Sleep Paralysis

Sleep Paralysis

by Energy HealingFeaturedSelf Love

In energy medicine, we teach that nightmares come from an imbalanced sixth chakra – the “third eye” which connects us to higher wisdom. Sixth chakra imbalance can come from denying the truth or running away from our obligations.

Could it be that sleep paralysis attacks also come from an imbalanced sixth chakra?

It was in the corner of her room sometime between midnight and daybreak.

It lunged at her, fangs bared, a dark void of anger where a face should have been.

She tried to fight back, but couldn’t move. She was paralyzed, lying in her bed as a vicious and deeply terrifying creature stalked her from the edges of her room – lunging, then receding, biting at her arms.

…And then she woke up.

This was the memory that a student came to me with: a terrifying night attack that had haunted her for a great deal of time. What was it? Where did it come from? And why had it selected her for torture? Together, we worked to discover that it was an episode of “sleep paralysis,” where you find yourself almost awake but unable to move as your dreams turn against you. It’s an awful middle-ground: you feel trapped in your body as you’re being attacked.

It’s terrifying. But the good news was my student wasn’t alone. Throughout history, many cultures have discussed, analyzed, and interpreted sleep paralysis. In China, the attacking spirit is known as a “sitting ghost.” In Egypt, these visitors are seen as evil djinn who are exacting a curse upon you.

Sitting ghost, djinn, demon. What they all have in common is a profound sense of despair as an intruder invades your sanctity and attacks you.

What’s more troubling is that these intruders are all in our own heads.

This was of little comfort to my student, who felt betrayed by her own mind: “How could my body and brain conspire against me like this,” she asked.

What could she do? What should anyone do when you’re having an episode (or recurring episodes) of sleep paralysis? Is it really as simple as writing it off as a bad dream? Or are there steps you can take to protect yourselves from these night-bound terrors?

Sleep paralysis attacks occur in up to 40% of people at some point. They’re normal. They’re like super nightmares. The idea that these attacks are manifestations of darkness may be rooted in cultural traditions, but those beliefs might also be doing more harm than good. In countries where sleep paralysis is understood to be a natural phenomenon, the rates of recurring attacks are lower than in countries where it is thought to represent real evil.

These dreams only have as much power as you give them.

In energy medicine, we teach that nightmares come from an imbalanced sixth chakra – the “third eye” which connects us to higher wisdom. Sixth chakra imbalance can come from denying the truth or running away from our obligations.

Could it be that sleep paralysis attacks also come from an imbalanced sixth chakra?

Was this “intruder” perhaps a representation of denied truths or an unwillingness to listen to her own intuition? Was my student, perhaps, feeding this intruder by running away from her truth or not listening to her inner guidance?

When we run from our dreams, we cut off the good and the bad – the nightmare and the vision. We replace a healthy relationship with sleep with one of fear and dread, feeding the darkness. I helped my student recalibrate her sixth chakra. I guided her to her inner voice. She found her higher wisdom and silenced her inner critic. From there, she took the brave step of embracing her dreams – both beautiful and scary.

This intruder only had as much power as she was willing to give it. And her inner wisdom helped her cede none. She gave power to herself instead.

To this day, she’s never had another attack.

We give fuel to our inner demons. Or we can snuff them out. We can do so by following our inner voice, living our truth, and following the wisdom of our higher selves.

It’s time to learn how to listen to ourselves – our intuition. Our medical intuition course specializes in how to tap into our own intuitive healing powers – our own higher wisdom – in order to bring peace and wellbeing. Our class has already started, but there’s still time to join us on the journey.

Follow along, and learn how to tap into the healing wisdom you already possess.

2020 Winter Solstice

Standing Still in the Solstice

by EventsFeaturedMeditationSelf Love

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about standing still. About pausing, breathing.

We’re approaching the Winter Solstice, the time of year where the day is shortest in the Northern Hemisphere. At the arctic circle, it’s completely dark for 24 hours.

I know that many of us have felt that we’re facing our own, personal winter solstices. Our communities feel fractured. Uncertainty, loss, and grief are now part of the atmosphere.

We all want to know, “when will this darkness end?”

But the word solstice doesn’t refer to this darkness. It refers to something different.

Imagine, for a moment, an invisible line in the sky. Day or night. It bisects the sky into the North and South, just like the equator around our planet. We call this the celestial equator. Twice a year (at the equinoxes), our Sun crosses this equator. Right now, it is heading South. On the Solstice, the Sun reaches its southernmost point in our sky. It takes a pause.

