Everyday Cycles of Renewal

Each in-breath you take is a renewal of your being, an infusion of fresh air, permeating every cell of your body with life-giving oxygen, circulating the life force (also known as chi) through you. Each out-breath is a release, a letting go of airborne toxins and stale energies from your body, a cleansing, making way for the next inhalation. This cycle of inhalation and exhalation is life itself.

Can you slow down and tune into your body for a moment? As you inhale, pay attention to the flow of cool air into your nose, your airway, your lungs, then on the exhalation as you empty your lungs, notice the warmer out breath flowing over your tongue and teeth and lips, and out of your mouth.

Your breath is an everyday miracle of renewal that cleanses and refreshes your being, then releases what is no longer needed.

Sunset Evergreen
Photo by Nicola Tasic on Unsplash

As you prepare for sleep, your brain slows down and withdraws from daily worries, anxieties, looping and spinning thoughts. This rest period allows for deep repair, for fresh new energy to enter, an opportunity for the renewal and resetting of your mind and heart as you wake to the new day. As the old energies are released, space is made for new thoughts, new ideas to enter your consciousness.

Your sleeping body repairs itself at the cellular level, reweaving the inner energy of heart and mind. All systems are renewed and refreshed as you sleep, surrendering consciousness, allowing the bed to support you, letting go of your thoughts and any resistance. You wake, refreshed, renewed, energized, ready to move, live, create!

Cycles of Renewal. You Inhale, exhale, Inhale. tides ebb and flow and ebb again. Seasons move through their yearly cycle. Underground life wakes when conditions permit, roots stir and seek nourishment, seeds germinate and begin to grow and send out shoots reaching to the light. They grow to maturity, flower, produce seeds, then decline and die. All the while, seeds and roots rest underground, waiting for spring to warm them so they can begin the cycle once again.

It is possible to consciously let go of the stale, stagnant, unneeded energy, attitudes, beliefs, and negative patterns in our lives. Then we can renew ourselves with fresh energy, attitudes, activities, and inspirations. This is an unfolding process that takes time, focus, and patience. It is a vital cycle of renewal in our lives like inhaling and exhaling, sleeping and waking. It is called healing.

You can set an intention to bring fresh new inspirations and creative ideas into your life when the timing is right. Let them percolate in your heart and mind. Let them energize you. Let them bring you life!

Then later, when you feel stagnant, tired, or stale, gently release and surrender what you no longer need in your life and make room, once again for the fresh and new.

What is your heart telling you? Can you hear its messages?

Connect with spirit, Healing, Life Tips, Spiritual Healing, Spiritual Wisdom, Wellness Tips

The teabag of wisdom… Years ago, while making myself a cup of herbal tea, the paper tag on the teabag had a simple yet profound message for me: “Trust the wisdom of your heart”.

The heart chakra is known as the chakra where matter and spirit join in your being. It sits between the lower three chakras, the root, sacral and solar plexus, the chakras of physical existence, and the higher three chakras, the throat, brow and crown, the chakras of our more spiritual nature.

It is your own receiver and interpreter of spiritual messages tempered through the wisdom of your body, and your physical life on Earth. The heart is a receiver of spirit at the same time understands the joys and limitations of embodiment in human form. The heart chakra gives us humans the capacity for unconditional love.

Your heart speaks the truth to you in a quiet voice. The noise, activity, clatter, and clutter of everyday life can often drown out the wisdom and knowing of your heart. Much like a loud rock band making it impossible to hear someone sitting right next to you even when they are speaking in a normal voice.

For your health and well being, for living a balanced life, listen to your heart daily, learn to understand what it’s telling you and to trust it’s messages. Your heart’s wisdom will help you with discernment and insight into life’s challenges and joys.

Two easy practices to help you tune into your heart’s wisdom

Practice Toning

Hold both palms over the center of your chest. Now make the “AH” sound at a pitch that resonates in your heart. Pay attention to how this feels in your body. It may take some practice to find the right pitch. You can do this by making your AH sound higher or lower until it vibrates most strongly in your heart area and feels good. Continue to tone for several breaths.

