For the past year I have been learning a new Qigong set. This set is very martial and quite technical and requires a lot of space (a large room or open outdoor area), given the nature of the movements. You are also working with the 5 Elements, 8 Directions (of the bagua), and Yin/Yang. So it is quite deep as well.

After a year, I finally have the set memorized. This doesn’t mean I can really do the set; it means I can take the next step, which is to actually go through the movements with a little more ease. It doesn’t mean I am embodying the essence of the elements, it doesn’t mean I am connecting with the 8 directions, and it doesn’t mean Yin and Yang are anywhere near in harmony.

In fact, most of the time I do this set, I am still stuck in my head and sweating and forgetting to breathe. The next day I am usually sore (mostly in a good way).

It will probably take me several more years of consistent practice to really make this set flow and to begin to connect with the deeper layers. If I am lucky, at some point I will make the set and the accompanying forms mine.

I am using the term “if I am lucky,” but really what that means is that if I put in the work, I will eventually reap the benefits. If you didn’t know, the “gong” in Qigong is often translated as work, or time and effort dedicated to learning something. Hence a common translation of Qigong, which is “Energy Work.” I tend to prefer “The Art and Study of Energy.”

So after some time, something will shift and I will begin to embody the essence of the forms. Even then, it will still teach me, but I will have achieved a certain level of mastery.

This is a bit of an extreme example, but it applies to all Qigong forms. We go through a process where we can eventually connect to these forms on a deeper and deeper level. There is really no end point.

It is important to note that just because a Qigong set (or form) is complicated and overly technical doesn’t make it more powerful than a very simple and straightforward form. Sometimes it is more of a challenge with the simple forms to appreciate what you really have (isn’t that a life lesson?). With the simpler forms, people tend to get bored: “I know this one. I am done with it. I want to learn something different and/or more powerful.” I make it a point, whenever I start to develop this attitude toward a form, to work with it and reconnect.

I won’t be teaching the above Qigong set to the public anytime soon, if ever, but I do teach a variety of other Qigong sets that will change your life. I know they have changed mine.

I currently do most of my teaching via my online community, “The Qigong State,” although I will be starting in-person workshops in the very near future. Stay tuned.

• My community currently consists of 8.5 hours of recorded videos with detailed Qigong instruction.

• We also have weekly live 60-minute classes over Zoom, with time for Q&A.

• And community discussions, which are quite enjoyable and often leave me in awe of the knowledge and wisdom being shared.

You can join over the next 2 days at my introductory price of $25 per month. After that, the price is going up substantially.

Join The Community

See you in the Qigong State.

With Strength and Chi,

Steve ~

Hello Everyone,

It has been a while since I have written an article. To be honest, I joined Substack to take a break from Instagram, write longer-form pieces on Qigong and energy healing, and share healing experiences from my own life. My intention was also to build more of a community. I was immediately attracted to the quality of the people here and the depth of the exchanges.

I have always wanted to make my Qigong teachings accessible to the masses and have shared high-quality videos with full instruction and limited fluff. But when you’re working with an ancient practice like Qigong, there is only so much you can say in a 1-minute video, and there is only so much you can say in an article. For instance, I just recorded a 1-hour and 22-minute video covering six Qigong forms.

Learning Qigong requires practice, a lot of it. The “gong” in Qigong actually translates as “benefits through persistent efforts.” You need to practice alone, but also with other people. And you also need the ability to share your experiences with others (and with a teacher).

We are working with something very subtle here—energy/chi—but it is also very deep and can have a profound influence on our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual state. To be honest, I don’t think you can truly move through this reality, let alone the awakening process that is unfolding for many of us, without Qigong.

Recently, the folks at Skool approached me about starting a community there. I didn’t really know anything about it, but they explained how you could offer structured courses, host a growing video library, host live classes, and build a community through shared interactions. I was all in.

My new community is called The Qigong State. I will be offering three main things:

• Long-form Qigong courses (currently over 5 hours of video), with much more to come.

• A weekly live online Qigong class (60 minutes), with time for Q&A.

• An amazing community to interact with, many of whom are practitioners and professionals themselves.

You get all of this for $25 a month. There is no free trial, and this is introductory pricing. The price will increase in the future.

Enter The Qigong State

P.S. I will still be posting on Substack, but if you really want to learn Qigong and interact with a growing community, come over to Skool.

P.S.S. You may have first found me under the name HEALWITHOUT. This handle means a lot to me, but it has run its course. You will now see THE QIGONG STATE across most of my platforms.

With Strength and Chi,

Steve ~

Summer has officially started according to the Solar Terms Calendar. On May 5th, the energetic transition from Spring/Wood to Summer/Fire took place. This transition should be a very interesting one, as we are in a Fire Horse Year. I tend to think many people have a bit too much Fire in general, so a “double fire” season, if you will, might cause some imbalances — anxiety, poor sleep, fatigue, inflammation, and digestive issues, to name a few. This practice will help balance and control Fire, both for the summer season and beyond. This should result in more balanced and stable energy.

• In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Fire element is associated with the heart, small intestine, pericardium, and triple warmer. We are addressing all of those organs/channels in this practice.

• We will also add some forms that nourish the kidneys and the Water element, as Water helps to control Fire.

• We will also work with the 6 Healings Sounds via movement.

• The runtime for this video is 35 minutes, and I provide full instruction.

• No prior experience is necessary.

With Strength and Chi,

Steve

The 6 Healing Sounds are an amazingly simple and effective way to harmonize the body, mind, and spirit. Quite often, you’ll see me incorporating these sounds into movement, but that’s not absolutely necessary. In fact, simply making the sounds—or “songs,” as I refer to them—in a relaxed position can be remarkably effective. But first, a bit of background.

The History of the 6 Healing Sounds

The Chinese name is Liu Zi Jue (lee-oh dzuh jweh).

• Liu = six

• Zi = characters / sounds

• Jue = method, formula, or key

It dates back thousands of years.

Daoist physician Tao Hongjing (456–536 CE) referenced the use of sound to regulate the organs.

It became more clearly defined during the Tang dynasty and Song dynasty.

It was eventually linked to Five Element Theory.

We have 6 sounds, not 5, because the Fire element has two aspects.

And here they are in written format:

METAL - “SSSSSSSSSS”

WATER - “CHOOOHEEEE”

WOOD - “SHHHHHHHHH”

FIRE1 - “HAAAAAAAAA”

EARTH - “HOHHHHHHH”

FIRE2 - “HEEEEEEEEE”

Note: There are many versions of the healing sounds and related forms, often linked to different regions of China and variations in dialect.

How to Work With the Sounds

You can make the healing sounds in a seated or lying position.

You can listen to someone else making the sounds.

You can combine the sounds with a Qigong form.

You can even make the sounds in your mind.

When practicing, inhale through the nose and exhale while making the sound.

The position of the mouth and tongue will change depending on the sound.

There are a variety of organ and emotional correspondences as well, which I will walk you through in the meditation.

The full meditation, which lasts about 14 minutes can be found below. Enjoy.

NOTE: I am trying to get better about offering exclusive content to my paid subscribers, so this meditation is just for you. Thanks for being here—there will be much more to come soon.

With Strength and Chi,

Steve

Read more

Some of the forms included in this practice:

• Gathering Energy

• Lift the Sky

• Carry the Moon

• The Snake

• Swooping Eagle

• Primordial Meridian Tracing

• Lung Balancing

The run time is about 28 minutes. Enjoy.

P.S. The audio gets a little blown out during my Yin Heart Flow :)

Hello Everyone,

If you’re feeling like you could use a little post-holiday energy boost—or if you’d simply like to start the New Year feeling balanced and refreshed—I’ll be offering a free Qigong class on New Year’s Day.

In this class, we’ll balance the energy system through gentle, flowing movement, relaxed breathing, sound, and visualization. No prior experience is necessary—everyone is welcome.

I’d love to have you join us via the Zoom link below.

Topic: New Year's Qigong Class
Time: Jan 1, 2026 12:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84926649768?pwd=f3bi1aNYoaanxLQgO9GuqEgM2fGLvN.1
Passcode: 283133

With Strength and Chi,

Steve ~

If you are constantly trying to protect yourself from other energies, you are closing yourself off from the world. I have been there. This creates more division within your own being as well as in the world around you. It also means you are operating from a place of fear and may be slipping into the victim role—a very common pattern for energy-sensitive people. But tools (such as mudras) are helpful, and they can support us when used alongside inner work, Qigong, and virtues such as sincerity and humility.

Moving Beyond Protection

The most powerful form of energetic protection is sincere inner work aimed at revealing all layers of darkness within your own being. As we do this, we raise our frequency and anchor the divine within. The process is not linear and unfolds uniquely for each of us. Over time, as we continue this work, our internal (and external) environment begins to shift, and our presence naturally transmutes most of what we encounter.

Respect

These hand gestures—and all ancient practices—should be used with the utmost respect for the lineages they come from. There was a time when these simple tools were available only to a select few. Times have changed, and now these tools are needed more than ever.

What is a mudrā?

A mudrā is a symbolic hand gesture used for spiritual and meditative practices. It can often involve arm movements and be coupled with prayer, mantras, visualization and more.

