Deep Inner Healing with Essences

THOUGHTS FROM TERRI SONGBIRD:

A few months ago, I asked Gulabo’s (aka Celine Cloutier) opinion about my own personal essence program.

I wanted a program to work on shame, an emotion that is deep seated within me, and often is my primary negative emotion.  She recommended that I take #6 Urinary  for the shame and Life Embrace to open up the path to trust, and in particular, self trust.

So, being the essence lover that I am, I started with off drinking a bottle of each essence within one day, and continued to take dropperfuls of each essence many times throughout the day.  Everywhere I went my essences went with me, and every bottle of water I drank I put my recipe in it.  Within about 2 weeks, I intuitively knew that I needed to add #2 Intestinal  to my program.    I found myself getting stuck on a lot of negative thoughts, and felt like my thought pattern was going in circles, none of them good!!! So I added #2 to my program to help me let go of all of that old stuff.  Physically too, I can be one that hangs to stuff with my bowels so I knew this was a good choice for me.

Over the course of the next couple of weeks, I found myself drinking Intestinal #2 by the bottle full on a daily basis.  I wake up in the morning, and either from my dream state, or the state of my waking emotions, I knew I wanted to let go of more stuff, and I just kept seeing and hearing Intestinal, and knew that I needed to continue to support what was happening with me at a cellular level. I also was still consuming #6 and Life Embrace, about a bottle of each every five days.

In September, I finally found the courage and commitment within me to make true to myself a promise that I made for my 50th birthday, to be FIT AND FABULOUS!  In January I started changing my eating patterns and exercising at home.  This summer I continued my exercise program with rollerblading and walking, and finally in September, I gave myself the gift of a personal trainer, something that has been on my manifestation list for over a year.  My girlfriend and I go for semi private classes, and we help motivate each other and enjoy the fellowship.

It was about the third class that I was in, and Rebecca, my trainer asked me to do squats and lunges.  Well let me tell you folks, my body did not want to open my pelvis up.  I was stunned, shocked and surprised as to how difficult this “simple” movement was for my body, and my intellect, I Kept hearing NO NO NO in my head, and knew that instantly I was triggered.  At that moment I knew I had a choice to make, embrace my stuff, feel the pain and work through the release, or shove it back down inside of me.

I have worked too hard in my life and have done so many processes in my life that the latter was not a choice.  I heard the voice of a shaman that I mentored with speak to me, giving me one of my greatest teachings, “it is not until we can stand alone in the darkness of our pain that we can find the warrior within each of us, and be handed our shield from Spirit.”

So there I was simultaneously standing in my own darkness in Rebecca’s  beautiful studio with windows that go from the floor to the ceiling trying to squat without falling onto the floor in an emotional weeping pile of flesh,  OMG, talk about embarrassing!!

Thankfully, my girlfriend is a woman who has stood beside me for years, and knows my personal story, and Rebecca, my trainer, I knew intuitively would hold space for me, and thankfully I was not in a class of a bunch of unknown women, I was with these 2 beautiful woman who held space for me.

So being the strong willed Leo that I am, I roared and told my trainer that I was being triggered on a deep level by these *****squats, and as I was doing them, by body was experiencing an emotional release, I cried but I kept squatting, and the tears flowed more, but I kept asking my body to let go, release and move thru this.   I kept hearing my own voice of knowingness telling the wounded parts of me, that it was ok,  I could trust,  I could let go,  I can do this,  I can squat, I can find my strength again,  I can open up, and in particular I can trust my pelvis and open, and for me,  I also knew, that my body was telling me that I was healing and opening up  to self love, something that I have been working on for a very long time.

The energy in the studio was electric, I felt like a dish rag, but for the first time in my life, shame was not haunting me!!!!  I was so blessed to be with 2 beautiful women that just held space for me as I processed, but the shame was gone, no longer was I experiencing the sense of wanting to recoil within myself because I was ashamed of myself.  As I continued to do my workout, I kept seeing in my third eye bubbles floating up and just evaporating, and suddenly I knew, it all came together in that place of knowingness, I was experiencing a deep release of cellular memory.  It is one thing to talk about cellular release, and another to experience it!!  I knew instantly within the core of my being, that I was witnessing my own release that was facilitated by the essences that I was taking and was triggered by the exercises that I was doing. WHEW what a journey. What a healing and what a miracle these essences are.

