Before We Have To...

I remember listening to Louise Hay once, the lady who made us aware of the mental reasons behind our illnesses and how to heal through affirmations, how to heal by being aware of and by changing our thinking.  She had said that all teachers and healers share the same information, because there can only be one true information.  One true path.  We all share the parts of the path that we are able to see and the methods that help us stay on track.

Yet, listening to some teachers make more sense.  Some of the healing methods work better on us.  I had the chance to meet some exceptional teachers over the years.  Some were exceptional yet I did not feel like their path was fit for me.  I learned through time that it is important to expose myself to new approaches, but also always tostay with which feels fit both for my mind and my heart.

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With every new student, with each new client I find myself asking what I really do believe in when it comes to illness and healing.  I work with many people who have serious health issues, but there are as many if not more people who seem to have many blessings in their lives, but are still not happy, very discontent with their lives. 

In the first years that worked, I had more people come to me who were really ill and were looking ways to improve their lives.  Later on, more and more people started to come to me to change their lives because they did not feel they were headed in a positive direction.  It is hopeful to see that people are looking for ways to change their lives before they make themselves sick.  It is tough and wonderful to be proactive in such a way.  I was not one of them.  I was a part of the former group.

Yes, I am a strong believer of the idea that if we do look into the daily problems in our lives, we will eventually make ourselves sick.  Our subconscious will try to bring our problems in our consciousness by a difficult method that works - through illness. 

If we are proactive, the process of  being aware is faster and easier.  But sometimes life literally knocks us out, to shake us, to awaken us, to make us change.  As a person who has had a tough wake up call, I can say that I admire those you are courageous enough to work on themselves before they really have to. 

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So what do I do?  What helps us to be happier and healthier in life?  One of the important aspects is to unload the “negative” feelings as they arise.  Our spouse shouts at us, or scolds us for a reason – whether he or she has the right or not is another issue – and we want to reply back, however because kids are around, because the mother and father-in-law is around, because you are afraid things will get worse, you stay quiet.  You “swallow” the words as we say it in Turkish.  May be you have done the right thing, but the feelings of anger, disappointment, maybe of resentment are there.  You have not let them out.   In order to stay healthy emotionally, mentally and physically, we need to let out these feels that do not feed us.  

One option is to speak up and let the other person know, but this is not always easy or possible.  We are very unprepared for conflict resolution.  I wish and pray that conflict resolution one day will be a part of the education as a basic life skill.  So, for many people telling how we feel when we are feeling it is not easy.  However, we have to find a way to let that negative energy out.  Unless we release it or clear it, it is hard to feel another emotion.

Listening to music and physical movement such as walking and dancing seems to create a means to clear the energy.  Another method that works very effectively at releasing negative feelings is EFT, Emotional Freedom Technique.

EFT is a technique that is used best to clear negative emotions, emotional residues of past unpleasant events or traumas.  As some of you might know, in EFT we tap into certain point on our head, body and hands while concentrating on our negative feelings to unload our emotional burdens.  This technique that was developed by an engineer Gary Craig has been in use since 1995.  This year Gary and his daughter are making some modifications in the technique and also EFT had been a technique that was freely distributed although there were official trainings and certifications. It seems they want to have more control on the technique and therefore creating new certifications to be an “official” practitioner.

I believe in trainings.  I must have attended close to a hundred including the previous official certification trainings of the Emotional Freedom Technique. I also understand the need to be able to live and survive as a teacher and healer, the need to be paid for your efforts and the knowledge that you created.   Gary Craig seems to experience the negative aspects or sharing information freely.  His old websites are not active anymore and www.garythink.com is his new website where he shares information about EFT.  There are free and purchasable information on this web site.  According to my observation, the “old” EFT techniques are as valid as they used to be.  They work.  If you know how to use EFT, I recommend you to keep on using them.  I will share the additions or changes to EFT that make sense to me in the coming weeks.  I believe in finding what works for you and in keeping using it.  That means to try new approaches, but to trust your heart, to trust your intuition in the healing method. 

Sometimes my clients ask me if certain healing techniques can be used together.  Most of time we can.  For example, we can use EFT Emotional Freedom Technique and use Reiki at the same time to support us during the EFT process.  Or we can use Reiki to help heal the time in the past we are working with EFT. 

Please never, never use a method that you do not feel comfortable with.  Of course, I am not saying you to give in to your fears of change.  Because sometimes we are afraid of the good that awaits us as well.  This is surely not what I am talking about.  I have seen many people who are afraid to physically heal because they have grown so familiar to the life as the “sick person”, they do not know what to do as a person who is not sick anymore.  Many of them realize that sickness is how they have learned to say no without having to say no.  It is unbelievable how so many people use illnesses as an excuse to say no.  

It seems very hard to say no, just to say say. It seems very hard to accept that we have the right to say no.  Looking back at my own life, my life would have been easier if I had been able to say no a little more. I am still learning.  Saying no is not a rejection, saying no is not about being selfish.  Saying no when we really want to and need to say no, is being honest. Saying no, or not choosing a reply out of obligation, when I cannot seem to say yes is listening to the universe. It is listening to the genuine voice inside.  Saying no is as good as saying yes.  This can be liberating for us as well as the people around us.  Who knows if agreeing with the desires of others will be for their benefit?

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May love and light always be with you.

