Write it as it is.

"One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple."
--Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums

When did I begin to write ? At the age of 5 or maybe 6, it began with the alphabets, progressing to words and sentences, like all children do. I do remember being taught essay writing, probably in Grade 4 but there were rules to it. They were drilled into us and we noted them down in our English Language notebooks. The first drafts of the essays came back bleeding, the red showing in every sentence and then they were re-written as 'Correction Work', which in the end turned out to be the teacher's creation.

After my initiation into Reiki, the journey of self healing began and the suggestion of journal-ing came up as a tool for letting go of old as well as ongoing baggage of pain and trauma. Now for the purpose of healing the writing has to be spontaneous as the idea is to put out our feelings to release the energy which is not doing us any good. This is when I realised that I had to first unlearn the 'writing methods'. I had to just pour out my heart and not agonize over the vocabulary, sentence formation, active or passive, first person or third person and so on. I had to tell myself that my writing was not going to be judged or marked so I must stop thinking and pondering over every word and phrase.

When I suggest journal-ing to the people who come for healing I find that writing everything down does not come easily to them. The fact that they may have to find the time to be alone with a paper and a pen to write, seems quite daunting to most. 

One possible option I suggest is 'voice journal-ing'. This has become easy with the app 'voice recorder' in all our smart phones. All one has to do is just share every feeling as a monologue on the phone. Once you are done saying with whatever came to your mind, hear it once for the closure to happen. The emotions which had earlier made your heart so heavy will seem quite trivial to you in comparison. The final act is to delete the recording. The idea is to express your feelings with no fear of judgement. Sometimes we may need validation for what we feel but if you follow this process till the end you will know that you cannot stop yourself from feeling 'not so good' feelings too. So, there is no question of seeking validation for what you feel. This process allows the full and complete 'let go' to happen. 

The results have been quite empowering for me and I hope it helps everyone too. 

Do not allow the feelings to stay within and fester - instead, recognise , feel, express and release them. 

Awakening can come anytime !

Life can really spring surprises on us, good ones as well as bad ones. It is like driving through mountains. We can't see beyond a certain point and do not know what lies beyond the turning.

Certain events in our life make us realise that we have no power over them. Whether we like it or not we have to face them, it is like going through a dark tunnel to reach our destination - one must go through it to come out of it.

Being in the midst of a natural calamity like earthquake/cyclone etc or a riot or a  sudden loss of your job, friend or a near and dear one - any of these can throw us out of our balance and we struggle to find our equanimity.

In my experience these traumatic situations of life are the moments of awakening. Someone said that "what doesn't kill us makes us stronger".  After the initial feeling of doom, anxiety, frustration, even anger one eventually moves on because nothing is permanent and it requires a lot of energy for one to remain in a negative state of mind forever. The time span of his moving on differs from person to person. It is the wisdom quotient in us which determines this shift within us and in my experiences wisdom has to be gained from what happens to us in life.

The good news is that we are not alone in this. Help is all around us and we just need to reach out. Learning Reiki and practising it everyday apart from the sessions of Transcendental meditation is what helped me in my journey. My Reiki teacher, guide and friend Mr. Surinder Makker was always just a phone call away.

Regain your inner strength, contact Roohani Reiki for support and learn this fabulous self growth tool - Reiki.

When a move comes in your life without your initiation then it is a sign from the Universe to move ahead resolving all obstacles with a calm faith, focusing on what you need to do in every minute rather than worrying about the whys and hows.
Mostly people would like to believe that as they grow older they have learnt and reached a  point where they know the best. Their belief system consists of what they imbibed from parents, schooling system, religion, community etc. and some what they realised while facing life experiences. This leads to being in a comfort zone and any event or situation which comes along to challenge them is either pushed away, ignored or overpowered with the existing beliefs.
To be able to get the best out of a change is to zoom out to look at the outcomes in the larger perspective and how it will affect their journey finally. The short term gains can be very very tempting and most of us fall for that. If we take a pause and reflect upon what we are doing and the long term effect of our actions in the light of the sudden change, we are sure to understand the larger picture.
Just be in the moment, face the realities as they are and use your choice for the action as per the guidance coming from within. Focus on your Heart chakra and take a decision with love, first for yourself and then for the Universe.

