Spiritual Insights – Blog

Healing

A new year… A new start

Hafsa

Happy new year to you all. What can I say? It’s usually towards the end of the year that I begin to undertake the process of reflection on the year gone by and set my intentions for the coming year. 2021 has been somewhat of an anomaly to say the least with plenty happening on a personal and professional level. It’s been a bit crazy to say the least.

2021 turned out to be year of everything unexpected for me. It forced my heart open in a way I never thought was possible. It was the year I lost my best friend and companion. It was the year everything had to fall about to be re-constructed.

Sometimes in life, you have to properly take everything to pieces and start again. Life gets messy and we fall in to patterns of being that don’t necessarily serve us. Generally speaking, we hurt and then we protect ourselves and then the pattern of protection becomes the way we design our lives.

It’s like with anything…it’s become what it has become but every now and then, we need to review it to see if it’s still fit for purpose. This is why I do my annual review because it is a way of appraising whether I’m operating on defences and protection or whether I need to tweak and change in order to get where I need to go.

I always look over the intentions that I set myself last year and I have to say this is the first year in which I really feel like I’ve got everything I asked for…and a whole lot more on top. So setting the intentions for the year ahead felt much more difficult for me.

Life is changing pretty rapidly over here at Healing Works. Who knows what the future holds?

The year gone by has taught me some important life lessons. It’s been a year of growth, testing faith and hope and overcoming the shadows. Not just for me, but for my clients too. The theme has been coming back to your truest self and dropping all pretences.

I think 2021 was the year I learnt to live and when we learn to live with a passion, it enhances our capacity to help others do the same. 2021 was full of laughter, love and inspiration to do better, to pursue what sets us alight and makes us shine.

There’s a few changes in the pipeline…some planned and some unplanned but as ever, we are open to being guided by the management.

I pray for all good things for us all.

Peace and blessings

Hafsa

Healing

Healing for anxiety and depression

Hafsa

There’s no doubt that the last couple of years have really taken a toll on the mental health of the nation. In particular anxiety and depression is on the rise. As a therapist, I’ve really seen the impact and part of my job is to help people to find a way through the darkness that comes with these mental health issues.

Fear and anxiety go hand in hand and we are living in an age of fear. I could write a whole other blog post about that, however today the focus is on how we recognise and move through the darkness.

Everything takes time.

It used to really wind me up when people said this to me because time is the one thing that is ticking away and you can’t get it back.

For those of you who suffer from depression or anxiety, from experience I know that one of the most excruciating things is to watch time ticking by knowing what it is you want to do but just not having the energy or inclination to do it. That gut churning feeling of the darkness never ending and the doom that comes with not being able to see your way out of it is all too familiar let me tell you.

Now I may come across as go getter, but there are still days when I’m taking back to this place and I know how difficult and challenging it can be just to get out of bed in the morning. It’s tough going. Your mind just doesn’t want to connect with your body and no matter how hard you try, you just can’t get going. I still have days like this, but I remember when it was weeks on end. It’s taken a great deal of inner work and discipline to overcome the darkness and this is one of the reasons I do what I do.

I would say the trouble with the darkness is that once it hits, your mind becomes centred around it. You can’t see an end…hell sometimes you can’t even see the beginning. It doesn’t matter how hard you try, you’re just not enjoying anything. You go through the motions, you put your face on and nod and smile in the right places but nothing can take away the empty feeling inside. I can speak about this in detail because I’ve been there and the most terrifying thing for someone who is working to overcome it is the feeling of being plunged back in because it always feels like you’re playing snakes and ladders. Just when you think you’ve got it, you have to start over again. It’s frustrating but there are ways around it and this is what I teach when I work with clients.

The truth is that everything takes time. There is no magic cure and even if you wake up the day after your healing session feeling amazing, you still have to learn to maintain it for yourself. And so, there is always homework with every session because the road to recovery is learning how to do the inner work for yourself.

I like to think of it as balancing yourself and a healing session helps to reset and balance the energy. The homework is what will help you to learn how to balance and maintain the energy for yourself.

Balance is the key thing. When we learn to balance, we learn to hold our own energy and that is the starting place to build from. That’s not to say it won’t swing around anymore. It just helps you to get to know what that place of balance feels like for you and the things that you can do to feel that energy.

Anxiety and depression can be really destructive and often it’s a hidden illness. We don’t talk about it and the irony is that more often than not, talking therapy is what is recommended. I have many friends who work in the mental health field and they dread their supervision sessions because talking just doesn’t work for them. Energy healing however has a different, much deeper impact. We work on multiple levels and layers of a person and actually, no words are necessary.

Healing is what I do best because I do it from a place of experience. Every day, I’m doing the work on myself because I have to. It isn’t easy but walking the talk is what makes a good healer. There’s nothing worse than someone who takes the “Do as I say, not as I do” approach.

Working on myself has given me lots of tools, tricks and workarounds to pull myself out of the darkness. This is what I teach my clients and students and we find a way that’s going to work for you. Whether it’s during a healing session or on a Reiki course, I focus on what’s practical and achievable for you. I break it down so you understand it and you get manageable homework so you’re learning to do it for yourself.

I’ve been there and I know what it feels like. I’ve had the light and I’ve had the darkness and I appreciate the balance because of the unpredictability that life brings.

Healing helps you to get to know your own energy. If nobody understands you, then at least you understand yourself. It isn’t easy, but if you want to feel better and you don’t have any bright ideas then isn’t it worth a shot?

