Sonic Soul Retrieval

Sonic Soul Retrieval is not something I created overnight, it’s something that grew with me.

It’s the culmination of all my years of wandering, learning, breaking open, rebuilding, studying, teaching, and listening - deeply listening - to life, to people, to energy, to sound, to myself. This work isn’t about escaping pain or pretending everything is love and light. It’s about turning toward what hurts with reverence.

Because the truth is - the wisdom is in the wound.

As you know, I don’t separate darkness from light; I don’t believe in bypassing the hard parts. I do believe in walking with and witnessing them to honor them.

Through Sonic Soul Retrieval, we enter the deeper layers of who you are; the wild, untamed, instinctual parts of you that don’t fit neatly into the roles you’ve been taught to play. This is about returning to your Soul Self… not just performing as your Avatar Self.

A lot of the people I work with are holding a lot - pressure, responsibility, family, work, health, and their creative spirit, all the while navigating the world we live in. It’s hard to juggle all those things when every one of them requires so much focus and attention; a deep exhaustion can start to settle deep in the bones and begin to cloud the mind, and thus the vision and the path forward.

This is where I can help.

These sacred spaces that we co-create become a space to reset your nervous system, recalibrate your energy, and expand your capacity to hold both yourself, your life, and everything else in it.

I weave together everything I’ve studied and mastered - Pranic Healing, Biofield Tuning, Reiki, meditation, trauma-informed movement and breathwork, sound healing - all into something that feels less like a modality and more like a living, breathing experience that shifts as you evolve.

At its core, Sonic Soul Retrieval is rooted in something very simple and very ancient: the intelligence of life itself. Light, sound, breath, the elements, the Four Directions, the celestial weather, and the unseen currents that move through us, and thereby influence the way we move through life. We work with these, not as concepts, but as living forces, to clear what feels stuck, to dissolve what no longer belongs, and bring you back into alignment with your own vitality. Because underneath it all- you already know who you are.

There’s a line I come back to often: There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in. I don’t believe in fixing you or ‘healing’ you - there is nothing wrong with you. I believe in meeting you, sitting with you, and guiding you.

I blend Eastern medicine, sound healing, subtle energy, somatics and nervous system regulation practices in order for you to feel embodied and wild, soft and grounded, safe and expanded. These sessions are deeply sensory, connecting all parts and pieces of you. We will breathe together creating a sacred space where magic can enter. We will visualize together, perhaps even walking through the footsteps of lives once lived; we may consult the Oracle using Tarot or crystals or dream interpretation. We’ll work through activating meridians and nadi’s and feel how they influence your spine, organs or full body systems.

We’ll tone together so you can hear your own voice, using your own vibration to calm the nervous system. You’ll experience the effect of different sound waves moving through your body - Koshi chimes tuned to elements, crystal bowls tuned to Chakras, tuning forks humming Solfeggio frequencies, Tibetan bowls, gongs, and pangi chimes bringing wood and an ocean drum offering water … these layers of sound don’t just relax you, they speak to parts of you that words can’t reach, through waveforms that can be experienced.

I’ve spent years bridging the worlds of science and energy - working in research spaces while also walking the path of intuitive and shamanic practice. The science, spirit and shamanic world form a rather beautiful overlap - with us in the center.

At the heart of all of it is a deep devotion to the Divine Feminine and her rage, her wildness and her wisdom. Through this deep connection to my own magic and my devoted connection to yours, we bring your parts and pieces home, inviting shadow into light- allowing for what I call a bothness (because we are never just one thing.)

One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious. ~ Dr. Carl Jung

Sonic Soul Retrieval exists at the intersection of nervous system science, vibrational medicine, sacred ritual, embodiment, and ancient wisdom traditions. These sessions are a way of welcoming back your most exiled parts, and through loving and integrating them, you become more whole, more aligned, grounded, centered you, in the fact, you become the most you-iest you.

To book a session please click here.

Xoxo

Breathwork + Guided Meditation

There’s something about the breath that feels almost too simple… and yet, it’s everything.

It’s the first thing we do when we arrive here, and the last thing we do when we leave. And somewhere in between, we forget it’s even there, regulating us, acting as a guide to bring us back home to ourselves.

Breath, to me, hasn’t always felt like magic.

I’m probably not supposed to say that as a Trauma-Informed Breathwork Facilitator, but I prefer honesty and truth over purple-washed facts, gift-wrapped toxic positivity, and stale affirmations.

I breathed shallowly as a child due to many rounds of bronchitis in which breathing deep caused physical pain. As a child I had to walk on eggshells in my family home and at Catholic school for being ✨too much ✨ and the first thing children do when they’re trying to keep themselves small or be invisible to avoid getting in trouble is to hold their breath. As I got older I smoked cigarettes for many years; essentially while I was growing up I had no conscious connection to my breath.

There were, however, many bright spots over the years of conscious breathing

• When I was in high school I swam competitively and my strokes were connected to my breathing

• After graduating college I decided to start running and learned more about my breath

• I practiced Tai Chi in college and its a moving meditation connected to shifting energy with breath

• Tattoos are painful and the only way to move through the pain is to control the breath

• Massages are my favorite form of prevention and deep tissue strong pressure moves best when breathing deeply

• I have always loved to hike, and during hikes, I am always connected to breath

• I have been a yogi since I was 20 and have always connected breath to movement

Fast forward to my early sound healing and energy session days, I was always connected to my breath as that is the only way to receive information from your client and then ground it out of your body - by breathing deeply and exhaling out your tailbone or soles of the feet - I call this breathing like a dragon because of the ferocity of the breath. When you hold space for people moving through deeply difficult emotions one of the things that is most helpful is to regulate your own breathing. We literally are tuning forks and respond to our environment - if someone is moving through extreme discoherence, the best thing you can do is offer powerful coherence by breathing and centering yourself.

One fateful night I was invited to collaborate on a Breathwork + Meditation + Sound Healing Session. I was invited to participate in the whole event and close the ceremony with a Crystal Bowl Journey. So I blindly attended my first ever Breathwork Session…

I am a deeply curious person by nature and love learning new things, but to be honest, when I entered this evening, my ego came too, as I had done so much energy and sound work for literally over a decade I thought ‘what could this possibly teach me,’ and boy I was in for a ride 🎡😂

The practitioner lead us through Dirga Pranayama (3 part breath) and then as the music increased in speed, so did our breath - and before I knew it my arms and legs had tetany and were curling in toward my torso. I was seeing a psychedelic kaleidoscope of color that started in my third eye and then burst forth surrounding my entire body and biofield, and then the colors filled up the environment around me, then the whole shala, and beyond.

I was tripping balls.

People started to cry which gave me permission to cry. I howled while some growled and then we all began to laugh - big belly, juicy laughs. Laughs like you haven’t laughed since childhood when you were carefree and didn’t understand war or taxes.

It was fucking delicious.

With tears pouring down all of our faces, an hour went by without us even realizing or understanding ✨time ✨ because we were so deep in our experience the only thing that existed was our experience.

That’s when I decided to study and become a Breathwork Facilitator

Breathwork deeply humbled me. It was a reminder that we can always find new depths to ourselves, learn new things, and access long-forgotten parts of ourselves.

The simplicity of the breath spoke to me as I am a person who appreciates efficiency; I carry my tuning forks around the world and they fit in my backpack.

The breath barely takes up any space at all, and yet it gives us permission to take up all the space we need.

When I look back I see that this isn’t necessarily the ~ modality I chose ~ it’s one that sat quietly and patiently in the background, staring at me and waiting for me to return the glance. It wove itself into my being before I knew it was happening - through swimming, hiking, yoga, meditation, sound healing sessions, and sitting with people in their most raw, cracked open, vulnerable moments.

For a long time, I had the understanding that the breath was a doorway to connect the mind / body, the physical / spiritual. My conscious breath is now an anchor that connects me to my inner strength and the present moment, it’s a bridge between my body and mind, and it’s a simple power move to bring chaos into clarity.

Breathwork + Guided Meditation

I offer Breathwork + Guided Meditation as they are so closely related (second cousins at the most); they support the cumulative understanding of each other. We can use the breath to help us deepen our meditation and through deepening our meditation we become more acquainted with the power of our breath.

Your breath provides a portal to your nervous system, your emotions and your truth. It helps you uncover the exact emotions, triggers, and feelings that you can use as trailheads to help you meditate.

We use breath as an entry point and through listening and allowing, we create space for whatever wants to shift. There is no ‘right way or wrong way’ - there is only the willingness to meet yourself. Breathwork + Guided Meditation can feel soft and subtle, or it can feel like the deepest unclenching you’ve ever experienced. It’s just about finding what is there, witnessing it, and constantly coming back to yourself and the present moment - which where all the magic happens.

I completed a formal Trauma-Aware Breathwork Certification in 2025, which gave an official stamp on an official paper for what I had already been living and practicing for years - I have always found real learning comes from being surrounded by it and living it.

This is your ✨official invitation ✨

Your breath is always there, waiting to meet you exactly where you are. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, disconnected, curious, cracked open, or somewhere in between, this is your invitation to slow down, to feel and remember.

I can’t wait to guide you back to your breath.

Let’s breathe together. Book a session here.

xoxo

Intuitive Tarot Readings

I have consulted the Tarot since I was a child. My dad taught me Tarot, I-Ching, Astrology and Numerology when I was very young - I think this was his way of apologizing for putting me in a Catholic school for 9 years 😂

I have loved the Tarot and have used it all my life. I have found that when things in life feel unknown or uncertain, Tarot acts as a mirror - a tool to help you see what is moving beneath the surface. Your intuition whispers, your nervous system reacts and the Tarot helps provide clarity.

You already have the answers within you but sometimes we go through destabilizing events, breakups, deaths, illnesses, and other things that cloud our inner voice and sometimes break trust in ourselves. Tarot offers perspective - it helps you reconnect to your intuition and make decisions based on a space of alignment rather than fear.

In my Intuitive Tarot sessions, we tune into your energy, your questions, and the deeper layers of what’s actually going on - gently pulling the threads of connection, and bringing things from darkness into the light.

