WHY YOU SHOULDN'T SHOOT YOURSELF IN THE HEAD

It’s messy, for one. For another, if you miss or flinch then you’re sucking cider through a straw for the rest of your life.

Third, and most importantly, and the reason you shouldn’t kill yourself at all is that:

People change.
Life circumstances change.
Feelings change.

What’s more is…you can change them.

I know what you’re thinking, “I am trapped. Everyday is misery. Everybody hates me. Not one person would care if I were dead.”

Trust me. I’ve been there. I cried for years on end. I put a gun in my mouth and pulled the trigger. Didn’t work. Gun didn’t go boom. My pain didn’t evaporate in a lightning flash blackout.

Thank God.

Because now I know I am not trapped. I do not cry myself to sleep every night. And all those nasty thoughts? “No one cares. Everyone hates me.” They weren’t true! I was just so depressed I couldn’t see past them. But I see clearly now. Life is completely different now. I have a loving, supportive family. I have joy throughout the day. I have a million reasons to live.

I know those dark thoughts and feelings can be convincing. You REALLY FEEL it’s the end of the world. But it’s not. No matter what your situation is, LIFE CAN GET BETTER. Even if you are declaring bankruptcy. Even if you haven’t worked in three years. Even if your wife left you for your best friend. Even if you committed a crime, LIFE CAN GET BETTER. Even if the voices in your head are saying horrible things to you, even if you are sleeping with your mother and thinking about killing your father, even if you are gay and your parents are conservative republican Mormons, even if you get beat up everyday by a man you would never even think of leaving, LIFE CAN GET BETTER. There is a get out of jail free card. There is a way out of your pain and misery and IT ISN’T THROUGH ENDING YOUR LIFE!

Our egos have constructs of “what is okay” and “what is too shameful, too painful, too humiliating” to live with.

These constructs are NOT real!

Don’t believe them.

You don’t have to be a straight A student to have value. You don’t have to get the guy or gal of your dreams for your life to be worth living. Don’t buy into our culture’s values that if you are not the best, you have no reason to be. I did and it made me miserable.

At one point I wanted to kill myself because I didn’t get cast as Anita in “West Side Story” in High School. I literally felt like my life was over. There was no point in going on or trying. But guess what? That was a LIE my brain was telling me. If a guy broke up with me, guess what? I wanted to die. My mind said, “You are alone in this world. You will always be alone. Get me out of this anguish.” I cried and cried. I cried doing homework in college. I cried working out with videos. I cried in the bathroom at parties.

GUESS WHAT NOBODY TOLD ME???

YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE MISERABLE.

YOU CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE.

Now your mind may be saying, “Maybe she can change, but my depression is hereditary.” Well, I’ll tell you, my mom is still depressed, my sibling is on anti-depressants and I am gloriously (95 % of the time) pain free. "Depression is hereditary" is just an excuse to not heal yourself.

So, how did I do it?

I took the LONG, LONG, LONG route. Not alcoholism or drugs (though there was a decade and a half of workaholism), but anti-depressants and therapists. Therapy is a good first step, but anti-depressants repress emotions, as do drinking and smoking pot. In order to heal we need to EXPRESS emotions not REPRESS them. (However, if the choice is between anti-depressants and suicide bridge, take anti-depressants!)

What no one told me (and maybe I wouldn’t have believed them then) is:

1. Depression comes from negative energy stored in the body.
2. Emotional suffering comes from misunderstandings about yourself and others.
3. Your life circumstances mirror your inner beliefs.

CHANGE YOUR BELIEFS AND YOU CHANGE YOUR FEELINGS AND YOUR LIFE CIRCUMSTANCES.

Even if you have nothing but this blog, if this is your only resource… you can still heal yourself.

Your ego argues, “I tried affirmations and they don’t work.”

Of course, they don’t work! You are piling flowers on crap. You need to clear the crap before you can plant the flowers.

Trying one thing and it not working is NO REASON to think you will always feel horrible. It’s no reason to kill yourself! It’s no reason to give up!

We are so kept in the dark as a society about how to heal ourselves. For the most part, were not even taught how to love ourselves.

Why are we taught our f*&!ing ABCs and not taught to love ourselves! We are taught where to put a period, but not our value as human beings!

Are you kidding me???!!!

So, what’s the magic remedy?

How are you going to heal without money, without help, without God? (Because if you are that depressed you are definitely separated from God and probably an atheist like I was.)

Here’s how:

You need to get rid of the negative energy in your body and mind by processing it.

You can do this several different ways:

1. Write out what is upsetting you (and burn it.)

2. Exercise. When you exercise you release the negative energy trapped in your body. Kundalini yoga is the science of clearing negative energy. Even full body shaking for 15 minutes a day can clear so much.

3. Meditate. This is so amazing. All you have to do is sit down and breathe. What could be easier? You can even lie down and breathe. The point is to put the attention onto yourself: to listen to yourself for once. “What do you need?” “What are you feeling?” By focusing on your inhalation and exhalation you are giving yourself the longed for attention you need and deserve. This attention naturally turns to affection. You give yourself the attention and love so many of us long for in our lives. If you want more structure in your meditation, Google David Elliott’s Breathwork or Vipassana meditation. (There are even free retreat centers that teach you to meditate.)

4. GET HELP. I know, for years I didn’t tell anyone I was suicidal because I didn’t want to bring them down and I falsely believed that no one cared. People care. Strangers care. If your parents don’t care, maybe a teacher will. If your teacher doesn’t care, maybe a friend’s parent will. Reach out. There is no shame in feeling like a worthless piece of crap. No one taught us to love ourselves so how can we know any different? Later in life, I called the suicide hotline. They are great. They answer the phone. They get you through the crisis. And you are in crisis if you are thinking about killing yourself. You aren’t thinking straight. Imagine you are in a negative energy induced fog: DO NOT HANDLE HEAVY MACHINERY OR GUNS OR ROPES OR PRETTY LITTLE PILLS.

5. Try ALTERNATIVE METHODS of healing. My God! People would rather be dead than sit with their legs crossed and their eyes closed for half an hour? Alternative methods—Breathwork, acupuncture, chiropractic, aromatherapy, constellational healing, massage, reiki, ecstatic dancing, any kind of dancing, tantra classes, theta healing, REMT, hypnosis, rebirth therapy, energy medicine, Biodecoding, light therapy. The list goes on forever. You are NOT ALLOWED to kill yourself until you’ve tried everything. I don’t care if you believe in it or not, it will still work! If you are going to end it all anyway, what have you got to lose? You might have some fun in the meantime.

