IVF Drugs Linked to Childhood Cancer [Article - Telegraph, UK]

"... Fertility-boosting drugs could more than double the risk of subsequent offspring developing childhood leukaemia, academics warn today.” – Telegraph, UK 4/24/12 - European researchers reported over a two fold increased risk in two forms of childhood leukemia, in children conceived with fertility drugs.

Almost a decade ago, the Wall Street Journal reported: Babies born as the result of IVF with ICSI are twice as likely to be born with major birth defects than those conceived naturally.

Whether or not these research reports can be proven is not significant to me. What I look at is what the drugs are doing. Any drug which stimulates the ovaries to artificially recruit follicles that the body naturally deselected, are already at increased risk. Further, forcefully injecting sperm that are incapable of penetrating the egg on their own, obviously puts the potential of new life at risk.

Nature knows what it’s doing. Our own body’s wisdom selects the follicle that it deems the healthiest to become the dominant ovulatory follicle. Reproductive medicine will sacrifice that one for the drug induced many; just to increase the statistical likelihood that fertilization will take place. IVF drugs cannot and do not increase the health of the germ cells; they force fertilization. If the underlying health is compromised and fertilization is forced, the starting point of the new life is already at jeopardy.

I doubt the procedures themselves are responsible. The drugs? Not so sure. I have always held to the irrefutable fact that nature knows best. When we can enhance the health of the reproductive system during the tonic growth phase of follicular growth when protein synthesis and chromosomal selection occur (months before ovulation), we improve the likelihood of healthy egg and sperm production, no matter what methods are employed.

I lectured on this topic at a workshop which was attended by patients and reproductive clinic staff, including reproductive endocrinologists. As I taught the participants the life cycle of the follicle and what could improve ovarian and sperm health, I asked the medical audience if anything I was saying was untrue. An RE responded, “We know what you’re saying is true; we just can’t do anything about it with what we have to offer, so we don’t pay attention to it. Your method seems to offer that missing ingredient.

Most of the patients I treat are over 40. Most are at an increased statistical risk for chromosomal abnormalities and poor response to IVF. Yet, when they take the time to nourish the health of the body, mind, and spirit, natural conception is more likely to occur. IVF success rates greatly increase. And those that have chromosomal abnormalities, birth defects, and childhood cancers are virtually non-existent. As one of my teachers asked, “What is the truth you are attending to – labs and medical results, or the potential of your own spirit?” To me the latter is where miracles occur; not in the laboratory. Let medicine intervene where it is meant to – after you have done everything humanly possible to improve your own health; not before or instead.

Stop the Problem Solving Approach!

Chinese medicine is based on the maintenance of harmony. Yet how can harmony be maintained?  I used to think of harmony as synonymous with balance - almost like walking a tightrope where the left and right sides have to be equalized. This is how many people approach healing and fertility, too. Moderation, balance, harmony. Not too much of this, not too much of that. While it is true that too much of anything will make the organism unstable, life carries a miraculous ability to return to equilibrium with or without our help. We do not have to keep ourselves walking the tightrope of life, too afraid to be set off balance. Life is meant to be lived, fully, vibrantly, and sometimes in excess.

You don't grow your hair, beat your heart or create skin cells. Nor can you create a baby through living a controlled life.

I recall a woman I treated who went through an IVF cycle just before the holidays. She carefully managed every controllable aspect of her life, yet her pregnancy test came back negative just before Christmas. So distraught at the unfairness of life when she did everything right, she went to the other extreme - eating and drinking in excess, smoking cigarettes, staying up late and partying until New Year passed. She never got her period. The next pregnancy test came back positive. And yes, the baby was just fine, adjusting to the excesses that are a part of life.

Remember when our mothers thought it was ok to drink, smoke and even diet during pregnancy? We turned out kind of okay. Obviously, I don't advocate this. Moderation and balance tend to induce health and well being. But what we can control needs to be balanced with what we cannot. We can't control life itself. Life is not a problem to be solved; it is an organic process to be lived. We try, we fail. We fall, we get back up. Sometimes life works out the way we expect it to, sometimes it doesn't. We go on and do the best we can, laughing, crying, and  making it up as we go along. Life is not composed of rules to be followed.

Life is the way it is, not the way we would have it be. Our individual life expression is always in harmony with the whole. It's laws are carried in the heart, subject to a higher law than imposed order. The Tao te Ching tells us that when man forgets the Tao, he creates laws and rules. Order is a poor substitute for the spirit's unimpeded expression.

