New day

Soul Whispers Rather Than Resolutions

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No Resolutions This year there will be no long list of resolutions which imply that I am somehow “not there” yet, that I will probably forget by February. I let go of the demands of my taskmaster who pushes and worries about what is next and I soften into those softer heart and soul whispers.  I remember those.  The things  that I am most proud of including my move to Los Angeles to pursue acting, writing From Scared to Sacred, studying the Andean healing and shamanic traditions were urgings from that voice that were so strong that I said “Yes” and followed through.  My brain thought they were rather crazy, but I overrode that logical brain and did them anyway and I’m so grateful I did. The logical brain isn’t always my friend My mind thinks it can figure out how to do this thing called life as though life […]

family photographs on Ancestral altar with candle

Day of the Dead Reflections

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I was thinking of how often as a young girl I was told to be “nice,”  and I started to write about the messages I wish I had received instead of “nice.” This took me on a journey of ancestral awareness and healing, perfect on “All Souls Day” or “Día de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead). What I Wish Instead of “be nice,” I wish they had coached me in how to speak the hard truth with compassion. Instead of “Don’t be so dramatic,” I wish they had said, “You feel deeply, let me help you channel those feelings, learn from them, and express them productively with others and in art.” Instead of “Don’t think being smart makes you better than anyone else.”  I wish I had been told to celebrate my gifts and find the gifts in others to celebrate. Instead of saying “We are not athletic people” […]

Bear eagle and jaguar wild animals

I have lost my wild

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Was working with the idea of wildness and had the feeling that I was no longer connected to the wild, untamed part of myself. I wrote down “i have lost my wild.” and the rest spilled onto the page. I lost my wild My passion My spontaneity My certainty of what calls to the animal within. Trying to remember my dreams for my life, the world Have I forgotten or outgrown them? I am in between now Have no energy to go on a grand adventure No desire to work to figure it out. No inspiration to journey looking for answers. Have the daily demands of my domesticated life killed my untamed? I can sit with a tree and be content I don’t feel the need to hunt for more Am I a bear mamma hibernating? Or a jaguar taking a nap in a tree? Am I an eagle resting […]

Signs Beginnings and endings

August Musings Navigating Change

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Month 5 for me of working from home and only heading out when required. This post contains some practices/mindsets that have helped me navigate and which may spark some ideas for you. Plus I’m excited to announce two classes available in September. Who would have thought a year ago this is where we would be? I know I didn’t. But it has encouraged me to go deeper with my spiritual practices and asked me to step up in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. I’ve been honored to hold ceremony for families who have sick loved ones and for those who lost loved ones during this pandemic. There is something profound about doing death rites and helping souls cross over. It is sad certainly but also a privilege. I’m also doing lots of ceremonies of visioning the highest for this time. In each ceremony I do, I add prayers for my […]

2020. New Year. New Decade. Thank You. Thank you.

Carol Woodliff4 Comments on 2020. New Year. New Decade. Thank You. Thank you.

When I think back to the beginning of 2010, I had no idea how much my life would shift and change in the next 10 years.  Sometimes it is helpful to look back with gratitude for how far we’ve come, what we have survived and say thank to the Divine Universe/God for helping us to make it to another year. At the beginning of 2010, I was working on From Scared to Sacred in a Writer’s Group.  I was a hypnotherapist seeing clients. I was working part-time nights and weekends at the law firm I had worked at since 1989.   In 2010, I submitted my book in something called “the Next Top Spiritual Author Competition.”   Even at the time, I thought that a competition among spiritual authors seemed like an oxymoron.   And it turned out to be a divine plan to connect me with like-minded people around the world.  These […]

Cropped image of young father and his cute little daughter dancing at home. Girl is standing on her father's feet

Messages from Dad through the Veil

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“Your Dad is here and he wants me to tell you he doesn’t like your business cards!” the medium told me.   Out of all the things my dad could travel through the veil to tell, the fact that he did not like my business cards was not what I was expecting to hear. However, this woman had already shared some information about my ailing mother from my grandmother that seemed on point so I decided to go with it. “What doesn’t he like?” I asked, thinking of my clever cards for my hypnosis practice that had a red-haired cartoon woman with a pendulum on them. “He says you are much more creative and spiritual than those cards. He is showing me the color pink”. I knew the woman had to be getting her wires crossed. I could NEVER see myself with pink cards. Then she shared something with me […]

Monarch butterfly on flower

For a moment…reflections on a funeral procession

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This morning as Luna and I were taking our walk, a funeral procession passed us.  Two motorcycle police officers escorted a hearse and about 20 cars with their lights on.  The officers stopped traffic so that the cars could flow as one unbroken procession through the intersection in front of me.  I felt waves of grief flowing through me.  Was it theirs or mine? I placed my hand over my heart.  I breathed, and did Tonglen, a Buddhist exercise of acceptance, compassion and connection.  I felt the grief and breathed out love, hoping each person in that procession caught just a little fragment of comfort. I do not know the circumstances of that death.  I do not know whether the deceased was an elderly person who had lived a long life or a life cut way too short.   I do know that those in the procession will now have to […]

32823478 - young woman with her arms wide spread is enjoying in the sunny summer day

2018 The Year of Embodiment

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Every year, I choose a theme or key word to help me focus my energy. I print the word big and bold and put it on my mirror and above my desk.  This year I chose EMBODIMENT. Before I settled on the word, I made a trip to the dictionary to see if it was the word I was looking for.  Embodiment/embody included the following: to give a body to (a spirit)/ incarnate to make concrete and perceptible to cause to become a body or part of a body/ incorporate to represent in human form or to personify. Yes, this is what I’m aiming for:  embodiment of health, joy, my shamanic path, creativity, writing and just as importantly embodiment of being fully human. Where are you on the embodiment scale?   If you’ve got it down and are owning all that you are good for you!   If you are “kind of, […]