Happy Independence  Day!  I love this holiday. Freedom is very groovy. “Free your mind!” Morpheus said to Neo and that is the edge that I am working right now.  Who would I be if my mind was free of the limited beliefs and the restraints I have embedded in it?

Good question. My husband asked me the other day what I would do if I was totally fearless. We were enjoying a nice hike in a state forest out in western Mass and we had spotted a bear in a clearing not too far from where we were standing with our dog.  It was a smallish black bear and I just glimpsed it through the trees. Good thing my dog, who was off leash at the time, didn’t see it or he would have wanted to make friends. Eeek.

It’s so cool when you see wildlife like that, and I never feel it’s a coincidence. I love working with animal spirits, so when I see a BEAR, it’s a big deal. Bears represents the open heart and all Bear Clan members are big hearted and kindly. Bear People have creative cycles that go with the seasons. They can be slow to anger but are very fierce if you get on the wrong side of them. Nothing is more dangerous then a bear who thinks you are threatening its cubs.  People who have bear as their totem are generally sweet natured and slow to anger but they can bit a little bit unpredictable with their anger too, so sometimes you never know what might set them off. That is the meaning of bear medicine, the sacred energy that bear represents.

So when I see a power animal like that,  I stop and pay attention to what I was thinking, feeling or saying at the time.  And my husband had just asked me the question, “What would you do if you were fearless?”

I felt like the bear was asking me too. I am not really afraid of bears in theory. Theoretical bears are just peachy, all cute and fuzzy and full of honey. Like Pooh Bear.  But actual bears in the woods, well, that is a slightly different story. People used to be scared as heck of bears. They are the baddest thing here in North America. (Unless you go swimming with the sharks, another animal I am obsessed with.)

The whole thing made me realize how much my life can be ruled by FEAR. With fear I am not free.  Fear is a big bear trap that prevents me from really living at 100%.

I think about all the times fear has held me back in my life. And granted I am not a particularly fearful person. In general, I tend to take risks and go for it. Even so, I know there are things I would have done differently had I not been so afraid. I would have taken more risks, put myself out there more and at a younger age. I would not have listened to people who told me “It can’t be done.”

I wouldn’t have held onto things that weren’t working. I would have let go sooner.

I had a dream the other night that I had a huge blue, green and purple dragon tattooed on my arm. It was gorgeous and wrapped all up my arm, with it’s head on the back of my hand and it’s tail around my neck.  If I was fearless I would get that tattoo.

I would take my kids on a cross-country tour, or somewhere overseas.  (The thought of traveling with four teens scares me blue.)

I would finally sit down and write the book that has been floating in my head forever. (Ok, there are like four or five books in there, waiting patiently in a queue.) Maybe I would publish my blogs!

I would worry less and have more fun.  I would definitely go buy those cute little shoes I saw in Rockport yesterday that I didn’t get cuz I was trying to be GOOD.

I would care a lot less about whether people liked and accepted me and would just say and do what I really want to.

I would ditch New England and move to Hawaii. Or southern France.

I would be Will Smith, in the movie, Independence Day, flying a plane and kicking an alien in the head. “I could have been at a BBQ!” And save the world. I think the Almost Americans must have been terrified to start a war with the Brits. It was a crazy idea and sometimes I can’t believe they actually won. But I am so glad that they were not too afraid to try, or there wouldn’t be any BBQ and we would be eating crumpets and drinking tea instead of good healthy beer and burned meat.  Here’s for being Americans and chewing meat off the bone, like a bear. Grrrr!

Without fear, I would be free.  What about you on this Independence Holiday?  Are you ready to beat fear and free your mind?

By Lisa Campion

It’s a gorgeous spring day and I feel like ditching my work and going out to PLAY. Hallelujah. That means it’s time to connect with my soul and I am answering the call.

Kids are little smarticles. They know that playing and having fun is an essential part of being human. They all view grown-ups as the mutants we truly are since we have forgotten (duh) that PLAYING is where it’s at.   I was doing research for this blog by asking everyone I know what they do for fun. The kids rattled off long lists with ease.  Baseball, sports, parties, dancing, video games, TV, sunny days, going swimming, school vacation, Disney, spinning around until you barf.  Ahhh, the good old days.

Most grown ups I asked looked at me like I had three heads. (Personally, I think having three heads would go on my fun list, but that is just me.)