6. Forgive yourself. Forgive yourself for judging yourself as worthless. Forgive yourself for whatever you think you did that qualifies you as worthless. Forgive yourself for hating your parents. Forgive yourself for hating your life. Forgive yourself for having so much hatred inside of you. It’s not your fault. But you do need to take responsibility for it in order to process it and let it go.

7. Scream and pound a pillow. If you do nothing else, do this. Even if you are so repressed that you think “I am not angry. I don’t know what she is talking about.” Come on, you’d rather be dead than hit a pillow? Then you’re not trying!! Self-hatred and hatred of others are false beliefs. They come from negative energy stuck in your body. You can get them out if you EXPRESS THEM!!!

If you think only horrible people feel angry, only irrational people scream, only weak people cry, then you are TRAPPING YOURSELF IN SUPPRESSED EMOTIONS! You’d rather be dead than a horrible person? You’d rather be dead than weak? You’d rather be miserable than act different from other people? Please! We are human, we are all different, weak, and horrible at some time in our lives.

CUT YOURSELF SOME SLACK instead of CUTTING YOURSELF SOME ROPE.

You can learn to love yourself. You can learn to think you are wonderful and amazing. You can get free of chronic emotional pain. You just need to take action.

Take the actions that I recommended above. You can do many of them from the privacy of your own home. BUT REMEMBER... When you release the negative energy, don't buy into it. As it releases, horrible thoughts may come into your head, terrible feelings may come into your body, these are past feelings that haven't been expressed. They need to be let out. Don't believe them, just FEEL them so THEY CAN BE RELEASED.

DON’T LET AN ILLUSION OF being trapped in misery END your precious life.

You can get free.

You can be happy.

Write, scream, breathe, meditate, get help, do yoga, call the suicide hotline, forgive yourself, do whatever you have to do, but don’t stay where you are in pain. Don’t believe that voice in your head saying death is the only way out…THAT IS A LIE.

The truth is:

You will feel so much better once you release the layers of pain.
You will feel joy in the core of your being.
You will know what it is like to give and receive love.
You will love yourself and what made you who you are today.

I’ve been there. I got through it. And now I give thanks for each new day of life.

Please pass on this article to anyone who…
Dresses in all black.
Responds to “Good morning” with “F-you!”
Uses the word “Bullshit” more than three times a day.
Stays in their room all day.
Has a drug or alcohol addiction (the slow suicide methods).
Who popped into your mind while you were reading this.

You never know, you could save a life. Or at least show that you care.

God is in the Particles

That’s why some people have a bad association with the word "God" and other people have a beautiful, heart opening association. It’s simple linguistics! We use a word to represent an object. Or in God’s case, an energy field.

When Christians think of the word “Allah”, they don’t summon to mind a blessed being who is all loving, but they think of a belief system that misguides terrorists to kill Americans. For a Muslim, the word "God” makes them think of a group of heathens. Thus, what connotes something beautiful and positive to one, connotes a negative energy field for the other. And vice versa.

What is so interesting is that every person has a different “God” because every person has their own associations and experiences with the thing the word God refers to. If we are lucky we have a pure definition where “God” is “love.” And hopefully, we have a pure experience of what “love” is to complete the definition.

But honestly, many of us have mixed definitions based on subconscious misunderstandings that have accrued throughout our lifetime. Some associate “God” with punishment. Some associate “God” with asceticism. Both beliefs wouldn’t inspire me to want to believe in God! Or ask that God for help. When I was younger I thought God was sexist: He sent his son to save humanity, not his daughter. Luckily, I let go of that interpretation which allowed me to embrace "God."

So basically all religious wars can come to an end. Right now. Because of this blog. We can see that our referent is the same even if our terminology is different. “God” is a universal force of “positive energy.” Literally, particles of positive energy. We're all praying to and calling in the universal force of positive energy and trying to let go of and release negative energy. Use the force, Luke.

These energy fields of good and evil exist in us and around us all the time and affect our decisions and our moods. Good and evil. Right and wrong. They exist within us and all we can do is try to increase the good and mitigate and apologize for the evil.

(Admittedly, the enlightened go beyond "good and evil" and see God's hand in everything so duality disappears. But that's another blog.)

If we don’t bring awareness to these positive and negative energies within us, they reside there and make unconscious (usually bad) decisions for us. We don’t know why we “feel like giving up” on ourselves or why we suddenly sabotage our relationships.

When we start to bring awareness to the energy inside of us, our decisions become more conscious. The more we clear negative energies from ourselves and around us, the more positive energy we can call in.

This is all to say, it doesn’t matter if you pray to “God” or “Allah” -- just pray to “that which is good.” Pray to positive energy. Call in what makes you feel good and let go of that which is toxic or makes you feel bad.

Try it right now. Uncross your legs. Take a few deep breaths into your pelvis and call in a certain energy. Maybe something less politically charged than "God." Try the energy field we call, “peace.” Repeatedly call in the energy form of “peace” into your body. You can say “I am peace.” Or “I call in peace.” Close your eyes, take a few breaths. Give peace a chance. As I do this, I feel my muscles relax, I feel serenity wash over me and a warm feeling of contentment permeate my body.

Let “God” be “good” to you. Release your judgments of him and call in that which can support you and help you. We can all use help! Call in the positive energy fields like the Greeks called in wisdom through Athena and love through Aphrodite. Call in the good stuff: trust, faith, joy, happiness, contentment, levity, laughter.

God is in the particles. Which means - God is in you.

Oversensitivity

Recently, I made a student cry in writing class. No, not on purpose.

We were breaking her story and the rest of class, intrigued with her premise, began to pour out questions to this overwhelmed student whose only response was “I don’t know. You’re asking the wrong person.” It happened so quickly, it didn’t occur to me to stop the barrage. Seeing that we were getting nowhere, I called a break and in the bathroom discovered how attacked this student felt. My perception of the event was completely different from hers. I saw excited students ready, willing and able to help, but needing some guidelines. She saw students laughing at her, bullying her and mocking her. She dabbed at her eyes to keep herself from an eruption of tears.

This got me thinking…

How many times have I been brought to tears because of a perceived insult? How many times have I misinterpreted well-intended comments? A LOT!!

I think my upbringing was riddled with mistaken interpretations. And I’ve been consciously undoing them ever since.

Here’s what happens…

We have pain in life. We want to stop the pain. We assign a cause to the pain so we can distance ourselves from the cause. We create more pain by blaming the cause and by creating a limiting belief around what caused the pain. This quadruples the pain because now we have a mistaken belief system that perpetuates the problem.

