Saturday, June 27, 2009

Water Makes That Much Difference?!



As health care practitioners the folks at Skystone consistently remind their clients to drink enough water. All bodyworkers say that, but do you know why?

Dr. F Batmanghelidj (Dr. B) makes it his business to be sure we're in the know.

"Water is the basis of life and that includes your body. Your muscles that move your body are 75% water; your blood that transports nutrients is 82% water; your lungs that provide oxygen are 90% water; your brain that is the control center for your body is over 76% water; even your bones are 25% water.





Water, water everywhere....


Dr. B's pioneering work shows that unintentional chronic dehydration contributes to and even produces pain and many degenerative diseases that can be prevented and treated by increasing water intake on a regular basis."



The body needs water to function and if there is a lack of water, the body will prioritize where available water goes. The fascial system of the body is a key player in this process; it walls off areas (usually the extremities) and prevents a significant amount of water from moving into non-essential areas. Your organs, like the brain and lungs, are prioritized for water use.



During bodywork the fascial barriers can be released to facilitate a greater nutrient waste exchange (more nutrients in, more waste out). Even relatively well hydrated bodies need to drink a bit more water to help flush out the toxins that the bodywork helped to release.



Because we live in a culture that tends towards dehydration (stress, caffeine, pop, MSG, smoking, nitrates,....), it behooves (I love this word) us to attend to our body's cry for water.



Dr. B wrote the book The Body's Many Cries for Water. It's worth a read. Or go to his website for the basics like how much, when and what kind of water. I was most surprised to learn that thirst is the last outward sign of your need for water. When you are thirsty your body is already operating well below levels required for optimal functioning.


So drink up, but get the facts. You can drink too much water.



I'm going to go get some water. Here's to you and your well hydrated, healthy and happy body!

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Dreaming, Connections and WOW!


At Skystone we believe strongly in supporting the community and its individuals. We've been happy to sponsor many events over the last year. At the Common Threads Project kick-off last fall, we brought in Kris Steinnes, author of Women of Wisdom:empowering the Dreams & Spirit of Women to speak about empowerment and community. It was a full night including music by the Common Threads Choir.


The Seattle based Women of Wisdom (WOW) organization serves a much wider community. Coleen Renee, a past WOW board member, presenter and contributor to the book, now lives here in Kittitas County. About once a month she runs into someone local who she met at a WOW Conference. WOW creates community connections.


Kris published her book in part to strengthen and build upon those community connections. When the reader opens the book, she/he enters a well of wisdom that comes from over a decade of Conferences and the powerful people who presented and attended. Below is an excerpt that we find particularly inspiring. Enjoy!


WOW Excerpt -- Have You Put Your Dreams on Hold? (Angeles Arrien's chapter)


Each one of us has a great dream and a great calling. Many of us have put our dreams on the back burner. We say, "Someday when I have enough time, when I have enough money; then I'll do what I really want to do, what had fire for me." At this time there is such a wonderful opening in history, in evolution, if we will just come and take our place.


What I've found among many of the indigenous peoples of the world is that they know how important it is to bring our medicine an dour dreams to this world. If we want the earth to get better we need to show up and take our place, not with our shrouds of insufficiency, but with our long tall bodies and our deep, deep roots. The warrior's way or the leaders' way is to show up. And then I can pay attention to what has heart and meaning, which is the healer's way. I can't know what has heart or meaning until I choose to show up, until I choose to be present.


Among the shamanic traditions of the world, if you go to a shaman or a medicine person, and your are dispirited, disheartened, or depressed, many of them will ask you one of four questions: "When in your life did you stop singing? When in your life did you stop dancing? When in your life did you stop being enchanted by stories, and particularly your own life story? And when in your life did you stop being comforted by the sweet territory of silence?"


Wherever we stop singing, dancing, being enchanted by stories or deeply comforted by silence, we begin to experience soul loss. There's not a culture in the world that does not have song, or dance, or story, or doesn't recognize that in the sweet territory of silence we connect to the mystery in our contemplative and reflective practices.


