I had the biggest chuckle the other day. When I can, I try to go into the office and greet clients at the beginning of their Soul Adventure (I don’t work at the office, I work out of my home which is about 10 minutes from the office). I love connecting with everyone, especially because many of them are feeling this wonderful combination of being excited and nervous (which means the energy is already starting to move).
I went in to greet 2 people who were here last week for a Couples Retreat and as we talked, the husband said, “I’m feeling really good about this because I know I’m not going to hear those dreaded words, ‘now we’re going to break into small groups'”.
We were laughing about it (because it was a funny way to say it), but we kept on talking very seriously about how true it was. He told me he’d gone to workshops and other things to try to please his wife and try to work on their problems, but the whole thing of being forced to open up and talk about his deepest feelings in front of a bunch of strangers just didn’t work for him.
They had serious communication problems (as so many couples do) and the communication just got more difficult in front of a bunch of people. It didn’t help, it hurt.
There is also a strange dynamic that can sometimes happen in group settings where the group seems to “take the side” of one person, identifying one as the “good guy” and the other as the “bad guy”, and the other person can feel ganged up on. That doesn’t help the healing!
So instead of doing another group retreat, they came to Sedona and did a private retreat that had been custom designed for them.
Rather than going to a group retreat where it’s designed to (hopefully) handle all the problems that all the participants have, they did a retreat with sessions designed for exactly what they needed. Because let’s face it, it’s simply not possible for a group retreat to handle every single issue that every single participant has. They probably don’t even know what problems any of the participants have, because they haven’t talked to them to find out what their problems are. That’s not how group retreats work — They’re designed around the problems they’re assuming the couples have.
Instead, they each spent time talking to their Angel Guide. They each spoke with her separately so she could really understand the perspective they each had on their problems. She dug deep to really get at their needs and desires. The good news was, they weren’t at a crisis like many of our couples are — they weren’t dealing with infidelity or one person saying “I don’t want to be married anymore”. But they were dealing with something that can sometimes be worse — feeling disconnected and no longer in harmony with each other. That can almost be even more insidious as people drift apart from each other.
Their Angel Guide designed a wonderful retreat for them, which included individual sessions and sessions as a couple. One of the things we find is that each person has their own issues that they are bringing to the relationship and when we can deal with those first, we’re then bringing two healed people back together. Some people have anger issues, some people have co-dependency issues. Many people have worthiness issues that go back to things that happened in their childhood. It’s different for everyone, that’s why a one-size-fits-all retreat just doesn’t work.
They did sessions separately and they did sessions together, either one-on-one or two-on-one with different practitioners, but always there were no more than 3 people in the room. The sessions were designed and executed for exactly what they needed, as individuals and as a couple. The privacy and direct focus made them feel safe and they both really opened up.
In their individual sessions, he realized how he was making communication really difficult. He also learned some valuable tools (including tapping) to release his anxiety and to reprogram negative thoughts. She learned Ho’oponopono, an ancient forgiveness technique, which she will continue to use. Can you imagine what happens and how wonderful it is when two people come back together having released anxiety and going totally into forgiveness?
I’m happy to say that their Soul Adventure was (in their words) “fantastic”. He said he “loved every session” and the best part is they both learned some valuable lessons and skills about communicating with each other. They left feeling a harmony they haven’t felt with each other for a long time and knowing how to keep it going.
I was a divorce attorney in Omaha, Nebraska for over 20 years. I love it that for the past 14 years, I’ve been involved in helping couples stay together. It’s a much more satisfying situation!
If you’re longing to have the relationship of your dreams, call us and speak to one of our Angel Guides. They’ll connect with both of you and really get at the heart of things. Then they’ll design a retreat that’s perfect to bring you back into the love that brought you together in the first place.
As I always says, “If you know what could happen, you’d be calling right now!”
Click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you. Or if you’d prefer, call us toll free at 1-877-204-3664 (US and Canada). For our friends outside the US and Canada call 01 928-204-5988 or click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you. And remember, we work on Sundays!
If you knew what could happen, you’d be calling us right now.
