The Pictures in Your Words

The subconscious mind deals in pictures, not words. For instance, if I ask you to think of a tree, you see a picture of a tree in your mind’s eye and not the letters t-r-e-e. Think of a car and you see a picture of a car, think of a house and you see a house… and so on.

Now, the important part of this to understand is that each of these pictures has some type of emotional association to them… negative, positive or neutral. Negative words like war, crime, debt, disease, death, famine etc. conjure up negative images and these negative images trigger a negative feeling within you. Positive words like happy, love, peace, joy, family, etc. conjure up positive images which trigger positive feelings. We also have words that don’t really have images associated with them such as “the”, “as”, “with”, etc. Then we have words that do have images associated but don’t have emotional connections (tree or sidewalk might be examples).

What you need to begin doing is paying attention to the words you use when you think and speak. If you spend a lot of time using negative words, you will end up feeling negative emotions which will cause the Law of Attraction to match you up with more reasons to feel negative.

So let’s look at some examples to make this really clear. If you were to say, “I don’t want to be in debt anymore” what images come to mind? You being in debt, right? And it probably doesn’t feel too good, either. Now let’s see what happens if we switch the idea around and say, “I have more than enough money to pay all my debts”. Now what images come to mind? It’s probably something similar to you having plenty of money and feeling confident and secure…and this image feels much better, doesn’t it?

The key to creating with your thoughts and words is to use ones that generate positive images and feelings. Even though it may be “true” that you are in debt or you aren’t married or don’t have your dream home, etc. by repeating these “truths” and telling the same story over and over, you only reinforce it. To change your circumstances, you have to change your story. Start thinking and speaking about what you want to see happening and resist the urge to complain about how bad things are now. The present is only a temporary point in the play…if you can learn not to keep re-writing the same old script.

Shakespeare said, “All the World’s a stage and the men and women merely players” but I want you to start realizing that you’re not just playing a part in the play…you’re creating it. You are the writer, director, producer and star! If you don’t like the performance, change it. Write a new script with better, more pleasing thoughts and words. Tell the prop people to bring in a new set and the casting director to send you a new leading lady or man. You’re the star and all the “crew members” (the universe and its laws) are here to obey your orders. You just have to know how to talk to them…and now you know.

If you would like to learn how you can break through the barriers your limiting thoughts and beliefs place in your way, click here

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

Re-framing Success

Many people think there is a limited amount of success, happiness, money, love, etc. to go around. For instance, if Dr. Becky is successful in her practice, then Dr. James has lost some degree of his potential success to Dr. Becky. However, if Dr. James and Dr. Becky look at the number of doctors practicing in their area and compare that to the population of the city, they will see there are far more patients than either of them can see. If there are 15 doctors practicing in a city with a population of 21,000 and each of the 15 doctors have access to 1,400 patients, which is more than enough to build a thriving practice.

Instead of viewing the success of others as an indication of your impending failure, try the perspective that there is enough in the world for you and everyone else. I know it’s sometimes hard to accept that idea when you don’t have a clear view of just how vast things really are. If you’re single and go out on the town and see happy, loving couples all around you, it’s easy to assume all the great people have been taken and that means you’re doomed to live a life of solitude. If you were to take a look at a local singles website, however, you might be very surprised at how many wonderful singles are in your own backyard.

Believe it or not, someone else’s success in a particular area has no effect on your potential for success, other than to provide encouragement that it can be done. Success is something you can create rather than borrow. Instead of taking someone else’s clients or relationship, you can build your own from a completely different source but the key is in understanding this principle. What you see in front of you isn’t all there is, just like in the examples above.

In the future, try this. Instead of becoming depressed or feeling defeated when you notice someone else that has what you want, smile and say to yourself, “That’s for me! I’m going to have that, too! If they can do it, I can do it.” If you say this or something similar to it with intent behind your words, you will notice a shift in your attitude and you’ll find yourself feeling much more uplifted and optimistic and it is from this state of being you can be creative and find new avenues to your success.

The Real Reason Change is so Hard

Many people are desperate for change and yet they never seem to achieve it. It isn’t that they don’t try and it’s certainly not that they’re lazy. After all, they read books, attend classes, and visit experts but, in the end, they don’t realize their goal. So what’s going on to keep these people from getting to where they want to go?

The fundamental problem is they feel powerless. We’ve all been brought up to believe we aren’t capable enough or smart enough or worthy enough, etc. so we go to other people that we perceive as being capable, smart or worthy and we expect these people to make the change for us. We think the doctor, therapist, minister, counselor, teacher, or guru can do something to us that will bring about some fantastic transformation but the simple truth is nobody can ever change you. All change comes from within. These people might assist in the changes made by providing medication or surgical procedures that place our body in a healthier state so it can heal or providing tools and techniques to help us through a difficult or confusing time but none of them do the changing for us. In fact, all of these people have “problem” clients/patients that aren’t willing to go along with the recommendations made and, naturally, these clients/patients don’t improve very much, if at all.

The most important person you can ever believe in is you. You have the power to change your life and if you don’t see yourself as possessing that power, you will spend a lifetime chasing experts and techniques looking for the “right one” that will make all the changes for you. Ask yourself right now, “Do I have the ability, in and of myself, to make this change happen?” If you answer no, then make a list of all the reasons you don’t think you can and seriously examine them, then start changing them because it’s these beliefs that are holding you back. Only when you really believe you can accomplish your goal will any amount of knowledge or assistance be helpful to you. Trust me, I know. I used to chase information all the time. I spent 2 years looking for the “right technique” until I finally got the message that I already had everything I needed; I just had to start actually using it.

What’s the biggest lie you’ve ever been told? It’s that you are limited and incapable. You can achieve anything you want but you have to know that you can have it and that you deserve it. No matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, you have the ability and the right to create a wonderful life and that creative process originates inside you, not outside. Looking for outside sources of permission or inspiration is a fast road to failure. After all, that’s what you’ve been doing all this time and you are any really closer to your goal? If you want a new technique that really works, try finding your source of strength, inspiration and guidance inside rather than outside. When you come from that internal source, the appropriate assistance such as books, seminars, techniques, teachers etc. will find you rather than you having to chase after them. Then, finally, the process of change can be simple.

Life is a Spontaneous Creation

Security. This one idea drives humankind to distraction. We spend countless hours in anxious turmoil pondering whether or not we will have a secure life…will I have enough money, food and a place to live? Will my children be safe in the streets and at school? All this fretting causes us to fight hard to gain a sense of security and then maintain it but there is an idea I’d like to put forth that many might not have considered: security comes from stability, stability leads to stagnation and stagnation is the opposite of living.

