Author Archive
A Practice that Always Keeps Me in High Energy
Posted by: | CommentsWhen I went through a post-partem depression after my daughter was born, I felt God gave me a prescription to do three things:
- walk every day
- write three pages of longhand first thing in the morning (“morning pages” ala Julia Cameron)
- keep a “gifts journal,” writing down at least three things that felt like gifts to me.
I’ve been doing all three directives ever since for 27 years. The “gifts journal” turned into my book, Abundant Gifts.
Recently some serious challenges have been thrown at me (as if what’s been happening in the world over the past three years isn’t enough), and I’m clinging more than ever to keeping my “gifts journal.”
I want to stay in the energy of gratitude, which seems to create a frequency of resilience that allows a lot of stress to bounce off of me.
Or at least it counteracts stress to a great degree.
When I look for at least three gifts a day, I always find at least three. Usually more. Julie Bjelland strongly encourages us to keep a “positives journal,” citing the brain statistic that it takes eight positives to overcome one negative, because of our brain’s “negativity bias.” (We’re wired to look for the negative, for danger.)
How about you? Are you up for a challenge? Will you commit yourself, for the next seven days at least, to writing down, in one place, at least three things per day that feel like gifts?
Post your gifts, if you are open to it, as a comment below. Let’s share what we’re receiving. That will open us up to seeing and receiving more.
If you want a pointer on how to keep a gifts journal, plus a free place to do it, go here.
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from Anne, after she’d been keeping her gifts journal for a few weeks:
“I have been working on the gifts journal. I was at first writing down what I’m grateful for, but thinking about it in the light of, ‘wow I was really frustrated when I sat in traffic, what do I think the Lord was doing with that and did anything good come out of it?’ is a new way of looking at the negative in a more positive light. I love this. Sometimes I don’t know, but I can get curious and say, ‘ok, I wonder what the Lord will do with this. I’ll just be patient.’” –Anne M., California
I love this! This is the kind of perspective shift that’s possible.
How to Stay in Your “New You” Energy
Posted by: | CommentsI wrote recently about “new year, new energy, new you.”
I suggested you pick a word or phrase for this year, and/or your birth year. Making it rhyme is fun but not necessary.
Do you still remember your words of intention? Do they still hold the same energy for you?
If not, I’ll tell you the secret of staying in that energy.
First, realize that you don’t need the calendar to tell you when you can make a fresh start.
At any time, you can re-return to your intention.
Then, staying in that energy is actually simple.
You recommit to it every day. You remind yourself of it every day.
And—here’s the big key–you take some action, however small, in alignment with that energy.
Ideally, you do it daily.
Every action you take is like another ray of energy coming from your intention, connecting your intention with the physical world.
For example, my words for this my 66th year are “66: the year to fix (or nix).” I have gotten things fixed around the house that were on the back burner before. I have seen some health care providers to improve some health issues that I’ve been neglecting. And I “nix” by every day getting rid of something I no longer want or need—even if it’s only an old tube of toothpaste!
(My husband is rather a pack rat, and will even take something out of the trash and say, “Did you really mean to throw this away?” At first it was kind of annoying. Then I realized that saying, “Yes, if I throw it away, I mean not to keep it” actually drew me deeper into my intention to “nix.” So I cheerfully reaffirm that commitment when he asks. I also bought some black trash bags so he can’t see what’s in them! Small, daily actions!)
My intention includes letting go or changing thoughts and beliefs too, by the way. For instance, when a doctor gave me a dire warning, I “nixed” that thought. I changed it to, “She is coming from the typical ‘western medicine approach,’ which totally disregards energy or less invasive approaches to a problem.” I prayed, followed my “next clear step,” and have some very viable alternatives to try before the radical option she suggested. I refuse to entertain any thoughts that are not in line with faith and my deepest knowing.
This calendar year, 2023, is my “year to be free.” That ties in very nicely with the other intention. I am working to be free of the stuff, thoughts, commitments that no longer serve me.
So today, I encourage you to start doing some action, however small, to keep you in your intended energy. Do something daily.
It also helps a whole lot to be accountable, or at least to be witnessed. That’s why I encouraged you to share your words of intention with me or someone else. (Leave a comment to be witnessed.) You might even share some of your intended actions, and ask the person to check in with you on those.
Or, you could simply be accountable to yourself, by setting a reminder in your phone to pop up when you still have time to take action. For instance, I could set a reminder for 8 p.m.: “What have you fixed or nixed today?”
Or you could do both! Be accountable to yourself and to someone else.
Make it fun. Make it daily. Make it stick.
And if you need help, contact Diane to see if one of her programs will be a good fit.