Life comes through the friction of opposites - the highest ecstasy of the lowest expression. Birth itself is violent, messy, and life threatening. yet from it comes a love so tender, nothing can threaten it. Stop trying to control, manage, or fix yourself. Give yourself over to life as it is. Let the spirit of life use you as you are, desires and all. You aren't a mistake to be remedied. You are life's expression, bursting with harmonious imbalance, longing to be expressed!

Free Conference Call Tomorrow - Tuesday, April 3 @ 9 PM EST

Free Conference Call Tomorrow - Tuesday, April 3 @ 9 PM EST

Pregnancy Enhancement during PeriMenopause

Q&A with Dr. Randine Lewis

This daunting term is almost meaningless. It simply means that hormones are fluctuating in women during their later reproductive years. Perimenopause can last for many years, during which time a woman is still capable of conceiving.  One study reported that when a woman enters perimenopause, she still has, on average, ten thousand eggs remaining.  It isn't until a woman has been without a period for one year that she is considered to be in menopause. Then she is no longer capable of bearing children with her own eggs.

This transition occurs at multiple levels - ovarian output fluctuates; blood flow to the ovaries diminishes, and the biopotency of the FSH molecule changes. The hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis becomes more delicate.

According to Chinese medicine, this is one of the most rich times in a woman's life. Although she may experience symptoms of this transition - like reduced libido, decreased cervical fluid, irregular menstruation, moodiness, insomnia, hot flashes and night sweats, these are not considered symptoms of disease. They are an invitation as the energies shift from a focus on lower reproductive output to one where the spirit dominates.

Most all energetic transitions will produce symptoms. When you know that they are natural and necessary, they will become less problematic. When they are resisted, it exacerbates liver qi stagnation, aggravating the symptoms. Acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine can help ease this transition and reduce symptoms, while one is trying to conceive.

Reducing sugar, wheat and refined carbohydrates helps the metabolic changes. Supplement with essential antioxidants, minerals, CoQ10, and fish oil. Light exercise like walking, biking, or swimming helps reduce depressive symptoms, especially when performed out of doors. Inner body meditations can help ease symptoms of anxiety. Perform the femoral massage daily before ovulation if you are still trying to conceive. We also have formulated a Fertile Soul herbal blend to assist and enhance fertility during this time.

Stop the Problem Solving Approach!

Chinese medicine is based on the maintenance of harmony. Yet how can harmony be maintained?  I used to think of harmony as synonymous with balance - almost like walking a tightrope where the left and right sides have to be equalized. This is how many people approach healing and fertility, too. Moderation, balance, harmony. Not too much of this, not too much of that. While it is true that too much of anything will make the organism unstable, life carries a miraculous ability to return to equilibrium with or without our help. We do not have to keep ourselves walking the tightrope of life, too afraid to be set off balance. Life is meant to be lived, fully, vibrantly, and sometimes in excess.

You don't grow your hair, beat your heart or create skin cells. Nor can you create a baby through living a controlled life.

I recall a woman I treated who went through an IVF cycle just before the holidays. She carefully managed every controllable aspect of her life, yet her pregnancy test came back negative just before Christmas. So distraught at the unfairness of life when she did everything right, she went to the other extreme - eating and drinking in excess, smoking cigarettes, staying up late and partying until New Year passed. She never got her period. The next pregnancy test came back positive. And yes, the baby was just fine, adjusting to the excesses that are a part of life.

Remember when our mothers thought it was ok to drink, smoke and even diet during pregnancy? We turned out kind of okay. Obviously, I don't advocate this. Moderation and balance tend to induce health and well being. But what we can control needs to be balanced with what we cannot. We can't control life itself. Life is not a problem to be solved; it is an organic process to be lived. We try, we fail. We fall, we get back up. Sometimes life works out the way we expect it to, sometimes it doesn't. We go on and do the best we can, laughing, crying, and  making it up as we go along. Life is not composed of rules to be followed.

Life is the way it is, not the way we would have it be. Our individual life expression is always in harmony with the whole. It's laws are carried in the heart, subject to a higher law than imposed order. The Tao te Ching tells us that when man forgets the Tao, he creates laws and rules. Order is a poor substitute for the spirit's unimpeded expression

Life comes through the friction of opposites - the highest ecstasy of the lowest expression. Birth itself is violent, messy, and life threatening. yet from it comes a love so tender, nothing can threaten it. Stop trying to control, manage, or fix yourself. Give yourself over to life as it is. Let the spirit of life use you as you are, desires and all. You aren't a mistake to be remedied. You are life's expression, bursting with harmonious imbalance, longing to be expressed!

