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Create a Solid
Healing Foundation
The way I see it, there are just two things we need to know:
The universe has our back. Everything is going to turn out okay.
—pam grout , e-squared
While you are in this place of learning to be okay with where you are, there is space for something wonderful to happen. In the absence of the constant-fighting energy, you will now be able to create a solid foundation for your healing work. In this chapter, we’ll be setting the stage for all the shifts and changes to come. You’ll learn four effective ways to create a foundation to build on. None of these things require giant leaps of time or energy. If you’re willing to take baby steps, and take them consistently, you’re already winning.
In this chapter, you’ll gain tools to do the following:
1. Correct your body’s polarities
2. Encourage a crossover energy pattern
3. Balance your thymus gland
4. Inch your way to better thoughts and feelings
Addressing these elements is like pouring a solid cement foundation before building a house. The more stable the foundation, the easier it is to make that house stand tall, right?
Let me show you how this works.
1: Correct Your Body’s Polarities
Just like magnets, our bodies have both a north and a south pole, the south being the bottom of our feet and the north being the top of our head. In fact, every organ and cell in the body is polarized. Imagine each cell like a tiny little battery. Generally speaking, the top surfaces of your body (your stomach, tops of feet, tops of hands) should have a positive polarity and your body’s bottom surfaces (your back, bottoms of your feet, palms of your hands) should have a negative polarity. However, they are often reversed or switched. In simple terms, it is like your batteries are in backward. When this happens, we don’t function well and can be resistant to respond to energy work.
Grounding (sometimes called earthing ) is essentially the practice of connecting yourself to both the earth’s north and south poles. Grounding allows the natural healing properties and rhythms of the earth to correct the body’s polarities.
Throughout history, humans have walked barefoot and slept on the ground. This process helped the body calibrate itself to the electrical rhythm of the earth, stabilizing the electrical current of organs, tissues, and cells. In other words, our batteries worked correctly. But our modern lifestyle—including the use of rubber and plastic-soled shoes and being almost constantly connected to electrical devices like cell phones and computers—has disconnected us from the earth’s energy. Emerging research has now revealed a benefit to reconnecting with the vast supply of electrons on the surface of the earth. A study in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health concludes that reconnection with the earth’s electrons has the potential to trigger positive physiological changes linked to stress. 6 The researchers discovered that grounding the human body can “strongly influence bioelectrical, bioenergetic, and biochemical processes that appear to have a significant modulating effect on chronic illnesses.” In the study, changes in the subjects after grounding suggest a decrease in stress levels and a balancing of the autonomic nervous system (this system is the primary mechanism in control of the fight, flight, or freeze response).
Let me explain why this discovery is so essential to your healing foundation. Having reversed polarities, similarly to having batteries in backward, makes it hard for things to work correctly. This includes changing your belief system, retraining your thought patterns, and other positive changes you try to make. As an added benefit, remember that ever-so-important triple warmer meridian? The process of grounding also affects this energy dynamic. Grounding is a very gentle, natural way to coax the triple warmer meridian into relaxing. Our bodies already know how to use the earth’s supply of electrons in order to balance. When the triple warmer meridian relaxes, you do, too. It is then far easier to change habits, stress patterns, and energy patterns than it would be in the state of fighting everything.
Grounding both the north and the south poles of the energy field completes an important electrical circuit in the body to help it function. I’m going to share two ways of doing this: outdoors and indoors.
In order to ground both the north and the south poles of your body to the north and south poles of the earth, you can use the very simple technique of sitting against a tree. Find a tree, align your spine against it, and place your bare feet on the earth—either in dirt, sand (yes, I just gave you a prescription for the beach!), or grass. Hang out. That’s it. The roots of the tree carry the body’s energy down into the earth and then return it back up into the body. This is very effective for helping you complete a healthy energy circuit in your body. Fifteen to thirty minutes a day is ideal. Often, though, if I only have two or five minutes, I notice feeling better from that too.
If you don’t have a tree to sit against, walking in grass (wet grass is even better) is a very powerful grounding technique as well.