It stands still.

That’s what the word “solstice” refers to. The Sun “standing still.”

With the Sun’s pause comes a host of other occurrences. The shortest day, the longest night. It’s easy to look at these extremes and feel a sense of foreboding – that somehow night has enveloped the day, and the Sun itself has become frozen. But this sense of foreboding ignores the beauty and hope that the Winter Solstice represents. And embracing this beauty might be the key to us breaking through our own Winter Solstices.

Like a wayward traveler who has voyaged to a distant land, the Sun finally stands still on December 21st. It pauses, holding its place in our sky, before finally returning North.

Think about it. The Winter Solstice is only the shortest day because the sun stands still and then returns North. It’s only the darkest day because the next day is slightly brighter. It’s only the lowest point because the light turns back.

The Winter Solstice is the Northern Hemisphere’s rock bottom. It’s the “darkest before the dawn moment.” And this “darkest before the dawn” can inform how we journey our own, Spiritual Solstices.

Our journeys this year have been unexpected and perilous. Oftentimes, it feels like we’re a passenger in our journeys, as opposed to a pilot. But we have a choice that we can make – an action that can give us insight, strength, and (hopefully) some community in these fragmented times.

We can pause.

On December 21st, I encourage all of us to pause – collectively, though separated. I want us all to feel the faint rays of the Sun and imbue ourselves with the energy of a star and a planet who have paused in extremity.

Absorb this energy. Coax out the intuition of this celestial stillness.

Let’s pause each of our journeys – for just that brief day – to take stock of how far we’ve gone, where we’ve come from, and where we wish to go. Let’s stand in our stillness, and look back at the joys we wish to recapture.

We can examine our choices, our habits, our relationships; and decide how we will carry forward.

The Winter Solstice is a blessed time! It’s a rare time for introspection, reflection, and change. This energy is mirrored in our cultural celebrations around winter. New Year’s Resolutions? What is that but a pause and a change of direction?

I know that the Winter Holidays can be a circus. We all work double-time to purchase that perfect Hannukah gift, make that perfect Christmas roast, and plan that perfect New Year’s celebration. It’s hard to pause when there’s so much to do!

But your spirit deserves a Solstice.

Embody that energy of the Winter Solstice in order to become an active participant in your own journey. It feels counter-intuitive, but by simply taking a day to be still, you will gain unprecedented agency and insight into your own voyage through life.

It’s always darkest before the dawn.

Deborah

2020-EmbracingtheLiminalityof2020Blog

Embracing the Liminality of 2020

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedSelf Love

I want to talk with you about liminality. About thin places. Thin times.

Liminality refers to a state of transition or of a rite of passage. It is an innate quality present within a space, a time, or a person.

Perhaps the most popular date of liminality would be Hallowtide – the three days making up Hallowe’en, All Saints’ Day, and All Souls’ Day, which I wrote and spoke about at length last Fall.

We see the liminality of Hallowtide reflected in our celebrations. We embrace our fears of death as we cuddle on the couch watching the latest horror film. We embody our fears as we dress in the clothes of our monsters and ghosts. We commune with death as we make offerings to our departed loved ones.

Hallowtide is a thin time. I want to talk about another thin time.

Friends, this year has been (for all of us) a very trying time. Many of us have lost loved ones. Many of us have had close calls with death ourselves. Destruction, anxiety, and illness have been more present this year than in many generations.

It appears that this year itself has been a thin time. The veil between our worlds feels gossamer where it once felt heavy.

It’s an uneasy time. This feeling of thinness between our worlds has made everyone feel uneasy.

As we depart from Hallowtide and move toward the Winter Holidays, it can be tempting to try and ignore the thinning of the veil. The Winter Solstice has always been a spiritual and natural “reset” for our world, bringing new vitality as the sun begins to increase in strength again.

So many have thought “2020 is going to be a year not to repeat. 2021 is my 2020 do-over.”

What you’re hoping for is to simply “patch up” the veil between our worlds. It’s a natural reaction to such a complicated time. It’s not fun being uneasy. You want that unstable feeling to end.

But these thin times are rare, and it is important to understand the opportunity, wisdom, and enlightenment that thin moments and thin places can offer.

Just as on Dia de Los Muertos, you commune with your ancestors, during the waning weeks of 2020, you must commune with the energy flowing between our worlds.

I know that is a difficult choice. After all, it sometimes feels that far more energy has flown from our world to the spirit world this year. It can be vulnerable to open yourself up to the other world. But embracing the power of liminality allows you to cultivate understanding and enlightenment, helping you start the new year on the right foot.

