The other day, my friend Amber reached out to see if I might help with the visioning and organization of the upcoming Earth Day celebration at my son’s school. In our conversation she brought up how stressful the recent school lockdown was for the teachers. Apparently, there was someone in the area either seen with a gun or a shot had been fired nearby. The school was locked down until police searched the area and deemed it safe. As she was talking about it the desire welled up in me to support the teachers and staff and I knew it was time to offer what had been percolating in my mind and heart over the past year.

Our teachers and school administrators are AMAZING. They help our children learn to be in community and to expand their minds and hearts. They have also been through a lot in our Portland Public School district with the strike this year. I’ve been wanting to find a way to honor, support and uplift them as they support our children; to help them remember the deep well of energy resource available to them and the home they have within. 

My seat wobbled under me in a surprisingly satisfying way as I shared my vision with the principal in her light filled office last week. She was grateful and included my offer of providing complimentary guided meditation and healing sound to the staff in the internal newsletter at the end of the week. 

Even a year ago when this vision was slowly coming to form in my awareness, I saw myself surrounded by crystal singing bowls. I sometimes play the harmonium or shruti box to provide a healing drone sound to accompany my voice. Occasionally I will play a metal singing bowl or chimes, but have not had many opportunities to play crystal bowls. 
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Once I committed to this service, I reached out to see if I could borrow a set from my dear friend and collaborator, Rosemary (an amazing business coach btw!) She was happy to lend them. However, over the following hours, the realization surfaced that this offering for the school had a larger purpose in my unfolding role as a facilitator of healing and connection. I intuitively knew that I will be expanding my work to include more healing sounds from these instruments and so instead, I excitedly invested in my own set! I love them, they make me feel amazing and bring such a resonance to any space. I find that I can’t wait to play them every time I get home.

I have had a vision and deep desire to include more singing and sound in general in my work and play. It may come as a surprise to many of you, but I have actually been singing and performing music for most of my life. My mom, Connie Cohen, is a very talented songwriter so I grew up around music. I saw a 3/4 size electric bass at a music store at about age 12 and fell in love. I saved up and my parents helped me buy it. I was the only girl in my middle school to play the bass and was the lucky recipient of a scholarship to study with well known bassist, Tim Gilson, who played with the likes of Mel Brown and many others. 
Before long I started to accompany my mom, creating vocal harmonies and bass parts for her wonderful original songs. We toured up and down the west coast in the years that followed, singing and playing together as a mother daughter duo, even performing at Portland’s Aladdin Theater.
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​We continued to play with a bit less frequency as the years went on until I left to attend college at FIT in New York. My mom and I ran retreats bringing music and singing with us in one form or another all through those years. In fact, we were just working on recording a new song of hers in the studio this week.
If you’ve been to one of my retreats over these past few years, you know how magical it can be when the element of music and singing is introduced. Many don’t think they can sing, have little practice and didn’t necessarily sign up for a singing experience. The point of opening the voice in that environment isn’t about performative singing, though. It is about joining our voices together in community which does amazingthings for our nervous systems. When we do this, lots of pleasure and safety hormones are released and it makes us feel really good. In addition, we can both dislodge and harness so much emotion and spiritual energy through singing. For these reasons I integrate it into my practice in several ways. It is always a choice to participate, and I’ve rarely had anyone opt out.

We'll room at the Hood River Hotel, stays start at $60/night for our group and go up from there for rooms and suites.

What attendees from our Fall 2023 Spirit Rejuvenation Retreat wrote for those considering joining us: 

“Give yourself the opportunity to go within, find your center, your being and true sense of self. An awakening that you just need to experience.” 
“If you feel any YES inside or a curious nudge, follow your heart and open up to this gifted opportunity.” 

“It’s a holistic retreat and a wholistic retreat. There’s a diversity of modalities and the focus is on each participant’s wholeness. Absolutely glad I did it - exactly what I needed at this moment.”

“This was my second time and again I loved it. Just what I needed at this time in my life.” 

