• Diana's Healing Lotus **********************************************************************

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    “Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself.”

    ~ George Bernard Shaw

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  • So Far to Run – The Memoir of Liberian Refugee Louise Geesedeh Barton

    is published and available for purchase! Please check out the site.

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Serving others

By Diana Neff | Published: November 10, 2011

 

I just had to share this recent email with you.  I changed some of the details that didn’t sit well with me.  What I am impressed with are the ways of helping ourselves I never thought of.  I mean, I have thought of giving service gifts, but never from the point of view that it is a financially healthy prospect for our country.

I hope you find this as encouraging as I have.  You can add your ideas in at the end like I did.  Fun!

As the holidays approach, factories in other countries are kicking into high gear to provide Americans with monstrous piles of cheaply produced goods. This year we can do things differently. This year Americans can give the gift of genuine concern for other Americans. There is no longer an excuse that, at gift giving time, nothing can be found that is produced by American hands. Yes there is!

It’s time to think outside the box, people. Who says a gift needs to fit in a shirt box, wrapped in wrapping paper made in another country?

Nearly everyone gets a hair cut. How about gift certificates from your local American hair salon or barber?

Gym membership? It’s appropriate for all ages who are thinking about some health improvement.

Who wouldn’t appreciate getting his car detailed? Small, American owned detail shops and car washes would love to sell you a gift certificate or a book of gift certificates.

Are you one of those extravagant givers who think nothing of plunking down the Benjamins on a flat-screen made somewhere else? Perhaps that grateful gift receiver would like his driveway sealed, or lawn mowed for the summer, or driveway plowed all winter, or games at the local golf course.

There are a bazillion owner-run restaurants — all offering gift certificates. And, if your intended isn’t the fancy eatery sort, what about a half dozen breakfasts at the local breakfast joint. Remember, folks this isn’t about big National chains — this is about supporting your home town Americans with their financial lives on the line to keep their doors open.

How many people could use an oil change for their car, truck or motorcycle, done at a shop run by the American working guy?

Thinking about a heartfelt gift for mom? Mom would love the services of a local cleaning company for a day.

My computer could use a tune-up, and I know I can find some young techie who is struggling to get a repair business up and running.

OK, you were looking for something more personal. Local crafts people spin their own wool and knit it into scarves. They make jewelry, and pottery and beautiful wooden boxes.

Plan your holiday outings at local, owner operated restaurants and leave your server a nice tip. And, how about going out to see a play or ballet at your hometown theater?

Musicians need love too, so find a venue showcasing local bands.

Honestly, do you really need to buy another ten thousand foreign made lights for the house?  When you buy a five dollar string of light, about fifty cents stays in the community. If you have those kinds of bucks to burn, leave the mailman, trash guy or babysitter a nice big tip.

You see, the holidays are about caring about us, encouraging American small businesses to keep plugging away to follow their dreams. And, when we care about other Americans, we care about our communities, and the benefits come back to us in ways we couldn’t imagine. This can be the new American holiday tradition.

 

I do have another two cents worth…  If there is no money to be spreading around this holiday season, even for services, why not exchange the labor with  others?  If you don’t know how to do something, but can do something else , why not trade off with someone who can do what you cannot?  I’ll weed your mom’s flower bed if you cut my mom’s hair…  If you know how, that is!  I’ll draw your dog’s portrait if you do my year end taxes.  Sounds doable!

 

Picture Credit:  By Pearson Scott Foresman via Wikimedia Commons

Photo Credit:  By SiefkinDR via Wikimedia Commons

 

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“So Far to Run” in print and available!

By Diana Neff | Published: November 4, 2011

Oh my gosh!  We have our first book review!  Take a look at Amazon.com.  We have worked very hard for a long time and it feels so good to have come to this point in our writing/editing journey.  Thank you for taking the time to check it out.

