SWIHA Blog

By KC Miller, SWIHA Success Center Blogger

Every one of us has a critic or two in our lives. They may be close friends, family members or the casual unconscious, cavalier, would-be-comic that offers up a caustic comment that momentarily cremates our self-esteem. Imagine considering the critics in your life as ‘Messengers of Courage,’ because to face whatever comment or criticism they toss out takes courage on your part. Facing whatever expression of disapproval or perceived fault someone else has of you is an opportunity for you to do a moral inventory of who you really are, where you stand in the world, and exactly what the truth is about yourself!

One of my biggest moments of courage in facing a critic happened a few years ago during a Celebrate Your Life event in Scottsdale, Arizona. For years, Mishka Productions, created by Ariel Wolfe and her daughter Liz Dawn, have been bringing best-selling authors and new-age thought leaders together for a weekend of intense spiritual growth. It has been my honor to be a part of the conference from almost the beginning, partly because long before the Celebrate Your Life events began, I was friends with Ariel Wolfe.

It was at these amazing conferences that my soul work, Toe Reading, really found a life of its own. From the first time Toe Readings were offered to conference participants, long lines of people would form just to have a piece of their life path analyzed and honored. The messages stored in the tissue of their toes proved to be extremely accurate and divinely guided messages were offered to the conference seekers. Hundreds of people received deep transformative information about themselves and their soul-path, creating tremendous healing and release from past pain from the Toe Readings they received. These readings are based on a soul coaching system I was able to teach a whole team of Spirit-directed practitioners.

Knowing what one wants to do in life is half the battle in getting where one wants to be. However, motivating one’s self to become it and inspiring one’s self to continuously do it on a consistent basis takes the other 50%.

Each and every one of us has a story to our lives. If I may share mine with you it would go something like this. As a young child, I always knew that I had a special connection with people and the ability to feel their inner emotions. Call it a sixth sense, a heavy dosage of intuition or a true awakening to what is real, but whatever it was I definitely felt different than others around me. My principals and teachers from my elementary, junior high and high schools must have sensed this in me because I was always the one chosen to tour the new incoming students around and help them become less nervous and feel more comfortable to their new surroundings. My parents also took notice because they would always see me talking to complete strangers and convinced me to stop this behavior because they had the inclination that these people weren’t worthy of being acknowledged or talked too. As the years rolled on and the more my parents told me to stay focused and become an educated person with a solid career with tons of money, the more I noticed that I was plugged into society’s normalcy of what we should do rather than what we were born to do. So year after year, I ignored my tremendous gifts with people and ran around the hamster-wheel doing what everyone else was doing in life, while missing the big picture to my true joy, peace and happiness I felt inside.

Aandra Bohlen is a tough, yet tender, six-figure entrepreneur, business consultant and certified empowerment coach whose straightforward approach to personal and professional growth has launched her into her passion and purpose. Dedicated to helping business owners cultivate grit, clarify their ideas and bust limiting beliefs, Aandra is now serving hundreds of entrepreneurs in a loving and profitable way, while acknowledging SWIHA as one of the many experiences that helped her get where she is today.

Always having had a no-nonsense approach to her own endeavors, Aandra found herself easily coaching others through questions they had about their paths – be it personal or professional. Knowing that this was her calling, Aandra launched her coaching business in June 2008. She found herself effortlessly researching and sharing relevant and timeless strategies with others to help them grow their own businesses. Aandra’s coaching business encompasses marketing, self-promotion, creative selling and strategic positioning – whatever she feels is most beneficial to helping the entrepreneurs she was working with take their businesses to a new level.

As a recent or former graduate of SWIHA, I’m sure you can attest to the growing pains you’ve experienced upon leaving school, suddenly tasked with building your own business or practice from the ground up. Of course, you have all of your accumulated wisdom, teachings, experiences, healings, lessons, trials and tribulations to lean on from your time at SWIHA. So what do you do when you get stuck, unmotivated, or caught up in fear and doubt around moving forward? When you hit those imaginary, yet oh-so-real walls? When you just want to give up your path, lay in bed and just binge watch Netflix until your next incarnation (isn’t that how Buddha did it)?

The mind can create a million different ways in which you can fail. We’ve all been there, and some of you might be in that space currently. If you’re not, read on, as I’m sure you’ll gain something from this article. Wherever you’re at, love it, since if you’re feeling it, you’re healing it! This week, I wanted to focus on the importance of balancing and clearing our chakras, and how each chakra blockage corresponds to a certain set of emotions, physical pains and states of dis-ease. I’m sure some of you have seen this information before, so treat this as a refresher if that’s the case. By slowing down, and becoming aware of where we are experiencing certain pains or emotions in our physical and energetic body, we can accept them, work with them, and ultimately heal, moving through whatever so called wall, stuck-ness or resistance we were dancing with before!

Laurel Hernandez definitely had a heroic journey in terms of her path to the Southwest Institute of Healing Arts (SWIHA). In 2005, she spent six months on pain meds and in a back brace after a quad accident. What she didn’t realize is that her life was about to take a 180 degree turn. Laurel recalled how her incredible and arduous path all began: “I had back surgery for a fracture that didn't heal, got a divorce after 25 years, left a great job of 19 years, moved to a new state leaving family and friends behind, went back to school for a career that didn't suite me, became a caregiver for my parents before they both passed, and I had lived in a ten mile radius of where I was born for the past 50 years!” All of this left her feeling lost and hopeless. Yet deep down, she knew that healing from within was what was really needed.

