The Magic of Working With Difficult Emotions (part 1)

girl-107163_640We all experience challenging emotions at times. It can be all too easy to get caught up in our reactions to these intense and unpleasant feelings.

We might find ourselves getting irritable and taking out our anger on our loved ones. Or we might find ourselves spending a lot of time and energy disconnecting from ourselves in order to avoid feeling what we feel. This article will help you overcome and successfully resolve your feelings.

Imagining Another Way

But what if we could learn to welcome such emotions instead? What if we could learn to experience our difficult emotions as gifts, as opportunities to deepen our self-care and spiritual practice, as potential allies who have much to teach us?

If you are interested in pursuing this approach, here are several steps that you can take to befriend your pain and sorrow, your anger and fear. These steps are presented as a rough outline; feel free to choose your own path, to mix and match elements of them, to skip over or replace some of them or to work through them in whatever order makes sense to you.

Accept that you feel what you feel.

Before we can start to move or transform any emotion, we have to simply be present with it. We have to stop resisting, stop fighting, stop pretending that what’s happening is not happening.

Acceptance is powerful medicine. It’s the best antidote for all the convoluted snarls and tangles we can find ourselves stuck in. For many people (including myself), it’s so easy to start feeling bad because we feel bad.

I often find myself feeling angry or sad that some old familiar pain has resurfaced in my heart. I might start to believe false stories, such as that I’ve always felt this way or that my sorrow is never going to end.

This dynamic can also show up in different ways. For example, you might be scared of the intensity of your own anger. Or you might be ashamed of the depth of your grief. You might be frustrated because your emotional reactions don’t seem to make rational sense.

But you don’t have to beat yourself up for feeling how you feel. You can simply accept that this is where your heart is, in this moment, and trust that, no matter how lost you might feel, you are on a long and winding path towards wholeness.

Ask for help…

friends-204324_640We don’t have to deal with our pain and difficulties alone. We are stronger when we are interconnected, when we draw on the many resources that exist within and around us.

Asking for help can look very different for different people. It can also be quite different for one person at different times in their life. One important strategy is to cultivate a network of emotional support.

When you have a range of relationships with people that you enjoy and trust, you can often find great comfort and help. It can be challenging for most people to reach out when they’re overwhelmed. Because of this, it’s often a good idea to ask people beforehand if you can contact them for support when you’re having a hard time.

…From all your allies.

As magical practitioners, we have the ability to ask for help from more than human allies. Depending on your tradition and preferences, you might reach out to Gods and Goddesses, to faeries and elemental spirits, to your ancestors and/or to angels and spirit guides.

All of these can be great sources of healing, soothing and spiritual insight.

Some people also cultivate relationships to non-human allies who exist physically in this realm. For example, many magical people use crystals for a variety of emotional balancing purposes. You can also use herbal teas, plant-based remedies and aromatherapy oils in similar ways.

If you have rituals that you are familiar with, performing them during a trying time can be a great way to comfort yourself. Doing something familiar can also help you feel empowered and competent.

A Simple Prayer to Ask for Help

Emotions and Candle Ritual
Emotions Candle Ritual

Here’s a very simple ritual that you can do if you’re feeling overwhelmed and like you need to something quick and easy, or if you simply aren’t sure how to ask for spiritual help. Light a candle. Imagine that your heart is a bud, a tightly closed flower.

Say out loud, “Divine Beings, Spirits of Benevolence and Grace, I ask for help. I ask for support and comfort to enter into my life. I am willing to open and be changed.”

Imagine that the flower of your heart is opening and blossoming. Imagine that your heart is giving off a sweet, alluring scent that draws love and connection towards it. Allow yourself to see any images of support that might appear, like honeybees, to pollinate your heart.

Check back next month to read part 2 of this article, which will explore expressing difficult emotions and gleaning lessons from them!

Staying in the Now: Mental Health Through Mindfulness

[jwplayer file=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdZwybJF8Uc”]

Dr. Stuart Eisendrath, director of the UCSF Depression Center, explores mindfulness as a method for sustaining mental wellness. Series: UCSF Mini Medical School for the Public [2/2010] [Well being and Medicine] [Show ID: 17626]
Video Rating: four / five

How to use and activate Crystals for Healing

So you’re thinking of getting some healing crystals or maybe you already have them and you want to know what to do with them, here you will find out how to cleanse and activate the crystals so that you can receive the maximum benefit from them. If you haven’t bought any yet you can take a look in my shop to see the various healing properties of each crystal, there are also gift sets for things like curing insomnia, boosting confidence or beating depression naturally. Alternatively you may wish to get a Rock Crystal of the Quartz variety which is one of the most powerful of stones and is all purpose.


