On My Soapbox

Changing Our Story – reality is relative…

February 16, 2020 by Carol Leave a Comment

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!)

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the pursuit of the positive…

January 13, 2020 by Carol 5 Comments

Our brains are such busy little things, always looking for something to notice to comment on, to judge. When we think a lot about something, like “I don’t have enough money” “I don’t have enough time” “I’m lonely, I don’t like my body, I’m clumsy…” our brains start looking for things to notice so they can validate those thoughts. And we start seeing all kinds of things that seem to validate our belief.

So what if we flipped it around? What if we started telling ourselves that life is easy, there is always enough, I am beautiful just as I am… Suddenly, as if by magic we start seeing things that validate that new belief. Our brains start looking for proof of the positive; suddenly you notice a stranger is smiling, the client who’s late gives you time to take a deep breath and stretch, you walk past a window and see the beauty of the clouds instead of the cloudy sky, you find a quarter on the sidewalk…

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The Presence of Absence…

April 11, 2019 by Carol 2 Comments

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 someone close close to me died recently, 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… 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?

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It’s What You do With It…

November 17, 2018 by Carol 1 Comment

When I was 13 years old, I went to a summer camp where I studied theater and dreamed of being an actress. It was my third and last year there, and the years before I had had some pretty good roles in small plays. That year they decided to produce The Wizard of Oz.

Given my experience, I thought I would be cast as one of the witches or some role with some significance. To my horror, I was cast as a munchkin! That whole month I felt humiliated and disappointed and like it was all a waste of my time. After the final performance for the families, kids signed each others’ programs, like a yearbook. The director, Mike Miller wrote on my program the words that became the guiding philosophy of my life, “it’s what you do with it…”

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Transformation, Toxins and Butterflies

June 6, 2018 by Carol Leave a Comment

The milkweed plant is celebrated as the favorite food of the monarch butterfly caterpillar. It’s also quite toxic, and in munching its way through many leaves, the caterpillar stores enough toxins in its body to render it, and the resulting butterfly unattractive and dangerous to predators. We all absorb toxic experiences, relationships, patterns in our early life.How much do we hold onto as protection? As we transformed from children to adults and through the many stages of our lives, what do we hold on to? What do we let go of?

In EFT tapping, we start with tapping on the side of the hand, known as the karate chop point, a part of the small intestine meridian. The small intestine in our bodies is what controls what we absorb into our body as nutrition and what we eliminate. What do we take in, what do we release… And that becomes a lifelong process, with the experiences of our lives, and the memories, traumas, issues of our childhood… What do we keep, what do we let go of? What nourishes us, what needs to be eliminated?

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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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Understanding Viruses: Colds, Ebola and Louis Pasteur

October 27, 2014 by Carol 4 Comments

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…

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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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Where Has Carol Been? In Reality…

July 27, 2013 by Carol 9 Comments

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 or my teleseminar. 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.

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