Wishing you a week filled with love and connection,
Debra
Debra Stangl / Founder
Sedona Soul Adventures – Transforming Lives One Soul At A Time
(877) 204-3664
https://sedonasouladventures.com
Frank and Valerie say “Sedona Soul Adventures saved our marriage”
“After months of marriage counseling the “D” word was coming up more and more. After our Soul Adventure, our relationship is renewed, passionate, and loving. We are connected more than the day we married back 12 years ago. Our communication is better than ever, and our romance is better than ever. Our marriage is safe, and there is no turning back. Thank you to your entire team of loving and talented individuals for all you do.”
Frank & Valerie F., Los Angeles, California
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Discover the most powerful way to create the relationship you’ve always dreamed of — and deep soul connection with your beloved. Our free Guide reveals how a private, customized retreat in Sedona can deepen the love and passion in your relationship — in only 4 days.
Click here to download your Guide.
It’s incredible what happens when you just take a moment to breathe. No matter what’s going on, the simple act of taking a breath helps you get centered, get conscious and come back into the present moment.
Taking a breath helps you on all the levels – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual.
Physical – Your body receives the immediate signal that everything is okay.
Mental – The breath helps your mind to STOP racing and just immediately focus.
Emotional – Taking a deep breath can make you immediately calm down if you’re feeling angry or upset, or it can start to lift your spirits if you’re feeling a little down.
Spiritual – I believe the breath is our closest, fastest connection to the Divine. By simply taking a breath, we can be immediately in connection with that energy.
All that from one breath? Yes! Try it and see.
I’ve been a big fan of breathing for over 20 years. That sounds kind of funny, but actually, breathing has transformed my life. Let me explain.
Back in 1990, I completed a Codependency program, part of a 12-step program of Adult Children of Alcoholics. It was a very important part of my healing process at the time, but it actually left me feeling kind of depressed, because they were telling me that I would be co-dependent for my entire life and I believed it. I was going to weekly meetings and each meeting was everyone sitting in a circle and talking about how horrible their life was and each week everyone pretty much said the same thing. It was depressing, but they told us we needed to come to the meetings every week, that it would help.
One day I was telling one of my friends that I was feeling somewhat depressed by all this, and she suggested I get a massage from a new therapist she had heard raves about. I had the massage and it was nice, but we got into a discussion of how I was feeling. She told me she was a breath work practitioner and she described the breath work to me. She said that doing the breath work had changed her life.
I did a session with her and it was absolutely amazing. In the session, you breathe deeply and continuously, there is no stopping between the inhale and exhale. It sounds simple enough, but the results were absolutely incredible.
I went into the “altered state” that she described and I have never felt so blissed out in my entire life. I came back and did more sessions with her and my life changed. I was experiencing happiness and deep soul connection in a way that I had never experienced in my life.
That was 26 years ago and I continue to do breath work to this day and it has become a central part of the retreats at Sedona Soul Adventures. The breath sessions that we do are based on the work of Stanislav Graf, who was a psychiatrist who worked with LSD when it was still legal. His clients had incredible, mystical experiences and when it was banned he felt there must be a way of re-creating those incredible experiences without drugs. He studied Eastern texts, including the Vedas, and discovered the power of the breath. He discovered that if it was done in the proper way, that it could take people into an altered state of consciousness that left them feeling blissful and whole.
The range of what people experience in the breath sessions is truly amazing — most people have deep emotional releases, some see visions, many connect with their High Self, connect with their Angels and Guides, connect with people who have crossed over, get answers to questions that have been plaguing them, and almost everyone experiences a euphoria and sense of connection that they’ve never experienced before.
Can you see why it’s such an important part of the work we do? When you combine the breath journey with the other emotional clearings and transformational sessions we do, complete transformations take place in a matter of days. It’s truly astounding.
So in your day to day life, I invite you to stop and take a deep breath every once in a while. It will help to calm you and make you feel better.
If you want to transform your life, come here to Sedona, do a retreat with us and learn how to do the breath. One of the best parts is that it is something that you can do on your own after you go home and continue to maintain and deepen the transformations that happen here.
If you’re ready to have some true transformation in your life or relationship, click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you. Or if you’d prefer, call us toll free at 1-877-204-3664 (US and Canada). For our friends outside the US and Canada call 01 928-204-5988 or click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you. Be sure to tell them you want a Breath Journey as part of your retreat. And remember, we work on Sundays!
