Appreciation. Looking to the lighter side

Hello!!!!!! 

How are you going? I trust you’ve had a beautiful, joyful week?

Many moons ago I posted a topic called “Want to stretch your mind? Start with you toes!”

This week I want to revisit the paradigm of foot reading, but in the intention of shifting your perspective to a more positive slant.

8 years ago, while sitting all day in a cold Canberran house studying for my final exams at university, I developed the most incredible set of chilblains. I had numerous chilblains on every single one of my toes… Oops!

Of course, I had no idea what they were, what was causing them, or what was happening to me, so I eventually went to a Doctor. The doc just looked at my toes, looked at me and said “have you ever heard of chilblains? Go buy some more socks!”  ROFL!!! Very helpful.

What I was also led to believe at the time, was that once you’ve had chilblains, the tissue is slightly scarred, so you keep getting them easily thereafter. And I did. I’ve had them every winter since, without fail.

But! This year, with the new knowledge I have in how my feet talk to me, and taking it further, how my body talks to me, I see things quite differently.

Instead of just seeing a chilblain appear and go “Ugh! How did this happen, I’ve been keeping my feet warm!?”

I’m now like “Ooh, that’s on my ‘past feelings’ toe. I’ve been working through emotional stuff lately, awesome! My beautiful toes are helping me let it go by bringing it to the surface for healing!”

Now, our beautiful, intelligent bodies (not just our feet!) are helping us out all the time. The question is how observant we are to this help, and how appreciative we are. The diagram below roughly sketches out how the vertical zones work on our feet. These same 5 zones exist as horizontal zones across the feet as well, but for now, let’s focus on the vertical zones. J

For those of you familiar with Chakra, they work in much the same way.

Our big toes (purple) represent the top 3 chakra (Crown, Third Eye, Throat). This toe can represent ‘Knowledge and thought patterns’.

Our second toes (green) represent our Heart Chakra: representing ‘Feelings’.

The third toe (yellow) is our Solar Plexus Chakra: it’s all about ‘action and our sense of worth’.

The fourth toe (orange) matches with our Sacral Chakra, and is all about ‘communication’.

Our beautiful little toes (red) resonate with our Root Chakra and thus can represent our relationships to ‘family and society’.

There is also meaning to one side of the body to the other. 

The Left side of our body represents the “Present” (the Now), and can also represent our inner feminine nature.

The Right side of our body represent the “Past”, and also our inner masculine nature.

I’ve been doing a lot of emotional and spiritual development work lately, and nearly every time I’ve had a big epiphany regarding my healing, my body has given me a parallel physical experience. For instance, I’ve had waves of chilblains this year – amusingly – as my feet have been kept the warmest they’ve been in years of late. But they haven’t been caused by the cold this time. And hey, even if they had, they’ve given me even more excuses (though I don’t need them), to soak my feet in delicious, therapeutic aromatherapy baths!

Just to clarify though, these are my specific experiences in my personal journey. Not everyone has physical manifestations on their bodies when there is stuff coming and going from their emotional lives, but I believe this information is worth knowing. Any tool we can provide ourselves with to look for the positive side to something we would normally complain about is only ever going to help us out.

It’s like looking for the silver lining of those clouds. Though to be fair to clouds, they are so beautiful in their own right they don’t need any more silver lining than they naturally have!

So my GEM for you this week – look for the silver lining. I’ve covered this gem in different posts before, but its so beautiful and important that here it is again. Plus, ‘tis the season to forget how much our body loves us, and how it is always working to keep us in a state of delightful wellness.

·       *   If you catch a cold – be grateful for the rest your body is encouraging you to take. Be grateful for the opportunity to snot out whatever it is your body wants out! XD Be grateful for the further opportunity to strengthen your immune system!

·        *  If you get chilblains – do as I do. Look where they are located and be grateful for them helping you release some old block you’re ready to let go of.

·        *  If you stub your toe – which toe was it? Are you getting in your own way somehow? Or going in a direction you’re not actually comfortable with?

