Erin Casey
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Reflections

8/16/2023 0 Comments

Presence

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The body holds memories. The body holds spirits.

The Earth body. The human body.

My body. Your body.

Can we be present with and appreciate the stories we’ve held? There is darkness and pain, there is light and beauty, there is pleasure that we have not been allowing ourselves to feel.

When I sit with how I am to serve the world today, I first noticed what seemed to be tension. Instead of labeling it as such and trying to fix, figure out, or change it, I simply sat with it.

Presence.

I followed the sensation - listening, allowing. Unfolding. Welcoming. It opened into pleasure. Instead of something I wanted to hide, I realized it wanted to be seen.

Our bodies are holy. Our pleasure is holy. Sacred. Alive. Welcoming of all. Brilliant.

Worthy of honoring, respect.

Connected to the Divine. Worthy of life.

My connection to Holy and Divine is a journey. My connection to pleasure is a journey. It is still unfolding, clarifying. I have held the weight of my lineage, at least partially connected to the Catholic church, which feels clouded with judgements of right and wrong. When I talk about holy and divine now, I long to find definitions that connect me to you in understanding and clarity, in a way we can relate to each other. I have judgements of the Catholic church and wish to separate my experiences of holy and divine from religious contexts that have felt stifling.

I have a desire to welcome my pleasure fully, making space for it, because it is true aliveness and beauty. I have a desire to be fully present with my experience, not looking for outside validation for my safety or worthiness, but to know my worthiness inherently. To know that I am holy and divine. To feel that in my body.

As I sit with that in my body, pleasure opens up where pain and tension has been held. I open to being seen more fully. I open to moving my body in ways it has felt stuck. The journey continues. There is still pain and tension as I write, but there is also more pleasure, hope, and capacity to be with.

I do body work. To connect you to your body. You to me. You to God. You to your pleasure. To your life force. To your joy. To others around you. To Earth. To Love. To Wholeness.
~
This post was inspired by a song that was stuck in my head:

"You and I
drink this water,
You and I
breathe this air,
You and I
walk this holy ground,
You and I
live here."

Song by Laurence Cole, based on the words by Winona LaDuke, taught to me by song leader Yuri.

As songs get stuck in my head these days, I listen, inquire, and follow the threads. They have messages to tell. What messages are you listening to?

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8/10/2023 1 Comment

Growing and Grounding into Aliveness and Connection

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Aliveness. Connection. Beauty. Truth.

What I live for. What I heal for. What I dance for.

Growing up, I numbed out.

A little context of my childhood: My parents fought, had a miscarriage when I was young that was emotionally traumatizing, moved a lot, and divorced when I was 8. At the time, I thought I was ok. It wasn't until I started crying in my early 30's when simply learning about the nervous system freeze response that I realized I had not been ok. My truth was hiding.

In the Reichian character structures, I'm a schizoid, which is one who withdraws and fragments under stress, as I learned in Shamanic De-armoring.

Now whenever there is stress at home, mainly conflict between housemates, I want to move. Realizing this is a pattern of mine, and recognizing it's relevance to the schizoid type, has me want to find the harmony, grounding, safety, resource, and clarity within me.

It has me want to commit to staying where I am at least for a set length of time. It has me want to create harmony in all the ways I know how to do: create beauty in and around the house, commune with the land I live on, build trust, friendship and coherence with housemates, lean in to edges of discomfort lovingly and spaciously, and facilitate offerings that help build community in my home and beyond, and that help grow my capacity to be with more of life, so that I can ground and truly enjoy all that life has to offer me. So I don't have to bail when conflict arises, but I can sway like the trees and adjust as needed, continuing to grow.

Does any of this resonate with you? Would you like support? Click here to book a consultation call or session.

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2/2/2023 0 Comments

How to Touch

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How can you touch someone with finesse, skill and attunement in a way that is unattached to outcome, listening to both your needs and theirs, following the flow of what wants to happen? This is not a lesson in techniques, but how to be present with yourself and another so that your body can meet theirs harmoniously.

