Courtney’s Experiential Gift Guide
I wanted to curate a list of creative, unique, heart-based experiences--ideally involving real, passionate, local people--that you could share with your loved ones near and far, or even gift to yourself. Here's what I came up with. I hope it's useful to you, and please forward to anyone in your life who might appreciate these offerings.
Season’s Greetings
It took a while this year but I am finally starting to delight in winter citrus, pine wreaths, deep dark evenings, and an abundance of peppermint-themed desserts. Merry, merry.
Building a Home Altar
This time of year—the thinning of the Veil—is an optimal time to remember and connect with departed family members. One beautiful way to do this is by making a special place in your home for an ancestor altar.
Welcome to Our Clinic!
Our new acupuncture and massage clinic in San Francisco’s Marina district provides holistic healing services to people dealing with pain. Come in for a session and experience the remarkable power of acupuncture and massage in dealing with pain.
What is Abundance?
What IS abundance, and how can we tap into abundance to make more money and feel more joy?
Eight Extraordinary Meridians for Extraordinary Times
The Eight Extraordinary Meridians aren't like the other channels. They're special. They're extraordinary! These channels are the spiritual skeleton of your system. Deep, old energy is stored here, including ancestral trauma, karmic patterns, and repressed emotions.
TLC for the Lungs During Fire Season
In Chinese medicine, we always want to nourish the lungs during the dry autumn season. This is especially true if the air is full of smoke and particulate matter as the world burns down around us. Generally we choose foods and herbs that are moistening, nourishing, and cooling.
Tiny Case Study: On Accuracy
I offer these case studies as examples of my work. Note that the identity of the subjects is carefully protected, and every session is very different.
On Being a Hero
Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world. -Ramana Maharshi
Silence is the Best Teacher
“In the fullness of silence, there is only consciousness, but no thoughts.” - Ramana Maharshi
On Aging, Well
I’ve been reading Christiane Northrup’s book, “Goddesses Never Age,” which has some really lovely parts. The gist is that joy and self-love keep you youthful and vivacious.
"Joy is the Happiness That Does Not Depend on What Happens"
“It is not happiness that makes us grateful It is gratefulness that makes us happy. Every moment is a gift. … Whatever life gives to you, you can respond with joy. Joy is the happiness that does not depend on what happens.” ― David Steindl-Rast
The Futility of Normalcy
“Without understanding yourself, what is the use of trying to understand the world?” - Sri Ramana Maharshi
Embracing What Is
“When practicing mindfulness, even directed toward something as ordinary as breathing, we enhance the part of the mind that is aware of the way things are while diminishing the part that is stressed because things are not the way we want them to be.” —Andrew Olendzki
Hridaya 102
The root of a meditation practice, in the Advaita Vedanta tradition, is the Hridaya, the sacred heart. We talk about centering ourselves in the sacred heart as a meditation technique, bringing our consciousness from the ever present mind into this space just to the right of the center of the chest, and resting there.
Hridaya 101
There's a lovely Hasidic story of a rabbi who always told his people that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts. One of them asked, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?" The rabbi answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your heart, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside.”
The Great Pause
Here we are about a month into quarantine. We’ve spent a month in this Great Pause. Let’s just let that sink in for a second: this past month isolated in our homes, getting used to this ever-changing new reality, which is also called getting used to impermanence.