Good Grief.....

Grief refers to the intense emotional response and deep sorrow experienced when someone or something significant is lost, typically due to death, but it can also be triggered by other significant losses, such as the end of a relationship, the loss of a job, or the destruction of a cherished possession. It is a natural and universal human emotion that can manifest in various ways, including feelings of sadness, despair, anger, guilt, and even physical symptoms like fatigue or loss of appetite.

Grieving is a process that individuals go through to cope with their loss and adjust to the new reality without the person or thing they have lost. This process is not linear and varies from person to person. Some common stages of grief, as identified by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, are:

1. Denial: The initial stage where individuals may have difficulty accepting the reality of the loss.

2. Anger: Feelings of frustration, resentment, or anger about the loss and its impact on one's life.

3. Bargaining: Attempting to negotiate or find ways to reverse the loss or make it more bearable.

4. Depression: Deep sadness and sorrow resulting from the reality of the loss.

5. Acceptance: Coming to terms with the loss and finding a way to move forward with life.

It is important to note that not everyone experiences all these stages, and there is no set timeframe for grieving. People may also revisit different stages at various points in their grief journey.

Grief is a natural and necessary process to heal emotionally after a loss, and seeking support from friends, family, or professional counselors can be beneficial during this challenging time.

What To Expect In An Energy Work Session

What does an Energy work session with Susan Renaud look like? I receive this question quite often from potential clients. It's a very understandable question especially since I have a unique program and a unique modality. Because I access several modalities, I utilize several of them throughout the appointment, I'd like to share with you only the basic Energy work session.

A client comes in and fills out the intake form. Then we talk a bit not only about what we want to work on but to integrate the person into the room. When I feel the client is settled down and I have an idea of the direction we're going toward, I have them lie on the massage table, typically on their back (so they're face up).

The initial main goal is to help the client relax and feel at ease with me. It is much easier to work on a client when they're most comfortable.

Many people tend to be in their heads for multiple reasons. We're always thinking, planning, calculating, etc. And there a many times people don't have the time to "feel" everything that's happening in their busy and active day. Of course that's where I start my work, releasing the energy locked in the head. How does energy get locked? We hold tension in our neck and shoulders.

My goal is to feel the energy or lack of energy passing through this area. Then the next step is to hold the area with subtle tension till the energy releases. I will do additional steps of different hand positions to help with releasing the energy blocks. Then I work on different points along the neck, shoulders and the upper corners of the chest till I get the balanced flow coming through.

The next area to be worked on is the chest. Feeling the heart and its rhythm. Then watching the breath and how it moves succinctly with the heart. The kind of breath like belly breathing, shallow upper chest breathing. I watch how tightly or relaxed their respiration is.

Most importantly, my attention will be draw to things that are subtle or what appears insignificant. The only way I can describe what calls me is how "loud" it gets. Something small or insignificant will pulse, zap. or vibrate to get my attention. Sometimes just a negging feeling in me to go to a specific place on the body. It can be quite intuitive in my process while working on a client.

Next comes the abdomen including the pelvis. I feel for tight or weak areas. I also listen for sounds and which area of the gut they are coming from can tell me the energy flow is calming the client or relaxing an organ. With my hands I follow the digestive path.

For the arms and legs, I tend to follow meridians with the my finger tips. I also feel for the grounding pathways. From shoulders to fingertips and hips to toes opening the flow and finding vibrational spots needing freeing.

Additionally the sides of the body are opened up for moving energy. Many times what I like to do is roll the leg inward very gently to feel the flow and releasing of energy in the outer leg. Freeing up energy will feel differently from practitioner to practitioner. Many times I feel this flow as a vibration.

Energies in the body show up in many ways. A vibration, a lack of vibration (too quiet), heat, a jolt (or zap), or a bold pulse. Additionally when I feel something in my own body, an unusual sensation or pain, I will know to go to that spot on the client and touch or hold the same area. Once it's calmed in me, I know it has shifted for the client.

Intuitive queues come through me with regard to emotions, spiritual or life topics to talk about with the client. For instance, If I get sad when I'm working in an area, I know there's a trapped emotion. There are times I don't know the specific emotion and when that happens I wait to receive more information or there's no need to know, just that I'm moving and releasing it for them.

Closing the energy body is the last step to do on the table. I tend to rock the body, it's great for the flow of the body. It also stimulates the client to come into their body and feel more present.

Then a short talk after to share more informations which can include specific exercise, stretch, pose, a Qi Quong movement, supplement, foods eat or to avoid, or a practice to work on.

