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Energy Healing for Your Animals: Workshop on Animal Reiki
Hey Everyone,
I am so happy and excited to invite you all to this Saturday’s Workshop on Animal Reiki: Energy Healing for Your Pets. Andrea, the visionary behind The Tailgate Market on New Leicester Highway is sponsoring this is a workshop which is free for all participants. In this workshop, you will learn how to use energy healing for the well-being of your animal. You will learn about Reiki, the Japanese tradition of energy healing.
You will learn:
2. Simple yet powerful Visualizing method to connect with your animal
3. Process for offering Reiki to your animal
and more elements of Animal Reiki, if time permits.
Reiki is an ancient tradition and has so many benefits. Not only is it for self-healing and for helping the healing in people, it is a powerful tool when it comes to assist our animal friends.
1. Relieve physical pain (illness, recovery from treatment)
2. Restore emotional balance (anxiety, abandonment, adjusting to new place or new family member, loss)
3. Rejuvenate on the spiritual level (restoring a sense of hope and love)
During the workshop, we will do live Reiki sessions for your animals. Dogs and cats are welcome because of the location and because of my focus at the moment is on these two types of animals. Reiki, of course, can benefit ALL animals, plants, land, things and so on.
We will begin at 2pm and end at 4pm. The location is: The Tailgate Market, 328 New Leicester Hwy, Suite 142, Asheville, NC 28806
An Evening for My Spiritual Renewal Starting Wednesday August 22nd
This event is presented by Reflection Pond, Center for Meditation and Healing, Asheville, North Carolina.
Please reserve your spot by email: sophia@reflectionpond.com
Sliding scale $8 to $22. Contribute what you can.
Wednesday August 22nd. 7:30pm- 9pm (Start arriving at 7:15 as we will begin at 7:30pm)
Location: The Pond Center, 600 Landis Ct, Apt # 304 Asheville, NC 28806
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About the Event:
Come and give yourself an evening of relaxation and spiritual renewal. We will be setting intentions for the week, sharing gratitude and journeying into your sacred garden.
Sophia will guide you through a visual journey into your sacred garden, a place of meaning to you, where you can reconnect with your higher self, meet a loved one, ask for help from a spirit/animal guide and visualize your dream.
During the class one of the participants will be invited to receive Reiki Energy healing in the meditative space created by all. If you like to receive Reiki, write it in the RSVP email.
The session starts at 7:30pm. Doors open at 7:15 pm. Come at least 5 minutes before 7:30pm. Bring a pillow and light blanket along with water/tea.
Contact:
Connect with me at 828.398.4701 or email at sophia@reflectionpond.com
www.reflectionpond.com
♥ ♥ ♥
Sophia Ojha Ensslin is a Reiki Master and Visualization Guide. She guides meditation for individuals and groups using guided imagery and visualization and breathing techniques to help people calm the thoughts and connect with their deeper self. A Reiki practitioner of the Usui tradition, Sophia conducts energy healing sessions for individuals as well as companion animals, dogs and cats.
Sophia has produced a guided meditation CD in 2011 called Visual Journey Meditations and has guided over 100 group meditations last year. In 2012, her first book, "22 Visual Journey Meditations" is going to be published. She also collaborates with here husband Cristof Ensslin, who is a cellist, in creating meditation videos with multi-track cello music. Learn more at www.reflectionpond.com
Visual Journey And Evidence That We Are Connected To a Field
The more I see people connecting with themselves, the more I am convinced about the power of visualizations and the mind and heart. And when it feels like I am fully convinced, I am even more convinced, to yet another degree.
Yesterday, there were four wonderful human beings that I was blessed to have in our Wednesday evening class. They are truly beautiful people from the depths of who they are. We all went on a Visual Journey together. When I began guiding, images came to my mind's eye that were clear like water. A clear, solid image of a golden rock appeared. I began seeing its details. Golden. Glistening. Water from an unknown source flowing down its smooth and craggy surface. I could hear the trickling sounds of the waterfall and then saw a tiny pool of water that collected below. The rock was touching the ground on only one single point, balanced in the most unusual way. On one side there was an opening and on other a shade from the sun.
