Robyn Fritz — Page 19 — Intuitive and Spiritual Consulting, Past Life Regression

All Things Dog: 2017 Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show

March 14, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

Ollie the Cavalier

Images from the 2017 Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show—all about people and dogs and … dog sports! It’s the human-animal bond in action.

Some dogs need help getting around: the pet carrier is every bit as useful as it looks!

Herding dogs demonstrating how they work with ducks, who are showing how easy it is to show the dogs they are doing just fine.

Flyball was a new sport demonstrated. It’s for dogs of all sizes (and abilities). They race the course, jump on the platform to grab the ball, and then race back. It’s a competition (as a dog would say, it’s a ball, let’s go!). And it’s quite safe: the jumps are scaled for the smallest dog in the two-team competition. Here the highlight was a champion flyballer: a fifteen-year-old Papillon, the tiny dog with flying ears.

Agility takes a dog through numerous obstacles at top speed (defined as whatever speed the dog choose to go at). It takes time and patience but builds a strong team.

A dog show is a place where people who love dogs can meet people just like them—and learn about breeds they might be interested in. Remember to research before buying a dog, purebred or mixed-breed. Purebred breeders will be up front with you: does your athletic ability match the dog’s? How skilled are you at handling a dog? What will you and your dog do together?

Celebrating Our Deceased Animals

March 8, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

In Loving Memory

Murphy Brown Fritz

July 28, 1998 – March 8, 2012

“Dogs don’t make our lives better, they make them bigger.” from a commercial during the Westminster Dog Show.

Every member of our animal family makes a difference in our life. They bring us joy and frustration, humility and grace. With luck and perseverance, we do the same for them. That’s the human-animal bond in action.

Animals are not our healers and teachers, they are not gurus, they are family and friends. Those of us who live with them know we are not making it up—they are souls who have chosen animal bodies to do their work. They are equal to us, conscious, have jobs to do, free choice, and opinions. And, my goodness, did Murphy have opinions!

And this quote says it all: she made my life bigger because she had the patience and sense of humor to wait for me to catch up to her. Everything I do today, from trying to be a better person to helping people in their intuitive and spiritual lives—it all started in 1998 with this amazing soul in a dog body. I did not see it coming. All I knew was that I was buying a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppy. But the minute I walked through the door and our eyes met, we both did a double-take as I heard a voice in my head say, “Oh, it’s you!” And that was before I ever heard of animal communication.

M-S Family Cam 7 Murphy was another incarnation of a soul that has been with me all this lifetime, and in many others. Her brother, Alki, was the same soul, and that soul is back again as little Oliver Alki.

Five years on I still miss her so much it hurts. But I wouldn’t trade the life I had with her for anything.

She inspired my creative and intuitive life. And she still says that, somehow, I inspired her.

Today she remains in the afterlife, working in the form of a golden human woman, continuing to work between portals to usher in a new multi-dimensional reality, where we all step up to create fellowship and harmony across the planet and the universe.

Our animals sometimes choose remarkable jobs, work we didn’t even know existed. All their jobs are important, to them, to us, to a loving world.

Because I can’t hug her today, please hug your animals for me. For us. For a loving world. For peace. For humans and animals forming multi-species families. For the fun times, the happy times, the hard ones, the letting-go ones.

I love you, Murphy. And yes, I do remember I promised to bury your ashes on the first nice day of spring. I just didn’t say what year.

Until we meet again at the Interstellar Café. And thanks, Dad, for taking care of her. And thank you, Murphy, for taking care of him. And Alki. And … the universe.

It’s in the Breed: Checking out Dogs at the 2017 Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show

March 7, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

Live with a dog or want to? Do yourself, and the dog, a huge favor and find out what’s in it. Purebred or mixed-breed, there’s hundreds of years of genetics involved that can make or break a family. In short, there’s a lot going on in your dog.

I know. As someone who lives with dogs, writes about the human-animal bond, and works as an animal communicator, I know that most of the enchantment and heartbreak of living with dogs comes down to their breeding.

