It’s hard to believe that another year has passed and we stand on the cusp
of a New Year, and a New Decade as well.

This is the traditional time for making Resolutions, and that very
word, “resolution”, and its root word “resolve” often contribute to the
failure of the intention simply by being loaded with effort. And often
we are unclear about exactly what it is we want in our lives, how we really
want our lives to look, what changes if any would benefit us, or having that
information we may lack a plan to achieve those things.

Seven Levels Coaching can help you find the answers that may be eluding you.
Both personal meditation and clairvoyant readings are especially helpful in
bringing your own truth to the surface, and the insight gained from readings
can profoundly affect the way you look at your life and your life’s purpose.

Treat yourself gently and with understanding, thinking simply of being kind
to yourself and to your body. Consider things that will increase your overall
sense of well-being, remove sources of pain and discomfort and add years –
happy, healthy and active years – to your life, rather than struggle with the
added weight and pressure of a list of heavy “Do’s” and “Do Nots”.

Easy ways to accomplish this are to get outside and enjoy fresh air and
sunshine on those days when the weather permits, to breathe deeply and
truly observe nature rather than trying to power-walk to the next level
(although this certainly has its benefits as well). Enjoy the feelings of
becoming more clear-headed as you bring more fresh crisp air into your
body. Give yourself the gift of relaxation and relief from aching muscles
by having a massage or begin to enjoy the feeling of gently regaining your
flexibility, strength, and balance in a Yoga class. Energy Healings are an
effective modality for making the body work better by removing blockages
that restrict the flow of energy within the body. Seven Levels has a
wonderful staff of trained energy healers and a teaching staff who can
help you learn to meditate as well as discover and develop your own skills at
working with energy.

The papers and internet are full of information about the rarity of this New
Year’s Blue Moon, a second full moon in a given month and one that occurs on
New Year’s Eve only once every 19 years. This New Year’s Eve is special, so
approach it appropriately. Like-wise, YOU are special; therefore treat your
SELF especially well, with healthy self-interest. You will have more joy to
send into the world and into other people’s lives when you first give yourself
the gift of well-being.

Given the tumultuous events of the past year and the past decade, my
suggestion is to give some thought to leaving those events in the past and to
reflect in positive ways about the next year and the next decade, making the
care of yourself – YOUR body and spirit – a priority.

Wishing you health, peace and prosperity in the coming year and in the next
decade!

The first day of fall, the Autumnal Equinox, is here; a time when the amount of daylight and darkness are balanced across the planet.

Balance is a key concept in yoga. We address the importance of maintaining and improving our physical ability to balance through the practice of postures which encourage us to stand on one foot, such as Tree Pose, or to trust our arms to support us in poses like Crow or Peacock.

Let’s try Tree Pose: Begin by standing tall with your back against a wall for safety and a sense of security. Find the four balance points under the balls of the big and little toes and on either side of the heels. Lift the toes off the floor a little to really get the feel of these balance points, then let the toes come back down to the floor. Shift your weight into the right foot, micro-bending both knees. Inhaling, bring the arms out to the sides at shoulder height and consciously lift the crown of the head toward the ceiling. Exhaling, bend the left knee and turn the left foot and knee out to the left, bringing the left heel to the right ankle and keeping the ball of the foot on the floor to help maintain balance. Gaze at a non-moving point about 10 feet to the front and breathe deeply, lifting the arms overhead. As you lift the arms, draw the shoulders down from the ears while lengthening the spine with the breath. Stay for 5 to 10 full, deep breaths, then exhaling, bring the arms down and pivot the left knee forward, bringing the weight back into both feet. Do the other side in the same way.

Press your back against the wall for balance as you first begin with this posture, then begin to move slightly away from the support of the wall as your balance improves. Soon, you will be able to do the pose in the middle of the room with confidence.

As you gain confidence, begin to draw (or pull with your hand) the non-supporting foot up to the calf or the inner thigh of the supporting leg, pressing the foot into the calf or thigh and at the same time pressing the calf or thigh back into the foot. For even more of a challenge, try looking up, or closing the eyes while balancing in Tree Pose.

Remember to keep the hips square to the front. Breathe deeply and keep lifting through the spine and the crown of the head.

Trees move with the breeze, so it’s ok if you move while in the pose. If you lose your balance and have to put your foot down, that’s ok too! Laugh and try again! Balance poses are our opportunity to find our inner child again, the inner child that mentally turned curbs into tightropes.

By finding balance in the body, we become aware of other areas of our life; the balance of work and play, of activity and stillness, of giving and receiving. So, as fall enters and the changing colors draw your attention to the leaves, remember the lessons of balance to be found in Tree Pose.

Trust is a tricky thing. It is one of the first things we learn as infants – we have no choice, but to trust those around us to nurture and care for us. As we grow, somehow the act of trusting transitions from being an innate part of us to a conscious entity of its own. We heard our parents say “I am trusting you to do this” or “…because you lied to me about where you were, it is going to take a while for me to trust you again.” All of a sudden, trust goes from being assumed to being earned, granted, and even taken away.

As trust morphs through different stages, our level of understanding changes along with it. We begin to consciously and unconsciously trust or not trust others; more importantly, we begin to trust or not trust ourselves. Somewhere between running free as a toddler trusting our legs, our body, our minds, and our hearts with ease and grace and navigating the working world as adults, we begin doubting our legs, our body, our mind, and our hearts and we lose our natural trust in ourselves; we lose the truth that once came so easy to us. We are bombarded with advertisements creating a frenzy of energy around simple decisions such as what should I eat for breakfast. In losing our truth, a part of us shuts down – the self-assured, confident part that in turn causes us to question, doubt, and procrastinate.

