Free will is vital. All of us, as sentient beings, have the freedom to make our own choices and decisions. Mind control isn’t a thing, whether it’s by other people or by higher powers; we were all created to be able to choose our actions for ourselves. What people forget when the subject of free will or freedom to choose comes up is that freedom to choose does not equal freedom from the consequences of…
My entire life, I’ve created stories. When I was too young to know how to write, I told the stories to my stuffed animals and dolls, or to any adults who would listen. Once someone showed me how to make those funny little squiggles on paper, I started writing down my stories. In 1999, I started writing phonics-based stories and worksheets to use to help my special education students learn to read. The stories and…
If you’ve been on social media at all, you’ve probably seen the meme that says something along the lines of, “If you don’t come out of this time of quarantine with a new skill, new hobby, or your side hustle launched, it was never a question of time, it was a question of discipline.” That meme brings up so much frustration and anger in me. Not for myself as much as for the people who…
People sometimes ask me what the differences are between Chios and other types of energy healing or energy work. That’s a difficult question for me to answer, because I haven’t learned other forms of energy work. I have had people give me Reiki, and have found Chios far more effective for me. (I felt nothing when Reiki was given.) From people who have had Chios sessions with me and other forms of energy healing from…
Self-care is more important than ever right now, but some of us are finding it harder than usual to make sure we’re practicing self-care. Depression, whether as a diagnosed mental illness or just a feeling, leads to less motivation in general. If we’re struggling with losing a job, we might feel less worthy, which means we aren’t taking care of ourselves because we, consciously or not, believe we aren’t “worth it.” Here are a few…
A few months back, I bought a copy of an Astanga Yoga book written by my former mentor. When we were friends, I took Astanga classes from him, and he taught me a lot about the philosophies and the eight limbs that make up the practice. (Tip: The poses, or asana, are only one of the limbs…and not even the first one.) To be clear, even though back in the day I studied to be…
In the past week, our world has changed drastically. I’m not going to enumerate the changes, because if you have access to any news source at all, you already know. I’ve had trouble focusing on accomplishing tasks for the past week and a half, since I started seeing news about colleges sending students home. One of those colleges was my daughter’s, and helping her navigate that massive change and the effects it might have on…
I posted this on my Facebook profile a few days ago, but wanted to share it here as well. Friday night, I realized that every time I turned over in bed, I felt like I was on a sped-up carnival ride. The room spun, my stomach churned, and it was scary as hell. Saturday morning, I got up…same thing, only worse. I could barely stay on my feet, had to hold onto the wall as…
I sat down to write this blog post today, and even though I had some ideas in mind when I planted my butt in my chair, as soon as I looked at the blank document on my computer screen, my mind went equally blank. Sometimes that happens. Sometimes, I second-guess myself, or the negative thought loop of “I don’t have anything worth writing about” starts playing in my brain. In the past, I’ve felt angry…
I’ve gone through a lot of financial struggles over the years, starting when I was still a kid. Because of that, I’ve developed an unfortunate scarcity mindset around money; that is, when I have it, I’m afraid something will go wrong and it will all be gone. It’s difficult for me to let myself buy things I want even when I have the money available, because part of me convinces myself if I spend that…