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Five Things You Didn’t Know About Author Malana Ashlie

1. I firmly believe that what we dream about and pray for comes to pass. Sometimes it happens or arrives in different packages than we intended but it will always appear for our highest and best. For six years I managed my own commercial business followed by another twelve years of wearing business suits, hose and heels.

I’m a Gemini, we love order but hate being disciplined. The daily routine of getting up and out is the reason I won’t go to the gym. There were many mornings that I remember throwing a pray over my shoulder on the way out the door; ”Oh, God, let me be able to work in my pajamas.” Later I added a second prayer “… let them send money and leave me alone.” Writing answers both prayers. I have a wardrobe of ‘house jammies’ and love working from home. It’s a dream come true.

2. Writing was the first thing I never intended to do. My mother was a schoolteacher. She loved grammar, she was a word- meister, she had beautiful handwriting and saw letter writing as a creative art. I on the other hand was my father’s daughter; let me tear something apart and I can put it together.

My mother always despaired that I, the only girl out of a litter of six, was not developing the grace and poise that she would want others to see in me. In that effort, most of my conversations with her were grammatically corrected. With correcting my spoken word, anything she found that I had written including thank you notes and other compulsory script was reviewed, red marked and returned for correction before being posted. This might explain why I never kept a diary…(that and the above mentioned ‘Gemini’ item). I found writing and composition B-O-R-E-ING and tedious. However it was also my mother’s love of books that ignited a passion for reading in me. Literature was the influence that saved me from my rebellious self.

Before my mother died I was able to give her a copy of my first printed writing. It was a booklet I had prepared for a workshop on Synchronicity and Healing that I held in Crystal River, Florida. After she died, I was the one that sorted through her effects and decided their direction. In the bottom drawer of her dresser I found several old spiral notebooks. I opened them and found page after page of her beautiful handwriting recording stories of her childhood, her children and life with my father. These I kept for me. They are part of the wonderful gifts and lessons from my parents.

3. I’ve wanted to be a storyteller. It’s an ancient skill and highly regarded in many cultures. My first introduction was with the hill-folks of the Ozark Mountains. A good narrator can control the breathing of a group of listeners. I challenge myself to do the same with my writing; using words to transfer emotions and create pictures in readers’ minds. I’ve considered taking a journalism course through independent study but decided ‘why ruin what’s working.’ Maybe I will just continue to study the work of my peers.

4. I was born to be a healer. While on my first pilgrimage into sacred places of the Maya in Guatemala, I was given an oracle reading by one of the Elders. The reading was based around the date of my birth on the Mayan calendar. Through a translator, the Elder told me that the day of my birth fell on the day of healers. It was a nice confirmation to the decision I had made just ten years before. I had chosen to study natural medicine.

There is a little known law in the U.S. that states it is illegal to state that you heal someone. At first it seems like one more limitation in the alternative healing field, however, when approaching the word from a holistic viewpoint it makes sense. ‘All healing comes from within.’ Those in the healing arts are simply guides, and a guides can only take you were they have been.

5. I’ve created an independent study program. When new clients come to me it’s generally because they’ve been everywhere and tried everything else. You can imagine I get a very interesting assortment of problems to work through. In the end they always say the same thing; ‘you should teach others how to do what you do.’

Other than offering workshops and classes I’ve never clearly seen in my mind how to share the years of study, mingled with lessons from experience and the tutelage of my Elders; all of this filtered through the spiritual guidance I receive. I had recently prayed for guidance in my next step. The answer can as e-mails from Hawaii and New York asking for help for ill family members; help medical doctors and specialist had not been able to give. While sharing these cases with one of my students on a visit to Florida, she asked why I can’t teach this if I can do the work over the inter-net. It was the same question my husband had been asking me for years; now I was ready to hear the answer.

About the Author

Malana Ashlie is the author of Gringos in Paradise: Our Honduras Odyssey. She holds degrees in naturopathy, herbal sciences, subtle energy as well as a PhD in Metaphysics. She has been privileged to study with traditional Elders of Mayan and Hawaiian cultures. Dr. Malana has been widely published on the subjects of holistic health and spiritual growth and now offers this in her independent study program: Dynamics of Healing and Happiness. She currently lives along the sunny coast of Honduras but travels teaching workshops that incorporate ancient wisdom into modern life.

Visit Malana at:
www.gringos-in-paradise.com
www.wisdompathway.com