A few weeks ago, my wife Michelle and I were at my mom’s having dinner when the conversation took an interesting turn. The back-and-forth had been fairly safe and ordinary, sharing what we were each up to, indulging in a little gossip, discussing plans for the summer, etc. Then, the upcoming birth of our ...
Have you ever been in the butterflies-in-your-stomach early phase of a new, emerging love? If so, then you can relate to my dear friend, who asked me for advice this week. She’s just beginning a new relationship and as love blossoms, she’s unsure of where it’s heading. When I heard the questions on my ...
The primordial healing traditions of the world vary in many ways, but one core belief they all share is that everything in and around us possesses an energy or spiritual charge. Feelings of negativity aren’t dismissed or coped with in these cultures; they are worked with and cleared, often through the ...
A couple of years ago, I’d come to a dead end—a failure I felt sure I could never recover from. I even considered whether my husband, children, and the world would be better off without me. It was bad. And then, in desperation, I grasped at the last straw I could come up with: a 30-day experiment in ...
Ever wondered why certain plants are considered weeds and others are deemed worthy of keeping around? The wise women healers we work with would tell you there’s no such thing as a “weed”, and that often times the wild plants that sprout up in our well-groomed backyards are encroaching on our ...
In the middle of a jungle ceremony a few years ago, a shaman told me, “Sometimes you have to break down in order to break through.” One of the essential truths on the ancestral healing path is that crisis and transformation often go hand in hand. This crisis can come in a variety of shapes and forms ...
I have a little challenge for you today that involves a simple, but often cathartic ritual that has been practiced for thousands of years — eye gazing. Our eyes are highly complex organs, capable of distinguishing the most finite details of our surroundings and interpreting the slightest discrepancy in ...
On a warm summer night a few years ago, an Ojibwe elder in the backwoods of Wisconsin shared a tale to illustrate an important choice we all have to make as we walk through this world. His words have stuck with me ever since and are particularly handy in times of intensity. Given that today is the summer ...
A few weeks ago, I sat down with Tibetan lama Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche, and he shared an ancient method for transforming uncomfortable sensations and emotions into pure energy and deep wisdom. If you don’t feel occasional discomfort or pain in our body, I want to know your secret 🙂 For the other 99.99% of...
I came across a quote a few days ago that stopped me in my tracks. “The wound is the place where the Light enters you.” ― Rumi The poet was probably speaking symbolically when he used the term “wound” above, referring to those places within us that have yet to be healed. But certain ...
Are there benefits in creating a daily practice? Well, I have two answers: the ‘up-level’ answer is, “It doesn’t matter.” The other answer, the one most of us want and need to hear is, “Yes, it’s absolutely wonderful to have a daily practice,” because most of us are embedded very deeply in the...
If I asked you to picture a shaman, what would you see in your mind’s eye? A lone mystic, sitting cross-legged in a cave somewhere, wreathed in fragrant smoke, chanting mystical incantations to the unseen forces that shape our lives? Maybe someone in an extraordinary costume with a whole variety of exotic ...