Yes, you want a healthy dog, no question. And no, I don’t care where you go to get one (I do, but I won’t get into that now). What I want, and I know you want, is to get a dog that suits your lifestyle. Well, guess what? Your dog wants the same thing. And needs it, to stay in the happy home you’re creating for it.

As you know, for hundreds of years the dogs we live with now did work we bred them to do, from herding cattle and sheep to guarding the castle, killing rats, and especially, of course, being loyal companions. Purebred or mixed breed, there can be a lot going on in there.

For example, back in 1998 I was researching breeds. It had been 12 years since I had a dog, my beloved English Cocker Spaniel, Maggie. But the dogs I was looking at didn’t feel right to me, just … not right for me anymore. I wanted a smaller, easier dog, and considered the Norfolk and Norwich terriers. I talked to a few people who had them, who rightly warned me that terriers were a handful no matter their size and needed more exercise than I could provide, and so terriers got eliminated.

Then I did what I’m going to suggest you do: I checked out the American Kennel Club (AKC) registry, and just read about the different breeds. If you’ve ever watched a dog show on TV (or gone to a show, like this weekend’s Seattle Kennel Club Dog Show), you know the dogs are shown by breed first and group second. So dogs fall into toys, hounds, herding, working, sporting, terriers, and non-sporting (miscellaneous, dogs who don’t fit other categories).

Within those categories are dogs who are bred for certain functions. Dogs like Dalmatians are bred to run all day, others like the working group’s Bernese Mountain Dogs were used in the Swiss Alps as farm dogs. Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, like my dog, Ollie, are toy dogs, bred to be companions first, and indifferent birding dogs second (the lords of the manor used them to flush birds, who knows why, with all that hair).

So what’s the problem? There isn’t one, if you do your homework. Sadly, too many people don’t.

Ollie the Cavalier

I ended up with a Cavalier because of size and temperament. I’m handicapped, and couldn’t go as far as an English Cocker needs, let alone many of the other breeds. In other words, I did my research to find a dog I could live with who could also live with me. Three dogs later, we’re doing just fine.

Other dogs are not. I know someone who adopted a shelter dog who clearly had herding blood in its background. This dog did what came naturally to herding dogs, who were bred to nip at the heels of cattle and sheep to keep them moving in the right direction. This dog nipped at its owners’ feet, scaring them since they were older and had stairs. They followed their veterinarian’s advice and euthanized him.

Tragic, shocking and unnecessary, if that’s the whole story. First, they should have gone to a shelter who could better guess what was in the dog’s breeding and advise them on what to expect; and second, they should have returned him to the shelter in hopes he could find another home. My opinion. Probably yours, too.

I also know plenty of people who bought dogs they thought were cute but did not fit their lifestyle. Hounds who were left home unattended all day and became sullen and snappish. Big breeds like Shepherds and Labradors and Golden Retrievers who lost their homes because they grew up untrained and couldn’t be managed (some of these breeds are puppy-like for three years or more, meaning early and prolonged training is essential). A friend who went to the shelter and brought home a large breed dog who destroyed her furniture, but who called me crying, asking what to do, and worked with a trainer I recommended (eight years later they are still a happy pair).

So how do you decide?

Check out the AKC site, as suggested. And head off this weekend to the dog show. Watch the dogs in the ring, attend the Meet the Breed groups both days, to learn about breeds that intrigue you, and visit the many booths that breed clubs staff to let you meet a dog and ask questions. These are people who love dogs, know their dogs, and want for you and the dog you choose (and who chooses you) to live happily ever after.

And have fun!

Dogs Out and About in Seattle: Hit the Dog Show March 11-12!

March 6, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

What do you do with your dogs?

If you’re like me, you’re out and about with them as much as possible, and always looking for something different to do. Well, guess what? Our dogs are thinking that, too—what can we do together besides the same-old yawner of a walk?

