Changing Your Thoughts To Create Harmony In Your Life.

I am lucky to have a field locally that is securely fenced. This means that anyone walking their dogs and puppies can let them off their leads to play and socialise. Last week on a day that I was off I took my pups there and saw Willow run to the fence with another dog. On the other side of the fence was a crow. The crow walked slowly on the pavement taunting the pups who could not reach it. It then flew just above their heads landing on top of the fence looking down at them before flying to a tree. I was advised by the other owners that this happened daily as the crow came to their 9 am club. It enjoyed outsmarting the puppies each day and often would fly above just to taunt them! I must make sure I take my camera or phone with me the next time I join in with them.
                                              

It reminded me of a few years ago walking my previous dog Misty in a local park when we were suddenly attacked  by crows. I assumed that they had chicks in the tree and were being a bit over protective as my dog and I certainly could not reach the tree! The interesting thing was for the next 3 years as we passed that particular tree we always got dive bombed. It made me aware that crows have long memories. I have since seen footage of this which showed that even when people that they had not seen for one year covered their faces, the crows still remembered them.

This got me thinking about how memories play a large part in peoples lives. How many of us can say that we genuinely don't harp back to things that we saw or were said to us or others in the past? I try to live in the now but don't always succeed. This may be because what I have put behind me may still be impacting on another so it can still be brought into a conversation. I remember considering being trained in Emotional Freedom Technique and went for a couple of sessions with the trainer. After the first one the trainer said " You must have had EFT before." I advised I had not and asked why she thought this. She said I did not have any distressing memories to dissolve. I said that I had worked through these with reiki but I'm not sure she believed me.  EFT works for many people but it was not for me at that time.



                                                 

How often do you hear that people are the way they are due to how they were brought up? This can sometimes be seen that an alcoholic or drug addict brings up a child that goes on to have alcohol or drug  related problems. I truly believe that for each of those children that take after the family there will be loads of others that go in the totally opposite direction. They often grow up stronger and successful, knowing that they have done it all by themselves. Of course they will have memories of how they were brought up but they don't let these hold them back. They use the memory to know what they do not want to be.

One thing to remember is how you react or speak to anyone can live on in their memory so be careful of what you say or do to others.  Once you say something, it cannot be taken back. The best type of memory to have is a positive one. Isn't it much better to be remembered for something good that you have said or done? We are all able to contribute to life in this way and it's never too late to start.

Let us be like the crow and create memories to hold on to but make sure from now on that they are only good ones. One of the things I love doing is Paying it forward. It always make me feel better to help others. This creates lovely memories for me to  keep.  You can check PIF out here and  also  in the UK. I also love just going out in all weathers to see the changes the seasons bring. When your mind takes a snapshot of all the colours and sounds surrounding you, these can be brought out to revisit anytime you want to feel back in those places.



If you live in Edinburgh, check out my workshops if you want to help change your life for the  better.

www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk
UK Reiki Federation Master / Teacher

The Social Media Effect

I was thinking today about what social media has brought into my life. I then found myself in a collage photo on a special persons page. This person Lives in India and I connected with him through a lovely lady who lives in  Spain.  Please check out his website and share it. He is a Heart surgeon and has already operated on 100 children for free due to his charity efforts.You may remember my blog last September when I holidayed with the author of the children's Skellee Rescue series in Spain. In fact back then she was on book number one but has since made a few more. You can find out more here and download a free book if you have young children.

This got me thinking that through her and others, I have connected with people all over the world that enrich my life daily. I have to say that previously I  had paid attention to what was just in my own locality, unless a major catastrophe was brought to my attention elsewhere in the world. Now I get information from all over the world and some of it speaks to me so that I also end up sharing it. This is one of the perks of social media. When someone shares something interesting it can go viral within hours and spread all over the world. Of course we need to make sure the information we share is correct before posting!

I have also read some fantastic books that I would never have considered before when some of these new friends have recommended them. The latest one took me three days (in between work) but I just did not want to put it down. It was called Bouncing Back:The life of Bill Bartmann and is all about Bill's life making and losing millions and at one time  he was even a Billionaire. I won't ruin the story but I loved the outcome. I have been able to read a lot of books on Positivity through these new friends and a lot about overcoming adversity. Today I read a story about how determined a  10 year old was to get  his first book published in India which took him 3 years so he became a publisher at 13 and by then he had written 4 books! Check this out here.. It put into perspective how much work can go into getting a book published although now it is easier with Ebooks but you then have to get your books noticed.

The internet has certainly opened up the world of communication and I love it. I would rather spend time on it than watching Television. In fact in the last few months my TV viewing has consisted of only switching on to watch the UK XFactor. Don't feel sad for me though as I love my life and don't really have time to watch TV. These days I would much rather be playing with or walking my puppies. I am also blessed to be able to pass the gift of reiki on to others which can make a big impact on both my life and theirs. If I was asked what had made the biggest impact on my life, the answer would be reiki but social media comes a close second. Through social media I have also met many people in person who have enriched me in many ways and for that I am most grateful. To everyone that I have connected to both online and in person I would like to say "Thank you for being in my life".

What does social media mean to you? Post in the comments box to let me know.


p.s. In the UK the clocks just went back last night so that means it gets darker earlier. Please everyone take more care and make sure you are able to be seen (especially cyclists).




