Welcome to the Sage Healing Institute! - Blog

February 04th, 2025

Tue, 04 Feb 2025 17:43:41 GMT

A Rainy Day

Sat, 17 May 2014 15:12:16 GMT

5/17/14

A Rainy Day

Sheets of Liquid drop into the street
like so much heavy cellophane…
all of the color washing away.

From the window, as I point myself to work,
Just rain fills my vision.
I notice my heart populated with difficult memories: dripping hair, prickling goose bumps and wet, chafing clothing,

coming to Mind and Body.

And Cold, cold as I come in to an air-conditioned office from the humid spring day.
Wet feet inside my shoes, the unavoidable puddle has seeped, amoeba-like
past the poor barrier of leather and stitching.

“Danger, discomfort, unhappiness,” says the body-mind. “Avoid, Avoid.”
I see myself already at work, hunkered down and miserable at my desk. Shivering and resentful.
Having arrived like a wet rat, emerging from a storm drain.

Gazing out from a place of warmth and safety in my dark living room, I wonder what other possibilities exist?
“Shh, sweetheart, I understand. You will be fine”, I comfort my pre-distressed self.
“Open your heart to this rainy day. See the choices arrayed before you.”

Now, Leaving my abode and entering the wildness.
The rain in my face is a sudden, sweet bath. A breath and a mindful leap over the muddy torrent in the gutter, lands me on my toes.
Surprised, my playful self awakens.

Driving, I note disdain on the faces of other motorists, distress in the attitudes of pedestrians.

Parking the car, I must become one of them and cross a mighty river of traffic.
Aha! I see the cars sweeping up cascades of water as they skim the curb and try to spray me. But I am too quick and aware.
Navigating the blindly speeding cars with skill and patience,
I come to the other shore in safety.

The wind picks up and the rain flies cross-wise.
I’m grinning now as my happy child-self has come to play.
The wind bucks my umbrella, like a stubborn pony’s halter in my hand.
Laughing out loud, the sound engenders delight.

Entering my workplace, the energy of joy, flows into the room, touching everyone…

They look up, in wonder.

Breathing in I feel anticipated distress

Breathing out I smile to my body

Breathing in I notice memories

Breathing out I send tenderness

Breathing in I invite playfulness

Breathing out I open to what is true

Breathing in I fill with Joy

Breathing out I send happiness

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.

-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com.

Love Letter for Magnolia

Sat, 19 Apr 2014 17:26:39 GMT

4/19/14

Dear Magnolia
Here is a love letter for you.

In the deep crystalline winter when my bones ache with cold
A moment of radiance falls on the white white snow
And I ride like an angel on the frigid winter wind; the golden beams

allowing me to see now, and then, and will be.
Lifting my soul, I soar briefly on these delicate wings and plummet
into startling existence.

I wait to tell you. I wait for spring.
I don’t think you can bear the pain of hope, in such deep sleeping
through so much suffering.

Looking deeply into the umber branches.
I know that sustenance is being drawn from melted icelets and mysterious minerals in the soil.
I see the fragile sunlight tempting life into continuation.
I know the sap is flowing and the hearts of infant buds are alive, within.
I see them; tiny, unformed, full of promise...

I call to you as gently as I know how, inviting you to be as you are.
Offering you reverence with awe and heart, Opening with joy into this mutual life in one plane of being.
Looking deeply, I see you now,

as I saw you then, and see you again:

Magnificent crimson petals gracing those elegant boughs.
Wafting down to the mossy carpet in the penetrating rain of early May.
Gorgeous emerald leaves uplifting to the Summer sun.
Fall Falling Fallen to the mother earth, transforming again and still, becoming soil and food and compost for the renewal of life, even at harvest time.
This year’s grown branches having joined their sisters, Waiting now,
for their own rimy blanket,

soon to come
with Winter’s embrace.

Dear Magnolia
This is my love letter to you.

