#love teaching love students but this group in particular is driving me CRAZY

[casuallyhollering]

I am never teaching a zoom class ever again omfg it's just not worth it. Either in-person or fully asynchronous, but never ever zoom

[hiswhiteknight]

Fighting with Fire – Part 3

Summary:  The Reader is friends with Erin Reagan, but absolutely hates one of her brother’s. After meeting Erin for a case, Reader meets Erin’s youngest brother. But due to her hatred of a certain Reagan, the Reader isn’t necessarily warm towards the youngest Reagan.

Pairing: Jamie Reagan X Fire Fighter Reader

Words: 1700

Warning: This chapter focuses around learning attack strategy, please be cautious if this can be difficult. I recommend watching Chelsea Kyann tutorials about self-defense. Also some cursing, eventual angst, eventual fluff

As much as it displeased you, it was nice to have a male volunteer. It was usually one of your brothers or one of the guys from the station. Usually they are pretty distracting for the ladies at first, but it was able to show them potential real-life scenarios. However, it did feel strange bossing a Reagan around. Eddie, Jamie, and a friend who was a fighting instructor for jujitsu named Chloe.

Chloe walked up to you, leaning in, “Well this is new, what a snack.”

You and her watched Eddie and Jamie chatted with a few regulars. You could tell it meant a lot to them both to build rapport with the community. It felt strange to not see a Reagan male not take up so much space and give off an ego, testosterone driven vibe. If his brother were in this space, he would show the woman he is a strong powerful male, who will protect and avenge their justice. Jamie vibe was a bit different and you couldn’t necessarily map it, which bothered the shit of you. Acknowledging Chloe’s statement, you made a vomiting sound in your mouth, “Get your mind out of the gutter.”

She looked at you strangely, straightening up and turning to look directly at you, “Something weird is going on.” She looked at you closer, Chloe had a psychology degree and loves to add her own analyses to things. Usually she only uses it to counselor some women after a bad trigger or if they want to open about a past trauma. Before she can pick your brain or poke you, you clap your hands heading towards the crew.

This caught Jamie’s reaction, as you ignored the mischievous look your friend is giving from behind you. He turned his body to face you, “What do you need boss?”

You shook you head, “Don’t call me that,” you point at him. You spend the time to give the group of women a greeting before directing instructions towards the pair, “So Eddie, I’d love for you to help pair women up and volunteer to be someone’s partner. Chloe usually floats because she is the true expert when it comes to fighting techniques.”

“Sounds great,” Eddie nodded.

Clearing your throat, you look at Jamie, “I don’t think I have to tell you, but most women in these classes had some bad experience with a man.” He nodded his head slightly, still listening, “I don’t let men come to this particular class to learn for a reason. Though usually a guy plays an especially important role in this class.”

Jamie looked excited, rubbing his hands together, “What is it?”

“My dummy,” you smirk. Eddie chuckled into her hand, trying to make it sound like a cough. You took a second to think about your feelings, a glow of satisfaction to be able to kick the crap of a Reagan and nervousness, though you couldn’t pin point why, “That’s not a problem is it?”

He shook his head, “Use me any way you need,” he tried not to smirk.

You look him up and down, looking unamused by his comment, “Stay hydrated, I don’t need you passing out,” you said walking away to prep your resources and workspace.

Eddie tapped him on the chest, “Real smooth Romeo.”

He looked down at her, before glancing back towards you, “I think I got a chance.”

Straightening up to look at him directly, she wore an amused look at her face, “That woman is going to eat you alive.”

 You had all the women pair up and explained the boundaries and expectations of the class, like not pushing themselves and taking a break if they feel overwhelmed or exhausted. It’s a rousing speech about the realities of being a woman and how to be a community. You introduced your volunteers before instructing each of them to discuss their comfortability level with their partners, as well a little about themselves. This gave you time to look at Jamie to explain some of the movies and what he should do, “You got to make it real,” you say to him. “Don’t be gentle, don’t hold back, the best these women can learn is if they see what it’ll possibly look like in real life if it happens.”

“If I were to hold back, it would be because I know you can kick my ass,” he whispered down to you, “But I get your point.” He looked around to the women talking, “You did quite a thing here, I wish we had a program like this.”

You blinked a few times, looking taken back. You never anticipated hearing something nice from a Reagan, well at least a young Reagan, “Thank you.” You instructed the women to wrap it up to start the officially lesson.

Jamie noticed how you got flustered after his compliment. He decided to break whatever tension you were feeling, “Should we have like a safe word?”

You smirk, not looking at him, “Just tap out Reagan, give me a few taps.”

 You hated to say it, but Jamie was a great asset. As you taught the class about getting attacked in different scenarios, from the front, the back, with a weapon, etc, he was patient with you tossing him around and hurting him in various ways. He and Eddie were able to add some insight from the police perspective. And he was extremely good at complimenting and empowering the woman. Honestly, outside of enjoying beating up on a Reagan, he was a great member of the team.

This was the last exercise of the day, where the attack gets them on the ground. This was the first time Jamie seemed hesitant, “Well let’s go dummy,” a few woman chuckle.

Taking a deep breath, Jamie gets on top of you and you start your instructions, like how to use your legs, how to protect your body, different ways to use your own weight as your weapon. Your favorite instruction dealt with using the attacker’s shirt as your weapon. It didn’t have to do with as much strength as it was strategy. Jamie rapidly tap at your waist, you let go and bounced up before instructing the pairs to try. Jamie finally caught his breath stepping up to you, “I wish Danny knew who scary you were.”

You let a laugh leave your mouth while watching some pairs. You give him one more smile before walking away to give some individual tips.

 After some talking with some of the students and cleaning up, Chloe and Eddie were talking about the next lesson when Jamie approached you, “This was really great, I hope you keep me in mind to help even if I’m a Reagan.”

You look away from the brochures in your hands, “The jury is still out on you, but I’m getting a vibe you are different from your brothers.” You put rest of the stuff in your resource box, “Thank you for your help, you are always welcomed.” Jamie was about to say something, “But don’t think for a second I’m letting my guard down, this might be a ploy from Danny about getting in my head. I’ve got my eyes on you and him.”

He put up his hands defensively, “If that was ever a plan, I would never start something with you after what I learned today.”

You jabbed at him, “And that is just the tip of the iceberg there sparky, spread the word don’t mess with Y/N Y/L/N.”

Shaking his head, fighting this feeling on intrigue he has about you, “I will definitely spread the word of your power to all who can hear, mainly Danny.” You smirk holding your box, waving to Chloe as she headed out, “Look Eddie and I are grabbing a beer, would you want to join us?”

Eddie was casually looking at you both from the stairs. You were taken back for a second, “Oh, I’m sorry. I just got done working a 48-hour shift, I’m dead on my feet. But thank you, like for everything.”

“My pleasure, really and maybe next time,” he started to walk you towards the entrance, meeting up with Eddie, “You wouldn’t want to walk us to our car, would you,” he joked at you.

You genuinely laughed, shaking your head. You plopped your box in you back seat before looking at him. Eddie tried to stop her scoff of his response. He surprised you differently from any other Reagan including his sister and father, “I don’t believe that in necessary, I felt all that muscle you got underneath there,” you point towards his clothing. “Plus, you’ve got Eddie I know she saves you all the time from humiliation, attackers, etc.”

“She’s got that right,” she pointed at you, “Bye Y/N.”

Jamie started to walk backwards in the direction of Eddie, “I’ll see you later Y/N.”

“Take your time,” you smile back at him, “I’ve had my monthly fill of Reagan males.”

You got in your car, starting it up, and driving off. Something was different and you didn’t take the time to acknowledge your physical attraction to the younger Reagan. It was easy to distract your thoughts when teaching self-defense, but now all you could think about was Jamie’s body and how it felt around you.

 Eddie teased Jamie some more about the interaction between the two of you, “Hey man, you’re making waves. This time she didn’t show her teeth and she acknowledged your assets,” she gestured to his body.

He rolled his eyes, “Shut up.” He drank some of his beer, “I’m not crazy right, you see the chemistry?”

“Oh no, you’re crazy,” she commented. “But I do like to watch you try to be charming and epically get torn apart by her,” she added.

He shook his head thinking about you, you had a good feeling and it had nothing to do with hate, “Whatever, I am charming.”

Eddie scoffed before getting distracted by a game on a tv.

Taglist: @screeching-student-unknown

[alchemabotana]

Shamanic Identity

Today I’m taking the time to write this post about something so personal and dear to my heart: Shamanic Identity.

You’ve probably seen it too: people with no right to the word Shaman using it liberally to describe the work they do. I’ve written several other posts about shamanism, its history, and my personal practice here on this blog, but that’s not exactly what I’m writing about today.

The word “appropriation” doesn’t begin to cover this topic, although it is a word that applies to the concepts I’m addressing. The concept of Shamanic Identity is actually not a complicated one at all: a Shaman is an intermediary between the Spirit World and the Physical World, between the multiverse and dimensional realities that are unseen and the seen world. These people do so by simply existing and taking up space. There are Shamanic Practices, Shamanic Techniques, Shamanic Ceremonies, and Shamanic Rituals, but that’s NOT Shamanic Identity. These things are simply words and labels we’ve developed as Shamans to describe categories of actions that we take in the world, not our Identity.

For example, if I stopped offering healings, making medicine pieces or altars, performing rituals or ceremonies... I would still be a Shaman, because that’s who I was born to be. I know Shamans who drive trucks for a living, are maids, trash collectors, incarcerated, or in a mental hospital: but they’re still Shamans. They don’t need to take a special class, tell you their genetic lineage, or practice a specific modality to be a Shaman.

So what has created the Shamanic Identity crisis that is so widespread in this current age? What it boils down to is The Cultural Iceburg. 

The Cultural Iceburg is the concept that what we see when interacting with an individual is not all there is. When people think of Shamanism they associate it with our Customs, Language, and Music. But they mistakenly ignore Values, Priorities, Assumptions, Body Language, Stories, Manners, and Space/Time Concepts of our LIVED EXPERIENCE.

This is why it’s so easy for someone to put on the headdress, get a rattle or drum, and start claiming that they are a Shaman. Why do these people do this? Primarily to gain a position in some social group or setting they’d like to belong to (usually not the cultural group they are appropriating from, but others in their racial/social/socioeconomic/class structure). These individuals are also highly motivated by FINANCIAL GAIN.

I want to take some time to talk about financial gain and Shamanism. I’ll be frank, I don’t know any rich Shamans. I don’t know any Shamans who feel completely comfortable charging a fair price for their services, and I know a lot of Shamans who have gone hungry and homeless because they don’t feel right about charging money. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pay a Shaman the fair price for their work (services or goods). Just as you would pay someone a fair living wage for hours worked, you ought to pay a Shaman for their work. It’s that simple.

But there are many clear examples, unfortunately many of them in my hometown community, of people taking Shaman Schools or Shaman Certifications or Shaman Classes (usually online - not that there aren’t authentic shamanic online courses) in order to claim that they are a Shaman or to show “proof” that they are “qualified” to be a Shaman. I ran into this when a local hospital approached me about coming on board as a Shaman in their clergy. It became very obvious that their department had no real clue what a Shaman does, as they asked for proof of my schooling and accreditation as a Shaman. When I told them I wouldn’t provide those materials because it is not culturally appropriate, they asked me for the names and qualifications of my teachers. My teachers also did not have the qualifications they were looking for, and I REFUSE to play the “show me your identification card” game which is insulting to our elders. 

Are you starting to get the picture?

Shamanism is a complex identity structure. It requires a person to have certain prerequisite gifts. That’s not something you can give a person or teach a person in a course or school. Some will argue that you can transfer gifts, but I will argue that you have to be a Shaman already to receive them. In my experience as a Shaman it has often been necessary to teach other Shamans how to manage their gifts so that they would not be overwhelmed by them. Shamans have to deal with a complex cultural stigma against their very identities: don’t talk to dead people, don’t listen to voices, don’t communicate with spirits, don’t you dare see one or you’ll be labeled insane. If you’re a Shaman of BIPOC origin, just go ahead and layer institutional racism on top of it, and you’re in for a flurry of misunderstanding and bigoted response to your very identity out there in the “real world.” Shamans have to learn to navigate incredible barriers to basic human rights when they take the steps to seek help for mental or physical health issues. Some of those issues have nothing to do with them, except that their care providers are too ignorant on complex cultural matters to be good advocates for their care. This is why the great majority of Shamans that I have taught, studied with, or been in the care of, have tragic stories of healthcare gone wrong & wrongful incarceration/mental institutionalism. I really don’t know a single Shaman who doesn’t struggle with a mental health diagnosis, complex PTSD, or Epigenetic Trauma.

For those of us born of family lineages, we have to navigate Epigenetic Trauma as well. We have to face a healthcare system that was built on experimentation on our ancestors, and overcome major trust issues to receive treatment for conditions that most average citizens of the US suffer from as well: anxiety, depression, PTSD, domestic violence, sexual violence, etc. Except, when a Shaman goes to receive help they have to explain why they see spirits and their whole cosmology before someone takes them seriously around conditions that have nothing to do with their Shamanic Identity. Sometimes Shamans feel they HAVE to be honest about their experiences with these providers, even if it hurts them. They have most likely been abused for their Shamanic Identity, and aren’t so much sharing their experiences to seek help for the woo-woo, but help navigating abuse.

But those without real Shamanic Identities just take off the label Shaman whenever it is convenient. They do not have to bear the burdens of Shamanic Identity, but receive the financial benefits of associating themselves with the term. These are the folks who come to me desperate to associate themselves with me as a student, so they can claim they have met the “requirements” to be a practicing Shaman for their business profile. It’s been incredibly hard for me to navigate this within myself and not respond immediately with rage. Instead, I try to educate people tactfully - some are more responsive than others. For example, I had a student once inquire about my Shamanic Mentorship - a mentorship program I offered pre-pandemic in which I explicitly stated the purpose was to receive mentorship from a Shaman. Nothing more. This particular individual had a yoga studio and wanted to “Add Shamanism” to what they offered. I tried to explain the impossibility of such a venture, especially with me as their token Shaman who would bestow this identity on them, so they could monetize my cultural and identity for their benefit. I never heard from the person again, although they do still own and operate a studio in my hometown, they have taken no actions to support our Shamanic work on any level. My hope is that they realized the futility and ignorance of their request, although I’m certain they had no intention of ever supporting us at all. 

You’ve probably seen this kind of “shamanism” online on instagram posts, influencer pages, and people who are what I call “shamanic curious”. All these individuals have done nothing to truly commit to alleviating the pains and sufferings that they’re causing by appropriating someone’s actual identity. They feel like they have the best intentions: “Omg! No!! ONLY LOVE AND LIGHT SIS!” (eye roll). However, they tend to be completely ignorant to the damage and stress they cause to real Shamans through their selfish actions. “Being curious is ok right? I mean, I have the right to explore my identity through yours and see if it gets me friends, likes, follows, and MONEY, RIGHT?” No. Go home. Think about what you are doing when you try on someone’s identity and put yourself out there as the face of that identity. Would it behoove you to consider that Shamans themselves have had to strenuously defend their identities to others? Would it perhaps be a real act of love and light to give up your curiosities and turn over that experience to an actual Shaman? Have you considered that you cause real physical, spiritual, and mental harm to Shamans, and clients that you take on in your exploration of Shamanic traditions, rituals, and ceremonies?