My readings are grounding, honest, and intuitive. I’m not here to tell you what to do - I’m here to help you hear yourself more clearly. Whether you’re navigating love, purpose, transitions, or something you can’t quite name yet, we’ll create a space where insight can land and your path can unfold naturally. Through intuitive interpretation and grounded guidance - and how you interpret what you see and feel - these sessions can illuminate patterns and possibilities so you can navigate your path and purpose with greater clarity and trust.

My readings are supportive and insightful - whatever it is that you are dealing with, moving through, and/or releasing; I can help. Consulting the Tarot can be helpful if you’re curious, seeking direction or just craving a deeper more intimate connection with your inner landscape. Together we create a sacred space for reflection and guidance.

You’ll leave feeling more anchored, more aware, and more connected to your own inner compass - because at the end of the day, you already know. Tarot just helps you remember that you’ve had the magic all along 🪄

I can’t wait to support you, let me know how I can help! Contact me here.

Xoxo

Biofield Tuning

We are slowed down sound and light waves, a walking bundle of frequencies tuned into the cosmos. We are souls dressed up in sacred biochemical garments and our bodies are the instruments through which our souls play their music.

Biofield Tuning

I started my journey with Biofield Tuning in 2014 after meeting the creator, Eileen Day McKusick, at a conference at the California Institute for Human Science. We were both presenting and were equally enthralled by each other’s presentation. We became fast friends and due to my vast experience in the medical/health and research field + my many years teaching alternative therapies + teaching energy healing classes already, Eileen personally asked me to become one of the first Biofield Tuning Teachers, and soon after I was promoted to the International Lead Teacher, Research Assistant and Nonprofit Outreach until 2021.

Biofield Tuning is a sound healing modality that helps to relieve mental, emotional and physical stress, it is a targeted therapeutic system that uses tuning forks to help restore balance via the nervous system.

Physical matter is music solidified ~ Pythagoras

We are electrical beings: the energy that powers our brain, heart, muscles, fascia, and bone is electricity. Anything that is electrical produces a magnetic field perpendicular to it, which is measurable and has been studied in detail by the HeartMath Institute; they have measured the field of the brain and heart up to several feet away from the body.

What this means is that anything that is alive (electrical) produces a magnetic field (or bio-field) around itself. Both are measurable and scientifically proven.

Tuning forks produce coherent waveforms which are able to locate dissonance in the bio-field around the body. The coherent waveform from the tuning fork will find dissonance in the field and then recalibrate that dissonance back into harmony.

Dr. Bruce Lipton and I in India - post BT session

What does this mean?

By slowly working through the field using physics (resonance to find and entrainment to harmonize) the body will come back to equilibrium and homeostasis and thus, health. An easy way to understand this is - if you have a guitar that is in tune and mine is out of tune, if you keep playing an ‘A’ I will listen to your ‘A’ (resonance) and eventually I can tune my guitar to match your ‘A’ (entrainment).

This physics-based medicine allows the body's nervous system to move away from the sympathetic fight or flight response and relax into a parasympathetic rest and digest response; this is where healing can occur most efficiently. What we have found through thousands and thousands of clients is that the dissonance the tuning forks can find in the field can be directly linked to memories and emotions.

Simply put, Biofield Tuning is a way to use sound medicinally.

In our view, the biofield is the blueprint that the body follows, this contradicts what we were taught when we were younger, but withhold disbelief for an moment - this is entirely possible since to this day science has been unable to locate where memories are stored in the brain. So what if?

Time and time again, we have found that circumstances in life cause an emotional response and these are recorded in the biofield - you can think of them as a disturbance in the force, these areas have mass and a different density from the air, and because of this the practitioner and the client can hear the change in tone, pitch, timber and sometimes even volume. This takes the subjectivity out of the session as you are an active participant.

I like to think of this process as you coming home to yourself: I wrote a blog called Returning your Sparkle, Your Childlike Essence that you can refer to for a greater description of this process.

It’s a pretty simple concept when you think about it.

Remember third grade science class when we were told everything in the universe vibrates? We do, tables do, the air around us does… By treating the body (a vibrating particle) for an illness, disease or other issue (a vibrational imbalance) with coherent vibration (harmony), the body is able to recalibrate itself.

What’s the coolest thing about this? A state change is noticeable to the client regardless if they are in-person or if the session is done over a distance.

I trained under the creator of Biofield Tuning herself, Eileen Day McKusick, who was not only my mentor but my very best friend. Under her guidance I became an Advanced Certified Practitioner and then she personally asked me to become one of her first Biofield Tuning Teachers due to my extensive background in energy healing, vast knowledge of the health/medical field, prior years of teaching alternative therapies to medical professionals, and teaching energy healing classes across the US.

Eileen and I have traveled all over the world teaching together and speaking at conferences including Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine (AIHM) several years in a row, The Science of Consciousness Conference in San Diego in 2017, The Science and Nonduality Conference (SANDS) in San Jose in 2019, the Sound Healing Conference in Malvern, England in 2019 and the Advanced Medicine Conference in South Dakota in 2021.

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything. ~ Plato

Because of my deep and insatiable love for travelling the world and visiting sacred spaces, I was able to expand Biofield Tuning globally and was promoted to the International Class Coordinator and Lead International Teacher. I was the Lead Team for Tuners without Borders, which was Biofield Tuning’s non-profit side to help those less fortunate. I have been on several missions to Jamaica and during Covid I began my virtual outreach to the Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation to support them with Biofield Tuning during Covid-time. I have a recorded session available on my video page.

Eileen and I in Jamaica

It was my greatest pleasure teaching alongside Eileen for many years and teaching Biofield Tuning around the world to hundreds of students. It was an honor expanding and growing Biofield Tuning to all corners of the world, and touching the lives of so many different people in so many different places.

In 2021 I started to focus on my Masterclass on Illumination: The Wildish Wolfish Way. I have tuned hundreds of people trying to get unstuck, find their path, heal and return to themselves. I have hosted events and performed remote sessions all over the world - literally - and now serve the San Francisco / Bay Area where I continue to tune and host large sound healing events.

Subscribe to my newsletter to see what’s next!

I have known and been good friends with Jess since meeting her in 2014 at the Subtle Energy Conference in San Diego, and I have had the good fortune to travel, work and teach alongside her all around the world. Jess has a very comprehensive understanding of the biofield and of Biofield Tuning, and provides brilliant and insightful feedback as a practitioner. She has a vast background in performing and teaching about a variety of alternative therapies and healing modalities. I have given and received many tune ups with and from her and I would highly recommend Jess as a practitioner. ~ Eileen Day McKusick

I would love to tune you and bring you back into balance with yourself and your environment! Please let me know how I can support you on your healing journey <3

Contact me by clicking here

Xoxo

From Reiki to Pranic Healing

From Reiki to Pranic Healing

My journey into energy medicine began with Reiki training in Michigan, where I first felt the profound connection between the unseen energy fields that surround and permeate us. Guided by a naturopath who revealed the importance of energy in holistic health, I embarked on a path that deepened my understanding of the subtle forces shaping our physical and emotional well-being. This calling led me to study Pranic Healing under Dr. Mary Clark in Encinitas, California, where I became a certified Pranic Healer in 2014.

Pranic Healing expanded my ability to perceive, cleanse, and energize the biofields of others, working with prana—the life force that sustains and rejuvenates us. My time teaching Pranic Healing in San Diego was a profound experience,

enabling me to share this empowering modality with countless individuals seeking balance, clarity, and healing.

Pranic Healing

Pranic Healing is a non-touch energy modality that harnesses prana, or vital life energy, to cleanse and energize the body’s energy systems. By addressing energetic imbalances in the aura and chakras, this practice allows the body’s innate ability to heal to flourish. Pranic Healing works on the principles of removing diseased energy and replenishing with fresh prana, making it a powerful complementary approach to physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.

My Expertise and Devotion to Your Well-Being

As a certified Pranic Healer and teacher, I am deeply committed to helping clients realign with their natural vitality and inner light. Each session is a co-creative process, honoring your individual needs and unique energetic blueprint. My approach is intuitive

and rooted in integrity, always holding a safe and sacred container for transformation.

Whether you’re navigating physical health challenges, emotional blocks, or seeking greater harmony in your life, I am here to guide you through the powerful tools of Pranic Healing. Together, we’ll create space for your energy systems to flow freely, unlocking profound states of balance, resilience, and self-awareness.

The Power of Energy Medicine

Reiki + Pranic Healing offers so much more than relief from pain or stress—it is a pathway to self-empowerment and wholeness. This practice connects us to the vast intelligence of the universe while grounding us deeply in our own truth. Through the cleansing and energizing techniques I’ve cultivated, I help clients discover their limitless potential for self-healing.

Every session with me is an invitation to release what no longer serves you, replenish your energy reserves, and rediscover the clarity and vitality that are your birthright.

Let’s explore the power of Energy Medicine together—where energy becomes the bridge between where you are now and where you’re meant to be.

For sessions or consultations please click here

Xoxo

An Honest Update Winter 2025

Hi dear friends,

It’s been awhile since my last newsletter.

The truth is that the past few months have been unexpectedly difficult for me… and to be honest … for most of the people i have spoken too about about the start of 2026. Regardless of how they would describe themselves as being ‘tuned-in,’ sensitive, or an empath, or not spiritual at all - random sicknesses, depression, surprise allergies, unexpected hospital visits, even deaths have been plaguing so many that i know (and me too!)

This heaviness, this density, that we have been trudging through… we have noticed the effects of this feeling deep in our bones and hearts and minds; it feels dark and sticky. It’s in our thoughts before bed, sometimes leaking into our dreams; we have all felt the prickle on the back of our neck of our fears and insecurities in the background creeping to the foreground.

💕Ahhh life. What a roller coaster. A river. A spiral.

Life can move us through seasons that ask more of us than we expected; like the strong rapids of a large river, life can speed up suddenly, it can pull us under, it challenges us. It makes us suffer to grow and evolve so that we are reminded to turn inwards to find answers to our questions, our own inner strength and resilience; and guidance through patience, humility, and a deeper kind of listening. Life does this again and again and again. Remember, the person who got in the river is never the same as the person who gets out.

What we can trust and know is that life is a spiral, it goes around and around and around and sometimes similar things happen to us that have happened before - but now we have the ✨currency and the energy✨ of Wisdom Through Experience, which we can work with.

