It is a right for us to be who we are. It is not a privilege.

(shortest blog post ever.)

She’s on twitter: @beccaSeitzLAc.  She’s got a blog: Are You Ready to Thrive?

She’s awesome.

Anyway, as an intuitive, I work with energy all of the time. I am often working in somebody’s energetic body, and I tend to leave a little bit of my energy behind, so by the end of the week, I’m exhausted.

I do not know an intuitive that doesn’t struggle with energetic depletion.  Scratch that, I don’t know a person who doesn’t struggle with energetic depletion.  We wipe ourselves out.

I was talking with Becca about this, as she poked needles into my body.  She said, while you’re here, why don’t you take a moment and ask all your energy to come back to you.

So I did. Becca worked her magic and all my energy came winging back like little flakes of gold. And I felt loads better.

This week, each morning, I whisper this little spell: All my energy come back to me.

I whisper it 10-20 times.  I watch for the energy to make its way back.

The first two mornings I tried this, I felt a wee bit better.  Yesterday morning, my good golly,  it was like that part of Peter Pan, the I believe in Fairies! I Do! I Do! part where everybody whispers and then shouts and then dances.

I felt quite whole and good and right, all my energy back in place.

Try It

Try it.  See how it feels.

Here’s the thing about magic: magic is just remembering how powerful you are.

Yesterday, I introduced an idea that may be hard to wrap our heads around. It’s the idea that we are often responding to beliefs in our subconscious that cause us to do things that make us physically unhealthy.

Whether these beliefs are ancestral knowledge or responses to past life experiences or responses to childhood trauma, they can come into the here and now and gum up the works.

Good News

You can make these beliefs conscious, and then you can stop doing them.

How?

It’s Peace in 3 Acts: Presence, Contemplation, Attunement

There are three things that you do, and you don’t do them together.  You do do them every day. They support one another.

The first one is called Presence.

Becoming present is living in the here and now. Kids do it.  Animals do it. You can do it too.  It means bringing your total attention to whatever you are doing.  If you are washing dishes, you are washing dishes.  If you are driving the care, you are driving the car.  Everything you do is imbued with your presence.

What happens, energetically, when you are present?

I must use an analogy.  From the movies. Bear with me.

Imagine that your body and mind are in one car, and your spirit is following in another car.  When you are not present, it’s like you are in a busy city.  Your brain is multi-tasking, flipping from topic to topic to topic and your spirit is trying to keep up, trying to keep track of you, trying to figure out where to apply its support.   Your spirit may lose sight of you from time to time.  This disconnect causes anxiety.

Okay, now imagine you are present, focusing on one specific thing.  It’s like you are on a country road.  Your spirit can follow you more easily. It knows what you are about. It can apply spiritual support as needed.

(What is spiritual support? It’s energy.  It’s fluidity. It’s ease.  It’s context.  When all your pistons are firing and things feel easy, you’re spiritually supported.)

The second one is called Contemplation.

Also known as navel gazing. Also known as noodling.  This is when you carve out time in your busy life to do nothing but let your mind wander.  You can think about whatever you want, but you do it in a quiet way.  This is the time when your spirit and mind connect the dots.

You know those old stories and beliefs that you carry around. The ones that aren’t always so helpful? Contemplation is a time to turn over the dirt, aerate your soul soil, let those beliefs out,  and take a good look at them.  And if they aren’t useful, it’s time to love them and release them.

Yesterday, we talked about how I have moments where it feels like I’m channeling my grandmother and her miserly dime-squeezing ways.  In contemplation, I’ve brought her up, watched her frantically figure out her gas milage, and then whisked her back to her starving youth and offered her an oatmeal cookie.  I’ve imagined her face relaxing.

That’s loving the story and letting it go.  That can only be done in contemplation.

When I am present, and I find myself reacting like my grandmother would, I don’t fight it. I don’t get angry. I just have a moment where I laugh and appreciate that it’s not 1930′s Northern Minnesota, and ketchup is not a luxury.

And the more that I contemplate, the less I have to deal with my stories in real life.

I try to spend time contemplating every day. I contemplate in the bathtub and in bed and out on my deck. It looks like I’m doing nothing, and yet I am doing so much.

The third one is called Attunement.

Attunement is integration. It’s integration of your mind, body and spirit.

You see, the mind often acts like the big brother.  It believes that it knows best and the body and spirit just have to follow along behind it.  That’s because the mind has consciousness, and consciousness is very bossy.