In developing my marketing materials, I asked Spirit to give me inspiration and I received this statement:

“Canadian Forest Tree Essences facilitate change at the core of our being, working deeply, profoundly, yet gently for you to experience emotional well being.  Are you ready for change????”  I now can have a personal testimony to the truth of this insight given to me my Spirit.     Terri Songbird Phillips

If you would like assistance in creating your own essence program to facilitate your emotional well being, please consider calling Gulabo (http://essences.olhblogspace.com/?p=19) or myself for a personal consultation.

Terri Songbird distributes Canadian Forest Tree Essences in both United States and Canada.  She welcomes Stores and Therapist and Healer Inquiries for wholesale orders.  Terri Songbird offers free online support for all of her accounts making the transition into working with the essences easy and successful for both parties, the retailer and the client.

Call: 888-494-6627 or email: tphillips6@sympatico.ca

Contact Terri as well to arrange for an individual Wellness consultation or about Tree Essence classes.

Essences and Homeopathy

A question came from a homeopath concerning essences and homeopathy. Because it is of wider interest, we have decided to include this text in our Newsletter:

“What if the wrong essence was taken? In homeopathy if you choose the right remedy, you experience the desired effect, if the wrong remedy is picked, you bring out what it is you are trying to heal…

This is a multidimensional question with no perfect answer.

First of all her statement about homeopathy: “In homeopathy if you choose the right remedy, you experience the desired effect, if the wrong remedy is picked, you bring out what it is you are trying to heal…” is only a partial answer. There are many schools and opinions in homeopathy, each might state the desired action of a homeopathic remedy differently, likewise see the signs of a wrong remedy in a different way.

In classical homeopathy, one of the most important laws is Herring’s ‘Law of the Direction of Cure’.

I quote it from the book: Principles of Prescribing by Kailash Narayan Mathur:

“The direction of cure takes place:

(1)   From above down;

(2)   From within out:

(3)   In the reverse order of their coming…

You might say that in classical homeopathy, you do in fact bring out what it is you are trying to heal, but it happens in a specific manner depending as well on the type of problem, for example whether an ailment is acute or chronic.

Kent in his “Lectures on Homeopathy,” states it as such:

“Very often a remedy that will go to the very centre and restore economy will cause quite a turmoil.”

But this turmoil is specific as Kent also writes:

“Every homeopathic practitioner who understands the art of healing, knows that symptoms which go off in these directions remain away permanently. Moreover, he knows that symptoms which disappear in the reverse order of their coming are removed permanently.” (Lecture 22, quoted in “Homeopathy Re-Examined,” by Rudolf Verspoor)

Hahnemann wrote as well about the different forms of aggravations that occur with the rightly selected homeopathic remedy, distinguishing for example the different types of aggravations that might occur between an acute ailment and a chronic ailment.

Homeopathy is complex and it takes a great deal of knowledge and experience to apply it at a deep curative level as opposed to a palliative level.

Edward Bach began as an internist (allopathic doctor). Dissatisfaction with allopathic medicine led him to homeopathy, to which he contributed with his ideas and lectures. However, my understanding is that he became dissatisfied with both the complexity of classical homeopathy and its emphasis on pathology. He writes:

“The genius of Hahnemann realising the nature and reason of disease, used like remedies, which, by temporarily intensifying the illness, hastens its end. He used like poisons to repel the poisons from the body.” (From the “Collected Writings of Edward Bach”)

Bach sought a simpler and more natural, positive and holistic approach, which led him to the discovery of 38 flower remedies that can be prescribed intuitively. He thought of these essences, as being vibrational and as being healing herbs as opposed to drugs. He outlined a brilliant new approach to healing and well being based on resonance, on raising our vibration (a new approach but one that has strong antecedents in a variety of spiritual healing traditions worldwide and in North American Native healing traditions that connected with the healing powers of flowers and plants).

Bach saw disease as “dis – ease”, a disharmony between body, soul and mind. Flower essences were designed to restore harmony by flooding ourselves with positive energies:

“The perfect method is not so much to repel the adverse influence, as to draw in its opposing virtue; and by means of this virtue flood out the fault. This is the law of opposites, of positive and negative.”

Or,

“They are able, like beautiful music, or any gloriously uplifting thing which gives us inspiration, to raise our very natures, and bring us nearer our Souls: and by that very act, to bring us peace, and relieve our sufferings.”

Hence, the Tree Essences work via their positive energies drawn from trees. Bach calls this their virtue, it is like listening to the music of trees, with a single essence being like a solo instrument and a combination essence being like a symphony.