“If you aren’t sure what intentional community looks like, this is it. This retreat will help you understand what it’s like to sit in love and warmth.” 

Learn more & Sign up!

I hope to see you there or soon, and here’s a loving nudge to bring music into your life in all the ways this week. Hum, sing, laugh, play an instrument and enjoy music live or recorded.

​- Anna Blossom

This week a client asked me, with concern and angst written across his face, if we’ll be okay considering what is happening in the world right now. 
Though I don’t do future-telling in my practice, I do read the energy that I have access to. It’s a bit like reading the weather. I can see the configuration of energy right now, and maybe a little into the future, but that future can change based on how energy, intentions and desires move as things unfold.
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Usually when I check in with a client’s energy who does ask a question like this, I can sense that they have been consuming a lot of news. In these cases their energy has spread out from their body and is pretty entangled with what they have been focusing on. They seem depleted and depressed about the state of things.

For generations, one was considered a good citizen of the community and the world by paying attention to current events. The news seemed simple: facts and reports on the goings-on locally, nationally and internationally. In a sense, it brought the community together. In those times, there were few sources of news. It was given at a calmer, slower pace and was minimally available. The variety, amount of access and quality of news that is created and consumed today is very different than in those days.

There is certainly a thread of that old way that remains true. However, a lot of what is available has become extreme on many levels both in quantity and quality. 

Does the news or media you consume make you feel:

• depressed 
• helpless
• angry and resentful
• spikes of emotional intensity?

Despite these feelings, do you continue to reach for them again and again?

Here is my suggestion for you.

Significantly minimize or take a break from the sources you are engaging with. They can provide a spike of adrenaline and all sorts of emotional responses that can set off a sticky addictive pattern without you hardly noticing. Even -and especially- when the information feels really relevant and important. However, the relevancy I’m concerned with is the relationship you have to the emotional spikes and drops these inputs provide you. Are you are containing your own energy or giving it away to these sources?

News and media are an inevitable and important part of our present lives. This is just an invitation to observe and be mindful of how you feel when you are engaged with them and how often you reach for them. 

If you are able to maintain balance, you likely have much more energy, clarity, will and ability to respond productively and take actions that support your values and beliefs. If you are engaged too much or in an imbalanced way, you likely will feel depleted and exhausted. There will be far less of your energy left to care for yourself and the world and to take the actions aligned with how you can help things heal.

Here’s my invitation: Take 10 days to two weeks to disengage with your usual media inputs and engage elsewhere. Try watching TED Talks in areas that interest you. Look on Substack for writers that are discussing things you are passionate about. Try alternate sources of education and media. You might get inspired. Maybe look into learning about a hobby you love or about something you’ve been curious about. 

Just like taking a break from a big project and going for a walk, resetting your energy and taking care of your nervous system will help you function better. This very much applies to how we consume news and media too. If you find you have a hard time taking a break and keep reaching for it, this might be a good sign that a break is much needed. There are many other perspectives right within reach that are important and that you can do your best work engaging with to make a difference. It starts with kindness, rest and love for yourself, then radiates outward.

I’d love to hear what you think and how this goes for you if you decide to say yes to this invitation. Please use the comment section below.

Some other ideas (make sure you read the last one!):

• Learn about another country’s recipes, language and culture.
• Read poetry, experience artwork.
• Read a fun novel or children’s book out loud with your partner, friends or family.
• Expand your awareness and notice what that feels like. 
• Go to the library or book store and explore new areas.
• Make a plan to do something educational and community oriented with your family.
• Volunteer in some way for your community. 
• Be creative, paint (your walls or on paper or canvas), reorganize your space, declutter.
• Rest. Allow yourself to think, write in your journal, stare out the window and sleep.
• Go on a retreat - MY RETREAT!! Coming up May 24-26, 2024 in Hood River, OR. - just now LIVE! It sells out each time and is limited to 15 people this time for a very cool reason! Check it out to learn more.

