Healing 2 minutes at a time

Angel Birthdays Blog- Healing Your Grief 2 Minutes at a Time

 

 

LITTLE STEPS BRING BIG CHANGE.

Start your healing today…two minutes at a time.

 

Grief is a long journey but you can heal two minutes at a time. Our weekly videos provide you with simple, doable activities that will help you heal your grieving heart at your own pace. From energy healing to eastern and western religion, these videos pull knowledge from a multitude of sources to provide you with unique healing tools to help you along your grief path.

 

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Working our way up the grief scale

Posted by on May 27, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

A few weeks ago, I taught a healing class and utilized Esther Hick’s emotional scale. This list is comprised of many different emotions that we feel, beginning with the deepest and darkest emotion we can feel, grief. I’m sure it comes as no surprise to anyone here that grief is the heaviest and hardest emotion we can endure. Some days, it may be best to sit with this emotion and let it do its work as it allows you to release, detach and remember your loved one and all they brought to your life. But then there are the other days…

The days you have an urge or a moment where you want to feel stronger, better, less exhausted. What do we do on those days? Well, there is something very powerful we can do that will help us raise our energy and our emotional state to begin to feel better. That is where this miraculous emotional scale is so helpful. Here is the list, first, and then we’ll discuss how it works, second:

The Emotional Guidance Scale

Joy/Appreciation/Empowered/Freedom/Love

Passion

Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness

Positive Expectation/Belief

Optimism

Hopefulness

Contentment

Boredom

Pessimism

Frustration/Irritation/Impatience

Overwhelm

Disappointment

Doubt

Worry

Blame

Discouragement

Anger

Revenge

Hatred/Rage

Jealousy

Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness

Fear/Grief/Depression/despair/Powerlessness  

From the book “Ask and It is Given”, pg. 114

 

The heaviest and darkest emotion we can feel is grief and everything that comes along with that grief- fear, despair, powerlessness. This is why it is listed at the bottom. Every emotion above it feels a degree lighter than this heaviest emotion. The next time you feel like you’d like to start to move off of that heavy emotion of grief, or if you’re in that moment now, begin to talk through your situation. You can talk through this list of emotions and watch your emotional state change. As you talk through it out loud, you will actually feel your emotions, and your energy change. It is so powerful. You may not be able to go from the very bottom all the way to the very top emotion all at once and that’s OK. Even just moving up one emotion helps you to feel more positive and healed.  Yes, anger is a higher emotion than grief. So if you’ve moved onto feeling angry about your situation then recognize how much you’ve already healed. It’s a process and often a long and painful journey. Honor where you are at in this moment.

I’ve written out an example of how this list would work. I’ve made the sentences a bit general, but it will help you get the hang of it. IMPORTANT: Scroll to the bottom and read bottom up. It didn’t feel right to have the heaviest emotion at the top but it’s important that you read it from the bottom up and begin to tune into how you feel. Do you feel lighter or maybe a little happier as you read the list? Then apply this example to your own situation. You’re welcome to use these sentences and just add your loved one’s name or the situation you are grieving. Be sure to say it aloud. It is more powerful that way.

The Emotional Guidance Scale

Joy/Appreciation/Empowered/Freedom/Love- “I appreciate and love all that I have learned about myself through my grief process.”

Passion – “I’m passionate about working on healing my grief so I can heal.”

Enthusiasm/Eagerness/Happiness- “I’m excited to see the day where I’m not so struck with grief.”

Positive Expectation/Belief- “I believe there will be a day I will not be grieving so hard.”

Optimism- “I feel like it’s possible to have a few more moments without grief. Perhaps I will heal one day.”

Hopefulness- “I hope I can have a few moments that don’t include grief today.”

Contentment – “I had a moment of contentment today that didn’t include grief.”

Boredom- “I’m so over this and bored with grieving. It’s been too long.”

Pessimism- “I’m not sure I’ll ever be over this grief.”

