Life is not a Performance

     "We are human beings, not human thinkings or human doings. Just be. "  ~ Deepak Chopra, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success

     Life is not a performance. It's a unique expression of your divinity. Unfortunately most of us have been conditioned to believe that who we are is what we do, and that our value is dependent to how well we do it. But you have the power to choose what you believe. Once you become aware that you are living from conditioning, that realization comes with a choice. You can continue to believe that life is about performing, which creates stress and tension.  Or you can choose a new belief that creates harmony and balance.

     Take a deep breathe.  Let go of the pressure to perform. Give yourself permission to be you, to allow your unique expression to flow through you.

     For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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There Are No Coincidences

     “Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics."  

∼ Albert Einstein, Ph.D., The World as I See It

         As a dog lover, I do on rare occasions look at pictures of dogs for adoption, even though I already have two. Dogs are addictive. Like potato chips, you can’t just get one. The other day I did indulge myself and take a peek online at the website where we adopted one of our rescues, and a bonded pair caught my eye – a yellow lab and a cocker spaniel  The description of the dogs said that one couldn't survive without the other and they would have to be adopted as a pair.

     I couldn't help but imagine what it would be like to add these two to our household and daydreamed about them for a few minutes.

     The very next day I was getting out of my car in a parking lot and looked to the side to see someone with two dogs – a yellow lab and a cocker spaniel. I did a double-take. Was this the same couple I had seen online?  No – the coloring was a little different. But what are the odds of coming across two dogs almost identical to the ones I had just looked at online the day before?

    Most people would probably dismiss this experience as coincidence. But these occurrences happen to me frequently and I know from my study of quantum physics that there are no true coincidences! At least not in the way we define coincidence. Coincidence is defined as a remarkable concurrence of events without apparent causal connection. However, even though the causal connection may not be apparent, there is indeed a connection.

     What we focus on creates our reality. I had been focused on a yellow lab and a cocker spaniel – and a yellow lab and cocker spaniel then appeared in my environment. Imagine what we can manifest if we focus on what we want – like health!

     If your focus is on illness and disease - that is what you create. If your focus is on health and vibrancy - that is what you create. Now it’s easier for me to manifest a dog sighting because I have no emotional baggage related to dogs. If you have emotional baggage related to your health - that creates a block to manifesting.

      In order to manifest what you want, you have to fully express your negativity first. If you are focused on illness and disease because that is what you are dealing with, you can’t deny that or suppress your anger, fear or sadness about it in order to shift into thoughts of health. It doesn’t work very well. 

     So allow yourself to fully express how mad, sad, frustrated, or overwhelmed you are -- or whatever it is you are feeling. Go ahead and have a meltdown. Journal about it. Talk about it. Cry about it. Stomp your feet about it. Have a healthy tantrum and let the fear out. And take deep breaths while you are doing so. When you feel better – then you can focus on health, and imagine what it would feel like to feel completely healthy. Or whatever your heart's desire is. This is the process of manifestation.

     By the way....in case you are wondering, the bonded pair of dogs I saw online did get adopted together. :)

     
     For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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Your Value is Permanent

      "Realizing the permanence of your value and worth is like a child learning object permanence." 
~ Heidi DuPree

     "Make sure you don't start seeing yourself through the eyes of those who don't value you. Know your worth, even if they don't." ~ Thema Bryant-Davis, Thriving in the Wake of Trauma

     Playing the game of peekaboo with babies and small children has a purpose. It helps them learn object permanence. I remember hiding behind a blanket when my children were little, and then pulling the blanket away and seeing their surprise that I was still there. By the age of about two, children grasp that an object still exists even when it is hidden. They understand that their parent doesn't cease to exist just because they can't see them.

     As adults we all understand object permanence, but most of the clients I work with have difficulty with the concept of value permanence. They think that their value is something that increases or decreases depending on what they are accomplishing in their life, or whether people approve of them.  But the truth is, your value never wavers. You are always valuable, no matter what. The people in your life don't determine your value.  What you "do" doesn't determine your value. You were born valuable and it is permanent. Even when you can't see it or feel it, it's still there. Peekaboo!
  

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Change Can Happen In an Instant

    "Everything can change in an instant. Everything. And then there is only before and after." ~ Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, Shiloh

   
     A few winters ago, while walking in the woods, my attention was drawn to the sun shining on
this frozen puddle of water at the base of two trees. It almost looked like a heart at its center. As a child, I would step on the ice that had formed across the puddles overnight as I walked to the bus stop on frigid Minnesota mornings. I loved the popping sound as I broke the surface. It was such a delightful way to break something without consequences! So of course I couldn't resist stepping on this ice and popping the surface as well. 

