SWIHA Blog

Kara Schaal had been feeling led to go back to school and she knew she wanted to do something holistic. She just wasn’t sure exactly what path to take. A friend recommended checking out the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). After researching different programs and talking to one of the guidance counselors, Kara felt that SWIHA was the best fit for her to begin her journey!

Egos. We all have them. In fact, egos have become a subject that more and more new-thought leaders and spiritual teachers are focusing in on – inviting us to separate from, transcend above, and live without. A personal fan of introspective, spiritual work myself, I can appreciate the works of Eckhart Tolle, Debbie Ford, and many others who have helped me observe the ego in me that swings like a pendulum between inferiority and superiority. The ego, as suggested in many works, is perceived as our “identity” – I’ve found it much easier to observe and even adjust when I label it as an “activity”! Though there are numerous ways to define and understand ego, why not add humor to such humbling practices?

Noushin Mazlaghani admits that it was life’s challenges that brought her to study at the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). “More than 8 years ago, when I had my first massage, I was at the lowest point in my life.” She was divorcing after 27 years, grieving for her dad's death, recovering from two major surgeries, and dealing with an empty nest. “I experienced total relaxation and freedom from all my anxieties during my massage, and I had complete peace. This experience totally shifted my life, and I committed myself to bring this peace to others.”

This transformational experience led Noushin to go on and graduate from both the Massage Therapy Professional Massage Practitioner 750-hour program and the Polarity Associate Polarity Practitioner 200-hour program. “After graduating in 2010, as a licensed Cranial Massage Therapist and Polarity Practitioner, I opened my own center to be at service to others.” This center is called the De Language Healing Arts and it is located in Scottsdale, AZ. It is here that she serves her clients with the unique combination of the modalities of Cranial Therapy and Polarity. There are no other Polarity clinics around other than the one on the SWIHA campus. The mission of her center is for clients to experience serenity. “My practice is all about YOU experiencing total health and freedom in your own body. We look at your body in a deeper context as just a structure, we explore the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical aspect of your being together, for a tranquility and vibrant experience of yourSELF in all areas of your life that are most important to YOU.”

“Dreams that come to fruition take passion, dedication, and good old fashioned hard work.” -- Laura McKinzie

Even though 2016 is coming to an end, SWIHA’s next Yoga Teacher Training (YTT) program is just beginning! At Spirit of Yoga (SOY), we are about to welcome a brand new class of students who will embark on a transformational and heart-centered journey to self-discovery, through the study of yoga philosophy, movement through the asanas (yoga poses), and the quest for peace in stillness through mastering the science of breath.

SOY is the educational facility of SWIHA -- Southwest Institute of Healing Arts -- where our mission is to teach our students the importance of an authentic expression of yoga which honors a diversity of practices and belief systems, while being a unifying tool for creating wellness, mind-body balance, and spiritual connection.  SOY – Spirit of Yoga -- was voted to be among the Top Ten Yoga Studios in the Valley in 2016. We consider that quite an honor realizing there are well over a hundred yoga studios throughout the Valley of the Sun.

UNITY YOGA has no 'one guru' – rather encourages you to find own individual expression of yoga and the teacher within you!

From an early age, Kimberlie Faybik was blessed with the ability to communicate with Spirit in a myriad of forms. She could communicate with an individual’s higher self, their guides, connect with deceased loved ones, and tap into experiences of their past lives. Her journey to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts wasn’t easy, as she battled through Merkel cell carcinoma over seven years ago.

“Multiple surgeries and dozens of radiation treatments later, I was fortunate enough to beat it,” said Kimberlie. “Afterwards, I decided to take a more natural and holistic approach to my health.  I became a Reiki Master, which opened the doors to meet more like-minded people, one of which told me about SWIHA.”

After working in the healthcare field for over twenty years, coupled with her own personal experience as a cancer survivor, Kimberlie knew deep down that there was a better healing environment than the “cold and impersonal” healthcare system that currently exists as the status quo. Regarding the current healthcare system, Kimberlie shared how she felt like “just another patient or just another employee.”

