 The full Moon is upon us!
In order to harvest the richness of this full Moon, I've created a Creative Ritual for you to check in with your emotional body and cultivate presence with your sensitivity. This full Moon helps us turn up the shine in our lives and gain more jyoti (light) as Moon will be in Dhanishta nakshatra. Shine your light on the parts of your self and your life that need some extra illumination. Let this full Moon Creative Ritual be a flash light that targets what you are experiencing within. Read more about the full Moon, this Sunday August 10th- in Capricorn and Dhanishta nakshatra. Full Moon Creative Ritual ::: 1) Start with a 3 level check in and write down your findings in three short phrases. 2) We will be focusing on the Emotional Body for this creative ritual. What words, images, experiences came to you in your three level check in? Find a space that you can move, where you feel safe to express your self and quiet enough that you are able to listen to your body's messages. Read the phrase you wrote for the emotional body and let the body assume a "statue shape" that expresses the felt sense of your words. Hold the shape for several minutes. Notice how you feel in this body shape. What images arrive? What messages? What body parts are being used? 3) Begin to move your emotional body statue. Take ten to twenty minutes to explore, move, and develop your statue into an emotional body dance. Let the dance evolve naturally. 4) Come to your drawing pad. Draw an image of your emotional body, based on your emotional body dance. Let colors, shapes, textures and images arrive on the page. Take ten to fifteen minutes for your emotional body drawing. 5) Give your drawing a title. Then answer these baseline questions: I am____ I want____ I need____ 6) Answer these harvesting questions: What am I feeling full of right now? What am I releasing from this waxing Moon cycle? What am I opening to? What am I closing to? What am Inviting in? What am I letting go of? 7) Harvesting Poem. Circle ten to twelve words from your harvesting answers. Create a five to seven line poem with your words. Reflect on the images, words, needs and discoveries you and your creative process have offered through insights. Let these themes carry you through this waning Moon cycle as our cups empty and the light of the Moon slowly fades. Want more help with your sensitivity? Sign up for my Sensitivity: Be Your Gift Workshop. Like this post? Please share it! Want more creative resources? Sign up for my newsletter.
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 Over the past several years, meeting with hundreds of clients one on one, studying their jyotish charts, their struggles and their life purposes, I've come to some very interesting conclusions. Interestingly (but not surprisingly) most of the clients coming to me have issues similar to me, and each one of my clients has been a brilliant teacher for me as a result. I've noticed that the majority of my clients are indeed sensitive individuals- and I can see it in their jyotish charts. I now can see "markers" of this sensitivity and the myriad of forms that it shows up in planetarily. I have also developed and refined my resources, tools and offerings, in order to serve my clients more effectively. Tools and resources that I have used myself; the tools that have been extremely beneficial- even lifesaving- for me.
It hasn't been an easy path. Most of my life has been trial and error. Wondering how I could be so miserable, in so much emotional pain, and wondering why I was struggling so much. It has been a challenging path, wrought with torture at times. Confusion about my self worth, my life purpose, my reason for living at all. Jyotish wasn't much help for me and my life path actually. No jyotishi has ever been able to nail down my life purpose! Which is why I started studying Jyotish more and more; to figure out what my "map" had to say about my dharma, my reason for being alive. Now I have some answers, and I have a unique awareness about the life purpose of extremely sensitive types like me. Now I can offer this wisdom to clients. There have been many blessings along the way. The struggles have forced me to open new doors and to keep trying. My persistence has kept me going. The blessings have been the tools that I've encountered, the support, the encouragement and the guidance that has let me know that I am on the right path. As I discussed more in my article Using Sensitivity As Your Greatest Gift, it wasn't until I started a conscious relationship with my emotions, my emotional body, that life began to shift for me. When I realized that the emotional body had validity, had messages, was in fact a precious tool of guidance in and of itself, well, that was the beginning of some remarkable life changing shifts. I realized that this innate and extreme sensitivity that was validated by my jyotish chart, may have seemed like a curse for most of my life, and even interpreted by traditional jyotishis as such, but that in fact, it was my greatest gift of all! As a result of embracing this extreme sensitivity, the shifts keep coming and my dharmic work has enlivened as well. One of these big shifts has been trusting my emotional body and its messages. Remember that the emotional body and the intuition are closely linked. When we have a very strong relationship with our emotional body, then we have our pulse on the intuitive wisdom that is within us- always available to steer us in the most compassionate direction. The intuition will never lead us astray. The mind/mental body may, but the intuition never does. As I've started to trust and nurture my emotional body wisdom and to cultivate a very close