Wishing you a week filled lots of deep breaths,
Debra
Debra Stangl / Founder
Sedona Soul Adventures – Transforming Lives One Soul At A Time
(877) 204-3664
https://sedonasouladventures.com
Jacqueline says her Breath Journey was “angelic” and “has helped to re-shape my inner me”
“My Inner Journey with Breath and Sound was an “angelic” experience as well as the opportunity to confront some serious fears that were impeding my life growth. It was such a magical experience and to think, I didn’t have to pack my practitioner into my suitcase and take her home with me in order to continue to use this process as a personal awareness modality. This process has helped me to re-shape my inner me, to open my feeling chakra, and continue to work within myself. THANK YOU for giving me this amazing tool I could bring home with me!!”
Jacqueline W., Grand Prairie, Alberta, Canada
Download your free copy of our “Sedona Guide to Spiritual Retreats” or “Sedona Guide to Couples Retreats”
Our free guide shows you how a private retreat in Sedona that is completely customized for you can transform your life or your relationship. Click here
This week I was doing a coaching session with one of my favorite clients, Stephanie.
I’ve been working with Stephanie for over 4 years. She did a Soul Adventure with me and then went to Peru with me and after that we started coaching together.
In the 4 years that I’ve been coaching with her:
This past week we were doing a coaching session and we were talking about her morning routine. She said to me, “Every morning I get up between 5:00 and 5:11 am”. I couldn’t help myself, and I laughed and said, “What, you mean on the days that it’s 5:11 that’s when you’re slacking off?”
We laughed about it but then we had a wonderful discussion about something she and I both know – one of the easiest things that anyone can do to be super successful in every area of their lives is to get up early (and she graciously agreed to let me talk about her in this newsletter – thanks, Steph!)
And it’s definitely not about getting up early so you can immediately jump on your e-mail and working like a maniac. It’s about giving yourself the space to start the day off in the ways that will bring you the most happiness and fulfillment.
For Stephanie (and me) that’s starting off with meditation. The minute I wake up, I go into my healing room because I love the energy in there and I can sit in a chair – if I stay in bed, I’ll go back to sleep. I do a specific meditation each day that involves how I want the day to go and my vision. It raises me to a higher vibration.
The thing that’s so wonderful about this is – everyone can do this. Whether you’re a CEO or a MOM, getting up early so you can do what makes you feel good will give you amazing benefits.
Don’t take my word for it, look at these other examples:
Franklin is the one who coined the famous phrase “Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise”. And of course, women too!
Another fantastic thing to do in the early morning is to journal. I have had many clients write 3 things they are grateful for in Gratitude Journals the minute they wake up and people who stick with that have amazing results.
I suggested to one of my other favorite coaching clients, Tracey, that she do the journaling that Julia Cameron recommends in “The Artist’s Way”. Each day journaling for 3 pages, bringing in anything and everything. The minute Tracey started doing this, she saw incredible results. She writes about what she wants to have happen that day, and how she feels about it and any other thoughts that come in. She says that now almost everything she writes about happens! It’s become this fun game to see how everything unfolds.
What are the things that would make you feel better if you got up early and did them every day? It’s different for everyone — meditating, exercising, reading, being quiet, having a wonderful breakfast?
Start off slowly. Get up 10 minutes early and do 5 minutes of deep breathing. Or get up 20 minutes early and do some sort of exercise.
What really happens here is empowerment. You starting to take back the power in your life. It can be extraordinary.
At Sedona Soul Adventures, we are all about empowerment. Empowering you in every area of your life. Empowering your relationship.
Stephanie saw huge shifts in every area of her life after she did her Sedona Soul Adventures retreat — her love life, her work, her money, her relationship with her kids, her friends, and especially herself. Wouldn’t you like to have some of that?
Real and lasting change is actually possible, but you have to take the first step. Contact us and speak to an Angel Guide. They’ll connect with you (or both of you if it’s a couple) in deep conversation to determine exactly where you are and where you want to be; then they’ll custom design the perfect retreat that will bring you the life or the relationship you’re craving.