 

A rose quartz pendants can help you heal.


Firstly the crystals need to be cleansed and activated.

There are different ways to cleanse crystals, and some people advocate cleansing them with cool water, preferably mineral, then leave them to dry – drying them with a towel for instance attach fluff which collects negativity. But be aware that certain precious stones should not touch water. I prefer using natural (ie not idodized) sea salt – you cover the crystals with the sea salt and leave them for about 24hrs. Then you remove the salt and leave them for a day in the sun or if you are not seeing much sun at the mo then moonlight is good too!

Since the dawn of time, Lapis Lazuli has been a powerful stone associated with royalty. It is a very strong stone that evoked the powers of the third eye chakra. This helps in being more creative, intuitive and even allows you to enhance your psychic powers.

Secondly you must attune your mind to the crystal/s.

  1. Play some soft gentle music to get you relaxed and in the mood.
  2. Place the crystal at eye level next to a lit candle and focus on the flame. This will help to calm and focus your mind and remove any other distractions, which is essential for crystal gazing.
  3. With half-shut eyes watch the light expand and let the glow illuminate the far edges of the room.
  4. Breathe in deeply and breathe out slowly, deliberately breathing onto the crystal.
  5. Now imagine yourself in a favourite place, if there is no where you can think of in particular then choose an idylic setting, such as in the woods, in a field full of flowers or on a deserted beach.
  6. You’re doing well! At this point you will be becoming attuned to the gemstone, and this will allow the healing energies to flow between you and the stone.
  7. Now take your crystal to a peaceful and light place – it can be indoors or outdoors, and this time without the candle, concentrate on the crystal until its body light explands. Let its energy field surround you as you breathe in the crystal’s vibrations.
The Dolphins Triskilian for Guidance and Inner Peace represent harmony and spirituality while the traditional Triskilian design shows the three realms of being. This charm may be worn for guidance and inner peace.

Now you can carry your crystal about with you on your daily business, be sure to play with it or touch it in your pocket or whatever, the more contact you have with the crystal, but also the more focus you have on it, the better it will work. At night you can put it near or under your pillow so it can work whilst you sleep.

If you have a bad experience or a difficult day, you should cleanse the crystal again using one of the methods mentioned above. You may wish to do the attuning process again as well. The more you do this process the easier and more natural it will become.

Happy Healing!

StormJewel x

Amethyst, gemstone of the heavens set on the symbol of fire with the Sigil of Cassiel, Angel of Saturn inscribed for Karma clearing.
Chatoya – Tigers Eye Pendant for Inner Confidence

Healing – How does it work? My Thoughts

Crystals for Healing

As I write this I am recovering from a seriously nasty virus, so have been thinking a lot about healing (well I was thinking about it before but have had even more time now!) and what it is that makes it work, be it reiki, acupuncture, crystal healing, qi gung, self hypnosis or any one of the many other types of alternative and holistic healing.

First off I’d just like to point out that I’m by no means a healing expert or guru, but have a small amount of experience in that I have taken the first level of reiki training, have received different types of healing, and have been working with meditation and energy work for many years.

The first thing that all these types of practices have in common is the use of energy (or Qi, or Chi or life force, or vital energy or whatever you prefer to call it/think of it as.

Practices such as reflexology and acupuncture work (as my basic understanding of it goes) by realigning the energy pathways, or meridians that flow through your body.  In common with so many alternative healing practices, these systems believe that many things (including physical and emotional events) can cause blockages in your energy lines, leading to illness and disease.

I once spent some time listening to a Paul Mckenna self-hypnosis CD which aimed to help you keep your immune system strong and healthy by learning to give yourself an endorphine boost.  He sescribes how the place where endorphines are released can be different for different people, but for me it was the heart chakra, the same place as the reiki energy fills up first before going on to heal the rest of me, interesting I thought….

The plot thickened the other day when I read that certain people believe that acupuncture works by stimulating your endorphins.

Things continued to get more confusing when I practiced a relaxation meditation that involves following the path of energy around your body, common in things like mindfulness, yoga, and also in Robert Bruce’s New Energy Ways.  I felt the energy course around my body, particularly in my hands and feet – very similar to what I have felt when practicing the tarot, but also when trying out QiGong.

