My Beautiful Daydream
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My Beautiful Daydream

"They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night." - Edgar Allen Poe

Gratitude Meditation

11/16/2018

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I led a meditation at my house last night. Eight powerful females around a coffee table, enjoying hot cinnamon cider and pumpkin chocolate cake, discussing everything from children to politics. It was beautiful.

My daughter was kind enough to offer a private tarot card reading for each guest. And at the end, we all closed our eyes and practiced gratitude! Tis the season! 

Below is the script I used for the guided meditation. With background music and appropriate pausing, the meditation was about 15 minutes. Please feel free to use the script below as you wish.
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​GUIDED Gratitude Meditation Script 
 
Close your eyes. Relax. Settle in to your body. Let go of all the things you have to do, everything on your to-do list. Right now, you are here, with us, safe, with nothing to do. Just to be.
 
Take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. Take another breath in and feel your lungs expand. Let it out and feel your lungs contract. Again, slowly expanding and then slowly contracting. Now allow yourself to breathe at your natural pace.
 
Your body is a perfect silent machine knowing how to perform vital functions without your conscious thought. How blessed we are to have these bodies that serve us so well. 
 
Now, I am going to ask you to think of a few things from your life …to bring into your awareness some other blessings we may have forgotten about.
 
I want you to think of one simple thing that you are grateful for. You may not recognize the value of this thing often, but let’s hold space in tonight’s meditation to honor this little gift. Maybe a warm spring breeze on your face or the sound of a child’s giggle? Maybe the sweet scent of your favorite flower or the way grass or sand feels under your feet. What is that simple joy that enriches your human experience? How does it make you feel? What emotions does it inspire within you? Express gratitude for this simple thing that reminds you that you are alive.
 
Next, I want you to imagine a place where you love to be. Maybe it’s a place that gives you peace and quiet. Maybe it’s a busy family kitchen. Maybe it’s somewhere in nature. What does your place look like? Imagine it in your mind now, every detail. What colors do you see? Are there people there or are you alone? What does it smell like? What can you touch? What sounds do you hear? How does being in this place make you feel? Be thankful you have such a place that you can come back to in your mind whenever you wish.
 
This next one may take some thought. Think of an event in your past that changed your life for the better. It could be a big event. Maybe the birth of a child? Or meeting your partner? Maybe graduating college or landing that amazing job. It could be a small event like a quiet decision to start practicing yoga. What’s one thing that completely changed the course of your life? Nothing was the same after this happened. Imagine all the details that had to fall perfectly into place for this one thing to be happen. Express your gratitude for many smaller events that led up to this one. It’s like … it was all meant to be.
 
Now, bring to your mind’s eye, a person who is very special to you. Visualize this person’s face. Their eyes, their smile. Why are they special to you? What role does this person play in your life? Think about how you met them. In what way did they come into your life? Remember a happy memory with this person. Think of the sound of their laughter. You’ve been able to share so many great memories together! Feel the feeling now that you get when you’re with them. Feel it within you. Let it rise up from your heart and extend outward, so that your whole body is filled with that amazing feeling of love. How blessed are we! How much we have to be grateful for! Relax into this feeling of love and gratitude. This is yours. Any time you want to remember, you can. This feeling is yours. Enjoy it!

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It's Your Time, Dreamer

2/1/2018

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You've heard the sky is the limit. There is no limit. There is only the limit you place on yourself. You are here for a reason. Don’t ignore the calling. Don’t ignore the pull that is inside you, the pull that has been there since the beginning. When you were a child, you had visions, dreams. You saw what you would become.
Then the world pulled you down. Pulled you under. It darkened your dream with its own clouds and fog and haze. It holds you down so that you won’t grow above the rest. It holds you down so that the growth of the world will be slow.

But what would happen if you remembered who you were called to be. What would happen if your growth catapulted? What would happen if you became bigger than you thought you would become? As big as the dream of your youth? So many people have forgotten that inner dreamer, let alone her dream!

Meditate, Pray. Tap into it again. Create a quiet space where the Universe can speak to you and remind you why you were put on this planet. You have a job to do. You have a dream. Get to it!


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Only the Most Adaptive Survive

6/14/2017

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​It took me a while to slow down long enough to not only recognize, but appreciate, the great order to the universe. For a long time, I thought I was unique, apart from, separate, different. I lived my life according to my own rules, controlling and manipulating to have the world work as I thought it should. Of course, it never did, and I’d be left feeling hurt, lost, depressed, and angry. I was either mad or depressed for most of my life. 