Ask and Listen

Find a quiet place where you won’t be interrupted. Hold both palms over your heart and ask: What can I learn from you today? What do you have to tell me today? What do you need and want me to know? Formulate your own questions and ask them as well.

The true answers from your heart will be subtle, quiet, simple, wise, supportive, and loving. If you do not receive anything right away, don’t force it or try too hard. Instead, pay attention to the subtle undercurrents of feeling and insight you pick up on throughout your day. Allow the information to gently enter your awareness in it’s own timing. Receiving these messages may take some practice. The answers may take a while to take shape in your awareness, materialize, and become clear in your mind.

Pay attention to your quiet and subtle thoughts, feelings, and knowings. As you become familiar with your heart messages and learn to trust them, you will learn that your heart that never steer you wrong.

Your logical mind may not always be ready to hear or listen to your heart messages. You may want to tune them out if they don’t fit with your beliefs or attitudes about life. These might include preconceived notions about others, knowing when it’s time to leave a partner or a job, a once good situation no longer working out for you… If you are not ready to follow through on your heart’s advice, allow its messages to enter your consciousness and percolate in your mind for a time.

Your heart understands your needs and desires. It connects you to the knowing of your mind, body, spirit, emotions, and the wisdom and insight of spirit. Whenever you are unsure about your next step in life, remember the message from the teabag of wisdom!

photo credits: man with hand on heart ashkan-forouzani on Unsplash and Girl with hands on heart – Fa Barboza on Unsplash

Care for Yourself as an Empath

Empath, Empath Care, Energy Healing, Healing Touch, Health Tips, Storytelling, Wellness Tips

Are you an Empath? Do you pick up and feel the emotions and feelings of others?

While walking through a beautiful wooded park, observing wildlife and listening to the birds, I felt the calm and peace of nature. Later my route took me past a high school parking lot. There I noticed lots of trash and bits of refuse littering the ground, some of it in the woods closest to the parking lot. There were fast food wrappers, dirty cups lids and straws, smashed plastic bits, unrecognizable items, dirty COVID masks, plastic bags…

Feeling angry about the clutter, I started picking up these items, one at a time. I held them in my hands, as I hadn’t come prepared to carry such a large volume of junk back to my own garbage can.

My peace and calm of earlier dissolved into frustration. Thoughts flashed through my mind …“How could someone be so thoughtless? How could this trash continue to pile up week after week…? Why don’t people clean up after themselves?…”

Eventually I couldn’t hold any more trash in my two hands, so I had to leave most of the debris behind, and make my way home. I felt angry about having to clean up after others who should know better… frustrated by my walk being weighed down and cut short by the junk I picked up.

All this dirty, useless, and smashed stuff I carried home in my hands diminished the quality of my walk and my time in nature. When I got home, I felt more frustrated, even after I threw away my two large handfuls of non-biodegradable waste.

Later I realized, as much as I wanted to, it was not my job to clean up the woods and and parking lot single handedly. I could come back with a box full of 12 garbage bags, clean up, haul them home to my garbage can, then come back the next day to even more debris. This was not my problem to solve. Clean up has to be the shared responsibility of those who generate the trash.

How does picking up litter and trash thrown out by others relate to living as an empath? Bear with me for a bit…

Emotions are energy! Our thoughts and feelings are all energy that can be picked up by sensitive people and empaths. The auras, or energy fields of empaths seem to be more porous than the general population. In this way, empaths pick up the energetic debris of strong emotions others toss out into the world or deny in themselves. (Like litter in a parking lot others don’t even notice.)

We pick up the energetic imprints of unexpressed emotion and strong feelings, and are weighed down by them as we carry them with us through life. (Like me carrying others’ refuse home with me.)

It’s difficult to know how to release them once they’re in our energy fields. Some of us may not even realize the feelings weighing us down belong to others. Even if we know these are not our feelings, we may feel it’s our responsibility to carry them with us. We may feel that we’re helping others by picking up and feeling their strong emotions. But this is not the case!

