Some time last week, in the early hours of the morning, I was wide awake and my brain was full of words, like a storm in tea cup and I originally wrote a blog post. But then I looked at what I had written and felt it could be edited to be a prose poem so I did exactly that. I happened to be reading a short piece of prose on Elephant Journal and in the corner of my eye I saw the WRITE Button. In the heat of the moment and in such a delirious state of awake and dreaming I submitted my prose poem to them. I honestly thought I’d never hear back from them or perhaps receive an email telling me my article was rejected. Because lets face it, Elephant Journal are HUGE with millions of viewers reading their articles and I am pretty sure they are picky as to who they decide to publish with them.

And yet, with the space of 24 hours an email was sent to me by one of the editors telling me they loved what I submitted want to publish my piece! I was over the moon! Elephant Journal chose me! WOW! This has been a mini goal of mine to show work with them and it came true!
This article is very personal about my childhood and how at 30 I now want to re-discover and heal my inner child through Yoga…..

I grew up in a turbulent childhood, I don’t want to dwell on the past or get the violins out; it’s just a fact I have made peace with (or, at least am trying to).

Growing up fast was vital, I was molded into a serious, quiet kid and expectations of me to be clever, independent and mature were very high.

The invisible rule book was my bible and my mother’s stern words were my psalms.

I was the trophy child, the one who had her entire life mapped out for herself by the age of 10, the perfect teenager who didn’t get wasted or come home past curfew and the respectable 20-something who found pleasure in being a domestic goddess, cheerily catering to ex-partner’s every need and being the nicest doormat you’d ever walk all over. I never stepped out of line, and I was dutiful to a fault.

I was so consumed with being the prissy good girl, I lost myself completely in the people-pleasing madness.

And yet I ached to break free.

I desired to be delightfully wayward.

I needed to be unabashedly playful….

So without further adieu you can read the rest of my first article with Elephant Journal here!

The energy of the third chakra, often referred to as the solar plexus or Manipura, is the formation of the independent self – independent from our tribe and independent from external relationships. It is a personality separate from any inherited characteristics. However, if the first and second chakras are out of balance, then the Manipura develops issues related to fragile personal power and low self esteem.

Since the root chakra resonates with familial tribal power and the sacral resonates with the flowing power between others and the self, the third chakra relates to our independence and personal power within the external world….

To see more, click on this link: The Third Chakra: How it Impacts Your Personal Power.

The energy of the second chakra, sometimes known as the sacral chakra or Svadhisthana, is the power of partnerships, how we begin to relate to others outside the family tribe, the creative exploration of life and relationships, sexuality, and discovering the power of choice.

The sacral chakra resonates with our need for relationships and our need to control or create the dynamics of our physical world. The second chakra shifts from obeying tribal, family authority and allows us to discover satisfying relationships and interests of our own.

Click on the link to read more: The Sacral chakra: How it impacts your relationships & creativity.

The third article is scheduled to be published in about two weeks so stay tuned for that and the fourth & Fifth have been sent to be edited. I only have the last two chakras left to work on over April.

It was discussed between Yogi Approved and I that in the new year I was to write articles about each of the seven chakras and I am excited to announce the first one!

“Our emotions reside physically in our bodies. On a subtle level, our bodies communicate with the energies around us and certain energetic impulses usually relate directly to a certain part of the body and chakra that’s weakened or imbalanced.

Each chakra represents a spiritual life lesson or challenge to help us gain a more in-depth understanding of our personal and spiritual power. This in turn helps us learn how to overcome obstacles, let go of emotional blockages, and walk the path towards spiritual consciousness.”

The first chakra in your body is known by several names: root, base, or Muladhara. The energy of the base chakra or Muladhara is tribal power; this is all about family dynamics and how you connect with group identities later on in life. “Muladhara” in Sanskrit means “foundation.” The base chakra keeps us grounded, rooting us to familial beliefs that support the early formations of identity and a sense of belonging.”
Click on the link here to read more: The Base Chakra: How it Impacts Your Quality of Life

So the cat is out of the bag! Here is my extra special article with Yogi Approved, that I have been patiently waiting to show you all! This one I am really proud of and so happy with. I plucked up the courage to contact a very lovely Yogi & Yoga Teacher a while back to ask her if she is interested in being interviewed by me; what is the worst that could happen? She says ‘No’ or just ignores my email? No harm done. So I took a chance & Well She said YES! May I present to you my interview with the beautiful & quirky Krista Marie Starr!

