self-care
Keeping Your Cool In These Stressful Times
This is a stressful time, but my feeling is the Covid-19 pandemic has happened in our world for a reason. It is has been making us take a real long look at what is most important in life. It has been teaching us to not take our daily lives and our loved ones for granted.
The situation has been causing tremendous stress for many of us and has been challenging many relationships. And some of us are dealing better with it than others. If you have been struggling too, then there are some simple self-care strategies that could be helpful if you are feeling overwhelmed by a situation at home.
Start by holding some space for yourself, by carving out some time to just be by yourself, even it is just an hour. Use this time to do whatever makes you happy. If it means doing absolutely nothing, that is fine too! Having some ‘alone time’ helps to declutter your mind, improve your mood and restore your sense of self. If you cannot find peace at home, then go for a walk, or just go get cup of coffee somewhere nearby.
Meditation or quiet contemplation is a wonderful tool to gain a sense of calm and clarity. Take a moment to reflect on whatever may be bothering you, and try to gain a new perspective on the situation. There are always more than one side to a situation, and many tensions and conflicts can be resolved with cool heads and calm discussions.
Open-Minded Curiosity Is The Key To A Happy, Healthy Life
A client asked the other day how I keep my immunity up during these challenging times, and if there is anything special one can do to stay mentally healthy. My answer was simple. You simply need to keep an open mind, and have passion for life.
Working with spirit has taught me over the years to live my life wholeheartedly, with daily gratitude, and with an open mind and a healthy curiosity. I am always eager to learn and experience new things. We are not meant to be constantly stuck in a rut, nor spend our lives in mediocre stagnation.
Just the other day, a friend told me that she thought I am the most imaginative and adventurous person she has ever met. I am always so optimistic and upbeat, she said, and she gets energy from me just by spending time with me.
She has also witnessed how positive things happen in my life through my spiritual practices. For example, I use certain crystals, visualizations and affirmations to bring about real change in my life – not only for myself, but also for others.
The more we are open-minded to explore new horizons, and learn new things, the more we allow positive, creative new energies to enter our reality, empowering us to achieve things that we otherwise wouldn’t – especially when we just sit around doing nothing.
Guidelines For The Anxious Clairsentient
Anxiety is high for many people in the world right now. This is especially true if you are a clairsentient. Clairsentients have the ability to detect and feel energies from those around them, as well as their environment.
If you are a clairsentient, you might be feeling lately as if the world is falling apart. The good news is, there is hope – both for the future of our world, as well as the anxieties you have been experiencing.
Clairsentients experience incoming energies on all fronts. Only you have the power to determine which energies will affect you, and how much. Learning to control how much of your own energies you project into the world is also crucial.
Many clairsentients, who have practiced for years, report that they are able to be as visible or invisible as they choose to be. Imagine whatever works best as a powerful visual metaphor for you to create psychic protection around you: a force field, suit of armor, or a shield of light, are all good shielding visualizations.
When was the last time you took a vacation? If you’re like most people, it’s probably been a while. The concept of a ‘staycation’ is perfect for the stressed-out clairsentient. Really focusing on your own needs is okay and you don’t need to feel guilty. You can also use this time to discover more about your own aura and chakras, and make them stronger and healthier. If you’re the outdoorsy type, a camping trip or day hike might be just what you need to breathe, reconnect with the earth, and shrug off the negative energies that have built up.
Authentic Feelings Are Not Always ‘Sunshine And Rainbows’
What a comfortable, easy life this would be if everyone could just feel like ‘sunshine and rainbows’ all the time. The truth is that the many of the most worthwhile things in life do not come from ‘easy’ and ‘comfortable.’ And when we suppress our true feelings, it is ultimately detrimental to our health body, mind, and spirit.
Revealing our true feelings does not come easily for many of us. I am not trying to make up an excuse, but I just was not brought up that way. My parents’ generation were masters of the art of concealing their true feelings, good or bad. When I am doing a mediumship reading, and a departed parent or grandparent shows up, they often say things like, “I wish I told you more often how much I love you.”
I could count on one hand the moments in my childhood that I can remember my parents showing affection for each other in front of us children. Those of us who had been brought up in such a stoic family environment, tend to struggle when are encouraged to express our deepest emotions. As an adult, I do however see the bigger picture today. And I do feel it is necessary to express one’s feelings in a considerate and healthy way.
