Be the alchemist; see the reflections; clean the mirror

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Micheal Brown is a profoundly important messenger of presence in this lifetime. His books, The Presence Process, and Alchemy of the Heart have been mentioned to me several times but I have yet to read them. Given that someone sent this video to me this week, I think I get the message: "OK! OK! I'll get the friggin books!"

I love what Michael says about being an alchemist: he says "Anyone who is involved in emotional processing is an alchemist". I am an alchemist. I am the alchemist in my family.

Your life is a reflection. Everything in your life is a reflection and holds a message for you; some key for you to become aware of and transform. The alchemist watches life's reflections, and instead of allowing someone else to make them angry, sad or to solicit themselves in a story about their emotions, the alchemist receives the message and CLEANS THE MIRROR. The alchemist receives the message to heal, to transmute, to change; and in doing so their whole world, family, and interactions are changed.

Have you experienced your own healing and did it completely change the relationship you had with your friends and family? Have you healed yourself and experienced your family's healing?

I love to hear stories!

Thank you, It's True! Embodying your Receptivity

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One of the qualities of the feminine that I spend a lot of time speaking to clients about as well as in my  Art of Feminine Presence Classes is receiving.

When I think about receiving I am reminded of a time when I was in a group and we were asked to go around the circle and tell people what we were grateful about them for. The interesting part was watching how everyone received their compliments. Most everyone was enthusiastic to give gratitudes, and most everyone was terrified to hear what other people's gratitudes were for them. Some people allowed their compliments to come close to their body, but were quick to stop it right there. Others didn't let the compliment come anywhere near their bodies. Most people didn't allow the compliment or the feeling to fully enter and permeate them. Most people don't allow their bodies to receive all the good things that are in our lives.

The Feminine fully receives; but what does that mean? The Feminine is receptive to the nth degree. The feminine receives without resistance and without judgement. It receives with power, pleasure, and confidence. It graciously accepts the abundance that is within our grasp always.

To fully receive means that you are openly and lovingly accepting of the love that is being given to you. All gifts are just an energy exchange of love.

The receiving of the deep feminine woman is such that in her ability to receive so fully, she gifts the other person with her own un-resisted acceptance of their love.She allows her body to feel the love that is being given to her and in doing so radiates more and more love back.

In my experience there are a few key ways that you can embody your receptivity:
1)Verbally
2) Physically/energetically

Today let's chat about verbally receiving. 

 Thank you, it's True!!

One of the biggest ways I experience women cutting off their ability to receive is when compliments and praise are given. Even in myself, I can feel a part of me start to shut down when someone starts telling me how beautiful, amazing, smart, great, etc I am. However, I've recognized how to tell that part of me to "BACK OFF" and fully drink in my delicious compliments. I used to feel uncomfortable receiving these treats because I believed others would not like me if I was "too good" or I would be perceived as conceited or "full of it". And while we are on that subject, what does that phrase really mean anyway? Who's to say that being "full of it", whatever IT is, is bad. In my world being full is always a good thing.

Something I learned from my friends who are Mama Gena Mastery Grads taught me a phrase that changed my world: Thank you, it's true! When someone tells you something amazing about yourself, you can actually OWN it. It's so delicious to be able to own your own compliments.

Imagine this:

Sexy Man: "Lauren, you are so beautiful"
Me: "Thank you, it's true"

Dearest Client: "Lauren, you are an amazing coach and speaker"
Me:"Thank you, it's true"

Best Friend: "Lauren, you are my inspiration"
Me: "Thank you, it's true!"

Ahhhhhhhh. Can you just sit back and relax into the world where "thank you, it's true" just rolls right off the tongue.

Let's create that world together!!!

You are all amazing and you have the power to change our world. You are beautiful. You are worth everything you desire. You are more than enough.

With a big spoonful of "thank you, it's true",

Lauren

What does your Presence tell the world???

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Your Presence announces the truth of you more than any words or actions. There is power in your presence around others. When the way you walk, sit, stand, and move matches the presence of your authentic self; the core of who you are,  you choose to become the magnetic force that you are meant to be. You will attract the people, clients, relationships, and success that you desire without effort.

