Work with Sandra personally, in-office or by phone/Skype.

Who are the new Spiritual Teachers?

Adapted from “New Paradigm Teaching” from the Silence of the Heart by Paul Ferrini.

New paradigm spiritual teachers claim no authority over others. They do not pretend to have the answers for others. They speak only of their experience. They invite others to share in what they have learned from their experience.

They do not preach. They do not try to fix. They simply accept others as they are and encourage others to find their own truth.

They empower. They see the light in others and encourage it. They don’t close their eyes to the darkness. They do not deny the darkness or go to battle against it. They know there is nothing wrong, no evil to oppose, no battles to fight. They just gently encourage the Light. They know the light itself will heal all wounds.

New paradigm teachers do not try to heal others. They encourage others to heal themselves through self acceptance and self love.

The old paradigm teacher wants to heal others and save the world. The new paradigm teacher knows that others are fine the way they are and the world is already redeemed.

Why is this? Has the new paradigm teacher closed her eyes? Doesn’t she see the suffering in the world, the environmental catastrophe, the endemic violence? Oh yes, she sees the struggle and the pain, but she has a different interpretation of them .She doesn’t believe that people are guilty or that the world is doomed. She sees the vast call for love. She sees the universal cry for acceptance and understanding. And this is what she gives.

Not fixing. Not salvation. Not intellectual remedies for physical problems.

Does she give food and medical supplies if they are needed? Of course, but she remembers to whom she is giving them. She remembers the call and she answers it.

She knows that food is helpful, but it is not the solution to the problem. It is not what is being asked for.

She looks in to the eyes of others and sees their divinity as her own, and asks how she can be of help.

What is asked for is love. Love is the only food. Love is what she gives.

Call or email Oriens to learn how yoga, meditation, spiritual counseling, acupuncture, massage or other mind-body therapies could benefit you!
212-213-5785 or info@oriensliving.com

Overwhelm and stress are a recurring theme for fertility,  menopause transition patients and achievers of all ages managing career, family, health challenges and more. How do you break the pattern? What do you do when anxiety, fear and overwhelm hit?

Patients and those I do business with often comment on how “zen” I am and how relaxing it must be to be in my profession of Chinese Medicine and wellness. Let me tell you, as much as I completely adore and would not trade my life for a minute, and I have the benefit of the medicine's wisdom all around me— owning and running a company during a recessionis is not relaxing!

Which brings me to my point: managing stress and cultivating peace in our lives is a choice we make and a set of tools we employ moment to moment, day to day. It accumulates. It becomes a habit. It becomes your nature. Calm is a result. Joy and tranquility are the return on an investment!  Fully programmed and trained to worry by family and culture, I can worry with the best of them…but why? Worry is a completely unproductive energy sapping activity.

Worry is no more than a thought-feeling the body is having.  The mind creates a negative outcome on a future event.  Worry is fortune telling at it's worst!

Worry is an emotion.   Emotions are not a sum of who we are or an accurate accounting of circumstance.   But our minds can go crazy leading us down into the fear hole. We can thank our early brains for that. They've been with us all along, keeping us out of harm's way, eternally on the look-out for danger.

Yet, as we say "thank you for sharing" to our mind for the reporting on the brain's scan for potential danger, we must also acknowledge the physics of problem solving.  As Einstein suggested, it is is best done in a state of play, of wonder. Solutions come when we are relaxed, off-topic.  Personally, my greatest breakthrough's arrive while working out or in the shower, not when I am in hot pursuit of an answer.

So what gets us there? What induces that relaxation state? What helps us neutralize worry when it strikes?  Habits that become tools at-the-ready. 

Some of my favorites are breathing meditation, spiritual reading that brings me back to bigger perspective and re-introduces me to the truth of deeper connections, acupuncture naps, exercise, an observation walk (tuning into all that is going on outside of me and my mind on the streets of Manhattan).

Did you ever notice that when you are on vacation and you are still thinking or "working" that you feel a powerful sense of possibility? You come back refreshed not only because you switched physical/spacial gears, but because relaxation allowed you to background focus on your challenges. Inspiration hits. New possibilities and perspectives arise.

How do we bring THAT back with us? We decide upon it, and dedicate time to it every day.  We make a small space every day for play, for relaxing, for self-care, for being non-productive, for exercising.  As achievers, we are constantly in motion, solving, multi-tasking.  In the quality-of-life challenge of breaking the worry habit, we're called to let it all go.  We need to hit the "Enough" button, and shift our own gears.

Call or email Oriens to learn how yoga, meditation, spiritual counseling, acupuncture, massage or other mind-body activities could benefit you!
212-213-5785 or info@oriensliving.com

 

I wrote this post last Memorial Day  -- and decided to re-publish it.  As high achievers, we can never receive enough encouragement to take a break!

