· See yourself at the center of your Wholeness Mandala. 
· Breathe slowly and deeply in from the head into your heart and out through the feet, following the Torus energy pattern.
· INHALE: Think: “My heart is open
· EXHALE:  to giving
· INHALE: and receiving
· EXHALE: love & light.”
· INHALE: I am
· EXHALE: Love!
· INHALE: I am
· EXHALE:  Light!
 
 
FORGIVENESS
 
· Close your eyes. Visualize yourself at the center of your Wholeness Mandala.
· Breathe the Torus breath pattern, thinking “I am That” or “So Hum.”
· When you feel grounded and centered:
· Express your apologies to yourself and forgive yourself for anything you have done to hurt, disappoint or sabotage yourself in any way.  
· As you exhale, release any guilt or shame connected to the hurt /disappointment from the past down into the Earth.
· Inhale the energy of unconditional love and acceptance of yourself, to live your life in peace and harmony with yourself and all others as you move forward on your life’s journey.
· Keep breathing the Torus breathing - in from the top of the head into your heart and out through the soles of the feet. 
· Bring into your Wholeness Mandala someone that you (may) have hurt intentionally or unintentionally.  Visualize this person standing in front of you face to face. Tell him/her that you are sorry for anything you have done to hurt him/her.  Be as specific as you can about what you did. (Don't ask for forgiveness.  Just say that you are sorry, and mean it.)
· Tell him/her that you forgive him/her unconditionally for whatever s/he has done to hurt you.  Be as specific as you can.
· Tell him/her and yourself that this issue between the two of you was your soul's contract with each other for each other’s learning and your souls' evolution. 
· Exhale any guilt or shame that you may be holding onto in relation to the issue between you.  
· Tell him / her that you love and accept him/her unconditionally with no expectations.
· Thank and honor him/her for giving you the experience you needed to evolve, and ask that both your souls learn whatever you were meant to learn from this experience. Wish him/her peace.
· Visualize yourself making a gesture of honoring and gratitude that is meaningful to you.
· Let go of any attachment to outcome, and accept what is as is.

Mandala illustration: Suchinta Abhayaratna

When we feel hurt from something that someone said or did, how can we:

• Experience our emotions without denying or burying what we feel?
• Heal ourselves?, 
• Arrive at a place of peace within ourselves? 
• Move forward?  
  

Here's a practice that might be worth a try. 

Part 1: Experiencing and healing the hurt:
Observe where in your body do you feel the hurt. 
Place your hands in that area.
With the intention of healing the hurt:
Take a deep breath in, and breathe out into that area where you feel the hurt.
Continue to do this until you don’t feel the pain or discomfort.
Inhale: "I am..."  Exhale: "Peace."  
Continue coordinating this intention with your breath, 
until you feel at peace within yourself.   
Part 2: Creating energy waves of peace: 

• Do The Wholeness Visualization / Exercise: Audio Recording
• Visualize the other person (who you feel hurt by) standing face-to-face with you in your Wholeness Circle.
• Do this 3 times:
  
  • Inhale: (Intend)  "I am"
  • Exhale: (Intend) "Peace"
• Silently intend sending the energy of peace, forgiveness and blessing.
  • Inhale into your own heart: (Intend) "I send you"  
  • Exhale in to his/her heart: (Intend) "Peace"
    
  • Inhale into your own heart: (Intend) "I send you"  
  • Exhale in to his/her heart: (Intend) "Forgiveness"
  • Inhale into your own heart: (Intend) "I send you"  
  • Exhale in to his/her heart: (Intend) "Blessings"  
    
  • "Thank you for the opportunity to practice peace."

 
Did this practice work for you?
Were you willing to practice peace or did you feel resistance? 
​Do you have other peace practices you'd like to share?  
Please leave a comment below to share your experience. 

On the last day of each year, I usually choose to let go of something that I believe is preventing me from being my best, as I move forward into a new year.  With this intention, I created a mandala, and then ceremoniously burn it. On New Year’s Eve 2017, I chose to let go of EXPECTATIONS. I felt that expectations create conditions in my relationships with myself and others, and get in the way of loving unconditionally.
 
When I had a stroke on my birthday the end of August last year, the effect was that I lost my balance. As part of my strategy for recovery, besides intensive physical therapy, I created 21 self-healing mandalas. Each one was intended to help me develop whatever I felt I needed to heal at any given time. Since it was my left side that was affected, (I'm left handed) I used my right hand to create them. That’s a whole other story, so I’ll save that for another blog post.
 
What’s relevant to this blog is that while I held a specific intention for the physical quality I needed to heal and move forward in my life, I did this without holding expectations. The point I make here is that intentions and expectations are two very different things that we often tend to get mixed up. (Okay...that'll be the subject of another blog... stay tuned! )
 
On New Years Eve I was on my 21st mandala. Since it was a letting go mandala, and I burned it, on New Years Day, I made a Moving Forward Mandala with the intention of practicing unconditional love for myself and others. That's the mandala you see above. 
 
Looking back on the past 4 months, I can say, in all honesty, it wasn’t always easy to let go of expectations or to practice unconditional love. I had to make a conscious choice to make this happen. Most challenging was to let go of the expectations I had of myself, and the people I’m closest to – especially Nimi, my husband. When I found myself getting down on myself or him for not living up to my expectations, I had to catch myself in the act. I then had to take a deep breath in, and consciously exhale the expectation out. With the next breath in, I remembered what I was grateful for about myself or him.  Yes...it has gotten easier with time and practice.

