Summer to Fall Support, 2015

Coming to the end of another summer season in the west, and headed into fall, we’re typically gearing up again for work and school.   Are you feeling regenerated and refreshed?  How’s your self-care as a daily practice?   Letting go and relaxing may be exactly what we want, though not always so easy to do, even when we have time to do it.  Not doing is often quite challenging for the western mind.

Having left Bali 10 weeks ago, I’ve traveled to the UK where my partner Anthony recovered from almost 5 months of being ill, to the US to see family in Oklahoma and clients in New York City, then back to Europe.  As we were leaving the UK, we heard in the news that hundreds of immigrants coming from Africa and the Middle East had unified and rushed the tunnel, the only entrance by land to the island. 

Across the border in France their tent camp off the highway filled me with compassion, as we contemplated what it must be like for them. Traveling across France into Switzerland, we did breath work high in the mountain tops of the Swiss Alps, and ironically stayed just below a chalet that housed immigrants who may stay for many years before they’re returned to their country, or somehow integrated into the culture. 

Most recent, I’ve been reading about the Greek immigrants rushing the borders into Macedonia in droves – headed towards the European Union’s borderless Schengen zone.

Meanwhile in the US and Europe, it’s been holiday time and summer.  Culturally it’s the time we reset, before heading back into fall commitments.  Visibly witnessing people on the run seeking asylum, I realize how little awareness I’ve had of what so many are faced with at home that would propel them into such journeys by foot, hopping trains, holding on underneath the bottom of freight trucks, rushing police barricades at borders  – all in the hopes of finding safety, security, and opportunity in what many of us take for granted. 

I also realize how I may not always be aware of the opportunities I was born into, as I’ve habitually strived and struggled, like most, in the ever confronting “survival game” that has no preference, class, or economy – that’s a state of mind, and conditioned way of being.

In our privileged lives, do we really allow ourselves to take advantage of time off, simply let go, and truly relax?  The western mind is typically conditioned to “work hard,” and “be responsible” – to the degree, in our own way, that we may even feel like a refugee, and not give ourselves permission to take advantage of what we have.

Wherever we’re from, whatever our background, it seems we’re all looking for the same thing – the right and freedom to exist, to be safe, secure, and free, and to have opportunities that give us the chance to grow into our greater potential. Good luck, bad luck, whose to say.  Seems its what we make of “advantages” or “disadvantages”.  Had I not come from poverty, and felt like a refugee a good part of my early life, I wouldn’t have had the inspiration –nay, desperation – to have escaped the hardened mindset and different dangers of a “privileged” southern USA that isn’t so advantageous for everyone.  Regardless, most of us reading this aren’t a literal refugee running from war, violence, and destruction.

Despite our personal history, the one thing we all have in common is we’re ultimately not our story.  There is a Greater Spirit, resource, and tenacity that’s alive inside us each – beyond culture, conditioning, advantages and disadvantages.  My personal experience is that as I dig deeper within, all of my disadvantages turn out to be my greatest advantages.  With this, I’m eternally grateful to keep breaking free from the layers of personal story, and continue to expand into something greater that isn’t defined by the past, or fearing for the future.  Maybe this is what Presence means.

Closely experiencing human beings risk so much for freedom reminds me to live in gratitude, to cultivate what I have within, and to be of the highest service with it by sharing of myself unabashedly.  It teaches me to give freely, from a heartfelt hello to a “stranger,” to daring to look into the eyes of a “refugee.”  It also calls me to focus on the tenacious spirit living within that isn’t divided, that is without labels rutted in refugee or privileged, and continuously shows me the value in making self-care a priority above all else.

How are you regenerating, cultivating from within, and sharing?  Here are some reminders to help you along the way:

• laugh a lot, especially at/with your self!
• forgive yourself and others without delay
• daily meditation, even just 5 minutes is super helpful (also consider a 10 day silent meditation retreat – Vipassana, www. dhamma.org)
• go for a walk, breath deep, and find your own form of exercise that brings you joy
• do a detox, 1-3 + days. Need some instruction and inspiration?  Download my free eBook at amyrachelle.com
• drink fresh juice everyday!  1-3 liters of green juice is optimal… don’t have time?  Just mix some green powder in water then, easy.
• have at least 1 big dark green leafy salad every day.
• cut out cooked oils from your diet (they are carcinogenic), use only coconut oil if you cook
• sauna and/or steam at least once weekly
• get a massage once per week
• surround yourself with loving people and a healthy environment.
• do what you love for a living.  What do you love?  Go for your dreams!

Love from Italy’s Tuscany Valley!
Dr. Amy
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Scholarship To Our Next Training

To support you with following your heart, I’m offering 1 free tuition to our next 10 Day Raw Food Chef Certification & Detox Training coming up November 5^th – 16^th in Bali.  Write me a 1 page or less on what you’ve been going through this past year, your hearts call, and why coming to our training would help you to achieve what you really want!
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