 I knew the sun came up every day and set every evening. I was aware of weather patterns and seasons. I recognized there was a high tide and a low tide. I knew the earth and solar system ran on some kind of power to make all these things happen. But I never saw myself as part of it.
 
It was when I had lived in anger and pain long enough, when I had created my own world of chaos and destruction, when I had tried over and over to set things right and was met with continued failure, that I finally started analyzing the Universal order with more curiosity.
 
Somehow, the Universe kept moving forward. The earth kept revolving around the sun. The moon kept revolving around the earth. The Santa Ana winds came every fall. June was always gloomy. The trees always started blooming again. The hummingbirds all started coming out each February. The moon would be full every 28th day. I could count on these things. They were unmovable. I started to appreciate their consistency. I realized that all these things would carry on if I were on this planet or not. I, no matter how hard I had tried to fool myself throughout my life, was not running the show.
 
Even more, I realized this outside force that was taking care of the rest of nature was taking care of me as well. I realized that I AM nature. I am a part of this great tapestry of life. I’m not apart from it at all. My life is woven into the very fabric of the Universe. How assured I could be realizing that to the animals of the air, water, and earth, I belong. I am one with all of it. And whatever is running this whole thing has got me as well.
 
I don’t have to fight anymore. I go with the flow, knowing that nature will take its course. Yes, there is destruction in nature. There is violence. There is brutality. But there is also the unstoppable force of life. With every forest fire, isn’t there a brand new forest that begins to grow from the released seeds? With every hurricane, is there not plant life that thrives from the blowing of seeds and saturation of rain? Even concrete poured to cover the earth still bears dandelions in its cracks. Life is unstoppable.
 
There is the never-ending process of death and life, chaos and order, destruction and benefit. Is it not the same way in our own lives? If we look hard enough we can always see the good that came from the darkest part of our lives. But we must choose life. We can’t actively block it with our own ideas of running the show. We submit to life. We submit to the natural order of things. We accept. We adjust.
 
It’s not the strongest that survive. It’s the most adaptive that survive. Life comes. We let it. We adjust. I stop trying to control life. It is my place to adapt, not control. That is the natural order of things. That is my place in the world. 

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Kyle Cease

5/30/2017

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I went to a seminar over the weekend. Kyle Cease's Evolving Out Loud. It was awesome, and if you have the chance to go, I highly recommend it. He talks about breaking through our fears and doing things we want to do in spite of feeling afraid. His message is that we all have a gift that the world is waiting for and needing, and if our fears and "Yeah, but..."s are getting in the way of us achieving our mission, then the world is missing out.
​He also taught us how to 'Kylego', a technique where we talk to each other like the day or week or year has already happened. We say things like, "I remember when..." and then talk about our dreams like they've already in the past. In that way, we trick our mind into believing they have already happened, and therefore we can do them again. Also, the longer the Kylego exercise, the greater and greater the ideas become!

Anyways, it was good stuff for sure. If you ever get a chance to go see him, I'd recommend it.
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A Penny for a Vase

12/29/2016

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A metaphor:

A mother and father owned a priceless heirloom vase they planned to give their young son when he was old enough to appreciate it. One day, they saw the young boy had his hand stuck in the neck of the vase. They pulled and pulled, but they could not get his hand out. Finally, they realized the only way to free the boy was to break the precious vase. They were devastated as they were forced to shatter the priceless gift.
When they were able to pull the boy's hand out, they saw it was clenched in a fist around something. That was why they could not get it back through the neck of the vase. Curious, they opened the boy's hand to see what had been so important that he wouldn't let go of. They peeled back his fingers to discover a bright shiny penny. The boy had seen the penny at the bottom of the vase and had reached in to pull it out. And because he didn't want to let go of the treasure he thought he found, he lost the priceless treasure meant for him.

Question: What are you holding onto that it's time to let go of? The Universe has a priceless treasure meant just for you. What bright shiny penny have you been desperately holding onto that is preventing you from receiving it?


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The Universe is Always in Balance

11/10/2016

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Find the good today. It's always there. Sometimes you've just gotta look a little harder, but in every situation, it's always there. The Universe strives always for constant balance, and we, being part of the Universe, strive for constant balance too. If you are having a tough time being in balance today, do these three things:

1) Close your eyes and breathe
2) Think of all the things you are grateful for in your life and smile, smile big! Your body chemistry responds when you smile
3) If you are struggling in a situation, brainstorm at least one good thing that might come from the situation. If you can't find one, think of some time in the past when you were in a bad situation, and remember one good thing that came out of it. It will give you hope that there will be something good to come out of this one too.

