Tag Archives: anxiety

Calm for the Holidays

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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

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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

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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.

Mom and baby

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.

Great uncle and grand niece

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)

Dad and daughters

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.

6 Tips to Help You and Your Children get Grounded

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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.

Playful grandchildren

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.

Grandmother Cottonwood

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.)

5. Plant a garden, tiny or large and tend it – get close to the soil and the sweet green living plants that share our planet.

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.

Look for upcoming blog posts on easy energy tips to help you and your kids feel calmer, relieve pain and set energetic boundaries.

7 Benefits of Energy Healing

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Scientists studying the nature of reality know that everything is composed of energy including our bodies and environment. Every human being has an aura which is an energy field surrounding us, similar to the atmosphere surrounding the Earth. Energy healers can sense the subtle energy, the auras and chakras of other people, through touch, sight, or other senses.

At a subtle level, our aura, chakras, meridians, and other energy systems support our physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health. If our energy is not flowing freely or is out of balance, we will eventually feel it in our bodies and we may become ill in time.

Here are 7 of the many benefits of energy healing.

Calming for stress and anxiety –

Energy healing is wonderful for natural stress relief, for calming the nervous system and helping your body and mind relax without the use of drugs. It is not a cure, but helps ease anxiety and quiet distracting mental chatter, gently re-patterning your energy system into healthier habits.

For stress relief, I clear stale energy from your aura, open and balance your chakras using gentle touch, allowing your energy to flow more freely. Special attention is given to those areas of the body where you hold the most tension allowing for relaxation and release of the stresses you’ve been holding onto.

Relief for fatigue and energetic depletion.

Energy healing is chakra healing. Your chakras may be compromised – not spinning properly- therefore not able to pull in the energy your body mind and spirit need to feel fully alive, energetic and healthy. Opening and balancing your chakras can bring new energy and vitality to your life and areas of the body affected by blocked chakras.

Energy healing is also aura healing – The electromagnetic energy in a healer’s hands along with a strong intention for healing can help clear the aura of stagnant energy, allowing fresh energy to flow and respond more freely to the ever changing conditions of your life.

Holistic care (mind body spirit, emotions) for high stress transitions or major changes in your life – a move, divorce, new job, new baby, or the loss of a loved one.

Energy healing techniques, such as mind clearing, chakra spread, chakra connection, heart chakra healing, and many others can help during times of high stress by calming anxiety and feelings of uncertainty and fear.

These techniques promote relaxation, release of energetic “clutter” and emotional pain. Energy healing can help you feel more energized and clear during uncertain times.

Heart chakra healing and energy clearing for times of grief, times you feel broken-hearted or overwhelmed.

This does not make grief or strong emotions magically go away, but helps you experience grief and strong emotions with less depletion in mind body, spirit and emotions. Energy techniques can help you feel more present in your body and help you navigate this difficult time with greater calm clarity and grace. During these sessions, I hold sacred space for you to be and feel what you need to feel.

Support for trauma care and emotional release.

When you are healing from trauma, an energy healer can be part of your support system – along with your medical doctor and counselor, therapist, massage professional, etc. An energy healer will gently re-pattern and clear your energy so it remembers how to flow freely, how to be balanced and open.

My energy healing practices allow for the safe release of emotions and stagnant energy relating to the trauma in my peaceful supportive and sacred space. This work helps you gently release the tangled energies of the past over time, and move on with your life.

Subtle energy assessment, healing, and clearing for times you are not feeling well and your doctor can’t find anything wrong.

This happened to me – I had a chronic sore throat and fatigue one summer. My doctor did many tests over weeks and couldn’t find a reason for my condition.

An energy healer was able to help me get back on track by opening and balancing my chakras, especially around the throat chakra, and clearing blocked energy in my aura. I was sensitive enough to feel the imbalances in my system while it was still in my subtle energy field. This was before the condition progressed to the point where the medical testing would have discovered something measurably and physically wrong.

If no-one believes your story, if you are not taken seriously, if you know something is wrong but the medical professionals can’t figure it out, consider energy healing as a complement to your doctor’s care.

Complement cancer care with aura clearing and chakra balancing.

Using energy healing techniques, I help clear and balance the aura and chakras of cancer patients after chemo treatments and surgery (which can be very hard on your subtle energy systems). Energetic pain relief techniques can provide an easing of pain without extra drugs.

Energy healing can keep your energy flowing after and between treatments, supporting emotional release, mental, spiritual, and emotional health. Finally, with deep listening, I hold sacred space for you as you work through your healing journey.

These are some of the many ways energy healing can benefit you and your loved ones and enhance your well being. My clients have found this work to be effective, helpful and life affirming.

The healing gift of Compassionate Depossession

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Compassionate depossession is one of the cornerstones of shamanic healing.  Spirits who are trapped in this dimension and can’t move to their rightful home can cause problems, at times quite unpleasant.  These beings are located, contacted, and helped to cross safely to the spirit world (or what I call “the light”). Possession is a common occurrence in our culture where the spirits of our deceased are not often thought of or cared for after the body dies.

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Who are possessing spirits?

Some spirits or “suffering beings” are not able to find their way to the light after death. For instance, if a person died in an accident or during a violent act, they may be confused, disoriented, lost, and afraid. Others may choose to stay behind to help loved ones, or because they are afraid to move to the next dimension. Suffering beings I’ve worked with have come from many sources including war zones, hospitals, crime and accident scenes, funeral homes, and old buildings.

What is possession?

When a suffering being is attracted to a living person they may become attached to that person’s energy field. The attached suffering being can become something like a parasite, feeding from the host’s energy and sapping their strength and overshadowing their energy. When this happens, the host can experience any number of symptoms. They may feel that they have thoughts, feelings, compulsions, and emotions that don’t belong to them. They may experience fuzzy thinking, emotional problems and addictions. They may feel that they’re going crazy.

A win-win healing scenario.

During a compassionate depossession, the suffering being, or possessing spirit is contacted, their story is brought to the light, and they are respectfully and compassionately removed from the host’s energy field and sent to the light (or their version of heaven). After the removal, the suffering being will not be able to return to the host or any other person. The suffering being wins by getting “unstuck” and moving forward with their spiritual journey.

The client wins because this work clears them forever of the heavy overshadowing energy, the emotions thoughts and feelings of the suffering being. The client often feels lighter, and more centered in their own body, more in control of their own mental, physical and emotional health. Their energy is no longer being sapped.

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I share this information with you because I have seen the powerful results that occur when suffering beings are removed from a person’s energy field and sent to the light. Compassionate depossession can be a potent life changing healing experience.

If you feel in need of compassionate depossession for yourself, please contact me through my website contact page. I will be happy to visit with you and we can decide how to proceed. This work can be done via distance healing if you live out of the central Iowa area.

I close with the words of a client after her own compassionate depossession experience. She had suffered from anxious thoughts for most of her 70 years:

“Fear is no longer my go-to emotion!”

Calm yourself in a few minutes

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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.