Focus on what you want in Your Life!

Desert Healing Arts Present Visioning for 2011

Sunday, January 2  1:30pm

Bring your family and friends to this inspiring afternoon play shop. We will begin by pulling an individual soul card to learn what our spirit is calling us to be. We will take a short passion test to clarify our journey and dreams.
Later we will do a focused meditation using the Trinfinty 8 (which allows us access to the quantum field where all of our dreams live in an unrealized potential.) Using a guided meditation we will call forth our possibilities and then we will create maps (vision boards) to cement our vision for the New Year. Our vision boards will be colorful collages from magazine and other art
supplies (we provide) to support our vision. The law of attraction states that we manifest what we put our intention on, so let's use our time wisely and merge our desired goals and dreams into reality for 2011. During our play date, we will become clear on what it is we really want in our lives, and then create a magical map to assist us on our journey.

This class is fun and beneficial for all ages. One time when I was in Chile, a mapcuhe Shaman pointed out that as a community we no longer craft together. Coming together to share our visions is magical on all levels. You get to know your friends and family at a much deeper level; you learn about their goals and dreams, as well as getting support for your own life.
Class will be held at Desert Healing Arts on Sunday, January 2, from 1-3:30 pm. Cost. $50. includes materials. Space is limited, reserve your spot.

Get in Shape for 2011

Start the New Year off Right

Change is happening all around you so EVOLVE with the times. Our job at this time on our planet is to be happy. In order to sustain joy in our lives we must live in harmony--body, mind, and spirit.

We are offering a new series of classes designed to meet you where you are today-- to find acceptance and willingness to make new choices for joyful living. Join in where you feel called.

Cooking Magic

• Healthy Cooking Classes with the Shaman Chef.

• Do you thing that if it is healthy it will not taste as good?

• Do you believe that diets have to be boring in order to work?

• Do you make promises about your food that you do not keep?

• Do you eat what you say you are not going to eat?

• Do you choose foods that are life sustaining and nourishing?

4 Classes will meet Tuesdays from 5-7pm, January 4, 11, 18, 25

In this class you will:

Transform Your Beliefs about Eating Well. It does not have to taste bland to be good for you. Learn a few simple techniques and seasoning to spice up your nutritional meals. This class will meet weekly for four weeks. We will look at limiting beliefs about how we feed ourselves. Classes will be a combination of cooking and healing processes to help us shape up--body, mind and spirit. Using Renee’s four-step process for transformation, you will gain insight and clarity about your food and eating.

Chef and Shaman, Renee Baribeau brings the perfect combination to this subject of eating. Unlike other addictions, food is a necessity that we cannot live without. In addition to spending over 25 years in the kitchen, Renee worked with a group of people with food eating disorders for over two years. During this time, she needed to understand her own relationship to food and well-being. Some people eat to live, others live to eat. In both cases it is crucial that we feed our bodies mightily as they service us daily. Cooking well for our loved ones and ourselves is an act of self-love.

You will come away from this class inspired and infused with some new skills to cook great food that is good for you.

To take this series of classes, you must be ready to make a change and can commit to four weeks and a bit of homework. Sign up early as each class will be limited to ten participants. Every week we will sample food that we prepare. Cost of the four week class, which includes materials, is $250 and is limited to 10 people. Class will be centrally located in Palm Desert.

Register by 1/24 and save $25. Register Here. For More information email Renee

Wellness Options

4 week class (before 12/24) $225.00 4 week class (after 12/25) $250.00

A sacred healing/writing adventure of a lifetime in Peru

Shaping Up for Play

After days, weeks, months, and four grueling years staring face-to- face with my computer screen while  building my new business, a stark realization blew in with the fall chill; the only muscles getting a real workout were my fingers.  Sure I would take the occasional hike, but rarely did I challenge myself to go any further than my usual 2 mile route.  After subtle hints by a good friend(who at one time lagged behind me on the trail), and her generous gift of a month of training, I found myself yesterday unpolished and raw at a local playground, dressed for boot camp.

Step one. Get in shape. One needs endless, boundless energy to play. As a child I could run, jump rope, and hula hoop, from sun up till sundown.  So now is time to get in shape for play. It was a beautiful morning, and there I was without my blackberry, or friends watching on FB, trying to jump robe. As I tripped over the chord I complained to myself that the rope was too long.  As a child, any scrap of rope would do. Next, the 50 yard dash. By round three, I was slowly inching my way back towards the orange cone, watching as the more seasoned players bent down and touched the earth at each post. Yikes.

