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The Empowered Woman Podcast: Celebrating Courageous Women Who Turned Struggles Into Success – Episode 1 with Arin Fugate

by Podcast

The Empowered Woman Podcast: Celebrating Courageous Women Who Turned Struggles Into Success – Episode 1 on Youtube.⠀Join Nicole and special guest Arin Fugate on an empowering journey as they discuss Arin’s incredible story of overcoming addiction, anxiety, and depression to support women in achieving their dreams. In this insightful conversation, delve into the depths of trauma, self-discovery, and the transformative power of spirituality. From challenging beginnings with addicted parents to finding purpose and healing through yoga, essential oils, and the wisdom of plants, Nicole and Arin share their unique paths to empowerment.

 

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I’m Feeling Lit Up in My Essence

by Nicole's Blog

Here in this moment I’m ready to claim: THE RIGHT TO BE MYSELF!  It’s the energy that’s coalescing in the collective. Ladies, are you feeling this too? Are you ready to give yourself permission?

My Divine ESSENCE is being re-activated and I’m feeling lit up. 😉

I’m all about energy and going deep into the architecture of the chakra system.  In fact, the subtle body is my absolutely favorite place to hang out and get nerdy. 😉

Just for the record, your divine essence is your second chakra, also known as the Seat of Your Self.  It’s your desire map. Svadhistana translates to “sweetness or abode”. Your womb is your uniquely architected Divine temple.

I’ve had this deep purging and releasing of the old matrix in my body happening for a while, but right now I’m so present to full surrender.  My Sacral Chakra has a deep yearning to let God, let Love and let Flow.  I’m allowing ease and grace to be very present.

Growing up in a Catholic household, I shamed myself, my body and my sex for too long. Thankfully, I have tossed those old lenses out along with the societal programming around the way things “should” be in areas like relationship and motherhood. I’ve recently and boldly stepped into whole new level of loving kindness and relationship with Christ Consciousness and the Divine that feels so intimate, supportive and unifying.

As an empowered awakened woman in this now, I’m also feeling a deep resonance with my Aquarian energy that calls bullshit on all of those outdated modes of separation, lack consciousness and ego battles of right and wrong.

I am tasting the creativity, desire, pleasure and bliss in my vortex re-align and re-awaken. I’m feeling a burst of magic coming from my deep with my womb.

I’m feeling a full tilt lean into Truth and Light. I want to leave all my protective armor on the battlefield and dance with my heart and soul into Unconditional Love.

How did I find this power again?

Well, recently I recalled the top moments in my life when I have felt absolutely lit up.

These are the moments that remind me what a gift it is to be Human and FEEL.  These  moments when my Kundalini Life Force expressed itself wholly and fully in my body. I loved these moments when I felt completely in my power, connected to Source and living truly in my Divine essence.  When I felt truly me and truly FREE.

I bring myself now to the word embodiment. Your Divine essence is within your body! Get in there and feel it sister.

In these moments I was in (and truly feeling) my body –  full senses activated.

For me, these moments have been traveling tropical islands, dancing on stages, flowing with water, singing my heart out in song circles, creating music and writing, having exquisite lovemaking sessions, going wild at festivals like Burning Man and my son’s first breath on my bare chest.  These were moments I was all WOMBYN – hear me ROAR. In these moments, I gave myself full permission to be ME.

In these moments I felt like time stopped. Divine Love, Truth and Light poured through my whole body and heart.

These were the moments I put aside any thoughts of rejection, failure, and not enough-ness.

These were moments of electricity.  In them, I was in my highest potential of Being-ness and in my Creative Genius. These were moments of transformation, empowerment, ascension, and pure magic.

In these moments I am the light. I am my living, sharing and being my gifts. I’m joyous, excitable, aligned, connected, soulful, fierce, radiant, graceful and LOVE.

It feels amazing to be connecting to this sacral energy again.

