Tag Archive: well-being


Do You Need to Detox?

Filed Under: Energy/Vibration, Uncategorized by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Do You Need to Detox?


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 
Dear Soul Arcanum:

On the Soul Arcanum Facebook page, you recently mentioned that you went through a diet detox. Could you talk more about it? What do you believe is the best way to detox through diet? What time of the year do you think is the best? For how long? Are there any books you would recommend that helped you to learn about the topic? I would really appreciate you sharing your knowledge and experience in this area.

Ellen

Dear Ellen:

I’m hesitant to write about this subject because I don’t want anyone to assume my choices must be somehow superior to what feels right and best to them. That being said, I will do my best to answer your questions.

I believe first and foremost in listening to your own body and intuition, for there is no one diet or answer that fits everyone. I also I believe that when we simply listen to our bodies and respond to whatever they are telling us, we naturally align with radiant health and well-being. Of course, it is also wise to pay attention to signs and messages from the Universe.

For general information on the idea of “detoxing” via diet, you’ll have to do some Googling, for I’m no expert on the subject, and my space here is very limited. The detox diet I mentioned on the Soul Arcanum Facebook page came about as a result of me listening to my own body, as I advise everyone to do. I believe that I was led to it as a result of asking (within) what I needed to do in order to feel better. For some time, I had felt like something was off in my body, and the idea pop kept popping into my mind that this was somehow related to candida overgrowth. For the record, I am NOT the sort of person who believes candida is the ultimate cause of every health problem under the sun.

My main symptom was my inner ears itching so badly it would wake me up at night. Whenever I “tuned in” to try to figure out what was going on, the idea of candida overgrowth popped up. Since I didn’t want to undergo the intense changes I believed would be necessary to remedy such a situation, for months, I just kept hoping for the problem to go away.

Around the time I began to get motivated to do something it, I received an email from a long-time friend who is a homeopathic healer. She was writing to tell me that she had felt a nudge to send me a homeopathic remedy. When I received it, it actually contained two remedies: before I could undertake what she believed I needed, she explained that I had to take something to address any candida issues. This got my attention because it was like the Universe was saying, “If you won’t listen to this message from the INSIDE, we’ll send it to you from the OUTSIDE!”

Now the Universe really had my attention, so I asked: What do I need to do in order to align with perfect health? Right after this, I saw a friend who looked amazing. She had lost a lot of weight, her hair was shiny, her eyes were bright, and her skin was glowing. I asked what she was doing, and she told me she was doing a detox diet – The Sadkhin Complex. It involved eating nothing but vegetables, fruits, whole milk and raw honey.

I felt this special nudge. It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you are receiving an answer to a question you posed to the Universe; it’s a sense of knowing that this is the answer and that this is what you are supposed to do. This is not a logical process, so though the diet sounded extreme, I decided to trust my intuition. Within three days of starting the diet, my ears stopped itching and I felt amazing. I ended up dropping 15 pounds in about three weeks, and I have kept it off.

I gained a lot through undergoing this rigorous detox process. It definitely helped me to develop greater self-discipline. I also believe that having strict rules to follow made it easier for me to stay on course. It taught me that we can function just fine without MOST of what we tend to eat on a daily basis: We don’t need all the cereals, pastas, breads, potatoes, etc., that form the foundation of most American diets. It was not easy to do, but it definitely helped me get back on track in terms of not eating processed foods again.

If we look to spiritual teachers and other outside “experts” for advice on what we should eat, we’re in for great confusion, for everyone seems to have a different opinion on the subject. I know a lot of spiritual people who are staunch vegetarians, and though I was strictly vegetarian myself for many years, I eventually figured out that this choice was based on abstract ideas – NOT how I actually felt when eating this way. I have learned that I do not do well long-term on a vegetarian diet because I need a lot of lean protein. I do try to only eat animal products from humanely treated animals, both for ethical reasons and because I believe that the ENERGY of the food we eat is paramount.

If you are psychically sensitive, you can actually feel the difference between a raw, natural food like an apple or a carrot, and the energy of something like bread or pasta. Foods that are in a raw, natural, unprocessed state feel “alive,” whereas foods that have been heavily processed and cooked feel “dead.”

Food from animals that have been mistreated or killed in an inhumane matter carry disturbing energy. I don’t eat beef mainly because it feels bad to me; it feels disturbing to my vibration. If you are psychically sensitive, you may notice that your energy drops after eating beef. In order to eat food from mistreated animals, we have to desensitize ourselves to the energy of their suffering, which spells psychic desensitization in general.

If you’re trying to grow more spiritual or develop your psychic abilities, it therefore makes sense to eat a vegetarian diet or to be very careful about the energetic quality of any animal products you consume. If, however, you are psychically overwhelmed, you can get grounded by eating energetically heavier foods. To spark a psychic awakening, you may want to eat nothing but raw fruits and vegetables for a period of time, or perhaps even fast.

