In this four-part series on living and working with crystals, I discuss and show crystals that are useful for grounding and protection, healing, and creativity. But first, I discuss high-vibration crystals—what they are, how you might work with them, and what that can mean for you at home and at work.

You can find the original series at The Wellness Universe. Part 1 on high-vibration crystals discusses these powerful crystals.

The crystal shown here is a Lemurian crystal I call the Big Guy in the Woods. This is my dog, Murphy, experiencing a healing with the crystal.

© 2017 Robyn M Fritz

Waving-American-Flag courtesy publicdomainspictures.net

One thing I haven’t seen covered or spoken about anywhere during the 2016 elections, and now in the tumultuous beginnings of 2017, is the soul of America. All beings have souls, including cities and countries. All beings are conscious, aware, have responsibilities, rights, opinions.

America has a soul. It has a living presence. What are you doing to support it?

While I have participated in elections in all the years I’ve been eligible to vote, 2016 disturbed me the most. The hatred and contempt for the candidates and their supporters from people I always thought were rational and kind, and of course those who always act up, so to speak, on any issue.

We are at a turning point in our civilization, one every civilization faces during its lifetime. We are deciding the future of the soul of America on a deeper level than it has faced in a very long time. Put aside your thoughts, positive or negative, take a deep breath, and reflect on the welfare of the soul of America.

Of course voting is important. But more important are your thoughts, compassion, inherent love, goodness, the state of your own soul— these are what we need to concentrate on now. What is it? What does it mean for you? Your community? Your state? America?

How can you lovingly support the soul of America? It matters. Because of who and what this soul is, it affects every soul on the planet. It matters.

Stand up. Be counted. Let your soul be counted. Let your heart be counted.

Let the soul of America know who you are. What you are. Why it matters.

© 2017 Robyn M Fritz

No, this isn’t another piece on New Year’s resolutions. It’s on things to think about as you continue to build a wonderful life, to reflect on when the holidays are over and the darkest time of the year is upon us, deep winter.

We all want to live the best life possible, at home and at work. But what does that mean to you? What does it look like? I’ll offer a few thoughts here to get you started: try using a notebook or DVR for your thoughts.

In my work with clients I emphasize the importance of claiming your power. Power sappers are subtle: “synchronicity” and “it’s meant to be” are two of them. You give your power away when you simply accept what happens, without evaluating it and figuring out what went right, or wrong, and how to move on. So if you do nothing in the new year, determine to stand in your personal truth, to do what you believe is right, and keep track of what happens. Consider: what do you do when challenged? What do you think about afterwards? What approach best serves you in claiming your power?

While you’re being a powerful advocate for your own best interests, remember to also be discerning. We don’t always get our way in life: we do always need to know how and why events affect us, and how that reverberates in our community. We are our own community, first and foremost, complete within ourselves. Celebrate yourself. Practice gratitude: be grateful for each experience, because each one informs, enlightens, nourishes, and challenges you. Then create community in your family, with humans and with your animal companions, yes, but also with your spaces.

Expanding outward, create community and ritual within your larger network, from your neighborhood to your city, state, and country. How will you do all that this year? Where do you start? What resources are necessary? How do you measure success? Yes, idealism is sweet and even revolutionary, but don’t forget to be practical!

Claiming your power and creating community are tough acts. They require strong constitutions: life is brutal even as it’s fascinating and fun. Sure, eat right, sleep well, exercise, and play, but above all, monitor your energy. While the subject of “energy” is an article (or a book) in itself, the basic point is this: everything is made of energy, and energy is fluid. That means your energy can be affected by everyone (and everything) around you, so learn to manage your energy boundaries (or energy field), so you know when you are affecting your environment and when it is affecting you. Come home drained from work? Give too much away? Not good and completely inappropriate. I teach energy boundaries to professionals: it’s an important skill, and most people have no clue. Don’t be one of them: if you are, learn how to change. Now.

Finally, learn how to use your intuition. Yes, everybody’s intuitive, no exception. It’s just that some of us are better at using it than others, simply because it intrigued us and we learned it, just like others learn a foreign language or even how to cook! There are great books, classes, and teachers out there. Learn from them. And then turn around and teach them something new. Because you can.

Learning to become our best selves is really why we’re all here (okay, that and having fun). Growing our souls is how we do that, with practical skills, great ambition, and some klutziness along the way. As you sit and use these ideas to become even more remarkable next year, let your imagination soar! Winter is the time of year for new things to sleep and rest, to prepare for a fertile and productive spring. It’s a time to pause, reflect, plan, prepare. Dream big!

So go for it! And Happy New Year!

Now, what will you do? Share!

This article first appeared in NaturalPath blog on Dec. 12, 2016.

© 2016 Robyn M Fritz

We’re in the homestretch of the American 2016 election cycle and most of us are feeling tired, maybe exhausted, even downright sleazy and slugged. We’ve had enough, and yet we have one thing left to do.

We have to vote. So how do we do that and make it count? We keep ourselves energetically clear as we take the time to vote.

Voting is as much a business activity as any of our other duties as citizens and business professionals. To maintain successful practices, we need to do the things that keep us successful citizens, from obeying the law to expressing our opinion about how we want our government to serve us.

But in this campaign season many of us are simply appalled. We just want it to be over, and we may be tempted to steer clear of it by voting quickly, if at all.

But that won’t work for any of us because of how energy works. Let me explain.

Businesses only succeed if they cater to their clients. We know that as business professionals, but we seldom think of it in relation to our government. But the business of government is to serve its citizens. And it’s complicated.

