GOING WITH THE FLOW

I've been busy this week, sorting out my diary for the coming year. In 2010 there are going to be another eleven 'Pathways To Wisdom' workshops, at least one Louise Hay weekend workshop, six Reiki Practise Sessions, eight 'Festivals and Feast Days' workshops, the usual Tuesday morning meditation group, maybe an evening one too, if enough people are interested, some more corporate training days, at least one, possibly two Mind, Body and Spirit Fairs... and a partridge in a pear tree as well, no doubt! Oh, and I've got a couple of talks booked in April too...


I was looking at the whole thing and thinking, "When am I going to have time to do the Reiki, EFT and more that I love to do, never mind having a little time for me to chill out and enjoy life?" But as usual, my over-active mind provided the answer on the spot. Just 'go with the flow dear.' After all there's always my Sundays for chilling out in (I like to keep those special just for me to recharge my batteries for the week ahead) and I can have lovely Reiki and do EFT on myself as well as relaxing with a coffee and a good book.


And I always find that when I'm in a calm and relaxed mood, things just seem to go along much more easily. I can never work well when I'm stressed out and rushing around and it always seems like I'm trying to push a cart uphill all the way.


According to Abraham-Hicks what I'm doing when I'm relaxed is 'going with the flow and floating downstream'. Just allowing the current to take me in the right direction. Apprarently most of us are struggling and straining to get to where we want to go because we believe that life has to be hard work and that nothing good is gained without effort. But look at nature. The trees don't struggle to grow, the flowers bloom in their own time and their own way and your vegetables will come up when they're ready. If you try and pick them before they're ready they won't be half as good, if they're edible at all.


Often in life I've found that when I've had to struggle and strain to get something, it hasn't always been the right thing for me. And when I'm going with the flow and enjoying life, I can come up with more good ideas and solutions to my problems than I would have done if my mind was racing round in circles trying to figure things out.


For me it's a matter of trust. Trusting that things will come right in the end and that I'll find the answers to my questions without having to fret and worry about it. Trusting that the Universe will support me and show me the way. Making careful decisions about what opportunities come up for me yes, and thinking them through of course, but taking the easy way round instead of making life so hard for myself. After all, I'm told that nothing I want is upstream and as long as I'm struggling to get upstream I'm wasting my time and my energy. So while my little boat is safely taking me downstream where it wants me to go, I'll go with the flow and be happy!

THE POWER OF NOW

Hello again. It's been another busy week at Rainbows. I've been busy preparing for tomorrow's Meditation Group who are due back for another set before Christmas. And looking at my new diary for 2010 and organising dates for workshops, Reiki Practise Sessions and more. It looks like I'm going to have a very busy year!

And I'm looking to begin another 'Rainbows Guide To...' ebook as well. I don't know what the subject of the book will be yet. I'm looking for ideas, inspiration and suggestions so if you have anything you'd like to see, do comment and let me know.

The workshops, coaching etc. that I do are very much based around 'positive thinking' and I’ve often been asked "How can I be positive when I see what’s going on around me?" "I don’t have health/abundance/money (you fill in what you don’t have)." "What about the ‘reality’ I now face?" "Don’t I have to deal with that?" "How can I be positive in the midst of all that’s happening to me?" And yes, you could claim that I have a ‘Pollyanna’ attitude to everything, declaring that there’s always something positive in everything that happens to us.

Maybe so. I'm not belittling the problems people may be having and ‘facing reality’ is something we all need to do. We can’t just ignore a thing and hope it will go away. We need to deal with whatever needs dealing with on a practical, day-to-day level. But more importantly we can try and understand that (according to the Law of Attraction) the reality we’re currently seeing is a result of our past thinking and beliefs and that the thinking and beliefs we hold now are creating/attracting what will happen to us tomorrow, and the day after that, and the day after that, ad infinitum.

What we’re seeing in our lives now is the outcome of our previous thought patterns. This gives us hope because we can see that if we want to change that outcome then we can do it by beginning to change our thought patterns and beliefs to more supportive and sustaining ones… Now.

Once we’ve dealt with the day-to-day things and determined that we will become more aware of our thoughts and beliefs from now on, what then, can we do to raise our spirits and thereby our circumstances? A favourite trick of mine is to keep photographs around of my lovely family or special holidays etc. For you it might be different. Just choose the best memories you have and focus on those. Perhaps you might like to place a vase of flowers somewhere you can see it if that is what gives you pleasure, or a special ornament. Allow the things you have around you to be things that really lift your spirits and allow you to feel gratitude and happiness. And at least once a day, think of something you have done that really made you feel good (a ‘Kodak’ moment for you) and simply re-live that moment over again.

