Author: Staff

As summer winds down, many of us tend to sink into the end-of-summer blues. To stave off these feelings, we need to infuse our spirit with passion and creativity. This helps us transition into fall with the welcoming embrace of what a new season brings in. Lucky for us, this coincides perfectly with our journey through Crystal Muse. If you’ve been reading along with us, you know that we’ve reached chapter 13, Your Creative Spirit. Let’s immerse ourselves into this chapter and get excited about sparking a fire within our spirit and imaginations!

Often, when we’re stuck in a creative rut, it affects several areas of our lives. You can’t have creativity without passion. So when our pool of passion becomes drained, there’s no way for our creativity to dive in and make a splash. Instead of trying to force your creativity to put out something, regardless of how uninspired you feel, you need to replenish your passion first.

For example, in Heather’s story about her looming deadline and creative block, sitting there staring at her project wasn’t an effective way to get inspired. By carrying around crystals to stimulate her heart chakra, her connection to the energy of creation and excitement was solidified. She also learned that everything has to come in its own time. “Pushing harder to make things happen can sometimes take you farther from where you need to be,” Heather wrote.

The crystals for creativity that Heather recommends for opening up your heart to let passion flow in are:

• Carnelian—for passion, creativity and joy
• Rose Quartz—for opening the heart to unconditional love, because when you stop criticizing and doubting yourself, you’re free to just CREATE

Now, a question for you: Have you ever tried to force something to happen, and found that what you really needed was to just release your grip on the situation and let it come to you? Share with us and comment below!

Sometimes, our creative spirit begins to mimic our lives in general. If you find yourself unable to take even simple risks elsewhere in your life, how can you expect to your creativity to thrive? You need some excitement in your life to bring about a shift in your imagination. Heather suggests breaking free of the box you’ve been living in by literally tearing apart a box.

If your spirit is going to mimic your stagnant actions, then let it instead copy this shift as you break the box. Obviously the ritual goes a bit deeper than that, including crystal intention setting and getting clear on the negative notions clouding your creative flow, but the idea of turning that analogy on its head to make it for you is one we really like.

Another question for you: What is a comfort zone that you’re due to break out of? Share with us and comment below! 

Of course, you can’t go wrong when choosing to tap into your sense of play. If what you really want is to just shake things up for yourself and to have fun doing it, then Heather suggests you need crystals like:

Last question for you: What’s one fun thing that you can do to engage your sense of play today? Share with us and comment below! 

Next up, we’re reading chapter 14, The Now of Spirituality. Continue onto this chapter to get acquainted with how to embrace light and dark along your spiritual journey. It’s the last chapter of our summer read-through of Crystal Muse, so don’t miss our discussion about staying grounded even after our experience with the book comes to an end.  

Summer has come to an end, and, sadly, so has our summer read-through of Crystal Muse. But even though we’ve finished reading the book, your journey with it has only just begun. What rituals were you most excited to try while reading about them? These are the ones to return to when you decide it’s time to take your crystal practice to the next level. The final chapter that we’re discussing today is how to carry on with a positive spirit during every aspect of your life experience—even when it seems impossible to do so.

Having a spiritual connection to the earth is easy enough when things are going well in your life, but it’s when things take a chaotic turn that making time to ground yourself in calm, stabilizing energy becomes a challenge; and ironically, that’s when you need your spiritual practice most. That’s where the Ho’oponopono practice comes in. Author, Heather Askinosie, learned this practice from a Hawaiian medicine woman. The practice is a way to clean up and correct any problems in your life through forgiveness. As you forgive others, you forgive yourself.

The stones that Heather has included into her Ho’oponopono practice are all about cleansing and grounding. She recommends using:

• Black Onyx—to release unwanted energies
• Red Jasper—for stability and nurturing
• Smoky Quartz—to ground and let go
• Shungite—to neutralize any energy that’s released throughout the duration of the ritual

Red Jasper is one of the stones to bring with you when you feel tested by the universe. When everything seems to be going wrong and you can’t catch your breath in between solving one problem and a new problem arises—seek the stabilizing energy of red jasper. Even just holding a red jasper stone in your hands for a few moments of deep breathing can have a significant impact on shifting your spiritual state and mental perspective. Red jasper is works to dim constant worry, and links with the root and sacral chakra to lend the balance and motivation to get you through difficult times.

Now, a question for you: What is something/someone that you’d like to send forgiveness to? Share with us and comment below!

A lot of people make the mistake of thinking that when you embark on a spiritual journey, you’re trying to rid yourself of your shadow side. In reality, you’ll never completely rid yourself of that part of you. It’s an aspect of the human condition. Instead, you need embrace the shadow side. Through learning to understand and forgive the darkness within, we can let these emotions surface so that they can be released. Constantly being aware of your shadow side, and taking the time to heal things as they arise, keeps you from becoming overwhelmed by negativity. To do this healing, the stones used in Heather’s Opening Your Heart to Your Shadow Ritual are:

• Rhodonite—for forgiveness, compassion and releasing fear
• Shungite—for neutralizing any energy that’s released during the duration of the ritual
• Ruby Zoisite—for transmuting negative energy into positive
• Rose Quartz—for opening the heart to unconditional love
• Selenite—for light energy
• Black Tourmaline—for clearing and releasing energy

Another question for you: What is an element of your shadow side that you normally repress, but that are willing to heal? Share with us and comment below! 

As Heather put it, once you’ve “connected your body with your heart, you’ll need to expand your mind, uniting all three.” Take time after you’ve finished reading the book to be still, and consider what ideas and thoughts can inspire new growth in your life. Clear quartz and lemurian seed quartz are what Heather recommends doing this exercise with. These crystals together can help you to expand beyond your current limiting beliefs.    

