Embodied Practices for Soul Care

Welcome to Healing From Within with host Sheryl Glick RMT Reiki Master Energy Teacher, medium and author of a trilogy including the newest book, A New Life Awaits, Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening which shares stories and messages showing us our challenges are not economic political or societal but a deep disconnect from our inner soul wisdom and connection to All that Is. I am delighted to welcome Mara Branscombe, author of Ritual as Remedy, an evocative guide to ritual and healing practices as a healing balm for the psyche and soul.

We thank Mara for joining us on Healing From Within to share her amazing and versatile adventuresome journey across the Atlantic, trekked across the Himalayas, studied yoga in India, planted trees in Canada’s north, lived off the grid in a remote cabin, worked as a Waldorf Steiner School teacher, and found her passion for dance and choreography, all the while, yoga, meditation, and ritual have inspired her life’s work of earth based, ceremonial intentional and heart centered living and loving. A true Vitruvian Woman.

When Mara is asked to think back to her childhood and remember a person place or event that may have shown her or others around her the interests work and lifestyle she might choose as an adult she immediately tells us that as a child she has early memories of summers on the lake and being drawn to the dark night skies where the moon shone bright above in Canada. She was also fascinated and drawn to the Monarch Butterfly. Shery responds that her daughter was also fascinated by rainbows and butterflies and would stand still as the butterflies landed and stayed on her shoulders. Seems soulful children have within them a sense of Universal Source and our connection to life beyond from which we derive our life force.

Mara describes what a ritual is. Imagine the journey of life like a spiral. At times we are inside the center of the spiral, where we find ourselves in the gestating, visioning, planting, or new beginnings cycle. Sometimes we are more expensive, coming to the end of the spiral as we may be completing a specific chapter or cycle. Whatever stage you are currently at in your life, create space in your day-to-day living to trust your process and acknowledge the “divine timings” when they arrive. When we truly dwell in the present moment, set our intentions with clarity, and release our attachment to the outcome or the “final product,” we can witness our life as a living ritual. Not everything happens at once, and when we hold true to our personal process, live inside the current of reciprocity of equal giving to receiving, we are living inside the essence of our true potential.

Cast your visions and prayers out into the world. Create daily rituals to magnetize the energy of what you want in your life while at the same time releasing the outcome. When we can let go of our attachment to the final outcome, we begin to radically accept the universal laws in which we live. Sometimes the universe brings us something a little different than what we asked for, but it was meant to come to us. Once you begin this wildly creative journey, you will unearth an intuitive response pathway, and your own inner guide will be nourished. Embodiment of mind to heart to body to spirit comes alive when we do the work and commit to expressing the highest essence within.

Throughout history, the power of ritual has been at the heart of both ancient and modern civilizations. Within secular and religious cultures, humanity has embraced the deepening of the self, community, and spiritual awakening through the power of ritual. From intricate organized traditions to simply stating your gratitude’s each morning, rituals provide rhythm and repetition; a framework to enter a state of being that’s free of the confusion and chaos of our lives. A ritual can be anything that is done with intention. It can be done alone or in a group, and can be formulaic or intuitive. We can gather and celebrate the turning points in the wheel of the year as the seasons shift, we can share holiday meals or birthdays with intention, we can celebrate the outer expansion of the full moon or the internal expression of the new moon. We can prepare a ritual for a young woman who is coming of age with her menstrual cycle or a blessing ceremony for a mother who is ready to give birth. We can create a personal ritual by lighting a candle and stating our intentions out loud as we come to the end of a project or a relationship, or when we release an old way of being and open ourselves to the next phase in our lives. Rituals give us direct access to our healing, reflect our emotions, and show us how we can access inner transformation and awaken our intuitive power.

Mara says that Rituals can take many forms. For some, it takes place on the yoga mat or the meditation cushion. For others, it is spending time in nature, being physically active, or engaging in artistic endeavors. Through self-guided rituals you allow your mind to release the vibration of negativity or doubt and create a spark within. This spark filters from your mind down into your heart, and your intuitive and creative nature becomes enlivened.

Small rituals can be quite different from going to a yoga practice or sitting in meditation. Creating an altar, sipping tea, lighting a candle, journaling, praying, or chanting out loud are all examples of how the experience can become more textured, creative, fulfilling, intimate, and liberating.,, The daily task of the modern mystic is to bear witness to what thoughts, feelings, actions, and words you are feeding into your being. To become aware of what no longer serves you, and to truly accept what is going on inside of you—the positive, the negative, all of it. What is so important here is not to repress, push down, or bypass the core of your emotions, but to be constantly working with this material as a catalyst to activate a healing experience for yourself.

