2023-ProtectingYourEnergyBlog-featured

Protecting Your Energy: 5 Actionable Steps

by Energy MedicineFeatured

One of the topics I insist on covering when I’m teaching energy healing to students is the crucial necessity of protecting your personal energy field. This is because during your time on this planet, you will encounter toxic people, psychic attack, energy vampires, and global catastrophes. There is simply no way to sidestep all of it.

But there are ways to mitigate.

“What Drains Your Energy?”

Not everyone is drained of their energy by the same forces.

Introverts’ energy gets drained whenever and wherever human interaction with others occurs. No matter how intimate the connection or how fond the bond, introverts require space and distance to recoup their energy level.

Extroverts, on the other hand, are invigorated by social interactions and feel drained when they’re deprived of them for very long.

Example: The COVID social distancing protocols were embraced, by and large, by introverts because it became socially acceptable to isolate, giving them opportunities in abundance to “disappear” for the better part of two years, and recharge themselves.

But for extroverts, the exact same isolation protocols, for many, felt like an existential threat. Even with Zoom, FaceTime, and outdoor social-distanced communal activities, many extroverts’ energy levels became severely compromised, prompting them to fall into despair and depression. “Check on your friends’ and family’s mental health” became a constant theme because any change in customary routines could create tsunami-level emotional, psychological, and hormonal waves.

So, it’s important to positively identify whatever it is that is draining your energy. There are so many possibilities: certain family members (you know them – they’re experts at pushing your buttons); toxic associates (naysayers, dream stealers, curmudgeons, coworkers, bosses, Negative Neals and Nellies); psychic attack from a negative source (intentional or not); energy vampires (people who suck the energy right out of you for various reasons: codependence, neediness, fearfulness, narcissism, or some other energy-draining quality); social media (with its 24/7/365 ability to wear you out and down); mass shootings; and any of the other global crises that threaten our wellbeing (armed conflicts, climate change, regime challenges, what next)?

If you’re like me, there is more than a single source of your energy depletion, so you will need to employ several methods to restore your baseline energy level.

To be clear, most energy deficits come as a result of external negative-energy influences or internal medical or psychological/emotional challenges, not by way of direct psychic attack. Although your energy field helps to ward off external negative influences, it is not impervious; some negative energies can enter through a hole in your field. What causes a hole? Well, I’ve written entire books on that, but, the short answer is: unprocessed emotions. When your baseline energy level is restored, your personal energy field and chakra centers return to serve as illustrious defenders of your organic functions.

Among the best ways to protect yourself from negative energies is to develop habits and practices that bolster and restore your energy field on a regular basis.

You can do this in multiple ways. Here are a few of my go-to, standby favorites:

  1. Abide by the Golden Rule. Don’t expect to be protected if you engage in attacking anyone else’s energy field. The universe richly rewards those who treat others as they would like to be treated! Best Practice: Learn to keep your energy field in “neutral,” as opposed to on “push” or in “retreat.”
  1. Set boundaries for yourself and others. When you’re forced into close proximity with toxic individuals, (some interactions simply can’t be avoided), limit your exposure by setting boundaries: “We will not discuss politics.” “We will not discuss religion.” We will not bash or criticize each other’s significant other or children.” Best Practice: Set boundaries that align with your higher self.
  1. Start each day with the intention to act from the highest guidance. Begin the day by connecting to your guides, your angels, your ancestors. Best Practice: Build an altar on which to place those objects that help you focus on higher guidance and start each day with a prayer to those guides.
  1. Make a habit of clearing your energy field; employing white light to do so is often helpful. Best Practice: Spent one minute each morning after your mantra-based meditation clearing, charging, and balancing each of your seven main chakras.
  1. Get educated. If you are new to the world of energy and energy healing, join a program that will ramp up your energy healing abilities and connect you to a community of like-minded folks that will support you on your quest. Best Practice: Spend even 10 minutes a day reading/watch/listening about energy healing techniques and how they can help you protect your personal energy field.

    Consider joining our LifeForce Energy Healing Level I Certification Course. It is the first step on the way towards energy healing mastery and will be the perfect first step towards beginning that momentum. Or check out our Energy Shop to see which course is the right one to solve the specific issue you’re looking to remedy.

It’s important to take steps to protect (and enhance) your energy at all times. It is what drives your quality of life in all areas.

Animal Communication Energy Healing

Our Enlightened Friends: How and Why Animals Communicate with Us

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedPets
Animal Communication Energy Healing

If you’re an animal lover like I am, you’ll have no problem embracing the notion that all animals – tame, domesticated, captive, and wild — think, react, and communicate among themselves and, more importantly, with us. Our experiences with them have confirmed this fact.

And if you know that humans are essentially spiritual beings, as I do, then it’s likely you believe, as do I, that animals are spiritual beings too. In fact, my life experiences with animals have convinced me that they are far more enlightened than we are.

Animal Communication Energy Healing

More than one animal lover has declared animals far better at offering unconditional loving-kindness and forgiveness than any human! I have often said that animals can teach us a thing or two (or two hundred) about how to live life as gracefully as possible.

ANIMALS TRULY CARE

Have you heard about Koko, the sign language-adept gorilla, meeting her favorite and most-watched TV celebrity, Mister Rogers, and taking off his shoes because she had seen him do that on every episode of Mister Rogers Neighborhood.

Or how about the documented cases of wild dolphins rescuing humans who have fallen overboard.

At one point, we had a dozen llamas living together with a gelded horse named Brio. One morning early, before the sun was up, Mama Llama, who had been pregnant for close to a year, gave birth. (llamas and alpacas, or camelids, have a pregnancy that averages a whopping 11.5 months) Eric and I were sleeping outside in a tent, near the blessed event, and Brio galloped over and whinnied excitedly that he had just had a baby! I guess the fact that Brio had been gelded young hadn’t daunted his desire to be a father nor was he troubled that the infant was of another species – he couldn’t have been prouder as he pranced around the field!

Animal Communication Energy Healing

And if you’ve ever had a cat, dog, horse, or some other kindred spirit in animal guise approach you because you’re in pain, to be with you to lend their support and comfort, you have all the proof you’ll ever need that our animals are proactively ministerial and compassionate guardian angels.

Animal Communication Energy Healing

One of my students, Kris, told me she had a Siamese cat named Charisma who she swore was psychic. Whenever Kris would have a truly distressing thought, the cat would run to her from outside with a loud “meow,” as if he had been summoned by her, although Kris hadn’t said a word! Kris told me she even tried faking the sensation of distress, but doing so elicited no response from Charisma. Only the real emotion worked, and it worked every time, no matter where the cat was. It was as though he had whisker-like appendages attached to his favorite person that notified him of her emotional status.

I love the song in Doctor Doolittle called Talk to the Animals. Sadly, though, a lot of people who haven’t experienced close contact with animals consider interactive communication with them whimsical, wishful thinking, or — in skeptical scientific terms —largely speculative and anthropomorphic projection.

Like many other animal lovers, I respect my pets and don’t consider myself their owner. We animal lovers realize we share the earth with all these other remarkably aware beings – beings that are so much more evolved than we are.

“Baby Cries, Caregiver Comes!”

Are you aware that cats don’t meow to each other? Meowing is an adaptation they came up with; researchers postulate that their meows are their best impression of a human baby crying. “Baby cries; caregiver comes! I will try that! Voila! Success!!!” (Two exceptions: young, still-nursing kittens will squeak out a meow-like vocalization to call their mothers back to them, and nursing mother cats will meow to notify their offspring that they’re returning or looking for them.)

Animal Communication Energy Healing

Among themselves, cats chirp, tweet, hiss, spit, purr, groom each other, and tussle. Their meows, after weaning, are for us alone. So, cats learned to speak literally eons before our scientists in the West decided to try to figure out what the rest of their vocal repertoire was all about!

Ears, Hackles, Tails & Vocalizations – How Animals Communicate

Animal Communication Energy Healing

I had so many conversations with my Dutch warmblood horse, Influence, across the years — some uproariously funny, others profound. In fact, he spoke better English than I spoke Horse!

A lot of people converse with their pets. Part whimsy, sure, but true communication, soul to soul, is occurring. You can call a beloved pet a derogatory term just for fun (one person I know calls her dog “turd butt”) but it will feel how much love you have for them. That’s because it isn’t the language you’re using that’s communicating; it’s your soul, your undamaged, loving essence.

Animals respond to what you’re actually feeling. They’re not fooled by your Oscar-worthy acting ability.

Pretending to be patient when trying to get a puppy to return to you goes over like a lead balloon. The puppy knows you’re feeling frustrated and maybe even angry, and that’s what it will respond to. It will decide whether it’s going to feel safe and ready to comply with your request.
Animals communicate verbally and non-verbally. Some of their nonverbal communications include flickering ears, wagging (or sagging or unmoving and level) tails, and a physical reaction called piloerection, which is when some of the hair on their bodies stands upright. (For humans, goosebumps are our body’s honest effort to raise our hackles.)

Being able to communicate back can have a profound impact on your life – making you a better person, allowing you to tap more fully into the healing power of your animal friends, and allowing you to return the favor of providing the healing energy they also need as living beings.

If your pets remain a mystery to you, here’s a suggestion. Put on your Keen Observer/Researcher hat. Emulate Jane Goodall as closely as possible.

Animal Communication Energy Healing

With patience and persistence, your pets — and the crows in your backyard, and the woodland and barnyard creatures that they communicate with — will become an open book to you.

This kind of sleuthing will become so much fun that you’ll find ways to do it every chance you get. And your pets and the environment will be just that much better off because of your new adventure in talking to, and with, the animals in your life.