Bach also writes of his essences:

“All the remedies are made from beautiful flowers, plants and trees of Nature, none of them is poisonous nor can do any harm, no matter how much was taken.”

So, if we can step back a moment, it is my view that homeopathy is very effective when the right remedy can be chosen and is prescribed well as to timing, potency and so forth… Homeopathy can provide deep help in the curing of disease. And it has many interesting potential uses alongside modern medicine as described in the excellent book “The Emerging Science of Homeopathy,” by Paolo Bellavite and Andrea Signorini.

But homeopathy also faces many obstacles including problems of finding the right remedy when almost everyone has been exposed to so many new and unnatural factors that never existed in Hahnemann’s time such as vaccines, environmental toxins, hormones and drugs in our water and food, radio, microwaves and other forms of electromagnetic radiation and so forth. As well, the quality of homeopathy drug manufacturing may be called into question. To me the best homeopathic remedies I have experienced are those handcrafted in India. Their action is noticeable, while the remedies made mechanically in factories seem at times to lack vitality, and to not act satisfactorily.

It is also important to understand the difference between Vibrational essences such as Bach Flower Remedies and Canadian Forest Tree Essences and homeopathic remedies.

Tree essences are made in a way as to capture the resonance or song of a tree in an infusion. 

When diluted down all of these essences are safe to take as they contain at most only trace amounts of any chemical substance from the original infusion. In the case of our essences, they are also gently succussed in the preparation process. So in the sense that they are finely diluted and energized through succussion, they are similar to homeopathic remedies.

However, homeopathy begins by making preparations from a pathological substance such as arsenic, or a part of a plant that causes a particular set of symptoms that can be proved and the symptoms described in detail. Essences – even if they were to be prepared from a plant with toxic chemical qualities – begin with an infusion that is meant to capture the full resonance, presence or music of a plant. Certain parts of trees may be toxic if ingested in sufficient quantities — for example the leaves of the Yew Tree are toxic but the fleshy part of the aril or fruit is edible in small quantities — but have a beautiful presence or resonance that is in itself both nourishing and healing.

The method of choosing a tree essence is simple. Keen observation, knowledge of both the positive qualities of an essence and the challenges they tend to help, empathy with the person you are working with and intuition.

Can a wrong Tree Essence be given and cause harm? In general the answer is ‘no.’ If in healing you need a piece of music by Bach but you put on a piece by Mozart, the Mozart piece will also still be of help and will do no harm. There may be exceptional cases, but in 30 years of experience I have seen no one harmed by essences. I have seen times when someone is not ready or wanting to face emotional discomfort. I had this experience with a friend who I offered some Bach Remedies in the 1970’s and she found taking them to be too uncomfortable as she blamed the essences for bringing to the surface emotions she did not like. So it is important to educate and prepare our clients for inner work, but I am quite sure no harm was done in that case.

It is also essential to understand the role of essences versus homeopathy and other modalities. I would also insist that the Tree Essences are not drugs and are not meant to treat any specific disease. They should not be prescribed for any disease. However, as we know many ailments have a psychosomatic element. Therefore, if through their positive resonance an inner space is created that allows negative emotions, and self-limiting patterns to be seen, processed and transformed, then the healing of specific problems may result. But this is an indirect result. Using essences, we have raised our vibration and washed away or transformed certain inhibiting energies and disharmonious patterns.

So the tree essences are best used as indicated, for their positive resonance, as nourishment at an energetic level, to take care of our emotions and to raise our vibration. In this way they are safe and beneficial and can be integrated into any healing practice, either as a primary healing modality or as a supporting modality. Just as a homeopath might wish to use herbs, vitamins and specific diets with their clients, they may wish to incorporate Tree Essences. In my opinion they do not inhibit or interfere with or camouflage the action of any homeopathic remedy. But there are times as well when a homeopath, confident in their choice of the right remedy, and that their client is able to respond fully to it, wishes to use nothing but the homeopathic remedy. This is of course dictated by the inclination, knowledge and experience of the homeopath.

Hope the above responses to your questions are satisfactory.

Sincerely,

Daniel Tigner

“Hope”, a Poem from our Friend Augusto Paez.

Hope

Already times ago, I have left me to seduce

for the dance of unrealities

that arrives at the nightfall

and I’m not able more to laugh.

So are tragic winds;

that brings to my mind

infernal air for me to wound.

But my soul knows and also my mind,

that the same darkness contains the light

not in vain we expect the arrival’s night;

she is thirsty to let us to see her light!

