9/8/2017 0 Comments Me rambling about busy mind chatter, meditation, Tarot card signs...shhh...listenWow, that's all I can say. It's been a few years now of some sort of major shift in my life that has affected me deeply on my nervous system, emotional level, physical level and spiritual. I have never had anxieties before that I now suddenly seem to have almost over everything. Craziest part I didn't even recognize it as anxiety; I simply thought I was stressed for no reason because I wanted better order or I put too much pressure on myself to have everything 100%. Little by little I got lost in the world of worries and doubts, which only gave me more fears and began to affect me physically. Mentally I was still in the phase where I was energetic and excited to learn new things about metaphysical and spiritual growth, however on the deeper lever I couldn't seem to calm the excitement down. I was not able to shut my mind for a little while like I used to. Before I was able to sit down for a meditation and within a few breathes I was gone somewhere in the universe and the peaceful level of emptiness. I simply didn't think, I listened to my soul, to my higher self, to the wisdom it brought. I connected to my spirit guides and they have provided me even more comfort and peace. I didn't have to stress or worry or plan or prove anything to myself or anyone. I knew I was part of the light, I knew I was loved... and I still do! I am not saying that I don't . But something has changed, something has happened. I don't know if it was due to too many spirit activities that started to happen when I did Reiki healings. I am not sure if some of those spirits spooked me. I don't know if it was because now I was pushing too hard to have a message for each of my clients because now most of them came more for that purpose than for the healing itself. Did I feel now pressured to connect and deliver? Did I let ego get in the way trying to squeeze all my energy into getting the connection and message when it wasn't coming in? (Yes, spirit doesn't always show up to talk whenever you please)
My confidence in my intuition started to fade just when I started to see the miracles of spirits that are no longer here with us. Just when I started to get the wisdom from the other side... Just when it all became so amazingly connecting to the soul, I allowed my intuition to be questioned over and over because I wanted more proof; I wanted to have answers ready when I am asked, but it didn't always come through. And when it did I doubted it if it was right... even after I had got it validated I would test myself again and then because I pushed myself harder maybe I would use my ego instead of intuition and getting wrong answers gave me more and more blocks to stop listening to my own intuition. Here I was slowly loosing myself in my own doubts. Here I was slowly moving away from what is deep down in my core has always been a calling and now I was too afraid and not believing in my own abilities. Instead I got busy with usual bullshit of what life always offers us; worries, bills, long working hours, stress, disappointments, hardships, heartbreaks, anxieties and all the beauty of highs and lows in life. There were moments where I have gone through a tremendous pain that my heart and soul couldn't bare. I felt like I have died inside. Obviously I have not died, but my body couldn't bare all that so well. It caused me to have extreme breakouts, as if body was rejecting all that pain and darkness. I have become empty inside. Completely empty, numb, stripped of my confidence, my vibrant energy I once shared with the world. I was stripped of my own persona of who I was and it seemed like a long road to get back to the light. My body started to slowly break it's mechanical work flow. My muscles became tight, from all the tension, anxiety, pain and lack of good nutrition I started to have major muscle spasms, tendonitis in numerous areas of my body. My hair started to feel dead just like my soul, it started to fall out more, my skin wasn't glowing as it used to, my neck became with stiff aches and every morning I woke up I would have pain coming down my arm, spasms in my ass from tightness of my piriformis syndrome... basically I was falling apart. Sounds like a joke right... It just became like a domino effect. There were times when I had the urge to get back to painting because I knew that this is what makes me feel good inside, this is what makes my soul feel alive. This is where I express my emotions as if it was on paper with words, except here no one knew the words I was saying and things I was feeling it was up to the viewer to feel what they want. Even though I had those days when I wanted to grab a brush, that feeling quickly went away when I had realized that I was still too raw with my emotions and I would not be able to express it while I was still not in the calm state of mind. During this time I had learned about myself more as I have dived into astrology on a more deeper level. I have learned more about who I am and why I am the way I am. I have learned my reasons for sensitivity to others and their energy and how it affected me because I am an empath and to top this amazing part of me, I am also Moon in Pieces. Basically feeling all the emotions and energies for me is like a storm hitting the shore all day, everyday. YaY for me!!!! I wondered to myself if this is why I am always feeling everyone's worries, everyone's pain, emotional distress. Is this why I always want to help everyone, is this why I somehow pull all the sad, depressed, helpless, needy, clingy and lost people my way???? Not that these people are bad, because we all go through these phases sometimes. Is this why even the ones who are much older than me came for comfort, advise and guidance? Somehow, I always seemed to have the right words, advise, knowledge and wisdom that came from somewhere deep inside, that seemed to me was really from a higher level of vibration. Did my soul come here to go through all the struggles and pains and then apply them to those who came to me so I can help them? Is this why I am so sensitive to energies? Is this why I am forever a gypsy and healer at heart? Is this why materialistic shit means nothing to me compared to how much hunger I have for wanting to continuously learn and expend spiritually to only elevate those who are in need as well as myself? Because that wisdom, that knowledge and peace you can obtain is more valuable than materialistic things. Astrology and the signs in which houses they were in- gave me a lot of those answers. Boy oh boy did my soul plan a big task for me to learn and endure in this lifetime... Now I am chewing on it all. I know, I know it's all for the purpose of my experiences and growth, and even though I have those low moments I am still grateful for all that I have learned and for all the pain I have gone through to be where I am today as a spiritual being. I also know that there are still a lot of parts of me that need to be changed and you know for Taures in Sun sign (not liking the changes), Virgo in Ascendant (the need for plan and structure) and Pieces in Moon (feeling emotional, sentimental, spiritual and very intuitive) it's hard to split myself in one direction or change so quickly with all these traits . Let's get back to why I started this blog. I know I tend to get off topic all the time :) because my mind is running thoughts in 1 million directions at once, and somehow they are all connected for me where I feel that, I have to talk about them all. This is kind of the reason why I started the blog actually, to point out that I have been pulling tarot cards over and over in the past few month and they all keep telling me "Julia, shut up! Shut your damn brain from running it's mouth. You need to get back to your peace, your stillness. You need to MEDITATE in order to feel balanced again, to feel grounded and to get back to feeling your connection to Divine." Ok, well obviously my cards don't really talk to me like that, but you get the point I am trying to say. Right? All this time my tarot cards would come out all about needing to replenish your energy by spending time in the nature, find time to meditate, heal your heart, heal within, find your light by spending time alone in the quite. I saw all these messages and of course I ignored it because there are too many things going on. Too many changes happening in my life. I don't have time for meditation as much as I would like. I forgot how to shut my damn brain from it's chatter.... There aren't enough hours in the day for me to get all my stuff done, then find time for me to do things I like, like painting, yoga, meditation, writing, singing, playing my guitar, jewelry making (just picked this one up recently as an additional hobbie I can't find time for). Eh, the list goes on for what I want to do, what I need to do, and the excuses I make why I can't do. And here we are today. Pulling the cards for my soul message a few days before the full moon. What does it tell me I need to do?! MEDITATE! Go into quite place, away from mind chatter, find time to be with myself so I can hear my souls wisdom. So I can hear my higher self tell me what I need to do to find my balance, my peace I once had. My soul knows what it needs and the cards tell me exactly that. And when I do that, my confidence (solar plexus chakra card) will be balanced. I will get back my confidence, my radiance of my soul will shine again. Except now as empath, I should know better how to protect my energy from the Vampire energies of those around who drain me. (This is a lot of work that I am still in the process of learning) The result of the cards.... Success!!!!! YES!!!! I will be successful in being balanced, being at peace, being more vibrant again, happy, less stressful (you know you can't be stress fee completly from all.... people come on!) Here it is. My rambling about todays tarot cards that came out. It was like a door bell ringing in my head telling me that this is not the first time this message has been given to me. I had to realize it, I have to act on it. I had to share it because I know there are plenty of you, just like me. Who are allowing the business of your life, the crap it comes with become so overwhelming that you just get swallowed by it all. Consumed with