self-care

RESET, a guided meditation

Sunrise, April 3, 2020

Sunrise, April 3, 2020

Many of us are in close quarters with our families and housemates (humans and nonhumans alike) and spending more time together than usual. With the added stresses of our current reality, this makes for some different energy patterns between beings. My intention for this Monday’s meditation is to create and hold space for you as I guide you to clear your heart to heart connections and reconnect with yourself.

Here is what two of last Monday’s meditation participants had to say:
“Loved the meditation on Monday.”
"I really enjoyed the meditation last night!!!"

Care to join me?

RESET, a guided meditation
Monday, April 6th
By Phone
7-7:30 PM EDT
Pay-what-you-can, with a suggested donation of $5

REGISTER HERE

I have spent more than a decade learning how to navigate my inner landscape, how to support myself in navigating a culture I rarely feel in sync with, and how to share my explorations of the heart to heart web of this world. I often receive information via clairsentience, and that is how I became an Intuitive Guide. I am a travel guide to the realms unseen, a realmwalker. While we’re all staying home, you may find a yearning or need to delve into an unseen world. If you would like a guide for that exploration, please contact me for a session. If you are experiencing financial hardship, please let me know and we will figure something out.

May you find the patterns that help you create the rhythm you need for your days. Breathe, be you, part of the whole.

~Namaste

Do you need a RESET?

You are an important part of the whole.

You are an important part of the whole.

Everyone is experiencing massive changes to their daily lives at the moment. Many people are feeling off-kilter. I am offering Reset, a guided meditation at 7pm on Monday, March 30th. I will guide you through your inner landscape as you explore, clear, and reconnect with yourself. You will discover and get to know your edges, heart space, elements and more. This will be a live call, and I will create and hold the space for you during this exploration. I want to make this available to all who could benefit, so I am offering this as pay-what-you-can, with a suggested payment of $5. Register here. And please share this far and wide as so many can benefit from this right now.
~Namaste

Whole Being Health Reminders!

march 2020 pic.jpg

We are currently experiencing a pandemic with COVID-19. We live in a world where health typically means physical health. Tracing etymology, health goes back to heal which goes back to whole. We are more than just our physical bodies. From my personal experience with depression and anxiety, I am aware of just how intricately interconnected all the aspects of my being are. The presence or absence of microbes in my gut determine aspects of my mental health. My internal chemical landscape determines aspects of my emotional health. I can use my physical body in different ways to support and create changes that affect my mental and emotional health. And the state of my mental and emotional health affects my physical health, too. And I haven’t even touched on energetic health, the underlying foundation for our existence.

More and more I realize that my skills, being able to access an energy map of a person or situation and being able to support a person in experiencing the energetic level, are similar to a bridge keystone. I previously thought of my work as a foundation, but guiding someone through an experience of the energy level is often a turning point for that person, whether in a specific situation or in the bigger picture of self-awareness and self-exploration. The experience is one upon which others are balanced and which bridges the way into new perspectives.

Whatever the level of isolation (social distancing, self-quarantine, etc.), be sure to support all aspects of your being as is possible. Here are a few tips:

  • If you need quality human contact, see if you can talk to a friend on the phone or via a video chat or see if a friend wants to have a daily gratitude practice via email or text. (I’m not currently offering a gratitude challenge, but here’s the challenge I did.)

  • If your house is full with the whole family, make sure to have pauses for quiet where everyone takes a break from screens and each other.

  • Remember that laughter is amazing medicine and see if you can find humor or make it. If you’ve never tried laughing yoga, you should! Do funny voices or sing your conversations like you live in a musical! Look for comedians or humor sites online.

  • Breathing practices are super helpful for your whole being, check HERE and HERE for info.

  • If you can get outside, do so. Whether it’s just to sit and stare at the sky or to take a walk, do it!

