How Does Reiki Heal Me?
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I came across this article that I thought might answer some questions you might have about how Reiki works to heal the body. What have your Reiki experiences been like?
http://earthweareone.com/how-does-reiki-heal-me/
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Energy In, Energy Out
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In meditation, and in everyday life, what we bring in, we put out. Sometimes, in order to make a necessary change, we must work from the opposite direction by putting out what we want to bring in. So, is meditation alone enough to break a cycle of negativity or bring about positive change? Yes and no.
Yes, meditation and focused intentions will take you places, and quickly. But, no, in order to maintain clarity and progress in moving forward to a permanent change, we must support our intentions with conscious actions to combat the inner circumstances in the subconscious that continually allow negativity and hardship back into our deepest places.
How we talk to ourselves and think to ourselves is very powerful. If we allow ourselves to obsess over our inadequacies, we may be allowing fear to dictate our actions. When we speak negatively, we feel more negative, and continue with long term negative thinking. Likewise, speaking positively and keeping our thoughts positive makes us feel positive.
If not reigned in, or kept in check, we may find ourselves unintentionally speaking harshly to others or calling ourselves names, like stupid, or useless, etc, when we are in a negative head space. Allowing that indulgence into a negative state of being can quickly manifest as our words. Applied to ourselves in thought or speech, it is a very damaging practice to our inner selves, and is a definite confidence destroyer.
As silly as it may sound, engaging in intentional, internal, and positive self talk, as well as outside thoughts and intentions, can make all the difference between temporary progress and a true progressive leap forward in our personal development. In this way, we become right with ourselves.
It is important to recognize that experiencing negative thoughts and feelings is completely natural. It’s how we deal with this unpleasantness that determines our success in dealing with disappointment and frustration. Assuming our problems aren’t clinical, we may be able to reason past these difficult and unpleasant situations by simply finding a positive angle to them, or understanding a hidden meaning that had been long eluded us through similar scenarios in the past.
When I am present in the moment and realize that I’m engaging in negative self talk, I immediately stop what I’m doing and breathe deeply to get clarity. Then I begin to say or think the opposite to myself or look for a better way of expressing my feelings of that moment so that I’m not assigning blame or engaging in self mockery in regards my experience.
I often remind myself that my feelings are natural and absolutely valid, and that I don’t have to remain in that mindset. This has helped me more than anything to self soothe, move on quickly from negativity, and get back to happiness, my preferred state of being. It’s easy to learn, and just takes practice. Luckily for us all, life presents no shortage of opportunity to do just that.
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Breathing Meditation: Introduction
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Meditation is a very versatile concept. There are as many benefits to the body as there are ways to meditate. One of my favorites is breathing meditation.
Breathing meditation is one of the easiest to learn, and can take a lifetime to fully master. One of the first things I remember hearing from my meditation instructors was, “You’ve probably been breathing wrong most of your life. Infants know how to breathe, but the moment we learn to talk is the moment we forget our breath.”
The first aspect of breathing meditation is simply paying attention to how we breathe. In through the nose, out through the mouth, as deeply and as slowly as you can. Some like to pause between each inhale and exhale.
Take notice of the sensations experienced during each breath. Pay attention to the feeling of air rushing past the tiny hairs inside your nasal passages, the microcosm equivalent of wind through grass in a meadow. Make mental note of feeling the air rush down the throat and into the lungs, slowly filling them up to capacity.
As you exhale, touch the tip of your tongue to the back of your front teeth and notice the sensation of your lungs releasing the toxins in your body with the letting go of each breath. Make note of the air rushing past the sides of your tongue on its way out, past the lips, and out to the world.
With these actions, we remain present in the breath, and not consumed with the problems in our lives. This simple meditation can be expanded with counts for each breath, mantras, or focused intentions.
How do you feel about your breath? Try this meditation out for the days, and see what you think about it. You may find you want to make it a regular part of your daily routine.
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Bring Your Dreams To Life!
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Everyone has a dream or wish for themselves that they believe is, or at least at one time believed was, unattainable, unrealistic – completely out of reach. Yet most never let go of their big idea, and even fewer finally act on it.
I’m here to tell you that nothing you can see yourself doing, living, or achieving will ever happen if you never take any action to complete that vision, no matter how much you believe in it. I’ll also tell you that if you can dream it, you can be it and you can live it. And it isn’t as simple as writing down what you want or making a vision board, and then, *poof*, suddenly everything you ever wanted is right in your lap, either.