You can find me on these sites. Feel free to like my pages if you would like to connect with me.
http://www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/peaceharmonyandjoy
https://twitter.com/Mistyspice

SPREAD A LITTLE HAPPINESS

PLEASE SHARE THIS and spread a little Happiness

How does it make you feel if someone steps in to help you unexpectedly? Does it give you a warm feeling?

Sometimes we do not acknowledge how much we are able to help other people and the impact it has on them. It may be you giving someone a cup of coffee. It may be helping someone with a project though not necessarily only when they ask. It may be holding a door open for someone or even just giving them a smile.

How often do you hear of a problem that someone has and come up with a solution to it?

I had a great experience of this a few years ago when a friend of mine on hearing I had a lack of space in the summertime decided to convert my attic on a budget at barely any charge at all. His answer to me was “You supported me when I needed it” This was completely unexpected and made me feel fantastic.

I also get a buzz out of helping others. I like to offer the use of my Chi machines or my time if I hear of someone in pain or needing to chill out. This week people have been helping me through my back pain. It is important to accept help when it is offered too as the sooner you fix a problem, you can then get back to helping others.

Are you like I was and feel that if you help someone you should not blow your own trumpet? I have struggled with this over the years but have come to realise that if people know what I am doing, it may make them think differently if they come across a situation they can then help with.  I’m not doing anything extra as far as I’m concerned. It's just the way I live my life and I am sure there are thousands more out there who are the same.

We’ve all been brought up to thank people for helping us.  I want to turn this on its head and put the onus on you to raise the good feeling of wherever you work from or in the home. In fact I think the children would also love to become involved with this. For the next 3 weeks I want you all to take part in an experiment. Hopefully after this you will continue and allow the idea to spread.

 The idea is to go to the http://www.kindspring.org/ website. There you can download for free a Smile card design and print them out. Alternatively you can make your own, something again that I think children will love to join in with. Give each person in your team area or home 5 cards. If you need more then that's great. What I want is for you to do something for colleagues/ family/ friends unexpectedly. It may be offering to help with something someone is struggling with. It may be just having a listening ear when they need you to. It can be something simple like offering to carry a load for someone, to suggesting you can help with a problem you know they have. For children it is not doing what they are expected to do in the home. Instead it is when they decide to help in another unexpected way! 

When you have helped someone you then give them a Smile card and ask them to pass it along.


 I would like you to keep a note of what you did and who you gave the card to. I also would like anyone given a card to write down their thoughts on receiving it. This will let you recognise how often that you have helped spread the word.  You should be proud of this. It is not about Ego- more about making everyone feel they are in an environment where people are aware of each other and go that little bit extra to help. The idea is NOT to collect cards but to give them away.

I know my readers are positive minded (or hoping to get there) and I know we all have different skills that enable us to help others. All I am asking that you do not wait for others to come to you. If you hear of or see a problem, then if you can, offer to help.  Please remember that although many people are very good at offering help to each other many others do not feel this way and we want to change this. 

The website I was originally going to link to was called Help others but they have now changed to Kindspring and I see that they did something similar in September so please take a good look at their website.

I wish you a successful time and please share this to get the word out that helping others is a great thing to do. I would love you to come back here and let me know what you have been doing to share the Smile cards.

www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

https://www.facebook.com/peaceharmonyandjoy

Gratitude through life changes

Do you ever have one of those days when you feel your heart is fit to burst? I had one of those moments this morning. This last week has been full of great things happening, some unexpected , but all moving in the right direction and it's going to continue in the same way.

When I wake up in the morning and before I go to bed in the evening I always take a few minutes to go over what I am grateful for. This may be the changing seasons, family and friends, my puppies and lots more. Now, sometimes things do not go the way you might expect, but often you may find later that the right thing happened at the right time. Because of this I try hard to find something positive in every situation. I may not always succeed, as just like you, I'm human. This is always work in progress!

I have not always been like this. A few years ago I would have a couple of things go wrong and then wait for the 3rd thing to mess up. I then became involved with reiki and my attitude had a big change. I  read the Secrets of the Power of Intention by Wayne Dyer which had a big impact on me and then the Law of Attraction.With these teachers I started to think more positively and also realised that until then I had been a "Poor me" type of person. This comes from the Celestine Prophecy by James Redfield which I had also read and would highly recommend. This  is someone that always feels and acts like a victim and always has the guilt trip laid on them that they can never be good enough. I came across this today which is worth a read and explains the different types of people from the book. It is very illuminating.

When you realise that you do not like the type of person you are, you do your best to change and that is what I did. I did not want to be a victim. I wanted to prove myself stronger than that. I have read lots of books to help me evolve and went on to become a reiki teacher. Since then, lots of synchronicity has taken place in my life, leading me to lots of people and events that continue to help me grow. One thing I know is we never stop learning.

 The world is a wonderful place to be at this time with more people coming together as one. We are all showing that we can make change happen worldwide with governments through the power of Social media and we all have so much energy to share with the world. Meditations are taking place and often they include people in many countries meditating for the same purpose all at the same time. Remember that thoughts are actions to attract.  When we all want the same thing, such as peace, we can collectively change world events by coming together. The feelings that you get from doing this are wonderful.

In the last week my Grandson Eamonn (aged 9) has been interviewed twice on local radio and is awaiting his second newspaper interview. You can find out why here as I think what he is doing is fantastic. Feel free to join in with him and give him some encouragement. He is grateful for what he has in his life and is helping others through his project.