relationship with it, a miraculous thing has occurred. I trust my self, my life, my actions and my choices more. I trust life more. And most importantly, I trust my self to live my life more authentically. Perhaps this has been the biggest blessing of all. The one, big necessary shift? Embracing my emotional body as valid, valuable and brimming with intuitive wisdom. All I have to do is harvest this information in a very clear, direct and focused way. The emotional body is our sensitivity. It is our gift. And if you have a heightened sensitivity, you likely have a heightened emotional body. This, as a result, means you can have a very powerful relationship with your intuition. This is the work that excites me, that I'm passionate about, and that I want to share with you more and more. Using your sensitivity as the gift that it is. Awakening this sensitivity so that it can lead you to your dharmic work, work that is meaningful and valuable for you and the world, and work that even can support you financially as a result. Remember, the most important step to having a more fulfilling life is to start cultivating a relationship with your emotional body. I've given multiple tools and resources to start this journey over the past many months on my blog, and I offer my clients a myriad of resources and techniques in private sessions as well. My favorite tools for emotional body awareness are from a body-centered expressive art therapy approach which incorporates the wisdom of the three bodies: emotional, mental and physical. It all starts with a simple technique called the 3 Level Check In. Work with it and use it to help you cultivate presence with "what is". It's at this point that I want to remind you that we aren't here to change anything, at least not in a forced way. We are here to listen, respect, and to be a witness to "what is" within us. Using a 3 Level Check In is a fabulous resource for this listening, for harvesting what "is" in our mental body, emotional body and physical body. It is our tool for confronting our felt senses, our life experience. All you have to do is listen. That is the first step to this process. We can also use a resource referred to as the "baseline statements" in the Tamalpa Life Art Process. This is a series of questions that help us "harvest" our findings, to hone in on our wants, needs and felt experiences. If you have been using my creative rituals, or one of my workshop MP3's, then you have already started to work with these baseline statements. Don't worry, I will be sharing more about this in my August Full Moon Creative Ritual, as well as my upcoming workshops and offerings, in order to help you gain more experience with this technique. It's this part of the harvesting process, however, that we can take our awareness of "what is" and be more conscious about our next steps in life. Once we identify something, we recognize we have options, choices. This identification process can help us make changes in our life. Or perhaps we choose not to make changes at this time. Regardless of our next steps, identification is the beginning of great awareness and insight. My passion lies in assisting my sensitive clients with their identification process, giving tools and resources that shape their choices and actions. My resources and guidance, workshops, jyotish sessions and coaching services, are all about giving jyoti (light), especially to the sensitive individuals feeling uncertain, overwhelmed, burdened, lost, unsupported by life and by their relationships- resulting in lack of trust with the self. This month, I'm offering yet another workshop offering to help you gain insights into your emotional process. In August, the focus will be on cultivating further presence with our sensitivity, our emotional body and our intuition. Recognizing this sensitivity as a gift, the gift that it truly is. My Be Your Gift Workshop series will last four days- from August 28th to the 31st. This virtual (online) series will help you work with your sensitivity more consciously, cultivate more presence with it, and help you recognize it for the gift that it is. What you will learn in this teleclass: -Why sensitivity is your most powerful tool of self awareness. -Why your sensitivity can be your most trustworthy ally. -How your sensitivity can build self confidence, trust in self and others, as well as self sufficiency. -What your body wisdom is telling you about this gift. -How to use your body's messages for deeper insights. -How to nourish and protect your sensitivity for maximum results. -Why sensitivity can be the missing link on your path and your dharmic journey. -What messages to look for in your emotional body in order for personal and spiritual growth. -How sensitivity is connected to the emotional body and the intuition, and why these are vital for your life. -The common mistake most people make when listening to their inner guidance systems. -"Best practices" for being a sensitive individual. -Why sensitivity is an indication of being gifted and talented. I am looking forward to working with you and helping you develop a strong connection with the gift of your sensitivity. Be your gift!! Doors will open for this workshop on Sunday, August 10th at a reduced fee, but only for a limited time. Look for the update via email. Like this post? Please share it! Want more creative resources? Sign up for my newsletter. Many of you have written to me, sharing that the "3 level check in" has been a powerful go-to resource for you daily, weekly and during tough times. It warms my heart to know that this valuable body-centered expressive art therapy tool is becoming an essential resource in your tool box! Keep up the good work.