I know I'm not at home when I'm in appeasement, weak-heartedness, seduction, drama or exaggeration. I know I"m not at home when I am playing the martyr or the victim and wanting someone else to be responsible for my life and therefore guilt induce others. I'm not at home when I'm controlling, because the opposite of control is trust.


I am at home when I have fire; when I am deeply connected to what has heart and meaning, the heart's fire; when I'm seized by a vision that I want to manifest and bring to the sweet face of Mother Earth. I know I'm on fire when I've lost time through some creativity, and when I've experienced a moment of tender sweetness and intimacy in a relationship that has substance and depth. I know I'm on fire when I've connected to something numinous and extraordinarily beautiful that can only be found when trusting in an unshakable part of myself, in a sacred refuge that I can find in my deep interior.


Women of Wisdom by Kris Steinnes, offered a special beginning on June 23rd, 2009 at 12:01 am. For our friends, this offer is extended, but only on the 24th and 25th. We invite you to go to this page - www.wisewomanpublishing.com/womenofwisdom.html - to access the order page and after you make your purchase, go back to this page to access the bonus page. On the Exclusive Private Invite page, enter you order confirmation code. That will allow you to gain entry to the bonus gifts that are available to people for just a few more hours.


Friday, June 19, 2009

Animal Healing


Hi, this Leapold - Lea for short - our shop dog. She's much bigger now!

Animals ally themselves with us in work, play and healing. We intuitively understand their healing gifts because we experience the calm of watching fish swim or birds fly. We feel better watching the antics of chipmunks and feel love and comfort when we are with our animal companions. Science tells us that being with our animal companions lowers blood pressure and boosts the immune system.

Horses and dogs have been helping us heal from all kinds of woundedness. Bees and their honey bring their own brand of healing energies. We really couldn't survive without our animal allies. For more information about animals' healing, here's a place to start:
http://www.loveon4paws.org/default.asp

At Skystone we love our animal friends and offer to them our own healing gifts. Carolyn Reiki's her cat and dog: Coleen and Kristie have both done Reiki on dogs, cats and horses - and a turtle, turkey, fish.... Linda did Bowenwork on Leapold, our Skystone Jack Russell, to calm her just last week.

Our friend John McClough of Steward & Willliams Tribute Center stopped by to invite us to participate in the First Annual "Pet Service of Remembrance" - to both honor the pets still with us and remember the ones we have lost. A DVD slide presentation will be part of the service. If you would like to have your pet featured take a photo to Steward & Williams (301 E 3rd Ave, Ellensburg) no later than July 17th. The service will be on Wednesday, July 29th at 6:30. Coleen will be using her healing voice in song at the service. For more info contact John at jmcclough@keystonegroup.com or 509-925-3141.

Skystone thanks all our animal allies!




Thursday, June 18, 2009

Singing The Rivers - Around the World

Last year Skystone joined with others gathered around the country to celebrate and bring love and healing to the waters of our planet.

It began with an event we heard about in Sante Fe.
Coleen Renee, our Singing Healer, learned to Sing the Rivers while on sabbatical several years ago in Ohio. When she heard about the work in Santa Fe, she talked with the coordinator about doing a healing event here in Kittitas County at the same time. She then invited other people around the country and beyond to also participate. We sang, drummed and prayed in Santa Fe, Ellensburg, Boston, Missoula, Maui, Dolores River in Colorado, the Serpent Mound in Ohio....

It's amazing how connected and powerful prayer (through song and focused intention) can be among people separated by 100's and 1000's of miles. Many of us had the experience of feeling like we were right next to each other. We were connected through the waters of the world and our shared prayers.

We have continued Singing the Rivers each month here in Ellensburg. Coleen teaches about water and our connection; talks about the work of scientists like
Dr. Masaru Emoto; leads simple song and meditation.

"I haven't felt this good - calm and peaceful - in a long time," claimed one participant.

Singing The River happens around the full moon each month. We just sang last week. But we heard about an event happening this weekend that we want to invite everyone to participate in at whatever level seems good for you. The information and a link is below.

At the group Angel Reading scheduled for friday evening, Coleen will include questions about how we may heal the waters - and through them, ourselves and the planet. That's friday evening - June 19th at 6 PM.