Another reason I feel great about this is because this is my 6th published article with Yogi Approved since May 2015 and I have some more on the way for next year involving the Chakras, potentially another interview, a yoga/photography project and a personal story.

So without further ado here is my interview with Krista Marie Starr.

The weekend of Halloween was a busy one for me. Waking up at 6:30am I had to make my way to Totnes from Plymouth to attend a Reiki training & attunement workshop. Saturday and Sunday were long days, starting at 9:30am and finishing at 5:30pm. In many ways the weekend workshop was intensive because there is so much to learn but it was also calming and I was luckily in a very supportive group of 6 women. It was just so lovely to talk about magical things over tea like merry witches on Halloween! Our teacher Veronica Friend is just lovely and informative, you really feel like you are being guided safely through the workshop by her.

Being attuned to Reiki wasn’t something I planned to do, I knew the basics of it and I am open to most holistic subjects. What sent me down this path to sign up for this workshop was a recent interview I wrote with someone (this interview is soon to be published) whose instagram I like and I saw that she had been attuned to Reiki. This woman is living in Canada but something stirred my curiousity and for some reason I google searched “Reiki training, Devon” and I wasn’t expecting anything to show up or if it did, I expected the training to cost an arm and a leg, however by chance I found one that I could afford, being held in a town 30 minutes away from Plymouth and happening on Halloween! This seemed too good to be true and also pretty strange my Yoga interview lead me to this workshop only two weeks before it was to happen. I didn’t want to miss this opportunity and booked that time off work.

What I love about Reiki is that it can be applied to anything and I felt like it would be a good idea to incorporate this knowledge (alongside Chakra Balancing) into my dance workshops and even during Indian Head Massage. I am unsure yet if I want to do my Level two, right now I feel like my Level one is just enough but we shall see.
If you want to learn more about Reiki and it’s three (sometimes four) levels, click here.
and here is the lady I trained with: Veronica Friend.

My 2nd article has now been published! I am really proud of this piece for many reasons. Firstly I wanted to show people my writing style and it is only recently I found out this style has a name and is called “Prose Poetry” which according to wikipedia it is: poetry written in prose instead of using verse but preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis and emotional effects. Prose poetry should be considered as neither primarily poetry nor prose but is essentially a hybrid or fusion of the two, and accounted a separate genre altogether.
I have been writing this way since forever and I think my entire lifestyle has a sense poetry to it, even my dreams are poetic so it kind of fits me. Secondly you may notice a rebellious streak hidden in some of the verses, this is slightly targeted at certain people around me who live a certain way (which is fine if that makes them happy) but when they try to project their lifestyle onto me, to try to change me, it is a massive bugbear- No I don’t care about your expensive sofa and I am not interested in making more money or discussing my hours at work, what part of ‘That is not the real me’ don’t you understand? I have countless interests and I am working on many things, talk to me about any of them, pick one-it’s not rocket science! Phew!

Also these words I wrote are true to me in so many ways, I do wear odd socks, I talk to my house plants and I have met ‘soul mates’ in the strangest of places. I think it is important to always be yourself regardless of what society thinks. Yes, I do live in this superficial, consumerist world but that does not mean I am brain washed by it. And lastly, I wrote this in honour of my Auntie Carol (My Mum’s eldest sister) who lead a tragic life and died in a psychiatric hospital at the age of 60. When my Aunt was younger she was an incredible playwrite and poet and she even had two of her poems published in a book. Some family members have commented that I look like her with my jet black wild, curly hair and that parts of my personality resemble her because she was quirky and very artistic. So this piece is dedicated to my Aunt.
To view my latest article click on this link: I am a Fearless Dreamer
I am super stoked the editor loved this piece (including the quote which is actually mine) because it did come from my heart and I hope you guys like it too. I am currently working on my 3rd piece and the editor of Yogi Approved is featuring me alongside other writers as an inspiring contributor so stay tuned for that!