Try these easy exercises for empaths.

Ask two questions: When you feel a strong emotion that seemingly came out of nowhere, ask: “Is this mine? Does this belong to someone else?” Notice and trust your intuition about the origin of these feelings.

Ground with Earth Energy. For best results, Make this a daily practice. You can walk barefoot on the lawn or beach, massage your feet, top, sides and bottom, or rub your soles with a stainless steel spoon. These will open the energy vortexes in the soles of your feet and help you draw in Earth energy. When you are grounded, you can also discharge energy that you discern is not yours through your feet. It helps to visualize this unwanted energy draining into the Earth.

Strengthen your Aura. To keep your aura more “tightly woven” and less porous, build energy in your hands by rubbing your palms together. Then, begin making figure eight crossover patterns with both arms, as wide as they can reach. Let this be a rhythmic motion, allowing your body arms and hands to swing in arcs back and forth in the soothing figure eight motion.

Then you can do smaller crossover figure eight patterns with your fingers and hands, paying special attention to the energy field surrounding you, close to or on the body Let your intuition show you where. I always feel better after tracing figure eights on my upper chest and heart area. Once again, it helps to do this daily.

More Resources:

If your empathic gifts feel overwhelming, book an appointment with me, either in person or distance, and we’ll go over easy energy techniques to help you discern what is yours and what belongs to others, and to set strong boundaries to keep your energy clear, grounded, and resilient.

From time to time, I offer a Self Care for Empaths Class. Watch my class page for upcoming dates. shamanichealingofames.com/classes-with-betty/

For more on living well as an empath this is a great book: The Empaths Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People by Judith Orloff, MD

Calm for the Holidays

Energy Healing, Healing Touch, Life Tips, Uncategorized, Wellness Tips

Part of this post appeared originally on Askgrandmothercottonwood.com, my channeled blog, on December 18, 2018.

Dear readers, please take some time out during this holiday season to rest, relax, and take loving care of yourself.

In this season, there is so much busyness that can fuel anxiety and stress– rushing, doing, trying to beat the clock, meet the deadline, make the holiday celebration perfect, trying to please one and all, beat the crowds, put on a magnificent feast.

You run yourself ragged and you wear yourself down! You override your body’s natural rhythms and needs, pushing yourself over the limit of endurance. Another word for this is “stress”.

Can you pull back, breathe, regroup, rethink, and slow down?

An Easy Calming Exercise…

Take a few moments to Find your center of gravity. It might be your heart, your upper abdomen, lower belly, or at the base of your spine near the tailbone. Feel your inner power and balance here, your connection to the earth. Now Bring your awareness to your heart and breath. Breathe deeply for a few minutes as you hold both palms over your heart. This will help calm you naturally. You can also add toning or humming on each out-breath. Find a pitch that resonates in your heart. This feels good and adds to the calming effect.

Tune into your innate wisdom. What is most important to you this year as you celebrate your holiday? What can you let go of? For your health and sanity, let go of the elaborate expectations and preparations that you do not enjoy! Let go of extra events and “must-dos” you have to squeeze into your busy schedule.

If others expect things you do not want to deliver, let them do the work, take the time, make the effort.

What activities will satisfy your soul and connect you with love to family and friends without leaving you overwhelmed and depleted?

Do those things! They can be free, simple, and easy! Play a board game, sing songs, read a book together. Go for a walk, have a heart to heart conversation.

If the holiday stress gets to be too much, please consider scheduling a healing session (distance or in-person) with me to help bring yourself back into a calmer state of body mind and spirit.

Remember the real heart of the season; gathering with those you love and enjoying each other, greeting the sun, celebrating the rituals of your chosen religion, and creating light, love and warmth together.

Restore Your Energy With This Simple Technique

Energy Healing, Healing Touch, Health Tips, Wellness for Children, Wellness Tips

When you’re feeling anxious, frustrated, unsettled, or lethargic try doing figure 8s large and small. Move your arms, hands, fingers, hips, or body in the 8 pattern to calm, soothe, and reweave your energy patterns.

