The wound is the place where the light enters you – Jelalludin Rumi

Today I would like to invite you to join my Mount Fuji Energy Resonance, a distant healing event I am presenting free from Yamanashi, Japan.

Many of my blog readers and newsletter subscribers feel drawn to personally contributing to healing vibrations in Japan in the wake of last year’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear accident.

By collectively sharing Mount Fuji Energy Resonance, my vision is that we can join together distantly not only for vibrational energy within Japan, but also for unfolding and amplifying our inner healing energies.

In more than 20 years of energy work in Japan, I have experienced firsthand the special vibrations supporting me in the healing services I offer in my private sessions and teaching courses here at the foot of Mount Fuji.

Through distant resonance with these powerful earth energies I hope you, too, can more deeply access your own creative and spiritual energies in 2012.

Let the beauty we love be what we do – Jelalludin Rumi

MOUNT FUJI ENERGY RESONANCE

What is it?
A collective distant healing event presented free by Catrien Ross in Japan

When is it?
February 8, 2012
Mount Fuji Resonance will be presented at three different times to accommodate world time zones. The actual event will last about 15 minutes, each time.

Who can join?
Modern mystics, healers, energy workers, and anyone, anywhere, who feels drawn to being part of Mount Fuji vibrational energies at this time.

How can I join?
To register your long distance participation and to receive Mount Fuji Energy Resonance preparation exercises, please email the following information to info@energydoorways.com

Your Full Name
Your Email
Your Country
Your Preferred Time (Please choose your time from ①②③ below):

① February 8, at noon, Tokyo Time
② February 8, at 2 pm, Tokyo Time
③ February 8, at 8 pm, Tokyo Time

Why join?
May this shared moment of Mount Fuji Energy Resonance ground and expand our vibrational energies in 2012 for healing not only Japan, but also ourselves.

As we move into the new year with grateful awareness, please accept this Mount Fuji Energy Resonance event as a little healing gift from me at Energy Doorways in Yamanashi, Japan.

With love from the foot of Mount Fuji.

Catrien Ross
Energy Doorways
January 28, 2012

Did your dragons stir in you today?

As the Year of the Dragon begins in 2012, how many of you are unleashing inner dragons you have so far restricted or ignored?

Is their unruly roar now spurring you to reexamine your values and how you live your life?

What energies do you sense arising as you become more dragon aware?

In Japan, it is difficult to deny the existence of dragons – they are everywhere you turn.

Gushing water at shrines, enlivening the wooden beams and ceilings of temples, snaking across kimono silks.

Their ubiquitous presence expresses the dynamic shift at the heart of any creative or spiritual endeavor.

Unlike the dragons of Western lore, benevolent Asian dragons symbolize nature’s innate intelligence and regenerative resilience.

Perceived as the bringer of welcome rains, the dragon is also associated with auspicious unfolding, personal power, and creative abundance.

The pearl of wisdom clasped within the dragon’s claw offers seekers a key to inner knowing and contentment.

Wingless, serpentine dragons traverse the clouds, untrammeled in their freedom, inspiring us likewise to transcend our limitations.





The above photos show my close friend here in Yamanashi, the potter, Tosetsu-san.

Thirty-five years ago the appearance of dragons in her dreams compelled her to commit her life to clay and giving form to dragon inspiration.

Today, at the foot of Mount Fuji, she still perfects her craft – an intricate pottery weave that has become her trademark, along with a dignity of dragons found in temples and private collections all over Japan (for information about her pieces contact info@energydoorways.com).

Tosetsu-san and her dragons embody proof of the enormous power you access when you tap your own courage and passion.

Showcasing this wonderful friend today on my Energy Doorways blog is a perfect celebration of the Year of the Dragon’s arrival in 2012.

If dragons represent our deepest fears and desires, then freeing them begins the miracle of transformation.

As your inner dragons stir in you today, are you brave enough to listen?

Have you ever listened to a tree drink water?

Putting your ear to the trunk of this old Japanese oak, you can hear water being drawn up from the roots.

In the aftermath of last year’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake, my leaning into this tree, feeling its life force, helped my body recover from its physical disorientation.

Even before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, followed by the nuclear accident, several life-changing situations had arisen for me in Japan.

Then what was a triple tragedy for so many Japanese people served only to highlight those personal changes even more vividly.

In the most profound sense, something has forever shifted.

So much of what seemed to matter no longer matters so much.

How do you ground yourself when the ground beneath your feet is shifting?

If you can, you seek a more supportive direction, a more solid orientation.

One key is simply to celebrate being alive.

To know that your own life energies are available to empower you.

To sense that, akin to the old Japanese oak, water and blood course through you, supporting and sustaining you.

Since March 11, more than ever I appreciate being in Yamanashi, also known as the home of Mount Fuji, in what for me is the heart center of Japan.

