The Mountains ARE Calling YOU!
Eat, Pray Love Women's Retreat
November 14th - 17th 2013
Dahlonega Resort Spa
Dahlonega, Georgia
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Wednesday, July 31, 2013
Women's Retreat November 14th-17th 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Speak your Truth
We often talk about speaking our truth, but how many people even understand what that means? Our truth is that wise part of us that knows who we are, what we need, and what we believe in. It is a personal truth – it differs between individuals, and it often changes over time. What matters most is that we acknowledge this truth, and honour it by being able to voice our ideas, opinions, needs and wants.
If you have trouble asking for help, if you say no when you mean yes and yes when you mean no, if you find it hard to say what you really feel or think for fear of upsetting or offending others, if you worry about being judged or ridiculed for your opinions, or if your voice deserts you altogether when you’re called upon to speak up, it’s time to work on speaking your truth, and we can help do that by balancing and opening the Throat Chakra, an energy centre located near the base of the neck. If you put your hand to your throat you’ll automatically gravitate to it.
The Throat Chakra is all about communication – voicing our inner truth, expressing ourselves and our creativity, speaking up about our personal intentions, desires, needs and ideas. The colour of this chakra is blue.
The Throat Chakra governs the throat, mouth, gums, teeth, thyroid, neck, shoulders, arms and hands – we can hold a lot of tension here from not speaking and honouring our truth. We can bite down or even choke on all of our unexpressed thoughts and emotions. Do a little check of these areas. Is there any tension, constriction or pain? When our Throat Chakra is open and balanced we are excellent communicators – with good listening skills, strong non-verbal communications and a clear speaking voice. We speak our truth – we hear, acknowledge and express that inner voice. We will also have access to our intuition and, for some people, the ability to connect into telepathic and channeling abilities.
If the Throat Chakra is closed down or unbalanced we can suffer anxiety, frustration, low
immunity, poor or no boundaries, and an inability to ask for help or have our needs met.
immunity, poor or no boundaries, and an inability to ask for help or have our needs met.
Speaking up for yourself takes courage
This may be expressed outwardly as anger, criticism or judgment. It may be expressed inwardly as fatigue, overeating and other addictions, self abuse in many forms, and not saying what we mean or feel for risk of hurting, angering, upsetting or offending others.
We might do too much talking and not enough listening, we can’t be told, we are nervous talkers, we fill the silences with words, we talk but don’t do enough doing or acting, we disclose too much, we have a lack of discernment in sharing information, we overcommit and overpromise, we ‘spin’ to make people feel good. We swallow down our feelings and truths and they get lodged in the lower chakras, causing further blockages and lack of flow.
5 steps to help us find and speak our truth:
1) Journaling
2) Meditation
3) Breathing & visualize your throat chakra opening
4) Singing or chanting (especially the ee sound)
5) Take small step towards saying NO instead of YES
2) Meditation
3) Breathing & visualize your throat chakra opening
4) Singing or chanting (especially the ee sound)
5) Take small step towards saying NO instead of YES
Speak the truth even if you voice shakes – Speaking up for yourself takes courage….
Namaste’ Felicia
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Daily Practice for Living an Authentic Life
Your Daily Practice – Morning
Each day is a new beginning. Your task today is to learn the practice of consciously entering your body and your day. Begin by focusing attention on your entire day from morning to evening.
Review your plans for today:
- Think about where you need to be and with whom you need to be.
- Do you feel stressful about this day or do you feel comfortable?
- Do you feel prepared for today's events?
- Are you projecting fears and expectations into this day?
Your First Chakra
- Allow the truth 'All is One' to penetrate your body
- Drop your attention to the root of your spine.
- Feel yourself magnetically connected to every part of life:
- The fragrance of the earth
- The oceans and rivers
- The air
- Your family and friends
- The planet
- Identify your fears for today and pull them into your consciousness.
- Acknowledge the strength of the energetic circuitry connecting you to all life.
- Visualize that strength replacing your fears for today.
- Standing tall.
Your Second Chakra
- Allow the truth 'Honor One Another' to penetrate your body.
- Move your attention gradually up your spine to your lower back, hips and genital area.
- Feel the fire and vibrant energy of this area.
- Focus that energy toward the key areas of this chakra:
- Relationships: Who am I going to be with today?
- Work: What am I going to do today?
- Money: How do I feel about it today?
- Creativity: What am I going to create today?
Your Third Chakra
- Allow the truth 'Honor Yourself' to penetrate your body.
- Breathe deeply as you shift your attention to your solar plexus and abdominal area.
- Focus on your self-esteem and how you feel about yourself today:
- Am I feeling strong? Frightened?
- Do I need someone's approval today?
- Will I need to be courageous?
- Remind yourself of your boundaries, dignity, inherent honor, and integrity.
- Make a spiritual promise in terms of how you want to live your life today.
Your Fourth Chakra
- Allow the truth 'Love is Divine Power' to penetrate your body.
- Raise your attention up to your heart, the center of love.
- Welcome the people you're scheduled to meet today into your meditation:
- Where you feel love for them, send more, boundless love.
- For those you feel challenged to love, say the prayer , "Let me learn more about how to love them today."
- Think about who you need to forgive today; release the rage, bitterness or hurt feelings from your heart.
- Tell yourself "Forgiveness is not easy, but today I ask for one more step toward that goal."
- Release the prayer that you want to look at today through your heart and not through your fears; that you want to feel gratitude for events that do or don't happen as they should.
- Keep your attention on the right way to walk into this day, with a heart full of love.
Your Fifth Chakra
- Allow the truth 'Surrender Personal Will to Divine Will' to penetrate your body.
- Move your attention to your throat area.
- Define your needs and desires for today and let go of doing the same for others.
