Women's Healing & Spirituality
with Crystal
8 WAYS TO HELP TURN OFF THE STRESS RESPONSE AND TURN ON RELAXATION IN YOUR BODY.
Hi Friends! I’m been awhile since I’ve wrote to you all. I wanted to share with you how I’m feeling cause truthfully I’m struggling…and I figure y’all might be too. I’m tired, I’m depleted, I need a break but have nowhere to go to get one (cause everything is shut down again). I wanted to give some voice to this reality because its truthful…we are stressed…we are out our max, we are exhausted and even getting cranky (at least I am and I’m not usually). We are tired of functioning on high alert, in this abnormal new norm. The effects of swirling fearful reality that this virus could be around is taxing on our bodies and thus on our energies.
What I wanted to share too was some ideas to off load the stress in our bodies…if we don’t discharge it, meaning complete the cycle of release…it stays stuck in the body and this is how we get illness, infection or disease. We must, must, must tend to our emotional and physical bodies during these times. I know for me, my body has this reverberation that feels eerily familiar…I have felt it before I ended up in the hospital for almost a year. I MUST make some changes and prioritize my well-being. My commitment is to do doing small practises, 10 mins a day to turn down my sympathetic nervous system and turn on my parasympathetic system so the stress hormone stops pumping through my body and instead the relaxation response is turned on. Muscles literally relax when this happens. This is sooooo important during these times, we can not sustain the “fight and keep going” response.
Did you know that stress and the hormone soup it creates in the body, literally stresses the blood vessels…weakens and stretches them and that’s how plague gets into our blood and heart…. and this is how stress can lead to heart disease (not to mention many other physiological effects)!! When our bodies get tight, stressed, rigid, wound up, bound tightly….our breath becomes shallow and rapid thus reducing blood flow. We often stop moving and this reduces the flow of our lymphatic systems…cortisol and epinephrine pump through the body….tightening and stressing the body even more. Our appetites are affected, our sleep disrupted…our brains chemically overwhelmed. We need to interrupt this cycle and turn off our survival responses and turn on our healing…rest, digest and relaxation response instead.
So please, join me in tending to the relaxation, the rest and digest response in your body. Commit to soothing your mind, body, heart and soul so you can get through this unimaginable time. Here are some ideas I have used (still using)to help my body discharge the stressful energy out of my body and to turn on the relaxation response.
- 1)I’ve booked myself a counselling session. As a therapist, I know how important it is to tend to one’s mental, emotional, spiritual, social and physical health. Seeing a therapist is a great way to talk about the impact of living in long-term Covid realities. We need to cry, scream, grieve, be angry, and then be okay…and repeat. Talk to someone. I am very conscious of my mental health and take care of it a lot and I am still struggling with my mental health at times.
- 2)Get moving…move the energy of heaviness out of your body with yoga, dancing, walking, or a light jog. Our bodies are too stressed for hard core workouts right now. I now I’ve had to really switch gears in the exercise department and let my tired body have gentle and loving movements rather than hard-care warrior workouts. We don’t exercise to stress the body, but help release the stress, so find that balance and that line. You’ll know when you’ve crossed it! You should feel good not depleted.
- 3)Journal…put on a 3-5 minute timer and just write what comes. Free flow.
- 4)Tend to your soul…light candles, burn incents, infuse oils, dim the lighting, say some prayers.
- 5)Guided meditation apps – Calm, Insight timer, youtube some meditations.
- 6)Do one nice thing for yourself a week. Paint your nails, do a hair mask, fix your hair all nice just cause. Buy a special dessert, coffee or tea (hit me up if you need some Sipology tea https://www.sipology.com/crystaltardiff
- 7)Deep breathing literally helps calm the nervous system and turns on our parasympathetic system which helps discharge the stress. Inhale for the count of 5, hold for 5, exhale for 5. Repeat 10 times and feel the difference.
- 8)EFT Tapping. Tap 5-7 times at each of these spots to help turn on the rest and digest benefits or our parasympathetic system. It turns on the calm.
Take care of yourself my friends, we need you. Prioritize you! Your body, your mind, your heart and your soul need you to show up for you.
xo Crystal
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october full moon – return to your body
This full moon is full of emotions. Things have been chaotic, uncertain, overwhelming….anxiety provoking. We are “in the muck” as my friend Bekah said…but it’s necessary for deep healing. We are in a deep healing portal, a time of shucking…releasing…spinning off what no longer fits. We are being brought to our knees and in that surrender, in that silence we are remembering and awakening our souls. We are remembering why we are here….and the emotions, the strong inner gut punches of emotions speaking out our soul’s desires are shrieking in our cores. Our bodies are reverberating the messages that our souls are speaking to us. It can be uncomfortable….but holy crap, it can be so powerful. I’m currently following a spiritual nudge…I’ve been called somewhere different for work…spirit called me there and I don’t quite know why yet. I’m just surrendering and trusting and allowing this call to guide me….I’m following my intuition, my inner knowing….no questions asked. I don’t know where it’s leading but it feels like things are starting to open up.
