Sunday, March 23, 2014

Have your senses become 'deadened' or are they truly 'alive'?

As many of us get older, we often miss the sense of aliveness that we had when we were younger, not realising that it is more to do with our habits, than our 'ageing' biology.

Have you noticed how much you appreciate a hearty meal, after you've been ill, and true hunger returns?

Ask yourself, how often do you eat, just because it's 'lunchtime' or 'dinnertime', or because you're at a social event where it's 'impolite' not to eat.

Like Pavlov's dogs, perhaps your hunger has more to do with a default, programmed response, than really listening to what your body needs in each moment?

Have you noticed how much you appreciate a pure glass of refreshing water if the weather is scorching hot, and you've become sharply aware of your dehydration?

If your lips, mouth and throat are parched, just a few drops of cool, crystal clear water on them can feel like utter bliss!

Have you noticed how much you appreciate a good night's sleep when you've pushed yourself to the point of exhaustion? Your head hits the pillow and you simply melt.

Whilst these extremes can teach us to appreciate life, they are not necessary to cultivate that inner sense of aliveness again.

When students (from all walks of life) come along to learn about their life force, and 'energy body', during a Reiki or SRT course for example, their physical bodies start to become much more 'fine tuned' as a result of the energy balancing that happens.

Depending on the student, there may be a detoxification of the entire system, which can be rather uncomfortable. Much like having a cold or flu, the body releases the toxins that have built up in the intercellular and extracellular matrix.

As students continue down the path of 'self-healing', there is much less of a need for addictive foods and drinks, including stimulants and sedatives, for example, caffeine, soft drinks and the number one 'sense deadener' alcohol.

They begin to listen to their bodies, rather than forcing the body to comply with the artificial tastes that they have become used to.

They become more aware of patterns that aren't serving them, especially addictive foods and drinks.

You can notice for yourself by cultivating the daily practice of observing yourself... your thoughts, your emotions, and your actions.

Notice just how yummy ice cream, biscuits, and sugary foods "taste" when you feel emotionally grumpy or out-of-balance. When life doesn't taste so good, we try to fill it with 'sweet things'. As human beings, we are very creative at avoiding our pain.

Notice how alcohol is toxic for the body, especially the brain cells. Notice how your brain and body feel numb when you drink -- alcohol is dehydrating, regardless of whether it's wine, beer or spirits -- and how you feel disconnected and out of balance in the morning (hangover). You've poisoned yourself for a 'good time', and you may even look forward to creating this feeling of deadness inside of you as your energy system struggles to wake up - coffee to kick-start the system, anyone?

Notice how sugary drinks give you a temporary lift, and then crash your system. If you drink Diet Coke, or Pepsi Max, or Coca-Cola Zero, that is probably even worse. Artificial sweeteners in these drinks are often toxic -- Coca Cola puts aspartame and acesulfame potassium in their diet drinks -- and adversely affect a person's appetite control, meaning they are less able to gauge energy consumption. These products also create a fake sense of 'thirst', leading consumers to drink more of these energy-deadening products.

Of all the energy drinks currently on the market, Red Bull is probably one of the most misleading, if not the most damaging... that's why their clever advertising tells you that it will 'give you wings'. Notice, rather, how it actually cuts the wings off you! Worryingly, it has been linked to cardiac arrests and kidney failure... but many people still go on drinking it.

The jury is out on whether Red Bull is safe or not, but when a product is this 'successful', making billions of dollars for its producers, are we really that naive to think they would alert us to the possibility of harm if they could get away with not alerting us?

I'm not saying to become an absolute purist, and avoid everything you like eating and drinking. It most likely wouldn't happen straight away in any case, even if you decided to give up everything 'bad' right now, because it takes time, patience and persistence to break ingrained patterns. The grooves of the mind run deep... some are like the grand canyon!!

Choose to practise more discernment in your life, in your everyday choices. Are your choices really 'life affirming', or are they 'life denying'?

The body is self-regulating and self-balancing... it is geared towards LIFE!

This is why the body will take a great deal of 'punishment' before giving up. A lot of damage happens insidiously, so when we experience 'illness' or 'disease', this is not actually a sudden event. It is rather a tipping of the scale, which then creates an opportunity to become aware of faulty choices. We should be grateful it has come to our attention!