What it takes is all of the best motivational tools, and then some, in the right combination – believing it, seeing it clearly, formulating a plan of action, actually taking the actions as opportunity allows, and recognizing success as it occurs throughout the journey. Without recognition of success, you can’t realize progress, or keep momentum up.
One of the most challenging aspects of coaching is client accountability. Even the most detailed of action plans are completely useless if a client cannot seem to bring themselves to actually take any actions toward their desired outcome. When that happens, we review the situation and work to isolate what the real obstacle is so we can shift our focus to resolving it before continuing on with their action plan.
During this review process, clients often comes to terms with a long standing behavior that is no longer useful to them. Once that issue has been fully addressed, most find they can’t wait to get back on the metaphorical horse and continue with the ride in to the future they designed.
These people, regular folks, just like you and me, are most likely to succeed, because they have let go of the self-imposed limitations that had deterred their success in the past. Some even decide that they have more work to do in order to have what they want, and subsequently make changes or add to their action plan.
When we move past our limiting beliefs, we open ourselves to a different perception of the reality we’re living, and that is why we are able to live what we dream when we are willing to do the work in the form of action to make it happen.
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Walking Meditations
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There are countless ways to meditate, and several that incorporate movement as a component of the act. Probably the most basic, and one of the most beneficial to your body, mind, and spirit, is walking meditation.
Walking, just by itself, had amazing health benefits. It’s already a function of every day life for most of us, and yet, most of us take it completely for granted, even when we intentionally go for a fitness walk. Especially if your fitness walking is done at a gym on a treadmill with a TV flickering in front of you.
As it happens, there are several ways to engage in walking meditation. Some like to take a journey through a labyrinth. Most of them are outdoors. Some have a set plan to stop at various points around the labyrinth, some are just for walking through at your own pace. But all of them inspire relaxation and forward movement.
Sometimes just a simple walk with no intention at all can give us clarity. The rhythm of breath, the pumping of oxygen rich blood through the body, and the feel of air rushing past or faces as we move our bodies also releases endorphins that help us feel relief from whatever is bothering is our weighing on our minds. Even with no thought to how we go about it, we benefit from the act of walking.
Now let’s consider how much more we can benefit from walking with focus and purpose. At a labyrinth, there is usually a person or sign or pamphlet explaining the origins and traditional methods intended for and encouraged to the walkers to take a guided journey on their way through.
Though, there is usually no restriction or set rule that states one cannot simply walk for their own intention. Each labyrinth is somewhat unique, so no two journeys would ever be the same. In that way, every labyrinth experience is unique to the individual walking.
Beyond walking with purpose, there is walking with the sole intention of emptying the mind. The most basic walking meditation involves counting steps with each breath. As you inhale, count how many steps it takes to become full, then exhale for the same amount of steps. As you continue the process, challenge yourself to take one more step before you’re full up or empty. As you bring the walk to a close, give a few minutes to slow your steps while keeping the same step counts. By the end, you should feel relaxed and invigorated.
Now, let’s go beyond breathing. Let’s say that you’ve mastered the art of breathing with your steps enough that your body knows what to do. Next is to be present in the moment to connect with the action of movement as you have each step.
When you fill your mind with the details of physical awareness, you don’t have time to focus on your stressful problems at work or with your relationships or any other circumstances. Here, in this place, you are one with the all. You notice the sensation of your heel lifting from the ground, and the pressure of your step shifting up through side of your foot and up to the ball and toes, then the absence of the step as you lift and move forward to begin the process again.
At some point, you begin to pay attention to both feet at the same time, aware of your dual presence in the exercise. Eventually, if walking meditation is practiced enough, you begin to be present and aware of all of the bodily movements associated with walking. Whenever you catch yourself thinking about anything other than the walk, simply redirect your attention back to the task at hand.
When present in a walking meditation, there’s no time to think about looming financial obligations or problems at home or at work. It gives you better circulation with great cardio benefits for the body, and the blessing of a rested and healing state to a recharged mind and spirit.
Enjoy your walking!
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Peace Begins Within
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We live in a world that largely runs on perpetuation of fear, anger, and greed by world powers and the general media. Beyond all of that, there is an undercurrent that continually runs in opposition to those ideals.
A constant flow of positive energy in the form of love, compassion, and healing intentions, is steadily building within the human race. But is that enough to change the world? Many people proclaim to promote peace. Then when confronted with situations or people that inspire negativity, some of them succumb to their lower selves and become angry or reactionary. True peace is only possible if we take the responsibility personally.