Everything changes. The universe is changing, nature is changing, your body is changing, and your thoughts are changing…all life centers on growth and change. Seedlings transform into flowers, caterpillars change into butterflies, and children grow into adults all as life unfolds. To seek stability is to seek lack of change. The more regimented our lives become, the less we grow. We all know people who become situated into a routine. They go to bed at the same time, get up at the same time, drive the same car following the same route, go to the same places, interact with the same people, eat the same food, watch the same TV programs, etc., etc. Over time, these people become “set in their ways” and trying to introduce them to a new idea is like trying to pull teeth. The worst part of it is that this is what so many people think they want for themselves. The average person sets forth on a path to this very destination and they do so because they live in fear of not knowing what’s around the next corner. Life has become so frightening to most of us that we actively avoid living and, instead, simply exist.

The truth is there is no such thing as security in the sense most people mean it. No matter how old you get, how long you’ve been with your company or how much money you have, it can all change tomorrow and, of course, it is this idea that has us fighting so hard to hold on to what we have. Life is a spontaneous creation, though, that is changing with every new decision. How can something so flexible, so plastic, ever be secure? Rather than exhaust ourselves trying to ensure that we have what we have forever, why not work on creating an inner knowledge that we can always create what we choose from each moment? In other words, we live in fear that we will lose what we have and never regain it instead of realizing that if we got it once, we can get it again. This is how millionaires can go broke in a bad business venture and gain it all back within a year. They realize that if they got there once, they can get there again any time they choose. This is known as prosperity consciousness and it is something all of us would gain greatly from developing because it doesn’t only apply to money, it applies to every achievement. As my sculpting teaching used to say, “Don’t worry about messing up something you’ve made. You’re the artist. If you created it once, you can always create it again”.

Developing prosperity consciousness means realizing that you are the one creating your life. Your choices lead you in certain directions and you can choose to regain anything you have lost or you can choose to have that loss be permanent. Just like the artist with his clay, you can form and re-form your life as you see fit. This doesn’t mean the desired results will come over night but if you don’t lose sight of your goal, you will most definitely achieve it.

Miracles Are The Natural Order Of Things

Do you remember being young and marveling at the fact that birds can fly or clouds hang suspended in mid air? You were appreciative of the lush greenness of the grass and the trees and the glow of fireflies on a summer’s night. Remember how, now matter how quickly you tried, you could never catch the light in the refrigerator go off or come on and how excited you were when you saw 6 inches of snow cover the ground? You watched in amazement as the scrapes on your knees healed themselves and, though you didn’t see it, you managed to grow another inch before school started. Life is and always has been full of miracles. 

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How To Pray Effectively

Why do so many people’s prayers go unanswered? It really does seem like prayers are answered in preferential order, since some come to pass and many others don’t. Is God really going by some criteria that we have to meet in order to have our prayers answered or could it be that we’re just going about praying the wrong way?

From my observation, most people pray by begging for what they want. “Oh please let this happen.” Or “I really need this, please bring it to me.” If it’s something really important, we often barter for the service. “If you heal me of my cancer, I promise to always be nice and loving toward everyone!” Sometimes this works but more often than not, it doesn’t. I think it’s because this form of prayer places us in a position of powerlessness. We’re asking for things we don’t think we can attain on our own and that makes us feel powerless and this feeling often brings about results that reflect it. “But I am powerless! I can’t cure myself of cancer. I need intervention!”

Who told you you can’t cure cancer? In medical terms, it’s called spontaneous remission. People are diagnosed with cancer and return weeks or months later for a follow up and there is no sign of it anymore. There are many documented cases of people with Multiple Personality Disorder who have been diagnosed with cancer as one personality but show absolutely no signs of it as another personality. This is proof that we are more powerful than we give ourselves credit for.

The world is also full of examples of people who have gotten things in very unexpected ways. People who needed money for an outstanding debt, rain to soothe a drought, spontaneous healing of a serious illness, etc. These are examples of the right thing being synchronistically drawn to you so you can achieve your goal. Another way to phrase it might be, “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

So how do we pray in an effective manner? The first step is to decide what you want and why you want it. For example, let’s say you want to pray for money to pay a debt. Why do you want it? The obvious answer is, “To pay my debt” but the real answer is probably more like, “To be free of the stress and worry this debt brings me.” Next, stop giving your power away and assuming you’re not capable of attaining what you want. This means no more begging. No more “Please do this” and “Please bring me that”. Then declare what you want as though it has already happened. “I am now completely free of the stress and worry of this debt because it has been paid in full.” Noticed I didn’t ask for the money, I asked to be free of the stress and worry and that the debt was paid but I didn’t specify how. In other words, I didn’t say, “I now have the money to pay off this debt.” Finally, and this tends to be the hardest part for people, don’t spend time getting in your own way. Don’t tell yourself how unlikely it is the money will show up in time or at all, for that matter. Don’t place limitations on it by deciding it has to come from a certain place or in a certain way. For instance, if you needed $500, don’t assume you’ll get a check for $500 at once. You might get $50 here, $20 there, $100 over there or the money might not even come to you. I spent 3 days in the hospital a year and incurred a bill for $1,200 that I didn’t have. Instead of trying to generate the money, I simply decided it was paid…however that was going to happen. Ultimately, the hospital ended up paying the bill, which was something that had never even occurred to me as being an option.

This method of prayer does work but it takes some practice to get used to. For so many, the idea that we don't have to go petitioning the universe for what we want and that we might not be worthy of having it is a tough one to let go of. My suggestion is simply to try it. It certainly can’t hurt you and it might very well improve the effectiveness of your prayers.

Quality of Life versus Quantity of Life

The obituary tells of 2 men—one died at the age of 90 and the other at age 16. If you had to choose to be one of these men, which would you choose? Let’s delve a little deeper. Matthew, the 90 year old lived a hard life of manual labor. His body was gnarled and painful from the hard work he had done most of his life. He was always in pain and very sick and the amount of discomfort he was in made him very bitter. His attitude caused even his family members to dislike him and he died alone and with no friends. Anthony, the 16 year old, had what most would consider a happy life. He was well-liked and had many friends. He enjoyed plenty of hobbies and interests and was healthy and robust. He died instantly in a car accident. Now which would you choose?

We seem to think that the longer the life lived, the better it must be but this certainly isn’t always the case. Why do we as a society have such a hard time accepting the idea that what matters in life is how much you enjoy the time you have and not how long you’re here? When interviewed about what they regret most in life, the overwhelming majority of senior citizens say they regret not doing the things they always wanted to do, such as travel to a place they’ve always had an interest in, learn to play an instrument, spend more time with their loved ones, etc. You never hear, “I wish I’d spent more time at the office.” Advice like, “Live every moment like it was your last” seems to fall on deaf ears as we muddle through life putting off all the things we enjoy in favor of all the things we dislike.

Is it any wonder that so many people are unhappy? Most of our time is spent doing things that stress us out and so very little time is spent doing things that make us feel good. In fact, we even teach each other and ourselves that we should postpone the things we enjoy until all the things we don’t enjoy are finished, no matter how long that might take. We live for weekends, holidays and vacations. In January, we sit and dream of our 2 weeks off in July and convince ourselves that that tiny respite is somehow enough to make everything alright…until vacation is over and it’s time to go back to work.