 I am going away with my favourite group SPICE  soon for a break and was planning to leave my puppies with a friend (at her request).
In the last few weeks she has taken on a rescue dog which has an infection and  the decision had to be taken not to have the pups to stay with her. On the same evening she advised me of this she told me not to worry. I came home to find another friend was going to look after the pups while she will walk them as they live opposite each other. How amazing is that especially as the other person has a puppy of her own. Talk about gratitude overflowing!

I could talk about gratitude all day especially about the clients I have. I feel that I have come full circle and now try to encourage others to have a positive attitude too. Often this can come about from people finding that the therapies I practice can help control the pain they have or help them combat depression. In fact I am soon to be going into a centre for people with Multiple sclerosis to let them try out my Sun Ancon Chi machines.

What you are grateful for today?  Feel free to tell me in the comments box.


Peace Harmony and Joy

Eamonn's Trading Project

This week my Blog is dedicated to my Grandson Eamonn.

 My heart is overflowing with gratitude for the wonderful thing that he is doing. Before school had stopped for the holidays he heard the story of the man that started out with a red paperclip and kept trading up(Kyle).  He ended up with a house! Eamonn did not have such high expectations, and just wanted to try it for fun. A couple of days later he then decided he would help a local charity. He thought long and hard about which charity to help and decided on one that he personally knew was helping others. He went ahead, with dads help, and set up a Facebook page called  Eamonn's Trading Project.

In just under one week he has over 200 people liking his page and the swaps have started. As I type he has an Xbox, 2 controllers and 6 games ready to swap. The only rule is that every swap increases in value. The plan is whatever gift is left on Christmas Eve will be auctioned and the money will go to East Lothian Food bank.  This is a charity that helps people who are struggling. Unfortunately with all the benefit changes there are often people stuck between benefits that have no money to buy food. The food bank can supply them with a few days worth of groceries.

I often hear of families with children who get so many toys for Christmas that many stay unopened in the attic. What is this teaching them? Eamonn aged 9 and his sister Chloe aged 5 have been brought up to share things with others. I remember when he was much younger and saw something on television that was asking for toys to be boxed to send to a third world country. Eamonn came downstairs with an armful of toys and asked his mum for a box. He was aware at an early age that there were children a lot worse off than him.

As you can see from his photo with the cheeky grin, he is just a normal 9 year old boy that gets into scrapes like the rest of them but I know that doing this is making an impact on him so today I am looking for some help. Please like his page and give him some feedback. If you are local, see if you have anything that you can swap with him to help him Trade up and most importantly help share his page so that others can join in too.

He has even set up a Twitter page too. Businesses are welcome to join in too, so don't get left out. Help Eamonn make a difference knowing that you have played a part in it.

I personally can't wait to see how this develops.

You Too Can Be Happier By Helping Others

I saw something the other evening which amazed me. I was visiting my local park and saw 3 sets of ducklings. They were in the water with a group of ducks and swans being fed by someone. As is usual in this scenario the seagulls were fighting to get to the bread before the other birds. Seagulls are very strong and usually succeed. For some reason I am not enamoured with these birds, probably because I always look out for the underdogs. Many times also the ducklings do not stay alive due to the seagulls and often you can see a brood depleting day by day which saddens me.

This is when I saw something I had never seen before. First one of the ducks went for a seagull, trying to chase it away. This continued for about a minute then a coot joined in. What was interesting is there were no baby coots but it still decided to help its friends. To see both the duck and the coot biting into the seagull as well as chasing it away I was curious to see what would happen. The seagull actually limped away before stopping to tend to its feathers. When I looked up the last of the seagulls were flying away and there were none left in the water!

It reminded me that it's great to be able to do something for yourself but you should always accept the help if it is offered. Sometimes two can complete a job much faster than one and be more effective. It can also work the other way too. If you ever see someone struggling with anything, ask them if they need any help with the problem. Today I was told I had done my good deed for the day by explaining how the trolley bank worked at the local supermarket. It can sometimes take just a couple of minutes out of your day to help someone in need.

 I often get told by customers in my day job that I sound happy when I answer the phone and get asked why?  My answer is it's a beautiful world to be part of and there is always something good I can see in each day. Sometimes I get told by the same customers that I have made their day. Just by taking an extra few minutes to chat to them about their day can break their solitude. Remember this when you interact with people. It may be that you are the first person to acknowledge them that day with a few words and it can make such a difference to them.

Don't forget that when you think of other people it can have a ripple effect. A person you have just helped might feel so much better about themselves that they may then Pay it Forward and help someone else in need. You will also find that the more you help other people, the happier you will become. Don't believe me? Try it and see as it really works.

Sometimes all you need to do is SMILE to make a difference to someone's day. Have a wonderful day people wherever you are in the world and thank you for reading my blogs.

www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

Is what you read really Newsworthy?

This is not my usual style of posting but I felt I needed to write this to get it out of my system so decided to share it with you.

I made the decision a few months ago to not read or listen to news articles. This was because all the negativity was dragging me down. Since then I have certainly felt as if a burden was lifted from my shoulders and feel a lot happier. Now I have a new problem. I like using Social media, such as Facebook but more and more it is being used to spread all the news I restricted previously from my life. It is also being used for campaigns against perceived injustices.Sometimes these are things I agree with but at other times I do not.