Which rituals have you not been able to stop thinking about? Your intuition is letting you know where it wants to go. Are you going to follow?  

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Now that you’ve finished your journey through the book:

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Is your natural instinct to avoid confrontation? If so, you’re not alone. Many perceive addressing their issues with others as a way of inciting conflict. In reality, the more we hold onto our emotions, the greater the conflict becomes. Bottling up your frustrations can’t resolve them. It only stalls the resolution, allowing for the problem to escalate internally in the meantime. That’s why learning to speak your truth is so crucial to your mental health and spiritual progress. Rather than giving someone a piece of your mind in an aggressive way, you can give them a piece of your heart by articulating your vulnerability. Connecting with the energy of healing crystals for truth will open up the throat chakra. Crystals for communication are a great way to get over the fear and hesitation that’s keeping you quiet. When we know we should communicate our feelings, but are too afraid to stir the pot, it’s often because of an energy block in our throat chakra.

Energy blocks can result from a negative self-image, past experiences and many other underlying issues. Working with healing crystals for truth can benefit your spirit by gently guiding you to reflect and assess these issues.

The more you grant yourself the confidence, compassion and respect to feel that your emotions are valid, the more empowered you’ll feel to address them. This ritual for speaking your truth uses crystals for conscious communication to help you be candid with yourself and others. We’ve all experienced a time when we neglected to resolve a problem with someone, allowed our feelings about the issue to build, and wound up exploding on them later about something insignificant that was really about the initial problem we had. Checking in with yourself through this easy ritual with healing crystals for truth will help you to release steam, and find a thoughtful way to express your feelings as they arise.

For this ritual, you’ll need one of the following healing crystals for truth: azurite, aqua aura quartz, celestite, lapis lazuli or amazonite. These crystals for communication are important for soothing the anxiety that builds before confrontation. Working with honesty crystals can reframe your perception away from finger pointing, so that you can express yourself in a calm, concise and compassionate way.

A Ritual to Help You Speak Your Truth

What you’ll need:

• your favorite blue gemstone (i.e. azurite, aqua aura quartz, celestite, lapis lazuli or amazonite)
• a piece of paper + pen

Speak Your Truth Ritual Steps:

1. The best way to speak your truth with others is to practice with yourself first. Give yourself 30 minutes in the morning to do this ritual. Start by grabbing a pen, a piece of paper and your chosen crystal.
2. In your non-writing hand, hold your crystal, and then, begin free writing. Write down all of the things going on in your head. Don’t think, don’t critique—just write. Clear your inner dialogue. Get rid of the judgements, and tap into your stream of consciousness. Write until all your thoughts are out, and you’ve filled up the page.
3. Rip the paper up. Don’t save it. This isn’t a journal that you’ll look back on to gain perspective. This is a practice in release, being honest, and getting your thoughts out without hesitating or holding back. Throw the pieces of the paper in the trash. When you do this, it clears the mind of things you just needed to put out there. It can help to cleanse you of the angry, bitter or petty emotions, so that you can approach the rest of the day from a more elevated, clear and calm state of expression. Do this a few times a week, and see if you feel the difference! It opens you up to be able to speak your truth.   

As kids, we were forced into uncomfortable spotlights all the time. From mandatory Spring Sing performances to the dreaded, front-of-class speeches—the mere mention of these memories is enough to trigger a series of panicked flashbacks. Fear of public speaking is one of the most common phobias that people suffer from. It’s a fear that, even if mild, can be debilitating when allowed to affect which jobs, hobbies and activities we choose to pursue. Just interviewing for a job position is difficult when plagued with a fear of public speaking. Articulating one’s thoughts under pressure in a way that is eloquent—or, ya know, coherent—is a learned skill.

Of course, as adults, we have the power to choose not to engage in activities that push us toward our fears. We can avoid our fear of the spotlight by choosing not to go after the career we really want, or the passion we’d like to pursue. This is one of the freedoms we have as adults, but it’s also one of the traps.

Forming our life around our fears boxes us into a limited set of options, and allows our fears to dictate our future. Instead, we can consciously make the decision to conquer our fears for good. Using crystals for communication expands our prospects, emboldens our passions and strengthens our relationship bonds. Crystals for communication connect to our need for confidence, energy and excitement. They calm the mind of anxiety and instill a sense of raw authenticity that compels us to speak our truths. Show your scared inner child how it’s done, and work with crystals for communication to speak with confidence no matter what size the crowd.

Healing Crystals for Communication + Finding Your True Voice

Carnelian

While the key to public speaking is often thought to be establishing a sense of calm, studies have shown that bringing about a flourish of excitement actually produces better, more articulate performances. Get riled up with Carnelian, one of the best crystals for confidence, to elevate your creativity and give a more memorable speech.

Amazonite

Through connecting to your heart, throat and solar plexus chakras, Amazonite ensures that you don’t lose your nerve. Remain motivated in the endeavor to articulate yourself, and feel the Amazonite radiate its power from your heart as you deliver words with feeling instead of fear. Amazonite is both a crystal for confidence and a crystal for intellectual intuition. This will help guide you when you need to improvise and make on-the-spot decisions about which way to take the conversation.

Blue Apatite

Release negative, limiting beliefs about yourself, and embrace the idea that you are an amazing speaker when equipped with Blue Apatite. Stimulating the base chakra, Blue Apatite will facilitate motivation and passionate pursuits. You’ll feel driven to communicate more honestly, not just in speeches, but in all areas of your life.