Since we are part of nature, I believe that the closer we eat to the earth, the better. I am not a raw foodie, but I do try to eat as little of processed foods as possible, which means I mainly eat lean protein (chicken), eggs, dairy, fruits and vegetables. All of this being said, I don’t believe that what we eat is as important as how and why we eat. This is all about energy: Whenever I start to feel less than my best, I ask my body and the Universe what I need, and then I watch for the answers to come to me.

To align with the right choices for us, we’re wise to focus on food as energy, to eat for the way we want to feel, and to cook for ourselves and others as an act of love. Sometimes, the most loving thing we can do is undergo a strict diet for a while; other times, the most loving thing we can do is let go of worrying about our health (and everything else) and celebrate life on earth by digging in to share a delicious meal. Since we are constantly changing, in order to determine what we need in each moment, we must be constantly tuning in to the wisdom of our bodies and the divine. This is a lot more mental work than blindly following the rules of a particular diet, but it’s the only way to know and respond to our true needs.

– Soul Arcanum

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Clearing Dead, Depressed Energy

Filed Under: Energy/Vibration, Healing by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Clearing Dead, Depressed Energy


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

Lately a pall seems to have come over my life both at home and at work. It started with me feeling uninspired and unmotivated. I’ve stopped working out, my house has become a mess, we’re eating frozen dinners every night, and it’s all I can do to drag myself to work and then home again at the end of the day. My home doesn’t feel as light and joyful as it used to either. Now I’m noticing the same sort of energy showing up at work, where I’m meeting all sorts of people who are down and lifeless. I have an appointment to talk to my doctor about the possibility that I’m depressed. I’m hoping you can give me some suggestions on spiritual ways I can get this dead energy moving up and out of my life!

Dee

Dear Dee:

I’m glad to hear that you’re going to talk to your doctor, for it does sound like you’re struggling with depression. I noted with interest that you sent this question to me in the middle of January. I don’t know where you live, but if it’s in a Northern climate, you may be struggling with seasonal affective disorder. The good news is that if that is the case, in a few months you should feel like your life force is returning just as the trees, flowers and animals awaken from hibernation. It’s interesting that an ancient spiritual cure for depression is to spend a lot of time in the sun, for it’s believed that this will raise your spirits, clear your mind, and help release more life force energy/kundalini. If it’s feasible, a trip to some place warm and sunny may be all you need to break this pattern and turn your mood and energy around. If that’s not practical, spending some time outside every day may help invigorate you.

It’s not clear how this whole downward spiral started. You may just be struggling with the biological changes that winter tends to involve, but it’s also possible that your depressed feelings are trying to draw your attention to some deep issue that needs to be resolved. If you sense that there may be something troubling you deep down, hypnotherapy or psychological counseling may be the answer.

Deep issues aside, your life force energy is clearly low; to turn this around, you need to get your energy flowing again. It may seem silly to suggest exercise since you probably don’t feel like you have the energy for it, but if you can get your body moving, you’ll summon more life force energy to meet the demands of what you’re doing. Scientific studies have shown that exercise is as effective as antidepressants for people struggling with major depression. I know when I don’t exercise, I quickly grow sluggish and depressed.

This makes perfect sense on a metaphysical level. The more we draw upon our inner resources to improve our lives and take good care of ourselves, the more we align with a higher level of experience. This also summons more of our energetic resources; it opens up a greater flow of life force energy. When our life force energy is pinched off or under-utilized, we feel listless, lifeless and unmotivated. When our life force energy is flowing fully and freely, we feel enlivened, energized, and empowered. Depression involves a bit of a Catch-22, for when people get depressed, they feel like they don’t have the energy to take good care of themselves, but they won’t get the energy to take good care of themselves until they summon it by taking action on their own behalf.

You mentioned that you’ve quit working out. Most of us have had the experience of not wanting to exercise because we just weren’t motivated or didn’t feel like we had the energy. After a good workout, however, we always feel better and are glad we forced ourselves to do it. This is an example of what I’m trying to explain: by taking action on our own behalf, we summon more life force energy and end up feeling much better. While vigorous exercise tends to lead to the greatest mood boost, I think yoga is also a wonderful way to open up a greater flow and reclaim a sense of peace and balance in body, mind and spirit.

There are other ways to open up a greater flow of life force energy, however. You could go to an energy healer or acupuncturist. Massage therapy may also help. Eating a lot of fresh, vibrant food will raise your vibration and encourage high energy.

You mentioned that your house is a mess. Again, it may seem like you don’t have the energy or motivation to deal with it, but if you can summon the energy to <q>feng shui</q> it, you’ll have the same sort of experience I described with exercise: you’ll feel so much better afterward that you’ll wonder why you let it go for so long. Clutter is stale, stagnant energy: by moving it up and out, you can energize the psychic atmosphere.

The psychic atmosphere of a place is also determined by the energy of the people who inhabit that space. Whenever there is a great deal of anger, depression, or other negative emotion in a space, it’s important to cleanse the psychic atmosphere just as you would clean the surfaces and clear away clutter. This can greatly facilitate any shifts you’re trying to make on an inner level. If you’re not familiar with the idea of “smudging,” please research the term. Basically, you’ll want to cleanse your own aura and the aura of the space you regularly spend time in. This is usually done with sage or incense, but it can also be done on an energetic level much as one performs energy healing.

