I'm readjusting to my fresh outlook on life and the next chapter of my year that feels like a new day. Today was about me getting back to my whirlwind of activities. But there is a new tone of moderation that is setting the mode of my operations from here on out. I have learned my lessons and I'm taking my "me time" more seriously. And I still got a lot accomplished today!
It turns out that stretching it out in a 20 minute yoga session with SaraBeth is just what I need to get my day off to a great start! I'm feeling more like my self and more full of energy than ever. I am purging myself of the negative thoughts that have been plaguing me lately (as recently as yesterday) and I'm heading towards a great summer. Question are beginning to form on the edges of my horizon. I'm starting to ask myself how can I optimize my extra time this summer? How can I write the crystal healing book I've been wanting to write? How can I resolve and/or heal relationships that need TLC or closure? How can I optimize my health? How can I better reach my goals for weight loss, saving and spending money and organization and life-simplification? How can I implement plans for my financial and educational future? And how can I have fun? I will use the month of May to find out just how I want to explore all of these questions and handle the planing phase and to wrap up any loose ends that I need to complete for the rest of the semester. I'm back in the game again!
The day before yesterday, my cat had a breathing scare that set off not only issues from my own trauma around breathing difficulties, but also my issues surrounding my fear of losing any more of the ones (furry or otherwise) that I love and care for. This fear I realize is like a post-traumatic stress landmine that can go off without warning, leaving me vulnerable, panicky and full of anxiety that it can be hard to let go. I have also been using crystals and aromatherapy that might possibly be working energetically in tandem with the approaching, emotional full moon in Scorpio, which could be enhancing emotional outbursts.
I've already forgotten to heed the lessons I've learned that everything that is happening to me is universally perfect in its own way and not to attempt to control the universe, rather my reactions within it. I also haven't been practicing regular meditation in about two weeks. I'm sure that has a lot to do with my current anxiety levels as well. As I'm writing this, I'm giving myself a detoxing foot soak. One of my clients who was going to get a foot reflexology session from me didn't show and I decided to use her soak instead of dumping it. Waste not want not. This would probably be a good time to meditate, as I now have the spare time. Again the motto is waste not, want not. I'm gonna go zen out now.
A full moon in scorpio is set to rock 🎸 our emotional landscape on Monday. But, for the more sensitive souls among us, we can feel its lunar energies sometimes a few days or even a week or two before and after the moon's full phase. Personally I'm feeling it today. My emotions are watery and deep and I'm not afraid to dive into them or express them. Usually I would be more reluctant to do so, but today I've felt someone weepy and compulsive. It's time to explore my feelings and see where they take me.
Again, I am turning to ancient practices where Western medicine has proved inadequate to server all of my healthcare needs. My focus for the next few weeks is going to be on my health and on getting through the current semester. In the coming weeks ahead, I will be gathering my strength to correct my financial issues as well. But first things first, my vitality and energy need tending to. I'm also going to put my cat on a regimen for health as well. He might as well follow his human mommy and keep his health up too. He's looking spry for an almost ten year old feline and I want it to stay that way. I'm also putting my time into getting organized this spring before summer hits. It's coming soon and I need to get in gear so that I'm fit and in the condition to enjoy it!
It seems that this yoga practice was in order today to ground my anxious thoughts. My recent bout with illness not only left me with a lot of work to catch up on, but it also left me with some lingering breathing problems. The upper respiratory virus that I am still recovering from, apparently has affected my lungs in some way, as I have taking to wheezing during sleep and getting a taste of my hereditary sleep apnea mixing with it to give me quite the combo when it comes to getting my Zzzz's. No wonder I've been so tired. Now what can I do about it? Well if it doesn't clear up on its own, see the doctor again, but until then herbal teas, an anti-inflammatory diet, mudras, yoga, crystal healing and of course a good dose of patience. Let's just wait and see. Meanwhile, the race to finish this semester is on. Wish me luck!
I practice three 20 minute practices from the SarahBeth Yoga channel's Deep Stretch series on YouTube. I really needed the long, slow sequences of asanas as my anxiety is starting to ramp up around just how many things that have built up during the course of my illness. Now I have to play catch up with everything and it's getting pretty overwhelming. I'm just going to start with the things that I can do right now and handle the rest in the order of importance that it comes to me. Now I'm going to take a relaxing bath, do a tarot reading and regroup by listing all the things I have to do and the reasonable amount of tasks that I can undertake today to accomplish them. I'm not going to over-do it. I've learned my lesson on that score. The proper amount of rest, food and care is essential to me finishing out this semester with decent grades. I'm going to give it my best shot, while honoring the commitments I have made. Let's do this!