Sure, I’m an animal communicator so I know because they tell me, but I assure you that everyone can know what their dogs are thinking simply by observing them on walks—do they check out the new spring flowers, notice what’s going on around them, or are they simply slogging along like you are, a bit bored with the same old?

Seattle is a good place to live with dogs. Except maybe for this winter, when going out is more a matter of endurance than fun exercise.

I meet dogs and their people all the time when I’m out with my Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, Ollie, who’s a bundle of energy (somehow, the older you get the more energy your dog seems to have, or Ollie is just more rambunctious than my previous two Cavaliers, or … something). I also meet them in my work as a pet blogger and author who writes about the human-animal bond, and as an animal communicator. That’s a job that combines everything from extensive knowledge of canine behavior (what I call family harmony) and health issues to grief counseling and dying and transitioning.

One question I hear a lot, on the street and in sessions, is how to make living with dogs more active and more fun. Sure, there are dog parks, but I’m not the only one avoiding them because of safety and health reasons. And you can vary walks.

But what about dog sports?

One sport I just heard about in Whole Dog Journal is canine parkour, the dog-friendly version of parkour. If you’ve seen the human version, you’ve seen people running, climbing, jumping, and generally managing obstacles on either a designed course or, as I’ve seen in downtown Seattle, an improvised one (using steps and ramps to add variety to a run).

Well, now you can do it with your dog and even get a certificate, if you’re so inclined (it’s done by video submission, no traveling to events). What I like about it is it emphasizes safety above all: for example, your dog must have a safety harness, he or she can’t jump more than shoulder height, and you must spot him or her, or you don’t score. What I like even more is that it supports strength training and body awareness for both me and Ollie, and it gave me ideas for entertaining him, and keeping him fit, by offering him challenges on our daily walks. So I showed him how to hop on a foot-high rock on a walk: at first he hesitated, but the next day he completely owned it. Could’ve been Mount Everest, I’m telling you!

If you’re interested in competitive sports, check out a local training facility, and in particular the Seattle Kennel Club’s 2017 show this weekend, March 11-12, in downtown Seattle at the CenturyLink Field Event Center. Besides the traditional obedience routine you can check out agility competition, where the trainers send their dogs through a variety of obstacles.

A little timid about jumping into obedience or agility? Try rally, a stepping stone up from the AKC Canine Good Citizen trial to obedience. Here you and your dog train for a variety of skills but with the emphasis on teamwork, not perfection. That means you’re creating a closer bond with your dog as well as keeping him or her stimulated and fit.

While you’re at the show check out flyball, another fun sport for you and your dog. Here the dog runs a course of jumps to trigger a box loaded with a ball, then catches the ball and returns through the jumps. Sounds fun, right? I know my Ollie would be so eager for the ball to fly again that he’d skip the return jumps to make it pop up quicker, but each to their own.

Catch flyball at 12:30 on Saturday and 11:30 on Sunday (don’t forget daylight savings time!).

There’s plenty to do both days. Leave your dogs at home, though (promise them treats, toys, and great ideas for playtime, and they’ll forgive you). Enjoy!

When Intuition Goes Funky

March 1, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

Intuition isn’t spiritual or divine. We are all born with intuition. We don’t use it because we think it’s something only some people have, we don’t trust ourselves, and we don’t know what it is.

Like everything, intuition isn’t perfect. Sometimes it goes funky. Here’s some quick tips on that.

You don’t have to be a professional to be intuitive. You can learn to use your intuition. Find a good teacher, work at it, and experiment. You need a teacher because most of us confuse intuition with spirituality or metaphysical mindsets, and fail to tap its enormous power. Unfortunately, that power can adversely affect us, so you need the skill-set to manage it, starting with a good teacher. Like all skills, intuition requires practice and patience, and, yes, you can do it.

Have a sense of humor. I live in a mindset I know is real because I experience it daily. It’s a world where everything has a soul, is alive, conscious, has a responsibility, a job, and opinions. That’s why I know the limitations of quantum physics: it doesn’t explain anything but the self-limiting human mindset. So, do I believe in signs and synchronicities? No, but they happen anyway, and when they do I’m ruthless about seizing whatever opportunity shows up. See? No one knows everything, but a sense of humor can get you through anything. Good or bad.