Augusto

Ottawa, September 30/2009

THE TREES IN THE FOREST SECRET ESSENCE

Forest Secrets Essence is a universal essence to take with us at all times. It helps us get grounded, realign, focus and keep our balance. When nerves are frayed, feeling overcharged, dislocated because of travel, experiencing a shock or having difficulty sleeping, Forest Secrets is an ideal choice.

Lodgepole Pine (Pinus contorta var contorta) coming back to our center.

Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) speaks of opening and welcoming, being a part of the natural realm.

Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia) speaks of resolve and of maintaining our composure.

Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) speaks of friendship and opening.

Yellow Cedar (Chamaecyparis nootkatensis) awakens all our senses. We can experience the joys of being in this life and of nature.

Make tough decisions today!

CAN I DECIDE?

How do I know I make the right decision?

Making important decisions can be quite difficult. We may be afraid to make a mistake, especially when it involves other people around us and particularly when we have spent our life trying to please everyone. Speaking our truth can be a strange concept since our focus was always on making others happy, and gradually forgetting who we are and what we may need as a person.

When we make life changing decisions regarding a relationship, a career, a move, having children etc., we will spend endless hours, weeks sometimes months, days and nights thinking and juggling with all aspects involving our decision.

What consequences will my decision create and which ones can I live with? Can I face the reactions, judgments and the range of emotions that will come along with it? Sometimes, it becomes so confusing that we do not act. We put our ideas, dreams, desires aside, and keep living our life as it is.

How many times have you heard people having reached a certain age, filled with regrets about a career, a loved one, or a project that was never achieved or lived fully, either out of fear of losing face, being judged, hurting others, even finances, etc.

When we have to make a life changing decision, the thinking process begins. The mind offers reasons why we should not change the present course or else, reasons why it does not make sense, or it is simply not the right time and so on…. Yet, these same questions and dreams keep coming back accompanied with inner fights between the dream, the idea, the desire and the reasons not to act.

So, how do I know I make the right decision?

Many years ago, I asked that question to a very wise person and here is the answer I got: “You know it is a right decision because it is YOURS!”

I almost fell off my chair. Think about it a moment!

Isn’t it amazing that whatever decision you make and whether it makes sense for others or not or seems right or wrong, since the decision is YOURS, in that moment, you can trust it.  But often that is the problem. One does not trust oneself enough to be guided by one’s intuition, insight, and inner voice.

We have lost the capacity to listen, to observe, to know from within. The mind has the ability and capacity to create confusion when the decision making begins.  Yet, deep in your heart, you know what you need, what is your truth, but the mind interferes in the process. How many times did you say:  “I should have listened to my intuition.”  In most cases, yes you should, so learn to do that again!

Start trusting yourself and listening, observing. You may begin with smaller decision not involving large consequences and other people. Get in touch with your feelings, listen to your heart and observe how the mind easily comes in the pictures. Make small decisions and practice. By and by, you will become more agile in trusting yourself and listening to what is true. It could be as simple as saying no to a dinner invitation!

In this process, emotions arise and many thoughts as well. It can be quite tiring since so much energy is spent and wasted. We wake up in the morning exhausted from trying to figure things out.

In those cases, you may wish to use the Vibrational tree essences FOREST SECRET.

This wonderful tree combination will help you stay grounded, calming the mind and even help you sleep better. We see more clearly when the mind’s chatting slows down. It is when the mind is filled with thousands of ideas that confusion arises.

Along with that, if feelings of guilt come up, because we have learned that one must think of others, otherwise we are selfish, then you may consider the Guilt & Forgiveness essence to support you.

Here is a beautiful quote from a Master OSHO speaking about making decision.

“Whenever you are puzzled in a situation, you cannot find any path, you cannot find how to go out of it, don’t think – just be in a deep non-thinking and allow the inner guide to guide you.  In the beginning you will feel afraid, insecure, but soon, when every time you will come to the right door, you will gather courage and you will become trusting.

If this trust happens, this trust I call faith.  This is really religious faith – the trust in the inner guide.  Reasoning is part of the ego.  It is you believing in yourself.  The moment you go deep within you, you have come to the very soul of the universe.  Your inner guide is part of the divine guidance.  When you follow it, you follow the divine; when you follow yourself, you are complicating things, and you don’t know what you are doing.  And you may look at yourself as very wise.  You are not.

Wisdom comes from the heart, it is not of the intellect. Wisdom comes from the innermost depth of your being, it is not of the head…”

Osho, The Book of the Secrets