On one level, it's super simple - you just do it.
However, we're complex creatures.
I'll speak for myself...

I want to be attuned to, deeply heard and seen. I want the person touching me to release what they think they know and to actually listen to my body, my energy, my words, my breath, my soul AND theirs. If they are not aware of what's happening for them and they're focused solely on me, something is missing.

What is attunement? 
Speak to me, make contact with me in a way that has my body, mind and energy soften and clarify in your presence. When we are attuned, my body trusts your touch the moment you come into contact with me, and where you come into contact with me is not necessarily physical touch first. Here in this moment as you're reading, you are coming in to contact with my words, my thoughts, my energy field. The energy field spans distances and time.

Attunement is finding resonance where your body and mine meet. It's finding harmony between us. 

Attunement is how a mother knows exactly what her baby requires, and giving it to them in a way that they can fully receive it. Attunement is not assuming you know what someone else needs based on past experiences, but being present with the being you are with in the moment, who may be different than how they showed up 10 seconds ago.

A guitar will need different tuning in dry and humid conditions. A living human is far more complex than a guitar. They may desire completely different contact now than you gave them 2 days ago, or different than you would like to receive yourself. 

HOW do we attune to our partners?
First, know yourself. Become so purely present with yourself in this moment.

As I type this now, I feel tingly in the back of my head, tension in my jaw and teeth, distrust of people who may read this (I have a story that the more strangers know about me, the more they'll take advantage of me, in a way that takes and doesn't give), awareness of sounds around me - the dryer running, neighbors upstairs - my sleepy eyes, the ticking clock, the habit of my energy coming forward, then recalibrating and finding where my energy wants to be - naturally sinking in to my belly as I allow it. 

What's the point of noticing and naming all of this? Why does any of this matter?

Because as I write, as I notice everything in my experience, I soften, settle, and relax. My energy expands. The pressure in my head releases. 

How does it relate to attunement to a partner?

If I'm holding tension, or on edge, or not present and aware in my body, then some part of the person I'm coming in to contact with is aware of that, whether they are conscious of it or not. Their body, or their energy, or their subconscious knows. And the better that I can attune to myself, to become aware of my present state and to give myself what I need, I will be better equipped to make contact with another being in a way that is clear and mutually supportive in a clean, unattached way. If I were disregulated and not aware of it, not owning it, and then offering supportive contact to someone, I may actually be receiving more benefit by touching them than they are receiving from me. I may actually be subconsciously taking. This can create an energy imbalance - an unconscious way to pull energy. The more that I as a support person am aware of my experience, and am grounded, centered, and owning my experience, the more I can offer neutral, attuned, supportive contact.

From a place of self-awareness and finding right relationship with another person - that is, what physically and energetically feels clear and easeful between the two of you - then touch can come more naturally. Techniques can be taught, but they aren't the first skill.

Reach out to me if you'd like some guidance on how to touch, and how to attune to yourself and another. Sessions are available in person in Asheville, NC, Boulder, CO and online.

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9/8/2022 1 Comment

Grounding after being triggered AF, and moving towards Freedom


Ground
​
This is many things...

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Ground is the Earth we walk on.
Ground is our bodies.
Ground is the energy which connects and flows through every molecule.
Ground is Source.

Ground is what we believe in.
Ground is something that helps us feel stable. 

For some, the sky, stars or space may be more Grounding, more stabilizing.

At one point in my life, imagining the space within my spine was very centering and stabilizing. When I was triggered in a coaching class, no one knew this was a resource for me.

Some intuitives and empaths know exactly what’s needed when someone is triggered. Sometimes they’re also clueless. Sometimes you’re the only one who can know what’s supportive to you.