It’s great, but, yes, intuition can be funky. Sometimes our intuition just doesn’t kick in, even for professional intuitives. There are some things you can do about it:

Take a break, rest up, relax.
Find a partner to practice with.
Distinguish intuition from everything else, from facts and common sense to personal experience and emotions.
When in doubt, sing. Yes, sometimes we try too hard, our analytical mind takes over. I realized that years ago when I was frustrated trying to communicate with my dogs. My thinking was blocking intuition, which is lightning fast. So I bathed the dogs (hint: occupy your body to get your head out of the way), asking to hear their essence. Then I opened my mouth and let it out as song, not words, simply notes and beat. What came out was perfect: sound that matched what I knew was not just their individual personalities, but who they were. Deep down. Soul level. Awesome!

Try these tips and let me know how they worked for you!

How Past Life Regression Can Support Your Planning

February 25, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

alki-beach-ebb-flowsm Lisa was interested in training as an energy healer, but was hesitating because she didn’t understand how energy worked, and prospective teachers weren’t satisfying her. She also wanted to have a past life regression session, so when she sat down to do that with me and we talked options, I suggested she might want to focus on a past life that directly connected to a current passion.

“Oh,” she said. “I’d like to know what I knew about energy.”

With that focus, I used hypnotherapy and intuitive insight to help her tap the lifetime where she was an expert in energy healing and could learn the most about it. That turned out to be a lifetime about 300 years ago when she was a happy, fulfilled mother who used dance to weave energy through her community to support a contented, connected village life.

The bonus? Lisa actually talked with this woman, who wasn’t at all surprised about chatting with herself (and me) three hundred years in the future, but readily explained and demonstrated energy techniques. Lisa went off to explore energy healing in more depth with the knowledge she gained from the most adept teacher she’d met—herself in an earlier incarnation.

This is one example of the personal power you can tap in a session with a certified past life regression specialist.

While most people usually think of using past life regression services to resolve traumas, fears, and phobias, a skillful session can support your personal and professional lives in many other ways, as Lisa’s case shows. That’s why I often encourage people to consider including a session as part of their planning for a new calendar or fiscal year.

Why? Because in every lifetime our principle job is to grow our soul. Sadly, we don’t always think about that in our hectic daily lives, so we risk losing out on the knowledge buried deep inside our subconscious mind that can help us live the best lives possible. That means we lose a personal and competitive edge, which could mean we fail to accomplish our goals, suffer boredom and distraction, feel unfulfilled, or waste time almost literally “reinventing the wheel.” And, as Lisa’s case so aptly demonstrates, we miss out on taking advantage of information we didn’t know we already had, the knowledge and skills mastered in previous lives.

Competition and Planning: from Practicalities to Inspiration

Human life has always been competitive: resources are limited, and throughout history we’ve banded together to survive, combining skills from husbandry to farming, carpentry, textiles—everything it takes to create a functioning community. These days those of us in “first world” countries take basic survival for granted, but we still have that age-old need to grow and achieve, to be both curious and content. That’s the drive that leads us to train for jobs and piques curiosity, something that, for Lisa, was rooted in a previous life, and tapped to enrich her current one.

Many of us look at a new calendar year as a time to plan what we’re going to do next, including vacations, education, exploration, career advancement, even retirement. We are necessarily analytical, but we should also spend time on “what if’s,” from how to achieve a personal dream to choosing a satisfying life.

We can tap those interests and grow our skills through workshops, courses, books, all kinds of training. We can also use meditation and protocols like past life regression, which you can explore through self-guided DVDs or recordings as well as with a certified professional.

Yes, past life regression can help you master physical or emotional issues that persist despite the use of other therapies, including psychological or wellness counseling. However, as Lisa’s case demonstrates, it’s also a healthy, positive way to tap your soul’s knowledge to explore and solve issues and to gain insight on new, potentially fruitful directions.