Breathing in I feel my breath
Breathing out I smile to my body
Breathing in I embrace difficulty
Breathing out I come into being

Breathing in I breathe into life
Breathing out I embrace change
Breathing in I smile to transformation
Breathing out I am filled with peace

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.
-Ellen Adelman
© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com.

Dark Wings of Spring

Fri, 21 Mar 2014 12:57:06 GMT

To hear the audio version of the meditation, please scroll to bottom.

Spring is coming and the long troublesome winter ends. We are very comfortable labeling events as good or bad, and we do love to complain when the weather is uncooperative.

So we focus on the difficulty and it fills the whole screen of our experience, making it harder to bear.

But experience is complex and each event is laden, with the possibility of discomfort and hardship, as well as joy, opening and growth. When we enter into the present, a vast number of outcomes become accessible, and suffering may be allowed to fall away.

Dark Wings of Spring
Have you ever entered into a moment carrying a great winter cloak? Draped just so, around your shoulders to keep you warm and safe?

The cold has been so sharp; penetrating the gut, the heart, the soul. The earth so hard in its arctic shell, we have lost touch, we lose touch with our foundation.

The heavy woolen shawl a burden we carry, a protected space, moving with us.
It is heavy and wet, smelling slightly of sheep.
We are slow, lumbering through this dormant time; sometimes asleep and dreaming, sometimes awake and suffering.

Do you know how to enter a moment with the brilliant aura of Spring?
Starting with a tiny thaw, we see the earth has softened.
Tinged with a reticent green, hiding a tender black layer of loam beneath.
Now, bend and come close. Let your hand move in a sensual way, down into a moist resilient pocket.
Gently take the offering.
Smell the rich darkness, the compost of life. Breath renewal into your being and taste it.
Let the energy spring from the earth into your naked foot. You begin to rise like the sap in the wakening trees. Like heat and light, a blazing power lifts you upward.

Arms stretched in flight and you,
Profoundly balanced on one leg…

Open your eyes.
You see Bran-wen, the Raven.
Dark as night and full of the shining glory of this day.
His wings extended, gathering the sunlight, supremely present.
On a tree top, facing you; magically, in concert with you.
You know he sees you, feels you, with your wings mirroring his own.
You join him, embraced in his wisdom, his mischief, his spirit.
He is part of you; your humanity, regret, and your heart.
Now you know,
In this one-ness you survived the winter.
In this one-ness you thrived, and now renew.

Lifting up, we are uplifted.

Breathing in I embrace the present

Breathing out I release aversion

Breathing in I relax into what is real

Breathing out I am here

Breathing in I kneel into acceptance

Breathing out I am one with the earth

Breathing in I am infused with spirit

Breathing out I arise

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.

-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com.

Tiger Above; Tiger Below

Mon, 03 Feb 2014 23:49:15 GMT

To hear the audio version please scroll to
bottom of text
2/3/14

Let the Tigers Go

Life stalks me like a mighty tiger
Bounding across the savanna of my days
Threatening to overtake me,
to make a meal of me.
With his amazingly fierce talons and rippling muscles,
his pursuit is relentless.
There is no escape

Entering the jungle, I flee
hoping to vanish, elude him unseen.
Impossible, and I know it.
The towering figs, palms and rubber trees
Even in their grandeur, are only obstacles
Blue and gold Macaws, colorful Gouldian finches
A brilliant blur with no form.
Mangoes and Passion fruit hanging in luscious abundance,
swallowed in haste and never tasted.

The forest clears and I burst onto the scene
Atop the fabled cliff, my toes curling to prevent my headlong fall.
The tiger is coming and nowhere to go, but down.
Terrified I cling to vines and roots,
the sweat moistening my grip.
Muscles screaming, I begin my descent.

A huge bellow arises behind me as the great beast nears his prey.
Scrambling downward, I begin to pray.
And then I hear the answering roar of the Tiger beneath.

She is waiting, sure that her mate will provide sustenance this day.
And then, and then, when there is nowhere to go
I remember to breathe.

