5 Tips to release anxiety and increase self-love

The heart of winter invites us to take a look deep inside our own heart.  This is a time of contemplation and self-reflection.  This is a time to learn more about our emotional and intellectual triggers, and especially to learn how to move from fight-or-flight reaction mode to a more loving and peaceful mode.

With the various cosmic energies many have felt since the Solstice, it’s time to dust off our energy tools and resolve to apply them to ourselves as soon as we feel hints of anxiety, fear and negative self-talk creeping in.  Becoming aware of these feelings as soon as they show up, and being mindful of how you choose your attitude and behaviours will help reduce your stress and cortisol level.  You will feel more grounded and calm going forward in your journey.

Here are a few techniques I use to switch the gears from fear and anger to peace and love.

1. Talk to your emotions.  It is so difficult at times to stay calm and centred in the heat of a discussion, especially when we feel the other person has wronged us in some way.  Practice talking to your emotions when you review your day.  Say something like, “OK, I see you, feel you, acknowledge you (insert feeling here).  Now, tell me why you showed up so passionately in my life today.  What can I learn about myself from you?”  Just listen to your inner dialogue, and remember that the purpose of this internal conversation is not to validate and sanctify yourself, but to be fully present to your own life, in a deeper way.  
2. Send Love.  I’ve worked diligently for the past few years to get to the core of my wounds to bring healing to my heart and my life.  This past month has been somewhat chaotic and I’ve needed extra spiritual help.  I’ve found a really quick internal “switch”: when I feel fear, anger, resentment, sadness…  and even joy, amusement and freedom, I breathe deeply and say, “And I am sending Love to that.”  This statement seems to cut through all mental clutter and chatter, stops the replay loop of past conversations and should-have-done scenarios and centres me right back into peace.  
3. Tapping.  I love this technique that merges self-talk with energy work on the body’s meridian lines.  It works!  Mental and emotional patterns are shifted, and space is made for new loving manifestations to enter your life.  I’ve added a few Tapping videos in my YouTube channel - check them out here.  
4. Reiki self-healing.  Reiki is a wonderful self-care technique that relaxes the mind, body and emotions and increases feelings of love, fulfilment and abundance.  If you received a Reiki attunement, remember to practice your self-treatment at least 15 minutes everyday.  Message me to find out more about Reiki or to register for the upcoming Level 1 training that starts on January 31st.  
5. Move your body.  Go for a walk, do the Energy Routine, dance to your favourite tunes!  Moving your body will break up the tightness and heaviness associated with less-than-loving thoughts and emotions.  One of the greatest shifts in my life happened when I discovered Chakradance (R) - and I invite you to discover this wonderful modality with me. See calendar for dates.

Always remember that you can choose your feelings, attitude and behaviour.  You are not the victim of circumstances - even if some circumstances are very difficult to live through.  You can allow those circumstances to rule you, or you can choose to rise above.  Doing so, however, does require dedication and discipline.  I am here to help you - you are not alone.

Remember to seek professional help from the medical community if your symptoms of stress and anxiety are stopping you from living a healthy, vibrant life.  Reiki and energy work can support you in a big way but do not replace services from the professional, legal, medical community.

Surrounding you in Love & Light.

How’s your fire-power?

The Solar Plexus stores life-force energy, and family relationships teach us how to use it.

My grandfather's wake and funeral this past weekend was a beautiful time to reunite with family members. My grandfather comes from a family of 17 children - there are many relatives I don't know very well, and many cousins I see only occasionally. It really warmed my heart to rekindle family love as we shared memories and stories.

Being with family can be wholesome and nurturing. We grew up with this network of souls. We learned our identity and our place in society through family relationships and conversations. We received conditioning about who we are and how much we should be seen or heard, and along the way we made choices about accepting or rejecting this conditioning. Family is full of love, AND contrasts and life lessons. We form our personality through these relationships - and we also form our ego.

The Solar Plexus chakra is the seat of our willpower. In many spiritual traditions, the area of the Solar Plexus is where we store our vital life energy. Many cultures have referred to this as an inner sun or fire. When we assert ourselves lovingly, we glow from the inside out. It’s easy to recognize someone who is self-confident: their energy is peaceful, strong, and loving. They seem to radiate that “certain je-ne-sais-quoi”. When ego dominates this power centre, however, the fire-power of a person can be explosive with anger, arrogance and tyranny. Instead of being filled with quiet love, we feel fear, shame or unworthiness in the energy of this person. And still, when ego makes us believe that our personal definition resides in shame and unworthiness, one’s inner fire, will to live, and sense of passion just dies out. We can feel dried up and empty. A lack of vital life-force energy can bring on depression and anxiety.

