UP & COMING
OCTOBER 2018
EMPOWER HOUR Frans Coppers talks exclusively to Empower Hour
The healing art of Seiki across Europe Akinobu Kishi sensei, with whom I worked for over 20 years, is a Shiatsu master who studied intensively with two of the most renown shiatsu masters of their time: Tokujiro Namikoshi sensei at the Shiatsu College (Tokyo, Japan), where he obtained his Shiatsu licence and with Shizuto Masunaga sensei (Iokai Centre, Japan), where he studied and assisted his master for more than 10 years. Although a very successful Shiatsu therapist and teacher, at some point he decided to start a quest for the origins of Shiatsu through Shinto practice Nobody can better explain his method then the master himself What is Seiki Soho? « Seiki Soho » is a method involving the use of « resonance », which enables a living organism to recover its capacity for self-healing. By careful observation of the breathing patterns and the resonance zones as they become perceptible on the body, and by dint of unfailing attention and subtle perceptiveness, the experienced practitioner can enter a state of osmosis with the person. Any imbalance or blockage of vital energy shows itself through pain, distress, or even illness, the extreme expression of the body’s efforts to recover a state of harmony: indeed, the natural tendency of any living creature is to seek to maintain a constant energy balance. Once osmosis occurs between a practitioner and the body and psyche of a person, then « resonance » has been achieved (resonance = ki): if the practitioner knows how and when to intervene on certain very specific points of the body, the organism then becomes able to regain its harmony and strength. In fact, if individuals are confident in their own capacity for self-healing, their minds and bodies are free to respond, so that a sensitive and skilled practitioner is then able to identify the points requiring intervention. The « Seiki Soho » method rekindles latent sensibilities in the person, who becomes increasingly aware of the changes underway. The body relaxes and is less tense, pain and abnormal sensations are more clearly felt. Later, waste and toxin elimination Design by PINCH
become more active. The mind also relaxes, becoming more receptive; it too starts to eliminate waste, in harmony with the body. So « Seiki Soho » is not only life-enhancing, but also helps develop willpower and self-reliance. seiki is useful to professionals and for all people interested as well. Principles of Seiki Soho As a result of his research and practice he developed his unique method of Seiki Soho, which is based upon three basic Principles: 1) The use of Integral body movement (Kata) In Seiki Soho practice we use a specific way of body movement that roots in the body centre. The entire body is moved as one and thus approaching osmosis. If there is tension in your body this will yield resistance in the person treated and would make treatment ineffective or even cause pain. Thus, the use of relaxed integral body movement is important to achieve osmosis. As this is not the way we move in everyday habit, we study Kata and Ki exercises and Gioki to augment our possibilities. 2) The special use of the breath (Goo-ki) When practicing Seiki, we make the connection with the breath of the person treated. Especially the end of the breathing out is used to relax into the
connection, and then just before the new breath is taken in you release completely and free your mind. 3) The use of the hand without using the hand movement (Shisha ampuku) Seiki unlike Shiatsu or massage does not use stimulation or manipulation. The hands or thumbs are used to make the connection but not to stimulate. Every moment emerges from the relaxed and very sensitive following of the inner movement of the person treated. Seiki is a path of devotion (tarlike) trusting that the body already knows the way. In Seiki it is not always sure who is treating who... (Kishi) It is impossible to regulate a person by touching his body only with your hands, however strong they are, however trained they seem. It is extremely important that one knows how to use his entire body. In Seiki Soho we have KATA: kata is based on a highly developed body movement of superior quality. It is a way to use your wholebody during treatment and to realise mutual resonance in both people. Seiki may be difficult to understand, but is easy to do... Whatever we say about Seiki, nothing can explain or compare to the experience of a Seiki treatment or a Workshop. As the wind, one cannot see Ki (Chi), but one can feel it and see its effects. On the website www.seikisoho.eu you will find more information about Kishi’s method and several workshops, with Kyoko Kishi (Kishi’s widow) and with some of his advanced students. Frans Copers. Not doing does not mean nothing doing! Kishi’s book is available at Amazon and my book only on request via franscopers@skynet.be