So how do you embrace liminality?

Find thin places. Thin places are physical, real places where the distance between our world and the spirit world is at its closest. These places may not be the same for everyone.

For some of you, these thin places might be as simple as a hill in an empty forest. For others, a grand ruin in a far-off country might be the thinnest of places. It’s a place where there is an immediate sense that a greater power is present. You feel connected to a force, an energy, a divinity that you can’t discern elsewhere.

Stand still in the thin places. Don’t interrogate. Be present, and allow yourself to become a vessel, a conduit for wisdom and light. Imbue yourself with the energy that crosses over.

As you approach the Winter Holidays of Christmas, Hannukah, Yule, Kwanzaa, and many others, fully enmesh yourself in the ritual of these holidays.

Ritual without meaning is ceremony. Fully realized ritual allows you to tap into the energy of this thin time.

Your rituals, whether it be lighting advent candles, burning the yule log, or baking Christmas cookies, further thins the veil between our worlds. Use your rituals to glean insight from the thinness of 2020. Use this insight to position yourself for 2021.

Let the thin times roll!

2020-TheRealMeaningofEmpathyBlog

The Real Meaning of “Empathy”

by FeaturedRelationshipsSelf Love

When I was a child, I learned a very important lesson from my father. I was barely big enough to climb into Daddy’s pickup after he was done with work on Friday nights, when he’d drive around our small town to give away bags of oranges to the hungry. Along the way, much to my mother’s chagrin, he would often hand over his coat to someone who looked cold. A lawyer in our little town, and a Representative at the State Capitol, he used his influence to develop social justice programs to help the needy in our state. And when I became a lawyer and joined him in his practice, he taught me to take on pro bono (for free) clients along with the ones who could pay. Daddy was a sterling example of empathy in action.

We need a lot more empathy in the world these days. With 50 countries around the world ruled by dictators and despots right now, the concepts of representative government, respect for civil liberties, and human rights, have morphed into a general attitude of “let them eat cake.” Unfortunately, today’s authoritarians seem to be, more and more, supported by the middle class. The result is untold suffering for millions of people.

Empathy is a word we’ve heard tossed around a lot lately. But what does it actually mean?

It means that when your friend’s aunt dies of Covid, you don’t say, “She’s in a better place.” When your neighbor loses his job, you don’t cheerfully announce, “See the glass as half full.” How many times have we all said when there has been a disaster, “our thoughts and prayers are with you,” instead of actually helping those who were impacted, thereby effectively bypassing the real work.

“Spiritual bypass” is a way to avoid or escape from uncomfortable emotions. Spirituality becomes a defense mechanism when it sees only “light and love” and does not acknowledge the authentic nature of all the elements of life, including the terrible truths of pain, suffering, sickness, and death. It’s like a politician flying over the scene of a fire or flood that caused massive destruction and loss of lives. It might make a memorable photo-op, but from that great height you can’t see the pain of a child who has lost a parent, feel the grief of a family that has lost its home, or inhale the stench of burnt carcasses.

So how can you react in a truly spiritual way to the suffering of others?

You can say, “I understand how hard this is for you. I know how sad I felt when my favorite aunt died a couple of years ago. What can I do to help: want to take a walk or can I bring you a casserole?” You empathize with their situation because you have experienced pain in your life and you connect through your common humanity.

While hugs are off the table right now, remember what you felt when you saw Princess Diana stop to hug a child? It wasn’t only her dazzling smile that made people love her; it was her compassion and her ability to connect with people. The Nigerian-born Baron Adebowale, a member of the House of Lords in Great Britain, saw the face-to-face work Diana did with the homeless and said, “Her humanity spoke to their humanity.”

That’s empathy. Your humanity speaks to someone else’s humanity. Your heart goes out to their heart, energetically. It’s like seeing those exhausted and overwhelmed nurses crying in the hospital hallway after they have held a phone up so the loved ones of a person dying alone of Covid can say their goodbyes. Your heart aches for the nurse, for the person who died of this viral scourge, and for the person on the other end of that crushing phone call. And for the others you know who will experience that pain until this pandemic, which has already killed over 1.27 million people around the globe, is over.

