 Last Monday started with the opening of pandora's box. On Monday, the activity across the street at the construction site started at 6:30am in the morning. An endless stream of equipment (trucks, trailers, diggers, cranes) and people (Fire Marshal, EPA, Owner, Construction Crew, etc.) started walking around with maps and digging at 6:30am while the Fire Marshal directed traffic. Over the course of the day, 2 1919 fuel tanks were removed from the site. From what I understand, workers stumbled across the tanks the previous week while digging up the ground to lay new pipes. Needless to say, my Monday started out in total chaos as I tried to work (my office faces the construction site), and host Zoom calls throughout the day as all of the constant noise and activity was taking place across the street. As a highly sensitive empath, these types of unexpected emotional chaotic external events always throw me off balance leaving me ungrounded, unsettled, and anxious. They accidently opened up... My Pandora's Box It has taken me years to realize that when I pick up this type of chaotic emotional charged energy that it isn't my job to fix it. I used to believe that I couldn't move forward with my own dreams and passions because the emotional environment around me wasn't stable. Whenever the emotional environment around me became unstable, I would stop and address everyone else's emotions and stabilize the external environment. I would then slip into a cycle of self-pity as my dreams and passions were always out of reach. Whenever I take 1 step forward with my dreams and passions, something happens in my life that stops me dead in my tracks. My life was a continual rollercoaster of managing everyone else's emotions and putting my own wants and needs last. So how did I learn to overcome this need to manage others' emotions? I decided to make different choices. Whenever external emotionally charged circumstances started to impact me, I would take a deep breath and start to make a mental list of the blessings in my life (Weekly Mini-Sound Bath below). I started to walk away from environments and relationships that felt toxic to my energetic system. I started to study Reiki and Shamanism and other healing modalities as a way to work with my empathic sensitivities. I learned to stop worrying about what other people thought of me or my choices and instead surrendered my fears (Everyday Shamanic Reiki Living - Surrender video). What's in your Pandora's Box that is currently causing you turmoil, confusion, pain, grief, sadness, despair or some other negative attitude or mindset? Take another look in your box - can you list 10 reasons why you are so blessed? WEEKLY MINI-SOUND BATHMAGICAL THINGS TO CHECK OUT  Whether it's a challenging childhood, a problematic boss, or a failed relationship, we all have our baggage. Unresolved issues can manifest as pain or illness as well as blocks to personal fulfillment and accomplishment. This healing meditation is perfect for you if:
 Shamanic Reiki 1 & 2 Combined is an experiential learning workshop held in Kent, Illinois on November 5th and December 3rd, 2022. There are just 8 spots! During our 2 days together, you will learn new tools to support you on your personal healing journey, your work with others, and with nature. In between the 2 sessions, additional exercises will be provided so that you can practice and expand on the tools and practices that you have learned. Learn all the detail and sign up here.
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 For the past 3 years, I've been slowly working on converting the small patch of land between myself and the neighbor into a wildflower patch. It has been a slow process with many trials and tribulations (droughts, bad seed, aggressive weeds, etc.). This summer I found myself getting frustrated with the weeds growing in the wildflower patch. My friends were kind enough to point out to me that maybe my perfectionism was getting in the way. Point well taken! I was obsessing over a "picture' perfect vision vs. the reality of life. When I finally stopped dwelling on what was wrong with my wildflower patch and started to really observe it, I noticed that the bees, birds, and the cats really didn't care about the weeds sprinkled in with the wildflowers. In fact, they all seemed to enjoy the jungle-feeling atmosphere. Besides... What is a weed? A plant whose gifts and virtues have not been discovered yet. As I typed that quote...I suddenly had a big "AHA" moment. Isn't that exactly what I stand for? Isn't that exactly what my on-line and in-person offerings at the Kent Emporium stand for? Every one-on-one session, every class, and every workshop allows people the opportunity to discover their own gifts in a safe nurturing environment surrounded by a supportive community of like-minded people. What people see as weeds within themselves are actually undiscovered gifts. So actually, those pesty weeds were trying to get my attention and talk to me this summer! Guess I better get outside and start recording some of their music between now and the first frost! So, what has been annoying you lately? Is this one of your undiscovered gifts trying to get your attention? Are you ready to connect more with nature and discover your hidden gifts? Sign-up for my in-person Shamanic Reiki 1 & 2 program (details below). If you are unable to attend in person, but are interested in a ZOOM program, please send me an email and we can discuss. Need some support from Nature this week? Learn more about the messages of Feathers via the Mini-Sound Bath (below) Listen to the supportive sound essence music of Sunflower. (below) WEEKLY MINI-SOUND BATHMAGICAL THINGS TO CHECK OUT Shamanic Reiki 1 & 2 Combined is an experiential learning workshop held in Kent, Illinois on November 5th and December 3rd, 2022. There are just 8 spots! During our 2 days together, you will learn new