Deborah Blohm: Jewelry Designer, Gem Healer, Miracle Worker!

Before Deborah Blohm, a former public speaking student, gave me her gem healing, I was stressed and ready to chuck commitments and relationships that felt dead. After the two-hour healing process, in which she placed specific gems on different parts of my body, and asked me questions about my experience, I slept for 12 hours. When I awoke, life had shifted 180 degrees and, instead of being at the end of a cycle, I felt in the middle of life itself - fully here and now, totally renewed, facing a 360 degree future!

So who is Deborah Blohm? In her brochure and website, Deborah shares "My passion for gems began at age 5, in the back yard, breaking open rocks to find the hidden gems inside." Today, Deborah opens people up and their inner essense shines through. Since childhood, she pursued the family business of gemstones and jewelry - receiving advanced degrees in Gemology and Design; traveling the world to explore gem mines, cultures and ancient sites; and eventually developing her healing arts. As Deborah learned more about the hidden power of gems, she became a certified Advanced Crystal Healer and Jikiden Reiki practitioner. Along the way, she immersed herself in NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP), Tony Robbins, T Harv Eker and Landmark Education - In other words, completing the past, clearing limiting beliefs and developing her generative and healing powers.

As you can imagine, her intention. sustained over her lifetime, generates a powerful presence. When Deborah took my public speaking class, it was this presence and tall, flaxen-haired beauty that first amazed me. Yet when she spoke about the children's book she had written for her daughter, "The Adventures of Julia, the Generosity Genie," it was her gentleness.

What is a Gem Healing? Before we began, Deborah explained how the gem healing works. Gems emit vibrations that are related to their colors (which is why sapphires are used to move the gears of watches). Then she asked me questions about my health and history to determine which gems to use and where to direct their healing energies. She prepared the space with burning sage, calming meditational music and laid out several trays of gemstones. I lay on a massage table and wore a kimono. Everything about her actions and voice was gentle as she tied gems beneath my feet and lay them over my body. Deborah worked with 12 chakras instead of only the 7 that I'm familiar with. These 12 included 3 chakras above my crown. This makes sense when I consider that we only use 10% of our brain. The healing she brings about is related to generating a shift in the brain and the body.

As she moved through the process, she asked me specific questions that prompted me to visualize and share what I was seeing. Sometimes my responses were related to events and turning points in my life; sometimes they were related to colors I was seeing. Occasionally she would exchange one gem for another. If a gem rolled off me, she said it was because that chakra didn't require healing. Throughout, her arms were circulating the energy above me. I felt deeply relaxed and apparently, my cat, Louie, did too, because he fell asleep next to my head.

Afterwards, Deborah and I discussed her prescriptions for my well-being, based on our session. I also asked her what 2012 holds in store for us. She was very clear and confident in her response." Together with continued natural disasters and societal upheavals, there's going to be a new begining, as we open up and become aware of what we didn't know that we didn't know." Later, well before bedtime, Louie and I were sound asleep.

A new beginning? Powerful presence, breath-taking beauty and serene gentleness - what an unforgettable combination and how perfect for generating healing. Deborah shared that, years ago in New York City, Tony Robbins brought her up on stage in front of thousands who were at his seminar, at the same time that her brochure was being shown on multiple screens. This image, together with her childhood treasure digs and my experience of her potent gem healing, say to me that Deborah Blohm is destined to present mass healings - in which the inner essence of thousands of participants shines forth. Perhaps this is the new beginning in 2012 that she speaks of?

Take advantage of Deborah's holiday discounts -

Deborah@deborahblohm.com

917-861-8433

http://www.deborahblohm.com/

By Pamela Kelly Communications

http://www.pkelly.com/

The Butterfly Effect and My Best Student EVER!

The January 8 shootings in Tucson sparked a national debate about the relationship between words and actions. This debate has inspired me to share about my Best Speaker EVER!

It was Fall Quarter 2010, I was teaching Public Speaking for Professionals and, after 25 years of teaching, my syllabus was moving along smoothly. There were over 20 students in the course and it was time for Firouzeh (fih-roo-say) Banki to give her first speech.

"In quantum physics, there's a phenomenon called 'the butterfly effect.' When a butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo, it may cause a hurricane in Brazil a month later. A single small change in one part of the world can be the trigger for huge alterations in another place and time. "

Her opening words snapped me to attention.

"Last year at this time, I was going through a very rough time in my life... and my heart was broken."

I hadn't expected to hear such a personal revelation and her words struck a chord. Firouzeh began weaving a story about the miraculous healing of her broken heart. She spoke slowly and with feeling - describing the entrance of an orange and black butterfly into her life, its injured wing and their growing relationship.

"I get the courage to put my finger underneath her body. Amazingly, she wraps her little legs (like hairs) around it. I start talking to her and she starts shaking... I bring her close to my face and start whispering. I notice her big eyes and we have eye contact. I tell her I am not here to hurt her. I will help her as long as she trusts me. Believe it or not, in that moment, she stopped shaking!"

Then Firouzeh's observations shift into a question, with startling revelations.