I thought it best to take it easy after a day of revelry yesterday. Even though I had a pretty relaxing, if fun day, I noticed that the activities still took it out of me. It's a humbling experience to have to take breaks for energy as if late. I'm taking it all in stride though and finding my footing. Let's see where tomorrow takes me.
Today I helped celebrate the wedding of my amazing friend Bethaney's wedding and met a lot of new friends along the way. It was the second day of my glorious weekend that started out with the famous drag brunch at Sir Francis Drake Hotel's Starlight Room in San Francisco -- a room known for its incredible views. From there, our party moved on Archimedes Banya, an amazing co'ed spa known for it's saunas and invigorating treatments such as cold plunging after the intense heat of the sauna. Afterwards we enjoyed a sumptuous meal at AsiaSF, San Francisco's premier restaurant and drag show before I headed home. I am immensely grateful for this restful, and healing weekend. I feel as if I am heading towards even more amazing things to come, as I build on the accomplishments in my life thus far and express my appreciation and gratitude for all the wonderful things that life has given me! One of the many things it has given me is a deep and loving relationship with my partner Jay. We recently made our relationship official. It is unconventional, new, and growing, and it is uniquely us. I am blessed.
I feel as if I am waking back up from a long and fitful slumber and I can see the fresh and vibrant colors of a new world -- one that is exciting and full of bright possibilities. I spent an awesome and relaxing day with Jay on his birthday enjoying his company and seeing him smile and getting in some much needed pampering along the way. I treated him to his and her pedicures and we dined on Vietnamese cuisine and amazing drinks. Afterwards we tried our hand at soaking in sensory deprevation tanks, and then ended the entire experience with🍦ice cream. It was a lovely day with wonderful memories!
Yes. It has been lovely to enjoy some much needed R&R -- the calm before the storm. There is about to be a wave of activity next week and I have to manage to stay grounded through it all. I can do it though. There are only a few more weeks left in the school semester. I can do it. I got this! ☺
Sometimes tapping into your energy reserves can be as simple as drinking more water, detoxing, finding your calmest center point by grounding into the earth and meditation with a crystal that calls to you. I think that today that crystal is citrine and clear quartz, which I will place in a grid around an energizing bath today. I am starting to feel better. I'm coming through the fog of fatigue that I was in and my mind and body are waking up again. I can see myself being, doing and accomplishing things again. But I know that it's important not to rush myself and to find a steady pace in which to get my daily tasks done without burning out again and to let go of distractions. It's time to have tea and a soup infused with healing herbs like garlic, turmeric and ginger -- to fire up my digestion and kick start my immune system and my third chakra. It's time to think and be positive. No more tears!
Moving into the next phase of my life this year, I am focused on restoring and repairing my chakras and immune system. I went to the doctor yesterday and discovered that the flu I thought I had was a virus that had settled in my respiratory tract. The doctor said that the fatigue and subsequent shortness of breath that I had recently experienced over the weekend was likely from the virus and that it seems that it is moving its way out of my system. So that is great news. Yay! I could look at my recovery from this recent bout of illness as a setback, but I'm going to take it as Mercury Retrogrades shadow reinforcing that fact that I need to pace myself and take greater care of my health. Today's yoga practices are about repairing my throat chakra because my vocal cords need the TLC after coughing so much along with some gentle vocal exercises and herbal teas. I took my vitamins like a good girl. LOL both literally and figuratively. Now all that's left is to take a break, take a breath and move forward.
Today I couldn't fit a full-length yoga practice into my day, but sometimes you have to get it in where you can fit it in. Still I haven't missed a day of yoga yet and I don't plan to start even if I am getting over an upper respiratory tract viral infection. "I went to the doctor and guess what he told me" to quote Sinead O'Connor in the late Prince's "Nothing Compares 2 U". Well his advice certainly wasn't about having fun. He told me to rest and that is exactly what I'm going to do. Sip some tea. Study. Read a book. "Watch a thing," as Jay says. I'm going to chill out. So goodnight people. 👍
Today was a crazy day where nothing went according to planned except cuddling in Jay's arm and telling him all about it. That was the best part of an otherwise dismal day. I was clutching my mostly green rainbow flourite crystal by the end of it all and taking deep breaths. And then there were taxes and a doctors appointment to make, along with woes. Tomorrow is another day.