With Guru Purnima happening this week (the fullest full Moon of the year), it is a perfect time to work with mandalas and use them as a way to harvest our most essential feelings. In this video, I walk you through the steps of creating a 3 Level Check and then using this to create a Mini Mandala Creative Ritual. Here are the basics: Step #1: Do a three level check in for mental body, emotional body, physical body. Step #2: Draw three circles on a piece of paper and label each one as mental, emotional and physical. Then create your mini mandalas for each of these three bodies. What is the "felt sense" that arrives for each of these? Don't over think this, just create. Remember, it's process, not product right now. Step #3: Give a name or title to each mandala. Capture the essence in words. Extra credit: Answer these baseline statements once you've completed your mini mandala process. I am____ I want____ I need____ I will be continuing to explore the 3 level check in, and how to use it within the creative process, more in the coming weeks. My new Moon virtual workshop happening in July will utilize the 3 levels of awareness directly, using somatics, movement, drawing and greater harvesting through both creative processes and jyotish applications. I hope you can join me! Like this post? Please share it! Want more creative resources? Sign up for my newsletter. Befriending Your Emotions: It's Vital for Your Health. Many of you know that I'm passionate about the Moon and all things Moon related. The Moon and its experience within one's jyotish chart says a lot about the individual human experience. An unhappy Moon can spoil the fruits of a chart or at least make it feel miserable regardless of the bounty. The nature of our natal Moon and its experience with the other planets is so fundamental to our life experience that I devote an entire column to it weekly. The Moon is a powerful resource for us and can be a tool for self growth, awareness and spiritual development. Read more about the Moon from a Jyotish perspective and why it is so revered. Unfortunately, the more I learn about the Moon and its purpose- within the cosmos and within our own beings- the more I realize how ignorant the majority of humans are about this awesome inner guidance system we have hardwired into us. As a result, the emotions are one of these "Moon topics" that are the basis of my work. I'm passionate about the emotions because I have found that most people are completely "dumb" when it comes to navigating their own emotions. In fact, our society is almost entirely clueless about this very real and important human function. Most people would like to skip the "feeling" parts of life all together and bypass this very important tool of inner wisdom. There are however very real and unfortunate consequences to skipping over the emotions. Cultivating a relationship with our emotions can help enrich our lives on so many basic levels. Cultivating more awareness with our emotions can enhance our personal and interpersonal relationships as well as cultivate increased creativity, greater harmony and joy. The human body has a fairly predictable response system in it. When we first have an emotional response it usually only lasts a few moments. Then the mental body attaches to the emotion and keeps it on constant re-play, looping it over and over in our minds. Finally, there is a physical response as a result. This three part process is either happening quickly or we are repeating this cycle over many many years until a very old "story" develops. When an emotion has made its way into a physical body response, we know it is quite engrained in our story or personal mythology at that point. This is why the body can be a wonderful resource for emotional wisdom as well Ideally, we would have a relationship with the emotions that provides us the information we need and the awareness we need in order to make very informed action steps in our lives; before the mind attaches to them and they settle into the physical body. Once the emotion settles into the body, health issues can arise. So clearly the emotions are step number one in prevention. When we skip over the emotions and the consistent work that it takes to create a relationship with our emotions then we bypass the most basic tool within us that is hard wired for our satisfaction and listening in our lives. Do you have a healthy relationship with your emotions? Here are some questions to ask your self about your relationship with your emotions: -Do you pause to listen to your emotions, to check in with what arrives and then use this to inform your actions and choices? -Can you be present (very present) to others' emotions and navigate which are "theirs" and which are "yours"? - Do you dump your emotions on others as a way to cope with your own overwhelm? -Do you hate tears? Anger? Do you wish it could be happy and "smooth" all the time for your Self and your relationships? -Do you push past your own emotions, trying to skip to the "good stuff"? -Do you cut and paste over your feelings- especially around others- in order to keep things "tidy" and not rock the boat? -Do you allow time and space for discomfort and emotions like