Meet Marne Skusa

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marne Skusa a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marne, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?

That is a really big question with many events and stories to support. Let’s start with one of the very beginning—the fact that I was born into a very repressive religion. They work hard at denying it, but it was, and remains, undeniably a cult. I attended religious activities five days a week, not including our two nights of at-home family Bible study. So really, seven days a week, I was being fed beliefs that I accepted for many years, because everyone wants to trust their community and family.

Around my teenage years, things began to feel off, and rebelliousness started to bubble up. Senior year, I turned 18 years old and was excommunicated from the religion. After that, not a single person I had ever known would talk to me—or even look at me. A few months after my excommunication, I was in the grocery store and saw an adult from the religion I had known for nine years. They looked at me, turned their grocery cart around, and walked the other way. That is the energy I was surrounded by: isolation, rejection, and disconnection. I lost everyone and everything I had ever known in what felt like a blink of an eye. And it really was honestly. I went to the meeting (church) everyone greeted me and chatted beforehand as usual, an Elder announced from the podium halfway through that I had been disfellowshipped, and afterwards not a soul would talk to me.

Soon after I moved in with my non-religious boyfriend. I didn’t participate in a graduation ceremony with my family and loved ones. My parents and brother refused to speak to me. Those formative years ignited a fire in me that, now some twenty years later, I can zoom out and recognize as necessary for my soul’s path. My soul’s purpose. That resilience was birthed and will never leave. I’ve had many, many more challenges to further build my resilience and grit, along with blind faith, trust, and patience.

At 41 years old I feel as if I’m just getting started on my journey. I’ve had visions of what I’m meant to contribute and how I can serve the collective and Mother Earth that I’m not sure how I’ll get there except for one foot in front of the other. Our greatest challenges, adversaries, and aggressors are, on a soul level, our greatest teachers. They are the very experiences we’ve asked for in our journey here—lessons that guide, teach, and shape us. So I want to say thank you. Thank you to my suppressors, aggressors, and transgressors for helping my soul grow in surmountable ways.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

So many exciting things are happening these days! Life has been moving so quickly, here comes the Age of Aquarius! My skills and gifts of channeling and energy healing have been growing and expanding rapidly, and I’ve noticed many friends and clients are rapidly growing in their own spiritual ways as well. There are so many goals for myself and Prajna Den in the coming years—goals I would love to share at a later time ha! Always reminding myself: mountains are moved one stone at a time.

Currently, I have a sweet little studio, Prajna Den, located in the charming downtown of Excelsior, MN, just two blocks from Lake Minnetonka. I feel so lucky and deeply grateful to have this space. I have a few offerings including Quantum Massage Ceremonies, Akashic Ceremonies, one-on-one channeling, Pranic Energy healing, retreats, and private or small group yoga sessions.

-Quantum Massage Ceremonies (in-person) are a combination of Quantum healing, Pranic energy healing, full-body therapeutic and Ashiatsu (barefoot) massage, and some intuitive channeling.

-Akashic Ceremonies (can be done virtually) help heal anxiety, PTSD, chronic illness. You can meet yourself in past or future timelines. Meet your guides and spirit team. You can also bring in your soul’s natural gifts and powers and manifestations.

I’m very passionate about organizing and facilitating retreats and workshops. There are so many incredible healers I love connecting with, and I feel called to bring them together to share their gifts with those who can benefit from their skills. The next retreat is a New Year’s Retreat based on connection. This retreat is about connecting to yourself, your community, and the energy of the New Year. How do we stay grounded and connected amidst the chaos of our world?

It is a one-day part retreat/part workshop.
Sunday, January 19, 2025
1:00 PM – 5:00 PM

The retreat will feature an amazing astrologer I’ve had the privilege of working with for several years. She will explore the energies of 2025 and provide each participant with their own natal chart to review. We’ll also have a very gifted breathwork coach, who is also an Authentic Relating practitioner, guiding us to connect deeply with our breath and our community.

In addition, we’ll experience somatic movement, sound healing—and, of course, organic snacks and refreshments! The more space we create to hold ourselves, the more we can hold for others. We all have the desire to be seen, held, and understood. This retreat will help in aligning with those needs.

Registration is now open at www.prajnaden.com/events

I can’t wait to share this experience with you! Sign up for my newsletter for upcoming events.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1. Curiosity
2. Gratitude
3. Acceptance

Stay curious! If a teacher (or anyone) tells you a subject or area of study doesn’t matter, I take it as a sign to look deeper into that subject. Ask questions. Who is benefiting from a system? Why are so many people sick in the United States? Why does mythology align from all over the world from vastly different cultures and time periods? Why do you feel sick to your stomach when you go to work or go home or spend time with certain groups of people?

