Life Renewal and Reinvention Specialist

Marie Knapp

Marie Knapp, RN EdD

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519-371-1255

marieknapp@dallacor.com

It’s Your Life- Live It Well (newsletter)

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It’s Your Life- Volume Two, Issue Two Jan 2008

It’s Your Life- Volume Two, Issue One  Sept 2007

It’s Your Life- Volume One, Issue Three  May 2007

It’s Your Life- Volume One, Issue Two Jan 2007

It’s Your Life- Volume One, Issue One  Sept 2006

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DallaCor Tips & Notes

Greetings!!!

Welcome to the first edition of DallaCor “Tips and Notes”. I am so pleased to be connecting with you. Thank you for being among the first to subscribe to this monthly publication.

I am just returning from Guatemala and soon to experience the last part of winter in Ontario. March is a “looking forward month” and one in which I usually look fervently for every possible sign of spring … only to be disappointed because everyone who lives in Ontario knows that we can expect snow falls up to the second week in April and that there are still lots of opportunities for skiing in March.

This month, I am going to make a conscious effort to remain in the present, enjoying the snow as long as we have it and just being with whatever weather we have. You will understand where I am coming from after you read my article below about balancing and being in the moment.

The New Web Site Design

I hope you enjoy reading Tips and Notes. I am excited about this new part to the web site. It is a good example of how we have to give up some things in order to leave space for new things. I enjoyed creating my own web site design for a few years but all of a sudden it came to me that by hanging on to that design piece, I was limiting myself and keeping out other opportunities. Ryan has been great to work with and as we explore new ways of using the site, I get to use his expertise to create what I dream up. That feels wonderful!

I hope you will also check through the site, read the blog, and send responses as you see fit.

About Tips and Notes

Likely over time, Tips and Notes will begin to take on a regular format but I feel it is too early to lock myself into that yet. Your responses are going to help me know what you enjoy reading most and what else you would like to read about. Keep me informed.

I will always include “What’s Up at DallaCor”. I see the new web site as an opportunity to extend beyond Grey and Bruce counties and invite people from a distance to attend what I offer. Word of mouth has already brought several people from across southern Ontario to my retreats. Grey Bruce is a wonderful part of the province to experience nature and a relaxing setting. It is a perfect fit.

I will also always include This Month’s Message that will include notes related to Holistic Wellness and followed by some Tips for you to keep in mind over the next month. These will be opportunities for you to reflect on what is written and perhaps write some comments about your experiences or ask questions.

Since I am writing this from Guatemala I hope you will excuse any typos or spelling errors. While they have excellent facilities for internet use here, I miss some of the opportunities I have at home like checking over what I have written in hard copy.

In most of my monthly messages, I will tell you about a book I have found interesting and/or useful. You can watch for that next month.

Pass This On

If you are enjoying reading this, I hope you will pass it on and invite others to sign up. Tips and Notes will be sent out to you once a month and will also be archived on the website if you wish to read back issues. Remember anyone can subscribe. You can also unsubscribe when you need a break.

What’s Up At DallaCor?

Spring is busy with several opportunities for you. I have two retreats scheduled, one in April and one in May. I am also offering another unit of the Holistic Living and Working Program called Soulful Facilitation. Wendy Roman and I have put together a Saturday workshop called Journeying Through the Chakras. Read on to read a little more and please check my website for more details. www.dallacor.com

The April Retreat is another Kimbercote retreat offering you the opportunity for time and reflection with like minded people as you explore your intentions in a way that is self empowering and inner focused. I hope you will go to the web site to learn more about this retreat.

The May Retreat is new this year. It is a wellness retreat specifically created for people in high stress positions who want a nurturing environment where you can learn ways to stay well and relieve stress, return to your own self/soul yearnings, and be comfortable with healthy food and rest on the shores of Georgian Bay. There is a lot more information on the web site so go there and have a look. Do it soon to take advantage of the early bird prices.

Soulful Facilitation: I wish I could find a better word other than facilitation, such an overworked and often misused term. In its place consider leading, mentoring, teaching, parenting, empowering. It is about how we work with others to help them be their best. You will become aware of how you can use holistic principles to guide what you do. It is not just about action or change; it is also about authenticity, integrity and love. Each time I offer this it will be different because the people will be different. It will be customized to the group. Besides the three 2-hour sessions you will have a one hour individual session with me and email communication. I think you will enjoy this process.

Journey Through the Chakras is an expansion of Wendy’s half day workshop on Nia and the Chakras. Together we have created a new experience for you that incorporates sound, colour and other chakra balancing exercises. I know it will be excellent because Wendy is superb and I simply love her Nia classes as well as anything else I have done with Wendy. I will have more details on the web site in early March. Keep checking. Come and give it a try.

