I feel like I've hidden something from you all... and that's the fact I actually have a "day to day" job that isn't truly within the new age realm.

Yes. That's right I am a Flight Director as well! Whoo now that I got that off my chest let me explain. I have a job that allows me the space and time to follow my passion career of being a Reiki healer, Young Living Distributor and a passionate yogi. Though in fairness traveling is one of passions as well and I believe this is a strong reason why with all the frustrations of having a “normal job” has kept me from launching myself into my passion career full heartedly. I still love the thrill of going to new and exciting places, as well as my drive for change loves the constant movement being a flight director has. The flexibility I have and the amount I work, works swimmingly with my schedule as well as making sure that I'm financially supported to live in one of the most expensive city’s in Canada, Vancouver.

The reason I'm writing this blog today is for those who ask "but how do I in my daily grind job bring in my spiritual practice?" Which is a lot easier and not as complicated as you might think. As any good yogi would know the practice isn’t only when you are on your mat but when you are off. To best start this off I'm going to write a day as a spiritual leader (leading by example always) who has a day job and what it looks like for me. Now before I begin yes I understand that being a flight attendant isn’t a conventional desk job but these practices can be used at any point as long as you make space for them no matter what profession you’ve immersed yourself in. Even if you don’t have a normal job and are already living you're dream this might be a great little remind on how to live your highest potential in your day to day!

To make this as beneficial as possible ill be writing it as if I have a pairing (all airline lingo I'll be using will be at the bottom of this post) and will be flying out for a few days. With a couple different scenarios that I sneak in my spiritual practices!

Getting started
Now first and foremost before I go out on any flights I make sure to set the intention for that day or week that I’ll be flying. So at home before leaving and starting my day I’ll usually have a nice quiet morning with a nice warm cup of coffee from my French press, followed by either sitting on the couch or in my healing room. Before getting too cozy I pull out an Oracle or Tarot deck that I'm drawn to, or even a bunch depending on how I'm feeling or what i'm being drawn to pull! Knocking the center or the cards to clear the deck I ask them to guide me into my intention setting and what to expect during the week I'm away. Then begin shuffling, cutting the deck into 3 separate piles, with the left hand bring them back into one deck, and pulling as many cards as I'm intuitively guided (what feel right for you). Once done I usually keep the first card out and set that as the main card for the center of it all, thanking the cards and guidance after i'm finished. Now if I have enough time I’ll usually meditate and practice some self reflection, though if I don’t get to it I never make myself feel guilty for not.

Next up breakfast, and this will also apply for all food/meals. Annnnd before I go on about the importance of healthy eating I want to let you know please keep this as a reminder that everything in moderation. Cause honestly as I'm writing this i’m half way through a bag of mini eggs...damn Easter time! Thankfully within today’s age the importance of health has been making waves with people tired of being sick, and overweight. With flight attendants all these things are more susceptible . Dealing with jet lag, being crammed in a plane full of coughing sneezing 300 odd passengers with re-circling air and a plane that gets the bare min of cleaning before it has to be up in the air again. As for the keeping you're figure as a flight attendant well the high levels of sleep deprivation, long/odd hours, harder times being able to make it to the gym, eating at a regular time, and the amount of coffee running through us too deal with difficult passengers with a smile on of course...well lets just say it’s more then a challenge. More like almost impossible sounding right? Now this is where the importance of a healthy breakfast and any food that you put into your body comes in.

When I think of my body and what it goes through during my week of flying the most important thing I can do for my temple is eat as best as I can always. Choosing healthy whole food that will sustain me for long hours. Sometimes though hard healthy making decisions happen. For instance if you’ve ever flown out of Regina airport at 4am and try and find a healthy start to your breakfast might be hard with only a Tim Hortons open with a few options I try my best to choose the thing that will cause my body less grief (As I’m lactose sensitive, don’t eat pork or beef, and gluten irritates my skin but not completely off my list) Usually left with the egg English muffin no cheese, and for veg well I guess hash browns will have to do! I always think work with what is being presented and make the best out as you can. As long as your consciously making choices that are the most beneficial to your health with whats put in front of you its all that matters. Thus when I pack for my week longs I try my best to bring nuts, plant based protein bars, gluten free oatmeal packs and pick up bananas wherever I can, and anytime you have the veg option I get that salad!

Now before heading out the door here are some essential Spiritual tools that I make sure are in my bag and more then welcome to have them on the desk as well! :

Small Bag of mixed crystals- usually one for each chakra (in case I feel ones out of balanced during my pairing)
One Oracle or Tarot deck- Because cards are life.
Book(s)- usually on topics of self help, Reiki, aromatherapy, love novel (Gotta keep the fantasy land rolling!) Then my workout book, and Vijnana training manual for yoga.
Laptop- yes I'm adding this into my Spiritual essentials as writing for me is a big part of my spiritual practice, and lately if I don’t have my laptop with me when I get an itch to blog I become a little restless.
Essential oils- Oh gawd yes essential oils... I feel like I'll be writing the importance of essentials in my life and spirituality in my next blog post. But for now they come with me because of there benefits for body, mind, and soul on planes, aiding with sleep, and health.
Travel Diffuser- To humidify in dry places such as the prairies, and diffuse my essential oils in rooms that feel or smell stuffy.
Candle- I bring a small candle with me and light it whenever I’m in meditation and pray usually occupied the oracle deck I've chose and crystal from my baggy. Making a make shift altar. I also use it for self care baths. (Fun fact: matches are best to travel with because they don’t have to go in your liquids bag)

