Happy Chinese New Year !!

The Year of the Fire Dog!

I would like to wish you all a fortunate and productive cycle, and let the Year of the Dog bring you closer to family and friends. I'm afraid I don't have time to write what I think this year of the Dog will bring, but hopefully these links will please you!!

Click on the Dog print to learn more about Chinese New Year, and to see a lovely calendar of this year.

Click here to see your Horoscope (and to find out what sign you are) for this Chinese Year.

Click here to see TONS of great info on the Year of the Dog, and if you go to the bottom of the page, you can see how this year affects your particular sign!

Forbes has an article on this Year of the Dog, and has a forecast for each sign. Great! Click here to read it.

Also, check out this amazing Feng Shui almanac at Dragon-Gate, which I enjoy. (It's where the little red dragon at the top of the page comes from too.)

Send Chinese New Year E-Card to your family and friends.

Nervous about Elections?

Even though I'm going through a flare up, I had this meditation exercise in draft, so I'm going to share it with you now - since this is the time we all need to relax as much as possible! Remember that the universe has a plan for us individually, us as a country, and us as a planet - and nothing happens without a purpose. Who so ever wins this election will have to follow this plan, whether they like it or not - or whether they know it or not, and even whether they believe in it or not.

I hope to also show this exercise to others I know, and I encourage you to send it to your friends if you wish - as we could all do with a quick and easy meditation session!

Here's a meditation exercise, a simplified form of progressive muscle relaxation, (it's best to do this while listening to calming music, like SomaFM Radio's Drone Zone, or Radio Tabla):

1. Lay down with a pillow under your head and another one under your knees (optional, but it's more comfortable)
   
2. Breathe in slowly through your nose for a count of 6, and out through your pursed lips (like you're whistling, but without sound) for a count of 15. Get used to this breathing for a few minutes before you continue to the next step. (This is easy to memorize, but you can also copy and paste this into a word document and print it out if you wish.)
   
3. Think of each muscle from your toes to your nose, tense them all up for that inward respiration (6 seconds or count to 6) but tense them up only once, and then relax them all slowly for a count of 15. Another option for this is going through each muscle at a time from toes to face, each breath cycle being one more group. The optional method is more effective, but it takes a lot longer, of course depending on how down to detail you get. I suggest you can also just focus on muscle groups: leg muscles, abdominal, arms, neck and shoulders, and face.
   
4. Continue breathing, and feel like your body is slowly melting into the carpet, like a marshmallow in the microwave or snow under a warm joyful sun.. This should relax you plenty. Do this for 15 minutes to an hour (or more!), and your body will release plenty of happy endorphins.

Click on the picture of White Tara to visit an amazing audio-lesson meditation site.

Flare-Up

Sorry to say I have a bad FMS flareup and need to take things slowly, which means both my weblogs will be taking a break for a few days. But as soon as I am well enough, I have some really good posts to share with you on developing psychic ability!

Readings that I am currently working on will go on as normal, but I may be slow in responding to your emails, but I do get them!!

Chakra Series #2: The Sacral Chakra

Hoping to get you familiar with the Chakras for future articles on meditation, this is the second in the Chakra Series, the Svadhisthana Chakra, or Sacral Chakra.
Right is a picture (I quickly sketched it, it's not perfect!) of the Sacral Chakra. It rules sexuality, gender, sensuality, creativity, life energy, the ability to procreate, taste, and can be equated to the Fifth House of Astrology in many ways (but not all). This is the Sweet spot of the Chakra system, literally Svadhisthana means sweetness/loveliness. This Chakra can be represented by a Crescent moon, water animals, and Venus. Its element is water, and its colour is orange. When I have a little more energy (when my Sacral Chakra has time to regenerate enough energy) I will post a meditation for this Chakra.

This Chakra is a very feminine Chakra, and people with a blocked Sacral Chakra usually have a lot of reproductive problems, feminine identity problems, aggression issues, sexual dysfunctions, apathy, back pain, urinary tract problems, lack of control of physical desires, and feel creatively blocked often. This will not only manifest physically, mentally, and emotionally - but the Chakras are a crossroads for all parts of the human being, including the spirit. To balance this Chakra is to open up a balanced spiritual self to psychic receptivity and mediumship, a blocked Sacral Chakra will cause messages from the other side, future, and divinity to be hazy, choppy, and hard to comprehend. At times when my Sacral Chakra is blocked, I do an intensive balancing of this Chakra before doing any readings or communications. This is sometimes time-consuming, but well worth it, as a clear Sacral Chakra can create the most intensely clear messages from the other side. This is another upside to email readings, as I am able to continuously do exercises to clear this Chakra - whereas in person-to-person readings I'm on a tight schedule and need to do things as quickly as possible to conserve energy and give my patron as much reading for their money as possible. When doing email readings, I can take breaks from the reading when a Chakra becomes blocked.

So what can you do to clear this Chakra? Here is my suggested exercise..

The Loving Body
What you'll need:

• A piece of paper
• Coloured Pencils, crayons, paints, or whatever kind of writing instrument you can find - the colours are: Orange, Yellow, Red.
• Black or Red fine tip pen
  
• A calm quite and peaceful place (if possible)
• And here are some suggestions to make this more effective, but they are optional:
• Scents that aid in this are: Orange, Ylang-Ylang, Pepper, Sandalwood, Vanilla, "Opium" smell, Musky smells. If you have no scented oils, I suggest you get an orange and peel it slowly while inhaling the smell.
• Relaxing New-Age, exotic is best (Ravi Shankar, Sheila Chandra), I really enjoy the online station "Life is Round" as it is full of very calming music, and it's free!
• Drink decaf or mild coffee, or dandelion tea, or raspberry leaf tea. You can find dandelion tea at most health food stores, drug stores, or big chains like Wal Mart, Zellers, etc.
• Have bright diffused light, or bright yellow lighting. NOT fluorescent lights! BAD!
• Dress in sensual fabrics, like satin, silk, very comfortable PJ's, etc. Something very comfortable.

Now for the exercise itself.. Make sure you have a 30 minute period, at least, to do this exercise. Smaller periods are still effective, but to get real results it's good to take a nice big chunk of time and devote yourself to balancing the Chakra.

1. Sit comfortably, either at a table, or with a book on your lap as you curl up on the couch - and position yourself comfortably enough with your three coloured pencils.
2. Draw your version of the Sacral Chakra, and use your imagination. You can make it a sun, a flower, a funnel, a face, anything you want. Make it detailed, intricate, but make it a fun rambling picture, where you can experiment with the three colours interacting. Little lines are best, that follow each other like race tracks - but you can experiment with different sizes of lines.
3. Around this, or in between tiny lines, or big lines, or on lines, wherever your creativity leads you, write 6 things you like about yourself physically.
4. Write six things you love (could be food, material goods, tv shows, music etc)
5. Write six things you could do to bring more comfort and sensual pleasure into your life (take up yoga, get heatable slippers, get a massage, eat more healthily but make room for chocolate, etc).
6. Write six things you like about your personality
7. Write six of your life accomplishments
8. Write six words that describe you, positively.
9. Keep your Chakra for future reference, and you can make a collection of these sunny Sacral Chakras to remind you of your own inner and outer beauty, as well as the beauty of the world around you. Try to do at least two of the things on your list (#5), during the next week or month.