Self Esteem -Self Worth – Self Love – By Louise Smart

Self esteem – is just that – we esteem ourselves. Healthy, robust self esteem, doesn’t come without effort, because from birth we are taught by parents and caregivers to value ourselves conditionally because that is how they valued us. Unless we question this, we assume our worth and treat ourselves based on how we were treated, and how loved or neglected we felt growing up. Despite best intentions no one, no parent or caregiver can love and approve of us unconditionally unless thy have done this for themselves first.  If they have, it is a rarity – one for the Guinness Book of Records!

So we are going to probably undervalue ourselves until we step beyond parameters we have innocently bought into. To break into high self esteem – we need to love, care and respect ourselves and our bodies in a way that others could not do for us in the past. And guess what, people magically reflect our decision about our worth back to us with more care, love and respect. Life reflects our decision back to us with more opportunity, abundance and success than ever before. The transition really means giving ourselves permission to decide what we are worth and then stand by what we decide and not give in to self-doubt.  

You can tell a lot about how far you have evolved past needing validation from others when you revisit your family or carers. It can be intense can’t it? If you haven’t shaken off your self doubt, instilled in you by all the judgement you received growing up, you get sucked into the old dynamic of reacting to the hurt of perceived or outright criticism. Annoyingly, family feel entitled to judge your adult decisions and you still hustle for approval so that you can feel good about yourself.  Why ? When you left home and forged an independent adult life, you did not form an independent decision about your worth that made you feel good. To make up for what your parents could not and cannot give you – do you bend over backwards for approval from lovers, spouses, bosses and larger social or political circles? If you do, your cycle of approval seeking has not been broken. 

If you really want to get off this merry –go- round, then you can start by  evaluating your worth on your terms. This means unravelling the emotional blocks and hurts to really allow the energy of love to flow through you so that your hunger for love and approval gets satisfied. And this I know is not easy because we are so deeply programmed to judge everything in life which means we can be very blocked to receiving our own love.

We are brimming with reasons not to like, let alone love ourselves. We find it painful and extremely difficult to forgive or have compassion for our so called human failings and failures.

If we get ill or we have been betrayed we don’t allow ourselves to feel sympathy for our misery. Instead we put on a stiff upper lip so that we can be loved and approved of for our heroic courage. This is self denial, a refusal to give to ourselves. If you have been conditioned that “it is better to give than receive” – then why not realign to” charity starts at home”, charity for your inner being. All denial does, is alienate us from the love and compassion that we essentially are. Believe it or not, there is no one else who can do a better job of loving you than you because you are the only one who knows what feeling good feels like to you. But choosing to do this I know is scary because we have a lot of resistance or don’t know how to start. Most of us need help.

It is the unconditional part of self love that is crucial to self esteem, because anything else is judgment. Judgement is the seed of self doubt and this destroys confidence. Change doesn’t happen overnight but when you commit to loving yourself without judgement, you can unravel fears of disapproval and find that your confidence and self esteem will steadily soar. 

So let’s stop and take a moment. Move your awareness into your body. If you feel relaxed and are breathing easily without trying, it is a sure sign you are feeling good about yourself right now. In contrast if you are tense and your breathing is shallow or irregular you won’t be feeling so good about yourself.

We can be in a tense state, habitually. We might only notice how good we can feel when we do yoga or meditate, dance or have sex. We just feel loving and expansive and free.

The warmth of love seems to infuse us and we like it – a lot! That is why we are obsessed let’s face it, in finding a mate who will love us relentlessly, unconditionally, because it makes us feel great. The point here is not to assume we should always be feeling one feeling and judge ourselves when we can’t hold on to peace or happiness or what ever. We all know how we can feel fabulous after a holiday. But it’s as if we never went away once we are back in our routine and something or someone triggers us and we are annoyed or offended or feel rubbish! I would like to help you here. I am not advocating staying around abusive people, discernment is vital, but when someone offends or hurts us, it usually has more to do with our self belief, maybe a hidden belief, that that person may be justified in their criticism or that we are not worthy of being treated well somehow. Instead of holding ourselves stable in our own good energy we drop down into a low energy frequency to match the energy of what the other person is saying or doing. But in reality when someone is offensive they are usually projecting onto you the way they have been treated and it is not about you at all. It is their stuff. So the essential thing is to not drop your energy to match your critics! What is helpful is to recognise, and again not judge, that there is something inside us that anchors us back into to those familiar feelings and grotty energies of low self esteem. What anchors us is a force field of energy that we can work with rather than attack with force. If we attack with force, all we do is further anchor the disharmony we want to release.

Any degree of self-limitation, unworthiness, fear, timidity, shyness, inadequacy, shame and guilt will inhabit our energy fields until we align ourselves in choosing love in response to everything that arises in us. That includes our own resistance to choosing love or our fear that we don’t know how to love.

