Top Five Ways to Open Your Heart
- Connect with like-minded individuals by inviting a friend or new acquaintance for coffee, tea, or cacao. Start a club to engage in conversations of similar interest to co-create and explore new possibilities.
- Participate in ceremonies using plant medicine, vibrational sound healing or plant essence. My favorite is “cacao” accompanied by the heartbeat of the drum.
- Listen to your heart. Place your hands on your heart either in meditation, ceremony, Reiki self-healing, or before falling asleep. Use your breath and consciously inhale for a count of four, hold your breath for another count of four, and then exhale slowly for four. The number four represents the energy of stability and peace. Notice any sensations in your body or feelings that come up.
- Spend time with children and call on your inner child to show up. Children under the age of six are still strongly connected to their dreamers and can often help us recall and connect back to our child-like wonder. Allow your heart to open and notice the reflections you receive.
- Journal each day about a feeling that is top-of-mind or persistent. Write about how that feels in your body or heart space. Unexplained feelings are often the shadow part of ourselves that lurk behind a veil of other emotions, such as anger, fear, guilt, and shame. If the sensation is uncomfortable or confusing, and your brain goes into a loop of resolving, then it’s most likely a feeling that is keeping the heart closed to protect you from harm.
If you are struggling with any of these tips, find a well-trained practitioner or therapist to help you get to the root of it. Shamanic practices are perfect for finding the origin and to help remove, cut away from, or let go of what no longer serves you.
Continue on to read more:
More on duality and the shadow work within:
Last month we provided tips to get your energy moving in fun and light-hearted ways. As you know, there are two sides to everything and the other side of fun is work. In this case, our inner work. In life, when we bring opposites closer together, we find balance. When we find a way to be in the sweet center of our lives, we flow in creativity, ease, and more beauty. This balance can only be found by dedicating time to the inner work, including delving into our shadow side. If you are not familiar with this or have experienced a shamanic practice, this concept may be new to you. If you are unfamiliar with what the shadow side is and what that work entails,
read on.
Astrologers I have been following all indicate that 2024 is the time to look deeply at our shadow side. The real work is understanding how we act and react when we are in stress, and not the best version of ourselves. The shadow work involves neutralizing our triggers and forgiving ourselves as well as others, for our humanness. This means operating with compassion, not in judgment, no easy task. The focus in the coming years is to create a new reality, one of love, compassion, peace, sisterhood, and brotherhood. We are moving towards unfolding into this new way of existing together, focusing on humanity living in harmony. We can get there faster by meeting our shadow side head-on.
Astrology touches on our shadow personality traits and helps us to gain a better understanding of who we fully are. The positive and negative aspects of our Zodiac sign entice the quest to learn more. The traits assigned to our sun sign never mean this is us and that's that. No, it is just a framework, a guide, so you can get to a place where you desire change and wish to write a new story. The story is authentically yours, not the programs from thousands of years ago that have put us in a state of extreme polarity. We are all parts of right and wrong, good and bad. Eventually, you will see it’s a choice to be in harmony. The traits that the stars assign and the pathway of energy that follows are for you to maneuver. When you know your authentic self, you know your triggers and you choose the actions that create the most desired outcome. This knowing helps make the shadow/light work and the journey exciting!
Shadow work is intended to nurture our soul and help reveal the “authentic self”. By working both sides of our being’s personality, the light and the dark, we can embrace or overcome aspects of self that influence our journey through life. In simple terms but not simply, our perceived good and bad traits influence our decisions and our life’s direction. There are many ways to approach this work. Ki Lifestyle Solutions offers shadow work through many course offerings. There are other approaches and it doesn't have to be a spiritual-based practice. Find a person, practice, class, or experience that focuses on shadow work that feels best suited for you.
I have found, on my journey, that a spirit-based practice worked best for me. I am truly grateful I found Reiki first and then moved into Shamanic practices. The gentle approach of Reiki took the edge off the “kick-in-the-butt practices" I experienced in Shamanism. I was able and willing to look at myself and my ego first with compassion.
We will continue to share ways that help us find our authentic selves, through this blog and newsletters. My method, as mentioned before, is to lay one brick at a time to create a strong foundation, and then continue to move forward mindfully. If you are reading this, most likely something has been awakened in you. A part of your soul that seeks and wants to understand its place and is ready to come forward.
Take this year to dive fully in and learn about yourself. There are many courses, practices and community gatherings that can offer opportunities for reflection in kind and supportive ways. The goal is to be open and willing to see, learn and grow. We are close to making this huge collective shift. Even though it may look like we are still struggling, more and more of us are awakening. It may get crazier before it gets better. Remain hopeful and know that the work each of us does to be in harmony and balance creates a larger and stronger collective consciousness of love and light. Often things must break apart to be rebuilt better. We are turning a corner and this is why our inner work is so important. There is a huge opportunity to be at peace if we just keep finding the peace inside ourselves. As within - so without. Enjoy the month ahead and stay connected.
The train is headed to its destination New Earth, we hope you will be on board!
Namaste!
