Day 40 – Public Library Lap Top Love

Today’s first was to use the lap top kiosk at the Richmond District Library in SF. I did not know his even existed! It works well, using it right now to write this post 😉 The whole process was smooth took under 1 minute. You simply hit ‘check out’ on the touch screen, scan your card, agree to user agreement and then out pops a lap top for your use (while in the library, of course..lap top doesn’t work off the premise)

Day 39- Mental Hygiene

“Meditation is mind without agitation”. Stress causes agitation (I think we all experience a bit these days ;)) and Meditation allows us to take charge of our own nervous system and emotions.

Today’s first was an on the spot decision and proved to be quite smart. I was driving up to San Francisco from Silicon Valley after working a corporate wellness gig and hit a ton of traffic on 280 (apparently a landslide from all the recent rain). My body is one that likes to be in motion, movement is my medicine!, hence being stagnant in traffic is no bueno for the system. As the bumpers approached I made the split decision to pull off and conveniently landed at a vista point. Proceeded to embark on a 3 minute roadside meditation .. ‘Twas my saving grace.. I was genuinely able to get back into that car with a new brain, accepted what I could not change (traffic) and changed what I could (my attitude!). Remember even a lil’ goes a looong way..

Benefits of Meditation:

It improves concentration.

The practice increases self-awareness.

It encourages a healthy lifestyle.

It increases happiness.

Meditation increases acceptance.

It slows aging.

Day 38 – Gem Show

Today’s First – Purchased Turquoise and Moonstone from the Gem Show

Turquoise is known as the “master Healer,” and is said to be the bridge between Heaven, Sky and the Earth. Many Native American cultures believe that Turquoise helps to connect the mind to the infinite possibilities of the Universe and is considered very sacred in Chinese cultures as well. It is a throat Chakra stone, as it helps to foster honest and open communication from the heart. It works to protect and align the chakras, strengthening the overall body in the process.

Should you be curious, below are more gems and their energetic qualities 🌞

Abalone is a beautiful shell of the sea. It is believed to hold great healing and soothing energy, encouraging a calmer demeanor. The multidimensional, pastel rainbow colors enhance feelings of peace, beauty, compassion and love. The Native Americans believe this shell to be a sacred shell and use it, along with sage, to carry messages to Heaven. Abalone is excellent to wear when you are in need of guidance in a relationship.

Agate is one of the oldest of healing stones. As a stone of strength, it was used in ancient civilizations, on the breastplates of armor, to bring warriors strength and make them victorious in battle. Agates are very protective stones, making them the perfect stones for amulets and medicine bags. They also bring us courage, emotional strength and self-confidence.

Amethyst is a natural stress reliever that encourages inner strength and brings wealth and a strong business sense to its wearer. It is a crystal of spiritual growth and protection. It brings clarity of the mind to their owner and helps you to become more in tune with your feelings so that you get to know yourself on a much deeper level. Amethyst crystals repel negative energy and attract positive energy, making them a wonderful protection stone for the home. They have one of the strongest powers to rid your home of any negative influence.

Aquamarine clears the mind, balances emotions and strengthens personal power. In ancient times, seamen carried this stone to protect them against the dangers of the sea. It also provided them with courage. Aquamarine connects with the Heart Chakra, helping you to realize your innermost truth and promoting self-expression.

Aventurine is one of the premier stones to attract luck, abundance and success. It comforts, harmonizes and protects the heart, helping also to attract luck in love. Aventurine is a manifestation stone that can help you bring your dreams into reality.

Azurite is often referred to as the “Stone of the Heavens,” as it aids in the pursuit of the heavenly self. It is believed to awaken psychic abilities, helping you to recognize intuition and spiritual guidance. It calms and relieves mental stress, helping you to clear your mind and dissolve any blocked energy. Native Americans valued it as a sacred stone for communication with Indian Spirit Guides. The Mayans are also said to have used it for sacred and mystical communication.

Black Tourmalinated Quartz is Clear Quartz with pieces of Black Tourmaline included in it. It is believed to be a stone of great luck and wealth. It encourages a large amount of light to encircle the body, helping you to heal on many levels. When worn, this crystal helps to unlock energy blockages within the body and create overall balance within it.

