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The Good

There are times when we approach life confidently. When we feel strong, supported and anchored in our direction. Our interior dialog is positive, we are mindful, gentle and nurturing to our inner being, and as a result of this perspective and how we are viewing life we feel energized and on track…like everything is going our way.

From this space when we look out over our lives thinking of how far we’ve come and all of the progress that we’ve made we’re filled with a deep sense of accomplishment and often end up in the space where everything seems right with the world.

The Bad

At other times, we feel quite the opposite. It’s like the universe has a wrecking ball aimed at our lives and everything we touch just turns to shit. Nothing we do, goes as planned and life seems completely beyond our control.

These are the times when we feel stuck, like we’ve fallen down the hill we were climbing and we’re now at the bottom sitting in the mire of all the garbage we dropped down, never to be seen again along with everything else we thought we were leaving behind.

Our inner dialog is a little different here as we will often attempt to motivate ourselves out of this mess in a manner that resembles, flogging a tired horse.

So what’s the best approach when we are stuck in the middle of our old patterns and self-deceptions? Is it possible to remember to nurture ourselves, when we’ve fallen flat on our faces and are eating a mouthful of dirt???

It’s Only Dirt

Well, I think that lies in how you view the dirt.

Determining the View

Let’s take a look at falling into the mire from the Four Levels of Consciousness:

If I’m in the Life is Happening To Me level of consciousness, my first reaction will be to find someone or something to blame for my fall.

If I let go of blame and enter the Life is Happening By Me level of consciousness, I’d be more inclined to think…I can get myself up and I would proceed to dust off and move on…after all, I’m in control.

If I give up control and enter the Life is Happening Through Me level of consciousness, I might look at what happened and wonder what it has to teach me about how I’m approaching my life…I might query and ponder the timing of my fall, the position I fell into and distill learnings from the experience of falling…it would be all about understanding the positive purpose of falling and allowing that purpose to carry me forward.

Now if I give up separation and I enter the Life is Happening As Me level of consciousness, I would see the dirt and myself as one. From this perspective, I would see the fall as my own creation and an expression of the highest good manifesting in my life.

In the above scenarios, the act of falling into the dirt never changes, it remains an impartial fact…such as saying, I fell to the ground. I fell to the ground has no meaning in and of itself, the consciousness (to me, by me, through me, as me) having the experience (falling) creates meaning (good or bad) of the ground (the landing spot).

Bottom-Line

No one, no thing, no experience…can give the events of your life meaning, but you.

One Person’s Mire is Another Person’s Spa Treatment: A New Definition for Dirt

The first thing I’d like you to do is go back into your recent memories of reading this post and recall the images that speaking of falling down in the mire conjured up for you…was it anything like this?

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My friend Christine often says:

When you plant a seed, the first thing that comes up isn’t the perfectly formed sprout. The first thing that comes up is dirt.

In other words, when you embark on a new path, the resistance comes up first so you can push through it and get stronger in that process.

Love the Mire

Loving the mire is all about using the act of falling in our lives as a signal to recharge, and the dirt that comes up as a result of planting something new to nurture, heal and begin a gentle self-care routine that enables us to grow stronger while we push through life’s challenges.

It’s a signal that you’re moving…afterall if you weren’t making any changes, there’d be no place to fall from

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Andrea Hess, of Empowered Soul drew my attention to project that is the work of one of her clients called, “The Future of Medicine” and asked if I would be interested in highlighting it on this blog.

The movie explores various forms of alternative healing modalities which are based on the idea that the body is capable of healing itself. One of my favorite books on this subject if you’re in for further exploration, is the Biology of Belief, by Bruce Lipton.

The Body Can Heal Itself

The idea that the body can heal itself, makes perfect sense. Our bodies heal themselves all of the time so what causes the conditions of illness? What allows for this healing mechanism to be interrupted?

In my experience we become sick due to imbalances between our physical, emotional & spiritual bodies. When all of these things are in alignment we operate perfectly, and truth be told, we are operating perfectly even when they are not.