worries, you get your entire body out of wack, where you now think you are just sick, or falling apart because you are getting old. STOP kidding yourself. It's first the mental state and how balanced and nourished it is that effects your emotions, then your body and then you just feel like a broken cuckoo bird. I wanted to share this because I am sure there are some of you who will read this and too will recognize the signs you have been feeling, receiving or hearing even on how you need to MEDITATE! How you need to find that peace within yourself whatever it takes. If you have to go lock yourself in the room to be alone, go drive yourself to the park, pull over the highway to sit for a few minutes in your car taking deep breathes. Shit, I have in my car and my purse essential oils so I can breathe the crap out of them to feel relaxed and feel like I am finally allowing myself to slow down even if I am doing this for a few minutes. Yes, maybe sometimes the road rage still gets to me :p but we are all people and you can't just not feel at all. You can though keep bringing yourself back every time to that Zen by constantly being conscious of your stress you bring on yourself from your busy mind. You can keep bringing yourself back to breathing and meditating when ever you can have a few minutes to keep yourself more balanced until you finally will get back to that peaceful state of mind. This is a reminder for me.... and I wanted to share this with you so it can be a reminder for you too. Life is short and we are meant to enjoy it, grow from it, expend spiritually and to do that we can not allow our ego, our fears, our doubts and worries get so much in the way of this that we are no longer living but rather suffering in our own world we have created. Breathe 💜 Namaste 🙏 Julia
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6/10/2016 0 Comments Attachments and Moving forwardThis blog is not going to end with answers but rather just me expressing my thoughts on never ending cycle of our human behavior, brain, emotions and how we handle things when it comes to things we get used to. Please bear with me... I too am still looking for answers. With this said here it goes….. They say human beings are creatures of habit. I have come to see this fact prove itself time after time again. Why is it that something that wasn't there before and suddenly is present in your life for a short period of time suddenly becomes your attachment, your sudden need to keep it in your life, your sudden habit of expecting it, using it, seeing it, feeling it..... what ever it is that it gives us or does for us. If you are used to walking to work and suddenly you got a car, getting used to driving a car to work becomes very easy, even if it's just for a month. But going back to waking after you had driven a car for a month seems like a big change. You need to make new adjustments; you miss the ability and freedom to drive. Yet, before you had a car you didn't know anything else and you seemed to manage just fine by walking. This shows that we get used to things that are pleasant and convenient yet something that requires more work or feelings to deal with we suddenly find difficult to get used to as fast as we did to something we liked. If you get used to a certain routine of your daily mornings lets say and suddenly someone moves in with you the routine is impossible to keep. You get frustrated, you need your balance, your routine and things you are used to. Yet if this person lives with you for a few months and then moves out, you suddenly miss the new routine you forcibly now adjusted to and had to create while they lived with you. If before you felt happy being alone, having your own space and how you spend your free time and suddenly you have significant other or relative occupying your time and space- you feel a big shift. You may even feel annoyed, or like you are unable to enjoy the things you did when you were alone. Yet again, once this person moves out or even is gone just for a week or two, you notice the emptiness, like something is missing. This someone, who has broken up your normal routine, the things you were used, things you enjoyed - has brought with them new changes, new routines, taking away your free times, giving you less space and making you feel like now you had to learn to share and balance things not just for self....and yet you again got used to new routine. Then after all of this they left you back to it, to what you had before them. Here you go again finding yourself missing what you are used to, but this time it's the presence of this person, the togetherness, the lack of space you before fought for… now you feel too much space.. You miss the very things you first found yourself feeling annoyed about, the things that took you a while to adjust to. Here you are again now missing those things, finding yourself feeling confused as to why you feel like something is missing. What is it that causes us be so attached to things, people, memories, things, experiences? Is it the emotions that drive us to feel what we feel, which in return makes us connect and attach to things that made us feel all this? Because when we don’t feel we don’t experience connection and we do not have those attachments.. and when I speak of feeling I don’t mean just romantically. I am talking about even a simple feeling of being in the presence of a friend can make us feel not alone, a simple thing as being understood can make us feel accepted… a simple thing as having ability to pay for our bills can give us a feeling of independence. Now take away these small things and we will feel the void, the things we suddenly miss or feel we want back because we have attached ourselves to all these things which are all connected to how we feel. But if you are emotionally detached… and it means nothing to you to have things/ people in your life or not… so when it’s gone there is no void and no attachments. Can there be a balance to all this? How do we find ourselves avoid attachments… because as Buddha saying goes “The root of suffering is attachment”, which I can see and understand what it means, but not to attach means not to have any expectation of consistent results, which we humans consistently create…to which we get used to…and once it’s taken away we find ourselves feeling out of balance… hurt, lost, confused, missing it, and it’s all suffering due to all those attachments. To not attach we have to not feel, we have to not involve emotions, we have to not involve our analytical mind and ego that likes to interpret things and label things as to what it thinks it is… We basically have to be observers being in the present moment all the time rather than living it and applying it to our feelings, thoughts and expectations. However, if we are just observers and are not to feel how can we love back, sympathize, care, stand up for ourselves when we need to defend, speak out our mind when we feel we want to be heard…? We need to feel in order to feel alive… we need to experience things in order to feel alive… we need to know sadness to know happiness, we need to know what broken heart is to know what love is… what it’s like to be rejected to know what it’s like to feel accepted…. This is life… for our souls to experience all this, to understand the difference of it all. Otherwise what is the purpose to being here anyway? If we have nothing to learn or to feel why are we here? Ok, I don’t know it either but I can tell you for sure that people who have experienced a lot in their life are more compassionate, genuine, wiser and so on… so this life must have taught them something vs those whose soul chose not to learn and expend but rather stay in undeveloped stage of constant cycle due to not willing to understand the lessons life had offered to learn from experiences that were placed in front of us. So what I am saying is, yes, we are creatures of habit and we do get used to things certain ways because we want certain results to make us feel the way we want to feel. It’s ok to feel all these things our body, heart and souls is capable of feeling. It’s ok to feel happy, sad, rejected, accepted. It’s all part of our soul experiencing things… what is not ok is for us to allow these feelings turn us into rocks, where we are stuck and are unable to learn things to move forward, where we hold on to pain, grudges or resentment, where we are not allowing our own selves to evolve from the experience but rather close ourselves due to the experience. If we are happy we need to learn how to share this happiness with others. If we are heartbroken we need to learn how to move forward and not let it define us as that just a sad, heartbroken person. Our soul is meant to learn and expend forward so we need to learn how to understand that all these attachments are part of our feelings that connected us to something or someone in the first place. It was just experiences that gave us certain feeling, certain emotion to which we got attached. And just how we have created those attachments due to feelings we can remove them the moment we sit down and go through what we really feel, understand why we feel what we feel and then allow ourselves slowly detach what no longer serves us and those feeling and move forward. It’s easier said than done, I know and I am not saying it’s a fast process either. However, as we go through this very hard time of detaching, letting go and understanding what our soul needs or what we need to remove we learn to love ourselves back to who we always were… we learn to love ourselves without the need of someone’s approval, we learn to love ourselves without the need of having someone constantly be there to make us feel better..we learn to appreciate who we are… and when we feel complete we will start to see new things happening to us again because we are no longer stuck in the same cycle or rut… we have moved forwarder on our journey and our soul is preparing for new experiences. Love and light, lovely souls Namaste Julia S Life..... Yes, it's just a four letter word, seems so simple and yet LIFE is so big, so hard, so complex, so emotional at times, so painful, so grueling, at times lonely and confusing and so full of beautiful moments at the same times, full of laughter, joy, special moments, excitement, new beginnings, precious moments, connecting and bonding moments, love and happiness. Ahhh...... LIFE, there is so much to it and so many of us let one side by pass us without noticing it while we are too busy concentrating on the other side of it and vice versa.
