Full moon in August

Full Moon in August: Celebrate the Gift of Plenty

by Energy HealingFeaturedGiftsGratitudeHealthSelf Love

Looking for a sign to guide you toward greater spiritual awakening and growth? This coming Sunday, August 26, the night sky will present you with a powerful opportunity to be awed, inspired, and taken to the next level! The full moon this week is capturing your attention reminding you of the eternal cycle of change and transformation that you are a part of. Ancient cultures used the moon’s movement to mark the seasons and guide their activities. You can use this same celestial energy to connect to your 8th chakra and above and to shine a light on your path.

Sit outside with as much skin uncovered to the moon as possible this week, to absorb its light. Then, this weekend, grab a blanket or sleeping bag and join me on your deck or in your back yard; this is THE month to sleep outside. Watch for falling stars, frequent in August!

What the August Full Moon Tells You

In Native American tradition, the August full moon is called “the Sturgeon Moon,” “the Green Corn Moon,” “the Grain Moon,” or, for the Dakota Sioux, “the Moon When All Things Ripen.” For tribes near the Great Lakes, the “Sturgeon Moon” marks the time when the large, prehistoric sturgeon fish is most plentiful and most easily caught. For all of us, the meaning of the August full moon is “plenty,” a time when the life-giving essentials of the Earth come forth.

There are questions you can ask in this time “when all things ripen” to help you heal and grow in mind, body, and spirit. The concept of “plenty” has important spiritual significance. It has brought life to humankind from the beginning and defined our relationship with the Universe. What does faith in the “plenty” of our world mean? What we believe about the Source of our plenty and our relationship to Source and to one another guides our lives. Now is the perfect time to explore what seeds have ripened in your life this season, what is plentiful, and how you have responded.

Full Moon Beams Power

You can use the illumination of the full moon to cast light on inner things, to help you look at your inner world of emotions, worries and anxieties, dreams, and unconscious beliefs. You can draw on full moon energy to explore and evaluate your goals and your ambitions in the window of moonlight. Remember that full moon energy amplifies your emotions and magnifies what is going on within. Look closely and learn. You can use the following questions to discover what the August moon’s promise of plenty means to you:

How do you define plenty?

For the Native fishermen of the Great Lakes, a bountiful catch of sturgeon signified plenty. Life depended on the gifts of the waters, the land, and the sky. What does plenty look like for you? Is it health, attractiveness, money, friends, career opportunities, achievements, faith? How does plenty make you feel and why?

What seems to be lacking in your life?

It may be that a sense of plenty escapes you. If you have a feeling of lack, try to determine what you think is missing. Do you see plenty somewhere other than where you are right now? See if you can find the origins of lack in your life. What exactly do you feel is “not enough”?

What has ripened for you in the current season?

Have you achieved a goal you were working toward? Did you set out to achieve something that has now come to you? If you have, how has it affected your feelings of plenty and/or lack in your life? 

How does it feel to be on your present path?

Your present life has grown from your past choices, hopes, dreams, and actions. Do you feel like your current path is the right one for you? Do you feel confident and inspired? If not, why not? How would it feel to revisit your choices? 

How have you shown gratitude for the plenty in your life?

Whether your heart swells with a feeling of plenty or you feel you could be on firmer ground, you have grounds for gratitude. The freedom, the energy, and the willingness to examine your inner self is something to be grateful for. Nothing empowers you like taking time to look within and seeing the gift that is your life. Make a gratitude list and be sure to include your power to recognize plenty and share it with the world.

Spending time with these questions brings comforting knowledge of who you really are and why you are here. Self-discovery brings peace, joy, and a sense of what is possible for you in the new span of days opening before you.

May the full Sturgeon Moon bring you a new sense of plenty and a new awareness of the miracle that is you. And may you be blessed with the radiance of healing moonlight on the evening of Sunday, August 26. See you outside next Sunday!

Happy energetic group

Your energy matters

by ChakrasEnergy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedGratitudeHealthMeditationSelf Love

Have you ever noticed the power of your smile? How different does it feel when you walk onto a crowded elevator with a smile instead of a look of irritation? Your smile is evidence of positive energy shining forth—sending waves of peace, tolerance, hope, and comfort into the world. Does it really matter whether you cultivate positive energy and project it forth? Nothing could be more important. Our world’s wellness depends on the kind of energy you contribute.

Energy Matters

In an energy-driven universe, we are givers and receivers. We are conduits of energy and we can decide what kind of energy we take in and give out. The news tells us the world is hurting. Too much hatred, anger, fear, greed, mistrust, incivility, rudeness, and selfishness have been going unchecked. And the greatest of these is fear—fear of not being enough, not having enough, fear that there isn’t enough.The good news is that individually and together we can use our positive energy to counter this absence of love.

I think of Rumi’s call to action: “Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder.” Ask yourself what energy you are you sending forth into the world. Do you bring light? Do you focus on love and unity? How do you present yourself to the world—your face, your body language, your words? What are your rules of engagement—-kindness, courtesy, laughter, openness, curiosity, respect, love?

You have the power to heal the world with your energy. You can change your energy, grow it, cleanse it, clear it! Here are five essential healing energies you can work with:

Compassionate Energy

The power to love and care for one another may seem to come naturally, but actually it is a learned behavior that is modeled for us. We love because we are loved and we know how love feels. Each day you can model compassion by consciously sending loving energy to the people you meet.

Creative Energy

Did you know you are a creative genius? The power to dream, imagine, invent, and build is part of who you are. With our creative gifts, we humans can envision a hopeful, sustainable future and travel there together. You bring joy to the world each day that you work, play, dance, sing, play music, write, paint, design, have fun, or teach someone else to do the same.

Courageous Energy

Every day that you spend living in faith rather than wringing your hands in fear is a great day for the world. Believing in a benevolent universe and a positive future takes courage. Being a role model for faith in the ever-present goodness can help heal the world. Be one of those who appreciates the good, who smells the rose, pets the dog, and shares a laugh at every opportunity.

Cooperative Energy

Can you imagine a world where cooperation—not competition—is the rule of the day? There is too much emphasis on who wins and who loses. Cooperation allows everyone to bring their gifts to the table. We can begin by choosing cooperation over competition at every opportunity.

Connective Energy

Quantum physics has confirmed what traditional wisdom has always told us. We are one unified energy field. When a tree falls in the forest, not only is there a sound but the air quality on the other side of the globe is diminished. We are connected and what affects one, affects us all. Unity is our foundation. Whatever you can do to strengthen your connection—to Source, to the natural world, to your fellow humans—do it today. Smiling at those people in the elevator blesses us all!

Checking in with your energy

Checking In with Your Energy

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedMeditation

Every year when vacation season arrives, you can’t miss the “Summer Reading” ideas that pop up in newspapers and magazines, bookstores and libraries. Figuring that you are going to have lots of time on your hands as you bask on the beach, makers of summer reading lists offer great new books you will definitely want to check out. As much as I love a good book, I’d like to suggest another kind of “summer reading” this year. Why not use some of that sweet breathing space to take a personal energy reading? If your summer respite is meant to give you new zest for life, it really helps to check in and see what your all-important energy is up to. Is it purring or sputtering? Is the rhythm right? How is your energy shaping your life right now?

Energy Is Life

Everything is energy—both the Universe that surrounds you and the inner energy system that is your life force. The state of your personal energy field is reflected in how you feel, how smooth-flowing or difficult your life feels. Does your energy feel light and bright? Or heavy, dark, and stuck? What is the first thing you think of when you wake up in the morning? Do you experience worry, dread, anxiety, even fear? Or do you wake up with joy, excitement, gratitude, anticipation? As my friend Louise Hay loved to say, it’s the difference between “Good morning, God!” and “Good God, morning!”

How connected are you to the harmonious energy of your Source? Are you drawing the power you need to thrive? If you feel uneasy in any area of your life—relationships, health, career, finances, self-esteem, faith—a summer energy reading will help you reset and make a fresh start. You can clear, cleanse, and recharge your energy. You can cultivate the positive, healing energy you want and achieve greater levels of peace, wellness, love, and joy.