 

www.amazon.com

The captivating, inspiring true journey of Liberian refugee Louise Géesedeh Barton is recreated with vivid, haunting detail in this spellbinding memoir. For more than ten years, Louise spent her life on the run, hunted down as a member of the indigenous Krahn tribe, and as a distant relative…

 

 

 

You can go to the website  So Far to Run for more information.

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Oscillations big and small

By Diana Neff | Published: October 28, 2011

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness!  Whew!  I think I’m seeing the light of day somewhere ahead.  Or is it that other light!?  Hadn’t thought of that.  Oh well.  What will be, will be.  I’m here and I’m breathing and I hope you guys are well too.

I’ve been doing as much energy work as the Universe is blessing me with these days.  It’s always amazing when I realize that I have fewer clients during the times when my personal life is overly full.  I am learning to trust this flow and take comfort in knowing this is the proper way of things.  It’s nice to have a break and I am remembering to be grateful.

This subject comes up so often during sessions.  It seems all of us need a reminder that life is a roller coaster ride and that’s just the way of it.  We can adjust the oscillation of this ride by using our energy exercises – breathing, meditating, grounding…emanating gratitude.  Wave length, amplitude – both variables we can manipulate if we simply take the time to focus.

Breathe in…and breathe out.  Relax the shoulders…now the jaw.  Visualize a fiery sunset with clouds in even patterns, marching toward the horizon – a butterfly lifting and dipping along the grass.  Listen to a seashell covering your ear and magnifying the sound of your blood swishing through your veins– the sound of mourning doves cooing in the morning.  There are so many examples of nature’s beauty and its variable oscillations – all here to observe.

This time of year, especially, we can use moments of filling – energy boosts and encouragement to complete our annual journey and rev up for the next.  Let me know if I can help.

Happy times and potent dreams!

 

Image Credit by Geraldbrowne via Wikimedia Commons

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The best things in life

By Diana Neff | Published: April 6, 2011

I just surprised myself by showing up here at this moment.  Do you ever do that?  Something needs doing and you take yourself by surprise and start it before you know you are?  While I love being here and doing this, it sometimes feels like a chore to find the time, inclination, and thoughts to share.  It’s not a lot like cleaning the bathroom, but I handle it the same way.  I must have a certain amount of time to do it – all the way through, that is – or I won’t start the project.

Yes, there’s a freedom in working from home, but one must be in charge of time and mind to truly function well under their own volition.  Sometimes, I feel as if I’m being controlled by my surroundings rather than the other way around.  Right here, right now, I’m going to stamp my foot, put my fists on my hips, and say out loud, “Hey, who’s in charge anyway?!”  Oh yeah, I am.  Ain’t it great?

Well yes, it is great.  Does it “feel” great?  Not always.  Constant reminders are needed.  Life is fulfilling if we are aware that…

The best things in life are nearest:  Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you.  Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life’s plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Simplicity itself.  So I tell myself, “Quit making it so difficult on yourself, silly!” or something to that extent, as you can imagine.  “Let it go and go outside,” where nature has just recuperated from another wet front that passed through and the air sparkles, and the birds sing, and the insects buzz while I breathe in deeply from the blossoms that made it through the winds.  Leaves lay on the ground like small bowls containing rainwater.  The earth is damp and the plants are firm having taken in water and nutrients.  I am one of them, standing taller with each breath, turning my face to the sun as a flower would.  My arms reach out, my fingers spread wide, and I draw in energy; up through my feet, experiencing it as it climbs my legs, enters my body, filling it, and then courses out of my chest, arms, and fingers, returning to the world.  I am part of the world.  I fit into the plan.  I feel empowered to greatness.  I can return to my daily tasks, understanding it is not their importance that drives me, but the fact that I am capable in all ways and should express gratitude for this by using my gifts, my abilities.

Having things to do and being able to do them…the best things in life!

There, I did the whole thing, start to finish.  I’m pleased.