Suffering is necessary because it is the fertile soil that compassion is able to sprout from (no mud, no lotus). The kindest people i know are the ones who have suffered and grown through what they’ve gone through, they’ve catalyzed their pain into goodness for others. They’ve become the alchemist.

I try to alchemize whatever is ✨up and alive✨ in my life as my meditation object, my focus, my drishti. Lately my meditations have been about being okay with not being okay, allowing a calmness with the confusion, not knowing the next step, feeling a bit lost and perhaps not having control. In communion with my shallow breaths and fast heart rate i have been able to listen deeper to what my body is asking for: REST.

Because of my highly sensitive and intuitive nature i sometimes feel like a canary in a coal mine (haha, but for real☺️) - it seems whatever the mood of the collective or temperature of the environment that we’re in - thats what is LOUD in my heart, mind and soul.

So, I have been letting go of control - daily and literally outloud as a practice (ex: something that i wanted to work out doesn’t and i say out loud “and that’s okay.” or “if not this than something better.”) I have been allowing uncertainty and doubt to wash all over me and then sitting with the fear that it brings up viscerally in my body and knowing that how I’m feeling is okay - it’s just the season I’m in. Its the season we’re all in.

It’s totally normal and beautifully human to be confused right now.

🪷 During the difficult winter moments, I found myself returning again and again to a simple prayer I’ve carried for years and I wanted to share it:

May I be supported.

May I be protected.

May I be healed.

May I be guided.

Over time I have realized that this prayer isn’t just something I ask for in my own life, its also my forever intention; to create spaces of support, protection, healing, and guidance through my magical offerings and sacred presence.

Together, with love and understanding, slowly, and through softening, through gathering, through sharing stories, allowing yourself to be vulnerable, and surrendering into the current weather of life; all of this presents the opportunity for the universe to gift you wings.

May you be supported

May you be protected

May you be healed

May you be guided

And just like that - the seasons shift - and winter ends, as it does ever year.

Xoxo

Jess

A Love Letter to Me (and you)

Your lowest point is the doorway to your highest self

~ Alan Watts

What is the Love Letter?

Every year I find myself so inspired by my crazy life, my passionate soul, and my wild heart that I write myself a love letter. This is one of my most sacred rituals that I perform every year. It doesn’t matter when I write it as I always follow the natural flow of my life and trust my intuition as to when it needs to be done; and without fail I’ve done it every year since 2015. One of my favorite parts of this process is… a year will go by and I will completely forget about it; and then somehow as fate would have it, I find it or remember it - and read it again exactly when I need to.

So why share this now?

Well, this love letter to myself is inspired by July 2024 (Past) Jess’s love letter to her future self - July 2025 Jess, which I uncovered in an old journal a few days ago.

2024 Jess was going through a lot - honestly, it was an incredibly challenging year that I’ve written about before, which you can find here. Everything I knew and held dear - my friendships, health and relationships were all dissolving at the same time - you’ve experienced this before when life dogpiles you - generally when you’re hanging on by a thread already - my mentor / best friend / spiritual mom from San Diego had died, I was healing my body from a mildish/majorish surgery and debating leaving who I thought (for so long and so deeply… think: past life dreams and memories and Deja vu’s) was the love of my life.

2024 Past Jess had the courage and the foresight to write Future Jess a love note telling her how proud of her she was for leaving, for walking away (even if it was more of a pathetic crawl), for keeping her integrity, protecting her inner child, and for always being authentic and leaving a relationship when it no longer served her. To be honest at the end of last year this relationship was starting to wound me deeply. I felt it was at these major moments is was when I needed him the most and I chose to leave anyways. Months later (so recently) when I told my amazing therapist / mentor, Andy, about this later, he exclaimed that ‘yes! this was the weakest i felt and therefore the strongest i became!’ - which always reminds me of that quote from GOT that I quote (perhaps too) often.

“Can a man still be brave if he's afraid?"

“That is the only time a man can be brave."

~ George RR Martin

I returned from Edge Esmeralda only about a week ago and happened upon the love note I wrote myself in 2024 and started to reflect on how painful the end of last year was, and honoring the girl that I was, and how proud of myself I am for choosing myself first, and growing into the woman of my dreams, AND all the subsequent blessings that have flowered underneath my feet since then.

When I find my love letters to myself after year(s) it brings me so much joy and peace to know that my Past Self is looking out for my Current and Future Self. If you’ve worked with me you know how often I send love and strength and tenderness back to Teenage Jess and pull on wisdom for Future Jess. Allowing love to flow through all my different timelines (The Council, if you will) integrates me deeply in my truth and my inner trust.

My Love Letter to ME

I will be honest, I do have a bit on anxiety posting this because I’ve never made one of these love letters public before as they are deeply personal and they honor all the cool things in life that I am brave enough to do. Therefore there is a part of me that feels like it’s too “braggy,” or “cringey” but here I am doing it anyways - as we all know life begins at the end of our comfort zone.

So here is my love letter to myself, and I invite you / hope this inspires you to do the same:

Dear Jess,

I am so fucking proud of you. You overcame something that challenged every fiber of your being, that broke you open and tore you apart; that momentarily destroyed you and made you question everything - the universe, your intuition and yourself - you showed up, as you always do, with an infinite well of resilience, of strength; your trust in yourself and in the universe, that it will always take care of you, is truly unshakable; it’s a masterpiece. You jumped off a cliff and the universe caught you, you fell and you trusted the wisdom of Rock Bottom being a shamanic place of transformation. You took your time to heal, honoring the slow days, honoring the ‘no’ days, not speaking to anyone except your dear roomie Quentin when he asked if you needed more water or snacks. Weeks and months later you rose from the bed onto your hands and knees and finally planted your feet firmly, feeling the support of the earth pushing up against you. Eventually you began to walk, then run, and then frolic, once again finding the wisdom in play.

You started to ground even harder in your routine, even allowing the perfectionist inside to take control for a bit maintaining sobriety, food restrictions and daily exercises. You began the re-engagement of physical, mental, emotional and spiritual work. You dove deeper into shadow work and healing inner child wounds, learning more about yourself and family dynamic and how to understand things better and quicker in the future. You stayed present with your emotions and cried when you were sad, allowed anger to move through you elegantly and gracefully and held your own heart (with the support of very wonderful friends). You continued to climb, to walk, to yoga, and Pilates, focusing on physical health when mental health became too “efforty” and sped up or slowed back down into an acceptance of the present moment, depending on what was needed at the time.

You made your sleep a priority and spoke louder about your boundaries and your bedtime - even including a sign for the house that says “please leave by 9” so people were able to physically see your boundaries, you stopped drinking all together (5 months sober!). You cut out poisonous people (even if that meant ending 5+ year friendships! Yikes!) because you realized your pattern is to beg to be loved, that love is hard work and you have to prove with performance that you are worthy of people loving you. You began to look around and clean up your life in every cobwebby corner that was hard to look at, and you loved it all anyways. A week of Imposter Syndrome at a retreat helped you understand that the Perfectionist part of you had now taken over the driver seat and with some mirroring from more amazing friends - shoutout to Vlad, Owen and Ashley you were able to gently allow your messiness to shine once again, realizing that there is no Perfect, just like there is no Destination. It’s all a beautiful fucking mess. And we fucking love it anyways.

Best of all you started to double down in all things that interest you and pull at your soul - including obtaining a Breathwork Coach Certificate as even though we consider ourself illuminated for some magic reason Breathwork can still bring us to our KNEES. Doing this work for so long and working with movement and meditation and trauma and how it’s related and woven into the breath, I knew the breath was magic; but only when I began to fully understand the depth and multitude of dimension of the FUCKING MAGIC of your breath have we expanded even more, softening our edges, becoming kinder, more compassionate, more resilient.

You do not understand the violence it took to become this peaceful.

Something we always wanted to do was to complete another yoga teacher training and so this year we went back to Thailand - one of my favorite countries - to complete a 100 hour yoga teacher training on the spectacularly beautiful and magical island of Koh Phangan!

Speaking of travel?!

This YTT inspired the trip to Asia and the way I like to travel is to see as much as I can while I’m there! We (we = all integrated Jess’s) started in Korea for skin care (highly recommend and I can write another blog on that) Japan for Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Mt Fuji - a literal dream come true. We made so many friends on Koh Phangan and they loved us back so much we were promptly invited to an artist residency that we will complete in 2026!

While I was completing the YTT I was given so many opportunities to teach yoga and sound healing for two different resorts! I danced ecstatically on the beach under a full moon, surrounded by strangers with soft hearts and beautiful minds. I went to a KPG Full Moon Party completely sober, made 50 new friends throughout my journey in KPG alone, and then ran away to climb the big walls of Krabi - another dream come true. I went to the Philippines and scuba dove the reef - some of the most beautiful reef I’ve ever seen, and got to see my best friend David in a happy accident while heading to Hawaii for the very first time.

I literally couldn’t be more proud of you.

And then!? Not only that!?

While we were in Thailand we got two insanely uniquely niche golden opportunities: The Vipassana-adjacent retreat I had been hoping to get into for the past 5 years contacted me and told me I was accepted AND we were given an opportunity to be the resident Yoga Teacher, Breathwork Coach, Sound Healer and Meditation Guide at Edge Esmeralda, a pop up city in California where we ended up meeting so many amazing people and big thinkers and genius designers…

… it just keeps blossoming ….

… it just keeps opening ….

… and I just keep dancing and trust falling …

… and my framily just keeps on expanding and expanding throughout the world and throughout realms.

I Am the Luckiest Girl in the World

I tell myself all the time that I am the luckiest girl in the world, and not only do I tell myself that

I deeply and profoundly believe it.

I am the luckiest girl in the whole world.

I know it, I breath it, it’s my every day intention, my prayer, my through before bed, my waking ritual. I write it in my journals, it’s on my vision board, I repeat it after every synchronicity, every hang-out session with friends, every time it rains, every time I see a rainbow, or a bird or an animal. It’s constantly being manifested for me with every thought, feeling, movement and action.

I am writing this love letter just before my birthday (July 11th) although it never matters when I write this letter, because it is always written.

I felt such a pull to write it because even though we’re only half way through the year these are all the beautiful things that have been born out of pain, and blossomed out of suffering, flowered out of the deep trust I have for myself and the universe and my path.

In all of this spaciousness of healing and loving myself, in all these blessing I have found a profound forgiveness, one (tbh) that I didn’t think was possible.

