Many years ago my best friend told me that her uncle’s dog was taking Prozac. I thought surely she was joking, but, no, in fact, she was not. This doggie on antidepressants has perplexed me for well over a decade. And I still have moments when I’m out hiking appreciating the gentle breezes and the beautiful green glow of backlit trees, when I am haunted by the memory of Prozac Dog.

Dogs are meant to live in the wild with natural cycles, following their instincts, running free, nuzzling their peers, basking in sunlight, sniffing for dinner and a safe resting place, howling at the moon.

They were not meant to mope around in stuffy apartments 24/7 with fluorescent lights, eating crunchy manufactured bits from a plastic bag, briefly escaping twice a day to a fenced-in pavement enclosure. That ain’t gonna do it. In that environment, there’s no space for them to feel well, to thrive, to BE themselves.

Living a domesticated life, in an unnatural environment, without the kind of exercise, food, community and stimulation you need is bound to be depressing. If it wasn’t, something would be seriously wrong.

We live in a Prozac Dog culture too, removed from our wild nature. May we remember we have our place here amongst all of Nature’s creatures.

Let the spirit of Prozac Dog help you find and remember your wild nature.
Show your fangs.
Roll in the grass.
Hump a leg.
Run on the beach.
Eat raw meat.
Wag that tail.

Ask yourself: What can I give myself, right now, that will bring me more into my wild aliveness? Share in the comments what brings you more alive. Hoooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwlllllllll!

Aloha,
Suzanne

I dream of a world where people see and know who they are…and where they move from the depths of their Being. Imagine a community of people who know how powerfully their Presence communicates without them doing or saying a thing. Sheer effortless grace.

This world is right here waiting for us:
to claim it.

To support this I’ve created the “Come As You Are” Human Design Teleparties: a spacious place for us to sink into the yummy zone of Being.

We will use Human Design as a springboard to expand our self-awareness, learn from each other, laugh at ourselves and go deeper into a place of witnessing the miracles in Life. We will enjoy a balance of quiet, guided meditations with shared discussion and insightful interplay. We will include the whole of our body knowing into the mix, not just our brains! Profound, fun, uplifting cross-pollination with dynamic auras: it’s bound to be a good time.

We’ll meet four Saturdays: May 19, 26, June 2, 9 from 1-2:30 pm PST and focus each week on one of the main Types of designs.

Open to anyone. No previous experience with Human Design is necessary. You are free to forward this info to anyone who might benefit.

If you are unable to attend in person, you can participate virtually! Register for the series and you can download the recordings of our gatherings and listen at your convenience. You can participate throughout the series by emailing questions/comments/sharing before class so your voice can be heard.

Register now to reserve your spot. You’ll find the handy “Buy Now” button below. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Warm Aloha,
Suzanne

Vitamin S.
Silence.
Get yours.

If you want the world to rearrange itself to be a luxurious spa, with your favorite aromatherapy wafting gently toward you and soft tunes playing in the background all the time, guess what? This may not happen as often as you’d like.

And, it gets exhausting trying to control everything in the world around you so you can experience some peace. Like it or not, if you want silence, if you want peace, you are going to need to bring that to the table yourself.

The first time I experienced silence I was in Yosemite. Our sixth grade class did a “solitude” night hike, where we each got dropped off alone along a trail to hang out and experience the forest in the dark. I was twelve and had never been alone outside in the dark for any length of time. After the first few moments I was sold. The way the moonlight cut slivers of light through the trees. The smell of the rich forest floor. Owls blinking in the perfect silence. I didn’t want this to end. I didn’t want my noisy classmates to come and pick me up to go back to the bunk beds in the dorms. I wanted to stay there forever: a fresh forest creature.

Fast forward thirteen years and I am in Taos, New Mexico with a friend. We found our way to a Neem Karoli Baba ashram where we enjoyed delicious vegetarian food and chanting. Afterwards I went back into the temple area to sit in front of a huge marble statue of Hanuman, the Hindu monkey god of Service. In that temple room the silence was deafening. I had never heard silence that LOUD. I looked around to see if anyone else noticed! Time stood completely still. I had been meditating for 20 years at this point and had never experienced such an obvious silence. I sat in there enjoying being suspended in the deepest quiet.

Fast forward fifteen years and I am sitting here singing the praises for silence and typing these words right now. Meanwhile the neighbors are having a massive tree trimming extravaganza and several chainsaws have been running nonstop for 2 days. I am giggling about this. Where is my silence now? And how does Life miraculously know how to create the conditions to help us call forth from within what we truly need?

