allison keli – Page 4 – Swellness Vibes

Swell Recommendations!

Here we go!

I’m not sure how often I will post recommendations — either annually, semi-annually, quarterly, seasonally — but I think it’s a superb idea to list current things I find swell in the world.

So for this first round-up, it’s going to be heavy on self-promotion, but I promise, it won’t always be this way.

Podcasts

Naturally I think my own podcast is super swell! It’s traveling along the lines of this blog — in terms of holistic health topics, spiritual topics — but I’m sure they won’t always meander the exact same path.

It is called Woo Woo BBQ. The premise is we’re going to roast — or toast — or maybe a bit of both — whatever we’re cooking up for the episode.

For now we are just on Spotify. We have the trailer, an introduction about who we are and why we’re doing the podcast, and three episodes. The episodes cover Reiki, magic mushrooms and El Camino de Santiago.

On Spotify * On Instagram * On the Web

Shopping

The last time I traversed to Salem, MA, it was during Covid shutdowns so I wasn’t able to make it inside this store. But I think, if you have any need for witchy items, you should check out Hauswitch. I’ve ordered some various items from them, and I’m sure I will continue to do so. They’ve got a lot of fun things. |I have no affiliation with this place, just FYI.

Reading

More self-promotion here, and yes, I’ve mentioned it before here. But if you need an easy read, full of woo woo things, love triangles, banter about destiny vs. free will, prophecy, silly dogs and wary cats, then this book is for you. Join Violet as she discovers who she really is, and why it matters. Set in suburban Atlanta, read on to find what happened When Violet Got Bored. On ebook or paperback; free to Kindle Unlimited readers on Amazon.

Like spooky, historical fiction? Check out The Hauntings of DoG Street: Chowning’s Tavern on Kindle Vella. It follows a modern college student who begins to realize she has a natural gift speaking with the dead… in this case, people who lived in Colonial Williamsburg, back when it was just Williamsburg, during colonial times!

Who is the Man in the Hat? What does he want? First 3 chapters ALWAYS free.

Have a kiddo? Phenix & Fox: Shooting Stars is my children’s book. It’s in paperback, ebook, and a coloring book variation. This summer it will be released in full color via hardback. And you heard it hear (haha) first: the book will be released sometime soon via Audible, read by none other than me!

Animals

It’s bird-watching season in my part of the woods, so I highly recommend some nesting birdseed blend for your flight babies. If you have a local Wild Birds Unlimited near you, they’ll let you order online and pick the seed up! |I have no affiliation with this place, either.

Eats

I found these at Whole Foods, I think. Babybel has just introduced NON DAIRY wax cheese! AAACK! I freaking loved it! My kid hated them. It reminded me of something — some flavor from my childhood — but I couldn’t place my finger on it. If you have eaten them and have an idea? Email me and let me know! |And you’re right if you’re thinking that Babybel is not sending me money, or free cheeses.

Oils

Rocky Mountain Oils has been, quite probably, my favorite brand for close to ten years. They recently interviewed me via Zoom for a short feature. You can watch it here, or visit them on the web here and check the oils out for yourself. I love the chakra blends and immune system blend. Yes, I’ve already blogged about this in a few places.|It looks like they do have an affiliate program out there, but no, I’m not a part of it.

I think that’s a good enough start for the first List of Swell Things! (Of course I’m thinking of Oprah’s Favorite Things when I type that. Of course!)

Stay swell out there.

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Hay House Meditation Challenge

You know how I love to do all of these challenges and then report back! (I did this meditation challenge at the same time I did the Spirit Worker Challenge which you can read about here.)

This one was a 7-day meditation challenge from Hay House with Matteo Pistono explaining the process each day. I had just come across the 4-day spiritual awakening challenge from Hay House when this thing popped up, too.

Naturally, I did both.

Day One by Louise Hay

Let’s get this party started! The morning meditation was almost 30-minutes long; it seems like most of these challenges last around 10-15 minutes, speaking to our busy lives and limited attention spans. However, Louise Hay is more old school as far as I’m concerned, so the longer duration probably speaks more to the time she recorded it. Certainly longer sessions are more beneficial than shorter ones, but it’s also better to do anything than nothing!

