November Collaboration ~ Save Yourself from Energy Vampires

As everything is energy, there is a constant flow of energy in and out of our beings. We both give and receive energy in many forms. When we are in a balance point (ongoing, I know) we are receiving as much as we are giving. This sounds like a simple mathematical process, but real life is far from simple. One big energy draining concept to be aware of is energy vampires. Often these are people, but they can also be groups or intangibles like your work or an organization of some sort. I’m sure you know some: those who are needy and take, take, take; people who or situations that leave you exhausted even when you didn’t seem to do much. 

Awareness is always the first step. Once you have noticed who or what drains you completely, who doesn’t energize you, then you can work with boundaries to safeguard yourself. Most of us tend to default to a scarcity pattern of some sort, so it’s easy to think that you don’t want your energy getting sucked out of you because you only have so much energy. A slightly different outlook is that balance in life is more sustainable. So, if you’re too involved with energy vampires of some sort, you may struggle to maintain the receiving end and, thus, are left depleted and always just out of reach of (or even far from) feeling balanced.

Boundaries can be as simple as saying no. Granted, this may take practice, but saying no can go a long way to a more balanced in flow and out flow of energy in your being. Or boundaries can be more involved where you figure out how much of someone or a situation you can take and having a set limit of involvement. Sometimes even removing oneself from an energy sucking situation or person doesn’t actually sever the energetic connection. In times like this, creating a ceremony can help, but this is when getting an energy healing session could be greatly beneficial.

If you are aware, as you’re with someone, that she or he is draining your energy, walk away if possible. If that’s not possible, breathe and picture your breath filling you with a clear, white light that shines out from you in all directions creating a bubble. This white light bubble is an energetic boundary, allowing you to verbally engage with someone while not losing your energy to that person. This is also something you can do ahead of time if you know you will be spending time with an energy vampire.

Energy vampires are not consciously setting out to take other people’s energy. The energy patterns in these people or situations come about from different reasons, but there is often a vacuum or void that needs to be filled. And when it is not properly addressed and released or re-patterned, it is most easily filled by sucking energy from other people.

We all give and receive energy just by existing and as we draw our awareness to where the energy is coming from and where the energy is going, we can step into the role of a true co-creator of life.

Kim's Thoughts

Energy vampires sucking you dry? Here are some tips to help keep you protected when around those hungry folks. To begin with, who am I talking about? When I refer to energy vampires, I’m referring to folks who leave you feeling either depressed, wiped out, or angry after spending time with them. They may be your coworker, a parent or acquaintance, they could even be someone whose company you used to enjoy. ~ Read more

October Poetry

My feet touch earth again and again

I feel the wellspring of energy pulse up my leg with each step

Filling my whole being

I am the earth, a walking tree of sorts

Step, breath, be

2nd Community Healing

October is flying by and November is drawing near. I hope you'll be able to join us for our next Community Healing. Our focus will be: Grief and Loss.

Depression Relief from My Companions

As the daily amount of light continues to decrease, depression often creeps in. Having spent a number of years in a deep abyss of depression, I am aware of any little nudge of depression. I continue to explore and find ways to work with that abyss. While I am no longer in the abyss, and usually feel no more than a pull from the abyss from a great distance, this time of year the abyss is a little closer and I’m aware of that even if there’s no pull. Having Laurens and Lilly always ready to snuggle, make me laugh, or do tricks (yes, Laurens is a clicker trained cat), keeps me firmly planted in the now. Steady on my feet on my path and surrounded and filled with lovelight. What do you do when the darkness presses in? How do your companion animals help you?

Foundation Work

In the last 24 hours a major theme has shown up in conversations with colleagues, friends, and clients. After September's deep shifting energies of eclipses, Mercury in retrograde, and the equinox, the start of this month has been a restart in many ways. One of the most reliable ways to support and maintain the new is to work on the foundation level. This can be the physical foundation of your body health or specifically your feet. This can be the emotional or mental foundations of your being. This can be the land you live on, the house you live in. This can be deep seated patterns from past lives or ancestral lines. Whatever form it takes for you, this is a time when you are being fully supported in foundation work.

