healing

Animal Communication Journal, Part 1: Connecting with Musk Ox.

Posted by Barbara Techel

dawn and me eMe, Gidget and Dawn, animal communicator, author and friend

I’ve said before that I am a person that tends to wear her heart on her sleeve. I’ve been highly sensitive my whole life.

I guess it should have come as no surprise to me that being a part of the animal communication workshop I hosted in my home this past Friday and Saturday, that it would bring up many emotions for me. But what I didn’t expect was how my feelings seemed as if they were vibrating on the surface of my skin.

At times I felt transported to a different place. Especially when we were shown photos of musk ox that live in Alaska where Dawn lives. She has befriended a herd of them and shared with us many photos of this ancient creature.

Copy of 07While I’ve always had a deep love for dogs, I was surprised at the connection I felt with this herd of musk ox after Dawn led us in a meditation and then we practiced connecting with these stunning creatures. I’d never known of them, and first learned about them in Dawn’s newsletter.

Dawn beautifully guided us through the meditation that would help us to connect with this herd. First, listening, then connecting, and finally writing down the communication we got back from them in regards to our general impressions, then feedback from them on our strengths, challenges and ideas from them to help us deepen and expand.

What happened for me is this:

I closed my eyes and I could feel myself standing in the herd, next to this ox photo I share above. I really felt as if I was really there. My feet upon the actual ground and among them. I wasn’t afraid. At one point, I sat down next to him. I felt he was the leader of the pack. He told me I was safe. I felt very grounded being with him and felt swept away to an ancient time. My eyes, though closed, I could feel them pooling with tears because I felt so safe and loved. In one sense I felt weird for wanting to cry, but it also felt so comforting and welcome.

It felt like a new level of healing for me. The message I got from him is that the answers for all of us are within us. That understanding we all to all live as one is really quite simple. That it’s the answer to peace. It’s the answer to the healing of this planet.

Another message I received was him telling me that they love to absorb the energy of earth into them and let that healing energy expand out into the universe. There is healing in learning to move at a slower pace and be with nature. They are very giving of their spirits and are glad to have been brought back out of extinction to continue this healing that is so needed right now.

I heard from him that I need to believe in my gifts. That I need to use them to be a part of this deep healing that is trying to happen here on earth – that I am one of them in a sense. That I am here to help others heal in my own, unique way.

I heard from him that my challenges are that I sometimes doubt my gifts. But that they will always stand beside me to help me remember my strengths and why I am here.

His last thoughts for me were simply stated:  Believe. Stand upright. Stand strong. And what I felt intensely was this thought from him: Be Gently Bold.

I’ll be honest and say that a part of me feels quite odd sharing this experience out of fear that others may think I’ve gone off the deep end. But I also can’t deny how incredible it felt to have this experience.

But I also truly believe our pets and the animals of the world are trying to communicate with us. In earlier times in our evolution this was a natural process. But these days we are swallowed up with technology and we humans are too busy doing instead of listening and just being.

This being and stillness is something that has been calling out to me for quite some time and I’m trying hard to honor it more. It’s not always easy. But when I do, I feel so much more at peace. Isn’t that the place we all are trying to be more often? I believe so.

I’ll share more about other experiences I had in my next blog post soon. Stay tuned.

If you’d like to learn more about Dawn and the many books she has written on animal communication you can visit her on her website, www.animalvoices.net

I Am An Unfinished Woman.

Posted by Barbara Techel

woman-960x565Today I am quite honored to be a guest blogger on The Gift of Writing blog which is one of my favorite sites for weekly inspiration!

It starts like this…

I am unfinished.

Understanding this at its core continues to come in waves for me. It’s an awareness I now carry with me every day of my life. I am a work in progress. There are many layers to who I am and I will never be complete.

Feeling an unexplainable void in my early 40s and caring for my chocolate Lab who was terminally ill with bone cancer, I found myself questioning my purpose. Why was I here? I also seemed to have lost the joy in my life that used to come so easily to me.

It’s not easy asking for help. Come on over to read the rest!

Reflection: I Kid You Not. This Really Happened.

Posted by Barbara Techel

IMG_1992 eI am on day ten of the ecourse, “The Sacred Alone” facilitated by Susannah Conway.  Every morning I’ve read the essay, done the 5-minute meditation, and wrote in my journal for at least 10 minutes. Except for Sunday, when I did The Sacred Alone in the afternoon, which was a lovely change of pace for that day.

Yesterday we worked with holding beads in our hands during the meditation, so I added the beads to this small altar that has now become an unplanned altar of sorts, dedicated to the sacred alone time I’m doing.

Today’s meditation is what Susannah called, “Mirror Meditation.” I am familiar with mirror work having been introduced to it through my life coach many years ago.

But using it within a meditation was intriguing… as well as, challenging. We were encouraged to look into a mirror. I chose the one I had nearby which is a small round one as you see in the photo.

We were told to just look without making any judgment. So looking in a mirror pretty much first thing in the morning isn’t what most women would say is their favorite thing to do. But being dedicated to this ritual, I didn’t want to back down even though it felt uncomfortable at first.

Right away, forgetting what Susannah just said, I noticed my flaws, or what I really should say as “perceived” flaws. The blemish on my nose, the age spots, the dark in the corner of my eyes, my neck which wrinkles that seem to wrinkle a little more each day. While looking at my neck, in my head I heard myself say, “What is that anyways?”

Susannah guided us in the short meditation challenging ourselves to really look at ourselves kindly and with compassion. To think of someone we love and cherish as if you were looking at them, but to apply that to our own reflection. To look into our own eyes and like what we see. To say to ourselves out loud, I see you, I honor you,  I love you. It felt odd, but Susannah assured us that was okay.

After the meditation, one of our prompts for journaling was to write what came up for us when we looked in the mirror. Thinking of my friend who I adore, who I had thought of when I was looking in the mirror, I realized something.

It’s something I continue to work on within myself— to be a reflection and an example to other women to like who they are. I’m not always perfect, and am a work in progress. But this friend came into my mind and I knew it was a reminder to me to be that example not only for her, but for other women too. To like what I see. To honor myself so they too can honor themselves.

As I wrote those words, I was moved to tears. After I was done writing in my journal, as I’ve done since starting this ecourse, (though it is not actually part of the 20-minute ritual), I picked a Grace card. I pick one at random or follow my intuition. The word reflection popped in my head as I picked up the deck of cards. So I counted how many letters are in reflection and counted to card 10.

I kid you not… this is the card that came up — SELF: Go within. When we invest more energy in developing our spiritual lives, the outer world begins to take care of itself.

Goosebumps ran up and down my arms. Wow, I thought, this is amazing. I sat in awe for quite a few moments and couldn’t believe what just happened.

Then later this morning I received a text from the very same friend who I thought about while I did my mirror meditation. She sent me a photo she took of herself with her phone, looking into her mirror. It looks like her, but yet, it does not. It was so very beautiful. I wanted to cry from the shear beauty of it, but also from how connected I felt in that moment with her– as if we were seeing each others soul’s, both having done mirror work in our own way without realizing the other was doing it.  By the way, she is not taking this ecourse, so she wouldn’t have known I had just done this same thing this morning.

It was just the photo of her and no text. In some ways, I felt like I was looking at my younger self after having just done the mirror work. It felt so surreal.

I then checked my email. I subscribe to Daily Joyride, so each day I get a different quote.  This is the quote that was in my inbox:

“Tear off the mask. Your face is beautiful.” -Rumi

No denying there was absolute synchronicity going on here today. I’m still marveling in it and will likely for quite some time to come.