We are all born with an innately powerful and authentic presence that is designed to help us attract our desires to us with ease. Unfortunately, most of us have created walls or put up guards that we needed at one point for protection, and those walls have shaped everything about you including the way you sit, stand, breath, move and live.

It takes practice and support to return to your most powerfully authentic presence. That's where I come in! Contact me about one on one or group coaching!! 

Are you

• Preparing to enter or re-enter the workforce and do job/grad school interviews
• Uncomfortable talking and meeting new people
• Feeling like no one understands you
• A business owner seeking to convey more power, clarity, and confidence when you communicate your message
• A speakers who desires to magnify and heighten your stage presence and claim your authentic voice
• Single and desiring to feel more authentic and confident in your body as you go out on the dating scene
• A life coach or hollistic practitioner who desires to learn how to be even MORE present with clients and have more support staying present to and with yourself in your personal life.

Authentic presence and movement coaching can help you learn to feel your most powerful self embodiment and integrate it into your life until it becomes your natural way of being again. It's time to reclaim your power!

Your personal presence can be cultivated more than you realize. One on One or Group coaching will help you

• Understand more fully how your body and your presence speak to and interact with the world around you
• Move back into your most powerful, confident, attractive, and authentic personal presence
• Lean how much MORE you can be present in your body
• Learn simple and profound exercises and cues to help you integrate this presence into your life with ease
• Tune into your internal guidance system so life becomes less exhausting and more effortless
• Create a practice for continual growth of your most powerfully authentic presence
• Strengthen your boundaries with others personally and professionally, while still maintaining your integrity, compassion, and authentic openness
• Feel more comfortable in your own skin
• Be as bright, big, and full as you desire without making others feel intimidated or uncomfortable

Life: It's all a delicious treat

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This poem was sent to me by one of my Yin Sisters and art of feminine presence teacher Heather Williams. I've been reading it over and over and over and over....

Each time all I can say afterwords is... Ahhhhhhhhh.

I read this to my Art of Feminine Presence Class this morning and almost burst into tears as I said this and felt every single word envelop my skin. I felt the truth of this poem in me, and the desire in my body to know it's truth; to drink in life, to feast on every bit.

One of my students had this to say: "It's like the ability to metabolize all that is on my table; as if to say Mmmmm love, Mmmmm rage, Mmmmm sadness...."  and I agree. The anger, the fear, the happiness, the bliss: it's all delicious.

with emphasis on SIT. FEAST ON YOUR LIFE,

Lauren

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.

Sit. Feast on your life.

Derek Walcott, “ Love after love”

Getting off the pills: Our Cosmic Cycles

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In July, I posted "Getting off the Pill" on Owning Pink.com. I had decided to finally stop using unnatural hormones to regulate the perfectly capable system that my body is designed to regulate itself at the end of June.After speaking with many friends and women, I realized that so many women had been thinking about getting off or already had. What was so surprising to me, was that I heard so many stories of getting off, and women having irregular or nonexistent cycles for months and months after getting off.

I delved into my own research on menstruation and hormone regulation, utilizing Dr. Christiane Northrup's BIBLE for women,  Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom, the internet and other various books about womens health and energy medicine. I realized that of all the hurdles and mountains women have jumped and climbed to be empowered,  we still aren't really talking about our vaginas or periods. This realization only empowered my decision more in my desire to connect to and honor my body and the ways in which it communicates with me and gives me power.


Cosmic Cycles
Much of my remembering pointed out the beautiful connection that women's cycles have to the phases of the moon. Dr. Northrup says : "The menstrual cycle is the most basic, earthy cycle we have." Most women have probably noticed that they feel physically and mentally different during different times in their cycles, and that this pattern seems to be consistent month to month. This is amazing. That means if we can tune into our cycles, we can actually have a better idea of what we require to nurture ourselves at different times of the month.

Here's the biggest realization I had. Our Cycles are cosmic. They are divine. They are interconnected to the fabric of the universe and as women, we get to have this extra golden string of connection to all that is. Just think about how incredibly amazing it is that your body is synchronized with the cycling of the moon, the sun, the earth, the stars. And on an even larger scale, think about the idea that every women on this earth is also cycling and connected to the same moon. I just love visuals like that, we are so interconnected.