Blue Calcite

Ease the nerves, and bring about positive, encouraging vibes with Blue Calcite. As a crystal for confidence, Blue Calcite soothes the stress and anxiety surrounding your talking points, and ushers in clarity of mind. As you work with Blue Calcite, you become more aligned with your thoughts and feelings. It fosters conscious communication that feels comfortable in its obvious authenticity.

Chrysocolla

This is a great stone for public speaking, not only because of the rock star levels of confidence you’ll be feeling, but also because of the new beginnings Chrysocolla aids in realizing. If you’ve always thought of yourself as a bad at communication, use Chrysocolla to bring about a new you who is a powerful communicator. The personal power that Chrysocolla imbues is known to banish phobias, release limiting beliefs and mental tensions, and activate your motivation. Tap into that energy to reprogram old ideas of self with positive beliefs. With an infusion of that signature Chrysocolla confidence, you’ll feel comfortable and at ease communicating in the spotlight.

When your spirit is carrying a lot of negative energy, it feels like there’s rain cloud over your head. Luckily, there’s a silver lining. With protection stones, you can cleanse and shield your energy from collecting anymore unwanted vibes. Negative energy can attach to us in a lot of ways. Sometimes it happens when we’re in crowds and surrounded by other people’s energy, sometimes it happens from long days at work or disputes with relatives. How ever you’re positive energy has been depleted, it’s important to fill it back up and protect it. The first step to doing that is knowing which of the crystals for protection to pick, and how to use them.

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What you’ll learn:

• Which crystals to use for protection
• How to use protection crystals for cutting cords
• How to wear crystals for protection
• How to create a protection grid in your home
• Meditating with protection stones
• Creating a crystal body grid for meditating with protection stones

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What Are The Best Healing Crystals for Protection?

Our favorite crystals for protection are black kyanite, black tourmaline, black onyx, and pyrite.

• Black kyanite helps to protect the personal energy field.
• Black tourmaline works to protect the environment around you, and cleanse you of stagnant or negative energy.
• Black onyx works to transform negative energy into positive energy, helping you to build up an emotional resilience.
• Pyrite is often overlooked as stone for protection, since it’s so often recommended for its abundance imbuing properties, but nonetheless this stone is great for returning negative vibes back to their senders. If you are forced to deal with someone who is constantly sending vitriol your way, use pyrite to block that negativity from entering your energy field.

How to Use Protection Stones:

There are several ways you can bolster your emotional strength with protection stones. Healing crystals for protection can be worn, used to create grids, kept on sacred altars, or worked with in meditation. It just depends on your intended function for the crystal.

Cutting Cords

When someone we care for shares with us that they are going through a difficult time, it’s not uncommon for us to feel the weight of their experience in our own energy field. This creates an energy attachment. In order to continue being a strong source of support and positive energy for this person, you have cut your energy attachment with them. This keeps you from getting drained, and allows you to be completely there for them when they need you. To cut energy cords, take a piece of black kyanite and hold it in your hand as you trace an invisible line around your body, moving the crystal over the front, sides and back of your body. Visualize the cord attached to you, and see yourself cutting through it with the kyanite. You can add an intention to this practice, stating aloud something like: I release this energy and send it back to [insert name] with love and light. I am cleansed.

Wearing a Stone for Protection

Wearing protection amulets goes back thousands of years. Today, we can wear protection stones as a way to remind ourselves to check in with and give importance to our energy. Sometimes when we’re at work, or surrounded by other people, we feel the need to cater to other people at the expense of our own energetic needs. A protection necklace or bracelet allows you to keep a protective shield around you all day.

If you are beginning to feel someone else’s bad energy getting to you, step away from them to find a peaceful area, and reconnect with by touching your stone for protection with your hands. The most important thing to do before wearing your protection stones is to give them a job. To do this, cleanse them with the smoke of sage, hold them in your hands, and set an intention for your work with the stone. You can set an intention by stating aloud an affirmation, such as: I call forth divine protection.

Creating a Protection Grid for the Home

You can create a protection grid for the home easily with crystals for protection. Put four pieces of black tourmaline by each corner of the room, or around the exterior corners of your home to set up a protective shield. Placing a piece of black tourmaline in a bowl of water and salt by the door also helps to keep you from bringing outside negativity into the home.

Meditating with Healing Crystals for Protection

Meditating with crystals is a great way to fill your body and spirit with the restorative properties of protection crystals. Start by finding a place in your home that’s quiet and brings you peace. You can hold whatever protection crystals make you feel most secure. You can also create a body grid to deepen the grounding of your meditative state.

Make a Crystal Body Grid with Protection Stones

We recommend using a combination of black tourmaline, selenite and black onyx in your body grid. Lay flat on the floor, and place the piece of black onyx by your feet, allowing it to connect to your root chakra. Then set a small chunk of black tourmaline on your throat, allowing it to cleanse any tension caused by blocked energy you’re holding there. Set a rainbow obsidian over your heart, so that it can send loving, purifying vibrations to your heart chakra. And hold a piece of selenite in each hand.

As you work with crystals for protection, you’ll begin to feel more grounded and emotionally durable. That’s the true power of these stones. Even when people do try to push their own negativity onto you, your shift into a higher perspective will keep those vibes from affecting your joy. That’s why it’s important to not only use crystals for protection when your feeling vulnerable, but also as a preventative measure to lend yourself strength before you go to leave the home.

[General semantics: a system of linguistic philosophy developed by Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950), which explores the arbitrary nature of words and symbols and attempts to refine ways of using language.]

Next week, on October 27, the annual General Semantics Symposium will unfold at the Princeton Club of New York City. General semantics (GS) has been used in the military, corporations and the academic world.