I think the mentality goes something like, “But the longer you’re here, the more of a chance you have to change things for the better.” The problem, though, is if you keep doing things the way you’ve always done them you’re just going to succeed in dragging out the unhappiness. In other words, if you’re assuming that living a life filled with things you don’t like is somehow going to give you the opportunity to have a life filled with things you do like, you’re only going to succeed in living a longer life filled with things you don’t like.

To have a different life literally only takes a second. All it takes is to decide to do things differently and then do them and the next thing you know, life has turned around and you’re doing the things you enjoy. No, this doesn’t mean you’ll instantly be able to tour Europe or buy a mansion but it does mean you’ll be able to fill your life with more enjoyable things right now instead of waiting for when you retire. After all, what if you don’t see retirement? My grandfather used to talk about his plans for retirement and how great it would be. All the fishing he would do and the things he wanted to experience. He retired at age 65 and shortly thereafter died. He never had the chance to do any of the things he wanted to do. What is the point in putting these things off when you don’t know that you’ll even be here 5 minutes from now? We keep planning for the future when the only thing we ever have is the present so why aren’t we making it as pleasant as we can?

There seems to be this idea that it’s just not that simple. That somehow life won’t let us be happy that easily. The problem with that thinking is there are plenty of people who do live the type of life I’m talking about and they’re ordinary human beings like the rest of us. They simply made a choice to live a life full of as many enjoyable moments as they could and they act on that decision every chance they get.

I remember hearing a local news anchorwoman telling a story about her son. She said, “When he was very young, around 8 years old, my son said, ‘Mom, I’m only going to take jobs I like’ and I thought, ‘How naive; how child-like.’ Part of me wanted to tell him that it doesn’t work that way but he was so young, I didn’t want to disappoint him. Now he’s in his mid 20’s and very successful and you know what? He did exactly what he said he was going to do. He only ever took jobs he wanted and never the ones that just came along and offered good money. I see now how wise he was when he was only 8 and wish I had had that insight earlier in my life.”

A tedious, stressful life that lasts 100 years or a happy, joyful one that lasts 30. Which would you rather live?

How Multitasking Limits Your Success

It’s a multitasking world. Answer the phone, write an email, cook dinner, check on the kids, read the mail and get ready for that meeting tomorrow…all at the same time. We're told that multitasking is a good way to get ahead but is it really? The average adult attention span is about 20 minutes and Western culture has decided to try and cram as much into that time as possible through the introduction of multitasking. The issue, though, is that the human brain can only place its full attention on 1 thing at a time which means the more multitasking you do, the less effective you are at doing it.

From an energetic and Law of Attraction perspective, multitasking leads to more unwanted results than we would prefer. This attitude of switching our attention from one thing to another every few seconds, and the stress that comes from it, contributes to the mixed results we get in our lives. For instance, we attract some positive things that make us feel like we’re heading in the right direction and a few days later, it looks like we’re back where we started. An inability to stay focused on one idea (which multitasking reinforces) results in switching energies from one thing to the next. One minute you’re focused on an exciting idea in your life and the next you’re worried about gas prices or who will win the next election. To really attract what we want in life, we have to be single-minded and focused, which Westerners have not been trained to do.

Looking at the East, where meditation is still an important part of the culture, we see trained minds capable of holding a single idea for hours on end and we marvel. They have trained themselves to focus like a laser beam and the results are highly impressive. This is how the Yogis and Tibetan and Buddhist monks perform miracles that boggle the Western mind—slowing their heart rate and breathing until they appear to be dead or sitting half naked in the snow with wet towels wrapped around them and drying them only with their body heat, for example. Interestingly, these feats are not performed by the more Westernized people who have adopted our fast-paced way of life.

Do Olympic coaches promote multitasking in their athletes? No. They teach their athletes to focus solely on winning. “See yourself at the finish line. See the gold medal around your neck” a coach might say. Many studies have verified the effectiveness of this method and major companies have begun to employ it. If multitasking really is the way to get ahead, why aren't the most successful people using it? In truth, the highly successful people understand the importance of focusing on a single idea. Rather than multitasking, they take the time and focus to visualize the end result of their endeavor, just like the Olympic athletes do.

I highly recommend learning to use guided imagery as a means of focusing thought. This method has been in use for thousands of years and is just as effective today. Experts say we only use 10% of the mind’s ability and I have no doubt that a big part of the reason is we haven’t learned to really focus our attention. We are easily distracted (another trait multitasking reinforces) and rarely put our full attention on anything. Just think about how much more effective you could be in your life if you learned to focus your attention.

Learn more about guided imagery .

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

The Top 3 Stumbling Blocks to Psychic Development

Have you heard someone say, “Everyone has some degree of psychic ability”? Did you then think, “Ok, so where’s mine?” I think everyone has psychic ability that is either naturally prevalent or is latent but can be developed. However, those who wish to develop these skills often are met with a few stumbling blocks that normally stop them from reaching their goals. Let’s take a look at 3 main stumbling blocks to psychic development.

The first stumbling block is a misunderstanding of psychic ability. A lot of people expect what they see in the movies: bright, colorful, photographically clear images that present a story. I have found, though, that most clairvoyants don’t have that kind of crystal clear experience. For instance, when I see something, it’s usually a brief flash, occasionally in color, and it’s often symbolic and requires a little thought to find the meaning behind it. I have had many discussions with friends of mine who are psychic and they tell me they have the same type of experience I do.

It is also important to know that clairvoyance (seeing psychic images) is not the only ability a person can have. Some people hear (clairaudience) things such as the voices of spirit guides; others feel (clairsentience) energies or detect danger through “gut feelings”. Some even smell etheric scents. Whatever your psychic strength is, start by developing it first and then move to others later, if you want to. My psychic strength happens to be clairsentience.

The second stumbling block to psychic development is what I call “chasing the information”. This refers to the tendency to “go get” the information we want. Chasing the information places a big road block between what we’re trying to learn and ourselves. Instead, approach it from a relaxed and receptive state, allowing the information to come to you. Have you wondered why so many psychics have prophetic dreams? They are in a very deep state of relaxation and receptivity when they're asleep. If you know how to meditate, I would recommend slipping into a light meditative sate. If you don’t know how to meditate, don’t worry. Just be calm and relaxed and allow the information to enter your mind.

The third stumbling block to psychic development is trust. Many people expect the information to take one form and end up getting something different, causing them to dismiss what was received. The key to moving along the path of psychic development is to trust the impressions you get. For instance, I was working with my sister one time, trying to discover the cause of her headache. I received an image of her house and couldn’t make sense of why I would be shown that. I was sure my mind was simply conjuring up this picture and it had no relevance. But, trusting what I was receiving, I asked her if anything was going on at home that might be causing her stress and she confirmed that she was very worried about an upcoming party she had to get the house ready for. Had I simply assumed I was making up the picture of her house because it wasn’t what I was expected to be the answer, I might not have found the problem.