Each person will have a unique experience. And we will process it afterwards differently. Some will be tired, or feel energized, have lucid dreaming, or be more emotional. Give it 2 to 3 days to feel the shift.

New Tips On Developing Your Intuition

What is intuition?

Wikipedia's definition: Intuition is the ability to acquire knowledge without recourse to conscious reasoning. Different fields use the word "intuition" in very different ways, including but not limited to: direct access to unconscious knowledge; unconscious cognition; inner sensing; inner insight to unconscious pattern-recognition; and the ability to understand something instinctively, without any need for conscious reasoning

Being intuitive or becoming more intuitive is a practice.

Here is a new practice for you: Meditate while looking at the tip of your nose and your eyes half closed. It is the pathway to your third eye and can strengthen and open the third eye (also called the inner eye). It provides perception beyond ordinary sight. It is a practice to develop this practice. I could only do this particular practice for 30 seconds at first. Just look at the tip of the nose, do not think about the tip of the nose. Don't think about anything, just breathe.

As in any meditation, empty your mind. Follow your breath till your mind stops. Feel yourself relax. Check into those places where you usually hold tension. hear the sounds around you then tune into your breath again. Do not think about the breath just do the breath.

Devote time to just stop and listen to your intuition. Take time throughout your day to just stop. It only needs to be a few minutes. Listening to your higher self helps with decision making at any level.

Set an intention. Setting an intention helps direct the meditation. The more precise you can be the more precise your answers will be.

Ask questions within your specific interest in intuition. Again be very precise. Many times we will receive information, then ask for more information. what questions would you ask. Who are you? Why are you telling me this story? What do I see, hear or feel. Or is it a knowingness.

Trust yourself. Trust in yourself is a practice all on its own. How well do you trust yourself..... with practice.

Take notes immediately after meditating, it'll help you remember. Journaling is important for channeling also. You'll be surprised in what pops

Talk through what you're seeing or feeling with a guide, teacher, or instructor. They can answer your questions or concerns and direct you. Guidance is a great thing.

Feeling safe. Many people are fearful to meditate or "open' the door to intuition. They, like myself when I first started was worried about what I would bring into my life. I started with a short prayer to my guides and the benevolent beings to protect me.

Dreaming and dreams. Since dreaming is from an altered state you can gain insights or intuition from altered states. Ask repeatedly as you drift off to sleep "Show me a dream to benefit my life". This phrase may change as you develop this practice. Write down the dreams or immediate thoughts after you awaken.

Creativity. Do an art project. It can be big or brief. Get out the paints or the sculpting tools or just colored pens on a scratch pad. Doodling makes the connection to our gut where creativity is held . Creativity is an open channel to intuition. Scientists know the gut and the brain are strongly connected. There's a movie out called The Gut Our Second Brain.

Feel free to contact me to develop your intuition or answer questions or concerns you may have as you develop your practice.

Office hours: Tuesday through Saturday 10:00 to 6:00. (415) 419-6659

In office visits or online appointments are available.

I'm looking forward to working with you!

With The Understanding Of The Circadian Rhythm, Eating Seasonally Can Help With Sleep And Better Digestion.

Have you been having digestive problems or sleep disturbances since fall started? Maybe even hair loss? You're not the only one. I have noticed this season with many of my clients have had varying digestive issues and wakefulness. I realized over these last five years as the fall progresses our bodies should be adjusting to the changes of sunlight and temperatures. This is where our body can struggle with the changes of sleep, wake and most importantly our digestive processes.

Have you heard of the Circadian rhythms?This can impact us and we don't even realize it. What happens? This rhythm is tied to our 24-hour body clock, and most living things have one. This internal clock is influenced by external cues, like sunlight and temperature, which help determine whether one feels energized or exhausted at different times of the day. Plants also grow and thrive at certain times of the year and are necessary to eat these seasonal plants and other foods such as wild mature meat flourishing in the fall as well. So in the fall we SHOULD be eating fall foods. If we are still eating summer foods in the fall it can affect our optimum body processes and cause indigestion and inflammation. What to eat? What not to eat?

For an example, I just love watermelon and I can get away with eating watermelon in the summertime only. If I continue to eat it September, I start immediately detoxing and can't digest it normally... which in turn affects and inflames my bowels. We now need to be eating foods closer to the earth and late season veggies. And consider if we eat meat, well that's another story to eat the fall ripe animals. I recommend not eating domesticated animals only eat wild animals such as duck, pheasant, turkey, lamb, elk, bear, eel, stripped bass, etc....