Call me and let’s at least have a chat about it. Reiki is a great starting point for beginning to learn balance. It’s up to you where you take it after that.

Inner work

Routine and discipline

Hafsa

I believe feeling good about life centres on building your spiritual foundation and therefore routine and discipline are essential to the spiritual path. The practices, the routine and the discipline keep you in your spiritual connection. This is something I’ve really struggled and fought hard with my ego about so I thought I would share in the hope that it helps you.

How important is routine and discipline in the spiritual journey?

I’ve always thought of myself as a free spirit and so the idea of routine and discipline has always made me writhe with agony. I’ve been on quite a journey with this whole thing and so I thought I would share what I’ve learnt because I know it’s something that a lot of my clients and students struggle with.

I’ve never liked the idea of routine. Just the thought of it has always made me feel confined and restricted. It’s really interesting how our perception of who we think we are really influences how we feel about certain ideas. I was fixated on the idea of being a free spirit. I love that every day is different and I have no idea where the wind will take me. I don’t like to be tied down to one particular thing. I like to do things spontaneously as the mood takes me.

For a long time, I believed that I wasn’t capable of routine, structure, planning and organisation because these things were contrary to who I thought I was. My belief was that all this would restrict and confine me or that somehow I would be less free and more boring. These were things that I told myself in order to avoid implementing routine. I didn’t understand fully what routine and discipline meant.

When I unpicked this for myself, I discovered that I have a deep rooted fear of commitment. I was reluctant to put my energy fully in to being here and doing this. So I did (and still do sometimes) everything I could possibly think of to avoid it. That’s great but there’s a great deal of procrastination that comes hand in hand with being a free spirit. And after a certain amount of procrastination, the guilt and the negative chatter all become too much. So I was pretty much in this cycle for years before I broke out of it.

I wasn’t lacking in anything except commitment and so I decided to try out this whole structure thing to see what it was all about. I always need to experience the benefits before I commit to anything. I’m difficult to sell the idea to so I thought I’d do a try before I buy in to it and it was one of the best things that I did.

What I didn’t realise at the time was that the foundations were sort of already there. My daily prayers, my daily meditation and my journalling were all part of the structure but I was taking quite a relaxed attitude so things would slip. Much like a magpie, I would get distracted and go off following what looked shiny. I think I’d grown in to a nice little comfort zone. I liked the idea of no pressure…just be easy…take it as it comes. There was never any urgency with anything because there was no commitment.

The way I was looking at things needed to change. What I found that within everything there is flexibility so although I was doing all these things, they were just haphazardly thrown in when I could fit them in. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing because I was actually making an effort to do them but the root of the issue was my lack of commitment and this is what I needed to address.

When you unpick your belief system, you realise that you have learnt a lot of your behaviours based on your previous experiences. As someone who was used to things going wrong or falling flat on my arse, I had no great expectations of myself. This itself was in line with the idea that nobody else had any great expectations of me either. It wouldn’t be surprising to anyone if I gave up or failed or moved on to the next thing. This made it easy for me to avoid committing to things.

The biggest realisation was that it wasn’t so much that I wasn’t committed to the structure and discipline. I didn’t have the commitment to myself and when I realised that it made me feel really sad.

There comes a time when you have to ask yourself what you really want for yourself. Honestly, who do you really want to be? When I was really honest, I realised that I craved organisation. I craved focus and I really wanted the sense of accomplishment and achievement that comes with seeing something through from start to finish.

It’s pretty simple though when you break it down. If you really want something, then you work hard for it. You keep going. Even when you fail or get knocked back, you get up and you keep going. Even when you’re tired and your eyes are closing, you keep trying to remember what you want and why and then you keep trying.

When you are tired and fed up, rest and keep going. Do not quit. And so I set about trying to organise myself better. I wrote down all the things I do to keep me well that I would like to keep as my foundation. I then made some firm decisions about when I would do these things.

The hardest thing was sticking to the timings, especially in the morning but as time went on, this became easier. It’s true what they say about making things a habit and I realised that I had got in to some bad habits. One of which was saying to myself, “I’ll do it later” or “Meh doesn’t matter.” I probably wouldn’t have done it later and actually yes it does matter. It matters because I matter and what I want matters. All the while, I had to keep remembering this.

I had to really push to have the routine I have today. Instilling discipline for yourself is pretty tough when you’re on your own with nobody to motivate you. Everything is possible though and although it feels like you’re being tough on yourself when you push yourself, it’s all worth it.

My foundation is my daily prayers and readings, my meditation time and my journalling and reflection. The structure that I thought would limit me actually helps my day to flow much better. It allows me to plan more in and actually, what I found was that there was more time or at a least a feeling of more time that was created by having the discipline.

I think it’s a lot to do with building in the things that keep you well. My energy tends to fluctuate a lot from day to day and one of the biggest benefits of having structure and routine is that when I’m bouncing all over the place, I’m able to slow down and contain the energy. I also find that when I am drained, the structure helps me to keep going and start filling my energy again.

The thing that helped me most was taking it one day at a time and actually building in one new habit at a time. I’m still a work in progress and there’s lots more I would like to add in to my routine. The important thing is to give each habit time to bed in before you start on with the next thing.

Slowly but surely, you’ll get there. If I can do it, anyone can!

