What does it mean that “Life lives us?”

It’s okay. 
You don’t have to make yourself be a certain way.
You can’t. What YOU are is a process. 
Let the process of you happen. 
It’s going to anyway. 
Life flows, flowers grow and every mood that blooms in you has its own beauty.

Someone asked me the other day if I’d give a brief description of the phrase “Life lives us.” 

Life, NATURE, is something we think of as only being on planet Earth.  That’s normal – that’s our reference.  But if we give it a moment, it’s obvious that Nature is not only our planet and everything on it, but also our solar system, the galaxy, all the life forms and processes and how they fit together. It’s all of it, everywhere, in the entire, unknowably large universe and beyond.  And whatever it is that powers all that LIFE happening everywhere – well, that has been going on since before we can conceptualize. Long before you got here, or humans got here, or our solar system got here. 

Life has been expressing itself in uncountable forms all along.  All those forms come and go, with that animating force behind all of it.  Right now, life is manifest as infinite stuff, creatures, chemical reactions all at the same time, all across the universe. 

One of those expressions of life is a YOU.  There is a creature that you are somehow aware of being.  You are looking out through the eyes of the part of LIFE that has showed up as you.  You got to watch the whole ride as Life turned you into an embryo, a newborn, a 1 year old, a teenager….you got to witness and experience as Life lived your body and grew it up….  The same way life lived through an acorn and guided it into an oak tree. The oak didn’t do that life-ing and neither did you with your body. Maybe with none of it. Really. Maybe Life is living the exact “flavor” and personality of you.  You are gloriously animated and alive right now, a unique expression of the absolutely endless stream of living energy that powers everything. There’s just that one energy. 

But in our human, mortal bodies, the biology focuses on staying alive and as part of that it creates an “identity” to keep alive.  We take life so personally. We think it’s us running the show.  We think it’s all very, very important. We get hyper focused on the details of the story and stress out about what he said, what she said, what we weigh, what our clothes look like, if we had to wait in line somewhere……

For me, when I zoom out and feel into the fact that an animating energy is living me, it relaxes me. It helps me not take my life too seriously and helps me enjoy the ride.  It helps me to enjoy the specialness of this “me-ness” without getting too wound up in the details. It helps me let go of my illusion of control.  I mean, the animating energy is here, dancing as me, as it dances through eternity. And I get to be carried!  I get to be lived, animated, celebrated in Life’s endless explosion of YES to its own creativity!! 

Life lives you.  And everything that shows up in you is part of life.  It’s literally all life, and it’s all included and it’s literally all good.  Everything is life.  All of YOU is good. The whole thing is good.  I hope you marvel at EVERYTHING that shows up inside you, your feelings, your experience and the story that is being lived as a YOU.

I hope you don’t take that personally, and that it helps you relax, be carried and enjoy life as it lives you. 

I hope you feel my awe and how much I love sharing this aliveness with you!

Love love love!

Christina

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My Intuitive Counseling and Coaching!

All the pieces just seem to have fallen into place.  I’ve been in practice for 17 years or so, but in the last couple years things have just come into focus.  I’m looking at it all from a new perspective.  My understanding about how life works and how the human brain and human beingness work – well, it’s just made the ground of my practice more solid. My work is resting on a new foundation.  I still work intuitively and with a focus on the energy in the body. I still encourage people to connect to their own ability to FEEL their own alignment and navigate by that.  I still point us all to our own, exquisite access to wisdom. More than ever, I celebrate the power of lightening up and relaxing into all that direct experience of ALIVENESS! 

But I’ve made some connections. My experience of the understandings have ripened. And because of that can articulate and share it in an even more accessible way.  And definitely, definitely, my approach has expanded more into the profound change available in ease.  Moving by ease and enjoyment helps all understanding. It helps everything open up and flow.

(That is one of the reasons why I offer process art as an option, if you’d like that.  It’s a tangible, hands on experience of getting out of our heads, relaxing and allowing wisdom to arise from wherever it naturally does when we unclench! Art is not a requirement of my sessions AT ALL. I’m just letting you know about the option!)

I work with individuals and couples of all kinds – most of whom are dealing with some kind of fear and anxiety.  Their minds are having trouble with topics like food, health, weight, money, habits, insecurity, control, relationships, confidence, career, caring for aging parents, ….  Anxiety shows up in every imaginable topic, but the way I work helps us understand why we even have anxiety to begin with:  and how to exhale and relate to it differently.  