I recommend taking time to feel what is best for you. Adjusting your rest, sleep, eating and times you eat, maybe even the amount of times you eat during the day or evening. Also meditating on what emotions are going on when you feel autumn is getting closer. One thing that come up for me was the stress of school and going into a new grade, interacting with others, even as simply as the change in routine can bring stress and trauma (PTSD) to our subconscious which causes physical issues. Awareness is 40% of the letting go process into ease.

So take the time to feel into yourself and I’m here to help.

(this message is highly insightful and primarily intuitive. It is drawn from 20 years experience and self discover)

Thank you,

Susan

How To Heal Our Back From Susan Renaud

What's Being Held In Our Spine?

Awareness and growth is essential for thriving in this life. What we bring attention to, wakes up changes and healing for ourselves. I'd like to share my insights and understandings of the spine. 

The back of the body can be a place we put things we don't want to look at whether it too painful, don't have time to address it, or it's confusing. When pain involves the spine it's reflecting core issues. It can be as deep (or old) as past lives, childhood, generational, or genetic components. And as we know all physical issues have an emotional, mental and spiritual component to them. Be sure you are not blaming yourself or others for the pain uncovered. 

Where is your pain? Is it in your neck? Behind your heart? Mid or lower back? So many of us don't know exactly where in the spine it's coming from, whether it's a vertebrae or a disc. As we work on ourselves we can become more precise in many aspects of the pain. 

Let's start with areas of the spine. In general, stiffness refers to inflexibility and judgement. We all have these aspects but let's go beyond our rules. There is good judgement as in identifying (understanding) a person and bad judgement as in righteousness. How ridged are we in our beliefs? Are we willing to embrace or do we put walls for protection?

The neck: Connecting to our higher self, foresee the direct to go toward and stubbornness. Stubbornness in a negative way direction. Let's go to listening and understanding other points of view.

The upper back: How we reach out to others with an open heart. The willingness to take in life. Our protection from heart breaks. Acknowledging the real impact of feeling hurt toward rejection.

Mid-back: Our value and where has it been compromised in our past. Do we really see ourselves, as in our darkness and our beauty? Our mission on earth, our fears and frustrations. Our balance, have we developed a practice of working longer hours rather than taking the time to rest, recover and recuperate. Just to stop and feel.

Lower back: Seeing the support we receive in our lives. The clarity to make decisions. How do we feel around sex and sexuality. 

Sacrum and coccyx: Power struggles, trust and betrayal, Old pain and old anger.

Were we embraced or rejected by our family (or community) at birth and young childhood. 

Here's how we can help our backs emotionally, spiritually and physically

We will  continually make the commitment to develop strength and flexibility. By doing this, it creates emotional strength, conviction, and empowerment. AND a receptivity to life.

ME: To help open and relax the spine energetically and to translate what the spine is saying. 
Back strengthening exercises.

Yoga, to build strength and flexibility.

Chiropractic work. For adjustments of the vertebrae.

Acupuncture. Clear, Balance and heal.

An Inversion table. Can help with opening the spine on a continual basis.

Massage. To relax the muscles. 

Meditation. To see and understand the attachment to the pain.

Western Medicine: Testing to see whats actually going on and our final options.

 Looking forward to hearing from you and hearing about your progress.

It's Spring! Understanding Colds And Flus. Let's Cleanse!

It's Spring!!!.... Have you had a cold, the flu or even body aches recently? Or even everyone around you getting sick? Well, this is a good thing, it really is. It means your body is working hard to detox. In the winter our bodies go to hibernation mode. We store toxins, allergens, and reactive foods. We store these foreign bodies in different areas such as in our joints or our fatty layers. 

Then when spring arrives, our bodies respond to the additional light just like plants and animals in nature do. Our energy increases which stimulates our bodies to wake up and process the winter congestion. This accumulation over time can become inflammatory.

Another factor which can cause us to have colds is stress. It affects our strength and resistance which in turn causes viruses to take over. 

The most important way we can help our bodies is to support our liver. One of the critical thing our liver does is detoxifies chemicals. So optimizing our liver is crucial. What helps our liver?.... Milk thistle, dandelion root and lots of water. Liver loves  movement and laughter too. 

The other most important aspect in reducing colds and flu issues is supporting the immune system by taking anti-inflammatory herbs eating anti-inflammatory foods. An additional support is by de-stressing with rest, relaxations and and plenty of good nights' sleep. Massages help in relaxation.

Keep you digestive system moving well and picking up the accumulation of food and bacteria ridden residue. Magnesium is great for the flow. Eating a high fiber diet will cleanse the intestinal walls. (or pure fiber such as psyllium taken daily). I also would suggest bentonite clay or activated charcoal. 

