Find clarity!

I’m offering fast, fun, intuitive readings on Friday, Feb. 24th in Doylestown, PA and via Skype!

Think about it. The times may be changing, but when you’re partnering with the power of an entire planet surfing those powerful waves of change is a lot easier…and more fun!

My readings are down-to-earth, joyful, insightful, and really, really effective at helping you to get clear and unstuck about your life and work. I’ll also help you discover your own uniquely powerful partnership with the earth (our beloved Gaia), and meet the nature allies who can support you along the way.

For nearly twenty years I’ve cultivated a sacred partnership with the earth and her own spiritual wisdom, encouraging hundreds of people to do the same through my one-on-one mentoring, classes, retreats, public speaking, and writings.

Readings are 20 minutes; $35.  $10 from every Zen Den reading will be donated to HeARTs for Autism®!

I’ll be at the Zen Den in Doylestown from 7 – 10 p.m.  Zen Den Coffee Boutique is located in the Brigade Building at 20 Donaldson Street, one block off Main St. in Doylestown PA, 18901.

Or email use the Paypal button to register  and then tracie (at) alchemyfortheearth (dot) com to schedule the time for your Skype session between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. EST (GMT -5)

HeARTs for Autism® is a grass-roots, volunteer, charitable, non-profit organization of parents, kids, professionals and artists committed and inspired to use art therapeutically with ASD persons and their families, while educating the public about ASD and advocating for integrated, improved services.

Moving From Tension to Creative Energy through Stillness…

Find your creative fire

Are you feeling the rising tension creeping into our lives, too? I’m feeling it as a building intensity. Other people have been feeling it as a lack of focus, emotions up one moment, down the next, no motivation, motivating in too many directions…. Ack!

It’s like the unfinished edges of new ideas and structures are rubbing against the old paradigms still clinging stubbornly to life. Like fingernails on a blackboard, it’s uncomfortable, grating away at our awareness. Jarring us away from focusing on the dreams and intentions we’re called to create.

Ignoring it isn’t working. Thinking about it doesn’t do much either. Even meditation, prayer, and other spiritual and contemplative practices aren’t being totally effective. What’s needed is something that goes even deeper.

The truth is, the wisdom to turn this tension into creative energy lives in our bodies. It’s part of the wild knowing each of us was born with. Our bodies hold the “instruction manual” to creatively meet the energies of now. To regaining our equilibrium, focus and motivation; our sense of peace and grounding.

Well, it’s time we started reading the manual, don’t you think? The way to begin is through the still, calm center of our being. Of course, the way to the still center of our being is through not always being still (Don’t you just love paradox.)

What to expect…

• two new practices Gaia has taught me (I’ve been using them and they’re really effective!)
• sound (including lots of laughter),
• movement (that your own body will teach you),
• stillness (ahhh- deep breaths)
• deep listening (to our own wisdom, and each others)
• practicing together, (becoming a community)
• aligning with the energies of spring

What you gain…

• a new way to access your own deep, wild, wisdom whenever you choose to.
• equilibrium
• grounding
• focus
• momentum
• community

Come on Monday or Saturday morning…

9 Monday mornings, 90 minutes, beginning March 12 in Erdenheim. Space for 11.
March 12, 19, 26 – April 9, 16, 23 – May 7, 14, 21

9 Saturday mornings, 90 minutes, beginning March 17 in Erdenheim. Space for 11.
March 17, 24, 31 – April 7, 14, 21 – May 5, 12, 19

Gentle payment options:

• Register and pay in full by March 1, 2012 and the course cost is just $303! Yes! I’m registering now and paying in full.
• Register and pay deposit by March 1, 2012 – and the course cost is $333 – you still save $30. (Deposit of $111 due by March 1, 2012, balance of $222 can be a one-time payment by April 1, or two payments of $111 each due by April 1 and May 1, 2012.) Yes, make my $111 deposit now   
• Register after March 1, 2012 – and the course cost is $363 ($141 due at registration, balance of $222 can be a one-time payment by April 1, or two payments of $111 each due by April 1 and May 1, 2012.)
• I’d like to make a $222 balance payment now .

Cancellation and Refund Policy:

~In the very unlikely event that I must cancel the class series, you will receive a full refund of anything you have paid to me.