Every time I mull over a ballot I’m amazed at how complex government is. I’m always worried that I’ll never know enough about either the issues or candidates to vote as wisely as I could if I had nothing else to do but attend to government. That’s impossible, so I do the best I can, and I expect government to do the rest. We all do.

That’s what every business does, if you think about it. I depend on the pet store to keep healthy food and fun toys on hand for my animal family, for my hairdresser to give me an acceptable haircut, for the electrician to know what he’s doing when the lights go out.

I depend on my government to make the laws and enforce them to the best of its ability.

The problem is, stuck energy gets in the way. As holistic care providers, we can all see this if we pull back and look at the overall situation. Or feel it, depending on how your intuition works. (While we’re all a combination of intuitive abilities, most of us are dominantly visual, audient, feeling, or knowing.)

Two Steps to Keeping Clear as Citizens

We’ve all heard that everything is energy, but what we forget is that we affect energy as it affects us. As we go about our day bits and pieces of our own energy field spin off and mingle in the spaces we visit and the people we meet, so we bring bits of our daily experience home with us. That includes what we see or hear on the news.

Sure, some people deal with this by ignoring the news, but that doesn’t solve the issue. Because the energy created by others, especially on the scale of a national election, is out there anyway, affecting us. And any time you see such divisiveness around you, you know that energy is stuck.

So here’s what you do.

Be aware of the flow of energy. When you think of the current campaign, do you feel as if you’re trying to breathe underwater, can’t hear well, can’t quite “see” the people and issues, or just know that things aren’t flowing well? These are all ways your intuition can be alerting you to stuck energy. To fine-tune your intuition, you have to work at understanding how your intuition works and informs you of what’s happening in your environment, so you can find ways to deal with it.

Stuck energy can feel dense, dirty, and heavy, or leave you feeling tired, bored, uneasy, or angry or disgusted. Sound like the 2016 campaign to you?

Clear yourself energetically before you vote. As you sit down to go over your voter pamphlet, try a ritual to clear yourself. Light a candle, close your eyes and take a deep cleansing breath, do whatever feels right to you in the moment to make yourself as clearheaded as possible.

An easy clearing technique is to sweep your hands across your body, left to right. As you do a sweep, shake your sweeping hand as if you’re flinging the stuck energy into a fire, where it can burn up and be harmless, or even into a small bowl of sea salt you have put out for that. If you actually use salt, remember to flush it down the sink afterwards, so all that energy flows out of your space.

One final suggestion: try a sure-fire technique to keep yourself and the world energetically clear.

The next few weeks are simply a microcosm of your daily life. All of us will always face stuck energy. And most of us will always want to help stuck energy clear, for ourselves and the world around us. After all, we’re all healers. So here’s a technique taught to me by a genuine, 100% real goddess, as in, yes, goddess (I know, I had a hard time believing it myself).

Clear yourself and the world with a simple intention and focus. Here you go:

• Take a deep breath, and release it.
• Set an intention, as in, “I am clearing stuck energy in myself and the world for the 2016 election.”
• Cup your hands in front of your mouth, breathe into your hands (which breathes energy into them), and turn them palms out, offering the energy to the world (or the election process).
• Again, cup your hands in front of your mouth, breathe into your hands, and then put your hands on your chest. This brings clear energy back into your body.

Feeling better? Now, go out and vote.

And let me know how these suggestions and techniques work for you.

© 2016 Robyn M Fritz, also printed in NatPath

Last night, April 26, I had a piece of chocolate cake and remembered my mom. It was the twenty-first anniversary of her death.

My family celebrated birthdays and anniversaries with chocolate cake topped with mom’s delicious caramel frosting (we always insisted that she double the recipe). I continue to celebrate family milestones even though most of my family has died. But I bought the piece of cake.

While I ate it I thought of the time we baked a marionberry pie and, when we pulled it out of the oven and it overflowed onto the floor, we laughed so hard my dad rushed into the room to join in the fun. None of us could explain why it was so funny. Last night I also remembered the moment in March 1995 when she asked me to stay in Salem, Oregon, a bit longer, because she “wasn’t going to be here much longer.” While I didn’t understand how intuition worked back then, I heard the truth of what she was saying—and left anyway.

Good memories, sad memories, they’re all part of life. Would we do something different if given the chance for a do-over? Maybe. Maybe not. Life is about next times, and we live them the best we can.

I encourage you all to stop and set a time, even ten minutes, to honor your ancestors, those you knew and those stretching back centuries. Here’s some tips on how to do that:

• Set the place: arrange pictures and mementos, candles, flowers, even a piece of cake.
• Invite your spirit guide to filter for you. (You do have a relationship with a strong spirit guide, don’t you? It’s critical.)
• Get yourself grounded, balanced, shielded.
• Invite your ancestor(s) to join you.
• Relive the memories, good and bad.
• Invite your deceased loved ones to comment.
• Listen.
• When you feel the ceremony is complete, thank everyone for joining you and remove the “place setting” (this breaks the circle, allowing the energy to flow).
• Cleanse yourself with salt, a clearing spray, a walk.

Cherish the memories. Let them help heal you.

Note that some people think that honoring the dead on the anniversary of their death is morbid, keeps the energy stuck, and otherwise isn’t healthy. I disagree. Our experiences shape us, and honoring our ancestors (including our animal family) on these days is sacred, uplifting, energizing, and healing. As we all know, there’s never too much of that.

© Robyn M Fritz 2016