I haven’t written a newsletter or blog in months because I’ve been focusing on the Karen Pryor Academy Dog Training Professional program. Lilly and I are in the final stretch of this 6 month course and growing as we go. Am I still doing energy work? YES! For me being an Intuitive Guide and a Dog Trainer are very connected. So, if you’re looking for support or relaxation, please email me to line up a session.

Do You Have Control Freak Tendencies? I Do.

Mercury has already gone direct, but I’m still feeling the effects and growth of the retrograde period. It was a Mercury retrograde unlike others for me: intense and rich. The theme for me had to do control: what is in my control and what is not in my control. I kept experiencing clear moments where I had the awareness that I could choose not to keep sending my energy toward something that was out of my control. I had a major growth moment on an early walk with Lilly one morning. I felt like all my energy was streaming away from me in all directions in tiny little ribbons toward all the many unknowns, and then suddenly there was a shield, a bubble, around me. All that energy that had been streaming away from me toward all the things out of my control bounced off the shield and right back into my center. All my energy I had been wasting on stuff I couldn’t control was suddenly redirected back into/on me. I have since used this experience to redirect my energy when I can feel that I’m losing energy on stuff which is out of my control. Bonuses I’ve already experienced: I have more energy (imagine that); I am more relaxed; the more I do this, the easier (still not easy peasy) it is.

When I think of what’s in my control and what’s not in my control, I easily get overwhelmed because it always feels like there’s so much more out of my control than in my control. (Clearly, this is a piece of my anxiety picture.) With the coronavirus a pandemic now, it feels like the not in my control aspects of life are looming over me. But, using this experience, I now have a new tool to help me bring all my energy back to what is in my control: ME. So along with my daily walking and gratitude practices, and breathing exercises, and a plethora of other tools that I don’t necessarily need on a daily basis, I’ve been focusing on this redirection of my energy, and I’m not only finding glimmers of hope, I’m better able to navigate life.

~Namaste

I’m a Fraud! Oh, Wait! Just Human.

Final summer sunset 2019.

Final summer sunset 2019.

It’s officially the first day of autumn, and I’m reaping my harvest. I’ve been experiencing epiphanies and uncovering and exploring old, deep beliefs. So, here I am, again, in a multi-layered transformation. In this life so far, I find that, for me, the discovery and exploration of the deep beliefs and patterns is often just as important, if not more important, than the dismantling, unraveling, shedding, releasing of said beliefs and patterns. Yet, right now it feels like this belief is in a central aspect of my being and very rooted, and I am feeling my mental body try to kick in and overwhelm (overthink) the rest of me.

In recent years, I’ve discovered and recognized the belief that “there will never be enough for me to do more than eke out a living.” Wait, what?! Here’s the thing with the old, deep beliefs, there’s never any logic involved. These are beliefs that are epigenetic, that are tied into the reptilian part of our brains, that are about survival. This summer’s harvest has uncovered the belief that “I can never be enough” which leads to constantly striving for perfection in the hopes that no one will notice that I am a fraud (at being human). I know! Just today I was journaling and found my brain trying to take over with worries and fears about what to do with these beliefs and the patterns they hold together.

My process is my process (just as your process is your process). It is one of flow, one of deeply being me in my daily practices: walking, writing, gratitude. I recognize and acknowledge the belief and then I let go of it and it’s like the idea or essence of it floats around in my being. And I start to feel or see where it is connected to or in other parts of me; I start to sense the patterns within me that have grown from the belief. I tend not to even look for the whys of a belief, though sometimes they’ll appear somewhere along the journey. The now is where I focus. So, here I am at the equinox, opening to the strong, accessible energy of balance, feeling it stream into me. And working with this balance, I can feel the shifts begin at my core.

It is a new season, a new day, and I am always me even as I am a new me with each breath. Breathe, be you, part of the whole.

~Namaste

Current Energies, Transformation, and Bears, Oh My!

July dawn beam. Just like food is the original medicine, self-care is energetic nourishment.

July dawn beam. Just like food is the original medicine, self-care is energetic nourishment.