Click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you. Or if you’d prefer, call us toll free at 1-877-204-3664 (US and Canada). For our friends outside the US and Canada call 01 928-204-5988 or click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you.
Wishing you a week full of rising and shining,
Debra
Debra Stangl / Founder
Sedona Soul Adventures – Transforming Lives One Soul At A Time
(877) 204-3664
https://sedonasouladventures.com
Tommy says his Soul Adventure “changed his life”
“My soul adventure truly changed my life. I gained so much knowledge about life and how I’m supposed to be living it. Sedona Soul Adventures is an amazing team of people who really care about each person who walks thru the door. They are very knowledgeable and loving.”
Tommy R., Columbia, South Carolina
Download your free copy of our “Sedona Guide to Spiritual Retreats” or “Sedona Guide to Couples Retreats”
Our free guide shows you how a private retreat in Sedona that is completely customized for you can transform your life or your relationship. Click here
Did you know that the latest studies are showing that shorter, more intense work outs are actually better for you?
I’m going to tell you about 2 exercise workouts that are very short. One is 7 minutes and my favorite involves 1 minute of intense activity and then I’m going to tell you about the work out which I do.
But then I’m going to talk to you about the real point of all of this — we’ve been told all our lives to be more and do more so that we could have more. But scientists are showing that doing exercise the way most people do it can actually be harmful and that less is more. And when we have balance (intensity intervals balanced with rest intervals) we have greater health and better results.
I keep on finding that this is so true in every area of our lives. Doing more is not the answer. Balance is the answer. The combination of intensity and rest is the answer.
When you discover those secrets, all areas of your life fall into place. And your physical body is the perfect reflection of that.
Isn’t that wonderful news? We really don’t have to work as hard as we’ve been told. Doing less actually gets us more!
What I love that’s happened in the last few years is how scientists are discovering that we can get really fit by spending much less time and not only that, working out too much can actually be unhealthy. That’s because when we work out, cortisol levels are raised. Cortistol is the hormone that can keep you fat (among lots of other negative things). When it’s elevated too much and over too long a period of time, it actually increases your likelihood of producing more fat and holding onto it. So if you’re working out like a maniac everyday, you’re probably keeping your cortisol levels raised. And doing too much exercise like that, might be keeping you fat, or preventing you from losing as much weight as you want. It’s so ironic!
So let’s get back to the short work outs. These are intense, interval work outs, meaning you go “all out” and then have intervals of rest. And at the end I’ll tell you about the weird work out that I do.
1. Exercising for an intense 1 min. In a great article in the New York Times, they report on a study from McMaster University in Ontario, Canada. The subjects did 10 minutes of riding on stationary bikes — they warmed up for 2 minutes, did three 20-second “all out” intervals, followed by two minutes of slow easy pedaling, then cooled down for 3 minutes. A total of 10 minutes with one minute being really intense. After 6 weeks, everyone had lost weight, but most significant were the health improvements — endurance increased by 12%, all had healthier blood pressure and blood sugar levels and higher levels of mitochondria (more mitochondria mean better endurance and fitness). One minute (embedded in 10 minutes overall), increased their health significantly. And you can do this with anything (walking, running), not just a bike. It’s the combination of intensity and rest that makes the difference.
2. 7 Minutes. This one is from the American College of Sports Medicine’s Health & Fitness Journal, also reported in the NY Times. This is 12 exercises where all you need is a chair and a wall. It includes things like jumping jacks, push ups, running in place, etc.). You can find the specific exercises by Googling “7 Minute Workout” and there is even an app! There is also a new Advanced version that involves using a set of dumbbells.
For everyone who was tested they had increased cardiovascular health, increased stamina and endurance and decreased appetite! The article says the work out results in “many of the fitness benefits of prolonged endurance training but in much less time”.
The key is to do each one for 30 seconds “all out”, with a 10 second rest between each one. It’s really important to do them in the correct order and to have the intensity and then the rest.
Again, it’s so ironic. Scientists have found that the rest intervals are just as important as the “all out” intervals, because your body and muscles need to “catch their breath”. It’s the balance that creates the positive effects.