Frustration/Irritation/Impatience “I’m so irritated that this grief seems to rule my life.”

Overwhelm- “This grief makes me feel so overwhelmed with my life.”

Disappointment -“I’m so disappointed that I feel so much grief.”

Doubt – “I doubt I will ever get over this grief.”

Worry- “I’m worried I’ll feel this way forever.”

Blame- “It’s _____ fault that I’m having to deal with this grief.”

Discouragement- “I’m not sure I’ll ever get over my grief.”

Anger- “I’m so angry at the thing that took my loved one away from me.”

Revenge- “I’d like to get revenge on the thing that took my loved one from me.”

Hatred/Rage- “I hate that I have to handle these feelings.”

Jealousy- “I’m jealous of the people who have never grieved like this.”

Insecurity/Guilt/Unworthiness- “I’m afraid I deserve to feel this level of grief because I ______.”

Fear/Grief/Depression/despair/Powerlessness – “I am grieving this loss.”

 

Isn’t this powerful? I can’t begin to tell you how helpful this tool has been for me in helping me to heal my emotions about many different situations, not just grief. We can’t wait to hear how this experience helped you heal your heart. How did you feel? Did you notice the shift in your heart? Did you feel lighter as you worked your way up the list? Please share your experiences with us and inspire someone else to give it a try too!

Sending you big love!

Love and Blessings,

Erin

conqueringpain

 

Start your own love cycle

Posted by on May 20, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

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A few months ago, I wrote an article on the power of choosing love over fear. It’s a powerful concept rooted in text in A Course in Miracles. I’ve tried to live this practice but, up until this week, I never knew I was approaching it backwards. You see, whenever I would feel afraid of something, I’d try to find a way to love the situation, find love for the person in the situation or find greater love and compassion for myself in the situation, knowing I was the one hurting, in order to reach a level of love that would conquer my fear. But to be honest, I was only about 50/50 on the success of actually finding a place of love and peace when feeling fearful. I still felt scared I would lose someone else. I still felt scared to be vulnerable with someone. I still let fear win initially ….until I could catch myself and work myself back to a place of love, but I would have to work so hard. It was exhausting.

Until I learned a way to reimagine this whole concept that removes the loophole of needing to catch myself and needing to work so hard to get to that love baseline.

Start a love cycle.

What’s my initial feeling? What’s my initial intention? How can I change my thoughts, and my feelings, to start from that loving place from the very beginning?

After listening to a talk given by the late Wayne Dyer on the HayHouse World Summit this week, (If you haven’t checked out this free resource of amazing speakers and movies you still have one week left of this life-changing offering. Register here: https://www.hayhouseworldsummit.com/learn) I was blown away by his perspective shift on this very subject of love versus fear.

Mr. Dyer said to the audience so beautifully,

“Everything that is love cannot be fear. Everything that is fear cannot be love.

How much of your life is based on decisions derived from fear?

Do you eat the foods you eat because if you don’t you’re afraid you’ll get sick? Or do you do it out of love for your body knowing that this is your body, the temple you live in, and you want to treat it that way?

Do you drive the speed limit in your neighborhood because you love everyone around you and you want them to be safe or because you are afraid, if you don’t, you’ll get a ticket? ”

What a shift, right? Can you relate to these feelings? I sure could and it rocked me to my core…which is great because that is where this shift needed to take place.

Sometimes trying to shift the stuff that feels really scary is a tough place to start. There can be too much fear there and it can feel hopeless. I think we’re supposed to start with these simple everyday situations and begin to build up the momentum by starting the love cycle.

These two examples are subtle shifts in our everyday life, except that these “minor” situations take up a great amount of time in our day. How much time do we spend shopping, cooking, cleaning up after and eating our food? How much time do we spend driving?  Maybe if we make this simple shift to love here in those seemingly inconsequential spaces, those big scary things in our life, like moving forward after a loss or trusting again after a broken heart, can feel a little less scary if we’ve already built up our love momentum.