Louise Hay herself passed in 2017, so hearing her voice again, being soothed by it with her affirmations and gratitude was like covering myself in an old, favorite, warm blanket.

Hell! She even convinced me to thank my refrigerator this morning.

Evening with Louise Hay

Another longer meditation, and I fell asleep to Louise Hay’s voice. Both of these offered the old affirmations that we collectively used to use to start our days. I must say, some of that has passed on in my own life, but it’s a nice reminder that it’s still there for me to use.

Day Two

Morning by Kyle Gray

A much shorter meditation for the morning; it was a body scan. I’ve done a million body scans, and each offer their own insights. But I liked this one because it allowed us to apologize to ourselves for the various abuses we’ve done to these shrines (as well as others having harmed us, too). It lead us into being willing to change and support our bodies more. With a lilting Irish accent, it was lovely.

Evening by Nirlipta Tuli and Uma Dinsmore-Tuli

It was a Yoga Nidra led by Nirlipta Tuli and Uma Dinsmore-Tuli. I was so excited. I’ve never done Nidra before, but I’ve heard wonderful things about it. I’d say within thirty seconds of its start… I fell asleep.

Which is the point of Yoga Nidra. However, I had wanted to be awake for some of it at least! I was very tired. Oi! I suppose this means I should just attend a live class.

Day Three

Morning by Joan Z. Borysenko, Ph.D

A 30-minute challenge which focused on the breath, focused on imagining limbs growing heavy, limbs growing warm. I had monkey mind, but overall was still able to focus enough to get something out of it. I had a hard time with the warm limbs because some of my body areas were already receiving sunlight! The heaviness was nice, though, and for some reason it was really easy to feel with my right leg.

Evening with Robert Litman

This was 20-minutes long and meant to reset nervous system. He explained about benefits of breathing through the nose vs through the mouth, which was cool learning about the science. However, I felt like it was more lecture than meditation.

Day Four

Morning with Jeralyn Glass

She called it a work for our endocrine system, although she didn’t explain why we were working with that system or how it affected the system. Yet, this so far has been one of my favorite meditations. It was sound healing. All of the singing bowls were easy to get lost in and absorb their vibrations.

Evening by Dick Sutphen

This was a FULL HOUR! As it was supposed to lull you to sleep, I suppose it worked–I missed the whole thing again. I’m not going to lie–all of these meditations going on while I’m asleep make me a little nervous because of whatever subconscious psychobabble is taking place while I’m snoozing. His voice didn’t resonate so much with me; it seemed like a voice from a television show.

While I’m trusting that Hay House wouldn’t say anything negative, that scene from the Workin’ Moms episode named “Consent” still lingers! (One word summation for the episode: creep.)

Day Five

Morning by Spring Washam

THIS was perfect timing as I was doing the Spirit Worker Challenge with James Van Praagh. This also spoke to overcoming fear. This woman’s voice and guidance were lovely. It was a short 20-minutes and I wouldn’t mind listening to this one again.

Evening by Belleruth Naparstek

I’m not sure if it’s the meditations or life that are causing me to fall asleep so quickly this week, but I missed the guided meditation and fell into dreamland very quickly. I must say, though, that I had vivid dreams occur the following morning!

Day Six

Morning with davidji

I really enjoyed myself. This is the first walking meditation I have ever tried. I wish the speaking part had lasted a little bit longer, but being guided about what to focus and feel as I encountered my walk, and then listening to the music. I walked slowly, much more slowly than usual, but it seemed to work with the music.

Evening with Nicky Sutton

This was a 2-hour sleep meditation, and she had a nice, soothing voice. It almost reminded me of ASMR, the type of inflections she used. I turned it off before it ended, although I had totally fallen asleep upon hitting play. Very hypnotic.

Day Seven

Morning by Anita Moorjani

She spoke of different frequencies. While I meditated, I was in and out of consciousness, yet was acutely aware of her voice in the background.

Evening by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

It was sad to have the final meditation by another one of the lost greats, and he focused on mantra sounds. OM and shal-OM; expressing gratitude; sinking into sleep.

