Spiritual Insights – Blog

“When you are guided to this pathway, take the opportunity to stop and listen to the sounds of Sacred Unity around you. In each, there is a drop of the One, and in that drop is the ocean of all divine qualities.” The Sufi Book of Life, Neil Douglas-Klotz.

It’s been probably one of the most challenging and complex pathways that I’ve worked with because at one point, I felt like it broke me. Awakened hearing is an intuitive sense that we all have to varying degrees depending on what life has created for us in order to open up. The way that I’ve written about this pathway jumps around quite a lot so bear with. One of the key lessons for me during this pathway was that it doesn’t matter if things don’t make sense all the time. We are still being held and guided through life and there is a force that always takes care of us, regardless of whether or not we are listening to our guidance. We also all have an inner force that strives to stop this from happening.

Within us, we have several voices. If you stop and listen carefully, you can distinguish these different personalities within yourself. They are all distinct and individual but they are also all part of the One being that you are. This allows you a range of different experiences and often can be a stop/go mechanism. Often when we break, it’s because we feel separated within and this makes us feel separated in the outside world as well. We all have this part of us that tells us that we are not good enough, that challenges us and asks “Who do you think you are?” and it’s often when this voice takes over that the separation occurs within ourselves. This voice isn’t necessarily speaking the truth. Awakened hearing is about listening not only to what’s underneath that voice but also tuning in to what other voices within offer us. I mean this in the sense of challenging whether that voice of doubt is actually coming from Creator or from our own ego.

Human beings are complex and this world is very complex but there is one idea that helps us to simplify everything essentially and this is LOVE. You either feel it or you don’t but even within this love there is complexity. There are different types of love that we need to understand but for the purpose of this pathway, We understand that there is a seen world and an unseen world. We operate mostly in the seen world where human love can be seen to be apparent or not. Within the unseen world, it is a different type of love that exists that permeates and gently guides everything. It is extremely difficult for the human being to comprehend seen love in challenging circumstances let alone unseen love. We focus on what we can see and hear because it’s easiest to work with what is apparent. It’s only when we bring the unseen love to the forefront of our awareness that transformation and healing begins to happen. Awakened hearing is part of this process.

The goal of any spiritual practice or indeed any action that is loaded with good intention is to bring you closer to the One. As humans, our lives become about us living in this world and we forget (quite consistently) that Divine Source flows through us in every moment of every day. Divine Source is what creates the experiences that are essential for our learning and healing journeys while we are here. We call in to our heart all the voices and one by one listen to each one and give it permission to leave or stay as long as is needed. Remember as well that we will often hold the voices that bring us the most comfort and often these are the voices that give us darkness as a comfort because it means that we avoid facing change. These voices also confirm our view of the world and allow us to be right. The ego is often played out through these voices.

The enlightened being allows the Divine to take over all her senses. Essentially the Divine will be the eyes with which we see, the ears with which we hear and so forth. There is a level of surrender that comes with allowing this takeover. Being human doesn’t make it that easy. This pathway also encourages us to remember that voice within the heart and the voice of the mind are indeed separate and distinct. In our human-ness, the voices blur and merge and it is only when we fully separate within and come in to stillness and Oneness can we begin to differentiate between the voices that we are hearing.

As part of awakened hearing, can we begin to see ourselves as our Creator sees us? That was one of the key lessons for me working with this pathway. We often forget that we were created as perfect beings but we are so busy seeking faults and looking for things to fix and heal within ourselves that we lose sight of how we are seen by Creator. For example, “I don’t feel like I’m doing enough.” The One that created us sees and hears the battles that we have within ourselves. We are always good enough as long as we are striving with that intention. As humans we find it difficult to be honest with ourselves but Creator already knows that truth and has probably already forgiven us long before we are ready to forgive ourselves.

Essentially, this pathway is about awakening a deeper intuitive sense within us. When we go through difficulties, it’s often this sense that is either being dampened, overwhelmed or awoken. The practice of living intuitively is a difficult one and this is mainly because our physical world is flooded with information. This world is meant to feel and become very real. The way that we experience what is happening to us also feels very real. It’s really difficult to go beyond the physical senses in to intuition when we are overloaded with this type of “physical reality.”

Often when something happens that upsets us, we directly attribute our feelings and emotions to it. This happened so therefore I feel like this. Something has been triggered by that experience. The experience has awoken something that was already there that needs to be explored and perhaps also healed.

The pathways are meant to direct us to where the healing is needed. The heart is the seat of the soul and there are 99 pathways that lead us from the heart to the soul. Our soul is connected to the One Divine Source of all souls. In order to know Creator, we begin to know these pathways within ourselves.

