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By Carol, on March 11th, 2015 I believe our most important job right now is to learn how to live in our bodies. How to manage all the distracting input of our physical senses, our unruly, roller coaster emotions, our busy drunken monkey minds, the stresses and strains of living on a wobbly planet with it’s own agenda and weather patterns and still remember that we are more than all of it.
How do we deal with gravity and digestion and inflammation and enlightenment? It’s a full time job. Fortunately, we have lots of tools. We have healing foods and medicines, we have energy systems and meridians, we have our amazing capacity for imagery and metaphor and meditation and laughter. And we are not alone…
I named my blog “Living In Your Body” because we are here, on Earth, in these amazing and frustrating physical forms with no owner’s manual, no training wheels and no reset button. My intent is to address different aspects of our experience that randomly catch my fancy and share with you my experience, knowledge, intuition and the wisdom of both ancient and modern teachings to be of service to you on your journey.
Gabrielle Roth (author of Sweat Your Prayers) said: “Between the head and feet of any given person is a billion miles of unexplored wilderness.” I love that image, that sense of the vastness and mystery within each of our physical bodies. I welcome your requests as to which parts of that wilderness you would like me to explore with you.
By Carol, on March 16th, 2015 Everyone is talking about detox these days. We are suddenly obsessed with how polluted our bodies are and what strange concoctions we must drink to purify ourselves. But detoxification is something that our bodies do all the time, every moment. It is not something that we need to do to our bodies, but a process that we need to support. We can support it by providing our bodies with all the ingredients that they need to efficiently detoxify, and we can support it with our choices of what we expose ourselves to. As we help our body to more efficiently and safely clear out the chemicals and toxins that we are inevitably exposed to in this modern world, it is important to also look at how we are toxic in our thoughts.
So as we think about what we want to take in – through food or nutritional supplements – to help our bodies detoxify, it is also important to think about what we think, about the language that we use when we talk to ourselves and when we talk about ourselves. When we speak about our bodies, how often does our language focus on what we are unhappy with and what doesn’t work the way that we would like it to? How often are we judgmental and critical in a way that we would never be to a person that we loved? A periodic detox is a great way to support our systems in their endless tasks of coping with all the difficult stuff we are exposed to. (more…)
By Carol, on March 11th, 2015 When someone leaves your life, there is a space left behind, which we often perceive as absence. But is it really absence? My experience of that space is that it has a very palpable presence to it, it is something in it’s own right. When my partner died, it left that kind of presence, that sense that this is not nothing, it is something. Something very new, very unknown, very mysterious, very profound…
I am using the word presence so much in my language these days, in so many different ways. How am I present to this new reality? How is someone who left present in my life, not just in memories. What is the presence of absence? (more…)
By Carol, on October 27th, 2014 OK, so from a spiritual perspective, you are the sky and your emotions are the clouds that come and go. Sometimes they frame the sun and create a beautiful sky, or a spectacular sunset. Sometimes they seem to block the sun and you can feel as gray as the sky. But then the wind blows, air currents shift and suddenly you are your true radiant self again. But as we move toward winter in the Northern hemisphere, we enter a time of challenging skies, often gray and cloudy, no longer balanced by the lush green of trees and plants. And many people find it difficult to remember the sun, remember the gentle air of spring, the brilliance of summer and most especially, their own inner light. They fall into seasonal sadness, also known as SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder. And it gets really hard to maintain a spiritual view on it all…
If you are one of the many people who reacts to the change in light and change in seasons with lowered vitality, fatigue or depression, you’re not alone and you are not without resources. Certainly there is light therapy – spending some time each day sitting in front of bright full-spectrum light to mimic sunlight, but there is more that you can do to help your system rebalance and thrive through this challenging time of year. (more…)
By Carol, on October 27th, 2014 Viruses can be uncomfortable, like the common cold or potentially deadly like Ebola. But what they share in common is the requirement for a host in which they can take hold. On his deathbed, Louis Pasteur admitted that he had been wrong to focus on waging war against germs. And he said that in fact, “the terrain is everything.” The terrain refers to the environment of our systems; physically, as well as emotionally. Is our immune system strong and alert to any invader? Or is it under constant stress and sluggish to react?
