3 Simple Steps to Connect to Your Higher Self

by HealthMeditationSelf Love

Daily invitation for the Divine to enter your life.

Have you noticed all the bright and beautiful magazine covers inviting you to “Be Your Best Self” and “Live Your Best Life”? Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? When you turn the page, you discover they want you to cook a fabulous meal, decorate with artistic flair, and show up for the party in a stunning new dress. You feel pretty disappointed if that is the best your “best self” can do. You know in your heart there is so much more to you than meets the eye, and you’d really like to open that avenue to love, happiness, and peace.

As an energy healer and spiritual teacher, I’ve learned that the “best you” is really a higher you–your Higher Self, the part of you that is connected, always, to Spirit. In India, there is a saying that “God, Guru, and Self are One.” The same Power that created the universe–God or Source or Spirit—is also within you. You and Spirit are one. You don’t have to go anywhere or seek anything outside to find God. You only have to look within. And there you will find your real best self—your Higher Self—waiting to infuse your life with all the goodness you desire. Your Higher Self, in itself a part of the Divine, is much wiser and far more loving than your small self, or personality. It goes far beyond your everyday awareness and can transport you into transcendent realms. Your Higher Self contains all the very best parts of you that you incarnated into this lifetime to develop. It is a little bit like having a close friend living in your house, but you can’t see or hear them. You can’t reach this friend through any of your usual five senses, but intuitively you know your friend is there. You may doubt your connection to the Divine, but as you continue to look within, you will come to believe in the reality of your Higher Self and you will learn how to communicate with it.

Your Higher Self is a perfect being made of light and love—it’s you, the ideal version of you—and thus can offer guidance no one else can. When you align with your Higher Self, you are in touch with your soul and can experience Divine love and feel the effects of understanding that you are part of the interconnected world. Knowing you are loved unconditionally will make you more compassionate and loving toward others. Divine love will radiate through you and spread like ripples out into the world, becoming that gift of peace and good will you want to share today and always.

Although you are always connected to your Higher Self, there are ways to strengthen your alignment and make your connection clearer and more focused. Your Higher Self is within you, and you have the power to keep your point of contact with the Divine open and flowing. Here are some steps to take:

  1. Remember who you are. You are a child of the Divine and have the power to create your world with love, happiness, and inspiration. No need to waste precious attention on fear and doubt.
  2. Use your intuition. You have a channel of communication always available. Be open to the messages of Spirit. Use meditation to quiet your mind. Ask for what you need to know and be ready to receive.  Invite the Divine to enter your life each day.
  3. Make sure you feel good. Use healing practices to clear anything that might be blocking your connection to your Higher Self. When joy and gratitude and creative energy fill your heart, that is, when you feel good, your alignment with Spirit is healthy and strong.

When you are called upon to be your best self, during the holidays and every day, your Higher Self is always with you, waiting to guide and empower you with the spark of the Divine. Drawing from within, you will have all the energy you need to meet the world with love and grace.

To learn more about connecting to your Higher Self through meditation, pick up your own copy of my Learn to Meditate course.

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Vanity Sizing

by FeaturedWomen

Vanity. A lot of emotion gets packed into that word.  Even as a spiritual teacher, with my sights focused on energy healing and raising consciousness, I fret about my pants getting tighter. When I was in college, I was a size 2 model. In order to maintain that image of perfection, I lived on cigarettes and vodka. Food? No way.

Just yesterday I was having a one-on-one with a Level 7 student  and I gently pointed out to her that her recently gained 25 lbs. that she was bemoaning might be “her new normal.”  Who among us women over 40 hasn’t had to deal with a weight gain and a clothing size increase? While teaching a few weeks ago at Turks and Caicos, I asked the audience a rhetorical question: what are we going to do when we aren’t on an island and over-shirts aren’t in style?

So what does any of this have to do with being spiritually inclined? For one, you may think that if you’re trying to be more spiritual, you shouldn’t be concerned about what you look like. Not true. You need to care about the image you are presenting to the world. You want to make a good impression— at a business meeting, at the ashram, at the family reunion. You want to be desired, to be liked. (Unfortunately, you also want to have your chocolate ice cream, your lattes, and your pizza.)

Spiritual discipline is based on renunciation—you give up some portion of your ego (where I-me-mine is the center of the universe at all times) for the realization of unity consciousness. You concentrate on being mindful, being here now, instead of finding new ways to escape your reality. You start to recognize the ways in which your chakras and personal energy field are impacted by your thoughts and feelings instead of thinking every problem in your life is due to external circumstances.

So why is it so hard to give up vanity about the way you look? I think of it as “vanity sizing” in the mind. The manufacturers of the cultural obsession with physical appearance have made you feel that you have to be as thin as all those photo shopped models in magazines and actors on the screen. Yet everything in your life conspires against you being able to reach that goal. And the older your body gets, the harder it all is. Plus, what good is an hour in the gym when it’s followed by a quick stop at Starbucks? How can you even get to the gym when you work all day and pick up pizza on the way home because you have no time to cook a decent dinner for your family before you deal with your kid’s science project? Or you’re stressed out over paying your bills, or your health, or your lack of a love life, or the fact your pants are too tight—which certainly deserves another chocolate chip cookie.