Mudras appear across cultures, religions, and spiritual traditions worldwide, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Yoga, Qigong, and shamanic lineages

Deities and spiritual figures are often depicted holding mudras to convey protection, power, clarity, or other sacred qualities.

And here we go:

I. Bhūtaḍāmara Mudrā

Bhūta = spirits, energies, entities, elemental forces

Ḍāmara = subduing, binding, pacifying, or controlling

“The mudra that subdues or controls harmful energies/spirits.”

It is linked to protection, command, and energetic dominance.

The Sanskrit word “mudrā” is pronounced as: “Moo-draa”

How To Perform

ONE
Extend all fingers except the ring finger, which bends down. It is hard to see in the picture, but my thumb is outstretched as well.

TWO
Cross the arms over the chest – right arm over left, palms pointing out.

THREE
Breathe, focus your intent and give thanks.

II. Shambhala’s Shield

Rooted in Tibetan and Central Asian Shambhala lore, where Shambhala is a hidden, luminous realm accessible only through purity of mind and vibration.

“Not literal invisibility, but a cloak of vibrational camouflage.”

A mudra that hides your presence, and keeps you free from emotional or psychic entanglement.

How To Perform

ONE
Open the left hand and make it completely flat. Close the right hand into a fist.

TWO
Place the knuckles of the right hand into the palm of the left.

THREE
Breathe, focus your intent and give thanks.

III. Vajra Mudrā

In spiritual traditions, the vajra can represent both an indestructible thunderbolt weapon or a wrathful deity embodying protection, strength, and the power to subdue harmful energies.

“Symbolizes indestructible presence, inner strength, and the sealing of the heart-center.”

It stabilizes the central channel, protects energy and emotions, and strengthens clarity and boundaries.”

How To Perform

ONE
Make a light fist with each hand and tuck the thumbs inside the fist so that the tips of the thumbs touch the base of the ring fingers.

TWO
Cross the arms over the chest – right arm over left.

THREE
Breathe, focus your intent and give thanks.

Enjoy the journey everyone.

Steve ~

I wasn’t consciously aware of Qigong until around 2010. A few years prior, though, I had an interesting experience involving a trip to China. It was kind of strange that I even ended up in China at all. At the time, I was working at an investment management firm in NYC, and as part of our Christmas bonus, we were offered a trip to one of the BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India, or China.

Brazil was our first choice, as it looked to be a posh beach vacation at a five-star resort. For some reason, though, my wife and I chose China.

The picture above is the only one I could find from the trip. It’s of my wife (then girlfriend) on the Great Wall. What I remember most about the Great Wall was how thirsty we were—our guide neglected to tell us we’d be hiking up steep terrain for almost three hours. We had one small bottle of water between us. :)

Overall, it was a beautiful trip—Beijing, Shanghai, the Great Wall, the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, and much more. When I arrived home, I remember two main things:

1. The jet lag was like nothing I had ever experienced (having never been to the other side of the world).

2. What happened one of those sleepless nights.

I was trying to sleep—which, as you probably know, is a terrible thing to do if you actually want to fall asleep—even without jet lag in play. So, I was lying there when something made me stand up. While standing, I started doing these “strange” movements with my arms. I also started shifting my weight front and back, rhythmically. I wasn’t consciously controlling any of this. Soon, my breathing started to change, the hair on my neck stood up, and I started shaking uncontrollably. It felt amazing. After some time (I don’t know how long), I slid back into bed and fell fast asleep.

I didn’t find out for another two years or so, but what I was doing that night was Qigong.

Something happened to me on that trip—something was awakened or learned—and it was directly related to Qigong. I was supposed to learn Qigong. It was why I chose China for the trip. I didn’t fully get the message, though, because I hadn’t started any official Qigong training, despite some strange synchronicities:

• An Uber driver in Los Angeles got out of the car to teach me a few Qigong forms.

• Multiple strangers approached me in NYC, inviting me to attend their Qigong classes.

• A public Qigong class “popped up” in a park right outside my apartment—I could watch the entire class from my living room window.

• A neighbor texted me the contact information for a Qigong teacher. When I asked her why, she said it was an accident—she’d meant to send it to someone else.

I was so preoccupied at the time with my career in the financial world that I didn’t piece any of this together. It seems so obvious now that it’s laughable.

Because I didn’t get the message—and it was important that I did—things in my life ramped up in intensity. I’ve talked about some of this in my other posts.

At some point, I finally got the message and started my Qigong training.

When I began learning Qigong, it certainly felt more like remembering. “I” had done this before. I picked up on things quite quickly and even started creating my own forms.

My love for Qigong stayed quiet for a while. For years, my wife told me I should be sharing this with other people. I didn’t listen.

Guys—always listen to your wives. They almost always know what you should be doing, and they’re so much more intuitive than you’ll ever be.

Anyhow, I made excuses—how I didn’t want to be on social media, didn’t have the time, or whatever. Really, I was just a bit scared to put myself out there.

One day, I got over it, and that’s how I came to be here—sharing Qigong and other energetic healing tools with the world.

If you’d like to learn—or if you just need a little help remembering—my 6-Week Qigong Group Training starts November 15th.

As a special gift to those who support me on Substack, you can use the discount code GROUP25 at checkout to receive $25 off the training.

Qigong Group Training

By the end of the training, you’ll be proficient in the following Qigong sets. These practices are treasures that will stay with you for the rest of your life:

• The Six Healing Sounds (a rare version)

• The Eight Pieces of Brocade

• Muscle Tendon Change

• The Inner Smile

• The Microcosmic Orbit

• A few secret Qigong forms

Who This Is For:

• Anyone seeking a lifelong tool for self-healing and energy cultivation.

• Anyone healing from chronic illness.

• Beginners who have tried Qigong but struggle to maintain a practice.

• Practitioners who want to deepen their connection to Qi.

• Those looking to reduce stress and restore balance.

• Anyone seeking to somatically process challenging emotions.

• Those looking for community and connection.

• Anyone wanting to start the New Year with a powerful daily practice

• Anyone going through a life transition.

Really—anyone.

Take care folks.

Steve ~

Qigong Group Training

Of course the breath is important. Without which our body would cease to exist. But looking beyond that and based on my life experiences….

I would argue that GRATITUDE is the most important.

And it is not just focusing on gratitude.

It needs to PERMEATE every level of your being. It is not an easy thing to do.

At the end of this note I will give you a SIMPLE GRATITUDE PRACTICE.

Or you can just skip right there….

Of course you can start by listing your gratitudes. Great for adults and kids!

But it needs to go beyond that. It needs to become automatic and it needs to be present in ALL circumstances.

• The “positive” things that show up in your life.

• The “negative” things that show up in your life.

• The people you like.

• The people you don’t like.

• When things are easy.

• When things are hard.

• When things go your way.

• When things don’t go your way.

When you are not grateful for your life, there is usually anger and resentment.

btw, this is the EGO’s favorite game. It usually plays out like this.

• Things should be different.

• Things should look different.

• I should look different.

• I should be somewhere else.

• I don’t have this or that.

Note that if your anger and resentment about your life situation go deep enough, you will become sick, possibly very sick.

I would argue that this is the root cause of most illness.

Of course I am not saying don’t take action to improve your life. I am saying be grateful and take action.

Ideally your actions are guided by spirit and not the ego, but for those that feel stuck, action of some kind is usually better than none and gratitude is a great place to start.

And very often you will move quite quickly from being stuck to being unstuck. Life will start flowing again. Not always how you expected, but there will be movement.

Below you will find my favorite gratitude practice.

The more you do this practice, the more automatic gratitude will become. This is what we are after.

You might find yourself complaining less, being more present, enjoying life more, getting less triggered by people and circumstances.

Wouldn’t this be a great state of being! I rarely use exclamation points so it must be good.

Simple Gratitude Practice

If you prefer watching me explain in video format I have a video HERE. Although I think I explain it better below. Also, in the video I am wearing a denim jacket and I could use a haircut, which seems to turn some people off :)

1. Create a gratitude item. For me, I grabbed a wooden dowel rod which I use for one of my prop-based Qigong practices. I then went a little primal and carved small notches into the wooden dowel. You can use a bracelet or necklace with some beads or stones. Rosary and Mala beads work well and are partially linked to what I am talking about albeit with more specific prayers. You can also just pick an item that you hold when doing this although I find it works better with something to slide your fingers over.

2. Grab this item and slide your fingers over the notches or beads and with each movement start expressing gratitude for something that you see. Go through everything in the room. Nothing is trivial. These are simple statements that you say in your mind - I am grateful for my desk, I am grateful for my cat, etc. With time it will be more of a feeling and less of a mental statement.

3. Then start being grateful for your physical appearance. It can be helpful to do this in a mirror. Often whilst touching the various parts of your body.

4. Then start looking out the window and express gratitude for everything you see outside. Note that you can add smell and the other senses to any part of this process.

5. Then start expressing gratitude for any thought that comes through your mind. All of the thoughts, not just the pleasant ones. Really be grateful for that person you don’t like.