An example… I have pain as a child. It’s natural. Part of life. Add to that… my Dad isn’t home. I conclude I have pain because my Dad isn’t home. Now here come the limiting beliefs…my Dad abandoned me and he abandoned me because I wasn’t worthy of love.

Then we often go further than that. If Dad abandoned me, chances are that all men will abandon me. Now, I have this limiting belief that I apply to all men that wasn’t even true in the first place and the men in my life will need to abandon me in order to fulfill my belief system.

(Luckily, I cleared this belief system. Thanks USM. Thanks David Elliott.)

The origin of the original pain is negative energy that I believe is a consequence of creating a world of matter. Separation from spirit. In psychology terms, we see this as separation from the mother. In the womb and once we are born we naturally pick up negative energy from our environment. Once we have that negative energy, we draw negative response to it. It is a cycle.

The “I am unworthy of love” belief system creates more dark energy as I continue to believe it and fulfill it. Adding fuel to the fire! And soon my system (body, mind, spirit) is overwhelmed with negative energy and becomes very, very sensitive to whether a man who floats my boat feels the same way or calls on a certain day or holds the door open. I actually broke up with a guy I was living with because he got another woman pie at the Fourth of July party. (It was a large piece of pie, if you know what I mean.)

This is where oversensitivity comes from: a system that is in need of cleaning.

It could be on a physical level - not eating the right foods.
On a mental level - entertaining toxic thoughts.
On an emotional level - pain overload.
On a spiritual level -feeling abandoned by God.

This will cause us to take people’s actions or inactions personally. If someone doesn’t acknowledge us when we smile at them, suddenly we have a thought: that person is selfish or narcissistic. Actually, we have no idea what that person is. The truth is we need to cleanse our own system of such perceptions.

Then we can feel our true value. Once we are aligned with our true value, people can do whatever they want to us, say what they want, even leave us and we can greet it with acceptance and joy. We can know what they do is about them, not about us. We can see through their actions to their pain and illusion.

We can trust our inner gold as solid, unshakable, immovable and divine. We can let perceived insults flow off of us like rain off an umbrella. They don’t touch us.

But we can only do this if we have cleared our pain and our limiting beliefs.

Otherwise, people are drawn to our negative (victim) energy and we cause them to act out our limiting beliefs. How many times have you said to yourself, “I knew he/she would leave.” or “I knew it was too good to be true?” Statements like these are evidence of a toxic belief system.

You will see your belief system play out over and over in your life until you clear it. Pain exists to point you toward the truth. Clear the pain and you can experience bliss. Our path is to remerge with spirit and to do so we must transmute the dark energy back to the light. As Bruce Lipton calls it, “Spontaneous Evolution.” It is the path we are all on. You can make it as hard or easy as you like.

Free Your Shadow Breath Circle

The Hub, 8pm, July 30th

We use massive amounts of energy denying, pushing away and burying our shadow. This leaves us as fatigued victims of half-lived lives rather than empowered co-creators of our destiny.

When ignored, our shadow lashes out causing headaches, backaches, addictions, cravings, and behaviors that shock and disappoint us. Sometimes our shadow just throws a heavy blanket on our emotions leaving us numb, immobile and confused. We don’t know who we are or what we want.

When we deny our shadow, we force others to act it out for us. And they do this literally. Our bosses yell at us. Our spouses act insensitive. Some "jerk" cuts you off on the freeway. But our image remains pure as the driven snow. We are golden.

Yet when we take responsibility for our projections, we can clear them and find serenity inside and out.

As Caroline Myss reminds us, “Your shadow aspects are primarily rooted in fear patterns that have more control over your behavior than does your conscious mind.” –Sacred Contracts

In this breath circle we will
-let others witness our shadow sides
-accept ourselves and others exactly as we are
-release the fear pattern under the shadow aspect
-take responsibility for our projections
-free our repressed energy
-discover the benefits of embracing our shadow
-bring light to the unloved parts of ourselves
-celebrate our wholeness

So bring your inner asshole, your outer bitch, your lazy, good-for-nothing selves, your skeptic, your procrastinator, your sexy vamp, your aggressive brut, your poor huddled masses and we will love them all and set them free. Plus, it’s me, so it will be fun.

The Hub
2001 S. Barrington Avenue, Ste 150
LA, CA 90025
July 30th
8pm-9:30pm
Exchange: $35

What to bring: water, blanket, yoga mat, shadow.

Walking Into the Mystery

To know the truth of who we are
To feel it in our bodies
We have to let go of
Identifying ourselves as our job, our status, or our good qualities.

To flow with everything around us
We have to give up the struggle.

To be able to hear divine guidance
We have to give up knowing what’s best for us (and everyone else).

We can fight so hard to maintain control
When the joys in life are in surrendering.

Surrendering
Our issues and problems
Surrendering
Attachment to relationships, jobs, addictions
Surrendering
Our personality and specialness

What we find in surrender is a release of the pain and anguish that’s been holding our negative patterns in place.

Then there’s a free fall, a breaking of the chains, an opportunity to see that our fears are just illusions.
“The only thing to fear is fear itself.”

Through the freefall, we develop trust. We appreciate our obstacles as indicators of limiting beliefs to be released so we can realign to our path. We let go of what we want, so we can receive what we need. We discover we are held and supported by a loving universe. We find a sweet connection with everyone and everything. We feel the divinity of ourselves and see the light in others.

Once we are present, we can blissfully see and feel our true path. We know our life purpose. We receive inspiration, ideas and next action steps. We follow the path of our true hearts desire with faith. The path unfolds effortlessly and life feels like magic.

Then we walk in co-creation, with ease and grace, with deep satisfaction -- fully supported, completely self- expressed and vibrating with universal love.


Join me in 'Walking into the Mystery'
Friday night, July 9th
8pm- 9:30pm
The Hub
2001 South Barrington, Ste. 150
LA, CA 90025
Exchange: $35.00

Like Haiku from Hawaii

I

Soft sand
Kepa’a calls
Plumeria fall

II

Hugging Mother Earth
Caressed by Father Sun
Tears of relief
Greet my sandy face

III

Sticky
Sand clings
Like the past
To my skin
I wash and wash
And yet
The past
Clings like
Sticky sand
To my skin

iV

Under the sun
Granules of sand
Sparkle like diamonds

V

When I remove
My lipstick
I do not care
How fast
The wind blows

VI

Pineapple Lamps
Blueberry Breakfast
Papaya Ocean

VII

SPREAD ALITTLE ALOHA

Gentleness descends
Mother Spirit of Maui
To bless her guests

NAKED IS BETTER

Dingle dangles
Of all ages
Tummy’s fat
and tummy’s flat

Breasts facing
North, south,
East, west

Penis’ swinging
As Frisbees
Are tossed

Labias lounging
in the sun

The whole body
Held by the sand

The whole body
Plunged into the ocean

Nature as nature intended
Naked is better.

