It would be very easy to assume by looking at a group of migratory birds, like ducks, flying in a V-Formation to assume the bird in the front in the leader. But if you watch the flight for any length of time you will notice that the leader changes quite frequently. The bird in the front is not the leader, but instead the one who is working the hardest as the other birds fall into the slip-stream. The slip-stream is the space created behind a moving object that is easier to move through. By...

When working with clients, it is important to listen closely to the words they use and pay attention to everything they are saying. When I do this, I am not just listening to the meaning of the story my clients are telling, I am also paying particular attention to the words they use. This is because we respond to the world emotionally based on the way that we describe it, not how it is. A simple example of this is if someone said, "Everyone at work hates me" If a client says that,...

I love goals. They are a powerful way to focus attention and to help us stay motivated to keep taking action. At the same time, the moment we create a goal, we also create expectations. Naming something that we want to happen means opening ourselves up to possible disappointment if we do not achieve the goal. This week, as we start the Mini-Tool Series, I share with you a brief phrase I add to the beginning of all my goal statements that ensures I am not adding pressure to my life by...

This November we hosted our most successful 30-Day Tapping Challenge to date. The goal was to, as a community, do 15,000 rounds of tapping collectively. We ended up doing over 20,000 rounds in the month of November alone AND people keep tapping. You are more than welcome to revisit any of the videos as they will remain on YouTube, where you can access them free of charge. Full playlist This is the fourth year that we have run the challenge. With each passing year, I have spent more time...

Whenever I start working on a new project, I begin with getting clear on what I want to accomplish. That clarity makes it so much easier to decide on where to start and what steps to take. Tapping is no different. If you know what you would like to accomplish with a round of tapping, then you will have a better idea of where to start. You will approach calming your nerves differently than trying to change a limiting belief. You are using tapping in both cases, but where you start and how...

The deeper we get into our study of transformation, the more we understand. We gain a greater understanding of how transformation works, the workings of the subconscious mind, how emotions operate and, most importantly, how we are in the world. This understanding can speed and deepen the healing process because we better grasp the nature of our struggles, and we can use our healing tools more effectively. But sometimes our understanding can hold us back. A combination of all this knowledge...

Humans have a basic desire to create connection. For many, one of the types of connections that people long for is a long term romantic partner. Compared with other types of relationships, romantic ones are often harder to create because we aspire to connect on many different levels. When searching for this type of relationship, sometimes we feel like our base attraction is to exactly the wrong type of person. As frustrating as this is, there is good news: We don't have to remain stuck in...

I am constantly amazed at how we humans are so good at extending grace and charity toward our loved ones in their moments of struggle AND at the exact same time we are poor at offering that same comfort to ourselves. Part of this is rooted in the fact that when we are judging ourselves, we aren't judging what happened…we are judging what happened, what we wanted to happen, and what we think should happen. And we bring all our fears and insecurities to the mix as well. That leads us to being...

Whenever I am working toward improving anything in my life, I always have a clearly defined goal in mind. I have found that goals are incredibly powerful tools in helping to create success, big or small. Goals focus our attention, help us to figure out our next best step towards a clear destination, and allow us to measure our progress. At the exact same time, goals can also create pressure and stress. Whether on a conscious or subconscious level, not achieving a goal can lead us to feeling...

I was recently talking to one of my clients about how things had been going since our last call. As they were sharing what the last week had been like they asked, "Is there a way that I could tap to help me to remember to tap?" I am happy to say that the answer to that question is YES! Over the last few years a number of research studies have been done to measure the effectiveness of tapping on memory function. Tapping can be used to help our short term memory, long term memory, and to...

The question I am most often asked by people who are looking to work with me as a client is "How many sessions is it going to take to heal [insert issue]?" I understand the nature of this question, which is rooted in the desire for better, and as quickly as possible. The problem with these questions is there is no way to know the answer. Even if a client is coming to me for an issue that I have worked with many times, there are so many unknown variables that I have to give the pat (and...

As human beings, we are talented at learning from our past experience. You can observe this so clearly whenever you spend time with small children who learn from every moment of their experience. They try something one way, then another, and then a third as they are exploring and learning about themselves and the world around them. Of course, this process doesn't end with childhood because our subconscious minds are cause-and-effect learning machines. With every experience we either...

If you are anything like me, then you have spent much of your life feeling like a bit of a misfit. What you think is important provokes the derision or confusion of others, making it hard to live an authentic life because you are caught between who you know yourself to be and what the world is telling you to be. My friend Kris Ferraro grew up feeling like a misfit as well. Now, as an adult and someone who has worked with clients for well over a decade, she recognizes that being a misfit is a...

