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aromatherapy | emotions | kinesiology healing | transformation | balance |
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aromatherapy | emotions | kinesiology healing | transformation | balance |
Robbi now has a beautiful new website at robbizeck.com which contains all of Robbi's latest news and information and
will shortly be taking over all of the functions and facilities of this website.
Dear
Blossoming Hearted Ones,
Jim and I are now enjoying Springtime at home in the country. It is a magical time of year, surrounded by bountiful yellow daffodils and wattles in full bloom. How I love this time of year!
Even though our travels are always glorious affairs and filled with experiences that nurture the soul, it is always such a pleasure to return home.
Home truly is a place where memories are made and a home also provides much inspiration for the creative heart.
Currently we are busy preparing for next year's workshops, retreats and tours and then summer will be upon us and we will enjoy a much needed quiet pause.
We have a few new programs on offer in Provence next year and the one I am very excited about is our long awaited Provence Blossoming Heart Retreat which is mentioned later in this newsletter.
If you would like more information about any of my offerings for next year, please visit our information request page for the latest details
Living beautifully and creating beauty enables the song of the heart to rise within us. Beauty is also a joy for the person who beholds it.
Each and every person who engages in living deeply through the heart is more centered and quietly present and the flow of that heart energy opens the doorway to our compassion for others and supports this beautiful planet on which we live. The heart-light is indeed a powerful beacon.
One of my favourite places on our country property is
the
heart shed which
is festooned with metal and wire hearts of all shapes and sizes, collected
here and there during our travels or gifted by friends.
The shed is currently bedecked with a rambling red rose and honeysuckle about to burst into fragrant bloom. I adore this visual reminder of the beauty of the heart.
A daily practice is also a fundamental part of staying connected to the heart.
Love, Grace and Gratitude is my mantra for the heart. These words are
essentially a prayer for our hearts, a direct pathway to connecting to our
inner light which in turn then shines out to others.
Take a pause for your blossoming heart and count your blessings. What comes to mind when you think of the word gratitude? Name three things you are grateful for today and why. Celebrate that!
With life being so busy and active, in addition to your daily centering practice of choice, it is important to relax and refill those inner reservoirs.
I know how challenging that can be at times and so I have been turning my attention to a new Essential Oil Reflection, Roman Chamomile - for calming, gentle support.
ROMAN CHAMOMILE
( Anthemis nobilis )
Keywords: RELAXED / RIGID
Burdened by the demands of life? Feeling tense and uptight? Pay attention to contraction and expansion in your body and also of your inhalations and exhalations. Notice what your breath is doing!
When life has made you hard and indifferent, Roman Chamomile helps to remove the blocks that keep you rigid and inflexible. Learn to recognize when you are not relaxed. Become aware of when and where you hold tension in your body.
As you direct your breath into these areas you will notice a shift, as tension begins to melt away. Deep, focused breathing activates your vagus nerve enabling your body to receive messages of calm, peace and relaxation. It will also help you to create a conscious connection to relaxation.
Breathe.....Breathe.....Breathe!
When you are fixated, agitated and emotionally out of whack, a massage with Roman Chamomile will help you chill out and move you through any internal obstructions you may harbour. What do you need to see, hear, feel and know to move you away from rigidity of thought and rigidity in the body?
Engage in exercise that makes you feel vital and strong to switch on your relaxation response more readily. Choose a fitness style that reflects the essence of who you are and move your physical body daily to connect you with the flow of life. Movement will also help you to develop greater flexibility in your thinking capacity and build emotional resilience.
Remember every day to take time out for yourself so that you can go the long distance. Honour your spirit and immerse yourself in and contemplate nature’s beauty. There is nothing quite like being in praise of slow! Living in the slow lane is one of life’s new luxuries. How slow can you go?
Whenever you feel stressed, pressed, compressed or depressed, take a moment to quiet your mind and focus only on your breath. Inhale Roman Chamomile to take you there or gently massage it over your solar plexus to help your nervous system to unbend, unwind and loosen up. Undertake regular relaxation regimes to keep your heart-light switched on.
Breathe…..Breathe…..Breathe!
Direct your breath to your heart centre with the deepest and lightest of sighs, allowing yourself to soften and consciously listen for the song of relaxation that lives in your deeper heart.
At night, as you relax into the space that lights your heart, breathe deeply and imagine falling asleep cradled in the loving hand of God.
Breathe…..Breathe…..Breathe!
Blossoming Heart Affirmation
Breathing in I soften my approach.
Breathing out I am relaxed.
Dates:
30 November-2 December 2012
Venue:
Wellpark College, Grey Lynn Auckland
It is not long now before Jim and I are in Auckland for Aromatic Kinesiology One - The Path of Beauty. We have a good size group gathered to explore essential oils from an emotional perspective and we are both very excited about bringing the work of The Blossoming Heart to New Zealand. I have had several enquiries from people who wanted to know if the workshop was for therapists only. The answer is a resounding no. Heart blossoming enterprise is for each and every one of us.
