Tag Archives: Journalling

Grief

Using Art as a therapy during a time of grief allows you to express your thoughts, feelings and emotions. This can be done in a variety of non verbal ways such as painting, drawing or clay work.

Other non verbal ways of expression, such as journaling and letter writing that help define what the event or deceased person meant to you allow you to start the healing process.

Guided visualizations and  Reiki can help relax you.  As you allow the body and mind to relax you can begin to sort out conflicting emotions. Therefore by using art therapy activities, your healing takes place at a deeper level and many people find that they are better equipped to move forward.

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Letters I’ve written

Or should that be posts that I’ve written…. never meaning to send………
.. with apologies to the Moody Blues. This song came out way back, I had just moved to Melbourne for the first time (& yes, for a boy…maybe one day I will write about that).
Whenever I can catch some spare time from the clinic – usually when a client has rescheduled – I make an effort to sit down and write a few blog posts that I can post at a later date.

It’s interesting as I peruse the entries that I thought were pertinent….. so many of them no longer hold any meaning and don’t get posted. This document is like a journal, partly relating to my business persona and partly relating to events in my personal life. So often it is the writing down that leads to the catharsis and I believe it is important to leave some time and space before posting.
Just recently I’ve gone to post the next entry and hesitated…. I haven’t deleted the entry, because it was relevant at that time, but time and space has given me the wisdom to take into account whether it was a whinge or helpful to someone else.

“Beauty I’d always missed
With these eyes before,
Just what the truth is
I can’t say anymore.”

The beauty of doing this is that it is a reflection of my emotions at the time. Re-reading at a later date allows me to calibrate and look within to see if I have reacted to the situation or have applied the emotional intelligence techniques I seek to help others with.
Am I wise? Am I telling the truth?
We each have our own truth and expressing it to others may not be palatable to the recipient.

I have someone in my life who has written many letters, most probably on the advice of their therapist, and sent them….resulting in hurt and fracturing relationships. My advice is if you are to write these letters, do so and then burn them…..symbolically releasing the energy contained within to the Universe and thus letting go and letting a higher power (insert whichever deity you believe in here) take care of it for you. There have been several occasions recently when I have held my breath, waiting for a letter from this person after things didn’t go as they had planned. To tell the truth, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t get one as I was looking forward to composing a reply and thus stepping out of Emotional Intelligence.

There are other times where I may write about a something that was profound and on looking back at that moment realizing that I captured a moment of beauty….of realization ….that has led to an insight that I missed at the moment of writing. Like a sunrise or sunset, nothing stays the same…. Change is inevitable and these transitions can create amazing shifts in our consciousness. It’s all about letting go…..

On the road to Mastery…

People come and go into your life for different reasons and seasons ….(as the well known poem at the bottom of the page goes…..)

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAJust recently, I have re-connected with a couple of people not seen for many years and whilst there has been the occasional email or social media contact, it really isn’t the same as chatting easily over a cup of tea or coffee.

One meeting triggered an examination of my personal journey over the last few years. A reflection, perhaps triggered by the review and planning process of the New Year.

The questions were asked……

“Are you still doing your Energy work? 

Your website and book don’t say that you are.”

Immediately I replied with a “Yes”, but in that moment realized that although I have a daily Meditation and Reiki practice  – often sending absent Reiki to friends and colleagues, I have let much of the spiritual work in maintaining Mastery slide. An audit of what studies I have done showed a common theme….. starting many years ago with weekly Yoga sessions, then Meditation.

Life was on hold for a while as I juggled young children and going to work as a teacher, but in the first school …. a most unlikely place, I thought, I had  a Lifetime person step into my life when she introduced me to Reiki. She could see I was stressed, put her hands on my shoulders sending Reiki…… It felt as if my blood had turned to lemonade…. I went all “fizzy” with the energy. Weeks later, I found a Reiki Master and was attuned to the energy…. the start of an amazing journey.  Level 1, followed by Level 2 and I resisted becoming a Master for another 9 years!!

Birthday morning 2013Other energy therapies beckoned in that space……. EMF (Electro Magnetic Frequency) Balancing, Homeopathy, Polarity Therapy, Touch for Health, Pranic Healing….Spiritual studies…..

I find it curious how the path of life often weaves a different pattern to what we might envisage for ourselves. Yet all these studies and people who taught them  have contributed to my mastery…. they have been there for a reason or a season or a lifetime.

Whilst reflecting on what Mastery means, I came upon a list of some 44 attributes that a person seeking Mastery might have.  A little daunting… but a good challenge for the coming weeks, months and years ahead….

Interestingly,  at the top of the list was Balance….defined as:

  • a state of remaining upright and steady; equilibrium
  • an appropriate proportionality between different elements

Two more that I would like to share with you are Courage:

  • strength in the face of uncertainty
  • the ability to do something that may be fearful

and Flexibility:

  • capable of bending without breaking
  • ready and able to change; to adapt to different circumstances

I printed out the list, ready to refer to it and have decided to randomly pick an attribute  to work on each week and write in my journal about the journey.
Later this week I will revisit a teacher of one of the Energy therapies I studied a while back and will perhaps refresh the knowledge in this new year….

Reason, Season, or Lifetime

People come into your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime.
When you figure out which one it is,
you will know what to do for each person.

When someone is in your life for a REASON,
it is usually to meet a need you have expressed.
They have come to assist you through a difficulty;
to provide you with guidance and support;
to aid you physically, emotionally or spiritually.
They may seem like a godsend, and they are.
They are there for the reason you need them to be.                                                                                                                                                          Then, without any wrongdoing on your part or at an inconvenient time,
this person will say or do something to bring the relationship to an end.
Sometimes they die. Sometimes they walk away.
Sometimes they act up and force you to take a stand.
What we must realize is that our need has been met, our desire fulfilled; their work is done.
The prayer you sent up has been answered and now it is time to move on.

Some people come into your life for a SEASON,
because your turn has come to share, grow or learn.
They bring you an experience of peace or make you laugh.
They may teach you something you have never done.
They usually give you an unbelievable amount of joy.
Believe it. It is real. But only for a season.

LIFETIME relationships teach you lifetime lessons;
things you must build upon in order to have a solid emotional foundation.
Your job is to accept the lesson, love the person,
and put what you have learned to use in all other relationships and areas of your life.
It is said that love is blind but friendship is clairvoyant.

— Unknown