Lastly and most importantly, eat a diet without grains, starches and sugars.

I would focus on this cleanse including the diet for 14 days. 

Additionally to this cleanse is meditation and cleaning your house. Basically tuning into your emotions will help release traps and blocks. Toxic thinking gets trapped in the body like chemical toxins. Regular meditation of  "Where's my anger" will help us see the places we are stuck and in pain. Sending love and light to these places will help release the chemical toxins which were held by the emotional pain. 

Why clean your house? For example cleaning out a closet is macrocosmic to cleaning out our bodies. It's like an amplifier for the internal. Anything macrocosmically helps the microcosmic and visa versa. 

If you would like to purchase a cleanse kit, please contact me I will have them in my office. The Whole Body Integrative Cleansing System by Integrative Therapeutics.

If you have extra sensitive digestive system we can modify the kit.

Good luck and healthy living.

Letting Life Nourish You

There are so many ways to intentionally restore your vitality. Many people believe taking supplements, exercising, resting and eating right will help with your energy. Although much of this is true, I mostly have discovered it still isn't enough. My method with practice, is quicker and easier ......... Can you believe that? 

It is about INTENSION that we create throughout our day. Our activities such as eating, breathing, moving, and just by "being" in existence is where we can "receive" all nourishment to revitalize our souls. We can receive from life even more than we can imagine. Yes it's all about our PERSPECTIVE. Also another important piece of the puzzle is connecting to the vitality in our environment which brings in energy and nurtures us. 

During my day, I am usually channelling and "hands on" working with people, I go into a different energetic space, where nothing else matters and I feel an endless source of love and energy. Whereas, if I'm preoccupied, dealing with traffic, at home preparing dinner, or just getting to the grocery store, I'm sluggish.... This is what used to happen. I was drained and barely could make it home. Sound familiar????? 

Being in our hearts and living through this place makes everything we say, do and even THINK will change our energy. What if we make everything including the most mundane activity a spiritual experience and letting the "fire' of life enter. 

Intension: Lets start by making a conscious intension at first. You can start with a meditation or announcing to the universe "I am ready to receive all of what life has to offer". Take action by stopping and taking in everyone's love (the universe's love) and the power of nature. The life force of the growing grass, the action of the waves, the breeze and the pulse in the air.

Food: Seeing food differently: Looking at it as feeling its essence, taking in the vital source from the soil. The birth and its growth, it took from the sun, water and magnetite from the land. 

Exercise: Find your own rhythm for breaking down and building your bones and muscles. Each person has their own way of exercising, they're cycle of exercise and intensity. Again most importantly the intention matters. What if you were to say "I'm taking in the vitality and life and releasing my pain" before you exercise. It does make a huge difference to your body's mechanisms. 

Practice.

Most importantly, the universe is always there to support you and the key is to find your way to access it. I know it sounds easier than done, I understand. Setting the intension, knowing the support life offers, practice, seeing deeper into ourselves and nature will bring in strength. 

How To Shift Pain... Quickly?!

Pain is an amazing communicator yet we don’t speak it’s language. So how do we understand this language and how can we maneuver through pain more quickly? Whether the pain is physical, emotional or spiritual in foundation, here are a few points to focus on and practice.

Pain is telling you, I feel “HURT”. It can be a belief we adopted a long time ago (as far back as infancy and birth), chronic, or as current as an injury. 

1. Water: Drink plenty of water. Most of us live our lives dehydrated, drink a gallon of water a day (in general). Your pain can reduce within a few minutes after drinking two big glasses of water. 

2. Meditate: Breath work and relaxation within the meditation first, then become mindless. Slow full breaths, longer on the exhale. Then check in with your body starting from your feet and feel up through your body to release any tension. Being in practice of meditating helps to go into meditation efficiently and relaxation comes quickly and with ease. 

3. Become mindless: Don’t think about anything (easier said than done). Just breathe. Ask the question to yourself “Where do I feel hurt?” (Not the physical place of pain)

4. Let memories and emotions float through.

5.Be the observer. No judgementYou are watching memories, thoughts and yourself as an impartial bystander.

6. Relax in the pain: When we are in pain, we tend to breathe shallowly, hold our breath, become motionless and tense up muscles. Intensionally breathe fully. Slow deep breaths expanding ribs, chest and belly. 

7. Talk yourself through the relaxation process starting at feet. Check in all the way up through your body, muscles, joints, spine and head.

