Happy New Year! It is the time of year when people are making resolutions on how to loose weight/stop smoking/be healthier and from what I know about myself is that most fail before we even start as we don't really want to make the change.
I don't really do resolutions at New Year (why wait for a particular time of year to make a change?) and would rather make small changes whenever I feel I will succeed.
I used to be a smoker and for many years family and friends told me to give up. I was aware of the poisonous effect, but I was not ready to give up. Each time someone told me what to do, I became more stubborn about "giving up when I want to".
Finally one Christmas I was really sick and very nearly went the whole day without a cigarette. When having the one cigarette I had that day I suddenly realised I really hated it. It was now the right time for me to quit. Unfortunately, I'd just bought a couple of weeks' worth of cigarettes and I do not like to waste things, so I decided to smoke these last packs but at a severely reduced rate, weeks later came the last one and then I was done.
During the time I was cutting back I was developing my Reiki life (reading books on it and incorporating it into my work as a massage therapist) and I came across the Reiki technique to change negative habits. Smoking was a negative habit and I was going to stop so I decided to use Reiki to help make it a smooth cessation.
The day I stopped happened to be my Mother's birthday so I told her what I was doing (to her delight) and spent an hour giving myself Reiki and then the specific approaches to help change habits. I kept this combination up for 21 days, always a good number and it is frequently said it takes 3 weeks to allow good habits to take hold.
How did I find giving up? It was the easiest cessation I've done (this was my third attempt at stopping smoking) and the key? My Reiki self healing practice, and giving myself a short burst of Reiki whenever I had a craving. Using Reiki as the way to address the craving meant that I didn't replace one emotional crutch with another (such as chocolate). So no further habits to break. I will say that I, like many former smokers, still have cravings (3 years later) but I have a wonderful way to counter this.
It doesn't just work on smoking, it was recently reported that Christina Aguilera used Reiki to support her through her weight loss regime, saying “Reiki puts her mind in a good place and gives her the discipline to eat healthy and maintain weight loss.”
To me that is the beauty of Reiki, the healing energy can be used to support you in the positive changes you want to make. It is also easier to support yourself by learning Reiki so you can help yourself to do this.
If you want to experience Reiki for yourself book in for a treatment or even decide to learn for yourself or if you have questions then get in touch.
Please note, this is my personal story and it does require will power to make these changes. Reiki, in my mind made this easier.