Are you one of the sensitives and empaths getting rocked with everything going on in the world? Uncertain times can challenge our abilities to deal with change.
I’m noticing again, I want to lie down for 20 minutes to push the reset button. Time to refresh.
We want to stay strong and stable for our family, friends and coworkers. Sometimes, being a lighthouse for others to see clearly takes clarity and focus, perseverance, and determination. You’d love to be a light for others – if you had the time and energy. But filling your cup first went on the ToDo list a while ago.
We keep hearing that self-care builds resilience and resilience is not a luxury. Maybe you’re like me and sometimes, when we show up as our best for others, we feel drained. Then, that’s not really our best. We need to show up for ourselves as our best and brightest.
What does it take for you to show up for yourself as your best? What does it take for you to show up as your best for others? How do you do both simultaneously?
I have to pause and refocus so I fill myself from within while being available for someone else. It’s kind of like refueling the plane in flight. Some days I pull that off better than other days. Some days, I need extra refreshment – the inner refreshment from my soul, rather than outer refreshment.
Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a time dedicated for yourself at the end of the day? A little mid-week retreat for your soul to reconnect to what matters would be a blessing. You’d enjoy a little space to decompress and rejuvenate.
That’s how Annetta felt about our Jazz Living course. “I look forward to a weekly mini retreat. You take me on a nice journey into myself. I feel comfortable and a sense of trust in our growing community. I enjoy the creative and reflective process of practicing The Art of Jazz Living.” ~ Annetta Leigh
Members of our Jazz Living community have the opportunity to connect with like-minded souls in a safe and supportive environment. We practice applying jazz principles to daily living to improve our resilience and creativity. We help each other tap into our vibrant inner resources to navigate uncertainty and change.
The next session of our Jazz Living community opens April 20 and runs 6 Wednesday evenings. For the course link click HERE :
Have you felt the unease I’ve noticed in the past few days of current world events? I couldn’t put my finger on it. Suddenly, I was feeling off, down, a little anxious, ungrounded. I was feeling great on Tuesday, 2.22.2022. Then, Thursday morning, a wave of anxiety washed over me, learning about the Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Today, I’m digging deeper into my natural wellbeing. I feel the best contribution I can make is staying grounded and in the flow of wellbeing for all. I focused on my body rhythm to be fully present in the now moment. I felt deeply into the inner glow of wellbeing within, under the layer of anxiety. I affirmed “I choose wellbeing anyway.” Then, I let go and allowed myself to feel uplifted and carried on the flow of wellbeing. Suddenly, I have my groove back. It was always there – on the other side of a veil.
What can you do to affirm wellbeing for all in solidarity with Ukrainians? Can you acknowledge the insanity and choose inner wellbeing for yourself anyway? Find your inner rhythm through movement: stretch, walk outside, move your body. Get quiet and feel where your heartbeat meets your breath. Listen deeply for what is yours to do. Then take the next right action.
I call that The Art of Jazz Living.
Would you like support practicing the Art of Jazz Living skills so you can toggle to your wellbeing more gracefully even when life feels tough? You’re invited to join our practice group, The Art of Jazz Living. The next session starts Tuesday March 1, 6:30-8pm Central time. Check out the course here:
You manage stress relatively well. BUT WAIT! Isn’t there more to life? You want more joy! More fulfillment! More satisfaction! Yes! You can have more!
Accessthe deep inner reservoir within your Soul of INFINITE love, peace, joy, abundance, harmony, freedom and well-being.
But, how do you tap into that reservoir of peace within when the external environment is not peaceful?
You build your inner spiritual core muscles and reset your default at a higher vibrationthrough practicing
Spiritual Pilates: On the Road to Self-Mastery beginning October 9, 7:00-8:00pm (recordings available)
In the 4-week, online Spiritual Pilates workshop, you learn skills to respond to the stress of the life from your Higher Self so that you can:
feel calm when you arrive after driving through stressful rush hour traffic;
educate the rude co-worker about how you prefer to be treated rather than make the situation worse by dishing it back;
elegantly shift to Plan B when the dinner burns as the guests arrive.