We entered the Rock through the opening. Just floating up into the hollow rock and arriving at a landing. Then we lay there and looked at the ceiling of the hollow rock which was a beautiful dark night sky. As if we were in a planetarium, we could see the stars and shooting stars and comets, all in action. Then a giant Sun, hundred times bigger than our Sun, called us to visit. In the next moment, we were on the Sun and experienced the unusual desgin of it. The Sun was a three-dimensional structure with different layers. Each layer was a different landscape and one could navigate it like the different slices of pizza pie. First layer was Earth-like terrain, the next layer was moon-like terrain and the third layer was our Sacred Garden.
And then in the Sacred Garden magic happened for the people in the class. The Sacred Garden is a special place that is unique to each one of us. It exists only for us and we all have it and can create it. It is a place of peace and healing and love, where nothing but the highest good of all happens. We connected with the garden, listened for any messages from the trees and flowers and animals there. We also removed items that we no longer wanted to be there and added things we wanted there. Then we met with our Tree. This tree represented an intention we had set before going into the Visual Journey. We saw the current state of the tree and started giving it attention. We poured water, hugged it and gave it a lot of love. Then we saw the tree change and react to all the love and attention. After this, we called for our Spiritual Mentor or Animal Spirit or Ancestor or Higher Self to appear. We then listened in silence to their message.
This was such an amazing experience for me as a guide. All images and signs came to me with ease. I was picking it up from the participants and it became clear from the things they shared with me. They shared that they would visualize or think of something and the next moment I would say that same thing. One participant had listed 7 or 8 items which were what she had thought about or visualized. This kind of reports happen in almost every sharing part of Visual Journeys and it is evidence for me that we are connected in an invisible field and we can pick up information from this field as easily as closing our eyes. Sure, it takes some practice, but this is something we can all do. It is not something we need to learn, because we already know it. What we do need to do is to learn how to uncover the layers covering us up from these natrual, innate "skills" or ways of being.
I am so blessed to bring the Visual Journeys to people and I am so grateful for all the participants who make it happen for me. Thank you so much!
I invite you to come and join me on a Visual Journey. If you cannot make it in person in Asheville, call or email me and we can do one via video skype. I will also be hosting a monthly free Visual Journey Potluck at the Pond Center starting this month, that will be for beginners and for old-timers alike. So if you are a beginner, you can connect with other meditators who have been there in the early stages and you can ask some of your questions. If you are an old-timer, you can help and assist the newbees on this path of quieting the mind and deeply connecting with self. So let us visualize, meditate and manifest the very highest good for us all.
Email me at sophia@reflectionpond.com.
Love y'all!
Sophia
You Can Use My Boat - Uplifting Stories, Edition No. 1
Listen or watch to the first in our Uplifting Stories Series:
New Podcast and Video Series: Uplifting Stories Now Online!!
Today we are launching our new audio podcast and video series called, "Uplifting Stories". In this series, we will share with you stories that uplift us in some way. They can be reflection, humorous, thoughtful or simple a fun story to share with you. Watch out on this blog under the category Uplifting Stories for all of them in one place.
To watch the video series, go to http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLC14D258FD891B3EB&feature=view_all
To download free audio podcasts, go to http://soundcloud.com/reflectionpond/sets/uplifting-stories-podcast-series
As always, we love hearing your feedback. Write to us or make your own video response and send it to us!
Love,
Sophia + Cristof
Reflection Pond is featured in Australia
This was so much fun. I got connected with Kathy Wilson of mydiamonddays.com who has created a unique site to offer people 10 minutes of meditations daily. We got talking about the practice of meditation and about collaborations. Below you can see a snippet of that interview, thankfully I did not know I was being recorded until later, and so she got me in my natural mood! Kathy is also going to host my new e-workshop on meditation coming up later this summer. So exciting!
Visual Journey Meditations CD: Here are the winners!
Congratultions to the three winners of the raffle for the Visualization CD from the AWIF fair here in Asheville, NC earlier this month!
Affirmative Meditation: Create Your Dream
A quick inspiring meditation reminding us that we can create all we want and sharing the simple steps to live your dream. Take a listen and share.
