As we dive into the depths of winter, the darkest days of the season and THE darkest day of the year, it’s as if Mother Nature is taking us on her own journey of transformation. Wishing you all the best during this time of reflection.

Shadow work is one of the most important elements of one’s healing journey. It’s also something that unless one recognizes what a shadow is, they might not even be able to do the deep healing work they are longing to do. Learn more about shadow aspects of yourself, plus an exercise to help find your own shadows.

The spiritual awakening process is probably one of the most difficult paths that your human soul chooses to take. Here are a few signs you may be on the journey.

Everything that’s going on in your head, and the emotions that go along with those thoughts, have an energetic frequency. You are like a radio tower transmitting and seeking frequencies that match yours. Those frequencies will make their way back to you, creating circumstances and events that manifest into your reality.

When you intensely and consistently focus on your spiritual values and goals (through meditation), you increase the blood flow to your frontal lobes, which cause the activity in emotional centers of the brain to decrease.

Do you notice patterns and events that continue to show up in your life? They’re probably trying to teach you something. Taking a moment to tune into these life lessons can help give you clarity on your path to growth and healing.

We have all kinds of voices yapping in our heads. Which voice is actually there to help us, and which voice should we be wary of?

We are taught that we should always be making ourselves better or striving to be different than we are right now, and so we tend to base our New Year’s resolutions around that idea. But what about accepting certain things just as they are?

When I say that no two of us are exactly alike, it sounds like Captain Obvious just called to tell you it’s sunny in Florida today, right? There’s an unconcealed fact that on the outside we are all completely unique. But on the inside, physically, we are just as different.

It doesn't matter how much money you have or how perfect your surroundings are, if you aren't happy within, you're always going to be seeking more, or living with a "grass is greener" mentality. 

How do I begin to describe how my life has unfolded over the past decade? When I tell people I showed up in the Bahamas on my sailboat to a remote and breathtakingly beautiful island, met my future husband, and then spent those earlier years island hopping around these strange lands, I generally get a look of disbelief.

Upon returning to Harbour Island after being away for one year, I was surprised with the warm reception I received. Several people have even said "welcome home" to me. The first time I heard it, I was taken aback. Even though I lived there for 2 1/2 years, I never really considered Harbour Island home...

They say that Island Time moves slower than regular Real World Time, but I think it slips by even faster. Maybe because there's more idleness. Or maybe time just gains momentum as I get older. I can't be sure...

I had waited for the plane to arrive from a safe vantage point outside of the chain link fence and watched it silently glide in and touch down. The plane began to slow as it passed mid-runway and suddenly I saw the pop of the tire and the plane lurched to the right. The tire flopped to the side of the rim and the plane came to a halt on the active runway. 

I have been singing "The Banana Boat Song" aka "Day-O" for three days. All I want to do is go home. To be fair, Sunday was a last minute day. We got a phone call from the supply boat captain early in the morning to let us know that he was heading back to Nassau. We had about an hour to try and compile our larger items and get them to his boat..

Mark and I are going full circle. Well, we thought we had already gone full circle, but to our surprise, we had one more notch to go to complete the radius. Mark called Nassau home for almost 20 years prior to moving out to a remote island in the Exumas where fate was destined for us to meet. The island was Norman's Cay - population of about 7 people at the time...

My husband and I have recently jumped overboard from the ship of reality. We moved from an already small island with a population of about 2,000 people during peak season, to an island with about 20 people on a crowded day. This island has one restaurant, an airstrip, and a long, bumpy dirt road that runs the length of its 6 mile fishhook shape... 

If you have the resources, the most efficient way to cruise the Bahamas is by airplane. If you're lucky enough to own an airplane, cruising the Bahamas by air is the way to go and it's becoming an increasingly popular way to explore this magnificent corner of the planet.

One Saturday afternoon we arranged for some of the construction crew to help clear the bush to make a pathway to the beach. We were ecstatic about having quick access to the beach so I was impatient about being able to use it. Once the pathway was cleared, I grabbed the dogs and a beach towel and bounded down my path.

My name is Barley and I’m a mature 57 years old. (That’s calculated into human years for you. I did you a favor and translated it as I know humans have a hard time with tricky conversions like Fahrenheit/Celsius, miles/kilometers, and human/dog years). And just to be clear, that’s Barley with a “B”. Ever since that movie about the yellow Lab became popular, I am constantly being mistaken for a Marley. It’s Barley and yes, my name is unique – just like me.

