With the field I’m in, personal development is ongoing …. it’s not always about professional development…. something that I believe that some organizations lose track of. Even as a teacher, I believed it was necessary to explore new horizons… not necessarily education based.. in order to bring something holistic to our own sense of self.
Currently, I’m revisiting course notes from a few years back as the New Financial Year means making new business goals. Part of this it to review where I have come from and build upon strengths and discover any areas that need work.
One of my challenges is that I have been susceptible to frequent colds …. self analysis came up with needing better winter protocols to avoid infection, which I duly wrote about in a newsletter. But of course, I missed the obvious…..stress reduces immunity and recently there has been a bit of stress in my life.
The last few days have been spent in using hypnotic methods to improve my immune system, regular HeartMath sessions, plenty of vitamins and a nice warm office.
Those of you that know me, know that I enjoy networking….. so when I encountered a new face in the tea room at the office complex where I work…. I got to chatting….. He told me that he used hypnosis/meditation for a style of martial art that he did……
Before I knew it, I discovered that he held in high esteem a man that I had previously worked with. My blood ran cold… my stomach flipped…. I thought I was going to be sick.
My experience with this same person was different… in that moment, I relived the pain, the angst, the sorrow, the anger….. this was the “why” I left teaching. Why I shredded almost a ream of abusive emails….Why I gave up……
I managed to get back to my room and smiled as I turned the page on the manual I was working through…
Choice…..
I chose to quit that job because I no longer wished to be treated like I was.
I chose to quit because I felt unsupported.
As a result of choosing to leave, I retrained as a Hypnotherapist and found another passion to pursue.
I chose to be brave and start my own business.
I chose to forgo an easy salary for other benefits, like meeting some amazing people who choose to make changes in their lives!
I know that I was good at teaching. I know too that I am good at what I do today for my clients….
What a gift that moment in the tea- room was!
Two perceptions of one person – polar opposites!
The eddy of feelings changed in an instant….. why was I hanging on to that pain?
It was a choice … and I have now chosen to no longer need it…….I have survived a heart attack and subsequent surgery and can choose now to be empowered, to have a full life.
I choose to feel gratitude at being here …right now!
Category Archives: Choice
A little soul work
A recent Louise Hay Facebook post suggested that one should take time to ask and explore these simple questions. Having a little time on my hands, as I recovered from the effects of a vaccine reaction, I decided to do this life audit.
What shall I now release from my life?
Fever creates some clarity and what I am now ready to release unhelpful behaviours, such as dwelling on the past – as the saying goes “The past is a country & I don’t live there anymore”. With the suffocating cough, I consulted Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life and found that the probable cause of coughing is
- A desire to bark at the world. “See me! Listen to me!
…. the new thought pattern or affirmation leaps from the page to shout at me……I AM NOTICED AND APPRECIATED IN THE MOST POSITIVE WAYS. I AM LOVED
What or who no longer works for me?
Still in the tribal chakra realms….. What no longer works for me is denying my spiritual, political and core beliefs.
I am ready to accept that there is a higher power and a realm of helpers ..be they guides or angels ….. and with the recent federal election was unable to vote with a clear conscience for either major political party and can now announce I am more aligned with the philosophy of the Greens.
The Who is a little more tricky, but I am ready to let go of many of the people in my life who, although many of whom have been around for 30 plus years, do not exhibit the ability to demonstrate loving or compassionate support when most needed. This includes many members of the family that I married into and was further validated by their complete lack of warmth in welcoming both my son and daughter’s partners into the fold.
What am I holding on to that holds me back?
Old habits die hard…. once a pattern has been established, it is easy to replicate. It is easier to just go with the flow, rather than rock the boat. When you become accustomed to dysfunction, after a while you adapt and it becomes the norm….. Late last week, I did the “right thing” and went to a function even though I was still unwell, that I really didn’t want to go to. Even as I went, my inner voice was chattering away in my ear….”Hypocrite”…..
Another clue is the probable cause from Heal Your Life….
- Respiratory Ailments …. Fear of taking in life fully.