Bloodstone is a powerful healing stone that has been valued for thousands of years for its healing energy. It purifies and detoxifies the body, grounding negative energy and cleansing your body’s energy. Bloodstone also increases energy and strength, promoting a constant flow of energy throughout the body. It is a very beneficial stone for athletes and people whose jobs include a lot of physical activity.

Blue Lace Agate is a wonderful stone for activating and healing the Throat Chakra. It enhances verbal communication and expression, while promoting the acceptance of your emotions. It is a very supportive stone that calms your nerves, bringing a sense of peacefulness. Blue Lace Agate is an especially helpful stone for those who may be feeling depressed or worried. It can also be used to relieve insomnia and ease tension headaches.

Carnelian is a powerful Sacral Chakra Stone. It increases personal power and physical energy, bringing you courage, compassion and a boost in creativity. Wearing or carrying Carnelian enhances vitality and will, providing you with the confidence needed to approach new projects and dreams. It is a wonderful stone to wear on a job interview, as it brings good luck and opportunity, awakening your hidden talents within. In ancient times, Egyptians buries their loved ones with Carnelian as it was thought to protect their loved ones in their journey to the afterlife and calm their fears about rebirth.

Chrysocolla is a very peaceful stone that soothes and calms us in times of stress. It connects with the Throat Chakra, helping you to create a conscious flow of words to express yourself. It gently draws off negative energies of all kinds, especially in times of transition, such as breakups or job loss. It is a wonderful stone to wear on a daily basis as a support stone or to help calm your emotions. Chrysocolla helps to face challenges and changes with ease, inspiring inner balance and self-awareness. It also increases your capacity to love.

Chrysoprase opens and activates the Heart Chakra, allowing for a strong flow of energy to the heart. By sending divine energies into this chakra, it infuses you with universal love and helps you love from the heart. Chrysoprase is a stone of grace and compassion that promotes optimism, joy and contentment. It encourages acceptance of yourself by banishing feelings of superiority or inferiority from within.

Citrine is a stone of light and happiness. It does not hold any negative energy and therefore never needs to be cleansed. It brings clarity to those who wear it and helps to manifest anything you want to bring into your life. It activates your imagination, bringing more creative visions to a clearer mind and a more positive outlook in life. Powered by the Sun, Citrine warms, cleanses and energizes the body, energizing and strengthening the solar plexus.

Clear Quartz is a stone of manifestation that energizes and activates the energy centers within the body. It helps the wearer to think clearly, allowing them to focus and become clear about their dreams and desires. Assisting with spiritual development, Clear Quartz assists in removing blockages in the body so that energy can flow smoothly.

Coral has been called the ‘garden of the sea’. It was believed to prevent ill fortune and offer protection from skin disease. Dreams about Coral are believed to foretell recovery from a long time illness. Ancient civilizations believed that Mars was composed of Red Coral. Coral is a good aid for meditation or visualization, as it symbolizes life and blood-force energy.

Fresh Water Pearls are cultured in inland waters and not in the sea. The oldest Pearl was worn in 4300 BC by a Persian Queen. They are considered the bringers of light, beauty and love. They also help you to become aware and conscious of the problems that we carry around with us. Pearls are linked with innocence and helps us to see life through the eyes of compassion.

Garnet is a stone of health and energy that enhances energy, passion and pleasure. It is said that the only light on Noah’s Ark was provided by a Garnet stone. It helps to move the chi and energy flow within the body, stimulating physical activity. Garnet is a good stone to help with depression, as it brings joy and hope to the wearer and helps lessen the anger directed at oneself. It also cleanses the chakras of negative energy, re-energizing them in the process.

Goldstone is made from quartz sand glass, infused with copper particles to give it its shimmery appearance. The sparkles of Goldstone are symbolic of light that can always be found in the darkness. It deflects unwanted energies and is highly regarded in the spirit realm as a protective mineral.

Hematite is a very protective stone that helps you to stay grounded in any situation. It absorbs negative energy and calms you in times of stress or worry. When you wear Hematite, it helps you feel balanced, calm and centered. This stone helps you to find your own, unique talents, releasing self-imposed limitations.