If you are looking for a bit more guidance on how you can become a better communicator for your animal friend, how you can connect with the more deeply, and how you can better exchange healing energies to improve each others’ lives – consider accessing our Communicating with Pets and Animals course here >>

Pets and Animal Healing
2023-HowtobeofServiceBlog-retread

How to Be of Service (And Why It Matters)

by Energy HealingFeatured

The best thing you can do for yourself and the planet is to be of service to others. You can practice every energy medicine technique in the book: journal your deepest feelings until your wrist hurts, meditate twice daily, pray, connect with Mother Nature, clear your chakras, release your limiting beliefs, etc., but if you aren’t being of service, you are not fully living in the light.

Being of service doesn’t have to include the big gestures you might be thinking about. You don’t have to quit your job and give up your life to join volunteers in a far-off area to help disaster victims, or donate your life savings to charity. You don’t have to work at a food bank or with at-risk teens, unless you want to. Being of service is not only about what you do, but also about how you do it. True service means that you are doing what you are meant to do, and doing it with compassion and love.

Understanding that service is both attitude and action helps you to see that the opportunities for being of service are constant in everything you do. Let that car into the lane ahead of you, smile at the tired-looking bank or grocery store clerk, offer to help someone with their hands full carry their drinks at Starbucks. These gestures may seem small, but each one sends a ripple of love out into the universe. And chances are, you will have uplifted the person you helped and possibly inspired them to also be of service, further stretching the reach of kindness and love. Enough ripples create a wave, and selfless service is the first step to spurring a wave of deep and boundless love to wash over the world.

Here are a few additional tips for how to be of service:

  1. Chop wood, carry water.

     

    This is the phrase I use in my energy healing courses and workshops to help teach my students that being of service does mean you have to do the work, get your hand dirty so to speak, whatever that means for you. Anything you do that gives of your time and energy in order to benefit someone else, as long as you do it with love and without expectation of reward, counts as being of service.

For you, this might mean planting trees in a neighborhood park, or walking dogs, or playing violin on a busy street corner. Perhaps you’re a birthday party clown or a food server or a window washer. Service can be any deed or action that elevates others. After all, that clown is making kids laugh, a restaurant server helps to feed customers, a street corner musician gives a little art to brighten the day of passersby. When you do your work from a place of light, that light radiates to everyone you interact with like a beacon of hope, compassion, and love.

  1. Figure out how you would like to help.

    It’s really hard to act out of love if you’re miserable, and serving others while resenting the work or the people will fill you with negativity rather than love, which doesn’t actually help anyone. So take the time to do some soul searching and think about how you would like to serve others. Try not to think about what your parents or partner think you should do, and as much as possible, shut down any self-doubt that tells you you aren’t capable of doing something, and really focus on getting in touch with your true feelings about what you want to do.

Journal about it, mull it over, ask your guides, and I bet you’ll find that the way you want to serve takes advantage of your unique gifts. You were given your gifts for a reason, so use them! If you’re great at organizing, or wonderful with children, or can paint portraits, or are a born counselor or energy healer—these talents are the way to serve authentically and without resentment or irritation. In this way, being of service can help to awaken and strengthen your special skills as well as help to heal and uplift others.

I’d like to mention here a rarely discussed truth about being of service: it’s okay to enjoy it! There seems to be the misconception that service must be somber and joyless, but who wants to be helped by someone who is all doom and gloom? Joy creates joy. If you are joyful in your service, everyone around you will be buoyed up by that happy energy, too.

  1. Check your ego at the door.

    Expectation of reward is the greatest obstacle to true service. There are two types of giving: that which seeks recognition, and that which serves in silence. If the reason you are serving others is so that you will be seen serving others, you are feeding your ego and not feeding the greater good. If you want to be known as a “good-doer” more than you actually want to do good, then you are not truly being of service. Even those in healing or helping professions, like doctors or therapists or teachers, are only really being of service if they do those jobs in a compassionate, selfless manner. A doctor who helps others solely to advance her personal power and greed is not embracing the attitude of love true service requires.

Focusing on others without thinking of yourself is what makes service a spiritual practice; the process forces you to step outside your small selfish Earthly self and think of the greater interconnectedness of all life. As a spiritual teacher, this in an important lesson I teach: since the universal field encompasses us all, what you send out into the universe comes back to you, so sending positivity to others improves your own life as well. And, as a bonus, when you stop worrying about your own progress and success, that’s when Spirit rewards you with exactly that.

If you are interested in this type of learning, please check out my LifeForce Energy Healing.
2022 BFS
Evolve during summer

3 Things to Add to Your Summertime Bucket List

by Energy MedicineFeaturedSelf Love
Evolve during summer

It’s summertime! Here are a few items that I encourage you to add to your Summertime Bucket List:

  1. Take a sabbatical from Netflix. I know just how addictive binge-watching Netflix can be. In fact, I just “rediscovered” Suits, that awesome 9-season TV series that has me hooked, so I speak from experience when I suggest we all fight off that “urge to binge” and head outdoors right now. Summer only comes once a year, so we need to jump on it! You can hang with your pets, drive through a wildlife park, visit a beach at the ocean, or a lake. Give yourself permission to just BE. You are a human BEING not a human DOING. Your body and spirit will thank you!
Evolve during summer
  1. Choose a summertime wilderness trail to explore. Put on your hiking boots, shorts, and shirt, apply sunscreen, fill your backpack with survival essentials (drinking water, matches, food bars, thermal, a small/foldable emergency blanket in case you end up having to spend the night outdoors due to a missed turn, your phone, a Swiss Army knife, insect spray, first aid essentials) and take a hike. As long as you prepare for the unexpected, a hike to an alpine lake or across some other breathtakingly beautiful nature spot will rejuvenate you like nothing else can.
  1. Visit your favorite environment and do something fun while you’re there.

    Love the water (lake, ocean, pond, river, beach)?     If so, consider building a sandcastle (if there is the right kind of sand or mud where you are), renting a kayak or canoe, going swimming, doing yoga, meditating, painting or drawing what you see (or doing your best to express in words what you see and feel when you’re in your perfect place), going whitewater rafting (or its less intense counterpart, peaceful river rafting), surfing, scuba diving or snorkeling, paddleboarding, or inner-tubing down a placid river. Go whale watching. Whatever “floats your boat!”

Love the Outdoors? Attend an outdoor concert in your region and/or play an outdoor game. Admire the wildflowers. Plant a butterfly garden. Take a road trip. Go camping. Visit a farmer’s market. Ride a roller coaster or ferris wheel. Walk or Run 5K for a good cause. Visit a zoo, wildlife park or animal sanctuary. Go birdwatching. Make a bonfire and cook s’mores, baked beans, and vegan hot dogs. Play tennis, pickleball, volleyball, badminton or any other game that offers laughter and exercise. Rent a log cabin for a weekend or mid-week or longer and meditate or do yoga outside it every morning and evening. (Be sure to step outside to greet sunrises and bid adieu to sunsets!) Visit a regional parade. Take an archery class. Catch a ride in a hot air balloon. Make a birdhouse.

Evolve during summer

Confined to a City? Create chalk art. Volunteer. Put on a puppet show for your neighborhood. Visit a museum and/or an art gallery. Get an adult coloring book. Have a picnic in the park. Record your fondest memories and adventures in a journal or scrapbook. Start a summer gratitude journal. Visit venues that feature animals (zoos, aquariums, the ocean.) Foster a pet or adopt a pet. Write a poem or a song.

There is a poem that I just love, and it’s appropriate here. It speaks volumes about mindset, perspective, and intention, three things that can make or break the human spirit:

Two men looked out through prison bars.
One man saw dirt … the other, stars.

I know you will make this summer memorable in your own inimitable way. Let me know on Facebook if there are other things on your bucket list that I missed.

Enjoy Summer 2023. It will never come again, and you’ll never be this young again, so don’t put off enjoying it in every way you can!

Evolve during summer

And if finally taking steps towards personal transformation, achieving your goals, and becoming the person you were meant to be is on your bucket list, this Summer is the perfect time to take that step. Registration is currently open for our Master-in-Training program. A year-long program that offers you transformative teachings, a close-knit support group, and an opportunity to work directly with me. It’s nothing short of life-changing.

You can learn about the changes people experience in our free Open House. You can watch the replay here >>

If you’re ready to dive in, you can register for the program here >>

2023 Summer Solstice

How to Celebrate (and Make the Most of) The Summer Solstice

by Energy MedicineFeaturedSolar
2023 Summer Solstice

Ancient civilizations were keenly attuned to celestial events. They had to be. Agricultural or hunter-gatherer in nature, these people relied on their ancestors’ knowledge of the predictable changes that seasons bring to the land. Each season compelled precise “marching orders” that needed to be completed to help ensure their survival!

Among the longest-observed and celebrated astronomical anomalies were two solstices (two dates during the year when the sun appears to stand still) and two equinoxes (“equal-night” events).

2023 Summer Solstice

Today, we call these four days the first day of summer, autumn/fall, winter, and spring) and today’s farmers and subsistence hunters and gatherers continue to regard them as crucial dates because nature’s relationship with the sun changes ever-so-slightly (but crucially) during these times.

Those who live in rural and suburban areas can easily witness the changes that the four seasons bring, especially if we live in the northern part of the northern hemisphere: Seattle, Boise, Kalispell, the Great Lakes region, and the like.

In the spring, buds erupt from the ground, leaves erupt from branches, and robins return to pull juicy earthworms from newly warmed soils. Before too long, baby rabbits, birds, mice, rats, moles, and shrews begin to make their appearances. The environment comes alive with vibrant colors, sounds and activities.

As spring progresses toward summer, plants begin to ripen and living beings begin to mature. The land and air get warmer and natural water sources become scarcer. Field irrigation becomes necessary.

By the time summer solstice rolls around, the sun is beating down on the planet as many as 16 hours a day in the northern hemisphere (as opposed to the scant eight hours or so that it receives during the winter solstice). Abundant fresh produce floods farmers markets. Life is good. In fact, life is great! “If only this could be the status quo year-‘round,” I’m sure many of our now-long-dead ancestors wished!