How often do you acknowledge the influence of your environment on the personality you express?

For more than 15 years my outer and inner worlds have been shaped by living in the foreign culture I encounter here at the foot of Mount Fuji.

What I am become today is deeply connected to the cycles and rhythms of my daily life in the countryside of Yamanashi.

The Japanese oak in the photo is a quercus crispula in the midst of an ancient beech forest hidden in Aokigahara, or “sea of trees.”

For some, Aokigahara is a pathway into death – it is now a notorious suicide location.

For others, its hidden attractions are perceived as a continued source of inspiration and recovery.

In your response to life’s situations and events you reveal who you are.

This Energy Doorways blog is bilingual, published in both English and Japanese.

The Japanese blog features the activities of Energy Doorways in Japan, such as healing, teaching, and publishing.

The English blog is my means of sharing insights and inspirations from living in Yamanashi, and the personal growth lessons learned.

Since March 11 last year Japan has survived more than 6,700 aftershocks.

Things are shaking still.

What one person learns about evolving through challenges can be shared across cultures and borders.

Yamanashi, with its stunning natural beauty, has been the physical location underpinning my life lessons so far.

My hope is that what inspires me from the foot of Mount Fuji will inspire you, too.

Meantime, what are your own hopes for recovery and personal growth in 2012?

Almost 1,500 years ago, Japanese samurai began perfecting the form of horseback archery known as yabusame (yah-boo-sah-meh).

On this sun-after-rain afternoon, beneath a glistening, snow-capped Mount Fuji, I join the yabusame festival my rural community has celebrated for over nine centuries.

Every year, on the April 29 national holiday, mounted archers display their martial art at Lake Kawaguchi, a three-minute walk from the front entrance of Energy Doorways, the Japanese publishing company I established here.

After a ritual ceremony at the nearby shrine, male and female archers ride out in measured procession towards the lakeshore.

Their finery replicates 13th century formal hunting costume – jaunty hats, deerskin chaps, jewel tone silks, black velvet chest protectors embroidered with gold crests, and soft leather shoes that slip into stirrups shaped like oversized, decorated slippers.

And, of course, the elegant, recurve bow, one of the longest in the world.

Although many in the West are familiar with the mystique of the Japanese sword, early samurai defined their warrior creed as The Way of the Bow and Horse.

Yabusame echoes that lost era of thundering hooves and singing arrows.

Conditions this year are especially challenging.

Morning rehearsals under heavy rain have churned the dirt track to mud, and a ferocious wind gusts.

Galloping at full tilt each archer readies the arrow for aim at targets spaced along the narrow track.

In successive rounds these are replaced with ever smaller targets – a bulls-eye board, then a wooden square, finally a suspended clay pot.

Since the archer needs both hands to load the arrow, draw the bow, and shoot, the horse is controlled with the knees, implying total trust between rider and animal.

At the precise moment of aim, the archer raises the body, twisting the bow at full draw, and releases the arrow with a special shout meant to align energy and intention.

Even in these unfavorable circumstances, with some horses slipping and arrows blown off course, several archers achieve the satisfying thwack of targets soundly hit.

Yet yabusame is not a vying for the title of the best archer.

Traditional training taught discipline, focus, and finesse.

Breathing practice harmonized mind and body under the most intense pressure, allowing the horse archer to overcome doubt and fear.

Imbued with spiritual significance, the martial art accorded respect to the divine, natural cycles, and human skill in delighting the gods.

Can such aspirations have any relevance in today’s world?

I invite you to share your thoughts about the following personal growth inspiration I gleaned from this year’s horseback archery event.

Yabusame-Inspired Actions

Identify exactly what and where your target is.

Execute every step necessary to support your aim.

Become really good at what you want to do.

Root your efforts in confidence and spiritual purpose.

Display your flair by dressing for the part.

Go all out, galloping at full tilt.

Face hostile situations with equanimity.

Recognize that authentic action yields its own reward.

Trust what carries you forward.

Celebrate the moment as all there is.

Yabusame-Inspired Lessons

It’s not about competing with others.

It’s about being the best only you can be in the present.

It’s not about winning applause.

It’s about dancing with your unique abilities and talents.

It’s not about taking home the prize.

It’s about reflecting harmony, prosperity, and shared abundance.

Yabusame-Inpsired Insights

Be what you are:

Express your passion with your true colors flying.

Act with courage:

Hitting your target requires your initial willingness to try.

Adjust your attitude:

Adverse conditions are simply that – your real test is how you respond.

Discover your inner power:

True aim arises from the certainty of centered stillness.

See the bigger picture:

When your arrow misses the mark, sense the gods are smiling anyway.

Show gratitude:

Appreciate your horse and trust teamwork – each one needs and helps the other.