The Fun Police

When I was a kid, all grown-ups were secretly designated as The Fun Police.  You know, right when you get into something really juicy, sweet, mischievous, hopefully slightly illegal and maybe a little dangerous (Also known as  Wicked Fun) the Fun Police show up.

“Get off that roof right now, young lady. You can NOT fly. Don’t give me that look….”

What a kill joy!  When I was a kid, I hated the Fun Police. Now I am pretty sure, I am the Fun Police.  My kids swear it’s true. At least I have the Fun Police surgically implanted in my brain by my own dear parents.   I did a lot of research for this blog (hah) and I heard plenty of adults tell me all kinds of reasons why fun was off the menu.

“Fun? Do you think I have time for fun?  This is tax season. Taxes are not fun. And we are in a recession. Not fun. Then I have a dentist appointment. It’s a root canal.  After that,  I am cleaning the house, doing laundry and going to WORK which is the opposite of FUN, ok? “  The Fun Police was turning pretty red by now. I was thinking maybe a stroke was immanent, but the FP was just getting warmed up.

“Besides fun is fattening. I am on a low everything diet. Low sodium, low carbs, no sugar, caffeine or alcohol. Also no gluten or actual food of any kind. I can eat cardboard, sawdust and celery. And dieting is not fun, it makes me cranky.  Fun! Screw you!”  I am pretty sure the Fun Police flipped me the bird at that point. Personally, I think flipping people the bird is fun too, but don’t tell the Fun Police or I’ll get a ticket.

“Speaking of cars, “ growled the Fun Police.  “I drive a minivan. A. Mini. Van. That sucks all the fun out of driving, like a freaking black hole. Where is my Porsche? Where is my black Mustang convertible? And all I do is drive my kids around to their FUN events.  Grrr!”

That was an AWSOME Fun Police rant!  It’s quite honestly an interview with my own Inner Fun Police.  Now you know.

So what do you if you fun muscle atrophied? I think mine has. Maybe it’s the running three businesses and having four kids.  But it sure seems like I don’t have time for fun anymore. I feel quite sad about it.

The Price of Lack of Fun

I know that I have to make time for playing and having fun. If I don’t, I get all dried up and dusty inside. I get bitter, cranky and resentful. I start feeling like there is no room in my life for ME.  If the Fun Police take over, they run my Inner Self like military coup, which we all know is low on the Fun O’ Meter.

I am pretty sure I am not the only one that feels this way.  Lack of fun is a rampant disease of the spirit these days.

Often I give my clients homework for having fun and it’s surprising, shocking and tragic that frequently they don’t EVEN REMEMBER what fun is. When asked, they stare, blank faced, like I just asked them to pull a rabbit out of their ears.

“Fun?  I don’t remember. I don’t think I ever had any. It’s been so long.  Isn’t fun illegal now these days?”

Wowza.

As part of my vicious and evil plan to spread joy and fun through the world, I make them write a list of everything they think is fun and they have to pick one from their list everyday and actually do it.  That is when I realized that I needed a taste of my own medicine.

Since our fun muscles are connected directly to our souls and our Divine Spark, when we aren’t having fun in our lives, we have lost a big part of our connection to our own spirits.

Fun is back in fashion

Ok, it’s time to reclaim fun.  We have a motto in the Energy Medicine Institute that Rhys and I live by. I made it up. It is called “Having Fun Is Fun.” I’m thinking a bumper sticker.  Our deal with each other is that if ever teaching in and running the school stops being fun for us and for the students, we need a course correction. Occasionally, if one of us gets too tightly clenched in the buttocks region (Ok, I confess, it happens) the other one says, “Hey, are you still having fun?”

If the answer is NO, then time to change something. Mostly the clenching of jaws and butt cheeks happen cuz we are taking things waaaaay too seriously, or getting caught up in ego stuff of drama, conflict or the pursuit of perfection. Basically, we are trying too hard. Ugh.

So here is a news flash. You can tell you are on your life’s path because it’s fun.  And I mean fun in a giggly, life giving, joyful, kindhearted, playful way. Not the kind of fun where you need to have three shots of tequila to prime the pump. I am talking the spontaneous joy of being alive.

Folks, that is our natural state of being!  It’s only the tremendous power of our unconsciousness and ego that can make you forget for one second that having a body and a life is FUN.  Your soul LOVES life. It loves to be alive on this pretty bluegreen planet. And everything about being alive is fun, even the hard parts and the challenges. When you are in the Fun Alive Zone, even crying is fun.   That whole range of feelings that we try so hard to get rid of, is a tremendous experience for us, the same way that roller coasters are fun.

