Soul Battery Recharged

I believe that each of us have a battery inside. This battery, (spirit/soul/energy as some might call it) is what charges our physical and spiritual activities.

Have you ever had those days where you don’t want to talk to anyone so that you can save the last drop of energy left to get you home and in bed? Well last Tuesday (the 24th) started out as one of those days.

It was 2 pm and my battery had already been sucked dry. I doubt it even started out fully charged and I still had one more appointment to go. Even though my battery was empty and I was dreaming of skipping it for a nap, this appointment turned out to be the mega outlet to that which recharges batteries.

I showed up to my appointment at the peacefully inviting Web of Life Wellness Center to meet with Cathy Patillo… one hour early.  I didn’t notice I was an hour early until I sat for 10 minutes waiting for Cathy and decided to check my calendar for her contact info…

…Yup, the appointment was supposed to be at 3:30 pm and here I am at 2:30. I share that to emphasize the lack of battery power going to my time receptors…

A quick preface:

As you might know, one of the companies I work with, SyncCreation, has given me an awesome excuse to meet some of the most inspiring people in the valley to record their message and post it on our website for their clients and our’s to see (coming soon, still editing the video).

Now to jump forward to the appointment:

I showed up to the meeting with Cathy expecting to interview her using as little of my empty battery as possible, then hurry home to crash… but she had a better idea!

Within five minutes I was on her massage table. She decided to give me a taste of several of the different modalities she offers (and there’s a lot) by combining craniosacral therapy, reiki, some guided imagery/hypnotherapy, and a crystal grid activation/clearing.

As she started at the top of my spine with some CranioSacral it was as if she was finding all of the frayed ends of my power cord, wiring them back together and plugging them in.

On a side note; as I was going through the process I fell into some of the deep stages of meditation I have only experienced while using SyncCreation.

I found it amazing that even though she was the conduit for this energy download, the only energy I picked up from her was one of nurturing. This was especially significant as it has been necessary to put aside my needs for awhile as I have been focused on supporting and nurturing the nurturing women in my life, (my wife who is eight months pregnant and my Mom who has just lost her dad).

It was as if Cathy saw the inner child that I had been neglecting and energetically cradled my soul, as a cosmic mother figure, while whispering, in a voice that only my soul could hear, “it will be all right, you can shine”.

I could geek out with all of the mechanics of what she did but I am going to jump to the end. After the session I sat on a chair as she gave me a glass of water and asked how I was doing. Remember I came in on an empty battery. But now, I was so charged up I could barely find the words and muttered a half audible “excellent”.

Have you ever seen a painting of an aura? As I sat there it felt like my energy field (aura) was expanding to the point I could no longer contain it. Then in a burst my aura would jump out past its regular field to dissipate in the ever-expanding space. Then a new one would swell, jump, and dissipate as the pattern dissipated. A painting of my aura would be a ripple of ever-expanding auras. Instead of my empty battery, I was pulsating enough energy to run a small city.

Cathy and I spoke about many things after the session and I was impressed with how real she is. I have talked to some healers who have the air of perfection, like they have everything figured out. With Cathy I felt that she was there to support a beautiful experience and her gifts did not require perfection from either her or me.

What happened after I left, between last Tuesday and today, one week later? I have had more energy for the past week then I have in the past eight months, (eight months ago my life multiplied in stress with a pregnant wife, a new house that we rehab’ed, the death of my Grandpa, additional work… etc).

Even though this past week was Thanksgiving and I usually only eat, drink, and sleep, I had so much energy I could barely contain it, let alone sit still (this is the kind of energy I usually have, but have not had for many months, until now).

Here are some left brain results to the energy created: I got my house wired, I took loads to the dump, I piped the dyer vent, I winterized the boat, I picked up a wood burning stove, I pulled out all of the nasty shrubs in the front of the yard, I got my satellite working… and these are just the big things I got done.

Even with three family food events, I completed all of the things I have been saying I will do someday… with energy to spare.

Thank you, Cathy, for the beautiful experience.

Sweat lodge – Grandpa Campbell, letting go physically connecting spiritually

Three months ago I sat in my first sweat lodge and for the first time truly connected with my heritage, with the blood that flows through my veins and those that came before me.  Last, Sunday November 8^th Clancy Randall Campbell, my grandfather, died.