A real forgiveness that doesn’t end with “I forgive, but…”

On a mountain top, underneath the stars in Northern California, whilst under the influence of certain psychedelics, I felt a light blue pure energy completely wash forgiveness over me and through me while journeying.

In this stunning clarity and inner peace and cleansing wave I deeply realized (not just thought) a truth that sunk into my bones all the way inside to my bone marrow - that what people do to you, how they treat you and perceive you, and judge you and hate you: that is just a projection of how they feel about themselves. Now, most of us know this logically, I know this logically and also emotionally - but this truth merged with the atoms and molecules and waveforms that make up my physical and energy body, and in that way I was able to fully and completely release, and not release in a violent shaking or even letting go sort of way, but a super divine and peaceful softening, a setting free, a liberation, a falling, a settling into a comfy flower bed, a dissolving completely back into my own person / being / truth / body with no one else’s energy, opinion or nervous system wrapped around mine (like a vine that will eventually choke a tree to death.)

In this moment, as I write this;

I am Wild

I am Resilient

I am Kinder, more Loving, more Gentle

I am the Luckiest Girl in the World

and I am Free.

I deeply hope, want, and wish the same is true for you <3

Turning the Wound into Wisdom

How Movement, Breath and Sound can Positively Influence Trauma 

Trauma 

Essentially, everyone we come into contact with is traumatized in some way or another; thankfully people are becoming more aware of trauma and are open to talking about it & how it affects people’s daily lives. Trauma exists on a spectrum and therefore no one’s trauma is better or worse than anyone else’s, because it doesn’t matter what happened- what matters is how your system experienced it. Unprocessed trauma shows up in everyday life by overreacting to small things, feeling numb or disconnected to life, your friends or even your own body; it manifests as chronic tension, self sabotage, perfectionism, trouble with trust, and of course the big two: anxiety and depression. Trauma lays the groundwork for a fractured identity, addiction, self harm, can cause attachment issues, affect development (especially if the trauma happened in childhood,) lead to C-PTSD, the list goes on. If you don’t suffer from these things, I’m sure you know at least 10 people who do, and if you don’t it's because they’re better at hiding it than you are at perceiving it.

Trauma is not only physically stored in our body, it actually changes our brain. Neuroscience shows in a traumatic event the parts of our brain involved in memory formation and time are affected, and as a result perception is distorted. Talk therapy is great (as sometimes our ability to communicate shuts down to trauma) but we know now that isn’t enough because of how it affects the brain AND body. When healing, we have to re-integrate both hemispheres - left (logic analytical) and right (emotional or creative) and we can do this through movement, breath and sound therapy. Walking with arms swinging to create a cross body movement, binaural beats, alternating nostril breathing, chanting and humming, drawing, and dancing can all help integrate the brain and body. 

Somatic therapies are necessary for trauma recovery and trauma-informed yoga, breathwork and sound + energy healing can be fantastic when it comes to healing the body and integrating the hemispheres. Yoga helps reconnect the body-mind in a safe way, breathwork calms the nervous system, dancing can discharge trapped energy, and safe consensual touch can heal attachment wounds. Being in nature and meditation can restore a safe connection to your body and visualization can help with trauma healing due to its potential to create new internal experiences and regulate the nervous system. Listening to sound frequencies that oscillate left and right, humming, toning and chanting can all stimulate the vagus nerve.

The Vagus Nerve

Let’s talk about the Vagus (latin for wandering) Nerve for a bit, as it plays a key role in trauma recovery. The vagus nerve is your only cranial nerve that winds all the way down to your lower torso. I like to think of it like a magical thread inside our body. Vagal tone is measured from the health of the Vagus Nerve: high vagal tone means your body can relax quickly after stress, low vagal tone means it can’t. There are 3 options for Vagal tone: Safe (ventral), Activated (sympathetic) and Freeze (Dorsal Vagal.) When we are safe our magic thread (aka Vagus Nerve) glows white, when it is activated it becomes anxious and red, and when it’s in a freeze response it’s slow and frozen, like the color blue.

Increasing Vagal tone matters because it helps you bounce back quicker from stress, it helps you sleep and digest better, you feel more balanced and connected, and lastly your immune system becomes strong. So how do you build vagal tone? 

Movement

• Yoga Twists

• Cold exposure 

• Massage

• Dancing

Breathwork

• Deep slow breathing with exhales > inhales

• Meditation and mindfulness

• Laughter

Sound

• Humming

• Chanting

• Singing

• Therapeutic Sound Healing Sessions

Not surprisingly, all the things we can do to build Vagal Tone are all things we can do to regulate our nervous system - which is the foundation for integrating and healing trauma. If you’re reading this and you’re like ‘Jess I’ve had a pretty blessed life,” then I would be delighted for you, however, some of the trauma that we store in our body comes from a pre-verbal time. What do I mean by that? Maybe we were left for 5 minutes as a newborn, because our parents had to run to the bathroom… but 5 minutes to a baby is eternity. As a newborn we can’t be mad (we don’t even know what that is yet) at our parents. But as we age into childhood and pre-teen years we remember the feeling of abandonment, but we still can’t be angry with our primary caregivers because without them means certain death. So as we get older we internalize the abandonment and anger we felt towards them and we feel shame: the core emotion in trauma. These Samskaras (impressions from the past) “leave subtle impressions and unconsciously affect our habits, self perceptions, expectations or disposition.”

Creating a Safe Place Through Movement, Breath + Sound

In the safe space created by practicing yoga, doing breathwork and having crystal bowl meditation sessions or tuning fork therapy we often feel emotions unexpectedly arise to the surface - I have lost count the amount of times I have cried on my yoga mat or in crystal bowl sessions. Yoga, Breathwork + Sound and Vibrational medicine is a sacred invitation to re-establish the safe, connected relationship you have with your body and meet yourself exactly where you are at. 

Yoga, breathwork and sound gives an opportunity to rebuild the trust that was broken especially when working with a proficient practitioner. The moment a bad* emotion visits you (like shame or anger) they can gently hold space or even mirror while you process what that emotion is teaching you. With yoga, interoceptive awareness opens up pathways for these Samskaras (secret underlying memories) to be received and processed and released by the mind. With breathwork, we create spaciousness in the nervous system allowing life force to move through and dissolve patterns of tension. With sound healing + vibrational frequencies, we bypass the logic brain and speak directly to the body’s innate intelligence, restoring harmony where dysregulation once took root.

In yoga, we know the hips hide fear, anxiety, sadness, and a lot of sexual trauma; shoulders carry burdens and the weight of the world, and can become rigid when we are unable to let go. The lower back and hamstrings hold guilt, repressed feelings and pain of the past - typically regarding relationships. The knees are joints of ego and pride holding the inability to bend and be flexible. Neck pain is stubbornness and refusing to see the other side of the story. In sound healing we know the feet carry you through life and carry the cadence of your step (is it a trudge or a dance?). The throat is your truth and communication and connecting or bridge to your divinity. Working with the chakras is what helps us understand this world of relationships. Memory can be felt through a pain in the body which can be seen in a chakra and is an indicator to release through movement and intentional breath. Take a breath.

“and i said to my body. 

softly. 

‘i want to be your friend.’ 

it took a long breath. 

and replied 

‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.”

― Nayyirah Waheed

Remember, healing is not about getting rid of the shadow or “getting over it,” or pretending there is no trauma, or trying to escape our reality. We heal the body by integrating all of our experiences and coming home to it. Loving all parts of ourselves and turning the Wound into Wisdom.

As a trauma-informed yoga teacher, breathwork coach and master sound healing practitioner, holding space for you on your healing journey is a most sacred blessing to me. I would love to help guide you turn your Wounds into Wisdom. Please Contact me and let me know how i can best serve you.

Xoxo

Jess

Self Care

Hey there :)

So funny story, it took me until the other day when I posted something about Self Care that I realized I have not actually written a blog on Self Care.

This is a bit unusual because I talk about it all the time - it is the tiny soap box I stand on and wave my hands around… and in typing that statement I just had an ah ha! moment after realizing that I just started my sound-healing-only-instagram after 15 years… so I suppose I am late on a few important things.

Better late than never!

*starts to judge self and then immediately soaks self in forgiveness and patience for beginning so late*

Phew! Anyways!

I’ve written blogs on Self Inquiry and Energetic Hygiene and other topics related to self care, but never solely on self care. So here we are! I hope you enjoy :)

Why is Self Care so important?

I’m glad you asked.

Gracious receiving gives dignity to the act of giving

Imagine being so excited to give someone a gift it feels like your ‘tail’ is wagging. Imagine feeling the difference between their two possible reactions: 1. “oh my god thank you so much I’ve been looking for one of these forever!!!” 2. “oh thanks.” What did your energy do when you read the first statement vs the second? Perhaps it felt like your heart opened on the first statement, or you felt energized or loved or even just smiled; and then perhaps your energy or heart may have drooped a bit on the second statement.

Now imagine them giving a gift to you and you receiving their gift with the same enthusiasm from statement 1. This is the best way to receive all gifts whether it be monetary, physically like a hug, or energetic like gratitude.

Why? You might ask.

Because:

Gracious receiving gives dignity to the act of giving

When we give and receive in equal measure our heart chakra becomes balanced. If you put your arms out to your sides in a ‘T’ shape you’ll notice the arms are in the ~ zone ~ of the Heart Chakra. The Heart Chakra has to do with the love, mercy, kindness and compassion we give and offer to others - but also the love, mercy, kindness and compassion we give to OURSELVES!

It is just as important to be nice to yourself as it is to other people. You are a worthy and deserving being! You’ve been through a lot and you’re trying your best!

Honestly it’s hard to remember this and I totally get it - one of the best phrases that was ever shared with me - credited to my dearly departed Tif - was “you parent yourself the way your parents did, when you are stressed out.” That statement whacked me in the head and landed hard in my heart: I’m a relatively easy going person… but in the past, when I was stressed, my brain chatter was constant judgement and inner critic.

Why am I talking all about this in a blog about Self Care? Well, when you think about Self Care, it’s about caring about yourself. If your parents weren’t super supportive then that is the tone of the inner voice you have in your head under stress. Gently trying to switch that inner critic to the inner coach is super beneficial. Constantly judging, nitpicking, comparing, putting yourself down probably hasn’t helped you in the past, so maybe it’s time to try a new way!