To explore a past life you need a healthy curiosity and a goal or interest. Whether what you turn up in a session is a past life or simply a metaphor, you are tapping deep information from your subconscious mind, that extraordinarily knowledgeable, uniquely personal asset that knows the most about us and has the most to share.

Exploring what comes up in a session can certainly help heal physical, emotional, and spiritual issues that have been holding us back from writing that book, taking that workshop, changing an unhealthy habit, or simply from fully participating in the one life your soul is experiencing right now—yours! We take mind, body, and spirit connection to a level once reserved for our spiritual elders when we stop to examine what we knew in a previous life and what it can mean to this one, both personally and professionally.

What happens when people add past life regression to their yearly planning? Like Lisa, they may find clues to a potential new career, or an interest that can add depth and satisfaction to their current lives. Like another client, Sally, it can lead to rejecting a lifelong feared health issue and experiencing renewed energy and optimism without the burden and distraction of worry. As people discover the triumphs and obstacles their souls faced in previous lifetimes they shed light on how to continue their personal growth, which benefits them at home, and at work.

So when you’re sitting down to dream of possibilities for the new year, to map out marketing options for your business, to think about what it is you want to do next and how you’ll do it, think about incorporating a past life regression session into your planning. It’s an opportunity to let your soul chime in with information it has, and for you to soar into the future transformed, balanced, and clear on your goals. That’s what planning is all about—and how spectacular growth begins.

Ready? I offer spiritual and intuitive consulting that includes past life regressions to support soul growth at home and at work. You’re welcome to contact me for a complimentary 15-minute exploration of how we could work together. Happy planning!

Standing Up for the Soul of America

February 25, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

Waving-American-Flag courtesy publicdomainspictures.net

One thing I haven’t seen covered or spoken about anywhere during the 2016 elections, and now in the tumultuous beginnings of 2017, is the soul of America. All beings have souls, including cities and countries. All beings are conscious, aware, have responsibilities, rights, opinions.

America has a soul. It has a living presence. What are you doing to support it?

While I have participated in elections in all the years I’ve been eligible to vote, 2016 disturbed me the most. The hatred and contempt for the candidates and their supporters from people I always thought were rational and kind, and of course those who always act up, so to speak, on any issue.

We are at a turning point in our civilization, one every civilization faces during its lifetime. We are deciding the future of the soul of America on a deeper level than it has faced in a very long time. Put aside your thoughts, positive or negative, take a deep breath, and reflect on the welfare of the soul of America.

Of course voting is important. But more important are your thoughts, compassion, inherent love, goodness, the state of your own soul— these are what we need to concentrate on now. What is it? What does it mean for you? Your community? Your state? America?

How can you lovingly support the soul of America? It matters. Because of who and what this soul is, it affects every soul on the planet. It matters.

Stand up. Be counted. Let your soul be counted. Let your heart be counted.

Let the soul of America know who you are. What you are. Why it matters.

Earthquake Warning: Central California, Feb. 20, 2017

January 22, 2017 by Robyn Fritz

I work as a professional intuitive.

Sadly, I have a warning: I see a major earthquake on the central California coast on or about Feb. 20, 2017. This quake will register approximately 8.0 and include a large tsunami registering as far south as San Diego and as far north as Eureka, CA.

The biggest impact will be the San Francisco area, although all coastal regions will suffer major damage. The damage will extend far inland near the epicenter.

Please arrange to be elsewhere during that time. Please! I hesitate to say this is the “big one,” but it will still be massive. However, it does not appear to be on the San Andreas fault, but closer to what is called the Hayward Fault near San Francisco.

How I Know About This Earthquake

I became aware of this quake during a private intuitive session with a client in San Diego on Jan. 3 this year. During our session I felt the session “shift” and then I saw a tsunami arrive in San Diego. At first I thought it was symbolic of situations we were discussing, but I quickly became aware that I was seeing the aftereffects of a major earthquake. I had to end my client session and trace the event back to the source: San Francisco.