Every woman has experienced menstrual synchronization; you know when you hang out with the same woman a lot you all end up cycling together. This phenomenon has not been widely scientifically studied or explained, but here's my two cents: a healer friend of mine who can see auras very well tells me that womens auras are unlike mens auras in one way. Women's auras will actually mesh, and merge with each other and mens auras do not do this ( any aura readers out there can comment on this or not). What does this mean? It means that women's energy more readily connects with another persons energy than men. This is why women's power grows even stronger when we gather in circles and groups. 

Imagine a circle of women, and their auras around them. Imagine that energy all blending and connecting together as not many women in one circle, but one large interconnected energy bubble that radiates as the soul of the collective group. This is what happens when women come together.

In ancient times and in tribal cultures, many communities had a moonhut or women's lodge. When we didn't live with artificial light sources we had the sun and the moon. Our bodies took ( and they still do) cues from these light sources, the waxing and waning of the moon, and basically, the energetic "pressure" or positioning of the entire universe.

You can imagine that women who lived in the same tribe were probably all cycling together, and probably all in concert with the phases of the moon. A moon hut was not a place for women to be shunned during their period, it was a place of retreat, renewal, and celebration. This is the place women could go and honor the time of the month when their bodies called them inward, for reflection and guidance. It was a gift to the tribe for the women to come together during their sacred flow, to harness the collective power to ask for guidance, blessings, and wisdom. When the women's bleeding stopped, they returned to their community and offered guidance based on their experience.

How the moon can signal ovulation and menstruation

Based on my research and own intuitive knowing, here's my explanation of how the moon signals our bodies to ovulate and to menstruate. The moon obviously has gravitational influence on our planet which can be experienced logically and physically as the ocean tides. So it is not very surprising that the moon effects our bodies in the same way that it effects the ocean. In relationship to the tides, during a full or new moon, something magical happens; the moon, the earth. and the sun all line up, causing a larger gravitational pull on the earth and thus, the largest swells of the month.

So, when the moon, the sun, and the earth are all aligned, the "pressure", if you will, that is placed on our physiological buttons that cause ovulation or menstruation is different and greater.





Don't take your womanhood, or your body for granted

image from resonanttruth.com

If you havn't come this conclusion yet, I'll just let you know that I think being a women is the BEST ever! I wouldn't trade anything about being a women for anything in the world. I've heard many a woman complain and moan about cramping, whine about how heavy her flow is or feel insecure about her body because she's menstruating. It saddens me to hear these things.

After hearing all the trouble my friends had gone through just to have one natural cycle after getting off their pills, I was a bit nervous that maybe my body had also forgotten how to cycle naturally. Your body is here for you to celebrate it. There is nothing that it does that is not amazing and worthy of praise. And when it comes to something so sacred and wonderous as sustaining a microcosmic cycle of life, growth, and death, how can you not be in reverence for such a reminder of the power of creation and destruction?

Each month your body regenerates new tissue. Each month your body prepares itself to fertilize an egg, or symbolically, an idea. Each month your body connects you to the ebb and flow of life through your cycle. What could be more grand!?

For the record, it took me 3.5 months to start having a cycle... at all. To my excitement, my first REAL period began on the new moon. What a lucky girl I am!

I kinda felt like this girl....

Please think with your Belly: Learning to Live from your Core

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At the center of my work is teaching people to connect to their center of energy, their fire, their internal engines. This is a sacred place, a reservoir of energy. If I had to pick one tool that I have learned on my journey that helps me stay present, connected and in my power it would be focusing my attention on this place.

If I am ever conscious of my less than presence, I call my attention back to my belly. When I wake up in the morning to do my practice, it begins by "starting my engine." I have learned to honor my belly in ways that I enjoy and that empower me. When you can honor your belly, listen from it, and speak from deep within it, you will find a whole new sense of interaction between you and your world.

