Tag: empath

Being Spiritual Sucks – It’s Not What People Think

Posted on by Katherine Bird

So many people want to be ‘spiritual’. Workshops to learn how to be intuitive, psychic and spiritually connected are all over. Ceremonies that open people up are happening all the time. 

People want to feel less alone, get spiritual downloads and have the information they receive lead them to more love, money and purpose. 

But, honestly, this path is not all about bright lights, chubby angels and everything feeling good. 

When you are open to spirits, when you are open psychically to the world you are open to more than just the ‘good stuff’. 

The unseen world is massive. Psychic information is not always easy to process. 

People want to have spiritual connection… until they realize that part of the job description is sometimes helping suffering souls to the other side. 

And that sometimes means seeing and feeling the pain and torment of spirits that have been trapped and learning how to effectively help them leave this plane of existence. 

People want to be energy healers… until they realize that part of the job description is sometimes feeling in your body the pain of another person and being present to a person’s darkest moments. 

We have been sold a strange bill of goods. The new age has made it seem like this path is angel cards and unicorn farts. It isn’t.  

It is often deep trips to the underworld. 

It is meeting with guides that scare the shit out of us. 

It is removing hooks and cords and dark, sticky tar. 

It is being flooded by the intense pain of a being who has been murdered or witnessing the past life of someone tortured and abused. 

And being centered, grounded and present enough to stand in that and do the work that needs to be done. 

When you are tuned in this way you are a beacon for this work. You decide at a certain point to be okay with the weirdness of it all and commit to service. 

That service will not always look or feel ‘good’. 

You will confront the darkest parts of yourself as you are schooled by your guides into the layers of the underworld. 

Through that, you become strong, effective and a true light. 

This work is needed. Yet so many push it away, trying to be ‘normal’.

Fuck that. You can master this service which is often uncomfortable. You can be safe inside of it all. And, imagine what a human you will be at the end.

So, if your spiritual, energetic development feels like it sucks sometimes… that’s okay. 

Part of the path. 

And it is totally worth it. 

Spirituality and Entrepreneurship Must Be Intertwined

Posted on by Katherine Bird

Spirituality must be intertwined with business and entrepreneurship. These aspects of self can’t remain separate. As you evolve and grow you will only be more drawn to a higher alignment with your spiritual self. 

Your spiritual life will hold you as you grow. It will help you to make decisions based on trust, intuition and higher understanding instead of fear, scarcity or trauma. The decisions you make now will affect the way that your life emerges in the future. Ones rooted in self-awareness, service and connection are sustainable and will grow with you. Ones that are held back by lower desires and habits will be harder to break free of without destroying what you have already built. 

You want your impact in the world to be one of integrity, service and full creative expression. 

Entrepreneurs are their work. Business is connected to how one is living and growing. You can’t separate yourself from your mission. By engaging in spiritual and energetic practices and then integrating them fully in a heart-centered and aligned way, you can emerge as a thought leader that people want to follow, collaborate with and support. 

More importantly, what they are following will lead them to a place of more self-love, fulfillment, joy and service to the world instead of the influencing forces that are only giving them a desire to be an illusion. 

What you create and comes through you will be more true and not just another business, but a contribution to the world. 

In this time of upheaval, great shift and change, as old ways are dying and new ones emerge we are being called to higher levels of self-awareness and awareness of our connection to Spirit and energy. Our old fears, beliefs, projections and wounds are not going to serve a new world being built from our very thoughts and feelings. 

We have seen what disconnected decision making has created. Maybe you have even seen it in your life as you’ve had to move away from choices, relationships and businesses that you have invested your life force into. 

We can’t afford to keep looking at the world from the perspective of, “How much more money can I make?” or really, “How can I try to make myself feel safe by building something even if I do not fully believe in it?”

We can’t keep ignoring the call of our soul because it will leave us dissatisfied in the end. And, maybe everything will have to crumble in order to hear that call fully. 

In order to elevate more people, to have a greater impact we must be willing to commit to our own self-growth, worth and development. 

You don’t need a new marketing strategy, you need a fully aligned, integrated mastery that emerges when one is willing to step into their full power, expression and service. 

