There’s a topic that’s been loud in many sessions lately. So, it’s time to remind you that nothing has power over you, except the power you give it.
 
When you’re feeling powerless, when you’re feeling overwhelmed or anxious from something outside of you, take your power back from it!
 
The technique is easy and simple, yet profoundly effective. I did it myself just this morning, fully getting into it, using my breath and my hands to call my power back to me. The more real you make it by adding physicality, the more your subconscious gets the message and acts in support of your intention.

I did it over and over, watching as what I was calling my power back from, keep shrinking until it ultimately disappeared. Don't judge how long it takes, keep going until it's complete.

I then filled my entire space, especially my 3rd and 7th chakras (personal power and sovereignty respectively) with the golden light of Divinity, to blend with all the power I just called back into my body and energy field.

At the end, I felt infinitely better and able to make new, empowered choices in present time, rather than being at the mercy of the past or anything outside of me.

If anything has you feeling powerless on any level, do the technique. YOU have the power to shift your reality. ​

To learn the technique, click below:
taking-your-power-back.html

My husband recently showed me a brilliant old interview with George Harrison of The Beatles, in which he describes how he meditates. In the video, he said that he imagines himself to be on the bottom of the ocean, grounded to the planet, while allowing all the turbulence of the ocean waves above (a metaphor for all his thoughts and emotions) to not impact him in his peaceful place at the bottom.
 
I love that imagery. With all the continual chaos in the world and any chaos in your personal reality, it can be easy to find yourself amongst the waves getting tossed and turned. But if you think of yourself sinking below the turmoil to that quiet, still place on the ocean floor, you can find calm.
 
There’s power in sinking in, versus flying out of your body. Many of us leave our bodies when feelings, thoughts, and emotions get intense. We float. But you can't heal yourself nor change your reality, when you're not present and in your body. 
 
When the discord amps up in your life, use this imagery to pull yourself out of your mental and emotional chatter and swirl, to sit on the ocean floor and ground yourself more deeply into your physical body where you can connect to your intuition and truth. There you can be aware of the storms and waves raging above, but able to stay neutral and at peace. 


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With the increase of hate and vitriol in the world, as today is Summer Solstice, the longest day of light in the Northern Hemisphere, I want to remind you of a very simple fact: every day you have the ability to create your reality and the energies in the world by what you choose to focus on.
 
You can choose whether to click on an article that's filled with gossip or hate. You can choose to listen to the person spouting dark and fearful ideas. You can choose to root for the punishment of those who disagree with you.
 
But all of those things add more darkness to the world and to your personal world. They create more separation, more us versus them.
 
On the flipside, you can choose to give those things none of your attention or emotional energy. You can choose what you'd like to see instead and put all your focus on that. You can choose to be a light in the darkness. You can choose a higher outcome. You can even choose to send love to a negative situation or person.
 
As Martin Luther King Jr. said,
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that.
​ Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” 
 
Choose to create your reality from a place of light and the highest potential. By doing so, you change the world for the better.
 

My gardener ripped out an Oak tree I’d been nurturing for seven years. It was growing slowly but steadily. As soon as I saw the empty pot, disbelief turned to immediate rage. Rage at the callous way the pot was left, and rage at not telling me what he did. I was furious.
 
I didn’t try to diminish my emotions, nor tamp them down. I let myself feel all my various emotions, while watering my other plants.
 
I then vented my emotions in a safe and responsible way by making sure not to take them out on anyone else; they were mine to experience and process through.
 
Rage itself isn’t bad. It’s what you do with it and how you handle it that makes all the difference. And sometimes, there’s more to the rage when you dive down into it. Which in my case, was grief. I let myself feel that fully as well, and release what was needed.
 
Many people were taught to suppress emotions or only express the “nice” ones. But your feelings matter and giving them voice responsibly is the only way to release them.

