Journey

The 4 A`s of Healing

20th August 2019 by Christine Sutton

Phoenix Notes 7

For EFT and other modalities as well no matter what the issue the healing process always goes through 4 key stages, the 4 A`s of Healing. Recognising where you or a client might be in that process at any point in time can help to bring structure and order to a complex system and some reassurance that progress is being made.

1. Acknowledgement: “Even though I have this problem……..”

The first stage is to actually admit that there is a problem, whether it is a physical, emotional or a complex mix of factors. There must be an acknowledgement that somewhere, something is out of alignment in that person’s life.

This can be very hard to do for some people. It is frequently much easier to push the problem down and try to ignore it or divert attention away from it rather than admit that something needs to change. If we ignore or push problems down below the surface they become blockages at an energetic level and they will eventually surface in another form if consistently ignored. The only thing they will not do is go away!

A therapist’s function at this stage is to listen and encourage the acknowledgement with no censure or judgement, simply holding the space for the problem to be stated.

If you cannot acknowledge that you have a problem then you have no chance of healing it!

2. Acceptance: “……I deeply and completely accept myself”

Once the problem has been acknowledged, the next stage is to accept that although the person is not happy with the problem it is actually OK to be where they are right now in terms of spiritual, emotional or physical health.
This is not just a passive acceptance or a giving up on it, but the beginning of an active contemplation of how life could be better. It may also be a peaceful acceptance that even though things are bad right now there may be a purpose to whatever has happened. Sometimes the purpose is simply to show the person that all is not well and that something needs to change.

A therapist`s function here is to help the person to recognise and frame the issue appropriately and to support the Acceptance by identifying and dealing with any resistances which show up at this stage.

Think of the Acceptance as just a starting point –this is where you draw a line in the sand and say “That is enough! Where can I go from here?”

3. Awareness:

This next stage involves developing awareness of what lies at the root of the problem which means taking a good, hard look at everything in that person’s life and working out how and why the present situation has developed.

This is where a therapist can use gentle, open questions to begin exploration of the issue(s), begin to work with the more accessible levels and then gradually work towards the core events and their consequences. Usually, somewhere in this stage, cognitive shifts begin for the client – they begin to see how they got to where they currently are.

The answers always lie within and every person always has all of the resources already within or accessible to them to begin their own healing process. A therapist`s function at this stage is to ask the questions to help the awareness to open up and for the inner resource states to be identified.

Remember that just as the problem was created from within so is the solution.
We are all In-cure-able!

4. Action:

The final stage is for the person to begin to take action on what has been learned – to work out what changes need to be made and implement them. The changes can be anything from huge or minor life-style changes to inner conflict resolution, releasing traumas and then reaching a state of forgiveness.

At this stage a therapist`s function is not to offer advice and ready-made solutions from their own experience or perspective but to ask the questions that lead the client to their own solutions. If they cannot own the solution they will not implement it! This is where EFT can act as a coaching tool.

All self-healing is about change.
If nothing changes then nothing changes!
Quite often this is the hardest stage of all.

Most people are open to working out how they reached their current position but the changes needed to step out of that “Un-comfort Zone” and into another, better one can seem daunting. At this stage the reasons for staying put may outweigh the reasons to change and the work focuses on identifying those reasons, finding what is underpinning them and resolving them.

It may take a while, but sooner or later, with careful work a choice will be made – to either stay put for a while longer, but now with more awareness, or to make the critical change needed. 100% commitment is needed to bring the power of intent into action to create a new reality. If there are still doubts then the choice has not yet, in truth, been made and more time is needed.

That critical change can be scary; it can be exhilarating; it can be emotionally hard; it can be physically difficult, but once committed to, 100%, it will happen.

It is a wonderful thing to witness a client, now empowered, take steps into a new and better future and begin to explore the possibilities of their new Comfort Zone.

En-joy!

Past, Present, Future

11th June 2018 by Christine Sutton

Phoenix Notes 3:

We live in a 3-dimensional world. We are free to move in all three dimensions at will provided that we can find ways to get past any laws of nature that might restrict that movement.