I often ask: What would it be like to have a day where I was right all the time? What would that feel like? Imagine it for a moment. A day where all the decisions you made for yourself, your family, were right, no questions asked. The meal you fed your kids, right. The fact that you insisted your son wear his raincoat even though it did not rain, right. The decision to buy six bags of organic dog food because it was on sale (even though you don’t have a dog and you are not sure you will get one in the next few months), right.

Through my work as an Energy Worker and Life Coach, I have found a popular topic: helping individuals reconnect and find their truth and their trust in themselves. Often, when becoming a parent, even those who felt confident prior to welcoming a child into their life, find themselves feeling vulnerable as every decision is questioned, everyone has an opinion to share with you, and everyone, but you, seem to know the best thing for your child. This is the exact time to trust yourself and call on your truth – you know what is best for you and your child. Trust it – trust yourself – and rest assured you know your child better than anyone else.

To aid in your connection (or re-connection) with your truth, here is a five-step meditation and visualization exercise to practice (if new to meditation/visualization, this may be slightly challenging – don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions):
1. Take a few moments – it can be 30 seconds while nursing/feeding your newborn or during a longer meditation.
2. Close your eyes and calm your mind by inhaling and exhaling slowly through the nose, trying to make the inhales match the exhales in length.
3. When feeling calm, ask yourself what is your “yes” symbol and see what pops up; it can be a color, object, feeling, word, etc.
4. Next, ask yourself what is your “no” symbol; again, it can be a color, object, feeling, word, etc.
5. Finally, and most importantly, TRUST the answers you received and use them the next time you feel unsure about a decision you are about to make, either parenting related or not – simply ask yourself a yes or no question and see what symbol pops up. Begin trusting yourself to guide you!

According to researchers at Stanford University and the University of
North Carolina, a recession just may help society live a healthier lifestyle.

The research shows that during tough times, people tend to act more
conservatively. Instead of going out to dinner, they cook for themselves.
Instead of splurging on unnecessary luxuries, they utilize what’s around
them.

And perhaps instead of seeking out quick fixes for their health, people are
more interested in alternative healing methods that treat the entire body
and not just the symptoms?

Christina Morassi says yes.

Morassi is an advocate for natural living and the blogger behind “Wisdom of
Mother Nature,” as well as creator of The Roar, a workshop that combines
Polarity Therapy, Shamanic practices, and community performance art to
teach people how to live a more vivacious life.

According to Morassi, people are “voting with their pocketbook with every
purchase they make.” And with the skyrocketing price of doctor’s visits
and generic drugs, Morassi thinks that people are finally beginning to think
before they vote.

“Why should families contribute to the pharmaceutical conglomerates that
have no concern for the wellbeing of this planet?” Morassi asks.

One consumer who recently began exploring the idea of more affordable
alternative therapies is Jennie Cudmore, the owner of Crunchy Granola Baby
in Salem, Mass.

“My new thing is essential oils. I find myself turning towards specific oils to
help aid specific ailments for myself and my family,” says Cudmore, who is,
admittedly, already a crunchy individual who leans heavily towards a natural
and organic lifestyle. But it’s only recently that she’s begun exploring the

idea of alternative healing methods.

“We’ve always visited chiropractors and sought out non-traditional methods
of health, but that can be trying,” she says. Cudmore explains that while
visiting homeopathic doctors or chiropractors is often necessary, both are
stressful and costly. So Cudmore began researching on her own time and
stumbled across the idea of essential oils.

Essential oils are concentrated liquids containing aroma compounds from
plants and work on a variety of physical, emotional and energy levels.

“I came across an ailing bird the other day and my initial reaction was to rub
some Valor on the bird,” she laughs. While Cudmore realizes that essential
oils may not replace her chiropractor or her son’s homeopathic pediatrician,
they have helped her family with their overall health.

But essential oils are only one method of alternative health. According to a
nationwide government survey released in December 2008, and posted on
the website for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative
Medicine (a subdivision of the National Institute of Health), approximately
38 percent of U.S. adults and 12 percent of children use some form or
complementary or alternative medicine (CAM).

This means that about one in four individuals turn to CAM to help treat their
body, up significantly since the last study in 2002. Therapies included in the
study vary from essential oils to acupuncture to hypnosis to energy healings.

According to an article on the website of the Cleveland Clinic (one of
America’s top hospitals):

“In an effort to incorporate Western sciences’ need for physical proof,
studies have been performed on the impact of energy healing on living. . . Of
23 clinical trials involving energy healing that did meet a rigorous criteria
requiring adequate design, control and review procedures, 57 percent have
shown a beneficial effect.”

“Well, yeah,” says Maria Lonardo-Roy, a biologist in Maryland. “I may not be
crunchy or anything, but I know how awesome I feel after a massage.”

So as studies continue to develop, as they undoubtedly will, perhaps modern
science will finally catch up with these ancient methods of alternative
healing.

In the meantime, why not avoid spending your hard-earned cash on a
drugstore quick fix and work to heal yourself with what you’ve already got?

About The Author:

Amy Tetreault graduated from Emerson College with her M.A. in Journalism
and also holds her B.A. in Communications from Saint Joseph’s College of
Maine. She currently resides in Gloucester and works as a freelance writer.
For more of her work, visit www.amytetreault.weebly.com.