Healing

Choosing beliefs that resonate with you

Hafsa

I started this spiritual journey a long time ago and over the years I’ve fallen in and out of resonance with all the different teachings that I’ve come across and I’ve been across the board from the Traditional Eastern idea of Enlightenment to the Western concept of Ascension. Merging with these ideas are the spiritual philosophies of different religions and structured ways of approaching spirituality and faith. I’ve always had firm roots in the Sufi teachings and I’ve always stayed firm in those roots but I also love exploring what other philosophies and teachings have to offer. We are, after all, part of One Source of Love.

I still can’t say that any one approach was totally right or wrong and I personally believe that you have to decide for yourself what resonates with you. In order to do that, learn, read, speak to people and at the same time, question and challenge and really tune in to how these beliefs and ideas sit within your own heart.

When I first started writing this piece, I was at a really interesting point in my journey where all the stuff that I used to be influenced by just wasn’t resonating with me in the same way. I was really starting to find out what I wholeheartedly believed in.

It challenged me to go deeper in search of my own truths. I’ve never been one to simply accept something just for the sake of it. I think it’s important to question and challenge because that is the way in which we begin to really understand what we are about as human beings. It’s a way of constructing and deconstructing your identity and testing out what holds true in your heart.

Remember that we are free to believe in what we choose to believe in. For those of us who have grown up in a structured faith or religion, often the idea of challenging what we have been taught brings with it a great deal of anxiety. I don’t believe that God punishes us for asking questions. In fact, I believe that asking questions is the way to affirm our own truth. For me, it needs to make sense when I’m doing something otherwise there’s no meaning behind the action, and certainly no love.

Resonance is essential because after all, where we take influence from others, we are allowing ourselves to be taught by them. With everything we learn, it has an influence on what we believe. What we believe deeply influences who we are, what we do and who we become. The person you become and how you carry yourself will ultimately influence how you discover and deliver your purpose. It’s deep stuff but definitely worth thinking about.

Resonance is so important and I know for most teachers it is the same. The people that are attracted to my work will be the ones that resonate with my message. You will choose your teacher because they speak your language. You may not agree with all of what they say and I always tell my students upfront that they’re certainly not obliged to either. As teachers, we accept that loyalty is not a given and that resonance is preferred as then we are working for the highest benefit of all. Respecting free thought and free will is part of being a good teacher. I love the questions students have and delving in to the answers is a way of exploring, challenging and affirming what I believe to be true.

Always choose what feels right for you. Even if that means you’re making a massive U-Turn on what you thought to be your beliefs. It’s often the ego that tells us that we can’t do this but there is no wrong or right. Belief systems are complicated and actually in order to simplify things, sometimes it’s better not to call yourself one thing or another. It’s better not to have any title and if you are to choose a title, let it be one that you can wholeheartedly commit to. These labels become part of our identity. I’m not saying that’s a good thing or a bad thing and it all depends on whether you are looking for an identity or a way to be defined. Often it can be a hindrance because society dictates that we must share whatever this label is but for me, it’s in my heart. I share my beliefs, my manners, my character and allow that to show for itself. I don’t need to broadcast anything if I’m living in accordance with what I believe to be true. Ultimately, that’s nobody’s business but my own.

There is so much value in exploration. You don’t have to be a big reader or study anything in particular. I’m talking about that real one on one human connection and interaction. I’m talking about those deep and meaningful conversations. I’m talking about connecting with a complete stranger and seeing them as part of yourself. I’m talking about sharing about yourself without being afraid of being judge. They say that you can only meet others as deeply as you have met yourself. So meet yourself first.

Sharing allows us to put in to practise hearing what we believe to be true. It’s often this that helps us to understand what resonates and what doesn’t. It’s always good to have the goal of committing to the ideas you stand by. And we can only do this by sharing and affirming what we believe. If more people were willing to be open to this, I believe the world would be so different because this openness and sharing is love and acceptance.

At the core of my belief system is love. And I believe that if we can define what love is and does, we are part way there. If love was a person, what would be her traits and qualities? What would her manners and character be like? Essentially what we realise when we define ourselves in relation to what love would do is that love and goodness is what will resonate. And if this is the core of your belief system, you can’t go wrong. Life is such though that the test is in being prepared to live by these values regardless of the circumstances. Although it’s difficult, I believe we all have the strength to follow through and practice being love.

After all, our roots are Love. We were created by a source of Love. We came here to love. And we are loved. The trick of life is learning to open your eyes to it in places where you feel it doesn’t exist and can’t be seen. This is what opens the heart up to something more, something deeper and this is the yearning and the longing for it that pushes us to explore different ways of seeing and experiencing love.

In this magical, amazing world…even in the darkness…somewhere there is love…you just need to keep digging to find it.

 

Healing

I’m back…well…sort of…

Hafsa

I know I’ve been away a really long time and I’ve not really posted on this blog or any of my other social media platforms for a long, long time but I thought I would come back and hopefully this time come back stronger!

What can I say other than the world changed a lot in the space of a year. Priorities changed too. I’ve not really felt inspired to write for the last year or so for a number of reasons, both personal and professional.

Those of you that know me know that I tend to just let stuff go until I’m ready to come back to it and so that’s what I’ve done.

I’m trying to figure out what happened and the simple answer is that it got real. Well I got real with myself. It’s funny because writing is the one thing other that my work that I love most in the world. It’s where I feel free to just be myself and express creatively, factually, directly, honestly…all the things that make me “ME” come out in my writing.