Tip: If you can’t get your feet on something natural, unsealed concrete is a good grounding source. Concrete pools, because they are underground, are excellent as well.
For this exercise, you will need a stainless steel spoon. If you are unsure if it’s stainless steel, you can check by looking for an imprint of “ss” on it.
The areas in between the tendons on the tops of the feet are places where lots of energy get stuck. Because of this, the feet can make it difficult to “draw up” a ground, which we need for healthy polarities. Using a stainless steel spoon, you can change that. Stainless steel possesses a mineral that aids in the break-up of congested energy. Using the rounded edge of the spoon on the tops of the feet, gently make big crisscross patterns with it. This will help break up energy in the tops of the feet. Next, rub the curved bottom of the spoon on the bottoms of your feet (in any pattern you wish). This helps activate little energy centers on the bottoms of the feet.
Aim to do this for a few minutes at a time, at least once or twice a day. This is a practice that is beneficial to do all the time, whether you are trying to heal from a major challenge or simply maintain a healthy energy flow.
2: Encourage a Crossover Energy Pattern
For optimal functioning of the mind and body, energy should flow in a crossover pattern in the body. This is the body’s natural way. Think about how many crossover movements are natural to the body: the brain using both its left and right hemispheres together, our arms swinging across our body when we walk, crawling in a crossover direction when we are babies, and more. Even our DNA is a crossover pattern. If your energy system has become scrambled, it will stop crossing over and start flowing in an up-and-down pattern in your body. In Donna Eden’s work, where I first learned about this, it’s called a “homolateral” energy flow. When your energy is running in this homolateral pattern, you are not at your full healing capacity. Luckily, the correction for this is easy, as long as you are persistent. Retraining your body’s energy to flow in a crossover pattern can be as simple as reminding it to do so—very consistently. Even once you reach your healing goals, this is something that you can continue doing daily. Keeping the crossover energy pattern strong in the body is essential to gain, and maintain, your well-being.
Tracing around the eyes in a crossover pattern is a great energy retraining tool that takes very little effort. I’ve found this technique to be very helpful. Donna Eden also has her own exercises for this that you may want to explore.
First, place the middle finger of one hand at the bridge of your nose in between your eyes. Next, pressing firmly, trace figure eights around your eyes. Start by dragging your finger up about a half inch around one eyebrow, circling on the forehead around to the outside orbit of your eye, then under your cheekbone and back up to the starting point. Continue the pattern while dragging your finger in the same way around the other side of your eye. You’ll want to do this full trace about ten times. Repeat it three times a day or however many times feels doable for you.
3: Balance Your Thymus Gland
The thymus gland is the master gland of the body’s immune system and is located in the upper part of the chest, behind the breastbone. It sits right over the heart. Because of its location, Dr. John Diamond, a pioneer in the field of holistic healing, says the thymus serves as the link between mind and body. 7 It’s located in the area of the heart chakra, which you’ll be learning more about in Chapter Six .
The thymus is responsible for making T-cells, which are vital to healthy function of the immune system, including protection against allergies, autoimmune diseases, and immunodeficiency. I believe this makes the health of this gland essential to achieving complete and permanent healing. The thymus is so powerful, and so connected to the rest of the body, that almost any block or imbalance in the body, no matter where it is located, can be cleared through balancing it. In chapter 7, you’ll learn how to clear stuck emotions from your body using the thymus gland.
Tapping the thymus gland using your fingertips acts as a stimulating, strengthening, and balancing exercise. It’s quick and of great benefit to your overall system. Simply tap for about 15–30 seconds while you breathe deeply. This should be done at least three times a day. To make it easy to integrate, you can tie this exercise to other daily activities like getting a drink of water or going to the bathroom. Make a habit of doing thymus tapping each time you do the other activity.
Your thymus gland might be tender when you tap. Do not stop because of this. Tenderness is usually a sign that there is some stagnant energy there, which means you really need this exercise. Over time, as it becomes more balanced, it will become less sore.
