If you find yourself feeling alone and lacking fulfillment in your life, or know someone who is, read on to learn 3 oversights that permit the cycle of emptiness and longing to continue and discover how resolving this disconnection is within your reach.
Missing Harmony
Have you ever watched a video or movie where the audio was off by a second or two from being synchronized with the picture? That small error in timing distracted you from fully experiencing the story. Imagine if the delay were even longer, where the speaker or actors would still be talking to each other after one had already driven off in their car. The lack of reality would become awkward and absurd. That is the importance of harmony between words and acts.
You can find many different approaches to try and bring harmony into your life. One way I did this was by observing ancient ways people used to foster harmony. One of these is through tea ceremony.
A tea ceremony is a ritualized form of making tea. For centuries tea has been used as an aid to meditation, for assistance in fortune telling, and for ceremonial purposes.
In China tea is prepared and consumed as a sign of respect, for a family gathering, to apologize, and to express thanks to elders. For the Japanese, cha-no-yu (the tea ceremony) is a mental discipline for pursuing “wabi” — a state of mind in which a person is calm and content, with a profound simplicity.
The tea ceremony is understood and practiced to foster harmony in humanity, promote harmony with nature, discipline the mind, quiet the heart, and attain the purity of enlightenment.
Leaving Out Nature
Psychological research has shown that connecting with nature reduces stress and promotes an overall increase in physical and psychological well-being. Studies have shown that hospital patients with a view of nature recover faster than those without.
In nature, each plant creates specific vibration giving it its own personality. The herbal personality of a plant will vibrate, or be in harmony with, other personalities similar to how we know the personality of another person (or animal). Through this vibration or energy, you and the plant can be in harmony, just like you are in harmony with a friend. Taking it further, just like a friend can sense when you are in distress and want to help you, this is also the way it works with plants. And just like some friends are better at helping you with certain things than others, such is the case with plants.
For example, the herb Thyme promotes a deep stimulation towards action. It helps a person get into contact with their reason for being. It invokes a willingness to release things that stand between your soul’s purpose and the way you struggle with relationships, various difficulties, and blockages to the path of action.
Last year I taught a class at the Florida Herbal Conference called “The Spiritual Properties of Herbs”. It was the most profound teaching experience I have ever had. I shared information and guided students on connecting with plants. At the end of the class, I invited people to share their experience. Up until teaching that class, I had never experienced such a powerful outpouring of emotion from my students.
People were so blown away by what they experienced, they wept as they shared how the plant connected with them, comforted them, and provided them with answers. One man approached me after class and told me “This class changed my life and I will never be the same.”
Is Nothing Sacred?
What happened to make everyone so emotional? What enabled them to overcome the frustrations and worries they arrived with? It was the sacredness created through RITUAL.
A ritual is a ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. Remind you of anything? (Hint: tea ceremony).
When something is sacred, it is revered, it is highly valued, it is considered very important.
What is it that makes life feel empty, lonely, unfulfilled?
It is a lack of sacredness! You are deprived of having and expressing reverence and love. You are sleepwalking through life without a sense of purpose. You have an ache that won’t stop hurting, a hole that cannot be filled!
I’ve seen many people, including some of my friends, struggle with feeling a lack of connection or fulfillment in life and the negative effects on their health and relationships. Many end up on meds or in the hospital because they didn’t know how to deal with it.
It is sad because it doesn’t have to be this way. That’s why I felt compelled to use the knowledge I gained working as an herbalist, my experience as a yogi, and my desire to help people, to create a DVD called “Tea Ceremony: Transform Your Life Through Personal Ritual”.
This DVD was recorded during one of my live workshops of the same name. If you would like to learn more about breaking negative patterns and creating a more fulfilling life, order you DVD today!
CLICK HERE TO ORDER THE DVD
Recent Comments