Five Steps to Your Energy Reset

Try these proven ways to plug in and power up your energy this summer:

Step into nature for instant empowerment.

Just think how good it feels to walk barefoot in the grass, look up at the blue sky, and take a deep breath of fresh, fragrant air. Summer is a perfect time to get out and enjoy the natural world with all of your senses. If your energy feels stale and cramped, there is nothing like sunlight (or moonlight), flowing water, the wind in the trees, and direct contact with Mother Earth to give you a new perspective. Borrow energy from nature!

Keep a journal for the truth about you.

Not sure how you feel or what you think? No one knows more about your inner life than you. It’s just that occasions to reflect on your thoughts and feelings are too rare, unless you make it a priority. Take some summertime quiet to look within. Keeping a journal and taking the time to reflect and record helps you discover insights into your life. If you need to make changes, your feelings and thoughts help you see what is really important, what is really affecting you—not the opinions of others but your own deep truth.

Serve others for connectedness and unity.

Summer brings a gift of longer days and milder weather. Look for some new ways to give and serve that will help you jumpstart your energy. Do what you love and the energy will follow. Help an elderly neighbor with yard work or home maintenance. Start a community garden. Volunteer at the library for summer programs for kids. Love pets? Volunteer at the animal shelter. Finding a cause that speaks to your heart gives you a feeling of fellowship and hopefulness. Energy grows with connection to others.

Learn to meditate for clarity.

When you meditate, you plug in to the greatest power source of all, an energy much greater than your own. Learn to meditate from an experienced teacher who has felt the power of meditation in a deeply personal way. I consider meditation the cornerstone of my spiritual teaching and energy healing work. To connect with the ultimate Source of understanding and clarity, meditate daily. You will be keeping the door open to your greatest spiritual growth and happiness. Healthy energy is joyful!

Say “Please” and “Thank You!” Pray and Affirm!

What do you want? What are you grateful for? Where should you direct your energy for your greatest good? When you pray, you acknowledge the goodness in your life and ask for the direction you need to reach the things you desire. When you address the Source of All Being, you open a channel of communication that empowers you. Pray for a peaceful mind free of worry, fear, regret, and guilt. Give thanks for loving protection and guidance. Affirm “I have a peaceful, loving heart.” Feel your energy soar!

To learn more about your energy and the power of energy healing, join Deborah’s LifeForce Energy Healing® school. Start at the level where you’re comfortable.

Deborah's Elephant

A Baby Elephant – Just What I Always Wanted!

by AdvocacyEnergy HealingFeaturedGratitudePetsSocial Activism

At a retreat last week, my advanced students presented me with the most amazing, loving, and life-affirming gift. On my behalf, they made a donation to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust in Kenya. I am now fostering an orphaned baby elephant! I received a certificate from the orphan rescue program and will be able to follow my foster child’s growth and development in an online diary. His name is “Maktao” and he is three months old. I’m so thrilled and I hope I will be able to go to Africa soon to bond with him!

The Work of the DSWT

Best known for their work to protect elephants, The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT) operates the most successful orphan elephant rescue and rehabilitation program in the world. They embrace all measures that complement the conservation, preservation and protection of wildlife including anti-poaching, safe guarding the natural environment, enhancing community awareness and providing veterinary assistance to animals in need. Born from one family’s passionate love for Kenya and its wilderness, the trust is one of the pioneering conservation organizations for wildlife and habitat protection in East Africa.

DSWT was founded in 1977 by Dr. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, to honor the memory of her late husband, famous naturalist and founding Warden of Tsavo East National Park, David Leslie William Sheldrick. For over 25 years Kenya-born Daphne Sheldrick lived and worked alongside David, during which time they raised and successfully rehabilitated many wild species. At the heart of the DSWT’s conservation activities today is the Orphans’ Project, which has achieved world-wide acclaim through its hugely successful elephant and rhino rescue and rehabilitation program.

Orphans Welcome Here

The Orphans’ Project exists to offer hope for the future of Kenya’s threatened elephant and rhino populations as they struggle against the threat of poaching for their ivory and horn, and the loss of habitat due to human population pressures and conflict, deforestation and drought. When a tiny new-born elephant like my charge is orphaned, it is often because its mother and family have been killed to serve the brutal ivory trade. For an elephant, family is all important; a calf’s very existence depends upon its mother’s milk for the first two years of life. An Elephant Nursery now exists nestled within Nairobi National Park under the auspices of the DSWT. The nursery offers hope for any orphaned elephant fortunate enough to be found alive. They rescue and hand-rear elephant and rhino orphans, along with many other species.

Daphne Sheldrick worked for nearly three decades of trial and error to perfect the milk formula and complex husbandry necessary to rear an orphaned infant African elephant. Today, with support from many caring people world-wide, the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust is proud to have saved over 150 orphaned infant calves, which would otherwise have perished. More importantly, every one of these orphans can look forward to a quality of life in the wild, living free in Tsavo East National Park protected by their new extended orphaned family and friends among the wild herds.

Welcome, Maktao!

So my wonderful gift from my students of a chance to foster baby elephant orphan, Maktao, comes via The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust’s digital foster program. This program allows individuals across the world to support the trust’s field projects by fostering an orphaned elephant, rhino or giraffe in their care. All elephant, rhino and giraffe orphans rescued by the trust are available to foster, including those orphans living back in the wild. The DSWT’s Elephant Orphanage is open to the public for one hour every day, from 11 am to noon. During this time the orphans arrive for their midday mud bath and feeding. Baby elephants love their mud baths!

Welcome, Maktao, to the sponsorship of a caring human family—all of us here at the Deborah King Center. The Trust likes to name its orphaned elephants in a way that can identify them with their origin. The orphans come from all corners of Kenya and from many different elephant populations, so they are usually given place or ethnic tribal names, as was Maktao, where he was found.

The most precious gift is the gift of life. Thank you, my beloved students, for giving me this gift of life!

If you’d like to help a baby elephant, click here.

Chakra Health

Power Up Your Chakras!

by ChakrasEnergy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedHealth

As the daily news continues giving us reasons to be nervous and worried, anxious and afraid, angry and confused, how are you doing in this struggle between fear and love? We know what fear looks like, and we know we have to rise above life-destroying fear and seek life-affirming love. Each of us has the power to choose and use the unlimited energy of love available from our Divine Source. Take a look within. Is your connection to your loving Source clear and open? Is the energy of your love at the ready, flowing and powering your mind, body, and spirit? For the challenges we face, taking good care of your personal energy centers, your chakras, can help you fight fear.

Your Chakra Power

As invisible but vital energy centers, your chakras are designed to move energy between your personal field and the universal field. Your wellbeing depends on the energy you bring in, and your life of joy, fulfillment, and service depends on the energy you give out. Love can’t reign when fear is blocking the channels. When clear and balanced, your chakras are the means by which you replenish your energy and maintain your health. Without the healthy flow of energy through your chakras, you might feel empty, depressed, and powerless. Each chakra represents an aspect of higher consciousness that is essential to your life. As a system, the seven basic chakras integrate your mind, body, and spirit; and each has a physical, emotional, creative, and spiritual component.

Your Chakra Gifts

Each of your chakra centers is important because each one allows you to call forth different skills and strengths and bring them into the world. Keeping your chakras clear and balanced allows you to access your highest gifts and talents—those powerful energies that are your contribution to the world! Here are some of the ways your chakras affect your life:

First Chakra – This foundational chakra located at the base of your spine keeps you grounded and rooted, firm and secure in the world. However, fear of destructive events like those we are experiencing in our world today combined with personal fears about safety, security, and stability can disrupt or distort the free flow of energy in the first chakra. Taking a walk in the beauty of nature, actually touching the earth with your bare feet, can bring you back to the foundation of your being, make you feel present and safe, and strengthen your first chakra.