Self care covers a wide range of topics

Self Care can be being gentle to yourself. It can be reminding yourself not to beat yourself up over little things. It can be physical like drinking water or working out. It can be mental like writing a to-do list of silly tasks just so your brain gets dopamine once you check them off…

If you are an human in today’s society you’re probably a bit stressed. I invite you (mmmmaybe perhaps urge you) to put Self Care at the top of your daily to-do list. Between expectations of peers, colleagues and family; social media trying its best to harvest and monetize your attention (yuck!) and not-so-great-news being on the news all the time it’s important to stay aligned, grounded, true to yourself & healthy - whatever that means for you.

If you’ve found me for healing services then you might be considered a Highly Sensitive person / empath / light worker, and if so, it is paramount to our own healing journey to Self Care, especially if we are sharing our talents with others in a healing space. We can pick up energy from other people and we want to make sure we don’t continue to carry that energy around.

We live in a time we have to be connected at all times, we live in a time that we have talked and connected with more people this year alone than in the entire lives of people back then. How crazy to think about? I would wager a guess that we see / interact with more people in a month (in person and social media) than our ancestors saw in a lifetime?!

Because of this we desperately need to take care of ourselves.

So, what does Self Care look like?

In the past I have not had the best habits i.e. food and alcohol, and it was hard for me to get out of those habits - so one of the very first things that I taught myself to do was to marry a bad habit with a good one. Am I going to eat that bag of Doritos? Yes… AND! Now I have to eat an apple first. If you try to cut everything that’s unhealthy it miiiight not work, and this is because these unhealthy habits also moonlight as coping skills. Sometimes we do need a day to do nothing, so take it, you deserve it, and then the next day maybe you notice you’re 4x as productive! (Ps: these stories are all autobiographical ;)

It’s all about balance!

Self Care is so much fun because there’s so many options to chose from! Here are some ideas for you:

Self care ideas from my heart to yours

Physical

• Workout - it’s no joke that working out helps stimulate happy neurotransmitters in your body to make your brain happier

• Hydrate - drink water! This is one of the simplest things that makes the biggest difference.

• Massage (or Acupuncture etc etc) - supports flow in the body. Movement = flow = health.

• Cold plunge - creates more of a dopamine hit then cocaine!

• Infrared Sauna - because it can penetrate the skin to help your cells detox

• Hiking - my favorite activity

• Nature - nature is my #1 self care to bring me back in alignment to myself

• Fasting - intermittently, and every once and awhile 4-7 days because I love all the health benefits you get from it.

• Sobriety - I’ve been sober for 10 months now and will write about this soon

• Dancing! I love a good Kevin-Bacon-Footloose-Dance-Explosion!

• Literally anything physical that makes you feel awesome… even sex!

Energetic

• Set boundaries with parents / friends / whomever

• Saying “no” without explaining yourself

• Salt bath - salt has “green” energy according so certain color therapy modalities which is cleansing & dissolving

• Energy / sound healing sessions of course ;)

• “Cutting” cords - to bring back your energy from others

• Manifesting / vision board to awake dreams into life / keep you on track with your goals

• Do something new even if you scares you - I can’t stress this one enough. This is truly how I live my life and my life has been a grand adventure because of it.

• Anything that makes your heart soar, you feel satisfaction & pride in yourself, anything that increases your mana ;)

Mental

• Allow work to end when you punch out

• Write down to-do list per day or week, check things off no matter how trivial they seem trains your brain to be proud of yourself (sometimes I make a list and check off: coffee walk, journal, set intentions)

• Set phone hours like working hours - phone goes on airplane at 6p and off airplane at 6am

• Read - anything: magazines, comic books, fiction, non fiction, just the act of focusing and reading and enjoying

• Allow quiet time

• Journal your intentions

• Anything that helps you dive into something so deep you find the mind has accidentally quieted itself… even rabbit holes ;)

Spiritual

• Carving time out of your day for yourself i.e. solo time

• Meditate

• Connect with nature

• Start cultivating a true “You” practice, doing breathwork, learning about mindfulness, think of it like a gift to yourself

• Anything that brings you back home to yourself, in alignment with your truth and your wild authenticity

Stay in touch!

I would love to hear how this blog helped, inspired or just re-aligned you back on your path toward Self Care!

Don’t hesitate to reach out, comment like or share <3

Iboga: Death & Dying Pt 2

Read iboga: death & dying pt 1 here

Returning to life

When I was coming out of the experience 36 hours later, I heard Jason (my boyfriend in the next room) crying and ‘knew’ it was because I had died; I was upset because I ‘knew’ he had to call my parents and tell them I was dead and I ‘knew’ they would be devastated.

I was feeling horrible physically which deepened the idea that I was dead and when I told the medical staff they gave me concerned looks. Naturally I became even more convinced I was deceased. Jason came into the room asking for a hug and I ‘knew’ it was because he wanted to see me one last time before my body was taken away.

When Jason came into the room he hugged me and it felt like life itself. He suggested we sit outside in the sunshine and once I was finally able to get up, we sat outside. My experience tumbled out of my mouth in discoherent fragments and I told him how much of a failure I was, I didn’t deserve him, everything was my fault and I asked him if he called my parents - to my surprise he laughed and asked to clarify what the heck I was talking about - I continued almost drunkenly: “but I’m dead and someone needs to tell my parents.” He assured me I was not dead and in fact, very much alive as I had been reborn through this process. You can only imagine the relief I felt!

We sat in the bright afternoon light of springtime in Portugal looking at the yellow flowers that reached and stretched out into the field in front of us. We talked, connected, shared insights and vulnerability, cuddled and loved one another without any resistance, hesitation or expectation. The love I felt in these moments exceeds any love I’ve ever felt in my life. It was love in the form of life after death; the most alive and vibrant love I’ve ever experienced.

A day or two later we did 5MeO-DMT which is a very powerful psychedelic to complete the circle of the ceremony and it was the most beautiful DMT experience I have ever had: I inhaled the medicine and a whole universe of experiences tumbled out of my mouth as I exhaled, and my body relaxed down to the ground. I began to stretch, and the further I stretched the better it felt, I stretched so big that to this day I believe I’m an inch taller!

I laughed with the purity, effervescence and unencumberedness of a child’s laugh: a laugh free from the wisdom and pain of life’s experiences. I sobbed and the sobbing felt just as good or better than the laughter: it felt like I was releasing the deepest sadness that had occupied my internal organs and dwelled in my DNA. I laughed and cried for myself, my family, my friends, and my ancestors, I laughed and cried for everyone I knew, and then everyone who had ever been known.

It felt delicious to allow it to come out, to be expressed, to be witnessed, and to be healed.

the healing process

The healing process continued with similar intensity and took another full week. I was exhausted and felt like a raw nerve walking around; my nervous system felt fried, lights were too bright, any sounds were too loud, people were way to people-y.

I felt like something immortal had just been demoted to mortality. I found it difficult to interact with my fellow humans. I had just been in hell - it was hard to relate.

During my healing process in this heavy drug-like, dream-like state, I found out that one of my closest friends died. Tiffany Barsotti was my mentor, medical intuitive, spiritual counselor, roommate, co-worker in the realm of biofield and subtle energy sciences and a light in the life of myself and anyone who was lucky enough to know her.

It felt physically unbelievable: because I was feeling dead, it was impossible that Tif and I were both dead. Leaning into to the drug like dream-like state I felt like I was in the ‘woods between worlds’ I was transitioning from death to life and she was passing by going the opposite direction. In this nebulous space in between time I reached out to Tif, I felt her presence and energy. She visited, energetically hugged me tightly and assured me that I was not dead and would continue to live; and she shared that she was on the most incredible adventure through her passing. As I continue to edit this blog months later, she visits me often in meditation and dreams and I am forever blessed with the memories I have with her, and in heightened states of awareness when I feel her sitting next to me and jokingly pointing out a pattern of mine I was previously unaware of.

Being in this state of in between life and death felt oddly synchronous because I felt she was near me in this state where nothing and everything was simultaneously real; where everything was impossible and possible at the same time.

waking up into my aliveness

Now that I have fully come back from this experience I feel AMAZING. When I speak, my statements feel more authentic to my truth and my soul. My listening to understand has improved, my desire to connect and understand others has deepened. It feels like the back of my brain woke up.

I am inspired to live deeper, I feel healthy, vibrant and alive. I feel centered in myself, aligned in my soul and grounded in my path, purpose, and mission.

I am so grateful for my courage to work with this plant medicine; I am grateful for this Hero’s Journey through this spiritual ceremony and deep healing process with Iboga.

In this space I realized that grief is a gift and that sitting with grief allows the sadness to become sacred.

Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go.

―Jamie Anderson

~

I hope you enjoyed my personal journey with Iboga. If you have any questions about it I would love to connect with you. Once again, it’s important to select a good center with a medical team if you decide to take this journey! It’s hard, but worth it!

Please enjoy my Free Grief Sound Healing Session inspired by Tiffany’s love and light by clicking here.

~

This blog is dedicated to and in honor of the life, the light, the love and the work of Rev. Tiffany Barsotti M.Th, PhD.

Please consider donating to her fund here to continue her work and legacy to advance the field of biofield sciences, and increase collaborations that foster connections between healing practitioners and scientists.

IBOGA: Death & Dying Pt 1

the beginning

In February 2024 on a farm in Middle of Nowhere, Portugal, I embarked on a deep transformational experience using the very intense healing power of the plant medicine Iboga.

In this blog I want to stress the intensity of Iboga without scaring people away from this deeply healing plant medicine: Iboga is incredibly powerful and should be approached with care. This blog contains no medical advice and is only my personal experience. Unless proper precautions, such as a medical team and EKG machine constantly monitoring your heart rate, complications and even death can occur.

Iboga is a plant medicine that is known for it’s Grandfather energy; to me, it feels very grounded, earthy, accessing ancestral and potentially past life information ingrained in my root chakra, in the very marrow of my bones. I would compare it to Ayahuasca ONLY in the sense that Ayahuasca is equally powerful and is known for it’s Grandmother essence. To me, Ayahuasca is enlightening and therefore the energy exists up around your head and your upper chakras; whereas Iboga is grounded in your lower chakras and physical body. Ayahuasca goes up, Iboga goes down.

