Sacred Maintenance: January Guided Cleanse

Join me this January for a guided Ayurvedic cleanse! Winter is the perfect time to move inward, focusing on our bodies, minds and spirits and cleansing the old, the stuck and the toxic so that we can be at our highest energy and vitality for spring. This cleanse will be unique -- a combination of the ancient and time-tested components of Ayurveda to move the toxins out of your body and mind and intuitive readings and meditations to cleanse your energy body.

When we're finished, you may feel renewed, clearer, lighter and more vibrant, with a feeling that there is more inherent space in your world for you to fill with new, energizing creations. The cleanse will help you to let go of the toxins, energies and old thought patterns that keep you from experiencing and expressing your  body's highest vibration of vitality and enthusiasm.

The cleanse will be guided from a live, online space, so you can join me from anywhere in the world. Over the course of a month, you'll learn why we cleanse, what you'll need to cleanse, how to set the space, cooking demonstrations, intuitive guidance, meditation guidance, a safe place to share your experience, and tools and tips to ease yourself out of the cleanse and back into the world. Although we'll spend a month together, the cleanse will take place over one week.

The lessons will consist of three Thursday night classes, from 7-9pm, from January 9th to January 23rd. The final class will be held on Sunday, January 26th, from 10am - 12 pm. Here is the breakdown:

Thursday, January 9th: Sacred Maintenance -- Why Cleanse?

• Intro to Ayurveda and definition of health = Svastha
• Introduction to Purva Karma as a cleansing practice - what's involved, what to expect
• Purva Karma at home -- what you need to prepare and successfully cleanse at home
• How intuitive work strengthens the process - scheduling individual reading sessions
• Identifying your dosha - prakriti and viruti
• Shopping list and Supplies

Thursday, January 16th: Sacred Skills

• Kitcheri demonstration, how to cook with spices
• Abhyanga demonstration, how at-home fomentation works
• Dry brushing
• Herbs used during the cleanse
• Schedule for the cleanse
• Additional activities to add during cleanse (yoga, meditation, journal, etc)
• What to avoid
• Schedule 30 minute intuitive check-ins during the cleanse

The Cleanse Itself -- Saturday, January 18th - Saturday, January 25th (this is somewhat flexible based on individual needs; contact me for more information).

Thursday, January 23rd: During the Cleanse

• Discussing progress, challenges, how we can support each other
• Question and answer
• Group meditation
• Finishing the cleanse
• Schedule Next Step Readings

Sunday, January 26th: Re-Emerging 

• Rasayana, the act of rebuilding digestion 
• Easing ourselves back into the world
• Using spices to rekindle digestive fire
• Prevention - daily routine

To Register or for questions -- Call Anna at 858-922-5175 or email at holden.anna@gmail.com

Full Cleanse Series $400, Early Bird pricing $350 by December 20th. 

Includes: All four classes, a one-hour Intuitive reading/healing, one 30-minute Intuitive check-in during the cleanse and another 30-minute Next Step reading, digital workbook filled with recipes and instructions, access to video cooking/skills demonstrations, shopping lists and more!

How Families Affect our Energy -- and a few tips for staying sane this holiday season

Every Sunday, my boyfriend and I do our weekly grocery shopping at the local co-op. Today was no exception, except that it seemed like all of Seattle agreed to meet at the co-op at the same time. Cans of pumpkin were hoarded into cards, along with cranberries, organic turkeys, potatoes, yams, pecan and pumpkin pies and lots and lots of wine.

Obviously, people are preparing for Thanksgiving. And my guess was that the more wine in the cart, the more they're spending it with their family.

Don't get me wrong -- I love my family with every ounce of my heart. I call both my parents and my sister weekly to talk about the trials, tribulations, successes and joys of each week. I feel blessed that my family is an integral part of my life and one of the only regrets I have about living in Seattle is the large distance between us.

My family also creates some of my most difficult spiritual and energetic challenges, and it is the energy that is most difficult for my clients to work through as well.

Raise your hand (come one, humor me) if you've experienced something like this: the holidays come around and you get really excited to see your family. You can't wait for mutual show and tell, the family traditions and rituals, and spending time together. For the first couple of days, everything feels amazing and you're so happy you made it. Then, after a little while, a melancholy sort of feeling sets in -- you start to feel a little down, perhaps frustrated, and maybe you start to question some of the choices you've made that aren't the same as your family's. For me, the overall feeling I get is of feeling stuck and confused for no reason that I can pinpoint.

Sound familiar? (If not, you're more rare than a unicorn underneath a rainbow of miracles. Good job, you).

When I read clients who have just spent a lot of time with their families, I often notice that their energy field is clogged with family energy. This is energy that says, "These are our family norms/belief systems/standard operating procedures. You've deviated from this program. Here is a reminder to get you back on track." Clients feel stuck because this energy is laying on top of their own innate energy and acting like a control.

You can think of it like a computer virus. You've got all of your energetic programs running smoothly, exactly the way you want them. You're creating your own way in the world, setting your energy high and manifesting your dreams, then all the sudden your software starts to act a little weird. Everything slows down and before you know it, you're not controlling your computer anymore -- the virus is.

Our energetic field is responsible for our whole reality. It is an intricate and elaborate system created from our belief systems, karmic patterns, past time information, present time thought patterns, emotions and creativity. We can compare our energetic field to a computer system -- a healthy energetic field is running completely on its own energy in order to create its reality, just like a healthy computer system is running only on the programs we chose for our operating system. An unhealthy energy system is one running on pre-programmed ideas or lies hidden as truths, just like an unhealthy computer system is stuck or inefficient because of crap software that we don't really use, viruses, spy ware and malware.

So, back to how family energy can act as a virus.  In order for a virus to be effective, the person planting the virus must intricately understand the system, and the system must have a weakness in order for the virus to be successful. When we are born, we knew very little about how to survive in the world. We looked to our parents to supply us with information about how the world works. In essence, we actively allowed our families to program our energetic system for us. We had to -- our survival depended on it! But it doesn't any more. Part of becoming an adult is separating from ideas and beliefs that we don't resonate with, which often means a continual separation from the energy that was pre-programmed into us and a move to reprogram our energy system with our own ideas and values.

This is how energy healings work. When I work with a client, I'm basically helping them wipe their energetic hard drive of anything that's contributing toward ill health, feeling stuck, or otherwise not serving them so that they can replace those energies with their own creativity, beliefs and personal power. When we stand in our own energy, we feel better, more ourselves. Our self esteem increases and we are able to have more certainty about our life path.

It's relatively easy to clean the energy body of foreign energy, especially of co-workers, friends, acquaintances and even romantic partners. These energies are more like extra programs that you download from the internet -- they may benefit you in the short term, but eventually they can start to cause problems. When they do, you can just uninstall. But family energy works more like a virus because that's the energy you started your life with. Family energy understands your system completely because it created your first belief systems, emotional patterns, thought patterns, and the basic, underlying story you have about your life. That story creates energetic pictures about who we are at a base level. Family energy recognizes these pictures and says, "Haha! You're still mine! You have my blueprint! You've deviated a bit, but it doesn't mean you don't recognize me! Match me, match me!"

I am in no way saying that our beloved families are consciously malicious (at least, mine aren't -- you can decide that for yourself). The impact of family energy is unconscious on the part of the family members -- it's more like their love, hope, worry and fear are more easily channelled into our sensitive systems. Family energy just works differently in our bodies than the energy of others. As one of my psychic colleagues said the other day, "You can learn and grow as a psychic, and move more and more energy and become less and less reactive to people and situations around you. But when family is involved, all bets are off."

So what can we do about it? Before I go into a family situation, I take extra time to get grounded, set my energy, hold my vibration and take extra self-pampering tools with me. I check in with myself throughout the visit to notice if I'm still holding my vibration. I set up extra energy readings and healings with my colleagues.  And I always try to employ the two best tools of all -- neutrality, and lots and lots of amusement. This holiday season, I suggest you read through my old posts that include these tools and try them for yourself.

If all else fails, at least you've got the wine  :)

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Tool #4: The First Essential Step to Healing: Havingness

As we start to move into the holiday season, we often start to think of all the things we're asked to give. Give thanks, give presents, give time, give energy, give give give give give. Don't get me wrong, giving is great! When done in the right attitude, it helps us cultivate gratitude, which helps us find more contentment and ultimately, joy.

The work I do is mainly with highly sensitive people. Those of us who are sensitive know how to give -- it's part of our nature. Being sensitive often means that you're very aware of the emotions of others and often feel uncomfortable around negative energy. Because the sensitive body is so affected by the energy of others, sensitive individuals often avoid conflict in order to shield themselves from energy onslaught. Often times, this creates a sensitive person who has learned to give or accommodate under almost any circumstances.

But one thing that these clients often lack is the ability to receive and to own something simply in order to have it for themselves. Instead, everything they allow themselves to receive is because it will somehow benefit someone other then themselves. They feel a tremendous amount of guilt when it comes to having something that is just their own, a secret jewel just for them, just because. In healing, we have to be able to HAVE and receive healing in order for us to heal.

Sounds simple, right?

