Spiritual Toolbox

There’s a song I’ve sung to both my children called “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”. It’s the story of this brave quest to find a bear – perhaps you can view the bear hunt as a metaphor in this case for enlightenment or some other spiritual goal.

In this preschool song there are MANY different obstacles on the path to this “bear”: swirling snowstorms, gooey mud, deep dark forests. Let’s say that each of these obstacles are the aspects of life that we feel threatened by, such as our wounds, our e…

The road to a spiritual life is different for everyone, but spiritual bypassing is a potential hazard for all. Sometimes our spiritual journey can feel so slow-going that to think that we go too fast seems a far-fetched idea. Some spiritual awakenings can feel like a blissful catapult into a new mind-blowing paradigm where nothing feels the same anymore. Regardless of the route your journey takes, the skipping of important turns happens far more often than you might think. 

Spiritual bypassin…

This morning I found myself in an unexpected argument with my husband. 😬

It was supposed to be a mildly mundane conversation about our schedule wherein I offer to take on more time with our children. But all of a sudden he's upset with me and I'm completely baffled. 

I'm convinced that I'm acting from my pure and perfect True Self, that he's rejecting me and that something therefore must be wrong with him. 

My conclusion? He's help-rejecting. He's not really listening. He's projecting onto …

Time is one of those concepts that would likely implode our brains if we ever fully grasped it. All my brain can manage to hold onto is a collection of little stories that secretly hold the definitions of time.

One of these stories comes from the show MacGyver, a 1980's American television program I loved to watch as a child. It was about a hunk of a man with a feathered mullet who always seemed to find himself in a room with a ticking time bomb. And yet, as the seconds counted down, he resou…

We all have a little Inner Drill Sergeant in us. You know, the voice that drives you along and tells you to push harder and do more?

While some might find benefit from more of the internal nagging, in many cultures it can be such a strong force that it drives us to dis-ease. In Japan there is even a name for it: karoshi, which literally means “death by overwork”. But no one works longer hours than the Americans. And this is nothing to brag about. 

Stress and fatigue are the first rebellious …

It happened again this morning. I was scraping the ice off the windshield of my car and I noticed this all-too-familiar feeling inside me.

It was part anxiety, part guilt. The ominous feeling that I had done something wrong. 

And I was already punishing myself, imaginary whip in hand, deep in self-flagellation. 😔

Had I actually committed some egregious act? NO! Absolutely not! 

But somehow, when I wasn’t paying attention, my psyche had been doing a slow rolodex crawl through the recent his…

We each have life experiences that start to (or attempt to) awaken us at different points in our lifetimes.

Our own Soul has laid out a timeline for these awakenings to occur.

Though we often experience these as spontaneous events, they are well crafted and synchronized to take us along our intended spiritual path.

Sometimes these experiences stand out as “special”, like noticing that our Spirit Guides are speaking to us, finding profound spiritual inspiration while being in nature …

The suffering of our planet is nothing new to those who have been listening with their hearts.

This is one of my all time favorite writing exercise for Self-exploration and ultimately, Self-compassion and Self-love.

It's the ASK-A-FRIEND SURVEY, by Danielle LaPorte in her fabulous book, The Fire Starter Sessions.

Not realizing our own self-worth, our own gifts and value is an epidemic in women, at least in my therapy room!

Sometimes dislodging a poor self-concept requires the candid truths from our most trusted allies. To take this quiz you'll need to bravely call on that one soul, tha…

I don't like the term "energy vampire", but I know folks search for it online because us sensitive types can pick up E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G around us. The good, the bad, and the downright icky! 

Some people are born more “porous” to the energy of the people, animals, plants, or even inanimate objects around them. It can be part of our life purpose to do so. It allows us to “read” the energy at play, which can provide a wealth of information. It can allow us to understand others and situations …