Grace Chatting

by Grace Chatting

Alan and I decided to go out to play yesterday. Every January, we head for Mount Edgecombe, where we climb up The Folly to look out over the sea and marvel at the wonder and beauty of creation together.

The Power of Two

It is a magical place, and for us has become a sacred spot where we stand in a space of infinite possibilities, very aware of the power of two people in alignment with each other, making declarations and invocations, and generally sowing the seeds of what we want to create in the coming year and beyond.

We usually thank God for each other, our life together, our children and family, friends, our clients and all the other wonderful people whose lives touch ours. Then we consider what adventures we might have together and separately in the coming year.

Yesterday was no different,( although it did seem colder to me). We wove our magic and dreams, and then feeling childlike, we decided that when we were finished we’d go to the pictures.

We agreed to see The Kings Speech, which everyone was raving about and then we’d have dinner at Frankie and Benny’s.

It’s All In The Relationship

The film was marvellous in the fullest sense of the word, and well worth a view. What I took away from it was once again the wonderful power of Relationship to bring about transformation and to overcome difficulties and challenges.as exemplified in the relationship between the  King and his speech therapist (last of a long line of them), who became his coach and therapist.

I felt validated in who I am with the people who come to talk to me, ad  valued even more the work that Alan and I do everyday as therapists and coaches, collaborating with and empowering others to bring about change and transformation in their lives.

Here is a trailer;

Grace Chatting, located in Plymouth, UK, is a Transformation and Relationship coach, writer, and workshop facilitator.  She is also a Family Mediator and Psychotherapist.  Her passion is empowerment arising from personal growth, integrity and authenticity.

Grace can be found on her blog www.gracechatting.com; http://twitter.com@GraceChatting/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/GraceChatting http://facebook.com/GraceChatting

Grace can be reached on (44) 07816491165 if you wish to arrange a consultation

written by Grace

By Grace Chatting

Amongst careers, children, aging parents, relationships, finances and who knows what else, women have a lot of things that can potentially cause great stress in their lives. Stress can cause our immune systems to become compromised, as well as depression, weight gain or loss, loss of sex drive, difficulty with concentrating and just plain crabbiness.

What can we do to help ourselves with all this stress? There are many ways to relax and de-stress every day. You can try things like meditation, visualization, a nice bath, writing in a journal, a good workout or some self-pampering.

The problem is that many women say they simply don’t have time for any of this. The simple answer to that is that if you don’t take time to take care of yourself, you’re going to be ineffective at best at taking care of anyone or anything else.

You really need to find time to allow yourself to de-stress. Here is a list of techniques and things you can do to reduce stress in your life: Notice on plane journeys the crew attendants tell us in case of an emergency, put on your own oxygen mask before attempting to help anyone else.

Here are some tips for dealing with day to day stress;

• Organize, simplify and delegate. Stop thinking you can, or you have to do everything, all at once and all by yourself. Find ways to better organize your life and your home. Use calendars and lists.
• Get rid of the clutter that you don’t use or need (be brutal), stop worrying about dusting the house every week – if it’s that important, have one of the kids do it or get a cleaner. Better yet, realize that the sun doesn’t rise and set depending on whether your coffee table is dust-free or not.
• Practice tried and true forms of relaxation. Meditation isn’t difficult to learn and it can do wonders for helping you reduce stress in your life. Even if you only meditate for 10 or 15 minutes a day, you can use a meditation CD to learn, or join a class.
• Another method used for deep relaxation is visualization or guided imagery. You can purchase CDs that guide you to a state of deep relaxation and back out again. For many women, these are very helpful. You could also find a therapist or coach who will show you how this works.
• Get some exercise! You can take up Qigong or Tai Chi which can be learned in class or by using an instructional DVD. Yoga is also wonderful for helping to reduce stress.

These forms of exercise have other benefits beside stress reduction. You can also reduce stress by doing a more traditional workout every day - or even every other day.

• Join a gym, or get a workout buddy. Walk or run for exercise or take a kickboxing class to really get rid of some pent up tension.

