I Awaken

I Awaken!

"I Awaken!" joy, truth, clarity, peace and understanding. I showed up to my yoga practice today because sometimes you just have to get onto the mat and let it all out. I can feel the seeds of commitment to my practice taking root and bearing fruit. My practice today signaled the start of some deep hidden awareness from within me. I opened space for questions of existence and awareness. It let in infinite possibilities.

I Embrace

"I Embrace"

Day 3 of the Yoga Camp 30 Day Yoga Challenge on the Yoga With Adriene Youtube channel starts out perfectly. I'm am spending the day with my close friend Meo who is a Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) student in training. I have had a particularly stressful week fulfilling my duties as a Culture Editor at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF) newspaper The Guardsman. And that week is not yet over. I'm pursuing a liberal arts degree at CCSF, with a focus on journalism and
music. I'm am under constant deadlines and the tension that can build up in my body is literally palpable. I have been able to unwind with this 30 day practice in ways that I cannot even begin to express. Being at Meo's place also allows a sense of calm and focus to take place within my energy body. His house always smells of the homemade incense he cooks up, and herbal teas and is alive with positive vibes and crystal energy.

It was an honor to be able to practice yoga in his space and be treated to the wholesome vegetarian fare that he serves. Day 3's motto is "I Embrace". There couldn't be a better phrase for me right now. The practice reminded me that even in times of chaos, the universe can provide a quiet sanctuary in the eye of the storm - a balm of succor for the weary soul. It can be a portal into the realms of love and joy. I realized that "I Embrace" a lot of things. "I Embrace" myself, understanding, peace, joy, love, life, hope and change. And most of all I even "Embrace" the chaos, the pain, the fear and
the sadness and learn from the realness that they have to offer my life as well. In this state of acceptance, I can move past all of these intense emotions with a sense of levity and ease. I know that "this too shall pass" and that there is a rainbow on the other side of the tunnel and the brightest burst of sunlight is awaiting me.

Meo's Place

I Create!

I Create!

Today's affirmation in my 30 Day Yoga Challenge called Yoga Camp by Yoga With Adriene is "I Create". It has made me really examine the things I am actively creating in my life right now, what I kind of life I would like to envision and what things need to come into alignment in order to make those changes. There seems to be within me a force bubbling up that wants to do so many great things. And then theres this equal push toward completion,  the dedication to the process of getting there and the amount of follow-thru that is going to be needed.

Even while typing the words that are contained in this blog, I am examining what intentions will help me to go further in the pursuit of my dreams. Sometimes we get stuck in a reality. And I think that I have been. It's time for me to go beyond the box and really color outside the lines. I was only able to do one half of the 2nd day Yoga Camp video, and I was about to beat myself up over that. Then I had to realize that that simply commiting to the effort of changing is enough. I will make an effort to finish the rest of the practice or maybe even restart the whole yoga video later. And if not, no big deal. Better luck tomorrow! This experience of getting everything in where it fits in will help me adapt to the times when not everything goes as planned. Finding what works is sometimes my greatest asset. I have to remember that. I choose to let go of all the things that no longer served my highest good and move into a space of strength, vitality and movement. I have so many beautiful things to create both with and for the world!

I Accept!

I Accept!

 I haven't written in the That Healing Girl blog for such a long time. I've decided to recommit myself yet again to this journey towards wholeness.  I guess I never really left that journey. Recently tragedy has struck again, leaving me reeling in the aftermath. I've struggled to reconcile the dichotomy of so many amazing things happening to me amid the dark times. My creativity has blossomed, I have gained more clarity about my role as the wounded healer (more on that later) and I am developing my skills and talents as a singer, communicator, body worker, writer and many of the other hats I find so fascinating to wear. Yet I have experienced the loss of many dear loved ones. Just at the beginning of
August of this year, I lost one of my best friends who was like a sister to me and a month later my cat of over 9 years died.

 There are many times when I have been devastated by my emotions. In those periods of turmoil, I have turned to my yoga practice, crystal healing and meditation as well as Reiki and other energetic therapies and mindfulness practices. I have found them to be invaluable to me and have also turned to the practice of expressing gratitude for all the good that is still flowing through my life despite the trials and tribulations. It has been a hard road in the last few years, especially the last two years because am a Sagittarius who is nearly at the end of Saturn flowing through her sign. Saturn has been a firm taskmaster since the end of 2015 and hasn't let up much since. Now with the some of the lessons of Saturn behind me and possibly a few more to present themselves before the harsher vibrations of Saturn move away completely, it is very important that I take stock of the road ahead. Sagittarius goes in to Mercury Retrograde just as my sign exits Saturn, almost as if there will be more things for me to learn.

 It is the most appropriate thing in the world that I revive this blog with a 30 day yoga challenge. All the more so since it a yoga challenge was the exact seed of inspiration that allowed this blog to come into existence. It is also the vehicle through which I will re-enter this reflective terrain. I started today with the 30-Day Yoga Challenge called Yoga Camp from Yoga With Adriene. I've been following Adriene's yoga journey since 2015 and she has pulled me through so many hard. The videos and sentiments on her channel have helped me to channel my angst, grief, heart-breaks, and traumas. I began Monday
the 13th with the mantra, "I Accept". And I do accept all that life has thrown at me. I endeavor to keep breathing with grace and keep my vibrations elevated. I move through the uncomfortable parts of my life in surrender. "I Accept."

"Your hands are the gentle, loving architects of peace."