6. Then start being grateful for all of the things that have happened to you in your life. Both the good and the bad.

7. Start being grateful for any emotions that you feel or anything else that you may feel - pain in the body, tension, etc.

8. Then start being grateful for all of your invisible helpers - angels, guides, spirits, etc.

9. Then express gratefulness for the DIVINE. And possibly what is beyond the divine, a.k.a. the nameless.

The order doesn’t matter, this is just a template designed to bring gratefulness to all levels of your being. Give it a try and let me know how it works for you.

Take care everyone. Wild times right now. But we all came here for it. With a few tools we can stay on our path and fulfill our various and unique missions.

healwithin → HEALWITHOUT

Steve ~

Donation Based Healing Session

Italy Retreat 2026

1:1 Mentorship

One of my goals in this time slot of existence is to build a community.
This was a bit of a shocking revelation for me at first, and I resisted it for quite some time. You see, the hermit archetype is pretty strong in me.

However, a few things have unfolded recently.

Sacred Space

My WhatsApp group, “Sacred Space,” has become a wonderful community of people sharing ideas, information, and inspiration. I’m learning so much from everyone, and it just feels great to be part of a group that genuinely wants to support and lift each other up—with very little ego involved.

Live Online Qigong

Something I’ve wanted to do for a while is host a weekly live online Qigong class.

A few months ago, I attempted to do this. I thought it might be similar to a yoga class—people could just drop in, participate, and everything would flow.

I’ve since discovered that this does not work well with Qigong—or at least not with the style I practice. It takes time to learn the forms (as they’re called in Qigong).

I often compare Qigong to learning a dance routine. It takes time to learn the dance, but once you do, you’re no longer thinking—everything just flows.

During the class, I found that people were a bit lost, and I was giving a lot of instruction. As a result, the class didn’t flow the way I envisioned.

So, I’ve decided to start a live workshop series where we can learn Qigong together in a group setting.

These workshops are opportunities to learn directly from me, ask questions, and receive feedback. We’ll learn the movements, postures, and breathing techniques, and we’ll practice them together.

The more we practice, the more everything will begin to flow.

I plan to run these workshops weekly for a while, until we build up a core group of people who know the various forms and how to integrate them.

Once that happens, I’ll begin offering regular classes again.

Qigong in a group setting is unbelievably powerful, and I’m truly excited about the possibilities.

There’s no fancy pricing package—I’m offering this on a donation basis.
If you’d like to attend a class, simply make a donation of whatever amount feels right to you, and I’ll send you the link to join. You can donate at the link below or you can message me for paypal/venmo options.

Donation

The next workshop is scheduled for Thursday, October 9th, at noon EST.
If you’d like to attend or be notified about future events, please let me know, as I won’t always be posting them here.

Note that I’ll only be sharing this within my WhatsApp community and private newsletter—but if you know someone who would like to attend, feel free to pass it along.

I also have plans for future workshops and sessions that are more spiritual in nature—a kind of shamanic circle. I’ll share more as everything unfolds.

Thank you all for reading, and I hope to connect with you soon.

P.S. The header photo is from my retreat in Italy last summer—what a magical time. I definitely made some lifelong friends. You can find details about the 2026 retreat below. Two of the five rooms are already booked!

Italy Retreat 2026

Healing Request

Two elements that appear across many ancient healing traditions and cultures are dance and mudras (hand gestures).

I first learned about mudras through my Qigong practice, as mudras are often invoked when connecting with a specific element or energy channel.

As I deepened my study of Qigong, I discovered that it likely originated as a form of shamanic dance, intended for healing and protection against negative energies.

This realization led me to explore the broader history of shamanism, folk healing, and ancient healing practices around the world.

What emerges is a pattern: ancient traditions often combined dance and mudras as a powerful healing modality.

The next example came from a surprising place.

In Italy, there is a strong influence, mostly underground, of healers who are engaged in shamanic healing practices.

I would roughly define shamanism as a practice whereby a person, i.e. the shaman, enters an altered state of consciousness and communes with compassionate spirits with the intention of healing matters of the soul.

Which isn’t everything a matter of the soul?

This is not to be confused with what I frequently reference as “shamanizing” which involves utilizing song, dance, drums, rattles, power items, power animals, ritual, prayer, etc. to connect with the spiritual world and build personal power and strength. While a shaman may use all of the above (and more) during a healing session, his/her role as a healer is different.

What I learned about these healers in Italy is that they are using hand gestures (mudras) as one of the main ways they facilitate healing. It is such a prominent part of the healing process that they are known in Italian as Segnature.

Segnature, which when translated from Italian literally means “Signs, gestures”.

Most people initiated into this way of healing are done so through ancestral lineage. Very often they are women.

These hand gestures are often coupled with incantations/prayers and can involve drawing symbols on the body of the person being treated.

Not surprisingly, much of the work of a Segnature is rooted in Catholicism, albeit a seemingly more pure form.

On to spider bites and dance, still in Italy.

You may be familiar with a dance known as the Tarantella. It is a widely known folk dance that originated in Southern Italy. It is quite upbeat and can involve a variety of instruments - mandolin, drums, tambourines, etc.

It goes deeper though.

The Tarantella is said to have originated as a therapeutic ritual for people that were bit by a spider, specifically the Lycosa tarantula a.k.a wolf spider. This became known as Tarantism. Very often, when people were bit by this spider (or said to have been bit by a spider) it caused them to act like they were going to die and often resulted in psychotic episodes. Often the person appeared as if they were going crazy, the body would shake, they would stop making sense.

Somehow, a remedy was discovered and it involved dance. The person would dance and move in the craziest ways, sometimes for days at a time. This would be accompanied by music, often in front of a group of people (or the whole village) and often with pictures of deities present. Very often this would be “the cure” for the spider bite. I suspect there was a Segnature involved in this process, but I can’t confirm.

There are two interesting things here:

1. Many people think of a "tarantula" as a single, deadly spider capable of killing with one bite. In reality, there are thousands of tarantula species, and the one mentioned here—the wolf spider—can bite, but its bite is more like a bee sting and rarely requires medical attention, let alone poses a risk of death.

2. I inserted “said they have been bit” above because very often there would be no sign of a spider bite.

So why did these people start having these episodes?

My guess is that this process had less to do with the spider and more to do with some healing that needed to happen for the person that was “bit by the spider.” Whether they did get bitten or not I can’t say, but it seems this scenario and the resulting imbalance was triggered for a reason. I view it as some combination of the following:

• Spiritual initiation

• Repressed emotions that needed to be released

• Some trauma that needed to be processed

• Clearing of external energies and/or deceased earthbound spirits

• Transmutation of ancestral, cultural energies

• Possibly all of the above

On a personal note, I had a really bad spider bite years ago. It really rocked me on many levels and triggered my own psychotic episode of sorts, which lasted for several months. Had I known about the Tarantella, I probably would have tried it!

I did however heal what I was dealing with in my own way unique way and what is interesting is that I drew on many of the techniques mentioned above. This should not be surprising because these are universal healing techniques that have been used for ages and they can be used by anyone.

As a human, this is the kind of healing you are wired to respond to:

• You are wired to respond to movement, song, dance, prayer.

• You are wired to have clear and open communication with your helping spirits.

• You are wired to have a spiritual practice that is unique to you and entirely customizable by you.

• You are wired to use your hands for healing.

We are often steered away from these strategies in early childhood. Sometimes as we are indoctrinated with certain rigid religious practices, other times with a more western approach to healing and sometimes, usually later in life, with an overly spiritual approach that disconnects us from reality.

Here are some of the pillars that are in my healing process.

• Qigong or some form of meditative movement

• Mudras

• Prayer/Incantations

• Dance, Song, Drumming, Rattling

• Creating your own spiritual practice and accompanying rituals

• Connecting with compassionate spirits

• And more

I hope I tied that together for you.

If you have been bit by a real or “imagined” spider and want to learn how to heal yourself and others, check out my 1:1 Mentorship Program.

For specific healing matters, I am offering DONATION BASED HEALING SESSIONS. Please message me below if you would like to request a healing.

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I have read my share of books on spirituality, psychology, personal development, esotericism, energy healing, etc. Surprisingly, some of the most powerful lessons have come from fiction novels—especially the classics. Moby-Dick knocked me off my feet. Authors such as Fitzgerald, Dostoevsky, and Huxley did the same. And of course, anything by C.S. Lewis.

Today I have a story for you which I adapted from one by C.S. Lewis. It is about a boy named Jack. It involves a dragon, a magical well, and more.

The Story

Jack was not a fun kid to be around. He was a know-it-all who would never stop talking. He would often make fun of those around him in the most uncomfortable ways, and he always talked about how great he was. Worst of all, he was never up for an adventure.

Turns out life had an adventure waiting for him.

One day, he was in the attic at his cousin’s house. He was preaching to his cousins about something and being quite annoying and “unfun” as usual, when all of a sudden, his attention was drawn to a painting. This painting was of a ship sailing the high seas. It was not an ordinary painting—it was magical. It started moving, and Jack began to feel the spray of the ocean on his face. All of a sudden, he was in the ocean, and someone from the ship was throwing a rope out to him.

