The Total Human

Allyson Rice’s TheTotal Human ™ and
Malcolm Ringwalt’s Earth-Heart Institute of Vision and Healing


Vision Quests, Spiritual Retreats, Women's Retreats, Kundalini Yoga & Meditation,
Creativity Retreats, Personal Intensives

 

JULY 2008

Welcome to the quarterly newsletter collaboration between The Total Human™ and the Earth-Heart Institute of Vision and Healing. Collectively, we offer Vision Quests, Spiritual Retreats, Women's Retreats, Kundalini Yoga and Meditation, Creativity Retreats, Personal Intensives, Healing, and Spiritual Counseling. If you are not interested in receiving these newsletters once each season, you can click on the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of the page. Click on our names (above) to visit our complete websites.

 

PERSPECTIVES

 

“The notes I handle no better than many pianists.
But the pauses between the notes -- ah, that is where the art resides!”

--Arthur Schnabel—

“Where Do You Place Value?…”

So… it’s summer. Are you resting yet? Or have you scheduled every free minute of your vacation time to get in all the activities you possibly can and make the most of your time off? Or have you not even scheduled time off because you don’t want to fall behind with your work?

One interesting aspect about the culture we live in is that we place incredible value upon “being productive.” Don’t get me wrong, productivity is a good thing. Sometimes. But we often seem to measure our self-esteem in the world by how much we accomplish, whether it’s at work, on vacation, or even on our spiritual path.  This attitude on the spiritual path is truly ironic to me.  Once we make a conscious choice to heal the past, expand our perceptions, and travel more consciously on our spiritual path, we often take all of our Type-A, over-achiever behavior, and bring it right into our spiritual growth/personal development. And because we place such value on doing and accomplishing, we often completely neglect the crucial other side of the “work”, which is deep rest and integration.

Malcolm and I just recently ran our annual Lighten Up Retreat, and one of the big lessons at that program is that the rest is as important as the work. It’s crucial.  One of the many practices we do there is kundalini yoga. I’ve always loved the practice of kundalini yoga, because not only is it exceptional at moving energy and clearing the body whether you’re an experienced yogi, or a complete beginner, but also a primary teaching of kundalini yoga is to balance the level of output with a deep level of rest, over and over again throughout the sets.  When you really push yourself in your work, you create a dynamic level of energy that you can take into your meditations, and you experience a deeper level of complete release in rest.  When resting deeply you create the ability to integrate the benefits of the work, and you rejuvenate your body and soul to be able to work again at your full capacity. The yoga is a practice that allows us to experience what it feels like to maintain constant balance between our rest and activity so that we can carry that balance into the rest of our day. It’s a circle that needs to be completed over and over again throughout the day (not just once a year on vacation, trying to catch up on rest which is, of course, impossible).

The kundalini yoga practice, and in fact all of the practices we choose to do, are a means to an end, not the end in themselves. It’s imperative to remember that for all of the practices that we choose to do, the other equally important half of the healing/transformative equation is the rest and integration. We have to be building/saving as well as paying off debt. If we leave out the resting half (because we only value the work) then the transformation we seek by doing the practices never comes to full fruition. Success eludes us and so we become frustrated and beat ourselves up for failing (which lowers self-esteem even more). We try to resolve the frustration by working harder, reading more self-help books, trying to go deeper into the emotions of the past in the most gut-wrenching way. Ask yourself honestly if you feel like you’re making more progress in this work only when you feel like you’re doing something difficult, or emotionally gut-wrenching in the name of healing? Because that means, of course, that you’re REALLY working hard, which makes you feel like a better person, and makes you feel more justified in taking up space in the world…

Consider this, if the goal is to be “at peace” within, to experience the Silence, to know what it is to feel joy in life, then THOSE are the things we also have to be practicing in addition to the harder work. We have to practice stopping, resting, absorbing, integrating. We have to practice seeing beauty around us. We have to choose activities that are light, that feel good, and that bring us joy. We have to practice being happy just BEING, rather than constantly trying to prove our worth through our DOING. It's the crucial flip side to the more difficult healing work we do.  Otherwise, the circle is never completed.

When we stop and deeply rest, THAT is the moment when we are able to drop into the infinity within the present moment., and can experience the benefits of the work we’ve done. That moment of stopping to rest is when we expand. That is when we notice beauty and experience the feeling of joy within us. That is when we experience how large and infinite we truly are. The work is important but the rest is equally essential. It’s a good reason to learn to value resting, and to start practicing it more often.


                                                     …. Allyson


HELPFUL PRACTICES

Exercise #1:  Write down all the reasons or beliefs that keep you from giving yourself permission to rest.  Look at the belief system that puts the value on work, and doesn’t value rest as equally important.