4: Inch Your Way to Better Thoughts and Feelings
If you have been interested in spirituality for any time at all, you are most likely familiar with the law of attraction. This is often called “The Secret,” made popular by the movie with the same name. The law of attraction is based on the idea that “like attracts like.” This means that we attract or draw to us whatever energy we are putting out there. While the concept of the law of attraction is wonderful, we have a tendency to place blame on ourselves when things aren’t working right. Also, people often make the mistake of trying to force drastic change while they are already in a place of great struggle. This is rarely successful and can even backfire, creating a situation where you end up more frustrated, fighting against what is even harder. I’m determined to help you develop a new and positive experience with this process. I know just how powerful it can be! Instead of too-grand attempts, here we will learn just how effective baby steps can be.
The Basic Concept: Whatever You Focus On Grows
We know now that our bodies, like the universe, are full of vibrational frequencies. The law of attraction, which is based on energy and vibration, states, “That which is like unto itself is drawn.” It means that we are all sending signals out like antennae, picking up on and drawing back to us exactly what we are tuned in to. Similar vibrational frequencies attract each other. Some examples are: frequencies of love attract more love; frequencies of fear attract more experiences that cause fear; frequencies of lack (whether it be linked to money, love, or health) attract more lack.
In other words, whatever vibration or energy you give attention to in your life is drawn back to you from this big universal pool, or what Pam Grout, author of E-Squared and E-Cubed , calls the “field of infinite potentiality.” No matter what you call the energy force, though, we are saying that whatever you focus your energy on grows. So if you are feeling really good and full of positive emotions, you are sending out that signal to the Big U, drawing “matches” for that, such as health, abundance, and love, back to you. If you are feeling bad and are full of yucky emotions, you are sending that signal out and are drawing more of what matches that, such as lack, poverty, illness, and negativity. As we learned in the section on surrender, it’s important to be okay with where you are. What’s really cool is this: It’s much easier to be okay with where you are if you shift your thinking about where you are to a more positive place. And if you shift your thinking about where you are to a more positive place, you’ll then attract more of that positive vibration, which will help you move forward.
When I first learned about the law of attraction, it scared the bejeezus out of me and I hated the concept. I worried that every negative thought was making me sick. I decided I’d just pretend it never existed and I’d be just fine. But in time, I got my first law-of-attraction slap in the face when I attended a healing conference. Someone was giving an example about healing from cancer and, on a whim, asked the audience members if those with cancer would raise their hands. When the hands went up in the 500-plus-person crowd, it became obvious that 95 percent of those with cancer were seated next to each other in one long row of chairs. Astoundingly, after a short discussion, the row of people admitted almost none of them knew each other or that their seatmates had cancer. They had just been drawn together. Hello, law of attraction , right?
This is when I realized that hating the law of attraction and ignoring it is much like playing a game without reading the rules. So I decided to look at it again, in a different way, and find a way to make it work for me. When I did, I was able to be less terrified and more empowered by it. I truly believe it helped me feel better in my everyday struggle to be okay with what I was living through. Not only that, but I do believe it helped me heal, too. That’s why I really want to help you understand and use it—without any of the bad feelings or fear I had.
Let me reassure you here that all of the work you will be doing throughout this book will increase your vibration, your positive energy, and help you shift your thoughts, and therefore will automatically work to your benefit regarding the law of attraction. The less negative energy you are storing within your body, the higher your overall vibration and energetic focus will be, without even consciously trying. You’re already moving in the right direction just by being here. Hooray! However, changing your conscious thought pattern is something you can do right now, and all the time. That’s why I am sharing this process with you here.
My Perspective on the Law of Attraction
Because of the “like attracts like” concept, the law suggests that by simply changing your thoughts, you can change how you feel, which then affects your energetic vibration and your reality. Most law-of-attraction gurus teach that your thoughts create your reality—end of story.
I am a bit of a law-of-attraction liberalist, though. I believe our thoughts and the vibrations behind those thoughts greatly influence our reality. Like, big time. We are co-creators in our lives. Nothing happens completely to us. However, I think there are some other factors at play, too. As much as I believe that we are powerful beings, I also believe that sometimes yucky things just happen in life, and we can’t make ourselves crazy trying to trace back to how we “attracted” them.
