(Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash)
New year, new you, right? Not so much. Many of us feel inspired to make drastic changes when the calendar ticks over to another year, only to wind up frustrated when we fail to hit those epic goals. So why does that happen? From an energy healer’s perspective, here are some of the factors that may be adversely affecting your progress…
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(Photo by Zack Minor on Unsplash)
If you grew up in a religious household you may have been told as a child that when things go wrong, it’s because God is testing you. I got this a lot when I was a kid. To my young mind, it wasn’t particularly helpful. It was never clear to me what the test was, what I’d done wrong to deserve it or what I needed to change in order to ‘pass’ this supposed test.
Even without the religious overtones, there are plenty of adults who believe that when we encounter challenges it’s because the Universe is throwing down some sort of challenge or test. I sometimes hear versions of this statement: ‘the Universe must be testing me’, or ‘I guess God/the Universe doesn’t want me to rent this house/get promoted/find love [insert relevant circumstance]’. It’s true that sometimes things pass us by because they aren’t right for us, but it’s not true that the Universe would deliberately send you crappy situations to challenge your willpower or your faith.
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The heart chakra, located in the centre of the chest, is the energy centre that’s all about how we give and receive love – to all people, not just our partners, and to ourselves.
People who have blockages in their heart chakra can be judgmental or they could be prone to jealousy. They might be unable to forgive someone or they might be grappling with grief.
As the fourth of the seven chakras, this is the meeting point of the energy centres that are associated with the physical world (the base, sacral and solar plexus chakras) and the three chakras representing the spiritual world (more on each of those in future posts). To get a bit airy-fairy, it’s where heaven and earth meet.
When the heart chakra is balanced, we’re compassionate, empathetic, peaceful, loving and able to help others without depleting our own resources (i.e. we don’t overcommit). We’re also able to honour our feelings, crying when we need to, but also administer self-care when we need it – that’s everything from drawing ourselves a bubble bath to simply speaking kindly to ourselves. We’re also able to receive love easily – we don’t say ‘no’ to people when they offer to help and we don’t put up barriers when people who we like get close to us.
What I think is so significant about the heart chakra is that while the solar plexus was all about shame, this chakra’s enemy is grief. If you think about it, it is loss of any sort (not just bereavement) that makes the heart hurt. Because self-love is so strongly emphasised in this chakra, this loss might be to do with your attachment to ideas about what your life should look like or who you thought you should have become.
Repressed emotions really come to the fore in this chakra – particularly for people who suffered deep hurts in childhood such as a death in the family, bullying or abandonment by a parent.
People with deficiencies in the heart chakra might be:
* anti-social
* lonely
* fearful of intimacy
* narcissistic
* judgmental (including racist, sexist, homophobic etc)
* lacking empathy
* unable to let go
* unable to forgive
* struggling to accept help from people
People with excessive energy in the heart chakra might be:
* co-dependent
* jealous
* demanding of their loved ones
* needing to be needed
* fearful of betrayal
Any issues with the arms can be related, too – and when I’m clearing this chakra in a reiki session people often report tingling in their hands. That’s because this chakra is all about touch – and that’s a key way we show love to people, right?
To clear blockages in the heart chakra, one suggestion I’ve heard is to try and go a week without criticising anyone, which will really help you examine how accepting you are.
· Remember that love is about giving AND receiving, so look at how you can increase the amount of love you’re giving out – that’s anything from smiling at people regularly to giving compliments and donating to people in need.
· If you’re into yoga, back bends, bridges and the wheel pose are great for targeting this chakra – and yoga also helps you to sit in the present moment, which is beneficial for your energy field as a whole.
If you’d like to work with me to heal any of the issues in this article, you can book energy healing sessions here. More information about how I work is available here.
Lately the angel cards have repeatedly urged us to clear away toxic energies, so a blog post on shielding against negativity seemed like a good idea.
Having worked in the magazine industry for almost 15 years, I’ve crossed paths with some fairly extreme personalities. Narcissism, cynicism, backstabbing and just plain nastiness are par for the course in what is a highly competitive field - although, this can happen in any workplace. Because I’m very sensitive to other people’s energy (read my post about that here), it’s been essential to learn to avoid absorbing those harsh energies. If I don’t protect myself from negativity emanating from the Eeyores or the Regina Georges of this world, I feel sluggish, miserable and on edge.
