Blog Posts

Energy Vampires: How to Deal with Them as an Empath

7/12/2020

How do you deal with energy qi vampires?

If you're a sensitive person, empath or healer, you probably noticed that it can be tricky working with other people and you might have a tendency to take on other people's energy.

Here are practical steps you can take to clear your field and to not pick up energy that's not yours and to really stop doing it right away.

It's become a really practical, fun thing to say "good vibes only". You see it on tee shirts. But what does that actually mean?

When we think about the realm of space clearing, there's three large bubbles and those are too big to really talk about in this blog. We teach a lot about this in our Subtle Body Certification at the Body Wisdom Academy, but we're going to zone in on just one of them.

The three big bubbles are the general "be in line with the energy of the universe"—this is things like feng shui and your daily routine and how you align with the bio rhythms of your day, with nature and the human body.

Then there's the energy between people. That's we're going to talk about today. And then there's "how does the non-physical realm of energy work? What's happening if I've got something stuck in my field?" or things like that.

What we're going to talk about today is this realm of the energy between people and when we're talking about the way that energy works between people, there's two main aspects:

The first one is the technical energetic. So how do our Subtle Body systems function and in ways that sometimes get us a little intertwined or picking up other people's stuff.
And then the other (also equal and very important aspect) is what I call Energetic Communication. We teach a model that has taken concepts like nonviolent communication we think is very good and integrated systems of communication with a deeper level, energetic understanding so that we can really have clear relationships with other people and not take on their crap.

The Technical Energetic Level

The three things that you need to know about are:

One, your Solar Plexus. Your Solar Plexus is the area where your ribs come together. This is the part of our body that energetically is really sensitive to other people's energy.

If you have someone that just feels draining every time you're with them, or you are a practitioner and you're working with other people, the number one practical thing to do is actually to rest your hand over your Solar Plexus or gently massage that area.

Just being aware of that will help you stay in your cheesy bubble as it were and not overemphasize or get wrapped up with other people's issues that are going on.

The 50% Line

Number two is it's important to hold what we call and teach the 50% line. Not just energetically but also in self-responsibility because where the mind goes, the qi or the energy flows. If we're not clear on what's my responsibility and what's other people's responsibility, you're naturally going to end up energetically taking on other people's stuff as well.

So we've gotta be clear on your 50% line.

The Microcosmic Orbit

The last thing to stay in your bubble is to use a qigong exercise that is quite well known and from ancient Chinese medicine in qigong or energy exercises called the Microcosmic Orbit.

There's many different purposes! It builds your qi or your mind body connection system by using visualization and your focus at the same time as seeing things in your body. It's also helpful to really establish what's you and what's someone else.

If you catch yourself in a pattern where you are over caring for other people or you're trying to fix things for other people or you feel really bad for other people, but then later on you feel like you're really drained or taking on other people's burdens, likely you don't have as strong of a connection with this central circuit that I want to describe.

The Microcosmic Orbit is a pathway in the body. It's energetic, not physical, and it starts at the perineum, which is at the base of the torso.

For women, it's the spot just at the back of the vaginal opening before the anus and for men it's just right behind the testicles. This is the main aspect of our physical body.

You just imagine with your eyes closed a point or a ball of white light. Then as you inhale, you visualize that that point or that ball of white light comes up the spine towards the top of the head and circles back. As you exhale starts to come down the front of the body, over the nose and face and hear you gently rest the tongue on the roof of the mouth to connect that area of the body energetically and physically.

You trace that ball down over the front of the body, over the belly, over the pubic bone, back to that original spot. So inhaling, notice that ball of white light come up to the top of the head. Exhaling coming down the front of the body. And ideally you want to practice this exercise—one inhale coming up to the top of the head, one exhale coming down.

At first, this might be a little bit difficult, so feel free to take small, many breaths coming up and many breaths going down until you can feel like it's more continuous. You'll also notice that when you start to do this, it might feel a little difficult or you might notice that that seems like that ball of light wants to jump over certain areas in your body. That could just be an indication that the energy isn't flowing super well.

Remember that adage of "where the mind goes, the qi flows"? If the chi is not flowing somewhere, it's going to be harder for the mind to go there. But practicing this exercise over time will help strengthen your physical energetic system in a way that helps you stay in your 50% bubble and not taking on other people's things.

