October 2020 Blog - the Theme is "Finding Balance"

Finding Balance in an Unbalanced World

At this time of year we honor the gifts the earth has given us and we celebrate my favorite Holiday – Halloween.  Halloween in the old tradition was called Samhain – a Gaelic festival marking the end of the harvest season and beginning of winter.

All around us now nature shows us the cycle of death and rebirth.  It is a time of great transition where the light wanes and the temperatures drop. October is a time for clearing away the old unnecessary things or habits that no longer serve us.  We set the intention during October that winter will come and go with the least negative effects. For our ancestors this was quite a serious process that included storing food from their harvests.  

October 1st starts with a Full Moon – known as the Harvest Moon.   This October 1st full moon offers us an opportunity to find balance.  Balance between the internal life and the external life.  Time alone and time with others (even if that time with others is on a screen!).  This moon also invites us to be in gratitude for all the things we are truly grateful for in our lives. The full moon is where we pull our theme from this month. The full title for this month’s theme that came to me is “Finding Balance in an Unbalanced World”. Interestingly October also ends with a Full Moon on October 31st (Halloween) which is quite rare. That 10/31 Full Moon is the Halloween Blue Moon. A full moon on Halloween has not been visible across all U.S. time zones since 1944, according to the Farmers' Almanac.

Autumn stream by scott harrison

“You must enter into the silences between the leaves” John Moffit, the Living Seed

Like many of you, I am seeking information and thoughts from other humans on the Coronavirus or COVID19 pandemic.  One person who I found interesting in his view on COVID was Gregg Braden. For those of you who might be unfamiliar with Mr. Braden he is a scientist, educator and author.  I found his thoughts to be worthy of sharing with all of you.  It is a different way to view the pandemic and our immune systems.

Mr. Braden says “humans are made to adapt and thrive in contagion conditions and we will have that happen again. There is new proof that consciousness informs itself through its creations. We are capable of so much more than we are lead to believe. Our blood and neurons and membranes are so much more intelligent than we ever knew. When we love ourselves enough to give ourselves what we need. Like good nutrition, adequate sleep, movement, body work and meditation - everything that honors our relationship - then we thrive. Not just survive - but thrive - even in a pandemic. Our immune system is determining how we survive in COVID19 and sound is a powerful part of that. Words, language, music and what you consume. What you consume on every level - food, movement, media. We transcend the great challenges of our time when we are deeply reconnected to our humanness. How precious is our humanness in the presence of the unknown?” If you wish to learn more: https://www.greggbraden.com/

Our bodies can be challenged this month as it tries to assimilate all the changes in frequency hitting our planet. It will take some discipline and a great deal of compassion and patience and you can begin by looking at how you support your physical body and what you can do to increase that support. Rose Healing is here to help through either virtual or in person sessions.  

Some other ideas for how you can honor this autumn.  Take a meditative walk in nature observing the beauty of the colored leaves and how easily the tree let go of the leaves. Consider continuing this theme in your life by going through your closets and giving away that which you no longer need or use.  This exercise of clearing away things from our household also encourages a “clearing away” on other levels. Try to become aware of a bigger picture, be in tune with the cycles that are occurring all around you.   Once we get in touch with our inner selves we are better able to navigate the world of change which is all around us. 

Rose Healing Center is open for individual in person sessions and continues to offer virtual sessions.  At this time we are not holding any events in our space.  We will continue to keep you updated.  Wishing you all health, happiness and balance in your month ahead.

September 2020 Blog - Theme is "Integration"

Photo by Jose Rios

In the month of September we begin to integrate all that has 2020 has brought us so far and that is a great deal of change.   As we begin to try to assimilate all of this, I would like to remind you to be gentle with yourself. There is no playbook or one size fits all solutions to the challenges of this year.  The journey is both collective AND individual.

“Give light, and the darkness will disappear of itself.”