Mara was inspired to write this book Mara’s growing awareness of the disconnect so many people have from their intuitive nature of soul being has allowed Mass consumption, materialism, and the onslaught of media influence in today’s world are contributing to the rise of anxiety, depression, confusion, and overstimulation. So many people feel estranged from the religious structures in which they were raised, and they are no longer served by their foundations and traditions. This has created separation, and for some, a feeling of loss, disconnect, and a lack of purpose and connection with the earth and her healing rhythms. The planet is at a precarious tipping point right now. Mother Earth is calling to us to change our ways in order to preserve and protect her resources. Her divine feminine energetic pull is reminding us to step up and be earth keepers for future generations. She is opening her arms to us, inviting us to praise her, to celebrate her, and to honor her cycles and rhythms. For many of us, immersing ourselves in earth-based spirituality is the call of the modern church; the awakening of the modern mystic inside of us. Could it be that small daily rituals can be our guide to connect to our best selves, to our most essential selves, to our intuitive power, to strengthening our inner bodies and minds so that we can self-heal and self-direct the life we choose? I believe yes. I wholeheartedly believe in this very simple philosophy: Your life is shaped by what you feed your energy body. Your thoughts, actions, words, and beliefs become your reality.

Sheryl says like Mara she was encouraged, actually told by Spirit, she would write three books and the last book in the trilogy A New Life Awaits: Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening was to help people become aware of their intuitive nature so they could raise the vibration of their energy body, improve their thoughts and actions to create a better reality and not succumb to the problems of these modern times.

Sheryl wrote, “I believe that a well-balanced, healthy lifestyle requires being surrounded by supportive people and situations that enhance our positive thinking and produce positive results in our endeavors. Even when some forces may disrupt the flow of events, if we are working within the framework of spiritual or higher values, our choices will be wiser, our recovery from any tragedy will be faster, and we will have a chance for a better outcome and a more lasting impact on others. I am not suggesting that forces beyond our control—illness, loss of a loved one, job, home, friend, physical possessions, or even loss of self, due to doubt or fear—are not difficult. But by shifting our perspective, we can dramatically shift the outcome of any situation; we can even turn them into a positive force for change in our lives.”

Mara begins her chapter on the Moon with a thoughtful poem.

To believe we are composed only of love and light is an illusion.

There will always be darkness and shadow. Even on the darkest of nights, the moon remains invisible, yet a force to be reckoned with. Her unleashed wild swells pull and tug us alive.

Ever evolving, an intricate orb of majestic luminosity. Want to be like the moon?

Build your letting-go muscles, face your fears head on, trust in divine timing, and observe life’s synchronicities with a keen inner eye.

The signs and signals are everywhere, they will come to you when you accept them.

Become a conduit of resilience, resourcefulness, and compassion— this is how you get to the love and light. This is how to find a joyful existence amongst the most reckless of storms.

Since the beginning of time, humans have gathered under the light of the moon to share stories and songs, to attune to the rhythms of Mother Nature, and to bring forth the power of the divine feminine. There is something wildly sacred that happens when we gather during the full or new moon cycles. The moon is the ruler of the waters and water governs our emotions. So we can physically get attuned to the waters inside our bodies and consciously create a container for our emotions to be held in a healing way.

During the full moon, we are naturally more intuitive, receptive, and creative. The new moon phase brings new beginnings when vision seeds can be planted—a time to fill our internal well with conscious rest and reflection. When we create intentional soul care rituals under the light and dark forces of the lunar mystic, we unearth a deep inner listening and answer a call to our most fulfilled life. There is a beautiful vulnerability that comes through our whole being when we can directly and radically state what is moving through our emotional, spiritual, physical, and mental state. When we can reveal to our own self, or share with a circle of like-minded beings, how we really feel and what is honestly going on in our lives. We free ourselves from negativity or imbalance and begin to direct our feminine power towards light, love, and transformation.

Every 29.5 days the earth receives the full cycle of the moon’s magnetic gravitational force in all of its phases. Through this cosmic journey, the moon shines as its surface reflects light from the sun. The sun creates the moon’s darkest shadow to its greatest light—from new moon to full moon and back to new moon.

The moon becomes our timekeeper, our tracker, gatekeeper, twin flame, soul teacher, and numinous guide. The moon is always there, ready to pull us back towards our own medicine. The teachings from the moon evoke present-moment awareness and inspire us to be wildly creative, mysterious, deeply reflective, and revealing all at once. Lunar wisdom reflects back to us the teachings of liberation as we consciously acknowledge what binds our personal freedom. We can evolve as we revolve around her majestic strength and wisdom. The new moon is a cycle of beginnings.