Yes, I too am one of them who let it all get by me so many times because I got too busy with other life's worries and demands and concentrated on those things way too much. However, lets take a moment here and pause...... Did I mention that life is short? I am not saying that life will always be easy and perfect but lets look at things from a more spiritual point and find the balance on how to make it work more with the purpose. Our souls journey is to learn/ remember / advance – whatever you want to believe or call it. Point is in our physical bodies we are more able to feel the physical pain and emotions but in spiritual form (which we apparently forgot how it feels when we entered physical form) we get to know how we are connected to universe, how our souls/spirits are unlimited and how we are pure energy... and how we ARE energy of light and love always. So lets talk about when we are here in physical form... in LIFE as we call it. I speak from my personal understanding from personal experiences, from things I have learned when I had received messages from the spiritual guides and from many books I have in my library that I have read on the whole spiritual journey of the souls. So please understand I do not speak of things claiming to be a prophet or wise man. I share my knowledge and you are welcome to believe it, discard it or just read it and move on. Yes, I believe we have lived many life’s and we have chosen each one of them ourselves to give our soul to learn different lessons. But I will write a different blog about that later ( be patient). What I want to speak about is us, here letting our life by-pass us, when what we should be doing is connecting back to our soul’s true purpose. As I had mentioned before in our physical form we do experience things more on emotional and physical level. Now imagine how hard it is for us when we deal with daily life events that affect us emotionally and physically. We deal with heartbreaks, loss, anxiety, stress, sadness, happiness, joy and so on. All of these physical experiences we feel are for us to know what it is like to feel. Our physical body gets to feel this and it shapes us to act and react to things that we are dealing with in different ways. One person may deal with loss differently than the other; one person may deal differently with anxiety, happiness, joy, fear, disappointment and so on - than the other person. The point is to learn how to use these experiences to help ourselves balance our life in a better way; to receive these experiences in a way that it doesn’t consume our lives to a point where we only live with one side of existence but rather we live with these experiences to deepen our understanding of this amazing thing LIFE. So how should we find balance? Let’s say it’s time in your life when everything is not going well. Financial instability, bills, what to do with your life, career? All of that causes too much anxiety. We go on, usually stressing some more about this to a point where we now effect our sleep, eating pattern and quality time we chose to spend with loved ones or even by ourselves. Our heads get busy with so many worries, so many thoughts that all we can do now is only doubt more, which in effect makes us feel hopeless, which causes us to worry even more, depression sets in and it just consumes our lives. Our bodies get tense, which causes muscles to tighten, which in result causes us to have physical body pains, which in effect causes lack of sleep again bringing us to be awake in the middle of the night and think some more of all the problems we are continuing to create in our mind to be even bigger. The way we start to look at life is pretty gloomy, and the people in our lives start to look like they don’t understand us, and we are no longer happy with ourselves and therefore no longer believe in ourselves. Ohhhh, boy all this can make anyone depressed just reading this. But do you recognize some of the symptoms, some of the actions and thoughts you too may add when you deal with a simple anxiety that grew into something huge? Do you realize how much from one negative energy you allowed to let it grow into a big cloud of negativity that eventually consumed you. So what are we to do? How do we balance this? For one, I am not saying that it’s possible to avoid difficult situations or times when it may be hard. However, when we let all that take over us we literally create ourselves a life of never-ending torture, where we are constantly worried, constantly stressed and we don’t even realize that we let our life pass us by with us only living in that type of anxiety mode. Why do we do that to ourselves? Stressing about something will not make it go away, get fixed or get better. Why do we allow this to take over us and we don’t even realize how much we lose ourselves to this. How much we lose our life where we should find time to bring in love and positive but instead we only find time for all- this negative. We need to learn to create time and space each day to let go, no matter how stressful and anxious we are. To find time to see what is this situation trying to teach me? What am I to learn here or take away from this? How can I apply positive into this difficult situation and time? If you lost a job, take a day to relax and gather your thoughts from the loving and clear mind. Spend that day with those who you love, and let that positive time allow you to see a bigger picture. Life is short. Today I will enjoy my time with my family, or with just myself- where I will not stress or think about tomorrow. Tomorrow, I will wake up thinking positive and look for any opportunity available to make things work, because it can be much worse. This is what we need to do. Not waste away our life on negative, on things that only hurt us but in no way they serve us for the better. The more we are able to clear our mind, bring in positive thoughts and realize how much life is precious to be wasting on negative, the easier it will be to change our negative cycle and live with love in our hearts, love in our life and let that cycle be more prominent. If we already experience joy at a certain point in our lives then we too need to balance it by not becoming greedy with what we have but rather spread that love on to those who are in need. If all is going well for you, why not help out those who need support, those who are ill? The point of LIFE is not to live for just yourself but to learn through experiences we go through. And what a waste of life it would be if we can only experience all the good and not pay attention to how many around us need us to help. I don’t even mean to go give your money away, even though if you have some extra cash, then sure why not give it to a homeless when you can. But what I mean is if your family needs your extra time to help them, your co-worker needs your extra help to finish up, your anxious spouse, child, friend needs your love and happy energy to lift them up, support them, love them, and understand them. Don’t only give the time to yourself for things you love, but also give your volunteering time of free will- without expecting any rewards or recognition. Give that time with love, from your pure desires of wanting to be there to assist, love, inspire, cheer and support. It’s all about balance and it all comes to the same thing. LOVE. No matter what consumes you, we must do it with free will, with love and with clear mind. Mind that is willing to look at every experience as a tool to learn and advance our spiritual journey; not materialistic, egocentric reason to be recognized or to have things to consider as "self happy". That is why here in a physical form we are to experience everything in such strong ways, but it’s up to us on how we will use these experiences to really feel the LIFE. It’s you who will decide whether you want to spend it stressing and being negative, or if you want to correct yourself in time and bring yourself back to clear your mind and find that “love” that every soul posses and is made of and find more meaningful way of looking at life, finding your purpose even in a difficult situation to learn and advance your soul. Julia K. Love and Light my lovely souls <3 1/14/2016 0 Comments Look Deeper Than Outer LayerLife is as beautiful as you make it. For every viewer there is a different view and perspective of what they see and therefore experience. Yet, many times others judgements and opinions block our own view to see how precious our life is and as a soul how beautiful we are. We get lost in what others want us to be and we get lost in wanting to please others and be able to fit in or to stand out to feel special. We don't even realize that we deny our own self worth and acceptance of who we truly are. What we need to do is stop to have expectations of what we want others to think of us, stop having expectations of we want others to do for us and towards us and just love ourselves for who we are. Believe in ourselves and know that we are beautiful and unique in our own ways.