​Interestingly, I have noticed a difference not only in myself, but in him too. and how we relate to each other.  Apparently, the mirror neurons (Ask Google if you don't know what these are.) seem to be doing their thing, and I’m deeply grateful. 

Read more: Mandala Meditative Healing Art

Free Audio Recording: Manage Stress in 5 Minutes.
​Schedule Your Free 45-Minute Online Session Here. 
Ebook:  Holistic Self-Care Tools for Caregivers 

It's been a few years since I blogged on a regular basis. Since the beginning of this year, I have felt called to go back to blogging again. I felt it appropriate that my first offering is an overview of the Creative Holistic Integration (CHI) System.  This system emerged through my own self-healing journey, and the work I have done supporting others on theirs.  

5The Creative Holistic Integration (CHI) System takes a holistic, integrative, and educational approach to improving health and well-being. It is intended to empower you to participate in caring for, healing and transforming yourself to realize your highest potential. If you take care of and are responsible for others, including children, elders, students, patients, clients or others, this becomes even more important, because of the impact your have on the lives of others.
 
The CHI System is based on subtle energy, available to anyone, at any time, because we ourselves ARE energy. We are always unconsciously connected to subtle energy. The trick is to access it consciously to benefit ourselves and the people we care for. Usually, this doesn’t happen unless you know how to do this…and as we are well aware of, knowledge is power.
 
I developed the CHI System from what I have learned through years of experience in in-depth study, practicing and teaching energy healing in a variety of formats and modalities. My intention is to share what I know with anyone who wishes to learn. All of the tools and processes of the CHI System have contributed greatly to my own healing. I also witnessed how those who practiced what they learned through me, were able to heal and move forward from their challenges. Several of them went beyond that and went on to develop their own ways of healing and supporting the healing of others.
 
THE TOOLS: THE WHOLENESS EXERCISE is at the center of the CHI System. Research shows that it is a quick, easy and highly effective STRESS MANAGEMENT TOOL. SELF-MUSCLE TESTING is a mind-body communication tool that can help you determine the most appropriate intervention for your unique situation. For SELF-ENERGIZING you can use your own hands and/or voice to re-energize and heal.  VIBRATIONAL HEALING uses energy vibrations that are within and all around us to heal and transform. As you view the graphic above, the tools are on the right side. You may not have known this, but you already have these tools. So it’s quick and easy to learn how to use them. You can start using them right away to balance, strengthen and heal yourself.
 
THE PROCESSES: These are shown on the left side of the graphic. When you are familiar with using the CHI Tools, you can go on to learn the CHI Processes. TRAPPED EMOTIONAL ENERGY RELEASE (TEER) , SELF-REPROGRAMMING (SRP), GENERATIONAL ANCESTRAL PROCESS (GAP) and FAMILY CONSTELLATIONS all help identify underlying causes behind the issues you may be facing, and gives transpersonal subtle energy processes to heal and move forward from them. MANDALA: CIRCLES OF WHOLENESS is a meditative art process in which the energy of creativity, intention, light, images, color and sound is a beautiful and powerful form of energy healing. Although these processes may sound complicated, they truly are not. Having studied and practiced a variety of powerful transpersonal processes, I have developed flow charts that are like road maps that have made learning these processes easy to follow. While you learn, you’ll be applying the processes to your own concerns. I will work individually with you to guide and witness your processes. At each session, you’ll assess how the process effected you. As such, the CHI System is customizable to your own unique needs.
 
If you’re building, maintaining or repairing a house, you’ll need several tools and processes to get the job done. Caring for, maintaining or repairing yourself is no different. The CHI System gives you a variety of tools and processes to respond to the challenges that you’re dealing with. I recommend learning to use all the powerful CHI tools and processes in order to use them synergistically and appropriately as they are meant to be.

LEARNING THE CHI SYSTEM:  I offer individual or small group sessions in-person in Santa Fe, NM and/or online with video conferencing on Zoom. You can learn from wherever you are simply by clicking on a link. Start whenever you wish, create your own schedule, and learn at your own pace. Practice what you learn to experience significant, measurable results. 

ONGOING SUPPORT: When you have learned the CHI System, you will have access to regular reviews and discussion groups in person, online, and on Facebook. You will have the support you need to continue your journey forward in your CHI practice. You can choose to be part of a community of CHI Self-Care practitioners who are willing to care for ourselves, and support each other.

FREE SESSION: Go to www.chisuchinta.com and schedule a FREE 45-minute session to discuss your concerns and find out if this approach is appropriate for you. If so, we’ll work out details and get you started on your journey with CHI.

Email:[email protected]
Website: www.chisuchinta.com
Ebook: Holistic Self-Care Tools for Caregivers
Facebook: Creative HoIistic Integration (CHI)

In this brilliant TED Talk, Kelly McGonigle dispels a long held myth that stress will kill you.  She cites fascinating research that is both surprising and encouraging. This video totally changed my attitude towards stress.

I developed quick, easy and efective ways to help myself manage stress.  My 2010 research showed that traumatized people could significantly reduce stress quickly and easily, moving out of the stress response in 5 minutes or less. These findings encouraged me to share what I learned with others so that they too could manage stress for their benefit rather than their detriment.  You can actually CHOOSE how stress affects you!!!
  
DOWNLOAD AUDIO RECORDING: MANAGE STRESS IN 5 MINUTES