Your Inner Witness

Journey to Your Inner Witness: Holding Your Center in the Face of a Storm

by Energy HealingEventsFeaturedMeditation

The ancient rishis, the seers and sages of India, taught that the “Inner Witness”  is the key to holding your center in the face of a storm…

The Inner Witness approaches each situation with curiosity and observation. As if watching a movie, the Inner Witness engages in nonattachment — allowing thoughts, feelings, and worries to pass through.

This does not mean we don’t take situations seriously, we do. Especially right now. 

During this unprecedented time, and all the ways COVID-19 is impacting our daily lives, our communities, and our global family, is a signal that we are being called to a deep level of grounding, self-healing, and self-care at this time. 

The path forward is to find your center in the face of the storm… 

So, the question you might be asking yourself is, “Just how do I do that?” 

When the impulse is to “do something,” to take action, to move forward, to “think” of answers… the solution may actually seem counterintuitive. 

The invitation right now is for BEING not DOING.

Your Inner Witness is here to guide you. It’s part of your energy body and it vibrates with the higher frequencies of your being.

From your center, you can also bear witness to all the positive shifts that are unfolding in lockstep with the spread of the virus. Humankindness at its finest. Strangers helping strangers, communities coming together, and growing solidarity replacing growing division. 

I had an opportunity to be interviewed by Lisa Bonnice at the Shift Network and shared a special teaching and guided practice on just this — how to connect with your Inner Witness and how critical it is for us to do at this time. 

When you watch the video, you’ll also receive a short journeying practice, which will connect you with your Inner Witness. Watch here: 

Watch video meditation

I invite you to stop everything you’re doing and to just listen in as we do this practice, together. At the end of the guided journey, we also opened up for some of your most pressing questions. 

Topics like: 

How can this help me right now? Especially with everything happening in the world?  

How can I show up for others, and not contribute to the fear? And also not take on their energy or panic? 

How can this help address what we’re dealing with now in a global pandemic?    

I also discuss the important link between the vedas and the chakras, and why integrating science and ancient wisdom is so important for us right now too.

I hope you’ll take a few minutes and enjoy this guided meditation. And, if you would like to join me to discover deep journeying practices for healing and transformation, I invite you to check out my upcoming course at The Shift Network (which you’ll hear about in the video too). You can get all the details here.

Divine Manifesting

Divine Manifesting through the 10th Chakra

by Energy HealingEventsFeatured
Divine Manifesting

Do you have a ‘Higher Vision?’

Maybe your vision is to discover your “right work” in the world, and live a fulfilling, prosperous life…

Maybe you’re ready to meet your soulmate…

Or, you have a creative dream — a project, a business, a nonprofit, or a way you feel called to serve your community — but you’re afraid to say it out loud because it’s way too big…

There’s wisdom available to you through your own, subtle energy body…

You can draw on the creative power of your seven chakras — from your root chakra to your crown chakra to guide you.

There are actually even more energy centers that you can tap into to manifest your vision — some teachings reveal as many as 13 chakras, and others offer a path to many more.

Each energy center, a “wheel,” or cakra as they’re called in the ancient Vedic texts of India, hold sacred healing power…

The 10th Chakra is the doorway to Divine creativity, where your dreams can be seeded…

In this video teaching, leading energy teacher and bestselling author Deborah King, shares about this important energy center, a portal where you can co-create with Spirit, Source, God, the Divine — to give wings to your big dreams and daily intentions for your life.

Deborah also shares a quick way you can connect with this energy center, four to five feet above your head.

You can access this inner resource anytime, anywhere throughout your day — when you need to reconnect with your center and realign with your higher vision.

To discover how to access the wisdom of your entire energy body including your chakras, join Deborah for a FREE event — Discover the Healing Vibrations of Vedic Energy Medicine: Essential Practices to Release Emotional Blocks in Your Energy Body & Access Higher Levels of Consciousness.

When you join Deborah, you’ll experience the healing power of your subtle energy body as you release emotional blocks and access higher levels of consciousness.

Ancient Vedic Wisdom

How to Activate Your Chakras With Ancient Vedic Wisdom

by Energy HealingEventsFeatured

“The Seven Gods have seven spears and seven lights. They hold seven glories.” — Rg Veda 8.28.5 (Translated by David Frawley)

You’ve likely experienced the profound healing that’s possible in working with your body’s innate wisdom.

Guidance for activating this inner resource is rooted in one of civilization’s most ancient texts — the Vedas (Sanskrit for “knowledge” or wisdom).

The Vedas are the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, a body of religious texts, spiritual writings, poems, and hymns that were passed down through oral tradition.

These time-honored texts encompass Divine knowledge and bring to life the deep, healing vibrations of consciousness. 

Woven throughout these ancient scriptures, are references to the chakras… 

The Rg Veda (one of the holiest of the four sacred texts of the Vedas) directly references the cakra — the Sanskrit word for “wheel,” “disc” or “circle” — more than 29 times.   

Described as moving in circular motion with a cyclical nature, the cakra are also depicted through vivid imagery and symbols, such as “seven wheels” and “rays of light.”  

Yet, you don’t have to become a Vedic scholar to transform your energy field… and access higher states of consciousness…

You can tap into the healing frequencies of these energy centers within you through Vedic Energy Medicine — integrating the ancient wisdom of the Vedas with the sacred vibrations of your subtle energy body. 

Higher Heart Chakra: The Healing Power of Unconditional  Love 

If your mind is full of negative thoughts,  or you’re feeling drained due to a chronic health condition, such as depression, the Thymus Chakra unlocks the healing power of your “Higher Heart.”  

Stuck energy can create stuck emotions and negative thoughts… just as an infection that makes the thymus gland, which supports the body’s immune function, lose its ability to fight off colds and other attacks to your immune system.

The powerful, energetic vibrations of this chakra can help you clear blocked emotions in the thymus gland, which also creates illness.  

Simply tapping in the center of your chest will start the process of activating your higher heart, and help you to forgive others and forgive yourself. As you move into the higher heart, you vibrate at a higher frequency and can feel love and joy.