It is about healing, opening, cultivating more energy and awareness and coming from that place. 

Being aligned in this way allows greater intuitive information to come in and empathic skills to emerge without being taken out by other’s energy and emotions. It brings ease, flow and a level of certainty to path and process that does not happen otherwise. 

I am interested in how we can fully activate and then integrate our new spiritual and energetic awareness so that it is of the highest service to what is being created. 

If this is resonating with you, let’s chat about my one on one program called INTEGRATE, Spiritual and Energetic Development for Leaders and Change Makers.

Integrate – Spiritual and Energetic Development for Entrepreneurs, Leaders and Change Makers.

Regulating the Channel

Posted on by Katherine Bird

As healers and mediums (and even those who do not identify as such), we are responsible for the regulation of our channel.  This seems to be a source of much confusion and time wasted for many of us. 

It requires a consciousness toward how we are performing as the channel on a daily basis, an awareness of the communications we keep with our spiritual beings, a steady responsibility to own our own systems and to learn its mastery.

Down Regulation. 

Is your channel too open? 

Often when people start to awaken and open their channel, whether through intentional practices, meditations or substances or through a spontaneous evolution of the system or re-opening from childhood, the system is overwhelmed by too much information.

As an open channel, we are seen as beacons of light to the spiritual realms.  We are antennas open to the other realms.  Imagine a high power antenna being open to every radio station on the planet.  The noise would be overwhelming and all of the songs and talking heads would become a cacophony of garbled sound.  You might catch a few things here and there, but it is not precise or clear.  This is what it is like for many people as they start to open their channels.  They know they are bringing in information but it is unclear and unreliable.  The system is overwhelmed by spiritual information and the person loses energy and is confused.  At this point, many people simply start to shut down in order to protect themselves, or they fight to remain open and navigate this experience while everything simply feels like too much.

Lack of sleep, brain fog, partial messages and a generalized lack of trust in self and the acquired information is the result.

When I first started opening my channel, I was overwhelmed by beings flying in at any time they liked.  I had no control, nor did I think that I had the right or the ability to have control over this experience.  Confronted with beings of massive size and strange vibration, who have powerful information and experiences to share we can feel small, powerless and as though we are at the whim and mercy of these other beings.

I had to learn that I was a sovereign being and how to say no and create containers for the work.

Spiritual beings do not have the same awareness of our daily needs.  They feel you as an open channel point and want to come through, but they may not consider that you might be busy with things like eating, sleeping, driving your car or other activities in which a channel state is not the most conducive to getting things done on the material plane.

When we start to be really clear with the beings that we are working with, they know when they can come in because we have invited them and given them permission.  This invitation process also helps to ensure that we are working with higher level / frequency beings.

It is important to work on our own sense of individuated sovereign identity as a channel.

I am a sovereign being.

I am a sovereign being.

I am a sovereign being.

Repeating this on a regular basis, tapping the solar plexus to pack energy into the area while breathing and expanding this area, front and back of the body also helps.

Creating a solid container for the work is also vital.  When the beings you are working with know they have a container for coming through, that you are in control of it, they are less likely to just come in at any time.

When wanting to have your channel open, you can add in these phrases:

I connect through my higher self to open my channel to beings of love and light (or a specific being that you are working with).  I call upon and invoke (name of being or energy) or those that serve the highest and best and only those that serve the highest and best for the purpose of….

I am calling on my guides and angels to…

I bring light to my body, heal to heal my physical, emotional, spiritual bodies, or of a particular person by stating their name, or to bring in information and guidance.

Follow your heart with your intention for the work. 

I allow you to flow through my body so that I can bring your messages to the planet.

I ask to be an open and pure channel for the messages. 

From here you can start to have a conversation with the being, letting the messages flow through you in the way that you receive them.  You might receive images, hear a voice, or a being might talk through you.  Sometimes you will simply have a feeling.  That is enough.  The longer you work with a particular energy the stronger it will get. Do not pre-judge how your channel should work.

When you are closing down, make your intentions clear.

Thank you for coming to do this work with me today.  I am grateful for this encounter and I ask that you make yourself more known to me.  Is there anything else that you can show me or tell me about yourself so that I may call upon you again?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

The channel is now closed.  I will let you know when I am available next to do the work.