This was a really challenging pathway to articulate because of it’s intangible nature. Unlike the physical senses, the metaphysical senses do not require any physical evidence as proof of their existence. We either believe something is true and real or we don’t. More often than not though, we say that we believe but when we have an experience that gives us proof, that’s when we can confirm our faith in something that we can not see or hear.

I want to talk about guidance too because we all have an internal guidance system. This is the voice of that higher self, the soul presence and in order for us to live intuitively and follow the flow of life, we need to tune in to all our senses in order to perceive the guidance. The trouble with a human being is that we have a mind that gets in the way. We also have a mind that is full of fears. Living from the heart and living intuitively also means living with no fears and this can be the greatest challenge when this sense begins to awaken within ourselves.

“This is what I need to do” comes with a knowing from within but it’s difficult to follow through sometimes because the mind gets in the way. In the same way, “I don’t need to do anything” also takes as much work because the mind gets in the way of simply being. The last pathway we spoke about “doing nothing and nothing will be left undone” in the sense that there is already a natural order of things and we fall in to that.

So where does awakened hearing fall in to this order? This is the part of you that urges you to move on something. It is also the part of you that tells you to stop and be still for clearer guidance to come. Often we are going through life pushing and pushing and pushing. We are trying to take responsibility for everything and get everything done.

Awakened hearing is understanding that whether you are doing or not doing, you are being guided. Whether it is darkness or light that you are experiencing, you are being guided.

Sometimes we can be listening, but not hearing. Listening is the ability to bring our awareness to the sound or the message. Hearing is the ability to perceive and understand it.

The Emotion Code is an excellent healing modality that really helps you to look at past trauma in a way that liberates you. It brings the subconscious emotions that hold power over you into your conscious awareness. Emotion Code also clears the energy of those trapped emotions from your body so that they stop holding you back.

Can you think of an area of your life where you are holding back?

Do you feel like something is blocking you from moving forward?

Do you feel anxious when you think about the future?

Do you know you could do more with your life but are scared to fail?

Do you have a dream, desire, goal or outcome you’ve been trying to achieve for a while?

Do you know exactly what you need to do but find that there’s a brain fog and you just can’t do it?

If you answered yes to one or more, keep reading because Emotion Code might just be the answer for you.

Your mind is programmed to run on autopilot. Deep in your subconscious lie beliefs that, whether you are conscious of or not, lead to self-sabotage, lack of confidence and fear of success or failure. This means you’ll get a certain distance towards something, and then it all falls apart! Sound familiar?

When we have a repeated thought, it becomes a belief. When we believe something to be true, we look for evidence that proves we are right. Our evidence confirms our belief, and our belief becomes stronger.

Imagine you’ve been for a job interview and you’re thinking “I’m sure there were people better than me that went for the job.” Your limiting belief is more than likely to relate to “I am not good enough.”

Let’s break this thought down like we would in a session.

What does this thought tell us?

1. We are comparing ourselves with someone else who we actually know nothing about – our thought is an assumption not a fact!
2. We are also assuming we aren’t as good as others, or as good as we want to be – again, assumption not fact!
3. We wholeheartedly believe this to be true so we will be looking for evidence to prove ourselves right like “That guy looked really clever” or “She looks like she already works here”
4. Then come the train of thoughts that make us feel better about not getting the job like “Of course they’d favour someone else over me,” or “I’m not very confident in interviews” or “I couldn’t focus on the questions.”

Now if you ended up getting this job, you would more than likely say, “I can’t believe it!” In fact, what you’re actually saying is “I can’t believe they think I’m good enough because I don’t.”

If you didn’t get the job, you’d say “I knew it! It always goes wrong for me.” Not getting the job is evidence that confirms your limiting belief “I am not good enough”

How do you fix this? You can do all the positive affirmations in the world, but they don’t work as deeply because it’s actually in your energetic signature and your belief system. This is where the blocks are, and so you need to go a bit deeper to shift it. This is where Emotion Code comes in.

A lot of the time, we lie to ourselves about what we are really thinking because it’s hard to work through it. What you need is a safe space to work it out, and this is what I help a lot of people with.

I offer this type of counselling with my Emotion Code sessions because it’s important to clear away trapped emotions but also equally as important to understand and begin to un-do the patterns that have been created as a result. Emotion Code is really helpful in clearing these blocks, especially for negative beliefs we hold about ourselves.  It’s these beliefs that stop you reaching higher, earning more, finding love and create the feeling of being stuck. I read and work with energy and emotion and I can clear blocks through this process. The blocks might be from past experiences, this life or previous lives. I work across these time and space dimensions to clear, and help shift it from your present experience.