To become more conscious, and thus more 'alive', practice watching yourself, that is the first thing. Become the witness... the observer.  The second is to spend more time in meditation. Just a few minutes a day... if you like, try an energy-based course, or class, that appeals to you... Reiki, SRT, Yoga, T'ai Chi and many others... these can all be used as forms of meditation.

Meditation causes a 'quickening' of the non-physical life-stream inside of you. With time, everything will seem brighter, more intense, more luminous. You will enjoy 'tasting life' again.

Western society tends to live at the surface... many of us live at the surface of our being, rather than at the centre. When was the last time you were still enough to feel your own heart beating, or to notice the quality of your own breath? These subtleties cannot be known, unless you choose to go beyond the periphery.

If you feel lost, or stuck, trying having a few energy healing sessions with an experienced practitioner. If you can, get a good recommendation from a friend! These sessions can help release inner blocks that are preventing you from experiencing the greater awareness you seek. As old patterns fall away, it becomes easier to embrace the new.

Of course there is a downside to all this: you won't fit in! You won't fit in with your friends, with society, with those who have a vested interest in keeping you just as you are. If you have courage, you will see the reactions of others and judge for yourself.

Are you ready for change?

Are you ready to change?

If so, have courage, and move forward in greater awareness.

Jaime Tanna
Founder and Director of Energy Therapy

Links:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/11/diet-coke-vs-coca-cola-zero_n_1199008.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2541178/Does-Diet-Coke-make-FAT-Sugar-free-fizzy-drinks-make-people-eat-food.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/28/cory-terry-red-bull-death_n_4169504.html
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=130751

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Healing ourselves from the inside out

What is it that makes you, YOU?

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Is it your name?  Is it your relationships with your family and friends? Is it your choices of food, your taste in clothing, or the things you like to do in your free time? Is it the type of job you do? Is it your beliefs, whether religious, political, social, or cultural? Is it your height, gender, weight, body size and shape?

Some or all of these facts will represent how you see yourself in the world, and how many others will see you as well.

Now, what if you were told that all the above, whilst they shape your perception of yourself, they do not fundamentally represent Who You Are.

What if you were told that all the above was just information “programmed” into your cellular memory banks? 

So many people are caught up in misbeliefs such as, “I can’t help it, it’s my personality” or “it’s not my fault, it’s in my genes”, or “that’s just the way it is in my family”, and so forth.

This simply isn’t true, unless you call faulty perception “truth”. Everyone can change their programmed responses.

We routinely programme our subconscious mind to carry out repetitive tasks. If we learn a task sufficiently well, such as brushing our teeth or tying our shoelaces, it becomes a programmed habit, and we do it without even thinking about it.

We also programme ourselves in other ways, often without even realising it. For example, we may continue to buy the same brand of laundry liquid that our parents used to buy when we were growing up because there is an “inherited programme” of “safety and comfort” associated with that memory.
Many people are so completely identified with their personality and their life story that they don’t understand they can, in fact, change both. 

We can all do this... but how?!

How do we change, not just on the surface, but deep from within? How do we access our healing potential to radically heal and transform our lives from the inside out?

I believe that the key is to understand, and embrace, Who We Really Are.  We must embrace our divine nature – that which lies hidden behind the personality self.

We were all born into this worldly existence, and we will all die and leave it, sooner or later – this much we do know. 

If we will stop and deeply consider this fact, it begs the question of why such a passage exists?  And, herein lies one of the keys to the remembrance of our true nature. We are each an extension of a greater, compassionate Non-Physical Energy. We came from that Source and will return to that Source when we die (“Dissipate Identifying Energies”). 

If we can hold this inner awareness and understanding throughout our human lives, then our lives will be so much richer for it. We will see differently, we will think differently, and we will ACT differently.

“We are all visitors to this time, this place. We are just passing through. Our purpose here is to observe, to learn, to grow, to love... and then we return home.”
Australian Aboriginal Proverb

If we take a droplet of water from the ocean, that droplet will have exactly the same properties as its source. There is no difference in quality, only in quantity. In like measure, we are made of the same substance as the Source from which we came, which some of us have called “God”.
 
Humanity is the “sum” of God, and we are all the sons and daughters of God.