I invite you to think of your top moments when you were fired up and feeling amazing.  Write them down, feel them, describe them, meditate and dance with them.

Get connected to your beloved womb wisdom beloveds.  Move your body, breathe, play, dance, and get your energy activated.

Raise your vibration and claim your RIGHT TO BE YOU!

I have 2 spaces open for my 1:1 soulmate clients to start this February 2020.  If you’re ready to drop your guilt, shame and sexual narratives that keep you out of love, contact me and let’s get you connected to your essence.

 

 

 

 

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Overcoming Obstacles: Finding Gratitude in Deep Stillness

by Nicole's Published Articles

Written by Nicole Doherty – published for Yoganonymous

Whenever we are faced with obstacles on our journey, they are actually amazing opportunities in disguise to create stillness, to go within and to find gratitude for all things.

With every obstacle that arises we have a chance to see the shadowy parts of ourselves that lay hidden beneath the surface. The fluctuations of the mind, the ego, and external forces create a landmine of distractions that can keep us from going deep within to listen to our soul. We all know how easy it is, when faced with obstacles to judge and to move outside of our alignment toward self-destructive, punishing behaviors and thoughts of our wrongdoing. Or we can distract ourselves outwardly by socializing, searching for people to rally around our ‘being right’, or help those who are troubled so that we can forget about our own issues.

As described by the ancient philosophies, the truth is that the way to harness our power is to create stillness. In stillness we magnify our power by listening to silence. Silence gives us a glimpse of the free, unconditionally loving spirit within. It strengthens our intuition, which is our ability to see the inner world, in contrast to using our eyes to interpret the ever-changing outer world. Creating stillness is what most of us need and what most of us despise. Stillness can be perceived as uncomfortable, frightful, lazy and lonely.

Let’s not forget that we are spiritual beings living in a human body and not the other way around. The love for others and ourselves originates from our connection to Source energy.

“You are not a troubled guest on this Earth, you are not an accident amidst other accidents, you were invited from another and greater night than the one from which you have just emerged.” ~David Whyte

In the Yoga Sutras of Pantanjali, (1.14) it is written, “control over the mind’s fluctuations comes from persevering practice and non-attachment”. These two guiding concepts of Abhyasa (consistent practice) and Vairagya (non-attachment) help us to find meditation. Although they seem like opposites, effort and surrender, they work as compliments to find this peace within. Peace does not come without practice.

For me, the most effective way to design a practice is to create a sacred space right next to my bed. This way before I start my day, or before I go to bed, I have no excuse, but to stop at my altar. I have adorned my altar with many representations of beauty, people, deities, rocks, stones, crystals, scents and elements of nature. I now have a meditation cushion to curb my excuses that it’s just not comfortable.

I also have slowed down significantly to find prayers of gratitude before my daily rituals like eating, yoga, or healing sessions to tap into my Source energy for guidance and love. If the mind is heavily distracted I learned through the Law of Attraction to acknowledge all of the things that I am grateful for through stream of consciousness. This will turn my attention away from negative thought patterns and will line me up with Source energy. From Source, I can more easily drop into meditation.

For my meditations, especially if I am restless, I turn to wise meditation teachers to steer my silence through their guided meditations. Some of my favorite teachers are Deepak Chopra, Rod Stryker, Richard Freeman and Jeddah Mali.

On a final note about those feelings of discomfort, I want to share an analogy that I love from a Shaman I trained with in Peru.

Imagine for the first time you have just stepped onto an airplane.  Bad weather appears outside. The plane gets bumpy and is jolted. Major fear arises. You think are going to die. You reach for the barf bag in the seat in front of you and get sick. The second time you get on the plane, you feel the jolt and you know what is causing it and the feeling of sickness may have dissipated. After several plane rides you know the territory and you feel more safe. Now, you can fall asleep on the plane with no effort. You completely trust and surrender that you are in good hands. 

The next time you sit down, remember that everything that’s new has its obstacles and that’s what provides the biggest growth. Sit with your fear and send it love.

