To Be or Not To Be (in Your Heart)-Part 2

By Mary Pellicer, MD

The question we were left with from Part 1 of this post (9-17-2009), is how can I tell if I’m in my heart and by extension how might you tell if you’re in your heart? So let’s consider that. The first thing I notice is where my center of awareness is located. The center of awareness is the sense of where “you” are located within your body. One way to get a sense for this is to point your finger back at yourself (without touching your skin) and starting at the top of your head just run your finger down in front of your body and get a sense for where it feels like you are located. Your center of awareness will feel like you are pointing to “you”. Just for fun, you could try this with a friend and compare notes.

For myself for many, many years the only place I seemed to be located was right behind my eyes. Other places felt like they were part of my body, but it didn’t seem as if I was looking out of any other place than my eyes—which seemed perfectly natural and obvious to me. In fact, until I began doing this work, I didn’t think there was any other possibility. As it turns out, I was almost totally “in my head” with my awareness firmly seated there. Right now, doing this same exercise I feel like my awareness extends from the top of my head to my chest, pretty good for me. However, when I am stressed and not doing well, my awareness typically reverts to my original location of right behind my eyes. When people do this exercise there are many possibilities of where their awareness might be with the head , the heart region and the belly being the most common. However, occasionally people feel as if their center of awareness is located in an extremity and sometimes a person may not be in their body at all. Sometimes the center of awareness is very small and very hard to find, while other times it is spread throughout the whole body and even out into the surrounding environment.

So generally, when people are in their heart, their awareness is centered in their chest and if their awareness is quite expanded, it spreads out from there. The other hallmarks of being in one’s heart are a sense of peace and rightness, of calm and “being home”. Even if I am feeling very strong emotions, like sadness or anger, experiencing them from my heart has an underlying sense of acceptance and caring for myself while still having that emotion.

Also staying in your heart while having a strong emotion tends to allow it to dissipate and heal much more quickly than if you stay in your head for instance. Being in your head often will lead to judging yourself and the emotion (this is terrible, this will never go away, I deserve to feel this way, etc.) instead of just accepting and experiencing it. Emotions experienced from your heart center tend not to get stuck, they are acknowledged, experienced and then you move on.

While being in your heart may seem easy at first glance, in reality it is often very difficult for people because of their burden of unconsciously held trauma and stress. However, being aware of the concept and playing around with it and even asking the question “Am I in my heart?”, and checking for the signs that you are, can go a long way to making being in your heart an everyday reality.

From my heart to yours,
Mary

To Be or Not To Be (in Your Heart)-Part 1

By Mary Pellicer, MD

Since I stole the title from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, I will begin by noting that Hamlet, while delivering this soliloquy, is most definitely not in his heart and says as much:
“To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,…”

But what does that mean—To be in my heart? Let’s explore that question a bit because the “heart” we’re talking about here is not the physical heart but the heart consciousness. A useful model of consciousness (we first learned this model working with the Institute for the Study of Peak States) divides an individual’s consciousness into three main parts. We call these three parts, the Mind consciousness, the Heart consciousness and the Body consciousness. Each part of consciousness has its own awareness that is distinct from the others and with proper training, one can learn to differentiate between them. Each of these parts of consciousness also has a distinct role (or job) within a person’s being and a distinct way in which it communicates. The role of our MIND is to understand (it communicates with thoughts), the role of our HEART is to connect (it communicates with emotions), the role of our BODY is to survive (it communicates with body sensations). See also Nancy’s posting on August 21, 2009 for more information on Triune Brain Theory)

Just as an orchestra has a conductor, whose job it is to lead the orchestra so the result is beautiful music, so too, each of us needs a conductor to lead and orchestrate our lives. I firmly believe that this is the role of the heart—see my post on 9-7-2009 as to why I believe this. So “being in my heart” means that my essence and awareness is centered in my heart consciousness and that my life is being led and orchestrated from a place of connection and love. Optimally, the other parts of my consciousness are in total congruence with my heart consciousness and happily following the lead of the heart—each fulfilling their own role without fuss or angst.

So, how can I tell if I’m in my heart? Or how can you tell if you’re in your heart? That will be the subject covered in Part 2 of this post on 10-8-2009.

From my heart to yours,
Mary

Why Renaissance of the Heart?