Intention is everything. When you have the intention to love yourself without having a clue how, your nervous system will still get the message and start to relax. Then you will automatically feel better and more confident. What helps in the beginning is just taking deep long breaths as a way to invite the flow of love in. Breath for this reason is central to yoga and tai chi and many meditation practices. Breath contains light and light is the source of all creation and the source of all is the highest vibration, LOVE. So love is in our breath. Less desirable feelings get transformed. In the presence of love all lower energies are raised to a higher frequency.

There is a lot more to self love than breathing and there are complex reasons why so many people have a real resistance to taking time for themselves, to being consistent in caring for themselves. People have big blocks to love that are rooted in their conditioning, in the subconscious. Some people think self love is indulgent, selfish or a weakness because some religion said so. Actually that type of thinking is an erroneous and incomplete circle of love. Perhaps you mask your resistance to self love and instead anaesthetise painful low self worth, guilt, shame or inadequacy with; 

• alcohol, cigarette, drugs,
• over exercising
• being consumed in a drama or a risk situation all the time
• taking care of others
• over working
• codependent relationships where lacking confidence or self love is somehow taken care of by your partner. Your partner feels strong when you need them because they need to be needed

The very thing that actually heals shame, self loathing self abuse, self sabotage, the effects of abuse, childhood abuse of any type is the softest, gentlest kindest most sympathetic love that any humane being would give to a five year old in distress. It is not weak to love, it is strength because it is the power that heals us all.

The key here is not to assume that just because we don’t enjoy how we feel all the time, that we should not be feeling what we feel or not witness our feelings with compassion. By treating everything that arises in us with the same dignity and respect, we strengthen the presence of love within that is our core.

A stable core of self love is what allows us to embrace emotions as they come and go so that they don’t become blocks in our system. So we are not trying to eradicate or deny any emotion. Grief is grief, loss is loss. When we fully, lovingly allow every emotion to be what it is, we learn what we need to learn from the emotions and then they just naturally move out of our energy field. The core of self love that we have built inside remains untouched. With every successive triumph in loving what arises, this core becomes an anchored confidence. We learn we can trust and rely on the love that we are no matter what. Instead of desperately seeking or demanding love and approval from another to bolster us up and soak up our pain with their love, we do it for ourselves. We stop being needy and sabotaging all our relationships. The momentum of core love inside, magnetises the people and situations that mirror our self love. This is the law of attraction in action.

Now, a lot of people are familiar with this law of attraction and understand in principle that we need to be at a vibratory energy match for what we want to attract, be that a relationship, new job or a new home.  But try as we might to be a vibratory match, by visualising, meditating, trying to be happy in the moment or any mental gymnastics we put ourselves through to get what we want – it doesn’t always work. We get very frustrated and we start to doubt ourselves and all the work we have done on ourselves.

With the law of attraction the missing part of the energy puzzle for most people is unconditional self love. I will be talking a lot more about how energy works, self love, self esteem and the law of attraction in a series of articles  starting at the launch of this site, a few short months from now. 

Louise offers free 15 minute emotional detox consultations – check out her site for details.

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The Holistic Directory Interviews Dr. Eric Pearl – Reconnective Healing, Heal others, Heal yourself

Holistic Directory UK

Firstly it is a pleasure to connect and have the opportunity to interview you for our audience here at The Holistic Directory.  For those who may not have heard about Reconnective Healing and your book “Reconnective Healing – Heal others, Heal yourself”, would you be able to give us a brief overview on how Reconnective Healing came about for you following your initial training as a chiropractor? 

Thank you, it is my pleasure to connect with you and The Holistic Directory audience.

How this extraordinary work came to be discovered is still astonishing to me – as it may sound to you. I had one of the largest chiropractic practices in Los Angeles. And somewhere in my 12th year of practice a few strange things happened. I was awakened in the middle of the night by a bright light. I opened my eyes to see what it was. It wasn’t anything seemingly spiritual or metaphysical, it was just the lamp next to my bed. It had turned itself on. And, at the same time, it felt as if there were people in my home, which was a very uncomfortable feeling. So I got up bravely with a knife, a can of pepper spray and my Doberman Pincher and I went hunting through the house. I couldn’t find anyone, so I went back to sleep telling myself it had to have been my imagination. 

But that Monday when I returned to my office, seven of my patients, independently of one another, told me that they felt somebody in the room with us, the same way I felt people in my home that night I was awakened. Patients were telling me they could feel my hands before I touched them. I obviously didn’t believe them, so I asked them to close their eyes and lie down on the chiropractic table. While they had their eyes closed I stood a few meters away from them and held my hands aimed in different directions. Amazingly they could tell me if I was aiming towards their ankles or their fingers or their head. As I did this, I would see tiny little muscles in their face move involuntarily, and then their fingers or feet move involuntarily.

This was the beginning of recognizing that something different had occurred. In other words, I went home on a Friday night thinking I was a chiropractor, I came in on a Monday morning and I was something else. My parents had always told me that I was something else, but I have a really good feeling this was probably not what they had in mind when they said it.