I share with you this video to support you and your heart, your soul and your wise body as we sit and let our emotions speak their desires to us. They are our soul desires….can you walk inward toward your heart and see what your deepest Self is asking of you? I honour you and your path my friends!!
Happy Full Moon!!!
And so it is.
Of course I”d love it if you Followed My Blog so I can share with you some spiritual goodies. 🙂
xo. Crystal
A WIND SONG RITUAL FOR THE EQUINOX
Happy Fall Equinox(or Spring depending on where you live) my friends. This is the day when light and dark are equal. A balance of yin and yang on the Earth one might say. I love the fall, the changing color of the leaves, the crisper feel of the air, and the call to begin the draw inward with some cozy candles and pumpkin spice smells. It’s a time of sweaters and boots, scarves and leggings. I don’t know about you but I really enjoy each change of season and the changing of energies that come with them. In Canada we feel the change of each four seasons and I absolutely love that.
So on this Fall Equinox the energy calls for a cleansing, a purifying of the air and a bringing in of the new life and energy. We are all going through major changes at this time so I hope you find this fitting as well.
A WIND-SONG RITUAL
Open up many windows in your home and invite in the beautiful, crisp and luscious autumn air. Allow the breeze to sing a lovely transition song through your home as she cleanses the energy and brings in new light and life force during this equinox. Call in the Great Spirit and Great Mother, angels, fairies, spirit animals, guides and ancestors or whomever you feel connected to to help you in your ritual. Feel the spirit of transition, manifestation and harvest in your home. Feel how abundant you are in love and shelter. Feel the simultaneous warm and cool breeze as she caresses your cheek. Close your eyes and hear the wind sing to you. What does she say?
If you have, dab a bit of tea tree oil or sage oil onto your screens as a means to cleanse the air or light incense and allow the breeze to move the cleansing smoke throughout your home.
Enjoy your new and shifted energy.
And so it is my friends.
If you called, I’d love it if you FOLLOWED THE BLOG OR The Women’s Tribe Facebook Page for more more rituals and soul work.
Enjoy! xo
Crystal
RECALIBRATING YOUR SOUL FOR LOADS OF ENERGY & TOP NOTCH HEALTH
What is your relationship to self-care? Do you do it? What if your commitment to it were the reflection of your relationship to your very Self? I’ll be the first to admit, it’s the first thing to go when life gets busy and yet I know it should be the thing on top of my to do list instead.
What if we removed the words, “self-care” and focused on re-calibrating our energy and souls instead? Hear me out for a second….Think about how many ways you are in service to the world. You are in service and dedication to your children, your marriage, your friends, your fam, your community at large.
If you do not re-calibrate your energy tanks, you will no longer be able to in service to others and the world. Your energy stores need you to restore the tanks to keep your dedication and abilities to serve love in the world going.
When we aren’t committing to the re-calibration of our energy, several things happen…
We may notice we get more cold, sickness, freak accidents, life annoyances (trains, car trouble) or injuries. Or we may be less patient, more short tempered, exhausted, overwhelmed, sad, depressed, even anxious. These are all symbolic to the imbalance between the energy we offer out and the energy we take in or have within. We must recalibrate our energy, our souls, our bodies, and our hearts.
I’m finishing up my Masters in Mind-Body therapy and have found over and over again that illness is often a result of exactly these imbalances. We get small warnings, wake-up calls, a cold, a sprained ankle, a broken down car….as warnings and attempts from Spirit/ The Universe to slow you down and restore your balance between doing and being once again. Eventually, the body cannot hold the energetic blockages of imbalance and it shows up somewhere as dis-ease or infection as an attempt to release and break free from blocked, stuck energy.
So I invite you, to see how important it is to recalibrate your energy stores through taking time fore you. Your needs each week might change…one week it may be a run, the next a nap, the week after you might need to paint. Whatever it is, I invite you to adopt Kate Northrup’s mantra of “Body first, Business second” and see just how much life changes for the better. See how much energy you will suddenly have with this adjustment.