An NLP Perspective

NLP is based on a principle that change happens fast, not slow and that lasting change occurs below the levels of the environment because there is an aspect of ourselves in operation that is outside of our conscious awareness. This applies across the board to things like physical symptoms and illness, emotion difficulties, reactions or any behavior that we don’t want to be doing.

For example, one of the most powerful healings I received from NLP solved a physical problem that first surfaced when I was fourteen years old, eczema. In class, we were experimenting with a process called 6-Step Reframe. I decided to see if it would work on my eczema as I was tired of having cracked and bleeding hands.

Once in the process I got the chance to speak to the part of myself that was causing the reaction, get to it’s positive purpose for doing so and have it come on board for finding alternative ways to express itself to me.

Traditional medicine couldn’t really do much. They advised gloves and steroid creams which worked only temporarily if at all. This is not surprising since prescribing creams and such is attacking the problem on the environmental level without ever actually getting at the cause. Since using the NLP process, I no longer have eczema.

The Mind/Body/Spirit Connection

Speaking to the body requires us to use a language most of us are unfamiliar with and this is where alternative healing modalities can help. These methods allow us to communicate with these parts, guide us to tap into them and help us to understand their needs and having them in turn, understand ours.

Because modern humans spend a lot of time living mostly in our heads, we have no idea, just how powerful we really are. Once we re-connect the mind with body and spirit, we have our full system up and running and available to us.

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A Rose By Any Other Name

I’ve written this article for those who would like to bring a little more love in their lives. If you are at a place where you want to find someone of like mind and heart to spend a little bit of time with, this article is for you.

Love and the Law of Attraction

Before I met my husband I had a list of criteria I wanted in a romantic partner. I wasn’t even interested in dating someone that didn’t meet these requirements. When dating a new person I always had what I was looking for in mind, and if I didn’t see enough matches early on I moved on to someone else. Although I never realized it, I was using the law of attraction to find what I wanted.

I had dated enough to have a list of areas that I was really clear on…and I was a complete and total match for getting it partially because I would accept nothing less and partially because my beliefs were congruent with what I wanted.

The Love List

To begin getting clear on what you want in a romantic partner, compile a list of attributes that are a “must have” for you, in that special someone. Write down everything that comes to mind and then go into detail as to why specifically it matters, what your person having that will get for you and what makes it a must have. When you’ve finished your list, the next step is to find out if you are a vibrational match for what you want.

The Vibration Revelation

Many of us think we know how we feel about love, what we want and how to get it, however I am guessing that most of know less than we think. A love relationship is an old subject even for the very young among us as it is one of the very first relationships that we experience.

As a child growing up we form ideas about love, what it means, what it will get for us and how to get it by watching the interaction of those around us…the conclusions we come to become deeply embedded within us, operating below the level of our conscious thought.

Are you curious about the beliefs you have lurking under the surface within your deeper mind? Are you wondering what is driving your patterns, attracting you to the same type of man/woman and influencing the kinds of relationships you bring into your life?

If so, answering the following questions will reveal how you really think about love and provide a window into how congruent your thoughts are in this most important area of life.

Comparing the outcomes of these questions with the attributes you’re looking for in a partner with give you a good idea if you are a vibrational match for what it is that you want.

So what if you’re not a match for what you want? I’ll cover that in part two of Manifesting the Love of Your Life.

Uncovering How You Think About Love

Fill in the Blank

People in love are _________

Love makes people_________

I’d have love if_____________

My dad thought love was__________

My mom always thought love would__________

In my family love caused_______________

Love equals_______________

If I had love I’d_____________

If I could have love it would___________

Love is not___________

I’m afraid if I had love I would____________

Love is________________

Love causes______________

In order to be loved I need to______________

When I’m in love I usually_______________

If I could love freely I’d_____________

People think love__________________

When someone is single it tells me that_________________

People are single because________________

People become loved by_______________

Single people are____________________

Married people are__________________

When I was a kid I knew which kid’s parents were married and which were divorced. I was the kid of __________ parents and this had the following affects on my thoughts about relationships_________________.