The Blossoming Heart series gently allows you to move beyond your own limits so that indeed your heart can truly blossom. It naturally follows that if your own light is shining brightly that it gives others permission to do the same. The Path of Beauty offers a perfumed road home where you can find and live from a centred place within yourself, where you can connect with your own heart and shine that beautiful heart-light out to others. Once switched on it stays switched on!
This inner and outer connection is a focus for all participants seeking deeper levels of love and healing in their lives. For some people the work is a delicious deep dive into the inner self where you can relish the time for refining and for others it is an exercise in stretching your self-expression more fully - unleashing a quiet revolution of change.
There are still a few places available if you wish to join us in Auckland.
In
place of our traditional Provence Aromatherapy Retreat, next year for the first
time, we will be offering our new
Blossoming Heart Retreat.
The retreat offers an exceptional opportunity for you to study and gain
practical experience of the emotional and wellbeing benefits of using essential
oils based on the principles found in The Blossoming Heart book.
In an absolutely idyllic setting in Provence this is the perfect environment for
learning, sharing and being inspired both personally and professionally.
Set amongst the natural bounty and sweeping lavender fields of Provence, our
retreat week will connect you with nature, your creativity and your purpose as
we explore The Blossoming Heart Pathways to stress free living.
You will enjoy a unique series of lectures, field trips and experiences that
will bring The Blossoming Heart to life, along with the knowledge of
local experts in aromatic plant cultivation and essential oil production who
will also share a wealth of experience with you.
During the retreat not only will you enjoy a visit to an organic farm and a
distillery to see the production of essential oils from field to bottle you
will also greatly broaden your knowledge of the psychological properties of
essential oils and how to use them to reduce stress.
Every element of the retreat has been planned to perfection and we will be
visiting some of the hidden gems tucked away in the Provencale
countryside that were the inspiration for the creation of The
Blossoming Heart book.
This pioneering work on the mood enhancing and stress releasing properties of
essential oils integrated with an extensive
background over more than 35 years in the healing arts, has empowered
individuals, practitioners and educators around the world, to enhance their
abilities in gently reducing stress and increasing internal balance and
wellbeing.
During the retreat I will be sharing my unique knowledge and understanding of aromatherapy - a heartfelt approach that incorporates a philosophy of inner beauty while nurturing, nourishing and revitalizing the body, mind and spirit.
For more details please visit our information request page
If you would like to purchase a copy of The Blossoming Heart - Aromatherapy for Healing and Transformation please visit my book order page
I am thrilled to announce that next year for the first time, I will be facilitating two complete series of The Blossoming Heart workshops in Australia and Canada.
Our Blossoming Heart family continues to grow around the world which is so gratifying. With more and more hearts blossoming it collectively makes a difference on the planet. For every person called to this work, for every heart-light that switches on, the light of love radiates more fully out into the world.
Love is who we are! It is my passion and my purpose to inspire
people to live and learn from the heart. My life work reflects this.
Australian Workshops
I am looking forward to continuing the journey that started the USA and Canada
several years ago and I am happy to report that Jim will be accompanying me next year bringing
his unique presence to the workshop experience with his focus, insight and
care.
Canadian Workshops
USA Workshops
Among
the many holidays in the Balinese 210 day calendar, the most prominent is
undoubtedly the celebration of Galungan which celebrates the return of the Balinese
Gods and ancestors to Bali.
Balinese families entertain and welcome them with prayers and offerings, along
with ceremonies to cleanse and balance the inner and outer energy of the island.
Galungan celebration lasts for ten days and ends with Kuningan day.
It
features, among other things, Barong dancing from temple to temple in the
village. The festival symbolizes the victory of good over evil.
The origin of Galungan is
steeped in ancient Hindu-Balinese tradition and on the two main festival
days everything is closed. People return to their village of origin to
present offerings to their ancestors and village temples.
In order to welcome and appease the Gods, ancestral temples are cleaned,
special prayers and offerings are made and dances are presented. It is also
believed that the ancestors of the family descend to their former homes at
this time, congregating in the family temple.
The streets of Bali are
highly decorated with giant bamboo poles "panjor"
creating a very festive atmosphere. Each panjor is decorated with woven
young coconut leaves, fruit, cakes ands flowers and placed on the right side
of every house entrance.
The streets near the temples are crowded with people dressed in their finest
colourful clothes and jewels, with the women balancing the offerings high
upon their heads and the men holding palm offerings in their arms as they
make their way to the temple.
Kuningan marks the end of Galungan and gets its name from the special
offerings made of yellow rice. This is the day that the earth dwelling
ancestors return to heaven.
To honour them, families will gather, pray and lay yellow offerings.
However, most Kuningan celebrations take place in the privacy of the home in
the shrines of the family temple and housing compounds where the smell of
incense, good food shared activities and feelings of happiness abound.
