You can navigate this page using the calendar on the left panel (simply click the highlighted days to see what course is offered on that date) or using the alphabetical list below (click on the topic of your interest and find more information and dates).

Day-Camp for Grown-Ups – Fun with Fairies and Other Nature Beings
Day-Camp for Grown-Ups – Meditations in the Summer Sun
Day-Camp for Grown-Ups – Rediscover Beauty in the World
Harmony at Last!
Integrating Life – Feeling Complete!
Integrating Life - Gaining Control!
Integrating Life – Intuition: The 6th Sense
Integrating Life - Self-Healing!
Integrating Life – Spirit: The 7th Sense
Past Life Exploration - Future Creation
Stress Buster!
Stress-free Meditations for a Stress-free Life
Summer Intensive - Building Healthy Relationships
Understand Your Dreams – Enhance Your Life

We also have Gift Certificates available. Please enquire.

Join me for an exploration of the world of dreaming. In this 5-session course you will learn: 

- About the history and science of dreaming 
- The secret to keeping a dream diary 
- How to start your own dream dictionary 
- The language of your dreams 
- How to take dream messages into daily life 
- How to use dream experiences to enhance your life
 

Each class includes an experiential exercise and / or meditation.

Participation in summer courses is limited to 6 people per course.

Dates: TBD
Location: 35 Edgar Ave. Richmond Hill, ON L4C 6K2
Fee: $ 120.00 all materials included.

Full registration (incl. payment in full) required.

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Summer time. July 1^st. Canada Day. Sitting in the backyard, listening to music and children’s laughter in the neighbouring yards, taking in the scents of roses, lilies and barbeques, feeling the cool evening air on the skin. Life is beautiful!

It is in moments like this that it is easy to feel good. For a while all the worries of the past days and weeks fall away and we feel satisfied and content for a moment. If the scenario above doesn’t work for you take a moment and fond the one that does: sitting by a lake in the summer, rushing down a hill on skies in mid-winter, making love to the love of your life… No matter what it is, the point is we all have known a moment like that in our lives.

These moments are more precious than many of us may realize for they are what keeps us going in the long run. The energy and emotions that we have in such moments are the same as those that are generally referred to as “being grounded, centred, and connected”. And it is in these grounded and centred moments that we find the energy and connection to life, the world and other living beings that makes us curious and hopeful enough to keep exploring and striving for more.

Nature is a very powerful ally in the search for extra energy. Unfortunately, in our busy city-lives we don’t always take enough time to be in nature. And often, when we do make it into the park, to the lake,  or even into the backyard we are so pre-occupied with getting there and fixing things that we often miss the life-restoring connection that is offered to us.

I am fortunate to have a very large backyard to spend time in. Over the years I have – gently, I hope – changed the overgrown wilderness into something that is natural enough for its wild inhabitants and yet comfortable enough for the humans who spend time in it. We have a skunk living under the shed, for five years in harmony with our cats. We have racoons visiting, rabbits, mice, squirrels and a wide variety of birds making a home back here. There are large, old trees, small flowering bushes, fruit bushes and flowers. A couple of years we put in a pond and now all the elementals have a home in this backyard. And yet, this year something felt off.

Last summer I spent mostly indoors due to a broken leg. So my yard was not tended to very well. The older areas of the yard, the ones planted a few years before, survived this “neglect” well enough. But there is a spot in the yard that had been cultivated only a year before – and it didn’t do all that well. And I noticed it this year. There was an angry energy in this area of the yard, defensive and somewhat rebellious. A friend mentioned: “It feels like – you didn’t want me, so bugger off.” This energy made me stay away from that spot for most of the spring. It was only in the past three weeks that I finally found the time – and courage – to face that energy and befriend it. Now the spot is re-planted and used almost daily. A chair and a work table have been placed there and I have found my spot to do my art work. Everyone is happy – most of all the elementals and nature beings in this spot.

As I was sitting there today I realized that this is not so different from how we often are with other people: someone is grumpy, angry, or sad and because we don’t have the time or energy or courage to face these feelings we avoid them. We don’t do anything to explore or change the situation and often that only aggravates it. Have you ever had an experience where you didn’t phone someone because it felt too much like a chore at the time. And then, after a few weeks, it felt awkward. And finally, after a couple of months it felt outright wrong and insulting to call them now, after all that time?  However, these relationships, just like the spot in my yard, become the opposite of what they are meant to be. They become energy suckers when they were meant to be energy boosters.