How are you living your life? How are you healing your life? Later in the same talk, Deepak Chopra talks about how love heals us on a cellular level. It helps our cells return to its original state of homeostasis where the cells can remain stable regardless of external conditions. Just by choosing love right from the start. Once we start with love, we end up having more. Love manifests and grows more and more. It gains momentum on that love cycle. The opposite can be true, as well. If we focus on fear, we find more fear. Which will you choose? How will you begin your day? Can you start your own love cycle?

Eckhart Tolle, Deepak Chopra and Wayne Dyer give this amazing talk I’ve referenced in this article together. If you’d like to watch this talk, click HERE. I highly recommend it!

We can’t wait to hear your beautiful stories! If you watched the video, what was your favorite part? Inspire others by sharing your healing shift? How did you start your own love cycle? What simple area in your life were you able to reimagine? How will you shift your thinking to help heal your heart, your day and your life?

Sending you big love!

Love and Blessings,

Erin

 

 

 

Connection First…Problem Solving Second

Posted by on May 12, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

This week, I was listening to a talk from Esther Hicks who was talking about how to manifest all the desires of our heart. She said one thing that really caught my attention.  She said we must focus on our connection with God, Holy Spirit, the Divine, Higher Self, however you personally call upon your God, FIRST and focus on solving our problem second. Once we are connected, the problem will solve itself. Then I heard the very same message on the Christian radio station I was listening to in the car. Yes, not too much of a stretch there since it was a Christian station but regardless, it was the exact same message.

Connection first. Problem Solving Second.

So I thought I better relook at my focus just to make sure I was focusing on my connection first too!

So often when we are handling a life change, we feel like we need to solve all the problems ourselves and find ourselves left in a panic. This stress lowers our energy and exhausts us and puts us in a place where we really aren’t going to solve any of our problems. When we connect first, the answers, the resources, the path is provided.

9 days ago, I began looking for a designer to help me design the logo for our new community name Love. Heal. Thrive. That initial request began on my accountability call with my accountability partner at 8am on Thursday. I then went to a Boot Camp class at 9:30am and after class started talking to a friend who said, “Oh, I used to do that. I’ll see if some of my friends could help you out. By the time she reached her car, she couldn’t get our community out of her head and was blessed with a vision of my logo. That vision is the logo that we have now. It was amazing!

 

LHT_logo_v_final

 

Over the course of the week, she proceeded to create all of my marketing materials so that I was completely ready for a fair I participated in this past Saturday. I never would have imagined I would have a community rebrand done so quickly or so professionally. It completely exceeded any expectation or execution I could have ever had in my own problem solving.

And that’s how God works. The resources show up when we need them. He sends the people we need when we need them and the solution usually surpasses any idea we might have come up with ourselves. We just need to stay out of the way as if we know better.

So this week, let’s take a moment to look at our connection point. Are you worrying about the solution? Or are you working on your connection?

Take a moment to give gratitude for that very connection and watch the resources, the answers, the blessings, the path show up.

We can’t wait to hear how solutions have shown up in your life. Where have you been struggling that, once you let go, the solution or blessings presented itself? Or the person showed up? Share your inspirational story with all of us!

Sending you big love!

Love and Blessings,

Erin

Love. Heal. Thrive.

Posted by on May 6, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

No matter what we are trying to accomplish or heal, we can only give from overflow.

We must fill our own hearts first with love, compassion and understanding so we can give from a place that is filled and complete. Otherwise, we take too much from ourselves and end up feeling depleted, exhausted and depressed.

Life altering experiences require us to love ourselves in a bigger, greater, stronger way and it is imperative that we give ourselves the support we need.  Whether you are struggling with a relationship loss, friendship change, death, illness, caring for an aging parent or stage of life change, the healing course is actually quite simple.

LOVE. HEAL. THRIVE.

We love ourselves enough to heal and heal ourselves enough to thrive. 

While the process is simple, the journey can be long, but it all starts the same way.

