Resources & Inspiration
Audio recordings
I often integrate Yoga Nidra segments into the end of my yoga and healing sessions. Yoga Nidra is a form of guided meditation also known as “yogic sleep” or “effortless relaxation,” but notably your mind remains awake, aware, and alert. Yoga Nidra is designed to allow your brain to transition through different brain wave frequencies that promote healing and restoration in the body (alpha, beta, gamma, theta, and delta). It's usually practiced lying down. With practice, Yoga Nidra can help with insomnia, emotional trauma, getting over addiction, depression, and anxiety. Yoga Nidra is not advisable for those suffering from severe trauma or those with severe depression or other severe mental health conditions.
-
Shamanic Drumming
DRUMS FOR JOURNEYING
Resources by topic
Hi readers! I would love for you to purchase any of the titles below at your local bookseller or borrow from your local library. Otherwise, as an Amazon associate, I am happy to earn from qualifying purchases when you use a “Buy on Amazon” button on this page. At no cost to you or me, it’s a few pennies in the pocket of your favorite female entrepreneur!
Great foundational books for healing - start here!
Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss is the first book I read as I really stepped onto my spiritual journey - excellent book focused on healing.
Sacred Contracts by Caroline Myss. Sacred Contracts introduces Myss' approach to using Archetypes for self awareness and, sometimes, discerning our true paths. This is also an excellent "listen" as an audiobook, but you want the paperback regardless as it has the directory of all the archetypes.
The Language of Archetypes: Discover the Forces that Shape Your Destiny by Caroline Myss
Radical Acceptance by Tara Brach. It's a pretty easy read, and I recommend it on Audible as well.
Signs: the Secret Language of the Universe by Laura Lynne Jackson
The Surrender Experiment by Michael Singer - by the author of Untethered Soul (see below under Meditation & Mantra) , a very interesting autobiographical story of allowing the universe to be and unfold exactly as it is.
Ayurveda
Ayurveda, the ancient Indian sister science to Yoga, can help you to understand your unique recipe, or "dosha," which corresponds to the relative amounts of the five elements (earth, water, fire, air, and ether) in your physical and mental constitutions.
For one clue into your Ayurvedic doshas for mind and body, visit https://iamsahararose.com/dosha-quiz/ and click "I'm ready to discover my Dosha" or "Take me to the Dosha Quiz." To the best of your ability, please respond to the questions through the lens of your entire life, leaning towards answers that best reflect your mind and body when you have felt the most healthy and balanced. Please make note of your MIND TYPE BREAKDOWN percentages and scroll down to view and make note of your BODY TYPE BREAKDOWN.
Sahara Rose’s site has a ton of great information about Ayurveda and doshas. She also has two great books, Eat Feel Fresh: A Contemporary Plant-Based Ayurvedic Cookbook and Idiot's Guide to Ayurveda, which includes a Foreward by Deepak Chopra MD.
The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies: Based on the Timeless Wisdom of India’s 5,000-Year-Old Medical System by Vasant Dattaray Lad
Enneagram
Enneagram is a personality typing system that can shed light on your ego’s core focus, your deepest desires, and your deepest fears.
For a starting point, you can take a free test, e.g., go to https://www.eclecticenergies.com/enneagram/test and click on the ‘Classical Ennegram Test’. (It’s the first test of two options given.) It takes about 15 minutes to complete.
Check out the Enneagram Institute and their resources on the Enneagram typing system. If you’re trying to discern your core type, it can be interesting to sign up for their EnneaThought for the Day emails (you can sign up for one or two types) and see which EnneaThoughts resonate most.
If Enneagram really sparks your interest, I highly recommend the audiobook The Enneagram: Nine Gateways to Presence (though it's long—it’s really more like a 9 hour course in Enneagram types!). It's also pricy, but it’s included for just 1 Audible credit if you're an Audible member. Know that typing yourself can be challenging, and we all have elements of each type within us. Exploring all the types in more than one way can be an interesting avenue of self-awareness.
Why Some of Us Don't Have a True Calling - this is a TED talk about "multipotentialites" by Emilie Wapnick -This most closely resembles an Enneagram Type 7 (which is my core type), and whether it resonates with you or not, that doesn't mean that Seven is or isn't your core type. We all have aspects of each type within us.
The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson
The Art of Typing by Ginger Lapid-Bogda
Headstart for Happiness by Lynn Roulo (also under Yoga)
The Sacred Enneagram by Christopher L. Heuertz
Recommended reading by Enneagram core type
These resources are not about Enneagram or the types, but rather readings that may support the particular fears, motivations, and strengths of each type. While I have not read all of these, you’ll see several repeated from other sections, which I have read and highly recommend!