Jade is considered a powerful lucky charm. It is a stone that can help you attain your goals and dreams, allowing you to see past self-imposed limitations and manifest your dreams into the physical world. Jade promotes courage, compassion, generosity and longevity, helping you lead a richer more fulfilling life. It is a gemstone of much history, as it has been part of Asian history for centuries.

Jasper is highly valued as a healing stone that is full of grounding energy. They can connect you deeply to the vibrations of the Earth, bringing a greater understanding of the power of nature. Jasper helps us to be less judgmental and know on a soul level that we are all connected. In some Native American culture, Jasper symbolizes the blood of the Earth, making it particularly sacred.

Labradorite cleans and opens the crown chakra by stimulating the wearer’s intuition. It is a power stone that allows you to see through illusions and determine the actual form of your dreams and goals. Use Labradorite to stimulate the imagination, develop enthusiasm and to see more clearly in meditation.

Lapis Lazuli is a stone that has existed since the beginning of time. It is a gemstone of total awareness that connects the wearer to a higher truth. Lapis Lazuli helps to foster verbal expression, opening and balancing the Throat Chakra. It provides wisdom and connects you to your spiritual guardians, shielding you from negative energy and returning any negative vibrations back to their source.

Malachite is a stone of transformation. It assists in clearing and cleansing all the chakras. It is an overall healing stone that stimulates and balances the heart and throat chakras. Malachite facilitates the release of negative experiences so once can heal and regain hope. It is very inspiring, purifying and compassionate and attracts love by opening the heart.

Moonstone is believed to be a stone of destiny. It is strongly connected to the moon and the divine feminine, making it a wonderfully helpful stone for women. It is worn to increase fertility and harmonize the mind, providing health and protection. Moonstone helps to align the hormone production, metabolism and reproduction. It allows deep-rooted feelings to energize and come to the forefront.

Mother of Pearl is the iridescent lining that forms in mollusks. Associated with the element of water and the ocean, it is valued for its powerful healing energy. Mother of Pearl is considered to hold the energy of purity and is believed to keep evil away. It is known to alleviate fear, promote prosperity and good luck, allowing you to see that beauty in everyday things.

Obsidian is a natural volcanic glass formed from molten lava that has cooled very rapidly. It is a grounding stone that provides an instant connection from the Root Chakra deep into the core of the Earth. Obsidian helps to clean and remove negative energies and assists in releasing emotions that cause negative energy such as anger, fear, jealousy and greed.

Onyx is a powerful protective stone that can shield the mind and body from electromagnetic energy. It absorbs and transforms negative energy, helping to prevent that drain of personal energy. Onyx assists with melancholy, the release of negativity and depression. It helps to calm your fears, leaving you feeling stable and secure.

Peridot has been valued for thousands of years as a semi-precious healing stone. It is a high-vibrational Heart Chakra crystal that carries a positive energy, especially helpful for those undergoing traumatic emotional situations. It is the stone for Archangel Raphael and rules the realm of Angelic Virtues. Peridot has the ability to bring out unconditional love, happiness and light.

Pyrite is known to remedy financial hardship and attract abundance. The resemblance of Pyrite to gold has made it a traditional symbol for money and good luck. Its sunny golden color associates it with the sun and with the fortification and strengthening of the mind. Pyrite makes a wonderful energy shield, blocking out negativity from various sources.

Rhodonite helps to balance the emotions and calm impatience. It is a very supportive stone that works with the Heart Chakra to attract love, ground negative energies and see areas in your life that can be improved upon. Rhodonite helps you to rediscover your inner gifts, bringing out much-needed love into the world. It also assists you in discovering your true passion and learning brand new skills to enhance that passion.

Rhodochrosite raises your self-esteem and self-worth, while increasing feelings of self-love. It is a strong crystal for emotional healing that encourages you to love yourself and reach a state of joy and happiness. It is a powerful heart chakra stone that vibrates with the energy of love. Rhodochrosite also gives you the courage to look at things that you may have been afraid to face before.

Rose Quartz is the stone of unconditional love. It is one of the most important stones for Heart Chakra work, as it opens that heart to all types of love—love of the self, love of family, love of friends and romantic love. The soothing energy of Rose Quartz fosters empathy, reconciliation and forgiveness of others, lowering stress and tension of the heart. It can clear out anger, jealously and resentment towards others, allowing the healing of heart issues caused by holding onto these negative emotions.