…

I come from a family that has done their genealogy work. I was also home schooled as a youth and part of our history was learning about our own family heritage so I knew about my ancestors. However, during the time between those history lessons and the sweat lodge I found myself drifting away from family. When my parents got divorced and my 3 older sisters left state, I made the decision that family sucks and they it causes unnecessary pain and burden.

Some time passed and I relinquished my family and spent time living, learning and analyzing who I was as I stood alone. However, my quest to find myself, with out my family, eventually brought me back to them. For how can I truly embrace myself if I do not embrace where I came from?

I started my own family, I started healing the distance that I created and allowed to be created between me and my existing family. I even reached out to my grandfather who once had to pay me $100 dollars to listen to him for 4 hours speak about his passion for family and their eternal bonds.

It was a slow process but over the years I was once again an active part of my family… an active part of my clan. But I was so rapped up in creating my own family that I didn’t spend much time connecting with my heritage, with the heritage that was still alive through my Grandfather…

… Until a good friend of mine Dustin Ford, pointed out how much I was like my grandfather. You see, months prior to my first sweat, Dustin and I, were discussing the men we are today and where we draw our strength from. Some how the topic of my grandfather came up and how he was a patriarch for not only our family but also many others (through Mormon Church).

In that conversation it dawned on me like never before how much I have followed, as a leader, in my grandfathers footsteps. I had seen similarities between my grandpa and I before but something about the way Dustin said it clicked in me and I could see and feel the strength and the heritage that was coming through my grandfather and in to me.

I started to really investigate this connection, I found myself asking my grandfather to share his stories, I found myself truly listening and seeing the strength and wisdom in his words. Fortunately, during the past year I found myself with my grandfather a lot, hearing the wisdom I was to angry to hear before.

But it wasn’t until I was in the sweat lodge that I truly connected with the power of my heritage. I connected with the strength and wisdom of my grandfather and the generations before him and I felt it in every fiber of my soul as their history ran through my veins.

As I went through the intensely raw healing experience, I had a recurring thought echoing from my subconscious “your family deserves to experience this”.   I could even feel the energy of my brothers, cousins and father but most of all, my grandfather, present during the sweat. Little did I know this process of healing, letting go and reconnecting with my heritage would play a huge roll in the months to come. Not only did that experience further fuel my desire to learn from my grandfather it also inspired me to pull strength from my ancestors and further nurture the relationships with my relatives.

I will go into more detail on the Sweat lodge experience later, but before that I must come back to the present. The day he died my Grandpa, Grandma, Mother, Cousin and cousin’s son hit a patch of black ice and slid of the road. The van careened down a ditch and my Grandfather was hurt to the point he could not breathe and died shortly after.

My grandfather was one of the toughest, hard working, men I have ever met. He would work longer, harder and with more commitment then men half his age. He taught me the value of hard work and getting things done even when it is hard or inconvenient.  He was the fittest 83 years old I have ever met. We used to say that Grandpa wouldn’t die from old age he would die when he ran out of stuff to do. None of us saw this coming!

There was no fowl play, no speeding, seatbelts were worn and Ryan handled the tough situation with honor that even the strongest men would find hard to muster in such a challenging situation. But grandpa didn’t make it. When my younger brother was told this, trying to find the positive in such a hard situation, he said “at least grandpa went out with his boots on”. He never had to face running out of things to do.

Here it is Wednesday the 11^th, 3 days after the accident and at 6:30 pm 5 of Grandpa’s grandsons and one grandson in-law are going to a sweat lodge. This wasn’t planned because of grandpa’s death. In fact it was supposed to happen last month but do to random events, sickness, travel, etc; it was postponed to this week, this day. Originally there were going to be coworkers and friends of mine coming to this sweat with me but they had conflicts come up and one by one my family members decided, that for some reason they we were going to come experience this with me.

I have heard a lot of people say, it was grandpa’s time, everything happens for a reason or they needed him on the other side. I don’t know how I feel about that and I have a hard time seeing why, in someone’s big plan, my grandpa had to die. But I do know that there are a lot of different events that have happened in the past week leading up to today, that have the fellow men of my clan coming together to experience a process of healing and connection with our ancestry.

I sat 3 months ago in a sweat lodge, for the first time really connecting with my heritage and with tears in my eyes from my overwhelming gratitude for those that came before me. Today I go to the sweat to let go physically of my grandfather and to forge a bond with him spiritually. My grandfather was a leader amongst men, a true example of Christ like, a kind caring man and today I go with my fellow tribesmen to honor him and to forever connect and find strength in his love. I love you grandpa…