A VERY Alternative Medicine & Some Big News

Like many people, I see a therapist. My therapist is not in the traditional sense the “sit in my chair and tell me all of your problems” kind of therapist.  My therapist is more of a physical/spiritual/mental kind of therapist. I was introduced to Christopher Maher about two months ago by one of my long-time clients, Joan Jackson “The Raw Kitchen Magician”. From law to raw, Joan went from being a successful lawyer to a raw food teacher when she experienced the health benefits of eating 80% raw food for herself. Within days of changing the way she ate, her symptoms disappeared and she lost 150 pounds in 2 years. She is now an influential, known and well-respected professional in the Raw Food community.

At one of Joan’s recent photo shoots, her friend, Chris Maher was there. My first impression of Chris was that he was a nice man and I couldn’t help but be completely intrigued by him. At first, I was a skeptic to Chris’s practice, but I was intrigued none-the-less. After a few minutes of talking to Chris, he said he was curious to know what my human design chart showed and asked me 3 questions, “What is your birthday? What is the exact time of the day that you were born (to the minute)? What city/state were you born in?” He punched this info into the computer and pulled up my “Human Design Chart”, an extremely complex and admittedly, intimidating chart. Within seconds he was telling me all about me.  My personality qualities, my personal and private fears/anxieties, ambitions, strengths, weaknesses, facts about upbringing and past, ect…Things that he didn’t know about me and some things that I had never told anyone before. After about 10 minutes of this, I was overwhelmed and completely astonished that this complete stranger could say so many true things about me just by looking at this chart. It scared me! And unlike a psychic, Chris was merely just stating the facts as my chart relayed. No interpretations, just reading. Like reading a book. “Your chart is what it is and it will never change” he said. That night, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I stayed up most of the night researching and learning more about The Human Design System online. I just couldn’t believe how spot on it all was and I wanted to know more.

Chris Maher and Joan Jackson

The human design system came to be in 1987 by a man named Ra Uru Hu. The system is a unique personality map that blends Eastern and Western astrology, the Kabbalah, the Chinese I’ching, The Hindu Chakra system, neutrinos and quantum physics. The belief is that based on the date and exact time that you were born in relation to where the planets were at that exact moment, was the determining factor of the type of person you would be on earth and what kinds of characteristics you were going to be born with. Sounds crazy right? Well, you’re not the only one…I thought, “this is just another celebrity trend and cult.” I was never a believer in astrology or anything that was “out there” like this.

I laid awake in bed for hours that night thinking about what had happened earlier that day. I really started to think about God and my belief that God actually does follow a natural law of physics in creation. One thing that came to mind was that this could very well be the scientific, mathematical explanation of how God transferred our unique personalities, strengths and weaknesses from our spiritual bodies to our physical bodies here on earth.  It makes sense to me and after doing my Mom’s, my husband’s, my two children, and two of my siblings’ charts, I couldn’t deny that it made sense.

This is my chart. Intimidating right?

When I told my Mom all about it, her response completely surprised me! She told me that we are commanded in the bible to study the stars as they relate to how we were created and who we are. She said that it’s very possible that this is the science behind our creation. And of course, when I read her chart to her there was a lot of, “Yep, that’s me”. She recommended that I read a book called, "Kolob Theorem"which is an LDS book about the workings of the planets and stars and how it relates to our creation.  My husband, John is also baffled by all of this. The most skeptical person I’ve ever met, he was blown away at how spot on his chart was as it pertained to him and his life.

So that was it, I had to know more. I wanted to know everything about this system and you can ask my husband, I was borderline obsessed for 3 weeks! Bless his heart, he put up with me talking about it at some point in every single conversation.