Rudraksha Seeds are miracle seeds that emit positive vibrations. These seeds have been worn by Sages and Togis since Vedic times for their profound spiritual significance and powerful healing properties. Rudraksha seeds are believed to be endowed with cosmic powers to elevate the soul and assist on the path of ascension. According to the ancient Vedas, Shiva cried tears of compassion for humanity and his tears became Rudraksha seeds to assist humanity in our healing.

Rutilated Quartz is Clear Quartz riddled with needle-like pieces of Golden Rutile, often called “The Hairs of Venus.” It can clear energy blockages of all the chakras and stimulates the alignment of the mind and body. Rutilated Quartz is said to attune you to their Divine Purpose, connecting them with the spiritual realm and their angels. It is a very uplifting stone that infuses joy into your life and surrounding environment. It is said to speed up the healing of injuries and slow the effects of aging.

Selenite is the ideal crystal for all types of energy clearing. It has the ability to clear, protect and shield your energy body as well as clearing the energy of your other crystals and home. It quickly unblocks any stagnant or negative energy to create a smooth flow of positive energy. Selenite crystals magnify the energy of any other gemstone that is placed upon it, making it perfect for reactivating and recharging your jewelry and other healing crystals. It has also been recently used in holistic medicine treatments for physical healing, including cancer treatment and tumor reduction.

Serpentine helps to bring hormones back into balance. It helps to clear out and release the dense areas of the chakras so that healing can occur. It helps you to take responsibility for your life and know your life is what you create it to be. Serpentine serves as a gentle reminder that you can always reach for the stars and obtain your goals. It can also be used to attract and manifest anything you want in life—abundance on all levels, prosperity, love, healing…anything you want!

Smoky Quartz helps to ground and connect you to the Earth, allowing you to keep your feet on the ground and remain balanced. It emits a high level of energy that absorbs and transmutes negative energy. Smoky Quartz assists in removing mental and emotional blockages, relieving pain and dispersing negative energy from the body. It is worn for emotional support and helps to dissolve anger and resentment as well.

Sodalite encourages being true to your self and standing up for your beliefs. It is a stone of self-expression and confidence, helping you to deal with issues of self-worth, self-acceptance and self-esteem. Sodalite promotes intuition and a trust in your own judgment. It is a stone of awakening that stimulates the Third Eye and deepens the meditation.

Sunstone is known for its powerful connection to the light and the power of the sun. It brings light to all situations and is said to give you the power to “shine,” promoting a sunny and positive attitude. Sunstone has a bright and joyful energy that increases vitality and lightens dark moods. It helps to empower those who feel abandoned by others, encouraging motivation and positive action.

Tiger’s Eye helps to rebalance the body on all levels, encouraging optimism and trust in the future. It brings brightness and light into all situations and shines insight onto all problems. Tiger’s Eye brings good luck, abundance and prosperity to its wearer. In many ancient civilizations, it was used as a talisman against bad luck and curses. Tiger’s Eye is a must have in any home for healing.

Day 37 – Writing with Wire

“Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.” –Yehuda Berg

Today’s First: Words with Wire

I have always wanted to try this! It was as challenging as I had anticipated, but certainly doable. And fun.. 🙂

The Pros:

Mine: (need some practice!)

This website has a plethora of templates and creative ideas:

http://www.guidepatterns.com/wire-letters-with-diy-instructions.php

HAVE FUN

WIRE NEEDED:

*21 gauge or 22 gauge round half hard brass wire or copper wire is best to practice with. (After you learn to make name jewelry, you can use gold plated wire, gold filled wire, silver filled wire or sterling silver wire.)

* You can use square wire but it’s a little more difficult so you might want to start with round wire. Square wire looks a little better but round wire is easier I was told (glad I heeded the advice).

TOOLS NEEDED :

Chain Nose Pliers — Must be a jewelers pliers without serrated jaws.
Flat Nose Pliers — Jewelers pliers with the jaws slim and sleek. Don’t get inferior pliers that are very thick and bulky. This could harm your letter forming.
Round Nose Pliers — Jewelers pliers with a slim sleek nose. Not thick and bulky. For more info on these pliers check our wire jewelry forum.
Wire Cutters — simple cutters will do.