Perhaps the most powerful thing you can do is study the law of attraction, for this will lead you to understand how and why we tend to continue along a certain path once we’ve begun to head in that direction. For example, if we are thinking happy thoughts and feeling happy feelings, we tend to attract people and experiences that are a match to our high vibration, which leads us to think more happy thoughts and enjoy more happy feelings. If, however, we focus on something negative or are feeling down, we tend to attract glum people and unhappy experiences, which leads us to feel even worse.

Just as we have to push ourselves to exercise when we don’t want to, to break free of a pattern of low energy and depression, we have to stretch for positive thoughts. This isn’t easy. The key is to “fake it until you make it.” By this, I mean you begin to imagine wonderful things and summon wonderful feelings. You may do this by vividly remembering a time when you felt happy and energized or imagining how you’d like to feel in the future. Pushing yourself to count your blessings is another great way to start to focus on the positive.

Finally, one of the most wonderful ways to feel better is to uplift other people. This is metaphysically very powerful both because we get what we give in life and because when we make others feel better, then what we are focusing on in our outer experience is joy and happiness. It doesn’t matter that it “belongs” to someone else; the important thing is that we are giving our attention to joy. This fills us with the positive feelings that naturally attract more positive experiences. Basically, the fastest, easiest way to live in a brighter world is to start spreading some sunshine around.

Soul Arcanum

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The Spiritual Power of Yoga

Filed Under: Energy/Vibration, Healing, Meditation, Spiritual Growth by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on The Spiritual Power of Yoga


Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I have a friend who is always raving about the benefits of yoga and has piqued my interest. Last week, I attended a yoga class at a local gym and I have to say that I was disappointed. I thought yoga was somehow going to be spiritual – that I would feel something special during the experience – but it was basically an exercise class full of very limber people. Do you think yoga has spiritual benefits? Do I just need to keep at it or was I perhaps just expecting too much from the experience?

Joyce

Dear Joyce:

Please note that when I use the word yoga in this article, I am referring to yoga as most Westerners view it: as a form of exercise that involves movement through various poses. When most of us think of yoga, we probably think of hatha yoga, which involves a slow-paced, gentle series of different poses. There are a number of other yoga schools that are popular in the U.S., including vinyasa, ashtanga, Iyengar, bikram and kundalini yoga. There is an abundance of information on these and other styles available on the internet, so I encourage you research what each one emphasizes so you can find the right style for you.

Of course, even within a particular style, every yoga teacher is a unique individual and will teach in a unique way. If you think back to when you were in school, I bet there were teachers you loved who taught wonderful classes and teachers you really didn’t like who taught classes you dreaded. The same is true of yoga.

There are people who could turn a class on how to change a flat tire into a spiritual experience, and others who could spend an entire hour of Bible study talking about mundane, trivial matters. Similarly, there are students who can find the spiritual meaning in every life experience, and there are others who could receive a thunderbolt from heaven and think of nothing but the weather. My point is that with everything in life, what we take from an experience largely depends on what we bring to it.

That being said, I have encountered yoga teachers who seemed to be missing “the point.” In one of my own first classes, the yoga instructor was as unlike the stereotype of a serene, mantra-chanting yogi as one can imagine, for she was loud, abrupt, abrasive, impatient and critical. (Naturally, I never returned!) As you can see, finding the right teacher is essential.

It’s also important to remember that whenever we try something new, we tend to feel pretty uncomfortable since we are outside of our comfort zone. I therefore do encourage you to keep trying, for the more familiar you become with a certain practice, the more you can put your left brain aside to get fully present.

As for yoga’s spiritual side, it is definitely far more than a series of exercises designed to increase the strength and flexibility of the body: it is a practice designed to harmonize and unite the body with the heart, mind, spirit and cosmos. Through mindful yoga practice, you can move into greater harmony on all levels of your being and into greater sync with the Universe. This state of harmony can lead to improved physical health and fitness as well as profound well-being on an emotional, psychological and spiritual level. The key phrase here, of course, is “when practiced mindfully.”

Yoga developed as a way for spiritual seekers to achieve higher states of consciousness in meditation. A yoga teacher once explained that yoga was what one did before attempting to engage in deep meditation, the idea being that by getting all the tension out of the body, it would be far more comfortable to sit in a meditation pose for hours afterward. In my experience, it is indeed amazingly easy to go directly into a very profound state of consciousness when meditating directly after practicing yoga.

Getting centered in our bodies and gently stretching toward greater flexibility has concurrent effects on a metaphysical level. When we let go of physical tension, we naturally begin to let go of tension in our hearts and minds. As we move through each pose, we let go of stress and strain from everyday life and can quickly shift from a bad mood into feelings of profound peace and joy. In fact, yoga practice encourages such a high vibration that it can lead to instant healing not only of emotional issues but also physical ailments and imbalances. Further, the more we engage in the process of getting centered within, the more we carry this ability throughout our everyday lives. We can then move through all sorts of normally upsetting situations with calm grace because we are so practiced at moving in this way.