It begins with loving ourselves so much that we have the bandwidth to heal our own hearts.  Because no one can heal our hearts for us.  We may want others to rescue us or save us but that’s just not the purpose of grief.  Grief is there to teach us how resilient we can be and how when we finally take the time to fill our hearts with love, we find that we can and will heal over time.

Once we begin to heal, thriving quickly follows. Maybe in small ways at first.  Our entire life may not feel like it’s in thriving mode, but it can begin with a thriving moment.  A thriving conversation.  A thriving afternoon.  As we begin to become more grateful for those thriving moments, we begin to collect more of them until we wake up one day and find that we are living a life where we are thriving as a changed, stronger, more resilient, more grateful and more compassionate human being.  Thriving while realizing you simply could not be in this place of expanded appreciation without having gone through the journey, the pain, or the struggle.

This is why I am renaming my brand to Love. Heal. Thrive.

Same great healing.  Same great message but a name that encompasses ALL the healing we are doing in this community.  A name that shows that healing only happens through action.  We must act and move to heal.  We must “verb” to move forward on our healing journey and it all begins with love.

From now through Saturday, my correspondence is going to begin shifting over to LOVE. HEAL. THRIVE. and I could not be more excited!  This name honors our process and shows us the way. Welcome LOVE. HEAL. THRIVE.

Where are you on your healing journey?  Are you still learning to love yourself?  Are you beginning to fill your heart with love?  Have you begun to heal because you’re filled with enough self-love that you have the energy to heal? Or are you beginning to thrive after your struggle?

Share your story down below so we can help each other.  If you’re working on Love, let us know so we can send you some love.  If you are healing, what are you doing to heal?  If you are thriving, what is happening?  Share and inspire someone else who might need to be encouraged.

I can’t wait to hear your Love. Heal. Thrive. stories and excited to share this new look, feel and healing vision with you.

Sending you big love!

Love and Blessings,

Erin

 

 

Maybe we’re not as alone as we feel when we’re grieving.

Posted by on Apr 29, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

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I attended a family funeral this week. It was beautiful-from the flowers to the words spoken to the hugs shared. This friend of my family was 95 years young and it was a true celebration of life. I felt sad that he would no longer attend our family functions, but that’s not why I cried. I wept for the pain I saw on the face of my closest loved ones who were directly related to this sweet man. The pain on their face is what brought me to tears. I hurt and wept for them.

Then it got me thinking, as most things do, maybe we’re not as alone as we feel we are when we’re grieving. Grief feels so isolating and so lonely. But I know I was not the only one in attendance who wept for those who were still living, not for the beloved departed. It is quite true that we weep for our loved ones who are in pain.

What if we felt that very love from all the people who were weeping for us and our broken hearts? That would be so powerful. All of that love and support pouring right into our hearts. I assure you, we would not feel alone in our grief if we could collect all of this empathy and love and bottle it up for our own healing when needed.

I sent them all love from my heart during the service, but I made sure to give them all extra love afterwards.  This was my parting thought that day…

 

How can we continue to remember those tears as the months go on? How can we be sure to support them?  My tears were tears of empathy and through that very empathy, we can provide the extra strength our loved ones need.

This week, set the intention to support a loved one who has lost someone and let yourself empathize with their pain. Get in there with them and FEEL what THEY are feeling. Not what you are feeling…what THEY are feeling.  When they feel that kind of support, they will heal in ways they never knew possible.

 

This is another amazing Brene’ Brown video on how to show empathy. As Brene’ states, “Empathy is us getting down in that hole and connecting to a place in our hearts that connects to their pain.”

How did you share your empathetic support this week? What empathetic tears did you feel? We can’t wait to hear from you and support you too. We all lean on each other.

Sending you big love!

