What are you looking at?

Spending the last month sick I have had a lot of downtime and I have been watching previous seasons of Masterchef Australia. Now I have to be honest I have never watched the Canadian or American versions but simply from the commercials, it doesn’t have the same feel as the Australian one.

Which is why I felt compelled to write this. I know right now in the world it is easy to see all the negative and to feel that humankind is horrible, destructive, angry, and whatever other adjective you want. There is no shortage of atrocities and horror stories but what I have also seen on this show (and in real life) is some of the kindest most compassionate acts of Love, from ordinary people.

I wanted to share this because it has brought me to tears more than once to see how caring the contestants and judges are for each other and the genuine celebrations of seeing others succeed at realizing their dreams.

There are far too many examples for me to share here but I will share some highlights! If you haven’t seen the show a quick synopsis 24 home cooks are competing to win (in the Australia one) $250,000, their own cookbook deal, and some other prizes to help them create their food dream. They compete against each other and within teams depending on the challenge but ultimately there is only one prize winner.

One of the most profound examples of human kindness and compassion was in a semifinal. There were three contestants left and they were doing a pressure test. (Which is they have to replicate an incredibly hard dish (usually dessert) that was created by a professional chef all within a limited time.) To say these dishes, look hard to recreate would be an understatement! So, in this semifinal, the three contestants left were creating an apple dish and they had to use a machine to slowly take off layers of the apple, this was an imperative part of the dish and as usual, the contestant was on a time constraint and in a rush to get everything prepared (thus the pressure). One of the finalists could not get her apple machine to work and the other 2 contestants had completed theirs already and had moved on. The one who was stuck Laura was distraught she tried several apples and could not get the machine to work for her, she was frustrated and devastated and was on the verge of tears, she saw her dreams slipping away. It was at this point not one, but both fellow contestants stopped what they were doing and went to assist Laura. They sacrificed precious minutes needed to get their dishes done to help her! I was brought to tears at such an amazing act of love from both of those competitors. They didn’t have to, they easily could have let her struggle and lose more time, thus guaranteeing they would make it to the finale.

The sad thing is I went on YouTube to find a clip to share in this blog and there is ONLY one and it is short, buried among thousands of other videos. I feel this is something that should have been a bigger deal and more publicized!

Throughout the show, there are so many more examples of fellow contestant cheering, hugging, high-fiving and celebrating other competitors’ wins and successes. And there are just as many hugs and words of support for their losses and heartbreaks.

Another significant one that sticks out in my mind was a team challenge where teams of competitors compete. The tasks are difficult, usually requiring the team to provide a 2 or 3-course restaurant service meal. Time is always a problem on these tasks and getting it ready and set for service is always daunting contestants are always under pressure to complete the challenge.

In this episode, at the beginning of the challenge, one of the team members slipped and badly cut his hand, so bad he had to be taken to the hospital. As the medics were determining the severity. Several of his team members stopped their tasks to check on him and support him, they tied to keep him calm and distracted from looking at the bleeding gash on his hand that needed 12 stitches. When Brandon the injured contestant was taken off to the hospital, instead of being annoyed or upset that they now had to complete the task with one less set of hands, his teammates began cheering and motivating each other by saying ‘we have to do this for Brandon’. Throughout the whole episode, they used this mantra as motivation. They won the challenge and when they were discussing it they stated they just had to do it for Brandon!

You can watch it here if you are interested. https://fb.watch/iRQu0LBP2t/

Again, I was brought to tears by the compassion of the contestants. I have to admit it is not uncommon for me to get emotional while watching because each episode shows ordinary people being compassionate more times than not, showing such sincere, genuine acts of love. This is why I love watching it!

I chose to write this because as mentioned earlier we can certainly see examples of humanity at its worst and that is where most of the media attention goes to focusing on fear, anger, and acts of aggression. I have long said there are far more good things happening in the world we just don’t hear about them as regularly.

I also wanted to write about this because you get to choose what you consume. When you choose to constantly bombard your senses and subconscious with negativity, it affects your energy!

Our subconscious mind takes in far more information than our senses can even detect and it stores it all. Therefore, if you are watching and consuming endless amounts of negative information it is definitely affecting your mind, your emotions, and your energy. I am not trying to tell you what to watch, (I love a good police drama and murder mystery too), but what I am saying is to be mindful, and pay attention to how you feel when you are watching. Notice if what you are watching is making you feel anxious or fearful. Also, pay attention to your dreams as this is where your subconscious purges and purifies itself. If you are having disturbing dreams you can bet you are taking in too much!

Your subconscious does not evaluate and discern what we watch, it simply just collects and stores information (it does some other stuff too, not relevant to this blog).

Therefore, if you consume a lot of negative images your subconscious will actually shape the way you view reality. This means if you are filled up with negative images you will see life from a negative lens and focus on the negative. You will be keenly aware of it and almost seek it out in a way, bypassing all the positive that is also readily available. This is why you can feel like you are seeing a different reality than others! Your reality is being determined by your subconscious which consumes what you feed it!

 

So again, all I have to say is, be aware of what you are consuming. You get to choose, so choose wisely! Life can feel hard enough!

