting in one of his afternoon drumming workshops at Cassadaga.

He takes you through a very fun couple of quick passing hours with various drumbeats and how each drum beat comes together. Plus he takes it further and gives you a chance to give your brain a new message. It is when the drum beat gets at a certain beat, that your brain is very receptive to all kinds of information.

Here's a video of a little about him. The video quality isn't great but it sort of shows you what he does. The audio part is the more important part.




This video is one he did recently at Cassadaga and it is very specific but again it gives you an idea of what he does with the drumming.



The reason I post this is that it was a very powerful afternoon workshop and it was so much fun. He involves everyone that attends and you become as much a part of the workshop as the workshop itself. I felt so relaxed when I was done and had such a positive outlook as well.

RELAXATION To Yanni

R E L A X A T I O N

I am laying here trying to find a sense of relaxation. Listening to the CD by Yanni, Live At the Acropolis, I felt as if I was miles above the earth. There were vast mountains below me with a rippling, flowing stream leading down to a quiet, peaceful lake on the left. To my right, was the sun set in a gorgeous horizon filled with beauty and splendor. In front of me rising high into the sky, were the blackest, meanest and most horrifying storm clouds you have ever seen. As the music started with its fast tempo, I could see myself flying all around over the earth. Not a thing was holding me down and at that moment in time, I had risen above life and the problems it so freely gave me. As the music slowed to an eerie tempo, I found myself scared and anxious. Waiting and watching; looking out for someone that may bring harm to me. I was cautious and frightened, not sure where to hide but knowing I was not ready to go back down to the earth and face the pain. As the music became a slow, peaceful pace, I could see two large hands coming down from the heavens. These two hands scooped me up with a warm gentle touch that made me feel so safe and secure. As the music carried on, I rested in the warm safety of these hands.

(c) Don Shetterly 6/2/98

Music Connects Us

Music can lift us from our current plane into a world where nothing matters, where no stress can be found and where true peace abounds. The individual notes combined together can transcend our hearts and minds.

We all have a favorite song, CD or band that picks us up when we are down and energizes us. Have you ever stopped to consider this and consider just what the music does for you? How does it take you from your current state and leave you feeling fulfilled, ready to fight whatever it is you need to or just feel empowered?

I firmly believe that music is the way that the innermost parts of our lives and the universe communicate with us. Music speaks where no words are found. Music creates a language where there is a void. Music knows no boundaries put in place by cultures, governments or laws.

For a long time in my life, I have played the piano and created music of all kinds. In recent years, I have focused on letting my innermost soul release the sounds that it holds. Just a few years ago, I would find a piano and sit down and play for hours at a time. I never used sheet music as I did not need it. I would just play whatever came out of my fingers. This music was a combination of notes that had never been heard before. And yet I found, that I did not really hear the music that I was playing until one day I recorded a session. When I listened to what I recorded, I could not believe what I heard. I did not realize just what I was creating.

Up to this point, I’ve not been able to replay anything that I have created. It is like the music I create is a conversation and we all know that you can never repeat a conversation once it has been spoken. You can paraphrase it but there is no way to repeat it. This is why I believe that music which comes from deep within our souls is such a pure form of communication and it goes where words can not form.

I began to share my music with a few trusted friends and saw their reactions. It was at that point that I decided it was time to share my music with the world. The more I have shared the music, the more I have seen the effects of it upon the lives of others. I can see when someone hears it and it affects them in such a deep way. For I know that when someone’s ear tunes into the songs I create, I know that they have connected with the deeper language found deep within the music and they have connected with a much broader source, the Universe.

My music and the music of many others that I know, come from a greater source than we find in ourselves. It is the universe that provides this music and it has the ability to do whatever we need at that moment in our lives. For the universe provides peace, healing and power to everyone and one of the ways it does this is through the music that it provides. I’ve seen how my music reflects the times I am in and how it has changed as I changed. Each song I create gets a title so as to keep it separate from the next song and reference it to what actually was taking place in my thoughts while it was created.

So as you go about your day, stop for a minute and think about the music you listen to. What is it trying to tell you? What is it connecting you to? What is your mind and body needing at this very minute. Remember we are all connected to something greater than ourselves and that connection is kept together by a force called music.

If you haven't had a chance to hear my music, you can check out the link to the left "Relaxing Spa Music" on Amazon
or you can listen to it as well on iTunes and Spotify.

© Don Shetterly 11/9/05

Clean House, Clean Planet

One of the most used books in our house!

I heard about this book from a friend. When I began reading it, I learned a lot as to what was in a lot of the cleaners we bought from the store. Let me tell you - there's some highly toxic stuff in what you buy. And the other thing that really got my attention is that the packaging and water make up a significant portion of the price.

There are many different ideas of natural inexpensive items that you can use in your household cleaning and most of them are either simple to obtain or create. It isn't hard to do at all.

Did you know that you can use the juice from a squeezed lemon as an alternative to bleach in your laundry? I use it for my whites and it does an excellent job! That's cheap and it doesn't harm the world we live in.