For so many of us, we practice giving on a daily basis -- that is, giving to others. What we don't do is practice giving love, affection, or attention to ourselves. One of the primary reasons I see clients struggle with healing is a failure to allow themselves to have it. This often manifests as an underlying belief in their deservedness to have or to receive.

What if we were all allowed to have everything we wanted, as long as the desire was manifested in our hearts and fed by Source energy? Guess what, we do! Our deepest desires and fears are reflected to us in our reality. The spirit knows it can have whatever it needs to learn and grow, plus the things it wants to keep the body comfortable while achieving growth. But so often, our bodies and minds have been programmed into believing that we have to be deserving of something in order for us to have it.

The spirit world doesn't work that way. It is human to say that something is right or wrong, good or bad, or that someone is deserving or undeserving. The spirit world doesn't see good or bad, right or wrong, it just sees what is. I'm sure we can all think of someone who is a total schmuck who has everything they want. That person may have a sketchy moral character, but they also have high havingness.

Havingness = our ability to have.

Think about how much you really let yourself have. I know that in my life, I have high havingness in learning experiences, good cars, keeping good friends and living in beautiful places, to name a few. Where I'm constantly working on my havingness is in my ability to receive and believe praise and in my finances.

Our level of havingness affects our health and healing, too. If you've been struggling with your health, take a moment to check in with yourself and notice how much you're able to let yourself have healing. Be honest with yourself. I check in using a psychic tool and visualize a gauge out in front of me, but you can also simply ask yourself how much you let yourself have your healing and trust the first answer you get. Maybe it says, "40%." Ouch, but you can work with that and raise it up.

In a reading, I can help you look at your havingness and help you discover what is keeping you from having your health and healing. From my experience from working with clients, I find that it often comes from a feeling of not being deserving, not being good enough, not knowing who you would be as a healthy person and being afraid to find out, being afraid of losing the attention that being ill attracts, and believing that you are a victim of your own body.

You are none of those things. You are an infinitely creative spirit in a body that you created.

Our body puts out signals to alert us that something is wrong. In order to fix it, we first need to tune in and try to figure out what our body needs from us. Next, we need to seek a treatment that resonates with us. We also need to identify and release the energy, belief systems or programs that made us ill in the first place. But in order to all of that, we must first believe that we can have our health and healing. We must first believe that we truly own our bodies.

How do we create havingness? Raising our havingness is a practice that involves understanding that we are inherently deserving of having the life and health that we desire and that when our health is off, it is our choice whether to stay a victim or take action. Taking action means more than going through the motions of healing -- it means digging deep and noticing whether there are beliefs you have about yourself that need to change and then making a commitment to changing those no matter how uncomfortable or ego-compromising it is.

When I notice my havingness is low for a particular area in my life, there are two ways I deal with it. First, I ask myself why my havingness might be low. Usually, I notice it's because it deals with an area of my life that I'm not completely comfortable in, have been hurt in, or haven't wanted to look at. Next, I ask myself, "What's my first step to raising havingness?" Usually, my body asks me to release an old belief I have. As I work on releasing it, I replace it with a positive, concrete affirmation. For example, if I have low havingness about finances and my spirit tells me it's because my belief says that making money isn't spiritual, I might use the affirmation, "When I prosper in my divinely-inspired mission, the world prospers with me."

There is a psychic tool for increasing havingness that's a bit more simple if you have a regular meditation practice. After grounding and calling back your energy, you can imagine a bubble out in front of you. In the bubble, as a gauge to appear with your level of havingness. Notice the number. Now ground your gauge to the center of the planet and allow the grounding chord to release from the gauge any energy that's not allowing you to have what you want/need. See the energy move to the center of the planet. You may be able to identify it, but you don't have to. Watch your gauge, it may have moved upward. If not, take your psychic finger and move it up to 100%.

Sounds easy, right? It is!

Well, it is unless you're not ready to release the reasons keeping you from having your healing.

Havingness is also about ownership. It's about coming to the realization that this body was giving to YOU and YOU alone. The only thing that holds you prisoner in your own body is you. Once you realize that you create your prison or oasis you can take ownership of your creation and begin to create your own healing path -- no matter how many times you've been hurt by others, used by others, given to others, your healing path can be no one's but yours. Own it!

What diet are you on?

"You should definitely be on the Paleo diet," said, well, everyone in the last three years.

There is so much talk about which diet is right -- Paleo, Primal, Atkins, Flat Belly, Macrobiotic, Vegetarian, Vegan -- that sometimes, on information overload, I think, "Blah, blah, et cetera, ad nauseum, whatever."

Everyone is looking for foods that work for their body. Some people want to loose weight, others want to gain it. Others want to have more energy and vitality. Some folks want to cure long-standing ailments and illnesses, while others want nothing more than to look good naked. Hey, whatever blows your skirt up (or floats your boat). It's important that we eat healthy if we want to maintain health, right?

Right.

But why is it so hard to find what works for us?

When I was in college, I studied environmental science and became shocked at how much environmental degradation occurred because of factory farming and the meat industry. I decided that I would become vegetarian. Later, for the same reasons, I went vegan. And I thought everyone should be vegan. I read books that supported my views on how my chosen diet was the diet most "optimal" for human health and the health of the planet and felt very smug that I had all the answers.

And I was right. But not for the rest of the world -- for me. And only for a little while.

Four years later, I was having health problems and went to a naturopathic doctor. She noted all of my symptoms, took blood tests, and said to me, "You have a grain intolerance. You have to stay away from grains, wheat especially, and you need to start eating meat again."

That pretty much rocked my world.  I made the dietary changes, I knew she was right. Eating meat and staying away from wheat was really resonating with me -- my stomach problems subsided, I had more energy, and my brain fog went away. But it wasn't because I was on a specific diet. It was because I was eating the foods my body needed at that period in time.

Our bodies reside at a certain energetic vibration. This vibration is a result of our belief systems, family and cultural programming, individual experience and emotional health, to name a few. The newest, sexiest diet isn't going to work for everyone because WE ARE ALL DIFFERENT. We are also different at different phases of our life, given that our vibration changes as we move through life.

Whenever I hear someone recommending their newest fad diet or weight loss program to everyone they know, I cringe.  It's natural that we want to share our success with others, however, we must recognize that what works for us is working because of where we are in our life and how the energy of our successful program resonates with us.

In trying to battle a Candida infection, I gave up sugar, grains, caffeine, fruit, alcohol and vinegar and started eating a diet of vegetables, meats and healthy fats. This diet, while recommended by most health care practitioners for eliminating Candida, didn't resonate with me intuitively. There were components of it that made sense, but others that seemed counter-intuitive. Since I'd asked a professional for help, I took the advice.

I gained 5 pounds and my infection didn't go away.

Just because something works for one person, or a thousand people, doesn't mean it will always work for you. This is why learning to trust your own intuition is so important.

When we learn to be in communication with our body and what our body really needs, we often learn that our needs changed based on season, temperature, age, emotional climate, ailment, etc. Our body is an excellent barameter that constantly gives us feedback as to what is working and what isn't. Often, we meet signals of pain, weight gain, or other "negative" messages with frustration, when really, our body is simply giving us an answer. "What you're doing isn't working for me. Please try again."

In Ayurveda, there's a term used often in treatment called "Upashaya," which means "trial and error." Sometimes we need to try a few things before settling into a new diet or treatment plan. Intuitive counseling provides us with more information as to what's resonating with the body and which dietary changes can be most effective.

With all the diet and health advice out there, it's easy to start believing that you need to "do something" for yourself, or "fix something" within you. We are constantly told that we are too fat, thin, smart, sensitive, forward, timid, dramatic, weird, etc. We live in a society that tells us that we need to fix ourselves in order to fit in.

There is nothing to fix. You are perfect, and your body is a perfect representation of where you've been in your life and where you are right now. Maybe we want to take steps to find a higher level of health and vibration, and that's okay. Your body is giving you all the information you need to take the steps to be healthy and stay there. Once you remember that you are a spirit in a beautiful body and don't need fixing, this information will make itself available to you.

Psychic Myths Debunked

This week, Hay House Radio is hosting a "Best of Hay House World Summit." That basically means that they've taken some of their best authors, brought them together to have conversations about a wide variety of spiritual topics, and are broadcasting these talks all week long, for free. (If you're into all things spiritual and you're not sure what Hay House is, please check them out). On Sunday, I listened to a great talk between John Edward and John Holland, two well known psychic mediums, about psychic fact or fiction. The things they talked about are such common misconceptions about the work that I and other psychics do that I wanted to share some of their thoughts along with my own.

First, a little clarification of terms. Most of you notice that I don't use the term "psychic"very often to describe the work I do. This is because I feel like this term carries a lot of negative connotations. Psychics have long been cast as scary witches, crazy people, and those who have lost touch with reality. And, frankly, there are a lot of fakes out there who use the term to wield a false sense of power. The only place I use the term psychic in my business is when I'm speaking directly to that audience. Today, I'll be using that term a lot, so let me define it.