I really welcome your questions. I know you are already unfolding perfectly.  You are already on your journey.  And if you’d like a buddy to walk with, help you see it all from a new angle, get some clarity and, well, relax about it all, I’d love to help.  Contact me via email, phone or text if you want to check out the possibility of working together.  I absolutely LOVE what I do and I’d love to hang out with you in your expanding YOU-ness.

Always love!
Christina

619-838-5378
Chris@ChristinaBrittain.com
https://christinabrittain.com/services/

I always appreciate referrals.  Keep me in mind if you know someone who might need a buddy to help them get a little more clarity with something.  

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Can I Just Drop It?

There is a voice in my head that is making itself sick trying to get well.

It’s been there my whole life – the part that is sure there is a problem and needs to fix it.  “Getting healthy” is its favorite, BIGGEST PROBLEM to obsess about.

Your “fixing problems voice” might be trying to control everyone so that you can trust them. 😉 Or constantly looking for all your flaws so you can be perfect.  Or obsessing about finances or food so you will never have to think about money or weight!  😉

Our brains all have a voice that is warring with itself over how to get peace. 

But that voice isn’t us.

We keep walking into the middle of the conflict. Keep joining in to solve the issue.  Keep stepping onto the hamster wheel of that topic and keep it spinning.

Even though we’ve been doing it for a long, long time, we don’t have to.

I’ve been leaving my mind more often. Letting it go on warring and worrying about my safety.  It means well.  But it’s confused. And the obsession just isn’t what I’M interested in. 

I have a lot more time to play now!
To be in the world!
To actually experience being well.

You do too. I hope you go play with the games you really like and let your mind do its thing without your undivided attention for awhile!

Hugs,
Christina

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Hello from Chris!

Hi everyone!  Wow. I miss you.  I miss being in connection with you. I miss telling you I love you. It’s been a long time since I wrote, and it’s just TIME!  I’ve been busy in a really good way.  My practice, personal life, health and sense of wonder are all THRIVING. 😀  I feel so lucky!  To be here. To be, you know, alive and participating. The story of life keeps unfolding.  And the more I live, the more in awe I am that I’m even here to be part of it.  Wild. 
 
Heart connection is probably my favorite part of this wild ride.  So I’m re-connecting with you all.  I just want to share some thoughts, some upliftment, tell you I love you periodically, share an insight when it occurs to me and share my awe freely.  So I’m hoping to share shorter, not-fancy posts that just say hi and maybe give you a sense of connection too.   
 
The world keeps doing its miraculous existence and unveiling itself, moment by moment. To me, that becomes so much more joyful when I get to SHARE it with other human hearts. Thank you for reading this and sharing life with me, everyone.  More emails to come. I hope you enjoy them….
 
So much love to you all,
Christina
 
PS: If you can think of someone who would get some love, fun or other lightening up from this, please share this email with them by forwarding it!  And while you’re at it, why not use it as an excuse to tell ‘em you love ‘em? Send them some warm fuzzies as only you can!  Sharing good stuff gets better with more ripples out……. <3

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I Am The Space Between My Thoughts

I. A.m. T.h.e. S.p.a.c.e. B.e.t.w.e.e.n. M.y. T.h.o.u.g.h.t.s.

Invisible Presence,
Aware. The particular
Movement of the mind doesn’t
Truly Matter.
Histories come and go.
Eras, galaxies, individuals and their stories. None of it
Personal. All expressions of the possible within the
Alive
Cosmos of the
Eternal
Beingness – The
Timeless
Witness to
Everything. That Invisible Presence is what will always
Exist. That is the
Nearest things to a true
Me or a true
You that we can find. We are not our
Thoughts.  Maybe not even our feeling
Hearts.  But the constant,
Open space that allows it all to
Unfold in. A
Glorious, Shining space that
Holds and adores, animates and
Thrives every
Single, holy thought, story, creation – and is none of them at all.

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Enjoying Our Experience!

Inspired by a recent session with a client who realized that her job (LIFE) might become a lot easier and give her more freedom if she treated it as an experiment in just enjoying her experience!