— Desiderius Erasmus

September is the month of the Autumn Equinox - this year it falls on 9/22/20. The word “equinox” comes from Latin aequus, meaning “equal,” and nox, “night.” On the equinox, day and night are roughly equal in terms of length. During the equinox, the Sun crosses what we call the “celestial equator”—an imaginary extension into space of Earth’s equator line. The equinox occurs precisely when the Sun’s center passes through this line. When the Sun crosses the equator from north to south, this marks the autumnal equinox; when it crosses from south to north, this marks the vernal equinox.  Source: Farmer’s Almanac

September is the month we honor those who lost their lives on 9/11/01.  Like everything else in 2020, this year the remembrance will be different. But thanks to the incredible “Tunnel to Towers Foundation” the tribute in lights WILL illuminate the sky in lower Manhattan on 9/11 as they have for many years now.  Many other aspects of this annual ceremony will move virtual. Just another thing that is “different this year”. If you are not familiar with the amazing charity, I encourage you to learn more by visiting their website: https://tunnel2towers.org/

For the past several years, my friend and I have travelled to Omega in Rhinebeck NY at the beginning of September to participate in their Ecstatic Chant weekend. It has become a bit of a tradition for us.   We love seeing Deva Premal and Krishna Das in particular.  Alas, like everything else in 2020 – we need to pivot to something else or at least modify our expectations. I find myself a bit sad to not be experiencing the power and energy of being together in a crowd singing with such incredible kirtan masters.  

Chanting is a spiritual practice known in Sanskrit as kirtan. Devotional chanting awakens a longing in the heart for the experience of inner silence, boundless love, and intimate union with the divine. Emerging from Hindu traditions in India, kirtan is practiced by millions of people. The call-and-response, rhythmic quality of these unifying chants kindles an exhilarating, joyful mood and is accepted as one of the surest paths to enlightenment. In recent years, pioneering musicians and seekers have brought this magical tradition to the West. Source: Deva Premal

So in keeping with the theme that normally I would have started my September with devotional chanting, I share here some of the insights of Krishna Das also known by the nickname “KD”. These insights of his really resonated with me during this time:

KD has said “You can’t think yourself out of a prison that is made of thought.    Every fear and emotion we cling to IS the prison. We can train ourselves to Let Go.  He notes that letting go is different than pushing away.   Getting in contact with ourselves is what this time is all about. Beyond anxiety, beyond fear, shame, guilt selfishness. Our job is to pay attention – to remember who we are.  It is not easy. You have to practice.  If you want to be the best instrument you must practice to open ourselves to that space in us.”   

So well said KD.  We have to practice our spiritual connection like we would practice an instrument.  Certainly 2020 is teaching us this and more! I am so happy to annoucne that Rose Healing Center is Open for in-person private practice starting 9/1/20.  When you return to our healing space, there will be new changes and ways we are utilizing to keep you and others safe. We will continue to offer online remote session for those who prefer not to visit Rose Healing Center in person.  Our full plan for reopening to physical is available on the website. I very much look forward to welcoming you to the physical space again 🙏

August 2020 Blog - The Theme is Reconnection

During this volatile summer of 2020 are you finding new ways to embrace wellness and reconnect with your soul?  Perhaps the coronavirus is the biggest invitation we have received in our lifetime to become deeply aware of what it means to be human.  Maybe COVID19 is that and so much more. The experience of this pandemic has sharply drawn for us a picture that we are ALL connected. Everywhere, throughout the world.   The familiar statement – we are all one - is more crystal clear than perhaps ever before. Humans, spirit and earth are all completely connected. We are not just living on the planet – we are part of the planet and part of each other.

“We are finally acknowledging that a relationship with spirit, the earth and each other based on domination instead of collaboration is not healthy. ”

— Christiane Northrup, M.D.

For me this Pandemic has been a giant invitation to do the work of going within and listening to that inner voice that guides us.  Taking time to look up at the sky and reconnect.  Reconnecting with the earth and sky is not something we can just talk about – we have to experience it. Connecting with nature is an absolute requirement for health.   I had the good fortune to be able to do that recently in the Adirondack Mountains.  Being in nature, stargazing, walking in the woods, swimming in lakes and generally communing with nature and spirit.  It was magical.

“Those with eyes and awareness to see will recognize this moment in time as a powerful opportunity that holds an energetic message. As in most transformational life situations, it guides us to look deeper for our true power. ”

— Michael Beckwith

The energy of August will be a time to go WITHIN - tune into YOUR OWN inner compass and trust in your own wisdom - no matter what's happening outside of you.   We are here to help if you have no idea how to do that.    

I gave myself permission to relax, to go within and really listen to what it is my soul was trying to tell me. It was an invitation for me to look deeper for my own true power to help others. This helped me to gain clarity about how to move forward with Rose Healing Center.