HALLOW

I am so hollow
As to be
Almost
Empty
Carved out
Of rain water
And sunshine
Hallowed
From my depths
To be
A vessel
Of light.
Lit from
Within
A hollow shell
A husk
A barrel
An empty
Space
for love
Or whatever
To fill.

SOULMATE

I feel you
Like my skin
Surrounding me

I see you
In my dreams
Making love to me

I set you free
Over and over
And yet you
Come back to me.


OCEANS

Come
Swim in my Ocean
Come
Play in my waves
Roll around in my warm sand
And pluck some rocks
To your liking

Come swim in
My ocean
And I will
Pull you under
And gently
Burst you forth
Gasping for air
I will
Cleanse your crevices,
your conceits,
your conditions
I will
Wash away
Your holdings
And
Leave you
Glistening
On the
Shore

Come Play
in my Ocean

Dear God,

Today, in the middle of praying, I wondered why I pray.

If divinity is within me and I am one with it, then it seems like praying distances me from the oneness. Separates me. It is “me” praying to “God.”

Perhaps the distinction is necessary because I am also human and the prayer is coming from the human part going to the divinity within me. It is a form of surrendering to my higher self. I ask that God watch over my sister in her time of need, I ask that God protect me as I drive, I ask that God guide my actions and words so they are said and done with love.

As I think about it, praying to me is like setting my intentions. A powerful way to align myself with my highest good.

If I discover myself dreading a situation, I realize I have negative expectations and I reset my expectations for a positive outcome by creating AN INTENTION. Then the auto-response from my inner five-year-old or my inner teenager doesn’t kick in to unconsciously create the outcome. Any unhealed wounds don’t get to repeat their unhelpful patterns. My intentions guide my emotions, my interactions with others and my healing toward the best possible outcome available to me at the time.

Another way to say it is that prayer and intention align my lower self with my higher self. My ego with my authentic being.

This is the purpose of meditation for me. When I meditate, I connect to my inner divine spark. I AM. I dissolve my human self into the divine. I merge with the oneness, with everything, with bliss on a quantum level. This is my path. Surrendering my human self to UNITE with the divine.

There --no prayers separate me from who I really am.
There -- I am pure joy, love and abundance.
There -- I am one with all.

Of course, it's easy to be blissed out by myself in bed, with my eyes closed, breathing deeply. The key is to carry that state with me into every moment, every interaction, every eyes-open breath. And I am on the path to bring that state of oneness into waking and walking consciousness.

My future God-self.

For now, I will continue with my path of intention, prayer and meditation. Praying to be cleansed of limiting beliefs and misunderstandings. Creating intentions to reside in my loving, experience epiphanies and enjoy each moment. And meditating to connect to the oneness. I will consider prayer as a way to connect to the divine, not as a separation from Him. Until he and I are one.

Oh, and Dear God, thanks for the ride.

Save the Date! May 14th at The Hub!

Ecstasy of Love

Are you playing small with your love?
Only loving what’s good and right?
Only loving so much, but not with your whole heart?
Afraid of being mocked or rejected?
Join me in opening the valves of love and
let love rush over you like a tidal wave.

In this breath session we will examine how we limit our loving,
we will surrender our fear of giving and receiving love and
we will discover the bliss that is our natural state of being.

Where can you find greater happiness by experiencing more love?

With yourself?
In your relationship?
In your day-to-day activities?
With your life purpose?

Join me to open your heart and fall in love with your life.

Let Your Love Flow…

May 14, 2010
7:30pm Gather
8pm-9:30pm Breathwork
The Hub
2001 South Barrington Avenue
Ste 150
Los Angeles, CA 90025
Cost: $35.00

What to bring: water, yoga mat, blanket, favorite teddy bear.

"Laurence is intuitive and a natural born facilitator, modeling strength of heart by her example. Through her group breathwork I have profound experiences with the energy of my body, guided breathing becomes a gateway to revelation and healing. For me, this is much more powerful and intense than “breathwork” implies, it is an opportunity to look my hurts and misunderstandings in the eye and release them forever, while tapping into deep levels of inspiration and creativity. Laurence is a gift to us all." -B.H.

Cooking With Rita

Why is it that when I cut celery into tiny parts, my hands start to shake? Honestly more than a half hour in the kitchen breaks me into a smelly sweat. I want to lash out at the innocent zucchini. I want to burn the payaya. I want to never eat again.

I have avoided learning to cook for thirty years. I have been a happy take out queen. Having meals prepared for me where I don’t have to know what work went into them. But I wasn’t nourished by these meals. I was fed, but not nourished.

What is it about the kitchen that puts me into such a shaking rage? Will I be able to overcome it? Will I heal from the fear? What really went on in the kitchen anyway?

My mother painstakingly prepared steaks and broccoli and potatoes for four kids and a distant husband, everyday, three meals a day for at least 24 years. We never gave her an award. We never helped with dishes.

Why should I be surprised that my mother became depressed over the broccoli? She was quite alone. Nobody to help her. No one to cheer her on. I mean, I tried, but I guess my believability, as an authority figure was low at five years old.

I tried to convince my mom to be happy. It was a fairly simple argument. I didn’t really have a reason. It just seemed like a better idea than being depressed and wanting to die.

I guess I didn’t really understand her desire to die until I was much older. I didn’t feel that misery that invades every pore. I didn’t have those dark voices whispering horrible things to me. You’re worthless. End it all. There’s no reason for you to be alive.

Now, I would recognize this pain…it means you are off your path. That’s right. Spiritual or not, every person has a path that is for their highest good and usually feels incredible. The happiness path. Where you are fulfilling your life purpose, where you feel the joys of interconnection, where there is so much to look forward to and experience each day.

I would have told my mom she needed to make serious changes in her life. But at five, I simply said, “Be happy. You don’t want to die.” Now, I could recommend meditation, retreats, spa visits, poetry, and self-acknowledgement.

But then, all I could do was go to bed crying and hope that tomorrow wasn’t the day she ended the pain.

I feel the fear as I cut the zucchini and the rage, as I taste the vinaigrette dressing. I want to leave the room. I want to throw out the food or at least let it rot until it grows new limbs and colors. Until it stands up on it’s own and reenacts my fear of losing my mother.