Nervous System Rx
Posted by: | CommentsI woke the other morning with two words in my mind: calm focus.
The words themselves had a calming effect. I often wake up feeling anxious, not sure why. Emotional inflammation? Maybe. Some of my other clients (especially the Highly Sensitive ones) report the same issue.
But this morning, those two words immediately seemed to override the anxiety.
I’ve been using them all day, returning to them again and again, especially as I begin a new task. Just saying the words to myself, calm focus, seems to bring that very thing into my being.
The word calm is calming in itself. Once I feel the calm, the question becomes, “How can I bring calm focus to this task?” That’s the mental part.
What words bring peace and calm to your nervous system?
It’s worth thinking about. More and more, I’m seeing how central the nervous system is to our health and well-being. I believe one of the reasons people heal from so many different ailments with The Healing Codes is that it displaces stress in the autonomic nervous system. Perhaps it strengthens the vagal tone of the vagus nerve, that all-important nerve that runs from the back of the ear (Jaws position?) all through just about every organ in the body (except the adrenal and thyroid glands). It’s the longest nerve in your body.
Image by Christine Schmidt from Pixabay
I’ve always found it intriguing that the test Dr. Alex Loyd used to validate The Healing Codes—Heart Rate Variability or HRV—is the same test that’s used to measure vagal tone.
Also, when the vagus nerve is stimulated, different maladies from Parkinsons to depression to addictions to rheumatoid arthritis tend to resolve. When “vagal tone” improves, everything in a person’s life improves: their health, their mood, their overall sense of well-being (just like with The healing Codes).
That’s why my theory is that The Healing Codes improve vagal tone–for a whole lot less money and hassle than the vagal tone stimulation provided only by some researchers. Perhaps because it’s a form of meditation, which is one of the ways to stimulate the vagus nerve and improve vagal tone.
Calming your nervous system by stimulating your vagus nerve can play a key role in your mental and physical health. As clinical psychologist Dr. Arielle Schwartz said, “By developing an understanding of the workings of your vagus nerve, you may find it possible to work with your nervous system rather than feel trapped when it works against you”–such as when you feel stressed.
One thing researchers also find is that when you don’t regularly stimulate the vagus nerve, any gains you had before tend to diminish. I’ve seen this happen too with clients who slack off on their Healing Codes. It needs to be a daily practice. Doing Healing Codes regularly and finding ways to keep in a calm state most of the day will lead, I believe, to long-terms healing.
Calm focus. That de-activates stress for me. What might work for you as you go about your daily business? It doesn’t have to be complicated!
I have developed several tools for calming and healing your nervous system. If you would like to know more about those tools, and a program to not only help you heal but Align with Your Divine Design(TM) so that every area of your life is transformed, contact me for more information.
Subtraction—The Best Way to Change?
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In a recent post I wrote about how I’ve dubbed this year, when I’m 66, “the year to fix—or nix.”
By “nix” I mean: subtract.
Most of us, when we think of changes we want to make in our lives, go directly to addition. We buy a new course that promises the result we desire. We add new routines, new rules.
How often do we even think of subtracting?
A fascinating article by Leidy Klotz, author of Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less, explores how we naturally tend to add when we’re trying to solve a problem. He even conducted experiments to prove this.
Taking things away, Klotz’s experiments show, just doesn’t occur to people naturally.
Photo by Luis Villasmil on Unsplash
Why is this? One of his experiments points to a possible answer: cognitive overload. We have too many things to deal with at once, and this cuts into our ability to think of a wide range of solutions—including subtraction.
(Sound familiar, fellow Highly Sensitive Person?)
Our minds tend to add before taking away, and this is holding us back.
We pile on “to-dos” but don’t consider “stop-doings.” We create incentives for good behavior, but don’t get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated ones. Every day, across challenges big and small, we neglect a basic way to make things better: we don’t subtract.
Thus we get houses with more stuff than we can manage (and studies have shown that clutter increases cortisol levels—bad for our health). We get institutions bogged down by more and more rules and regulations. Children get more rules, grown-ups deal with federal regulations that are 20 times as long as they were in 1950. (And what about all the rules added since the pandemic? Time to subtract—yes, yes and YES!)
Whatever you’re hoping to change in 2023, consider how subtraction plays in. Apparently it’s not as natural to think of (or implement) than adding, but could that be due more to culture than nature? Leidy Klotz’s two-year-old son solved a Lego problem by taking something away; Leidy only thought of adding.
Could it be our culture of “fast, more, be productive” is what keeps our brains from considering subtraction?
