Juanita Lepage MSW, RSW, BHP

Counselling & Energy Healing (289) 812-8089 Hamilton, Ontario

Energy Healing Articles

Seventh (Crown) Chakra 101

by Leave a Comment

Every August & September my garden brings in beautiful flowers full of white and shades of rose/violet. Often the colours of violet/white are associated with the seventh chakra. These flowers below are maybe a little more rose coloured, but the lightness of the pink/purple mixed with the white still remind me of the crown chakra.

Sedum flowers

The bees love to spend time in these Sedum, and I love how these flowers continue to bloom into September.

Today I’m go share all about the Seventh Chakra. If you’re brand new to chakras, I encourage you to start with my post – Anatomy of Energy Healing (Energy Healing 101).

Location

The seventh chakra is connected to the crown of your head with the energy flow going up and down into your body. Experiences of this location vary to just above the head to within the head itself.

Colour

Can be white or violet or shades in-between. The very first photo in this post is a Clematis and shows beautiful shades of both.

Biological Functions

The simplest way to connect the chakras to biological functions is to notice what key organs and/or body parts are located near that chakra. This chakra connects into your brain and there are so many noteworthy places there! The pineal gland (connected to sleep & circadian rhythm), pituitary gland (production of hormones) & hypothamalus (creating homeostasis/balance within bodily systems) are just 3 of them. Our brain and these specific parts also do so much more!

Psychological Functions

The crown chakra is related to wholeness, spirituality, and connection to every aspect of this world and universe around us. Psychic & spiritual gifts can be related to the opening of this chakra. I find that an open seventh chakra allows us to receive support from beyond ourselves. It also allows us to connect to our life force and clear old energy when we allow energy to flow from our crown and into our body.

Rose of Sharon

Element

When I connect to mine I feel the vastness of space and the universe around me.

How To Nourish Your Crown Chakra

The seventh chakra is associated with spirituality & connectedness to all things. Here’s a few ways to nourish your crown chakra

  • Breathwork
  • Meditation
  • Poetry by Rumi, spiritual books & retreats.
  • Psychotherapy! Yes, this is often related to the brain and belief systems and re-connecting to your deep inner knowing.
  • Affirmations

There are so many ways to nurture your crown chakra!

Want to try something right now? As you breath in, imagine energy coming into your body from your crown. Then breath out. Repeat.

Add on #1: If you want you can also imagine breath coming into your root chakra – so visually energy is coming in from the earth and the sky at the same time.

Add on #2: When you breath out, imagine it going out of your heart.

Playing With The Crown Chakra

Gentle ways to play with the seventh chakra and it’s energies are:

  • Wearing white and/or violet clothing or blankets.
  • Crystals such as clear quartz, amethyst or diamonds.
  • Sound: search Youtube for chakra balancing sound baths or meditations.
  • Flowers: Add some Sedum, Rose of Sharon, Clematis (or flowers local to your area) to your garden, altar, or into a vase in your home.

Resources

If you’re interested in diving more deeply into the anatomy of chakras, my favourite book is Anodea Judith’s Eastern Body Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self.  Another book is Cyndi Dale’s The Subtle Body: An Encyclopedia of Your Energetic Anatomy.

How do you experience connection to your crown chakra?

Anti-Racist Reads For Collective Healing

by Leave a Comment

It’s Black History month and I thought I’d share some books that have come across my path over the last year. Some are more analytical and some are very heart-felt. As we all put energy into healing this collective wound, this impacts all of our physical, mental, and spiritual health in a profound and positive way.

When it comes to being more anti-racist, I find it’s easy to get overwhelmed when I reflect on how far I still need to go. At the same time, I have some compassion for myself, as becoming anti-racist doesn’t happen in the course of a month.