Love and Blessings,
Erin
empathy

 

Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable

Posted by on Apr 22, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

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“The job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”  ~Mr. Dooley

This quote was originally published in the 1902 book, Observations by Mr. Dooley based on a fictional character introduced in the Chicago Evening Post.  It has since been used to describe the work of God and the church and how he/they do this very thing…comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

But I also think this is how we heal from grief.

It does not matter whether our grief was caused by the loss of a loved one, the loss of a relationship or friendship or managing life before an illness, we need to be comforted when we are afflicted but believe it or not, we need to be afflicted when we are comfortable.

Why you ask?  Why would we afflict ourselves when we aren’t feeling anything?  Because we let our hearts go to sleep; we begin to numb the pain to make it better, instead of actually healing the hurt.  We begin to shut off the parts of us that hurt because we no longer want to feel the pain of this loss.  But numbing and turning off and getting too comfortable is not healing.  This course of action won’t bring us closer to the real purpose for our pain.  If we have to grieve, we might as well do a thorough enough job so we figure out what it’s bringing us toward, right?

Because all of our pain has purpose.  Our grief makes us stronger, more resilient, more appreciative, more grateful, more alive….but not if we get comfortable.

So this week, I want you to spend your 2 minutes thinking about where you might have fallen asleep in your emotional life.  Where are you most comfortable where you might still need to heal?  If you find that through this exploration you are comfortable because you feel healed in this area…FANTASTIC!!  Perhaps you can then ask yourself, what am I supposed to do with this healing?  Is it there for me to support someone else?  To create something that never existed before? To honor my loved one in a certain way?

And if you are afflicted right now… honor this time!  If you explore, or maybe you don’t even need to explore because you know you are deeply afflicted right now, then allow yourself to close for repairs. Be gentle and kind and so generously loving toward yourself.  This is the time to give yourself the love you need.  Because you need to fill your heart first with the love, compassion and strength it needs to do the rest of your healing.

What are you afflicted with right now?  What have you healed from? How are you using that strength to help others?  Are you helping a friend?  Starting something new? Share with our community so we can support you wherever you are on your path.

Sending you big love!

Love and Blessings,
Erin
afflictthecomforted

 

 

Trusting after a loss

Posted by on Apr 14, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

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How do we trust after we lose someone, or after a friend betrays us or after a relationship ends? It’s tough. It’s especially tough when those things happen simultaneously or “in threes” which happens…often.

When my mom and brother died, I “claimed” a celebrity death to be my third loss so that I didn’t have to experience another loss so close to my heart. Superstitious or not, I felt like I needed to complete that group of three. I completed that group of three, but the one thing that wasn’t complete after that claim was my ability to trust in others. I still struggle with this a little, but I can recognize this injury so much more quickly in me and am able to be kinder and more understanding with myself which creates a safe space for my heart so that it can reach out regardless. But it took a lot of work and self-healing attention to get to this place. It certainly didn’t happen overnight.

I got there through listening to hours and hours of wisdom. I am a podcast and talk junkie. I am always listening to something while I am driving, washing dishes, tidying the house. Perhaps it’s not the most mindful way to get these mundane tasks completed, but it sure does a lot to grow my heart and my soul. This week, I listened to Brene’ Brown’s talk on “The Anatomy of Trust.” It was so powerful and probably the most accurate depiction of how we build, and destroy, trust I’ve ever heard.
This talk is completely worth the full 25 minute listen. Give it a try on your next load of dishes to wash or laundry pile to fold!

Brene’ Brown’s talk on “The Anatomy of Trust.”

One of the things Brene’ said in this talk stopped me in my tracks so much so that I had to rewind several times and write down word for word what she said. She gave two definitions. One of trust and one of distrust. It was the definition of distrust that brought so much healing to me. It made me recognize, accept and let go of the hurt I carried with many people throughout my life that I felt I couldn’t trust. Brene’ quoted another researcher, Charles Feltman, who defined trust and distrust as follows:

TRUST is choosing to make something important to you vulnerable to the actions of someone else.

DISTRUST is what I’ve shared with you, that is important to me, but is not safe with you.

