I compiled a list of my favorite wellness tips & tools, especially for challenging times. It’s lengthy so feel free to dip in and out.

Self-Care Tools
Now more than ever is a great time to make changes in your daily routine. Here are some simple ways to stay grounded and centered.

I love Donna Eden’s 5-minute daily energy routine.

Book Recommendations
Have some extra time for reading? Here’s are some past book recommendations and a few more here.

I just started reading this powerful book with healing meditations (includes online practice videos for healing the 5 elements in Chinese medicine, as well as the 7 chakras, and more).

Virtual Yoga 
I was talking with a client about what a difference it made to take a live yoga class even though it wasn’t in person. A friend signed up for a class with me and it was *almost* like meeting her in person to take a class together. See if it helps you feel a sense of community. Here are some places I like if you don’t already have a studio:
Hari Kundalini Yoga (includes some donation-based classes)
Harlem Yoga
DoYogaWithMe.com (these are recorded free classes)

Braco
Braco is offering additional free online healing. Many people have had remarkable results.

Free Energy Tools from David Sun Todd
I love his beautiful art and deep connection to the healing and wisdom of the Redwoods.

Flower Essences for Emotional Healing
Here’s a post by the lovely Rose Todd on what flower essences you may need in dealing with anxiety in challenging situations. (If you want a personalized recommendation we can discuss at your next session, just let me know.)

And Rose wrote a wonderful book: Simply Bach Flowers–it’s an excellent resource for beginners to learn about how to use Bach flower essences for emotional healing. (I did the full practitioner training with her and she knows her stuff!) You can purchase Bach flowers here.

and I’ve fallen in love with Lotuswei’s flower essences (This past week I’ve been using Fierce Compassion and Game Changer a lot).

Essential Oils for Immune Boosting
Eden’s Garden Fighting Five (also available on Amazon)

For Creativity
I love Susannah Conway’s love letters, and her free and paid courses. She does a free photo challenge each April.

A New Career in the Healing Arts
Many people are using this time to rethink their work. I wrote Building a Powerful Practice to help people making a career transition into the healing arts. Friend and colleague Shauna Cummins interviewed me as part of her Divine Feminine School of Hypnosis–here’s our recent interview on practice building.

Improve Your Relationship With Money
I mentioned Sarah McCrum before; she had a very extraordinary experience that has given her a unique insight into what money really is and how it works.  Sarah shares five of the most surprising and beautiful characteristics of money that have already helped many people transform their business and their life (including me!).

Here is a recording of her live online event from this past week, Activation for Collective Healing, which includes Morning Grounding, Activation, Evening Grounding, and Transformance.

A Powerful Healing Mantra
The Love Peace Harmony free app is a powerful healing mantra and one of my favorites. You can download it or play the app 24/7 (even on mute) to create a healing field in your home, office, etc.

One client is a first-year teacher for students with special needs. She’s been playing it in her classroom at very low volume and sent this feedback: “I love the music player! Some of my coworkers have come into my class and said ” it feels good in here.” One of my students who has autism said she ” feels comfortable here” and sometimes don’t want to go home at the end of the day.”

Hypnosis Recordings
Uncommon Knowledge offers an extended list of hypnosis downloads for a range of issues. While recordings aren’t able to be as personalized as a one-on-one hypnosis session, it can be helpful between sessions, and to prolong the effects of your one-on-one sessions. (My Dad even used one to help improve his golf game!)

I often hear 2 main concerns after a client’s first hypnosis session. Don’t be misled by these 2 signs.

Meditate with the Insight Timer
I love this free meditation app with hundreds of guided meditations, or simply use the timer. Join the 365 Days Together group and commit to a daily practice–even if it’s only for 1 minute a day, that counts. (They give you gold stars for meditating!) You can also listen to healing music; check out the Solfeggio frequencies for deep balancing of the brain.

Need additional support? Book a session.

I recently participated in the 2018 winter Reiki Healing Summit, which featured 38 Reiki Masters and Teachers from around the world, and I wanted to share 10 highlights from my interview. I was interviewed by Reiki Rays about my book, Building a Powerful Practice: Successful Strategies for Your Wellness Business, and addressed some of the common pitfalls and concerns of wellness practitioners dealing with the business side of practice building.

As a wellness practitioner, you have an amazing opportunity to help people who really need it. Yet so many practitioners struggle to make a living doing the work they love.

I had to figure out the nuts and bolts of starting a business from scratch, and I wanted to share what I learned, as well as advice from other accomplished practitioners and teachers, to make it easier for new practitioners.

Here are 10 key things no one tells you about starting your own wellness business:  

1. Don’t quit your day job.

If you’re making a career transition to a wellness practice, don’t give up your day job! It takes time to build a strong client base with enough clients to sustain a full-time wellness practice. An additional income source—from a full-time job or part-time work—can help you worry less as you build your practice.