3. Here’s What I Do. One of the things you have to understand about me is that until 6 years ago, I battled my weight and did every diet out there and all types of crazy exercising. When I was “good” I would lose weight and then the minute I even started to think about eating “regular” food again, I would gain it all back and more. Sound familiar? Everything completely changed for me about 6 years ago and I talk about it at length in my book “The Journey to Happy” which is coming out soon. I dropped 40 pounds in less than 5 weeks without diet or exercise and went from a size 14 to a size 6. And part of what I discovered is that less is more.
I now hike once a week with my dog (and my friend Susan and her dog) and every 10 days I do a work out with my trainer that consists of 5 exercises and takes 25 minutes. The exercises are standard weight lifting ones – bench press, dead lift, leg press, etc. I do each one holding it for 5 seconds. Weight keeps getting added until I reach failure. Typically with each session I’m increasing the weight by 5 pounds.
Because I’ve been doing this for over 5 years (and because it’s held for only 5 seconds), I’ve gotten to some amazing weights for a woman of my size — 720 pounds for leg press, I’m deadlifting 330 pounds, and bench pressing 160 pounds. But the best part is the way I look and feel.
Here’s why this works. To increase muscle mass, you need to take the muscle to failure and then let it recover. It takes 10 days for the muscle to fully recover. That’s why doing the same weight lifting workouts and doing lots of reps and doing it 3 times per week doesn’t work and isn’t giving people results. They aren’t allowing their muscles to fully recover.
This picture was taken last October, so you can see the results. I don’t work out 3 times per week, I work out once every 10 days for 25 minutes — it still amazes me. And I don’t have big muscles, I don’t want big muscles. I’ve increased my lean muscle mass and I know that is one of the reasons I’m not fat anymore.
I stopped the crazy exercising I was doing and got better results. I brought more balance into my life. I work smarter, not harder.
It reminds me of how things have changed in doing spiritual healing work. When I really got back on my spiritual path in the 1990’s, I was going to a lot of workshops where they were saying that it would take years and years of deep, hard work to have any kind of real healing happen. They explained that it had taken years and years to get me to the messed up state I was in, so it was going to take years and years to get me out of it.
I believed it. That made sense to the rational part of my mind.
And then something happened right after the turn of the century. I started coming to Sedona in 1999. For three years I was coming for a month at a time and each time I came I would do one or two healing sessions with the different practitioners that I was finding. I suddenly figured out in 2002 that doing intense healing work combined with rest and integration was allowing me to have huge transformations. And that’s how Sedona Soul Adventures was born.
People now accomplish in 3 days what it took me 3 years to do (I’m not stupid, it just took me a while to figure this out!). There is an energy on the planet now that I believe is speeding everything up. It feels to me like the transformational energies of Sedona are getting even more intense.
One of the ways I see this demonstrated is by the incredible transformations that individuals and couples have here in just 3 or 4 days. It’s astounding.
Just as you can transform your physical health with less effort than you might have thought, it doesn’t take years to transform your life or your relationship. You can do it in a matter of days! Isn’t that fabulous news?
We’re able to do it because we custom design the retreat for exactly what you need. I used to go to workshops and maybe 10% of it was really helpful, sometimes as much as 25%. But the workshop never dealt with exactly what I needed and of course it couldn’t, it was designed to help a whole range of people, not just me. When I started working in private sessions with the amazing healers in Sedona, that’s when everything started to change for me.
If you’d like to experience that kind of transformation, contact us. Talk to one of our Angel Guides. They’ll connect with you (or both of you, if it’s a couple) in deep conversation, really getting at what’s going on, what’s happening, and what you want to happen. Then they’ll design the perfect retreat of private sessions with Sedona’s most amazing and experienced healers that will bring you into the life or relationship of your dreams.
As I always say, “If you knew what could happen, you’d be calling right now”.
And by the way, our Angel Guides are available to you on Sundays!
Click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you. Or if you’d prefer, call us toll free at 1-877-204-3664 (US and Canada). For our friends outside the US and Canada call 01 928-204-5988 or click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you.
Wishing you a week of less (which will lead to more!),
Debra
Debra Stangl / Founder
Sedona Soul Adventures – Transforming Lives One Soul At A Time
(877) 204-3664
https://sedonasouladventures.com
Dori says she got more from her 3 day Soul Adventure than from “2 years of weekly therapy”.