Barring any new developments, I have decided that I will reopen Rose Healing Center to physical clients starting on September 1st, 2020 with some caveats*.   I very much look forward to welcoming you to the physical space again or if you have not yet had the chance to visit Rose Healing, I look forward to showing it to you.  Online booking is available now for in-person visits starting in September.

Over the next month we will continue to do deep cleaning and preparation for the return to in-person sessions.  Coronavirus is still in our communities and is still contagious.  So we will continue to offer our virtual sessions to anyone who prefers that over coming to our physical location.

Rose Healing Center to Re-Open for in-person private practice starting 9/1/20.  When you return to our healing space, there will be new changes and ways we are utilizing to keep you and others safe. We will continue to offer online remote session for those who prefer not to visit Rose Healing Center in person.  Our full plan for reopening to physical is available on the website. 🙏

Finally my friend and Yoga teacher Kellen Knight recently shared these videos that I hope give you some peace.  These are Kellen’s words: “Know that you are not alone and that it's important to allow yourself to feel exactly how you feel and let it move through you. I always think, "If I don't sit with it now, it'll come back and I'll have to sit with it then!" If possible, give yourself some space to sit with how you feel. Truly sit. A previously recorded meditation that might be supportive in helping quell anxiety or the feeling of frenzy is the naming to ground (part 1 or 2). Here is part 1: https://youtu.be/ozTD0LDsh6U  Here is part 2:  https://youtu.be/KDRps7ScQsA

July 2020 Blog - Theme "Persistence"

Years ago when I first started training in Craniosacral Therapy one of my instructors gave a powerful piece of advice.  She said, “Get comfortable with being uncomfortable”.  It was a message that struck me deeply and one that I continue to live by and one that I regularly share with my clients. 

Being comfortable with being uncomfortable certainly seems to resonate in 2020.  We have just passed the ½ way point in the year and to-date we have been given many challenges, a global pandemic, the continued fight against racism and the right for equal rights for our LGBTQ community to name just a few.  In addition there are murder hornets, Saharan dust storms and a year filled with 6 lunar and solar eclipses.   One can only wonder what the 2nd half of 2020 has in store for us!  

But often just at moment you think you cannot take anything more, you get a message of hope.  For me (amusing as it this may sound) is the message to just keep swimming (or moving forward). The “just keep swimming” thing is a reference to a Disney movie called “Finding Nemo” for those of you who may not know.

I love Ellen DeGeneres playing Dory and singing that song.  It truly is about persistence so the message I have for you dear friends, is how can continue to persist, together. Even through the incredible hard stuff that comes with changing the world.   How can we help each other get through this historic year of change and turbulence?   There is always one small action you can take to move ahead or help another person. And you are always guided and supported by the greatest resource you could ever need, your Soul to help you figure it out.

July is also the month that we celebrate our Independence Day in the USA.  I cannot help but think about the time of our country’s founding and all that revolution brought to us. This quote from John Adams seems appropriate for this year.

The reality is that change is uncomfortable. So rather than fighting it, learning to embrace it, going with the flow, and surrendering to the journey of your life will make things a little less stressful.  Rose Healing Center is here to help. All of our offerings are virtual. See our COVID19 update page for more information. To schedule a virtual session.

For those who might want to see the upcoming Lunar Eclipse. The eclipse will start Saturday, July 4 at 11:07 P.M. EDT and continue until Sunday, July 5 at 1:52 A.M. EDT. The best time to view the event here in the northeast will be around 12:30 A.M.

Please know I am sending you all energy of health and abundance. Stay Safe. Stay Well. Make Good Choices. Rosemary

June 2020 Blog - Discernment

Adirondack Sunset by my friend AND PHOTOGRAPHER John Filangeri

A heartfelt thank you to all my clients who have chosen to use my services virtually.  Your patience, understanding and support during this extraordinary time of COVID has meant the world to me.  It has been a challenging and rewarding experience to offer my services online and several of you have expressed a desire to continue virtually even when in-person appointments are able to resume.

As I write this piece on Memorial Day, New York State has announced that the Mid Hudson Valley Region (where Rose Healing is located) has reached the criteria for Phase 1 “Un-Pause”.    However it remains unclear when businesses and services such as mine will be permitted to see clients in person again. To that end we have continue to extend the temporary closure of Rose Healing. All our appointments are available online.

