About 7 and a half months ago I was writing a post for my blog. I had overhead a conversation between two women discussing one of them going back to school for a career change. The one who was returning to school didn't seem excited. It didn't seem like the normal nervousness that can come with doing something different. It was more like dread.

As I listened, I realized that she was enrolling in this program not because it inspired her or it was her passion, but because it had worked for someone else and they had encouraged her to do it. It seemed like the sense of doubt was coming from her higher self, knowing, "here we go again, working hard but not towards our own dream."  Something about that conversation struck me. Which is why I decided to write about it.

But as I was writing, something unexpected happened. I was the one who was inspired to do something I had not been considering. All of a sudden it hit me that I should go to massage school. It was not because the work I was already doing wasn't my true work, but rather that it is that made me know the inspiration was one to follow. Instead of finishing the blog post I started researching massage schools.

On the practical side I knew that massage would be something good to offer my clients as my practice grows.
My healing was evolving in a way that I knew could only benefit from having a more formal education in anatomy and physiology.

As luck would have it, one of the schools in town had a program starting within two weeks that fit my schedule. Once I truly decide on something I normally jump in with both feet so this was no exception. However, I forgot how much time it takes to be a full time student. Although my writing did not completely stop these past few months as I have written a few articles for local holistic magazines, my blog unfortunately suffered.

My "active hibernation" is over. I say active because although my blog was quiet, my life was anything but. As of this past week I have graduated Massage school, taken my exam for the state and filed for my license. That means very soon I will officially be offering massage as part of my practice and also that I will writing in my blog again. In fact I'll have the opportunity to make up for all the writing I did not get a chance to do. For the month of April I will be the guest blogger for Faith Squared's Project You. www.faithsquared.net.

I'm excited to have the time to write again and look forward to sharing with you again.

The Buffalo is a symbol of abundance so it seemed fitting that his picture go with this blog post. One of my clients who is self employed mentioned to me today that after every ThetaHealing session we do her income seems to increase. This was a happy surprise for her because our sessions have not actually focused on money or abundance. She asked me why I thought this was happening. The answer is simple. By letting go of beliefs that no longer serve her she is creating space for new positive experiences. Although things like guilt, resentment, fear and physical pain might not seem directly to finances these emotions can create blocks that can affect many areas of our lives.

Spiritual teacher Sonia Choquette has said "Clearing away dead energy restores the flow of energy in your life and gets things moving in a higher direction." She is actually speaking of feng shui and clearing physical clutter in our living and work spaces but the same idea applies to our mental and emotional state.  Unresolved emotional issues not only have the potential to create “dis-ease” in the body but also take up more energy and space than we might be aware of.

As we let go of negative beliefs and emotions we naturally begin to feel better. Law of Attraction teaches us that our vibration affects what we create in our lives. By making space for positive emotions we begin to vibrate at a higher level. As we vibrate at a higher level we begin to feel better. The more frequently we allow ourselves to experience joy and happiness the more likely we are to create more opportunities for this to show up in our lives. Not to mention when we feel happy and joyful others are naturally drawn to us, which can be good for both our personal and professional lives.  So although my client might have been pleasantly surprised by the outcome it all made perfect sense to me.

I was working on another blog post and had I strong intuition that I could go back to that post later and that I should write about this instead. Maybe there is someone out there that really needs to hear this message, or maybe I need to hear it.

As I am creating my business and my new life I have been reading the blogs of others who have gone down this path. It inspires me to read about those who are following their hearts and taking the leap of faith to do work that is aligned with their life mission, even if it can be super scary at times. I've found the ones I resonate with the most are the ones who are transparent about the fact that they are not perfect. They know they aren't perfect but instead of letting it stop them they keep making efforts towards achieving what it is they are going after.

So why is then that one of the reasons we want to be perfect is because we are afraid to be judged by others? In reality it is our imperfections that can shape us and give us character. Why are we so quick to want to hide these thing? Sure there might be some people that judge but my guess is those people have the time to judge because they don't have the courage to get out there and make their own dreams a reality.