Night times seemed to all basically be some form of hypnosis with positive affirmations; letting go; having gratitude. There’s nothing wrong with that, but my personal ego is still so mad that it was so easy to fall asleep because I feel like I missed so many of the recordings. They clearly served their purpose well!

For more information about Hay House and their offerings, visit here. Or you can just purchase their Empower You Unlimited Audio app. The app has some freebies and I think when they offer these series for free throughout the year, they’ll just automatically pop up in your app. Another bonus in the app–you can set a sleep timer to the meditations and your phone will just turn off.

Happy Meditating!

A Podcast You Want to Listen to

And no, not my own; however, soon I will be sharing a post {potentially seasonal posts at that} with a list of all sorts of things that I’m currently finding swell, and I will be sharing details about my own podcast at that point.

But! This was brought to my attention just last night that Jane Fonda had been interviewed for a brand new podcast! My nerdy self was so excited to hear about it.

I gave a listen this morning, and it will not disappoint.

Firstly, Julia Louis-Dreyfus is the one hosting this podcast and it’s called Wiser Than Me. Since my family is obsessed with Seinfeld, Louis-Dreyfus is a part of my regular lexicon. When I found out it was her podcast that was just a bonus.

The premise:

Julia Louis-Dreyfus wants to know why the hell we don’t hear more from older women, so she’s sitting down with Jane Fonda, Carol Burnett, Amy Tan, Diane von Furstenberg, Isabel Allende and Fran Lebowitz (and more!) to get schooled in how to live a full and meaningful life.

The premise is brilliant AF, and be warned, speaking of the ‘F’ in AF; she drops the ‘F’ bomb like it’s saving her life. It’s pretty funny. If you’re not a fan of curse words, I’d stay away from this one.

If you don’t care, GIVE A LISTEN. Not only is the premise worthy, not only is this whole thing timely (it just came out this month), she interviewed Jane Fonda! (And if you want to see my post regarding exercising with Ms. Fonda earlier this year, read about it here.)

I still haven’t watched Grace & Frankie, and now I want to read all of her damn books. (Thanks a lot, Julia.)

Jane discusses how she’s broken her own life into three acts: Act I is ages 0 – 30; Act II is 30 – 60; Act III is 60 – 90. She drops sage advice like nasal drip running from my allergic nose. Seriously. Of course she does. She’s eighty-freaking-five years old!

I listened while I walked, and had goose bumps for a lot of the walk. That’s how you know something is real; something is true.

Hear it here and then share it with every female you know, even the young ones.

Growing old ain’t for sissies.

I can’t wait to hear more of these podcasts. So far Isabel Allende and Fran Lebowitz have also been interviewed.

Spirit Worker Challenge

I took this particular challenge on at the same time that I did the Hay House 7-day Meditation Challenge, which you can read about sometime soon. (And I’ll edit this intro and link the posts together after it’s written.)

This challenge was only 4-days long with James Van Praagh, who has been around for eons, but I don’t think I’ve ever read any of his work or watched him speak.

Day One

Are you called to be a Spirit Worker?

Van Praagh defined the three types of spirit work he believes there are — healing, psychic and mediumship — and ran the listener through a body scan. He also gave us homework which was to choose a random word from any book and then write how you feel about it. (My word was affluent.)

He also suggested going around town and stopping to feel the energy of people you come across. Even at the store. This reminded me of an exercise my friends and I used to do when we were training to be Reiki practitioners.

Quotes and tidbits from today:

It’s easier to heal and hear in the stillness. Intuition is the soul’s voice. The soul is limitless. Get out of your head and into your heart. God go before me, and show me the way.

Day Two

Mediumship

Overall, the talk was a good jumpstart for those beginning to explore mediumship. Van Praagh spoke about the differences between being psychic and being a medium. He intoned short meditations to explore mediumship (no homework this time) and when I went to do them that night… I fell straight asleep!

One part rubbed my ego the wrong way. Van Praagh explained how some of his past clients had told him about clarity they had gained regarding their child’s death. (I’m going to assume this was over plenty of time, not like it was an immediate reaction to having Van Praagh connect to a loved one.) The clarity gleaned? The death and subsequent contact with the passed child was really a boost for their own spiritual awakening.

