energy healing

GCW’s Tips for Life

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Here are several humble and easy tips from GCW based on her tree wisdom and observations of humans during her long life.

Tip #1: Spend time in nature every day to renew your relationship with with the web of life. In nature, you can release human caused worries, tensions, anxieties and find the peace and calm at your center.

Here you can walk and move your body freely. You can swing your arms, you can run, you can sing to your heart’s content. You can catch a snowflake on your tongue. You can climb or lean against a friendly tree. You can sit on a rock and soak in the sun, observing the life surrounding you and the beating heart within you.

Everything you experience in nature can be seen as a mirror of your inner self and you can learn from this; the dark forests, rolling prairies, deeply rooted grasses, feathered creatures of the air and treetops, grazing animals, fur bearers, scampering tree dwellers, the moods of weather and sky, the quality of light, industrious insects, magnificent spreading trees, tangled undergrowth, flowing streams, silver ponds, changing seasons…

Nature places no demands on you, makes no judgments about you, has no agenda for you to follow. Here you can be yourself. Here you can reconnect with the carefree and happy child within you.

Grandmother Cottonwood, winter

Tip #2: Hug a tree now and then. If you are tuned into your body in a sensitive way, you will notice a change in your energy as you hug a tree. You might also notice the energy of the tree. It may feel loving, welcoming, vital, peaceful, calm, patient. As you hug one of our representatives, you connect to the grounded earthy energy of the tree, and that will energize you!

Tip #3: Root to the Earth. You’re in a body and thus you belong here. You are meant to live fully in your body, not spending the majority of your time in your mind. If you do, eventually you will crash like a weak rooted tree in a high wind. To root yourself, visualize sending your energetic roots deep into the earth so you are anchored to the soil and bedrock. Now you can pull Earth energy into your body through your roots and know that you belong here.

Tip #4: Reach to the Light. Take up your allotted space in the canopy, so to speak. Soak in life giving energy that is your birthright and grow toward the sunlight. A tree will never turn away from the light, but grow always toward it, reaching and reaching and soaking in as much as possible every day of the growing season.

Grandmother Cottonwood

If you are alive and reading this, you are in your growing season. Make the most of it! Claim the light that is yours without apology.

If others are overshadowing you, find safe ways to find the light that is yours. You might start small and build on your successes over time.

When you are rooted and reaching to the light, when you spend time in nature, when you hug a tree now and then, you fully alive in body, mind and spirit. You are free! You are participating in full spectrum of human possibilities from the earthy to the sublime.

In this way, you connect and know your oneness with the web of life.

Let Your Love Flow

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It is never too late to learn more about love. Are you are alive? You have another chance.

As a child, your parents showed and defined love for you, nurturing or neglectful, one-sided, self centered or all inclusive, empathetic or abusive, somewhere in between, good enough. Loving and kind, or not so much.

Then on your next go-round in the school of life maybe your pairings and friendships and loves as a teenager and young adult mirrored your relationship with your first family. Maybe you got stuck in a hamster wheel of unhealthy patterns again and again.

Winter Nest

Know this! Throughout life you can learn more about love. You are never too old to realize you can get unstuck from old hurtful patterns you can learn to open your heart, trust your tender being to others you want to be closer to. Your heart can thaw.

You can learn to see and feel and know the light in others. You can learn to gently dismantle any walls or barriers you’ve placed between your heart and those others you want to be closer to.

You can learn new and safe ways of opening your heart, new ways of relating to others you trust if you desire it and practice with patience, compassion, and love for yourself.

Ask for help from a trusted therapist, healer or friend if you need it.

You can dam the river of your love, or you can let it flow. Your life and feelings of love can flow like a surging stream if you trust and allow it.

Connect to Earth

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Yes, dear ones, I return to a favorite theme. I speak of grounding once more because it is so vital to your well-being!

When your body and mind are exhausted, when you feel as though you can’t take another step, when you are depleted, shaky or frantic, recharge your power supply by reconnecting with Mother Earth.

Plug in and let her entrain your energy to her heartbeat, the rhythm of our planet, to the reality of her loving support.

When you are ungrounded you may seem to float away like an untethered space walker. Humans ungrounded deplete themselves and try to compensate for a lack of Earth energy, try to find a power supply elsewhere – food, drink, drugs…?

When you are grounded, you are filled with Earth energy pulled in from the chakras at the soles of your feet. This energy rises up within your body to anchor and root you to your home. This is mother Earth’s way of telling you – you belong here, this is your home.

Rediscover your power supply in the most simple and natural way.

Walk stand or sit with your bare feet on the earth, on grass a beach, in mud or soil. Lay under a tree. Hug a tree and lean there for a few moments. Visualize yourself as a tree and send your roots deep into the Earth. Gently massage your feet. Walk in nature. Rub the soles of your feet with a stainless steel spoon.