My theme for this month is Discernment.  It will be an interesting few weeks ahead energetically and otherwise.  Just as each of us had our own experience of the COVID lock-down, so too we shall each have our own experience of the “return to the new normal” or the “UN-Pause”. In March I created a post that said “Flatten the Curve - Choose Peace over Panic”.  For June’s blog I created “Time to Flatten the Fear”.    We are going to each be challenged to choose what makes us feel safe in the new Post-COVID19 environment.

On a spiritual level the COVID19 experience is a profound invitation from the Universe to use this giant “time-out” and re-evaluate where we were and where we want to go.  To simply “return to normal” would imply we may have missed the message of this pandemic.

Perhaps we are being invited to turn our focus inward. To stop being that person who chooses to quickly point out on social media or elsewhere how someone’s opinion, if different than ours, is wrong.  We are being shown clearly that attitude is wrong. Learn to appreciate that everyone has a point of view and their own unique perspective.  The experience of living in a Post-COVID environment invites us to change the narrative and start with ourselves. Less Judgement, More Compassion, More Dialogue, More Understanding and of course ultimately More Love.

Rather than defeating us, this Pandemic has drawn us together in ways we could have never imagined.  While the news media seems to almost exclusively focus on the negative, there is so much positive.  Relationships have been strengthened within households, school systems, neighborhoods, States and even the entire Country.  How amazed I remain at the selflessness of the hundreds of medical personnel who volunteered to come to New York from the relative safety of their homes in other States!  We are far more united as a people than the media wants us to believe. It is June people…..time to step away from the TV, Social Media, Computer Screens and GO OUTSIDE.

I recently witnessed in my community something that reminded me of my childhood from the 1960’s and 1970’s.    Kids running towards the ice cream truck with neighbors coming out of the houses to gather (socially distanced 6 feet apart) and share a smile and an ice cream. There is a simple joy and quaintness that we had lost touch with prior to this Pandemic.  We have been forced to return to a simpler way of being.  Cooking dinner every night, connecting with our neighbors, going for a walk and in general just being closer to home.   There are so many memories being made now in this unique time – many of them positive. I wonder if I have written enough about the pandemic and the surreal parts of it in my journal. How can I capture the feeling of these past 10 weeks. I felt the same way after 9/11.  Because like all major events, with the passage of time, some of the intensity of the experience will ease from our memory.  But just like all major historic events, we will be forever changed.

In the following weeks I anticipate the misinformation, manipulation and judgements will continue to come at us at an alarming pace and from a variety of sources. We have to DISCERN what we will listen to and how, and if, we will allow it to affect our decisions.  That is a personal journey.  Each of us will go on it alone and yet together. Choose Kindness towards each other as we each figure out the new environment.    Think about how this pandemic forced us to recognize what was working in our life and what was not and how there is a new way forward.  If we can choose it. Ponder how we can be a better friend, spouse, co-worker, parent and American as we move forward together in peace, love and kindness.    

Rose Healing Center is to help (virtual sessions, phone sessions). Did you remember to download our free guided meditations with the crystal harp? Thank you for reading this blog.  Much love and gratitude for our journey together. Rosemary

May 2020 Blog - Patience

Even as the word patience comes to me as the theme for this month I can feel myself push against it. For those of us living in NY on May 1st we will be entering our 8th week (or 2 months) under a COVID State of Emergency and if the plan holds then the Governor’s NY ON PAUSE order which started 3/22/20 will end on 5/15/20 in phases by region.    But what then?

I find myself starting to become weary of all the trite words that are supposed to help us cope.  “This too shall pass; We will get through this; Now more than ever; Stay Positive, Stay Well”.  The “Now more than ever”is particularly annoying to me. I am not sure why except I see it in ads everywhere.

There is no instruction manual on how to feel at a time like this.  This is so stressful for everyone. Each person is having their own unique experience of COVID – whether we are sheltering in place, working from home or out the in the world every day as an essential service working harder than ever before. Everything feels as if we are in an alternative universe like a video game or a bad movie where we are waiting for it to end so we can return to life as we knew it.  But each day that passes, I am beginning to understand that life as we knew it will not be returning anytime soon, if ever.   