So the three techniques that we talked about today were:

Noticing your Solar Plexus as a place where we can over-give or over-connect with other people's energy. There's lots of specific how tos that we teach in some of our trainings or what to do when, what shows up, when to get rid of those things.
And then we have to really understand what's our 50% line. Not just energetically, but also mentally to make sure we're not over-giving or over-fixing other people that can drain our energy.
And then we can use this exercise of the Microcosmic Orbit to physically stay within ourselves more and boost our qi system.

Any time our internal system is strong, it really helps to naturally fortify our boundaries because we are filled up from the inside. There's a lot of new agey-ness and various types of energy medicine that always talk about putting yourself in blue light and having a good barrier.

I think those things are okay but ancient Chinese medicine really tells us that when the channels are full, there's no risk of things getting in from the outside. I prefer to take this approach. I think it's one that's not coming from a fear based place of worrying, of what's going to attack us. It brings us back to this spiritually balanced place of nourishing ourselves to naturally take up our space. We don't have to worry so much about what's coming in from the outside.

You are a soul with a body and you deserve great things! -L

release the trapped trauma from your body
(without years of therapy)

Disclaimer: This program is not intended to be a substitute for professional mental health or counseling services. No practitioner-patient relationship is established and the training content is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and nothing here is intended to diagnose, cure or treat any disorders.

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Is Herbal Tea Safe?

6/26/2020

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Tea is healing! As a natural health nerd and Chinese medicine herbalist, I know that herbs are healing and tea is one great way to bring more herbs into your life.

I first really realized this firsthand as a teenager when I was studying abroad in France. Every night or most nights my host mom would offer me tisane.

Tea helps us have a ritual, an evening routine. It helps us slide into the calmness of sleep and in general, herbs are a healing way to get more natural earth medicines into your body, but there is some serious dangers about herbal tea that you need to be aware of.

I want to tell you about some things about herbal tea that you might not know. One is that herbal tea is actually a big source of pesticides, so it's really important that your tea be organic. I first heard about this years ago when I was a student in Chinese medicine school and I was also taking a course in applied kinesiology or muscle testing and that instructor had said, "Oh yeah, yeah, don't drink herbal tea. It's huge amount of pesticides." I started adapting to that and I was already mostly organic for many things so it made sense.

Here's the reason why. I think explaining the process of how tea cultivation works will really open your eyes to just how big of a deal this is. Even some of the brand names on your grocery store shelves of nice greenwashed tea, if it's not organic, it contains high levels of pesticides.

When you go and tour a tea herbal factory, you'll notice that in the processing room where all the bulk herbs are gathered they're sifted and cleaned by a process that usually involves bursts of air to push out the debris. The twigs and the heavier material are all strained.

The reason for this is that you can't wash tea so most of leaves or herbal material. When it's mixed with water, it starts to release its active component. That's why we're drinking it as tea. You can't put it in water and wash it beforehand, like do your salad greens at the market, because the tea would lose its healing instead as it's processed.

Tea leaves and herbal material is usually processed with some kind of compressed air. Well, you can't blow the pesticides off of your tea. This is why tea is kind of a dangerous area that we don't normally think about as a high level source of pesticides.

Anything that that tea came in contact with is still going to be on the herbal material and you really can't wash it off. It's ending up in your tea cup. This is why it's important to buy organic.

I also recommend that you avoid the fangled tea bags that look really cute and triangular and kind of upscale but actually are a type of plastic material that is potentially going into your tea. Now I'm sure it's approved by the FDA. I'm sure the FDA thinks that this is totally fine. Nothing in this video is meant to cure, heal or treat any diseases and has definitely not been approved by the FDA, but I want you to think about it's always good in your life to avoid your exposure to plastic and chemicals and pouring hot water over something that is potentially bringing into your system and influence even in a small way that you don't want.

Here's one of my favorite Herbal Calming Blends:

2 parts Lemon Balm
2 parts Passion Flower
1 part Oat Straw
1 part Chamomile
Stevia leaves to taste if you like added sweetness

Get organic herbs and teas online. Here's one of our favorite online sources for herbs.

Drink your tea organic. Enjoy herbs as a healing part of life and your health routine. You are a soul with a body. I am wishing you great things!

RELEASE THE TRAPPED TRAUMA FROM YOUR BODY
(WITHOUT YEARS OF THERAPY)

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Entrepreneur Ideas for Empaths

6/16/2020

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I have really struggled with this in general, as a person who is really an idea-person. I've gotten a lot of ideas over many years of business, and I've learned really the hard way on how to first do some inner questioning before just jumping out of the gate and putting a lot of chi, energy and time into it only for it to not fall through, to not go anywhere, to not work out and feel like in the end, "Well, that probably wasn't the best use of my time".