The two sacred plant medicines have similar and different energies in many ways. Iboga comes from the root bark of a shrub in Central Africa, whereas Ayahuasca comes from the rainforest of South America; and both are used by indigenous people in sacred ceremony.

safety

Before the ceremony we got our blood drawn and the medical staff assessed our weight (for dosing), our blood pressure and our heart rate. During the ceremony we were hooked up to the EKG machine the whole time: 36 hours. This was to make sure we were healthy enough to continue taking the dose. Iboga can cause arrhythmia which can lead to death, so if you are considering working with Iboga, take this into consideration in selecting which center you use.

We prepped our mind and bodies before the experience with breathwork and yoga. We discussed how using this plant medicine is very much like embarking on a ‘Hero’s Journey.’ The Hero’s Journey was a story-model designed by Joseph Campbell where a normal person goes through something intense, succeeds and is thereby transformed forever. We (my boyfriend and I) knew that we would be different after this experience.

the ceremony

When the effects of the Iboga began I was mentally and metaphysically preparing to ‘fight’ something. They told us to create a scary monster in our mind that represented all of my doubts, insecurities and fears; in fighting and winning I was proving my worthiness, my courage and my strength to myself.

Initially, there was fear and doubt in my mind questioning:

1. Could I win this fight?

2. What if I do it ‘wrong?’

3. Would I literally die if I didn’t?

This pattern of doubting myself has been present in my past and I decided I was sick and tired of letting it direct my life. Even though I didn’t feel 100% ready I knew I was as ready as I’d ever be, I also knew that when you are afraid is the only time you can be brave, and I found comfort in that.

My mind created the fighting arena: there was a bridge I had to cross with a door on the other side that led into a castle, naturally the monster was on the bridge blocking my path.

I had to jump at the monster on the bridge, kill him and get into the door behind him. He was big and scary but I imagined my brother being in danger behind the door and that gave me the inspiration I needed to begin my attack.

As I jumped toward the monster with all the courage (and a cool sword) I could muster and I suddenly felt this bottomless well of resilience rise up inside me like an earthly flame. It began in my solar plexus and my heart moving and flowing throughout my body to my appendages. It was incredibly visceral and my real physical body moved and undulated in tandem with this energetic flow. It felt like the deepest strength and loudest courage, like my heart was transforming into a very literal ‘heart of a lion.’

This bottomless well of resilience was previously unbeknownst and unfamiliar to me, but I realized in this moment it was my birthright and I claimed it with all the courage I had. Any doubts that danced through my head like “but what if you can’t,” “what if you fail,” were revealed as lies and suddenly died, dissolved and turned to ash. What was left was an even stronger, tangible and more resonant truth that echoed in my bones: “there’s no way you can fail,” “there is no such thing as failure.” It felt like every cell in my body had turned into sunshine.

Once the monster came to his end with the blade of my sword, I opened the door of the castle and I met Iboga. He was African with one green eye and one yellow eye, I only ever saw the top half of his face and he spoke telepathically to me and a rumbling gravelly deep voice. His voice guided me to tumble further back into my subconscious, not falling, but supported somehow and weightless. Under the mentorship of Iboga I was able to begin this deep healing work - it was almost as if my ‘Jess Avatar’ was broken down into the smallest particles and spread throughout the farthest reaches of the known universe so I could see all my parts and components - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and work with them individually.

As Iboga guided me I saw the things that I had been avoiding, for me this looks like:

1. sadness, because it reminds me of being depressed in the past so it doesn’t feel safe to access because I don’t want to get sucked in ever again

2. avoiding and suppressing the thoughts that I’m an imposter and not good enough

3. thinking that I’m an failure

4. that everything is my fault and

5. thinking that I’m unworthy and unlovable and

6. that I don’t deserve my wild and abundant life.

feeling myself die

During the experience I felt and knew (?) I was dying, but I also was deeply aware that I had to die in order to be reborn.

Iboga helped me feel all the things I was afraid of and I died through each emotion I was resisting. I experienced death through sadness, death through being not good enough, death through failure, death because it was my fault, death through my unworthiness and death through being undeserving. I died through embracing and accepting these things - this process wasn’t fun - it was so painful and felt awful and like the most torturous suffering I had ever suffered!!!

AND

It felt like this old Jess had to die through these things in order to be reborn into a new unwavering resiliency and courage. Old Jess couldn’t fathom those things, so she needed to die.

Kill the boy and let the man be born.

Iboga was still not done teaching me yet: I arrived in hell and I witnessed the most awful things - my imagination is incredibly vivid but the things I saw in hell were surprising, even for me. Hell was barren and dead and the color was all bleached out, it was bleak, hopeless and reeked of the deepest despair. Just as quickly as I wanted to resist it and hate it, I realized it was better to surrender so I decided to keep walking - much like the Winston Churchill quote.

If you're going through hell, keep going.

In surrendering to this entire experience I realized I was okay. Even dead and in hell, I was okay. This was a truly enlightening experience: I was okay in this hell, I sat with the despair, the pain, the suffering, the agony. I didn’t resist what I was feeling, seeing and going through. Through sacred surrender I felt a spark of sunshine and acceptance deep inside myself. I realized I was in hell, and that’s okay. I was suffering, in pain and scared, and that was okay. I was fearful I would never get out, and that was okay. I was afraid I was a failure, and that was okay. I was afraid I was unlovable and unworthy, and that was okay. I felt like I was an imposter and undeserving of my wild and amazing life, and that was okay. Suddenly no matter how negative my brain’s thoughts spiraled, the resonant truth that it was all okay echoed like a heart beat coming from inside and outside of myself.

being reborn

What a revelation it was! Surrendering to every thought of doubt and despair started to shape an innate and immovable self acceptance. I was able to hear the electricity that energized my heart and the blood pumping through my veins.

I realized I was listening to my own aliveness.

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.
And that makes me happy.

For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger –

something better, pushing right back.

―Albert Camus

I realized at the deepest level of existence there exists incredible pain - however, that pain is paired and indistinguishable from the most orgasmic feeling of love and electricity. The very essence of life itself?! How lucky was I to experience this fantastical and life changing truth?!

Even though I was in pain, dead, in hell and suffering, there was this dogged determination to continue, a passion and zest for life’s juiciness even at rock bottom. Due to my prior work with death and transformation, I am comfortable at rock bottom because I know that is one of life’s biggest catalysts for change…

I was being initiated.

My intention before the Iboga was my continued passion, zest and love for life, my desire to go on, live loudly and unapologetically. I have always lived like I was telling the best story ever told and I wanted that magic to be branded on my soul.

Through this activation, I realized there was no such thing as right and wrong, there are only varying perspectives based on the color of our filter of experiences. That we are all one, that we are all different versions of each other, that we are all still twelve years old trying to figure out life, scared and insecure and doing out best. It made me weep tears from the deepest parts of my bones and DNA.

“Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right doing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.
The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you.
Don’t go back to sleep.
You must ask for what you really want.
Don’t go back to sleep.
People are going back and forth across the doorsill
where the two worlds touch.
The door is round and open.
Don’t go back to sleep.”

- Rumi

Continue reading in iboga: death & dying pt 2

energetic hygiene

Something feels ‘off’ but I just can’t put my finger on it?

My healing room seems ‘dense?’

How can I stay cleansed from the energies I work with?

How can I keep my clients clean from energy?

I get asked these questions a lot and my answer always is:

it is imperative to instill an energetic hygienic practice into your energy healing practice

& luckily for you there are a bunch of different ways to do this! Regardless if you’re just curious how to keep your living space’s energy clean, or your a client receiving sessions or a practitioner working with people, you’ll find this blog helpful!

What the heck do I mean by Energetic Hygiene?

I’m glad you asked. Just like body hygiene is important, so is energetic hygiene. You’ve probably experienced this before if a person emotionally dumped all their “stuff” on you without your permission, sometimes you walk away feeling ‘icky.’ This is because of an energetic transfer - nothing happened physically - but you can feel that something is off.

Practitioners

If your client is off-gassing a lot of energy:

You’ll know this because of the constant pressure changes in the air around you, temperature fluctuations and need to constantly dragon-breathe.

You can place a bowl of salt water underneath the massage table and set an intention for the wild energy that is flying around to be pulled into the vortex where it will be cleansed, dissolved and disintegrated safely.

Pro tip! Grounding is an absolute essential part of doing healing work. Practice this by going outside and standing barefoot in the grass, in the sand or in the dirt. Feel yourself dropping a line of energy down through your legs out the sols of your feet into the earth, releasing excess energy into the earth, while receiving negative ions from the earth that have good health indicators!

If the session is crazy intense and you feel like you need some ‘divine’ help:

I have found that using an intentional salt circle around the session and St Germain’s Violet Flame ‘inside’ the session can help cleanse whatever is ‘other.’ By ‘other’ I mean:

• not your clients

• old stuff that is really dense

• energy that came ‘before’ your client (literally or cosmically)

If you’re noticing that you leave with what the client brought in:

This means you need to work on grounding your energy and their energy a bit better. Remember as you breathe you are grounding that energy all the way down, out the soles of your feet into the earth to be grounded.

This could also mean you need to clean your hands. Cleaning your hands can look like

• washing them with soap and water

• spraying them with a alcohol + water + essential oil potion

• you can put your hand in the geode of a crystal (without touching the sides) and allow all the focused energy of the crystalline points to cleanse your hands.

remember whatever instrument you work with needs to be cleansed after sessions:

Your pendulum needs to be cleansed, your tuning forks can be cleansed with other forks, smoke, crystals or sounds. If you’re working with bowls, gong or chimes they generally clean each other throughout group sessions.

It is a great idea to have a little ‘cleansing station’ that can look very much like an altar, or a crystal grid that you can place your instruments in for cleansing after sessions.

If your practitioner says they don’t need to clean their crystals this is a red flag.

People / clients / practitioner

BREATHE

Breathing deeply and activating your diaphragm and vagus nerve is so incredibly important. When you breathe shallow the breath stays in the upper chest; this is not where the breath is supposed to stay!

The breath wants to be breathed all the way down to your low belly! Why? Your lungs act as a great bellows to PUMP your diaphragm and STIMULATE your vagus nerve.

Activating the diaphragm and vagus nerve helps:

• digestion

• the nervous system

• your chakral system

• stress reduction

• heart health

• digestion

• mood regulation

• & more!

