Within your heart lives a beautiful soul – radiant as a smiling baby. Give  yourself kindness and love. Receive like a godling – a new arrival from Source.

Baby Annabel, my granddaughter

Being gentle and kind to yourself will support your well-being more effectively than adopting a harsh exercise regime or diet that you don’t truly enjoy.

Stay connected to your body’s subtle signals. Learn to distinguish contraction from expansion throughout the day. This practice is fundamental to emotional connection – and emotional intelligence–and essential to embodied spirituality. Your body’s wisdom may  be overridden by adopting a cookie-cutter approach to self-care. Self-care, including diet and exercise routines, are more effective when they are grounded in connection with your body.

Are you kind to yourself?

Is your self-talk supportive, or critical?

To be transparent, I became a spiritual mentor because of my own deep hunger for the Divine–despite the negativity in my personality. Although I’m far less critical of myself than I was as a teenager or young adult, last fall, a certain situation ignited self-critical thoughts, which bubbled up from old background conversations.

I was sick with a flu-like virus. I had fever, a sore throat and congestion. My lungs hurt. When I spoke with a friend on the phone, she said, “You sound terrible!”

I used some of my abundance of unscheduled time to sit still, connect with my breath and stay quiet. That allowed me to notice harsh internal conversations – without being overtaken by them. Around day four of the illness, I sensed a dark pit of old, negative beliefs and thoughts about being sick – family and cultural standards from harsher times.

I uncovered previously unarticulated standards about sickness – such as: “being sick makes you less worthy.” “You should be able to control your body.” “Only wimps get sick.”

In some religious and cultural conversations, sickness is seen as a sign of weakness. Acknowledging our vulnerability is seen as distasteful – even threatening.

Yet honoring your vulnerability is necessary. It allows you to identify your needs – and make requests that they be met.

You can only heal as fast as the slowest part of you can heal.

We all carry unexamined beliefs in our unspoken – or background conversations – beliefs that may contradict our true values. We may have inherited beliefs about the body that are harsh and punishing. As a spiritual coach, I am passionate about loving the most unhealed parts of myself as well as I am able to do so.

Being embodied is a daily practice – and a lifelong exploration. When  background conversations, ancestral, cultural or religious surface, we can challenge them – and change them.

My purpose is to assist your experience of union between your Divine and human selves, and guide your soul’s journeys between Source and Earth. The Akashic is a formless space – that precedes and generates form. Practicing self-kindness eases the way for your personality to merge with your soul.

Consider these questions:

• Does being hard on yourself open or close your heart?
• Does criticizing yourself help you want to learn new skills?
• Does your effectiveness in the world increase when you withhold love from yourself?

I learned from my work with flower essences that guilt causes you to withhold love from yourself.

While I was sick for ten days, my most effective healing effort was to introduce kindness into my self-talk. I told myself, “It’s not easy to feel so crummy.” “Rest now – the world will still be there. You may miss doing some things you wanted to do, but the most important thing is getting better.”

To the part of me that resisted feeling vulnerable, I said, “When you’re sick, you need to rest and sleep, so you can heal.”  “I’ll take care of you.” “I’m here with you – you are not alone.”

I practice self-compassion in every day. It brings me ease of well-being, I have less resistance to what is happening in the moment. I want this for you, too.

Kristin Neff, a professor at the University of Texas in Austin teaches self-compassion. Below are some statements from her self-compassion test. Read them to get started on your practice, or take the test here.

I’m disapproving and judgmental about my own flaws and inadequacies.

When I’m feeling down I tend to fixate on everything that’s wrong.

When things are going badly for me, I see the difficulties as part of life that everyone goes through.

I try to be loving towards myself when I’m feeling emotional pain.

When I’m down and out, I remind myself that there are lots of other people in the world feeling like I am.

When times are really difficult, I tend to be tough on myself.

When something upsets me I try to keep my emotions in balance.

When I feel inadequate in some way, I try to remind myself that feelings of inadequacy are shared by most people.

When I’m going through a very hard time, I give myself the caring and tenderness I need.

When I see aspects of myself that I don’t like, I get down on myself.

I’m kind to myself when I’m experiencing suffering.

When I’m feeling down I try to approach my feelings with curiosity and openness.

I’m tolerant of my own flaws and inadequacies.