Be bold:

Leave the crowds gasping with astonishment at your bravado.

Live fully, live well:

Look back and say, “I had a great ride.”

How do you feel about hitting your target at full gallop?

What other comments would you like to share?

I just did.

Something here in Japan knocked the smile out of my life for several days.

So engulfing was the personal trauma I found it hard to sense even the slightest hint of brightness.

I lost my smile.

My innermost wisdom knows, of course, that such perception of darkness is distorted.

There can always be a doorway out to where a smile signals.

No matter how darkly I perceive my world, the reality of daylight arises in my face every morning to challenge me otherwise.

In visible manifestation, the sun appears whether or not I choose to appreciate its presence.

The light arrives in welcome regardless of my acceptance.

Embracing natural rhythms is like blinking myself out from the dimness of a self-restricting cave.

As my physical eyes open to outer realities, my inner vision, too, expands with renewed awareness.

I smile despite myself.

Once again I sense that no matter what unfolds, I need never trap myself in a shell of hardness and unfeeling that shuts out the light.

Something traumatic happened: This is a fact.

Let it flow through me.

All is darkness and sorrow: This is a perception.

Let it fall from me.

So today, please share my meditation on finding 9 powerful meanings in your smile when you don’t feel like smiling.

What the power of your S-M-I-L-E can do:

Stretch-My-Inner-Love-Energy
Smiling stretches muscles that lift your face, instantly stimulating your inner joy.

Start-My-Internal-Life-Engine
Smiling gets you going when your life rhythms are at their lowest ebb, releasing your energetic flow.

See-Miracles-In-Life’s-Environment
Smiling helps you perceive the world through new eyes, reconnecting your sense of wonder and gratitude.

Spark-Motivation-Into-Limitless-Enthusiasm
Smiling spurs you to begin again, reigniting the innermost fire that fuels your visions.

What the power of your S-M-I-L-E can be:

Simple-Mindfulness-Inviting-Life’s-Embrace
Sometimes you smile because things are just what they are, and through all of it, life is good.

Splendid-Magnificence-Illuminating-Love’s-Essence
Sometimes you smile because such compassionate generosity suffuses the heart of love.

Shared-Moments-Inspiring-Laughter’s-Expression
Sometimes you smile because good feelings tickle links to the best of yourself and community.

Special-Magic-Invoking-Luminous-Enchantment
Sometimes you smile because sudden knowledge stirs awareness of extraordinary dimensions.

Your S-M-I-L-E contains unique significance and the energy of transformation:

So-Make-It-Last-Eternally
If a bell can reverberate forever in the universe, why not your smile, too?

Are you finding powerful meanings in your smile when you don’t feel like smiling?

Please share your thoughts and let’s S-M-I-L-E together!

Where intention goes, energy flows.

In a future post I will expand this idea within the context of Oriental Medicine’s 5,000 years of applied knowledge about the body’s energy cycles.

But today I offer a simple exercise that demonstrates the link connecting your mind, your real power of intention, and your energy flow.

Have fun with what I call Stretching Your Potential:

Stretching Your Potential

• Stand or sit comfortably.
• Look at the palms of your hands.
• At the bottom of your palm, where your hand joins the wrist, is a horizontal line that resembles a baseline, as it were, of your palm.
• Place your hands together in prayer position, exactly mirroring the position of this baseline, one palm against the other.
• Look at your fingers.
• You will see that either your left or right hand is slightly shorter than the other.
• Separate your hands.
• Focus your attention totally on your shorter hand.
• Say, either within your mind or aloud, “My fingers are longer, my fingers are longer.”
• Mentally direct your power of intention into your shorter hand.
• Take a deep breath in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth.
• Repeat the words, “My fingers are longer, my fingers are longer.”
• Now place your palms together again as you did before, exactly mirroring the baseline.
• Look at your fingers.

What do you find?

Are you surprised?

Focusing your attention stimulates the real power of your intention to direct your own energy.

What holds true for this simple exercise is equally true for the more difficult tasks you set yourself.

You already have within you all the power you need to manifest your intentions.

It is that straightforward.

It is that authentic.

You can direct your energy flow exactly as you want, at any moment in your life.

Whether your goal is immediate or long-term, stretching your potential is powerfully and relevantly possible.

How do you feel about this simple exercise?

Do you notice anything different about yourself afterwards?

And knowing your intention is a real power already within you, how else will you stretch your potential from now?

I welcome your reactions, so please join the discussion with your comments.

Have a wonderful day stretching your potential!

How about you?

Are you alert to the vibrations reviving your passion and purpose?

Spring flowers broadcast frequencies that sing to your indifference, stirring you with renewed motivation.

Their vibrations spur your spirit’s shift from winter rhythms to the freshness of enlightened inspiration.

