A little over a year ago I was attending a training institute at a retreat center deep in the woods of eastern Virginia. One of the activities we were to participate in that weekend was a sweat lodge. As it happened, myself and one of the other trainees could not enter the sweat lodge because […]
I first discovered Belleruth’s work when I was assigned “Staying Well with Guided Imagery,” her book on using guided meditations to improve health problems. A psychotherapist for many years, she has loads of experience working with a variety of psychological and medical challenges. Her guided imagery and meditations have been scientifically tested and demonstrated to […]
Last summer I began dabbling a little with essential oils– primarily for personal use but also with the idea that they might be helpful to my guided imagery and music (GIM) clients. In my quest to read and learn about aromatherapy, I found this extremely useful book by Carol and David Schiller. It’s basically a […]
This past weekend I went with my family to a farm that had pick-your-own blueberries. The weather was nice– sunny but not too warm and a gentle breeze– and we quickly got to picking. Now, in my opinion, picking blueberries is fairly easy compared to other fruits (strawberries and blackberries for example). But it still […]
This is a great little pocket meditation book for the beginner from one of the best known teachers/thinkers of meditation practice of our time. There are over 100 short meditations that can be used for daily practice– some can be utilized as mantras, others are targeted towards adjusting your mindset, and a few are lessons […]
I was probably 12 years old the Christmas my uncle gave me a cassette tape (yes, that’s right) of George Winston’s piano music. I can’t recall anymore which album it was, and it was probably another couple of years before I listened to it– but I’ve been a huge fan of his ever since. In […]
Lately I’ve had several people ask me for tips on meditating. They’ve all been curious about the practice and were interested in trying it for stress relief. But, in talking with them all, I discovered that they all held a variety of misconceptions about meditation– and they were all feeling *very* anxious about even attempting […]
Recently I was having a conversation with one of my music therapist friends about blogging in which she was helping me brainstorm ideas for future blogposts. We got to the topic of my book reviews, and she mentioned that sometimes she reviews songs and CD’s on her blog. Immediately I thought of my recent blog […]
How do I get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice! It’s a joke that’s older than my grandmother, but the point is timeless. In order to accomplish anything, learn something new, become “good” at a job. We must practice the skills required for that task. A research study recently showed that it takes 10,000 hours […]
This week happens to be National Women’s Health Week, and the month of May is National Mental Health Month. So I thought– what a great time to write a blog post that speaks to both! One of my passions is helping women realize their full potential and find ways to truly honor themselves. Why is […]