When you find yourself caught up in this type of thinking—the size 16 reality of your day-to-day life versus the size 4 fantasy ideal your vanity would like you to achieve—what should you do?

Call upon your Higher Self.

Your Higher Self is who you really are. She encompasses all the virtues that stem from higher consciousness. She knows your higher purpose in life—the reason you incarnated in your particular body, with all its seeming faults. She’s the one who is with you lifetime after lifetime. So relax. Be who you are. Sit quietly and pull down the bright white/gold light from above your head (your Higher Self is really quite lovely) into that fabulous body of yours. It’s fabulous because it is the vehicle for getting to know your own divinity.

With the way things are going these days—with toxic chemicals turning rivers orange, with icecaps melting and oceans rising, with fierce typhoons, fires, and floods, with fracking causing earthquakes, with oil spills destroying habitats—maybe we all need to pay more attention to Mother Earth’s body than to our own.

Until then, buy pants in the next size up!

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Discover the Secrets of Chakra Wisdom!

by ChakrasEnergy HealingFeatured

What do you want to change in your life?

Are you overwhelmed and looking for more peace? Are you unsure of your future or which life path is right for you? Are you seeking healing, spiritual enlightenment, or deeper satisfaction? Chakras are your secret weapons against living a life full of discontentment, disconnection, and fear. With the wisdom gained through opening these powerful energy centers, you can transform your behaviors and attitude to better live in alignment with your higher self and true soul purpose, and become the light bearer you were meant to be.

The Solution to Your Problems

Nearly everyone is searching for something these days. Many of my students come to me feeling generally underwhelmed with their careers or their relationships or their sense of purpose, and they don’t understand why they just can’t seem to get out of their slump or improve a certain aspect of their life. Others have an illness or injury that refuses to respond to traditional medicine, or something intangible like depression or weight gain or insomnia. Does this sound like you? Whatever particular problem is plaguing you, when you unlock the wisdom of your chakras, you’ll find the key to solving it so you can be on your way to a healthier and happier future.

In Sanskrit, the word chakra means wheel or vortex, and that’s what a chakra is: a spinning wheel or vortex of energy, pulsing and pushing energy in and out between your personal energy field and the universal field that interpenetrates all things. This energy exchange is necessary for your health as that new fresh energy cleans, balances, and nourishes you. Without it, your chakras and your energy field become weakened as does your psyche and body. Healthy chakras keep energy moving, therefore keeping you healthy.

Energetic Nourishment

Think of it this way: your energy field needs nourishment just like your body does, and the universal field provides that necessary food. When your chakras become blocked or distorted, you don’t get enough nourishment from the universal field, and just like when you don’t eat enough good food, your energy plummets, you become mentally foggy, your emotions go haywire, and you can eventually get sick.

Energetic nourishment is especially important because what happens in your energy field is reflected in your body. That’s how energy healing works: when you heal the energy field, you also heal the body. By correcting distortions in your chakras, energy healing can heal anything from headache to heartbreak, from diabetes to a broken ankle, from obesity to cancer. That’s how I was led to energy medicine: a cancer diagnosis that woke me up and helped me discover my true calling as a spiritual teacher.

My First Energy Healing Experience

I was a hard-charging attorney in my twenties, climbing the corporate ladder without regard for my health. I was addicted to the alcohol and pills I’d used to try to bury an abusive childhood, and I suffered from depression, eating disorders, and eventually, cancer. Unwilling to start with invasive treatments, I got permission from my doctors to explore alternative therapies and I had a spontaneous remission at the hands of an energy healer. I felt the cancer leave my body—that’s how powerful the healing experience was for me on that table. For confirmation, my doctor ran some tests, and sure enough, the cancer was gone.

I was so amazed and intrigued, I began studying with shamans, seers, and healers, learning as much as I possibly could about chakras and how energy affects health. The more I learned, the less I was surprised by my remission. Medicine men and women and healers around the globe have been practicing energy healing for centuries, and our early ancestors were in tune with their natural energy healing abilities as well. These healers and spiritual teachers understood that chakras hold the keys to your physical, emotional, and mental well being, and your spiritual growth.

What Happens to an Imbalanced Chakra

There are seven main chakras that roughly follow a line from the base of your spine to the top of your head. Each chakra governs different areas of your life and is connected to different parts of your body. When a chakra is blocked, the arenas corresponding to that chakra will become affected.

For example, the throat chakra is the source of your authenticity, the place from which you speak your truth. If your throat chakra is imbalanced, you may have difficulty speaking your mind and expressing your feelings, and may find that you are easily manipulated by others. If the chakra stays dysfunctional for long enough, physical symptoms like problems with the thyroid, neck, jaw, teeth, gums, or mouth can develop. This is why energy healing is so important—keeping your chakras clear, charged, and balanced is the best way to maintain your health.

The Higher Chakras

There are also the secret higher chakras, starting with the eighth chakra, through which you can gain access to higher planes, psychic abilities, and eventually Source itself. In my thirty years of study and practice I have been led by Spirit to become intimately familiar with these higher chakras through advanced states of meditation, and now I want to pass that knowledge on to you!