As far as shifting your energy to the positive, here’s what you need to know. When your desire or vibration aligns completely with your highest good, that is your superpowered point of attraction. What that means is that you’re in charge of trying to send out the best signal possible (yeehaw!), but the universe is also conspiring for your highest good. Delays in manifestation have always been beneficial for me, so don’t jump to the conclusion for yourself that they are due to some wrongdoing or thinking on your part. Your manifestation process has some universal puppet strings attached and they’re pulling you in the right direction, too. In other words, you’re pretty darn cool and powerful, but it’s not 150 percent you, okay?
I know it can be hard to swallow the idea of being in such a powerful co-creating position of our realities, because we have learned that everything in life happens to us. And it can feel like just so much responsibility to know we can change things to such a drastic degree. In her book A Return to Love , Marianne Williamson, an author and spiritual leader, says, “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.” Truth.
In addition to making us afraid of our power, the law of attraction often activates our “blame-brain” mode. It’s my fault for thinking negative thoughts. Before you start to freak out, though, it’s important to remember a couple of key things.
First, manifestation doesn’t happen instantly. Hallelujah! The vibration must have some momentum or force behind it. That means that you get lots of time to practice turning your attention to what you want to attract more of and turning away from that which you don’t want. Trust me, I have many, many “imperfect” thoughts and I don’t immediately get struck down by terrible things. It’s because each of my fleeting thoughts does not hold enough power to throw some cosmic force into a fit. Thank goodness.
Another thing to keep in mind is that intention counts for a lot. Having strong intention that we want to feel better or feel relief from our current situation is actually a high vibration. So even when we’re feeling really, really crappy, we have the biggest opportunity to use that to send out the signal of I want to feel good . We can focus on the positive feeling or desire of the good. Our strong desire to feel good counts for so very much, so even these “bad times” are nothing to beat yourself up about. Great news, right? This Abraham-Hicks quote explains it so well: “There will be a time, not so far from now, that you will look back on this phase of your life and instead of condemning it or beating up on it … Instead of blaming or guilting, you will feel appreciation for it, because you will understand that a renewed desire for life was born out of this time period that will bring you to physical heights that you could not have achieved without the contrast that gave birth to this desire.” 8
Think of the law of attraction as a universal matchmaking service. It’s not out to hurt or punish anyone. It’s just trying to find an energetic match to and for you. No one gets in trouble for “bad” or “negative” thoughts or beliefs. It’s all just an energy dance we are doing with the universe. It’s our job to learn to be our best vibration and just let the universe match us up real nice with what’s meant to be for us.
Find a Better-Feeling Focus
Feeling better is really all about a subtle shift from always focusing on what’s going wrong to focusing on what’s going right, even if there doesn’t seem to be much going right. I’m not at all asking you to ignore the negative (trust me, I tried and that definitely doesn’t work). But acknowledging it and feeling it and then choosing to shift your thinking and feeling to even just a slightly better focus is a very healing practice. This will help during the times of surrender when you must work with what you have in the moment. For this practice, baby steps are actually preferred. You can inch yourself to feeling good where you are, and it will be much easier than trying to make massive leaps. If you find a way to spin a thought toward the positive even just one time a week, you’re headed in the right direction.
Focus on a Solution
While focusing on symptoms and discontent is going in the wrong direction, focusing on a solution can invoke the positive. It doesn’t matter what the thing is. As long as you can find a way to feel good about it, your signals are golden. Many of us who are strong believers in the natural healing paradigm can become desperate or down if we turn to anything other than natural healing modalities. We feel like failures. Really, though, any energy you put toward your healing can be beneficial, as long as you find a way to feel good about it. I’ll give you this example so you can see how it works, even with something you might tend to feel bad about. Instead of saying or thinking “I’m taking medicine because this virus is destroying my body and I can’t heal myself fast enough,” you’d shift to “I am taking this medicine to help heal my body while I do the inner work. This is giving me an opportunity to relax and get some support to heal my body, which will help me feel good even faster.”