You also learn to align with your higher energetic vibrations so you can:
connect to your personal power center and feel more grounded
access your Source of innate Well-Being within and feel deeper self-love
align ego-mind with Divine mind to transform negative thoughts into self-forgiveness.
Hi! I’m Leah Skurdal, author of Seeking Serenity: How to Find Your Inner Calm and Joy. For over 25 years, I have specialized in helping women experience more of what they DO want to create in their lives. Check in with your intuition about whether Spiritual Pilates is your next right step. Contact me at leah.skurdal@gmail.com and let’s chat.
“You set me back on track today. You are a great listener and fast on your feet! Hoping to practice more in the moment like this. I could have easily written off the rest of my day because I seemed to be scraping by, but it’s never too late to have a great day.” Spiritual Pilates Workshop Participant
Momentum is building. A bunch of people in my life are lining up for breakthroughs and miracles right now. Are you one of them?
In what area of your life have you been putting off success? What difference would a breakthrough in this area make in your life right now?
Now is the time to self correct!
You’re invited to join Spiritual Pilates: On the Road to Self Mastery launching live Wednesday August 8, 12:00pm. Recordings available next day.
In my online program, Spiritual Pilates: On the Road to Self Mastery, you start with the building blocks of vibrational frequencies. You learn and practice tools and processes to tune into your own vibration as an electro-magnetic energy being so you can:
connect to your inner reservoir of well-being and feel refreshed and nourished from within and not feel depleted at the end of the day.
gain mastery over your thoughts and emotions so you don’t react to other people’s dramas and you can feel more in control of your emotions.
strengthen your physical vibration so you heal the headache, abdominal distress or other illness more quickly.
rather than letting the stress of life turn you upside down, learn to harness stress like the archer pulling back the bow to launch the arrow forward, so you keep forward momentum going in your life.
What we do in Spiritual Pilates is remind you of the truth you already know in your heart and reconnect you with your Soul connected to God the Infinite Within – in a way that is real and authentic.
What ‘s so powerful about it is that once you get it – the connection to God Within, the Source of Well-being – your well-being flows out of you and spills into your life. Your cup overflows and others can drink from your saucer.
You will manage your life with more grace, ease, and joy than you believed possible a short while ago – because what we do is help you connect to your Source of Power Within.
Let me share with you a secret I discovered about getting through airport security more quickly. Does the airport security checkpoint annoy you as much as it annoys me? In the past few years, I have had the opportunity to practice new coping procedures to stay in the flow of joy, as the lines at the airport security have gotten longer and the security procedures more invasive. Some days I am better at staying in joy than other days. Recently, I surprised myself by coping so well that I got a desirable outcome. While waiting in line, I practiced what I call Spiritual Pilates to strengthen inner spiritual core muscles by aligning body, emotions, mind and spirit. This is the third time practicing Spiritual Pilates has gotten me a favorable outcome in the security line, so I think I am on to something.
I was picking up my unaccompanied minor child at the airplane gate. I thought I had allowed plenty of time to get a gate pass from the airline desk and go through the security check point to meet my daughter’s plane at the gate. To my dismay, I saw the only security line stretched halfway across the terminal. A lighted sign announced a 40 minute wait time. My daughter’s plane was scheduled to arrive 15 minutes early which did not allow me enough time to get through security and meet her at the gate. An airline staff would need to wait until I arrived to claim my child.
Feeling frustrated about the abnormally long security line, I appealed to a staff person to help me get through more quickly. No luck. I made my way to the end of the line a city block away. A different staff person offered to speed up my security process by enrolling me in a service with a monthly fee. I declined the offer and stayed in the line, now muttering to myself.
