What's Your Medicine?

First let's redefine medicine. According to Native American wisdom medicine is anything that connects you to the Creator/Great Mystery/Divine/God (whatever term resonates for you), and all of life. It also includes anything that connects you to your light and promotes the healing of body, soul, and spirit, not only for you but for all your relations. So for me, the idea of moving to New Mexico, from Ireland, when I was thirty-six years old was medicine.

This week marks the ten year anniversary of my move to the high desert of New Mexico. A place I now call home. I chose this time of year because of Easter. A time for resurrecting dreams, hopes, and rising into the new life that our souls' sense is possible for us. Large doses of medicine are usually required, on a daily basis, to help us gather the courage and confidence to make the transitions we yearn for. What feeds your most authentic self? What connects you to Spirit? Walking in nature, gardening, meditation, cooking, yoga, sharing a laugh with a friend, watching your child dance? The invitation this Easter is to get to know what your medicine is, take it, and then share your truest self with those around you.

It took me nearly ten years to complete Third Time Lucky: A Creative Recovery. Often times I felt like giving up. I am glad I didn't. Regularly connecting with my medicine helped to turn down the volume of my inner critic that told me I was wasting my time, not good enough, no one would care, etc etc….the list was endless! What part of you is yearning to come alive? What stops you? Getting to know your obstacles is crucial - once you know them, you can use your medicine as an antidote, and become bigger than them. 

We all have a story, and we all have medicine to share. Often we need encouragement and help in discovering what it is. I believe the journey of connecting with our medicine helps break our hearts open even wider, to discover the light and the beauty that is already inside us, longing for us to notice and to connect with something bigger.

Be bold, be beautiful, be YOU!

One Love, 

Pasha

Spring Cleaning - Start WIth Your Thoughts!

Thinking about some spring cleaning? Forget about the hall closet. It can wait for another day. Why not start by checking out the thoughts that are lodged in dark closets of your mind? You know the kind I am referring to. The negative ones that keep you stuck thinking that you are not enough, or that you will never be able to change. That is all they are - thoughts. The only power they have over us, is the power we give them. Unconsciously, most of us cling on to our habitual way of thinking for dear life. We take our thoughts for granted, believing that everything we think is true. Once upon a time……maybe it was true. Have you gotten stuck in your thinking? 

We all have outdated stories running in our heads. Do you know what yours are? A careless comment by a parent, teacher or partner, long forgotten on the surface, could still lodged in the deep corners of your mind, feeding your insecurities and keeping you stuck. Today is a good day to get curious about your thoughts. Start noticing them and take an inventory. What thoughts have you outgrown? What thoughts are obstacles to your growth? What thoughts clutter your mind? What thoughts serve you? Write them down and see how much your thinking impacts your life. 

Energy follows thought. You give energy to what you think. What you give energy to gets bigger.

In last Saturdays Creative Recovery workshop at The Life Healing Center I shared the following tale:

A grandfather was telling a story to his grandson. He explained that there are two wolves fighting inside of our heads all the time. One wolf is called Fear and Self-Hate, the other wolf is called Peace and Self-Love. Every day they have a ferocious battle. The wide-eyed little boy innocently asked, "Which one wins the fight?" The grandfather replied, "The one you feed."

You are not powerless over your thoughts. You get to decide which ones you feed, by the attention you continue to give them.

I will leave you with a positive affirmation, compliments of Louise Hay:

"I am willing to release old negative beliefs. They are only thoughts that stand in my way. My new thoughts are positive and fulfilling."

I think you are far greater than you can even imagine!

What do you think?

The Brevity of Balance

Is balance over-rated? For any of us who strive to live a more balanced life, we usually find that when we reach that  point of balance, we can't hold on to it for very long. Just like standing in tree pose, or head stand, in the middle of the room. If we don't know when to come out of the pose, by listening to our bodies, we loose our balance and fall over. I have lost count of the number of times I have fallen, not only on the yoga mat, but in my everyday life! There are plenty of examples in my new book Third Time Lucky: A Creative Recovery. But recovery is not about staying down. We get up, dust ourselves off, and begin again.

Balance is brief. Nature shows us that too. Today is the equinox, one of only two days in the entire year, when there is equal amount of daylight and darkness. The perfect point of balance, when the Earth is tipping on it's axis, with the Sun the directly above, only lasts for a breath. Only a breath! That is the nature of things. If that is okay with the Universe, why can't we accept it too?

