by Abby Wynne
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The power of receiving
You’ve set an intention and now you’ve given permission. See how it’s all building up! Now you need to open and receive.
How do you know if you’re really opening up to receive? Imagine you’ve bought some new clothes, and your friend says ‘I love that outfit on you, you look amazing!’ You say, ‘Not really, it’s just some new clothes…’ and brush it away. That’s not receiving what they’re saying. Your self-esteem and self-worth have an influence over this. If you have low self-esteem, it’s harder to accept a compliment.
Let’s try again. They say how amazing you look and you say, ‘Thank you!’, and you blush and turn away, and close down your heart because it’s not really possible that you would look amazing. Well, it’s better, but you’re still not receiving the compliment.
Let’s try one more time. They say how amazing you look. You look them in the eye and you stay there. You don’t run away in your mind, but this time you feel it. Imagine that the compliment they sent you is a ball of light, coming from them to you. You stay and accept it. You feel a shock or a hit from the light as it enters and becomes absorbed into your system. Like a shiver! Then you say, ‘Thank you, I appreciate you saying that.’ A higher vibrational energy (the compliment) coming into your system can feel strange, even painful, in a good way, depending on what vibration you are carrying in that moment. That’s why we run from compliments; they change our vibration, if we let them.
Now you know how to receive properly. Try this exercise for real the next time someone says something nice to you. Then you can say something nice back to them in return.
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Exercise: opening to receive Energy Healing
Soften your resistance to healing by imagining a door in your mind that now opens to let the healing come in. Remember the swimming pool? Well, if your water is warm and the new water is cold, you will get a shock from the temperature change. So let’s imagine the Energy Healing is the same temperature as you are, so that it feels gentle and good, so that there are no shocks involved. You could also imagine you’re opening both of your hands to receive a gift, or you could imagine a box that was buried deep in your soul, one that has been closed for years, is being dusted off, and now is ready to open to the light. See it open in your mind. ‘Yes! I am ready.’
Sit comfortably where you won’t be disturbed. Set your intention for healing (a simple ‘I want to feel better’ is a good intention).
Give your permission to receive. (‘I give myself permission to receive healing now and feel better’). You can say this out loud, or in your mind.
Now, allow your imagination to use one of the images I gave you above, or to create your own image of how you open and receive. Just doing this is like a green light for your biofield to reorganize itself, so you might notice some energy shifts even at this point. Take some time and let it happen, slow down and notice if you feel uncomfortable, joyful, if you receive an energy burst, or have a breakthrough with an issue that’s been on your mind.
If you feel uncomfortable, become aware of what you are thinking about – I don’t deserve this? I’m not good enough? I feel guilty for receiving this gift?
Healing is a gift, and there is no need to feel guilty, because it is your birthright. You’d let a stranger receive the light, why not you? Be nicer to yourself, tell yourself it’s OK, and stay with this exercise. Repeat it over a few days until you feel more comfortable with it.
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Healing can get worse before it gets better
So now you know that Energy Healing is not just about healing with energy. It’s about being true to yourself, not running away from your pain, releasing old wounds and changing your life.
Healing can get worse before it gets better – have you ever given up sugar or caffeine? There’s a detox period in which your body releases the bad chemicals that were bound up in your body, and you can feel ill from that. You can have a terrible headache, you can be dopey in your mind, need to sleep or just feel rotten overall. But if you persist, after a few days your body clears, and then you really start to feel the benefits. You may feel lighter, more awake and have more energy. The same thing can happen with healing. It’s called a Healing Crisis, but it won’t last, and when it’s done you will feel much better. So, don’t give up!
Going into process
Swimming pools catch leaves, sticks, even bits of stones and gravel. Imagine as the new water goes in to clear the dye, it stirs up the pool a little and the debris floating on top gets forced into the out pipe, and then blocks it. More water forces it to move, but it is blocked and slow. Once the debris is eventually pushed through to the other end, it comes out with a ‘POP!’ and it’s gone. The pipe is clear again and the pool is that bit cleaner, but the process wasn’t easy. Imagine how much water is needed to force the debris out of the pipe.
When you start a healing practice, you go ‘into process’, which means the waters in your ‘swimming pool’ get all stirred up and then start to flow in the general direction of being clear. You’re much more complex than a swimming pool, but if you were one, you might have gravel, leaves and mud, but you might also have bits of broken cars, shopping trolleys, even glass, depending on what you have experienced in your life. When you start healing you don’t know what dirt is going to get churned up, what bits of sticks and debris may end up blocking your pipe, so to speak.
Look after yourself during healing
I want you to be aware of this so that you can be your own watchdog and make sure that you look after you. Sometimes you might be healing for days and not feel any result, like you’re pushing the water into the pipe, and the gravel isn’t moving. You might even feel physically ill or emotionally upset, and not know exactly why. Memories of things that you’ve forgotten about can surface, and you may find yourself trying to make sense of what’s going on for you. Don’t. Just know that you are in the process of healing, and that these stuck energies are moving, and will eventually leave, so that you can be at a higher vibration than you were.