The farther we get away from fun and play, the more distant we are from our souls.  Our souls speak to us through our desire to have fun and play. And when we leap into this, we reconnect to our joy,  our life force energy, our potential creativity and our unique life purpose.

Your soul is always guiding you towards your life purpose and if it feels good and is fun, it’s probably a clue that you are headed in the right direction. If you are doing something you HATE and it’s soul sucking, life draining and fun killing, then it’s a sure sign you are headed The Wrong Way.

Work CAN be fun you know. I am not saying play hookie from work everyday, (even though, that IS really fun…)  I am just pointing that when you are doing a job that is in alignment with your life’s purpose, it’s fun!  Mostly my work doesn’t feel like work, even though sometimes it’s hard. Mostly I show up and say “I can’t believe I get PAID to do this!”  Don’t tell Rhys, but I would teach in the school this for free. In fact I would probably pay HIM to let me do this!  ‘Cept he already knows and feels the same way.

Me and Mother T.

Did I ever tell you the story about Mother Theresa? This is for all you naysayers who still think that having fun is a sin and the righteous must suffer.  When Mother Theresa came to India and started working in Calcutta, she got really sick. She was working hard in a city that has the most abject poverty in the world, taking people in off the streets so they could die in peace, rather then ignored and unloved in the streets. Tough job. Tough life purpose!  But she would tell you that she loved it!  And she did.

Anyway, she got very sick and an older nun came and nursed her back to health. It took her a long time to recover and the older nun taught her something very important. She said, “Hunny, if you are going to do this work, you must take time to yourself everyday to rest and have fun.”

She had Mother Theresa take time off every day from noon to 4pm. In that time, she was supposed to nap, rest, read, play, go out and sit in the sun. Anything restful and fun. It worked. Mother Theresa got better and ever after, all the sisters in her order had to do that.

MOTHER THERSA. Four hours a day. To herself. To rest and have fun. MOTHER THERSA.   I am just saying.

She knew that they could not sustain the work they were doing without that.   Now do I need to remind you that this woman was canonized as a saint?   Do you think if Mother Theresa could do it and still be a saint, that you could take an hour everyday at least to have fun and play?

That should quiet they most righteous Fun Police out there, right?  And it give us all the permission we need to play. So I throw down the gauntlet right now and challenge each of you to a Fun-off.  I want to know what you do for fun, and how much you are doing it. And if you aren’t having any fun, here is your chance to reclaim that part of you. I promise you, it’ll be a blast.

What is on your fun list?  Time to find out. I can tell you what is on my list.

• Yoga and Dancing. Sometimes at the same time.
• Walking the dog and riding my bike.
• Gardening.
• Watching back to back episodes of Supernatural. Love those Winchester boys. Yum. Yummy men are fun.
• Tubby, extra salt and bubbles.
• Reading stupid books (Self improvement books are awesome, but not always FUN.)
• Watching Spongebob with or without my kids.
• Movies of any kind.
• Dinner with my hunny and going on dates.
• Sex (see above)
• Adventure, day trips, going somewhere new.
• Plane tickets.
• Buying shoes.
• Zombies, vampires and werewolves. No one parties like a zombie. Dude.
• Napping in the hammock. Napping anywhere, really.
• The Mani Pedi
• Girls night out
• Spa activities and getting pampered.  Massages. Hot tubs.
• Harvard Square and Northampton
• Any beach anytime
• Mountain biking, hiking and kayaking
• Going out to breakfast
• Seeing old friends and making new friends
• Facebook
• Birthday parties, presents and birthday cake.

So I am going to get off the computer now and start making way down as many of these items as I can!  See ya!

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Saturday, April  3^rd 10am-2pm

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508 533-0668

163 Main Street, Suite 6

Medway, MA, 02053

www.solsticehealing.com

info@solsticehealing.com

By Lisa Campion

I am feeling seriously in the groove. Part of it was the Super Bowl. Watching the Saints beat the stuffing out of the Colts put me into my Happy Place till pre-season. Manning made the Boo Boo Face. The Saints won in the best kind of feel good, underdog, save the pride of our ruined city, kind of way.