Second Chakra – Located about half way between the base of your spine and your navel, the second or sexual chakra is the center of your emotions and desires, and your interactions with other people. In the work of moving away from fear and toward love, a balanced second chakra is vital to helping you enjoy healthy intimate relationships and overcome feelings of guilt and shame that may interfere. Bathing in the ocean or a bath of sea salt and baking soda strengthens your second chakra as it restores you to the purity of your true nature.

Third Chakra – Located at the solar plexus and the center of your body’s metabolic fire, the third chakra is the seat of personal power. This primary power center is the source of will, purpose, and action—that which “moves” you in the world. If managing your energy in a healthy way to reach your goals and fulfill your purpose is a challenge, you may need to devote some loving attention to your third chakra. Physical activities such as gardening, sports, T’ai Chi, Yoga, and Pilates can awaken and recharge this energy center, especially if performed outside in the early morning sun.

Fourth Chakra – The fourth or heart chakra is the bridge between the three lower chakras that connect you to the earth and the three upper chakras that connect you to the Infinite. When the heart center is in balance, you are content, caring, compassionate and forgiving. Heart chakra balance gives you the courage to give and receive love even when fear and anger threaten to close you down. How precious is an open and compassionate heart in today’s world! One of the best ways to boost your heart chakra is by giving and receiving love with a pet. Animals are great role models for the unconditional love that heals us.

Fifth Chakra – When fifth or throat chakra energy is free-flowing and balanced, you are free to speak your truth. You are empowered to express who you are, what you feel, and what you believe. Speaking for your beliefs and your truth is essential for you to express the love that can overcome fear in the world today. Writing down your feelings with total honesty can help clear and charge your fifth chakra. Take time to use your “voice” to write, sing, read aloud, and communicate your true feelings.

Sixth Chakra – The sixth chakra or “third eye,” located between the eyebrows, is the source of intuition. When balanced, this chakra helps you keep an open-mind and have faith in your inner guidance. It supports your sense of the interconnection of all humanity and helps you seek the truth in any situation. When this chakra is out of balance, you may feel out of touch with your intuition and struggle with fear-based negative thinking and narrow-mindedness. Daily meditation helps you awaken this chakra and lets you increase your inner wisdom and your ability to “see” clearly.

Seventh Chakra – The seventh energy center or “crown chakra” is located at the top of the head. This is your connection with spirit, your higher power, and the universe. Opening outward and upward, this chakra draws light energy in from above and fills you with an experience of transcendence. Meditation, prayer, and communion with nature are powerful tools for boosting the seventh chakra. Keeping this connection free-flowing, balanced, and clear is your key to bringing all-powerful love into our world.

Working to take care of your chakra energy centers is simply making sure that you have access to all the powers, the gifts, the talents, the energy and the light that is you. Get ready to share your gifts, to move forward in love, to inspire and encourage others, and to live a life of love and joy.

You can learn more about the health of your personal energy centers and how to supercharge them here in the Secrets of Chakra Wisdom Course.

Open Borders

Love vs. fear – which is guiding us

by AdvocacyEnergy HealingFeaturedSocial

As a spiritual teacher, I’ve long taught there are two basic emotions – love and fear, and every emotion and action can be tracked to either one or the other.

If you prefer, call them good and evil, hope and hopelessness, the best of us and the worst of us, but know this: whatever the literary context, it always comes down to right and wrong.

When the border crisis is dismissed as “just political,” I feel compelled to speak. Nothing could be farther from the truth. A humanitarian crisis of historic proportion is unfolding at America’s borders. No ifs, ands, buts, or maybes, the stories aren’t fake but painfully real. It’s not about votes or nightly soundbites, but mothers and children, families and values.

Some things are simply too abhorrent to defend and most of us learned long ago that defending the indefensible will never work out. Coming to terms with a crisis like this is neither easy nor optional. We’ll either figure it out and learn from it or, failing that, risk the moral undoing of who we are and all we aspire to be.

As a horrified world watches America default the moral leadership that has inspired hope and set us apart for nearly two and a half centuries, it’s important to look beyond politics to fully understand what is occurring and what it means in human terms.

We have long stood for the country that takes all – the inscription on the Statute of Liberty reads:
“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”

It’s impossible to reconcile those sentiments with our current stance at the border. We have refugees seeking a better life here, and we are suddenly turning them into criminals and taking away their children in the process.

This can’t be sugar-coated or explained away.

There is nothing political in a baby ripped from her mother’s breast, a toddler sleeping on concrete under a mylar blanket in a facility reminiscent of a jail, or a stunned teenager frightened at a separation he can’t possibly understand.

This emphasis on fear isn’t new, take a look at what’s happening right now in France, German, Italy, and the Netherlands, where fear about the “otherness” of immigrants is being pushed. Around the world people are being manipulated by fear. Emotions are weaponized to trample human values. Ends justify the means as people are used heartlessly as pawns in a much bigger game. That the powerful blame the powerless to stay in power is an old story. Leveraging the emotional vulnerability of the weak to further an agenda is a new wrinkle on an old evil.

Blaming those with different ideas or viewed as threats is a proven technique shamefully enhanced. Look to the language used to justify inexcusable actions, how it expertly stokes fear to manipulate and encourage us to close our eyes to what we see and accept it as okay. Words like “crisis, disaster, an out-of-control influx of criminals pouring over open borders, drug dealers, thieves, rapists” – language meant to incite and further an ugly narrative.

We are told these are people we shouldn’t want or welcome. English isn’t their first language and their skin is often darker than ours. We’re warned that what they want is ours – told their gain is our loss – and it must be stopped.

There are a number of truths here. First, this is a real disaster. Second, it’s a crisis that didn’t have to be; it was discretionary. Third, we have more than enough room for immigrants, as we are a much less dense population than other countries and our population is declining. We should be eager to have these hard-working, highly motivated people who have a lower crime rate, higher marriage rate, and are more church-going than our own citizens, all values we claim to cherish.

Sadly, the tragedy is that there appears to be no carefully thought-out next step, no skillfully-exercised solution conceived to undo the damage done. We can imagine an ever-increasing number of children and families left in limbo for months. The human collateral damage is simply incomprehensible.

By leveraging immigration fears, we’re asked to turn our backs on refugees fleeing tyranny, ignoring our most basic, admirable American values.

I’ve always believed in the idea that there is enough, more than enough, for all of us. Plus, we all learned as children we must give to get. And there is no more basic teaching than the Golden Rule, telling us to do unto others as we would have others do unto us. The answer to our biggest problem lies within us.

Reject fear, choose love.

Value humanity above all else; in the end that’s our best and oldest defense.

Defend against fear by rising above it and meeting it with love.

That isn’t politics. It couldn’t be more human. Or divine.

Travel

Open Road, Open Heart: How Travel Transforms Us

by Energy HealingFeaturedUncategorized

Once people achieve the basic necessities of life—peace, freedom, and security—what do they begin to yearn for? You wouldn’t be wrong if you guessed travel! People are curious explorers who want to learn and discover and grow. The Open Road of myth and legend is actually a path to an open heart and an open mind, qualities that the human spirit is always seeking. At our best, we want to know our world and be connected in peace and understanding to all who share it with us. Travel is about people, who we are and what we want and need.

We put our discretionary income where our hearts are. According to the U.S. Travel Association, travel and tourism generated over $1.7 trillion in economic output in 2016 and supported 7.6 million jobs. A heartening feature of the travel industry is that it is highly dependent on human labor—robots will not be taking jobs in the travel industry any time soon. When you think of it, travel is people-centric. We travel to see new landscapes, it’s true, but we also want to meet the people who occupy those places. What do they eat? How do they dress? How do they live and what is important to them? What can we learn from them that will expand our hearts and minds?

You Don’t Have to Travel Far

There’s no need to travel around the planet to enjoy the benefits, although you are very blessed if you can manage it. The world is large, but you don’t have to go far to find a place where people live a different life from yours. As the late and much-beloved traveling chef, Anthony Bourdain said, “If I am an advocate for anything, it’s to move as far as you can, as much as you can, across the ocean, or simply across the river. Walk in someone else’s shoes or at least eat their food. It’s a plus for everybody.” Visiting a small farm town in the Midwest can take you a world away from the bustling mega-city where you normally spend your days. Extra blessed are those who can cross the oceans and the continents and meet people who speak a different language and raise goats instead of social media presence. They shall be rewarded with tolerance, understanding, and a new perspective on life.