Psychic development can be a very fun and rewarding journey as long as you approach it from a relaxed and open state of mind. Try not to force anything and don't get discouraged when things don't turn out the way you hoped. In time, you will develop a greater trust in your abilities and see real improvement. I wish you the best of luck on your road to psychic development.

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

The Art of Effortless Doing

Western culture covets hard work and the harder it is the more we seem to appreciate it. If we find we aren’t achieving the results we want, we try harder and if that doesn’t work, we try even harder. It is almost as though we think if there isn’t struggle and sacrifice involved, the work isn’t worthwhile. However, the most fundamental functions of life are so effortless they don’t even require thought. Breathing, sleeping, eating, drinking, cell replication, heart rate, body temperature, oxygen exchange, and digestion are all things we literally can’t live without but when was the last time you struggled to do any of them?

The Chinese have a belief system called Taoism that holds a very different philosophy from the Western one. The Taoists follow a principle known as Wei Wu Wei or effortless doing. By observing nature, Taoist monks realized that it thrives without struggle. The trees, grass and flowers grow without strain, the rivers flow without trying, the sun rises and sets without effort, and the planets revolve without forcing themselves to. All of nature does without doing. It acts naturally, easily and always in the correct way. Put simply, nature does the natural thing.

It is when people push against nature that difficulties arise. A tree is a tree and a squirrel is a squirrel and as long as they each act the part, everything is in balance. However, if the tree tries to become a squirrel or the squirrel a tree, they will find their new identity rather hard to maintain. Likewise, if a natural artist spends his time in the role of an accountant, he will quickly find his job to be tedious and dull. He is acting against his nature as an artist. When he paints, sculpts or draws, however, his spirit is lifted and energized because he is flowing with his nature.

Effortless doing doesn’t mean doing nothing, however. To breathe, you must draw the breath. For blood to circulate, the heart must contract. For the artist to create a masterpiece, he must paint, draw or sculpt. However, all of these actions are so natural they occur automatically. Just try to keep an artist from creating! The art of effortless doing requires doing what is natural for you at all times. If you find yourself in a conflicting situation, you know you are not in your natural flow. Ask yourself, “What would I rather be doing instead of this?” to get an idea of the direction you should be moving in. Trust your nature and allow it to flow. As the Taoists say, “Do nothing and everything gets done”.

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

Dr. Wayne Dyer's book Living the Wisdom of the Tao is an excellent tool for understanding and integrating the wonderful philosophical gems of Taoism.

Are the Benefits of Energy Healing Simply the Result of the Placebo Effect?

The placebo effect is defined as “the aspect of treatment not attributable to any pharmacological or physiological properties”. There are 3 components that comprise the placebo effect:

1. The patient must have positive expectations and beliefs that the treatment will work.
2. The caregiver or provider must have positive expectations and beliefs that the treatment will work.
3. There must be a good relationship between caregiver and patient.

When a person has an illness or injury and actively seeks out an energy worker to help treat this problem, it is reasonable to assume that the placebo effect may play a role in the person having a beneficial response to the session, since the individual clearly had at least some faith that the treatment might be of help. However, can the beneficial effects of an energy session always be attributed to the placebo effect? As a practitioner of various energy modalities myself, I have encountered numerous instances where one or all 3 of the components of the placebo effect were missing and there was still a very beneficial result from the session. To better illustrate, I will provide examples where each of the placebo effect components were countered.

Component #1- The patient must have a positive expectation or belief that the treatment will work. What about the times the client doesn’t know what the particular energy modality is or thinks it’s a complete waste of time? An example of this situation immediately comes to my mind. I was working at a hospital in the X-Ray department and a technologist was feeling incredibly stressed. I asked her if she would be willing to let me try something that might help. She asked what I was going to do and I simply said, “I’m just going to rest my hands on your shoulders. All you have to do is sit there.” Her response wasn’t exactly positive but it wasn’t negative or hostile, either. She stared at me for a bit, as though I were crazy and said, “Yeah and how’s that going to help me relax?” After a little coaxing, convincing her that she wouldn’t be out anything if it didn’t work, she did consent to allow me to place my hands on her shoulders. I would like to point out that I never mentioned the word energy, nor did I tell her what she could “expect” (a feeling of warmth or tingling or feeling more relaxed, etc.) after my hands were placed. It only took about 1 minute before she noticeably relaxed in her seat. At that, I asked her how she felt and her response was, “I feel like Jell-O. I could fall asleep right here.” I removed my hands and she asked me what I had done. I only told her it was a relaxation technique and she said, “Well it works!” She then promptly returned to the main department and began telling the other technologists to try out what I had just done for her.

Another example was the time I offered to help a friend with her fear of bats. She was very skeptical and only agreed to let me do this to humor me. However, after 10 minutes of working with her, a fear she had had for 26 years was completely gone. Interestingly, she had an encounter with a bat that very night while at a concert. She said she was sitting in the bleachers and noticed a bat was flying around one of the lights which was only a few feet from her head. She went on to say that she would normally have been terrified but, this time, felt no fear at all.

Component #2- The caregiver must have positive expectations or beliefs that the treatment will work. What if the provider places no expectations on the treatment? Most energy healing practitioners are taught not to place expectations on a session. I was taught to clear my mind, be present in the moment and simply let the energy flow. Whenever I give a session, I employ a “Let’s see what this does” attitude and gauge the session by periodically asking the client how he or she feels. Based on the feedback I get, I adjust my session accordingly.

Component #3- There must be a good relationship between the caregiver and patient. What if the client is apprehensive about or resistant to receiving the treatment? This happens quite regularly if a practitioner offers a session rather than being asked for one. Though the client might agree to receive the energy, his or her attitude is often one of disinterest or disbelief, as clearly illustrated in the two examples given in component #1. It is only after the session ends and the client sees a difference that he or she displays open receptivity to the treatment.

I think if a wide range of energy healing experiences were examined, it would be fairly easy to see that there is more to the beneficial results of a session than just the placebo effect. In fact, Dr. Gary E. Schwartz has studied energy healing for eleven years and has written a book on his findings-The Energy Healing Experiments. After conducting numerous laboratory experiments, Dr. Schwartz has found that there is legitimacy to the claims being made by clients of energy healers.

Having said this, however, I’m compelled to ask the following question: why are we so quick to dismiss beneficial effects of any type of treatment as being “just a placebo effect”? It’s like saying, “If the benefit wasn’t a result of a pharmacological or physiological response, it isn’t valid.” Regardless of the mechanism, isn’t what really matters the fact that the client or patient feels better? If someone with great faith in energy healing came to me complaining of a headache and I gave him or her a session and, afterward, the headache had improved or dissipated, does it really matter if the result was due to the energy or the placebo effect?

