Blog Archives ~ Page 2 of 6 ~

Words on Death and Nourishment from the Salmon Spirit

Blog, Digestion, Foods For Thought, Herbal Wisdom, Human Spirit, Trauma Healing

It was a few months ago that I met the Salmon Spirit. I was attending an Imbolc and plant medicine class and had an encounter with a plant that brought me on a journey to the sacred laws of reciprocity through the body and life of the Salmon. A dream message that slowly revealed its lesson through lived experiences that awakened a full awareness of my impact on the whole organism of life. (The full story will come forth as I allow myself to fully digest the gift of this insight.)

The Salmon is cross culturally symbolic as a totem of knowledge and reciprocity. The Salmon’s journey and dream is one of service and initiation. [Read more…] about Words on Death and Nourishment from the Salmon Spirit

Illness or Initiation?

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Illness or Initiation?

I was listening to one of my current inspiritors, Michael Meade, and he said something that plunged into my depths and re- affirmed this very present conversation I am having with my healing around what is really underlying my pain and trauma.

In summary he says:

“when you experience a life event that shapes the way you view and act in the world, that takes a piece of you- like severe illness or injury, death of someone so close to you, or some external disaster that rips apart a prior foundation on which you based your life- your Soul views that threshold as a signal that an initiation is about to begin”.

Be of Service- Heal This…

Blog, Human Spirit, Trauma Healing

It is not an error that you have been born
a sensitive human being,
with a tender nervous system
and a heart that is sometimes broken.

Your vulnerability is not a mistake,
but a portal back into life,
into a world that has forgotten
how to dream
~Matt Licata

Do your desires fall short of the horizon? Do your connections and presence with others waiver. Maybe you feel a mechanism wanting to orient you solidly on the Earth beneath your feet to walk in service. And a soul calling you forward but there is a fleeting quality when you get close enough to even begin articulating the contract… [Read more…] about Be of Service- Heal This…

Questions Before You Cleanse

Blog, Digestion, Disordered Eating, Foods For Thought

“Deep fasting always involves suffering. It is physically difficult. It is often undertaken because we are suffering in our daily lives and we wish to heal ourselves… All of us have taken beliefs and spiritual attitudes into ourselves that are in conflict with who we are. The important thing is to allow yourself to empty, not just physically but also spiritually and emotionally”
~ Stephen Harrod Buhner

Spring is alive and calling parts of you back to life again. What is waking up inside of you? What do you still need to clear in order to hear your inner healer and heart song?Spring calls us to cleanse as we now have a deeper access to ourselves through what was composted and returned to the Earth in the Fall and Winter- that is if you were tuning in. And, if life goes whizzing by you regardless of the seasons this is a call for you to pay a little closer attention to your process, your emotions and your physical illnesses and imbalances.

Spring’s new energy can greatly amplify what truly wants to come to life and be shifted for the greater good within you. Thus it is the main season of cleansing and beginning to look at deeper levels of fasting.

HOWEVER MANY WILL FAIL OR CRASH THEIR CLEANSE. And, in truth you can never really fail as every moment of our lives is a teacher- especially our perceived failures and disappointments.

The above quote captures the deep reasons cleansing falls short of its intended results. Many want to cleanse as a quick fix path to an external destination. And, mini 3 day cleanses, even one day fasts are incredibly healing for short and long term health. But regardless of the duration of the cleanse if you are not integrating and creating space for the holistic journey and the cleanse -on all levels of soma and psyche -then inevitably you will feel more stuck and drained- and possibly re- traumatized post cleanse.

TRAUMATIZED? Yes. This is many layered and a piece that is vital to every one choosing to cleanse.

Show Up and Heal

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Community is key to all healing. I am not saying it is the key but it is an essential mechanism in the unlocking of the doorway.