When we were small children we did not care about being perfect. We did things just for the experience of it. Then somewhere along the way so many of us develop a fear of failing if we are not perfect. We beat ourselves up for things we have done in the past that were not "perfect." All this does is keep us stuck and keep us from shining our light into the world. If only just for today I encourage you to give yourself the permission to live your life without being perfect. Reconnect with your inner child and allow yourself to do the things you want to do just for the joy of it and without the worry that it needs to perfect.  Have compassion for yourself for the times you have attempted something and it did not turn out as expected. Realize that you had the courage to try. Instead of looking at something that didn't work out as a failure, look at it as a learning experience and figure out how you can do it even better next time.

And last but not least, instead of focusing those who might judge you think about those who you could help and inspire by dropping the need to be perfect and instead living authentically.

Since I was a little girl I have known that one of the things I wanted to do in my life is write. But then as it sometimes happens I forgot about this dream. My degree and the career path I took was not focused on writing and so I was not focused on it either and just stopped doing it. A few years ago when I began an intense focus on finding purpose in my work I was reminded that part of my journey is expressing myself through writing. As much as this felt right I was also at odds with myself.  Although in certain areas of my life I did things that others considered brave, expressing my true heartfelt feelings where anyone could read them terrified me. I saw others write blogs with such confidence and the attitude of, "this is what I think and have to say..take it or leave it."  I longed to be able to express myself with such detachment from the outcome.

After becoming certified as a coach I felt like I needed to "walk my talk" and it was time for me to start a blog.  The fear was still there but the motivation to do it was stronger. For a few months I had the inspiration to write even if I still felt anxiety when hitting the publish button. Then something happened that blocked me. Although I was taking the action to create my blog and to write I still had some deeply ingrained beliefs that I would be attacked for expressing myself. At the time I wasn't aware that I had those subconscious beliefs but I think that by having them created a situation where the exact thing I was afraid of happened.  After that the fear increased and the inspiration dried up. When I actually did sit down to write it was if I was facing a brick wall. My mind and computer screen stayed blank. Once again I dropped writing.

Luckily I am at a point in my life where I am surrounded by very supportive friends. Synchronicity happened when I mentioned to a friend that I would really like to start writing again. As it turned out she was part of a group that were just about to start working through Julia Cameron's book "Vein of Gold" and invited me to join. We meet weekly and I think that the encouragement and inspiration we provide each other is just as important in our creative growth as the exercises Julia prescribes in the book.
Thetahealing has also played a big part in helping me to get over writers block. Through it I was able to uncover and release the beliefs that were causing the fear of expressing myself as well as release the trauma around the reasons I was blocked.

Now I am in the process of learning to write for the joy of writing itself. I have challenged myself to regularly write in my blog and to be open to writing opportunities. As it often happens when we ask for something it appears in our lives. I have just registered to take part in a non fiction writing contest. By September I will have submitted a 50,000 word manuscript which is a big leap from where I was a few months ago with writing.

The reason I share this with you is to remind you that change is possible and that it can happen quickly. If there is an area in your life that you are blocked making the decision to change it is the first step. Once you have made the decision be open because chances are the universe will bring you the exact inspiration and support to work through it.

In a world where marketing experts recommend to people like me to target a niche market I rebel. It is not that I purposely disagree with them and set out to do the opposite of what they say. In fact, I have spent time thinking about it and every time I start to lean towards a certain direction a new client comes to me and we successfully work on something that is so the opposite of the direction I was thinking about going. But this is not about marketing, it is about helping people.  Rather than focusing on only helping people with a very specific type of issue right now I choose to remain open to working with and helping a variety of different types of people facing different situations.

The truth is there are quite a few things that can be addressed with Theta Healing. On the emotional level I have helped people learn how to live without ongoing pain and trauma from abuse as well as release fear and long standing anxiety, guilt or shame. Sometimes these people are learning to relax, feel joy and live with restored confidence for the first time. Other clients already have overall happy lives and want to work on very specific issues such as letting more love, money or success into their lives.

Overall physical wellness motivates others to see me. I have to do the necessary disclaimer here and say that if you need medical attention please seek the advice of a doctor. ThetaHealing is meant to compliment not replace conventional medicine. With that being said many times the aches, pains and "dis"ease that you feel are rooted in with an emotional hook. Working with the beliefs and emotions stored in the part of the body that is causing pain can help clear the way for physical healing. In fact I have many clients that have come in for emotional help and as a bonus found that a physical issue shortly after the session was resolved.