Things started to change, however, when I noticed I was feeling frustrated. Then, I remembered a time in the past when I had been waved through the short security line easily and gracefully. That day, I remembered, I had been intentionally focusing positive, good feelings toward all the people in the security process. I decided to focus my intention and attention inward on a positive outcome.
A wave of annoyance came up when I thought about the dehumanizing process of going through the security check point, standing legs apart, and hands up as if I had done something wrong. I recalled having a security guard pat my chest because the machine had detected metal in my bra strap. I followed the feeling of annoyance inward to the thought that created the feeling. I imagined the thought felt like a wall. I imagined the wall crumbling into small bits which I could easily pass through.
Another wave of annoyance. Another thought about all the inconvenience. I imagined the thought as a lump that melted into a pool. I imagined leaping over the pool of yuck. The line moved a little more quickly.
Another wave of annoyance surfaced about the insensitivity of airport staff people. I imagined the staff people had lives and annoyances of their own and felt compassion for them. The line I was in started moving more quickly than the line next to me.
A friend came to mind who was going through a challenging time. I thought of her breaking through her own barriers and felt empathy for her. I arrived at the ID check where the staff person spoke kindly to me. I felt grateful.
At the final security point, I emptied my pockets and put my shoes and belt into the x-ray tray. All of a sudden, rather than the hands-up, pat-down line, I was ushered into the quick-walk-through-the-doorway line. A small victory for me!
That was the third time in the past couple years that I have intentionally focused positive feelings of love, compassion and empathy in the airport security line with a positive result. Each time, I have been rewarded with a shorter, less invasive quick security check, which I experience as a positive result and which increases my joy. Experiencing the third time convinced me that my attitude of compassion and forgiveness made the difference. I have not always successfully shifted my attitude. This time, however, my positive thoughts and feelings sent out a vibration ahead of me that resulted in a matching vibration of a positive outcome. I even made it to the gate in time to greet my daughter when her plane landed.
If I had stayed in my annoyed feeling state while in line, I would have sent out a vibration that attracted a circumstance to match my annoyed feeling and would have given myself more opportunity to feel annoyed.
Have you had a similar kind of experience? Have you noticed a relationship between how you feel and what shows up to match your feeling vibration? Have you noticed how changing your feeling state has produced a matching result? Interesting, isn’t it?
I’m starting to get how this law of attraction thing works. Now, on to bigger things. Maybe I can figure out how to get my kids to clean their rooms. . .
If you want to learn more about applying Spiritual Pilates in your life to refocus on what you DO want, my Spiritual Pilates program might be a good fit for you. The program is now in its beta phase and won’t be offered in this way at this price again. To register for Spiritual Pilates course updates, click here. http://leahskurdal.com/programs/.
When I first took a physical pilates class I discovered muscles I didn’t know I had. As I continued practicing the exercises regularly, I strengthened my newly found muscles and they quit complaining so loudly. As I have learned and practiced Spiritual Pilates, I have strengthened my inner wisdom muscles. My little ego self still complains, but not as loudly or as often as it did years ago.
I practiced Spiritual Pilates the other morning when I woke up with my thoughts spinning in an anxious jumble. At first, I lay in bed sorting my thoughts and working through all the stories. Then, as I shifted my focus from my head to my heart, my thoughts quieted and I could get some distance from the swirling circle of doom. My wisdom kicked in and got me back to center.
When I focused on the place of calm behind my heart, I realized that all the anxious thoughts were not all my thoughts. Have you had that experience?
It’s weird. You step into a cloud of thoughts that suddenly overpower your own thoughts. It’s kind of like when you turn a corner in the grocery store isle and are suddenly overpowered by a cloud of someone’s stinky fart. Most people have a sense of smell and notice the sudden difference in air quality. With thoughts it’s a little different because our culture doesn’t generally teach the discernment skill of noticing thoughts.