So, notice what's popping up for you in the last week or so. Notice how this might relate to a foundation level for you. Breathe, be gentle and kind with yourself, and do the foundation work that you are being asked to do. This is what will allow you to be supported in these new patterns of being that you are creating at this time in your life. If you feel the need for some help with this foundation work, as always, I am happy to help. Just send me an email and we'll get you on the calendar. And, if you need a place to share, please do so in the comments below or on Facebook.

Synergy Energy

I am my entire business. This makes for lots of goodness in my world, but there are still times that it’s helpful and nice to have others involved. This is why I am so thrilled today’s a day for our business tea: once a month I meet up with a bunch of other women solopreneurs for brainstorming, networking, camaraderie, and support of all forms. Do you have groups of friends or colleagues you get together with regularly? Synergy is working together. I find if you’re with people you resonate with that the energy created by synergy is amazing. And for me with these business teas, the energy is fuel for my business. ~ I’m off to tea now!

Colors Heal

Lilly and I love to fill ourselves up with the colors of the world! This is a so many shades of blues and greens day. Can you find Lilly?

Heart to Heart Exercise with Your Companion Animal

Want to strengthen the connection you have with your cat or dog (or other companion animal)? If your critter is cuddly, sit or lie down with her or him. If your critter is not cuddly, do this at whatever distance is comfortable for her or him and you will place your hand in the air, palm facing her or him instead of actually touching. Close your eyes, breathe a few deep breaths and settle into your body. Place one hand on your sternum or heart and breathe into your heart space, this place of love. Place your other hand on your critter pal’s heart or chest area and breathe into this love that connects you. I sense the heart to heart connection as a beam of light. Explore what you sense of this connection: what it feels like, what it sounds like, what shape it might have. Then sink into this frequency of love that permeates you both. Spending even a few minutes aware of this connection can result in amazing moments. What’s your experience?

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?

October Collaboration ~ How to Disconnect from Work

Elizabeth's thoughts

Work comes in such a wide variety of shapes and sizes and textures. Some of my work is hands on bodies. Some of my work is by phone from the comfort of my home desk. I love that I get to connect and explore with amazing beings of all sorts. But no matter how much I love my work, I do need some separation between work and the rest of my life. So how exactly do I do that?

I like clear edges or boundaries, so I use small rituals to create those edges when I’m working from home. Before a session, I get situated comfortably in my chair, close my eyes, breathe a few deep breaths, check in with all of myself, and make sure I am clearly connected to Source. Between clients I always take a small break to walk around and maybe get water, I tend to leave the room at least for a few steps. When I am finished with my clients, I repeat most of the same steps: I close my eyes, breathe deeply, check in with all of myself, make sure I am still clearly connected to Source, and I speak my thanks for all that I am.

I recently participated in a 21 day challenge for solopreneurs of heart centered businesses and was thrilled to find a segment about creating those rituals around work. It was interesting to hear what different people use to create those boundaries: lighting a candle, a fresh cup of tea, turning on specific music.

Here are a few concepts to try out, noticing which ones feel comfortable and appropriate for you and your work.

• You are an electrical plug and you plug yourself in at work, unplug yourself when work is done, and you can then plug into whatever is next be it family or a relationship, your passionate hobby, etc.
• You are in a boat at the confluence of a number of bodies of water. When it is time for work, you ride the current into the stream or river that is work, riding the current back out and into another stream when work is done and it is time for your relationship, family, favorite pastime, etc. (Note there is no mad paddling because you are late…the water carries you.)
• Create an aromatherapy spray that you use to transition yourself from non-work mode to work mode and vice versa.
• Sit in the car before and after work for 5 deeper breaths as you feel a waterfall clearing you and transforming you into your work mode and your non-work mode.

