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The Birth of The Roby Chart: Where Beliefs Affect Your Anatomy

Mind over matter, thoughts become things, psychosomatic illness, your body is speaking—listen; all these phrases express the unquestionable relationship between mind and body. As a Holistic Life Coach, Reiki Master and Author of the Roby Chart, it seems inevitable that I would espouse these beliefs and it would be true that I do--now.  
Even though I was drawn to the concept of “faith healing” as a young child, being raised in a highly rational, non-emotional family had an impact. I chose a very concrete career path (computer programming in the insurance industry) and an accountant for a mate. After a 20+ year career in computer project management and a lifetime of stuffing my feelings as far down as they could go, my body rebelled but at the time I had no idea why.
In 1992 I took the first step toward better health and peace of mind by escaping the corporate world of IT project management and embarking on a new career in sales and customer service. It was a good fit. I enjoyed the freedom of being “on the road” and being paid for performance. I also began to follow my childhood interests and became attuned as a Reiki practitioner. When the job ended due to a series of mergers and an IPO, I found myself back in project management. Shortly after that I was diagnosed with colon cancer. The disease was treated successfully with western medicine’s holy grail of chemotherapy, radiation and surgery. The experience caused me to step up my studies of energy healing and the mind/body connection, leading me to a three year energy medicine school where I studied energy healing techniques, the chakras, human anatomy, the mind/body connection and my own spirituality. I learned that not expressing feelings and emotions can be a recipe for disaster and I slowly became more aware of my feelings.

Other than what I knew about basic anatomy and physiology, the subject matter of the healing school was all new to me. We were required to read books by Barbara Brennan, Anodea Judith, Caroline Myss and many others. We were taught the meaning, color and location of the 7 major energy centers or chakras. We learned basic human anatomy. We learned and practiced a variety of hands on healing techniques and we studied the relationship between personality, beliefs and disease.

My head was spinning as I tried to cram all this new knowledge into my mind. I was frustrated by the lack of any visual aids to show me how all this information was related, so I took matters into my own hands. After years of creating well thought out project plans, I knew how to organize mountains of information into logical patterns. That skill served me well as I dove into the subjects of human anatomy, the chakras/human energy field and beliefs aka the mind/body connection. I used clip art and basic graphics programs to create a chart that integrated the information from several texts as well as the experience of my teachers. The end product was a poster with a line drawing of the body, including the major organs keyed to the chakra they were in, and one belief that related to that part of the body. My classmates and I found this very rudimentary chart helpful to pull it all together. After a couple of years, I commissioned an artist to create a visually stunning version of the poster with all the same information. Now, body workers from a variety of modalities use it as a reference tool and as a teaching aid with students and patients/clients. Since that first chart was created, I finished the 3 year healing arts program and have followed a path of personal transformation. I am a certified Kripalu YogaDance instructor, a Reiki Master Teacher, and a certified professional life coach. I expanded the information on The Roby Chart in a deck of 33 cards called Body Wisdom Cards.

I continue to study the relationship between mind body and spirit and help others achieve their dreams with holistic life coaching.