But they knew better. They knew that summer was the last gasp as far as abundance went. They knew they needed to continue preparing for the cold, barren, bleak winter months ahead; they couldn’t rely on international commerce, as we do, to deliver what they would be needing to sustain their lives during the exceedingly lean months that stood between them and mid-spring the following year.

2023 Summer Solstice

So, it should come as no surprise to learn that they acknowledged, with enormous reverence, the value of Sol. Stonehenge and other solstice-specific monuments dot the globe, bearing mute testimony to the reverence our ancestors paid to their life-sustaining environment and to its chief benefactor and influence, the sun.

2023 Summer Solstice

Ancient Greeks

In Greece, the people celebrated the agricultural god Cronus during the Summer Solstice. During this festival, the social policy was reversed and enslaved people were served by their masters or treated and addressed as absolute equals.

Ancient Romans

For days before the summer solstice, ancient Romans attended a festival honoring Vesta, goddess of the hearth. This was the sole annual opportunity for married women to enter the temple to submit offerings to the goddess in that sacred space.

2023 Summer Solstice
2023 Summer Solstice

Ancient Chinese

The ancient Chinese honored the earth, femininity, and yin during the summer solstice.

Other Ancient Cultures

In Northern and Central Europe Germanic, Slavic and Celtic tribes greeted summer by building immense bonfires. The tradition continues to this day in several countries.

2023 Summer Solstice
2023 Summer Solstice

Vikings

Nordic mariners met to discuss legal matters and resolve disputes during the summer solstice. They also visited wells that they believed possessed healing powers and built bonfires around them.

Native Americans

Here in the Americas (North, Central and South) ancient Indigenous tribes took part in centuries-old midsummer rituals, some of which their ancestors continue to this day. Some scholars believe that Wyoming’s Bighorn medicine wheel aligns with the summer solstice sunrise and sunset and served as the site of their annual sun dance.

2023 Summer Solstice
2023 Summer Solstice

Maya and Aztecs

Although not a lot is settled about the ways ancient Central Americans celebrated midsummer, the impressive ruins they left behind point to the significance of the summer solstice to them. Many of the temples, public buildings, and other structures that remain today are precisely aligned with the shadows cast by summer and winter solstices.

Druids

Celtic high priests (today called Druids) very likely led ritual celebrations during midsummer, but it’s unlikely they took place at England’s famous Stonehenge site. This conjecture hasn’t kept modern Druids from gathering at the monument during the summer and winter solstices and the spring and autumn equinoxes, though.

2023 Summer Solstice

Solstice Facts

The term solstice comes from two Latin words, “Sol” (sun) and “Sistere“ (“to stand still”). During both annual solstices, ancient astronomers noted that only during two widely separated days each year (in June and December) did the sun appear to be stationary in the sky.

A solstice marks one of the two times each year when the sun is farthest away from the equator.

This year in the northern hemisphere, the summer solstice will take place on Wednesday, June 21st at exactly 10:58am Eastern Time / 7:58am Pacific Time.

Summer and winter solstices happen at precise times; they are not day-long events, although these moments have been celebrated throughout the same day for thousands of years.

This year’s winter solstice in the northern hemisphere will occur at exactly 7:27p.m. Pacific Time/10:27PM Eastern Time on Thursday, December 21.

Here are ways to celebrate the Summer Solstice Where You Live

In addition to bonfires, fairs and festivals, some people use the occasion to restart their lives, let go of what no longer serves them, and/or open up to meaningful change. Following are examples.

2023 Summer Solstice

If you’re into yoga, start the day with a sun salutation to calm and center yourself.

Set new goals/intentions. Cast off whatever no longer serves you so you can open space in your life to laser focus on new goals and intentions. Perhaps start with what’s in your closet and/or bonus room, even if your goals aren’t physical items. Doing so will reset your mind to realize that you’re completely capable of creating the life you want.

Create a summer bucket list. Make concrete arrangements to do whatever you feel you must do to feed your spirit before summer’s expiration date.

Make A Flower Crown: In a folk tale from Finland, a young woman collected seven flowers under her pillow on Midsummer night (aka the Summer Solstice) and lo and behold, her future fiancé appeared in her dreams! Whether you’re looking for a mate or just for some creative fun, making a flower crown is a delightful idea!

2023 Summer Solstice

Start A Summer Garden (Or Add To Your Existing One) But only if you love gardening. Many people feel renewed and/or meditative when working the soil.

Throw a Summer Solstice Party. Get outside with great friends or family members. Build a bonfire, sing songs, play instruments or your favorite music, and eat your favorite foods.

If you can’t be at Stonehenge, watch the livestream to witness the sunrise through the center stone during this year’s summer solstice.

If you’re in the far north (Alaska or Iceland), play a midnight sport (baseball in Alaska, golf in Iceland).

2023 Summer Solstice

Take a hike. Climb with a friend to an alpine meadow, waterfall, or some other natural wonder.

Play some lawn games. Lawn darts, bocce ball, horseshoes and other lawn games are great fun.

Stargaze. Get outside of big cities and into sparsely populated areas to rediscover a night sky filled with an uncountable number of stars.

Go berry picking. Harvesting wild, edible berries is a favorite pastime of a lot of outdoorsy types.

Catch the wave! Go surfing (board, body, or wind) or waterskiing. It’s exhilarating. (Remember the sunscreen!)

2023 Summer Solstice

Go camping. Whether you employ a tent or a camper, camping is where it’s at for those who want to surround themselves with nature.

Take an evening swim. If you can swing it, swim naked in the dark with a romantic partner. Love is in the air!

For many reasons that are now clear, the Summer Solstice has been an all-important day throughout history. It is also a day of equilibrium and powerful celestial energy. It’s an ideal to pause and think about where you have come in life, and where you want to go. And if you feel as though you have much to accomplish, like you are ready to step into the person you were put on this Earth to be, then you should consider our year-long Master-in-Training program. It’s our most intimate, powerful, and exclusive program. A program that drives the time of life transformational in a year that most people couldn’t imagine in a decade. And the doors for registration are now open.

If you’d like to learn more about the types of transformations people experience in this program, you can watch our recent free Open House and hear directly from the people who experienced it. Click here to watch it now >>

If you’re ready to reserve your spot for this life-changing program, then do so by clicking here >>

Healthy Habits

Develop Habits that Help You & Ditch the Ones that Don’t

by Energy MedicineFeaturedSelf Love
Healthy Habits

It’s impossible, I think, to live for very long without developing a series of habits that appear to have worked quite well for a very long time. We’ve all developed habits for assorted reasons: to pass the time, to shift blame, or to pass muster in some way. Some have become workaholics, others shopaholics, others alcoholics, others marathon TV series-aholics, still others video game-aholics. In a crazy, mixed-up, and heavily politicized world, sometimes dropping out simply to stay sane seems the sensible thing to do.

Healthy Habits

Mea culpa

Early on, I developed self-protective habits in abundance: among them, staying out of my mother’s way (she detested me in utero) and pleasing my incestuous father (and later other powerful men, working my way up the ladder back when women attorneys were almost as rare as hens teeth), none of which was good for me. As a result of these unhealthy habits and others (including drinking like a fish and an unhealthy daily dose of Valium), I ended up with a cancer diagnosis in my 20’s. Talk about a wake-up call!

It was just so easy to develop unhelpful habits! When it worked, even temporarily, to give me some sense of control, ease, or release, I did it again. And again. And again. Until they became habits. (As it turned out, nearly fatal habits!)

I can guarantee you that no one ever expected (or intended, or desired) to become addicted to a substance, a beverage, or a way of “doing life” that ended up harming them and/or their loved ones and future. But millions of people have ended up hooked on habits that no longer serve them (and perhaps, in hindsight, never did).

With that cancer diagnosis, I went on a health kick and on a quest that extinguished the older, unhelpful habits along the way. With only so many hours in each given day, and what I considered, at the time, to be a temporary reprieve from undergoing surgery while I researched other healing modalities, a whole new world opened up to me. A world in which I was no longer a victim or a victimizer (both learned at my parents’ knees) but a victor. With each new sage, guru, shaman, and teacher I met, I developed new habits to support my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing. My body literally healed itself, as all bodies are designed to do when we stop bombarding them with unhelpful habits and harmful thoughts. And as a result, I discovered my true calling (Spirit never wastes a wound): sharing ways to overcome unhelpful mindsets that deliver the exact opposite of what everyone wants to happen to them and their loved ones! Healing is an inside job and developing helpful habits is a crucial step in the process.

Healthy Habits

My Recipe for Developing Better Habits

Healthy Habits
  1. This month, replace one unhelpful habit with a helpful one.

    If you’re spending more than 30 minutes a day on social media or playing Solitaire or another relaxing-but-irrelevant video game, choose another helpful habit and divert and dedicate the excess time to developing it. Example: If you’re sedentary, devote the excess time to taking a mindful walk. Ideally, choose a nature trail, a city park, or some other place where you can see and hear birds and animals. Or, if children are a special delight, visit a playground in a city park. This new activity should have no responsibilities attached to it. Make this your time to simply walk, sit, and appreciate the value of creating a healthier, but equally enjoyable (“addictive”-worthy!) habit.
  1. Next month, replace another unhelpful habit with a more helpful one.

    If you feel you’re addicted to watching too much TV, divert and dedicate at least half of the time you spend doing that listening to a soothing music station (ideally instrumental). Doing so will give your brain a chance to recalibrate and relax. Although our brains are designed to think and to seek pleasurable activities, they don’t benefit from a too-constant drumbeat of pursuit. Too much action/adventure or adrenaline-pumping entertainment can create an imbalance. Give your brain a break!
Healthy Habits
Healthy Habits
  1. The following month, replace another unhelpful habit with a creative new hobby or undertaking.

