I love rituals, don’t you? They create the setting for something special to happen - and that something special is YOU. They feel good precisely because they are designed to feel good. We can all use more feel good in our lives, right? Right. There are monthly rituals (full/new moon) there are yearly rituals (Equinoxes, Solstices, Birthdays, Religious holidays etc.), and these once or twice a year happenings are often easier to put energy into because they usually involve other people, and as Feminine Goddesses, we make time for other people, don’t we? So what about YOU? Your rituals that is just for YOU. Here are a few of my favorites - I won’t pretend I do these every day because it’s always a struggle for me to find time for just myself - for myself - by myself. BUT when I do, here are my favorites: FIRST ALWAYS - IN SPIRIT Gratitude, Meditation, Oracles and writing. My waking eyes don’t even open without a moment of gratitude. I consciously put a smile on my face (see my note about consciously smiling at the end of this article), and speak from my heart of the joy of each day. It’s my prayer to the universe to be grateful for the abundance that is bestowed on my life. No matter what else is going on in my world, there is always much to be grateful for and I love starting my day with this feel good habit. Then I move into my connection with the self through meditation. I breathe in Self Love Energy, and release limiting beliefs and behaviors as I breathe out. I usually play Scared Spirit Drums by David & Steve Gordon…..it’s only 5 minutes or so, and I just breathe in the energy of self love before I even step out of bed. I begin each day with this mantra: on the inhale: “I love myself, l love myself” (twice on each inhale) and on the exhale “I release limiting beliefs and behaviors”. 5-7 minutes each day - [This is NOT the "Look at me, aren't I amazing" kind of self-Love, but the deep appreciation and acceptance of all that you are kind of love].This one thing will create miracles in your life. Of course you know I have Oracle Cards - heaps of them. My current favorites are: Wisdom of the Hidden Realms by Colette Baron-Reid, Energy Oracle Cards by Sandra Anne Taylor, and I also I have a new deck, Wisdom of the Oracle Divination cards by Colette Baron Reid, that I've preordered and should arrive Sept 29th. I communicate with Spirit through my Oracle cards. Over the years I've learned how to ask questions and how to interpret the answers. They keep me grounded and connected to myself. After years of doing this, I am still completely blown away by how spot-on they are….Whenever I am feeling off or out of sorts, it's because I haven't been having these powerful conversations with Spirit - you know my favorite saying: Spirit is always talking to you...are you listening? When I don't take time to listen, I begin to feel ungrounded. The last part of my morning “before-I-talk-to-anyone” routine is I try to write down any new thoughts or inspiration that comes up during my mediation or oracle readings. This is when my intuition does it's sorting and clarifying - I have to be careful about this because I get a plethora of ideas ALL. THE. TIME, and not every one needs to be acted on…but every one takes me to a place of possibilities that live in my subconscious every moment of everyday. It’s like connecting the dots, each one leads to the next one, and all dots create a complete picture. BODY Music is always my go-to for mood adjustment as well as my workout cheerleader. Being old school, I'm an Oldies but Goodies kind of gal, but you pick what gets your juices flowing and your body moving. My favorite workout is either a walk in the woods or a paddle on the lake. Neither of which are very close to where I live, so they are luxuries….but my daily rituals include 2 must-dos….One is what I call “log time”. I use my yoga log to stretch my contracted chest muscles (from sitting at a computer for hours on end). This helps straighten my spine as well, and I do it about 4 times a day, sometimes for 15 minutes, but usually for only 3-5 minutes. My other can’t-live-without is my Total Gym (Yes, the same one you see on infomercials). I never thought I would own one because during my devoted gym rat days in my 40s, free weights ruled. But with age and back problems I’ve had to love myself enough to dial it down several notches. I can no longer push myself without injuries that take too long to recover from, so I do baby steps - and you know, a lot of those baby steps put together gets you places. I can feel and see the difference in how I function. Win Win ALTAR TENDING Altars should be everywhere. this is my favorite altar for my professional oracle readings. It sets the intention to open my channel to spirit on behalf of someone else. This altar lives in my studio: my silver cocoon called Gypsy - you might recognize her as an Airstream - but she is so much more than that - she is my haven, my womb, my very essence. She invites creativity and self love.
EVENING RITUALS I'm pretty spent by the time dinner is over and I am finally dialing down my energy - so it's usually just a quiet, soaking bath for me. My bath is filled with a cup or two Epsom Salts mixed with essential oils and a handful of baking soda, I light candles and just deeply relax into the water. It’s not unheard of for me to sip my favorite glass of whisky to complete the ritual - it's a treat to myself. NOW I LAY ME DOWN TO SLEEP My days begin with gratitude and end with gratitude - a simple prayer of thanks as I stretch into warmth of the bed. Always with a smile on my face. Here’s the thing about smiling I promised you at the beginning: It’s pretty hard to hang onto any bullshit chatter of our egoic minds; the fears, the coulda, woulda, shouldas, when you are smiling. It is a conscious act to remind myself that it is all good - and sometimes to remember that "this too shall pass". I would love to hear from you - what are your favorite rituals? What yummy things do you do that are filled with self-love? How do you celebrate YOU?