I first learned about the figure 8 energy pattern in Donna Eden’s book, Energy Medicine. Eden describes the Celtic Weave, (figure 8 patterns) as both an exercise and an energy system. The system “laces through all your other energy systems and creates a resonance among them… It holds your entire energy structure together… As an exercise, it connects all your energies so they operate as a single web.” (Eden p. 200)

One big benefit of the Celtic weave/figure 8 is that it helps a person’s “energies cross over from each hemisphere of the brain to the opposite side of the body.” Where “energies are not crossing over properly in a person, such as in dyslexia, and learning disabilities, severe immune dysfunction and almost all illnesses” doing figure 8s can help. (Eden p. 201)

I worked at a public library for many years, doing hours of cataloging daily. When I was feeling out of sorts, tired, or depleted, unable to concentrate, when I needed to restore my energy, I would go into the restroom and spend a few minutes doing figure 8s. I found the large pattern using the full reach of my arms to be an ideal exercise to wake me up and energize mind and body.

To do the large eights, like I did at the library, extend your arms fully, make wide sweeping figure 8s, crossing the pattern over the center of your body, letting your legs and hips sway in an 8 pattern, like a dance.

Smaller 8s over the heart and high heart area (between heart and collar bones) on or off the body help to calm and soothe. Tiny figure 8s are called “fairy flows” and some find them helpful to ease grief when traced over the heart. It is as if you are stitching your energy back together.

When you or your child feel confused or fuzzy or seems to have scrambled energy, try horizontal 8s on your forehead, starting at one temple and crossing over to the other. You can do this directly on the skin or a few inches off your forehead in your energy field. This can help bring clarity to the mind when focus is needed.

Figure 8s large small, up, down, sideways, are good for you and your energy! Teach your kids to do them too. They will love it.

Resources: Eden, Donna; Energy Medicine:Balancing your body’s energies for optimal health, joy, and vitality; 2008.

5 Calming Energy Tips for Parents and Kids

Energy Healing, Healing Touch, Health Tips, Wellness for Children, Wellness Tips

Have you ever noticed that when you are anxious, upset, or unsettled, your little ones, even your tweens and teens are often fussy, upset, and anxious too? There is more than a little truth in this pearl of wisdom – ‘When Mama ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.’ ( You could substitute ‘Daddy’ in this old saying too.)

In a household, everyone lives within a sea of energy. Everyone’s personal aura (or energy field) overlaps and picks up information from everyone else’s energy fields.

Because of this, children sense the energy of the emotions, thoughts, and feelings you are radiating. Sensitive children may also absorb them and take them on as their own.

Children sense the mood of each person around them picking up on impatience, joy anger, fear, depression, unhappiness. In this way they are learning from the adults and other children around them.

Energy doesn’t lie! You can’t pretend to feel something you don’t feel on an energetic level in order to protect or shield your children from these emotions. If you try to put a happy face on your sadness, anger, fear, or other emotions you might not want to share, your kids will see right through that. They will be able to sense the disconnect between what they are experiencing about you and what you are communicating to them on an energetic level.

Ways to help…

If your kids are nervous, anxious, upset, fussy, first take stock of your own energy and take care of yourself. How are you feeling?

Where do you feel your emotion in your body? Is your heart tight, your throat constricted, your stomach full of butterflies, your gut unsettled? Are you nervous, anxious, stressed, unable to sit still or focus for any length of time?

Have your kids do this too. This can help them develop emotional literacy skills.

First, bring your awareness to your body and locate your emotions (throat, heart, etc). Give them loving attention while breathing deeply. If you don’t have time to do this practice, move on to some of these calming exercises and try the emotional processing when you are ready.

Do these yourself, then teach these easy exercises to your kids! They can help you calm stress and anxiety so you will be more on top of your game, more present in your body, and your children will react more peacefully to your calmer energy.