Emotion Code sessions are available for you to book online and distance sessions can be done via video call. If you’re interested, give me a call or book via the website – Click Here for more info…

Booking Link: https://www.fresha.com/healing-works-reiki-sdttnxl9/booking?menu=true

At the moment, there is a package of sessions available at a discounted rate. Please get in touch and I can explain more.

7 x Heart Wall Clearing Sessions – £277 (normally £315)

Single Session – £55 per session by phone (1 Hour)

“When you are guided to this pathway, take the opportunity to stop what you are doing, soften within, and allow your heart to return to the right rhythm in time with the heart of the Beloved.” The Sufi Book of Life, Neil Douglas-Klotz.

As always, whichever pathway I choose seems to be the exact one to meet my needs. I chose this pathway when I returned from my spiritual pilgrimage to Konya again walking in to the spiritual trap of asking for what is needed, receiving it and then wondering why it was all happening. I am certain that my Allah and the friends he has appointed to guide my journey all have a sense of humour!

This pathway is about Returning to Rhythm. The rhythm of the One Beloved. During my pilgrimage I felt this rhythm and I felt it deeply. Rumi talks about sinking to the bottom of the ocean and allowing the current to take you. At this point, you are in the heartspace of least resistance. It is exactly this heart led space that takes you to where you need to be because it is in rhythm with the Divine Heartbeat and at one and in alignment with the rhythm all of creation. You feel you are part of this One and at the same time, you flow through your own path with ease and grace.

I have trouble articulating the feeling in words because it just has to be experienced. There are no words and to be honest, words can only get in the way of this feeling. This is one of the deepest lessons of this pathway. In Konya, my heart did the speaking without any words. I was in solitude and silence for much of the time that I was away, encased in my own heavenly blissful being. As soon as I landed, I had to “have words” as my suitcase was on a different aircraft to the one I arrived on. My first test of letting go and I was fuming. The words didn’t come easy and it felt like I created my own blockages again.

It was as if I didn’t get a chance to even catch my breath before I was thrown in to life, head first. Worlds apart from where I had been in the serenity and peace of Konya. If Konya was the gentle humming of the harp then being back here felt like screeching death metal. It felt like I was holding my own internal rhythm for the first week or so and then I don’t know what happened but life took over.

I found my diary brimming and the ideas non-stop and yes, I was buzzing but in the midst of all that, my mum had a fall that resulted in a hip replacement. So with mum in hospital and various other family matters to take care of, I was running back and forth like a headless chicken with that in the background. All of this coming at a critical time for my business with some launches that had been planned for January derailed and delayed.

Life had done it to me once again yet given the time and reflection, I’ve realised that this is my Shaikh, my Master at work and even though I had left Konya, he wasn’t done with teaching me and I don’t think he ever will be. At least he has a sense of humour about it! Hence this pathway has been such a deep learning curve for me.

Now I’ve worked extremely hard and fought my ego to ensure that my foundations are solid, especially when it comes to my own spiritual practices. Even with this foundation, I found that I was wobbling and when you’re having a wobble, the discipline is all the more challenging to maintain. I was in the middle of an earthquake. The one thing that keeps me solid is solitude because it gives me headspace. Without the time and space, it feels like an earthquake. This is a deep lesson for me.

So when it comes to exploring this pathway, there are 4 key aspects that need to be explored. What is life calling us to look at in any stressful situation? This is where the pathway plays a key part if we can keep these aspects in mind.

The first is “Stop what you are doing.” This isn’t simply in the literal and physical sense although there is an element of prioritising and re-prioritising your commitments and being brave enough to drop things. I found that I had to cut down on client work because I just wasn’t in the head space for it.

This stop what you are doing made me acknowledge that I needed to stop what I was doing to myself. I hadn’t fully taken notice that I was beating myself up mentally and emotionally for not being able to keep up with the demands on my time and energy. I realised when I wrote down all of the things that I was juggling on a piece of paper. I did this to work out whether it’s me and I’m disorganised and slow or whether I do really have a lot of balls to juggle. It’s then I realised that actually, I was doing pretty well considering just how much was going on. That really helped me to stop and let go of the guilt and the burden that I put on myself.

The second aspect is to “Soften within.” Now this is where I was brought back to Rumi’s analogy of the spiritual journey boiling and cooking you like a pressure cooker. All that boiling will soften you to the core. And when you are in the midst of it all, you don’t realise that you’re being cooked and softened. Often it’s these pressure points that are preparing us for the next part of our journey. It’s only when you soften that you begin to accept what’s happening and gladly keep going even through you know you’re walking through fire.

The third aspect is “Allowing your heart to return” and this is the permission that we give ourselves to come back to our natural rhythm. With so much going on, I wasn’t giving myself the permission to be in solitude. I was also allowing everything to impose in to my space without taking what I needed and for me, it’s solitude that keeps me balanced. An introvert at heart, it definitely felt like I was doing too much “people-ing” and not getting enough time and space to fill myself back up again.