    Learn to knit, read a book, play pickleball, speak a new language, or go swimming during the time you would otherwise spend on the unhelpful habit. Write that memoir. Send that letter. Do something you feel really great about.
  1. Repeat, as above, as many times as necessary, each time replacing an unhelpful habit with one that feeds your spirit or advances you in the direction you want to go.

    You do have the time; it’s just a matter of incorporating a more helpful pursuit, using the same hours. Simply establish focused intent and then Make It So!
Healthy Habits

When you’ve conquered your small handful of time-consuming unhelpful habits, you’ll find you’ve freed up ample time (and energy!) to seek and attain the goals that you’re more interested in achieving.

Yard by yard, life is hard.
Inch by inch, life’s a cinch.

It is sometimes the smallest of things that are the hardest to change. And we all need a helping hand sometimes. And that is exactly what our community here at the Deborah King Center provides. And at the highest echelons of our programs, the changes people make in their lives are nothing short of life-changing. Want to learn more about it? Click here to attend our free annual Open House to learn about the transformations that can be in store for you >>

Feng shui your home

How to Upgrade the Energy in Your Home

by Energy MedicineFeaturedSelf Love
Feng shui your home

“Energy efficiency” is a hot topic these days. With the Inflation Recovery Act of 2022 now in place, there are government incentive programs to help homeowners, renters, and businesses upgrade to more energy efficient abodes.

As exciting and timely as the above information is, this post isn’t about that kind of energy upgrade.

There is another energy upgrade which I consider equally — and ultimately, even more — crucial.

Feng shui your home

The kind of energy upgrade I’m referring to is the enormous, uplifting, endlessly creative, and divine universal energy that is available to each of us. Unfortunately, it all too often becomes unavailable or anemic because of stress, trauma, illness, and other hard knocks we received during our childhood and later, and even before, during earlier incarnations.

Far too many folks feel chronically overwhelmed, anxious, and fatigued. Others feel apathetic and depressed. These are all signs of blocked chakras; that is, the pinching off of one or more of the seven energy transfer stations that exist in levels between the bottom of our spine and the top of our head. Unbottling these bottlenecks takes time and intention. Meditation and mindfulness are two ways to unblock chakras.

But another proactive way to jumpstart recovery from blocked chakras is setting an intention to de-clutter your home and every other place where you spend considerable time.

Home Sweet Home

Your home is a direct extension of your energy field. Where is it pinching you? In which room(s) does your lifeforce energy feel absent or anemic? In which room(s) does it feel free to soar?

Is there discomfort-causing clutter in any of the rooms in your home? If there is, simply acknowledge what the clutter does to your mind, body and spirit every time you enter those spaces, and do whatever it takes to remedy your discomfort.

Feng shui your home

Are there closets in your home with unused clothing and/or other seldom-used items occupying most of the space?

What kind of internal energy emanates when you enter your kitchen, bathroom, living room, den, or bedroom?

How long has it been since you rearranged your existing furniture, or repainted a few of your walls, or done something else to creatively express your gratitude for the space that qualifies as your sanctuary?

What can you donate, sell, or dispose of in some other way that will open up your available space to make room for more energy and joy in your life?

By mindfully analyzing how you feel inside each room of your home and making prudent, spirit-lifting adjustments, you can access more of the universal energy that is available to improve your mental, spiritual, and emotional wellbeing.

Feng shui your home

Den/Office

About 40% of working people are working from home these days, the rest commute to offices on foot, on bike, via some transit system, or in a personal vehicle. But either way, whether you’re an employee, an entrepreneur, or an executive, you spend many (if not most) of your waking hours in a space that has the potential to numb your spirit or to nurture it. Naturally, I endorse nurturing it!

If your space is your own, consider Sthapatya Veda, that ancient system of Vedic knowledge that involves the connection between people and buildings. Similar to Feng Shui, these teachings from the Vedas hold that the design of a structure has an effect on our energy; if the design of the building is in harmony with the laws of nature, it will promote positive energy to those of us inside of it.

Also consider that minimalism and vibrant but relaxing colors will make you more peaceful. If you don’t have much say in your surroundings at work, bring to your work space a few personal items that elicit smiles and a sense of aliveness inside you.

Make Being Delightfully Present a Daily Pursuit

Our thoughts orchestrate our moods and attitudes. But our thoughts are not things; they are projections. Think of your mind as a movie screen that reveals in Technicolor the thoughts you’re having. Does your movie have a happy ending? If not, write a better storyline! You have the ability to influence the movies in your head to work for you. When you do this, universal energy gets freed up inside you to help you get where you want to go.

Always remember that you are not your thoughts. Your thoughts are less real than passing clouds, but they do (absolutely!) dictate how your body will react, so they can send you to the gallows or send your spirit and intentions soaring into the stratosphere.

Feng shui your home

Additional energy restorers include exposure to sunlight (remember your sunscreen!), enjoyable movement (fun exercises, gardening, sex 🙂 , laughter (the more, the better!) , gratitude, nature walks or sitting in nature, self-care (hydration, nourishing foods, meditation, all of the above!) journaling, creativity, healthy, sane boundaries, adequate sleep, and friendly, encouraging, supportive connections.

How many can you add to your repertoire of energy boosters? Most cost nothing but intention and a time commitment.

Feng shui your home

Henry Ford was right when he said, “Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” Your thoughts dictate the energy you’ll have access to as you sail in the direction of your goals. And since you’re a member of my tribe, I have every confidence that you will choose wisely!

The best way to control your thoughts, and thus control your life, is to practice meditation. But not just any form of meditation, Vedic Meditation is the best form I’ve discovered for truly creating the life of your dreams. And if learning this form of meditation is of interest to you, you can access my bestselling course by clicking here >>

If you want to take things one step further, you can join an incredible, supportive community of like-minded healers and truth seekers for a year-long journey that will help you cleanse everything from your thoughts, to your physical space, to your emotions and energy field. The next year of our most transformative program is starting soon. And you can learn all about it in our upcoming FREE Open House by registering here >>

2023-HaraLineBlog-featured

Hara line: The blueprints of your life’s purpose

by ChakrasEnergy HealingFeatured

You, my friend, have been born countless times. And you will continue to be born countless times. Each time you arrive on Earth, you are here to learn deeply personal lessons that will help you on your path to enlightenment.

Whether you choose to learn some or all or none of those lessons is entirely up to you. That is your freewill.

But where do those lessons come from? Who plans out these lessons? You do! Between reincarnations, your souls plot out your lessons and hopes for your life, imbuing them into your Hara line, for when you make the great trip back to Earth.

But sometimes it’s difficult to see that blueprint, isn’t it? It’s not like you have a physical checklist of your lessons that you need to walk through. Instead, it’s imbued into your energy field, and tapping into that energy field isn’t necessarily easy to do.

That’s what I want to teach about today. Today, I’d like to teach you about the Hara line, and how you can align it to ensure you’re accessing your life’s purpose.

The Hara line is an invisible line that runs through your body, just one level energetically below your human energy field. It starts down near the base of your spine, around 2 inches from your navel, and runs in tandem along with your spine upward to the top of your head, reaching higher and further into Source.

It’s parallel to your chakras, but at a level deeper. This deeper level is all about intentionality and purpose, as opposed to the chakras, which control your physical and spiritual health.

When your Hara line is in alignment, you have a direct connection to Source, allowing you to seamlessly ascertain your higher purpose – those blueprints that your soul worked so hard on in between your reincarnations.

So, if you’re feeling confused, if you don’t know what your purpose is, if you’ve been asking, “what do I need to do with my life?” — you may have a distortion in your Hara line.

If you’re feeling stuck, or unable to comprehend the reason that you’ve been placed on this Earth, then I encourage you to watch this video. Everyone has a purpose. Everyone has a reason for being here. Realigning your Hara lines allows you to understand that purpose. Understanding is a gift, one that will fill you with renewed happiness and fulfillment.

So, let’s straighten out that Hara line. Follow along with me in this brief video where I show you a simple way to align your Hara line, allowing you to access that amazing source of purpose.

Join me now

If aligning your Hara line proved positive for you, then I encourage you to join me at our Open House where you can get an unprecedented look behind the scenes of my LifeForce Energy Healing advanced program. Our Open House will help connect you with fellow healers, learners, and your higher self – presenting you with sacred insight and wisdom that I know you’ll want to receive.

Join our Open House. Wednesday, June 14th, 2023 at 2pm Pacific.

Hope to see you there!

2023-SoundHealingBlog-featured

Sound Healing Methods: 7 Ways to Raise Your Vibration

by Energy HealingFeaturedSound Therapy

Sound is one of the most powerful healing modalities in energy medicine; not only does it have the capability to help you reach your core frequency, but it also connects you to your higher energies (and, thus, Source). One of the best things about the many different sound healing methods available is that you don’t need to be a natural musician or have special training — all you need is your voice and a few basics about sound therapy. The key to using sound successfully is finding the particular technique that will help you achieve your healing goals.

If you were to ask 20 different people to describe the concept of sound, you’ll likely receive 20 very different answers. For example, someone who enjoys going to live rock and roll music performances may describe the emotional side of sound because of a musician(s) ability to communicate strong feelings with the audience by singing a verse or playing a guitar riff; another person may enjoy live music and find it emotionally powerful, but describe sound it in a completely different manner as they prefer the sweet sound of a violin playing a classical concerto.

Despite being extremely subjective, the healing capabilities of sound are universal. Sound not only helps you relax (and therefore decreases your stress levels), but it also can move through any energetic blockages you may be experiencing — including some physical blockages! If you, or someone you know, has ever tried to pass a kidney stone you are aware that it is an extremely painful ordeal (I’ve heard women say it makes childbirth feel like a walk in the park). When the stone is too large to be passed out of the body, doctors utilize a procedure called lithotripsy that uses sound waves to literally shatter the kidney stone into smaller pieces that can then be passed more easily.

