From “The Sky is the Limit” to “Wishes Fulfilled”

“Health, wealth, beauty, and genius are not created; they are only manifested by the arrangement of your mind—that is, by your concept of yourself, and your concept of yourself is all that you accept and consent to as true.”
—NEVILLE

I have been always an avid fan of Dr. Wayne Dyer. I was a teenager when I read “The Sky is the Limit,” and since then it’s been my desire to read it again.  I still remember the feelings of joy, excitement, fascination, and happiness I had while I devoured those pages; and the unlimited possibilities ahead of me that seemed so alluring.
“The Sky is the Limit” became my motto, my mantra. A few years down the road, life happened to me, and I found myself heading in the opposite direction, sinking in a sea of despair, distress, and fear.

It took me over 15 years to go back to that place of believing in myself as a limitless, divine being. I wait now with excited anticipation the release of his latest inspirational masterpiece titled, “Wishes Fulfilled.” I am in love with the synchronicity. For a few years now, I have set my mind and heart into deciphering the mysteries of the manifesting process, and I suspect this book will reveal some of them.

One of the biggest breakthroughs in psychology in the  20th century addressed in this book states that there is a direct correlation between your self-image and the results you are creating.

In other words, if you consider yourself to be a failure, your chances of attaining success in your life are diminished considerably. So, if you are wondering why your long journey of affirmations, visualizations, the law of attraction programs, and everything in between hasn’t borne any fruits yet, your self-image is the culprit.

Can you transform a two-story building into a skyscraper without altering its foundation? The answer is no.

The same concept applies to your life. You can’t transform your life from scarcity to abundance, from despair to happiness, from failure to success, from emptiness to fulfillment without working on changing your self-image. You can’t outgrow your self-image since your feelings, actions, and behavior, are consistent with the mental picture you hold of yourself.

The good news is, there are several ways to transform your life. You can do it from the bottom up or the inside out. You are the creator of your destiny.

Inspired by the analogy of the building, I researched on the Malaysian construction project of the Petronas Twin Towers, certified as the world’s tallest buildings in 1996. To my amazement, the first resource I looked into was an article called, “Petronas Twin Towers, the tallest building in the world. From vision to reality.” I can only say, what a synchronicity! Going from vision to reality in your life is the process I want to illustrate. So, here we go!

 

Preparing the foundation for the Petronas Twin Tower was a challenge. Once the process began, they encountered problems with the soil. It was not suitable for the project, and it was necessary to make some adjustments including a five-story excavation. Once we start the journey, we will find the need to make some adjustments before we can proceed.

Surely, we’ll have to dig deep into our mind and soul to weed out or remove what no longer serves our purpose, to lay a solid and stable foundation (self-image.) It may not be a very pleasant task. It may be even painful and to some extent, debilitating, but it will determine how far and how high you’ll be able to go in your life. Very helpful since we are shooting at least for the sky. Aren’t we?

 

 

Reiki: Hype or Help?

By Therese Droste

Neurosurgeon Clinton Miller viewed Reiki (pronounced RAY-KEY) with skepticism several years ago. But that skepticism eroded after Miller experienced the therapy himself. “I went from high personal excitation to feeling like I was floating in the ether,” says Miller.

Today, Miller prescribes Reiki for his patients. And he’s not alone. Many healthcare professionals and others are beginning to incorporate Reiki in their treatment of illnesses ranging from asthma to cancer to depression. Reiki sessions are being used for pain management, to accelerate recovery from surgery and reduce medication side effects.

Chaplain Laurie Garrett often performs Reiki on dying patients. “I strive to bring a sense of peace about the dying process and to help patients become less resistant [to death],” says Garrett, a therapist at the Institute for Health and Healing, San Francisco.

Practitioners receive the energy first, says Patricia Alandydy, who heads the Reiki program at Portsmouth (NH) Regional Hospital. The practitioner’s body then acts as a conduit for the energy to be drawn through and delivered to the recipient.

“The result is rejuvenating, rather than draining, for the practitioner,” says Alandydy. “I’m never drained of my own personal energy, because the Universal Life Force comes through me and into the person. If I’m working on someone who is highly emotional or anxious, I don’t absorb those feelings.”

The Health Benefits of Reiki
The recipient, meanwhile, generally feels a warm flow or tingling sensation in his or her body, but the feeling varies with each person, says Connie Hoy, executive director of The Reiki Alliance. “Sometimes people feel sleepy and relaxed, while others may nap through a session and wake up energized. Reiki brings about what the person’s body needs,” says Hoy.