Uh huh, uh huh!  Who dat!  (I am doing the endzone boogie here, with my white chick overbite…)

Part of the spiritual path for our soul’s evolution is about mastering the Real World. (Eeek!) I don’t know about you, but the Real World pretty much kicks my ass on a daily basis. Hanging with the angels is the easy part of living for me. Meditation is a vacation.

Surviving a snow day with four teenagers is what will lead me to enlightenment. Or not!  Ah, they should just call kids “Buddha Makers.”

The Real World. Sheesh. That’s why they invented TV, right?  And drugs. In fact all mind altering substances, like donuts and Ben and Jerry’s.  A couple of Prozacs, some Chunky Monkey, American Idol and the Real World pretty much goes buh bye.

And yet somehow we all end up back in it, usually with a big hangover. At some point you have to deal with it and better yet, master it.  I love the concept of mastery as a spiritual path. That means you try to get really good at what you choose to do. Heavy on the CHOICE.  And for me the past, say 45 years or so, has been a repeated attempt to master Real World living.  Sometimes that involves losing the big game and stomping off the field with a boo boo face.

Thankfully, sometimes it’s the big win.

The very cool thing is that sometimes, I actually figure stuff out. So I offer for your entertainment and enlightenment,  my latest adventure in mastering a part of the Real World. (Your turn to do the endzone boogie. Woop, woop, Go Lisa!- Overbite optional here…)

Do you know how people are always talking about stepping into their power?  I think I know what that means now. Of course it lined up with teaching third chakra weekend in the Energy Medicine School. One of the best things about teaching there is that I get these major life lessons and opportunities to grow as I run through the program myself. Part of the many perks, along with free parking and no overtime.

Third chakra is all about power, self-esteem and mastering living in the Real World. Each chakra represents an aspect of ourselves and our lives and ninety percent of our problems show up in the lower three chakras.

Meet Chakra One, it’s mission is to ensure your physical survival. It is our bodies, our health, and everything solid in our lives, like money, cars, houses and such.  I know you guys have all that stuff totally figured out.

Chakra two is our feelings, emotions and sensations. It’s also our sexuality and our capacity to feel our feelings and create intimacy. Never any problems there, right?

And the third chakra holds our power, will and ability to move through the Real World with confidence and mastery.  This one is the master regulator of the lower two, and is designed to lead with a firm hand and lot of healthy self-discipline.

Chakra Two says, “I want a cookie and I want it RIGHT NOW!”  This baby is not into waiting since it is all about instant self-gratification.

Chakra One chimes in, “Mmmm. Cookie good. Nom, nom!” It’s fantastic at surviving, but since it’s basically just your brain stem, it’s not too bright.

Chakra Three responds with, “Eating a cookie is not in alignment with our other goals, so no cookie.” Boom. It’s final.

Chakra Two, “Waaaaaaaaah! Want cookie now!”

Chakra One, “I kill you…”

There! Now you know everything you need to about your lower three chakras. Scary, isn’t it?  You can see where problems arise if you got no game in number three.

I am constantly blown away by the magic that is in my life. It’s so amazing when you see the beauty and symmetry of your life lessons. Mine always come in clusters (commonly known as a Cluster Fuck) where every area of my life gets smacked with the same issue.  Holographically and in 3-D.

So a series of Cluster Fucks enabled me to step into my power!  Yee ha!

The irony of this is that I had been asking for a level up for some time. Praying for it, setting my intention and really feeling a calling that it was time to play on a bigger playing field. That all sounds fine and dandy until you realize that you have to clear out any issues that are standing in the way of said upgrade.

The first thing that happened was my husband lost his job.  He was pretty psyched since it let him off the corporate leash, which he hated. He is now living the entrepreneur’s dream as a genuine certifiable mad genius as he starts his own company. (www.freemarketingmadeeasy.com- It’s everything a small biz owner or solopreneur needs to navigate the savage jungle of Internet marketing. He takes the mystery and pain out of Internet Marketing. There is your plug, hunny!)

So while he is off happily exploring Entrepreneur Land, I am bringing home the bacon.  It’s amazing how motivating HAVING TO is.  I really stepped up my game, quieted my insecurities and have been pretty much hitting the ball out of the park.

Same thing happened to me when I got divorced years ago. I hadn’t worked a “real” job in ages and had a very small private practice.  A couple a clients a week and a lot of taking care of the kids. Then I HAD TO get a job and throw my weight into making my practice a full time thing. I am certain I never would have had the courage to do that without HAVING TO, but I could feel my soul’s foot in my backside as it pushed me off the cliff into the unknown.  And lo and behold, I flew.