Attunement is the act of letting your mind take a back seat to your body and spirit.  You are letting your brain rest. You are telling it to relax and let somebody else take charge for once.

To integrate your body mind and spirt, to attune, you do things that require your body and spirit to be engaged but don’t require a lot of thought.  They require your mind to be somewhat engaged, but not in charge.

What takes you into a state of attunement?

The list is long, my friends:

1. Tai Chi

2. Yoga

3. Knitting

4. Biking. Really, any exercise that is not completely mindless.

5.  Water-related activities (taking a bath/shower, swimming, washing dishes, sailing, etc.)

6.  Dancing

7.  Martial Arts

8. Knitting and other things you do with your hands.

9. Ice Skating, Cross-country skiing,  going to the batting cage,  the list could go on forever.

When we integrate our mind, body, and spirit, when we put big brother mind in the back seat, we can experience the wisdom in our body and spirit.

Moving our body can feel really good. It can release endorphins. It can remove toxins in our lymph nodes. It also helps us to connect to the physical plan,  which makes us feel a lot less like a spirit in a meatbag.

Energetic wisdom flows more easily when integrated with body and mind.

Remember those beliefs we talked about? The unnecessary ones? When your body, mind and spirit are one, they fade to the background.

The more you attune, the better it gets, especially when combined with presence and contemplation.

Tell me: What is your favorite way to attune?

Work is a little like Lord of the Flies.

You take perfectly nice people, put them in a stressful environment and the aggressive ones tend to win.

For the past 130 years, this mentality has been the norm.

It’s called progress, people.  Or at least that’s what they tell us.

Our Energetic Systems Know the Score

In a hostile environment, in a place that doesn’t feel like we can grow, we leave.

We stop remaining present.

Energetically, this is very interesting.

Your system  stops taking in so much junk. And you, energetically, go to a different place.

Your energetic system doesn’t leave, but your energetic consciousness does.

You are not there.

Signs that you aren’t there:

You can’t remember what you said in any conversation. The details slip around in your head.

You look at the clock and it’s 2o minutes later than the last time and you haven’t really moved.

Everything takes forever to do.

Electronic equipment gets way harder to use. The copy machine starts acting like a real asshole.

Why Does This Happen?

Not being present is our body and minds’ energetic answer to soul-sucking boredom and pain.  It’s the wrong answer, but a natural one.  We used to use this to enable us to plow a field for 12 hours without losing our minds.

Let’s find a way to be present at work that doesn’t hurt.

Being present is good. Being solidly aware makes your job easier. And instead of avoiding all that pain, you can consciously let it go by you.

Here are two ideas for bringing presence to your workplace.

Change your Environment to Match your True Nature

If you have a cubicle or office that you can decorate, great. Get natural lighting, and shut off the flourescents if you can. Bring in artwork that sings to you. Bring in pictures of the people and animals in your life.

This changes your mood considerably.

What if there is a company policy against such things?

Then you need to be creative.  Put a picture in your pen drawer. Put a picture on your computer screen.  Put pictures or names on your person.  Search Etsy for personalized jewelry.  Or get a locket.

Making your environment your own makes it easier to be present, which makes it easier to work. You feel safer. You are reminded of the unique fabulousness of you. You are reminded of who you care about so much to work this sucky job.

Practice Filling The Bowl

Here’s the easiest way to bring presence to your life.  It also reduces anxiety.  It’s a tiny meditation that you can do anywhere.  It’s called Filling the Bowl.

Find your hipbones.

Find your tailbone.

Imagine the space between these.

This is your sacred bowl. This is the sacrum. This is the home of your first chakra.

Close your eyes, and imagine your bowl.

Examine and imagine your bowl in its entirety. What is it made out of? You might even be able to feel it. Imagine the inside. Imagine the outside.

You might find words written on it.  Or pictures on it. It’s your bowl. It can look like anything you want.

Then Fill It.

Try putting apples in your bowl.  Then empty it and try feathers. Try filling it with flowers.  Try filling with warm chocolate syrup.

You can fill your bowl with whatever you want.

This technique relaxes you and brings you back into your body, which makes it easier to work.

Try it.

And Tell Me- How do you stay present at work? And also…what’s in your bowl?

Tomorrow- The Bubble- keeping the energetic vampires at bay..

Getting By is Better than Not Getting By

but having an intense and unbridled fierce experience can feel so much better. Being engaged with your passion is why we’re here and it sparks so much within us.

How Do I Get There?

