Oh Those NarciPaths – Shahida’s “20 Narci Tactics”

Thank you, Jamie and Shahida. I’m reblogging Jamie’s comments, which then link to Shahida’s excellent article. As Jamie notes, narcissism is majorly and absurdly in our faces right now from so many corners. Learning (and reminding ourselves) how to recognize the signs allows us to move much more freely in our own power and discernment, helping us to know for sure what we do or do not wish to create in the world — rather than just accepting some prescribed version of who we are and what we value. Hugely important right now for individuals and civilization as a whole!

Sophia's Children

Eruption des Stromboli (Isolde Eolie, Italien). Photo by Wolfgang Beyer, GNU Free via Wikimedia

I’d usually just reblog this one, but the reblog format is funky. So I’m just going to say this:

Shahida Arabi, via her Self-Care Haven blog, recently posted an excellent summary of 20 often-used Bully and NarciPath tactics.

I shared Shahida’s “Five Ways Narcissists Get In Your Head” post some time ago, and mentioned her blog in my “Withholding as a Manipulation Tactic” post for the Empaths & Sensitives ‘readers favorite’ series (which spotlights other common tactics, like ‘leveling’, ‘off-loading’ and others as well).

The point isn’t to shame and blame — ’nuffa that going on — but to recognize the tactics and patterns so we can more easily step outside of them and respond rather than react from a place of awareness and greater resourcefulness.

That can be tall practice…

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TANAAZ (Forever Conscious): “Intuitive Astrology: New Moon Solar Eclipse February 2017”

This post has some excellent information about the upcoming New Moon Solar Eclipse on February 26th. I especially agree with these sentences, as they are tips I tell people all the time:

“When it comes to manifesting however, sometimes it is best to focus on what feelings you want to create for this new chapter, rather than physical or material items.

“While there is nothing wrong wishing for something material or physical, there is greater power in manifesting feelings or states of being.”

Happy Shifting!

Garden Update: First Crocus, Hazelnut Catkins, Sedum, and Bulb Action

While the West Coast has found itself with winter floods, here in Northern Indiana, we’ve had an unseasonably warm winter. I expected that, although even I’ve been surprised by just how warm: fifties to upper sixties in February. With sun! Thankfully, we’ve had at least some rain and a few snow showers, too, but as crazy as this weather is, it arrived as a welcome treat. We’ve taken many long walks on trails and in the woods, and I even spent some time cleaning up the garden.

Yesterday, I noticed a lot of bulbs beginning to poke through. When I took over Haus Am See in Fall 2015, I added another 1,000 Spring bulbs to the hundreds I had already planted around Faery Hof. I didn’t know how many would return this year, as apparently, not all tulips remain perennial. It looks like most plan to reveal themselves again, as I see signs of hyacinths, daffodils and tulips poking their way through mulch and thyme. Last Fall, I  planted another 100 or so bulbs, mostly a wide blooming time array of daffodils and some extra hyacinths.

What a nice surprise to see some crocus, though! These two smiled at me yesterday, as I moved mulch to weed. Normally, the bunnies eat these before I get to enjoy them, but here they bloom — the very first harbingers of Spring:

Some of the nine sacred hazel trees and shrubs

Shoulder and Back Pain Relief

I have mentioned “The Founder” or “Foundation Exercises” before, but I’m posting this TEDx again with Dr. Eric Goodman.

So many people keep contacting me about shoulder and/or back pain. Every injury or illness has a metaphysical component to it, so if symptoms or pain continue, then your soul wants your attention. Your body volunteered to get it. That said, chronic pain is no fun! In today’s sedentary culture, so many people spend hours hunched over a computer or desk, sitting in a car or train, and doing ergonomically questionable moves on a daily basis. If this sounds like you, check out this talk.

I personally have found the Founder so transformative in my own life. No more pinched nerves. No more popped out hip, neck or and knee. In the very rare event something like that happens, I just do the Founder and immediately realign. For me, it works much better and much faster than yoga, although I do love yoga for other reasons. We own the Foundation book and 2 DVD’s. It all seems simple, but whenever I break out the DVD’s I remember just what a good workout it is! Other than loving the exercises, I have no relationship with Dr. Eric Goodman or his company. Just sharing, since shoulder and back pain seems to be up right now!

February 2017 Specials

It’s hard to believe we have only one week left in February! Actually, with mid-sixties weather, it’s hard to believe it’s February at all. Nevertheless, we have only one week left for these specials.

Laura Bruno's Blog

I’ve decided to offer another Timeline Tune-In and Tune-Up Special because so many people keep contacting me with major concerns about the direction of our world and how this will impact them. I’m also introducing a new special this month — “Energy Protection for Empaths.” You can find details below.

FEBRUARY 2017 SPECIALS

Energy Protection for Empaths

This new half-hour offering shares tips and techniques specifically tailored to your own energy field and the challenges you face as a “Sensitive” or “Empath” — someone who deeply feels the emotions and energies of others, including the larger collective energies and emotions. Empaths have intuitive, psychic, and healing gifts that can feel more like a curse when faced with discord, negative or disharmonious frequencies like EMF’s, groupthink, or emotional overwhelm.

As someone whose already very thin veil practically disappeared with a 1998 brain injury, I have learned through trial and error, extensive…

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Slowing Down the Druid Way, Part II: Relationships of Work and Time

This is an important series from Dana and something for some reason I always sensed. I have been very fortunate even pre-TBI and self-employment largely to manifest jobs in which I controlled most of my own time and schedule. It makes such a difference! I work with so many disabled people, and in many cases, health is really about TIME. When we refuse to make conscious course corrections, the body steps in to rescue the soul with justification for already much needed changes. Consciously reclaiming your relationship with time, moving beyond linear time, and recognizing the ability to bend time are among many health saving and health recovering techniques. Recognizing cultural patterns and internalized expectations about time helps in the reclamation process. Thanks, Dana!