A psychic is simply someone who makes use of their innate intuitive abilities, which usually include a mixture of clairvoyant (ability to intuitively see pictures of information), clairaudient (ability to hear information), and clairsentient or empathic (the ability to feel information) abilities. As a move through this post, I'll try my best to explain some of the myths out there about psychics and provide the truth as I understand it.

Some people call themselves psychic. Others call themselves a medium. Others still use the term psychic medium. A medium is different from a psychic, and is a person who speaks to those who have passed over to the other side. Psychics can be mediums and vice versa. The difference is that, while some psychics can gain snippets of information from loved ones who appear during readings, they don't usually have the ability to have full conversations with passed spirits. In the interview I listened to, John Holland stated that he believed that mediums were born and not trained. After receiving much psychic training, I would tentatively say that I agree with him.

I am a psychic, not a medium. In my readings, I sometimes receive small pieces of information from passed loved ones, always in the context of what I'm reading, as if they want to add something. But I don't often see or communicate with the dead.

This leads me to Psychic Myth Number 1: Only some people are psychic

Everyone is intuitive, or psychic. Just like any other ability, you have to train and practice in order to develop it. And just like some people are naturally better at sports or writing than others, some people will naturally be better developing their psychic abilities. Just because I'm not naturally good at tennis (and I'm not, trust me), doesn't mean that I can't play. It will take me more training and practice to become a pro, but if I love it, I can get there.

Everyone has the ability to "listen to their gut," or "trust their inner voice." Doing this is following your intuition or being psychic. The first psychic skills you learn to develop are those that tell you more about yourself, your anatomy as a spirit, and the tools and concepts needed to navigate the intuitive realm.

That being said, if you want to develop your intuitive skills, it's really important that you choose a method that supplies you with tools to navigate the psychic world. I've been sharing some of the tools I use in readings because they are central to the work I do. When a surgical student starts medical school, they aren't handed a scalpel and told to start cutting someone else. Instead, they're taken through years of learning about physical anatomy, pathology, and how the body works. Then they practice, practice, practice, before they start performing surgery on others. It's the same with psychic skills. You first must learn to ground yourself in the knowledge of spiritual anatomy before you start learning to work with others.

I've really enjoyed learning through several psychic schools that share similar teaching principles -- the Berkeley Psychic Institute, Spirit is Calling and, locally in Seattle, Psychic Awakenings. All have beginner meditation classes and workshops for beginners to start to play with your intuitive skills. But just like there are several medical schools or sports programs, these aren't the only schools out there. Like anything else, do some research and see what resonates with you.

Psychic Myth Number 2: Psychics are Always "On"

Just because you play tennis for a living doesn't mean you carry your racket with you into a restaurant, right? Similarly, just because I conduct intuitive sessions for a living doesn't mean that I'm reading you intuitively while we're out for coffee. I'm not.

Keeping with my tennis analogy -- when you're on the court, there's a lot you have to field. You have to estimate where your opponent might hit the ball, what kind of spin there is, where your shot should land, how tired you are, etc. It's exhausting work! Good thing you can walk off the court when the game is done!

As a psychic, when I'm in a reading, I have to be aware not only of the energy of the person I'm reading, but of my energy -- I need to keep my emotional and survival energy low, I need to stay grounded and keep the readee grounded. I need to keep the reading space free and clear of outside energy. I have to shield myself from outside energy and the energy of the readee so that I'm not not "taking on" their energy or being influenced by it. This can become exhausting, too! Just like any other profession, we have the ability to turn off the psychic screen when we're finished with our reading.

Also, reading people without their permission is psychic attack. Just like a tennis pro wouldn't go around hitting people with tennis balls to try and get them to play, an ethical psychic won't go around reading people without their permission. On the show "Long Island Medium," Theresa Caputo regularly goes up to people on the street and tells them what their loved ones are communicating to her. The show always shows these happy, sappy responses that probably are heart felt. While I enjoy her show, I think that style of "attack reading" is unethical.

So next time we're having coffee, remember that I may be picking up information about my surroundings intuitively. Intuition and spirituality is the lens through which I see the world. So I may notice that the barista is hiding some greif, or that I feel uncomfortable by the couple arguing silently in the corner because my sensitive shell picks that up. I may notice that you feel aggravated or joyful or whatever it is that you're feeling. But I'm not reading your thoughts or trying to pick up more than I need to in that moment. That would be truly exhausting.

Psychic Myth Number 3: Psychics Read Your Mind

Psychics do not read minds. They read energy. Psychics have the ability to read your energy field as it is currently. If your energy changes, which it does constantly, a psychic can read that, too. Sometimes, your energy field is projecting a question that you've been throwing around in your mind. I remember once during a reading, I looked at the third chakra of my client and inside was a big question mark and the word, "ego." I said, "It looks like you have questions about the ego." She replied, "Oh my god, I've been thinking about that all night!" So it may have seemed like I read her thoughts, but I really just read her energy, which at the time was a reflection of her thoughts.

Psychic Myth Number 4: Psychics Predict the Future 

.....in movies. They predict the future in movies with a crystal ball. But like I just stated above, psychics have the ability to look your energy as it exists now. It's like John Holland said on Hay House Radio, that psychics have the ability to tell you about the highway you've been on, the twists and turns you've taken to get there, and which exits are available to you. I would add that, in times of transition, I can help you look at the energy of those "exits" to see what challenges or opportunities each would present. But we all have free-will -- you ultimately choose your own destiny.

A bit more about predicting the future -- there are a lot of psychics out there today who claim to know future events. Many of these psychics use the help of spirits that they channel into their bodies. I call these psychics "Transmediums," as they are inviting the spirit of another being into their body and then gathering information. While I believe that transmediumship can be a valid form of gathering information, it is a skill that takes a lot of practice and a very solid foundation in psychic skills in order to stay protected and receive valid information. I tend to take channeled information with a grain of salt, especially as it pertains to future events, but you are always free to make your own decisions about such information.

Our current reality is based on our thoughts, feelings and perceptions -- our energy. I've described before my thoughts on fate and destiny -- your fate is the deck of cards you are dealt. Your destiny is how you play your cards. Similarly, the current state of humanity and our world is based on the overall energy of humans at this point in time. Thus, our future is changeable and predicting it is like trying to throw a lasso around the wind. The more we each work with our energy to create the reality we want for ourselves and for our world, the more that future worldly events will reflect that.

Psychic Myth Number 5: All Psychics Want To Be Famous!

There is a certain power to any profession. We live in a culture that values fame, fortune and power. Being psychic, or being in any field that claims to "have answers," tends to attract a lot of attention from others. Some attention is good, other attention is not so good. People today want answers. They want reassurance and validation of their choices and their existence. What you'll find in a true psychic reading are simply the answers that are inside of you. In a true psychic reading, the psychic reads just your energy field and the answers you have displayed there. They do not tell you what you should do or judge you for past mistakes. They objectively show you what IS, and let you decide what to do.

I "came out of the psychic closet" in order to help people. Understanding my energy field has been a tremendous help in understanding my world and my relation to my world. It's been a gift in my life that I want to share with others. I have always been drawn to intuitive arts, and how the health of the energy body reflects in our physical body more than any other thing I've done or studied. This field of self inquiry has been a gift in my life and I simply want to share it with you.

The more I put myself out there and gain new clients, the more energy I have to be able to handle. I am a highly sensitive person, which allows me to do the intuitive work I do so naturally. However, it's a double-edged sword. As I grow into a bigger business, my ability to handle the attention, admiration, questions, concerns, resentment, jealousy and any other energy thrown at me by my clients must grow as well. It requires a lot of personal work, skill growth and meditation for me to keep up with it. Most psychics I know feel the same.

With any amount of power comes responsibility. A responsible psychic is not one who wishes to be famous, but rather to help people. Helping people at a psychic level requires that the psychic be grounded firmly in their own practice of skills and knowledge, and that they monitor their level of business growth equal to the amount of energy they can handle.

Psychic Myth #6: All Psychics Are Fakes and Shouldn't be Trusted

There is a lot of pressure in our culture to laugh at any information that doesn't have a firm foundation in science. However, science itself is simply a belief system. I am a scientist -- and I have two advanced degrees to prove it. But I firmly believe that there are other ways of knowing and understanding the world.

Some psychics are fakes. And unlike tennis pros, it can be harder to tell if a psychic is faking. Trust your gut. If the psychic is playing on your fears rather than reading your whole energy, asking general questions to gain answers, or claiming they see your future clearly, they're probably a fake. If they've done no training and have no skill set or qualifications, they may either be a fake or an amateur without proper training. We all get to have our own thoughts, feelings and opinions about the world. Let your inner voice guidance tell you what is real and truth for you.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this topic or the spiritual world in general. I will answer to the best of my abilities. Like anyone, I am still learning and I do not have anywhere near all the answers! I am having fun on my own journey and through the process of helping others. Thanks for reading.

Get Well and Stay Well, Even When Everyone Else is Sick

Autumn is around us. I can tell because the leaves on the Seattle trees are changing colors and starting to fall, sweeping around streets and trails with the wind. Mornings are chilly and crisp, and it smells cold. I've brought out the space heaters, stocked the tea cabinet, and my stomach asks me for soups and heated foods instead of raw salads. Also, all around me, people are getting sick.