Individual Sessions:
Yes I do see individuals and I will be writing more about this in the next issue. Please call if you would like to set up an appointment or just inquire about what an individual session is like.

This Month’s Message

I would like to begin at the beginning — by sharing with you some basic concepts about Holistic Wellness. I enjoy working with metaphors and find it a valuable activity in the retreats and workshops I lead. Metaphors offer you a way to examine different aspects of your life in a more abstract way. We are fortunate to have the ability to use our minds this way as it gives us the opportunity to explore possibilities and then apply them in a more concrete way in our day to day lives.

One way of describing we humans as holistic beings is through the metaphor of an orchestra. I hope you will follow me through with this metaphor and see how it offers you new ways to visualize yourself, and how you work with your own wellness plan.

Although an orchestra is comprised of many parts, an orchestra is more than the sum of its parts. While you can take any instrument and study it thoroughly, even play it at its best, when it all comes together as an orchestra it is something far grander than each individual instrument. I say this with all due respect for the incredible value of each individual piece. The instruments are much like each part of our anatomy and physiology which we hold with deep appreciation.

Notice when you listen to an orchestra how you can pick out most of the individual instruments. Yet something different is created in the coming together of all the instruments. The blending of sounds, the harmony of tones, the rhythm and fluctuations of intensity are filled with expression and reflect uniqueness and emotion. The vibrations of the orchestra create a musical masterpiece. Just like you.

The vibrations of the orchestral masterpiece resonate with all that is around them. The audience is influenced by the music and the music is influenced by the audience. There is a sense of connection which I am sure you have felt when you are moved by a particular piece you hear.

The metaphor of the orchestra is one that can be expanded in many ways. But first let me explain how and why this metaphor is so important in your consideration of holistic wellness. The concept of holistic is about the vibrations that make up our being. Just as a cardiogram picks up the wave pattern of your heart and an electroencephalogram picks up the wave pattern in your brain, so there are new ways being developed to pick up the wave patterns that exist throughout your body. The metaphor of the orchestra helps you understand how you as a unitary human being are much like an orchestra.

The metaphor I use comes to mind for me as I study the Holistic Nursing Specialization Program through the Canadian Holistic Nurses Association which is an interest group of the Canadian Nurses Association. The nursing theory of the unitary human is the basis of the work of Martha Rogers, an American PhD Nurse who was well beyond her time in her understanding of this concept.

The orchestra is influenced by more than just the audience. It is affected by many environmental factors as well. For example humidity, acoustics, space, and receptivity are all environmental factors that affect the quality of sound that arises from the orchestra. The potential of the orchestra may be far greater that the music that is actually transmitted.

I invite you to think of yourself as an orchestra, a beautiful blend of musical instruments that has the ability to be sacred music that inspires others, creates a wonderful space around you and expresses well the feeling of the music you choose to live out in your life. In the metaphor of the orchestra, you are all parts of it: the instruments, the conductor, and the music being played — the body, the mind and the spirit. The wellness of each aspect affects and is affected by the other.

As a person seeking ways to be more healthy, there are many options. Perhaps you experience a joint replacement or a triple heart by-pass, or a chiropractic adjustment, or massage therapy or acupuncture, or herbal remedies or antibiotics, or chakra balancing, or….or…. while any one of these things can be very helpful in bringing you back into balance at that moment, the essential component to staying that way is to keep all parts of who you are in balance including the environment, your lifestyle, your life situation, your emotional expression and work.. Tuning instruments is a continual process. As is working with the environment in which the orchestra plays, working with the audience, and practicing. I think you are seeing the similarities.

Holistic wellness is about how you approach the challenges you face, acknowledging and working with all aspects of whom you are. The following paragraphs are examples of how you can apply this concept in daily life.

What You Think is Important

Your thoughts are far more powerful that you may realize. Many people have been talking about the Law of Attraction and how what you think is attracting things to you. There are two important pieces to this information that I would like to clarify so that you can make better use of this concept.

First of all there may be a tendency to self blame which is not a healthy perspective. In no way is it healthy to get caught up in a martyr or victim mentality. It is an old and linear way of thinking. Let us assume that we don’t know why there are negative events in our lives. What is most important is to focus on how you can feel more empowered to make the changes you would like to make. By empowered, I mean that you feel in charge of it. I hesitate to use overused and misused words like “empowered”. Nevertheless, empowerment is an important part of wellness. Empowered is a power that comes from within and works with others in a “power with” as opposed to “power over” way of thinking.

Secondly, most of your thoughts are subconscious. It is only by becoming aware of the thoughts in your subconscious and adding thoughts to it through repetition and practice that you can actually make these changes. Then the Law of Attraction can work for you. Let me give an example of this. Most of our driving skills and our driving routes are subconscious thoughts turned into actions. Surely you have experienced driving down the highway and not remembering if you have passed a certain small town. Your conscious mind was somewhere else.