The fourth aspect is acknowledging the “Right rhythm” and this is in time with the heart of the Beloved. This for me touches deeply on the idea that Allah’s plan is better than the plan that we have made for ourselves. Indeed, it also directs us to understanding the natural flow of life. Just as the shore comes in and out, life also has it’s own timing. One of my biggest lessons in Konya was exactly this. Instead of trying to make the tide come in and out, I needed to understand that it flows in accordance with Divine timing. This is why we are asked to let go because much of this learning can’t be undertaken without the eyes of experience.

In that struggle to allow what is meant to be to flow towards you, you have to stop trying to make things happen. You have to relinquish the responsibility that you feel and allow your host on this Earth to take care of everything for you. This again demands surrender. Not partial surrender. Full surrender.

How do we do this?

It isn’t something that can be articulated because it doesn’t come from the mind. It comes from the heart.

Remember that your heart beats in time with the rhythm of the Universe and it does this effortlessly without you having to do anything at all. If you understand that, that’s all you need to know.

“When you are guided to this pathway, take the opportunity to feel yourself as part of Allah’s continual, creative expression, which carves out new realities each instant through an abundance of forms.” The Sufi Book of Life, Neil Douglas-Klotz.

The first idea that I want to focus on is that you can create something from nothing. Many of us have, again and again sometimes. The pathways always mirror what is happening in the healing room and often we see someone come in who has lost everything and has the perception that they have nothing. From this “nothing” is how a future, a path and a direction is created. We have no choice but to create or co-create our lives and this is the crux of the pathway for me.

It is an understanding that new realities can be carved out, created, changed in a range of different ways from a space where there is apparently nothing. There is always a way towards what you are seeking because it is always seeking you. It’s the void, the lack, the absence of something that makes us pursue its creation and co-creation. It makes us understand the power of Creator and how this is expressed through our reality in each moment. Where it appears there is nothing left, given time something always comes through. It allows for your current circumstances to take on a new form and this is the abundant expression that I associate with this pathway. This ever changing form is abundant expression that leads to new realities.

When I reflect, my deepest spiritual awakenings have come from times in my life where I lost everything and had to start again from scratch. It goes to show you can start over financially, emotionally, physically on all levels from ground zero. You can build it up and lose it and still do the same again. This is abundance although it may not appear to be on the surface of it. It’s important then that we challenge what abundance means and the form it takes as well as how we express it in our daily lives.

This leads us to explore the nature of abundance in all its forms. From this, we can see that it isn’t something that we acquire. It is something that we already hold within us and that it can be expressed in a number of ways. It is through this abundance that everything is created or co-created. The “nothingness” is the abundance itself even though it appears in a material reality to be an emptiness or a void where nothing exists.

The book talks about this inner sense of abundance and relates it to this idea of wealth. It talks about wealth being regarded with suspicion because the self can easily get lost in the personal power and freedom that wealth seems to purchase. It suggests the remedy to be giving away what’s surplus to our requirements. I had to look at this  more deeply while I explored this pathway.

This idea that we regard wealth with suspicion is an interesting one because often it’s this perception of wealth in an almost negative sense that prevents us from being abundant. Eg. All rich people happily step over others to get there and I don’t want to be like that. Yet also there is the idea that when we have wealth, we can be tested with it. Eg. If I’m not responsible for what I have, I will lose it.

If we feel that being wealthy is inherently wrong, we are reluctant to pursue it creating a block to this feeling of abundance yet at the same time, we all want that wealth because we also crave the power and freedom that comes with it. Essentially we are seeking the inner feeling of abundance itself, the feeling of being enough within not necessarily always the material reality. Although the material reality is of course appealing too!

There is a delicate balance to be struck here. The book talks about giving away what you do not need and this is one of the ways that we stay in equilibrium. I came at this as an empath and as someone who can relate to lack more than abundance given my journey and personal circumstances yet still there was plenty to learn in terms of addressing the feelings of both lack and abundance. And we have to look at both aspects to attain a fuller understanding of what this pathway teaches.

In a dualistic universe where we are taught it’s either one or the other, we can’t raise the question of abundance without also considering it’s opposite – Lack. There are many lessons to this pathway, one of the strongest being that where there is lack on the face of it, whether we choose to focus on the lack or the abundance is a choice that we ultimately make. I’ve certainly learnt that when things are taken away suddenly, they are always replaced with something better even if we can’t see it at the time. This relates to the previous pathway on completion where we are only seeing that particular part of the picture and seeing beyond can be really helpful to how we perceive abundance.

