energy medicine
The Healing Power Of Movement
In my earliest years of life, I was severely shy, fearful of anyone I didn’t know, and acutely anxious of being separated from my mother. Any time we were out, or in the presence of others, I clung to her tightly and hid in silence behind her.
My mom soon received many recommendations to enroll me in dance lessons, to help me come out of my shell. She did, and I emerged. That was my first experience of the healing power of movement.
It continued into my ‘terribly turbulent’ teens, during which ballet became my only safe haven and sanctuary.
In the ballet studio I could pour out every feeling. From the barre to the stage, every move was an opportunity to express what I needed to release, and to find the solace I needed.
A decade later, I found myself bedridden with chronic fatigue. Yet, visions of ballet spontaneously continued to dance across the screen of my mind’s eye – almost every moment of every day. I could feel the movement in my body, even though my body was unable to move.
I know now it was a premonition of a life-changing return to dance, that ultimately remedied my illness and opened the way to reveal my gift of intuitive healing dance.
The power of movement is a beautiful thing. It can literally shift, shape, and reform energy. Energy itself comes in many forms and functions. Emotion, if you think about it, is energy in motion: e-motion. Everything, including you and I, are an emanation of energy from the Absolute Truth and Personality of Godhead.
Spiritual Self-Care: How To Overcome Energetic Depletion
Do you constantly feel tired, depressed, or simply lacking in energy?
If you often feel drained or exhausted, even after a good night’s sleep, and a medical professional has already ruled out any underlying physical causes, you may be experiencing energetic depletion.
Physical tiredness and energetic depletion are very different, requiring different approaches to correct them.
For empaths, sensitives, and intuitives in particular, constantly absorbing the energies around you and the noise of the modern world can be draining in subtle ways you may not even be aware of.
Essentially, it means you are expending and also “leaking” energy more than you are replenishing.
It can be caused by many things, such as overstimulation, emotional burdens, failing to set boundaries, consuming too much media, toxic people and places, or simply not being present in your daily life.
On a deeper level, energetic depletion can also reflect what is happening within your spiritual life and energy field. When you are disconnected from your intuition, carrying unresolved emotional or karmic burdens, or spending too much time in draining environments, your spirit can begin to feel heavy and dimmed.
Maybe It’s Time To Reboot Your Energy Channels!
Our bodies contain endless potential for energy: physical, mental, electrical, psychic. Much like the sun itself, we are constantly providing energy. Yet, many of us feel drained and exhausted? If we learn to reboot our natural energy channels, this doesn’t have to be so.
Like the power of our brains, we may only be using a small fraction of our personal energies. The best way to get started is a program of meditation or prayer to discover where our strongest energies lie. These are to be found in our psychic centers, or chakras.
As you begin your journey, you’ll notice stronger feelings in one or more of your seven spiritual centers: crown, eyes, throat, heart, chest, spleen, and root. It may be a slightly prickly sensation, like static electricity, or a growing warmth, or a feeling, or a pleasant coolness.
It may be helpful to repeat a personal mantra, listen to soothing sounds, or close your eyes as you do this. Imagine concentrating your energy on that particular place within your body.
You may not be able to channel fully the first few times, so keep trying. Also experiment with different times of day, lighting schemes, and mantras. After a while you’ll feel the energy building up.
As with any form of energy, it will need to be released properly once it has concentrated. Since our main receptors are our hands and feet, these are perfect for those just starting out. Feel the built-up energy flowing outward. This may also give you a physical sensation. Continue reading
The Real Secret To Smudging Is Your Intention
The secret to smudging isn’t just in the smoke alone. It is powered by your intention. The herbs may help to cleanse the air, but it is your focused energy and mindful purpose that makes the real difference.
This is what I learned from my mentor when I undertook my Ukuthwasa as a shaman initiate many years ago in Southern Africa. An initial part of my rigorous training as a Sangoma, or traditional healer, was a self-cleansing ritual using Mphepo, made up of herbs indigenous to Southern Africa.
“Smudging,” simply put, is the burning of certain herbs to create a cleansing smoke bath. The smoke is used to cleanse areas used for rituals and ceremonies, as well as any tools or objects used for such cleansing, as well as to cleanse people.