GS has been tied to notable personalities such as Abraham Maslow, Alfred Hitchcock, William Burroughs, Buckminster Fuller, Aldous Huxley and others. From studying Alfred Korzybski’s pioneering book Science and Sanity: An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics (1933), I resurrected the use of general semantics as a therapeutic tool for veterans from Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan who were in the process of readjusting from war.

In subsequent years, I have presented and written about general semantics and veteran readjustment. Dr. Martin Levinson, Ph.D., president of the Institute of General Semantics, helped me gain a greater understanding of general semantics. He and I had a constructive dialogue about its use as a tool for veterans who are readjusting.

I present spiritual themes in many of my articles. I also write about wellness. General semantics promotes wellness via the individual, by promoting a non-medical internal approach to understanding the world with a greater sense of objectivity.

Interview with Martin H. Levinson

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Mike Kim: You are the president of the Institute of General Semantics. Can you tell me how GS can help a veteran who is experiencing readjustment issues after the military? What resources does the Institute provide for interested veterans?

Dr. Martin Levinson: General semantics is a re-education system designed to help people make better evaluations of the world and their place in it. It has been used by thousands of people to make improvements in their thinking ability and emotional self-management. Among those are veterans, including the originator of general semantics, Alfred Korzybski, a combat veteran who was wounded three times during the First World War.

Veterans experiencing readjustment issues may find that the application of GS formulations will lead them to cope better and come up with more effective solutions to the problems they are dealing with in everyday life.

Veterans experiencing readjustment issues may find that the application of GS formulations will lead them to cope better and come up with more effective solutions to the problems they are dealing with in everyday life. They may also find that in using general semantics, they will come to know themselves and others in a more profound way and will be more open to accepting the challenges that face them. Such challenges are often susceptible to solutions through active engagement, and GS can offer tools to help with that process.

For veterans who are interested in learning more about general semantics, there is a lot of online material that can be accessed from the Institute of General Semantics website. The website also provides lists of available books and articles on GS.

MK:  How did you come to be involved with general semantics?

ML: I was introduced to general semantics in 1979, through a continuing education course at Cooper Union, titled “How to Improve Your Thinking and Communicating Ability.” My almost 40-year involvement with general semantics has profited me both personally and professionally, and I have seen it bring the same good results for numerous other people.

MK: Has general semantics ever been used to treat war-related PTSD and other trauma-related conditions?

ML: Alfred Korzybski, the founding theorist of general semantics, understood post-traumatic stress firsthand, as he had suffered from its effects as a combat veteran in the First World War. Two particular symptoms that troubled him in civilian life were insomnia and thoughts that he would be bombed when airplanes flew above him.

Korzybski helped free himself from these and other post-traumatic stress reactions through GS notions such as dating (the idea that things change over time—for instance, you^today are not you^fiveyearsago) and indexing (breaking down a category into its parts—for instance, airplane₁ is not airplane₂, is not airplane₃ and so on.). He said that in dealing with post-traumatic stress, it is important to work on minimizing second-order reactions, such as the fear of fear, nervousness about nervousness and worry about worry, as such reactions can seriously aggravate a person’s responses to post-traumatic stress.

Korzybski recounted some of his experiences in dealing with post-traumatic stress in an article titled “A Veteran’s Re-Adjustment and Extensional Methods,” which was published in ETC: A Review of General Semantics shortly after the Second World War. The article also included a case report—”A Veteran Uses General Semantics for Rehabilitation”—that described the experience of a Second World War veteran who used GS to treat himself for symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

During the Second World War, Douglas Kelley, an army psychiatrist and student of general semantics, along with medical professionals that he trained, used GS to treat more than 7,000 soldiers for symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

A review of Kelley’s approach done for the Chief of U.S. Naval Personnel after the war concluded that as a result of their general semantics training, “The men who were able to understand the new methods of evaluation were able to reevaluate their combat experiences and overcome their psychoneuroses.”

Overcoming problems of everyday living

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MK: Are there some GS formulations that you think might be particularly useful in helping veterans overcome problems of everyday living?

ML: There are many GS formulations that can help veterans overcome problems of everyday living. These include the use of ‘etc.’ in thinking about things (there is always more that can be said about anything); delaying your reactions in situations to give yourself time to get your emotions under control; thinking about things on a continuum rather than in an ‘either-or’ manner, understanding that words don’t mean, people mean (you need to ask people what they mean when you are in conversation with them); and the idea that words are symbols for things, but are not the things themselves.

MK:  Many mental health professionals, including Albert Ellis, the founder of Rational-Emotive-Behaviour-Therapy (REBT) and pioneer of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), have been proponents of general semantics. Why is that? 

ML: Albert Ellis, who (according to one survey of professional psychologists) was ranked as the second most popular psychotherapist behind Carl Rogers, and just ahead of Sigmund Freud, was a big general semantics advocate. He called GS a “brilliant philosophy that can show people how to live more sanely in an irrational and partly insane world.”

And he wasn’t alone in his praise for general semantics. Lots of other mental health professionals support the ideas of GS to help people form a more realistic idea of themselves and the world. Some of their opinions can be found in an article that was published in ETC: A Review of General Semantics in 2010, titled “General Semantics And.”

The self-help movement

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MK: The self-help movement is popular. Does GS promote self-help?

ML: Alfred Korzybski believed that the real value of general semantics was in its applications, and that to get the most out of GS, a person should apply it to real-life situations. He thought that just knowing the GS theory and its formulations wasn’t enough to help someone get a handle on their problems. He also thought that GS was not that hard to learn, and even children could study and gain from it.