Although people come to see me for different reasons what they have in common is the fact that they know that it is time to make a positive change in their lives and are ready to make that happen. Whether you think your issue is a difficult or easy one I welcome the opportunity to work with you. If you are curious about whether ThetaHealing can help with an issue you face in your life please contact me. I'll be happy to answer your questions and if there is another modality or type of professional that I feel can better help you I'll give you an honest assessment.

Focusing on the positive has created miraculous shifts in the lives of some and has left others wondering why they haven’t seen the same results. It is true that our thoughts do create our lives but what is not always made clear is the impact of the subconscious.  Scientists believe that approximately 10% of our thoughts are conscious and 90% of brain activity is controlled by our subconscious mind. Memories, feelings and beliefs created during early childhood and passed down genetically are held in the subconscious and affect all areas of our lives including relationships, physical health and finances.

Theta Healing is a technique that addresses both conscious and subconscious beliefs.  Theta Healing Practitioners are trained to easily access the Theta brainwave. The Theta State is a very deep state of relaxation attained during hypnosis, deep meditation and the first stage of sleep. By accessing this frequency the practitioner can influence the dominant subconscious mind and in this space heightened learning, healing and growth can occur.

A session begins with the client discussing what issue they would like to work on. The practitioner listens and tunes intuitively into the client using muscle testing to confirm which beliefs are creating blocks for the client. Once this is determined, the practitioner connects with the Theta brainwave and The Creator of All That Is (known by some as source energy) to release the beliefs no longer serving the client and replace those with new positive beliefs. Muscle testing is used again providing immediate feedback showing when a belief is changed. After a session the client will typically feel relaxed and peaceful.

Changing beliefs on both the conscious and subconscious levels can create powerful results.  The beliefs we hold affect the way we view ourselves, and what happens around us.  Releasing the beliefs that no longer serve us and replacing those with positive beliefs can allow for healing to occur on multiple levels such as emotional, physical, mental and spiritual.

Since I've started doing working as a holistic practitioner full time I have received the most questions about Theta Healing. People who I meet and people who have read the articles I have written for local holistic magazines always want to know more so I decided to write a blog series to help to provide more information.

So how did Theta Healing start?

In August of 1995 Vianna Stibal was diagnosed with bone cancer. Although she was not against conventional medicine she had no health insurance at the time. What she did have was a background in alternative medicine as a Naturopath, massage therapist and intuitive reader. She decided to put her knowledge of naturopathy to use and began an aggressive series of cleanses, nutritional healing, and vitamins. Unfortunately she remained sick. Despite her illness she held a strong belief that God could heal in an instant and prayed for the answer.

A camping trip led to the discovery that would provide the answers she sought. Vianna's aunt showed up with a bad stomachache. As they were in the mountains Vianna did not have her herbs with her. She did an intuitive body scan as she normally did with her clients and this time she asked God/Creator/Source energy to release the pain in her aunt and witnessed the pain go away. Her aunt ended up feeling much better. She tried it again with clients and had success. She thought to herself, "It can't be this easy" but was excited at the results and decided to try it for herself.  It worked and today she is cancer free.

Curious to understand why this was working, Vianna solicited the help of a physicist. They found that she was accessing the Theta brainwave as she used this technique. As she puts it, "I had a breakthrough in healing and an explanation of faith healing that could be scientifically measured."

The truth is healing in the Theta state is not new. Hypnotherapists have long been working with people in the Theta state successfully. What Vianna added was the spiritual aspect.

Finding that some people received instant healing while others did not Vianna continued to develop Theta Healing. She began working with the limiting beliefs and feelings that contributed to illness and kept people from healing. Today belief work is a large part of Theta Healing and it can be used to help people change life patterns in a positive way.

I have met Vianna personally during one of my practitioner level courses in London and again this summer when I became certified as a Theta Healing instructor. What I liked about her was she was down to earth. She truly believes that with God all things are possible and encourages others to open their mind to possibilities. From a practical standpoint I appreciated the fact that she does not dismiss conventional medicine and continues to work with the medical and scientific community to better understand how Theta Healing works. To me it is a good blend of spirituality and science. I feel it is worth pointing out that one does not need to be religious to benefit from Theta Healing but only to believe in a source energy or creative energy.

In this blog series I'll be writing more about things like what Theta Healing can help with, what to expect in a session. If you have any specific questions feel free to message me.