Last night I had THE MOST triggering experience in Circling (an authentic relating practice) that I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a few of them over the years. Grateful for years of experience in trauma healing and knowing my system well, it was clear to me that I needed some time alone, and I was able to shake it out after a few hours. Today I’m still moving through the discomfort.

What is my Ground now, that which holds me when I feel most unstable? When triggered, I felt confused, unsafe, scared, shaky. I didn’t trust ANYONE, and I realized in the middle of the night at 2:00 AM that if I didn’t shake off the trauma, I could develop an auto-immune health issue. I wasn’t shaking naturally, I was frozen. Nervous system overload. 

Pause for a Nervous System Lesson:

There is more to the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) than Sympathetic fight or flight and Parasympathetic rest and digest. That’s the Sympathetic system under stress and the Parasympathetic in optimal health. When stressed TOO much with insufficient support, one can go into the Parasympathetic stress response of freeze, dissociation and collapse. To the extreme, one can die. So a Parasympathetic nervous system response isn’t always rest and digest healing time. A calm demeanor isn’t always a healthy, resourced state of calm. Click here for more information on the ANS.

Now back to my freeze state...

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(cheers, “Yay! Freeze state, weeee!!!”) 

It’s common for me to experience this in extreme stress. Thanks to years of amazing teaching and healing, I had the mindfulness to at least start experimenting with some internal resourcing. I found MY Ground that was supportive in that moment. 

In this case, it asked my Spirit guides to support me, then the shaking started with ease. Though I consider myself to be a relatively embodied person, I wasn’t able to settle enough or access the shake on my own. Though I consider myself to be a Spiritual person, I was still skeptical until recently about actually connecting to “guides.” SO, after YEARS of teachers suggesting I connect to and request help from my Spirit guides, I can finally say that I did, and it actually helped. Wow. And I still feel nervous to name all of this publicly.

To name that I’m not as embodied as I would like to be. That I was triggered to the point of an hours-long trauma response at a f***ing Circling event. That I’m still processing it and overeating today. That I connect to Spirit guides. 

My point is, we all have wildly different experiences, and different ways to Ground and resource.

What you know may be different than what I know, and vice versa. Last night at Circling I experienced projections, assumptions and judgements that ranged from irritating to highly activating, and it served a purpose that I believe is serving me and others, but I do not wish anyone to experience that level of activation at an authentic relating event who doesn’t have the level of resources and support I do. That sounds cocky to me, but also true. My wish is that we make space for our own and other's experiences, space to express ourselves authentically without co-dependent tendencies of needing to fix or change others, and space to be curious about what's really happening.
 I believe this will bring us more Freedom.
​
If you want help finding your Ground and accessing more Freedom, reach out to me. I’m available for online and in-person coaching, energy healing and intuitive bodywork in Asheville, NC and occasionally Boulder or elsewhere.

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7/22/2022 0 Comments

Desires : Freedom of Expression

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​Who are you, and what do you most desire?

I desire Freedom.

Freedom to express myself fully, and to be fully alive.

To be, and to express, in alignment with my Soul.

That's all.

Simple, eh? With a long, complicated, challenging journey to access that after lifetimes of trauma (ancestral and past lives).

What wants to come through me is pure life force energy, and the way that it comes through me is odd to some people, including myself at times. Orgastic energy flows through me and I speak in tongues that I don't understand - this is the most recent and unusual expression, so it's been the most uncomfortable one recently. Paintings come out of me that are beautiful and have an impact on people - this is a fairly easy way for me to allow expression. My body moves with ease and vibrancy on the dance floor in a way that some people would think I'm on drugs (I'm not). In the right context, this is also an easy way to express, and one that brings me great joy and clarity.

I guess in the right context, when a safe container is created, I can allow any expression through me. So what is required to create a safe container?

What sort of container do you require to allow your true self and desires to come through?

