emotional healing

Tapping into Our Breath and Purifying Our Hearts. Guidance from Beetle Wisdom.

Posted by Barbara Techel

How are you doing? Know that I think of you often and I’m holding a place of love and peace in my heart for each of you.

So today I pulled two oracle cards for us asking the question: What do we all most need to know right now as we continue to navigate this time of uncertainty?

The first card I pulled from The Wisdom of the Oracle is Breathe and it came out in reverse. In this deck when in reverse it means protection.

I meditated longer than usual this morning and pulling this card I felt myself move to another level of calm and peace and actually let out a sigh when I turned the card over. It’s such a beautiful reminder that we must take time to really breathe right now. When uncertain and afraid, it’s a natural tendency to forget to breathe or breathe shallowly.

So this card is a reminder to check-in with yourself when fear arises. When we take time, even for two minutes to check how we are breathing and stop to take some deep inhales, it helps to settle our nervous system, which at times of fear and uncertainty as we are currently experiencing, puts us into fight or flight mode.

We tend to want to hold our breath when we feel fear as a way to control a certain outcome or situation. More now than ever, we are being called to go within and one of the best ways is through slowing down, tuning into our breath, and listening to our soul. This requires a great deal of trust at times, but I’ve found time and time again how beneficial and helpful it is. Remember to have patience with yourself and that this is a practice. One day, one hour, one moment at a time. We can do this.

When we connect to our breath, we connect to something far greater that is supporting us. It’s something we can tend to forget in times of stress. But our breath brings us back to that connection to how we define our higher power and helps us remember we aren’t alone.

The animal guiding us as we remember to breathe is a card I pulled from Animal Kin Oracle and it is Beetle with the word purity. Did you feel another shift to a more calm place within with that word purity? I sure did.

The symbol above the Beetle is representative of Spirit. When we tap into our breath and slow ourselves down we are cleansing our hearts of fear. When we do so, we can more easily feel that we are protected and being taken care of by an energetic force we can’t see, but can feel if we tap into moments of stillness and taking deeper breaths more often.

Sarah Wilder, author of this deck says this of Beetle: “These curious creatures have the ability to tunnel and burrow to chambers to store food.”

I see this as a message for us that in order to refill our reserves that may be feeling depleted during this time, it’s vitally important right now to take time to journey inward and look at what needs healing for ourselves personally. This will add to the collective in a transformational way as we each do our personal work.

I can’t tell you how often in the last week I’ve thought about the deep healing journey I took two years ago around this exact time as I healed a childhood wound which I wrote about in my newest memoir. I have felt such gratitude for having done that inner work. I feel certain it is what has helped me move through these challenging times with much more ease. I still have my moments of fear as I’m human just like anyone else, but the tools I’ve been practicing and tapping into for the past twenty years have been so helpful to me.

Beetle reminds us that we are being asked to clear out what no longer works, get out of our own way, and open to something far greater than we can even imagine right now.

While the Beetle has a hard shell, it’s wings open to the most beautiful of translucent colors and is such a sweet reminder that we will each experience this too as we stay connected to our breath, focus on healing, and tapping into what most matters. This is what will give our wings new life and together we will bring about a new and better world.

I’m Here to Support You

If you are struggling with how to cope through these challenging times, I’m here to support you with my oracle readings and intuitive guidance sessions. In my own life and the clients I’ve worked with, I’ve been so moved many times at how this simple, but profound tool, often guides us to see a perspective we’d not considered and how that can move us to a space of peace.

So please feel reach out to me if I can be of service to you. I’ve reduced my rates to help during this time to $60 for an hour session. You can email me through my contact page here or barb (at) joyfulpaws (.com) to set up a session.

Much love and peace to you.

xo,

Barbara

When a Book Hits Home. Soul Healing with Our Animal Companions.

Posted by Barbara Techel

I really can’t say enough good about this book I recently finished! I loved it so much that I did a video book review for it which I share below.

But as I wrote for a review on Amazon also, Soul Healing with Our Animal Companions – The Hidden Keys to a Deeper Animal-Human Connection by Tammy Billups, is a beautiful book on how animals sense our energy and emotional wounds and often reflect that back to us – all in an effort to help us heal – and then how it often helps our animal friends heal too.

Because animals don’t speak our language, Tammy identifies through her work and book, five core emotional wounds that our animals can experience – and then how this is often reflected in their behaviors, actions, and physical issues – and to add to this – these are emotional wounds we as humans experience also.

Having recently gone through my own deep emotional healing with my dog Gidget who was the most profound reflection of what I needed to heal, I can attest to so much of what Tammy shares in her book.

I easily identified two core emotional wounds through her book that my dog worked diligently to help me heal, and I’m happy to say I did the inner work to do just that. But what was the most profound proof for me of my healing was that I was able to be witness to a beautiful and calm shift in Gidget as she healed too.

My favorite paragraph in the book is this one:

“A (human) congested energy field can affect all aspects of one’s emotional, physical, and spiritual health. Consequently, this knowledge can significantly influence the choices you make about your animals’ care. Knowing how sensitive they are to your emotions is also motivation for you to do your own energetic housekeeping.”

This, to me, is one of the keys to the book. When I was in my own dark night of the soul and realized I needed support and then began to heal, I wanted to do my work not only for myself but for Gidget too. I wanted her to live out the remaining of her life with more harmony and peace.

While I wish I’d had Tammy’s book when I was going through such a difficult time the last few years, reading her book now is just more validation and confirmation of what I experienced.

After reading Tammy’s book and having had to say goodbye to Gidget in May of 2019 I can say that I believe what Tammy shares in her book needs to be read by everyone who shares their life with a pet.

And I wholeheartedly concur with the last line on the back cover and that our “pets higher purpose is to help people understand themselves.”

Tammy’s book has been such a gift and another layer of confirmation for me and what I experienced in my healing journey which is what I’ll be sharing in my upcoming memoir, I’m Fine Just the Way I Am.

This is the video review and in it, I share more passages from the book that really hit home for me.

XO,

Barbara