8. Crying: is a great way to release pain. When we are in the process of crying, there is movement of the emotional pain. “What do you feel while you are crying?” 

I understand when we are in the middle of our pain, it’s hard to step away from it to be the observer. I also understand that what I am discussing is easier said than done. I myself have had my struggles to find my way through these barriers and each person there will be walls to hurdle too. Doing a practice regularly will help create a pattern in us to be able to jump into when we are most hurt.

Chronic pain? There’s hope.There are always new options including in Western medicine, Chinese medicine, Energy work, bodywork, float tanks, ozone and light treatments, peroxide injections and healing mats (crystal and magnetic matts). Be persistent and don’t ever give up.

YOGA AND EXERCISE

Why exercise? When we exercise our adrenaline starts pumping, we create endorphins which helps with pain. There are so many benefits to exercising such as building endurance and durability.

Why yoga, stretching or core classes? Certain yoga styles like restorative or yin yogas help with stretching, opening and lengthening the body. Waking up ligaments, tendons and muscles.  

Finding guidance: This is so important to find a mentor, a guide, spiritual teacher to help with spiritual awareness, practices and growth. They can see who you are and support you with love and compassion. 

In a medical intuitive reading, the body is divided into section, left, right, upper lower, and zones (chakras). Here are a few keys to certain issues within different areas of the body.

Spine: It’s core, has deep roots to childhood and infancy. Core beliefs and interpretations of life. Holding tight and close, meaning will not share this with others.

    1. Kidney area:  Fears, for example growing up with volatility in the household. The adrenals, which sit on top of the kidneys, stress producing fight or flight response. PSTD.

    2. SI joint: Where the spine meets the crest of the pelvis.Your support system. Interpretation in what you feel or think support should look like versus a new, profounder more encompassing support.

   3.  Neck: Your connection to your higher self. Will versus willfulness. hopes, desires, and communications.

    4. Right Shoulder: Finances, how to get along in this world. Age adjustment with your job and activities. Present day. 

    5. Left Shoulder: Personal, setting boundaries, self criticism and acceptance of others’ criticism. Being hard on yourself and standards to high.

The emotional and spiritual aspects which can come up during mediation: Abandonment, loneliness, rejection, self loathing, unworthy, betrayal, Hopeless, grief, unseen, unloved. These are just a short list of the pain we carry. This is a short list and with every issue there are many facets and other spiritual and emotional pain will show up.

This is a small glimpse of what can happen in a session. Feeling safe and supported makes your awakening gentler. 

INTUITION...CONTINUES

Foundational Information about Intuition

The last newsletter was about Developing Your Intuition, Practices And Games, I shared some great information about exercises and activities to grow your intuition. Here are some great foundational information about intuition. This message is about clarifying and sharing more details about this inner sense. And why I recommend certain exercises (and practices) to understanding the inner you. 

The definition of Intuition is: “The ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. The power of gaining direct knowledge with our evident rational thought or inference.”  Wikipedia

Direct perception of truth independent of any reasoning process. Your inner voice, gut instinct, or just a feeling.

Psychic: “It’s channeled deeper information from the third eye. It builds upon intuition and provides more clarity and insight, usually with more details. This maybe provided through clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, claircogniance and clairgustiance”. The Little Sage.

An extrasensory perception. (ESP)

Everyone is intuitive. Everyone senses through an “energetic” level in their bodies. Our brains tend to be louder than our sense of “feeling” for many reasons. So now we are bringing back listening to the intuitive sense. Don’t let the brain override your feeling.

When we tap into the place of listening to our bodies and our feelings we help heal it. Our whole foundation of comprehending life comes from the abdomen. When we tighten it, or lock it down, we block the reception. When we are not clear what’s happening in front of us, confusion and turbidness set in. We develop a belief to survive we must listen to our minds and not to our guts. Digestive issues develop due to the development of mis-belief. 

The upper abdomen is about ourselves, our ego, our love for self, and are doing what we need to do for ourselves as a priority. The lower abdomen is about our relationships, trust, survival, beliefs, rebirth and creativity. 

Now to return to our inner sense and develop trust within ourselves. When we do this we face illusions and ill-fitting beliefs. “What we thought was, is not” Lets clear the cloudiness and understand self so it will become easier to feel clearly. 

There are many ways to develop your intuition and many ways to see yourself more clearly. And practice builds trust in one’s self.