Another issue that I think adds to the placebo being shrugged off as a legitimate means of treatment is a lack of understanding its true power. *A man named Wright was diagnosed with advanced lymphoma which was unresponsive to all forms of traditional treatment. His body was covered with tumors the size of oranges and his spleen and liver were so enlarged that 2 quarts of fluid had to be drained from his chest every day. Hearing of an experimental drug called Krebiozen, he begged his doctor to try it. At first, the doctor refused but, after repeated requests, he finally relented. On Friday, the doctor injected Mr. Wright with Krebiozen and went home. To his amazement, the following Monday Mr. Wright was out of bed walking around. The doctor noted that the tumors had reduced by half their size, which was a faster reduction than could’ve been achieved with even the most powerful radiation treatments. Ten days after the Krebiozen was administered, Mr. Wright left the hospital with no signs of cancer. For two months, he remained well until he began seeing articles in medical journals indicating that Krebiozen had no effect on lymphoma. Soon, he became depressed, relapsed and had to be re-admitted to the hospital. As an experiment, Mr. Wright’s doctor told him that the initial supplies, the ones the articles had been written about, had deteriorated but he now had a new shipment in that was a more concentrated version. In truth, however, the doctor only used saline solution. Once again, Mr. Wright had dramatic results. Tumors disappeared, fluid vanished and he was back on his feet in a few days, cancer free and feeling great. Another two months passed before Mr. Wright began saw an announcement from the American Medical Association stating that Krebiozen was worthless in the treatment of cancer. Mr. Wright’s faith was shattered, he relapsed again and died two days later. *(The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, p. 93)

There is an alternative term sometimes applied to the placebo effect that I think is worthy of consideration. That term is remembered wellness. The mind clearly has the ability to heal the body of ailments ranging from very minor to the most severe. Apparently, the mind is capable of remembering a sate of wellness within the body and steering it back to that state. If this ability of the mind to access a state of remembered wellness is the basis of the placebo effect, it seems to me that more time and energy should be spent on understanding this mechanism so that it can be reliably reproduced when needed. I’m sure that any physician would agree that relying on the body’s natural ability to heal itself instead of resorting to external and artificial means would be ideal in all situations.

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

Inquire Within

We have been taught from a very early age that we, as individuals, can’t know the answers to our questions. That we don’t know what is best for us and we must turn to others who are supposed to be more educated on the matter. In times of confusion, we turn to ministers, rabbis or priests, counselors and teachers or parents, expecting these people to somehow know what we need. The truth, however, is they can only tell us what is true for them and, in fact, the more astute of them will very often give a very sound piece of advice…"Listen to your heart. You know what you need to do”.

Every one of us has a uniquely individual perspective and what holds true for one us does not necessarily hold true for another. What makes one individual happy may make the other miserable. One might thrive under stress and the other might crack, so how can we expect anyone other than ourselves to know what is truly best for us? To find the answers you seek, you must inquire within.

The nature of the universe is one of constant change. The whole universe changes from instant to instant and we, as individuals, do the same. Every cell in our body grows, changes and dies, and it has been documented that in seven years every cell of our body has been replaced. This means that you are quite literally not the same person you were 7 years ago. Also, as you gain knowledge and expand your awareness and understanding of yourself and the world surrounding you, you experience change. As you grow and change, what was once true for you may no longer be true now. A decision you made last year might no longer be desirable or beneficial today.

We normally aren’t very cognizant of this constant change because we live our lives so caught up in our on-going dramas that we don’t stop what we are doing and reflect on how we differ in the evening compared to the morning. These changes are usually subtle but they are noticeable. For instance, if you come home at the end of the day more staunchly convinced that you don’t like your job, you have changed. A belief you held in the morning has been more firmly reinforced by evening, which means it has changed over the course of the day.

Many of us acknowledge that there is a spiritual aspect to human beings and we tend to think of ourselves as a body with a spirit but I would submit that we are, indeed, spirits with a body. We are essentially non-physical beings who have projected a portion of consciousness into a physical world of dualities. This explains why we tend to have such a rough time while we’re here. We are generally not expressing who we really are. We spend our time doing things that, deep down, we know are not best for us. As we recognize this incongruence, we have feelings of confusion and unhappiness and we don’t quite understand why. So, having been taught that we can’t possibly know what is best for us, we turn to those around us…those who are supposed to have the answers but who are, in fact, only doing the same thing we are; being something that is inconsistent with their natural self. They tell us to stay the course because that’s the most logical and safest thing to do and, besides, that’s what everyone else does. “Few people ever really find happiness” they might add. But nobody seems to consider why it is that those few do and the rest of us don’t. What are they doing different?

Unfortunately, continuing in this way causes us to do things that don’t serve us to the fullest and there will always be that nagging feeling that there is something within us left incomplete. Until we can be truly honest with ourselves and look at what serves us physically as well as spiritually, we will find life unfulfilling. Almost all of the most successful people in the world will tell you that in order to be truly successful, you must be passionate about what you do. How many of us are passionate about what we do 8 or more hours of the day? Stop and consider this thing called passion. Where does it come from? Might it be that this drive within us is an expression of the spiritual self? Perhaps this is our spiritual essence telling us what we should be doing to achieve fulfillment; providing us with the answer to the questions we’ve posed to so many others, hoping they could tell us what we need to do.

If you really want to know what the best course for your life is, go inside and ask. Still your mind and listen to the quiet voice that speaks to you. It most likely won’t tell you in words what you need but you will most definitely be given direction. The key is to trust the information you get and then begin to act upon it.

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

To Thine Own Self Be True

“To thine own self be true.” Shakespeare wrote these words over 400 years ago and their wisdom is just as valid today. The problem, though, is most of us aren’t true to ourselves. In fact, very many of us don’t even know who we really are.

Growing up, we were told to act like other people. “Strive to be like Jesus” or “Why can’t you be more like your brother or sister?” or, in my case, an entire classroom of kids were told on more than one occasion, “You should all be more like Jason.” Which, I should point out, didn’t increase my popularity any. Paradoxically, however, these same people who petition us to model ourselves after others will also tell us, “Be yourself.” In childhood, every time we would attempt to express our individuality, we were cut short. “Don’t do that!”, “Stop it!”, “Behave yourself”, “Grow up”, “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” Eventually, we lose all sense of who we actually are and our personality becomes an amalgam of characteristics we’ve modeled from other people. I’m sure you can think of examples of natural tendencies you have or used to have that were punished when you dared to freely express them.

So what is the result of this suppression? We become something other than what we really are. We pretend to be someone we’re not. We wear a patchwork mask of all the traits we’ve been taught are most acceptable by those around us. We pretend to be interested in a conversation just to be polite, we laugh at things that aren’t funny or suppress our laughter if we think it “inappropriate” to laugh. We hold back our true feelings and pretend we aren’t hurt, scared, unhappy, sad, embarrassed, turned on, in love, or overjoyed because to make those things known would be socially unacceptable; those feelings are only to be expressed in intimate company, if at all.

Think of something that is quite opposite your nature. For instance, if you’re a pacifist, think about being a warrior. If you’re a Democrat, think about being a Republican and vice versa. Try that persona on for size. Imagine what it would take for you to actually be that person, complete with emotions and thought patterns.