Well you know how it goes sometimes, the one step forward and the whole "two steps" dilemma can screw things up sometimes -- turn them on their heads. I spent a lovely lazy Sunday with Jay and we went to the gaming party Open Battlestar and from there my energy levels took a dive again. I'm going to get it all checked out tomorrow so stay posted. Finger's crossed that everything's A-OK. See you on the flip side people.
Talk about healing energy! Today was all about it. I could feel my own coming back so much stronger. I have been working with the frequencies of colors both in meditation, chakra healing and in invocation of color energy as well. Today I called upon the spiritual, mind-body-soul connection of the healing purple ray. I've been drawn to it a lot, which has led me to work with lavender essential oil, amethyst crystal, Archangel Uriel and the calming, gentle nature of restoration that it brings with it. I am feeling blessed and grateful.
So lately I've been pretty engrossed in working with crystal energy. I am exploring the metaphysical properties of shungite and flourite and dreaming up crystal layouts and recipes for crystal elixers. Not surprisingly, I want to create a few for energizing the body and fortifying stamina. I also have ones in mind for immunity and health and vitality. When I create some, I'll post a few layouts and recipes on my blog. It should be a fun summer project to dream up recipes and various crystal healing formations. This is gonna be great fun!
In yoga we hear a lot about focusing your drishti. I recently read an online article in Yoga Journal's Yoga 101 section of their website that illuminated the phrase that you hear a lot of yoga class quite simply and elegantly and gave me much food for thought, as I contemplated just how and where I focused my eyes while practicing my asanas. https://www.yogajournal.com/yoga-101/the-eye-of-the-beholder. The article made me realize that sometimes my constantly wandering mind (especially susceptible to roaming because of my chronic anxiety) could be stilled by concentrating on my drishti. I see drishti as a way of seeing and also a way of disengaging your monkey mind and tuning into your third eye to access that inner knowing that only each and everyone of use knows is our truest council. Practicing where I place my dristhi ( point of focus) in my daily yoga practice will enhance my energetic flow, soothe my racing thoughts and clear my 6th chakra, the anja point. This is just what I need right now. Clarity.
I've been working in meditation with crystals a lot. I've been particularly drawn to amethyst, selenite, fluorite and moldavite recently and lately I've been working with the energies of shungite. Shungite is a stone that is reputed for opening up your whole being to receive high vibrations of light body currents to facilitate a healing on the deepest of levels. I had lost a simple shungite pendant suspended from a piece a rope that I purchased recently. I'm hazarding a guess based on working with crystals that I've lost in the past and that have turned up out of the blue when I needed them most, that this time is no different. Shungite's innate intelligence for cleaning the energy field, together with the fluorite crystal I've been working with have had a synergistic effect on my well-being. Maybe the gentler frequencies of the fluorite were needed to work on my energy body for a while before shungite's energetic scrubbers could go to work -- clearing my aura after a long illness. Once again my crystal allies have come valiantly to my rescue!
Today's practice and subsequent daily tasks have me in a thoughtful mood. I am analyzing the emotions I've experienced around loss after reading "The Fable of Final Sunset" in Tori Hartman's "Chakra Wisdom Oracle Toolkit" where she ask you to consider how you respond to the endings in your life. In reality endings are as inevitable as well... death and taxes. I realize that I often hang on to the nostalgia and the memories at the expense of moving forward. I've lost so much that it's sometimes hard to remember that in new beginnings I have the potential for so much to gain at the other side of new beginnings. Today I'm turning this concept around in my hear and allowing it to be whatever it is, letting feelings come and go, taking it with me into meditation and also allowing for the insights from the meditations from Briana and Dr. Peter Borten's "Rituals For Transformation" to sink into my mind. It has helped me to remember that we are one with Divinity and Divinity is one with me and the Universe. I spent nearly two weeks on this concept because it's just that deep. I'm still pondering it... pondering... life
Today's yoga practice was chock full of warrior poses and sun salutations, making it the perfect practice for me to face the day and get back into things. I started my herbal remedies with Bach's Flower Essences and crystal meditation and I already feel brighter about the coming day! Yesterday was a no-go with the photojournalism assignment and so I'm going to try again today. I'm hoping that I can get some pictures in. Of course there's a late breakfast/brunch and tulsi herbal tea to balance my doshas and my cup of coffee later at the coffee shop. Later on it's more photos and singing at jazz club as I begin to start pursuing my passions again. I am hopeful for the rest of the day. We have a few more days of Mercury Retrograde to go and I am arming myself with lavender, peppermint and melissa essential oils, yoga and letting go what needs to be gone. I got this!