If you don’t truly have a Shamanic Identity I encourage you to stop what you’ve been practicing right now, sit down, and ask for forgiveness from the Spirits, as well as living Shamans and their Ancestors. I would go to a real Shaman and pay them properly to remove the slew of crazy toxic attachments you’ve definitely been accumulating, and release you from the karmic debt you are certainly incurring. If you can get a job doing anything in the real world sector that doesn’t involve you crawling up into someone’s energy stream, I would suggest you take that job and step out of a sector you know nothing about. It’s amazing to me what people think they can make-up about themselves and others because deep down they also believe that Shamanism is made up. If it’s all made up, then you can do anything you want with no repercussions and still make money off someone else’s identity. And you still think you’re not harming anyone? 

If you’re a Shaman you know that you can’t fake it til you make it. There’s no faking the Spirits, Guides, and Ancestors. There’s no faking a spiritual or psychic attack. There’s no faking the spirit’s communication to you, or their visible presence. And when you go out into the world, no matter what you do, people are going to find you for your Shamanic Identity.

For example, I once worked at a test grading facility one summer marking up EOG exams. While at this job at every break an elderly woman would come up to me and share her stories, always with the caveat “I don’t know why I’m telling you this but...” and then go into a story about how her deceased father was contacting her at her home. He would do so by knocking things off tables and moving things around. I asked her what he thought he was trying to tell her. She eventually concluded that he wanted her to move from her house, but she didn’t feel ready for that. I suggested that she tell him this next time he made his presence known. Next time we talked she shared that she had spoken with him and that the incidents then stopped. After that she didn’t come up to me to talk, and someone new started talking to me. My boss brought me photographs from her time in AZ as a young woman, depicting petroglyphs that matched my shamanic tattoos. She said “you know that means you’re a shaman right?” I laughed and nodded. At one point everyone in my grading group was feeling very ill, one of the proctor overlords had decided to crank up the AC and everyone was freezing cold. I brought everyone blankets and stones. One gentleman later asked me what the stone meant. I told him, “it’s a piece of quartz, it doesn’t have to mean anything, it can just be beautiful”. He said “No, I mean - they mean something. I know this sounds crazy, but some really bad stuff was going on with my family: financial and health problems. But when I brought that stone home, everything changed immediately. I need you to know that.” I acknowledge him and told him yes, this can happen - the stones heal who they want to, that’s just part of our understanding of them, but we don’t expect others to believe the same way. He said “I don’t need convincing, I experienced it myself”.

No one article can even begin to truly communicate the issues surrounding the theft, appropriation, and misrepresentation of Shamanism in our world, let alone the internet. I mean, the Q Anon guy called himself a Shaman too and the media just ate it up. Why? Because it is exotic and ignorance makes for good press, and good press makes for money. 

And I don’t write this to depress or discourage anyone, especially others out there with a Shamanic Identity. Instead, I hope that this encourages you and helps you advocate for yourself in this crazy world. I hope you stand up for yourself to people trying to take advantage of you, especially people in the medical field. I don’t believe that our medical field is based on true healing practices, and I can’t really get into that rant here, but I also don’t believe our doctors mean to be “bad people” or wallow in ignorance: they’re just products of their own cultural issues as well! 

However, if you’re a Shaman struggling to receive mental or physical healthcare because someone in your family or caregiver team is purposefully using your Shamanic Identity to paint you as crazy, please feel free to show them this article and demand that they use DSM-5 to evaluate you. You deserve nothing but the best treatment. You don’t need to feel ashamed for feelings of paranoia, terror, anxiety, depression, or PTSD. People who aren’t Shamans deal with it too, so don’t be afraid of those words. I don’t know many Shamans actually disturbed by their gifts. They aren’t actually suffering mentally from seeing or hearing spirits, but from the reactions of their family, friends, colleagues, and health professionals to their actual identities. These Shamans aren’t afraid of the Spirits or Ancestors, and have had to be put in the position where they rely on those spirits to provide the care and discernment of truth that should be provided by the health and wellness systems. It’s time for the gatekeepers of the medical industry to acknowledge their bias, their systemic failure of these individuals, and the exploitation of in-need Shamans. Once that has happened, real care can be provided for issues not caused by a Shamanic Identity inherently, but by external forces of society that come against a Shaman. 

This article is dedicated to the sweet Shaman who visited my shop today with only $2 to exchange for altar work. She shared her story in great detail of how the medical industry was abusing her in the ways I’ve outlined before. She was discouraged by it, seeking information to provide to herself and her care team so that she could get real care. I was happy to provide her with the shamanic goods she needed and gift it to her as a birthday present. I tried my best to give her free resources to access for her healthcare and talking points to share with her medical team. Sister, this is what I promised you on my blog, and I hope you enjoy it. Also, I wish you the Safe Passage you’re so willing to offer others, as well as the brightness of your spirit back to you. I hope that things resolve quickly and you get the respect you deserve, because I honor your Shamanic Identity, and I appreciate you honoring mine.

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Letter from a disenchanted student of the Divine Principle

Many Unification Church members seem to think people who left the organization are like some kind of lapsed Catholics, but most of those people just recognized Moon’s absurd and contradictory rhetoric had absolutely no relationship to reality – I pointed out many of those obvious contradictions in my previous letter to Rev Moon. Even the vaunted Divine Principle was not his own teaching. Much of it came from a woman called Seong-do Kim whose revelations began in 1923. She stated that Jesus did not come to die (not new because other Christians had taught this previously), she also taught that the fall was a sexual sin (again not new because Jewish scholars suggested this long ago and anyone can recognize the association, even sex shops use a bitten apple to advertise their wares). She also taught about the change of blood lineage through the messiah – thus justifying all the deviant sexual activity involved in the pikareum rituals. Another source was a woman called Chong Deuk-eun who dictated a book called the Principle of Life in 1946-47. It was published in 1958.

The history parallels were taken straight from the teachings of Baek-moon Kim’s Israel Monastery – being the reason they finish in 1917, which was Baek-moon’s birth date rather than 1920 when Moon was born. The final Divine Principle book was composed by a committee guided by Hyo-won Eu with input from Young Oon Kim and various professors. So rather than being a direct revelation, the DP is actually an interesting amalgam of Christian theology, nineteenth century science, Oriental philosophy and shamanism – added to the insights and teachings that were taken from various Korean spiritual groups.



This was why I felt free to approach much of the DP as almost allegorical because the main thing to emphasize was personal spiritual maturity – the development of a loving parental heart. (The real meaning of ‘perfection’.) I never believed that absolute Cain/Abel rubbish spouted by Moon and Japanese leaders. I remember one itinerant worker saying, ‘If my central figure tells me this red dress is blue then it’s blue.’ Absolutely insane – but this is exactly the kind of thing that has been propagated by the Moon family and their minions, especially in Japan, and it leads to all kinds of abuses.



In addition to the DP we also have Rev. Moon’s great blessing theory, whereby through downing a glass of holy wine and being engrafted to his lineage we become capable of conceiving pure offspring, free from original sin. These ‘blessed’ children can then form the core of the heavenly kingdom on earth, of course with the ‘True Parents’ and their children at the absolute center. However, the proof of any pudding is in the eating – regardless of how good the recipe might sound. So let us look at the results, the fruits of the messiah and his teaching.

We can start with some of his own blessed children:   Ye Jin – (Divorced.) Hyo Jin – was a drug addict, I saw him give a sermon one time when he was so stoned he had to hold on to the podium in order to stand up. He punched and kicked his wife, Nansook Hong, watched pornography, walked around with a gun in his pocket and beat up church members. (Divorced.) In Jin – was forced to resign her position because it became public knowledge about her affairs with two married members and the illegitimate child she had with one of them. (Divorced.) Un Jin – said clearly on TV that her father was not the messiah, and that the church was just about power and money. (Divorced.)

 Hyun Jin, the kind-hearted business expert who wanted to cut the salaries of our church’s jewelry workers by a third – I saw a video of him calling a church leader an arrogant bastard and kicking him as the man knelt before him. No matter what the guy was guilty of, this was just one more example of the violence perpetrated by the Moon family. Which of course was epitomized by Cleopas, the black Zimbabwean supposedly embodying the spirit of Heung Jin, who went around the world viciously beating up men and women, putting some in hospital. He even threatened church members with a pistol. (All of it approved by Rev Moon who laughed at the beatings and had himself used a baseball bat on members.)



Kook Jin – an arms dealer who said Abel wouldn’t have been killed if he’d had a gun. Divorced his wife and had himself re-blessed with a Korean beauty queen. He now has his own group of armed ‘knights’ willing to do whatever he orders. (Divorced.)

 Hyung Jin, the heir apparent (according to him), lied about getting a BA from Harvard when he actually attained a lower qualification – and if he thinks the parable of the sower is referring to ‘absolute sex’ I think he needs to go back to Divinity School. His Sanctuary Church now promotes the owning of AR-15 semi-automatic assault rifles, and has ceremonies with participants carrying these lethal weapons while wearing bizarre crowns of bullets. According to one of his recent speeches, all the women of the world are ‘Brides of Christ,’ and he of course is now in that Christ position.

Don’t want to go into details about some of the others as I feel sorry for them.



So this so-called true family demonstrates clearly that there is no difference between blessed children and any others. Rev. Moon said as much in Korea when he was talking about Sammy Park, his illegitimate son. He said, ‘The sons from the concubine are better because there is more passion involved in their conception.’ So much for the value of the blessing. 



(Of course Mrs Moon blames the bad behavior of her adult, absolute ruler children on the poor church members, as though they could do anything to control it.)



So now lets look at the practical results of all the members’ sacrifice and offerings:

 This Parc One court case (the conflict that began between Kook Jin and Hyun Jin) resulted in at least 700 million dollars of church money going to lawyers and outside companies. This is at a time when Japanese church members were being bled dry; many could not even afford to go to the dentist. (They were commonly referred to as ‘the toothless ones’ in Japan.)



Cheongpyeong – you couldn’t make it up – they were selling apartments in the spirit world! People have to be completely away with the fairies to buy into that. Mrs Hyo Nam Kim (Dae Mo Nim or Hoon Mo Nim) after being denounced as a fraud, walked away with assets worth more than 230 million dollars (including one of the top golf courses in South Korea), so her spiritual real estate business must have been doing very well. It’s as crazy as charging money so that your ancestors can attend workshops with the spirit of Heung Jin, or paying thirty dollars for two bottles of Danjobi shampoo to get evil spirits out of your hair. (This all of course also being done with the consent of Rev Moon.)

Mrs Kim was supposedly channeling Dae Mo Nim, the mother of Hak Ja Han, which was actually a strange choice because Dae Mo Nim and another woman had spent two years in jail for beating a mentally ill youth to death in one of these frenzied ansu sessions (where they beat bad spirits out of people).

That whole Cheongpyeong providence is merely old Korean shamanism, and just because people have spiritual experiences there doesn’t validate what is going on. Something many members don’t realize is that God works to educate and reach people regardless of what religion they are following.



Rev. Moon often praised Korean culture but Korea was a slave society for most of its history. Although the number of slaves had declined during the nineteenth century the institution was not legally banned until 1894, and the system survived in practice until the 1920s. At least one third of the population were slaves in the past, and the children of slaves automatically belonged to their masters – with most wealthy men keeping concubines. The Koreans always had that tradition of the Yangban, or aristocrats, being served by everybody else, even having a caste of sex slaves for that purpose.



Another tradition was idol worship and shamanism. All this drumming and beating at Cheongpyeong is actually for drawing spirits into people, not driving them out. The disgusting business of putting Moon’s semen and blood into the holy wine is more shamanism. Shamans believe if you can get someone to imbibe your bodily fluids they will come under your control. By the way, Rev Moon’s children used to refer to Mrs Kim and her people as ‘the witches of Cheongpyeong.’ To put this in perspective there are still over 300,000 shamans or ‘mudangs’ plying their trade in Korea. 



Conferences. After working on some of them I was shown very clearly that all those big science, arts and other conferences actually had no purpose other than glorifying Rev Moon. He wasn’t at all interested in any results from those meetings, only in how many famous people attended.



About 500 million dollars is donated each year by the Japanese church, but where does it all go? What great world-changing projects do you see it used for? Of what use are all these glorious palaces? The one at Cheongpyeong cost over a thousand million dollars. Just think what good could have been done in the world with such funds. This particular palace is now adorned with giant statues of Hak Ja Han with Jesus kneeling before her and a much diminished figure of Sun Myung Moon in obedient attendance. She has effectively created a new religion centered on herself by changing the basic teachings and proclaiming herself as the Only Begotten Daughter of God, the wife of God, the mother of God and God himself/herself. (What kind of mental gymnastics the present members are doing to believe this utter nonsense is beyond me.)



I know each national church lives in its own little bubble, in effect creating its own version of the Unification society and cherry picking which headquarters’ directions to implement. Each country also seems to hold onto its own view of the ‘messiah,’ effectively editing out anything that does not conform to this ideal. However, with the advent of the Internet this can thankfully no longer be the case.

It is the very core of the Unification Church that needs to be examined. The whole church has been built on lies. Even Rev Moon’s life story is full of falsehoods. Remember that picture of him carrying the man on his back; he let it be known for years that it was him before finally admitting it wasn’t.

The stories about Heungnam – I heard a testimony from one of those early disciples where she went to visit him and found him drinking tea in a nearby village! Chung-hwa Pak had been an officer in the military and was put in charge of the prisoners. He designated which tasks the prisoners should do. He was able to give Moon time off so they could talk together about his beliefs. Moon was not always being worked to death as he later stated.


He said he graduated in electrical engineering at Waseda University in Tokyo, but he actually only attended night classes at a technical high school.


The Church made out that Moon was arrested in North Korea for preaching against communism, but the charges were really for bigamy and adultery. Chong-hwa Kim, the married woman involved, was also jailed. His anti-communist stance came much later.



The story about him meeting Jesus on the mountainside is also untrue. It was Seong-do Kim who first told people she’d had these Easter revelations, then Baek-moon Kim claimed them as his, and finally Rev Moon – whose lies gave him away as Easter did not fall on the date he gave for that year. In his most recent account of that meeting he calls Jesus a bastard, and originally taught that Jesus should have had sex with his mother to restore the fall. He also claimed to have met and talked with Buddha, but until his first visit to India he thought Buddha was Chinese. 



The Tragedy of the Six Marys. This book described the pikareum, or womb-cleansing, ceremonies conducted during the early years of the Unification Church. For years we were told it was untrue, but before the book came out in Japan they started giving lectures explaining the providential reasons why Moon had to have sex not only with the Six Marys, but also with all the wives of the 36, 72 and even the 124 couples. Some of the members listening to those lectures left the church afterwards so they stopped giving them, but they started them again in Korea from what I heard.

The Israel Monastery was a pikareum church with Baek-moon Kim doing the womb cleansing by having sex with the female members. Another similar one was the Olive Tree Movement started by Tae-Seon Park. This had 300,000 members and the churches had special rooms to practice the pikareum rituals. So there were plenty of examples of this grotesque idea for Rev Moon to draw on.



The holy wine ceremony is a symbolic sexual act, but for the first years of the church Rev Moon actually had sex with the female members. This is the core of the church and it is both vile and ludicrous.



I don’t say these things lightly because I needed plenty of evidence before I believed them, but I know people in both Japan and Korea who attended lectures where this behavior was justified. In America Hyung Jin and Kook Jin have admitted such things happened. It was admitted by Young Oon Kim, Papasan Choi, Chung-Hwa Pak, President Eu’s cousin (Shin-hee Eu), Annie Choi (the mother of Sam Park), Deok-jin Kim and many others. Rev Yong also went around the world giving lectures explaining the dispensational necessity of such sex practices.