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Kerrie Cummins Artist and Mother talks life in Art & Crystals
The healing power of love As a little girl I had a wild imagination that was well equipped with crayons and a colouring book, 23 years on I have two teenage daughters of my own and I am finally fulfilling a childhood dream to go to art college as a mature graduate with distinctions. Of late, I am consumed by a one compelling thought: To continue with my education as a second-year student in Fine Art (Painting) at Limerick School of Art and Design or to open my own business? What??? I must be crazy but as I explored my thoughts I realized that they were related and combining these two passions made total sense. You see, I have had this yearning to work with crystals for a long time and somehow, they resonate with me. I know that both art and crystals to be vitally therapeutic in the healing process. I shall explain my thoughts. After spending two years studying Advanced Art we were given 3 assignments in our painting module and to produce an original painting for each assignment, following themes such as: still life, surrealism, portraiture and expressionism. I won’t bore you with the lead up to the final paintings on canvas, but I will however share with you a personal account within that process that ties into the healing quality within art itself which I found to be both therapeutic and empowering. Regarding surrealism, I found an image online that I liked to paint. It was that of a women leaping inches off the water and partially dissolving into a flock of birds. Whilst painting the sky in hues of pinks, purples and yellows I received a disturbing call from my niece in Phoenix Arizona. My sister whom I had not seen in 23 years had only a few weeks left to live.
I gathered my thoughts, I took time off college and boarded a flight. Meeting my sister was quite difficult as I knew she was an alcoholic but not to the extent of having Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, commonly known as Wet Brain, Google the symptoms she had it all. Not only was she suffering from this she was also in stage 4 of bowel cancer, with regular TIA’s (Transient Ischemic Attacks) – Mini strokes, which petrified me as her whole body would viciously contort as she gasped for air. Making a long story short I lived with her for 10 days in this nightmare trying to remind her of who she was. I offered her the vague memories of our childhood while verbal venom filled the air with drink in hand. There are so many sides to my sister which added to the emotional rollercoaster off which I needed to dismount for my own sanity. Finally, it was time for me to go and I couldn’t bring myself to wake her up to say my last goodbye, so as she slept I wished her a peaceful departing. The most humane act of God would have been to release her from this plane of existence, so she could finally be free to fly. I left a note and an image of the painting dedicated to her on the countertop! The note read: ‘I love you, I am sorry, please forgive me, Thank you.’ On arriving back to college and on seeing the colours within the painting I received great healing to my heart. I was overwhelmed by emotion yet empowered by this journey and experience. I completed piece calling it: ‘Freedom’. Art was alive within me from a very young age and I owe a gratitude to my late grandmother who ignited the creative spark within me: Margo Cummins (Nee) Von Loggerenberg who was an inspiring artist all her life. My childhood was magical when she was around, she would tell stories of fairies and magical creatures that lived in her garden as we sat in her art studio overlooking the Vaal River. Doing a bit of creative writing, painting or sketching whichever my Gran felt I needed. It helped tremendously. Here I felt calm, grounded and very much connected to nature as I would swim in the river, climb the willow trees, collect pine cones, feed the animals, listen to the birds, crickets and fish jumping, talk to flowers and watch the wonderful colours appear in the sky as the sun set over the water. In the studio amongst her art supplies was a display cabinet, I found myself drawn to as it had an array of coloured crystals and relics. My Gran allowed me to sit and hold them whichever drew my eye. I can remember the joy that I felt, at times not listening to my Gran as she named them. Subconsciously their names must have sunk in as I see myself today with my small collection instinctively knowing which crystal to hold and holding deep resonance with each one. So, getting back to that compelling question at the start of this feature, I would love to learn about the healing properties of crystals and become a certified crystal healer, do a crystal healing practitioner’s course and help heal myself and others. From here I intend to combine both of my passions. Who knows where this may lead? Perhaps to all the colours of expression within my experience.
