Author: MSI Wellness and Healing Center
National Meditation Month | Free Community Events in Evanston and Chicago
May is National Meditation Month and MSI Wellness Center in Chicago is hosting a series of free community events to honor the wonderful celebration of meditation. If you’ve been wanting to meditate or if you’ve had a desire to do more meditation, this is the month to start. Enjoy a special spring ceremony, flower meditation, the inside story of meditation with Billie Topa Tate and so much more.
Join Us For Free Community Events at our Evanston Meditation Center
MAY 2018 Meditation Classes and Events in Chicago, Illinois
Spring Ceremony & Meditation – May 4th Friday 6:30pm
Welcome Wisdom Seekers – Your Spring Equinox Free Event. The dawning of The Spring Equinox is a beautiful launching of celebrations. festivals, ceremonies and onset intentions to breathe in the breath of life as mother earth launches the beginning of new energy, flowers and fresh opportunities.
Spring Flower Medicine Meditation – May 11th Friday 6:30pm
The medicine of flowers is so uplifting, especially during this time of establishing balance and healing. This is a free open to the public community event hosted by MSI Wellness Center. Billie Topa Tate will be hosting a special meditation, facilitating an empowering and healing meditation with the medicine of flowers and herbs.
Share Meditation with a Friend – May 18th Friday 6:30pm
It’s such good karma to bring a friend to the wonderful world of meditation. Meditation is a great tool to be guided by higher thought and refresh our mind body and spirit. Come join us for a beautiful meditation and also learn some special techniques on how to navigate positive energy to surround ourselves with great support systems and wonderful friends.
Worldwide Celebration of Meditation – May 25th Friday 6:30pm
The world is filled with such great potential and we have more options then we know. World wide meditation is a powerful and empowering event where we can all come together to facilitate positive and peaceful energy for the plants, animals, people and mother earth. As a global group of wisdom seekers around the world let us use this opportunity to help everyone experience moments of wisdom and loving energy. Click the link and be connected with us to facilitate positive and empowering energy around the world.
National Meditation Month | What are the Yamas and Niyamas
“Keep your thoughts sacred, and your world will become sacred. It’s the quiet place inside where you return over and over again which nurtures your thoughts sacred, your heart expanded and your dreams alive. Meditation helps you to create your sacred place.”
-Billie Topa Tate
The Practice of The Yamas and The Niyamas in Meditation:
The practice of the Yamas and Niyamas definitely inspires us to remember that meditation is a way of life — not just something we do for 20 minutes three times a week. In fact, if they are interwoven in every fabric of our life.
The Power of Yama – Control
Yama is a process by which the actions of the body and the functions of the mind are volitionally restrained. It purifies one’s words, thoughts, and deeds, enabling the aspirant to reach the deeper aspect of his or her own self that remains dormant in an undisciplined life. Through the practice of yama, an unknown inner power is experienced, because the body becomes quiescent and the mind becomes tranquil and able to function better.
The 10 Yamas:
1. Non-Violence
2. Truth
3. Honesty
4. Sexual Continence
5. Forbearance
6. Fortitude
7. Kindness
8. Straight-Forwardness
9. Moderation in Diet
10. Purity (Bodily Cleansing)
The Power of The Niyama – Golden Rules of Contact
After following the yamas, one will be able to follow effortlessly the rules of conduct, thus enhancing the development of one’s spiritual nature that makes one harmless, selfless, friendly, loving, and respectful to all creation, from mineral to man.
The 10 Niyamas:
1. Austerity
2. Contentment
3. Belief in God
4. Charity
5. Worship of God in any form
6. Openness and constant study by reading or listening to explanations of teachings or doctrines and scriptures
7. Modesty
8. Having a discerning mind
9. Repetition of payers
10. Observance of vows and performing sacrifices
Join us, each week for our Free Friday Night Community Meditation. Click here for more information.
National Meditation Month
To see all our special weekly meditation offerings during the month of May, click here
5 Energy Bodies and Your Meditation Practice
What Are The Energy Bodies?
The five-layer Energy Body system is the third way of describing the Human Energy Field. Note that the physical body is counted as an energy body since all matter is ultimately made up of energy. Also of importance is the fact that the higher subtle energy bodies overlap and interpenetrate the complete physical body. In much the same way as many different TV signals exist around us in the same space simultaneously and can be individually identified by a specific frequency, the overlapping subtle energy bodies (which are also defined by different frequencies) also penetrate into the same space as our physical body. So when an energy practitioner places his or her hands on the client, the healing energies are sent not only to the physical body but also to each higher energetic body. Thus, with the proper healing frequencies channeled through the practitioner, healing can occur on not only the physical level but also in the etheric, emotional, mental and spiritual energy bodies of the client.