As to that latter point, it is one I completely agree with, as I taught GS formulations to middle-school students as part of my doctoral studies and they picked up and used GS very effectively. In my opinion, general semantics is one of the best self-help disciplines out there.

MK: How can active-duty military personnel use GS in their daily lives while in uniform?

ML: The United States military functions in many ways as a bureaucracy, and those in that bureaucracy have to strictly follow the orders given to them by their superiors. Some of those orders may be counterproductive to the effective functioning of the unit a service member is in, and some of the orders may be unfair and hurtful to those who receive them.

It seems to me that the trick to surviving, and even thriving in the military is to cultivate what is known in general semantics as an ‘extensional orientation,’ that is, having a realistic outlook on the situations you encounter.

I have previously written about how to manage stress in organizations in my book titled Sensible for Turbulent Times. Some of the suggestions that I mention in the book include GS ideas such as:

• Delaying your reactions in situations
• Distinguishing facts from inferences to avoid jumping to wrong conclusions
• Using the scientific method to problem-solve
• Having faith in your ability to adapt to circumstances
• Understanding the notion of ‘logical fate’ (from assumptions, consequences follow)
• Adopting a strategy of probability thinking
• Accepting the fact that the way we use language influences our psychological health
• Appreciating the notion that the only thing permanent in life is change

GS and addictions

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MK: Addiction to substances, sex, gambling, etc. is present in the veteran community.  Can a veteran use GS to assist with substance abuse prevention?

ML: I know quite a bit about the subject of substance abuse, as I spent more than 30 years working for the New York City Department of Education as a Substance Abuse Prevention and Intervention Specialist and the director of a drug prevention program.

Feelings of alienation may be particularly strong among veterans, as the country seems divided on American foreign policy objectives, which may reduce the public’s support for people in the military.

I published a book dealing with substance abuse titled The Drug Problem: A New View Using the General Semantics Approach, which has chapters that specifically deal with drug prevention and treatment. In this book, I talk about GS ideas that can help a person resist drugs, and have included a chapter on a general-semantics approach to reducing alienation, which is an important risk factor for drug abuse.

Feelings of alienation may be particularly strong among veterans, as the country seems divided on American foreign policy objectives, which may reduce the public’s support for people in the military. Also, coming back to the United States from an overseas deployment might cause an individual to feel out of step with civilian life.

Applying GS formulations can help a person integrate back into society by providing them with tools for actively working on thoughts that are keeping them stuck in past experiences, and by encouraging the use of the scientific method (observe, hypothesize, experiment, conclude) to tackle problems of everyday living. As a veteran gets to know the techniques of GS, they’ll likely find that they can be applied to other life-problems as well.

“The map is not the terrain”

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The use of general semantics for veteran readjustment issues can inspire the warrior to evaluate negative thoughts and more effectively manage life. Sounds like a simple thing!

Today’s self-help culture encourages warriors to find an easy fix for military/veteran readjustment challenges. I appreciate general semantics because it promotes a system of reframing thoughts towards objectivity while paying attention to the subjective experience of war and other challenges tied to military service.

The great original precept of general semantics, “The map is not the terrain,” captures the central message behind GS. When a warrior is on patrol, does the map of the battlefield truly represent the actual battlefield?

In Part 2, which will appear next week, readers will be able to learn more about practical ways to manage veteran/military readjustment issues by using general semantics.

This article is part of a weekly column exploring spiritual transformation for veterans. To read the previous article in the series, visit AFTER BURN: A play that tells of the lives of veterans on their behalf»

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image 1 Words everywhere by din bcn via Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0) 2 Seemingly surreal swallows in a spring storm by Keith Williams via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 3 Pixabay  4 Self Help by producer Vanessa Hilton via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 5 Pixabay  6 M Levinson talk on “Practical Fairy Tales for Everyday Living“

Cutting the energy cords with other people in our lives sounds like it might have a negative connotation, like we’re pulling the plug on our relationships. In reality, this therapeutic exercise is meant to preserve our spiritual space, so that we can nourish our bonds with our own cleansed, pure and vibrant energy. When we exchange energy with another person—which can happen during any daily interaction—there is a potential for their energy to stick with us. Most people don’t do this on purpose. Cording is something that happens during certain energy exchanges, and can be especially likely in exchanges with loved ones.

Many of us can remember a time when we supported a friend through a difficult situation, and felt emotionally affected by it even after leaving that friend. That is because their energy was still attached to us. While those are the most memorable examples of cording, we often pick up and carry other people’s energy without even noticing. Cutting the cord helps us to cleanse ourselves of the energy we pick up, before it causes us to feel emotionally drained or tired. We aren’t cutting emotional ties, we are releasing energy ties—and there is a big difference between the two.

Those are the most obvious instances when you need to cleanse your energy, but it’s just as important to cut the energy cord with negative recurring thoughts or addictive behaviors. In the same way as energy attachments with people, energy attachments with certain behaviors or thought cycles can leave us feeling drained and not like our true selves.

In the video above, our resident crystal expert, Heather Askinosie, reveals her favorite techniques for cutting energy cords. Watch the full video to see Heather demonstrate these simple methods you can use everyday.

Crystal Cord Cutters: Heather’s Techniques for Cutting Energy Cords

1. The first thing that you want to do to cleanse your energy is sage yourself and your environment.

2. Another technique is to use sound to break up the energy surrounding you. A Tibetan bell is an absolute must to have in your energy toolkit. Any kind of bell will work, but we especially enjoy using a bell made with several different metals, as each metal carries a different energy frequency. Heather suggests ringing the bell around your own energy field, even if you’ve already smudged yourself. When you are in your own head, with a mess of thoughts buzzing around, the bell will help to break you out of that space and shed the negative energy around you.