The weave of life

In the all 'knowing-ness of the heart', the essence of the weave of life remains beyond reach when the connection is not established. Either we remain questioning, wondering, pondering or sulking with the movement of the play of events or totally unaware of the layers.

Complete surrender with the heart is of utmost importance to achieve bliss. This can be as easy as breathing, if we are connected to our inner self. If not then every darkness and challenge seems like it has come to destroy you permanently. It is the process through which we become wiser and move ahead.

One example which my Reiki teacher, Mr. Surinder Makkar used to give was that if we look at the other or the wrong side of an embroidery piece, we see threads all tangled up, the design unclear and chaos.

Life is like that, we see the unpleasantness, disappointments and the ugliness. This is just one side of the picture. Within this chaos, the beauty of  life emerges as the right side of the embroidery revels in the revelation of the art work.

That moment of knowing-ness comes in the roller-coaster ride of life. Sharing a few lines I wrote in one of the 'time and space', where one realises and is in bliss.

The wet fingers

of despair

the clammy touch

of disappointment

dark clouds of sadness

why why why

then the crack of the dawn 

of sunshine of hope

appears in the horizon

of my soul.

With it's dazzling conviction

to spread light, joy and wisdom

in the heart and mind

and I tell myself

All Is Well !!

This sense of well being also gets ignited by music. This song always brings in that moment of peace. 

Creativity through the Heart Chakra

In the process of healing the heart, one huge realization dawns upon me. This is a very painful process. To open up old wounds, to live through all the experiences and then to let them go gently.
This requires lots of courage and fortitude.
In one of such moments, my creativity leaped up and I wrote a few lines. To give a brief background, my dearest friend Geetali Tare introduced me to the book 'Forty Rules of Love'.  It is the story of  an eternal friendship between Rumi and Shams Tabrizi, which led to the fabulous poetry of Rumi.

न मैं कोई रूमी था 

न वह मेरा शम्स बन सका 

कोई आजीवन साथ नहीं रहता 

विचार, शब्दों का जमा न पाकर 

किसी राह की मुंडेर पर खो जाते हैं 

ख्वाहिशें मन में भटकती रहती हैं 

और पौधे बिन जल के सूख जाते हैं 

दिल से निकली ये कोमल टहनियां 

तुम्हारे दिल तक नहीं पहुँचती 

इनका वजूद बरखा की बूंदो जितना 

आस्मां से गिर कर, ज़मीं में गुल 

ये टहनियां रेशम की धागों की तरह 

अलादा हो कर छलनी कर जाती हैं 

हवाओं में आवारा बहती हुईं 

तुम्हारी खुशबू बिखेर जाती हैं 

और मैं रूमी का नाटक करते हुए 

इन धागों के शब्दों को बुनकर 

एक परत भ्रमित शम्स के नाम 

खुद पर ओढ़ कर सो जाता हूँ |  

I am no Rumi,

Nor could he be my Shams

No one lasts forever

Without the shelter of words,

my thoughts waver and disappear into dark alleys

Desires float around in my heart

And plants parch without water.

The gentle vines of love, in my heart 

Don’t reach you.

Their existence is like the raindrops,

Sinking into the ground, never to be found.

The rainbow like silken threads

Are shredded beyond repair

The scent of love disparts in the air

And I, trying to be Rumi,

Weave these strings of words

In the honor of Shams,

 pay homage,

and engulf myself in him.

- Translation by Anwesha Mitra

Healing the Heart Chakra

HEALING THE HEART CHAKRA

The Heart Chakra is the seat of love. The emotion which creates the 'path of the heart'.

There is a lot of information out there on 'heart chakra'. There is also a lot of debate on 'whether chakras exist or not'. I will keep it to just this that I am sharing my experiences with my readers here and I believe in the existence of chakras, have felt their movement within me and in people I heal.