Over the years I have learned that one of the best ways for me to face those difficult situations and energies is two-fold:

1) Get energy in another way first: go for a nice walk, have a bath, eat a good meal, have a conversation with someone you love and care for, pet your cat or play with your dog, spend time with your children, dance, watch a good movie or what ever else feels good.  Then, when you are feeling good, centred and grounded go to step 2)

2) Remember the good times you had with this person or that spot. Remember what makes it worthwhile to try and restore the good feeling about the relationship. This builds up good will towards the other, the situation or the spot you are working on. And when that is achieved facing the person / situation / spot is much easier, almost a pleasure.

Keeping these energy boosters working in our lives is important. They provide us with a connection to he world around us. They help us see ourselves in the mirrors they are holding. They provide joy and beauty when we need a pick-me-up. And they hold the healing energies for our body and soul. Our relationships are our life purpose – in one way or another. Paying attention to them will always help us move forward, grow and enjoy life to the fullest.

If you are looking for something to do this summer, consider a Dream Course. Or check the Living Bridge website for information on a course on Communication Skills or on Boundaries and Energetic Protection.

I hope you will have a wonderful, enjoyable and relaxing summer.

Until September,

Sabine

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It has been a long time since I sat down to write an essay for this website. My new endeavour, The Living Bridge- Centre for Social Evolution, required a lot of attention. We went to the Total Health Show in Toronto in March and the preparations for this took up most of that month.

April was filled with more personal explorations and now, at the end of this time of old pathways seen in new light, I am happy to emerge into spring. The flowers in our backyard are competing for brilliancy: the bright yellows of the daffodils, the saturated green of the lawn, the deep violet of Violets, the shyly approaching blue and pink hues of forget-me-nots. No matter how grey the sky may be, these colours shine through the clouds and the rain. They remind me of the power of optimism and acceptance.

These past few weeks I had the opportunity to rediscover an old love of mine: simple pleasures. The smell of a flower or a bread in the oven; the colours of those flowers in the backyard; the sound of the neighbour’s kids playing ball; the taste of a hot cup of tea on a cool, rainy afternoon – those things are not only of great comfort but they restore soul and spirit.

All too easily we get lost in the race of everyday life: work, home, food, kids, sports, car – there is too much to do in the day. I, too, got lost in this racing-speed kind of life. Trying to make a living often is difficult enough. Trying to also hold on to some kind of identity and self-respect can seem almost impossible. As always, my clients in the past months reflected this for me. The questions ranged from “How did I get here?” to “Who am I?”

As we were struggling with these questions I had a unsettling experience. On this beautiful weekend a couple of weeks ago I was out in the yard. I had been yearning for this for weeks (if not months) and I had been very excited when the morning brought sunshine and warmth. I had gone outside, tea in hand, assessing the work that needed to be done and then had taken to it with a lot of energy. But after a couple of hours of raking and cleaning out flowerbeds I started to feel something quite different: anger! “Why was I doing all this work? Why wouldn’t my husband help? Surely, he’d appreciate the nice yard but work in it? No.” An on I went.

Now, the thing about our yard, my husband, and me is that from the very beginning it was clear that he is not an outdoors kind of person. He doesn’t like gardening, it doesn’t give him anything, and if there are daffodils or wild bramble bushes in the yard is really not all that big of difference to him. I, on the other hand, love the yard work. I can spend hours taking to the first little buds opening up, digging out weeds that threaten to drown the more delicate flowers, or breathe in the sent of fresh cut grass. It revives me; makes me feel whole, connected and alive. Or at least it used to do that. On that Saturday two weeks ago it didn’t. And that is when I woke up.

I stopped the yard work and sat down in the sun wondering where I had gone wrong. What had happened to me that I had lost connection to the things I loved? And it wasn’t just the yard. I tried to remember when I had truly tasted a salad the last time? When was the last time I had really seen a colour – breathing it in with my whole body, with my heart? When had I really played with the cats last, or truly enjoyed preparing a meal? It had been a long time.

