• A Question of Interest
• Fresh Perspectives
• Helping the Body Heal
• Suggestion Box
• An Invitation

Is Personal Guidance Essential?

In our everyday life, personal guidance comes in different packages. A book may speak to us on a deeply connected level, or a friend or family member can help us with a fresh perspective. There is actually an endless supply of helpful professional guidance available from psychotherapists, counselors, psychiatrists, health practitioners, as well as competent plumbers, carpenters, and electricians!

Here, we are speaking about the kind of guidance we seek when we are feeling deeply confused, and have enough clarity to want a different perspective from the standard Western approach to the suffering caused by our mental confusion. We are imagining something better than this, and feel drawn to a life with more clarity, compassion and honesty.

Read more about meditation teachers

Faith:With Eyes Wide Open

An excerpt from Let's Not Call It Meditation: Practical information for people who think they can't sit still and quiet the mind.
By Nina Livingstone

It's difficult to define what faith is. It's easier to describe what it looks like. We know when we see other people living a life of faith. They appear to move effortlessly through their work and family challenges. We notice them fully rejoicing when there's good reason. We notice their stability in chaos. They are the ones that keep on going when the going gets tough. When they lose a job, they say things like, "This could mean new opportunities." Or "Something better must be waiting for me." They are the ones who recover from divorce, illness, and death of a loved one, with resilience and openness for what's next. They feel safe and seem to move on solid ground.

So, how does faith fit into a life of awareness and meditation? Faith usually becomes an issue whenever anyone is caught up in pain, and suffers emotionally, physically, or spiritually. Faith brings us out of confusion, seeking the light of clarity. Having faith in something better than this, is what keeps us going.

Finish reading this article about faith

Welcome to this new addition to our newsletter!

This section of The Open Letter provides helpful information for those who are curious about how they can help the body heal on a daily basis and in acute situations.

The Inner Smile

Mantak Chia was the first Qi Gong master to write and teach in our country. He taught The Inner Smile as the most powerful self-healing tool.

Getting the Most Out of The Inner Smile

• Smiling is a way of sending loving energy to someone, even ourself! Loving energy carries healing energy with it.

• Visualizing, imagining or pretending, is infinitely creative.

• Any loving expression visualized at the site of pain or discomfort sends a direct healing message at the cellular level.

• When we send a smile inward, directing it within the silent beauty of our inner being, we send healing energy where it is needed.

• Some people have a difficult time with the idea of smiling into themselves. Just imagine the face someone or something that makes you smile in each area, as you turn your attention inward.

• Also, please relax about the references to specific organs. If you wish, you can buy and color The Anatomy Coloring Book before you do The Inner Smile, but that is really not necessary. Having a general sense of where you are smiling in the body is all that is necessary.

• You may have a sense of stuck energy as you explore the inner realms. When you sense a block of any kind, just notice it and smile into it. You may even notice the smile goes in easier in some places than others.

• Use your imagination when you smile into painful places. Sometimes I pretend to write the word "smile" on a hurting place, and then smiling there is often easier the next time I do it.

• Pushing or getting upset defeats the purpose of this work, so simply notice what happens as you move through the exercise. Let any thoughts of right or wrong just pass through the mind, as clouds pass through the clear blue sky.

• Stay focused on the smile, and let one appear on your face as you do the exercise!

Please click below and follow the simple directions.

P.S.You will probably want to read it through once, to get a sense of it.

Find out about Medical Qi Gong

Useful Tools When You Need Them

These practices are useful when we are stuck in confusion and pain. They help us experience an alternative way of being with our pain, and help us directly encounter what is in the way of finding more honesty, joy, balance and freedom.

As with all tools, please remember to let go of them when they no longer serve a purpose.

Speaking the Truth

If you think you can't do it,

feel the feeling,

pretend you can,

and do it anyway!

"I am that I am" is actually the only completely truthful words we can ever say about who we are, because it includes all of our physical, mental emotional and spiritual reality in the moment. Anything else we might say would only be part of the truth, as "I am breathing" doesn't include the reality that I am also hearing, or seeing, or talking, etc. When we can say, "I am that I am" simply, without adding anything, just as it is, "I am that I am" brings us right to the moment. All thoughts of worry, anger, frustration, judgment and blame fall away.

Here's a suggestion for the New Year, or any time. Right now, close your eyes for a moment, and notice what's going on in the body/mind.

Notice any thoughts popping in, any sensations arising from the thoughts, and just let it be. Take a few moments and then open your eyes and continue to read.

Now, close your eyes again and say quietly to yourself, "I am that I am" three times. Notice what happens.

The wonder of these words is that they bring us right into the moment because they are the truth. That's why it works the way it does. It's not magic, it's just the power of speaking the truth. That's what happens any time we speak the truth; we are fully alive in the moment.

So, use "I am that I am" anytime you need to be more present. Say it a few times, until you feel yourself come into the moment. It's great when you're nervous before a job interview, a test, or if you are meeting someone who has been unkind in the past.

It's a great tool but, Beware! Tools always need to be put down when they become something else, like another habit we use to avoid being in the moment! If you use it too much, you'll know what I mean. Besides, if you're using it too much, there won't be any room for the most important question you can ask yourself which is, "Who am I?" More about that next time!

Happy New Year!

Are you thinking about projects for the New Year?

I am looking for opportunities to give talks to any group interested in promoting well-being and happiness to its members or employees. These one hour talks will be available to organizations in the local Rochester area and will include the following topics:

Meditation for Anyone
The Flowering of Inner Growth
Angry at Work? Heal the Heart of It!
Opening to Change at Work (at Home, or in the World)
What is Awareness?
A Forgiveness Meditation
A Meditation on Compassion
And more!

10% of all proceeds will be donated to a local charity. A list of charities is available on request.

Please keep me in mind for a talk or workshop when your group discusses schedules in the New Year!

Please Spread These Words

Offering others the opportunity to connect expands our community! Please consider forwarding this issue, with a personal note, to anyone on your email list you feel would be interested in it.

Join Nina for any or all of her remaining Fall classes. We will find a personal meaning for Healing with Awareness, and experience forgiveness, compassion and meditation together.There's still room available in the classes being offered at Mystic Moon on Park Ave. and Meigs St. OnThursday, November 11, classes start in Spencerport at The Dove Gift Shop and Reiki Healing Center.

Go to the link at the bottom of this section for class descriptions, evening class times and fees for classes.

If you haven't explored Nina's meditation CDs, you can read about them, listen to audio samples, and buy them at www.healingwithawareness.com/cds.htm.

Monday evening meditation and discussion sessions continue at Nina's home in Penfield. The group is small. Donations only. Beginners are always welcome. Call or email for more info.