Do you see how that works? Do you see how that would help you relax into where you are right now? Changing your thoughts and focus can be done in a subtle way and still be powerful. Your next thoughts could be something like “I won’t need this support forever.” “I’m thankful I have this option so I can relax because that’s healing.” “It feels good that it’s not all on me right now.”
This type of thought-pattern transformation helps you find relief with where you are, and in that, you raise your vibration, too. Remember the surrender experience we talked about earlier? Well, the gentle redirection of your thoughts fits right into that. The fastest way to get to a new, better-feeling situation is to make peace with your current situation. If you constantly fight against the unfairness of your situation, you hold yourself as a match to that energy, and it’s very hard to get somewhere better.
Identify What You Want
Stop when you find yourself talking about or thinking about what you don’t want, and immediately start telling yourself what you do want. Instead of “I can’t stand this pain anymore. I can’t live like this because it’s just so horrible,” try “I want to feel good. I want to be able to live freely.” Do not use any negative words when you shift your talk, because whatever you focus on grows. You are trying to grow the positive, which is what you do want. If you focus on “I don’t want to feel this way,” you are giving your focus to feelings of what you don’t want and sending out signals for that very thing.
Journaling
I don’t keep a journal in the traditional sense. However, I do have a “manifestation journal” that I use occasionally. In it, I write not about how I feel, but how I want to feel or what I want to be happening. This is an excellent way to raise your vibration and start feeling good about things even if you aren’t quite there yet in reality. It invokes the emotion or feeling that you do want. For example, when my literary agent was shopping my work around, I was going through some cycles of self-doubt, which all writers go through. But in my journal, I was actually writing about how good it felt to know I was working with the right publisher and how perfectly everything was working out. I imagined the call I got from my agent and described it in my journal as if it had already happened. By adding details about the call, the offer, and how it made me feel, I was triggering the positive vibration of my desire in an effort to help me manifest that into reality. And we know how influential feeling good is by now, right? For this exercise, just write your journal or diary entry as you would any other, but make it up! Write as if all your grandest desires have come true that day. This technique really is effective, not to mention fun.
Find the “Why”
By asking yourself why you want something, you can bring up the positive emotion that will help you attract more of it. Remember, thoughts alone are not enough—we need the feeling behind them.
For example, ask yourself, “Why do I want this healthy body?” Your answer may be something like, “So I can travel again.” “So I can work full-time doing something I love.” “So I can be a part of the family more.” Visualizing these things will bring up the positive emotion to shift your vibration to a positive place. Pay attention to how you feel when you’re doing this shifting and visualizing. If something feels bad to visualize (even if it’s seemingly positive), find something else to focus on that invokes only positive emotion. Our hidden fears and agendas can sometimes bring up negative emotions, so pay careful attention to this.
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You now have three very solid ways to turn your attention to a positive place. But before we wrap up, here’s one last, but very important, reminder. You are not allowed to use this knowledge as a weapon for blame. I truly believe it’s our job to do what we can to hold a positive vibration, but timing is divine and sometimes things are just doing what they need to do because of something we can’t see. It’s important not to blame ourselves when things don’t happen as we intend, but instead to just keep on doing what we can. Keep inching forward. You’re doing just great.
You now know some powerful ways to build a strong healing foundation: correcting polarities by grounding, organizing your energies by encouraging a crossover pattern, balancing the thymus gland, and inching your way to better thoughts and feelings. Make sure you attend to them all lovingly and very consistently. This is where it all starts, baby!
In the next chapter, we will learn how to identify blockages so we can really start to balance the energy system for deep healing.
6 . Gaétan Chevalier, et al., “Earthing: Health Implications of Reconnecting the Human Body to the Earth’s Surface Electrons,” Journal of Environmental and Public Health Vol. 2012 (Jan. 12, 2012), www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3265077.
7 . John Diamond, MD, “Thymus Gland, The,” John Diamond, MD , www.drjohndiamond.com/qdiamond-wikipediaq/129-thymus-gland-the.
8 . Abraham-Hicks, “Law of Attraction Journals,” Abraham-Hicks Publications , www.abraham-hicks.com/lawofattractionsource/journal.php.