~If you must cancel, and do so at least 7 days before the first day of class, I offer a full refund of whatever you have paid for the class.

~If you cancel at the last minute, there is a 20% (of the full class price) processing fee. True emergencies are, of course, a special circumstance and I’m always willing to work with you to find a gentle, equitable solution.

~I truly want you to grow and be supported by our work together, and I try to be sure the class fits the person when you enroll. If, however, by the 6th class in the series the material isn’t working for you please notify me. In this case if a session of individual mentoring will help us to be more in tune then I’m happy to gift that to you so you can continue the series. If continuing to work together doesn’t seem to be the answer, then I’m happy to refund you the course fee minus the 20% processing fee.

Soft sky...

Connecting with the clear winter evening stillness here, I expect to find the inner quiet and focus I’m seeking. Outwardly, the evening offers that hope. Soft breeze…pine trees…geese settling on a field…crisp air…brilliant blue sky tinged with gold…a day easing gently towards darkness.

Under the surface, though, I feel my own sense of scattered energies reflected in the surging, chaotic life happening in the places I can’t see. Sap stirs in the trees, seeds gather nutrients, water moves through rock and soil opening new pathways, continents shift on the liquid matrix of Mama Gaia, and planets and stars above us form into geometries that influence our lives.

Part of being in a sacred partnership with the natural world, means experiencing  seasonal fluctuations and cycles in our bodies, minds, and emotions.  Sometimes that experience is calm.  It can also be like having an uncontrollable herd of cats chasing popping popcorn in a very tiny room. Yikes!

At times like this my “to do” lists may not happen. Part of me is frustrated. Part of me is in awe that I can feel – in my deepest self – this powerful pulse of life.

The key to shifting this experience from frustrating to creative is to play in this energy consciously. When you intentionally shoot the rapids of a spring surge you get to aim that powerful flow in directions that you choose to go.

Writing tool...

When I’m in synch with my own wisdom and guidance, an article can almost write itself. There’s a joyful flow and rhythm to the process. So, I did all the things that help me to stay in alignment. Connecting with the earth, finding my center, grounding, opening my heart. In each case I kept getting the same message. “Play.”

I didn’t get it. There’s an article to write (among dozens of other things to do). This was no time to play. Play comes after I work.

A friend called as I slogged back into the swamp of thoughts I was alligator wrestling. Our conversation was all about how important it is to take the time to play. Yep. Really important. Right after I get this article (and six other tasks) done I’m gonna seriously play. (Feel free to roll your eyes. I did!)

As time ambled on, the universe tossed funny blogs and irreverent Facebook posts at me. I smiled, chuckled, and went back to trying to write my heart-felt, but serious, article. On top of that, “Play”, “Playful”, “Joyful”, “Irreverent”, “Funny”, “Silly”, “Giddy”, and “Childlike” all showed up in mentoring calls and even in family discussions.

The light bulb finally went on today when even my acupuncturist was talking about playing. (Use enough needles and even I wake up!) “Play” wasn’t about me playing at some point. It was about me finding my center by playing in the moment. Right then. Sparking my creative flow and focus with silliness. Making my work better through playfulness.

Playing tool.

The best part? There are no tools, or toys, required. Just step outside and dance with the wind or chase leaves through your yard or the park. Quack at ducks or watch clouds  endless shapes and be awed… Play with the dog or chuckle with a stream. Five minutes of play and you’re more grounded. Try it!

But, if you like toys, go for it. My workspace now includes several. Crayons (the BIG box), bubbles (but not over the keyboard), and a hula hoop (I take that outside) to encourage me to keep my work real by playing.

(Excerpt from Chapter 23, “Widening the Circle” from The Sustainable Soul:  Eco-Spiritual Reflections and Practices, Skinner House Books, 2011.)

Six degrees of separation. You’ve heard that one, haven’t you? It’s the theory that each person on Earth is connected by six steps or fewer to every other person on the planet. The theory may or may not be literally true for every single person. Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure. But the idea that we are all interconnected more closely than any of us had imagined is absolutely true, although perhaps in ways that the theory doesn’t consider. In fact, our entire global biosphere (including humans) is interconnected in ways that we are just beginning to understand. J.E. Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis, first proposed more than thirty years ago, considers the entire Earth as one integrated self-regulating living organism.  It has gradually gained acceptance as an ecological paradigm for the twenty-first century and beyond. The fact is that there is no such thing as “away.” What we do to one part of the Earth, we do to the entire Earth. What we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves.