When the Thymus Chakra is in balance, you have access to the higher love of the Divine… connecting your heart energy to your thoughts and words….and guiding you to share your truth.  

If you would like to experience the healing power of your entire energy body, release emotional blocks, and access higher levels of consciousness — join me for Discover the Healing Vibrations of Vedic Energy Medicine here.

dk.blo.4.6-2

How to Heal From Heartbreak

by ChakrasEnergy HealingFeaturedRelationships

Heartbreak is universal. There is not a person on this planet who has not experienced loss in some way. Be it through rejection, betrayal, abandonment, or death, the pain of losing love, or never having love in the first place, can literally break your heart.

A broken heart has deeper effects than overwhelming sadness. Emotionally, your heart shuts down and blocks your ability to give or receive love, which affects your ability to love yourself and all your relationships. Energetically, your heart chakra closes and blocks the flow of nourishing energy from the unified field. If the energetic blocks aren’t cleared, you can develop physical problems like lung cancer or even heart attack.

Mending the Cracks

Heartbreak is very real, but it doesn’t have to be forever. Believe me, I know. When I was very young I sensed that my mother didn’t love me. I tried not to believe it—what mother doesn’t love her own child?—and after years of her icy glares of resentment and cold-hearted lack of affection, I built a wall around my heart and vowed never to let that pain inside. Perhaps you made a similar vow at some point in your life, and now it’s become the way you live. It may seem safer, but I know how lonely it can be.

By the time I was an adult, my heart chakra had been closed off for so many years, it wasn’t just broken, it was shattered. I didn’t trust in love, and didn’t know how to love myself since I’d never been properly loved by anyone else. With energy healing, I was able to mend the cracks and fissures in my heart, heal my heart chakra, and learn to love in a healthy way. I’ve seen energy medicine heal the hearts of thousands of students, too, and I know it can do the same for you if you let it.

The Key to Healing

In energy healing, chakras are the key to your emotional, spiritual, mental, and physical health. Basically, chakras open you to all the wisdom you need to live a healthy, happy, fulfilling life, but they can become dysfunctional by unprocessed trauma or repressed emotion. If a chakra becomes distorted or imbalanced, the areas of your live governed by that chakra become distorted or imbalanced, wreaking havoc in your life.

Dysfunction in your heart chakra, which corresponds to your thymus, ribs, back, lungs, and of course, your heart, can lead to circulatory problems, lung disorders, breast cancer and heart attack. Heart chakra imbalance can also cause depression, a lack of empathy, and an inability to give and receive love. One of the most essential questions to ask yourself when determining the health of your heart chakra is, “Do I give and receive love easily and without fear?” If the answer isn’t yes, chances are that your heart hasn’t fully healed from a break somewhere in your past.

The Common Response to Heartbreak

Take a minute to think about what loss or lack of love you may have experienced. So many of my students come to my healing courses and workshops with heart chakra blockages that were initially formed as defense mechanisms against a pain that seemed unbearable. The death of a loved one or the death of a relationship, a hateful rather than loving parent, the rejection of a first love, an unfaithful partner, and many more situations where love is revoked or betrayed all cause heartbreak, and the common response to the crushing ache of heartbreak is to shut down the heart’s ability to feel.

The problem is that when you close your heart from the bad feelings, you also shut out the good feelings. But there is always hope! With energy medicine, there is no statute of limitations on releasing pent up emotions from any form of trauma, and it is never too late to begin working with a spiritual teacher or energy healer to get your heart chakra cleared and functioning properly. With a charged and balanced heart chakra, you can enjoy love in your life and create healthy relationships.

Unhurt, Unstruck, Unbeaten

In Sanskrit, the heart chakra is called anahata, which means “unhurt, unstruck, or unbeaten.” No matter what happened to break your heart, it can be healed and “unhurt.”

Here are a few ways to begin the process:

1. Grieve and then let go.

Grief is a heavy burden to carry, and it sits on your heart, weighing you down and keeping your heart chakra closed. You have to open your heart chakra and feel the pain of your grief, even though it hurts, in order to move past it and feel the love that’s waiting for you beyond the grief. Cry, journal, talk to someone you trust, scream if you have to, but let that grief out and let it go.

2. Love a pet.

Basking in the unconditional love of a pet is one of the best ways to begin opening a closed heart chakra. Dogs, cats, horses, even birds have fully expanded hearts that just want to love and be loved in return, and they are not shy about asking for attention and love when they want it. Pets show you what happiness can be found in simple, small gestures of love like a pat on the back or a snuggle. Spending time with these furry beacons of love can help you begin to trust love again.

3. Be nicer to yourself.

Heartbreak can steal your self-esteem, stripping you of the ability to see how lovable and deserving of love you really are. Part of the process of healing your heart is to learn how to love yourself, which not only makes you internally happier, but will improve your relationships with others as well. Try making a list of the qualities you love about yourself. What are you proud of? How are you unique? Do something nice for yourself every day until you really believe you are worthy of that self-love, because you are.

If you would like to learn more about how to clear, balance, and charge your heart chakra, come check out my chakra wisdom online video course where I go deeply into all the chakras.  

Loving Yourself - Finding True Love

Seven Steps to Finding Love

by FeaturedRelationshipsSelf LoveWomen

You have to love yourself before you can get into a healthy relationship with another. Feeling good about yourself and who you are is a vital part of finding the right person for you.

Let’s look at how the process of love works in order to understand why loving yourself, or at least liking yourself, is important. When you initially meet someone, you want them to be enamored with you. You want them to think about you at least as much as you think about them; you want to feel desired. That feeling, however, will fade over time, usually much faster than you would like to believe. At most, initial infatuation lasts six months. The next thing we want from our partner is to be seen for who we are. It’s no good having someone fall in love with something we’re not; this dooms the relationship to failure. We want our partners to understand and accept us for exactly who we are. How, though, are they going to love you if you aren’t being you?

Say you are a woman, and you meet a guy you like. You suddenly become a shadow of your real self in his presence, either stronger or weaker than you really are. The time will come, eventually, when he will discover that you are not exactly what you made yourself out to be. He will become disillusioned and may want to end the relationship.