They say that Spirit works in mysterious ways, and it wasn’t until Laurel had a channeled session from a friend that her journey to Spirit, and to SWIHA, truly began. The week after her mother transitioned, her mother’s spirit came through to her in a channeled session, guiding Laurel to forgive herself, and let go of her past so as to be healed. More specifically, her mother urged her to look into Life Coaching -- something Laurel had never considered before.

Written by StevieAnne Petitt

In 2012, Christa Rimmer was desperately searching for something, but she couldn’t quite grasp what she was missing or searching for. In a state of curiosity and courage, she ventured out on a series of first-time experiences, including a trip to Sedona, diving into the practice of meditation, and sessions with both a psychic and a hypnotherapist for a past-life regression. She felt restless in wanting to know everything and to truly find what resonated with her. She claims that she felt awakened, but lost, for nearly two months following these new events. As she was finishing up her bachelor's degree in Psychology at ASU, she quickly became disenchanted with the idea of continuing on. Christa jokingly shared that in hindsight, she knew she was onto a new path when she excitedly mistook her curriculum’s Astronomy class for Astrology.

As a yoga teacher, part of my preparation for each class is to come up with a focus or intention for the practice. This is typically offered through some sort of inspirational reading or compelling offering. My inspiration for the intention or focus for my classes is usually around something that I am currently working on in my life.

I figure, how can I ask my students to work on something if I am not working on it myself?

In the past, I tried surfing the net to find things to inspire me and was not having great success. So I started to search for inspirational quotes to use as my muse. This has proven to be very successful in putting together an offering for my yoga classes. The quotes and readings I use to open my yoga or meditation sessions are becoming so effective that students come up to me after class and ask for a copy of my offering. In fact, this happened recently as I facilitated a guided mediation for my fellow co -workers.

The guided meditation was inspired by a quote that I came across by Nick Vujicik, an Australian Christian evangelist and motivational speaker born with tetra-amelia syndrome, a rare disorder characterized by the absence of all four limbs.

Plus an easy recipe: Bamboo Steamer Carrots with Cumin & Walnut Oil

We often hear the term whole foods or whole food cooking, yet do we really know what the terms mean?

The ‘Whole Food’ way of eating is enjoying as many “whole foods” as possible – that is, eating foods as close to their natural form as possible, with very minimal processing. This is the way people were eating a hundred years ago prior to the age of fast food restaurants, manufactured processed foods, convenience foods. It was when people actually spent time in their kitchen cooking, and less time eating out or eating on the run.

Simply, Whole Foods Cooking uses S.O.U.L. Foods: Seasonal. Organic. Unprocessed. Local.

Many health experts believe eating more whole foods improves health and helps prevent disease. Whole foods – like vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and legumes – retain their fiber and beneficial phytochemicals and nutrients that are often removed in processed foods.

Eating organic, whole foods, and shopping at farmers’ markets, CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and food co-ops is something many people have had to re-learn. Our intention with the Whole Food/ S.O.U.L Food Wednesday BLOG is to get you as excited about cooking and eating real whole foods as we are.

Written by StevieAnne Petitt

Mary Abeyta is a living, walking example of the SWIHA’s motto – To serve as an instrument, not an ego, in the peace and healing of others.

Mary Abeyta’s life story has been nothing shy of miracles, each step building upon the next. As we sat together for this interview, her demeanor was both joyous and peaceful. We began with the simplest of questions, each providing proof that her entire life, even up to this very moment, has been Spirit-driven. In fact, Mary’s overall message to others is to acknowledge that although we each possess unique gifts that we all eagerly wish to share, our main point of focus ought to be our relationship with the Source that gifted us.

This statement opened up nearly an hour of dialogue; Mary’s phenomenal journey started with a calling to study Theology. After seeing an ad for a Theology program, within one week’s time she received confirmation from three other people who had seen the same ad – each totally unaware of the other, and even living in different time zones. All of the messengers suggested Mary should apply to the Theology program. With just a tad bit of initial resistance, Mary intuitively knew she’d be selected for this life-changing program.

By definition, a dream is described as:

a series of thoughts, visions, or feelings that happen during sleep an idea or vision that is created in your imagination and that is not real something that you have wanted very much to do, be, or have for a long time

Source: Merriam-Webster Dictionary

More often than not, each new day in our modern lives comes with an overwhelming number of responsibilities and duties that have to get done: work, school assignments, childcare, cooking, cleaning, doctor appointments... the list goes on and on!

Unfortunately, our contemporary fixation on being busy leaves very little room for dreaming. Whether we aspire to find a better job, meet the love of our life, be the first in our family to pursue a post-secondary education, or even to open our own business as a holistic entrepreneur, the reasons we all desire success are as numerous as the stars in the sky. 

Many times, however, the stark reality of our current lives keeps us fixated on our fears, causing us to avoid our futures and to stop dreaming. Dreaming requires the intentional devotation of time to a vision of a better life and self; it is, in itself, part of the process of change.