Getting Grounded

Pretend to be a tree with deep roots. Breathe in the Earth’s energy through your imaginary roots. Let it fill your feet legs hips and trunk, then reach your branches up to the sunlight. Take several deep breaths pulling the air from your deep roots to your stretching branches over head. Imagine soaking in the sunlight through your leaves to fuel your growth and pulling water up through your roots to nourish you.

Heart hold and tone:

When feeling stressed or anxious, hold your heart chakra with both palms on the center of your chest. Let your awareness drop down into your heart. Take a few deep breaths while holding your heart. Now continue holding and make an AH sound at a pitch that you can feel in your heart. Keep going until you feel a shift in your energy, or mood.

Figure eights:

Make figure 8s with your arms, swinging them out and around and crossing the center-line of your body. Swing your hips too if you like. Draw them in the air in front of your head, your neck, your upper body, lower body, legs, feet. Make them any size you like.

for areas of pain or tension, try Tiny figure 8s directly on the body using your fingertips. you can also draw them large on a chalkboard, whiteboard or sidewalk, using your whole body and getting your arms into it. Kids love this! This also helps strengthen your aura. (Eden)

Calming head hold:

When the fight or flight response kicks in; when you feel panicky or fearful, hold your forehead with one palm, and the base of the skull with the other. Hold and breathe for several minutes until you feel calmer and able to think more clearly. (Eden)

Self hug – two variations:

Put the fingers of your right hand in your left armpit. Hold your right bicep with your left hand. Hold and breathe while for a bit until you feel a shift in your energy. Switch sides and hold again. (Levine) Another variation – hold the outside of your elbow with one hand and with the other hug your opposite side under breast level about midway between your waist and armpit. Switch and do the other side. ( Eden)

Sources: Eden,Donna; Energy Medicine: Balancing your Body’s Energies for Optimal Health, Joy and Vitality; 2008.

Levine, Peter A.; Healing Trauma: A Pioneering Program for Restoring the Wisdom of Your Body; 2008.

A fun way to energize yourself and your kids!

Life Tips, Shamanic healing, Uncategorized, Wellness for Children, Wellness Tips

Do you want to get everyone, children and adults lined up to clean the house or rake the yard?

Are your kids out of sorts because they’ve been sitting down too long?

Are you feeling low in energy, lethargic, or dull after a big meal?

Try taking a family drum circle break to get everyone energized, their sense of humor restored, and back on track.

We started our make-shift drum/ rhythm circle slowly, one person beginning, then everyone finding their way in, weaving and blending their rhythms with the others. Some stayed seated, some stood and began to move. This seemed to wake everyone up again – some were dancing, marching and singing to the beat as they rattled, drummed, or shook the tambourine.

This was so much fun! We laughed and enjoyed ourselves and each other.

As a bonus, you might do a project to make your own rhythm instruments.

Make an easy rattle by partially filling a plastic bottle with rice or dried beans. then Tape the lid shut. You can click two pencils or short dowels together. Click two stones or pot lids together. Turn a bucket or large sauce pan over and use as a drum with a wooden spoon. You won’t need any fancy gadgets or electronics!

Try making a kazoo from a toilet paper tube with a hole punched close to one end and a square of wax paper or parchment paper rubber banded over the other end. Hum your favorite tunes into it!

Even if you’re alone, you can raise your vibrations by making rhythmic beats in fun and playful ways. Create a rhythm that feels good in your body and continue until your energy has shifted and you are feeling lifted up.

You might also find a drumming track and try some dancing and moving around in ways that feel good to you and express what you’re feeling. Do this for yourself and no-one else. Sing if you like!

Remember, you and your family don’t have to be great dancers or drummers to energize yourselves and have fun. Everyone from babies old enough to hold a rattle to great grandparents can join in the fun!

The interconnected rhythms with unique beats and movements contributed by each person can tie us together, feed our spirits, anchor us in the present moment, and energize our bodies.

Let the rhythm sound and movement carry you and your family to the place you want to be.