How many times have we fallen away from friendships, relationships or colleagues because we thought it was their behavior, their opinion, their choices that offended us? Turns out, it was never about any of those things.

I do not trust you when what is important to me does not feel safe with you.

Wow! There is so much power in that statement. But here’s the thing…is it the other person’s fault that we don’t feel safe with them? Chances are, they are so wrapped up in their own logic, thinking and motivations, they do not realize they are making themselves feel unsafe to you.

So what’s our natural response to feeling unsafe? We hide. We retract. We protect.

But where does that leave us? Alone. Isolated. Feeling abandoned.

We paint the picture of what we see in our world. What picture are you painting in your world?

This week, we are going to look at those people we feel we can trust and the people we can’t trust and make a list of how they came to be this way. Those on the side that make you feel safe, give huge unending gratitude for their presence in your life and for the actions that got them on that trustworthy list.

But those other ones…the ones that make you feel unsafe…begin to look at why. Why did they make you feel unsafe? Explore each one individually and think about the many things that might have been going on in their lives during the time that they made you feel so unsafe. Were they really trying to hurt you or were they just being short-sighted? Were they just really busy and not trying to neglect you? Did they feel too insecure about themselves to reach out to you?

Write all of these details and reasons down and watch what begins to happen within your heart. Pay attention to the heart area of your body. You will begin to feel compassion for them. Understanding, even, as you realize there are so many more reasons why they did what they did. Please don’t just think through this one. Grab a scrap piece of paper and tear it up or burn it when you’re done with this exercise but write it out. It is so powerful to witness the many reasons why they might not be trying to hurt you and how this distrust might be remedied.

Guess what happens after this exercise? You begin to heal, regardless of ever speaking to this person. Your heart begins to recognize there is purpose to everything and it begins to feel warm, strong and brave enough to try to trust again, to try for connection again.

Trust is built in the smallest moments. We actively choose to build trust or betray the trust of another.

This also includes you.

What small things are you doing for yourself that helps you learn that you can trust yourself?

Are you going to work toward building trust or distrust in your heart?

I can’t wait to hear how this powerful exercise goes for you this week. Please share your experiences so others can feel inspired too.

Sending you huge brave, trusting love!

Love and Blessings,

Erin
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The Blessings of Serendipity

Posted by on Apr 7, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

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There has been so much serendipity in my life these past few days- everything from buying the wrong-sized coat for my husband online to meeting snafus. But they all had a common thread…

incredible circumstances producing incredible blessings that ultimately deserved infinite gratitude. 

Serendipity doesn’t come through with trumpets and signs, it’s nuance and subtleties that we think are coincidences or “luck” but if we can pause and give true gratitude for this direction and blessing, we will attract more of this “luck” into our lives.  Although it doesn’t always start out looking like “luck” though…

Here are my two simple examples from this week alone. I purchased a jacket for my husband in an incorrect size only to return it to the store where the salesperson was elated because it was his size and he then didn’t need to drive an hour to the next nearest store that had it. I “happen” to return and rebuy the same coat during the sales window so I received 40% off the very same jacket.

Today, I was going to attend a yoga class and check out a location to host more classes and the yoga teacher ended up with a personal emergency and couldn’t attend. Turns out, the Director of the facility was there to greet me and my friend to let people know there would be no class. Everyone else had received the notification of the class cancellation so it was only the two of us and this lovely person who was the precise contact to help me set up courses at the facility. The three of us spent great quality time getting to know each other and discussing the many ways we could work together.  Serendipity.

But had I stopped at the first sentence with either scenario…it would’ve been frustration, disappointment, letdown. The wrong size, more effort, no yoga class, no exercise. Bah!

But look what happens when we keep reading. Money saved, effort saved, connections made, more classes established. Serendipity, blessings, guidance, gratitude. But we’ve got to keep reading. We’ve got to get past that first sentence in this blog and in our life. Are you willing to read past the first sentence in your life to get past the frustrations and get to the blessings?