I was literally writing for 8 hours a week to produce content for my social media. I had a structure and a discipline around it. I did courses to help me with it and I loved it but then I stopped. Mostly due to my own curiosity to see what would happen. Covid had hit and things were dead anyway so I could either push hard online to make a living or recklessly close my eyes and trust my belief that my rizq (Earnings/wealth/sustenance) come from above. So the first thing I dropped was social media.

I’m not going to lie…the amount of time I had on my hands was amazing. I was at the allotment digging instead and bloody having the time of my life. I realised that everything in this society is about consume consume consume and it’s the same with content. I got to a point where I had to convince myself that what I was putting out there had value. I’m not knocking it because everything I produce shows you what I’m about and I know there’s people that have read what I’ve written and got in touch.

The amount of pressure I put on myself to churn out content was immense and in the beginning, taking a break was such a relief. Then I started looking around and I thought what have I become. Running a business via social media means continuously putting yourself on show to the world. At the time, it was ok because it was the right thing to pursue and direct my energy in to. And then it just became a chore. There were times where I just wasn’t feeling it but “show up for your audience” was my belief so I put my all in and did it anyway.

Then it hit me. I’m showing up for this audience but I’m not being authentic. I’m not loving this bit of what I do. I can’t stand my face and cheesy grin plastered across everything for the world to see. For the sake of my business, I’d become something else in the pursuit of showing people what my work was all about…I was prepared to make myself uncomfortable and push my limits. I proved to myself that I could do that if I wanted to but I also recognised that I didn’t like that so I stopped. And it worked out just fine to be honest.

There’s a common myth that once you stop promoting yourself on social media, your business will go down the drain. On the contrary, it made me realise that my client base, the networks, the referrals and connections were genuine and solid. Unlike social media, ironically. Now I know a lot of people say that they build genuine links on these platforms. I’m not knocking that but I love human interaction. I love to feel the discomfort when someone isn’t being genuine. So much is masked online and everything is about the brand values and message.

I got fed up of putting myself in a box and so I just packed it in and it’s been over a year. I’m not sure if I’ll ever go back to it if I’m completely honest. I just don’t see a need for it personally. I’m a mystery…a private person and social media is contradiction for me. I think the way I feel about it all is quite common but I just like to say how I feel and put it out there.

It got me thinking though about this whole strange bloody world we live in where we’re so open to being moulded and shaped and will do anything to be successful. I’m not knocking that. I just think there’s better ways to do that.

So as always with me, I’m feeling a return to writing and being authentically me. You won’t find any of this on social media. This is where I’ll be because this is where my voice is the loudest and most heartfelt.

It’s been a crazy year with lots of life lessons, a great deal of change both personally and professionally and it’s time to get to grips with sharing some of that with you. There’s so much of it that I don’t know where to start if I’m honest but I’ll figure it out. You don’t know where it’s heading until you get started and so let’s see where it goes.

 

Healing

Break-Ups are my speciality

Hafsa

The theme in the healing room this week has been unrequited love and by that I mean relationship break-ups. I thought it would be a nice, juicy topic to write about seeing as I’m a singleton in the city. Maybe I’m single because I’m wise to the bullshit but I have helped dozens of women who are coming out of not so great relationships.

Women over the ages have fallen for the charms of the wrong guy. You know the one. You love spending time with him. You could talk for hours. He makes you laugh. You think he could be the one…so you give a little more…and get a little physical…

In your head, you’re in a relationship. You’re planning the wedding dress and thinking about flowers and venues. You have that feeling in your heart that this is the ONE and he’s the forever person of your dreams. Sometimes though, you’re seeing what you want to see and possibly missing all the red flags.

You’re not expecting it when he tells you he’s not ready for a relationship. He says this knowing full well that he’s got you hook, line and sinker. Now this puts you in a tight spot. Do you stay invested in the hope that he changes his mind or do you walk away not knowing when the next one is going to come along? You’ve had break-ups before and you know it’s not pleasant, especially when you’re invested.

So you go backwards and forwards in this merry for him but not-so-merry-for-you dance because now you’re emotionally invested in the relationship. You have hope that he’ll see how amazing you are and fall for you in the same way. While he continues being aloof and emotionally unavailable, you get more and more sucked in to the game.

After repeating this cycle again and again, you start to realise it’s a trap. Maybe you should have walked away earlier because as wonderful as hope is, it’s just not solid enough anymore. Remember that while he’s still blocking your line of vision, you’re missing out on meeting anyone else. He doesn’t want you, and he doesn’t want anyone else to have you either. I’m just going to be blunt because this pattern is one that I see a lot of the time. You’re not getting any younger, and it’s time to move on, but it’s just so difficult right?

It’s quite a journey learning self-worth and then there’s the self-actualisation part where you really need to put your money where your mouth is. This is where healing comes in.

When push comes to shove, you know yourself that you are worth much more than this. When you’re treated like an option, you know that you deserve so much better. When enough is enough, you need those cords cut and you need your power back.

This is usually when you book an appointment to release “all that no longer serves you” or in other words, wash that timewasting Mo Fo out of your hair and a healing bodywork session is the best way to do this – trust me!

Remember that every relationship is an energy exchange and his energy is sitting in your system feeding off you. That’s what I pull out during a healing bodywork session, and at the same time, I help you restore the faith in yourself so that you’ve got the confidence to move on without looking back.

Break-ups have become one of my specialities and if you’re ready to move on, I can help you get that thorn out of your side. Make the call – let’s get you sorted so that you can attract what you’re worth!  