IVIG and Intralipid Infusion Treatment

Treatments such as intravenous immunoglobulin therapy or intralipid infusions are sometimes suggested for women with autoimmune conditions whose immune systems react negatively to an implanting embryo. An embryo, composed of “self” and “non-self” can confuse a weakened or stressed immune system, whose primary job it is to kill off the foreign (non-self) invador. When the immune system is confused, it often reverts from its highest directive, to differentiate, to its lowest default, which is to kill. The woman’s body can react negatively against the pregnancy itself, to components of the cell wall, and develop antibodies, which protect her from accepting in what her body perceives as threatening. She may have elevated antiphosphlipid antibodies, antithyroid antibodies, anticardiolipin antibodies, antinuclear antibodies, anti-lupus anticoagulant, or elevated (and activated) natural killer cells. The blood is often thickened so it can clot off the blood supply to the offending threat, and starve it.

The infusions of protein and blood products listed above are intended to bind the antibodies and deactivate them. While it can temporarily clear the blood of the activated immune system components, it is not curative.

Chinese medicine seeks to diagnose and treat the cause of the autoimmune reactivity, not its manifestation. When you look for the underlying cause, you are working at the level of energy; not strictly at the level of identifiable form, where it is more important to specifically identify and suppress the elevated marker of immunity. So, whether it is ATA, ACA, APA, ANA, PTT or elevated NK cells, we look at the energy that gives rise to the expression. Almost always there is a weakening of the Spleen system of energies, which governs internal recognition, and a strong sense of self.  The weak spleen energies will allow for some excess factor to be present, energetically expressed as dampness, stasis, stagnation, or heat.

When we can fortify the weakened spleen energies and reduce the presence of the excess factor, the conditions for the autoimmune reaction go away on their own. In my experience, it is much more potent to work energetically than to chase around the manifestation. Yet, the two approaches can be quite effective together; you don’t have to choose natural healing over those which are more invasive or vice versa.

I have worked with many women who had autoimmune infertility, who were concurrently being treated by Western medicine. When we can address the reason for the weakened spleen energies (diet, anxiety, over-thinking, poor sense of self), we can nourish them, and bring the body into a state where it doesn’t perceive components of self as a threat. We reduce the excess factors through herbs and acupuncture, and the internal fight abates. In the meantime, IL or IVIG treatments can bind up the circulating antibodies while the body is in a state of healing. We have treated the cause and the manifestation

Husband/Wife Imbalance

Chinese medicine has a diagnostic pattern known as “husband/wife imbalance,” a rather severe disturbance where the creative, expansive, life giving forces within have been surpassed by the contracting, catabolic energies. Acupuncture treatment involves helping the individual restore equilibrium, and return to a state of homeostasis. Sometimes life challenges our normal patterns of creation and destruction. At times the forward trajectory that we have been traveling can no longer remain unchecked. Our procreative energies are not meant to move ever forward until death. Human beings are in a constant state of breakdown and catabolism as well. Our forward moving energies can become exhausted from chronic stress, moving us toward a more dense or compressed state of energy, where we are no longer in procreative mode. We must let something die.

At birth we were endowed not only with an abundance of “source qi”, we were also granted the seed of our original nature. Throughout life, we forget our true nature by moving toward worldly goals and achievements, and away from our original nature. We exchange worldly experience and a false sense of self for our true face. When we become locked into a fear based state of separation and lose nature’s intended destiny for us, we pave the way for separation of yin and yang energies within.

At certain times in our life we are granted turning points, where we are provided an opportunity to turn within, and restore our original nature. Rarely are these turning points happy times. They usually appear in the wake of a deep inner or outer challenge – a chronic illness, loss of outward identity, divorce, infertility… One now has the opportunity to wake up to the memory of their lost original nature, or their true path will remain hidden, unfulfilled, and yin and yang will continue to separate toward disease and death.

A further exacerbation of this imbalance can be found in relationship. Oftentimes the expansive male energies have been suppressed by the needs of the couple for a child. The wife occupies a place of control, and the relationship itself is no longer one of spontaneous love and creative expansion; it has become heavy, toxic, and unfulfilling. This dynamic of control will need to be interrupted or the marriage is doomed. The yin/yang equilibrium must be restored.