Reiki, unlike say reflexology or acupuncture, is a passive form of healing in that the healer is merely a channel for a an energy source that exists outside (but also inside!) of our bodies.  My reiki healer would often say how much she liked giving reiki treatments since it was also a treatment for her.  Yet I began to wonder, since the feelings of energy, the burst of pleasure associated with endorphins, was pretty much the same as what I had experienced from all these other metaphysical practices.  Was reiki just a self delusion?  Tricking yourself that there is something greater when it’s all within you?

But then I realised the (perhaps obvious) answer – This energy, this Qi, Life Force, Love, Divine Light, Mother Nature, God even if you are religious, whatever you call it, is not only within us, but also powers the universe.  It is the thing that I think I have always believed makes the world go round so to speak.  And importantly, it’s all the same thing!  Whatever you call it, however you manipulate it – drawing it in from the world or redistributing it in your body, it’s the same, all is one!

The feeling of endorphins being triggered is a sign of us connecting to that universal force. love, whatever, and is a very healing thing.  Even before I connected all this I began to intuitively feel that whenever I triggered that feeling, I was getting some strong healing.

We love to be in love as that triggers that feeling, but a relationship can also bring negatives, but if, as someone once suggested to me, we can hang on to that feeling of love, regardless of there being a single object of it, we can be happy and healthy.

You probably know the way that when you start thinking of something it keeps coming up in new ways, (some people call this synchronicity) and having just started QiGong, the first exercise I am learning is called ‘Butterfly Dancing in Front of Flowers’ and is all about opening your heart to the universal energy – what a great time and place to start this journey!

What are your thoughts on this?  Was this obvious to you all along or has it made you think?  Do you have other ideas on the way healing (and energy) works?  Get involved below!!

Qi Gong – What is it and why do it?

Learn Qi Gong
Learn Qi Gong

A while ago a friend showed me some QiGong (aka Chi Kung) and manipulation of energy and I was very impressed and excited by what I had seen, particularly as I have been looking to add an active meditation to my range of meditations.  Qi Gong has been a very powerful influence in his life, helping him to beat a downward spiral of drug addiction, and also helping him to attain new levels of spiritual understanding and awareness.  Unfortunately there are no Qi Gong teachers local to me, so when I found an online course by a well respected QiGong teacher I decided to give it a go!

It’s 22 week online course that I’m very enthusiastic about, so I thought I’d write a little blog post about it and keep you updated as the course progresses!

So what is QiGong?

QiGong is an ancient Chinese form of active meditation. It is very similar to practices such as Tai Chi (although much easier to learn!).  It is part of Chinese medicine, other aspects including Chinese herbs and Acupuncture.

Literally translated:

Qi = Energy (and you may know this by the name Chi, but also Mana, Aura or many words depending on what part of the world you are familiar with)

Gong = Work

So put that together and you have Energy Work.  What does that achieve?  Well I’ll go into more detail shortly, but first, why practice something like QiGong?

 

If you read my blog regularly you will know that I am very keen on meditation and energy practices for a range of reasons, here are some of the main ones:

  1. Relieves stress and anxiety
  2. Deepens spiritual awareness
  3. Improves psychic & healing ability
  4. Keeps you both mentally and physically healthy

QiGong brings extra benefits, as explained by Marcus, my online teacher for the next 22 weeks – a sincere seeming guy who has been taught by masters in China and practicing for over 10 years.

So what are the extra and specific benefits of practicing Qi Gong?

  1. To improve your health and vitality
  2. To increase your longevity, in other words to help you live a longer and happier life
  3. To increase your internal force – this will help provide you with amazing stamina and endurance and can also assist you in practices that require energy manipulation such as healing and psychic ability
  4. To expand your mind – like with any good meditation practice, it can help improve your memory, creativity, intelligence, awareness and your ability to articulate your thoughts.
  5. To take you further on your spiritual journey – meaning to help get you in touch with your inner self, but also with the universe, other people, and understanding and enjoying your place within that.

 

Energy Work and Health

Chinese and Japanese medicine and in fact most alternative forms of medicine believe that we have energy lines or meridians flowing through our bodies.  If these flows of energy become blocked, many unfortunate things can result, from emotional conditions such as depression, to physical illnesses and dis-eases.  Energy work keeps us healthy and happy and is the key to almost all alternative forms of medicine I have come across, including Reiki, a form of healing I am passionate about.

Ok well that’s enough for now, so far I’m really impressed by the info and explanations that Marcus has provided about Qi Gung (there’s written material and videos for each week) and I’m off to practice the first form of the course which is called, most poetically ‘Butterfly dancing in front of Flowers’.  This form is all about opening your heart and body.