I’ve just released a beautiful free 3 video teaching series that contains the best of what I’ve learned about chakras in my three decades as an energy healer, spiritual teacher, and seeker of the light. In the first video lesson you’ll explore the mystical higher spiritual chakras I just mentioned, and how you can begin the process of activating them and moving toward an amazing awakening of spirit. In the second and third ones, you’ll learn all about the main seven chakras and how you can make them work for you. Hope you enjoy these videos!

Click here to view the Free Video Training>>>>>>>

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Find Your True Voice – The Secrets of Your Throat Chakra

by ChakrasEnergy Healing

As we move up the spine and enter the 5th chakra in the throat, we are moving into the more etheric or spiritual energy centers of the human body.

This cobalt blue chakra is basically concerned with communication and is associated with ether or sound. Being the first of the spiritual chakras, it is the portal through which we bring spirit into the physical realm by using sound and communication to voice our own unique expression of spirit. This chakra is the seat of expression.

You can see how the fifth chakra is a link between our inner and outer worlds. We create in the second chakra and then communicate that inner experience out into the world through our fifth chakra; we also communicate our inner desires out into the world to create our lives.

Sound is the rhythmic vibration of molecules of air. So, as we begin to understand the fifth chakra’s qualities of communication and sound, we begin to see the world in terms of vibration—the culmination of all of the activity that has occurred in the previous four chakras. At the level of the fifth chakra, we experience all of the inner workings and goings on of the previous four chakras simply as an overall vibration quality. So when we meet someone, we register them as a vibration. The higher the vibration, the more harmonious the person is within themselves.

All vibrations or wave forms are subject to resonance—where vibrations lock into rhythm with each other— the governing principle of the fifth chakra. When something resonates with us, whether it’s a person, an idea, or a piece of music, we experience that person or thing with greater harmony, energy, clarity, joy. Likewise, when we hear something that rings inside us as true, it is resonance at work. Resonance brings order and unity within and creates a much more harmonious state.

This is why I always say that if you want to change the world for the better, meditate more—as meditating will raise your own vibration and consciousness, and that vibration will emanate from you out into the world, where—thanks to resonance—it will influence others’ vibrations to rise to its level as well.

Communication is also subject to resonance. But before we can have resonance with others, we need to have resonance within ourselves. This means living and communicating according to our truth—which brings us to a key theme of the fifth chakra—speaking our truth. From an energy perspective, the throat chakra is THE power center of living from our truth. We do this through voice and through choice—the messengers of the fifth chakra. Choice gives voice to our desires, and, in turn, our voice expresses our choice.

This chakra is also the seat of inner guidance—the place where we have access to that still, quiet, wise voice within that can expertly guide us in any situation we find ourselves in. Our responsibility, of course, is to listen! If we ignore or override that wise inner voice, and if we do that enough, it WILL ultimately stop talking to us. In fact, disregarding our inner guidance will effectively shut down the normal processes of this chakra.

Living according to our truth is a daily practice of checking in with ourselves to hear our truth, including our subtle guidance, and then monitoring ourselves as we interact with the world to make sure we are in alignment with that truth and with higher will.

If the fifth chakra is distorted or shut down, we can have problems with communication. If there is excessive energy in this chakra, someone may talk too much, or too loudly, or in inappropriate ways (such as gossiping or blaming others). A deficient throat chakra could present different issues, such as stuttering or the fear of speaking. Other issues include feeling like we’ve lost the rhythm of life, experiencing an inability to take in what others are trying to give us, or being excessively shy. Still another problem is blocked creativity.

So, what can you do to balance your fifth chakra? Practice journaling as a way to express all your thoughts, feelings, and insights about yourself—a tremendously powerful way to begin expressing your truth. Speaking your truth out loud will also help to clear this energy center. You could also sing: in the shower, in the kitchen, in the car, in public! Chanting works, too.

The rewards of balancing this powerful energy center are more powerful communication, enhanced creativity, and an ease and flow to life.

The Secret Chakras Nobody Bothered to Tell You About

by ChakrasEnergy HealingHealth

Many of you already know that there is an ancient wisdom hidden in your chakras – when they are open and clear you can receive messages of Divine guidance and spiritual growth.

You can even experience powerful initiations into higher energetic vibrations.

You might know about the 7 physical chakras – but did you know there are even more chakras above your head? These higher chakras are the gateway to discovering your true purpose in this life on this earth… and yet they are rarely spoken about… until now.

Once your physical chakras are balanced, cleared and charged – you pave the way to accessing these higher chakras and the gifts they are waiting to bestow upon you.

These can be anything from psychic and intuitive abilities, astral travel, bilocation and so much more.

I’ve just released a beautiful free video series that contains the best of what I’ve learned about chakras in my three decades’ of study and practice as an energy healer.

In the first video lesson we’ll explore the mystical higher spiritual chakras, and how you can begin the process of activating them.

In the second video lesson, you’ll learn all about your base chakra and ways you can clear, balance and strengthen it to begin a powerful process of healing.

You can view the first two lessons by clicking here >>>>>>>

Enjoy!