“Instantaneous results with long term effects” is a sentence described for Reconnective Healing which is phenomenal and clearly something many people will be desiring. Often we over complicate things and seem to believe that in order for some form of healing to work it has to be really complex and difficult, this October you are running a 4 day programme enabling others to learn how to work Reconnective Healing Can you tell us more about this and who this may be suitable for? 

Yes, instantaneous healing with long-term effects is definitely something people desire, which is very unique to Reconnective Healing. And you are absolutely correct, many of us think that for a healing to take place, we need to do some complex technique or ritual, or we need to be some “special” person “worthy” enough to facilitate a healing.

I am here to tell you, you don’t! Reconnective Healing is a new level of healing that, according to the researches and scientists, may very well be here on the planet for the first time. Now, of course, scientists and researchers are the last people you would expect to make such a bold statement–and so I asked, “How can you say something this strongly?” And they said, “It really makes perfect sense if you just understand two basic concepts.”

Concept One is that we are four-dimensional beings. We exist in a four-dimensional world of height, width, depth and time. And in Quantum Physics today they often illustrate that world as a bubble. They tell us to imagine that the wall, or the cell of the bubble, the outside of the bubble, is comprised of height, width, depth and time, and everything inside that bubble is energy. This has been our four-dimensional existence from the beginning. Throughout this huge, vast, endless multi-dimensional Universe, we’ve just existed in this little bubble and everything inside the bubble has been energy, just as we’ve been taught in school. The healing techniques we’ve have had here–Reiki, Johrei, Jin Shin, QiGong, Alpha, Beta, Delta, Gamma – whatever we want to call them – have been different portions, subsets or fractions of energy. You access Reiki through a different technique then you access QiGong. It feels different; they’re different parts of this energy.

It’s as if you’re looking at the heavens at night and studying the stars. You pickup a telescope and use it as a metaphor for one of these “techniques.” The more you fine-tune your view from that telescope, the more you fine-tune that technique, the better you might be able to see that one portion of the sky that is exposed to the planet at that moment in time. But what is the expense, what is the cost, what is the price that you pay when you fine-tune that telescope? Well, you lose the rest of the vista, the rest of the horizon, the rest of the picture. At some point it becomes wise to place the telescope down so that we can see everything. We can access the entirety of the energy that exists within our bubble.

But here comes Concept Two – which is – time is moving faster. Not just in a linear fashion from point A to point B…  but time is moving faster in all directions at once – in other words, time is expanding. Which means our bubble, our playground of existence is opening up, expanding further, further out in to the Universe encompassing more of what’s always existed in the Universe, but hasn’t been present on our planet before. In other words, it’s timeless in its existence, but once it enters into our bubble of height, width, depth and time it is new to us. And so what it is bringing us is levels of energy that haven’t been seen here before — and further expanding beyond energy into a spectrum of light and information that is present for the first time.

This is just one of the elements that we teach in our Reconnective Healing Training Programs. As you mention, we will be coming to London this October 16-20 at the Kia Oval. Here is what you can expect if you attend.

On that Friday night, October 16, we will give a three-hour presentation where we talk about the history, the theory, the philosophy and the science of the work. We will bring up volunteers from the audience and give live demonstrations of the healings. We even begin to teach you how to begin to feel these frequencies.

And what you learn at the seminar on Friday night, you continue on Saturday and Sunday where you learn how to do this on a personal level, for your immediate friends and your family. You will stand at the head of a massage table while someone lies down on it in front of you. The teaching assistants will come around to you and take your hand and show you how to find this new expanded bandwidth of healing frequencies, how to feel it, how to begin to work with it with your hands. And you will witness, right in front of your very eyes, the person on your massage table start to demonstrate involuntarily movements of their fingers or feet, arms, legs, even eyes and facial muscles. We will then show how to expand it, make it larger, make it stronger, make it even more expansive. Then you will trade places with that person so that you have an opportunity to feel it as they learn.

If you want to continue to learn on a higher level, what we call the Foundational or Professional level – which does not mean that you have to practice professionally, but you are good enough to practice professionally if you want to – then you will continue with Level II of the training program on that Monday and Tuesday. We bring in people from the public, people who are not in the seminar, who do not know what to expect so you can facilitate your first professional healing session. We teach you ways to do Reconnective Healing via distance as well as holographically. During Level II we also show you how to start and build and develop your own Reconnective Healing practice, how to speak to others about this work. Special new segments also include subtle ways of accessing the healing field that bring about dramatic experiences and results, both for you and for the person you are working with.

And by the end of the full training program, I can pretty much promise you two things: A) you will be able to do anything and everything in the way of this field of energy healing and beyond that I can do, and b) you will be able to do anything and everything in the way of this field of energy healing and beyond that any human being anywhere on this planet can do.