When a woman with a husband/wife imbalance is trying to conceive, she will be unable. Balance must be restored by turning inward; paradoxically away from the outward pursuit of a child. She must restore herself first, and this is often the last thing she feels capable of doing. It takes a tremendous amount of energy to turn inward when it seems like the only way to survive is to have a child. She must stop the heavy, toxic, stressful patterns. She must move inward, see herself and her life as it is, and reintegrate these distorted energies through loving self-acceptance, and returning to her original source. The disintegration of the old allows a creative reversal, and a new emergent pattern of creation can be restored.

The Spiritual Pivot

One of the earliest recorded works of medicine; the fundamental doctrine of Chinese Medicine is the Huang Di Nei Jing So Wen Ling Shu, dated approximately two centuries BCE. These two volumes (Su Wen and Ling Shu) comprise a dialog between the Yellow Emperor and his physician, Qi Bo, on the workings of nature as it pertains to the human body, the origin of disease and its cure. The second volume, called the Ling Shu or Spiritual Pivot, discusses the theory and application of acupuncture.  Chapter 8 of the Spiritual Pivot makes the recognition, “Before needling, one must be rooted in spirit.”  My interpretation of this sentence is that until one is in touch with one’s spirit – both the practitioner’s and the patient’s, the treatment will be ineffective.

All rue healing comes through the heart, the home of the spirit. If we take this all the way through, there are no healers, unless their primary motive is to bring one in harmony with one’s spirit, where all healing originates.

I teach and work with a community of practitioners whom I consider experts in Chinese medicine and fertility. I don’t call them healers; nor do I refer to myself or anyone else as a healer. We are so cut off from the healing power of our own spirit, if we place our healing in the hands of another; we potentially place ourselves at the mercy of someone who is one step further away from the healing power of our own heart. The word pivot refers to an essential turning point, where one turns away from outer help and toward the power of ones own inner wisdom.

Chinese medicine has shamanic roots where unless a turn is made to the spiritual source within, there will be no remedy, no cure. One will continue to be overtaken by what used to be considered evil spirits. These are no different than what we would consider origins of disease:

External pathogens;

Dietary or environmental toxins;

A posturing of anger that keeps one in a state of internal distress;

A state of victimhood, where one is at the mercy of another;

Unexamined, subconscious fear.

These can show up as chronic inflammatory conditions, hormonal imbalances, cancer, strokes, bleeding disorders, reproductive disturbances, heart attacks, you name it. Where disease has appeared, its origin is in losing ones resonance with ones own heart and place in the world.

Healing can be addictive, if one continues to rely on outside sources for ultimate healing. If there were a true healer, they would render their work irrelevant and put themselves out of business. So, in my view, real healing is helping someone to raise their energetic level to the point where they become their own healer. They transcend the need to be healed.

SPACES STILL AVAILABLE: Omaha Retreat – March 23-25

Dr. Randine Lewis, author of The Infertility Cure and founder of The Fertile Soul Method^TM, will offer this Workshop in conjunction with Donna Huber(Thirteen Moons Acupuncture) to focus on the unique challenges couples and individuals face through the fertility journey. We will incorporate five-element energetics, our foundational retreat process, diagnosis, qi gong exercises, diet, massage/acupressure, energy healing, nutritional enhancement, and healing support in a comfortable group environment. Our LOWEST tuition of the YEAR is offered for this event ONLY! The retreat begins on Friday, March 23 (starting time around 3pm) and goes through Sunday, March 25 (closing time around 6pm).

For more information and registration, check out our site here:http://thefertilesoul.com/shop/retreats/re12-0323-the-fertile-soul-retreat

or contact us: info@thefertilesoul.com

Fertility Acupressure - Luteal and Pre-Mentrual Phase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdnni2i6mdE

Fertility Acupressure - Follicular Phase

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWjNX-PxdM0

The Essential Attribute

I recently met with a couple who had some troubling experiences with their past fertility doctors. She was 46 and he was 48. Her reproductive organs were clear, her hormones were within normal limits and he had an adequate sperm count with average motility and morphology. Yet, because of age, the feeling of frantic desperation was closing in on them. While I was evaluating the wife, the husband asked me a very interesting question: “In your experience, what is the crucial factor is in women who are successful in conceiving over 45? Is it hormonal, physical, emotional, mental?” I had to think for a moment, as I hadn’t ever been asked this question before. I paused, looked back on the “miracles” who conceived in later reproductive life, and it was clear what that essential attribute was. Strange as it sounded, I responded, “It is without a doubt this: the courage to follow the wisdom of one’s heart.”

