Chakra 101

FEB 17, 2016NO COMMENTSSUSAN FULLMER

Chakra 101

Let’s start at the very beginning.  A very good place to start…as they say.  All Things Woo Woo is a talk show about New Age issues.  I actually dislike using the name “New Age” because it means different things to different people.  And at best, it is a very large umbrella that encompasses a whole lot of stuff.  “Stuff” being the technical, encompassing, catch-all phrase one needs to use when utilizing a big umbrella.  I think when dealing in mass, it’s always good to begin with the basics.  Wax on – wax off.

So let’s talk chakras.  This talk show/blog blurb will not be the definitive definition of all things New Age (or my much preferred tongue in cheek/term of endearment – Woo Woo), so if any of this catches your interest, Google away.  Or better yet, take a class.  For example, as a nurse I feel it is the duty of all human beings to take an anatomy class.  After all, we all have a body.  We ought to, at the very least, know how it works and what goes where.  Same is true for the energetic body.  Whether you know it or not, among other things, you have a handful of major chakras and a larger handful of minor ones.  It just might be in your best interest to know what that means.  This may be my passion, but it’s your energy body.  Know what goes where and why.

One can’t get more basic then the root chakra.  It’s number one of seven major chakras that run up the spine starting at the base and going to the top of the head.  One (Root) is at the base and seven (Crown) is at the head.  Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning “Spinning Wheel”, and indeed that’s what a healthy chakra looks like.  It’s a ball of energy and it moves in a clockwise motion with the body being the face of the clock.  Unfortunately, our chakras (like our physical bodies) are not always in good shape, and this can make us feel not so good.

Each chakra is associated with different aspects.  For example, the first chakra, or root, or base chakra is concerned with our energetic connection to the earth and to our own physical body, especially the feet and the lower extremities.  It can give us a sense of being grounded and present, and it can also generate a solid foundation from which to live our lives.  The issues of the first chakra are safety, security, and basic needs.  Do we have a safe and consistent place to live?  Are our bodies free from abuse?  Are our basic physical needs being met?

OK, now here’s the crazy part.  Hear me out.  If a chakra isn’t balanced and healthy, you can see the outcome of this in people’s lives.  For the first chakra, we tend to have problems in the areas mentioned above.  No, wait, it gets better.  If you can heal the chakra and bring it into harmony as it is meant to be, then those outcomes in our lives start to heal as well.  Yep, it’s true.  Can you see now why a healthy, happy chakra is so very important to us?  So what to do if it needs fixing?

Since the root chakra is associated with earth, an excellent way to clear and balance this energy center is to go into nature.  Also, it is helpful to move the body in any healthy way. There are even foods that can help you be more grounded:  Root vegetables and protein.  Also, there are essential oils that are excellent for all of the chakras.  There are many good meditations that can help with this process and I encourage you to seek them out.  Each chakra has a color and the first, is red.  Simply focusing on your lower spine area and breathing in the color red to that space can be a powerful exercise, if accompanied with an intention for healing.  Go ahead and give it a try, especially if you are dealing with “first chakra issues”.  And if all that doesn’t seem to do the trick, you may want to connect with a reputable energy medicine healer.  If you don’t know one, I’d check with places like New Age stores or massage schools for suggestions.  In the mean time, catch me on my show.  I like to start with a good grounding meditation…which of course is all about the first chakra.  A very good place to start.

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Susan Fullmer is an Energy Medicine Healer, Licensed Massage Therapist, and Nurse with decades of experience as a practitioner and teacher.  She is currently a student at Boise State University, and a perpetual student of life.  

All Things Woo Woo is a weekly talk show on the Boise State radio station, University Pulse. Susan Fullmer hosts this show on Sunday evenings from 5:00-7:00 pm. Show topics include Energy Medicine, Energy Healing techniques, and practical uses for being aware of our natural intuitive abilities. Join in for guided meditations, education, and energy readings and dream interpretations.  

Stream the show live and on line  

https://universitypulse.com 

Susan's next crazy-ass adventure!