I had a weird thought experience while on a walk one day. I was walking along thinking about whatever random stuff came through my mind. Suddenly, I had a creepy feeling of fear and looked around me. Nothing suspicious to be seen. No one in sight. I continued to the end of my route and returned the same way I had come. When I crossed the same spot where I had felt a wave of fear before, I suddenly felt fearful again. It felt as if I were walking through a cloud of fearful thoughts. I wondered whether someone else had been attacked on that spot or had had a frightening incident there and they had left a thought imprint. I’ve never heard anyone talk about that possibility, but that is what it felt like to me. I said a prayer of protection for myself and anyone who walked on the path. Since my prayer of protection, any time I have walked the same route, I have not felt fear anywhere on the path. The incident felt so odd that I have remembered it.
Everyone has the ability to pick up on other people’s thoughts. Some of us are empaths who pick up on thoughts and feelings more quickly. Some of us develop those skills over time. I admit that I did get a head start as a kid. One blessing I got from growing up in an alcoholic and dysfunctional family was to sharpen my intuitive abilities. I would walk into a room and put my antennae up to sort of sniff out the vibes in the room. I would intuitively notice what was really going on under the surface that was not being discussed. I was not aware at the time that I was picking up on other peoples’ thoughts, but in hindsight, I understand that’s how my intuitive abilities were honed. Have you learned that discernment skill over time also? Do you pick up on other peoples’ thoughts and feelings?
When I woke up with anxious thoughts the other morning, it took me a few minutes to notice that I had woken up in a cloud of thoughts and feelings that were not all my own. There is a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world right now. A lot of people are thinking fearful thoughts and feeling afraid of all the craziness out there. If you are stuck in a cloud of fear, Hey, wake up! It’s not all yours! We empaths get a double whammy because we feel other people’s feelings and we don’t know they are not ours. That lesson took me awhile to learn and still bites me in the butt sometimes.
Having practiced Spiritual Pilates for a while, I can get back to a place of centeredness and calm more naturally. I can quit spinning around with anxious thoughts and feelings more quickly.
It’s one thing to read about something and another thing to do it. It’s one thing to read a steamy romance novel and another thing to have a steamy romance. It’s one thing to read a book about dancing and another thing to dance. You have to actually do the activity and not just read about it. I’ve noticed in my life that I can get to a certain level of a skill by practicing on my own. When I am ready to go to my next level of that skill, I want to work with someone who has more experience.
If you are ready to go to your next level of mindfulness and wellbeing and would like a guide on the path, you’re ready for my course in Spiritual Pilates: Aligning Body, Emotions, Mind and Spirit for Optimal Wellbeing. Click on this link: http://leahskurdal.com/classes-and-workshops/
When your vision becomes more powerful than your memory, your future becomes more real than your past. ~ Roger Hamilton, Futurist and Social Entrepreneur
500 years ago, smart, well-meaning people believed that the sun revolved around the earth. Copernicus showed they had it backwards.
500 years from now, will our descendants look at our belief in resolving conflicts with violence as equally misguided and ignorant? We have a disagreement, so we kill each other’s children. Makes sense, right?
The Copernican Revolution in the 16th century turned long-held beliefs upside-down, which contributed to changing the trajectory, or path, for future generations of scientists. Folks in the 16th century left a legacy of scientific advancements, innovations, and reformation.
What legacy will our current generation leave for our collective descendants? Whether or not you have physical descendants of your own, you still share our generation’s collective descendants.
I envision we will leave a powerful legacy for our collective descendants. I envision our generation creating an unstoppable trajectory, or path, toward a world of peace 500 years from now.
What if you live your life today in ways that ensure both you and the next seven generations could thrive? What if, after seven generations of thriving, you and I had helped set an unstoppable trajectory toward a world of peace and prosperity for all? What if we focused on the world we DO want our descendants to live in 500 years from now and held the door open for them to walk through?