Certainly, as a woman ages, there are changes to her reproductive system. At age 25, a woman as 80% more blood flow going to the reproductive organs than a 45 year old woman. Her hormones are more stable. Her uterus is more receptive. She responds better to hormones. Negative life conditioning hasn’t had a chance to take hold. It isn’t as if we need to recondition all these negative life responses, either. We don’t have time for that.

The Chinese philosophy of reproductive aging could be boiled down to this: At age 25, one is governed primarily by the physical world. At age 45, one must follow a different directive: the wisdom of the heart, known as xin. Heart wisdom is that deep inner sense of knowing we each have when our lives are in alignment. It is a felt sense of power and rightness that is more difficult to tap into when we are governed by the physical world of the senses.

One woman was 48 when she came into the power of the courage of her own heart wisdom. She sat across from her doctor as he sat behind his desk, patronizing her with comments such as, “Don’t you realize how old you are?” and “Furthermore, you aren’t even married.” Having had enough of believing other people’s comments of what she was capable of, she stood up with nothing other than the courage of her own heart to guide her, Thoughts arose such as, what if this was the last doctor who would treat someone of her age and reproductive status? It didn’t matter anymore. The only thing that mattered was that she finally stand up for herself. She said, “Who are you to tell me what I am capable of?” and she walked out of his office, determined never again to let anyone rob her of her potential. She found her husband later the same year. They conceived naturally. She gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

It is rare to find someone who is finally ready to take charge of their own life to such an extent that they encounter a level of courage that demands fidelity of a higher order to ones own heart. But when it comes, it is a formidable force. I have never seen it fail.

Fertility Massage - Femoral Reproductive Massage Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBhifKPeqg0

Can Women Make New Eggs?

A new study confirmed the underlying belief, unproven, that the ovary contains deep, hidden stem cells, capable of becoming new eggs. It was previously believed that a woman’s ovarian potential was determined before birth, and was incapable of being improved upon. While science hasn’t been able to study ovarian potential from healthy, living ovarian tissue, rodent studies have supported the idea that mammalian ovarian cells have a potential to produce new cells. Yet, the only tissue science has previously had to study was pathological or diseased tissue, removed from the body. It was previously proven that menopausal ovaries, when placed in a younger, healthier body, were capable of ovulating again. Science does not know how, why, or under what circumstances those stem cells can produce eggs. The ovaries respond to cues from the internal environment (the blood circulation, hormones, nutritional status, oxygenation, stress hormones in the blood., toxin and antioxidant levels…) and create a follicular environment to mimic the body’s internal response to its external environment. It is within that follicular environment that the eggs (which have been in a dormant state since before birth) undergo meiosis, and wait to see if they will be selected for maturation and ovulation.

Knowing that ovarian tissue is capable of producing new eggs, and knowing that primordial follicles remain dormant until called into circulation by communicating with the body’s internal environment (which is based on her emotional interpretation of the external environment), let me provide a couple of stories from women I have treated.

A woman underwent high dose radiation and chemotherapy, which “killed” her ovaries. She conceived naturally.

A woman in ovarian failure, with an FSH value over 100, conceived naturally.

A woman conceived during her 7^th IVF at age 47.

A woman conceived naturally with ¼ of one ovary.

A woman conceived naturally with only one ovary on the left, and only one fallopian tube, on the right.

A woman gave birth to her first child, conceived naturally, at age 48.

The body is capable of miraculous feats, when provided the right cues. I am less concerned with how to manipulate stem cells in the lab ten years from now, than I am with providing the right environment where the body can call upon its deepest, dormant potential now. While the examples might be clinical anecdotes and not research worthy, the beauty of these stories is that each of the women above had to call upon a higher potential within. According to Chinese medicine, the energy that stirs this primordial potential comes not from the Kidneys (which govern the ovaries), but from the Heart (Spirit’s) interaction with the primordial potential within the ovaries. Energetically, ones highest potential must reach into one’s most basic potential. When an internal pressure cooker is provided (like the fertility journey,) an internal state of tension is produced, requiring one to call upon this higher level of interaction. If it isn’t accessed, the HPO axis continues on its previous (horizontal) pathway of decline. When a woman can access her heart’s highest potential, we can consider it an evolutionary jump, calling upon that hidden (vertical) potential to now manifest at a higher level.