Do you or have you practiced QiGong?  Is is it something you are thinking about?  Why not join me on my journey and we can learn together!  If you are keen to learn more about the course Marcus is offering, you can try a two week trial of QiGong and see what you think!

Bird Magick – Bring Nature into your Spells, Healing & Rituals – Part 1

Bird Magic
Bird Magic

Paganism is usually thought of as a nature religion, but for many Pagans who live in a town or city, and even for those in the countryside, it can be difficult to know how to incorporate nature into your rituals and spells.  Elsewhere I suggest finding things from nature and putting them on your altar or using them in spells and rituals, but here I will describe another way of interweaving nature with your life and beliefs!

Since birds vary so much in physical characteristics (from big to small, from many coloured to plain) and in character (eg some birds being hunters, other singers, others more family orientated, and many a combination), we can use them as symbolic forces to aid in healing, balancing our weaknesses, and nurturing our strengths.  Through the wisdom and power of bird medicine we can life up our spirits and strengthen our sense of clarity and balance.

 

Bird Magick – The realm of air and sky

The skies have long been associated with a freedom far removed from everyday life.  When we feel depressed or unable to act, bogged down in everyday life, we can look up at the birds for inspiration to leave the mundane world and life ourselves through the air by potent magical ritual.

Just as the ancient Greeks and Egyptians among others revered many birds, such as Osiris or the Phoenix, so in Western religious lore through Angels can we see a link between birds and holiness.  Birds link us to this realm of the sky by at once living on earth but being able to fly high.

The realm of air is connected to oxygen and breath.  One of the best things you can do for a calm mind is to take deep slow breaths and draw energy into all parts of your body, this is at once relaxing and enlivening.  Thinking about birds can help to remind us to slow down and truly draw in and appreciate the air element, and the way in which it can bring us pleasure and calmness.

Bird Medicine

As with any aspect of Paganism and Wicca, your imagination is in a way your only limit to the way you practice both life and magic, but here are some suggestions of ways to connect with bird medicine.

 

Watch and Learn – First step

Birds make amazing entertainers if watched regularly.  You will soon learn to know their habits and routines and see many quirky things they do.  Get some binoculars to really get close to them, and see their markings and behaviour clearly.  By practising bird watching you can improve your skills of patience and observation and enjoy nature in an engaging way, as well as gain a deeper understanding of these mystical creatures.

 

Study and Draw – Second step

You can study natural history books and draw them in a sketchbook that you keep specifically for this purpose.  This will really help you to understand their abilities and special powers and characteristics, and from there you will begin to realise how to incorporate these traits into your own life.

 

Feather Healing – Third step

When you’ve found a bird that you feel a particular affinity to, try and get a feather of it.  Feathers contain the energetic properties of the bird, and to make the connection between you strong, it’s important to either find or be given the feather. Be careful though as some feathers are actually illegal to own, such as the eagle feather, unless you are classed as a native american.

By placing the feather on your altar or sacred space, it will help you to remember and connect with the bird’s healing medicine.  You can honour the feather in your rituals and prayers, why not say it’s characteristics and strengths out loud?  You should make offerings to the spirit of the bird – what you offer is up to you, you may wish to offer your own hair to cement the bond, or gather acorns, nuts, herbs or other natural things.

Coming Soon – Part 2 – Birds and Their Healing Properties – Discover the powerful characteristics of the crow, heron, eagle and more!

 

Thanks to Jonathan Keyes for the inspiration for this article

Mindfulness Guided Meditation with Deepak Chopra

[jwplayer file=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG4A20_-OSM”]

Practicing mindfulness and awareness is not necessarily the same for everyone. This guided meditation with Dr. Chopra is an exercise in mindfulness based meditation practice. The calming images achieve a rhythm inline with the music that accompanies you throughout the meditation. You can devote as little or as much time to your meditation practice as your comfortable with, and as the video shows you can practice mindfulness anywhere. We hope you enjoy this mindfulness guided meditation with Dr. Deepak Chopra and invite you to subscribe to the Wild Divine or add us as a friend.
Video Rating: 4 / 5

STOP: A Short Mindfulness Practice

[jwplayer file=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhwQvEGmF_I”]

This is a practice out of A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn, and co-authored by Bob Stahl Ph.D. and Elisha Goldstein, Ph.D. (New Harbinger, 2010). This short mindfulness practice is meant to be sprinkled throughout the day to support you in becoming more present, reducing stress, and being more effective in every day life.