So here I am, living a twilight life because I am holding on to what is comfortable, which in reality is holding me back…
The affirmation or new thought pattern is “I am safe. I love my life”.
Looking back at what I just wrote, the realization dawns that what is holding me back is procrastination. Finding external excuses to justify the inertia of not making the changes. It really is up to me to create the life I love.
What thoughts or beliefs belong to the old me?
Growing up in my own dysfunctional family, there was a strong competitive streak for academic achievement between my brother and myself. Homework time was difficult as he seemed to grasp the Maths so easily and could add long lists of numbers like my father, in his head.
It was easy to believe that I was “not good enough” at Maths, choir, sport and the list goes on. Yet I surprised everyone by getting 100% for a geometry test not long after and was most indignant when it was suggested that I had somehow cheated. I understood the shapes, the sacred geometry and could “see” how it worked, whereas the numbers alone or in algebraic formulas made no sense at all.
Having people around me that don’t believe in me is no longer an option and last week a family member questioned me about the diagnosis of a vaccine reaction. That may not have fitted her belief system, as she has total faith in vaccinations. I need to trust in my gut reactions and create clear boundaries in order to believe in me!!
How am I being unloving to myself?
How cleverly I have manifested excess weight and recent illnesses!!
By being unwell, the cycle of lack of energy and being unfit are ways in which I can be unkind to this physical body.
The last couple of weeks has seen me juicing and the vitality of the fresh fruits and vegetables are helping my body and soul mend. By denying my soul connection to living a more spiritual life, by living out of integrity, I have been harsh and unloving to myself.
Am I ready to let go?
A resounding yes!!! The last few weeks have been like a hibernation… a retreat into a cocoon…. and with spring well and truly in the air, it is time to emerge and let go of the past. Yes, some of the experiences may have defined my perception of the the world, but even as my body is still weak and I am repairing, the spirit feels so much stronger and ready to soar.
What do I believe that really works for me?
It has taken a while, but I am starting to trust in myself, trusting my own judgement. So trusting in the universe a little more often seems like a pretty good idea too!
Looking back, there have been many instances of how things have worked out just OK for me whilst all around is chaos.
This is now the time to trust that the angels, my guides will lead me towards a future that is fulfilling and full of love, laughter and abundance.
What is going on in my life that is terrific and wonderful?
A sense of anticipation with life changes that are happening in so many subtle and wonderful ways.
A new grandchild and observing a new family unit being created with such love, yet seeing them not accepting the dysfunctional behaviours exhibited by cousins that were once close.
A few close and special friends who also have an interest in the spiritual and esoteric check in on me from time to time. New friends with similar ethics have offered to help and whilst this is a little strange, I can learn to be open to their warm and loving ways.
Where am I being very loving to myself?
I am allowing myself time off. Time to sit. To think. To just be. I am going within and having a big spring clean of memories, perceptions and allowing myself time to grieve. Not just for the loss of my father, but the loss of my mother who died in 1999. I went to Perth for the funeral, came back to Melbourne and life just went on and I was surrounded by people who just didn’t seem to care, or who didn’t like any expression of emotion.
Where am I most content?
I have a soul urge to go back to the bush. To have a place where I can just be.
Not the desert, where I am equally comfortable, but a place that has some clear plains, maybe a small rise with some granite boulders and some old, river gums.
Where I can see the sunlight glinting on the half moon, crescent shaped leaves and the textures & colours of the bark. Where I can go outside at night and see the stars.
Let me acknowledge myself for all the growth and change.
What do I want to bring to my life?
Integrity, warmth and understanding and abundance.
What do I want to create?
A life with no further regrets. A life full of laughter, full of genuine friends. A life that contributes in some small way to helping others become who they truly deserve to be.
How do I want the next year to be?
Busy, yet not frantic. With time to enjoy my children’s achievements and accomplishments. A busy, but rewarding Hypnotherapy practice, seeing clients who are looking to heal their past and to realize their soul potential. Time to find that bush block and build a healing sanctuary and labyrinth to walk within.
Who do I want to bring into my world?