That afternoon I decided to change things. I went back to my yard, but I took the time I knew I had. I took breaks, sipped my tea, cuddled with the cats. I sat and watched the birds hopping across the lawn and admired the blue of the sky with all my heart. It wasn’t all that easy. Several times I had to remind myself to breathe and keep seated instead of jumping up and doing something that had just caught my eye.

In that process I also reconnected to Little. I had been neglecting her for a while, too, and now I heard her remind me that this kind of life and living used to be my normal. And, she reminded me, I used to be happier and more productive living like that. It is true. When I think back at all the things that I could get done in a day I shiver. The secret really was that I loved what I was doing. Or at least I could find some simple pleasure in it somewhere.

Since that moment I have been more aware of those moments again. I stop and listen for the voice inside that tells me where the next minute of joy is going to come from. I have readjusted my vision of the world to focus first and foremost on that which is beautiful and only secondarily that which is difficult or dark. And I am taking the time to appreciate that which I already have before I start working towards that which I want to achieve now. It is paying off already: I feel more energetic than I have in a long time. And a laughed out loud several times this past week.

Yesterday I drew the Angelic Messengers Card JOY. And as I read it something else came to my awareness: by appreciating the simple pleasures in our lives we are not only helping ourselves by getting connected and feeling happy. We are also focusing our gratitude and joy onto those moments that support and create these simple pleasures: the tea fields or herbal gardens that provide for the tea in our cup, to soil that nourishes the flowers in backyard, the artist who drew the beautiful image that thrills our heart. And in doing so we are healing the world as much as we are healing ourselves. We send loving energy, support, and hope out there. So our simple pleasure becomes part of the healing energy of the Universe. If nothing else, then that is a good enough reason to indulge in those Simple Pleasures daily.

Enjoy the scents, sights, and sensations of spring.

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Intuition is gaining respect these days: entrepreneurs use it to choose business connections; shoppers use it to find the best deal; lovers use it to find the perfect match. And still, often it is seen as an elusive skill, a talent that only few posses. Come and discover how easy it is to expand your five senses and discover your own intuition.
Learn how to:

-     Trust yourself and the universe
-     Know the difference between fear/hope, a hunch, and your intuition
-     Connect easily and effortlessly with your intuition
-     And more

Date: Saturday April 7, 2007 – 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: Woodbridge – location will be confirmed upon registration!
Fee: $150.00 (incl. a light lunch and all materials)

Full registration required by: Apr. 2, 2007.)
Course size is limited to 8 persons, so please register early.

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Did you ever have a day when you wanted to get things done but your body just didn’t co-operate? Or have you lingered with an illness long beyond a time that felt reasonable? Or maybe you get sick every time you make plans for a family vacation? There are many possible reasons for this. Come and explore how the ancient concept of chakra energies can help you understand, balance and heal your body and your soul.

Learn how to:

-     Tap into the well of knowledge that is your body
-     Use simple methods to release tension and increase energy
-     Discover the connection between your body and your soul
-     And more

Date: Saturday March  10, 2007 – 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: Woodbridge – location will be confirmed upon registration!
Fee: $150.00 (incl. a light lunch and all materials)

Full registration required by: Mar. 5, 2007.
Course size is limited to 12 persons, so please register early.

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Since the release of The Secret many people are striving to work with the Law of Attraction – and that is a good thing; a helpful thing; something that, if done properly, will change life as we know it. However, often people also get confused, worried, and even angry because there are situations when this Law just doesn’t seem to apply: I am seeing myself in this new relationship; I am feeling the joy of having the lottery win; I am grateful for the recovered health of my child – and still, I am alone, without the lottery win, burying my child.

I have known many people who did think the best possible, expected the positive, had a beautiful, clear vision for their lives – not even anything extravagant like winning $20 million in a lottery – and still struggled on a daily basis. True, they took their struggles with a more positive attitude, not allowing these events to pull them down but smiling at them and taking them as a challenge. But still, they were struggling, not meeting their beautiful dreams, not living the life they were dreaming about. Why is that, you may ask?