I have often found myself getting upset, when all the hard work I have put into balancing my check book, diet, or schedule, goes out the window - in a flash!  All is takes is one unknown expense, trip to the patisserie, or phone call to to tip the scales in a direction I don't like. That's the problem right there, "not liking".  We can get so caught up in our likes and dislikes that it overshadows the fact that whatever is going on, is going to change again…. and again and again and again. We put all our focus on being out of balance, rather than simply noticing it, accepting it, and making the choice to go towards balance once again. Change is the nature of things.

To follow is a simple practice you can do, whenever you are feeling out of sorts, to bring more ease into the situation. By consciously balancing your breath, you can remind yourself to slow down, be kind to yourself and press the reset button. Here we go. Place one hand on your belly and one hand on your heart. Inhale to a six count and exhale to a six count, or whatever count feels good for you. Do this for a minute or two, focusing on the rise and the fall your body with the rise and fall of your breath. Imagine that you are breathing in the light, and on the exhale you are  going towards the light…. or love or peace or whatever word or image feels right for you in this moment. When we balance our breathing, it helps to balance or thoughts.  Remember, everything in your life does not have to be in balance all at once!

Today, why not take a moment to consider one action you could take to bring more balance into your day. Would you be willing to let us know about it? 

For me, I just realized, I have been absorbed in writing at my computer for hours. I will go towards balance by logging off, going for a long walk in my neighborhood, and breathing in the buds of spring! 

Personally, I don't think balance is overrated, I think perfection is.

Happy Equinox! 

An Irish Blessing

"May the nourishment of the earth be yours, may the clarity of light be yours, may the fluencey of the ocean be yours, may the protection of the ancestors be yours. 

And so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind your life." ~ John O'Donohue

 I came across this beautiful blessing while recently rereading Anam Cara: Spiritual Wisdom From The Celtic World by one of my favorite Irishmen, John O'Donohue, and wanted to share it with you this St.Patrick's Day. It has been exactly ten years, this week, since I left my cozy cottage by the Irish Sea, and moved to the unknown landscape of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, in the high desert of New Mexico. When I arrived here first, I often drew that invisible cloak around my shoulders, and somehow found the courage to keep going. 

Although the orange-brown landscape, and ocean blue sky, are vastly different from the green fields and cloud speckled sky of the Emerald Isle, in every way visible to the eye, both places pulsate with an ancient magic and aliveness, that fuel the spirit and calm the soul. I feel blessed today, to have an intimate connection with both places.

This month I released my new book, Third Time Lucky:A Creative Recovery  (Emerald Flame Publishing) , (nearly ten years in the making!) which is  largely set in Ireland. Below is a brief excerpt from Chapter 12: The Land of Enchantment - to give you a wee taste.

No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. 

—Helen Keller

All of my ancestors had a deep love and respect for the land. Both of my parents came from farming backgrounds, spending their youths picking potatoes and forking hay. I remember my cousin, Marie, telling me that when she was about seven years old, our grandfather, who always wore a tweed peak cap and had a pipe hanging out the side of his mouth, opened his arms wide and waved them to include all the green fields and the sky above and said, “God made all this.” They were standing outside the thatched cottage where he was born, back in 1900, the same cottage where my mom and her eight siblings had also been born. Marie never forgot it. I am so grateful she told me. 

The Irish poet and mystic John O’Donohue refers to the Celtic imagination as one that walks out the door and sees a “wild and alive landscape,” and every living thing as vibrant and full of beauty and life, which also includes one’s self and one another. In early Celtic times, the people did not worship God and Spirit enclosed behind walls. The entire landscape was sacred, and worship to the Divine knew no boundaries. When I was younger, I thought it was strange to hear my grandparents talk about the fields as if they were people. They gave the fields names and often referred to them with affection. In fact, it is said that the name Ireland is derived from the ancient goddess Eru and means “body of the goddess.” The mountains were her breasts, the rivers her tears, and her divinity was made visible through the beauty of nature. It seemed that there was a much stronger connection between Native American and Celtic spirituality than I had ever imagined. 

I opened with an Irish blessing and I will close with one from my new homeland:

"May your life be like a wildflower, growing freely in the beauty and joy of each day."~ Native American Proverb

Wishing you a St.Patrick's Day full of luck and wonder and LOVE! 

Slainte,

Pasha