Time stretches to accommodate this grand moment.
A rocky cave mouth appears, as if by some magic or glamour.
Entering, I have Now.
It is vast and filled with joy.
Vast and filled with possibility.
With fulfillment and sensation.
With love and pain and color and calm.

Let the tigers go. Let the tigers go…

Breathing in I am aware of running

Breathing out I notice what I miss

Breathing in I take my breath

Breathing out I enter life

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.
-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.
For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

Life manifests

Sun, 29 Dec 2013 23:35:00 GMT

Life manifests

In the dark secret places where you cannot see
The hot steamy swamp hidden
in a forest of mangrove,
No human eye can perceive

This region of untold, immeasurable activity
where molecules, organisms, ions
and the subatomic interact;
colliding, deliberate, crazy and wild.
Creation is erupting, causing reality to flow.

It isn’t pretty.
A brewing cauldron,
a miasma of dark odors, bubbling
and seething with hard and soft edges; with ease and discomfort, beginnings and endings.
Glowing in brilliant colors that do not complement.
Radiating into being.

At the core of this great, unknowable mess,
a microcosmic set of elements and acids coalesce;
a microcosmic slip of spirit energy attaches.
You cannot touch, nor see it manifest
Yet, you know it has begun to arise

Here, in the hidden recesses of your physical being,
the deepest seat of your primal self,
the cauldron boils.
Making nothing from something,
something from nothing, tzim-tzum.
There is a way to look in,
but only to see a pale, pale reflection
of a reflection.
Is it real?

You have lived in this state now,
for a long, long time,
as a vessel of creation,
a plaything of the universe
Engaged in the most sacred of rituals
you are swept along, on the mighty river of metamorphosis
Tossed and turned, prodded, and stretched, a burgeoning awareness becoming a certainty:
another life is coming.

His world is the swamp.
Gulping fluids and pushing against the confining earth, his lifeline gently wrapped around his body,
he surges against you.
Pushing as he will be pushed.
Perplexed as his world begins to contract, preparing him for another reality.
Do you remember being, like this?

Cosmic forces finally coming together, savage and rhythmic
Your body, drowning in transformation,
shaken, overtaken, again and again…
The horror of it pales
against your passionate engagement with this dizzying chaos,
Somehow, You are mindful
welcoming it all.

With infinite persistence, and deliberation, he is coming
From the swamp, from the cauldron,
You choose to let him come
Into this moment, into this world,
inviting him to emerge.

Creation has traversed you, employed you
Causing a powerful transformation,
a catastrophic event.
Leaving an empty space that is eternally void
Yet forever abundant with the unborn.

The lifeline is cut and his mortality begins.
In awe, you avert your gaze from
the startling signs of his passage,
the evidence of some mythic realm at your core, the center of all being.

Now he has arrived
a tiny manifestation of humanity,
breathing air
in this fresh version of a world
you thought you knew.

You are cleaned and stitched and
separate beings for the first time.
Amazed by his perfection and the suddenness of his appearance,
a single tear of joy and sadness wells.
A wholesome warmth and happiness comes, to fill the emptiness.
And You hold him close to your heart
where he will live now,
forever.

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.

-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com

Difficulties Arise

Sun, 17 Nov 2013 21:59:02 GMT

11/17/13

Difficulties Arise

The brittle edges of a painful situation
occur like shattering glass
Sharply bringing us to attention
Like a clarion call to battle.

The trembling psyche prepares
As the seeds of past hurts arise
into awareness.
Transforming themselves into
thoughts and words and memories.

The heart beats in trepidation
as the Defenders assemble,
stern and resolute.
Surrounding the vulnerable,
damaged parts of the spirit;
lying broken and weeping, like hurt children, on the crimson floor,
in the caverns of the soul.

The Defenders are frightened for them.
They whisper in a voice so soft you cannot hear:
“Protect, protect, send the Dragons to the gate.
Protect the children with fury and rage.
Protect.”