Let me start with a grammatical clarification: as is pointed out so often when the Law of Attraction is presented, we attract that which we feel, think, and belief: that which we really want. However, what is often forgotten or misunderstood is the true meaning of “want” in this context. “To want something” nowadays often is taken to mean to fancy it, to wish to have it or do it, to think that it would be neat, etc. But “to want” has another, older meaning as well: it means “to be lacking, to need”. Keep that second definition in mind as you are reading on.

Next to the Law of Attraction there are other Laws that are at work in the Universe. One of these Universal Laws concerns itself with the freedom of choice for everyone and the possibility of Sacred Contracts that pre-date and supersede our current wishes and hopes. Let us call this the Law of Destiny.

If I have a choice to attract into my life whatever I want, so has everyone else. And nowhere is it written that everyone has to choose an easy, joyful, flowing life. Following the idea of a succession of lifetimes spent on earth we have to consider that there may be a red threat that winds through those lifetimes, a path of some kind that is to be followed, chosen freely at a time before we made conscious, material choices in this incarnation. And if that is true than maybe, just maybe, the trials and tribulations that keep coming our way are part of that bigger life plan. What if we get so focused on what we want (wish for) – that is what we see around us and wish to have for ourselves – that we are overlooking what we really need – or, to speak in an older meaning: what we are wanting of!

Even if we don’t believe in life successions it is not said that every person has to feel happy with the same things. I have worked with people who felt most comforted when they were feeling sad or angry. This was their normal and their need (and want) at the time was to find situations that supported those feelings. It can take many years of deep work to overcome such conditioning.

Then there is the possibility of Sacred Contracts: the idea that, on the spiritual level, we have made agreements and arrangements with other souls to support each other in the learning tasks that we have set for ourselves. So, what if we have decided to give this life to the service of someone else’s learning: to accept difficulties and struggle so that someone else in our life may experience the contrast. We still have the freedom of choice and can probably choose to abandon that contract – but it likely wouldn’t be that easy. The wants and needs of the other person would come into play and oppose our own wishes and that could create more struggle and pain.

Finally, there is another Spiritual Universal Law that needs to be considered in this: the Law of Efficiency. The Universe is an amazing place. Everything happens with absolute precision, without any waste and with an almost unimaginable penchant for detail. Movements and directions that are undesirable in this perfect harmony get re-directed, re-adjusted, or re-designed. So, if our wish constitutes a detour, a hindrance in the perfect design that exists for us and those around us there is a good possibility that the Universe is going to do its best to re-directed, re-adjusted, or re-designed – which we would probably experience as struggle.  

But what does all that mean? Should we forget about the Law of Attraction? Should we just go ahead and do whatever presents?

No! We are free beings with the right – and the responsibility – to create and co-create life for ourselves and others. But it may need a bit more than focusing on our dreams. We need to align our dreams with our purpose, the direction of our life, and the contracts we made. We need to explore and remove the conditioning that has been placed on us to become able to look deep enough into our souls to decide what it is that we fancy and what we truly need and lack in order to move ahead in our journey. And we need to put our own energy into our dream. The Universe doesn’t waste! And if like attracts like, than not doing anything to get closer to having that beautiful relationship is going to attract exactly that – nothing happening!

Most of all, we need to continue to do the best we possibly can do without continuously looking for the reward – because if we focus too hard on a particular dream we may just walk by the many beautiful gifts that the Universe is presenting to us and that will move us along on the path to bliss, joy, and gratitude.

May your life be filled with joy and new beginnings this spring – and remember: you are exactly where you are meant to be on your life’s journey!

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Lot’s has happened since the beginning of December when the last essay came out. Together with my friend and colleague Mary Ann Macri, I birthed The Living Bridge – Centre for Social Evolution (see the page of the same title on the website). The Living Bridge is a vehicle to further and support change and new awareness in the field of health care and personal support – as large as that field can be imagined. 

The idea for the Centre came when Mary Ann and I reflected once again on the wonderful changes that are already happening in the health care field: naturopathic doctors are now openly and proudly advertising their services; increasing numbers of patience and clients are searching out holistic practitioners; allopathic doctors and hospitals are encouraging patients to seek support in complementary healing methods such as Therapeutic Touch or Reiki; alternative modalities and more spiritually-based approaches are streaming out of the clinical closet to claim their place in the mental health care field; indigenous healing remedies and values are regaining importance and many a mother is turning back to the herbal teas and cold compresses she received in her childhood when treating her own children’s winter cold. 