Pro Tip! As a client, practitioner, or living breathing person. Please work on deepening your breath!

seriously, please.

protect your energy:

Keep your energy yours and your client’s energy theirs. I like working with the tuning forks because it provides a soft barrier between us (rather than using my hands) and the vibration on the fork cleanses any energy before it gets to my hand.

You can also create shields, but make sure you’re using elemental energy to do so. Otherwise you’re just taking your energy and putting it outside yourself, which personally doesn’t seem like a good idea due to mass and density.

Perceiving myself as an Alchemist: I use a form of Tonglen meditation in my ‘energetic boundaries’ where I breathe it all in, and ground out the good, learning from the ‘dark,’ and recycling the beauty back into the world.

Living or healing spaces

for overall cleansing your healing space:

You can sage your healing space, you can play “om” in your space while you’re not there (low volume works), you can use a tuning fork or whatever your craft uses to harmonize the space - especially the corners of the room, doors, windows, and mirrors.

Pro Tip! If you forget, you’ll notice your attention being drawn away during sessions and pulled into an area of the room. There is a collection of energy in this area that is creating a vacuum.

energetic hygiene for life:

Make sure you are walking in alignment with your truth. If you’re preaching health and wellness your life should really reflect that. If not there is a discoherence between body and mind that will increase and become apparent over time.

the basics:

• Eat well, drink lots of water, salt bath, self care, and journal.

• Practice Mindfulness, cultivate compassion toward yourself and your fellow man.

• Meditate, reflect and visualize.

• nature, nature nature

expert level:

• Take care of yourself by setting good boundaries, this is imperative as an energy healer. If you are leaking energy it’s irresponsible to ‘heal’ from an empty cup.

• Forgive, yes you, yes. Forgive. Trust me, I didn’t want to either. I wanted to hold onto all that delicious resentment, and then I forgave. There is medicine here.

• Be a good person, like really actually good. Not just in public. Karma is real and what goes around comes around, what you do to others will be done to you, what you reap you will eventually sow.

• Keep learning: there is no end to what you can learn when you fall down the “sound healing” wormhole. It is vast and endless. You owe it to yourself and your clients.

~

I hope this blog gave you some extra tips and pointers! If you have any questions or feedback please let me know.

Comment, email, share, like: I would love to hear from you.

Make sure you follow my social medias as I am announcing dates for my FREE 3 Webinar Sound Healing Series next week!

• Is Sound Healing Real?

• Chakras 101-103

• Sound Healing Theory

see you There!

As an Eternal Student - Biocybernaut + Hoffman Process

I know enough to know I can always learn more.

That is why it is so important to me to continue my education learning new ways to best support you on your healing journey. My eternal mission and my responsibility to my clients is to provide them with the utmost care.

In 2023 I did two massive 7 day intensive trainings. One with BioCybernaut in Sedona in March and one with the Hoffman Institute in Chester, Connecticut in November. Warning: these trainings are not retreats, and they are not easy. You have to fully commit to yourself and be your own accountabilty buddy. You have to seriously want to change.

At my Biocybernaut Training I not only learned how to train my brain, I learned how to alter it in real time. During the training I was hooked up to an EEG which uses Biofeedback to show your brainwaves (represented by numbers) as they are happening. Watching my brainwaves shift based on what I was thinking about enabled me to change the way I think, react, feel and heal.

For 7 full days I was in a cold dark room (seriously!) just learning how to train my brain and focus my thoughts to achieve alpha state. An unfocused-focus or a focused-unfocused is the best way I can describe alpha although google describes it as ‘a wakeful relaxation.’

Consistent practicing throughout 7 days and and constant biofeedback from my brain waves helped root this change deep inside myself. As you all know how I feel about Forgiveness - I am happy to say that my view of forgiveness has expanded! This is wholly due to my time at BioCybernaut and the Hoffman Institute!

I have had trouble with forgiveness in the past and have written about ‘hacking forgiveness.’ The techniques used in BioCybernaut and Hoffman helped me discover forgiveness from a deep internal and highly expansive way. I truly feel like a new Jess.

The Hoffman Process works on forgiveness between yourself, your inner child and your relationships with your family, and how that influences your current relationship dynamics. Do you ever get sick of being yourself sometimes? With the same patterns coming up over and over again in relationships? There comes a point where you’re like okayyyyyy…. maybe its not everyone else when the common denominator is ME. (ha!)

Both BioCybernaut and Hoffman work to honor exactly how you felt at the time, they allow you to express, to be angry, to be hurt, to feel that rage, resentment, to feel that betrayal, that sticky shame and horrible guilt. In doing so, you are deeply honoring how your Inner Child felt at the time and you are allowed to point the finger at those around you who you perceived were ‘guilty’ for causing this pain. One of my favorite quotes from Hoffman is:

Everyone is guilty, and no one is to blame.

This sentence exploded my brain. Everyone is guilty…. and no one is to blame. How painfully poetic and beautifully true.

I, we, you, they, us are all guilty, but we’re not to blame.

After allowing yourself to feel the hurt and the pain you start to understand that the people around you who caused you pain were only trying to avoid their own pain.

Now, of course we all know this logically, but through the techniques used in BioCybernaut and Hoffman you are going through and growing through a spiritual pilgrimage and building up a Hero’s Journey to get to these places. Remember both of these programs are 7 days fully intensive. At Hoffman they take your phone for this whole time (eeeek!) You have to fully commit to yourself, to heal, for your future self, to save yourself and the way you relate to others.

In these programs you are receiving feedback from how you feel about these situations and circumstances and healing them from the perspective of the subconscious mind. These two programs are absolutely INCREDIBLE and I would highly recommend them.

I did BioCybernaut first, in March of 2023 and Hoffman second in October 2023. I liked the way I did these programs because they 100% build off one another. After Hoffman I went back to Michigan and spent a whole fucking week with my parents! If you know, you know :p

Since then, I feel more aligned in myself, I blame people less for things that have happened and I have been able to be so me-y it’s been so full of bliss and so fantastic. I feel so aligned in my center and my truth and I have been able to speak it from such a grounded and diplomatic way. I have been able to see people from their wounded Inner Child and the amount of compassion I have for everyone around me is magnificently overwhelmning.

I am finally free from my patterns - whether they were passed down from generations or created by Inner Child me to avoid pain.

The longer I sit as a student, the better I rise as a teacher.

If you have any questions or want to work with me, please feel free to message me as I would love to share more!

xoxox

unstick your stories

Stories

We all have them and they have an impact on how we see ourselves, show up in relationships, and how we live our lives. Stories are powerful tools for shaping our perceptions of the world, and they can have a profound influence on our sense of self.

On the one hand, stories can be incredibly empowering. They can inspire us to dream big, take risks, and pursue our passions. They can give us a sense of purpose and direction, and help us to connect with others who share our values and aspirations.

However, stories can also be limiting. When we are exposed to negative or restrictive stories about ourselves or the world around us, they can become internalized and start to shape our self-image. We may begin to believe that we are not good enough, or that we are incapable of achieving our goals. These stories can become self-fulfilling prophecies, leading us to hold ourselves back and miss out on opportunities for growth and fulfillment.

So how can we use the power of stories to become the best versions of ourselves, rather than being held back by limiting beliefs? One approach is to become more conscious of the stories we tell ourselves and others. By examining the narratives that shape our perceptions of the world, we can begin to identify and challenge the ones that are holding us back. We can seek out new stories that align with our values and aspirations, and use them to inspire and motivate us.

When I am going to say something negative about myself I say “in the past I was ____,” or “historically, I was _____,” this way I am putting the limiting belief behind me, in my past, where it belongs. I know how important the present moment is as that is the exact location that our future blossoms from!

Another approach is to become the authors of our own stories. Rather than allowing external narratives to define us, we can take control of our own narratives and shape them in a way that reflects our true authentic selves. This may involve taking risks, pursuing our passions, and embracing our imperfections and vulnerabilities. This may also mean appreciating and acknowledging the people that you have been before and also allowing them to fade away at the same time.

I could tell you my adventures—beginning from this morning… but it's no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then. ~ Lewis Carroll

One time I was explaining astrology to a friend of mine, she was asking me to explain how she (an Aquarius) and I (a Cancer) were different. My simple explanation without going into Moon/Rising etc was to explain that as an air sign she has a sort of beautiful detached quality that allows her to not be offended by the words or expectations of others; me being a Cancer, a water sign who feels mostly everything and is historically sensitive, I could be offended much easier by something a friend said to me.

I use astrology as a guideline, like all divination tools they help you to see aspects of yourself you were blind to before. When I was describing this to my friend I realized that if I find myself offended I could just try to get up and out of my Cancerian mind for a moment, to transcend my own bullshit in order to have a broader perspective.

set yourself free

Let’s play pretend for a moment. What if you were not you? Not necessarily someone else, just not yourself with your past and your stories and your grievances and your pain. For a breath just allow your personality and your burdens to sink deep into the ground and allow yourself to become empty. Take a few slooooow and deeeeep breaths. And allow the self (personality / avatar) that is not the Self (soul) to sink into the earth. The ground of course will hold on to these things so you don’t have to. Now breathe from this emptiness, this unknownness, this spaciousness and see what it feels like. Do you feel burdened or stressed in the same way? Do you have the same physical discomfort in your body? Do you experience different emotions? Stay curious. What does this feel like?

Depression is your avatar telling you it's tired of being the character you're trying to play. ~ Jim Carrey

What this visualization allows us is to step outside of ourselves to see the cage we’ve built around ourselves with all of your stories. If I can consider for a second that I can be different, and my thoughts create emotions, which create hormones, which inspire actions, then by thinking may way into spaciousness, I can achieve spaciousness. By thinking myself limitless, I can achieve limitlessness.

Ultimately, the stories we tell ourselves and others have a profound impact on our sense of self and our ability to thrive in the world. By becoming more conscious of these stories and taking an active role in shaping them, we can unlock our full potential and become the best versions of ourselves!

Then one day the stories that made you vengeful, that made you powerless, that held control over you will just be chapters of an old book you read 15 years ago.

Please enjoy one of my favorite quotes from Alan Watts & Albert Camus.

Let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time. Or any length of time you wanted to have.