Control vs. Allowing

If you are on the fertility journey, you have undoubtedly been told by those blissfully ignorant of the frustration this journey brings, comments like: “Just let go and it will happen.” Or, “I had a friend who adopted and became pregnant when she gave up control.” I offered a retreat a few years back whose theme was, Letting Go. One very high-strung woman arrived and said, “I didn’t come here to let go; I came here to have a baby!” At our last retreat, one woman recognized, “I’ve been so wound up trying to force myself to let go, I’ve been controlling more than if I simply let myself control.” Tight control vs. letting go are two ends of the same spectrum. When we are trying to move the scales over to one side vs. the other, it is still control. It is impossible to falsely induce a state of letting go at this level, because we are invariably going to find ourselves being tugged from one side to the other.  Albert Einstein said, “You can never solve a problem on the level on which it was created.” So how do we move beyond the pendulum of control to a new paradigm? You might start by inquiring within:

What is the underlying desire whose fulfillment you are trying to control?

How do you think you can control its manifestation?

Do you have to alleviate the desire in order to let go?

Can you attend to your heart’s desire while you let go of how you think it must be fulfilled?

Keep your attention on yourself, right now. Attend to the open spaciousness within, the hope you feel in your heart, and the longing that arises to bring forth life. That’s it. Do what you can to restore balance. Balance can’t be forced. It is in harmony with the rest of your life. Let the universe run itself, and attend to your own inner state of being. Don’t attend to yesterday’s errors or tomorrow’s fears. Stay at home, in the wellbeing within your own heart.

There is no need to control your thoughts or emotions, either. Be as you are. Allow life to flow through you, authentically, as it will. Any forced state of positivity is only more control. Don’t you think that the soul of a future child will be drawn to you as you are rather than a forced state of controlling their manifestation? Provide life an outlet, and more will come through.

Be scared. Be sad. Be messy. Have a tantrum about this sucky journey. Stomp and scream when you’re angry. Laugh when you’re happy. Live life fully. Get off the spleen qi diet for a few days. Stop taking your vitamins and herbs. Throw out the BBT charts.  Exercise how you want to rather than how you should. Make love when you have the urge rather than according to the ovulation predictor kits. Find the joy of no control. Act as if you were three and didn’t know any better, and you may find yourself in an open flow of life rather than a static, sterile, controlled approach. Let life live you, breathe you, think you, and emote through you. Let life come through you as it will, in every way. Your hormones will love it!

The Fertile Soul Comes to Omaha - March 23-25

Dr. Randine Lewis, author of The Infertility Cure and founder of The Fertile Soul Method^TM, will offer this Workshop in conjunction with Donna Huber (Thirteen Moons Acupuncture) to focus on the unique challenges couples and individuals face through the fertility journey. We will incorporate five-element energetics, our foundational retreat process, diagnosis, qi gong exercises, diet, massage/acupressure, energy healing, nutritional enhancement, and healing support in a comfortable group environment. Our LOWEST tuition of the YEAR is offered for this event ONLY! The retreat begins on Friday, March 23 (starting time around 3pm) and goes through Sunday, March 25 (closing time around 6pm).

For more information and registration, check out our site here: http://thefertilesoul.com/shop/retreats/re12-0323-the-fertile-soul-retreat

or contact us: info@thefertilesoul.com

Emergence

Once a month I conduct a community call with our community of TCM fertility experts, dealing with real life issues that show up as mental, emotional or physical imbalances, including infertility. Today we talked about the energies of emergence. As we move from winter into spring, nature expresses the energy of emergence. The seeds that have been hidden under ground sprout into shoots, which emerge through the soil as the hidden potential is being manifest.  This very same energy is behind the reproductive capacity of a human being.

The water element, carried by the kidney system of energies, governs our genetic and reproductive potential, and how it can be either strengthened into a strong push of emergence, or depleted where its potential withers before it has a chance to emerge.

We looked at what constitutes that hidden potential. According to Chinese medicine, its basis is a strong sense of ones innate being, that gives rise to the will to live fully and reproduce oneself in the world. Physical means to support these energies are

through adequate sleep, rest, quiet, meditation, a warm foot soak in Epson salts, eating seeds, and nourishing foods like eggs with high potential energy, qi gong, reproductive and femoral massage, and acupuncture and herbs that tonify the kidney essence.. The strongest way to nourish the potential of the kidney energies is to know oneself fully, down to the core, without any masks or roles giving us our identity.

These potential energies can also be depleted by too much exercise, excitement, stimulation, not enough restoration and sleep; eating foods with low potential energy like refined carbohydrates and simple sugars. They are also held back by unexamined fears, which can lurk in the depths and drive unconscious behavior. Fears like “My life will not be worth anything if I don’t have a child.” These types of unconscious fears are counter to knowing and accepting oneself down to the core. When we move into these fears and acknowledge them, they lose their hold over us.