If you find yourself bombarded by beings and energies at different times you can restate your sovereign state, say that you are not open at this time and to come again when I have created the container for this work.

If you are being kept up at night, state this before bed:

I am not available tonight for any communication.  I ask that you help me receive a restful and regenerative night sleep only.

Or you can ask for upgrades:

I am available for upgrades to my energetic system, through my higher self and my guides that serve my highest and best, but I need this to occur within restful sleep. 

Again making clear that you are only seeking connection with those that are of the light and those that serve the highest and best.

Sometimes, Shamanic initiations can feel extremely overwhelming and as much as we ask for help it seems not to shift enough to create comfort.  If this is the case, it is important to look into the traumas and emotional holdings that are in the body which are seeking to be dealt with through this process.  The only way out is through in this work and for some an easy time is not the way we have designed our awakening to occur.  Consider asking what the contract is that you instated for your awakening, why it is there and even then make an appeal that it happen with more grace and ease.  Going into movement meditation for this point might open up visions or awarenesses of past lives or soul contracts or other new information which might serve your path.

Going out into the ‘real world’.

As open channels, we often go through times when we find it extremely challenging to go out into the real world.  This can be because we are receiving too much information in crowds of people.  While you might never enjoy a huge crowd again, you can learn how to navigate the reality of the world.  We are being called to master this so that we can go out in the world and be of service.  I remember going out to functions and being unable to handle so much energy and information.  I kept my hands down or in packets, hidden in arm warmers down below my hands because if I raised my hands they would start to work and seek people out, if someone touched me it often sent a jolt through my body and could easily send me into an altered state for a moment.  I struggled for years in not being able to go to workshops, Yoga classes or events because my channel was so easily opened.  If there was an event in which we were going to be asked to hold hands, forget about it.

If this is something that you are struggling with, start to set yourself up for greater success by asking for help with whatever is happening for you.

I am not working tonight.  I do not wish to receive messages or to do healing work tonight.  I am off duty.  I am using this time to socialize and have fun.  If you have a very important message, please let me know and I will let you know if I am available to receive it.

You can also use these gifts to your advantage.

I am going into this event.  I am using this as a networking opportunity to meet people that are supposed to work with me.  Allow that those that need my medicine cross my path and please help me to bring through the right words to make the connection.

You can get as specific as you want here.

The individuated mediumistic work that you are called to do will inform the type of visitations you will have.  Those that are of service by helping disembodied souls to transition to the light can be more effected by this than others as these soul forms are not of the highest consciousness and so do not align with the free-will of the planet and are more likely to just show up at all hours requesting help or wanting to deliver a message.  Again, reinstate your sovereign identity, state when you are working and when you are not.  If someone comes into your bedroom at night you have every right to tell them to go away and come again tomorrow when you are in meditation and you will speak with them then.

Up regulation. 

Are you vibrating at a frequency that will serve you as a channel?

We are often looking at our programs, workshops, offerings, and sessions as the means by which we do our healing work and offer our gifts.  The truth is that most of our work is through occupying a higher vibration and that through the law of resonance, others, just be being in proximity to us can have radical shifts in their vibration. We are helping to shift people’s frequency. This is often in our work, but can happen in any situation.

Realizing this, we can take on a sense of responsibility for our own vibration. This means taking care of your physical, etheric, emotional, spiritual and mental bodies.  Once again, self-care is the name of the game and sleep, movement, play, nutrition, being in nature, positive actions and thoughts, forgiveness, and being conscious of what you are exposing yourself to on a daily basis is vital.  This does not mean that you are never allowed to be sad, angry or have a bad day.  Quite the opposite, all of the emotions must be held space for, the shadow embraced and danced with and natural grieving processes honored.

What we are seeking is a feeling that even in the midst of challenges and the realities of life we are making choices which are in service to the raising of our vibration not the dampening of it.

This often requires once again doing research and seeking experts and mentors to guide us through supplementation, nutrition and practices.