Community is how we begin to understand our place. We ALL have a place, purpose and medicine that is needed for absolute reunion of the lost ways of love that this planet and its people so desperately need. Community reflects and inspires that within you. You need reflection and reciprocity of others who are forging the good, true and beautiful path in life to understand how you dance among all other things. [Read more…] about Show Up and Heal

Winter’s Tool Kit for what Lurks in the Dark

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The darkness grows upon us as the cold calls us to stay close to ourselves- to be intimate with the interiority rather than the conditioned constancy of external doing. Quietude falls all around beckoning the heart song to fill the empty auditorium of our dreams.

Our dreams empty of their song when we ignore the all-knowing voice within the heart. The one who whispers direction to the places where we “know we can be in better relationship” to ourselves, with our close people, with our communities and our beloved EARTH. The darkness ensues as attack rather than invitation to reflect what nature is gifting at this and all times- when we continue to ignore our heart and thus shut down the real conversations within and around us. [Read more…] about Winter’s Tool Kit for what Lurks in the Dark

Your Fertility and Digestion?~ #MeToo

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“…you’d be amazed at how people get riled up about things and then slip back into the comfort of their historical privileges and their historical aporias…” ~conversation with Junot Diaz (On Being podcast).

I am not usually one to participate in the FB memes. I try to maintain a healthy boundary with social media alongside running a business. However, the palpable collective energy around oppression was laying heavy on my heart over the weekend, and I had not even visited FB- yet.

When I became aware of the #MeToo movement I was unsure where to let it land within me. I was also unsure of how I should respond- should I respond? But it didn’t need to land anywhere. It was already present within me and therefore my emotional responses rose from all of the places that have been harmed by sexual oppression and violence. It was clear that I had a responsibility to say something. [Read more…] about Your Fertility and Digestion?~ #MeToo

When Your Emotional Release Needs Release… And an aplogy to my clients…

Blog, Trauma Healing

Somatic Emotional Release- bring me PEACE.

When the body is freed to express what has been suppressed- Sweet release.

Shake- quake-tremble- gyrate

Blood sweat and tears reconnect me – Inherent-intelligent animal state

Surging from no-where to now- hear

Sounds from deep underground

My flesh and bone release raging waters to wash me clear.

I see Somatic Emotional Releases daily from my clients- it is the container and cosmology of my work. What I am about to say comes from embodied personal experience and from the sacred witness that observes these powerful journeys in others. [Read more…] about When Your Emotional Release Needs Release… And an aplogy to my clients…

Mirror Neurons Reflect My Love- A prayer and workshop to heal….

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Because trauma almost invariably involves not being seen, not being mirrored, and being taken into account, treatment needs to reactivate the capacity to safely mirror, and be mirrored, by others…”
~ Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D- ‘The Body Keeps the Score’

I apologize for opening with trauma. However, your less than self -loving thoughts and behaviors did not manifest from your beautiful imagination. If your imagination was damaged and now takes you on adventures into places so dark and isolating that you suffer in silence- feeling removed from all that you see around you- then the loving and creative inner child was hijacked by confusions and fears- aka trauma.

One of the most damaging confusions these traumas leave imprinted upon us is the feeling of being separate, alone, bad, unloveable etc etc. Most of us share these thoughts from time to time but deeper wounding often also creates physical isolation. These patterns can be heartbreaking when the soul inside likely craves connection, exhilaration, community, laughter and play. Our creative processes are also hijacked as creativity most always involves sharing and being seen for these wildly loving and expressive parts of us.

Still, undercurrents of confusion washed aside, we move through our lives and even make great strides. The self- reflections and healing work begin to poke light holes in the story built on hollow ground. However these healing journeys-deeply profound-are mainly of the solitary soldier and there is still a mind shaft of darkness that you trip into. It’s not your fault- it is faulty trip wiring..

Enter Mirror Neurons

Mirror neurons reside in the frontal lobe of the brain and were discovered in 1994 by Italian Scientists- identifying the frontal lobe as the seat of empathy. Until that point (unless we consider mimesis- and we should) imitation of others and other things, synchrony, language and empathy were a bit unexplainable.
Through mirror neurons we are able to attune to other’s emotions, motives and energies and thus respond. When what we see is fearful and unaccepting of who we are, we react by either adopting this behavior upon first ourselves, and eventually others, or we have enough wisdom wires from a more positive and un-traumatized life to not mimic these behaviors.