Slow Breath In, Long Breath Out.
Alight I'm finally packed up and on route to the airport and am on the bus, taxi or train taking my 45min commute. This is usually another time I like to practice tuning in and focusing on relaxing and my breath. Now if I can do this without one person sitting next to me asking “Oh where are you going?”, “Which airline do you work for?”, Or my fave “Is this your usual route?” Life would be grand! But this isn’t always what happens so before getting upset for disrupting my quiet time before I'm on a plane with 300 people asking me the same thing, I breathe. At any point that I am dealing with people when I'm not yet in the right mindset I breathe. Simple as three deep inhales in and 3 slow exhales out. This allows me to practice patience and compassion for all those around me, which is always possible in every situation. Now if I'm able to have a peaceful quiet ride this is where balance and prepare quietly by closing my eyes, putting my head phones in and taking the time to re-center and balance myself. Taking that time to acknowledge and be in gratitude for my job, my home, my family, friends, and for the work I get to do and even better paid for. This is an amazing time to pull your head away from your phone and give gratitude to all that life has to offer, to breath, and simply be.

Keep Learning
Now we’ll do a little fast forward onto the plane after takeoff here and after services are done as this part is as standard as my job gets. Though continuing to practice patience, compassion for all, listening to my intuition, breathing to keep calm and focused with passengers or crew when anything arises. On top of following my intention for the flight I set out at the beginning of the day.

On our long-haul flight say from Vancouver to London England its about an 9.5-hour flight, let's just say we have a few hours to kill, just a few now. After catching up with all the other flight attendants, latest news in the airline, drinking our 4th coffee to stay awake, and doing a few laps around the cabin possibly cropping dusting a few times, sorry but yes its true it might not be that passenger in front of you but the lovely flight attendant you asked if you wanted sugar with your coffee. Hehe! (Note try and avoid flatulent foods ei. Chickpeas on flights you’ll end up so bloated that when you get on the ground again you swear you were 5 months pregnant!) This is where I'll whipe out my book, and continue self-studying. Best kind of knowledge is knowing that there is always more knowledge to learn, test, and apply with yourself.

While others or even yourself find yourself trying to pass the time playing TenTen or Candycrush Apps, why not fill your time learning more about yourself, this world, how the mind works, or anything that peeks your interest? When I was becoming a Vijnana yoga Instructor self study was one of the 4 main pillars of Vijnana. Without this constant thirst for new information too challenge our values, beliefs or upbringings how can we grow, heal and evolve as a whole. I promise being up to learn new things is just a spiritual practice as meditation is.

Self Care
Now once we’ve landed and have said the last good bye to our passengers, we're back on the bus to take the hotel or resort. This is where I begin planning my self care time! With having to deal with passengers, stress of getting planes out for an on-time departure, flight attendant dramas/sleep deprivation selves, and other factors that challenge ourselves self care is mandatory. So first and foremost did you know that sleep is as much a spiritual practice as any other? Without a good nights rest our bodies have a hard time to switch from the sympathetic nervous system to the parasympathetic nervous system, the fight to flight modes. Sleep allows are bodies to rest, recharge, and allow us to digest properly.

My layovers are usually filled with the following, depending on how much time I have I try to achieve at least one of self care rituals:

Bath- I usually make my on Epson salt bath mixtures infused with dried herbs and flowers, as well as essential oils that I feel will be best for my pairing. But if not go treat yourself to a nice Bath Bomb!
Make your own 1 Time Travel Bath Soak
1 Zip Lock bag (easy to fold and takes less room after use)
1Cup Epson salts
1/2 cup Baking soda (though sometimes I omit this, but it does make your skin softer)
10-15 drops of essential oils (10 drops lavender, 5 drops peppermint, and 3 drops Marjoram is my new fave for a muscle relaxing and night time blend)
Face Masks (100% naturals as best I can)
Yoga
Exercise (currently in love with bodyboss method! 3x a week HIIT program that I can do in my hotel room!)
Diffusing my essential oils with my travel diffuser- purifies and adds beautiful clearing scents in the sometimes not best smelling resort rooms.
Eating healthy (Or as best you can but hey if that buffet desert is calling don't hesitate to get your noms on! Though is it just me or they all taste the same?)

Honestly self care is so important that you can't forget that you can't help others, or deal with stressful situations without first taking care of yourself and making sure to receive.

Take the Time
Next up my small bit on prayer and meditation. I feel like I'll have to come back to this section for it's own blog post as I'm constantly informing more and more people of the power of meditation and asking for what you want from the universe. As for how I bring it into my job life well, there is a few ways. Usually after I've pulled my oracle cards of the day I will try and sit for a minimum of 20mins. After meditation time is done always take a few mins afterwards to just sit quietly and observe. Obverse the mind, the quality of your breath, the sensation in your body, just observe. Then if you'd like write down your experience, if you choose too.