He spent his first few days on the ship mostly seasick. The people on the ship were confused because they had never seen the seas so calm before. He also kept complaining that he wanted to go home and talked about a place that the people on the ship had never heard of. Eventually, his seasickness subsided, and he filled his days with complaining, whining, and trying to order people around. They were ready to throw him back overboard when they finally caught sight of land.

When they came to shore, all they could see were large mountains and trees. The place had an ominous feel. The captain told everyone to stay close to camp and not to wander. They would stay the night, make necessary repairs to the ship, and set sail the next day.

It was quite an undertaking to prepare the camp and unload the ship, so everyone was given a job. Jack, however, wanted nothing to do with “work” and was so distraught about being away from home that he decided to wander off—which, ironically, was quite adventurous for him.

He was quite naïve in the ways of navigation, and coupled with the mysterious nature of the island, he quickly found himself lost. He ended up in a deep valley surrounded by mountains. The only thing he saw was a cave—and it seemed to be glowing. At the foot of the cave, he saw a gold coin. He picked it up… and then another, and another. It was a trail of gold coins leading deep into the cave. It got brighter and brighter as he moved in. Eventually, he saw piles of gold, jewels, and other treasures. He forgot all about being away from home and was elated by all the wealth in front of him.

Eventually, he was drawn to what appeared to be a golden bracelet. He picked it up and put it on his arm.

That was the last thing he remembered.

He woke up and his arm was hurting—really badly. That’s when he realized something was terribly wrong. He was no longer a boy.

He was a dragon.

And that gold bracelet, which had fit him quite well as a boy, didn’t fit the dragon. It was squeezing his scaly skin. He cried and cried. He just wanted to be a boy again—and he wanted to go home.

He crawled out of the cave and did the only thing he could think of—he flew up into the sky. He circled the island and saw no signs of people or habitation. Then, he spotted the ship moored offshore and the camp. He landed.

At first, everyone ran, thinking the dragon was going to eat them. But he just paced back and forth on the shore—and he appeared to be crying.

He tried to speak, but only dragon sounds came out. He kept making these sad dragon noises, when a little girl stepped forward. She got closer to the dragon and started talking to him. She wasn’t just talking to him—she was responding to what he was saying.

Turns out this little girl came from an ancient race that used to interact with dragons and knew how to communicate with them. She learned his story and told the rest of the people at camp what had happened. They saw that Jack was in pain, and despite his reputation, they felt sorry for him. They also knew they had to set sail the next day—and that a dragon wouldn’t fit on the ship. They didn’t have the provisions to feed one either.

Jack understood this. They did what they could to make him comfortable. In a state of deep despair, Jack fell asleep, with the girl at his side.

At some point, Jack woke up. The moon was bright—brighter than he had ever seen before. In the distance, he saw a lion. It appeared to be flying.

The Lion wanted him to come.

So Jack flew up into the moonlight and began following the Lion. They ended up on the top of a mountain so high it seemed to be in the clouds. All he saw there was the Lion and a magical well. The well was large, round like a small pool, with stone walls that rose a few feet—but it seemed as deep as the mountain itself.

The Lion told Jack that he needed to shed a layer.

Jack was confused at first, but then he thought about how snakes shed their skin. So he used his dragon claws to peel off a layer. It was strange at first, but he started to really enjoy it.

He finished shedding this first layer, and the Lion said, “You need to shed another.”

So he went through the process again. This time it hurt a bit more, but it felt really great when he got it off.

The Lion said, “You need to shed another layer.”

Jack really didn’t want to do it again—but he knew he had to do what the Lion said. So he worked at it, harder this time. It hurt even more—but it came off. And he felt better than ever.

He was confused, though, because he still saw all this dragon skin. He started crying. A part of him thought that by doing this, he would shed the dragon skin and become a boy again.

The Lion walked up to him and said that there was one more layer—and that HE would need to do it.

In a flash, the Lion ripped his claws into him. It hurt more than anything Jack had ever experienced.

The next thing he knew, he was in the magical well—and he was a boy again. He looked down and saw the gold bracelet on his wrist.

The Lion walked up to him, licked his face, and said:

“Now the journey begins.”

If you’ve made it this far, great. I’ll end the story there. If you want to know more, you should read The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. I adapted this story from one told there. This scene was so powerful to me that I knew I needed to write about it.

This message is for two groups of people:

One: Those people who were leading relatively “normal” lives and have recently experienced a shock of monumental proportions. You had a layer ripped off by the Lion. There is another plan for you, and this was the only way to put you on your path. The work is not done—it’s just starting. This was the case with Jack.

Two: Anyone who has started doing the deeper healing work. There is only so much YOU can do.

You can do all the inner work, the shadow work, the re-parenting, the ancestral work, the parts work, the inner child work.
You can do all the Qigong, energy work, shamanic work, etc.
You can eat right.
You can be thankful for your life.
You can move.
You can dance.
You can give back to the world.

At some point, though, there will be a layer that you can’t peel off.

There is only one thing that can do it:
The Lion.

Feel free to use whatever term resonates with you—God, the Divine, unconditional love, Great Spirit, the Nameless, the Universe, etc.

I’ve had several instances in my life when a layer was shed in this manner, and quite frankly—the process isn’t fun. But it is often necessary. And with it comes a transformation that is beyond any healing program or rational understanding.

It’s important not to become too attached to this transformation and think that you are “done” healing. That is almost never the case. There is always more.

Be grateful for the experience—and move on.

What you need to continue your journey are the right tools—that’s the core of what I teach in my 1:1 Mentorship Program.

Good luck to you on your journey, wherever you are.

Take care,
Steve ~

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In ancient times, there were two groups of warriors who were being trained for battle.

The first group I will call The Dragons. Dragon training was super physical and very intense. It included weapons and aggressive combat techniques. Many of these people didn’t even make it through the training without injury. These warriors also listened to daily “motivational” speeches from the commanding officers. These speeches were designed to motivate them to defend their people at all costs. In time, a group of warriors was created, and they were ready for battle. They were physically fit, knew how to fight and their mental state was such that they would die for their people.

There was a second group of warriors being trained for battle. I will call this group The Lions. These warriors were a bit confused by the training at first. There was very little physical training and no combat techniques. They were often doing very slow, gentle, flowing movements where they were supposed to focus on their breath. They were also doing long periods of standing coupled with visualization. They were taught how to heal injuries with their hands, with herbs, and with prayer. They were taught how to connect with helping spirits. Only after they mastered these layers did the very physical combat training begin. And even then the training was quite balanced. The person in charge of training these warriors spoke very little and when he did, he often spoke more in riddles. He often told them to turn inward, and to look for answers in nature. He was often very interested in their dreams. In time, a group of warriors was created and they were ready for battle. They were physically fit, knew how to fight, they knew how to heal, they knew how to cultivate and transmit energy. Lastly, their mental state was such that they were at peace and they experienced a high degree of oneness with the world.

The Dragons wandered around looking for someone to fight. They were quite successful in battle and were feared by many. They were strong, fierce, and took no prisoners. Very often though there were large amounts of men killed or injured severely in battle, and so the army dwindled, and more men needed to be trained. It turns out the person training these warriors did not expect them to come back.

The Lions almost never needed to fight. They had a reputation for being mysterious and there were many stories told about them. One day, though, they ran into the Dragons. They did their best to avoid a confrontation, but it was inevitable. The fight, if you could call it that, was over quite quickly. The Lions defeated the Dragons with ease. The Dragon commander was injured badly during the battle and was brought to the Lion commander. The Lions were not the kind of people who took prisoners and they were not the kind to kill them either. Very often they would heal those who fell on the battlefield. The Dragon commander, though, was beyond help, but he was able to mutter the following words “How did you become so powerful?” The Lion commander chuckled and said, “We train the inside.”

Healwithin. Healwithout.

Steve ~

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People often ask me what they can do to address neck and shoulder issues. My first piece of advice is to spend less time staring at your phone. That alone can do wonders. An experienced chiropractor, osteopath, or corrective exercise specialist can also do quite a bit to help with neck and shoulder problems. If you have someone like this in your network—great.

That being said, I believe many issues related to the neck, upper back, and shoulder region can be linked to energetic imbalances. While proper posture, alignment, and muscle balance often ensure the optimal flow of energy, we frequently need to dig deeper to find what caused the imbalance in the first place—otherwise, the “issues” will keep coming back.

When I say energetic, I mean three things:

1. Energy Meridians

There are a number of energy meridians that run through the neck. From a Traditional Chinese Medicine perspective, there are 6 Yang organs and 6 Yin organs. If you look at a diagram, you’ll find that all of the Yang organs cross the neck in some way—this includes the Stomach, Small Intestine, Large Intestine, Gallbladder, Bladder, and Triple Warmer.

Additionally, we have the Governing and Conception channels (which some say are the most important energy channels in the body) running directly up the back of the spine and down the front of the body, respectively. When energy is not flowing properly in these channels, it can cause any number of issues—often showing up in the neck and shoulders.