If you are a newcomer to healing, you’ll discover how to access this new and expanded spectrum of healing frequencies. If you are an advanced healer, you will find that elusive jump that will bring a more comprehensive understanding of the essentials of balance, wholeness and vitality.

We also have thousands of medical professionals around the world, including doctors, nurses and physical therapists that have attended our seminars and now incorporate Reconnective Healing into their medical practices. Many report that Reconnective Healing gives added benefit to their patients. It gives doctors an alternative option to surgeries and prescription medications, with one of the biggest advantages of Reconnective Healing  – versus conventional medicine – being that there are zero adverse side effects. They also report Reconnective Healing as a great complementary approach to their patient’s healthcare regimen.

A lot has been said about the year 2012 and the notion of a spiritual awakening and a reconnection to the higher energies of the universe. Having been carrying out your work for some twenty years have you noticed a shift in people’s awareness or need for the ideas and techniques you have been offering since this date?

Well, on one hand, there is much more scientific comprehension as to how this works and scientific confirmation that this works. We understand today that Reconnective Healing restructures our very DNA, bringing about a more coherent level of light that our cells emit. And this higher level of more coherent light is attributed to be one of the possible reasons that Reconnective Healings seem to function so instantaneously with the results tending to be lifelong.

One recent study at The University of Arizona demonstrated that 10 minutes of Reconnective Healing was substantially more effective than physical therapy, and the research goes on and on. There have been no changes in the use of Reconnective Healing because Reconnective Healing’s greatness comes from the practitioner simply accessing the frequencies and becoming a catalyst for these healings proportionate to their willingness to observe without direction or judgment. Because of this ease of accessibility, thousands upon thousands of mainstream healthcare practitioners incorporate this into their various healing professions.

But the level at which The Reconnective Healing frequencies exist on this planet are ever expanding. So as our egos learn to involve themselves in the healing process less and less, the results for the recipients become even more.

We must remember that we are continually going through a shift and expansion in time, including 2012. But we have had many shifts in the past and will continue to have more in the future. For the last 20 years I have seen an increased expansion in people’s awareness and consciousness. The world is ready for more than what we have experienced, or what has been available to us up until now in our existence before.

 

Up until now we have lived in our existence, as quantum physics often describes it, in a four-dimensional bubble as I described before. We are accessing something that is new here on Earth. It takes us beyond the subsets of energy we’ve been accessing with our energy healing techniques, it takes us beyond energy itself, into a newly discovered spectrum of energy, light and information!

 

What does this mean? It means we now have the tools, the Reconnecttive Healing frequencies, to help not only facilitate healings for others and for ourselves, but to help us in our journey to our next level of human evolution. The year 2012 was not an end of an era, but the beginning of a brand new one, one that exists at a much higher level of human consciousness and unity. We are just opening up to this now, and I am excited to see what else the universe has in store for us.

Research has revealed that if 10% of a group or population hold a belief long enough in time this will also influence the majority of the group. Your work and this powerful healing modality is clearly already influencing many people across the globe.  How do you vision the future for Reconnective Healing? 

Well, firstly, let me start by letting you know that there is absolutely no hope, faith, intention or belief involved with Reconnective Healing. The healings work even if the person does not believe in it. When I first started doing this work, I had people coming in who didn’t know what to expect. Some were adamantly against it but had been talked into it by a family member or friend. But then they would have a healing. Some had stronger reactions than people who already believed in it.

So far I have taught Reconnective Healing to almost 100,000 people around the world. Millions of lives have been positively affected by this work. I see Reconnective Healing as an ever expanding consciousness allowing us to make better choices and decisions, not only on a personal level but on a global levels as well. It allows us to recognize that we are not so much separate and unique individuals but rather that we are all one, part of a greater whole. And therefore as we evolve as individuals, we evolve as a society. As we evolve as societies we evolve as humanity. And hopefully one day, not too far in the future, a child will ask, “Really? Really?? Did people really used to swallow poisons to try to get well?” And the parent will say, “Yes, my Love, we did. Look how far we’ve come.”

On a final note Eric you travel the world delivering your programmes, and it is so beautiful that your high frequency is resonating across the globe at such a rate, what advice can you give to practitioners who would be considering taking the course and setting themselves up as a healer in this modality? 

First, if they would like, they can start by reading the book, “The Reconnection; Heal Others, Heal Yourself.” It is translated in over 39 languages. The third portion of it is a basic “how to” so that you, the reader, can begin to access this on a personal level.

Now, just as with any profession, you can’t read a book and become a professional practitioner. If you read a book on hair dresser or dentistry, you may learn to take better care of your hair and teeth, but you’re not a professional stylist or dentist. Reading the book does not make you a practitioner, but it does teach you how to bring a more evolved level of healing to yourself, your friends and your family.