As you are here in a body, you are meant to live fully within the parameters and limitations, joys sorrows and challenges of this physical existence. Getting grounded will help you be here now and experience the fullness of life.

Practice simple grounding daily and recharge your batteries. Live in your body. Live more fully as you are meant to.

Ground with your favorite tree

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Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.

Yes, I repeat myself once again with rooting and grounding theme. I do this because so many humans walk this earth with their awareness and their spirits partially outside of their bodies.

The energy of ungrounded humans feels as though it floats in space without an anchor or home. This causes many to feel anxious and unmoored. Ungrounded people are disconnected from a vital source of life-giving energy.

Making sure you are grounded in times of trial and uncertainty, when you feel spacey anxious or disconnected.

Here is one simple way to anchor yourself with my friends and cousins the trees. Which tree are you drawn to? Oak, sycamore, sweet gum, hackberry, cedar palmetto, beech, elm, walnut, fir, hickory, maple, ash, cherry, apple, spruce, poplar, aspen, magnolia, pine, cottonwood, mesquite, …?

Grandmother Cottonwood

Choose your favorite tree. If needed, find a picture of a magnificent tree to help your imagination see the details.

Now envision for a few moments that you too are a magnificent tree. Bear with me, you don’t have to tell anyone else about this…

Now imagine that you have roots reaching deeply into the soil, gripping the earth. Your roots range in size from mighty ones the size of main branches, tapering down to the tiny tenacious hair like roots that draw in nourishment directly from the soil.

Strong roots

With your imagination see and feel your roots reaching deeper into the soil and subsoil, through the bedrock and mantle of the Earth to the molten core. (Anything is possible in your imagination)

Now as you breathe in, pull in the anchoring Earth energy up into your feet, legs and lower torso to fill the cells of your physical being and help bring your awareness into your body – where you are meant to live.

Now you are plugged into the frequency of the planet.

Breathe the Earth energy in through your roots and let it travel upward through your trunk and branches through the tips into your leaves. Do this breathing several times as you imagine the energy filling your from the center of the Earth up.

Interwoven branches and nest

Feel yourself relax and become one with our planet. Allow the Earth energy to soak into every cell of your body.

Let the trees show you anchoring. This simple practice can help calm you. No equipment or expensive accessories are needed, no experience or skill required.

All you need to tap into Earth energy are your heart, imagination and intention.

Connect with Earth Energy

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Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.

Dear one, do you feel shaky, off balance, flighty, un-tethered?

Our great mother, the Earth asks you to lie down heart to heart, belly to belly with her and absorb her loving grounding energy into your body.

When you feel anxious she will calm you, when you feel unmoored, she will give you solidity. When you are tired, she will fill you with energy. When you feel lost, she will provide a home, a safe resting place, a solid foundation.

Go to the Earth when you find yourself off balance, jittery, bereft. Let her energy heal you.

Let her envelope you in the energy, the safety, and feeling of home. Know that we belong to each other!

Contentment

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Dear reader, this post is from the archives of AskGCW.

Can you allow yourself an hour or two of contentment each day? If that seems like a tall order, how about 15 minutes?

A few minutes, an hour or two of simply feeling at peace with your life, letting go of wanting something you don’t have, letting go of striving for the next goal, letting go of pushing ahead, letting go of forcing things to happen, will bring a refreshing new serenity to your life.

Grandmother Cottonwood

The energy frequency of contentment ripples through the web of life bringing more peace to all living beings on this earth.

Contentment is living in the moment. It is bringing your awareness to the here and now and knowing that life is good, that you have everything you need for this hour, that in this moment and the next and next, all is well.

For this hour of contentment, there is nowhere you have to go, no one you have to meet, nothing you have to do unless it contributes to your happiness.

When you know contentment, your body mind and spirit feel calm, relaxed, and satisfied. Can you give yourself this precious gift?

Rediscover peace

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When fear in your body feels too much, when the voices of doom and gloom and ugly rants on the news on social media get you down, when you can’t settle, when your head is filled with anxiety, go outside if you can.

You will feel more clarity and greater calm when you go outside without your shiny device, your ear buds, your blinking object.

If it is not safe to go outside, to breathe the air, imagine yourself in your favorite spot in nature. Use your inner vision to go to a place you love and feel completely safe and comfortable.

Move in comforting ways, walk slow or fast, swing your arms, breathe in the fresh air, move through the shifting shade under old and friendly trees, notice the sights sound smells and the feel of your chosen place on this Earth.

Summer grasses

Let your awareness reside in your heart, your body, your senses. Let thoughts from your logical mind and the demands of your ego float in and out like clouds, knowing they are not reality. Do not give them any power by clutching or grasping onto them.