Friends and colleagues who are walking on the same spiritual discovery path. Soulmates, soul friends and those who have something to teach and share.
How do I want to look?
I want to look healthy and at peace. Radiating health from within to without.
What image do I want to project?
Having taken off the masks that I wore for so long, there is no longer a need to project an image… that I am now finally comfortable in my own skin, what you see is what you get. I have allowed the colours and tips to grow out of my hair and am comfortable with the grey and white streaks that have appeared. I have earned these stripes!
How healthy do I want to be?
I am ready now to take better care of my health by reducing weight, leaving unhelpful habits in the past. I want to be healthy and fit so as to build my dream and not be exhausted.
How prosperous do I want to feel?
Abundance comes in many ways and financial abundance is high on the list. The last few years have seen some struggles with financial abundance and this has allowed a greater appreciation of the money flow when it happens.
How much love am I willing to experience?
Unlimited, unconditional love!! How big is the universe?
What kind of world do I want to live in?
The ideal world would be a place where there is a sense of peace, a mindfulness and purpose to daily life. Where there is acceptance for difference, equality in relationships and trust that the Universe has enough for all.
Where do I want my spirituality to go?
To follow my soul urge, to create a sacred space that allows myself and others to get in touch with the core beliefs. To accept that others have their religious beliefs and not impinge upon them, yet maintaining my own boundaries as to my beliefs.
Affirm:
I know that where I am is the totality of possibilities . . . not just a few possibilities, but the totality of all creation.
I am not limited by statistics, medical opinions, time, or authorities.
I am one with the infinite wisdom and capabilities of the Universe itself.
All good is available to me, right here and right now.
All I have to do is to use the power of my thoughts to create that which I desire. I know that. Now let me live it!
Work in Progress
It’s been over a month now and apart from learning to live with a left arm and shoulder that has decided not to move so well, I decided to self medicate with a Homeopathic remedy. It took a little while to come to the remedy, but when I did, it was the obvious choice.
No doubt if I had seen my usual homeopath, he would have prescribed it sooner, rather than later.
However after a somewhat unsatisfactory visit to a new GP, I did decide to treat the arm with Acupuncture twice weekly, then weekly with a massage as well.
The Acupuncturist is pleased with the progress, and I have also been doing Self Hypnosis on reducing the pain and looking for the emotional trigger behind it.
Naturally I would prefer the whole thing to sort itself out a lot quicker and it has been an interesting process.
The massages were really helpful and the arm / shoulder moves a lot better after a massage session. I initially had a 90 minute massage with vouchers left over from an exchange of services with a client. Knots in places that I didn’t expect….. What I didn’t expect, was the release of emotion as the tightness eased…..
A fellow Hypnotherapist explained that chronic conditions are the result of long suppressed emotions and if the lid is kept tighly on, eventually the pressure builds up and has to release in any way possible.
So with this in mind, I have decided to continue along the “Alternative Medicine” or Body/Mind/Soul method of treating what the GP has determined is a frozen shoulder.
Having to adjust to sleeping on my right side has had an unusual outcome – whilst I dream every night, since sleeping in a different position, I have had not only what feels like a lighter sleep, but incredibly vivid dreams.
A return of the war dreams and being lost in a myriad of passageways and underground buildings….. of schools that I worked in and people that I have no contact with….. of living in a place that is a mosaic of the different houses and offices that I lived and worked in……and waking with little tags on the inside of my cheeks where I had chewed them during my sleep..
The first indication that a particular homeopathic remedy might be useful.
So back to the books…. Homeopathic books that is…. other symptoms which I had put aside were the sighing, the inability to express the emotion in public and worse for consolation – but able to cry in the office after the last client has left for the day or in the shower.
All pointers to an overlooked, but obvious remedy for grief.
Imagine my surprise when I found that the cramping and shoulder problems were also a symptom covered by this remedy.
By now, if you are familiar with Homeopathy, you will have ascertained the remedy!
Just to check up further on the mental /emotional aspects of the remedy, I consulted my book by Vithoulkas.
His description of the remedy says that it is prescribed 10 to 15 times more for women.