In my family my parents also never argued in front of us kids. My dad just gave my mom the silent treatment. We grew up thinking he was just be the ‘strong silent type.’ Consequently, I felt that this was what communication in a marriage should be like.
Of course, reality hit me badly with my first marriage, when my ex-husband and I had our first serious argument! I thought it meant the marriage was now over, because I had no coping skills or frame of reference for this kind of authentic self-expression in a relationship. I also had no clue how to have a good, healthy argument.
The Need For Empath Self-Care
In times of great stress an empath may neglect their own needs in favor of others, and start to lose the unique perspective they bring to the world.
Since most empaths, by their very nature, want to help others, finding a balance between using their gifts, while practicing self-care, can be tricky. Simply put, it’s easy in these times for empathic people to become overwhelmed.
Empaths feel the energies of the world much stronger than others, and can pick up on the subtle changes in the emotions and intentions of those around them. The empath serves as both a mirror and a prism to the world and its energies. Being an empath feels as if your ‘personal filter’ has been turned off, and naturally, there are many things in our noisy, hectic world that can trigger empaths.
Whether it be the chaos of others arguing or fighting; the feeling of getting lost in a crowd; the sense that others are being phony or inauthentic; or just too much on one’s emotional plate all at once; the empath may begin to withdraw, or even shut off from the rest of the world, when it all becomes too much.
Think of an empath’s ability to pick up on energies like a motion-alarm system which is constantly being tripped by any form of movement or activity. In this case the motions are the energies, emotions, and forces which shape our world. The empath has to deal with the stresses of this constant barrage.
Not only is the empath surrounded in modern society by constant incoming sensory stimuli: flickering images, flashing lights, loud music, conversations, and ambient noise, but also moving in though an ocean of all kinds of good and bad energy. Finding time and space to shut off all the noise, and block out all the negative energies, needs to be part of an empath’s daily self-care routine.
Stay In The Light
During these challenging times, it is essential to stay in the light. It protects your emotional, spiritual, mental and physical health. How do you ‘stay in the light?’ You achieve it by maintaining a raised energy vibration in a time of extreme darkness. It means you don’t get sucked into other people’s drama, darkness, fear and toxicity. You don’t allow yourself to get weighed down by the negativity in the world around you.
Staying in the light doesn’t mean you don’t have an opinion or strong personal views, or that you are not aware, supportive and caring, or that you don’t get involved in the world around you when it truly matters. It simply means you always take care of yourself, while you are doing whatever it is that you need to do every day. Staying in the light is about making self-care a priority.
Staying in the light is about psychic shielding and setting boundaries where and when necessary. For example, avoiding toxic people and environments is one of the best things you can do to stay in the light. You have no obligation to tolerate and accommodate toxic people and energy thieves!
If you work with toxic people, don’t listen to the office gossip and don’t get sucked into their negative world. Also, don’t show them that they may be upsetting, or hurting you. Take a deep breath, call on your inner strength, and simply smile. Own your personal power – you are much stronger than you may realize.
Stay away from social media, if you are easily overwhelmed by negativity. For the first time in human history, we now have the technology to instantly access the opinions, fears, false beliefs and negative experiences of every human being who has access to a keyboard or smart phone. We are confronted daily with the pain, hysterics and drama of thousands of people, all at once!
Honor Your Most Magnificent Self
Taking time to experience the wonder of the final days of summer truly is medicine for the soul. My favorite summer activities include dipping my toes in a nearby lake or ocean, feeling the healing energy of the natural quartz sand against my skin, and finding renewal in the essence of the season.
Too often we move through our days and weeks completely engulfed in work, and the chatter of the bustling world. Our lives tend to be caught up in the motion of the world, with little time for self-care and centering.
Many of us awake in the mornings to the national news that often leaves us drained even before our day begins. We shower, have breakfast, down a cup of coffee, and anxiously show up for our families and our careers.
Many hours later, we return to our homes, where we are met with even more news via network and cable outlets, competing with their own spin on identical breaking stories. We reach for our smart phones or laptops and headlines scroll across our screens. When is enough truly enough?
In light of the endless social and environmental concerns permeating our planet, our species is globally experiencing stress like never before. But surely the Divine Presence within our amazing Universe would not leave us stranded on Planet Earth without the tools to transcend stress and what seems like utter chaos.