When we are at peace, living in the moment, more will follow. I believe the starting point is ourselves – being responsible for our inner peace, and sharing that part of ourselves with the world. A simple mantra I like to use, especially during times of high stress or difficult situations, is “Let peace begin with me”. I use it when I do walking meditations while walking my dog. It leads my thoughts to discovering ways I can remain present in the moment and not rise to anger or fear. I like it.
Examining past behaviors in search of healthier or more positive and peaceful reactions to a variety of scenarios is a healthy exercise, personally responsible exercise, and has helped me remain more mindful and be better equipped to share and express peace, love, and compassion more often then not.
I’m not perfect at it yet, and that’s okay. It takes time to undo life long conditioning, even when you do it consciously. The goal is to continue moving forward, not stagnating, and striving to realize the best of our potential.
Let peace begin with me: let me not rise to inappropriate anger, succumb to primal fear, nor react carelessly or thoughtlessly in relations with other sentient beings. Let peace begin with me: may it inspire others to find, and express, peace to others. Let peace begin with me.
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Finding Wholeness
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One of the most important things about understanding ourselves is finding that which allows us perceive our Selves as whole and complete. When we can see ourselves in this way, we begin to understand our potential, as individuals, and as part of the human race.
Whenever I begin working with someone new, the first thing I listen for is how my client views their strengths and weaknesses. How much time do they spend taking about them, what is the general attitude toward them, and what have they attempted in an effort to understand them more fully in the past?
When I ask my clients to describe an action that takes them out of their comfort zone, and what stops them from taking that action, the most common response is an indication of a deep fear that their weaknesses are more influential to their decision making and success than their strengths.
I believe that this is a product of continual and somewhat unintentional conditioning practices from our parents and teachers to us, from early childhood on, of bringing more attention to our flaws than our merits. This brings up adults who are always questioning their worth, or the value of their contributions to society.
It forces a great deal of negative internal dialogue to take place about things such as continual worry that a single mistake could have such a large effect that it could harm customers or clients, or when our flaws will manifest in such a way that they will outweigh our strengths and cost us our jobs, or worse, an entire career.
Such fears are generally irrational and unfounded in reality, and yet, these fears drive our decisions to stay within our established limitations, manifesting fears into reality, and keeping us from successfully moving forward. For those who have decided they can no longer live within these ideas, the hardest part of shifting their thinking of not knowing where our how to start.
I believe that the only way to make real changes in thinking is to focus on the positive aspects of our being. We are all very familiar, too familiar in fact, with the flaws we all have. Through continual conditioning, most of us have not been taught to really focus our attention to our strengths and flaws in such a way that allows us to feel wholeness within ourselves.
When we’re encouraged to accept our strengths as challenges to maintain, we immediately send a subconscious message to ourselves that our strengths are barely enough, and that we should fear personal flaws, because it is in the flaws that we fail to show the full effect of the strengths we possess. After all, those flaws keep us held back, right?
To that, I say no, absolutely not. I feel that focusing on our strengths as an undeniable fact, rather than our flaws being the only undeniable facts, we can then look at our flaws as what they are, which are simply a challenge to overcome, integrate, or change the perceptions of.
In this way, we can expand our comfort zones to accept more possibilities, more opportunities, and an find that we are, in fact, whole and complete sentient beings. When we find wholeness within ourselves, we learn to focus on our strengths and perceive our flaws as challenges to overcome, rather than to focus on our flaws, and perceive our strengths as challenges to maintain.
When we are whole, we know our strengths are more than good enough, they are as they should be, and possibly could be refined over time with wisdom through experience. When we are whole, our flaws are not what define us, buy merely that which propels us into forward action.
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Gratitude: Secret To Happiness
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How are gratitude and happiness related? Happiness itself can seem like a tricky thing to define, let alone experience. However, I do believe that we can choose to live in a happiness state of being. And the secret to that starts with gratitude. Let’s break it down.
Express Gratitude
When we express gratitude, it can take many forms. Maybe we’ll give a gift to someone who’s helped us or someone we care about. Perhaps we volunteer time or donate possessions to charitable causes. Some of us will help someone in a personal way, maybe even a stranger, with no expectations of anything in return. No matter what it is, when we express gratitude, we feel uplifted.
Practice Kindness
To practice kindness is to show our best selves to those who may not be at their own best. Yes, when others are low or vulnerable, a kind word or gesture may give them hope to carry on. Kindness needs to be practiced, and often. When we are kind to others, we see more kindness in the world around us.