This is really hard when you're an ideas-person and we do healing and helping work that we know would be a great idea and would be helpful. But ultimately that's not the question to ask so I'm going to give you two foundational questions for evaluating a new business idea, as well as two next-stage questions as well to really help you answer this question and keep your chi aligned with creating a sustainable business that pays you excellent living working with ideal clients.

Let's start with the foundational questions.

Stage 0: What is the outcome that I want to happen from this endeavor?

What is the outcome that I want to happen from this endeavor? Is it that I want to create relationship with practitioners or power partners? Is that I want to get new clients?

You need to be sure and clear of what your ideal outcome is. There might be other side benefits and other things but preliminary question number one is "what is the outcome that I am desiring?" Be clear on that.

Stage 0: Who is involved?

These people that we're talking about, are they my ideal clients? This might seem easy and straightforward but we often stray from it. What's inherently suggested here is a reminder and you'll hear me say this like a broken record that underneath is always laser beam clarity of who my ideal people are.

You want to make sure that you know so much about your ideal people, that you're going to be able to answer this preliminary question because maybe your business goal is to give more talks and you get actually invited to give a talk, but where you're invited to give a talk, it is very likely not going to have a high percentage of your ideal clients.

That doesn't mean you say "no" right away, because maybe you're at the beginning and you just need to practice giving talks and so that could be the benefit. Then, you go back to that number one—"what's the outcome that I want?"

I did this a lot at the beginning—just get out there and do talks but then as I got busier, you'll often find that you'll get requests for your time or to give a certain talk. At that point, when I get those inquiries where people like, "Hey, can you come and do this talk for free?" Sometimes I will if I feel inner calling but if it's not aligned, if it's not going to serve my ideal outcome and I'm in a stage of business where I'm pretty busy, my marketing is going well, and I just want new clients, then I'm probably going to say, "no, thank you".

This is so important for learning how to really balance your qi, which is a big part of sustainable business.

Next level, if you've passed through those two things, here is the next way to evaluate those questions. This is the same question that we're asking when we're trying to find a new niche or essentially a new idea.

Do they know they have a problem?

So the first one, when we've decided who this offering or ideas going to be for, the question that we're asking is, "does this target audience know that they have a problem?"

This is a big one because often, especially as practitioners, we know what the problem is, but the person themselves might not know that they have a problem or they might think that the problem is different.

For example, I know as a natural health practitioner that people's diets or often the food that they're eating is a huge problem. But very often, especially in my non-ideal client version of "normal people" (the most people in society), they think they eat pretty well. Even if they're eating the standard American stuff that they think is healthy, like, "Oh, I drink orange juice every morning. I'm healthy", that's really shitty diet, but they don't know it. That fails question number one. I can not sell them something that is clean-up-your-diet because they don't think or know that they have a problem.

Are they able and willing to pay for it?

Number two, if they know they have a problem, are they willing and able to pay for it?

This is key in a perfect world (if you are a nonprofit organization, you're in a different category). Like my example of someone who doesn't even know they have a problem, maybe they do start to know that they have little problem but is that pain point strong that they're willing to put money towards it? Put their resources, time, effort, and money to hire you as a professional.

If the answer is no, it's not something for you to focus your qi on because in business we need the cycle of chi of offering something that people are willing to contribute their resources for so that you can keep offering.

This is how the business cycle works and it's a good exchange of chi.

The other aspect that can come is that, for example, when you want to focus on children, people who are out of work, struggling, are homeless really could use this. Again, do they know they need it? They might. Are they willing or able to pay for it? If not, you have to connect with the organizations who are willing to pay you to help other people who cannot pay for it.

These are the two key questions. One, does my target person for this idea know that they have a problem? Two, are they willing and able to pay for it?

Market Research

If you take nothing away from all of your work with me, remember that we always want to market test things before we create it.

This is a big healing business owner mistake that I have made myself more than a couple of times. I get an idea. I create the thing. I make all the audios. I do all the classwork. I've made the handouts before I've actually really tested whether or not anybody is even interested in what I'm doing, let alone are they willing to pay for it.

Over and over again, we need to bring ourselves back to "Is this something that people actually want?" There's lots of ways to ask some ideal clients, put it out there on your Facebook group, chat a little bit about it, see what people's reactions are and then move steadily down the way.

You can always create content and create ideas as you have people enrolled, maybe at a lower level or a test group before you invest your time and energy wholeheartedly creating something that is not really being asked for.