I am using my adult determination to overcome my clumsiness in the park.  I am exercising unused muscles used for frolicking, despite inept promptings of my adult voice clamoring that this is child's play.  This morning, I am once again confronted with sore muscles as I  pry myself up from the toilet seat.  The cat had to eat her breakfast on the bathroom counter, I could not bend down to place her bowl on the floor.  I do not remember ever being sore after a boundless day of play. This is an awkward experience.  However I still convinced it is time to remember how to play.

Fit over Fifty

My life became increasing out of balance. As a Shamanic Coach, I would assign my clients the task of learning to play with their inner child, even advise them to take an afternoon for an "artist date". From the outside it looked like I even knew how to do this for myself. After all I would take trips to see the fall foliage, visit the museums, grow a vegetable garden, write, cook, and paint. At the end of the day, my efforts felt like more work and less like fun.

My sand box sat empty in the yard, and my toys faded in the hot summer sun. So in the spirit of playfulness, I am embarking on remembering the spirit of play. I am inviting you to meet me in my sandbox for a play date. Let's unschool our tasking tendencies and clumsily revisit our inner playfulness. Let the fun begin.

Can you believe it is August?

After finally catching up with last quarter’s book keeping, I am two months in arrears again. Each moon cycle is full.  As time speeds up, my capacity for multi tasking seems ever more inadequate. Two years ago, I was able to complete several eNews in one month.  Now, there is little time or inclination to send out email. Facebook has certainly changed the mode of communication, and now with one click of the mouse, I can reach several thousand people.  This definitely has advantages, but there is a price tag hanging on my home page wall called time.

In one place I can keep track of most friends, learn about intriguing events and up to the minute news.  Red boxes keep me informed of friend requests and personal messages. People from around the globe leave comments on my home page. Likewise, there are people I like to follow and I am assuming by the messages I get, there are those who are keeping tabs on me.

A few months back I entered a book contest, primarily as motivation to finish the last round of edits on my manuscript. However, what I received was support from around the world. The book, The Shaman Chef: My Life and Other Recipes has made it to the top 1% of the contest.  Originally, over 2,500 people from around the globe submitted a pitch to be considered.  By popular vote, the second round was narrowed to the top 250 vote recipients.  Then, in round three, we were required to submit a book proposal to garner more votes. All my years of networking paid off, and I jumped to round three.  Everywhere I go, people tell me that they voted for me.  I am deeply honored and grateful for your vote.

Now comes the honing component writers know so well, the endless hours working on the rewrite. In the beginning, I was naive, and thought telling the story was enough.    The first draft was the compost; all my garbage was put into the pile and churned until it turned to mulch.   Last summer, after three years and more healing, I approached the book again. My fantasy of becoming a writer came true.  Then I froze for nearly a year. The contest, like an eight cylinder engine, propelled the writing process. Then the brakes slammed, jolting me backwards when the editor told me I had two choices, either pay her to make me look good or learn to write.  Piles of books touch the lampshade on the bed stand.  Each morning I write, and in the evening I read, learning about the craft.

At last, the book is taking form.  Round three begins in two short weeks. This time I will not need your votes, but I will ask for your support.  A note about my contest:  The dinner party for eight will be drawn upon my final round. Hopefully, the winner will be celebrating my published book. If you voted and did not enter the contest, please send an email to Renee@deserthealingarts, with dinner party for eight in the subject line.

This summer has been quiet and a time for inner reflection.  I’ve learned that a writer’s life is a solitary one, but I have been overwhelmed by your support as I pursue my dream and have seen the power of community in achieving goals.  In the words of Joseph Campbell “ Follow your Bliss” , and take time daily to help others do the same.  In this way, I am certain, we can all achieve our dreams.

Check out our website for Great Audio Classes on CD including: Flordemayo, Cindy Lyndsay Rael, Ph.D., Maria Teresa, Gail Larsen, Kerry Henwood, and more.

More information

A question of Personal Responsibility

While man-made forces threaten our planet’s survival, a new light is being cast out over the horizon in my life.  The separation between knowledge and information grows likes horsetail in my garden.  How is it that around me, predictions by indigenous elders are showing up everywhere, seemingly fulfilled in techno color,  yet personally my life is finally on track?  For me there is some confusion as to whether I keep pedal to the metal helping clients wake up, or if, shovel in hand, I head off to the Gulf of Mexico.

 My heart is heavy. Front and center is the grave awareness of my role in the hemorrhaging oil spill.  This morning I asked the Creator, how could I best be of service?  For today, the answer was clear: to pray for forgiveness for my greed and apathy. In addition, my job is to shed light for others so that they too can wake up.  From this day forward, I will pray for forgiveness and begin to make daily amends, by walking when I could ride, avoiding solo travel, and taking daily inventory of my lifestyle. It is so easy to point the finger at BP. There is an old saying, whenever I point the arrow out at you, there are three coming back at me. 

Over the course of the last year, my work as a healer/teacher has grown its own organic garden.  The tomatoes, now ripe, set a soft stage for other ingredients in my salad.  The only effort on my part was to tend to the task of pulling the nut grass, and to nourish the soil with my loving hands and water.  Some plants flourished and others quite naturally disappeared from my tiny plot in the yard.  So it was with the relationships in my life.  No matter how much I fertilized and tended them, 2010 has been a year of weeding and transplanting my community.  All around me, my friends are dispersing, some have moved and some are just falling to the ground like overripe fruit from the neighbor’s tree. It is my nature to try to corral the lemons into a sweet tart, so that I can enjoy the sweet flavors until there are only crumbs left in the pan.

However, I am pulled from the yard, as the timer on the stove wails, and it is only as I accept change that I can silence the alarm. The last four years I have been building community. As I pull the finished casserole from the oven, it is clear that all the ingredients combined made a different entree than my original recipe intended.  The network was my work of service and it had become my avocation. So now when people do not understand or “get it” it no longer matters.  The warm dish on the counter was for my new work. “Catering” had been scratched out on my tattered food-stained business card and substituted with “Healer/Teacher.” Growing in the new garden is food for my soul and my health.

Part of the changing landscape is some travel.  Currently I am working in LA on a regular basis, next week I am off to San Francisco to teach, and later in the month NYC.  On the horizon is a trip to Peru this fall. 

The Shaman Chef, My Life and Other Recipes has made it to Round 2 of The Next Top Spiritual Author Competition and I need your help. Win a dinner party for eight. Simply go to the site, check out my book plan, and vote for my book. Upon receiving a confirmation of your vote, there is a link to send an email to enter the contest.  Yes, I will come to you.

Ducks in my swimming pool

	Hello,  The garden is getting ready to harvest and the sun is warming the desert sky. My pool, which has been leaking, is showing signs of turning into a pond.  In fact, it is no wonder that I looked out this morning and saw my cat quietly sitting on the deck, watching two ducks swim around in the water. While I am not yet turning green, I have been experiencing energy leakage for some time in my life, a situation not unlike the water seeping out from a hole in my concrete pool. In some ways, I am no different from the pool, sitting in the yard half full of water.  As spring settles in, I am contemplating the pool repair. Part of this consideration is the number of times I use the pool, the amount of energy it takes to filter and clean it, the cost of the repair, and the water it takes to keep it full.  This is amazingly reflective of where I am also sitting in my life at the moment.  For the past few months, I have been struggling to maintain a steady flow of energy in my physical body. While not wanting to give energy to naming my malady, I have had to change up practically everything about the way I spend my days. I, too, have to examine where I am sourcing my energy, what is sustaining me, and how I am sustaining my nourishment.  It has been eye opening as I've shifted through this experience. There were days when all I could do was plan and execute the next meal and in between I would nap. So as we move once again toward the full days of Summer,  I am feeling better, and I am looking at what brings me joy.  I recently asked a client, "What would you want to do in your life if you only had a year or two to live?"  As I asked this question, I knew it was something I needed to probe in myself.  How would it be if we all lived life like it was our last days? I think about a fellow shaman who is currently lost at sea. As I check in on her FB page, I see the absolute knowing in her eyes that I can tell that she was clear in where she needed to be and, on some level, all is well. So I have made a pact with myself that I will begin living from my heart.  Part of this has led me to being less communicative via email, taking the time necessary to publish my book, and feeding myself clean and organic food every meal. For me, this is as simple as assessing the pool.  If I swim ten times in the summer, and the pool is costing me $2000 a year to maintain, those are some very expensive swims. In essence, I will either need to swim more or perhaps know that it is time to let the pool go. ADDENDUM:  I just got this message on my FaceBook Jade Chabot YES !! Land at last...Thank you for all your prayers and light. A great challenge indeed, it is actually a blessing that we were becalmed a few days and were well off when the Tsunami hit. I wish the captain would have communicated that we were fine and 40 days late is unnaceptable. The greatest gift is the love and th...e support between family and friends. I am so touched by it all.Thank you, Thank you, Thank you     Post your events to our Fan page! Last week over 775 people visited our page.