This article was featured in:

Total Mind and Body Fitness Carnival
The Second Edition of the Carnival of Improving Life

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The Angels are giving me more and more information. They say that the world is in desperate need of healing and the call of every human being currently on the planet revolves around this in some way or form.

You may wonder how so many can work at this at one time but the angels say that numbers are necessary to turn the tide and restore the balance.

Each individual has a specific contribution that is unique to them alone, this provides a variance of avenues through which healing can come into the world and gives each and every one of us the opportunity to heal and be healed.

The ego looks at it like a competition, when in fact, it is the co-operative efforts of a cohesive system. Only those who are unconscious and view themselves as being outside of this system could see it as otherwise.

I trust those of you who read this blog do not fall into that category!

Angel Healing

The Angels have also explained to me their system of healing which utilizes the connection of our ethereal bodies to the angelic realm…they’ve been calling it “Angel Neurology”. They say that we are always connected to the angelic realm and the amount of healing they can send us is only limited by our blockages of negative energy and our intent.

The Angels say that their abilities are activated with our intent to receive aid, relief, guidance, etc. and that our thoughts will attract their energies to us at any time and any place we need them. They say that they are constantly responding to our intent for help and equally they are bound to listen when our intent is to be left alone.

They heal us at every opportunity which we allow and are most effective when they have a clear channel through which to operate.

Otherwise, we undo their work by holding low vibrational states of negativity, so they urge us to grow our consciousness so that we cease to pollute ourselves and the world around us…thereby laying the groundwork for lasting change.

Angels on Passion

Archangel Michael and I developed a Core State Induction technique after a conversation we had in which he told me that all passions are pathways to God. The idea behind this being that if you explore your passions and travel the road far enough…you will reach the core or center of your Being. It is learning to access this core that puts us at a vibrational match for receiving mandates from spirit.

So for those of you who really want to hear the voices of your own Angels and Guides…try checking out your passions…their purpose is to guide you home

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The Meaning of Tears

Here they come again. Wet, hot tears…streaming down my face, wracking sobs buckle me over and I wonder once again why this would be? After all I knew this was coming, Grandma showed me everything I could want to know and more…so why am I overtaken like this.

Why don’t you ask the part of you who cries? Knowing-ness queried. Hmmm, I hadn’t thought of that. So I drop down inside, identify the part and I ask, what are you trying to tell me?

Rising up in front of my face very close is a red faced little girl. She’s me and she clenches her fist in my direction and shouts, Don’t you ever forget how much I love her! Don’t you ever forget her!

I draw her up in my arms and comfort her. I know you loved your Grandma, I love her too. It’s o.k. I’ll never forget. As I make this promise the feeling sinks back down to the depths from which it came.

Looking for a Sign

The last time I spiritually saw Grandma was on the day she died. I’ve felt her and heard her but could not detect her with my spiritual sight. I wondered at this; unconsciously looking for a sign.

Grandma’s Message

Then while listening to a new CD I got for Christmas I received one. “She’s Too Much”, played and I experienced the rising tears again. I told the part, I’ll always remember her and I’ll always love her but there was something more the part wanted me to know.

As I tuned into it I saw Grandma standing there…swaying to the music singing…

she’s gentle to the touch
she’s everything head-first
so happy to be causing trouble
sometimes the pressure gets too much
and you think she’s going to burst
and shatter like a Xmas bauble

I’ll be there when the world is coming down upon her
when she’s scared I’ll be there fighting in her corner
I’ll be there when the walls are closing to surround her
in the air as she falls with my arms around her
holding on I’m looking out for her thin skin
because she’s everything - and I don’t think she knows

She’s such a gentle touch
She’s too much a gentle touch

she likes to catch the sun
plays with it like a ball
and never mind whatever keeps it burning
someday she might just be the one
who’s going to save us all
if this apocalypse is coming

I’ll be there when the world is coming down upon her
when she’s scared I’ll be there fighting in her corner
I’ll be there when the walls are closing to surround her
in the air as she falls with my arms around her
holding on I’m looking out for her thin skin
because she’s everything – but I don’t think she knows
I don’t think she knows

she is such – a gentle touch - I don’t think she knows
she’s too much – the gentle touch - I don’t think she knows
she is such – a gentle touch - I don’t think she knows
she’s too much – the gentle touch

Lyrics: Simon Le Bon
Music: Duran Duran
© 2007 Skin Divers

The Queen of Hearts

My Grandma’s spirit is strong, her presence is more like that of the angels I’ve experienced than any other energy I’ve encountered so far.