By Mary Pellicer, MD

When Nancy and I began our healing practice (Ceitllyn joined us a bit later), we faced the decision of a name—what to call ourselves and our healing practice. One of the main reasons we were out on our own was that we had been called very strongly to focus on the heart as the center for our healing. Though this seems totally obvious to me now, at the time it wasn’t and much of the healing work we had been doing was much more mind centered though we did not realize it. I thought and thought about the perfect name and wrote down lists and searched out words in the dictionary and thesaurus (notice how mind-centric this approach was). Nothing seemed quite right.

Then I had a dream—one of those incredibly vivid dreams that I have had only very, very rarely. In this dream I was shown the world and each sphere of society—education, business, government, religion, family, etc. I realized that each sphere of society was full of human beings who, like me, were largely governed by their minds—that thinking, rational, logical part of our consciousness that we humans prize so highly. Thus, each sphere of our society is also in essence mind centered. What if, I was asked in my dream, what if each of these spheres of society was heart centered? What would that look like? ….And there before me the world changed.

The first thing to go was war. War is not possible if the majority of people govern their lives from a heart centered place, from a place that accepts others and forgives. Then the schools changed and the companies and corporations and the government and even the churches. If the majority of us were running our lives governed by our hearts, all of our endeavors would change. Kindness and patience and care and respect would be the order of the day and much of what plagues our institutions would vanish. Wow! And then I was given our name. What this world needs, I was told, is a renaissance of the heart—A rebirth of our heart centers as the governing force of our lives. So, we became Renaissance of the Heart, a group dedicated to doing our small part in guiding people back to their hearts, back to their centers.

This is not to say that the other parts of our consciousness, our minds and our bodies, are not important and do not have very important roles in our lives. However, within us we need a conductor of the orchestra, a leader for all the various parts of our consciousness that pull us this way and that. That is the role of our heart center, the part of us whose job it is to connect with other people and to connect with the Divine.

An interesting exercise to try: look at various situations that you find yourself in and see if you can tell if your actions are being governed by your mind your heart or your body. Notice the consequences; see if you can imagine how things would be different if you were governed in that situation from a different part of your consciousness. Next time I'll explore more about how to tell if you're in your heart. Have fun playing.

From my heart to yours,
Mary

What’s a nice doctor like you doing in a place like this?

By Mary Pellicer, MD

When I was eight I lived in Africa where my father worked for the Peace Corp. I was exposed to some of the health ravages that are often seen in third world countries. There were beggars with horrible deformities on the streets and Moms with babies slung on their backs—the babies had matted eyes and the flies buzzed relentlessly. I remember deciding then and there that I wanted to be a physician so I could help.

What I realize now is that was the first time I heard my calling as a healer. So I studied hard and chased my dream of becoming a physician. After my Family Practice residency, I went to work for a Farm Workers clinic in the States and sometimes saw third world type situations right here. I helped the best I could with what I had been taught.

Even though it is great for some things, I eventually grew frustrated with conventional medicine—seeing that for many of the chronic problems my patients had, I was way too far downstream to help and the tools I had learned in medical school were often just band-aids. I left the clinic and helped develop a Healthy Community program for a local hospital before being drawn into a journey through the realms of alternative healing. On that journey, I have seen many types of healing and met many different types of healing practitioners; I now know beyond a doubt that there is much more to healing then I learned in medical school.

My journey eventually brought me here, to this place in time and space we call Renaissance of the Heart. Together with Nancy and Ceitllyn, I continue on this journey into the depths of human consciousness, seeking to learn all the things about healing that my professors couldn’t teach me in medical school.

Certainly, some will think me unscientific for diving into the world of alternative healing modalities. However, I have seen and experienced too many things that the current science of conventional medicine can’t explain to stay inside the box. Since I believe that the purpose of science is to produce useful models of reality, I find the need to go exploring beyond the bounds of currently held conventional scientific knowledge. I have found many brilliant researchers and teachers to lead the way and excellent companions to make the journey fun.

What an exciting ride; why don’t you come join us?

Mary

P.S. Don’t forget to leave all preconceived notions at the door, they tend to make one queasy.