This year has been one of the most challenging years of my life, with the biggest obstacles and it has also the most expansive on all levels of my being.  Finding my meditation practice has transformed my life.

In pure love, light and joy, may you find peace this holiday season and find meditation in all your days to come.

Photo Cred: caleblandon.com

Origionally Published at Yoganonymous

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Self Realization: Yoga Beyond the Mat

by Nicole's Blog

Yoga is a path toward Self-Realization or seeing the truth of who we really are.

It’s a journey of awakening to our divine essence.  Through years of navigating various sacred and spiritual texts, philosophies and viewpoints, I’ve extrapolated that in essence all paths I’ve studied lead to the Yoga of Self-Realization and being at one with Source or God.

In that I realize the massive responsibility I have in teaching the totality of Yoga, not just the asana practice, but the entirety of its scientific study because it contains important keys to unlocking the mystery of our next phase of conscious evolution.

Yoga was designed to be a lifestyle that transcends the mat and informs the full spectrum of our journey toward higher consciousness.

Yoga graces us with self-reflective tools like listening, conscious breathing, inward gazing and rhythmic movement that entrains the mind.  This daily practice of introspection brings forth the focused concentration and meditation that we all are benefiting from on a larger scale. It’s an exciting time to see what is transpiring on the mat.

Yet what happens, when students leave the mat?

I’m finding that students do not have the tools to navigate all that has arisen from their limited 1.5hr practice.  There is a gap that needs to be bridged.  As students I encourage you to go beyond the mat and dive deeper into the philosophy and science of the Yoga Sutras or find a teacher that understands the deeper teachings of Yoga and take some privates.

As a teacher, I have a responsibility to impart my wisdom in Yoga’s intelligence beyond the physical asana practice off the mat. I need to educate my students and clients that Yoga is an integrative holistic medicine that heals energy, emotions, and mental traumas. It prevents and cures disease.

Every day I witness the mind-stuff (citta) arising in my own field of awareness and empathically experience this in my students.   The path for me can seem arduous sometimes when I recognize the complexity of human nature and all of its constituents – body, emotions, mind, and spirit.  Layer social dynamics on top of the individual’s path and I have an even more complicated exploration.  Yet I feel humbled and graced by the wisdom of God to be able to share my intelligence of this important practice.

We are in a pivotal phase of evolution and we need to dive deep into and uproot the shadowy unresolved unconscious behaviors and habits.I have begun to incorporate Shamanism (a powerful Self-Realization tool) Reiki (a Divine healing energy) and Sound Healing into my Yoga teachings. I’m offering them as a post-operative experience to help students deal with what’s arising on their mats.

Through these tools, I’ve discovered my ability to see beyond the veil of illusion and have gained the understanding of the true distinction between the Purusha (Soul) and Prakrati (Nature, body, mind).

Now is the time to go deep into the realm of trauma, the wounds of childhood, and the residue of ancestry to eradicate the patterns of behavior that keep us bound and constricted and in the past.

It’s our responsibility to forge new ways of relatedness with one another and with the world around us.

I encourage all my friends, family and students to join this journey into the unknown and to really see what is at the root cause of your suffering. I encourage you to explore the scripts that play behind the scenes and how the mind weaves new stories that don’t serve us if we don’t attend to understanding the scripts. It’s a wild web we weave.   The scripts many never disappear, but we can learn how to control our reactive behavior toward them.

Our job as spiritual warriors is not to avoid suffering or challenges or obstacles, but to embrace them as our teachers.

The path of Yoga is not about spiritually bypassing our ego either.  It’s about having a healthy relationship to our human self and all of its imperfections as a method of discovering the True Self again as God.

Yoga and Shamanism teaches us to recognize our experiences as opportunities to learn to love more deeply, beautifully and unconditionally.

I look forward to diving deeper with all of you on this journey of awakening through our shared experiences on and off the mat.