If this resonates for you and you are wanting to help purge and clear some of this negativity from your subconscious there is a great flower essence that helps. The flower essence of chaparral helps cleanse and purify your subconscious. you can find the video here.

Flower Power

Flower Power

I have had a lot of enquiries about the flower essence readings lately, so I thought I would write about my experiences with them.

I got started doing flower essences with a couple of spiritual advisors that I was working with for my personal growth and holistic well-being. When I first started doing them, I just trusted in the process and didn’t really care about what that process was! I just knew I felt better, so I felt I didn’t even really need to understand why they worked, I just knew that they did.

 

Flower Power

 

When Woody (my husband) got sick, we worked with these spiritual advisors to help with Woody’s healing and, although it did not heal him physically (sometimes things are just written), it did help with his overall well-being! I learned from this experience that healing the body is one thing, but there are so many levels of healing: spiritual, emotional and psychological. These levels of healing are just as important as the physical healing. I have always believed that we cannot just look at the physical when we have issues we need to look beyond. I believe our physical health is a manifestation of what is going with us internally, and working with the flower essences has confirmed this for me. To heal then, we need to heal the internal aspects and that is what the flower essences do. They are a subtle yet powerful way to move energy and receive support from the Universe. This is what I witnessed with Woody, he may not have healed physically but he did emotionally, spiritually and psychologically. I witnessed him moving from a very narrow view of health and well-being to one that was holistic, and in the end, he experienced a sense of peace and calm that he had never felt before. I feel that was in a large part to the work he did with the flower essences. This is also true from my personal experience with the essences, this is exactly what they have done for me – provided me with clarity and an overall sense of well-being.

When to Use Them

I turn to flower essences when I feel “off”. What does that mean? Well, it is very personal. For me, I feel like my thinking is chaotic, or I am fixated on something or keep ruminating on an issue. The more in tune I get with myself and my body, the more I realize when I am “off”. Also, I use them when I am working through something on my journey to wholeness, whether that is a belief, a pattern of behavior or an old story (that I tell myself), and I want the added support or clarification with the issue I am facing. Generally, I just don’t feel like things are right, and that is showing up in my thinking and in my body!

My clients have come to me mainly out of curiosity (which I believe is the Universe providing the clues), or they feel stuck, or feel like they have moved through something in their personal growth and this is the finale of that issue.

Flower Power

 

Really there is no bad time to use the flower essences for support, and what I have noticed is that if you are feeling a strong curiosity or keep thinking about it, then it is probably something you could use.

What Happens

When I do a reading for myself or others, I ask if there are flower essences that will assist. Sometimes, if there is something specific going on then I will specify, like are there flower essences that will assist me with my career, my health, my relationship…etc. Whatever it is, I ask. If there are flower essences (which in most cases, there are) I ask how many and then go to work figuring out which ones will be beneficial. I go through the “areas of interest” in the Bach Flower Essence Reference book to figure out which flower essences are relevant. The areas of interest are vast. There are approximately 100 of them and each area of interest has different flower essences that will help. It never ceases to amaze me, the flower essences that come up are exactly what I need! There are literally hundreds of options but the ones that come up for myself and my clients are perfect at that time!

 

Flower Power

 

For example, one reading I did for myself, what came up was under the area of interest of abandonment. This was incredibly helpful for me because I knew something was going on, but I couldn’t figure it out. When I read abandonment It just clicked, “YES, that is exactly what was going on!” in this case I was feeling abandoned and fearing that and that is why I was “off”. Before doing the reading, I couldn’t understand why my thoughts were fixating and why I was ruminating.

 

This feeling of being understood has happened for my clients also, I have had the pleasure of witnessing clients weeping at the relief of being understood and knowing that what was going on for them was not just a creation of their mind. I have heard more than once (and experienced it myself) the relief that finally now there was a word that summed up how they were feeling. There really is something comforting about being understood.

What Happens Next

The next step is asking the flower essence to assist you, and energetically feel it come into your body. The feeling is different for everyone but most report a tingling in their body or a wave, whatever the feeling, they all feel the energy, even the skeptics. It really is quite an amazing experience to feel the energy either leave or enter your body depending on what you are asking for. For me, I usually feel a wave moving either up or down my shoulders, it is warm and comforting.

Flower Power

After the session, I usually notice a difference within a couple days. I will notice my thoughts changing or my overall well-being improving. I would explain it as feeling grounded and centered. For my clients they too notice changes in their behaviors, thoughts and feelings. There are no hard, fast rules and usually the effects depend on what they are working on. After my reading when I was able to pinpoint the feeling of abandonment, I felt a sense of calm and my thoughts were not fueled by fear. From this space I was better able to move through the issue and resolve it.

Intrigued?

I realize it is something that seems a little different to a lot of you who may be just starting out on your spiritual journey, that was how it was for my husband, who at first was skeptical. But even he could not dismiss the accuracy of the flower essences that came up. He used to say, “there is no way you could just pick one that was that perfect”.

All I can say if there is curiosity and you are intrigued then listen to your intuition. It really is an amazing experience! I absolutely believe that if it is right for you, you will know!

Ready? … Book your reading here.