Like a blooming flower we go through a cycle. We go through growth, we go through low moments and we bloom when we experience good moments. Point is not to lose yourself at times when it is gloomy, difficult times but to know that we will bloom again and see the beautiful in life as we experience and as we grow through our souls journey. Life is short so chose to live it not in worry, agony or despair but rather remember to chose to see the good in every difficult situation, chose to connect to what's important to the soul and surround yourself with people who you love, those who will always support you and lift you up and finally remove yourself from those that only judge and criticise you because you don't fit into their view of expectations. Julia K. 4/3/2014 3 Comments Meditation?This is for those who have done some meditation and also for those who never tried before. How easy it is to get busy and chaotic in a daily life of choirs, job, family, kids and on and on the list goes on. We get so caught up in things, we don’t even realize that we have completely taken the time away from us. Our own selves. We are no longer properly resting, we gave up our daily or even let it be weekly meditations (for those who don’t meditate it can be an activity that makes you at peace) and now we are sinking in our own thoughts of constant worries to a point that we don’t even notice that this is why we are not able to even get a simple thing as a “good sleep”. Just think about it. Meditation is such an amazing thing for your body, your nervous system, and your soul. At the time of meditation we allow ourselves to calm down, slow down the brain activity of all the non-stop thoughts and worries that keep circulating in our head and connect with our inner self, our soul. When it’s done on regular basis, we get into that wonderful peaceful state much quicker. We are also able to hear what our soul is trying to convey to us. What it needs, what it wants and how to go about our life’s journey, because now we are more in tune with our senses and aware of the inner wisdom our soul holds. Because we are able to become more still, calm and aware at this time it leads us to have a much more worry free day. This also leads to more restful sleep and stronger immune system. Meditation helps us to be more open, compassionate, have a bigger heart towards things and people, and be more forgiving and loving. Oh, the benefits of meditation are known and spoken in now day and age constantly. So why are we allowing the craziness of daily life get in the way of such great thing? We must not forget how healing, soul feeding and wonderful it is for us. We must find at least 15 minutes every day to meditate and free ourselves of all that clutter in our heads. Let’s make that a promise to ourselves. Just like a daily need for food, let’s make it a necessity to survive. If you don’t know how to meditate start with guided meditation. You can find so many great guided meditations on YouTube now. Find the one that sound just right for you, and relax. As you can master the part of letting go of thoughts, as you get better at emptying your mind you can then practice on your own by using visualization or just a breathing techniques. To visualize- as you lay with your eyes closed start with the top of your head. Visualize the white light entering the crown of your head filling it with this illuminating light, continue down to your throat, your arms, down to your chest. Stop for a minute to concentrate on the heart chakra as you visualize the light filling your heart, removing all the dark corners by filling it with light until your heart is glowing with light and radiating with love (all visually) and (don’t forget to breath slow deep breaths as you do this the whole time). Now continue letting this light flow down to your belly, thighs, legs, all the way down to your toes until you are completely covered in the light. Once you are done Ujjay Pranayama or Ocean brath (try this breathing technique) My favorite pranayama- breathing technique is Ocean breath also known as Ujjayi breath. It’s known as a balancing and calming breath which helps to increase oxygen to the lungs and builds internal body heat. It tones the lungs and helps a healthy flow of prana, while regulating blood pressure. It’s great to use this kind of breath when you have anxiety, when you need to calm yourself from a stressful situation, when you practice yoga and can also be used in meditation. Here is how it works: You inhale and exhale through your nose only, while you do that try to say “ha” with your mouth closed, do it slowly. As the throat passage is narrowed so is the airway- creating a hissing sound. By contracting you throat you create a balanced breathing, slowly taking in and out the oxygen and calming down the mind. Love and Light Julia Shestak I want to talk about how some people might give their thanks to universe the wrong way. How the intentions are even though looks like are good are really directed in the wrong way. If you find yourself asking for materialistic things such as money, home, cars, fancy vacations etc., and then thanking Lord and Universe for it in the hopes that this is how it will come to you- you are doing it wrong. Please understand that when your intentions are about materialistic things it is not meant for the greater good. We cannot take our material possessions with us when we die. Our soul is what goes on to the next life not the money or cars. The most important thing should start with you first. Make sure you are happy internally, emotionally, and physically. When you are happy with your life, with yourself and with who is in your life- love just pours out of you. When you have nothing but love coming from you, everything good pulls closer to you. You can be driving down the street and run into that perfect home you wanted to buy – the universe giving you what you want can be the fact that you run into this home and it can be for foreclosure, giving you that little opportunity to get what you want for the price that you can afford. Maybe if you are unemployed somehow you will get a job opportunity pop up out of nowhere. So remember it’s not about asking for money and a mansion from God is what will give you what you want. Its appreciation and pure love of life is what will drive you closer to good things. When you are thankful for what you have God sees what you deserve and will provide you with what you deserve. Here is an example on how the thanks should be done: Dear God and the Energies of the Universe, I want to thank you for another day and for everything you give me in my life. I want to thank you for keeping me and my family healthy, happy and loved. I want to thank you for your support and constant guidance in my life path. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to learn lessons and allowing me to grow as a being. Thank you for keeping my eyes open at times when my ego might get in the way and when I might slip up and forget for what is really important and what I need to be grateful for. I thank you for being in my life and for never giving up on me. Remember, if you are thankful and grateful for what you have- you will not have the need to cling to materialistic things that are actually not allowing our spirit grow further. Love and Light Julia 2/28/2013 1 Comment Incense and its powersMany people think of burning incense as just air freshener. However, it has many more benefits than you think. Monks and Hindu people have been using incense for centuries as part of their meditations and spiritual matters. Many other cultures and religions use it as well. Our sense of smell is direct path to the brain, and it triggers how we respond to our surrounding and internally. Incense heighten our concentration, our focus becomes stronger. We can get easily inspired, our creative and visualization becomes more vivid. Incense can help to become more in touch with our senses internally and this brings us closer to our spiritual self. It can also clear tense energy around the house and make it more welcoming and calming. Using incense does not have to be only during meditation, it can simply be used when you are at home going about your business and yet you will still feel the difference once the air infuses in its smells. Incense has many flavors and scents and you can choose different one for different effects that you are looking to achieve. Here are a few suggestions: Lavender: Calming and healing effect, beauty and romance Sandalwood: protection, clearing of negative energies Jasmine: Love, strength, good for meditation and receiving soothing effect on inner self Frankincense: promotes calm and peace, relieves anxiety and stress, ending arguments and tension in relationships or family matters Nag Champa: similar to Sandalwood it is good for meditation and spiritual matters, protection, clearing of negative, enlightenment Dragon Blood: good for cleansing negative energy, purification, healing Rose: sex, desire, love Love and Light Julia I don't know if it is raining where you are but it sure is raining here in NJ & NY today. Perfect day to take extra time to ground yourself and help to stimulate our first chakra that keeps us stable in our daily lives. If you can hear the rain this would be even more easier to visualize. Sit down and close your eyes. Relax your body and start to take nice easy breaths, slowly. Visualize the rain or waterfall pouring down on you all the way to your toes. Let the visual stay of the water coming down for the next 5 minutes. Then start to visualize the roots coming out from the bottom of the base of your spine, as if it's tree roots growing. Let the roots get long, and go deep into the earth, continuing all the way until it reaches the middle of the earth core. Visualize yourself rooted and grounded to the Mother Earth as you feel the energy from it energize you and balance your chakra 1. Sit with this visual for the next 5-10 minutes. When you done, give your thanks to the Universe and the energies around you. Namaste my friends Julia Life can get rough at times, but don't let it drown you at those dark moments. It is easy to let negative situation or feelings to build into full depression. It’s almost as if you dig your own deep hole. You allow yourself to let other people’s actions or words effect how you feel. You start to think about how bad things are, how no good you are, how painful it is to feel these feelings and you are just digging deeper and deeper into hole. You start to have less sleep, eat less or more, and even interact with others less. Those people, who have hurt you, keep living their lives without knowing or worrying how you are feeling, but it is you who allowed yourself to get to this level by immersing yourself into the whirlwind of emotions. Whether you are just stressing or getting to a point of being depressed you must recognize this and do something about it before it gets worse. Stop yourself from stressing and overwhelming feelings by putting everything on hold for just at least 30 minutes to an hour a day. Simply shut the phone off, TV off and get away from any other distractions. Find a quiet place where you can sit or even lay down and meditate. If you are outside, close your eyes as you let the sun rays lay over your face. If you are at home find a room where you can relax, burn some incense, listen to soft music and start taking deep breathes. Let go of all the thoughts