3. You can also cut energy cords with a piece of black kyanite. At the end of the day, Heather will cut the energy cords from family, friends, work colleagues and everyone she comes into contact with throughout the day by coupling a piece of black kyanite with an intention.

   • The first thing that she does while holding the piece of black kyanite, is just get in touch with where her energy feels affected. Many times, they are connected to your chakra centers, so those are always a good place to start. Close your eyes and take a moment to get in tune with your body. Do you feel a weight in your stomach? Is there energy attached to your heart? Or, do you feel there’s negative energy in your head/mind? Track down where you feel the unwanted energy cord or attachment. 
   • Then, visualize yourself pulling that energy out of you, as you use your hands to mimic pulling the energy cord out. Using your black kyanite, cut the cord. Bring the kyanite down, and imagine that you are slicing that cord from draining any more of your energy. Then take the energy cord that you have removed, and picture yourself plugging into something positive, like the moon, the sun or Mother Earth. Do this as many times as you need to get rid of residual energy. 
   • Note: sometimes after doing this practice, you start to feel a little nauseous. It’s almost as if you’re detoxing from this energy. That’s when it’s important to fill yourself back up with light. Take a selenite crystal and place it over that area where you cut the energy cord. See it infusing you with love and light.
   • The next step in this process is to consider how you can forgive, both yourself and others. Forgiveness helps us to lighten the toll that harbored anger or negativity takes on us. As a practice that is meant to help us confront and process lessons, the act of forgiving may be the most crucial step toward progress.
   • After working with these crystals, be sure to cleanse them. Cord cutting is an effective and easy way to cleanse the spirit whenever necessary, but it’s still some heavy work. Make sure to wash your hands, and purify your crystals. Luckily, selenite is one of the very rare cleansing crystals that doesn’t need to be cleansed, and can actually purify other stones. So you can set your black kyanite on the selenite to let it cleanse and recharge. We always like to place all our crystals out in the sun (if possible) after this practice as well. 

4. Another way to release energy cords, is to journal with crystals. Many times when we get corded with people, it causes us to recognize our own negative energy that we need to work on. To get clear the negativity that is our own, sometimes it’s nice to put pen to paper. Take a few minutes, and jot down what you need to let go of from your own energy field. It could be excessive or overindulgent behaviors, a preoccupation that is stealing all of your attention or even a negative focus on the past. Taking the time to get to know yourself is really what this practice is all about. The more we acknowledge our personal truths, the faster we can get rid of the things that do not serve us. So write on a piece of paper something that you’d like to release, fold the paper up, and place a piece of black tourmaline on it. Black tourmaline is a great stone for release and letting go. Then place a piece of rose quartz on the paper as well to carry the energy of love and forgiveness.

How to Cut Cords with an Overactive Mind

Along with Selenite and Black Kyanite, Amethyst is another cord cutter to keep in your tool chest; one that specifically helps you to cut energy cords attached to your third eye and mind.

Cleanse it. Program it. And then place it over your third eye to bring any chaos to the surface. Begin the motion of physically pulling out cords from your third eye, using your Amethyst point to cut the cords as you pull them out. After you cut them, visualize plugging the cords into something of high frequency (like a mountain or a landscape). Keep cutting all the cords that come up, and over time, you’ll feel the energy getting lighter and lighter.

In the end, the most tenuous relationship in our life is the one we have with ourself. We beat ourselves up. We don’t take the time to recognize everything that we do right. Cutting our energy cords allows us to reconnect with ourselves. In these moments, we can recognize that while some days are great and some are difficult, we need to commit to loving ourselves regardless. These are the tools that we hope can help you with shifting your energy. Release what no longer serves you, give yourself a break, and enjoy yourself on this journey of life. For complete cord cutting and energy cleansing rituals, pick up a copy of Crystal Muse: Everyday Rituals to Tune In to the Real You.

The door finally shut. I walked away, my throat numb and eyes firmly to the ground. It was that time again. My role of ‘Daddy’ had come to an abrupt end.

Against the wish to scream and shout, I turned my ignition towards the other life. Noticing my mind wandering into gloom, I gently escorted my attention back to the breath … 50, 60, 70 miles per hour … and I was gone.

Mindfully noticing the tightness around the quarter of my chest, I began breathing into that area of the body. Slowly, and at times agonizingly, my heart began to expand, as if each breath was tainted with a little hope.

There were only 10 days until I would be reunited with my baby. Adrift in my emotional ocean, I quickly had to throw myself a lifejacket before I drowned in grief. Thankfully, I had my practice, although at times I wasn’t wholly buoyant.

You see, mindfulness is possibly the only reason I did not turn to cigarettes or alcohol that night, and although sometimes I do, I am aware enough to note that this just makes my inner world feel worse.

Not that I am claiming to have an addiction problem, although I can plainly see that thinking negatively is the biggest hit I get. A clearer mind full of pain, yet free from intoxicants, is better than a painful mind absorbed in its own stupor.

Balancing act

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If only it was that simple. Being mindful throughout the good, the bad and the ugly is not an easy feat. Presence is all we have to help us navigate through the jungle, and at times, into the snake’s jaw.

Presence is all we have to help us navigate through the jungle, and at times, into the snake’s jaw.

Over time, my equanimity has given me a decentred approach to my own emotional experience. But at other times, it’s all just too arduous. The trick is to remind my mindful self that mindlessness only makes it harder.