As Resmaa Menakem writes,

“Consider Malcolm Gladwell’s observation that it takes about 10,000 hours of practice to become highly proficient in almost any serious endeavor. By the time African Americans reach adulthood, many have spent 10,000 or more hours learning how to navigate the dangers, constrictions, and contradictions of white-body supremacy. They have done this not by choice, but as a matter of survival. In comparison, most white Americans have spent zero time in such endeavors, for the obvious reason that they haven’t needed to navigate white-body supremacy, but have received support and assistance from it. White people who want to grow out of white-body supremacy now need to put in a similar amount of time and effort in order to change themselves and create new culture.” (p. 267, Manekem – My Grandmother’s Hands)

Committing to 10,000 hours of anti-racist work isn’t the goal (although can you imagine if we all did that?), it’s more the idea that it’s important to start or keep learning, growing, and making changes in parallel with the rest of our life. 1 hour is better than 0 hours. If you were to do one thing this month, what might you do?

Books

Three books that I’ve picked up in 2022 and continue to read and refer to this year include:

  • Me and White Supremacy – Layla F. Saad
  • My Grandmother’s Hands – Resmaa Menakem
  • It was Dark There all the Time – Sophia Burthen and the legacy of slavery in Canada – Andrew Hunter

Me And White Supremacy

If you are a person who holds white privilege and love the idea of journalling and reflecting, this might be the book for you. She gives readers four weeks worth of daily reflections. Even better, she has a guided journal where you can go through the 28 day reflection process.

Local Perspectives

It Was Dark There All The Time

Andrew Hunter is a white Hamiltonian who has written specifically about local connections to slavery. If you’re from Ontario, I’d recommend this read. Otherwise, I’d encourage finding something local about your own geographic area.

The Skin We’re In

This book is a few years older, yet if you’re looking for something more current than looking at our past history, I’d recommend Desmond Cole’s The Skin We’re In. Desmond Cole is a black journalist, activist and author based in Toronto, Canada. Canadians can get a bit smug about living in Canada and thinking we’re less racist than our American counter-parts. Desmond shares his reality and the reality of many other black Canadians. On my list is to also watch his documentary about the creation of this book on CBC Gem.

My Grandmother’s Hands

Menakem’s book is both for BIPOC and white individuals. This book is exceptional. It has heart and soul. Resmaa brings guidance about going beyond understanding racism and healing through reflections and also connecting to our bodies. He delves into the evolution of racism and encourages white individuals to reflect on their own trauma as bridge towards healing. He describes how the trauma of racism is collective for all people. He gives a lot of exercises to try out that can help release past trauma and also reflective questions for all readers. He’s also involved in a variety of online courses with Education for Racial Equity.

If you want a recommendation for one book to read, I’d choose My Grandmother’s Hands. As always, if you have any books that you’ve loved about anti-racism, please share!

The Healing Power Of Art

by Leave a Comment

Just before the school year started, my husband and I took our 2 boys to New York City for a quick 3 night visit. We walked in Central Park, saw Hamilton on Broadway, and made plans to walk the Brooklyn Bridge.

On our way to the Brooklyn Bridge, we decided to get off at the World Trade Centre Subway Station, without plans to spend too much time there. The last time my husband and I had been there, was a few years after 9/11 and we saw the giant hole in the ground. We were curious to see how the place had been transformed.

I really wasn’t expecting to have an emotional reaction, but then we encountered this.

You can’t hear it from this photo, but if you look closely you see that each side is a waterfall. The entire ledge along the perimeter was covered in the names of those who died. And in that moment I started to cry.

Sometimes a piece of art or architecture captures something so perfectly, that words aren’t needed. Nothing needs to be explained or said.

Growing up, my parents took us to a variety of art galleries, and this tradition is something I’ve continued with my kids. It’s always interesting to see what pieces they’re attracted to. Even better if it’s a place that kids can actually touch or interact with the artwork. When they were little, we’d just ask them to look for the weirdest piece they could find.

