Spiritually Fit: Simple workout routine (Playing Cards)

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12--183086-playing cardsThe challenge for many people when it comes to getting into a fitness lifestyle is that it can be pretty overwhelming when we start on the journey.  There are so many options on where to begin that it is easy to freeze in place rather than move forward.  So, I thought it would be great to periodically post some of my personal workout routines and tips that keep me moving towards health and fitness.  I go to the gym, and I love it.  I love the environment, I love having access to equipment that I normally would not if I was at home, and I also realize that the gym is not for everyone.  The difficulty with at home training is that it requires a bit more motivation to get up and do the workout.  The idea is to keep your  home training as simple as possible, but to also make it fun.  “Working out” should be all work.  It is a chance to dive into the sacred temple that is your body.

For this routine all you need is a deck of playing cards.

If  it is a new deck you want to be sure to shuffle it up pretty good.  If you want a longer workout you can take two decks and combine them into one massive stack.

The next thing that you will need to do is assign an exercise to each suit:

  • clubs= push-ups
  • hearts= sit-ups
  • spades=squats
  • diamonds=diamond push-ups
  • non suit cards= 30 second rest

You can really use any combination of exercises that works for your level of fitness and enjoyment.  I recommend staying with your choices for about a week or so, and then switching to another exercise for each suit.

Now the fun part.  Place the deck face down, draw a card, and you are going to do the exercise for that suit and your rep count will be whatever number is on the card.

Using the above example:  If you draw the 10 of clubs, you will do 10 push-ups.  If you draw a face card, or an ace you can call these “11” , and aces can be “1” rep… or you can assign your own numbers to those cards.

This is a fun way to dive into a home routine.  The exercises cycle through, and it becomes a randomized circuit training session. You can pause however long you want between each card draw.  If you are just starting out I’d recommend giving it 45-60 seconds between cards, more advanced can do 15-30 seconds between the draw.

I feel that engaging the body is as important as engaging spirit.  When we are able to connect to the body, achieve greater states of health and well-being, we are allowing for greater alignment in all areas of life.

Before starting any workout routine, be sure to check with your doctor.  Do what you can, and remember it is not a competition.  It is you getting in touch with you.  Keep a journal of your progress and how you are feeling before and after you workouts.  You can do this 3-5 days a week and you don’t have to cycle through the entire deck in one sitting.  I use to do 1/2 the deck in the morning, and the other 1/2 in the evening.  Have fun with fitness!

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Mike Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.michaelbrazell.com

michael@michaelbrazell.com

 

Monday Reflections: Own this moment fully

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Life is a constant ebb and flow.  It is movement.  Sometimes we get smashed across the rocks, and sometimes we land on the shore with ease and grace.  I hear a lot of people getting stuck in the “why me” mode of thinking.  Then binding to the moment as if it will never end.  When we take ownership of the struggle as much as we take ownership of the joy, we open a door to the experience.  We are not longer distancing, or holding onto.. but acknowledging what is happening.  Sometimes when we are eating, the food goes “down the wrong pipe”… we panic, grab for our water, slow our breathing, and calm begins to present itself.  Life is like that at times.  We struggle, but calm follows the storm.  We have to be careful to not bind to victimization.  We have the power to move through our situations, and this process opens up when we learn to trust our intuition.  When we are able to take a step forward into the struggle we are able to move through it.  We also have to be careful how tightly we hold to joy.  Holding onto joy can often ignite comparison.  “That cupcake is the absolute best cupcake in the world, it brought me so much joy… no other cupcake will ever compare”.  We do this in relationships, situations, and even in friendships.  This robs the moment of presence and binds us to the past.  It is important to acknowledge those moments that have built us into who we are, but we can’t hold so tightly that we do not allow new experiences to be experienced fully.  If we were to hold onto the love of our lives, who may now be an ex, and then do not let anyone else have access to our hearts or compare all those that enter into our lives as less than.. we are denying ourselves the beauty of a new experience.

Take this moment to offer thanks to the joy and the struggle.  Each are teachers that will present themselves to us, how long we stay with them is often up to us.

And remember You are loved.  You are Beautiful. You are Divine.

 

Mike

Soul Interaction Weekly Update 4/28/2014

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“Today I stand in Power and Presence.  I am whole.”

 

Good morning!