The definition of serendipity is the faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident.

Do they need to be on accident? I think we can bring in more serendipity if we are grateful for evey situation that presents itself. We just need to discover the blessing in disguise.

I just gave two examples from the past few days yet this happens all the time. Is it possible to have valuable things happen that we don’t seek out when we are grieving? Let’s not leave it to chance anymore. If we take a moment to look for the serendipity found in our struggles, we may just find something we never expected or sought but that will bless us beyond compare. Is there a hidden blessing in what you are going through right now? Why wait to accidentally find it? Seek it out.

One of my favorite serendipity stories is when we were clearing out my mom’s house after she had passed away and we had bags and bags of towels and washcloths. Anyone here can attest how exhausting it is, both physically and emotionally, to clean out the family house. (First sentence) We took the bags to her favorite women’s shelter (where we had donated many of her things) and we were greeted at the front porch by the woman in charge who had a shopping list in her hand. She was on her way out to buy supplies for the house and guess what was at the top of her list? Yep, towels and washcloths. (Second, third and fourth sentences!)

Yes, our grief journeys hurt and cause us to feel things deeper than we ever expected, but then we get to feel things and experience things deeper than we ever expected. What could be a better way to live. Grief ultimately makes us live and love fully. We get to notice the gifts in the chaos. As we give gratitude for more and more of these serendipity blessings, the more they will come into our lives.  Our challenges can become blessings for someone else. What’s your serendipity blessing of the week? What’s happened? What did you seek out as a blessing in a situation that might have been frustrating if you stopped at frustration? Did you stay stuck in the frustration or did you find the blessing?

We can’t wait to hear what blessings you found in your week or in your struggle. Please share and inspire someone else to begin to look for the serendipity. The more we find, the more blessings we will receive.

Sending you big love!

 

Love  and Blessings,

Erin
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Healing our need to withdraw while grieving

Posted by on Apr 1, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

So often after we lose a loved one, we withdraw. It feels scary to invest in relationships and friendships. It feels like too much work to give our energy to something that might end too. We have moments of feeling so exhausted that we can’t bear the thought of reaching out or connecting to someone else.

This lack of connection or feeling disconnected is a symptom of our energy being blocked in our 2nd chakra or what is also referred to as our sacral chakra. This energy area is located in the space between our tailbone and belly button. This energy block can happen as a result of our grief experiences. Here’s how it works…An event happens in our life and emotions are created. Our emotions create energy and then that energy manifests all sorts of symptoms in our perfect little bodies. Have you had increased bladder or kidney infections? Abdominal cramping? Low libido? Irregular menstrual cycle? These are a few of the ways this energy manifests itself with the physical body.

Our second chakra energy is drained by feeling a loss of control or when we feel emotionally isolated which, when we are grieving, can be quite often. Our emotions feel so big to us that we feel like we shouldn’t share them or if we do share them, they come out so big that we end up isolated from certain relationships. Sometimes we’re isolated because those around can’t face us. It’s not that they don’t love us, we just represent a loss to them that is palatable and too hard for them to face. It frightens them to face it. Either way, we still end up being the ones alone and disconnected.

So now that we know we have this challenge, what are we supposed to do about it?

There are many different tools we can use to heal our second chakra, including essential oils, food, our wardrobe. Here is a past blog that I wrote about these tools in great detail on Healing the 2nd Chakra.