Zeynep

Affirmation of the Week, From Louise Hay:

“ I love my heart.

My heart lovingly carries joy throughout my body, nourishing the cells. Joyous new ideas are now circulating freely within me.  I am the joy of life, expressing and receiving.  I now choose thoughts that create an ever-joyous now. It is safe to be alive at every age.  I radiate love in every direction, and my whole life is a joy.  I love with my heart.  I love and appreciate my beautiful heart!”

Brussels, Lions and What Cello Brings

I went to Brussels for the second time this fall. The first time was more than 23 years ago.  I had spent one afternoon and one night as was going to New York for my third year in college.  I had found a cheap ticket on a flight with Sabena Airlines, which no longer exists.  Belgium now has a Brussels Airlines I believe, but I never used it. On that one August evening twenty three years ago, Brussels had seemed quite safe, quiet and friendly.  This September, Brussels to my surprise, seemed less safe, a lot less safe.

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I was going to Brussels to attend the Lions Clubs International’s 58. Europa Forum.  Last year it was held in Maastricht, The Netherlands and next year the yearly European gathering of Lions Clubs Members in Europe will be held in Istanbul.  Since this year I am the vice-council secretary of the Lions Turkish Council, I wanted to be there as a Lion, but also Belgium was one of the few countries in Europe that I had been in only once.  I wanted to see the new Brussels as well.

This summer I had been to China for the first time and I had felt quite unsafe in this huge country.  Strangely, I felt the same “uneasiness” in Brussels.  Strange. The ‘de facto’ capital of the European Union seems to have turned into a city where you need to be careful.  Careful to make sure you watch and protect your purse, your wallet, your phone, whatever you may be carrying.  In a split second you may lose your passport and all your important belongings.  I had not seen so frequent “pick-pocket” incidents in a long time.  About 25-30 years ago, every time we visited Italy, we would be told to be very careful and I had tried to be a little bit more careful in Italy, a country that I really love to go to.

I had been in hundreds of taxis around the world.  In Europe taking a taxi is usually a trouble free experience.  Usually. In Brussels, it was less frequent to meet a decent taxi driver.  I do not speak Dutch, I speak some French.  However I do not choose to speak French if I do not really have to.   Still, I was happy to be able to understand one of the languages spoken in the Belgium.  

When I go to a country and a city that I do not know well, I always buy a book about the place and a map beforehand.  To be able to move around a city comfortable, I need a map.  My mind needs a map.  And I had a map of Brussels that I bought in Istanbul with from day one.  I also got a more practical city map from the hotel I was staying at as well. 

So almost every time I go in a taxi in Brussels, I knew where I was and where I was going and the approximate distances.  Brussels is a city you can walk and discover in a couple of hours, but my mind still wants a map and I do not fight with that need any more.  In four days I was in Brussels, I saw taxi drivers who tried to convince me that there were fixed minimal rates for certain destinations, that of course did not exit and lucky that I knew did not exits.  I met taxi drivers who tried to take unreasonably long routes to places that I had gone three or four times before from other and cheaper routes.  It was very strange to see what taxi drivers in Brussels were willing to do to get two, three, five Euros more from their clients.  It did not feel like Europe. I found myself scolding drivers and getting out of taxis in the middle of the roads.  I only had the trouble of changing couple of taxis and maybe paying extra 5-10 Euros, but some Turkish Lions Clubs members attending the Lions Europa Forum were not as lucky.  One lady even had her handbag stolen at the lobby of the four star hotel we were staying in.  The hotel management showed us the signs that they had put in the lobby to warn customers about the theft problem in Brussels, which we had not been aware of before the theft.  I am not sure if this is a result of the Economical problems in the EU or about Brussels changing after being the capital of Europe, but certainly Brussels is not the sweet and peaceful city that I liked and wanted to visit again this September.  The weather was amazing. It was sunny and warm, without a drop of rain, which I was told was to be expected any day in the Fall.

I had one positive encounter with an old Tunisian taxi driver.  As I got in his cab, we started to talk in French.  I am never confident with my French.  But this sweet old man convinced me to carry on talking and we had a wonderful talk for about twenty minutes.  As I was getting out of the taxi, he gave me a very gentle smile and told me that I did well.  I found myself smiling back.  I was talking only in French for twenty minutes and we had talked about our countries, families, politics and more. 

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The Lions Europa Forum that I attended in Brussels was really great. There were very interesting sessions on service projects in Europe, as well as Leadership trainings.  Every year different competitions for the youth take place at the Lions Europa Forums.  One of them is the Lions European Music Competition.  This year’s instrument was the cello.  And I am very proud to announce that a young Turkish cellist Dorukhan Doruk got the first place where 18 countries were competing.  Dorukhan really is an amazing musician and very smart, kind hearted and a very well-mannered young man.  In the 21 year history of this music competition, for the first time a winner played with his instrument with an orchestra, The European Symphony Orchestra, at the closing ceremony of the forum to about 1500 people. His performance ended with a standing ovation.   I could not help but think of Benyamin Sonmez, a very talented cellist from Fethiye that we lost in 2011 at the age of 28.  As most of you know, our town of Fethiye organised its first Classical Music Festival in his honour with the complete support of official and non-governmental organizations in Fethiye. Cello was an instrument that I was not very familiar with. Dorukhan Doruk and Benyamin Sonmez put this instrument in my awareness that is hard to diminish or take back. 