At the time I complained and whined about it. (I hold a gold medal in Complaining and Whining. I am quite certain this is an Olympic event.) All the other doors closed on my face. No corporate job for me!  I tried and tried and could not get one. It was  ramping up my practice or food stamps.  And somehow, I did it!

So my husband losing his job last spring was a fabulous opportunity to force me through my own blocks to level up my game this time around too. And granted, I work it. I get excellent therapy (Thanks Michael!). I tap and do EFT (Thanks Margaret! ) on money blocks and worthiness issues.

And I have the world’s best business coach. The Goddesses aligned the heavens so I could have the chance to work with her. (You rock, Wendy!)

All of these things have lead me to many realizations and epiphanies where I could get out of my own way long enough to have even more of my life purpose flow through me.

A long time ago I talked to God and said, “God, I humbly wish to know what my life purpose it. I feel the call to serve YOU and I understand that I am not really driving here. So I am going to take my hands off the wheel and you let you drive.  I surrender my will to your will. All I ask is that you show me really loud and clear what I am supposed to do, because sometimes I’m not too bright, actually.”

And God said, “Cool. That is WAY better than wrestling with you over who has the wheel. So I will drive and all you have to do is say YES when things come your way. I will let you know it’s ME by making you feel all tingly when it’s the right time to say YES and you’ll feel sort of queasy when it’s not me and you should say no. Ok?”

So we both spit on our palms, made pinky promises and crossed our hearts and it’s been that way ever since. Tingly = good. Queasy = bad.

I got remarried (very tingly!) and expanded my practice, said yes to the crazy, wonderful guy with the Energy Medicine School (more tingly!) and life has never been the same.  In fact it’s been pretty tingly and hardly ever queasy and that is how I stay on track.

Most recently it was saying YES to teaching more. And really a big huge yes to throwing all my energy and love into Solstice, my healing center. Things were a little shaky there for a minute or two at Solstice. It’s pretty expensive to run it and I was feeling wobbly and insecure about running it.  (Silver and bronze medals in the  “Waaaah!  What, now I have to run a healing center too?” event…)

And then one day I was in Solstice and I got the most massive spine tingle ever. And I knew that of course I loved Solstice, and it’s totally aligned with my life purpose to run a healing center. (Duh!)  I could literally feel my spine align with my life purpose there. It was a very visceral experience of stepping into my power. It felt like slipping into new, bigger and stronger skin. I knew I could not only do it, but do it and love it.

WHAM, there was a ripple that went out into the cosmos as reality realigned around that YES.

And boy, it’s been an amazing adventure since then. The deal is still on and God has met every ounce of my effort with a gallon of miracle responses. (Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who let HIM work though you!)

I felt compelled, in a tingly way, to write about this experience from the desire to shout out that stepping into your power FEELS AMAZING!  It is worth all the shit you have to slog through, all the layers of resistance you have to peel back. All the lessons from the life’s Cluster Fucks. Every one of them worth it to get to this place where power; yours, and God’s runs through you and you step off the playing field having won the day and the game.

Try and it and see for yourself!

By Lisa Campion

On New Year’s Eve, me and the fam were sitting around watching a movie while we waited to ring in the New Year.  (Hey, what is up with Dick Clark?  Zombie?!) When all of the sudden a mouse jumped up on the couch and ran over my husband’s shoulder! A mouse in the house!  I screamed like a girl and pulled my feet up. The dog was running around and mooing. (He doesn’t bark, he moos. Really.) Pandemonium and chaos ensued.

The four cats we have just sat there staring around the room. “What? Are we supposed to do something here?  Doodley do….”

The men jumped into action, moving all the furniture hoping to catch the little beastie. I know he has been living under the stove since I found mouse “evidence” in my cooking gear. (Eeewww!)

Finally after much mayhem,  me screaming, the dog mooing and the kids whooping, the poor creature took refuge under the Christmas tree where he shivered like a little furry present.  My husband caught him gently and we put him in the Tupperware container for a minute till we could figure out what to do with him.

Seemed a shame to put him outside on a freezing cold night, but I really couldn’t have him contaminating my cookware.