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I Got Into The Habit of Thinking I Suck

I know right?  As IF! 
I mean, we’re talking about ME here! 😉

You remember the movie, “The Matrix?”  There’s that scene where Morpheus and Neo “upload” themselves into the mind program where there is a martial arts dojo. Morpheus is going to teach Neo how to apply all the kung fu that Neo just learned in theory.  Then they get busy with some super impressive, physics-defying kung fu practice.  The point is for Neo to learn that all the rules of the physical world don’t actually apply in the matrix, the mind world.  At one point, Neo stops in their practice to bend over and catch his breath.  Morpheus leans close to Neo and asks quietly, “You think that’s air your breathing now?”  Neo is quietly shocked into remembering that he is in a computer program – there are no actual physical limitations in the program but his mind is used to them so he keeps playing by those rules. He catching his breathe to let his physical body rest, but his body isn’t even part of the exercise. It’s all being played out in his mind.

It’s like that for all of us. We’re used to thinking about things in a certain way.  Thinking they’re real. If Neo was doing kung fu fighting with his actual body, well then yes – he would need to catch his breath. And he would behave in a certain way and adhere to the laws of physics or else he would definitely get hurt.  If he tried to run up a wall, float in the air to land a kick, jump over a ravine – his body wouldn’t be able to perform what his unlimited imagination suggested.  

When I was a kid, it made sense to adhere to the physical rules of my household (and family and school and society) or else I got hurt.  One of the rules was I needed to see myself as inferior, impaired, weak, and always trying to make up for my inherent lack of value.  (That is so off from the truth about me or anyone that it makes me feel icky just to write that!)  So many of us have similar versions of that misconception. “Who do you think you are?!” our elders might demand, implying that we are in truth nobody and definitely not entitled to love ourselves.  Love yourself?!  That’s clearly conceited!!  And clearly conceited people are bad people, have no character and “they’ll get their come-uppance!”  “Don’t get too full of yourself !” Blah blah blah.  We can see that there are SOO many “rules” that we learned and still adhere to even though if we stop and think about it, those rules aren’t true. 

I got into the habit of thinking I suck. For a long time in my childhood it was safer for me to believe that and behave accordingly. But lately I am really, really waking up to seeing how that way of thinking is just a habit. I keep sucking in the “air” like Neo when there is no air. I keep “sucking” even though there is no suck! 

There. Is. No. Suck.
I just thought there was for a really long time.
Now I have the happy adventure of discovering what is left when I stop “sucking” false air.

And now, dear friends, please join me in a deep breath of fresh, life-giving, REAL AIR and all the freedom that comes with that!

Love,
CB

Okay I am happily embracing my nerdy self right now!  I had to include these clips from the Matrix!  If you want a totally immature humor giggle, click the first image/video!  If you are an actual Matrix fan and or/geek and want to watch that actual cool scene again where Morpheus asks Neo if he thinks that’s air he’s breathing now, click the second picture/video!

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Intuitive Counseling and Coaching Sessions

(With the Option of Process Art Making)

It helps so much when we can get out of our heads. Otherwise, we wind up in a trance, stuck in a world of the same-same thoughts in between our ears.  It can seem so real.  As if that closed system is actually fact.  So easy to obsess on “the problem.” 

In the past I’ve been super scared that I won’t ever be able to solve or figure out the problem. I think part of me felt that if I stopped obsessing it would get worse.  We think the worry is what is keeping the problem in check. Or we get scared that there really isn’t any way out of the problem, ever.  So we don’t even dare to really look at the possibility of not being consumed by it. 

I didn’t know it was an option to put “the problem” down.  Or at least see it from a new angle.  You know the story of the tar baby…?  The more I engaged with the thoughts, looked at the thoughts, and wrestled with the thoughts, the more stuck on the thoughts I got. 

Life can be easier. It can feel better, more spacious and more possible.  Having a coach really helps to move out of that sticky anxiety and into spacious ease. It’s just straight up helpful to have a partner to reflect back to you. A good listener who sees clearly can offer a new perspective that makes almost literally a world of difference.  I hope you’ll come see me if you’re feeling stuck or scared or just want to feel better, more easeful.  

Oh, and simple “art” is an option as a tool in our sessions. Art is such an easy, immediate way to get out of your head.  It helps us to let go of the same-same, obsessive thinking and learn to feel for and follow something that feels more alive and spacious. 

It also let’s us talk about energy, patterns and the transient nature of emotions, thoughts and perspectives.  I have several folks that are enjoying art as a tool even in zoom sessions.  I just wanted to make sure you know that using art as a doorway is available as an option.  Crayons on paper, writing, gentle moving of the body, etc – some or all of that can always be included in our conversations if that appeals.  

