Change is in the air… On a societal level, on a natural level, and — based on what I’ve been hearing from my students and community — on a personal level as well. 

The “nothing is as it was before” feeling we’ve been dealing with for what seems like a lifetime has collided with the natural rhythms of life and the Universe. In the northern hemisphere, we’re well into the fall season, a time full of transformation. Kids are back to school in some way, shape or form (hugs and blessings on parents and teachers as you navigate the ever-changing landscape of education!). And even though we’re developing creative ways to celebrate, holidays are upon us. 

During this period, it’s essential to maintain your equilibrium. The earth is turning, but you can plant your feet firmly and enjoy the ride! 

To help you reconnect with yourself and the world around you, here are 10 ways to stay grounded. 

As a full-time kid’s musician since 1990, I have the blessing of being with thousands of kids every year.

Kids have never said to me directly
“Teach me something”

But they ALWAYS
Have something urgent
To tell me

Maybe one of the best methods of teaching
Is listening

Acknowledging
What kids have to say.
Seeing them
and their ideas as valuable
Interesting
and inspired

Emotions are the ones that we have to pay attention to the most … cause they’re the sneaky suckers. They’re the ones that get under our skin. They’re the ones that activate these parts of ourselves that we don’t really like / definitely don’t love.

We need to learn how to be able to experience them in a way that honors us: who we are, how we are, where we’ve been and where we are going … so we don’t have to get stuck in the story.

We don’t have to get stuck in the bullshit, but we do need to recognize that when you have unresolved emotions, when you have things that you have not looked at, when you have feelings from the past that have not been felt through / that have not been experienced / that have not been accounted for … that are just sitting in these little pockets throughout your heart and your mind and your spirit and your body … they will get your attention. They will absolutely, without a doubt, they will get your attention. And usually the way our emotions get our attention is one of two ways:

A strong, beautiful, and educated woman was sitting across me; we were surrounded by cactus, Buddha, and sunshine. Even in the serene setting, she was crying, grieving, and feeling overwhelmed. Life had reached a point of no return. The greatest transformation of her personal journey had begun and she was unsure how to proceed. She had scheduled an appointment with me to discuss the most intimate details of her life, including her marriage. The stress and pain outweighed the love; it was time for a change. This client came prepared with the most important question to ask a psychic. How can I get my life back on track?

She was committed to her wellness. It was time for her to unravel from a toxic and unsatisfying partnership. The difficulty was not just ending the relationship, but also dissolving the image of successful same-sex marriage. They had stayed together far too long because of what other people thought. Clearly, there was work to do but this woman had the strength and courage to ask for some guidance.

Get clear about why you want to talk to a psychic

I've Been Thinking...

Earlier this week, I thought I was going to write this Sunday about the long lines people have been standing in to vote. Then I thought I was going to write about Amy Coney Barrett’s testimony in front of the Senate. Then I watched the dueling town halls on Thursday night and thought, “OK, I’ll write about that.” (As usual, a lot happened this week, and there was a lot to think about.) But then Pope Francis got me. He always gets me.

This week, the Pope wrote: “Tenderness is the path of choice for the strongest, most courageous men and women.”

Tenderness and courage in the same sentence. I love that! I know you can get the news of the week anywhere, so instead, I want to focus on these words. Embodying them could really benefit us in the coming weeks.

If ever there was a time for courageous men and women to step forward, it is now. But how we step forward is the key. We are inundated with examples of people stepping forward with rage, anger, and the intention to rile us up, confuse us, gaslight us, and scare us. It’s a lot, but when the Pope suggested stepping out with tenderness, I took a deep breath. It was a breath of relief. It made me feel like, “OK, we’ve got this. We can do this. Here is the path. Here are my directions.”

Now, I didn’t grow up with tenderness. I didn’t hear the courageous people around me even speak the word. But I have felt tenderness in my life and I know that it can be life-changing. Bestowing tenderness on an individual allows a person to feel seen. It allows them to soften and feel their worth. 

Did you know that you’re already equipped with one of the most fundamental pieces of equipment to provide you with an endless supply of psychic information and guidance? Yes, it’s your body! You need look no further than your own physical body for answers.

I got my first real lesson in listening to my body when I was involved in a near-fatal automobile accident many years ago. You probably remember me talking about this in my first book Born Knowing. The shock to my system from the accident resulted in my energy centers or chakras being forced open. I soon realized that my abilities, which I’d so often pushed away, were back with a strength and intensity that I’d never experienced before.

Most people don’t realize that their body often acts as a conduit for information from our psychic senses through our energy centers. I like to say that our body is one big psychic antenna and the messages are flowing on a daily basis.

The Practice:

Drop the case.

Why?

Lately I’ve been thinking about a kind of “case” that’s been running in my mind about someone in my extended family. The case is a combination of feeling hurt and mistreated, critique of the other person, irritation with others who haven’t supported me, views about what should happen that hasn’t, and implicit taking-things-personally.

In other words, the usual mess.

Have you ever thought that everyone else has a perfect life, and that maybe if you could figure it out—you’d get there too? I’d like to introduce you to the real magic of your life…

It was my last day in New York City. I was leaving Central Park to catch a Southwest plane back to Denver. Of course, on the last day of my trip, it wasn’t biting, make-you-want-to- scream-out-loud cold. It was spring, suddenly spring, suddenly this warmth that could make you forgive anything. I was in Central Park with horses with purple plume feathers clip clopping by, pulling carriages of lovers and tourists.

And I longed to hold on to the feeling, the feeling of such goodness, like your first great kiss or getting a call back from an audition. And then I saw the Bubble Maker. He was a scruffy man with a knapsack and red pants and he was dipping this huge dipper into liquid rainbow gloppy bubble goo and spreading it, making a long, big, iridescent glob of magic. 