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Thoughts and musings from a wonderful friend, Valerie Cline, this morning:
"Consider the possibility that self-love is the listening for and hearing of the Truth of Self. Our ability to know and accept ourselves intimately, as we are, is the true foundation of self-love. That means the major barrier between wisdom, truth and us would be the hidden, subconscious stories we tell ourselves, and believe about who we are. Abandoning those stories removes any self-love blockages and allows for intuition and wisdom to be available and accessible. So women without any negative self-stories can hear and accept what they intuit. When we don't fully love ourselves we are harboring and nurturing stories that we have made up about ourselves....our identities are wrapped up in that nonsense. In our desperate moments, when mired in the negative world that we have built, we might seek inspiration from our internal Divine and look to intuition for guidance. Try as our spirits might though, intuition has to traverse the negative mental and emotional minefield that we have so carefully cultivated. How could there NOT be a disconnect between us and our intuition? Between us and our wisdom? We are listening through filters that prevent absolutely the full spiritual connection with intuition." Valerie Cline THIS MY FRIENDS is why I cannot fathom working solo without the awesomeness of friends who totally get me, totally accept me, and totally share their amazing energy with me. We will continue our thoughts and musings about how important self-love is to our evolution. As a matter of fact, I have discovered that it is the only thing to be done. All answers and direction come from self-love. All blocks and feeling mired in muck comes from our false stories we have created about ourselves. Let's get busy, my lovelies, and let go of our limiting beliefs and behaviors so that we may fall deeply, madly and completely in love with ourselves. Tomorrow I will be sharing some of my daily rituals that help me clear the way for greater connection to my Inner Wisdom, my Higher Power and the Spirit driven life I am here to live. I love the moments just before waking up. The moments when you have an awareness of wakefulness, but you are still in the depths of your subconscious. My mind is rife with possibilities and higher thinking.
Guard these times - set your alarm 10 minutes earlier to make room for these times if need be. No talking, No Facebook, No email, no texting.....just you and Spirit. Guard these times. This is when your higher power, your divine wisdom will come through. Then as you go about your day taking care of all the worldly tasks that must be taken care of, these dreams and inspirations will still be mulling things over in the background. What a lovely surprise when they pop through at the most opportune time - as if by magic. But it's not magic - it's making room for Spirit to whisper to you - to guide you - to fill you with inspiration when you need it most. Those delicious few moments before I kick-start my day are the most important ones - cherish them, encourage them, make room for them....and then just go with the flow. You are In Spirit, baby. You are always the master of you. Think of your life as a novel - an amazing kick-ass novel that you can't wait to read. You are the heroine of your story, and by God, you are a survivor of all that life has thrown at you. Continue your story right here, right now.....what wonderfulness will you heap on your heroine? What behaviors will she have that will allow her to supersede the events of her life so far? How will she take action to nurture what matters?
DO THAT - Do that right now. Create your reality as you wish it to be. The first step is always self love. When you love yourself you forgive yourself. . . from everything you've done, thought or misinterpreted in the past because the past is not your future. It's not even your present. Leave it behind and create something new that suits you RIGHT NOW. Keep Creating. Still learning how to fully TRUST in the Universe? Sign up for my Newsletter and receive (almost) weekly tips and strategies designed to lead you to your core essence - the core where TRUST is natural and a given.
What is your big "if"? Figuring out what you want to do is a process of living by your highest Core Values. When you identify them, you will begin to bring more of those values into your daily life, so that what you do is fully aligned with what matters most to you. What you're seeking should speak so loudly that it drowns out all the other egoic crap. THAT is where you want to place your focus. Go there. Read more about your Core Values and how to discover them in my book A Life Without Limits - Your Guide to a life of Freedom....available today on Amazon.com A LIFE WITHOUT LIMITS helps you reclaim your life and reconnect to your Inner Source – find out what matters most so you can start living a life that matters. With the steps in this book you can break free and start bringing joy and adventure into your everyday world. You can live the life you were meant to live A Life Without Limits. You know all those times you've talked mean to yourself? That's not the real you talking...that's your ego talking. The real you - the inspired you - the In Spirit You has never uttered a mean, critical, hateful word to you EVER. When you feel fear - That's ego. When you feel doubt - That's ego. When you feel confused - That's ego.
You can't get rid of ego - we're not made that way, but you don't have to give over control of your TRUTH and SELF-LOVE to ego. We ARE made that way. We have a choice. Self Love. It begins there. Always. Spirit is always communicating with you - Are you listening? How you think about your life is exactly the way your life will be. "But, Zan", you say, "I can't stop shitty things from happening to me, how have I created that?" You haven't. What you've created is how you feel about the shitty things, and how you feel will determine whether you respond thoughtfully or simply go into react mode. When we are the observers of our lives we can see choices of how we respond. However, when we react, we participate in the insanity. It's all choice and it begins with self-love.
You get to chose - Be in control of your life or be a victim. You don't have to like the shitty things happening around you, but you don't have to let them create your reality either. Choose wisely - because the choice is always yours. It's the First Friday of RADICAL SELF CARE SEPTEMBER.
How did your week go? Have you gotten a good start on clearing space? Will you spend some time this weekend digging deeper into discovering what you can comfortably release? Good - just remember to also clear some space for what's coming up the rest of the month (well, the rest of your life ... DUH). Next week we will begin to explore ways to identify and eliminate negative, harmful thoughts (which when repeated often enough, turn into behaviors by the way), that are working against your highest good. So let the purging continue, because the best is yet to come. Are you ready for a free, spirit-driven life? Give me a 'Hell yes!", and don't forget to join the Newsletter, there will be more, so much more in your email.
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