Trust me, I know it’s not intended to cheapen the loss of a child and at my core, I understand what he is saying, but as the current mother of a young child, and practitioner with several clients who have had their own children pass before them, I say AAAAACK. Consider me not wanting to be enlightened.

Quotes and tidbits from today:

Surrender yourself and relax your mind. Ask and receive from others. A Medium is in between frequencies of earth and spirit. Spirit will lower themselves to be with you as you raise yourself up. Love and fear are what exist; choose to live in love!

Day Three, Day Four

Healing > I do not have much commentary on this particular day other than to comment that it happened. I’m going to assume this particular path resonated least with me… since I’m already doing healing work.

How to Overcome Spiritual Blockages

He spoke with a few people live, for free, on a Zoom call. How cool is that?!

Quotes and tidbits:

God says yes, we say no. Don’t think, feel. Get out of your own way. Sit and be in the quiet. Allow things to happen. Don’t force it. One step at a time. Mediumship is not a rush, a run. Slowly develop it. Go from head to your heart. We tend to use stories to describe ourselves, but that’s just a story; not who you really are. Whatever people think of you is not your business; it’s theirs.

My husband eavesdropped on this call and gleaned some insight himself. Hard not to quietly giggle at that one. He’s not turned off to this type of living, but he doesn’t spend a lot of time in the realm, either.

General Homework: Write one page describing how you look at yourself, whatever comes to you. Let your soul speak to you. How you think you are. Another page called ‘fear’ and list the things you are afraid of; describe your limitations. Describe why you can’t do things. On the next page, write about ‘love’. Sit in quiet for three minutes then set intention to your heart. Write how you feel about love, kindness and compassion. Feel love and see where you resonate most.

He also gave us a mantra that he uses day and night. He says it three times each time, changing the vibration, changing the frequency in the energy field with his intention.

Healthy am I

Happy am I

Holy am I

And so it is

Final Thoughts

If you’re interested in a full course with James Van Praagh, Hay House is currently offering a huge discount until tonight at 11:59PM PST on April 17, 2023. Maybe they’ll extend it?

It sounds like the class is offered at least yearly. My guess is they offer this free seminar to garner interest, or as a platform to kick off the full course every year.

You can wait until later in the year/next year to see if it comes up again, or just sign up for the full course. If you take it, let us know how it goes!

Essential Oils + Serendipity

I use several brands of essential oils, but my favorite brand is Rocky Mountain Oils. I started using them around the time of their merger with Native American Nutritionals. (I think that’s what the other company was called! It’s been so long.)

(Unrelated, it’s hard to focus as my cat, Pilot, is staring at me and rolling all around me.)

In January of this year, I got a chat sent to me from Rocky Mountain Oils via Instagram. While I know I’m literally in the business of love, trust, acceptance and all that, I’m quite terribly skeptical, slightly cynical, and not very trusting. (Look, I’m a WIP like anyone else!!!)

This “passion project” of one of the owners of the oil company was presented to me as a Zoom interview by an assistant. The assistant would interview me and highlight what I’m doing in my tiny little corner of the world.

Did I mention how much I love their oils? I use their chakra oils weekly on myself and incorporate them into my practice pretty often. Also, I assure you, I’m not making any money if you click on the link or order from them. I’m just sharing what’s swell.

At any rate, the interview turned out to be a real thing. I was a nervous wreck. I’d seen some of their other videos (and by the way, I intend to watch as many as possible). There are SO many fascinating women out there doing their thing, their wonderful, amazing thing–and I find them all so inspirational. This passion project is such a lovely idea.

Prior to the interview, I had prepared some information which was going to last about 5 minutes. Only when I got on the call, I was told that interest was dropping off at the 2-3 minute mark and I should try to keep it that short.

I blubbered through the darn thing trying to figure out what I wanted to touch upon. A great lesson in adaptation. But hey, all the same, I put myself out there.

I had truly just asked the Universe how I was supposed to have these kismet moments, serendipitous happenings anymore?

I rarely leave the house!

And the Universe said, you can still sync up, you can still get caught in the flow… through Instagram.🤪🤪🤪🤪

You can watch the madness here.