We can also ask for help in this area as well.  Going into meditation, let yourself sit with a particular issue, or of the generalized need to raise your vibration.  Connect and ask your guides  for information on vitamins, practitioners and practices.  You might not get an answer right away.  That is OK.  Simply ask that the things that you need to bring you into balance and vitality be brought into your awareness.  You might then find that you meet an amazing acupuncturist at a party, a book about a way of eating falls off of the shelf when you are in a book store or you receive an email with an offer for studying a practice which will change your life.  You might want to learn how to self muscle test or work with a pendulum if you still feel unsure of the right things to do.

The other benefit of raising our vibration is that we can then start to access higher levels of information.  You might start receiving information from a new guide who wasn’t able to communicate with you before.  It is often the case that we have initial guides who are bringing us through the process of opening our channel and once we reach a certain point we will graduate to another guide who will be bringing in more information or healing.  It is also the case that after a certain point your guides will be able to bring through more advanced information and healing work.  This is because you have been raising your vibration to be able to access and hold these higher levels of consciousness.

Tracking yourself as the channel takes a strong sense of dedication to self and to mission.

When you are asking for help to regulate your system in either direction, to receive upgrades or new awarenesses, always link your requests to your soul mission and purpose.

I desire new upgrades to my vibration, in an easeful way that I can handle, so that I can be of greater service to the world and bring my healing gifts to more people assisting in the evolution of consciousness on the planet.  Thank you.

If you are interested in learning more.. you might want to check out my Open Your Channel Class Series and Retreat

Rocked to The Core of the Earth: Empaths and The Natural Disasters of Our Times

Posted on by Katherine Bird

Rains are falling in Texas, the land of my birth and first 18 years.  Flood waters rise and submerge the area that I lived in to complete High School near Houston.  I am sitting in my living room crying.

I have no family there.  No real connections or friends and I haven’t been back in over 20 years.

Is what I am feeling connected with this disaster?  Is it because I have a connection to the land or because I am feeling what these people are feeling, their fear and sadness?

Empaths are known for feeling everything. 

For most of our lives we are called overly sensitive, emotional or even unbalanced.  We often have trouble understanding why when we walk into a room, or sit next to a particular person we start to feel sad or overwhelmed by the situation.

What situation?  There doesn’t seem to be a situation.  Hm, but it feels like a situation.  Must be me.

Until recently it was not acknowledged that there are a certain subset of the population that feel other people’s feelings, often as their own, have a hard time sorting their feelings from others, get overwhelmed easily in social situations and often have a calling to help others.  This calling can lead them to feel depleted as they seem to suck up negative emotions leaving the other person feeling amazing and the empath feeling like they have just been run over by a truck.

Many empaths have been or are currently medicated and pathologized by the medical establishment.

There are many natural empaths and it is also something that is trained into the system by being raised in an abusive or unstable environment.  Learning to feel and track other’s feeling is a survival strategy.

Take this innate and often cultivated strategy out into the world and you can spend a lot of time crying for no reason or wondering why everyone is pretending to be happy when you know otherwise.

An untrained empath can be in a world of hurt and not even understand why.

A trained empath can be a powerful healer, coach, lover and friend navigating the world in a way that is both of service and is sustainable.

But, in times of community or global crisis empaths can feel more overwhelmed than usual.  This can be even more confusing because the overwhelming emotions and energy seem to be coming from nowhere. There are no people around triggering these feelings so it is assumed they are internally derived   

We are in a time of profound transformation.  Societal conflicts and natural disasters are happening frequently.  Celestial occurrences such as solar flares and eclipses seem to be happening one after the other.

We are all connected.  We are also all connected to the Earth which is a living being undergoing changes at a rapid pace.

We are feeling not only the shaking of the Earth, the blowing winds and rising waters we are feeling the collective emotions of all those effected by the situations.

During the recent floods many report an overwhelming need to cry buckets of tears.  When we search for the reason behind the tears there seems to be none.

Those near the raging forest fires also feel sadness, but are also expressing a sense of anger, frustration and even rage.

We are expressing the imbalances as mirrors of the Earth.  She is weeping and so are we.  She is raging in consuming fire and so are we.  We need to be connected to the mother.  She is the source of much of our energy and power.  She brings us a grounded, supported feeling, but when she is in turbulence we are often reflecting the same.