Today let’s make the commitment to commit to our lives more fully.  Stand in your power.  Stand in your presence.  When is the last time you truly focused on the act of breathing?  Take a moment now to just breath.  Bring your hand to your chest. Feel your heartbeat. Feel the rise and fall of your body as you inhale and exhale. Be with the breath. This is the essence of standing in presence and power. Do this a few times a day. This is a very simple act of “in the moment” meditation that you can do.

Here are some updates and announcements for the week:

I’m offering discounted sessions this week!  Here are a run down of the prices:

This week all readings will be offered at a discount! So if you want to schedule a reading, drop me a line and we can set it up.

These prices are only valid through 5/3/2014

15 min session 45.00 (25.00)
30 min session 70.00 (35.00)
45 min session 90.00 (45.00)
60 min session 110.00 (90.00)
75 min session 130.00 (110.00)
90 min session 150.00 (125.00)

All distance healing session with email or phone followup 50.00 (25.00)

Email readings will be donation only 

You do not have to book the session right away.  As long as you purchase the reading while in the window for the reduced rates, you’ll have up to 30 days to schedule your session.  This is a  great opportunity to get in a session, gain some direction and step more fully into your soul purpose.

BlogTalk Radio Schedule for the Week:

Monday 4/28 11pm EST- Let’s talk meditation and Free on air mini soul sessions

Tuesday 4/29 11pm EST- Soul Meditation (30min Live Guided meditation)

 

If you haven’t like my Facebook page yet you should!  Here are my social media links so you can stay in touch and follow along on my Soul Adventures.

http://www.facebook.com/soulintuitive

http://www.instagram.com/mikebrazell

http://www.youtube.com/soulinteraction (I’m in the process now of getting some videos up and running.  Def be sure that you subscribe)

http://www.twitter.com/mikebrazell

 

That’s it for now!  I hope you all have a beautiful week.  I’ll be posting more blogs through the week.  Be sure to share the blog, comment, tune in and be part of this expanding soul community!

You are Love.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Namaste.

Mike- 

 

Be the Light You Want to See in the World

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I am the Light,

The Light is Within me,

The Light Moves Throughout me,

The Light Surrounds me,

The Light Protects me,

I AM THE LIGHT.

Consuela Newton copyright 1986

The above affirmation has been part of my daily practice since 2008.  Every morning I start my day with it.  I feel the power of my inner light, and I step out into the day ready to embrace the joy and challenge of living in this beautiful world.  I’ve spent the past few weeks on an expedition of sorts.  I pulled out all of my old journals, went through old blog posts, and really wanted to see who I was when I first started on this journey into spirit.

It was a beautiful thing to see the innocence of starting on a spiritual adventure, making the commitment to doing this work full-time, and how I was dealing with uncertainty in those moments.  I’ve made a lot of changes since starting this journey (physically and spiritually), but through the digging I was also able to acknowledge the sacred foundation, the unchanging, and am more able now to give those roots a bit more life.  I use to be a lot more positive about life, and my journals use to be filled with beautiful affirmations.  As of late, they’ve looked more like “whine” sessions.  Life grabs us, but light grabs us too.  I’ve gone through a lot of transition over the past few months.  Making a geographic change, relationship changes, and coming back into alignment with my family.  All this change has sent shock waves through my system.  Like a lightening bolt hitting the earth and breaking open the surface.. reveling that rich soil beneath the hardened stone.

I think too often positive affirmations and books like “The Secret” get a bad rap.  A lot of people assume that these tools are just putting masks on the negative, or that they are teaching that we must never have negative thoughts. A lot of people become bound to the negativity, we tend to sit in the struggle for longer than necessary, and we may even lose a sense of worth connected to having “good” in our lives.  Positive affirmations are invitations for the good things to come into our lives, negative affirmations are easy… positive affirmations can be more difficult if we feel bound to not being able to see the light in our dark moments.  Positive affirmations are pulling up the shades.  The affirmations are invitations for us to join life in a different way, to step into life through a different perspective.

When we begin to do the work on inviting the positive into our live and work through gratitude, we are doing the deeper work of the soul.  We are making claim to our birthright.  Engaging positivity also allows us to be less reactive to negative situations.  Affirmations, like mantras, help us to train the emotional body, to come back to center, and to see this “negative” situation through a different lens.. thus allows us to work through it, rather than be bound by it.

