2014

108 Day Challenge

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I finally made it down to South Carolina.

New starts, new changes, and coming into new alignments can always bring struggle.  One of the things that I like to do when I get to a new area is a cleanse and detox.  Upheaval can bring a lot of stress thorough our entire system.  For me, cleansing the body, mind and spirit helps to harmonize me into my new experience.   Since this time I am also in a process of building a new life, I thought I would take this cleanse a bit deeper and also offer myself some challenges.  The challenges help to re-align my system, and well… keeps things from getting stagnant.  Getting into a new routine is always a good thing when leaving an old one.

I’ll post the details here, and will do a daily post as I move through the cleanse.   This is my personal challenge, but if you are finding yourself in a rut, why not do something to help move you deeper into your experience.  Before I start a cleanse, detox or challenge like this

My challenge:

  1. Food and nutritional detox: no sugar, gluten, processed foods
  2. Reading 1-2 books/week.
  3. Writing, writing, writing…. one blog post a day, one poem a day, and daily journaling
  4. Daily mediation and yoga practice
  5. and some other things that I am keeping personal 😉

The challenge should be something that is out of the ordinary for you, it should allow you the opportunity to step into something “new” as far as a routine, or spiritual experience.  Taking you a bit out of the norm, or bringing deeper awareness to something that is more routine.  If you meditate already, challenge yourself to shift it up a bit.  Do something a bit differently.  Breaking up stagnation helps us to keep our practice fresh, and we also get to take a deeper look at ourselves in the process.  The path is about learning to grow through engaging the process, rather than just going through the motions.

Do you have questions on setting up a cleanse, detox, or personal challenge?  Feel free to write them in the comments section below and I’ll answer them.

You are Loved.

You are Beautiful.

You are Divine.

Michael A Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.facebook.com/soulintuitive

Finding Closure, Embracing Impermanence

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Everything dies.

Nothing lasts forever.

I am in my final week here in Washington DC.  I never thought four years ago that I’d be saying goodbye.  This has not been an easy process, but I’ve learned that pain is teacher.  Everything that enters into our lives does so for a reason.  In reality, nothing on this plane of existence lasts forever.  Our bodies are in a constant state of decay.  Relationships end.  Jobs end.  Life ends.  We are constantly faced with closure.  One of the things I’ve allowed myself to do over the past few days is to soften into the awareness of impermanence.  Many of us try to stop the shifting that is happening around us and we cling to what no longer is, and in turn this causes us to suffer.  It also causes many to harden to life.  “I’m refusing to let myself be hurt again”, “Love sucks”, “Better this than nothing” and we feed ourselves a plethora of excuses to get us out of just being present with the death current.

When we soften to what is right in front of us we get to be with all of it.  When we allow our hearts to soften, we can love all of it.   Yesterday as I was walking around DC I was noticing things with a different clarity.  I allowed myself to love all of what I was seeing, experiencing and noticing.  Now that I am leaving this area and will no longer be a resident, my time here is in the death current.  Rather than clinging to what no longer is, and not projecting into some imagined future, I let myself be with all of it.  I got on the an escalator that I’ve taken many times over the past four years, and for a moment I loved that escalator (sound silly, I know), but I was noticing something that I have taken for granted over the past four years.  Something as simple as an escalator, when fully noticed, can crack you open to the “now”.

One of the things I am trying to do more of is to invite a gentle awareness of impermanence into all that I do.  It has allowed me to deepen my friendships, to taste life a little differently, and to not take for granted what is right in front of me.  I am learning to love all of it.  Even the pain.  Pain reminds us what it is like to feel, and like impermanence it is also part of life.   I am not saying that we need to go around and fear that at any moment everything can be taken away from us (but in reality it can).  When we soften to this reality, we get to really appreciate where we are, now.  What is right in front of you, in this moment is all that really exists.  The past no longer is here, the future is just a figment of your imagination, what is here and now is all that is.  The eternal now.  Shifting our awareness to being with all of it is a powerful tool for transformation.