For more information on Dorukhan Doruk: www.dorukhandoruk.com and for information on Fethiye Classical Music Festival, which I hope will continue in the coming years:  www.festiyefest.com.

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I met many old Lion friend from different parts of Europe in Brussels.  Especially dear friends from Romania, The Netherlands, Austria and from the headquarters of Lions Clubs International in the US.  I had the chance to see Lions Clubs International’s Past International President Dr. Wing-Kun Tam, from Hong Kong China, whom I had the honour of meeting in İzmir last year.  We had met in Busan, Korea as well this summer, but only shortly.  Of course, our current Lions International President Mr. Wayne Madden was also in Brussels.  Dorukhan Doruk received his music award from International President Mr. Madden.

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My dentist in Istanbul is a wonderful lady from Belgium.  And many friends from different parts of Belgium.  I have always loved their friendly, down to earth but gentle attitude.  If I return to Belgium, I hope it will be to visit friends.  Like almost every piece of land on the planet, life feels safer and happier among friends.

With love and light.

Zeynep

Quote of the Week:

“Reality is always kinder than the stories we tell about it.”

-          Byron Katie, “Loving What Is”

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “I attract only healthy relationships.  I am always treated well.”

When Nothing Brings Peace...

When nothing brings peace to my mind and heart, Rumi does.

When I want to read and keep walking among my bookshelves and cannot allow myself to let go to any one of them, I pick a book on Rumi, of Rumi.

He is the light that feels so familiar, so gentle and true.

God bless those who are able to share and spread Mevlana’s light, who are able to stay true to his soul.  Coleman Barks is surely one of them.

This week’s words are from Mevlana Celaleddin Rumi:

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Having Nothing

Whatever comes, comes from a need,

a sore distress, a hurting want.

Mary’s pain made the baby Jesus

Her womb opened its lips

and spoke the Word.

Every part of you has a secret language.

Your hands and your feet say what you have done.

Every need brings in what’s needed.

Pain bears its cure like a child.

Having nothing produces provisions.

Ask a difficult question,

and the marvellous answer appears.

Build a ship, and there will be water

to float it. The tender-throated infant cries,

and milk drips from the mother’s breast.

Be thirsty for the ultimate water.

Then be ready for what will come

pouring from the spring.

*

Mirror and Face

We are the mirror as well as the face in it.

We are tasting the taste this minute

of eternity.  We are pain and what cures pain, both.

We are the sweet cold water

and the jar that pours.

*

The Breeze at Dawn

The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.

                Don’t go back to sleep.

You must ask for what you really want.

                Don’t go back to sleep.

People are going back and forth across the doorsill

                where the two worlds touch.

The door is round and open.

                Don’t go back to sleep.

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Majesty and Helplessness

Always check your inner state

with the lord of your heart.

Copper does not know it’s copper

until it is changing into gold.

Your loving does not know its majesty,

until it knows its helplessness.

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The Sacred Liquid

Are you jealous of the ocean’s generosity?

Why would you refuse to give

this gift to anyone?

Fish don’t hold the sacred liquid in cups.

They swim the huge fluid freedom.

...

May the Divine lead us all to our true paths.  May we be surrounded by love and light.

Zeynep

Quote of the Week:

“Talents are common; everyone has them.  But rare is the courage to follow our talents where they lead.”

-          Anonymous

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “I do something new – or at least different – every day.”

Questions, Answers, and the Need to Let Go

It is late in the evening and I better go to sleep.  I have quite a busy day tomorrow.  As I was about to go to sleep, I decided to check my emails and there was a photo waiting for me. A photo from California, from San Diego.  One photo was enough to keep me awake for more.

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In the past ten twelve years, I learned quite a number of personal development and complementary healing techniques.  Always I try them on myself, for myself thoroughly first.  May be for that reason I am fonder of techniques that we are able to use on our own and for ourselves.  For example, with the Japanese healing energy technique Reiki you can give healing energy to yourself as well as others. However, there are other Japanese healing energies with which you can give to others as much as you want, but to receive the same energy you need another person to give it to you.   And I respect the Masters who made it possible for us to channel those frequencies as well.  However, I like the concept of self-sufficiency in self-healing.

After I am convinced that a technique works on me, I then try it on volunteer family members and friends.  Regardless of the certificates and qualifications, I need to use and see the positive results of a technique before using it on a client.  When there is no speck of a doubt, I am able to focus on a client more completely.

My students and clients sometimes ask me how I am able to know about their problems, difficulties and questions without them telling me.  A lot of them wonder if I am reading their minds.   Then I ask them how I knew about some issues that they discovered after our sessions.  Then, they are convinced that this is not about mind reading. 

From the perspective of the world of energy, no information is or can be hidden in the world.  All information is always open for access all of the time.  Yes, you can know whether I am honest or not, whether I am rich or poor regardless of how I dress or which cars I seem to be driving, whether the business deal that I am trying to convince you to sign is good or bad for you.  All of the answers to all of our questions are here with us.  And actually we know this as well.  Don’t we keep saying, “Actually I knew there was something wrong with that contract when I was signing it, but since I could not get my hands on any counter evidence, I thought I was being too sceptical and signed it anyway.  But I knew there was something fishy.” ...  I have heard so many similar sentences.  Most of the time when we meet a person, regardless of his or her titles and appearances, don’t we know if a person is honest, to be trusted?  

