The New Year's Evolution

Happy New Year! 


Really, it's just another day in the continuum of life. Even still, drawing a line in time that says, "this is officially a new year!" reminds us of making a fresh start.

Enter the New Year's Resolution. Yikes!

Resolutions: an overwhelming To-Do list of items that never cross off.

I've always hated these three words put together. They are almost as scary as "Projections" or "Forecasts" except tinged with a thinly-veiled sense of greater control. And worse, we make these promises to ourselves (multiple ones, all at once!) that set us up for shame and failure right in the bleak dead of winter three weeks later. Well, not me. I have another way.

So, I Opted for a New Year's "Evolution"

Evolution: A long, unsteady and natural process

So much better. An "Evolution" is a long, unsteady and natural process (and hopefully going in the right direction). We know at the end of an evolution, the finished product (in this case, "me", or "you") will be different from what it is now. We don't need to know or control what that product will be. We just take note along the way of what is.

So instead of promising, "Starting today, I'm going to do blah, blah blah...", I take a key insight from the past year, months, weeks or days (something meaningful to me and others, hopefully) and watch how I'm evolving with it.

So here's one of my 2014 New Year's Evolutions. Are you ready? 

"I'm more aware of my plastic consumption."

Most of us don't even use these any more. Where are they coming from?

Taaa-Daaa! That's it. Are you surprised? Instead of starting or stopping doing something (aren't we doing enough already?) I've decided to simply become more aware of a habitual reaction to something. So sometime last year I had a moment like this:

Yikes! One look and you want to run out of there

It hit me like a Mack truck. Intellectually I always knew that there were healthier products and unhealthier ones. But the healthier ones *are* the unhealthy ones. I examined ingredients more closely. Apart from MSG, HFCS, BHA, and other obvious toxic chemicals there were literally hundreds more scientific names I'd never heard of. What were they? Were they deadly things pretending to be healthy or healthy things that just sound deadly? Tired, I left empty-handed.
Reading this would scare the bananas out of anyone, and yet it's perfectly healthy!

Even the fruit from the market was later eyed with suspicion. I can't always know every ingredient, so I made a promise then in the back of my mind, that I'd eat responsibly, eat well, eat happily and gratefully and be aware of how I felt after.

My plastic Evolution is similar. Not long ago, I was stuck in a space with the smell of melting plastic. Have you ever smelled melting plastic? Don't! It is noxious. It lingered in my lungs for a long time.
I was trapped by smells like this nose-pinching statue in a dirty Florence back-alley

When I got home I began noticing plastics around me, in my recycle bin, in the plastic bag storage. Even though I eat from the garden in summer, buy dry goods in bulk (bring my own containers), have carried cloth shopping bags for decades, gave up shampoo for a whole summer (trust me it was brutal) and generally am super sensible and sparing about packaging, I realised more than 50% of what I buy is still packaged in plastic. Oh, but it's recyclable, you say. I researched how it's recycled: a long and imperfect process and most plastic still winds up in landfills less than a year from the time it was purchased. Plastic near food and beverages is toxic and don't get me started on the environmental impacts! I became very aware that I wanted none of it.

Awareness of Direct Experience

This is the key ingredient to making it work. Awareness is the opposite of doing (or stopping doing) anything. So instead fearing being fat, ugly, old, broke, sick or dying and then doing something about the fear (dieting, exercising or quitting smoking for example), we simply become aware of our direct experience. And guess what? This awareness of direct experience is mindfulness practice. Come on, you didn't think I'd write a post without mentioning meditation, did you??
Isn't the skin enough? Absurdly over-packaged.

Evolution In Action

I notice every time I want to buy a package of rice crackers packaged in plastic. I may still buy them. I just become aware of my reaction (disappointment, whatever). The point is, I don't do (or stop doing) anything. I just notice what's going on inside. Eventually I may be so aware of the negative feelings that I lose the taste for rice crackers or become aware of alternatives. The habit forms or drops naturally, all by itself, when the mind is ready to drop it, not because I impose a Resolution.
Alternatives!

Et voilĂ !

That's the whole method. Trust me if you're looking to form a healthy habit or stop a negative habit (listen up if you want to quit smoking, lose weight, exercise more or sleep better!) this is the most natural, inexpensive and long-lasting way to go about it. Evolve!

If you were inspired into an Evolution with your own plastic habit, here is a handy-dandy guide to help you get started. Or tell me, what's your Evolution?

Essential Reiki Kit

One of the reasons I absolutely love Reiki is that doesn't require any props or equipment. No pills, no liquids, lights, gadgets, implements, chemicals... and really no technique... just your hands.


