Good Thanksgiving Eve  everyone!  As we all get busy with our holiday eve preparations and plans with family and friends,  try to stop, take a breath and be mindful of the true meaning of Thanksgiving.   I for one, am grateful for all that makes me feel whole.  I am thankful for all the family, friends, colleagues, Facebook friends, mentors and soul brothers and sisters that are healers in my life.  For those who know me, I have written many times about the healing ways of the world and the opportunity that exists for everyone to be a healer.  There isn’t a business, place,  profession or person that does not hold the ability to spread Aloha spirit, share loving kindness and help each other to feel whole.  Healing happens when one is treated with love, respect, kindness and gratitude. There are many in healthcare that have forgotten what healing is and there are many who may offer their health services but are not healers.  Treating your friends, colleagues, businesses, pets and family members  is no different than giving patients the love and attention they need to heal.  The stresses of work, relationships and life try to keep us from knowing why we are here, to love and be loved.  So simple but so powerful.  This Thanksgiving, bring your awareness to your healing capacity to others.  Saying a kind word, smiling at a stranger, giving hugs, respecting each other and showing gratitude for their contributions, and being mindful of how and what you say to others can be the most powerful medicine in the world.  We are all healers.  Make someone’s day this week, say Thank You as much as you can. ” If the only prayer you ever say is Thank You, it will be enough”.  Have a wonderful, beautiful healing holiday!

 
 

Shana Tova everyone!
Rosh Hashanah and it is a time for family, candles, challah, apples and honey. The rituals that mark this holiday are filled with the bittersweetness and the circle of life.  As we mark the end of the lunar Hebrew year 5778, we are reminded of how our behavior, attitudes, intentions and connections have served others and ourselves these past twelve months. This holiday gives us a chance to look back, take note of what was healing in our lives and what was not.  Tradition is we repent for our sins as well as those of others and we ask for forgiveness of any wrongdoing so that we may begin anew, slate wiped clean and ready to start over.  I choose to use the Hawaiian philosophy of Ho’oponopono  which says, ” I am sorry, Please forgive me, I love you, Thank you” to heal myself as well as others.  It is a prayer some native  Hawaiians use each night when we ask ourselves, ” Am I Pono?”, meaning, did I do what was right today? Did I say or write a healing word,  use a healing gesture or facial expression, connect to someone’s soul or my own? This way, each day is a chance for renewal, to begin again and to serve in a healing way. This holiday begins with the celebration of a new year, a sweet and good new year to come and stretches out for 10 days, culminating with the solemnity of Yom Kippur, a day of fasting, contemplation and prayer.  While the fast cleanses our bodies and our minds, it leads the way inward, nurturing our souls.   As we fast, we will stand hungry for peace, for compassion, for justice, for equality, for a better world and a better year. We ceremoniously remember our loved ones who have passed this year and we will stand in mourning and say a prayer.  And then, as the darkness begins to usher in the end of day, the lightness of our bodies, weights lifted off our minds and souls, starts to shine within, void of cloudy thoughts, emotions, feelings and our cleansed souls light the way to a new year.  I will be mindful of gratitude for the love of my family and friends and the blessings that are bestowed on all of us each day. May all of you be inscribed in the Book of Life and enjoy a beautiful, soul-full, sweet and healthy New Year. Shana Tova.
 

Happy May Day everyone! May Day is Lei Day in Hawaii, a holiday commemorating the tradition of lei making and a day when everyone wears Aloha attire and leis to school or work.  When I was growing up, I remember picking buckets of plumerias from our yard and stringing dozens of leis for family and friends for May Day and other occasions. This week, the symbolism for the beautiful circular necklace of flowers brings us toward Aloha Friday, our day of connection.  Stringing or making a flower lei is a mindful meditation. One sits alone or with others listening to Hawaiian music, the lilting slack key guitar in the background, the intense aroma of beautiful flowers in a rainbow of colors all around you. You are totally engrossed in this mindful activity. I have incorporated an imagery exercise for this beautiful tradition.   One by one, each flower is strung to make a circle of wholeness, incorporating all the attributes you have or would like to have to create optimal wellness.  One flower may be symbolic for the warmth of the sun, one the earth, one food that nourishes your body, one for family or specific loved ones, one for gratitude, one for healing and whatever connects and manifests your lei of  wholeness.  This weekend there will be May Day festivities in towns and cities across the globe where we celebrate Spring, at long last! Dancing, flowers and parades will express the joy we all feel after a long cold winter.  This Lei Day, string a lei of flowers from your yard even if it is dandelions.  Let each flower speak to you as you celebrate your own joy, make your circle of wholeness of body, mind and spirit and wear it around your neck or as your crown. Let it be the symbol of the health of your entire being and the connection to your Aloha spirit.  Have a fabulous celebratory week! Aloha, Ceseli