I was puzzled by this, since tsunamis are not part of the California quake pattern. Aware of a recent major film with a similar scenario, I was hoping I was imagining it. Sadly, I am not. This means that the quake, or at least the tsunami, will be caused by a major land slippage, either on or off shore. An alternative is that the tsunami will be from a major quake elsewhere in the Pacific Rim and arrive about the same time as the earthquake strikes California.

If this quake occurs as I have seen it, the results will be catastrophic. People, animals, and the land around the quake zone and the tsunami areas will be destroyed.

I hope I am wrong. It happens, and nothing would make me happier than to be wrong in this case. But I have not been wrong in many of the quakes I have seen in the past, and this time I want people to be aware of what’s coming. Please take every precaution.

How I Know Earthquakes Are Coming

Let me tell you who I am. I work as a professional intuitive, and part of my work involves predictions. I prefer to keep these to predictions about things people can actually affect, such as personal and business insights. As a rational, skeptical person, I am naturally disinclined to trust “predictions”: they smack of irresponsible fear-mongering.

Yet I see what I see. I am an intuitive who works with weather and land systems. I have been doing this all my life, and most notably since 2001.

With earthquakes, I become aware of their magnitude, time, and location. Not all of them are major, but they have one thing in common: every quake I hear is connected to a ley line rupture (a subject for another time). That includes the 2004 quake and tsunami in Indonesia and the October 8, 2005 quake in Pakistan to minor quakes, mostly in the U.S.

“Red Thread Events”: Human Manipulation in Quakes and Storms

There is another aspect to this earthquake that can and will disturb many people, because very few people are aware that our land and weather systems can and are being directly manipulated by humans. By that I mean that there are people who can and do change the course of a hurricane and manipulate the land to cause earthquakes.

I am not the only intuitive who knows this type of work is going on, but I am probably the only one brave, or foolish, enough to publicly announce it. But once I saw this coming earthquake, I decided I could no longer work silently.

There have been so many of these events in recent months that I am calling them “red thread events.” That means that what is a natural event or system is being manipulated by humans to be more powerful and/or destructive than it was originally meant to be. That includes earthquakes, wind and rain storms, hurricanes, and snow and ice events.

Here is the truth about how our planet works. Everything is alive, has consciousness, rights, responsibilities, a job to do, and free choice to do it. Everything has a soul. That includes earthquakes and hurricanes. Our planet is a delicate balance of all life working together. I will write more about how these events actually benefit the planet at other times.

What You Need to Know About Feb. 20, 2017

Right now, what everyone needs to know is this:

An earthquake of at least a magnitude 8.0 will occur in the San Francisco region on or about Feb. 20, 2017.
The earthquake will be accompanied by a large tsunami from the San Diego region to Eureka, California. This tsunami may be from another massive quake in the Pacific Rim on the same day.
This event will cause massive damage to at least the central California coast, changing the landscape dramatically.
This event will be worse because it is also being manipulated by hostile, foreign people who have no love for the United States and wish to cause major harm to our country and its people.
I am doing my best to “undo” what I call the “red threads,” or human manipulation, of this earthquake. If I am successful the results will not be as catastrophic as I fear.
If you believe that this is even remotely true, please spread the word so we can protect as many people, animals, buildings, and land systems as possible—by getting as far away from that region as possible.

The only effective remedy to extreme hate, which is behind the human element of this event, is to respond rationally and calmly. To refuse to fear but to spread love—a deep, abiding respect for the power of nature and true role of these events—so the effects of the hatred are mitigated.