The full moon is a cycle of expansive manifestation and illuminated source energy. A time when we receive intuitive reflections and awakenings on how to align with our highest essence. We remember our vitality, our ability to thread our outer expressions back towards our internal prayers in order to live our fullest life. What if every full moon you created space to reflect on what no longer serves you and intentionally stated what you want to invite? The lunar effect is pure creative alchemy.

Mara shares her background with yoga, meditation, and guiding community ceremony and how these practices can support healing and transformation.

Begin with the breath ana your first awareness of life. Air is what is breathing you, what is giving you life. By bringing awareness to your breath (how you breathe, when your breath is short from stress, how your breath is after exercise or a great night’s sleep, etc.), you will begin to form a reverence for your breath and the element of air that will bring a greater perspective into your life. When we become aware of what affects the tone, rhythm, and quality of our breath, we begin to listen more fully in the moment. You might say to yourself, I feel my breath is restricted, tighter, or shorter—how can I take a deep, long breath in and a deep, long breath out and let go of whatever I am holding on to in this moment? The moment we were born we merged with the element of air with the first breath we took. Our tiny lungs opened and expanded to gift us with this life. Imagine yourself right now, emerging from the womb, taking your first breath, greeting the world with your purest essence in its full capacity. This unique essence is your gift to the world. May you recall, fuel, and breathe into your soul essence every day. May you no longer forget. May you hold, rinse, polish, and share your unique gifts with the world. Sometimes it’s like a quiet revolution inside your heart. Other times, like a fierce mama lion’s roar.

Honor your journey every day. Breathe deeply, with compassion, and remember your pure love heart medicine is the remedy of our times

When we came down to earth through our mother’s body as a channel, we instantly merged with the alchemy of all five elements: earth, air, fire, water, and ether. We are born of this nature, each of us unique in alchemical make-up, yet as a collective, we hold this elemental essence inside us. Integrating the element of air and acknowledging the direction of east, which gives birth to the sun each morning, is to honor all of the winged ones that grace our skies and grant us perspective as we greet the earth, the sun, and the waters with deep respect and reverence. Every day we receive the healing energy of illumination through the elements as we open our perspective to the mystery and grandness of life.

One simple ritual Mara recommends to begin her day with positivity, openness and clarity begins with infusing your day with gratitude, clarity, and compassion.

1. Begin each morning by quietly greeting the rising sun in the east, attune to the element of air. Be mindful of how it breathes life into you.
2. Light a candle and acknowledge three or more things that you are grateful for. You may want to write them down or speak them aloud.
3. It is silent meditation for three to five minutes. You may welcome the support of the mineral world and hold a healing crystal in each hand.
4. Visualize your day going the way you would like it to go; mentally rehearse. If you can see it, you will align your energy body towards a higher vibrational field.
5. Bring your awareness to your inhale as a state of receiving and your exhale as a state of giving. Slow down your breath for a count of six, inhale six to receive, exhale six to give good energy out. Repeat six times.
6. Align with the energy of the rising sun. Visualize the energy of your heart. What does it need for it to be full and free? What seeds are you ready to plant at this time

Mara tells us that when we can let go of our regular programming or social conditioning (or when we can move beyond placing our full attention only on the mundane aspects of life) and engage in life’s inner knowing, we can shift our stagnant energy by becoming aware of the element of air. How we breathe changes us. Our perspective changes when we see from a bird’s-eye view. Take a moment right now and visualize a great bird in flight, a high flyer. Take in a fresh perspective of your life from an entirely different angle. What messages on your current life journey can you receive through this bird’s-eye perspective? Is there a way you are pushing or projecting or forcing that may not be working? Welcome in the powerful element of air to let go of the old ways and begin anew. Air brings fresh beginnings. As you receive the healing of this new viewpoint, what does your heart want to speak? Is there a vision or a healing for yourself or others? See with the eyes of your heart; feel air supporting you in every direction, and welcome in the heart visionary for guidance beyond the mind’s interpretation. Drop your mind into your heart and let it speak to you from this axis. Be the high flyer, breathing deeply, shifting perspective, and flowing with the winds of change as they come ripping through your body. Sometimes the winds are stormy and fierce, other times gentle. Greet them all as guests and material to work with. This will become your healing journey. Welcome all the messengers, whether they be the old friend who calls, the eagle soaring above you, the powerful dream, the thought you had that manifested into reality, or the stormy skies inside your heart. This is your capacity to live a spiritual life in the form of a human body. You get to be the huntress, the warrior, the high flyer, the tracker of the energies and experiences that are currently present in your life.