2. Specialize.

Figure out the kinds of client issues and challenges you especially enjoy working with. This will set you apart and help the right kinds of clients find you.

3. Experiment & be open.

Building a successful wellness practice is hard work, and there will be ups and downs along the way. Be in an open mindset as you experiment with different ways of running your business and finding new clients.

4. Get organized.

Develop a system for keeping track of client information, income and expenses, and tax payments. Maintaining order in the administrative and financial aspects of your business will allow you to focus more on the work you love: helping clients.

5. Limit your client hours.

I know! This one sounds surprising but treatment hours are very different than working full-time at other kinds of jobs. With this work, you need to be very present for your wellness clients, and it can be taxing emotionally and physically. Seeing clients full-time is 15-20 hours a week in terms of treatment hours.

6. Monitor your growth.

Speaking of treatment hours, as you grow your practice and do more sessions in a day, be mindful of this growth: it’s all the more important that you take time to take care of yourself and have a strong meditation and self care routine.

7. Set a consistent schedule to see clients.

It may seem counter-intuitive, but being clear about the days and times that work best for you will make it easier to book clients rather than asking prospective clients when they want to come in. For example: “I see clients on Tuesdays and Thursdays between 6pm-8pm.”  This provides a clear container and boundary. It also comes across as professional to your prospective clients.

8. Don’t offer a sliding scale or pay-as-you-wish.

If you’re not in a financially stable position with your practice, how can you possibly offer pay-what-you-wish sessions? Each person will need to make this decision for themselves, but I think it’s essential to remember that you need to be able to take care of yourself and your financial needs to better be able to take care of others. 

9. Figure out how to avoid burn out.

As you figure out a schedule that works for you, consider having a set time when you “turn off”—for example, maybe you don’t do work in the hour before bed, or maybe Sundays are reserved for downtime. Figure out when you work best, as you find balance between work time and downtime. 

10. Take good care of yourself.

Schedule wellness sessions for yourself on a regular basis. (Hint: this will also help you become a better practitioner, as you learn about the work you do from the inside out and address your own issues and challenges.)

P.S. Want more real-world advice and recommendations? You can get Building a Powerful Practice on Amazon or Nook.

To learn more about the book, get a free online Business Starter Kit, and to read a sample chapter of the book, read more here. Basically, I want to make it as easy as possible for you to get your wellness business up and running!

This quote by Marianne Williamson reminds me of Reiki. Learning Reiki and doing our daily Reiki self-care practice is such a simple way to shift out of fight or flight, sympathetic nervous system dominance, into rest and digest, parasympathetic nervous system.

How can you do this in only a few minutes? Let me count the ways….

• Hands on practice, Reiki self care protocol
• Dry bathing
• Purifying breath technique
• Hand breathing technique
• Reciting the Reiki precepts
• Chanting the mantras learned in Reiki II & Reiki III
• Drawing the symbols learned in Reiki II & III

Let yourself settle into yourself, into the quieting experience of Reiki.

A few minutes (or more!) every day will change your nervous system, balancing and calming it, and over time, you will change your life. Perhaps you’re already noticing this…

One of my favorite things about Reiki is noticing the subtle yet powerful changes in my life. How about you?

Dry Bathing Technique
Are you using the dry bathing technique in your daily life? It’s such a flexible tool: Some people use it to begin and end a self care session or a session for someone else. Others use it throughout the day—before leaving home, at the end of the work day, as a pause between different activities or projects; it’s like hitting the reset button.

Remember when you do this technique that it facilitates the downward flow of energy, and this grounds you, helping you to be more in your body.

Excess Mental Energy
I’ve been thinking a lot about the energy in the head versus the rest of the body. Headaches, jaw tension, and eye strain are all signs that there is too much energy in the head. In our modern life we focus on mental energy so much, and this has only increased with the use of smart phones, tablets, computers, etc.

What are other ways you can redistribute the energy in your head to the rest of your body? (Hint: your daily Reiki self care protocol and the purifying breath technique.) Others ways include: physical activity, being in nature, taking a bath….what ways work best for you?

Bonus: Another grounding technique is to hit the bottoms of your feet for a minute or two with your fist.

Want more ideas? Here’s a list of 25 ways to stay grounded.

A Message
Here is a message I received for you during my morning meditation:

Dear Reiki students, your interest and attention to spiritual practice is appreciated. Do what you can each day to center your heart, mind, and body. There are many ways to do this. Take the time, put in the effort, notice the benefits. You are so loved.

Remember you can always place your hands on your body and give yourself Reiki for a minute or two. Breathe deeply and let it connect you deeper still.