This has come up several times this past week and I thought it was worth writing about. Have you ever noticed that sometimes the most successful people aren't the most educated or even the most talented? So why is it then that they are successful?

Those that are successful tend to have an unwavering belief in themselves. Rather than listening to others tell them their dreams are impossible they listen to the voice within that tells them that says "Keep going, you can do this." Unfortunately some have lost touch with that inner knowing. Instead of believing in possibly, that voice inside projects fear and quietly whispers or even loudly shouts out all of the reasons success is impossible. Taming this inner voice is essential because even if it does not express itself verbally others will pick up on it subconsciously and mirror back what we are projecting. If we are projecting fear and rejection we will attract people and situations in our life which give us the experience of fear and rejection. When we learn how to truly love and believe in ourselves we begin to attract the opportunities and people that support us on our journey.

Many people over look this next piece to the success puzzle. Have you ever heard that most people are more afraid of success than failure? Those who attract success and sustain it typically have a healthy idea of what success is. Some very talented and driven people sabotage their success because they unknowingly have limiting beliefs about what what will happen if they become successful. These are beliefs such as I will lose the love of my family when I gain success, in order to be successful I will have to give up who I truly am, or rich and successful people are evil. Most of the time these are not even conscious beliefs but it is important to make sure they are cleared in order to make the room for success in your life.

The third thing that successful people do is probably the most obvious and that is take action. Taking action is a way to show our commitment to whatever it is we would like to create or achieve. Sometimes the actions we take do not immediately get us where we want to go but they are a step in the right direction. If we keep taking those steps doors will begin to open for us.

If you are reading this and know that the inner critic is louder than it should be, you suspect you have hidden blocks around what success is or that prevent you from taking action then enlisting the support of a professional you feel comfortable might be just the thing that helps you move forward.

Personally I've found ThetaHealing to be a highly effective way to release and replace fear, anxiety and blocks with new empowering beliefs. I have seen profound results can happen quickly. If you have run into roadblocks in the past know that success is possible. If you are ready to bring your dreams into reality I'd love to support you on your journey. Send me a message to set up an appointment or with any questions.

So much is written about what the food we eat and how we feed our bodies. The media bombards us with the latest and greatest diet, or which foods scientists are saying we should eat or avoid to lose weight, to gain weight or for our health. And of course that makes sense. We need food not only to nourish our physical bodies but to survive. What we don't hear so much about is feeding our soul and giving our soul the nourishment it needs to grow, flourish and be happy.

A couple of months ago I went to a workshop where the facilitator caught everyone off guard, handed out a piece of paper and asked us to write down who we were. More than half the group sat there stumped and confused. Some questioned the exercise and a couple of people even had tears. Those reactions might sound extreme but it really happened. And there was a time in my life where I would have had a similar reaction, not being sure what to write.

As we go through life many of us learn who others want us to be instead of who we actually are. Maybe their voices were louder, it was safer to listen to the expectations of others or for whatever reason we might have a belief that if we live the life of who we truly are others will not approve. Sometimes it is just that we have not had the opportunity in life to discover who we are. I believe the first step in nourishing our soul is to find out who we truly are. By knowing who you are you are able to identify what it is that makes your soul sing and fills it with joy.

In her book "The Artist Way" Julia Cameron asks the reader to do Artist Dates. Whether or not you think of yourself as an artist this is a great way to get to know yourself and if you already know yourself it is a great way to honor and nourish yourself. The Artist date is a period of time weekly that you block off for a date with yourself. That means without your loved one, family or friends. What comes up for a lot of people is either the time issue and trying to figure out how they can make time for this. The other thing that puts off some people is doing this is the thought of doing something on your own.

The truth is many of us do already "necessary" things like grocery shopping on our own. Being alone during the artist date gives you a chance to process it in your own way without the filter or expectations of others and can be a very liberating experience. If time is an issue, keep in mind this doesn't have to be an extravagant outing. Julia Cameron recommends a couple of hours a week but even thirty minutes a week can make a difference. An artist date could be exploring a new park, trying a restaurant you've always wanted to go to- or treating yourself to an old favorite, visiting an exhibition, doing arts and crafts, or whatever makes your heart sing.

This is just one way to nourish the soul. The key is to listen to the voice inside and follow its guidance. The picture attached to this blog is from one of my Artist Dates a couple of weeks ago. What are you doing to feed your soul this week?
 