Rest! It’s Memorial Day and I’m on my 4th glorious day of it!

Rest is a 4-letter-word in western culture. For high achievers, it often carries a heaping measure of guilt.

But Chinese Medicine sees rest as the necessary opposite of action—rest is yin to action’s yang. You have to recharge the battery or the device won’t work. You have to break between sets or your muscles will fail.

You have to have a time-out or your mind isn’t sharp, your body fatigues, your spirit starts wondering, “what’s the point?”

One of my mentors, intentional business guru/philanthropist Christine Comaford recently shared a Hawaiian surfing expression with me, “Don’t turn your back on the ocean.” That means, don’t pretend you are more powerful than the energy of Nature.

I love this! It is SO true! Most things that go wrong with us have at least something to do with us “turning our back” on the restorative powers within us. Whether that’s refusal to take a much needed time out from work, lack of commitment to nourishing food, unwillingness to value sleep, not finding forgiveness in our hearts for those we love….when we turn our back on natural law, things can get pretty overwhelming.

Rest isn’t for slackers. Rest is especially for those seeking to do extraordinary things in this Life!

Here’s a hokey acronym on rest I just made up right now while writing this blog:

Repair—downtime is when it all happens
Evaluate—perspective comes when you are off the playing field and sitting high up in the stands
Systems Off—rebooting begins by hitting the off switch and unplugging
Tune In—without the many distractions that the requirements of accomplishment impose, a sense of truer self and meaning emerges

So as I get ready for mountain bikes with my husband, having slept in ‘til 9 (4 days in a row!) and enjoyed a mind-relaxing hour of staring-into-nature meditation (just enjoying the wind blow and the birds talk over tea)…..I’m feeling mighty peaceful and deeply appreciative of a wonderful life…relaxed, recharged and ready to hit the ground running tomorrow!

 
 Need help hearing your own inner wisdom? Want to have more love, joy and appreciation in your life?  Speak with Sandra! 212-213-5785

The Song of New Beginnings

This morning, I awoke to the song of the robins. When the robins show up in our fields, we can be assured that spring is definitely here. I love their clear, bright song, their chesty, zesty gait, and the way they tilt their heads in the hunt for worms.

Those rockin’ robins strike a chord in me that sings the song of the promise of this season, the opportunity for new beginnings. Spring explodes in its myriad of ways and I am reminded again and again of the mysteries of our Mother Earth and the promises of new beginnings she offers us.

What a celebratory way to start my day! After coffee and meditations, I made my way to the computer and came across this following quote that inspired me. I share it with you.


The robins sing a love song of new beginnings to Mother Earth and to all of Life.

 I, too, will sing my song.  What is the song of new beginnings that you will sing to your Life today?

  Need to talk or work something through?  Rev. Sandra can help!

I've been thinking about a play I saw last summer, which blurred the boundaries between art and life. The play, Guest Artist, by well known actor Jeff Daniels, focused on the relationship of a seasoned Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and the young playwright who idolizes him.

Predictably, both characters learned about their life and their art from each other. Through twists and turns, the elder writer taught his student the subtleties of being a great playwright, while the youth had the courage to question his elder’s motives and lifestyle. Fear, risk taking, and having the courage to speak your own truth, all of these were explored in the truly moving performances. But what was most striking to me was how both characters were uncompromising in defining their lives through their art.

At two different points in the show, both characters stood on bus seats, (the whole play takes place in a bus station) holding a manuscript, proclaiming at the top of their lungs, THIS IS MY ART! THIS IS MY ART! THIS IS MY ART! Both characters were exclaiming that their art defined them as people. So this got me to thinking… Our art isn’t just our manuscript, or our song, or our dance… but OUR LIFE.

What does it mean to think of our lives, themselves, as art? To consider every moment we live art?

The passion that these playwrights exclaimed about their work is the very way that we, as humans, need to proclaim the creation of our lives each day.

All of our life, each choice that we make, and each action we take – every moment is like brush strokes on a canvas. We are 100% in control of the art of our lives – we are the sculptor, the painter, the singer. Our lives are creations of ourselves. How do we choose to appreciate this? Do we choose to believe that we are in creation of our own life, having the courage to tell our truth? Or do we perceive life as something “being done to us” – allowing fear and attachments to what others may think to dictate how we paint on our life’s canvas?

Do we have the courage to honor the creation (read: the choices we have made) of our lives? Do we have the courage to tell the truth about which choices truly serve us? Do we have the courage to admit that we may be hiding behind our fear, anger, blame, and judgments?

Can we stand up on the proverbial bus seat and proclaim, MY LIFE IS MY ART!?

Rev. Sandra Bargman
Spiritual Counseling
Meditation & Guided Imagery
Oriens Community Leader

  Speak privately with Elizabeth about your Women's Health & Hormone needs.