And once you’re ready to create that fairytale because I can help you get the good stuff!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odaHrpFVF80

Healing Bodywork

And the even better news is that I can teach all the self-help and inner work tools you need to make sure that it never happens again. Not on my watch!

Reiki-Course Online
Healing

Coping Mechanisms V’s Coping Strategies

Hafsa

As human beings, we have to find coping mechanisms otherwise life becomes all too much to bear. I wanted to talk about these coping mechanisms in this piece but also to highlight that there is a difference between a coping mechanism and a coping strategy.

When it comes to coping mechanisms, there are many. I would define a coping mechanism as any automatic behaviour that occurs as a response to a stressful situation. And there are many at our disposal. Some people will comfort eat when they’re stressed. Some people bite their nails. Some people reach for a drink or a smoke. Some people slam the door and walk out of the room.

There are different ways that we use to shut down our emotions. If you think about how difficult you find it to sit in silence. Just you being with you and what that does to you. After a while, you’ll want to reach for something. For some people, it’s music, noise or just being around people. The biggest one is the phone and that continuous scrolling.

I’m not knocking any of these things but what I am saying is that these coping strategies are UNconscious and automatic. We barely give it a thought. Let’s take scrolling. It’s therapeutic and it means that you don’t have to really focus on anything for more than a couple of seconds. The brain likes this because it serves as a distraction. Before you know it, half an hour has been lost in the phone and you’re not getting that time back.

I teach people coping strategies and the starting point is to identify what mechanisms they are currently using as a distraction. If you just sit and have a think, this can tell you a lot about what’s happening, what you’re avoiding and how you choose to avoid it.

A coping strategy is more conscious and deliberate and once you’ve worked out what’s automatic, you can still do those things but do them consciously. There’s so many tools that can help you. The first one is journalling because when we write what we observe about ourselves, it starts to become real. When it starts to become real, it starts to really bug and when it bugs is when you’re more likely to want to do something about it.

As well as journalling, learning how to breathe can be a massive coping strategy. You’ll notice that when you’re stressed, breathing gets shallow. The breath is the life force and at times of stress, the more breath we can bring in to our body, the more we are able to control that stress level. You can check out my online journalling course for help on how to journal more effectively.

Journalling 101

It’s funny because proper breathing isn’t really taught. I remember my lovely Yoga teacher Sue (God rest her soul) who taught me how to properly breathe and goodness me what a difference that made. If you’re interested, start with searching for the “Yoga 3 Part Breath.” It’s pretty amazing and you’ll notice how different you feel when you are full of life force.

Recognising stress is one thing. Managing it is another. I think it’s important to learn these tools and it’s something that I’ve been learning and teaching for many years.

Maintenance is the key as is having a plan for what you do when you start feeling the stress tremors. My strategy is to get my journal out, have extra meditation time and plan a trip out in nature. It’s good to have a plan!

If you’re finding yourself reaching for things that give you a temporary salve and you’d like to learn more, why not give me a call and let’s see if we can find a way to help you with it.

Lets start with some grounding…

I offer everyone a free consultation call and you can book this here.

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

Working on yourself

What does “working on yourself” actually mean?

Hafsa

“I’m working on myself right now” – have you ever heard someone say these words and thought “I wonder what they’re actually doing?” I mean, what does it actually mean to be working on yourself.

It’s often a vague and lofty concept that can encompass a whole host of things and so I thought it would be good to break it down. There’s plenty of ways of doing it but I’m going to tell you about some of the things that you’ll need to get started.

Remember everyone does this sort of work in a different way and as part of my journey, I’ve had to do a hell of a lot of it! Teaching it has become my bread and butter so I thought I would share some key things if you’re starting out on the “working on yourself” journey.

The Basics

The first thing that you need to clear on is “Why do I want to work on myself?” This an absolute corker of a question and in my view, its the entire lynchpin of the whole process.

If you’re not clear on WHY you are doing something then the chances are is that you’ll start it but not follow through. One of the most important things about working on yourself is acknowledging that just like a puppy, it’s not just for Christmas. It’s for life!

There’s plenty of reasons to want to do it. Maybe you’ve gone through a tough time and you feel that it’s highlighted areas in your life where you could be a lot stronger. It might be that you’re looking at yourself and thinking, “how did I get here?”

It happens often that life just does its thing and you wake up one morning and realise that you don’t really know you are anymore. For some people, it’s about wanting to get the “old me” back.

Once you’ve got reason for doing it, we can start getting to the meaty stuff!

What do I want to work on?

How long is a piece of string? This can also get vague and wafty and lead you in to avoiding certain topics because it makes you uncomfortable. In my experience, the things that make you uncomfortable are the best topics that you can start with.

The common one for most people is “self-love” and that in itself is a huge area but we can start to break it down. The first thing to ask yourself is how does it actually show up in your life?

It might be that you’re a people pleaser or you get treated like a doormat. It might be that you’re really horrible to yourself and beat yourself about not getting things right. It might be that you want everything to be perfect including yourself. It might be that in some situation, you’re just pretending your happy when your not.

Whatever situation makes you uncomfortable, that’s your starting place. Think about what it is and write it down. Next think about what you’re trying to show on the outside. Then write down what you’re actually feeling on the inside. This mismatch is what causes the discomfort and we all have situations like this so it’s the easiest starting point for everyone.

