We get the validation from our friend or family member that we were right and “the culprit” is totally wrong. At the end of the conversation, when we are done venting, we say to our friend, “Thanks for Listening.”

When we take into consideration the Law of Attraction which states, “like attracts like”, or “what you think (or talk) about comes about,” do we really want to be telling our story all over again, creating more of what we don’t want? The irony is that we thank our friends for helping us to create more of the same exact thing that made us upset to begin with!

The world we live is in a mirror for all of our thoughts and beliefs. When someone gossips about you, it’s because you gossip too (even if it’s only once in awhile). When someone treats you with disrespect they are simply mirroring the disrespect that you feel toward yourself, but are unwilling to look at. When a parent allows their child to yell at them, and does not discipline them, on some level the parent believes they deserve it.

A client of mine was pregnant with her 2nd child and continuously thought that something bad was going to happen to her baby. She weekly attracted in women that told her horrifying stories about their complications with pregnancy and/or the birthing experience. When she and her husband excitedly shared the news of being pregnant with baby #2 with her mother in law, the response was that she was not going to say anything to anyone in case she had a miscarriage! (By the way,her mother in law did not say this when hearing the news of baby #1).

She lived with stories like this for months. She came for a session I asked her why she was attracting in all of these people and their terrible stories. Because like thoughts/beliefs attract like thought/beliefs and experiences, we decided to examine her beliefs around this baby. We found her belief to be that she did not deserve to have another healthy child, since she had already had one. We worked through that belief and shifted her worthiness around having another healthy child. THAT DAY was the last day she heard any horrifying stories about child birth, problems with pregnancy and the loss of a child. Her thoughts and beliefs had changed and her new experiences reflected that.

The only part of us that enjoys (and needs) to tell “our story” and how we were hurt is our ego/mind. It is looking for validation that it is right and the other person is in the wrong.

The empowering thing to do when something negative happens in life, is to become aware of our part in attracting it. We need to look in the mirror and take responsibility for our thoughts and beliefs. These are the very things that create our negative and positive life events. We have no one to blame for a negative event but ourselves and our sloppy thinking/beliefs. Look at each negative event as a gift. It’s the gift of showing us which limiting thoughts/beliefs to clean up to change our life for the better.

Whether you have children or not, getting a diagnosis like this is a scary one. It was a true test for my husband and me to stay present moment. I also had to make the decision of who to tell about this diagnosis. It could turn out to be nothing or it could turn out to be something, we would not know until the results were in from the MRI. The MOST important thing for me was to stay positive, not in denial but to take each moment and think not only positively but to send my son and specifically his neck loving thoughts and healing words. For this reason I decided to only tell a select few people that would be able to keep my son in loving, healing hands and send him tremendous healing light.

What many of us don’t realize is the power of our words. Everything in our world is energy, the grass, the table you eat breakfast on, the human body, each thought we have and each word we speak. Energy vibrates at different speeds depending on what it is. Positive thoughts vibrate higher (or faster) and negative thoughts or words carry a much lower (slower) vibration. This is why when we feel sad, our bodies feel heavier, slower vibrations feel heavy.

When people hear of someone that is sick, or worse in the hospital, they typically say, “I am so worried!” Worry is fear and when you have a thought that is from fear about someone it does not help them in the least bit, in fact it could add to their illness. There have been countless studies done on the power of prayer and the positive effect it has. Behind a prayer or positive thinking is a thought that carries a higher/healing vibration. When you are thinking of a sick person while in this higher vibrational state you are actually sending them healing energy.

Unfortunately I have had 2 friends that have lost their children to cancer. For one of them, the road was a long one, her son was sick for many years. There were times during  his illness when we would rally a group of  people to send her son light or healing thoughts and she would notice on her end healing shifts that her son would make during the time of our thoughts and prayers. One time I recall he had a terrible infection and it was creating a rash all over his chest, the doctors had tried numerous medications and nothing was working. We had decided to rally a large group to send him light and healing at precisely 3pm. My friend called me shortly thereafter saying that they could see the rash/infection shrinking before their eyes. The doctors had no medical reason for it and considered it a miracle.

Getting back to my son, there was a 24 hour period between the x-rays and the MRI. In that 24 hour period my son was sent tremendous loving /healing thoughts by a choice group of people.  His headaches stopped that day. The MRI we done and results were read to us the next day. There was nothing on the scans. They had no explanation of the previous spots on his neck from the x-rays and wanted to send him to a neurologist for further evaluation and migraine medication.

