Enlightenment (for ladies only)

There are many ways to enlightenment. Some sit on a cushion for twenty years, some maneuver themselves in all kinds of strange body postures, some prostrate their way there, and then there is the way of the Tao for ladies. This involves a jade egg that one uses in a certain manner. My Healing Tao teacher is not prudish at all; she formulates this in a very juicy and direct style. But I am not like her, so I trust you to understand what we do with the egg.

Anyway, using the egg has many advantages, like deep relaxation, inner peace, natural beauty, rejuvenation, more sexual pleasure and healing trauma. So there we were: fifteen ladies, under a blanket, working our egg (which is done, as our teacher says, by ‘just smiling and looking stupid’).

Does it work? Well, yes. It turns out to be a great way to go inside: as soon as I sit behind the computer too much, my head gets restless, and it’s very difficult to fall asleep, so I take the egg to bed. It helps me center, connect to my body, relax and sleep, and then my dreams become very vivid. Furthermore I feel more present and less reactive (just been doing it for a few days now) than I have been recently. I am still waiting for the rejuvenation to take off, but I like the idea of sleeping and relaxing my way into enlightenment. (By the way: it is said that the egg gets black after a while, so it’s definitely doing something!)

Ilona Botterweg teaches Healing Tao in Amsterdam: www.taoteachingamsterdam.nl.

Sweat lodge in Amsterdam

Yesterday: a private sweat lodge, next to a busy road near Amsterdam. Commuting traffic rushes by, but I focus on myself: the darkness of the lodge, the heat of the stones, and the beat of the drum make me go deep inside. My intention is on healing: my head often seems disconnected from my body: very uncomfortable.

While I am taking in the heat, sweating, I get to see above as below. There is really no difference between heaven and earth. But to be able to connect both I need to express who I really am. I see myself in a past live, being humiliated. I block my voice, and also my inner light. In the lodge I feel I have a choice. I start making sounds, singing a nursery song; calling my spirit back home.

I ask for eight more hot stones. Eight: the number of connection, eternity, oneness. Minutes later I am giving birth to my daughter. The sadness of the things that went so wrong, so differently than I intended, overwhelms me. A cry wells up from deep inside. Again I make a choice: this time my (her?) birth will be soft and effortless. When the heat becomes too much, I will not fight. I crawl outside, where I am welcomed by a soft hand. When the crying passes, she pours ice cold water over my head. I feel baptized, born again.

The lodge is like a dream: everything is connected and very meaningful when you’re inside, but sort of distant and illogical a few hours later.

Reijgersbroeck facilitates private, couples’ and group sweat lodges: www.reijgersbroeck.nl. (Picture: www.erikbuis.nl.)

My baby slept through the night!

This week our 14 month old slept through the night for the very first time! To make that happen I tried many things, but two made the difference. First: I finished breastfeeding, which improved our night rest enormously, because she stopped waking up every three hours to be fed. Second: we went to see a medium: Truus Hartsink. With use of high sense perception she diagnoses the cause of physical and emotional problems. She felt the sleeping problems of our baby to be related to an extra high level of a certain mineral, and prescribed a homeopathic remedy to balance it.

Like Truus predicted, we started to notice changes after six weeks: our little one began to fall asleep in my arms within five to ten minutes after bedtime, which made an end to my endless evening stroller walks. She stopped pushing me away when I held her. She got a better doable sleeping rhythm. And recently she climbed into the stroller and fell asleep all by herself. Miracles exist. Thank you Truus!

Are you desperate for a remedy, but no idea which one? Go to http://infokit.nl/truusinfo.