As another TV travel hero, Rick Steves, says, “Thoughtful travel helped me become a better citizen of the planet.” Steves specializes in European travel but has visited nations from El Salvador to Iran to discover what the people think and feel as well as what they eat and drink. He says these connections with people “open you up to things” as they show you new ways of looking at the world. It’s hard to think in terms of “them” and “us” when we discover the shared concerns of people everywhere. Mark Twain famously said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

Any reduction in those human weaknesses would be a blessing indeed. And travel provides joy, adventure, and education while accomplishing this spiritual expansion.

Forget Fear and Embrace the Unknown

“Fear is for people who don’t get out very much,” says Rick Steves. Tourist industry experts report that more and more people are letting go of the “sanitized” excursions of yesteryear that offer to keep life just like home as you travel. Isn’t the core idea of travel to leave the everyday behind and experience the new? To recreate and reflect and come home with fresh energy and vision? More travelers are letting go of fear and letting the new enhance their chances of self-discovery. Travel organizers have responded with more trips designed to help people “transform” with adventure, exploration, education, volunteering, even spiritual training. Why do people love travel and seek it out to the tune of trillions of dollars each year? Because, when we look closely at ourselves, we see that to learn and grow makes us happy.

Will you be taking the Open Road this summer? Will you find ways to discover, learn, and grow? Whether you are flying to China to walk on the Great Wall or driving to Omaha to visit Aunt Charlotte, you can make your summer travel transformational. Wherever you go, you will see places, meet people, and hear stories. Of course, you’ll take photos. Try also to keep a gentle journal of your travels so that back home you can make a small memory book with favorite words and pictures to help you remember and reflect. Most of all, have fun! Learning opportunities that cost only loving awareness are everywhere for all who keep an open mind and an open heart.

Pet Power

Pet Power: The Amazing Ways Animals Help Us Heal

by Energy HealingFeaturedPets

Pet Power: The Amazing Ways Animals Help Us Heal

It’s no secret that our animal friends, our beloved pets of every species, provide us with companionship, love, and an overall feeling of wellbeing. They help us feel good in so many ways that we accept their value without question. In fact, all the animals of the Earth are worthy of our concern and protection and, today, need our attention more than ever. Although we’ve always known how important animals are to us, our knowing has been personal and intuitive. Now a new era of research has begun to discover the hows and whys of our bond with the animal kingdom. We know about “pet power” from our personal experience, but now science is exploring the power of human-animal connections to document and strengthen those ties!

Paws for People 101

In 2015, Tufts University launched a new research wing, the Tufts Institute for Human-Animal Interaction to discover more about this important connection. The campus library was already “healing with the animals” in a program called Tufts Paws for People, bringing pets into the library during exam week to help students handle their stress and anxiety. Customer satisfaction ratings were high. Everybody loved it! Later, the university documented the positive stress-reduction results with hundreds of students participating in a survey about their stress levels before and after they spent time with the animals. When science documents the feel-good power, support grows for more research and development in this life-changing field.

What Can “Pet Power” Do?

According to the American Heart Association, pet ownership is linked to a reduction in cardiovascular disease risk factors, such as lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol levels, and reduction in obesity. Research has shown that interacting with animals can increase people’s level of the hormone oxytocin, the “hug hormone,” which brings feelings of happiness and trust. Being with pets also causes your body to release serotonin, dopamine, and prolactin, more feel-good hormones. Pet your dog or cat for a few minutes and your cortisol, a stress-related hormone, will dip. Interacting with pets helps us relax, and they are pretty happy chilling with us, too!

Pet ownership is often recommended for people suffering from depression, low self-esteem, and severe anxiety. Animals are role models for being present, enjoying simple pleasures, being active and awake to their surroundings. Taking your pet for a walk takes you out of your head and into the world, where they eagerly and joyfully demonstrate how to explore and appreciate the environment.

Pets Bring You to Life!

Dr. Marty Becker, known as “America’s Veterinarian,” has made his life’s mission advocating for the wellness benefits of the animal-human bond. “Pets bring you to life,” he says, citing the physical, social, and medical avenues of healing that pets provide. In his lifetime, he has seen the human-animal bond move from the realm of folk wisdom to the realm of scientific research. “We have to prove it is true,” he says. Science is now confirming that people who interact with pets enjoy better physical health, a stronger social connection, and a greater sense of joy and wellbeing.

And, the wellness feeling is definitely mutual. What Dr. Marty Becker calls the “love loop” between humans and pets can be measured. Adoption rates increase at shelters where volunteers visit the animals to play with them and help them develop their social skills. Pet owners with chronic pain report less need for medication than people who don’t have an animal presence at home. Counselors, therapists, and teachers are drawing on the healing power of pets in their work. From veterans with PTSD to children with autism, more people everywhere are “feeling the healing” with pets!

Want to Help?

You can contribute to animal welfare by supporting your local shelter and donating to animal protection organizations. But what if you have a pet you would like to train with for animal therapy work? Look for opportunities in your community to join visitation programs that teach people and their pets how to help and heal. It could be a wonderful learning experience for you and your animal companion!

If you love animals like I do, you’ll love my new course, Communicating with Pets and Animals.

2018ElephantBlog

Help Save the Elephants

by AdvocacyEnergy HealingEnergy MedicineEnvironmentalFeaturedPets

“Elephants cannot be manufactured. Once they’re gone, they cannot be replaced.” – Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Founder of Save the Elephants

You probably don’t remember the first time you saw an elephant. Was it on a TV screen, in a book or a magazine, or maybe at the zoo? You may have been a child with a stuffed elephant on your toy shelf or a pair of elephant-patterned sleepers. This iconic animal has been a part of human consciousness for millennia—think about the ancient Hindu god Ganesh, for example. Always believed to be highly intelligent as well as mighty in strength, elephants are not mythical beings like unicorns or dragons. Elephants are real, and they need our help desperately if we are going to keep them with us on planet Earth.

And we do want to keep them! Elephants are gentle giants, largest of all land animals. They play an important role in maintaining the biodiversity of the ecosystems in which they live. Both African and Asian elephants form female-led, tight-knit groups consisting of a dominant matriarch and her female relations plus their calves. Living in groups makes individuals safer and allows them to devote more time to caring for and teaching the young. Research shows that elephants have amazing long-term memory and can recognize themselves in a mirror, showing self-awareness. They understand what other elephants are feeling and comfort one another. They also assist other injured elephants, and even mourn their dead.

What makes elephants special in addition to their intelligence and self-awareness? Their amazing anatomy! Here are some details from the International Elephant Foundation: The elephant trunk serves as a nose, a hand, an extra foot, a signaling device and a tool for gathering food, siphoning water, dusting, digging and much more. Elephants don’t drink with their trunks, but use them as “tools” to drink with. This is accomplished by filling the trunk with water and then using it as a hose to pour it into the elephant’s mouth. Elephants can swim – they use their trunk to breathe like a snorkel in deep water.

And then there are the elephants’ precious tusks. Most precious to them, and they should be allowed to keep them! Both male and female African elephants grow long tusks. Tusks are actually elongated upper teeth embedded deep in the elephant’s head with up to a third of the tusk hidden from view. They have a variety of uses: as a tool to dig for food or water and to strip bark from trees; as a weapon in battles with rivals; and as a courtship aid. The tusks of elephants grow throughout their life and can weigh over 200 pounds.

Each year tens of thousands of elephants are killed for their tusks. Although people do care about elephants being killed in Africa, they may not be aware of the full story and the implications for world peace. Because of the high value of wildlife trafficking, organized crime and terrorist organizations have a stake in the black market operation that brings in billions of dollars and funds civil wars in Africa as well as global terrorism. According to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, “Stopping poaching is no longer only about protecting the planet’s natural resources. It is also a national security issue, a public health issue and an economic security issue.” The Elephant Crisis Fund proposes using “the best ideas and actions from a diverse coalition of effective leaders, non-profit organizations, institutions, media, scientists, and governments.”In other words, it will take a village, a global village, to solve the elephant crisis.

