LIHOU - SPECIAL TIMES
Sam and I decided to make the most of the lovely crisp and clear winter weather to trek over to Lihou for the New Year open house.
I love Lihou, there is something special about the energy and light over there, perhaps it is the perspective you gain of Guernsey, I am not sure, but I really experience this feeling of getting away from it all.
Last January Ewan and I were lucky to have the whole Island to ourselves for a night at the same time that the snowy owl had taken residence – lucky us. We did not arrive until late afternoon when the sun was setting and it was such an incredible experience watching the tide come up and knowing that we were well and truly cut off from the rest of the world.
The next morning we were awake really early – you can really hear nature over there – and went out for an early walk around the Island and were fortunate to literally stumble upon the snowy owl, my gosh how incredible, he (or is he a she) was so close to us, like metres away as he flew off to the other end of the Island and sat on a rock so that we could creep close and take photos without him feeling threatened. It was a special morning and once again goes to show that often the best things in life are natural and free. I am gracious.
No snowy owl for Sam and I on Sunday however, instead lots of other people enjoying the natural feel of the Island and congregating in the warmth of the house for mulled wine and mince pies. I have booked the house for a night in August to hold a Yoga and Wellbeing retreat and I was delighted to see the wooden platform outside the house facing East, which will be perfect for an outdoor morning practice – let us just pray that it does not rain!
We stopped off at the dolmon fairy cave on the L’Eree headland, which is a wonderful little place - two years ago my cousin Yo, my Mum and I went dowsing in it (asking permission before we entered of course) and we were amazed at the energy lines and were fortunate to see a spirit of sorts, i can’t really describe it, like a mirage I guess. I can highly recommend a visit, just remember to be respectful, there is something special about the experience. And next time the causeway is open perhaps take a stroll over to Lihou, it does wonders for the Spirit.
REIKI - MY EXPERIENCE
These days most people have heard of “Reiki” but not many know what it is actually is. They often assume it is a form of religion or a form of massage and they often wonder if it dangerous. No, is the answer to all these assumptions. It is neither a belief system nor a physically manipulative technique and it is completely safe. Essentially it is a way of being true to yourself so that you do things consciously, with awareness, sincerity and intention.
I must admit when that when I went for my first Reiki session, I had no idea what was really involved. I recall lying on the treatment couch wondering what on earth was going to happen to me. Relaxing music played in the background and candles enhanced the natural light of the room. The practitioner talked about angels and fairies and when my stomach started to gurgle she told me that was a sign they were in the room. I couldn’t quite relax, any moment I was expecting to see apparitions and have a strange out-of-body-type experience.
In my ‘out-of-balance, want-to-be-balanced’ kind of way back then I suspect I was looking for a miracle cure that day. But of course it didn’t happen. After the session, I still felt like the same old me, a little out of sorts, a little unhappy. The only difference being the fact that I knew a little bit more about angels. The practitioner had told me that every time she drives into town she asks her angels to find her a parking space, and every time she goes to park the car there is a space waiting for her. This stuck in my mind and I started doing this myself and I must admit it certainly works – you have to believe however!
Regardless of whether I felt the effects of the Reiki during that first session, the seed had been sown. I was clearly drawn to Reiki for a reason and it was only a matter of time before it presented itself to me again – and the second time around, I had not gone searching. You see, quite unbeknown to me at the time, I started to attend a meditation class which was led by a Reiki Master teacher. Most of the meditation attendees were Reiki attuned and there was often much chatter about Reiki and the Reiki courses led by the teacher. I would listen to them talking about metaphysical energy, auras, crystals and Chakras and wonder what on earth it was all about – it was a different world to the one I lived in at that time.
But times change and only a matter of weeks later I came across an advertisement pinned to the notice board at work advertising Reiki treatment sessions with – coincidentally (and this is something that becomes more prevalent in the Reiki world (coincidences that is) - the same lady who was leading the meditation classes. I was fascinated as I read the advertisement; it mentioned how Reiki can encourage and support positive personal changes, helping to balance the emotions and free us from restrictive mental attitudes and behaviour patterns. It explained how Reiki can help to improve the quality of our relationships, help us to de-stress, reduce our need for alcohol and tobacco, improve our diet and help us to respond more calmly to situations and events in our lives.
