Aloha All

As we enter into the New Year, I’d like to share a remarkable, or dare I say miraculous, story of recovery from illness. Meet Alex Flatley, a young college student who found himself in a coma during his final exams. He was diagnosed with encephalitis, viral meningitis, and sepsis. For those not in the medical field, that means that his entire body, including his brain and spinal column, was infested with a variety of bacteria and viruses to such a degree that it threatened his life. His doctors prepared his family for the worse and gave little hope for Alex’s survival.

While he was in a coma, Alex felt a profound connection to his deceased father who had died just 4 years before Alex had collapsed into a coma. His father in spirit told him to be strong and don’t give up. And he did. Shortly after the spiritual contact with his father on the other side, Alex awoke from the coma.

When he first woke up, he wasn’t able to recognize his own mother.  Alex thought she was a nurse. His physicians again prepared the family for the possibility that he might not regain his mental functioning. His physician said that he wouldn’t be able to return to school again for his next semester 3 months after his coma. But Alex was determined to continue living his life. With the help of his mother, he ate right, walked every day, and eventually recalled some memories from the past. He proved the experts wrong again by going back to school after the summer break. That semester, he made the Dean’s list.

When I first spoke to Alex on the phone, he had already been through this ordeal. I was humbled by the sheer power of his story. The thing that struck me most about Alex was his amazing will to live, as well as his boundless optimism. He refreshed my belief that human beings are capable of so much more than we expect. I am grateful to his medical team that kept treating him no matter how grim the odds may have looked. I honor his mother and family for believing in his ability to recover. In Alex, I honor his will to live his life to the fullest. Take a look at Alex Flatley now in this short video titled “Lion Heart”. Dream big this New Year!

Kamana surfing the South Shore Oahu

I paddled my surfboard over a white capped crest of a three foot high wave. It sprayed a salty mist in my face as I teetered over the top of the wave and landed on the other side. The water was glassy and clean on the south shore of Oahu. I’m over 200 meters out from shore when I saw a little Hawaiian kid looking back at me on his boogie board. We smiled at each other. In my mind, I told myself that I would look after that little kid in case he needed help out here in the ocean. But who was I kidding? The kid was only 5 years old and he was already better than me at surfing.

It has been a part of my weekly ritual to go surfing. That crystal teal water always takes away any heaviness that I may have picked up throughout the week. It washes away the nagging thoughts in my head and reminds me of the sweetness of life. In Hawaiian, they call that process au au kai (ow ow kye), which means to wash in the sea water. After I surf, my mind becomes still and my body feels like a hollow pipe. Everything tingles and I remember what my life force feels like. It clears the way for me to be.

            As I sat on my board waiting for the next set of ways to come in, I reflected on my life 15 years ago. I lived in New York and I was doing a lot of deep intensive work on myself. I had already finished an apprenticeship with my uncle in traditional Native American medicine. I went on to study energy healing for several years with my mentor Carol. In addition to this, I was going to a therapist who specialized in several forms of deep cathartic work. I was a self proclaimed workshop junky who couldn’t seem to heal fast enough.

Back then, I only had sparse glimpses of my future life. I had faith that my life would change for the better. I knew that I would eventually find success as a Healer. And, one day, I would settle down and have a family. But I did not see myself sitting on that surfboard on the shores of Oahu. The most powerful glimpse that I received of my future life 15 years ago was an image of my future wife. Her kind Native face and bright smiled stayed with me. I didn’t know that I would meet her on Oahu. What deep inner work did I need to do to get here?

The major difference in my present day self and who I was 15 years ago can be summed up in one word. Surrender. I had this drive to keep growing rapidly because I didn’t know what it would feel like to be whole. While doing that deep inner work in New York, I compulsively looked for the next thing that I had to do to get healed. I wanted my Healer to hurry up and pull all the heavy blocks and burdens out of my body. I wanted to passionately hit a foam cube and scream in my therapist’s office to expedite the release of all my pain. I went to workshop after workshop, searching for another piece to the puzzle, knowing that somehow the effort would pay off in the long run. But 15 years ago, I couldn’t tell you what it would look like when I was finally healed enough to say ‘this life is what I want it to be’. I now know what it is to be whole.

            After riding a few more waves, I let the last one take me back to shore. As I swished across the face of the wave, the sky burned magenta. When I stared at that sunset, all I could do was feel that golden sprinkle of gratitude inside. This was how I got to spend my day. When I drove home, I got to kiss the woman I had always dreamed about. When I ate food, I could taste every morsel. I no longer need to pull something out of me and healing was not longer about “getting something” from someone else. There comes a time in the healing process where these in and out movements distract us from being in the hollowness. All those workshops, all those sessions, and all those learning moments with my mentors had surprising left a void. I was taught to fear that void, until I learned to sit in it. This is the step that so many people miss when they are caught up in that dire drive to get healed. When that inner pipe of my being had finally opened up, there was nothing more to do but allow the me-ness to surface into that hollow space. That me-ness attracted the right people and lead me to the right places for new opportunities. I trust that now. I trust that allowing my being to surface through that initial empty space is the true source of joy.

Here’s a great video that i recommend for anyone who has been to a Bloodline Healing Workshop or some other form of cathartic process work. Enjoy.

Dina Bernat-Kunin is a graduate of the BlueStone Institute as a certified energy practitioner and works as a Healer in private practice in Los Angeles . She spoke with us about her experiences working as a facilitator at Bloodline Healing workshops.

