​The energetics of this time are running hot and erratic. The pendulum of control, separation, and fear continues to swing on the arc of its current trajectory and will continue this swing throughout the world for a while. However, resistance is increasing as more individuals begin to recognize that we as people, the other beings on the planet (e.g. animals, plants), and the earth are all interconnected. 
 
Many are also tapping into their heart, remembering their purpose and their core identity, and allowing these to begin to reshape their inner landscape. As their inner landscape changes, people begin to recognize the dissonance between heart-based yearnings and the fear-based external forces currently at play.
 
The pendulum will swing back and is likely to swing back hard before it settles into a new rhythm. We can already see glimpses of that.
 
This is a time of deconstruction and reconstruction. Increasingly, people are acknowledging that many of our systems are no longer working. Some want to ‘tear down everything and start anew’ and others want to ‘renovate the standing building’. It is into this mix that anger, grief, and sadness are swirling in this season of choppy and somewhat chaotic energy.
 
So, what can we do?
 
First, acknowledge that all emotions are legitimate. They are there for a reason. Feel them. Lean into them. Embrace them.
 
Secondly, don’t let those emotions take over your body. Emotional trauma is well-linked to a host of diseases and disorders. Let them move through and out the body through exercise, shaking, crying, somatic breathwork, or other methods.
 
Third, let the emotions that you feel be fuel for you. Use them as a catalyst for change. Identify what is important to you, and start by doing one thing to create the future that you want to see. Each of us are creator beings. Use your energy. Use your voice. Your voice wants to be heard. Your voice wants to be seen. 
 
 
It is no mistake that you are here, on this world, at this time. You came here to help with change. 
 
You came here to be the change.

You are worthy of your nurture and love.

Many of us are getting hit with wave after wave of trauma, loss, and hard experiences. It is no wonder that many are also experiencing anxiety, stress, and burnout. 

We can support ourself is by connecting to our self in a nurturing way. Here are three exercises that can help us connect to our hearts and bodies.

1 Hands on heart
Place both hands on your heart. Take a deep breath and feel your heart energy. Ask your heart, “Honey, what do you need?” Breathe and listen. You may ‘hear’ something in your mind or heart, you may feel something in your body, you may have a memory or emotion. Simply notice. Whatever comes up, see what simple thing you can do to begin to do, right now, to give your heart what it needs.

2 Releasing
Shaking is used in trauma releasing exercises, somatic breathwork, and qigong to allow the body to release.

Stand with your knees soft, body relaxed, and hands hanging at your side. Begin to gently shake your hands. Allow your body to bounce lightly while keeping your feet flat on the floor. Allow the bouncing to move through your body so that any part may gently shake or bounce. You may keep this light with smaller movements or you may begin to move around a bit with larger shaking and bouncing. Go with what how your body leads you for as long as it leads you whether it be 30 seconds or a couple of minutes. As your body leads, allow the shaking and bouncing to slow and for your body to come to rest. Take a deep breath and notice what you are feeling or sensing in your body.

3 Integrating
Place one hand just below the belly button and the other at the heart level. These are the sites of two energy centers (dantiens) we use in in tai chi. The belly one is related to the energy of our physical body and the heart one is related to the energy of our emotions and hearts.

Breathe into the belly and allow this to fill until it reaches the heart and beyond. Exhale starting from the heart and then allow the belly to release. Repeat 3-5 times.

Allow the energy to settle and notice what you are feeling or sensing in your body.

​Be loved. Be love.

​Balance and transformation are the themes of the moment!

Balance is not a compromise position. It is not mixing half of what serves us and half of what doesn’t and hoping that life will somehow work out if we focus on the brightness and high points.

Balance is founded on centering and grounding - bringing our attention and energy inward to our own center while connecting our human with this world which surrounds us.

Balance is becoming centered in the solid ground of wisdom. It requires time and presence to process integrate, release, and rest.

Fear seeks to pull us from our center, to pull us away from the solid guiding strength of wisdom. Fear seeks to pull us into itself and the shadow world where the ground feels unstable and thoughts get lost in circular paths that feed upon themselves.