The eclipse season starts tomorrow with the new moon total solar eclipse (visible in South America) and Mercury goes retrograde on Sunday. It’s not just getting hot outside, the inner realms are getting hot, too! I’ve been experiencing lots of shifts on all layers and feel like June couldn’t possibly have been so full when it flew by so fast. There’s much about completion right now from deaths to jobs to personal patterns to karmic patterns. I’m seeing it in others, hearing it from others, and experiencing doozy level completions myself. If you’re interested in seeing what resonates for you in the current astrology, check here to see the astrologers I follow.

Last week I had a brief but clear dream full of nonhuman animals, with the closest and most prominent being a large bear sitting in front of me staring at me. I felt no fear, just a very matter of fact sense of being in the presence of a bear. The following morning Lilly and I met a friend for an early morning hike where we saw a huge bear walking down the trail towards us. We stopped, bear stopped. And eventually the bear turned around and walked back down the trail with one pause and glance over the shoulder at us before disappearing around the curve. We waited a bit before proceeding along the trail. The bear had left the trail at some point and we neither saw nor heard any more from a bear on our hike. For this to occur in the space of deep transformation I am currently experiencing feels potent. It is summer and I normally see lots of wildlife, but the past month has been rich with wildlife. Typically I don’t feel that the nonhuman creatures I see or hear are messengers, it’s more that they remind me of the webs within which we exist, and the similarities and differences among all of us as parts of the whole. Especially in a time of transformation, the support that I feel from so many reminders helping me remember and know I am part of the whole is priceless and affirming.

How are you currently navigating and/or experiencing life?

In my quest to reach more people with whom to share my work, I have a super short survey for you. Thank you for taking a few minutes to fill it out!

Are You Grounded? What Does That Even Mean?

Yellow Mountain June sunrise.

Yellow Mountain June sunrise.

While being grounded is something I’ve always been able to do, or really be, with a fair amount of ease, I am always (still) exploring it and ways of describing it. Grounded can have different meanings. Typically when people talk about being grounded, they mean specifically grounded in the earth. But for someone who does not have earth as one of her major elements, being grounded in earth can actually be a big interruption of flow. We are here in this human experience physically connected to this planet and we need to maintain that physical connection to the earth herself. But we don’t have to be weighed down by it.

I find that a different perspective or way of describing being grounded is: the flow in connection here in this body. If you’ve worked with me, you’ve, more than likely, experienced gold and brown light flowing through you, the connecting energies between your higher self and the earth. This is your manifestation in the physical plane. And this is an important connection to maintain. For many folks who don’t have earth as a major element, shifting the definition of grounded to a connection between higher self and the planet can make a huge difference. It is suddenly not an interruption of your being or a burden, but a connecting flow allowing you to be you.

Another aspect of being grounded which is less about the earth element and more about your major elements, has to do with being fully of the essence of the elements that are your major elements. This allows you to have a very different support within your energy structure. I used to specifically offer a short guided meditation for discovering your major elements where part of the discovery was receiving a shortcut to shift you into the space of sensing that support in your energy structure. This specific meditation hasn’t been called upon recently, but it’s suddenly come back into the light.

While being grounded has been a theme recently with clients, it’s also timely with the bigger energies. This week we’ve got the full moon (full earlier this morning at 4:30am) and the solstice on Friday at 11:54am. When the bigger energies, or people without healthy boundaries are pulling you off kilter, find your way into your elemental structure and you’re able to more safely and comfortably navigate the world.

Be sure to get outside to lie, sit, walk, dance this week. I have been feeling a pull to lead a solstice walk Friday evening, but so far have only receive a vague bit instead of details. If this interests you, please let me know and we’ll line it up.