Processing through your emotions takes time; it may not be a one and done. I got hit with another wave of anger as I proofread this blog. But the anger wasn't the white-hot rage it was yesterday when I first saw my plant. That’s because I took the time to acknowledge and fully feel my feelings in the moment. 
 
It may not always be possible to dive into your feelings in the moment. Address them when you have the quiet time and space to release. Even if you have to go out to your car or into the bathroom to do so. 
 
I've done a lot of emotional work so sometimes I’m able to process quickly. If you haven't, move gently with yourself as you open to expressing what you're feeling. And as I’ve stressed, most importantly, be responsible. Which again means not taking it out on others; especially those closest to you. 
 
If the emotion doesn't dissipate after much time and processing, you need to ask yourself what's really going on below the surface or what you're gaining by keeping the emotion alive. That's a fine line that only you can answer because big wounds take time to heal and can’t be rushed (this is especially true of grief). You need to find your truth. Recognize the difference between when there’s more healing to done, and when you're inadvertently keeping the emotional pain alive and it's time to set down the anger etc. and move on.

 Here are some techniques from prior blogs to help:

Emotional Cognizance
Anger Release Techniques
The Ladder of Emotions
A Map for Healing Intense Emotions
Coping With the Complexities of Grief

May these help you to work with your emotions, rather than being at the mercy of them. It's safe to feel and express the full range of your emotions.

To further the discussion from last week regarding emotions and stories, I had a morning recently when fear was loud, and I knew I needed to change the frequency before it spiraled out of control.
 
I started by acknowledging it and saying, “Hey fear, I hear you, I feel you, and I'm not going down that road.”
 
I could still hear it, so I then gently added, “Stop it.”
 
I took some deep breaths, grounded myself to the center of the planet, then imagined dropping the fear out of my body and aura. I imagined the heaviness of that emotion, like a lead weight, dropping deep into the ground to be transmuted. I kept dropping it until I felt lighter.
 
Simultaneously, I chose not to engage the story it was trying to tell. That’s the mental spin and the opposite, the healing, is full presence and connection to earth energy. I ran slow, calming, brown earth energy through my body.  (previous blog)

As that was soothing my body, I took my power back from fear. (previous blog)

I then asked myself, “What do I choose to experience instead?”
 
Depending on the fear, you’ll know what you need. It could be a sense of having or being enough, safety, radiant health, peace etc.
 
I created a simple statement to augment what I chose in place of the fear and kept repeating the new statement.
 
For example: “I am safe.”
“My body is now healing beautifully.”
“There is always enough money (or time).”  
“Everything is now falling into place easily and elegantly.”
“I am safe, even when facing the unknown.”
 
I kept breathing out any remaining fear, while grounding in present time and stating my name, the date, and the time. I also tapped around my left ear to re-set my brain and nervous system (video reminder here).

Once the fear released and I felt calm, I acknowledged that present and future me is in charge, not fear. So again, using the power of choice, I asked, “What am I choosing to draw to me?”
 
I got a vision of the future I wanted in place of the fearful future. That could be an image of you as healthy, safe, or financially secure etc. Whatever issue fear was stirring up, see its exact opposite reality and imagine grabbing it from the future, and pulling it into the now.
 
Then feel fully the feelings of peace, safety, health, enoughness, or happiness, and let what you desire be the only feelings you feel.
 
I know sometimes fear feels bigger than you but it’s not. The more quickly you catch it as it’s building, the more you stop the production of stress hormones and re-wire your neural pathways to allow less of it in the future. Think of it as a train that you refuse to let leave the station. You have the power to stop a fear spiral.
 
 
 

Typically, I like to understand why I’m feeling the way I am such as, “Why am I in a bad mood? What got triggered? Where does this feeling come from?”
 
But part of what I've been working on, is how to simply be with whatever is occurring, without diving into the details. Staying in my body, rather than spinning in mental thoughts.
 