He goes on to describe the woman as “wanting to liberate, assert herself. Sensitivity coupled with romanticism. Ability quick, clever, artistic, women of today. …..she is imposing upon herself the logical conclusions, she will say I must do this, do that : she is capable of performing it. She can do things, so takes a lot of things upon herself, over-working and taking on many more things than she could normally do…. Overstrained, grief, vexation, a frustration in her job and then is a breakdown……Trying to understand what is happening to her. If the shock passes, mostly the body is affected by cramping pains, neuralgias that have no pathological origin, but started from the time of griefe and stress…..”
So am I going to tell you the remedy? No!
Each person is different and what is right for me, may not be for you.
The remedy was taken last night in a 200c potency and the spasms in the arm muscles have eased. It has a duration of 7 days, but if the spasms come back, I will repeat it earlier.
If you do want to find out more about Homeopathic Remedies, how to prescribe, a general guide to some commonly used ones, then I will do a blatant plug for the workshops I teach.
Contact me and we can talk about when and where you can learn more about Homeopathy.
Your regular Naturopath/Homeopath may be grateful that you are doing this as it means that you understand how to take the remedies and what they prescribe is more effective for you.
Belonging…
A sense of belonging to our tribe, our family, our groups is one of our fundamental needs that often is unmet.
I believe we come here for this lifetime for a purpose, to make a difference.
Part of our growth comes from a understanding why we are here and once we have divined our purpose, peace of mind follows.
We may well struggle for some time in finding our purpose and often find ourselves diverted from our intended path.
This path can sometimes be littered with diversions which cause us to take a little longer to discover our purpose, but are still valuable learning experiences. Challenges along the way serve to create the spiritual and emotional breakthroughs that make the journey richer. Becoming accountable to yourself and acknowledging what is important and what is not is yet another challenge that can be overcome.
Learning to use our intuition, that “gut feeling”, aids in our survival. We have forgotten how to use this extra sense – the ancients trusted their intuitive powers and it helped in their survival. When we nurture our intuition, it is an extension of caring for our physical body and can nourish our emotional and spiritual self at the same time. Like a compass, intuition can guide us to the right tribe, family or group – leading us to a more meaningful and purposeful life..
Are you doing what you want?
Life is too short to fit in all the things I would like to do – either I’m going to have to be an active senior or come back again for another lifetime!
Right now, I am doing what I love.
Some writing, some creating, seeing clients for Reiki and Hypnotherapy……& loving it!
Easily distracted by the next, new, bright shiny thing- just like a magpie – has led me on some fascinating journeys.
There is always something interesting to do and have explored many paths, all of which have taken me to exactly where I needed to be at the time and put me in touch with those I needed to meet….
A change in careers is not a problem – I have done it several times and will hopefully keep learning about new things for many more years to come. Nothing like keeping the brain cells active!
There have been times when there hasn’t always been all the money I would have liked to have, but somehow the universe has always provided.
I see people who are profoundly unhappy doing what they think they should in order to please others. See their souls being gradually become drab and listless
….are you doing what you want?
If not – why not?
The wanderer returns home
This is my Dad.
We had our differences when I was growing up and they were pretty full on at times. I left home at 19, but returned annually to catch up with Mum for many years and there was much left unspoken.
Mum died in 1999 and from that year on, Dad travelled over to spend Christmas with my family as my brother went to New Zealand to celebrate the holiday season with his wife’s family.
A bout of bowel cancer slowed him down a little …. and his increasing age, so he decided to sell up his unit in Perth and move to a retirement complex in the outer Melbourne suburbs to be closer to my family.
A difficult decision at 85.
Still a little wary of him, I visited weekly, taking him shopping on a Sunday and we slipped into a routine.
If he needed to go to the doctor, I took him.
The kids liked playing Ludo with him and we shared meals for significant occasions.
Heart attacks, one for him, one for me….
…we muddled along and along the way we became friends… finding that we had similar interests in religion, meditation, reincarnation…..
The kids promised to visit ….and did on occasions, stepping up nobly when we were travelling and taking him out for a special birthday lunch one year.