     At that time, I felt like the ice -- frozen. Life is like a pebble dropped in a pond -- our actions have a ripple effect going out in every direction.  But my difficulty taking action made me feel stuck and frozen in place. I knew it was only temporary, just as the ice over this puddle will eventually melt and change its form.

     Everything is made of energy, and energy is impermanent. No matter what issues you are dealing with, even if it's an issue you've had your whole life, it can change on a dime. And even when things seem frozen, there is always movement happening beneath the surface, like the water flowing through this ice dome.

   

     Once I broke the ice, the creative juices started flowing.  I began mentally writing this blog post along with other creative ideas for taking action in my life.

     What draws your attention in nature?  Take a walk outside and see what messages there are for you.
   

    For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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The Significance of Synchrony

    "Synchrony happens once you let the universe continuously flow through you, not when you try to fit in its flow."  ~ Roxana Jones, Live From Your Heart and Mind

     One day while I was biking, I entered a walking tunnel under one of the streets in my community. At the far end of the tunnel was a couple walking side by side, silhouetted against the light streaming in from the opening. And then I  noticed...they were walking in perfect synchrony. Their legs moved and their arms swayed side to side at exactly the same time.

     I was so mesmerized, I stopped my bike to watch. I wish I had taken a video! But I was too caught up in the moment, because when we are in the presence of synchrony, we become synchronous ourselves. We become anchored in the present moment.

     It was apparent to me that this couple were in sync in more ways than their movements.  Their movements were likely a reflection of a body-mind-spirit synchrony in their relationship.

     Health is an expression of synchrony. When our body systems and energy systems work in synchrony, we feel calm, centered, balanced and present, and we experience higher levels of health. When our energy systems are out-of-sync, we are in disharmony. We live from the wounds of the past and feel anxious about the future. We can feel tense, chaotic, reactive and dull, and our health suffers.

     Synchrony isn't something you have to create, manufacture or search for. It's your natural state of being. When you are around people you feel in sync with, or in synchronous environments, you automatically revert to your natural state. This works because of wave resonance.

     To experience synchrony, spend time in nature, preferably outdoors. Try observing:

•  the movement of trees in a breeze
•  a flock of birds flying in the sky
•  fish swimming in a pond or an aquarium

     You can also experience synchrony by listening to nature:

• rhythmic ocean waves
• birds chirping
• insect sounds 

    The health benefits of these activities are well-documented, especially "Aquarium Therapy."

     I hope you try out one of these activities to create synchrony and health within yourself, and with the people in your life. 

                WATCH THE VIDEO VERSION OF THIS BLOG POST HERE
                                            (with cool nature video clips!)
   
      For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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There's No Judgment in Energy

     "Gravity has no prejudice. Gravity plays no favorites. It does not judge and it cannot be persuaded." ~ D. S. Luca, The Happiness Prize

     When I suggest to clients that the circumstances they see in their life are what they attracted, their first reaction is usually to judge themselves. They think that if they are attracting health issues, or lack, or difficult relationships - then they must be doing something "bad" or "wrong". But there is no judgment in energy. It's physics!

     If you let go of a ceramic bowl and the force of gravity causes it to drop to the ground and break, it's just physics. Gravity isn't "bad" or "wrong" because it broke the bowl, just as you are not bad or wrong for what you may have attracted in your life, even if it feels like it will break you.

   It is the lower self that labels things as right and wrong, or good and bad. The higher self recognizes there is no wrong or right. If you are in your lower self, compassion will shift you to your higher self. Doing so can be a simple as saying this affirmation, "Even though I judged myself as wrong for attracting this situation into my life, I choose to respond to myself with compassion."

   For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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How to Have a Healthy Tantrum

     "Unexpressed emotions tend to stay in the body like small ticking time bombs -- they are illnesses in incubation."  ~ Marilyn Van Derber, Miss America By Day

     Children tend to be more in touch with their emotions than adults. When their frustration levels get too high, they usually express themselves with a temper tantrum to release it.  They explode like a thunderstorm. And then like a storm, it passes. Afterwards, it is like the sun shining again and they feel better. But then we grow up and learn how to suppress our emotions.

     Emotional suppression creates disruptions in our energy that have been attributed to a host of health issues, from cancer to insomnia to chronic pain.  Even the conservative Center for Disease Control estimates 85% of all diseases has an emotional basis.

   Adults also need some form of emotional release as part of a healthy lifestyle. But you can't just drop on the floor at your workplace in front of your boss, or at home in front of your kids and start kicking and screaming when things don't go your way! What can you do when life becomes too much? Have a "tantrum" where and when its acceptable to do so.

