I just got back from an awesome trip to Wisconsin to visit my friend Diana. For five days straight, we reveled in in-person quality time that we hadn’t had in two years. I experienced so much connection-magic on this trip…as well as one really hard wake-up call.
One day we trekked to the Lizard Mounds—a beautiful wooded trail of ancient Native American effigy mounds in the shapes of animal, water, and sky spirits. The energy there is incredible, and on the trail, green butterflies flitted in front of us, serving as our guides the whole way through. At one point, when my feet seemed to connect to the earth much more strongly than usual, one of the butterflies landed on the side of my foot making sure I didn’t miss the feeling.
Another day, when Diana was feeling worried about her senior dog Yogi’s aches and pains, I offered to connect in with him and talk to him about it. Yogi lay on the floor at Diana’s feet, constantly looking at her and panting. But when I invited his energy in and reached my heart out to him, he stopped panting and turned to focus on me. Throughout the reading, he’d stay focused on me when I intuitively asked him a question, then when I’d tell Diana his answer, he’d go back to panting and looking at her. Yogi’s confirmation of connection.
The second-to-last day of my visit, we attended a spiritual yoga class that had us moving, breathing, and stretching with non-stop intention of inner balance. As we got still at the end, the teacher sat behind me and repeated 216 times, “Om Mani Padme Hum,” the powerful mantra of innate love and compassion.
The next day, I woke up with an intensely severe migraine, unable to function. I haven’t had a migraine like it in years, so why was this happening on the last day of my glorious trip? As Diana coached me to somehow find gratitude for whatever was releasing, I saw how I had pushed myself like crazy before my trip. I had sacrificed rest and my daily meditation, was running ragged, ignoring my body and soul. Then I experienced a yoga class that dropped me back into myself like a cosmic ton of bricks. Ending with a mantra about self-love shifted the energy and turned the spotlight on my imbalance.
Connection to self is where it all starts. The butterflies and Yogi wouldn’t have been able to respond to my energy if they weren’t 100% tuned in to their own to begin with.
We humans can be slow on the uptake, but thankfully we have beautiful animals, the earth, great friends—and pretty cool yoga teachers—to bring us back to ourselves.
To that I say, Om Mani Padme Hum ✨
It’s all about the magic. 🙌