People my age generally do not expect to have a pain-free body. Yet I do aspire to it.

The first few spins on the Street Strider yielded a plethora of sore muscles throughout my body. Perseverance furthered and yesterday I simply felt stronger rather than slayed by exertion, after the ride.

Another opportunity for extreme physical exertion offered itself that night when a first time mom, exhausted by 24 hours of prodromal labor, needed natural and non-pharmaceutical help to bring this baby into the world. For two straight hours, we did a technique, in the toolbox of every labor and delivery nurse and midwife, but one that many do not use because of poor physical endurance, called “tug-of-war.” The mom to be was an athlete, and apparently, so am I. With every contraction, I pulled on a rope, meant specifically for this purpose and she pulled from the other end, with every contraction.

A little under two hours, the beautiful baby was born.

As mentioned on the Hanuman Chalisa blog post, Nina Raos featured a Hanuman Chalisa marathon on New Year’s Day on her YouTube channel. Every day since then, I’ve listen to the Chalisa when I am home and on my iPhone as I am driving around. It is constantly going through my mind and I love it. The Chalisa has the subtle effect of elevating my consciousness to ever higher levels.

True healing comes from nature, animals, devotional music and music of all ilks, and from seemingly metaphysical realms as well as from the Saints of all religious traditions.

Several hours after the baby’s birth, I had a moment to play the Chalisa and relax into a restful place between dreaming and waking. I became aware of an inner vibration in body, mind and spirit, in other words, a full embodied experience. The vibration was subtle and rhythmic. A disembodied voice said, “This is what healing looks like.”

A full 24 hours later, my body remains pain-free. I’ve had excruciating bursitis in my right shoulder for longer than a year. That pain is greatly alleviated as well.

Will Johnson calls the next year of our retreat together an experience of entry into the Great Wide Open, the year of “breath and body,” as he calls it. Healing also is dependent on synchronicity and connection, and infinite layers of love and meaning.

I start with The Chalisa, and the curtain lifts to reveal invisible worlds made visible in ever widening circles of Divine Blessing.

Om