The Druid's Garden

In the US, it seems that the first question people ask is, “what do you do?”  When they say that, of course, they are not talking about how you spend your leisure time, but rather, the work that you do for pay. This is the most defining characteristic of modern lives–because this is tied to the thing our culture holds as most sacred: money.  Money is the only metric that has any real value and the pursuit of money drives all else. If you aren’t working in the workforce earning pay, either the work are doing is devalued (as any stay-at-home parent can attest) or there is something very wrong with you (as in, why aren’t you out there earning money?). This current economic system, driven by industrial mindsets surrounding profit and efficiency, gives us a rather poor metric through which to measure ourselves and our value.

Last week…

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Denial, Boundaries, Dams and Emotions

Today’s post offers a collection of other posts with commentary based on what I’ve observed in recent sessions and in the larger world. It doesn’t take much intuition to recognize how polarized, projecting and intense emotions have become, especially in recent weeks. What surprises me (somewhat) is the degree to which even non-political people are empathing and experiencing the massive energies swirling around. So many people tell me about huge arguments in their microcosm, which exactly mirror huge arguments in the macrocosm. Or about feeling a need to suppress emotions and opinions in order to keep the peace, but then having physical symptoms arise that demand attention.

As within, so without. As without, so within. Add to this dynamic the struggle between the current energy pushing towards revelation and awakening — including rude awakening — fighting against the desire to shove unpleasant truths back under the rug, and we’ve got a roiling, boiling collective threatening to break the dam. Coincidentally, we also have a crisis at Oroville Dam — whose inadequate/defective spillways demanded (but did not receive) attention 12 years ago. Regardless of whether or not that dam creates a 100-foot tsunami of water through

Happy Love Day!

Wishing you and yours a celebration of love today in its many forms, including knowing and loving yourself, recognizing glimmers of ourselves in those we find it difficult to love, and opening our hearts to our beautiful Mother Earth. I said I’d share some of the pre-marriage photos David’s co-workers gifted us before “We Tied the Celtic Knot on Yule.” Today seems like a good day to post this one. Happy Valentine’s Day from the newlyweds at Faery Hof and Haus Am See!

Slowing Down the Druid Way: A History of Time

This is an excellent post from Dana about differences between “time” in the Middle Ages and “time” in the 21st century. I became aware of just how much leisure and feast time peasants had during the Middle Ages when David and I watched a documentary made by someone from Monty Python. For the life of me, I cannot recall which actor nor the title, but it explored in depth the peasants’ lives. They sounded surprisingly good compared to most people’s workaday week in the 21st century.

I’ve also been pondering this topic in my hopes to find people to enjoy/maintain the food forest at both houses once we move on from here. I’ve realized just how much freedom I have in terms of managing my own time and how rare that is in our society. It would likely require 4-5 people to do what I’ve done mostly on my own. A two home community would be ideal to step in and benefit from a working permaculture design. I’m also exploring how large a garden I want in our next location. These yards were right sized here, because I wanted the education/experience and didn’t want to do much else here. As we move forward, though, allocating more time to writing, traveling, socializing, and eating out, how much garden do I really want or need? I’m still exploring the balance, and we have “time” to do so, but periodic self-assessments of values and foci help make more satisfying and conscious changes.

My “Amish” five-pointed star blew off its trellis yesterday. To me this came as a sign that we will not be here much longer. When thinking about these properties without us here, I always see the star gone. Yesterday, the gusty wind whisked it away, just as I feel will happen when all aligns on both ends of our new adventure.

In any case, if you feel strapped for time, or you want to become more sustainable but don’t know how, this new set of articles by Dana will likely help flesh out your ideas and choices.

The Druid's Garden

Some awesome gardens on my homestead

What continues to drive me is to live more in line with my principles: to grow my food, to take care of my basic needs, take charge of my health and healing, and to live fully and honestly with myself in line with the living earth. For a while, as I have discussed on this blog, I ran a homestead as well as worked full time to pay for it, something that I stopped doing about a year and a half ago. Part of why I had to walk away from my homestead in its current model (and regroup) was that it was physically exhausting me, especially as a single woman. I was trying to do everything: hold a full time job, grow my own food, tend my bees, tend my chickens, tend my land, make lots of things, write my blog…

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Empaths, Malaise, and Downward Spirals: How to Shift the Energy Now

This post wants to go up again. Practicing good energy hygiene is like brushing your teeth. You don’t wait until you have an abscessed tooth to consider brushing your teeth; you brush every day in order to avoid a dental crisis. The same goes for brushing off energy. Don’t wait until you feel completely overwhelmed and crushed. Clear your energy field often so that you know what’s yours and release what’s not yours. You’ll have far more influence with healthy boundaries and a higher vibrational set point.

Laura Bruno's Blog

I can’t tell you how many sessions I’ve had with people this past week for whom the election and its aftermath — regardless of their politics or disinterest in politics — has triggered massive grief, anger, shock, disbelief, confusion, feelings of fear, cognitive dissonance, betrayal, and/or the desire to give up. Most of these clients are people “who know better” than to go down such spirals, but for whatever reason, they can’t seem to pull themselves out of the whirlpool.

In most cases, their usual coping tools aren’t working, because the things bothering them aren’t really “theirs” to fix.

I’ve had an unusually high volume of calls from Water Signs this past week, especially Pisces, well known for their fluid boundaries and subconscious empathing of surrounding emotions and energies. Even if you’re not a Pisces, if you feel less than optimal right now, please consider the possibility that you might…

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