and worries just for now. Keep breathing and relaxing. As you get towards the middle of your meditation start to visualize that everything is going to fall in its place, you will find a solution for whatever it is you are dealing with and reassure yourself that you can handle any situation as long as you are calm. Surround yourself with people who are positive and supportive. Speak to someone or write a journal just to let all those thoughts and emotions out. When you meditate you allow yourself to become more peaceful and calm. You are able to make better decisions instead of rushing into quick fixes because you are stressed. The most important thing to remember is to NEVER think of negative outcomes. For example: “I will fail”, “I know I won’t be able to get this job”,“I can’t do anything right”, I am always sick”, “ I never have anything good happening to me”, “I’m so frustrated I just want to run away from all of this”.By talking or thinking like this, you talk yourself into believing it, and you only invite the negative to happen. Have you heard of the phrase “Self prophecy”?This is it. So, what I’m saying is try to do your best whenever you find yourself stressing and going back on these type of thoughts to bring yourself back to positive, change your thinking, meditate on positive and calm yourself before making any decisions or finding solutions to your problems. Depending on what it is you are dealing with whether it is just stress or depression- MEDITATION is one of the first things that you can do to help yourself. In fact if you would to meditate at least 3-4 times a week for as little as 15-20 min. a day you would find yourself always more positive and calm. This is because you give yourself the time to go into yourself, giving yourself the time to hear what your soul needs and allowing yourself to simply be in a moment without any worries for just a short time, in return your body and mind is cleared off extra stress and is able to function in a more positive manner. Remember, you are unique. There is no one else that is exactly like you. You are a being of light and don’t let anyone dim that light. Take every situation as a lesson to learn rather than a problem that drowns you down. When you learn something in school you find ways how to approach each subject in a way that you know you can learn the best. Do the same thing with your daily life. Look at a problem with calm mind and approach it as a lesson to learn at best angle. Ask yourself how can I learn something from this situation, what is it trying to teach me here? If you look at everything as a lesson to learn you won’t be taking things as negative but actually will be able to move on faster as you recognize a lesson. For example: Your love partner decided to leave you. Instead of dwelling, crying and getting depressed- “I can’t believe this, why, how am I going to live now without this person”, ask yourself- where was my faults and how can I now learn from this whole situation so I can move on? I’m not saying it is easy to just move on when your loved one left you and I am in no way saying don’t look for your mistakes and just move on. It is hard to forget someone who you have been with and then they leave you. However, you analyze your relationship and see what your mistakes were and what your partner mistakes were. Then you look at what did this relationship or even break up taught you as a lesson. Maybe the lesson was how to be more understanding, how to be more loving and expressive or maybe be able to communicate better and be more compassionate. Whichever it is you take it as a lesson not as a situation to blame someone. We are with people sometimes for only certain amount of time just to learn a specific lesson our soul needs to learn, and as we learn it, it is time for us to move on to learn other lessons in our life’s path and that’s when you find yourself separate. Understand that maybe the reason for you to separate is because there is no more for you to learn from each other. Well this was just one example on how to view the situation or problems, from here you can understand how to view everything else, and don’t forget to meditate to have a clearer mind and to be connected better with your soul. Love and Light my friends Namaste Julia 1/17/2013 0 Comments Materialism or happiness?It's not the brand name of your clothes, car or size of the house that you own - that will bring you happiness. These are all materialistic things. Work on happiness within, because when you are happy in your soul there is no money that can replace it. Stop chasing dreams that are superficial life goals. Do you really want to have everything fancy but still feel empty inside? Of course we live in the world that's materialistic, and we cannot survive without money. But this is what becomes so important for people to earn more and more and more that we don't realize that we are no longer LIVING. We are wasting our lives away trying to get to a goal of more money. Not realizing that it becomes never enough! Yes, it feels good to be able to travel, to have a good home where you feel safe, but how much do we have that is not that important and yet we spend our money on it. Lawyers, doctors and other well-paying careers offer these people a wonderfully luscious life to live. However, when you get to know them more on a personal level most of them have pretty sad lives. Their marriage is dead, they feel no love and connection, they feel like robots that are just keep moving to make more money. Some get lonely as a being while still living together with their significant other, and they don’t even know that they feel it. We are so disconnected from our inner self, we are so numb from feeling because we are way too busy chasing dollars and materialistic things. We don’t have time to sit down and calm ourselves, calm our mind and go really deep in to see what the soul really desires. We neglect that very important piece of happiness. I am not saying you should not have a job, or have a goal to go on vacation or somewhere you enjoy. We do need to unfortunately work in order for us to do anything because it all costs money. However, if you work and still find time to use some of that money for your personal growth, personal healing. You will see how much easier and how much more connected you will feel to life itself. Instead of trying to buy a mansion and work yourself crazy to do so, work where you know it gives you joy and have a schedule where you can still find time for simple things in life. Enjoy the walks in the park, enjoy the nature, simple intimate dinners with loved ones. Don’t get so lost in what’s popular and in trend, instead get lost in your true feelings of living. When you buy a new outfit, you feel good wearing it for that time being. Your intention is to look good and for others to notice it. But when you do something that helps someone and you can see their gratitude. It feels a thousand times better than that outfit you were out once. The feeling of doing good stays for a long time, the clothes you wear doesn’t. The more you can find to just stop and sit with yourself, your soul will guide you with what it needs. You will find yourself become more sensitive, your feelings will start to surface up and you will find yourself wanting to do something good whether it’s for yourself or someone else. When you do, it will give you that joy that you haven’t experienced in a long time. So, what I am saying, don’t live for the money, don’t let it take over your life where you no longer enjoy it. Don’t let the brand names of clothing or styles of cars that everyone is having, guide you into darkness – thinking that this is where happiness is. Learn to balance it, make it more simple life but deep in quality for inner self. Always find that time that you can spend with just you, in quiet and peace, where you allow to still your mind, time to reveal the messages your soul gives, to take direction towards a happier YOU. 12/6/2012 2 Comments Overflow of Emotions Sometimes it happens and I can’t explain why. My body is overtaken by emotions to a point where it hurts. Ok, let me break it down so you can see what I mean. I go about my day like usual. Feeling cheery and positive and all is fine, until suddenly IT creeps up on me and BOOM suddenly I am in this mood, feeling, anxiety- whatever you want to call it. All the thoughts flood my mind and go through me, making me wonder what if? What if I will be alone forever? What if the one I love won’t love me anymore? What if I lose what is precious to me like my kids? What if my feelings of just feeling will go away? What if I don’t get a chance to complete my life in the way I wanted? What if? All of the sudden these damn “what ifs” put me in the center of it all and I feel as if I am floating disconnected from everything. I get into this panic inside me, where I feel my stomach getting tight and I just want to cry. I feel alone, completely alone. I don’t understand my own self and I don’t expect you to understand this madness either. I have kids, I have a man who loves me I am surrounded by people constantly who care about me and yet I am feeling alone? Really? Something is not right. My soul feels so inspired one minute and the next it feels empty. I pour my heart out into wanting to help those who I see emotionally down and yet I am at times emotionally broken myself. I have sympathy for those that are hurt and I look up to those who are strong. I try to understand where each person comes from and what is the core of that darker ribbon that lingers inside as part of the sadness? And yet I cannot figure out my own ribbon that seems to appear time to time within me. Can this be one of the openings? Is this another lesson to learn? Do I need to feel this emptiness inside my heart and soul so I can learn new ways to understand others? Can this be one of my own phobias that is coming up? Am I afraid to be alone? Well I know I need love, I mean don’t we all. But I mean love as acceptance, not love as partner loving you. I know I want to be accepted for who I am, I want to be loved as a being, I want to be understood, I want to be part of what and who is important to me. What is missing? I have it in one way or another, but my soul needs more. All this heaviness on my chest, I need to let go of it somehow. Well this