I invite you to look at these fears that might hold you back and bring them into the light where they have no power.  What gives your life worth right now? Can you look at the value of your life without any roles, relationships, or external identities?

From here, the depths of your own inherent worth, there is potential for what can be. What emerges forth as your heart’s greatest longing? Sure, it comes in the form of the desire to have a child. But instead of holding onto the picture of a child as a goal oriented pursuit, bring it into an embodied reality. When you feel the desire for a child arise, what does it feel like in your body? What is the direct, felt experience of what you think it will feel like when that desire is fulfilled? Instead of waiting for the goal to be reached (a stressful pursuit which depletes the kidneys and obstructs the liver), bring it out of the mind and into the body. Feel the visceral sensation of its fulfillment. What does it feel like? Unconditional love? Joy? Feel those feelings now.

Turn your vision within. Find the source from which these energies arise. Look at what might be obstructing them. Let your deepest fears be uncovered. Move beyond them, so you can experience the fullness of your heart’s desire. Take it out of the mind, which will give it a picture, and instead plant the feeling in your body. Let that feeling guide you.

Finally, what is the ground of your life, as it is, that will be nourishing this seedling? How have you been nourishing your life? How much space is there in your life right now for yourself? For a child? What types of emotions are circulating through your system? Is it conducive to allowing new life to emerge? And can you cultivate a sense of faith that life, as it is, can find its way through you?

We will be working with these most potent energies of emergence at our next retreat. I hope to see you there.

A Tough Old Egg

“My whole life, I’ve done everything right, and look where it got me.”

- Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

The fertility journey of a woman over 40 is a tenacious pursuit, requiring a tremendous amount of fortitude. The mature fertility patient musters up all of the drive and determination of her past decades of achievement, and goes into overdrive to try to reach her goal. She will stop at nothing – researching, studying, consulting doctors of various specialties, taking her temperature, getting her hormones tested and reproductive organs evaluated, taking herbs and supplements, adjusting her diet and lifestyle, reducing stress; and still they say her chances are dismal. Further fueling the purposeful resolve; she rolls up her sleeves, more determined than ever to summon up all the power of women who have ever overcome odds to achieve their goal. Like Thelma & Louise, reaching the end of a desperate journey, they become risk takers, doing things they normally wouldn’t do, and trading hope for courage. They become tough; hardening the exterior to protect themselves from a most terrifying notion – what if the statistics are true?

A recent research of reproductive literature revealed the following quotes:

“As a woman eggs age, their shells become harder, keeping sperm out.”

“Assisted hatching involves the use of laser to thin the zona pellucida (outer shell) of the fertilized egg, prior to transfer into the uterus. It is believed that this outer shell becomes thicker and hardened with aging of the oocyte.”

The follicular fluid of the developing egg contains other markers of stress , too, like hormonal fluctuations, and evidence of low oxygenation. Now, who would expect anything different? Women who are in a state of desperate pursuit send their bodies into a state of mind over matter, and it shows up in the physical – down to the cellular level. The ovaries become a repository for this toughness. During a guided inner meditation, one retreat participant reported:

“I visualized my ovaries wearing army helmets. I had put them through a war with my demands of them, never allowing them to recover between cycles, just demanding more, more  more!  I never allowed them a state of receptivity; or allowed them to be rejuvenated or nourished. I demanded action of them, as I had always demanded perfection and overachievement of myself, and they were exhausted. They needed protection. What kind of mother does that? How could this type of attitude that I had perfected my whole life, not be reflected inside?”

As Mary Oliver so eloquently put it in her poem, Wild Geese,

You do not have to be good. You do not have to walk on your knees For a hundred miles through the desert, repenting. You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves. Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine. Meanwhile the world goes on. Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain are moving across the landscapes, over the prairies and the deep trees, the mountains and the rivers. Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air, are heading home again. Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- over and over announcing your place in the family of things.

Please allow yourself to stop being tough. We teach you many ways to improve ovarian health, but you must be in a state where you allow it to take hold at the cellular level. Allow yourself to drop into the deep, inner nourishment, where nature allows the miraculous. Your inner body reflects the state of your mind. Become receptive, and open to life.

Choosing Love Over Fear

Creation comes through love, not fear. Simply put, fear contracts and closes off the portal of creation. Love has an opening effect, and seeks more of itself. Love has a strongly magnetic effect, fear repels. Whatever your heart desires most, bring through love, not through fear of its absence.