I popped to the store quickly to pick up a few things and was a little shocked as to how depleted my cash funds were upon my return home. I've been grocery shopping on Harbour Island for quite some time now, but it still never ceases to amaze me how expensive things are. Nothing in my shopping basket was organic and the fanciest thing is some uncured bacon.

If I had any marbles left after living on this crazy rock for 2 years, I may have just seen the last one go rolling out the door, down the street and drop into the depths ocean. Let me just say, power outages 4+ times a day is enough to send one to the loony bin but if you are the type of person who can brush something like that off, then you are already well-suited to island life. I, as it seems, am not...

On my rock, the preferred means of transportation, or trans as it’s commonly referred to, is a golf cart. But not just any old golf cart that your average snowbird tootles around in their South Florida retirement community. No these carts have style. And “style” is all relative to how one wishes to portray their island image. Meaning....anything goes.

My life tends to feel like a permanent vacation, which ends up making it slightly difficult to uphold any level of motivation to exercise regularly. Pair that with the fact that 357 days of the year it is 85 degrees plus… equal that for the level of humidity. So I’m already sweating by the time I wake up in the morning, throw in a load of laundry, and walk out to the street to take the garbage out.

Living in the out-islands never has its dull moments. In a panicking moment today, I feared the worst for my sweet little Barley. Barley was a rescue dog from New York and is far from street savvy like the Potcakes (the enduring name for the local mutts) are...

Oh, will the lightening stop? It rumbles and careens across the sky. My linen curtains which normally dance gently in the breeze through my wide French doors now blow in fury, whipping into the room in a torrid rage, tangling and encompassing me as I pass through the room...

The fact that I went for a second go with ayahuasca is a miracle. Most normal, sound-minded people would not have dreamed about returning to plant medicine after the horrific experience that I went through three years ago. But I knew the fate of my future depended on it.

My understanding is that the chaos and upheaval that we are experiencing in the world right now is seemingly happening because people are waking up to the veil of The Matrix.

This is for anyone interested in trying plant medicine, or on the flip side, anyone who knows without a doubt that mind-altering drugs aren’t for them, but are curious just the same. My story illuminates that whatever preconceptions you enter with, whatever you think will happen with plant medicine, probably won’t happen at all. But no matter what, you’re going to come out the other side viewing your universe in a completely different light.

Something major shifted in me during this communion with the plants, although I’m not sure if I still know the full depth and breadth of it. Like other forms of plant medicine that I have been called to over the years, these plants, these fruits and vegetables bared my raw soul. They pushed me to the extremes of my imbalances to show me what was still lurking in there, despite all my years of peeling back the layers.

Has anyone found it a bit odd that throughout this global pandemic we haven’t been encouraged to turn inward and focus on boosting the immune system, exercising, and eating healthy? One thing I do know, in order to traverse these uncertain times, learning your body and knowing how to stay healthy needs to be THE TOP PRIORITY.

Does ayahuasca cure herpes? A burning question. Here I share my personal experience.

With Social Media, much like Super Mario Bros., we are taught that we need to “win”. But you’ll never win at this game. Set down your phone and stop trying so hard.

Losing my mom to suicide ten years ago steamrolled me onto a path of healing. And now, more than ever, I believe we need to take a closer look at mental illness and address the root of our emotional pain in a compassionate and productive manner.

Being grumpy and reacting badly is not permanent. You don’t have to settle for…this is just how I react. And eventually you start to realize that it feels so much better to be nice.

Breaking up with alcohol is like trying to leave an abusive relationship. We use alcohol to mask our pain. But when we heal our pain, the need for alcohol seems to suddenly dissipate.

Even for the merriest of jolly holiday celebrators, this time of year can present challenges and bring on stressors that push the limits of our sanity.

Is anyone else feeling under the weather with a seasonal cold and flu? Hot tea is always my comfort when I'm feeling icky. I especially love tea with quotes and words of wisdom. This morning my quote reads..."You are the sky. The rest is just weather." 

Just when you think you are getting ahead, the mortgage company calls and says you are behind, the truck blew a tire and you need to replace all of them, and your bag of groceries just cost you $100. Before you know it...