Exercise #2:  Commit to finding a couple of times a day, even if it’s only 5 or 10 minutes at first, where you do absolutely nothing. You just rest. You sink into the present moment. (It’s harder than it seems for a Type-A person…) Perhaps sit in a chair on your porch and enjoy the moment. Open your awareness in a complete state of relaxation, without a “goal” in doing so. Value it just for the sake of doing it.  No multi-tasking (i.e. well if I’m going to be outside in my yard, I might as well be watering the plants…”). No. Just be.

NEWS

Allyson is now creating a line of inspirational and creative products for women. First up, a coloring book for women with inspirational and humorous writings to go with the wonderful pictures. The coloring book is called THE COLOR OF JOY. For those of you who may not have colored for many years, it's an easy and deeply relaxing way to release stress and to get the creative juices flowing, even for the artistically faint-of-heart. It's a great gift for yourself, or for a friend (or spouse!). For info about purchasing this coloring book, go to: www.WomensColoringBooks.com.

If you still haven’t done so, please update your address books to reflect  the new newsletter address so it doesn’t get labeled as SPAM:  MalcolmAndAllyson@EarthHeart-TotalHuman-Newsletter.com

If you missed it, click here to listen to an interview that Allyson did earlier this year with Nicole Whitney on News For the Soul Radio – “The #1 life-changing internet radio talk show in the world according to Google and AOL” Allyson’s Internet Radio Interview   The online promo says it’s ½ hour, but Nicole extended the interview for the full hour show to talk about Allyson’s retreats and the life path that led to this work.

Just added new pieces on the HEALING BLING™ site: www.Handmade-Healing-Jewelry.com , handmade jewelry that Allyson makes and works with in ceremony and  prayer. Each piece is one-of-a-kind and is a powerful healing object. Allyson utilizes her work as an energy healer to implant specific healing intent for the wearer of the piece.  


UPCOMING PROGRAMS

Click on the underlined links below to read about a particular class, or go to The Total Human™ Programs or Earth-Heart Programs to read about other classes not listed here, and TTH Student Comments or E-H Student Comments to read comments from past participants.

The next Earth-Heart Vision Quest  is scheduled for July 26-Aug 2 in the NJ Pine Barrens. Still time to sign up (but just barely!).

And, for the first time ever, Malcolm’s 7 Levels of Quest program will be open to anyone, even if you have not done a Vision Quest.  This may be the ONLY time it is ever run without a Vision Quest prerequisite!! So if you are not interested in doing the 4–day Quest, but have wanted to learn the extraordinary teachings in this class and how to apply them in daily life, this may be your only chance to experience them.It will run July 24-Aug 2, simultaneously with the NJ Vision Quest. LAST CHANCE!

 Malcolm has a limited number of 6-day  Personal Intensive dates in Sept, Oct and Nov. Call soon - dates fill up very quickly.

Allyson is accepting a limited number of people for her 3, 4, or 5-day  Private Intensives which are also being scheduled in Sept and Oct.

Malcolm has a couple of spots that have just opened up for his long-distance, one-on-one Mentoring program. 6-month minimum commitment required. Call or email for details.

For those women who have attended the Sedona Womens’ Retreat and have been waiting for the next Adv. Women’s Retreat – Level 2, Allyson will be running it in October of 2009, once again at the beautiful Buckhorn Springs Retreat Center in the woods outside Ashland, Oregon. Finalized dates will be posted on the website soon, so mark your calendars.


WORLDWIDE “WEB OF LIFE”

We want to support organizations out there who are working for the uplifting of humanity. If you know of websites that are doing really good work in the world, email them to us for possible inclusion in a future newsletter. We’d like to help get the word out.

http://www.firsttuesdayla.com/ftcog.html
First Tuesday is a group of women in Los Angeles and in Chicago who have started a 501-C3 non-profit as part of their work together (The First Tuesday Circle of Giving). Each year one very worthy and desperately struggling family is chosen in each city for sponsorship. Money is raised and goods donated for whatever is most immediately needed – food, furniture, childcare assistance, etc as well as helping them build a network of community resources that they can turn to for help in continuing to turn their lives around. It is an immediate source of directly applied assistance that changes a family’s direction. It’s “paying-it-forward” at work!

http://www.beadforlife.org
BeadforLife eradicates extreme poverty by creating bridges of understanding between impoverished Africans and concerned world citizens. Ugandan women turn colorful recycled paper into beautiful beads, and people who care open their hearts, homes and communities to buy and sell the beads. The beads you buy thus become income, food, medicine, school fees -- and hope. It is a small miracle that enriches us all. All profits from BeadforLife are invested in community development projects that generate income and help people work their way out of poverty.

Many blessings to you all,
Allyson

and

Malcolm
 
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