Yesterday I talked about how all healing is self healing, which is why I like to keep a bit of distance between myself and the label of healer. There is another aspect to this truth: Life has shown me, and the Akashic Records have taught me directly and in my work with others, that the Read more…
One of my favorite sources of tools is the Akashic Records, since they come tailor-made for the recipient. This tool is one I actually channeled for a client, but as it is often the case in readings, there was something in it for me, as well. I felt resonance in my body as I was communicating it to my client, so I filed it away as something to practice for myself. I love it because it is extremely simple, but incredibly powerful.
The purpose of this tool is to give you the experience of simultaneously feeling the support of your ancestors and your own power. To do this, you turn inward and feel your personal power in your solar plexus and feel the support of your ancestors at your back. (The Records said, “Your ancestors have your back.”) After some practice just imagining this, I viscerally felt this one day as I was practicing “on the go.”
My most powerful experience using this tool, however, was during my plant medicine retreat in Peru. I was really struggling to make it through the weeks with a healthy sense of self intact and woke up crying in the middle of the night on the eve of the last ceremony of the week. In the face of my shadow, I was wracked by fear, doubt, anguish, and self hatred, and I had no idea how to step forward from all that negativity. And then it occurred to me that I had read of countless people in similar situations turning to prayer, and how that became a miraculous turning point for them.
If it can happen for them, why not for me? (more…)
I am a big believer in working the question “Who am I?” regularly, and from multiple angles. This is a great personal inventory tool that was inspired by Byron Katie‘s “four questions.” I call it “spring cleaning” because it involves the same process of discernment that you could use for Read more…
Last year when we worked on focusing we used the technique pioneered by Ann Weiser Cornell in her book The Power of Focusing, which was my own personal introduction to the method. It was a great introduction to noticing how the body communicates to us something we need to know about our deeper selves, and how we can tap into that and attend to it if only we took the time to pay attention, ask, and listen.
Purists might disagree, but I consider focusing a form of meditation because it is just another way of quietly coming home to ourselves. But focusing also feels different from most traditional sitting practices because it really asks us to focus on the body (rather than the breath). It also requires that we be more “active,” in that we are meant to engage with what’s bubbling to the surface, rather than simply letting those bubbles go. One Dreamer & Schemer said that the focus on the body gave her something to hook into more easily than perhaps more “abstract” meditations, and that the experience led her to gain a new appreciation for her body!
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The Monster Celebration is perhaps the most famous guided meditation comes from Amanda Owen’s book, The Power of Receiving, and it comes to me via my cherished friend Steph Cowling. I really dig visualization exercises such as this because in addition to being powerful and effective, they are also fun and surprising. Yes, this is a really fun way to do shadow work. (Personally, I found talk therapy to be incredibly important foundational work, but fun? Not so much.)
Owen’s hypothesis is that standing between us and whatever goals we’re struggling to achieve is at least one “monster”—her word for inner demon. In spite of the name, this is not an “evil” or “bad” aspect of the self. To the contrary, she holds that our monsters are likely outworn beliefs and behaviors that no longer serve us (e.g., the Rebel or the Good Girl). Monsters are thus the rejected or misundertood parts of ourselves that continue to haunt us precisely because we refuse to know them more intimately and accept them with unconditional love.
If we want to live our lives in wholeness and integrity, it makes perfect sense that the task ahead is to know and integrate every aspect of the self, including those that we wish did not exist. The magical thing about healing—alchemical, really—is that observing any aspect of the self in loving attention transforms that aspect into gold.
With this in mind, Owen has come up with a playful solution to facing the most feared aspect of the self: throwing it a celebratory party! What better way to embrace someone we’ve ignored or rejected for so long? (more…)