• Choose a time and place when you are alone or with someone who unconditionally accepts you.
• Give yourself permission to express yourself freely without judging or censoring.
• Stomp your feet or roll around on the floor is you feel like it.
• Say out loud everything you've been holding inside.
• Be as childish as you want.

     Allow yourself to do this for 10-20 minutes. Let the storm explode. Don't hold anything back. It will pass. No storm can last forever. Unless you try and contain it and suppress it. Then the effects of this unexpressed emotion incubate with potential serious health consequences.

      You can also try:

• Vocalizations
• Journaling
• Deep breathing
• Exercise
• Drumming

      Its OK to release your frustration. Just do it in an appropriate way.

        For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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How to Feel More Connected to Others

     "If starlings have shown up in your life....They can teach you how to be more effective within groups. For large numbers to live at peace in a community, there must be an ability to communicate...more clearly..."            ~ Ted Andrews,  Animal Speak: The Spiritual & Magical Powers of Creatures Great & Small

     Many years ago a baby starling fell from his nest on Mother's Day.  I couldn't even tell what kind of bird this helpless, featherless baby was.  A wildlife rehabilitator gave me instructions in how and what to feed him. And he grew quickly! As his feathers came in and his yellow beak became brighter, I realized he was a starling, like this baby bird:

     As the starling matured, the wildlife rehabilitator instructed me in how to help him transition back to the woods. I moved him out of the house and into a cage on our deck near the woods. And then I started to leave the cage door open. The bird began to spend more and more time out of the cage roosting in the trees at the edge of the woods, returning to the cage less and less. 

     Each morning I would slide open the back door and call to him, and he would answer me and come for food. Or come pecking at the glass door when he was hungry. Sometimes he would just answer me without coming for food, and we would communicate back and forth with me matching his bird sounds. 

     This is a picture of him in his bird cage on our deck.

     And then one morning he was gone.

     I called out to him for days, but he did not answer. As his surrogate mother, I assumed the worst and worried that he had fallen prey to some predator.

    A year later, weeks before we were scheduled to move, a starling showed up at my back door and began pecking at the glass. When I opened the door, he studied me for a moment, and then flew away. I have no doubt this was "my" starling reconnecting before my move. He brought me reassurance by communicating the message that he was alive and well. 

Energetic Connection

     I believe the baby starling fell into my life all those years ago to teach me about connection through communication. The medicine of starling spirit teaches us how to effectively connect to others through energy and words. 

     Starlings form huge flocks, moving fluidly through the sky and creating spectacular formations. The birds are able to fly in perfect synchrony with each other because they are in constant communication through a principle of physics called wave resonance. 

     Humans are also in sync with each other and all of life through the collective consciousness, our oneness with the universal energy field. This field is thought to contain the collective psyche, intelligence, and wisdom of humanity.

     Even when we feel isolated and disconnected, we are all connected and can experience subtle communication with each other through the medium of the universal energy field.  Here are ways to feel that connection:

• Close your eyes and shift into a meditative state by emptying your mind and focusing on your breathing for a few minutes. 
• Imagine that you are breathing in and of your heart, receiving energy with your inhale and releasing energy with your exhale
• Now picture others you want to feel more connected to and send them unconditional love.

Connecting Communication

      You can feel more connected to others through verbal communication from the heart:

• Reflect back what others says to you without the overlay of your own opinion, without placing blame, and without conditions.
• Own your own feelings with "I" statements  -- Instead of "You make me sad" (blaming- creates defensiveness), try "I feel sad" (claiming - creates connection)
• Provide clarity by stating what would help the situation without opinion, blame or conditions. 

    Our words carry the energy of our intentions. If your intention in connecting to others is in the highest good of all, that is the energy that you transmit.

       For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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Cleaning Out Your Pantry For Health

    "Start by going through your pantry and refrigerator to identify and discard common unhealthy foods."  ~ Andrew Weil, MD

      In 2001 when I started a doctoral program in traditional naturopathy, Dr. Andrew Weil’s book 8Weeks to Optimum Health was required reading for my first course. And the very first step toward creating optimum health was cleaning out my pantry! 

     I got rid of any food products made with artificial fats, artificial sweeteners and artificial coloring. That would include margarine, vegetable oil and solid vegetable shortenings, as well as products made with them – such as cookies and crackers.  I also got rid of all canned and processed food and products with refined sugars.