might sound like bunch of rambling to you, but in a way this is self-healing. Expressing yourself so all this heaviness is flowing out. Here I am exposed of my masking, my walls, you see me as I am with all of my emotions on the table. I am sure you can find yourself somewhere between these lines as well. Oh I felt this way before or I know exactly what you are talking about. So what to do from here? I take it all in. I allow myself feel these emotions to a point where there is no more. I allow myself to feel vulnerable. I cry, I think, I ponder. I sit with myself, feeling my own breathing. Then I express these feelings, through writing like the one here and now, through a poem, through a painting or a song and my own Reiki healing. I heal myself with what feels good to the soul. Then I turn this into another lesson in my life. I apply it to others by being more compassionate, by telling someone how to deal with certain things in the way I dealt with it. Who knows it might help someone along the way. Most of all when I work with my Energy Healing on others this is how I connect with people who I treat. I connect my soul with theirs, understanding what they need healed, why they might feel the way they do. And knowing how unjustifiably painful it can be inside I want to help that pain to go away for them, just as much as I am trying to make it go away for my own self at a time like this. Thank you for being part of my expressing. I hope you found something that you connected with and I hope you can see even though we are so different we are still in some ways the same. Julia Sh. 11/20/2012 0 Comments My story- On the way to healingFinding something you never thought would interest you as part of your new passion is great. So many of us go on about our life’s without taking the time to listen to what our mind is craving to learn and what our bodies are willing to experience. But life is long and we can learn so many things that can become part of our life and shape us into better beings. I found myself wanting to learn Yoga and not because I was ready to learn, but because my body was telling me that it was drowning and suffocating in its own misery. Before, my mind was closed to things like this, I didn’t understand how Yoga can even help, if all it is – is just exercise. How can an exercise help me with my emotional despair, how can it give me positive outlook on life? So, I just didn’t give myself a chance to even learn what it is about. After so many yoga videos I was wondering why everyone talked about Yoga like it was some kind of soulful bliss. But with curiosity and my obsession of constantly trying and I repeat trying to be fit, I decided to give it a try and take a class. Since I wanted to make it interesting I found a workshop that was about chakra balancing- when I researched further it was what got my attention. How interesting it is that we have energy spots running through our bodies. And in order for us to be healthy and happy to (a point) at least we should have that energy flow through us freely. Apparently if we are down, or get sick often or just not feeling ourselves it could be the reason for our energy imbalance due to some emotional or physical traumas. Even small things like stress can clog up our energy sources and cause us to have all sorts of things. This made me think, maybe this was it! Maybe I had my energy spots (Chakras) all clogged up and therefore I had so much things going wrong for me in my life. My health, my “self- worth" feelings, my overall being wasn't happy. Part of me wanting to get fit is probably one of my imbalances because I was always at a healthy weight, but looking at myself as not good enough. I had to go to this workshop and learn how to balance my chakras, and so I did. When I left the work shop I was trying to see if I felt different, and as I drove down the highway home- I felt some sort of energy. I felt lively, I felt like I was ready to learn more to get myself to a happy place and if yoga could do that then why not try it. For month I read and researched books about what is yoga all about,I bought many DVDs on different styles of yoga and read about chakras which had me most fascinated. I've made my decision to sign up for a yoga teacher training because I have noticed with little bit that I knew about yoga and as much as I practiced at home I did feel more energetic but still very lost in the whole world of yoga and what it had to offer. I wanted to learn about it completely and not from a DVD but personally experience it as I would learn in details. By the time I came in for teacher training first day meet and greet I was anxious, and I was desperate to become happier. I looked at this class as my way to get fit and see if I can really find my happiness that I was lacking in my soul. You would think being married and having two beautiful kids- why would someone not feel happy, but inside me I felt dead, I felt like I needed to get out. I was so emotional when I had to talk about what has brought me to this training, I almost felt like I had entrusted my heart and soul to this class and I was hoping it could fix me for the better. As the training started my teacher has warned us that with each thing we will go through in this training we will be going through each chakra as well, and we might see changes in us or our life’s. I didn't believe this. How can certain moves or chants change what's in my life or how I felt? And so I gave my whole to learn, with each book we had to read and each essay we had to write- I read and I applied it to me, I wrote and I cried as I read it back. I couldn't believe how much was coming out of me; the things I didn't notice were on the inside hurt. When I would read my essays back to myself I was exploring my own self from the inside, I had realized how much was hurting and how much I was blocking it from my own self. I was broken on the inside, but I always tried to keep everyone else together- neglecting my own feelings and needs as a human being. It was a very hard time for me during the training, and with each month I grew more aware of my own feelings and with every month of training I became more confident. This training was my “self” therapy no one else can give me before. By the time I finished the course my view on life has changed and so I was ready to make many changes in my life, whether they were going to be hard or not. I was ready to listen to myself and do what made me happier, even if it meant to go through hard times first. Here I am today, looking at yoga as something more than just physical fitness, more than just a feel good exercise- but as a way to listen to your heart and soul. I want to teach yoga to those who are willing to give it a try, to those who are looking for some peace and those who want to heal. I always get excited to share my own experience and offer what I can to others. I want others be able to feel that happy, little spark inside like I did and know that they can give themselves love that they need and confidence to keep going. My teacher once told me “you will be a great teacher" and she had laughed at me saying that I had absorbed everything we were learning like a sponge. Few months later I had gone to get certified in Reiki, to work more closely with energy and chakras even more. With two years of practicing Reiki I have received many beautiful experiences with spiritual world. I had learned to connect with spiritual guides and started to recieve mediumship messages. I continued to advance myself with my knowledge by reading more books and taking more workshops. I had also recieved Master Reiki certification to strengthen my energy healing skills. My goal has become to help others to heal. I am on a journey to learn as much as I can about our souls and self healing. I embrace new lessons and try to apply them towards possitive self healing and development. This is my story about how yoga and energy work has changed me. And I'm sure there are many people who can tell you so many stories on how much yoga has helped them as well. We have a long life in front of us so why not learn new things, and find what can change us for the better. And if you can help why not.... this is the best feeling in the world to be able to help another soul. Julia Sh. 11/13/2012 1 Comment Healing the heartEvery single one of us go through life experiencing different situations where we feel pain, anger and sadness. In order to not get caught up in your own misery that you’ve created -you need to find a way to heal your heart and move on. I’m not saying you should be cold-hearted and not feel sad for things that may hurt you. I’m saying allow yourself to feel the pain, acknowledge it and come to terms with it. When we feel pain we get sad and depressed, we tend to go back to that moment that has made us sad and hurt us but yet we don’t fully except it. We just dwell on it, that it was hurtful and you ask yourself why it happened to me. Try these moves towards a better recovery. Center yourself with Mountain pose, raise your arms out to the side and as you inhale bring them over our head as you exhale bring them to your heart in Namaste. Do a few of these breathing moves to feel the energy flow. Then go down to the floor and warm up your spine with Cat and Cow pose- don’t forget to take good deep breaths as you do it slowly. Now that your spine is warmed up you can start to work on your heart. Starting with Camel pose, stay in it for a few minutes at a time. Camel pose opens up the heart area allowing the energy to flow, allowing us to become more forgiving and compassionate, allowing us to feel the love and be loved. While you are in that pose visualize a golden light penetrating straight through your heart and filling your heart with golden light, healing any pain and darkness it may have. Other postures that will work on the heart area are: Cobra Pose, Sphinx Pose, Wheel Pose, Upward Dog Pose, Upward Plank Pose and Upward Facing Two Foot Staff Pose (maybe a bit challenging) When working on these postures always take the time to get connected with your breath and work with your visualization of healing the heart. Finally sit down in Lotus Pose and meditate. Take all that pain and heart ache that you have and feel it, imagine hugging yourself on the inside and accepting the fact that you have been hurt. With each inhale take the pain in, feel it, caress your heart on the inside and with each exhale let it go leaving your heart glowing with love again. We learn compassion and forgiveness only after we ourselves have experienced the pain, when we have felt it, that’s when we can understand someone else’s pain and be compassionate. The same goes for forgiveness; if we learn how to forgive we can have more love in our hearts. 