I have found myself getting annoyed recently especially at the news stories coming out of America. One was for people not being allowed to collect rain water. How can collecting something given to us from the elements be illegal? Bureaucracy gone mad? Another was from Japan charging people for using Solar Power. Again something we receive free from the elements. Is there a trend here? Greed is coming at us from all corners and Governments as well as multi national companies are usually at the root of it all. Even in writing these last sentences I can feel the emotion stirring in me at the injustice of it all.

I need to come up with a way of still accessing social media but missing out on these posts that disrupt my thoughts. Do I just not look at them when they come up in my newsfeed? That sounds simple but then I find that many of the positive pages that I visit on Facebook stick little snippets of these injustices in every so often too. Sometimes I see campaigns that I want to get involved with and do so but there are so many that sometimes I feel I am wading through them.

 I often find myself researching things I see printed and see that they are years old and have been changed since they were first produced but they are stated as if they are current news items. Sometimes the information has been discredited or it is found to be completely fictitious but the people posting it are unaware of this. This is where we have to be careful of believing everything we see. Often a story may have a bit of fact but then it gets sensationalised. Also how often have you seen a startling headline only to find the story a non event? This is also a reason why I stopped reading newspapers.

There are lots of good news stories out there on facebook and Twitter etc pages. I would like to hope that those pages will remember what they stand for and stop adding any negative posts to their page and I promise that I will monitor mine as well. There may be some campaigns that I really believe in but I will limit my posting of these as I much prefer my pages to be filled with positive inspiration. I do love the fact that we can share ways to help including helping owners to find their pets. More and more I see postings for this which are followed up by a post that shows the animal has been returned to it's owner. This is the good power of the internet.

After writing this I realise that I get so much positivity from social media which far outweighs the other side.  I have decided that I will monitor which direction I am getting these posts from and see if I can either not click on them or in extreme cases remove them from my newsfeeds. This will allow me to concentrate on my wellbeing. All I can ask of those reading this blog is if you still read the news please make sure it is a true fact before you spread it around the internet.

Thank you for reading this and feel welcome to share your comments about what I have written if the same thing affects you.





www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

How to Accept Constructive Criticism and Improve Yourself

I wrote this for something else but decided I would rather share it on my blog so apologies if you have read it already.

I had an interesting day recently. I went to the Edinburgh Body and Soul Fair and listened to Dr David Hamilton. If you have not heard of him can I suggest you look him up. He speaks from both the spiritual and scientific sides and amazingly they both have the same outcomes. One of the things he spoke about was people who feel they have to be positive all the time. We are only human so of course we can feel down at times but do we criticise ourselves when we have a bad day? Do we feel we are letting ourselves and others down when we do not seem as positive as usual? I know that in the past I have thought like this but in the last couple of years I have changed my way of thinking. I now accept I am having an unsettled time and then move on from it. I often find myself looking back on whatever the situation was to see if I could learn anything from it too as we are always in learning mode.

Another thing he talked about was becoming more aware of who we really are. One way to do this is to take an elastic band and put it on your wrist. Every time you think something negative you need to swap it to the other hand. It has been found that even positive people can still need to swap it up to 21 times in an hour! It is all about becoming more self-aware and stopping these thoughts as they develop. I am going to try this out and see how I get on.

One of the things you often hear, especially from people that have lost their temper, is "You made me do it!" Have you ever said this to anyone? I caught myself out recently. I have 2 puppies that had just been neutered. As they are one of each sex I was having to separate them at times including the night time to help them heal. This one night the female would not settle and after the third time of coming down the stairs to settle her I found myself saying that she was making me angry as I was so tired. This was because I had received only 5 hours sleep the previous night. As soon as the words were out of my mouth I realised what I was saying so I apologised to her. It was me that had the problem in not having the patience to help her with the problem she had. She did not understand what was happening to her. Suddenly she was being kept away from her brother for the first time and could not cuddle into him. It did happen again but I coped better now that my self criticism had kicked in. I was aware it was my decision how to react to this situation and I chose from that time to have more patience. In a short time things changed and are now almost back to normal.

This came to me also in a conversation with a friend who teaches Toddler calm. How many times do people lose tempers with their children and then say the children know what they are doing or saying and are winding the parent up? My friend advised at toddler age the brain is not wired in the way parents think and the children do not have the control we attribute to them. It is up to the parents to accept that they have to change the way they react to certain situations to change the outcome. Getting mad at the children is not the answer!

Sometimes we cannot change the outcome so need to change the way we deal with the problem. For instance we may be planning an outdoor event and find it is going to rain. This is not something we can stop from happening so rather than going in a strop and cancelling the event,we can take all the steps we need to change things around such as getting more items under cover for the evening so the event can still be successful. It just needs us to change our mindset. What may have started out seeming as a disaster could turn out that people had more fun under cover. It would probably also made more people come together to help with the extra work involved.

It is really important for us to be aware that how we react to a situation is down to only us. Every emotion we have comes from us not the external situation. One of the biggest emotions we have at our disposal is self -love. A good way to increase this is to run a critical eye over the way you live your life and see what changes you may be able to make enabling you to love both yourself and your life even more. We can be our best critics but we should also be looking for all the things we are good at as well. There needs to be balance

Fill your life with gratitude for all the things you have that bring joy. Every morning when I wake and in the evening before I go to sleep I think of my family, animals, job, friends, and all the wonderful sights I get to see on a daily basis. I am lucky to live near the sea and to have wonderful green spaces around me where I can walk and listen to the birds singing. Before I made reiki a part of my life I would walk quickly to wherever I was going. Now I take my time and appreciate everything I see daily. It makes a much more fulfilling life, believe me. It's amazing what you can see when you really look.