Even if these don’t feel right for you, this is a great jumping off point, so let your exploration begin! As always, I love to hear your experiences, so please find me on facebook and share what you’ve discovered.

Kim's thoughts

Ever had one of those experiences where you’re supposed to be doing something fun with someone, maybe going to hike, out to eat, seeing a show and they can’t seem to stop checking their phone or maybe you can’t? I was recently talking to a friend about how to disconnect from work and then be present for our families. Here’s what I’ve come up with from an energetic perspective. Read more

My Multispecies Family Part II

Because for some reason in this life of mine companion animals find me before I necessarily even know I am looking for one, Lilly, dog, appeared a week after I said good-bye to Dixie, and moved in less than a week after that. Lilly and I are well connected at this point, and from the beginning it has been clear to me that she is here to raise my frequency. Lilly’s world view is still growing by leaps and bounds since joining us. But at base I’d say she’s full of joy that she’s got her own human, and she’s still a little confused as to why there’s a cat. (We’re working on the occasional jealousy she shows when I’m doing something with Laurens.) I’m extremely grateful that Laurens is a large cat in a domesticated cat’s body because he doesn’t put up with Lilly if she’s being pushy, and she does respect him when he tells her off. (His dagger clawed swipes are well placed and his hisses mean business.) So these days Laurens still knows I am his loving mama, but that other end of the triangle is someone who needs to be taught how to love a cat. So he rubs up against her every few days or so and she continues to be baffled by this. These days work on the balance of our triangle is an every single day practice. We might have started in different places, but we are all growing together. Please share below where you multispecies family is in its growth cycle.

My Multispecies Family Part I

Laurens, cat, and Dixie, dog, grew up together. Laurens found me at a dumpster when he was 6 months old, and we’d only been together for 4 or 5 months when Dixie arrived. Laurens is a large cat (think lion or tiger) in a domesticated cat’s body. Dixie was a sweet, joyful Australian Shepherd (with a tail) who came to us at 4 months old with hip dysplasia so bad in both hips that her hind legs were crossed when she stood and her spine was one big arch. She got around with most her weight on her front legs, peeing was like a yoga balance pose where her hind legs just hovered off the ground while her front legs did all the work. The world view Laurens had for a long time was that I was his loving mama and Dixie was his dog who was nice and fun. The world view Dixie had was that I was her sister, she was here to teach me from her place by my side, and that Laurens was her friend and a cat. The triangle we three made up wasn’t exactly an equilateral one, but we maintained a comfortable balance for almost 14 years together. These days our triangle is very different…tune in tomorrow for the changes since losing one point of our triangle back in May. Please share below what your multispecies family is like.

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.

August Collaboration--What Is Healing?

Kim's Thoughts

What is your definition of healing? From the dictionary: noun – the process of making or becoming sound or healthy again; adjective – tending to heal; therapeutic.

Healing can come in so many different forms, from hands on to remote, nutrition, essential oils, body work and from Western to Eastern approaches. Sometimes healing comes about alone. Other times it’s with another or within a group. Speaking of groups, I hope you will attend our community healing on August 25th, 2016 at IX Art Park.   
 
This past month I’ve been doing some things that I consider healing, but aren’t in the traditional way I usually offer my services. I have a friend who had a flare up of her Multiple Sclerosis symptoms and as she is a mama to two youngsters, one of the things I offered was to make and drop off food. I realized that her accepting the help was a healing for me too. I was able to experience my gifts being accepted. Sometimes just being a really good listener is healing. Or smiling at a stranger can make their day. I remember one day running into a friend and telling her how beautiful she looked and she started to cry, she had been feeling unseen by her spouse.  Sometimes what seems like a small thing to us can reach further than we can imagine.

This summer I spent a few days at the beach receiving healing from being at the ocean. Watching the waves come and go as I sat there I felt my energy field being cleared by the ocean and then I felt the joy of the unexpected sight of dolphins. From this experience I also started doing a meditation when I needed space from something, of breathing in and out and feeling as the waves went out I had more space with the situation or person that I was getting agitated by. 