Over the past few days I’ve gone into deep reflection about what I want to do with my life.  How do I want to do the work of the soul?  How can I be of service to those in my life, and to humanity as a whole?  Going through my journals also allowed me to see what my original intentions were for taking the leap into the sacred as a profession.  I’ve been truly blessed along the way, and to go back to those moments in my past where things seemed “impossible”, yet there was a current running through my life… one that has never let me fall, and one that stays with me as I move into the next experiences in my life.

I say this often, but if you are not journaling, you really need to start.  I’m so thankful for all those little reminders, those messages from my past to my future self, that I am not able to read, and to take to a deeper place of understanding.

Be the light you want to see in the world.  Let you light shine, and set this world on fire with your glory.

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Michael A. Brazell

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.facebook.com/soulintuitive

www.youtube.com/soulinteraction

www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbrazell

The Cleanse: Hitting the Spiritual Reset Button

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istock_000013005656xsmallI want to start off this post by saying that the cleanse I am posting here is my journey.  Some of you may like it, others may not.  I only share it because we can all learn from each others trip along the soul highway.   I often find myself called to do a cleanse when I feel it is time to do a reset.  My spirituality is my life, my profession, and my passion.  Having come through a big transition, I feel that I am still carrying some old resistance, habits, and patterns.  Doing deep, and honest self inquiry allows us to go into a cleanse with clear intention.  I am also feeling that things are shifting for me spiritually.  I am starting to work deeper in the intuitive space, communing with my guides, my angels, and higher vibration beings.  When engaging these higher energies, I find it of value to detox and purify the body as much as possible.  It is also important to have a plan of action in place for going into your cleanse.  This helps keep you focused and aligned with your intention.  I am hoping to do a daily video post for this as well, and you can check out my YouTube page here.  If I do the videos I’ll also try to post them here as well.

So, for this cleanse and detox I am starting with 10 days.  I am starting with a 3 day master cleanse and then going into 7 days of water only.  Each water day is going to be dedicated to a particular chakra.  I bought 7 jugs of distilled water.  On each of the jugs I am going to draw the sacred symbols associated with each chakra, and will charge the water by chanting/toning the chakra sounds into the water.  I also have some wonderful chakra incense that I’ll be using for my morning meditations.  This cleanse is a bit more intensive than other things I have done in theChakras-in-Lotus past, but I feel that this is what I need to do right now to clear out some stagnation.  I am also structuring my reading time, online time, and yoga practice to support this adventure.  I’ll end the 10 days by doing 3 days of green/raw protein shakes, and I’ll allow my intuition to tell me what comes after that.  I am cutting gluten, sugar, soy, and processed foods out of my diet moving forward.  I have been receiving a lot of clear messages from my guides to start doing this, so I am.

When stepping off the ledge and into something like a cleanse, or detox be sure that you allow yourself time to prepare to go into it, but also be kind and gentle with yourself as you exit the cycle.  The most important part of a cleanse is your journal.  What emotions are coming up?  What body reactions are you having to the cleanse?  Write down your weight at the start, and track it throughout to be sure you are not losing too quickly.  What are your dreams telling you during this time?  I find that a cleanse usually brings up much more than our dependence on certain foods and additives.  Remember also, that cleanses and detoxes do not need to be food centered.  Taking a break from the computer, TV, the bar scene, clubs, or even pulling away from certain people might be a good thing.

For me, this is also a chance to reset parts of my life.  To come back to center, to bring my power home.  I do lots of energy work, self-healing, self-reflection, readings on myself, and this allows me to also be of service to my clients, friends, and soul family.  It also allows me to work more closely with this new and wonderful energy that is coming in.  I’ve had a lot of resistance stepping more deeply onto my path, and this process helps to clear away some of that muck.  I am also going to be working on cleansing and balancing the energies in my physical space.  Lots of work ahead, and lots of great things that I’ll be sharing here in the next few days.

What in you is calling you forward?  What in you needs to be cleansed right now?  Are you able to pause now for a moment, and bring awareness to that area of your being?

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

 

Mike Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.yogawitch.com

www.facebook.com/soulintutive

www.blogtalkradio.com/michaelbrazell

 

Total Revamp, New Services, and Connecting to Community

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I am diving into the land of website revamping and narrowing down my focus for the services that I am offering spiritually.  There is a lot moving and grooving in the Soul Interaction world.  I am hoping to get some videos up on my YouTube page in the next few days, and the radio show is also going to be launching again next week.

