High Vibe Times

Hello Dear Ones,

  Welcome to our new High Vibration Times newsletter, a distillation of all the spirit, soul, heart, mind, and multi-dimensional techniques I’ve been playing around with over the last few months. This will be a place for me to share key spiritual news and tools, supplementing the new Sisterhood section of our La DoubleJ website, a packed library of vibration-raising videos.

It’s also a sidekick to our new Sisterhood Academy, an offering of online classes and workshops. Our first series, an 8-class course on "Finding your Inner Light in Shadow Season," just completed last week. You can find the recordings HERE (and more on them below). 

In spiritual terms, Shadow Season refers both to a Yin period during the winter months as well as themes of inner work or transformation. While everyone in spiritual circles these days loves to call themselves a “light worker” - light being just another term for “consciousness” - I have a real soft spot for the darkness. That can sound scary or witchy (in a bad way), but the darkness within is in fact a very fertile, receptive and wisdom-packed refuge in your subconscious.

Essentially Shadow Work is the courageous confrontation of the parts of yourself that you reject, detest or don’t want to come to terms with (they are quite literally, shoved under the mattress of your consciousness and living in the dark). Most people run from the shadow— so why am I encouraging you to jump into the pits? Because underneath the piles of your own burning inner density and dark scary slop, lie the keys to your inner kingdom: your gifts are there, your deepest desires and needs.  Quite non-intuitively, the shadow is the doorway to your greatest light and all it wishes for is your attention, acknowledgement and kindness.

The dark months of winter are a prime time to dive into this consciousness nitty gritty as the earth is quite literally experiencing her own seasonal death. You may have noticed how the collapse of nature’s life and the lack of sunlight may have occasionally triggered your own feelings of “Jesus, get me off the planet now, please.”  All of this is actually helpful. It gives us the kick in the pants to ‘go there.’ While winter is a fabulously fertile place to get stuck into this spiritually shady space, there are many, many tools and techniques that can help you access and care for your shadow no matter the season. Some of my favorites are below, offered by the Big Sisters --a collective of healers that I personally adore and recommend to you (their shadow classes are HERE, but also check out the many other free videos they offer on our practice page). And, for a quickie intro, try THIS VIDEO where I give a shadow overview.

One of the fastest rocket ships into shadow land is removing all your daily distractions (junk food, alcohol, compulsive exercise, phones/social media, Netflix, busy-ness) that are covering up how you actually feel. I came face to face with the inner dark angel during my recent 16-day panchakarma treatment in India. Panchakarma is an intense Ayurvedic detox protocol that yanked me off of coffee, sugar, alcohol, and gluten, and had me drinking medicated ghee and rubbed in orange, herby oils for 4 hours daily. It sounds idyllic, but was not: the stillness, loneliness, and bad yoga (in India??!), coupled with the removal of all my beloved attachments, sent me spinning. And guess what? That was a good thing! I had quite a few psychic deaths, peeled off what felt like the crust of 14 past lives, not to mention the goopy insides of my intestines. I came back to Milan and continued clean eating for 55 days. Honestly, I didn’t love my retreat, Carnoustie in Kerala (fake luxury, no heart), and next time will pick one of the places that friends have recommended, below. But you don’t need to go to India to try these techniques—see our “Spiritual Toolkit” at the end of the newsletter. 

Most of us avoid our anger at all costs, but the trick is to cultivate intimacy and privacy with your rage. There is truly nothing more satisfying than getting up close and personal with your anger and letting it rip through your body, just the way it wants to. Harmanjot Kaur, a fantastic Kundalini teacher in Los Angeles, is someone I have screamed and stomped with on the shores of Malibu, just us two wild women roaring out our pain. You should check out her kundalini classes online (the exercises are potent energy shifters) and her excellent detox protocols. For an example of how to roll, spin and stomp with your pissed-off-parts, try this video HERE.   
INSTAGRAM: @harmanjotkaur

Practicing stillness is one of the fastest ways to find your shadows. Literally, once you stop moving your body and mind, all the truth comes pouring out. As this can sometimes be overwhelming, a practice of deep relaxation like Yoga Nidra can be of powerful assistance. Iris, our Big Sister captain here in Milan, offers a beautiful, safe container from which to explore the state between sleep and consciousness. This video is an excellent practice for rebalancing your nervous system and can also help if you have trouble falling asleep. 
INSTAGRAM: @irisfromthesky

