happy 4th of july and a new moon on monday

olive is ready to rumble when the fireworks rumble

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Olive is ready for the noisy fireworks this year with her new thunder shirt - which is supposed to support her in feeling secure. Has anyone tried this?

This is one of Olive's least favorite days of the year

(surpassed only by the days she is forced to eat actual dog food)

maybe this will be her first 4th not spent shivering and salivating under the bed. Fingers crossed.

There is a Cancer New Moon on Monday!

We are overflowing with Cancer energy right now - I hope someone is tracking pregnancy statistics.

Many of us will be 'crabby' - which will probably last about two and a half days unless you have some specific and stressful Cancerian aspects in your chart. It is a good time to not take things personally - since things are fluid and Cancers have that soft belly - making everyone just a little bit more sensitive.

Anyone who has gone into their 'shell' now, should probably be left alone there.

Better to entice them out when the time is right than try to shake them out or start banging on their shell to wake them up. Hard shell coupled with soft belly makes this a perfect time for any chronic back problems to act up or hidden ones to emerge so maybe hit the pool, water is our friend, instead of the gym if possible.

Our intuition will be very strong now. Lots of home and nostalgia stuff will probably be coming up for everyone. Deep inside, Cancer is a very powerful sign, they have the ability to stand up for what they think is right and they have lots of perseverance. They can do great on their own provided they don't let their emotions get the better of them and provided they have the stability they need. This is the kind of the energy we have available right now so ways you can find to work with this in your own life will benefit you.

The new moon is a great time for affirmations (the beginning time when things are still hidden - think seeds in the ground) - some Cancerian (I don't know why spellcheck keeps trying to correct this word - it looks so pretty) affirmations I am setting (to give you an idea of what you do with this energy):

1. I easily attract, recognize and purchase the right happy home for my family (home)
2. I easily handle my finances in ways that create a stable base I can count on (stability)
3. I easily and joyously learn from all the significant events in my life (growth)
4. I am aware of early childhood experiences in a way that frees me from unwholesome patterns (childhood)
5. I easily am vulnerable in ways that evoke positive acceptance and support from others (vulnerability, intimacy)
6. All nonconstructive, overemotional responses are lifted from me (pretty please)
7. I easily find myself defining goals for myself that empower me (decisiveness)
8. I easily take action leading to successfully restoring my gut health (stomach health)
9. I attract right information that leads to the healing of my digestive system (stomach health)
10. I win the lottery (what the hell)

Also a good time for any affirmations having to do with mothers, food, clinginess, breast health - any Cancer stuff.

AFFIRMATION TIPS: get into a happy frame of mind - always make affirmations from a positive place - write your affirmations down by hand, speak them out loud - I always write my affirmations on strips of paper and put them into a bowl of rice so I can mix them around every now and then with my fingers if things get stagnant - then release your attention from them knowing that your intention is known. Know these things are already yours. xo

the groundwork - part IV our emotional (energy in motion) body and practical ways to ground it

mini cork collection

To bottom line it with our emotional groundwork (and bottom line it to me is 1500 words- sorry) - it's about 1. awareness 

(notice when we are feeling an emotion, notice the patterns of behavior we have that get in the way of us just being us),

2. expression - to let go of the behavior, we let out the excess energy holding it in

(writing, talking, yelling, crying, laughing - you can sweat, run and dance this stuff out, too - but if you feel neck tension or problems with anything in that area - jaw, thyroid, etc - getting out the words we are holding onto can be very helpful)

3. forgiveness -  some of this stuff is very old and it takes a radical approach to letting go and forgiving to move on

(There is a method called the Hoffman Process that works with integrating the four parts of ourself - physical, emotional, mental, spiritual - and maybe integrating isn't the right word here, I remember it from many years ago. It is very childhood focused and many of us would say we don't have any issues from childhood affecting our behavior today -

that we don't remember anyway, that we have forgiven, they all did their best, we have moved on - 

and for our mental selves this can be totally true. But for our physical selves which literally formed around this stuff and for our emotional selves which recreates this drama over and over in new ways until it is released - it isn't always so easy to let go. Being an armchair astrologer I see a lot of past life issues in this stuff, but the healing is always done in the present moment and although the mental part of us gets us to the awareness space, it won't get us much further.)

4.  moving on - this is replacing the old behavior with a new behavior

Hubs used to get really crazy in traffic when we were younger. I could never understand the big emotional response he would get when someone followed closer than he would like or pulled in front of him.

(obviously there are times when this could be a big deal, but he would make a way bigger deal out of little - non emergency - happenings of this than was called for)

Being cut off (other spaces where we have been cut off, where someone has shut us up, where someone appears to be have gotten "ahead of us"),

being followed too closely (other spaces in our lives where people are on our back, where people have been nipping on our heels, breathing down our necks, where we have not been fast enough) -

the themes driving activates are pretty universal - we've all been there.

When we feel an emotion that is out of proportion to what is happening we know it is activating something else - something our physical or emotional self is holding.

Now, the idea isn't to stuff it - that's how the emotional moves into the body in the first place - the idea is to release it. Releasing stored emotions is holy work. It's how we move into the connection with others and with our spiritual self.

If we can see the anger we are releasing as a fire spreading through us, burning up years of old undergrowth in the forest, clearing a path for the new or if we can see our tears of sadness as flooding our body the way a flood of water can clear a dirty sink or if we can see our fear as shaking loose dead branches from a tree or spent buds from our flower gardens to allow more room for new growth - if we think of images like these while expelling our emotions it helps, too.

We can also take on other people's energy. Sometimes when hubs would get mad at another driver I could literally feel the tension in my body.

(this is a very, very rare thing these days, the driving stuff I mean, but I still pick up all kinds of things from his emotions and his body - a couple weeks ago he drilled into his left thumb - the next day I started having shooting pains in my left thumb when I reached for things, tendonitis is the diagnosis - and yes, I had been working more, driving a truck with sticky doors and windows and carrying a heavier handbag than usual on my left shoulder - and also, yes, I think his injury allowed an injured space in my body to come up for healing through my left thumb - I didn't actually say this to my doctor though)

The people we live and work with can definitely affect our energy. The real reason couples should never go to bed angry is that we are sleeping with the other person's energy! When their energy is angry, sad or fearful - we will have to be very grounded to stay balanced.

So, to ground ourselves emotionally some good tips would be : be aware of when our reaction doesn't equal the situation, express what we are feeling, forgive ourselves and others (not just mentally) and replace one behavior with another.

Abraham Hicks' work is all about using our emotions to get us into the space where we line up energetically with good stuff - with the stuff we are wanting - if you resonate with that, definitely google it. I've mostly been focusing on negative emotions here but the real key is to practice a higher emotion (joy, peace) and move out of the lower energies . The more often we can operate at a higher level, the more we feel comfortable being there, the more our vibration lines up with positive emotions without us having to work so hard.

Emotional grounding is work though and just like physical and mental work makes those areas stronger emotional work strengthens us, too - all the parts work together.

part IV what does all this gounding mean for our business