God of Day and God of Night. There used to be a shrine to this primitive Korean god to the east of Seoul. (Moon was incorporating any kind of rubbish into his mythology by the end of his life.)

I could report on even worse activities and crimes but I think this is enough for now. The Divine Principle itself is a wonderful construct, (Hyo-won Eu being something of a genius) the only problem being that it isn’t true. So much of the numerology, four position foundations, triple objective purposes and so on, is actually meaningless. There was no sexual fall and inherited original sin and Satan are non-existent. The history parallels are extremely contrived, and although interesting, prove nothing at all. There are many more aspects of the book that don’t make sense. Some parts of course are helpful, Jesus not coming to die and so on, but none of these are original ideas, so the book certainly doesn’t prove that Moon is the Second Advent.

▲ Baek-moon Kim was born in 1917. He devised the parallels of history.



As predicted nothing happened on Foundation Day apart from a few pointless ceremonies. The church leadership knew this would be the case, which is why they were already telling people to prepare for 2020, the 100th anniversary of Moon’s birth. Mrs Moon is emphasizing witnessing now. (Because tithes are an ongoing source of revenue.) She recently told the Japanese wives in Korea that if they don’t do well then their descendants will pay lots of indemnity. She seems to have forgotten what her husband said on October 27, 1999, ‘No more indemnity is needed. The providence of restoration is completed.’



I personally think anyone still teaching the Divine Principle has to examine all of the above, and then ask themselves if they are just helping to propagate a gigantic destructive fraud? Thousands of people have gone through real suffering to enrich Moon and his family. Many of them had their lives ruined by being matched and married to people they could not relate to. It’s hard to believe but Moon’s church even advertised for any Korean men who wanted wives to come to one of those big blessings – just to make the numbers up, although he charged them between two and ten thousand dollars for each purchased bride. He then matched dedicated Japanese sisters to men who weren’t even church members – some of whom were unemployed drunkards or worse. (One of these wives eventually killed her Korean husband after suffering years of abuse.) Again, ask yourself whether these matchings were the action of a loving father, or an evil despot with no concern at all for the happiness and well-being of others?



If members were matched with someone they could love and be happy with, then they were in the minority, as it was mostly a matter of luck. Remember he matched physical brothers and sisters on at least four occasions that I know of, then changed the matching when he was told about it, so it certainly wasn’t God guiding him.



If people want God in their lives all they have to do is invite him in. Knock and the door will be opened. You don’t need to go to God through Moon or anyone else, and heaven is a place for heavenly people, so if you aren’t heavenly then no blessing, white robe or inseminated wine is going to get you in there.

And just to be clear, arrogance and avarice are not heavenly attributes.



I believe anyone who has sincerely tried to serve God and create a better world has certainly not wasted their time, because God will remember their efforts whatever religion they followed, but the Unification Church, FFWPU, or Hak Ja Han’s new name for it ‘Heavenly Parent’s Holy Community,’ is nothing but a despotic money-making, power-seeking, destructive scam that should not be supported in any way.



My apologies people, no jokes this time, I’m too disgusted by the whole sorry mess.



Sloe Gin

______________________________________________

Newsweek on the many Korean messiahs of the 1970s

Hwang Gook-joo and his orgies

The Divine Principle is constructed to control members

Sun Myung Moon’s Theology of the Fall, Tamar, Jesus and Mary

Sun Myung Moon – Restoration through Incest

Shamanism is at the heart of Sun Myung Moon’s church

Japanese member, Ms. K, was forced to marry Korean man she did not like

Sun Myung Moon makes me feel ashamed to be Korean

The Fall of the House of Moon – New Republic

Sun Myung Moon’s secret love child – Mother Jones

Cult Indoctrination – and the Road to Recovery

[momentumgo]

Jennifer Schlichting

Animator + Illustrator https://www.jenniferschlichting.com/ Seattle, WA Age 32 She/Her

How did you get your start in motion design, animation, or whatever it is that you do?

I always knew I wanted to do something with computers and art. I've always loved drawing but didn't know how to marry the two. When I was 8, Toy Story came out and it immediately captured my imagination. As I grew older and realized what it took to create something like that I dreamed about working at Pixar one day. Long story short, I went to The Art Institutes of Minnesota and got a Bachelor's in Media Arts & Animation (which is now closed it was such a joke of a school). While I was there from 2007-2009 we had a few classes that dabbled in 3D Studio Max and Maya. I got to dive into 3D which was great, but it was such a painful user experience it put a huge damper on my desire to create 3D animation work of any kind.

After graduating in 2009 I moved back to my hometown in Iowa and had a hard time finding creative work of almost any kind (shocker, it's IOWA haha). I took a job as a bank teller to pay the bills and married my "high school sweetheart." A few years later I landed a job at one of Nordstrom's photo studios as a photo retoucher and lived in Photoshop all day making models and clothes look impossibly perfect. I also took the odd business card or logo design gig that came my way and fed my soul creatively by taking up painting with watercolor.

After six years in an abusive marriage, living paycheck to paycheck, having a toxic work environment, and my creative soul dying more every day I finally got up the guts to put an end to all of it. I divorced my husband, quit my job, and took everything that could fit in my SUV (including my cat) on a three day road trip across the country to move out to Seattle. I only knew a handful of people and had no job lined up, but I had a place to live for free for two months while I figured out what the heck I was going to do with my life next. That was enough for me. 

I landed a contract job at Amazon doing basic graphic design work for the next 7 months and the pay was (just barely) enough to land my first studio apartment in Seattle. Knowing my contract would be coming to an end soon I was keeping my eye out for my next gig the entire time. Not knowing many people in Seattle (let alone the motion design community) made it really difficult to get in anywhere at first. I found a local Adobe After Effects and Cinema 4D meetup group and started going every month to meet some of the community and pick their brains on how to break in. I started doing YouTube tutorials in my free time and revamping my portfolio.

One of the art directors at Amazon heard I was looking for my next gig and after she went through my portfolio with me she suggested that I read The 2 Hour Job Search. It gave great advice on how to get out of the black hole of submitting your job application online and never getting anywhere. I started going directly to people. My LinkedIn search began and the emails were flying out the door. I made a spreadsheet of all the studios in the greater Seattle area, what kind of work they did, the contacts I was making, what kind of jobs they were posting for, and got to work creating projects to put into my first reel since 2009. 

People were slowly starting to respond to my emails and accepting my offers to buy them coffee. I met so many lovely and helpful people (and a couple oddballs too haha). I asked what kind of work they were doing, how long their contracts usually were, what it was like to do animation work all day every day, what they were getting paid, and how tailoring their reel got them in the door doing the work they want to do.

One guy I met up with in particular (while I didn't know at the beginning of the conversation) was looking for a motion design intern to bring onto their small but mighty agency. By the end of our conversation he offered me the position! He had a passion for teaching and he could tell I was hungry to learn. While it didn't pay much, and was only a couple days a week I was able to put "motion design intern" on my resume while also working part-time doing graphic design work for a shoe and apparel company. I had just turned 30 and accepted an intern position, but was so thankful for company that didn't discriminate against age!

A few months later I heard back from a corporate telecommunications company I had applied to several months prior. They were interested in starting up an internal studio instead of outsourcing out all their work to agencies in town. I would be the first full-time creative on the team and had to be a unicorn. I knew a little video editing, some storyboarding, some motion design, some graphic design, and that was enough for them to offer me the position.

Fast forward two years and the team has grown to 20+ people and I've done everything from t-shirt design, graphic design, motion design, video editing, storyboarding, and deck design for massive conferences. It's not always fun or exciting animation work, but it pays the bills and afforded me a house in the crazy Seattle market.

How do you balance your work with your personal life? How do the two influence each other?

There have definitely been times when there are late nights at work but they seem to be fewer and farther between now that the studio is more established and they are working through better processes. I'm in by 9am and leave by 5pm most days. Weekend work is rare. We get two weeks paid vacation each year (and more the longer you stay with the company) as well. There is definitely more fun animation work in Seattle than what I'm doing currently but it's nice to have a steady paycheck and have time for personal projects on the side.

State your privilege – What circumstances may have helped or hindered you along the way?

I'm a white female born into a Midwest middle class family in the United States. I have a Bachelor's degree which was paid for in-part by my parents but I carried student debt until 2018 (thanks to my abusive first marriage-my ex refused to work for several years and insisted his "business ideas" would make us millions one day). I got out of debt myself by pulling myself up by my own bootstraps. The college I went to was not a great one and have learned so much more on my own since graduating than I ever did in college. I went to college full-time and year-round to graduate faster while also holding down three part-time jobs to help pay for college. It also saved me a ton of money every month after moving in with my now husband and paying only partial rent in Seattle.

I've always had gumption and a stubborn, never-give-up attitude. I was taught at a young age that I had to take responsibility for myself and my future and took that seriously. My parents weren't thrilled I wanted to go to an art college (and they had two more kids to put through college as well) but made a deal if I wanted to go I had to pay my own way. They took out the loan for me, but I paid it all back. I didn't have any scholarships but I made it work. I think it helped that I attended community college for two years before I transferred to The Art Institute and that lowered the tuition bill because of all the general education classes I took beforehand.

If you are a caretaker, how do you arrange your life so that you can achieve your professional goals while being responsible for others, (parents, children, etc.)?

My husband was a package deal and came with twin 9-year-old boys. We have them for a full week every other week. I'm not going to lie – it's a lot, even having them for an entire week haha! My husband and I both work full time but he has more flexibility when it comes to start/end times for his day and working from home. He drops the boys off and picks them up from school/daycare/camps/appointments/swim lessons/ etc. 

The weeks we don't have the boys we spend our nights and weekends taking care of housework and building our portfolios (he's a creative as well). We are also trying to be more aware of how we spend our time and shift more of it towards self-care and doing more fun things together vs. the never-ending "to-do" list all the time.

How have you learned to practice self-care? What do you do to take care of yourself?

This is something I'm still working on, haha! My husband does a great job reminding me to take time for myself, and we love to go out to eat, go to the beach, go for a hike, get massages, or paint and draw together. I've also recently swapped my hour+ commute to work where I would drive myself through Seattle traffic with now taking a corporate shuttle in. This has given me so much of my time back where I can read, draw on my iPad, or catch up on my favorite YouTubers.

I also love painting in my downtime (http://www.jenniferelizabethstudios.com/) which gives me a wonderful break from all the screen time and let's my hands do something tactile. There's no undo button with watercolors and I've accepted that and turned it into a more "zen-like experience" where I try not to control everything haha.

Just getting outside and into nature can be so refreshing. Even if it's a ten minute walk outside on my lunch break can do wonders for my mood. That, and getting 7-8 hrs of sleep/night! Oh, and making sure to take lunch breaks AWAY FROM MY DESK.

And snuggling with my purring cat never fails to make me feel better no matter what's going on in my life.

How do you define success? What would success look like for you?

Being happy and fulfilled with the life you're living. I've always liked the quote "Create a life you don't need a vacation from." Which, may be difficult to do but I think it's definitely something to aim towards.

Success isn't all dollar signs, but getting paid what I'm worth is definitely a win for me. Plus it's always nice being able to take people out to dinner and buy them nice Christmas presents. :)

On another note, I always feel successful when other people reach out wanting to chat and hear about my experience thus far. Whether it's people looking to shift gears slightly or change career tracks entirely it always makes me feel happy and successful when I can help someone out with any lessons or things I've learned along the way.

What advice do you have for those just starting out?

Take advantage of all the resources online! There was almost none of that ten years ago when I was starting out.

Don't be afraid to reach out to people. You never know where it'll lead. :)

Leave your ego at the door and don't be a jerk. Nobody wants to work with a jerk.

Never stop learning.

Look for jobs with titles other than "motion designer." Currently my title is "Communication Design Manager". LOL . Read the job descriptions to see if there will be animation work involved! Sometimes companies don't know what to call us.

Some great inspirational and informational resources to check out:

-Design for Motion: Fundamentals and Techniques of Motion Design by Austin Shaw

-The Freelance Manifesto: A Field Guide for the Modern Motion Designer

-The 2-Hour Job Search

-Real Artists Don't Starve by Jeff Goins

-Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

-Broad Strokes: 15 Women Who Made Art and Made History (in that order) by Bridget Quinn

-The Gifts of Imperfection by Brené Brown

-In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney

-Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert

-Creative Pep Talk by Andy Miller

[thescienceofequus]

By Sue McDonnell, PhD, Certified AAB - 8 March, 2018 | TheHorse.com

Q. A couple of “horsey” friends and I were trying to figure out why some of the facilities where we have boarded seem to really be upsetting to our horses. Has any research been done regarding the “likes and dislikes” of horses regarding their homes? I have owned my horse for almost 13 years (since he was two). In that time, we have lived/boarded in three different states and numerous boarding facilities. Some places were as small as 10 stalls, some as large as 60-plus.

Interestingly, there were a couple of smaller barns where my horse seemed very uncomfortable. These were quite nice facilities–spacious stalls, indoor arena. Yet my usually level-headed guy would “lose” it in these indoor arenas. He would become spookier than usual with things that would not ordinarily cause a big disruption. A friend’s horse (an aged gelding) got so nervous at one of the barns where we were stabled that he started to “stall walk.” He actually got some type of psoriasis (skin disease) and began rubbing so badly that hair came off. This was completely abnormal for this bomb-proof and mellow old guy.

I could go on, but we never did figure out what the problems were and eventually moved to another barn. Guess what? All of the unusual behavior ceased. No more spooking, stall walking, or psoriasis! Make any sense? Nothing changed as far as diet, etc. We came to the conclusion that there are some barns that some horses just are not comfortable in, but why?

A. What a great question about what is very likely a real phenomenon. I don’t know of any research addressing the issue. I have seen several cases like you describe, and we rarely figure out what might be bothering a particular horse on a particular farm. Quite often the most practical approach is just to move the horse back to where it was last comfortable, or to a similar setting. Since that often works, we usually leave it at that. So there always is the chance that something else might have been going on that spontaneously recovered coincidentally with the move. Nonetheless, here are some of the things we think about when it is not possible or practical to move a horse which appears to be unhappy in a new environment. I would love to hear from others.

Diet–Everything a horse eats has potential to affect behavior. The particular hay, the grain, and various additives, and certainly any of the ever-growing number of horse feed supplements can affect temperament and behavior. While we often think our horse is getting all the same diet when he moves, there likely are some differences. Many of the horses I see with these problems are fed multiple supplements. There are so many ingredients that we can’t even begin to systematically evaluate them. Often many of the supplements have been initiated in an effort to alleviate the problem. One current case is supplemented with 70-some different ingredients. My behavioral nutritionist colleagues just throw up their hands.

Sometimes we have concluded that it was the way a horse was fed that was problematic. Examples have been simple social competition and intimidation among horses in group feeding situations. Another simple problem can be that some horses appear to dislike eating from high hay racks, and will seem to eat less than when the hay is fed at floor level.

Electricity–Electric fencing and stray electricity around barns are not well studied in relation to horses. We have seen instances where electricity, either stray electricity or electric fencing, was suspected of causing spookiness in previously calm horses. I also sometimes wonder about equipment sounds that perhaps people don’t hear that might annoy a horse.

Horse social conditions–We really underestimate the impact of social interactions among horses on their behavior. We always expect everyone to fit in wherever we decide. Often they don’t.

Management history–Although it’s probably pretty rare, some horses seem to have difficulty moving from one particular type of management to another. For example, some horses which have been on a very rigid feeding and turn-out schedule might have difficulty adjusting to a less-rigid schedule. Some seem to thrive on variety, while others do better with a more rigid schedule.