Here’s a question I’ve been getting a lot lately… Julie, how can I dream about the next steps of my life when I feel so stuck where I am?

Honestly, it all boils down to self love. You have to see your worth, and then you have to start dreaming where you can.

Focus on the Beginning

I know for a fact that we as humans do not have to call in a crisis to actually create our shift and manifest our dreams. We just have to start, even if it means starting small. Maybe the dreams are teeny tiny at first, usually because that’s all we can do at the moment, but once you really start manifesting your dreams, you start to open things up and those dreams only get bigger and bigger.

The other day, I woke up early and took my coffee out to our deck where I could just sit in silence with my dogs, letting emotions and thoughts wash over me. Lately, I’ve found myself pulled in different directions at once, and the tension has left me a bit (okay, a lot!) overwhelmed at times with so much going on around us. 

I see the challenges of the larger world we live in — the pain, the struggles, the imperfections — and part of me gets sucked into grief and sadness. But at the same time, I see the beauty that surrounds us: People standing up for each other and using their voices to lift each other up, the natural artistry of the changing seasons, and the Divine love that weaves through and connects us all, from the largest mountain to the smallest blade of grass or speck of pollen. It’s all connected, yet we seem so separate at times!   

"There are many ways of going forward, but only one way of standing still." -Franklin D. Roosevelt

I've Been Thinking...

Hi there. How are you feeling today? Take a minute to check in with yourself. Are you doing OK?

There’s a lot going on in our country and in the world, so if your answer is “no,” I totally get that. The news is coming at us at such a dizzying pace that it’s really challenging to keep up with it all, much less know what to make of it. At least that’s how I’m feeling. So my thought for this Sunday is “let’s take a break from it all.”

People are tired and exhausted. Tired from trying to keep it all together. Exhausted from trying to figure out how to pivot, how to redirect, how to home school, how to shift a business model, how to care for everyone and act like it’s no big deal.

We all know the election is around the corner. In fact, millions of people have already voted, including me! We know the importance of voting. We know that elections are often decided by the smallest of numbers. We know that regardless of the noise out there, that mail-in voting is dependable and accurate. We know. We know. We know.

Financial success starts in the mind and there are incredibly simple affirmations that can help you attract wealth.

If you have a good attitude about money – if you like thinking about it, and reading about it, and managing it effectively – you can learn how to attract money more easily.

But if you have negative ideas around money – it’s hard to make, you’ll never have enough of it, and you don’t like checking your bank account because you’re afraid of what it’s going to tell you – guess what?

You’re going to find it very difficult to make, save, and manage your money.

And you’ll probably never get to a place where you are entirely free from financial worry.

The good news is that there are simple and actionable affirmations that you can do every day to help you change your perspective of money and attract wealth.

There’s a spiritual concept that seems to create a good deal of confusion. It goes by the name of freedom or liberation, both terms referring not to political freedom but inner freedom. The reason that “freedom” has a spiritual meaning is that a state of total freedom is possible. The confusion arises because at first glance we already feel free inside, most of the time, at least. Our thoughts and feelings are our own. We can be persuaded or coerced to change our minds, but in the end we decide for ourselves.

In reality most people experience only a taste of inner freedom. They exist in a state of limitation that is far removed from total freedom. I discuss the desirability of total freedom in my new book, Total Meditation, and I’d like to offer a preview here.

We cannot be free inside if some experiences frighten or distress us. We shut out and deny them, and as a result many if not most experiences get edited, censored, forgotten, and pushed aside in favor of a narrow band of experience that feels safe. Limited freedom is based on what you can reasonably expect from life. Total freedom begins by looking on life as a field of infinite possibilities. It takes some persuasion to make total freedom seem like more than a pipe dream, however. Is it even desirable to feel totally open, unbounded, and free of boundaries to keep us safe?

A key issue here is spontaneity. Spontaneity is without rules, which seems like a recipe for anarchy. Rule enforcement is the surest way to keep people in line, or so the rule enforcers believe. Consider the extreme example of applying to the bank for a personal loan in China. If you want a loan there, you can use your smartphone, and online lending agencies check you out electronically, using data stored in the cloud. An applicant gets accepted or rejected for a loan in one-tenth of a second, after the lending agency has checked out 5,000 (!) personal factors, including how firmly your hand moved when you filled out your application and how low you let your phone battery get before recharging it.

One needn’t study Joseph Campbell quotes for long to see how myth is universal—not merely “fake,” but representative of higher truths.

In the context of mythology and sacred journeys (such as those led by Sacred Earth Journeys), the hero’s journey or “monomyth” comes to mind. The hero’s journey is a vast psychological, mythological template of stories involving sets of protagonistic “heroes” that are called to adventure, undergo a set of trials, and return home victorious and thus with boons to bestow on their community or world. The idea of the hero’s journey was spread by various scholars and was eventually popularized by Joseph Campbell via his popular book, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, after studying Jungian analytical psychology.

Phil Cousineau, a Sacred Earth Journeys leader and author of The Art of Pilgrimage, drew inspiration from Campbell’s work. The two even worked together in the mid-’80s before Campbell’s death in 1987. Cousineau was a co-screenwriter for The Hero’s Journey documentary film about the life of Joseph Campbell. It won several international awards and was a longtime favorite for PBS viewers. Campbell remains an important influence on Cousineau’s work.

What if you don’t have to know where you are going in order to get where you need to be? You are exactly where you are meant to be, doing what you are meant to do, even if it doesn’t seem that way. However, there may be many moments in life when you feel as though you don’t know what to do. You are outside of your comfort zone and living in the unknown. These moments can seem scary, as you are in unchartered territory with no roadmap for where you are going. Listen to this episode and learn how to let go, trust in life and embrace the unknown.