Supporting these channels through Qigong or acupuncture can be quite helpful. Qigong is obviously my first choice because you can do it by yourself at home. Additionally, Qigong incorporates movement—and more. I often tell people the three components of Qigong are: Movement/Posture, Breathing, and Visualization. The movements alone are beneficial. Adding breath and synchronizing it with the movement takes it to another level. And then, adding the appropriate visualization—that’s why Qigong is the best energy practice out there.

2. Chakras

We have chakras that run from the base of the spine to the crown. In the system I use, there are actually two more—one below the feet and one above the head—but we don’t need those for this explanation.

There are also “minor” chakras in most of the joints and over the liver and spleen. Chakras are energy centers that link to all layers of our being—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. If a chakra is not functioning properly, it can cause an immediate response in the related tissues. For instance, issues with the throat chakra can manifest as neck pain. Issues with the shoulder chakras can manifest as shoulder pain. There are other correspondences beyond the scope of this article.

3. Emotions

Emotions are energy. Have you ever heard the term E-Motion, as in energy in motion?

Emotions don’t want to stay in our body—and our body doesn’t want them to stay there either. They are meant to come in, do their thing, and leave—returning to what I call the emotional energy spectrum: a spectrum of 50 emotions in various polarities that we can and should connect with as humans.

At some point in our lives, we learn to override our body’s innate and beautiful design. When this happens, emotions get stuck. Specific emotions often have an affinity for certain areas—organs, tissues, glands, muscles, etc. These emotions can lie dormant for years. They may or may not affect a person’s state until something awakens them: stress, something someone says, a traumatic event, or even a weekend with your parents.

When this happens, physical symptoms often appear—anywhere in the body, but especially in the neck and shoulders.

As young children, we were likely much better at processing emotions. But what usually happens is that—either consciously through others’ words and actions or unconsciously by observing how others (especially our parents) handle their own emotions—we begin to suppress or repress our own. This "breaks the system" and starts a cycle of emotional suppression, which then creates physical and energetic dysfunction.

So what can you do to address neck and shoulder issues from an energetic perspective?

• We can address the meridians with Qigong. In this youtube video, I teach a variety of Qigong forms for the neck and shoulders.

• We can address the chakras with mudras, prayer, Qigong, and more.

• We can engage in psychospiritual work to identify, awaken, accept, and release the emotions that have been causing dysfunction in our being.

• We can “shamanize” regularly, so we have the strength and support necessary to engage in point #3.

One additional thought:

I’ve met many people who are hooked on seeing practitioners to stay “healthy.” I think there’s definitely a place for practitioners (of all kinds), but many people go overboard. Some do it because they’re unaware of the various layers of healing. Others abdicate their authority to a health professional so they don’t have to take full responsibility for their health. Others are (often unconsciously) trying to avoid doing the deeper work.

Regardless of the practitioner or reason, what often happens is that people feel better initially—but the “problem” keeps coming back. Sometimes it even moves around. Everyone is different.

This is because you need to rip out the problem by the root. This requires psychospiritual work to help identify and awaken what lies beneath the surface, and it must be coupled with somatic and shamanic tools to help you process what comes up.

This is exactly what I teach people to do in my 1:1 mentorship program. The process is ongoing, so I give people the tools they need to stay on their path. And if they happen to veer off, these tools will help them get back on—with confidence and power.

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P.S. My Spiritual Nutrition program is now available as well. If you didn’t read my post last week, it was a good one—check it out HERE.

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Take Care,

Steve ~

About a third of the people reading this probably know me from my days working as a nutritionist and health coach. The rest of my audience probably found me through my Qigong and energy healing practices. I try to avoid calling myself an expert in anything but I know A LOT about nutrition and I am being called to share a bit of that with the world. It also blends quite well with my more recent work.

SUMMARY

• The most effective way to heal the gut and balance your hormones.

• Why Qigong masters don’t need to eat mindfully.

• Why I eat ice cream every day in the warmer months.

• How to “cheat” without inflicting self-abuse.

• Why there might be “spells” on your food and how to clear them.

• Why spirituality can get you into trouble when it comes to food.

• Why “energy” needs to be a part of your nutrition program.

• Why you probably don’t need supplements.

• The best type of gluten.

• The root cause of most issues related to nutrition.

• The importance of nuance when it comes to evaluating food.

• I asked my wife for a few photos of me with food, stay tuned.

  
  I hesitate to call it spiritual nutrition but it just seems to fit, as it incorporates the layers beyond the physical. Be warned, I may trigger some belief systems you have around nutrition. This is a long post, folks—strap in or move on. Here we go!

SPIRITUAL NUTRITION

1. If you follow a dogmatic approach to nutrition you are going to run into issues. Maybe you are only eating meat on one end of the spectrum or only vegetables on the other end or maybe you think you can survive on water alone. While any of these approaches may be helpful for a short (sometimes very short) period of time, they are going to cause a variety of health issues if you follow them long term. But everyone is different. It took 4-6 months for me to literally start breaking down physically after I started following a vegetarian diet. It took even less time for me to break down when I was doing a low carb, high protein diet. What does a breakdown look like? Hair loss, skin issues, hormonal imbalances, gut problems, thyroid issues, blood sugar fluctuations, anxiety, depression, a non-existent libido, and more. All of these are linked to nutrition on some level—though there are deeper layers to be discussed as we move on. These symptoms can happen to anyone following a nutrition program that is not right for THEM, but they will be most magnified with more extreme approaches to nutrition. It is very important that we learn how to assess whether our nutrition program is working for us. Blood work can be one tool and I used this exclusively for many years, but it needs to be blended with other metrics. Additionally, there may be a time for an aggressive nutrition protocol, but it needs to be monitored closely to ensure it is actually working.

2. There is no nutrition plan that is right for everyone. We all have different nutritional requirements and even when you figure out what might be right for you at a given time, it will change based on the weather, what is going on in your life, the world, etc. This is hard for people, because they don’t want to have to change when they find something that they think works and/or they want to believe something is working when it isn’t.

3. The best way to tune in to what is right for you is to learn how food makes you feel. We can’t figure out how food makes us feel if we don’t know how to be still, if we don’t know how to turn off the mind, if we don’t start dismantling the beliefs we have about food and about ourselves (am I worthy of healthy food?), if we don’t feel safe in our body, if our body is hardened from things that have happened in our lives. When I first trained with Paul Chek more than a decade ago we did an exercise where we were blindfolded and someone put a piece of food in our mouth. We had to tune in to how this food made us “feel”. A great exercise I recommend everyone try.

4. Most issues related to food are linked to deeper psychospiritual factors. I would classify a food “issue” as anything from “traditional” eating disorders, to following extreme eating programs, excessive fasting, over reliance on supplements and shakes and more. I find that non-traditional issues are more common and potentially more harmful because they often go unnoticed and the person thinks they are healthy, despite numerous red flags. I swam in this territory for quite some time. The remedy for all of this is psychospiritual work, which is a broad term that would include things like, shadow work, inner child work, soul retrieval, ancestral healing, healing trauma and more. It took a long time and many lessons (often painful ones) for me to have a healthy relationship with food. Here is a brief look into how I currently operate. Recently someone said “Hey Steve, why don’t you “cheat” and eat this food?" The particular food I knew was one that would make me feel terrible. I didn’t feel like explaining this at the time, but I will tell you. Why would I eat a food that I knew made me feel terrible? Wouldn’t that be a form of self-abuse? And you know what, it is not even hard for me to restrict foods that I know are “bad” for me. Why? I love myself too much for that. Of course there are times when I eat foods that are sub-optimal (i.e. french fries), but I don’t have a strong reaction to them. If I did, I wouldn’t eat them. Further, I don’t feel guilty when I eat french fries, I enjoy the heck out of them. Lastly, I really love everything I eat and I would never force myself to eat something I didn’t like. Just while we are sharing — I rarely drink alcohol, but occasionally I will have a cold gluten free beer and when in Italy it is hard not to have an Aperol Spritz or glass of wine (which is usually low-histamine). This pic is all staged and for a photo shoot my wife and I were involved in, but I thought it would be fun to include :)

   

5. Supplements will NOT fix you and in most cases they are unnecessary. I know, I used to throw 10 supplements at people after a session ten years ago. Did they help people? Most often I would say no. It is wild that “functional” medicine practitioners are still doing this. There is a place for supplements but it needs to be a very specific approach and also energy tested to be sure it is compatible with the person taking it. You can do this with a pendulum, muscle testing, or by simply holding the item and feeling into your body.

6. Yes, digestion and healing the gut is super important. Qigong is probably the best way to heal digestion. You know this whole thing with mindful eating and eating really slow and chewing your food? That is great, but if you optimize your digestion at the energetic level you can eat a lot of food very quickly and you will be absolutely fine. There is a Qigong master who used to assess the progress of his students by how much food they could eat and how they felt afterwards. The high level students could eat a large amount of food very quickly and they felt light and energized after. Part of this is linked to the fact that these students had regulated nervous systems and were not stuck in fight/flight, rather they were in rest and digest. Qigong is an amazing way to accomplish this, and it also has something to do with the energetic system, which is quite refined in high-level Qigong practitioners. Most often the focus is absorbing the vitamins and minerals from your food, but beyond that the food has energy or “chi”. This “chi” must be transformed, distributed and absorbed for the food to actually nourish you. The stomach, spleen, and the earth element play a huge role in this. By incorporating Qigong and other techniques you can ensure that you are digesting the energy from your food (and drink).