As it's Summer Solstice weekend with the Sun at it's peak - you might take some time to notice the beauty of Sun and water. Take that beauty into your heart and then let it flow out again with a prayer.

Dr. Emoto tells us that the three most powerful phrases for healing the waters are:

I thank you.
I love you.
I respect you.

As we humans are mostly water - you might even share these with the people in your life - dogs, cats, horses, .... too!

Here's the info and link for the global event:

The Live H2O Love Water Experiment is a 3-dayevent taking place worldwide, during Solstice, onJune 19th - 21st, 2009. In it's most simple form, this gathering is leveraging the power of collective prayer and intent, while using the toolsof our time, to align as One Heart to honor and celebrate Water-- the first Spirit and flow-er of Life.

The EXPERIMENT will gather millions of people on Summer Solstice weekend, June19- 21. Participants at nearly 40 venues worldwide adjacent important bodies of Water are poised to make this first LIVE H2O Internet broadcast a historic success. Best of all, it’s all done by volunteers, and no large commercial sponsors. People everywhere will unite musically to celebrate the healing harmony in Water and LOVE. This unprecedented interactive Internet broadcast over
LIVEH2O.tv will engage an estimated 10 million or more viewers in this first ever experiment in awareness and understanding. Music played at 528 Hz, with heart-felt loving intention for peace, health, and more, will resonate the oceans, rivers, lakes, and streams, including your blood stream, for the LOVE of it!

www.LiveH2O.org
Enjoy the weekend and as you drink - love that water.

Monday, June 1, 2009




Community Connections





If one sells or buys real estate it's all about location, location, location.
If one offers healing it's all about community, community, community -
and our connections with each other.


The Skystone story begins with and continues along the story of community. How do we connect? Who tells the story we carry in our lives? What role does community play? How do we define community? How do we stay healthy as individuals and as a community?

Skystone (another name for turquoise or any blue/green stone) provides a most fitting name for our healing arts center. The story of how skystone came about teaches us: respect for nature; relationship with Spirit; trusting in abundance; and honoring ourselves and others.

We understand that people are, by nature, community oriented. Our health and wellbeing comes from a balanced sense of community. This holds so many applications. Skystone creates a safe and sacred space for healing your mind, body and spirit.

The Community within Us

The connection between our muscles, fascia, joints, nerves, ..... sometimes needs help in finding balance. Water is key. Water is the vehicle through which nutrients get distributed and waste gets collected and processed. Water lubricates, eases, & transforms. Bodywork (Bowenwork, Massage, BodyListening, Intuitive Healing, Reiki, Sports massage) not only physically and energetically eases tight, sore or adhered tissue - it also helps facilitate hydration and a return to health. (We'll do an entire entry on the importance and beauty of water very soon.)
Different aspects of our lives, our personalities, our dreams and desires create a sort of community. This community of self requires balance. Often we negotiate this balance without much conscious thought. Sometimes we need the assistance of a friend, a class, a professional Healer or simply a walk in a natural setting to get perspective. We're hosting a dream circle in the very near future.

The Community around Us

Looking outside ourselves we find a lot of influences and allies. Whether we look to the Stars, Angels, rivers and/or people. At Skystone we honor all paths and actively support the community in as many ways as we can from being green to supporting local artists.
The First Friday Art Walk (in downtown Ellensburg) allows us to host local artists and craftsmen. Each month we feature a show in our main gallery. Our Gifts of Spirit Gallery offers gifts & treasures year round - including jewelry, leather art, traditional Cherokee art, note cards, photography, collage and more. We also carry Linda Larsen's line of Purity Soapworks (soaps, lotions, salts, lip balm, muscle rub..). Coming soon Skystone's own Elemental Escents. All our items are chosen because they are handmade and in some way - feed the spirit.

Join us at a First Friday Art Walk - next one is June 5th, 5 - around 8PM. We feature musical artists beginning at 6:30 PM. Or just stop by our galleries Tues - Sat 11AM - 4PM. 219 West 3rd Ave, Ellensburg, WA. 509-925-4533.