So we decided on the garage. And my hubby, who is a tender hearted, vegetarian, animal lover made a little house for him out of a cardboard box and an old dishtowel so he wouldn’t be cold. And with pomp and ceremony the mouse found a new house in the garage!

That was the big New Year’s excitement at my house!

“2010!” My ten year old daughter said. “Only two more years till the end of the world!”  She seemed quite chipper about it but we had a nice little discussion about how probably the world wasn’t going to end after all and she should start saving for college just in case.

There is a website called “A Brief History of the Apocalypse” that documents all the many times people have thought the world was going to end and it didn’t.  Talk about an anticlimax. It’s a pretty funny read, and very reassuring. A good reminder to all of us not to do anything wacky and embarrassing just because we think the world is going to end, since those people look pretty silly emerging out of their caves and bomb shelters to find everything has moved along just fine without them. The world is still here and surely will be for quite some time to come.

There are two fun things about New Years- predictions and resolutions, so we are going to look at both.

There is something about the New Year’s Day that inspires us to take stock of the past and also look into our futures. Every year around this time, I look over the past year and think about my accomplishments, the goals that I set and the ones that I achieved.   There is a natural energy in the air of starting over, turning a new leaf and making resolutions.

Now I am all about setting goals, being rather achievement oriented, but I don’t really like the traditional New Year’s resolutions.  Every year I resolve the same things and seem to never achieve it. I am still eating way too much sugar. Can’t seem to budge that 10 lbs I would like to lose, can’t make myself floss between meals, work out every day and balance my checkbook.

Would I even like the person I would be if I could?

Inside me there are two distinct and conflicting people. One of them is the purist/priest. This part of me loves discipline and can really live like a monk. She would have a cell like room with nothing in it (hates clutter) and eat nothing but brown rice and steamed veggies everyday. She meditates, reads scholarly books and has abs of steel.

Eye roll!  Head smack!  Face palm!

See? The other part of me hates her!  Her opposite is the sensualists, a hedonist and just wants to feel good and have fun. It’s fun having a body!  I like to eat, to drink and have massages. That part of me wants to have coffee and pumpkin pie for breakfast. Everyday.  With whipped cream.

I can really chalk up most of my problems from being too much of either extreme.  Life is too dry and boring if I am just in my inner purist. And life has WAY too much gravy on it if my sensualist is driving. Somewhere in the middle is the happy medium.

So my New Year’s resolution is to find that balance and to quit being mean to myself when I don’t!

So often the traditional resolutions are a big set up for the Inner Critic to take charge and give us a lovely chance to beat ourselves up for all our imperfections. Eventually we fall off the wagon and the inner beating continues.  Not very productive!

What if our “imperfections” are actually perfect for us?  What if they make life juicy and are manifestations of our soul? What if your News Year’s resolution was to love yourself exactly as you are right now?

Louise Hay says that the only way to change your weight is to use the affirmation, “I Love and accept myself exactly as I am.” I believe it!

Here is my take on a newer, kinder form of resolution and what I am working on this year myself.

1. Accept yourself as you are exactly in this moment.  This doesn’t mean you should stay in denial about a situation, you need to deeply acknowledge it, see the truth and then accept it with love.
2. Talk to yourself in a loving way, and set healthy goals, not inner critic driven ones.  Maybe you want a healthier body. Maybe you need to get in shape financially, or improve your relationships.  How can you do this as an act of love for yourself, rather then coming from am “I am not good enough” place.
3. Set small, reasonable goals and reward yourself when you achieve them. I noticed that most of the time I don’t achieve my goals because I set them too big and then I have a tendency not to acknowledge what I DID accomplish.  Having the BIG MAMA goal in mind is great, but chunking it down into smaller pieces leaves me feeling more successful.
4. Give yourself enough time off the leash to enjoy life.  Splurging occasionally is so much fun!  Regular “cheat” days on the diet are very motivating. I am a big fan of the mental health day too.
5. Cultivate forgiveness and compassion for yourself and everyone else too! We all learn from making mistakes!  In fact sometimes I think it’s the ONLY way we learn. So make your mistakes, get the learning in and get back on the horse!  I was reminded of this the other day when watching a toddler learning how to walk. Little dude fell down every other step, but he didn’t stop getting up and trying. (He had a very padded hiney, which I am sure helped!) Can you imagine a toddler decided not to try walking because they might make a mistake and not get it right?