By now most of you probably know that I've moved from London back to Austin. Some of you have asked about the move and what I'm doing now so I thought it would be a good time to start up my blog again. So where do Tarantulas and Toilets come in you ask? The rustic little house I'm living in overlooks beautiful Lake Travis. My description of rustic includes the tarantula that was outside the front door recently. The house does have running water but it comes straight from the lake and as I recently found out this can cause problems when lake levels shift from rain with dirt coming through pipes both from the faucets and in the toilets, something I've never encountered before. This is a big change from life in London but even so living out here has been wonderful. This property has the most beautiful view of the lake and spending time out of the hustle and bustle of the big city has given me the space to do some soul searching to figure out what I want to do with my life now that I'm back in Austin. Before I start with that I'll fill you in on what has led up to this.

Within six months of moving to London I knew I would be gearing up for a career change in the following years. Sales was the only career I had known but something just didn't feel right about it anymore. Let me put this out there. Sales can be a wonderful career. I am so thankful for all the amazing people that I have met doing this work and for the lessons I learned. Many doors opened for me doing sales. But truth be told I dreaded going to work every day and even when I wasn't there I was worried about what would happen the next time I was in the office. What made it tough was the fact that I was good at sales and had absolutely no idea what else I could do but the stress I was feeling on a daily basis was undeniable.

In the past I had enjoyed a strong spiritual connection and meditation and prayer had been part of my life. Now I had become so tired and beat down that it had slipped away. Here I was in London. It had been my dream for so long and I had worked so hard to get here yet I was too tired and stressed out to enjoy it. I knew something had to change. Thankfully one of my dear friends from home sent me some inspirational books in a care package and that was a great reminder that it was time to reconnect with my spiritual roots.

A combination of prayer and soul searching starting bringing me clues of the right path to take. At a point where anxiety was at an all time high with my work situation I came into contact with Sue Frederick who is an amazing Career Intuitive. Check out her blog/website if you are interested in learning more about what she does: http://careerintuitive.org/blog/ I had no idea what was in store for me during the session. Was she was going to tell me I needed to suck it up and find a way to love sales again since I was lucky enough to have been successful at it? This was furthest from the truth. She shared with me that my natural skills are actually in the coaching and healing realm. What she said resonated with me on a deep level. It was like someone turned on a faucet and tears flowed from me. What she said felt right but I had never imagined myself in that type of work.  All at the same time I felt grateful, excited, overwhelmed and scared. Thankfully she recommended that I take baby steps and gave me ideas of how to begin because I had no idea how to start this journey.

That session with her shifted me in a profound way. Finally I felt a sense of greater purpose. Things at work were still stressful but I had something worthwhile to work towards. Knowing this allowed me to relax and enjoy where I was. As I began soaking in the culture and settling into living the life of a Londoner, I began taking the necessary courses to become certified. The first thing I did was get certified as a life coach. It was a great place to start and gave me a good foundation to work from.

Soon after I completed this course I found out that Sue Frederick was going to be holding courses to train others to do the work that she does. Because the session I had with her made such an impact on my life I wanted to learn what she had to teach. I knew there had to be others out there in the same situation I had been in, wanting to make a change in career but not having an idea of what that would be and it would be nice to know how to help them.

As I began doing sessions for people it became clear that although many of them connected with the information we discussed about their natural gifts and the career possibilities that would allow them to use these gifts they still felt stuck. Knowing about their potential even when it felt right and knowing steps to get started on this path wasn't enough for some. Old beliefs came up about why it was fine for someone else to follow his or her path but they had a list of reasons why they couldn't do it themselves. I felt it was something more than them just making excuses because some of these people truly wanted change in their lives. In a way I could understand. Although I was taking the steps to make a career change, part of me still didn't feel it was possible. Even though Sue assured me that I had the skills and was ready to start coaching full time something was holding me back. As much as I was "done" with the corporate world I was scared to leave it and I didn't know why.