As is frequently the case, indigenous people are far ahead of industrialized cultures in realizing this truth. David Suzuki and Peter Knudtson describe the view of the Amazonian Desana people who see themselves as embedded within an unceasing energy flow. “When a Desana elder looks out upon the sacred circuit of sunlight that oozes slowly through the vast rain forest that engulfs him and his community, he sees inherent to this system a mandate to human beings to ‘borrow’ no more than they absolutely require from these precious, primal flows and to give back to the great system, through prayer and practice, gifts comparable to what they have been given.”  Imagine a world where this ethic is translated into our own culture and becomes the norm.

We are deeply interconnected. Drought in Africa churns up dust into the atmosphere. The dust travels across the Atlantic, and affects cloud formation over the Caribbean. A man orders a burger in a fast food restaurant. The burger, shipped from South America, came from a cow raised on land that was formerly part of the Amazon rainforest, now burned and cleared for grazing. An empty plastic bag floats across a parking lot next to a suburban big box store in the U.S., and ultimately ends up floating in the middle of the Pacific six months later. On the other hand…

A woman purchases a bag of fair trade coffee at her local co-op. Somewhere in Sumatra a father buys school books for his children with money earned from his small family coffee plantation. A teenager, after learning of the crisis in the rainforest, decides to skip the trip to the burger place and packs a lunch instead.  A couple serves locally grown food at their wedding reception, supporting the farmers of their foodshed in the process. A retired man spends a Saturday morning cleaning up a stream with a conservation group, ensuring that hundreds of pieces of plastic will never make it to the ocean.

We are also embedded within larger systems upon which we depend for our very lives, as the Desana elder so wisely recognized. Trees take in carbon dioxide, and give off oxygen. Water evaporates, and then falls as rain. Cycles of ocean currents keep northern Europe warmer than latitudes alone would allow. Soil bacteria break down dead plant matter, making nutrients available for new growth. Fungi break down environmental toxins.  Even the planet Jupiter plays a role. Its gravity helps deflect asteroids that might otherwise bombard our planet into a lifeless rock. Not only are we a part of larger systems, we ourselves are a system. Each of us exists in symbiotic relationship with millions of helpful bacteria that digest our food and in so doing make our very survival possible.

We really are connected, like it or not. No one is an island. Moving forward toward creating truly sustainable societies in the twenty-first century requires that we not only acknowledge, but embrace that fact.  The choices we make ripple out from us like a pond ripples after a stone is tossed into it, and have implications far beyond our immediate small circle of community.  Figuring out those implications, and changing the way we relate to the world based on what we learn:  this is the great challenge of our still-new century.

To explore connections in a deeper way, try the following:

Exercise:

Meditation: Degrees of Gratitude. Sit comfortably, and recall a meal you ate recently. Offer thanks and gratitude for the people, animals, plants, and Earth systems that interacted to bring that meal to you. For example, if I ate a cheese sandwich, I would offer thanks for the person who made the sandwich, the cashier who sold me the bread and cheese, the dairy clerk, the baker, the workers at the cheese factory, the person who drove the milk truck from the farm, the farmer, the cow, the hay and the pasture that fed the cow, the sun for making the grass grow in the pasture, the flour mill, the wheat field, the soil in which the wheat grew, and the rain that fell on the field. I might even offer thanks for the evolutionary process that brought into being cows and cheese making bacteria, or the wild ancestor of cultivated wheat.  Get the idea? This meditation can be as simple or as involved as you wish. It’s a sort of spiritual cousin to the Buddhist tradition of lovingkindness (or Metta) meditation.

Rebecca J. Hecking

Rebecca Hecking is the author of The Sustainable Soul:  Eco-Spiritual Reflections and Practices (Skinner House, 2011).  She blogs at rebeccahecking.com  and lives in northwest Pennsylvania with her husband, children and three cats.

(In person circles start in January. Distance circles will begin in February once I’ve found the best way to share them.)

