Refund? No thanks :)

Someone close to me recently said, gosh you've really changed! You'll be wearing tie-dyed clothes soon and walking around barefoot! I laughed, but he was semi-serious - he wanted to know....where did 'all this' come from?

It made me reflect on my journey, and how much calmer and serene I feel (always a work in progress though!). The fact that I've been consciously inviting more joy and fun into my life - no longer taking it quite as serious as before - crikey, I was so tightly strung at times! Also, how my truth and outlook on life is now so incredibly different to what it was a few years ago.

I sat and jotted down my journey, and it really intrigued me - and I thought it would make a good blog or, at the very least, a record I could revert back to :)

My leap of faith into fitness...

So where to begin....in my late 20s I started running; a mile turned into two, into three and before I knew it I was running up to 10 or so miles with relative ease. I loved it, it could be a challenge, but I knew that if I didn't get my quota of weekly runs in I would start to feel pretty stressed and I think that's because when I faced challenging times, it was my escape. I called it my 'anti-depression' medication, which was a little tongue in cheek, but looking back I couldn't have been more spot on.

Alongside my running, I have love going on hikes with my partner. Fitness, nature and quality time together - it ticked a lot of boxes! So when I was told by my doctor to stop running for medical reasons, albeit temporarily, my hiking became even more important.

Our hikes took us up many mountains, which I loved - but I always had an irrational but very real fear of falling - and this began to hinder our enjoyment.

The Hypnotherapist's parting gifts...

So....I decided to go and see a Hypnotherapist, which was a lovely experience in itself. After a few sessions I was sent on my way - not having really tested my fear properly, but I did at least feel more in control.

The Hypnotherapist gave me two parting gifts - which have been instrumental in my journey.

Gift One: She told me to watch a 5 minute video. This was all about water particles and how they react to both negativity and positivity, (a visual as to how negative self talk harmed me).

"Humans are 70% water" she said to me...."remember that!"

I watched the video with interest, it was a totally new concept to me, but I heeded the message she had wanted me to take on board - to be conscious of my negative self-talk.

Gift Two: The second piece of advice was to watch 'The Secret'. I actually had bought the book years before, not because I had any idea what it was about - I thought it was a novel! - but simply because I am an avid reader. However, strangely it was one of the few books I never managed to 'get into it'; and despite starting it a few times, I had no idea of what it was about - I ended up giving it away to charity.

So I was intrigued about this one....what on earth was "The Secret"??

Cup of tea in hand, I sat down to watch it. The idea was that we create our reality through our thoughts - it was an interesting concept but I didn't really believe it! It was big on the Law of Attraction, that you can manifest anything - Mmmmmmm this was getting a little too much for my brain to handle...but what I did like was the positivity.

The participants truly believed that you direct your life with your thoughts anyway you wish - from obtaining material objects, creating wealth beyond your wildest dreams through to one woman's complete faith that she healed her cancer through focussing on happy thoughts along with watching happy, funny progammes and keeping her energies light.

I thought to have that kind of faith was pretty incredible, but it was still a stretch too far for me.

You can take a horse to water....

A person will learn the lessons when they are ready (which could be never), and not before.

At the time, I took what I was able to comprehend from these offerings, which, if I remember correctly, was showing other people the programme and seeing how they construed it. I clearly needed more convincing!

However things started to filter through, slowly.

I started to think about the patterns in peoples' lives. When you are on a 'downer' it seems incredibly easy to attract more negative stuff. Then there is the other type of person who always seemed to 'land on their feet' regardless of what life threw at them. Perhaps there was something in negative attracting more negative, and positive attracting positive? That did feel logical to me.

An earlier lesson, which at the time was a lot of nonsense to me, now was making sense.

A few years earlier, I started participating in triathlons. Having always swam breaststroke, I now needed to learn how to swim front crawl. This was one of the most difficult challenges I have ever faced - I often felt like spitting out my dummy in the pool!

During one of these moments, my swim coach said to me -

"If you believe you can or you believe you can't - you're right".

Whilst this made absolutely no sense to me at the time, it started to come back into my awareness. It is actually Henry Ford's quote - and it makes complete sense to me now!

Ok, let's do this!

I was beginning to realise that I was really in control of what happened to me, I was not a passive bystander in my life, but the instigater - if I chose to be.

Therefore, my next move was to train as a life coach - which involved huge reflection on my own life. Whilst training, and also working with my own life coach, I started unearthing limiting beliefs that I had held onto as my truths. It was pretty eye opening. I was really beginning to see a new truth - that what a person believes in becomes their reality.

Then the lightbulbs really started coming on, when I stumbled onto energy healing!

My journey into the world of holistic energy sealed the deal for me. This is now only my logical truth, but one I feel is already deep rooted inside me. By keeping our energies at the highest frequency that we possibly can we put ourselves in the best position to attract more of the same.

I was changing from a cynical, 'there is so much evil in the world', 'so many bad people' belief to a thought process (belief) that there is so much love in the world, so many good people! This was a huge shift in personal perception - an impossible leap of faith into the unknown - but wow what a wonderful new belief to cultivate. Culling that limiting lifelong programming of negativity isn't easy, but when you decide to take control over this (and let's face it we don't have control over anything apart from our own self) it quite literally changes your world.

I have always been fairly active with a fair amount of energy when I was doing things I loved. But I was always tightly strung and had so much tension in my body, I was anxious much of the time and a huge worrier - letting past and future energies dictate my mood. Combined, this has, I have no doubt, caused my past and current health issues.

Thankfully, with my awareness of my limiting beliefs as well as my energy work - I am so much calmer. I feel what I can only describe as serene inside; and I am able to recognise those pesky negative thoughts and energies creeping in, and stop them.

Training in Reiki, Emotional Freedom Technique and EFT Matrix ReImprinting has opened up a world of possibilities. Sitting alongside psychiatrists and therapists during my training; I was told I was better placed because I didn't try to intellectualise the training. I was comfortable viewing all these issues as different energies in the body, making the work process more simplistic. Whether you agree if this is a good or bad thing, the one thing it does do is create a less traumatic experience for the client - and that has to be a good thing, doesn't it? Perhaps a discussion for another blog.....?

However, my training and experiences have created my believe that focus on energy healing and the holistic whole of a person is vital for all round optimal health. The techniques compliment Western medicine; working alongside they are incredibly powerful.

My love for Reiki...

Personally, Reiki has been life changing for me. The life coaching and training has made me aware of limiting beliefs etc, but my Reiki has helped me to start to really become one with my internal energies, in a gentle and nurturing way. Through my self-Reiki practice, I regularly go into deep relax mode, so my energies can do all their good work. I also feel very connected now - to everyone and everything, which brings a peacefulness and serenity to me that I cannot explain.

If I can help others feel like this, what a worthwhile mission!

When I now watch the video about Dr Masaru's water experiment - I strive to be fluffy and sparkly - in my mind there is no other option!

No refunds here...!

So a great big thank you to my fear of falling and the Hypnotherapist.

Side note: sometimes you don't get what you expect to get from a situation - I still cannot traverse a specific part of a mountain for fear of falling! and my coming down a mountain is still very very painful - for my partner to watch I mean!

However, what I gained from my sessions with her, I don't think I'll be asking for a refund!

If you want to know more about the holistic techniques I am trained in, click here.