Over the past few days I’ve had the chance to sit with my personal spiritual journey, and I’ve come to some wonderful realizations about what I want to do with my path both personally and professionally.

Radio show:

Soul Interaction Radio is still going to bring you no fluff connection to spirituality, but we are also going to be structuring the show so that I can take your calls, answer your questions and do on air readings again.  We had stopped doing them for a while because we wanted to focus on the topics, but I feel that it is time to make the show about connection and community.  I love helping others connect to their paths, and the show offers the perfect platform for us to do that.  Be sure to tune in and follow the show.  I’m going to be posting the schedule this weekend.

New Services:

I am also available for regular sessions. My schedule is pretty open, so if you want to set something up… Skype, phone, or in person (Columbia, SC area) let me know.   You can go to www.michaelbrazell.com for more information or to schedule a session.
Channeling sessions: My guides will speak to you directly. These sessions are energy transmissions. The purpose is to help you connect to your soul journey with greater intensity. My guides will open up to you directly, addressing what they feel is most pressing for you at this time. These sessions are geared towards helping you grow and open spiritually (these are not the sessions for “do the love me” questions). The sessions last 45-60 min. Introductory Price: 90.00

One on one guided meditation: We will begin with a soul session to connect deeper to your present moment. I’ll then take you through a guided meditation that is offered directly from spirit. The session helps to bring gentle awareness to issues that you might be going through, but also allows us to directly engage the multiple levels of your experience with presence and awareness. Sessions are between 45-60 min. Introductory Price: 70.00

Soul Mediumship (Spirit Connection): These sessions allow us to connect directly with those that have crossed over. We invite your guides, your guardians, your ancestors to step into presence. We open up for communication. The purpose of these sessions is to offer healing, closure, and to allow guidance from those beings. When doing one of these sessions I ask that my clients be open to whoever comes through, and to allow for fluidity in the session. These sessions usually last between 30min-60min. Introductory Price: 30min/ 60.00 60min/100.00

To schedule a session you can head over to my service page at: http://michaelbrazell.com/Readings_services.html and fill out the contact form on the page.

 

I really appreciate everyone’s patience as I get everything back online and functioning.

You are all Loved.  You are all Beautiful.  You are all Divine.

 

Mike Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

michael@michaelbrazell.com

Beautiful Disasters and Learning to Trust

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Woke up with some thought this morning, reflections from some dreams that I’ve been having… so, this may come off a bit tangential, but that’s just me.  When I write here, I often just let my fingers walk the keyboard, take what feels good… let every thing else rest on the shelf:

Sometimes life is a series of beautiful disasters.  It changes quickly, and in the process it changes us.  We adapt, or we try to.  We get to put our spiritual tools to the test, and we question the fabric of our reality.  We often start asking the “why” questions.  Why me?  Why now?  etc..  Sometimes the answers are not as simple as we’d like them to be, and sometimes they are so simple, that we miss the subtle nudges.  Trust is not an easy thing to engage.  It requires a level of surrender that many of us fear.  A letting go, a deep release from the inside out.  God FNNGWIIGYTY1GRZ.MEDIUMsometimes has a way of stepping in and challenging our reality.  Illness, upheaval, poverty, loss, are some of what I call “the sandpaper experiences”.  I often see us as a piece of word in the hand of God, slowing being sanded and shaped into something beautiful, but often we don’t see what is coming, or perhaps we aren’t allowed to see.  I tell my clients that if I was told by my intuition that I’d be sitting here, face covered in tattoos, teaching spirituality for a living, that I’d tell it NO WAY… but, here I am.