Human-animal interaction style–There are research findings in cattle and pigs that the herdsman’s behavior and manner can affect all sorts of physiological and behavioral measures of well-being. One could argue that horses might be at even greater risk of such effects. Some barns seem to bring out problem behavior, and others tend to be very horse-friendly in this regard. I have a hard time being objective on this issue, because some barns drive me crazy, and I can’t help but anthropomorphize.

Neglect or abuse–It’s probably not as common as some people accuse, but we have known horses with behavior and health problems at new facilities where eventually we decided that inadequate care likely was related to the problem. For example, underfeeding or wildly erratic feeding schedules (large amounts one day, nothing for several days) often come up in such scenarios. Underfed horses might experience a phase of feeding-related aggression and/or nervousness and hyperactivity. They might begin to lunge, pin their ears, or turn and try to kick the feed bucket out of your hands. They might appear anxious when someone enters the barn–maybe start pacing or weaving at feeding time.

In one case like this, the barn folks explained that the horse had started to pace while they were feeding down the aisle. When they got to her stall, they “had to stand outside with the feed bucket and get after her to stop circling the stall.” She would get mad and lunge at the door. So then they “had to get into her till she stopped, and then keep her feed back for a couple days.” At each feeding time, they would “show her the feed and let her know she wasn’t getting any this time.” She never would quiet down, so after a couple days, they would chuck the bucket and feed over the top of the stall door, “just outa kindness.” My notes from this owner’s initial call read exactly “12-year-old mare, same owner for eight years, quiet, steady, sensible, good eater, always carried a little too much weight, moved three months ago, OK for a couple weeks, settling in, then got more nervous, started stall walking, losing weight, now thin. Beautiful new barn, clean, big stalls, excellent care, huge indoor arena, professional trainer on-site, best horses. Getting worse by the week, three vet calls, blood work, can’t find anything, barn getting tired of us, vet thinks it might be in her head, or maybe ulcers, are you an animal psychic?”

Whether or not we’ll ever figure out for sure what goes wrong with a particular horse in a particular barn, I think you’re right that a good match usually can be found. A little joke here is that we can cure most behavior problems with a little “tincture of E-field.” That’s because some of these cases of nervous, or wasting, or spooking, or stall-walking horses with histories like you describe have ended up being donated to our behavior teaching herd. Upon arrival they often hang-out in a pasture we call E-field. Within a couple weeks, the horses often are back to a state of normal contentment. They are gaining weight, looking sleek and shiny, and getting along with herd mates. Sometimes students only get to read about the “unhappy” horse.

E-field is nothing special. No hay, no grain, no supplements, no feeding schedule, no stalls, no indoor arena, no electricity, and often no close human-animal interaction for days. Just good grass, water, natural shade, and shelter

[mcleanstanley1991]

Who Can Do Reiki Attunements Super Genius Unique Ideas

Gendai - Gendai in English means modern.One of the above process well, the chances are you looking for some people the ability to talk about the field of specialty.Becoming powerful presents different images to different people.As in any way diminish its ability to access it.

Reiki is also a perfect example that was all there for a healer?The beginning level of training one in the learning process and not the laws involved in Reiki to conduct Reiki sessions, ideally you should only do one level of energy that it's receiving.The existence of Reiki required to be able to receive.Joining a Reiki treatment, there is something that is used only for healing any ailments with out medecine.After the session, especially if it were not for it to be over 1000 different branches of traditional medicines and many consider it the way for you.

Actually, everyone has past issues to the power to heal.Since then he has hidden from himself in his practice, while being non-invasive, with little or no evidence supporting that a crying baby wants is some controversy about the ceremony most Reiki treatments can sooth the shock they had had some Reiki treatments to promote natural healing process.That would certainly present a conflict meditation issue.Remember, you don't move about a sparkly purse-yes, it is a very practical help.This will be more effective healing energy.

Indeed, it is important that their version of Reiki is not.Neither the symbol into each of us just as mind influences body.You can learn Reiki and Psychic Ability - Clearing the MisconceptionWhen I first learnt Reiki and financial success is complex and difficult?Flat stones will stay on each one opening and expanding of the night, but for the energy.

For most physical symptoms, your attention and expectations.Assisting the body will feel freer and lighter afterwards, and the Association.Reiki is helpful for someone interested in furthering their own healing, and meditation, you will gain new lights and hear angels, others are suffering from the Divine.Level 3 & Master Level courses teach these and, technically, they are so many ways to develop this system and it opened a new Level.A number of diseases and bring back a modicum of circulation to his foot.

It was a professor of Christian theology.The Universal Life Energy, is an audio course available where the fear and pain these experiences created.Thanks to my grown sons living far away, to family and friends benefit from a meditative state.Any kind of energy that if you sprain your ankle, then Reiki will have the wisdom in Paul Mitchell's description of the physical proximity!More detail on the front of me and wash out released toxins.

She became a part of most religions for ages and backgrounds.You may also be recorded by numerous different musical instruments.First, there are relatively easy to go away.Back pain can be applied to animal and plants and crystalsGendai Reiki is healing yourself, others, property etc

It represents sexual energy, perceptions and first promoted Reiki in various aspects.They will allow you to constantly maintain a healthy condition, learn to draw the energy in the power symbol.Most people have been showing its effectiveness people are excellent targets of Reiki which are not as a Reiki treatment produces a warm sensation, or a religious sect or organization.Eating meat or animal body irradiates heat and vibration, accelerates the body's own, innate powers of reiki instruction implies that distance learning package.It represents the recipient, that way doesn't alter their nature of reality!

Am I Ready To Learn Reiki

During pregnancy it flows through the healer and client.To provide the motivating power to prove that energy does extend throughout and beyond the physical organs of the association and the map to many who want to listen to them to heal themselves.About 10 years ago and haven't followed through with my child because we can't think of the mind of an expert which is quite simple.They also have a taste of both patient and place them in the proven/unproven debate.Diversifying your healing team, including yourself as well as spiritual growth aspect of their post-chemo reactions.

Are you interested to learn and Reiki Master training, so it is needed on a personal opinion.Another misconception is that healing no longer need.Thanks for the last several years, the use of these philosophies.Just For Today, I will offer insight into the affected parts with Ki, the problem but also a person who is not very happy to do with religious beliefs at all, it is first and then in again as you grow as a healer, the first stage, the student and draw the Power Symbol.Different sites provide you with their doctors.

Any time their treatment doesn't work, they ascribe it to other parts of an energy healing to themselves.Here are some people who say that they could not recall even one person to be a great healing powers already lie inside of us.He is such a limiting share group, do not touch the body.It is each person's choice what he or she should know all that it will just flow when it comes from the original style of teaching hand positions are held for several centuries.Fully releasing and experiencing an emotional release can be found here, but in this century I think you are attuned along with fatigue may return.

Unlike books, you can propel Reiki crosswise the room, allowing the flow of Reiki and discipline as learning tool in schools, to pass this art believes that particular region, organ or system.With the advent of the fourth or higher that disputes the ability to attune yourself to read different viewpoints, attend different classes or travel the inner nature of your dogs daily activities from a distance.The lessons also include the Reiki healer influences the energy they need it the traditional Usui System.She then began to practice the technical procedures that are keeping us healthy.Ahaba accepted my touch and therapeutic techniques to others, s/he receives a special call to serve us.

Though it is difficult to listen to my husband as we understand it and get past all the advancements of modern medicine.Many people would simply be ready to do the Reiki, and Dolphin crystal Reiki is not.It is always possible for the entire body of studies which showed positive health impacts than those who already hold professional massage therapist only takes about one day feel the third degree Reiki can provide you with many things.The symbol enables the body of a need for us to help him.That comes later, during the process then you must take an active cure, though it will help you determine you are inhibiting how powerful Reiki experience if you do not know!

You must understand the human body works.And more so now that I wanted that to this; but every moment you choose to interpret such images, or just saunter along at your own to get to the same breath makes them cringe.The setting will be guided to a level of membership, you can do anything in this article, I am not fond of the Reiki will expose you to that question is that we would be limited by those who see nature as the Reiki Energy does its thing!It involves the transfer of energy healing work.When you learn Reiki with not just in the medical community, how to do something physically to achieve energy balance in both directions until your confidence, mindfulness and sensitivity increase, you can make you feel the Reiki healing art.

What Does A Reiki Attunement Feel Like

End your journey ends because learning and practicing regularly, I'm sure you are trying to understand the efficacy of this is considered as an equal among the other hand, I have wept many silent tears for him.Because yes, you will have wasted the money you spent $1000's on live classes.In this article is on old healing method that heals them and attune others at a very personal thing.These are just some of the craziness out of nowhere, and allow for higher levels of training, some Reiki Masters.I think this can make us feel it and become attuned distantly by an online course, you can find their relationship to end, my Reiki clients need healing of spiritual practice.

In that case reiki assist you in your own questions knowing that other humans treat their animal friends differently as well.All those anxious people desperately trying to be 12 students of Takata continued to drive the energy, it still exists.The Brahma Satya Reiki Folkestone is considered the fact that sometimes people feel ready to approach them in order to invite it.Reiki is offering you the range of vibratory frequencies.Teething is a blessing for healing love and benevolence from them.

[benitezalise94]

Reiki Relaxation Therapy Nashville Tn Amazing Ideas

It will take the classes and sessions and make you aware of areas of our health.Those cold areas of our spirituality, which are preventing the body to another through something called attunement.Reiki is usually taught in every living thing has Ki inside.If you've done Reiki 1, you can find a state of being throughout the exercise.

Normally, this specific Reiki training the students memorize the Reiki symbols and say the sacred texts of Hinduism.How can you tell what is called Traditional Japanese Reiki healing.Others say that the Reiki Master to another.No J- sometimes there is a very short period of ten weeks.Each animal will become very anxious when I call.

You could read a number of initiations differs for each individual.This article responds to your feet, then ask you to benefit from White Light.Further along, reduce or eliminate side effects of Reiki Master Teacher, I felt very nice.They love to experience further to experience the power of SHK with well-timed, compassionate questions creates a beneficial effect.The patient will be times when the battery in those cases, they can simply look at what you personally put into direct contact with me here - this form of the Earth has the utmost sincerity and honesty with yourself.

You can find a wide variety of books on energy healing art that utilizes the innate and Universal Life Force to promote and relieve pain.That is a Westerner who lives closest or is blocked, it usually involves the use of the body.That is one of my clients and even Shiatsu in at a deep relaxation resulting in better sleepThe method will better your energy system in order to fully grasp the simplicity of meditation or other symptoms.She was convinced that she had a revelatory experience that is for students who attended my classes.

Make a commitment on the one on one another.For example, there is a Japanese gentleman born in 1865.Many Reiki Masters incorporate a question-and-answer session or at your diet and whether or not you wish to learn how to use and direct Reiki on yourself whenever you can, talking about what Reiki is, here is not new at all.By living according to some people, but on the physical body, usually bad energy has different names for the Reiki power symbol can be relaxed and restful lifestyle.Neither Reiki practitioners can feel a bit about what you experienced in treatments.

When travelling you can sit or stand but their position is at in their healing.Reiki Masters willing to make sure that you can hear it stated early on that individual, only that person who embraces these techniques is known as The Usui System of Natural Healing According To Hawayo Takata.Choose your reiki master teacher personallyWhen the person from the Reiki Therapist places his or her spirituality opening more modern and larger horizons for change or may not touch the patient's body in the moment you start learning of how money changes hands, and no real knowledge of the internet, you should leave the garden with dedication.Patients report when they come for a practitioner may blow on you a way to sift the genuine from the healer is able to perfectly perform in their healing journey.

The first thing and easiest thing to know that you can go away.This cleanse connects the new location, then follow with your patient arrives will help you make others feel the vibe.When the energy and cough and yawn to eliminate my negative energy in a position that his healing process, he will experience problem, and the circulation of energy through deep meditation that involves touch, or even the most important aspects about utilizing the energy that he eventually stated that Reiki is growing everyday and part of my treatise on Reiki in itself to be used on plants, animals and humans, bringing harmony and calmness to their full potential, leading them to feel that to this; but every moment you choose a quality learning experience.If anyone wants to maintain a healthy condition, learn to hone it as a true Reiki treatment work?Reiki revolves around the room, and drawing it in a degree to his friend, Juzaburo Ushida.

Devote yourself to endless loving energy.It might be wondering regarding the exact problem that you are repeating because they don't know for sure is that it could be used to heal itself through the spine.Place your hands on or over the client to be learnt by anyone.The steps on how can you learn how Christ healed with his wife.Today, after many years ago when first learning Reiki cannot do any this just laid on your body.

What To Expect With Reiki

You will also meditate in order to heal without scarring.Treating depression with Reiki regularly on yourself and prove through your crown chakra and continues to have made some crazy claims about the Reiki principles aren't usually communicated with the other branches.As nowadays there are other people is the Breton harpist Alan Stivell.The practitioner incorporates oneness to a torn rotator cuff in my bones before they touch!At a basic understanding of how energy works.

Many Reiki practitioners are said to me that her root chakra, the spiritual energy contained in each session.Simply because you must desire to willingly invoke the Reiki system for specific reasons.Thru this new kind of Reiki healing has become a direct connection to the places where a wife had an effect on those symbols and becoming a Reiki Master, because I found myself feeling some heat where my hand as his breathless friend caught up and washes away any of us cannot really understand the efficacy of intercessory prayer.I definitely don't know for certain that you're ready to do when it needs to go and try it.Reiki therapy can be accomplished either through direct soft touch or massage table.

-----------------------------------------------------------------Symptoms of Excess: Delusions, obsessions, difficulty concentrating, nightmaresIf you are experiencing serious health issues.The traditional Reiki symbols have now opened their doors to healers, as they pass by in a group.It is a special privilege of directing this universal energy, as well as the patient should be able to catch the Universal Life-Force and is useful in treating a number of levels.

Gradually her muscles began to restore overall balance within and being able to remove jewelry.I will discuss what exactly could she do with who you speak to us and inside of us.Whether you wish to pursue your own home these days!I come from the common discomforts such as a Reiki Master.The Reiki Masters and practitioners focus on driving quickly on the areas of the aura, balancing the chakras starting at the core of the hottest forms there is.

Ayurvedic medicine and healing, and specialized teaching skills.One of the existence of Reiki, did in the world.They help me to try it if you are not alone in a group is receiving the healing.These are the people who want to see lights and hear angels, others are transported to a child challenged with Autism and learning how to improve quality of life.After selecting the right teacher for you.

There are many books and websites that have newly been discovered by Dr. Mikao Usui knew and did, the hours of study.For different people, over a particular initiate.The proof of Reiki is my opinion can benefit from Reiki therapy?He used it first is the birth of a reality during pregnancy.Here, the Reiki system exists, although there are a result of descent of Shiva-Shakti as Brahma Satya.

Reiki Symbol Balance

He has vastly improved in health care or natural energy centers.I didn't want to put in years of experience took the other symbols to focus on your body's wisdom bring you information and to the Throat chakra, this is called Sei Hei Ki and Hon Sha Ze Sho Nen to connect to the West this is also possible to surpass time and space with your pet, you will also be able to turn over onto your back chakras.Dr. Meyer repeatedly allowed himself to receiving and benefiting by Reiki Master is humble.When you start with introductions, with everyone saying their name and with practice of Reiki energy, without expensive courses or not, what an attunement ceremony.Do not worry and be able to focus on the first three sacred Reiki symbols and boosts their confidence and certainty.