Let’s first take this feeling that there is not enough. This is only a reflection of our inner world. We can feel lack financially, in our relationships and in our work. The one thing all those things have in common is ourselves. The lack is feeling that you are lacking, that you are not enough and you feel this deep within. It’s reflected in your outer circumstances because that’s how the Universe works. I am not enough, I am not deserving or worthy.

Abundance takes a different form. It looks at what “is” rather than what “is not.” This acknowledgement begins to fill the void. We are trained to look towards the material rewards in life to reflect a measure of our abundance however we know that sometimes even the wealthiest of people are not necessarily the happiest. It isn’t anything to do with what you have. Rather it’s more a form of who you are and how that is expressed. It’s that feeling within that we’re seeking. The inner form of abundance and the more we focus on that, the more we see can see Creator within our reality.

In order to be abundant within and in order to be able to give of yourself, your time, your energy, your money, your love, freely and abundantly, we must feel that there is enough of it for ourselves before we can even begin to give any of it away.

Although sometimes, it’s the opposite and you feel like it’s all too much. The overwhelm that comes with abundance can be equally challenging to work with. We may feel when we gain a little that in comparison to the lack, it’s a lot so we give it away, and keep giving it away. This way we don’t hold the abundance and if we don’t hold it, we can’t build on it. Sometimes it is as soon as something good happens we want to share it and give it away. A lot of people do this especially if they have come from nothing.

It’s important to learn how to hold abundance and with this comes an ability to hold what you have received for yourself. I’m talking about how you hold it not how you share it or give it away. Are you able to keep things for yourself? Do you automatically feel that you have to share and give? It’s not just physical things I’m talking about here. We can extend this to receiving good news or achieving something special. How does it feel to keep it to yourself rather than sharing it with others? How does it feel to hold back on giving?

This is a difficult and challenging pathway and on a personal level it made me realise how quick I am to give things away in all respects. It made me realise that holding abundance is about practicing discernment in what you keep and what you give away. It’s going within to challenge what you are keeping for yourself and how much of it you can hold. It’s about knowing what full means for you so that when you do give, you’re not drained. It’s also about facing up to the shadow aspect of how it feels not to share and give everything away and dealing with the guilt that sometimes comes with it.

The pathway also talks about giving away and says that giving away means you’re filling up. We only have to think about how good it feels to give to understand the feeling of filling up that it creates. This feeling good is associated with abundance but it is also a trust in this feeling of there being enough. Giving from full feels different to giving from empty. It’s trial and error working out what full means to you and as you work this out, full can sometimes feel like selfish but it’s about pushing your own boundaries and comfort zones when it comes to yourself and what you hold.

As an empath, I found this pathway challenging because I’ve spent years learning how to feel enough, to feel worthy, to fill up and to not give on empty. On first glance, it felt like it was at odds with this. I stand by learning to cultivate and hold abundance as it’s necessary to ensure that I don’t feel drained and therefore resentful. Whilst living this pathway and meditating on it, I thought “hang on a minute…am I meant to be giving it all away?!” It isn’t as clear cut as that.

If there’s one thing that helped me whilst living this pathway it’s this story. There’s a saying from the teachings of the Prophet that says, “Tie your camel.”

This saying, as relayed by the scholar Al-Tirmidhi, is an ancient Arab phrase attributed to the prophet Mohammed who, when one day he saw a Bedouin leaving his camel without tethering it, questioned him as to why he was doing this. The Bedouin replied that he was placing his trust in Allah and had no need to tie the camel. The prophet Mohammed then replied, “Tie your camel first and then place your trust in Allah.”

This gives us a really strong indication of being responsible for ourselves and our own actions first and foremost. It takes us away from the passive whatever will be will be and into a more active responsibility for ourselves before we place our trust in Creator. This is as it should be if we are co-creating our reality. It’s important we make arrangements for our own provisions rather than leaving it all to chance or all up to the Universe. Whatever will be will be takes you out of the co-creation and therefore places you with very little responsibility for your own actions and therefore your own inner sense of abundance. If we go back to the feelings of personal power and freedom that we associated with abundance, then “whatever will be will be” becomes passive and leaves everything to chance. We need to tie our camels before we place our trust.

In terms of abundance, holding abundance and creating more of it in our lives, this pathway teaches us to look very closely at what we actually have and be responsible for how we use it. We have to look closely at what we have and how we use that for us to be able to discern what is kept and what is given away. We make our own arrangements for our own provision first before we can evaluate what is surplus that we can give away.

Ultimately, we are responsible for tying our camels. We are responsible for what we keep and what we give away. An inner sense of abundance comes from this inner audit that takes stock of everything we have. We do this in order to feel personal power, freedom and acknowledge that abundance is already within.