Homework for the week:- Set yourself a target of finding at least one thing to be grateful for every day. After that try every hour and see how much more lighthearted you feel by the end of the day.
You will find that the more you do this it will become automatic to see so much that you can be grateful for. Improve your life starting from today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7811918

Gratitude, Intention and Living a Positive Life

A few years ago when I was first attuned to reiki I felt I was starting out on a new journey. There were only a couple of people I knew that also practised reiki and although I loved it I was also a little insecure as many people thought of it as being airy fairy! Admittedly, some still do.

One day I was walking along my local seashore and came across this quote on a bench and it really resonated with me so much that when the time came to make my business cards this went on it. I felt a little bit like a Trailblazer at this time as I was telling everyone I met about reiki and what it was doing for me.

Last night I went to see Medium Jane Dawson and Psychic surgeon Chris Ratter in Edinburgh and it left me thinking how my life has changed for the better. I now know so many people who not only work with reiki but also Angels and energy in so many different forms.The world is changing for the better and I love being part of it.Through all the people I have met I get introduced to so many new things that my knowledge keeps on expanding. It was the first time I had seen either of them and really enjoyed the night.

Last week I was at a workshop and learned that even though I know our thoughts are more important than our words,  I was also surprised at what I learned. One of the things we were asked to do was stand with our legs hip distance apart and then move only our body (not our feet) while stretching out our arm with one finger pointing outwards. The aim was to see how far you could turn and point without moving your feet. You were then to see a point on the wall that you had reached to and mark it in your mind. Next we spent a couple of minutes with our eyes closed intending that we would go over 12 inches further when we did it again. I was astounded when this time my body moved more than 12 inches even though the time before I felt really stretched.  Try it and see for yourselves. I for one will definitely will be practising Intention more often now.

The same person also gave us information that when you smile at someone, even if they don't see it, both your brains light up. A fantastic reason to smile more! Although  Karen is a relationship coach I learned more than I expected that night and would recommend her in helping you to think differently.

Next weekend I am going to the Body and Soul fair in Edinburgh to hear   Dr David Hamilton in one of his workshops. Here is a man who specialised in biological and medicinal chemistry until he found out what the power of thought could do. He often found people being given placebo drugs did as well as those given the new trial drugs so decided to look into it more and has since written books on the subject. I am really looking forward to his workshop.

The interesting thing is that because I now know so many positive people who all enlighten me daily I don't have the time to go to all the events I would like to attend. How different is this from a few years ago when my life was made up of work and watching the TV! Even better, many people have now heard of reiki and thousands more have learned it in the last few years (including being trained or treated by me) so I no longer feel the odd one out. Of course, anyone that knows me still thinks I am odd lol.

If you want to change your life for the better can I suggest you look out groups on positivity, happiness, meditation,spirituality, reiki and any energy groups locally and become involved with at least one of them. This will help you to grow in the right direction. Just as important, intend that your life will change for the better.  Remember your thoughts are important. Find something to be grateful for daily and you will find yourself becoming a much more positive person. I would also suggest moving away from anyone that brings you down (we all know / knew at least one person that drains our energy). Instead, increase contact with more positive people. I know sometimes this is not possible if they are a family member but by joining one of the above groups you will learn how to leave with your energy at a better level than before.

You can also help yourself grow by helping others. One thing I like is the Pay it Forward movement. This was started by Catherine Ryan Hyde who wrote the book. If you check her out on Facebook you can also see a link to the offshoots from this book.To PIF you just help others without expecting anything in return. This way you can bring a smile to someone as well as feeling good yourself. It may be as simple as helping someone with their shopping or buying a homeless person something to eat or drink. In fact some shops are allowing you to buy food or a drink and pay to suspend another. This is a great idea that then lets a homeless person go in and ask for the suspended item that you have paid for. I love this idea.

Today I am grateful for all my family and friends that make up my life and wish to thank them all for being part of it, even if we don't manage to meet up as often as I would like.With true friends you always know that you can pick up and continue from where you left off previously, regardless of the time in between visits.

If you would like to start a journey using reiki and live in the Edinburgh area please feel free to contact me through my website. I would love to help change your life in the same way reiki has touched mine.






www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

How to reduce our carbon footprint

I was thinking today how we all make an impact on others by whatever we do or do not do. One of the things I started doing years before it became fashionable was to recycle. This then took me into using Eco bags made of Jute and Cotton before the big supermarkets came on board as well. At the time I often saw people objecting to advertising the supermarket brands on the back of the bags so would turn them inside out. How many of you did that as well?

I then found a company that sourced ethically produced products and decided to buy some bags direct from them. For years I only ever used multi coloured duffle bags but then decided to choose ones that also resonated with me like the one above. People always commented on the duffle bags that myself and Daughter used and asked where they could get some so I then decided to buy in bulk so more people could use them too.

One of the bags that really resonate with me are the Freedom bags because every one that is bought gives money to help people in India improve their level of English to enable them to get better jobs. I love not only using bags that are different but also helping both the environment and others at the same time.