Ironically, one of the most popular elephant stories of all time is Jean de Brunhoff’s children’s book The Story of Babar (1931) which begins with Babar the baby elephant being orphaned by hunters. Today, aid organizations are working to protect the animals from poachers while keeping their natural habitat intact—no easy matter. In fact, this crisis of existence for the elephant is a spiritual crisis for humans. While some humans are destroying, others are choosing to protect.

You may remember another classic children’s book, an elephant tale which portrays the heroic efforts of Dr. Seuss’s Horton to save an entire civilization. “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful 100 per cent!” are Horton’s words to all the naysayers who don’t think his mission is possible. Horton’s efforts defined his noble spirit, just like our human spirit must grow and be defined by our effort to defend and protect our planet’s most at-risk members.

For more information on elephants, check out my newest course.

billcosbyguilty

Cosby Conviction a Victory for Women and Men

by AdvocacyCelebritiesEnergy HealingFeaturedSocialWomen

It’s nothing less than a seismic cultural shift, perhaps the greatest our generation will ever witness.

Twelve men and women comprising the jury in a Norristown, Pennsylvania courtroom did the unthinkable on Thursday, convicting Bill Cosby, now 80 years old, of drugging and sexually molesting Andrea Constand in 2004. The verdict was met with cries of relief and joyful celebration. It changes everything, and not just for women, but for everyone. Its significance cannot be overstated, because this is about more than any one man, any one case, or any one movement.

#MeToo will garner much of the credit for changes in attitude that brought the man down. The movement was certainly a catalyst, and deserving of credit, but what’s bigger this time is that it’s about all of us. Understanding it requires putting the man, his groundbreaking life, the broken and shattered lives of millions of women throughout history, along with the movement, into context.

Bill Cosby was nothing less than an American icon; wildly popular stand-up comic that broke ground in the 50’s and 60’s and never stopped. The first African-American to star on a national network’s television series, I Spy in 1965. He won Emmy’s, three consecutively.

“The Cosby Show,” a staple on NBC from 1984-1992, featured America’s first affluent and educated black family. Here he became America’s Dad. With “I Spy” some had called Cosby the Jackie Robinson of TV, and there was truth to that. In “The Cosby Show” he became the black Marcus Welby and during its run there was no bigger star on TV.

Cosby’s wealth and influence grew along with his fame. He was revered, respected, trusted and handsomely paid. His voice could be heard on Saturday morning children’s television, and for years, he was the famous spokesperson for no less an American institution than Jello Pudding.

Now, his name and face are infamous, and he has become a national pariah synonymous with something evil and wrong that has gone on for the past 5,000 years + of patriarchy. Molesting Andrea Constand was no isolated event. Dozens of accusers had made similar charges over decades against the comedian, television star, and professor, that had embodied what we considered good and admirable in our society for over half a century.

Constand’s case, however, was the only one where the statute of limitations hadn’t yet run. She deserves our thanks and admiration for her courage and commitment to finding justice.

And so, last Thursday, in a retrial after a hung-jury couldn’t reach a verdict in a trial last year, America’s most famous dad became America’s most infamous felon.

The thunder of hooves you hear is the stampede of corporations, universities, the rich, the famous, and the rest of us, cutting financial and emotional ties with a man that had been part of American life for most of our lives. The silence is the absence of his sitcom reruns no longer airing.

Women around the world are celebrating and this is proper given the conviction of a man of such stature that did unconscionable evil.

What Harvey Weinstein ignited fueled movements and a meteoric cultural recalibration. Cosby’s conviction is the best worst-case example of how society’s bullet-proof protections for sexual predators have disappeared; perhaps, at last, forever. What was once okay is no longer okay and will no longer be ignored and swept under the rug. At last, a woman’s voice can be heard.

The movement, like the Cosby conviction, should be considered not only a game-changing, needle-moving event, but also a moment and opportunity for national healing.

After experiencing sexual abuse as a child, I’ve worked through it all my life as a writer, speaker, and spiritual teacher. I wrote my first book, Truth Heals, because healing should be our highest priority. Even now. Especially now.

The verdict isn’t just a victory for #MeToo, and it’s much more than a victory for women. It’s a victory for all of us, women, and men, too.

Equality of rights, opportunities and treatment under the law – for everyone.

Perhaps it’s time for #MeToo to consider a companion movement.

We could call it #AllofUs.

We’d love to read your comments.

How to heal your chakras with food

Chakra Foods for Healing & Health

by ChakrasEnergy Healing

Energy is the basis for everything on this planet, and if you’ll recall from your high school physics class, energy cannot be created or destroyed; it can only be transformed. So when you need fuel, you need to eat. But did you know that you can choose foods that have specific vibrations that correspond to some chakras, thereby helping to raise the chakra’s vibration and recharging it? With this knowledge, you can eat for bodily fuel and eat to support your chakras.

Nourishing Energy

Chakras are spinning “wheels of light” or energy centers in the body that start at the root chakra at the base of the spine, and travel up to the crown chakra at the top of your head, stopping at five other points along the way. When your chakras are open and operating at their fullest, they draw fresh energy in from the unified field that replenishes and nourishes your personal energy field and keeps you healthy.

The Cost of Imbalanced Chakras

Each chakra rules over a different part of your body and different areas of your life, so if a chakra is out of whack, the body parts and life arenas it rules will also become imbalanced. For example, the heart chakra is connected to the lungs, the circulatory system, and your heart, and rules relationships and your ability to give and receive love. If your heart chakra is distorted, you may have trouble maintaining healthy relationships and find it difficult to allow love into your life. If the fourth chakra remains imbalanced for long enough, you could develop physical symptoms like breathing problems or asthma, or even suffer a heart attack or breast cancer.

The Rainbow Diet: Food for Energy Healing

The good news is that you can clear, charge, and balance your chakras to heal them before physical symptoms ever develop. That is one of the best things about energy medicine—you can address issues in your field before they manifest in your body. Working with a spiritual teacher or energy healer can help you determine which of your chakras needs balancing—and most people have several—and then you can target your efforts toward the energy center that needs the most help. Making your food choices for the health of your chakras is another way to get started healing your chakras, and your life.

A colorful rainbow diet will do more than just keep your body healthy — it will also keep your chakras balanced. Whether you want to lose weight or increase your energy levels, incorporating foods from all the colors of the rainbow will help you achieve balance, so you look and feel your best.

Root Chakra Foods

Root Chakra Foods

Your first chakra is located at the base of your spine and is connected to your security and survival. As your foundation, your root chakra connects you to the physical world. When your root chakra is unbalanced you may not feel safe in your body or find yourself stressed.

Since this chakra is all about grounding you to the earth, adding root vegetables to your diet can help strengthen your connection to the physical world.

Vegetables

Can help heal your root chakra include beets, rutabagas, garlic, ginger, turnips, potatoes, onions, and parsnips. Try them roasted with salt and olive oil for an easy grounding meal that is also delicious!

Protein

Especially red meat, is also grounding (think: earthly mineral stews and bone broths). If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, red beans and lentils are a great protein source for your root chakra, as are eggs, tofu, and peanut butter.

Hearty harvest grains

Grains such as bulgar, buckwheat and whole oats, provide your body with complex carbohydrates and are a valuable source of fiber. When buying grains at the grocery store, always opt for whole-grains that are made cereal grains that include the whole kernel. When you’re shopping for whole-grain products, look at the ingredients and make sure the whole grain is at or near the top of the list.

Red fruits

Such as red apples, watermelon, pomegranates, and berries — can help to recharge your root chakra.

Spices

Spices like chives, paprika, and pepper can be added to root chakra foods for an added boost of healing.

If you are a tea drinker, enjoy a cup of rooibos and hibiscus tea (hot or iced) to help heal your root chakra.