In a way, I'm creating a container of safety for myself through this very post. I do not experience this online field to be inherently safe. I do believe there is inherent safety within us, as there is inherent health in everything. What is required within me to find safety? It's a quality of grounding. Grounding into my knowing, into pure Universal energy, into Soul truth.

What do I truly desire?

I desire to turn you on - Soulfully alive. So fully alive, aligned with Soul.

I desire more playmates. People who will be radically honest with me, and be with me in the discomfort when trigger is present, recognizing where they're at and willing to contact something more true. Willing to be with the unknown, and with discomfort. Willing to feel more pleasure, more joy, more aliveness, more beauty. Willing to respect and honor the pain and move with it, and through it.

I desire playmates who will celebrate me in my bigness, and who allow their bigness to come through, not in a power-hungry or power-over way, but in a fully alive way. In a way that honors Truth. In a way that clarifies, that brings more aliveness, connection, pleasure and joy.

What do you desire?

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7/21/2022 0 Comments

Patience

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Patience, Sweet Darling.

Settle right in
     to what is here,
         now.
         Now.
     Here,   now.

     Hear now, the whispers of your heart, and follow them.
You will learn something, uncover something.

Follow the whispers of your body.
     They will show you how to be alive.
I am moving to Asheville, NC soon, very soon. And living in Bardo is what it feels like sometimes - in between one world and the next. Being here now is requiring patience. As excited as I am to leave, and as sad as I am to leave, I must be with it all, feel it all. Patience to be with the discomfort, to be with the unknown. Unknown of how I'm going to pay for it all. Discomfort of letting go. Letting go of lovers, friends, and clients. Letting go of furniture. Discomfort of driving across country with a cat in my lap. Wait, that actually sounds amusing... I think I'll be ok. As I cry, alone in my car full of stuff, grieving the end of a lifetime, on to something new. I've never done this before. I'm a Colorado native, been here my whole life. Packing up and moving across country... a new lifetime. I'll be ok. 

Patience, Dear One. Be with it all.
​You are capable. You are safe. You are held. 

Follow the whispers of your body,
They will show you how to live. 
(Note to self)
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4/6/2022 1 Comment

How to Touch a Unicorn

Unicorns are majestic, magical creatures with sensitive nervous systems. They require a different kind of presence than the average person. To touch a Unicorn requires one to be aware of the energetic presence of pure Love and Divine Beauty. Can you sense this energy now? Tap in.

Notice your body in this moment. And your breath. Notice the palms of your hands, and your seat. Can you sense the presence of pure Love within you? A Unicorn may be scared away if you’re too clingy, so you must be grounded and centered in yourself, and connected to a higher power, before reaching out to touch it.

Now energetically ask this Unicorn, how would you like to be touched? Since it doesn’t speak the way you speak to humans, and it’s a magical creature, it could give you an answer in a myriad of ways. You may hear a voice in your head, or see an image, or be drawn to where they want to be touched, or feel a sensation in your body, or see them physically or visually indicate something on their body.

But wait! Is it obvious yet how it would like to be touched? Do you feel a clear magnetic pull drawing you in? Unless the signal is clear, you may need more information. Continuing to be grounded and centered in yourself, you could ask the Unicorn, where would you like me to be? Not only are Unicorns physically sensitive, but also energetically sensitive - there’s a difference between holding a spacious awareness of their whole body vs. focusing on one particular spot. They’ll notice this difference. AND there’s a difference between those two and holding a spacious awareness of the space around you, including the space behind you, the space of Earth, and the space of the Universe. Some Unicorns may LOVE all this space, and some may actually appreciate direct, focused attention, closer in to their body.

Are you following me? Unicorns are SO sensitive that they are aware of where your attention is, and as each one is different, and each day is different, it’s very important to clarify each time you come into contact with a Unicorn, where do they feel the most ease? With a wide spacious or more tightly contained degree of focus? And from that energetic resonance, how would they like to be touched?

This is just the start.