The first step is an acknowledgement of all the resources that we have at our disposal. This in itself helps us to overcome the feeling of lack. There is plenty that we have that we can be grateful for. On the surface, it appears we have nothing but once we do the stocktake, we realise that “nothing” is actually a whole lot from which to create more.

The second step is to look at how we are using what we have at our disposal in order to discern what we keep and what we give away. By looking at what we have, we can make arrangements for our own provision, we can meet our own needs and we can see what is surplus and we can choose where and how to give.

The third step is the giving itself. There are always to give and share that don’t involve making a big noise. Just as Creator works behind the scenes, so can we in the way that we give and share. There is no need to make it known that we are giving and actually in terms of abundance, this helps us hold it in a more self-assured way.

As long as we are in this cycle of acknowledgement, discernment and action, we are continuously filling and creating an inner sense of abundance.

Ever since I was a teenager, I’ve been obsessed with Mevlana Rumi. It’s crazy to think that the words of a man who lived over 700 years ago have the power to reach deep into someone’s soul and change the way they think and feel life forever. This is indeed the power and grace of Mevlana Rumi.

“The moment I read my first love story, I started looking for you not knowing how blind that was.

Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along.”

Mevlana Jelaladin Rumi

Konya in central Turkey is known as the “City of Hearts”. This is the place where Mevlana Rumi is buried. This was the place where I realised that I’d been blind for so long. Mevlana and I didn’t finally meet somewhere. We’ve been in each other all along.

This is the story of how I found the soulmate I was longing for. I entered lost and incomplete. I left with not only my only heart mended but pieces of his soul sewn in to my own. I was reluctant to write this piece, but it’s been just over a month since I got back and the longing in my heart was just too much and so reliving it is bringing healing to my heart.

I only ever had one bucket list item and that was to visit Rumi’s tomb and shrine. It’s always been a dream. I’ve been banging on about it for years and years and finally the call came during a deep meditation. I saw light, blinding light and from beyond that light, I saw the beautiful, colourful shrine of Mevlana Rumi. Beyond that I saw a cloaked dervish gesturing, “Come, come.” I remembered the words from a poem of his.

“Come, come, whoever you are. Wanderer, worshipper, lover of leaving. It doesn’t matter. Ours is not a caravan of despair. Come, even if you have broken your vows a thousand times. Come, yet again , come , come.”

Mevlana Jelaladin Rumi

And so I booked it and off I went. I landed at the same time as the first snow. The first sign that this was going to be a poignant journey. My first glimpse of Mevlana Rumi’s beautiful, illuminated, turquoise minaret took my breath, my heart and my soul away. It was freezing cold outside but something inside of me was already beginning to melt.

I slept well and I slept deeply that night because I knew I was home. It’s funny because I’ve always had trouble sleeping anywhere that isn’t my own bed. I didn’t even think about it and fell asleep peacefully as soon as my head hit the pillow. I woke up to a bright, crisp day in Konya. I opened the curtains to see what view they’d given me. I saw snow topped trees and mountains and there it was again…I could see Mevlana Rumi from my window so I told him I’m on my way.

I got ready and wandered happily down the road. I had to take a few deep breaths as I got to the entrance. I just stood there, looked up and told him I’m here. I’m entering lost and incomplete and I don’t want to leave until I’ve found what it is that will complete me. The energy of the shrine is pure love and as you walk in, you begin to feel yourself melting uncontrollably.

I stood before him and found that I had no words and no thoughts. It was as if my brain and my mouth had been sealed shut. I’d come with so many hopes and wishes and so much to talk to him about but I couldn’t locate any of that. Like a crazy person who has lost leave of their senses, I had no choice but to sit silently. I had no idea how deeply that energy had gone in to me. I had planned to sit there all morning but I felt like I couldn’t be there very long. I stayed about half an hour and then went to get some breakfast. I wandered like a dervish for the rest of the day and went back for a short while before the shrine closed for the day before I went back to my hotel room.

I could feel the restlessness and so I decided to meditate and that was my first experience of Mevlana Rumi. I say my first…I became very aware that it was my first conscious experience. I’d heard that voice many times before.

I felt lost, confused and angry. He’d brought me all the way here and I had come and I didn’t even know what I was doing or why I was here. I was in this meditation feeling inner turmoil as if all the darkness was being pushed to the surface and with it, all the fear I’d ever experienced in my life. All the lies I’d told myself about being ok and all the masks I was wearing started to taunt me. I could see a black hole and he asked me if I wanted to go through it. I was petrified but I couldn’t come this far only to come this far. I said yes and that’s when the healing began.

I realised that I had been invited here and I was a guest. I wasn’t responsible for anything in this experience and I needed to allow myself to be hosted. I realised my heart was wide open but my mind was full of crap that was getting in my way and blocking me from trusting him to take care of me. All the emotions poured out and poured out and poured out. I had no choice but to let it all go and let it all out.