My husband and I left the office with huge smiles on our faces and thanked God for this gift we had received.  We realized what had happened and knew there would be no neurologist in our son’s future. We felt extremely grateful for the gifts that we had received from our friends and their powerful thoughts, visualizations and words. My son has not had a headache since and when I asked him yesterday how he was doing and if he had a headache his comment was, “No mom, please stop asking me…it’s done.” And I knew it was.

The power of words.

As my day went on, I realized an hour had gone by since our interaction and I was still holding the negative emotions from our interaction.

When I tuned into my body, I felt shortness of breath, a knot in my stomach and a heaviness on my chest.

Thinking back to our interaction I realized (1) there was no solution to the problem (I could not fix her or the problem) and (2) I am allowing someone outside of myself to ruin my mood, my health and as time went on, my day.

By holding all of this negative energy, it hurts no one but me!

If I could see inside my body, I would guess my blood pressure had risen dramatically, the aging process had been accelerated due to all the stress chemicals being released and by holding this negative emotion to me to it disconnecting me from my connection to God/the universe. It’s like pinching off a hose with water running through it. I am doing this to myself!

So when in a mood or emotional place like this, with no resolution what can we do?

A technique that I find works remarkably well for instances like this is called The Sedona Method.

With the Sedona Method we ask ourselves a series of questions regarding our mood and/or emotional state. The question and response dialogue used with Sedona creates an outlet for stored negative emotion(s) to exit.

Here are the steps of this process: (I will use my experience as an example)

1. Ask yourself: “What is my NOW feeling?   (ANGER)
2. “Could I welcome or allow it?”  (YES)
3. “Could I let it go?”   (YES)
4. “Would I let it go?” (YES)
5. “When?”  (Now)

While asking these questions to yourself really tune into your body, many times you will actually feel the energy/emotions release out of your body. Really sit with each response to the question. Be honest with yourself.

If you should get a “No” answer to any of these questions, ask yourself this question: “Would you rather feel that feeling or be free?” Allow yourself to really sit with your response. Be easy on yourself with the answer, this is a process.

You can use this with yourself or with another person and ask them the questions. The idea behind this method is to continue to release emotions until you reach either a neutral or a happy place. For me, I released anger, frustration, resentment, fear then annoyance which eventually got me to a neutral place.  With each round my negative feeling state lessened.

Our emotions are layered and we must work through the layers to find neutral. The nice thing about Sedona is the speed at which you are able to shift. An experience like this for me took as little as 10 minutes to find neutral or happiness. Once you work this technique a few times you’ll find it to be as fast as it is easy to use.

For more information on the Sedona Method go to: www.sedona.com

When we get tripped up and fall into a bad day one idea to get us back into balance is food. Before we go on an eating binge, hang on, there are certain types of foods to help us back to happiness.

Let’s take a look at the nuts and bolts behind this theory. There are two ideas to examine:

1.  Negative thoughts and emotions carry an energetic vibration that is very low (feels heavy), versus happy thoughts and emotions which carry a much higher vibration (feels lighter).

2. The law of attraction teaches us that “like attracts like.”

So we can conclude that when we are feeling down, we crave something that has a similar vibrational match to our mood, like the vibration of candy bars, potato chips, ice cream or something similar.

One solution to help lift us out of our sadness is to choose foods with a higher vibration. If we are eating foods with a higher vibration then (because of law of attraction) we could begin to feel better.

Foods with the highest vibration are “live” (or uncooked) like raw fruits and vegetables.

Sometimes when we feel the need to be comforted, an alternative choice are foods that are warm like soups, stews or steamed vegetables. These foods are cooked but still hold a higher vibration (because of the vegetables) than fried or sugary sweets.

So the next time you feel you need an emotional boost, eat your fruits and veggies. They help to your energy to vibrate higher, in your heart, the same place happiness resides.

Here’s what happens:

Quantum physics has proven that when you break the human body down to the smallest particle, it’s energy vibrating. Likewise, our thoughts and emotions are also energy. Negative thought or negative emotion vibrates slower (which is why it feels heavier) and positive thought or emotion vibrates fast (which is why it feels light). Our energy field expands when we are in a good place, in fact, the more we step into a happy, or positive emotional place and feel it, the larger our energy field expands. Just to give you an idea, your energy field (if you are in a really great mood) can be in a 30 foot radius outside of your body.

Someone that is in a bad mood has dense, heavy energy around them and their field may be only inches off of their body. When you with your huge energy field, sweeps through their energy field, you pick up all of their “stuff,” all of their negative emotions. Now you have someone else’s despair, anger, frustration, stress etc. in your field and it weighs you down. This can happen at the grocery store, the mall, work, at lunch with friends etc.

