Eat Schvitz (and cry?)

The holidays can be pretty rough on all your bodies: on the physical, with all the food and drink and travel; on the emotional, with all the people and relationships and drama; on the mental, with all the realizations and identifications that come up when we go home or reflect on the past and future; and on the spiritual, as we do our best to cultivate kindness and peace and joy in the midst of all the intensity of the season. 

It’s a lot. 

I wrote about how to navigate the holidays with balance and grace in THIS POST, and I hope it was useful. As we reach the crest of the holiday season and start sliding into the New Year I thought I’d use this space to suggest a few ways of dealing with the fallout, just in case you picked up a few pieces of shrapnel along the way

INTENTIONAL SCHVITZING

I’m terrible with physical cleanses and diets… not that I haven't tried any. I was on Atkins at age 14 and once did a master cleanse during Thanksgiving. I’m working every day to cultivate and sustain presence and balance and peace, but I’ve found that most physical cleanses result in the opposite. Even if the physical aspect of a cleanse delivers as promised, a too-intense regimen can leave your mental and emotional bodies just as toxic as your physical was before the whole ordeal began. Deprivation can create just as many undesirable effects as excess. 

For a milder cleansing that focuses on clearing and balancing your emotional and mental bodies I offer you the following practice for some delicious intentional schvitzing.

1. GET WET- Dry heat is supposed to good for relaxing muscles and releasing toxins but I much prefer steam. Water is the element that represents emotions, Air represents the mind, and the heat that makes the steam possible is associated with fire, or the transformative element of the Spirit. By breathing in steam you are metaphysically encouraging emotional and mental transformation.
    
2. PICK YOUR POISON- Find an awesome place to steam. Go fancy schmancy if you like, or seek out a place that doesn’t cost too much in ethnic neighborhoods with traditions of bathing culture. I love the Russian and Turkish Baths in New York and the many Korean Spa complexes in LA. There are also plenty of gyms and health clubs that have steam rooms. You can even do an OG Steam facial using a lovely heatproof bowl into which you pour a few cups of freshly boiled water and a few drops of essential oil. Wait a reasonable amount of time so that the steam is hot but not uncomfortable (be careful!). You can then put a towel over your head and the bowl and get to some deep breathing.
    
3. BE CLEAR - Steam has beneficial properties and feels really good, but the key to a deeper emotional cleanse (and a deeper just-about-everything) is INTENTION. What do you want to process? What do you want to clear? What do you want to learn? Some examples: “I want to cleanse and balance my mental and emotional bodies,” “I intend to release any emotional schmeckus that I internalized this holiday season,” or “I want to shed any skins that I’ve recently inhabited and emerge in a state of presence and authenticity.” If you are into essential oils, pick one that supports your intention - lavender for relaxation, bergamot for balancing, or grapefruit for energizing. Be clear about your intention, write it down or just say it over and over a few times in your mind. Then…
    
4. SET A DURATION - This is the time you will commit to allowing your intention to work itself out. It can be short or long: 10 deep breaths over the bowl, 5 minutes at the gym, or 4 hours in the Russian Banya. Whatever it is, be clear, be reasonable and stick to it. The clarity of your intention in combination with a clear duration sets you up so that your extra-dimensional support system can do their thing while you do yours.
    
5. BREATHE- All you have to do now is focus your attention. It’s the simplest and hardest part because now, change is ready to occur. Even though we’ve asked for the processing and/or release it can be freaky when it actually occurs. Whether you’re in doubt, overhwelmed, or perfectly poised, the cue is the same: FOCUS ON YOUR BREATH. As you inhale focus on welcoming change into your self along with the steam into your lungs. As you exhale let it all out and let it all go. You can also focus on a particular chakra, imagining breathing in and out through the energetic center. You can focus on breathing in white or bright light and breathing out grey or dark light. This also works well with the skin, imagining each of your pores as little mouths that can also breathe in the light and exhale the dark. If you like to focus on a mantra, do. It can be as simple as saying “In,” on the inhale and “Out,” on the exhale. A balanced breath is ideal here, so you could also count to 4 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale.

It sounds simple enough, but when all these parts are moving it can get pretty intense. This is why I love to focus on the duration and get a little OCD about it. When I do a steam bath at home I pick say, 4 rounds of 15 breaths. At the gym I’ll do 2 rounds of 10 minutes each in the steam. You'd think it’s easy, but watching your breath for 10 minutes straight in steam heat while breathing in light and exhaling dark can be challenging. You might want to give up, but if you stick to the combination of clear intention and balanced attention during the duration you’ve chosen, some kind of transformation will occur. You don't have to focus to the point of neurosis. Just set it all up and then breathe. What occurs may be obvious, or it may be subtle, but it will work on some level. In an intentional, vibrational existence, it’s simply gotta.

