Already May and summer is around the corner!

Here in North Hatley we have already had a couple of heat waves and then back to almost frost…I’m welcoming a little cooler weather to slow things down in nature. This amazing explosion of green everywhere is breathtaking every year – I’m in awe about how nature store all this green liveliness inside the roots and stems of grey pieces of  wood, put to rest in the winter.

Since my last Newsletter I’ve spent a couple of weeks in Norway, and I’ve also been to Saskatoon for the first of two weeks of continuous education in trauma work.

Going to Norway to work as a nurse a few times a year has been a part of my life for the last 15 years. There I get to reconnect with my nursing skills, my collogues and the beautiful nature on the Norwegian west coast. Being back after 2 years was nurturing in every way!

To do an in-person training for the first time in 2 years was also wonderful. I got reminded how much I appreciate being around people with the same interest, gathered to learn and to exchange experiences. I learned a lot and I got to meet both old and new collogues in the field of trauma.

Both these experiences make me so grateful that we yet again can make plans, travel and reconnect in-person with one another. The pandemic forced many of us into separateness and isolation, and the impact of that we will see in different ways for some time ahead.

And, as I’ve pointed out before and I’ll say it again, the pandemic also showed us how resilient we are and the amazing creativity that took place to create arenas for meetings, different ways of support and teachings/learnings!

My interest in involving, and attending to, both our body, mind and spirit keeps growing and I’m noticing an increased interest in this subject also in my clients. The fact is that body, mind and spirit work together to heal, we just sometimes don’t know how to listen or how to understand the clues that are given…

I recently started reading Lissa Rankin’s latest book called Sacred Medicin. The author speaks from her own experiences as a medical doctor and her interest in other ancient healing modalities. I love the way she expresses the respect for conventional medicine and at the same time dives into the possibilities of emotional and spiritual healing.

Another book on my bedside table these days is Betsy Polatin’s Humanual (a manual for being human) the book offers wisdom and reassurances of the wealth of resources we all have inside of us. We get body focused exercises blended with different tools how to connect to our bodies, minds, souls and spirits.

(Both books can be bought were books are sold..)

My work today is still about 75% online and 25% in person, and I think the online work is here to stay. The benefits are many for the client who doesn’t need to travel and many more options of available therapists when you can choose to work with someone anywhere in the word. I am, however, very happy to see the increasing number of clients now also finding their way to my private practice in person, because the in-person meeting has of course a different flavor…

This summer I will take some longer time off to rest and spend time with family and friends, which partly includes paying another visit to Norway and Sweden!
For that reason, I’ll be closing my practice between July 11 and September 6.

On the note of rest…David Whyte describes so beautifully 5 stages of rest in this excerpt from the Readers’ Circle Essay; 

Rest
In the first stage of rest is the sense of stopping, of giving up on what we have been doing or how we have been being.

In the second stage is the sense of slowly coming home, the physical journey into the body’sun-coerced and un-bullied self, as if trying to remember the way or even the destination itself.

In the third stage is a sense of healing and self-forgiveness and of arrival.

In the fourth stage, deep in the primal exchange of the breath is the give and the take, the blessing and the being blessed and the ability to delight in both.

The fifth stage of rest is a sense of absolute readiness and presence, a delight in and an anticipation of the world and all its forms; the sense of being the meeting itself between inner and outer, and of receiving and responding occurring in one spontaneous movement.

A deep experience of rest is the template of perfection in the human imagination, a perspective from which we are able to perceive the outer specific forms of our work and our relationships whilst being nourished by the shared foundational gift of the breath itself. From this perspective we can be rested while putting together an elaborate meal for an arriving crowd, whilst climbing the highest mountain or sitting at home surrounded by the chaos of a loving family…

With a long vacation ahead, my intention is to reach to aim towards stage 5 (!) and be back in September filled with nourishment and excitement to meet You again!

Wishing you a beautiful summer with hope that you’ll find YOUR kind of rest ❤️

With gratitude,
Helena