The more we listen to our intuition, the more answers we get.  And the more we act listening to our intuition, the clearer our messages get.  The universe seems to check one thing.  When we receive an information, whether it is that a friend of yours is having a tough time at work or whether one of your employees is cheating on his wife or whether your cousin is going to have a divorce even though she hides her problems and pretends to have a ‘perfect’ marriage, what do we do with that information?  The answer is what the universe seems to care about.  Do you know and care about your boundaries as well as others’?  Do you use the information that you receive?  How do you use it?  Do you know when to act and when not to?  Because sometimes we are given an information, a hunch just to observe. Just to know.  What we do with what we get determines how much information we will be given next by our intuition, by life, by the universe.

 

As we learn better to understand the messages, comes the responsibility of the message.

And may be living with that responsibility is the most difficult of all. 

Because certainly there comes a day when I am faced with a situation where I find myself asking if had done the best I can to help a person.  Whether if it was enough or not.  There comes a day when I am not convinced that I had done my best even if I did the best I could.  Is doing the best I can enough?  There comes a day when I question whether I was indeed as careful with personal boundaries and freedom of choice as I wished. 

After countless days of clarity, one day I may be really in the fog, I may be in the dark.

And that is exactly when I need to remind myself “to let go and to let God.”  When we need to trust that light and the answers are always here with us whether we can see them or not.

To love. To let go. To trust.

...

I received a photo from San Diego tonight.  It kept me awake a little more. We are in the first hours of a Tuesday in İstanbul; it is still a Monday in San Diego.  And this new day is the day my father was born 85 years ago.  Call it a coincidence, the photo from San Diego tells the story of a daughter and a father that is just beginning.  I will let the details of that story stay with me tonight. But I will send my thanks to California for reminding me to send blessings to all daughters and fathers, wherever they may be. May all be surrounded with love and light.

Zeynep

Quote of the Week:

“Paradise is being able to say at that moment: ‘I made some mistakes, but I wasn’t a coward.  I lived my life and did what I had to do.”

-          Paulo Coelho, Aleph

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “Life provides all of my need in great abundance.  I trust life.”

A Time, A Place, Istanbul, Korea, Soldiers and More

At the end of last summer when I was in London for the last time, I was sure I was going to be in London for the Olympic Games this summer.  As it turned out I wasn’t.  Actually I even barely found the time to watch the games.  The Turkish team was represented by 114 athletes in 16 sports in London, 66 women and 48 men.  This was the game Turkey was represented by the highest number of women athletes.  This surely is a good sign.  However, the difficulties women are facing in Turkey are not diminishing.

I was in Seoul, Korea for the first time in June this year and as I was visiting the National Museum of Korea, I could not be but surprised that a special exhibition “Emperors In Istanbul, The Civilizations of Turkey” had opened in addition to the permanent collection.  I would be in Seoul for only two days and I found the chance to see very important historical artefacts from our history and from Istanbul.  Some of them I had seen for many times at the Topkapi Palace or Istanbul Archeology Museum, but so many more of them, I was seeing for the first time in Seoul. I was surprised, happy and also impressed by the way the exhibition was put together at this National Museum.

A few years ago I had found myself discovering the close relationship between Japan and Turkey through the tragic story of the Ottoman Ship Ertugrul.  And now I was discovering in quite coincidental ways the relationship between Korea and Turkey.  May be there only two important sites where Turkish soldiers are buried in the Far East.  One of them is in Japan and the other one is in Korea.  And in the last two years I find myself visiting our soldiers in both of them in the most unexpected ways.

 

Life seems to coordinate the paths and take me there.  This special exhibition on Turkey was organized to honour and celebrate the 55^th anniversary of the friendship and close diplomatic relations between Korea and Turkey since the Korean War, in which Turkey had provided military support to Korea from 1950 to 1953.  Over 1000 Turkish soldiers lost their lives in Korea in that War and are still resting there.

I had not planned to see this exhibition as I had not planned to visit the UN cemetery where our Turkish soldiers are resting in Busan in Korea, on the specific day that the soldiers who lost their lives in the Korean War are honoured and commemorated in Korea.  But I was there, in Busan, on June 25^th, 2012.  I was praying for them there when whole of Korea was praying for them as well. 

Life surely has its special order when it comes to times and places.

We might think that we go to a certain city or country because we want to or choose to.  The way I see it now, this is a much more complicated process.  A process we are not usually aware of. 

And exactly for that reason when we need to go to a place that we do not want, we start complaining.  Sometimes we plan to go a city for a business trip. Then we are told we cannot go.  We feel we have been cheated.  We sign up for a tour, then the trip is cancelled and we are dismal. We wanted something, it did not happen, and surely this must be something bad.  Right? 

The reasons we believe things are happening or not happening for might create heaven or hell for us.  We are out of the group for the business trip to Italy and we criticize ourselves for not being good enough to be chosen to go, or we start complaining about how thoughtless and unappreciative our manager, who is not taking as we the company group, is.  It is just not that simple.  Your manager might indeed in unappreciative of your efforts, but he or she still might be making the best decision for you.