We have inadvertently allowed ourselves to become separated from our own truth and this has lead to an inner and outer struggle of immense proportions. We are spiritually and emotionally bankrupt, which is reflected in the chaos and turmoil of our modern day lives.

We have been told at least two great lies – that we are separate from each other, and that we cannot heal ourselves. These lies have lead to feelings of disempowerment and disillusionment on a massive scale.

You are invited to move into awareness again, and self-realisation at the highest level. As we each come to remember our Non Physical essence, our world will come back into balance and wholeness.
Life isn't about avoiding difficult moments, is it?  I believe that it isn’t. Rather, life propels us forward through contrasting, or unwanted, situations. Yet, we must want to use our difficulties to transform ourselves into something grander, something greater.  It does not happen by default.

No one will ever have all the answers to life’s mysteries. Yet, that is not an excuse of a lack of inquiry into the unseen causes of our human lives.

There is a reason why you are currently in the job you are in, living in the house or apartment that you’re in, alone and happy, or lonely and unhappy, in a happy relationship, or in an unhappy relationship, why you have “the family from hell” or the most loving, caring family.

For every effect in our lives, there is a thought pattern that precedes and maintains it. If you really want to change your life, you have to take ownership. You have to stop blaming others for whatever is “wrong”.  

You have to learn to bless everything and show gratitude for what you do have. This is no easy task, given our modern day propensity to blame anything and everything under the sun, except ourselves.

Jaime Tanna

Jaime is the founder of Energy Therapy and an active Reiki Master and Spiritual Mentor, Healer and Teacher. Together with his wife Jennifer, their unifying vision is to empower others through spiritual education and energy-based healing treatments and courses, to help them become aware of their true natures, and to live more joyfully and consciously. You can visit their website at www.energytherapy.biz
Jaime will be talking on the following topics at the MBS Expo in Limassol, Cyprus in April 2014:  
  1. Reiki: The Ancient Japanese Art of Healing Mind and Body (Saturday)
  2. Law of Attraction: Steps to Deliberate Creation (Sunday)
  3. Spiritual Response Therapy: Clearing Negative Life Energies and Soul Programme Programming (Sunday)
Jennifer will be talking on the following topics:
  1. Learning the Art of Indian Head Massage (Saturday)
  2. Yoga For Conscious Communication (Sunday)

Friday, March 14, 2014

Enough said

Having just seen the brilliantly touching film 'Enough said', it's clear that one person's criticisms of another is simply that - criticisms, but not truth.

Enough Said
'Enough said' stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Eva, a divorced single parent who spends her days enjoying work as a masseuse but dreading her daughter's impending departure for college. At a party, she meets Albert (James Gandolfini), a sweet, funny and like-minded man who is also facing the prospect of 'an empty nest'. Although Eva is not initially attracted to Albert, an unexpected, happy romance blossoms.

At the same time, Eva also befriends Marianne, a new massage client, but doesn't initially realise that Albert is Marianne's ex-husband! Eva looks up to Marianne's lifestyle and sense of sophistication, but when Marianne starts denigrating her ex-husband's character and behaviours, at some point, the penny drops!

Instead of coming clean to both Albert and Marianne, she finds herself morbidly attached to Marianne's disparaging criticisms of Albert, with the inevitable consequence that those criticisms poison her own perception of Albert.

What can this teach us? Firstly, we must be careful not to let the negative viewpoints of others cloud our own perceptions, especially when it comes to our closest relationships.

Secondly, in this messy world of break-ups and make-ups, marriages and divorces, we must be careful not to judge another person through our narrow lens. We only have our opinions about each other, not the facts.

In any case, as Jessie J reminds us, 'Nobody's Perfect...'.

Thirdly, anyone can change; so why do so many people insist on holding onto their outdated perceptions of someone they once knew in the past? In fact, that person may have long since worked on themselves and cleaned up their act!

The only thing that matters is how we see our own lives, and how we act/react. Can we mature quickly enough to see that the mirror of relationship gives us a vital opportunity to see our own flaws? We just need to have the courage to look within.

If you've had an acrimonious relationship and/or break-up, the invitation is to move into forgiveness, and try to see the highest and best in that person anyway.

Oftentimes, when we see the 'bad' in others, what that really means is that we are perceiving them through a distorted lens. When we celebrate the positive aspects of another human being, we help them, and we also help ourselves in the process.

It's called 'shining the Light'.