MOST IMPORTANT

1. More clarity of self.

2. Observing feelings of self and others.

3. Understanding the bigger picture of our existence.

4. Practice.

Understanding the bigger picture: This is about the deeper insights of an event or relationship. There are many answers, it’s not just one aspect or view. For example: A woman was mauled by a dog. In an instant, life threatening injuries in a traumatic and dramatic way. She survived. She always asked why did this happen and why her? Then we talked. It was about immediate Karma and healing deep life long (many life times) pain. Her energetic option was to go through 7-10 years of cancer, treatments and remissions. She cleared so much in one horrifying trauma, releasing so much pain in a moment. Now she doesn't see this event as something was done to her, she sees it as getting through a massive healing. She became so much more confident and free. This is one small example of the bigger picture of the human existence. 

What to do when we come up with a memory during meditation. Does it appear benign? Lets look at it as an observer. Look at it again as though it’s someone else’s memory. Still benign? Most likely not and now we process. 

STAGES OF PROCESS

1. Hurt
2. Pain
3. Anger
4. Understanding
5. Compassion
6. Forgiveness

HEALING AND PROGRESS

1. Find a teacher, guide, or mentor. This is the faster way. Do you have someone to show you who you are? The beauty, the amazingness, your gifts, and your darkness, 
2. Let life be your teacher.
3. Meditation. There are hundreds of ways to meditate and find the ones that fit you best. Be open to seeing the pain in your heart. What’s real and observing self objectively.  
4. Being an observer and having guidance is a great combination. The guide directs you and also awakens places in yourself. 

Developing Your Intuition

Practices for developing intuition. Intuition is inherent in everyone, yes I said everyone! Some people are in-tune with it and want to develop it further. Others have it but don’t see it in themselves yet. Here are a full range of intuitive games and practices. Some of these exercises you will want to implement as part of a your daily routine. Many of these practices you will want to do them regularly to develop your confidence and clarity.

Professional Intuitives use intuition to perceive information about you and provide guidance. A medical intuitive further specializes in perceiving the physical health of the body and internal systems.

1. When we meditate, we start to feel deeper in our bodies, becoming more relaxed. Take some time to use your breath by breathing in fully into the belly and lungs, breathing in a slow easy breath and then slower breath out. Once you find yourself relaxing, check inside your body relaxing from your toes to the top of your head. Focus on your intestines, heart and brow, let them relax and open... no furrow or tightness. 

Just this practice alone allows you to open, receive, and read what is inside your heart. 

Now you are ready to ask a question. Think of an event or issue or confused situation that has come up. Your question can start with... “For my highest good......” or “How do I solve ...... with compassion”

Examples;

How do I solve my conflict with my coworker with compassion?

Is this food (or supplement) for my highest good?

Give me insight about my pain?

Where is my anger?

Give me a story to benefit my life.

Meditation allows you and your mind to slow down and experience the journey. Even when you use this time to reflect on the day, your feelings expand in these remembered moments. Now you can “process” these emotions and allow them to pass through.  

The more you practice this, the more comfortable and at ease you will feel. You can start expanding your skills by askingto receive more information from the “higher good”.

2. Readings: Get index cards and on one side of the card make doodles, scribbles, blots, any thoughtless markings. Try not to make a specific image. Make at least 21 if possible.

    Then ask a question for yourself:

    Lay out 4 cards:

        Card #1 Is about the whole picture of your question.

        Card #2 How it’s going to change your life in the outer world... living on this planet in this current life.

        Card #3 How it’s going to change your life in the inner world... within you.

        Card #4 The solution(s).

***** taking yourself, your worries and your fears out of the picture, you’ll get a true reading.

3. There are several different games you can play with a friend or more.

1. Using a deck of cards, pull a card and look at it. study it and then place it face down. Picture and say the card in you head (of course not out loud). Have your friends guess the card. Hint, a friend connecting to you with openness will have better chances of guessing correctly. Take turns. 
2. Create your own sets of cards... with index cards. 
   1. On each card write a different color. Use simple colors. stack the cards face down, then draw a card, commit it to your mind, keeping the card face down. Ask your friends to guess the color.
   2. Next set of cards write down different animals and play it the same way.
   3. Lastly try this more challenging game. Write down a different emotion on an index card. Stack them face down, then choose a card. Feel and emote the emotion. The game is feeling the energy of the emotion and guess it. 

  4. Who’s there. Here is a practice you can do throughout your day. When you hear the phone ring or receive a text, get a sense of who it could be. Does someone pop in your mind? 

5. Being an observer in your own life can be an important practice for learning so much about who you are. By developing this practice, you will see more of when you are already using your intuition. Many times we use our intuition when we drive or when we’re in a crowd and we don’t realize it. Take for instance, when I’m driving on the highway, I can tell which cars will cut in front of me, even before they use their blinker, 95% of the time, I’m right.