All Things Woo Woo 

Radio Talk Show on Boise State, 

University Pulse

Sundays 5:00-7:00 pm

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     This weekly radio talk show is about energy medicine, discovering our own inner intuitive, and relaxation.  Join in for guided meditations, eduction, readings and dream interpretations, discussions about past live patterns, and connecting with our spirit guides and etheric helpers.  This show is about practical uses and adaptations of our innate human, intuitive abilities.  

     Join in the discussion and add your questions to the Facebook page. 

All Things Woo Woo.

     Susan is an Energy Medicine Healer, Licensed Massage Therapist, and Nurse with decades of experience as a practitioner and teacher.  She is currently a student at Boise State University, and a perpetual student of life.

The fish bowl.  Yikes!  What have I gotten myself into this time...

Boys in the Trees

Raw.
Real.
Not what I expected.
Made me love her more.

Foreign Country

     I stumbled into the Advanced Math Lab today.  A foreign country indeed.  It's Sunday and the Pee Wee Math Lab isn't open yet.  Drats!  A huge waste of time to go back home and then come back again in two hours.  Resourceful me, I start going from door to door looking for a room that someone forgot to lock.  Each room is jam packed full of computers just ready for me to use - if I can just get in the door.  Success, one lone guy is sitting in a room full of about 25.  Plenty for little old me, cuz all I need is one.  Now to make my pitch so he'll take pity on me and let me in.  I have no idea who he is or why he would be sitting in the math building on a Sunday morning.  Turns out, he's a TA (Teacher's Aid) for advanced math.

     I'd heard of advanced math.  The very term makes me shudder.  But he was so nice and said, "Sure, come on it".  I timidly said that I was a math 25 student and would that be all right.  A blank look crossed his face.  I cleared my throat and said, "Algebra".  "Oh yeah, says he and then assured me that it would be fine.  I've run across this before with math TAs who are studying "higher math" (also makes me shudder).  They tell me that they rarely, if ever use algebra at that stage of the game and sometimes have a hard time remembering it.  Great, I had lofty aspirations of learning something important here.  But then they are quick to assure me that "Engineers need to know it".  "Yea for engineers!"  (said in a limp, grudging voice)

     So, I know this has got to be hard for him and sure enough, when I call him over to look at some factoring gibberish, he hasn't got a clue how to solve it.  But then, much to my delight and with a tinge of envy, he says, "Oh yeah, I think I remember this".  And sure enough, he lickity-split figures it out.  I told him, "You are probably having to go back to your high school memories for this.  He tips his head in thought and states, "9th grade".  Fine, you mastered in 9th grade what I am struggling with at age 55.  But all is forgiven as he helps me figure out this crazy thing where I am factoring and dividing two, too long numbers with a bunch of letters which requires me to only do portions at a time and then multiply back through periodically - but only in bits and pieces at unfathomable times, and for unknown reasons.  Trust me, it's a hot mess.  But thanks to my Advanced Math buddy, I got it!  Thank you Josh.

Breakfasting at the Library

Beautiful pair of mallards dining out.  (the pic doesn't do them justice)

During an early morning walk to math.  

See what happens when you turn around to look at the ducks?  

Mmmmmm, pretty.

Gone are the days

when you have to copy down what the teacher has written on the board.  Click.

Two trains leave a station...

I suck at word problems!  Arrggggg!
Can't I just go on line and see what time they will arrive?   

Discussion Board Post for UF 300

UF 300 Discussion Board

Understanding Others

2/22/16

•    Have you had an experience that challenged and/or threatened your "framework"?  What did you do?  Did you change because of it or did you opt not to?

     Many, many years ago when my son was two weeks old, I found out that my then husband, was gay.  This was back in the 1980s when NO ONE was openly talking about the gay issue, not to mention the issue of being married to one.  I had been brought up in an extremely conservative family and community that believes fervently, that gay people choose to be gay, and are sinners.  In fact, being gay is about the worst thing you could do in life.  In the conversations I remember back in the day, it vied with the number one sin of being a murderer.  There is a famous (infamous) quote by one of their beloved leaders stating, it would be better that they kill themselves, than for someone to be a homosexual.  This was the world into which I was thrust, an experience that ripped me into many pieces.  I had hardly even heard the word “gay” before my husband disclosed this information to me. 