Image courtesy of worradmu at FreeDigitalPhotos.net

This evening before bed I was experiencing a great deal of anxiety after getting off the phone with my father and discovering that my brother who hasn't spoken to me in 2 years since my sister passed away, and whom I found out through my father is getting married, didn't even send my dad or older sister a wedding invitation. I had already decided to let go a lot of his insensitivities towards myself, but hearing that he was treating our father and sister this way, made my stress level shoot past where it already was. In truth I have been having some financial difficulties which I hope to remedy soon, and this just added to the stress. I had also been processing a great amount of uncomfortable lower vibratory emotions like shame, guilt, anger, jealousy and hatred. Not pretty stuff.  I had been feeling a powerlessness that I know is all in my head. But in these times of our lives it can be really hard to raise our vibrational energetic fields to the self-empowerment that is always there waiting for us to see it. I decided to get proactive about my stress and do this wonderful meditation through an online yoga website I am subscribed to called The Yoga Collective. I highly recommend joining it. For everything they offer, I am so glad I did. If you are interesting here's a link to an affordable way to join on Living Social. And right now, I'm all about affordable.

This is my little purple beauty!

Back to the meditation. Needless to say this meditation calmed me so much. But what was even more remarkable was that spirit guided me right before the meditation to pick up a large palm-sized slab of lepidolite crystal I have the privilege of working with, and to place it directly over my heart chakra where I was feeling the most anxious. For those of you who don't know about the wonderful metaphysical properties of lepidolite, it is one of the best stones for connecting with healing purple ray spiritual energy and is also composed partly of lithium and therefore is an infinitely superior stone for calming the entire energy body. It's wonderful for people dealing with PTSD, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, etc. Ditto for me on the first three. So right at the beginning of this meditation from somewhere inside, a little voice in my head said, "your hands are the gentle, loving architects of peace." I thought, "Whoa where did that come from?" This voice was spirit and my higher self reminding me that even in times of great hardship where our 'flight-or-fight' instincts take over, we have to power to create and draw from the immense storehouse of peace and truth that comes directly from within and from Source and the Universal Intelligence itself! The realization of this blew my mind. I felt that the statement was also largely connected to the fact that work so much with hands on healing modalities such as Reiki and that it was a message that I needed to reconnect to these more fully. This meditation in tandem with the miraculous qualities of lepidolite, took me from 60 to zero in less that 15 minutes. If you are stressed to the max and can't turn off your crazy racing monkey mind that abounds in the hectic Fire Monkey energy of 2016, then sooth your entire nervous system right now. Don't have lepidolite? amethyst or blue chalcedony will work too. Don't have any stones, just imagine yourself bathed in a soft lavender light and you can channel some of lepidolite's amazing energy right into your very being!

Healing Is Definitely A Journey

Healing is definitely a journey. There is no shortcut to being whole. Depending on where an individual is on their own unique life path, it can take days, weeks or even years to deal with healing on a holistic level of mind, body and spirit. I am perfect proof of that fact. Numerous times, I have left, returned to, left and returned again to my own restorative path as evidenced by this blog. I used to beat my self up about that, but I recognize that that is totally OK and is a part of the process. Just to bring all my readers up to speed on where I am, I have recently suffered a lot of tragedy in my life. Just as I was getting over my sister's death which took place just over two years ago, my partner of over thirteen years decided to terminate our relationship. I had just ended nasty battle with our
landlords and we had a limited time to leave our living situation. I was living in San Francisco which is one of the most expensive place to live in the world right now, and I couldn't find an affordable living space which would also accommodate my two cats. I decided to go inside to look for strength and rely on my guides and angels and the universe and at the very last minute, I found a place for me and my cats. About two weeks after I moved in to my new digs, I got assaulted and robbed. I still have a lot of processing of emotions to do because of all the trauma I have recently experienced. Lately I have been turning more an more to the tools I have learned in the past six years, namely yoga, meditation, prayer, positive thinking techniques, and crystal and energy therapy. Together, along with emotional support from loving friends and family, I am rebuilding my existence. I invite you to join my along my journey, especially if you too are healing from trauma.

Image courtesy of  Evegeni Dinev at Freedigitalphotos.net

In Memory of Wayne Dyer

I would like to take a moment to remember Wayne Dyer who passed a way a short while ago on August 29th, 2015, coincidentally on the night of the full super moon which is a time of great change and of letting go what no longer serves you. A time of accepting the end of something so that you
may welcome in something even better. I think that Wayne Dyer would have appreciated the positive irony of his death hi-lighting so much of what he spoke about in his life. The Shift is a film that was released in 2009 starring Wayne Dyer, Portia de Rossi and a cast of other inspired actors. It's a wonderful film in which the emphasis is on finding your true purpose, living a life of service and letting go of a ego-based existence Towards the end of his movie, Wayne said something that brought me to tears, because the message hit home in such a significant way. He said, "There's a place deep within us that wants to fill fulfilled, that wants to know that 'my life has made a difference, that I've
left this place this planet that I have lived on better than when I arrived, that someone's life has been profoundly touched because of my existence.' We all want that. It's not about age or about finding yourself. Whoever you are, at whatever age, you're only a thought away from changing you life." When Dr. Dyer first finished this film, his goal was for 3 million people to watch it and benefit from it. So far about 1 million people have viewed it. I would like to do my small part to spread the word and ensure that even after he has passed from this reality that his last wish is achieved. It's my honor to share this beautiful film with the world.

The Shift