Yet I stay and let Rita guide me through how much salt to add, how to cut the celery. I am so grateful to have a fearless, loving person mixing and boiling and broiling and sataying in my kitchen. I am afraid she will leave me. That I will mess up and she will refuse to teach me. I try to be good, stay positive. Be grateful. But I am quaking.

I know this is the last step. This is the letting go. I’ve worked on this issue a million times. Meditated and therapized. But here is the real work. I need to be in the place, feel the fear and let it pass through me. I need to let my hands shake while washing the zucchini. And I need to cry after Rita is gone. The final step to overcoming a life long fear. Going back to the place it started.

Please don’t leave me mommy. Please don’t die while the potatoes are cooking. Please don’t tell me again how horrible life is. I might start to believe you.

Once again I am crying, but this time I am not alone. I have my ancestors with me. I have my angels supporting me. I have my animal guide protecting me. I have God cheering me on, to release and let go. I am filled, surrounded and protected with the white light of spirit. I am safe. And I am loved.

The Sunny Side of the Street

All babies are cute on the sunny side of the street.
All cups are fully full on the sunny side of the street.
All mistakes are the funniest story you ever told.
The flowers bloom in dazzling colors on the sunny side of the street.
All smiles are irrepressible on the sunny side of the street.

On the other side of the street is spit and litter.
The flowers droop.
The kids are dangerously overweight.
The cup is cracked and leaking.
It smells like butt.
Cigarette smoke chokes the air.
Desperation screams at his out of control children.

Think of these two sides as the voices in your head: one will make you blossom, the other will make you wither.

One tells you you’re a good person. It’s proud of you! It recognizes your accomplishments!

The other criticizes you -- mocks you at the smallest effort, then makes you give up on yourself, eat chocolate chip cookie dough and watch reruns CSI:Miami. Or worse!

Sometimes we can control the voices. We can banish the shaming voice and say ‘yes’ to the uplifting voice. Sometimes the mean voice wins out.

The important thing is to be aware of the voices.

If you feel tired, angry and grumpy either you are not getting enough sleep, not eating right or you are walking on the shady side of the street.

If you are full of energy, humming show tunes and actually want to take a walk in the park, your inner cheerleader is doing his/her job.

Make it a choice.
Recognize the consequences.
Choose how you want to feel.
And then listen to that voice.

And if you absolutely can’t get rid of the mean voice, call me.

That’s what I do…breathe through the shady side so you can once again feel the sun.

Getting off The Money Train

LACK OF MONEY

I spent a lot of my life in survival mode. I didn’t need to, but somehow I was there. I thought resources were limited. Love was limited. Food and jobs were limited. My family motto was, “Eat fast or someone else will get the food.” I worried about money constantly. I held tightly to it and could rarely spend it without the aim of making more from my purchase.

As a kid my folks told us the old depression era story that we didn’t have enough money. True, there were four kids, and true, we were in private schools, but my Dad made a good living as a doctor and yet I was always begging for lunch money and being called “mooch” by my classmates.

The strange thing was that I always found plenty of money in Dad’s wallet when he was in the bathroom showering. And my mom always had a limitless Visa to buy my sister clothes in exchange for her good behavior and allegiance (I used to call it “selling her soul”, but I’ve learned about projections since then).

I never recognized the contradiction between the great neighborhood I lived in and my parents claim that we had no money. Later in life, when one executive called me “privileged” I was entirely baffled by what she was referring to. I see it now, but it was a long road of bounced checks, low paying jobs and feeling like “I never had enough” before I saw it.

That’s about the time “The Secret” came out and I realized that residing in a “feeling of lacking” was attracting “a state of lacking.” Immediately, I changed my thoughts to positive thoughts about money.

LOVING MONEY

Then I got on the positive side of the hamster wheel…. thinking about an abundance of money flowing to me. Plotting how to get it, producing more and more things in order to create it, visualizing its different beautiful forms: A check with Laurence Walsh and $350,000 underneath it. Oh, I interspersed a few other thoughts in there too: about love, sex and making the world a better place, but mostly I was obsessed with thoughts of how to make money doing what I love, which is writing.

My new belief was that money would only come if I loved it, envisioned it or thanked it for coming. That’s when I realized I had made money a God. I was worshipping money, bowing down to money, singing money’s praises. I realized that this was the other side of the survival thinking coin that no longer served me. I had to let go of my focus on money.

REALIZATION OF ABUNDANCE

That’s when my friend Mike Baker said to me, “Have you ever gone a night without food? Or without a roof over your head?”
To which I had to respond, “No.”
This was a tremendous shift.
I had what I was looking for all along.
I just didn’t recognize it.
With this higher perspective, I saw how thoroughly taken care of and provided for I was.
I saw the abundance in my life.
Food, shelter, friends, family, help.
I realized I didn’t have to focus on money at all.

I began to shift my thinking. If I thought about money or how to get it, I let go of that thought and choose a new one. Sometimes I choose a “grounding” thought -- observing something beautiful around me – the vibrant shade of yellow on the ginkgo tree. Sometimes I refocus my thoughts to the next scene I am writing in my movie. Sometimes I take the thought and let it sink from my head into my heart and there dissipate into a joyful feeling. Sometimes, I randomly choose to contemplate a value instead: courage, sweetness, joy. It gives me a glorious burst of energy to contemplate values and it’s fantastic at shifting my survival mindset to free my heart and mind for more important things like the awareness of love. The point for me is to find balance, to neither villainize nor glorify money, but appreciate it for what it is: part of our exchange and value system.

THE FLOW

I’d love to end this story saying that the moment I made the transition in focus, money naturally started pouring in, but actually the money flow has been about the same. It comes when it’s needed. The difference is I don’t waste my time and energy worrying about when that will be because my focus is on the abundance that I already have.

The incredible, healthy food.
The soft, warm place to lay my head.
The excellent company of two lively fluff balls.
The opportunity to enjoy music, films and books.
The endless love and support from my family.
The sharing of conversation, meals and movies with friends.

My heart is open to be where I am and enjoy what I have rather than remain trapped by a single, endlessly reoccurring thought.

And I trust that the next time I need something, it will be there.

Value: Part I

Recently, I led a workshop on Self-Empowerment. I love teaching a subject because so much inspiration occurs to me while I am focused on it. In this case, my awareness fell onto stepping into my own power and uncovering what blocks others from stepping into theirs.