In life she was always a source of cheer, love and protection. It would appear from her message that none of that has changed

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Over the past few months I’ve lost 24lbs and I’m still going strong. I didn’t use a special diet, weight-loss program or any other such thing that is easy available to us that guarantees our weight-loss success…or not, as many of us who have tried these methods can attest.

I used something that is often ignored. I used my mind/body connection to create this change. Wanna know how I did it? Well, I’ll tell you.

It Starts with Self Acceptance and Love

At the time that I began this experiment, I thought I looked really good. Yes, I was overweight but I was very happy with me. I saw someone I really liked looking back at me in the mirror. I wasn’t thinking, gosh your ass is getting pretty big…you better do something about that, as I had done when spurred toward weight-loss in the past.

Not even once did this kind of inner dialog occur. I only saw my strengths reflected back to me, honestly I wasn’t even really aware that I was overweight. At the time I was really focused on growing my intuitive abilities to a level I’d never reached before and a big part of that work involved being open to the messages that are communicated through the body. One day I received a communication that would change things for me.

Symptoms or Messages?

My feet started to hurt. My feet hurt frequently so I went into meditation, dropped down into my body and asked my feet what they wanted me to do. They said to take off some of the pounds. I exited the mediation and got on my scale. I was so surprised at the number that displayed before me. I had never in my life been this heavy outside of pregnancy.

I marched back into meditation again and said, o.k. feet, I see your point, so how do I accomplish this. Their reply, cleanse…

The Big Cleanse

So I flushed my system with lots of herbal teas, primarily lavender and chamomile and I fasted for 2 days before beginning my new style of eating. O.k., so now some of you are perhaps imagining that I live alone…so easy for me to fast, right?

Well in fact, it was easy…but not because I live alone. I do not. I have two small children and a husband that all expect me to feed them. So how did I accomplish this? With two things…a mindset and a plan.

The mindset was, because I love you (speaking to the body) I am going to allow you the opportunity to heal from all the toxic stuff I have been putting into you lately. The plan was to drop into my body, identify what it wanted to eat and prepare for my family the exact opposite.

O.k., now you are thinking that I fed them garbage. No, not exactly…they got normal dinners they were quite happy with, but because it wasn’t what my body wanted or needed at the time, it was actually repulsive to me and made it quite easy for me to stick with my fast…and besides, it was only for two days! Sometimes you have to get creative!!!

The purpose of the big cleanse is to detox the system…but hidden within that detox is a subtle shift of awareness. This awareness is the real prize and reason for the detox. After the cleanse you can actually hear what your body wants again.

You can tell the difference between when the body wants to eat something and when the mind wants to. You feel hungry and get reacquainted with what that is like…so this is wonderful because it creates that connection with the body and its sense of what it needs out of food. You begin to eat based on how what you eat makes you feel.

Life After the Cleanse

After the initial cleanse, I went on a lot of mini-day fasts…taking careful notes of all the wonderful impulses my body was sending me about foods and then I would put together the most thoughtful dinners I’d ever created around those foods. I joyed in eating because I had waited most of the day, I was surprised at how little food I actually needed verses the amount I previously consumed and every little bite was a joy chorus being sung from my cells to the very core of my being.

I also asked my body what kind of exercise to do and it led me to hiking and treadmill routines. This is where I cleaned out my energy and drew in the new. I started adding chakra meditations to the workouts and I would come out feeling so refreshed!

Everything that I did, I did because it made me feel good…and all of these good feelings resulted in the pounds flying off without me really having to think about it. I developed a new relationship with my body…one in which I view it as my best friend. It has instant information about things my mind can not sense…and I rely upon it heavily everyday.

So if you’re interested in experiencing food joy instead of guilt this holiday season, feel free to take the Thanksgiving Day Gratitude Challenge!

The Thanksgiving Day Gratitude Challenge

Sometime today start a fast in which you flush your system with a constant flow of water. This time of year hot water is great and with all the wonderful herbal teas out there you can keep yourself busy for awhile.

Drop into your body and ask it how to fast. For you this may mean water only intake, or perhaps clear fluid only, or maybe your body will say any fluid is o.k. Go with whatever it tells you and make sure you drink constantly as this will prevent any hunger discomfort.

Continue your fast until Thanksgiving Dinner and when you sit down at the table direct your consciousness into your stomach and feel, like a compass what it tells you to eat.

Fill your plate according to its communications, eat slowly, enjoying each bite and see how good it feels to truly be grateful for and connected to food! Enjoy yourself…the company and blessings on the table…

I’ll be doing the same and thinking of you

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

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Smelly Energy

Energy imbalance happens. For me, it started a few weeks ago after my husband issued me a growth challenge. You know, the kind that once it’s been uttered makes a part of you cringe in the corner and whimper…it had to be that one, didn’t it?

I knew the time was right to face this particular challenge however and I did my part, I got in there and I met it head on. This did not occur without creating an imbalance though. I was so focused on the challenge that I did not pay as close attention to all the signs and signals I usually monitor in the world around me that help to keep me aligned.

So I didn’t pay attention. I just kept on going. I knew that my energy was off, but I just kept focused thinking it would balance out soon.

Getting My Attention

It didn’t though. A message was trying to come through…something was out to get my attention and it appeared that it would do whatever was necessary. So, as these things will commonly manifest, my son came home from school with a cold so nasty it halted family productivity for a week. Every single one of us got it.

Sick, sniffling, barely able to talk I asked myself why I had gone along with being sick. The usual, perhaps you wanted to get out of doing certain things, answer came up but it was hollow. There was some truth to that but it didn’t stick. It took several more days and feelings unwarranted of by my life situation before I was ready to find out.

The Sticking Place

I called my friend Raj to say that something deeply unconscious was trying to make it’s way up to the surface. I wanted his help in speaking with it. He asked if I had checked to see if anything was in my energy space. I hadn’t done this, so he quickly told me what to do, I thanked him for his help and we agreed to talk again later on in the week.

When I entered into my energy something was there. It was a great big ape-like creature hunkering in the darkness. On its head was a single horn. He had such a look of disheartened sadness upon his face that I felt it burrow into my chest. Silently the eyes probed me. What they were searching for I felt more than understood. My heart went out to this creature and I asked it, “Who are you? Why are you here?”

“I am your strength.” he said, “I can not leave.” I stared at him uncomprehending and bewildered. Why on earth is my strength in this condition? Why is it outside of me? What is this energy surrounding it…like a bird with broken wings??? It seems like he should fly I thought, and the thought gave him a pair of wings that began to flap in a wild attempt to lift him from the ground and that was when I became aware of the chain. I ordered the wings to stop and my right arm became an extension of light that took on the hardness and edge of a sword. With my light saber arm, I easily cut the bonds of his restraints and the creature became surrounded by light that emanated from its horn…it was metamorphosing.

I came out of the meditation with two things; the first was the release of the energy imbalance and illness I had been experiencing for the past few weeks and second was an understanding that I had just encountered a teaching. Somehow, I had chained, shackled and locked up my strength and power. Like the cocooned butterfly, the bird that takes to wing and the flower that bursts forth to bloom one can only stay in their place of protection for so long before they outgrow it, and they simply must enter the world in their new form or they will whither to a spark or fragment of what they could have experienced.

The important thing in life is this; to be willing at any moment to sacrifice who we are, for what we could become ~ Charles Du Bois

I don’t know the limits of what I can become…but I am willing to find out

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The Map is Not the Territory

Thinking is the way we make an internal representation to ourselves of the world we live in. We take our experiences and our sensory input and with it we create a map of the world in which we live. This map comes equipped with a navigational system whose primary function is to sort our experiences into two categories: the kind we’d like to have or the kind we’d like to avoid.