Saturday is National Unicorn Day

Saturday is also the first day I’ll be facilitating a 3-hour class on How to Touch and How to Be Touched. Click here for more details and to register.

To prepare, you might want to watch the movie The Unicorn Store. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
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1 Comment

3/9/2022 0 Comments

Let's explore...

What if there was nothing wrong with you, nothing to fix? Already, as you are in this moment, nothing that you're feeling, doing, experiencing is wrong. All of it has its place, all of it can speak...

I've made myself wrong A LOT. Anyone else? It's an interesting edge between self-improvement because it's fun and natural, and self-improvement because I'm trying to get approval and love from others so I feel less alone, so I feel safe, so I feel at home. Can you relate?

If there was nothing to fix, you might continue doing exactly what you're currently doing, but it might feel more easeful. If I have nothing in me to fix, I feel more alive, turned on, joyful. I follow my body more easily when my mind isn't trying to figure out how to make something better.

The intuitive, integrative bodywork, energy healing and art I offer has shifted from a fix-it framework to an exploratory, "let's see what's here and what wants to be revealed" framework. If that sounds fun to you, let's talk!
Schedule a Consultation
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A custom painting in progress, on my super high-tech easel.
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2/24/2022 1 Comment

Gifting and Receiving

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Are you gifting to yourself, receiving your own gifts?

For the longest time I would take care of others without taking care of myself, then I would pay others to take care of me without honoring that I can give myself my own gifts, taking time to be with myself.

Sometimes we need other's support, sometimes we need to find the support within. Sometimes receiving support from others helps us access our inner resources. These past couple years have been a journey for me of accessing more deeply my inner resources so I can share gifts with others without co-dependently hooking into them for my survival.

It's a complex life...

I received a lot from others last week, so I made a series of these Art Trading Cards as medicine gifts. I realized I needed to make one for myself, too, acknowledging myself for the gift that I am.

That last line feels vulnerable to share publicly, as I've been present to my inner critic this morning. Also seems important. I could win an Olympic medal for judging myself. That's not a medal I'm interested in now.

Can you celebrate yourself today?

1 Comment

2/24/2022 0 Comments

I feel you. Literally.

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Hi, I'm Erin, and I'm an empath. Sensorial psychic. Clairsentient. I can be walking past a stranger with my eyes down, not seeing or cognitively knowing anything about this being, but my body knows. I instantly have a hit into what they're feeling, and they may not even be aware of what they're feeling (I spent years not knowing what I was feeling - I was numb... more on that another time).

Sometimes I'm aware that I'm taking on other people's stuff, sometimes I realize it much later. Sometimes I can let it go immediately, sometimes I hold on to it for years.
Can you relate?
What will it take to let it go immediately? What will it take to release attachments to pain, trauma, suffering? To let go of carrying other people's baggage?
What will it take to be in the flow?


Repeat after me:
1. I am not responsible for other people's trauma and baggage.
 2. I am at choice of what to do with the awareness that I have.
 3. What feels in the flow now?


Maybe it's time to actually feel all the feels... No? Ok, go for a walk. Cut your hair. Dance...
What feels true to you right now?




Ground.
Feel. Your. Ground.
Now.


Center.
Ground.


How? Look around you. Notice what lights you up. Right now as I write, the birds sound lovely to me. So I feel my body as I listen to their song. More space opens up. What is heavy or not true to me lifts.


What is your ground? I can give you a million and one ways to find this in yourself (I might be exaggerating, but now I like the challenge to come up with that many...), but what do YOU know about grounding right now in this moment?


Find your truth. Find your ground.


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    Author

    I'm Erin Casey, and I touch people. With my hands, with my presence, with contact - physical and energetic. With my art, with my awareness, kindness, ferocity, grace, humor, humility, humanness. I create Source-guided art: intuitive, abstract, bringing the unseen to light. I follow the energy, follow what feels right. Sometimes it's messy and awkward, but often it's beautiful and moving.

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