Day 36-purifying the heart

Today’s first: Attended a Medicine Buddha Puja at The Land of the Medicine Buddha (“a center for healing and developing a good heart”).

Puja is a prayer ceremony..

Sundays at 2pm
Medicine Buddha is the manifestation of the healing energy of all enlightened beings. Prayers to Medicine Buddha are especially powerful because of the extensive prayers they took to benefit sentient beings. They strongly prayed for the temporal and ultimate happiness of all sentient beings; they vowed that their prayers would be actualized during these times.

Venerable Samten recites the puja in Tibetan. You can follow along in the prayer book, FPMT Essential Buddhist Prayers, Volume 2, starting on page 102.
Sunday is the day that the puja is scheduled at a regular time so that the public can attend, but the Medicine Buddha Puja is performed daily at Land of Medicine Buddha by Venerable Samten and other staff members.

“and when we pass away from this life, may we be born from a lotus in that Buddha-field, qualities complete.”

If you would like to request a prayer – so that you or a loved one receives dedications of the merit at the end of the puja – go to the location’s website: http://landofmedicinebuddha.org/ and search for puja.

Another first today was to spin the Pagoda prayer wheel (one of the center’s oldest prayer wheels, contains 64 billion mantras):

“not to do any evil whatsoever, to cultivate virtue and everything admirable and to fully purify one’s mind”-this is the teaching of the lord Buddha

Day 35- Defib This

Today’s First: Audited an EMT course at Defib This in downtown Santa Cruz. The students and staff were awesome. As a yoga instructor, I am required to have my CPR and first aid certs, I have always been curious about what an EMT course would be like. This facility had their training dialed in.. Great place. Ems1.com has a ton of info should you be mulling over the idea of becoming an EMT, paramedic or firefighter.

Day 34- Ocean Exploration at Marine Center

Today’s First (Community Free Day at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center) was quite educational, I will provide bullet points of what I learned. As for the bones below: This is the blue whale skeleton that sits outside the center that washed ashore near Pescadero (north), in September of 1979. Students, scientists and volunteers from UC Santa Cruz helped retrieve the bones. Named “Ms. Blue” by volunteers, the blue whale has become the mascot of Long Marine Lab.

What I learned during the 45 minutes I spent at the center:

An “otolith” is a specialized bone in a fish’s ear. This tiny bone allows fish to hear and sense its surroundings. Just like growth rings in a tree, an otolith is formed with daily and yearly growth rings. That’s how we can determine a fishy’s age 🙂 Better yet, it can record where the fish was born and even where it may have lived at different stages of its life. Scientists use this info to create a complete history of a fish’s life and determine the best ways to manage the fishery.
A swell shark swallows water to swell up to 2x its size when it feels in danger. This lets the shark appear larger and helps it wedge in rocks.
Abalone live as long as 30 years. Growth is SLOW and highly variable. They spawn many eggs, but only 1% survive to adulthood.
Abalone on the market that are bigger than 4 inches are likely to be illegal. Be sure to buy only farmed abalone.
Farmed abalone are also sold as red abalone, green abalone, pink abalone, or awabi (when in sushi)
Blue whales filter their food through their baleen* plates. Blue whales eat krill (euphausiids) and copepods. A blue whale can eat up to 8,000 lbs. of krill during its peak consumption period! It is estimated to take 2,200 lbs. of food to fill a blue whale’s stomach.

*“One group of whales has specialised in feeding on tiny shrimp-like crustaceans, krill, which swarm in vast clouds in the sea. Just as teeth are of no value to mammals feeding on ants, so they are no use to those eating krill. So these whales, like ant-eaters, have lost their teeth. Instead they have baleen, sheets of horn, feathered at the edges, that hang down like stiff, parallel curtains from the roof of the mouth. The whale takes a huge mouthful of water in the middle of the shoal of krill, half-shuts its jaws and then expels the water by pressing its tongue forward so that the krill remains and can be swallowed. Sometimes it gathers the krill by slowly cruising where it is thickest. It also can concentrate a dispersed shoal by diving beneath it and then spiralling up, expelling bubbles as it goes, so that the krill is driven towards the centre of the spiral. Then the whale itself, jaws pointing upwards, rises in the centre and gathers them in one gulp.” (Attenborough 1979:242)