I hope you’ve had a glorious holiday and continue to do so. 

Love and blessings to you and yours,
MD

Healing Doesn't Have to be Scary

I recently posted an article about why healing doesn’t have to be weird HERE. 

As we approach the New Moon in Sagittarius, I want to take this opportunity to write about why it also doesn’t have to be Scary. 

Sagittarius is often categorized as the sign of spiritual practice, higher learning, and long-distance travel. In each of these cases we make a conscious choice to go beyond perceived limitations in order to understand the bigger picture: higher education crosses mental boundaries, long distance travel crosses physical boundaries, spiritual practice straight up dissolves all boundaries into unity.

All of these journeys require both the commitment and the blind faith/leap of going beyond oneself for the purpose of learning, insight and meaning. There is no guarantee of what will be on the other side, you don’t actually know that it will be worth the energy it takes to cross over, but that’s the point: it’s about going beyond what you know.

The bow and arrow carried by Sagittarius is a perfect symbol for this dynamic: You gotta aim true, line it up, stay as steady as possible, but ultimately you just let ‘er rip.

Release. That’s what I see people struggle with all the time. They’re constantly aiming, never letting go. In my healing practice I am pretty much always guiding people beyond, around or through their perceived limits. I work with every tool at my disposal to clarify the target, and can even assist in the aiming, but only you can take the shot. You don’t have to carry the arrow; you release the string and the arrow flies. Yet there are many of us (definitely myself included) who find themselves clinging to their bowstring when faced with the opportunity to go beyond. 

There’s usually some fear to be negotiated in the crossing of perceived limits: people generally don’t like going beyond themselves because they don’t know what’s on the other side. I get it. Some say this is a fear of death. Some say all fear is a fear of death. I think it’s just a fear of the unknown and all the power and potential that it contains. 

And yet, when we journey past the limits of ourselves we inevitably find something that we can identify with or recognize. This happens due to the law of correspondence, basically saying that if something exists in the microcosm, there is a corresponding existence in the macrocosm. One clear example of this is observed in the corresponding structures of atoms, solar systems, and galaxies.

That’s the secret of Sagittarius (and maybe all spiritual practice?): When we choose to go beyond ourselves we always seem to find ourselves. Enter Joseph Campbell, Dorothy and Oz, and every myth ever.

There is a moment that feels like we are diving into the unknown, leaving our orbit, risking the loss of everything we know and hold dear. And yet, no matter what is lost, YOU are still there, although now it’s a bigger you, a brighter you, a you that is amped up, turnt up, downright swole with love and awareness; You have become a more accurate you, a more thorough you, an unexpected, if sufficiently magnificent version of you that still just feels like lil ol’ you.

Typically, knowing and being this YOU feels really really good. Juicy, succulent, sweet and smooth. There is no experience of limitation, if only for an instant, and that freedom, in that moment, is very real. That is the arrow, flying.

All of this is to make a single distinction:

Breaking through the membrane of our limited self creates friction. The heat generated by this friction is necessary for change to occur. This friction may feel hard. It may seem terrifying. It may cause you to face your fear, all the fears, even the fear of annihilation and/or death.

But it doesn’t have to be scary.

You will greatly diminish the fear of surpassing your limitations by doing your best to remember that you cannot, ever lose your Self. No matter how far you go or how big you get there's always just more of your self to love. So don’t get bogged down with all the aiming. Chase the ease. Chase the flight. Chase the release into the unknown, knowing that wherever your arrow lands will be the sweet spot of your Self.

The new moon in Sagittarius, then, encourages us to set our sights sky-high and beyond; to aim for ideals too glorious to be conceivable; to believe, wholly, that anything is possible if only for the f— of it. You have every reason to aim as far and high as you can because YES! Wherever you go, there you are.

This is a great time to make big changes to your long term spiritual practice: to visit a sacred site, to study with a new teacher, or to start a new meditation practice. Make a commitment to do something that clarifies your faith in the magnitude of your being. Bet on the certainty of your limitlessness. No matter how far you go or how big you get there's always more to love.

With exponential love and incendiary light,

MD

Holiday Tips to Keep You Centered

Do you actually enjoy this time of year? Like, really? The outer expectations in terms of what we have to do or how we’re supposed to feel rarely line up with inner realities. This dissonance can leave many feeling a little left-or-right-of-center; a position which makes peace, joy and grace pretty much impossible to cultivate. It's like having all the lights set up on the house or tree and only sticking half the plug into the outlet.