They offer a safe and sacred space to listen to the wisdom of Gaia and the unseen world. Everyone is invited to share their insights and compassionately witness each other as our unique spiritual connection gets more solid.

I’m inspired to do this now because in 2008 I had a profound earth-awakening experience that deepened my understanding of how important a partnership with the earth is to knowing, in our deepest heart, that we are not alone. It taught me how crucial the solid ground of this partnership is to trusting our spiritual wisdom and bringing it more fully into our lives. And, a mountain asked me to share this with everyone I could. How can I not?

We meet on the third Sunday of each month (next one is on Jan. 15, 2012) 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. at The Art of Communicating, 349 York Road, Suite 200, Willow Grove, PA.

I’m asking for a donation of $5 – $10 for these circles and you can come to as many or as few as you’d like. Please do RSVP by emailing me or by calling 215-527-5457 if you are coming.

About Tracie Nichols …

I help compassionate changemakers get clear (about their gifts, work, themselves), get unstuck (frustration begone!) and get potent (YES! You are a powerful force for change.) by forming sacred partnerships with the Earth. I’m trained in Human  & Organizational Transformation and  guided by Gaia, our beloved planet.  I invite you to contact me about my Solid Ground Mentoring Program, as well as classes & retreats at tracie (at) alchemyfortheearth (dot) com, or 215-527-5457.

Lilacs

Have you ever noticed that the main focus of most year-in-review or intention setting practices seems to be on what we will do? Or, what we won’t do again?

It may be my bias, but there seems to be less invitation to consider who we will be, or how we will identify ourselves. If you think about it, the names which we call ourselves carry significant power.

I’m not really talking about our birth names, though they certainly have a resonance of their own. I’m talking about the names we give to ourselves. For example, the names we give our primary occupations are often how others begin to understand where we fit into their lives and communities; names like Teacher, Counselor, Parent, Partner, Engineer, Volunteer…

Our names also carry the energetic resonance of who we are being at that point in our lives. They are intimately linked to our intentions and actions; supporting, limiting, obscuring, enhancing them depending on how congruent the action and the name are. An example from my own life is naming myself an aromatherapist and nature intuitive when the true nature of my work lies in midwifing people into a spiritual partnership with the earth and their own wisdom. Was I an aromatherapist and a nature intuitive? Yes. But those were limited versions of my name and using them definitely created some incongruence.

All this started me thinking…(No big surprise there, right?) What if we put some attention and intention into the names we are carrying into this coming year, as well as the actions we will be taking?

How might we increase the potency of our intentions by clearly naming the states of being that support them, and embodying the resonance of those names?

So I’ve got a process for you that I think you’ll enjoy. It’s based on an exercise I shared in the Radiant Leadership class I taught last spring, helping everyone to discover their names as leaders. Looking at these women now, I can see how embodying their unique name has supported the life changes they wanted to make.

Read on…and I’d love to hear what your name(s) for 2012 are! Just leave a comment below…

Calling your authentic self forward…

(inspired by Naming Myself from Margaret J. Wheatley’s beautiful book Perseverance)

Crocus

First I invite you to do the Elemental Connecting practice by listening to my Elemental Connecting 2 audio. Being deeply aligned with the earth and quite present in your body will help keep you grounded, centered and in your heart wisdom.

Then I invite you to take a few minutes and respond to these questions from your heart. (You might consider using unlined paper, bigger than 8.5 x 11 if you have it, and a crayon, marker, paintbrush… Using something that literally feels different from a pen/pencil and lined paper can help you to stay in your heart’s wisdom and out of your head.)

We all have names…things we call ourselves when we are speaking to others, and to ourselves. Sometimes they are names we have been given – Claire, Jonathan, Isa, Raj – and sometimes they are names that identify what we do – mother, teacher, student, manager.

Some are names we adopt because of who we have been or what we have experienced – abuse survivor, domestic violence victim, diabetes sufferer.

Often they are names that reflect what others think of us — or shortcomings we imagine define us – failure, fat, stupid, ignorant, not ______ enough…

• Take a moment to write down all the names you have that you can think of…..
• What names limit or restrict you? Is it time to let any of them go?
• What names bring a sense of freedom…strength…power…joy? Is it time to use them more frequently?
• Are there any new names that describe you more authentically or that support your intentions/habits/desires for this coming year?
• Take a few deep breaths and write, draw, paint the name (s) that you choose for yourself in 2012….