    Cleaning out my pantry in 2001 was a great first start, but I got even bigger health benefits when I went on a grain-free, low-glycemic diet in 2008.  Until I went grain-free, I didn't realize I had swelling in my hands and feet.  Within 3 days of eliminating grains from diet, my shoes became loose and my rings twirled around my fingers. As the inflammation in my body decreased, tendonitis in my elbows and achilles tendons disappeared.  I also lost a significant amount of weight during that year. The only time I've had tendonitis since is when I accidentally consume grains, especially wheat. 

    Today my pantry looks very different. I used to have rows of canned and processed boxed goods. Now my pantry has a bottle of extra-virgin olive oil, canisters of protein powder (be sure to read the label on your protein powder - some contain refined sugar and wheat!), and bags of dried beans, almond flour, garbanzo bean flour, and flaxseed meal. My pantry mostly stores items like paper goods, trash bags, light bulbs, and vinegar for cleaning the floor!

     Cultivating and consuming grains is a fairy recent activity in the history of mankind. There is a theory that a segment of the population is not adapted to processing grains. It is clear that I am one of them. Grains convert to sugar in the body, destabilizing blood sugar levels and creating inflammation. Consuming raw fruits and vegetables decreases inflammation, as well as eliminating grains. 

     So…what’s in your pantry?  What can you get rid of that will benefit your health?

          For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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Why It's OK to be Sick

    "It can be eye-opening to think of some of the unrealistic expectations we hold ourselves to."  
     ~ Toni Bernhard,  How to Be Sick
 
     Several years ago I was scheduled to give a presentation on my new book to a group organized by a natural health consultant when I suddenly became ill and had to cancel. The natural health consultant pleaded with me to get well as soon as possible so I could still give my presentation. She sent me a string of texts about how much the participants were looking forward to meeting me and barraged me with advice on how to get better fast. But mostly, I just needed to rest! How did these text messages make me feel?  -- Pressured to get well and guilty for being sick. The underlying message seemed to be that being sick is a bad thing.

  This consultant was just responding from Western cultural beliefs where illness is seen as the enemy, ill people are seen as the victims, and health professionals as the rescuers. But this is a dysfunctional dynamic that makes people feel disempowered, shamed and guilty. I was raised with this same belief. When my left knee joint failed and had to be replaced, I felt like a failure. Especially because as a holistic RN and certified traditional naturopath, I am an expert in natural healing methods! But all health issues are part of our journey of life and present us with an opportunity to grow.

     When we are sick we are not victims and we do not need to be rescued. It is not a sign that we are deficient, not good enough or a failure. Sickness is a part of health. Health and illness are the yin-yang of life. You can't have one without the other. Illness can be the "house cleaning" that your body needs to upgrade to a higher level of health, or the catalyst to make some necessary changes in your life.

     
       For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.

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How Cold Water Can Keep You Well in Winter

     "Cold water is restorative, reenergizing, and helps build resistance to disease." 
 ~ Dian Dincin Buchman, PhD, The Complete Book of Water Healing

 
      I recently had my first (and hopefully only) illness of the winter. I recall a winter many years ago when I was studying naturopathy, I used a hot-cold water technique that I learned in my studies. And that particular winter I was not sick a single day! Now I don't want to imply that it's a bad thing if you get sick. Sometimes we actually need to be sick.  More about that here. Regardless, I decided it was time to start using that technique again, and I would like to share it with you.

• Get two buckets or containers big enough to put both your feet in.  
• Put hot water in one and cold water in the other - enough to cover your feet. 
• Adjust the temperature of each so you can tolerate putting your feet in it. I actually put ice cubes in the cold water bucket because I want to give my immune system a good boost!
• Place the buckets on the floor in front of a chair, with a towel underneath to catch the drops of water as you move your feet from one bucket to the other.  
• Put both feet in the hot water a minimum of 20-30 seconds.  
• Then move your feet into the cold water for the same length of time.  If you want to linger longer in either, that is fine. But the goal is to alternate a minimum of 6 times in cold and 6 times in hot.  At least once a day. *

       How does it work?  Check out this post on water healing.  Hint: its energy!

      I have found that it helps with the headaches I get from doing too much mental work, because it brings my energy out of my head and down into my feet.  I've also experienced:

• Tingling in my legs
•  More alert, focused, and invigorated 
• Less illness!

  

     * This information is for educational purposes only and is not mean to be a substitute for medical care.

      For more energy healing solutions for sensitive and creative women, subscribe to this blog and go to my website to subscribe to my newsletter and receive a FREE recording "3 Keys to Removing the Blocks to Getting What You Want in Life" and a power-packed Energy Medicine Resource Bundle with handouts for my most effective energy healing skills! While you are there, check out my award-winning books and programs that can teach you everything you need to know to live a healing way of life and awaken your greater health.


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