Whether you feel like the season’s unofficial cheerleader or the furry-green antagonist of Who-ville, here is some EdibleSpirit™ guidance to help you survive and thrive during the remaining weeks of 2015.

1. Take back the time – This year’s Winter Solstice occurs at 11:48 PM EST on December 21st.  The sense of disconnection that so many feel at this time of year is partly caused by celebrating events around the Solstice instead of on the Solstice. While most of the holidays are scheduled based on some kind of obscure calendric calculation, the winter solstice is a visible, measurable phenomenon in the sky. It occurs at the moment the sun enters the zodiac sign of Capricorn and it marks the official beginning of Winter (in the Northern Hemisphere). You don’t need to be a boobie-bearing pagan ritualist to honor the moment, but in order to take advantage of this wonderfully energetic opportunity to pause and reflect… ya gotta do just that: PAUSE, and REFLECT. Wherever you may be, about 10 minutes before the solstice is exact - turn off the lights, turn off your phone, light a candle, and say something like “I (or we) now observe the winter solstice. I ask all of the most loving forces within me and me to draw close now, honoring the longest night of the year and the return of the light.”  Then watch the candle, think about or discuss the year that’s passed, make some notes in a journal, or meditate on the traits you are working to cultivate through the holidays. About 10 minutes after the solstice is over thank your self and the forces within and around you for the opportunity to pause, unplug and reflect. The profound alignment of this small meditation will greatly aid in offsetting any holiday negativity.
2. Honor the Feels - The holidays tend to call up a particular cluster of emotions that pendulum between peppermint-scented cheer and bloated resignation. All the while the pressure to be full of joy and gratitude looms overhead like a giant radioactive elf. We can get so caught up in what we’re supposed to be feeling or doing that we end up completely disconnected from what we’re actually feeling or doing. You will make the whole ordeal way easier on yourself by honoring how you feel when you feel it.  All you need to do is make that connection by calling it out as soon as things start to pop off- Just stop. Take a deep breath. That alone is a revolutionary act during the holidays. Now, be honest. Make a statement of presence. “I’m feeling x,” Once that baseline statement is made it can be adjusted: “I’d like to feel more y,” or “I’d like to feel less z.” Don’t worry about how you’re going to get there. The initial statement is what gets you centered in the present, and the adjustment equations are a great way of course correcting. 
3. Don’t Be a Jerk – Remember that we’re all feeling the feels at this time of year - so if there’s ever a time to not be a total dick, it’s now. Don’t worry about what button your relative is pushing, you don’t need to win and you definitely don’t have to engage. If you get caught up in the drama of what they’re doing or feeling you’re focusing on THEIR center instead of your own. The best way to combat someone else’s crazy is to rise above it (see Honor the Feels). If transcendence is challenging in the midst of Holiday Chaos I recommend following three questions which seem innocent, but actually contain negativity neutralizing thought-bombs. They are: “What are you grateful for?”, “Who or what do you miss?”, and “What are you excited about in the coming year?” The holiday season is at least partially about gratitude, nostalgia and hope; present, past, and future. It’s ok to reflect on all these things around the holidays. Often times we just need permission to take that space. 

Please remember that each and every one of us is a beacon of light for those we love and who love us. Staying true to you is the best way to be there for them. Secure your own oxygen mask before assisting your beloved’s. Safe travels and happy homecomings.

With love and retro-big-bulbed-x-mas light,
MD

Healing Doesn't Have to be Weird

To heal, or to desire to heal does not mean that you are, were, or will be less than your best self. It doesn't mean you are admitting weakness or defeat. There is no stigma. Anyone who makes you feel like something's wrong with you, or like you MUST heal, or like they have all the answers you need to get where you need to go... they are pretty much missing the point of everything.

Healing is a choice, YOUR choice, and you already have everything you need to do it.

I’m probably paraphrasing someone else when I say: "There is only one healing as there is only one trauma: the initial perception of separation from All that is.”

“All that is” refers to the unity of all being, the idea that everything is connected in totality. My practice is based on Spiritual healing, which treats “the Spirit” as the most immediately identifiable aspect of yourself which is always connected to everything else. As such, the spirit is ALWAYS whole, NEVER separate, basically PERFECT ALL THE TIME. 

Therefore, there is always a part of you which is always whole, connected and perfect. If you feel disconnected from that part, it’s not because you are disconnected, IT’S STILL YOU! It’s not possible to be disconnected from yourself. It’s possible to believe (mentally) that you are disconnected, to feel (emotionally) disconnected, or to experience (physically) so much pain and suffering that the idea of connection and self and even healing seems impossible.