In most of the healings I have noticed that people have their heart chakras with shadows, either blocked, moving in the wrong direction or moving erratically.

Deep hurt and emotional pain can lead to one shutting down the feel centre. Relationships are a great source of joy as well as sorrow. Unlimited and unfulfilled expectations from our family, friends, colleagues etc. lead us to disappointments, frustration and sadness. The ideal situation is to have no or very few expectations from people around you but it is next to impossible to do that. We are not supposed to live a life in isolation and mutual dependence and expectations are expected.

What is to be done then ? My take on this with the experience I have had while interacting with all the people who came to me for healing is that we need to live through the emotions and deal with them and resolve them as they keep popping up. Blocking out emotions or pretending that they don't hurt you, does not work for us.

One good exercise while healing people is to make them live through their traumas/hurts and pains they may have gone through since childhood.
Going back to the heart chakra, it is definitely all about loving abundantly as well as being ready to receive love. Old pains related to people letting you down does not allow us to open up to love.
Reiki healing for heart issues helps us to get centered.

Meditating on the heart chakra helps in the balance and opening of the heart for the energy of love and kindness to come in. This music can be used for the heart chakra meditation.

Quoting my favourite poet Rumi on loving and being loved -

Those who don't feel this Love

pulling them like a river,
those who don't drink dawn
like a cup of spring water
or take in sunset like supper,
those who don't want to change,
that old trickery and hypocrisy.
I you want to improve your mind that way,
I've torn the cloth to shreds
and thrown it away.
wrap your beautiful robe of words
around you, 

let them sleep. 

This Love is beyond the study of theology,

sleep on. 

I've given up on my brain.

If you're not completely naked,

and sleep. 

12^th Aug, 2013

Doing Nothing…….

There comes a moment when we should just be and live in the moment. That is exactly what I did in Maldives, just gazed at the sea and watched the play of the waves.  I felt in sync with the lonely boat out at the sea, gently swaying with the current. 

The energy of the vivid blue of the water seeped into my throat chakra, helping me release all the blocks and heal. My ability to communicate with nature and with myself, in silence, improved and I could feel the vastness and the magnanimity of the blue sea competing with the blue of the sky, finally merging into one.

The joy of being, becoming ONE with the Universe is what we seek. Complete surrender and acceptance of the power of Universe brings peace and 'knowing-ness'. 

More on detox and healing

                 

On this path of Reiki healing and teaching, all the experiences coming my way have helped me tremendously in the expansion of my understanding of life. In a recent healing of a friend's family I sensed related issues that went back in time and a lot of stuck energy was released.
As a healer I too went through a lot of detoxification
It would seem that I had a viral attack but I had a deep knowingness of what  had happened. There was unfinished business of "rage, un-shed tears and unspoken words of anger and huge amounts of helplessness". All this manifested itself as fever, throat pain, body ache and loss of inner strength with helplessness.
Related to the metaphysical causes of an illness I am sharing a link for all.

This link provides all the mental-emotional issues related to various physical symptoms.

http://www.vitalaffirmations.com/health/healingaffirmations.htm#.UbS27thTEwV

Another huge aspect of healing has come to the fore. As humans we are bound to family and friends and wish well for all. Combined this with the fact that as a healer we automatically want to heal; there is nothing wrong with that but it may have certain unpleasant outcomes depending on what is your vested interest in the healing and who is being offered the healing.

My recent experience has made me learn the following lessons:-

1. Do not ever offer to heal unless asked for.

2. Take proper energy exchange to eliminate
    any feelings of "a major obligation" done. 

3. Under any circumstances do not allow your emotions
    to get entangled in the healing process or energies.

4. Ensure that there is a closure on the issue once the
    healing is done.

9^th March, 2013

TOO MUCH ON OUR PLATE

Quite a few cases of nerve problems have come for healing recently. This has led me to wonder as to what is getting on everybody’s nerves!