The balancing act of surrender, along with hope and the knowledge of impermanence, means I am free to experience another day. How I choose to experience that day depends on whether I have enough awareness about me to remain conscious. Having enough grit, resilience and determination to faithfully know presence is my only path.

In the moment I am here, awake, observant and tranquil. Out of the moment, I am a habit-fuelled gratification fanatic. The tightrope is set and the curtains have been drawn.

Mindfulness and equanimity are the only ways for me to walk the rope. I need to be aware of how my simple likes and dislikes charge my feelings, how my feelings alight my thoughts and emotions like a bonfire, and how that blaze can spread like wildfire if not managed with care. To be in a state of awareness full of self-compassion and compassion for others—that is the only way of ‘walking the talk’ on a moment-to-moment basis.

But you know, tightrope walking is a skill and treading water is exhausting. It’s demanding and you will fall off, and occasionally you will go under. But be kind to yourself. Make sure you have people around you and plenty of islands to swim to.

Lifejacket in an ocean

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In sadness, I often remind myself to stop being the victim of my own circumstances and to reflect on the fact that every tiny microscopic event I experience is because I have made it so.

There is no need to despair or be enraged with the external world. If I vow to meet the chaos with my own acceptance that I am the ’causer’ of the cause, then it feels slightly more palatable.

Yet, in the moment, when my emotional world is flamboyant, how far adrift I am from that simple sentiment. Here I am, drowning not waving, and the only hope is to throw myself that jacket, to wave directly into the eye of the torrent.

For me, that is the greatest gift mindfulness has to offer. It acts as the lifejacket in our ocean. To intuitively feel that everything is impermanent, which means refining the jacket into a boat and then a luxury cruise ship, will take time.

Grow your mindfulness into the sun and learn to watch the water from afar.

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image 1 Pixabay 2 Pixabay 3 Pixabay

The life of a creative can be plagued by uncertainty and fear. These feelings permeate all stages of the creative process, including that time when you first see the final product.

My first blog article was published a week ago. It was almost an out-of-body experience to see such an intimate part of my life in print. As I read it, I could hear my internal voice saying, “No, that’s not exactly right.” Neatly sequenced words seemed distant from the rich untidiness of life.

That feeling is why I did not share my work in public for years. I learned music but did not perform. I sat on a book of poetry that I never sent to an agent. My talents never seemed ripe enough. My work never seemed right enough.

Doubt, fear and judgment can be common among us creatives.

Their voice doesn’t matter

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My internal judge lost her power over me when I learned that she is not who I am, and that the space of fear is never the part of us from which conscious action can arise.

Now I match her step. She does her thing. I do mine. She is vicious. I am persistent. I have learned that the artistic process opens me up to something bigger. It silences the inner chatter and makes me more alive, as words appear on paper and notes appear in midair. The process is the destination.

As a middle-class coloured woman from a developing country, I was told to put my own truth last and family and societal expectations first.

Fear can stem when we begin to transgress what we have been told our ‘right’ place is. As a middle-class coloured woman from a developing country, I was told to put my own truth last and family and societal expectations first. Whenever I owned my truth in full view of the world, I felt uncomfortable.

This is not just my experience. It is shared by people and communities around the world who have been told that they do not belong and that their voices, their truths, do not matter. At some point, we start believing this, and acting in a way that makes what we have to say the last thing anyone (including ourselves!) wants to hear.

Through practicing mindfulness, I began to notice that these judgments were not coming from me. I started giving them space to ‘be,’ but without so much power.

I began to see the truth in what Dr. E.J.R David, Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Alaska Anchorage and author of Internalized Oppression: The Psychology of Marginalized Groups, shares in his Psychology Today article: “When we accept or ‘buy-in to’ the negative and inferiorizing messages that are propagated about who we are, then we have begun to internalize the oppression that we experienced.”

If you are not part of the dominant minority in the world—if you are not an English-speaking, Caucasian, middle-aged, heterosexual and economically-secure male—chances are, the process of hearing your own voice scares you.

If you come from a marginalized group and your creative work is characterized by starts and stops, and if you struggle with putting your thoughts down, second-guessing yourself or procrastinating, that’s really all the more reason for you to create and own your truth.

There is no shame in doubt. It can even fuel your creativity.

Creativity connects us

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One example of that is given in the viral Ted Talk by best-selling author Elizabeth Gilbert. In her talk, “Your elusive creative genius,” she talks about the fear and trepidation of creative work.

This is faced by all of us creatives, whether you are a best-selling author or a mother trying to squeeze in some writing before the sun rises. By putting her humanity out there for the world to see, Gilbert helps us realize the universality of fear.

I am better, and my life is richer, because of her commitment to her truth. As you are reading this piece of writing, even with oceans between us, something is keeping you with it. That energy, the energy that draws your attention to these words, is what connects us.

We are all connected. We arise from one consciousness. As you let go, others will, too. Given how short life is, there is only so much time for us to spend living in awe or in fear of an internal voice that is not even our own or who we are.

One word after the other—that’s what this is about—moment-to-moment awareness. One day, as you see your work in print and the judge wags away, you too will smile, muster resilience and keep writing.

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image 1 Pixabay 2 Pixabay 3 by AMCSviatko via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 

I just flew in to Chicago to see my Mom. She turned 80 on Friday. Five years ago, she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and was given five years to live. Now my Dad is telling me, “I hope you have a suit and tie back in New York. You’re gonna have to come back wearing it pretty soon.”

From her first chemo treatment on, I had not seen Mom’s real hair. I’d only seen her in wigs: sometimes a red one, sometimes brown, sometimes a silver-grey, which was a bold choice for a woman who had always coloured her hair, never letting a single root show, right up to the day of her diagnosis.

