His spiritual purpose in life

He is:

Following his spiritual journey

At work in a playground

Phil McKeon has found his place in life -- the Chakra Shack, where

he now works after having traveled the world for three and a half

years.

“I had been studying what I think is called the ‘spirit’s

playground,’ when someone introduced me to the Chakra Shack,” McKeon

said. “I had been with a Lama from Tibet, and I knew it was the place

I needed to be.”

Each place he visited he learned something new, and he found it

destiny that everything in the store related to what he had been

experiencing over the last few years.

“All of the different modalities of healing come together in this

store, Eastern philosophy and Western philosophy,” McKeon said.

“Obviously I felt at home and familiar with my surroundings.’

He explains that everything in the store has an approach to take

one back home and to one’s heart, and that’s pretty much what he felt

when he met the owner Jill Templin.

The key is to follow the heart

“The pieces here are all healing -- the practices and pieces sold

here will lead you back to your heart,” McKeon said. “Right now

everyone needs to find a home. The store offers a way home through

these unsettled times.”

He said that everyone is looking for something outside of

themselves for comfort, and the Chakra Shack offers a place to look

inside and find peace, where one’s heart resides.

“Now is the time to focus inward,” McKeon said. “We have Tibetan

bowls, crystals, fairies, earth energy -- basically balancing heaven

and earth, that’s what we need right now.”

It’s fun what he gets to do, he said. He plays with spirit and

allows others to open their beliefs to play.

“Everything here is about play and joy -- it’s important to allow

a moment for an individual to look within,” McKeon said. “Obviously

I’m a sales person, but that’s not what I feel it is, it is to

experience the healing modalities from around the world.

“I’m learning how to read auras and am checking the chakras for

any imbalances and offering guidance,” McKeon said.

Focused on helping people

People can sign up for a reading, have an aura package -- which is

looking at the representation of one’s chakras -- and participate in

classes and energy healing.

McKeon said that a lot of people don’t know what chakras are. They

are spinning vortex’s that regulate our well being from moment to

moment, he explained.

“Chakras represent our energy patterns, how we carry ourselves in

life,” McKeon said. “Because we are feeling- and emotion-based, and

that’s constantly changing. But tuning into our chakras, we tune into

the instrumentation panel of our soul. That’s how you can tell what

state you’re in.”

There are thousands of chakras in one’s body but there are seven

that deal with the physical body and are known as the major chakras.

“Each of our chakras control a ductless gland that releases

directly into the bloodstream,” McKeon said.”

Part of his job is to assist someone in finding something that

speaks to them, be it a gift or for oneself.

“It could be an aura reading, a psychic reading, books, music,”

McKeon said. “Whatever that spirit presents to them.”

Making the right decisions

When he came from Seattle, McKeon didn’t know he’d be here, he

just listened to his heart.

“It is important to listen to body, mind and spirit,” McKeon said,

“It’s fun because we have these capabilities. We all have them inside

us -- it’s the remembrance of the simplicities of life.”

McKeon was an engineer for 13 years and said he had to learn to

let go of the attachment of knowing everything or trying to know

everything, and to trust his heart because it knows everything.

“I hid myself behind my work as an engineer, not to feel my

feelings,” McKeon said. “The passion of tuning your thoughts to your

heart, that’s when you know you’re in the right place at the right

time.”

He said that the power of being in the moment is key and that most

people are trying to suppress feelings and avoid feeling.

The Chakra Shack carries jewelry, cards, essential oils, incense,

Tibetan and crystal bowls, books, music, unique gifts, tarot,

pendulums and ruins, fountains and chimes and offers classes, aura

and chakra readings, energy healing and psychic readings. It’s open

daily from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is located at 384 Forest Ave., suite

5 in the Lumber Yard Mall. For information, call 715-6930.

-- Story by Suzie Harrison, photo by Mark C. Dustin