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4 Key Practices To Open Your Heart

What does it mean to open your heart?

Today, I’ll explore four key practices that help you open your heart and live a more heart-centered existence.

One of the most powerful teachings I’ve ever received around heart energy comes from the name of the heart chakra, Anahata. This Sanskrit name roughly translates to – the sound that two things make WITHOUT striking.  In other words, it means union or NO resistance.

Take a deep breath in. Exhale your resistance…aaahhhh! Feel that relaxation around your heart?

Living and being in heart-centered consciousness is to drop your resistance and to operate from a place of love and compassion. It’s to relax around your heart. Healthy heart energy is for connection, communion and collaboration.

When your heart is depleted of energy you may feel tight around your heart or even empty. You may experience feelings like grief, sadness, and pain. This could mutate as well into the umbrella emotion of anger. You may close off your heart and feel  isolation and start to compare and compete for love.

This is when the Ego and Mind try to step in and take over. Yikes!

I know when I am in my heart, I feel good.  When I’m not, I don’t. It really can be that simple if we let it be.

Why not follow the trail of feeling good?

Through my life what I have found to be the most powerful tools for opening and freeing my own heart energy are mindfulness meditation, yogic breathing, gratitude and forgiveness.

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1. Mindfulness Meditation

The practice of slowing down through mindfulness meditation is powerful.  You are not living in your heart if you are constantly in your head and not in your body.  If you take your attention and focus away from the external world you can learn how to focus on your internal landscape, free of others projections, influences and energies.

With meditation you are able listen to what is taking you away from your own body, emotions, energy and experience.   To be connected to your heart you need to connect with your subtle body energies, or parts of your system that are unseen.  In this way you can become a better feeler, sensor and intuit for your own desires and needs.

This also frees you to connect with your Higher Self, Source and the Universe for the most Authentic Love Relationship you will ever find. Your relationship with YOU.

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2. Yoga and Yogic Breathing

Yoga and yogic breathing is an incredible tool for relaxation and mindfulness.  It is said that most people only breath to 30% of their capacity in a day, starving their body, brain and cells of oxygen.  This is not helping the body-mind system heal, but hindering it and creating more resistance.  Remember, we are looking for NO resistance so we can have our energy flowing.  When we slow down and relax, we can use the breath to release toxins, emotions and anything that is creating tension which blocks the flow of our energy and creates illness.

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3. Gratitude

Living an ‘attitude of gratitude’ brings so much heart and joy to your life experience.  When you are practicing what you are grateful for there is no room for negativity – your heart is filled with Love.  In that life expanding energy, you attract more life expanding energy like prosperity, abundance and soul nourishment.

The Dr. Emoto water research projects brought so much light to this.  When he used positive words and blessing vibrations over water, the crystalline structure of the water harmonized to create sacred geometry.  When the water was sent negative energy and vibration it became dissonant, fragmented and chaotic.

It’s up to you to bring your vibration into alignment with love and your heart.

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4. Forgiveness

The antidote to grief, sadness and isolation is to forgive, or ‘give forth’ the energy that you are holding onto from the past that created your suffering and pain.  If the heart is union, then you want to offer your heart’s energy of union to your experience of separation.  You can do this through the power of recognizing that what happened was for the greatest good. The universe always leads with what’s best for your soul’s evolution.The life lesson you received is bringing you back home to your heart.

Deepak Chopra had a phrase that always stuck with me in a meditation of his, “Forgiveness is for me, Forgiveness sets me free.”  Set yourself free of your pain by offering yourself love and compassion.

Opening your heart is an ongoing practice of relaxation, releasing resistance and honoring your own healing path.  Every day you have a choice to live more fully in your heart or to create more separation.  If you want to feel good more of the time, it can be as simple as starting to practice one of these self-love tools.

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May you feel peace and union in your heart today.

To receive meditations, affirmations and other inspirational tools for self-care and self-love, click this link and enter your email address!

xo Nicole

photo credit: courtney-hedger @unsplash

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When will you commit to yourself? 4 Simple Starters!

When will you commit to yourself?

How many times have you asked yourself this before?

You know how much better you feel when you commit to your practices, yet that’s the hardest thing to commit to.

What excuses do you observe ‘get in the way’ of your healthy habits like meditation, yoga, exercise, eating well, etc?

How is it that you know what is good for you, yet you do the bare minimum to get by?

What’s the best excuse you come up with?

As a Shamanic Empowerment Coach, my job is to empower people to commit to themselves and their well being.

Most people come to an empowerment coach not because they aren’t able to commit to external things (job, relationship, family), but rather because they have a tough time committing to the internal process of loving themselves.

I’ve heard every excuse in the book to prevent people from doing good things for themselves.

The most common I hear is “I’m too busy with _______(work, family, travel, kids, etc)”.

This excuse promotes that life is completely out of your control and that you have no say in your life.

Sometimes this means, “I don’t have the skills to prioritize my life.”

Other times this means, “I’m alone and I can’t ask for help.”

Or it could mean, “I need to feel important because I don’t feel good about myself.”

Or, better yet, “I don’t prioritize me.”