5 Energy Bodies:
1. The Physical Energy Body.
At first, it may seem unusual to consider that the physical body is an energy body, but that is exactly what it appears to be. And as we explore and become more accustomed to this new paradigm, we are able not only to see the physical body in a greater, more meaningful context, but also we begin to understand the role of disease and the nature of healing. The physical body is the densest form of energy that our consciousness uses to explore its environment and interact with others. By the densest form, it is meant that the vibrational patterns of the physical body are of a frequency low enough to be seen by our eyes (they are within the spectrum of visible light), heard by our ears (about 30 to 15,000 Hertz), and experienced with the senses of touch, taste and smell which are within the “frequency capability” of our physical body.
But there are many octaves, frequencies, and vibrations beyond the capability of our physical senses. Beyond what we can see as visible light are the higher frequencies of ultraviolet, x-ray, and cosmic radiation. We are beginning to understand that what we can physically sense is only a small portion of the vibrational energies around us. And if we look at our physical bodies at our atoms, molecules, and cells, again we find patterns of vibrating energy that we have traditionally called “matter”.
We need to become aware that our physical body is really a field of vibrating energy that has coalesced from higher less dense octaves. But we also need to remember that as vibrating fields interact with each other, one field can affect another field through the phenomenon of sympathetic vibration. If a violin player produces a note an octave above Middle C, and a second violin lying nearby on a table has a string which is tuned to Middle C, the second violin string tuned to Middle C will sympathetically begin to vibrate as well. So as we also begin to understand that there are several vibrational fields of energy around our physical body, it becomes easier to understand how one field affects another through this principle. And this is the key to understanding how energy-based healing techniques can achieve such visible and profound results in the physical body.
2. The Etheric Energy Body.
The etheric body is the first energy body in frequency above the physical body. It exists within the physical body and extends outward about an inch outside the skin of the physical body. Its purpose is to form an energy template or matrix for the development, maintenance, and repair of the physical body. The etheric body contains a vibrational energy counterpart for each organ, blood vessel and bone found in the physical body. Indeed, the etheric body contains the energetic blueprint for the pathways that guide the location and development of every cell of the physical body. Our physical bodies exist only because of the vital (etheric) field behind them. This etheric field exists prior to, not a result of, the physical body.
Since the etheric body is the physical body’s blueprint, the two are very closely related. The energetic vibrations of the etheric body determine the pattern for not only the physical tissues and organs but also the state of health of those tissues and organs. If the vibrations are not clear and pure, this disharmony will be reflected in the physical body as a disharmonious function — what we call “disease”.
Conversely, traumas to the physical body (e.g., broken bones, burns, incisions, and scars) will in time be reflected into the etheric body unless there is some interceding process that either prevents this reflection into the etheric body or which restores the original vibrational pattern which existed prior to the trauma. The ability to work with a client’s vibrating energy fields is precisely what forms the basis for rapid and effective energy-based physical healings.
An illness can appear in the energy field weeks and even months before it appears in the physical body. In his book, Vibrational Medicine, Dr. Richard Gerber, a Detroit physician, notes that “The etheric body is a holographic energy template that guides the growth and development of the physical body.”
The following description of the etheric and higher subtle energy bodies surrounding the physical body are taken from Barbara Brennan’s book, Hands of Light. To her, the etheric body appears as a grid of tiny energy lines which has the overall structure and shape of the physical body. This matrix extends from 1/4″ to 2 inches beyond the physical body. It is upon this etheric grid or matrix that the cells and tissues of the body develop and are anchored. The etheric body appears as a light blue or gray matrix of lines of light that constantly pulsate or scintillate at a rate of from 15-20 cycles per minute.
3. The Emotional Energy Body.
The emotional body contains the emotional patterns, feelings, and vibrations that determine our personality, and also how we feel about ourselves and interact with others. If we are constantly angry, always feel helpless, or are consistently fearful, these patterns or vibrations get locked in our emotional energy field and become a part of our personality. This determines to a very large degree how we interact with others on personal, social, and cultural levels.
The emotional body generally follows the shape of the physical and etheric bodies, but is somewhat more amorphous and fluid, and extends from one to about three inches outside the physical body. It contains energy “blobs” of all colors of the rainbow, depending on the specific feeling or emotion. Highly charged feelings such as love, hate, joy, and anger are associated with energy blobs that are bright and clear, while confused feelings are darker and muddier.
4. The Mental Energy Body.
The mental body contains the structure and patterns of all the thoughts and belief systems that we consider as true. And there is a very strong connection between the mental and emotional bodies. Although a thought or idea can in itself be very powerful, our reactions to those thoughts carry even more energy, and different people will react differently to the same thought.
