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What's the point of doing nothing?
By Thich Nhat Hahn
In our society, everyone is over-scheduled, including children. Children are over-scheduled. And that is why we suffer of stress, depression, and so on. I think we have pushed the children to work too hard, and we have pushed ourselves to work too hard. This is not a civilization. We have to change the situation.
In Plum Village, every week we have one day called a lazy day. Lazy day is not a day when you can do what you like, because usually you think that there are things that you want to do, you like to do very much. And because in other days you have to do things for the Sangha, the daily things, that is why you need some time in order to to do what you like to do. And you may have an idea about the lazy day. Lazy day is a day when I can do what I like to do, but that is not a lazy day. Lazy day is a day when you refrain from doing anything; you resist doing things, because you are used to doing things. It can be a bad habit: if you are not doing anything, you have to die. You cannot bear the thought of doing nothing. It has become a habit. That is why, when you do not do anything, you suffer.
The lazy day is a kind of drastic measure against that kind of habit energy. On lazy days, you refrain! You do your best in order to refrain from trying to do something. You try to do nothing. It’s hard. It’s hard, but we have to learn. We have to open up, to start a new civilization. Because we have the tendency to think in terms of doing, and not in terms of being. We think that when we are not doing anything, we are wasting our time. That is not true. Our time is first of all, is for us to be. To be what? To be alive, to be peace, to be joy, to be loving. And that is what the world needs the most – so, we train ourself in order to be.
And if you know the art of being peace, of being silent, then you have the ground for every action, because the ground for action is to be. And the quality of being determines the quality of doing. Action must be based on non-action.
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Therapeutic Touch® Pioneers
with Janet Macrae & Cathy Fanslow
A Conversation about historical memories of TT
TT today and TT’s future – creating a sense of appreciation and inspiration in the listener
| From Left to right: Martha Fortune, Cathy Fanslow, Janet Macrae | |
The back story to this fortuitous event:
Cathy Fanslow had recently relocated to the East Coast. On October 21, 2022, she and Martha Fortune decided to take a road trip to visit a mutual hospice colleague and stop to see Janet Macrae as well. Once the get together was arranged, Martha drove Cathy to Janet’s where the two women quickly became deep in conversation. Janet was keenly interested in Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing. (Janet wrote and published Nursing as a Spiritual Practice in 2001). Cathy and Janet quickly realized many of Nightingale's principles for healing were congruent with those of Therapeutic Touch. Amazed by what she was seeing and hearing, Martha videotaped the friend's animated conversation, hoping to be able to share it with everyone. We no longer have Dee and Dora to dialogue thoughts and ideas with. These two women provide one the best opportunities we have to preserve precious memories of and hopes for TT. They worked side by side with Dee in every way for years.
Join Cathy and Janet on Zoom as we view this unrehearsed conversation, which is earnest, articulate, and beautiful. After watching the recording, Janet and Cathy will add to the conversation and be available for Q&A.
This is not to be missed!!! Please send your sign-up form to ttia@therapeutictouch.org. Click here for the Word version or click here for the pdf version. If you are mailing a check, please let the office know and email a copy of your sign-up form. The week of the webinar, you will be sent a link to register on Zoom.
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VOLUNTEER
SPOTLIGHT
TTIA's Board is delighted to feature a regular column in our bi-weekly
E-news spotlighting volunteers. As you probably know TTIA functions because we have amazing and wonderful volunteers! We are grateful and we are in awe and are excited to share some of their stories.
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Barbara Johnson
I love that I can send Therapeutic Touch in a moment’s notice. I love that I can be of service to my friends and family. I love that people will text me and say can I get on the schedule for next week? I love that my grandson says, “Grandma, can you do that energy thing on me?” I love that my pains can be eliminated quickly with some self TT. I love that all you leaders of the practicums include me each month whether or not my schedule allows me to attend. I love the Friday meditations where we are one. I love the TT webinars where I can learn from those who have so much experience.
I love that I’m able to take the classes each year and learn from different teachers. I love that I can learn from Dee and Dora through the books they wrote. I love that I’ve been able to attend zoom camps since I have not been to Indralaya yet. I love that universal healing energy moves through my field.
I love that from 2020- 2022 I was able to practice with so many people that I received my QTTP. I love that my mentor, Cordy has been so kind, supportive and generous with her time and talents. I love that I am a part of TTIA-a group of mostly nurse healers even though I’m not a nurse. I offer my profound thanks to all of you who have guided and taught me Therapeutic Touch. O yeah - did I say I love TT?
So how did a retired elementary teacher with a massage therapy background find Therapeutic Touch?
Through the Theosophical Society in Ojai, California. I am a proud member of the first Foundations zoom class in the fall of 2020 with Sue Conlin, Mary Anne Hanley, and Marilyn Johnston-Svoboda. That class changed my life’s path. My meditation practice has deepened as has my connection to all of life. Being centered and grounded is a constant part of my life and I feel the unity with all of nature including those invisible beings.