In January of 2010, a major earthquake in Haiti killed over 300,000 people and left 1.5 million without homes. A few days later, Hollywood actor Sean Penn landed in Haiti. He saw tens of thousands of people living in tents and lean-to’s and he set about digging drainage ditches and latrines, getting food and water supplied to the camp. Penn stayed on the ground in Haiti for months and continued to return there over the last 10 years. The nonprofit he started to focus on Haiti has now been expanded to respond to natural disasters in the Caribbean and Florida. Penn backed up his humanitarian ideals with both his money and his time (a far more valuable resource).

Empathy shows an understanding of someone else’s experiences because you yourself have experienced pain and can relate. Identification is the key. You connect to another, looking past differences and appreciating your commonality. You hurt; I understand because I have also experienced being hurt. Skin color, political affiliation, religion, gender—those are just the trappings on top of our common humanity and are irrelevant in that moment.

Katie Couric, when she was a co-host on NBC’s morning show, Today, did an incredibly empathetic act when she underwent a colonoscopy on air to underline the importance of testing for colon cancer; her young husband had died of the disease and her concern for others’ health led her to transform her personal tragedy into public good. That’s empathy, showing the unglamorous aspects of her personal life in order to help others avoid the same loss and grief.

Many young stars, who often come from very humble beginnings, are conscious of their ability to direct attention and empathy towards those who need help, and many do a lot of in-person volunteering along with writing checks. Taylor Swift teamed up with the Governor of Tennessee to combat internet sex crimes. Miley Cyrus works with underprivileged kids in the US and Haiti. Emma Watson, the Harry Potter actress, is known for her work in girls’ education in Bangladesh and Zambia. Selena Gomez is determined to help stop hunger for children in Africa. Popstar Nicki Minaj donates both time and money to a small village in India.

Empathy in action is not the same as sympathy. Sympathy means you feel sorry for what someone else is experiencing, while empathy means you actually feel what someone else is experiencing. The more we develop empathy – personally, in our institutions, and in our governments, the better our world will become. And empathy is different from being an empath. An empath is an emotional sponge, the opposite of energy healing: it is one of the first things I teach my energy healing students to avoid, as it is the opposite of the energy exchange desired.

Empathy may be the most important thing you can teach your children, as my father taught me. George Clooney, who often works for social causes, became a father for the first time in his 50’s. He said about his twins: “I want them to be interested in things. I want them to be compassionate about other people’s plights. Because that’s the thing, you know? You have to have some sort of empathy.”

So empathy is what we need. And you’ll feel better about yourself and the world. Empathy increases your communication skills and allows you to connect with others. When you can feel what another person is going through, when you listen more than you speak, you can respond in the best way possible. It helps you regulate your own emotions when you see a situation from another’s perspective. From an energy medicine perspective, your heart chakra energy is going to their heart chakra energy, and since energy knows no bounds of space or time, it’s instantaneous and effective. And did you realize that developing empathy is one of the best ways to benefit your health? When you see the world through the eyes of compassion, you are better able to handle stress, are happier, have less depression and anxiety, and a stronger immune system. You’ll be spreading a more positive and caring energy. When we all come from a place of empathy, it will create that same loving vibration in our families, our communities, our governments – in the whole world.

Dream journaling

Dream Journaling: Tap Into Your Inner Wisdom for Guidance & Healing

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedHealthSelf Love
Dream journaling

Your dreams are filled with wisdom to guide you through every aspect of your life.

They give you access to knowledge beyond your ordinary, everyday awareness. They can show you the future, preparing you for challenges and opportunities. They can speak to your past, providing you with clues for healing old wounds. And they can guide you in the present, offering you wisdom for making the best decisions and honoring your soul’s desires.

A powerful way to start tapping into the wisdom of your dreams is to keep a dream journal.

Why you should keep a dream journal

The benefits of dream journaling are as vast as the realms your dreams take you to. Here are just a few of my favorite reasons to keep a dream journal.

Healing, transformation, and growth:
When you look back on your dream journals, you hold up a magic mirror that can reveal patterns in long-standing challenges. Your dream journal can even serve you as a data log that gives you insight into themes regarding your attitudes, beliefs, experiences, and actions.

You can also get precognitive glimpses of things that appear in your waking world later on. Dream journaling helps you develop a sixth sense, opening you to correct a course you’re on, restore your inner compass, expand your consciousness, or develop telepathic or clairsentient skills.

Brain balance:
Dream journaling can benefit your corpus callosum — the part of the brain that joins the right and left hemispheres, physically connecting your intuitive abilities with your analytic abilities.

In “Dreams Make Me Smarter,” one of our students wrote: “I let the dream images come to me, then write the dream in my journal, which engages my left brain. I pay close attention to any right-brain feelings about the dream. Then I brainstorm about any associations with those images or feelings. Working with dreams is a whole-brain exercise!”