When we lived in the south of France for 2017, we had access to all kinds of art. We enjoyed taking them to the Louvre (bonus it was in January and it was warm inside) and they wondered why the Mona Lisa was so famous. We took them to a Contemporary Art museum in Nice and had lots of interesting conversation over the broad range of art. And there were also places we took our kids that they had zero appreciation for any of the art and were happy to be done and eat some ice cream or visit a park.

Here’s a photo of a piece that we saw while walking the many paths of Venice, Italy.

Sculpture by Lorenzo Quinn

This piece about climate change by Lorenzo Quinn, doesn’t need much explanation.

Recently on Netflix I’ve been enjoying the docu-series Abstract. It gives you 45 minutes a piece with 12 different artists. So far I’ve enjoyed seeing how Ilse Crawford presences well-being with her interior design. She creates spaces that allow individuals to feel relaxed without realizing why they might all of a sudden feel that way. Olafur Eliasson talks about his pleasure creating large-scale abstract art that can be experienced with little to no explanation.

Art As Part of the Process In Healing

Sometimes as a psychotherapist, there are times when presence is the most impactful thing I can give a person as they process something deep within themselves. This post is an invitation to explore art as another avenue to experience healing. It’s a way to be present with feelings a piece of art evokes in you.

And I’m not even saying you need to create any art – it’s more about going out into the world and interacting or being present with some art. Contemporary art galleries are wonderful – they will bring out irritation at some pieces “This is art?” and sometimes you’ll find something that captures something so much more. Kids are great at telling you what they think about a piece too. Art is everywhere – have you looked around your neighbourhood? What kind of art are you surrounded by?

Visiting the 9/11 memorial spoke volumes to me. Art has a way of capturing wonder, grief, playfulness, well-being, and so much more.

Have you ever seen a piece of art that moved you?

My Crush On Physics

by Leave a Comment

When I was in high school, I loved physics. I was at the exciting point in time where physicists were discovering that light was both a particle and wave. It was also when Stephen Hawking published A Brief History of Time and the concept of black holes wowed me.

Unfortunately, as much as I liked physics, I never did very well in those classes. My brain could never really understand it in the way I wanted to no matter how I tried.

When I went to the Barbara Brennan School of Healing, part of their marketing was to highlight that Barbara Brennan was a Nasa physicist. And yes, I was impressed and curious how this woman bridged her scientific background into become a master energy healer and teacher.

Over time many people have tried to bridge this gap with books and teachings – Bruce Lipton, Lynne McTaggart, and Dean Radin were some of the first authors I came across. And again, I would read their books and understand parts of it – but I would reach a point in the book were it got pretty fuzzy.

My husband studied physics in university and he recently recommended a podcast about quantum physics. Once again, I eagerly listened to it, and you know what – I didn’t understand all of it, but I did understand parts of it. And as fuzzy as it is in my brain, I still find it all quite exciting.

The podcast was Tim Ferriss interviewing Donald Hoffman – The Case Against Reality, Beyond SpaceTime, Rethinking Death, Panpsychism, QBism and More.

I mean – the Case against Reality? beyond SpaceTime? Rethinking Death? – All things I’m interested in. The long-story-short that I got from this episode is that the Newtonian model of physics is limited. Our material world and it’s laws are only one part of our reality. In terms of light being both a particle and a wave – the same can be said for everything including ourselves.

If you’ve ever had an energy healing, had connection to the spirit world, or had weird things happen in your life that defy material-based logic, this will be of no surprise to you. Most people I meet have at least one mysterious experience in their life, not defined by logic, that is often said in a hushed tone of not wanting to be judged for talking about their experience out loud. Naming our energetic parts as real is not a way to get rid of the mystery, but to add some validity and clarity to the complexity of being in a human on earth in this space and time. Our brain and it’s function of deduction and understanding is only one aspect of ourselves.

Dr. Joe Dispenza

More than one person in my life has mentioned the name of Joe Dispenza. I kept him in the back of my brain as someone to learn more about. Out of curiosity, I decided to read his most recent book Becoming Supernatural.