This is also why self healing with Reiki is so easy to do while on the go. Even if you just need a spot healing you can always put your hands on the affected area for a short time and feel the discomfort begin to melt.

...But what about giving someone else Reiki? 


As someone who often travels to see clients, I really feel that it's not necessary to take much. I do have a small Essential Reiki Kit that lives in my purse though, for client visits. And I'm going to spill it. Here's what's inside:

1. Alcohol 

No... not rum, whiskey or gin! You always want to make sure your hands are clean when you are giving a Reiki treatment. I carry a small spray sanitizer bottle in my purse, filled with 99% alcohol. It's better than regular hand sanitizers because it's cleaner, free of soapy and perfumey fragrances and it dries better. If you didn't know, the drier the hands, the more sensitive they are, so put off moisturising until after the session is done.

2. Music

If the person receiving the treatment agrees to music, it can perform three functions. First, soothing music helps to relax the person during the session, which can be difficult when they're still in their own environment. Second, it muffles background sounds and distracting reminders of busy every day life. And third, since you don't want to be glancing at a clock, it helps keep time.

I keep it simple and use my phone. iPods or mp3 players are great too. Newer ones don't need speakers and can amplify in a small room just fine. I play one track. It's 25 minutes of relaxing healing music set on repeat. Each time the track ends I know how much time I have left or whether to begin wrapping up, which for a 60 minute session is a few minutes into the third play.

3. Crystals

This is entirely optional. If you bring crystals, make sure they are spotlessly clean and energized and you know how to use them. I keep them in a small container that has padding on the bottom and is pretty tight when they are all stacked inside. This prevents crushing and chipping. Although I used crystals all the time in the past, I now feel I only need them when they are called for, for example if I need a terminator wand to concentrate a laser beam of healing directed at a tumour. Or when someone requests them.

.... And that's it.

My whole Essential Reiki Kit fits in the palm of my hand.

I ask new clients if they need me to bring a Reiki / massage table (which I'd bring with clean, fresh sheets) but most people are comfortable across the foot of their beds or on a sofa and their favourite pillows and throws for any extra support or comfort.

If you have an Essential Reiki Kit, what's inside?

Psychic Sensing with Reiki

A few weeks ago a student asked: "I pick up psychic information when practising Reiki. Where is it coming from? ...And how is it being sensed?"

I almost jumped up and down. I LOVE getting questions like this! Not because I love discussions with a high "woo-woo" factor, but because it means that people are practising! We talk about this stuff in Reiki courses and training, but we only really understand with experience. I'm basically doing the Snoopy dance.



Drumroll Please! It's Coming from...

Your Guidance! You knew I'd say that didn't you? We learn that once we are attuned to Reiki, we are connected with healing guidance from and for the highest of good. This guidance intelligently knows what's required for healing, and focuses its attention accordingly. We practitioners are simply the conduit or channel.

Sometimes students are skeptical. That's okay. I was too. Yet soon I started knowing things I couldn't have known - important things that pointed to the root cause of the issue or helped me direct healing energy to best address the issue, whether physical, emotional or spiritual. There's nothing like direct experience.



The more we practise, the better we get at understanding how our Reiki guidance is communicating with - and working through - us. Doubt will rear it's ugly head! But if we block out our guidance, we may be limiting healing potential. The more open, patient and unassuming we are, the more easily and accurately we will understand the guidance we are getting and the more healing will be possible. So that's half the answer...

How do we Know Without Knowing How we Know?

If we pay attention (or in this case if we practice mindfulness) we may wonder how this psychic information is being sensed. Guidance comes in many forms. We could see colours or pictures, hear words, feel emotions, or feel prompted to speak, make sound, dance or move. We could just know something without knowing how we know it.


So we can perform studies and look at outcomes, but how do we explain how this works scientifically?

We don't. Simply put, science can't explain everything you experience. Over the last ten thousand years we have relied on science to understand our experience of reality. And while it's given us so much, it can't explain what lies beyond the common five senses because it bases our whole understanding of reality as perceived only through them. Understandably so: science must be measurable. But there are things we just can't measure.

We all have the ability to sense beyond the standard five senses, but this ability has been violently squashed over the last ten thousand years. "Witches" and "charlatans" suspected of having extra sensory perception or psychic abilities were publicly burned or drowned. No wonder we haven't recognized or cultivated these abilities. We've been well trained not to!

Buddha and the Bigger Picture

If we turn to Buddha, the original teacher of mindfulness and one of the sharpest minds ever known, we get a fuller and clearer picture of reality. This is because the Buddha discovered and taught that we have a sixth sense with which to perceive reality: the mind.

