My partner and I have been doing a fair amount of travelling over the past year or two [how long has it been??] and have had a change in web design and support, so you can expect to hear from us a little more regularly now.

If you haven’t visited the website for a while, I encourage you to do so from time to time as we will be adding more products and information.

We'd really like to know where in the world you are so we can tailor the seasonal newsletters accordingly as well as letting you know of workshops or classes that I may be doing in your area ~ particularly in Australia and New Zealand [although I am open to travelling anywhere to teach!].

As I write this newsletter we are nearing the end of Autumn coming into Winter here in Australia, and I wish to use these seasons “flavours” as it were to highlight the importance or essence of change.

Change as a state of being is the only constant in the universe. Everything is always changing in the natural environment as well as in our own lives and bodies. Nothing stays the same yet we often seem to want some things to never change. I read a delightful little book many years ago called “Gift from the Sea” by Ann Moro-Lindberg, in it she speaks of relationships and how we often want to keep them “Frigidaire fresh” as if preserving them. Isn’t it true? When something or someone causes us to feel great, we never want them to change or go. But life is not like that.

Autumn is a perfect example of nature’s ability to change and let go, to move on to the next part of the life cycle. Leaves change colour and fall; the Earth and many animals go into hibernation awaiting the warmth of Spring. Another wonderful little book about such change is Leo Buscaglia’s “The Fall of Freddie the Leaf”. This is about death and is designed to help children understand this process. In it the leaves all have their own personalities and discuss this process in a very matter-of-fact way saying that when it’s “their time” they will simply let go of the branch and fall gracefully to the ground to await new growth in the Spring, when another generation of leaves will emerge. Yet another change!

Although Spring is the season of change in Chinese Energetic Healing, change is something that happens to us all the time. It is very important to move forward and allow change to occur regardless of the situation. If we try to hang on to anything, it will ultimately bring us down because when we halt change we create stagnation. Stagnation breads disease at all levels of life.

Similarly when things happen in our lives that we are not happy about we often tend to hang on to the thoughts and feelings of dislike, betrayal, guilt, remorse or whatever it may be. Unfortunately these states cause us to become off balance in ourselves and this can cause disease. In Chinese medicine the first rule you learn and must understand is: “Qi controls the body and the mind controls Qi”. Basically this means that whatever you think or believe controls how your Qi functions and this in turn controls how your body functions [or dysfunctions!].
Qi being the vital life force inherent in all living things.

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Recently a long-time friend and colleague of mine passed away. I only found out about her situation in the last month or so of her life as we didn’t have much contact. She had had cancer that had started some years ago as breast cancer and was successfully treated. Then it recurred in her lungs, and that is apparently what she ultimately died from. The lungs are the major part of Metal Element Energy in the Five Element Theory and their metaphysical quality is in letting things come and letting things go. When we do not let go, this is when we suffer.

I heard through others that my friend’s funeral was not so much a celebration of her life but a rerun of the pain she had suffered from this a particular incident from 10 years before. It was a situation of betrayal by her best friend and several other colleagues who, while she was away on maternity leave basically stole her practice and her clients and opened up a new centre just around the corner from her clinic. This was a huge shock and caused her much distress at the time as she had a highly successful and busy, multi-disciplinary practice on Sydney’s North Shore.

It now seems to me that she probably never actually let go of the anger and hurt nor perhaps was she ever able to forgive any of them. I must point out that this is my take on her circumstances as it was many years since we actually spoke, but I do know she was devastated at what they did at the time.

So my message for this newsletter and the lesson I have taken from her life is in the words of Louise Hay, regardless of who it was or what they did to you – forgive them and LET IT GO. This is not about condoning other people’s poor behaviour, it is about YOU forgiving and moving on because when we don’t let go and move on WE are the only ones to suffer, and what is the point in that?

Let’s say someone did you wrong years ago [no matter what they did] and you still hold on to the fear or anger or hatred or whatever, well guess what? YOU are the one who will end up bringing yourself down. Why? Because what you think, how you think and what you believe creates your reality. As Caroline Myss says, “your biography becomes your biology”.