As she stands at the door to greet me, though, all disguises are off. A shock of pure white hair stands on end on her head. Several bald patches show. For much of her life, Mom was full-figured. Now she is a skeleton with a sallow coat of melted wax hanging off her.

Even at her sickest, she always used to have her makeup on, and at least a wool cardigan and a pair of slacks. Now she spends all day in the same green bed gown and, given how much time she has to spend in bed, there’s no point in putting on makeup if it’s just going to end up smeared across her face when she falls asleep a couple hours after waking up.

Silly to hold a grudge

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Years ago, my friend Ruth said my mother reminded her of Jackie O. I didn’t quite see why until Mom got cancer. From the time of the Kennedy assassination until her final years, Jackie seldom (if ever) complained, and neither has Mom.

Jackie put a high premium on comportment and so does Mom. But now Mom doesn’t have the energy for dressing up, and I suspect she no longer wants to hide what is happening to her, much like Jackie when she refused to change the pink suit that was spattered with her husband’s blood and brains.

Mom and I walk into her living room and talk. My siblings and I all grew up in the city, but my parents moved to a suburb 10 miles or so (about 16 kilometres) north of Chicago once we all moved out, so their current house was never my home. It was just a place I’d visit every now and then. Now it smells like my grandparents’ home did in their waning years—that musty, medicine-y smell.

Mom wants to hear all about my cats and asks after my husband Julius, which is a big step for her, maybe the biggest she’ll ever be able to take towards accepting not only that I’m gay (out since age 17, so she’s had time to get used to it), but gay-married. When she didn’t even so much as call to wish me luck on my wedding day in October 2011, I didn’t speak to her for the better part of a year. Now it seems silly to hold a grudge.

A lot of small talk drops from her lips as I focus on the tight skin on her forehead and cheekbones, wondering if that’s how she’ll appear at her wake. One of my ‘bugaboos’ has been how I’ll react to seeing her in an open casket. When I was little, family members would have to drag me to the casket at wakes. The dead in them looked so lifelike, I was afraid they’d open their eyes and jump out.

Now, my fear is that I’ll break down in a sobbing mess when Mom is up there. When you’re Irish, you’re allowed only a certain amount of falling-apart at a wake. Then you’re supposed to pull yourself together and make a big, funny show of how life goes on. If we were Italian, this wouldn’t be an issue. If I were to break down, I’d have plenty of company in crying.

Mom and I speak for another 45 minutes or so, then she has to go lie down. Dad tells me he’s surprised she was able to sit up this long. If she so much as walks down the 10-foot (about 3 metres) hallway, she has to sit down and rest for 10 or 15 minutes before proceeding into the kitchen. She can’t go to Mass in the morning or on Sundays anymore, so Dad goes every day and brings back Communion.

He tells me she doesn’t want her funeral to be in the church in our old neighbourhood in the city. She wants it to be at the parish where they live now. She also wants to be buried with a brother of mine named Brian, who died as an infant long before I was born.

Brian never had a tombstone—my parents were young and broke when they had him—but my mother has saved up to buy him one for when she is laid to rest next to him. Mom has also resolved to buy one for my father’s mother, who died giving birth to him, before her bones lay next to Brian’s.

One wild meditation

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I take all this in and tell Dad I’m going to go meditate. I forget whom I’m talking to. It’s too late, though, and I brace myself for the question I know is coming next: “Is this one of those Buddhist meditations?”

I say yes and expect to be baited about not being a Catholic anymore, as if a long time ago, when I was one, it was by choice. But Dad is getting on in years and mercifully doesn’t have the energy to fight with me about it anymore. As for Mom, she is just glad I believe in something.

To my surprise, Dad asks if I’d like him to leave the room so I can have some privacy while I meditate. (When has any father ever asked that? So, again, subtle progress.) I say, “Thanks, but I’ll go to the guest room,” where I’m staying.

My mother has lived by church rules all her life. I have not. She is sure of where she’s going when she closes her eyes to this world. I envy her that.

I fashion a meditation cushion out of a pile of pillows from the linen closet and stack them on the bed. There’s a crucifix above the bed and a rosary on the nightstand. I see they’ve put a new collection of saints’ statues and a vial of holy water on the desk at the foot of the bed, too.

This is going to be one wild meditation. My mother has lived by church rules all her life. I have not. She is sure of where she’s going when she closes her eyes to this world. I envy her that.

I set my iPhone’s timer for 45 minutes and get started on my metta (loving-kindness) meditation: “May I be happy/May I be at peace/May I be happy/May I live with ease… .” I was relieved to learn, many years ago, that it is not selfish to wish ourselves happiness when doing metta. On the contrary, the more happiness we have, the more we have to give. So I send metta to myself for a good long time before moving on to the Benefactor, the Loved One, the Neutral Person, the Enemy and so on.

As I progress through my meditation, I know I’m only in the wee small hours of beginning to integrate all that I’ve seen and learned since entering my parents’ house. I can tell that, on some level, I’ve steeled myself against it. As I sit, I feel like a block of ice that’s only melting by degrees in the heat of meditation, though I know in time I’ll be a puddle when I enter the last stages of grief.

Tonight, Mom says we’ll watch some of the new Downton Abbey DVD I brought with me. Every Sunday night, Julius and I watch it over Margherita pizza. She says she’ll watch as much as she can before she has to go lie down again.

I leave tomorrow afternoon for New York. The next day, I’ll take my suit in to be pressed.

Maureen Ann Smith passed away on March 11, 2013. Thomas Philip Smith, her husband of 54 years, passed away of prostate cancer-related complications on February 11, 2014.

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