That can be difficult. But I also realize that it’s a hook. Needing to know and understand hooks me back into the story or the wound or the emotional trauma that’s surfacing, thus taking me out of the present moment. It’s a way to think the emotion, versus feel it.
 
I had to put this into play when I unexpectedly felt intense anger the other night. It was so out of the blue and had nothing to do with what was going on. I knew that an old wound must have inadvertently gotten opened because it felt so out of present time. All I could do was be with it.
 
-First, I made sure to be responsible with my anger, which meant going somewhere private, so I didn’t negatively impact those around me. I acknowledged, allowed, and felt the anger fully, without judgment.
 
-Then I grounded myself in present time. I also stated my name, the date, and the time out loud, which is an easy way to pull yourself into the now.
 
-Finally, I sent myself love. I loved myself even though I was triggered. I loved all the parts of me that were clearly upset. I opened my heart for self-compassion and kept bringing myself into the present moment, while acknowledging that I was safe.
 
The more I did that, the calmer I got, and the more the emotion dissipated.

I still don't know what triggered the anger, and I consciously chose not to “figure it out.” I've been working to neutralize old pain, versus stir it back up by reiterating an old story. It has no bearing on my present unless I allow it to, nor is it something I want to continue creating in my future. Therefore, releasing the layers as they surface, and choosing to experience more peace instead.
 
Remember, your power lies in your body, in present time. Not in the mental spin. Be free of the past by staying in the present.
 
 

I was “supposed to” send out my blog last week, but I was extremely wiped out and needed a day to completely decompress. I had most of it written, but the thought of editing was just one thing too many. It felt wonderful giving myself permission to put myself first. And simultaneously, there was that little nagging voice later in the day that said I “should” follow through with my commitments.

But isn’t my commitment to my well-being the priority? I think so.
 
Luckily, I’m familiar with, and have worked on the “doing” voice, so I didn’t allow it to take over. I dismissed it into silence by proclaiming with authority that my sanity comes first. Plus, since I created the schedule, I could alter it. I owned my choice in a calm, but empowered voice, that ended all further discussion.
 
The voice of “doing” can be loud or subtle. It’s the voice that says what you’re doing isn’t enough, you have to do more, and that your value is based on what you accomplish. Or it may say people are counting on you and you can’t let them down. It will find whatever excuse or guilt is needed to keep you in motion and agreeing to commitments when really, you need to stop and allow yourself breathing room.
 
It’s part of our culture; the “go, go, go” energy that is valued and prized. However, that “busy” energy keeps you from being present and in the moment, as well as preventing you from slowing down and creating balance.
 
A more insidious example is that I used to love multitasking. I felt pride at how many things I could “do” simultaneously. Then I started getting even more grounded than I used to be. The more grounded I was, the more I realized that multitasking wasn’t serving me.
 
It didn’t feel good as having my focus in multiple places would rev up my energy and amp me out of my body. Plus, when my focus was fractured, I would sometimes feel like I was missing something that was said, which I was. The biggest lightbulb for me though, was realizing how draining multitasking can be. It’s not just singular “doing,” it’s “doing” on steroids.
 
Part of the reason it’s draining, besides knocking you out of your body, is it's like when you have too many windows open on your computer. The computer can't run at its optimal level because it's got all these open files pulling at the battery and depleting it. Whereas if you've only got one window open, your computer can focus there while keeping most of the battery intact.
 
Notice if you have too many files open. Too many places that gather your attention. You don’t need to know what they are, but you can ask to close them down.

Ask your conscious mind to close all files running. Then ground yourself and focus on the task at hand.
 
There’s tremendous power in being present with one task at a time. Plus, then you become aware more easily of when you’ve reached your limit and need to just “be” for a while. Which is ultimately an act of self-love.
 
I’m glad I took the extra time off for myself. I came back from my decompression time more alert and energized, looking at everything from a new perspective, and with much more flow. Give yourself that gift as often as you need.