Many of us spend a lot of time looking for closure.  We need validation that things are in the final throes.  Closure is not something we get from an external source.  In a relationship that is ending, looking for closure is just keeping necessary doors open.  I find that true closure is just being able to say “thank you” to the entirety of the experience.  Thank you to the joy, thank you to the pain, thank you to all of it.  Thanking our pain is not easy, thanking the experience might be even tougher, but hating it doesn’t change it either.  This is not something that we just rush into, but this also comes from the space of softening our hearts and opening to love.

So, I’ve rambled on enough.  I promise to post with more frequency now that the move is happening.

I am also posting videos on my youtube channel so head over and subscribe:  www.youtube.com/soulinteraction

you can also follow me on twitter:  www.twitter.com/mikebrazell

oh, cant forget facebook:  www.facebook.com/mbrazell      www.facebook.com/soulintuitive

As always,

You are Loved.

You are Beautiful

You are Divine.

Michael Brazell

Coming into 2014 alignment

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We made it through another year.

2013 has brought a lot of opportunity, and also a lot of change.   Stepping into the new year has brought me a chance to align with deeper parts of my own journey.  This is going to be a year of exploration, growth, and movement.

One thing that I have always wanted to do, but have for one reason or another have not gone all the way is shifting to eating raw.  So, this is the year I plan on going all the way with it.  Making the shift gives me better connection to the foods that are entering my body, my health, and my spiritual practice.  I do feel that what we eat should be part of our spiritual practice.

I’m spending more time writing poetry this year.  I got away from it for a while.  Poetry brings us face to face with the raw elements of our life.  Poetry is alive, it moves, it lasts mere moments–but echos deeply.   So, my goal is going to be to write a poem a day.  I’ll post some of them here.  I am also going to work a bit harder to get some of my work published.  I’ve wanted to do a chapbook for sometime, and now is the perfect year to make that a reality.  So, stay tuned for that.  I am also going to start attending open mics/slams again.  There is something beautiful and sacred about sharing your work in the public space.

I am spending more time with sacred texts, writing my own commentaries, and will be posting some of that here as to open deeper dialogue.  Too often we trust only the templates of others.  It is important for us to explore our personal relationship with spirituality.  2013 was a year of exploration for me.  I had the opportunity to dive into the study of paganism and witchcraft.  I learned a lot about myself, got to attend and meet some wonderful teachers, and saw how the dynamics of magick play a role in the ever-changing landscape of life, but as with all things that change, those are no longer my avenues of study.  I still practice personal forms of ritual, but I am moving those to the deeply personal, and no longer engaging the public sphere in that way.  I closed up the Yogawitch.com blog site, but will leave it up as an archive of my journey into intersecting Magick and Yoga practice.

2014 is going to be my year of placing spirituality in action.  I am diving deeper into soul specific work, working with intuition, and going back to my core spiritual work.  Journaling daily helps to connect to my soul journey.  My core practice has always been rooted in Christianity and the Eastern traditions.  I have a wonderful bible journal that I use to do study, soul dialogue, and daily tune ins.  Each day I take a moment to dialogue with my soul.  Intuition always has a lot to say if we pause and listen deeply.  The next step is capturing this dialogue, referring back to it, and trusting what is coming through.

I am going to start blogging with greater frequency.  Last night at the New Years Eve Psychic Fair at Sacred Circle Books, I kept hearing that I need to finish my book (from other psychics, and a few of my clients).  I am going to bring that through this year as well.

Diving deeper into my yoga practice (both professional and personal) is also on my list. I am going to be posting flow videos, technique study, and taking yoga on the road (big project in the works, stay tuned).

Travel is also on my agenda this year.  I plan to take my life to the road a bit, to do a spiritual adventure of sorts.  I am looking for places to visit, people to engage, and communities to share space with (place your suggestions below, or send them to me via email soulinteraction@gmail.com)

So, this is going to be a very engaging year.   This is the year of action, but also closure.  My mantra is: I am READY.

What are you shifting into this year?

You are loved.   You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.