“The master sticks to her tools.” ~Lao Tzu

Sunday night I enjoyed going to sleep to the sound of rain. Monday day it rained again and we had a fierce thunder-storm.

I was in the midst of a session when lightning struck close to the house and lit up the inside. I opened my eyes and jumped.

Again, that night, I enjoyed the soothing nature of rain.

In Colorado, we pray for rain. It is so dry here that we remark that we, “need the moisture.”

By Wednesday, it was still raining, this time all day long, and hard. 

That’s unusual.

My students and I watched from the window and agreed that by our next meeting, Friday, the rain would be gone for sure.

Wednesday night I had to drive through flooding on the roads to get home. I was receiving text after text warning me of a flash-flood alert.

I decided to hunker down.

Thursday morning I awoke to my neighbor ringing my bell at 7:00 a.m. My underground garage had flooded. There was water up to my knees.

I got my car out okay, and headed for my storage unit. Luckily, I only had a few boxes on the ground, the rest of my things were in plastic tubs.

I was in awe. Flooding? 

Never in my eleven years of living in Boulder had I ever seen such a thing.

I stayed in and turned on the TV to find my home-town on every news channel. 

Beloved areas, flooded. Homes, destroyed. People dying, stranded, left without power, food or water.

I felt helpless as I sat in my warm, cozy space.

The Sheriff called for people to stay off the roads. I obliged.

It got worse. The reports on the TV were alarming. The rain wouldn’t stop.

Finally, yesterday, after two days of staying in, I was able to leave my home. Roads were open and I could get a first-hand look at what had happened.

Favorite areas along the creek were no longer grassy areas where I love to lay on blankets creek-side, but now were sand banks strewn with debris.

Streets were littered with sand, dirt, trash. 

News anchors camped out in Central Park.

 

It seemed a dream.

I realized how much I love this land, that a large part of why I live here is my connection to this land. To see the destruction was baffling and heart-breaking.

I was filled with compassion for all the people, the world over, who face such circumstances every day.

For most of Saturday, I listened to military helicopters flying overhead, rescuing stranded people.

What a powerful reminder of what matters most- our lives, our loved ones, our connection in community, our willingness to do our inner work and to show up and serve.

In times of duress, we can get frazzled and forget to stick to our tools. May these tools provide you peace in times of stress.

5 Quick Tips for Healing:

Click the video to see me talk about it. Scroll below to read on.

1. Deep Breathing- in through the nose, out through the mouth- this calms the nervous system. Watch the fall and rise of your chest, or stay with your breath at the heart, or imagine your breath is a wave, entering the deepest parts of your belly, filling your chest, and then leaving just as fully.

2. Hand Mudras- Hand mudras are yoga positions for your hands and fingers. They are finger “power points” that can provide healing. Try this one: Prithivi Mudra (Earth Mudra). This mudra activates our root Chakra, in which our elemental force resides. In times of strife we can feel unsafe. This mudra will strengthen our connection to the earth, our body, and give us a feeling of secure stability.

3. Contribute to the Earth– In Access Consciousness there is a practice of giving energy to the earth. Many of us are sensitive beings who are earth healers. We feel pain in our bodies because we are transmuting other people’s pain, including the earth’s, unconsciously.

Ask this question: “Is this mine, someone else’s, or something else?”

Notice what you get. If you get “Something else.” It is often the earth’s. Contribute energy to the earth by choosing to consciously send energy her way.

4. Be willing to Care– So often we are afraid to care as much as we do. We fear that we will be hurt, or rejected. We think it is easier to pretend we don’t care, so we shut down, distract ourselves and go unconscious.

Allow yourself to care as deeply as you do about all that you do. Let it crack your heart open and move you. 

5. Ask, “What is right about this that I am not getting?”- Things never show up the way we think they will. There are two ways we can view any challenge: One is to ask if it is the answer to our prayer and to accept it fully, to CHOOSE it, and to flow with the river of life. The other is to resist it, blame it, reject it, and allow it to worsen our suffering.

If we remain open to the possibility that the Universe is a loving and benevolent place, if we believe we shall be sustained by the love of God, then perhaps the chaos and destruction we experience is making way for the new.

I am, by no means, making light of heart-breaking events.

We need to feel our grief, face our pain, feel our loss. That is healthy and necessary. We can also choose to look for the light side of the event, to remind us that perhaps that ground needed to fall away to build a better, stronger place for us to stand.

Wherever you are, whatever you are struggling with, know that you are loved, you are safe, and everything is going to be okay. 

I love you,

Rachel Claire

P.S If you’d like other tools & resources to help with grounding your energy & feeling better, sign up for my FREE newsletter & receive 2 FREE guided meditations as my gift to you. Click here.

For some EPIC pics from Boulder, click here.