If you would like to truly learn how to facilitate this work, no matter if you would like to incorporate this in your current medical or healing practice, or simply want to use the Reconnective Healing frequencies in your every day life, I highly recommend you come join us this October in London. For more information, go to: http://bit.ly/EricPearl_London2015

Laura Topper and Sophie Jewry Talk Curbing Confidence Crisis and Empowering Practitioners

Well, after our interview (which you can watch here), we got chatting about how some holistic professionals can feel a bit lonely, working by themselves and how it’s a common issue for therapists and practitioners to feel undervalued, under confident and unsure out what to charge for their services.

And we want to help change this!

So we thought we’d video our thoughts on the matter.

This is a 20 minute video of Laura and Sophie talking through ideas and issues around being a holistic professional and also discussion solutions and tips for dealing with overwhelm and empowering you to feel more positive and attract more of the things you want in your life and your work.

We’d love to hear your thoughts so do comment below or get in touch.

Connect With Laura:

New Thought Singer Songwriter : Metaphysical Mentor
Devoted Labyrinth Walker: Inspirational Speaker Campaigner

http://www.lauratopper.com
https://www.facebook.com/lauratoppernow

Connect with The Holistic Directory:

The Holistic Directory is an online resource for health and wellness and also a hub for business and marketing support for holistic professionals. We’re building a supportive community – come and join us!

https://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/theholisticdirectory

Big Promise – Awesome Guarantee (B.A.G)

What Big Promises do you make? Do you guarantee you can deliver? If not then do you think it’s fair that you clients should take all the risk on you? Neither do they, which is why turning prospects into clients can sometimes seem like an uphill struggle…

So, what promises do you make and how can you guarantee them?

Nothing works better than a [B]ig Promise backed up by an [A]wesome [G]uarantee in clearing the blocks that are currently preventing 90% of your prospective clients taking things further.

———

By Joe Gregory of ReThink Press

Making 2014 A Success

Is this going to be your year?  Is this going to be the year that everything you have wanted in your business comes to you not just by wanting but by hard work and determination?

We all know the law of attraction, but you do know that you have to do something towards getting it!

A great start is a Vision Board and to set goals towards getting there. A Vision Board is great to see what you are aiming for whether it be more money, better health, better way of life, a nice car etc but you need to set your goals to help you and keep you focused along the way.  Review your previous year to see if you can make any changes towards improvements and goals for this year.

Now is the time to use a marketing planner, business journal, wall planner – anything that works for you, that you can put your goals, ideas, thoughts, promotions and campaigns, networking meetings, courses, workshops on to see you through the year.  Don’t stumble through every month, put ideas in your diary for marketing,  social media and blogging  each month.  They can always be changed or added to but it saves the blank mind every time you get to the computer to do the work!

There is a good saying that is now getting round businesses which is “Don’t just work IN your business, work ON your business”. This means that don’t spend all your time providing the therapies and working on other people, you must also work on your business – preparing marketing, looking at ideas, investing in yourself, reviewing and updating website, contacting your database and past clients – anything that will create new clients or reactivate old ones. If you can, find an hour to 90 minutes a day to do this especially first thing in the morning before your day starts, but if difficult try a couple of times a week or on the weekend.

You do have to put yourself out there and let people know you exist.  Remind them that you are there.  The more you do this and work ON your business the more 2014 will be a success for you!

—————————
By Alison Brown
of Ali’s Therapy Academy

Top Business Christmas Present Is A Website That Works

Let’s quickly get a couple of things clear. I’m not a web developer, front end or back end, or a coder or a web designer. I’m that person who helps companies drive traffic to their websites, because that’s what everybody wants, more people coming to their web site for them to be converted into sales.

This is what usually happens, a business decides that they now want to use Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, maybe Linkedin or Google+ to get people over to their website, excellent news for me but then my face drops when I see their web site.

Many websites are static, with absolutely no relevant up to date content being added at all.

One of my suggestions is to always to have a blog where you can post regular informative content, a website with a blog will get 55% more traffic than a website without a blog. That regular content would be used as bait to drive the traffic to the website. Many clients do not have any control over their sites, or they can’t remember who done them or they get worried about the charges they have to endure if they make a website change.

Remember I said the businesses come to me when they’ve decided to use social media to drive traffic to their website so what do you think I say to them? I say “people are social on their mobiles” so what does that mean? That means If someone has accessed Twitter via their mobile and they’ve seen the content bait with a link back to the website, they then click on it, how upset and frustrated do you think they are if that website they’ve just landed on isn’t responsive or mobile friendly?

How frustrating is it for someone when they can’t see the website properly in their mobile device, that they have to turn the screen this way and that and try and zoom in!

John Lewis has predicted that mobile traffic will overtake desktop traffic at 5pm on Christmas Day this year, is your website ready?

Lastly do you remember right at the beginning of this post I said the reason people want to drive traffic to their website is so that the traffic can be converted into sales, many sites completely fall on their face here.

In Many cases there’s no where to list build, the customer journey is clunky, there’s no one click rule and effortless isn’t a word I’d use when describing parting with my cash for many of these sites.