It was a beautiful and illuminating session. The crux of my learning was that our notion of power is based on a misunderstanding. It’s skewed to societies’ definition of power: money, reputation, status, looks, the type of dog you own. (In my case, Maltese!)

But true power is a feeling one has inside him or herself.

A feeling of value.

This feeling doesn’t rise with success or fall with perceived failure.

This feeling is unshakable.

This feeling is Self-Love.

Self-love values the being rather than the doing or having. That is… self-love holds the individual as precious and incredible without condition.

I am not amazing because I own a house. I am simply amazing in and of myself.

This is a hard concept for some to wrap their heads around. Especially since we’ve been taught from a young age that one’s value is connected to one’s belongings or accomplishments. One is defined as ‘a good mother’, ‘an accomplished pianist’, ‘a millionaire’, or ‘married to a doctor.’

The reason our value cannot be measured from the outside is simple. One can lose his/her belongings, one can lose his/her job, one can lose his/her spouse, but one can never lose his/her essence.

You are still you.

You are still valuable.

When we value ourselves for ourselves, we can feel good and happy and valuable no matter what the circumstance.

How you might ask? How can I make this shift in my belief system?

Unconditional self-love.

No matter what your situation, no matter where you wish you were, love yourself as you are.

Love your flaws and prize your good aspects. The essence of you is neither of these, but the process of loving and accepting yourself is important.

Accept everything about yourself. See yourself as you really are:

“A divine being having a human experience.” (quote from Ron and Mary Hulnick)

That is why only unconditional love can encompass our true value. All the flaws and failures and mistakes are part of the “human experience” and the human experience serves to transmute negative energy to positive in order to create more love for the divine.

Here was another big discovery: We can’t judge ourselves for making mistakes if our purpose on earth is to learn lessons.

When we forgive our mistakes and let go of blaming other people, we grow in love. I can actually feel my heart expanding in these moments. Try letting go of some limiting belief about your value right now. Feel that misbelief lift off your body. Feel what greater value feels like.

Self-value feels delicious. It feels like bliss in my body. It feels like a day at the beach. Like a permanent orgasm.

This is what we can all feel like if we give up societies’ fantasy of what is valuable (which is based on consumerism to drive a fruitful capitalist market) and we realign to our innate, limitless, priceless, inner value as part of the divine.

Stay tuned for Value: Part II… Where Are You Giving Your Power away?

Red Meat is My Mother

Recently, I gave up eating red meat. It was after three hours of watching my delicious beef bowl reverse direction from my stomach to my mouth and into the porcelain bowl that my inner knowing kicked in and said, “You can’t do this to yourself anymore. Your body is rejecting meat.”

At first I was okay without it…I found substitutes…who knew there were so many kinds of beans? Lentils are a bean. Cannellinis are a bean. Avocados are great protein. Tofu just tastes like cardboard. (Yes, I tried grilling it.)

I was adjusting, but I would drive by the places I frequented and imagine the beautiful, juicy cuts of sirloin I used to enjoy. I started tearing up just thinking about red meat. That’s right. I was crying. Over flank steaks.

This was me, nostalgically reminiscing: “Oh, that dear filet I used to eat at Cafe Beaujolais.” Or “Oh, I’ll never forget that beef teriyaki lunch special.” It wasn’t until I actually wept that I made the connection… that longing feels so familiar. That feeling of emptiness and desire. That feeling of starvation. I get it.

My desire for meat is a desire for love. And more than just any love…it was a desire for my mother’s love. The same deep yearning. The same desperation if I didn’t get it. The same tears of frustrated disappointment. I wanted red meat to hold me and softly sing me a lullyby. Maybe, “The cow flew over the moon…”

Eating red meat everyday made me feel loved. Made me feel safe. Without it, I was vulnerable and alone. Yearning. Empty. Motherless. Craving…

I thought I had healed my parental abandonment issues through two rigorous years attaining my Master’s Degree in Spiritual Psychology at the University of Santa Monica. Though I am sure I made headway, it wasn’t until I gave up my addiction to meat (my true heart ‘s desire) that I could feel the deeper emptiness that remained to be cleared. (I gave up my addiction to men the year before.)

Then I realized: that is all addiction is: the need for love.

(Sorry, if that is obvious, but it was a revelation to me.)

The good news is… there’s no need to be ashamed of your addiction! If it is simply a mother/father substitute, you can admit it…whatever it is…porn, “e”, drinking, men, women, being depressed, being skinny, crack, the Simpsons.

We are drawn to addictions to comfort us, to give us love when it wasn’t available or safe to get it from mom or pop. But probably like that relationship, the addiction hurts us as much as it comforts us. My addiction was causing my cholesterol to sky rocket and was making my body toxic (from eating a steady diet of low alkaline food.) The toxicity was causing migraines and vomiting. Bad mommy!

So I had to give it up!

We have to let go of our addiction in order to feel the feelings underlying them. (Wow, I’m really jonesing for a cookie right now – I must be onto something.)
If I don’t feel the emptiness, I can’t clear it. If I don’t clear it I will never be able to feel the true love that resides inside me and can only be felt when the pain is lifted.

And how do I lift that pain you may ask? First, I bring awareness to it. Then I let myself feel the feelings. Then I ask spirit to clear the negative feelings from my body and finally, I clear the misunderstandings through self forgiveness.

I forgive myself for the misunderstanding that I was abandoned by my mother. I forgive myself for the misbelief that I am alone and empty. I forgive myself for judging my mother as not being there for me. I forgive myself for the misunderstanding that no one loves me, that no one will comfort me or hold me. I cry any tears that these forgivenesses bring up. Then I allow myself to reconnect to mother energy.

I do this by my imagining my inner child being held by the soul of my mother beyond the field of our human judgments and woundedness. Our souls are divine and perfect. Our souls are all loving. I let her soul comfort my soul picturing an image of her soul translucent and glowing, lovingly hugging my tiny shimmering inner child. In a field of light. Or clover. Or well-lit clover.

And I am satiated. I am full. I am complete and whole. I am loved. I am reconnected to mother energy.

So, don’t be ashamed! Don’t hide your addiction in cowering fear! Just recognize it for what it is. Let it out into the open. Take responsibility for it, but not blame! Bring some compassion to yourself for needing more love and thinking that addiction was the only way you could get it.

Then quit. Quit so you can feel the truth of what you need. Quit so you can feeling your feelings and clear them. Quit so that you can get the deep, lasting love that you deserve. Or at least uplevel your addiction to something that might not kill you so quickly. Yes, I am claiming Simpsons are better for you than smoking. And an addiction to porn is probably more fun than an addiction to being depressed. Do the best you can.