7. Qigong is probably the best way to heal hormonal issues. For one, it will regulate your nervous system better than any other tool out there, which will lead to a more favorable stress response. Two, from an energetic standpoint, the kidneys are the store of your energy, your will and determination. They are connected with the water element. They are also the storehouse for your pre-natal chi. The chi you get from your parents. When the kidneys are well, nothing can get in the way of you fulfilling your mission. You might also note that the adrenal glands are connected to the kidneys and so by supporting them you will encourage an optimal response to stress. Another example, if you are a woman (or man) with hormonal issues and you are not addressing the health of your liver you are not going to heal. The liver plays many roles, one of them is with regard to detoxifying excess estrogen. Estrogen dominance is a big issue for women (and also men). Sure we can address it with food and herbs, but we also need to look at the liver from an energetic perspective. Is the liver meridian balanced? Is the spirit (shen) of the liver healthy? Are the elemental beings linked to the liver (from a Steiner approach) doing what they are supposed to? Are there emotions trapped in the liver (anger from a TCM approach), but also other emotions. Also, the liver plays a role in your thyroid and the metabolic rate. The liver “activates” the thyroid hormone T4 to T3 which is what we need for a robust metabolism. I could go on. But nutrition alone will not do it.

8. A functional understanding of nutrition is helpful but you need to understand how nuanced nutrition can be. Yes, you should understand some basics about food - eat organic (real organic), wild, pasture raised, free-range, etc. But it goes beyond that. Let me give you a few examples. 99% of the ice creams you find in stores and ice cream shops contain food stabilizers like carrageenan and a variety of “gums.” These are high powered intestinal irritants. I won’t go near them. SO many people that think they have issues with dairy are assessing after they have loaded up on gum-laden ice cream. I tell them to try the few brands that I know are clean and most often they feel great. I eat a lot of clean ice cream in the warmer months, but in the damp and cold months it doesn’t work for me. But isn’t ice cream bad for me? It has dairy, fat, sugar, etc.. I could get into the specifics about how it is loaded with fat soluble vitamins and how sugar in the presence of fat is actually quite stabilizing to the system and pro-metabolic or I can just say that it makes me feel good, truly good. The pic below is my daughter and I having our favorite ice cream in Montauk years ago. We still have ice cream together almost every day at 3pm this time of year.

   

9. Let’s talk about gluten. All gluten is not created equal. Most breads, pastas, cookies and cakes are made with wheat flour that is “enriched”. This means they add low quality synthetic vitamins to the flour, the most damaging in my mind being iron (which is essentially iron shavings). These are a key driver in acne based on my experience. But you can find a pure wheat flour or even better an heirloom grain like spelt. And for those that are gluten-free almost all the gluten free breads and pizzas contain those gums I mentioned earlier….. One more example, not related to gluten, but which I feel compelled to share. Many people are drinking collagen peptides these days. This is essentially pure gelatin which has gone through a hydrolyzation process which makes it dissolve easier in water. My experience is that it is very hard to digest. Pure gelatin on the other hand is a bit harder to work with, but much easier to digest. That being said if your body has issues with ammonia you are not going to tolerate collagen/gelatin of any kind and will need to follow a different approach. You see how many layers there are to this. It can be exhausting.

10. You must address the energetic nature of food. I touched on this briefly above. Various cultures/philosophies have outlined methods for doing this, the most widely known are Traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine. I am most familiar with the TCM approach to nutrition due to my Qigong training but I would say to pick one you resonate with and experiment. Don’t shift your entire diet, but even incorporating a few basic suggestions can be helpful. For instance, dampness is a huge issue that most people struggle with. It can be hard to escape a damp environment (especially in fall and spring) but we can avoid damp foods and incorporate foods that help keep dampness from building up in the body. For example, yogurt and bananas are incredibly damp. Pears, mung and adzuki beans can help restore balance. Of course, Qigong, mudras and a variety of hands-on techniques can further support this process.

11. You must use prayer to bless your food and harmonize its energy with your system, even if addressing the above points. This is especially important to do if you are eating food that you did not prepare. You know how people these days often list “love” as one of the ingredients in their food. Well, that is certainly helpful. But what if the person preparing your food is angry and filled with hate. That energy is going to make its way into your food. What do you think that is going to do to your system? And as we go deeper, if we start to really think about food it can be quite startling - we put something that was living in our body and some of it gets excreted as waste but the rest of it becomes part of us. What? Think about that for a second (or more). I know someone who asks the food if it wants to join them in mind, body and spirit and they wait until they receive confirmation. This is just so beautiful. Moving to a more esoteric topic, I have frequently found that “spells” can be put on food. I am sure all the witches out there will love this. Whether you believe it or not, why not say a simple blessing over your food to transmute a possible spell which is designed to weaken you.

12. Spirituality can get you into trouble when it comes to nutrition. This ties with my first point about a dogmatic approach to nutrition but I feel that it needs to be addressed separately. Spirituality and food seem to be intimately linked and of course there are religious factors. Many “regular” people who get into spirituality begin to adopt a new lifestyle, which includes dressing differently and very often eating differently. Most of the time this involves a shift into a more plant-based diet that restricts animal proteins. I can’t tell you how many people are having health issues for this very reason. My experience tells me that most people (not all) need some animal protein in their diet. Further, I do think there are people, truly enlightened humans, who require less food and require less of certain nutrients. I do think that these people probably have zero belief systems about food or anything for that matter. They are just sustained by this reality in a way that we can’t understand. I also think that if your “guru” tells you that you must eat a certain way, you should find another guru and/or stop looking for a guru altogether. If you can establish a true conscious connection with your spirit/soul you can ultimately learn if you should be eating meat or not eating meat and/or any other food.

13. Beliefs systems are a major issue. Humans are programmed from an early age to believe certain things about themselves and certain things about the world. This becomes the lens through which they interface with this reality. Food is one area where you were programmed quite heavily. Why? Unhealthy people are weak and can be easily controlled. This starts with your parents, teachers and the media you consumed as a child but it is ongoing and even easier than ever to perpetuate with the advent of social media. There are numerous people and organizations that are paid to control your mind when it comes to everything, but especially food. The best example of this relates to saturated fat causing heart issues and vegetable oils being heart healthy. This couldn’t be further from the truth. I know many people who still can’t grasp this as the belief systems run so deep. What can you do? Dismantling beliefs is a massive and challenging topic (see point 4 above), especially when you begin to tackle beliefs about the SELF, body image, how we define beauty and more, but you can start with the following tips - Spend less time on social media. Spend less time watching movies and television. Be wary of anyone who starts attacking people when it comes to their food decisions. Be wary of anyone who says this supplement will solve all your problems (or that you need 10 supplements to be healthy). Be wary of calorie restrictive programs and people who promise weight loss (often at the expense of true health). Be wary of anyone who provides a one-size-fits-all approach. Be wary of me, to some extent, as only you can tell what is right for you.

In response to more interest from friends, family, clients and former clients, I am offering a Nutrition Program which focuses on all these things. If you’d like to learn more and explore working with me, find out more below.

Nutrition With Steve

My 1:1 Mentorship program is also available for those interested in Qigong and other energetic techniques for building personal power and fulfilling your purpose.

1:1 Mentorship

Some Additional Thoughts:

1. Most people who experience cold dark winters have thyroid issues. Don’t attach to it too much. Just learn how to give your thyroid extra love during these periods.

2. Yeah, you probably have parasites, you don’t need to do an aggressive cleanse for it. Most of the time you can slowly shift the gut to put any parasites in check and I have had quite a deal of success with micro-dosing anti-parasitic blends.

3. You don’t need to do a big stressful detox, but it is not bad to use gentle detoxification techniques regularly. My favorite is the infrared sauna. I have a bag sauna from Relax Saunas that I use almost every day in the colder months. Less so in the summer. It might be the best money I ever spent.

4. Air quality is super important and the air is more toxic than ever these days. See the fires or whatever the heck is going on in Canada or just look at the sky. I use air filters from Austin Air throughout my house.

5. I didn’t talk about the chakra system, but chakra imbalances can cause all sorts of issues related to nutrition, digestion and hormones. By harmonizing the chakras we can support all of these areas. This can be done in many ways, including with food.

Take care everyone.

Steve ~

Learning how to create harmony between your internal and external environment is one of the keys to optimal health and longevity.

There are many practices that can help you do this, but it is often helpful to have an awareness of what is happening around us.

Many people are familiar with “big” dates, like the winter and summer solstice, but there are numerous other points which should be tracked as well.

The best way that I have found to do this is with the The Solar Terms Calendar. It is often referred to as the Chinese Famers Calendar and is referenced frequently in Traditional Chinese Medicine.

The Solar Terms Calendar breaks the year into 24 solar terms, each about 15 days, and linked to the sun’s position in the sky.