This is one reason that men often have an easier time finding and keeping dates than women do. Thanks to their genetic makeup, men are much more likely to like themselves for who they are. They behave around a woman exactly as they would when they were alone, allowing women to see who they truly are with no illusions or any change of attitude.

Women are also pressured to look a certain way. In 2010, of the 21.7 million cosmetic surgical and nonsurgical procedures that were performed in the United States, over 90% were done on women – breast augmentations, liposuction and Botox leading the way. And plastic surgery is on the rise.

If you want to find the ideal partner, it is vital that you like yourself for who you are. Try these seven steps to feel better about who you are, making it easier to reveal your true self to someone you meet.

  1. Respect yourself.  This is actually difficult for many people. We are living in a society where we are taught to give respect to others but are not generally encouraged to give ourselves respect. It is vital to learn to respect yourself and to know that you are worthy of respect from someone else based on your qualities as a human being, not on your worldly success or your appearance.
  2. Set goals.  Setting goals is a great way to help you to feel better about who you are and to learn to respect yourself. You should have two lists: one for short-term goals and one for long-term goals. As you work on these goals and complete them, cross them off of your list. You will feel proud of your accomplishments and see that you are worthy of respect.
  3. Let go of fear.  Fear is what keeps us from doing the things we enjoy. Fear is behind every attempt to cover up our real selves. We are afraid someone won’t like us if they see who we really are. Letting go of fear is a process that is accelerated as we release our emotional wounds; that’s one of the things I help people do at workshops.
  4. Clear the energy from past relationships. If we don’t clear the energy from our past relationships out of our personal energy field, the one that surrounds your body, that old relationship can slow you down or make you feel confused, unfocused, unhappy, lethargic, or even make you sick and toxic. I can teach you shamanic exercises to help you clear that old energy.
  5. Stop criticizing yourself! Self-criticism never helps anything. Make a pact that you will no longer put yourself down. This will not only relax you but will also help you to look and feel better.
  6. Love the body you are in. The pressure that society and the media put on everyone can make it difficult to feel comfortable in your own skin. Most of us worry about some part of our body being not right—our nose, our hair, our height, and especially our weight. In fact, as long as you are eating a healthy diet and getting enough exercise to allow your body to work properly, you should stop trying to be something you are not and learn to enjoy your body.
  7. Develop your inner strength. Have you ever seen a young birch tree in a heavy wind? It bends. While harder trees crack and break, a birch tree sways and is still standing when the wind is done. This is because there is an inner core of flexible strength in the willow, which is what you should work on cultivating for yourself. Find that inner strength so that you can bend and sway with the changes in your life without breaking. We find our strength by uncovering and releasing the difficult emotions we have suppressed throughout our lives and seeing that living in our personal truth is the source of our true strength.

Once you like yourself, then you are able to enjoy a healthy relationship with another. Like all good things, it takes time to be able to truly like who you are, but once you do you will find that everything will change, even your relationships!

Battling Depression

One Key Ingredient for Battling Depression and Mental Illness

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedHealth

It’s only the 3rd week of January in Southern California, but we are already welcoming the sun back into our daily lives. We missed her and our time outside under her sunny rays. 

Once the sun comes back into your life, go outside and make some vitamin D and you will feel a whole lot better, because, chances are, you are battling low-level depression.

Today, we understand better the role of vitamin D and its protection against depression. This little vitamin, best obtained from sunlight, not only plays a role in bone health, but also in the health of your brain. A plethora of neurological disorders have been linked to insufficient vitamin D, including depression and Alzheimer’s. 

Even more recent studies connect the ever-increasing problem of childhood mental health issues like bi-polar and schizophrenia, showing up in younger and younger children, to the lack of vitamin D; kids just don’t play outside like they used to.

But what about all the advice you hear to slather up/cover up at the first blush of the sun? It turns out that 20+ years of advice was dead wrong, and, as is often the case, your mother was right, when she urged you to get outside and get some sun.

Nearly three quarters of people living in the Northern Hemisphere have less than the required amount of vitamin D and nearly one quarter in the Southern Hemisphere are below par. People live indoors and when they are outside, they are covered with sunscreen. Not like our early days when we ran around all day under the sun, buck-naked and free. That all changed around 75,000 years ago, when we moved out from East Africa to points around the world, many of which required the wearing of skins and living under a roof of some sort. But even those folks were outside a lot, up until about 100 years ago, when we started living indoors, and more so every single year.

It’s no wonder that depression is becoming one of our biggest problems world-wide. 

You get 90% of your vitamin D from the sun; chances are, your bank of vitamin D (stored in your liver) is close to empty at the moment. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, your bank is even more depleted, as meat and fish eaters have higher levels of D. 

Dietary sources of Vitamin D

The problem intensifies once you are over 60, as your skin requires 4 times as much sun exposure to make the same amount of vitamin D as it does for someone younger.

What to do?

  1. Every day you see the sun in the sky, run out and get 10 to 20 minutes, on as much bare skin as is legal, and as the temperature allows. No sunscreen. Preferably before 9:00am and, in the summer, after 5:00pm. 
  2. Worried about skin cancer? Up your ingestion of foods rich in carotenoids, like carrots, tomatoes, pumpkins, kale, and spinach. These foods significantly lower your risk of skin cancer. 
  3. Add a little butter to those carotenoids as they are fat-soluble. Yum. 
  4. In the dark days of winter, supplement with vitamin D3, (make sure it is 3, not 2); supplementation is now known to be an effective treatment for depression.
  5. Finally, don’t laugh, but your mother was right about this too: take fish oil, specifically cod-liver oil, daily. 

The tried-and-true advice from days past is often still very viable today, but we tend to forget these simple pieces of sage wisdom. 

Ensuring you’re getting your proper dose of Vitamin D can not only help you be healthier and feel better in the present, but it can prevent serious issues in the future. 

So, make sure you make vitamin D a priority and part of your daily routine!

Get better sleep without drugs

5 Easy Steps to Get a Better Night’s Sleep

by Energy HealingFeaturedHealthMeditationSelf Love

This is the third blog in a row I’m focusing on sleep because we simply aren’t getting enough of it!