And you know what I loved? He explained quantum physics in a way that my brain understood.

Side Note: For all of you science people, my husband has pointed out that while his descriptions make sense, Dispenza is explaining theories more as facts, so take that into account. Yet at the same time he has a beautiful way of taking science-speak and putting it into terms most of us can understand.

The exciting part of acknowledging ourselves as both “a particle and a wave” or both matter and energy, is that it gives us more than one way to heal in our lives and shift our lives into what we want them to be.

Joe Dispenza has had incredible success in helping people overcome serious health issues in their lives with his approach.

Counselling & Energy Healing

I have loved combining both talk therapy and energy healing. Sometimes we need to understand ourselves and our patterns in lives so that we can make conscious changes. Other times, we benefit from having a hand with this by balancing, clearing, and recharging our energy field. Energy healing offers support, clarity, and energizes and solidifies the intentions you have in your life. I find that everyone thrives with a different combination, and that this combination changes over time and situation. I have seen people make and maintain big and small shifts in their lives with this combination.

Guided Meditation

Recently, I have been enjoying Joe Dispenza’s Morning Meditation and his Chakra Blessing Meditation. He has quite a variety of meditations to choose from on YouTube. If he’s not your style, I encourage you to try out other meditations that have an uplifting and/or supportive quality. If you haven’t meditated, or haven’t meditated in a while, guided meditation is nice way to ease into regular meditation.

Avoiding The Spiritual Bypass

Bringing energy healing into therapy offers a person an element of grace on their journey that is beyond their contributions of effort or will. There are always stories of people who have spiritual epiphanies without seemingly having to make any changes in their lives. At this point in time, I have not experienced that to be the norm. More often than not I see the effort to “bright-side” or always be positive and never acknowledge anger or shame or grief (for fear of bringing more of that into one’s life), as spiritual bypassing. Spiritual bypassing is a mask that covers the pain and true feelings that lie underneath.

I see Joe Dispenza’s work as matching very well with the psychotherapy model of Internal Family Systems. Joe Dispenza helps people, “raise their vibration” to joy, love, and higher frequencies”. Internal Family Systems helps people connect to “Self” – the part of ourselves that acts more as a witness to our thoughts and opens space to consider a different story behind our old patterns and then hold space for the wounds and the heavier emotions we feel, so that they can finally move and clear.

In my work using Internal Family Systems therapy, I have seen people heal old patterns.

Either way, both methods require time and commitment to strengthening these parts of ourselves that can be in a “higher vibration” so that a person than can also hold space for all the shadow parts, old patterns and emotions connected to old wounds. Too often in the spiritual world, I have witnessed a fear of acknowledging anger, pain and shame. These are not emotions to be feared – they are often quite valuable and have served a purpose. AND these parts of yourselves are not the full picture of who you are and what you bring.

Also both methods hold an element of grace around timing. There is no sweet spot or amount of time or energy that guarantees a specific result. However, the energy put into shifting old patterns will not be for nothing – they will help you interact with life with more vitality and less heaviness.

Whew!

Alright, that was a lot. If you’ve done any of Joe Dispenza’s work, I’d love to hear about it. And if you’re a physics nerd or have a physics crush like I do..I see you 🙂

Psychics & Life After Life

by Leave a Comment

One of the fun parts of being an energy healer and psychotherapist, is that I often get to talk to people about experiences beyond the 5 senses. My experience as an energy healer often shows to people that I’m open to a world beyond what is logical, mind-centred, or limited to what we can see right in front of us.

Almost everyone has had an experience in their life that defies current logic, but it’s not always safe to share that information. I love it when people share about their experiences with spiritual guides, visits to psychics, using tarot cards or situations they’ve been in that defy logic. I’ve certainly had many of those types of experiences too.

I remember seeing the late Sylvia Browne, a popular psychic, in Vancouver years ago. She said she had close to an 80% accuracy rate. She answered questions from the audience and it was fun to be in a space with so many other people who were curious about this world too.