Enneagram Type One
Enneagram Type Two (more coming soon)
Enneagram Type Three (Coming Soon)
Enneagram Type Four
Enneagram Type Five (Coming Soon)
Enneagram Type Six (Coming Soon)
Enneagram Type Six (Coming Soon)
Enneagram Type Seven (Coming Soon)
Enneagram Type Eight (Coming Soon)
Enneagram Type Nine (Coming Soon)
Meditation & Mantra
The Untethered Soul by Michael Singer
Conscious by Annika Harris, who also has a website with meditations, including excellent tracks for kids: https://annakaharris.com/mindfulness-for-children/. Since I've visited her site, she has added some guided meditation for adults, so be sure to click around and explore those as well.
Waking Up by Sam Harris
Shamanism & Magic
The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz
Shamanic Power Animals by Don Jose Ruiz
Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés - this is a deeper dive on the wild woman archetype in particular. Also a great and relatively quick "listen" on Audible.
Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials by Various Authors
Encyclopedia of Crystals by Judy Hall
The Fifth Agreement by don Miguel Ruiz and don Jose Ruiz
The Medicine Bag by don Jose Ruiz
The Wisdom of the Shamans by don Jose Ruiz
Energy Healing & Reiki
Usui Shiki Ryoho - The Usui System of Reiki Healing - this link is a helpful introduction to the traditional form of Reiki. Its roots go back to the likes of Jesus and Buddha and other ancient healers and healing modalities, but it was formalized into this system of energy healing by Dr. Mikao Usui (1865-1929) in Japan, and later spread west thanks to a Japanese-American woman, Hawayo Takata, who brought it first to Hawaii and then to the mainland U.S. in the 1970s.
Shamanic Reiki - combines Usui Reiki with Shamanism, which is a broad term for tapping the power and energy of nature along with expanded spiritual realities to facilitate healing and spiritual growth. Shamanism is practiced with a deep honor and respect for the Earth and all of nature, and the indigenous peoples for whom these practices go back thousands of years. I have studied and trained primarily with those initiated under the Toltec tradition, but I also honor traditions and practices of the Celtic Druids which includes some of my own ancestors.
Cure by Jo Marchant - a book about the science of healing, the power of the mind over body, the placebo and nocebo effects, and much more.
The Power of Eight by Lynne McTaggart - a scientist's approach to exploring the power of prayer & intention sent by groups of people to specific targets.
Hands of Light by Barbara Ann Brennan
Wheels of Light by Rosalyn L. Bruyere
Essential Reiki by Diane Stein
Shamanic Reiki by Llyn Roberts and Robert Levy
Shapeshifting into Higher Consciousness by Llyn Roberts
Sound Healing
Podcast episode on Silence: https://soundcloud.com/onbeing/gordon-hempton-silence-and-the-presence-of-everything. Gordon Hempton also has a book on this subject: One Square Inch of Silence.
Tibetan Sound Healing by Tenzin Wangyal Rinpoche
How to Heal with Singing Bowls by Suren Shrestha
The Seven Secrets of Sound Healing by Jonathan Goldman
Applied Marma Therapy (Cards) by Vasant Lad
Acupressure’s Potent Points by Michael Reed Gach
Sound Healing: Vibrational Healing with Ohm Tuning Forks by Marjorie de Muynck
Tuning the Human Biofield by Eileen Day McKusick
Human Tuning by John Beaulieu
The Mysticism of Sound and Music by Hazrat Inayat Khan
Empowerment
The Vagina Bible by Jen Gunter
You are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
Wild Feminine by Tami Lynn Kent
You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay
Wild Power by Alexandra Pope and Sjanie Hugo Wurlitzer
The Optimized Woman by Miranda Gray
Scooch! by Jaya Lalita
Refuse to Choose! by Barbara Sher
Poetry
Check out this anthology, Poetry Pharmacy, which prescribes a poem for everything from grief to self-recrimination. For a great reading from this book, check out Helena Bonham Carter reading Wild Geese by Mary Oliver.
Soul to Soul: Poems, Prayers and Stories to End a Yoga Class Compiled and Edited by John Mundahl
Go In and In by Donna Faulds
Yoga & Somatics
Somatics by Thomas Hanna
Every Body Yoga by Jessamyn Stanley
Essential Kundalini Yoga by Karena Virginia and Dharm Khalsa
Headstart for Happiness by Lynn Roulo
The 9 Keys by Lynn Roulo
Enlightened Bodies by Nirmal Lumpkin and Japa Kaur Khalsa
Functional Anatomy of Yoga by David Keil
Tarot & Other Oracle Decks
The Universe Has Your Back by Gabrielle Bernstein
Osho Zen Tarot by Osho (Author) and Ma Deva Padma (Illustrator)
The Rider Tarot Deck by Arthur Edward Waite and Pamela Colman Smith
The Wild Unknown - Archetypes by Kim Krans
The Wild Unknown - Animal Spirit by Kim Krans
The Wild Unknown - Alchemy by Kim Krans
Archetype Cards by Carolyn Myss
Self-Love through the Sacred Feminine by Jo Jayson
Manifestation Cards by Spirit Daughter (not available on Amazon)