When something does not seem to be happening as planned, there are two options.  Either we have to push harder and/or find a way to make it happen or it is not supposed to happen and/or we are supposed to give up or do something else.  Understanding which one we are faced with can make a great difference in our happiness and success.  As work with hundreds of different people in my coaching and consulting work, I realize that main bulk of the work that we do is about understanding this very concept.

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There is a time for everything, a time to go, a time to come.  There is time to know.  And sometimes the universe will want us to sit and wait and do nothing.  All are a gift, as life is.

I chose a card from the “Saints & Angels” Oracle Cards of Doreen Virtue.  The card of “Sweetness” came.  This message is from our Guardian Angels for this week.  The message is about noticing and enjoying life more.  It is about trusting that the support of the spiritual world will be with us if we choose to lower our defences.  Life does toughen us up at times, yet we need to connect with the sweetness of life, with our sweetness to enjoy life.  And our relationships need that sweetness to, through speaking with love, of love, through being kind and generous.

May your days be filled with love and light.

Have a great week.

Zeynep

Zeynep.Kocasinan@gmail.com

http://www.zeynepkocasinanenglish.blogspot.com/

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Quote of the Week:

“As you teach so will you learn.  If that is true, and it is true indeed, do not forget that what you teach is teaching you.”

-          From  Course in Miracles

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “The Law of Attraction brings only good into my life.”

China, Healing, Chinese Medicine and Ways of Life...

As a consultant and coach, I work with people with very different walks of life.  Top executives at multinational corporations, house wives, teachers, kids, babies, elderly in their terminal stages, recovering patients who had been in accidents, people with lives that look perfect but who are fighting invisible demons of the past, the present and the future.  Each day is teaching me to be grateful for and accepting of what is, because that is all there is.  And tomorrow whether we call it better or worse will never be the same.

Each day at work, with each new person I work with, I am introduced to new dreams and fears that I am not familiar with.  There is a term called “ring-pass-not.”  One definition for it is, the limit in spiritual, intellectual, or psychological power or consciousness, beyond which an individual is unable to pass until he evokes from within the strength and the vision to carry him forwards and over the circumscribing limits set by that individual's own karma. I use it to simply describe the limits that I am not comfortable to talk about, face or deal with.  Every day I find myself at a crossroads, facing one road in which I decide to keep my ring as it is, or the other with which I will need to let that ring of my mine grow wider and even more accepting.

Although I am still easily surprised by life, I find myself less surprised by the variety in lives and choices of people.  Nothing is as easily right or wrong for me.  Life is just not that simple anymore.

...

I do not want to sound judgmental when I will say that I did not appreciate the way business was done in China.   Of all the things that I saw in China, the way tourists had to do shopping was one thing that definitely marked my stay there.  It is tough.  I bought almost nothing in China.  And now I surely have a deeper appreciation for people who are doing business with China.  One has to do business with China at one point or another and it is not easy.

China was not a country I was too much interested in.  Even after I decided to go, unlike me I did not study the country before going.  I usually read about a country thoroughly when I decide to visit one and most of the time I study the language at least a little as well.  All I did was to buy a book on Mandarin Chinese at the Istanbul Ataturk Airport a few hours before I got on the plane.  The most of the work for my trip to China, I left it to my tour company and the tour guides.  I was used to travelling alone or with a small group of friends when I travel to the Far East.  My trip to China was different in many ways.

...

China is an important country in complementary healing.  Acupuncture is an important healing technique recognized by organisations such as WHO (World Health Organisation).  Since 1976, the State of California in United States certifies acupuncture therapists.  California has always been and still is the complementary healing capital of the US.  And Europe’s capital in that sense in definitely London.

Traditional Chinese medicine is a bit more invasive than the techniques that I choose to use.  Acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, use of herbs, use of ginseng are methods that I am familiar with yet I prefer non-invasive energy techniques personally more.  I feel that these invasive techniques may be better practiced by a medical doctor who chooses to work with complementary healing techniques.   Especially for people who are using medications, it is very important to be knowledgeable about the joint effects of chemicals and methods. 

 

All healing methods are about bringing balance to the body, mind and soul and Traditional Chinese Medicine, TCM as it is usually called, is most of the time about creating balance in the body, especially in the liver and the kidneys to allow life energy, Qi, to flow freely through the body.  Qi circulates in the blood vessels, in the tissues, in the meridians.  Health is also defined as a continuous flow as much as balance.

Had I travelled alone I would have liked to spend more time with a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor.  However, this is not something that can be done as a tourist in China.  Unfortunately, it is so easy to be deceived in so many different ways in China that I did not feel the trust to the healers or healing methods that we came across.  I chose to observe when I was there. 

Diagnosis through checking the pulse together with observing the tongue is one the techniques of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a technique I am interested to learn more about.  Mothers know a lot about diagnosis by observing the tongue.  All of our mothers must have done it, and mothers still do.  Pulse diagnosis is not an easy technique to learn, but through observing, sensing the rhythm, volume or the strength of the blood circulation, a traditional doctor might have a lot to say about your heart, lung, liver, spleen and kidneys and your health in general.  An iridologist can tell so much just by looking into your eyes. Through reflexology I can touch and feel the feet and am able to feel and see a lot about the general health condition of a person.  Our body gives out many signs.  Our pulse may give out more information than received by your medical doctor at your local hospital.