6 Tips to Help You and Your Children get Grounded

Healing, Shamanic healing, Wellness for Children, Wellness Tips

When my third grandchild, Nicholas, was born, I spent two weeks in my daughter and son-in-law’s home to help take care of my two older granddaughters. While we cooked, played, went for walks, visited museums and parks, my daughter recovered from her c-section, rested, and bonded with her new baby while her husband went to work.

Since I’m used to living a quiet calm life and meditating often, spending lots of time with these bright, talkative, and rambunctious kids, their friends, a tiny yappy dog, and heavy city traffic, resulted in me becoming grumpy a few times.

When this happened, my granddaughter, Caity, 7 years old at the time, would say, “Grandma, you need to hug a tree!”

As much as I tried to hide my momentary vexations with the boisterous kids who were always trying to push the envelope of what Grandma would allow- (“Oh, yes, Grandma, Mom allows me to watch YouTube cake decorating videos for hours every day!”) Caity and her older sister, Faith, could see right through me.

Energy doesn’t lie. Kids especially can see through attempts by adults to put a happy face on less than happy feelings. I would have to admit they were right: Every time I was feeling grumpy they nailed me on it!

Our next move was to pile in the car and drive to a wooded park with a small lake and go straight to the nearest friendly tree for a much needed grounding hug. We hugged a lot of trees that summer! This helped us all get grounded and feel present in our bodies again. Plus it seemed to drain my grumpiness away.

After that the kids would run around and holler with their outside voices to their heart’s content, play on the playground, climb trees, or walk the nature paths. I always felt better and much more grounded and present to the children after visiting the park with the wonderful trees. The kids were able to settle down as well.

In Donna Eden’s 2008 edition of her book, Energy Medicine, she states “Your body needs the Earth’s electromagnetic field.” “…In addition to the iron in your blood, all life forms contain tiny [microscopic] crystals of magnetite, a natural magnetic mineral comprised of black iron oxide. This magnetite continually registers changes in your relationship to the Earth’s electromagnetic field and helps orient you to that field.”

In other words, our bodies are evolved to live within the Earth’s magnetic field. The author cites incidents in which Japanese workers and Russian Cosmonauts were completely separated from the Earth’s magnetic field and suffered health consequences – insomnia, decreased energy, aches and pains, loss of bone density. p 316

In our world we are increasingly disconnected from the earth and nature. We are exposed to toxins in our air, water, food. Screens and shiny electronic devices are hijacking our time and attention, anxiety is on the increase. We often overthink our challenges, living in our heads and feeling separate from our bodies.

When we or our children are out of sorts, feeling anxious, disconnected from our bodies, overwhelmed, unfocused, grounding helps us reconnect to our power source, planet Earth.

You can do these grounding exercises along with your kids. They are meant to be fun!

1. Hug a large deeply rooted tree or sit and lean against the tree’s trunk. If you’re feeling adventurous, climbing a tree and spending time in the branches is grounding too because the tree’s energy is fully grounded, deeply connected to the electromagnetic energy of the earth.

2. Pretend to be a tree. First ask your kids to imagine their tree self has weak or shallow roots and a big wind comes along… what happens?

Now pretend to be a tree with deep roots. Breathe in the Earth’s energy through your imaginary roots. Let it fill your trunk, then reach your branches up to the sunlight. Take several deep breaths pulling the air from your deep roots to your stretching branches upward. Imagine soaking in the sunlight through your leaves to fuel your growth and pulling water up through your roots to nourish you.

3. Play in nature, walk barefoot on a beach or a grassy yard, lay on the ground and check out the clouds, tree branches, flying birds, moon or stars, soaking in the Earth’s magnetic energy. (use bug protection if needed) I promise, you will feel better!

4. Rub the soles of your bare feet with a stainless steel spoon. (One a magnet will stick to.)

6. Swim in the ocean, a lake or pond

When your you or your kids feel spacey, out of body, anxious, agitated, unfocused, grumpy, take a few moments to ground yourself. Bring awareness to your body and heart, breathe deeply, and connect with your power source, Mother Earth.