"How did this butterfly end up in my house? All of a sudden, it dawns on me, she is a reflection of me! Her wing is broken and so is my heart. She is afraid of not being able to fly and I am afraid of not being able to love again."

In that moment, Firouzeh vows to keep the butterfly alive and learns - if it is to survive - she must get it to fly. After 48 hours of feeding nectar to her multi-colored guest and throwing it into the air, Firouzeh's butterfly is strong enough to fly away.

"I don't know if the flapping of her wings caused a hurricane in Brazil, but I know she changed my life. She made me look at Mother Nature from a different perspective - to see how we take this planet and its beauty for granted. That butterfly was not just an insect; she came into my life for a reason... She gave me courage... If she can fly with a broken wing, then I can do anything! She made me believe in love again. Love comes from the most unexpected places and when it does, it conquers everything, including broken wings and broken hearts."

When Firouzeh ended, I was practically speechless - the deep unison of word, thought and feeling, as if her soul was speaking - had shaken me loose from my comfortabale expectations of the familiar, taken us through a metamorphosis and raised the bar for everyone.

After that first speech, each time she stood before us, Firouzeh astonished. During our final session, when everyone receives an award that has been voted on by the class, she of course received a Best Speaker award. But I also created a Best Speaker EVER! award for her, which had never before occurred to me to do. This was a new moment.

Later, I wanted to learn more - what was there in Firouzeh's process and background that I could pass on to others? When I interviewed her, she revealed how she prepared for class and some of the mystery began to clear.

FIROUZEH'S PREPARATION PROCESS

To overcome her "heart in the throat, knees shaking, voice trembling" fear of English and of public speaking, here are the steps she took -

• First, she only speaks on what she feels passionate about
• Then, she writes out every word and tapes herself reading it 10 to 20 times
• Each time she tapes, she listens and makes changes in her writing
• She also practices in the mirror
• Next, she comes early to class and does 3 or 4 runthroughs in the empty room
• Then she sits silently and focuses on her breathing, until the other students begin arriving
• Finally, during the class, she practices with other students

After I shared this process with my current class, a student copied it and had immediate results. Also, this rigorous process reminds me of the heroine of my SPEAK WITH PASSION, SPEAK WITH POWER!, Anne Reeves, who also developed herself into an award-winning speaker by transforming her acute anxiety through hard work into mastery.

I wanted to know more. What were the connections between the little girl who was born in Iran and the Best Speaker EVER! in my classroom? Firouzeh's background offers some insights. Until she was 15, she lived with her family in Iran. Although surrounded by religious extremism, there was religious freedom in her home. She and her 2 sisters were expected to excel in school and in life. When revolution erupted, her family escaped to Spain and eventually Firouzeh relocated to Montreal, where she became fluent in French and completed university, then dental school. She shared that her education in Iran and in dental school involved much memorization - which, together with her lack of confidence in her self-taught English - explained why she wrote out her speeches first and then, through drilling, became one with her words (By the way, her English pronunciation and grammar are almost perfect and completely unobtrusive).

Other events - marriage, motherhood, divorce - brought her to Los Angeles and a path of deepening self-discovery and greater self-expression. As the black and orange butterfly had been led to Firouzeh, so she was led to my classroom and into a new future. Unpredictably, she is now taking a creative writing course and has volunteered to speak to my classes, which I intend to take her up on.

Shakespeare wrote, "Suit the action to the word, the word to the action, with this special observance, that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature." Speaking IS action... which brings me back to the Tucson debate and points to another question:

When Firouzeh flapped her wings in Los Angeles, did it cause a hurricane in Egypt?

For Teachers: Make a Plan, Then Improvise - On Purpose!

After teaching for 30 years, I know it works to have a lesson plan for where you're going. It doesn't work, however, to be too attached to how you get there. You have to stay open and improvise (when isn't it that way?).
I shared an extraordinary session with my "Public Speaking for Professionals" class at UCLA Extension a while back. There are nearly 30 enrolled and, at this particular session, only 3 were prepared. I fought a shotgun impulse to make the others wrong and remembered my objective of having them all know how to prepare, rehearse and deliver effective presentations. This particular night was vital to that process, so I sent the 3 prepared students into a second room to rehearse together while the remaining students stayed in our classroom putting the assignment together. One by one, as they completed this ground work, they joined the prepared group in the other room to rehearse. Meanwhile, I circulated, answering questions, coaching, managing both groups and the time. Eventually the majority of the students had trickled into the second room to rehearse. At this point, I put everyone to work in small groups with each other, integrating some new instructions from me, coaching each other and polishing up their presentations. As I continued to circulate, I could see, hear and feel that they were benefiting from all the coaching they were giving and receiving - they were in great shape and we were on track! This process took up almost all our time and only four speakers got to deliver their presentaitons to the whole class, with the remaining scheduled for the following week. But now they were all prepared and the challenge would be to keep it fresh. This evening has been experiential, exhilerating and fun. We arrived at our destination because we went with the flow and improvised - on purpose.

Beauty before me, Beauty behind me,

Beauty to the right of me, Beauty to the left of me,

Beauty above me, Beauty below me,

Beauty all around me... I am on the perfect path.