Another thing you could do is find yourself a nice notebook that appeals to you and begin a 'gratitude' journal in which you record all the things you have that you're grateful for. Think about what's good in your life right now. Sometimes we're so busy with our worries that we can tend to forget just the basic little things that we can be grateful for. If you're reading this, it's because you have your eyesight. If you're listening to music while you're doing it, you have your hearing. If you can stand up and move around, you may be far better off than some. Just focus on what's good about your life right now.

Doing this will put you into a lovely state of mind and give you temporary relief from your problems for a while too. Not only that, your new, positive, more enjoyable thoughts really will be affecting your future, and the results will soon start to show up in your life. And remember, this is the Law of Attraction we’re talking about here. It's a law so it must happen.

Remember, now is the most powerful time there is. We can't rewrite the past or undo what has been done. And the future's, well, in the future. The only time we have is now, so if, despite the problems we now face, we can allow ourselves to become a just little happier today, in this moment, we can then begin to set the stage for a much more enjoyable and fulfilling tomorrow for ourselves.

Sounds like a plan to me!

THE POWER OF WHY

Another busy week for me here at Rainbows. I finally got my 2009 Jersey video uploaded to YouTube. Check out the video bar on the right to see it. And I've been designing some lovely new leaflets for our services too.

And while surfing the Internet recently, looking for inspirational videos, I’ve come across a strange phenomenon. There are many lovely videos out there with the usual breathtakingly beautiful photographs and music on, but instead of the normal ‘I am healthy’, ‘I am rich’ type of affirmations, you would expect to find; there are new words that ask the question ‘Why am I rich?’ ‘Why am I healthy?’

I use affirmations constantly in my work, and they’ve done me a lot of good, both personally and professionally. However, while it is true to say that they work on a general level and that the more you use them the more effective they are, there’s also the problem which I’m sure we all have, of one half of our mind saying "I am healthy" (or wealthy or whatever) and the other half saying "Yeah… Pull the other one!" Is there no wonder, then, that we often fail to achieve our goals?

Yes you can use EFT to help with these 'tail-enders' but a new way of questioning yourself might be useful too...

This new way of phrasing things comes from a completely different viewpoint. So instead of affirming (for example) "I am rich." you would ask, "Why am I rich?" And your conscious, logical, left-brain, which loves problem solving and riddles will immediately begin to try and list the reasons why you are rich. And if you keep asking the question, it will keep on finding even more answers. And there will always be answers...

Give it a try. Even if you don’t feel particularly rich right now, ask yourself "Why am I rich?" and see what you can come up with. My own answers ranged from "I have my health and strength" to "I don’t have to worry where my next meal is coming from." And those answers will keep coming over the next few days or even months. The more you ask the question, the more answers you will receive.

And can you see that in doing this, you are now focusing on the positive instead of the negative? Your mind isn’t playing the "Oh, don’t be daft!" tune it can sometimes play when you use an affirmation. Instead you’re actually looking for ways to prove what you’re saying (that you are rich.) And the Law of Attraction says that ‘like attracts like’ so even more thoughts about why you’re rich will come flooding in. And as you build your list of reasons for why you are rich (or healthy or whatever) you begin to attract more of that richness or healthiness toward you, giving you even more answers to your question. It’s a continual circle of goodness flowing to you.

You can use this method for any problem you find yourself facing. So for instance, instead of affirming "Cosmic Ordering and the Law of Attraction works for me." you could ask, "Why does Cosmic Ordering and the Law of Attraction work for me?" Then go and find the answers to that one. Your mind will easily come up with some examples of when you’ve succeeded in the past and these will ‘fuel the fire’ for orders you’re still working on.

When I tried using "Why are the things I Cosmically Ordered coming to me easily and quickly?" recently, I felt a real surge of excitement as I began to mentally list the reasons. For me, this was a real turning point because somehow I’d never quite been able to feel that my dreams were coming true quickly enough, despite visualising daily, writing them in my Order Book, posting them on my Vision Board, putting notes into my Secret Box and affirming like mad.