It would be very foreign and probably uncomfortable, wouldn’t it? Why? Because you are trying to be something that you’re not and that is always a hard thing to do. One reason so many people are so unhappy is they are trying incredibly hard to wear a mask that doesn’t fit. After years and years of this, we begin to lose track of who we were to begin with. We forget the way we used to think or feel but that doesn’t mean this side of us has gone away. It remains inside us trying desperately to get out and the more we ignore it, the harder it tries. This struggle of the natural self to shine through is felt as a sense of incompleteness or unhappiness. We begin to try and fill the void inside with things…cars, houses, clothes, jewelry, relationships, drugs, sex, money, food, etc. but no matter how many things we acquire, we always feel the need for more. Think about this. If the things really were fulfilling, why would we need more and more of them? The answer isn’t more money or more things. The answer is to find fulfillment in yourself and that means taking the time to learn who you truly are and respect that version of yourself enough to allow it to be expressed. After all, if you’re not true to yourself, are you ever true to anyone?

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

In the Blink of an Eye

Everything can change in the blink of an eye. Most people know this and some spend a great deal of time dwelling on it. One day you’re gainfully employed and the next, you’re laid off. One minute you’re driving down the highway and the next you’re in a terrible wreck. Out of the blue, the house needs major repairs or you contract a serious illness. Yes, life can change in the blink of an eye.

The funny thing is it can change for the better just as quickly and easily as it can change for the worse. We seem to think that the bad things happen to us all of a sudden and out of the blue but the good things have to be planned for and slowly achieved. Winning the lottery isn’t planned for. You buy a ticket and you win. Just like that, you’re a millionaire. Falling in love isn’t something you plan for, either. It usually hits you so fast you don’t even know what happened. How about your best friend? Did you plan on meeting him or her?

The good and the bad have an equal chance of taking place; we just tend to focus on the bad, since those are the things we don’t want. The paradox of this, however, is the more you fight the things you don’t want, the more attention and energy you give them. It is a basic principle of psychology that the more we focus on something, the more likely we are to experience it. For instance, if you place a 2 x 4 on the ground, you can probably walk from one end of it to the other without trouble. Now suspend that same 2 x 4 fifty feet off the ground and see what happens. Odds are, you're focusing so much on not falling that you're probably going to lose your balance.

I'm not saying you shouldn’t plan to avoid the bad things. For instance, I’m not saying you shouldn’t put on your seatbelt when you get in the car but I am saying you shouldn’t spend the entire drive fretting about getting into a wreck.

Wonderful things happen to us every day but we’re often so busy planning to ward off the terrible things we imagine might occur that we hardly take notice. We’ve conditioned ourselves to be so fearful of what might happen that we walk through life in a sort of stupor, mentally preparing for the next anticipated tragedy. Once one has been averted, we instantly jump to the next. In this mindset, we blind ourselves to the good and enjoyable things that are happening right now. I’m sure you’ve seen people who sit brooding over some concern of theirs while everyone around them is enjoying themselves. And what does this brooding produce? 9 times out of 10 the things we spend so much time worrying about either don’t happen or aren’t nearly as bad as we imagined they would be.

To me, it’s a bit strange that we, as a society, have determined that the occurrence of negative things is more likely and more realistic that the occurrence of positive things. Most people would probably say you have a greater chance of getting laid off than you do retiring early with plenty of money. Most might say you have a greater chance of getting divorced than staying married the rest of your life. And these people would undoubtedly point to statistics and facts and say, “See? Here’s proof.” But why aren’t they pointing to the other side of the coin? Why aren’t they pointing to the people who do stay married or those who do retire early with plenty of money? Even if they are siding with the statistical majority, there are still examples of the opposite, which proves it can be done. If, for instance, you’re saying, “50 percent of all marriages end in divorce.” I can say, “50 percent stay married. How do you know I (or you) won’t be in that 50 percent that stays together?"

Remember that everything can change in the blink of an eye but the door can swing both ways equally. Instead of focusing on all the bad things that could happen, why not spend more time thinking about all the good things you’d like to have happen. What makes the negative any more likely than the positive?

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

Where Would We Be Without Dreamers?

"She's a daydreamer", the teacher admonishes the little girl's parents. "If she can't pay attention in class, she'll never succeed." This is where the seed of imagination is usually stifled. As children, we're told that our exciting daydreams are useless and simply flights of fancy. This is where we get our first brush with the naysayers. There will always be naysayers who tell the visionaries that their dream is impossible or impractical. In fact, the naysayers will usually far outnumber the visionaries and their supporters. However, it is crucial that the visionary keep the dream alive. If the naysayers won throughout history, humankind wouldn’t have accomplished very much.

Just to give you a few examples, the naysayers said the earth couldn’t be round and had to be stationary. After all, anyone can see the earth is a flat plane and doesn’t move. They said a vehicle that was heavier than air couldn’t fly…and then the Wright brothers came along. It was impossible to take the pain out of surgery, they said…until anesthesia was invented. “No human being can run a mile in under 4 minutes.” Experts from around the world had done the calculations and found that the human body simply can’t move that fast…then in 1954, Roger Bannister ran a mile in 3 minutes and 59 seconds (Current record: 3 minutes and 43 seconds).

The naysayers said the sound barrier couldn’t be broken, living organisms couldn’t be cloned, mankind couldn’t reach the moon, the atom couldn’t be split, and computers couldn’t be made small enough to fit on a desktop, let alone a laptop. They also said television would never be as popular as radio, the telephone would never take the place of the telegraph, the car would never replace the horse drawn carriage and that airplanes wouldn’t replace boats as the choice for international travel.

Just imagine if the visionaries had listened to the naysayers. Where would we be today? Human beings have accomplished so much because of our ability to be creative and to question. If we do not explore beyond the boundaries of what is accepted to be true, we will never discover anything more than we already know and we won’t become more than we already are.

It is very important for those who have a vision to keep that vision alive no matter how many people may say it’s impossible, ridiculous or only a dream. Imagination is the fertile soil of creation and discovery and without it, new frontiers will never be broached. Don’t succumb to the naysayers and give up on something that could prove to be a fantastic gift to the entire world. See your vision, not as a mere idea you had one day, but as an important message to be delivered for the benefit of all. Keep the vision alive!

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

Is Your Dream Important Enough?

“Can I do this?” So many of us stand before the path to our dream and ask that question but I would suggest a more pertinent question to ask is, “Can I not do it?” Is your dream something that burns inside you like a fire and will consume you if you don’t take that step onto the path?

Most people waste their life living in fear. An exciting idea, an inspiration, comes to them and they ask, “Can I do it? Will it be too hard or take too long or cost too much? Will my family, friends or co-workers approve?” Far too often, the fears win out, the dream dies and life continues on unfulfilled. Instead of asking, “Can I do it?” ask, “Can I not do it?” If you find this idea to be so inspiring and so important to you that you feel you’ll never be complete if you don’t do it, then does the rest even matter? When you lay on your deathbed and look back on your life, will you regret not having done this? Let these principles be your guide and not your fears.

