James Van Praagh’s Tips for Intuitive Development

Posted on by Tammy

To celebrate his new online school, the James Van Praagh School of Mystical Arts, bestselling author and psychic medium James Van Praagh offered a free webinar called “Playing the Psychic Game With James,” where he shared some tips and techniques to help exercise the psychic muscle and enhance one’s intuition.

He started the session with a brief meditation to bring everyone into the present moment and “get out of the head space and into the heart.” Any time someone is doing psychic work or wants to access his or her intuitive voice, the first step is to work from the heart and not the head, he said.

“If you are in your head, you will judge things and reason things, but when in the heart space you are coming from truth,” Van Praagh told the live audience watching the Google Hangout session, which included viewers form the U.S., Australia, Africa, Spain, Brazil, Russia, China and more.

Prior to the call, he chose three cards (guided by Spirit) from his newly designed deck called “The Soul’s Journey Lesson Cards: a 44-Deck and Guidebook,” specifically for the session. These were: Worry, Trust and Surrender.

“Worry is a wasted emotion. It does nothing except give you the illusion of control,” Van Praagh told the audience. “We have to realize if we put worry on something, and we fear something, it will stop the energy from flowing, and we won’t be able to hear our intuition.”

For Trust, we must accept that our inner voice will always guide us correctly, he continued. Our intuition is our soul’s language, and when we start to use it, we will see how guided we are in the life decisions and choices we must make. And Surrender is about releasing our need for control and having faith.

“You are a soul having this human experience, and as a soul you can do anything,” Van Praagh said, explaining the three cards go together — when we have a situation we often Worry, but we need to Trust and Surrender.

Psychic Exercises
During the Google Hangout, Van Praagh offered a number of opportunities for viewers to hone their intuitive muscles, including holding up a white envelope with a picture inside and asking the audience to intuit who was in the picture, what they looked like, etc., and holding a box and asking them to intuit what object was inside. But first he taught everyone how to “run energy,” to clear the chakras and drop into the heart space.

“It’s like a filtration system where we bring down cosmic light through the top of the head and bring up the earth energy through the feet. Then blend them together and send them out in front of you like a fountain. There is a circulation that happens and you filter out negativity and other people’s energies,” he said.

He offered the following suggestions to practice build one’s intuitive muscle, and encouraged the audience to try it on everything:

— When the phone rings, before looking at the caller ID, try to intuit who is calling.

— If you are going to a new restaurant, try to intuit what it will look like? What will the hostess stand look like? Will the hostess be male or female? What will the people you are going with be wearing, and what type of specials will there be?

— If you are going to a business meeting with people you have never met, intuit how many people will be there, where you will be sitting in the meeting — if it’s a conference room, where will you sit at the table? Who will sit next to you? What do they look like? What color clothes will they wear, and what will their personality be like?

— “I do this with the mail,” said Van Praagh. “If I have an invoice or bill, I try to intuit the amount.”

— Go to a shopping center and start tuning into the energy of the people there to see what you pick up about people.

In his “JVP Psychic and Intuitive Certification Level 1 Course” as part of his new online school, one of the first exercises the course offers is for students to start looking at the world around them as if they have a magnifying glass, and notice what they are feeling, he said. He also recommends sitting in the same space every day and run our energy before sitting in silence and going within our heart.

“The more you start to live your life with a sense of your intuition first, you begin to program yourself to live your life that way, and your intuition will come gangbusters right to the surface,” Van Praagh noted.

For more information on James Van Praagh’s courses, visit www.jvpschoolofmysticalarts.com.

100% Organic Meditation Cushions by Om Sweet Om

Posted on by Tammy

Interior designers and creators of organic meditation cushions, Jennifer Ream and Christine Landall of Om Sweet Om, introduced a 15-inch meditation cushion as an alternative to the 26-inch also available.

The new 15” meditation cushions are smaller and firmer to accommodate those with knee and back issues, but also perfect for traveling to and from meditation class. They are made with the same 100% organic cotton inner and outer designer fabrics and natural kapok filling as the original, larger model.

“The decision to use organic cotton is the foundation of our brand,” the founders, who are also sisters, said in a released statement. “The elements in your Sacred Space should reflect all of the positive energy that you want to receive during meditation / prayer time, including physical materials and how they were derived from the earth.”