Do you still use all the plastic bags? Do you know that a plastic bag can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment! That's an astonishing figure and to think we use plastic also in so many of the products we buy at the supermarket. Plastic also gets into our rivers doing untold damage to the wildlife. We owe it to the future of our planet to be taking action now. More and more supermarkets now try to get us to move from plastic bags to reusable so take them up on their offers and start making a difference to our planet.

 If you want something a bit more funky you can check out the photos on my page on Facebook where I have decided to sell the remainder of my stock so that I can concentrate on other things now, although I will personally have enough varieties of  jute bags to last me a life time. I have priced them all but decided that if anyone mentions this blog the postage for each will only be £2.The smaller bags postage will be reduced to £1. These prices are for the UK but I can post at the cheapest option overseas if required.

Scottish bag

Jute handbag.

Funky aboriginal bag

www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

How to spread positivity far and wide

I have had a website for a few years without knowing what I was doing with it. Initially it was built to stop a friend who kept telling me that there was a reason everyone would start talking about reiki  around me and I should set up a website so I said I would take action to get one built. I remember saying that I would not promote it as everyone who was meant to come my way would find me anyway. Things have moved on since those days.

 Eventually I knew that I wanted to promote my reiki workshops  and therapy sessions but did not know how to take it forward. I had learned that I wanted more people to become aware of what help there was available for their health and wellbeing. A great friend had built my first one as a favour and it was only her second website. It was fantastic but we only added  a few basic tag words on the site. I then had a foreign language student a few years later who redid it but never felt that it was right after that so decided to take some action. By this point I also wanted to let more people know about the Sun Ancon Chi machine that had come into my life. I had such a response from using it that I wanted more people to have the same opportunity to relieve their pain.

A couple of years ago I signed up on a beginners web design course. My idea was if I could get someone to re design my site I would then understand what needed done to keep it all updated. It started well with the lecturer talking a lot about Photoshop but by week 5 I felt things going over my head a bit. Just when I was starting to struggle with the course I was asked if I would like a website built for me by a friend of my Son. Of course I jumped at it and have never looked back but I learned so much more than I had ever known during the process of it being built.  I am a great believer in Synchronicity and each time I needed a website built the right person at the time came forward without me asking!

Until then I had only used Google for finding information on the web as a search engine but did not know what else it could do. I was then advised that if people liked my website they could click on the google plus icon at the bottom of the page and this would increase my visability on the world wide web. I have been very remiss in passing this information to friends so if you would like to help me out in this I would love you to click on the google + icon at the bottom of the home page for me.

I also learned about Google Places and have had some lovely reviews added to it. Then facebook and Twitter came into my life. Facebook started off as a business profile and then I made a Facebook page. I can honestly say this felt as if it opened up the world to me. I was suddenly connecting with friends and making new friends in many countries. It is also a great place for networking and finding out lots of information that can help you in business. In fact I met a wonderful lady who helped me immensly and talked me through lots of things to do with using the internet.Through her I also came in contact with lots of people that I look up to and have learned from. I have in fact found facebook very addictive as it is full of so much positive inspiration.

I find that Twitter has been harder for me due to the lack of space for writing but I am gradually becoming more comfortable using it.  One of the things about social networking is how fast things change and I know I am not keeping up with it all. This is why many people have experts that they pay to run their sites. I am lucky to have my Son who tells me when I should be doing something important.

I was introduced to Ezine articles and wrote a few posts for them and then went on to open a Blog first on my website and now on Blogger.com which is linked to my website. Blogger is owned by Google so as you see it is more than a search engine! In fact I am just becoming involved in Google plus circles so if you would like to add me please do. It is not always business that I blog about. I like to talk  also about events in my life and how each change can help me. Talking only about business all the time can put some people off.

The latest kid on the block is Pinterest and I hold my hands up that this has had my least attention so far. Note to self "This has to change!" When it first came out I like many others though it was just for sharing photos but it is so much more than that. You can even sell your products on Pinterest. Also if you link your photo's to your website this will give you more traffic to your site.

Of course with all the social networking sites you need to remember that once you put it out on the world wide web it stays there. It could be retweeted or shared anywhere in the world so you have to be careful what you put out there. Always be professional and do not do or say anything that could lead you into hot water with either people or other companies. I like to put out lots of positive thoughts and pictures so usually make sure it is alright to share others work on my pages as you also need to be aware of copyright.

When you see what I have touched on, this is only a tiny amount of the places where you can highlight your work. I also add any of my reiki workshops on therapy sites and Gumtree. This often shows up if I type my name or company name into google and I am amazed at how many times it finds events that I have run in the past or am running in the near future. You can easily see how this can become a full time job updating all the sites.

As well as all the above your website needs to have enough information in it to be found on the web. A good SEO expert can help you with this. I have recently had 2 orders from The United Arab Emirates for the Sun Ancon Chi machine that I am a distributor for. I love the fact  people that far away can find me. Who knows if it was one of the above sites that they found me through or another that I have not mentioned but I know that I will never be finished writing and promoting my products. The more I put into the web the more I get back in return from it.

I love my work and want to spread the word about what Reiki and the Sun Ancon chi machine can do to help others. In fact today I have been advised that someone is visiting Scotland from Australia and she is unable to bring her Chi machine with her but cannot do without it so wishes to pay me a visit while she is here. I often feel that way if I am on holiday . Luckily most of my breaks are in the UK so it's easy to take the Chi machine with me as it's portable.Of course with reiki I need no equipment as it is with me always.

