Play

Play is easy
Play is FUN
Play is JOY
For Everyone.

Today is Jerry Stocking's birthday. The word play is a regular part of his vocabulary, and he's a pretty fun guy to play with. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear Jerry.

Couldn't decide until I did...

I've been helping my chiro-sister with her new website, Healing Glass Arts (almost finished!)AND we did her blog. Then I started thinking about the prefab nature of my own blog, and decided to do a different layout. So the first one was lame. Pictured above is the Nature Version, but I decided to be simple with the arty-colourful one. For now. OK...now I'm going back into blog hibernation. :-) H.

Just a quick note...

Doug O'Brien is beginning a regular feature on his blog about hypnotic language patterns. Perhaps you've been curious about hypnosis . . . or not . . . in any case, since you're reading this, you may want to go see for yourself . . . . :-) H.

Day of Rest: Hummingbird

I'm going to take a break for the rest of the month. No blogs for a while. I'll send out an email when I start back up. :-) H.

Not So Obvious

In the recording studio there are lots of glass doors. Will, the engineer, put up these convenient signs after an unfortunate accident with a sax player who walked into one of the doors. He couldn't play for a week. Yikes. Back tomorrow....

Into the Studio

XM Radio Guy teases me when I say I'm going into the studio. He puts on his Beatles voice.

We're recording our next album, you know. So off I go--2 Labyrinth meditations; one on grass and one on the beach. Above is a picture of chickweed. I love chickweed; it's good in salads to eat, or stirfry and used topically (I have a juicer I put it through) it's great on poison ivy or bug bites to stop itching. Or you can make a tea/tincture with it. Back tomorrow.

Labyrinth Naps

Tomorrow I'm going into the studio to record my next CD: Labyrinth Naps This is the introduction:

Hi. I’m Hali Chambers. Welcome to Labyrinth Naps. I designed the following guided visualizations to facilitate a nap. What do Winston Churchill, Albert Einstein, and Thomas Edison all have in common? They understood the value of naps. There’s a wonderful book by William C. Dement, called The Promise of Sleep. Dr. Dement has been a pioneer in sleep research for the past 50 years and has demonstrated the value of sleep to our health, performance, and overall well-being. He has also documented the dire consequences of sleep deprivation including accidents, serious health issues, and even death. Unfortunately, so many people in modern society are sleep-deprived. Naps are a simple, beneficial, biologically-based antidote. Many people experience a natural, physiological dip in energy in the afternoon. Some people push through their drowsiness with the coffee & donut break, but what if you were to take a different, healthier approach that actually makes you feel more alert and energized afterward? What if you were to decide to work with your body’s biology instead of ignoring its signals? In our culture, naps may be viewed as laziness, but research has shown that a well-placed nap will help you to perform better afterward. In addition, the benefits of a nap are long-lasting. It was found that a 45-minute nap improved alertness for a full 6 hours after the nap. In fact, Dr. Dement says that “naps can make you smarter, faster, and safer than you would be without them. They should be widely recognized as a powerful tool in battling fatigue, and the person who chooses to nap should be regarded as heroic.” Now, doesn’t that make you feel better? You’re a hero.

The processes on this CD are only 20 minutes and can be used during a lunch break or later in the afternoon. They can help to recharge your batteries, so that after this experience, you can feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and alert.

Now that I’ve addressed the importance and value of taking naps, you may be wondering, Why a labyrinth? First of all, let’s define a labyrinth, because they are often confused with mazes. A maze is a puzzle or game that has tricks and dead-ends. It requires critical thinking and problem-solving skills. A labyrinth, on the other hand, has no tricks or dead-ends. It is a single path that you follow to the center, and then back out again. It’s more of a walking meditation. By the way, it’s not necessary to have walked one to feel the relaxing benefits of these guided visualizations.