- Make the choice to love this day instead of fearing it.
- Envision choices that result in positive attitudes, memories, and feelings about yourself.
- Vow to express yourself honestly.
Your Sixth Chakra
- Allow 'Seek Only Truth' to penetrate your body
- Focus your attention upwards to your mind - the world behind your eyes.
- Go beyond the limits of the rational mind and accept the Divine's Plan for you.
- Prepare your mind to enter the day feeling good and not generating illusions, false truths or fears.
- For today, release old grudges, beliefs, attitudes and patterns that no longer serve you.
- Remember that everything in your life is there for a reason and to teach you truth.
Your Seventh Chakra
- Allow the truth 'Live in the Present Moment' to penetrate your body.
- Pull your attention up and out, and hold the idea 'live in present time.'
- Let go of the past and do not anticipate the future.
- During the day, practice the discipline of telling yourself, "This is all I have. This is all there is to my life right now."
Invoke this prayer:
I am committed to feeling a bond with each person I meet, to respecting my own integrity and honor, to living within the energy of love and compassion and returning to that energy when I don't feel it, to making wise and blessed choices with my will, to maintaining perceptions of wisdom and non-judgment, to release the need to know why things happen as they do, and not to project expectations over how I want this day to be and how I want others to be. And finally, my last prayer, 'to trust the Divine'. And with that I bless my day with gratitude and love.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Empower Yourself - Speak your Truth!
Empower Yourself – Speak your Truth!
Speaking your truth is an essential aspect of living a life of passion, fulfillment and authenticity. However, for many of us—Mike Robbins included—it is much easier to talk about speaking our truth than it is to actually do it.
I was talking to my friend Greg a few months ago and he told me a poignant and powerful story about speaking his truth. He was in a grocery store and saw a woman yelling at her children in a cruel way.
He walked over to the woman and said, “Excuse me, would you please treat those children with kindness and love?” She looked at him and said, “Mind your own business, these are my kids.” Greg replied by saying, “If you were doing this in your living room, it would be just your business, but you’re doing it here in front of me. I’m standing over here with my heart aching for these children as I hear you speak to them like that, so I decided to come over and say something to you about it.”
The woman then told him to stick it up his you-know-what, grabbed her kids and rushed out to the parking lot to drive away. Greg then said to me, “Mike, I don’t know if I did the right thing or the wrong thing. My legs were shaking as I talked to her. I was so scared, upset and emotional.”
“But,” Greg said, “I’ll tell you what—when I walked away I noticed something interesting: I wasn’t blaming anyone. Normally, I wouldn’t have said anything and I would have blamed myself for not speaking up, the woman for treating her kids like that, or our culture for creating the environment where things like that happen and no one does anything about it. However, since I spoke up I was at peace and not wasting any time or energy blaming anyone. I have no idea if what I said made an impact on that woman, but I don’t have to live with her, I have to live with myself.”
“But,” Greg said, “I’ll tell you what—when I walked away I noticed something interesting: I wasn’t blaming anyone. Normally, I wouldn’t have said anything and I would have blamed myself for not speaking up, the woman for treating her kids like that, or our culture for creating the environment where things like that happen and no one does anything about it. However, since I spoke up I was at peace and not wasting any time or energy blaming anyone. I have no idea if what I said made an impact on that woman, but I don’t have to live with her, I have to live with myself.”
I sat there stunned when I heard Greg tell me this story. I said to him, “Wow, that was bold. I’m not sure I would’ve had the courage to say that to her, but I’m glad you did.”
What if you had the courage to speak up?
“But,” Greg said, “I’ll tell you what—when I walked away I noticed something interesting: I wasn’t blaming anyone. Normally, I wouldn’t have said anything and I would have blamed myself for not speaking up, the woman for treating her kids like that, or our culture for creating the environment where things like that happen and no one does anything about it. However, since I spoke up I was at peace and not wasting any time or energy blaming anyone. I have no idea if what I said made an impact on that woman, but I don’t have to live with her, I have to live with myself.”
I sat there stunned when I heard Greg tell me this story. I said to him, “Wow, that was bold. I’m not sure I would’ve had the courage to say that to her, but I’m glad you did.”
What if you had the courage to speak up?
What if we had the courage to speak up like that in all areas of life—our work, our relationships, our family, with people in public? Imagine the freedom and power we would possess. This is not about getting in people’s faces and challenging them, although sometimes it might take that form.
An important distinction for us to remember is the difference between our opinions and our truth. We all have opinions—lots of them. Many of us think our opinions are actually facts, though they’re not! There’s nothing wrong with having and expressing opinions. However, many of them are filled with righteous judgment and an arrogant sense that we’re right and those who don’t agree with us are wrong.
Our “truth” runs much deeper than any of our opinions. Truth is about how we feel and what is real for us. Truth is not about being right; it’s about expressing what we think and feel in an authentic, vulnerable and transparent way.
For example, I might have an opinion that you are rude. I’m entitled to this opinion and I may even have specific evidence of times you have done things that I think are rude. There may also be other people who agree with me that you’re rude. However, this opinion will probably not help our relationship, bring us closer or help us have honest conversations with each other.
My “truth,” however, might be that when you’re around me I get scared because I worry you might say something that will hurt my feelings. Or, I get angry because I don’t like some of the things you say and do. In other words, I sometimes don’t feel safe or comfortable around you.
This distinction is not just about semantics or words, it is total shift in perspective and context. When we let go of being “right” about our opinions and take responsibility for our experience, we can speak our truth from a much deeper and more authentic place. Speaking this deeper truth will not only liberate us, but has the potential to make a difference for others while bringing us closer together.
Part 2 – Three ways to speak your truth.
Except from Mike Robbins Staff writer for Oprah.com
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