I took a three day vacation a few weekends ago and when I got back to work my co-worker said, "Oh, by the way, watch out -- everyone's sick." She was right. Our office manager had a cold that lasted two weeks. Some clients were calling in sick and others were coming in sick. When I asked them how they were feeling, so many of them said, "Oh, you know, I've got this cold that's going around."

There is lots of science out there about germs and how germs are spread. I know my aunt watched some Opera special on germs and became almost OCD about public bathrooms. How was it that she had been in public bathrooms all her life and hadn't caught some terrible disease? Oh my, better protect myself with toilet liners and hand sanitizer and not touch door knobs or shake hands or look at people too closely...can I contact disease through eye contact? 

I exaggerate. A little.

I'm not arguing that science has been able to show how germs, viruses and bacteria travel between people, places and things and have the potential to make us sick. But what makes some people sick and not others? Science says the immune system, and I agree, but I want to add another layer to that. Not only do we have a physical immune system that relies on our diet and lifestyle for strength, we also have an energetic immune system, and its strength relies on the information we have about how we get sick, how we stay well, and what belief systems we have in general about health and wellness.

Sickness, like everything else, is essentially a vibration. Whether or not we get sick depends, in large part, to whether we match the vibration of sickness.

When I was in graduate school I got sick a lot. I was under so much stress that my poor immune system was shot. I was also at the beck and call of my graduate professors, my thesis, and to my fellow students. I'd feel myself start to get sick and I'd say to my body, "No! Not now! I can't afford to be sick this week/this semester/until after this test!" I'd drink tea and exercise and go on with my busy-ness and stress. But I could feel that vibration of sickness working to pull me down. Eventually, when the test was over (or the project, or the thesis) and I had no energy left to fight, I'd get sick. It was usually over a holiday or a long weekend -- you know, during some time when I could "afford" to be sick.

I'd given up my fight -- and matched the vibration of sickness. I know I matched the low, icky vibration of sickness because of that feeling of it pulling me under, into its depths, and taking over.

There are some things in life that are inevitable. Like death. Some day, we each of us will die. But how we live until that point is almost entirely up to us. How we choose to set our vibration of health and vitality is up to us.

Sickness is essentially an attack on our vitality.  Sickness means that something is attacking our inherent right to health and vitality. Whether caused by poor diet or lifestyle, by belief systems that do not serve you, or by accidents, it's all still blockage. Remove the blockage and you restore vitality.

In this day and age, improper diet and lifestyle routines are one of the major reasons so many of us become sick each year. We can change what we eat and how we take care of ourselves pretty simply. The other reason I believe so many of us get sick is by running energetic belief systems that keep our immune system from functioning fully.

One of the main blocking beliefs I already mentioned, "A cold is going around." If your body is running off of the belief system that there is a "cold going around," then a belief that probably follows is, "so I could catch it at any time." This is a belief system that opens the door for the vibration of sickness.

Another is the belief that "I always get sick in the fall/winter/spring." You just affirmed your reality. The universe is there to give you what you ask for.  This belief system opens the door for the vibration of sickness.

A third belief is an unflinching belief in the science of germs. As we discussed, science shows how germs can make us sick. However, science, just like anything else, is essentially a belief system. It's belief that the scientific understanding of germ theory is the final word on disease transmission. That belief limits you by putting you at the mercy of that scientific theory.

So how do we strengthen our energetic immune systems? First, by looking at blocking belief systems that might be contributing to getting sick and clearing those out. It takes shifting our perspective from believing in being the "victim" of yearly sickness to being the owner of our own bodies.  Second, we work on holding our highest vibration of health and vitality even amidst the pressure of lowering our vibration to match the sickness around us.

(There's always pressure to match energy -- matching energy is natural for us. It's one way we can relate to the experience of others. There's energetic pressure to match the vibration of sickness, even if the afflicted person doesn't want to spread germs. Part of this pressure is from the strength of a very large societal agreement that we have about belief in germs and germ theory that says if one of us is at the mercy of germs, we all should be. Disagreeing is like energetic rebellion.)

If you're not sure about what your belief systems are or how to remove them, Intuitive Wellness Coaching can help. We can do exactly what I'm describing so that you can have a vital year of health and wellness!

What happens if you still get sick? Learn from it, and don't beat yourself up over it. Gather information about how you got there, what you were feeling, what the beliefs were that you or others around you held, and then practice wellness. Pull in the vibration of wellness and allow yourself to truly have it. Ask yourself what wellness practices you can do to get well and stay well, and see what responses you get. In my meditation, I was told to drink lots of broth, add green juice to my mornings, and to eat lightly. Listen to your body.

Wellness is a practice. Practice well.

Releasing the past; right and wrong.

Sometimes, I get in a bit of a funk. Do you ever feel that way? Like something isn't quite right, and you're not sure what it is, but you just feel kinda stuck? I've had that feeling for the last couple of days.

I really don't like having that feeling.

It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong, because this is what I help people do for a living -- I'm intuitive and should be able to figure things out, immediately, right?

But I'm also human. Thankfully.

This thing that was bringing me down felt arduous, felt heavy like pregnant clouds, but ever out of my reach of understanding. My analytical mind was having a hay-day trying to figure it out.  It's amazing to me the myriad of ridiculous thoughts my analytical mind (ego) can come up with to justify me feeling down. I swear, if the only way of knowing things on this earth was through analyzing them, I'd go crazy.

Luckily, there are other ways of knowing.

Last night, I had a dream that I was being denied access through a gate that lead to this beautiful mountain top. I was being denied access until this person from my past came back and allowed me to move through the gates. I was furious, because I wanted to hike into the beauty of the mountain, to access the healing available there, and to gaze back at the view. I was also furious because I didn't want to wait from this person from the past to catch up to me and to interact with him -- not because I had anything against him, but because I wanted to move forward.  I felt torn -- part of me wanted to just blow through the gates but another part of me was fearful that if I did, something bad would happen.

I woke up with a feeling of unease. It reminded me of the feelings I'd had when I suspected I might get fired that day, or be broken up with, or be reprimanded for something. It was a feeling of failure.

I immediately put on my hiking shoes and drove out to my favorite forested park for a walking meditation. As I started walking, I realized two things that my dream seemed to represent to me. The first was that my past was haunting me and keeping me from enjoying the dreams and aspirations I have for the future. And second, the reason that the past is haunting me is because I've been stuck on ideas or energy in my space that want to affirm that there is a right and wrong way for living in the world.

There have been several instances just this week where counseling others included the spiritual truth that there is no right or wrong in the spiritual world -- there is just our experience. Right and wrong are concepts that our analytical mind create (don't get me wrong, moral judgements can have a place in society, I'm not here debating that).  When we get stuck not wanting to make the "wrong" decision, we are essentially stuck in fear -- fear that if we "do it wrong," something bad will happen and we won't be good enough. Our actions just have consequences, that's it. Some consequences we will like better than others, but essentially it's trial and error, learning and growing.

As I walked through the beautiful, rainy morning, I practiced turning off my analyzing mind of focusing on my breath. As I watched the morning unfold, I had the realization that everyday, nature lets go of the old and moves forward. Sometimes, like during the change of the seasons, letting go takes some time -- leaves dry out, drop, and trees release excess wastes and waters and prepare for the winter. It's a process. Sometimes, it happens quickly -- like during a big storm, when a branch just isn't strong enough and snaps off the tree. Either way, the tree keeps on living and the forest finds a new way to support the change.

Sometimes, letting go of our past takes time. Sometimes it's a process. But the more we keep ourselves within the limited mindset of right and wrong, the longer that process will take. Today I remembered to be gentle with myself, to keep practicing the miracle of being in the present moment and accessing the joy that is found there.

Spiritual Tool #3: Filling up with YOU!

How many times have you come home from a day and said, "I feel so drained!"? If you're like me, it happens regularly, especially when around lots of people, when helping lots of clients throughout the day, or when intense or stressful situations present themselves. This post is about helping you call your energy back, which makes you feel more grounded, yourself, and literally gives you more physical energy!

In my post about grounding, I talked about how our energy bodies can be like little sponges, picking up energy from other people -- people we talk to, care for, or interact with. That entry talked about the importance of clearing or grounding those outside energies away after each day.  But just as we pick up other people's energy, we often give our energy to other people, events, or projects. Sometimes we leave our energy there, in the past, where it really does us no good. In order to keep our energy levels high, we need to fill back up with us!

The only moment that we have to work with is the present. When our energy is in the past, or the future, or with mom, or with your latest craft project, or planning dinner, we don't have as much energy available to work with in the present moment. I'm sure we've all experienced it before -- we are excited about a new project, or we have a family member or situation we're worried about, and so our energy is focused there while we try to move throughout our day and complete our day-to-day tasks. We find ourselves becoming sloppy, unable to concentrate, and feel completely wiped out by the end of the day.

It doesn't do us any good to keep our energy anywhere but right inside our body and aura. It's been said that worry is a misuse of imagination. I say energy directed anywhere except the present moment is a cheat to ourselves and the lives we're creating.