The practice of burning incense or herbs is held sacred by many indigenous cultures. It is aimed at protecting, cleansing and purifying the spiritual and physical bodies, with the smoke being the key to rid one of negative energy.
The intention behind any smudging ceremony is a very significant part of its success. With the focus and intent of the “smudger” fully aligned, spiritual, emotional, physical and mental balance can be achieved.
It may be a good time to smudge yourself, or your environment, when you feel depressed or angry, or feel that any exterior negative energy is affecting you, your surroundings or your possessions. Or you may just wish to ensure or enhance positive energy in spaces used for meditation or healing. Continue reading
Crystals Can Revive Your Spiritual Brilliance!
Life these days can be very demanding and it is often a challenge to successfully balance all aspects of mind, body and soul.
Busy work days, financial responsibilities, and the demands of our social and family life, can make it so easy to allow our spiritual practice to slip.
Fortunately, the metaphysical power of crystals can help us keep our spiritual motivation going. Here’s how.
Ask For Support
Should you feel the need for support from a particular crystal, then all you need to do is simply ask for it.
For example, do you think you need to increase your self-discipline, or that your resolve should be strengthened?
If so, gently hold some malachite in one hand and request that it helps and supports you to this end. In fact, you could carry it with you at all times whenever you sense the need of its help.
Meditate With A Crystal
Before getting up in the morning, lie quietly for ten minutes with your amethyst positioned on the third eye – that being the middle of your forehead. While breathing deeply, visualize the energy this purple stone contains permeating every cell in your body and thus spiritually motivating and invigorating you.
The Difference Between Soul Rescue And Soul Retrieval
In shamanic and spiritual traditions, soul recovery practices are based on the understanding that a person’s soul essence or ‘life force’ can become fragmented or lost due to trauma.
While these two shamanic arts are closely related and often assumed to be the same practcie, they refer to different contexts of healing. There is a subtle, but key difference.
Soul retrieval is the most common term used in modern shamanism and it is based on the idea of soul loss.
When a person experiences a severe physical or emotional trauma, such as an accident, abuse, grief, or a difficult breakup, a part of their vital essence may abandon the body to survive the experience. This is essentially a spiritual survival mechanism, similar to dissociation in psychology.
This disassociation might be related to the trauma of a car accident or extreme injury, or perhaps a memory of a time in someone’s life when an attribute of their soul felt threatened or fearful.
Other typical examples include physical, sexual or emotional abuse as a child; a feeling of abandonment after the death of a relative; financial ruin; nearly dying; or loss of a job.
Someone suffering from this kind of soul loss might feel “spaced out,” numb, incomplete, or like they are watching their life from the sidelines. Chronic depression or a sense that “I haven’t been the same” since the traumatic event are common indicators.
A Beginner’s Guide To Forest Bathing
The spiritual healing practice of forest bathing, also known as tree bathing or Shinrin-yoku, is more than just a casual walk in the woods. It’s a conscious, mindful immersion into the living energy of the natural world.
In a time of constant motion and information, nature offers a different kind of wisdom. When you enter the woods with humility and presence, the trees respond. They speak in stillness, they heal without fanfare, and they remind us of the sacredness that lives in all things.
Originating in Japan in the 1980s, Shinrin-yoku was developed as a form of eco-therapy to combat stress, burnout, and disconnection from the land. But long before it became a modern wellness trend, it was an everyday way of life our ancestors took for granted.
At its essence, forest bathing invites you to slow down, breathe deeply, and reconnect with nature as a living, healing presence.
It isn’t about hiking or exercise. There is no goal to achieve. You don’t have to meditate, journal, pray, do or achieve anything at all. Simply being with the trees and plants is enough.
When we stop and listen, we realize the forest has its own language, and it welcomes us into an ancient dialogue of peace and renewal. Trees are masterful purifiers. They filter the air of toxins and breathe out oxygen rich with life force.
When we stand near trees, they seem to do the same with our energy. They absorb some of our anxiety, tension, and fear, and offer us steadiness, grounding, and quiet wisdom in return.