(I want to insert that traumas come in many forms and at many stages in your life. Just because you had a beautiful childhood I do not imply that you do not hold these same disturbances within you. And- there are those that are wired with such grounding rods of light that, even as children, something in them was able to discern and deflect destruction around them. I am speaking from common and personal experience).

Like most developmental experiences these mirror neurons are vital in our formative years for being wired with self acceptance and discernment of who we want influencing our lives. And, like most all experiences in life we tend to hold onto, and are impacted by, the more negative and painful events. We are wired this way for good reason- so that the body can know how to respond in the face of real danger. Yet when those dangers come from a person or environment we are supposed to be nurtured by, the wires get crossed and confused.

Also very worth correlating is that- as the mind takes in what it sees and articulates it through the body. Thus, rejection and fear contract the body causing many of the physical imbalances (especially digestive) that we see prevalent today.

I invite you at this point to take a deep breath into your loving heart if this touches into some wounds- which I promise make you beautiful.

How to Heal~ a workshop, and a prayer…

“Our culture teaches us to focus on personal uniqueness, but at a deeper level we barely exist as individual organisms. Our brains are built to help us function as members of a tribe”~ B Van Der Kolk, M.D

Engaging with life and community is a step. But, social engagement with discernment is where the work of self love begins. Groups that reinforce your faulty wiring may feel good for a time- as acceptance on any level can feel good to trauma. However negativity mirrors negativity.

The part of mirroring and healing these neurons that is challenging is that you now have to parent yourself into making decisions to show up to groups that can support you- and all of your loving parts- and reflect the basic goodness of all life despite the shared pain we all have. And thus you mirror the same to them and allow that basic goodness to flow through you… reciprocity…

…Just to be witnessed- your beautiful face to be seen- your tears to fall. No need to explain yourself or tell your story- until it’s time to do so from a loving place inside. No need to do anything but be and have those around you feel what we all feel, without words. No need to do anything but see what surrounds you- because the eye that perceives beauty is also the lens that beauty comes through.

If stepping fully into vulnerable territory of seer and witnesser among others is a few steps away I encourage a practice of allowing yourself to be seen by the ultimate healing forces of unconditional love- the mysteries and beauties of Nature. These forces want us to heal as they need us to see them and support their healing as well.

You can begin healing these lonely parts by joining in union with the eclipse- this great dance of reflection, light and dark. The Sun symbolizes the light and essence of the soul of all things. The Moon is a reflective force- relaying upon you how to bring the light of the soul into form. Yet as reflection falls upon your amazing face you will be asked to clearly see- also-all of the broken parts that need you to stand in this light and reclaim your beauty.

A prayer and practice- this can be done anytime with the cycles of the Moon- or a Tree or Flower or…

This is most powerful done naked in nature- just sayin.
Stand firmly with bare feet on the ground feel the support of the Earth
Look down- eyes wide and see the Earth and say “I am supported”
Eyes wide- gaze upon the reflective force (Moon, tree) and say “I see you”. Repeat this out loud as many times as needed until you here a voice whisper back “You are seen”.
As you look upon this beauty that sees you notice the movement, the texture, the sound. Notice how you feel and where in your body.
End with gratitude- a prayer of reciprocity and love.
I encourage you to maintain this relationship and witness the magic and healing.

To Be Seen in Silence~ A workshop to take this healing deep.

This is a gathering to begin to dissolve the separations in our minds and reflect the shared love, emotions and journeys of the heart that we all hold.
There will be one on one and group exchange without words- to quiet the story and bring the true nature of our soul out from the shadows that the story can cast.
This gathering will be held within a larger container of healing at a magical place HERE

THE PROTOCOL THAT HEALS and how to recieve 4-30 min integration sessions…

Blog, Digestion, Disordered Eating, Human Spirit

This will come as no surprise, I am sure, as many practitioners who enter the healing arts realm do so through experiencing life altering imbalances and disease. I am no exception.