There are many benefits to the labyrinth experience. For example, labyrinths have been used to help people who experience insomnia, so that you are able to get a restful night’s sleep. They are also thought to balance the hemispheres of the brain. They can promote relaxation, and they can also be used to get more energized. For more information on labyrinths, you can visit my website: healinglabyrinthpath.com

Now, back to naps: Another benefit when you take this nap is to lower stress. Stress often prevents people from being able to sleep. Lack of sleep contributes to greater stress and it becomes a vicious cycle. Dr. Bruce Lipton, in his book The Biology of Belief, has said that “almost every major illness that people acquire has been linked to chronic stress.” He likens stress to a race. Imagine you’re at the starting line of a race and poised to run. You hear, “On your mark, get set…” and there you stay waiting to hear GO—but it never comes. You’re stuck in an alert state which fatigues the body very quickly. People pay lip service by saying they’re stressed. Sometimes they’ll say, “It’s just stress.” Our bodies were not designed to be under the constant stresses and tensions in which we live our lives today. And we pay the price with our health. If stress is linked to almost every major illness, doesn’t it make sense to take measures to reduce the stresses in your life? These guided visualizations are processes that help you to begin to feel relaxed. So that as you take time to rest, each time you take one of these naps, you may find that you can relax faster and it gets easier and easier the more you do it.

There are 2 choices for naps. The first is an abbreviated version of my CD The Healing Labyrinth Path. In it, you are guided down a soft grassy path on a breezy summer’s day. The second one is a labyrinth on a beach. I often draw one in the sand when I go to the beach, and this particular process was inspired by the late Dave Dobson, one of my teachers. I’ve combined my labyrinth with his beach trip. You can also use these to go to sleep with at night, and if that’s your intention, you can just sleep through instead of waking up as suggested at the end of each recording. Also, you can rest assured that you can wake up fully alert if there’s something that requires your attention, so that as you begin this process, you can relax on a deeper level… faster.

And now . . . get ready . . . get set . . . nap . . . .

Puzzling

We're a puzzle family. We have one on the table in various stages of completion. I was thrifting with XM Radio Guy yesterday after our lunch (the BEST, Jerry!) and picked up a new puzzle to start with Mum. [Side note here: I also found an NSync picture frame that I presented to XM Radio Guy as we said good-bye. It was like Xmas at lunch; he gave me some fab PacMan pillow cases and some newagey chakra music from the station, & the first season of The Sarah Silverman Show].

Back to puzzles: whenever I think of puzzles now, I remember a visit from a member of my husband's family. It was v. early on in our married life. She & her husband came to visit for the weekend. We had gotten a puzzle. It started out with all of us, along with the nieces. By the end of the weekend it was finished.

This is what I like about puzzles: looking at the picture (always pretty) and finding the pieces. It's a leisurely task; you can find a piece or two while waiting for your water for tea to boil. Last night I put the border pieces together. It's a great metaphor for life: the whole is greater than the parts of the sum, there's a place for everything, etc. Leisurely, pleasant, fun-- unless the Puzzle Nazi is involved. We've got to get this puzzle finished! Come over here and get this done! Nothing like making a game mandatory to suck out the fun.

It was interesting watching her because she would get angry at these bits of cardboard if they didn't fit together because they should. And then she would force them together. When I would find a couple pieces wedged together and unstick them, she'd say, They were supposed to go together. Really? Because they don't. The other thing she did was that whatever area someone else was working on, she would take over. By the end of the weekend, it was the two of us in a race to finish the puzzle [Shut up about the puzzle, it's just a game...OMG, does this mean she's coming back next weekend if we don't finish it???]. So we finished it. In the middle of the Almighty Football Game, she insisted that her husband help frame the puzzle to preserve it forever. Yikes.


Harv Eker says, How you do anything is how you do everything.

My brother, a.k.a. Mensa Guy, would give prospective employees a puzzle to solve as part of their interview. You can tell so much about a person by how they approach a puzzle, he says. Yes, you can. It's not how long before you solve it, but how many tries do you take? How do you react emotionally? Do you give up? Do you ask for help or do you have to know it all? Do you try to force things to fit together that don't?

But then, a puzzle is just a game, right?