That’s Why I’m Often in Inner Conflict! – Triune Brain Theory

One of the major tenets of our healing practice, Renaissance of the Heart, is that we exist on multiple levels. This concept is known as the Triune Brain Theory.
Expanding on the work of James Papez, Dr. Paul MacLean who worked at NIH in the 1960s, called it the “triune brain model”, and associated his discoveries with the different parts of the anatomical brain. For us, the three major parts of our being are composed of the Mind, Heart, and Body consciousnesses. The Mind consciousness, or primate part of our brain, is located in our physical brain. It’s involved in understanding and uses the language of thoughts usually composed of words to get those ideas across to others. Our Heart consciousness, located in our physical heart, is part of our mammalian brain. It’s “job” is connecting with others and uses the language of emotion to convey its information. The third consciousness, our Body brain, is derived from the reptilian part of our physical brain. Its metaphysical location is in our lower belly, and has the job of maintaining our survival. This part of our consciousness communicates its concerns to us with body sensations such as headaches, body aches and pains, nausea, and limited range of motion. To complicate matters further, the Body or reptilian brain, has the rational capability of a two year old, so it wants what it wants when it wants it. NOW! Just like many two year olds, when your body consciousness isn’t heard, it ramps up the volume of the body sensations until it may be “screaming” at you with debilitating pain or other bodily afflictions to get your attention.
Notice that each of these parts of our being communicates in a different language…thoughts, emotions, or body sensations. These differing communication styles often result in our assorted brains “talking past each other” with their different languages. To complicate matters further, in western society, the language of rational thought is given priority status by many educational disciplines, with any other means of communication being demeaned. Most of us also haven’t been taught to interpret the languages of emotions and body sensations, so we’re often unaware that any information is trying to access our awareness. The result is often like dealing with a dysfunctional family within ourselves. An example would be that someone might be interested in another person who really isn’t in their best interests. The Body brain may have unconsciously associated that other person with some primitive survival need. The Heart consciousness might be trying to communicate its fears, joys, guilt, or sadness about that other person. Meanwhile, the rational Mind brain is saying to yourself that you’re crazy to be interested in that other person, so no wonder many of us wander around in inner conflict.
Learning about Triune Brain Theory and how each of these parts of our consciousness
operates was a real eye opener for me, as I had ignored my Body brain so much that it only knew how to get my attention by screaming at me. The various physical ailments that resulted from ignoring these unconscious messages led to many surgeries for myself. These procedures would alleviate my symptoms for awhile, but they’d return often in the same place where various organs had been removed, since I had not healed the issue that my Body brain had been trying to tell me.

Nancy Smeltzer

www.renaissanceheart.com
www.hearthealing.net

Paying Heed to Our Inner Voices

Each of us has a different way of getting intuitive information. Some people “see” things, while others are “told” things. Others talk about following their “gut instincts”, or something just doesn’t feel right. The English language is full of phrases such as “female intuition”, or “That leaves a bad taste in my mouth”. Often, these phrases are descriptive of various body sensations, which are usually connected with the more primitive parts of our brain.

These knowings, coupled with our body sensations and emotions, have a bountiful supply of information to convey. Unfortunately, in most western societies, we’re not taught how to interpret these body bulletins, and focus entirely on the Newtonian principles of scientific ways to know. While these methods have a wealth of data that, depending on what’s being sought, can communicate volumes, a soul dependence on that way of knowing leaves our spiritual souls bereft.

I’m talking about what starts off as those subtle nigglings that something isn’t right….I don’t like that…that doesn’t feel OK. Unfortunately for me, I very early on, learned to squelch my inner voices, so that my body could only get my attention by screaming at me with painful body sensations. As a result, after numerous surgeries and medications, I began to pay attention to those more subtle voices instead of waiting for the “clue by four” between the eyeballs…”So you gonna pay attention NOW?”

An acquaintance once asked me why people couldn’t just part ways as friends, instead of going through the painful, spiteful brawls of separation and divorce. My take is that people of good intentions, instead of listening to those inner voices early on that were telling them that the relationship wasn’t right, pile on often years of connections and then get hurt and angry when they’re not honored. My invitation to you is to cultivate an active connection with your inner voice, listen to it as your own best mentor, and quit over-riding your early warning detection system.

So, Who’s Really Doing the Healing?

So, Who’s Really Doing the Healing?

