July 11, 2017

Dandelion Flower Essence: Healing for the United States


I asked myself this morning if there was a flower essence that in some ways might exemplify the healing our nation needs right now. I live in the United States in the era of Donald Trump and, besides that particular concern, the biggest issue I see being played out on the political stage is the extreme polarity between the right and left. It often feels like this polarity might be too difficult to bridge, that we're doomed to wage war with each other until this union is ripped to shreds. But on a good day, I don’t believe it. Both sides hold keys to what makes this nation "great" but only if we take time to recognize it and work with it as we used to do together.
I lived in a mostly conservative right-wing community for a period of time. It was challenging for a progressive liberal like me, but there were several things I admired: the values of honoring your roots and making your way through your own efforts whenever possible. Of course, that particular Mormon-based community had its own system of church-tithed social service safety net—something many decried having to pay taxes for on a national level—but that's why there, theoretically, is room in my imagination for a basis of understanding. Because the left values a safety net. They also value compassionate ways to make it more possible for people to rise up from poverty and stand on their own feet again. 
Independence and interdependence, self-sufficiency and access to a helping hand. Why do we need both? Because we don’t thrive when we give up on ourselves and become dependent on others excessively. And yet we all deserve to feel like someone will catch us if we fall. 
It is part of the U.S. narrative that it is possible to rise above your circumstances through hard work and ingenuity alone. And yet while there certainly are people who have made it on their own, the average wealthy person takes for granted how extensively they can depend on being caught if they fall and the positive effect that has on their psyche. Examples: personal assets separate from the money used to invest in various undertakings (limited liability corporation status, investment groups, stockholders, etc.) that allows them to take risks without hurting their personal bottom line; wealthy and successful family and collegial connections to share knowhow and opportunity; and family or personal resources that would keep them from abject poverty should their projects fail. They have a BIG safety net and that gives them a huge leg up. 
When you have no such safety net, even the smallest risks and smallest-seeming mistakes can lead to the most horrific consequences—even homelessness and starvation. If you have no family or investor money, you’re always taking any risks you take with your own resources. You risk everything if you fail and, often, you’re actively discouraged from trying new (therefore risky) things by other not wealthy people frightened about having to support you if you fall. Contrast that with the wealthy who can fail multiple times, have multiple bankruptcies, be wholly unqualified, and still become president of the United States. 
From a political standpoint, this is the ultimate opportunity for social control. You can take advantage of the terror people feel when you make it horrifically expensive to fail. Rising out of difficult circumstances almost always requires trying something new and being able and willing to risk again. Yes, risk! Learning to walk involves risk. Failing—falling— is how we learn to self-correct and keep from doing it again. If we punished our children as mercilessly as we punish our underemployed and unemployed adults for falling into that state, sometimes due to circumstances far beyond their control, they might never take the risk of getting on their feet at all. Of course, most people DO get back on their feet again after great loss. . . but it sure helps if they have some sort of safety net and hand out of their situation.
What flower essence would I choose symbolically for this polarity in the United States? Dandelion, the flower essence for people who strive too hard and need to have the ability to relax and use their great strength and energy in a balanced manner. 
Poor and barely middle class people are stressed to just survive. It creates great tension, a belief that you have to work HARD for anything that comes to you, and an easily manipulated resentment of poorer people who appear to have everything handed to them (Social Security benefits, affordable housing, Medicaid, etc. that they really could use but aren’t quite poor enough to qualify for themselves). And yet there is little understanding of how little blessing there is in being poor and dependent on social services if you don’t have affordable enough housing or friends or relatives willing to take you in. (The difference between rural and city life could not be more dramatic when it comes to this—try finding a cheap trailer park with space in a big city like New York or Los Angeles. You are going to be homeless even if you have a job if it is minimum wage and you have nowhere else to stay.) 
Dandelions have the tenacity and strength (dent de lion, tooth of the lion) to take root wherever they are planted. That’s the right-wing work ethic right there! But even dandelions can be eradicated if you take pains to dig out all their roots. A dandelion out of balance in this respect is a dead dandelion. But give them a home—leave their roots alone—and they develop into puff balls that relax and blow away on the breeze to reestablish themselves wherever they need to go. Like a wealthy person’s kid with a trust fund or a large corporation with investment capitol, they can take risks and use their energy in a dynamic yet relaxed fashion knowing someone else’s or their own protected assets will be there to catch them if they fall. Dandelions thus allowed to mature represent this healed polarity: the ability to be strong and the ability to let go and fly to new heights—as long as they have the safety net of roots, soil, enough sunshine and water.
Give people that kind of safety net AND the assistance (opportunity, training, retraining, access to small business investment funding) to get back on their own feet when they’ve been uprooted and just imagine what they could create! And you have the integration of values of the right (the importance of roots and standing on your own two feet) and the values of the left (an adequate safety net and opportunity for all even if you’ve been uprooted). A healthy Dandelion represents both sides of the polarity: inner strength and will to survive combined with the ability to relax, let go of control, fly to someplace new, and trust that you’ll be okay. That's what Dandelion flower essence is all about.

July 4, 2017

July 2017 Healing Communication / Mama Love News




Hello Everyone!