Yes, I still believe that affirmations have a role to fulfil in helping us achieve our dreams but I also think this new idea will work wonders for anyone serious enough about their goals and ambitions to give it a try. Well… Is this you?

ASKING YOUR HEART

I ran a lovely Faery Wisdom workshop on Saturday. I do love running those. They're a real treat for me, and people seem to go away inspired by what they find too. During the workshop we use guided meditations and oracle cards to help us find our 'wisdom', and one of the exercises I like to do before we 'choose' our card is to 'connect to our hearts'. As usual, when you run these things you don't always have time to practise what you preach and it's not an exercise I've done much lately. However, one of the participants reminded me, once again, just how powerful an exercise it can be when you're unsure of what direction to take or which choice to make.

Basically it involves putting our attention in the place where our brain is and asking ourselves if we could have anything to eat that we wanted right now without fear of calories or cost, what would it be? We take the first thing that comes to mind and share it with the group. The answers usually range from 'chocolate' to 'cream cakes' and all sorts of goodies! Then we take our attention down the place where our heart is (round about the middle of our chest) and ask the same question and listen for an answer (again taking the first thing that comes to mind.) Normally the answers are quite different! Salads, carrots, fruit and such are usually the answers we get. It's always interesting to note the difference between what our head says it wants and what our heart says it wants.

I'd forgotten about this exercise, and when I was having trouble figuring out why I wasn't manifesting a special Cosmic Order I'd been working on for some time, I decided to give it a try again. I asked my heart if I really wanted the things I'd ordered. My heart said 'no'. This was a complete revelation to me! I'd spent years working on something that I thought was dear to my heart and I now find that I never really wanted it at all! For me this is wonderful, because I've now been able to modify my ideas and thoughts to take me in a new direction. It's not that I'm giving up on my original order; I'm just changing it around a little. And when I asked about this new order, my heart gave a resounding 'yes'! So now I can be sure that it will manifest because it is in alignment with my real hopes and dreams, and not just what my head thinks it wants.

So why not try it for yourself? Whenever you've a choice or decision to make, don't rely on your head – ask your heart instead. If you do this regularly for small things, you'll get to know how well it works, and then, when you've a big decision to make, all you need to do is ask your heart.

A BUSY TIME...

Well, here I am at last having time to write another blog post. I've been busy all day updating the web site which didn't get done last week because of the remaining admin. that had to be done for the fair.

For those of you who couldn't get to the fair, I have to say it was a great day. There were a couple of last-minute cancellations by stallholders but we still had over twenty stalls with many lovely goods for sale and lots of lovely relaxing therapies. There were a couple of psychics/clairvoyants too, and our tea-leaf reader. And there will be more of these next time I'm sure.

The talks went down very well I think, with six of the stallholders getting the chance to talk about their various therapies etc. I 'hijacked' half an hour for my own talk on Emotional Freedom Techniques(!) and I think it went down well.

Annette who manages the hall, did us proud with the refreshments and served us with lovely cups of tea and sandwiches and salads all day. I couldn't have managed without the occasional (well, loads really) cup of tea!

I must admit to being very nervous before we started. We only had half an hour to put out all the tables and even though I'd prepared a plan, I wasn't sure that everything would go where I had organised it to. However, with help from my good friend John, the lovely people at Broomsticks, and the hall caretaker Andy, we soon got it sorted out and the stallholders began to arrive. And thankfully everyone seemed happy with the arrangements. By ten o'clock we were mostly set up and ready to go and the first customers were walking through the door.

My lovely helper Emma went round and collected the raffle prizes and wrote the list so that people could see what they could win. I was lucky enough to have help on the door and thanks from me go to Ann, Lynda, Angela, Emma and John and my sister Jacky for doing that throughout the day, enabling me to run around taking photographs, making the announcements, sorting out the speakers and generally checking that everybody was happy.

And people did say that, despite the fact that the hall is a little 'tired' and needs refurbishment (that's partly why we were doing the fair, to raise funds for this) there was a lovely atmosphere during the day. I think this was due to all the therapies going on as well as the crystals and other lovely things that stallholders brought with them. Not to mention the beautiful smell of incense that pervaded the building about half an hour after we got there. I do hope the next users of the hall appreciated it!

Anyhow, now it's all over. The photographs and complementary emails I've received since tell their own story. I'm still looking at them and thinking 'Did I really organise all this?' But yes, I did. And it just goes to show that if you can conquer your fears and put your mind to it, you can do anything really...