Jaime Tanna
Founder and Director of Energy Therapy

Monday, March 10, 2014

Meditation is not escapism

The world is in crisis and we are being forced to 'wake up' and take ownership of our mess. No longer can we idly sit by and let others take charge - especially can we no longer sit by and watch the old consciousness do what it has always done.

As one goes inward, one reaches outward; this is the key thing to understand.

We are all being called to reach inward, to find precious inner resources, so we can all - together - help shape a magnificent, new paradigm; we can call this process of going inwards "meditation".



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Recently, however, I have heard people saying that we must take action, that too many people are just 'meditating' on life. It seems that the true understanding of  meditation has been lost!

Meditation, in the true sense, is not escapism!  

It has a vital role to play in the awakening consciousness of this planet. The act of meditating is not a separate event, isolated from 'what we do' in our day to day lives.

The purpose of meditation is to help the individual find the real self, and achieve a quiet, calm rooted-ness that is unshakeable. A mountain cannot be jettisoned around like a leaf in the wind.

Meditation allows an individual to tap his or her highest potential. It helps an individual to remember the truth of his or her being - and what is that truth??

That we are the waves of ONE SEA.

Meditation is about finding stillness and, paradoxically, taking action from that inner stillness.

There are many ways to meditate...

The person who is truly doing meditation will experience a sense of interconnectedness and oneness with all of life, and will thus feel COMPELLED to TAKE ACTION to help life progress.

He will want to help his fellow neighbour... she will want to help her community... we will all want to take 'right action', and thus help the world...

Meditation is not about ESCAPISM. Going to yoga class, which is really a type of meditation, is not about ESCAPISM.

If you are meditating, whether practising asanas on the yoga mat or doing some other form of meditation, be alert to your intention. Notice if you trying to escape your challenges, your troubles... or if you are willing to face them and transmute them.

Notice if meditation brings you into a state of compassion for self and others. If so, you will feel compelled to move into right action after a period of stillness.

Conversely, there are still many today who are taking action to COMPENSATE for their own vibrational misalignment. They have no awareness of the 'inner' self. This type of action is, at best, ineffective. At its worst, it is draining.

If you are not aware, you will run around trying to be of service but you are unable to truly give because you are giving from the small self, and not the Greater Self.

Meditate, then take action.

Jaime Tanna
Founder and Director of Energy Therapy

Thursday, March 06, 2014

Life is about two subjects - wanted and unwanted

Life is always about two subjects - wanted or unwanted. Oftentimes it seems overly simplistic to the beginner to the "law of attraction" to ask 'what do I want?' but this first step of identifying one's desire clearly is crucial.

Most people bounce around in their negativity for too long, without giving purposeful attention to their desires.

In this world of "duality" - i.e. hot/cold, up/down, left/right, big/small - we cannot avoid unwanted situations for long. Notice for yourself.

Contrasting, or unwanted, situations bring us expansion. In the moment that a problem comes into focus, the solution is also birthed, but we can't see it because we are focused on the problem, which has a totally different frequency to the solution.

"Night" and "Day" are very different frequencies.

In the moment that you experience unwanted, breathe. Then ask,  'what do I really want?' and relax into it. Just by asking this question, it can bring much needed relief.

Sometimes, it an easy matter to identify what you really want. At other times there will be layers of understanding to work through before the core issue becomes apparent.

If you can get into the practice of identifying what you want, clearly and without resistance, it must come to you.

The Universe always answers your request, so you just have to ALLOW it. This is the most important part in 'vibrational' time.

Most people go back to their unwanted, dominant patterns of thought and hold themselves apart from their desires. Unconsciously they go back to the focusing on the ABSENCE of their desire.

They manage to identify their desire but then ask 'WHEN is my desire coming?', not knowing the answer, and they ask 'HOW is my desire coming?', also not knowing the answer.

When you ask 'when?' and 'how?', this often trips up your vibration, and frustrates your desires, because it focuses your mind back on the absence of your desire.

'When' exactly, and 'how' exactly, is the Universe's job, not yours! If you can trust this perfect relationship, knowing your desire has already been answered in the perfect way, in vibrational space-time, then all manner of good will line up for you. Comfort will replace unease, and peace will replace suffering.

Jaime Tanna
Founder and Director of Energy Therapy