Other good ways to reduce stress include:-

• writing in a journal every day. Just let it all out. Allow yourself to go to the spa for a massage once in awhile and really enjoy the experience.
• Practice deep breathing and pay attention to your breathing all day long. If you notice yourself shallow breathing, stop and concentrate on taking some good, healthy, deep breaths.
• Take a warm bath and follow by cuddling up in your favourite pyjamas with a good book.

The pressure to perform is intense for women. We are mothers, partners, daughters, employees and employers. We serve on committees and help with the local volunteer group. Sometimes we get stressed out.

The need for time to relax and pay attention to our own bodies and minds is great, and we cannot ignore that need.

Make time for yourself NOW!

Stay happy

Grace

grace@gracechatting.com

written by Grace \\ tags: womens health;health and well being;stress;stress management;grace chatting

Once you’ve completed the clearing process and called in more harmonious energy, you should definitely notice a difference in your home’s atmosphere! Each room should now feel very light, calm and peaceful. Your family members or roommates will likely notice the difference too! If you do this when they are out, watch their reactions when they come home. They will probably comment on how nice the place looks and feels (and smells!).

Even more amusing, you’ll probably notice a difference in how your pets act, if you have any. They may seem more energetic and race around gleefully, or they may lie down with a sigh of contentment and take a nap. Animals are usually pretty sensitive to energy, so don’t be surprised if they exhibit obvious reactions to your clearing activities.

In order to keep these good vibrations flowing through your home, you may want to invest in a few visual cues that will keep your feelings of inner peace and tranquility strong. Consider buying a bouquet of flowers and a pretty vase to place at the entrance of your home, or some soothing and uplifting artwork to hang in a place of prominence. Brightly coloured pillows and fabrics can also serve as mood enhancers, as well as continuing to use scented candles and incense.

Keep playing soothing music as often as possible, and also spend more time doing things that bring you joy and happiness. If you keep putting out positive energy into your home, you will create a better balance to compensate for those times when negativity seeps in.

You can also rearrange your furniture to allow for better energy flow. (There is a whole science to this called “Feng Shui” – get a book about it if you want to study more about the ways placement and space affect us.)

The key in all of these activities is to keep a continual focus on harmony and happiness in your home. As with anything else in life, the more focus and attention you give to something, the bigger and more pervasive it grows!

For best results, you will want to do this entire clearing process no less than every 3 months. Every month is even better, but it depends on the activities that take place in your home. In places where there is a lot of arguing or conflict, clearing will need to be done more frequently (as well as giving some focus to resolving the source of the conflict!). If your home is typically pretty peaceful anyway, you may not need to clear it as often.

In addition to clearing your home of negativity, you can do this same process on yourself! If you are constantly besieged by fear and anxiety, procrastination, or pervasive lethargy, you can do an energy clearing in much the same way as described for your home. Simply direct your intent to neutralizing negative or harmful thoughts and emotions, and call in more empowering and uplifting qualities to replace them.

Love and Light

Grace

www.anamcaracentre.com

www.plymouth-counselling.co.uk

written by Grace \\ tags: balance, de-clutter, energy, feng shui, harmony, positive energy

  By now your home should be feeling much lighter and calmer. You have put your physical space into order and neutralized any negative energy that was lurking around your home. Now it’s time to call in more harmonious energy to replace it! There are several ways to do this.

One of the most common techniques is to light white candles and incense in every room, as well as the entrances of your home. You can use scented or unscented candles, and they don’t have to be white. Consider using pink to inspire feelings of love, lavender or violet for deeper spirituality, light blue (or white) for peace, or any bright colour for joy and happiness.

Before you light the candles, you can also say a prayer or verbal intention over them. Simply hold them in your hands and state aloud what qualities you wish the candles to impart to your home. Try something like this: “As I light these candles, I call in greater harmony and happiness for myself and my family. Let the flames of these candles stand as a symbol for the spiritual and emotional peace that will infuse my home and all who enter here.” Then place the candles in each room and light them. If you can, let them burn for as long as possible before you extinguish them.