Sacral chakra foods

Just below your navel sits your second chakra. As the foundation of your emotional body and the center of the pleasure principle, your sacral chakra allows you to feel your emotions, to be open and friendly with other people, and to be in touch with your sexuality and sensuality.

In the sacral chakra, you move from standing on the solid ground of your first chakra to the fluid world of your second chakra. This chakra is the essence of life as seen in bodily fluids like blood and tears and lymph. There is no life on earth without water. While the first chakra challenges you to create structure and hold your ground, the second wants you to let go so your creativity can flow.

A healthy sacral chakra aids in control and balance in your life.

Pure water

It is the best thing you can ingest as a sacral chakra healing food.

Clear liquids

Such broth or tea, will also help to clear and balance your second chakra. If you are looking for some spices for your tea, cinnamon and vanilla are good choices – and you can even add a bit of honey to keep your sacral chakra fluid and flowing.

Vegetables

That help heal your sacral chakra include carrots, peppers, and squashes. When cooking sacral chakra vegetables, try adding spices like turmeric, ginger, or cumin for an extra dose of healing power.

Orange sweet fruits

Such as melons, mangos, tangerines, and oranges — will all help charge your sacral chakra. In addition to their color, these orange chakra fruits also have a high water content which will help keep this energy center open and flowing.

Sacral Chakra Foods
Solar Plexus Chakra Foods for Healing and Health

Solar plexus chakra foods

The third chakra is located halfway between your navel and sternum and is the source of your ego and self-esteem. As the furnace of your personal power, your solar plexus chakra is home to your authenticity and sense of self. When it comes to foods for your solar plexus chakra, you should focus on foods that help transform the energy from your first two chakras and send it up to your fourth chakra.

A healthy and balanced third chakra seeks to balance self-esteem issues and intuition.

Sunny yellow fruits and vegetables

Help to clear and balance your solar plexus chakra. Think yellow peppers, corn, lemons, and bananas.

Complex carbohydrates and whole grains

Will provide your third chakra with the slow-burning power it needs to convert energy. Avoid foods that the body absorbs quickly, such as sugar, white flour, and refined and processed foods. Whole grain cereals and brown rice are good options. You can also add in flax seeds and sunflower seeds for healthy fats.

Digestive-friendly foods

Such as kefir, kombucha, and yogurt. will replenish the good bacteria in your gut and help keep the energy in your solar plexus chakra moving.

Chamomile and herbal teas

Herbal teas (especially mint and ginger) have a soothing healing effect on the solar plexus chakra.

Heart chakra foods

Your fourth chakra is located by your heart and is the center of love and compassion — both for yourself and others. As the bridge between your lower three chakras and upper three chakras, the heart chakra is all about balance — coming into balance within yourself as well as with your relationships and whatever is happening in your environment.

Vibrant green nutrient-rich vegetables

Especially leafy and cruciferous ones like kale, lettuces, spinach, chard, bok choy, collard greens, and broccoli, will really ramp up the energy of your heart chakra and help to heal it. The fourth chakra is also about balance, and green veggies are neither yin nor yang in Chinese medicine, so they maintain the equilibrium that is essential to the health of this chakra.

Green water-based alkalizing fruits

Such as limes, green apples, and avocados, will also help balance your heart chakra so that you can become more contemplative and more conscious.

Green beans

Think: lima beans and mung beans. These are also healing foods for the heart chakra.

Green tea

Will help keep your heart chakra healthy.

Spices

Such as basil, thyme, and cilantro will help charge your heart chakra.

Heart Chakra Foods for Healing and Health
Throat Chakra Foods

Throat chakra foods

The fifth chakra is located in the center of your throat, and it connects the feelings in your heart center with the thoughts in your brow chakra, allowing you to express your emotions and thoughts. Being the first of the spiritual chakras, the fifth chakra is the portal through which you bring spirit into the physical realm, where you connect with your true essence.

Representing will power and responsibility, and unhealthy throat chakra can manifest as a cold or sore throat due to an inability to express oneself. Speaking your truth is the best food you can feed your throat chakra.

Liquids

Like water, fresh 100% fruit juices (with no added sugars), and herbal teas will help to keep your throat chakra healthy.

Blue foods

That occur naturally are rare. However, blueberries are one type of throat chakra healing food that is widely available.

Fruits that grow on trees

Like apples, peaches, pears, apricots, and plums, also work to balance the throat chakra.

Third eye chakra foods

The sixth chakra, called the brow chakra or the third eye, is where your master mind plugs into a new type of wisdom from beyond this realm, providing amazing insights that will allow you to solve any problem.

The sixth chakra is located just above your eyebrows in the center of your forehead. Because the sixth chakra is located in your head rather than in your torso like the first five chakras, it has a slightly different nature and is the control center for some very powerful gifts: thinking, wisdom, psychic gifts, and intuition. It’s a stunning indigo color, which indicates peace and tranquility. It’s all about your intuition, your ability to plan, forecast, sense, and know.

Nuts, seeds, and legumes 

Especially raw walnuts, sprouted almonds, and poppy seeds — are nutrient-dense and packed with antioxidants that will help heal your third eye chakra.

Water

Metal detoxers from the ground

Such as harvest grains and mushrooms, work to remove heavy metals that are in your body as a result of your environment and everyday life activities.

Purple fruits

Like goji berries, acai, concord grapes, and blackberries all supply a megadose of nutrients, optimizing the functionality of your third eye chakra.

Third Eye Chakra Foods for Healing and Health
Crown Chakra Foods for Healing and Health

Crown chakra foods

The seventh chakra is home to your radiant spiritual center and connection to Source. Your crown chakra is more spirit than earth, so its nourishment really comes from sources other than food, including love and a strong connection to the Divine.

Located on the topmost part of your head, eating light meals while engaging in a spirit-boosting activity like meditation can energize your crown chakra.

Incense and smudging herbs like sage, copal, myrrh, frankincense, and juniper, can help awaken your crown chakra to the highest form of spiritual communication.

If you are interested in learning more about your chakras, enroll in my Secrets of Chakra Wisdom online video course. In this course I’ll teach you how to deepen and broaden your connection to your personal energy field so you can achieve powerful initiations and continue your spiritual journey.

Download your printable Chakra Wisdom Chart PDF today

(it’s free!)

Interested in learning more about your 7 chakras?

chakra food chart pdf

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Vibrational Sound Therapy for Healing

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineSound Therapy

My childhood was dedicated to music. As an adult, I returned to the study of music briefly when I gave myself a term at the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just to have fun with music. While there, I attended a weekend workshop taught by the conductor of the Paris Symphony. He was very gifted. The ten of us attendees sat around in a circle, he would make a sound, and we would answer with a sound; there was no other conversation that weekend. I fell right into this experiential lesson, and I could feel my body changing as it was bathed in this spontaneous creation of sound. After the workshop, I walked outside, and suddenly I was hearing full chords and harmonics. Wondering where that music was coming from, I realized it was from the sound of an overhead jet. I had been initiated into a state where music was everywhere, and I remain there today.

Each healer works differently, but for me, the channel I use the most is sound. I actually hear a note or particular chord that tells me what healing channel I’m on. The notes identify which guides are there. I am like a resonating instrument, picking up the sound that’s coming in. I listen to a person’s body to hear what key she is in. If I hear a particular tone, I know I’m hearing cancer. I can listen still deeper and hear the state of her soul and her deepest longing. I connect to Source and hear which note will help that person, and then I direct and transmit that healing sound to the individual. Sometimes I use my voice to sound out the tone; sometimes I send the tone silently.

Everyone and everything in the universe vibrates at a certain frequency, which we refer to as sound. When you connect with other beings or things that have the same frequency pattern as yours, you are in alignment with them. In other words, you resonate with them. We are happiest when we’re around people who have very consistent frequencies that match our own. Our resonance gives us a feeling of calmness and peace. Even better is when we’re around people we love and who love us. Love’s particular frequency is higher than all other commonly known frequencies. When you are expressing the energy of love through sound, it has the power to heal. The consistent and pure tones of the higher emotions— hope, love, optimism, belief, happiness, joy, freedom, and so on—nurture your nervous system and the beating of your heart.