While the application of sound in modern medical procedures is groundbreaking, we often forget about the tried-and-true ancient sound healing wisdom that our ancestors have been using for thousands of years. After all, the ultimate goal of sound healing is to reach a place of oneness, where pain and darkness are absent and there are only peace and love. Before I dive into the exciting world of sound therapy and the many different methods you can use to heal, it’s important that you experiment with each method (even if you are drawn to one particular practice over another); just like sound itself is subjective, each of these healing methods have individual strengths that you may find useful in different situations.

Sound healing techniques and exercises to help you fine-tune your vibrational frequency:

  1. Achieve Balance with Voice Toning Exercises

Your own voice is a powerful healing tool for shifting your mental, emotional, and spiritual processes. Toning is the sound of your vibrating breath—a sustained single tone, with no words, no melody or harmony, and no rhythm. It often uses the sound of Om, which is said to be the very first vibration that became sound. It represents the union of body, mind, and spirit all in one. The “oh” part of Om vibrates at the level of your solar plexus chakra, thus helping you resolve issues around your identity and purpose, while also boosting your self-confidence. The “mm” part of Om is like humming with your lips closed and is the most powerful sound for bringing you into harmony with Source.

Try it now.

Ommmm…

Incorporating toning into your sound healing toolkit will help you breathe more deeply, giving your body and organs more oxygen, and opening your energy flow — so you stay healthy and can live a long, peaceful life. When you do this toning exercise (or sing or chant), it doesn’t just help you — the sound frequencies that pass through your lips go out into the world and lift up your family, friends, coworkers, and all of humanity!

  1. Connect with Source by Chanting

Chanting is the rhythmic singing of sounds or words, and it is commonly used as a spiritual practice. While certain types of chanting can be highly complex (such as the great responsorial and offertories of Gregorian chant in the Catholic tradition), it can also be straightforward (as kirtan from India). There are chants in African, Hawaiian, and Native American cultures as well as Vedic chants, Qur’an readings, Baha’i chants, Buddhist chants, chanting mantras, and psalms or prayers in Christian churches.

Kirtan — which is call-and-response chanting — is part of India’s devotional tradition called bhakti. The names of God or mantras are chanted to the accompaniment of the harmonium, tablas and other drums, and hand cymbals. It was Paramahansa Yogananda who originally introduced kirtan to the West in April 1926 — to a group of over three thousand people who joined together at New York City’s Carnegie Hall to chant Guru Nanak’s “O’ God Beautiful” together.

Yogananda wrote, “Sound or vibration is the most powerful force in the universe. Music is a divine art, to be used not only for pleasure but also as a path to God-realization. Vibrations resulting from devotional singing lead to attunement with the Cosmic Vibration or the Word.”

Many people feel silly or embarrassed when chanting, but I hope you’ll give it a try at least once and see if it’s the right sound healing method for you. We often engage in kirtan at our retreats; check out our retreat schedule here, and come to the next one, in person or by stream!

  1. Chakra Sound Frequencies for Healing

Consistent sounds, especially pure vowel sounds, relate directly to the unwavering energy of Source. A mantra is a word or a phrase that is repeated frequently.

For example, if you kept repeating the seed syllable of Om, you would be doing a mantra. When you are repeating a syllable, word, or phrase, you “hear” its sound and sustain that sound silently in your head. The mantra vibrates throughout your body, mind, and emotions. Repeating a mantra can help you cope with post-traumatic stress disorder, help you chill out if you’re in a traffic jam, and accompany you on hikes or during your time at the gym. If you don’t already have a personal mantra for use in meditation, consider enrolling in my Vedic Meditation™ course and I’ll give you your own personal mantra to use in your sound healing exercises.

While mantras work on your whole being, sound healing for the chakras is called chakra tuning. Ancient Egyptian priests used vowel sounds to resonate with chakras, while Aboriginals from Australia and shamans in Native American traditions use toning and repetitive sounds in ceremonies to correct imbalances in the human energy field.

From a physical perspective, the simple act of chanting “om” or “aum” actually causes the release of melatonin, endorphins, and nitric oxide, relaxing your blood vessels, reducing your heart rate, and slowing your breathing. The result? A calmer, more relaxed you, courtesy of sound!

  1. Sound Healing Instrument: Singing Bowls

There are two main types of singing bowls: Tibetan singing bowls (good ones are made of bell-metal bronze, a combination of copper and tin, while cheap ones are brass and have lots of impurities) and crystal bowls made of quartz crystal. Tibetan bowls are most frequently used to sound a tone at the beginning and end of a meditation session. The sound of these bowls brings a deep sense of relaxation and opens your chakras. Singing bowls were traditionally used in Asia, and the history of making sound with bronze bowls may even go back thousands of years to the Bronze Age.

You produce sound from the bowls by using a mallet moved around the outer side of the bowl’s rim, much the same way as when you run a wet finger around the rim of a glass to make it sing. The sides and rim vibrate, creating a sound that has a basic frequency and several harmonic overtones. The sound waves released by both types of singing bowls emit a pure radiant sound that reaches up to the Divine. These pure tones create a vibrational sound field that resonates with and reharmonizes the chakras and the parts of the body associated with those chakras.

Healing through sound combined with the power of crystal possibly goes as far back as the legendary land of Atlantis. Even today crystal singing bowls are sometimes referred to as Atlantean bowls. Crystal magnifies and transmits pure tone. It’s one of the reasons quartz crystal is an integral part of telecommunications.

Crystal bowls are similar to robust radio transmitters, sending energy out into the atmosphere. The pure tones can activate the brain waves that send you into an advanced state of consciousness and can affect different areas of the brain, releasing hormones and neurochemicals that can lessen pain, overcome addictive tendencies, boost willpower, and pump up creativity.

You can find singing bowls on Etsy, certain bookstores, or health and wellness boutiques (including some yoga studios).

  1. The Healing Sounds of Tingsha

Tingsha is a type of cymbal used in Tibetan Buddhist prayers and rituals. In some rituals, the cymbals are used to summon the “hungry ghosts” so they can be “fed” vibrationally. Hungry ghosts are not generic ghosts, like the spirit of your dead Aunt Millie, but ravenous spirit beings with tiny mouths and enormous bellies who represent those with emotional needs that have not been met. Old legends say that hungry ghosts were greedy women in previous lifetimes who never gave away any food. Calling the hungry ghosts and then offering them food, incense, or even a prayer lessens their suffering. In the bodhisattva tradition, enlightenment is only possible after all suffering has been eliminated for all beings.

Shamans use tingsha to clear the environment of any negative or disturbing energies and to bring auric fields into harmony. They are used in meditation and sound healing in much the same way as singing bowls. Generally, tingsha cymbals awaken and initiate healing on all levels and are said to generate an opening in physical, mental, and spiritual reality.

To produce a clear, harmonic sound, suspend each cymbal by its cord, holding it firmly where the string enters the hole on each tingsha. Strike the edges of the tingsha together, usually once, by angling one cymbal at about 90 degrees to the other. Let the tingsha sound until they become silent.

  1. Sound Healing Instrument: Tuning Forks

You may think of the tuning forks that are used to tune a piano, but there other types of tuning forks that can tune your body. All your organs, glands, and cells vibrate at their own specific frequencies, and these frequencies correspond with musical notes. There are twelve keynotes in the human body, and all the parts of If your heart is healthy, it will vibrate at the note of F.

If you think of your body as an orchestra, your various body parts are all musical instruments playing at their own frequency or pitch. If you are healthy, your body will play a harmonious tune. If your body parts are discordant, you can use certain tuning forks to bring your body into alignment. When the right tuning fork is put near the organ or the chakra that is not in harmony, the sound waves will raise the vibration or pitch of that area. Tuning forks clear energetic blockages in the meridians in a similar way to acupuncture.

There are many different types of tuning forks. Classical tuning forks, the ones you’d use to tune your piano, are based on a piano’s chromatic scale. Then there are custom-made tuning forks that correspond with the twelve major organs in traditional Chinese medicine, as French musician and acupuncturist Fabien Maman, called the father of vibrational sound healing, discovered in the 1970s. He found that the pitch and timbre of musical notes had the ability to affect a cell’s shape, color, and energy. If you can tune in to the “fundamental note” of the cell, your energy field will come into harmony.

Certain tuning forks are tuned to the frequencies and musical intervals of heavenly bodies—the sun, the moon, and the planets. Other tuning forks address specific ailments and illnesses. Some tuning forks make a high-pitched delicate sound that can open you up to the angelic kingdom. Chakra tuning forks are a set of seven forks tuned to the frequencies of the seven chakras. Standard tuning forks are used for toning, releasing energy blockages, and clearing chakras or auras. Weighted tuning forks have a much stronger vibration and stay at their frequency for a longer period of time, so it is easier to feel their vibration. They work well for acupuncture-type treatments and muscle relaxation, and can provide immediate pain relief.

A very simple way of using a tuning fork is to strike it, which sends out strong vibrations through the air, and place it near the part of the body you want to heal or in the area of the chakra to energize it. Tuning forks can help provide a deep relaxation and relief from stress, promote mental clarity and concentration, increase physical energy, integrate the left and right brain, and bring the nervous system into balance.

  1. Healing Rhythms and Drumming Therapy Exercises

One of the oldest methods of sound healing is shamanic drumming, which a shaman can use to facilitate communication between a patient and the spirit world. Drumming is also a shamanic technique for journeying, shape-shifting, and divination. The shaman listens intently to find just the right sound and uses certain repetitive rhythms to summon forth the guiding spirits.

The Greek definition of rhythm is “to flow.” Various rhythms convey different meanings, while volume and tempo affect the emotional body. The sound and rhythm of the drum create the bridge that allows you to flow into the world of spirit. Before a ceremony or ritual, the shaman will hold the drumhead over a fire, heating it until the drum is at the pitch the shaman wants to use.

