Hi, this is Dacia from SpirWitchaulity and today we’re starting a series of videos about rituals and ceremonies to help you create your best life. Some of them will be about releasing negative energy and some of them will be about creating positive outcomes. It’s good to have a balance of both because you can’t create something without first having to destroy or let go of something. So we’re going to try and balance them out with different things.

Today, the first video we’re going to do is about releasing negativity!

Check out the video below and the transcript following.

Now I’ve been feeling pretty down on myself lately for various reasons and I’ve been hearing a lot of negative self-chatter. It’s getting to the point where it’s driving me crazy, so I decided I needed a little extra boost and I’m going to do a negativity releasing ritual.

My favorite one to do is with incense. This is a very simple and quick ritual. It doesn’t take much longer than a few minutes and all you need is a couple tools.

Step 1: Gather supplies

First, what we need is the incense. I have all these different scents here. We have orange, jasmine and rose. And then of course we need a lighter for the incense. And then you’ll need a fire proof bowl or cauldron to keep the ashes in.

If you can do this outside that’s even better but it’s a little bit hot outside and I don’t feel like going outside right now. I want to stay in the cool air conditioning. 

What I’m going to do is to choose the rose incense today because I’m going to be releasing a lot of things but I also want to do it in a compassionate, caring way. I want to bring in the softness of the rose and give myself that gentle nudge and push to release all that negative self-talk going on. So get out your incense stick.

It’s also a good idea before you begin any ritual or ceremony to ground yourself.

Taking a few moments to center your energy, to connect with the earth, to clear your mind. To pull yourself into this moment. I’ve sat here for a while thinking about my intentions and what I want to do for today. And now I’m ready to begin the actual ritual.

Step 2: Focus your energy and begin releasing

What we do is take the incense stick and we’ll use this as an avatar of our internal whatever it is we want to release. I’m going to just focus on this stick for a while and put all of my energy, all of the negative talk and all of the gunk clogging up my energy into this stick and externalize it.
We’re going to take all of that energy and put it into the incense so that when we burn this, we’re actually releasing all the things that were inside of us.

Sometime later…

Now that we’ve done that, we’ve charged the incense stick with all that we want to let go of. In my case, it’s the negative self-talk. Go ahead and position it over the fire proof dish and what then light it.

I like to keep it tilted a little bit to help it burn. It usually does burn pretty fast because we have charged it with a lot of energy, but I like to just help it along.
You can also just put it in an incense holder if you have one. I have one over here just in case. As it burns, imagine all of whatever you’ve put into the stick burn away.

You can even say, “I release you. I release you. I release you. I release all that no longer serves my higher purpose from my life right now.”

It’s also very soothing and meditative to watch the fire burn. And that’s really why I like the fire rituals and ceremonies because it’s such an interesting element. It’s a destructive element but also a creative element as well.

When it gets to the end of the stick, go ahead and put it in the fire proof dish or cauldron and let the energy be gone!

Step 3: Invite in positive energy

Since we have released a lot of things, it’s a good idea to invite in positive energy just to make sure you’re not an open void for anything to come in and attach on to you. It’s always good to imagine a beautiful white light surrounding you of positivity and inviting all the good things that are serving your higher purpose in the world and universe into your life now that we’ve released the negative things.

And that’s the end of the ceremony! Very simple and quick. You can do it as many times as you have incense sticks or as many times as you feel is necessary. I think I’m good for now, but I may do it again later.

This is something you can do at any point and almost any place, as long as you have the fire safe tools and you’re in a healthy grounded space.

Try this simple ritual today and let me know in the comments below how it goes for you!

The summer is starting to wind down and soon it’ll be time to go back to school. Even if you don’t actually attend school these days, you can still get into that “back to school” spirit by recommitting (or even restarting) routines or checking in with your goals towards creating your best life. Read on to see how I did this in two areas of my life.

We’ve been having a few evening thunder and lightening storms in Colorado lately. Though I grew up here, I really love the rain and dearly miss living in places where it rains often.

What I love most about the rain is how it changes the world around us. Particularly when it comes to bending light.

Foggy mornings and bright rainbows all lead to seeing the world differently. And that’s important for everyone because when you begin to take the world just as it is, you give up your power to create the world you want to see.

'You'll never find a rainbow if you're looking down.' - Charlie Chaplin

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Which is why this week I’m working on creating a new vision of my world, both in mind and body.

