Reclaiming The Power Of Breath A Virtual Healing Series With Zoe Flowers JACKIE: All right, it is our pleasure to present another set of healing sessions with advocate healer, writer, poet, and filmmaker Zoe Flowers. Zoe provided almost 1,500 advocates with her virtual wellness sessions from March to May of this year, and we are really thrilled to have her back to guide us through another round of sessions to help us stay grounded, manage our stress, and alleviate anxiety. Zoe, please take it away. ZOE FLOWERS: Thank you, Jackie. Thank you so much, and it's been so great to work with you and the interpreters as we make our way through these ever-challenging, ever-changing times that we're all experiencing. So yes, I'm back, and welcome to all of you all that have been with us you know from March to May. So I have a couple of more resources now. So there are some resources that I put in the chat. Also have some sage. I'll talk a little bit about that at the end if you all want me to. Also, a little homemade calming oil that I made, so I'll talk with you all about how you can make your own oil too. And then, I have a little palo santo, which I like better than sage, and I will put the link to where you all can get some palo santo. I'll put the link in the chat for that as well. And palo santo is a really good calming-- it's actually a wood. They call it a sacred wood, and it's used by a lot of shamans and things like that. I actually got this when I was in Ecuador doing a retreat. It's, like, a huge bag that I got four years ago for $1, and I still have so much of it. So I did find a distributor out of Ecuador, so you won't-- and it's not that expensive-- as expensive as it would be if you got it here. So enough of my talking. Let's go ahead and get started. So just want to invite you all to relax wherever you are. Get settled in your chair. Or maybe you're joining from the couch or the bed. You might even be joining from your office, so wherever you are, just go ahead and get settled in. And if you are able to, just let your feet be firmly planted on the ground. I'm actually at a desk today, so if you want to just put right arm over left arm so that you feel grounded, and just let yourself get settled in that way. If not, you can have your palms up to receive energy and your palms down to ground yourself if you feel like you need to be more grounded. And you can either have your hands on your thighs or on the side of your hips-- totally up to you. And go ahead and roll your shoulders back. And actually, we're going to start with some stretches because, at least here, it's raining in Connecticut. My joints get a little tight. So let's just go ahead and start with some stretching. Letting your left ear fall over your left shoulder. Bringing your head back to center. Letting your right ear fall over your right shoulder. You might feel a stretch in the left side of your neck. Bringing your head back to center. So I know that I'm tight because, as I'm stretching, my feet are lifting off the ground, right? So if that is happening for you, go ahead and try to really plant your feet. Plant your heels and the balls of your feet on the floor. It's almost like you're making a perfect square, right? So really send the energy down to the ground. get. That energy from mother earth. Plant your butt firmly in the seat, and see if you can stretch that spine a little bit. Let the shoulders drop as much as possible, and then let's try it again. Letting the left ear fall over the left shoulder. Again, you might feel the stretch on the right side. Sending the energy down to the heels of the feet again and the balls of the feet, right? Bringing the head back to center. Right side-- right ear over right shoulder. Feeling the stretch in the left side of the neck. Bringing the head back to center. Go ahead and shake it out a little bit. Let your feet do whatever they want to do. Maybe rolling your shoulders around backwards- - last time. And then bringing the shoulders forward in a circular motion-- last time. We're going to go backwards one more time three times. Back, back, back, and then we're going to go forward-- forward, forward, forward. Then, we're going to look over our left shoulder. Looking back to center. Looking over our right shoulder. Back to center. Shaking the hands out again, and then just letting your hands rest wherever they want, either palms up or palms down-- totally up to you. OK, let's take a deep collective breath in together in through the nose, exhaling it out through the mouth. And on each inhalation, you're going to bring your shoulders up to the ears. So inhale up. Exhale-- drop them down. Let's do that a couple more times. Inhale up. Exhale down. Last time-- inhale up. Exhale down. If you haven't closed your eyes already, just go ahead and lower that top lid over the bottom lid, turning the gaze inward. If you find that your mind is already starting to wander, you can just send your energy to the tip of your nose. Sometimes it helps to just tap the tip of your nose with your eyes closed, and that kind of automatically draws your eye in and shifts the focus to the tip of your nose. Keeping the gaze inward, inward, inward. Allowing the breath to slow down. Checking in with yourself, what is the quality of your breath? Is it choppy? Have you been holding it, or is it smooth? Just noticing right now. Now is your time to relax, to be still. Letting the body slow down. Letting the heart rate slow down. Letting the shoulders relax. Letting the back muscles relax. Letting the hip muscles relax. Letting the thighs expand