Hugs,
Deborah

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What’s Missing from Your Yoga Practice?

by Energy HealingFeatured

Yoga is currently one of the most popular forms of exercise in the world. Celebrities tout its benefits on late night TV shows, corporations, schools, and even jails have instituted yoga programs, and there is a whole business dedicated to designer yoga clothes and accessories. There is even baby yoga! But this popularity makes sense when you understand how valuable a tool yoga is for your wellbeing. Yoga improves digestion, immune function, flexibility, strength, joint pain, anxiety, sleep, sex, focus, memory, self-esteem, inner peace, and connection to Source, just to name a few of its dozens of benefits. But if you want to get the most out of yoga, consider adding a missing ingredient that will take your practice to new heights: Ayurveda.

In Sanskrit, the word “yoga” means “to join together” or “union,” and comes from the same roots as the word “yoke,” as in two things yoked together. In yoga, the yoking is in reference to the union of mind, body, and spirit. The word Ayurveda comes from the Sanskrit roots Ayu, meaning “life” and Veda¸ meaning “knowledge” or “science.” So Ayurveda means the “science of life.” Some scholars suggest that Ayu doesn’t just mean life, but even more specifically, the state of being in which mind, body, and soul are joined together and there is total integration. This unity and connectedness is the goal of both yoga and Ayurveda—and energy healing—and every step toward that unity dramatically improves your quality of life.

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What Is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is a system of medicine that’s over five thousand years old, even older than traditional Chinese medicine. This “science of life” originated with ancient seers called rishis. These enlightened men and women sat for hours in deep meditation, communing with what they called the “Cosmic Consciousness,” and what we in energy medicine call the universal field. This unified field or Cosmic Consciousness or Source or whatever you want to call it holds the past, present, future, and all information in existence, and these rishis returned from their meditations with beyond-earthly insight into the world. They turned this insight to the human body and “discovered” the healthcare system of Ayurveda.

The rishis in their infinite wisdom discerned that the energy from the universal field manifests itself in all matter—including humans—as five basic elements: air, fire, water, earth, and ether or space. Within the body, those basic elements come together in different combinations to make up three biological or metabolic bio-energies, which Ayurveda calls doshas. There are three doshas: the space and air elements combined to form the Vata dosha, the fire and water elements combined to form the Pitta dosha, and the earth and water elements combined to form the Kapha dosha. Each person has a unique mind-body constitution, or prakruti, which means “nature,” that is their body type. Your prakruti is based on which dosha(s) are most prevalent in you.

These doshas are super important, as they are the bridge between the body and mind, the spot where your thoughts turn into matter, and here, you can see the first signs of health problems and treat them before they develop. Ayurveda is a lot like energy medicine—it’s why they can work in tandem so well—as it is the imbalances in the energy that cause physical problems. By following Ayurvedic principles and rebalancing the doshas, you can restore your body to health and reestablish the mind-body-soul connection.

How Do Ayurveda and Yoga Work Together?

Just like Ayurveda, the governing principle of yoga is balance, and both traditions have healing properties. They have even been called “sister sciences.” When yoga was first brought to the west, Ayurveda was left out, even though both practices were born out of the larger tradition of Vedic knowledge in ancient India. When you bring these two modalities together again, you’ll understand why they were made to be yoked.

Yoga on its own is not a system of medicine, but rather a spiritual practice and type of treatment. It heals, but does not diagnose. For that, you need a system of medicine which has a clear understanding of how the body and energy field work. That’s what Ayurveda does—allows you to understand the cause of the problem so you can assess, diagnose, and then treat.

Think of it this way: energy healing is a system of medicine just like Ayurveda. An energy healer can sense your problems and chakra blockages and suggest a course of treatment, which can include meditation, journaling, grounding, chakra clearing, etc., but you need that umbrella of energy medicine to first evaluate and diagnose your issue and then recommend the curative measures. Directed efforts are more effective, and that requires a diagnosis.

This is how Ayurveda can take your yoga practice sky high—by tailoring your yoga therapy to address the issues identified through Ayurveda, you turn yoga into a targeted healing machine for your unique constitution. There are yoga postures that correspond to specific doshas, and once you learn those, you will be amazed at how much more you’ll get out of your yoga practice. You’ll come away feeling more refreshed and with a deeper internal peace.

Touch Heaven & Earth

This doesn’t mean you can’t take your regular yoga class. People who have different prakrutis are in classes together every day. What you can do is alter your poses to address your personal needs. Attitude and intention go a long way in all these healing therapies—yoga, Ayurveda, energy healing—and yoga is a place to follow through with your intentions. Your body and spirit are different from everyone else’s so why should you do your asanas the exact same way? Aligning your practice with your Ayurvedic constitution will boost your results tenfold.

So if you’re a Vata, try practicing more slowly and deliberately; if you’re a Pitta, try to relax into your asanas and avoid overheating; if you’re a Kapha, challenge yourself! Go for those tough poses. If you don’t know your dosha, consider working with a spiritual teacher or taking healing courses or an online quiz. And if you don’t already practice yoga, I encourage you to start! Like meditation, it’s most effective when done regularly.