Whether our descendants attain the world we envision for them, or something better, doesn’t matter. Our intention and the trajectory we set matters. That is what we have control over. Are we on course for fear, suffering and devastation? Or are we on course for peace, harmony and prosperity?
I choose to live my life, day by day, moment to moment, so that my children’s children’s children will thrive on a trajectory of peace, harmony and prosperity.
Is my hostile attitude in this moment adding momentum to or detracting from my trajectory toward peace? Time to self-correct. (I hope to get to auto-correct, but I’m not there yet.) I consciously choose to toggle, or switch the screen of my awareness, AWAY FROM fear and what I do not want TOWARD what we PREFER and DO WANT.
We DO want healthy children thriving and contributing to healthy, thriving communities.
We DO want clean air, fresh water and delicious nourishment for all.
We DO want more love, more joy, more prosperity, and more vitality for all.
We DO want well-being for all.
The scientists of 500 years ago would be mystified by our cell phones, micro-wave ovens and airplanes. They couldn’t have imagined what we would do with the trajectory of scientific discovery they set in motion. Or did they? Did someone imagine walking on the moon back then?
Set your personal intention and our collective trajectory in the direction of peace and harmony for all within 500 years. The longest journey begins with a single step. In which direction is your next step?
Leah Skurdal, inspirational speaker, teacher and author is available to speak to your group. Click here to check out her You Tube video Soul Cookies.
Fall time – a fun time of new beginnings, fall sweaters, pumpkin spice latte. Fall can get stressful for me with the added parent meetings, workshops, and new projects to complete.
Three simple things I do when I am feeling stressed to nurture myself and nourish my spirit are:
Breathe – Most of us severely under-rate breathing on our daily importance scale. With less oxygen on the planet than 100 years ago, our bodies have to work harder to stay oxygenated. Breathing fully and deeply into the bottom of your lungs gives your body an energy boost from the extra oxygen. Count in 4, hold 4, count out 8. Try 4-5 of those full breaths several times a day to relax, restore and regroup.
Move – Physical movement helps you process the energy of the day moving through your life. Feeling anxiously overwhelmed? Try some aerobic exercise to jump start your fire and digest the energy more efficiently. Feeling angrily stressed? Try calming yoga movements to slow down and just be present. I set aside time to move however my body wants to move in the moment. Whatever movement you choose, MOVE to get out of your head and into your body where you can take action to reduce your stress.
Nourish – Eat more fresh fruits, vegetables and the cleanest meat you can get. The artificial ingredients in processed foods clog your system like cheese clogging a sieve. When I am feeling stressed, a fresh veggie sandwich and pro biotics like fermented vegetable sauerkraut or a pro-biotic drink like kombucha gives me a lift. Giving your body higher quality fuel will give you more stamina to deal with daily life. If you can’t get high quality food, bless the food you do have with gratitude and raise the vibration of the food you are consuming.
When I want to push the refresh button on my life screen, I retreat. Sometimes retreating to the bathtub for an hour suffices. Other times, I am ready for the full weekend retreat get-away. I was fortunate to get that weekend retreat away last weekend with a group of amazing women. We laughed, danced, meditated and ate delicious food prepared especially for us. I came home feeling refreshed and full of life. I would like to offer you two delightful retreat opportunities!
The Rice Experiment opened more than a few teenage eyes on how their words and intentions impact their environment. Hopefully, the lesson will translate into their homes and future workplaces. The middle school teens at our spiritual community conducted the Rice Experiment. After cooking a pot of rice, they placed a scoop of rice into separate, identical jars and sealed the lids. On the outside of one jar, they wrote “LOVE” while on the other jar they wrote, “HATE.” For the next week, they talked to the jars filling the LOVE jar with kind, loving, compassionate intentions and thoughts. They told the HATE jar it was stupid, ugly, mean and nasty. Then, they watched the results.