A few of my own examples: A while back I had coffee with a friend. I had just finished writing a new workshop that I had been working on and was on cloud 9! We met for coffee, she had a smile on her face the whole time and things seemed great. However, I left there feeling so exhausted and depressed (out of the blue) and could not wait to get home to lie down and take a nap. I got home and before lying down I went outside and did a few things to “clear my field” and my energy bounced back to where I was before our coffee. I called my friend and I asked her how she felt during coffee and she said she was great until the end when we were getting ready to leave. She was hoping to see the guy she wanted to date and she didn’t and immediately felt depressed and exhausted. She had to go home and take a nap! So I picked up on her emotions, cleared them and “my” depression and fatigue immediately lifted and I went on with my great day. Another example happened recently with my husband. I was in a really energized, good mood, ready to stay up late and work after the kids were in bed. He got home from work and we had a conversation, after that my energy began to get low. I begrudgingly finished making dinner and could not wait to crawl into bed. I told my kids to call my husband for dinner and he was taking a bath and had fallen asleep! He came out and could not stop yawning. We put the kids to bed at 8:30 and crawled into bed, both of us exhausted. I lay there for a moment and remembered how energized I was, I traced it back to our conversation and realized his emotional state “slid” after our conversation and I picked up on him! I cleared myself and felt much better again. He later told me that your conversation really made him feel “off” emotionally. What you can do if this happens to you/clearing techniques:

1. Stomp your feet outside on the earth (or inside if it’s freezing out) and shake your arms then legs, as if throwing the energy off of them. You can also brush (with your hand) the energy off of your arms and legs as well. Hold the intention that you are shedding all energy and emotion that is not yours.
2. If you are a yoga person, the beginning of the sun salutation where you sweep your hands over your head, cleanses your energy/auric field.
3. Draw figure 8’s or the Infiniti symbol in your energy field, all over, big and small.
4. Visualize yourself taking a shower with beautiful cleansing light washing over your body and energy field. Again, hold the intention that you are cleansing your field of all negative energy and emotions that are not yours.

Awareness is the key to this. Pay attention to how you feel and when your feelings shift. It’s amazing how often we lose our happiness because of someone else’s emotions on us. Enjoy these easy techniques for maintaining your balanced emotional place.

Happy New Year!

Love,

Michelle

BLUE MOON MAGIC
on New Year’s Eve 2009
by Ton Pascal

New Years Eve on December 31, 2009 will be more powerful than a super nova.
This vibration will surpass space and time and will be in the seeds of
ALL LIFE CREATIONS

Be mindful of thoughts, they carry GREAT POWER.
Take action, it has power & magic…
Those into wishing, WISH BIG ~~~~
Know we are at the seat of our creations!!!
This super novas give us an energetic boost in whatever direction we are pointed.

Only once in every 20 years, the blue moon appears on New Year’s Eve, as it will this year. On a plain physical level what is happening is that the moon is out of phase with the days. For it to make its complete cycle it’s about 29.5 days. It doesn’t coincide with our month, and that’s why it is out of sync with our Julian calendar. It’s the occurrence of two full moons in one month, which happens every two years, hence the popular quotation “once in a Blue Moon” which means ‘not very often.’ On average, there will be 41 months that have two Full Moons in every century, so you could say that once in a Blue Moon actually means once every two-and-a-half years.

On December 31, 2009, we have a Blue Moon Lunar Eclipse.

On a spiritual level it is as if it asks us to ‘flash forward’ into the next two years to see what we can see. This is the most important New Years Eve we have ever been gifted in a long time. No matter how much you do not believe prophecy from time and earth, it will still affect your energy field and your choices.

Someone suggested this exercise to me and I am glad to pass it forward. This New Years Eve 2009 create an I AM TEMPLATE, an energetic road map into the next two years.

Command the energies into a direction that serves the better good on all levels of your life.

Ask the Light/Angels/Divine Spirit/God/ to release what still pushes your buttons and pulls your strings.

Release the pettiness between you and others, the green-eyed energy that sucks your light.

Release the anger that drains you of your strength, just keeping it alive.

Release the expectations you have of others, as they ride their own horse of a different color.

The I AM TEMPLATE consists of an eternal circle

First, draw the large circle repeating the words I LIVE IN A PLACE OF PLENTY.

Second, on the inside of the circle place everything you plan on creating
in the next two years.