What can I do to get started?

I thought I’d touch on some of the ways that you can start doing this work. This is hopefully enough to help you get started and if you feel like you want to do more or you want to go a bit deeper, then get in touch. The methods below are just the basics and there is a whole lot more to it but if you’re just starting out on this journey, this is the starting poing.

Meditation

Usually the first port of call, especially if you’ve realised that you have a really busy mind and find it difficult to switch off. The starting point is to begin with grounding. Grounding helps calm that chatter down and reconnect your mind and your body so that you’re not away with the fairies or lost in your thoughts.

Simply bringing yourself back down to earth in the morning can do you the world of good and I would say even if you don’t do anything else, this is probably the one thing that will help you the most. You can use it when you’re anxious, stressed, struggling to sleep. You can also use if after any other guided meditation that you’ve done because it helps integrate the work in to your physical reality. Here’s one I prepared earlier to help you get started.

Guided meditation

There are so many resources out there that help with so many different things which is fabulous! Whether its mindfulness, releasing stress and worry or manifesting abundance there’s probably a guided meditation out there that can help you.

I like creating guided healing experiences through meditation in the form of transmissions. Transmissions help you to connect to the healing energy yourself and will transport you to a different world! There’s a selection on my Soundcloud channel that you can go and check out.

Journalling

One of the best ways of sorting out what’s going in your head is to start journalling. The best way to do this is to sit with your notebook and pen. Stick a timer on so maybe start with 5 minutes.

You’re going to begin writing whatever comes in to your head and write it as if you are thinking it. If you find that difficult, you can have a bank of prompt questions in your journal. For example, the things that make me angry, my earliest memories, the things that make me uncomfortable…

I’m going to be launching a course on journalling for healing soon but this should be enough to help you get started.

Journalling is so therapeutic and gives you a way of releasing all the stuff that you’re holding on you. It’s worth giving it a try.

Healing

If after you start doing a bit of this work you’re finding that there’s a lof of stuff that you need to understand or let go of, then it might be time to get some help with it.

Healing gives you a different view of yourself and can help you to see things in a different way so that you’re able to resolve and move past the things that you feel are causing you bother.

There’s so many different healing modalities so choose one that works for you and if you’re not sure, give me a call and we can have a chat about what works best for you.

Healing Sessions

Coaching

For some people, they want more focus on changing specific areas of their lives and this is where coaching comes in. It’s a good way of highlighting a problem or issue and working through it.

I love working with coaching clients because you get to see them grow in confidence and transform. My methods are about teaching them how to make these changes for themselves and giving them the support that they need.

Coaching is a great option for people who want do learn how to do the work on themselves for themselves and really do that deep dive in to themselves.

One of the benefits of coaching is that it challenges you to look outside the box. One of the things I’m good at is pushing people out of their comfort zone. When you’re working on yourself, most people will tend to stick to exploring what feels safe and comfortable. If you’re working with me, we go in to raw and grimy aspects – the good, the bad and the ugly. This is done in a fully supported way and although its designed to push your buttons, it is also designed to make you grow by overcoming your fears and insecurities.

If you’d like to know more, please get in touch.

Thursday Club

If you are doing this sort of work on yourself and you’re feeling a bit lost, I need you to know that you are not alone. In fact, there are people just like you on my Thursday Club.

There’s so many inner work themes that we can explore and this weekly group coaching call pulls out all the stops with new content every week, homework, exercises, group healing.

If you’re looking at working on yourself with support from a professional, this would be great for you. It’s also a great way of learning about lots of different areas in a structured way. It’s also a way of connecting with like minded people.

Thursday Club

What next?

So if you’ve read this and it’s whet your appetite for working on yourself, why wait to get started?

Get yourself grounded, get yourself a journal and make a start! There’s a few themed videos on my YouTube channel that will give you some ideas.

If you want to try out Thursday Club, you can have your first session on me. I think it’s nice to try before you buy but please do get in touch if I can help.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNurS3kt3gMSFAdffEkiMlA?view_as=subscriber

Healing

The challenge for Lightworkers…

Hafsa

The challenge for lightworkers or this idea of “Being the light” is something that I’ve been pondering on over the last few months. I’ve not really felt like writing much and I think it’s down to everything that’s been happening in the world. Like all caterpillars, we must emerge as butterflies. A lot of our energy as lightworkers has been being consumed unnecessarily and so I’ve had to stop and reset that many times that I just ground to a halt and decided to go inwards to find my truth instead. That way I’m full enough to keep going and to help others.

With Covid-19 came a whole new unprecedented level of darkness that none of us (lightworkers) had anticipated. As the lovely Dr Vernon Coleman says, “If you’re not paranoid, you’ve not been paying attention.” I feel like the world stands divided at the moment. Those that like the security of following the rules and being told what’s safe and those that see the world changing rapidly before their eyes in a disproportionate way and have a sense of something not being quite right. The 3D/5D divide is becoming visibly apparent so on a spiritual level, take this as meaning something big is on it’s way and we as lightworkers need to keep this high octane frequency going. It’s intense and it’s draining but I also feel that once you see things for what they are, you can push ahead with your light work.

I don’t want to get in to the particulars of the plandemic because if I told you where I stand and how I understand it all, this post would more than likely get censored. I’ve noticed this with more than a few things that I’ve either posted or have been researching. Information seems to be disappearing or being written to fit.