After coming back from China I am convinced that unless I have a very dependable contact in China, it is best to learn and study Chinese Medicine in Europe or in the United States.  In France there are also interesting teachers, however my French is certainly not enough to study there.  I did had a few French teachers, but they were English-speakers who were living in London. 

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Visiting China was a great way to have a firsthand experience on the talks about China, Chinese economy and the new way of life in China.  Although I am sure that what I have seen about China in Beijing, Xi’an or Shanghai are what China meant for its visitors to see and probably not the real China, still I have an insight now, a feeling about the country I surely did not have before going.  China is about survival, China is about a me-first approach.  It is about survival of the fittest.  It is about living for today and most of the time letting ethics aside.  You can buy exactly the same product for 100, 20, 15 or 3 Yuan.  And even if you buy it for 3 Yuan, you might still have paid far too much.  And it feels terrible to be person who paid the 100.  If he or she can manage, a salesclerk will sell you a product for a price thirty times its worth or God know for how much more.  And if you bargain and decide not a buy a product, be ready to be shouted at or even hit on the shoulder or the arm.  I chose not to shop, but quite a number of friends were lightly harassed by female sales clerks for taking too much of their time to haggle over the price of a necklace or a bag.

In every purchase in China you are also always unsure about what you bought.  Every product is a copy of something.  Everything is fake.  That is known and accepted.  Yet, you might go into a shop knowing that the products will be fake, but to what degree are you being cheated is always unclear.  That is the main feeling.  A lot of people bought suitcases.  Some of them were trying to saw with needles and threads to mend those suitcases the next morning so that they would last the few days until they made it to Turkey.

For the whole week that I was in China, I had a small ecovillage in Scotland in my mind. The Findhorn Ecovillage near the town of Findhorn,  which about 45-60 minutes driving distance from Inverness Airport.  How could I not?  Finhorn Ecovillage is a special piece of land where a special group of people live, where life is all about being true, honest, just, respectful to people, nature and God.  At the Findhorn Ecovillage you might get a healing session and find yourself being asked to meditate and decide on the right price to pay your healer.  For many healers that is the way of doing business.  Because they believe that there is a just price, a right price for the service that they have provided and that you received.  And that it is possible for you and them to tune into that correct information, correct exchange of money for that service.  Spending time in China with a mind and heart in Findhorn Ecovillage is quite like torture.

Like everywhere on this planet, there must be trustworthy business people in China. There must be.  However, it is almost impossible to have a chance to see one as a tourist.  And maybe for that reason when we visited a very old and prestigious  Traditional Chinese Medicine Clinic, it was impossible for me to switch modes and list with an open heart to the Chinese doctors as a healer, instead of a tourist listening to an attraction. Both the clinic and the doctors seemed to have an acceptable energy.  Yet, the accumulated energy of receiving a service or buying something is China was too hard to overcome.

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Life is about learning and discovering.  My journey continues.  I am confident in especially preventive powers of traditional complementary medicine and believe that creating mental, emotional, physical and spiritual balance is essential for us all.  Ancient Chinese have created a strong path for many of us.  Let’s trust that we will receive the information we need at the right time from the right source.  And as always the power of intention, positive intention that respects everyone’s freedom of choice as well as our own, is the most important aspect of healing, health, success and happiness in life.

May you have a great week with love and light.

Zeynep

http://www.zeynepkocasinanenglish.blogspot.com/

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Quote of the Week:

“Language shapes consciousness and the use of language to shape consciousness is an important branch of magic.”

-          Starhawk, Dreaming the Dark

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “I go within and connect with that part of myself that knows how to heal.”

Xi’an, Ben & Jerry’s and “Sliding Doors”

On my trip to China this summer, our group leader told us that we were going to the city of Xi’an as well and for one reason, to see to “Terracotta Soldiers.”  As it is also called the Terracotta Army or the "Terra Cotta Warriors and Horses", is the name used to talk about a site that has a huge collection of terracotta sculptures depicting the armies of Qin Shi Huang, known as the first Emperor of China.  This amazing site is one of UNESCO’s World Heritage Sites.  Terracotta statues of 8000 soldiers, 520 horses with 130 chariots are the main pieces of attraction at this site.

It was  a very hot and a very humid day when we arrived in Xi’an.  The amazingly hot days we had in Turkey in July this summer seemed very innocent compared with the extremely humid summer days of China.  I remember feeling quite cool after I have been back in Turkey and although we are experiencing one of the hottest summers in history in Turkey, I am not as bothered.  A week in China was enough to change my perspective.

Back to the city of Xi’an... Xi’an has become a centre of attraction after the discovery of this site and everything is geared towards this historical site.  I find it difficult to remember anything but the city itself.  But maybe it is enough.  May be the Terracotta Army is more than enough.

Why would anyone go through the trouble of making much life-size statues, in such a manner that the face of each warrior is different than the other?   Some say that The Terracotta Army is a form of funerary art and that these were buried with the Emperor in 210–209 BC and their purpose was to protect the emperor in his afterlife, and/or to make sure that he had people to rule over.  However, since this site was discovered by coincidence by a farmer who was digging a well in 1974, no one really knows for sure.  One of the stories we were told that these statues were built so that the actual soldiers of the army would not have been killed and buried with the Emperor.  As far as I was told by our Chinese local guide in Xi’an, there are only theories and since the site was found in 1974, no official records have been found yet. 