Life has so much to offer these days, there is so much to do all the time and so many choices. A typical Sunday is spent in taking enough rest , finishing incomplete household chores, going out with family, giving time to our hobbies and doing ‘our own thing’ and ‘trying to finish that book which is so interesting but can’t seem to find the time to finish it’.

                                                                                                       courtesy - beforeandafterstuff.com

Then comes along my daughter’s creative writing assignment and she has addressed the issue which is on my mind these days. I am posting a 12 year old’s take on our busy bustling life.

LET ME FINISH  !

Sundays are supposed to be a holiday right?  A holiday from all the work and toil that we have to go through the whole week. So if it is a holiday then why must this absurd bell ring every five minutes? 

I keep on trying to finish my book but no one seems to want to let me finish it. So far, I have had to go to the door for the milkman, driver, maids, cook, librarian, cookie sellers, newspapers and dog walker. God knows how many more are to come? Every time someone comes, I do my work with them. Then they leave and I sit down outside on my bench next to my tall plants and my comfortable cushions and my lamp. The moment I sit down and open my book….Ding Dong!!! There the bell goes again. I have barely read five pages! If this keeps happening then…......

Ding Dong!!!!

That blasted shameless creature! I heave a great sigh and go to the door. Hoping that this won’t take long. I open the door and…this is going to take long. 

My neighbours have come with a huge blundering cake.

“You must try this cake! It’s absolutely spiffing!!” They cry.

 I swallow down my frustration and bring a very forced smile on my lips.

“Absolutely! Give it to me and I will finish it before you can say ‘cake’.”

Yeah. Right !

The neighbours are extremely stubborn. They didn’t leave until I had finished the whole cake and given a full critical feedback. Even with a signature!!

I plop back on my bench. Now I have switched off my calling bell. Hopefully, I won’t be killing anyone today out of sheer anger.

Thank you.

- Anwesha Mitra

Give Time To Yourself

Regular practice of Reiki brought one very precious thing in my life and that was to slow down. All our life we keep running, completing tasks, keep appointments, meet deadlines, make social visits, the list is unending. How many times I would ask for more than 24 hours in a day. I was a slave of the clock. Some part of me would ask if all this was so important but I would ignore that voice. Till one day when I just gave up trying to keep up with the clock. Minimum compliance of reaching for work on time was the only thing I maintained. Rest of the stress of being quick and on time, I simply dumped it in the garbage can. This helped me immensely to have another perspective of my life and I began to have more time for things 'I wanted to do' rather than all the time doing 'what others wanted me to do.Practicing Reiki calmed me down and led to a few 'out of the body experiences'. The pure moment of bliss in those moments have begun to replicate even when I am not meditating. It happens more and more when I am reading poetry or penning  down my thoughts in verse. Some thoughts on why I am slow.......

They say I am slow
I am slow as I wait...
I wait till the smiles reach the eyes.
I take time to appreciate 
all the lows and highs.
I wait for the tears to turn into joys.
I linger upon the shadows of sunshine,
playing on the leaves and boughs.
I am slow to be in sync 
with the spirit of life itself.  
I wait for the pain to turn into grief 
and slice through me 
 breaking all ties.
I am slow 
as I am in no hurry
to reach the skies.
They say I am slow
but being slow is good for me.     

Experience of Reiki Detoxification

As a Reiki teacher and healer I had seen some symptoms of detoxification happening in my students but in my class held in Bangalore on 1^st Oct 2012, Mugdha Deshpande went through an amazing detox process.

Mugdha deshpande is bright and beautiful with sparkling intelligent eyes. She is one of lucky ones to have found her love of life in her loving husband. Her daughter came to her bringing in loads of challenge, both at mental and emotional levels. Battling with a series of complicated medical problems, the true grit and tenacity of her little girl had given immense strength to her to be hopeful and fight. What got lost in the entire process was her love and care for herself and emotional drifting from her husband. Bravely she bottled up all the pain and focused completely on giving all her strength to her daughter. 

As her attunement for first level of Reiki began, tears started pouring out of her eyes and it continued for the next 2 hours of practising Reiki. Mugdha sobbed all her pain out through her tears, letting go of all the bottled up anxiety and grief.