Today I'm taking it step by step, starting with allowing myself to sleep in before trying out a yoga sequence for detoxification and digestion on the SaraBeth Yoga channel. It was definitely more rigorous than yesterday's flow of asanas, but not so fast-paced a flow that I couldn't handle it. I think I will take a few more practices like this 15-20 minute sessions before moving on to 20-30 minute routines. I'm being smart about this and honoring my body's current capacity for energetic movement. I think that I might try my hand at pictures for my photo story after a leisurely bath if the coffee shop where I proposed doing my photo story project for my photojournalism class is still open. I also decided that I will probably drop my swim class and take it easy for the rest of the semester by focusing on my photojournalism class, math, and of course work. The rest of the evening should have me snuggling in Jay's arms, preparing to face the week ahead.
This short simple yoga practice on the SarahBeth yoga YouTube channel primed me for the day ahead. It was energetic, but not too enthusiastic for a day when I still felt rough around that edges and was plagued by off-and-on-again bouts of fatigue. I ordered my vitamins off Amazon and have my protein smoothies and my whole foods based shopping list ( and by whole foods, I mean processed and not the famous grocery store. I'm going make some more anti inflammatory soup tomorrow and a big green salad with organic cherry tomatoes. I kind of fell off the wagon today and ate some processed foods, but I realized that it was just a gut reflex (literally) and that I didn't even really want to eat it. My body needs the simple whole ingredients to repair itself. It craves the herbal teas and homemade soups and dishes that I make myself. Time for more healing aromatherapy baths, chi energy sequences, Reiki, and of course yoga!
So, as I mentioned yesterday, I feel as if I'm making a comeback. I plan on using the last 10 days of Mercury to tie up loose ends, spring clean the house, do some deep thinking and meditating and of course some yoga. Duh! LOL. I couple more gentle asana flows before I transition into more lively practices and try my hand at vinaysa or kundalini yoga. Of course I plan on finishing out the Yoga With Tim challenge within the month of April and use May to prepare for June. I am returning to my body makeover plan. I'll be returning to my every-other-day high intensity interval training (HIIT) sessions soon and my twice weekly swim classes. It's time to rock and roll!
I'm learning how to access the core of my being -- my Higher Self -- that place that no one and nothing can tarnish. It's the eternal part of my very being that guides me through my life choices and has my back when I don't think I can move forward any longer. It's the part of me I access in my daily meditation practices. And it's telling me to move ahead with my goals no matter what. My energy is coming back and I purchased some supplements, teas, essential oils and crystals for my health and well-being. I added another part to my yoga/meditation/journaling routine and that is qigong exercises for raising energy in the body along with Sapien Med's healing frequencies I mentioned yesterday. The exercises in question are from a book called "5-Minute Chi Boost - Pressure Points for Reviving Life Energy, Avoiding Pain and Healing Fast" by William Lee and Sasha James. I don't whether it's this book's exercises for raising chi, Sapien Med's healing sounds, the Vata-friendly yoga sessions, the healthy servings of fruit and vegetables, the anti-inflammatory turmeric and ginger soup and teas, the crystal grids, self-acupuncture, aromatherapy baths or maybe a combination of all of theses things working together, but I am finally starting to feel like my old self again. For this I am so grateful that words cannot express! I was really sick. Now let's let the healing commence. I'm ready to get back into the swing of things again!
Fresh from balancing my excitable and anxious Vata Dosha, I'm throwing my hat back in the ring. The ring of what? Well I'm going back into the ring of life, albeit this time with more of a focus on mindfulness and keeping my energetic equilibrium more stable. I'm grounding myself and digging my heels in for the long haul, armed with the insights I'm gaining from Tori Hartman's lessons on perseverance from week 14 in her "Chakra Wisdom Oracle Toolkit". I am discovering so much about myself and what often triggers me to give up just before I've won the battle.
