Leaning into My Empathy

Often, I can protect my energy from the effects of others’ emotions. I will distance myself from people important to me when they are struggling if there is nothing that I can do physically to help, in hopes that by distancing myself from their current, low vibrational situations I can more easily hold their truth of ultimate good in my mind and heart for them. Sometimes, it feels important though, to let myself grieve with them.

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Setting Healthy Boundaries in a Healing Practice

Setting healthy boundaries within my practice helps make my business sustainable, keeps me from experiencing burnout, and protects my energy for my own well-being. Without the boundaries I have set, I would not have been able to continue in this line of work. I recommend all practitioners take the time to evaluate their own boundaries often, and make adjustments when needed, to protect their own energy and keep their businesses running smoothly.

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Returning From the State of Flow

When I return to the full power of my physical senses after being in a state of deep spiritual awareness and connection, it is just not a comfortable transition for me. Maybe I need to learn to stay in my body more during the spiritual connection, but at this point in my development, trying to tether myself to my body inhibits that state of flow for me. I have found ways to make the transition less uncomfortable, though.

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My Mission to Spread Hope

As long as I was feeling hopeless and focusing on how rotten my life was, I couldn’t do anything to fix it. It isn’t enough just to tell people to think better thoughts, though. Better thoughts just won’t come when someone is experiencing too much pain. First the pain needs tended to. Responsibility needs to be accepted. Hope needs to be found.

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My Experience Meditating with ADHD

This morning I had an aha moment… perhaps my ADHD diagnosis has something to do with my struggle to stick to a regular meditation routine? I felt a bit silly for not having realized before that the way my brain is wired may well have everything to do with the fact that I find trying to enter stillness for long periods on a schedule next to impossible.

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Take Just One Deep Breath

My favorite practice taught by Eckhart Tolle is that of the One Conscious Breath. Eckhart teaches that practicing mindfulness doesn’t have to be a long and involved process. Just one deep breath is enough to ground us in the present moment and center ourselves in consciousness. One deep breath is enough to interrupt the constant stream of thinking and give our minds a break.

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Do You Ever Stop Thinking?

How often do you take the time to consciously stop the stream of thoughts? It is important to enter a state of no thought often in order to give our minds a break. Some of the benefits of a no-thought practice is that it helps us to ground ourselves in the present, lowers stress, and improves memory and attention span.

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What Can We do to Help Ukraine?

I know what is happening and I don’t deny the reality of it. I don’t try to pretend it isn’t real or try to put a positive spin about lessons being learned on it. It is a horrible reality. I have committed to making financial contributions to Save the Children Ukraine. Beyond giving financially though, my contributions are limited to what I can give energetically.

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When Inspiration to Manifest Fizzles

Have you ever had this happen? You get an idea, and it feels great. You start working on it and you get totally in the flow. Everything is going along and great…. just rolling along… and then all of the sudden it isn’t. The flow has been interrupted. Usually, our own thoughts do the interrupting. Is this as good as I think it is? Maybe this isn’t really a great idea after all. This seems to be taking too long to manifest. Are challenges a sign this is wrong for me? Maybe I should just give up.

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Are Your Desires Aligned with Good?

I took a course by Eckhart Tolle in which he taught of the importance of manifesting from the Spirit rather than the ego. This raises the question of how to tell if one is creating from Spirit or ego. Egos can be pretty tricky. How can be sure that what we wish to create is in alignment with Spirit and not just an egoic desire?

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Telling the Story of a New Year

Instead of making a list, mental or otherwise, of things I want to change and accomplish, I am going to write the story of 2022 as if it has already happened. In order to really align myself with the year I hope to have, I’m going tell in detail how it all will go.

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Scientific Research and Reiki

When it comes to energy healing work, many people are skeptical.  Reiki and other natural modalities are often not accepted as legitimate healing methods.  While there are some people who are willing to take a leap of faith and give Reiki a chance to see for themselves what it can do, others want to know if science can get behind Reiki.  Can Reiki be proven, with scientific experiments, to work?  While the benefits of Reiki have still not been definitively proven by research due to a lack of large scale and long-term studies, there have several small studies that do indicate that there are scientifically measurable benefits. 

In 2017 Professor Maria Kuman, Ph.D. published the study MEASURING REIKI HEALING - MYSTERY, PLACEBO, OR REAL ENERGY HEALING?  Dr. Kuman used a patented High Sensitivity Energy Meter to measure the biofields of both Reiki practitioners and recipients before and after Reiki sessions.  The results showed that only was energy transferred from the hands of the practitioner to the recipients, but that the energy level of both the practitioner and the recipient was raised during the sessions (Kuman, 2017).  This not only gives evidence of Reiki’s ability to raise our vibrations, but also gives the indication that the energy does not come directly from the practitioner but is being channeled from another source. 

Mark S. Rosenbaum, PhD, and Jane Van de Velde, DNP, RN published a study of 150 patients in June of 2016 entitled The Effects of Yoga, Massage, and Reiki on Patient Well-Being at a Cancer Resource Center.  The patients were  asked to rate their personally perceived well-being in the areas of stress, pain, anxiety, mood, overall health, and quality of life before and after receiving services (Mark Rosenbaum, 2016).  Their study found yoga, massage, and Reiki all helped to lower stress and anxiety, improve the mood, and increase the health and quality of life of the patients.  Reiki was found to decrease the pain levels to a greater extent than yoga or massage.   

Most recently, a small study was done by Ann Baldwin PhD, Department of Physiology, University of Arizona, and Reiki Medic-Care to test the effectiveness of Reiki to treat burn-out in healthcare workers during the Covid 19 Pandemic.  The study included 20 female healthcare workers with an 85% retention rate. Distance Reiki was sent to the healthcare workers by licensed and insured Reiki practitioners for 20 minutes a day for four consecutive days.  The research showed that Reiki appeared to be helpful in reducing stress, anxiety, and pain, and in increasing wellbeing of healthcare professionals.

Although these studies were small, the results were promising.  I believe that with the growing acceptance of alternative and complementary healthcare modalities that we will see larger studies confirming these findings in the future. 

Emotional Communication with Your Higher Self

According to Abraham Hicks (channeled by Esther Hicks) we each have a direct line of communication with our higher selves, or as Abraham refers to it, our inner selves that comes in the form of our emotions. The more pleasant our emotions feel, the better aligned we are with our higher self. The more unpleasant our emotions, the more out of alignment we are.

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