I will keep on blogging and telling people how they can help themselves and if you are reading this then feel free to have a look at the links on this page and join me on any of the sites I have mentioned. Let me help you to increase positivity into your life.

I wish you prosperity and happiness in reaching your goals.

www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk


I am a Reiki Master / Teacher member of the  UK Reiki Federation in Edinburgh, Scotland

Happiness

I hope this finds you well and coping with our very unsettled weather both here in the UK and elsewhere.

No one ever becomes an expert at life. We all still learn new things on a daily basis. I recently took part in a Happiness workshop run by Lauren Robertson. She had me looking at something I thought I had resolved long ago but in fact I found it was still in my life. Sometimes we need another person to teach us a way to move forward and that weekend was my lightbulb moment. I am pleased to say that I now have resolved the problem. It was also helped that for 10 days after the workshop the subject came to my attention every day from all different places. When the Universe puts it in your face you just have to sit up and take note.The day was made all the more special as I was also able to have my adult daughter there with me.

I love life even through all its hiccups that we come across and am usually positive about most things but the workshop still made me look at things in a different way. One of the things Lauren asked was how we woke up in the morning. Did we grump and crawl back under the bed covers or did we shout out  " Hellooooo World!" I realised that I jumped out of bed when my dog was alive but now had problems getting out of bed since October last year when she died. I decided that this needed to change and now find myself the proud owner of 2 puppies. Now I jump out of bed as soon as I hear the first bark in the morning (partly to stop them annoying my neighbours!)   This weekend they have been allowed out so I will also be able to get back to my routine of an early morning walk in the park.

Although I teach people Reiki here in Edinburgh it shows that we all need teachers ongoing in our lives and we should never stop learning. I saw a post recently of a lady in her 80's going to study at college as she had always wanted to do this. Age was not a barrier for her. This is much better than thinking that you have reached a point in your life that you stagnate. How often do you see people in later years living life to the full but younger ones either sitting in a pub every evening or sitting at home watching television? I know both  kinds of people and can tell you that the happier ones are those that keep on doing things including learning.

I am so lucky in Edinburgh that there is always something going on with many events and workshops to choose from so I can continue with my own self development. Check out what you can join within your local area. You might be surprised at what is on offer. One club I am a member of is SPICE. In fact I am running a Reiki workshop for Spice Scotland on Saturday May 18th 2013 here in Edinburgh. With Spice you get to try out all different types of events all across the UK. It is also where I initialy met Lauren too so you get to meet many people through the club.

My  wish for everyone reading this is to have a look at their lives and see if change is needed. Then see how you can make this happen. Everybody deserves to be happy and you CAN make it happen. It may not be immediate but you can take the steps one at a time to reach your goal of feeling fulfilled. It's up to you to choose where to start.

One of the things I like in my life is how synchronicity keeps happening. I just realised Laurens Blog that she posted  minutes ago on Facebook is on Happiness so I am off to read it now! Have a contented and happy life everyone.


www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

Puppy update.

I can't believe 3 weeks has passed since I brought my puppies home. I thought long and hard about bringing them into my life as I work all day but things worked out even better than I anticipated. I was going to use a company for a few weeks to come in durng the morning to play with the pups but then thought about putting money into my own area so advertised in the local post office. I was surprised to be contacted by someone that I had met at the very same workshop where I had made the decison to replace my dog who had passed over. She actually lives in the same street  as me and recommended someone. I now have the most fantastic lady who comes and plays with the pups and leave me very humorous notes from the pups too.

I have been teaching the pups using Victoria Stilwells Youtube videos. They are a fantastic use of positive training and shows how easily it  can be done. Within minutes I had them sitting and now have them staying as well. So far the male ( Merlin) has more staying power- queue the male comments lol. I am sure the female (Willow) will catch up soon.

My life is always full of joy but I have certainly missed my dog Misty as well as the walks we had. My waistline has really missed those too so this will all change in 4 days when I will be able to walk them. Until then I feel that I am exercising daily with all the bending to pick up the wet papers.

So far they have been socialised with  dogs and cats as well as the young children in my family. They had also been brought up with the same which made it easier. It was interesting to read all the things you should socialise your dogs with on the list I got from the vets. Now I just need to find someone with a beard. All of this should be done before the pups are 12 weeks old and because they cannot walk outside yet this can be problematic. The good thing is they are now totally happy in the car so I have been taking them to visit friends.

 Merlin will  be operated on his teeth on Thursday and more than likely Willow soon too. If they are not operated they will have major problems as Merlins jaw is already getting displaced due to his top teeth connecting into his bottom gums. There was me thinking after all the vets bills for Misty that I could now relax!

I know all the hard work will be worth it and it's fantastic for the pups to have each other to play with- even if it is trying to run off with my slipper. Today was to be a possible longer lie in bed for me but the pups awoke at 6.00am but I can't complain as all week I have wakened them at 6am. Now they are sleeping curled up together after playing in the garden today.

Animals can bring so much into your life and today I am grateful for my two new additions to my family. They have also been a big hit with my reiki clients too.





www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

The waiting will soon be over

After reading my last blog I thought I would update you all. After seeing all the dogs from the rescue go to reserved and thinking it may take quite a while to get one to fit my requirements I decided to also look elsewhere. I went to the local cat and dog home and was not surprised to see it full of Staffordshire Bull Terriers and mixes of the same. What a change from the last time I visited a few years ago. Then you had a large selection of different breeds but now almost all dogs were from the same breed. It made me wonder what had gone on in all their lives that they now found themselves in a rescue home. The rescue home were also campaigning to let people know these were a gentle family breed after all the bad press they had received.

