Letting Your Inner Light Shine

Something I've been playing with lately is how brightly I can let my inner light shine.

"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...."

We all have that inner light, inner spark, that space that some say Divine Light fills us, the space where consciousness resides, that thing that gives us life and, I'd say, purpose. We have this inner light and part of our journey is first to recognize it. To recognize it, to coax it out of hiding, to take ownership, to have responsibility, to play with, to discover how this inner light has blessed us with our own unique gifts to the world and then to figure out how to use those gifts in a way that is deeply fulfilling.

It is the light that, when cultivated and allowed to be expressed, brings sustained joy.

But here's something I've noticed. Maybe you've noticed it, too. As I start to step into my light, as I nurture and nourish and then shine the crap out of my light and feel SO GOOD in my body, other people notice. Those who have found their light say, "Wow! Welcome! We're so glad you've joined us! Let's shine together and create tons of amazing light!"

But those who haven't quite found, or nurtured, or accepted their light seem to want to extinguish mine. Or contain it. Or just push it out of sight. Because it's like I've shined a flashlight into their eyes first thing in the morning. It's just too bright.

I've experienced this in reverse, too. When I was still afraid to shine, afraid to be fully me, afraid to let myself out of the bag, those people who shined so big made me think, "Oh wow, she's so bright! This is kind of uncomfortable. Like a sunburn. I'd better make myself dimmer so that she doesn't notice how afraid I am."

Either we're afraid to shine in the presence of the brightness of others, or we start to push back. Why? Because our culture tells us that you cannot have something for yourself without taking from someone else. Our culture teaches us to have a mentality of scarcity. That only the quick, the rich, the popular, the good-looking, the name-brand and whitest teeth get what they want. The unspoken message is that the rest of us must go without.

That, people, is bullshit.

Our inner lights -- that piece of us that turns on our consciousness within our bodies and that piece that scientists still don't understand -- is unlimited. It is Source. It is in each and every one of us and connects us. It is this same light within me that is in you, and because of the light we share, we are one (Namaste). When I shine my light brighter, you do not have to be smaller. You can be big, and I can be big, or we can be small, or medium. The Source is unlimited.

Similarly, whether you shine your light like a candle or a spotlight, it is the same light, and it is still yours. The key is just not to let it seem extinguished, but to remember that it is yours and it is there no matter how bright or dim you shine it.

So what do you do when you notice that your inner light is being squashed? As an highly sensitive person, I can feel when my inner light is being asked or forced to be smaller because the ego or the human self of an someone else is afraid that my light might outshine them. There are a few ways to go about it. First, you can just keep on shining. This is the route I've tried to take in the past. But as an empath, I find it extremely difficult and painful when I'm shining away and then fall under attack from energetic darts that say, "Turn that light off!"

Second, you can hide your light. But if you've worked hard to shine your inner light, this will feel defeating. This might make you feel that you don't deserve to shine your light, which isn't true. So I will recommend the third choice.

Third is that you learn to cultivate your inner light, which is yours all the time, whether you can feel it or not. Learn how bright you can shine in different situations, around different people, until you receive negative energy in return. It's a practice. Then, learn tools to protect yourself from the negative energy around you, allowing yourself to be protected and unaffected by the energy thrown your way.

Something that I did while I learned and practiced my tools in different situations was to always remind myself of my constant inner light. I found that when negative energy affected me, I felt like my inner light was extinguished, but in reality I just couldn't see it because of the outside energy covering it up. I found a handy, fun and creative way to remind me the spiritual truth of my inner light.

Body art.

While you practice your tools, write yourself a lovely reminder that your inner light is there, that it's yours, and that it's unlimited. And have fun!

Love and Light,
Anna


P.S. If you're not sure how to protect yourself from energy, give me a call -- that's exactly what my services are all about. 

Somedays, I Feel Like a Spy

Some days, I think I would make a perfect spy. On those certain days, people I interact with don't recognize me. I can walk by and wave stand next to them at the grocery store and all I get are blank stares.

Other days, I feel like I'm invisible all together. Just last night on the drive home from work, not one but two people nearly ran me over. They didn't see that I was there and they swerved into my lane. Twice in under three miles I had to slam on my brakes and swerve. Also, twice in under three miles, I yelled a string of cuss words that would make my dad stand up and salute. But I digress....

I've written ad nauseum about how we are energetic beings first and foremost, and that our energetic blueprint lives inside of and instructs our physical human bodies. If you've ever watched a really good actor, you see that the energy they embrace allows them to become a completely different character. In the same body, they become a different person. Which begs the question, if we can choose to play a character by changing our energy, then which character are you being today? And did you consciously choose it?

Today, I walked around in the neighborhood where I work part time as a physical rehabilitation specialist for folks with spinal injuries. Many of my clients work in one of the local businesses, and as I shopped for groceries during the lunch hour, I stood in line next to a regular client. I smiled, and he politely smiled in return, no form of recognition in his eyes. I could have said something, could have told him it was me, but instead I chose to watch the energy exchange as a type of experiment. On the way back to my car, I saw my co-worker through the window of our office and she had the same reaction -- a polite smile as she turned away. When I stopped and pulled the door open, she exclaimed, "I didn't even recognize you!"

You could say that both greetings were out of context. That we place certain people with certain contexts in order to remember them. Or that maybe I was wearing different clothes or had done my hair differently. Those things can both be true. But the other thing that changed was my energy, the vibration I was set at or the character I was choosing to play.

When the intention for my day is to be a rehabilitation specialist, my energetic vibration changes to support it. If I like the people I work with and enjoy my work environment, my vibration might also change a bit to match it. If my place of work has a strong brand or work ethos, my vibration might also change to match it.

When the intention for my day is to work as an intuitive healer, my vibration shifts accordingly. Because this is more along the lines of my dharma, or true life's work, my vibration rises quit a bit. In fact, I think it changes enough that I become a different character in the same body. In my intuitive healer character, those who interact with me from the rehabilitation specialist vibration may not recognize me.

Setting our energy, vibration or character is all about intention. When we set clear, grounded intentions with the Universe, we make energetic shifts automatically. Shifts in our personal energy field can happen instantaneously. Intentions for shifts in our environment, career or in other physical things may take more time.

I think of bigger intentions like turning on your turn signal in your car. When I was almost run over last night (twice!), I noticed that both of the culprits turned on their signal while they were changing lanes rather than before they changed lanes. They didn't look for space, didn't early signal their intentions, simply signaled while swerving. When we signal intentions for a lane change, where we're asking the Universe for a large change in our life, we need to give the Universe a little time to make space for our intention. Otherwise, we risk running someone over and creating chaos, rather than allowing for the perfect spot to open up for us.

When we set intentions for larger items, like job changes, abundance or health -- basically for anything outside of a simple vibrational change -- we must learn to be patient and have faith. When we don't, we risk creating chaos  -- chaos in our mind. How many times have you wished for something really bad and kept wishing and wishing to the point that the wish wasn't even fun anymore, but filled with anxiety? Intention setting, or manifesting, is about setting the intention (flipping on your turn signal), waiting for the Universe to make space for your request or having faith (waiting for the other drivers to make space) and being self aware to recognize our answer, even if it's not in the form we originally imagined (we get space behind the big truck, not the sports car).

Setting intentions for manifesting takes faith. Faith does not necessarily refer to any sort of theism but rather faith in the sense that there is a place for you on this planet. Faith that your heart-felt intentions and desires are heard. Faith that you are deserving, and faith that you are enough. When we set our vibration, our character, from this place -- this place of faith that we are enough -- then there is nothing that we can't manifest, change or create.

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!

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.

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!

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!