Creativity:
Dreams offer you a treasury of images and symbols that can light your creative fire if you’re an artist. And even if you’re not, recording your dreams can inspire you to tap into the creativity inside you that yearns to be expressed.

Sketch that mountain or underwater temple when you wake up, then turn it into a deeply expressive painting or sculpture! Write down a dream-encounter as a short story, or see how it’s a clue into how to finish a scene you’ve been working on for your novel. Record that guitar line that came to you in your dreams. Whatever ways you express yourself — or would like to express yourself — journal your dreams to ignite your imagination.

How to keep a dream journal

Choose a notebook or a specially-crafted dream journal with thick, high-quality paper that you can joyfully write and sketch in.

Keep your journal near your bed and write your dreams in it as soon as you wake up. If you find that your bedside notes are barely legible, try transcribing them into a Google Doc later in the day.

While I suggest charging your phone away from your bedroom at night (so you can get a nightly retreat from constant digital clutter and melatonin-disturbing blue light), another option is to record a voice note as soon as you wake up. Then use a voice-to-text program to transcribe your dreams.

Ready to start recording the wisdom of your dreams?

Here are 5 journaling prompts to get you started:

  1. When was the dream? Note the date (including the year) so you can look back on the entry in the context of what was going on in your life and the world at the time.
  2. What happened in the dream? The key is to record your dream in as much detail as you can. Where were you? What was it like? What were the events? What did you do? Was anyone else there? What did they do or say? When did the dream take place? What did the events remind you of? If a detail seems too trivial or obvious to note, write it down anyway. When you look back on your dream entries, you’ll find that what might have seemed like useless details are highly significant in retrospect.
  3. What did you think or feel during the dream? Your internal experience is one of the most (if not THE most) telling aspects of your dreams. Did you feel elated, joyful, rejected, connected, relieved, anxious, relaxed, fascinated, blessed? Did you think “This reminds me of the time I…” Or maybe you thought “This is a place I’d love to….” Whatever your interior response was, make a note of it.
  4. How does the dream connect to your highest desires? This year, Spirit is really calling us to focus on what we want to create in our lives on this beautiful planet. We all long for something. Look back on the things you’ve desired in your past that you’ve manifested. That’s evidence that goals come to fruition, that “dreams come true”! So think about what you want at this point in your life. A new house? Healing from an illness? A fulfilling relationship? A rewarding career that suits your soul? Clean waterways? The end of injustice? Jot down anything about your dream that seems connected to your longing.
  5. What do you think the dream means? Don’t worry right away about dream interpretations like “owls represent wisdom” — you can look those up later if you’d like. For now, focus on writing down what significance the feelings, events, people, and images of the dream have for you. Because it’s your dream, you have the most insight into what it’s telling you.

 

Tap into the creative, healing wisdom of your dreams now!

If you want to start journaling right now, write down your response to one of these prompts:

  • Last night I dreamed…
  • When I was a child, I dreamed…
  • The best dream I ever had was…
  • A recurring dream I’ve had is…
  • The other day I had the strangest dream…

Start writing now or when you wake up tomorrow, and watch the wisdom flow from your soul, through your pen, and into your life.

Dream on!

To learn more about tapping into the power of your dreams, you can checkout my course on Astral Wisdom here.

astral wisdom course
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!

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!

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!

Successful Relationship

8 Essential Questions for a Successful Relationship

by ChakrasFeaturedRelationshipsSelf Love

It may be cold outside, but you could be enjoying the warmth of the fire of love this Valentine’s Day. If you are in a relationship, the more spiritually expanded you are, the better your intimacy will be. If you are seeking a relationship, your expansive, radiant self will attract the right person to you.

In the West, we believe in romantic love—that starry-eyed encounter between two people who come together with passion. You hope for “happily ever after,” although divorce rates are still around 50% for first marriages and even higher for subsequent marriages. FYI almost 70% of divorces are initiated by the woman.

You rejoice when love comes calling, or sigh over the failure of that knight on a white horse to materialize in your life. The highs and lows of romantic love, the gauzy world of bridal magazines and the terror of fatal attraction, are the movie plots we love to watch.

In the East, however, romantic love is just one of many different types of love. Language shows what’s important to us: the Eskimos have over 30 words for snow—a life-and-death matter for them. Sanskrit has 96 words for love; ancient Persian has 80. English has only one—one little four-letter word has to express everything from the love of ice cream to the love of country, from erotic love to motherly love to the love of the Divine. English plays down the importance of feelings and concentrates on action verbs; in the West, we think that what we do is more important than our ability to be with our feelings.