I try to be understanding and patient towards those aspects of my personality I don’t like.

Today, and every day in 2016, please join me in this practice:

Be kind to yourself

By New Year’s 2017, self-kindness will be your new normal.
You will have greater ease of well-being.
And be more connected with your soul.

What does this invitation stir in you? – I invite you to post your comments below.

Even though you may be familiar with chakras and auras, you may not know that you can support your health and well being by giving them quality attention. Just as you exercise, bathe, eat well and clean your teeth, your etheric body contributes to the health of your physical body.

You can support your well being in many ways. This article will teach you how to attend to the subtle energy flows that make life possible.

I’m happy to share my personal practice with you. May it give you an effective way to support your well being on all levels: spiritual, mental, emotional and physical.

There comes a time for many of us – when fulfilling our soul’s purpose becomes the central organizing force of our lives. This practice will help you do that. You can start wherever you are – whether you consider yourself to be a beginner or more advanced, the practice is effective.

Energy precedes matter. Working with your chakras and your aura helps organize space for your Soul to incarnate more fully into your body.

In this article, I offer a simple and effective way to do this in your home practice. Best of all, it’s fun and playful. This practice, done daily or weekly, will help clear and strengthen you on all levels: mental, emotional, physical and spiritual.

Below is a simple, step by step guide to energy self-healing for your chakras and aura. You can follow this guide alone or with friends.

What may happen as a result of doing this practice? Based on results in my personal life, as well as clients I’ve worked with, you increase the probability of feeling more grounded, expanded and clear. You have less anxiety, more calm. You make more grounded choices. You move through the world feeling supported.

When you clear, restore and revitalize your twelve chakras and the 3 layers of your “energy egg,” you may have the blissful feeling of your soul dwelling more fully and coherently in your body. Even if this feeling persists for only 30 minutes a day, the energy will accrue in your body – bringing about slow, gradual change.

Your soul incarnates to experience the manifest world – so it can evolve – and so Source can incarnate into form. Your soul needs to occupy your body in order to fulfill its purpose in this lifetime. Your soul wants to live in a welcoming, spacious home, where it feels acknowledged and cared for.

How do we make our homes feel welcoming and spacious? We declutter them; we organize the space so that supportive energies can flow through it. We let go of what isn’t beautiful, or what we don’t need or love. Doing this, we open space to receive what nourishes us.

You can do this with your body – which is Home for your soul in this lifetime – through focusing your attention on your chakras and your aura.

Vortex, acrylic on canvas by Nancy Kern ©

To start:

Find a quiet place where you will be uninterrupted for ten to thirty minutes – as your schedule allows.

Sit comfortably in a chair or on a cushion on the floor, with your spine reasonably erect. Find your sit bones. Rock slightly forward and back, and side to side on your sit bones – until you sense the alignment that supports energy flowing through your spine. Then check the position of your head – you may need to slightly tuck your chin.

Take three deep, cleansing breaths. Inhale Light, from the Source of All Light. Imagine Light running through your pranic tube, the central vessel that runs from your tailbone to your crown, deep in the body at the level of your spine. Exhale Light out your tailbone, down your legs and out your feet, sending roots of Light into the earth.

Imagine the roots of light tunneling down, all the way down, deep into the center of the earth. When you get there, you may have a sensation of dropping an anchor. Your body feels safe and secure when you tap into earth energy – a deep source of creation and support for you, on all levels.

Settle in to feeling grounded.

Then, begin to hum. Astrophysicists have documented what spiritual teachers have taught for millennia: that the universe has a sound. It hums. By humming, you create resonance in the sound chamber of your body. In this case, you are using sound to align your body with the sound of the universe. You can use one of these words from worldwide spiritual traditions: hum, hung, amen or ameen. I use hum or hung. Keep your lips closed, your teeth open, and your tongue lightly resting on the roof of your mouth.

As you make the sound, feel the vibration in your bones. Play with it – move it around in your body by changing the pitch.

Hum on the out breath – then pause in silence – to sense the vibrations in your body. Repeat this several times – to open the energy flows for the colored light meditations that follow.

If you have only a few minutes, stop here. Go out and enjoy your day, knowing that you are aligned with the earth and with the cosmos – you are supported by forces larger than you.