The new 15” meditation cushions have the same great standard features, such as a carrying handle and removable zipper closures on both inner and outer layers. However, this latest addition also comes with a free organic cotton travel bag.

Retail price for the 15” meditation cushions is $159.00, and they are available at www.ososisters.com.

Good Night Yoga: A Pose by Pose Bedtime Story by Mariam Gates

Posted on by Tammy

Aimed at early to middle childhood, this new children’s book is more than a bedtime story — it’s also a series of simple yoga poses for children to move through before bed.

The author, Mariam Gates, has more than 20 years experience as a teacher, and channels her dedication for teaching yoga and her skills as an educator to guide children in accessing their inner world through Kid Power Yoga, which she founded and now offers teacher training programs worldwide.

This book offers both parents and children a practice to end their day in a calm and mindful way.

Devocean Natural Lipstick by Pacifica

Posted on by Tammy

The newest edition to Pacifica’s beauty line-up is the Devocean Natural Lipstick. Full color, 100 percent vegan, and packed with anti-aging ingredients, it is available in 5 colors. The lipstick is creamy, hydrating and highly pigmented, and it’s not tested on animals.

Made with coconut oil, shea butter, jojoba esters and vitamin E, it’s free of animal ingredients, including carmine, beeswax and lanolin, and formulated without FD&C colors, mineral oil, parabens, phthalates, petroleum, propylene glycol, SLS, gluten and peanut oil. Each lipstick is sold for $14.

Other lip products available from the line include lip butter, lip gloss and lip tint. For more information, visit www.pacificabeauty.com.

Dr. Emmett Miller: Mind Body Healing

Posted on by Tammy

By Jennifer McCartney

Each of us was born with the inherent ability to heal. As you read and participate in the exercises in this article, you will discover how this is scientifically true, and how all true healing takes place by accessing this deeper power.

Dr. Emmitt Miller, author and pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine and co-creator of joined Tammy Mastroberte, founder of Elevated Existence, for the “Living an Elevated Existence Mind, Body & Soul Summit Season 2,” to talk about healing mind, body and spirit.

“By far the most important factor in all human illness from the common cold to stage four cancer is the mind,” Miller said during the call, giving the example of someone with a genetic predisposition to develop diabetes. Whether or not they develop it depends on three factors: genetics, behavior and our amount of stress and anxiety he or she holds within. “Increasing [stress] will increase our likelihood of developing this illness.”

The idea that we can heal ourselves is often a difficult concept for people to grasp, Miller explained. “Our culture and society, for the most part, is not designed to give us power over our mind and over our bodies,” he said. There are a lot of societal rules that keep us in line—from what to wear to how to act. “We grow up with a certain inability to know ourselves,” he said. “Most of us our stunted in our ability to use our life force for healing.”

The stresses we have from modern life, the unresolved anxieties, our body issues, our negative emotions, etc. stand between us and our ultimate health and wellness. “What we need is some way to clear the slate, to get rid of those distractions,” said Miller. “There are certain basic tools we can use to increase the likelihood of healing. The first tool has to do with coming into the present moment.”

This can be done through mindfulness, meditation, deep relaxation and prayer, he said. “It has to do with emptying your mind of unnecessary thoughts, and emptying your body of unnecessary tension. Secondly let go of the distractions in your mind…when we have that sense of peace we’re experiencing one half of a very important cycle within us. It’s called the stress relaxation cycle.”

In order to help us relax into the present moment, Miller offered a sample meditation we can use:

“Choose a point in the distance to look at and focus on that point. This is your way of telling your brain and your body that you’ll be in charge for a while. There’s nothing else you need to do at this time and no problem you need to solve at this time. Give yourself permission to relax. Take a deep breath in and out and think of the word ‘relax.’

“As you slowly lose focus, you’re shifting to an internal focus. Your eyes will begin to signal that they want to close—let them close when they’re ready. Let your eyes roll upward until you’re looking at the back of your forehead. Imagine that you can see the word ‘relax’ written there. Feel how heavy your eyelids are. Feel your face muscles relax and let that relaxation flow down into your shoulders, arms, to the tips of the fingers. Notice how it feels. Take a deep breath in. When you let that breath out feel yourself letting go completely. Feel each breathe empty your of stress and tension.