Time is sometimes spoken of as the 4^th Dimension and it seems to flow in one direction only:

We frequently say things like “You can`t turn the clock back” acknowledging the natural law. However the truth is that we are just as free to move in Time as in the other three dimensions. Whenever we engage in a memory or imagine a possible future we have effectively escaped the linear time flow. We are else-when (another time) for as long as we choose to remain then. It feels very real.

Most of us are addicted to re-running old memories (good or bad) or imagining futures (good or bad). We frequently spend a significant proportion of our waking lives remembering or projecting forwards in time. This altered state of consciousness is so completely natural that mostly we are not aware of it. In fact we are rarely fully present in the “Now” which is just a hinge point between past and future. It has no time of its own.

It has been estimated that many people spend as much as 65% of their time in the past and as much as 20% in the future leaving just 15% of attention and energy for the Now.

Some of the “future” time may be spent usefully on the pleasurable imagining and planning that is necessary to bring our greatest dreams into reality, but mostly it is wasted on fear, worry and anxiety about things that have not yet, and may never, come to pass. Those emotions never make anything come out better, they just make us feel bad and drain our energy.

Some of the “past” time may be spent on pleasurable reruns of old memories, or on spotting the useful elements from past events, but mostly it is wasted on regrets, guilt, shame, sadness, anger and endless “What ifs?” about events that happened years ago. Those concerns cannot change the past. The past remains as it was….unless we choose to update our perceptions.

This is part of the work that is done with techniques such as EFT, Matrix ReImprinting and other forms of inner child or shadow work. We can handle those past events and neutralise the emotions, belief and behavioral systems generated from them which are causing problems now. Often a new understanding and a more loving and forgiving perception comes into awareness. Sometimes we can go a step further and overwrite what is left of the memory with a better option which is then accessed preferentially.

Memory and the reality we perceive are very fluid and very adaptable. As we edit and neutralise old memories we change our perception and the current emotional “feel” of what happened. Maybe we can change the past, or at least our current perception of it! A change in how we feel “Now” affects our choices as we begin to create the next part of reality, our future.

If we use some of these techniques mentioned above we have the chance to let go of those emotional anchors that are still linking us to the past and then we can begin to create our future from a fresher, cleaner state of mind. How would our futures be if we could imagine and intend them into being from a happy and loving perspective instead of from an anxious, guilt or fear-filled one?

How might the effect of such a different future for just one person affect those around them?
What if we could become part of a solution instead of part of a problem?
What if a ripple of change could begin for everyone?
What if it is already in motion?

A Clean Channel for Reiki Practice

8th June 2018 by Christine Sutton

Phoenix Notes 1

The aim of giving Reiki to self or to other people is to act as a channel for the Universal Energy (the Rei-Ki).

To give Reiki effectively that channel has to be “clean”– the practitioner`s thoughts, emotions and ego-based intentions need to be kept out of the experience as far as possible so that energy can flow freely from the higher levels of being (Higher Self level), like water flowing freely through a hosepipe.

If the practitioner`s channel is cluttered by a jumble of mental and emotional clutter it is as if a “kink” has been put into the hosepipe. It is no accident that the initials of “Mental” and “Emotional” are “ME”, i.e. all ego based concerns.

If the channel is “kinked” by the presence of mental-emotional clutter then the energy channelled will be restricted in both frequency and strength. The practitioner will not receive as much energy as it flows through them to the client. The quality of their experience will be reduced and they will not receive the normal “recharge” of self that happens when channelling for other people.

The person receiving the Reiki may be aware of the reduced flow and quality of the energy received, but they will still take what they need – it is not a conscious choice. With the practitioner no longer connecting with unlimited energy it is as if they have been unplugged from mains electric. However they still transmit whatever is required by the recipient so there is potential for the practitioner to begin to transmit their own essential reserve of energy. It is as if they are now running on batteries. If this continues the result will be an energy drain for the practitioner – they will feel tired and depleted by the end of the session rather than energised and peaceful.