Wikimedia Commons photo credit:  By HID


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Bring It On

By Diana Neff | Published: March 24, 2011

Bring it on with a song.  It’s a Spring Thing!  Put some zing into it, have a fling!

Do we have a spring in our step yet?  Well, we do in the south.  My step has been springy since October when the temp cooled down and the humidity lifted.  The days are warmer now, but still dry and that goes a long way on the comfort gauge in Florida.

Our oak trees, four large ones on the front, lining our curb, all bloomed a month early this year.  They do the autumn thing and the spring thing at the same time, leaves dropping and blossoms dripping all at once.  Our city has determined that oaks need to be planted whenever construction projects clear and chop down anything.  Pay in oaks.  They are everywhere.  However, now we have a bunch of people (including myself) with severe allergy problems when spring comes and it is largely due to the oak blossoms.  I have been taking Cat’s Claw pretty regularly for some months now and believe the reason I have not had any symptoms to sneeze at is due to the effect of this supplement.  It promotes healthy immune function, according to the label.  Easy breathing always keeps a spring in my step.

And how about that moon – Super Moon?  Wowzer!  It’s fun taking the dogs out at night and being greeted by that broad, clear smile coming from the old Man in the Moon; brings back memories of watching and wondering how the moon could move with us as we drove home from Nanna’s house on Sunday nights with tummies full to overflowing.  The warm, sweet smell of citrus blossoms, and jasmine blossoms, and night blooming cirrus blossoms, and hundreds of other thick, syrupy scents filled our nostrils while we leaned back on our seat, watching out the window into a brilliantly clear, cloudless spring sky; the moon so bright there was not a single star visible.  “How does the moon move with us, Daddy?”   The distance and size explanation meant nothing to us.  The moon was alive and we could feel its energy as a viable entity.  I still can and greet it as a friend, sorrowing for the fact it must compete with wires and buildings and electric lights.  The beauty and strength the moon commands when I can capture a view obstructed by nothing but the backyard mango and orange trees and waving palm fronds is beyond description.  Another reason for a spring in my step!

Spring and daydreams, yes, hand in hand.  When I was in second grade, a new elementary school was built to house the growing baby boom population.  Prior to that, we were shuffled around in an overcrowded old, Spanish style building.  I can still smell the wooden floors mingling with the cafeteria food preparation.  At one point we were behind the curtain of the stage in the cafeteria.  Did that ever tantalize the tummy all morning?  The new school!  Now that was something.  Yes, we could still smell the cafeteria in the adjacent building, but the paint!  The new desks, new books!  Oh what a glorious smell!  The classrooms shared a bathroom between.  There were sinks and closets in the back for art and science projects.  There were floor to ceiling windows on opposite sides of the classroom; no screens, no curtains.  There was no air conditioning either.  We were out of school by the beginning of June, so the excruciating heat had not begun before we were out for the summer.  In the spring, the flies would come in and play after lunch while we were listening to our teacher read.  The air was clean; the cicadas droned from the toasty smelling pine trees outside; our minds wandered.  I love to daydream!  It is the sweet wandering of the mind, the lazy drifting from place to place.  I find myself on a crystalline river, afloat in an inner tube, my hair swelling about the edges of my face as I lean back into the coolness and look up into the treetops wandering past my vision in a long and glorious breath.  The sun dapples my body and the reflective water, causing flashes and sparkles that speak of love and comfort and freshness and promise.  Life is ahead, fully in front of me; ending far beyond my vision or understanding.

I’m ready, let’s do this thing, this Spring Thing!

Wikimedia Commons Super Moon Credit:  Phenixsport

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Get on the bus

By Diana Neff | Published: March 20, 2011

While having a discussion with someone recently, I had this meditative sequence come to mind.  The person I was speaking with had felt like the bus had gone on by in life, a feeling many of us have probably had, especially those of us moving on in years.