Mayhem might ensue. All will be lost.

Riding the breath, on wings of mindfulness, the Compassionate one has been invited.
Calmly noticing the shards of glass, she sees the damage that has been done.
With the sword of clarity, she deftly separates old wounds from new.

As her angelic arms enfold the crying children, the tenderness she sends enters their very pores.
Infusing their beings with lovingkindness and courage.

The Defenders stand down.
Help has arrived.
The healing begins.

Breathing in I am aware of my difficulties

Breathing out I open to them

Breathing in I am mindful of my injuries

Breathing out I hold my hurt self tenderly

Breathing in I feel relief

Breathing out I send lovingkindness

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.
-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com

October 22nd, 2013

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 21:44:00 GMT

10/22/13
Sunrise

Sunrise occurred this morning,everywhere
Arising in majesty, like any moment
peeking over the shoulder of time passed.
The vanishing night

Grateful for another day, I vow to enter many moments with mindful joy.
Grateful for another day I offer lovingkindness to myself and everyone.
Grateful for another day I rest in the center of being and intend to return as best I can.

With each burgeoning moment,
more golden light floods my consciousness.
Breathing in I become luminous

Breathing in, I am open to whatever arises:
Difficulties and delights, loss and fruition, pain and pleasure, troubles and ease,
Each one, deserving of my consideration and gentle care.
As they are all my children.

I intend to love them;
holding them with tenderness and
knowing them deeply.
Some requiring great attention. Some happily playing on their own.
Remember, remember, attend to every one.
As they grow up into wholesomeness and joyful existence, beyond the scope of any words to describe,
Together they become a family in the home
of a happy life.

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.

-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com.

Pumpkin

Mon, 07 Oct 2013 21:54:56 GMT

Pumpkin

Indian summer flirts with us all.
dripping with color and tears of farewell
to seasons past.
brisk mornings and humid afternoons,
cool shivery nights with brilliant skies.

A dubious spell of time,
somehow, neither there nor there
a lesson in unpreparedness
and the unexpected
Just here...

A field of emerald green grasses
replete with the glory of a long summer’s work, somehow
gave birth to a pumpkin,
Fruition incarnate.

Manifesting before my eyes
in orange splendor
atop a velvet cushion,
its sweeping curves
Pregnant with past and future.

Someday gracefully decomposing
to reveal the white seeds of becoming.
Now, bursting at once with being,
existence and death.
Filling us with life and hope...

Breathing in I am aware of my being
Breathing out I encounter this moment

Breathing in I am full of life
Breathing out I feel able

Breathing in I know what I have to give
Breathing out I cast my seeds.

Breathing in I am here
Breathing out I am fulfilled

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.
-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013,
poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com.

The Little Things

Sun, 08 Sep 2013 20:42:13 GMT

9/1/13
The Little Things

The stripe of sunlight on a warm oak table
A quiet moment where nothing else occurs
A New Yorker magazine illuminates a coffee cup
An orange cover reflected up.
Glowing with an easy, cool fire
Calling the eye to touch reality.

A simple lampshade holding the patterns of a lace curtain.
Reading glasses of my loved one, promising his return
A stack of magazines inviting the curious,
to learn.
Pages filled with who knows what

Find serenity here.

Sitting in the stillness of a morning bedroom
Sitting, breathing, a body at rest.
How beautiful, the graceful lines and colors, the patterns;
A wonder that has come to be

Cast your gaze afar
Through the window, there's another world of vibrant green
A brilliant backdrop to books on a nightstand
Clutter and tone, just reflecting something true.

Find your center, here.

May this content benefit you, those you love, and all sentient beings, everywhere.
-Ellen Adelman

© Ellen M. Adelman PhD 2013, poetry and photography all rights reserved.

Mind Body Intelligence™, and MBI® are trademarks of Ellen M. Adelman PhD and the Sage Healing Institute.

For more information about our programs, visit www.sagehealinginstitute.com.