The sound waves coming from the drum energize the systems of body, mind, and spirit and make them vibrate in harmony.

Drumming has been shown in studies to have a positive effect on those with Alzheimer’s disease, depression, cancer, stress, and Parkinson’s disease, as well as those with chronic pain.10 For example, neurologist Barry Bittman’s study on group drumming therapy showed it could increase cancer-killing cells in the body. Psychologist Robin Dunbar at the University of Oxford showed that drumming could release endorphins and decrease pain. Drumming can treat anxiety and stress, sleep issues, fatigue, high blood pressure, chronic pain, emotional disorders, and much more, as well as boost the immune system and deepen self-awareness. Drumming allows us to resonate with the natural rhythms of life.

Of course, other instruments can also be used for sound healing. There’s a very old, amusing story about using an instrument to find your perfect note, and it goes like this: In a faraway country, a man played all day on a musical instrument. This instrument had many strings, but he just sat and plucked one string over and over again. His wife said, “Dear, you have this wonderful instrument, yet all you do is play that one string over and over. All your friends have this same instrument, but they play all the strings and create beautiful melodies and songs. Why do you play only that one note?” The man smiled at his dear wife. He said, “Thank you for bringing that to my attention, and here is your answer: the others are busily searching to find their note, but I have already found mine.”

Learn more about sound healing

We will be offering a very special Sound Healing learning and experiential session at our upcoming retreat in Ft Lauderdale this September 29 – Oct 1, 2023. Come join us for this and so much more at a once-in-a-lifetime experience on the beautiful shores of Ft. Lauderdale. Learn more by clicking here >>

Your Souls Plan

Awakening Your Soul’s Plan

by Energy MedicineFeaturedMeditationSelf Love
Your Souls Plan

The Upanishads, which complete the Vedas, are among the most beautiful and influential spiritual texts in the world. The poems contained within seek to understand the meaning of life, the law of karma, and the pathway to enlightenment.

The Upanishads speak of three different types of self: the external self (Bahya-atma), the inner self (Antar-atma), and Param-atma (the highest self or Purusha). When we attain Purusha, we become one with the soul of the universe and finally transcend the cycle of reincarnation. Our ultimate purpose has been fulfilled as we finally reach the eternal bliss of Sat-cit-ānanda, unchanging truth, bliss, and consciousness.

Yet while enlightenment is our eventual destiny, the law of karma ensures that we each have a different road to travel through the cycle of samsāra. Each incarnation on this Earth gives you opportunities to cleanse your karma and learn the lessons you need to move forward on your spiritual path. Though you may not consciously remember it right now, your soul made a plan for you before you were incarnated in this lifetime. When you connect with your soul’s plan, you begin to live authentically and in harmony with your life purpose.

Your Souls Plan

Are You Fulfilled?

The idea of a soul plan might seem like a luxury in this busy and stressful world we live in. Yet I believe that it is only when you awaken your soul’s plan that you can really begin to live the full life that is your birthright as a divine being. To be in alignment with your soul’s plan is to have clarity of purpose and an inner strength that can meet challenges with confidence. Life will continue to happen to you, as it does to everyone, in all its joy and sadness, but knowing your soul’s plan keeps you moving forward on your personal journey.

Many students who come to me for energy healing do so because they feel restless, dissatisfied, or stuck. Life does not seem to have any real meaning or color. I often see clients who feel that time is “running out” and that the window for living a full life is closing rapidly. Regret and fear are two emotions that signal to me that a student or client is out of alignment with their soul’s plan. They have paid far too much attention to what society thinks they should want than to their own inner wisdom and truth.

Activating Your Soul’s Plan

If you have consistently felt bored, irritated, uninspired, or regretful for a long period of time, I encourage you to look within and see if you are in alignment with your soul’s plan. This is a time to be gentle with yourself and to stop piling on the guilt. All of us are connected to webs of people—our family, friends, and co-workers—who have strong ideas about how we should be living. It takes courage to reconsider these “rules” and take a step toward authenticity.

Your Souls Plan

I cannot promise doing so will be easy, but I can say with confidence that as you start to connect to your true self, the way forward becomes clearer. When you get out of your own way—and stop trying to force yourself into a suit that does not fit—your energy vibrations shift to a higher plane and obsessive thoughts and recriminations start to drop away. You learn to trust yourself.

Here are three steps that you can begin today to start clearing energy blockages and connect to your soul’s plan:

Your Souls Plan

  1. Cleanse Your Sixth Chakra

     The sixth chakra is also known as the third eye chakra. It is in the center of the forehead and in line with the eyebrows. Known in Sanskrit as Ajna, this chakra rules imagination, intuition, and self-realization. When you work with an energy healer to cleanse the sixth chakra, the door to your higher self opens. Imagine entering a library wherein the blueprints for your soul’s plan are waiting for you, bathed in a clear, illuminating light. This is the power of a healthy third eye chakra.

  1. Be Open

     To activate your soul’s plan, you must learn to trust yourself. Change can be risky, and you should not be pressured into doing something “different” just for the sake of it. But, usually, to live in true alignment with our soul’s plan means that we need to be open to new ideas and possibilities that may seem odd, at first, to the part of us that is used to playing by the rules. Often, you may find that even among the people who love you most, you need to give these new ideas time to percolate before you announce them to the world. There is no need to rush. You are allowed to take the time you need to build a bigger and more fulfilling life.
Your Souls Plan
Your Souls Plan

  1. Meditate

     


    As a teacher, it always amazes me how easy it is to be led off-track by the voices of others and so hard to listen to our inner wisdom. We often let the noise of opinions and belief systems and social pressure steer us away from what we know to be right. Over time, you cannot happily live someone else’s life. Meditation unlocks your soul’s plan by allowing you to tune-in to the quiet, still voice within that speaks for the real you. In the beautiful words of the teacher Ma Jaya Sati Bhagavati, “Quiet the mind, and the soul will speak.”

If you would like to learn more about how to release energy blockages and awaken your soul’s plan, please join me for my new online course hosted by the Shift Network, Decode Ancient Vedic Face Reading & Energetic Body Types to Heal Childhood Trauma, which begins Thursday, May 18, 2023.

Space will be limited, so you’ll want to reserve your spot as soon as you can.

You can do that by clicking here >>

Living Authentic Life

Living Your Authentic Life: The Power of Energy Healing

by Energy MedicineFeatured
Living Authentic Life

Who are you? As an energy healer, I often find that this is one of the hardest questions for new clients to answer. Most people respond with their job title or relationship status, or talk about their family roles (such as mother, sister, son, brother, or grandparent). These are all important identities in our day-to-day lives, but when the goal is spiritual transformation, I am asking for an answer that goes much deeper.

When I ask this question, I want to connect with your authentic self. Deep down inside, I think many of us know intuitively that we are not in sync with the life we were meant to live. There are so many ways in which our responsibilities and fears and egos pull us away from our inner essence. Over time, we lose contact with the inner self that was born into this lifetime for karmic reasons that go far beyond what we see on the surface. Few of us ever show this true self to the world.

This is my invitation to you to awaken your authentic self and nurture the spiritual light you have within. As you begin to heal, so, too, does the world.

Living Authentic Life

Seeing Behind the Mask

Many of my students are surprised when I tell them that they are living dishonestly. Reactions range from sadness to anger, yet my point is not criticism but compassion. We cannot connect with our authentic selves until we have the courage to take off our masks.

And I am here to tell you – those things are hard to get rid of! The masks we show to others began as a very early attempt to shield ourselves from trauma and pain. In our attempts to protect ourselves, however, we soon lost sight of who we really are. Reconnecting to that authentic self takes hard work and courage, but it can transform your life.

Cleansing the Throat Chakra

As an energy healer, I work to cleanse my client’s energy field so that he or she can release psychic injuries, express true feelings, and fully accept themselves. Much of this effort focuses on the seven chakras, each of which are governed by the spiritual laws of the universe and divine consciousness.

Living Authentic Life

When the fifth or throat chakra—which rules communication—is blocked, the truth becomes distorted, and we hide our true feelings even from ourselves. Clearing the throat chakra opens a channel to authentic expression. The mask behind which we have been hiding begins to dissolve and our radiant inner light shines through for the very first time.

If you grew up in a house of secrets, or if you were ridiculed and shamed for expressing your thoughts and emotions, you have throat chakra issues that prevent your real self from being heard. The process of cleansing your fifth chakra activates your inner light and allows you to examine your life choices, clarify your values and beliefs, and awaken to your life’s purpose.

Seeing Yourself Clearly

Cleansing the throat chakra is a powerful way to cultivate authenticity. Finding a spiritual teacher experienced in the Ayurvedic system and the mind-body connection is a positive step in this direction.

There are three additional steps that I believe can be very beneficial to your spiritual transformation from a place of fear to one of hope and authenticity:

Living Authentic Life
  1. Cut the lies
    That sounds a bit harsh, doesn’t it? Yet I say this with the utmost compassion and a personal understanding of how hard it can be to face the truth: allowing yourself to live with lies is virtually guaranteed to make you sick, both mentally and physically.

You must let those lies go. Now, this does not mean you want to confront every single person you know with The Truth. Telling someone that their haircut is awful or their taste in music is bad is just mean. I am talking about the big lies—about yourself, your relationships, your family system, or your job. When you stop participating in the toxicity—and I highly recommend working with a healer during this process—you find inner sanctuary.

