OM Blog + Press

• long, hot, yummy baths (with lots of essential oils)
• a crackling fire and hot cocoa
• a pretty pen and time with my journal to get all of those weird thoughts out of my head
• candles, incense and plump cushions
• cooking nourishing and delicious food
• playing and singing devotional music
• gear up - get what you need to stay warm and head outside to play (especially on Full Moon nights)

By Jill Emich, Spirit Warrior and Owner of Shine Restaurant and Gathering Place www.shineboulder.com

Grief is a word that invokes emptiness inside. It conjures loneliness and feeing forsaken, forlorn, lost – a sadness so deep that it feels palpable and overwhelming.

Most of us have felt this at some point or another in their lives either from personal experiences or from witnessing another in emotional pain. The first time I experienced grief was when I realized that my dear brother Dennis was born a twin and my mother had lost one at birth. I hadn’t known this until my early teen years when my mom shared her story. Being a triplet myself (yes my mom was just very, very fertile), I felt such a sense of grief for my brother and my mother’s loss.

The fact that my brother shared a womb with another spirit and another body and then surfaced into this world alone was heartbreaking. What affect did it have on his little soul then and what affect does it have now? I will never truly know because my brother is mentally and physically challenged. The only way he communicates is through his powerful huge smile, through his facial expressions, his tears, and those eyes…..

So I grieved for him and with him. I felt all those overwhelming feelings and then I decided to shift it.

I started to recognize the gifts. First and foremost my brother Dennis is still here with us and he has taught me and my family about compassion, patience, acceptance and unconditional love. His story and his existence has made me a better person and I want to share that love and compassion with others. I also know Dennis has a powerful twin angel on his shoulder, protecting him and whispering sweetness into his ear. And, my brother is the glue of our family. He has kept the love strong between all of us and has kept us united. The very rare disease he has gives a life sentence of approximately 25 years. My brother is 44 and his doctors attribute his liveliness to his amazing care, love and his inner strength. His loss has made him strong, it has – this I know.

The other way I am able to transform this feeling of grief is by reaching out to others, sharing the story and hearing other peoples story of grief and how we can transform it through community and family. This is why I know the Grief Support Network is such a powerful and important organization.  It is something I am so proud to help support.  We need one another to heal, to grow, to share, to see a new perspective.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and to learn more about Grief Support Network.  We hope to see you at Shine on September 20^th for GSN’s Gratitude Celebration & Fundraiser!  

To get your tickets for the VIP farm-to-table dinner and/or the live auction and entertainment CLICK HERE.

Full Moon Greetings ~

When I was 13 years old I read a Native American prophecy that deeply imprinted my being and shaped who I was and how I wanted to live my life.

In the book The Quest, by Tom Brown Jr., four signs were given by a Native American elder that would signify the destruction of the Earth if mankind did not change its ways and restore harmony for the Earth and all beings.

The coming of the third sign, the "night of the bleeding stars," meant that we had passed the tipping point and life on Earth as we have lived it would come to an end. At that point the "children of the Earth" must run away to the wild places and live in harmony with the Earth while everything else was destroyed.

My mantra became "when the sky turns red, we shall run."

And I watched for the signs. When I was twenty I had a vision of red clouds billowing towards me. I heard horrific wails and saw billions of suffering souls at the bottom of the cloud formation. I was petrified. Rising higher up in the clouds the images and energy shifted and morphed into layers upon layers of diverse energetic forms. At the top I saw beautiful, soft hues and multitudes of angelic and celestial beings.

My fear melted away as I realized that I was seeing the vast spectrum of human emotions and experience, and that this many layered reality was all one. The dark and the light...it was all God/Goddess. My heart opened. There is no separation, creation is brilliant, and it all is okay.

The vision left me with many spiritual insights, and a loud and clear call to service. Although the sky had turned red and our planetary condition was not getting any better, I experienced a fierce sense of hope. We are all in this together and the intensity of our plight is an integral part of our evolution. Each and every one must do our part to help.

Another Native American prophecy is calling now - the Prophecy of the Rainbow Tribe.

"When the earth is ravaged and the animals are dying, a new tribe of people shall come unto the earth from many colors, classes, creeds and who by their actions and deeds shall make the earth green again. They will be known as the warriors of the rainbow."

And we are coming together - the rainbow tribe. There is so much to heal to restore harmony on our planet. There is so much to forgive. There are so many wrongs to right. And our prayers and actions are powerful.