Remember! Your feelings come from what you focus on. There will always be good and bad; neither lasts forever. It's about what we focus on that creates our mood for the day. Focus on the good!


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New Moon Meditation

11/3/2016

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Today marks the New Moon phase of the lunar cycle. During the New Moon, the moon is invisible to us, as the sun shines on the part we typically refer to as the "dark side of the moon". As a symbol for life, we can say that it is shining on the parts of us that we don't typically show to the world - our dark side, our dreams and fears that we hide from others. Carl Jung calls this our Shadow. We can ask our higher power during this time to bring forth the dreams we have kept hidden and to shine the light on fears we have that need to be dispelled. New Moon carries an enormous amount of energy with it, and to tap into some of this energy, you can practice a New Moon meditation.
Here's how:
  1. Sit in meditation and ask your higher power to reveal to you the shadow parts of yourself that are ready to be illuminated.
  2. Write down a dream you've been carrying. Write down a project you want to start working on or a goal you want to achieve.
  3. Write down any shadow parts of your character you are ready to show to the world.
  4. Meditate again to ask your higher power to bring your dreams and shadow self into illumination over the next two weeks of the lunar cycle, as the moon becomes whole again.
  5. Place your list into the flow of the Universe by planting it in the earth as a seed to grow, or throwing it into the ocean to be impressed upon with the lunar tide.

Happy meditating!


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Loving My Inner Child

10/15/2016

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I had a very powerful meditation last night. I went in with the intention to remember some things from my past that I have no memory of; anything that could be affecting my happiness and peace today. I expected to go back to my very young years to discover things people had done to hurt me. Instead, I was shown ways that I had hurt myself. I was shown my adolescence and young adulthood, when I had neglected my own needs, built an impenetrable wall around me, and lost touch with my feelings completely. I blotted out my life with drugs and alcohol and men. I let people treat me terribly. I always settled for 'less than' because I thought I was 'less than'.
While seeing this girl during my meditation, I was filled with love and compassion for her. I realized how fragile she was, and all the while she had tried to be so strong and brave, trying to convince herself that she couldn't feel the pain. My heart broke, and I cried and cried. I wrapped my arms around myself and told that broken teenager that I was so, so sorry. I told her that it's done; no longer will I neglect myself and my needs. No longer will I treat myself or LET myself be treated badly. I told her I will take care of her now. I will no longer settle for 'less than'.

***

I urge you, if you have never done a healing meditation for your inner child, to set aside some time to do it. It is one of the most cleansing, restorative, loving things you can do for yourself. I talk about how to do this in my new book. If you need additional help with it, contact me. Lots of love, friends!


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Full Moon Release Meditation

10/15/2016

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Who else plans to do a Full Moon release meditation tonight?

The full moon symbolizes the culmination of the intentions you planted on the New Moon. Tonight's meditation involves writing down all the things you want to release over the following two weeks until the next new moon.


Here's what to do:
  1. Wait until dark
  2. Write down a list of old beliefs, people you want to break ties with, habits you want to give up, and anything else that is limiting you or holding you back
  3. Now, get a glass/ceramic bowl and a lighter
  4. Go outside into the moonlight
  5. Sit in quiet meditation, thinking over the things you want to release and, one by one, giving them over to your higher power
  6. Take the paper with your list, light the corner, place it in the bowl, and watch them burn
  7. After the paper has burned, thank your higher power for taking these things from you
  8. Meditate in the light of the full moon for as long as you want.

*Remember to dispose of the ashes safely.

Happy Meditating!


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The Goal of Meditation

9/7/2016

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Did you know meditation has been medically proven to lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, reduce anxiety, reduce stress, and increase focus? Just to name a few! If you think meditation is only for monks and hippies, you're dead wrong. Meditation is for everyone!

Try this: instead of trying to clear your mind of all thought for 20 minutes (which might sound impossible for someone just starting out), sit in a quiet spot with your eyes shut and let your thoughts come and go, like the tide. When they wash up on the shore of your mind, acknowledge them and then send them on their way again.
Try to let go of them instead of holding onto them. Just acknowledge the thought and let it wash back out into the sea of the subconscious again. For five minutes, sit in this way, observing the thoughts come and go, like the tide. Be an observer without attachment. That's it! If you do this for five minutes, you've meditated for five minutes. Easy!

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    I'm just a traveler, a dreamer, like you. 


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