Let me leave you with this idea: Ayurveda is the physical health counterpoint to the spiritual act of yoga. Yoga is for reaching higher states of consciousness and Ayurveda is for reaching balance on the physical plane. Done together, you can touch heaven and earth and heal yourself in the process.

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Yoga and Energy Healing: Friends With Benefits

by Be Your Own ShamanChakrasEnergy HealingFeaturedHealthWomen

yoga

Nearly everyday, it seems like there is some new health fad or alternative therapy saying they can help you lose weight fast or detox your system in twenty-four hours or make you happy with a pill. These quick-result claims are usually bogus, and are often actually harmful, because the way you heal yourself is not quickly, but sure and steady like the turtle. Your health is not worth risking for a magical overnight cure, and all true, effective, lasting healing takes some time and effort. But if you want to get the most healing bang for your buck, there is one healing practice that has stood the test of time and is the closest thing to a magical cure you will find: energy healing.

Health Is a Balancing Act

The mind-body-spirit connection has been well established by studies and research that illustrate that your system is a balancing act: each aspect of your being—mind, emotions, body, and soul—affects the other aspects directly. Unprocessed emotional trauma can block your chakras, disrupting your energy flow, and those distortions in your chakras can cause physical illness or injury. Spiritual depression, too, can cause physical depression—an experience you may have gone through before finding the right spiritual path—and physical pain can cause spiritual pain or lack of faith.
Think of each element of your being like a support beam in a house. When one beam cracks or fails, the whole building is weakened and becomes more susceptible to additional problems. You are like that house; when your chakras are blocked or your body is ill or any foundational part of you is somehow not functioning properly, it throws the whole structure—you—out of balance, and leaves you open to further harm.

How Many Ways Is Yoga is Good for You?

This is where energy healing can come in and save the day. As an energy healer and spiritual teacher, I introduce my students to many techniques that clear, charge, and balance their chakras and energy field and therefore heal the rest of them: journaling, meditation, being of service, forgiveness, shamanic breath work, Ayurveda, and many more. Today, I’d like to focus on one technique that is nearly as old as energy medicine itself: yoga.
This ancient Indian practice has soared in popularity, with yoga studios everywhere and yoga clothes as their own fashion trend. This spiritual practice is now done by everyone from celebrities to businessmen to schoolchildren, and most people know at least a pose or two. There have been many studies and plenty of evidence to support the wide range of positive results attributed to yoga that it’s now well known for its myriad health benefits.

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Physically, yoga improves flexibility and muscle strength, aids digestion, helps you sleep better, lowers blood pressure, ups your immune function, decreases pain, and even increases sexual performance! Mentally, yoga helps you focus, releases stress, reduces anxiety, and calms your thoughts. Yoga has also been linked to higher self-esteem, amplified inner strength and power, deeper awareness, and more peace. Plus, it can help you tone your body and lose weight. And this is just the tip of the yoga iceberg!

Yoga’s Spiritual Side

At its core, Yoga is a spiritual practice, passed down from yogis who devoted their lives to spiritual pursuits, and “yokes” the body and the soul energetically, just as does the practice of energy healing. Yoga uses movement or postures, called asanas, to revitalize your nervous system, your circulation, and your flow of prana, positively affecting your personal energy field. Yoga also emphasizes the breath, or pranayama, and uses the breath to move prana in and out from your body during the movements. The asanas and breathing are done together in a specific way to soothe and link your body and mind, clear and balance your chakras, and bring you in touch with Source.

Yoga makes a great complement to your energy medicine practice and any of my healing courses. Yoga is not just about stretching your mind and body, but about really connecting to yourself on a deep spiritual level, grounding you to the Earth and your physicality so that you have roots from which to grow your spirituality, and increasing the flow of energy within you. Yoga and energy healing both strive for harmony and balance, clarity of thought and intention, and a deeper understanding of your higher self.

In its own way, yoga is a type of energy healing, so when you practice yoga and energy healing together, the results will multiply exponentially. They’re like friends with benefits, each helping to boost the effectiveness of the other, and working toward the same goal of healing and transforming your entire being.

Blue-Meditation

Meditate Like a Star

by Featured
p, and get in time every day at the gym to keep their bodies red carpet ready? Most of all, how do they cope with the stress of their jobs, the ups and downs of their reputations, and the fact that they will soon be replaced? It’s simple… the ones who aren’t drowning in drink or drugs hold themselves together by meditating!

If it’s good enough for Oprah, who runs an entire media empire, it’s probably good enough for us! I’ve always found it truly amazing how big a difference meditation makes in my onw life, and how much more ready I am to tackle my insane schedule after I’ve spent time meditating, going deep into inner realms.