The past few months for me have been sandpaper moments.  When I was in DC I had the deep challenge of trust.  People, places and things no longer held the stability that they once had.  The “safety” in my current reality was challenged, and I had to start letting it all go.  In the fall, we still try to cling to the old masks, the old people, and places even if they are no longer serving our highest intent and good.  We try to fit the square pegs into the triangle holes.  I am seeing a lot of us go through these moments.  The beautiful shattering of these experiences.  We get to see how much power we are holding in these moments, and how much we have given away.  We have to take responsibility for that power, and start to bring it back to us.  As time moves forward, I’ll discuss dealing with specific challenges many of us face when dealing with trust: relationships, work, family, life itself, and spirituality.

explosionWhen I was preparing to leave DC, there were moments when I felt angry.  Anger is an emotion that is like fire, it can burn through things quickly.  I was angry at everything, but did not have a place to direct my anger.  It was just an emotion that needed to be acknowledged.  We often try to suppress these emotions, but they are a natural part of the grieving process (if you are going through heavy change, I recommend looking up the stages of grief, it will help you identify and accept where you are as you go through the stages).  As the fire of anger started burning in my heart center, I felt a peace wash over me.  My intuition activated and asked,” Beloved, what are you angry at?”… I don’t know… “Beloved, there is not place to put this emotions.  The people and events that are falling away are to be held in compassion, if you must place this anger somewhere, place in on me.”  The peace that had begun to wash through me started to flood into the deepest parts of that moment.  I view intuition as the voice of God speaking through my soul.  In essence God was telling me, that if you must be angry, be angry at me… it’s okay, I can take it… but please hold compassion for those that you feel deserve your anger, because they don’t… the situation is what it is, just love it… and trust me.

In that moment peace was followed by a deep trust.  It did not mean that I was not going to feel the emotions, the pain, the tearing… but now it also made a little room for the joy, the peace, and the compassion I needed to move forward.  For an instant, I released control and let the divine drive the car, and things began to move quickly.  When the world around us shifts at a rate of speed that does not allow us to “cling”, it challenges trust on multiple levels, we have to be kind to ourselves in this process.  Journaling and yoga have been lifesavers.  They allow me the space to dialog not only what was happening in my mental space, but yoga also allowed me to move the physical energy that had stagnated i my body.  The pain is all part of the greater process of becoming who we truly are.  Sometimes these moments come in slowly, sometimes they are larger explosions, but through all of it I find there is a deep thread of connection to something beyond us.  Something that is guiding us gently through the many beautiful disasters we might face.

What is trust to you?  What do you do when you feel trust being challenged?  Do you find solace in your spirituality?   What happens when your spiritual process are also challenged?

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Michael Brazell CFT CSN MAT PAT

michael@michaelbrazell.com

www.michaelbrazell.com

www.youtube.com/soulinteraction

www.facebook.com/soulintuitive

And…. we are back

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And…. we are back.

 

Breathing some life into my other blog:

Yogawitch.com is dedicated to exploring the embodied yogic and magical experience.  We dance in the places where yoga meets magic, and we dance in the fires of life.

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

Farewell Washington, DC

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Four year ago, I never thought I’d be leaving DC… but here it is.  Life changes quickly, and in an instant a new chapter begins in our lives.  The past few weeks have been an emotional roller coaster, trying to see everyone before I head out, trying to get one last visit to my favorite places, but those all just become reasons to come back.

I often tell my clients that DC is a spiritual training ground.  That many of us end up to go through the paces.  My time here was not always the easiest, but in the end it helped me to grow into who I am now.  We grow through the experience of living a complete life, one that both embraces love and pain fully.

This is one of the first times in my life that I am stepping into complete uncertainty, and I am okay with that.  I am okay in the “not knowing”, not having to control the next steps of my life, and this has helped to realize that for the longest time I was not living in the present, and I really missed out on the people and experiences in my life.  The past few months have shown me that we have to breathe into each moment deeply, and to just be present.  DC has a way of getting you caught in the hustle and bustle.  People tend to be movement driven, and I’m not saying that is a bad thing, but when it is not balanced with presence we really miss out.  I see so many people tied to their electronics here… how many sunsets do they miss looking at “memes”?    I realized I was doing a lot of this as well, but more caught up in my mind’s patterns of worry, doubt, and judgement.  When the rug gets pulled out from underneath you, and there is nothing left to cling to, it changes your perspective on things, but closure does that.

Being closer to family, and coming back to my literal roots is going to be a positive thing.  I’m going to work on developing my yoga practice, my healing work, and finally write the book I’ve been putting off for so long.  My work is far from done, but sometime we need a change of pace, and a chance to gain clarity on our experience.

I will be back to the area to visit, to teach, and to be with friends/soul family.

I will miss many things here in DC, but I am looking forward to the next adventure, the unfolding journey, the next breath.

You are Loved.  You are Beautiful.  You are Divine.

Namaste.

Mike Brazell