Many of them though could not be with cats, men, other dogs etc and I thought that maybe I should go for a puppy so that I could socialise it correctly with everything. That night I decided to look on a website before I went to bed and saw an advert for puppies which would be ready in 2 weeks so I emailed and asked if I could have 2! The person responded that only one was left but when I went to visit the next evening she had decided not to keep one herself so I got to pick 2. Now I am on countdown till the 14th  March when they come home with me.

I had forgotten how much I needed to buy and that I would need to puppy proof the gardens so guess what I'm doing this weekend? I had given away all things related to my last dog Misty so have needed to buy a new bed, toys, cage etc but I know it will all be worth it when they arrive.

When I booked them in with the Vets I was asked their names so they went in the appointment book as Puppy 1 and Puppy 2. I was going to wait till they arrive to name them but a couple of days ago I spent some time going through dogs names websites so see if anything gelled with me. I love Crystals,  Synchronicity, reiki and thought I might find a name to suit them. The male was easy so I have named him Merlin. The female was a lot harder but I have named her Willow. One coincidence was after I had chosen the male dogs name I got out my crystal bible. Guess on which page I had a piece of paper as a marker? It was against Merlinite!

I will keep you updated with their progress when they arrive. That's of course if I'm not too busy playing with them. I'm going to share the pictures of them that first caught my attention but please don't ask if they are mine as couldn't tell you lol.  I think the one at the front in the picture just above here is mine. Even after I had chosen my pups I was getting confused with them when they were on the floor. It was only when I picked them up I knew which ones were mine. These photo's look much better than the ones I took as they would not sit still for me.

The one thing I will do ( if they let me) is get them used to Reiki. My last dog only accepted it from me when I reached the Master level and it came in very useful for her. I am hoping these two little ones allow it to be part of their lives too. So I advise anyone coming for any reiki workshops that there will be two fluffy bundles of fun wanting to join in.


www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

Happiness is all in the mind

I have just spent the day walking around smiling. Do you ever have a day when this happens to you and you don't know why? I found myself pondering on this when walking home from work in the pouring rain I heard myself singing " I'm walking on Sunshine"! Maybe you'll just all think I'm mad lol.

As usual everything, especially the weather, changes here. I wakened up this morning to a Facebook post from someone in Maine in the USA who advised there was over 4 feet of snow there and it was on it's way across to the UK. I got quite a surprise when I looked out of my window to see my car and the streets covered in snow. By the time I was coming home it was raining and all the snow had melted. I was grateful for 2 things. The first was the snow here was not bad enough to grind the city to a halt. I'm sure countries more used to the snowy weather can cope but we have not many roads gritted so it can cause problems over here. The second was I had remembered to take my umbrella to work today as I needed it on the way home. I love all the changes that we get in our weather. In Edinburgh we have to be adaptable.  We can sometimes appear to have 4 seasons in one day.

 Some of you may have read my previous post about the loss of my dog in October. I decided that I needed a dog in my life and contacted a rescue centre. Yesterday I had my home visit and now it's a waiting game to get a dog that is correct for my circumstances as well as me being the right owner for her / him. All the dogs that I have owned apart from one have come from rescue centres. In particular this centre tries to match up dogs and prospective owners and go into a lot of depth to make sure the owner knows what they may be taking on. This means there is a much lower chance of a dog being returned. I am excited that I have made the commitment to take on another family pet.

At the weekend I had time with my family and once again know how grateful I am to have them in my life. It is especially good to see the children learning different things and I also let the siblings have time apart which we all know is sometimes needed!

I have ended today by going to a workshop run by Angel Healing Waters with a few others and had a lovely evening including an Attunement with Rose Quartz Crystal. Tomorrow is Valentines day and if you did not know it this crystal is the stone of love. Whether you have a partner or not the most important person to love both tomorrow and always is YOU. This workshop also had an addition to it tonight. A very special rescue dog that lapped up all the attention given to it. Wendy- she is adorable.

After reading what I have written I now know why I feel so happy today. Sometimes you just have to write things down to become more aware of all the good things in your life. Make sure you take the time too to appreciate what you have in your life.




www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

Reiki update

I'm pleased to say that I now have my Karuna Reiki certificate after a problem with the post. This means that I can now offer Usui Reiki , Karuna Reiki, Crystal and Chi machine therapies.

At the moment I am using all of them to help my back which decided to give me a time of enforced rest. I am trying to make the most of it by spending time working on my website and tax return. The tax return is a bit harder as all the information needed for it is at my day job. Some things are just sent to try us.

At least by being at home I have access to my Chi machine. After the first day of using it I was able to walk down the stairs rather than hobble. Now I can sit for an hour then use the chi machine to help when I seize up again but it's improving daily. This means that for the next couple of weeks I will be unable to see any clients but will take bookings for after this.

I will still be running my Usui reiki level 2 workshop on the 9th and 10th February and spaces are still available for it. This runs over 2 days and includes lunch and follow up 4 weeks later.

I hope everyone is surviving the snow and bad weather. Make sure you all take care and if going anywhere take all you need in your cars in case you run into any problems. At least this is not affecting me at the moment but I'm sure my heating bill will when it comes in!




www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk