Shirley Lynn Martin

Why I Choose to Support You along the Road toward Sacredness, Peace and Joy

 

My Values

I believe it’s important to connect honestly and with love, with those who will walk with me as I travel through life’s successes and challenges. These are the values that form the core of who I am, and how I wish to live with and work for others. I wish these things for you, too.

1. Live life at the pace of wisdom’s way to peace
2. Work and speak with integrity, courage and love
3. Live authentically and gratefully
4. Relate to others in a trustworthy, compassionate and joyful manner
5. Treat all sentient beings and their stories with respect and care
6. Balance work with play

 

How My Journey to Wisdom’s Way to Peace Began

Early in 1998, my own challenge with illness prompted me to learn about alternative health and energy strategies to get and keep healthy. I knew that optimal health and vitality were essential for me to engage in life in meaningful ways. I discovered that stress in health, career or relationships can lead a person to introspection in order to discover the sources and meanings of the feeling of being overwhelmed and defeated. I found that I needed to identify the negative sources in order to overcome them.

I realized that if I wanted to get the most out of life and live congruently with who I am deep inside, I needed to ask for help from the right people. It would require taking huge risks to learn and study while I challenged what I had been taught throughout my life. And so began my own heart-path of continuous learning, coaching, health, laughter and spiritual contemplative practices, which I now share with my clients and students.

 

How Feathers, Rainbows & Roses Came to Be

During my time of self-examination and recovery, I went into nature as I’d always done when I need to make sense of things. Each day over a period of three days, I noticed brilliant rainbows and sun dogs that were carrying messages of hope and spirituality to me. When these messages relaxed my body, I knew them to be the wisdom of Spirit. Along with these rainbows, feathers would appear in strange places, often appearing right on my pathway. The feathers were also accompanied by an affirming message. (To this day, birds and feathers come to me at poignant moments, such as when a hawk taking off from a tree will shed two tail feathers that land in front of me while I am wrestling with a personal issue.) At the same time, roses, a maternal favourite for generations, would appear in my dreams bringing messages of beauty, power, and the delicate balance needed to build peace, love and respect.

The presence and wisdom of Spirit revealed itself through these connections over and over as I considered what my ‘business of peace, joy and health’ would be about. My chosen business name honours the way Spirit consistently guides, affirms and supports me.

 

Sharing my Journey

I live in the same semi-rural community in Waterloo, Ontario in which I grew up. Our family ‘farm’ was home to countless people, animals, and plants over the years. This early experience has gifted me with a strong sense of roots, a special connection with nature and a solid understanding of myself in the world. These gifts have proven invaluable in the face of life’s many unexpected challenges from my father’s death when I was 10 years old, to a significant illness in my early 30’s, to realizing that my career aspirations, formal training and inner passion should be expressed in different ways than I had envisioned when I was growing up.

Being attuned to Reiki opened up my world even more and deepened my ability to experience calm and peace in the midst of life’s ups and downs. Travelling to Japan in 2007 to trek the sacred birth site of Reiki Ryoho gave me a profound appreciation of Reiki Ryoho: what it truly is all about and what it is not. I discovered that it is much more than a healing art; it is a spiritual practice, a way to peace and peaceful living.

Peace is my passion. I believe it must be central to all of our relationships: in our families, with our animal companions and the whole of nature, with friends, colleagues, competitors, and people of different spiritual traditions and cultures.

My commitment to peace comes from past observations and experiences; learning what was needed to restore connection and harmony when families, or members of a faith community, or sports teams, or colleagues and co-workers were in conflict and interpreting a vision differently. A trip to Sheshashit, Labrador to visit and learn about the concerns and lives of one Innu community impressed on me the harm that generations of poverty and conflict can exact. I also witnessed profound stories of childhood neglect and woundedness mixed with shame while working with men recovering from alcohol and drug abuse. But the light of resilience, forgiveness and healing also shone into these dark corners. I have seen what is possible for one’s life if you are willing to ask and work for it.

I am a perpetual student. I thrive on learning new things and ideas, reading thought-provoking books, and engaging in lively debates. I find theatre, outdoor activities (especially with friends, either human or dog) and music relaxing, and ‘good for my soul’. I balance my more ‘thoughtful’ character with occasional diversions of mindless comedy, sit-coms and movies. And, I believe that everything looks better in the luxurious glow of good dark chocolate.

 

 I’m pleased to share some of my life story with you. I look forward to hearing about yours!