Interviewer: Besides being a Bloodline Healing Facilitator, what training do you have as a practitioner?

Dina: I’ve been practicing since 1987 as a traditional social worker/therapist/clinician. I also did a 2 year certificate training program in psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the southern CA psychoanalytic Institute in Los Angeles. I graduated from the BlueStone Institute of the Healing Arts as a certified energy practitioner.   

Interviewer: Can you recall a moment when you realized that Bloodline Healing had a big impact on someone you were working with?

Dina: One particular client had a history on both sides of the family of a lack of nurturing and caring. Everything was focused on survival and there wasn’t a lot left for really being able to see each child as an individual. She didn’t receive what she needed, because the parents didn’t receive what they needed emotionally. So she really went through life with a lack of trust. When she started making connections and really bringing to herself as an adult, what she needed as a child, she was able to start trusting herself and start trusting life.

Interviewer: What are some of the reasons why people have tried Bloodline Healing in the past?

Dina: People feel that the decisions and choices that they have made in life have been impacted by things that they are not fully aware of. They have that sense that there are things at play in their family or their lineage that they are bound to. They feel they have to live with this family script and they don’t feel free. Discerning the burdens of ancestors and lineage allows them to make clearer choices and really step off that family script to create their own. That doesn’t mean disinheriting the gifts of their family, it means that they can embrace the gifts that their family gives them, but also embrace who they are as an individual and being able to move forward in their life.

Interviewer: What makes this a unique approach to healing in your eyes?

Dina: In this work, we really make an effort to connect to our lineage and explore not just our nuclear family and our own individual life, but what we inherit. And the experiences of our grandparents and great-grandparents and what they’ve gone through. Sometimes their emotional experiences have not found closure or found expression and their stories are unfinished. So then there are things that get passed down. That’s a very unique way of looking at who we are.

Interviewer: What’s your favorite part of the workshop?

Dina: I love the support that people just naturally want to give to their co-participants. We teach how to give that support so that people feel safe. That really allows people to bring all of their feelings; even the uncomfortable, challenging feelings that they don’t always want to acknowledge or show. I love those moments where they make this connection to their lineage. We work at exploring family trees and as people are talking and sharing, they start to see things they haven’t seen before. They say “Oh, I can see why I struggle with this. Look at my family. It’s not just me. This is maybe not just my burden”. You see this look on people’s faces when they start to put that together. And it’s just this expression of, “Oh, there’s hope for me”.

Interviewer: What advice do you have for a first time participant?

Dina: It’s really important, almost vital, that if you’re coming to the workshop that you have some container outside of the workshop that you step back into. That you’re doing some other kind of personal work and getting continued support. Because a lot comes up that can be surprising and maybe even feel a little overwhelming. So you need a safe and containing place to come and continue to process after.

Interviewer: What made you want to experience Bloodline Healing?

Mika: We had a family therapist, Eileen Walkenstein who wrote a book, The Imprinters. She wrote about family bloodline history and that we carry on our parents or family’s unfinished business. And that sort of opened my mind to the importance of this bloodline healing. Then I started working with George, it just expanded.

Interviewer: The Ancestral Dialogue is the part of the workshop where participants speak directly to their ancestors. Can you describe what you remember from the experience?

Mika: The way that George slowly and deliberately prepared us for that experience was really powerful. He talked about boundaries and limits and grounding in oneself and developing a protective shield. And all of that led up to this feeling that I was safe there, and ironically I wanted to risk it all.

I have three children and two were so easy and then this third child was my challenge. I tried so hard to be a good mother to her and it just wasn’t working. So I got angry at her. I really played a lead in trying to create this family mythology that this child was a difficult child, but it all was because I wasn’t getting feedback from her that I was a good mother to her. She had a different kind of energy and instead of just being open to learning about her, I kept trying to compress her energy instead of understanding it. In my own childhood everything was about keeping me tight and together. I really was carrying through my mother’s lineage. And then things really, really shifted.

Interviewer: Did you notice a shift in your emotional state after the workshop?

Mika: I felt so much sadness and grief about all those years when she was vulnerable and I kept pushing her to shut up and conform. Afterwards, I read all her notes that she had given me. And every step of the way, she was trying to communicate with me and trying to say in her own way what she needed. Because of my own family history I was not going to tolerate that. I was going to let her know who was in charge. She just wanted a heart connection. The amazing thing that happened was that my daughter was out of the country at the time, but I texted her something very simple. For whatever reason, she could feel the shift in my energy and she wrote back a response that just opened my heart even more and it’s been better ever since. We still have stuff to work on, but we are on a different plane now.

Interviewer: Did the workshop help you to clarify plans in your life, or some other kind of practical shift?

Mika: This relationship shift meant the world to me. I’m a core energetics practitioner and it has helped me so much in my work. This shift that happened in this workshop has helped me so much in my work with clients. I can be open to all of their goodness and all of who they are. It was major, this relationship shift and how I can generalize it in my life.

Interviewer: What is your advice to someone who would like to try Bloodline Healing for the first time?

Mika: It’s a great gift to experience and it’s a gift not only personally, but also in relationships in people’s lives and opening up lots of old blocks. Prepare to be profoundly affected. In other words, the more you can bring the more you can get out of it.

Experience this potent and meaningful work firsthand at one of our workshops.  Join us for our annual Brandeis Bloodline Retreat on Feb 6-8th, 2015 in Simi Valley, 45 minutes outside of L.A.