SWIHA Blog

Sharon Rose made the trek out to Arizona following an opportunity in her previous career of hospitality and to experience a much-needed change in scenery. Attending a school like Southwest Institute of Healing Arts was far from her mind. At the time, she had no idea that her recreational and self-preservationist interests in yoga would become such huge components of her life path, and ultimately, the fulfillment of her life purpose.

After four months here in the desert, a sinking feeling began to creep into her soul that something significant was missing. Looking back, she shares, “I became uninspired and mentally checked out. I started practicing yoga at Spirit of Yoga around this time. I realized then that I wanted to pursue yoga full time and decided to look into SWIHA.”

Meet Cameo Rose of Foxy Fruit Açai Bowls & Smoothies! This girl is serving beautiful bowls to beautiful souls and changing lives through her passion for and knowledge of Holistic Nutrition.

This dream life wasn’t always her reality, though. To hear Cameo talk about her sheer fervor and zeal for Holistic Nutrition and Urban Farming, you would never believe that just a few years ago before attending SWIHA, Cameo found herself trapped in a cycle of negativity. As she puts it, “I knew something had to give, or else I would feel this way forever.” She decided to dive in and begin researching how to live a more healthful life.

From there, she was exposed to a seemingly infinite fount of information about healthy eating. She talks of this time fondly; as if her life burst open, made colorful in the presence of organic options after living for years in the black and white world of processed foods and unconscious living. “I started falling in love with healthy eating, creating delicious vegetarian recipes, and taking care of my mind, body, and soul for what seemed [to be] the first time in my life.”

She is excited! We are excited! And the world will soon be excited for one of SWIHA’s #GreatGraduates, Brianna Bedigian.  She is releasing her first book this next week.  It’s entitled Healing Footstep to Footstep.

Brianna is a highly trained and gifted healer, and a graduate of the SWIHA Hypnotherapy program.  After being diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome, Brianna dug deep to create and undergo her own healing process, and chronicled it through journaling and photography. After her recovery, and years of optimum health, Brianna looked back and reflected on the narrative that unfolded.  One step at a time, footstep to footstep, her healing occurred over time. Brianna realized her recorded journal entries can now serve as an abstract primer-of-sorts for others suffering from any type of illness.

As an author, artist, teacher and healer, Brianna utilizes her personal journey, years of formal training and her personal practice to guide students and clients locally, nationally and even remotely. Brianna explains, “The reality is that healing begins one step at a time, often slowly and with acceptance of the self.”

Our brains have a way of creating daily habits and sticking to them whether or not they are helpful to us. Most of us already have a morning routine even if we are unaware that it exists. This may include having a non-negotiable cup of coffee, brushing our teeth without exception and searching for our car keys even after we swore we would not misplace them again. All too often it seems that we are wired to repeat ourselves with little awareness that we are doing it.

Without realizing, many of us choose to start our days the same way only to find later its outcome was not what we desired. By understanding this, we can quickly transform bad habits into a routine that gives us a greater sense of control throughout the day, prepares us for its inevitable surprises, and boosts us into the satisfaction stratosphere by adding a turbo shot of confidence.

Over the past 15 years, Melissa Kim Corter, a graduate of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, has extensively studied many facets of intuition, including science, metaphysics, and various energetic practices. As part of her diploma program at SWIHA her completed various specialties – Life Coaching, Hypnotherapy, Yoga Teacher Training, Yoga Nidra and Transformational Yoga Coaching to name just a few.

On her journey she has mentored and worked with shamans, metaphysicians, psychics, and even law enforcement to hone and perfect her own gifts of intuition. Now stepping into her power, Melissa has launched a successful business as an author, psychic medium/coach and shamanic practitioner, weaving the world of spirit into her daily life and taking that gift out into the world to share it with others.

It is through the sharing of these gifts, Melissa has taught others how to drop-in deeply, to connect to that place where their inner spirit speaks to them. To bring forth insight, information and physical and emotional healing to those she touches. While her path has been filled with many obstacles and challenges Melissa has chosen to turn these into opportunities and possibilities. She now uses sensitivity and compassion as a gift instead of seeing it as a burden as she once had.

Taylor Grace is one of Southwest Institute of Healing Arts’ inspired Toe Readers who remembers watching KC Miller do this healing work: “My first Toe Reading was by KC Miller. Watching her work through other people was an amazing experience. She helped me with quite a few things on my personal journey, and it’s the inspiration people get with her that inspires us.” Taylor found a connection to Reiki back in 1996, and then attended one of SWIHA’s Gifts and Graces for the first time, eleven years later in 2007. She knew she wanted to become a student, and so the program she initially signed up for was Life Coaching, then found herself on our conscious college community in the Mind-Body Wellness Practitioner program, in which she studied Hypnotherapy, more Reiki, and Toe Reading. She reflected on the Toe Reading classes: “I remember noticing how respectful of an art it was, yet the truth in it was mind-twisting. It made me feel uncomfortable! You get to know yourself really well when you study healing. This is a process.”

The gift of Toe Reading is helping a soul see that it is always whole and always honored. The body, in the wonder of its creation, holds our stories and ‘our issues in its tissues’. Toe Reading is for everyone, even when the physical toes are absent- from birth, illness, or injury. There are times we all feel like we are limited physically, mentally, or emotionally- and Toe Reading, through its language and energy of LOVE, reminds us that we are always whole. A Toe Reader helps the soul- stories be expressed, and they hold space as any changes are acknowledged and embraced. Through their caring observance and questions, the reader helps shift the perception of limitations into the awareness that YOU are UNLIMITED!