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THERAPIST ALICE O’GORMAN SHARES HER JOURNEY THROUGH THE CHANGES It’s petrifying, it’s exhilarating and it’s like free-falling from an airplane. You experience the agony, the torture and the paralysing fear. YET! when that fear is faced, and you finally let go to go with the flow the freefall can then in turn become the ecstasy. When you are in total alignment with who you are to the deepest depths of your being you are in alignment with the universe. When you no longer resist your life’s purpose and let the river take you, an exciting adventure can begin! I have experienced many episodes of the agony on my journey to empowerment. It is painful shedding those old skins which once served a great purpose. As you grow and develop physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually that skin grows tight and uncomfortable and until this painful transition of change is embraced this skin remains tight and uncomfortable. There is a lot to be said for feeling comfortable in one own skin. My journey to empowerment was initiated with a choice! The choice to stay in the old, comfortable, familiar yet now unfulfilling job or the choice to follow the urge within my heart. I had a deep desire to go out and connect with people and that statement coming from an introverted soul may seems a little strange. Strange even to myself I must admit, but an urge is an urge and one must pay attention to such urges. I made the choice to move on it! I had spent the previous seventeen years in a very comfortable, safe and one might even say sheltered work environment. Now here I was about to venture out on my own somewhat unprepared, naïve and innocent into a whole new world of self-employment, self-sufficiency, selfdirecting and self-motivating. It was all on me! I was given a blank canvas, a paintbrush, 4 | NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2018
a palette and now I had to create a new picture, a new reality, a new identity. I have shed that old skin and grow into a new one. This physical journey of empowerment was in its infancy! I am still every day trying to find my way, but I still believe that seed was planted many years ago after a trip to an orphanage in Gorodishche, Belarus. Little did I know that the children there would unlock a yearning within my heart to want to go out and help people on their healing journey. It was one of the most humbling experiences of my life. These children literally opened my heart and transformed the way I saw the world. For a long time afterwards, the world made no sense to me as it just seemed to be saturated in superficial materialism. I thank these amazing souls for tuning me in to a side of myself that I couldn’t ignore any longer. Over time that yearning grew stronger. I wanted to reach out and touch people’s lives in a positive and uplifting way inspiring hope with every chance I could. I had always been fascinated with energy and all things that could be perceived by many to be otherworldly. This mysterious, fascinating life force energy that is flowing through every single living being. I was and still am enthralled by it. I wanted and thirsted to learn more about it and what it was. I wanted to learn how it could be moved to stimulate self-healing in people. I believe that we all have the ability and power within ourselves to heal and that when a physical or mental condition has manifested in a person it is something that first came into being because of a blockage or deficiency in the energy body. I stepped out of the old and familiar and took a chance to follow my hearts and dreams. I went and studied about energy
medicine and to this day that studying continues. I will never stop learning or want to stop learning as it draws me in further all the time. Today I am a practitioner of energy medicine and have my own business ‘Axis Energy Healing’. I use techniques such as bio-energy therapy, ‘Hidden mind’ corrective sound therapy, access consciousness bars and Aromatouch technique to help restore the energy body and thereby influence the physical body to heal. I am so grateful to be treading the path that I am on. This in no way means that my life is challenge free or overwhelming where the easier option would be to fall back into the old familiar way of my past life. But then the magic and the wonder would disappear. I want to reach out and touch lives, transform lives, just as my life was touched by those angels in Gorodishche over 10 years ago. On MY journey to empowerment it is my desire to be able to empower others too to see and be the amazing beings that they are. The End (…for now and to be continued!)
You are the One!