I pay particular attention to this calendar for monitoring the change of seasons. For instance, on August 7-8 we transitioned from Summer/Fire to Autumn/Metal.

Sensitive people can feel this transition and you can see animals changing their behavior as well.

This transition period is a very sensitive time for humans and all life forms. It reflects a period where we should slow down and create a bit more harmony in our days.

Since paying attention to these changes I often see when people start getting sick. It often occurs during this transition, particularly 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after the change of seasons.

It is kind of strange that most “regular” calendars list the start of Autumn as some time in September. It almost seems that most calendars were created to keep us out of sync with our environment. Maybe they were :)

How do I manage these shifts?

• I often mark my calendar with the period 2 weeks before the transition. So in this case late July.

• I ensure that I am not pushing myself more than I have to. In my case this can be a challenge as I tend to be a high energy person. So, this requires me to learn what it feels like to have energy/power but not use it externally. To just “cruise” so to speak. This is a good skill all the time, but especially during these transitions. If you have ever driven a fast car or motorcycle you will know what a challenge this can be :)

• I practice Qigong forms that nourish the related elements - Earth/Transition and Metal/Autumn.

• These same Qigong forms will also nourish the related organs- Earth/Stomach/Spleen and Metal/Lungs/Large Intestine.

• I shared a recent Instagram post with a simple meridian tracing technique you can use. Watch HERE

• I utilize a variety of hands-on-work, centered around Jin Shin Jyutsu and mudras/hand gestures to nourish the related channels mentioned above.

• I often do a water color painting which aims to reflect and harmonize the energy of the new season. I keep on my altar and look at it daily.

• There are various nutritional changes you should make as well. Some more generic and some unique to you.

• There is more, but you get the gist…..

When it comes to healing, awareness is SO powerful, whether it is becoming aware of your thoughts, aware of the things that happened to you when you were younger, aware of the energies around you, aware of the change of seasons, etc.

This awareness alone can transmute and harmonize the related energies.

So now that you have an awareness of the Solar Terms calendar you will be able to create more balance in your life.

Now that you have more balance you will have more energy, power and vitality.

And with this strength you can go do all the amazing things you came to do in this world.

Take Care,

Steve ~

1:1 Mentorship

When I was living and working in NYC I was mostly a mess. Energetically drained all the time, sick every month, moody, cranky, eventually really sick. I figured out one of the reasons why during my shamanic training.

This training was with the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, started by Michael Harner. A person who has likely done more for bringing “core” shamanic teachings to the Western world than any other human and also for helping preserve related indigenous teachings throughout the world.

What I heard at this training blew me away. It was a story about Michael Harner walking through the streets of New York City. People everywhere, noise, cars, lights, smells, etc. He could not comprehend how it was possible for people to survive in such a place without an active connection to their power animal.

Upon hearing this I realized I was walking around a place with some of the most intense energies in the world without a connection to my power animal and I did this for almost 15 years!

As an energy sensitive person, this was a recipe for disaster that no nutrition plan or exercise program could fix. And to make matters worse I eventually started meditating and dabbling with other spiritual practices which I thought would help, but they only served to increase my energetic sensitivity. It was challenging.

I have to admit NYC is not all bad. It can be a magical place and you can do more than just “survive” there, you can thrive. Although I don’t know that it is sustainable for the long term, especially without a power animal and regular retreats out of the city. And for energy sensitive people, well it would probably not be the best idea to make it your home. But you never know.

There are various teachings on the idea of a spirit animal (a.k.a. power animal or animal guardian) and the idea has made its way into the new age spiritual world and many people make references to spirit animals. Humans have been connecting with animal spirits since the dawn of time and we see examples of this in ancient and indigenous cultures throughout the world and numerous Qigong forms are dedicated to animals (both real and mythical).

The ISSUE:

I don’t think most people know how to identify their true power animal. And often they force a connection (often a low-grade connection) to an animal that is not right for them based on an egoic desire to associate with a specific animal. Many ego’s want to be LION or BEAR, how many want to be MOUSE? One is NOT more powerful than the other. More on this later.

Regardless, I don’t think most people know how to forge a true connection with this animal and nourish their relationship with it.

I don’t think most people recognize the immense power that you can acquire when building a relationship with an animal spirit and how significant it can be.

I don’t think most people know that when you have a power animal you can stop worrying about “protecting” your energy. Your animal will do it for you. This applies to practitioners and “regular” people moving through this world. The POWER is real.

Yes, it is a relationship and the more you work to cultivate it, the stronger the connection will be.

It is hard because in most cases it requires you to acknowledge the invisible world. While you may see a physical representation of your animal (if it is native to your region) that is not the norm. And while some people may have the ability to see beyond our ordinary reality, these encounters are less common.

Most people however can learn to feel the presence of their spirit animal when it is with them.

Most people can learn to shamanic journey whereby they can have quite intense experiences with their spirit animal and all sorts of other energies.

Most people can learn to “dance” their animal in ordinary reality. An exercise in shapeshifting of sorts.

Most people can learn to connect with their animal in dreams.

If you do all of these simple things, you may be filled with a level of energy/power/strength that permeates all levels of your reality:

• From your daily responsibilities

• To all of the roles you play in this world (husband, father, mother, banker, artist, friend, brother, sister etc.)

• To creative pursuits

• To all levels of healing - the self, others, and the world.

• To managing life when things get hard and/or when things go “wrong”

• To becoming impenetrable to harmful external energies

• And ultimately staying on your spiritual path and fulfilling your mission.

Some people would say that we have one spirit animal that stays with us for a while and leaves. I tend to think this is the norm.

Some people would say that whether we know it or not we have an animal guardian with us from birth. And that we wouldn’t survive into adulthood without it.

Some people have multiple spirits animals. If you are into this work, you will most likely acquire more helpers. Some lineages/people have one for each of the 4 directions (North, South, East, West) and/or for specific purposes.

It is important to note that you are not connecting with a specific animal per se, but the entire species of sorts. So you are not connecting to a specific eagle, you are connecting to EAGLE.

Also of note is that just because an animal is bigger and more fierce, doesn’t mean that it is better. MOUSE and BEAR are equally powerful in their own unique ways.

In The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, it was the mice who freed the mighty Lion Aslan from the ropes which bound him to the stone table. The lead photo is a character from the Chronicles of Narnia called Reepicheep. The head mouse and possibly the fiercest and bravest warrior you will ever meet. He would back down from no one/thing and was ultimately given the job of final guardian before entering what might be considered “heaven.”

An Important Point:

Once you begin actively working with an animal spirit, it is a bit of a serious matter and there can be repercussions, hopefully not in your ordinary reality, but it can happen.

For example:

When I am not nourishing one of my animal spirits it shows up in my dreams. Often quite violently. It can also show up as being sickly.

A more intense reminder came to a friend who had a DEER guardian. She was in a car that hit a deer at a high rate of speed.

A more subtle reminder came to a friend who was casually walking down the street and happened to see a beautiful painting of her animal in a trash heap. It is now hanging in her house.

How do you discover your animal?

• Some people just know.

• Some people will need to have a shamanic practitioner recover an animal for them through a shamanic journey. This often involves blowing the energy into the chest and the crown.

• Some people can use a pendulum to identify the animal. Go through 2 legged creatures, 4 legged creatures, don’t forget mythical creatures, etc.

Once you discover your animal it is up to YOU to learn how to communicate with it and to nourish the relationship.

How to nourish your relationship with your animal?

• You can have a picture of the animal in your house or on your phone.

• You can read about the animal. Not what you will find on spiritual sites, instead read about all the attributes of the animal in the wild. Study its behavior inside and out, both strengths and weaknesses. For instance, some bears can smell prey 20 miles away!

• “Dance” your animal regularly. This means you move, sing, dance, rattle, drum, etc and try to imitate your animal. It is also a great somatic exercise.

• Shamanic journey to spend time with your animal. This should be done with proper guidance and in the proper setting.

• Perhaps carry something on you that reminds you of your animal and/or have something on your altar.

• You can learn what things your spirit likes - i.e. a color, a sound, a smell, a type of tea. The possibilities are endless.

• Set an intention before going to sleep each night to connect with your animal.

• Give thanks for your animal each and every day through prayer, song, dance and any other means that you deem fit.

All of my 1:1 mentorship clients go through the process of identifying their animal and/or learning to nourish the relationship with one they are already working with.

1:1 Mentorship

I will leave you with Reepicheep guarding the gate to “heaven”. Which I think is more a state of being than an actual destination. Topic for another post :)

Until then I wish for power and strength to flow through you, your animal and all you do.

Research, Intuition, Letting life decide.

I would say that these are the three main components of decision making. They can be used on a stand-alone basis or combined.

I will discuss all of this and more, but first a related story from my days working at an investment management firm (a.k.a. a hedge fund). This was one of those places that people with A LOT of money invested their money - everything from pension and retirement funds to high net worth individuals. They invested with this company because they had a track record of performance and a team of “smart” people working there. They also had an investment strategy that people liked. They liked it because it kept humans mostly out of the picture when it came to investment decisions. Let me explain.

THE BASICS

• The firm received money from investors.

• This money was invested in a particular market (i.e. stocks, bonds, currencies, commodities, etc.).