Affirmation Meditation: You are Brilliant
To be in your flow, listen to these words, reminding you of your brilliance. Bring in the high vibration of these affirmations into your very being. Listen to it to start the day, to close the day or anytime when you want to refresh and reenergize into your bliss.
Meditation Video is just in: Morning Meditation Blessed Day
Enjoy this meditation video, to calm your mind, to begin the day.
Listen to Morning Meditation Blessed Day
Soothing words to listen as you wake up. Fill yourself with gratitude. Fill your mind with uplifting thoughts so you may summon in a beautiful, blissful, blessed day.
This audio track is a beautiful way to start your day. Bookmark this page and come back each morning.
Help yourself to get in the right frame of mind: Get a Life-line!
Thoughts that bring you in a negative, pessimistic or plain lousy frame of mind can quickly turn into a downward spiral. If we want to stop slipping down the slippery slope it is important that we catch the slide when it is still just happening.
Become aware is certainly a critical start. You begin to notice what is going on. Then you help yourself to come out of it. Think of it like this. There is a well. You fall into it. You realize it. Now you help yourself to reach for the rope to come out of the well. And move on.
What are some of the things you can do when the mind starts attracting not-so-good thoughts?
There are many things you can do. And to know what your options are in advance, when you are feeling happy and uplifted, makes the difference. Because when you are in the not-so-positive mood, nothing seems attractive. Okay, I am exaggerating. Some things may look appealing. But it really depends how intensely you are experiencing low-energy-negative thoughts.
So, PLEASE take this time to write down 10 things, or at least 5 of your most favorite things to do that give you joy, make you smile, just simply make you feel good. When you write it down, you become aware of it and this awareness can become your lifeline when you really need it.
5 things that are MY LIFE LINE....things that make me feel really good:
1. Watching the clouds roll by across a blue sky. Looking at the big sky, day or night, shifts me to a whole different level.
2. Playing with my cat-friend, Sunflower.
3. Watching a film, especially animation or a comedy. I get a feeling of coziness and home.
4. Listening to the Dalai Lama. I just Google Dalai Lama or go to the Dalai Lama website to listen to this compassionate soul. I can't help but smile when I listen to him.
5. Hanging out with friends or just calling up a friend and saying, "what's up" makes my day.
And 5 more things....
1. Taking a shower. Soothes and relaxes my mind.
2. Meditating. Closing my eyes, breathing and just sensing the vibrations in my body.
3. Playing a board game. This necessitates buddies! When possible the jungle jam makes the day!
4. Getting outside for a walk out in nature and remembering how we are so abundantly blessed and have all we need within us.
5. Watching a funny video of kittens or puppies or any nature documentary. Smiles. Smiles and even Giggles are a result!
So what are your 5 things that serve as your Life-line? ...and then try coming up with another 5!
Power of Positive Intention. What do you intend each day?
An important aspect of a positive mind-set is positive intention. Intention-making has come into the mainstream thought intensely in the last few years both in the spiritual growth realm as well as personal development arenas.
What is positive intention, in short? It is not that complicated. Basically expressed, with positive intention mind-frame, we set an intention for our life. It is completely trusting the higher forces, but even more importantly, completely trusting the deep wisdom and peace within you. It is about having full faith that things are working out beautifully. When you have this frame of mind, you let go of the worries and the anxiety of your ego-mind. You are at ease, with yourself and with the world. Isn't that a beautiful "side-effect"? Infact, it is an absolutely beautiful main-event.
So how do you do it? Very simple:
Daily Intention: Take time each day to set an intention for the day. It can be something like this, "I intend to have a joyful, fulfilling day". Start off with one thing that you would like to happen, something related to your desired effect. It may be something like this as well, "My intention is for an effective, harmonious and successful meeting for all people involved." It may be an intention for the world, "May all living beings be in peace". It can be anything you want to happen or create in your life that is for your highest good.
