Healthy Lifestyle equals Happy families

A couple of weeks ago I had been planting vegetable seeds ( a bit late I know). I've now been bitten by the bug again and have ordered more. There is nothing like growing your own food, especially knowing that no chemicals have been added to it. It made me think of the health issues so many people have that would not have been around as much 20 years ago.  Why do you think that is?

I think it is made up in many parts. A big part is what we eat and breathe. People also do not seem as able to cope with stress. A little stress is good for us but life seems so much more stressful for many people. Lack of exercise is another problem as we have children spending time on games machines and adults who are couch potatoes. What would you do to change things?

I would start with making sure that what we and our children eat is in fact good for them. Research where your food comes from, what additives and chemicals may have been added to them and if they have been genetically modified in any way. Stop giving sugary drinks or low calorie drinks with Aspartame.  Make sure fruit and vegetables are eaten. You can hide these if required in juices. Get yourself a blender. Bananas and milk (preferably plant based such as almond milk) make a great milkshake. Compare that to shop bought with sugar, stabilisers and preservatives added. Check this out. Getting children to eat vegetables

Get the family outside to enjoy a walk or a cycle ride. Get into the country, if possible, away from all the vehicle pollutants. Take the family fishing or swimming. There is something outdoors to suit everyone. Often families nowadays have both parents working or you may be part of a single parent family. It's so easy to tell the children to go and play a game while you have to do another chore in the house. A much better idea is to get the children to help with the chores then all head out for some fresh air at least a couple of times a week. There is of course the gym and swimming pools for the days when the weather is bad.

 Stress comes from many different areas of our our  lives. It could be caused by work, finances, health or the way we think. I remember years ago my team at work were getting stressed learning a new software programme. As we were training in groups I had not yet started learning. At the time I had been listening to Wayne Dyers The Secrets of the Power of Intention CD. I would highly recommend it. I advised them to try and think of it as lasting just a few hours and that they would then move on when they went home. This was instead of continually saying how much they hated it. After a few days a couple of them told me it really worked and they were no longer stressed. It just took a different way of looking at a situation. I had to remember this when it was my time to go through the training!

If you are on your own even taking a stroll in a local park would be good. Just taking time to sit in nature hearing the sounds of the birds is a great stress reliever. Another way to de-stress is to meditate. You tube has loads of videos. One of my favourite ways apart from cuddling my dogs is to put on  a few hours of meditation / reiki music in the background of whatever I'm doing. Of course I can't leave out the wonderful world of reiki itself. It is fantastic for relaxation and taking worries away. You can either go for a session with someone or take it to the next level and learn for yourselves.

Can I suggest you take a look at your life and see if changes need to happen? It may be to review what you are eating or if you are exercising enough. Remember too that what we teach our children is with them for life. Why not teach them to grow their own vegetables? That way they can see the cycle of the vegetables being grown to eat rather than thinking they just come from a shop. Starting them with a healthy lifestyle is one of the best gifts we can give them.

Joy Fraser
Reiki Master /Teacher in Edinburgh Scotland
www.peaceharmonyandjoy.co.uk

Raising our vibrations.

How are you feeling today?

Here in Edinburgh we have had sunshine for 3 consecutive days. To some of you that may not seem like much but you can see the difference in people here as everyone goes about their day. You can't walk down a street without seeing someone gardening, washing their car or even sitting in a sun lounger in their garden. Most of all you see a lot more people smiling. If you smile at someone they will usually smile back so why don't you join in and keep the cycle going.

When the sun shines it lifts our vibrations. We  feel happier and more communicative with others. We go walking more and often people are to be found in the parks that they have not visited since last summer or autumn. It's like everyone comes out of hibernation. All the fair weather dog walkers can be seen again, joining those of us that are out in all weathers. This is a great way to meet people rather than shutting yourself away during the colder months. I can't believe that my 2 x15 month dogs have now owned me for just over a year. It's amazing how fast time passes when you are having fun.

Our Winter in Scotland has not been too bad. We have had lots of rain and cold winds but nothing like it was a couple of years ago. For some though who suffer from Seasonal Affective disorder it will seem as if there is light at the end of the tunnel with the ending of Winter. I often wonder if raising their vibrations with reiki  energy would help these people get through Winter easier. If anyone has treated any clients with SAD I would love to know what impact it has had on them.

I actually find things to love in each of the 4 seasons and just make the most of whatever the weather is like. In Scotland we can have 4 seasons in one day so we just have to adapt to what we get delivered to us. There is really no point in complaining about the weather when we cannot do anything to change it so it's much better to find things to do that suit the weather type. In Edinburgh we are very lucky with all our free museums for the rainy days and our beautiful parks for the sunny ones.

Now that we can all look forward to warmer days (with I'm sure wet and windy ones in between) I'm wanting to connect more with nature and visit places that my dogs can come with me. I was checking my diary today and can see that it is already getting filled up. The amount of people finding reiki this year has made me very happy, especially when they come back to me to tell me how much it is changing their lives. This often happens if I have trained them on how to use it for themselves. Life is all about balance though so I make sure that I have plenty time for clients and also myself. That is the way to enjoy life.

Although it's nice to do things on the spur of the moment, why not look at all the places in your own neighbourhood that you have forgotten about and plan to pay them all a visit over the next few months. It may be that you last saw them when you were a child but you can really enjoy them just as much as an adult. If they take you outside with nature then you will find your feelings of well being growing which in turn will make you have an even happier day. Now that it's warmer, take time to appreciate what you see as you walk more slowly down the streets too.

I appreciate watching all the gardens coming alive with colour especially as my dogs wrecked all the plants in my garden. I am very lucky though that I have a neighbour who is rebuilding a garden for me that the dogs will not be allowed access to and it's coming on great so I can look forward to colours in my garden again. I know, they look like they would never do anything wrong but looks can be deceptive.

If you live in the Edinburgh area and are interested in learning reiki or just having a relaxing session,you can contact me through my website:Peace Harmony and Joy

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

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.

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