- Anna Blossom

As I try to articulate what rest is, it feels more like an idea, an imagined experience of stillness, calm, reflective and quiet alone time. A dreamy image of a large bed covered in cozy blankets and pillows floating in a sky of silky soft clouds; a quiet high windowed room in a nature filled place with long afternoon sunlight pouring in on a lounging figure reading on a plush couch. Or maybe staring out at the ocean in a warm tropical place watching the palms sway in the gentle breeze.

I find in my own life, what I often crave in my down time is connection with others, reflection, conversation, activities that help me to find meaning in my experience of life. Rarely do I actually find myself in those solitary imagined places. And if I do, I’m often laughing and visiting and parenting and soaking up the vibrancy of life. It is okay that the imagined version of rest also exists differently in my awareness. When it shows up as a craving it can be a calling card for a kind of nourishment I am needing. A little time alone, a walk in nature or a luxurious nap; to give space to my unwinding thoughts and connect with replenishing elements that help me to contemplate life, provide perspective and shake things up.

What if we use different words or ask different questions to understand what rest is? Can we blend nourishing and replenishing practices with daily life so the two states of being can coexist and bring more balance into our experiences? 
Try going for a walk when you notice you are starting to feel stressed or start feeling like you have to get that thing done. We all know that feeling. It is often the old familiar “not enough” pattern taking over and it is amazing how much we rely on this pattern in our western culture in order to motivate ourselves. It is an operating system that can quietly run in the background of our consciousness and can skew our perspective on what is possible, keeping us captive in a kind of race against an “other.” This fear based pattern doesn’t help us achieve a restful state and when our hearts are racing and our systems are on fight, flight, freeze mode, we aren’t sending out a very welcoming signal into the world to engage in abundance. Underneath it all, we’re feeling afraid. 

If you felt safe, what choices would you make differently? When that deadline is approaching and it is unrealistic, how do you respond to this recognition? Do you push and pull and stress to meet it, undermining your wellbeing? If we are all connected, when we undermine our own wellbeing, we are undermining the greater wellbeing. What if it is safe to reassess? To have a conversation with yourself, your boss, your team, your client about recognizing the limitations and adjusting, working with the energy that is unfolding in front of you. Most likely a better, more appropriate and more successful solution will appear that will align better for everyone. If we’re tuning in, the feeling of discomfort and stress is a signal that the energy has shifted from where it was before and there is a more aligned path if we are open to collaborating with the energy and each other to find it. Easeful and fun are the guides. Sometimes sticky parts arise as we move through change, but the overall feeling of alignment is the one to look for and trust rather than the fear of judgement or loss.

My invitation for you this week is to notice what is motivating you. Are you charged because you are racing against time? Are you charged because you are excited about what you are doing? Are you charged because you are angry? Or because you are reaching toward a goal? How can you allow yourself to feel most satisfied and safe right now in this moment? Please, no judgement here. Just get curious and observe. Judgement leads to there being a right or wrong. There isn’t one, we’re just all learning and evolving. That’s the goal.

Here is a special set of words that is coming to me to offer you now. Repeat each sentence aloud or in your heart as many times as feels right, taking deep loving breaths after each time to check in with how you feel about this truth before moving to the next. If you notice resistance in you as you say these words, allow healing energy to wash over that resistance and honor what comes to mind as you gently inquire why the resistance is present. Keep in mind that worthiness has no part in this, though it is common for it to be a sticky point for many. Here are the words:

I allow myself to experience love in all its forms without hesitation or delay. 

I trust my heart to discern what is truly in alignment for me even if it isn’t what I or others expect and I know that what is in alignment for me is in alignment for all.

I take actions that align with the truth of my heart and these actions lead me to more trust, safety and joy.


If you’d like some support to move through, understand and shift resistances that you are experiencing in your life or in this process or you are ready for an upgrade I’m happy to help you lift into your next level through my newly upgraded coaching program. (Ps. I’ve implemented a new sliding scale.)

​- Anna Blossom