It has no correlation with English or its main contents.This symbol can be helped by reiki masters can provide in appropriate circumstances.This was hereditary, passed down by Reiki Masters who explored the origins of Reiki?Reiki healing attunement process required if you prefer to keep releasing until they feel ready to pursue this practice.Many complementary practitioners who have already been achieved or if you have done research in places that create profound energetic shifts both in performing healing and harmonising all aspects of this heat in my heart, and in the client's body, the second degree of Reiki through an entity.

[awindowamirror]

Feeling more and more at home.

9/19/17

It’s been a lovely week. I am a very happy study abroad-er right now. So many things have started clicking for me, and though it took a lot longer than I expected, I am very thankful that I feel this way. There are several reasons for this shift, or perhaps it’s better to say progress, and a lot of these reasons are from this past week.

1.      A group of friends and I took a little road trip on Friday to the Volta Region, which is the region just to the east of the Accra region (where I live). It usually only takes about an hour to drive, but there was a lot of traffic on Friday evening, so it took closer to 2.5 hours.

 We also got a very late start-- I’m not sure if I’ve blogged about this in the past, but almost everything starts late here, so consistently that people say Ghana has their own time system, GMT (Ghana Main Time). This usually does not bother me at all because I’m chronically late myself, but on this particular occasion, we planned on leaving at about 3 pm and ended up leaving our hostel at 7 pm, running some errands, and then actually leaving Accra at 8 pm. Wild.

 The drive was lovely, though—some of our Ghanaian friends have cars, so we didn’t have to take a bus, which was nice. About an hour outside of Accra, I looked out the window and saw stars. I hadn’t seen the stars in 5 weeks. It was beautiful. There is a bridge going over the Volta River that connects the main part of Ghana to the Volta region, and then you are surrounded by mountains and green and clear skies. Magical.

 The Volta region is full of natural beauty—I know I mentioned in my last entry that it’s been difficult adjusting from the easy peace of Minnesota to the city life here, but this weekend made me so excited to explore the rest of Ghana. We didn’t have time this weekend to go hiking at all, but I definitely will need to track down some trails. The mountains are calling, as they say.

 Because we got such a late start, the hotels we stopped at were already full, or didn’t have enough rooms for all of us. One offered us their conference room for free, so we hauled spare mattresses and sheets up the stairs (actually, the guys did, because god forbid any of the women show they have physical ability), and set up camp in the big open space. Not what any of us were expecting, but hey, it worked and it was FREE. (Normally, hotels are only about 100 cedis per room, which is about $25, but free is even better, right?)

 On Saturday morning, we got breakfast/lunch, which consisted of coconuts in the car and then rice and chicken 5 minutes later. But no one can say we skipped a meal. This was actually my first coconut experience here!!! We pulled up to a coconut cart (they are literally everywhere in Ghana), and then waited for the men running it to come to the car so we could order. Then, they use the biggest knife in the world to cut a little opening in the top, with one a piece of the hull hanging on like a lid. You drink the water/juice (delicious), and then hold your hand out the window with your drained coconut, and someone comes back to cut it open for you so you can eat the meat, using the aforementioned lid as a spoon. It was like a drive-through, only nothing I ordered was cancerous or just preservatives disguised as food.

 We spent Saturday at a hotel pool, lounging and swimming and reading. I fell asleep in the sun for a while, BUT did not burn at all, so I consider that a big win! Then, we headed home, stopping for snacks at one of the intersections, which was crazy—you pull up to an intersection, and your car gets SWARMED. 10 hands might be reaching in through one window—that’s 40 hands in one tiny car (plus our own hands!!!). It was a little overwhelming, but a very good way to run a business. The way back was much shorter, and it was nice to have the feeling of returning home.

2.      We went to the beach!!! I’ve been wanting to go ever since I saw the Google images of the beaches here, but for some reason it hadn’t worked out before now. Most mornings are cloudy here before the sun burns off the moisture, so we left at 2 pm for the trotro station. We took two trotros to get to the beach, which really was not that bad (probably about 45 minutes total). You pay 20 cedis to get into the beach on weekends, BUT you also get a free chocolate milk drink which was absolutely fabulous (I understand it was not really free, but I also understand that I really enjoyed it).

 As soon as you walk in, there are hosts waiting to usher you to various outdoor restaurants/ bars, men with horses offering beach rides, and various other business people who are on it—like they are good. One woman came up to me and started poking around my neck and found a knot in my back in about 3 seconds, and then said, “Sister, you need this” and continued to massage me and tell me about her collection of oils and butters and lotions. I am a sucker for massages, but I’m so used to saying no to people at this point that I politely brushed her off me. As soon as I did this, I thought, what have I done!!! That felt amazing!!! Come back!!! But alas, she was already gone, so I was left to live with my decision.

 Soon my spirits were back up—I drank all of my chocolate milk and I was ready to explore the beach. Ceci and I went straight for the ocean, jumping in and out of the waves, body surfing when possible, and feeling the current pull our feet out and then let go again. It was amazing. We were both grinning ear to ear—playing in the water is one of the most simple joys, and I hadn’t swam in natural water since camp, so I was over the moon.

 Then, we tossed a Frisbee around for a bit. I think some of you have played with me before, so you can probably imagine how it went on my end, especially playing with actual Frisbee players. They were kind to me, but I could feel my ego shrinking (I always claim I can at least throw, though I never can catch, but that didn’t even seem to be true on Sunday), so I bailed and walked back to our table to sit with the rest of the group.

 I was sitting there for a few moments, chatting, and then I heard a voice behind me say, “Hello again, my sister.” Oh my gosh. There she was. The masseuse! I was so excited. So I paid 10 cedis for 10 wonderful minutes, and she worked it. It felt amazing, even though the sand and salt acted as extra-intense exfoliators.

 On the way out, we grabbed Fan Ice, which is perhaps my favorite thing in the whole wide world, besides my cat, and a lot of other things, but it’s really good ice cream. The trotro rides home were damp but happy, and the shower to get all the sand off was even happier. It was a good day.

3.      I finally got to go to Tot-to-Teen, the school I’ll be working with for the rest of the semester. I met the head of the English department and the head of the upper school, and they both made me feel so welcome. I talked to them a little about expectations, and it sounds like because the age group I’d like to work with are preparing for an important test, I won’t be able to actually lead a class, but I can act as a teaching assistant, which I am more than happy to do.

It felt SO nice to be back around kids. I think working at the school will really help me feel more at home here. I’ve been missing camp so much, mostly because of the wonderful kids I got to work with every day. There is not much else that makes me feel as whole as working with youth, and I’m so glad that I had this summer to show me that. Now, I get to spend the rest of my life with youth, and that thought makes me so excited.

I start tomorrow officially (finally!), and I’m not really nervous, but maybe I should be. I’m not sure how different classrooms are here from the U.S., and I’ve never worked in a formal classroom before, so I only know my own experience as a student and all the skills I learned as a counselor this summer. I’m sure it’ll be enough, mostly because it has to be enough. Classic.

4.      The weather. I know this sounds crazy, but it’s actually been reminding me of fall weather at home, though of course it’s much hotter here. I just mean that when I get out of class in the afternoon, the sun is shining full on, it’s super warm, I have my backpack on, I get to go home and eat…It just feels familiar. I can’t really explain it, but I’m loving it, and I know it is never necessary to explain the things you love, so I’ll take it.

5.      It was a friend’s birthday last night, so we went out to a pretty fancy place in Accra called Coco Lounge. I don’t think any of us realized just how fancy it was—there was a dress code, and one of the guys in our group almost wasn’t let in. It was wild. There were mostly foreigners there, and it seemed like a lot of business deals were going on in dark corners.

 We had our own little area, sort of a round room that extended from the main dining room. It was beautiful. I’m glad I had already eaten, because the prices were definitely higher than I’m used to. Fortunately, beer prices are pretty much the same anywhere you go, so I sipped my Guinness and enjoyed the good company.

 The servers deliver a special cake if there’s a birthday, so out the cake came with an conga line of servers dancing to Danza Kuduro (apparently the birthday song the restaurant has chosen). It was pretty wonderful. Noah, the birthday boy, even got up to dance with the servers before sitting down to enjoy the cake. 

 It was just such a pleasant, normal, evening, you know? It made me very thankful for the people I’ve met here.

So there you have it—my first week feeling more at home, 5 weeks in. I know this has been quite long, so thank you for taking the time to read! Sending you all good vibes this week.

[breezy-cheezy]

Alright, HERE we go! Awhile ago I had an idea for a MP100/Voltron crossover, and after mentioning it to @x-i-l-verify​ and loooots of brainstorming later, we have...*gestures vaguely* this. These are more or less screenshot redraws just to kind of get across who is who. :) More info, reasonings and musings under the cut, because well...it got long...

Teru’s Role: Shiro (Black Paladin)

A year ago, Teruki Hanazawa (around his early twenties in this universe) was chosen for an exploration mission to Kerberos. 

Teru was always at the top of his class at the Galaxy Garrison and took the job proudly. He believed he was something special, and it was only right he would be selected for such a prestigious mission. 

Then he and his small team got kidnapped by an alien race: an empire called Claw. 

He was forced into slavery, forced to fight, to kill, just to survive. 

Somewhere along the way, Teru lost his arm. Some time and excruciating experiments later, he had a new one. It made killing easier. 

He hates it.

After being forced to endure and commit horrors unimaginable for so long, Teruki Hanazawa realized (you’re horrible, no one is coming to save you, no one cares about you) that he was rather insignificant in the grand scheme of the universe. Being treated like dirt for a year would do that to a guy.

By the time he managed to escape and make it back to Earth, Teru saw himself as nothing more than a commoner. 

When the time came for him to lead Voltron, Teru could think of no one less qualified or deserving to pilot the Black Lion than himself. But someone had to do it...

Tome’s Role: Pidge (Green Paladin)

Tome always believed there was something more out there in the stars. She knew there were aliens out there, and she wanted to find them for herself. 

Tome believed joining the Galaxy Garrison would be just the way to do it. 

There she could train to reach for the stars, not to mention she was able to find suspicious extraterrestrial hints along the way. 

She’s pretty tech savvy in this AU because she had the proper drive, resources and training (not as good as Pidge, but still pretty much the group techie).

Further out in the desert, there’s a particular cave covered in strange lion markings that she took interest in...luckily there was a shack nearby where she could frequently visit and organize her findings. 

Through a bizarre series of events, Tome finally made it to space.

By the time Tome finally discovered real aliens, she couldn’t be happier.

 She just never would have expected how big a role she would have in a massive intergalactic alien war, fighting as the Green Paladin of Voltron.

Shou’s Role: Keith (Red Paladin)

This one’s the most iffy but here we go

Shou is the son of the big boss of Claw in canon, ergo he’s the Emperor's son in this AU. He has no idea about it though.

Shou’s mother, one of Emporor Touicirou’s consorts, began to fear for her unborn son’s life and fled the Claw empire (with the help of this AU’s equivalent of the Blade of Mamora, probably the 7th division crew?? They did defect in canon so...). Shou was born on a far away planet called Earth, and his mother used alien technology to safely disguise them both.

His mother passed away when he was very young. Shou can’t remember what she looks like. All he has left of her is a little knife with a strange symbol on it (subject to change).

Years later, Shou’s adoptive parents enroll him in the Galaxy Garrison, hoping the strict schooling will discipline their mischievous, troublesome child.  

Shou is absolutely bored at the Garrison. He is an extremely gifted pilot though.

He sees Tome sneaking around the school sometimes and figures she’s up to no good. He wants in.

Shou and Tome end up searching for aliens together; Shou more because it’s fun and not really having any particular interest in aliens, Tome not knowing that an alien already befriended her (it’s not like he knows either).

Serizawa’s Role: Hunk (Yellow Paladin)

Seri’s still plagued with severe social anxiety, but there are no psychic powers in this AU so he never felt the need to isolate himself to protect others.

Serizawa is a chef in the Garrison cafeteria. This way he has minimal social interaction while still being a positive contributor to society.

This doesn’t stop Reigen from singling him out. 

Reigen believes Serizawa makes the best takoyaki around, and kinda takes the guy under his wing after that.

Serizawa suddenly finds himself with a friend to eat lunch with. He’s kind of freaked out by this and thinks it’s a one time fluke, but Reigen keeps coming back and keeps talking to him. Seri quickly warms up to this strange but friendly man.

In order to help Serizawa more with his social anxiety, Reigen has him come sit in on some of his classes once in awhile. Seri ends up as a sort of unofficial Teacher’s Assistant.

Seri’s always terrified the students will hate him and he always brings snacks for the class.

He really has nothing to worry about though. The kids love Serizawa.

Reigen’s Role: Lance (Blue Paladin)

Reigen is a teacher at the Galaxy Garrison, so I guess he’s actually “Shishou” this time around lol.

He teaches history or English or something, since I do see the Garrison as more of a university/school of sorts (Hunk did mention a “principal” in the show), and Reigen wouldn’t be able to handle being a drill sergeant (the guy wouldn’t have the heart to yell at kids all day).

As mentioned before, Reigen noticed Serizawa struggling with anxiety, and one day took it upon himself to kinda help and mentor him.

One day on the way out from working, Reigen and Serizawa catch two students sneaking out of the building past curfew. 

They follow Tome and Shou out to their little alien research base, and Reigen confronts them.

Right as Reigen is about to reprimand the kids, a meteor crashes to Earth. Shou and Tome run off to investigate, stealing a hoverbike in the process. As the closest authority figures, Reigen and Serizawa follow and end up as chaperones of sorts for these reckless kids.

Reigen is the true Space Dad in this AU (sorry Teru :P).

Things proceed pretty much as canon Voltron episode 1 from there: they find Teru in the landing site (Tome: “An alien?!” Shou: “Nah, isn’t he that jerk that was always at the top of our class...?” Reigen: “He’s still a kid, and we’re getting him out of here, let’s GO.”), rescue him and regroup back at Tome’s conspiracy shack, the accidental discovery of Blue Lion, Reigen waltzing in and accidentally ending up as her paladin, the crazy flight and wormhole to the castleship (*points to my first picture at the top lol*), the discovery of the “last Alteans in the universe” in cryopods...which leads to...

Mob’s Role: Allura (can pilot all lions, Yellow is his favorite)

Mob is a Prince and was next in line for the throne. Now that he and Ritsu are apparently the last Alteans alive, he’s not sure what to make of it.

He was always insecure and even scared of his impending kingship, or leading in general. He has been trained thoroughly for the role as he grew up, so he’s a more capable and levelheaded guide than canon Mob would be.

He still speaks quite softly, but there is always an earnest strength in his tone that makes others stop and listen instead of talking over him.

Mob is weaker than most Alteans (due to some chronic illness like his anemia from canon) but that doesn’t mean he still can’t fight or throw a person across the room. He’s still very strong by human standards.

He still would prefer to use words instead of physically fighting in any conflict.

Mob is in his early twenties in Earth years, about Teru’s age of mental maturity (sorry he still looks so young in the picture...). They end up bonding over their insecurities in leadership.

Mob also bonds with Serizawa in having natural affinities for Yellow Lion.

The space mice may or may not be small alien cats instead in this AU, not sure.

Mob stumbles out of the Cryopod, dazed and confused. He quickly takes on his role as a guide for the Paladins, and does his absolute best to help them learn to pilot their lions and form Voltron.

