One goal of the Soularium Academy is to give our participants all the tools it took me years to figure out! I want kids to be proactive about recognizing when they are out of balance and be able to utilize their deep reservoir of strategies to bring themselves back into balance. What if taking care of our bodies and emotions as we grew was second nature and we didn’t have to wait until our mid-40s to start attending wellness retreats to reclaim our emotional and physical health? What if we knew how to recognize life’s stressors and knew how to regulate around them rather than being bulldozed by them? This is my most sincere wish for our budding beauties who come through the Soularium Academy workshops. Once they start looking within, a whole world will be discovered and they will unlock a future of health and abundance.
Our High Vibes workshops offered this spring is a perfect introduction to setting kids on this path of empowerment. The workshop is for ages 10-15 and is held on May 19th from 4pm-6pm in Lafayette, CA.
Participants will learn:
How to be mindful and meditate
How to recognize their range of emotions, physical reactions and when they are in low vibration
How to quickly raise your vibration into more optimal states of being
How their bodies respond to input, output and integration
What anxiety is and how to manage it
The power of self talk (positive and negative)
How to bring their systems out of contraction and into dilation
As a kid I saw our dad and other family members struggle with debilitating anxiety. During my teen years I was a confidant to my best friends as we all navigated sensitive situations with home-life, boyfriends, social pressures, gang violence, teenage pregnancies, and other life stressors. I lived with someone in my 20’s who suffered tremendously from anxiety and we didn’t know what it was, how to deal with it, or even what to call it.
As I approached my 30’s my future was bright and I was eager for the next phase of adult life. I was marrying my best friend, moving across the country to San Francisco and starting an amazing job at a great charter school in Oakland. In tandem, I started to experience symptoms of ulcerative colitis. My doctor told me I would have to get colonoscopies every two years and be on medication for the rest of my life. This was incurable. My panic attacks started creeping in as well. I would be happily shopping at the grocery store and a pain would enter my body. Suddenly I would feel short of breath, or dark and ominous thoughts would creep in about the state of my health and potential life span. I wanted to run to our apartment, lock the door and never come out!
I recognized the panic attacks as such and dug into the research right away. I started realizing the physical
symptoms I was experiencing were a result of my stress level with a cross country move, new job, new beginnings and perhaps most importantly, my mind-set. Although these seemed like exciting adventures, moving across the country and looking for a new job was kinda’ stressful! I was releasing an EXTREME amount of adrenaline, coupled with thoughts like, “Is this really my life? Am I dreaming? This is too good to be true. Where is a laundromat and how do I get there AND do my job search today AND find permanent housing for us?” My nervous system was flooded with cortisol and in constant contraction of fight or flight mode; worried I was going to lose it all while desperately trying to keep up with the exciting pace. There was no tiger chasing me in the woods,
but my body was reacting as if there was.
Over time, nutrients were depleted, my electrical system became bogged down and out of balance, and the weakest part of my system grew to be in dis-ease, causing me to become physically ill. Through very intentional practices of mind over matter, positive affirmations, breathing exercises, long walks in the California sun, a nutritious organic diet high in fibrous vegetables, and plenty of rest, I completely overcame all the ailments. To this day I am in remission from ulcerative colitis and I have not taken any medication since those flare-ups in 2006. Little bouts of anxiety absolutely creep in, but I recognize them right away and know exactly what is happening on a neurochemical level so I can correct it relatively quickly. I felt like I had unlocked a magic doorway of self-healing without pharmaceuticals. Life was good… for a while.
When I entered my mid 30’s I had two young children at home and again started with catastrophic thinking. “What if I die, what would they do?” “What if disaster strikes? Who would take care of us now that we live so far away from family?” I would have these thoughts without even noticing. My monkey brain was in constant motion and was driving my body, once again, into contraction and fight or flight mode without there actually being any real danger at all. My blood pressure steadily rose and doctors warned me that if I didn’t get on medication I could die.
Again, I went within and started with the positive affirmations. I would take long walks around the Lafayette Reservoir, what I affectionately referred to as my sanctuary, and flooded myself with positive self - talk to retrain my neuropathways which direction to go. I went to acupuncture, started yoga, learned about helpful herbs for calming the system, and began to feel in awe and wonder of the abundance I had. Gratitude. The here and now. Just as if I had taken a pharmaceutical my blood pressure went down and down until it was normal. I did it again! I self-healed!!
The stories continued; natural childbirth with little “pain” through hypnobirthing and positive self-talk, nurturing myself and our children through ailments over the years through natural remedies. I continue to go within and find powerful natural solutions as health challenges present themselves. The key takeaway is that our bodies have INCREDIBLE capacity to heal, and our mind-set has A WHOLE LOT to do with it. The wisdom of the body will absolutely astound you. With sound practices, scientific wisdom, a good team to support you, and trust in the process of healing anyone can become empowered in these ways and experience real, transformative life changes. The toolbox continues to grow as we navigate challenges throughout our lives.
I have a passion to share and teach these tools to kids to provide safe and natural paths for healing and stress reduction. Empowering kids at an early age will keep them healthy and strong for a lifetime.
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