This weekend we journey to South Dakota to join in prayer to right wrongs committed many generations ago to this land's native tribes. We will participate in a Ceremony of Apology and Forgiveness, and celebrate the uniting of hearts and hands for the restoration of our Earth.

We invite you to join with us in this prayer. Even if you cannot be at The Unity Concert in person, please take some time to light a candle and connect with the Rainbow Tribe in the spirit of restoration and healing. I

f you feel called, create your own ceremony of apology and forgiveness. The Hawaiian healing process called ho'oponopono is a wonderful resource for clearing deep wounds. Ho'oponopono means to make right. It is traditionally used to make things right with the ancestors, or with the people in your life.

Practice: Forgiveness Ceremony
Feel the places in your body that hurt when you reflect on a specific situation or dynamic. Stay with the feelings as you say the following four statements with enthusiasm:

• I love you.
• I'm sorry.
• Please forgive me.
• Thank you.

Continue until the distressful feelings are alleviated and you feel at peace.

Blessings on the path,

Dayna Seraye

In the spirit of this time of Virgo, I want to plant a seed in your heart. Sacred Service. 

As women, many of us have struggled in relationship to giving and receiving. We may give too much in ways that are unhealthy. We may feel unworthy to receive what we truly desire. We may feel so wounded in this area that we have shut down our capacity to give and/or receive with love. We protect ourselves within a confined box of pale and tasteless security.

I know that I have been there.

But I also know that giving from the heart is the key to our happiness and well-being. Just as a luscious breath fills us and then empties us, giving in a no-holds-bar way allows us to receive exponentially.

We are here on this planet at this time to learn how to give ever more fully in a way that is aligned with our Soul's truth. This is the key to our sacred service.

When we are in sacred service we receive energy from our giving. We may be tired after a long day of service, but deep inside we feel nourished and contented. We know we are on the right path. When we give to people and experiences that are not in alignment with our Soul's truth we feel depleted and drained of life-force. We feel like we've given too much. We feel out of balance. 

Our sacred service is uniquely ours to discover. It is the gift we are meant to give, in each moment, that connects us to who we really are. It aligns us with our heart and the Heart of all Things. It brings us into sacred relationship.

What is your sacred service? How can you be of sacred service today, and everyday?

The 13 Moons community is supporting a very special eventSeptember 13-14. Perhaps you will hear the call to be of sacred service to honor Mother Earth and Her people... Check out theunityconcert.com to find out more. We need donations, volunteers, and united hearts and minds to realize this potent prayer. Let us know if you can join us in journeying to the Black Hills for The Unity Concert!

All love on the path of sacred service,

Dayna Seraye

by Ombassador and Spirit Warrior Jill Emich

I am a rebel. I am a master of my destiny. I live my truth. I choose. I choose not to dwell in any shame but instead celebrate. I choose not to focus on my weakness but transform them in to strengths.

I turn 40 this month and lets just say, some parts of my life I adore and some I may have a different opinion about. I am a single woman. I have no children of my own. But I love my work and I live passionately and from the heart. I am so proud of what I do bring in to this life and the gifts I have to offer. I am not going to say I do not have longings, because I do. I am not going to say that I didn’t wish I had a beautiful authentic connected partner in my life, because I do. But I can also celebrate the reality without having it have to match my plan of what others or I think it should be because as it turns out HERE I AM.

This longing is nothing more then me wanting to experience my own divine nature. It is only calling me into my best light.

I know this and I celebrate this.

So I am a rebel. I respect my individuality. It is neither less then nor greater then because we are all so unique that it is impossible to compare. A rebel does not mean I act out, it is more my essence-MY WAY. It is my way of respecting myself as an individual with my very own blueprint and very own path. I respect my own freedom and the freedom of others. I believe what life has in store for me is just for me and will lead to my own personal life transformation and experience. As is for you.

I live from a place of balance, acceptance, freedom, joy, and abundance of what IS.
I love my work. Shine is a place for all of us to congregate, celebrate, transform and heal together as individuals and in community. It is a blessing and a gift on so many levels.
I feel blessed to a triplet and having a deep soul connection to my two sisters and their beautiful families.
I have loving and supportive parents.

I have a brother who is mentally and physically “challenged” and he teaches me patience and unconditional love and acceptance every single day. And that is his path.
I am love. I am light. I radiate love and joy. I experience magic all around me every day.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.  

Love After Love

The time will come

When, with elation,

You will greet yourself arriving

At your own door, in your own mirror,

And each will smile at the other’s welcome.

 

And say, sit here. Eat.

You will love again the stranger who was your self.

Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart

To itself, to the stranger who has loved you

 

All your life, whom you ignored

For another, who knows you by heart.

Take down the love letters from the bookshelf.

 

The photographs, the desperate notes,

Peel your image from the mirror.

-Derek Walcott

Often times our perception of how we think things are 'going down' may not be what's really True, with a capital T.  Have you ever created a whole scenario in your mind of what you think someone has done, to later discover that your interpretation was completely wrong? 

Take a moment to watch your OT Coaching Tune-Up by clicking the picture below. Hear how a client started to go into a story about a situation that only left her feeling worse and more separated from herself and her friend. Through coaching, she learned that it was not only a lot of wasted energy, but how she can rise above it by simply shifting her perspective.

Home Play:

*First step, as always...Become aware: "Oh, I totally want to jump in and react.  Am I creating an entire scenario in my head, without even really knowing the whole picture?"

*In that awareness, practice being gentle and forgiving toward yourself for feeling those feelings.  You are human, after all, and have most likely experienced some pain and upset in your life.  Saying something to yourself like, "It makes sense you are reacting right now, because this feels like a past situation.  It's ok to feel upset, and it's ok to feel what you are feeling."

*Pause, go back to what you are feeling.  Begin to inquire, what are these feelings really about?  "How might what I am feeling be my own stuff, and am I now blaming this person for putting it on me?

*Look beyond the story: Ask yourself, "How might I look beyond the story of what I am creating in my mind and see this person as someone who has also experienced pain in their life?" 

Simple?  Yes.  Easy? Not necessarily.  The more we practice, we begin to strengthen our ability to respond instead of react, and not give our power to our old limiting beliefs.  This leaves us feeling not only more connected and compassionate towards self, it also leaves room for others to be human and have compassion for their wounds.

Feel stuck in shifting the story? You are not alone!  Shoot us an email to find out the myriad of ways you can get support with OT Coaching.  We would love to support you.

Until next time....expect GREAT things!

Live from your Spirit, love your life

New Moon, Beltane 2014

On this deep dark moon, there are whispers of excitement all around. The flowers dance in anticipation. The green shoots rise up, alert and expectant. The water bubbles and the faeries delight in the joy of what is to come.

It is Beltane. It is the celebration of Life.

The Goddess opens to Her Consort. The fertile Earth jubilantly receives the warmth of the Sun. The Divine Feminine joins together with the Divine Masculine in the Spirit of Creation, and consciousness is born.

It is this union that creates the magic of new life.

It is this alchemical union that ensures the growth and abundance necessary to sustain life and makes the world go round.

And it is what we are all seeking, deep down: Alchemical Relationship. We want to experience the magic of creation unfolding with each blessed moment. We want to embody the Goddess and the God, together. 

Easier said than done? Perhaps. And so we look to Nature. We coax the Sun to shine boldly down onto the Earth withour songs, our laughter and our prayers. We lure Him with the generous expressions of our love. We welcome Him for all that He is, and we show up in our fullness to receive Him.

We can dear sisters. We will. We are.
It is time.

And so it is.

Wishing you a delicious Beltane full of sensual delight ~
Dayna Seraye

I was having a conversation with a dear ex-boyfriend of mine and he pointed out that sometimes I sit on the shore in a place of worry, feelings of not being good enough, and doubts, instead of swimming in the sea of everything I am and desire.  Well, it got me thinking (the visual was very helpful), and I decided I want to swim in the sea of everything I want to bring in to my life including prosperity, abundance, success, love, passion-YES, I want to bathe in it!  All of the sudden I was picturing basking in the sea in the feelings of all of these things that I am calling in and it really lit me up!

Start 2014 off right with tips on Building Your Base from our newest OMbassador and professional triathlete, Mandy McLane.

Mandy is a woman who knows a lot about setting goals and staying motivated in order to get the most out of life.  She is a motivation to many and we are thrilled to have her on The OM Collection team. Besides being a professional athlete, Mandy also coaches individuals all over the country to meet their fitness goals and works as a speech pathologist, helping children and their families.  We managed to catch up with her in order to share with YOU a few base building tips for the New Year.  Here is what she had to say!

January 1st is always a great time to push the reset button and start over; grasp a hold of new goals, start them, continue them, and gradually accomplish them. In order to succeed it is important to build a solid foundation and to set mini goals that are easy to meet, which helps maintain motivation. There are no short cuts or quick fixes to achieving a functional healthy life style. In order to reach your fitness and life goals, it is important to develop good habits and stick with them...