That is a hard thing for a person to process.  The strangeness of having the world be one experience one day and a completely different experience the next.  To go from a vibrant and healthy economy where there were more jobs than people seeking them to over 15% US unemployment in such a short period of time is – stunning.    Each day can feel like Ground Hog day (the movie) except far more horrible.  To watch the awful heart-wrenching numbers of sick and dying, the ever present charts and graphs - hospitalizations, deaths and new infections by country, state, region.  As I write this, today’s COVID numbers show over 1.4 million cases in the US with over 59,000 deaths but the good news is that the curve has flattened.

The waves of emotions that flow arrive often at unexpected moments – not necessarily when I am thinking about the heartache and bravery happening in our hospitals and nursing homes.  But also the grief of so many people so many places. Several of my clients are in the healthcare industry.  On the rare moments we can connect, I can feel the energy of exhaustion and grief in them.  I try to help offering words of encouragement, energy healing and reminding them of the deep gratitude so many feel for what they are doing every day.

In searching for a quote for the moment, I came across this from the Tibetan Buddhist Nun, Pema Chodron.  

“How are we going to spend this brief lifetime? Are we going to strengthen our well-perfected ability to struggle against uncertainty or are we going to train in letting go? Are we going to hold on stubbornly to ‘I am like this and you are like that’?  Or are we going to move beyond the narrow mind? Could we start to train as a warrior, aspiring to reconnect with the natural flexibility of our being and to help others do the same? If we start to move in this direction, limitless possibilities will begin to open up”.  Pema Chodron

There are times during these past few weeks that I have allowed myself to reminisce of what used to be simple pleasures like visiting with our family and friends, eating out at our favorite restaurant, experiencing live music or sports, going to a Broadway play, visiting the beach or mountains or really travelling anywhere.  More profound for me is the longing I feel for bodywork and touch.  But there is no massage, no reflexology, and no therapeutic touch.   At least not yet. Will these “simple pleasures” return? I do not know but I remain hopeful.  I cannot bear to think of a world where people cannot freely gather to celebrate, touch, grieve or pray together.  That is what America is all about or at least it used to be.  

Over the past few weeks, I have been in contact with several old acquaintances who own small businesses.  One runs a gym, another a restaurant, another an educational consulting firm.  Each of them has put everything into their businesses.  Their passion, blood, sweat, tears, money, and love, only to see it literally disappear in one day.  Like so many small business owners they have had to let their staff go.  Like all of us, they now sit in a vast ocean of the unknown waiting for what the new normal will look like. But here is the amazing part – they aren’t just waiting.  Each of them have pivoted – almost instantly to serving during our COVID crisis.  The restaurant owner is serving meals to the unemployed (including his own staff) and supplying local food pantries, the gym owner has offered his services online at a reduced cost, and the educational consulting firm is now offering virtual services to support educators in their online teaching efforts.  While this is amazing, they each wonder when they can “return” to what used to be.    

In the meantime, all of us are truly being invited during this time of COVID to connect with a higher vibration.  The vibration of love.    Of what it really means to be connected to each other while we are not able to be physically connected.  To that end I have also pivoted my Rose Healing Center work.  On 3/18/20 we closed our physical location to seeing clients in person.   I did not understand at that time that this “temporary closure” might end by being for months on end but it appears that due to a variety factors including my location in Northern Westchester, NY that hands-on services will be one of the last to return in New York State.     It is my preference to see my clients in person vs. virtually. But like so many business owners, I have had to pivot.  As I type that I cannot help but think of the Friends episode where they are trying to carry the couch upstairs.  So that is what we all are doing – learning to do things differently. PIVOT!

Rose Healing Center is to help (virtual sessions, phone sessions) available at reduced costs if necessary.  Did you remember to download our free guided meditations with the crystal harp?    I am continuing to work on new ways to connect with you all, specifically with my sound healings with the crystal harp.  Finally, bringing it full circle, I would like to remind you all that yes all those trite sayings are true and they do actually offer us hope.

This Too Shall Pass; We will get through this; Stay Positive, Stay Well and perhaps most importantly,

LOVE WINS always.   

Thank you for reading this blog.  I wish you and your loved ones safe passage through this difficult period.  Please take care, stay positive and find time to be in the sunshine breathing fresh air, having fun and smiling. It is challenging operating under the current restrictions; however, I am confident we will get through this, together. Much love and gratitude for our journey together. Rosemary