and be loose. We contract our muscles so often. Now is the time to just let them be. Letting the calves relax, ankles, feet. Letting the head be heavy. Maybe the head falls forward. Maybe it falls back. Maybe the shoulders cave in. Maybe now you feel like laying down. Whatever you need to do, this is your time. Letting the jaw relax. Sometimes, the jaw can be tight. Just go ahead and let it be slack. Let the body expand. Today, we're going to work with a beautiful, protective silver egg. And I want you to see, sense, or imagine that a beautiful, protective egg is encapsulating your body from the tip of your head to the bottom of your feet-- from the tip of your head to the bottom of your feet. And every inhale, the color becomes even more vibrant, even more silver. And on the exhale, the egg becomes wider and wider. Inhale-- vibrant. Exhale-- wider. ZOE FLOWERS: Letting the breath be slow. Paying attention to the chest-- the expansion, the retraction. Turning your attention now to the heart. And as you breathe, see, sense, or imagine that your heart is getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and wider, and wider, and wider. Your heart is so expansive that it fills up the inside of the egg. And as you continue to breathe, the egg gets lighter and lighter. And it begins to rise lighter and wider, and wider and lighter, rising higher and higher as you float within it. Higher and higher, higher and higher, through the ceiling into the sky, high above your city or your town, high above the state, allowing your concerns to release, almost seeing whatever thoughts or concerns you've been holding. See, sense, or imagine them floating out of you, out of the egg. And the more you let go, the higher you go. The more you let go, the higher you go. The more you let go, the higher you go. Everything is relaxed. The body is heavy, but the egg is light. Just allow yourself to float, maybe taking in the clouds. Maybe you see the sun in the distance. Maybe you see stars. Maybe you feel a slight rocking back and forth. Just being here, being in this moment. Now would be a good time to release any harsh words that you said or that you saw, that you wanted to say. See, sense, or imagine them just dissipating out of the egg. Any things you saw, let them dissipate outside of the egg. Any heartbreak, any anger that you've been holding in your heart, allow that to dissipate. Any fear, any concern about how you need to be or how you should be showing up, any stomach upsets, let that dissipate and flow out of the egg as you go higher and higher. Any guilt, any shame that you're tired of carrying, go ahead and let that go. See, sense, or imagine from this higher perspective a beautiful blue light shining down on the egg. That is the light of your higher self, the part of you that keeps the light on, the part of you that is unshakeable and powerful. You're so close to it now. Go ahead and ask your higher self for anything you need. Maybe you need guidance on the next steps to take. Maybe you need more peace, more quiet, more time. You can ask all of this with your mind. Just ask for whatever you need. Ask from your heart. Maybe you want more compassion, more patience, or diligence. Maybe you want to stop procrastinating, stop judging, criticizing yourself. Your higher self is just a beautiful blue energy waiting for you to ask. And ask, and ask, knowing that you may get the answer when you least expect it. You may get the answer right now. See, sense, or imagine that blue light entering your egg, filling up your egg, comforting you. You expand even more. Your heart expands even more. When you're ready, you begin to descend, floating slowly back down to Earth. The Earth comes back into view. Your city, your town, your street, you settle back down, back down into the room, back down to the floor, completely protected, com-- JACKIE: This is Jackie. It looks like we lost Zoe, so we're going to pause and hope she can rejoin us. ZOE FLOWERS: And we are back. So from wherever you are, I want you to see, sense, or imagine that beautiful protective light goes from being a wide egg to almost like a Ziploc bag coming closer to your body, securing you. And to keep this energy in, want you to see, sense, or imagine a fairy. And that fairy is sprinkling gold dust around your body. And then, you're going to go ahead and key into whatever animal energy Most. Aligns with you to protect your energy. So sometimes, I call in a jaguar or a cheetah. And I see, sense, or imagine that animal sitting directly in front of me, protecting my energy, protecting me. And every day, I command that animal to go out before me. And you can do the exact same thing. Whatever fierce animal you want to protect your energy, your peace, and whatever you asked for, go ahead and see, sense, or imagine that animal sitting in front of you now. And once you've done that, you can go ahead and start to pay attention to the scents and the sounds of your home again, the smells of your home, the sound. Bringing your attention back to the breath, maybe taking a collective inhale together, all 191 of us taking a deep breath in together. Exhaling out. Inhaling again. We are not alone. Exhaling out. Inhaling again, just thinking that there are almost 200 people on this call with you exhaling out. Taking your both hands and putting them on your heart, right hand over left. Breathing normally. See, sense, or imagine that you can connect to the 191 people on this call, that you are heart connected to them, that they are all seeking in the same way that you're seeking, that they are all