The more we live by example, the more likely others will follow suit. But we cannot stop with just a handful of kind actions. We must practice kindness every day, in as many ways a we can. It contributes to positive energy out in the world, and comes back to us many times over. Any act of kindness you choose to perform is worth it, even if it’s only a kind word.
Spread Cheer
Ever notice how a simple smile can start a chain reaction of smiles in others? Or how a fit of giggles inspire more giggles – even if we don’t understand what inspired the originator? Spreading cheer is easily supported by kindness and smiles. It takes but a small moment to spread cheer, and cheer is good for any time of year (hint: don’t save up all your cheer the the holiday season).
Savor Joy
If you’ve started your day with gratitude, practiced kindness, and spread cheer, you have opened your heart to beautiful and universal delights of joy. When we recognize a joy filled moment, it is best to savor it. Taking a mental record of the sights, scents, and beings in our presence that contribute to the joy of a moment can reate a beautiful memory that can be recalled at a later time.
When we understand joy, we experience a state of being based in happiness. Choosing happiness as our preferred state of being crates a cycle of positivity. So begin with gratitude, and end with joy. This is one way we choose to be happy.
At the end of the day, we are simple humans, doing our best to navigate our mortal experience. When things go wrong for us, or circumstances out of our control bring about difficulty and strife, it can be incredibly hard to find that attitude of gratitude. On days when we find gratitude more difficult to achieve, memories we’ve recorded of joy filled moments can be just the remedy to turn our attention back to where we want to be.
To express even simple appreciation for those joy filled moments is an expression of gratitude that can begin the cycle again and again. How will you let gratitude being you to happiness this week, and every day?
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Gratitude: Express it now!
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So often in life we keep things to ourselves that we later wish we hadn’t. Gratitude is no exception.
For some of us, this is no problem, as we find we express most things without much difficulty. But many of us find it very difficult to say things like “I love you”, “Please forgive me”, and “I’m sorry”.
What happens when we feel gratitude but keep it to ourselves? And what are we afraid of? Maybe it’s a case of feeling embarrassed, unworthy, or a burden. Or perhaps we were given help when we’d refused the initial offer for it when truly needed, and were given the assistance anyway. Pride and stubbornness can make navigation of these situations tricky.
Whatever the reason, when we feel gratitude, but don’t express it, it is the same thing as wrapping a gift or writing a letter that we never intend to give. It is wasted if kept to ourselves, and a lost opportunity for both parties to feel good about the situation.
How hard is it to express gratitude? That depends entirely on our ability to put down down our ego, admit to vulnerability, and acknowledge the divine in others. If we are unable to do so with those who serve us, we can and should express it by paying it forward and serving sometime else.
Thank you for reading! Have a beautiful day!
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Gratitude: Having Enough
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Leading up to thanksgiving, I was looking over what sorts of things we can write about being thankful. What I discovered is that the magic word isn’t “thankful”, it’s “grateful”, which means the difference in gratitude is understanding that what you have is enough.
“Thanks” is something we say almost as an afterthought. Some of us say grace before a meal, some of us say thank you after a transaction, and other times that lack passion and real feeling, because “thanks” is more of a polite habit than anything else in modern languages. It indicates that you have what you need and you move quickly on.
The difference in the concept of “gratitude”, in my mind, is that one of the requirements of practicing gratitude is pause for consideration for what you’ve done, have, and received. To be thankful is to acknowledge that you’ve got an immediate need accomplished. To be grateful is to acknowledge that you’ve thought long and hard about all that makes your life possible, and see the reality that on going needs are being met, then demonstrating it by helping others when you can. What you have right now is enough.
With so much talk about the massive exodus to shopping malls and outlet stores, and retailers everywhere happening just a week from now, why not sit down and ask yourself, “Do I really need a new top that badly? Is my coffee maker really just fine? Do we really need another TV/special toy/appliance/nick-nack item?”
How can we truly express our gratitude when we are always looking for the next thing, waiting for that next paycheck, or otherwise constantly worrying about the future? Gratitude is being good with the present and appreciating the past that brought us there.
Please, do me a favor. Take just 5 minutes every day to reflect on all of the different ways that you are blessed. Really look up close and feel the awesome weight of those blessings. Then, if you have any chances to help others, do it. Because helping others is an expression of gratitude. Not because you pity, but because you know how they feel. And when they say thank you, encourage them to help someone else when they’re able.
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