Stephen Sinatra, a cardiologist and head of the New England Heart Center in Manchester. CT, recommends Reiki when he believes an energy block is hindering a patient’s ability to heal. An experienced Reiki practitioner can pick up on the part(s) of the body that may be blocked energetically and emotionally, he explains, which is “valuable feedback for the patient.”

Reiki advocates stress that the length of a Reiki treatment is not the issue; it is the touch that counts. Ann Ameling practices Reiki on herself daily, sometimes for just five minutes at a time to regroup during the day. The professor of Psychiatric Nursing at Yale University started practicing Reiki four years ago after she was diagnosed with breast cancer.

“There is nothing like a cancer diagnosis to make you feel out of control. Reiki helped me gain personal power,” says Ameling, who feels that Reiki allows her to slow down, relax, and think positive, healthy thoughts.

Connecting with Patients
Reiki is a way for healthcare professionals to stay connected with patients, says Alandydy. Patients “feel that someone is focused solely on them, and it allows [them] to feel cared for in a hospital setting [where] they sometimes feel lonely and disconnected from all of the commotion.”At Portsmouth Hospital, a Reiki session may last 15 minutes or longer and is often offered in a preoperative care room or at the patient’s bedside. Since starting its Reiki program two years ago, Portsmouth has conducted 2,500 Reiki sessions for free. The hospital has 20 employees trained in Reiki. An additional 2,000 sessions have been provided to patients who want to continue receiving treatments at an offsite rehabilitation clinic for a small $10 donation. The hospital also offers its Reiki treatments to caregivers.

Keep reading…

Reiki Energy Medicine: Enhancing the Healing Process

By Alice Moore, RN, BS, Reiki Master

Hartford Hospital Dept.of Integrative Medicine, Hartford, CT

With increasing frequency and confidence, we speak of Energy Medicine (also known as “energy work”) as if it was a new form of therapy for our patients’ ailments. Not so. Thousands of years ago ancient cultures understood intuitively what scientific research and practitioners world-wide are confirming today about the flow (or lack of flow) of energy in the body and, how the use of energy therapies can enhance the healing process. As well known medical surveys report approximately 50% of the American public using some form of complementary or alternative therapy, “energy work” is among the ten most frequently used. Research has shown that these therapies (often called “mind-body-spirit techniques”) can help decrease anxiety, diminish pain, strengthen the immune system, and accelerate healing, whether by simply inducing the “relaxation response” (and reversing the “stress response” and subsequent impacts on the body, illness, and disease) or, by more complex mechanisms. When patients choose these options, there is often a greater sense of participation in healing and restoration of health and, patient satisfaction is often increased in the process.

It was with this understanding that Women’s Health Services at Hartford Hospital (in collaboration with Alice Moore, RN, BS, Reiki Master and Volunteer Services) began to integrate Reiki healing touch (one of the most well known forms of “energy work” ) on the inpatient gynecological surgical unit in 1997. Patients have been very pleased to be offered an option that is so relaxing and helps decrease their anxiety as well as their discomfort. Comments from patient satisfaction questionnaires include “I am so grateful for the pain relief and peacefulness I felt after the Reiki session”, “Reiki was the highlight of my day and I am so thankful to the volunteers”, and “I would highly recommend this program. I feel the Reiki (and guided imagery) helped me recover faster.”

After the tremendous success of this program, the formal Integrative Medicine Program under the direction of Dr. Molly Punzo, M.D. was developed in 2000 incorporating Reiki Pilot Programs (as well as Massage, Guided Imagery, Acupuncture, and Art for Healing) on the Cardiology, Orthopedic, Oncology, and Palliative Care units, as well as in the outpatient Cancer Center. During the pilot phase, outcome measurements were obtained from patients rating their anxiety and pain pre and post Reiki sessions.

This was also in line with JACHO’s recent focus on offering non-medicinal options for relief of anxiety and pain. More formal research is currently being proposed. Reiki has become an integral part of the traditional medical care on these previous “pilot” units utilizing approximately 60 Reiki Volunteers trained and validated by the hospital. As the word spreads, and as the program is being expanded to other areas of the hospital, the Dept. of Integrative Medicine also receives a growing number of special requests daily.

Download the entire document from the Hartford Hospital website