I decided to follow my intuition and learn Reiki. Energy work was something I had experienced before and I knew the value of it but never saw myself learning it. However Reiki became an important piece to the puzzle. It was the first step in branching out from just coaching into also doing healing work. As I learned Reiki and received my first attunement it seemed to deepen my connection to God. As this happened my intuition geared up to a whole new level and by the time I learned the second level of Reiki I felt strongly that it would be important for me to also learn Theta Healing. The thing about this was I knew little about Theta Healing and had never even had a session. But the push was so strong it compelled me to go online and research it. As things seem to happen when they are divinely guided there happened to be a course that month not too far from my flat.

Theta Healing opened up a whole new world for me. It was a link that allowed me to combine what I had learned through coaching with the energy aspect of Reiki.  A large part of Theta Healing is working with beliefs, both conscious and subconscious. This gave me better understanding as to why some people stayed stuck even when they wanted to change. I learned how to connect to the Theta brainwave, how quickly healing can occur there, and that it is possible to shift beliefs even if we're not aware we've had them or if we've been holding on to them for years.

It was amazing to see how this helped the people I worked with and as I worked on healing myself things in my life started shifting too. The job that I had been afraid to leave suddenly didn't feel right even as a way to pay my bills as I was slowly building my practice. I still wasn't quite ready to completely leave the corporate world and right on time another job showed up. Around the same time I met a man and fell deeply in love and for several months things were great.

He ended up changing my life, just not in the way I had expected. One night he told me he loved me like he had done for the past few months and then the next day out of no where broke things off. I felt blind sided. It wasn't the kind of break up where you say ok, good riddance, next. Both my heart and soul felt broken. There were days that I felt so sad I didn't want to get out of bed.  And I was so confused. Why had this happened? I was doing the spiritual work, I had cleared beliefs around relationships. Or so I thought. Deep inside of me beliefs I held about abandonment still lingered and he reflected this to me. I still had deep seated beliefs about abandonment and he reflected this to me. I allowed myself time to grieve and heal. Even though I was still in pain I decided that instead of my broken heart being a roadblock and a reason to set me back or keep me stuck I wanted to turn it into something positive and see the gift in it even it it wasn't obvious at the time. I dug deeper into my spiritual work and into my studies of the mind, body, spirit connection. The vacation time he and I would have spent together I used to take a 3 week intensive course called Intuitive Anatomy which covers each body system and how our emotions and beliefs are stored in each system affecting our physical body.


The "gift" from the heartbreak was beginning the emerge. The course was amazing. For many years I've been aware of the work of Louise Hay and the many other authors and medical experts that speak of the mind body connection and how our thoughts and emotions affected our body. A new level of awareness dawned on me as I learned how to apply this in a practical way for my clients as well as allowing myself to heal further. Just as in my experience with Reiki I could feel my intuition kick up another notch. Sessions with clients became even easier. I was able to quickly tune in and help them uncover unconscious beliefs that they had no idea were holding them back. Now I was also able to tune into body parts that were causing my clients pain and help them release emotions they were holding on to that had been causing the pain.

On a personal level things were changing for me too. When I first moved to London I had planned to get my citizenship and stay there for good. The healing that occurred for me during Intuitive Anatomy shifted something in me and I started feeling as if it was time to move back home after living there for four years. I can be very stubborn and in the past I would have dug my heals in and fought it. After a bit of a rocky start I was finally feeling at home in London.Why should I move now?  I'd met some great people and was loving this new work I was doing even if it was part time. What was this guiding me to move home? I knew there was still a bit of unresolved pain from the break up but this felt much deeper than that. My intuition had been right about learning Reiki and Theta Healing so after taking a few months to decide if it was really what I wanted to do I decided to move back to Austin.

When I first got back to Austin in December I was still in the mindset that I needed  to have a corporate job. Largely from habit and because living in London this would have been true for at least a couple of more years due to visa requirements.

Once I really started to get settled back in Austin I started toying with the idea of building my practice full time. It was really all I wanted to do because I believe in this work and know what a difference it can make in peoples lives including my own. My life has shifted in dramatic ways since I've begun this new path. Not just in where I live and my career but in how things affect me. It is much easier for me to hold a space of peace when faced with things that would have really bothered me before. So,  I held the intention and prayed for the right doors open up for me. And then when I least expected it certain things felt into place allowing me to do this full time.
Oh and the tarantula? Thankfully he left about 10 minutes after I saw him, however the toilet downstairs is still having an issue since the lake levels have been fluctuating. Let me know if you happen to know of a good plumber in the Lake Travis area. :-)