If you have more time, begin to run colored light through your body’s seven major chakras.  Each chakra, the color associated with it and its Sanskrit name is listed below:

1. Red light for the root chakra, located in the tailbone area – muladhara
2. Orange light for the 2nd chakra, located below the navel – swadhisthana
3. Yellow light for the 3rd chakra, the solar plexus – manipura
4. Green light for the 4th chakra, the heart, located at the upper center of your chest – anahata
5. Blue light for your 5th charka, located at the throat – vishuddha
6. Indigo or violet light for your third eye, located at the center of your forehead – ajna
7. Clear, colorless light for your crown, located at the top of your head – sahasrara
8. Continue to hum as desired – combining sound with light if you wish
9. Take rests. Stay awake but silent – and continue to renew your awareness of energy moving through your body.

In the next article, I will continue with chakras 8-12, which are around your body – but not in or on it.

If you try this practice, I’d love to hear back from you how it goes.

May you have ease of well being.

In loving kindness,
Nancy

My life as a spiritual coach began even before I had a language for what I was doing. I did hands on healing starting in 1980. While working with clients, I would see images of their lives and hear questions, which I would ask them. I remembering seeing colored lights around people since I was four.

Many of us know that chakras are “Wheels of Light,” or subtle energy centers. Physiologically, your chakras are located internally – deep in your body at the level of the spinal cord – not on the front, as drawings seem to indicate. The chakras originate in the pranic tube – the energetic structure that receives prana, chi or life force energy through your breath, and circulates it through 72,000 nadis – minute subtle energy pathways that weave a web of Light through and around your body, creating your energy body all the way out to the “shell” of your “energy egg.”

Expect a Miracle, acrylic on canvas by Nancy Kern ©

Chakras, auras and energy fields interpret and translate the creative, life-giving forces emanating from the cosmos to energy flows that become  your nervous system.

The locations of the seven physical chakras correspond with major nerve clusters or plexuses – which are branching networks of nerves – and sometimes blood or lymph vessels. Most teachers of subtle energy agree that the chakras are located at the main branching plexuses of the nervous system.

Chakras are collection and transmission centers for both subtle and metaphysical energies, and for biophysical energy – thus chakras impact your overall vitality and physiological functioning.

“Biophysics” is an interdisciplinary scientific method using the theories and methods of physics to study biological systems, on all scales, tiny to cosmic – from molecular to whole organisms and ecosystems.

Chakras are usually visualized as circular in the center of the body. As they spin, they generate vortices that are conical in shape – which is what is meant when we refer to “front” and “back” sides of chakras.

The pranic tube is an energetic structure that correlates with your spinal cord. The nadis correlate with the vast system of nerves that branch into ever finer filaments for transmitting nervous impulses.

Our nervous system, in all its subtlety and complexity, it what allows us as human organisms to have higher consciousness. The nervous system is far more complex than the brain itself. Mysterious as it is, the brain is an organ of the nervous system – which has vast capabilities, operating both in  and beyond our skin – the physical boundary of the body. The nervous system is a vast network of synapses that transmit and receive signals within your body and from the environment.

Energy healing can affect your health. This can be accomplished with hands-on modalities or through the transmission of Light and activation of higher energy frequencies of the Akashic or zero-point field.

To move from illness to health – to create transformation in your physical body, chemical methods such as herbs or pharmaceuticals are not enough. They can be useful, but are not always effective.

When change is triggered on the subtle energy level first, the physical body can realign itself to better work with chemical support as needed. If the energy body is not aligned with medications being used – if your consciousness has not been enrolled to work with your body – your outcomes will be less potent.

Energy healing techniques – of which there are many – enroll the energy body in the healing. After three decades of working hands-on as an energy healer, in 2007, I saw that I could effect healing through the Akasha – with words and energy flows. The first time this happened, I was doing a phone session with a client in California. Over time, I’ve worked with clients in Japan, Canada and across the USA.

As a spiritual mentor, I am highly sensitive to energy,

When my health breaks down, or working with a client with health challenges, I ask the question: is my soul/your soul sufficiently embodied in my/your daily life? By sufficiently I mean – is your soul fulfilled by the choices you make and the actions you take?

Tending your energy bodies enhances your physical body’s capacity to make a harmonious home from where your soul can operate more fully.