I was led on a rain walk by my 3 year old. Kids are great at giving you a lesson on presence. They are not done being in the moment, until they are done being in the moment.  Feeling the rain and giving in to getting wet and being in the moment was a gift of peace. I could see how I could chose to connect or chose to separate.

On August 25th we will be at IX Art Park at 6 PM. From 6:00 – 7:00 PM we will be offering various free healing services and social time: there will be music, chakra readings, intuitive card readings. There will also be light snacks and non alcoholic beverages. At 7 PM we will begin the community healing, which will include guided meditation as well as energetic clearing. The healing will end promptly at 8 PM. We will have an altar for the focal point of all we wish to heal: hope for all the recent tragedies at home and abroad; the earth; racism; an emotion you want healing with – grief/ resentment / anger; or perhaps you or a loved one needs some physical healing . If you are not able to come in person, please feel free to connect in through your energy field at 7 PM when we start the healing.
 
If you would like to donate you own healing in the form of snacks for social time, or services if you are a body practitioner or healer, or assistance with set up or break down, please contact me to make arrangements.

Elizabeth's Thoughts

The root of the word heal is whole. Just sit with that a moment. Is there only one way to remember, know or feel you are whole? Of course not. Healing can be a warm, strong hug when you feel lonely or even when you feel happy. Healing can be sitting with your dog or cat snuggled up by your side. Healing can be someone listening when you just need to let it all out. It’s also a wide variety of options on the eastern and western health fronts. Often, I find the word healer is used and/or taken in a fashion that puts some ego in there. There is also a belief that there is a problem that must be fixed to be whole again and that the healer is the one who fixes the broken person. Everyone is whole just as they are. Everyone has the power to heal, to heal one’s self and others.

All of this is pertaining to healing and humans, but what about healing and the earth and healing other animals? Gardening, composting, keeping your trash output low, stream buffer planting are just a few examples of what healing the earth can look like. Working to preserve habitat for wildlife, using farming techniques that work with animal life rather than against it are a couple of ideas of healing and animals. And you can see how clearly connected everything is when you see that healing animals, humans included, is also healing the earth and vice versa. So as you move through your day, let the word heal sink into your awareness and notice what it means to you. I’m always interested in hearing people’s thoughts and experiences, so if you want to share, remember you can do so here.

One of the most profound experiences with healing I’ve had in recent years has been a daily gratitude practice. I have two different groups with a gratitude practice, so I start my day with two emails listing what I’m grateful for. Almost 4 years into this practice, the layers continue to unfold. I am sharing a taste of this amazing experience with anyone who’s interested. Starting August 14th, I am offering a free 15 day gratitude challenge. Check here for details and to sign up. Please share this with anyone who might like to try something new.

On the in person group healing front, I do hope you will join us for our community healing this month.

Free 15-Day Gratitude Challenge

Join me for an exploration of gratitude and the creation of new patterns in your entire being.

Starts August 14th!

What this challenge includes:

• daily emails sparking your awareness of gratitude
• the confidential space to reply with your own list of gratitudes
• access to a special and focused space where the support of gratitude can grow
• details on the layers of gratitude and what a daily practice can bring you over time
• the opportunity to create new patterns of awareness, thinking, and being

If you're looking for a new rhythm or pattern in your brain, in the way you're living, in your being, this is the spot to try one out.

SIGN UP HERE

Testimonial from JMU professor Toni Whitfield:

"Participating in gratitude practice has been very fulfilling for me personally. Elizabeth suggested this practice at a low time in my life when I was filled with negative energy and negative thoughts due to frustrations with goal setting and personal pain management issues. This negativity began interfering with my personality and my relationships. Since practicing my daily gratitude, I have improved my overall outlook on life, become more accepting of frustrations and tribulations and learned more about my positive self. As an added perk, I am building relationships with folks who have good days and bad days and we are good at holding each other up just through the simplicity of our words using the simplest channel: email. I won’t lie; it’s hard at first—to think of something to be grateful for every day is a challenge in the beginning and sometimes on low days or ones filled with pain, it’s really difficult. It’s not a rant or a lot of 'bitching' and no judgment...but thoughtful ways to find something to be grateful for every day."