Because of the nature of the work I do with clients and in my personal healing work, I spend a lot of time thinking about the subconscious mind. Over time, I have come to realize that the superpower of the subconscious mind is its ability to respond in an instant to threat and danger in order to keep us safe. But this lightning-fast response is less useful, and sometimes detrimental, when dealing with complex difficulties that exist beyond a given moment. This week's podcast continues the...

I am fortunate enough to have engaged and self-aware clients, many of whom have spent years studying healing and transformation. That means they are often aware of the root causes of their issues and come to me for help because they are too close to clear the issues on their own. Our sessions generally begin with them reporting what they are struggling with, and also what they believe is the root cause. As we start to do the healing work, they are often surprised when we don't immediately...

When we are in pain and distress, whether physical, emotional, or spiritual, there is nothing we want more than to escape our discomfort as quickly as possible. This desire is so profound that it can lead us to making unhealthy choices, like emotional eating and overmedicating ourselves, to gain short-term relief. The reality is that sometimes total relief is not possible for us in the short term, or even ever. As dispiriting as that can feel, we need not feel hopeless. Years ago, Dan...

Lori Leyden has dedicated her life to bringing healing and transformation to those who have experienced tragedy and trauma. Her latest book Embodying Grace captures the tools and approaches she uses to facilitate healing and wellbeing through a spiritual lens. Embodying Grace introduces you to the transformative power of your Heart-Brain-Body connection, the 5 Stages of Embodied Grace and The Grace Process®. These proven methods reveal where you are on your spiritual path and provide a...

When we are in physical or emotional pain and distress, we want to feel better right now. That is a natural human desire, but even though we want healing right away, it doesn't mean healing is going to happen right away. As disappointing as that is, there is good news. Even though healing often takes time, it is possible to identify the stages of the emotional and subconscious process we go through when healing, and understanding that process can speed our progress. Listen to this week's...

One of my favorite characteristics of my clients is their willingness to take responsibility for what is going on in their lives. When we take responsibility, we put ourselves into a position to create lasting change. At the same time, it is possible for us to take too much responsibility. Taking responsibility for the aspects of our lives that we do not control presents a number of problems. We end up being too hard on ourselves when things go badly, and we spend time and energy trying to...

In this week's podcast we are continuing the Healing Fundamentals series by looking at the ways the people in our lives put up resistance when we heal and change. AND I don't mean the people who don't like us or those who are jealous of what we have. In this case I am talking about how our loved ones, sometimes the people who are our biggest fans, can resist and even get in the way of our healing, transformation, and success. This is because the people in our lives want us to change, just...

In this week's podcast we are continuing the Healing Fundamentals series by looking at the subconscious mind in a completely different way. When we recognize the ways in which the subconscious mind holds us back from taking positive action, it is almost always in terms of the resistance and fear that come up. While this is true, it is not the only way the subconscious can get in our way. One of the unexpected obstacles to our healing and transformation has to do with the way in which the...

This week we are continuing the Healing Fundamentals by looking at why our subconscious mind and memory is faulty. The reality is that nobody has a perfect memory. Even those with a photographic memory cannot remember everything. In small ways, this can be a minor irritant as we misremember small details in our daily lives. These memory missteps can cause miscommunication and inconvenience. In big ways, our faulty memory can cause real issues as we navigate our day. If I misremember...

This week we are continuing the Healing Fundamentals series with a look at resistance. Just because we know what to do, how to do it, and why it is important to take an action, does not mean we will actually take that action. In order for us to take consistent action, we need to clear as much resistance as possible. In this week's podcast we take a deep dive into why resistance shows up and prevents us from taking action, AND how to clear that resistance so that we can keep taking positive...

The Helping Addicts Recover Progressively (HARP) program at the county jail in Chesterfield, VA is a beacon of hope and light in the world. The program is designed to help inmates who are struggling with issues of addiction to heal and recover so that when they are released, they are able to live healthier and happier lives. One of the many tools taught in the program is Trauma Tapping Technique (TTT), which is a version of tapping created by the Peaceful Heart Network. As part of this...

This week we are continuing the Healing Fundamentals series by looking at how the subconscious mind's understanding of the world influences every choice we make. The subconscious mind is a valuable tool in helping us to navigate the world. It holds all our understanding about how the world works in the form of memories, patterns, stories, and beliefs. This allows us to navigate the world without having to think constantly about our environment and everything we are experiencing. Problems...