You don’t have to do this alone. If you want to get help don’t be afraid to ask. Talk to a friend, to someone in your family, or find a practitioner to help you, if it’s too difficult to do it alone. Check out the Resources section and you can always ask me questions by email or visit me on my Facebook page.
Chapter 3
Centring
Many of us think our way through life. We use our brain to navigate everything: where we are going, what we want to eat, what we choose to wear. We even decide how we feel. We live in an intellectual world surrounded by things to stimulate our minds, and if we don’t have a project, a hobby or a problem to work through, our brain goes back to our past, or flies into our future and ‘chooses’ something from there for us to become preoccupied with.
When we tend to be in our heads most of the time, it’s as if our Life Force Energy follows, moving up to be more in our head as well, because that’s where we’re focusing our attention. Sometimes our Life Force Energy moves up and out of our head, and outside our body too.
Think about it – have you ever felt like you haven’t fully arrived somewhere yet? Or notice that when you drift off into your thoughts, you lose connection with your body? How about right now – do you feel that you are fully present in your physical body? Do you know what your feet are doing? Do you know what your legs are doing? Now that you’re thinking about it, did you notice a shift in the energies of your body? Are you more aware now of your feet? Start to notice how much you drift, and know that your Life Force Energy also drifts with you.
Let’s get started with some basic Energy Healing exercises!
Creating a space of love
To begin your healing practice you will need to create what I call a space of love for yourself. Some people call this a sacred space, but love is sacred, so it’s the same thing. A space of love is a quiet space where you feel completely safe, and will be undisturbed.
You can go all out and burn a candle or incense, play soft quiet music, dim the lights. But you don’t have to do any of that if you don’t want to. Feeling safe in your space of love is the most important thing.
It’s best to treat all these Energy Healing exercises as work and to be wide awake for them so you can experience them to the full. Sit up straight with your feet on the ground, or sit on the ground if you prefer. However, if you want to use any of the exercises in this book to help you fall asleep, your intention will then be to fall asleep, rather than to do healing work. You can go ahead and do them lying down, but make sure that you also do the exercises while awake so you don’t just sleep through them all!
You can set a space of time around your exercises too if you want to, it’s completely up to you. Time can help you feel secure in your space of love as well. If 15 minutes feels too long, try 10, and remember that even three minutes is better than no minutes! If you choose to set a time boundary around an exercise, know that sometimes doing that can help you go deeper into it. It’s as if you give your mind permission to concentrate fully on the work at hand as it will only be for a set amount of time. Wonderfully, sometimes after an exercise things don’t seem as urgent or as important as they did before, so this helps with stress management too! If you set an alarm, make sure you use a soft tone so that you don’t get a shock from a harsh buzzer breaking into your relaxed state.
Your space of love can be used as a setting for all the exercises you do from the book, or for any type of ongoing healing practice that you may choose to create for yourself. You can set a space of love just to experience the different energy you feel while inside it.
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Exercise: being in a space of love
Take some time to create your space of love. Set your alarm if you wish to set a time boundary.
Set an intention to sit in the space of love just to be with yourself, just as you are.
Sit for as long as you feel comfortable and breathe, relax and let your mind wander, not having to do anything, just being present to whatever is going on for you.
Don’t get caught up in thoughts. If you do, just disconnect and bring yourself back to your breathing, back to being in the space.
Notice how you feel – do you feel different now?
Come back to yourself. Feel your feet on the ground, and bring your awareness back to the room.
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What was that like? Was it difficult just to be still or was it easy? Do you feel refreshed? Calmer? Or more agitated? What would you like to change about your space of love, if anything?
Notice that this is your starting point, before we get deeper into the healing work. If you were feeling nerves, agitation, anything like that, it’s OK. It’s natural. In your normal daily life do you tend to avoid quiet, peaceful times? Do you always have to listen to the radio or television, or be on the phone or on Facebook? Try this exercise again with a time boundary, or without one if you used one already, and notice if it feels different to you. Just learn, there is no right or wrong, there just is what there is. We start from this place.
Reconnecting to your body
‘I don’t feel happy or joyous. It’s been about five years since I really felt alive. I want that feeling back. I need something to change but I don’t know how to do it.’ Tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear, Carol looks distant and sad.
‘When was the last time you felt connected to your body?’ I ask. ‘I mean, really in your body, fully present, here and now?’
‘Hmmm… I don’t actually remember.’
‘Let’s start by introducing you back to your body, saying hello to it, no pressure to do anything, no pressure to be anything – would that be OK?’
She sits up in her chair, but moving slightly back and away from me. ‘I’m not sure – what does that mean exactly?’