Recognise the brilliance of your body, and learn to love and appreciate it, just a little bit more than you already do!

And hey, if my perspective above on looking for meaning in body parts is a bit far-out for you, I totally respect and encourage that! To run parallel for you, just remember that positive delusion is one of the best kept secrets for successful people, in life and business. Think about what you want. Believe it. Truly believe it is already yours. And all of a sudden, easily, it’s yours!

In love and light, have a peaceful, joyful week.

Annalise

Reflexology 101: Neck and Shoulders!

Hello again my dear friends!

How have you been keeping this week? And how are you going at being kind to yourselves, and increasing the value and importance you place on your own happiness?

I know valuing your own happiness can feel strangely ‘selfish’ if you’re not used to it – but it’s worth it in the long run, because you’ll be happier and healthier, with all of that to share!

But do remember, doing things that make you feel ‘good’ won’t truly feel good, if what you’re doing is hurting someone else in the process. There is always a happy medium – lots of happy mediums, in fact! So much freedom and choice!

This week I want to change it up a bit! This blog has been so deep in my own spiritual journey lately that I want to bring it all back to the tangible for a bit. So! How about another reflexology lesson, just for you?!

Last time I did a lesson on this I taught the hand reflexes for our Central Nervous System (back/spine and brain reflexes), cause that is just so gosh darned important. As well as my favourite gentle pinch and pull of the finger webbing to pump that lymphatic fluid around our bodies, keeping us fresh and healthy. Have you been remembering to do this every so often? Its super good for you, and feels great!

This week I’ll pick up another group of reflexes that are super important and relevant – particularly to people working and/or living in stressful environments.

Do your neck and shoulders carry a lot of tension? There was a period in my life when I was so tense that I was seeing a masseur weekly just to function, and I’d be in pain again within 24 of the massage. But no more!  Anytime I start to feel that tension building again, I get straight onto these reflexes and then it’s happy, easy moving days again!

And where are these incredible reflexes, you ask?

Why, here of course! J

Ahahaha, don’t you love my classy drawings?

All these descriptions below are relevant for BOTH hands

Firstly, acquaint yourselves with the whole pad of your hand below the fingers (area circled in Green). Gently massage this whole area regularly – it contains all the reflexes for your shoulder muscles and shoulder joint and just feels fabulous to massage!

It’s a great habit when massaging your hands to gently work up along bones. All the Orange lines on this sketch are recommending you gently work up the sides and centres (not drawn) of each finger. Our fingers hold reflexes for our head and neck, and again, a gentle rub regularly along your fingers will help keep your neck nice and comfortable.

I’ve put lots of Orange lines all over the thumb because the whole surface of the thumb is super awesome and important, and has reflexes for the whole head and neck – so give it lots of gentle love!

I also want to share a little secret reflex with you this week; you’re just so special to me. This is one of my favourites. The blue star at the base of the index finger is a reflex to a very important muscle – the trapezius. For me personally this one is where most of my tension settled. And after some exploration, I have found a great spot at the base of my index finger that gets a little knot under the skin. Gently working this area does wonders for my whole shoulder region. By relaxing this muscle!

Gently!

There are enough sources of pain in the world without deliberately inflicting physical pain upon ourselves!

 You may have noticed I used the word “Gently” a lot in my descriptions above. I’m serious about this. Reflexology does NOT need to hurt to work really well. Gently massaging and rubbing your hands is an awesome thing to do. Deliberately picking a spot and drilling it until it hurts or beyond will certainly not help you, and I strongly suggest you do not attempt it.

As always, please just be kind to your beautiful self, and your beautiful hands. If it hurts, don’t keep doing it. And even if you don’t know what you’re doing, or where you’re working, a gentle hand massage with some cream or oil is blissful and beneficial.

We handle our lives with our hands, so handle life, and your hands with love!

J

If you have any questions about these reflexes, or another part of the body you would like to learn about the reflexes for, message me below, on Facebook or via email and I’ll see what I can do. I’d love to hear how you are going with all the various GEMS I have described so far. Has anything in particular resonated with you? Do you have a question forming that I may be able to help answer? I love questions, so don’t be shy!

And with that, have a delightful, joy filled, relaxed week!

In love and light, be peaceful

Annalise

Abundance: Puzzling it out

Hello everyone! Welcome back!

I want to touch lightly on the concept of abundance this week, and whether we encourage or discourage an abundant mindset.

A lot of stress these days comes from feelings of unworthiness, and lack of something we think we need to be less stressed and happier.

I’ll say something really blunt about this – it’s all perception.

So many examples have been made where homeless people are actually happier and more generous than busy, middle-class professionals. How can that possibly be if our priorities really need to be in the order that society tells us?

Now I’m not by any means suggesting that only through becoming homeless can we feel less stress and more happiness. Many people living less affluent lifestyles suffer quite terribly.

But here is where “Perception” comes into play. And it affects people of all classes and social standings.

We have as much, or as little, as we give ourselves credit for.

What we are grateful for.

I recently stumbled across a beautiful example on abundance, and how we sabotage ourselves without realising, into a feeling of ;'lacking'…

During lunch hour recently I sat down with the local newspaper – something I never do. Out of random amusement I decided to have a go at the word puzzle “Letter Scramble” – a box with 9 cells containing alphabet letters, where you have to find as many words as possible, all the way up to the 9 letter word that the box actually contains.

Now, I’ve always been more of a logical thinker than a lateral thinker, so puzzles are not my strength. Glancing down at this puzzle, the FIRST word I spotted was the 9 letter word!!! The first I’ve found on my own in one of these in a looooong time.

In excitement, I started making a list on my hand of all the words I could see. Everything was going so well – words were just popping out everywhere! It felt awesome!

So I started thinking, I’m going so well I should start writing down all my answers as I’m starting to forget some.

As soon as I started making the list, I had forgotten most of the words I'd found, and for the life of me couldn’t find them again… I struggled and struggled for more words to save my suddenly fractured dignity, and couldn’t find a thing!

Scoring myself against the checklist of how other people perform in these puzzles, I suddenly felt very disappointed – I actually hadn’t even rated in their poorest category in my determined attempt.

It took me a couple of weeks after doing this puzzle to understand the lesson I’d been taught.

When I was doing it freely and in fun, I felt so abundant I couldn’t keep track of it all.

As soon as my ego kicked in and I wanted to keep score so I could compare and compete with others, I failed miserably. See where this is leading?

I’ve been exploring the Law of Attraction and Abundance a lot lately. All teachings speak about allowing yourself the feeling of abundance, even if it hasn’t physically arrived yet. It’s all about your own inner feelings. As soon as you start comparing yourself to others, asking other people’s opinions, or externalising that feeling at all, everything will likely implode.

So my current, personal experiment is to just enjoy each moment. Find joy and abundance everywhere I can, avoid focusing my attention on things I don’t like to know about, and let go of the need to keep score.

Paraphrasing Abraham (through Esther Hicks), ‘this beautiful, abundant world is full of contrast. How we choose to look at things, and what we therefore focus our attention on, will determine what we attract to ourselves. Until we are so strong in ourselves to stay in the place of joy in spite of contrast, why constantly and deliberately expose ourselves to things we know will pull us down, away from joy?’

Last week I reminded us all that we are all free. My GEM for this week follows the same vein. Choose what you focus your attention on. If something upsetting is on the television, turn it off. If you’re suddenly involved in a conversation that is making you angry, or frustrated, or sad, or stressed, excuse yourself from the conversation – even if you need to use a toilet break as the most subtle escape route!

What better form of abundance is there in the world than joy?

Our world is full of joy – why not look to see that instead?

Some people may criticise this philosophy as sticking one’s head in the sand, and they are free to think that - but I don’t look at it like that. I simply choose to look on the “bright side of life”. *insert the whistling solo from Monty Python here*

And on that bright note, I wish you a joyful, peaceful week.

Until next Monday, in love and light – be peaceful

Annalise

Crossroads

Hi there!
This week I am releasing the sound recording and transcript for my post - just in case you prefer one format over the other. ^_^

Welcome back, to this treasure cave of Stress Relief and Relaxation gems. I am Annalise, your host and I’m so glad to have you back here again!

If you are new to this blog, I am a scientist come reflexologist, sharing the joyful and thought provoking path of stress relief and rebalance I am travelling. My hope is that by sharing the gems of knowledge that have helped me so greatly transform my life, perhaps some may resonate and work for you too?

This week I would like to talk about an epiphany I had last week.  It’s an important one, and as I came to understand it, I was filled with joy and a pure sense of freedom.

Every day we make decisions. Lots of decisions. But how often do we give ourselves credit for the fact that we have a choice in each matter?

Building over last weekend, and coming to a climax on Monday last week, I came to a philosophical crossroad. Of late I have been enjoying freedom in my time, while becoming more efficient, more creative, and more joyful by each passing day. It’s felt like a win-win situation on all fronts.

But then suddenly I had someone say something that felt like that old box lid of social and professional pressure slammed back down on me again. My first instinct was to feel like a rebellious child – my inner child was not pleased with this apparent turn of events.

After a while though, the answer dawned upon me. Come what may, I have a choice in every single thing that I do.

·         I choose to go to bed at the time my body wants sleep.

·         I choose what I eat.

·         I choose to go to work each day.

o   Yes – this is a choice too. We choose to do that because most often earning money feels better than not earning money (unless of course you don’t need money, then you have a whole different set of choices available to you as well!) J

It’s really important we remember that we have choice in all matters. Our first and foremost duty is to our own happiness. Once again this comes back to my First Aid principle. If you are able to care for your own happiness, then you will be in a far better place to give and share happiness with others.

I heard a fabulous quote this week, by Abraham (through Esther Hicks) –

“Find a way to make it satisfying, or don’t do it”.

The quickest way to find satisfaction in something is to remember that you have a choice.

From that choice you’ve made, you can then look for the parts that you enjoy doing. Or the feelings that come when you accomplish something. Or the amazing benefits that come to you from the situation. Or the incredible things you see thanks to that situation.

It all carries though, back to one of our leading causes of stress – perception. And that also happens to be our core choice. Do we spend our time looking for the positive aspects? Or do we spend our time looking for the less positive aspects?

Our thoughts colour our lives. Let’s say our daily choice is this:

·         Look for the positive, colourful aspects of life

·         Look for the negative, monochrome aspects of life

Yes, life can still be exquisitely beautiful in monochrome, and there’s just as much to learn from that monochrome perspective. But I would always personally choose the world full of colour and vibrancy; the perspective from where you can see the love and the lesson, not just the hurt and confusion.

My gem for you this week is rather simple, I just wanted to remind you – you are free!

If during the passing of any moment you find yourself feeling frustrated or dissatisfied, take a philosophical step back and look at the situation from a different angle. Look for the choices that have already been made, and those still available to you. I don’t recommend making knee-jerk reactions once you see the choices available, this first step is just the passive appreciation that you have options.

I’ll conclude with this:

Even if you feel like it is your duty to do this dissatisfying thing on behalf of another, that’s not actually what is going on. You are not trapped as you may have originally perceived. Just remember that you do this so that you may feel good in yourself for accomplishing the task. There are many ways to feed and shelter yourself and your family, but of the choices you have seen so far, is this not the path that felt best to you?

J The posts lately have been quite philosophical and deep haven’t they? I am delighting in my journey and study of this side of life and I am thoroughly enjoying sharing this. If however, you have any topics about stress relief and relaxation techniques you’d like me to discuss, please let me know either in the comments section below, Facebook, or a direct email. I welcome and encourage your questions as they allow me to grow in a new direction with your wealth of experience too J

And with that, until we meet again next week, in love and light – be peaceful

Annalise

p.s. As an additional treat, I wanted to tack on a song that makes me giggle every time I hear it. You can find at towards to end of my recorded post in the YouTube link above.

The Peace in Sound

This week I've had a great time bursting out of my usual mold. Please have a listen to my post as I have recorded it in sound this week.

I didn't actually speak about the backing track to my spoken blog this week in the audio. Anyone who follows me on Facebook may have noticed I have posted a couple of articles about the healing power of music as prelude to this week's topic.

One of those Facebook posts was about the healing power in classical music - Beethoven being the specific example in that study. The article is worth a read if you are interested. Lots of studies have been completed over time discussing the healing and growing power of music - often classical.

So, to add an extra dimension of healing to my recording this week - the backing track is Beethoven: Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125 "Choral": III. Adagio Molto e Cantabile.
(one heck of a song title!)

Also note this whole, beautiful piece actually runs for about 15 minutes. I have not included the whole song as backing to this week's post, but I recommend looking up the song and listening to the whole thing if you like the sound.


Also, just in case you are interested in hearing a small part of my morning ritual of welcoming each beautiful new day, here is a short recording I have had fun making of one of my morning songs!

In love and light, be peaceful

Annalise

Words - their Power and Energy

Hello my dear friends, how are you going this week?

Last week I spoke about the power of self talk, and how strongly our own critical or deprecating thoughts can affect us. I want to follow that post up with a little bit more on the power of words - from a slightly different perspective.

Once again, lets remember that we are energetic beings.
Living in an energetic universe.
And our bodies are mostly composed of water!


But where am I leading by stating these points again?

I'm sure by now you will have realised that some words feel better to say or hear than others.

Don't be misled that commonly used words are all good and happy. Lots of words used heavily in everyday conversation are actually rather unpleasant.
If you pause to sense how you feel as some words pour out your mouth, you may realise you are slightly uncomfortable. Or a thought flickers through your mind that 'you may possibly regret saying that...?' Or 'yes, that was harsh, but surely they'll take it the way you mean it and not take offense?'


A brilliant man called Masaru Emoto conducted some truly beautiful studies on how different words affect water ice crystals. His initial purpose was a science experiment to photograph the ice crystals formed from various water sources.

What he and his team really discovered though, was not only a beautiful new form of art, but also an interesting theory on the world.

 "Combination of non-resonating vibration can result in destructive energy, and nothing can be created out of it. When some vibration and the other resonate each other, it always creates beautiful design. Thus, most of the Earth is covered with beautiful nature."

http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/water-crystal.html

The concept works around the vibration of a word. Positive words have beautiful vibrations, thus the ice crystals that form are beautiful and symmetrical.
Nasty, or words linked with unhappiness have a somewhat chaotic vibration, which mashes up any potential ice crystal that may form.

OK, now - let's look at some examples of how water responds to different words:

Truth

Love and Gratitude

Thank You

Each crystal is unique and beautiful. I personally feel a lovely sense of peace and joy when looking at these crystals.


To show you what less pleasant words will do to water crystals, glance at these briefly:

You fool

You Disgust Me

Blerrrgh.....
Now, lets stop looking at those last icky examples but take a lesson from them.


Can you see the Gem for this week yet?

Speaking words of beauty from a place of love are going to make all the water molecules in your body happy. Not to mention, most likely all the other molecules in your body too. Saying nasty things will throw your energy into chaos. So - your homework this week. Be a little more mindful of what you say, to yourself, AND to others.

Observe your patterns of speech. Saying horrible things out of habit don't actually make them any more pleasant than saying them to be deliberately unpleasant.


But again, if you find your speech patterns could be improved slightly, please don't berate yourself! Be kind! You are beautiful, regardless of how you word each day. Simply approach it like this - if you notice there is room for improvement think "Fantastic! I can see a wonderful way to make this moment even more delightful. How could I have reworded that sentence to come from the place of love, from where I meant it to come?"

Make it a game, where not only you, but those you communicate with will just feel better and better.
How awesome is that?!


I have one more topic I'd like to discuss in this mini-series I've been working on about the power of words. Next week will be the conclusion to it, and I'm preparing something a bit different for you to liven things up - so look forward to it!