~Namaste

Current Energies

June sunrise glow

June sunrise glow

It’s been an interesting roll from May into June. In mid May intense despair moved in, but even while experiencing it, I was aware of how different it was. I was depressed for a number of years and my experience of depression was being dragged into an abyss of despair and being stuck there. This recent despair was a presence in my energy body. I felt constricted with a sense of pressure from all directions, and I struggled to be me in every moment. I used all my skills working with this despair and it was just lodged there; there was no moving anything. And then after almost two weeks of this, I could suddenly feel it moving. It dissipated and flowed out of me over a 24 hour period. And that was when I realized just how much of my space it had been taking up. I was expanded into my whole self again. I could actually feel flashes of hope again.

I’m now in the midst of deep transformation with insights popping up right and left and all sorts of shedding going on. That despair was definitely a part of this transformation: setting me up for the different, the new, and reminding me of how much space I have that is mine to fill. This transformation feels specifically related to old, unhealthy patterns of perception of self, being human, love, and relating to other humans. Piece of cake, right?!

Today is a new moon and we’re only weeks away from the summer solstice. The days are stretching so long. There is so much light we can easily access. What seeds are you planting? What old blossoms are you releasing to the winds?

Here are two takes on the current energies that resonate with me.

https://thepowerpath.com/monthly-forecast/june-2019-monthly-forecast/

https://chaninicholas.com/horoscopes-for-the-new-moon-in-gemini-june-2019/

https://thepowerpath.com/moon-updates/moon-update-6-3-19-to-7-1-19/

May you know you are whole.

May you know you are part of the whole.

May you know you are light.

Insights of the Dark Season: Limiting Beliefs

full moon setting over rockfish gap

Life feels to be a continual shedding and creating. I have long used both breath and eye blinks as reminders that I am new. Especially this winter, I am feeling an intensity of this newness on a daily basis. Sometimes insights hit me with unexpected force. As December drew to a close I had several insights arrive with that unexpected force. Timing can be everything and in this case it was. One of these insights had to do with a limiting belief. It wasn’t new to me that I had this particular limiting belief, but I was finally able and ready to see/hear/know it’s bigger impact on my existence. I finally got the possibilities of who I could be without this belief.

Limiting beliefs are often built off of old patterns (inherited or absorbed or learned early in the current life or carried over from a previous life) and thus slip past our radar time and again. When they are suddenly highlighted, there can be a clarity to the connecting lines between the belief and those old patterns. So how have I shifted since recognizing that limiting belief? What did I do? I didn’t really do anything. I’ll explain.

I tend to use the time in bed after I turn out the lights as my sacred space. I ask for assistance, guidance, support. I set intentions. And what I realized most recently is that this is where I let in source in a different way. This is where I have practiced and am learning to allow and receive. One strong view in our culture is that you have to do something to something and this is often tied into the belief that fixing is what it's all about. I have found that shifts often occur when you let go and allow what is to be, when you receive what is and accept it as it is. This allows a detachment to occur and the tethers we’ve created often vanish. At base this is all a shift in perspective.

I laugh at that last sentence because for me so much comes down to perspective. It’s one of the foundations of my work. And on that note, I’d like to share that my work is shifting and I’m now offering my sessions in a slightly different format. There’s more of a combined reading and healing aspect to my work and if you’re interested in more details please hit reply to this email. I’d love to share. I’m also exploring some future offerings and look forward to sharing more on those soon.

I’d love to connect with more like-minded people, so if you know someone you think might resonate with my work, please share this post.

  • If you’re looking for nature connection in the physical realm, we can arrange a walk’n’talk and get you noticing your surroundings in new ways, email for a session.

  • If you’re looking for deep relaxation (and clearing), email for a session.

  • If you’re looking for nature connection across the tiny screen in front of you, follow me on Instagram: @intuitive_energy_guide and you’ll get views and positive words all in one spot; and on Facebook at Elizabeth Bain, Intuitive Energy Guide and Elizabeth Bain.

  • Dog training is an exciting and fun part of my world. If you're interested in what I'm doing, be sure to find Doggedly Whole on fb and ig, too. Shared moments of joy with your 4-legged(s) are amazing!