Our personalities often have entrenched habits, beliefs and fears accumulated from culture, family and religion – that may conflict with the soul’s design. Our culture and our era in general suppress the soul life in favor of material pursuits.

Our souls come to earth to break habits, dissolve beliefs and transform fear to love – all in service to the evolution of life on earth. We incarnate into physical bodies that come with ancestral and genetic patterns – and as we grow up, we are effected by epigenetic factors – what we call conditioning, or programming.

To strengthen the embodiment of your soul, look to the state of your chakras, aura and energy egg. Would you benefit from clearing them and bringing coherent energies into your field?

These are the three layers of your energy egg:

The first layer is physical – located right next to the twelfth auric field that emanates from your twelfth chakra – and your physical body. It relays information between your body, your inner psyche and the world at large. You can contact the first layer through your pineal gland, and also through the twelfth chakra and auric field.

The second layer is imaginal – it attracts into your life whatever you imagine in your background conversations. These remain unconscious until we bring them into the foreground. Our actions more effectively result in our Highest Good – and we more readily surrender to Source, when we clear background programs – do the necessary shadow work that is indicated.

The third layer is spiritual – an incandescent, shimmering body of energy that connects all of your auric fields with the spiritual realms that lie beyond your human personality and body.

Cleaning, clearing and revitalizing your chakras and the three layers of your energy egg – is a powerful daily practice. Over time, this daily practice will increase your health, your vitality and your joy.

At the Winter Solstice Akashic Blessing Circle, to celebrate the return of Light, we will enter the Akashic realm for a Light Bath. Come prepare to bathe in colored Light – to drink it in –through your twelve major chakras – and have your three energy bodies brought into resonance with your Soul’s design.

An exciting opportunity has come my way. December 5-12, I will be assisting Raphael Cushnir, the creator of the Emotional Connection work, which is a key element of my spiritual coaching practice – at a five-day intensive workshop at Esalen Educational Institute in Big Sur, California.

Big Sur at Esalen

Emotional Connection work is rich – you learn how to engage your body’s sensations during emotional states and arrive at calm presence. The process is simple to learn – though not always easy to practice. For added support, Raphael encourages ongoing connection partnering after the retreat with participants who want to practice together after the return to daily life.

Emotional Connection is highly effective way to build emotional intelligence and more. It gives you the skills you need to stay connected with your body during situations that are challenging or upsetting. You can read a brief article about the basics of emotional connection on my blog here and a structure for applying the work here.

I have studied with Raphael since 2012. In 2013, I did his year-long small group program called P-4. P-4 stands for: presence, purpose, power and passion. This work really moved me forward as a spiritual mentor. The more I learn to be present for myself, the more deeply I can do this for others.

This in-depth immersion in being present is one of the best gifts I have ever given myself.  Two years later, I still do daily check-ins with my P-4 partner in the Olympic Peninsula, and participate in bi-monthly calls with the larger group. We are having a reunion retreat in Portland next summer. Even though our daily lives look very different and we come from diverse backgrounds, we have a common grounding in emotional connection. We meet each other with warmth, respect, and skills to hear and support each other – without a good-bad, right-wrong conversation or giving advice. In every call, I feel seen, acknowledged and supported – as well as inspired by my colleagues’ authenticity, vulnerability and growth.

Emotional connection is a way of Being. When you are present to your body’s signals and can be with them – without being run by them or suppressing them – you become more secure in being yourself.

Emotional connection work is a life practice. With practice, your security doesn’t fade away when you get home from the workshop and return to daily life.

When you internalize skills for staying present, you have the basis for igniting your passion. Passion is a key to uncovering your purpose. Learning to own your power strengthens you in situations that involve conflict.

If you choose to join me at Esalen in December, you will come away with skills you can take home with you – because they will be internalized. You won’t regress or return to how things worked when you were more emotionally disconnected from your bodily sensations. I will be here to support you as you build your skills – and Raphael does private sessions by Skype.

Clients have reported breakthroughs with parents, spouses and employers and employees at work. They have left adverse work environments and unfulfilling jobs to find work that nourishes them. They are less easily triggered by provocative conversations – and know what to do when they are triggered – neither suppressing nor acting out their emotions.

When you have the capacity to stay present, you don’t have to withdraw – and you don’t have to lash out. You don’t have to hide and you don’t have to defend yourself. You stand in your power – by staying present and speaking from Presence.