Perfect silence: that suspension where time stands still, where we experience a rich fullness and emptiness simultaneously, is inside you. Invoke it. Call it forth. You don’t need redwood trees and owls or sacred temples. Life gives you opportunities every day: ambulance sirens, screaming children, a cacophony. Life asks you every day to bring forth what you most truly need.

I invite you to share your fond memories and places for silence in the comments above. Let’s take a few moments and bask together in that place of peace.

Warm Aloha,
Suzanne

It’s Spring: a time for nurturing growth
and developing a green thumb with our lives and our creativity. Nothing reflects this better than the garden.

I had an honest look at my garden this week. Holy Mackerel! As I was watering I found myself paying attention to the weeds that had gotten totally out of control. Absolutely EVERYTHING grows here in Hawaii, especially happy, healthy weeds. In fact, in recent months I have been photographing weeds up close and noticing how surprisingly beautiful they are! But in this moment, I wasn’t appreciating their beauty. (By the way, this photo here is flowering fennel… and if you ever get a chance to nibble on that fennel pollen, DO IT. AMAZING!)

So there I was on the verge of overwhelm when my garden whispered to me, “Don’t forget about the seeds.” And, as if by magic, I became aware that on many of the dry stalks of last season’s herbs and veggies were beautiful seeds ready to be planted.

I started to wonder: In my awareness, what is my weed to seed ratio? How much time and energy am I paying attention to the weeds in my garden and in my life? How much am I focusing on what is dying, leaving, completing its cycle, falling away? Am I getting caught in ridiculous future scenarios? Attack of the Killer Weeds. Chiropractor Held Hostage By Unruly Garden. The Weeds That Ate Plumeria Lane.

I marveled once again at the power of our focus and how much problems (those squeaky wheels) can snag our attention. How dare I miss the new bursts of life when so much was ready to bloom?

We are the stewards of our lives. We can develop a point of focus that nurtures new life. We can green our thumbs. We can grow whatever we want in the fertile land of our awareness.

Today I plant seeds of appreciation.
Today I feel at home.
Today I see support.
Today I find seeds in unexpected places.
Today I bloom.

We can grow whatever we want in the fertile land of our awareness.

And so my friends, I’d love to know what kind of seeds you are planting today. Please take a moment and share above in the comments what’s growing in your awareness garden today. From my vantage point here I see a colorful community garden growing, where we can all help nourish and support each other. Yum yum!

Warm Aloha,
Suzanne

Fifteen years ago when I was first introduced to Human Design, it was just another cool reading. You see: I was a “spiritual shopper.” Raised in a New Age household, it was normal for me to check out anything and everything alternative in the world of spirituality and healing. That’s what I did. I sniffed around.

What I didn’t realize back then is that Human Design wouldn’t just be a hip fad passing through my life. It would continue to inform me deeply, from the inside out, acting as a great reminding service in spite of my numerous attempts to let it go. It would stick around.

Here are a few gems from Human Design that have been polishing me recently.

1)Our bodies are perfect vehicles to express our Souls’ Purpose.
Our bodies are prisms that shine our light, sending rainbows out into the world in a way that only we can. Our strengths, weaknesses, talents, and challenges all make us perfectly unique. So, it doesn’t matter if we are big, small, young, old, in perfect health or diagnosed as “dis-eased.” Our bodies are wired, right now and exactly as they are, to line us up with our true paths and our Divine Purpose. Guaranteed.

2) In spite of our sheer amazingness, we have learned to judge and hate ourselves.
We live in a culture that conditions us to see the greener grass everywhere but right under our feet. We have learned to judge the gifts we have, instead of nurture them. This is true for the most successful, dynamic, confident people (say someone like Oprah) and for those down and out folks who have given up all hope.

Within our self-judgments are the greatest lies we have been telling ourselves about ourselves. Human Design helps us unlearn these lies so we can experience our gifts fully and begin to identify with ourselves as the unrepeatable, unique, precious expressions of Life that we are.

3) Here on Earth, relationships are not personal.
Wrap your brain around that one! There is a much bigger picture here than meets the eye, a divine symphony going on, and one that I can briefly glimpse when I’m lucky. Human Design reminds us that we are part of an immense and glorious orchestration of which we are not the sole mastermind. Planets dance us into intensity and retreat. People come in and out of our lives. Life is moving and breathing us. We can stop taking everything so darn personally. We can laugh at the divine joke of being who we are. We can ditch the drama and enjoy the ride.

I invite you to take a moment now and go to the comment section of this post to share your reflections, while they are fresh. If you have any bubbling questions about Human Design or gems you have received from playing with Human Design, please do share them!

With Aloha,
Suzanne