Take Ownership of Your Happiness

Recently I've been reading a lovely book by Marci Shimoff called Happy for No Reason. This wonderful book provides tools for happiness and highlights stories of people who are simply happy. She shows us that circumstance has relatively little to do with our state of being, it's our perception that determines our level of happiness. In Chapter 3, The Foundation--Take Ownership of Your Happiness, Shimoff provides three habits that allow us to experience happiness.

1. Focus on the Solution.  How often is it that a problem arises and we spend hours, days, weeks even, agonizing over how horrible it is, why me, I can't believe this is happening, etc.  What would happen if instead, we used all that energy to create a solution? Wouldn't that make us feel better and reduce the number of hours wallowing in negativity. It's easy to get lost in our perception of "what is" but being stuck in the problem only causes misery and in the end we dig a deeper hole for ourselves. When facing a problem, face it. Allow yourself a few minutes of misery, than take a deep breath, and focus on the solution. You will feel better, plus, chances are, problem solved with will make you feel even better!

2. Look for the Lesson and the Gift.  How often do we assign blame to a situation? My dog ate my homework, traffic was terrible, he doesn't like me, I tried my best but she wouldn't listen, it's all her fault, blah de blah blah blah. Recognize your own responsibility in the matter. Think about what you could learn from the situation and in some cases, it may even be a gift. One of the stories in Shimoff's book involves a woman who's fiancee ended their engagement just three weeks before the wedding. She spent a year wallowing in grief, blaming him for being a jerk, and playing the victim. One day her therapist said to her "If your relationship was so perfect, why is it over?" Sometimes we see only what we want to see, and in reality, her relationship had flaws that she simply did not want to face or take responsibility for, so she focused on the blame. After coming to terms with this, she focused on taking responsibility for her own actions, and ended up in a much healthier relationship. There are lessons everywhere, we just have to look.

3. Make Peace With Yourself.  Taking responsibility does not beating yourself up. There is no happiness to be find there. Simply, recognize areas that may need work, forgive yourself for your errors, and be grateful for the positives. Let it go and be at peace with your decisions. We all make mistakes, but you can choose to forgive and see each trial as a lesson.

I highly recommend investing in this wonderful book.  You can also download some of the exercises and happiness stories here.

Limited Time Only! Schedule a Reiki Session With Me!

Just this week I finished my Reiki III degree, giving me the tools to heal myself and others. I have learned how to do a full body Reiki session, both in house AND long distance, psychic surgery, which is a method that pulls out energy blockages that prevent physical healing, and shorter "spot" treatments. For the rest of the year, I am offering love donation based Reiki sessions for all who are interested, in order to send a little love to the world and hone my skills. You can learn more about my early Reiki experience here.  Click the contact me tab to schedule a session, and don't forget to put "Reiki" in the email subject line.  I am excited to offer this to all of you wonderful, beautiful people and look forward to getting my healing on!

Love and Gratitude,

Shanna ♥

Love and Gratitude Friday's

I am grateful for:

All the healing that has been done on my tumors recently, thank you Mom and Linda

Having a roof over my head, a working furnace, and cozy water bed

Triton, even if he is a trash eater, he sure know how to cuddle

My new skill set, being a Reiki III practitioner

All of my lovely new friends :)

I love cuddling on the sofa with Triton ♥ turning leftovers into a brand new dish ♥ 70 degree weather in November ♥ listening to the new Marina and the Diamonds cd ♥ shrinking tumors ♥ realizing I have more talent and knowledge to offer than I thought possible ♥ sleeping until noon ♥ my chocolate chip treasure hunt cookies, with chocolate chips, coconut, and walnuts, yummy ♥ reading on my back patio ♥ having dinner with a new friend ♥ freshly shaved legs ♥ receiving unexpected letters in the mail ♥ reading revamped fairy tales ala Mercedes Lackey ♥ walking around barefoot ♥ reading a Course in Miracles ♥ two brand new radio stations in town 103.7 and 99.7, providing more variety in flipping channels ♥ Belgian waffles ♥ relaxing in a lovely detox bath, filled with Epsom salts, baking soda and lavender ♥Love and Gratitude,

































Shanna ♥

Healing With Tuning Fork Sound Therapy

Last night I attended a mini-workshop on Tuning Forks put on by no other but my lovely and wonderful Mother, Rhonda. Tuning forks are a tool that allow one to "tune up" our bodies using sound frequencies.  Everything is energy, and sound energy literally affects the frequency of our cells. By using tuning forks, a healer can raise the vibration of our cells to the proper place, healing imbalances in the body. For more information on Tuning Forks, click here.