“Sell your cleverness and buy bewilderment. Cleverness is mere opinion, bewilderment is intuition.”

Mevlana Jelaladin Rumi

This is the difference between living with your mind and living with your heart. Where your mind is, there is pain. Where your heart is, there is freedom. I asked him to take my mind away. I felt like a crazy person talking to him out loud this way but I knew I was seen and heard and I knew he was going to help me.

The next day was an interesting one, acknowledging my mind was the blockage I decided to go back to see him. As I stood before him, I felt myself come back in to my body in a way I’ve never experienced before. It was as if something was literally pulling my feet down in the the ground and holding them down with weights. I decided it was just my heart that would speak without using words. It’s not like I had a choice but stubbornly I had to make it my own idea! I spent a good couple of hours there just sitting and as I left, I felt both an emptiness and a fullness.

So wondering again like a dervish with my heart spinning in some kind of strange ecstasy, I stumbled upon a little tailors shop and this lovely man with bright eyes and the kindest face popped out of the shop and invited me in. Without even thinking, I went in to sit with him. We talked as if we had known each other before and hadn’t seen in each other in a while. He asked how my family was and I asked him the same. He told me his name and that he was a direct descendant of Rumi and a dervish. I bought a beautiful deep green scarf from him because it was cold out. When I left, he gave me the biggest, warmest hug. He placed his thumbs on my forehead, prayed and blew over my head. I felt a coolness in my heart that was the strangest feeling because for the first time in my life, I was happy to be cold.

I left there and wandered down to the masjid of Shams Tabrez, Mevlana Rumi’s soulmate and teacher. I did my prayers and as I was coming down the stairs, I hit the top of my head. This made me giggle because it was as if he too was telling me I didn’t need my brain in this life anymore.

Now there was a whole lot more that happened during my time there but I’m going to leave it there because the rest of it is between me and Mevlana Rumi. Suffice to say that my life has been changed by my beloved forever. I will not see, hear, feel, think, taste or experience the same ever again.

If you ever get the opportunity, just go there. Go there and see what happens. Be open to love and the lessons it brings. You won’t be the same ever again and you won’t regret it either.

With love and blessings,

Hafsa

Cord cutting sounds quite brutal, doesn’t it? LOL I’m talking about energy cords here and I thought it was important to share more on this as it’s something that I work with on a daily basis both for myself and in the healing room.

I have to keep my own energy protected as much as possible because I know that it is way too easy to absorb other people’s energy, emotions and even entities. This is important for all empaths to be aware of. If you’re sensitive to energy, you’ll more than likely be picking up, absorbing and retaining the energies around you.

At the end of each day, I check for energy cords, unhealthy attachments and entities and remove them. This work is a part of my daily self-healing routine and I wanted to talk about why it’s important.

When we interact with other people, it is an energy exchange. As this exchange happens over time, the energy builds up in the form of an invisible energy cord. This is often the attachment that a person has to you or you have to them. You’re joined together, connected by this invisible cord. This cord keeps pulling energy out of you regardless of whether the person remains in your life or not. If your past is draining you, it might be time to think about having energy cords cut and removed so that you can let go and move forward in peace.

Energy cords work both ways in the sense that just as others are draining our energy, we may also be draining theirs through the attachment and the energy cord that’s developed over time. We aren’t always aware that we’ve created these cords and we’re certainly not sucking the energy out of people on purpose. It isn’t anyone’s fault. It’s just the way that energy works so you’ve got to just focus on being responsible for yourself.

You may have some clues in the way a person becomes attached to you or you may be completely unaware of it, but unhealthy attachments feed on your energy leaving you feeling completely drained. Where there’s reliance or an unfair exchange of energy, there’s usually a cord. Remember this works in both directions.

You can have multiple cords from the same person. The most I’ve dealt with in myself is 12 all from the same person. You have cords from your exes, friends, parents. It’s only the ones that are affecting you negatively that need removing.

The energy cords are only ever released with your permission. This is because you have to be ready for them to go. It’s the decision you make within yourself that you’re ready to let go of certain aspects of your life in the pursuit of what’s for your highest good. These cords can’t be forced out unless you’re ready to let them go. By cutting energy cords with love and compassion, we’re releasing any dependency or toxicity in our system. This isn’t about cutting people off in a harsh way. It’s about learning to have healthy relationships without unhealthy attachments.

When you have your energy cords cut, it can feel like a huge relief especially if it’s a relationship that has been heavy on you for a while. Remember everything that we do in the healing room is with your highest good at the forefront and everything is permission based so if you’re not ready to release, that’s also absolutely fine. Sometimes in situations like this, we begin to untangle or loosen the cords as a person is moving towards preparing themselves to move on. Everyone does this in their own way and in their own time.