~Namaste

~Are You Feeling Part of the Whole?~

sept 6 pic.jpg

I recently had an email exchange with a client that allowed me a different perspective on my own journey and relationship with my intuition. I had happily offered to share some book titles for exploring intuition and then when I went to actually list some titles, I realized just how different my path has been to my current knowing of self and source and how intertwined they are. To me, intuition is being fully in flow with source and thus able to access information that is beyond what we think of as self. Young adult fantasy novels helped me in a huge way (read as an adult) in finding ways of moving with nature and finding my flow within the world. (I know, really!) I feel as though I am at the leading corner of an enormous fabric that stretches out behind me and is woven of all the strands of my experiences leading me to this exact moment. At the same time, I am a tree with branches reaching to the stars and roots that are my experiences providing the nourishment that has led me to my current self. It’s not as though this is any end point, this is all an ongoing experience of being. Maintaining my ability to feel in flow with nature and source is key to maintaining my sanity and ability to move through this world, but so, too, is continued exploration of flow and nature and source.

How do I both maintain and explore? Much of my self-care is both. My gratitude practice maintains my relationship with gratitude and perspective and it’s not a stagnant, detached practice, so it is also an exploration of gratitude and perspective. My walking practice maintains my awareness of my physical self and my physical connection with this planet, and allows me a specific time, space, and place for exploring this physical realm and how/where I am part of the whole. My writing practice creates a specific way and place to unload all the thoughts and feelings that I carry (mine and not mine) which helps me maintain a regular clearing for myself, and also creates a specific way and place for dreams and insights and explorations. I have other self-care practices, but these are my foundation and provide an example of how I am able to both maintain and explore within the same practices.

I will be offering a class to support your own journey into finding your flow within nature and feeling part of the whole. This class is still taking shape, so if this is something that resonates with you, please let me know, especially if there are specifics you are looking for. Details will be coming as the shape becomes clearer.

September Special:

September is a month of transitions and I’d like to provide some support to those of you needing help with one specific issue. The One Issue Session: 30 minutes of guided meditation and conversation. Special price of $35 for this month only. Please email me to book a session.

  • If you’re looking for some clearing or balancing for you and/or your whole family in these intense times, email for a session.
  • If you’re looking for some nature connection in the physical realm, we can arrange a walk’n’talk and get you noticing your surroundings in new ways, email for a session.
  • If you’re looking for some nature connection across the tiny screen in front of you, follow me on Instagram: intuitive_energy_guide and you’ll get views and positive words all in one spot.
  • Dog tricks are an exciting and fun part of my world at the moment with teaching classes and working with Lilly. Be sure to find Doggedly Whole on fb and ig, too. Shared moments of joy with your 4-legged(s) are so healing!

As always I love to hear your thoughts and current reality! Thank you for your continued support and referrals.

~Namaste

~ It's Time to Choose Something Different ~

The energies of April may be wild, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t support for you. There is massive support right now for you to choose an option you have never chosen before. I keep hearing from clients and friends alike that they are making new, foundation level choices. Maybe you’re noticing this week that it’s a little easier to see options where you couldn’t see them before. The full moon has helped clear out some of the residual stuff, whatever and wherever you’ve been working on your inner journey, and your filters and perspectives are shifting. Just yesterday I spoke to four people who all had something to share about changes in deep level choices.
 
With the arrival of spring and days already stretching longer with light, there is a natural increase in the speed of life. You might feel like your calendar is filling up super quickly. A new relationship with self-care is a great place to try something different. Maybe that means you’re going to aim for 30 minutes every week that is dedicated to you in whatever shape that may take. Perhaps you’re feeling like 5 minutes a day of creative drawing or word play is what feels right. I recommend you pull out your calendar, grab a colored pen, and mark out some time for self-care.
 
If you want to try something new and need some support in that endeavor, I’m happy to help. Please email me and let’s make that happen!
 
And don’t forget I’m offering two free guided meditations that are designed to make some self-care easy for you. Shifting from Fear to Love is from 8-8:30pm on Tuesday the 18th. Deep Relaxation for You and Your Critters is from 8-8:30pm on Tuesday the 25th. Details and registration for both meditations are HERE.
 