Yoga encourages a state of health on all levels, for balance is health, and yoga cultivates balance in the body and between the various aspects of our being. When we are in balance physically, our bodies feel good. When we are in balance emotionally, we feel centered and calm. When we balance all aspects of our being, we begin to embody graceful poise and radiant vitality.

Yoga also opens us up for a greater flow of life force energy, which leads to shining health and happiness. In some cases, yoga can ignite kundalini and spark a spiritual awakening and the development of psychic powers. When we are fully present to each moment and in a peaceful, high vibration, our intuition blossoms and we begin to receive all sorts of insights and creative ideas on how to solve problems and create what we want in our lives. Further, the more we synchronize our bodies with our hearts, minds and spirits like this, the better we get at this sort of communication. This allows us to hear different aspects of our beings telling us what we most need. This greater intuitive awareness helps us flow through everyday life much like we flow through different yoga poses: we spontaneously take just the right actions, say just the right words, and know just the right way to move forward so that what we desire to happen happens and our journey remains smooth.

On top of all of this guidance, yoga practice enhances our ability to consciously create what we want in our lives via the law of attraction. When we move into sync with the Universe, our desires merge with the desires of nature, which makes it far easier to focus on something and attract it into our experience. When we move into a state of flow with all aspects of our being and All That Is, we begin to dance with the Universe, drawing what we need our way, flowing away from what we don’t want, and naturally attracting whatever will fulfill our true needs and desires.

I think yoga is great for everyone, but I have found that it is especially beneficial for people who suffer from anxiety disorders because it helps them train themselves to relax into the moment instead of endlessly worrying about the future. It is also beneficial for spiritual seekers who are highly energetic and find it hard to sit still for meditation. It’s a wonderful form of physical and spiritual exercise for anyone who is tense in body, heart or mind, for it teaches us how to relax and go with the flow instead of endlessly pushing ourselves or fighting the current. Finally, yoga is a fantastic way to bridge the gap between the physical and the spiritual, for it harmonizes all aspects of our being and opens us up to a higher level of spiritual awareness and experience.

Soul Arcanum

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What is Hypnotherapy, and How Does it Work?

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Healing, Hypnotherapy by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on What is Hypnotherapy, and How Does it Work?

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’ve noted that you’re a big fan of hypnotherapy, and I’m thinking about trying it for help with losing weight. Before I do, can you please explain why you believe in it, what you recommend it for, and how it works?
– Sue

Dear Sue:

Hypnotherapy is basically guided creative visualization from a relaxed, high vibration, which is very powerful. Since we create our own realities, I believe that hypnosis can help us achieve any type of goal.

While many people know that hypnotherapy can be used for things like losing weight and quitting smoking, few know its power to heal physical ailments like IBS and TMSoul Arcanum In fact, in many cases, hypnotherapy is either the most effective treatment or the only truly effective treatment for chronic physical and psychological conditions.

This is true for a couple of reasons. First, the body and mind are not separate, but aspects of our whole being. What we think and feel definitely affects our bodies. In some ways, this is obvious. For example, when we feel afraid, our bodies respond by producing adrenaline. Everything we think and feel affects our bodies to some degree, however, so whenever we move into healthier territory in our hearts and minds, our bodies naturally follow.

As I mentioned above, I also believe that hypnotherapy is effective with every sort of goal or problem because it guides us in actively visualizing what we want to create from a high vibration, which is a very powerful way to manifest whatever we desire.

One scientific study after another has demonstrated hypnotherapy’s effectiveness. For example, it has been proven effective in managing pain during and after medical procedures, and in reducing pain and anxiety in dental patients. It is also very effective in managing pain from things like arthritis, migraines and even childbirth.

This is not just a temporary relief of symptoms, either. For example, research involving cancer patients has shown that those treated with hypnotherapy not only experience less pain and nausea during treatment, but they have a much higher long-term survival rate than those who don’t receive hypnotherapy.

Many studies support hypnotherapy as the most effective treatment for stubborn chronic ailments like IBS, TMJ and psoriasis. It’s also highly effective for psychological problems like panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sleep disorders, eating disorders, social anxiety and phobias.

As for how it works, here’s a common metaphor: Imagine that your mind is a computer. Your conscious mind is composed of all the programs that you have purposefully opened so you could work with them, while your subconscious mind is composed of all the programs running in the background that you can’t see and probably don’t even realize exist. Once in a while, of course, something pops up and lets you know that it has just done a scan or an update. Otherwise, these processes remain in the background, silently doing their thing. Most experts estimate that when it comes to our minds, only about 10% of the processes running are conscious in nature, and the other 90% are happening on an unconscious level.

Now let’s say that you decide you want to lose weight – you want to run a weight loss program. In the background, however, is a program that is working counter to this. Perhaps when you were younger, you learned to equate eating certain foods with being happy. Since being happier is your ultimate reason for wanting to lose weight, you now have two programs running at odds with each other.

When you have conflicting programs running between your conscious and unconscious minds, you will feel like you are of “two minds” – like part of you wants to achieve your new goal, but part of you is resistant to this idea. As a result, you may push yourself very hard and lose weight for a while, but eventually the effort it requires to stay ahead of the other program will exhaust you. Whenever you aren’t consciously working in that weight loss program, the other program will gain ground.

