How do you tend to make decisions? Do you go with your first instinct no matter what? Do you weigh pros and cons, ask a trusted friend (or many!) for advice, read articles, fret and fuss? Or maybe you put off choosing until it’s almost too late and then let circumstances decide for you?

While I have done all of the above at different times, more and more I’m making an effort to skip all the hemming and hawing and instead turn to intuitive guidance.

We pick up energies as we move through the world, and sometimes they stick like lint on a nice pair of black pants and don’t come off in a regular wash. Even when fear, grief, worry, anger, and despair are ours to experience, analyze, and process, it’s all a lot more challenging when obscured by environmental gunk. A good energetic lint-roller can do wonders to alleviate fogginess and pressure.

When the subject of "self-love" comes up, does it make you smile? Or cringe? Shrug? Cower? So many of my clients struggle with self-love because they don't feel worthy. It's disheartening but not surprising — our culture of showy self-aggrandizement does not exactly encourage compassionate self-acceptance.

Have you had the experience of “waking up” at some point during your day and realizing you hadn’t been fully present until that moment? It can be startling and also clarifying, like when the optometrist clicks that just-right lens into place. Experiencing clear vision brings the realization that up until that point you’d been seeing everything blurry.

With temperatures dropping, indoor crowds increasing, stress levels spiking, and viruses multiplying, below are a few of my go-to practices for keeping blood circulating, lymph moving, and energy flowing. If you have a favorite time-tested practice I would love to hear it!

When I’m feeling out of synch with the time, the weather, and my schedule, or if I’m repeatedly waking up depleted, scattered, foggy, or overwhelmed, I know it’s time to do some grounding. Connecting the root chakra to the Earth provides a deep sense of stability and support while aligning the body to seasonal rhythms. Now is an especially apt time before all the year-end festivities, pressures, and triggers start to accumulate.

Placebos have been on my mind lately. My family has been passing around a tough cold these past few weeks and going through a fair amount of DayQuil for symptom relief. You may guess where I’m going with this — did you catch the recent news from the FDA announcing that its decongestant ingredient (found in many common cold medications) does not work?

This time of year can be particularly challenging as many of us transition to spending more time indoors. Our systems have to contend with a thicker stew of energies end emotions in the vicinity. You might be noticing the effects of “energetic detritus” in your kids or in yourself — overwhelm, crankiness, emotional swings, and general over-saturation. We are exposed to more than we realize. While things like hand-washing are important, making a practice of also tending to “energy hygiene” can do wonders for your overall well-being.

Whether it’s weather or something else that’s triggering your stress response — the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn state — it’s important to know how to turn off the cascade of stress hormones and recover your calm. Even when we’re not actually under threat our bodies can react as though they are, and our health and well-being suffers.

When my son was little he used to get angry listening to the radio in the car — “Why are ALL the songs about LOVE?!” Love is a Battlefield. All You Need is Love. Endless Love. Tainted Love. Baby Love. Modern Love. Stupid Love. Crazy Little Thing Called Love. Is This Love? What’s Love Got to Do With It? There are many different kinds of love, and recently I was thinking about how to describe the “love” I feel during sessions with clients. It’s not romantic love, of course. It’s powerful and yet soft, coming from me and also through me. It’s closely related to “compassion,” but even that feels like just one aspect of it. While I don’t say “I love you” to my clients, I do love them, in this way. There just isn’t quite the right word for it.*

When you’re feeling unmoored, askew, roller-coastery, or spiraling, re-anchoring in your center is an essential first step for recovering a sense of clarity and presence. From there it’s possible to respond to challenges with intention and care instead of reactivity.

Taking a break from all of the energetic "noise" of the human world — including what we experience just from being inside or in any human-designed and dominated environment — to engage with trees, water, birds, bugs, rocks, dirt, and plants gives our system profound relief.

In my work I think a lot about "thawing." Softening, warming up, melting parts of the energy field that feel cold or stuck. Recently I had my own experience with this process. I had been waking up and noticing a hard, uncomfortable feeling in the pit of my stomach. Sometimes it felt hollow, sometimes like a tangled knot, and sometimes like a solid object lodged in my gut. When I first noticed it I thought maybe it was some kind of indigestion. But when I brought my awareness into that spot, I suddenly burst into tears.

What do you do when there is dissonance in your life? A lack of inner harmony created by acute or ongoing interpersonal conflict, maybe an unresolved disagreement or dispute, a perceived moral injury, or a personal or large-scale trauma or tragedy?

Internal dissonance is not easy to sit with, and I’ve found there’s a fine line between tolerating discomfort for the sake of processing it and straight up suppressing it. A song by Gillian Welch came on the radio recently, and the chorus struck a chord: “Yeah I wanna do right but not right now.”

Are you being mindful of who you’re minding? Now might be the perfect time to do some energy accounting and enter the new year with reclaimed and refreshed energy stores. Are there entanglements or distractions you can leave behind? Anyone whose mental or emotional grip you might release with compassion and forgiveness?

If you're feel drained, agitated, resentful, regretful, angry, or sad about something that happened or didn't happen, something you said or didn't say, something you did or didn't do, try compassion + forgiveness + gratitude.

This painting hung over the sofa in my maternal grandparents' apartment, and as a child I found it spooky and unsettling. Odd colors, unnameable forms, and that enigmatic eye... it was deeply imprinted in my mind. When my grandmother passed away in the spring, I asked to have the painting. Not because I "liked" it, but because it made me think of her, my grandfather, and the apartment they lived in since 1946. When I took it home and unwrapped it I was bracing myself to feel some regret, worried that it would be too creepy or just make me sad. Instead, seeing it outside of my grandparents' apartment for the first time, I was awestruck.

Do you get inspired by back-to-school season? I always feel more energized and focused at this time of year. In the spirit of the season, here are some of my recommendations for anyone interested in learning more about the chakras and the subtle energy bodies, both for casual, personal interest as well as professional development. This is by no means an exhaustive list but rather a few of the tried and trusted resources that I rely on and most often share with others.

I think a big part of the solace that energy healing provides is this feeling of being seen and understood. . In an intuitive session wounds, battles, defenses, and strengths are transmitted and received, subtly and yet fully, without judgment or analysis or rehashing, and that alone can be deeply relieving.

My clients naturally bring to me their concerns about people near and dear to them, and I am often asked whether I can work on someone else's energy field without their awareness. Even though the request might come from a place of love and good intentions, unfortunately the answer is no, I need full consent. One result is that I work with a large number of "skeptical spouses" by referral, which I find especially fun and fulfilling. I also teach (and frequently re-learn!) that one of the most healing and impactful things we can do for someone else is to change our perception of them.