Are You An Empath? 3 Self-care tips

Empath, Empath Care, Energy Healing, Healing Touch, Health Tips, Life Tips, Storytelling, Wellness Tips

You are probably an empath if…

…you absorb the and take on the feelings and emotions or physical symptoms of others, making it hard to tell what’s yours and what’s theirs.

…you feel drained and/or anxious in big box stores, noisy crowds, hospitals, libraries, etc.

…you get sick or exhausted, depleted, anxious or angry after encountering certain people.

One beautiful summer afternoon I sat on my front porch reading. A delivery truck pulled into my driveway near where I was sitting. Immediately my body was flooded with high anxiety!

As I tried to make sense of this sudden shift in my emotional state, My logical brain decided the anxiety could be explained because I didn’t know the truck or the driver, hadn’t ordered any services or furniture… It was an unexpected intrusion into my peaceful day. Then the driver got out of the van, took a bouquet of flowers to my neighbor’s house and drove away.

The anxiety stayed with me even after the van left. After a few minutes of this, I decided to do some discernment and energy testing. I stood up, tuned into my body and stated “This anxiety is mine.” My body responded by falling toward the back, which in self energy-testing terms is a “no”. Now the anxiety made sense. As an empath, I’d picked up the high anxiety of the van driver.

Now that I knew the anxiety wasn’t mine, I asked this energy to drain through my feet into the earth for recycling. I had no more need to feel this feeling. It was detracting and distracting from my peaceful day. Draining the energy away works when you are well grounded, in other words, plugged into Earth energy.

This method of clearing yourself works because emotions and feelings are composed of energy. Each of us holds our thoughts feelings and emotions in our auras, otherwise known as energy fields. The stronger and more charged the emotion of another person, the easier it is for a nearby empath to pick it up. Our auras also seem to be more porous than the energy fields of non-empaths, allowing in energies others would easily filter out.

As a life- long empath I’ve learned some easy ways to keep myself clear of the moods, emotions, feelings, and energies of others that I have not specifically invited in. Here are 3 of the most helpful techniques I use daily.

Three ways to keep yourself clear as an empath.

1. Stay grounded

Two easy ways to get grounded are rubbing the soles of your bare feet with a stainless steel spoon, and walking barefoot on the Earth. When you feel agitated or nervous, when you can’t settle, ground yourself. Getting grounded allows you to plug into your power source, Earth energy, and pull this energy into your body.

Think of an electric lamp. If the lamp is not plugged in, it can’t light up, no matter what you do. When you are plugged in, your energy is more coherent, you feel anchored to the earth in a healthy way, and you can discharge excess energy through your feet.

2. Strengthen your aura

An easy way to keep your aura strong and less porous is to make figure 8 patterns with your hands, fingers, arms, body. First rub your palms together for a few seconds. Now, make the eights tiny, make them huge, on or off the body, in your aura, up and down, sideways, diagonally. Let your hands go to areas that need extra attention. (This technique is from Donna Eden)

Have fun with this! Kids love it! Think of this exercise as reweaving or sewing your loosely woven aura together again with the electromagnetic energy of your hands. This will help your aura filter out the energy of others and draw in the energies of health, well being, and harmony. Figure eights are also very calming!

3. Set boundaries with other people, your life energy, your time.

You may need to set boundaries and withdraw from large events, big crowds, or stay away from certain people. You may not want to hug Grandma or a church acquaintance. It may be in your best interest to stay home from a big family holiday or reunion and wait for a time you can meet your favorite relatives one on one.

Trust your intuition and give yourself what you need. Taking care of yourself as an empath is vital! Please don’t judge yourself for needing to set boundaries in ways others might not understand. Be kind and loving to yourself and tell others no when that is in your best interest.

If you do not take care of your needs, you may get resentful, energetically depleted and perhaps even sick. Take ownership of your life and your energy so you can focus on your own projects, your own life without getting sidetracked by the strong emotions of family and random people.

Gifts of empaths

We empaths can bring great sensitivity and caring into a world that needs our gifts. We are often the healers, therapists, clergy, the spiritual advisors, teachers, the plant and animal whisperers, the artists in our communities.