Hypnotherapy can help in that it can identify any programs running in the background that may be counter to your higher goals and help you to rewrite those programs so that they are in harmony with your true aims. If you go into that subconscious program and rewrite it so that being slim and fit = happiness, it will be easy for you to lose weight.

Human beings also tend to repress intense negative feelings in order to avoid the pain of emotional suffering. These feelings never go away, however; instead, they are stored in the subconscious. As the body is governed by the subconscious mind, these stored energies can affect not only our mental and emotional health, but also our physical health.

As nature must return to balance, it is only natural for repression to create tension, which means that whatever has been repressed will come up again and again to be released. If we try to avoid or keep a lid on these energies, they will push out any way they can. This is when we end up with neurotic, self-destructive habits or chronic ailments. In order to truly resolve these energies and issues, our subconscious minds will lead us into circumstances that will evoke those same feelings time and time again.

This brings us to age regression and past life regression. With age regression we can explore all sorts of limiting beliefs and subconscious programs that we may have picked up in early childhood. Young children are like blank slates in terms of programming, and we all have beliefs we absorbed as children that may work against our happiness and fulfillment as adults.

Most of our ideas about what constitutes being a “good” person were determined very early on. In fact, psychologists tell us that our basic personalities are pretty much set by the time we’re six years old. If we were chubby and adorable as preschoolers and got lots of love and attention because of it, we may unconsciously correlate our cute pudginess with our sense of self-worth.

The same holds true for beliefs, phobias, vows and intense or traumatic experiences from past lives. These may be general, such as a desire to hold onto extra weight if we starved to death in a past life, or they may be specific, such as a love of bread if we made a living as a baker in a particularly happy incarnation.

Some may think that re-experiencing traumatic events from the past could make things worse, but there is great power in conscious awareness. Whether the experiences affecting us at a subconscious level stem from our past in this life or another life, if we are unaware of why we are doing what we are doing, then we are not in conscious control of our actions. By contrast, when we become aware of why we tend to feel and act the way we do, we can integrate the unconscious and conscious minds and achieve our goals with relative ease.

– Soul Arcanum

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Signs of Chakra Imbalance

Filed Under: Chakras/Auras, Emotional Well-being, Energy/Vibration, Healing by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on Signs of Chakra Imbalance

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

Could you tell me the difference between balancing chakras and unblocking chakras, and aligning and cleansing chakras? Also, is there a simple way to determine if we’re in or out of balance? In Love and Light!
– Pam

Dear Pam:

When I refer to a block in a chakra, I mean that something is getting in the way of the free flow of energy through that vortex. It’s sort of like having an artery that is clogged with plaque, only instead of a physical block, this is a metaphysical block that is composed of stagnant emotional energy.

When I speak of cleansing a chakra, it’s sort of like angioplasty: we clear away whatever debris is preventing free flow through that channel. This can be done through various types of therapy or energy healing, but it’s usually more effective if whatever issues created the block to begin with are brought into one’s conscious awareness so they can be consciously processed, healed and released. This can be achieved via psychic reading work, though hypnotherapy may be more powerful and effective, for in my experience, what we realize ourselves affects us far more deeply than anything anyone else could tell us.

When I talk about balancing the chakras, I’m not talking about a one-time cure. Like cultivating physical health and well-being, this is a lifelong process. Just as the state of our physical health largely depends on our habits, so does the state of our chakra balance. For example, if we tend to be far more physical than spiritual, our root chakra will be much more developed than our crown chakra. For a sense of health and well-being, we want to be a well-balanced, well-developed person on every level.

People tend to develop from the lower chakras up, which makes sense if you think about it. We begin as primarily physical creatures and become more and more sophisticated in our approach to life. However, it’s easy to neglect whatever we’re not really into at the moment. Thus we often see highly “spiritual” people who are in terrible shape physically because they neglect their bodies.

Since an imbalance in the chakras is caused by emotional imbalance, you don’t have to be psychic to evaluate the state of your chakras or anyone else’s. Below is a quick guide to some of the symptoms of chakra problems. Please note that when I refer to the overdevelopment or underdevelopment of a chakra, I mean in relationship to the rest of one’s being.

Root Chakra: (red) governs all matters physical Symptoms of overdevelopment: greed, recklessness, hyperactivity, carelessness, diarrhea, wasting away Symptoms of underdevelopment: poverty, low energy, listlessness, clumsiness, constipation, obesity, chronic fatigue Someone with good balance will be healthy, fit, grounded, prosperous, centered and strong.

Sexual Chakra: (orange) governs creativity and procreation Symptoms of overdevelopment: sexual addiction or promiscuity; romantic, sexual or creative obsessions; fetishism; STD’s Symptoms of underdevelopment: Puritanism, frigidity/impotence, creative blocks, sexual repression, infertility Someone with good balance will be sexually well-adjusted, have a strong libido, know how to set healthy boundaries in relationships, and be able to use their creativity constructively.