     I knew that my husband was a good man and father, so the information I got just didn’t make any sense.  During that experience I remember visually having a picture come to me one day.  I was standing at a fork in the road.  To the right of me lay the difficult path of discovery – what was this thing that had destroyed my family and my life?  On the path to the left I could plainly see myself with my head buried in the sand, going nowhere.  I went right.

     This decision eventually took me away from my community, and for a time, my family.  It was a path of actually talking to gay people, asking them their story.  From this experience, I got a much different version than what I had always been told.  I also heard horrific stories like the man that had been stabbed in the back while walking on the sidewalk, just because he was gay.  I met another man who has a tombstone erected by his family.  They disowned him and created a grave for him when he told them he was gay.  I learned of more stories as I started local and then a national organization for spouses, partners and ex-partners of gays and lesbians.  So much heartbreak and sorrow.  I was even on talk shows trying to get out accurate information on the subject:  Geraldo, Sally Jessie Rafael, and Oprah.  I have now talked to hundreds of people dealing with the gay issue. I came to know homosexuals for the people they are, and not by the misconceptions spouted by people who had never even talked to them!  And I now, of course, enjoy a rich life full of all kinds of diversity!  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

     As I was reading chapter five in, “Exploring Leadership”, I realized that the six stages of the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, described my path to a tee:  Denial of Difference, Defense against Difference, Minimization of Difference, Acceptance of Difference, Adaptation to Difference, and Integration of Difference.  Yep, I do believe I experienced them all. 

•    What is the connection between microaggressions and working toward cultural sensitivity?  (pages 202-216)  Have you ever been the recipient of some form of "microaggression"?

     I have had some microagression in my life, but it is so minor that I am not even going to mention it here.  Instead, I want to say that as I have become more culturally sensitive, and have talked to people of different cultures, I was initially shocked at how much this goes on.  And sadly, how much I, myself, have participated in it over the years.  I can say that I probably have never knowingly given microassaults which are often conscious, explicit racial derogations.  Perhaps because I am not the kind of person to do so, I was heartbreakingly dismayed when I learned that I was most certainly giving microinvalidations. These are often unconscious communications that excludes, negates, or even nullifies someone from a different culture. 

     As I seek out diversity, I ask how I can be more sensitive to a culture.  Education is the key.  I’m not going to say specific things I have learned here, because I’m not going to pretend that I am an expert in any culture other than my own.  But I will say that I find that if you ask someone sincerely about their culture, they will often tell you what works and does not work for them.  In addition, I think the Diversity Office on campus is a wonderful resource for this.  One example, was a “fashion show” they put on last fall that showed cultural appropriation in Halloween costumes.  Very enlightening.  I wished everyone could have seen it.  I do not want to, for example, wear a feather in my hair and wear an Indian costume because it is rightly offensive to the Native American population.  I shudder to think how much we offend other cultures by our (my) sheer ignorance.  

•    Brene Brown offers many interesting tidbits in her TED Talk!  To you, what stood out as key to the role vulnerability plays, or MUST play, in our lives?  What is the connection between vulnerability and empathy or compassion?

     I am a huge fan of Ms. Brown.  In this particular talk I love the following three lines:

1.     “Design is a function of connection.”  I had never thought of that before.  She is speaking of creativity which can be applied to anything.  Personally, I apply it to leadership, which is something I will pursue after graduation.  I had not thought about creativity being a function of connection, but it makes perfect sense.  And I know that connection is imperative in leadership.

2.     “There is nothing more vulnerable than creativity”.  How many times have we said, “no” to something we really want to do, because we are scared?  I think the beauty of her over all message, is that we can and must go past our fear.

3.     “What is art if it is not love?”  That one gets me at my core.  I’ve always been lead to believe that art is inferior some how – it’s not that important to society as say, making money.  I know that’s not true, but this statement makes me realize why.

     Ms. Brown says that one must be vulnerable in order to have true empathy and compassion.  She calls it a vulnerable choice because empathy has the following elements:

1.     Perspective taking

2.     Staying out of judgment

3.     Recognizing emotion in other people

4.     Feeling with people.

     She states, that rarely can a response make something better.  What makes something better is connection.

     And I’m throwing this quote in for fun.  “Don't try to win over the haters; you are not a jackass whisperer.”

― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

And don't miss

Brene Brown on Empathy 

Factoring

Holy shit!  What the hell have I gotten myself into.

Voki Interrupted

     Five IT hotshots and two hours later, it is finally determined that I cannot embed a Voki into a Power Point after all (see blog post Voki).  I'm like a dog with a bone when it comes to letting go of a brilliantly creative idea once I've hatched one.  I was going to do a bit of reenactment of the Bob Kustra interview using an avatar for each of us.  But sadly, I finally had to concede defeat.  The other bummer is I have now lost a precious day and a half trying to get this one to work.  Figuring out these media programs are difficult for me.  The learning process consists of swearing, hair pulling and a whole lot of time.  I refrain from pounding on the laptop for fear of breakage, though I dearly want to.

     Math was not my only fear hurdle that kept me from coming back to school all those years.  It was that damn computer.  Mind you, there was no computers when I was in college last.  Other than computer medical charting, I was never exposed to much in the way of IT gadgetry in the workplace and I was way too scared to go seek it out on my own.  No thank you.  And so the electronic intimidation grew with every decade.  I knew enough to know, that I would not be able to avoid it in school.  Never a truer statement spoken!

     But wait, what has happened here?  Though I couldn't use it, I now know Voki.  And I add this to a number of other media programs I have learned this year:  Power Point, PowToons, and Spicynodes.  And don't forget the two I added yesterday after ditching Voki:  Prezi and Screen-o-Matic.  I know these programs!  Me!  There's a bit of swagger in my step today.  I'm feeling like pretty hot stuff.

     So, it's not in my UF 300 multimedia presentation, but I'm going to show you my one frame of Voki. (I didn't make more frames until I knew I could use it - good plan Susan)  No, Voki can't be embedded into PP, but for some bizarre reason, it can be embedded into a blog.  Go figure.  And now, without any further ado, may I present, my Voki!  Someone pass the popcorn please.

I just made a new Voki. See it here:

Voki

     After banging my head against a lap top for three hours last night I finally figured out that what I'm trying to do probably can't be done on a Mac.  (Sorry MacBook Air - you know I love you more than life itself...it's just that damn compatibility thing)  So I'm back at my home away from home, The Zone (on campus tech support).  How much do I love these helpful, extremely intelligent nerds that get me through ALL my computer woes.  Honestly, No Zone would equal No Degree.  I wouldn't have made it without them so far and I'm quite sure the graduation finish line will mean many more visits between now and then.

     Today's adventure is a UF 300 assignment.  I want to embed a Voki into a Power Point/Slides - which ever will work best.  Long story short, I can't do it on my MacBook Air OR my Chromebook.  I brought them both into The Zone today just to make sure I wasn't crazy or confused.  My brainy-nerd-helper confirmed that, no, it can't be done!  Feeling so very vindicated, but so very disappointed right about now.  So I'm at the computer lab to use BSU's computer, with provisions for the long haul.  I'm quite sure I'll be here for hours.  If you never hear from me again it's because I died here.  Let's hope the finished project will be A. publishable here, and more importantly, B. publishable in Black Board (that's where it's got to be posted for grading).  Wish me luck.

A bird just told me

     I'm watching the birds at my bird feeder just outside this window next to my desk.  One just told me to, "Love this day".  This is a fairly ordinary day for me according to my calendar, filled with a mountain of math homework, and an UF 300 project due in two days.  Clarification:  A HUGE UF 300 project...that I haven't started yet.  So yea, just a normal day.  Yet, I am to love it.  Animals speak truth to me.  I've never know otherwise.

     Why does this seemly simple request feel so very difficult?  Talk about a glitch in the flow of my life.  Thanks for the heads up Bird.  I will endeavor to make it so.

I am the algebraic bomb.com

Who just got a 93% on the first algebra test of the semester?

Google Scholar

It's a beautiful thing.

Math Air

     Why is it that I seem to have far fewer questions when I do my math homework in the math lab?  I suspect it's because of all the math air I'm breathing in.  Math building.  Math students.  Math thoughts swirling all around me.  One more deep breath.

A Life Changer

"If you are not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with anything original"

TED Talk by Sir Ken Robinson

And this is what it can look like.  I like it!

TEDx Talk by Logan LaPlante