• There was an investment strategy which outlined things like the target return, target level of risk, portfolio allocation, etc.

• There were people called traders who would buy and sell assets within the given market and in alignment with the investment strategy.

The most interesting part of the investment strategy was that the traders didn’t really make the decisions, they just executed the trades. Each morning they received a piece of paper which told them how much of a particular asset they needed to buy or sell and when they should make the trade. At the specified time they pushed a button on their computer or made a phone call to a sales desk.

So who decided what they were buying or selling that day?

A computer program or “model” as it was called, would determine exactly what they should buy and sell and when they should do it. This was before the days of AI but essentially there were mathematicians working for the company who would analyze large sets of historical market data and based on this analysis they would see patterns which could be applied to future market conditions. They were trying to predict what the market would do, which is the key to making money. Hence a “model” or computer program was born. Each morning the model would spit out all of the trades it thought the traders should execute that day. Of course the model wasn’t always right but it was a solid strategy at the time.

In the investment management space this was referred to as a quantitative approach to investing and many investors trusted a computer model more than a human. so they liked it and often invested in this firm because of it.

There were however people that didn’t trust computers as much, they trusted humans, and so the strategy had a second component whereby the head trader could override the computer. This was referred to as the qualitative component of the investment strategy. We told people that the strategy was 90% quantitative and 10% qualitative. Many investors appreciated letting computers be the primary decision maker and having a human backstop of sorts. Other didn’t and went to firms where humans had more control over the daily investment decisions.

What’s the point of this whole explanation?

There are various ways to make decisions, but more importantly, most humans think they are making decisions but really it is their programming that is making decisions for them and through them.

When someone does research for decision making purposes, they are not really doing research, they are just looking to confirm what they already believe. Your core beliefs are the primary drivers in all decisions you make in life. Your core beliefs are often instilled in the early years of your life - from your early childhood experiences, from your parents, education, etc. When belief systems are in play, which they almost always are, YOU are not even making the decisions. They are being made by your belief systems, which are entirely mechanical and pre-programmed. It is an actual computer model of sorts that was programmed early in your life. We can’t make real decisions until we begin to deprogram ourselves.

If the idea of dismantling your beliefs sounds interesting to you, I wrote a full article on how to begin dismantling beliefs which I will link HERE.

But what about Intuition
Of course, connecting with intuition or our inner compass is one of the most valuable tools we have as humans. There are many ways to do this from a pendulum to muscle testing to feeling into your body. I am biased towards a pendulum and I teach everyone I work with how to use one. I suspect many successful traders and business people in general are using intuition when making trades and/or business decisions. They are probably not using pendulums, but you never know.

Regardless of the method, it takes constant practice for 3 main reasons.

1. It is extremely difficult to override our programmed nature. The things that were installed in our childhood are deeply rooted.

2. Our mind is under constant attack. Every time we open our phone, look at a screen, watch a television show, watch a documentary our core programs are being reinforced and potentially new ones are being installed. I haven’t watched television or movies in years. My daughter is 8 and hasn’t either. I will put it off as long as possible.

3. And to go deeper, there is a mind virus which has permeated the collective since the dawn of man. Yes, this is the virus you should be worried about, not the other one. Often referred to as Wetiko. It operates through each and every one of us. Author Paul Levy has written extensively on this topic.

But there is more.

There will be points along the way where YOU are not making any decisions. Life is making your decisions. Life is deciding what your next experience should be. Life knows where you are headed and it will keep you on course. Actually it is not about you, it is what life or the divine needs to accomplish through you. It is multi-dimensional, it is not bound by time, it is not really understandable by the mind. Most of our decisions are based on the false ego's idea of what life should look like. This is all pre-programmed.

This is a terrifying notion if you really think about it because it requires you to relinquish control, to let go of the tiller. No one wants to do that. We say we do, especially when we read spiritual books and the idea of surrender and letting go sounds cool and exciting, but we don’t. Letting life decide is terrifying because you are stepping into the unknown. I don’t think we really have control over letting go or surrendering either. It usually happens on its own or when there is just no other way to get through to you.

But life is always trying to steer us, most often with a gentle nudge. Hey, you should leave this job, get out of this relationship, change your lifestyle. But often we don’t get the subtle message and it gets ramped up in intensity. Often this is when something more dramatic and painful occurs. This is what happened to me toward the end of my time at the above mentioned investment management firm. It was quite painful and took me years to recover from it to be honest. It also happened to me when I turned 40 and had a mystery illness which brought me to my knees.

In other instances though “what happens”, which is effectively a decision, can be a more positive experience. When I started posting instagram videos about Qigong and energy healing it was kind of a joke. My wife convinced me to do it. Within a few months it just exploded. I wasn’t really even thinking about what I was doing. I would sit down with an idea which seemed to come out of nowhere and often in a matter of 5 minutes, I would shoot a video in one take, post it and it would reach thousands of people. I wasn’t even doing it to get more followers or likes or for money. I was just doing. Pure doing and there was a creative flow that came to it which was beyond the understanding of my rational mind. In recent months the video side has felt different which is why I have been writing more, doing more 1:1 work and building a bit more community. It feels like it is where I am being guided.

9 Ways to Improve Your Decision making:

1. Psychospiritual work will help you make decisions from a more neutral place. This includes healing trauma, dismantling beliefs, soul retrieval and all the other things people talk about when they refer to “inner work”. Don’t get stuck here though. Move to step 2.

2. Learn practices that get you back into your body and give you the ability to feel into your vessel (Qigong is my favorite).

3. Learn to use a pendulum for connecting with intuition.

4. Practice divination through dreams and shamanic journeying. Very often you can get very clear guidance. Set a simple intention before you go to sleep each night.

5. Perform personalized rituals and ceremony each day in an effort to communicate with your guides, spirits and other helpers.

6. Learn how YOUR mind works, in particular the false ego. Learn to monitor the thoughts coming through. Almost all of them are nonsense.

7. Support the Gallbladder. Yep. From a TCM and energetic perspective the gallbladder is involved in decision making. We can support our gallbladder in many holistic ways - everything from eating artichokes and taking herbal preparations to coffee enemas. But even better, I would recommend doing Qigong and Jin Shin Jyutsu to support the gallbladder. I will share some videos on this soon. The Wood element is in play.

8. Spend less times on devices. Every single time you look at a screen, you are being programmed, whether you think you are or not.

9. Pay attention to how the universe communicates to YOU. It is a secret language that only you can learn.

1:1 Mentorship

Hello All,

I hope everyone is having a lovely summer. I just returned from Italy where I hosted an amazing retreat in the Italian Alps.

Retreat Photos

The retreat was so powerful that I am planning another next year (June 2026). If you are interested in attending, please let me know. Slots are already filling up.

In other news, I started a WhatsApp group as a community for current clients, former clients and anyone interested in healing. It is currently open to anyone, but eventually it will be invite only.

Join WhatsApp Group

As I reflect on my time abroad I have to say that the energy in Europe, especially Italy, has a different quality to it. I hesitate to use terms like better/worse but it definitely feels lighter over there.

I am pretty in tune with what I need to do to stay balanced. Sometimes to the point that it is annoying, although I take it as a blessing most times. My experience is that I need to do little Qigong and other energy balancing to feel vital and balanced when in Italy.

And when I do practice Qigong it flows effortlessly. In the past my Italy trips have been primarily vacations, so you would expect to feel “better”, but this time was a combination of work, play and exploration, as my family is considering moving there permanently. I felt great through all phases.

I think the quality of the energy has a lot to do with the people and/or the collective. Please note these are general observations. The people in Italy seem to have super regulated nervous systems and they don’t take things personally. There is a seriousness to people, but it is rooted in warmth and kindness. They seem to know how to balance work and play. They take pride in whatever job they have. The have respect for family. As a spiritual observation surrounding the presence of Catholicism throughout the country, the constant reminder via altars, churches and other symbolic imagery conveys a belief in the great mystery that transcends daily life.

And of course, the food. They do not tolerate low quality food. I mean all of the fruit in grocery stores looks and tastes better than any of our organic varieties at their best. The gluten doesn’t seem to be as inflammatory, the water is mostly from spring sources. The gelato, the cappuccinos, the affogatos, I could go on….

In terms of EMF exposure in the locations I visited, there are less cell towers and wifi and you know what, the sky looked pretty darn blue where I was. The sky in my home town doesn’t show blue very often. And I am not talking about natural cloud cover.

Maybe I just feel better there because I have Italian roots, my father was born in a small mountain town in central Italy. My mother’s grandparents were from the south.

Your environment plays a huge role in how you function in this world, more specifically the energy of your environment. The best way to harmonize your internal and external environment is with Qigong and with personalized ritual/ceremony.

These are just a few of the topics I cover with my 1:1 Mentorship clients.

1:1 Mentorship w/ Steve

I will leave you with some Italian I learned.

Un Abbraccio (A Hug/Embrace),

Steve ~

It is enhanced by the addition of Qigong healing sounds and specific arm movements.

You might do 5 or 9 repetitions increasing the length of the exhales (healing sounds) on each.

Enjoy.