A miraculous healing occurred at the end of the evening.  Using two of the forks, the Genesis fork and the Shekinah fork, four people watched my tumor(s) in my neck visibly shrink, within about 15 minutes!! How amazing is that! I didn't actually see it happen (no mirror) but looked in the mirror afterwards and couldn't believe it! Half the size, at least, plus the consistency changed. The solid wall around my primary tumor is softening, breaking down. I had a lot of drainage in my throat last night, I'm guessing as the tumor drained out of the body. I did some serious detoxing today, both an enema and detox bath, and went easy with the eating, a delicious smoothie.  I've had a lot of shrinkage and shifts lately, with the psychic surgery in my Reiki class, forgiveness work, Ho'oponono, etc. This however, just incredible.

I highly recommend looking into Tuning Fork Sound Therapy.  You can balance your chakras, heal cancer, melt away fat cells (not even kidding), improve circulation, etc. Check out this site to purchase forks and click here to schedule a healing with my Mom. Tuning Forks can be done long distance as well, very cool.

Love and Gratitude,




Shanna ♥

Ego-Trippin' Down Judgement Lane

Oh how fearful and ugly the Ego can be sometimes. As my Reiki cleanse ends (thank the Universe!), I've had some feelings come up that I haven't experience for quite awhile. A few day ago I started researching my 30 Things before my birthday, one of those being "go to a shooting range."  I googled shooting ranges and started doing some research and my Ego started screaming, judging, freaking out. All I could think about is "What was I thinking? Shooting range? Those places are filled with crazy NRA-er's, psychopaths the lot of them! Blech!!!"  After about an hour of this I stood back and just took it in. I was angry, scared, and just horrible. What the heck got into me? My ego, that's what, amplified and going nuts.

A few days later my Dad told me I needed to get started on our 2011 company budget, and we would be meeting with corporate office this week to do some planning. I immediately flashed back to last year, and how angry and disappointed I was with the fella from corporate that "helped" us with last years budget. The guy clearly just wanted to get his job done and make our budget look "pretty" for his superiors, rather than helping us make it accurate and useful, so I ended up redoing a lot of it. The same guy is supposed to be meeting with us again and all I can think of is; I WANT TO MAKE HIM WEEP!! Yes, I want to put on my stilettos, break out my leather whip, and bring this man to his knees. Just thinking of it gives me happy tingles all throughout my body. Where's the love and humanity and gratitude in this emotion? I admit, I used to relish the opportunity to put someone in their place; I enjoyed firing people and have literally made grown men cry. However, that's past Shanna, right?

This is the deal, we do all of this work, this development, but the fact is, that we are still human. We are spiritual beings having a human experience, and that doesn't mean ignoring the darker feelings, or necessarily not having them at all. It just means that as we do this work, focus on gratitude, create love lists, recognize that all living creatures are connected, we may have fewer moments where the Ego takes over, but we do not erase it completely. Also, learning to recognize those feelings when they arise, and rather than ignoring or pushing them down, experience them. Just let the feeling happen, then take a deep breath, do some gratitude statements, and realize that the fear is your Ego talking, not your inner guide.

So how am I dealing with my judgements and power trips? By recognizing them, blessing those NRA ladies and gents, blessing the budget man, and realizing that there is nothing wrong with having different perspectives.  By opening myself to the Universe, I know I will find a peaceful way to experience both situations.  By the way, being peaceful, doesn't mean being a doormat. It simply means going into a situation with openness, but you still have every right to stand up for yourself if the situation calls for it.  But entering a situation with fear and anger will ensure that it turns ugly.