tools to support you on your personal healing journey, your work with others, and with nature. In between the 2 sessions, additional exercises will be provided so that you can practice and expand on the tools and practices that you have learned. Learn all the detail and sign up here. Healing Sounds Of Nature I am pieces of all the places I have been, and people I have loved. I've been stitched together by song lyrics, book quotes, adventure, late night conversations, moonlight, and the smell of coffee. ~Brooke Hampton I started 2022 feeling exhausted. I felt like I had never gotten a break during the COVID lock downs and instead continued to go-go-go with multiple balls in the air while trying to adjust to living in a COVID world. I'm sure many people feel this way! So, I made a decision in January 2022 and decided to slow down and pretty much take the year off and focus on just one thing.... Merging 2 healing modalities: Reiki and Shamanism Why? I have no better answer than to say that I followed my intuition. At the time, it made no sense to me, I even laughed about it, but it kept tugging at my heart strings. So, I decided to stop fighting and resisting the nudge, and instead I decided to trust intuition. And when people asked, I would just laugh and say... What do I have to lose? There are no wrong turns! Fast forward 9 months, and this is what I have learned by slowing down and focusing on 1 thing... Clarity By slowing down and focusing on Shamanic Reiki, I have learned how to meld the various modalities (Reiki, Shamanism, Sound Healing, Plant Medicine, Crystals Healing, Alchemy, Land healing) that I love into services that are uniquely my own. New offerings that will be rolling out over the course of the next several months. But to start with, I will focus on 2 new fun offerings:
Isn't it funny that we are driven by a culture that tells us to push ourselves to the breaking point in order to get the results that we want. When in reality, by slowing down, resting, and focusing on just 1 item, you get clarity, you have more time for rest and fun, and therefore you become more productive. What an interesting... Paradigm shift WEEKLY MINI-SOUND BATHMAGICAL THINGS TO CHECK OUT Shamanic Reiki 1 & 2 Combined is an experiential learning workshop held in Kent, Illinois on November 5th and December 3rd, 2022. There are just 8 spots! During our 2 days together, you will learn new tools to support you on your personal healing journey, your work with others, and with nature.
In between the 2 sessions, additional exercises will be provided so that you can practice and expand on the tools and practices that you have learned. Learn all the detail and sign up here.  Several weeks ago, I was awakened at 5am to the sound of a warning signal coming from my cell phone. When I picked up the phone to see what the warning was about, I saw that I had slept through 2 flood warnings and was finally be awaken by the 3rd flood warning (did I tell you that 3 is my number?). When I read the notice, I jumped out of bed, switched out of my pj's, and raced to the basement. Thoughts of the 2010 flood raced through my mind. A flood where I lost everything in the basement. 2 furnaces, a washer and dryer, a freezer, and boxes of memories. Images of seeing...
It's a day that will forever be etched into my memory. Oh, and before I forget to tell you, I don't like in a flood plain - it was an "act of god" flood! 12+ inches in < 24 hours. As I walked down the basement stairs, the floor was wet, and I saw water coming in from under the walkout basement door. This is what happened in 2010 - it rained so fast that the outside drain could not keep up with the water and as a result, the water started to build up outside and at some point, the water pressure literally broke the door jam and filling my basement with water. So, to prevent this from happening again, I grabbed a bucket, went outside and started to bail water in the pouring rain as it thundered and lightened above me. I prayed to not get struck by lightning (as me and electric have a long history of having issues). As I was bailing water, my thoughts were being flooded with memories. Memories of:
These memories turned my frustration into a flood of gratitude for the lessons learned/gifts received during that 2010 flood. Let's be honest - I didn't immediately learn these lessons or see the gift in the experience. It took time for the gift of the experience to emerge. In fact, I don't think I truly saw the full gift of the experience until the story came full circle and I got to experience the flood from a different perspective. What was the gift that I received from this experience? I learned that life happens on life's terms, and I get to choose how I want to accept the terms. I can either get angry, play the victim card, throw a temper tantrum and push against the circumstances or I can go with the flow of the current circumstances and trust I'm exactly where I need to be, and everything will be OK. It is always my choice. By 6:30am, the rain had stopped, and the water was receding in my basement. By 7am I was making coffee and watching the news with a friend and discussing the next set of improvement plans for the next flood (as I know there will be another one at some point). As I sipped my coffee, I felt lucky this time, as I only got 3 inches in the basement (I keep everything 24 inches off of the floor now) and mother nature helped me wash a floor that was on my Fall Cleaning to-do list. So, I can check that off of my list. Do you have a story you would like to share about finding the gift in an unplanned life situation? Send me an email. I would love to hear about it. MAGICAL THINGS TO CHECK OUT  The pause is as important as the note. |
Robin RosenstielStories to inspire you on your own journey to rediscovering joy in your life. Archives
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