Following the series finale of Glee just a few weeks ago, I have been listening to some of the music of various cast members on Spotify. In particular, Matthew Morrison (a.k.a. Will Schuester on Glee) starred in a Broadway version of South Pacific. His version of “You've Got to Be Carefully Taught” really caught my ear.  Thetongue-in-cheek lyrics proclaim:

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

South Pacific originally premiered on Broadway in 1949. These lyrics are such powerful words that are still so true 65 years later. Our children are blank slates at birth upon whom we make great impressions. Children come into the world loving, caring, and blind to the social categories that previous generations have created. It’s only when others tell them that skin color is problematic or someone’s sexual orientation is wrong that they begin to believe such untruths.

Recent events in Indiana and elsewhere continue to demonstrate that there are still plenty of haters in the world, and as Taylor Swift has duly noted, “haters gonna hate.” However, it’s never too late or too difficult for each of us as individuals to show love and acceptance rather than hatred and discrimination. As author Shakti Gawain writes, "Transformation begins on an individual level and moves out into the world."  If all of us make changes as individuals, we’ll become role models for future generations who won’t be taught to hate.  And if each of us changes individually, eventually the majority of our society will have changed as well. It’s a slow grass-roots way of bringing about change, but it’s very effective. Change begins within each of us.

© 2015 Elizabeth Galen, Ph.D., Green Heart Guidance, LLC

My business card says I’m a holistic life coach and intuitive energy healer.  So what does being “an intuitive energy healer” mean?  To start with, it’s a term I made up.  I was trying to find a good way to describe the work I do because no other term I’d seen really encompassed it all for me. 

An energy healer is someone who works to heal people on an energy level.  Some healers use Reiki; others work with crystals; others use essential oils.  There are many other energy healing methods, some of which are becoming fairly mainstream such as acupuncture.  Most energy healers are hands-on healers. 

I am an intuitive:  I work with energy from a distance most of the time rather than being in the same room as my clients.  Because of this, I didn’t simply want to list myself as an energy healer because for many people, that connotes an in-person experience.  However, unlike many other intuitives or psychics who receive messages from the other side, the messages I receive very often have to do with healing especially through energetic means.  The work I do isn’t just for fun to try and peak into the future.  It creates an avenue for people to work on deep personal healing.

So an intuitive energy healer, in my opinion and creation, is one who works with metaphysical energy by accessing information from higher powers.  I help my clients find solutions for their problems, especially surrounding health issues, that aren’t always easily solved through physical means such as prescription drugs and herbs. 

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

I say to people who care for people who are dying, if you really love that person and want to help them, be with them when their end comes close. Sit with them - you don't even have to talk. You don't have to do anything but really be there with them.  ~Elisabeth Kubler-Ross

Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ advice is sound and applies to far more people than the dying.  It definitely works well for those with chronic illness.  One of the things that can be the biggest help for someone who is fighting any kind of battle or facing any kind of major change is to just be there for them so that they don’t feel so alone on their journey.

Brené Brown expands on this idea in her video (above) on empathy versus sympathy.  Empathy is a beautiful gift you can give to someone.  Empathy is support without judgment or blame.  For me, one of the most comforting things in the world is the empathetic response of an individual who truly understands or cares.  It can make my whole day seem a little less challenging.

When someone is around you is sick, let them know you hate that they are feeling bad.  Offer to bring them chicken soup or to run errands for them.  If you’re feeling really brave and honest, then offer to just spend your time with them.  Oftentimes your presence and support is the greatest gift of all.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance

Many years ago on Halloween, a group of local public high schoolers came to our front door with a shopping cart.  Instead of demanding candy, they were respectfully requesting canned good donations for a local charity as a part of a service group at the school.  It made a huge positive impression on me.  I thought it was a magnificent way for them to get out and enjoy Halloween as older kids but to turn it into a way that benefited the community at large.  It was also on a night when people were at home expecting people to come asking for food donations anyway!

Fast forward 11 years to 2013, and my twins were at a small private school for kids who lived all across the city.  I proposed to the school that we have a similar canned good drive, and the project was approved.  This school required volunteer hours for students as part of their desire to educate the whole person.  Students were allowed to earn volunteer hours by collecting canned goods which in turn parents helped drive to a local food bank.  We donated the cans we collected to the Capital Area Food Bank; another local organization that would happily accept such donations is Safeplace.

Organizing and preparing for this project really did not take a great deal of effort.  I did most of the preparation from home, and I’ve attached the documents from my work below so that others might use them as templates for similar drives.  I let teachers, students, and families know through the various electronic media for the school that this drive was happening.  I found students to help box up the collected items.  I organized families to drive the canned goods to the food bank and to donate baked goods for the winning advisory (also called a homeroom at other schools).  The afterschool club at the school made posters to hang around the school to increase awareness about the project, too.

The family preparation for my kids to participate was rather easy.  We have a wheeled utility cart that I use for farmers’ markets, so we had a way to carry the canned goods between houses.  We had spare boxes in the garage to put the collected items into.  We were ready to go.

While my kids were hesitant at first, they quickly realized how willing neighbors were to help.  It was very rare that someone did not give us a donation of at least one canned good, and quite often, they gave us more.  The neighbors also always offered the kids candy even though that wasn’t the goal.  Over the course of the evening, we made a couple of stops back at the house to unload the collection so that the cart didn’t get too heavy.

One thing that I had not anticipated was people wanting to donate cash or checks instead of canned goods.  If I run a project like this again, I would allow students to collect checks made out to the organization we were contributing to, and I would figure out a conversion amount (such as $1=1 canned good) for tabulations for the advisory competition we had going on.

When one is homebound and disabled, it can be hard to give to others.  Projects like organizing this canned food drive are something that can be done from home if you have a couple of great assistants helping you. Both my ex-husband and the woman we carpooled with were incredibly helpful in doing legwork for the project that was beyond my physical abilities.   The net result was great.  The kids collected hundreds of meals worth of canned goods and made Halloween a little more meaningful for everyone involved.

© 2014 Green Heart Guidance