What I’m reading this week:

• Experience Your Good Now!: Learning to Use Affirmations, by Louise Hay

If you’ve been interested in the self-development world at all, then you probably know how Louise Hay is. Author and founder of Hay House publishing, she’s one of the biggest names in the self-improvement realm. And this may actually be the first book of hers that I’ve actually read. 🙂

I picked this intriguing little book up one day because I felt my own affirmations were getting a little stale. And though I think the affirmations that you create yourself are more powerful, I kind of wanted some more ideas to play with.

It’s a great introduction to affirmations for those unfamiliar with them, as well as a refresher course for those who are.

Simply put – affirmations are oft-spoken statements used to create a new reality first in your mind, then in the material world.

What I got out of this book was a reminder of all the various uses of affirmations, from health and wellness (“I am filled with energy and enthusiasm“) to love and relationships (“I am worthy of love“). And many more in between.

I definitely recommend this quick read (about 100 pages) for anyone looking to start using affirmations or for those wanting to take them to the next level.

• The Flexitarian Diet: The Mostly Vegetarian Way to Lose Weight, Be Healthier, Prevent Disease, and Add Years to Your Life by Dawn Jackson Blatner
  

  For a while now I’ve been trying to eat healthier but the biggest issue was my limited cooking skills. I don’t like handling meat and I never really learned how to cook much – but I can bake a wicked blueberry scone!

  So when a friend recommended (on several occasions) the Flexitarian Diet, I was really intrigued. I’m not a vegetarian exactly, but but I don’t often eat meat anyways and this seemed like the perfect compromise for me!

  It’s all about eating in a mostly vegetarian way, but not excluding meat altogether.

It’s really about making sure that all the colors of the rainbow are represented on your plate – the greens, oranges, reds, blues of fruit and veggies.

I love the introduction that explains some of the science behind the diet, but love even more the slew of recipes organized in a 5 weekly meal plans to get you started on a healthier lifestyle.

I’ve made a few of the recipes and already feel much healthier and happier during my meal times. Now if I can just get my exercise habits fully formed, then I’d be on a roll. 😉

What tools do you use create the life that you want to live?

For the past year I’ve been putting a lot more effort into my mindset. First, by observing where it was at and then by altering it step by step.

It was because I realized that my mind was stuck in a lot of negative loops that I finally decided to quit my day job. I couldn’t continue going to a workplace where I constantly felt on edge, nervous and downright angry at the world.

Since then I’ve been working on cultivating a mindset of positivity – even in the face of hardships. This is something I’ve done well throughout my life naturally but now I’m giving it a lot more conscious thought.

And that brings up to our next round of…

What I’m reading this week:

▪ The Dip: A little book that teachers you when to quit (and when to stick), by Seth Godin

This was another impulse pickup from the library. I liked the front cover and subtitle and the quick read of less than 100 pages wasn’t a bad endorsement either.

However, as I got further along with this little book, I found myself becoming more and more frustrated by the author’s premise.

I’m not against the overall view of needing to stick through some dips while quitting others (the basic thesis here). But the way in which he was setting about proving his point was much to harsh for my tastes.

There was a lot of talk of scarcity and competition and working hard to become #1. Again, I don’t have a problem per se with any of that, but I am not a competitive person by nature and I’ve been working a lot on combating the “scarcity mindset” of late, so I didn’t want to fall back into that thinking.

In the end, I took the author’s advice and actually quit reading this book halfway through. GASP!!

I will admit… that was a hard step for me as an avid reader, however since I wasn’t getting a lot of value out of the book, I decided to quit this “dip” and cut my loses.

So I guess I did get something out of the book after all. 🙂

▪ Infinite Possibilities The Art of Living Your Dreams, by Mike Dooley

Now this book and author are definitely more my jam. Since I first heard of Mike Dooley of the “Notes from the Universe” and “The Secret” fame, only a few month ago, I’ve been catching up on all I can. This is the first book of his I’ve read and I’m taking my time with it, getting all the wisdom out as I can.

Though this book and The Dip, have basically the same message of crafting the life you want, they go about it in vastly different ways. Whereas the The Dip is all about scarcity (from what I read), Infinite Possibilities is about literally unlimited abundance for all.

I was hooked from the first words of the introduction and though I’m still working my way through this book, I find it much more uplifting and hopeful than Seth Godin’s view of the world.

Rather than focusing on the competition and scarcity, this book is all about owning your inner magic and creating, first in the mind and then in reality, the life of your dreams. And anyone can do it, not just the #1s of the world.

A much happier mindset to focus on I think!