The idea is to intend positively. You may soon find that your intentions are indeed materialized, as I have found and become aware of in the last four years, ever more each day. It is a beautiful, powerful exercise that sets an upbeat, positive tone and mood to your day and your life. And before you go to sleep at night, you look back at the day and realise that your day has turned out just like your intentions set in the morning or even more than what you intended for!!!
Compassion for warm-heartedness
One of my favorite teachers is the Dalai Lama. He is authentic and conveys his message with simplicity and humor that warms up your heart. His openness and his embrace of science is another aspect that I admire about him. And he calls for a new path to that which is divine: being compassionate to all living beings including ourselves.
Here is a short clip on Compassion and warm heartedness from the Dalai Lama.
Asking and receiving
This week, I invite you all to ask questions.
The right kind of questions.
For any situation you are facing, learning to ask the right kind of questions can make a big difference for you. If something is not working, rather than asking why is this not working, ask: "How can I help this to work?". If you are in pain, rather than asking, "Why am I in pain?", ask, "How can I help myself heal?"
Somemay say, that it is important to know why something is not working in order to resolve it. I do not agree. By asking ourselves and the Universe, how we can help ourselves resolve a situation, we may get insights and help that may also shed light on the 'whys', but most importantly, we will focus on the resolution.
So, ask your guides and the helping spirits for guidance. Ask them to give you hints and clues and answers. And then just trust that the answers are flowing to you instantly. The more we quiet our minds, the more we will hear the answers.
We are constantly being guided to the unfolding of our highest self. Ask the questions, quiet the mind and listen-in to the magical vibrations of inner guidance.
Love,
Sophia
Waiting room meditation
Living in a community means using services with fellow human beings. In our fast-paced life, this becomes a source of impatience and annoyance because this means waiting in line to be served. Whether it is at the doctor's office, at the Post Office, or at the grocery store! This may be standing in a queue at a ticket booth or at a bookshop or at your favorite store.
One other place where a lot of waiting happens is at convergence points, such as train stations, on the road, bus stops and at airports. Airport waiting can often be frustrating especially when there is no clear information available about the departure or arrival of a plane.
All of these occasions are great opportunities for meditating. Sitting at the Airport Terminal, just close your eyes and take a few minutes of space, extracting yourself from the "waiting" and transplanting yourself to "being" status. If you prefer, you can keep your eyes half closed or even open, looking at a general area in the distance. When standing in a line, you can maintain your alert mode and bring focus to your breath. This practice also helps you to be in the moment and shift from an impatient waiting mode, to merely being, observing, enjoying being alive.
Remember that meditating in a public place means you find a spot where you can be secure and safe. Then while meditating, you allow yourself to become acutely aware of your environment. Sounds and vibrations become more apparent to you in this state.
So give it a try. And next time you have to wait anywhere, think of it as a divine gift to be present, a chance to tap into the vast ocean of consciousness.
Gratitude Portal as a Visual Reminder
Make a gratitude portal as a visual reminder of all that you are grateful for. I made one. Watch this video.
21 Positive Things I Noticed Today
Here is a practice that will change your vibration by the time you finish it and it takes only a few minutes. All you do, is to think about your life, your environment, your world and notice any positive aspects that you can. You can begin with something like "the sun rises every day", or "I am alive" to get you started. There are no restrictions on which positive aspects you notice. So here is what came for me:
Today, I notice the following 21 aspects of life:
1. There is blue sky and sunshine today for all to enjoy.
2. A cat came to visit us. She is full of good energy and love.
3. I was served absolutely delicious home-made food made with love.
4. I am full of good mood, health and joy.
5. There are millions of beautiful flowers on our planet.
6. The sky is vast and beautiful.
7. The sun rises every day.
8. My body is in complete harmony.
9. My mind and spirit are healthy and dynamic.
10. Internet exists.
11. I love skype for making communicating with people fun and easy.
12. I feel centered and at ease
13. There is abundance and harmony in this world.
14. I woke up today with a smile.
15. There are so many fun things to do.
16. The mountain view is a blessing.
17. My home is warm and loving.
18. My loved ones are close to me.
19. My mom is loving and sweet and she just called me.
20. People love and adore me.
21. The right teachers show up right on time for me.
Thank you. Wow, this feels good. I am happy.