The workshop where I’ll be assisting is called “Total Immersion for Total Transformation.” You can read about the workshop here.

Have you ever had an experience when you knew something important was happening, but you didn’t know how it came about? Although the experience may have only lasted a few seconds, it might have felt longer because your sense of ordinary time was suspended.

Some of my most dynamic and rewarding experiences have been events that happened for me – or to me, as an act of grace. I did not use my will to make them happen. In a state of surrender, I opened to the Highest Good. A profound shift occurred that addressed an unspoken need in an unanticipated way.

In the Hay House movie The Shift, Wayne Dyer calls these ‘quantum moments.’

If you’ve experienced quantum moments, you may have thought, “is this real?” As I did when I was tapped by the Akashic Records while driving my car.

When I became a single mother at age twenty-four, I needed more income. A friend who was head waitress at a neighborhood restaurant, hired me to work as a waitress. The job offered flexible hours and peer support. The women there  supported each other like sisters. If I needed time off to take care of my son, I could find someone to cover my shift.

I soon learned how demanding it was to wait tables. There was so much to remember! I’d have five tables at once, with 4-6 people per table. Getting their orders and drinks straight, attending to many customers at the same time without rushing, which made me anxious – was nearly impossible. At home, I was learning to meditate. Meditation practice was training me to focus on one thing at a time. Waitressing required multi-tasking – which was nerve wracking to me.

I also worked as a massage therapist at the Houstonian health spa. My passion was helping people to de-stress and relax. I liked helping people relax and I hated to rush people. I was devoted to my overall passion – the healing arts, and art that was healing.

My focus on healing and doing one thing at a time made me an inefficient waitress. My boss at the restaurant admonished me not to let people sit as long as they wanted at their tables after they finished eating. If I didn’t turn tables faster, the restaurant lost income since they couldn’t seat as many customers over the course of the night.

I was a healer-artist who was waitressing to make ends meet. I wasn’t wired for speed.

The busiest shifts were the most lucrative and also the most stressful for me. One Saturday night I worked until 1am. I helped close the restaurant, which meant cleaning and organizing for the morning shift. By the time I was ready to go to my car it was almost 2am.

One of the cooks offered to walk me to my car. The restaurant was in a party area of town, and the clubs were open all night. People were often out on the street drinking and sometimes fighting in the wee hours. I gratefully accepted his offer.

When we got to my car a block away from the restaurant, I unlocked my door and opened it to get in. Before I knew what was happening, the cook opened the passenger door, slid into the front seat and grabbed my arm, hard. He was tall, wiry and strong. I had heard the other waitresses say that this man sometimes took speed at work to help him get the orders out fast. I realized that he must have done so that night – because he was jittery and rough. He pulled me toward him, put one hand behind my neck and pressed his face against mine, kissing me without warning.

Even though I sensed a threat, I felt no fear. A wave of calm washed over me. I felt detached – and in no danger. I was aware of what was happening – but I felt protected. I felt grounded with Source energy. I trusted that all was well.

The next thing I knew, I “saw” three triangles of energy fly out of my solar plexus – like little arrowheads of light. They penetrated the space between us and went straight into his torso.

I didn’t think this up or plan it. I didn’t “do” this through a decisive action. It happened – as a gift. I benefited. Karmically, so did he.

Time seemed to stop. He stopped kissing me and dropped his grip.

He shuddered. I saw a wave of energy pass through him and around him, as if a vibration shook him awake. I saw a light pass over him as he came to his senses.

He sat up straight and said, “Oh, Nancy, I’m so sorry. I don’t know what got into me.”

I reached across him, opened the car door and said, “Don’t worry about it. No harm done. I gotta go now. See you later. Goodbye.”

I pushed him out the door, locked it and drove off, leaving him to wonder what had happened.

I said prayers of thanks on my way home. I felt humbled that a benevolent force intervened on my behalf. This benevolent force – Source, God, the Creator, whatever you call it, is available to all of us. Our Highest Good can emerge in any moment – even when the situation looks sketchy.

Quantum moments happen in accordance with the laws of physics. I am grateful for the help I received from the quanta. I am sharing these stories to encourage other people to come out of the closet and talk about these phenomena.

What quantum moments have you experienced? I invite you to share them in the comments section below.