Your Heart is not the only source of higher wisdom 


Very often in the holistic world we learn to listen to our heart as our source of wisdom, which is great! But there is another place we can tune into that offers guidance. Our belly is actually the first place to react when we sense something new and different. It's that "gut feeling" we sometimes speak about. The reaction of the belly is immediate and always truthful, and it's what informs the heart and the brain.

Just take notice the next time you meet someone new, or someone asks you to do something you don't really desire to do, but you say yes anyway. You may notice some contraction or "belly speak" as I call it. Notice the ways in which your belly speaks to you and guides you. Listen to it. Talk to it. Allow it to be a part of you

Your Internal Engine

You have a source of heat and energy in your body. It is located at your center, a channel referred to in qi gong as  dan tian, which means "elixir field" and is a place to store energy. When a person is connected to their center, they are more balanced emotionally and physically. This is a very stable place to be and you can think of it as a reservoir for energy.

There are three large energy centers within the Dan Tian channel, upper, middle, and lower, located in the brain near the pituitary gland, the heart near the thymus gland, and about 2 inches below the belly button respectively.

When I speak of your internal engine, I am speaking specifically of lower dan tian, in between the navel and the pelvic floor. In yoga, this corresponds to the manipura chakra, the place of personal power, and is said to be the seat of pranic flow in the body. I have also heard it referred to as the "golden stove" and is known in Japanese martial arts as "hara" which means belly.

These three centers represent the three centers of thought in your body: Belly, Heart, and Mind. We are taught in our culture to think mostly with our mind. Many people have expanded and learned to think with their hearts. Now it is time to expand further and complete the process; Thinking starts in the belly.

We are informed from the belly, we receive immediate information about our world, without reaction, judgment, or emotion. It's the most "black and white" information we receive. This then relays up to the next energy center in our heart, our emotional center, where we decipher how we feel about this information. We have to check in with our heart space to decide what to feel about what our belly tells us.Then our mind comes in, and starts to logically reason out what's going on. It tries to make up stories about why your gut feeling might be wrong or how it will be too hard.  This is often the place where we get stuck. We let our minds reasonable answers cloud our own higher wisdom. What's your experience with this??



"Please Think with your Belly"

The Japanese actually have a practice and artform called Haragei, which means the art of the belly.  It is the "unspoken way" used in Japanese society to decide immediately and silently whether or not a person is likable, trustable, and worthy of your time and business. Haragei is the act of influencing others without words; with your presence.

They even have a saying; "Hara de kangaenasai" which means "please think with your belly"; in essence, go deeper, stop being rational and think with the essence of your whole being. They also have a saying, "hara-goe" which means "belly-voice" and is the kind of voice that resonates deep from within the belly, and carries a presence of integrated connectedness.

An article about Haragei says:

"In modern day Japan, a person will be accepted by others or shunned, in business and personally, by their gut feelings towards you. This is a normal and accepted way of life. The Japanese people as a whole really believe that what they feel about you is true, without reservations."

 In his book, Hara: The Vital Centre of Man, Karlfried Graf Von Durckheim writes

"Hara is the very embodiment of man's contact with the fundamental powers of the Greater Life manifested in him."

He asserts that people who have a strong connection to Hara have a steady sense of connection to the universal life force that surrounds them. Connecting to Hara means being fully present and aware, on all sides of you, not just in front. You are connected to the intuitive knowing that is available to you always. Durckheim writes that a person with Hara has "an inner calm from which springs the greatest possible presence of mind and the greatest possible capacity for endurance."

When you are connected to your center, you are home, you are at your core. This is the seat of your authentic power. When you are present there, you have access to everything you require, your life becomes less forceful and more effortless, and you exude a magnetism that draws abundance to you. 




The Belly as the source of Creation and Power

Your belly is the source of your power and creativity. Whether you are a man or a woman it houses much potential. In the belly new life and new ideas are created, nurtured and birthed. It is the place where you receive information about the world around you.

I have mentioned many times before that our western culture does not honor the region below our belt.Much of my work with clients consists of reconnecting to this sacred area of our bodies; learning to listen to our gut feelings, feeling comfortable with our sensuality, connecting to that which is the core of who we are.