10/10/2012 0 Comments Autumn....marking point to evaluateAhhh….. It’s that time again when leaves are falling down, exposing the trees, and leaving them vulnerable. I fallow in that pattern myself just like the seasons. Feeling connected to the earth, I allow myself to let go of all the layers that I had created. At times becoming emotional I embrace this change. As I get vulnerable to every action, word and emotion, I realize that I must go through this change to get in touch with my own self. So there I go, allowing myself to get cleansed of unnecessary things, let go of clutter that has accumulated over some period of time. At the same time it’s to see the real core and beauty that is underneath, to be fully bare. Just as the trees drop their make up and stand alone, you still find beauty in the fall with its colored filled ground of leaves and dark bark of those tall elegant bodies. I drop all my colors and look at myself as a strong being. Yes, at times I might get weak, emotional, and confused but, I am still me underneath it all. I analyze to see if I am still true to my own self and to make sure that nothing has affected me in a bad way, but only changed me for the better. I let the fall be my marking point and reminder that it is time to take the time to connect with earth, connect with feelings that have been suppressed and it’s the time to put on stronger layers for the winter. Why winter you might ask? Let me explain. Winter is known to be one of the most known times when people get depressed. It’s called seasonal depression for those whose moods might change drastically with weather. It doesn’t mean that we are all affected, but it is the time to get all that emotional baggage in check, so when winter arrives we are not overwhelmed with dark, gloomy days. I keep myself active and I embrace even the cold days, by letting my senses to kick in and feel the crisp air and appreciate the beautiful bright days winter offers. My most favorite time is Spring as the flowers blossom, our emotions and our ideas blossom. I look at it as new beginnings, but not to get you all confused-- for that time of year I am sure I will add the blog at the appropriate time for spring. Let’s enjoy the autumn for now and cleanse ourselves by dropping our leaves that are no longer needed. Love and Light Julia Sh. 10/3/2012 2 Comments Heal and Move OnIt’s amazing how fast our life goes by and yet so many of us don’t stop to take the moment and really take it all in. Who we are today is what our experiences have shaped us to be. We run our daily chores and busy lives without realizing that there is a soul inside that needs to be heard and recognized with its needs. Living blindly to take the time to nourish our own well-being is what causes us to feel unbalanced and unhappy. Taking in what your soul wants you to be aware can be sometimes overwhelming. When you sit with yourself and you let the flood of emotions and memories pop up it’s unexpected. You thought it’s just your thoughts, but it’s things that your soul hasn’t healed from. If you have memories that make you sad, nostalgic or emotional – ask yourself why does it make you feel this way? Has there been words that have been said that hurt you, action that were done that you still can’t forgive or emotional and physical traumas? This is the time to give yourself a time to sit with these feelings and let any emotion to fully come out. If you want to cry, please do. Crying is one of the best way to heal and let go of the heaviness in your chest. If you are angry write it out, even as a letter to a person who you are angry with, even if you are not really going to give it to them. Hug yourself on the inside and comfort that heart of any pain it has. You had reasons to feel the way you feel, and you shouldn’t suppress your emotions and feelings by covering them up with your busy schedule. By going on about our life without dealing with what’s bothersome on the inside can eventually catch up with us and cause more issues such as: depression, anger, physical and emotional abuse towards self or others. At the same time you might not realize what bothers you inside if you don’t sit down and sift through your thoughts and feelings. Finally, put yourself in that persons shoes and try to see why would they have acted or said things they did. Try to be understanding and take in consideration that behind those words or actions was also a hurt soul. Forgive and move on, because forgiving is what opens the energy to continue to flow and bring in positive, no longer keeping you in negative setbacks. Remember meditation helps to sort out your emotions, because you are doing it with calm mind. Don’t ignore what bothered you before; don’t brush it off even if it’s a simple comment from someone. Acknowledge it as something that has affected you and now it’s time to heal, and then move forward. 9/25/2012 0 Comments Life's a Journey Not a DestinationSomeone asked me today since I believed in re-carnation how did I view a life- as a journey or just a cycle that would come to end. There is a saying "life's a journey not a destination". I believe it is so, but once you go through your complete journey of many many lives and re -carnations, we DO get to a destination. And that destination is being a pure light, pure spirit where we no longer need to come back to earth as bodies. Once we reach the goal of paying all karmic debt, we can finally be in bliss of no worries, no disease, no pain. We can finally be just a being of light and then be the one to be the guiding spirit for others still suffering on earth. The journey continues in a new realm...... My friend then asked but why wouldn't you want to continue to experience life and all the fun. I explained to him that it's not the materialistic things that makes you happy in your soul. You don't need vacations, nice cars or nice clothes to give your soul a complete fulfillment of bliss. Once you are a spirit you are experiencing happiness all the time without having to need anything. You are a being of love, and your journey will continue but without all the suffering and need of earthy possessions. Julia Sh. Love and Light to you all :) 9/24/2012 0 Comments Digestive problems due to stressSometimes we have so much stress and anxiety that it puts a strain on our digestive system causing many runs to the bathroom. Stress affects our nervous system and can cause our stomachs to feel weak. To help ease these symptoms you can practice a few times a week the following postures in yoga. Childs pose with a twist, legs up the wall, shoulder stand; plow, seated twist and seated forward bend are some of the great poses to work with. Let’s not forget to breathe calmly during these exercises and one of my favorite breathing techniques during yoga practice is Ujjai breath,(check out one of my blogs about Ujjai breath also known as Ocean breath under the title Yoga Breathing).Take the time to also meditate to help your nerves to settle. Namaste Julia Sh. Sometimes we get side tracked with our daily routines, problems and worries. We get so caught up in the thoughts and emotions we forget to sit down and breathe. We have our minds running in million directions with all the drama and chaos that’s thrown in our face. By the end of the day you feel drained out, like the universe has sucked all that you have out of you and you are feeling hollow and still restless. Do you ever feel this way? I find this happening to me often, trying to find the solution, trying to make sure everyone is well taking care of around me, trying to save the world as if I’m in that big of a power. The truth of the matter is- we are just normal human beings, we have our own needs and we all want love and support in return. Sometimes being overly concerned with everything that’s going on doesn’t help, instead it makes us more anxious on how to resolve the problem and leaves us at a constant limbo with our thoughts and emotions. Going through something that’s worrisome, something that we feel we have to fix because no one else will -can be very draining to the soul and your spirit. Even if we feel we are the strongest and it’s up to us to fix everything, to take care of everyone and to make everyone happy we have to remember that we are no superman! We need the love, the support and the time to just be us. We need that hug and understanding that we are also just a being craving for that comfort, wanting to feel that for once someone will say “I got your back, I’ll take care of it, just relax”. Our soul, our mind and our body is taking a beating by constantly forcing ourselves to keep going, we don’t even realize at times how much pressure we put on ourselves to be the strong one, to be the logical one, to be the one to save the day. There comes a time where you are ready to give up, because you feel like there is nothing left to give and that’s because you haven’t taken the time to do something for yourself, to do what your soul desires. We need to step out of the hamster wheel for once, and go to the place where we feel comfort. Where you forget about your worries and you don’t feel like you have to keep running to tackle another task. Meditate with inspirational music, and speak to your soul- ask yourself where are you hurt, what makes you sad what do you feel is missing in your life. When you see what you really need- take the time to go towards those goals. If it’s you wanting to do something creative because it inspires you and makes you feel good, or you reading a book or taking special workshop classes that make you feel more spiritual. Whatever it is that sooth your soul and gets you closer to feeling complete- you have to do it. We need to find the time for our own selves, we need to understand what we desire, and we need to give ourselves that time to experience that warm soothing feeling of happiness. If we learn how to listen to what we need and give that time for