He turned 90… then 91… it seemed like he was going on forever… then earlier this year, his older brother died, then his sister’s husband. Suddenly he began to talk of the completing this life cycle….he became a little breathless… he fervently completed jumbo crosswords to prove that he wasn’t going senile.. and the chest pains began.
At first I thought it to be a result of greiving for the men he used to know, but the emergency department x-rays showed up what was thought to be pneumonia.
Stubbornly, he insisted he would be alright at home and I assured the doctor I would follow up with the GP.
The tests showed that he had lung cancer.
That was a Thursday. Ever independent, he caught the retirement village bus that afternoon to go and get a haircut and do his shopping.
My brother visited on the Monday, taking some time out from a conference that he was attending, to spend an hour or so with him.
On Tuesday, the pain intensified and an ambulance was called. He spent the afternoon in Emergency and was sent home that evening as he said he didn’t want any intervention.
By the Friday evening of that same week he had been admitted to a hospice for pain management as he was finding it difficult to move from the bed to the bathroom. Still independent, he fell from his bed as he tried to get to the bathroom…
A few days of care and the pain intensified… he hovered between here and the nether worlds….aware of what was happening and telling me about the experience…and on the sixth morning he slipped over to the other side and died peacefully in his sleep……
Taking care of your Etheric self
This may be unintentional or deliberate.
When working with clients and associates, it is important to set an intent to keep yourself safe and healthy.
The Auric Field
The Etheric is the densest and is often a grey/blue bio energy and is associated with the Base Chakra, seen close to the body (about 2-3cm)
The Emotional field will be multi coloured and with each emotion experienced will show up as a
different colour and with its own frequency. It is associated with the 2nd Chakra and your inner feelings and is about 7 -10 cm away from the body.
The Mental field will be seen as a soft yellow/orange colour, more noticeable in people who do intellectual work and is connected to the Solar Plexus Chakra. It extends some 20cm out from the body.
The Heart field is part of the causal realm, where all information and energy passes through, connecting the lower and higher vibrational layers. It is multicoloured, depending on the physical, emotional and mental vibrations and extends up to 30cm out from the physical body. It is connected to the Heart Chakra.
The Etheric blueprint is where we can heal and restore the physical body. The Throat Chakra is linked to it and it will appear as a blue, web like structure some 20-60cm around the body.
The Celestial layer is connected to the Third Eye and allows us to access our intuition and link to client thought and feelings. There is no particular colour, but it appears as light 30-90cm out from the physical body.
The final layer is the Ketheric layer which contains our life plan or soul contracts. It will extend to about a metre out from the body and is linked to the Crown Chakra.
The graphic below explains what is called the “Step Down” of energy.
Under Attack
There are specific removal techniques for each of these as well as general energy treatments such as Polarity Therapy and EMF Balancing Technique – both of which I offer as a therapy.
Sorting it out
If you go looking for the “things that go bump in the night” , you are more likely to find them. You may have noticed that when you are thinking of buying a new car, then you will see that make and model more often than before, because that is where you have focused your attention.
Choice
We all have choices
– as a child these were often made for us, and generally in our best interests, but as an adult, one always has a choice.
Whether we exercise that choice or not is what defines us.
If we are held back by fears from childhood or past experiences, then there comes a time to let these fears go and make life more enjoyable and meaningful.
William Glasser wrote an excellent book “Choice Theory”, on how to choose the life you want to live and stay close to the people you need.
He writes of how we create our own quality worlds and how we are often reluctant to share these with others as we are afraid that we may be ridiculed or criticized.
We have a choice as to whether we will accept that criticism as valid and constructive or to set it aside.
Making choices means taking responsibility for your actions and allowing learnings to take place from the outcomes.
It is necessary to put aside the past, as our memories are notoriously unreliable.
We often create our memories on perceptions of an event. The unconscious mind can even create a “memory” using the imagination.
Using the imagination in a constructive way, we can then choose to reframe our existing and more painful memories in a positive and helpful way, so that we can take charge of our lives in a purposeful and empowered way.