A soul capsule can be created to honor the essence, wholeness, and dreams of a person. As I reflected on how to best describe a soul capsule, the image and metaphor of a cocoon came to mind. Consider the life of a caterpillar. It goes along inch by inch and day by day living what it considers a fairly normal life. Some days are easier than others, but there seem to be enough leaves to eat and twigs to climb. Occasionally life feels like its all uphill, but the caterpillar inches along. One day the winds of change blow in and life no longer feels the same. Whether it arrives slowly or comes in an instant, change enters the caterpillar’s life. The caterpillar wraps itself in a cocoon and begins the inward journey. Surrounded by darkness, confusion, and uncertainty, the caterpillar barely recognizes itself.

Within the cocoon is the caterpillar in all of its wholeness—who it was, who it is, and the seed of light for who it will become. The quest is for the caterpillar to see and understand that it is always whole, even in the midst of change. It must find the will to emerge, changed, yet returning to fullness…whole.

Sometimes the nudge to emerge is helped by an outside source, but wiggling and stretching and opening must come from inside. With every move forward, light appears. The more the caterpillar opens and tries, the more light appears. Then in perfect time, when the changes are embraced and transformed, a butterfly emerges. As it basks in the light that is ever-present and in the light of its being, the butterfly’s wings dry. The caterpillar is free to be who it was always born to be; a butterfly! The caterpillar can fly!!!

Soul capsules can be created from Toe Reading or Life Coaching sessions. They would help in honoring change and transformation personally, as well as honoring lost loved ones, or lost dreams that can be hard to let go of. It is a way of saying this mattered, this person or situation is SEEN and honored or blessed before moving forward in a new way.

Similar to a time capsule, an actual box or container can be decorated and personalized. Others may prefer to write a story about their life’s journey or record an audio or video. A beautiful way to honor a soul’s journey would be to create and hold a ceremony for the soul and their capsule. The soul capsule can include favorite photos of special times and activities or those that capture the feeling of being at one’s best and the most themselves. Handwritten stories, notes, or poems can be placed into the capsule. Memorabilia or keepsakes could be included. It is really up to the creativity of the coach and the client. It can also include expressions of the hard emotions, such as anger, grief, sadness, regret, vulnerability, feeling ‘less than’, and change. This is simply the journey of a soul, even during times of change. Be sure to add the new dreams and the unlimited life goals as they grow, stretch, and return to fullness with wings to fly…Soar!!! Shine!

Several years ago, I first discovered toe reading at a Celebrate Your Life conference in Scottsdale, Arizona.  I had flown to Arizona a day early to take an all-day workshop from James Van Praagh, a clairvoyant, spiritual medium, and New York Times bestselling author of Talking to Heaven.

While autographing my book, he told me that I should get a toe reading and that I should do it that day while the lines weren’t very long because tomorrow the lines would probably be a three hour wait!  To be honest, I silently rolled my eyes and thought, “Good lord.  Toe Reading?  What will they think of next?”  Little did I know that one little decision would affect my whole life!

I got my first toe reading and was blown away.  In 10 minutes, the Toe Reader revealed to me more about myself than my family would have been able to!  Being a natural skeptic, I thought that maybe she was just psychic, or a good guesser.  So I went to a Celebrate Your Life in Chicago and received another toe reading.  With the same result, I was beginning to think that it would be difficult to have two good guessers in a row.  Not to be deterred, since I still was not convinced, I went to yet another Celebrate Your Life conference, and this time my reader was Barney Cannon.  He was so accurate that I decided right there I had to find out more about this.  So I rearranged my conference schedule so that I could attend the short workshop from KC Miller, the author of Toe Reading: Are You Walking Your Destined Path.

Many of you know me as the Copywriter and Editor at Southwest Institute of Healing Arts, and part of my job is coordinating/writing our blogs which post on Mondays and Fridays. It is my responsibility to find graduates who are using their SWIHA education and holistic gifts out in the world in incredible ways. January was National Life Coaching Month, and we honored a life coach a day by showcasing them in a blog. Within a few weeks of each other, both KC Miller (SWIHA founder) and Richard Seaman (head of the Life Coaching department) mentioned an Elaine Glass. I followed my usual protocol of a “hello-and-congratulations” email stating that she was a #GreatGraduate who we’d love to feature on the SWIHA Blog page, if she’d be willing to fill out the attached questionnaire. She graciously accepted my proposal to work with me and requested to meet in person for an informal interview to go over the questions. At the time I didn’t think anything about it, yet as I reflect back, I remember us both saying we were glad we met in person. I enjoy putting a face with a name, and it allows me to write with a more dynamic and connected tone when I can see the energy and raw emotion of a person as they talk about their process to SWIHA, their educational journey, and the love for their work. I’ll never forget the day I met Elaine Glass.

The position and shape of the toes say a lot about their owner. By observing someone’s toes you will know a great deal about their past and the experiences they have lived through.  Toes reveal how a person copes with their feelings, as well as their thoughts.

Toe Reading is a metaphysical art based on the belief that your body holographically records the story of your life in your feet. An experienced Toe Reader knows toes tell the truth, even when the person themselves may not even be aware of how deeply their life experience has effected them. An over-simplification of this technology would be to say that well-balanced people have beautiful, evenly shaped and spaced toes. The toes of people who have had more challenging lives will appear ‘toe-tied’, depicting the lumps and bumps of the personal and emotional lives they have lived up to this point in time. 

Critics of Toe Reading are of the opinion that bruised and battered toes are simply caused by wearing the wrong shoes, injuries, or disease.  They scoff at the thought that a person’s inner life could create such patterns in toes. There is a very close connection between character, behavior, and attitudes in life, and have you ever considered the personalities and thought processes of the person who chooses and buys certain footware and the effect they can have on the feet?