When we train ourselves not to open our phone first thing in the morning but rather to sit in silence, witnessing the shift of light, ushering in a new day with reverence and possibility, we become connected to our inner rhythms, and we come home to ourselves. There will always be busy times, but if we do not create time for the silence and the stillness, for merging with the forces of the natural world, then we miss this opportunity for personal growth and a reclaiming of our essential nature and unique life journey. Ideas can come in a flash, a download, a fast glimmer of energy; sometimes fleeting, sometimes lasting. Yet, when we can sit intentionally and hold space for the ideas to become seeds we are planting in the garden, we can hold space for the cyclical nature of our own personal growth

Mara shares an evening ritual you can share to enhance sleep release stress and return to your true nature? Here is a prayer that might honor your evening ritual.

A Prayer To Honor Water

I open to the element of water as the sacred teacher of change, creativity, and renewal.

I greet the setting sun in the west and honor the purification that comes through the darkness of the night’s journey.

As I rest and renew, I await the messengers, divine timings, coincidences, symbols, and mysteries into my energy field as soul medicine.

My salted tears pour out of me and flow back into the spirit waters.

I trust this is all part of the great flow of life.

Yesterday, today, and tomorrow is another day of change and momentum.

I flow with my evolving mind–body temple as I hold strong to my sovereign nature, and live out the best version of me.

Like water, I enable my energy body to shape-shift in a flash

Sheryl says her evening ritual begins by saying Lord watch over me this night secure from any fear….Angels protect me till morning light appears and I ask our spiritual guides to provide boundaries of safety to surround me and protect me from any negative vibrations or thoughts to ensure a peaceful sleep and Next I do Reiki healing on myself and distant healing for others asking the guides to shut down my chakra system as soon as I fall off to sleep.

When you merge the creativity of your soul you allow all the wondrous love of the universe to inspire all your spiritual gifts to emerge.

Mara writes, “Open yourself to ask for and receive support through the medium of this intentionality. The body becomes a channel. Your spirit becomes the vessel. The salt of your tears are the medicine through which the energy shifts. Your broken heart slowly begins to mend over time, and the force of compassion swirls into your mind like a wild windstorm. And every day you go back to praying out loud, in the bath, to the trees, to the waters, the mountains, the flowers, to the teapot, to the fire, to your supporting guides, to the divine nature and goodness of all of this that lives in you. You are the visionary. May the eyes of your heart come alive as you tend your grief and longing until one day it shifts. Give in to the shift of the winds of change before you, behind you, and welcome your heart visionary, all around you.

How do you love today, sweet one?

Take my hand, walk me to the river, wash my hands clean of my own dis-ease.

Lay me down beside you, mountain waters caressing my naked body.

Deep blue skies shape-shifting, clearing, limitless creations.

A messenger whispered, “lay it all down here.”

It coursed through my bones and out of my hands.

The unbearable grief, the collective pain, the firm grip on the uncontrollable.

Alas, it ripped out of me like a fierce storm.

Heart pounding, my bones spoke.

A new language surfaced.

And I awoke, inside my own vessel.

A love song emerged like a symphony of the skies,

An invitation I could no longer refuse

In the book there are many techniques on how to work through excess emotions such as fear, shame, guilt grief and low self-esteem. How do you feel rituals alongside soul care practices encourage someone to reclaim wholeness and pursue their life dreams?

Change can be so difficult. And the grieving process as does all emotions like fear shame guilt or negative feelings takes time. As we journey through life, our experience of grief will vary based on what has happened to us and our loved ones. When we begin to weave together rituals to support our grief, when we name it, call it forward like a teacher, unpack, uncover, and unearth every part of it without trying to figure it all out, we begin to listen to the outpouring of our heart’s deepest griefs and longings. We begin to heal. Could it be that the essence of grief is the essence of love? The longing of our heart’s call with nowhere to go, no one to touch or reach towards? Can you hold space in this moment to feel and open to the pain of your own suffering? Can you open yourself in this moment to gather your inner self and acknowledge and be present with the truth of your own loss? Can you open yourself to soften so that you can face life and death and loss and sorrow? Can you locate where this might live inside your body? Can you become present with the sensations, the visuals, the body sensations, the mind talk as they arise? Your pain and your grief do not make you wrong, bad, or unworthy.