The Secret to Empowerment with Stewart Shinkins Stewart Shinkins is a Tai Chi and Chi Kung instructor with eighteen years’ experience in teaching. Learn at the People’s Park Monday to Friday at 11am In my experience the secret to empowerment is to make good decisions. Every day we are faced with many choices and if we are aware of the consequences of those choices we have an opportunity to empower ourselves and to create a beautiful life for ourselves full of joy and contentedness. Simple things like choosing to cook and eat healthy food and to make the choice to exercise and stretch. For me one of the main things I do to empower myself is to choose to train in Tai Chi every morning. I put in years of training to learn the Chen style of Tai Chi and choosing to practice a form programs my mind to be very positive and I empower myself. I also have a few very healthy things I like to eat and making the choice to eat natural, unrefined foods gives me a lot of energy(chi) which I refine into spirit (Shen) through meditative practices such as Tai Chi. I have made the decision to teach Chi Kung in the People’s Park weekday mornings at eleven for all who wish to empower themselves using this ancient Chinese system of exercise which is easy to learn and gives fantastic health benefits by breathing in positive chi. Breathing in, expanding and removing negative chi while breathing out and contracting. These very simple yet powerful dynamic chi kung exercises are a great inspiration to lead a proactive empowered lifestyle. Ask yourself every time you have a choice-which decision will lead to my empowerment-which is the best course of action. To be aware
of the consequences of our decisions is necessary to make the right choice for ourselves. Creative visualisation is a very powerful tool to empower ourselves. By visualising where we want to be in our lives we can begin to make choices which will lead to the reality we seek but be careful what you visualise as a lot of energy will be directed towards these desires. It is important to be responsible in our visualisations. Here’s a simple recipe for a quick healthy meal simmer 1 handful of brown basmati rice for 15 minutes-strain and stir in 1 tsp organic vegetable bouillon powder (marigold orange container) and 2 tsp soy saude (I use Sanchi shoyu) and 1 tsp butter-leave to sit for ten minutes and serve as is or with a fried egg on top! Delicious! So, when we visualise how and where we want to be in our lives we are attracted to the choices that need to be made to be on
that vibrational frequency and be happylike attracts like. This is expanded upon in the hermetic law of attraction found in the book the Kybalion. So, empower yourself and create the life you’ve always needed. Fortune comes, and fortune goes unless you make it in your soul once you can do that all is swell luck is just a wishing well where life gives you what you create as long as you can make the bait so, eat and drink and love and lose but just remember you do choose what befalls you what may come blame no one else for you’re the one who makes your life what it can be? for you control your destiny Stewart Shinkins is a Tai Chi and Chi Kung instructor with eighteen years’ experience in teaching. Learn in the People’s Park Monday to Friday at 11am
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VEGAN GODDESS - VALERIE CONWAY HOST’S HALLOWEEN, SCRUMMY YUMMY
Happy Healthy Halloween Hummus with Veggie Skeleton & Spider Crudites
NEWS
Empower Hour is a single parents and parents support group without stigma. Empower Hour’s offers the second in a series of different wellness workshops from a collective pool of therapists., experts and healers. ’Alignment’ provides the learning of new skills in place on the 11th of November, 2018.7.30 - 9.30 Angel energy & body work, as well as personal development, Times, Thomas Street Limerick10 Euro Only, 7.50 for self care and empowerment at a low cost. Socially assisted. The second workshop is hosted by Amanda Clifford and covers creative communication & expressionTaking
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Only €10 or €7.50 for socially assisted
HORRORS! INGREDIENTS: 2 tins of Chickpeas-drained and rinsed 2 heaped tblsp Light Tahini 3 Cloves Garlic 4 tblsp Olive Oil 1 Lime Juiced 1/2 tsp Cumin 3/4 tsp Smoked Paprika Water- To Desired Consistency Salt & Pepper to taste
Hummus is always a hit and although it is readily available to buy in shops, is super easy to make at home with a delicious flavour that you just won’t find in shop bought packs. Making it yourself also ensures there are no hidden nasties and preservatives.
METHOD:
For Halloween serve with a scary skeleton made with whatever veggies you must hand. This is great fun to make with the kids, and the more fun they have making it the more they will want to eat it. Let the creative juices flow and see how Halloween doesn’t have to be all about sugary sweets!
Blend all ingredients together using a food processor or stick blender. Add water as needed and season to taste.
HAPPY CRUNCHING! VEGAN GODDESS Valerie Conway
Valerie Conway 087-6293399 valerieclondrinagh@gmail.com valerie@mums mean business
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