Spring also awakens you to the rippling of a myriad sentient beings.

Your sensory experience, encountered in every breath, defines you, reflects you, confirms you and supports you.

In the same way, the vibrations you broadcast reach outwards to affect each person you meet and each circumstance around you.

You live in a sea of vibration that resonates in your cells, informing your DNA and transforming your choices.

You do not know when vibrations arrive from afar to influence you.

You do not know how widely your own vibrations reach.


Manifestation taps the power of this vibrational continuum.

Your first impulse for creation takes shape within its energetic vortex.

Where intention goes, energy flows.

Your intentions unleash creative changes in the energy field that surrounds you.

Positive intentions combined with positive actions excite energy to move in desired directions.

Why should this be so?

Is it because the underlying principle of the universe is the joy of co-creation?

Is it because you share accountability for expressing the abundance of this creative intelligence?

Spring flowers flaunt their splendor, unabashed in their magnificence.

How about you?

Do you celebrate the forms and colors of your personality and character?

Do your dreams astonish with their boldness?

Do you unfurl your talents to a delighted world?

As spring vibrations quicken within you, how are you reviving your passion and purpose?

In Japan, I welcome the ripples of your response.

Well, you can.

For several years I have been physically blowing out any feelings of negativity in a simple shift of energy I now call A Positive Puff.

I naturally learned this while fuming one day about a personal situation in Japan.

Living in the mountains, the first thing I do whenever I feel low is go outside.

Stepping out into the vista of hills and sky instantly expands my senses and perception.

I do so whatever the weather, as the wide eaves of this Japanese minka shelter me from rain, snow, hail, and even typhoon winds.

That day, fuming and spluttering, I was so upset I let out a hiss of noisy breath.

I also threw my fists downward in a gesture of anger and disgust.

At once I felt a dramatic and positive shift.

My body released its hostile tension.

My dark mood ebbed out of me.

I had physically released my negativity.

Refined since through practice, here is A Positive Puff for you to try:

• If possible, go outdoors to an attractive, safe area.
• Stand lightly without locking your knees.
• Relax by breathing in through your nose and out through your mouth.
• Mentally bring up what bothers or upsets you.
• Scoop your negative feelings up into your cupped hands.
• Raise your hands, full of these feelings, slowly in front of your face.
• Take a deep breath in through your nose and release it in one strong puff over your cupped hands, as if blowing away your feelings.
• Immediately drop your empty hands to the ground as if releasing your negative feelings into the earth.
• Shake off your hands.
• Breathe deeply in through your nose and out through your mouth.
• Repeat the same movements two or three times if you feel you need to.

You will most likely sense an immediate lightness, both physically and mentally, as if your tension had both blown and dropped away.

Which it has.

You are actually blowing out your negativity in a puff of positive intention to shift your energy.

Do you think this can work for you?

Why don’t you try for yourself and share your experience?

Only when you stop liking and disliking
Will all be clearly understood.

When I suspend judgement of good versus bad in whatever happens to me or around me, suddenly I perceive the world through fresh eyes.

Which is much easier said than done.

How many judgements have you made today since you got up?

Think back.

What was your very first thought on waking?

A smile of acceptance or an expression of distaste?

What were the first words out of your mouth this morning?

Thank you, or…?

How did you greet today’s weather?

With equilibrium or an expletive?

What feelings did you show towards the first person you encountered?

An open joy or a scowl of annoyance?

How did you react to your first food or drink of the day?

With satisfaction or a critical grunt?

In what attitude did you begin your work?

Inspirational motivation or disillusionment?

How did you complete your work?

In grateful accomplishment or disappointed complaint?

When you judge the world in terms of dualities your expectations define your response.

And your judgmental response creates your experience.

You like something so you feel good.

You dislike something so you feel bad.

But why the need to judge at all?

Step for a moment into the reality of nature.

The sun does not rise because you desire light.

The moon shines whether or not the water catches its reflection.

The seasons refresh their cycles because they are seasons.

A tree is a tree, a bird a bird, your spouse your spouse.

From my vantage point above Lake Kawaguchi, the view of Mount Fuji reminds me:

The blue mountains are of themselves blue mountains;
The white clouds are of themselves white clouds.

By observing without judgement I can see things simply as they are.

By relinquishing expectations I can accept what unfolds.

Perhaps I can even experience my true nature as I am of myself I.

Whole, yet a part of all I see, and feel, and know.

And all of it, a part of me.

How did judging your day create your experience today?

Red ribbons in the February snow.

Meantime, deep inside this 300-year-old minka in the mountains …

The stone hearth warms.

Fire and Snow Meditation in a Japanese Minka

Beneath the snow

A redness of rejoicing.

In the stone’s enfolding

An inner fire’s glow.

Catrien Ross, February 2, 2010