What if you were to intend / imagine that you were at a bus stop, and the bus arrives curbside, and you see the door open, the steps leading up; the driver / guide wearing a huge smile, gives a nod; you step up and start moving into the bus as the bus leaves the curb.  Now you make a choice as to where you will sit, front, back, left, right.  The decision is not a difficult one and you feel in your heart that you have made the exact correct choice.  You feel the exhilaration of the energy as it fills your chest and explodes outward; love permeates the area around you and filters on outward in all directions from you.  The entire bus is aglow as it moves down the street.  The first stop is coming up and you make another choice as to getting off or not.  These choices come very easily and you are free and light feeling.  You know exactly which stop you are going to and you know exactly what will be there…

Get on that bus and feel the excitement of your next stop coming up!


Wikimedia Commons Credit:  Adam E. Moreira

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Letting go

By Diana Neff | Published: March 14, 2011

Busy, busy.  Anyone else?  I’ve been carrying a weight on my shoulders lately and have neglected being here because I don’t like to bring negativity in with me.  At the moment, I’m having a bit of a time breathing through some emotional stuff, but I’m staying ahead of it by focusing on something more light.

Yesterday, I was at Border’s with my daughters and two of their friends.  They were hanging out, reading Manga and discussing Anime.  This is a tedious subject for me.  The constant filtering of which ones they should not be into is a bother.  But, the girls are being fairly mature about that and seem to be self-censuring to a good degree.

It was a particularly difficult morning because of issues with another of our children and I did a few circles in the center of the aisle near the girls before being led to a table of books where a baby book with cute, knitted caps on adorable babies was calling to me.  I’ve been knitting and crocheting lately, and hats are my thing.  (As an aside here, this is a very good therapy for me.  I find that the idea of learning something new, actually getting to finish a project, and then sharing that accomplishment with people is quite fulfilling.  My girls and I never miss the hour or two we spend once a week with the knitting club.)  Right next to this book was “The Power of Positive Thinking” by Norman Vincent Peale.  One of those books one hears of many times in life and puts off picking up.  I opened it a little ways into the pages and found myself reading about sitting in the woods, listening to nature in order to learn how to “hear” God.  I love doing this meditatively anyway, but to have stumbled on the reminder that learning to let go and let God is a good prescription for finding the right answer or path was more than a coincidence, or “co-inky-dink,”  as we say around our house.  So, I continued reading over Norman’s vignettes of different people’s stories of tension and hurry and their having life-changing results by simply stopping in their tracks and breathing a bit.

One story was about a man who insisted on doing everything himself.  He was a business owner and could trust no one to do a good job, or so he thought.  His doctor told him to do this and that for relaxation and then to visit the cemetery for a short time each week.  The man wanted to know why and was told that he would come to realize that each one of those people had died and the world had not actually ended when they did.  The business owner went on to be quite successful by delegating and learning to let go of his perfecting tendency.

The reason that put me here today was that I wanted to share a healing-energy success story with you.  When I work in the evenings on Long Distance Energy sessions, I pray and meditate and connect with the person I have an appointment with.  This is basically the same as Norm’s advice above.  (I am not being rude in addressing him so.  I feel a comfortableness in what he shared with me yesterday and I want to pass on that feel of camaraderie to you as well.)  If I relax and bring my mind back to the subject at hand whenever I feel adrift, a calmness pervades and a deep state comes where images and words and ideas are shared with me for the person I’m working with.  There are many repeat clients who have become friends.  It would be difficult not to become friends when such an intimate connecting goes on.  The following is a portion of a response from a recent session.  This person has had pain in her right side for her entire life and no one has been able to determine why.  I am filled with gratitude to have been used for this person’s highest good and to hear positive results.