Solar Plexus Chakra (yellow) governs will Symptoms of overdevelopment: high stress, aggression, willfulness, control issues, inability to relax, arrogance, ulcers Symptoms of underdevelopment: indifference, passivity, complacency, victim mentality, disempowerment, indigestion Someone with good balance will be productive, cooperative, flexible, focused, empowered, successful and well-adjusted.

Heart Chakra (green) governs emotions Symptoms of overdevelopment: too trusting, smothering, effusive, codependent/enabling, too nice, too giving, heart problems Symptoms of underdevelopment: distrusting, cold, aloof, reserved, uncompassionate, heartless, self-centered, selfish, weak immune system Someone with good balance will be loving, warm, affectionate, accepting, tolerant and equally loving of self and others.

Throat Chakra (blue) governs self-expression Symptoms of overdevelopment: talking or saying too much, not listening well, being argumentative, acting like a know-it-all, being critical, sore throats, overactive thyroid Symptoms of underdevelopment: trouble expressing yourself, inability to speak up, lack of confidence in your opinions, shyness, under-active thyroid, asthma Someone with good balance will be expressive, eloquent, a great communicator and a good listener.

Third Eye (indigo) governs intellect Symptoms of overdevelopment: racing thoughts, hung up on logic, too abstract in thinking, living in your head, endlessly planning but not doing, hallucinations, headaches/migraines Symptoms of underdevelopment: unconscious, illogical, unable to think abstractly, acting without thinking, forgetfulness, inability to remember dreams, vision/eye problems Someone with good balance will be intelligent, clear-headed, alert, thoughtful, have a good memory, have good eyesight and be generally insightful.

Crown Chakra (violet) governs spiritual life Symptoms of overdevelopment: out of touch with reality, ungrounded, unable to manifest material needs, feeling like you don’t belong here on Earth, Messiah complex, schizophrenia, epilepsy, Alzheimer’s Symptoms of underdevelopment: lack of spiritual awareness, lack of a sense of higher values or higher purpose, lack of spiritual beliefs, depression, fear and cynicism Someone with good balance will know how to live in the world but not of it, have a fulfilling spiritual life, be able to enjoy physical pleasures without getting addicted, love life but not dread death, have a deep sense of connection to the Divine, and regularly tune in to determine the right course of action.

If you discover you have too much energy flowing through some chakras as opposed to others, it’s best to simply focus on developing the higher qualities of the underdeveloped chakras, for this will both counteract that imbalance and lead you to channel your energy in the overdeveloped areas in wiser ways.

For example, if Bill is far more spiritual than he is physical, he probably often feels spacey and out of touch with reality. Thought he may like it that way, he probably also has health problems, is out of shape, and has trouble manifesting money and other practical needs. To create better balance, he doesn’t have to become “less spiritual, ” he just needs to spend more time taking care of his body and putting his house and his finances in order. If he dives into this, soon he may begin to feel like all he does is take care of physical concerns, which would be a sign that he’s swung too far in this new direction and needs to reevaluate his personal balance.

We must remember that we are part of nature, so as we flow from one season of life to the next, we must ever adjust our sense of balance in order to maintain our well-being.

– Soul Arcanum

If you’d like to balance all your chakras, you might like the Chakra Clearing and Charging Meditation at Soul Arcanum.

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What Blocks a Chakra?

Filed Under: Chakras/Auras, Energy/Vibration, Healing by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on What Blocks a Chakra?

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’m always reading about how to clear “blocks” in the chakras, but what causes blocks to begin with?
– Andrew:

Dear Andrew:

Thanks for this excellent question!

Basically, blocks in our chakras/auras stem from fear. When we feel afraid, we are resistant to what is happening or what we think might happen in the future. This causes us to try to prevent it from happening, and to do that, we constrict our energy, which prevents it from flowing freely. When we make a habit of this, over time blocks develop.

As for where all this fear comes from in the first place, we must remember that life in the physical is an experience in contrast. In fact, just the drive for physical survival generates all kinds of fear. From the time we are newborn babies, we are constantly struggling to get our needs met, whether those needs are for food, physical comfort, love, etc. When our needs aren’t met, we experience fear and pain, and begin to develop all sorts of beliefs and habits designed to avoid further suffering.

Let’s say that when Alice was very small, her mother left her for some reason. Maybe her mother died, maybe she got sick and had to be hospitalized for a long time, or maybe she just ran off with the mail man. Assuming this was a really traumatic experience for Alice, and she didn’t get the help or support she needed to process this experience and heal from it, she may forevermore carry “abandonment” issues. Where is she “carrying” these issues? Most likely, they can be found right in her aura. In this case, I’d expect to find a “sore spot” or a hole in her rear heart chakra, which indicates pain or trauma in a past relationship.

Someone who carried a block or energy issue from a childhood experience like this might cope by deciding that they don’t really need anyone else anyway, and choose never to become dependent on another person. They may believe that people can’t be trusted, or if they internalized their wound and blamed themselves, keep others at a distance because they believe they are intrinsically unlovable or unworthy of having someone they can really lean on.