For example, consider the thought form “If you are not a Catholic (or Protestant, or Muslim, or Jewish, or whatever), you can not go to Heaven.” One person might hear that thought or idea, think it was silly, and give it absolutely no energy. But another person might become very passionate, depending on his greater belief systems, and argue strongly either for or against the truth of that statement. His emotional body would then record the intensity of the reaction to the thought stored in the mental body. However, the person who thought the statement was silly in the first place would not have any resonance with it, and no energetic pattern would be stored in either the mental or emotional bodies.
The mental body usually appears as yellow light radiating around the entire body from head to toe and extends from three to eight inches beyond the physical body. Within this area, individual thought forms appear as small blobs of light of varying form and intensity.
5. The Spiritual Energy Body.
The spiritual body (i.e., all vibrational patterns in octaves higher than the mental body) contains all the information related to our experiences and reflects our gestalt consciousness of all that has been learned and experienced. It contains our higher intentions, our sense of what is right and wrong (“conscience”), and our desires to increase our awareness of our purpose, place, and mission for this lifetime.
These five energy bodies make up one’s Human Energy Field or aura. Its outer shape appears roughly egg-shaped and extends out to perhaps 1½ to two feet beyond the physical body; however, this shape can be extended even further out or contracted closer to the physical body depending on the situation the person is experiencing. For example, when a person is feeling emotions of unconditional love, the aura may expand to several feet and radiate bright hues of gold or white. But if the same person is feeling threatened physically or emotionally, the entire aura may collapse to a much denser pattern within only a few inches of the body.
How Meditation Can Help with Anxiety
Meditation is the ability to quiet the mind while providing natural healing benefits for all types of mental, physical and emotional health. 90% of people will suffer from anxiety at some point in their life. An estimated 6.8 million Americans have Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) which is a chronic condition they can’t shut off. If you have chronic anxiety, even the smallest thing can trigger an episode. Anxiety is provoked by racing thoughts that won’t go away. Anxiety will cause you to find yourself with fearful thoughts about finances, family, your health, and what’s happening at work. In general, anxiety can be defined as living in the future.
How To Fight Anxiety:
Numerous scientific studies have found meditation to be effective for treating anxiety. The overall conclusion is that by practicing mindfulness or meditation , the change in your brain produces beneficial results, with substantial improvement.
Meditation helps fight anxiety by quieting the overactive mind. Instead of buying into your fearful thoughts, you can start identifying with the silence that exists between every mental action. The key to releasing anxiety is to be in present moment awareness.
There are numerous ways you can deal with anxiety, besides taking medication.
5 self care tips in reducing anxiety:
- Regular meditation allows your brain to develop new pathways instead of the old worry grooves. The Loving Kindness Meditation CD is a good tool to use for this.
- Walking meditation is a good way to get exercise and reap the benefits of focusing only on the enjoyment of walking and clearing the mind.
- Conscious breathe counting slows down the mind to a place of peace and harmony.
- Balance diet can assist in evening out any anxiety caused by improper diet such as to much sugar.
- Exercise can help to place your mind on being healthy and away from fears and worry.
These simple self-care tools will help move you away from the worries of the future and into the joy of the present moment.
Fall Equinox Free Community Meditation | Evanston Illinois
Join Billie Topa Tate for a Fall Equinox meditation this Friday September 22nd 6:30pm. The heavens open up a beautiful time to reflect on the blessings that are on their way and also the Mystical times of recent past. This is a Native American tradition of when we share harvest gifts with all attendees at our meditation and provide special techniques on how to tap into the wonderful Equinox energy.
Come ride the wave of wonderful Equinox energy during our meditation, sharing of gifts and viewing some wonderful displays of native items brought back from Billies ceremonial journey a few weeks ago.
The Loving Kindness Meditation starts at 6:30pm. Please arrive early and enjoy warm tea and community before meditation. Join us for the Loving Kindness Meditation offered free and open to the public Friday’s at 6:30pm. No registration required and walk-ins are welcome!
Billie Topa Tate’ is the founder of MSI (Mystical Sciences Institute) an earth friendly educational institute located in Evanston, Illinois. Billie is Mescalero Apache and is dedicated to presenting the sacred principles, doctrines, and teachings of her Native Culture and many ancient wisdom systems from around the world, creating synthesis through harmony of many lineages.
Billie is a traditional Native American healer and teacher of Mescalero Apache descent, trained and educated by numerous family Elders and extended family members. She is a Reiki Master Teacher Eighth Degree and licensed therapeutic massage therapist. Billie is an approved provider of continuing education programs for Massage Therapists and Illinois Nurses. Has written and lecturer extensively for more than 18 years. She is internationally recognized as a wonderful teacher, healer and advocate of Earth Friendly endeavors. Billie maintains a successful practice at her MSI center in Evanston, and with the expressed permission from her Native culture Billie shares many of the ancestral principles, healing systems and native wisdoms with her students and clients.