Put down all of your dreams, aspirations, wants, needs, as well what you want
for the planet.

On the outside of the Circle write everything you are choosing to release.

Release all that does not serve your highest good any longer.

Be specific in those releases.

On New Years Eve bless the ‘I AM Template’ and then burn it,
releasing its ashes like a sacred prayer on smoke.

This December 31, 2009, Partial Lunar Eclipse is numerically a 7/11 (#9) vibration
Cosmic and personal completion! Entering the next level of love of heart, of soul and service to the planetary evolution through healing self. Free-falling from the height of the nine into the next level of Light. Entry and exits all in the same breath. A quantum leap into unknown gifts comes through the nine. Are you ready to see and be more than you are at this minute of time? Nine is the photo finish on the heavenly line of multiple choices. If you believe you have won, you have. Your New Years resolutions on 12/31/2009 will be more powerful than a super nova. Their vibration will surpass space and time and land at the feet of God.

Be careful what you pray for, as it will come to past.

Much love,

Ton Pascal

“When we are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all our thoughts break their bounds. Our mind transcends limitations, our consciousness expands in every direction and we find ourself in a new, great and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and we discover ourself to be a greater person by far than we’ve ever dreamed ourself to be.”

She said, “I am in the process of moving from one house to another house, my husband is out of the country, I have 4 kids under the age of 8 (twins under a year) and I have not even begun decorating or shopping for Christmas!”

And we thought we had it tough…

The fact of the matter is, we ALL have a ton to do and even more of it to do around the holidays. As Christmas approaches it’s as though time gets eaten up twice as fast as usual and you end the day asking yourself, “Where did the day go?”

Getting back to my friend from above, my response to her was, “Do nothing.” Well technically not nothing but for the moment you do not do a thing. What we forget to do when we get crazy busy is to pause and prioritize.

When we feel overwhelmed with a million things to do we forget that we have the universe on our side.  What I mean by this is the Law of Attraction. The Law of Attraction states that what you think about comes about. So if you are thinking, “I am too busy and don’t have time to get anything done!” Guess what will manifest for you? That EXACT circumstance!

So here’s the plan for manifesting exactly what you need to get done right on time.

1. When we feel crazy busy, like we are spinning out of control, the first thing you do is STOP! Even if it’s for a couple minutes, a pause is quite necessary to give your brain a break. We must slow the ego down, this is what is driving us to “think” we have no time.
2. Prioritize. Write a list of the things that need to get done, with the top of the list being the most important.
3. Keep your list out in plain sight, so you can see it and others (physical and non physical) can too.
4. Focus all of your energy on one task at a time. When #1 is done, cross it out-it’s incredibly fulfilling and gratifying to cross out a completed task.

I write my lists on a big dry erase board where I can see it and notice what I am to focus my energy on next. When we divide our energy between multiple tasks, it actually takes longer to complete each task.

What I find is that once I take my tasks and pull them from my head into the world on a board or on paper, many items get crossed off my list without me lifting a finger.

Recently, I had on my list to stop at a store in the mall to pick up a Christmas gift for a friend. A few days after I had added this to my “to do list” a friend of mine called me to talk and when I asked her where she was going, it turned out she was walking into the mall to go to the same store I needed and was happy to pick up the gift I needed.

Things like this happen ALL THE TIME for me. I put on my board that I want new office space. I have yet to drive around looking for space but have had 3 clients in 2 weeks come in to tell me about perfect office space, exactly what I am looking for. All because I paused for a moment, decided what kind of office space I wanted and wrote it down (which launched it out into the great universe), the space can now find me. It’s that simple.
During this holiday season, pause and set your priorities. Allow the universe to cross off some of your “to do’s.” It will make your life magically easier.

Thanksgiving is the official mark of Christmas being less than 4 weeks away which manifests holiday shopping, holiday stress, holiday craziness…or does it have to be that way? Absolutely NOT! We naturally default into the holiday insanity unless we choose not to. We forget we have the ability to make choices with our brains and not fall into the collective consciousness of “holiday stress.”

A technique that I use to create and maintain balance in my life is the Alternate Nostril Breath. It is as easy as it is powerful. This breath can be done anywhere and can be done for just 4 minutes and have profound results.

This breath balances the left (thinking) and right (feeling) hemisphere’s of the brain. After just a few minutes there is a release of neuro-transmitters which calm our system and create an anti anxiety anti-depressant effect to our nervous system. This also creates a more balanced person and improved brain function since both halves of the brain are functioning properly.