So many of us in the healing field struggle with this. We worry about our clients, or we continuously try to problem-solve other's situations while we're going through the motions of present day activities. Even those outside the healing field can relate -- we've all experienced a loved one who is going through a tough time, and often we feel emotionally connected or responsible for their well-being.  Often, we keep our thoughts or prayers with them and forget about the quality and importance of our own attention in the present moment.

Guess what -- that doesn't serve either party.

If my energy is with one of my sick clients, not only is it not with me, but it's also clogging up their space and keeping them from being able to find their most authentic self and their own healing solution. It is always best to keep our energy with us so that we can use the power of the present moment to direct all of our energy to the focal point at hand.

Our attention is the most powerful tool we own. If we can gather up all of our energy and direct our attention at just one thing, the rest of the world falls away. We've all experienced this -- maybe in a yoga class where you observed your thoughts rather than listening to them, or when you become so focused on a project that you lost track of time and created your best work. As a healer, I know I can help my client best by focusing on them and only them in a session, or when I'm doing extra research to help them -- not by focusing on them while I'm blogging, making dinner, or listening to my partner.

So how do we practice calling our energy back to us and keeping it there? (Because, remember, it's ALL a practice).

It's simple. Sit in your meditation space and ground yourself. Use the grounding meditation listed here. Start by clearing away all those energies that you might of picked up during the day -- your client, that stranger on the bus who gave you the eyes, that cute barista who drew a heart in your cappuccino, -- all of it! Once you feel clear, start to imagine all the places you might have left your energy that day. I usually start with my dream space, which is generally very active. Then, I call my energy back from clients, from my mom, from anyone I might be healing inadvertently, from my boss, from that person on the bus I gave the eyes to, from my enjoyment of my (decaf) cappuccino, and from any other situation or project that keeps stealing my attention.

Imagine that energy collecting into a big ball of golden energy above your head that is as big as you are. Let that golden ball of light fill all the way up with your energy in present time. When it's full, pull it down around you and let it fill up your whole body and aura with your energy. Do this several times until you feel full of the live that is YOU. You can't have too much!

Often with this exercise, I get asked if calling energy back will hurt or affect the people, projects or situations where your energy was left. Calling your energy back will not hurt someone you've been helping -- like I said before, your energy of worry or healing, while fabulous in the present moment, can create confusion for that person once you've moved on physically. Your heartfelt intention of help or healing, when used in the power of the present moment, is beneficial. Once you move on, if your energy doesn't move with you, it can create the same energy of confusion and clogging that we clear out of our own spaces.  Similarly, your projects can't keep moving forward if you're working on something else, so it's more effective to always have your energy in the present moment. The same goes for situations or interpersonal relationships -- focus on the task at hand while it's at hand and communication will be smoother (that doesn't mean you can't procesas and reflect later, just make sure that's you're intention at the time).

Have you ever heard someone say, "I'm running on a quarter tank today?" This is often how full our bodies are of our own energy, but it doesn't have to be. Fill up with the golden light of your energy several times per day and keep your energy gauge at full all the time.

You always deserve to be full of YOU. This isn't about ego, it's about spiritual energy. In the spiritual world, you can't get enough of yourself, so fill up! When you are full of yourself and clear from other energies, that is your quiet, soft space where you can hear the clear voice of your soul. This is where you'll make your best decisions, heal yourself, and start to have an effect on others because you're brave enough to fill up and be your own creature. Here's to being YOU!

Intuitive Wellness Coaching in Your Words

For the past month or so, I've been lucky enough to take two full days a week to start turning what I love to do into a career. This process hasn't been easy, and I'm nowhere near finished, but I can start to see the first iteration of my offerings taking shape in a concrete way that they never have before. This process is teaching me a lot  -- how I relate (or don't relate) to business and business practices, what my relationships are to money, how I tend to undervalue myself and my offerings, and how difficult I find it to stand up and shout from the rooftops what it is I do.

Behind the scenes, I've been busy clarifying and re-clarifying my message -- who I am and why I do what I do. I've had to ask for help to describe it, because I tend to use technical terms that only make sense to me, and to complicate the simple. This process has humbled me, because I began to ask my clients to explain to me, in their own words, what I do for them. While I'm still working on my verbiage, I wanted to share with you a recent testimonial from on of my clients. If you're unsure what it is, exactly, that I do, please continue reading as Holly has explained it so eloquently here:

As comforting as it sounds when traditional medicine claims to provide "individualized treatment" and "client-centered care", the first time I ever actually experienced that was during my sessions with Anna.  Anna moves through the confusion that disease and injury can create, methodically examining each body system and, laser-like, strikes right at the heart of the source, the cause, and the cure.  For me, the source of my disease was outside of my awareness.  Buried beneath my symptoms were layers of unintegrated emotions, images from the past, energies that didn't belong to me, karmic influences, and seemingly unimportant details that Anna brought to the surface.  As she explained the images she saw I was transported into the realm of my soul and the source of my own power to heal myself.   Far from being a painful process, Anna's humor, love, and light touch made "coming home to myself" and healing my illness a joyful experience. She was able to give me practical guidelines for grounding myself, for stepping out of the way of the healing energies that emerged, for enhancing those energies, protecting them, and for understanding my soul's intent and purpose as it related to my disease.  She was also able to quickly and painlessly remove harmful energies that were not aligned with my intent to heal. Sessions with Anna far exceeded my expectations and moved me to a place of health and unprecedented enthusiasm for my unleashed life. She represents a new kind of healing that takes into consideration the body's innate ability to heal itself given the right environment.  Anna is an expert in understanding what that environment looks like and has the amazing gift of knowing how to create it.  Personally and professionally I am privileged to be able to recommend her without reservations.    

If you've been on the fence about experiencing the freedom that intuitive wellness coaching, healing and mentoring, now is the time to try it. I have some new fall specials coming out with my next newsletter (email me if you want to sign up). I'd be honored to be part of your healing journey.

Spiritual Tool #2: Holding a Vibration

Albert Einstein said, "Everything is energy and that's all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics."

One of the ways in which I work with clients is to help them get out of the uncomfortable reality they're in and into the reality they want. Usually, there are a lot of belief systems, family programming energy, emotions, fear or guilt keeping them from embracing the reality they want to claim as their own. As I work with clients, I help them to identify these limiting patterns, drain them from the energy body, and help them start creating the reality they want through energy.

How do we do this?

Similar to how Einstein said to "match the frequency," I say, "hold the vibration" of the reality you want and you will have it.  On one hand, it sounds so simple. On the other hand, it seems incredibly complex and perplexing and perhaps even illogical to our analyzing mind.

The spiritual world, and thus our energy bodies which are our link to Spirit, operate in an arena where time and space do not exist. Our bodies, and more accurately our minds, experience time linearly, which can make spiritual concepts seem illogical. But you know how sometimes you set a goal, and maybe you send out prayers asking that you reach your goal, but the goal always seems to be out in the future? That's because the Universe responds to us in present time only. In the spiritual world, you either have something or you don't, there is no "getting it later."

This is why the vibration of our aura in relation to the reality we want to have are so important. Similarly, this is why affirmation as mantra and as prayer is so effective -- we are no longer asking to have something in the future some day, we are stating to the Universe that we already have it.

To some of us, this may seem selfish. Especially when it comes to goals around finances or achievement.  Many of us in the spiritual field incorrectly assume that self-serving goals aren't spiritual, but that's untrue. The Universe wants us to be fulfilled. It wants us to have our hearts desire and will give us the reality that is reflected in our energy body and in our thoughts.

This doesn't mean that receiving what we want won't require some work. Spiritual growth always requires work. But by showing the Universe exactly what we want through holding the vibration of the reality we desire, the work will illuminate itself, pushing our bodies and minds through linear time more quickly to achieve our new reality. The work may manifest itself as taking a deep look at our belief systems, our relationships, our value or our self esteem and making the changes necessary to fully vibrate at our new reality.

So, how do we start? The work for changing our reality starts, like most spiritual tools, in meditation. This is how I like to use the "hold your vibration" meditation, but you may find that another method works better for you, so feel free to play with it.

Sit quietly in your meditation space. I like to sit in a chair with my feet on the ground, or include this meditation before I start a yoga practice so that the movement helps me clear out blockages. Again, it's up to you. First, become grounded. You can use the grounding technique I've described in another post, or choose a grounding technique of your own. Breath deeply and smoothly, and allow any stresses or uncomfortable energy to ground out of your space.

Once you feel clear, allow yourself to visualize the reality that you want. Maybe this is surrounding a health issue, finances, or relationships -- whatever it is, see your best and most vibrant reality out in front of you. Allow any negative energy or negative self talk drain out of your vision naturally. Notice how it looks -- I like to attach a color to the vibration, so that I can easily call it back later on. Notice how your reality feels -- every cell in your body will respond to the vibration you choose, so allow yourself to really feel that vibration.

Next, use your hands (or your psychic hands) to pull that visualization into your body, starting at the crown of your head and moving all the way down to your feet. Visualize yourself bathed in that reality, perhaps seeing yourself in the color you chose. Allow yourself to feel that vibration in every part of your body, and allow yourself to know that this reality is yours right now. Send some gratitude to the Universe for helping you with your creation.

