Consciousness & Spirituality

Letting Go of Our Old Stuff with Guided Imagery…

May 6, 2018 by Carol Leave a Comment

We talk about letting go in a lot of different contexts, but what does it really mean? We take stress and trauma into our body and energy field, and that’s fine, it is how we function as physical beings. Where it becomes a problem is when we keep it and carry it with us for the rest of our lives. Our traumas and experiences and beliefs – whether they are conscious, or buried deep in our unconscious – continually impact how we function in the present.

Tapping and imagery work give us simple and elegant tools to bring this stuff into our awareness and truly let it go. Not just mentally, by talking about and analyzing it, but by actually physically releasing it from our body and most importantly, from our energy field.

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Where Does the “Four Steps to Center” Meditation Come From?

February 16, 2018 by Carol Leave a Comment

People have asked me how I came up with the Four Steps to Center™ process that I use in many of my guided imagery meditation CDs and mp3s. It evolved out of my belief of who we really are; not just physical beings, but beings of multiple levels, of heart and mind and spirit as well as body. I try to incorporate this understanding into all aspects of my life and my work, though of course, like everyone else, I frequently forget!

I call my blog and my newsletter “Living in Your Body” because I think that’s what we are really here to do; to learn how – as limitless beings of spirit – to live in the confines and confusions and endless possibilities of a physical body. So I developed the Four Steps process as two things.

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The Gratitude is Greater Than the Grief…

December 14, 2017 by Carol 12 Comments

My beloved companion dog Satika died of a very aggressive cancer. We had 5 bittersweet weeks to enjoy together after he was diagnosed. I woke up each morning grateful for another chance to gaze into his dark soulful eyes and bask in the the calm joy and deep love that radiated from his whole being.

Dogs, like all animals, have a far more comfortable relationship to their bodies than we humans do. They appreciate them when they work, and they accept them when they fail. They know that they are not their bodies, that they only wear them. And they seem to understand without fear or complaint, that one day, they will step out of them and on to their next great adventure.

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Every problem has a gift for you in it’s hands…

October 17, 2017 by Carol Leave a Comment

Health and healing are like life – filled with mystery and complexity and change. It makes the whole question of analyzing symptoms, getting diagnoses, of fixing and curing things quite complicated.

Richard Bach wrote, in his remarkable book Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah “Every problem has a gift for you in its hands.” I add to that “and every illness and symptom has a lesson.”

So when we look at our health, what do we see? A bunch of random symptoms and complaints, sent by a random and perhaps not very kind Universe to bug us and make our lives more difficult?

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Opening and completing your day…

July 2, 2017 by Carol Leave a Comment

“Opening and Completing Your Day,” is a set of morning and evening guided imagery meditations that I created and recorded to give you a way to frame your day, that give you an energetic container for your day. In our busy lives, with electric lighting and 24/7 access to everything we have lost our connection to sunrise and sunset, lost the sense of a real container that frames our work lives, personal lives, and our time for rest and turning inward.

To me, containers are sacred vessels that give necessary form. It becomes so easy to just keep moving from one thing to the next without that delineation…now I am beginning my work, now I am completing it, now I am feeding myself, now I am resting…

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Flow…

March 22, 2017 by Carol Leave a Comment

Well, I’m finally back to writing… I’ve missed the connection with you through this newsletter, but it’s been quite an unusual and stressful 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… 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…

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Imagery, meditation and the inner dog…

November 15, 2016 by Carol 7 Comments

What do imagery and meditation have to do with dogs? I share my home and my office with 2 wonderful large dogs, who as I write this are lying in front of the woodstove, basking in the warmth and feeling safe and content. But I also have an inner dog, who lives deep in my brain, in that ancient mysterious part of the nervous system that we humans share with all mammals.

My inner dog has a lot in common with my two relaxed friends; it is protective of me and it wants me to be safe and happy. It can go from tail-wagging pleasure to a growl in a nanosecond. And it can’t tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined – whether a dangerous intruder is ringing my doorbell, or the ring is happening in the movie playing on my TV.

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Detox and Cleanse Your Body and Mind…

March 16, 2015 by Carol Leave a Comment

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. Detoxing is not something that we need to do to our bodies, but a process that our bodies do 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.

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Spirituality and work…

July 7, 2014 by Carol Leave a Comment

What makes a person spiritual?” And how do we – whatever our job – bring our own sense of spirituality into our work? 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…

For too many people, work is something that has to be done, something to get through, endure, get the paycheck that allows you live the rest of your life. But what if your job were an opportunity to express your sense of Spirit, and to connect with everyone you relate to from that place. How would that transform your day and your workplace?

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Breaking My Wrist or How Long Does Healing Take?

December 23, 2013 by Carol 5 Comments

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, about 5 weeks in, 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 and I found myself flipping light switches, reaching for the toothbrush, picking up a fork with my right hand again. So as soon as I felt that I could minimally function with both hands I thought that was enough healing time. I was ready to go back to work.

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