Entire books have been written about chakra/energy healing, but with a bit of thought and imagination, you can work out for yourself the infinite number of experiences that could cause someone to constrict their energy flow and develop a habit that leads to blocks or stuck energy in their aura. Further, it’s easy to imagine what may be happening in our auras based on what we’re experiencing. For example, if we feel like we just “can’t think straight,” odds are good that the state of our sixth chakra will reflect our confusion. If we are having trouble swallowing, there may be something in our life experience that we are having a hard time accepting. If we feel powerless or unmotivated, our solar plexus chakra will probably look dull, dim, blocked or unbalanced.

We must also remember that the appearance of the chakras is just one more symptom, not the ultimate problem. If a healer notes a block in a chakra, it doesn’t mean that the chakra is the cause of whatever may ail us, but rather that there is a problem of some nature (physical, emotional, mental or spiritual) that needs to be healed and cleared.

Because we naturally repress conscious awareness of our own personal issues, I think it’s helpful to compare the aura of the human body to the energetic life of a relationship. Bring to mind a very close, intense, personal relationship you have with someone like a lover or a best friend. (Using a lover or spouse is ideal, because romantic relationships tend to stir up all sorts of fears, and thus challenge many deep-seated emotional habits and issues.)

If you are at all a reflective person (and if you are reading this, you are!), you can see how when you are open and loving and honest in that relationship, the energy flows freely between you, but whenever you close yourself off, lash out in anger or fear, or lie in order to avoid something, the energy constricts or stops flowing. Then there are walls between you and a sense of emotional distance that is hard to bridge.

The more you make a habit of finding the courage to be open and honest, the closer you two will be. The more you react from fear based on old emotional habits, the more tension and emotional distance there will be in the relationship, and the less healthy and fulfilling it will feel.

In order to clear the blocks to balance and intimacy in the relationship, those issues you are stuck on must be healed, and a new and better approach to them must be adopted. This is done by opening up about how you really feel. This first step toward new awareness and understanding is what you need in order to consciously create positive change.

The healing process is the same with our bodies. Where we have repressed, denied, avoided or resisted anything, we will remain pinched off or in unhealthy relationship to that issue until we bring it up, consciously face it, and choose to adopt a new belief, attitude or approach.

Since it is wise to work with the law of attraction, let’s shift from focusing on what blocks chakras to what creates health, balance, and flow.

As what we don’t want is to be blocked, it’s easy to figure out that what we do want is to be “open.” When we don’t view anything or anyone as being apart from us or against, but rather as a part of us, then we are open. When we really think about the word “open,” for that matter, it’s easy to see that when we are open to something, someone, or some experience, we are not resistant to it. Being figuratively open means our auras are literally open and receptive.

The ultimate in being open is to be at one with everything we encounter. One who is fully open identifies with ALL. She recognizes that she creates her own reality, and the world she observes around her is thus “her” world. This leads to natural acceptance, openness and trust. To keep our chakras (and thus all of our beings) flowing smoothly, we must keep our minds open, our hearts open, our spirits open, and our arms open to life and every being we encounter.

This does not mean we lack discernment or discrimination, try to hug Grizzly bears, or literally say yes to everything or everyone who crosses our path. On a higher spiritual level, however, we are neither saying “yes” or “no” but rather something more like, “This is interesting.”

Being open means that we trust that everything happens for a good reason; we know that every experience comes to bless us in some way, even if it is just to teach us; and we remember that nothing can victimize us or oppress us, because we are constantly creating our personal realities based on what we give our attention to and how we decide to interpret our experiences.

We could also say that one who is fully open lives in the world but not of it. By this, I mean he is aware that there is a greater reality, and he derives his sense of ultimate identity and security from that greater reality. He still engages in life and plays at manifesting his dreams here, but he does so lightly, for he knows that he doesn’t truly need anything beyond that which can never be taken away from him – his own innate divinity.

A simple way to determine how open you are is to examine how you feel. If you’re feeling anything negative like tired, ill, depressed, anxious, stressed, pessimistic, angry, jealous, etc., then you are closing off from something because you fear it and want to resist or avoid it. If you’re feeling energized and healthy, happy, cheerful, alert, hopeful, etc., you’re open, my friend.

– Soul Arcanum

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For Teens Who are Self-Destructive

Filed Under: Emotional Well-being, Healing by Soul Arcanum — Comments Off on For Teens Who are Self-Destructive

Copyright Soul Arcanum LLC. All rights reserved. :)
 

Dear Soul Arcanum:

I’ve always been respectful, responsible and a good student. When I met my current boyfriend, however, I started to change. Since we got together eight months ago, I’ve started hanging out with a new crowd, and my old friends say I’m a different person. My boyfriend gets very jealous if I even talk to another guy, and about once a month, he drives me to the point where I can’t think about anything but the fact that he’s mad at me. I then get very depressed until I go to extremes to make up. When this happens, it seems like everything around us just falls apart. We can’t see living without each other, though sometimes we threaten to stop seeing each other just to see if the other one cares enough to do something about it. My life is falling apart. I can’t see my father anymore because he’s a drug addict, I don’t get along with my mom, and my grades are horrible. My boyfriend is the only one who encourages me, though sometimes he digs me into deeper messes. I have a bit of a weight problem, and I have stopped eating in the past just to make people see that I was depressed in hopes someone would help me. What do you think I should do?
– Breanna

Dear Breanna:

I hear your cry for help, and I’m answering it for you and folks of all ages who are in the delicate transition between spiritual childhood and adulthood. I want you to know that even when the people you’re “supposed” to be able to count on let you down, there is always help available to you in Spirit.