The solution is clear – take time to identify and clear whatever mental-emotional clutter is impeding the energetic flow. This can be done immediately before beginning a Reiki session as part of the normal preparation for channelling (Hatsurei-Ho) as well as ongoing longer term self-work with Reiki to clear any issues that may be present.

That is why the key to good Reiki practice is continuing self-work. At Level 1 of training it is the major focus so that the Reiki can come cleanly through the practitioner and not be drawn from them. This sets a really good foundation for the higher levels of practice which come later….

Reiki and the Seeker`s Journey

29th May 2018 by Christine Sutton

Phoenix EFT Reiki It seems to be a fact that people are drawn to Reiki as and when the time and circumstances are right for them. As a Reiki student I saw this fact written in many texts and articles about Reiki and I took it at face value. It was certainly true in my own life but I did not fully understand it until I began to teach students myself and went searching for more information.

One of the first questions that I ask every new group of students is:

“Why are you here?”

On the surface the answers that they give may be different but the underlying theme is always the same: “I am looking for something. There has to be more to life than I am experiencing.”

As I have learned more about Reiki from my own experiences and those of the students that I have been privileged to meet it has become very apparent that this underlying quest for “more” is universal-everyone feels the pull of it at some time in their life. We all become Seekers of some sort of destination. How far that quest may be fulfilled in a lifetime is variable but it is the same quest and more and more people are being drawn to it.

Of course this is nothing new-humans have been aware of the quest for many centuries and it has been written into the scriptures of every religion we have ever embraced and into the archetypal stories and folklore of every civilisation we have ever formed. For example, Tarot cards which date from at least the 15^th century embody the quest as the “Seekers Journey” through the pictures and symbolism of the Major Arcana.

The “Quest” to navigate and complete the journey is also found in simple board games (e.g. Snakes and Ladders and Ludo). In more complex game structures the object of the game may appear to be anything from defeating a dark lord to rescuing the princess to simple survival. It is also at the heart of all the great stories ever told. Whenever we play one of these games, become enthralled in a great story or are beginning to embark on the Quest for real we become Seekers of something.

That something beckons us on. We may not have a clear idea of the destination we are seeking, but there is often an eerie but exciting knowledge that it is there, hidden just out of view. We may pause for a while many times on the journey but rarely, if ever, does anyone want to go back to the start point and completely abandon the Quest.

It is an interesting fact that there are more people currently alive who are aware of this pull and who are actively doing something about it than at any point in human history before. This is why there has been such a huge worldwide interest in spiritual development literature and practices such as Mindfulness, Yoga, Meditation and Reiki over the last few decades. The Reiki journey is just one way of fulfilling the quest. It gives a very accessible and easy route into personal and spiritual development.

On an individual scale being somewhere on the Seeker`s pathway really does seem to make a difference. People who are already moving along this pathway using Reiki or other disciplines can often answer “yes” to at least some of these questions:

Are you happier than you were?
Are you more fulfilled?
Is your mind quieter, at least some of the time?
Are you less inclined to judge others quickly and harshly?
Has your work changed for the better?
Have your relationships changed for the better?
Have you let go of old, stuck situations, thoughts and behaviour patterns?
Are you more forgiving of yourself and others?
Are you experiencing more abundance in your life?
Has your physical health improved?
Are you seeing beauty everywhere you go?
Are people responding more positively to you?
Is there “magic” happening in your life?
(i.e. things that cannot be explained by any normal, rational or scientific route)

If the answer to one or more of these questions is “Yes” then you have definitely moved along your personal and spiritual pathway and are now experiencing life at a higher level of vibration.

On a grander scale the journey of each individual contributes to the greater journey of human society. As more people become awake and aware of our unfulfilled potential the level of conscious awareness is (hopefully) rising steadily in the worldwide population. Old, long accepted patterns of thought and behaviour, old institutions and power bases are being challenged in many areas. The result may seem like chaos while the shifts are happening.

How it all works out (the final destination) we don’t yet know – we are still only partway through the journey and cannot yet see the end. En-Joy the Journey!

We are indeed living in “interesting times”!

Christine Sutton
Reiki Master Teacher
Phoenix EFT Therapies and Training

May 2018