For your business Christmas present please treat it to a website that works, really it’s an investment, you can’t afford not to.

——————————

By Julie Bishop
Founder of JobHop    Founder of Specialist Social Media
Instructor for Love Social Media    Find Julie on Google+

Understanding the 7 Main Chakras

The art of chakra meditation involves focusing your mind on specific energy centers within your body. Each energy center corresponds with a different aspect of your life, so you can target a specific chakra depending on the problem you want to solve or the goal you want to achieve.

There are 7 chakras which are:

Root Chakra (Muladhara)


The root chakra is located at bottom of the spine and affects our basic needs and desires. Imagine a glowing red light near the base of your spine for increasing the energy in this area. Focus can be assisted by holding a Ruby or Garnet crystal while chakra meditating.

Naval Chakra (Svadhisthana)


The naval chakra is located in the lower abdomen, and is associated with physical feelings, especially those of love, sexuality, and passion. You can activate and clear this chakra by focusing your attention on a bright orange light in that area. Focus can be assisted by holding amber crystals while chakra meditating.

Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura)

It is located above the navel, just below the chest. It is believed that focusing on this point will help in issues related to self-control, discipline and ego. It helps if you imagine a pure yellow light in this area Use amber or gold to intensify this meditation.

Heart Chakra (Anahata)


The heart chakra is the center of compassion, understanding, and forgiveness. You can use chakra meditation to focus on a green light glowing in this area. This will help you clear away feelings of resentment, guilt, and anger. Focus can be assisted by using emeralds and malachite crystals.

Throat Chakra (Vishuddha)

It is located just below your chin and is useful to help you with issues of truth and knowledge, and can help you communicate with clarity, empathy, and wisdom. The throat chakra is associated with the color blue, Focus can be assisted by using turquoise or blue topaz.

Brow Eye Chakra (Ajna)


The brow chakra is located in the middle of your forehead, just above your eyes. It is the center of spiritual knowledge and understanding. Imagine an indigo light in this area while dealing with spiritual issues or concerns. Focus can be assisted by using Lapis lazuli and sapphires.

Crown Chakra (Sahasrara)


It is located at the top of your head and is associated with self-actualization, inspiration, divine wisdom, and the higher self. Focusing on the chakra will help you increase your sense of awareness and purpose, and develop a connection with universal wisdom. It is represented by the color violet and can be assisted by using amethyst and quartz crystal stones.

Fire, fire!

We had quite  drama in my local town last night and sadly we we part of it.

My partner and I were just falling asleep when the phone rang and it was a friend of ours calling to let us know that the shop next to my partner’s shop was seriously on fire and that we probably ought to get down there right away.

So he was up and out of bed and off to the shop. When he first got there, the flames were high and there was so much smoke that he called me and said that it may get all the businesses (it’s a little precinct with around 15 businesses in) and that he’d keep me posted.

Thankfully he then called again 30 minutes later to say that the 60+ fire crew had managed to contain the blaze and it only one of the shops was completely burnt out, with another couple of buildings having water, heat and/or smoke damage.

He arrived home again about 1am and we got to sleep, ready for a reasonably early start and him going off to assess the damage and start helping with the clear up.

During the time he was at the fire and not in communication, it got me thinking how much ‘stuff’ there actually is at the shop. Sure there’s the stock but there’s also the computer systems, there’s the things you build up after being in a place for over 15 years, there’s the few things we have in the store room as it’s handy to get at and yet still out of the way.

But then there’s even more than that. There’s 15 years of customers, of memories and of people interacting. Friendships made and many sales done.

A shop, as with all in our lives, is so much more than what it is on the surface and we all could do with a close call every now and then to make us realise that and then re-think how we’re doing things and so make changes to improve.

There are of course changes that include making sure your insurance is up to date, checking your data is backed-up off site somewhere safe and other such things. But there’s also the question of, what would you save if you literally had just a moment to decide?

Lots of people have faced this same question with the floods that have impacted in the UK, not forgetting of course some of the horrendous things happening across the world with typhoons, tsunamis, earthquakes etc.

So perhaps you can take a moment to really think.

What would you want if you had just a moment to leave your home and your life and is it accessible should the need arise? If not, why not?

Where would you go? Who would you call? What would you do?

Now you can’t answer all these questions now, but you can think about your life and what is most important. Look deep inside and find what you care about most.

Are you spending enough time and giving enough positive attention and love to the ones you hold dearest?

Are you doing things that you love every day in your life?

Are you fully living in the moment?

What can you change today to ensure that you’re on the path to the tomorrow that you dream about?

Take 5 minutes to just consider these things and then take action to ensure that you are doing what you love, with who you love. Life is too short and too unexpected to do otherwise.

Get out there and give of and to yourself for the betterment of life.

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Author: Sophie Jewry
http://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk

Inspirational Speaking… and All That Jazz!