My loved one's charts

The chart I am most fascinated with is my son’s chart, J.J. In every chart or "body graph", we have energy centers (chakras). Some are colored in (defined centers) and some are white or blank (undefined centers). What this means is, your defined centers are consistent driving forces in your life and the undefined are inconsistent and can be shaped or molded by outside influences or by the circumstances and choices that you make in your life. All of J.J.’s energy centers are defined except for his “throat center” and his “spleen center”. When a throat center is undefined, that typically entails that you do not always know how to say what you want to say. Those with undefined throat centers typically talk a lot because they feel the need to be heard. They often feel that no one is listening to them because people can’t always understand or interpret exactly what they are trying to say. Ask anyone that knows J.J. –he is always talking. At times, it seems he says every thought that comes into his brain. I love that about him because he thinks and speaks in such a unique way, but I will admit that I do find myself ignoring him a lot without even realizing it. Almost like noise that I’ve gotten so used to hearing that I don’t even hear it anymore! Recently, J.J.’s teacher suggested that he go to a speech therapist. I was relieved that it wasn’t just in my head and that someone else has recognized it!

 When someone has an open spleen center, they are prone to being fearful. Fear is a survival mechanism and having a keen sense of your surroundings is the theme of an open spleen. They have the ability to “self-diagnose” or diagnose others with medical conditions and ailments. They always have their finger to the wind, always with an awareness of how their surroundings, emotions of others, and circumstances can affect theirs or their loved ones’ health and/or survival. J.J. is more timid than most boys his age. He’s terrified to ride a bike, he gets scared when John picks him up and dangles him, he's terrified of being physically hurt. I like that about him because he will probably never do dangerous things like many young boys do! He is also very aware of how others are feeling. He always knows when I am sad. He will ask me, "Mommy, are you okay? Are you sad?". He's so aware of the feelings of others around him, It's freaky!

An open spleen also has a weaker immune system.  A person with an open spleen center gets sick a lot.  J.J. has always had a weak immune system.  His doctors have confirmed that as fact. When he was just a month old, he was hospitalized for a blood infection, and since then, he has had many, many colds, fevers, ear infections, and two cases of pneumonia. In fact, J.J. is home sick today from school with a fever and a cold! This is his 3^rd cold in two months.

Daddy & J.J.

 It also very specifically states that he is “sensitive to his acoustic surroundings.” That particularly stood out to me because people have pointed it out to us his whole life. He would cry when anything was too loud. He would cry when the vacuum was on, he would cover his ears all the time and would say, “TOO LOUD!” He cries if Charly, his sister cries and begs me to make her stop. Friends and family have said, “Wow, he is really sensitive to sound”.  And he still is. Some other things it talked about was how he has a tendency to see something like a picture hanging crooked and has the need to straighten it out immediately (He is borderline OCD in the way he needs things to be organized and straight). It says that he is sensitive to textures and is often uncomfortable wearing certain materials (If J.J. spills even a drop of water on his shirt, he has to take it off and put a new one on as soon as possible. He says that it “feels wet” and he can’t stand it). It talks about how J.J. is particularly fond of hugs (Ask anyone who first meets J.J. what the first thing is that he does…He hugs them! The recipient points it out almost every time, “Wow, He’s a hugger isn’t he?!” they will say.)  It talks about how he is particularly affectionate to others, even complete strangers. We are constantly worried that he will just go up to complete strangers and hug them followed by an, “I love you!” We often have to explain to these strangers the type of person he is. He is always telling people, “You look beautiful!” or, “I like your ______”, giving compliments at every turn. When he was 4, my friend thought his behavior was evident of a child with Asperger Autism. She had nannied a child with the same behavior for 2 years. So she knew what to look for. So of course I talked to his doctor about it and the doctor confirmed that he did NOT have Asperger's. It's just his personality, who he is. 

J.J. & Charly

I feel like I have so much insight into who he is now. He is definitely special, I have always felt that he was different than most kids, but this just confirmed that there was nothing wrong with him, no deformities or disorders. I believe it will help me be a better mother to him to have a better and deeper understanding of how he thinks and who he was born to be.

I feel so incredibly blessed to have found this system. And I do feel that it is divinely inspired. Since I have found this, I have been more in tune with my own gut and with my true-to-self nature. It has affected my choices and because I am making decisions that are more closely aligned to what I really need and want in my own life, I am ultimately becoming happier. I don’t act on anything until I have a “gut response”. If it doesn’t come right away, it’s important that I wait for it. It will come when the time is right and it does come. Your gut response either comes as a “uh-huh (yes)” or an “uh-un (no)” and you only respond and act on that. Sometimes logically one thing makes sense, but my gut tells me NO. It's about trusting your unique personal instinct. It's a compass. Your own personal compass.