Looking Back and Looking Forward

As I look back over 2009, the word that comes to mind is “collapse.”  People got laid off, divorced, and systems broke down, big and small. A lot of broken things really did collapse but it was all stuff that really needed to go.  Letting go is wonderful and freeing for some people and for others it’s scary and hard, but in all cases, it was necessary. The old needs to go to make room for the new.  What did you let of this year?

I really do feel good about this year, and this decade. I feel like the energy is shifting from breaking down old structures to creating opportunity. I feel like 2010 and this whole new decade will hold; possibility, opportunity and a chance to build what we really want onto the ashes of the past. Perhaps it’s a phoenix year and the phoenix decade. What can we raise up out of the ashes of the old?  What would you like to create this year for yourself? Where is the opportunity for you?

When we have CHANGE there is always opportunity. We can’t hold onto what was, but we can be flexible and see where there are now new spaces, new inventions, creations and thinking.

Here are some of my whacky predictions.

• The Pats win the first playoff game at home but lose the second road game. Doh!
• Innovation and entrepreneurship will be huge in the coming years. Expect new inventions and huge leaps in technology and science.
• Science will continue to close the gap between theology, metaphysics and hard science. Scientists  will continue to “prove” scientifically what metaphysicians  have known all along.
• The economy will begin to recover as people move away from big corporate jobs and start their own small businesses.
• The world governments will come out of the closet about aliens. (Hey, my inner conspiracy theorist says so!)

Ok that one was just goofy!  Happy New Years!

The Shortest Day

By Susan Cooper

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year’s sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, reveling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us – listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

Get off the workshop merry go round!

Come and check out our Open House on Thursday, August 27th from 7-9pm at Solstice.  We will be doing some FREE healings, chakra readings and a crystal bowl meditation.

Are you tired of going nowhere? Don’t give up!  It is possible to make lasting change in your life.

It’s frustrating when you go to a weekend workshop that really opens your eyes and your heart, but you can’t hold onto the change and you find yourself slipping back into your old patterns.

The goal of all personal growth work and spiritual transformation work is to get you to a point where you can truly yourself in all the areas of your life. The point is to take the mask off in all areas of your life.

At your core, you want to be YOU in your relationships and in all areas of your life.

A single weekend workshop is not gong to get you there, even if it’s a good one.

What will take you to the next level is the Rhys Thomas Healer Training Programs. This totally unique program offers:

• A community of peers that will support your journey on a day to day basis
• A model for looking at your own defenses to heal yourself at a deeper level and get out of your own way in your life
• Learn how to hold your energy field and stay in your center no matter what is going on around you
• Understanding your own energy system (Your aura and chakras) to see where your blocks and your strengths are
• Experience your own soul as the best teacher and guide you have ever had

Dear Friends,

Summer is rolling right along, and over here at Solstice, we stick our heads out to enjoy the few minutes of sun we seem to be getting each day.  Strange weather we are having!  But it helps me to remember to be grateful for the sun we do have and accept what we can’t change!

My Tarot class has been rocking the house. And we do hope to see you over at one of our Open Houses or Healer Shares.  But in the meantime, here is a little ditty to try and brighten your day.

One night amidst a wondrous dream,

Far below a tropical shore could be seen,

As I gazed down upon this peaceful land,

I saw the Goddess’ footprints in the sand.

Her tracks went deep in the glittering shore,

Evidence of the heavy load she bore,

I looked around and was about to ask,

“What is the source of so great a task?”

But then some stranger prints appeared,

And I asked Her, “What have we here?

These prints are large and round and neat,

But much too large to be from feet.”

“My child”, She said in somber tone,

“for miles I have carried you alone.”

“This walk was to help you learn and grow,

You must walk to learn what I already know”.

So out of Love I finally gave up,

And there I dropped you on your butt”.

“Because in life, there comes a time,

When one must fight, and one must climb,

When one must rise and take a stand,

Or leave their butt prints in the sand”.

The big news at Solstice right now is our website upgrade. We went over to a easier format to update (wordpress RULES!) so we can keep our calender updated and bring you the newest, hottest stuff.

We are pretty excited about getting up to spead with an RSS feed, facebook and twitter feeds too, so you will always know what is happening here at the coolest center around.

Hope to see you all the FREE HEALER SHARE on weds nite from 7-9pm and then again at the FREE OPEN HOUSE for the Rhys Thomas Institute if Energy Medicine on Monday,  June 22 7-9pm.

Love from everyone at Solstice!