What are fears, after all? They are simply the result of limited thinking. Do you know how elephants are trained? When the elephant is a baby, its leg is tied to a stake that is driven deep into the ground. The elephant walks to the limit of the rope and finds it can’t go any further and, over time, comes to accept this limit as being as far as it can go. When the elephant grows up, though it can uproot that stake with the flick of its toe, it still believes it can only go as far as the rope will permit and it doesn’t even try to go any further. This is the result of limited thinking. If the elephant would simply try to move past the limit of the rope, it would find it could do so. The same applies with our fears and limited thinking. The only problem is, like the elephant, we don’t even try.

If you look at your dream and honestly say to yourself, “There is no way I could not do this” then don’t let the rope of fear and limited thinking stop you. You have the power to achieve your goals. Don’t be idle and let the fire inside consume you. Instead, use that energy to drive you toward your objective and not away from it. After all, the only worthless dream is the one left unfulfilled.

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

Quickly Neutralize Limiting Beliefs by Altering Your Energy

Limiting beliefs can virtually run our lives. Have you ever wondered why some things are easy and practically effortless for you and others are seemingly impossible? We all carry beliefs about everything we encounter in our world and these beliefs determine how we respond to life. When we look at the effortless aspects of life, we see beliefs that tell us those things are easy. When we cast our attention to the really difficult things, we see beliefs that tell us those things can’t be accomplished.

The standard approach to changing limiting beliefs is to convince yourself that what you currently believe is untrue. This method, however, is very slow and not terribly effective. To demonstrate, try this: tell yourself that you’re a millionaire right now. Go ahead and tell yourself. Ok, good. Did you believe you were a millionaire? No? You probably have limiting belief that says being a millionaire is very hard to achieve. That’s ok, though. You can just keep telling yourself you are a millionaire. By the way, how often do you think you’d have to say that before you believed it? You could probably tell yourself you’re a millionaire for a few years before you started to see a change in your finances. So, apparently, the solution to changing limiting beliefs is not in your thought process. Amazingly, it seems that the answer lies in your body’s energy system (the energy meridians mapped out by the Chinese thousands of years ago) instead.

Ok, so how do we change limiting beliefs through the energy system? By using a method known as EFT. EFT, or Emotional Freedom Technique, is an energy-based form of therapy that utilizes the subtle energies found within a series of meridian lines that flow throughout the body. Simply stated, it is an emotional version of acupuncture without the needles. Instead, the energy meridian points on your body are stimulated by gently tapping on them with your fingertips. The process is easy to learn and can be done anywhere at any time.

Instead of taking months or years using conventional therapy, EFT helps resolve issues in just a few hours, though it is also possible to achieve noticeable results with just a few brief rounds. The process has been used effectively on many areas, some of which are listed below:

Pain management
Headaches/migraines
Anxiety
Anger
Stress

Limiting beliefs

EFT is even beginning to find its way into hospitals and clinics for pain management, calming upset patients and psychological treatments. Following is some clinical research conducted on the use of EFT in the area of anxiety:

Psychologists Sharon Jones and Dr Henry B Andrews from Curtin University (Jones and Andrews, 2001) studied EFT treatment (vs. waiting list control) of public speaking anxiety in treatment sessions of 45-minutes conducted by psychologists in the University counseling center. The authors found significant improvements in self-report (Spielberger STAI) and subjective levels of anxiety for EFT treatment. In tracking the results of EFT treatment throughout the session, they found that subjective anxiety was significantly reduced after just 15 minutes of EFT treatment and continued to reduce throughout the treatment session.
Sharon Jones and Henry B. Andrews, "The efficacy of emotional freedom technique in reducing public speaking anxiety: An exploratory study." Paper presented at a meeting of the Western Australian branch of the College of Counseling Psychologists, March 2001.

Joaquin Andrade, MD and David Feinstein PhD report on a large scale study on Energy Psychology (Including EFT)

In preliminary clinical trials involving more than 29,000 patients from 11 allied treatment centers in South America during a 14-year period, a variety of randomized, double-blind pilot studies were conducted. The largest of the sub-studies, conducted over a five-and-one-half year period, followed the course of treatment of approximately 5,000 patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders. These patients were randomly assigned to an experimental group (imagery and statements paired with the manual stimulation of selected acupuncture points - as in EFT and TFT) or a control group (Cognitive Behavior Therapy supplemented by medication as needed). Half of them received the energy therapy treatments and no medication. Interviews at the end of treatment, along with follow-up interviews at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months, showed that the energy therapy was significantly more effective than the CBT/medication protocol in both the proportion of patients showing some improvement and the proportion of patients showing complete remission of symptoms:

Outcome> Comparisons with 5,000 Anxiety Patients at Close of Therapy

CBT / MEDICATION ACUPOINT Some Improvement 63% 90% Complete Remission of Symptoms 51% 75%

EFT can make dramatic changes in practically every area of your life since we hold so many limiting beliefs. I have been using it for over three years and am thrilled with the results. Whenever I can, I teach it to people or direct them to resources where they can learn it on their own.

If you are interested in learning EFT click here

Blessings,

Jason Hundley

Empathic Shielding

You know you’re empathic if you find yourself picking up other people’s issues. When they’re sad, you’re sad, when they’re happy, you’re happy, when they hurt, you hurt. Sorting out your issues from theirs can be very confusing and makes living life as an empath rather challenging. I would like to offer a very useful and effective technique I intuitively discovered many years ago to block out all those invading energies. Though I am empathic myself, I have developed the ability to choose to experience the energies of others or not.

Empaths naturally fluctuate their energetic vibrations to match those of other people. When someone is sad, angry, hurt, or happy you match your energy to theirs in order to feel what they’re feeling. Very often, this is done as an attempt to take away that person’s pain; to carry their burden for them. Sometimes it stems from a belief that in order to understand a person’s pain, you must experience it. Whatever the reason, however, a very important lesson all empaths must learn is that it is not necessary to feel or experience another’s pain in order to ease it.

How can you stop matching the energies of those around you? By using the principle of entrainment. Entrainment is defined as the tendency for two vibrating bodies to lock into phase and vibrate in harmony; also, as the synchronization of two or more rhythmic cycles. This principle is universal and can be seen in many every day situations. For example, two beating heart muscle cells will, in time, synchronize. The pendulums of grandfather clocks lined against a wall will begin to swing together. Women who live together for more than a month will have their menstrual cycles at the same time frame. A guitar string tuned to a particular note, when plucked, will cause another guitar string, tuned to the same note but held a distance away, to vibrate.
We can also see examples of this in emotions. Have you ever been around someone who was in a really good mood and you found yourself feeling good as well? Or how about the opposite where you were around someone who was really sad or angry and you started feeling the same way. We tend to refer to this as “infectious”.