“It’s all in your head.” Only recently, this was not uncommon thinking and the professional medical response to women suffering from the hormone instability natural to the decade or more prior to menopause.

Even now we see patients being given anti-depressants first and questions asked later. Sometimes she is offered birth control pills. But many women in their 30’s and 40’s either don’t want to be on medication or they are hoping to conceive.

Just as we think of puberty as the ramp UP to hormone stability and peak fertility, peri-menopause is the ramp DOWN. We've spiraled around for a second run on the same issues: cycle changes, mood swings, wired-tired, insomnia, concentration issues, acne, anatomical changes, body image issues, attention span shifts, metabolism & weight changes and more.

And, just like in puberty, with all of these changes we're invited to deep pondering and reflection…another opportunity to ask, “Who am I? What do I want in my life? How do I want to DO my life? What turns me on? What isn’t working for me?”

If the menopausal years are the Driver’s Seat—you’ve cracked your career and are enjoying the privileges, or you are making a career change that expresses your talent and interest more authentically, you know who you are, your self-expression is full, you’ve made some money, your kids are independent—then the decade or so leading up is your Learner’s Permit.

You’re in a maturity transition.  :)

This is a natural stage of life. The physical changes in your cycle, energy, cognition and other aspects of your health are NOT just about aging. They are largely about – and can largely be controlled by—your attention to yourself!

In these years we tend to be gunning hard. We’re full throttle professionally; we’ve earned our place. We’re multi-tasking like sorceresses—family, career, aging parents, children, pets, household. And very often we’ve depended on will-power and the regenerative mojo of youth to sustain the pace!

But now the piper needs a payment. And while it may seem like an inconvenience after so many years of doing as we pleased, she’s not exacting a very high price. But default on your payment at your peril!!!

To enjoy the abundance of this time of life and minimize or ELIMINATE many of the symptoms, we need to pay attention to our bodies through nutrition, exercise, sleep. We need to make alone time for introspection to ask those key questions. We need to prioritize and attend to ourselves! “Work smarter not harder”—genius and true.  And for goodness sakes, we need to lighten up and PLAY more.

There is SO much you can do to have an easier and much more enjoyable hormone transition! Talk to us! Get off the hormone roller coaster!

Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine, Maya Abdominal Massage, Nutrition, Counseling and Yoga – every single one of these has been changing women’s lives for thousands of years.

You’re hitting your prime! . . . Enjoy it!

Call or email Oriens to find out how You can be supported through your transition!
212-213-5785 or info@oriensliving.com

  Work with Sandra personally, in-office or by phone/Skype.

“Happiness is a choice.”

That is the quote I have as part of my email signature. It’s my quote; although I rest assured I am not the first person to utter those words. I wish I had a buck for every time someone commented on that quote.

I think happiness IS a choice. But I’m not talking about the Hallmark version of happiness. I know a lot of times we confuse happiness with pleasure. We focus on the externals in our life, such as “When I finish this project, then I will be happy. When I get my new car, then I will be happy. When I finish school, then I will be happy.” I know, I’ve said them all. These are the musings of the personality and the ego.

The problem is there is always something more to want, when the reality crashes in that what you thought was going to make you happy, only made you happy for a short amount of time.

So…what I’m really talking about is JOY. I think joy is similar to happiness, but is a deeper and broader experience.

Happiness feels a bit “me, me, me” – which is just fine, but keep in mind that “me, me, me” doesn’t take you through the tough times. And you can be sure that there are always going to be tough times in life. Happiness is emotional and is fleeting, joy is an attitude about life, your life, and can remain even when happiness seems elusive.

The experience of joy brings us out of Self and into other and a sense of something “Greater” than ourselves, God/Goddess/Source/Awareness, whatever you want to call it.

We know full well that chaos and spirit crushing events happen in life…and it is our internal reaction to these things that dictate whether we are having a joyful and peaceful life.

Therefore JOY is the deep abiding serenity and poise we experience when we are grounded in our willingness to know the good that we have and that we are, to know the Universe’s power for good.

It is our power  to choose how we feel. It is our choice to profoundly know that our Life is in complete support of us.  In making this choice, we open our hearts to Hope!

  Rachel teaches Nia dance every week.  Join the fun!


I recently began a course on Positive Psychology at New York University where I’m completing my Masters in Social Work. Positive psychology asks the question what is authentic happiness and how does one raise his or her level of well-being or life satisfaction?

The founder of Positive Psychology, Martin E. P. Seligman writes in his book, Authentic Happiness: Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment , about an important element of a fulfilled and meaningful life called flow.

Flow is the state that a person experiences when they are doing an activity in which they are so engaged that time seems to stop. Seligman describes flow as a time when “our sense of self vanishes” and there is a “deep, effortless involvement.”