There are amazing details about these soldiers.  They are life-sized.  All of them vary in height, size and expression.  It seems that the details also vary with the ranks of the soldiers and they are created and placed with those taken into consideration. They are thought be painted in colour as well, but in most of the statues the colours seem to have faded.

There are many details that make this UNESCO World Heritage Site and its statues amazing.  The sheer amount of work and effort behind this site is more than enough to be impressed.

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Strange things impress me at different times.  Today I was going to Şövalye Island. I realized that there were a few things that I needed to buy and I turned around to stop at Tansaş.  As I was about the finish my shopping, I saw the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream refrigerator.  Actually I had seen Ben & Jerry’s ice cream fridges in several of the big supermarkets in Fethiye over the years.  It was obviously not the first time, but I found myself going back twenty years in time.  And surprisingly almost exactly twenty years...

As I am eating my Chocolate Fudge Brownie ice cream, I am still surprised by the fact that I remembered my days in Vermont, USA exactly twenty years later.  I went to college in the US. The university that I went to, Cornell University, is one of the Ivy League Universities in the US and is quite a good university in the field of engineering.  Cornell University is also known in the world for its famous Medical School, which is in New York City.  The main campus of Cornell University is near the town of Ithaca in New York State.  Ithaca is about five hours driving distance to  New York City. 

When I was completing my undergraduate degree at Cornell, I was planning to stay a year or two more to get my masters degree in engineering or maybe to do an MBA. However, after my family came to attend my graduation in May 1992, I found myself planning to go back to Turkey to work with my father in our family construction company.  My father, who had had a complicated heart surgery in 1989 in Indiana was not able to work like he used to and he needed help at the family company in Turkey.  Either I was going to go back home or a partner from outside would be needed for our company.  My plans to get a masters degree started not to look that reasonable.  It was 1992.  Those years  were times when we were still writing letters on paper to our family and friends. 

I had been away from home for 18 months and I was learning about my father’s and our company’s needs at a pace much faster that I was willing.  Life has its unique ways and timings.  I was not as appreciative of the timings of the Universe then.  It took me a few years more to learn those lessons.

So there I was.  My parents, especially my mother, were trying to convince me come back to Turkey immediately after graduation.  I was sure that I should be staying to complete my masters.  Those were our first stands and reactions.  Actually my father was not saying anything.  He was just being his sweet self.  After the first week of their arrival in Ithaca, I was starting to feel that I was about to make an important decision.  I was torn between my logic and my heart.  Those few days were maybe my hardest days in life and now looking back can see why.  Those few days definitely determined my following twenty years and will probably continue to do so for the rest of my life.  Roads diverge and some of these paths never come together again.

There was an interesting movie in the late 1990s called “Sliding Doors” with Gwyneth Paltrow.   In the movie the main female character is at the door of a train in London and the movies continues with two different  parallel plots, one in which she misses the train with the sliding of the door of the train and in the other she makes it to the train in that one split second.  The effect that split second has on the possible turn of events and the life of the female leading character has made me wonder every time I watched this movie.

My split second was more like a day, a Sunday in May in 1992. That decision took me to Vermont that  in the month of July in 1992, which made it possible for me to think of Vermont in a Tansaş in Fethiye on the same days in 2012.   Let me tell the details of that story at another time, yet I cannot help but share that as doors keep sliding, keep opening and closing, we seem to be swimming in a world of endless options and choices and every choice and every move seems so very important; yet, there is also the feeling that as I was staring at the Ben & Jerry’s fridge at the supermarket, oblivious of the fact that Ben & Jerry’s had been sold to Unilever about 12-13 years ago and for that reason this quite uniquely American brand of ice cream was able to make it to its own fridge in the supermarket in a small town in South-western Turkey, there was also the feeling that that moment was the only possible option for that moment.  It was the only following step for all of the millions of big and small preceding decisions.  I chose to go to China this June, I chose to apply and go to Cornell, I chose to move to Fethiye and certainly I chose to go to Tansaş this afternoon.  Still, there is more to the mystery of the choices that we make and choices that we cannot seem to make.  And surely these were not what I was planning to write for this week’s Land of Lights.

There is a lot to share about China and a lot to share about energy, decisions, fate, our callings and more.  It is clear to me that for now this is more than enough.

Let’s trust that there is time for everything and for everything there is a time. 

Wishing you a week full of love, joy and happiness. Best wishes,

Zeynep

http://www.zeynepkocasinanenglish.blogspot.com/

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Quote of the Week:

“Love is the will to extend one’s self for the purpose of nurturing one’s own or another ‘s spiritual growth.”

-          Scott Peck, The Road Less Travelled

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “I am neither too little nor too much, and I do not have to prove myself to anyone.”

China, A New Country for Me to Discover...

I was in China for the first time this summer.  I am not sure if I would like to go back soon, but seeing China made me think about a different part of the world during my whole trip.  I could not help but think of the choices people make in life.  I went to three cities in China, Beijing, Xi’an and Shanghai. 