You can read more about celebs and meditation in a blog I’ve just posted on HuffPo http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-king/why-do-these-celebs-medit_b_6593894.html[/vc_column_text]

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4 Reasons to Forgive

by ChakrasEnergy HealingFeaturedTruth Heals

Forgiveness is an essential part of healing. When you have suffered a wrong, or even a perceived wrong, the resulting hurt and anger can burrow deep into your heart and energy field and begin to fester. The longer you harbor the resentment and bitterness instead of forgiving the wrong, the higher the chances that those negative feelings will cause discord in your system, creating blocks in your chakras and eventually, physical symptoms and illness. Forgiveness is not easy for anyone. Trust me, I know. It took years of intense personal work through energy healing for me to be able to forgive my father for his abuse, and my mother for her blind eye and cold shoulder. If you have experienced severe betrayal or violence, abandonment or abuse, especially from a trusted family member or caretaker, forgiveness might seem like an impossible feat. It does take courage, but you can do it, and your life will improve a hundred times over once you do.

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Here are just a few of the reasons to practice forgiveness:

1. Forgiveness makes you feel better. Forgiveness takes the power away from the hurt or wrong and helps you to let it go. As long as you hold on to resentment or anger it can manifest in your life as depression, self-blame, guilt, loss of motivation, revenge fantasies, anxiety, and other emotional and mental issues, as well as physical health problems, especially those related to the heart chakra, including asthma, pneumonia, breast or lung cancer. When you forgive, you take a large step forward in healing yourself. Studies suggest that forgiveness improves the function of the immune system, and research has shown that pain levels decrease when patients forgive inner hurts. This is because forgiveness releases the clouds of darkness those negative emotions create in your field and body, and allows for light energy to fill those holes, which charges and energizes your whole being.

2. Forgiveness is not excusing. I want to make sure you understand that forgiveness is not excusing what someone did to you. There are likely very real betrayals and traumas in your life that are not excusable, and you should not have to feel like you need to minimize what happened to you. What forgiveness does entail is letting go of the residual emotions like resentment, anger, hurt, and bitterness that stem from what happened. Forgiving means you stop feeling hostile, that you let go of any need or desire for revenge or retribution. This is not a weakness; quite the opposite, in fact. It takes a ton of strength and courage to forgive, and if you can manage it, it will speed up your spiritual progress as well as set you free.

3. Guilt impedes your healing process. Guilt is a parasitic emotion. It eats at you from the inside, churning your stomach and making you tense, and not doing you any good. The only potential it has is spurring you to own up to your mistakes as best you can and to learn from them. Then you must move on, which includes forgiving yourself. Self-forgiveness is possibly more important than forgiving others, as you have to live with yourself every second of every day. If you are constantly beating yourself up over past mistakes, that blame and anger can cause blockages in your personal energy field. If you don’t forgive yourself, you put yourself at risk. If you already have a health problem like cancer or another disease, you must remember that it is not your fault! You were working with what you knew at that time, and you cannot control pollutants or genetics or abusers. There is nothing to be gained from wishing you could change the past, and self-blame only does further harm. As a spiritual teacher and energy healer, I encourage students to learn from the disease and then move on by forgiving yourself and letting it go. It is the only way to heal.

4. Forgiveness is for you, not them. The only person who suffers from a grudge is you. Holding onto the desire for revenge, or any other hostile emotion regarding someone who wronged you, doesn’t actually harm them the way you might want it to. In fact, it backfires, and causes you tremendous damage.

When you forgive, you lift a weight off your chest that you probably didn’t realize you were carrying, but you will feel so much lighter and freer once it’s been removed. When I finally realized one day that after years of journaling, meditating prayer, and energy medicine techniques, I no longer felt any hatred or bitterness toward my parents, it was like I was reborn. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and I felt utterly uplifted.You will, too.

If you have tried to forgive and are having trouble releasing your anger or hostility, try journaling about your feelings, which sets them free from your body and energy field and allows for fresh universal energy to fill that space. I also highly recommend you take one of my energy healing courses, which will give you plenty of techniques for processing and releasing your emotions so you can become healthier and happier. Lastly, be patient with yourself. Forgiveness can be very difficult, and can take time. But it is so worth the effort to be able to be free of the chains of guilt and bitterness, and move forward in creating the life you want.

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Marching to Selma

by FeaturedMovie Reviews

I saw “Selma” this weekend. This movie tells the story of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the historic march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that led to the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. It does much more than give us a picture of what happened fifty years ago in the fight for civil rights. It ties in to what is happening in the US right now—to young African-Americans being killed by police, to protests that still use nonviolence as a means of being heard, and the grace and extraordinary courage of ordinary citizens who are determined to bring about justice for all.
It’s a powerful film that gives a new look at an American icon. Most people today know little about Martin Luther King Jr. other than his “I have a dream” speech and a national holiday that means a day off. In the film, we see him as the father of four children, a husband trying to make his marriage work, a gifted preacher who was an ordinary man that got caught up in a particular moment of history and did great things. But it also shows us that King did not do this alone. It gives insight into the leadership of others fighting the good fight for equal voting rights like John Lewis, a Congressional representative since 1987, who was a young leader of the civil rights movement at King’s side.

I am not troubled by the claimed factual inaccuracies (that happens with every historical film), especially in regard to the role of LBJ; it’s impossible to tell the full story of the three years covered in the film. And since it was directed by Ava DiVernay, an African-American woman, it comes from a black perspective—in itself a refreshing difference from history textbooks. Bill Moyers was recently interviewed about “Selma” and he said, “…it’s good to be reminded of a time when courage on the street is met by a moral response from power.”
It’s such an important film to see that a “Selma for Students” movement arose to offer thousands of free tickets to middle-school children across the country this past weekend as Martin Luther King Jr. Day is being celebrated.