wanting to shift and change in the same way that you're wanting to shift and change. Taking your hands, putting them in prayer position. Bringing your chin down to your chest. Giving thanks to yourself for showing up anyway, for doing the work anyway, for having the hard conversations anyway, for learning to love yourself anyway, and maybe even giving yourself a hug in this moment. Giving thanks to yourself, thanks and honor and grace. And from this position, we're going to turn again, right chin over right shoulder. Still having your arms crossed covering yourself. Bringing the head back to center. Left chin over left shoulder. Maybe you can turn a little bit more this time, bringing your head back to center. Right chin over right shoulder. Maybe you can go a little deeper this time. Bringing your head back to center. Shaking the hands out. And when you're ready, you can open your eyes. Welcome back. JACKIE: Thanks so much, Zoe. This is Jackie. Did you want to take a few questions, Zoe, before we wrap up today? ZOE FLOWERS: Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Let's do it. JACKIE: Great. This is Jackie. If you have any questions for Zoe, feel free to add them to the chat. ZOE FLOWERS: You're welcome. JACKIE: If you want to connect with her further, you can do so by emailing her at info@iamzoeflowers.com or going to her website, iamzoeflowers.com and connecting with her there. I just want to give a moment in case anyone wants to-- ZOE FLOWERS: Sure. JACKIE: --anything. ZOE FLOWERS: Yes, yes. So the name of the world is palo santo. So glad that you found it useful, Brit. You're so welcome, Laurel. You're welcome, Vidalia. So here is the palo santo that I was telling you about. Yeah, we do need it every day, right? So absolutely. So the oil that I made, it was like a Archangel Michael oil, and I added some olive oil to it. And so just simple things like that you can do. And I put it on my shoulders. But test it on your skin first because you don't want to have an allergic reaction. But just some olive oil, the Archangel Michael oil. It's usually red. It has a very nice scent to it. Definitely, I use that on my joints. I've been telling people about oatstraw. Oatstraw is a tea that you can drink-- good for anxiety. You'll be registering for more in the future. What a wonderful gift. Thank you. You're welcome. Yes, absolutely. The tea it's called oatstraw, O-A-T straw. Very good for anxiety. And then I've also been telling people about nettles-- nettles also for the joints. Nettles is very good for the joint and for insomnia. Drink a little nettle tea, and it has been a game changer. Absolutely, it's so good, so good for the joints. Candace, what are you using the nettles for? Allergies. So the other thing I've been doing is using a neti pot-- you all can look that up online-- for my allergies. Sometimes, I put a little salt water in the neti pot, and I just drain it in my nose and let it come out the other end. And it's so good to cleanse up here for allergies. Oh, and tulsi, T-U-L-S-I, otherwise known as holy basil, is another amazing, amazing stress-relieving tea. I used to drink that every night before bed. Do you recommend somewhere for guided meditations? Email me because I don't like the guided meditations on YouTube because sometimes they get me a little upset. [LAUGHS] So email me, and we can talk about that. Oh, the oils-- you were trying to write it down. Yeah, Archangel Michael oil. You can email me as well-- with a little olive oil. Can you write the name of the tea? Sure-- tulsi, nettles, oatstraw. Again, if you have any other questions-- sorry about the caps. Oh, do you do mindfulness with children? Oh, that's such a great question. I absolutely do. I also do reiki with children. My writing partner, her son is a gymnast. And so over the years, I've done lots of reiki and meditation with him because he had a lot of injuries. So I've done a lot of meditation with him to help him keep his mind together for gymnastics. Oh, info@iamzoeflowers.com, OK. And I also have a free e-book. So I'll just put the email in the chat for that as well. JACKIE: This is Jackie. Just want to thank Zoe so much for this, for sharing space with all of us. And really want to appreciate everyone joining us and for your patience as we encountered some technology difficulties, which is just life. So we appreciate everyone's understanding and grace. And I know some folks have already jumped off, so I just wanted to let everyone know that as you are exiting the session, a brief evaluation will pop up automatically after you leave. We would just ask if you could just take a few minutes to complete that for us, and let us know your thoughts so that we can continue to work to meet your needs. This is recorded and will be posted on the National Resource Center website, reachingvictims.org. And we will ensure that we get some of those resources listed up there as well. And again, you can email Zoe directly at info@iamzoeflowers.com. I'm more than happy to connect with her directly. And if you want to learn more about the National Resource Center or register for any of our other sessions, again, please go to reachingvictims.org the Events page, and you should see everything there. So I think that's it with our time. And again, if we didn't get to your questions or you have more questions, please pass those on to either us at the National Resource Center or to Zoe directly. ZOE FLOWERS: Sounds good, and I'll see you all next week. Thank you to the interpreters. JACKIE: Thanks, Zoe. ZOE FLOWERS: Thank you, Jackie. Hey, Takara. Bye.