Recently on Netflix (I feel like I’m always using this phrase lol), I enjoyed watching the Medium Tyler Henry connect to loved ones who have died. His accuracy is incredible. He is so light-hearted and kind with every person he meets. He also shares his struggles with being a Medium for himself or family members he’s close to. If you’ve lost a loved you (including pets) that you were close to or didn’t get closure with, I highly recommend this series.

On the heels of that show, I was introduced to a book by medical doctor Raymond Moody Jr. called Life after Life.

Book: Life After Life
Book: Life After Life

Raymond has collected hundreds of stories of near death experiences. He shares many of them in this book with all the commonalities. While of course life after death isn’t something that can be scientifically proven, he acknowledges that he’s been convinced by the number of stories that have been shared with him. For anyone nervous about death, this is a wonderful highly recommended read. I certainly felt a lot of peace after reading this book.

Have you been to a psychic? How did that experience go for you?

Third Chakra 101

by Leave a Comment

Every year when the Forsythia starts to bloom in my back yard, I breathe a sigh of relief that Spring is officially here (not that March 21 nonsense). Gorgeous yellow flowers that will warm my heart for 3-4 weeks until summer weather arrives.

Forsythia

Forsythia always remind of the third chakra. And every year I think about writing about that, and today is the day! Today I’m going to keep it simple for anyone wanting to learn more about their third chakra. If you’re brand new to chakras, I encourage you to start with my post – Anatomy of Energy Healing (Energy Healing 101).

Location

The third chakra is located in your solar plexus, above your belly button and below your ribs. Each chakra opens in 2 directions – the front of your body and the back of your body.

Colour

Vibrant sunshiney yellow! It can vary in brightness and hue.

Daffodils

Biological Functions

The simplest way to connect the chakras to biological functions is to notice what key organs and body parts are located near that chakra. This organ is strongly connected to digestion. Organs in this area include stomach, intestines, liver, pancreas, gall bladder, kidneys, adrenals and spleen (A lot of organs!). Research has shown that our nervous system is connected to this area too.

Psychological Functions

The front-facing third chakra is connected to your sense of who you are in the world. It is connected to our relationship with our personal power.Your back-facing third chakra is connected towards your intention towards your physical health.

Dandelions are prettiest in the Spring

Element

The third chakra is associated with the sun. There is fire energy in this place. Personal power and taking steps towards your physical and emotional well-being require energy. It matches the energy of Spring and Summer, where energy starts to move again after a slowing down during Autumn and Winter. You can see this as people start to exercise more, get outside and become more social.

How To Nourish Your Third Chakra

The third chakra is associated with digestion, both physically and psychologically. Healthy eating and exercise are both helpful for this area. This does not need to be dramatic to have a positive impact on your third chakra – it is about starting to do even one thing differently in your life.

If you’re the type of person who thrives on doing – then sometimes nourishing yourself will be the action of rest or slowing down. Again – it’s not about stopping all the things you do, it’s about adding more rest or slowness into your life.

If you have stomach issues or digestive issues, reflect on areas in your life that you are having trouble digesting. Seek out help in moving this area or bringing healing to them – psychotherapy is a great way to help digest these areas in your life. There is a lot of clearing and determining what to keep in your system and what to let go that happens in the organs in this area. Sometimes (Not always) this relates to emotions too – what are you holding and what do you struggle to release?

Playing With The Third Chakra

Gentle ways to play with the third chakra and it’s energies are wearing yellow or wrapping yourself in a yellow blanket. If you like crystals, it’s choosing a yellow one that you’re drawn to. If you resonate with sound, search Youtube for chakra balancing sound baths or meditations. Add some yellow flowers to your garden, altar, or in a vase in your home. Dandelion bouquets and crowns are welcome too.

Resource

If you’re interested in diving more deeply into the anatomy of chakras, my favourite book is Anodea Judith’s Eastern Body Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System as a Path to the Self.

>