Because romantic love is only one of many types of love, what’s been more important than initial attraction in the East is compatibility. Over 5,000 years ago, the Vedic sages realized that Jyotish, Vedic astrology, could predict if two people were sufficiently compatible to establish a long-lasting relationship and guarantee, as much as possible, the stability of the family unit. These enlightened sages understood human nature, and they put far more importance on factors like emotional compatibility, basic temperament, mutual interests, and friendship, than on sexual attraction.

Even today, when “love matches” are more and more acceptable in the East, many still rely on astrological marriage charts to see if they’re making the right long-term choice.

When Vedic astrologers look at the charts of two people to see if their union would be a good idea or not, the first crucial aspect they look at is whether or not that couple will respect each other. Then they check on 36 different “wavelength” characteristics. (These all come from an ancient Jyotish text, the Prashna Marga.)

These “wavelengths” are based on eight criteria, in descending order of importance. As you read through these criteria, think of your own intimate relationship and imagine you and your partner’s chart are being compared.

  1. Are you sensitive to each other’s emotional needs?
  2. Are your basic natures compatible (values)? Is there an affinity between your temperaments?
  3. Do you have the ability to have a friendship based on mutual interests, likes and dislikes?
  4. Are you compatible in terms of attractiveness?
  5. Is the man’s presence comforting or threatening to the woman?
  6. Is there mutual affection?
  7. Are you sexually attracted to each other?
  8. Do you tend to help each other improve?

The ancient vedic astrologers skipped a few aspects of relationship that are important in today’s world, but were unknown in their day: do either want children, do they have political affinity, are they similar in socio-economic background, etc. These were factors that were unknown 5000 years ago when your prospective mate was always someone of your economic status and of the same religion.

The astrologer will also note the possibility of a harmful aspect of the planet Mars in the chart, which can make one partner far more assertive than the other. A modern Vedic astrologer looked at the unhappy marriage of the poet Sylvia Plath to Ted Hughes, which eventually led to Plath’s suicide at the age of 30. The most noticeable factor was that Ted measured five times more assertive than Sylvia based on the Mars aspect. He would have been far more powerful, and a Vedic astrologer would have told them to avoid marriage. It wouldn’t even have worked as a friendship.

Of course, marriages arranged through astrology seem archaic to most of us, who believe in “love marriages,” although most devout Hindus and many orthodox Jews still rely on arranged marriages. Some traditional African societies, royal families, and some Muslims have their own practices of arranged marriages. And who’s to say it’s wrong? Over half the marriages worldwide are arranged. And in India, where almost 90 percent of marriages are still arranged (often in a modern way that includes more choice), the divorce rate is only 1 percent.

I’m not advocating for arranged marriages. There are plenty of problems inherent in that practice, as in marriages for love. But it is interesting to examine how compatible you are with someone before you get involved in a serious relationship. Or if you’re having problems in your relationship, it could be helpful to look at the Vedic criteria to see what aspects are causing the trouble.

These days, more people are foregoing marriage than ever before. In 2017, 57.5 percent of Americans over the age of 18 were married, down from 72 percent in 1960. That means over forty percent of Americans are single. You think you’d at least be able to find a date!

Even if you’re dating steadily, you may not have found the one you want. And even then…

Here’s a teaching story from the Sufi tradition:

Mullah Nasrudin was sitting in a tea shop with his friend, who was excited because he was getting married soon. He asked Mullah, “Have you ever thought of marriage yourself?”

Nasrudin replied, “I did think of getting married. In my youth, in fact, I very much wanted to do so. I waited to find for myself the perfect wife. I traveled looking for her, first to Damascus. There I met a beautiful woman who was gracious, kind, and deeply spiritual, but she had no worldly knowledge. I traveled further and went to Isphahan. There I met a woman who was both spiritual and worldly, beautiful in many ways, but we did not communicate well. Finally I went to Cairo and there, after much searching, I found her. She was spiritually deep, graceful, and beautiful in every respect, at home in the world and at home in the realms beyond it. I felt I had found the perfect wife.”

His friend asked, “Then did you not marry her, Mullah?”

“Alas,” said Nasrudin. “She was, unfortunately, waiting for the perfect husband.”