  1. Say hello to the real you
    So many of the things we think we believe are there just because someone else put them there. As you create a space for your truest self to emerge, you will want to reconsider what to keep and what to discard. What are your values? Do you have a clear awareness of your strengths and weaknesses, light and shadow sides? What spiritual traditions resonate with you and what kind of life do you want to lead? When you turn inwards, and stay with these questions through contemplation, journaling, and meditation, you will find that connecting to your true self becomes easier and more joyous.
Living Authentic Life
Living Authentic Life
  1. Examine your choices
    As human beings, most of us naturally want to please the people that are important to us. We want to be successful, attractive, and accomplished in their eyes. We want to be seen as good people who do the right thing and conform to the norms of our respective societies.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this, but it is essential to examine your choices (probably more than once in this lifetime!) and ensure that the path you are on is going to get you where you want to go. When you travel someone else’s journey, or cling to old ways of doing things just because you do not want to make anyone uncomfortable, you are shutting yourself off from personal authenticity.

In the beautiful words of The Buddha, “Meditate. Live purely. Be quiet. Do your work with mastery. Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds! Shine.”

When you look within, cleanse your energy field, examine your choices, and reject the toxic lies of yourself and others, I believe your authentic self will step out from the shadows into the light and shine, beautifully.

If you would like to learn more about how to release energy blockages and become your authentic self, please join me for my new online course hosted by the Shift Network, Decode Ancient Vedic Face Reading & Energetic Body Types to Heal Childhood Trauma, which begins on Thursday, May 18, 2023.

Space will be limited, so you’ll want to reserve your spot as
soon as you can.

You can do that by clicking here >>

Become an Energy Healer

Becoming an Energy Healer: Do You Feel the Call?

by Energy MedicineFeaturedSelf Love

The world seems to be in a state of constant crisis. Between wars, pandemics, political unrest, job insecurity, and environmental trauma, the toll on our bodies and spirits is profound.

Environmentally, culturally, and spiritually, we know that there is real pain in the world today. It is easy to give in to the forces of darkness and cynicism. There is much work that must be done to heal our planet and many people are crying out for positive and uplifting solutions to their individual and shared trauma.

Become an Energy Healer

More than ever, our world needs people who want to be of service to others. The power of energy medicine not only heals us as individuals but enables us to bring light and compassion to those in need of spiritual transformation. As energy healers, we learn to help others open the door to their higher selves.

Positive change begins with you

One of my esteemed teachers, may she rest in peace, Louise Hay, often liked to say, “The power is within you!” I passionately believe this. Every time an individual chooses kindness and love over division and hate, the world begins to heal.

Do you sense that you have intuitive gifts that could be cultivated to help others find their spiritual path? Are you drawn to the light of spiritual transformation? If so, I invite you to consider becoming an energy healer.

My own journey with energy healing has taken me to many countries and I have learned from sages and shamans around the world. In my mid-twenties, I found myself adrift as the hard-charging life as a lawyer I had been living ground to halt. I knew there had to be something more to life and within me than constant struggle and pain.

Become an Energy Healer

When I chose the path of energy healing, I connected to my authentic self and aligned with my soul’s true purpose. Could this be your destiny, as well? If you feel a yearning to awaken your inner light and nurture others, then I think you may have your answer. Your higher self is calling you to help create peace in the world.

Here are three ways you can begin to shift to a higher energy frequency and activate the gift of healing that is within you:

Become an Energy Healer
  1. See Yourself Clearly and Awaken Your Higher Self
    Over three thousand years ago, ancient Egyptians inscribed the instruction to “know thyself” above the entrance to the Temple of Luxor in Ancient Kemet. Thales of Miletus, in the sixth century BCE, believed that self-knowledge was the key to enlightenment, while the Upanishads advise Atmanam viddhi, “know thyself and be free.”

This wisdom reverberates across the millennia to us today. A true energy healer must first see himself or herself clearly. The spiritual practices of meditation, journaling, prayer, and devotion can assist you to clear away trauma and ego so that you can stand in the clear light of your divine essence and gifts.

  1. Compassion for Others Begins with Compassion for Yourself
    So many of my students first come to me convinced that they are ready to change. They are “high” on the prospect of moving forward and want to see results immediately.
Become an Energy Healer

Yet with just a bit of digging, we soon find energy blockages that are holding them back from the full life they are meant to lead. When we begin to address these lower vibrations, blockages, and trauma, emotions start to tumble out with the force of those flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz.

Anger turned inward is one of the most toxic emotions that I deal with as an energy healer. When you release self-hatred, and forgive your mistakes, you open a channel to universal love and compassion. You also create a space within which your inner gifts can reveal themselves and thrive.

As Buddha tells us, “Every experience, no matter how bad it seems, holds within it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it.” To see yourself with compassion is to understand and to forgive; and, when you forgive, you begin to change.

Become an Energy Healer
  1. Cultivate your connection to Source Source is the primordial origin of unconditional love, compassion, and the healing light of the universe. When you cultivate your connection to Source, as you understand it, you become a vehicle for the spiritual transformation of both yourself and others. Your life’s purpose is revealed, and your divine essence is awakened.

We each have healing gifts that can be cultivated to empower ourselves and others. I would love to collaborate with you to activate your inner healer.

Please join me for a FREE event that I will be hosting in partnership with The Shift Network this Thursday, April 27, 2023 at 8:30pm EDT / 5:30pm PDT.

Space will be limited, so you’ll want to reserve your spot as soon as you can.

You can do that by clicking here >>

Vedic Face Reading
Lucid Dreaming

The Power of Lucid Dreaming

by Astral ProjectionEnergy MedicineFeatured
Lucid Dreaming

Today let’s talk about the power of lucid dreaming — it is such a powerful tool when it comes to activating our intuition. Some of you may be lucid dreaming already, even if you aren’t familiar with the term. But even if the idea is foreign to you right now, it’s possible to learn how to step into your dreams, change your story, and orchestrate your destiny, right here and right now.

Lucid Dreaming

First, what is it: lucid dreaming happens while you’re asleep but aware that you’re having a dream. You fully realize that your conscious mind is hovering over your dreamscape, and that you can think, act, and change the things that happen in your dream to get an improved outcome.

Learning how to lucid dream can take time, but once you know how to do it, you may well find that your creativity — even during the day when you’re wide awake — starts flowing more easily. You may also feel an arising sense of calm permeating your soul.

Anyone can benefit from opening this pathway to greater awareness and self-knowledge. What happens is that when you have a lucid dream, you become the director of your subconscious.

You are familiar, I bet, with daydreams. During a daydream, your mind flies off to some imagined place and you engage with it as if it as if it’s actually happening. Daydreaming is a lot like immersing yourself in an unfolding movie. It’s an act of imagination while you’re fully conscious but you become unaware of your present surroundings.

Lucid Dreaming

You can get lost in a daydream. Some people live their lives there, content to imagine wonderful things rather than taking real steps to make them happen. “Get your head out of the clouds and your feet back on the ground,” is something a lot of daydreamers heard as kids.

Daydreaming begins with a compelling thought, memory, or fantasy. From there, the daydreamer’s imagination takes flight. The longer the daydream, the deeper the dreamer becomes immersed in his or her private fantasy land.

People who daydream a lot generally find it easier to become lucid dreamers. That’s because daydreaming is a lot like practicing lucid dreaming while awake. In fact, visualization is one aspect of a robust lucid dreaming practice.

Lucid Dreaming

When you experience lucid dreaming, you can confront challenges, fears, and hang-ups to become happier in your own skin. Lucid dreaming has the power to release repressed memories and even cleanse bad karma. This is one of the reasons that the Vedic sages were so keen to develop their lucid dreaming abilities.

So, let’s start our journey through lucid dreaming with the Vedic sages, who have practiced the discipline for thousands of years. The Upanishads describe four states of consciousness. The first three are waking (jagrat), dreaming (svapna), and sleeping (suṣupti). Dreaming (svapna), resonates most closely with our Western notion of the subconscious. In Vedic philosophy, both dreaming and sleeping are considered more important, in a spiritual sense, than waking (jagrat).

While dreaming, a sleeping person frequently is required to acknowledge the vibrations emitted by past deeds and karma. Psychic unrest, events of the day, and other intense experiences may also give rise to dreams. Generally, good dreams correspond to dharma, the path of rightness, while bad dreams are adharma, that which is evil or wrong. In Vedic culture, extending from ancient times, the world itself, or what we all think of as reality, is an illusion—that is, nothing but a dream—made by the God Vishnu.

The fourth state is pure consciousness, called Turiya, which is reachable through meditation and good works. To reach pure consciousness is to truly understand the infinite and to cease from suffering and reincarnation. Turiya exists beyond dreams and beyond time.

Every culture has tried to understand the meaning of dreams so they could trigger their power to change mindsets, perceived limitations, and unhelpful life trajectories. Tibetan Buddhist monks, for example, practice Dream Yoga to strengthen their mind’s ability to detach from their bodies and move fearlessly through their dreams as active participants.

Lucid Dreaming

Ancient aboriginal cultures throughout the world have embraced the spiritual and divinatory power of dreams, too. Many of you may be familiar with dream catchers, the traditional Native American artifact that catches bad dreams and allows good dreams to pass through.

Lucid Dreaming

Here’s another example: the Māori in New Zealand, also known as Tangata Whenua, the People of the Land, believe that your spirit leaves your body during dreams, and your dreams can warn you of omens and deliver premonitions.

The Ancient Greeks and Romans believed that dreams give us insights into the past, present, and future. Aristotle talked about lucid dreaming in his Parva Naturalia, which was written in the 4th century BC. He wrote, “often when one is asleep, there is something in consciousness which declares that what then presents itself is but a dream.” In other words, we often know we’re dreaming, and that we’re caught between two worlds, neither fully awake nor fully asleep.

Several centuries later, Saint Augustine, the Christian theologian born in Algeria, believed that lucid dreams happen when the soul briefly leaves the body to get a glimpse of the afterlife.