Let’s talk about what you don’t do.  You don’t go look in the mirror and say, ‘You’re going to be fierce today!” and put on a fierce mask and fake ferocity.  This is not a place where faking it until you make it works.

That would be like sticking a plastic plant in the ground and waiting for it to fruit.

So How?

You get there by fostering an environment for your passion to grow.

This is where we cue the montage of the Karate Kid or A Knight’s Tale (Heath Ledger, A Knight’s Tale? Awesome movie. Can I just say that? Just So Awesome).

Cue the montage where the hero or heroine starts out all bumbling and thumbs and then turns into a sinewy beast of power and intention.

Wax On Wax Off

Yeah. Really.  Sometimes fierceness is lit within us from what feels like nowhere, but mostly, it’s got to grow.  You need to nurture it.

Find Something to Love

Fierceness has its roots in loving.  When you find something that you cherish, it can ignite the intense and unbridled within you.

Make Sure this Something is Worthy

Or you’ll experience heartbreak and alienation.

Fierce Requires Nurturing and Practice

If you feel really blah, you need to re-stoke your fire. This means sleep, good food, good people,  less toxic bullshit.

Then you’ll feel the intensity in you start to grow. Something will ignite.  This passion may surprise you. You may find yourself saying, “Why am I so hot for this?”

(That’s the beauty of the universe. You may find yourself feeling fierce for Ikebana or Pole Vaulting or Scrabble).

It doesn’t matter what this is, as long as it’s not heroin or telemarketing.

Next week, we’re going to talk about the Surviving the Soul Suck of Work.

Until then- Bring It. BRING IT! Bring it. BRING IT!

Have you heard that sucking sound? That’s the great soul-suck of the modern day workplace.

When you are in a toxic work environment, your soul can feel sucked dry.

And as you think about bringing your fierce, you may ask yourself, “Do they deserve my fierce?”

Well, do they?

Maybe they don’t. Maybe they don’t deserve you. Maybe they aren’t worth your intense and unbridled energy.

Hmm…

If they don’t deserve your intense and unbridled energy, your passion, your ferocity,  then what are you doing there?

Are you settling? Are they?  Is this a work marriage of convenience?

Screw You Bridget and your Bourgeois Attitude, I have to work for a living.

I know. I know.  It may feel, in this economy, that it’s too much to ask for fulfilling work.  There’s a large number of people out there who would just like a job, any job, please, there’s bills to pay.

And yet, imagine this world if we were passionate about the work we did. If we brought intense and unbridled aspects of ourselves to our work, as teachers, as accountants (intense and unbridled accounting, whoa!),  as parents,  as baristas, whatever.

A Story

A month ago, I was standing at the counter of a local coffee shop, Bakery Bar (nummy).  The barista was passionate, and dare I say, kind of attractive, in a garage band Portand way.

You could tell that he loved coffee. That he deeply loved it. Not in a snooty highbrow way (cough, cough, Stumptown, cough), but in a deeply loving way.

He was making me a honey latte.

He turned to me and said, “wha-Wha-wha-Wha-wha-Wha”.  I was so into the sounds and smells and colors and emotions of the cafe and this guy making me coffee that I couldn’t make sense of these words.

Seriously.

I said, “What?”

He said “Cinnamon goes really well in this honey latte. Would you like some cinnamon.”

“Oh Yes!” I flushed.

Seriously.  The barista asked me if I wanted cinnamon in my coffee and I was blissed out by it.

He smiled. He put a little cinnamon in my cup, then poured in the steamed milk, and in the pouring process, he made the milk look like a flourishing leaf.

I’m still remembering that latte a month later.   The Coffee God that brought intense, unbridled fierce loving to a latte.

Are You Bringing It?

Are you passionate about what you do and who you are?  If not, why not?

Do they deserve your ferocity?  Is it in you?

Tomorrow- Where to Find your Fierce if it’s not readily apparent.

But now…can you please tell me where you bring your passion?

I want to tell you about the Why of the Inner You.

Why Talk to Your Inner You?

It’s deeply important to get in touch with the wisdom within you. You can tap into that timeless, incredibly wise aspect of yourself and get guidance to move your life forward in tangible ways that feel right to you.

You can be your own best guide.

The Inner Me is always available for a quick session, and he or she doesn’t mind being bothered over small things.

Decisions like what to make for dinner are equally as important to the inner me as what to do for a career or who to have a relationship with.

You already have Voices in your Head

Many struggle with the inner critic (the one  in the mirror saying You’re going to wear that?).

Your mom might be in there (Make a Good First Impression!)