Seligman says one of the keys to a more fulfilling life is identifying your strengths or the experiences that bring the sense of flow and crafting your life in such a way to include more moments to utilize those strengths.

Taking it a step further, Seligman says you can find even more fulfillment by using your strengths and applying them to a cause that is greater than yourself.

Seligman is very vocal about the fact that Positive Psychology and the study of mental well-being, just like the study of mental illness, is backed by scientific research.

It is nice to know that there is a technique for increasing one’s happiness that has been backed by science, but regardless of this, I find the concept of flow and applying it to a higher purpose quite beautiful. It is also somewhat simple and relatable, I have to say.

I think many of us can identify times in our lives when we were so engaged, that time stopped. Even more beautiful is to be engaged in such an activity knowing that the results will be for the benefit of something greater than yourself.

If instead of seeking simple pleasures and instant gratifications we all sought moments of flow in service of others, how different would the world be?


Rachel teaches Nia dance every week.  Join the fun!

Need to talk or work something through? Rev. Sandra can help!


We all have expectations, desires about what we want out of our relationships, our work experience, and our life. We expect and assume what [we think] is our due or worth. We fantasize about the outcome of each set of circumstances based on these assumptions and expectations.

What I most often witness (or can experience myself) is that what is expected in each circumstance is NOT what ultimately unfolds.

Expectations can also stand in the way of us experiencing life as it really is. We become attached to our expectations, and never stay present to what Life is actually dishing up, missing the opportunity, the gift of being “in the moment.”

In Buddhist terms, this is the cause of suffering.

And in our desire to control circumstances with our expectations, we can dismiss what unfolds for us in any given situation, judging it to be “less than” or undesirable, not realizing that it’s exactly what we are seeking!

“As long as you have certain desires, about how it OUGHT to be, you can't SEE how it is".
–Ram Das

When you are stuck in OUGHT and SHOULD, you are holding onto the past, and/or desperately trying to live in the future. Our spiritual traditions tell us that there is only the present moment.

This is the place of ‘sitting still’. Stillness within us is the present moment. And it is here that joy resides.

The word expectation comes from the Latin root spectare, which means to look at or to see. We must develop the courage to SEE ourselves clearly, beyond our expectations.

The willingness to quiet the mind and to expand one’s idea of Self, to become comfortable with change, to let go of the need to be right and embrace life more fully…

Great expectation, I’m listening.


Need to talk or work something through? Rev. Sandra can help!

Enjoy Maya Abdominal Massage, PreNatal massage and more with Simone!


Ever since an early age I was drawn to water. A beautiful abundant river ran on the back of our house and we daily splash on the water and people wash their clothes, women did dishes and so I lived in the semi-paradise small town where everything was so abundant and organic, no plastic bottles, no worries with tomorrow just freely leaving daily what life brought to us.

Later on in my life, while in high-school in the big city, I would reflect on this state of beauty and nature and tears would come out of my eyes, for the river I knew no longer existed and it was being polluted with a tire company and pesticides for farmers and cattle farming.

I have been thinking a lot about the amount of synthetic estrogen that has been thrown in our waters and consequently our bodies, and my question is how are we going to be able to maintain a balance in progesterone to be able to create, a fertile body --- will avoiding these chemicals, once infertility is diagnosed, make much difference? Who can say?

Let’s raise our consciousness to the fact that the cause is not only one problem, there are several. I have been meditating on clean water this week, and when I say clean I mean not plastic bottled water which contains bisphenol A or BPA’s which are suspected of causing breast and prostrate cancer, diabetes, hyperactivity and other serious disorders in laboratory animals.

If you want to avoid these chemicals in your plastic water bottles, look for and avoid the number 7, usually found within the recycle symbol. The "number 7" plastics contain BPA. This chemical mimics estrogen in the human body, scientists say.

An article in the British Telegraph newspaper, Infertility: Handle With Care, implies that these chemicals are the cause of a number of health problems, including infertility. While the article itself makes clear that the scientists are "suspicious" but can't prove its effect, the chart at the end of the article makes it seem like there's no doubt these chemicals are to blame to a number of heath problems, including infertility and miscarriage, in mice... mice -- not people. Genetically mice are actually very close to people, which is why researchers use them. Our intake of these chemicals is far below what the mice were purposely fed, in large quantities.
www.keepitorganic.org/category/packaging-concerns/bisphenol-a-bpa.

As a preventive matter lets keep our bodies and planet clean from so many pollutants. Eat live, pesticide-free food, grown with clean water.

With love,
Simone


World Water Day The international observance of World Water Day is an initiative that grew out of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED).

“There is enough water for human need, but not for human greed.”
– Mahatama Ghandi