There are so many kinds of breathwork out there: please try them all and find the one that works best for you, as there is no better or faster way to clear mind, body, and spirit. A great case in point is a session with our dear friend Federica, an intuitive guide and breathwork coach who specializes in Rebirthing Breathwork. She combines pranayama (the calming method used in the yogic tradition) with circular breathing (the more intense form done lying down), along with meditative visualizations, spiritual psychology, and affirmations. For a taste of her work and how it can help your shadow work, click here.
INSTAGRAM: @byfedericaferro

Jobi is a dear friend, sister, and talented teacher of the wise ways of water. I have spent many bathing moments with her, including a six-month period of guided visualizations we did together while both soaking in our tubs, connected by the link of a zoom from Milan to Los Angeles. Her voice is buttery soft and with it, she guides people into the intrinsic power of coming back to the body, inside the safe cocoon of warm water, which mimics our first delicious, homey container, the womb. For a powerful, relaxing experience that blends water with sound, jump into your tub and play this video.
INSTAGRAM: @byiamsefari

While the practices above focus on body and mind, Claudia offers something altogether more spiritual. In fact, her specialty is channeling the frequency and wisdom of the Enlightened Masters, an assembly of non-physical light beings with very high consciousness. Claudia has hosted countless workshops in our Milan store grotta and she is one of my favorite 5-D friends. In this video, she takes us on a galactic journey to Alycon, the powerful energetic center of the Pleiades star system, where we are given a specific protocol on how to confront, care for, and gently release pent-up or blocked shadows within us. No matter what your religious or spiritual beliefs are, this is a meditation for anyone who wishes to open their heart.
INSTAGRAM: @navone_claudia

Our dear friend Dee has a doctorate in medical Qi Gong and is a trained high priestess in several different wisdom traditions including Gnostic, Celtic as well as the Ancient Egyptian mystery school. In the latter’s mystical tradition, the shadow body, known as The Khaibit, is an actual form of one’s consciousness that can be engaged, spoken to and worked with to become a profound inner ally. In this practice HERE, Dee takes us on one of her deep and powerful guided visualizations to meet the Khaibit inside our physical body and to release any energetic or spiritual aspects of it that are no longer necessary.
INSTAGRAM: @awakeningthedivine

Want more tools to crack the Shadow Season nut? This month’s kit is focused on the books that I go back to time and again to reconnect with, sort out or shake up my shadow. This recap also includes many of the reading resources that our Big Sisters recommended during our shadow course so you have everything in one place.

1. "Owning Your Own Shadow" by Robert A. Johnson
2. "No Bad Parts" by Richard Schwartz
3. “When Things Fall Apart” - Pema Chodron
4. “Existential Kink: Unmask Your Shadow and Embrace Your Power” by Carolyn Elliott   
5. "Goddesses in Every Woman" by Jean Shinoda Bolen  
6. “Between Heaven and Earth” by Efrem Korngold and Harriet Beinfield   
7. "The Heroine's Journey" by Maureen Murdoch
8. “Teachings on Love” by Thich Nhat Hanh 
9. “Inward” by Yung Pueblo
10.“Staying Healthy With the Seasons” by Elson M. Haas
11.“Tao: the Watercourse Way” by Alan Watts
12."Somatic Internal Family Systems Therapy" by Susan McConnel

Do you want deep dive with Panchakarma? If you’re feeling ready to hightail it to India, below is a list of local places vetted by friends that specialize in the treatment.  

Kalari Kovilakom, Kerala
CGH Earth Ayurveda, Kerala
Sitaram Retreat, Kerala
Ananda In the Himalayas, Uttarakhand
 Mountain Top Clinic, Tamil Nadu
Sivananda (various locations). 

The goddess of Ayurvedic healing is Maya Tiwari, whose book The Path of Practice is the best primer on overall healing protocols. If you want to focus on food and recipes, two books that kept kept my sanity through Covid are Kate O’Donnel’s Everyday Ayurveda Cooking for a Calm, Clear Mind and Emily Glaser’s Ayurveda for Women. 

You should be, because here’s some of what you get—access to our Healer Book on our website, videos from The Big Sisters, our global guidance council, and our full calendar of upcoming events and activations, both in-person and online (like our digital Sisterhood Academy!)

Jobi is leading an intimate, six-day healing arts immersion in Hydra where five women will be invited to explore embodiment and expression at the intersection of memory and dreams. Email jobi@iamsefari.com to learn more. 
Dates: June 10 - 16
INSTAGRAM: @iamsefari

Ayurvedic pioneer Maya Tiwari (mentioned above) is launching a new book! In “I am Shakti” she introduces a new perspective of the primordial Shiva-Shakti energy, the universal masculine-feminine largesse that generates harmony, balance and nourishment for life. 

LAUNCHING: Spring 2025