We use this navigational system like a compass, in conjunction with the map to get where we want to go. Some areas of the map are new territory for us…others have been lived in for so long that we are no longer consciously aware of them…like a hardwired program running in the background of our lives.

This way of internally representing our world is a big piece of how we learn to survive. Developing hardwired programs is an efficient method of providing ourselves with a source of nourishment and sustenance. These survival strategies help us hold and maintain a place in our families, our communities and beyond.

Most of us experience this system unconsciously, in the form of behavior patterns (knee-jerk reactions to certain stimulus or situations we encounter in life). Sometimes we become aware of ourselves executing a behavior that is less than flattering and we beat up on ourselves over it. Thinking about it like this is not helpful to our overall goal of change. We need to know why the behavior is in place and what purpose it serves in order for us to be able to make a different choice. Trying to accomplish this level of change without understanding how the behavior is of service to us…is very difficult.

So what happens when we can consciously observe our patterns, understand how they benefit us and choose a new more life complimentary behavior to meet our needs? What happens when we decide to change the map?

Discovering the Positive Intent

Whenever we are experiencing something like a disorder, disease, anxiety or other physical symptom that arises within our world, it is helpful to take the point of view of wondering how this symptom is actually of benefit to us.

The on the surface, mind generated response is always that it doesn’t serve us at all…but we wouldn’t have it in our lives if it was absolutely of no use to us…so when we are completely honest and dig deep into our unconscious minds we will often discover something entirely different.

That is why whenever we are sick or experiencing some other signal from our bodies, we can get to the bottom of things much more quickly if we look upon the experience like a kind of message from another part of us.

Unlocking and decoding those messages can change the course of our experience. When we understand how something that is not our ideal circumstance serves us…we can find another way to fill that need and let go of the less healthy behavior.

Coaching a Reading Disorder

Not too long ago I coached a woman who had developed a reading disorder in the second grade. She did not feel it was possible for her to read and came to me to try to understand why this disorder appeared in her life at the time that it did.

A child born into abuse will create what they need in order to survive their family situation. When we explored her reading disorder we discovered that it was helpful to her in many ways…

It discounted her ability to be fully responsible for all of what she did as a child. Coming from a family of seven kids who had to endure evening watches all alone with their alcoholic father, this became more than a coping strategy…it was survival. If she wasn’t as noticeable, if she was discountable and not easily seen, then she might avoid being yelled at, beat or some other form of punishment…providing her with a chance to experience some form of happiness at home.

On another level, it garnered her a great deal of consideration from her mother, who spent a lot of time trying to teach her to read well enough to pass her classes. In a family system this large, there is stiff competition for a working mother’s love and attention. The reading disorder ensured that she received more of this attention than she would have otherwise. It also provided her with the opportunity to bond with her mother and please her by reading the words she was taught correctly.

In the end, my client realized that the disorder had been extremely useful to her during her childhood, and that it had, in actuality, been the avenue that she used to acquire what little happiness was available to her within her family.

Now, 47 years later, the disorder had long outlived it’s purpose and she realized she had many other paths to happiness and fulfillment. She was able to honor the needs of the child and of the grown woman by choosing a new way to nurture herself.

The Dream

A few days after our coaching session she called me with an absolute beam in her voice to say that she had experienced a significant dream. She saw herself in an office setting, where people were coming to her with memos and documents. For the first time in her life, she had the experience of looking over papers and reading them with ease before handing them back to her dream employees with written instructions attached.

As we talked she said, “I don’t see myself as someone who can’t read anymore…I see myself as someone who is learning how.”