For that reason I highly recommend you check out Infinite Possibilities and Mike Dooley’s other work. He’s a great inspiration to me and one I would willingly follow into the mysteries of time and space any day.

For the past few weeks I’ve been focusing on mindfulness. Yet another overly hyped term of late. Along with authenticity, mindfulness is touted as being the next big leap in happiness boosting.

The most common mindfulness technique – meditation, has been around for centuries but is now enjoying a new acclaim as more and more people seek to quiet the overly noisy world in which they live.

I’ve been working on building up a meditation practice for a few years now, but the more I learn about mindfulness overall, the more I realize I’ve been doing it for most of my life already.

It can be as simple as taking a moment to listen to the wind play through the trees, or stopping to watch the sun set over the horizon. It’s that 2 minute break you can to breathe and center before moving on to another task. That’s all mindfulness really is.

Mindfulness practices may be in vogue, but you don’t need to be a yogi or reiki master to enjoy the calming affects of meditation.

It all begins with learning to relate to the world in a new way. Opening your mind and allowing it to connect to the world again with intention and focus. Bringing alignment between your mind and soul. Putting aside the devices for a few moments to really and truly check in with yourself.That’s what mindfulness is really all about.

What I’m reading this week:

• Wherever you go there you are
  

Confession – I’m still in the midst of reading this book, but I’ve gotten far enough along that I feel I can give a solid recommendation still.

Set up as a series of smallish sections with a few “try these at home” tips, this books is one you don’t want to rush through. I’ve been reading a few pages each day and then trying to incorporate what I’ve learned into my life.

I love the style of writing, with it’s simple wisdom and gentle prodding to the reader. It asks you to look at life and doing, or rather non-doing in a new light.

If you’ve never tried meditating before or have some conflicted ideas about the practice, I highly recommend this book as a gateway to help you understand the concept more holistically.

• Happiness is… 500 ways to be in the moment
  

This was a fun and silly book I picked up at the library on a whim and boy am I glad I did!

It’s not a book you would “read” per se, but one to pick up whenever you need a little “pick me up”.

It’s chock full of adorable drawings and simple examples of staying present and happy.

This is the first of such “Happiness is…” books I’ve seen but now I want the whole set!

Happiness Is . . .: 500 Things to Be Happy About

Happiness Is . . . One Happy Thing Every Day: A Three-Year Journal

Happiness Is . . . 2017 Daily Calendar

Friendship Is . . .: 500 Reasons to Appreciate Friends

And to give you an idea about how cute these illustrations are, here’s one of my favorites below. I hope you pick up a copy today and remember what happiness is… to you!

How do you remember to be present in the moment? What’s your favorite mindfulness practice? Let me know in the comments below!

Lately I’ve been thinking A LOT about authenticity… what it means, how to reach it, is it even a reachable goal? I had an interesting discussion the other day around this concept and the one thing we could all agree on was that it’s now quite the trend to “be authentic”. However, being trendy and fast becoming a cliche doesn’t make it any less fascinating or important a topic.

I believe that cliches become that way for a reason. Just like songs that you loved when you first heard them don’t lose their greatness being overplayed on the radio, you just become somewhat desensitized to the greatness.

That said, I’m not about to wax poetic about what authenticity means to me. At least not in this post. 😉

Rather than give you my thoughts on authenticity, I wanted to give you a few resources to help you discover your own thoughts about it. 

'To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.' Ralph Waldo Emerson

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If you’ve been with me for a while, then you know I’m an avid (almost fanatical) reader. I’d like to take a moment to share with you what’s been on my nightstand lately.

What I’m reading this week:

▪The Art of Non-Conformity: Set Your Own Rules, Live the Life You Want, and Change the World, by Chris Guillebeau
This was an interesting and pretty quick read. Although I like the general premise – that we can plot our own course in life and not have to follow the crowd – I found some of the author’s firmly stated opinions to be a little harsh. It sometimes felt like he was putting down all those who chose not to live an unconventional life. I know it wasn’t his intent and he did warn the reader repeatedly that we might not agree with him. Overall, I would recommend the book, but caution you to take some of what he says with a grain of salt.

▪ The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who Yo
u Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are, by Brene Brown
I read this one a little while ago, but I think it pairs nicely with The Art of Non-Conformity, as they are both about actively creating a new way of living. However, Brown’s view is that you don’t have to go against the norm per se, but simply embrace who you are and live from that authentic place. It’s a lot softer and gentler view of non-conforming and it works for me. This is a great primer if you haven’t yet read any of Brene’s other work.

What are you reading? Let me know if the comments below!