If you or someone you know could use a helper to see clear of some anxiety, worry, problem-fixation, fear, self-doubt or anything you or they are struggling and suffering through, I would love to help.  If you’re not sure, please give me a call and I’m happy to answer your questions.

Lastly, I just want to say that my work, these conversations I have with you, bring me truly immense joy!  There is no way I could NOT be doing this work.  I delight in the expansion with you.  I hope you’ll come play in the spaciousness and love with me.

I love you and I love life so much,
Christina

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What I Need Is Right Here

What I Need Is Right Here

Welcome you to your life. No more
Holding yourself apart. You are
Allowed here. To
Thrive and thrum. To move freely in this aliveness.
Invite yourself to every moment.
No barrier to
Earn your way through into
Elusive worthiness and
Deservability. To somehow have access to what others seem to have.

Include Yourself in the
Simple truth that
Reality doesn’t separate its
Infinite
Glory from you.  Ever. For any reason. The
Home and wholeness; the love and fullness; the joy is
There inside you. The
Heart of the Universe, the never ending richness of
Existence Itself – You are
Ready to let yourself know that, yes?  To
Experience what you thought was “over there.” It’s here.  You ARE everything,
            offering Itself to Itself. That is the whole dance. 
            Even when your mind has you convinced you’re a wallflower,
            the never ending music pours through your veins, sways your
            body, carries your feet….
            The rhythm of love spins and twirls in every exquisite, sacred cell.

~~~~~~~~~
Love, CB

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On a Causal Level

Hi everyone.  Some of you know that my incredibly powerful friend has actually been healing herself from pretty advanced cancer.  We around her are in awe. She’s a super hero! Her friend Micheline is one of the many other super heroes in the love posse helping Sarah right now.  Sarah calls Micheline “Hearth Woman.”  You ain’t gonna find a more grounded, strong, stable body and psyche pretty much anywhere.  And you certainly can’t outdo Micheline’s  superpowers as a kitchen witch, heart and hearth tender. Anyway, Micheline commented once that Sarah is making changes on a causal level. The basic, foundational level of vibration. I agree. In my eyes, Sarah is birthing herself into a new paradigm. She is shifting the reality she lives in. Those of us in her circle are all impacted so profoundly. There is an event, a vortex happening in this healing and in the circle of family and friends.  I can feel that we are shifting the realities we live in too.
 
Sarah has talked about the vortex around her. Something big is going on, and Sarah feels that it isn’t about her healing.  She said it may LOOK like it’s about her healing, but the way she sees it, LIFE is just doing its business of creation.  So many, many people and nuances of detail are involved and swirling around Sarah’s healing. Life is moving through us too. Life gathered us together, a natural process of drawing in the right elements. The way nature draws in, draws upon, draws together all the parts of the ecosystem that are needed as it unfolds its usual miracles. The miraculous that happens every single day as a mundane function of the infinitely creative process of LIFE. Of course I see through my lens…. But to me, all of us in the vortex are undergoing our own causal, vibrational, foundational shifts in paradigm.
 
Of course, I have been on my own journey, my own unfolding. We all are. And I can feel that my own alchemical process had been shifting in a new way before Life enfolded me in the vortex around Sarah.  “My” vortex, “Sarah’s” vortex, Life just doing its usual business of creation – it’s all the same thing, looked at from different angles.
 
Anyway, there has been so much clarity and so many insights in the last month in particular for me.  I feel that fundamental shift within me that I will never fully understand.  Isn’t that life?  A tremendous, unfathomable, endless evolution in each of us – most of which we’ll never even be aware of.  Yet change – evolution – keeps living us. And our insights, however plenty and HUGE they may be, are only tiny, tiny inklings of the Infinite Movement of the Power that is moving us.  As it animates and evolves EVERYTHING.  As it dances itself through us, as us…..
 
Well, that is a long, existential preamble to share with you that I will be postponing my classes for a bit.  I am not even sure what I planned to teach will still make sense after a few more trips around the swirling vortex I am in!  Maybe I’ll end up teaching the same classes I had planned!?!  Regardless, Life is calling my energy and attention toward this, this…whatever it is I seem to be participating in!  I will of course keep you posted. I feel so thankful that you are all here with me, listening, caring….. I feel you. Blessings to each of you in your vortex, connected to THE Infinite movement of Creation Itself.  We are always, always in this together. Because there is really only one thing, one Life goin’ on…..
 
I love you.
Christina
Ps – see my little poem below based on Micheline’s phrase “On A Causal Level.”

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