In the end, almost any excuse for not practicing your self-care really means, “I don’t truly love and care for myself.”

What’s your belief system around others that care for themselves?

I hear you saying things like that person is ‘selfish’, ‘lazy’ or ‘clearly not busy enough’ when you see them leave work at 5p and go to the gym.

I feel you getting jealous of others who dance in the fields, play in the woods, and sip coffee on the porch overlooking the mountain view.

I see you get mad at your partner when he goes out for a run and you are taking care of dinner.

You are judging and are in fact are upset that you didn’t set time aside for you.

What will it take for you to put yourself first? When will you finally commit to yourself?

What you don’t realize is that when you take care of yourself first, you will have more energy and love to go around.

When you fill your cup with prayer, meditation, affirmations, gratitude and self-care practices, you will have more patience and generosity available for others.

When you get clear on your priorities that fulfill your life, then your happiness is contagious and magnifies in others.

As your realize your dreams and actualize your visions, everyone around you benefits.

You don’t have to do it alone. Enroll, enlist, share and integrate your self-love and self-care practices into your life to include others and make it fun!

What’s stopping you from committing to yourself?

The next time you opt out from you, ask yourself what’s in the way.

Can you commit to yourself NOW?

Here’s 4 simple starters!

1. Notice your emotions and thoughts when you are NOT practicing self-care.

When you are not choosing  YOU notice your emotions. What old stories, wounds, and habits are stopping you from loving yourself? What “can’t” you do and why?

2. In the moment, CHOOSE LOVING YOU!

What will bring you (and ultimately others) more love right now?

3. Prioritize.

What’s really important?  What will make you more happy in the present and can the other things wait?

4. Schedule your self-care.

You book appointments for everything else, why not for yourself? Make non-changeable, non-negotiable commitments/appointments for YOU to meditate, exercise and fill your cup.

Bonus Tip:  Have fun!!  Your life is yours to have and do what you will with it! 

#nicoledohertyyoga #nicoledohertyhealingarts #shamanicpriestess #unleashthepriestesswithin #commitment #health #wellness #yoga #yogaeverydamnday

 

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Do you really love yourself?

What’s wrong with me?

Not a question most people like answering.

It’s really uncomfortable and very telling.  I have my clients answer this question for themselves when we start working together.

One of my favorite authors and healers, Louise Hay, offers the Mirror exercise to her clients.  She will ask the client to pick up a mirror, look into their own eyes, say their name, and then repeat “I love and accept you exactly as you are.”

I’ve done this with clients and this can be extremely difficult. Some people cry, some nervously laugh, and some get angry.

When I first did this exercise a long time ago, I balled my eyes out.  Honestly, I couldn’t say it. I was so angry at myself. I had recognized how far away I had gotten in the practice of loving myself and how all my behaviors, relationships and systems in my life were falling apart as a result.

My story of “I’m not good enough” was staring me in the face.

In my last blog I talked about self-love and self-care.

Do you really love yourself?

As a culture, I believe we are staring to do a lot more in terms of self-love and awareness with the rise of meditation and yoga in the West.

Yet I find “what’s wrong with me?” is still very prevalent in the way we dialogue using phrases like “should”, “have to”, “I can’t”, and “I don’t believe”.  Or “I’m too this”, “I’m too that.”  This are very disempowering and controlling ways to speak.

These phrases are limiting beliefs versus empowered beliefs.  These phrases are an extension of the old stories of judgement and criticism and are socially programmed.

I have a chart that I offer at workshops that I found online from a woman named
Barbara M Moreau. In essence it says this:

What you think is energy.
What you speak is vibration.
Energy +  vibration = matter

What you think + what you speak = your reality

I have this on my refrigerator as a reminder to watch my thoughts and words. As I’ve worked on this over the years, I have completely seen my reality shift. I am living the life that I want. I love my work. I’m living my purpose. And I can now say that I love myself in the mirror.

 
In what ways do you think and speak about yourself that are limiting? How do you plan to change this behavior? If you need support, I’m here to help — sign up for your FREE Shamanic Priestess call. We can find out how you are limiting yourself and get you on a healing journey. Click Here
lovechrissaunders

False Identities, Deeper Truths & Power

If you’ve been reading about my journey (connect with my past few blogs), I’m in a space of incredibly deep self-healing. For years I’ve been doing lineage work to discover more about myself and how I operate in relatedness to my experiences growing up, but now I’m in recognition that the final stage of this is to turn fully toward and lean into myself as the true creator of my whole human experience.  This is the Path of Feminine Power.

I’m in two coaching courses that are powerfully co-stepping me into this work:  Violet Lange’s The Pleasure Path and The Feminine Power 7 Week Essential Course For the Awakening Woman by Dr. Claire Zammit from Evolving Wisdom.

Any time I wish to blame, victimize or see the downturns in my life as outside of me, I need to take ownership, accountability and responsibility for the stories I’ve been running that are creating the energy that attract the same patterns out of familiarity and evidence to support them.

As I have been re-connecting with the concept of pleasure, surrender, receptivity, desire, softening, gentleness, and loving kindnessthe Divine Feminine – I’m healing the hurt parts of me and stepping into my power and seeing what scripts I’ve been playing that are running as a result of the pain I’ve been storing.