Just the other day I was speaking to a friend who said if you put any random 3 digit number in to Google followed by the words “new cases” you’ll get an exact match every time you do it. So I tried it and they were right which set the cogs in motion. But when you see this hidden in plain sight, everything starts to be seen as it is. You realise that you can only trust what’s inside of you, not what’s outside of you.

If you’ve not read “1984” by George Orwell, I’d highly recommend that you get hold of a copy and read it before they ban it, edit it, censor it or make it obsolete. It will scare the living shits out of you but definitely good to open your eyes.

These are just observations by the way and I point them out as a way of illustrating how easy it is to get distracted from the truth. If you’ve kept up with this post thus far, you’re probably wondering what the point is of all this.

Life is smoke and mirrors and this is something that we have to keep reminding ourselves. The first lesson in “A Course is Miracles” is to tell yourself that nothing is real. As Lighworkers, we know this.

Being present is a trick that if we learn to master can help us to see beyond what is happening right now. Nothing actually ever happens – the only place it happens is in your mind. I’ll prove it to you.

Right here, right now – nothing is happening and everything is fine….right? Every time you ask yourself that question, the answer will always come back the same. This is because when you bring yourself to the present, you are one with time and space and therefore everything is suspended and nothing is happening. Life is a series of moments. One moment after the other and when you are present, there isn’t anything happening in that moment or the next. Therefore, does anything ever actually happen?

I know I’m going on a bit of a mind bender but I think it’s important to put this in the context of the reality that we are experiencing right here and now. I know for many, myself included, it has been a time of immense stress and pressure and actually, the only way that I can find to bring the light is to be present. The mind bending is essential until your mind lets go and your heart starts to work properly again. Your heart is the seat of your soul. Your soul is deeply connected to Love/The Light.

The time we have to ourselves is an opportunity to confront our fears because if we don’t confront our own fears, we will play right in to the hands of the darkness that wants to control and manipulate us. Fear makes us compliant and we put our truth to the side.

The biggest fear being played out in the world right now is the fear of death. As spiritual beings, we understand and accept death as an inevitable conclusion to life and depending on what you believe, it’s a transition of you as a physical energy form from one realm to another.

This world will have you believing that you will live forever and therefore you should fear dying but I believe ultimately, the only thing that can save you from your own death is your appointed hour.

Being the light and indeed being a Lightworker is about finding your truth and for me this whole experience of lockdown has been about finding the truth on so many levels. Like you, I’m not stupid. I like to look at different views and perspectives. I like to question the science. I like learning about how things work and so I’ve grown immensely as a result. It’s been challenging and difficult at times but my ultimate goal is the truth and when I have my truth, I can be the light. And ultimately, when I’m in my light I don’t need to be saved or kept safe. As Lightworkers, we do this for ourselves and we hold space for others to do the same.

If you feel free, you’re able to liberate others. If you hold the space for yourself, you can hold the space for others. If you are in search of the truth, you encourage others to find their own truth. If you stand up for Oneness and the Light, you inspire others to do the same. If you give yourself permission to shine, you give others permission to shine.

For many, this lockdown has shows us who we truly are and how resilient we can be. Not only that but for me, it highlights the rights and freedoms I own as an individual that can not and will not ever be taken from me. Freedom ultimately is a state of mind and the way we get there is encapsulated in the analogy of the caterpillar shedding to become the butterfly.

Balance is the key thing and the middle ground is something I’m always on the hunt for. When we fear nothing, we are more likely to be calm and take decisions from a rational place. When we are full of fear, we will take the option that presents safety. It’s remembering that even though I may not fear anything, someone else may not feel the same as me because of the experiences that they’ve had. Being the light is about respecting that rather than getting others to agree with you.

In all of this chaos, it’s important to remember that we are all grown ups and we all make our own choices about what feels good to us or not. As adults, we can be mature enough to know that other people may not agree with us, but we can love them anyway.

Oneness is what the world needs right now and I’m finding that whichever way you’re looking at this situation, there’s always going to be a part of you that wants to convince others that you are right. This is what the ego is famous for and actually, part of that growth phase is calling out the ego and dealing with it. Those that want to stay safe want to keep others safe. Those that want to have the freedom to choose want others to exercise this freedom too.

Oneness is about understanding that everyone chooses the version of truth that is most acceptable to them. We become separated and divided the second we try and be responsible for someone else’s truth. It’s important that we give this some thought.

Division is not something that’s on my agenda but the search for the truth is firmly up there. As challenging as it is, people will choose their own beliefs, do their own questioning, do their own research and trust their own gut instinct. We all have the freedom to do this.

Alongside this, we must also learn how to work with this idea that our truths are not static. There is a spectrum that reflects the whole range of truths and we are allowed to be wherever we want on it as well as travel between different points on it. Growth ultimately means that movement through timelines and dimensions is happening, and isn’t that what we want?

The light emerges when we are not pinned down to one particular idea. Oneness emerges when we accept another’s truth as much as we can our own and love them anyway. If you’re right, you don’t need to be “more right” and that helps you to let it go. It also helps you to see where duality is showing itself to you in the world, where your own discomfort and inner fears are being projected right back at you and where you need to work to let things go.

We are in an epic timeline shift that traverses across duality thinking and is introducing a whole new way of being whether you’re in 3D or 5D – there’s some stepping up to do. The only place you’re going to find your truth and your truest self is within.