This resonated with me immediately and while I still knew very little about the ‘how’, I was at a point in my life where I was willing to give anything a go. This is often the nature of Reiki – you may not be aware of it at the time, but it tends to come into your life when you need it the most; you just simply have to be open to receiving it. Of course, this is the other thing with Reiki, it cannot be forced upon you, you are either willing to go there or you aren’t and no amount of pressure from family or friends will change that – all they can do is plant the seed by making you aware that it exists in the first place.
From my own experience I know that Reiki offers a great many benefits. Essentially it is a holistic relaxation therapy that focuses on the root cause of conditions rather than merely on the symptoms. Thus not only can Reiki be used to induce a sense of deep physical relaxation but it can also be used to promote the healing of a wide range of ailments. These include everything from stress related complaints such as insomnia to joint aches and pains (such as arthritis), headaches, stomach aches, depression, backache, menstrual problems, anxiety, asthma, colds and flu etc.
The Japanese word Reiki (pronounced Ray-key) means ‘Universal Energy’ and is based on the free flow of this energy in a person. Eastern medicine has always recognised and worked with this energy, which flows through all living things and is vital to well-being. It refers to an ancient hands-on healing art developed by Dr Mikao Usui in Japan in the early 1900’s for personal development and the passing of healing energy onto others. Dr Usui believed that by clearing the body energetically it was possible to feel more connected to life, more relaxed, physically healthier and less unbalanced emotionally.
The second Reiki treatment provided a very different experience to the one I had experienced only a few months earlier. Practising Reiki tends to enhance the intuition of the Reiki practitioner and this Reiki practitioner was certainly intuitive – not only that but I felt more of a connection. She was able to feel what was going on for me, beyond the ego and the conscious thought patterns, and articulate these feelings to me in such a way that I could not have said them better myself. It was a liberating and enlightening experience as I finally started to acknowledge a few of those things I had pushed down and tried to push away.
After the session I felt quite emotional and the practitioner assured me that this is not unusual. The practitioner explained to me that it is a little like peeling an onion – the more you receive Reiki, the more you remove the layers, and the closer you come to your core, your true self – I guess it is a little like discarding the baggage, step by step, a fantastic form of personal development. Of course it is different for everyone - some people may only want one session to merely relax while others will want more sessions to continue peeling away the layers.
Reiki treatments tend to last anywhere between 40 minutes and an hour and are carried out with you lying in a comfortable and peaceful environment. There is no need to remove any clothing and you are often given the opportunity to cover yourself with a blanket to encourage relaxation and make you feel a little more comfortable. The practitioner may gently lay their hands on different parts of the body corresponding with the Chakras or energy centres, working from the head to the toes. You may be asked to turn over so the practitioner can work on the other side of your body too.
Reiki has its own intelligence and the practitioner will be drawn intuitively to those parts of the body where the Reiki needs to go. The body automatically draws in only as much Reiki as is needed using it in whatever way is most appropriate at that time. The Reiki energy may be felt as a flow of energy, mild tingling, warmth, heat, coolness, other sensations, or nothing at all. It is common to drift off to sleep and you are often encouraged to do so as it promotes a deeply relaxing experience, calming the mind as much as the body.
As for the ability to practise Reiki, well it does not take years of training, nor is it dependent upon intellectual capacity; it is simply passed from a teacher to the student. As soon as this happens, one has the ability to channel Reiki for the whole of one’s life and can be learned by anyone. The attunement is a powerful spiritual experience and can increase psychic sensitivity. However, like most situations in life, people respond differently and the Reiki attunement is no exception.
There are three levels of study and they are all independent of each other. The first level teaches you how to use Reiki for your own personal self-development, self healing and also the healing of others. The second provides you with additional tools to work with Reiki and enables you to become a registered professional practitioner. The third level, where you become a Reiki Master, teaches you how to further your own interest in Reiki, where you simply ‘be Reiki’. You can then go one step further and train to become a teacher yourself.
The attunement process starts a cleansing process that can affect you on all levels as many of the toxins that have been stored in the body are released along with feelings and thought patterns that are no longer required. Each level of attunement tends to increase the strength of the energy, encouraging personal development, self -healing, greater clarity of mind, increased intuition and potential increase in levels of consciousness.
Over two years I undertook each level of training and I have been a Reiki Master teacher for some time offering Reiki treatments and attunement sessions. Each level brought with it new insights and it has been an empowering experience, which has not only increased my awareness of the world around me but changed the way I perceive so many aspects of life. I have a far greater understanding and appreciation of healing, health and wellbeing, metaphysics, the Chakra system and the flow of energy within the body.