What You Can Do

If you would like to participate in countering this “red thread event,” please do this:

Do not use Reiki or other energy systems to “push away” or otherwise alter the event. That can make it worse.
Do use energy, peace, love, and respect to help strip away the “red threads” in this event, so what is left is the natural energy of a natural land event—the quake itself and how the land and sea adjust to it. Do this by simply sending love to erase the “red threads.” And love and support to people like me who are doing the actual removal work.
Do “talk” with that area, offering it peace and love and the support of equal being to equal being (because all things have souls, and soul-to-soul connection is the most powerful there is). You can do this because you are human and you care. You do not need to be a professional intuitive or even know that you are intuitive (we all are). You just need to be someone who loves—and cares—and wants a peaceful planet where humans do not wage war on each other through any means, particularly by manipulating natural events.
Do not write me and comment, either positively or negatively. This post reflects as much as I know and all that needs to be said at this time. Spend your time and energy constructively by supporting California in this crisis. And America.

Peace. Love. I hope I am wrong. Either way, let’s meet on the other side and join together to contribute to the welfare of our beloved planet. There literally is nothing else.

Becoming Your Best Self in the New Year

December 27, 2016 by Robyn Fritz

No, this isn’t another piece on New Year’s resolutions. It’s on things to think about as you continue to build a wonderful life, to reflect on when the holidays are over and the darkest time of the year is upon us, deep winter.

We all want to live the best life possible, at home and at work. But what does that mean to you? What does it look like? I’ll offer a few thoughts here to get you started: try using a notebook or DVR for your thoughts.

In my work with clients I emphasize the importance of claiming your power. Power sappers are subtle: “synchronicity” and “it’s meant to be” are two of them. You give your power away when you simply accept what happens, without evaluating it and figuring out what went right, or wrong, and how to move on. So if you do nothing in the new year, determine to stand in your personal truth, to do what you believe is right, and keep track of what happens. Consider: what do you do when challenged? What do you think about afterwards? What approach best serves you in claiming your power?

While you’re being a powerful advocate for your own best interests, remember to also be discerning. We don’t always get our way in life: we do always need to know how and why events affect us, and how that reverberates in our community. We are our own community, first and foremost, complete within ourselves. Celebrate yourself. Practice gratitude: be grateful for each experience, because each one informs, enlightens, nourishes, and challenges you. Then create community in your family, with humans and with your animal companions, yes, but also with your spaces.

Expanding outward, create community and ritual within your larger network, from your neighborhood to your city, state, and country. How will you do all that this year? Where do you start? What resources are necessary? How do you measure success? Yes, idealism is sweet and even revolutionary, but don’t forget to be practical!

Claiming your power and creating community are tough acts. They require strong constitutions: life is brutal even as it’s fascinating and fun. Sure, eat right, sleep well, exercise, and play, but above all, monitor your energy. While the subject of “energy” is an article (or a book) in itself, the basic point is this: everything is made of energy, and energy is fluid. That means your energy can be affected by everyone (and everything) around you, so learn to manage your energy boundaries (or energy field), so you know when you are affecting your environment and when it is affecting you. Come home drained from work? Give too much away? Not good and completely inappropriate. I teach energy boundaries to professionals: it’s an important skill, and most people have no clue. Don’t be one of them: if you are, learn how to change. Now.

Finally, learn how to use your intuition. Yes, everybody’s intuitive, no exception. It’s just that some of us are better at using it than others, simply because it intrigued us and we learned it, just like others learn a foreign language or even how to cook! There are great books, classes, and teachers out there. Learn from them. And then turn around and teach them something new. Because you can.

Learning to become our best selves is really why we’re all here (okay, that and having fun). Growing our souls is how we do that, with practical skills, great ambition, and some klutziness along the way. As you sit and use these ideas to become even more remarkable next year, let your imagination soar! Winter is the time of year for new things to sleep and rest, to prepare for a fertile and productive spring. It’s a time to pause, reflect, plan, prepare. Dream big!

So go for it! And Happy New Year!

Now, what will you do? Share!

This article first appeared in NaturalPath blog on Dec. 12, 2016.

How to Keep Clear (Energetically) and Vote

November 3, 2016 by Robyn Fritz

We’re in the homestretch of the American 2016 election cycle and most of us are feeling tired, maybe exhausted, even downright sleazy and slugged. We’ve had enough, and yet we have one thing left to do.