So that is the first part of the therapy that I am doing. Along with the Human Design System, Chris also does what’s called, Dynamic Contraction Technique (a Chinese medicine technique). DCT is resistance stretching. Think resistance training mixed with Yoga and message! I will go into more detail about that part of his work in a future post! It truly is amazing and is already helping me in so many ways.

Chris Training his Physicians

Yesterday, Chris asked me a question during our session. He said, “What is the most important thing in life to you?” I said, “What do you mean? Like a physical thing? Or…” He interrupted and said, “I want you to answer that however you want.” I thought about it for a few seconds and said, “I need balance.” My answer came entirely unsolicited and I surprised myself when it came out so easily. My life has been so unbalanced for so many years. I have wondered for most of my life why I have depression, why it’s so hard for me to be comfortable in my own skin sometimes in social situations, why I get frustrated that I can’t be a “better mom” or “do more”. I become so obsessed with one project, this one thing that I’m working on, that I neglect the other important aspects of my life. My life becomes unbalanced and I’m realizing as I get older that something needs to change. Some people are pros at maintaining balance and more often then not, only do things they know will make them truly happy. I am not one of those people at this point. I do wish it was easier for me to exercise, eat healthier and take care of my body. I am so envious of people who actually LIKE working out! I have always had a hard time believing in any one religion and being "spiritual". When I told Chris this, he explained how there are 4 aspects of life that are most important for every human being’s wellness -Emotions, thinking, physical and spiritual. My emotions and my thinking come naturally to me. Those are the things I was born with and are consistent forces in my life. Chris explained that my challenge in this life is developing my physical and spiritual self. He explained that it’s not that I’m lazy, it’s that I wasn’t born with the innate desire to take care of my body or the need to be apart of any one religion, but that it will be necessary to develop those things if I want to obtain balance in my life. Which means, I will have to do some work.

I wasn't even thinking about the fact that I'm a Libra when I answered, "I need balance". 

I highly encourage anyone who is interested in this to experiment and find out what your human design chart says and means. It's so much more in depth than the typical astrology horoscope things out there. It truly is an incredible thing! One of which I will continue to explore myself and continue to help other’s discover.

If you are interested, here are some great resources that I have found to learn more about it:

To get a free basic human design report go here: www.humandesignforusall.com The free report is just the first chapter of your design explaining your “type”, but to read a comprehensive report, they offer it for 19.95 or two reports for 29.95. A great deal considering that many chart experts charge upwards of $250-$1000 per reading. Make sure you put the EXACT time that you were born (you can find that on your birth certificate if you aren’t 100% sure). Chris told me how once he did twin’s report -they were born 2 minutes apart and their charts were different. So it does matter up to the minute!

The official Human Design website of Ra Uru Hu is: www.jovianarchive.com

Various Facebook Pages: http://www.jovianarchive.com/Social_Networks

And now for the big, BIG news…I’ve known for a few weeks now, but couldn't say anything until we knew for sure what was going to happen.

Drumroll….

We are moving back to Utah the first week of March! It is bittersweet for me…We love San Diego and don’t want to leave, but John’s business is taking us back to Utah. We will be saving a lot of money by lowering our cost of living expenses, which is important for any start-up business. San Diego feels like my home, but I do believe home is wherever you make it. Home is wherever my husband and two children are. Believe me, I am DREADING moving during the worst winter ever recorded in Utah and I am dreading winter period, but I am trying to remain positive and looking forward to being back with Family and of course, my best friend, Amy. I miss her constantly!

I want to thank all of my San Diego friends and of course my clients. I will miss you all so much! I have been so lucky to have known you and been the one to take your pictures! I will forever be grateful for your constant support and belief in me and my work.  Crow Candy Photography was born here in San Diego and it’s because of you that I have been able to do what I LOVE! And now…It’s onto my next adventure! 

Love Always, Chelsea