In fact, your mind is sensing information into reality from your guidance in the same way as your eyes are sensing the realness of these squiggles I've typed out on the screen right at this very moment. The eyes see, the ears hear, the body moves and feels, the nose smells, the tongue tastes and the mind knows. And yes thanks to science we know the mind isn't restricted to the brain. Neuropeptides, the molecules that know emotions, are scattered throughout the brain and the entire body. A human being is a brilliantly interconnected communication network thanks to our trillions of space-filled cells.

It's fascinating how it works. During Reiki, the mind senses impressions made by your Reiki guidance, and depending on your guidance and your individual makeup, your mind processes the impressions into one or more recognizable "formats". You may know in pictures (clairvoyance), in sound (clairaudience), in smell (clairalience), in feeling (clairsentience), in tasting (clairgustance) or in perhaps the most direct way, in thought or knowing (claircognizance). And although not necessary, once you understand what you're sensing from your guidance, you can then be a conscious partner in the Reiki treatment.


Just know

So next time you are giving a Reiki treatment and "just know" that your hands need to stay at a certain spot longer, that you need to say something, or even that the person had cold pizza for breakfast, know that your mind is sensing this information from your Reiki guidance, from the highest of good. And that you're receiving it for the best possible healing outcome.

Okay, so now that that's done, any more questions? I wanna do the Snoopy dance again!

See Also:

Psychic Skill Building Course

Learn Reiki

About Salima

Contact Me

Blocking EMF Rays... Tips to Prevent Frying

Being energy sensitive can come with a few surprising "bonuses". Sometimes without realising it, we may
A bit scary but we made them, we can manage them
pick up on the energy of another person, or become sensitive to certain foods. Other times we notice our fingertips frying against laptop keys or smartphone touch screens. There are times when I feel pressure in my chest when in front of the laptop or typing on my phone.

I've been doing a little reading and found that I'm not alone. There is a tonne of emerging research into the effects of our modern devices on our health and well-being. In fact, the lists of symptoms contributed to exposure to electromagnetic field (EMF), which is the stuff that's emitted from modern devices like laptops, tablets, iphones, androids, blackberries and even cordless phones, include some pretty serious complaints. Here is a list of what I found (please try not to get scared):
  • Abdominal pain;
  • Anxiety
  • Behavioral disorders (e.g. attention deficit disorder, ADD)
  • Brain-degenerative diseases (e.g. Alzheimer–s)
  • Cancerous afflictions: leukemia, brain tumors
  • Cardiac: palpitations, arrhythmia, pain or pressure in the chest, low or high blood pressure, slow or fast heart rate, shortness of breath
  • Chronic exhaustion
  • Concentration problems
  • Depression
  • Dermatological: skin rash, itching, burning, facial flushing
  • Deteriorating fillings
  • Deteriorating vision
  • Digestive problems
  • Dizziness
  • Dryness of lips, tongue, mouth, eyes; great thirst; dehydration
  • Enlarged thyroid
  • Epilepsy
  • Extreme fluctuations in blood pressure, ever harder to influence with medications
  • Fatigue
  • Flu-like symptoms, fever. More severe reactions can include seizures, paralysis, psychosis and stroke
  • Hair loss
  • Heart rhythm disorders
  • Immune abnormalities
  • Impaired sense of smell
  • Increased blood sugar level
  • Irritability
  • Itching
  • Memory loss
  • Nausea
  • pain or burning in the eyes, pressure in/behind the eyes, deteriorating vision, floaters, cataracts.
  • Pain in the teeth;
  • Respiratory: sinusitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma.
  • Ringing in the ears.
  • Seeing flashes
  • Sleeplessness, daytime sleepiness
  • Strokes among an increasingly younger population
  • Susceptibility to infection
  • Sweating, cold sweating, tremors
  • Testicular/ovarian pain
  • Tingling
  • Tremors
  • Weakness
Satellites never sleep

Before Tossing the Laptop and Phone... Read On

The idea isn't to move off the grid (although it sounds very tempting) but to change a few simple things to limit our health risks and risks to those close to us. And they really are simple. 

Here are a few tips to block or limit the radiation that comes from your electronic devices:

1. Airplane or Flight Mode 

I can't stress how useful this is. When you sleep your cell phone is receiving pings by the minute from radio towers, just to ensure the signal is working. This can cause all sorts of sleep disturbances and wreak havoc on your body at the cellular level. And why put yourself at risk when you're sleeping? Keep all devices away from you when you sleep. Even better, put your cell phone on airplane or flight mode or unplug your router and cordless phones overnight.