PISCO stands for Partnership for Interdisciplinary Studies of Coastal Oceans and monitors three main habitats reaching from Baja California to Alaska (coastal oceans, rocky shores and kelp forests)
Shark skin is made of a matrix of tiny, hard, tooth-like structures called dermal denticles or placoid scales. These structures are shaped like curved, grooved teeth and make the skin a very tough armor with a texture like sandpaper. – Got to feel for myself!

Community Free Days

(Thanks to the Sponsor: www.montereybayseaglass.com / Nancy Allen)

The Seymour Marine Discovery Center is open to the community free of charge on the following days:

2017

January 6
February 3
March 3
September 8
October 6
November 3

Day 33 – Pay it forward

Today’s first was inspired by words that happened to cross my path “Today I will exercise my soul by doing somebody I don’t know a good turn, and not get found out; if anybody knows of it, it will not count”. Being away from my network of friends, I knew I would be doing a kind gesture for a stranger and quickly decided on leaving a small gift. Short on time, I popped into a Starbucks and bought a gift card. Figured I would write a note, stick the card in it and leave it on a random car’s windshield. I hope it reached the hands of someone in need of a little love on this rainy Thursday 🙂

I will close this post with a picture I took yesterday at the Mountainview YMCA.. can never see these words enough!

Day 32 – Music and Brew

Tagline for tonight’s venue: “Drink. Eat. Repeat.” (Way to live it right, Discretion Brewing!)

Today’s first for the “1 new thing a day for 100 days” new years res was refreshing not only for the tastebuds, but for the heart. There’s nothing quite like live music to bring one more into the PRESENT, the gift of living in the moment. As Shakespeare said in Hamlet, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” To change your feelings, you need only to change the way you’re thinking about your situation. Well wow did I ever witness a shift in my mind from petty stress to gratitude as I felt the beats being played and eased into a place where all that really mattered was the smiles I saw on the faces of those around me.

The new experience tonight was going to Discretion Brewing where my dear friend Katie’s boyfriend was playing. His band: Anthony Presti – here is their site:

anthonyprestimusic.com

Day 31- a taste of nature’s music – Fall Creek

What Magic. Isn’t it wild to think of the interconnectedness of the roots of the trees in a redwood forest? The entire forest is actually one large organism. As we look at the individual trees, it is easy to forget that what allows them to grow so tall and keeps them so stable is the vast network of roots.

Today’s First of the ‘one new thing a day’ New Years Resolution was much needed food for the soul. I love how stepping into nature can instantly shift our thought patterns toward gratitude and simplify our mind’s dialogue. The creek was roaring after all the rain. Short out and back hike to the lime kilns in Fall Creek, Felton CA. Info below all the pics. Fellow hiker, Bonnie, was as loving as the trees.. can you believe she is 73?! My goodness, looking good, gal.

The earth has music for those who listen…

Here are the lime kilns..

There are many abandoned lime kilns in the Santa Cruz Mountains. These ones are easily accessed off of felt empire grade road (head through the town of Felton, to the stop light at Felton Empire Road. Turn left and drive slowly or you’ll miss the small sign for Fall Creek in a half mile on your right.)

Lime kilns were made to heat marble or limestone to extract the lime, which was used in making mortar and later Portland cement and concrete. Usually the kilns had at least two chambers for efficiency, so that the next batch could be started before the multiple-day heating and cooling process was complete. Limestone was transported to the kilns and finished lime was transported from the kilns to major cities.

Mixing the caustic lime powder with sand and water makes plaster and the mortar used in the construction of brick and stone structures.

Santa Cruz was a major source for lime in the late 1800’s. Many of the kilns were tendered by only a few people. The lime was shipped to San Francisco in wooden barrels to fuel the rapid building of the city. Many of the lime kilns ended in the 1920’s through 1930’s. Some continued into the 1940’s. The last commercial lime maker in Santa Cruz County was the Cemex cement plant in Davenport. It closed in 2010.