“I can say without any qualms that I got more assistance and much needed guidance from my Soul Adventure than I’ve had with 2 years of weekly therapy. My soul and spirit were broken and lost…but gratefully the sessions (and the vortexes) replaced the darkness with light and opened my eyes, heart and soul. I have regained my own inner power-in actuality it is stronger than ever. Thank you, Debra, for being such a caring, warm and loving Angel Guide.”
Dori K., Los Angeles, California
Download your free copy of our “Sedona Guide to Spiritual Retreats” or “Sedona Guide to Couples Retreats”
Our free guide will answer lots of your questions and shows you how a private retreat in Sedona that is completely customized for you can transform your life or your relationship. Click here
Did you know you have a built in GPS system that can tell you in every moment whether or not you’re on the right path?
It’s your emotions. And the best part is that you have access to this information and feedback all the time.
Your emotions are like a natural navigation system. Your spirit will continue to find ways to speak to you until you take notice and listen.
As I write in my upcoming book, The Journey to Happy (available soon!),
“In every moment, our emotions are telling us how we’re feeling, how we’re flowing energy, and how we’re vibrating.
Although these ideas may seem complicated, they’re really very simple. We are either feeling good, or we are feeling bad. It’s pretty much as simple as that. We have all of these names for emotions. We have ones that have been labeled “good” – happiness, joy, bliss, contentment, or peace – and we have ones that have been labeled “bad” – anger, depression, frustration, rage, worry, anxiety, ennui, or despondency.
In every moment, we have the ability to move toward good feelings or bad feelings. Good feelings move us into energetic vibrations that bring us the things we want – happiness, contentment, peace, and joy. Negative feelings take us in the opposite direction.”
We all know when something feels good. Yet, we second-guess ourselves when it comes to getting signals about what is not working.
So many of us continue to deny that we know what is best for us when it comes to our health, our relationships, our finances and our career path.
Don’t discount your emotions — they are the easiest way to take stock of what is working and what is not working in your life.
Feelings of disconnection, discord and discontent are sure signs that your awareness is shifting and your soul is undergoing an awakening. You can either do something about it now, or wait until things get worse (because they always get worse).
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired?
Are you in a dead-end relationship, but too afraid to end it for fear of being alone?
Do you hate your job but stay in it because you don’t know exactly what you should be doing?
Is your money situation driving you crazy? Are you doing anything to change it?
Just as a GPS tells you when you are off course (“at the next intersection, make a legal U turn”), you can trust your emotions to do the same.
At Sedona Soul Adventures, we believe that everything hidden, sooner or later, comes into awareness for healing and release.
Major, permanent shifts can occur quickly and with relative ease. We have seen it happen for thousands of Soul Adventurers, and we would love to see it happen for you.
Is it time to make a U turn? Real and lasting change actually is possible, but you have to take the first step. Contact us and speak to an Angel Guide. They’ll connect with you (or both of you if it’s a couple) in deep conversation to determine exactly where you are and where you want to be; then they’ll custom design the perfect retreat that will bring you the life or the relationship you’re craving.
Click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you. Or if you’d prefer, call us toll free at 1-877-204-3664 (US and Canada). For our friends outside the US and Canada call 01 928-204-5988 or click here and one of our Angel Guides will call you.
Wishing you a week filled with lots of emotions,
Debra
Debra Stangl / Founder
Sedona Soul Adventures – Transforming Lives One Soul At A Time
(877) 204-3664
https://sedonasouladventures.com
Debbie says her “life changing” Soul Adventure brought her a “newfound happiness and contentment”
“My Sedona Soul Adventure was awesome, majestic and wonderful. It really brought me to a newfound happiness and contentment inside – something I haven’t had for quite awhile. Prior to my trip I really could not say “I deserve to be happy and I love myself”. Now I do not have a problem with that – thanks to all that led me on my journey. This is an experience that should not be passed up on – it can change your life.”
Debbie R., Bartlett, Illinois
Download your free copy of our “Sedona Guide to Spiritual Retreats” or “Sedona Guide to Couples Retreats”
Get answers to all your questions about our private, customized retreats. Click here