If you want to keep being of service to the Divine by sharing your love and energy with the people and world around you, embrace that you must be on that list to sustain your purpose…to give and share love. It starts first with yourself. Love is energy, and the tank has got to be full for the large offerings you give to the people around you. Let that energy well stay full so the offerings are that much fuller.
Soul food for thought 🙂
And it is so! If you’d like to receive soul expanding, soul filling, heart warming goodies, I’d love for you to FOLLOW MY BLOG.
xo Crystal
xo
Crystal
A Healing inner Journey for this firey new moon
Happy New Moon my friends!! Wow this moon cycle feels like it may be a doozy. Mars goes retrograde and we are in the fire sign of Leo. Things are on fire, they are burning away, disintegrating the old bits that no longer belong. Embrace the fire, the burning away and allow the cleansing and purification to occur. This is one powerful moon cycle!
On this moon, as I write this I am sick!! My nose is so stuffed up, and yes I got COVID tested even though our numbers are low here in Manitoba. Deep down, I don’t feel COVID, I feel its’ finally the breakthrough, and break-up for some stuck energy I have held in my ears and my neck/ throat chakra.
I know it was congestion, energetic congestion, blockages between my head and hearing my heart. My body has been real loud with messages, emotional nudges, and spiritual guidance. And the difference is, I have been making space to hear my body. I have been making space of Spirit to communicate to me through the wisdom of my body…my aches/infections and even my emotions.
I have been working on my throat chakra this year and this feels like a real energetic and powerful cleanse of my system, of my neck area and throat chakra. I have more peace in using my voice, there’s less fear, less resistance…more excitement, more fun, more trust and more NEED! I invite you to an inner healing journey with me to clear the muck, the rubble, the energetic blocks from our own greatness and wellness.
NEW MOON INNER HEALING JOURNEY
Take a moment and breathe. Take another deep breath and then another. Here we are on this fiery new moon. Close your eyes and just feel your body. Let your awareness travel down your body and starting from the top of your head, all the way down your face and your neck, paying attention to your shoulders, chest and stomach. Just notice any areas of tension, tightness or discomfort. Keep going all the way down your hips, your pelvis, your knees and down to your feet.
Bring your attention to any area of tension that called to you. Just notice the sensations. What would the congestion and blockage look like if it were an image or object…?? Just notice that image and take a mental note. Now I want you to imagine that you are standing in front of a magical, blue colored fire. You can smell sage and sweet grass burning in the air. You can feel the summer breeze blow through your hair as you feel the heat and power of this healing fire! This is a healing portal, a place where you can burn off resistance and blocks that are lingering in your aura. Pay special attention to that place of resistance you noticed in your body and step into this magical fire. Notice how it doesn’t burn you but only all pieces that are not really of you. Let it burn away the rocky formation of fear. Let it burn away doubt and residual hurt. Let the fire burn away the heavy energy and feel your aura become lighter as the heavy, congested, stuck parts fall off and disintegrate into ashes and fall into the healing flames.
When you feel ready step out of the fire and out towards the two ancient, healing and loving grandmothers on each side of a special blanket on the ground. Lay down on the blanket and let the wise and loving grandmothers, sweep away any ashes and debris. Let them wash you and soothe you in cedar and sage infused waters sweeping you with leafy branches and cleansing your energy. Let them patch up and apply some healing salve on those areas where the gunk fell off. Let them soothe the energetic holes and repair it with their healing touch and wisdom. Let them bless your heart and remind you how amazing the Universe and Creation really is. Feel the love offered from them to you and let it ooze into all parts of your body. You may even feel tearful because it is so powerful.
If you have a question for these grandmothers, ask them and let them offer you a powerful and healing response. As they finish cleansing your energy field, you rise and gift them with an item. You leave it on the blanket for them and bow in gratitude.
As you get up, you see a trail and walk towards the dark moon in the sky…until you are ready to return to the here and now gently, peacefully and comfortably. Gently move your fingers, hands and feet and journal about your healing journey.
And so it is my friends
xo
Crystal
🤩🙏🏼Go to my Facebook page for a video of me guiding you they the meditation so you can just close your eyes and follow along 🤩
As always, I’d love for you to FOLLOW MY BlOG if you feel called. Follow me on my new IG @radiantskinbodyheartsoul and on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/radiantskinbodyheartsoul/?ref=bookmarks
The Gift of Friction
Friction.