In addition to all of those great tools, I want you to find a way to reflect within water somehow. Maybe it’s a bath, a shower, washing dishes or maybe you’re lucky enough take a dip in ocean. Our second chakra is a water element so water begins to move that energy in this region. Then we’ll do these three things:

1) Repeat to yourself “I enjoy life fully”. Whether it is true for you right now or not, repeat this mantra for just 1 minute.
2) Take pleasure in the water. Play in the water. Allow the water to warm your skin. Maybe even gargle with the water. Throw it in the air. Feel alive for 1 minute with this water. Do this with the intention of receiving the pleasure of playing in this water and when you’re husband, wife or roommate comes home and is wondering why you are throwing water around the kitchen… start a water fight with them. Who can keep from smiling during a water fight? Coincidence? Hardly.
3) Hold your hands on your second chakra, the space below your belly button, and give gratitude for all the things that are bringing you pleasure right now. Even if it is just a pint of ice cream. Just start. But feel the gratitude and the pleasure in that area as you hold onto that space and feel the energy in this space transform itself.

Then, watch what happens. Do you find that you are feeling more connected to people? Do you feel a little more willing to reach out to loved ones? Do you feel less guilty or filled with blame? Energy is an amazing thing. Emotions move our energy in a certain way but we can also use our energy to move our emotions in a certain way. Energy work is so healing and so empowering. I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you this week.

For those of you in the SF Bay Area, join me for me second chakra healing class THIS SUNDAY. Click here for tickets.

I can’t wait to hear how this tip trio helps you heal your second chakra. Did you notice anything different? Did some of your symptoms go away? What was your experience? Share your experience with others so they are inspired to balance their sacral chakra too.

Sending you big love!
Love and Blessings,
Erin
water healing

Do you have your accountability partner?

Posted by on Mar 25, 2016 in Healing Your Grief Two Minutes at a Time weekly video series | 0 comments

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I have an accountability partner for my business. We assign ourselves our own tasks for the week and push ourselves to move forward in whatever area of our business feels like needs the most attention that week. We talk the same time, same day, every week and hold each other accountable for the items we promised ourselves we would do. I credit this system to pushing me to complete things I’m not sure I could have ever completed on my own. It’s been amazing. AND…it got me thinking…

Why couldn’t we have accountability partners for our grief healing process?

It’s a long road. It requires multiple steps. We often need encouragement along the way. We often want to let ourselves off the hook. We often need someone to keep us on track. So this week, we’re going to use an accountability partner to help us complete 1-3 healing activities this week. Choose a few of your favorite blogs over the past two years and finally complete them and begin the healing. Here’s how the partnership piece works:

Rules for the partnership

1) Choose your own tasks for the week

2) Swap tasks with your partner via phone, email or in-person

3) Double check that you haven’t taken on too much. After all, we are doing this to help heal ourselves, not overwhelm ourselves. (This is where I struggle.)

4) Check back in at the same time and day next week and provide your completion report. Celebrate your successes and support each other through your struggles.

Because here’s the thing…you’re just not going to let someone else down. You may let yourself off the hook. The sheer act of you telling someone else you are going to complete a task will keep you on task. I’ve seen this happen in my own life with people who aren’t even my accountability partner. I’ve said I would do it and then instantly felt compelled to complete the task. It’s amazing.

I’ve watched this system work miracles in my life. Alone,I would have let myself slip. I would have let myself push stuff off. But once I have another person holding me accountable, I would not show up to that call without completing my work. The great thing that happens is that you move forward. You push yourself in ways you wouldn’t normally and you begin to see progress.

So let’s try this out with our grief this week.

Find a partner or put a note in the comments down below that you’d like an Angel Birthdays community partner and we’ll match you up. Then decide 1-3 things for you to do this week to help you heal your heart. Perhaps your partner holds you accountable for journaling every day this week, perhaps you email them your gratitude list each day, perhaps you decide to walk three times this week. Whatever grief healing tasks you choose, tell your partner and have them hold you accountable for it. You will be shocked how this simple shift of having someone else watching over you and cheering for you will motivate you to finish.

I can’t wait to hear the tasks you choose and how your partnerships work out for you this week. Be sure to be good to yourself. This is not about overwhelm. This is about slow progress that we actually complete to heal our hearts. If you don’t have a partner, tell us in the comments and we’ll pair you up with someone. We can’t wait to hear your stories!

Sending you big love!

Love and Blessings,

Erin

accountability final