2. Batch Computer Time 

If you don't need to be at the computer all day long, then batch your tasks during the day so that you are not spending all extra time in front of screens. One thing I'm experimenting with is keeping a paper to-do list so that I'm not going to the phone every 30 minutes to check what I must be doing. I even used to park my car in 1-hour spots to make sure I'd get up and outside to break up my computer time. While I can't measure how much less EMF I'm ingesting, let's just say it's made a huge difference in the quality of my days.

3. Limit Talk Time & SMS 
Some signals can be deadly

Let's face it. If you want to have a long talk with someone, it's better done in person. If they are far away, use Skype or speakerphone and keep the phone a couple of feet away from your head. Also, let's admit it, 50% of SMS messages are useless anyway. I've also resurrected the ancient art of snail mail. I could very well be keeping Canada Post alive.

4. Get the Laptop off your Lap

Let's face it there are some sensitive parts down there and we'd like to preserve them. This goes for carrying cell phones in your pants pockets. Ladies, easy - put the cell in the purse or bag. For guys, it's a good idea to move the cell phone to different pockets so it's not constantly in contact with one part of the body. Or invest in a man-purse.

5. Hands off Kids!

Let's face it, children's bodies are growing and they will have a longer lifetime with electronics around. Keep them away from gadgets that we haven't yet had enough long term research on. They may just thank you and take care of you when the time comes! 

and lastly...

6. Use those Crystals

Certain crystals are great for shielding, others for emanating and still others for sucking energy. You can wear earthy crystals like Jasper and Green Aventurine to absorb rays. Any reflective crystal like Pyrite or Flourite will create a barrier to the EMF rays so you can put them on your desk. Remember to cleanse these and power them up regularly and they will help block those unwanted rays from your devices.

... and there you have it. Time to turn off the computer and get some fresh air. That means me and you.

where do bombings come from?

simple. from in here.
How about Bombs?


let me illustrate. today i walked into a car dealership. i purposely didn't look at the three salespeople idly sitting around because i felt them staring at me. instead i eyeballed the large hunks of glossy metal-on-wheels scattered across the floors throughout the brightly windowed space.

even more than feeling their gaze i began to hear the thought bubbles emerging from their heads. "cute but i won't close a sale..."

then i had thought bubbles of my own. "stop staring at me like that". small flickers of disappointment and fatigue came up after each thought.

what's this got to do with bombs, you ask? keep reading

a minute later we were discussing one of the hunks of metal. every question i posed resulted in a more disgruntled look, every answer was increasingly snide. and in me, small flickers of anger arose, little sparks... each spark emerged, was witnessed and died out. until finally one caught me off guard. I didn't catch it in time. it was a fire. noticing it appear i excused myself. "thanks, i'll think about it. have a good night". and i left.

these little fires make the bombs go off. no lie.

It lights itself, notice it and it's extinguished
it's the same angry fire that caused yesterday's bombings in boston resulting in three deaths and dozens injured. but that's not all. yesterday the same fire also killed 13 and wounded 200 in iraq through car bombs. it killed 30 people at an afghani wedding via a US bombing. it claimed the lives of 25 people -- including children -- by government bombing in syria. and it killed 30 in somalia by islamist bombing.

sounds like common sense, doesn't it? anger causes violence? but we often fail to recognize two things:

1. it's not just a bomber / terrorist / lost soul's anger, it's the same anger in us.
2. it's really hard to extinguish because we subjectively feel that "our" anger is justified.

extinguishing the spark

so do we resign ourselves to suffer at the hands of fire, anger, violence?

the truth is that suffering is up to us to endure. as humans we have the ability to be consciously aware. with some practice (enter mindfulness) we can notice anger as soon as it has appeared in our mind. by doing this it's automatically disarmed and can't breed into action. it's like calling out a villain. at that moment, they stop dead in their tracks. they drop their weapons. they lose their power. the same goes for our anger. once we notice it or call it out, it too loses power.

no force

that's right, the process shouldn't include any force. to do so would mean suppressing the anger, and we all know what happens when a fire is suppressed. it explodes like a bomb. so we notice calmly and without force or manipulation. the impartial noticing is what has the power to extinguish the spark before it blows up.

so remember... next time you feel anger or outrage or righteousness coming on:

Watch your beliefs... they become your thoughts,
Watch your thoughts...they become your words,
Watch your words... they become your actions,
Watch your actions... they become your habits,
Watch your habits... they become your values,
Watch your values... they become your destiny.

and in the process of watching, if you notice a nice car for me to buy, drop me a line.