Dobson Story

This goes with the bird picture from yesterday! There was a little sparrow who was having so much fun that he lost track of time and started late on his migration to the south for the winter. He got so cold, that his wings got frosted and he fell to the ground, landing in a field. He was surely going to die.

Just then, a cow came and crapped on him. [This is where Dave says, Yeah, no shit]. This warmed him up and he started to revive. Also, there were seeds and other nutrients he could eat. He was warm and well-fed and he wriggled out of the pile and started to sing, he felt so good. Just then a cat came and pulled him up out of the pile and ate him.

The moral of this story is that not everyone who shits on you is your enemy. And not everyone who pulls you out of your shit is your friend. :-) Happy Monday.

Day of Rest: Freedom

These are the baby swallows that were nesting in Mum's porch. We watched them throughout the day and Mum kept saying they were ready to leave the nest soon. The next time we looked, they were gone! No fanfare, just an empty nest. So cute.

W.O.D.

It's rainy and drippy and wet. Great day to read or watch a movie. Or clean. Hahaha Yeah, THAT'S happening. Last night Mum & I watched John Morgan's Weight Loss DVD. Yes, I, professional hypnotherapist fell asleeeeep during John's induction. Good stuff. Then we watched Law & Order reruns.

Mum is reading a book and she just asked me if I knew what penumbra means. Growing up, I went to a v. academic school. W.O.D. stands for Word of the Day. Alas, this was not one of the words I learned, or even learnt. Here's the sentence:

They were all attractive women but they all seemed pallid in Susan's penumbra.

Susan has some sort of fancy architectural feature in her house? Is there bad lighting? What?

penumbra: the partly shaded region around the shadow of an opaque body, esp. that around the total shadow of the moon or earth in an eclipse.

Ohhhh...So there's my W.O.D. Like I said, it's raining outside. I must remember to take a penumbra. Hahaha

Happy 4th of July!

I'm at Mum's, so no photos til later this weekend. My back is much better, thank you--AND THANK YOU Dr. King. I asked him if he'd be in the office today and he said he was off, but that he'd be at the ice cream store across the street later today and to call him if I needed another treatment. How nice is that?!

Yesterday was Mum's annual 4th of July concert & picnic. We had a splendid time. The community band and the army band play, and Mum is the chorus. One year it was worth it just to hear Mum sing "ain't" when they did a medley of country songs. My sister came with her 3 kids and I finally gave her "5 Generations of Mothers & Daughters," the altered book I made for her. It was worth the wait. :-)

While I was there, I got a phone call from XM Radio Guy. A West Virginian accent on the other line was asking how I pronounce my name. I laughed. He said, "Really, I don't know who I'm talking to. I just found this cell phone in the parking lot." I howled. "You are too funny!" I was about to tell him to do his Mechanic Schtick when I realized it really wasn't XM Radio Guy. So I called his mother and she had gotten a similar phone call. I told her, "I thought it was a joke...you know, because it's your son." She laughed. She thought it was too when she got a similar phone call. 'member that Seinfeld episode about who was first on the speed dial? Anyway, when I spoke with her, he was on his way to get his phone.

Back to the picnic: I got to see my German teacher from when I was 16! So we had a nice chat. She was always so kind and I only had her for a year, but she was a wonderful teacher. At the time, I was a total Beatlemaniac so she lent me John Lennon's first book in German. Then she moved to a different school and I lost track of her. So here we are--I've saved the book for her all these years just in case. And the just-in-case showed up last night--how perfect would it have been if I just happened to have it? Yeah, well. We'll do lunch.