I live in Southern California, with my husband of almost 50 years. We have three sons and eight grandchildren. I love to body surf, to walk and to line dance. Since retiring, my goal is to travel and to uplift humanity. TT provides me the ideal way to be of service.
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According to the Dalai Lama, loving-kindness is "the wish that all sentient beings may be happy." Compassion is "the wish that all sentient beings be free from suffering." A meditation teacher from Myanmar put it this way: "When the sunshine of loving kindness meets the tears of suffering, the rainbow of compassion arises."
--Kristen Neff, Ph.D and Christopher Germer, Ph.D. The Mindful Self Compassion Workbook p 64
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An Invitation to do TT
at NYU Langone Hospital
As we all know, Dee Kreiger taught the first Therapeutic Touch® courses at NYU in New York City. Recently Martha Fortune and Sue Ann Duncan taught Foundations of Therapeutic Touch at NYU Langone Hospital. Martha sends us the following request from the hospital:
"Here is an invitation to be a volunteer at NYU Langone Hospital to offer Therapeutic Touch to patients and/or staff in a variety of locations. I offered TT to the Integrative Heath team for about 5 years, and have recently offered TT to oncology outpatients while they received chemotherapy.
I currently offer TT on a pediatric floor where the patients have undergone procedures and will be discharged.
The staff come to see me one by one over their lunch break. In addition, I offer 2 individual half hour TT sessions every other week for a total of 3 hours every other week. The staff really appreciate it and I’m spreading the word about TT in a facility where most only know about Reiki. Come join me!"(click here for the link to the Langone Hospital invitation to energy medicine practitioners)
--Martha Fortune
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I unconsciously reach out to the inner self--the "whole person"-- when I do Therapeutic Touch. If you find the concept of the "whole person" difficult, you can think instead of bringing order into the system.
Dora Kunz with Dolores Krieger, Ph.D, RN, The Spiritual Dimension of Therapeutic Touch p 164
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Meet our 2025 Congress Keynote Speakers: | |
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Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, HSGAHN
Internationally recognized as a pioneer in the holistic nursing and nurse coaching movements. She is a Florence Nightingale scholar, nurse theorist, and national and international speaker and teacher on Florence Nightingale’s legacy and the role of integrative nurse coaching in the emerging integrative health care paradigm. She is the International Co-Director and Board Member, Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH), Washington, DC, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Gatineau, Quebec. Together with her husband Larry Dossey MD she has won numerous awards including the Academy of Integrative Health and Medicine Visionary Award 2016. She was Nurse Healer’s (TTIA’s Credentialing Arm) Healer of the Year in 1998. www.dosseydossey.com,
www.iNurseCoach.com,
www.NIGHvision.net
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Katherine Rosa, PhD, FNP-BC, QTTT
Co-Director of the Stress Management and Resiliency (SMART) Program, Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA; Instructor, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; and MGH Researcher, Nurse Scientist focused on Relationships as Healing Transformations. Previously she worked as a family nurse practitioner and taught nurse practitioners as Co-Director of the Family Nurse Practitioner Program at UMass Lowell. One of her areas of interest is in the neurobiology of compassion in compassion contemplatives and how it may influence healing. She will share some of the research on compassion and its relation to the practice of Therapeutic Touch. She has extensive experience teaching individuals and groups on meditation, resiliency strategies, and the practice of Therapeutic Touch.
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JOIN US ON ZOOM
EVERY FRIDAY AT NOON (EDT)
Global Healing Meditation
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Every Friday our TT community has the opportunity to come together in harmony for the world using a meditation developed by Dora Kunz, co- founder of Therapeutic Touch. The connection, the deep quiet and the healing experience help us stay centered and present. If you can't join us on ZOOM, Click here for Dora's Meditation. We email a reminder weekly. We encourage you to read the e-newsletter as it contains relevant and current information about our organization and inspirational writings.
ALL ARE WELCOME
If you know of others who would like to attend, please Go to our Home Page or have them go there and Click on Subscribe
(Only those who have registered under their own name will be able to enter the ZOOM platform and attend the meditation).
Click on this Link to Register
We open up ZOOM 15 minutes before the meditation is scheduled to begin. After the meditation you will have a few minutes to come back to the present with immeasurable benefit and leave the group when you feel ready.
--Please enter the Zoom room by 12:10 pm Eastern--
At that point we close the Zoom room to further entries to hold the space for the meditation.
You don't want to be late for this.
Once we reach 100 in attendance, no one else can be admitted.
Please check the time in your zone!
Time: Every Friday
12:00 PM Eastern 1 PM Atlantic 11 AM CT 10 AM MT
9 AM Pacific 8 AM AKDT 6 AM Hawaii
6 PM Spain 6 PM Germany
If you are interested in leading the meditation, please contact
Leonie Van Gelder at ttia@therapeutictouch.org.
See you on Friday,
TTIA Board of Trustees
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Editor: Leonie Van Gelder,
Design Graphics: Cordy Anderson
Proof Readers: Sue Conlin and Sally Blumenthal McGannon
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