It’s there…rubbing the edges of my soul. Irritating something within me so Spirit gets my attention. I’ve come across a discord, a spot and area in my life that feels prickly and slightly uncomfortable . My work is going to shift soon, I can feel it. I’m not sure into what or where but there’s something. Change is on the horizon because something is feeling really off. Something isn’t feeling right. This is a message. This is a sign post. This is Truth coming in and singing her song.
So I sit and invite the Friction and discord to sit beside me. I give friction an offering, and bow in gratitude and a small stone for sitting with me and gifting me with the energy of irritation so that action, movement, transformation and change can take place. I ask Friction and discord to guide me and share with me the why of their presence so I may hear the call inward.
“Your vibration has changed, and it no longer fits here,” she says. “It’s like trying to put together puzzle pieces that will never fit together. You are no longer the same person when you started and it no longer fits. You no longer need the energy this offered. It’s given its gift. What a blessing, what a gift.”
So I ask you friction, what now? What do I do?
“Trust… continue to be guided. Let your body and soul lead you.”
“Ask for signs and follow the arrows that show up. Put forth some questions, put forth some ideas and see where the chips fall. Trust in the message we have shown you. Thank you for listening .”
So as I navigate and understand the gift of friction in my life… I also harness the grounding energy of inner knowing and inner trust. I embody and repeat the mantra of…I choose peace and calm. I choose trust and faith. I choose to surrender into the flow and magic of life. I choose deep faith and inner knowing that I am being led and guided. Allow the discomfort to be triumphant. Embrace the message .
How do you experience friction in your life ? Can you invite it to sit with you and see where she takes you? What gift and message is she telling you on behalf of your spirit? What know does she have that your soul is seeing to speak? What does the Universe want you to know?
And it is so. As always my friends I’d so love if you followed my blog , my FB page or my new IG account @radiantskinbodyheartsoul
🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
💕💕💕
Crystal
Learn how to connect to your alive, wild, feminine soul!
Hello my friends!!
I wanted to take a moment to talk about our natural state, our original, wild and feminine soul… our original natures. When we are aligned in mind, body, heart and soul we can feel that! We feel calm and centered, yet vibrant and alive. We are curious, courageous…grounded and yet expansive. We feel full and fulfilled. At our soul roots we are confident, brave and trusting in ourselves and the Universe at large. That is who we really are! Then…life happens and we get wounded. Life and trauma, loss, grief, hurt, betrayal, rejection, humiliation, and abandonment spin us into alter personas and selves. We don’t know how to handle the hurt so we adopt masks that gift us with a temporary band-aid. We become what is supported, what is celebrated, what is stroked with love and acceptance and often…what is not us in our truest natures.
For me I became a perfectionist. I had to be the the best everything for me to feel good enough. If I wasn’t, I’d fall into a giant pit of despair and even panic because I thought it would make unloveable. I equated my external success with my worth. I often didn’t feel seen and so I tried to get accolades by excelling as a athlete, being a top student, working, being thin… I depended on the external validation like a drug I desperately needed to feel good enough because I did not believe it in my own heart and soul. I didn’t feel like enough. I didn’t feel worthy.
What I didn’t know then was that I had lost connection to my original, wild and sacred feminine nature. I lived in a world that did not talk about keeping connection to my heart, to my body or my feminine soul. I didn’t learn about the Sacred Feminine and they holiness of my sacred body. I lived in a culture that celebrated success at the cost of it all, even abandonment and betrayal of my own body for the external win. I didn’t know how to verbalize the act of having to abandon my own feminine self just so I could “fit in” and be celebrated as successful or what I thought as worthy. I didn’t know the words to express my craving to learn the ways of the Sacred feminine – learning how to be in and experience my soul guiding body, listening to my intelligent emotions as messengers or how to connect to the Divine from an embodied experience. Eventually a developed an eating disorder that unconsciously expressed this all. The ED was a metaphor, an unconscious expression of my starving, caged, wild, and feminine soul crying out for release from the inner cage.
Join me on my Facebook Page @radiantskinbodyheartsoul at 8pm central as I go live and share with you a life changing teaching and expand on the concepts above. Join me as I guide you How to tap into your own feminine and wild soul. See you then! And of course I’d love for you to follow my blog to see my many upcoming wild and feminine, soul connecting, mind-body uniting teachings . And so it is ! See you tonight I hope 🙋🏻♀️💕🌺
CALL IN SOME MAGIC AND PEACE ON THIS NEW MOON.
Happy New Moon my friends. This is the second new moon in the Cancer Zodiac sign. And boy, it sure is an interesting energy. This moon I feel a bit cranky and maybe you do too. Our relationships are and emotional “stuff” connected to relationships are still circling around this Cancer moon, the second time around. I have several relationships lately that are strained, my old ways of existing in them are no longer working for me and so they are in chaos and upheaval, conflict and even discord. And I’m pissy about it.