You might consider offering yourself, and any beings who assisted you, a little love and gratitude to finish.

Auralite slab

of the Earth, our Mother
I am the seas that bathed
her passionate surface

I am the liquid stone blood
flowing in her body
cooling to bone

I am your foundation
and your freedom

I am the pulsing soul
of this planet made solid
The heartbeat, heartsong
made visible

Your eyes
your sweet human eyes
can only see a tiny fragment
of my spaciousness

I am life

Your life…
The life of the magnificent Gaia…
Life in all forms and vibrations

I am shards of Gaia soul
that you can hold in your hands
hold to your heart
cover with your breath

In your heart
with your heart
we sing the beauty
of this Earth
into being

Message from Auralite 10-22-11
Copyright © 2011 by Tracie Nichols

You can find wonderful Auralite slabs and shards here https://www.facebook.com/sueokieffe

A great tree in my path...

Definitely not a new idea, but it planted itself in the path of my annual ruminations with the enormous presence of a great tree and wouldn’t let me pass. It seems important for us to consider this now.

With the political, economic and natural events of the past few years we’re already a world in deep transformation in so many ways. Add to that a spiritual or cultural practice of thinking about new beginnings at this time of year. Then add the fact that 2012 comes to us already laden with mythical meanings and predictions of even more endings, beginnings and reality-defining transformations and falling apart starts to look all too easy. Reconstitution, on the other hand, seems a lot more challenging.

How, then, do we go on?

Is there a way to fall apart and reconstitute with grace and intention?

Of course, and you’ve probably done it at least once. It’s just that my intuition tells me that the times call for a reminder, and maybe a pep talk

Falling apart and reconstitution … destruction and rebirth … out with the old and in with the new … however we talk about it we’re still engaged in the endless natural rhythm of the life cycle. Since that’s our template, reconstitution will always follow falling apart.

So here’s the reminder… The trick is to consciously fall apart and reassemble. Sticking your head in the sand until collapse happens means it takes lots longer to reconstitute, and the results are far less predictable.

And here’s the pep talk … Consciously falling apart and reconstituting takes time, a bit of courage, and the willingness to see yourself and the beliefs you rest your life on with absolute honesty … And you’ve got those, I know you do.

Preparing to deeply meet the possibilities of the new goes beyond making resolutions or even intentions. It invites you to connect with the building resonance of the new. Then lovingly and consciously reconstitute yourself in harmony with those emerging possibilities. New possibilities, new perspectives and new opportunities for you. Who can’t use that!

Reflection...

This article rang really true when I recently re-discovered it. So I’m sharing it again, for all of us who may be going in a few too many directions….

After a really crazy-busy week, I was feeling off…not myself…a little brittle. So, after a few sleepless nights, I had the good sense to make a 911 call to a friend & colleague. She listened, and then she lovingly reminded me that I’ve been pushing my boundaries hard in many, many ways for several weeks now. She also pointed out that I’ve been in constant motion with my attention focused outward on lots of people and projects.

Hmmmm…..

Then my wise friend asked me when I’d last nourished myself by being in my “home” place of deep communion with the Earth – without an agenda. Ouch!  And so accurate… My whole body sighed thinking about spending time just being…

So I curled up, started breathing, and spent an hour just being with the earth.

As I sat, my heart softened into  a beautiful exchange of peace and unconditional, nurturing love.  I ended up feeling grateful, grounded, and very, very, blessed.

Good self-care is something I’m conscious of. It’s something I thought I had pretty well in place in my daily life. The thing I missed, though, is letting myself just BE in communion with the earth (which for me is the deepest, safest, most welcoming home). No goal, no agenda, no prayer, no requests, no nothing. Just Being my essential self, appreciated and appreciating – loved and loving.

So if you find yourself feeling depleted or disconnected this holiday season, maybe it’s time for a little Being of your own.  And if your first thought is “I just don’t have the time.” then I’d say it’s definitely time to create the space for Being

Holding you in Peace,
Tracie

Tracie Nichols, M.A. helps compassionate changemakers get clear, get unstuck, and get potent in their life and work.