A year later, these same jars sit on the shelf of our teen room, telling the story of our intentions. The LOVE jar, filled with our divine, loving intentions, remains filled with white fluffy rice. The HATE jar started decomposing right away and quickly turned into a grey, slimy sludge. No kidding.
Vibrating energy patterns make up everything in the Universe – even your thoughts. The vibration of your thought patterns affects the environment around you. That phenomenon caught me unaware in my early 20’s. A boyfriend had given me a lovely, potted, flowering plant which flourished under my tender care. As soon as the boyfriend dumped me, the plant died. “I’m sorry little flower. I didn’t mean to kill you!” My negative thoughts about the giver of the plant had created a toxic environment in which the plant could not thrive.
How many times have you been in a toxic work environment where your life force felt jeopardized? Other peoples’ toxic thought vibrations set up a dissonance in your personal space. The complaining and whining can bring your vibration down until it affects your physical health – like the decomposing HATE rice jar.
The Good News: we control our own thoughts! Sweet! I don’t have to send out negative thought vibrations that ricochet into someone else’s negative thoughts adding to the cesspool of toxic emissions circulating through the office or home. I can choose to think positive, loving, kind, compassionate thoughts.
How do you get the train rolling down a different track once it’s in motion down the track of negativity? Switch tracks! Toggle the screen of your awareness to a new thought. Find something to appreciate: your amazing hand, the song on the radio, a color, a shadow pattern, a shimmering light. Toggle. But she said …. toggle… but they did that to me… toggle, toggle, toggle.
Appreciation changes the vibration of your thoughts to an upward spiral. You don’t have to switch to the JOY track right away. Switching from complaining to joy might require too big of a leap. Sometimes, when I am really mad, the best I can do is get to neutral. At least in neutral, you are not adding to the negative cesspool. From neutral, take one small step in the direction you want to go. Appreciate one thing. Then another. Then appreciate ten things. Notice any positive change in your environment. You might not notice a change in people around you right away, but keep it up and you will. Guaranteed.
Research by Dr. Masaru Emoto provides more elegant evidence than our rice jar experiment about the effect of thought vibrations on your environment. Dr. Emoto led a team of researchers to photograph frozen water crystals. Emoto found that frozen water crystals from a beaker labeled with positive words – love, joy, Mother Theresa – or submitted to healing music, created symmetrical crystal patterns that look like beautiful snowflakes.
Frozen water crystals taken from a beaker of polluted water, however, or one labeled with hateful words or submitted to heavy metal music, produced crystals that looked asymmetrical, broken, dark, cloudy and misshapen.
Even more importantly, Emoto’s team found that the broken crystal structure of the polluted water could be repaired. Misshapen water crystals became symmetrical and beautiful again when infused with loving, kind intentions – prayer therapy.
Now we know why prayer works on our bodies. The human body is over 50% water. When we pray over the body, the water molecules respond to the higher vibration thoughts. Other researchers, notably Dr. Larry Dossey, have shared research on the power of prayer in medical situations. Researchers documented that patients’ health improved when someone prayed for them – even when the patient did not know of the prayer.
Harnessing the power of your thoughts – toggling from a negative to a positive thought – will help you achieve your dreams and create an environment where you flourish. Try sending thought vibrations for harmony and wellbeing to the people around you to help foster a more harmonious work and home environment. When we humans learn to collectively harness the power of our shared vision, we will create a world that we DO want where all creation can thrive and prosper. Please join me in toggling to a life that includes more love, peace, freedom, harmony, prosperity and joy.
Leah Skurdal, is a public speaker, workshop facilitator, energy healer and author. Leah offers classes through her business, Mastery in the Art of Living in Lino Lakes, MN and other locations. She is author of the forthcoming book, “Toggle to Soul: Live in Joy.” Leah is available to speak to groups at breakfast or lunch meetings, social groups, classrooms and spiritual communities. She can be reached at leah.skurdal@gmail.com www.MasteryInTheArtofLiving.com
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