If you missed the first 2 blogs, you can read them here:

The Best Sleep Ever: Why You Need It and How to Get It

8 Natural Herbal Remedies for a Better Night’s Sleep

This week, let’s talk about 5 more easy, actionable steps you can take to improve your quality of sleep.

      1. Limit your exposure to EMFs.

        We are all very sensitive to electromagnetic radiation, and there’s little data out there on what it’s doing to us. How to counteract all that WIFI that’s coursing through your bodymind? Try grounding every day: in warm weather, walk barefoot. In cold, go outside and stand near a tree, even hugging it when the mood strikes you. Keep your phone a foot away from you, or, radical thought, put it on airplane. Turn off your WIFI in your home or apartment at night. Keep sections of raw silk where you work and where you sleep; silk absorbs EMFs.

      2. Exercise before noon, not after.

        The idea is to keep your core temperature lower as evening approaches, allowing you to sleep more easily because your body is cool. (more on that in my first sleep blog) Exercise will not only raise your body temperature but also release cortisol and adrenaline. Cortisol is a daytime hormone, that is the opposite of melatonin. When cortisol is high, melatonin is low. To get good quality sleep, cortisol needs to be low, so exercise early in the day. Plus, when you exercise in the morning, it produces feel-good brain chemistry that make you feel happy all day. Sleep naked, it will keep you cool and your partner will love it. Oddly enough if you keep your socks on, that will help lower your body’s temp, and you will fall asleep faster.

      3. Make sure the air in your bedroom is fresh.

        Even 100 years ago, we spent most of our day outdoors; now, we spend over 90% of our time indoors. Indoor air can be very polluted and dead, not carrying enough oxygen to oxygenate your cells. What to do? Open your bedroom windows during the day, if it’s too cold at night. Or install an air ionizer or a HEPA filter if your outdoor air is bad and opening windows isn’t an option. Bring in plants, they will purify your air for you. Sleep outside in the summer, like I do, and not only get great air, but exposure to the moon and stars, which balances the lunar, feminine energies in your body, relaxing you, and promoting good sleep.

      4. Take magnesium at night.

        Magnesium is necessary for good sleep; take it with a dash of calcium. Alternatively, eat a few bites of a banana (just a couple of bites, since they are very sweet), which will help you develop melatonin.

      5. Meditate for just 10 minutes, no more.

        That little bit of meditation will take off the edge and allow you to drop off to sleep easily. More would wake you up, so just 10 minutes.

       

Sweet dreams!

Get better sleep

8 Natural Herbal Remedies for a Better Night’s Sleep

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedHealth

Having trouble falling asleep or staying asleep? This may be due to a short-term issue or it can stem from longer-term sleep habits that are incorrect. Beyond a week, sleeping pills are not the solution. Prescription meds don’t address the underlying cause, and they have some serious side effects. 

In addition to the suggestions in last week’s blog, what about diet, can it help with sleep? It may be surprising, but what you eat at dinner or in nighttime snacks can affect your sleep. Certain foods, like cheese and turkey, are rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that helps produce serotonin, which will help you feel sleepy. Almonds also have tryptophan as well as calcium and magnesium, minerals that calm the body and the mind. However, you will want to avoid carbs at dinner (especially potatoes), as they convert to sugar and six hours later, you could very well wake up. You would avoid sweets after lunch for the same reason.

One study revealed that tart cherries help people with insomnia; they are the only food source of melatonin, that necessary hormone for sleep. Tart cherry juice works as well, but stay away from caffeinated drinks, alcohol, and spicy and fatty foods, all which can lead to sleeplessness. 

There are natural herbal remedies that make it easier to go to sleep and stay asleep. Here are 8 of them:

  1. Chamomile tea: it’s been used for hundreds of years as a sleep aid because it acts like a mild sedative. Brew for 10 minutes using two or three tea bags to calm your nerves and get a full night’s sleep.
  2. St. John’s wort: this flower can be brewed as a tea to ease anxiety and insomnia or taken as a supplement. Make sure you stay out of direct sunlight when you take it because it can make you more sensitive to UV rays.
  3. Valerian root: over 16 studies have shown this flowering plant helps you fall asleep faster and have a more sound night’s sleep. It’s the most commonly used herbal supplement to promote sleep in the U.S. and Europe. Taken together, valerian and hops are well-studied herbal supplements for sleep; they boost production of GABA, a brain chemical that reduces anxiety and has sedative properties. You will want to restrict your use to a week or two, so as not to overly burden the liver.
  4. Kava: Pacific Islanders have long used this root for relaxation. Like valerian, don’t use over a long period of time. Use a high quality supplement.
  5. Passion flower (also called maypop): is not only a delicious tea, but is also a mild sedative. Steep for 10 minutes in boiling water.
  6. California poppy: the bright orange leaves of the poppy should be steeped in hot water for 10 minutes to make a tea that gets you ready for a good night’s sleep.
  7. Lavender: the soothing fragrance of lavender’s purple flowers enhances sleep. Lavender aromatherapy is often as effective as pharmaceutical medications, with no side effects. Don’t take lavender orally. Use a good quality lavender oil in a diffuser around 30 minutes before bed.

So, forget counting sheep and brew a cup of herbal tea to catch some Z’s. 

And if you’d like to hear more about this and other topics, come join our live show on January 22nd at 3PM Pacific. We’ll be talking to expert herbalist and Deborah King Center Graduate Practitioner, Lisa Vander Kaay.

Join the conversation!

Click here to reserve your seat for the show >>

Getting best sleep

The Best Sleep Ever: Why You Need It and How to Get It

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedSelf Love

This is the time of year when everyone focuses on diet and exercise, but it’s sleep that needs our attention – the importance of sleep is vastly under-rated. When you get enough sleep, you rebuild your body and your mind: sleep releases human growth hormone, essential for staying young; it balances your appetite hormones (ghrelin and leptin), keeping you slender; repairs your DNA; speeds up muscle recovery; preserves your memory; and improves your ability to learn. What’s not to like about sleep! (Meditation does all these things too, so be sure to meditate once you do wake up.)