Acknowledging that suffering and your pain exist allows you to work with it and not be completely taken over by it.

Breathe into these sentiments: I accept my sorrow yet I am not my sorrow. I accept my grief, sorrow, and pain, and yet understand that this does not limit the vastness and boundlessness of my heart’s capacity to love. I understand that my present-moment awareness of breath, body, heart, and mind will awaken me to the great depths that arise from loss. I accept my capacity to love alongside my capacity to mourn. My heart’s rhythm is the alchemy that will move me into the next cycle of my healing—my living, my loss, and my loving embraced fully

We can work with our grief as a catalyst for the transformation of our mind, body, and heart by holding space for the grief to move through us with the wind, with the water, with the fire, and with the earth. Laying down our sorrows when we no longer need to hold them becomes the catalyst for inner transformation. Allow the process of grieving and feeling to cycle through you and through your day-to-day living in rituals such as a breath exercise, a nature altar, a daily meditation, a journal session, or a creative pursuit.

Mara would like readers to take away with them after reading Ritual as Remedy that Devotion is your lifeline to the divine. As the ancients recall, we came from the stars, and we were transformed down through to the cells in the earth. We morphed over millions of years and arrived as a human species earth-side. We are born of both stardust and the microbes of the earth; we are products of this alchemy. Through this lens we can open more fully to embrace mystery, the unknown, and the cosmic, spiritual nature of life. The whispers of life’s calling come like seeds throughout our lifetime. When we create space for silence, stillness, prayer, and meditation, we discover the gift of deep and radical self-inquiry. From here, we can choose For Review Only Ritual as Remedy 40 to connect with our guides, our teachers, our ancestors, angels, goddesses, gods; the deities that call to you, the ones that resonate with you. As you give yourself permission to trust in your personal evolution, you create pathways to have a cosmic experience in the form of a human body. You will, over time and with devotion, begin to feel yourself supported and held by the grace of spirit.

We thank Mara Branscombe author of Ritual As Remedy for sharing her authentic love of life and spirit and for following the clues of offered by her life journey as it has given her the blessed opportunity to explore the world shamanistic yoga and meditation practices as well as enjoy a life with family and children, helping her to let go of what needs to be shed and share how to tap into our inner powers, going beyond the mundane, to our inner mystic: the unseen realms and the sacred turning points of life, as well as the truth of your soul’s calling.

In summarizing today’s episode we have discovered where we come from, how to live with our spiritual or divine gifts and merge then to our physical life as we connect to those above who guide and help when asked, to make thoughts and dreams a reality in both the physical and also spiritual realms.

Most important to begin to remember our spiritual inner consciousness and ability to create authentic lives.

Mara writes, “Committing to daily mindful and soulful rituals is essential in order to keep your energy field clear. The first place to begin clearing your own energy field is to begin a daily mindful ritual. It could be as simple as lighting a candle first thing in the morning, writing down your gratitudes, walking quietly and intentionally in nature, or taking a candle-lit bath; whatever you choose, you must find ways that support you to come home inside yourself. This is “your” time. Think of it as filling up your inner temple with goodness. It’s a way to check in and perhaps understand what energy you might be holding onto, what thoughts might be ruling you, or where you may be playing the victim. If you consciously “check-in” like this every day without expecting a certain outcome, you will begin to form an intimate relationship with your inner being, your essential higher self. It will become like a conversation you would have with your best friend, except you will be having it with yourself…May you acknowledge and remember: Power is awareness. Power is knowledge. Power is listening. Power is becoming the witness to your own process. Power is releasing the victim mentality. Power is soul care.”

Mara Branscombe and Sheryl Glick would like listeners to know that even though the nation and world are going through challenging world wide events that in every time and place the same has happened. In the duality of divisive thoughts or emotions the opportunity to reunite with the best within ourselves our soul wisdom allows us to allow accept and surrender to the Universal Plan for each of us and for the world knowing it is the way to find new found peace and love eternally as we trust the Divine to guide us to the best within and the best from the outside world. Duality is the key to Unity and Oneness in the end.

I am Sheryl Glick RMT Host of Healing From Within and author of the newest book in a trilogy, A New Life Awaits Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening and Invite you to visit my website www.sherylglick.com to listen to and read about authors visionaries metaphysicians scientists spirutalists energy workers and medical professional artists and musicians share their personal search for knowing more about themselves the nature of physical and spiritual life and a Universe that is eternal and expansive. Shows may also be heard on www.webtalkradio.net and www.dreamvisions7radio.com

Today’s Guest

https://www.ritualasremedy.com/

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