sadness, anger, depression, grief and loneliness? -Do you use drugs or alcohol, food and other "feel good" methods to enhance your life? Especially when life feels tough? These are valuable questions to ask yourself in order to determine what your relationship is with your emotions and the Emotional Body. It is in fact a whole body in and of itself and its very worthy of your time, attention and intention. Unfortunately, the majority of us are ill-equipped to handle the range of emotions that a human is capable of experiencing. Most of us are conditioned from very early stages of life that certain emotions are "good" and other emotions are "bad". Certain emotions will get a "good" response from our parents and our environment and certain emotions will get us a "bad" response. We may learn to shut down our capacity to feel the full range of our life experiences as a result. We may begin to make choices (over and over and over again) that continue to perpetuate unfortunate circumstances and feelings within our life as well. This early conditioning requires some essential re-patterning, but the good news is that a simple technique called the 3 Level Check-in can be a helpful first step in finding a more conscious relationship with our emotions. We can then move forward in life with greater awareness about life choices, actions and our own personal embodiment. It is a practice, and as they say, practice makes perfect. So use the 3 level check-in to help you flex your emotional muscles so to speak. A three level check in is easy, fast and helps us separate the three bodies- emotional body, mental body, and physical body- so that we can easily identify what their messages are. Interestingly, most people are constantly confusing the mental and emotional bodies. Many of my clients can not even find their emotional bodies because the mental body is overriding it and has been for so long! The mental body wants to take the wheel and keep driving you. And drive it does! On and on and on. To the point of, most people do not even know what is the mind and what are the emotions! They are very different and have very different needs, so making sure that we make room for the emotions and cultivating a relationship with them is really step number one. Here are some ways life improves once we start working with the emotional body more directly: We know what we need and what we don't need in our lives. We know what feels emotionally supportive and we make choices and take action accordingly. We create more healthy boundaries within our lives and our relationships. We have more space in our lives for joy and inspiration. We have more satisfying and wholesome relationships- with ourselves and with others. The results are a directly related to being very acutely aware of our emotional body, what it is telling us, what it needs for nourishment and support, as well as what it doesn't need. If we don't know what it needs, we can't give it what it needs. It's quite simple. Use these three simple steps to help you develop a deeper relationship with your emotions: Step #1: Use the three level check in. Try to create a practice of "checking in" at least once a day but especially when there is a strong emotional response happening within you. Step #2: Tracking themes and patterns that develop within your emotional/mental bodies and noticing how these show up in your physical body. Can you feel your stomach tense up when you feel angry? Does your spine hurt when you feel lack of support or encouragement in your life? Do you get a headache when overwhelm sets in? Step #3: Use your three level check in as the impetus for your creative arts process in order to harvest more information directly. Are you ready for more resources? Listen to my free class: Ultimate Self Care for Sensitive Types. *Photo credit to Taira Restar Need some extra guidance and clarity? Schedule a session with me. Plan your week in tune with nature. Never miss a planetary update. Sign up for my weekly newsletter. I use a simple technique referred to as the "3 Level Check In" to bring awareness to what is happening for me in my daily life and to get embodied. This is a highly valuable tool- one that you've heard me talk about if you've had a session with me or if you've taken a workshop with me. This video will share more about how to "check in".
I've written extensively on the subject because it really is step #1 in getting our needs met. We can't get our needs met in life if we don't know what we need! Consider this your basic formula for stepping into knowing what you need so you can create healthy relationships and life practices. Here's more on the 3 Level Check In. Do you tend to get stuck in your mental body? Or maybe nothing comes when you check in with your emotional body? Take my quiz to see what your "default" mode is. Why do I use Jyotish in conjunction with Body-centered Expressive Art Therapy? Here are my articles that share the benefits and my unique approach: Recreate Your Life {Again and Again} via BeYouMediaGroup. The purpose of using Jyotish + Expressive Art Therapy via BeYouMediaGroup. Like this post? Please share it! Want more creative resources? Sign up for my newsletter. |