So what can you do if you’re single and looking to find your perfect love? To help in your search for “the one,” you can simply open to love, especially love for yourself. The love you carry within, the love of your Higher Self that is connected to Source, is what attracts others to you. Lit from within, glowing with openness, compassion, and empathy, you can send a beacon of love out into the universe. And the one you are waiting for will hear your call.

Limiting Beliefs

Heal Your Limiting Beliefs (But First Discover Them!)

by Energy HealingEnergy MedicineFeaturedHealthLife CoachingSelf Love

Do you ever feel like you are running in place instead of moving toward your goals and dreams? Like you’re pounding away on a hidden treadmill going nowhere. Clearly, something is holding you back, when your path seems to be blocked, and chances, you are blocked by limiting beliefs you don’t even know you have.

What’s a Limiting Belief? 

Just like 15th-century Europeans who believed that the earth was flat, you may have unexamined beliefs that are incorrect. Such beliefs may be limiting you, holding you back—especially those that stem from fear-based thinking. Fear is always limiting, as opposed to opening, expanding and freeing. When you start to look closely at your personal beliefs, you may be surprised to find that some actually close doors rather than open them. Limiting beliefs can stifle your vision, your potential, and your power. You won’t set sail to explore the world if you’re afraid you might fall off the edge.

Where Do Your Beliefs Come From?

Typically, your most important beliefs are unconscious. You haven’t examined them because you don’t even realize they exist. Over 90 percent of your core beliefs originated in childhood, coming from your parents or caregivers, school, and culture. These subconscious views run the greater part of your life and shape your potential to be happy or unhappy, rich or poor, healthy or not so much. You have inherited what you believe, most of which is unconscious, and all of it dramatically influences your life.

Do You Know What You Believe?

Questioning your beliefs is an exercise well worth the effort. It’s part of the process of self-discovery needed for spiritual growth and healing. It will free you from all kinds of limitations in life, including fear and living according to what’s right for someone else but not for you. You’ll want to ask yourself: “Where did this belief come from?” and “Does it still work for me, or is it limiting me in some way?” If you think that an idea no longer fits you, ask yourself what might suit you better.

Here are some of the personal “belief” areas you’ll want to examine:

Religion – this is usually the primary limitation for people when they want to expand their consciousness. What, if any, childhood faith were you raised in? Do you believe in the tenets of that faith now? Do you practice them? Are they fear-based? Are you aware of unconscious beliefs from your early education about religion that may be negatively affecting your life today? Also, consider your beliefs about the religions of others. Do you automatically reject others or their thinking because their religion is different from yours, even if you give only lip service to your own?

Politics – So many people automatically exclude everything from the “other side,” assuming that no good can possibly come from it. Do you automatically decide that everyone who opposes your viewpoint is 100 percent wrong? How much do you expose yourself to the beliefs of the other camp? If very strong feelings arise when you look at this area of belief, consider it closely and make sure that love and not fear is ruling your outlook.

Social Values – Where do you stand on the right of women to make decisions about their own bodies, the death penalty, gay marriage, social welfare programs, and other important topics? I always try to read well-written pieces on both sides of every issue and then consciously recheck my position. Have you thought through your own views on these issues recently, or do you automatically determine that there can be nothing of merit on the other side?

Race – We’d all like to think that we’re blind to skin color, but the truth is that we inherit racial prejudices from our family of origin, our schools, and our country—and these are very hard to delete. Bring your feelings into the light and really examine them.

Money – I can almost guarantee that if you have money problem, they can be traced back to certain beliefs you inherited from your family of origin. What are your beliefs about abundance and your own relationship to it?

Relationships – What subliminal or even overt messages did your mother and father give you about interpersonal relationships? How healthy is your relationship to yourself? Is your self-talk positive and empowering? Do you believe in your worthiness and potential? What about your relationship with a significant other?

Why Is It Vital to Question Your Beliefs?

Most of your preconceived beliefs are unconscious unless you make the effort to shift them into your awareness. Here’s why it’s important to bring all of them into your consciousness:

  1. Your unconscious beliefs may inhibit you from becoming all that you are meant to be. It’s nearly impossible to expand and grow, to take in new information and make new choices, when you are confined to operating solely according to preexisting ideas.
  2. If you want to work comfortably with others, you’ll need to be able to accept their beliefs and treat them with the same respect you would your own.
  3. A person with a lot of fixed beliefs is acting from fear. Being afraid to give serious thought to the activities and opinions of others means that you are judging them without really giving their ideas your full consideration.

To free yourself from limiting beliefs that keep you “running in place” instead of growing into your greatest good, give some thought to your beliefs. Find out where you really stand. Free yourself to be open-minded and self-determined, think what you want to think, be in the driver’s seat of your own consciousness!