Do the same thing with any incense you use. The scent doesn’t matter except that it smells good to you. Use the same clearing incense, or choose something that smells yummy like vanilla, cedar, strawberry, or gardenia.

Music is another great way to get some positive vibes flowing through your home! You can play soothing music during or after you do the clearing process (or both). Choose the music that seems to embody the quality or essence you want to infuse into your home. You could try classical for mental stimulation, opera for high emotion, Native American flute music for deeper spirituality, or even some “golden oldies” to lift your spirits. Take a trip to your local music store and listen to some samples of various types of music, and choose something that resonates with you.

Visualization can also be a great help in filling your home with more positive energy. While you’ve got your candles and incense lit, you may want to spend 20 or 30 minutes sitting quietly, imagining beautiful light filling every area of your home. Make this light any colour you wish, and see it flowing effortlessly through all areas of your home, dissolving any last bits of negative energy. Imagine that you can feel it soaking into the structure of your home as well as everyone who lives there, filling all with a sense of peace and tranquility.

As you visualize, allow your emotions to flow strongly! Call up deep feelings of love, joy, peace, and inspiration within your heart centre. Imagine these feelings are giving off powerful vibrations of their own, flowing out into all areas of your home and filling it with those feelings. Imagine the emotional vibrations have form and substance so that anyone who enters your home will instantly feel them.

Enjoy!

Grace

www.anamcaracentre.com

www.plymouth-counselling.co.uk

written by Grace \\ tags: balance, de-clutter, energy, feng shui, positive energy, Spring clean

I have the good fortune to meet with a group of lively minded therapists, healers and individuals every month at Sharpham, near Totnes in Devon. Because we are closely involved with people and their personal healing and development, I recently gave a talk about clearing negative psychic energies, which we may inadvertently pick up. We, or visitors, can also carry negative energies into our homes, so it is important to cleanse your home psychically as well as physically.

Once your home is as clean and orderly as you can make it on a physical level, you want to follow up by neutralizing any stray or stagnant energy that may be lurking in corners or hanging in the atmosphere. Imagine negativity as heavy, dense energy that looks like dirty gray sludge. It coats all of your furniture, walls, possessions, and even moves through the air. It sticks to you as you walk through it, dragging you down and influencing your emotional state.

There are several ways to neutralize negative energy, but here are just a few:

1) Use a bit of sea salt dissolved in warm water. Dip your fingers into the salt water solution and sprinkle and fling it everywhere in your home. Focus especially on the corners and crevices in your home, places where energy can linger and grow stagnant. Also focus strongly on the entrances to your home, and any rooms in which there has been illness or emotional distress. Keep going until you have covered all the areas of your home, including the attic, basement, garage, closets and even your yard or your entire property. (By the way, you can do this process in your vehicle too!)

2) “Smudge” out the negativity. If you don’t want to use a sea salt solution (or you don’t have easy access to sea salt), you could purchase a small bundle of dried sage leaves (also known as a “sage stick” or “smudge stick”). Sage is revered as a sacred herb in many spiritual traditions, and is well-known for its clearing qualities. The dried sage leaves are bundled tightly and tied together to form a short, fat stick. You light the end of it and blow out the flame so the leaves smolder and give off smoke. Then walk through your home, waving this smoke into all the corners and areas you want to clear of negative energy. (Be careful and watch for sparks that may drop off the leaves!)

3) Use “clearing” incense. If neither of those options will work for you, you can simply use a stick or cone of incense that is made from a clearing herb, like sage, frankincense, myrrh, sandalwood, or even lavender. Follow the same process as with the smudge stick, waving the incense smoke into all areas of your home.

While you are engaged in the clearing procedure, you can also use verbal intentions to cement your desire to neutralize negativity. Try repeating a phrase like this: “I hereby neutralize all negative energy in my home. I call an end to all physical, emotional and spiritual turmoil, and I invite the essence of peace, harmony, and tranquility to bless my home and everyone within it.”

Blessings

Grace

www.anamcaracentre.com

www.plymouth-counselling.co.uk

written by Grace \\ tags: cleansing, energy, feng shui, home environment, negativity, positivity, psychic energies, psychic protection