Do you ever have one of those days where either everything is going amazingly smoothly or, if things are going wrong, you have that deep sense of ease and wellbeing and are still absolutely fine about it? Better than those days we’re it’s as if you’ve got out of bed on the wrong side. Do you know how to shift your energy so you can experience more of the ease, relaxation, trust and flow?

This past week, I’ve had a bit of a breakthrough in terms of how I see my whole practice. For 14 plus years, I’ve really struggled (and me a writer, too) to communicate what I do in a simple way. I offer so many ways of working and have several specialisms.

Simply saying ‘self-care‘ doesn’t really help as it’s a bit of a buzzword at the moment and so many of us actually work in very different ways with a range of focuses. ‘Healing your mind, body, heart and soul‘ gets closer to what I do in terms of holding that space in which my clients, students and readers can connect with what they need to better support themselves.

By Thursday, I felt like I was going around in circles and felt like I’d (temporarily, but still, not a nice feeling) run out of steam completely. I did a long and deep meditation and self-healing around it and realised how simple it all is.

Everything I’ve ever done (from my initial training in crystal therapy back in 2000-2004) has been connected with this inner wisdom, releasing energy blocks and opening up to the divine (for people who are comfortable with that terminology) or the transpersonal (beyond the person for people who don’t have any religious or spiritual beliefs – that drive for growth we witness in ourselves as well as in nature). To attuning to that part of us that KNOWS what our next best step is and can hold that bigger vision for ourselves even as we feel like we’ve been stuck in the messy middle forever.

With my self-care coaching (and counselling, supervision, workshops and yoga and meditation classes), I’m supporting people in connecting with their needs and wants and honouring their body and mind’s wisdom instead of trying to suppress it.

With my Self Care Coaching (and counselling, supervision, workshops and other elements of my yoga and meditation classes), I’m working more with the upper case S Self (in psychosynthesis terms), Miraculous Self (in Energetic NLP), in yoga, Atma or ‘true self’ or, in some traditions, Higher Self.

When I unexpectedly had to redo my whole site this spring, I explained this a little on my home page but my main concern had been being found whether people were searching under self-care or self care! I’ve actually (until this breakthrough last week) been a little embarrassed about the whole soul thing!

That embarrassment has gone. I’ve realised that while I have many specialisms and ways of working, core to all of it is helping people remember that you’re so much more than whatever you’ve survived or are going through.

This is a big element of psychosynthesis – holding space for what might be trying to emerge at a soul level even while working with the personality and practical issues that bring most people to counselling or coaching (in terms of my specialisms, stress, anxiety, trauma, sleep issues, resilience, confidence and finding more purpose, meaning and joy).

What’s trying to awaken.

It is a big part of my Yoga Nidras (in my yoga and meditation classes). It’s a huge part of my work with crystals. Clearing energy blocks with EFT and connecting with our resourcefulness in NLP.

This week’s blog post and video is all about taking the time and space to connect with our inner guide. Here are some simple steps you might want to try yourself and a new way of working you may want to explore with me:

1. Give it a name! What do you call or want to call your inner guide, Miraculous Self, Higher Self, Self etc? Trust your inner guidance right now and ask its name. If you don’t believe it, ask for three signs. Go with it. It might be something very ordinary or something odd. It really doesn’t matter what you call it, just that you have a name or term to check in with any time you want to connect with this inner support we often forget about. For the purposes of this blog, I’ll go with Miraculous Self
2. When have you been most aware of it? Can you think of a time or imagine a time when your Miraculous Self – this higher, wiser, more loving and connected part of YOU – was guiding you? If you can’t remember such a time, can you think about someone you know or know of who seems to be in this flow of regular guidance? Can you imagine such a way of being for yourself? If you were to give yourself a little time and space right now (or return to this later on when it’s a better time for you) and use all your senses, what can you see as you imagine or remember connected with your Miraculous Self? How do you look (in your mind’s eye)? What do you hear? What is the strongest emotion you are aware of as you connect with it now (Joy? Grace? Ease? Peace? Abundance? Strength? Something completely different?)? Are there any smells or tastes involved? The more vivid you can make this, the more you can bring into your daily life as you connect with your own Miraculous Self (maybe adopting the way of standing or sitting you had in your imagination or burning a particular type of incense or whatever feels like a strong anchor to build on for you
3. Work with it in meditation – My free mini meditation takes you through several of the steps. Have you downloaded it already? How are you finding it so far? (Daily repeating will bring maximum benefits and it’s under five minutes long.) If not, you can get it HERE
4. Give yourself space – Allow yourself time to BE. Meditate, walk in nature (or sit in nature or even on your sofa), swim (this is one of my favourite ways to connect because I’m so happy in the water – especially in the sea or a lake or river. It’s where I feel closest to the divine and where it’s too cold for me to be IN it, I can still benefit from being near it), connect with your favourite types of landscape – yours might be mountains or deserts or woodland. Commune with your cat or dog or other animals – anytime Rainbow Magnificat jumps onto my lap wanting cuddles, I do my best (not ALWAYS possible but often is) to stop whatever I’m doing and boost my mindfulness practice for the day with Rainbow Appreciation Time. Pause before leaping out of bed and write down your dreams and see what’s emerging (p.126 (5/7, the 5th July) of my book, 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing (White Owl, 2017)) has a helpful tool for analysing them if you’re interested in doing that). Connecting with our creativity can help, too – writing, painting, dancing, singing, making music or whatever you feel moved to do – build up a repertoire of Miraculous Self care tools so you can do different things depending on where you are and available time as well as mood and so on – allow that next best step to emerge
5. Book a Miraculous Self Care Coaching and Reading with me – This is a new offering I launched this week in response to requests for readings and the breakthrough I described above. It’s a new way of working – I’m not a fortune teller, I’m teaching you how to clear your own energy blocks and connect with your Miraculous Self as well as doing some distant healing work. In terms of the coaching and reading, I’m encouraging you to read for yourself as well. You can find out how it works HERE and let me know if you have any questions.

These are just a few simple tools and I’d love to hear what you’ve been most drawn to try, how you found it and what has worked for you in the past.

Big love,