I have suffered from digestive and other issues related to the abdomen and all of its mysteries since I was a child. I found my way to the beautiful techniques I share in my private practice, group sessions- and embody in my daily life as nothing in the Western medical model was even scratching the surface of what was buried underneath. Even with the diverse approaches within the natural medicine communities, the diets, herbal remedies and pills were helpful- but never completely- and only for awhile. What was I missing?….

As I sit here and write this today I have uncovered another layer of wisdom that is profound in managing, and at times, eradicating my symptoms of belly and body upset. A practice based in many wisdoms woven together that I can call upon to stop the spiral into the darkness (which it is when we don’t feel well- almost everyday). The first key, or step, to this protocol is being able to clear so much internal clutter that you can actually sense the spiral and where in the body it originates- often many places.

“In order to change you need to open yourself to your inner experience. The first step is to allow your mind to focus on your sensations and notice how, in contrast to the timeless, ever- present experience of trauma, physical sensations are transient and respond to slight shifts in body position, changes in breathing, and shifts in thinking. ” – Bessel Van Der Kolk, MD ‘The body keeps the score’

How do we do this?

We access our inner wisdom through unwinding the body. For me- this has been a combination of breath, meditation practices and certain exercises that have removed so much contraction in my belly and body that I am “going” twice a day (which is amazing). I learned the relationships that trigger one another within and befriended them by opening up their pathways for expression and healing. It was then- from this place that I learned the “protocol “that would help heal the even deeper layers so that the triggers no longer needed emergency response. The layers that would repair the trust of the body, that would nourish me back to a place of energy- sharpness in mind and youthfulness in my flesh and bone.

These layers addressed:

Bacterial colonization of the colon
SIBO symptoms and all the other mystery belly stuff they diagnose you with.
Autoimmune triggers within the digestive system
Eating behaviors
Fatigue and confusion

The process of this protocol is derived from the metaphysical workings of “us” yet land in a very solid foundation for your healing. This is a system like none other you have used if you are still feeling stuck in your body. This path and process can be one of ease- or challenge- depending on your level of self love and commitment. (triggered? curious?- I was) This path and process is a lifetime tool that will never fail you and is full of flexibility. What am I really talking about? …Is it a “diet”? A cleanse? A plant spirit? A radical life change? An exercise routine? A new form of meditation? Yes- No and Maybe.

I am sure you have been on programs before. Step by step- and expensive- programs that have let you down making you feel like you have let yourself down. I know you have a cupboard where supplements go to “die”- why didn’t they work?- or did they? This knowledge within that has led me to a place where I can now share about and relate to these experiences is humbling. I am forever grateful that the mysteries of how my/our organism is designed- is clearly no mystery when we breathe and blow away the clouds and get a new perspective- or is it THE perspective as the Sky is always blue? hmmmm

I am a bit cautious in sharing this process not to spoon feed you promises that “I have a thing you don’t and need- so you must follow”. I simply know what I am here in this body- with this beautiful spirit and soul to bring forth in this lifetime. Even as I say that I feel my humanness- that place where my desires and dreams meet my body and its limitations- AND I have learned how to pull myself up by my heartstrings and share with YOU because that is what I am here to do.

I will be sharing this process I speak of AND MANY OTHERS at a gathering of like minded hearts (or is it like hearted minds?)- seeking balance- like YOU. Anyone who joins the SILENCE MEET SOMA retreat this Fall will receive 4- 30 min phone calls to help integrate your process and protocol into you life. JOIN US!… BLESSINGS.

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Enter Mirror Neurons

How to Heal~ a workshop, and a prayer…

A prayer and practice- this can be done anytime with the cycles of the Moon- or a Tree or Flower or…

To Be Seen in Silence~ A workshop to take this healing deep.

How do we do this?

Words from the past.