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