Notice the colors of your world, the flow of the creek or river, the animals and birds, the plant life, the clouds, sky patterns, tree growth, the blooming flowers.

Feel your feet meeting Mother Earth. Feel her support of you. Feel your lungs filling and emptying as your chest rises and falls. Feel the movement of your limbs swinging in rhythm.

Feel the energy of fear leaving your being with each out breath. Feel anxiety melting away as you hug and lean on a friendly tree, letting the tree with deep roots support your weight and connect your heart to the heart of the Earth.

GCW in fall

Let the weight of your worries drain away into the earth for this moment. Mother Earth will neutralize the energy of excess fear, anxiety, and dread.

You may be absorbing unpleasant emotional energy from the collective mind, from other people and groups. Let it go! Let it drain away into the Earth. It is not yours to carry.

When you can get out of your head and spend time in nature, you can rediscover peace.

Survival

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You are still here. You who are alive , you have survived furious storms, widespread sickness, social upheaval, massive migrations of people, loss of wild places. And yet you endure. Our planet endures.

New life finds a way. Seedlings push up through the crusty soil, reaching to the sun through cracks in concrete and stone.

You too, will find a way to survive.

You deserve wholeness. You deserve healing. No matter what has happened in your life, what you have done, what you have endured you deserve to live as fully as possible. You can reclaim 100% of your inner power, your spark of divine light, your heart and will.

Monarch butterfly and wildflowers

Know this. If you are alive in a body at this moment in time you can find peace, you can learn to communicate with your wise self and get to know your heart and spirit. You can live authentically, beyond the surface roles and costume dramas of daily life. You can get to know the true core of your spirit.

Ask for help if you need it!

Examine your beliefs. No belief, no physical condition, no problem or challenge is carved in stone or cast in concrete unless you believe it to be so.

You are made of energy. Your physical being is in constant motion, constant ebb and flow. Energy obeys and follows your thoughts and beliefs! So create new kinder thoughts that will gently shift your energetic reality to what you want.

When you know this you will survive and thrive!

Light and Dark

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Sunlight and shadow reveal and conceal. You can hide in the shadows, draw forward into the light, recede into the shifting patterns of sunlight and shadow on the forest floor.

Sun dappled tree

You cannot hold light and dark in your hands and possess them. Where does one end and the other begin? Would we know what light is without dark, or dark without light?

Without night we would not know the moon and stars. Without day we would not know cooling shade on a hot summer afternoon, or the shape of things.

Get to know the dark in you, the light in you, where they intersect. Do you try to suppress the shadows you fear in yourself and spend your time in perpetual light?

Do you stay in the shadows of life at the margins, fearing the clarity light will bring? Do you feel unequal to sharing your talents and gifts under the spotlight of divine grace?

Do you conceal what you perceive as flaws and hide them in the shadows, or conceal your gifts and powers, keeping them hidden from the light?

For in accepting the light and dark of you, you learn to accept yourself unconditionally, to love yourself fully.

More about weeds

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Invasive weeds are those that have escaped from their natural habitat and run rampant through the landscape like an invading army. They often take over those more delicate and sensitive plants, those inclined to live in harmony and balance with their neighbors.

Invasive weeds might form mono-cultures where much native vegetation is wiped out, nuance and balance destroyed, diversity and variety steamrolled, communities of living beings ruined.

They take over. They replace, they bully and subdue. To remove them, you must dig the deepest roots, tease them out of soil, and remain vigilant. One missed root can grow in the dark out of sight until it gains strength again, finally sending out more and more shoots and roots.

Encourage those native plants you wish to grow by strengthening them, providing the conditions they need to thrive.

Creeping Bellflower -beautiful but invasive

Just as invasive weeds can take over a field, a garden, a pasture, a flower bed, invasive thoughts and beliefs can root deeply into the brain, shutting down the assimilation of new information, burrowing into all areas of life, infecting, destroying nuance, new ideas, novel thoughts, creating a one-track mind, a mind that thinks in black and white, that is closed to growth.

Thoughts that served you well as a child, passed down from your family lineage may be harmful or hold you back now that you are an adult and can think for yourself.

These invasive and harmful beliefs and thoughts can be identified and questioned then rooted out with love and patience. Gently tease them out by the roots. Shine a light on them in the spirit of healing and growth.

Be vigilant my friends. Examine your minds and hearts for invasive recurring thoughts, anxieties, and beliefs that keep you stuck and your life small. Strengthen and encourage new thoughts that lift you and others up, that encourage your heart to expand with love, that help you live fully as you are meant to.

With time and patience you can bring to light and remove harmful invaders and strengthen that which you want to grow in your life.