I'm fortifying myself by listening to some isochronic tones from one of my favorite frequency guru's on YouTube, Sapien Med's channel. What are isochronic tones? Shortly described, they are rapid pulses of sound created to align with the rhythm of your brainwaves and create various states of being through the mind/body connection. There are isochronic tones for everything from healing to beauty to mindsets. I am listening to among a plethora of others, tones specifically for increasing (chi, prana, qi,) energetic levels in the body to help me to recuperate from my body's recent illness, and to fortify my overall health and immunity. I will post four videos from Sapien Med's Internal Alchemy series part 1-4 below. I listen to them two times per day each at roughly five to six minutes each, that's not a lot of time to invest in my health and well-being. In fact, I feel it's time well spent. I can literally feel the energy coursing through me when I listen to these. After napping and falling asleep to these today. I woke up feeling refreshed and much stronger. I highly recommend these videos and indeed, exploring all the videos on Sapien Med's YouTube channel. The work he does to encourage mind/body/soul healing is invaluable! Try it and see for yourself.
Today I feel so much better not only physically but mentally. I realize that this sickness might also be an emotional and spiritual purge as well as mental and physical purging of toxins and impurities. It's as if my mind, body and soul needed a reset -- a reminder to love, nurture, heal and slow down and take each step mindfully again. This week's fable in Tori Hartman's "Chakra Wisdom Oracle Toolkit" is the less on of the "Carrot Coloured Cloak". This lessen is about a woman whose bright but tattered cloak represents her dreams and all the hard work and hard knocks that her dream has taken in order to be recognized. In the fable she gave up when things got hardest, just before her dream was about to be realized even though her guides, angels her version of Divinity were pointing her in the right direction. I see myself in this women. I admit to having thoughts of wondering what I'm doing it all for? Of questioning my path thus far. But I take this as a direct message not to stop pursuing my passions and to move ahead towards them whole-heartedly!
Recently I've been seeing repeating sequences of numbers for the past two years or more and now the frequency of these occurrences are coming to a fever pitch. I constantly see 11, or 111 or 1111 or 1010. I've also see 333, 33, 22, 222, 2222, 55, 555, 77, 777 and even 88 and 888. I looked up all of these numbers and read that they are angels, divinity, guides ( I like to think of them as angels or light-beings) communicating with me. I see the numbers on clocks, a lot, but also at other times like noticing the page in a book is 111 or 222, or looking down at a label and seeing the repeating numerals. Sometimes the energies of the numerical messages will mix. I've been seeing a lot of 15,115,1515, 1212, 112 21, 212, 244 313, 113 and 1444. Most recently I have seen 44, 444 even more. Yesterday I went shopping and my grocery receipt was exactly $44.44. I looked up the numbers of various websites (listed below if you're curious) and I read that it meant that the angels are telling me that I've worked really hard thus far towards my goals and dreams and will see benefits from this work, but that in order to achieve my goals, I will have to continue working even harder -- probably even when it seems impossible not to give up. This message rings true. There's a reason why when I looked at the number of page views on the first link, Angel Numbers - Joanne Sacred Scribes it read 172,977,764. I'm not alone.
Today I felt a definite shift in my energy levels. I was still really tired and had a lot of chest congestion but I felt more steady and sure. I went to the college campus today and took my math test but didn't do anything else. I decided to go home and convalesce, as well as take care of some much needed purging around the house. I feel like I really need to focus on me and my health -- regroup. Do some self-healing and energy work, lay in some crystal grids and drink crystal elixir, practice reflexology, acupressure, yoga and qigong to strengthen my body for the tasks and goals ahead. This Vata dosha balancing practice was just what the holistic doctor ordered.
Today's practice was another slow and easy one followed by a Triple Warmer acupressure point session. I'm giving myself the TLC that I need to recover and being gentle on my body. Plenty of rest is in order. It's time to take care of myself. Speaking of care -- I'm going to get some rest and crystal healing with amber and elestial quartz today and perhaps amethyst. Tomorrow I start my spring cleaning and Mercury Retrograde and the releasing energy of the full moon in Libra are a great time both to purge, reset and find balance.