Well, you can use this same “infectious” energy to help keep you from picking up everyone else’s issues. If you keep your energies higher than those of the people around you, you will find that you aren’t dipping down to pick up the sadness, anger, pain, frustration, etc. In fact, you will notice that, if you spend enough time around these individuals, they will begin to match your energy and feel better! So how can you keep your energies high? By doing everything you can to stay in a good, upbeat, happy mood when someone with a lower energy is near. Think of someone or something you love, count your blessings, imagine holding a kitten or a puppy or a baby, or just realize that the best thing you can do for that person is to keep your energies high instead of dropping them down to their level. Misery might love company but it isn’t very helpful to have a room full of miserable people. Be the beacon, the shining light during the storm, and help raise that person’s spirits. You’ll both feel much, much better and you’ll begin to learn that meeting a person at the level of their pain isn’t the best way to help them through it.

Blessings,
Jason Hundley

Five Ways to Strengthen your Reiki

Wouldn't it be nice if there were a few simple tricks for strengthening your connection to Reiki energy? Things that didn't take much effort but could have an immediate effect?

This article explores five simple ways to do just that. Undoubtedly there are many more, but these five all have the virtue of being available to anyone at any time, at any Reiki skill level.

Technique 1: Dry Bathing (Kenyoku Ho)

Although this is by far the most complex energy 'trick' of the five, it is still relatively simple. Doing it before each Reiki session will definitely make a difference to the flow of energy.

Method:

Put your right hand on your left shoulder, breathe into your hara (i.e. the 2nd chakra - located about 5cm below your belly button), and sweep diagonally - exhaling forcefully - across the front of your body down to your right hip.

(By 'sweep', we mean brushing your hand over your body as if you were 'sweeping' dust away from your shoulder, past your hip and onto the ground.)

Put your left hand on your right shoulder, inhale into your hara, and 'sweep' - exhaling - down to your left hip.

Put your hand back on your left shoulder, inhale, and sweep your hand - exhaling - down to your right hip.

Extend your left arm out in front of your body, palm facing upwards, arm horizontal to the ground. Put your right hand on your left shoulder - inhale into your hara - and 'sweep' along your arm - exhaling - all the way past the left fingertips.

Repeat the process on your opposite side by extending your right hand palm facing upwards in front of your body (arm horizontal to the ground), placing your left hand on your right shoulder, inhaling into your hara, and sweeping along your right arm - exhaling - all the way past the right fingertips.

Extend your left arm out in front of your body, palm facing upwards, arm horizontal to the ground. Put your right hand on your left shoulder - inhale into your hara - and 'sweep' along your arm - exhaling - all the way past the left fingertips.

Let your arms hang down by the sides of your body and feel any energetic currents that may arise (most probably in your arms and hands).

Gassho (join your hands together in prayer position [namaste] in front of your chest) and give thanks.

Technique 2: Rubbing Hands Together

Rub your hands together vigorously for ten seconds before giving yourself or another Reiki. This will stimulate the energetic channels in your hand, thus making it easier for the Reiki energy to flow.

Technique 3: Keep Fingers Together and Hands Cupped

Reiki will generally flow more strongly if you keep your fingers together (although the thumb may, at times, separate from the other fingers).

Mrs Takata, the founder of Western Reiki, apparently proclaimed: 'Scattered hands, scattered energy'. She was right, although you should naturally never be dogmatic (sometimes, after all, you may in fact desire a more spread out sort of energy).

That said, 9 times out of 10 you will feel more if you keep your fingers together.

The same can also be said for keeping your hands held cupped rather than flat on the body. The reasons for this are not exactly clear, but try it if you are not already doing so. The energy almost always seem to flow better.

Technique 4: Hover Above Each Hand Position Before Touching The Body

A good way to get a stronger connection to each Reiki position is to hover above it with your hands before lowering them onto the body.

The trick is to wait until you get an energetic connection and only then put your hands on the body. For some reason this makes it easier to connect to the Reiki energy of each position.

Technique 5: Keep One Hand On The Body When Changing Hand Positions

To keep the energetic connection going (and build momentum, thus strengthening it), it is a good idea not to take both hands off your body when changing positions (the same applies when you give Reiki to someone else).

Keep one hand grounded while you move the other. Then anchor the one you have moved, and move the one you had kept grounded. That way the energetic space and connection you have established is not short-circuited.

Jeremy O'Carroll is a traditional Usui / Shamballa Reiki Master. He has studied Reiki in India, Thailand and Australia and is a registered Master Teacher at the ARC (Australian Reiki Connection). He is the founder of the Om Reiki Centre in Daylesford (Victoria), Australia. If you wish to contact him, please write to info@om-reiki.com.au or visit the Om Reiki Centre website at http://www.om-reiki.com.au Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeremy_O'Carroll

Four Keys to Finding the Right Reiki Teacher for You

Reiki is a wonderful tool for spiritual, emotional and physical integration and healing and if you’ve decided you would like to train to become a practitioner, you might be wondering how to find the right Reiki teacher for you. Every instructor has a particular teaching style and here I will outline four key points that will help you find a teacher and class that suits your needs.

1. Make sure the class is what you are expecting it to be. Most Reiki teachers provide their students a comprehensive class that lasts several hours where all of the pertinent information about Reiki is taught, an attunement (passing of the ability to channel Reiki energy) is given, ample hands-on experience is provided to give the student confidence in his or her ability to provide a session and certification is given at the end of class. There are, however, some teachers who only provide an attunement, a list of books to read, give out the appropriate certificates and then dismiss the class. Students who attend this type of class are lacking hands-on experience and aren’t given a chance to ask questions about the material they will later read.
   
2. Make contact with the teacher. When possible, contact the teacher by email or, even better, by phone. This will enable you to establish a bit of rapport and get a feel for their individual personality. Sometimes this alone can tell you whether or not the person is the one you want to learn from.
   
3. Ask to see a copy of the instructor’s teaching certificate. Every Reiki teacher is certified as an instructor. Most Western certificates will indicate the level of 3B or state the title of Reiki Master Teacher. Though I haven’t personally heard of anyone falsely claiming to be a Reiki teacher the fact is anyone can easily claim that title. Don’t be afraid to ask to see a teacher’s certificate. Most will be happy to email you a copy.
4. Request some referrals. Since every instructor has a unique teaching style, it is important to know if the person you’re considering taking a class from teaches in a way that is compatible with you. Are you the type who prefers a faster, more direct approach without a lot of excess discussion or do you need someone who is patient, moves at a more relaxed pace and enjoys answering questions? By asking for the contact information of a few past students who have agreed to act as referrals, you can get an idea of how this person teaches and whether or not you think he or she is best for you.

A Reiki class should be a positive, uplifting experience that you will remember for a long time to come and finding just the right teacher will help ensure that your Reiki training fulfills you on every level. I hope you found this article helpful and I wish you all the best on your Reiki journey.

Namaste,

Jason Hundley

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