So yesterday I joined 6 other entrepreneurs who were all speaking at City College Norwich to a group of 100+ students, as part of the ‘Positive Image‘ campaign, created by Sarah Harding to help empower young people.

We each had a 30 minute slot to speak and in total over 550 students attended talks during the day and gave fantastic feedback afterwards.

So what did I speak about?

Well I shared with my journey from teendom through to where I am today, including lots of the good and bad times that got me here. I then went on to speak about values and how important it is to live your life in line with your values, those instinctive ideas that tell you what is good, bad, right or wrong in your life and the essence of who we are. These are pretty much hard-wired into us and if you’re not working in line with them you’re going to end up pretty miserable!

Then I went on to speak about beliefs and how we create so many beliefs all the time that we think are true. That we believe are part of who we are. That in reality are nothing but generalisations about experiences that we’ve had, that we’ve chosen to make into a belief (consciously or unconsciously).

I gave an example of being bitten by a dog as a small child and how that child might then create a belief that all dogs are bad and carry this belief through their whole life. This belief then may morph into a strong phobia of dogs that has a huge impact on their life, until death.

Now, most of us know, rationally, that the majority of dogs are lovely and it’s just a few you need to be careful of. Yet fear and phobias don’t work on a rational level and if we create a negative belief and we then build on that it can have far reaching consequences.

Then we flipped it and looked at positive beliefs and how we are in control of what we believe, whether we believe it or not! That we have the power to pick up or let go of beliefs as and when we choose. We just need to make that choice and take action towards achieving it (i.e. see an NLP/life coach/hypnotherapist etc or make small stepping stone changes daily yourself).

So how great would it be to choose positive beliefs instead of negative ones?

How great would it feel if you truly loved yourself and whenever you were faced with a decision, you chose the positive belief over the negative?

Just imagine how such positive choices could affect your life and not only your own life, but the lives of the people around you too.

So what can you choose to believe today that is positive?

After beliefs I spoke about Law of Attraction (LOA) and that by giving off positivity we attract it back to us.

Now I was pretty amazed when I asked the room who had heard of LOA and not one hand went up. So this was potentially the first time the these 100+ students had heard about this powerful mindset.

Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a great believer in LOA and have seen it in action time and time again. So I was in my element explaining how it can be used to benefit life.

I gave a few hints and tips about choosing to be nice to people. To compliment instead of insult. To remember that you do not have any idea what is going on in someone else’s’ life or mind and that your words might have a massive impact on their day, week, month, year, or even life! It is that important. Your snide remark may stay with that person for their whole life (see beliefs above!). You just don’t know. The world has enough problems and we need to be empowering others, not dragging them down. So choose your words carefully and empower rather than degrade whenever you can.

Remember:

Is it true?
Is it helpful?
Is it inspiring?
Is it necessary?
Is it kind?

If it is none of the above then why say it? Think what your agenda is by saying something that could hurt. What is happening inside you that makes you want to make others feel pain?

They say that perception is projection, in other words, what we see in others is what we dislike/want to change about ourselves. Perhaps next time you feel the urge to say something less than positive, take the time to ask yourself what it is in you that makes you feel that way about the person you are speaking to. It can be very enlightening, if a little uncomfortable at times!

And it didn’t end there (yes they were still engaged with me, for which I am hugely thankful).

I then moved on to goals and goal setting. One of the teachers said they had ‘tasks’ they were used to setting but not SMART goals.

I wanted them to think outside of the school box and look at long term goals that were in line with their values – and of course a little Law of Attraction doesn’t go amiss in this potent mix either!

So we looked at powerful goal setting:

S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = As if now
R = Realistic / Relevant / Responsible
T = Timed

and how they could use this for when they’re job hunting, planning grades etc.

Of course I had to mention that it’s all very well using these techniques and thinking, for example, I’ve set a goal to get a great job, and then doing nothing and thinking it will manifest. With the best will in the world that just ain’t gonna work! Or at least the likelihood of it is greatly reduced.

If you set a goal you then have to take MASSIVE action towards achieving it. You want that great job? Set your goal and then get out there. Network, send off applications, get on LinkedIn, JobHop and other online agencies. Take action and you will active your goal. I’ve seen it happen many times and it is always an amazing feeling when you get it!

So we had to wrap it up at this point and I kept thinking on the way home how many things I could’ve, should’ve said but there just wasn’t time – I spoke for 35 minutes in the end and it’s amazing how short a time that really is.

It was so lovely to have some of the students come up to me afterwards and say that they found it inspiring (what is a better compliment than that from a 16-18 year old!). We even had a lull between me and the next speaker and a few said I could continue as they were enjoying it – it’s so nice to be wanted! 😉

There is something quite magical about working to empower other people, especially the next generation. If we can empower them when they’re still young, just think what they could achieve!

Life is too short to be riddled with negative beliefs and surrounding yourself with negative people.

Get out there and LIVE!