We are often taught to fear answers, but it is the answers that can lead you to ultimate freedom and happiness. Curiosity empowers you to dig deeper, challenge assumptions, and uncover truths that can transform your life.

Gratitude is one of the most powerful emotions to embrace. It is transformative and can shift low vibrational states into higher ones almost instantly. We are co-creators of our worlds, and when we choose to express gratitude, we start to see our surroundings shift. Try it! I absolutely guarantee positive results. Every day write down 11 things you are grateful for. At times it may be things such as : I am grateful for a warm bed to sleep in. I am grateful for running water that I can access at any time. I am grateful for my breath. Or go deeper: I am grateful for the abundance of joy my community brings to my life. Get creative! Write everyday for one month and watch magic start to unfold in your life.

Acceptance can be one of the most freeing things you embrace on your journey. Sometimes, the hardest thing is to simply accept where you are right now. Stop fighting the life you wish you had, or dwelling on the past: If only I’d done this differently… If only I were born there, with that family… If only that terrible thing hadn’t happened to me. You are NOT a victim. Everything in your life your soul has asked to experience. That may sound harsh but it is the truth. And empowering really. You have the power to change your life. Accept where you are and what your life has looked life. There are lessons in EVERYTHING. What have you learned or gained from the challenges you’ve faced? What wisdom did they bring?

Take a breath. You are alive and that is a beautiful thing! The biggest obstacle to achieving the goals you dream about is yourself. This is part of everyones soul journey, how to get out of our own way and allow the manifestation energy from Source to flow freely. Surrender to the present moment. Trust. You are on your journey, and it’s unfolding perfectly in its own time.

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?

Feeling overwhelmed is such a common feeling in our fast paced result driven society.

There are many tools to help relieve these dense, heavy feelings. I share them often with my clients and in my retreats. The reasons for feeling overwhelmed can vary greatly, but one of the core reasons people feel overwhelmed is because they feel isolated and that it’s all up to them. I was a single parent in school full time with little to no support, still am a 100% single parent. Yes it IS all up to me to care and provide for my child and myself, but at the same time it is not. We are CO-creators of our world. Meaning there is more than just you at work. We are working alongside something much bigger than ourselves. Let the Universe, Mother Earth, Source, whatever you believe in, take the weight from you. One of my favorite books Super Attractor by Gabrielle Bernstein speaks on this. I’ve read that book three times and given out several copies to friends, and even had a copy of it in my studio. It is a game changer and was the guidance I needed to take my life in another direction. Truth is everything happens for your highest good. Keep trusting in something bigger. Let go of control of every detail and let the Universe move the unseeable mountains for you. Doesn’t that feel good?

Practical steps:
Breath! How you breath is how you live. When your heart starts to pace and your shoulders are up to your ears: breath. Slow conscious breathing slows down your heart beat and regulates your nervous system. You’re not going to end world hunger with that heart rate!

Movement. This is crucial. Energy and emotions become stored in our body. There are three layers of fascia that keep our body held together. It’s now believed that even without our bones we could still stand up and keep our body frame due to fascia! The top layer is right underneath the skin that covers from the soles of your feet to around your skull, like a giant spiderweb. The second layer surrounds the muscles and nerves. And the innermost layer of fascia goes deep inside holding your organs together. I tell you this because fascia is more than just physically holding us together.

Not only does fascia connects surround the nerves it also connectes to the nervous system. Meaning- it is directly affected by our emotional states and stores related tension. Fascia holds trauma: traumatic experiences can be “stored” within the body manifesting as physical tension and discomfort, even when the conscious memory of the event may be suppressed; essentially, the body holds the “energy” of the trauma until it can be processed and released. Fascia can become tight and restricted, leading to muscle tension, pain, and limited movement. Thus MOVEMENT keeps the fascia pliable and gel like and releases emotions and assists in regulating the nervous system!

Actionable step: with feet grounded hip length apart, gently bring some bounce into your knees and ankles, moving up into your hips and low back. Making larger bounces allow the bounce to flow up into your shoulders and neck, and arms. Shake your arms, your head. Shake and bounce intuitively. Mentally visualize whatever stressors or pains you have shaking off of you. Do this several times a time. It is an easy and profound reset.

Stayed hydrated with clean drinking water!!

Journal. I already mentioned the gratitude exercise. Write down whats bothering you. Write down your dreams of the night and dreams of your future. There’s something magical that happens when we take pen to the paper.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

The first six images :

MJM Branding and events
www.mjmbrandingandevents.com

Last 8th image:

Geoffrey William
www.geoffreywilliam.com

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