The reality is that there is always some part of yourself that remembers its full connection and identification with All that is. Some use this idea to say that Spiritual healing is all that matters. Heal the spirit and everything else becomes secondary. I don't agree with this.

I wouldn’t dare minimize the existence of physical, emotional or psychological trauma, I just see them as manifestations of a primary spiritual trauma - the perception of separateness from all that is. Just because the primary trauma is perceptual doesn’t mean its manifestations are any less traumatizing. 

Problem is, dealing with the manifestations of trauma doesn’t necessarily deal with the source. When we get overly fixated on physical, emotional and psychological manifestations (things, feelings and beliefs) we can be glamoured into forgetting the validity of the spirit’s experience which always remembers that all is whole, connected and basically perfect. YOU are never separate from your Wholeness, but your perception can become so fixated on separateness that it starts to seem real and define your existence.

And that really really sucks. Separation - even if only perceptual - can change your life into a living hell. You forget who, what, or where you are, and healing isn't even on the table.

The good news is that every perception of separation contains the possibility to remember your essential wholeness. If you are always whole, then your perceptions of separation are always incorrect. Again, not invalid, just not accurate.

Healing, then, is the self-initiated decision to close the perceived distance between who you think you are and who you actually are, between who you feel you are and who you actually are, between the experience of fragmentation and the experience of wholeness which is already there.

You can do it on your own. You must CHOOSE to do it on your own, (this is why no one should tell you when it's time to start healing) but a skilled healer can make the process easier. They can help you navigate through perceptions of separation, backtracking along the breadcrumb trail of physical, emotional and psychological trauma, until you return to a conscious re-identification with the wholeness of your spirit and therefore Self.

The physical awareness anchors the experience in time and space.
The emotional awareness gives the experience a quality or character.
The mental awareness creates ideas, thoughts and beliefs about the experience and in so doing creates the potential for meaning and understanding.
The spiritual awareness is fully present for the whole experience.

It's kind of always, like, all totally super good.

Happy healing.
MD

Protect Your Ish

Here's a powerful protection and clearing practice to help release whatever does not serve you while preserving all that is authentic. It's perfect for today's Scorpio New Moon, but most effective when used often. The simplicity of the practice has no bearing on its potency.

Protect Your Ish
(a practice for grounding, shielding and clearing)

1. Take three deep breaths and get centered. You don't need to be a zen master, just let the fluctuations of your mind settle as best they can.
2. Visualize roots of white light shooting out of your feet and the base of your spine. Imagine them plunging through the Earth and all its layers until they grasp onto the center core of the planet. If you don't like visualizations just repeat, 3x, in your mind or out loud, "I am perfectly grounded by the Earth now."
3. Pick a 3-dimensional shape, any shape that brings you pleasure. Ask yourself, "What color do I want this shape to be for maximum efficiency at this time?" Go with the first color that comes to you. No hard fast rules here, but for consistency's sake (and for maximum benefit) it's better to use the same shape and let variations come from the different colors you imagine. Imagine
4. Now, imagine this three dimensional shape expanding to a size that is big enough for you to fit into, or just imagine yourself inside of it already. Affirm that the shape is very hard, totally impenetrable but that you can also see through it. Say to yourself, "I am perfectly safe and protected inside of this space."
5. Focus your mind on the simple intention, "Whatever is in this space which no longer serves my highest good, I call it up now to be cleared." Casually, detachedly, notice if anything comes up: feelings, sounds, images, thoughts of people or situations. No need to get alarmed, you are calling these forces out of your subconsciousness so that you can kiss them farewell before they go. You're not looking for anything here, and you don't need to have any conscious acknowledgement, what matters most is the clarity of your intention. As you call up your ish, you may sense that your previously clear personal space is getting full of mucky stuff. That's the idea, because the next step is...
6. Flush that shit. Literally. Imagine the sound of a toilet flushing, or the image of your hand pressing the handle. Watch the sludge in your space draining down through the grounding cords in your feet or at the base of your spine, feel the murkiness clearing, or just say in your mind, "I release all that does not serve me in this moment, here and now."
7. Check in with the protective shape you created, flush again if you must. Know that it's done. Offer gratitude toward yourself and your extra-dimensional supports. Then, take three more deep breaths and go on about your existence.

I recommend the steps of grounding, shielding and clearing as preparation for any kind of psychic or healing work, or for meditation. It's great practice to start and end the day. It's incredibly useful if you're overwhelmed in a social situation, or if you feel you've been energetically schmecked by someone or some situation. Use it basically any time you need an energetic reset button, or to affirm the basic integrity of your self and your existence. NBD.

Love and Colored Shape Light

MD