Hope you’re enjoying a healthy and positive Independence Day weekend! I had a life-changing set of experiences this last month that started with gaining independence from a limited mindset so I thought I’d share that story with you! Hope it helps you take heart with whatever you might be wanting to create for yourself.
Sheryl (and Paul)


--------------------

USING MANIFESTATION TOOLS WHEN YOU'VE BECOME DISCOURAGED

Author Marc Allen is on my Facebook friends list. You may or may not know his name but you certainly know his work. He and his good friend Shakti Gawain started the New World Library book publishing company and have written many many books on spirituality, manifestation and creative visualization. What he shares on Facebook is pretty much the same and, honestly, I had not been paying much attention to it —my attention online is typically obsessed with politics and attempting to distract myself from it. But a few weeks ago something he shared caught my attention and hit me hard!

He said that when you do affirmations — (which I had stopped doing) — to try adding the phrase “in a relaxed and easy fashion” to contradict any conscious or unconscious belief that what you want to have happen will be difficult. He said this was ESPECIALLY important when 1) society wants you to believe it is difficult (my examples: making a living as an artist, affordable healthcare for all) or 2) when your own life experience (losses, defeats) has reinforced your less than positive beliefs or changed your beliefs for the worse over time.

At that point I had been looking for day job work with great frustration for quite a while (we don’t make ALL our income from spiritual counseling and flower essence aromatherapy). My biggest requirement originally was that it be work I would love. That used to mean “in the arts.” And I actually DID make my living as an artist at one time. I had a dream job working as a book designer at a book publishing company called Crossing Press, where I got paid to do art for book covers and interior illustrations among other things. But the book publishing industry changed, the world changed, and perhaps too quickly I started to believe that making my living in this fashion would be stressful and hard. I had many other interests—spirituality, counseling, alternative healing—and made the deliberate (and wonderful) choice to focus on those interests instead. 

But the world has changed even more since I went in that direction. Agencies I used to work for had their funding cut by 80%, a year after Paul and I teamed up was the Great Recession crash, we moved multiple times, and finally wound up in Chico, CA because his father needed caregiving assistance after a medical emergency and we were there. While we still are devoted to spirituality, counseling, alternative health, and the arts, we went through some pretty hard times and the idea of making our livings 100% through this work came crashing down. 

And then I found out what getting a day job would be like in Chico. My “requirement” eventually shifted from “work I’d love” to “work I’d like” to “work I wouldn’t mind doing as long as my boss and co-workers are great to work with.” I also sort of hoped that the environment would be uplifting and beautiful but I was even starting to despair of finding that. After a lifetime of never having much trouble finding work I loved, I was thinking that finding work I could feel ok about ever again, at least in Chico, was hard.

So I took Marc Allen’s advice to heart. I wrote out my ideal scenario for my life within 5 years, started doing affirmations again and added the phrase “in a relaxed and easy fashion.” I reminded myself that I have manifested pretty much exactly what I’ve wanted in the past and it came easily — sometimes without ANY effort—many times. And finally I sent Reiki to my healing in this area. 


Within 24 hours everything changed! After a year of very few interviews and no job offers I had one. And two weeks later I was offered another. Two weeks after that I had two more interviews and another job offer, and this coming week I start my third new job in a month (each one better than the last), and this opportunity is IN THE ARTS! I’ll be working in the most successful art gallery in town, with people I have a pretty great impression of and beautiful work all around. And I’ve already felt inspired to draw and paint more pieces of my own.

Art as a day job. (Or perhaps a career?) Again. What I actually really wanted. Who’d a thunk it?

(If you’re curious about the art I do, I started a portfolio blog at 
https://sherylkaras.blogspot.com/ )
___

HOW MAMA LOVE CAN HELP YOU MANIFEST WHAT YOU WANT


This could be a whole article in itself! But because I’ve already written enough, I’ll point you in the direction of two products I created specifically for that purpose and two for helping you with the feelings that might try to trip you up when you act on creating what you want.


  • Abundant Prosperity oil  or spray 
  • Manifesting Life Purpose oil or spray 
  • Renewed Faith And Optimism oil or spray 
  • Doing New Things With Confidence oil or spray 

Right now the best place to find the largest selection of Mama Love products is Etsy. Come check it out, if you haven’t already. Newsletter subscribers receive a coupon code for a 10% discount off anything in my shop (including specials and already discounted items). (Find the newsletter subscribe link at the right near the top of this blog.)

———


Spiritual Counseling and Healing Sessions
My schedule is changing but Paul’s is the same. You can work with me or with us both most evenings. You can work with Paul alone afternoons and evenings most days, including weekends. Making appointments at least 48 hours in advance is HIGHLY recommended! http://healingcommunication.com/How_to_Make_an_Appointment_with_Spiritual_Counselors_and_Healers_Sheryl_Karas_and_Paul_Hood.html


———

Where to Find Our ArtworkBeautiful Photographic Prints by Paul Hood... http://PaulHood.imagekind.com/Beautiful Photographic Prints and Artwork by Sheryl Karas On Fine Art America  http://sheryl-karas.pixels.com/ or on Society 6 https://society6.com/skarasArt notecards, T-shirts, mugs and other gifts featuring our images... http://www.zazzle.com/paulnsheryl*


———

Where to Find Our Videoshttp://www.youtube.com/user/healerteam


———

Join Mama Love on Facebook or TwitterI’m posting links to articles about flower essences, herbs and aromatherapy pretty regularly now.
Mama Love on Facebook: Be sure to sign up for notifications so you actually see the posts!  http://www.facebook.com/MamaLoveProductsMama Love on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MamaLoveOrganic

———

Thanks for all your referrals!Simplest way to tell people about us? Forward this newsletter and include a note saying you like us. It's easy!