(I see the inclination to add in myself a lot. For instance, in thinking about this topic, I’m tempted to get minimalist expert Joshua Becker’s Uncluttered course. But—would that be adding something that would take more time, when I could be using that time to do the actual decluttering—the subtracting? There’s proof right there that my natural tendency is to add….)
At least now I’m aware that I automatically think of adding, and it often doesn’t occur to me to subtract. Awareness leads to new options, to choice.
Perhaps we shut off the idea of subtraction because we unconsciously equate it with loss. But is it loss if we consciously choose it? It doesn’t feel like loss to me when I choose to let something go. At least, there’s a counter-balancing reason to let it go that’s greater than the urge to keep it.
Photo by Nguyen Thu Hoai on Unsplash
As I’ve pondered this in the dead of winter, I realize: subtracting should not be any big insight, nor does it have to be seen as loss. Every fall, much in nature is subtracted: the leaves on the trees, green grass, flowers. Every year, at least those of us with four seasons get a reminder that in order to replenish, we must subtract and allow things to lie fallow for a while.
If you’re a gardener, you know it’s important to prune, to deadhead, if you want fruit and blooms.
Nature renews itself through subtraction.
And so can we. We can choose nature over culture. We can prune to promote growth and renewal.
If you are longing for renewal, for a deeper sense of purpose and fulfillment in 2023, contact me (diane at healingcodescoaching.com) and we’ll set up an appointment to explore how you can heal your heart issues and Align with Your Divine DesignTM for a sense of purpose, connection, and better overall health.
New Year, New Energy, New You
Posted by: | CommentsI don’t know about you, but I’m not big on making “New Year’s resolutions.” Or even setting goals in the typical way, especially with a deadline. I like what Alex Loyd says: the only good goal is something that’s 100% under your control. How often can we control something 100%? Life always seems to get in the way. Then, too, it’s discouraging if I don’t meet the goal.
Instead I like to set intentions. Typical goals are so structured, they don’t allow enough for flow. Setting an intention creates a flexible structure that allows for flow as well as direction. Usually my intention is just a word or phrase to sort of anchor the energy, and then I try to stay Aligned and tuned in to God’s direction day by day as I go.
I especially like to set deliberate intentions either at the start of my own birth year, or the start of a new year—or both!
Being a word person, I find it fun to make up a little rhyme. Since I just turned sixty-six, my rhyme for this birth year is “sixty-six, the year to fix (and nix).” I want to fix or nix whatever isn’t serving me now. (This includes physical things in my home.)
You can use this approach to look back, or look ahead. This past year my intention for my “sixty-five” year was to thrive–no matter what life throws at me. And you know what? I did, for the most part. Life threw a lot at me, but I did find ways to thrive despite it.s it more power, studies show. So state them to me, to the world, to some loved one who “gets” you, or even just to yourself in a journal.
It is good to look back on how your intentions played out over the last year. It can make you feel abundant. It can anchor into your body and soul that you are, in fact, being guided and loved.
The year before, sixty-four, was “the year for more,” and boy was it ever—mostly more stress. But also more insights, deeper ministry and growth; more ideas and plans. Just—more of everything. A full year of both challenges and blessings.
Since we’re heading into a new year, it’s a good time to both look backward and forward. What was 2022 for you? What were the gifts that made your soul sing? (If you haven’t been keeping track, now would be a good time to start keeping a Gifts Journal. Directions here.)
What challenges did you face? What lessons did you learn?
I had dubbed 2022 as “the year to be true.” True to my deepest values, true to my “Touchstone to Alignment,” and dedicated to deciphering what is true about these unprecedented times. That was my focus, that’s where the energy went, and that’s what I hung onto. It got me through some tough times.
What intention will you set for 2023? You don’t have to make it rhyme, of course. But since I like to, I think I’ll dub 2023 “the year to be free.” Free of more heart issues, free to be me, free to live the life I want to live rather than the life others want me to live, and even seek to impose on me.
What energy do you want to characterize 2023? The year to be free, like me . . . or the year to be happy, or the year to see (as in, see things as they really are), or the year to simply be (hmm, I like that one too), or . . .?
The energy of the intention and the words will move you forward with less effort than you dreamed possible.
And if you want more help with setting intentions and living more Aligned with Your Divine Design(TM), shoot me an email (diane at healingcodescoaching.com) and we can set up a call to explore how that can happen for you.
Breaking Negative Generational Patterns
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the most amazing thing about The Healing Codes to me is that you can pass on your healing to other people. This is the beauty of energy healing: you can heal others as well as yourself.
How? Because we are energetically connected to those close to us (whether we like it or not), our issues are in part their issues. As we heal our own issues, and intentionally pass on the healing to those we’re close to, they can heal as well.