Cutting energy cords is a way that you can move on and be whole as a person without the influence of others. It helps you reclaim your own heart, your personal power and your ability to make good decisions for yourself. Often we feel like other people hold some power over us that restricts us. It also prevents us from finding our own path in life, especially if we are seeking approval from others with the things that we do and the decisions that we make.

Just to make it clear that nobody is harmed in the process. The other person won’t feel anything. Remember it’s your energy that you’re working on and cutting cords is simply a way of releasing the energy or attachment that isn’t serving you in a healthy, positive and compassionate way. It may be hindering your clarity or stepping on your sense of freedom and releasing it may be the best thing that you can do for yourself and others.

There’s always an integration period that follows any healing session. Remember that your energy has changed from the inside and so it can take a few weeks for your outer world to catch up. Everyone has a different process and will notice different things about themselves and their reactions. Often cutting cords simply creates the energetic space needed in order to make decisions for yourself.

Cord cutting is something that I love doing because I can see how much relief and change my clients get. Often, we’ll work on the cord for a few sessions and once it has been removed, that’s when the accelerated progress happens. Although for some clients, they are so ready and want it gone on the first session. I love a good clean extraction!

I offer cord cutting through a number of different healing methods so you can have this done in a bodywork session, a Reiki session, Emotion Code session and even through a transmission. For sessions, please see this page https://healingworksreiki.com/healing-leicester/

I check for cords as standard with most of my sessions and for me, it’s really important to establish full trust and rapport before any release or extraction takes place. Permission and consent are central to the work that I do.

If you’re going through a breakup or trying to get over someone, or even if you’re getting ready to find new love, cutting cords can really help you. Even if you’re working on your sense of self-worth, watch this to see if resonates!

If you’d like to explore this in your healing journey, please get in touch.

Heartache is something that we will all face at some point in our lives. I’m no stranger to this. It’s not just heartache, but it’s also heart break and it brings with it a deep emotional pain that just needs some form of healing or release.

This tearing apart serves a purpose. The harsher it feels, the deeper it’s opening you up to a way of seeing the world in a unique way. If you think about it, it’s the wounds and the pain that we have experienced that shape who we are as human beings. When we know what that feels like, heartache teaches us compassion and a sense of humanity. Heartache makes us want to reach out and help.

Heartache can also make us shut down though. Emotions are such and they can be unpredictable. What grows one person may totally shut down another. We all come with our own unique set of experiences and circumstances. We all have our own set periods of time before we can begin to go in to the heartache deeper and take the richness that it offers us.

Many of us feel a desperate need to fix this feeling of heartache and make it go away. More often than not because it hurts in a way that feels deeply uncomfortable. However, there is something very beautiful and courageous to being open to having your heart broken. It’s an unspoken rebellious streak that dares life to open you up.

Heartache isn’t necessarily a bad thing because it shows us that our hearts are awake and alive. I’d rather this than the alternative. Even a heart that feels shut down will feel pain and sadness. With this stirring comes a yearning to make things better and that is what’s known as hope. It’s as if a part of us already knows that there is something greater that lies beneath those feelings and the pain is a way of reaching out to Divine Source for help.

We are learning to grow and nurture our hearts. As much as we age and mature, there is something that remains very childlike about our hearts and so there is a need to grow and nurture this. That bewilderment that the heart experiences is a type of innocence that sits within us all. It’s the heart that falls in love and drives the madness within us all. There’s something very special about this feeling. We fall in love, experience heartache but we know that it isn’t impossible for us to fall in love all over again. We know that this can happen as much as we tell ourselves we won’t allow it. This is one of the reasons that we try and protect ourselves.

On a personal level, one of the realisations for me on this spiritual journey is that I do not need to protect my heart because it is already looked after by Divine Source. As many times as it has broken, it has opened up. The heart has an immense capacity to love and be loved and perhaps we underestimate this ability within ourselves.

Even though at times it feels overbearing, there is something fascinating about this wild, raw and untamed being that sits within us. The way that it roars when it is wounded. The way that it cares for others that are hurting. The nature of your heart and the nature of heartache are things that are worth knowing in order to appreciate the richness of being.

It always amazes me just how special and considered this aspect of a human being is and this leads me to believe that we are all seen and recognised by Divine Source. Imagine this Divine Source, the heart of hearts and soul of souls, the essence of every thing – imagine this Creator took time to fashion your heart, your heartaches, your heartbreaks and your journey just for you to come to know and see Him. Each experience of sadness calls you to the One because in that heartache and heart break is a whisper that beckons you back home and back in to your own connection.

Ponder that.

Until next time,

Love Hafsa xx