If you’re planning on being the light, remember it isn’t just about love and positivity. You get to that place through a real challenge of your fears, your safety nets and your comfort zones. Lightworkers have been doing this for a long time and maybe now is the time where it’s most needed.

Lightworkers are finding this time particularly challenging but the inner work is preparing us for something much greater. How resilient are we? How much more can we take?

There is a mass awakening going on right now on both a micro and macro level.

What matters is that you find your own truth which will ultimately lead you to your purpose, which will lead you to freedom.

All my love,

Hafsa

99 Pathways of the Heart

Pathway 25 – Al-Azim – Flexible Strength

Hafsa

“When you are guided to this pathway, take the opportunity to feel a flexible strength that can adapt to any situation and yet remain rooted in, and moving towards, the purpose of your life.”

When exploring the pathways of the heart, I always find that the right ones find their way to me at the right time and this one is no different. Given the situation that we have all been faced with, this pathway comes as a renewal of hope and that last pocketful of energy from somewhere in order to keep going.

Human beings are immensely adaptable. Think about yourself at the beginning of this pandemic lockdown period and how you’ve adjusted your time, your workload, your finances and everything else in line with what’s being required of you.

I was reflecting on this and considering if we can be this adaptable when it’s forced upon us, we indeed have the strength to choose how we respond to different situations. We all have that within us and it’s this flexible strength that we are drawing upon to get us through these tough times.

Whatever the situation you are faced with, I think we all have this inner strength that we can call upon and I think the lockdown has really probed my thinking about what this strength is and how we access it. We are getting through it, one day at a time and this tells us that even though it may not feel like things are moving, something is happening every day. If you manage another day, you’re calling on that strength again. The inward road is strength and the outer is the display of that strength. That might be through an action, an opinion, a presence in a place.

I talk about inner and outer manifestations because human beings tend to have a lean towards one or the other. With strength, it’s accessed from within. Outwardly, this strength is displayed through actions, through words. Inner strength isn’t always a tangible though and it’s important to recognise it in our everyday life and not just something that’s required in difficult circumstances.

This energy that I’m talking about, this inner reservoir of strength is often what we take for granted because it’s always there and it keep us going but one of the lessons for me in terms of exploring this pathway was to really think about the ways in which I access this energy and I think that when you reflect on this pathway, one of the avenues to explore is to think about what activities are a way of tapping in to the strength in order to harness it.

Time and space are essential aspects of discovering that we have this inner strength within us. In fact, the longer something goes on, often we perceive that this strength is deteriorating with time. It’s an interesting idea and I think largely down to the way that we perceive life. Time and experience makes us stronger. It’s often the frustration and impatience that masks the strength that we are building through the use of time and space.

One of the biggest lightbulb moments for me with this pathway was just how little we acknowledge what we already do and say as a manifestation of this inner strength. We rack our brains to find examples of when we had this inner strength yet everything is so much closer to home than you think. Like all the other pathways, it’s what we choose to see about ourselves. This pathway for me was a big shove towards opening my eyes to the automatic, day to day, routine, every day things where this strength is displayed.

Acknowledging that some days I get up when I really don’t want to, that’s strength. Writing every day, that’s strength. A commitment to work – that’s strength. Praying 5 times a day – that’s strength. That got me really thinking about the relationship between strength and commitment because the strength is displayed as you fulfil the commitments that you have made. We don’t always see it as strength because it may be everyday ordinary things but I think we have to look at all those things in a different light. The fact that you have done it must show your commitment to something and the inner strength is what drove that action towards that commitment.

Remembering as well that it doesn’t always need to be outwardly displayed as proof of it’s existence. It lives within and often the action or the outward display is just a way of pointing towards what sits within.

I found that with this pathway, a lot of past memories kept coming back to me and it was interesting because the pathway says, “Forget the past, just keep going.” I found that these old memories surfacing was important in helping me to remember how I was built. Memories help us to reflect and whether they are good or bad, the perception of your past is always in your own hands.

Being someone who helps people to reflect, I think that this idea of just keep going can be really helpful when we get stuck. Often when the past comes up, we think along the lines of if only and think about regrets and that can plunge us in to despair. In order to keep moving, we do need to forget the past sometimes.

What I want to highlight is that it can become really easy and convenient to get stuck in the naval gazing and the analysis and this in itself weakens our resolve. It can become a form of self-sabotage. With this pathway, I remember thinking. “I’ve dealt with that, why is that coming up again?” and it was important to look at what lessons were gained rather than to dwell in the memories. We have to keep moving and we have to check our own perspective of the past so that we don’t live there.

What you have lived through should give you strength because it is through that experience that you are able to have the courage to face every single day. What I loved most about this pathway is that following the strength back to it’s root, we find that it is centred in hope. This is one of the most beautiful pathways to experience and at the root of it is the thing that keeps everything alive – hope. Where there is life – there is hope.

When reflecting on the past, it was hope that was the catalyst for change for me in so many situations. It was hope that influenced my thinking about what could be possible for me. It was hope that whispered you can start again and again and again. The strength is in that process and not in the result of it.

“When you find the straight way, it eats up all the crookedness of the past.” Rumi

For me, this flexible strength has always been rooted in hope. It’s this that influences the commitment that influences the action that follows. Sometimes it flows easier and sometimes it requires you to push but it can be called upon. Hope combined with determination to keep going…that’s strength.

Flexible strength lies in the movement through situations and circumstances. It lies in the navigation of them. For me it is so linked to what keeps me going and when I trace that road back, I always get to hope.