On Sunday, Oprah Winfrey (one of the film’s producers and an actor in the film) and others from the cast along with a thousand ordinary people walked across the bridge in Selma to remind everyone that the civil rights struggles from the 1960s are not over; we are still living in a land that fails to provide equal justice for all. But the march yesterday was a far cry from the scene on March 7, 1965 when billy clubs and tear gas stopped the marchers from walking 50 miles to the capital of Alabama in Montgomery in order to get the right to register to vote. “Bloody Sunday” reminds us, yet again, that when we don’t see everybody as one, when we discriminate against others based on their race or religion or sexual orientation, blood is shed, innocents die, and hatred in the heart is reflected in leering faces like that of then Alabama governor George Wallace.

Hollywood somehow missed the boat on “Selma” by not nominating either its star, David Oyelowo, or its director. In fact, this year there was not a solitary person of color nominated for an Oscar in any acting category, the first time since 1998 that has happened—a snub that went deep since it came just before the MLK holiday. And a reminder that the Academy is 93 percent white and 76 percent male, with an average age of 63—much like the old white men in the South who tried to silence the voices of those not like themselves.

This movie is a “must see.” Do not miss the chance to understand the true nature of courage, to remember why we have to do whatever it takes to root out the seeds of prejudice from our own hearts, and to stand up fearlessly for justice and equality for all.

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Kick Off a New Healthier and Happier You!

by FeaturedHealth

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Beginnings are important. The first page of a book, the first line of a movie, a first encounter, the first month of a new year—they all set the tone for what’s to come. Think about how often the tone of your morning sets the tone for the day. Similarly, how you begin this new year and the behaviors you establish this month can set the tone for next twelve months, so you want to make it good!

January sees an increase in gym memberships and dieting, an up in detox meal plans and walks. Everyone wants to be healthier, and they figure that if they start the year off right, the positive momentum will keep them on track the rest of the year.

Real Healing Comes from Within

The problem is that fad diets and other thirty-day quick fixes don’t actually heal you, and therefore can’t really eliminate the negative behaviors you’re trying to put behind you. Real healing has to come from the inside and must treat your whole being, getting at the root of the issue. If your unhealthy habits are fueled by an old trauma or suppressed emotions—and nearly all bad habits are—you won’t be able to fully conquer the habit until you’ve dealt with the underlying emotional and energetic causes. This is where energy healing and meditation come in.

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Energy healing heals all of you. It clears up emotional blockages in your chakras so they can move energy in and out between your field and the universal field, keeping you recharged and replenished. Energy healing also gives you the tools to process current emotions to prevent further buildup. Not only does meditation heal you, it also expands your awareness, and brings you closer to Source and your higher self. With the guidance of your higher self, you become able to glimpse your true soul purpose, the reason you are here on Earth, which helps you stay more closely aligned with that purpose and speeds up your spiritual progress. All these benefits and more from something that you can do from home in just minutes each day!

Meditation really is the best way to jump into energy healing, and it’s my best recommendation for how to kick off this new year healthfully and set a calm, collected, and centered tone for your 2015.

Here are three tips for successfully beginning and maintaining a meditation practice:

 

  1. Do it daily.

Meditation is like wine: it only gets better with time. It is an incremental process that re-sets your physiology and psyche. Done daily, it decreases stress, slows heart rate, reduces blood pressure, improves sleep, turns back the clock, as well as spiritual expansion and increased connection to the Divine. Twenty minutes, twice a day is ideal. Try meditating first thing in the morning, to start your day refreshed and centered. Keep in mind as you begin that every single person in the world can learn to meditate. Like anything else, with practice it becomes easier.

 

  1. Schedule it!

You’ll need to schedule your daily meditation time, just like you do your gym time or walking your dog or hair appointments. It’s that important! In the meditation technique I teach, you’ll see that I encourage you to meditate before you leave the bedroom in the morning, before the pressures of your day hit. Early morning is also the most powerful time of the day for you to connect with Spirit – right around sunrise is ideal.

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  1.  Learn from a spiritual teacher.

Some of the mainstream meditation teachings put an emphasis on simple relaxation or tell you to empty your mind while meditating. How in the world do you do that! No wonder so many people give up! Instead, in the meditation technique I teach, I teach you to focus on a special mantra I choose just for you, which allows you to float just outside your thoughts and keeps you from getting restless.

No matter what you’re hoping to cultivate in this new year, meditation can help you. It improves every aspect of your being, just like energy medicine, and with continued meditation, all the pieces of your life will seem to make just a little more sense. Meditation can help you begin this year with more balance, clarity, peace, health, and happiness. I hope you will start right now!