Summer Discount ~ Final Week

Looking for clarity, balance or a new perspective?

Want to connect more deeply to your dog or cat?

$10 off all energy sessions. Slots still available in this final week of the discount.

Email me at elizabeth@elizabethbain.net to schedule your session.

Some Thoughts on Gifts from My Dogs

My Australian Shepherd, Dixie, was an amazing gal. She dropped into my lap in a rather simple fashion and we ended up spending almost 14 years together. Saying good bye to her in May was sad, but it could not have been clearer when she was ready to leave. Living from a space of gratitude has allowed me to really feel the layers of life and I continue to be in awe of all there is to be grateful for in regards to Dixie and what she taught me and brought to my world. We did obedience classes, then agility classes, and eventually competed in agility. We met with good friends, both 2-legged and 4-legged, at the dog park and hiked regularly with some of those same friends. We played ball. We took walks in the field with our cat. We knew our own rhythms and how those individual rhythms wove together into team rhythms. We were sisters at heart and she led the way and supported me in my journeys into the energy work I do today.

Lately, I am extremely grateful for Dixie helping me to know how important it is just to be when you are getting to know someone new. Lilly, a 2 year old Border Collie, dropped into my life in an extremely synchronous fashion about 2 months ago. I got rather sick in the first week after she arrived and we spent a couple of days lying in bed just resting. She’d been under some stress before joining me and she needed just to sleep as much or more than I needed to sleep with my fever. Since then we’ve taken long walks, played ball on land and in water, gone to meet 2-leggeds and 4-leggeds to hike and swim together, and learned how to learn. But the down time when we both just sit or lie next to each other is at the core of the two of us figuring out our rhythms and how they can fit together. One thing Lilly is clearly here to teach or remind me is that stepping (or falling as it often feels like) into that space of trust can allow things to happen at lightning speed. I know that any imaginings I have of our future together are nowhere near as awesome as they will be.

The companions of other species, whether we choose them or they choose us, completely enrich our lives. Just the other day I said to a friend that anyone who needs to smile or laugh, should just get a cat or a dog, or at least find one to hang out with. The joy and love that they bring to the world is immeasurable. I’m not sure I could find an end to a list of gratitudes for my companion animals, so I make sure to say my thanks with regularity to my pals whether they are still by my side or are now in my heart.

July Collaboration--Teeter Totter of Life

Kim's Thoughts

Riding the teeter-totter of life I’ve felt pretty blown over by what’s been happening all over the country and world. Hearing about the events led me to notice my emotions. Initially I found all I could feel was detachment, a numbing sort of way of moving through life. Then there was the sadness, the fear and then depression. I also noticed my relationship to fear shifted and I was aware my focus was self not community.

While we were working on this newsletter we were confronted with the shootings of black men by the police. These unfortunately are not new or isolated incidents. We were once again asked to look at the implications of white privilege in our society. We also had to deal with the equally horrific ramifications of misplaced retaliation. I now worry, will my friend’s little boys be the target of profiling when they are teens, and will anything be different in 10 years? I worry about my family members who are police officers and raising families.

I’m also trying to understand my own role in continuing to perpetuate the cycle of racism? How are my unconscious biases affecting my actions? What is it that I can do to help diffuse the situation?

