by Brianna | Mar 1, 2013 | Aromatherapy, Healing, practice
Have we met? If so, there is a very good chance that I have already waxed poetic about a salt bath and why you should take one. Bathing as a ritual and a healer is a very old practice. The Romans did it, the indigenous peoples did it, and you should do it too. I LOVE taking baths. Typically, I bathe in Epsom Salts as they are an affordable luxury and incredibly versatile. Read the back of the box and you will see that there are many other reasons to use them. Strangely enough, they are so amazing that even the Wall Street Journal is on board. Yesterday the UPS deliveryman was lucky enough to carry 20 pounds of Epsom Salts to my third floor walk-up. To give you a perspective on just how much salt we are talking about here – the kind you buy in the store is one to two pounds. This is the first time I have ever ordered salt in bulk and when I saw it I was so excited that I clapped. This weekend I am teaching a three-day training on the Energetic Aspects of Teaching in Delaware. During this training, I ask participants to practice a salt bath ritual for the three days we are together. My hope is that it will inspire them to continue to utilize this simple and effective tool for healing, release, and renewal. Making bath salts for others is meaningful to me. I believe in their power to heal and that is why I give them to my students, friends, and family. It takes me quite a...
by Brianna | Sep 19, 2012 | Breathing, Healing, restorative yoga, silence, Yoga
Not sleeping but actually relaxing? Are you constantly compelled to go, go, go? Are you stressed upon waking? Midday? Evening? Although I have no desire to go through it again my period with Chronic Fatigue taught me many things. There are far too many to list but one of the most compelling lessons was that my body needed space and time to reset. Since that time, no matter how overwhelmed, no matter how teeth-grindingly stressed I may be, I afford myself time to sit still, breathe deep, and let myself come to center. We all need time to reset. While we are designed to go full tilt for short periods of time we are not designed to go at mock speed all of the time. In the 70’s Henry Benson a Harvard Cardiologist began, much to the chagrin of his colleagues, to research the physiological affects of meditation. In his first studies he focused specifically on the practice of transcendental meditation (repetition of a word or mantra) and its affects on hypertension (high blood pressure). What doctor Benson ascertained from his studies was that through meditative techniques the body has an innate ability to move to a state of relaxation. In this state there are observable physiological symptoms: decreased heart rate, slowed breathing, and lowered blood pressure. He poetically titled it the “Relaxation Response.” In other words Benson found that the body is innately programmed to be able to reset. The technique utilized to trigger the “Relaxation Response” is incredibly simple. Though it can be done in a secular fashion, it is also a technique that is interwoven...
by Brianna | Aug 21, 2012 | Breathing, Healing, silence, Yoga
Stillness is an action. It requires effort. It requires focus. It requires a willingness to be present in order to remember to be still. Stillness is important to many aspects of the practice. In postures stillness can generate strength in the more active poses and aid relaxation in the more quieted ones. If stillness is coupled with breath awareness a powerful entrance point to meditation is activated. Keep thinking about it and the power of stillness will keep expanding. In my classes when stillness is requested most of my students will become mostly “still”. Many will continue to actively wipe and wiggle, blink, and adjust. Sometimes these movers and shakers send off electrical firestorms inspiring bursts of movement by their neighbors. Lately I have been using guilt to make my students be still. Admittedly, I feel a little guilty about it but it is surprisingly effective. And maybe, in this one instance my Mom’s logic is right. Maybe “I am not guilting, so much as reminding them” that our actions impact others. Next time you are moving through your personal practice in a community space and stillness is requested of you – put forth some focused effort – try to be honestly still and offer that energy out to the healing of your neighbor....
by Brianna | Jun 21, 2012 | Healing, practice, silence
Because the majority of my work is voice based my voice is often tired. I talk and talk and talk and talk – I tell stories, I boss students about how to move their bodies, and I hold my clients hands when I tell them the honest and hard truth. Sometimes, I will literally speak for eight hours straight. Those days I am so tired of hearing myself that when I have the luxury I stay quiet. I don’t call my friends or family, I don’t seek out dinner companions, instead I sit still and in silence, usually in the bathtub, probably with the lights out. Like a singer, this last week I injured my voice. My big powerful beautiful strong voice is currently muted. I can speak but it is not suppose to be above a whisper and in truth it is not suppose to be at all. As soon as my doctor told me that I had to shut-up I realized that I had so much I wanted to say pretty much to everyone – especially those I love. Yet this time silence is not a luxury. Silence is not a gift to myself. Silence is now both my practice and my healer. Freaking silence. So I am practicing remembering to remember to be silent. To say the least it is hard, it requires effort, it makes me uncomfortable – if I were in front of a yoga room right now I would say that this serves a purpose. That this discomfort will agitate me to grow. Maybe it will but right now when I am out...
by Brianna | Jun 3, 2012 | Healing, Hypnosis, Hypnotherapy
In many ways each of our experiences become our personal story. Certain stories have more weight then others. Most are fleeting but some are fingered like a touchstone and stroked into a belief. For the mind, repetition is only healing if what you are repeating to yourself is based in love, respect and joy. It is our beliefs that form our patterns. They push us forward or cause us to be immobile. They interconnect us to others or keep us distant and separate. We hold beliefs about so many things. What’s fascinating is that most of the time we do not realize that those underpinnings are even there. The groove has worn so deep that it dips below conscious awareness. Conscious becoming subconscious, the thought shifts to underlying belief and joins the web that churns out our words, deeds and actions. Plaque made by Anne Stringer I work with this notion a lot as a hypnotist. Clients come in and we begin to peel back the layers of story in order to root out the causative belief. Simply put, kill the root and the pattern dies. By working with your subconscious you can untangle yourself from all manner of limiting and harmful beliefs. Change the belief and your thoughts, words, deeds and actions will shift. Part of my work as a hypnotist, is to create stories that utilize metaphor. These stories help the subconscious release what is harmful and bolster what is healing. My intention with this crafting is to help each of my clients foster a hum of self-love, respect, and compassionate understanding. Like Louise Hay says: “Love...
by Brianna | Mar 16, 2012 | Affirmations, Breathing, Change, Fear, Healing, Power of Thought, practice
Historically it has been difficult for me to remain calm when others are being emotional. Like an absorbing mirror I breathe their emotion in. Always categorized as extremely sensitive, it wasn’t until my late 20s that I realized my mood was transient because I was constantly absorbing other people’s feelings. My personal boundaries were so blurred that I didn’t realize where I ended and others began. My energetic awareness shifted one day waiting for the ATM in a line that was two people deep. I went from feeling happy and light to being pissed. It was a heady enough shift that I stopped and asked myself: “where is this emotion coming from.” It was then I realized the line had grown and was full of agitated people. Without a doubt, my willingness to make inquiry was rooted in my time on the mat. Since then I tune in when I feel myself shift and I ask: “Is this really my emotion or is it theirs?” That question and the awareness to ask it changed my life and set me on a path of energetic exploration. Sunrise at the Healing House I first began to share the energetic toolkit that I developed as a presentation in Charm City Yoga’s teacher training about four years ago. In it we discussed mirror neurons, the idea of a professional persona, the need for grounding through presence, protection through appropriate boundaries, and the awareness and willingness to release. I have made this presentation numerous times and its content has grown into a three-day retreat that I offer once a year. During my most...