However, we also recognized that there is more to do. And part of that required work is to be done by the many professional, capable, and compassionate practitioners who provide some of the above services to the public. In recent years, the city of Toronto has done much to rethink and re-regulate the health care field. Not all the decisions have been taken well by the holistic community and it’s clients. But that is a discussion for another time. The question we asked ourselves is this: What needs to happen for holistic, complementary health providers to be taken more seriously? The answer, it seems, is: they need to learn to take themselves seriously! 

As I typed this I could hear the wave of protest going through the ranks out there. “Of course we take ourselves serious. It’s others who don’t see the value of the work.” And many of those protesting would probably be right. But there still is a large number of holistically working practitioners out there who doubt the value of their own work. One of the reasons I know is because I work with them. Here are some of the signs of such hesitancy: 

w Not wanting to ask for any money for services or sticking with the belief that “what I need will come” (true, surrender is important – but so is paying the rent and feeding the children).

w Apologizing to clients because their services aren’t covered by their insurance (again, there is a financial reality for the client – and then there is their new car, the leather jacket and the latest video game for the children. Most clients could afford your treatment if they saw its value.) 

w Not wanting to or not practising explaining their services and their value to the client (I’ve heard people say: “If they don’t believe in it, it won’t work anyways. So they really need to find out about it themselves.”) 

w Giving in when the going gets rough (there is a belief that “if it was meant to be it will happen, otherwise maybe I’m not on the right path.”) 

In short, there is a fear of treating this work as a business, following some general rules of business (such as requiring payment), and promoting their services like a viable business. 

At the same time there are allopathic practitioners – and some complementary practitioners of the more “traditional” methodologies such as massage therapy or physiotherapy – who are deeply interested in holistic and even spiritual approaches but won’t integrate them into their practice out of fear of public reaction. I have heard a naturopathic doctor say that she can’t have talks about spirit guides in her clinic while at the same time she is using crystal-healing techniques. We often reject what we don’t know because we fear the change that this could mean. 

But change happens. And most often it is for the good, even if it doesn’t always feel like it in the beginning. The way we are looking at our bodies, our health, and our values is changing. Some say it’s high time. Some say it’s too late. However we look at it – it is now, here, and we are a part of it. For those of us involved in health care in any way (and I include parents, teachers, care-givers, social workers – hey, even gardeners and school bus drivers – into this list) this is our time. If we have chosen this field at this time in history, we have chosen a responsibility of supporting the movement towards healthy integration. 

There is a way to bring allopathic, complementary, holistic and spiritual healing together as supporting partners to the highest good of ALL concerned. Step one is to explore our own position on the playing field; discover our strengths and weaknesses, our false beliefs and limiting hopes; do what it takes to move our practices of service into the world of business and respectability. Only when we stand behind our work, point to real results, and demand the respect that this work deserves will we be seen and respected as an integral part of the whole. And only then can this current shift to higher and truly Wholistic Health Care be completed. It’s up to us to make it happen. Resistance is futile. 

For more on The Living Bridge – Centre for Social Evolution and its courses and services click here. And keep your eyes open for our website launch!

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Stress is one of the main causes of illness in our society. In our daily lives there is hardly a moment when we are not facing a deadline or being pulled in two directions. We sleep, eat, and exercise less healthily and often we feel trapped in the wheel, unable to make changes.
We probably can’t escape stress altogether but there are ways to manage stress better.

Learn how to:

- Deal with stress in the moment
- Reduce stress in everyday life
- Overcome a “tired spell”
- Increase your overall well-being and energy level
- Create long-term changes to prevent stress reactions

Please wear comfortable clothing since classes will include physical movement, meditations and other exercises.

Dates: Please enquire about upcoming dates.
Location: In Richmond Hill/Thornhill, location to be confirmed with your registration.
Fee: $150.00 – price includes all materials and a special gift

Full registration required. 
Course size is limited to 8 participants, so please register early.

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