Furthermore Reiki has profoundly helped me on a personal level so that it has literally been life changing, incredibly empowering and transformative and helped me (and continues to help me) to find the strength, clarity, self-belief and faith to make significant life changes more in tune with my true self. I have since changed occupations and am far happier, healthier, positive and balanced than I was before I discovered Reiki. I have become far more in touch with my intuition and truth plus much more sensitive to energy – both my own and other people’s - plus of course nature and the natural flow of things.
Needless to say there is absolutely nothing special about me. People often assume I must tire from channelling Reiki to others, but this is merely a misconception of what Reiki is all about – I am not a healer in the “laying on of hands” type way, I am simply a channel for the Reiki energy. In fact treating others is as relaxing and meditative for me as it is for the client and independent research has actually shown that during a treatment the brain wave patterns of practitioner and client become synchronised in the alpha state, characteristic of deep sleep and meditation.
Of course life still continues to present its many challenges and its fears, but I believe Reiki helps us to have a greater connection with our sense of self. Feeling more strongly connected to yourself means that you are less likely to feel so overwhelmed by these stresses and you are more likely to see them for what they truly are. Furthermore Reiki can help you to realise what it is you need in your life (which is not always the same as what you think you want) and as a consequence, it encourages you to take control by letting go of all those things you no longer need.
Simply put Reiki – as both a personal development and energy healing technique -can be a life changing experience that helps to enhance your experience of life and make you feel more connected somehow.
Photography by my gifted cousin Nick - see www.nickdespres.com for more images
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
Well I hope you all enjoyed welcoming the New Year and the start of a new decade, how time flies and yet how much has changed since the Millennium, how life has the potential to be so different in another 10 years time!!
I decided to start the New Year as I intend it to continue - peaceful, quiet and simple. So after spending a few hours with my dear friends Vicki and Chris and watching them mess around on the wii (I lasted 25 minutes before I got bored of the whole wii experience!), and talking on the phone to my oldest bestest friend Lou up in Edinburgh, I returned to my folks' house in time for midnight, which I enjoyed on my own, before going to bed. Fun huh!!
Still I woke feeling content this morning, excited almost about the year ahead, the skies were beautiful early morning and the roads clear as I went for an early morning drive in my new car (second hand, courtesy of Sam, the trials and tribulations of Bestsy resolved and over before the end of the year, hoorah) enjoying the views - such an incredible play of clouds and light and the sea a deep and dark winter blue, plus a little sleet to spice things up, I do feel so lucky at times like this to live on Guernsey.
I spoke to my brother in Australia too, always good to talk - shame he lives over the other side of the world, although not for much longer - especially as he is getting super excited about his forthcoming travels through India, Nepal, Thailand and Malaysia with his partner, Star, and her 14-year old daughter, Adena, who will now be home-schooled (and what better education than travelling the world). They will be in Europe by May and here in Guernsey for a few weeks - I can't wait, we are all hoping to teach Yoga together and offer something a little different.
So all in all a good start. I am now settled in my new home in the lanes of rural St Andrews, a house owned by the grandmother of one of my friends, very cosy and so lovely to finally unpack all my books and bits and pieces that have been packed away since Ross and I sold our house over 4 years ago...at times I can't believe that it has taken 4 years to get to this position of being able to stand on my own two feet as a self-employed being, such a relief, so it just goes to show it can happen, if you have patience, intention and faith (and believe me I have struggled with all those concepts at times!)...long may it continue!
Aside from the noise of the paper and mail planes arriving in the morning acting as my new wake up call, I love the fact that I can also hear the early morning call of the cockerels and many birds who reside in the beautiful garden, plus the horses being ridden through the lanes, and there is very ittle light pollution at night so I am aware of the moon and the stars again, reminding me of my life in Nepal when I would often sit on the rooftop of the humble hotel late at night (by Nepali standards), enjoying the opportunity for solitude, reflection and star gazing.
I am looking forward to getting back to teaching Yoga again. Over the festive period I have been working with a book I received for Christmas by this wonderful lady called Dona who has been practising Yoga for almost 50 years and shares her knowledge from an anatomical and yet energetic perspective having spent many of her years experimenting with the Iyengar tradition. This book has helped to change my practice and release the tension I was beginning to feel in my sacral-illiac joint from almost being too mobile in that area of the body - integrity, I am learning greater integrity in my own practice I guess, which I am keen to share with others, especially those with lower back issues.