Early psychotherapists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries took lucid dreaming seriously, considering them a key to unlocking the human personality and desires. Sigmund Freud believed dreams let us process fragments of memories, repressed anger, and sexual impulses that hang around in our subconscious. Things that might be too painful or destructive to express in daily life can be set free in a dream. By entering the dream as an active participant, he felt that patients could rewrite the early scripts of their lives and release embodied trauma. Though many of us in the energy medicine world today have moved away from Freud, his early dream analysis was an important step along the road to understanding the mind-body connection.

Lucid Dreaming

Before we leave Freud, I also want to mention his notion of free association. Freud believed that letting patients make their own connections between their dreams and real life was a far better method than forcing interpretations on them.

As I mentioned earlier, your dreams reflect your unique journey through life. This is important because, as you begin to lucid dream, you might need some gentle guidance to help you interpret your flashes of insight. There are many pathways to understanding lucid dreams. But with practice, you can learn to trust your inner wisdom and intuition.

Lucid Dreaming

Ultimately, you have the power to make choices and to influence how your story ends in the dream state and when you’re wide awake. This is another reason that the Vedic sages paid attention to dreams; they are an aspect of karma.

Unfortunately, as they so often do, scientists initially distrusted the idea of lucid dreaming because it was hard to test. Many scientists thought of dreams as more-or-less a neural garbage disposal unit that “cleared out” our brains while we slept. But by the 1970s, technological advances for sleep studies helped bring Western science around to the idea that our brains are doing important work while we dream.

Scientists now know that lucid dreams usually occur during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, a period of very deep sleep with lots of observable brain activity. Current evidence strongly suggests that lucid dreaming therapy will soon be incorporated into Western medicine.

Today, popular figures like actor Leonardo DiCaprio and novelist Stephen King talk about their practice of lucid dreaming, which suggests that all of us will want to give it a try. The Nightmare on Elm Street movie used the power of lucid dreaming to help terrified teen-agers overcome evil. And in the recent television hit, Evil, a scientific skeptic turns to lucid dreaming as one way to try and beat the devil. We might call this a “lucid dreaming uprising” in which our modern world is reaching for ancient wisdom to reconnect with our intuition and spiritual essence.

So, by now you’re probably wondering how to activate the power of lucid dreaming into your life, right?

Swami Satyananda Saraswati originated a twentieth century school of Yoga Nidra. In 1976, having founded the Bihar School of Yoga in the 1960s, he built a system of guided meditation that helps devotees enter the lucid dreaming state. His system draws on the ancient tantric practice of nyasa, which combines the power of touch along different parts of the body with specific Sanskrit mantras. 

Lucid Dreaming
Satyananda’s approach isn’t directly connected to traditional Vedic texts, but it does have historical precedents in the Vedic philosophy. It’s interesting to note that the United States Army and other big organizations have used the Yoga Nidra approach developed by Satyananda to treat soldiers who experience post-traumatic stress disorder.
Lucid Dreaming

There are some foods that can enhance your ability to lucid dream. Foods rich in vitamin B6 are linked with greater dream recall and intensity. One of the roles of vitamin B6 is to convert the essential amino acid tryptophan into serotonin and niacin. This conversion helps your body regulate appetite, sleep patterns, and mood. Foods that help enhance lucid dreaming include chicken, soybeans, turkey, tuna, venison, lamb, salmon, halibut, shrimp, and cod. If you’re vegan or vegetarian, good lucid dreaming foods include kidney beans, pumpkin seeds, tofu, cheese, and soy sauce.

It’s best to eat these foods and take vitamin B6 during your evening meal, just a few hours before you retire for the night.

Here are a few practical steps to enhance your ability to experience lucid dreams.

Make a dream pillow and infuse it with a meditative essential oil. It can be any comfortable pillow, and an essential oil like bergamot, clary sage, lavender, mugwort, orange, rose, roman chamomile, or sandalwood. You can also diffuse essential oil into the air using a diffuser instead of putting drops on your pillow. (Some people have adverse reactions to essential oils that touch the skin, so a diffuser may be best for them.)

Lucid Dreaming
Lucid Dreaming

Sleep in a cooler than normal room. To keep from feeling hot or too warm and uncomfortable during sleep, throw open a window or run a fan to keep your body temperature feeling exactly right for you. Studies have shown that sleeping in a cool place improves the frequency and duration of REM (dream level) sleep.

Exercise/Yoga Exercise and yoga several hours before sleep has been shown to enhance REM sleep.

Turn off all electronic devices with lit screens one hour before bed.

Regular meditation is another way to prepare your mind for lucid dreaming, as does setting your intention to lucid dream. For example, you might write in a notebook beside your bed your intention to lucid dream just before going to sleep every night as a way to prepare your subconscious. A nightly routine can also help signal your brain that you’re shifting from the waking to the dreaming state.

Lucid Dreaming

Lucid dreaming is powerful, so it can also be unsettling because there is no way to cleanse past karma in just one or two lucid dreaming sessions. So, please recognize that this technique, just like meditation, requires time, practice, and devotion. If your past trauma is intense and/or painful, it’s especially prudent to find a teacher or spiritual guide who can gently guide you through the process. Those of you saddled with post-traumatic stress disorder will want to make sure you have support in place before you try out lucid dreaming.

Finally, I must mention that the renowned inventor Nikola Tesla, mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, and author Lewis Carroll are among the many creatives and mathematicians who have drawn upon the power of lucid dreaming to unlock creativity and access the wisdom of their subconscious minds. In the final analysis, lucid dreaming, like meditation, opens our hearts to what is timeless and lets us see things as they really are, stripped of the half-truths and lies we often tell ourselves when we’re awake. In the words of Carl Jung, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” Becoming a lucid dreamer activates your power both to see the darkness and to move beyond it into the light.

Lucid Dreaming is just one skill that you can master that can help you see beyond the physical bounds of time and space and obtain wisdom from realms beyond ours. And it is one of the skills taught in our bestselling Astral Wisdom course. Learn to design the life of your dreams by mastering the out-of-body experience by accessing this course here >>

astral wisdom course
Sacred spaces

Seeking Sacred Space: Where’s Your Natural Cathedral?

by FeaturedGratitude
Sacred spaces

“The place seemed holy, where one might hope to see God.”
— John Muir, “My First Summer in the Sierra,” 1911

Conservationist John Muir was known for his ability to find spiritual connection in the natural world. Yosemite Valley was sacred space for him, and he called it “the grandest of all the special temples of Nature….” Is there a place in nature that makes your spirit sing? Maybe you love to be in the mountains, at the beach, or in a quiet garden filled with roses. Summer is underway as the solstice ushered in the season of greatest warmth and light. Summer brings more opportunities for us to get out and connect with the natural world and grow in spirit. Contact with Nature renews and refreshes us and gives us the comfort of knowing we belong to something much larger than our small selves.

It’s our nature to seek spiritual joy in the natural world. From ancient times, people have gravitated toward places on Earth that are graced with high-vibration spiritual energy. There are many such places around the world, and people often built their holiest institutions over such power spots, vortexes or places of spiraling spiritual energy. They recognized that bathing in these elevated vibrations was beneficial to raising consciousness and facilitating spiritual development. Ojai, California, my home, is a beautiful natural setting known for this kind of spiritual energy. Many visitors feel recharged and uplifted after visiting there. North America is brimming with places that have been held sacred by Native Americans for thousands of years. Some research may reveal a number of sacred spaces in your locale.

Sacred spaces

What Makes a Sacred Space?

Beyond natural places that communities of people have found sacred over time, each one of us has a personal sacred space in nature that we love. We know it by the joy it brings. So many of us love the peace we find swimming in the waters off the western shore of Maui. Here in the silent blue world of the ocean, we delight in meeting sea turtles and sharing swim space with them. My friend, Louise Hay, loved San Diego’s mid-city urban garden, Balboa Park, with its vast array of trees and flowers from around the world as well as her own backyard garden where she grew vegetables, fruits, and flowers.

Novelist Susan Straight finds beauty in her seemingly stark hometown landscape in Southern California. For her, the date palm trees of the desert city of Indio, standing in stately rows and catching the golden sunlight and silver moonlight, are beautiful. Lines of trees that make up the date farm landscape are “like a cathedral” she says. For many people, forests of any kind, whether palm trees or giant redwoods, are a natural temple. Our eyes are drawn upward by the great height towering above us. Looking at the sky our hearts open.

Great mountain peaks also draw our eyes toward heaven. Photographer and environmentalist Ansel Adams was another admirer of the Yosemite Valley and its “vast edifice of stone and space.” President Theodore Roosevelt said of camping in Yosemite, “It was like lying in a great solemn cathedral, far vaster and more beautiful than any built by the hand of man.”

Sacred spaces

Maybe the desert is a landscape you love. The desert has always been a place of spiritual connection and reflection, a place of open space and silence and starry nights.

Artist Georgia O’Keeffe loved the northern New Mexico desert for the pure light, the clear air, and the astonishing colors of the hills and the sky. The Grand Canyon is a place of pilgrimage for millions. Sunrise and sunset paint the desert cliffs for anyone who would like to watch.

Sacred spaces

If water is your love, Crater Lake in Oregon, the deepest lake in the U.S., is an especially beautiful site considered sacred by Native Americans of the region. The lake is used as a site for vision quests and other ceremonies. Lakes, rivers, and waterfalls may be part of your vision of a spiritual home.

How to Enjoy Your Sacred Space

From early childhood, I’ve had a special connection with Lake Tahoe, one of the deepest lakes in the world. The energy there is profound, and when I visit there, I sense that its water is sacred, coming from the original source. Maybe your beloved natural place is your traditional family vacation spot. Take a moment and picture your sacred space.

If you have a chance to visit a sacred space of your own this summer, intend to connect with your heart, mind, and soul. Experience the place with all your senses. Feel the ground beneath you (or the water surrounding you). Look up at the sky, the clouds, the stars, the mountain peaks and the treetops and give thanks for the beauty and the peace. Give thanks for the gift of life and the field of loving energy that all of us share.