Throughout our lives we are surrounded by human beings who are fallible and often caught up in their own life lessons. When we’re vulnerable children, hopefully someone is paying enough attention to see that our needs are met. As we grow up, however, instead of waiting for someone to hear our various cries for help, we have to learn how to take care of ourselves, for we’re the only ones who really can.

It’s time for you to depend on someone more reliable than your parents, peers and boyfriend, and that “someone” is your own higher self and the wisdom and support of Spirit. Fortunately, you’re young and at a very powerful, pivotal junction in your life. If you can move into a conscious relationship with Spirit now, you may skid right past all the dysfunctional things adults do as they struggle to cope with life’s many challenges.

You see, most adults develop the habit of deadening their feelings in response to life’s blows, and this causes them to lose conscious awareness of their inner guidance system. When we repress our desires, erect rigid self-defense mechanisms, and adopt self-destructive habits and false beliefs in order to avoid pain and disappointment, we also disconnect our inner compass. Thus, the earlier we begin to consciously work with Spirit, the easier it tends to be.

Regardless of our chronological age, at some point we are all led to begin building our own spiritual foundation. When we’re little, our parents are essentially our “gods.” They anticipate and fulfill our needs; they seem to be omniscient and infallible; we feel safe and secure with them. As we grow up, however, we realize how very human they are, and this leaves us feeling bereft and unsettled. We then flail about in search of a “new” god.

As our modern world has forsaken religion/spirituality in favor of other pursuits, and turned the quest for God into the quest for a soul mate, it’s only natural for young people like you to shift your allegiance from your parental “gods” to a boyfriend or girlfriend. (Older “kids” can insert the terms lover, partner or spouse here.) When we put a human being in the place of God in our lives, we are definitely in for a rocky ride. What you really need is a direct, conscious relationship with Spirit and your own inner guidance system, which is designed to keep you safe and lead you to fulfillment.

Your inner compass knows when what you’re about to do isn’t really good for you, and it tries to tell you this via your feelings. If you’re thinking about doing something that isn’t going to work out well for you, you may feel a jarring “pang” of hesitation. Then your mind will usually kick in and try to convince you to go ahead and do what you were planning on doing. This may happen so fast that you are never even aware that you had that feeling in the first place.

It’s important to learn how to watch for those feelings and then stop and explore what’s behind them, for at those moments, higher spiritual intelligence is trying to get our attention in order to lead us to what is best for us. Every time we act against that inner knowing, we end up experiencing pain of some kind; when we make a habit of working with it, life gets better and better.

This inner guidance is not some cosmic parent telling you what you “should” do. It’s your own higher self and/or spirit guides trying to steer you toward the decisions that will leave you happy, healthy, and on your way to fulfilling your dreams. Your spirit guides are working with and for YOU, and only want to help you get what you really need and want in life.

One big challenge for young people is that they don’t yet know what they want – and if they don’t know what they want, how can their inner guidance lead them to it? The answer is by finding out what they DON’T want. We all spend a lot of time in our early experiences – our first jobs, romantic relationships, friendships, etc. – having experiences we find undesirable, and these lead us to define more clearly what we DO want.

When you’re not sure what you want at some point, it’s wise to simply identify how you want to FEEL, and love yourself enough to take action in order have that experience. For example, if your boyfriend often leaves you feeling unappreciated when you want to feel cherished, you must be willing to take action (perhaps by leaving that relationship) in order to manifest a more fulfilling situation.

Also, develop the habit of asking Spirit to show you how certain decisions will most likely unfold. If you do this, sometimes you’ll get psychic impressions, and other times, you’ll just use foresight and common sense to make good decisions. Our ability to look ahead like this generally determines how smooth or bumpy our journey through life will be.

So as you contemplate a certain decision or action, ask Spirit to show you what will happen if you do it, and then simply see what pops into your head. You may see a mental “video” of the future, or you may hear words like “trouble” or “danger” or “do it” in your mind, or you may have a feeling in your gut like queasiness, anxiety, or a warm glow.

If what you perceive is attractive, then go for it. Obviously, if what you perceive in the future is not what you really want and you move forward anyway, you’re just asking for trouble.

At some point we must all grow up and find our own way. If you’ve always counted on other people to save you, help you or guide you, this transition may feel very unsettling, but it’s the only truly secure path. It’s like the difference between having a good job and being self-employed. Most people are afraid to strike off on their own because they have more faith in their employer than they do in themselves! We would all be wise to rely on ourselves and Spirit more than anyone or anything else in the Universe, and to trust our own inner knowing above all, for when we consciously work with our own inner guidance system, it steers us to whatever we need in all areas of our lives.

– Soul Arcanum

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