At 55 years of age she has entered a new place in life… she has reinvented her identity as a woman who can read, and life looks quite a bit different from the vantage point of this new, previously unexplored and inaccessible territory of her map

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Spirit and Mirth

Sometimes the content of this site gets entirely too serious. Something I appreciate about being in a group of people is the humor that is produced by select individuals who connect with joy by being silly and providing a situation for others to laugh. I may shake my head in disbelief at some of what they say or do, but there are few things I enjoy more than someone with whom I can share my deepest thoughts on one level and gut wrenching humor on another…

An Unconventional Method of State Change

Master Certified Coach, Helen Attridge Green, learned a technique from Tony Robbins while she was a coach for his company (which attests to it’s unconventional but effective origins ). During the coaching course she passed it on to us…and now I am passing the torch to you, my dear readers!

Whenever the group needed an energy shift, she’d stand up and have us “just shake our asses”. I still see Helen in my mind’s eye in her lime green jacket, hair flying, shaking away…her mere presence a smiling shock-wave of friendly enthusiasm!

The changed physiology made it easy to shift states, renew energy and internally clear out the remnants of what we had been working on. There we were, in a meeting room, a group of thirty some people, hair flying, ass-shaking and giggling away in surprise and perhaps even a bit of wonder at just how good it feels to really shake your ass!

It became a kind of mantra for me…whenever I wanted to lighten things up I would suggest we shake our asses and have at it! It was a fun way to move into a joyous state…

Booty-Ananda

One member of our class, however, already knew how good it feels to “shake it” and she took this technique to a new level. The night before the end of the course we all went out as a group to Kincaid’s, a restaurant with a small dance floor and a live band. We had some real dancers hidden within our collective…including an actual instructor and at least five others who really knew what they were doing! I, of course, was not one of them!

With a room full of adept dancers, it took a Mochatini and a Mojita before I was ready to be pulled up onto the dance floor and just shake it (which is really the only method of dance that I know how to do…never having learned anything that remotely resembles moves).

When I got onto the dance floor I was inspired to really cut loose and give it a go because there dancing next to me was the booty shaking goddess of all time! This butt dancing diva displayed a pure form and mastery of the skill…reminding me of some aspects of belly dancing…(I have a theory that these kinds of movements promote the transfer of energy up through the first chakra and beyond but we’ll save that for another post ).

This goddess whom a member of the class aptly named Booty-Ananda, was kind enough to take on a few pupils that evening and one of her sessions we even have on film!

With that in mind and of course with permission I am sharing a video of a phenomena that was the topic of deep discussions, near car accidents and of course just plain fun!

So if life is getting a little too intense, and you just need a completely new attitude…get up, take a few deep breaths and practice “shakin it” with Booty-Ananda. I guarantee you’ll feel better

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Chakra Reactions

Lately on my after class walks the subject of body reactions related to the chakras has come up. Many of us found that if we were using our voice for example, to do something that did not align internally that we experienced some side effect such as phlegm, a cough or some other impediment that continued until the situation ended.

I had not been aware of experiencing these sorts of connections until one day I had a sharp pain in my solar plexus. At first I thought it might go away with a light visualization but apparently for me anyway, chakra disturbances don’t go away until I recognize exactly what my body is trying to tell me.

The Mind-Body Connection

I was experiencing a reaction to an internal conflict. When I acknowledged it, the pain immediately disappeared, so naturally this got me thinking about what we’ve been learning in class and using the body to step into situations, try on our thoughts and see how they feel. It’s been somewhat surprising to find that some of the ideas I had floating around in my mind that seemed perfectly acceptable as an intangible thought became completely unacceptable when I took them on physically and fully explored them via the mind-body connection. It was here that I realized there is some form of resistance…that this idea somehow doesn’t feel right.

The Feeling State

In our feeling state we have access to different information. This can be especially useful when we are testing our ideas because our body reacts to our conscious and unconscious thoughts. When you visualize a situation in your mind and physically take it on, your body will react to this vision, your values and what is really important to you in this scenario will come forth with careful observation and insight.

How it feels will be an indication of internal alignment with this course of action. Our bodies give us our true reactions to life. By asking very specific kinds of questions and watching these reactions, the exact area that is out of alignment can be pinpointed with relative ease. If something doesn’t feel right, the body is a great tool. It will lead you exactly where you need to go to make unconscious thoughts or beliefs conscious. Using your body to step into decisions leads to better choices.

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