She is my guest writer today and tells her story in her own words.

My daughter and I just got back to Bangalore after her second surgery and life was coming to normalcy, the surgery suture marks on her body were as fresh as the brushes it gave me and my husband in our hearts. Parents have to be the stronger entity of the equation called as family. 

Every day was a new day for us, comforting her, giving a emotional support when the three year old  complained of pain in her knee everytime she had some discomfort in walking.She was too small to even learn what pain actually means in any form. Every time I saw her in pain, I felt so helpless.

We, mother daughter had a history of medical issues together. My daughter was a pre mature and her survival was a question but when the almighty decides everything works out and my blessed baby survived the most difficult times in her life when she was 7 and half months old. She underwent an open heart surgery which went around for roughly 7 hrs. She fought back and survived proving that there was some super power helping her all the time. Every time she suffered, every time she was pricked with needles when she was under the scalpel, it gave me a lot of pain emotionaly and left me with number of wounds in my heart.

I was tired of carrying those unhealed incidents of my life. The world around me was full of concern and sympathy for us but I did not need that. What I wanted was to be restored to my original state of mind which I had lost almost 3 years back. My husband and I kept walking through all the tough times and communication gaps had crept in between us. We liked being in our own shells and lived each day as it came. We didn’t even realize when we had changed from just a Couple to a set of parents without feeling the joy of becoming parents.

It took me time to change my perspective towards her medical history papers. We did not travel without her medical papers as we felt safe to have them with us. Since she has a lot of metallic elements installed in her body we needed them as a proof. They almost occupied 1-2 kgs in my bag. They are like a big spiral binded book of almost more than 200 pages. But this time when had to go to Bangalore all of a sudden along with my husband we did not carry any of her medical papers along I felt like why I have to carry this all the time whats the fear about it..

Now when she is scanned at the Airports for security and when the machine beeps after coming close to her we smile … she has around 5 metalic wires which were used to perform the closing ceremony of her heart surgery  and 2 titanium plates which are fitted inside her knees for her deformity correction. I feel proud of my daughter that she has handled so much at this tender age.

Until I met my Reiki master the medical papers were so much of a burden in my bags and now the positive change in me is that I consider each page of the reports as a letter of appreciation for my little one, from every doctor who treated her. Every paper in the file now appears to me as if saying, “look kiddo you are doing good everyday”.

When I was attuned for my Level one Reiki, I religiously did self healing on my 24 points for 72 mins. I had heavy detoxification in the form of tears, I have cried endlessly for 21 days. With every tear falling out I have practically left behind each incident which hurt me in the past. I forgave everyone with whom I was angry for very long; it is all past for me now.

Physically I had minor issues of acidity, back pain, leg pain etc., they hardly exist now. My way of living has changed and is changing and will keep changing. Reiki is a lifetime ongoing learning process of life. Its an amazing gift to humanity from the Almighty. We are a small particle(Ansh) of the super power and someday each one in this life should get enlightened and realize the purpose of his/her being.I was blessed with this enlightenment once when I met my Guru and second time when I was attuned by Ranjani didi.Life looks sorted out now to a very good extent I don’t have the control over my life but I am certainly in the driving seat when it comes to me.I have a control on myself today. If I have tears in my eyes I never question why I have to cry, instead I say that it’s good that I am crying and expressing my pain. The water from my eyes washes away all the wrong notions I have about something and when I am done crying, I have a new way to look at life in a completely different way altogether.

Reiki came to my life like a Self help healing tool when I had lost all hopes and I just wanted to put and end to everything happening around my daughter.

Reiki is a process the super power initiates when you want to help yourself first, its a guiding finger to which one can anchor on to reach one’s completion.

Today When I get up every day it’s a new sunrise for me.I am happy to start my day forgetting what happened yesterday.Reiki has added a few extra watts of energy to life. No more sulking around for what has gone or not there. I just smile, waiting to see what’s next in store for me.