In a recent article by the Alliance for Natural Health they discuss how governments are overlooking natural remedies for Ebola. From simple basics like good nutrition and hygiene, to the wealth of natural antiviral treatments, there are so many inexpensive approaches available. Unfortunately, “inexpensive” is the operative word here. If no drug company can make money off the treatments there is little incentive to investigate them…
But there is so much we can do to strengthen and balance our terrain and improve our resistance to any kind of virus or bacteria. (more…)
By Carol, on October 15th, 2014 We have experiences in our lives, and then we tell ourselves stories about what they mean, and then we live our life around the stories. So often the stories are not so happy, not so inspiring, and tend to leave us disempowered and upset. But if it’s my story, why can’t I just change it? The past shifts and changes anyway as our memories change or fade and come to resemble the story we’ve been telling more than what actually happened… So if you don’t like the story write a better one! I have been experimenting lately with changing some of my stories – re-framing and re-writing the stories I have been telling myself (and my friends!)
(more…)
By Carol, on July 7th, 2014 I am often invited to participate in self-help giveaways, free events where teachers and practitioners offer a taste of their work, and an e-book, program, audio or video training that gives you tools for a better life. There’s a new giveaway that started today and it is geared toward “spiritual entrepreneurs.” So what makes one a “spiritual entrepreneur?” And how do we – whatever our job – bring our own sense of spirituality into our work?
You can check out tons of valuable gifts here, including my guided imagery meditation mp3 “Breathe in Peace” at:
Divine Biz Gifts
There are so many different definitions of spirituality, and ultimately, it is only our own, personal definition that matters. But it is really just about how you function as a spiritual being in the world. All of the world. All of the time, not just Sundays… (more…)
By Carol, on December 23rd, 2013 It’s been quite a year… In April as I was walking my dog, I fell and landed on my right wrist, smashing it into many pieces. I will write more about that experience at some point, but today, I want to talk about how long it takes to heal. Obviously, as an energy worker and body worker I was out of work! How long to take off? Until my hand was totally back to normal? That seemed absurd, the first month I felt like my whole right arm was off-line. It not only couldn’t do anything, it didn’t even want to try. I remember the day that – without thinking about it – I reached for a glass and picked it up with my right hand. I stared in amazement. My right hand had just spontaneously picked something up! It felt like that whole part of my body woke up that day (more…)
By Carol, on July 27th, 2013 Now there’s a complex question! The Universe has taken me on my own personal Magical Mystery Tour these past two years, complete with hurricanes and floods and other acts of the Goddess, death and more death, broken bones, amazing love and support and surprising moments of joy.
I haven’t written much because the more that happened, the harder it was to know where to begin. Some of you have known me for a long time, some are new to this blog and only know me through my guided imagery CDs and mp3s. Either way you know that I choose to focus on energetic patterns, on looking at life from a larger perspective, and on finding peace in challenging circumstances. This has been a time that has challenged all my beliefs. It has been a great relief and comfort to know that they are as solid as I thought.
Two years ago, Hurricane Irene washed out the bridge to my home and office and started a process of change that is still going on. Three months later my beloved dog Satika developed an aggressive, terminal cancer. And this January after a short bout of pneumonia, my partner died. (more…)
By Carol, on October 22nd, 2012 Well, I’m finally back to writing… I’ve missed the connection with you through this newsletter, but, as I describe in my blog below, it’s been quite an unusual and un-predictable year. I think for many of us. Maybe for most of us! It does keep our brains more stimulated – which is always a good thing – when we constantly have to adapt to new circumstances and the un-expected, but it is exhausting, and wearying to the spirit.
Which brings me to the concept of flow… which fits in so well with water and floods. That sense of moving with what comes, moving with the currents of life. Of letting go of resistance and going with what is. It reminds me of one of my favorite stories in one of my all time favorite books, Richard Bach’s “Illusions.” He tells a tale of these beings who live at the bottom of a river. They spend their lives clinging to rocks to resist the current of the river. And of what happens when they finally let go…
Sitting by the stream today, I let myself be immersed in that energy of flow, letting it wash through me. It was cleansing, soothing, refreshing to watch and listen to and feel the endlessly changing rhythms and sounds. What ways can you find to connect to the energy of flow, of movement, of going with and loving what is! (often it helps to be around water whether it is a river, or a lake or an ocean or a shower.)
I’d love to hear how you relate to flow in your life, and how you find peacefulness…
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