I too have been contemplating life a lot (haven’t we all with this Covid reality) and I’m just really truly on the cusp of brand new life existence or at least wanting a new form of doing life. I feel like shooting a magic, glitter cannon into all parts of my life…my parenting, my work, my marriage (especially) and my social life. I want to savour it all far more, I want to restructure it all in new ways and new forms, and new priorities that feel soul nourishing, that feel alive, the make it all joyful and fulfilling. I’ve aimed the cannon…ready to shoot it at my life but I’m still playing with the reality of how these changes will take shape! I have no idea what new forms are lurking around, stalking my psyche, waiting to be expressed… but it feels radical and exciting. I really want to blow the old ways up and enjoy life for what it is…in the moment and stop living in ways that I feel I have outgrown or no longer support my heart and soul needs. We are truly in an awakening.
It’s the simple things on this new moon we can do to tend to our emotional bodies and emoting souls. This simplicity is radically changing and soul expanding if we allow it. It’s going for more walks just to call in the nature, and the calm, and the peace into our souls. It’s leaving the dishes to go play outside with the kids. It’s looking at the clouds in wonder and seeing a message from our loved ones. It’s regularly pausing and feeling the energy of you life, your home and your work. Literally stop, close your eyes and feel the energy in the space you are now. What does it feel like? What does it need? What can you do? I smudged my whole house today because the energy, the stagnation, the old vibration needs to be shaken up and shaken loose. Broken up into new particles…this is the awakening of new energy. This is the awakening of new life.
NEW MOON CONTEMPLATION/JOURNALING
So I ask you to contemplate as we point our magical, glitter cannons to our lives and explore…what areas of my life that are needing peace..and why might that be? What can I do or what actions do I need to take to invoke that peace? What would magic and love, and life tell me about this scenario?
This goes for our relationships too. Why aren’t they peaceful? For me I have a lot of anger in some of my relationships and as much as I want to point the finger and blame those who have hurt me, I keep coming to the root of the anger…I’m mad at myself for tolerating it for so long. I’m mad at myself for staying in friendships/relationships that were anything but uplifting or equal, or simply exist in energies of taking and NON-reciprocal giving.
How can you radically change some of your relationships?
And so it is…
Happy New Moon! As always if you feel called, I would love to share my many soulful musings with you. Join my email list below for soul contemplating goodies and to be sure to be notified about some exciting new projects.
xo
Crystal
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A teaching about self-worth from Desire.
I’ve been exploring my experience with allowing my desires lately and my beliefs around fulfilling my desires. When I really let the word sink into my body and feel it, it becomes a sensual tingling, an arousing energy, an elevating vibration. I’ve come to realize how often I deny my desires or wishes for things. I fill up my online shopping cart only to close the webpage down without placing an order. We’ve been taught that fulfilling our desires is selfish, especially as a mom. I choose to deny what I want and don’t allow the energy of something fun or uplifting towards me. I’ve “sacrificed” my way out of my desires. I’ve closed off the experience of enjoying things, clothes, luxuries… in the name of my kids sometimes or a deep rooted guilt if I’m honest. I’ve equated luxury with egotism or lack of consciousness. I know things don’t make you happy per say, we cannot look to external objects or people to make us feel fulfilled. But what about enjoying this human experience!!?? I’ve denied myself gifts and offerings out of a false sense of being noble or helpful. I’ve shut down my desire and with it some of my physical, sensual enjoyment of human living. I am worthy and deserving of everything I desire, am I not? I mean… why not? My first thought comes to the belief that someone may need it more than me…so I’ll step aside and sacrifice my desires cause I’m content with “ok.”. Barf!! 🤮 it’s funny how making the unconscious – conscious can reveal our conditioned martyr responses as women, that somehow being a women or mother is equated with sacrifice. But I see now that fulfilling my desires, my wants , my wishes, even the physical joys of new clothes and non-important things just purely for desire…elevates my joy. It stokes my “I’m deserving and worthy” fires by offering myself non-essential but joyous, fun gifts. It’s vibrationally elevating and part of human living. It’s part of self loving to experience the physical ness of human life. Sunday food for thought . Why not live with the sensual, joyous experiences of desire in your life ? Invite it in and trust your desire!
If your interested in a Embodied Spiritually class and would like to be put in waitlist to find out more soon, email me at crystalchagnon22@gmail.com.
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