As for prayer, well I like saving my big conquests to new moons and occasionally full moons for asking what i'd like out from this life. Now don't get me wrong on more then a few occasions I've been caught manifesting when my heart and soul were so convinced that its what I wanted I've ended up receiving from the universe when the moons weren't "aligned". Which hey sometimes works great! For instance, while watching Netflix Outlander and the sexy Sottish Jamie Fraser steals your heart you proclaim with a bag of chips in hand, burrito-d in a blanket on the couch mid day "I want a sexy Irish/Scottish Man to sweep me off my feet"(I wish I was joking about this bit, legit exactly what happened). Then 2 weeks later, hello sexy Irish man of my dreams (accent and all!) texting me for a date, and now current boyfriend! Though at times not so good for instance asking for more abundance because you broke. But the Universe being so giving, halfway through one of my pairings get drafted for another flight but I will make more money because of compensation and more hours added on to my routing. Which great for money, but not good when you might have had two days down south and now you only have 10hours! No more tanning! To conclude, prayer works the best when your soul and heart are completely behind what you're asking for with unwavering faith that you'll receive it. Also new moons are like just magic makers so add some extra asking in on those nights! Don't be scared to ask for exactly what you want but always leave a little room for some universe flares to be added!

Retreat
Lastly retreating, aka vacation time! Now I've done a few different types of these and all have been exactly what I needed at that time. Whether it was a spiritual vision quest in Sedona, Yoga retreat on the BC Islands, or a relationship bonding trip to Ireland they all have/will revitalized my soul. So listen to your intuition, follow the signs presented, and trust what you're receiving is right on how to take your vaca! Yes now even we as flight directors/attendants get the "well you guys seem like you're always on vacation why would you need one!" I'm not going to lie there are a lot of perks to our jobs when it comes to travel, but I promise you, at least for me any ways. I love when I land at home(Vancouver) after a week of flying and not going anywhere. Just think how you wake, grab your coffee to go, get to work, sit at the desk for 8 hours, get back home, eat socialize, then finally rest and get back at it the next day. It's the same for us except the fact where we put are heads to rest in other locations, and occasionally have a beach for our view. But flying and traveling as a flight attendant and traveling as a spiritual seeker or human soul even is of vast differences that can't even compare. When going to work on the plane its a germ filled tube, full of people who are ready to complain about X, Y, and Z. To when you're a relaxed traveler it's your magic carpet and everyone is coming along the journey with you to wonderland! Your mindset is in two different modes.

Why it's important to retreat and go on vacation is to get you out of your routine. Allowing the brain to rewire it's self. When we're taken out of a regular routine we're forced to be more open and creative with the world in front of us. Becoming more willing to step out of your comfort zone in new places because our child like wonder returns. We get to explore ourselves again and have different conversations with different people, on top of trying new food, discovering what you need from life more by seeing what is available. No wonder when you come back from a retreat or traveling you feel like a new person. The biggest spiritual practice out of this is taking all that you learnt on your time away and how to apply it to your "routine". Maybe by eating more veggie dishes in your weeks like from your yoga retreat because it might have made you feel lighter. Or to be open and compassionate to that coworker you get annoyed at because you learnt that they have a story that lead them to be a little tougher on the outside, like you'd learnt from chatting with a random on the streets of Mexico. So please allow yourself to vacation, retreat, or get away. I promise you your soul will thank you.

Do What Makes you Feel Light
At the end of the day my lovelies, the biggest thing I can say that will make your spiritual practice a successful one in a sometimes mundane world is do something you love whether your job, your relationships, or health. Take the time to tune into your soul on how to elevate it, what ever makes you light chase that! For your work, you will spend almost 85% of your life at work, and whats the point of working for something you’re not passionate about. If you're job isn't what lights you but allows you the flexibility and time to follow your passions and dreams then even better! If you're already in what makes you light then keep at it beautiful soul, you've got this! And maybe it's time to share with others on how you did it? I've shared with you my spiritual practices with my day to day job and hope you found some helpful tips in here, and if not maybe just a nice read into the life as spiritual leader and my daily grind!

Hopefully see ya'll one day either on my Reiki table or in the air!
Peace n' love,

The White Witch!

Airline Lingo
Pairing- A row of flights and layovers over a period of 2 or more days (including and not limited to days off in other destinations that aren’t home base.
Deadheading- Still “working” as a flight attendant but not in uniform and sitting as a passenger in a passenger seat. Either your own carrier or another, usually to get a crew to a destination for future flights.
Layovers- When you're stationed in a destination for a period of time to do rest, relax, eat, shower, tour, ext.
Turns- Example Vancouver to Mexico and back to Vancouver in the same day. (No Layover)
Jetlag- Because who needs sleep when you leave home in the afternoon and after 9hours of flying its morning where you land and you gotta get to the shops before they close...Primark I tell ya!
Drafted- Getting called by Crew Scheduling mid pairing and having your original flights or layovers changed last minuet, which you weren't originally scheduled for.