We have to vote. So how do we do that and make it count? We keep ourselves energetically clear as we take the time to vote.

Voting is as much a business activity as any of our other duties as citizens and business professionals. To maintain successful practices, we need to do the things that keep us successful citizens, from obeying the law to expressing our opinion about how we want our government to serve us.

But in this campaign season many of us are simply appalled. We just want it to be over, and we may be tempted to steer clear of it by voting quickly, if at all.

But that won’t work for any of us because of how energy works. Let me explain.

Businesses only succeed if they cater to their clients. We know that as business professionals, but we seldom think of it in relation to our government. But the business of government is to serve its citizens. And it’s complicated.

Every time I mull over a ballot I’m amazed at how complex government is. I’m always worried that I’ll never know enough about either the issues or candidates to vote as wisely as I could if I had nothing else to do but attend to government. That’s impossible, so I do the best I can, and I expect government to do the rest. We all do.

That’s what every business does, if you think about it. I depend on the pet store to keep healthy food and fun toys on hand for my animal family, for my hairdresser to give me an acceptable haircut, for the electrician to know what he’s doing when the lights go out.

I depend on my government to make the laws and enforce them to the best of its ability.

The problem is, stuck energy gets in the way. As holistic care providers, we can all see this if we pull back and look at the overall situation. Or feel it, depending on how your intuition works. (While we’re all a combination of intuitive abilities, most of us are dominantly visual, audient, feeling, or knowing.)

Two Steps to Keeping Clear as Citizens

We’ve all heard that everything is energy, but what we forget is that we affect energy as it affects us. As we go about our day bits and pieces of our own energy field spin off and mingle in the spaces we visit and the people we meet, so we bring bits of our daily experience home with us. That includes what we see or hear on the news.

Sure, some people deal with this by ignoring the news, but that doesn’t solve the issue. Because the energy created by others, especially on the scale of a national election, is out there anyway, affecting us. And any time you see such divisiveness around you, you know that energy is stuck.

So here’s what you do.

Be aware of the flow of energy. When you think of the current campaign, do you feel as if you’re trying to breathe underwater, can’t hear well, can’t quite “see” the people and issues, or just know that things aren’t flowing well? These are all ways your intuition can be alerting you to stuck energy. To fine-tune your intuition, you have to work at understanding how your intuition works and informs you of what’s happening in your environment, so you can find ways to deal with it.

Stuck energy can feel dense, dirty, and heavy, or leave you feeling tired, bored, uneasy, or angry or disgusted. Sound like the 2016 campaign to you?

Clear yourself energetically before you vote. As you sit down to go over your voter pamphlet, try a ritual to clear yourself. Light a candle, close your eyes and take a deep cleansing breath, do whatever feels right to you in the moment to make yourself as clearheaded as possible.

An easy clearing technique is to sweep your hands across your body, left to right. As you do a sweep, shake your sweeping hand as if you’re flinging the stuck energy into a fire, where it can burn up and be harmless, or even into a small bowl of sea salt you have put out for that. If you actually use salt, remember to flush it down the sink afterwards, so all that energy flows out of your space.

One final suggestion: try a sure-fire technique to keep yourself and the world energetically clear.

The next few weeks are simply a microcosm of your daily life. All of us will always face stuck energy. And most of us will always want to help stuck energy clear, for ourselves and the world around us. After all, we’re all healers. So here’s a technique taught to me by a genuine, 100% real goddess, as in, yes, goddess (I know, I had a hard time believing it myself).

Clear yourself and the world with a simple intention and focus. Here you go:

Take a deep breath, and release it.
Set an intention, as in, “I am clearing stuck energy in myself and the world for the 2016 election.”
Cup your hands in front of your mouth, breathe into your hands (which breathes energy into them), and turn them palms out, offering the energy to the world (or the election process).
Again, cup your hands in front of your mouth, breathe into your hands, and then put your hands on your chest. This brings clear energy back into your body.

Feeling better? Now, go out and vote.

And let me know how these suggestions and techniques work for you.