Tune into your purpose as an empath. Take care of yourself. Own and honor your gifts! Share them when you are ready. You are needed here!

It is not easy to go through life as an empath! But it is possible to live your life in a manner that will truly honor your gifts and your needs for boundaries so your life experience is truly your own!

Calm yourself in a few minutes

Energy Healing, Healing, Healing Touch, Health Tips, Wellness Tips

Are you feeling anxious?

Here’s an easy way to relieve stress. All you need are your hands, your heart and your voice.

pink water lily

Find a quiet comfortable place where you won’t be interrupted. Put both hands on your heart and breathe deeply from your belly. Soften and relax your body. Let any tension in your belly, chest, shoulders, neck and jaw and face melt away with each out breath. If you are frowning, let the muscles of your brow relax. This helps calm your mind.

Now tune in and ask your heart what it wants and needs today. The answer may come in the form of a picture in your mind, a memory, a song title, a sudden inspiration, an emotion, a feeling, an insight, a knowing. You may know right away what the answer is, or it may take a little longer for that to be clear. Listen deeply, don’t rush. Your heart is wise beyond the intellect and will never steer you wrong.

After a few minutes begin making an AH sound, keeping your hands on your heart chakra at the center of your chest. Let the sound resonate there. You might have to adjust the pitch up or down to feel it in the heart. Continue making the sound and feeling the vibrations in your heart until you feel calmer and more peaceful. (Do this step silently, or leave it out if you need a quick stress reliever at work.)

Making sounds that vibrate in the body, also called toning, helps calm and relax the mind, body and spirit. It’s fun to experiment with toning for each chakra, and for areas of your body that are tense or uncomfortable. Sound is energy, and it can be directed to any part of your body. Play with the sound of your voice and allow it to relax you.

For more information about toning see Jonathan Goldman’s books about sound healing including: The 7 Secrets of Sound Healing (2011), The Divine Name (2015), and Healing Sounds (2002). Also, check out his website at healingsounds.com.

6 Tips for Getting Centered

Healing, Healing Touch, Health Tips, Life Tips, Wellness Tips

Do you live in your head? Do you sometimes feel spacey and disconnected from reality?

Getting centered can help you feel more present and alive in your own body with a sharper focus and clearer mind.

I hate to admit it, but I had a car accident once because I wasn’t present in my body. My 7 month old granddaughter was in the hospital, and I felt anxious and worried. I left the hospital after dark, trying to find my daughter’s apartment, driving a rental car in a strange city, and got turned around. My mind was churning with anxiety about the baby. I realized I needed to go in the opposite direction and made a left turn from the wrong lane… while someone was passing me on that side… When I heard the metal crunching, I felt a sick, horrible feeling. No one was hurt, thank goodness.

That accident taught me a valuable lesson about making sure I’m centered and fully in my body every single day, especially while driving or doing other things that require my full attention and presence.

leaf water

Here are my top 6 tips for getting centered in your body.

Sit in meditation for several minutes. Pay full attention to your breath or other sensations in your body. Let your thoughts drift in and out like clouds across the sky.
Do a simple yoga routine such as sun salutations. I also like the poses legs up the wall and rotated stomach pose, for relaxing and getting centered. Try yogajournal.com for more information and instruction or check out local yoga studios for classes. Also find instructional DVDs at your local library.
Imagine you’re a tree and send your roots down to the center of the earth. See your roots coming from your root chakra at the base of your spine and from your legs and feet. Feel the magnetic pull of the earth. Breathe in the earth energy through your roots into your lower body.
Make the lowest pitched sound possible without straining your voice. Use a vowel sound and see if you can feel the vibrations of the tone in your lower body.
Go for a nature walk without any electronics. Enjoy the beauty around you. Pay attention to the sensations that move through your body. Let your busy mind rest.
Live in your feet. This means to drop your awareness from your head and all the busy thinking and worry, and pay attention to the physical sensations in your feet. Try it for several minutes as you go about your day, and see how you feel afterward.