‘Well, your body feels, that’s its job. You think thoughts, but your body feels the emotions that go with them and only by processing the thought and emotion together can you truly embody change. I suppose the main problem is if you’ve not felt anything in a while, you can become afraid of what it is you may feel when you come back to the body experience. It’s perfectly safe – you don’t have to do it all today.’
‘Maybe. I’ll think about it,’ she says.
It can be difficult to reconnect with your body if you have been away from it for a while, so here I suggest a very gentle exercise, coming back into your body and saying hello, as if it’s an old friend whom you have not seen in a long while. Doing this might bring up difficult feelings that you may have for your body; you may not be happy with parts of your body, or you may feel discomfort being in your body owing to physical pain. Becoming centred in your body is very important though, because it’s only here, in your body, that you can access your full potential.
You can do this exercise in segments over a longer period if it becomes overwhelming, or you can take some time to go deeply into it. If you feel anxious just thinking about doing this, take out your journal and check in with yourself. Ask yourself why you feel anxious. What’s going on for you? Go outside for a walk, clear your head, then come back and try again.
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Exercise: becoming centred in your body
Sit comfortably in your space of love. Have an open posture, no folded arms or crossed legs. Close your eyes. Bring your awareness to yourself, to where you are focusing your attention right now.
Breathe.
Imagine that your attention, your focus of awareness, is a ball of light. It is usually outside your body, so if you locate it outside your body, that’s perfectly OK!
Give yourself a minute to settle with this, and you may notice that as you pay more attention to this centre of awareness, the ball of light in your mind’s eye may get brighter and stronger! Just let it be whatever it is.
Gather up all of this light that is you, outside your body, and invite it to come and sit at the top of your head, over your crown. Notice as you do this you may feel a shift in your energy.
Imagine this ball of light has moved up and is now directly over your head, shining brightly there, bringing you more awareness of your actual head!
Breathe, and allow yourself to settle like this for a moment, and give thanks to your energy for taking part in this exercise.
Now with your next breath, invite this ball of light to come gently through your skull, and into your head. Don’t worry, it won’t hurt. Feel it dropping in, and imagine the light shining from the inside of your head, out through your eyes, washing your brain clear of negativity, opening up your ears.
How do you feel doing this? Breathe, and keep your focus and awareness on your head, on the light inside your head. As it shines more brightly, you relax more deeply with every breath. Go slowly, feel every bit of this if you can.
You’re still not centred right now. You’re in your head! Better than being outside it. Does it feel different to you? You can stop here if you want to and come back and try again another time.
Breathe. On your next out breath, imagine your centre of awareness, your ball of light, dropping down into your mouth. Feel it shining out from behind your teeth. Bring your awareness more deeply into your mouth, your tongue and your cheeks. Stay in your mouth for as long as you feel comfortable; imagine that you open your mouth and the light shines out. Imagine this light is cleansing and purifying the cells in your mouth, tongue, cheeks and even your teeth.
Breathe softly and deeply. Allow your centre of awareness, the beautiful ball of light, to drop down gently into your throat. Notice if your throat tightens up as you do this, and tell yourself ‘it’s OK’. Breathe with the light, and notice if you relax, or if you don’t. Feel your attention and awareness still with your throat, then bring it to the back of your throat, to your neck, and imagine the light is feeding the cells in your throat and neck and they’re getting a ‘drink’ of healing from you.
Breathe again, and feel your feet on the ground, bring y
our awareness to your throat again and now allow the ball of light to drop down into your chest. Become aware of your shoulder blades, the tops of your arms. Notice how you feel, how your chest feels – is it tight? If it is tight, stay with it and breathe a little bit longer, give yourself permission to relax, and enjoy this sensation of being in your chest.
If it helps, you can imagine that you have armour around your chest, and each time you breathe, the light that you are shining melts the armour, and you feel more free and open. If this feels scary to you that’s OK too; perhaps this virtual armour is a shield you are carrying as protection from the outside world. Remind yourself that you are in a space of love, and you are safe. See if that helps. Again, you can stop here if you don’t want to do any more, and come back later and try again.
Breathe, and allow the light to drop down to the centre of your chest, to your breastbone. This is your heart centre. Breathe, and imagine the light inside you lighting up your rib cage, breathe big and strong and then relax the breath, soften and notice how you feel.
Normally, when at the heart centre of the body, people feel more centred. How do you feel now? Maybe write it down. I see the whole body as the centre, the sky as the above, and the ground as the below. So for me, centring isn’t truly complete until you are in your whole body.
Ready to keep going?
Breathe and get your bearings. Make sure that you’re actually still at your heart centre. There could be a tendency for you to shift back upwards as you become more familiar with the feeling. If so, bring yourself gently back down again, and you’ll notice that the more often you do this, the easier and the quicker it gets.