As for me, I fall asleep in the warm embrace of my mother’s soul contemplating how I will give up my sugar daddy…

Six Short Cuts to Self-Love

Loving ourselves is so vital for our health and well-being and for our happiness. If you don’t love yourself, life is a chore, life is a hardship. If you deeply love yourself, you can connect with the joy and beauty that surrounds you, you can take proper care of yourself, you can enjoy the ups and learn from the downs.

To me, self-love is a feeling state. My body feels relaxed and receptive. When I think of myself, I smile. My affection surrounds me and seeps into my body. I adore my lips, my eyes, my arms, my legs, my spine, my liver, my gums, my intestines. When I love myself it is the same feeling as watching a multi-colored sunset from a steaming hot bathtub on an island vacation.

When I am not feeling this ecstatic state of self-affection, I use easy visualizations to fall back in love. Feel free to try them and add your own…

1. Transfer the Feeling of Love to Yourself

Sometimes we can feel love for other people that we cannot feel for ourselves . Envision someone or something you love. A beloved pet, a child, a friend, or your favorite grandparent. Fill up with that love you feel for that person or thing and let it saturate your body. Feel it expand in your chest, radiating out of your heart to your fingertips and toes. Then in your mind’s eye, picture yourself where you pictured that other person or pet and envelop yourself with that fountain of love. Let it penetrate you. Let yourself be filled to overflowing with your feelings of love. See how amazing you are. How beautiful. How valuable. How loveable.

2. Send Love to a Picture of Yourself as a Child

This is a great way to fill up with self-loving. Sometimes people have shame and judgments about themselves as adults and create misbeliefs that they are unworthy of love. But if you look at a picture of yourself as a child: newborn, 2, 5, even 10 years old, you can see the innocence, the sweetness, the miracle of that life. You can bring compassion and forgiveness to the experiences that created you. You can see how adorable and valuable and worthy of love you are.

3. Put Your Attention On You

Energy healer David Elliott says, “Energy flows where awareness goes.” In the American culture, we are starved for attention and affection. We constantly look outside ourselves and compare ourselves unfavorably with others. We fill our heads with information and amass huge amounts of money to say, “Hey, look at me. Look how great I am. Love me.” But really all we need to do is turn our attention inward, reflecting on our breath, on our bodies or on our life. This positive attention from ourselves to ourselves naturally turns into blissful affection.

4. Self-Acknowledgement

Focus on what is great and amazing about you. Make a daily list. Repeat it to yourself often. Acknowledge yourself for what you have accomplished in this day, week, year or lifetime. Big or small. Anything good. I acknowledge myself for getting a degree in Psychology. I acknowledge myself for giving food to a homeless teenager. I acknowledge myself for exercising today. I acknowledge myself for speaking kindly to my co-workers today. I acknowledge myself for calling my mother. This exercises feels great, strengthens your positive qualities and increases your self-loving.

5. Three-Part Breath Meditation

Sometimes negative energy blocks our ability to feel LOVE in our bodies. This breath process clears the negative feelings of anger, sadness, disappointment, frustration, or annoyance and allows you to feel your naturally vibrating positive energy. It is simple and can be done laying in bed (the head in alignment with the neck). Relax your jaw and take a full breath through your mouth into your stomach, then (without exhaling) take a second breath into the chest expanding the area around the heart and then exhale out the mouth. (One breathe per second – three seconds total) Do it for at least 10 minutes or until you feel the feelings of love and warmth flood your body.

6. Do Something Loving For Yourself

This is a great way to feel your self-love and express it. Think of something you love to do, that fills you with joy, that you have been putting off because you don’t have time, then make the time to do it! Take yourself to the movies. Paint a canvas. Go for a walk in the park. Call a friend. Take a bath. Play with a pile of puppies. Whatever makes your heart sing. Do it today!

When you love yourself, you feel great and when you feel great, you enjoy every aspect of your life and most of the people in it too. When you fill up on self-love, it flows over to those around you. Why else did God make traffic if not to give us more time to fall deeply in love with ourselves? Happy loving! Love on!

Falling In Love

The last two months I had a sinus infection that turned into five asthma attacks and two bouts of bronchitis.

I took this as a great opportunity for me to accept myself exactly as I am and to deepen in my trust that God (spirit/energy) creates everything for my highest good.

Through breath meditation, I opened to the lessons: value “being” and not just “doing”, take time to enjoy the more subtle delights of living (like breathing!), pay loving attention to my shadow side, speak my truth, release all drama. There were so many lessons!

Yet the sinus pressure just kept going.

I “unstuffed” every room in my house including the basement and garage – taking four carloads to my neighborhood Good Will.

I let my sinuses express themselves through my writing. They had so much to say. They vented large amounts of anger. They wanted to go to Italy. They were tired of doing healing work.

I honored them by listening without judgment and assuring them that it was safe to express themselves, knowing that in doing so, they could release the underlying negative feelings. Set the pressure free!!

And yet…they persisted. I juiced vegetables and drank wheatgrass and squirted saline water up my noise to rinse out the mucus.

(Side note: did you know we drink 2 quarts of mucus a day? And that's normal.)

And yet…they persisted.

Then I thought about what was different last year than this year.

Last year over Christmas and New Year's I was in love. I was deliciously, exquisitely vibrating, sharing my heart with a lovely, inspiring man.

We were holding hands, staring lovingly into each other’s eyes, sharing long philosophical discussions, exchanging our visions for raising consciousness on earth and of course, making the yummy love. Very good for the sinuses!

My whole body was relaxed and my eyes were soft with wonder.

Ah-hah! I exclaimed. That was the difference.

So, to be healthy, I need to fall in love!

I quickly offered affection to a few nice gents, but no takers.

So, I decided to fall in love with everything!

Some things are so easy to fall in love with. Birds and trees and sunshine. Babies and puppies. Flowers. It’s easy to love time off work and baths and deep hugs. But to truly be in love, I needed to love everything.

I looked deeply into every person I met. After the superficial discomfort of how foreign it feels to love a stranger, something would shimmer inside of them. I caught a glimpse of their struggle and their victories. If I needed help I would picture them as a child. This always awakens my heart for me.

I saw the perfection of each person on his or her path. The perfection of concrete and joblessness. I saw the incredible gifts of sickness. My body reverberated with sensitivity and compassion. As if I said, “Yes” to everything. “Yes” to sleeping alone. “Yes” to my past pain. “Yes” to not knowing what is to come. “Yes” to opening my heart to love and to contraction. “Yes.”