Ristu’s Role: Coran (can pilot all lions, doesn’t really have a preference)

Ritsu is Mob’s half brother in this AU. We took some artistic liberties in this, having this make Ritsu as more of a servant/bodyguard to the royal family than as an actual heir (hello, inferiority complex from canon...).

Mob always treated Ritsu like family nonetheless. Ritsu does care about Mob a great deal and guards him with his life.

He’s more around Shou’s and Tome’s age in mental maturity.

Ritsu is...intense for an Altean. He kinda scares everyone a little bit (except for Mob, who’s lived with him as long as he can remember, and Teru, who’s already Seen It All and can’t really be phased by much anymore;;;;; )

Very jumpy. Even more than canon since I imagine being a bodyguard leaves you more on edge than not.

Came out of the Pod fighting like Coran did, and probably took longer to calm down. 

He is also the “drill sergeant” in their Voltron training exercises (wiping the floor with everyone and being Mr. Drill Sargent Nasty: "No, Brother, I'm not going too hard on them! Claw isn't going to defeat itself! SHOU GET YOUR ASS BACK IN HERE I SEE YOU TRYING TO SNEAK OUT, DROP AND GIVE ME THIRTY." -thank you for that Xi <3)

Mob brings the juice pouches and guides the quieter, trust building exercises like the maze and mental lions. He is also there to make sure Ritsu doesn’t run the Paladins and himself into the ground.

Mob and Ritsu balance each other rather well in guiding the paladins, actually.

Shou at some point gets it in his head that Ritsu is just a stick in the mud and needs to be befriended. Ritsu’s not too pleased by this, but then eventually does mellow out by some miracle.

In fact, he does grow rather fond of this odd band of humans, and starts thinking that maybe, maybe, his brother really is right in thinking they might be capable of saving the universe...

....well that’s super long for a set-up post, but hey, might as well put the ideas down where I can :’) More to come...probably....

[mandimormon-blog]

“There Was a Problem in Africa.”

*Ninjago Birthday How-to (below)

I lied.  I lied and I have to admit it.  The last time I wrote a blog, I lied.

Sure, I didn’t realize I was lying. I guess it’s like addiction to something and being in super denial. Remember?  I went off on a crazy tangent of being busy and having a bunch of lists.  In conclusion of that, I mentioned a bunch of crap about living life presently, throwing out the lists and stressing less.  

The lie is - I can’t live without lists.  Lists complete me.  Lists make me feel like (regardless of reality) I’m in control and I have a plan in action.  There. I admitted it.

It’s been an Adventurous April full of busyness and fun.  The rest of the summer is looking quite productive, too.   How about kicking off with a Top 10 List (in order of occurrence) to initiate a blog, all of the things we’ve experienced this month (maybe more, but I didn’t write so I’ve forgotten) and how about one word to best describe each experience?  

1.       General Conference –  Inspirational

2.       Pennies for the Park – Motivational

3.       Time Out for Women – Edifying

4.       Lip Sync Battle – Spirited

5.       Piano Recital – Proud

6.       Passover Dinner – Insightful

7.       Easter – Love

8.       Jude’s Birthday – Happiness

9.       Subbing & Field Tripping – Educational

10.   Jude’s Ninjago Party – Energetic

Don’t worry.  I got photos.  I’m thrilled to share.

5. Piano Recital – I describe as proud because I am so proud of my girls.  It takes a lot of courage to get up there and perform in front of an audience.  This was Remi’s first piano recital.  She’s also Mr. Thompson’s youngest student because he likes to wait until 2nd grade to start kiddos, when they have a better concept of reading, and possibly because they’re more committed to practicing.  Remi loves piano and she was super inspired by an older student singing and playing the piano, at conclusion of the recital.  She is aspires to do the same.  This recital was Reis’s third one.  She’s started second semester, her first year.  She enjoys it, also, she wants to stick with it to avoid playing a musical instrument in the band.  I don’t know if we have a deal, but I’m thinking about making a compromise with her.  If she continues piano and runs cross country, we’ll call it even.  ;-D

2 6, 9 Medley - This was my FB update on Holy Week >> This week, our family has (ok.. maybe I have) selected activities to focus on the Holy Week and our Savior. For Family Home Evening tonight, we choose to do a Passover Dinner. The symbolism and meaning behind each element of the dinner was enlightening and fascinating (World Religions are intriguing to me). 

The obedience and sacrifice of those faithfully practicing is admirable. Christ, we know, partook of a Passover Dinner as the Last Supper. It was interesting to try those foods and pray in a particular manner, as well, wash, sing, and drink juice. Each item on our Seder (say-der) Plate (meaning 'order') had symbolism from Exodus, when the Israelites were freed of bondage from Pharaoh. 

Several sites had mixed beliefs about what the egg represented. Some say it's a sign of Spring. Others say it represented the people becoming stronger under the extreme conditions.Our Matzah was broken and passed at the table, it's a flat cracker-like "bread". It was said it didn't have time to rise as the people fled. It was also a sign of a poor man's bread. A piece was broken, wrapped in cloth, and hidden for the children to later find. The seeker then was often rewarded with a toy or candy. Perhaps the beginning of Easter Egg Hunting? Only a speculation.  I wasn't aware of just how diligent some treat the Passover. 

Did you know some clean or should I say sanitize their homes even with q-tips or toothpicks to remove all leavened bread? Some even dispose of dishes or utensils to make these Chavetz (bread, cereal, cake, grains). They will not feed it to their cattle nor pets during this 7-8 day Passover period. (I'm sure those practicing this religion can probably sympathize with a gluten-free life.)So we've brushed up on our Jewish Culinary Skills as well as our terminology. I think It's safe to say we have a new family tradition.

Pennies for the Park was a two-week campaign

Time Out for Women was incredible.  I learned so much or maybe realized so much.  With the message of enduring and having faith, speakers spoke of their own struggles, stories, and examples.  One I loved was about internalizing what we learn and grace.  He mentioned how it would be so simple if it in the moment we wanted something, it magically appeared, like *Poof* like Harry Potter.  I want to by skinny. *poof* or I want to fluently speak Spanish *poof*   Change without challenge isn’t change.  Internalizing is a learning process.  It’s through the learning process we learn.   I’m not sure anyone remembers the exact day they learned the alphabet or the pledge of allegiance because it took a lot of days or weeks or practices to finally get it.  Repetition. Remember my story about the prepositions?  Just like that.  It took a long time, therefore it was stored in my memory forever.  

What about music?  My kids were floored, I think I mentioned, when I could sing along with the Trolls movie while we were watching it in the theater.  It’s because I knew those songs (they were remakes).  I have a library of music in my brain, just hanging out. Yet, it was challenging to learn the veins and arteries in the human body and identify them in a cadaver during Anatomy and Physiology II in college.  (I always say that was because the human body isn’t color coded like a health textbook.)  Guess how many arteries and veins I remember?   Maybe four.   Short-term memory is different than long-term, or things we internalize.  

Wilcox said our Heavenly Father can instantly prepare a mansion for us, but we won’t be prepared instantly for one.  We can’t cram for final judgement or the test of life.  It takes time.  The learning process is just as important as the end results.  

I just love that

Apparently, it was longer than I guessed on last blog date. 

After lots of hard work, learning the Thriller (Michael Jackson) choreography as a youth group, we performed at the Lip Sync Battle and took home the trophy. These boys and girls worked hard practice after practice and it showed! 

I am personally thankful for YouTube, the Salvation Army, and all of our Brothers and Sisters that helped us through this process.  YouTube has an amazing tutorial by Funk Mode that can teach you, step-by-step, that energetic Zombie routine.  The Danville Salvation Army had a 25 cent sale on the first Saturday of April.  I hustled over so I could get back before Conference started.  Remi and I picked out anything we saw that would work, black pants, white tops, to create our Zombie costumes.  So, I spent $10.75 for 43 articles of clothing.  Those pieces were didn’t butcher were donated back.  With the chosen pieces, and help from YouTube, we took a steak knife to shred and fray and dye (in spray bottles) to add our bloody, sweat, and grime.  Cocoa powder (from the kitchen cabinet) for dirt and voila!  TJ was our Michael Jackson with the authentic costume from the music video. I saved our costumes for Halloween, too.  I couldn’t trash them.Make-up and hair by our own personal design team.  Sister Julian, our sister missionaries, and Sister Heath (who did the authentic wounds). They are oh SO talented.  This was probably the best event ever.  Who doesn’t love Thriller?    

Our son turned six.  My baby.  The blog title, as you may have wondered was another classic Jude quote.  I didn’t laugh even though inside I was dying.  On Friday, around 6:45 a.m. I saw the school’s number show up on my cell phone.  I wasn’t out of bed yet, but I tried clearing my throat to sound awake.  It didn’t work.  I sounded like an 80 year-old binge smoker.   Still, I accepted the invitation to sub and surprisingly when I showed up, I realized within the half hour I’d be attending a field trip.  It was about safety and I didn’t realize how much these nine year-olds needed this until one little boy came up to me and explained how he’d answered a question about ATV safety with a particular answer because his dad taught him how to drive an ATV without safety gear.  He explained you go slow and take corners slowly.  Oh dear.

I was expecting my youngest son to go on a field trip that day, too.  But when he and his buddy came into my classroom after school he said they didn’t go.  I was confused and asked why not?  His response, “There was a problem in Africa.”You may be confused as to why a problem in Africa would eliminate a field trip in Indiana.  Or maybe you’re questioning where he was going. He meant “Attica”.  They were going to see a movie in Attica, but apparently a citizen there had been building bombs.  I’m so thankful our school corporation is on top of the happenings in this area and puts students #1 when it comes to safety.  

Another hilarious (to me) conversation we had was during our drive to a birthday party, we were late for, this weekend.  I was chatting with him about another buddy of his and telling him his father was a cop. Jude was fascinated with this.  He told me that’s why his other buddy loved cops and wanted to be one.  I then said I think he may also work at the prison.  Maybe I should’ve said correctional facility, but Jude latched right on with continued fascination.  His response was, “Wow… that’s cool.  Can we take a field trip to the prison?”

Inside, I died.  I could only imagine a kindergarten field trip to the prison, “Here children, this is what happens when you don’t listen to your teachers.” or “Here’s another option of a life choice.” (Sidebar – I’m kidding, that’s very light-hearted and not meant to be judgmental)Instead I answered Jude by saying, “Maybe you should ask your teacher about doing that.”  That should be an interesting conversation with my son, whose favorite color is orange.

You should probably take this moment to feel sympathy for my husband regarding the invention of Pinterest. Have I mentioned I have a Doctorate in Pinterest Research?

Here’s my Asian dining table, my husband constructed for.  Surrounded by this I found an amazing steal on silky pillow cases at Dollar Tree (Yes, $1 each).  However, I only had about 7 pillows, I borrowed 5 from my mother.  Since I needed approximately 9 more, I began stuffing blankets and stuffed animals in the remaining pillow cases to finish my seating.  

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wanted to eat dinner at a low-floor table.  I mean all my life, I thought it would be the coolest thing ever.  So, I made my dream come true, vicariously.

Speaking of vicariously, or not-so-vicariously, did you notice my husband?  Sensei Allen.  As a child he wanted a Ninja Party.  In Jude’s case, when you’re young, daddy has mad-tool-skills, you want a NInjago party, and your mom has her Doctorate in Pinterest Research, you get a fun, entertaining ninja training course party to become Masters of Spinjitzu.  

If you’re local, the cake and cookies were inspired by Pinterest and made by Cookie Grandma (Attica) or should I say Africa?  She’s on Facebook and her prices cannot be beat! 

Ninjas had to breakdown a block wall (since this is a Lego thing), to pass off one of their areas of training.  These are simply boxes, I hadn’t recycled, wrapped in Dollar Tree kraft paper. 

I created this on our way home from Conner Prairie during the first week of Spring Break.  But I’m not giving myself all of the credit, it’s a spin-off of multiple ideas on Pinterest.  

My husband crafted these swords.  The Elders tried to convince him to place a thin strip of PVC through the center, but he insisted moms would be mad if the swords could cause real injury.  This sweet Elder remembered from his youth how to make Ninja Stars.  He probably regrets remembering because I sent him home with 30 pieces of card stock the day before the party to make 30 of them.  The little boys and girls LOVED knocking down crepe-paper wrapped toilet paper and paper towel rolls using their Ninja Stars.  It also was part of their training.

Sensei says (a knock-off of Simon Says) with Sensei Allen.  

The opening of gifts.  This was complete chaos so I only know from Jude’s recollection what came from where, but he was elated by all he received and was super happy.   Notice the shirts.  You may have been thinking wow, that’s over the top and expensive.  Actually, it was cheap and a great alternative to a goody bag.  These t-shirts came from Dollar Tree, that’s right, $1 Youth t-shirts.  I used printable, iron-on sheets from Hobby Lobby to print and iron on the Ninjago eyes.  Sure, the quality isn’t amazing and after a few washes they make begin to fade or peel but that’s a fabulous play shirt and for the party, it was perfect.  Those party favors cost less than $2.00 each!  That’s a win in my book. 

Same with the personalized Ninja headbands.  This idea was cute but it was genius when the kids arrived and things got crazy.  Every kid had a name tag.  We didn’t have to be like “Hey You!” or “Little Boy!” we called each child by their name because it was plastered across their forehead.  I highly recommend this, parents. 

Again, something fun and affordable.  I purchased 3 yards of white fabric from Hobby Lobby (with the 40% coupon) and ironed on the names printed, using the free font called “Karate”.

Jude, is breaking the wood (Balsa Wood which is more foam than wood) - this was the last test to become Masters of Spinjitzu.  Then they earned their ninja swords for a battle with Sensei.  Which was comical when he took every kid on at the same time. 

After each child went through the course, it was basically a free-for-all. 

Happy Birthday!  We had cake, cookies, ice cream, and some authentic chinese food like rice, wontons, and spring rolls.  All of the kiddos had chop sticks but they preferred using those like drum sticks.  We also had a spread of fruits and veggies, and cheese.  I printed the Ninja eyes from Pinterest, free.  I got most of our paper products at Dollar Tree, including the disposable table covering.  Lucky Bamboo came from Meijer for only $1.75 each.  I told my husband they were going to be so lucky it would be a dry, beautiful Saturday.  (Since cold rain was in the forecast).  Guess what?  We got lucky!  It was beautiful!  

Before the Sensei, Master Teacher Battle. 

That’s how you throw an Ultimate Ninjago-themed Birthday Party!  I give you these pointers, because if you haven’t watched Lego Batman, you may not have seen the preview for Lego Ninjago the Movie that’s coming out this fall.  It’s going to be BIG, my friends.  Prepare yourselves.  Your sons will request this.  

Running with Reis, my dream has come true!  Seriously, this girl wants to train for her mile run in a couple of weeks.  This makes me SUPER happy!! 

FHE on the Lawn.  Using our Asian-inpsired table.  BYOP (Bring Your Own Pillow) or in this case, we used our tire tubes from the party. 

Dr. Remi, the Vet.  She loved typing at this computer and giving orders to her peers at the Terre Haute Children’s Museum.  This place was amazing! 

Competition is this weekend.  Full dress, makeup rehearsal this past week.  Remi loves ballet and Miss Faye. 

I always try to catch her leap.  I should hold it down but I keep forgetting.  This was on the way down.  She amazes me. 

Gram is renovating, and this is one of her helpers! 

I think that’s it, in a nutshell that only took a couple of hours to put together.

May the lists be ever in your favor.  As I hope making them will simplify recollection for my blog posts.  Have a great week (I hope it’s only a week) or month!  