And how about a quick, simple and cheap room air freshner for like the bathroom. I use a little open jar with baking soda and the peppermint essential oil. Works wonders for headaches (sniff the peppermint) as well if you have one but it keeps the bathroom smelling nice. And you just keep adding baking soda or essential oil to it when it needs freshened up! Baking soda is a natural substance so it doesn't harm the environment either.

I try to mix up my cleaners so that I don't have too much on hand but I've got enough that I'm not mixing it every time I clean the house.

Another thing that she talks about in the book is using "GOOD", "HIGH QUALITY" essential oils. Not the ones you buy in some local store that are on sale or are made with essential oils. I'm talking about good ones. Since I'm a Young Living Essential Oil distributor now, I buy all mine through them. You can not beat the quality and part of the quality is in how the essential oils are processed and harvested. If you want to know more, just email me on that. I use several but peppermint and lavender are my favorites along with Pine and Eucalyptus. It only takes a few drops because these things are concentrated.

Note:  I now use Ananda Essential Oils.  Better price, excellent quality and they are much nicer to do business with than Young Living.  Young Living screwed me over pretty good and never reconciled it with me.  Go to http://www.anandaapothecary.com/ and check this place out.  They are very nice people.

Here's another little tip I learned from the book and my own experience. I use Dr. Bronner's Sal Suds for my laundry, for general cleaning and for some of the cleaning recipies. It costs around $8 for a 32 oz bottle but it lasts a long time because it is so concentrated. I use less than a 1/4 cup for a load of laundry or when I mop our floors. The best thing about this stuff is that it washes out and doesn't cling to your clothes like regular detergent. It is natural substances so it is good for the environment. But the best part I like about it, is that it seems like our floors don't get as dirty as they once did. It is like the regular pine sol, spic and span cleaners almost attract dirt and this doesn't. I like that! Plus I add essential oil to the mop water and it leaves the house smelling so nice!

I'd tell you what I use to clean glass and windows which will amaze you because it is so cheap and readily available (no, not water and soap either). But I'll just tease you enough so that hopefully you'll read the book. *smile*

The book has so many recipes and ideas and tries to give you the ins and outs about each one. They are not hard to make and everything she has in the book is practical. It came out of what she used in her own house.

So check this book out (link is at the top of the page) and save some money on your cleaning supplies while you are more gentle on mother earth. She'll appreciate it to.

I'm not sure when the last time was we bought a commercial cleaner in the store. We just make our own now.

Connected To Source

There are many people that will tell you that when connected to source, things happen quickly, easily and come together in ways that no one can imagine. If you want to understand what "Source" means, check any of Dr. Wayne Dyer's works such as The Power of Intention. Source is not about religion, it is about the source energy living within ourselves.

So anyway, back to the story.

I was given an idea for a project by someone I know. It always amazes me just where some of these ideas originate and how I come to be acquainted with them. Sometimes they are like this particular method and sometimes they are just thoughts that float into my mind almost as if they are being whispered into my ear by an angel. This idea sounded good but at first I thought, this is going to take a lot of work, a lot of time and then the detailed questions of how to make everything happen filled my mind. I knew though that if I took each thing a step at a time, it would all come through.

So as I'm out walking in the park a couple of weeks ago, I was taking pictures and one of the pictures I took hit me like a ton of bricks. As I focused on it with my camera, I thought this could be a CD cover. At the time, I had not totally put it together with the project that I was working on. The two thoughts had not completely connected.

So then I sat down at my keyboard to do the recording part of this project. Usually in the past, this part of the process takes considerable time. Not only do I need to create the actual music, then play it so that it sounds right and record it so that it comes out correctly as a digital file. A process that one little mess up sometimes yields the work useless for a finished piece. This particular project though came together the quickest that I have ever seen and without too much difficulty. It wasn't completely ease free but not like some projects where you struggle to get the right sound. It just all flowed together easily and nicely.

Once this was done, I was sitting there wondering what type of artwork I was going to use and then the picture of the park popped into my mind. The songs came around and formed the right image. But as part of the artwork, I needed a special graphic which I had no idea what I was going to use. Within about 5 minutes of searching on google, I had found the right image, purchased it and was able to get it into my graphic artwork I was creating. That's no easy feat for me either as my expertise in using graphic art software is limited.

The complete package came together in a very cohesive way and I was beginning to see that maybe this project had some outside help and assistance. The next step involved uploading it to the digital sites which again can go easily and painfree or it can be excruciating and a long drawn out process. This time, it was up on all the digital sites within about 8 days. That's just unheard of.

And so I can't help but think the "idea" of this came from a connected source and was perfect for me in this moment. Of course if I would have just heard it and done nothing, than nothing would have happened. However for something to happen, I had to act up on it. Where the project will go or the results I will get from this project, I do not know at this time. I'm anxious to see what happens!

Once again, I'm reminded that if we stay connected to source, than all we need and all we desire is there at our fingertips. We need not look any place else because we will not find it any other place.

The Little Moments

When we do something that seems so insignificant and almost as if it was nothing more than a blip in our day but we touch the lives of others around us, we then have accomplished so much.