Aphrodite- Goddess of Beauty and Love

We often treat our bellies very negatively. We are a culture who values flat, tight, pulled in bellies. Ages ago, and in some pacific island cultures today, large bellies were considered a sign of wisdom, wealth, and fertility. When we look at ancient art we see sculptures of women with full breasts and bellies. We see paintings of goddesses with soft bellies and features. These were images and sculptures of worship, inspiration and beauty. Today the images we see of bellies and beauty are much different.

Goddess of Willendorf Circa 250000BC

Now by no means am I advocating unhealthiness or excess fat in the belly, what I am saying is, I have in the past spent a lot of time hating my belly, desiring it to be virtually non-existent, ignoring it's presence when I felt "fat". We are taught to scrutinize our bellies; every roll, every imperfection, every bulge. We live in a world where women either feel relieved at being pregnant because their bellies can now be big and acceptable, or they are still terrified of looking fat even though they are embodying the most sacred form of creation.




Love your belly!
What's my message here??? LOVE YOUR BELLY!  As we begin to embrace our own bodies and our own bellies, we can dissolve this belly dimorphic and dis-empowered culture we have created. We can begin to live closer to our innate connectedness, our purpose, and our joy. We can speak from our bellies, think from our bellies, and live from them. 

I leave you with this Japanese Fable about intuition: There once were two men standing in the forest. One thought he heard a tiger coming, but when he went to ask the other man, he was no where to be found.  One man thought he heard a tiger, and the other just ran. We are the decedents of the one who ran.The other man was never seen again.

Get it??

What is your experience with your own belly? Do you have a strong connection to it or do you spend a lot of time ignoring it's presence?





References: 

Brunetti, Cliff. "Was that a Tiger? With Haragei, you never ask." Kazoku Dojo. Oct 2010

For the Love of Compassionate Friends

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It has been on my mind a lot this week that songs are prayers. Being a dancer and a lover of music, I mostly listen to music. The lyrics are not something I always comprehend or pay attention to.

But when a song does catch my attention with it's words, I know it's for a reason. This song came up on Pandora today, and it just struck me. I love Jason Mraz, for one, and for two, I love the emotion that went into the writing of this song; compassion for a friend in need.

We all require help. We all have those times when everything just feels like it's falling apart and it's so great to know we have friends who can tell us everything will be just fine, and remind us of who we are and what's important.

A few weeks ago a friend of mine happened to text me "how are you?" in a moment of complete frustration, sadness,and fear. She helped me with a few things and closed by saying "I felt your presence all of the sudden, so I thought I should text you."

I had been asking for my guides to show me what to do, asking for help. I'd say I got an answer. :) Friends are our angels. And don't underestimate the power of asking for help. Even if you only have the pride to ask the universe for help. 

This song is a prayer. Listen to it with attention on someone you love, and don't forget about yourself too.

Have you ever reached out to a friend when you had an intuition that they were in a bad space? Have you ever just felt like you needed to call someone or talk to someone, and followed that? Has anyone every reached out to you when you needed it?

I leave you with the lyrics written below and the you tube video of the song above. With emphasis on "If it's a Broken Heart then Face it"....

Much love,

Lauren


Calm down
Deep breaths
And get yourself dressed instead
Of running around
And pulling all your threads saying
Breaking yourself up

If it's a broken part, replace it
But, if it's a broken arm then brace it
If it's a broken heart then face it

And hold your own
Know your name
And go your own way
Hold your own
Know your own name
And go your own way

And everything will be fine
Everything will be fine
Mmmhmm

Hang on
Help is on the way
Stay strong
I'm doing everything

Hold your own
Know your name
And go your own way
Hold your own
Know your name
And go your own way

And everything, everything will be fine
Everything

Are the details in the fabric
Are the things that make you panic
Are your thoughts results of static cling?

Are the things that make you blow
Hell, no reason, go on and scream
If you're shocked it's just the fault
Of faulty manufacturing.

Yeah everything will be fine
Everything in no time at all
Everything

Hold your own
And know your name
And go your own way