In the past year I’ve become better at shielding myself against negative energies. It’s not possible to live in a place where you never encounter whingers or mean-spirited types, but you can certainly limit the extent that you're affected by them. I do a shielding exercise every morning as part of my daily meditation. I also often carry crystals, such as clear quartz and labrodite to prevent me absorbing other people’s energies – particularly when I’m doing reiki sessions, during which I’m working intensely in people’s energy fields – but you don't have to go to those lengths.
This is how my shielding exercise works. While meditating (you don't have to meditate to do this, you can just visualise it), I’ll call upon Archangel Michael, the archangel in charge of protection, to create a shield around me. He's the patron saint of police officers and security guards, so I regard him as my spiritual bouncer. I’ll envisage him using his sword to create a bubble of white light around me for protection. Next, I’ll ask for extra layers. If I’m feeling like my self-love or compassion are lacking, I’ll ask for a layer of sparkly pink light to boost my love energy. If I’m feeling emotional, I might ask for green energy, which opens my heart chakra and invokes healing. Then I’ll ask for a layer of purple light, which is psychic protection, or energy field protection. Basically, this protects me from lower energies, negativity and harsh energies. If this is too complicated or just too 'out there' for you, just focus on the white light layer – that’s for general protection. I ask for this to remain intact for 24 hours.
Does this mean I’ll never encounter criticism or nastiness? No. Haters gonna hate, as that wise philosopher Taylor Swift once declared (lol). But it does mean I don’t feel myself being sucked into that vortex. I’m not taking on what I’m being exposed to. It’s easier to simply shake it off (sorry, couldn’t resist that one).
Most emotions will hit you with no rhyme or reason, and there’s little you can do about that. But when those emotions belong to other people, you don’t have to take them on. Shielding yourself is a way to take control.
*If you feel like you’re weighed down with other people’s energies, a reiki session can help. I also offer distance energy healing and cord cutting; email onegroundedangel@gmail.com for more information.
You know how people talk about having ‘fire in the belly’? That’s an indirect reference to the solar-plexus chakra, which is the energy centre concerned with personal power and control. This is an energy centre I’ve had constant blocks so I’m very familiar with it.
Symbolised by the element of fire, the solar plexus is the third chakra, sitting above the base and the sacral chakras. Located in the middle of your back and belly (just above the navel), it’s all about asserting your power without dominating other people, having will power and being comfortable with your place in the world.
People with blocks in the solar-plexus chakra might be doormats, or at the other end of the scale they could be bullies. They could be low in self-esteem or they could be workaholics.
If your energy in this chakra is balanced, you’ll be confident, flexible, self-disciplined, able to take responsibility for your actions and will have a good appreciation of your personal power (i.e. you don’t need to exert power over others to feel important). You’re just as happy to lead as to be led. You’ll also be warm and playful, because sense of humour is strongly connected to this energy centre (hence the saying ‘belly laughs’).
Even though chakras deal with esoteric energy, your physical energy is also at play in this chakra. If this chakra is balanced, you use your energy wisely – you don’t overextend yourself for long periods, and you don’t waste it on people who drain you.
While the base chakra was about fear and the sacral chakra was about guilt, the solar plexus’ enemy is shame.
(Image: the solar -plexus chakra symbol)
Essentially this chakra about owning your identity and being at peace with where you’re at in life – and it makes sense that that’s lacking in people who are bullies, workaholics or constantly angry.
People who are deficient in energy in the solar plexus chakra might display these characteristics:
· Low or no self-esteem
· Share no opinions, ever
· Avoid conflict at all costs
· Say yes to everything asked of them (hello, doormat!)
· Rely on other people’s validation to feel like they matter
· Passive approach to life (letting opportunities pass them by)
· Victim mentality
· Constant worry about what other people think of them
People with excessive energy in this chakra might have some of these things going on:
· Arrogance
· Constant need to have things their way (in the extreme: bullying)
· A need to be right and to have the last word
· Always having something to prove (typical of workaholics)
· Aggressive and prone to outbursts of anger
· Domineering and controlling
· Always criticising other people and very judgmental
· Perfectionism
· Always stressed out
Balancing this chakra comes back to instilling a healthy sense of self-esteem. If there’s something deep that’s proving an obstacle to healthy self-worth, seeking professional counsel could be helpful. Setting a goal and working towards it can help, as that requires you to back yourself and see yourself as worthy of success. If outbursts of anger are an issue for you, addressing the underlying issues could also be beneficial. Anger is a secondary emotion – it’s always masking a deeper problem, usually a fear of some sort. And of course, reiki is a brilliant way to clear blocks in any chakra.
If you’d like to work with me to heal any of the issues in this article, you can book energy healing sessions here. More information about how I work is available here.