I'm reminded of this thought today as one of my writings found its way to touch someone's life and most likely the lives of many more.

A lady I met in a conference a few years ago was in my relaxation workshop. She remembered that I had written many poems and knew of the one “The Hope To See It Through”. It was in a collection I have published called "A Journey Through Words" available through lulu.com . She is working with some people in to get an organization off the ground which helps address youth violence and the problem these kids are facing. I don’t know too much about it but it sounds like a very worthy endeavor.

Anyway, she wanted to use my poem and asked permission to use it in their organization. I sent her the copy and she wrote me back saying just how much it touched her and how she feels it will really touch those she is working with but more importantly the kids. It was one of my poems that I really like and a very powerful one in my view.

It just warms up my heart to know that my words have touched someone in a very deep way and that where those words may end up, I’ll never know. It feels good to give to others and the universe and maybe some good will come out of the horrendous situations I lived through. That would be one of the greatest joys I could ever have, I believe.

I just had to share this with you today because it makes me feel very joyful just thinking about it.

Here's a few lines of the poem

The Hope To See It Through (first 4 lines)
(c) Don Shetterly - Jan 2000

The courage to face the impossible,
The strength to fight the fears,
The risk to take the chance,
The hope to see it through.

A Life Changing Moment

Shortly after I graduated from massage school, I had the opportunity to do chair massage for the faculty and staff at Southwood Middle School. A tragedy had hit the school when a student killed one of his classmates and friends during school hours. I was there with others as part of a day of healing for the teachers. One of the speakers was Dr. Paul Canali talking about how trauma affects us and how to watch out for the effects that we may see in others especially the children. As I listened to Dr. Canali speak that day, I was captivated because what he was sharing with others, was things that resonated deeply within me.

After his talk was over, I so badly wanted to connect with him but when it was my turn to speak to him, I could barely say anything. About the only thing I could think to do was hand him my business card because my voice was silent. Time went on and I didn’t really think about Dr. Canali again until I went to a local FSMTA (Florida State Massage Therapy Association) meeting. He was the speaker and that night I was sitting up front. As Dr. Canali talked, he kept putting his hands on my shoulder and using me as an example of what he was saying. Normally with strangers, I would have been crawling out of my skin and running out the door. I, however, knew that Dr. Canali’s touch was safe. Somehow I knew that and I was not afraid.

Fast forward to a workshop he held in July 2004, that I wanted to attend. Before signing up for the workshop, Dr. Canali and I talked by phone where I shared with him some of my past. When I got to the workshop, it was part lecture and part hands on training. Dr. Canali asked for volunteers and without hesitation, I said I would like to volunteer. Up until this point, I had not experienced his work like many of the others had, and I had no clue what I was about to experience. The moment on the table which seemed like only a few minutes was in fact over a couple hours and when I got off that table, I felt like my life was different than when I started. It was a powerful life changing moment and at the time I had no clue just how far this would go.

I began to see Dr. Canali for regular sessions because I knew deep down, there was much stored within my body that needed to be dealt with. You didn’t need to explain to me just how everyday life, every day stress, trauma and experiences find homes within our bodies. My body knew that first hand because I was paralyzed in 1991. Physically I had recovered from it but there were many hidden scars within me that had never been allowed to heal. I had plenty of current problems as well from depression, anxiety, frequent migraine headaches, a stomach ulcer, allergies and the list could go on. I never dreamed that a few years after this, my life would have changed in dramatic ways physically, emotionally and spiritually. I’m not the same person I was and this isn’t some surface changes in me. It is deep emotional long lasting changes.

While I still know I have a ways to go and I still have my demons I battle within me, I’m on my way to connecting to something that will carry me forward. I’m not even 100% sure I understand what that is today and that’s fine, but I see more of my path ahead with each day. Dr. Canali has helped me to understand myself more and see the power that I hold to make choices and changes in my life. He has helped me to become more aware of myself so that I can begin to experience life in an entirely new way. If you would have told me all of this was possible a few years ago, I would have probably laughed. Of course now, you don’t have to convince me because I’ve lived it and the truth of it resides with myself and my new found freedom and awareness.

With all of this said, Dr. Canali just launched his new website and it is filled with a lot of information. Some of the information is deep and may sail over your head when you first read it, but it can be a catalyst in your life. I urge you to go and check out the website and read it and learn all you can. Your life won’t be the same after this point.

The website is
Evolutionary Healing Institute http://evolutionaryhealinginstitute.com/

Testing A New Widget

I'm testing this beta widget to see if it works. It is something being provided through the distributor Tunecore that I use.

If you can test it out and leave comments as to how it works, if it works and do the buttons/links click through for you, I would be forever grateful. Any comments you could give me would help.

Thanks
Don

P.S. I took the widget down now. It was just for testing.

For The New Year - Focus On Our Dreams

Let us focus in this year on our dreams, our aspirations, our hopes and our purpose. As we focus, allow our attention to turn towards one thing we can begin doing today to move us closer to all that we want for our lives.