Well, that one’s easy…you are…with the help of the Divine. What Mary, Ceitllyn, and I do is act as catalysts to set events is motion. In fact, the work we do would be impossible if we didn’t have your permission on a soul or unconscious level. This unconscious part, which we call the body brain or consciousness, is often running a script that is counter to what we are aware of in our mind or conscious brain. That’s why someone might say, on the mind or conscious level, that they really want to get rid of an issue in their lives, but are never able to manage it, not matter how much time, energy, and money they spend on the effort.
So, then what are Mary, Ceitllyn and I doing that makes our work successful for our clients? For starters, we state the intention(s) that we’d like to see happen, and then turn over the actual outcome to the Divine. Since the Divine has the Big Game Plan, and knows what you really, really want in your heart of hearts, our take is why limit yourselves to anything that our little human minds could contrive. Perhaps there’s something way bigger and better waiting around the corner. So, while what is being asked for is usually what happens for the client, often times there are some amazing surprises for all of us involved in the process.
Having set the healing process in motion, we then each sit back and wait to be shown what to do next. I’ve taught myself to be clairvoyant and clairaudient, so my intuitive information is usually visual or auditory. I interpret what I’ve been given and then execute what I’ve been told. It may involve putting the client into a metaphysical chamber to receive extra energy boosts. I may be called to use my body as a crystal that collects the healing energy coming through me and flashes it out of my heart like a laser to certain parts of the client’s body. Perhaps the client’s heart center, or Sacred Heart, needs opening, as very early on in their lives, they boarded it up to protect themselves from the hurt and anger in their lives. Recently, I’ve been asked to go into a “chamber” inside of me, and just “be”. It’s quite effective, but I’ve had to surrender any need to know what I’m doing. (More to be written about this at a late time.)
The result is that my brain waves are at such a slow rate that I’m not really aware of what I’m actually doing, and often don’t remember much afterwards, except that I could kinesthetically feel waves of energy roll off the person I’m working on as their issue is cleared. It feels to me as if I had been at the beach, out where the ocean waves break, and felt the power of the water roll past me. (That’s why it’s so helpful that Mary is taking notes on the other end of the phone.) Oftentimes, all I know is that at the session’s competition, when we check back in with the client with whatever way we were tracking progress, the numbers just about always drop. It’s very gratifying to “see” an issue that has been bothering a person, sometimes for years, shrink away until finally there’s just calm, peace, and light(ness), like a backpack has been taken off of one’s shoulders. It’s very gratifying to be able to do this work for others and that’s what keeps the three of us constantly searching for more answers.

Nancy Smeltzer - 3 July, 2009

Introduction & Welcome

Welcome to our Blog

Mary, Ceitllyn, and I are excited about the prospect of sharing our insights with you through our Blog Page. We see it as a place where we’ll have an ongoing unfolding of our own spiritual paths as the Divine is continuously showing us new techniques. While we do have some experiences with other healing modalities, we describe ourselves as being enrolled in the School of the Divine. We’re shown what we need to know, at the perfect moment, often hours before a new client comes in that needs that newly found insight we just got maybe two hours before. (Our take is that there are no coincidences in the Universe, and the amazing connections between seemingly unrelated events is often profound and astounding for us.)

In the upcoming pages, you’ll find out more and more about what we’ve already discovered and the vast amount of new aha-s that pour in daily. It’s getting past the premise that as a human you can only take in so much at a time that allows us to freely accept the gifts of insight that flood into us daily. What we don’t “grock” on one day, will come around another, as we find the Divine to be incredibly patient with regard to giving us multiple chances to grab hold of a concept.

One of our major tenets is that we’re meant to be heart centered. While our mind consciousnesses are marvelous administrators with their infinite ability to rationally analyze the constant stream of data, the heart, we feel, is meant to be your body’s policy maker. While the heart’s language is that of emotions, as opposed to the mind’s command of words and thoughts, and your body consciousness that speaks in physical sensations, this language incompatibility often makes for a “dysfunctional family” raging inside of yourself, with each faction having its own agenda. However, we find, that when you surrender to having your heart center run your lives, that great peace and calm sets in so that you can go about your day in a state of Grace and Love.

So, once again, welcome to our blog page. Mary, Ceitllyn, and I will all be contributing our thoughts as we feel called to do so. As you follow along with us, you’ll get a sense of who we each are and the awe and wonder that we feel as the Divine unfolds countless gifts before us. We really love what we’re doing and we invite you to join us as you learn to sing the song of your heart, and awaken to yourself. I think that you’ll find the journey into your own inner landscape to be one of the most exciting you’ll ever make.

Nancy Smeltzer – 24 June, 2009