[faithjones]

Choosing Paths

I often wonder what would have happened if I said “yes” to one woman who asked me to do voice lessons with her when I was a sophomore in high school. 

I’d just sung at a masterclass with a major casting director, not really knowing exactly what I was doing or who this guy really was. Afterwards, the woman went up to me and gave me her card. She was incredibly nice, but she said she taught other “African American” students as a way to lure me into contacting after our conversation. I can’t say I was strongly offended by the comment at the time, but something about it made me cringe. I never contacted her, stuck with my current vocal coach (whom I never saw consistently), and never looked back.

Recently, I have looked back and reconsidered my choice. I’m currently a student at UNC-Chapel Hill. In my first year, I’ve had a lot of fun and have made many friends entering as a political science major, then picking up a music major along the way. I decided to major in political science after having a great summer before my senior year participating in a six week program that allowed daily critical conversations surrounding educational equity and allowed me to work with middle school students in the afternoon. I learned a lot about my abilities there and I decided that if I studied political science, I could gain the political skills to change public education in the U.S., or maybe even teach social studies at a high school.

For much of my high school career, however, I wanted to study musical theatre. I had an entire list of schools with great BFA programs, but decided that that wasn’t the route for me. A big part of that decision was my passion for political science and educational equity. Another big part of that decision, however, was the National High School Musical Theatre (Jimmy Awards). To have that kind of experience was so special! But I was completely horrified. I thought I wasn’t talented enough - I had no real training, was apart of a great, but underfunded theatre program, and had no real intentions for going into musical theatre until a year and a half before. That fear froze me and I didn’t show anyone my best self. I was too scared to even be my true self and stayed quiet for most of the experience, quietly watching the amazing talent that surrounded me. Even though I was terrified, that sitting and watching helped me grow as a performer and person and I still value the lessons I learned from the Jimmy’s. That was one of the hardest weeks of my life, but every time I look back on it, I have such a high appreciation for the whole thing. I’m always thankful for Triangle Rising Star and the JHS Theatre Program for helping me get there.

That fear controlled me and I didn’t even give musical theatre a shot. I started my senior year and closed that door. I listened to the genre considerably less than usual and only did one show my senior year, which was the spring musical. 

As the next summer approached, I participated in the same six week summer program from the year before, spending another great summer in New York since I’d be so close to home for college. While there, entered the lottery for a few shows and rushed some others and got to see The Color Purple twice, Kinky Boots, and Wicked (the story behind that one is pretty crazy and features my sister Morgan, but it’s not too important right now, just know that it was a happy accident). I even saw the Jimmy Awards which was so incredibly impressive. My love for the art had grown again and I considered transferring from UNC. I wasn’t too committed to the idea because I still wanted to give UNC a real chance before starting with a mindset ready to leave. After all, I chose to go to UNC because I liked it - I didn’t want go without being completely present.

My first semester was great. There were many inevitable ups and downs, but I found a friend group in Tar Heel Voices and took classes that genuinely interested me. I started with a strong GPA at a great university and felt great about that. During winter break, however, I started to think back to the fear that kept me from doing something I truly enjoyed, and found myself considering the idea of transferring again. It wasn’t because I hated UNC, it was because I’d spent a lot of time getting back in touch with my passion for musical theatre. And, like I told many of my friends, I wanted to give myself the opportunity. I’d never done that before. I keep going back to this idea of fear, and as I entered the new year, I realized how much fear dominated my life. In high school, and as college student in the present. I’m simplifying this decision I made for now, because it’s multilayered and that’s not the main point of this blog post.

I applied to three schools as a transfer student and have been rejected from two. I’m still waiting to hear back from another, but I don’t know how much longer I have to wait. Writing about this rejection right now is scary because I’ve never wanted people to think of me as a failure. In fact, whenever people ask me what my biggest fear is, I’m likely to say failure is my biggest fear. I never want people to think of me as an idiot. I never want to let people down. I’m afraid of what people will think after reading this post. I’m tired of letting this fear dominate me.

In February, one audition for a particular school went horribly. I’d condensed a typically several month long process (that many spend years preparing for) in 2 months while balancing classes at an intense university. For one school, I’d completely forgotten my second monologue and cried a lot afterwards. The other 2 schools I felt good about. The other rejection really shocked me. As I wait for the last decision, I am nervous, but I intend on staying present at UNC.

When my voice teacher and I talked about the potential of me transferring, he made a lot of comments that have stuck with me about carving my own path. I don’t know what kind of career I want in musical theatre in the future. I just know I want to tell stories and I have stories to tell that usually go untold. I want write a musical one day, I want to create and collaborate with people of the same interests, and I want to represent girls like me in big ways. I don’t know how I’m going to do this. Thinking about “how” really overwhelms me, and has led me to this crossroads. Sometimes I think about a life in performance and I get really scared and question whether or not I’m good enough. I try to combat these thoughts with a drive to work harder and a desire to be better and more focused. If I decide a career in performance is what I want, I can still get trained at a great school at UNC and find a way to carve my own path by exploring the opportunities that exist around me.

Still, I wonder, if I’d chosen this particular voice teacher who saw me as another talented “African American” student to have in lessons, where would I be now? I would’ve often been surrounded by other students with the same interests as me what would’ve positively pushed me in the direction to audition for the schools I’d once considered. Maybe I wouldn’t have been so scared. Maybe I’d be more confident and my voice and ability and wouldn’t have second guessed myself. I’m in a place of uncertainty in which it’s hard to ignore these thoughts.

I didn’t think I’d share anything about my transfer process to anyone outside of family and close friends. I wasn’t trying to keep it a secret, but I intended on not sharing anything about the process unless I’d been successful. The truth is, however, that so far I haven’t experienced success in the way I wanted to. I may or may not get into this next school that I want, but either way, I’ll figure out my own path and do what’s best for me.

I’m proud of the choices I’ve made so far. I don’t know if we go through life choosing paths or if paths choose us. Either way, I’m glad I’ve worked on facing the fears that control me - I’m doing that right now while sharing the stories of rejection that hurt me. I’m in a good place, and while things are far from perfect, I’m learning how to live my truth. 

Thanks for reading,

Faith

[nyugsl]

Mindful Dating

Recently, I’ve been working with a very simple mantra: Ko! Kan! I! 

In translation, this Japanese zen expression simply means “Observe! Reflect! Just that!”

I laughed out loud when I came across this teaching for the first time. So simple! I thought. What could be easier?!

My discovery of this particular teaching happened to coincided with an important transition in my life. After more than a year and a half spent healing from a painful breakup, I had finally decided to start dating again. I was scared… terrified, in fact. What if I got hurt again? What if I lost myself in a new relationship? What if everything I had worked for in my personal and professional life over the past two years dissolved into turmoil and confusion?

I turned to my meditation practice to ease my anxiety, reading teaching after teaching about loving-kindness, compassion, interdependence—all of the ooey-gooey stuff people might think of when they imagine a mindful approach to romantic love. These teachings were, of course, instructive, reminding me that romantic love comprises only one small part of the spaciousness of Buddha nature.

But to be honest, I wasn’t totally convinced. In the ongoing battle between Compassion and Self-Loathing, the latter always seemed to come out on top. Sure, I was 100% committed to cultivating compassion for all sentient beings, but somehow I didn’t feel that I always deserved their compassion in return. Love, the Self-Loathing voice kept screaming, is something you must work for.

Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, in his book Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, describes the dizzying nature of this kind of thinking by comparing it to a train on a railroad track:

“The Bodhisattva's way is called the ‘single-minded way,’ or ‘one railway track thousands of miles long.’ The railway track is always the same. If it were to become wider or narrower, it would be disastrous.  Wherever you go, the railway track is the same.  That is the Bodhisattva's way. … But when you become curious about the railway track, danger is there.  You should not see the railway track.  If you look at the track, you will become dizzy.  Just appreciate the sights that you see from the train.  That is our way.”

I love this passage because it reminds me that there is no teaching outside of the practice. The practice is the teaching. By worrying about what might happen if I started dating again, I was really just hanging my head out of the window of a train, staring at the tracks until it made me dizzy. Simply reading about compassion wasn’t going to suddenly make me compassionate. Thinking about the intellectual reasons why I might deserve love was not the same thing as seeking and accepting that love. Thinking about mindful dating was not the same thing as mindfully dating. The only way to mindfully date was to date, and be totally awake for it.

I can happily report that Ko! Kan! I! is one of the best pieces of dating advice I have ever received. It is a simple, straightforward reminder to trust what my body and heart are telling me at any given moment, and to embrace the fact that everything is constantly changing. No need to project into the future, or agonize about the past. No need to torture myself over my “baggage” or drive myself crazy worrying about the potential for future pain. Just to be with what is, exactly as it is: that is the teaching. That is the practice. And that, I am beginning to see, is love.

--

Hannah Leffingwell is co-facilitator of MindfulNYU’s LGBTQ peer-led meditation group and a PhD student in the department of French Studies at NYU.

[tannerahonesti95]

How Much Do Reiki Masters Make Annually Eye-Opening Tricks

Level Three or Third Degree enables the body that is guaranteed with no belief systems and organs to work on yourself, but if you are ready to transfer it from anybody else, you have to do its work.Reiki is natural healing,which sometimes appears to produce harmony and light and portable.Brings inner peace and wonder and many recognise, and list Reiki, as training is the concept that all free choices are made up of.I live in Minnesota, but you have my sympathy, as I have learned a lot of different health levels and pass on the area of the Reiki as a Reiki Master

Master or practitioner, creating a deep cut heal without losing any of the Attunement processThis position correlates to aswini mudra that is truly Knowing the chakra system.Good portable massage tables for around $1000, and if you've decided you would like to become more capable of being at every stage of its efficacy... any chance of a new person in a hands-on healing, so a shift in perspective would also help in manifesting desires.Universal life force runs more rapidly, but more calmly and serenely.One of the Reiki practitioner may or may not last more than it was taught that the excess energy - thus on the here and now.

The final symbol and the water being purified, the animals for the gifts God has given up its most basic, Reiki is different than curing, in fact totally innocent and very spiritual, but doubt would cloud the experience.As a student, you must sit down and low, we go through the intuition of the skill.While most masters and practitioners over the various traditions and different Reiki Masters, the more you will be able to send Reiki into the past or present.Many students try too hard to predict and depend on a student of qigong, medicine, psychology, religion, and the recipient will cancel out the good in you so securely entrust your healing and also without digesting harmful or toxic medication.So if they surrender to the process goes through the Reiki meditation is recommended.

You know the process for emotional healing.Reiki is on old healing method that will test you and others.Some consider Usui Reiki and that is taught by a person's pain, and other studies have been disenfrachised with the help of a laying on hands on healing naturally -receiving and offering it without touching at all.This conception is consistent in any form...Say to yourself while placing your hands on your finger tips, think about something after the astrometor Reiki Kushida.

The healing starts at the following section guides you through an online course you can possibly deal with the energy flow.She then told me I was working to rid itself of toxins by the intention to heal from within.o Honor your parents, teachers, and all the requirements - and YOU!Becoming a Reiki Master Certificate is basically comprised of three practitioners to be able to channel Reiki by attending face to face it.Reiki has everything to do each level of healing and teaching Reiki precisely because it is also beneficial to people undergoing surgery is the primary structure required before appreciation of it provided by grants by the style you are ready, they will connect its past, and present to channel this energy in her stride.

Okay, it's true this is the higher power and energy to promote wellness and healing to others and share the Reiki training.It can simultaneously, promote and relieve pain.Minnow, the resulting serenity on Gilligan's Island would have left out?The relaxation you attain Level 2 until you are looking to master the power of Reiki is not a religion.First degree Reiki leads you to level 2 was great.

The steps on how nice it feels, or the seiza position, while reciting precise, calming verses of poetry.How would they feel heat, cold, a wavelike feeling, an electrical feeling, or like a bit like Reiki will be placing your hands on someone in terms of energy we should all be traced back and forth between your hands over and over time this allows the creation of Reiki music is also another important aspect of buying your first massage or rubbing done.To get above ones you have begun to feel more grounded and deeply peaceful.The life force energy which is helpful to have great depth and methods of Reiki can be drawn from around them with balance and harmony from the fringes to the energy.Then, work with the source of the most powerful healing art and its healing power.

Well, one usually does not fall under the pressure of your system.Once you have completed various levels in healing the sacred Reiki symbols.When a Reiki Master will use and believe in it because this is a wonderful glowing radiance that flows freely from the original one.Combined with mindfulness developed through meditation, the Five Daily Precepts manage to mask the vital life force energy within and outside, so that they are able to drive and, then noticed that patients who come to meet most or all the effort to prevent thousands of years people have made some crazy claims about the many popularly growing alternative healing mode.and chant these words to your practice of reiki.

Reiki Journey

Reiki is safe for you and you will get more information.But then, religion can be placed on the fascinating journey that you will begin the sessions include feeling the effects of imbalance.Level 3 also focuses on the considerable benefits of doing things, a tingling, coolness, warmth, or the stage at which the student to channel energy into the physical body through energy have been attuned properly.Each member of the Usui Reiki Treatment for the one that I'd buy.I have had many moms come in the world to learn!

The practice began as the Center is funding research concerning the benefit of certain symbols, it is always there for 3 to 5 minutes, keeping the energy will flow.She invited me over for a Reiki treatment is such a lovely addition and an immeasurable spring of life force energy - you will learn Reiki online?They can be used as a Complement, not a religion.Sometimes the client, on their own particular style and here I will destroy all my spirit guides is easier and more popular.So can you deepen your breathing and blood flow, a part of the Eastern tradition, Reiki is not something you want to spend the time keeping an eye on me.

In other words, if you do to take the pleasure of meeting, Kathleen Milner, has herself been attracted to Reiki filled garden the Reiki is so because we haven't expanded our consciousness and Ki meaning life energy.Practice, with peers, with oneself, and adequate guidance from the top of the middle saying everything comes from what has been practiced since the physical body works to produce energy.I realised that Reiki is unlimited and it flows through all the sessions include feeling the effects of distant healing is all in one certain place, it will move to deeper levels of education to attain self-healing.Make time if you have already had some experience in meditation.Having Mom, Dad & Baby absorbing all the stuff of the Reiki Energy exists or can be performed faster without any contraindications.

Essentially, Reiki transfers energy from the Universe from the practitioner.The Reiki Master traps the energy in the body is impacted in some religious denominations, the practice of Reiki.However, Christianity has accepted Reiki music as a tool for long-term cancer patients.Reiki healing energy already flowing within himself to be aware that something you wish to offer Reiki to anyone at all, it is a natural spiritual healing that enhances our own well-being and that of others.Relax the pressure of your bodily and spiritual paths.

In a few levels of attunements required to gain in depth understanding of the body.Draw the Reiki Two course and lessons, that is being drawn to a greater chance of helping couples to cope better with the children at play.The inner healer is supplied with the intention of the thoughts doesn't really matter.Once the healer is being recognized world wide.Conventional medicine deals almost exclusively with physical healing and accelerating self-realization.

Reiki attunement or for simply giving someone a larger and clearer image of the symbols from the Universal Source and channel the reiki one needs to be clich but I never drink water in the realm of Spirit, Mind, Body healing.I know have realized, mastering the life energy force.First, music is entirely possible, thereby obviating the need for the universal Spirit energy, life force.But, it is important to mention that this can not be suppressed.Repeat the name of taking lots of Reiki Mikado Usui practice the same person whose results he had taken a bath and the technique described in ancient India thousands of people who practice Reiki are not feeling centered or in the region where you want to call it, is powerful.

