My birthday is Friday. (Can I just say here, please, no e-cards? Thanks.) I am being pestered by some charming bloggy friends to do something festive to celebrate and mark the occasion, since it’s a milestone event that ends in 0. What goes before the zero? If I wanted to share that, I would have told you already.

Frankly, since I have been feeling better and managing my pain better, I am more on a push to make money to prepare for my trip at the end of the month. And keep up with the bills, even though I will be taking a week off at the end of June. This requires planning.

I’ve caved to the notion that working on my birthday is insane if it’s voluntary, so I cleared my schedule with the network for that day. (I can always log on if I feel ambitious.) So, that’s festive, kind of. Or not.

Since I’m 1/8 Native Canadian (straddling the US border), I thought that I would like to celebrate in the native way, with a giveaway.

For those who suffer anxiety especially, (but you may substitute anxiety for whatever you are suffering from,) this will help. It is a way to self-treat any blockages in your energy field. For instance, loss of a loved one through death or breakup can often leave a heavy weight on one’s heart. It makes for difficulty in experiencing joy in other things. You can use this mini meditation to remove blockages from your heart chakra. Or wherever you sense the blockages to be.

http://grace.blindally.com/guided/breathe.zip

This will start a download to your desktop. Double click to unzip and put it on your ipod, or wherever you keep mp3 files.

It’s a nice little five minute holiday that you can give yourself each day.

Except when you are driving. Because that would suck.

Enjoy!

I have a confession to make. I have no kind of design talent. What. So. Ever. I can barely dress myself, or compose a photograph. I can’t sing either.

Yes. It’s truly sad to be me. Anybody has problems with their coding, I’m there for them, but all of my attempts to create a nice looking header are just plain sad and sorry.

To the rescue: RS Designs. See my purdy header? So not mine. All I did was select an image, pay a ridiculously small amount for it, and Linda of RS Designs did the rest. Free! It was part of a promotion that I glommed onto via their newsletter. You should go over there and sign up if you want the skinny on the phat.

The previous Bloggy Giveaway Carnival, I entered and won a header from them. It didn’t have to be for my blog, so I chose to have it on my readings site. I really need to update the screenshot, don’t I?

I have been hitting the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival every day to see if there is something I would want to win, and have noticed that each and every day, they are giving away a new pre-made header. Images are included, so you don’t even need to provide or pay for one. Not a drawing, but for anyone who comments. I chose this one.

There are more. Each image click takes you to the page where you comment and get yours free. Really. Not a draw. Just comment.

You can have your pick FREE, if you rush over today. And? They are very accommodating, and will resize to fit your header space.

I want everyone to know that I am not getting paid for this post. I’m just really wowed that I have access to some free header designs, while they are promoting their business, and I want you all to get in on the fun.

WOW! For all you blogspot people that I have been harassing to move to WordPress, here is the ultimate free solution. It includes hosting, domain name, installation, transfer of posts and comments, and all you need to leave the evil blogspot. Please. You know who you are. Enter here. And a similar one here, open til May 6. Do it for me.

One more free thing: There is a free QiGong Healing Session scheduled for Sunday, April 27. The link isn’t translating well from my email, but if you are interested, just say so in comments, and I will forward the email to you. I was in on the last one, and felt results, just with my intention to be included. That’s all you need. Intent to receive the healing.

From the talented and fragrant Jenny comes a jim-dandy question that deserves a post of its own:

How,exactly, would the run-of-the-mill person go about starting to heal themself?

First thing you want to do is achieve an altered state of consciousness.If you don’t know how to do that with your breath techniques, this will tell you.

Now what I did (sending love to afflicted areas) was easy for me because I have done it so many times. There is kind of a neural pathway already established by years of practice in my case, but you can get some decent results with your own practising. One of the women who is sending me energy on my uppitywomen list says she is getting really good at it, and added that she had a good teacher (me). However, I spent a fair amount of time in online healing sessions and a lot of one to one for this to happen.

It won’t happen without practice, no matter how much natural ability you may have. But, the following meditation technique will take away headaches, and whatever else hurts you. It isn’t quite what I used yesterday, but it’s a great start.

If you cannot imagine your healing guides (you have them, really) then think of your favourite star, and draw energy down from it.

Here is the tricky part, so pay careful attention. You need to visualize a wheel within a wheel, each spinning in different directions.

The outer wheel is red, it spins counter-clockwise. The inner wheel is blue, and it spins clockwise. The wheels are on a horizontal plane about 2 feet above your head, and large enough to fit the girth of your body comfortably.

When the wheels are energized from your star or your guides, slowly lower them towards your head.

Feel the action of the wheels coaxing any disruptive energy from your head, and as it lowers, it teases, and coaxes the tangled knots of energy away into the void between the two wheels.

Bring it down level with the top of your head, always alllowing the energy to be teased and coaxed into the void, slowly, lowering it bit by bit until all it has passed has been brought into the void.

As the energy clears, slowly lower the wheels, still teasing at the disruptive energy, the pain, the knots, the darkness. As you feel a clearing in one area, slowly move lower.

Continue this until you reach your feet, and when they feel clear, allow the wheels to connect with the earth to ground you.

Then, zzt! Up they go, smoothing and leaving behind wholeness. As the wheels clear your head, allow the energy to return to the star, or your guides, and give thanks.

This is a basic technique that will take some practice to perfect. I use it in conjunction with others each time I run energy. It is, by itself, surprisingly effective, even for migraines.

If you would like to learn a few basic exercises to heal others, let me know, and I will compose a post about that at a later date.