I’m suggesting that you listen to the divine, loving aspect of yourself that is nestled inside you and ready to listen, advise, and hug you through life.

It Just Takes a Minute

I like to talk to my inner me in the hot tub at the gym.  Five minutes of closed-eye conversation makes a world of difference.  This morning, I asked for help integrating my day.

Three Interesting Outcomes

When you ask and listen to your inner me, three things start to happen.

It’s so weirdly cool. My experience has been this:

First- I make more healthy decisions and they don’t feel like shoulds, they feel like wants.  I eat right. I drink more water. I am on time.

Two- I am much more conscious about each moment of my day.  My reality is more sharply focused. So when I’m driving, I’m driving.  When I’m eating, I’m eating.  When my kids talk, they get a lot more questions back and a lot less “Uh-huh. That’s nice.” Consciousness Rocks.

Three- I’m a lot nicer to be around, which is great for others, but it’s also great for me. Because I have to be with me all the time!

What Do You Think?

What do you think about the Inner Me? Tell me about your experience so far?

Much love to you!

Bridget

__________________________________________________________________________________

Hey, have you signed up for your daily Soul Note?  It’s a free daily note from your Inner You!

And I pep-talked myself all the way out of bed, into my swimsuit and over to the pool.

Come on, Come on, Come on. It’s all right. Come on. We’re going to get started. Come on.

It was the prayer of the half-dead battery, when you haven’t had enough sleep and there’s a little too much to do.

And then came the lecture.

This swimming thing is not going to be like running or biking or yoga, where you do it for a week and then you get bored. You always do that and you’re not going to do that this time. Geez, can’t you stick with anything?

I felt like I was pulling myself by the ear into the locker room. I was being a little ugly with me.

But I got there. I got to the pool. And I walked out in my flip flops and the pool was full of dudes.

I usually go very early. Today was a little later and it was one big man-fest of dudes in goggles slicing the water.

And the last thing I wanted was a man-fest.   I wanted to putter through my lane in a peaceful and strong way.

So I got in the hot tub. And I thought about the inner me. And Inner Me said, Hey, I bet there’s some aspect of this man-fest that is useful to us.

And I said, Shut up, Inner Me.

And Inner Me said, That’s just the tired talking. Let’s hang tight.

So I reached out to the divine source, and I thought about contracting and expanding. I thought about how the weight of life can hold you down and give you structure. I thought about the suffering of the world.

And then I realized that I was the tuna in a soul sandwich. I had the inner me soothing on the inside, my sweet divine spark. I had God on the outside going,  It’s okay just to sit here and appreciate the warm water.

Nobody was judging me. Nobody. And that included me.

Nobody was assessing the burdens of life at that moment. I was just sitting there in a soul sandwich and that felt good.  And Peaceful.

So, I prayed for the suffering people and I got out of the hot tub and Inner Me said Just 10 minutes of lap time. And I said, I’ll come back this afternoon.

We are never alone. We are really never alone. And we can put our burdens away for a minute or two.  I hope you have a moment in your soul sandwich today.

Read on to the next installment of the Inner Me Series: The purpose of the Inner Me.

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The energetic body is a system that works along with the physical body to help each of us move through and experience the world.

The energetic body is primarily made up of chakras and energy moving between chakras.  There are hundreds of Chakras throughout our energetic body (some say thousands, some say an infinite number!)

The energetic body is not physical. So really, it’s not measurable, but the experience of feeling the energetic body tells us that it extends beyond our body, and intereacts beyond the physical space we find ourselves in.

We use our energetic system all the time to gain information about the world.  It’s also known as our intuition. Some people also call it The Spirit Within.

People who are intuitive use their energetic systems consciously.

What is a chakra?

The word “Chakra” is Sanskrit for “Wheel”.  Traditionally, a chakra looks like two wheels back to back, spinning in opposite directions.  It is pronounced SHOCK-Rah.

A chakra sends and receives energetic information from the physical universe of which we are a part, and also from the divine.

A chakra can store beliefs. It can store information from past lives. It can store all sorts of information.

The Energetic Body Can Get Damaged

Then, it doesn’t support us so well.  Chakras can be damaged by the physical world (e.g., a car crash) or by emotional trauma (e.g., child abuse).

A chakra can carry beliefs that aren’t useful and that hurt us and make life more difficult.

Chakra Health
There are many ways to help your energetic body thrive (which in turn helps your physical body and mind thrive).

We explore these ideas here.

If you need help now…

Check out my counseling services.