So for this season – whether you are in the southern hemisphere experiencing Autumn/Winter or the northern hemisphere experiencing Spring/Summer – find something in your past that you have not yet let go of and make a commitment to yourself and your health to let it go; to forgive those involved understanding that they were probably only acting out their own biography and will have their own karmic comeuppance. It is not your responsibility to “get them back” and your hanging on to the pain only hurts you and your loved ones because you are not able to be whole when part of you is tied up with some event that occurred in the dim distant past.

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Chinese medicine is very clear about this and the two main energetic systems involved in change and allowing things to come and go are the Metal and Wood Elements. These Elements are aligned with Autumn [Fall] and Spring respectively.

Briefly, Autumn is the time of letting things come and letting things go; it is aligned with the Lungs and Large Intestine the organs associated with bringing in the new and letting go of the old or unwanted.

Spring is the time of rebirth and renewal; it is expressed as the change of a seed into a sprout and ultimately a plant. The only way the seed can ever get to express its full potential is to leave its comfort zone of being buried deep within the earth and sprouting forth to meet the light of day.

These two systems are the ones that cause us humans most problems if we do not honour their needs to change and grow. Check past newsletters on my website for further information about these or buy my Five Element CD.

If you are wondering how to go about letting go of some old hurt, here are a few things you can try.

A) Counselling – Transactional Analysis or Gestalt Therapy or Art Therapy
B) Emotional Freedom Technique: www.emofree.com/downloadeftmanual.asp
C) Vipassana Meditation: www.dharma.orgwww.dharma.org
D) Thrashing a phone book!

Now this last item is I believe the best of all as you can do it by yourself whenever you feel the need. I learned this from a workshop of Elisabeth Kubler-Ross. Get yourself an old phone book and a length of garden hose [about 12” long]. When you decide to do this you may want to turn up the TV or radio, close all windows and doors and commit to yourself that you will not harm yourself.

Then open the phone book and imagine the person or event that is causing you most grief is on the pages; take the hose preferably in your right hand, as it is most closely connected with your liver energy and therefore your anger. Now begin to hit the pages, really wack them and verbally let fly anything you want to say to this person. This is not hurting them or you so go for it!! I have found this to be one of THE most successful emotional release techniques I have used. It should only take you between 3 – 7 minutes to get it out. The first time I ever did it I screamed abuse and shouted and swore!!! and thrashed that book, pages flew everywhere, it was so liberating. Then suddenly the anger and hurt was gone and I began laughing, hysterically almost at the absolute mess of paper everywhere. But boy did I feel great. I had freed myself of some old stuff and it sure felt good.

Sometimes it can be difficult to begin such a tirade, but believe me when you go for it you realise how much of your own energy was tied up in keeping that old pain alive inside you. Then you can see just how such emotions can potentially cause disease or even death.

I hope I have been able to encourage you to look within and perhaps release some old stuff that is no longer serving you in these seasons of change so that those in the southern hemisphere can go into Winter without storing up that old pain and those in the northern hemisphere can burst forth into the sunshine and warmth of summer with renewed freedom.

May everyone everywhere be happy and may only love prevail.
In health and happiness
Sally Yasukawa

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Classes and Workshops

Ba Duan Jin Qi Gong weekly classes:

Wednesdays 6.30-7.30 pm and Fridays 10 –11 am held at The Erina Centre, Erina Fair, Central Coast NSW. For information call: 02 4385 7044

Women’s Health and Natural Hormone Regulation

This is a workshop for women to learn how to take care of hormone fluctuations. You will learn about your body’s energetic-hormone connection and how you can help yourself to keep it in balance; you will also learn how to activate and utilise your sexual energy to nourish your hormonal system.

Next workshop will be held end of June or early July. Please call or email if you are interested in this workshop.

Consultations and Treatments

Sally is taking limited new clients at the present time and is working from her home in North Avoca on the NSW Central Coast and from Pilates First in Lane Cove, Sydney.

For those unfamiliar with her background she is an acupuncturist, remedial massage therapist, metaphysical teacher and healer, as well as being a Qi Gong instructor. She has been in full time practice since 1984.

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