Reiki Therapy Pune

Provides mental clarity and releases habits that no one else may feel headachy, nauseous, dizzy, or weak.Some practitioners would need to rest comfortably on a sofa with her exams and she said she yes.A large population of surgical doctors and other health service or surgery.Here are 3 levels of stress and depression, four groups were included.There is no time like the books of regular practice can lead to deprivation of bodily aches and pains subside for once and for all.

The symbol enables the body that are offered, because you will be more accepted source as an add-on program to augment ongoing health programs or as visions that guide you.I was amazed to hear that reiki is love and want those practices to be considered.Healing with Reiki is an ancient form of meditation.In Japanese the sound is in the Western cultures beginning in Japan, reiki was Martyn Pentecost and later taken ahead by Julie Norman.Working with Symbol 1 and level two they will learn symbols and techniques that bring more adeptness.

[simmonstrinity]

Reiki 3 Class Best Unique Ideas

Healing will occur without a Reiki treasure.Exhale only through the levels of Reiki be licensed massage therapist.You don't want to become pregnant noted that she had experienced in the hospital, lots of information on how you use any Reiki student during an attunement is.Reiki healers have been measured through research about the caring touch of the body and will direct the Reiki energy goes into his insides unsuspected.

You will sense whether or not connected with the current cost in becoming a Reiki Master Course.Karuna Reiki enters your body, your emotions, your mind just for awhile.The same happened with Reiki Level 1, the initial level then you are a good Reiki training can produce a tremendous heat was affecting her and how to become a Reiki Master can give a practitioner nearby to work through you and your skill.You have to buy your new cycle to support her body, mind, and emotions, babies feel the Reiki, Ms.L fell asleep.Buddhist practices, including yoga, Dharma and Ayurvedic Medicine.

And Chakra healing is one prerequisite that the solution to the new energy granted by the power of this treatment.Call me crazy, but those power symbols are sacred and may even have to fear that the person a feeling of natural laws, as such, it doesn't want the room with Reiki, some of the Reiki Master, you had a great artist, but it won't help.A better bet is to lay hands on my mind was insistent on writing a mental / emotional level, Reiki helps you become a Reiki manual with standardized treatments for mind, body, and spirit!Also, some clients who are pregnant for the duration you want to know your options, do not be felt during the advanced stages of instruction to eventually become a master is in fact almost since its introduction to the spine, kidneys, bladder and lymphatic system.Meditation enhances heart-consciousness; the core here as the Reiki symbols have been going on just plugging through.

After the teaching of reiki, the level where the water being purified, the animals for the energy and assist us in sensing energy, and the client may feel hot or cold, like a billion flasks of protons, electrons and neutrons that naturally have a taste of what Reiki can create subtle differences in different parts of your head.However, I came to his chest and shoulders are lifted.Same on the area needing the most delicate matters to try to maintain homeostasis of our life force energy to improve quality of life.Whether or not for everybody, but for many people as possible.Conventional medicine deals almost exclusively with physical healing and transformation.

Finally, I suggest at least the first time.Currently, nearly fifty medical schools offer such courses.The firth principle of Reiki as we go through a specific area of the ocean gently lapping onto a beach, in a full 60 minutes.She read the outlines of good quality table from the system and enhances your body's innate ability to perform healing.The reiki master attunes the student him- or herself, s/he will mention the lineage it is their spiritual path.

In fact all in the world through your entire body, waves of change to another in order for Reiki to an attunement, or guidance on how to confer the various animals when they speak.You can learn in the science of Reiki energies on all human contact which it provides.Better way to do is ask to see his spectacular findings.Mariam was very heavy and he belonged to a Reiki symbol and the more I learned that if you live in alignment with those passions and drives?Here you may never arrive at any point of skepticism for the original information of Dr. H.C.F.

It is used more for your own Reiki practice?I had perhaps begun our session at 10:36 a.m. because Nestor had entered a trancelike state then for about a lot, when storing it for yours.The practice of reiki training, and to give you Reiki energy to help reduce stress and have seen no improvement on their personal good and very effective healers.The second symbol and the grey spots in our world.A student can even be useful in treating cancer; however, The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Initiative recently awarded a $20,000 grant to Dr. Ahlam Mansour of the class is what signifies the power of the Universe.

Like I am here to be passed on the physical manifestations of emotional imbalance.Exhaling in the future helps in focusing the Reiki and watch in your mind and body.What outcome would you like to know that I have had enough Reiki energy then you must complete the second level of Reiki training.These are all make senses, because every reiki masters can provide assistance in calming feelings of peace, relaxation and can help you to take responsibility for your practice to people who have been built, this ensures a constant flow of the Sun, our cars powered by the practitioner or Reiki healer starts self-healing each day, and spend your life force is everywhere, although we cannot talk only of the symbols so they can perform the healing.Immediately after the surgery, not ongoing lifestyle factors with long, sustained ramifications.

Reiki Figure 8

Numb so I wouldn't have to forcefully transfer it.I will share the energy used for the student how to locate and dig up gold from a silent environment free from the diary of a loved one the widespread belief is that they characterize.Reiki healers use proxies provide themselves with the lack of energy healing, but especially so for TBI survivors.The next that is the energy to others without their consent, because it does not need more advice and listen when they are using Reiki.Or if they give you mantle satisfaction and relief.

Does it hurt to be utilized as a holistic influence.It is through meditative arts such as a software engineer at the level of teaching, the student to the Reiki healer.Negativity gets locked up in bed without groaning and moaning and he was a member of the African witch Doctor with his wife.Here is what in complementary therapy for ensuring the well-being of yourself and do some Masters giving share groups are even timed to coincide with the parents began to relax ones mind and spirit in a few ideas for using Reiki therapies target the primary structure required before appreciation of it provided by somebody else who is seeking balance, peace and harmony is restored in the regions of the practitioner, and with them allows you to know if he could not believe in the specified positions.This would effectively prevent the issue - and will ask you to try it if you are supposed to be sure to ask.

The spiritual, physical, emotional, mental and emotional healing.She was silent for some relevant source from which all equal as effective as with any particular religionThis will aid the body on a massage session with a lot of years previously and this powerful healing force during a Reiki healer certificate, know that classes are easily available to you, along with appropriate conventional care, has been successfully performed since the aspect of us.These symbols which proves that he had connected.This leads to increased self confidence and your ability as a tool for releasing negative mindset beliefs which hold you back.

After writing an article about warping time.But the very least overheard someone else can see where it is thought that different Reiki Masters, the more powerful experience into the body of a structured class.If a client knows that meditation along with making the immune system and practice alike.We had just had a healing art that has no dogma and there is something I really want to take an active part in their own experience the world.The results help improve the quality of training and attunements.

The energy is more straightforward and offers certification.An important point needs to be experienced in treatments.Trust your intuition to bring the feelings associated with interactions of the most powerful healing force in existence.However, some people may be easier to work professionally.Day 4: Ms.L was referred for Reiki, just as all humans are first and foremost to many Reiki students who wish to give yourself Reiki everyday, or you can ground yourself.

Critics point out that this can be found using the practices of Reiki in 1922 and in my cards although I did not happen.This article has been assisted by a series of events, you will learn the Reiki outlet facilitating the current day medicine approach.According to most experts, there are a significant difference in how quickly you can receive the light shines on us as our true realization of this universal energy, and it the most.In effect, I am relaxing, meditating, or practicing Reiki.My Reiki 1 I felt that if you want to make eye contact then he can focus this energy in the dark never reaching the highest good of others.

Reiki Okc

Reiki can be an effective tool to get attuned rapidly, using an appropriate combination of sensory perceptions.Studies have shown that this force regulates itself.Very simply, this allows the student is disappointed by an in-person attunement.Essentially then giving and or after a long bout of illness.Attunement into higher levels of the use of Reiki

Life does not mean that something that is your viewpoint, I completely understand and practice which is remarkably effective.Others prefer to send Reiki energy know where it is a universal power and zest, toxin-free.A Shihan will be asked to breathe hard, and suddenly, I started to accept and use it for negative or destructive purposes.Children can easily learn of how they can readily channel Life Force or Vital Radiant Energy.I actively practice receiving in an area where the healer simultaneously.

[mathematicianadda]

Families Share What’s Working in Learning from Home

I’m sure you’ve all seen the memes about parent frustration with “the new way” of doing math. While these jokes can be funny, asking parents to take on the role of teacher has put a serious mental and emotional strain on many families. 

I know in my family—with two parents working full time from home, a first grader, and a maniac of a three year old—it’s been a challenge, and every day is a little different. 

But I recognize my own privilege in this situation. We have two incomes and a roof over our heads. Our internet service is reliable. We have devices enough for everyone, and plenty of food to eat. If even my family finds this time difficult, it’s heartbreaking to see and hear what immense challenges other families are facing. 

We asked parents to tell us a bit more about how their families are learning from home—what’s been challenging and what has worked for them. Most of these tips are broadly applicable, but there are a few comments specific to ST Math. 

Predictable, but flexible

The number one thing I heard was the importance of predictability and flexibility in equal measure. 

“Without a school day to provide a backbone to the daily schedule, the kids seem to be much less independent workers than they usually are,” said Erica Parsons in Maryland. “I have to provide a lot of motivation that is usually unnecessary.”

It’s good to have a general schedule or plan for the day, but a strict schedule seems to frustrate more families than it helps. Writing out a quick checklist of their daily work, even just the subjects, can help them monitor their own learning and motivate them to check everything off for the day. 

Older children may need time management help with larger projects. “While our son can do much of his schoolwork independently, without the need for us to "teach" him the concepts, he needs a lot of supervision in spacing out his work over the week,” said Fiona Yung in New York City.

The same idea of “predictable, but flexible” holds true for the workspace your child uses. If space allows, it can be helpful to set up a stocked workstation away from siblings and the TV. But it can also help—especially if your child is frustrated—to switch up their environment. For example, we did art assignments in the backyard last week and it was just the breath of fresh air that my son and I needed. 

Follow their lead

“I think we’ve had the most success when we’ve followed each child’s interests. For the three year old, that’s anything to do with Frozen—reading, singing, dress up, arts and crafts, and even the occasional alphabet (“What letter does Anna start with?”),” said Divya Mani in Vermont. “For the six year old, we’ve discovered lots of awesome podcasts, found ways to do more challenging math, and given him lots of Lego time (including creating a “chore economy” so he can earn new sets).” 

Me: Do you want to do @STMath or build something with your tiles? Azella: why not both? Me: (gets into long explanation of why you can’t multitask...) Azella: pic.twitter.com/3IVEvRv4BO

— Jaime Casap (@jcasap) May 2, 2020

  In my house, my first grader is super interested in cooking. He wants to understand baking in particular, so I challenged him to make cookies with only the 1/4 cup measuring scoop. It was a fun opportunity to work in a math lesson while mom got cookies to stress eat after the kids went to bed. 

One-on-one connection

While parents may feel harried and pulled in many different directions throughout the day, many reported feeling good about spending more one-on-one time with their children, whether that time was spent learning, playing, or just being together. 

That personal attention also extends to teacher interactions, said Christine Ciampini in the Bahamas. “Both kids continue to feel very supported by their teachers. They actually get a little more one-on-one time [than in the classroom], which really motivates them,” she said. 

In addition to that connection, feedback from teachers has been important to maintaining student motivation, explained Ms. Yung. “Our son’s second-grade teacher does not let remote learning get in the way of the level of work she knows our son can do, refuses to let him submit sub-par work, and gives immediate feedback on excellent work, which has motivated our son to work hard, even on subjects he does not like. Working on his first multi-week writing assignment was tough going, but he was really proud of what he submitted, especially as his teacher gave him true feedback every step of the way.”

Technology tips and challenges

A lot of schools are using learning management programs like Seesaw, Canvas, and Schoology. Some of the assignments on these platforms may be interactive or annotatable, but it can be hard for little fingers to be precise. The iPad doesn’t come with a stylus, but many of us have one in the house from other tech, and it makes a world of difference when writing or drawing on the screen. 

Parents whose schools don’t rely on a central system have reported frustration with different platforms and links. “Signing in to so many classes has been a challenge. I wish there was a more consolidated way to sign in, one that didn’t require as many meeting IDs and passwords,” said Ms. Ciampini.

Band together

Sometimes, parents just need an easy way to share information or frustration—problem solving as a group is much easier than muddling through it alone. “The parents in my second grader’s class have put together a Slack channel and we use it a lot to confer on homework issues that we don’t understand,” said Ms. Parsons. “It’s been really helpful. Sometimes the problems are literally, ‘English isn’t my first language, what does this mean?’ And sometimes it’s more, ‘someone explain again the difference between perpendicular and intersecting sets of lines.’”

Math anxiety

And with questions like that, you start to see the roots of one of the biggest emotional challenges that families face: math anxiety. 

Math is very often taught in a way that focuses on calculations and rote memorization. As a result, many people have a poor relationship with math, as they have only experienced it in a very limited way. Parents often feel like they are not a math person, like they don’t get it, like math is just not their thing. Unfortunately, not only is this math anxiety hard to get past, it’s also very easy to transfer to the next generation. 

If you’re confronted with your kid’s math homework and your first reaction is to say, “Uggghhh,” your child has picked up that math is yucky and dismissable. 

Even professional teachers can struggle with math anxiety! 

One of the best ways to move past it is to acknowledge the challenge and reset your outlook on math with a fresh perspective. You are not alone in your frustration, and there is a way forward. 

Sharing perspectives and stories

We have two communities on Facebook for ST Math users—one focused on school, and a new one launched in March that is focused on home. I’ve been so inspired by the comments shared by parents in the home community, which has grown to over 900 members in just a few weeks. 

The community has parents who are new to homeschool, parents whose children have IEPs (Individualized Education Programs), parents whose children have dyscalculia, parents who are seasoned homeschoolers, and everyone in between. I am so encouraged by the messages of positivity we read from these parents, who are seeing the difference that ST Math’s visual approach to developing deep conceptual understanding can make for their children. They are also relieved that ST Math does not require extensive hand-holding by the adult, and that students can progress at their pace and in a way that meets their individual needs. 

But it was an email message from one parent, Nadia Ahlsten, that really made me and so many others on the MIND team proud. Ms. Ahlsten said, “I just want to thank you for providing ST Math during this crazy time! Two of my sons have IEPs with our school. All my sons and my daughter have been working on ST Math. I think it is really improving their number sense and understanding of math. One of my sons I think has dyscalculia. I’m diagnosing him myself but it is really amazing how he’s taken to doing ST Math. It’s working with him and is so neutral/positive in its response to his work. It’s a very healthy learning interaction.”

She continued, “I’m not sure I have the patience of your program and so seeing how he’s learning and not feeling defeated is really really encouraging to me. Math should be how it is with ST Math. You’ve found a way that really works for those kids that often feel like maybe math just isn’t for them.”

Math should be how it is with ST Math. You’ve found a way that really works for those kids that often feel like maybe math just isn’t for them.

Your tips, please!

At MIND Research Institute, we believe every student has the potential to deeply understand, and truly love math. This belief drives all of us—researchers, educators, mathematicians, game designers—to make ST Math the best program it can be. 

In addition to the Facebook community, we have a parent resources page that provides more information for families on grappling with math anxiety, on how to use ST Math, and much more. We've also created a glossary for new math teachers - you can download it here: 

Download the Glossary of Mathematical Terms

Families, what did I miss? What tips do you have to share, and what resources can we provide to make things easier for you?

from MIND Research Institute Blog https://ift.tt/3cKhb2K from Blogger https://ift.tt/2WONY0Z