There is a void at the center of your heart that connects you to all of creation. There is also a void in the center of the womb that opens to the life giving power that emanates from your heart. When fear of not getting what you want is stronger than the heart's desire, the contractive nature of fear energetically closes off the womb's receptivity to the life giving power of the heart.

Most of us have been conditioned to go after what we want out of fear of not getting it. Fear of financial insecurity can propel us toward great professional careers. Fear of being alone can move us toward relationships, both helpful and harmful. As our attention is directed outward, fear can actually serve us in  obtaining our personal effort based achievements. Fear moves us away from that which we most try to avoid.

Yet fear has only a fraction of the power of love. Fear has no ability to produce; it only drains. Fear produces a state of control, which lulls us into thinking we have power. Control is fear based, and depleting.

Love, which emanates from the heart, has no need to control. It simply moves toward opening to more of itself. Love is the creative power of the universe.

When our actions are based on fear of not getting a child, our behaviors are controlling and motivated by deprivation. Energetically, it is almost impossible to conceive from this state of being. This is a very infertile state, as fear begets more lack. Infertility is fed by fear and control. When our actions are motivated by love, we feel nourished and energized. Love is vibrantly alive, and seeking more of itself. Love is the most abundantly fertile state.

When your fertility challenge leaves you fearful, don't fight, resist, or control. Simply shift your attention to the heart, and focus on the love for life. Let life's longing for itself be the motivating force. In every moment, choose love over fear.

2012 - The Year of the (Water) Dragon

Beginning with the next new moon, we enter into the year of the water dragon, deep and fierce. There is a dragon asleep in the heart of humanity. From the depths of the ocean, this dragon rises to the surface, beckoning us into the most fierce approach to life - to awaken to the fire breathing magnificence of our own miraculous power. Some will heed it's power, and some will turn away from its call.

We are not the small beings we have taken ourselves to be; and are not, in fact, what we think we are. We are not victims of life, nor are we at its mercy. We are life itself, and as such are beyond such happenings as birth and death. Our own unfathomable being is so grand that it cannot be contained in a body or a mind. These are mere reflections, vehicles through which our divine magnificence peers through into this three dimensional existence. The face of your own divinity will devour all illusion.

When the power of this dragon is awakened, it will stop at nothing. It is propelled by the fiercest force in all of existence - to know itself as all. This force will consume you and all you have known until it comes to rest in the cave of stillness, knowing its source, containing the pure potential from which all arises.

If you dare to awaken this dragon, it will consume all of its manifestations. It will see past the illusion of the dream made self. It will face and devour all of your fears, angers, sorrows, and conditional love, joy, and happiness. It will not rest until it resides in the unborn grandeur of the unconditioned, in peace that cannot be understood; only lived.

This dragon cannot die. It has never not been. It has always been there, sleeping in  the cave of your own heart, waiting for your invitation. It brings you to the power many dare not encounter. Do not be afraid to come face to face with your own terrible magnificence. You are the life you have been longing for. You have taken birth for this chance. Dare to use the power of the dragon to awaken to the life giving powers of creation arising from the depth of your own being.

Free Conference Call - Monday January 30th at 7 p.m. EST

Happy Chinese New Year!

Free Conference Call Next Monday

The Basics of Fertility Enhancement

Q&A with Dr. Randine Lewis

Monday January 30th at 7 p.m. EST

I strongly believe that even just finding out about The Fertile Soul has a powerful, ripple, helpful effect, especially for those who cannot travel, but who nevertheless read -- and listen-- ask questions, wonder, benefit, and grow, grow, grow. L.H.

I am looking forward to a rich retreat in January, where we will focus on aging, overwhelm, and turning into the wellspring of deep inner guidance. In this inner sanctuary there is no aging or overwhelm. When we can reside in this place, a more fertile response to life is possible, which of course, is reflected in our reproductive response. Our New York session filled up quickly, but we do have openings in February in my hometown of Asheville, NC, February 17-20th, where our focus will expand to include welcoming in the year of the Dragon, a powerful and dynamic expression of the Chinese New Year. We will use this power to deeply connect with the life-giving source within. I love witnessing the power of retreat participants as they learn to live the miracle!

We will also offer a free conference call on Monday, January 30th at 7 p.m. EST. I will go over some fertility basics and open the call up to your questions and answers. I hope you will be able to join us - whether you are new to the Fertile Soul or have already embraced this process. I look forward to connecting with you.

To Join in dial 605-475-4000 then access code 794774#.  Those calling from Canada should call 805-360-1075 and then you will be prompted to enter the original number and access code.