Fighting Fatigue

I feel like I've been living in a bit of a fog these last few weeks. Two weeks ago tonight I started my Reiki III training, an experience that is clearly kicking my ass.  Each level there is a cleanse, as your body attunes to the new energies. Level I is a physical cleanse, II an emotional cleanse and III a spiritual cleanse.  During my first week, in addition to the cleanse (which lasts 3 weeks), I also contracted the oh so popular flu bug. Luckily, my dandy flu tips helped me ward that sucker off, but I've still been majorly fatigued for the past few weeks, which I'm attributing to the Reiki cleanse. I've been sleeping quite a lot, in fact last week I slept right through Tuesday, missed it completely, quite a bizarre experience. I've watched over 40 hours of Buffy and really done little else. It's bizarre, I have absolutely no motivation, strength, energy, etc. and I have to ask, "how is this spiritual?"

I realized last night that I've allowed myself to "rest", to just do nothing, to lose myself in Buffy, and maybe that's the problem. This morning I made myself do my energy routine and bounce on my rebounder, and what do you know, I have a teeny bit of energy, enough to put this blog entry together. It also occured to me last night that maybe my body is encouraging me to take a physical break, and maybe a mental break, but not necessarily an emotional or spiritual break. Meaning, how much physical energy does it take to meditate, pray, read poetry, contemplate, do some spiritual reading?

In the past, when the going got tough, I always turned to Buffy. The lessons, the friendships, and comfort I experience while watching that show is like no other. But maybe that's the problem. Maybe I should be turning to myself, my inner guidance or ~ing, developing my own lessons, building my own friendships and finding comfort in my spirit guides and the Universe.

I know it's not a physical ailment that I'm experiencing, even though I have physical symptoms. I know what's it feels like for your body to start shutting down, what tumors feels like when they are growing, spreading, when your organs stop working and the process of dying begins. This is not the same. There is no pain, just intense fatigue, which probably will improve as I continue to push myself just a bit, do some spiritual work, and detox, detox, detox!

Watching TV, sleeping, numbing life away seems like the easy path, but really, what fun is that? Sure, we all need our chill days, but there is more to this life than being an observer, I want to be a participant. So yes, I still have a week of cleansing, and likely will continue to experience unbearable fatigue, but this is the time to break out that enema kit, do some yoga, and get started reading "A Course In Miracles."

And of course, learn psychic surgery in my Reiki class tonight....

Love and Gratitude Friday's: Happy Halloween!

I've been a bit quiet this week, in fact today is the first day I've been online since Sunday. I've had the flu on and off, been sleeping alot (I literally slept through Tuesday, not kidding) and possibly feeling a little funky from my Reiki III attunement. However, I am seeing a turn for the better, and wanted to acknowledge the fun-tastic holiday of Halloween.

"I was just thinking of the life of a pumpkin, grow up in the sun, happily entwined with others, then someone comes along, cuts your open and rips your guts out." Buffy from 'Fear Itself'

"Ok, on sleezing extra candy, tears are key. Tears will normally get you the double bagger. You can also try the 'you missed me' routine, but it's risky. Only go there for chocolate." Xander from 'Halloween'

My favorite part of Halloween? The Scare-Tastic Halloween movies on all week. Who doesn't love "Teen Witch", "Casper" or "The Craft?  Be sure to enjoy some tasty Vegan Halloween Treats to enhance your movie watching pleasure.

Carving pumpkins this year, be sure to check out Dog O'Lanterns. This lense is heating up the web and has some great doggie pumpkin carvings. There is also a pic of the Triton pumpkin my ex-Ryan carved a few years ago, definately worth checking out!

Need a last minute party idea? Why not throw a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Halloween party?

Ashley, Megan and I, Halloween, 4th grade maybe?

Ashley and I, Halloween, 2nd grade?





HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Love and Gratitude,

Shanna ♥