Conversely, when we’re around hurtful people who are yelling, screaming, and making loud noises, we want to run because we’re responding to their negativity. The sound of fear, for example, is much like a scream. It isn’t healthy for your heart function or for your immune or nervous systems. If someone stood near you screaming in fear for a couple of hours, you would likely want to escape the situation. Now imagine subjecting your kidneys to the same frequency as that scream—it’s not hard to believe that they might suffer some ill effects after prolonged exposure, is it? But this is what happens when fear stays inside you for a long period. All the lower emotions—frustration, impatience, doubt, worry, hatred, jealousy, guilt, unworthiness, despair, pessimism, and powerlessness—are distorted sounds that can eventually break down your physical health. Erratic and inconsistent frequencies, such as those from phones, computers, cars, planes, and electricity, can also be distracting and unsettling.

When you are facing a difficult challenge or negative situation, tuning in to your body as if you were tuning in to your favorite radio station will help you reach its healthy frequencies. Raising your vibration is as much about the purity and consistency of your sound frequency as it is about raising your frequency. A consistent frequency means one that doesn’t waver. Love, for example, is a pure form of consistent frequency, so when we resonate with the frequency of love, we are bringing ourselves into that vibration, which leaves no room for negativity.

Much like your emotions, your intentions are also based on vibration. The more unwavering the vibration or frequency, the stronger your intention will be.It’s incredibly powerful to hold a firm intention to send love to someone who needs healing. However, if your intention isn’t firm, you may find it difficult to effect healing.

When your thoughts are aligned with the highest vibrations, they reach the core frequency of love that can be heard throughout the universe. That’s why thoughts backed with focused intention are the greatest forces for healing. This premise leads us to the fundamental goal for all energy healers—to reach our core frequency and send out a force of positive thoughts and intentions as often as we can to help heal the world.

* This article is an excerpt from Heal Yourself — Heal the World (Simon & Schuster, 2017) and has been reprinted with permission. To read more about sound healing in the book, order a copy on Amazon.

Sound Healing Methods

More on sound therapy for healing

Blog Article

Sound Healing Methods: 7 Ways to Raise Your Vibration

Tibetan Tingsha Cymbals

Sound is a powerful healing modality in energy medicine. One of the best things about the many 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 basic skills. Check out the entire article and add these 7 sound therapy methods to your healing regimen today.

Read Entire Article

On-Demand Workshop

Highlights of the Sound of Healing

If you’re interested in taking your sound healing technique to the next level, enroll in the Sound of Healing workshop today.

Taught by New York Times bestseller Deborah King, the Sound of Healing is a 10-part, on-demand, self-study, go-at-your-own-pace video workshop in which you’ll learn new sound therapy methods that you can use to heal yourself or others. From understanding seed sounds for each chakra to witnessing and following along with a hands-on-healing session, this sound healing certification course will show you how to create harmony — body, mind, and soul.

Sound of Healing Workshop
Healthy Cats

Raising an Energetically Healthy Pet

by Energy HealingFeaturedHeal Yourself—Heal the WorldPets

When you aim energy healing in the direction of your loving pets, much of that healing mojo will come right back to you. All you have to do is show a little love for an animal by merely petting it on the head and it will automatically produce a hormone in you that activates your nurturing abilities. And this is just the tip of the iceberg—innumerable studies are now being conducted on the powerful connection between owners and their pets.

You’d be amazed to learn at how much making a conscious effort to heal and connect with your pets will benefit you in return.

Healthy Pets
Healthy Cats
Healthy horses

An example of how helping a pet can heal you: Elizabeth and Miracle Millie

A student of mine (who I’ll call Elizabeth) recently shared a story with me that demonstrates how animals and people can have powerful healing impacts on each other, both physically and emotionally. A few years ago, Elizabeth’s’ world was turned upside down when she suddenly lost her job. In addition to the devastating blow to her confidence and self-esteem, Elizabeth immediately lost her health insurance and was unable to continue working with the therapist who had been treating her for the debilitating anxiety and depression she had struggled with since childhood.

It didn’t take Elizabeth long to retreat to the dark places of her mind: she was spending days in bed, ignoring texts from concerned friends, and phone calls from family asking her to come visit so she could rest and reset in a safe environment.

One week after Elizabeth’s life shattered, she was scrolling mindlessly through Facebook on her phone from bed. Suddenly, she stopped at a post from an animal rescue organization about a disabled dachshund in need of a foster home. The rescue called her “Miracle Millie” because they didn’t think she would survive the night; a staff member at Animal Care and Control had found Millie in a cardboard box outside of the employee entrance to the shelter. In addition to surviving the severe August heat, the on-duty vet recognized symptoms that pointed to poisoning. Upon further evaluating Millie, the doctor realized that she had “gone down” and likely had IVDD (a common—but devastating and lifelong—back disease in dachshunds). We’ll never know the exact events that took place to Millie arriving at Animal Care and Control, but most likely whoever had Millie before she arrived at the shelter didn’t want to deal with a dog that couldn’t use their back legs, so they poisoned her. When Millie didn’t die, they left her outside the shelter.

By the grace of higher powers, the dachshund rescue group that Elizabeth followed on Facebook pulled Millie from the shelter and got her into an animal hospital nearby. Over the course of weeks, Millie made an amazing recovery and—on that one day when Elizabeth was on Facebook—needed a foster home where she could gain back her strength, put on the weight she had lost, and begin to trust again.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Millie made an amazing recovery, and on the day she was scheduled to be released to a foster home, Elizabeth checked out the shelter’s Facebook page, and the rest is history. She took Millie and for a month, they kept each other company on the couch…each healing in their own way: Millie from her physical trauma (Elizabeth assisted her in eating, drinking, and physical therapy exercises designed to build up her back muscles again) and Elizabeth from her job loss that compounded her depression and anxiety (Millie sat there right next to Elizabeth while she responded to job post after job post, listened to recruiters wax and wane about their wonderful client…only to never be heard from again, and gave her the extra confidence she needed when a hiring manager wanted to talk on the phone).

The story of Elizabeth and Miracle Millie has a happy ending: Elizabeth landed a job that was a step up from her previous one and Millie now lives in the countryside with a newly retired couple who are avid sports fans (and spend a lot of time hanging out on the couch together). When you hear Elizabeth speak of Millie, she doesn’t consider it an act of charity or a “nice thing” that she did for an animal in need—rather, she speaks of how Millie saved her. Millie gave Elizabeth a reason to get out of bed each morning and helped her work through what could have been a much more difficult time.

Any pet lover will immediately understand the bond between Elizabeth and Millie. As someone who has worked with both people and pets, I can attest to the shared and exchanged energy between both parties. And as a pet owner, you want to keep that energy healthy, happy, and balanced all around—so you both are able to thrive and live your best lives.

how pets heal us
Millie's preferred activity: snoozin' next to Elizabeth on the couch.
pets and healing
Elizabeth helping Millie at a physical therapy session.

Ways to care for your pets that keep you both feeling good:

Feed your pets natural foods

Animals are as sensitive as humans to the unnatural additives, colorings, and preservatives that are used in many brands of commercial pet food. They may be allergic to some of these harmful chemicals, which could lead to behavior problems, excess weight gain, or dental issues. Holistic vets recommend natural diets, like raw foods, for cats and dogs.

Give your pets pure water

If your pets are not drinking enough pure water, it will affect both their health and their energy field. The smell or taste of tap water may not be appealing to them, so try filtered water or still (non-bubbly) mineral water. Beef broth or other meat broths, which you can cool down for them, are another way to get your pets to drink more.

Let the sun shine on your pets

Pets need sunshine for health as much as we do. They need to go outside for at least an hour a day to prevent depression, lethargy, and illness. Full-spectrum lighting has been used to prolong the lives of hamsters with heart disease. Keep both you and your pet healthy by going outdoors in the sunshine for a walk. If you have indoor pets, make sure they can access a place in the sun by a window.

