There’s something magical about gardening that makes it so therapeutic for me. It’s a peaceful pastime that provides fresh air, cool shade, lovely fragrances, and sometimes food. Plants can be beautiful, resilient, and full of life. Over the past five years, I’ve had several seasons of caring for different kinds of gardens like indoor plants in colder weather, outdoor plants in warmer climates, and maintaining a garden for my pet snails wherever I go. The microecology for a modular garden is a science, an art, and an energetic connection.

Los Angeles, CA

Downtown Los Angeles has a popular flower district, known for their bouquets, orchids, succulents, and indoor plants. Shops are also home to lots of cats, and chill cats mean good vibes.

Los Angeles, CA

There are a variety of colors in places of worship and can be seen as a version of color therapy. Design choices include stained glass, colored walls and fabrics, gold-plated objects, flowers, and lighting. Aside from the presence of God, gratitude, and thanksgiving, the lighting perhaps played a role in wellness, release of tension, and enlightenment.

Granada Hills, CA

Prema Yoga in Granada Hills, CA offers different types of yoga classes including hath, vinyasa, kundalini, and yin. Other classes specialized in energetic and physical healing such as urban zen, meditation, yoga nidra, and spine health. I would recommend their studio for those who want to try a variety of yoga styles taught by educated and spiritually-minded instructors.

Lithomancy is the art of reading the arrangement of crystals in a designated space. When I was cat-sitting, I read my friend’s book on Lithomancy. The description is similar to other metaphysical readings like psychic, tarot, or palmistry. With crystals, we place meaning on them, drop them randomly, and read the relationships between them. No two readings are exactly alike. Here, I share the different ways in which I practice Lithomancy.

The Hall of Healing at the Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo are specialized rooms for concentrated technologies to enhance a meditation experience. This year I’ll be working in these spaces and in this introductory blog post, I’m sharing what they have to offer, what to expect, and how to be emotionally and spiritually prepared. At first glance, the event descriptions sound esoteric and distant but these healing modalities are essentially wellness paths to feelings of love and expansion.

Prayer beads are a system of tracking prayers, chants, or scriptures to bring us into a contemplative mindset and become aware of the greatness of life, God, or enlightenment. Each religion has a plethora of resources and with the average of scholarly publications, I aim to paint a broad perspective on the multiple uses of prayer beads so that we can learn from other religions and maybe incorporate aspects into our prayer practice.

Made of a metal alloy or quartz crystal, singing bowls are sacred instruments for meditation, contemplation, and healing. We can visualize the physics behind their healing abilities, map their vibrational patterns, and notice how we feel from their psycho-acoustic therapeutic qualities.

Kenmore, WA
Between massage therapy and energy work, Craniosacral Therapy dedicates an hour to the fascia tissues around the head to restore the nervous system’s flow.

When I open my palms, I see my life’s many chapters. In this Palm Contemplation, I meditate on the layers of my skin, its sensory acuteness, and the transferring of light spirit. With clear crystal quartz tumbles, I connect to feelings of gratitude, gentleness, and crystalized energy within my hands.

In my final presentation for Meditation Teacher Training, I designed a guided meditation about the beauty of posture, including a chest opening warm-up, anatomical understanding, and visualizations of balancing stones.

With the theme of love and worthiness, this meditation explores different ways for the mind and body to connect to a stronger sense of value. From words of affirmation, symbolism, and guided visualization, this is an introduction to a life-long journey of you being you.

Sensing crystal energy has been a new practice for me. I have always enjoyed their company and now with meditation, I’m learning to sense their spark, visualize their energy, and open my mind to interpreting their messages.

For a time, my experience with an auto-immune disease thwarted my life into cyclical mental, emotional, and physical pain. I’ve found that meditation, even short sessions, helps me rid of past traumas. Instead of holding on to a story of suffering, I can practice letting go and opening to the magic of each day.

Mammals have wonderful energy, especially if they love to nap in the sun. This week I’m dog-sitting in Burbank and have been relishing in their relaxed energy. Today I completed my Reiki training and am now certified as a Reiki Master Healer. I‘ve been heightening my energetic senses and wrote a guided meditation about how to sense reiki or the universal life force.

Instead of telling myself to meditate more and be in the present, it’s helpful to find a technique that is peaceful, creative, and personalized. In Karla McLaren’s book, Your Auras and Your Chakras: An Owner’s Manual, she explains a really creative way of grounding yourself by creating a peaceful retreat inside your head.

Malibu, CA
More than a yoga studio, the Mindry hosts alternative healing classes in Breathwork, Somatic Awareness Meditation, and Restorative Soundbaths to attend to the mind, body, and soul. I’ve outlined a sample of each class type so you can see what it’s like to be guided through energetic experiences.

So far I’ve read about miracles from patients who have shifted their mindset to heal terminal diagnoses. Some of the explanations dive into biochemistry such as “The neurons that compose the brain and central nervous system “talk” to one another across gaps called synapses.”

I read that a simple breathing technique of inhaling a refreshing breath down to your stomach and gently exhaling a little longer than in, signals the brain, heart, lungs, and digestion system to rest and restore. This engages the body’s natural healing capacities to regulate heart rate, reduce inflammation, and produce endorphins.

Los Angeles, CA
Every February from 2012 to 2020, I worked in the signage department at the Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo. As my mom and I ran all the posters for each event, I also ran around the LAX Hilton, meeting fascinating, kind, and intuitive people, each with diverse perspectives about tarot, aliens, reiki, you name it.