Throughout the day, check in with yourself and your vibration. When you find yourself slipping into old thought patterns or behavioral habits that aren't in alignment with your vibration, take some deep breaths and call the color of your vibration back around your body. Notice the thought patterns that you were stuck in and work on releasing those in your meditation practice. Assert an affirmation in place of negative thoughts. The affirmation, "I easily create the reality I most deeply desire," may work well for this meditation, but feel free to chose another one.

Getting started on a spiritual journey can seem daunting, but remember that you have the full support of the Universe behind you. A spiritual journey is the process of self-discovery -- finding out who you are, who you want to be, and how to get there. If you find yourself stuck, I am only a phone call away. I'd be happy to provide some clarity and build your confidence so you can move freely along your path.

Why should you listen to me anyway?

For a lot of my clients, their journey with me starts with a story about pain. Chronic pain, aching pain, lightning pain, hot pain, nerve pain, turned-me-into-a-different-person pain. Pain that has created two very distinct phases of their life -- before pain and after pain. Or, their story tells of discomfort, of health issues that are uncomfortable and embarrassing, or of issues that sound "weird" or don't make sense to the medical world.

Sometimes, people come to me because they're seeking clarity or grounding. They find themselves in a rut, feeling scattered and unable to call enough energy together to make change. They feel like they're in a cycle they can't get out of.

And to all of you out there who haven't yet decided to schedule a session with me, I wanted to tell you more about who I am and why I can help to address these issues and all of the day-to-day things that may bring you in for an Intuitive Coaching session.

I've been there.

I've had pain. I've had the chronic pain, the pain that wakes you up in the night, that doesn't cease in any position, that keeps you from doing everything you love until you don't know if you have the capacity to love anymore. I've had the kind that makes you bitchy, makes you snap at waiters and loved ones and makes you feel like a jerk who should have stayed at home. I've had the kind of pain that defined me and became the backdrop for how I knew myself.

I've also been the one with embarrassing, hard to identify health issues that had every doctor starting their prognosis with, "Well, I've never seen anyone with this reaction before...."

For me, pain manifested as a chronic back injury that blew up in my face one day while rock climbing. It wasn't the rock climbing that did it, mind you (although that twisting, manteling move wasn't exactly spine-friendly), it was the 20 years of overuse, of shutting my pain up with Ibuprofen and muscle relaxers, of never seeing pain as a sign but rather an annoyance to my goals. My body had given me plenty of signals throughout the years, signals to slow down, take a day off and mellow out, but I didn't listen. Then one day, BAM! My body didn't give me a choice that time.

So when people come to me with pain, I tend to imagine that they're telling me this story of pain and believing that I may not know how they feel. Trust me, I've been there. And I'm here to tell you that I got out of my pain and you can, too.

At first, I was desperate to get relief. I still saw my pain as an annoyance, like a brush fire that just needs to be stomped out as quickly as possible. So I threw myself to mainstream medicine -- sports medicine doctors, pain relievers, mainstream physical therapy, all the best recommendations I could find. And I failed. Not more than a week after my official care ended, I was re-injured.

I'd received the best care that my medical doctors could give me, so why had it failed?

My treatment failed because I wasn't listening to my inner voice.

Instead of listening to my inner voice, I was listening to the smaller voices inside of fear, telling me to get to a doctor, a real doctor! Telling me to listen and follow their advice because they always know better than you, they're the healers! And those smaller voices told me to question my intuition about my back because intuition isn't medical and can't help you heal.

I had run out of options. So instead of looking outside of myself and my knowledge base, I decided to look inward. When I did, I realized my body was looking for a very deep kind of healing, healing of the connection between body and spirit. This initial realization scared me, because the little voices in me weren't sure I was capable of this kind of healing. But my True Voice, my Inner Voice, was sure. The more I learned to listen to my inner voice, the more it lead me to healers and specialists who were aligned with my true healing path.

Next, I could tell you the story of how I met an amazing group of women who combine yoga with physical therapy to attain fantastic results. And I could tell you how I was one of the most difficult cases they'd ever seen, and how much work and frustration the healing process was. And it was. I found these healers through listening to my inner voice and sticking to what I believed healing could be. Just as important as finding this team of healers was the internal transformation and healing that took place through continuing to listen to my intuition and my inner voice.

One of my first realizations came in a yoga class that I was teaching. I'd said it over and over to my students, "You have to find the balance between ease and effort." I realized then that my whole life I had practiced effort and loathed to practice ease. Effort to attain good grades, effort in relationships, in friendships, in accommodating others. I always worked and created from a place of effort. Effort was everywhere, there was no ease!

It's not that effort is bad -- just like yoga says, we need both ease and effort. But when I took a closer look at the motivations behind all my effort, I realized that they were all fear based -- run an extra three miles so you don't get fat, do the extra credit even though you have a perfect score so that the teacher will like you, do everything for your partner because that's what good girlfriends do (even if he doesn't reciprocate), eat a perfect diet because it's "healthy" even though it's not fun.

I also realized, through intuitive insight, that this concept of favoring effort over ease had been programmed into me. I realized that somewhere in my development, I began to associate accomplishment with love. So I worked with a lot of effort in order to achieve love and affection. I also applied that same principle to myself -- only if I accomplished great things during the day was I worthy of my own love.

Ouch.

Low back injuries are often a sign of "lack of support or stability." If I couldn't love myself unless I accomplished, no wonder my body felt a lack of support.

I had to learn to be on my own team. I had to learn to balance effort with ease and to replace the old programming that associated accomplishment with love to something that served me better -- like the promise to myself to always support myself and my decisions when following my inner voice. To always gently guide myself back to my path if I have fallen off, and to not berate myself for any mistakes. To choose, instead, to learn from my mistakes and make the next decision in accordance with my higher voice.

Sometimes, our inner voice asks us to do things that are scary. It might ask us to quit that job that keeps us stressed all night, or to leave a partner that makes us feel undervalued, or to separate from friends who aren't in alignment with our highest goals for love and friendship. These changes and seem big and scary. What I have learned is that the inner voice is persistant and patient. It will continue to ask you to change, to move on, to grow. I've also found that when you do listen, and you take the big leap, it can feel scary and uncomfortable for a while, but the inner voice is tapped into the Ultimate Wisdom of the universe and always has a way to catch your fall, even if you can't yet see where you're landing.

I don't have back pain anymore. I experience some discomfort during certain activities, and I use meditation and physical activities to keep my body healthy. I'm still on a healing journey -- and although it can be uncomfortable at times, I don't think I'd have it any other way. This is how I learn to listen to my inner voice and it is through this path that I am able to connect to my clients.

I can continually use my inner voice to guide me to health and healing, and so can you.

First Tool: Grounding

Those of us following a spiritual path, or taking yoga classes now and then, or even just exposed to spiritual culture in general, might often hear about the concept of grounded. "I was so grounded!" Is a phrase you might hear people exclaim. Or "Wow, I really need to take some time and just ground."

What does grounding mean?

When I first heard about "grounding," I had a vague sense that it meant somehow chilling out for a few hours or days and letting yourself "settle in." Usually, grounding referred to settling in to some new situation, life event, or during or after a long stint of travel.

Trying to get "grounded" without understanding the mechanism was like watching women get pregnant when I was six years old -- both seemed like something you waited around for and then just happened some day. If you don't understand the mechanism for achieving a state of being, either energetic or physical, it's going to be a lot more difficult to get there and to recognize yourself in that state (well, except for pregnancy... I'd imagine you'd notice).

When I started receiving intuitive readings around the age of 20, one of the first feedbacks I almost always received was that I needed to be more grounded. I still had a vague sense of what it meant to attain grounding and what it felt like to be there. Let's talk about being grounded verses being ungrounded and what the two states mean for operation as a spiritual being on the planet.

Grounding means that we are connecting with the earth. A state of groundedness allows us to recognize, own, and utilize our connection to planet earth. The earth provides us with a solid foundation to literally set foot on -- if you've ever experienced vertigo or been in an earthquake, you know how important it is to feel the steady earth underneath you. For a moment, think of the main quality of earth -- that's it's stable or solid. Just like a stable, solid friend will always be with you during hard times, a shoulder to cry on or someone to talk to when things get tough, the earth is always there for us for stability.

The stabilizing quality of the earth provides our foundation for feeling grounded. Grounding to the earth also provides us with a mechanism for releasing energies that aren't ours, or that aren't serving us. Just like we might process our troubles with a stable friend, we can continually release energy to the earth, for it has the energetic ability to absorb our energy, recycle it, and make it available to us again in a form we can better use. We see this ability of the earth scientifically through large old growth forest -- large, old trees sequester carbon from the atmosphere, pulls it into their bodies, and releases oxygen instead. The earth is a great recycler of nutrients and energy. When we are connected to it, we can process energy more effectively.

What happens when we're not grounded? Many of us spend most of our lives ungrounded. In an ungrounded state, we lose the capability to release outside energies effectively or efficiently, so we often operate in a muddled energetic space. Because grounding helps to connect our energy bodies to the planet, including all of our chakras, being ungrounded can cause excess or outside energy in our chakras to run all over our aura or to spill outside of our aura.