Guest Blogger:
Melanie Albert, SWIHA Holistic Nutrition Teacher

“As a kid I always had a carrot in my little white gloves. Years later, while studying in college, my go-to snacks were basic sliced orange and carrot sticks. Today, decades later, I am even more excited about carrots and other root vegetables because I’ve learned that they can be unexpectedly delicious with a few simple culinary techniques.” --Melanie Albert

Roasted roots are beautiful, flavorful, and sweet, as well as a rich, colorful complement to any meal. The roasting culinary technique is a dry-heat cooking method that intensifies and concentrates the flavor of vegetables. When roasted properly, the natural sugars in the vegetables brown or caramelize to create a deep, rich flavor. When visiting your farmers’ market, buy a few roots even if you don’t recognize them, and roast them with this simple, quick recipe! Enjoy roasted roots as a side dish, to create soup, with hummus, or in a raw, kale salad or veggie wrap.

After moving to Phoenix as a Supervisor/Analyst in the Federal Government, Tammy Coin received a massage from a graduate of the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, who told her about the school. Soon after, Tammy decided to enroll and subsequently graduated from the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner  program. During this time, she learned how to finally integrate all the pieces of herself, unearthing her identity and the WHAT to go with her WHY. “I have known my WHY for being on this earth for a very long time. I just didn't know the WHAT that was going to bring it together. I entered the program with a Masters in Human Relations Counseling. The Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner program helped me pull the rest of my pieces together.” The tools she has learned on this journey have been the gift that helped her to finally connect the teachings of her life.  This gift, ultimately led her to start her own business. 

The Doors of Wellness, LLC is Tammy's business. She is using the experience, expertise and education of her life to help other people find their own door of wellness. “I believe that stuck emotions are at the root cause of physical illness, mental illness, addictions, weight issues, relationship challenges, loss of sense of self-worth and spiritual disconnect.  I'm truly passionate about the Mind-Body Connection.” She describes herself as a Life Strategist, Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner & Trauma and/or Abuse Recovery Coach focusing on the unhealed emotions at the root of her clients obstacles. She offers many tools and modalities to her clients.  

One of the best things you can do for your mind and body each morning is stretch. During sleep, the body spends hours rejuvenating at a cellular level and by morning lengthening the muscles and filling the lungs with fresh, clean air will do wonders for setting up your day. Here are three yoga poses that will support your organs, open the hips, loosen the neck, release tension from the shoulders, and align all seven chakras (energy centers). Start with taking five slow, deep belly breaths and work your way up ten or more. Click here to learn the Ujaii breathing technique and apply it to the following poses.

A desire to learn healing arts, to refine the skills she already had, and to give her some new ones is exactly what brought Connie Gensamer to Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). Truly, she has always been on the path to healing work, however in early in 2014, she was introduced to a modality called The Reconnection by Eric Pearl. “I read his books and then had the process done. My feet were reconnected to the earth and my crown chakra reconnected to the cosmos as a way of reclaiming who I was and my life purpose. After the process, I really didn’t know if things had shifted, yet three months later, I was looking for a school to teach me how to help people heal, and I found SWIHA.”

One of the most understudied and least understood system of the body is the lymphatic system. Most people recognize the kidneys as the primary organ to filter out toxins for elimination, yet the network of tissues and the lymph fluid itself— which is a white-blood cell, infection-fighting, clear, colorless fluid— is what moves harmful ingredients such as cancer cells or chemicals found in our food, air, and water to the kidneys to excrete. Fascinatingly, the lymph journey runs twice as long as the blood  supply system! The body has between 501-700 lymph nodes, however the spleen is the major organ of the system. 

In Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), the spleen is paired with the stomach, and not just for digestion of food, but information and stimulus as well. The spleen becomes weakened by negative thought patterns, over-analyzing, worry, and a lack of nature and silence in our lives.

We weaken the kidneys by weakening the lymphatic system. Without supporting the body in healthy detoxification— meaning, a lack of exercise, eating the SAD diet without holistic nutrition implementation, eating too quickly, and not drinking enough water— we are creating the perfect storm for disease, pain, and illness. Emotionally, repetitive feelings of self-criticism, disappointment, failure, and shame will contribute to nephrological problems.