There has been no shortage of rhetoric- some insightful and inspiring but much of it that feels to me to be divisive and shortsighted. To me there has been very little presented that has felt like it offered a constructive and pragmatic path forward. That is why this recent podcast about two policemen who transformed a highly racially polarized situation in their community seemed like a ray of light in a dark time. I would love to know what you think: link. - http://www.npr.org/programs/invisibilia/485603559/flip-the-script

I normally find that I can easily go up and down on the teeter-totter, but what about when energetically it feels like you don’t have the hope or energy to push back up? It started me thinking how the fear I had been experiencing also created this narrow perspective, focusing on self rather than others. I would rather focus on how to build community than how I need to protect myself. I wondered how we could bring about healing to the community and raise our personal and collective vibration. As a result, Elizabeth and I have decided to host a community healing event at IX Art Park, we hope you can join us. 

Elizabeth's Thoughts

Life is all about change and thus, full of ups and downs. These ups and downs appear on global and local scales as well as personal and internal scales.  It can feel really hard sometimes to even stay balanced amidst all this shifting especially when something big drops you down. Often it feels impossible to affect positive change and growth when there’s such a struggle to just find balance let alone maintain it. With the politics of an election year in the U.S., the Stanford rape case, the mass shooting in Orlando, the floods in West Virginia, there’s plenty happening on the bigger scale. On the more personal scale maybe your best friend is getting a divorce, you’ve lost a loved one, made a big move, or even just broken off with a long time friend. Wherever your focus is there are times when overwhelm or helplessness is so close.

Sometimes the size or emotional weight of an event might make it feel as though you are too small to affect change. Sometimes your empathy is so strong you can’t separate yourself from an event which can lead to feeling trapped in the event rather than feeling able to act outside of the event for a positive shift. Knowing yourself as a whole being, knowing where your physical, mental, emotional, and energetic edges are, and knowing what unseen support structures are always available can go a long way to finding balance and affecting growth. By maintaining this self awareness and leaning on those support structures, we can focus on the powers we have.

When we simplify the ups and downs to light and dark (not the only or always the best way to see these, but helpful here), Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that,” fit right in. If we equate love and light, we have a powerful force at our very core. As electro-magnetic beings, the electro-magnetic field (EMF) of our hearts is far greater than the EMF of our brains. We are made of lovelight. Add in the focus of intent and we can use lovelight like a laser beam and send it to the places of darkness in this world.

Creating change in our personal lives can be hard, but by creating small bits that build into bigger pieces, we can affect change on so many levels. On that note, Kim and I are hosting a community healing event at Ix Art Park and we hope you’ll be able to join us.

I also want to mention that I am hosting, via email, a free 15 day gratitude practice in August. Please keep an eye out here for details and sign up.

Summer Solstice and a Full Moon

June has been surging along and it’s the solstice already. Maybe you already have a ritual or ceremony for the balance points of earth and sun or maybe you don’t. Marking these 4 days of the year is something I’ve put some focus on in recent years and have found comfort and joy in doing so. Your celebration doesn’t need to be big or fancy or anything specific; it just needs to feel right for you.

This year’s solstice is strengthened by a full moon which is typically all about releasing. The energies around this full moon solstice feel like a quick turnaround of releasing and planting all at once. I’ve been spending some time these last few days letting some intentions form at the back of my mind and sifting through them to hone them down to what feels right. I often write down my intentions and gratitudes for clarity and then I speak them aloud as part of a ceremony, sending them out into the ether. With the full moon on this solstice, I’ll go outside after dark for my solstice prayers.

My (rough) definition of a blessing is using the power of words to draw together and bring our awareness to the forces greater than us for the good of all in a specific moment. I do so love a blessing. So here is my summer solstice blessing for us all.

We call on Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, and Storm
We call on Sun and Moon
We call on our fellow animals and plants
We call on the virtues of compassion, peace, joy, and love
Here in this moment with all the joys and all the sorrows of this world
We release all that does not serve us
We feel the Love that streams through us always
We remember that we are all One
We plant this intention* now and open to Creation

*Focus on or put into words whatever your intention may be for this powerful moment of the solstice.

May you know you are loved and may you know you are Love.
Namaste