Here is how being an observer works: Anything you do, any situations that occurs, watch yourself, observe your thoughts, and observe your actions. Don’t judge anything, say to yourself “Isn’t that interesting, I .....”. This is one of my favorite and a life long practice.

6. Soul Merging (or also called Gazing). Sit opposite a friend (a foot apart). Become centered by taking in some full easy breaths. Feel relaxed. Then gaze into each other’s left eye. (Fyi: you can blink) The left eye is the soul and the right eye is the present world connection. While doing this you may experience, blurred vision, a hazy outline around each other’s head. Your eyes may water a bit. Watch what happens, the shadows may change and it will look like their face is morphing. An impression of someone else will appear. It’s like the shadows come to life. You are receiving information about their soul’s journey. When your done, write notes and share each others experiences.

1. When you’ve practiced this several times, it will become easier. Then start asking questions in your head, “who are you, what do you need to tell me,  and what is the date” or ”Is there anything more to share”.
2. Stop after the images and wait for the story, expand the information you received. With one glimpse of an image comes a whole story. Expand the image and the story may follow. 
3. Be sure to rest, it can be exhausting. 

7. Think about a friend, think about someone you haven’t hear from in a long time. Think of them and send them love, caring thoughts, well wishes. They might just call or email you. 

8. Or has someone popped into your head just randomly? I know there has been many times when I flash on a person and then the next moment they are calling me. 

9. Reading the body. Ask your friends if they will be your subject to read the body. Start with breath work to settle into your yourself and releasing tension throughout your own body. Have your friend sit in front of you. There are many ways to feel someone. 

1. Picture your friend in your mind’s eye an “impression” of them. Scan them from their head to their feet. Does anything stand out? Make notes or verbalize what you see. 
2. Feel inside your own body, scanning from your head down to your feet. Feel any changes in your own body, such as buzzing, a hum, or heat. take notes with as much detail as possible. What area of the body is the energy settled. Take your time. 
3. Listen for sounds or words. Do you hear a song? What’s the meaning of the song.
4. Do you smell anything. Emotions and imbalances can have a smell.
5. A knowingness. Something might “pop” and you’ll blurt something out. 

Many of these practices and stories you will relate to. You may say “oh yeah I’ve done that before”. Recognition is the foundation of trust and belief that intuition is there and it can be expanded upon. Gaining confidence will happen with repetition of these practices, especially “the daily life” exercises. 

When do we trust our intuition versus thinking something bad is going to happen. If fear, worry or repeated thinking is in the mix - Don’t trust it. Rely on the “pop” information only for true intuition. Or sometimes I’ll say, I could not have made up that story! 

All the best on your practice. 

Come to a training class for more practicing. 

Thank you, Susan Renaud

February 9, 2016

How Does your Body Talk To Me

Everyone's body has a pattern, a path with twists and turns. For every section of your body there is a group of emotions, spiritual meanings and of course the physical issue. For me, reading an individual is a blend of an intuitive gift and using several systems (or modalities). 

Even though each person is custom designed and wired differently, we all share these commonality within the zones. (Some call them Chakras) Then each organ has it's own meaning and the relationship to the zone. Take for example the Spleen, Medical Intuition is about obsessing and Chinese medicine its about worrying and thinking. Additionally my understanding of the spleen is about our own motheringness to ourselves and our value of self, self love and self care. 

Then the empathic and intuitive piece comes through. What do I feel (sense), a knowingness, or an actual feeling in my body about the pain and how to see the amazing growth and it's meaning. Then how to heal it.

Then the last piece is about you as an individual. What in going on in your life to affect this area of the body. For example, when we are starting to go through changes in our lives whether its menopause, job, relationship... our bodies know it before we recognize it in our brain. Typically the two organs to be initially affected are the liver and the spleen. Liver which stands for living life, your mission on earth and are we doing it (liver also is about forgiveness but not in this matter ...yet). Then I will go to the lower part of the body such as knees, shins, and/or ankles. this relates to our history and childhood. Most of us the right side of our body stands for the outside world, finances, masculine and hunter, forager, gatherer. The left side is about the internal world, feminine, heart side. The left leg relates to our mother and our learning experience from her. And right leg is about father and how we learn to handle life on this planet. When there is an absent parent, it is another person who fills that role. How did our parent affect our lives, how did they handle changes, and deal with their emotions.  

Everyone is different in so many ways and so similar all at the same time. 

How do you know you're empathic?

Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another. One of the the biggest ways I recognize my empathic abilities is to have thoughts or feelings randomly and spontaneously churning up inside me. My initial reaction to this is "where is this coming from?" I also use it as a tool in my work. When I am working with a client and I feel pain in my body, I will go to the same place on the client's body and work in this area till it eases in me. 

What happens to you when you’re in a crowd? How many thought are not your own and what are your own feelings? Do you tend to be chameleon like? Or do you feel overwhelmed when you're in a crowd? Do you tend to have addictive behaviors? These are all signs you are empathic. 

There are many tools to come back to yourself wholly. Here are a few ways to help:

1. Exercise

2. Go for a swim

3. Take a refreshing shower, then turn the temperature to cold just before ending.

4. Sit on the ground under a tree with your back against the trunk.

5. Leave the crowd for a short time and then return.

6. Know you are feeling everyone and know it is also a part of you. 

7. Brushing your body with your hands, or feathers, or the dry brush technique (Ayurvedic technique).

For each person, empathy can show up differently or in a multitude of ways. One person can be an embodiment while another can have an understanding. We have many ways to feel someone. Here are some examples of the different ways we take in ...“ to empathize”. 

1. 1.Suddenly feel “not like yourself”. Once when I was sitting in my office with a friend and we were each doing computer and office work. All of a sudden , I became very hyped up. I was chattering on senselessly, feeling hurried and confused. I decided I need something from upstairs. Of course forgetting what I needed once I was up there, I came to realize, I was back to my calm steady paced self. I know I had embodied my friend because this is who she is. I had the honor of being her and understanding how she goes through life.

2. 2.When we go through life’s experiences or even the feeling of when someone massages a muscle and it feels so good and so relieving, It is the experience and the memory of the experience we bounce back into. The memory becomes alive, the thoughts and feelings awaken in the cells. This the time when you can say “ I truly understand”. 

3. 3.Taking on someones pain karmically. Say for example your friend was in pain from an abusive relationship. You both just finished dinner and she was going home and you were headed toward your car. Then you open your car door and you bash your knee. You just made her life a little bit easier. I’m not saying every time you bang your knee it means your helping someone. In this particular case, it is so.

4. 4.Consider mob mentality as empathic ability for a cross section of the group to feel and think the same way.

5. 5.I have a friend who gets migraines and every time he has one, he smells and feels death and violence. I feels the abuse of women and children in the world. Yes, emotions have smells.

6. 6.On the lighter side and could be considered a cheap date,  I’ve been in a bar situation and not drank anything and felt totally drunk, so loopy I could barely stand up. As the crowd grew it became more intense. Talk about being an easy party girl. But, as soon as I stepped outside it cleared. 

Seeing, feeling and observing yourself are keys to unraveling the mysteries of your empathic abilities.

ERK-ing

Encapsulated rapid karma. What does it mean? Let's take the word Karma first, it is about your destiny. It comes instantly or over lifetimes. It is a cause and effect cycle. Some people have intense karma whereas others seem to have a charmed life. Then there are many of us who fit into the multitude of levels in between. 

The next part of ERK-ing is lucid dreaming or what I used to call awake dreams. Lucid dreaming is being present in a dream. Knowing, managing, and directing the dream. To activate this place we can practice through meditation or self hypnosis. Other ways would be to take medications or special herbs. 

Then we have healing events throughout our life whether its intentional as in a therapeutic session, planetary movement, or just letting life teach us. Later when we go to bed, nap or meditate dreams erupt. A feeling like you are participating in a dream. Personally, I will dream of people from my past and/or present life. Some rare instances I will tap into a past life. There's a sense of I am me but a different me. My appearance and/or my emotions are altered.

ERK-ing is about processing emotions, events, relationships, and painful moments in our lives which we don't have time to "deal with" in our daily routines. There is also a detachment to it too, as in, it doesn't feel like it belongs to us or it's outside of us. 

ERK-ing happens naturally. When my dreams changed, it was about 15 years ago. My intension was to connect to my intuitive and psychic self. What I didn’t realize is, it also meant connecting to my own healing. Over the years it has supported my life and the changes I’ve gone through. 

Once when I was meditating, “where’s my pain” which was a typical mantra at the time, I felt this crushing squeezing pressure on my right side of head and right shoulder. Then my whole body felt it. I realized I had visited my own birth. My thoughts about my mother, her pain, and who I “needed” to be in this life. And that is where the origin of a certain belief came in. 

These days my ERK-ing dreams come randomly at night through my dream time. 

Please feel free contact me if you have any questions.