“Imagine that you’re floating on a magic carpet and are heading to a pleasant place. Notice the unnecessary thoughts and let them go. Let go of questions, doubts or criticisms. Picture your special place and imagine you’re there. And with each breath out say to yourself, ‘I accept myself exactly as I am.’ On your next breath out, say ‘I have the power to relax myself and heal my body.’ And on your final breath, ‘I give myself permission to have a relaxed beautiful enjoyable loving day.’ As you come back from your journey you bring back relaxation with you. You should now have a hint of your potential to heal yourself.”

Creating Healing Visualizations
Whatever ailment we are suffering from or trying to heal, the key is to visualize a specific healing exercise that would bring relief. “You can train yourself to think, you can train yourself to believe,” said Miller.

For someone suffering from hypertension, he would ask the person to create personal imagery designed to relax the blood vessels in the heart. Another person might imagine antibodies going after cancer cells, or a cool blue liquid flowing through the body to ease arthritis pain.

“Asthma is the tension of the bronchial tubes and the lungs, headache is tension in the muscles in your neck and scalp. The moment you come into the presence you’re restoring the balance,” he said. “Once we begin to relax we can begin to reset.”

However, it isn’t an instant process, he noted. “After a lifetime of living under stress and having no sense of who you really are, and having no sense of the power that’s within you,” results will take time, he shared.

“There are two parts to every illness. In order to heal, we need to ask ourselves: What is the contribution of the outside world, and what is the contribution of our own body,” he said.

The 2015 Illuminate Film Festival Hits Sedona May 27

Posted on by Tammy

The second annual Illuminate Film Festival is coming to Sedona, Ariz. May 27th — May 31^st, and bringing 22 inspirational, thought-provoking films to the screen.

“The films we selected this year act as catalysts for more expanded, heart-centered experiences,” said Illuminate’s executive director, Danette Wolpert.

This year’s Illuminate Film Festival also will feature more than 50 expert facilitators, practitioners, healers, performers, artists, musicians, speakers and new thought leaders; a series of “View and Do” events that encourage audiences to more deeply integrate a movie’s message into their lives; The Conscious Film Convergence workshops and panels focusing on developing and facilitating distribution of this exciting and growing niche in independent cinema; and the Conscious Film Summit, a discussion to imagine new business models and brainstorm new strategies for collaboration to increase the quality, quantity and availability of conscious cinema worldwide.

2015 Illuminate highlights include:

SOLD, an award-winning drama executive produced by acclaimed actress/producer Emma Thompson, it’s based on real-life events and tells the story of a young Nepali girl’s struggle for survival after being sold into prostitution in Kolkata, and how her faith, Bhakti practice and the memories of her mother give her the courage to endure. American photographer (Gillian Anderson) and humanitarian aid worker (David Arquette) attempt to rescue her and other young women against all odds.

Paulo Coehlo’s Best Story, a dramatic biopic depicting the rise of renowned Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, whose 25-year old spiritual classic The Alchemist still remains on the New York Times bestseller list.

The long-awaited Southwest premiere of the breathtaking animated feature Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. Written and directed by Roger Allers (The Lion King), the film stars Liam Neeson, Salma Hayek, Frank Langella, Alfred Molina, Quvenzhané Wallis and John Rhys-Davies.

Dying to Know, narrated by Robert Redford, about two conventional Harvard professors – Timothy Leary and Richard Alpert (aka Ram Dass) – who began probing the edges of consciousness in the 1960s, one ending up in jail and the other becoming a notable spiritual teacher.

iGod, a probing exploration of a higher power featuring spiritual trailblazers Neale Donald Walsh, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, Alan Cohen, Gregg Braden and Barbara Marx Hubbard. A live Skype workshop with Williamson, Hubbard and Cohen follows the film.

The world premiere of Plant Pure Nation, from the writer/director and producer of Forks Over Knives. Featuring nutritional scientist T. Colin Campbell (author of the New York Times bestseller The China Study), the film tells the story of one of the most important health breakthroughs of all time.

The world premiere of four films including On Meditation 2, a fascinating portrait series offering a rare glimpse into how meditation has transformed the personal and professional lives of notable figures such as hip hop mogul Russell Simmons, author Sharon Salzberg, and spiritual author, teacher and expert Gabrielle Bernstein.

A special Sneak Peek of clips from The Connected Universe, featuring the “new Einstein” Nassim Haramein. This groundbreaking marriage of science and spirituality directed by Malcom Carter is now the highest grossing documentary in Indiegogo history.

For more information, and to purchase tickets, visit www.illuminatefilmfestival.com.