“Energetically, physically, emotionally and mentally, we are all powerful, radiant beings. However, we may not always be living from a place where we accept and radiate our own power. Sometimes we may feel like it would be easier not to have to interact and bargain and state our worth to people at all. Sometimes we may give in and accept less than we’re worth. (…) When we bring balance to this chakra, we can begin to experience a true inner strength and authentic power while moving away from the unhealthy desire to gain power over others. This creates a more relaxed and spontaneous life, powerful but free. When we balance the solar plexus chakra, we accept who we truly are – and accept others for their true selves too.” Natalie Southgate, Founder of Chakradance (R)

It is through the experience of relationships - within the immediate family and the work- or social- family units that we learn valuable lessons in asserting our will centre. In your family and social gatherings this holiday season, be aware of how you feel in the presence of others. Do you need to assert yourself and overpower others? Do you need to “be right” no matter what? Do you allow others to belittle you? Are you blaming family members, the society or your upbringing for your lot in life? Would you rather stay in pj’s under the blankets instead of facing family and friends in social gatherings? How do you perceive others feel in your presence - are they fearful of you, do they share openly, are they smiling and peaceful?

Take regular time-outs just to breathe and reflect. Bring a hand to your stomach as you take a deep breath and become conscious of your own inner fire. Are you radiating your Light, shining with Love, or are you hiding and smouldering? Are you shining so bright that others are getting burned by your fire? It’s not about judging, just notice. And then if you don’t like what you feel choose to change something in your behaviour and attitude.

It all starts with you. You have the power to change how you feel in your family, how you interact with everyone, and how you allow others to treat you.

Establishing and respecting clear boundaries go a long way in creating loving and mutually satisfying relationships. Allow family to be your greatest teacher and instead of becoming angry over the same old wound, be grateful for a lesson in love and personal boundary. With healthy boundaries and the acceptance of who we truly are, it becomes so much easier to foster inner peace and to be a beacon of Light for others.

With this in mind, family gatherings can be rich, insightful and much less stressful.

Surrounding you in Love & Light.

Dancing the Heart Chakra

“Moving toward inner peace and understanding”

Since I started my journey with Chakradance TM nearly one year ago, the dance of the Heart Chakra remains one of my favourite. The dances of the Root, Sacral and Solar Plexus chakras are physical, at times choppy, and often uncomfortable as we connect to the body’s energies – and that’s no small task for spirit-workers and overthinkers! The dances of the Throat, Forehead and Crown are a connection to a higher wisdom, beyond the veil and they are absolutely fascinating. The dance of the Heart, the dance of Love… it’s centre. It’s the path to inner peace. It moves us to more self-love and self-understanding.

Every time I teach the Chakradance TM Awakenings 9-week cycle, I am amazed at the transformation I see in my students. Their eyes glow a little more. The muscles in their jaws, neck and shoulders show less tension. Their breathing becomes slower and deeper instead of the shallow anxious breathing they’re used to. They linger after class, wanting to sit in this energy just a bit longer. They want to talk just a bit more. There’s a change happening within that they can’t quite put their finger on yet; it’s just at the cusp of manifestation and they want to slow down, wait and watch for it to happen. They know they’re just about to find something they have been looking for, and they’ve been searching a long time…

What is waiting for them? Their authentic self. It’s been there all along, but was buried under that mound of “shoulds” and “ifs” and “whens”. It’s been buried under social and personal expectations. It’s been set aside due to a drive to “do” and perform instead of living the enchantment of “being”. With the dance of Love, this hidden part of the self is lifting that corner of the cozy blanket it’s been hiding under, looking at you with a mischievous but happy smile, saying, “Here I am! You’ve been looking for me? I was here all along!”

When I first danced the Heart Chakra, I saw myself as a ballerina – that was my happy place when I was 7 years old up until my teen years. I was on stage doing pliés, ronds de jambe, pas de chats… nothing complicated but I was thoroughly enjoying being fully present in my dance and remembering how to smile from the inside out. I love how I have been able to reconnect with that part of me, and I am thrilled to see how this connection, this remembrance has opened up doors for me which I didn’t even know existed – or which I had forgotten.