This is the spiritual equivalent of being in touch with what our Dharma is. What are we being asked to do? That means we leave the mind to the side. We don't just come up with ideas. We really listen with our heart in our inner, spiritual, personal growth path. What is being asked of me?

In the outer version connecting along that spectrum, we do the same thing in business where we're really listening and we're testing. We're not just going by the mind. We're sitting with it, we're putting it out there and then we're listening and waiting to see what comes back before taking action.

I hope this was helpful. I'm here to support. I'm wishing you and your ideas great things! The world really does need the things that you have. You need to hone down in on what you are being asked to do. That creates the most sustainable, flowing, ease-filled profitable business that you can have and that helps you support more and more people out in the world as well.

release the trapped trauma from your body
(without years of therapy)

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How To Make Ginger Tea at Home

5/25/2020

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I'm always recommending to people to make a fresh ginger tea so I thought I should make a blog about it. This is a common remedy for all sorts of digestive complaints and ginger is one of the strongest home remedies in Chinese medicine that can really help regulate the digestive system and also what we call "warms up digestion" because it's quite a warmer.

If you are noticing that you've got a chronic digestive situation, these kinds of issues are important to look at in your life and this is one of my specialties. I help women and men who get it—people who are seekers and empathic and sensitive folks who really make breakthroughs by tapping into what I call the Subtle Body or the way that your mind body system works in a technical way.

Often, even though people are making strides maybe with their naturopath or their acupuncturist on digestive things on the outside, what they're not getting to is that deeper emotional inner block in the Subtle Body really makes all the difference in healing.

So to start making your own ginger tea at home, use fresh organic ginger root.

Use probably about an inch and a half of ginger and remove some of the skin.

Sometimes you can just take the back, non sharp side of the knife and scrape off the light parts. I find that this helps take the skin off without removing too much. I usually do that while it's all together. I don't cut it and then take it off just because it's easier to hold on to the root to get into the little crevices.

Now cut them into little medallions enough for one person for a small pot.

Put those guys in the sauce pan and cover them with water usually it's about this finger lengths (show in the photo) above where the water line is and it doesn't have to be perfect, but you want to make sure to put enough in there so that the pot is not boiled down and ruin your pot. Be generous with the amount of water and you get extra bonus points if you leave this overnight.

Because ginger is a root, it takes a little more oomph to get its medicine out of there compared to an herb that is a flower or a leaf. Those types of plant material give up their medicine a little bit easier. You can see that when you pour boiling water over peppermint, a lot of those phytochemicals and the properties of peppermint are very easily coming out. That's why you get that strong smell. With ginger, it's a root. We need to usually boil it or soak it for a little bit longer to get the medicinal properties.

Put it on the stove and put it on high. What we're going to do is we're going to let it come to a boil and then once it comes to a boil, we're going to cover and simmer for 20 minutes. So it's pretty simple.

Turn it down to just below the middle. My stove just has a low to high and middle, so it's going to be just below the middle and I'm just going to watch that it goes to simmer.

And then important step for me, I'm going to set my timer to about 20 minutes. You could do 25 also to make it a little bit stronger and we'll come back and check.

So now the tea is boiled. I think these little strainers are nice and it's really good when you're making other tea or loose herbs but you can probably also manage to drink around them or just pour it off there. But I use this little guy.

I like it pretty straight, but if you like, you can add some raw honey. Honey is one of those things that you want to make sure you get from a quality source. There's been some reports over the past couple of years that if it's coming in a squeezy plastic bear, it's probably not a high quality honey. Not to be biased against that cute little bear but in general you want raw honey and ideally local from the area where you are. This can actually help with allergies and things like that.

One of the things that I will often do, especially in winter times or if I'm going through something that I feel like my digestion needs a boost, I will soak the ginger overnight and then put it in a thermos so I can drink a little bit throughout the day. I think a little bit of ginger tea sip throughout the day is easier for your body to take in rather than going to down a whole mug right away, but however you do it, just get it in you. That's how it does its job.

If you're really hurting digestive-wise, like if you're in a place where all of a sudden you've got terrible stomach upset or you feel like you ate something funny, you can actually just take a little nub of ginger and just start chewing on that. It's pretty strong, but that's also a good remedy in a pinch!

I find that the best way to eat fresh ginger is slowly. Gently touch it with your teeth over time and eat it over the course of like 15 to 20 minutes and then the heat is a little more bearable.