And you would, naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive. And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say "Well, that was pretty great." But now let's have a surprise. Let's have a dream which isn't under control. Where something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's going to be. And you would dig that and come out of that and say "Wow, that was a close shave, wasn't it?"

And then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream.

And finally, you would dream ... where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today. ~ Alan Watts

~

The realization that life is absurd cannot be an end, but a beginning. ~ Albert Camus

paradigm shifts

When clients write to me for a session some of them say 1. I have a lot of trauma to work through and I want to get better and others say 2. I don’t have a lot of trauma, but I still want to get better. My response is always - “trauma” is relative - what is traumatizing to me might not be for you and vice versa. So, there is no need to judge what you perceive as trauma. If something happened to you and it bothered you, but someone else ‘went through something much worse,’ it’s still okay to not be okay with what you went through!

Spiritual bypassing is a term used to define when one’s belief system allows them to ignore or avoid personal issues or facing certain things. For example, if something particularly traumatizing happened to them, instead of processing with friends, working it out, journaling, crying, getting therapy, getting angry (all healthy reactions) they ‘jump’ straight to forgiveness. Now, of course forgiveness is a great thing, HOWEVER, you are a human being with complex thoughts and emotions and it is only natural to go through an entire process to e v e n t u a l l y arrive at forgiveness. Remember it is okay to not be okay, don’t gaslight (lie to) yourself by pretending to be okay when you’re not. That only hurts you in the long run because it delays the healing process.

I try not to speak in absolutes, but I do believe in order to heal something, you must feel it. Feeling pain, talking about your pain, accepting your pain and your process helps the pain to be witnessed and seen. In that exchange of witnessing and surrendering to what you’re experiencing in the present can help it evolve and change. Like the book written by Paulo Coelho, we ARE the Alchemist, turning the things that have happened to us into gold for others. Sometimes I wonder if the ‘bad things’ that happened to me were actually FOR ME - transforming me into a talented tuner!

It is in dialogue with pain that many beautiful things acquire their value. ~ Alain de Bottom

In Biofield Tuning we have a term called “puddling.” Puddling is when we completely and unabashedly allow ourselves to break down, withholding judgement. I remember one time I was supposed to pick up Eileen at the San Diego airport but my boyfriend and I had just broken up and I was in the middle of a good puddle session; I told her what was going on and she excitedly said “Puddle Away!” and I did.

I allowed myself to fully feel the darkness and sadness of what I was experiencing, without shaming myself or my compartmentalizing my emotions and shoving my feelings down. Because of this I was able to go through my process faster, heal quicker and feel more grounded only after a couple weeks - rather than several months! People talk about rock bottom like it’s a bad thing - but I believe that falling without end is worse. Rock bottom is when you finally stop and have an opportunity to stand up again.

In reference to what I find in the field - I prefer to call these situations Paradigm Shifts. They’re not necessarily traumas and it seems incorrect to call them that. Sometimes in childhood I find the birth of a sibling, or in the teenage years perhaps there was a move of houses, schools or even a parent getting a new job. These are not traumas if you enjoyed all of these events! However! They are Paradigm Shifts - life was one way, linear, and now everything moving forward is completely different than it was the day before. Paradigm Shifts are neither good nor bad, they just are.

Because of the self-help work I’ve done on myself since my teenage years, my understanding of the biofield and emotions, and my perspective of the world, when something goes wrong I like to think it happened “in order to strengthen the plot,” of my story. This is to acknowledge what has happened and to also bring some sarcasm and levity to the situation. If you’ve had sessions with me you know I like to invite humor in! I agree that laughter is (one of) the best medicine(s)!

It’s dark because you are trying too hard.
Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly.
Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply.
Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them.

I was so preposterously serious in those days, such a humorless little prig.
Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me.
When it comes to dying even. Nothing ponderous, or portentous, or emphatic.
No rhetoric, no tremolos, no self conscious persona putting on its celebrated imitation of christ or Little Nell.
And of course, no theology, no metaphysics.
Just the fact of dying and the fact of the clear light.

So throw away your baggage and go forward.
There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair.
That’s why you must walk so lightly.
Lightly my darling, on tiptoes and no luggage, not even a sponge bag, completely unencumbered.”
~ Aldous Huxley

Healing isn’t about fixing everything that is wrong with you, it’s about accepting and loving yourself anyways. Regardless of what you went through, regardless of how you handled it, what matters is …

have you grown through what you’ve gone through.

Sharla Snow & Jess discuss Thermography & Breast Health

The following tale is shared with Sharla's permission, of course.

Sharla & Jess talk Thermography!

I have been a Certified Clinical Thermographer + Trainer for 5 years under the Institute for the Advancement of Medical Thermography scanning clients and training new professionals across the United States.

Sharla Snow is a client of mine for Medical Thermal Imaging (Thermography). Medical Thermal Imaging is a way to scan the physiology/ blood flow of the body (as opposed to structure). This differs from mammography in the sense that Thermography is looking for PRE-disease patterns, or in other terms, Thermography is a preventive scan. By the time you realize you have a tumor (structure) the disease has gone from it’s infancy stage (inflammation) all the way to its end stage: a tumor.

Sharla came to see me in the fall of 2016 after she found a lump in her breast but didn't feel comfortable getting a mammogram due to the radiation, compression and pain. We performed her Thermogram and a week later her Medical Thermal Imaging Report came back abnormal due to a large asymmetry in the heat, distribution, and intensity of the thermal patterns in her left breast. The doctor who wrote Sharla's report recommended proactive and holistic protocols: that she do lymphatic drainage, dry brushing, perhaps introduce Vitamin D3, selenium and other healthy supplements into her diet with various other lifestyle changes. Being a Holistic Health Educator myself I worked alongside her to improve her patterns and answer any questions she may have.

Sharla responded quickly and rose to the occasion to help her situation. She is a distributor of essential oils and extremely holistically minded, so by the time she came back for her follow-up in February of 2017 she had enacted many natural protocols into her life and her report came back noting the improvements; specifically, the thermal patterns in her left breast had decreased!

Sharla posted her story & images on facebook and it went viral. Everyone asked Sharla what she did, what the pictures meant, what Thermography was, etc etc.

Sharla asked if her and I could give a talk to help educate and empower women - so we did! 

The following is our talk; if you have any questions please feel free to contact me here.

What is thermography? Is it safe? Why have you never heard of it before? How is it helpful? What are the benefits? 

Alternative Health Tools Podcast Interviews Jess

John Biethan is the host of Alternative Health Tools, a Southern California based podcast that shares alternative health tools, tips and resources from complementary, alternative and holistic healthcare practitioners. 

John & Jess met at INNER TEMPLE one fateful Tuesday in 2016, bonding over Tuning Forks and the magical healing properties of sound.

The rest is history...

Dry Brushing

This article was featured in The Life Connection in November 2016.

What is dry brushing?

Dry brushing, or garshana, is the ancient Ayurvedic practice of brushing your skin in the morning in order to loosen impurities on the skin.

Dry brushing removes dead skin cells from the surface of the skin, and in doing so allows for better detoxification at the skins surface. Dry brushing also improves lymphatic flow and thus increasing vitamin absorption throughout the body by increasing circulation. Constant dry brushing helps to break up areas of stagnation and “stuckness,” getting rid of toxic buildup in the body.

Dry brushing is best done in the morning before you shower because it has a mild ‘caffeine’ effect where your body feels buzzed and invigorated! Due to it’s massage-like effects, dry brushing is also stress relieving and has meditative effects.

Also, the side effects aren’t that bad and may include the reduction of cellulite & glowing skin 

How to select a dry brush:

The brush must be made of natural resources – such as a wood or bamboo brush with natural bristles. This is very important, brushing the skin with a plastic brush contains impurities that will then collect on the skin. The skin is the largest organ of your body, so it’s imperative to use a natural brush to gain all of the benefits of Dry Brushing.

Dry brushes are the brushes you see in any “shower” aisle of Target, Home Goods, Bed, Bath & Beyond and they range from $3-$10. The longer handle extends your arm & makes it easier to get to hard to reach areas like your mid-back.

How to dry brush:

·         Dry brush for about 5-10 minutes in the morning before you shower.

·         Use firm pressure over the main areas, but lighter pressure over areas where the skin is thinner & more sensitive. Your skin should be pink after you brush, not red & irritated.

·         Always brush UP towards your heart, brushing away from your heart will add stress on the heart.

·         Brush UP your arms and UP your legs.

·         Avoid painful areas

·         Use circular motions over the joints

·         Finish your Garshana with a shower to wash away all the impurities you have removed from your skin.

The difference Dry Brushing makes!!!

Client A: Medical Thermal Image of someone who dry brushes daily & makes their own homemade non-toxic deodorant (green = normal)

Client B: Medical Thermal Image of someone who has never heard of dry brushing & uses store-bought toxic deodorant (red/white = hottest areas indicating extreme inflammation)

Other Lymphatic Tips:

·         Self-massage your neck & shoulders with coconut oil

·         Jump on a trampoline for 5 minutes a day to improve lymph flow

·         Exercise by running, walking or jogging, any UP and DOWN movement to stimulate lymph circulation

·         Massage your lymph nodes in your neck near the bend in your mandible (jaw bone), massage your armpits, lower abdomen & inguinal area – these areas contain the largest lymph nodes

o   Tip: you’ve probably felt your lymph nodes in your neck if you’ve ever gotten sick, they will swell to about the size of a dime!

·         Make your own deodorant!! Normal store-bought deodorant contains aluminum, (which has been found in the brain of people with Alzheimer’s) parabens & phthalates interfere with hormones in the body- notably estrogen & testosterone which can lead to chronic disease.

o   Tip: my favorite [read: easy] deodorant to make is Wellness Mama’s Natural DIY Deodorant, Deodorant #2 which contains 4 ingredients!! Find it here: http://wellnessmama.com/1523/natural-deodorant/

·         Get a lymphatic drainage massage from a professional

·         Reduce your risk of cumulative radiation by choosing Thermography as your health assessment! www.psy-tek.com

Sources:

1.       http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/02/24/dry-skin-brushing.aspx

2.       http://www.chopra.com/articles/garshana-detoxify-at-home-with-ayurvedic-skin-brushing

3.       http://wellnessmama.com/1523/natural-deodorant/

4.       www.psy-tek.com