I was totally awake and alive… and yet my sinuses still persisted.

The difference was that now I was in love with them. In love with the pressure on either side of my nose. In love with their staunch determination. In love with the enticing pop they made as they cleared little by little.

Then my sinuses taught me another lesson… they taught me why it can take so long to heal. The clearing is happening on five levels. Not only did I need to clear the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual level, but I also needed to clear the unconscious realm.

So, back I went for another gestalt (talking to the aspect). This time guided by a trusted USM counselor and I discovered the secret.

I was punishing myself for being happy.

My sicknesses were keeping me in the pattern I grew up in. I had created the misbelief that to appease my parent I wasn’t allowed to be happy. My father valued hard work, not joy. My mother couldn’t find her happiness if it bit her in the ass. So, I created a belief that was causing me to be ill.

And the more “in love” or happy I became, the sicker I became. Ah-ha!!

So, I forgave myself for buying into the misbelief that I wasn’t allowed to be happy. I forgave myself for judging my parents as unhappy. I let go of the guilt of being incredibly, joyfully, ecstatic and I was set free.

The truth is I am happy. It is safe for me to be ecstatically joyful.

I’d like to say that my sinuses cleared up instantly after that realization and my subsequent proclamation. Not quite.

As of this writing they are perfectly clear. But the pressure is on stand by. It’s waiting to make sure I’ve full committed to joy. It is waiting in the wings like an ambitious understudy, ready to take the stage if I slip up.

But I am confident. I am ready to gently free my sinuses of their guard. Thank you sinuses! Thank you for being such a determined teacher. Thank you for the awarenesses. Thank you for helping me fall in love with everything! Thank you for clearing my past pattern of self-punishment. I owe you nothing less than my greatest joy.

I love you.

Now, about that soulmate…

Love, Sweet Love

Divinity woke me up this morning and
Bliss got me out of bed.
Sweetness made me breakfast as
Kindness did the dishes.
Answered prayers blessed my food and
Ease envisioned my day
Then Love, Sweet Love looked at me with dark magnetic eyes
and said, “Can we play?”

Stay Small!

Stay Small

Oh, it’s so nice to live small, out of everyone’s way, not hurting anyone. Barely making a peep. Not seen and not heard so you never get in trouble. It’s so comfortable living small. You never have to change anything, never have to step up to bat or take any chances or be wrong. You are safe. Safe and comfortable.

No one to tell you messed up.
No one to tell you you’re bad.
No punishments.
Ahh! What a relief.
The same old job.
The same old (tired, non functioning) relationship.
Thank God you don’t have to venture out on your own.

So nice to be safely watching television, to not have to risk upsetting someone, to be left alone with your secrets, to never have to form an opinion and stand by it. To never have to contradict someone you love. Never have to stray from the pack.
Never stand up for your value. Cozy like a church mouse.

But we are not church mice. We are lions.

We were made to roar. Our purpose is so big and magnificent it scares us. We are meant to be amazing, shining beings of strength and power. We are meant to have deep inner knowing that guides our every step. We are meant to feel love and connection on a visceral level like the blood pulsing through our veins. We are meant to create incredible symbols of great meaning. We are meant to discover the miracle in ourselves. We are meant to know our own divinity.

But sometimes we cave to a culture of derision and scepticism or to depressed parents or office peer pressure or a series of personal defeats and we play it safe instead of living to our full shiny ecstatic capacity.

Thoughts trip through our heads: maybe this is the best I can do. Maybe this is all I deserve. How could I ever achieve that dream? Who will reject me because this thought is different? Who will resent me if I break ties with “the story” and be ecstatically joyful? Who will project their pain and anger onto me for being too big, too loud, too happy? How many ways could this be misinterpreted? Could I be arrested? Will my father disown me?

But then that magnificence pushes out of us. That new thought, that joyful feeling, that creative nudge, that burning desire, that inspired idea, that incredible being.

And we are faced with the age-old question. Will I stand by it or will I brush it under the carpet and excuse it as fanciful, idiotic, ridiculous, crazy or undoable?

What would you be like if you believed in yourself 100%?

If you knew with deep inner certainty what the universe put you here to do or be? Why the universe gave you these parents, this zip code and this path to walk? If you knew without a doubt you were made to bring light into the places of darkness, could you get on that boat?

Could you finish that project?
Could you let go of distractions?
Stop procrastinating?
Could you feel abundant while the rest of the world complains that there is not enough.
Could you feel blissfully free while the rest of the world desperately tries to control you?

Really what I am saying is we are all on a spiritual path. When we deny our ideas and dreams, we make the path that much longer. When we take time for ourselves: change a pattern, finish a project and celebrate our gifts, we walk our path.

I agree with Ziggy Marley “Nobody’s gonna lose their soul.” We’re all headed in the same direction – spiritual evolution – turn right at Love Street. So, you can fall off the path as much as you like.

But the juice is on the path, the learnings are on the path, the delicious embrace of self-love is on the path. The emotional, mental, spiritual victories are on the path.

I dare you.

Admit you are amazing and live from that place.

Because that is what is true.

Save the Date! February 7th at The Hub!

JOIN LAURENCE WALSH
AT THE HUB
FEBRUARY 7th
FOR AN EVENING OF BREATHING
FOCUSED ON
SELF EMPOWERMENT

Too often people confuse Self Empowerment with selfishness or narcissism. Self Empowerment is actually the path to greatest service and joy. When we believe in ourselves and our life's purpose, we can infuse the world with our powerful creations. We can lift spirits. We can spread laughter. We can touch the hearts of friends and strangers, opening them to the gifts they have to give the world.

To be fully empowered means that you are present in your body, you are aligned with your truth, you are speaking from your heart and you are honoring yourself and others.

This breath session will use a talking circle to witness and support each person as they examine and strengthen their relationship to Self Empowerment. Through self-acknowledgment, intention setting and reconnecting to intuition, we will anchor in our life path and joyful purpose. Through the breath work, we will release self-doubt and insecurity, blocks to being fully Self Empowered. Then we will relax into our natural state of being: love and joy, trust and surrender. From here we can access our intuition and receive the best guidance. From this place of complete self-acceptance and self-love, we can see ourselves as the amazing miracles we truly are.

Plus, come on, I mean, it will be fun.

The Hub
2001 South Barrington Avenue, Ste 150
Los Angeles, CA 90025
T: (310) 575- 4200
February 7th, 5:30pm-7pm, $35.00

WHAT TO BRING: water, a yoga mat and blanket.