The beauty of Bali lies in the Balinese attention to ritual and detail,
resulting in a piece of heaven that is aesthetically beautiful with a
calming ambience. Every ceremony is a painstakingly orchestrated affair
adorned with carefully sculpted leaves, fruits and flowers. Such diligence
is attributed to the devotion to serve and to foster an affinity with all
things divine.
The Balinese life is a different existence from anywhere else in the world and to imbibe the life values of the Balinese as they busy themselves with unending festivities and ceremonies and celebrate their cultural beliefs is truly a blessing. In Bali, each moment is highlighted by the work of the Balinese Gods, without which nothing would be possible......making everything possible......
This connection to spirituality, artistry and tradition is an important part of the experiences that I share with the women attending our Bali Women's Retreat.
Comments flow in following the retreat and below is a selection from this year. Wonderfully, we still hear from people years later as to the lasting impact that the retreat had on them.
If you haven't already done so you may also enjoy taking a peek at photos of this year's Bali Women's Retreat
Few cities can match Istanbul as a place of spectacular beauty, profound cultural and historical heritage as well as a sense of the exotic around every corner.
"There God, man, nature and art have created and placed the most magnificent view the human eye can contemplate on earth."
~ Lamartine.
For over 2,500 years the city known today as Istanbul, has been a place of great strategic and trade importance and situated at the crossroads where Europe and Asia meet. Formerly known as Byzantium and Constantinople, some of the world's greatest civilizations including the Persian, Byzantine, Greek, Roman and Ottoman empires have left behind them a rich legacy of culture, architecture, art, antiquities and of great interest to us, their aromatic heritage. Istanbul is a fantastic city to explore and the locals love visitors.
One of my favourite outings in Istanbul is to
walk through the old city of Sulanahmet, past the spectacular Topkapi palace to visit the
Egyptian spice bazaar or Misir Charsisi, situated near the shores of the Golden
Horn.
Trade has been bustling under its high domed roof for 350 years since its
construction as part of extensions to a nearby complex of mosques.
Stall after colourful stall entice with the exotic aromas from spices, herbs, gums, perfumes, incense, essential oils, teas, seeds, nuts, Iranian saffron and Russian caviar. The storefronts are extremely photogenic and stacked with aromatic Turkish delight, scented with rose, lemon or pistachio. In the labyrinth of streets located behind the Spice Bazaar, there are even more shops filled to the brim with all manner of household goods that are wonderful to fossick among.
Istanbul has an abundance of exotic flavours and fragrances to be savoured and the story of coffee is a great example of its aromatic influence.
Coffee is a native of Ethiopia and was first cultivated by the Ottomans in Yemen for use in Sufi religious ceremonies
and was a special treat for the noblility.
The first
public coffee house was opened in Constantinople in 1554 and "kaveh", as it was called, quickly became very popular.
Turks love their coffee black, strong and sweet!
Europeans were first introduced to coffee outside of Vienna by the Ottomans, who while retreating after their second and final,
unsuccessful attempt to lay siege to the city were forced to leave behind sacks of coffee beans. When asked what the sacks of
beans were for, one of the captive soldiers explained how to roast, grind and brew this strange new beverage.
It is interesting to note that the triumphant Austrians decided to celebrate their victory by creating a pastry! They relished the idea of eating a pastry shaped as a crescent moon which was the symbol of the Ottomans who were their long time suppressor. They called this innovative pastry "the croissant".
If you would like a taste of our Turkish Adventures this year please enjoy
taking a peek at the
lovely photos taken by our dear friend Russel Bowey during his time with
us on our Turkish Aromatic Odyssey
with his wife Marija ( pictured above ).
Guest Comment
"The 'Odyssey' was so wonderful for me and was just what I needed at that point in my life. It was a very special trip in so many ways. I loved Turkey and all the places we visited; it was what I'd individually researched and wanted to do. But, the people in the group made it even more special.
There was a true spirit of warmth, peace, kindness and acceptance of each other. Special people at different moments came together and by their very unique personalities and spirits contributed to this wonderful adventure. Thank you so much!"
~ Chris Zajac, Shelby MI USA
I look forward to welcoming you and sharing the work of The Blossoming Heart or one of our delightful tours or retreats with you in the near future.
For detailed information please visit our information request page
If you have any questions or if you would like me to assist you personally with any other details please contact me by email at [email protected]
"To love a person is to learn the song that is in their heart...
And to sing it to them when they have forgotten it.
~Thomas Chandler
With love, grace and gratitude,
Robbi
To find out more:
For detailed information about any of Robbi's
workshops, tours and retreats and special events, or to
contact Robbi with your questions please visit the
information request page
Book Orders:
Copies of Robbi's wonderful book "The Blossoming Heart - Aromatherapy for Healing and Transformation", are available via our
book order page