All posts tagged: wellness

Year of the High Priestess

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Words by Christina Huntington // Photography by Sarah Prikryl  // Graphic Design by Alex Rice As 2018 continues to unfold, a literal new day is dawning before us. Over the course of human history, most civilizations and wisdom traditions developed ways to measure the fluctuating cycles of time and the unique energy held within each year, giving people tools and insights to best utilize those energies to help them on their own path. Most forms of astrology break up eras according to the twelve signs of the zodiac and their corresponding cosmic constellations. The Chinese Zodiac divides years according to twelve animals along with a corresponding element (fire, wood, water, metal, earth). Numerology assigns every year a number from 1-9, each with its own universal energetic property, derived by adding together the numbers in the year until it reduces down to a single digit. Tarot utilizes the roman numerical Major Arcana cards to distinguish the universal stages of the hero’s journey held within each new year. So, why is any of this important? Because we can harness these annual …

Make Your Life a Love Story!

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Words by Christina Huntington // Photography by Sarah Prikryl // Video by  Sarah Prikryl & Christina Huntington Happy Valentine’s Day!! Sure, it may be a holiday that was made up to sell greeting cards, chocolate hearts and long stemmed roses…but we are always huge fans of any excuse to celebrate and spread more love in the world! But if we’re being totally honest, even just the word “love” can be challenging for a lot of people. We all have different interpretations of what love is from our own history and experience—how we’ve “gotten” it, how we’ve “lost” it and how well we have or have not managed to give it to others and ourselves. Love can also feel like a lot of pressure, inundated since birth with so many versions of what love “should” look like from, let’s face it, not necessarily the best sources. It’s left many people feeling confused about how to love and be loved in a healthy way that leaves us feeling joyful, secure, fulfilled and freely self-expressed. While, oh yeah…also having some fun. This is the simplest guide …

Setting Goals From Your Soul

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Words by Alicia Lipinski of Quietfire Healing // Photography by Sarah Prikryl  //  Featured Photo by Gina Cholick Welcome to February, dear Sirens and Scoundrels! Around this time, you might be revisiting the goals and intentions that you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. You might be congratulating yourself for all the progress that you’ve already made or you might be berating yourself for not having done more or for already falling off the wagon. Or if you’re like me and many of my clients right now, you might see so many things that you want to change, both in your life and the world at large, that you feel paralyzed with fear and indecision and don’t know where to start. There is a very real, biological reason for this. In times of stress or panic, our sympathetic nervous system kicks in, sending our body into fight or flight mode. This response doesn’t require being chased by a bear. It can be triggered by a daily pile-up of stress at work or in your personal …

Your De-stressing Remedy ~ Guided Gratitude Meditation

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No matter what side of the line you stand on, we can all agree it’s been a crazy few weeks for America. We find ourselves in a country incredibly divided, which for many people was shocking in its immediacy. As a meditation coach, I have been hearing non-stop stories of irreparable rifts between friends, loved ones, co-workers and family members that exploded in a seeming instant. Fear, anxiety, sorrow, heartache and anger pervade all over our social media pages and in our conversations as people fight, unfollow and unfriend each other. As a country, we are in a 24-7 argument with ourselves right now. And people are collectively exhausted. To move through this difficult time, it’s important to have some tools to help navigate these choppy waters. Now more than ever, it is vitally important to stay grounded, practice self care and connect to the things that you love to stay in balance and not get swept away in all of the emotional turmoil of the moment. So take your fingers off the keyboard, step …

Just Float ~ Sensory Deprivation Chamber

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Our mission at Sirens & Scoundrels is to go find every cool off-the-beaten-path adventure and bring it back to you so you can try it yourself. As a meditation teacher, I’m always especially curious about anything that promotes increased presence and self-awareness. So what do those things have to do with locking your naked self in a pitch-black soundproof weightless saltwater chamber voluntarily? Well, step inside and let us show you… Sensory deprivation tanks originated back in the 1950’s as a means to research the brain’s dependence—or lack thereof—on external stimuli. What they discovered is that controlled sensory deprivation (the removal of all external stimulation) over short periods of time had the same effects as entering a meditative state—moving from beta or alpha brainwaves into theta waves for deep relaxation. Starting in the 1980’s, centers began providing float tanks to the public seeking their restorative and rejuvenating properties. Over the years, we have heard about several float centers in L.A. But we knew the time had come to dive in with the opening of Just …