That’s why I always suggest, at the end of your own Healing Code session, you say, “I release the healing to _____ [name the people], in love, insofar as this issue affects them or this code can help them.”
You can also, of course, do a Healing Code specifically for other people. On my website, you can see several testimonials of clients who have done custom codes for loved ones, with sometimes miraculous results.
I always release my energy healing to my loved ones (and even my “enemies”), and I’m convinced this is one of the reasons why my children are doing so well. My daughter especially has responded well to the Healing Codes. (Though she would never do them herself.) I recall when she was younger, I’d do a Healing Code for something that had her all in a bother in the morning, and then when I picked her up from school and asked about the matter, she’d say, “Oh that—it went fine.” Now she’s all grown up, and in May 2022 she earned her doctorate in physical therapy and is now practicing in a great job, and dating a wonderful premed student.
I grew up with Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN), and unwittingly passed it on to my children. It’s been gratifying to see, however, that they have managed largely to learn how to deal with their emotions anyway, and I’m doing what I can to help them. I believe releasing my Codes to them, as I’ve been working on healing my own CEN, is making a difference.
Along with lots of prayer, of course!
Here’s to breaking negative energetic patterns!
And if you want some help with breaking generational patterns, and/or getting a Healing Code for someone else (perhaps as a gift?), check out my HealingHeartsCoaching.com page.
Why Your Issues Might Not Even Really Be Yours
Posted by: | CommentsI was speaking to a client the other day, and she brought up the question of past lives.
I wrote about that, here. I do not believe in past lives, but I do think that it’s possible that people can access generational memories, which I believe are stored in the information energy pattern in the DNA that gets passed down.
There is more and more scientific knowledge to back this up. My favorite experiment is about how mice exposed to cherry blossom scent while being shocked passed down the fear to subsequent generations. You can read about that from any of the articles here.
So some of our stuff may not even be ours, or it wasn’t ours originally, but because we were born with the “filter” of that passed-down trauma, we might start to interpret our own experiences through that lens. Thus the issue then becomes our own. And that may be why the generations rarely evolve and get better; they more usually devolve from the accumulation of sins and these negative patterns and “programming.”
Unless someone breaks the pattern.
That someone can be you.
If you have a background that is less than ideal in any way (who doesn’t?), remember you can break the cycle. You always have the ability to choose. You can break free from any negative family pattern and create a whole new pattern.
You do that by healing yourself.
How do I know this to be true? Because my life proves it.
I didn’t know, until I went through the 17-month ordeal of attempting to settle my mother’s estate as co-executor, just how negative and damaging the family patterns were. Oh, I could see how the patterns have shown up in my siblings’ families, but I escaped it, right? I employed what one of my counselors called “the geographic solution”–I moved away 1000 miles right after college, and rarely looked back.
I made different choices in life than my siblings and my parents. And I have managed, by God’s grace (I do not say that lightly at all), to have stayed married to a wonderful man for 42 years; reared two children who are leading productive lives (despite what they inherited from their parents—more on that later); and enjoyed a wonderful, interesting and productive career.
Settling the estate, however, brought me face to face with what has not yet healed.
I am so very thankful that, before my mother died in November 2020, I had already developed additional tools, beyond The Healing Codes, that helped me not only stay relatively healthy despite the stress, but to also recognize and heal the hidden wounds that were uncovered.
And, beyond healing, to transform and become aligned with my divine design. To have an inner knowing that I am on the right path for me, and a peace that as I walk Next Clear Step by Next Clear Step, exactly the right things will unfold for me to live out my unique purpose in life.
If this stirs something in your soul . . . if you long to heal from past patterns and align with your divine design so that you can also experience that sense of peace, purpose, and fulfillment, I invite you to check out my new Align with Your Divine Design program and fill out a Clarity Questionnaire. Then we’ll hop on a call to see if either of these programs is a fit.
Next time, I’ll show you how to pass on your healing to others. It starts with you committing to your own healing and transformation.
Turkey or Brisket? (Why It Matters)
Posted by: | CommentsMy client, M.H., told me a rather funny story about her family’s Thanksgiving (and gave me permission to share it). Yet it had a point that can apply to many of us, in one way or another.
All her life, M.’s mother made a turkey for Thanksgiving. Her mom loved turkey, and it’s the thing to do on Thanksgiving, right?
When mom entered assisted living and could no longer cook and host, M’s sister took over. She made the usual turkey, but also brisket, because they all loved brisket.
That year, no one ate the turkey. They realized mom was the only one that had ever liked turkey! M’s sister was furious, declaring, “I’m never cooking a turkey again!”