… I have to tell you I was going through my day and enjoying class and … the instructor told me I had a glow and looked like I was happy. I realized at that moment the pain in my right side is gone!!  I knew since our session I have felt lighter and happier. But I didn’t put it together.  The pain didn’t leave all at once it just eased off and left. Now my right arm is better but still hurting now and then. But nothing like before the session. …

I find it exhilarating to know it is okay for us to see and enjoy the light side and to feel good even though we may be bearing burdens of darkness at the same time.  It is a matter of letting go and letting God/the Universe help.

Wikimedia Commons Credit cemetery:  Doris Antony

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My Tapestry, My Life

By Diana Neff | Published: January 25, 2011

Recently, I received a version of the following message by email…you know, one of those that goes around and around and suddenly strikes a chord when you least expect it?  I worked some word magic over it, not changing the gist, but loving on it a little.  I pray it will bring some hope and strength into the lives of the many tender hearts who are at the mercy of those around them; those who keep standing up and trying again.

On my day of passing I knelt before the Creator, along with many other souls.

The pieces of our lives lay out, stacked like the squares of a quilt, in many piles; an angel sat before each of us, sewing the squares together into a tapestry.

As my angel took up each piece from those piles in front of me, I noticed how ragged and empty each was.  They were filled with giant holes. Each square was labeled with a part of my life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations I had faced within each day of my life. I saw where the hardships I endured created the largest holes of all.  Glancing around me, I also saw the others had perhaps a tiny hole here and there, but their tapestries were filled with rich color and the bright hues of fortune, accomplishment, and success.  I gazed upon my own life and became disheartened.  My angel continued sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, seemingly binding the air in most places.

Finally those around me stood – each in turn, holding up their tapestries. So filled their lives had been; so worthy were they!  As my turn came and I held back, my angel looked upon me, and nodded for me to rise.  My gaze dropped in shame.  There was love in my life, and laughter, but there had also been trials of health, and wealth; and then the false accusations that took so much from my world. I had started over many times and often struggled with the temptation to quit, spending many nights kneeling in prayer, asking for help and guidance in my life.  I had often been ridiculed, enduring it painfully, each time offering it up to the Creator in hopes that I would not collapse beneath the weighty gaze of those who passed judgment on me.

And now, I faced the truth. My life was what it was.  I rose and slowly lifted the combined squares, not being able to look, but instead, peeked at the faces of the others around me… they were staring with wide eyes.  I hesitantly looked up at my tapestry/my life.  Light flooded the many holes, creating an image of exquisite beauty.  The perfect Spirit in all its glory beamed forth. What had seemed shabby to me was not.

With immense warmth and love Spirit spoke, “Every time you gave over your life to love, it became my life, my hardships, and my struggles.  Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let me shine through, until there was more of me than there was of you.”

Wikimedia Commons Image Credit:  Ann

Wikimedia Commons Image Credit:  Anne Norman

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Winner!

By Diana Neff | Published: January 13, 2011

While I could leave out the fact that only three people entered the contest, I like to be forthright.  I loved providing the first contest for Curative Energy and take the greatest of pleasure in announcing a winner!

Sue has won a free Long Distance Healing Energy session as well as the promised meditation CD.  Sue is already a client and I appreciate seeing her here.  Thanks for your participation and I hope you enjoy visiting the site.

I am all set for a future contest, by the way, and even found a place to generate random integers in order to pick winners.  Spread the word to your friends and let me know of your interest.

Lots of Love and Gratitude, 

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Contest!

By Diana Neff | Published: December 30, 2010

A CONTEST for a FREE Distant Healing Session with me – a $24.99 gift for you.

A random drawing will be made of one person from the names of those who contact me between now and 1-11-11. That’s January 11, 2011!

A healing meditation cd shipped free will also be included.

The winner will be announced shortly thereafter and we will make an appointment for a session.

You may send email, use the contact page, or simply leave a comment.  Include your name and preferred way of being contacted should you win.  (I will not post your name and contact information.)

One entry per person, one person per entry, please.

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    All writing not credited to others is copyrighted by Diana L. Neff © 2009-2011