It is so easy to forget who we are at our core. It is so easy to get swept away under the weight of family needs, work, and community responsibilities. This is your invitation to reconnect with that part of you that has been dormant for a while. The creative, sensitive and very wise part of you. The one who loves you unconditionally. The one that makes your soul sing. The one who sees the miracles and magic of everyday life.

Are you ready to lift the corner of that blanket and see what’s been hiding under your nose all these years? Are you ready to love yourself more and move toward inner peace?

Join me in Brossard this weekend for a full weekend dedicated to the Heart Chakra.  My colleagues and I are here to facilitate and ease your journey.  There's no where else where you can find this combination of yoga, meditation, Reiki and Chakradance.  This will be an uplifting and transformative journey, and we are looking forward to it!

Sending you blessings of Love!

Dancing With Calypso

“Women are as changing as the seas”  (Old complaint...)

Celebrating divine feminine independence and empowerment

She has been flying – or perhaps swimming – low on my awareness radar for a few years, with water parks, dances, and a Jacques Cousteau vessel named after her. She entered the realm of my imagination with increased impact after the Pirates of the Caribbean movies under her bayou voodoo priestess guise. But it is only while dancing the Sacral Chakra, the connection with the inner divine feminine, that Calypso made herself insistent with a message that I need to share.

“Would you love me if I were anything but what I am?” asked Calypso to her lover Davy Jones in the “At World's End” Pirates movie. He was accusing her of not being present when he went to see her for their once-in-every-ten-years reunion. On that fateful day, she was dancing with the wind, or working up a storm somewhere else. She was not in her womanly body waiting faithfully for her lover to return from a long journey at sea. She was following her instincts, elsewhere. “It is in my nature to be changing,” she explains. But he did not appreciate that changing nature – especially when he wanted to possess her. And he conspired to imprison her soul in a human form.

I haven’t found many good research documents on Calypso, yet most sources state that she is one of the first feminists “on record”. She speaks up for herself. She told Zeus that he was using double standards when judging the behaviours of gods and goddesses, allowing personal and sexual freedom to the gods and denying the same to the goddesses; allowing gods to have affairs (and rape!) women while goddesses were forbidden to love men. Calypso has suffered for this, banished to a small island and fated to fall in love with men who could not be her consort, or who could not understand and fully appreciate her true nature. She has also been silenced in history, oppressed in the patriarchal society.

Oh yes, the feminist in me is now awake. I can feel Calypso’s seas, her moods, her changing nature. I feel her need for social justice - regardless of sex, race or religion.  I feel her plea to allow humans love who they want. I certainly feel her strong yet loving need for independence and free speech. I feel appalled that our society still condones double-standards. I weep the pressure women are under to always be consistent and joyfully submissive – when they are not, they are systematically “medicated” at best; shunned or brutalized in the worst case scenarios.

In my dancing meditation, Calypso affirmed that it was in our divine nature to be changing like the seas.  We must embrace our independent nature.  We have to stop trying to conform to a regime that oppresses our emotions, and start embracing our true selves: our calm waters AND our raging seas. When we deny ourselves the sacred time and space to be fully and authentically who we are, we are missing a big part of our potential. That is typically when clients come to see me with concerns about feeling empty, lost, and overly emotional about the little things. What we deny within ourselves usually comes out elsewhere, and unfortunately it often manifests out of our Shadow in a self-destructive way.

I am grateful I have learned tools, like Reiki, Chakradance and guided visualizations to help women find their path to wholeness. Just this morning again, a client told me how more calm, centered and connected to Spirit she feels thanks to the journey she has done with me. She notices the small miracles and synchronicities in her life, she is more joyful, and her fears are diminishing. I love receiving such testimonials! I am so grateful that Spirit can do this work through me!

If you take a deep breath now to check within – how do you truly feel? Is there space for more self-love and self-acceptance? Do you feel there’s a big dark door that you are fearful of opening? Are you trying so hard to keep things together when you feel the call of your inner seas? Are you ready to journey toward wholesomeness and authenticity? I’m here to journey with you – and so is Calypso. You need not be alone or lonely in your journey. Please reach out, talk to me. Let’s see if the stars and the seas are favourable to a journey together. I’m ready to set sail – are you?

Sending you blessings of joy!