My false identities are: I am not good enough, not safe, unworthy and invisible.

In this story, I find that I avoid people socially and avoid deep connections. I forgo my ability to receive love, support and intimacy. This makes me feel isolated, unaccepted and unloved. I’m seeing how little I self-love and how judgemental and critical I am toward myself.

In the Feminine Power course we talk about DEEPER TRUTHS beneath the stories.

The Deeper Truth is that I have a huge well of love that I’m yearning to share and it feels so big that I’m actually frightened of unleashing it!!!  I long for deep intimate relationships and to build loving, supportive community. I’m valuable and my needs matter. I am beautiful, protected, and accepted.

My POWER STATEMENT (this is mutable and will change through the course, but feels ripe in the moment) is:

I am loved and lovable. I have an immense well of love that I am here to offer humanity.  I am accepted, beautiful, wise and enough. My desires and needs are top priority. I am intuitive and as such I can create and source safety for myself. I am open to receiving what life has to offer in love, support, guidance and abundance. I build deep intimate relationships and loving, supportive community. I am valuable and my needs matter. I am presencing myself and impacting people’s lives.

Ahhh, that feels so good to say, write and FEEL.

I am learning to get in touch with my wide range of emotions as a woman (embodying the vastness of the ocean as my mantra) and to not hide them. I  learned today from Violet that I can welcome my variety of thoughts in this way as well. I have been in a very masculine energy battle in my mind between my ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ perceptions. We concluded that the feminine way would be to embrace the negative thoughts as well as the positive ones as the vastness of the ocean. And, viewing the criticisms or judgements through the lens of the little me protecting and sheltering myself from pain. Now the bigger me can thank that part of myself in its final gasps and merge into my higher potential.

I feel so much more in tune with myself than I ever have. I’m just so excited to share this path with my clients! My healings have been so dynamic, juicy and powerful as a result of all this work.

Stay tuned for the next few weeks are sure to be explosive!!!

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My journey to fully loving myself

Last month I revealed the depth of my grief, sadness, anger and pain. If you missed my blog, you can read it here.

I was recently told by an INCREDIBLE intuitive/astrologer/next level healer, James Hopson of Inspiring Health, that in my chart this is my biggest year for deep introspective and breakthrough healing work. Everything is pointing to this being a FULL YEAR’s worth of work. It’s like a Dark Night of the Soul time for me, and I have the BRIGHTEST torch, Yeshua, lighting the way.  My God, thank you!

This is all AWESOME on so many levels. I don’t shy away from this work in fact, I know – and what is continually being confirmed for me – is that this is the Heroine’s journey and its a journey of Self-Love. It’s an opportunity to fully dive into the core of my wounds, self-criticism and judgement. With compassion I must learn to hold my darkness with pure love, feel all my pain, and fully embrace and accept it all.  I am being challenged to face all my patterns that I thought were resolved around my childhood that couldn’t have been revealed fully until I became a parent.

I’ve been neglecting myself ever since I had Yeshua too on all levels, redirecting all my focus to him and having little help and time for me. After a few odd health situations as of late, I recognized how depleted and unwell I really am. I asked for help and Spirit delivered me a team of healers to my doorstep!

I’m finding out what my system has beneath the surface that could manifest in 5 – 10 years through the coolest biofeedback technology. In combination, Bill Quateman of Advanced BioCell is helping me to re-balance all my body’s systems, boost my immune system, re-calibrate all my minerals/vitamins and detox heavy metals. I get to re-set my system after my birth.  It’s the most insanely cool stuff!

Aside from that I’m working on sexual & womb healing with the most amazing pleasure coach, Violet Lange.  She’s also a survivor of sexual abuse and helps women to create passionate sex and intimate connection for incredible love! I’m doing this work to more fully embody my feminine, heal my womb post-partum, and have a deep felt sense of my Divine Feminine essence.

I am ready to let go of the remnants of shame, pain, self-hatred and judgement that maybe still lingering in the corners of my being that limit me in many areas of my life from finances to relationships. I am playing the role of the wounded healer in this moment to challenge myself to be vulnerable and open about all of it, as ugly as it may be.  I know that being open to this will be for the Greater Good and this will be the Surrender that I need to find that path to wholeness and sovereignty.

I plan to be softer.  I want to yield to my pain and emotions. I want to explore my dark side and learn to really love it and digest it. A lot of this work is actually ancestral cleanup. I know I’m doing the work for my parents and theirs. And I’m ready for that too and open to receive its lessons.

Come with me on my journey if it’s time for you to air your dirty laundry. Or, if it hurts to hold on to secrets, lies and illusions. It’s time for authenticity, truth, and accountability. It’s time for real love – to fully LOVE who you truly are – and love all your perceived flaws and limits.

I saw a great transformational speaker today, Barbara DeAngelis, and her talk was about stepping into the Temple of Love.  Her closing questions were these:

How can I bring more Love to _(insert any situation or person)?

How can I serve  _(this situation or person)_with more love?

So for now my insert will be me, Nicole.

And we’ll go from there.

P.S.You can watch my recent videos about my path HERE