Transformation is always with us.

Every moment offers a choice. Every moment leads to change. There is no standing still in the river of life. Choosing no movement still results in change because the river moves around us.

There are times when transformation moves beyond the incremental. For an individual, a community, a nation, a world.

We are in such a time as this. We came here for such a time as this.

Life will look different whether we remain in our rut or not. Whether we examine our beliefs or not. Whether we distractify, isolate, or numb. Or not.

We are here to create the future, not to retreat into the past.

We need to use our balance to move with the flow of the waves of change. Allowing change to happen to us. Allow change to happen through us.

We begin with the inner landscape of our heart. We start by examining the stories we tell ourself, the stories we believe. Many are not true. Many are hand-me-downs that no longer fit – if they ever did.

Releasing these old stories is one step. But only one step.

We must unearth our original stories as well as explore new stories. These are the stories of Who are you? and What is your why?

And, most essentially, we must begin to express our stories. We must come alive in our words, our actions, and our experiences. Not a shimmery façade to fit in or please others. But you. The you that lives beyond the mirror in the depth of your soul.

Transformation requires translating that internal landscape into the external world. You must be seen. Your voice must be heard. Your presence must be felt.
And this idea electrifies us. Perhaps with terror. Perhaps with excitement. Perhaps with both. But you wouldn’t still be reading if this wasn’t the pull of your heart.

Because. You came here to be.

Life is never still. Even at rest, our cells and molecules are always moving. Always changing. We are changing whether choose to or not.

So, choose. And choose. And choose again.

Your path will unfold with new stories and different parts of your ‘beingness’ will come alive in new ways.
​
Balance.
Transformation.

​2022 has the makings a year of ‘emerge’ both individually and collectively. 
 
The biggest question this year will be ‘who are you?’. Not what you ‘do’, but who you are in the roots and foundation of your authentic self. Perhaps that person you once knew before you tried to fit into the expectations of others.  
 
We’ve been on a chaordic path of deconstruction and reconstruction, release and create, for nearly two years and we’re not done yet. For many of us, this has included breaking the confining glass box of our belief systems to find our inner truth and reclaim our voice. 
 
These emerging voices are finding their paths. 
 
Wisdom bearers, those old souls (not necessarily old humans!) who change the atmosphere of a space by their depth, calm, and hope. Way show-ers, who guide others on the paths to healing or growth that they themselves have navigated. Edge walkers, those visionary innovators and artists who bridge the rim between worlds to help create things (of any size or type) that did not exist before. Where do you find your voice among these?
 
These cycles of change have amplified the polarity present in our world and left us, and our relationships, feeling unsteady. We’re tired and burned out. Many of us patchworked things to hold life together until it returned to ‘normal’. It is time to admit we’ve been booted out of the rut of our old ‘normal’. We need to think about creating new sustainable practices for ourselves and our communities. One thing calling to many of us is to strengthen our roots and connection to the planet for nurturing, grounding, and centering.
 
We’re going to need that grounding and centering because there’s a riptide of an energy flow right now. The good news is that if we stop fighting the riptide, we can allow the waves to help propel changes we’d like to make. Small steps and small actions will have a ripple effect. 
 
Experiencing more emotions recently? I sure am. Emotions are also emerging, specifically around grief. There’s an open ‘grief window’ that allows us to process grief – current grief, grief we’ve ‘stuffed’, or generational grief. Grief can be stored any place in the body. If grief comes up for you, notice where you are holding tension in your body and allow that tension to leave as you cry, scream, or shake out the emotion. 
 
Simultaneously, joy is also seeking to emerge. And who doesn’t need more joy? Again, it is all about the feelings. Seeing something beautiful and thinking ‘that is beautiful, will not gain you joy. Allow your body and heart to feel the joy. Not feeling any joy? I’ve found that focusing on gratitude helps as gratitude is the gateway to joy.
 
Wishing you peace and joy in the new year and courage to follow your heart to whatever is emerging for you.