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!

Seven Chakras

Improve Your Mood Instantly with Chakra Cleansing

by ChakrasEnergy HealingFeaturedHealthSelf Love

Taking time to recharge and reset your body, mind, and Spirit is essential to overall health and wellness. Everyone has different methods for releasing the negative energy that naturally accumulates throughout the day: some enjoy taking a hot bath with lavender salts before bedtime while others detail their hopes and aspirations in a journal so they can stay on-track to reach their healing goals.

If you find that your healing rituals are becoming less effective, you may need to spend some time cleansing your chakras so you can get your entire being back on track.

We have seven primary energy centers in our bodies called chakras. Since each chakra correlates to a body part, there are specific ailments and dysfunctions that result if it is blocked. Any time that we have a physical issue, it weakens us emotionally. By cleansing your chakras and releasing stale energy from the body, you breathe new energy into the area of your body that is struggling for air.

And just as each chakra corresponds to a physical body part, they also have a powerful influence over our mental and emotional well-being. The clearing of energies past their prime will help you work through fears and emotions that can safely be freed.

Cleanse your chakras and improve your mood

You can learn to cleanse your own chakras in a quick and effective chakra cleansing meditation.

A grounding meditation practice

Focus on your root chakra and planting it firmly in the ground. Feel the energy of the Earth as your physical body and Spirit connect to Mother Earth. Suddenly, you’ll feel energy radiate up through your body and your mind.

Focus on opening your chakras

After completing your grounding meditation, you can begin opening each of your chakras, one by one. You’ll want to start with the root chakra.

To do this, visualize each one opening. Since each of the seven chakras has a specific color associated with it, a calming way to focus on each opening think about each as your favorite flower in one of the seven colors.

As you focus your energy on a particular chakra, imagine that flower — in its corresponding color — blooming.

Beginning with the root chakra, think about a red infant flower bud that is tightly bound, protecting its delicate petals from the harsh world on the outside. As you look at the young flower, you can tell that there are hundreds of petals on the inside that are ready to break free from the confines of the shell. Suddenly, you notice movement and the flower opens up into full bloom, radiating beauty and life into everything surrounding it.

Once your root chakra has opened, you can move onto the next. As you work through each chakra up to the crown, imagine each one blooming in their corresponding color.

Root chakra (red)

Sacral chakra (orange)

Solar plexus chakra (yellow)

Heart chakra (green)

Throat chakra (blue)

Third eye chakra (violet)

Crown chakra (gold)

If you aren’t a flower or plant enthusiast, you can visualize doors opening or clouds parting. This entire opening meditation should take you approximately 28-42 minutes, spending 4-6 minutes to open each chakra.

Breathe energy into each chakra

Going back to the start of your grounding meditation, refocus on the energy that you pulled from Mother Earth. It is now time to use this energy to flood each of your chakras with life, like water racing downstream in a river. As you visualize the water running through your root chakra, observe how it flushes away impurities and stale energies.

Move onto your sacral chakra after you feel your root chakra has been cleansed. At the end, you will have seven streams of energy flowing through each of your seven chakras.

Return the energy source to Mother Earth

When you feel that your chakras as cleansed and feel it is time to turn off the energy flow, start to pull back on the energy streams. Just like you would turn off a running faucet or unplug a lamp, the energy will fall back into the Earth quickly.

Return each of your chakras to their resting state

After the flow of energy has been returned to Earth, it’s time to close each of your chakras. While we aren’t closing chakras entirely — completely closed chakras are not healthy or sustainable for anyone and completely open chakras will drain your own energy — it is important to dial down the energy on each.

Just like you would turn down the volume on a radio or adjust the thermostat in your home, adjust the energy level on each chakra. You will start with at the crown chakra and move your way down to the root. Adjust the level until you feel comfortable: too low and you may feel a sensation of heaviness; too high and you may feel nervous or anxious suddenly.

This process of adjusting your chakras is unique to each individual. There is no wrong or right way to cleanse your chakras. What feels right to you may feel wrong to someone else. Each person is different.

To find out what feels “right,” pay close attention to your emotions, feelings, and physical state as you move through the cleansing process. Over time, you will observe things that repeat and sense subtle energies. There’s a reason why it’s called “meditation practice” — practice makes perfect.

3 Simple Steps to Connect to Your Higher Self

by HealthMeditationSelf Love

Daily invitation for the Divine to enter your life.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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