Even one night of poor sleep can throw you out of whack, making you over-do carbs and sugar the next day. Plus, staying up late causes your immune system to plummet, your blood pressure to rise, and inflammation to increase. Not a pretty picture.

To this day, every animal on the planet sleeps, so clearly sleep is not optional. Here are five steps to good sleep:

Step One: Spend a little time early in the morning, outside, letting your eyes be exposed to the morning light, so your all-important circadian rhythm gets set for the day.

Step Two:  Spend a minimum of 15 minutes outside during the day, getting more natural light on your eyeballs, which will reinforce your body’s regular wake/sleep rhythm.

Step Three:  Minimize the amount of blue light you are exposed to both during the day and the evening from devices like computer screens, TVs, iPads, and smart phones; blue light blocks the critical melatonin production that you need to sleep properly. Melatonin is generated in your pineal gland when it’s really dark. To prepare for that production, turn off the TV an hour before bedtime and make sure your devices are on “night shift” settings that warm the color of the screens. Check out an app like iristech.co for ways to minimize the amount of blue light you are exposed to from your screens. Or grab a pair of blue light blocking glasses from raoptics.com and be healthy and hip looking all at the same time.

Step Four: Go to bed at about the same time every evening, ideally within 15 minutes of your routine time. I spent many years on the farm, watching all the animals, and saw how well animals do this – always bedding down at the same time every night. Or sleeping standing up, as horses often do.

Step Five:  Make sure your bedroom is as dark as possible. If you need your phone (on airplane mode, of course) to see the time, choose a red screen for that purpose. Wear an eye mask just in case light is leaking in under the door or around the drapes. Even your skin takes in light, so the darker the room, the better.

Step Six: Enjoy all the benefits of your prep during the day with a blissful night of sleep in a room that is between 60- 65 degrees Fahrenheit/15 – 19 degrees Celsius – your body needs to be in that temperature range in order to continue to produce melatonin and to stay asleep. And, if you wake up too early, simply meditate and chances are, you’ll drop back off to sleep before long. Happy ZZZs!

New Year 2020

Do New Year’s Resolutions Really Work?

by FeaturedLife Coaching

Bringing in 2020! With the beginning of this new year, you have been given a new start, a fresh slate, an opportunity to kick off the next twelve months of your life with hope, love, and healing. But New Year’s resolutions may not be the best way to turn over a new leaf.

The Reason So Many Resolutions Fail

For many people, a fresh start involves making New Year’s resolutions—goals or promises to yourself for improvements. Many common resolutions include losing weight, getting a handle on an addiction, saving more money, or moving up in your career. The problem is that many New Year’s resolutions are externally motivated, arising from outside you – from your parents, or partners, or society, and are therefore set up for failure from the get-go.

Resolutions that are born out of a need to please others rather than being born from a deep desire for yourself are often not realized. How can they be? They don’t reflect the true you. And yet, when you abandon them, the cycle of self-blame and shame makes you feel worse than if you’d never made any resolutions at all! Does that sounds like a good way to start the year—with a vow that is unrealistic from the start because it’s inauthentic and only makes you feel worse when you don’t meet it? You deserve better.

Focus on Intention

So this year, I’d like you to break the cycle of bound-to-fail resolutions and instead, make non-resolutions that are less about the end result and more about the journey. Rather than trying to plan goals, focus on intention. What is the reason behind the goal? That’s what you need to pay attention to. When you are clear on what your purpose is—your intention—it’s much easier to make decisions that support that purpose.

For example, let’s say your resolution is to lose weight. When you make a resolution, it’s usually a simple statement: “I will lose 20 lbs this year,” without a crystal clear plan in place. If you use energy healing techniques to dig deeper and understand the emotions behind the weight gain, your chances of success increase exponentially. Thinking about why you want what you want, why it has not yet happened, and how you will move toward your desired result are essential for transforming yourself this year.

Here are a few ways to figure out what you want your intentions to be for this year and how to go about making those intentions a reality in your life.

  1. Practice energy healing.
    Energy medicine is the single best thing you can do for your emotional, physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing. Energy healing expands your awareness, brings you into closer contact with Source and your higher self, and helps to clear your chakras and energy field of any negativity that might be causing you problems. (like not being able to lose weight) Energy medicine gives you the tools you need to get to the root of your problems so that you can address the cause of your bad habits, or the self-sabotaging or addictive behavior you’d like to change. Attending healing courses and working with a spiritual teacher is a great jumpstart to healing yourself, and journaling, meditation, and being of service are a few of the other methods of self-healing you will learn in energy medicine that will help you clear your chakras and reveal the real you. Uncovering the real you that lies underneath the expectations from others that so often color your resolutions is just one of a million life-changing benefits of practicing energy medicine.
  2. Find your true purpose.
    With energy healing, you will be more and more able to connect with your higher self, who intimately understands the deepest parts of you and knows your life purpose: the reason you incarnated in your body at this time. Your life purpose is the driving force within your soul, and lining up your intentions with your soul’s plans is the best way to speed up your spiritual progress, heal yourself, and actually manifest your intentions. Try journaling about your true feelings, wants, and desires, writing down your most honest thoughts, and see if you can’t discover an intention for the new year that comes from you and not from anyone else. Trust your intuition, which is from your higher self and your guides, the best source of guidance.
  3. Consider adding rather than subtracting.
    So often resolutions are about stopping something, which can feel limiting and may make you resistant. But adding something positive feels happy and fun, like Christmas all over again. Perhaps your intention is to lose weight in order to get in better shape so you have more energy to do the things you love, so try adding a walk after dinner each night, before TV time. Maybe you want to intend to be happier or more fulfilled, so try scheduling in one thing you love to do for an hour each day, or join a group of people who have similar interests.

Remember, do not feel bad if you “fail.” You can’t fail at trying! Or rather, failure is part of trying, it is a part of the process of succeeding, so when you intend to improve your life you aren’t making a vow that can be broken, but rather a choice to move toward a new way of interacting with one particular part of yourself or the world. That simple fact gives you hope and decreases self-blame, and is why intentions are so much more effective long-term.