One of the best and most extreme examples of being ungrounded is when you are drunk. After a few drinks, the light and hot qualities of the alcohol release our grounding the planet. We are unable to make stable decisions based on what is best for us, and we feel uninhibited by the heavier parts of life. Another example is when you've worked on the computer or watched TV for too many hours at a time, and when you step away, you feel like you're in "digital world" -- your brain feels foggy, you groggily walk over to the fridge and grab something to sip on unconsciously, or a bag of potato chips to munch on. We also can become ungrounded when we're thinking creatively. Being ungrounded isn't necessarily a bad thing. The space of being ungrounded can be a lot of fun -- we might have great or creative ideas or be really productive on a project.

So why get grounded? Gathering creative ideas is great, but executing them comes from being grounded. When it comes time to sort the good ideas from the messy ones, grounding is what helps us to achieve that. Watching a marathon of Grey's Anatomy can be a great stress release, but grounding is what will bring you back to the real world and allow you to release all the emotional ups and downs you felt while watching it. Grounding brings us back to our very exciting reality on earth so that we can create as spirits exactly what we want to create.

Okay, so how do we do it? Grounding can be simple, and it takes some practice. Sit in a chair with your feet flat on the ground. Close your eyes. Imagine all of your energy gathering around you into your aura, which extends from your skin to about an arms length all around you. Feel your energy centering in the center of your head, which is behind your eyes and between your ears. Simple know that your energy is here. Then, visualize a grounding chord forming from your first chakra (which is at the base of your spine) down into the earth beneath you and extending all the way to the center of the planet.

Make sure the grounding chord is as wide as your hips. You can visualize it in any color or shape you want -- you can build a skyscraper reaching downward, or use a tree with roots, or use a color or shape you like. Have fun with it! It doesn't have to be perfect; imagine that you are in kindergarten as you draw your chord. Once it reaches the center of the earth, let it grow roots and stabilize itself there. Then, give your grounding chord a "release" switch. With your psychic finger, turn your grounding chord to "release," and allow that any energy in your body is heavy and releases from your grounding chord to the center of the earth.

Grounding might feel strange if you haven't done much of it before, but ultimately your body will like it here much more. By being grounded, you now have a better ability to process and remove energy that's not yours, freeing your space up to hold more of your vital energy! Like I said, the earth is a great recycler and will know what to do with the energy you give it. Keep releasing and feeling your connection to this great planet we live on! 

The Need for Spiritual Tools

How do we do work on a spiritual level? How do we make that work fun and effortless?

There are many ways to work on a spiritual level, but just like most work, it's easier done with the right tools. Meditation, when done with the right set of tools, can make creating faster, more fun, and less difficult. Understanding a few concepts about how spiritual bodies work will also aid in the process.

When we work in the garden, we use a hand trowel, or a gloves, or a hoe, or other tools that help us get our work done in an efficient and productive manner. There are concepts we use to understand gardening, like "growing season," and "harvest," or "shade tolerant," and "sun-loving." We use tools and concepts in nearly every facet of our life -- why should spiritual work be any different? 

I've heard so many people complain over the years about how difficult meditation and spiritual work is. "I just couldn't clear my mind, so I stopped," or "I just wasn't doing right." Some dismiss meditation altogether, saying "It's just not for me." By the way, I used to say the exact same things! But similarly, if you showed up to do work in your garden, but didn't have the seeds, the tools, or understand the concepts, you might quit gardening right away too, because it would feel very difficult. We need the right tools for the right work!

Perhaps some of you might be thinking, "Okay, but don't I just, like, focus on my breath or stare at a candle for a while or something, and then peace comes?" Sure! You can do that, too! Mindfulness practices like that are great for reducing stress and tension in the body and mind, and allowing us to focus better at work and school. If I continue my analogy with gardening, I would compare mindfulness practices to sun, water and seeds -- just like sun, water and seeds are the building blocks to growing anything, mindfulness practices are the foundation to building a really great meditation practice.

Good gardeners know that in order to create a really amazing garden, you have to have an understanding of the type of soil. you're using, if the plants you're growing are sun and shade tolerant, which plants like to grow together, on which moon cycle planting or harvesting should take place, and which tools work best for making changes in the garden. These tools can help you create a really amazing garden that brings you a luscious harvest!

Similarly, having more meditation tools and concepts under your belt can allow you to create the bountiful spiritual life you've been looking for. I want to share with you some of the concepts and tools I use to create a beautiful spiritual garden of my own. With these tools, you can:

• Learn how to feel safe in your own body and protect yourself from others
• Learn what grounding really means and how to do it
• Learn how to have more connection with your body and your spirit
• Learn how to create what you want from a space that feels effortless
• Gain more energy and vitality for yourself
• Develop better relationships with others by learning how to have healthy boundaries
• Learn how to validate and love yourself
• Learn how to stop giving your energy away to others 
• Learn how to find amusement with the spiritual process so that the process can move forward
• Gather more understanding about who you are and how amazing you are!

Each of the tools I will share take up quite a bit of space and explanation, so I'll write separate blog posts for each. I want to leave you today with a couple of spiritual concepts about how creating in the spiritual realm is different from creating on the physical realm, and how wonderful that is for us! What we set up on the spiritual level is often what appears on the physical level, so the more we are able to understand spiritual tools and concepts to move forward on the spiritual level, the more likely it is that our body and mind will follow suit. Two concepts to think about today are this:

1. The spirit works in a realm where time and space do not exist. In contrast, our bodies and minds experience time very linearly. But time and space don't exist in the energy realm. This is why I am able to conduct readings and spiritual counseling sessions with people over the phone. Energy does not have to follow the boundaries and limitations of the physical world, so you can create unhindered! 
2. Because of #1, the spirit can create and change instantly. The body and mind take a while to catch up. We call this period between spiritual growth and physical growth a "growth period." Sometimes our growth periods are a bit uncomfortable as the body moves its way through physical time to catch up with the spirit. Sometimes there is work we need to do on the physical level to help the body and mind catch up with the spirit. Understanding this growth period can be comforting as we work to move forward.
3. Because of #1, when we work to create what we want as a spirit, the meditation for the mind is to imagine that we already have it. The spirit creates instantly. The mind and body believe in time. If the mind believes something is in the future, it will always keep us just out of reach of having it. If we can practice, in meditation, already having exactly what we want to create, the mind and body can get on board more quickly.

Try it. What is it that you've been struggling so hard to create? Meditate instead on knowing that, as a spirit, you already have it. Imagine, in meditation, what it feels, sounds, smells, and tastes like to have your creation. Allow yourself to have it. See what happens.

Doing verses Being

How do you feel when there are no mirrors? When there is no portion of your mind judging or criticizing that reflection of you? How do you feel when you move out of the space of doing the ten thousand things we think we need to do and simply allow yourself to be in the world?

Today I took solace in the woods near my house. I woke early, as temperatures are rising quickly in the pacific northwest, and I wanted the cool quiet of morning. The park that I walked to is fairly small but heavily wooded with cedars, maples and shade-growing berries. I took my first lap around the park at a walk-run-skip-walk, training my body back into endurance slowly, in a fun way. The second lap, I walked quietly, watching and listening.

I felt so beautiful to be part of that forest.

For the first time in days, that part of my mind -- the one that I try so hard to quiet, so hard to turn off -- the one that criticizes me, tells me I'm gaining weight, that I need a hair cut, that I need new clothes or new something, simply shut up. The part of me that tells me that I'm not doing it right and need to do more finally just turned off and all the sudden I wasn't doing anything wrong anymore because I wasn't doing, I was being.

I recently read an article interviewing Eckhart Tolle, in which he discusses the idea of masculine and feminine energies. He says that masculine energy relates more with doing and feminine energy relates more to being.  He really says it best:

"The world is out of balance because it is focused primarily on the doing, and there is a loss of the awareness of being. This is when stress and negativity arise: when people try to get things done and they no longer are centered within that aware space of being. You cannot feel your being anymore; you cannot feel the consciousness behind all the doing. So many women these days have internalized the imbalance and are also out of touch with being more focused on doing." **

He suggests we find a balance between the ability to do and the ability to be. Just like the embracing yin yang symbol, there is a piece of the other within each: within the dark yang is a white dot, and within the white yin is a black dot. This is the ability to have stillness at the center of doing, and a dynamic quality of doing while being still (so that we don't fall asleep!).

I have been feeling out of balance lately because I've been focusing on doing too much without leaving time to cultivate just being. And I've noticed how I've felt guilty for wanting time to just be, because our culture still doesn't value it as much as doing. But I was reminded today of just how important time to be is -- it is what brings me back to my center and reminds of who I am as a spirit in a body, and just how beautiful the human process is.

**Full article here: http://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/eckhart-tolle-easier-path

How do we hear the message of the Spirit?