So we had a lovely picnic, and the kids all played, and the band played and then! Fireworks! My favourite! Last year, my nephew who was almost-five, shouted, "WOW! This is better than Christmas!" How sweet is that? Spoken like a visual kid! So it's the highlight of the evening, and everyone waits...and waits...and the band plays...and plays...and some old guy has pages of script he's reading from starting from excerpts of The Declaration of Independence working his way into the 21st century. Hehhhh....and it's dark already and still we wait...every year it's like this. And then! the fireworks start at 10 p.m. I LOVE fireworks. I forget until I remember my favourite sparkley ones--AWESOME. Of course, for a different angle of approach, you can read about fireworks here. Haha

This a.m. Mum made some AWESOME Gluten Free pancakes. The BEST, Jerry! And she pulled a card from her Grasshopper Quotes box & this is what I'll leave you with:

"The prescription for complaining is a dose of gratitude." ~The Grasshopper

Wounded Healer

I'm experiencing a bit of sciatic pain. It woke me up. At 4:30 a.m. So I'm waiting to call THE chiropractor in Luray, Dr. Michael King. He's a third-generation doc like my chiro-sister and he is v. skilled. I'm so grateful he's there when I need him. And I really need him today. I have many busy's to attend to--scripts for next week's recording session, Mum's annual 4th of July picnic & concert, ear candles to buy, my country's 500th anniversary to plan....

Back to the pain~ here's the upside: it teaches compassion. My chiro-sister Ruthie had a recent bout of back pain for the first time. She said that it gave her a v. personal experience and understanding for what her patients experience. Hmmm...I have an expertise in working with migraines and chronic pain that I wouldn't have if I didn't go through it myself. It is because of my own experiences that I can facilitate healing in others. For that, I am grateful. And I'm grateful, as I stand here writing, that it's a localized pain-in-the-ass that isn't completely debilitating. So much to be grateful for--and now, on with my day!

Nature Pix

These are from the Sarah P. Duke Gardens at Dan's wedding. It was such a BEAUTIFUL venue! As their guestbook, they had a picture book of the gardens for people to write their wishes & blessings in. I wrote on a page with some lotuses: May your LOVE continue to open and bloom like the sacred lotus. Or something like that. Anyway, here are a few photos of the pond.




This is from after the wedding. I took a lot of this little girl. It turns out she's the daughter of one of the bridesmaids. I have some sweet shots of her with her daddy looking at the fish. :-) Back tomorrow....

Dan's Wedding

In a previous post, I wrote that I was going to my friend Dan's wedding. What a GLORIOUS day! We were at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. It was v. hot, but so BEAUTIFUL. I found a bush to nestle into for shade, but moved about to get a few photos.

Elizabeth & Dan

First dance. Awwww...so sweet.

Dan, me, little brother, Gabe

I had one of those picture frame photo albums, so I left the wedding a bit early to find a Kinko's to print off the wedding photos so that I could give it to them at the wedding brunch the next a.m. [Side note here: a BIG THANK YOU to John Morgan who happened to call me when I was going in circles with my GPS trying to find the place. Do you want ME to find it? is a familiar joke, because it doesn't matter if it's a condiment or some illusive bit of information, he'll find it! So, the gift was a huge hit, but it almost didn't happen.] So Elizabeth is a first grade teacher. This is the card I made from a picture Dan drew when he was in first grade. You know when you find just the perfect thing to give? Coincidentally, at the rehearsal dinner, Dan's mother gave him his old Michael Jackson doll. It was the 80's & Dan did a mean moonwalk! She said he'd said to save it for him when he got married. Hahaha

How sweet is that smiling sun?

So the day of the wedding, there was a bridal brunch...or bowling with the guys!

Dan is quite the bowler!

Hey Freeman, how many chakras do you have? Hahaha

Freeman is Dan's dad, and my dear friend. I was 18 when I first started working with Dan after school teaching him English. I didn't really teach, we just played. Still my favourite way to learn! I asked Freeman this weekend how old he is because it seems that when we first met, he was so O-L-D. He was only 35--but of course I thought that was ancient. So he seems to get younger as the years go by. He is one of the kindest people I know and was a great influence on how I parented Dan & Gabe. I was so happy for him when his now-wife Joyce came into the picture. She was such a stable, loving presence for the whole fam and I learned a lot from her as well. What a JOYous celebration it was! Here's what I wrote on the card:

May your hearts

grow together

As you delight

in each other

in this wonderful

dance called

LOVE.