And so this family now happily celebrates Thanksgiving with brisket and other favorite foods. No more turkey!
What strikes me is that the mom never asked the others if they like turkey, and no one thought of speaking up. Isn’t this so typical of the way many of us do things? We go along with some tradition, never even taking a moment to tune in to our own desires and making our wishes known. We “eat the turkey” even though we hate it.
That’s OK for one day a year, but what if we’re living our whole lives that way? Those who grew up with Childhood Emotional Neglect, in which their emotions were ignored or even denigrated, often grew up “going along,” doing all the right things but feeling empty inside. Growing up with any kind of outright abuse can have the same effect.
If this is you, I’m here to tell you there’s more. And that you can have more, be more. If that nagging emptiness dogs you, that can be healed.
First you have to realize you’ve been living “eating the turkey rather than the brisket” you desire. Then, I invite you to check out my new program, Align with Your Divine DesignTM and fill out a Clarity Questionnaire. We’ll hop on a call to see how you can make sure every year you can happily “eat brisket not turkey” with others who feel the same way.
Healing Codes, Medical Treatments–and Miracles
Posted by: | CommentsI received a text the other day that totally lit up my day. I hope it will fire you up about what’s possible with The Healing Codes.
Jose G. came to me five years ago with a diagnosis of leukemia. For four years it was pretty much kept at bay as he did custom Healing Codes to heal his heart issues. He also bought a Halo and used it regularly.
We worked on many of Jose’s heart issues, and also a number of generational issues. Realizing he is a Highly Sensitive Person was a huge shift for him. He began to accept himself even though he was different than other men. He began to know in a deep way that God made him this way and the trait was something to be cherished, not feel ashamed of.
Jose overcame a number of other physical challenges, including a very bad case of poison ivy, and COVID. He was hospitalized for the latter, but made it through.
Several months ago, Jose’s cancer markers got worse, and he had to decide whether he would undergo the medical treatments his doctors were suggesting. Being a doctor himself and seeing what such treatments do to people, Jose agonized over what to do.
I don’t know the specifics of what treatments he decided upon, but one thing we worked on was the fact that his father had had the very same diagnosis as Jose, and died five years after. It was hard for Jose to break out of the fear that he would follow in his father’s footsteps, as he faced bad news about his own health and was coming up on 5 years after diagnosis himself.
Of course we addressed that one from a number of different angles with The Healing Codes.
All of this groundwork paved the way, I believe, to the amazing testimonial Jose shared with me:
Jose is sorting through his own interpretation of this miracle.
My perspective so far is that because he had cleared away so many “heart issues,” his body had the resources to fight the cancer. The body is an amazing healing organism—if we allow it to do its work. No doubt whatever treatments he took were also a factor. But I personally don’t think we can attribute his healing solely to medical treatments. I have seen too many cases (and Jose saw even more) of people who underwent treatments and either the treatments didn’t work, or they impaired quality of life, or even killed the patients.
But I’ve also seen clients who have undergone medical treatments while also doing The Healing Codes experience great results, and even bypass negative side effects of the treatments. (I always advise people to include in the prayer of intention, where you mention the specific physical issues, “and any negative effects of the treatments.” I can’t remember any client who has added that to their Healing Code prayer experience debilitating side effects.)
Another important point: It was crucial that Jose changed that belief that he would follow in his father’s footsteps, lest that become a self-fulfilling prophecy.
(I remember working with my mother, who had a similar fear. When she was 78, she was very fearful that she would die of a stroke at 78, just like her mother. We healed that belief. My mother lived to be 88, and survived two strokes before she passed of congestive heart failure.)
I rejoice over Jose’s healing. I told him it made my day (really: week, month, year!). I hope you find it inspirational, too. I hope that it motivates you to regularly do this healing work. You never know what it may be staving off for you, or when you will need the foundation of healing it affords to get you through a health crisis in the future.
And if you need some extra help, check out my coaching options at https://healingcodescoaching.com.
“That Doesn’t Work for Me . . .”
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever read (or heard) something that sounded like great wisdom, great advice . . .
and you try it and it doesn’t work for you?
Photo by charlesdeluvio on Unsplash
Then you think, There must be something wrong with me.
I just read some advice about how to feel better when you’re feeling down. The writer called her sponsor and said she was upset about something. The sponsor told her, ‘Get over yourself and go find someone to help.”
The person took the advice, and felt better, she said.
Maybe this works for some people, like her. But for me, as a Highly Sensitive Person who also grew up with Childhood Emotional Neglect (CEN), it’s all wrong. (If you’re not sure if these apply to you, take the free assessments here.)