I remember that the first morning that I arrived in China, I felt a strange energy of constriction.  Not because I knew about the country.  It was the feeling that something is not right.  The same feeling continued even after we arrived at our five star hotel, a Marriott and even after I entered my room which was one of the best that I have stayed among the hundreds of hotel rooms I have stayed in.  In the middle of the evening I woke up.  I looked out my wide window.  My room had a wide view of that  part of the city.  There were no cars in the wide boulevard of a city of millions.  I felt a strange chill down my spine.  The energy of Beijing made me uneasy during the three days that I was there.  With its high rises, with the modern look, Beijing looked like a developing city. Still there was something that was making me uneasy.  Something hard to describe, yet very real. 

Sometimes you move into an apartment and although the location might be great, although the apartment may be in great condition, you can never feel comfortable in it.  It happens with shops and offices as well. Some shops in a certain location never have good business while the shop next door might be flocking with customers.  The problem may be the land the building is on and sometimes the problem is the people who owned or used to live in the building.  The energy of past troubles, the energy of the old occupants might still be there, affecting the people who live or work there now.  Customers might keep away because our subconscious, our energy knows that there is a problem there.  And we keep away.  Beijing had a similar effect on me.  It was as if I was on my toes trying to keep away from trouble.  The five star hotels, the high rise buildings, the clean look of the main boulevards were not enough for me to ignore the feeling.  In Xi’an and Shanghai the feeling did not disappear, however, it was definitely strongest in Beijing.

2012 is the “Year of China in Turkey” to honour the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between Turkey and China. The year 2013 will be the “Year of Turkey in China.”  As some of the might remember because of my connection with Japan, with different foundations and groups in Japan as well as my connection with Lions Clubs in Japan, I had taken part in various organisations and events to honour the “Year of Japan in Turkey” in 2010.  Together with Fethiye Lions Clubs, which I am a member of, and Lions Clubs International Turkish Council we had organised concerts and specials events in Fethiye, İstanbul and İzmir.  Two years later Turkey is increasing its connections with another country, China this time.  And I do not feel prepared.  Visiting China in this special year was an opportunity for me to start to learn about this country and its people personally.

Visiting Shanghai and seeing the city from the Shanghai Tower, Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower as it is formally called, was an experience that will stay with me forever.  The Tower was completed in 1994 and until 2007 it was the tallest structure in China.    It is 468 metres high.  I had the chance to have dinner at the revolving restaurant which is at the 267 metre level.  The open buffet restaurant had food from all parts of the world.  I found myself drawn to the Japanese buffet again. The miso soup was excellent.  So were the sushi.  The restaurant was revolving quite fast.  If you were standing of the side that was revolving and if you took more than a few seconds you would find your table getting away from you.  However, apart from that it felt very comfortable.  Also, as the restaurant was revolving and the buffets at the center were stable and stationary, I would need to walk different distances to reach the various parts of the dinner buffet.  The big circular restaurant was quite packed and it is worth the money and the effort.  If I went to Shanghai away, I probably will like to repeat the experience.

The antenna of the Oriental Pearl Tower which adds 118 metres to the structure is used to broadcast radio and TV programs. And with this antenna, the Tower reaches its height of 468 metres.  

At the 90^th metre of the Tower, there is another observatory level, one of the fifteen in the Tower.  At that level  there is a glass deck that you can walk on and see the city under you as well as out.  I tired to get on that glass bottom balcony and I have to admit my head started to spin, chills –again- went down my spine, my stomach tightened.  I only could lie down on the glass floor.  I could not walk to the glass side of this glass deck.  There were some who could do it.  However, among the hundreds of people who were there, only very few could do it. It is strange how our body stops us from doing this that our mind finds safe and reasonable, how our body literally stops us from something our heart wants.  Our deep rooted reflexes unexpectedly kick in.

Shanghai with its hundreds of high-rises and skyscrapers made me forget that I was in China instantly.  I had been in New York and Tokyo many times.  These two cities were symbols of modern age to me, may be Tokyo even more.  I had not been to Dubai, so I might be missing out on another important benchmark.  I had been to the capital of South Korea Seoul before seeing China.  The city had seemed quite modern.  Going to Seoul again after seeing Shanghai, everything looked a bit dull, not high-enough.  After seeing Shanghai  it is hard to be impressed by another city.  With this colourful city of continuous constructions that seem to be growing higher every day, China has certainly created an impressive image in Shanghai.  Of course to be able to know the real China with its 1,3 billion people and 9,6 million square kilometres, one might need to travel a much different path...

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Before I started to write this week’s piece, I chose a card from the “Saints & Angels” Card Deck of Doreen Virtue with the intention of asking for support for all those who will read it.   The message came from St. Agnes of Rome and her message was “Don’t Compromise”.  The main message translates as “The need to take a stand in favour of our truth and self-esteem.”  This does not mean to fight with those who do not agree with us, but rather first to try to make others see and understand our point of view peacefully.  However, if those efforts do not work, still to make sure that we stay with our beliefs and values and not to compromise as the main message says.  This surely is not an easy path, but maybe is the only one that will make us truly peaceful and happy even if it is difficult.  You may invite St. Agnes of Rome to support you to live with your beliefs whenever you feel the need.  May this energy support us during this week.

With best wishes,

Zeynep

http://www.zeynepkocasinanenglish.blogspot.com/

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Quote of the Week:

“Birth and death are not two different states, but they are different aspects of the same state."

                                               Gandhi

Affirmation of the Week:

From Louise L. Hay:  “I know that old, negative patterns no longer limit me.  I let them go with ease.”