Of course I have set many intentions for the new year, but I am open to the unknown, new experiences and opportunities on the path of light, doing my bit to serve and fulfil my true potential, however that presents itself. Peace, love, continued good health and happiness are high up the list, and truth and integrity of course, plus travel and continued oppotunities to teach Yoga both home and abroad, plus write, well continue to write - it could be a busy year! But we shall see, one foot in front of the other, the past is the past, the future is the future and the present is of course a gift, so we should enjoy it, whatever it presents!
So onwards and upwards in 2010, may we continue to embrace Lakshmi (beauty, wealth and abundance), Ganesha (overcoming all obstacles) and Shiva (destroying and creating), allowing our individual light to shine forth, helping to make the world a happier, more peaceful and lighter place to live.
Om shanti.
Love Em x
ONCE IN A BLUE MOON
How exciting that we get to experience a blue moon on New Year's Eve, no wonder the energy has been so powerful these last few days, what a fantastic way to end the Year, out with the old to make way for the new - new beginnings no less. Get his:-
A Full moon occurs every 29.5 days
A Blue moon occurs every 2.5 years
A New year's blue moon occurs every 19 years
1990 was the last time there was a blue moon for the new year
2028 will be the next blue moon to start the new year
I find it all rather fascinating - a full lunar cycle is a little over 28 days long whilst a calendar year is more than that (why we don't follow the lunar cycle I have no idea, would make sense in terms of how we feel and our connection to nature...), which means that during some years we can end up with thirteen full moons instead of twelve, depending on where in the month the lunar cycle falls.
This is because during each calendar year we end up with twelve full 28-day cycles, and a leftover accumulation of eleven or twelve days. Those days accumulate and so about once every 28 calendar months we end up with an extra full moon during the month.
In folklore the monthly moon phases were each given names that helped people prepare for various types of weather and crop rotations and although these names varied depending on culture and location, they generally identified the sort of weather or other natural phenomenon that might take place in a given month. The term "blue moon" was given to the second full moon to appear in a calendar month.
Needless to say in some magical traditions the blue moon is considered a sort of spiritual bonus round. It is a time of new beginnings, of getting things right that you feel you missed or messed up the first time around, so if there is something new you would like to start then now is a perfect opportunity to do so - and what better timing (obviously - you have to love the magic of the Universe) than at the start of a New Year. See exciting stuff.
On New Year's Eve my cousin Yo (with whom I lived in Devon during the summer) and Sam (a friend from Yoga and Reiki)battled the icy wind and rain to perform our own little "letting go" ceremony at the Fairy Ring. It was a rather funny experience as Sam and I wrote down all the "stuff" we wanted to let go of from the past onto little bits of paper before burning them in a bracken fire in the base of the ring that Yo had cleverly constructed for us...Sam almost set fire to her tights so she was certainly dancing her way around the fire, which of course I found hilarious.
While we were out there a wedding party turned up for some wedding photographs - not something that I have seen before, a bride wearing this glorious bright red wedding dress battling her way through the atrocious weather with the groom wearing a bright red bow tie, smiling together on the centre of the fairy ring while the photographer also battled with the wind to get some mystical and Pagan shots - well it has to be mystical and Pagan surely?!
Aside from being absolutely freezing and all cobwebs certainly blown away, Sam and I both commented on the fact we felt much lighter after the whole experience - certainly different to the previous "burning bowl ceremonies" I have done on New year's Eve in the past, which have focused more on setting intentions for the New Year rather than letting things go - and I now believe that this somehow misses the point as you cannot bring in the new until you have made space by letting go of the old.
And I have to say that if there is one thing 2009 taught me it was to let go - as well as having faith and belief in yourself and the Universe and embracing the concepts of patience, compassion, forgiveness and self worth into every day living, plus of course not forgetting that life is for living...
So as one year ends and a new one begins, watch the moon, feels its energy, get in touch with the rhythm of this incredible Earth we live on, go with the flow and enjoy the journey, even the bumps, for there is joy in every new experience however tough it may feel at the time - oh and let go, let go, let go, while embracing the new.
Much love and lightness
Em xxxx