And with that, I wish you a delightful and joyous week.


In love and light, be peaceful.

Annalise

Inner Dialogue - What Do You Say To You?

Greetings my beautiful friends, have you had a peaceful and delightful fortnight?

I am completely refreshed and energised after a beautiful weekend away, so let’s dive right back on in there!

How we speak to ourselves (in thought or out loud) has a lot to do with our baseline stress levels.

Do you often find you’re harshly berating yourself, saying or thinking things like “you fool”, “idiot”, “lazy”, “poorly timed”, “disorganised”, “messy”, etc.? We are our own harshest critics, and believe it or not, our own words are usually the ones that hurt us the most. Mostly because we are the most insistent and vicious in our critical words, and we can’t easily walk out of the room and leave our brain back there complaining – it’s with us all the time. J

From early on we learn to strive for affection, recognition, approval and ultimately validation. Awkwardly, the less desirable side effect has been that we have become rather cruel to ourselves in that pursuit. We also learn language patterns that automatically make ourselves or someone else wrong! Words like “should” or “can’t” take all our power away, and most often don’t feel all that good. It’s really interesting to start listening to how often words like these are used in a single day.

‘Narcissism’ and ‘Ego’ have become common words with socially negative connotations. And I agree, in their true definitions, the energy is not all that positive. However, due to a chain of confusion, misunderstandings and misguided expectations, positive  and beautiful things like ‘self love’ and ‘self respect’ have been mislabelled into negative things too. Being ‘selfish’ has somehow become frowned on because surely it is 'more important to take care of everyone else before you take care of yourself'?!

However, my simple question here is: how can you truly take care of another if you are not able or willing to properly care for yourself?

I look at self love from a different stand point than what is the current social expectation, but I like it and want to share it in case you like it too.

SELF CARE is equivalent to First Aid.

Let’s all think back to the last time we completed a First Aid training course. If you did one 20 years ago, you would have learnt the “DRABC”. 10 years ago you would have learnt the “DRABCD”. Within recent years you would now know it is “DRSABCD”.

Ah I love those acronyms, and how they’ve evolved during my studies…!

There are a few common letters that have carried through the whole 20 years but my focus is on the very first letter – D for Danger.

In First Aid terms, this is to remind us that – yes there’s a maimed person on the ground needing help. But what maimed them? Can it maim me too? 

If I get hurt, then I certainly will be less useful to that person, and worst case scenario I’ll just add myself to the list of people incapacitated and needing First Aid!

So! As a direct comparison, an emotionally maimed person will have a much harder time helping someone in need, than one who has been taking care of themselves. So be kind to yourself, and in return, you will be kinder to others!

In terms of a summary GEM for this week, I’d like to rely on a pioneer in the field of teaching people that it is OK to love themselves – Louise L Hay. Decades ago she developed the “Mirror work” technique, and this week your homework is one of her basic exercises. Below is a positive thing to say to yourself (affirmation), and I want you to look yourself in the eye with a mirror as you say it.

“[your name], I love and accept you, exactly as you are.”

When I first started genuinely doing mirror work, I ended up in tears far more often than I’d expected. And that was awesome! The fact that I would cry when I spoke kindly to myself meant that I was letting go of a lot of old rubbish that I had been hurting myself with. The trick is to do it regularly. Do it until you believe it, then do it some more J

BE KIND TO YOURSELF. If you find that you simply cannot bring yourself tosay the above affirmation, don’t be disheartened. It’s actually much more common than you might expect. If it’s too much, try something gentler, as a first step. Something like:

“I am willing to like you. I am willing to love you”

Giving yourself permission to be kind to yourself is an incredibly beautiful and empowering thing to do.

If this exercise resonates with you, I strongly recommend getting yourself a copy of Louise’s book “You Can Heal Your Life”. It’s a beautiful book that has reached and helped millions of people. There is also a film about this book and Louise if you’d rather watch something instead of reading.

And with that, I wish you a beautiful and joyful week.

In love and light, be peaceful.

Annalise