I hope you’ll try intentionality rather than resolutions this January so you can enjoy a happier, healthier, more light-filled year ahead. Happy New Year!

Perfect Christmas

Christmas is a time when you get homesick

by EventsFeaturedLife Coaching

Are you looking forward to a holiday right out of a Norman Rockwell painting, with the whole family singing around the piano or enjoying a spirited snowball fight before gathering, rosy-cheeked and glowing, around the holiday table? Or are you dreading long days of forced togetherness, the rehashing of old grievances and the airing of new ones as your family falls into its old, dysfunctional patterns? For most, holiday gatherings with family fall somewhere between the two scenarios. These three tips will help you to navigate though the family minefields, large and small, with your spirit and sanity intact.

 

Put the power of forgiveness and unconditional love to work for you:

 

As a spiritual teacher, I encourage my students to give themselves and those around them the gift of forgiveness and unconditional love. This holds especially true during the holidays.

If you know in advance that you’ll be seeing a family member who has wronged you, take the time to forgive them before the event. Close your eyes and imagine the person standing in front of you. As you breathe in, silently say, May you be happy. May you be well. May you be safe. May you be peaceful and at ease. This powerful Buddhist exercise, called “Metta,” dissolves anger, resentment, and guilt, and will help you to feel more loving and in control as you journey “over the river and through the woods to Grandmother’s house.” When you arrive, don’t undo the good you’ve done by telling the person that you have forgiven them—that will only bring the old issues back to the forefront and put them on the defensive. This processing is for your benefit. Simply send them love, and move on!

 

Stay outside of the emotional fray, and celebrate your own spiritual progress:

 

The holidays are not the time to resolve old issues, or confront other people. Enjoy the time with family, and set the limits that you need to keep yourself healthy emotionally, spiritually, and physically.

 

Take care of yourself. Take walks outdoors, meditate and consume alcohol, sugar, and caffeine in moderation. If you’re tired, give yourself permission to leave a family event early. You’re not obligated to stay till the bitter end. Fighting and drama tends to escalate as it gets late, especially if the alcohol is flowing. If there is family drama, step out of the fray and observe; pretend you’re watching a play, rather than allowing yourself to be pulled in.

 

 

Finally, capture the holiday spirit by looking outside of yourself and your family circle:

 

Are you trying to recapture the breathless excitement and holiday magic that you remember from your childhood? Or do you have old, traumatic memories of the season that you’re desperate to replace with happier ones? As an adult, you can experience the very best of the holidays, the spirit of joy and love, but you might not find it wrapped in a box, or around the table with your extended family. For many people, the formula for a light-filled season includes not just family time, but time spent alone and time spent helping others.

 

Gandhi said that the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Don’t depend on the “big event” to fill you with the holiday spirit. If, despite your best efforts to forgive and forget, an overdose of family time is causing you to dwell too much on past hurts and disappointments, shift your focus outside of yourself. Figure out a way to help others, and by doing so, you’ll nourish your own spirit. Serve holiday dinners at a homeless shelter, deliver gifts to the lonely or sick, visit a nursing home to sing carols, send cards and packages to the troops, and remember what the holidays are really about—bringing more light into the world.  Doing that is a sure way to fill your own soul with the spirit of the season!

Winter Solstice

A Long Cold Night: Healing with the Winter Solstice

by Astrological EventsFeatured

Here’s a riddle for you:

When is growing darkness and disappearing light a reason to give thanks?

When the sun moves south toward the Tropic of Capricorn and the shortest day of the solar year arrives in the Northern Hemisphere—in other words, the winter solstice.

This annual planetary event—which comes this year on December 21—has been celebrated for its spiritual importance since ancient times. The days grow shorter and the nights longer until the solstice.

At the winter solstice, the balance of dark and light tips, and the sun begins a return trip that promises such good things as new life, new growth, increasing warmth, and those bright spring blossoms that gladden your heart! Whether your longest night is truly frigid or just chilly, those hours of darkness are a gift and a time for special spiritual reflection.

Are you ready to pause for a prayer of gratitude for the gift of another year of life and love?

As a spiritual teacher and energy healer, I invite you to celebrate this seasonal cycle by creating your own personal rituals to mark the passing of darkness and the coming again of healing, life-giving light. The winter solstice is a time of rebirth, a special window of peace and renewal. The quiet calm of a long winter’s night welcomes you to look within and nurture your connection to Source. Now is the perfect time to honor your own inner light with renewed attention, awareness, and gratitude.

What are some healing gifts that you can give your spirit this December?

Winter solstice healing practices:

1. Give thanks for the sheltering night

Meditate on the blessings of restful darkness when the busy daytime work is done. Reflect on the amazing spiritual gift of being able to restore your strength and energy whenever you need to. You can create light whenever and wherever you need it. Embrace the quiet, the calm, and the peace you have been given.

Send forth prayers for all who need rest, including yourself, and give thanks for the wisdom to recognize your need to reach out for loving assistance from the Source of All Being.

2. Reflect on the need to let go

At the winter solstice, the sun changes course and begins to move in a new direction. It’s a perfect time to think about the course of your life and decide if you, too, are ready to change direction. With the return of the sun and the longer days to come, what will you do with your “new light”?

Use your journal to reflect on ways you might deeply long to change course.

  • What would you do with a new chance to reinvent your life?
  • Do you need to let go of negative thoughts and beliefs that are holding you back?

Let go of fear and let feelings of love and gratitude rise and refresh your spirit.

3. Imagine ways to re-engage

The return of the light that follows the winter solstice has long been seen as a time of awakening for higher consciousness. The growth of your inner light reflects the growing return of sunlight to a world in need of healing energy. The time is right for you to nurture your spiritual practice, to diminish your personal darkness and increase your light.

  • How will you move forward in the months ahead?
  • How will you contribute to your own healing and thereby help to heal the world?

Honor the solstice by spreading light to others who are in need.

4. Remember the natural world

What’s going on outside as winter begins?

Find time to observe the night sky and study the wonder of the stars in the cold, clear air. Look for bird and animal visitors to your yard and neighborhood. They may be looking for shelter and sustenance that you can help provide. Notice how the trees and plants adapt to a new season. Like them, you are connected to the cosmos.

Can you restore that feeling of connection by getting outside for a while each day?

5. Cultivate joy

From ancient times, the winter solstice has been a time of celebration. The dark that has been building will now retreat. Light begins its return with all the gifts that longer daytime brings—warmth, color, and the power to grow! The year-end gathering of friends and family, the food and drink, the music, and the traditions are all part of the seasonal longing to celebrate happiness and community. Taking good care of your spirit is part of the healing promise of a new season.

You can make your winter solstice a turning point and a time of renewal. Use these spiritual practices to shine your light of love and peace into the world!

Los Angeles Light Pollution

Light Pollution: What it Does to Your Body/Mind/Spirit and 5 Easy Ways to Reduce It

by AdvocacyEnvironmentalFeaturedHealth

In 1994, just before dawn, an earthquake hit LA and caused a city-wide power outage. Many residents who ran out of buildings for safety called 911 to report a mysterious cloud overhead in what was an otherwise clear night. That cloud turned out to be the Milky Way, our own galaxy, hidden for many years by the city’s lights.

We try to light up the night sky for a simple reason: we humans don’t see very well in the dark. But where a little light is a good thing, too much light, or the wrong kind, negatively impacts us, causing a host of undesirable effects, most notably, breast cancer.

The 24-hour cycle, or circadian clock, affects physiologic processes in all living things. These processes include brain wave patterns, hormone production, cell regulation, and other biological activities. Disruption of that rhythm results in ill health, unhappiness, and angst at the soul level.  

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone which is released in the dark and inhibited by light. While any light at night can interfere with its production, the short blue portion of the light spectrum suppresses melatonin the most.

Exposure to our artificially extended daytime in the modern world leads to sleep problems and sleep problems cause weight gain, stress, depression, diabetes, and cancer. The American Medical Association has recognized light at night as a carcinogen.

The excess light we create in our environment endangers all ecosystems by altering biochemical rhythms that normally ebb and flow with normal light patterns. Perhaps more importantly, we’re losing our connection to the night-time sky, a sky that our ancestors depended on for connection to the cosmos. We lose something essential, some part of ourselves, when we fail to connect to the dark sky and its planets and stars.

Though it’s not as dramatic as a chemical spill, light pollution now rates at the top of the list of chronic environmental issues. In 2016, reputable scientists reported that 99% of the United States and Europe experience light pollution. A third of the planet can no longer see the Milky Way and light pollution is increasing at the alarming rate of 2% per year.

Perhaps even more disturbing is the absence of awe when the night sky is no longer part of our lives. Philosophers have long written about the sacredness of the night sky and its impact on us; somehow a half-lit smoggy sky filled with light pollution just doesn’t take our soul to that place of wonder.

What can you do to preserve the night sky and your health and well-being? Here are 5 easy steps to take:

  1. Get new light bulbs. LEDs are great for saving energy (and money) but check to ensure that your bulbs are not using the blue-white spectrum. Find lower temp LEDs and compact fluorescents.
  2. Turn off blue light devices an hour before bedtime. That’s your TV, your iPad, your phone. If you use a reader, use an app that filters out the blue wavelength. That absence of blue light which normally would begin at sundown will allow melatonin to increase, which will lower your body temp, slow your metabolism, and increase leptin, the hormone that reduces appetite. (It was important for early humans that they didn’t get hungry in the middle of the night, because if you’re out foraging for food, you become food) Increased leptin levels play a role in avoiding cardiovascular disease, diabetes, depression, and cancer, especially breast cancer.
  3. Make sure your bedroom is completely dark. (Turn off the TV!)
  4. Turn off or shield outdoor lighting at your home.
  5. Talk to the governing agencies about light pollution in your area; be the one to spear-head a light ordinance or enforce the one already on the books.

Finally, if it’s been a long time since you’ve seen a truly dark night, make plans to go somewhere soon where you can. I spent the Thanksgiving holiday camped at Joshua Tree National Park and I can still feel the grandeur of that night sky. Try it for yourself, it will fill your soul.

Bikram #MeToo

Bikram: Me Too Yet Again

by CelebritiesFeaturedMovie ReviewsTrauma and ViolenceWomen

Media moguls, Hollywood stars, Olympic doctors, sports coaches, priests, politicians (left, right, and center), Buddhist teachers, Indian gurus and yogis, are all mighty trees felled by the hatchet of the #MeToo movement in recent times. Strongmen have all wielded their patriarchal power—what they considered their god-given rights—over the lives of women and children (and the earth). But thanks to the growing willingness of women to speak truth to power, a global conversation about sexual violence and gender balance has sprung to life and continues to expand.

The latest of these grimy exposures can be found in the Netflix documentary, Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator, which documents the allegations of sexual misconduct against Bikram Choudhry, the founder of Bikram yoga. In the “paternalistic” yoga culture, it is presumed that the teacher knows what is best for his students, who simply follow whatever the teacher says, even if it means ignoring their own intuition that something isn’t right. Other influential yoga teachers, like Patthabi Jois, Manouso Manos, and John Friend, have all been accused of some form of sexual assault, from inappropriate sexual touching of students’ bodies during class, all the way up to, as in the instant story, rape.

It’s everywhere in the “spiritual world”

These yoga teachers join a long list of “spiritual” teachers who have abused their power and authority, who think that the rules don’t apply to them. 

Amrit Desai, the founder of the Kripalu Centre, had to resign over sexual allegations as the spiritual director of his own ashram. The charismatic leader Osho (Bhagwan Shree Ragneesh) was known as the “sex guru.” Accusations of sex with devotees have cropped up relentlessly over the years about Swami Muktananda, Swami Satchidananda, Swami Rama, Swami Kriyananda, and Sai Baba, not to mention Buddhist lamas and teachers like Sogyal Rinpoche and Lama Norlha. Even more disturbing are rumors swirling about both living and deceased teachers at what was formerly the leading publishing company in the US of all things spiritual. 

Yes, the list of those in my field who well deserve to be in the #MeToo spotlight is long and disappointing. How can so many supposedly “enlightened” spiritual teachers sexually abuse their followers? More importantly for us, however, is how we delude ourselves about abuse when it’s right square in front of us, in our families, in our office, in church, or even happening to us.

Women, still, are relentlessly trained by the culture to allow men the upper hand. “Obey” may have been taken out of modern marriage vows, but it’s still implicitly there. The voice of authority is most often male, and women, if they have any sense, do not routinely confront men head-on.

Perhaps you are new to the spiritual scene, and your expectation is that everyone is pure, holy, a worthy vessel of Spirit—especially your teacher. He oozes charm, claims a special connection to the divine, and inspires devotion. You can just feel the power radiating from him. He is in command, and you listen to what is said, especially to you personally. And if he touches you in a way that makes you uncomfortable, or invites you to maximize your spiritual potential and receive “secret teachings” by sharing his bed, in your zeal to be a good student, to advance, and yes, because it makes you feel special, you capitulate.

So back to Bikram: in terms of the basic facts, Choudhury’s story is all too familiar. He is largely responsible for yoga becoming commonplace in the United States, as he franchised his Los Angeles studio into a global network. At the height of his influence in the last 20 years, he was the darling of talk shows and media in general. His movement was called “McYoga,” as he made a fortune franchising his method.

As he rose to prominence, Bikram franchises became very desirable; Choudhury would hold massive nine-week training seminars around the world. According to litigation on file, he used these seminars as his way of finding, grooming, and forcing himself upon women whom he then raped.

Hopefully, the film will force Jackie Lacey, LA District Attorney, to stand up for women and bring Choudhury to justice, as well as encourage each one of us to confront truth in our own lives where ever we find it.

Leonid Meteor shower

Leonid Meteor Shower: Catch a Falling Star

by Astrological EventsFeatured

“Catch a falling star and put it in your pocket
Never let it fade away…”

This week the Leonid Meteor shower is due to hit Earth on its yearly path, when the orbit of the Earth crosses the trail of space debris left by the Comet Tempel-Tuttle each November. Pieces of the comet, usually no bigger than a grain of sand or a pea, fall toward the surface of our planet and burn up as they enter the Earth’s atmosphere, giving us a fantastic light show in the night sky. These burning balls of light are called meteors (or “falling stars”); when a larger one survives its atmospheric entry and crash lands on the Earth’s surface, it is called a meteorite.

This year the peak meteor shower will be from midnight to dawn next Monday, November 18th. If you’re lucky enough to live in a place, like I do, in Ojai, where the night sky is dark enough to see the stars, you will likely be able to catch the heavenly appearance. 

If you trace the meteors of the Leonid shower backward, they would seem to radiate from the constellation of Leo the Lion, from the star Algieba in the area of the lion’s mane. This is called the radiant point, the area in the sky that seems to be the starting point for these particular meteors. In other words, these little specks of a comet that flash so enticingly across the sky come to us as extraterrestrial greetings, or as the ancients saw them, as gifts from heaven—lights in the sky that bring awareness of something beyond our daily existence. 

These sparkling lights in the dark night sky are a reminder that “cosmic” consciousness is a living frequency—the original “star dust” of life. When you see the dazzling display of meteors, or when a meteorite lands on earth, you are in the presence of the far-flung inhabitants of the galaxy. Mystics have always used the term “light” to represent consciousness, so it’s as if the meteor shower brings cosmic consciousness raining down on Earth. You are impacted by the vastness of space, which can seed a new awareness in your heart—an awareness that we are connected to a much larger unfolding drama than just what is happening here. 

Since meteors are seen as coming from other worlds, throughout history meteor showers have been deemed sacred and are said to hold supernatural powers. The Orionid meteor shower, composed of debris from Halley’s Comet and originating from the constellation of Orion, is believed by Australian aboriginals to form a mystical canoe that carries the spirits of the dead and sends a message to their loved ones back on earth that they have arrived safely in the land of spirit. The Chumash, the local tribe of my Ojai area, call meteors Alakiwohoch, meaning “shooting star,” which they believed was a person’s soul on its way to the afterlife, while the Wintu of northern California thought of meteors as the spirits of shamans on their way to the afterlife.

Shooting stars have been a symbol of reaching your destiny, but they also have been seen as bad omens. In Christian and Jewish traditions, falling stars are fallen angels and demons. In parts of Asia, a falling star may predict war or death. Usually, however, it’s a good omen; when you see a falling star and “put it in your pocket,” your wish will be granted, since the gods are clearly looking down and can hear your wish.

Shooting stars certainly bring an influx of energy that can be accessed for healing purposes. As can meteorites, when the falling star actually lands on earth. A meteorite can actualize your purpose here, a trusting energy that opens lines of communication and provides the strength to endure on your spiritual quest. Small pieces of meteorites can be used to strengthen the blood and tissues, and to help you merge with spirit while in the physical body. 

It is said that the rare nickel-iron meteorites (less than 1% of all meteorites) in particular help you develop the patience you need while walking the spiritual path, and stimulate the third eye and crown chakras in preparation for spiritual awakening and inner vision. These meteorites were used in ancient times to make weapons that were powered by star energy. They also stabilize “walk-ins” and give them the ability to navigate unfamiliar environments.

Stony meteorites (which make up the great majority of meteorites that have made it to Earth), have been dated to be over 4.6 billion years old, and vibrate at a frequency that is attuned to interdimensional communication with extraterrestrials. They can be programmed to store information and may contain the history of other entities in the solar system. Other types of meteorites (called Pallasites) open your heart chakra so you don’t fear expanding your consciousness beyond your body and can resonate with the universe, while helping those who are empaths to stay grounded.

So if you’re able to be out under the dark sky in the pre-dawn hours next Monday, November 18th, see if you can catch the falling stars and reap the spiritual other-worldly energies that can connect you with your higher self. You can also connect with the love from the stars and the celestial beings who can expand your consciousness and bring you into harmony with the cosmic One. And if you want to converse with ET, here is your opening!