A couple of months ago I wanted to change my usual route into town because I wanted to reduce the number of traffic lights that held me up. I left my home with this consciously in mind. My mind wandered as I drove passed the first few corners but I brought it back to consciousness just before the last corner that would take me to the stop sign where I would go straight instead of my usual left turn. Then my mind wandered again and I didn’t bring it back to consciousness until I was well on my way to the first of many traffic lights on my usual route instead of making that change to go straight. Most of our actions are initiated and managed by our subconscious mind. My subconscious mind took me on its usual route.

Working with your thoughts to make changes in your life is a very valuable activity and takes practice. It is not easy. If it were, we would all be slim, healthy, wealthy and have excellent relationships with all friends and family members. That is what we want. It is the programming that exists in your subconscious that keeps you from making these things happen. It is well worth the work to attend to those thoughts and beliefs.

When you hear a musical piece being played you pick up the melody first but what really makes the piece full and well is the music that supports and harmonizes with the music, and the passion or emotions expressed by the combination of all of it. As well as being aware of the melody, notice the often subtle but very effective background music in your mind. Those are the thoughts that mean the most when we say that what you think is what you get.

Balance Body-Mind-Spirit

I recently attended a short seminar by a Buddhist Psychotherapist, Dr. Karmen Guevara, in Antigua Guatemala. There are important things to be gleaned from her explanation of balance and wholeness of body mind and spirit. I have integrated it into what you read below.

It is important to think of the healthy integration of body mind and spirit. Notice that I present them as aspects of our whole self; they are not separate parts. Keep this in mind as I describe Doctor Guavara’s noteworthy examples of how you can recognize imbalances in these aspects.

Balancing the Mind

Likely you value your mind significantly! In the busy work world of western culture, the mind is the playground for the ego. Like me, you likely spent many years developing your mind and believing that its over-activity was actually a sign of some kind of high intelligence and superiority. Overindulgence in mind work does not serve you as well as you might think. The mind is valuable but it needs to be treasured and not over extended.

You will know when you are out of balance in your mind when you can’t quiet it down. While going for a walk, entertaining guests, or even vacationing on a canoe trip, your mind can be continually bombarded with thoughts focused on the past or the future. Thoughts that are continuous and feed on each other appear as higher intelligence. Paradoxically in that situation you are out of balance. This means that your ego is dominating and your mind is not being used well. Likely your body and spirit are given little attention.

It takes practice to continually bring yourself back to the moment. That is the practice needed to help balance the mind. Being present in the moment is not only an effective form of stress management, it is also a way to be more productive with the work you do and more connected to those you love.

Balancing the Body

Your body can also be out of balance. You know when you are out of balance in your body because it tells you so; are you listening to it? What is the discomfort you are feeling? Where is it located? What is it about? The body is the holder of unprocessed emotions as well as all the other “stuff” you put into it: junk foods, noise, and visual traumas. It also holds your past memories in your cells.

Your body has the ability to heal itself. Sometimes, you get in the way. Look what happens when you cut your finger. Watch it heal. All you do is perhaps apply a little Polysporin and a Band-Aid. The body knows exactly what to do to heal but often we do not offer it the best environment to do so.

Keeping the body in balance is about treating it well in relation to what you put into it, how you encourage movement, how you offer it times for rest and relaxation to rebalance, how you deal with your emotions, how you listen to the discomfort it tells you about and how you respond to what it tells you.

Balancing the Spirit

You know that you are out of balance in spirit when you get lost in forgetfulness, with a busy busy busy life. You don’t feel you are being true to yourself, or you feel unconnected. Perhaps you forget to be in the moment. You know how some days you forget to be present with those you love. Spirit knows your life journey and encourages you on that path. You can balance your spirit by connecting with others, by experiencing love and living from your heart, by remembering to ask for guidance from whatever source of power you know exists beyond yourself. You can balance spirit by accepting your strengths as well as your vulnerabilities. You can balance Spirit by learning to live as a Human Being rather than a Human Doing.

In conclusion
Wellness is about loving all aspects of who you are. Consciously make a change in your life by paying attention. Simply notice and return to the balanced path whenever you feel the imbalance.

Tips for March

  1. Make a daily commitment to yourself to pay attention to the music you are playing, the melody as well as the background music.
  2. Know that you can choose the the type of music you play. You are in charge. Live the music that wants to be played.
  3. Listen to your inner wisdom. It is telling you what you need most. Follow its wisdom.

It has been a pleasure connecting with you. Please feel free to comment on this issue of Tips and Notes. I would be very interested in hearing from you.

If you enjoyed reading this, please send it on to others. Invite them to subscribe also.

If you are reading this off my web site, you may wish to consider having it sent to your email every month.

Enjoy the beauty in all that surrounds you,

Marie

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