Be around people who support and empower you and you you can in return support and empower them too.

Enjoy life – it’s there to be lived and enjoyed.

Climb out of the box and inject some serious positivity into your life – you just never know where it may lead you!

I could get used to this inspirational speaker malarkey!

You can find out more about the Positive Image campaign here: http://www.timetolookbeyondthemirror.co.uk/

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Author: Sophie Jewry
http://www.theholisticdirectory.co.uk

The Awakening

I’m not sure who to credit this to but I found it on Facebook and it is just wonderful so I wanted to share:

A time comes in your life when you finally get…when, in the midst of all your fears and insanity, you stop dead in your tracks and somewhere the voice inside your head cries out…ENOUGH! Enough fighting and crying and blaming

and struggling to hold on. Then, like a child quieting down after a tantrum, you blink
back your tears and begin to look at the world through new eyes.

This is your awakening.

You realize it’s time to stop hoping and waiting for something
to change, or for happiness, safety and security to magically appear over the next horizon.

You realize that in the real world there aren’t always fairy
tale endings, and that any guarantee of “happily ever after” must begin with you…and in the process a sense of serenity is born of acceptance.

You awaken to the fact that you are not perfect and that not
everyone will always love, appreciate or approve of who or what you are…and that’s OK. They are entitled to their own views and opinions.

You learn the importance of loving and championing yourself…and
in the process a sense of new found confidence is born of self-approval.

Your stop complaining and blaming other people for the things
they did to you – or didn’t do for you – and you learn that the only
thing you can really count on is the unexpected.

You learn that people don’t always say what they mean or mean
what they say and that not everyone will always be there for you and everything isn’t always about you.

So, you learn to stand on your own and to take care of
yourself…and in the process a sense of safety and security is born of self-reliance.

You stop judging and pointing fingers and you begin to accept
people as they are and to overlook their shortcomings and human
frailties…and in the process a sense of peace and contentment is born of forgiveness.

You learn to open up to new worlds and different points of view.
You begin reassessing and redefining who you are and what you really stand for.

You learn the difference between wanting and needing and you
begin to discard the doctrines and values you’ve outgrown, or should never have bought into to begin with.

You learn that there is power and glory in creating and
contributing and you stop maneuvering through life merely as a
“consumer” looking for you next fix.

You learn that principles such as honesty and integrity are not
the outdated ideals of a bygone era, but the mortar that holds together the foundation upon which you must build a life.

You learn that you don’t know everything, it’s not your job to
save the world and that you can’t teach a pig to sing. You learn the
only cross to bear is the one you choose to carry and that martyrs get burned at the stake.

Then you learn about love. You learn to look at relationships as
they really are and not as you would have them be. You learn that alone does not mean lonely.

You stop trying to control people, situations and outcomes. You
learn to distinguish between guilt and responsibility and the importance of setting boundaries and learning to say NO.

You also stop working so hard at putting your feelings aside,
smoothing things over and ignoring your needs.

You learn that your body really is your temple. You begin to
care for it and treat it with respect. You begin to eat a balanced diet, drinking more water, and take more time to exercise.

You learn that being tired fuels doubt, fear, and uncertainty
and so you take more time to rest. And, just food fuels the body,
laughter fuels our soul. So you take more time to laugh and to play.

You learn that, for the most part, you get in life what you
deserve, and that much of life truly is a self-fulfilling prophecy.

You learn that anything worth achieving is worth working for and
that wishing for something to happen is different than working toward making it happen.

More importantly, you learn that in order to achieve success you
need direction, discipline and perseverance. You learn that no one can do it all alone, and that it’s OK to risk asking for help.

You learn the only thing you must truly fear is fear itself. You
learn to step right into and through your fears because you know that whatever happens you can handle it and to give in to fear is to give away the right to live life on your own terms.

You learn to fight for your life and not to squander it living
under a cloud of impending doom.

You learn that life isn’t always fair, you don’t always get what
you think you deserve and that sometimes bad things happen to
unsuspecting, good people…and you lean not to always take it personally.

You learn that nobody’s punishing you and everything isn’t
always somebody’s fault. It’s just life happening. You learn to admit
when you are wrong and to build bridges instead of walls.

You lean that negative feelings such as anger, envy and
resentment must be understood and redirected or they will suffocate the life out of you and poison the universe that surrounds you.

You learn to be thankful and to take comfort in many of the
simple things we take for granted, things that millions of people upon the earth can only dream about: a full refrigerator, clean running water, a soft warm bed, a long hot shower.

Then, you begin to take responsibility for yourself by yourself
and you make yourself a promise to never betray yourself and to never, ever settle for less than you heart’s desire.

You make it a point to keep smiling, to keep trusting, and to
stay open to every wonderful possibility.

You hang a wind chime outside your window so you can listen to
the wind.

Finally, with courage in you heart, you take a stand, you take a
deep breath, and you begin to design the life you want to live as best as you can.