Thank you for inviting your friends and sharing the word!

May you know you are light.
~Namaste

Brief Energy Clearing Exercise

Are you feeling heavy and tired? Is your mind running unnecessary commentary on your every breath? Close your eyes, breathe in so your breath reaches the edges of your physical body, breathe out all the heavy, dark, murky stuff. Breathe in a soft pink light that fills you to the edges of your physical body and shines out into your energy bodies. Breathe out any remaining gunk that is not serving you in the now. Repeat as needed with the pink light filling you on your inhalation and the stuff that’s not beneficial carried off on the exhalation. ~ This is especially nice to do when you lie down in bed at night, freeing you to find more restful sleep. Did you give it a try? How do you feel?

Equinox Horizon Clearing Meditation

Free Guided Meditation

By Phone

Thursday, September 22

7PM-7:20PM

Please join me by phone for a guided meditation clearing your horizons and preparing you for the new season. Whether you make it on the call live or not, you will receive a recording of the meditation for you own use. Let's sink into this balance point of light and dark and feel the support of these energies. To register please go here.

September Collaboration ~ Self Care During Season Changes

Kim's Thoughts

Is your body trying to tell you something? Often times it starts with a whisper or a thought, “I should buy fish at the store,” or “I’m really thirsty,” or “I need more sleep.” If we listen, we find that sometimes it’s really easy to meet our needs, and other times we know what we need but it feels crazy hard to listen or do anything about. ~Read more


Elizabeth's Thoughts

Rhythms fascinate me and are something I like to pay attention to. In my morning walks, there are fresh cooler morning paces or wet morning strong smells paces (walking with a dog sometimes determines the pace). With different paces, there are different rhythms our 6 feet create hitting the ground. There are internal rhythms like breath and heartbeat. There are external rhythms like woodpeckers drumming on a tree or branches rattling in a breeze. The rhythms in and of work and play, the rhythms in and of movement and stillness, the rhythms in and of waking and sleeping can all be felt in a day, in a week, in a month, in a season, in a year, in a life.

Just like using the rhythms of music to match our current mood or to change our mood. So, too, can we use other rhythms for support in maintaining a way of being or changing a way of being. Here it is September, the autumnal equinox is on its way, and there are lots of changes happening. For many, it’s time for school (students, parents of students, teachers, or workers in schools). For others, work may have a seasonal component and there’s shifting going on there, too. Finding the rhythms that feel good right now can go a long way to staying in balance. As I’ve said before balance is not an end goal; it is a constant dance.

I love the balance points of the season changes: longest light, shortest light, and the two halfway points between. We’ve got the power of a halfway point coming up and I love how when you focus on it, you’ll see this same sort of balance point in your everyday life if you look for it. Finding the connections between macro-cosmos and micro-cosmos and leaning into the support of those connections is a wonderful way to use this equinox energy. Sometimes it’s tiny moments of stillness that expand into our awareness, sometimes it’s the giant size of a concept or change, if we are welcoming to these connections and the balance points within those connections, we can know the constant support available to us in a new and whole way.

Season changes are great times to check in with what your rhythms have been for the last few months and whether or not you’re feeling good about your dance with balance. Self-care of any sort is like balance, there is no ending. Knowing what helps you find the rhythms that feel good, what helps you feel balanced is an ongoing adventure. Sometimes you just adjust your routine a little and things can be drastically different. Sometimes you feel a yearning for something new and try out a variety of stuff until you figure out what fits and what doesn’t. Lately I’m listening to different music and readjusting my sleep patterns as the sun rises later each day. I’d love to hear how you’re experiencing this shift of season and what you’re finding that works for you. Please feel free to share in the comments on the below here on the blog.

May September energies support you in the now.

Thank you to all who joined the Gratitude Challenge last month. I'll be hosting a longer Gratitude Challenge in November. Be sure to keep an eye out for details.