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christmasishere

Have a Happier Home for the Holidays

by Featured

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Going home for the holidays is never as simple as it sounds. Whether you are literally traveling home to the place you grew up or simply gathering together with the people you grew up with, you are probably going to interact with family and old friends in the coming weeks. While there is a lot to enjoy about reuniting with loved ones, there are also some uncomfortable emotions that arise at these get-togethers as you likely have at least one person in your family who pushes your buttons or stirs up issues and emotions that are less than joyful. But you don’t have to let it spoil your cheer! With the help of these energy medicine techniques, you can improve your relations with your relatives, and have a happier, calmer, more fun home—literally or figuratively—this holiday season.

 

  1. Embrace forgiveness.

 

Family can be a mixed blessing, and the holidays can bring up long-standing issues between loved ones. Perhaps you and your cousin had a fight about something when you were teens and neither of you seems to be able to move past it, or maybe you felt betrayed by a loved one and are still waiting for an apology even though it’s been years. Whatever the issue is, seeing the person who wronged you, especially at a time when you are supposed to feel love and joy, can be make you depressed, anxious, or angry.

 

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This year, try forgiving your loved one. Carrying a grudge is so much more detrimental to your own health and wellbeing than it is to theirs, creating blocks in your chakras and hindering your spiritual progress. When you finally let that anger and resentment go, you will feel free, like a huge weight has been lifted from your chest and heart. Through energy healing, I was able to forgive my father for his abuse and my mother for her blind eye and coldness, and I have witnessed first-hand at my healing courses the relief of so many students who muster up the courage to forgive. Meditation, working with a spiritual teacher or energy healer, and journaling about your feelings are great ways to boost the process of forgiveness.

 

It’s not always easy, but forgiveness allows you to process the trauma and release it for good, clearing out all the negativity attached to the grudge and smoothing out your interactions with the person in the future. You will probably find that your shift in attitude toward them will create a similarly positive effect towards you, and you’ll both feel better. Even if the person doesn’t forgive you back, your internal response will be less reactionary and heathier for your mind, body, and soul—and your holidays! Forgiveness is the best gift you can give yourself this year.

 

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  1. Don’t engage in negativity.

 

You probably have that family member who just likes to push your buttons to see when you’ll pop. For many of my students that person is a mother or mother-in-law, who picks and criticizes, and makes snide remarks or backhanded compliments about everything from their clothes to their cooking. Another common family dynamic that creates negativity is sibling rivalry, which can lean to uncomfortable competitiveness or nights of each sibling trying to one-up the other at every turn. Tense family interactions can be fueled by a range of emotions including jealousy, fear, insecurity, shame, bitterness, spite, and a million other feelings that are bubbling all year but often seem to emerge during the holiday season.

 

Whenever possible, don’t engage in the drama. If your sister says for the fifth time that her mashed potatoes are better than yours, or your father-in-law mentions again that you paid too much for your house, just let it wash over you without soaking into your skin. Use the energy healing methods you’ve learned to maintain an emotional distance, call upon the calm and peace you’ve gained through meditation and grounding, and use your expanded awareness to view the situation from a place of love and forgiveness and just let it all go. Don’t snap back, but instead change the direction of the conversation or say something like, “Thank you for your opinion.” A fight can only escalate if both parties participate, so if you take a step back, the negativity will usually fizzle out.

 

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  1. Focus on renewing your healthy relationships.

 

Just as you have someone in your family who enjoys making you feel bad, I’m sure you also have at least one person in your family or friend group who makes you feel loved and appreciated. Focus on those positive, affirming relationships! Cultivating healthy relationships is an important part of feeling good about yourself and keeping your chakras and energy field clear and charged. When you surround yourself with people who have similar values, and who respect and appreciate you for who you are, your energy field doesn’t get drained the way it does around negative Nellies.

 

So let those in your life who support and care for you know how much you appreciate them at your next family gathering. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate gesture—though chocolate never hurt anyone in moderation—but take a moment to show or tell your loved that they’re important to you. Remember, they are probably feeling some of the same tensions you feel during these family get-togethers, so a nice moment with you is sure to life their spirits. This also engages you in the practice of gratitude, which will help shift your perspective into the positive.

 

However you spend your holidays, and whoever you spend your time with, keep in mind that the true purpose of this season is to spread light and love to others, through your words, your actions, and your attitude. Be the light you want to see and it will radiate out and then reflect back to you, creating concentric circles of light and love that extend far beyond you and your family and bring happiness for the holidays and joy to the world.

 

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bill22

An Open Letter to Bill Cosby’s Legal Team

by Uncategorized

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Are Bill Cosby’s lawyers working to defend their client’s name… or drag potential rape victims through the mud publicly?

 

More and more, it seems to be the latter. Despite the fact that there are now some 20 women accusing Mr. Cosby of sexual assault – and the list seems to be growing on a day-to-day basis – his lawyers continue to insist the claims are “old” and “ridiculous.” They ignore what could be an important truth and heap scrutiny and pressure on those who may have been victimized by their client.

 

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As a fellow attorney and a recovered sexual assault survivor, I’ve written an open letter to Mr. Cosby’s legal team. In it, I explain why it sometimes takes the truth so long to get out, the myriad struggles these women could be going through, and why blaming the victim isn’t just a poor strategy, but also ethically bankrupt.

 

Follow this link to Psychology Today to see what kind of advice I have for Bill and his lawyers, the media, and society at large.