Be a friend to your pets

Just like us, pets need companionship. Animals get lonely, so they love being around people and sometimes even other pets. I actually got a mini—a small horse—to keep my big horse, Influence, company when his pet goat passed on. Some pets, such as rabbits, gerbils, birds, fish, guinea pigs, and even rats, do best in same-sex pairs. Hamsters, on the other hand, are happiest by themselves in their own little world. Some pets, like llamas, will really become despondent if they don’t have the companionship of another llama; you’ll want to be informed about their needs before you choose an exotic pet.

Give your pet(s) space

All pets need lots of room to move around easily. We cannot imprison our pets in cages, pens, or runs that are too small. However, some dogs feel safest in a “den,” like a crate or kennel for sleeping. Listen to your animal’s needs and act accordingly.

energy healing for dogs

heal yourself heal the worldLearn more about energy healing for pets

Pets have always been an important part of my life and I have experienced their amazing healing capabilities firsthand. So, when I started working with Simon & Schuster on my latest book, Heal Yourself—Heal the World, I planned for an entire section of it to be dedicated to energy healing for pets.

As an energy healer (and animal lover), I’ve spent many years studying and practicing a variety of mindfulness methods and healing techniques specifically for animals. This helped me to be there when any of my own loving animal companions were in pain and in need of my healing hands. In Heal Yourself—Heal the World, I share these methods with you so you can be equipped for any animal that might live with you (or come through the doors of your new practice as an energy healer).

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energy healing for cats

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Shrugging at Addiction

by Energy HealingFeaturedHealth

Do you have a friend or relative who is struggling with addiction to opioids? Would you even know if they were in the grips of addiction, or are they too embarrassed to admit it?

The opioid crisis has reached epidemic proportion in the good old U.S.A. People are in pain—whether that pain is physical, like post-surgery, or emotional, like the hopelessness and despair that has encompassed whole towns and rural areas in our country. And when you go to the doctor, looking for help with your pain, you are handed a prescription—a legal pathway that can lead straight to addiction. Eventually you are desperate to get more of these miracle pills that take away your pain for the moment, even if they cause more pain in the long run. Or you simply turn to heroin—easy to get, hard to let go of.

It’s a terrible thing to experience, whether in yourself or in a loved one. And “just say no” has been proven, over and over again, not to work, despite the current president saying about drugs, “it’s really, really easy not to take them.”

It’s not easy, but there are ways that will help. Ready my blog in Psychology Today at https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mining-the-headlines/201711/shrugging-addiction and add your comments on my Facebook page; let’s help become the change we all want to see!

 

 

ayurveda insomnia

Insomnia No More

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeatured

Sleep. You’re always getting too little of it. Or even if you’re getting enough, chances are, it’s not the right quality. Or if it’s the right quality, it’s the wrong type. There are even different types of insomnia.1 With all these different variables, does anyone have the solution to perfect sleep? At first glance, it would appear the answer is “no.” The CDC reports that 1/3 of American adults don’t get enough sleep and even when we go on vacation, 63% of us still struggle with sleep.2 3

Arianna Huffington recently wrote a book about sleep where she explores how sleep can impact multiple areas of your life: physical, mental, psychological, professional, social, and even sexual. Arianna was inspired to write The Sleep Revolution after she collapsed from sleep deprivation, exhaustion, and burnout in 2007 due to a high-stress lifestyle; her fall was so hard, that she broke her cheekbone.

Most people (luckily) won’t suffer from a catastrophic breakdown like Arianna; rather, they’ll find they fall into bad sleep habits, such as “catching up” on sleep during the weekend after getting too few zzz’s during the work week. Or, they may struggle to get their bodies and minds back on a good sleep schedule when we “fall back” or “spring forward” for Daylight Savings. Regardless of the cause, addressing sleep issues will help you live a more balanced and healthier life. Moreover, if you are currently on a healing journey, restorative sleep is a crucial component to your long-term success.

In American culture, we look for a quick fix for anything that ails us – including sleep. As of 2014, there were over nine million Americans using prescription meds to get a good night’s rest. While this is certainly concerning, the alarming statistic is around emergency-room visits related to those prescriptions: in a four-year period, there were twice as many people hospitalized because they had “overmedicated.” This study, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration, did not even address the fact that sleeping pills, like Ambien, are dangerously addictive; they also interfere with your meditation and daytime clarity as well.4

So, what can you do get a better night’s rest? Take a page out of your energy healing handbook.

Ayurveda for sleep

Ayurveda is the world’s oldest healing system and literally means “the science of life.” Originating in India, Ayurveda considers sleep one of the three essential parts of good health (the other two are proper diet and balanced sexuality). In fact, sleep is so central to optimal health in Ayurveda that the word for “natural sleep” is Bhutadhatri – a combination of the Sanskrit word Bhuta (your physical body) and Dhatri (mother). Bhutadhatri nourishes one’s body like a mother nurtures her child.

Below are three Ayurvedic sleep remedies to help you achieve health physiologically, psychologically, and neurologically:

1. Indulge in a cup of warm spiced milk

Turns out, the old wives’ tale of drinking warm milk to fall asleep has merit. Take that warm milk one step further by adding a spice like cardamom, cinnamon, or nutmeg, and you will have a good night’s sleep in a warm mug.

This Ayurvedic sleep remedy is based around the mother-nurturing concept: milk is the first thing that we consume after birth, and drinking warm spiced milk as a part of your bedtime routine will have a nurturing effect on our body and mind. Science has also shown that there are components in milk that support the quieting of the nervous system, which in turn promotes restful sleep.5

2. Just breathe

Before you head to bed, practicing your breathing exercise can have a powerful effect on your energy – and your ability to fall or stay asleep.

Pranayama is the control and extension of the breath that activates your Prana (your life force energy). To begin your Pranayama breathing exercise, start by focusing on and connecting to your heart. Once you have made a connection, inhale deeply and chant “om” on your exhale. The “o” sound should be three times as long as the “m” sound. Repeat until you feel nourished and ready to fall asleep.

3. Go to bed no later than 9 or 10 PM (and wake between 4 and 6 AM)

Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. Who knew Ben Franklin was a follower of Ayurveda?

When you sleep from 9 or 10 PM to 4 to 6 AM, you are giving yourself a natural boost of sattva to start your day (sattva is Sanskrit for optimism/clarity). An important part of Ayurveda psychology, sattva is best described as the amazing happiness you feel just from being alive, which children so easily embody.

And be sure that one of the first things you do in the morning is step outside for a moment and take in the early morning light. Daylight sets you up to be more awake during the day. (Note: if you live in the north where daylight hours are limited in the winter months, invest in a quality light box that you use upon waking to simulate daylight.)

As a part of your early to rise routine, get your physical exercise in before noon. It’s better to wake up early enough to go to the gym before work rather than going in the evening if you are over the age of 25.

Drinking warm spiced milk and practicing Pranayama is often the easy part of a natural sleep remedy. It’s the going to sleep at 9 or 10 PM (and waking at 4 to 6AM) that most people struggle with…after all, life today, with all of it’s online distractions, has no such schedule.

So, what else can you do to get a good night’s rest?

Work with nature, not against it

While we are all special flowers in our own right, nature is rather impersonal and plays by the physical laws of the universe (and not your night owl tendencies). Your body is part of nature and there’s no sense in fighting against your innate programming (spoiler alert: you’re not going to win this round).

You are programmed to go to bed when it gets dark and wake when it’s light. Your biological rhythms – controlled by your internal body clock – affects everything from body temperature and appetite to hormones and sleep timing. These biological rhythms tie back into the three pillars of Ayurvedic health: sleep, proper diet, and balanced sexuality; if one area of your health is off, the others will suffer as well.

So, the secret to getting your zzz’s isn’t a magic pill or potion; once again, ancient energy healing wisdom, combined with being in touch with your body and Mother Nature, and getting to bed at a decent hour, delivers a sleep solution that will put you on the path to living your best life.

So, here’s to restful sleep!