Our spirit always knows exactly what it needs in order to heal itself. The challenge is cutting through the noise of the mind, our past programming, and outside energies so that we can really hear what the spirit has to say. And even then, sometimes what the spirit wants feels inconvenient, or "too much," or scary, or strange. Sometimes, what our spirit really wants pushes up a belief system that we have that is actually keeping us from healing.

The past few weeks (months, really) have been amazing. Not only have I been working on creating my new business, but I also had the opportunity to cook for an amazing group of people. Then, I got to come home and continue working with my clients, give some free healings, and learn more about what I need to do to make my body stronger. All of this is awesome! All of this has also made my body really, really tired. As I looked toward my first weekend back at home, I had this moment of fear grip my body. I hadn't scheduled time to relax.

I had scheduled a weekend of travel with my boyfriend, attendance at a graduation, time with his family and our friends, and about 10 hours in a car, arriving back home late Sunday night. My brain was frantically searching for what my spirit really wanted -- that space where I got to relax, where I didn't need to "show up" for anyone, where I could veg out and sleep more and spend time in nature and sip tea slowly.

As the week went on, the vision of what my spirit wanted made itself more and more known, so much that it almost became a physical ache in my body. People around me noticed. "You look....tired," they'd say, then add, "But happy." My whole being wanted nothing more than to relax for the weekend. But my mind kept reminding me of a belief I have about what happens when you break commitments. "Breaking commitments is extremely disappointing to the other people involved.You will feel guilty because they will be hurt. Taking time for yourself is selfish."

As I re-read that last sentence, it still rings true to me. This is a belief I have had for years and years! It's a family belief that states simply, "When you say you'll show up, you show up, no matter what happens. You can't change your mind." When I read a person's space, I'm able to identify these types of belief systems -- those originating from someone else that are keeping the person from having their highest vibration of healing. It's not that the belief itself is bad. I would say that most of us want to keep the commitments we make. What I look at is, given the current situation, is the belief system serving the mind, body and spirit or is it actually hindering healing or growth?

Looking at my plans this weekend, my mind did what it does best and started to analyze the situation, create a list of pros and cons, and try to figure out a way to trick myself into feeling better about it. By Friday afternoon, I realized it wasn't working. I needed to have a very honest conversation with my boyfriend, which brought up another belief system of mine, "When you ask your partner for what you need, they will tell you it's silly or crazy and make you feel bad for wanting it." That's a belief system of mine left over from past experience, and the more I navigate this new relationship, the more I realize it's not serving me.

The conversation actually went very well. We talked about what I needed, what he needed, and how we felt about it all. In the end, I decided to stay home and have a weekend to myself to rest, be in nature, cook for myself, get more sleep, sip my coffee slowly and try a new smoothie recipe. Basically, a weekend to be myself with no pressure and the intention to fully find my energy again.

Through Spiritual Counseling sessions, I can help you with this process. I can help you identify the spiritual causes of pain, disease, discomfort or disconnection and communicate to you the healing messages of your spirit. Just yesterday, a client mentioned feeling like they had reached such a healthier level after their session. If you are struggling to make sense of the messages of your spirit, your mind, and your body, please give me a call. Your spirit will thank you! Mine did.

Spirit

Seared, pink flesh is healing on my forearm. My thighs are spotted with mysterious bruises. My low back has the familiar ache that comes from standing in once place for too long. My body is tired and craves sleep and massage. But my spirit feels stronger, nourished, and ready to jump into another phase of growth. I've just returned from the third YogaSlacker Teacher Training.

For the past three years now, I've been delighted to be part of the YogaSlackers Teacher Training. This year and last year, as co-cook, and the first year as a participant. This is the third year I'm blogging about the experience, and as I look back on past entries, I see that in the past I've written about intense physical struggle coupled with tremendous spiritual uplift. This year will be similar, but different.

This year, I am physically and emotionally stronger. While my co-cooks, Laura and Raquel, and I stood on our feet for countless hours over the past ten days and stirred, flipped, chopped and pureed, I lasted so much longer. I was tired, not exhausted. I am sore, not mutilated. Last year, I was at the beginning of a divorce, and the wrong song on the playlist would bring me to tears. This year, I cried tears of joy to be united with my closest friends. I have spent the past year coming into my own, and I am so much more ME,  stronger, still sensitive but thriving, not empty and in need of taking but strong enough to GIVE.

There is so much I could write about in a training like this -- one that brings very authentic people together to create a community of building each other up towards a single goal, to share the art of yoga slackline. I could write about the amazing people, the kitchen dance parties, my physical accomplishments, friendships, physical and mental conditioning, flashlights, water lining, long lining, slacklining and acro yoga. But the thing that permeates all of these, the thing that links every one of these together and connects all the pieces into one cohesive whole is this: SPIRIT.

For the first several nights of the training, the group would meet and a few of us would share our story: how we came to our "a-hah!" moment in slacklining. Telling my story is always interesting, as I came into the group before it was a group, and somehow stayed on through fear and injury because I love the people. But as I prepared to tell my story, I realized it wasn't just the people I loved, but their spirit.

Before I left for teacher training, I was focused (and still am) on turning my authentic self, gifts and training into a healing career. This task -- fully owning who I am and what I do -- has been a struggle for me. But I have found that I simply cannot be happy in any career, relationship, or friendship that doesn't support my highest values, goals and aspirations. The YogaSlackers teach what they love, period. They decided years ago to just do what they were passionate about and believed that they would somehow be supported. Guess what, it worked.  I noticed an interesting pattern in my own life: every time I hung out with them (Sam and Jason, in particular), I would feel a huge sense of unease when they left. Why? Because their presence, conversation and passion reminded me that I wasn't quite living up to my own values and beliefs. It always stirred up a period of intense spiritual growth for me, perhaps quitting a job or moving to a different city, and usually causing conflict in any relationships that weren't allowing me to be authentic. My connection with the YogaSlackers is about spirit, and being encouraged to fulfill my own.

One day during the training, I woke up early and was very tired. My spirit felt disconnected from my body. I'd had very active dreams and simply couldn't get the rest I needed. My thumbs felt injured from a combination of activities and that scared me. My burn was still open on my forearm and needed to be bandaged.  And I had this feeling that I could be doing more physically than I believed. That fear was holding me back. There was not a lot of time or space for me to find alone time; time to contemplate and meditate and find ME again. But this night, right after dinner had been served and everyone else was either eating or showering, I found some.

I want to long line more than I want to do any other thing on a slackline. I love the meditation of moving forward, one step at a time, and teaching myself with every step to be okay with where I am now, rather than focusing on the end or the finish. Sound like a familiar parody with life. It is. That's why I love it so much. For me, the block to walking long lines is the mount and the fall. In the past, I've been injured enough where both were either impossible or just really, really scary. A 100 foot line has to be set about 7 feet in the air so that you're not touching the ground when you reach the center. The YogaSlackers teach a sit to stand mount that still tweaks my back. There was a new mount called the Chongo that looks super scary but shouldn't hurt me. And I want to long line. And, for some reason, at this point in the training, I'm ready to try.

What is it that takes someone like me, who is afraid of moving forward for fear of injury, and suddenly gives them the courage to take the next step? I was alone in the slackline park, so I took the bouldering pad and placed it under the 80 foot line, set maybe 5 feet high. I set up for the chongo mount. I fell face first into the mat. I did that about six times before I took the mat to a lower line and repeated the process, then lay there, crying, not about the mount but about something I couldn't identify. The old, fearful me would have given up then. But I didn't. Why?

I operate in a world of constant feeling, intuitive picture, and moving of energy. As I lay in the slackline park, releasing energy in the form of tears, I was suddenly energized. For the past several days, students had been pushing themselves, creating and reaching goals and cheering each other on. All of the sudden, alone in the park, I realized I was also a part of that and could feed off that energy. I got back up and really concentrated on the mount again. Opposite foot and hand on the line, balance with the other, set the hips back and match foot to hand....and.....I'm up! I walk a few steps and then do it again, and again, four times. I move back to the long line and....I'm up! I walk half way across, realize what I've just done (woot!), which makes me fall, and then do it again.

I lifted myself up on the spirit of community, positivity, authenticity that was being shared. It was beautiful.

As I start to focus more on Integrative Health Coaching, particularly the intuitive side of things, I'll be sharing more here about the spiritual mechanics related to feeling good. In a nutshell, the more we fill ourselves up with US, the better we feel. Generally, when other people's energies or goals move into our auric field (or our "space," as I like to call it), we start to feel muddled, unsure, unconfident and disconnected from ourselves. However, when a group of people come together with the goal of holding space for each other to achieve their own goals, community spirit is created and can be shared by all. It's the same type of energy that pumps up fans cheering for the same team, or what is created when a group of people meditate together. This is what I felt while in the slackline park and this was the feeling that permeated the training.

The only problem with group spirit is the withdrawal that comes from suddenly being separated from it. Our own spirit seeks the high that was created and ends up scattering itself around the country, trying to find it. The solution is to remember the vibration and hold it close, but to call your energy back to yourself and bring it into present time under the vibration you want to hold. That's what makes you powerful again. That's what makes you your authentic self, and that's how you continue to hold Spirit.

For more information on spiritual mechanics, or to schedule a free 20 minute intuitive consultation, please email me!