This is considered to be the best breathing technique to calm the mind and the nervous system.

Other Benefits:

1. Cleans and clears impurities from the lungs

2. Calms and controls negative self talk

3. Improves quality of sleep

4. Lowers blood pressure

5. Boosts energy

The Technique:

1. Right thumb closes off right nostril.

2. Inhale slowly through left nostril

3. Pause for a moment

4. Close left nostril with ring finger and release thumb off of right nostril

5. Exhale through your right nostril

6. Inhale through right nostril

7. Use thumb to close of right nostril

8. Breathe out through left nostril

* This is considered to be one round. Begin with just 2-3 rounds and continue to work your way up to 10 rounds.

Speaking up for ourselves is not about being mean, it’s taking care of ourselves and setting a boundary. A boundary simply teaches others how you want to be treated.

When we speak up, it gives the other person the opportunity to self reflect, look inside themselves and contemplate their words and actions. This ultimately is where authenticity is born, from going within and acting from our highest good. Therefore, it’s as much of a growing opportunity for you as the other person.

Speaking up is healing on may levels, don’t miss the opportunity to become more authentic.

There are actually many ways to keep in balance and not get sucked into the collective consciousness of “holiday stress.” The holiday’s can be joyful from Thanksgiving through New Years. In fact the tools that you will read about throughout the next 6 weeks are tools that can be used throughout the entire year to maintain peace, balance and joy in your daily life! So learn the techniques now and continue using them throughout 2010.

The first tool that in this holiday series is:

MEDITATION

Meditation is sustained and unbroken concentration that leads to a highly focused mind. Meditation moves us from using our subconscious mind to our conscious mind. Living in the conscious mind, trains us to live with more focus, proficiency and creativity and less disorganized, chaotic and scattered.  Meditation will actually help you to think in new ways and gain deeper perspective on experiences. You will find that you are not bothered by things that might have bothered or even upset you in the past.

Other benefits of meditation include:

• Slows the release of hormones in response to stress
• Stronger immune system
• Reduction of anxiety
• Lowers blood pressure
• Decreases muscle tension and headaches
• Increases serotonin production (low serotonin levels are linked to   depression, obesity, insomnia and even headaches)
• Substance abuse, alcoholism and cigarette smoking have all been helped by meditation
• Increases compassion for others
• Self Acceptance

The list goes on and on and these are just a few ways (relating to holiday stress) that meditation can be life changing.

HOW TO MEDITATE?

Find a nice peaceful area, and sit quietly (don’t lie down), set your timer (by setting a timer you are not constantly interrupting your practice by opening your eyes and checking your clock) and just clear your mind. As thoughts come in, imagine an ocean wave rolling in and pulling them away, gently, slowly then return to silence. Another visual is to see the words falling off a cliff then the cliff is empty. Any visual will work, have fun with it. Remember, meditation is a practice and even people that have done meditation for years for hours per day still call it a practice. The human mind must be trained NOT to have thoughts and it takes practice! So be easy on yourself.

Meditation seems difficult to some people, I often will hear, “I have tried but I can’t!” YES YOU CAN! Meditation is the simple act of quieting your mind. For many people having a focus, like a mantra helps them with mediation. Pick a mantra like “peace” or “OM” or any word that you are drawn to and simply state it over and over again, slowly. You can even sing it out loud or to yourself. The point is to concentrate fully on that word and that word only. When other thoughts drift in, repeat your word/mantra.

You can meditate while walking, riding a bike or even driving! It’s simply clearing your mind and thinking of nothing! Try driving home from work without your cell phone to your ear or the radio on and repeat your mantra out loud for 10 minutes, it’s so incredibly powerful. The next time you go for a walk be present moment with what you are noticing, do NOT bring your iPod or your cell phone, remain present moment and focused on what’s around you!

HOW LONG TO MEDITATE?

Meditation is not something that you have to do 60 minutes a day to begin with. When you first begin a meditation practice, begin with 2 or 5 minutes per day. Stick with that for a week until you feel you are ready to extend your time. Continue extending your time to 15-20 minutes per day and if you can maintain this amount of time-great! If you can only commit to 10 minutes per day this is great too. Spending even a few moments a day of being mindful is far better than not spending any time. It would be nice to have a goal of 20 minutes per day at some point; this may take some time to accomplish and it’s OK.

Be easy on yourself and celebrate even your smallest accomplishments, even your 2 minute victory. You may feel like 2 minutes is nothing but I guarantee you, you are benefiting your brain in more ways than you could ever imagine.