We are feeling the feelings of the people in these areas who have lost everything. 

That might not make sense to a lot of people.  It might be questioned that anyone could feel emotions over thousands of miles.  Yet, if you have ever received or given energy work over a distance you realize quickly that energy moves over distance.  As one of my favorite Qi Gong teachers says, “Emotions are just energy in motion.”

For the empath and other highly sensitive people, energy is most often translated, felt and expressed as emotion.  It is why we might seem a little… unstable at times.

So, what can an empath do during natural disasters and unstable social climates?   

  1. Check in.  Stop when you feel the upswell of emotions.  Take some deep breaths, calm your body by sitting or laying down and check in if this feels like your emotion or energy of not. You can start a dialog with your body, your higher self or your guides, “Is this mine or coming from outside of me?”  Allow yourself to scan your body, bringing as much of your awareness inside as possible.  Just notice the sensations without giving them too much meaning.  My heart is beating fast does not have to mean, I have anxiety.  It can just mean that my heart is beating fast.  I feel sadness in my chest does not have to mean, I am sad.  Allow yourself to witness the experience without judgement bringing calming breath to any area that draws your attention.
  2. Ground.  We can be knocked off of our center by these events.  We might even be choosing to disconnect from the Earth for fear that what we feel will overwhelm us.  But, it is still important to be centered and grounded.  Walk outside with your shoes off if possible.  Find a tree and hold onto it.  Breathe into your feet and toes.  Send your breath down into the Earth and then watch it come back up and rest in your relaxed belly.  Hit your heels on the ground a few times.
  3. Move.  Sometimes the best way to move energy is to… move energy.  Go for a run, take a swim, lift some weights or dance it out.  Stagnation will only keep the feelings stuck inside building in intensity.  One of the best practices you can do is to shake.  Shake your whole body adding in some sound and send all of the emotions and energy out of your body and into the Earth. 
  4. Let it out.  You are not crazy for needing to bawl like a baby for a while.  Allow yourself to turn it up and wail, moan and scream. No one is probably paying any attention to you any way (really).  Do it in your car or the shower, or turn the music up if you are concerned that someone will think you mad.  For many of us, we are the expressers of the unexpressed.  This is not the easiest job to have on the planet but it is important.  Let it out.  Thank you for your service as this is a way that this overwhelming energy is being processed and it helps everyone.
  5. Nurture yourself.  Take long baths with candles and your favorite calming essential oils.  Eat lots of root vegetables and if you eat meat start making a bone broth.  Take time to just be quiet, off of your devices and media.  It can be exhausting to do this work.  Give yourself permission to take a nap, go to bed early or sleep in late.
  6. Seek help. Meditation, energy practices, going to see an energy healer can all assist greatly at these times.  Open up to those you feel really safe with, find a teacher, mentor or healer that you resonate with and let yourself receive some help.
  7. Love your nature.  You are amazing.  You are vital.  You are a contribution to this planet and you have the power to heal.  This is not a curse.  Stop using this to let yourself play the victim.  This is a super power, but it takes some time and knowledge to learn how to handle it effectively.

I work with healers, coaches, empaths and all those that are here to help with the expansion of consciousness on this planet.  I teach practices to support awakening, opening the channel and handling the emotional, spiritual and physical burden of working with clients and living in this world.

You of The Sensitive Soul

Posted on by Katherine Bird

 

You of the sensitive soul know that you are needed.

You have worn your empathy as a wound and yet it is your sword.

You are here to feel.

You are here to wake us up to the fact that we are intuitive animals.

You are here to express the beauty of our connected nature to the Divine.

Please do not hide.

Please do not shrink away from the places that are uncomfortable.

Please do not be afraid that we will see your tears.

For your tears are jewels refracting the depths of your soul.

You of the sensitive soul, your time is now.

You are called out to the field of battle to hold space for all of our transformation.

Tell us what you feel.

Tell us what you see.

Tell us what is right and in full alignment.

Hold your ground.

Learn your protection.

But, be ready to open fully to pull through the healing we all need.

You of the sensitive soul,

Please

Please

Know that you are needed.