ourselves we would live more balanced life. We wouldn’t feel so drained out and restless. Meditation where you can calm your mind and listen to your inner self, communication- where you let go of your emotions and feel support from loved ones and simply giving time for your own self to do something that inspires you and makes you feel good is what we need. Julia Sh 9/17/2012 0 Comments Stimulate Your Thyroid GlandThyroid is one of the most important glands in our body. It regulates our body function and gives the balance to our well being. Certain Yoga postures can help to stimulate the thyroid gland to help its proper functions. Here is a few poses you can do at home : Plow, Bridge, Supported Shoulder stand and Fish. Remember to not push your body if you can not do a pose, instead try to modify it. I am also including a video I had found on this subject. This is a beautiful video but a little bit advance and NOT for EVERYONE. So, please, please I ask you not to force yourself to do exactly to detail these moves if you are not as flexible. You can do these exercises without having to fold your legs in lotus pose, and you can do these inversions by using props under your back so you can stay longer in the pose to get the benefit of stimulating thyroid gland but not hurting your back or neck. Give it a try with gentleness in mind. Namaste Julia Sh. 9/10/2012 0 Comments Looking back into my mothers pastThis Sunday while in meditation I had my grandfather on my mother side visit me in spirit. He had shown me things I couldn't have known myself. One of those things was my mother as a young girl. She was climbing over a fence while wearing a skirt and her skirt got caught on a top part of fence, ripping her skirt up. I thought I had to have this validated and so I asked my mother that evening. "Mom, did you ever as a child climb a fence wearing a skirt, and your skirt got caught and ripped?" My mom had huge eyes as she said "yes this did happen to me". To my excitement I had another validated experience as a medium. I feel like, I am opening up more and more to the amazing spiritual world right before me. I can't wait to share more stories with you as it goes on. This is going to become soon one of my most used services for those who want to connect with their loved ones. Love and Light to you all Julia Sh. Our loved ones are always near us. Even if we have lost them to the other side, their presence is always near. Sometimes they come to us to give us warnings and sometimes they come to just let us know that they are there and are looking down upon us. They see us when we struggle and they are happy with us when we have good things happen to us. Even though it is a hard thing to deal with knowing that we no longer have them in our physical world, we should still understand that they are still near us smiling down and cheering us on. Our loved ones get very happy when they can connect with us by sending messages to you that might feel as a gut feeling or just a warm feeling when we think of them. They can also come through when you are with a medium just to give you the message that they are here and still have great love for you. So, don’t get sad of the thought that you cannot have your loved one with you, instead smile with the thought that they are near you and can sense what you feel and think. Today was a great experience of a confirmation that there is still plenty of love coming from the other side. You know who you are, take that message and use it as your support. Love and Light Julia Sh. 9/5/2012 0 Comments Yoga BreathingUjjayi Pranayama or Ocean breath My favorite pranayama- breathing technique is Ocean breath also known as Ujjayi breath. It’s known as a balancing and calming breath which helps to increase oxygen to the lungs and builds internal body heat. It tones the lungs and helps a healthy flow of prana, while regulating blood pressure. It’s great to use this kind of breath when you have anxiety, when you need to calm yourself from a stressful situation, when you practice yoga and can also be used in meditation. Here is how it works: You inhale and exhale through your nose only, while you do that try to say “ha” with your mouth closed, do it slowly. As the throat passage is narrowed so is the airway- creating a hissing sound. By contracting you throat you create a balanced breathing, slowly taking in and out the oxygen and calming down the mind. Julia Sh 8/31/2012 1 Comment Be ThankfulThere are times when we go through difficult situations and we are so caught up in it that we forget what we should be thankful for. Of course it is easy to forget when your mind is filled with worries and stress. But then there are times when it feels so darn good to your heart that you just want to jump of joy and float away into the clouds. Ok, maybe some of you don’t feel that and maybe I just sound crazy, but it does happen to me. The weirdest thing is it happens to me the most not when I literally make myself think of what I should be thankful for, but at times when I simply do something that I enjoy. When I work on my paintings I like to listen to happy upbeat music, and for some reason the choice of music mainly is always Russian music. Go figure, because even though I fluently do speak, read and write in that language I still never really have a reason to listen to that music, or do anything in that language other then speak with my own parents who would refuse to speak to me in English. The moment I start to paint my mind switch to Russian tunes and so there goes my ipod playing Russian beats. I immerse myself into the painting not even paying attention to what the songs are until all the sudden I feel so good inside. I realize how wonderful it is to have the time to actually do something that I love. I stop what I’m doing and simply become thankful for everything I have whether it’s small or not. Just think for a moment how much we take for granted. I realize that I need to give thanks to God, my angels that are always around me, and spiritual guides who always guide me. I realize that because of them I was able to survive the hard times, because of them I am still finding things that are positive in my life. Because of everything that has happened to me in my life good or bad I am who I am today. I light my candle for my angels, I pray with thanks to all the beautiful beings out there that have been part of my life and who have given me this chance to grow as a being myself. I thank them for continuously guiding me on my path in this life towards more and more explorations. Don’t forget to be thankful not only to people around you but the energies that have gotten you here today. When you get into sticky situations think about it before acting upon it. What does this situation wants me to take from it? What do I need to learn here, and how will it benefit me as a lesson in the future. I thank all my Angels, Guardian Angels, Arch Angels, Reiki Spirits and Spiritual Guides for being in my life and continuing surround me as I grow and learn my life lessons. Julia Sh. 8/29/2012 0 Comments That feeling...I lay in my bed starring at the ceiling, sifting through my thoughts. All the worries popping up like giant bubbles, swirling around me. Can’t seem to find an answer to solution and I feel anxiety creeping up on me. I decide to close my eyes and take 10 deep breaths, letting go of the thoughts for a moment. Since I’m so desperate to get away from anxiety -my breaths are extremely deep and I take them very slow. By the time I get to 10 I feel very relaxed and like I’m floating, that might be the effect of hyperventilation but it feels good. I feel like I have been lifted of the bed and I’m floating in a warm bubble of comfort. My body feels like it’s buzzing and I feel a warm sensation going through my body, there’s no thoughts, I’m just there. I imagine colors to see what color sticks to me the most- and the only color that keeps showing up is purplish –pink with green edges. It’s like looking through a beautiful crystal at the sunlight. This beautiful light gives me positive feeling, and I notice myself smiling. I open my eyes and in the dark I see for a glimpse second that color softly fade away on the wall in front of me. Did I just dream this, did it really happen, was this the beautiful energy of a spirit that came to help me? Without too much thinking I turn over and go to sleep. Falling into deep sleep, feeling my body very heavy and no thoughts of worry- I just feel at total peace. Whatever it was- it was amazing, it feels great to feel blissful and peaceful even for a moment- we don’t get to feel it very often with our everyday demanding life. Julia Sh Did you know that listening to uplifting music with happy tunes clears the energy in your house, brings better positive vibes and lifts your mood? When you starting to feel like you're having too much tension at home with loved ones or even just feeling down yourself, it's time to clear the energy in your home. Reiki can clear the negative energy and give your living space a much more warm and welcoming vibes. Feng Shui can also help with that but you won't feel the changes as much as Reiki would give you. Feng Shui energy changes are more subtle. Once you have cleared you home of negative energy, you can ask for a reiki clearing as well. And don't forget to cheer your self up with a nice upbeat, happy music that makes you happy time to time. First, open your blinds every morning to fill your home with sunshine, this is a great energy already, darkness isn't a welcoming energy. Open your windows, even if its cold- by letting fresh air in for a little bit - this will fill your home with new and refreshing atmosphere in your house. Just like when you are outdoors at the beach or park and you breath in the fresh air- it lifts your spirits and calms you down. Turn on a radio or your favorite Ipod music while you're getting ready in the morning, by the time you'll go out the door you're mood will be great and you will face the day in much better mood. Reiki clearing and cleansing can be done when ever you feel like your home needs help in clearing the negative energy that has accumulated over time. Don't forget sage is also very good to cleanse the house of negative energy and negative spirits that might be in your home or around you!!! Have a great day all :) J.S. |