Before you head out the door, spend time with you first. This statement goes so much deeper than the physical act of walking out the door to your home and heading off to the workplace, dropping your children off at school, or rushing off to complete all those errands on your to-do list. This refers to the home within your heart. The sacred temple and place where you truly connect to your higher consciousness and get clear on what you need in order to live life to your full potential.
 
Potential. That word often causes me to pause and consider, “What is my full potential? What is it that I even want to do?” You see, it is easy for me to allow my time and attention to drift over to other people and to feel the excitement of their dreams. I thrive in the beautiful energy of their excitement and can feel their potential. There is nothing more that I want then to see others succeed, and this is one of the aspects about myself that I love the most. I have a beautiful open heart and I like to share it with many others. The problem is that my home (heart space) often tends to get overcrowded in all the energy and dedication spent nurturing, holding space, and caring for the needs of others around me.
 
I am aware of this condition as my heart starts to feel the tightness and my body starts to feel the exhaustion. My answer to this dilemma in the past? Well, that’s easy! I would just simply remove myself from my heart space so that there was enough room for the others to not feel so crowded.
 
Huh. But now where will I go? Where in the world do I belong? Those were the other questions I pondered for the majority of my life, not really feeling like I belonged to any one particular group other than the safe zone of my spouse and children and a few really close friends. So what’s the difference? Why do I feel safe and at ease here, but not out there in the world? Well, the answer is actually quite simple. One cannot exist outside of their own heart. That heart of yours is the sacred dwelling place of your spirit and your spirit needs to be connected to your human in order to be whole. When you crowd your spirit out of your heart by pulling in too many others and focusing all your time and attention on them to the point that it crowds out your spirit then of course you will feel disconnected. You have just banished your poor spirit. Kicking it out into the world where it can do nothing more than wander around feeling lost, rejected, and disconnected from love. And can you blame it? You have after all just closed the door on your heart and replaced it with everyone else except for you.
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Ouch! Sometimes facing the truth hurts, but I am grateful for the wakeup call, and I am grateful that the spirit self keeps ringing the doorbell to the heart asking, “Can I come home now? I really miss you and need to be in your presence.”
 
This can sometimes feel like an uncomfortable place, for how do we choose who to kick out of the heart space in order to make room for self to come back in? How do you kick another out into the cold when you know all too well what that feels like?
 
Oh wait! It just dawned on me that if perhaps my spirit is ringing the bell to my heart, well isn’t all the other visiting spirits I have contained in my heart perhaps actually trying to get out so that they can also get back to their own humans and plead to be let in? What if by holding onto the energy of everyone else and trying to do so much for them that I am actually hurting their own spiritual growth?
 
Ouch! Sometimes you feel like you just can’t win. It’s like that old saying “You are damned if you do and damned if you don’t.” This is the healer’s dilemma, and we are all healers. Overcompensating and trying too hard. Allowing the mind to dictate and boss us around, while flooding the body with feelings of lack of worth, blame, regret, anger, jealousy, and the “poor me” song and dance. Meanwhile the poor spirit is just patiently waiting to come back home to the heart.
 
So friends, before you walk out the door, spend time with you first. Check in with your heart each and every day and ask, “What do I need? What can I do for myself today? Do you need a hug, a cup of tea, to call a friend, a walk outdoors?” It doesn’t have to be a big request, but it is a request from your spirit so please honour it. Please spend the time nurturing yourself and caring for all those details that you so lovingly poor into others. Please spend the time filling up your heart space with your spirit’s essence that it can grow larger and shine its beautiful light out into the world.
 
We forget that we are energy Beings and our energy is felt in the aura that surrounds the body. When you are angry, sad, or frustrated you can guarantee that other’s feel that energy. I’m sure you have felt it in others. So what if we all just spent a little more time coming home to self, clearing out all the other energies, sending them back home to be with their own humans, closing the door to allow just our beautiful spirit time to replenish, refresh, and share how it is doing?
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I have learned to develop the most beautiful relationship with my spiritual self, nurturing her needs, playing the fun game of asking “What do you need today?” and feeling the heart swell when I listen and acknowledge its needs by carrying out the action step. The feeling in the heart is so contagious, that I find the corners of my mouth lift up in a beautiful smile. I feel a lightness in my body, and new energy pour into my entire being. It is a state of what I can only describe as bliss.
 
Want to know something that makes me grin even deeper as if it is a secret? When I listen to my spirit, man does she ever accomplish some amazing things for others, and boy does that ever feel good!
 
Much Love,
Lisa Richard
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, and Business/Life Coach.
 
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
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Last night I fell asleep with tears streaming down my cheeks, my heart heavy with sadness. This seemly occurred out of nowhere, and without warning, but within the light of a new day and reflecting back, I had dropped down my guard allowing myself to finally feel.

When we sleep, we release the need to maintain the masks we so carefully wear for others to see. In fact, we often get so good at this deception that we can stare at our own reflections smiling back in the mirror trying to convince ourselves that everything is OK.

Is it really? Are you truly happy with everything happening in and around you? Have you tuned inwards to check in with your heart and ask, “How are you doing? Is there anything you need?”

We get so busy helping others, listening to their stories, needs, desires, and wishes that we so often forget to check in with our own.

When  we turn inwards and nurture that beautiful essence of self, we just may realize that happiness is a choice, and tears a necessary part of healing and letting go. Allowing yourself to truly feel, to examine the emotions pouring out, provides an opportunity to check in with yourself and get clear on what it is you are truly feeling, examining the root of the issue.

Perhaps the energy you are holding onto isn’t even yours to carry? Maybe what you are feeling is empathy for others, their stories, their pain, and the unfairness that often occurs in life?

I know for myself that this was part of a truth. The sadness felt for those around me who recently experienced an unfairness and injustice within their life, but looking deeper down those roots I also discovered a truth I was hiding from myself and a story that has occurred way to often.

I had once again allowed another’s words and emotions to penetrate my heart. A gift of my time, my value system, and open heart, thrown back in my face with a vengeance and anger, not intentionally directed at me but at the unfairness and injustice within the world. I was the victim of another’s lashing out in pain, and I was holding on as if it was truly mine to bare.

When we learn to get clear with our feelings and see the truth at the root of it all, we can begin to heal.

Today is a new day, the tears have passed, the heart is once again full of love for myself and others, and I stand stronger in my desire to be of service, and even stronger yet in my newly establish boundaries of how I wish to be treated.

Today, I will not accept another’s bad behaviour, or fall victim to their circumstance, but rather I will hold space, let go, and allow a higher power to transmute the energy into love.

My heart is a sacred space, my ethics true to my cause. It radiates a happiness and love that I will no longer apologize for.

Today, I hope you examine your own needs, wants, and desires, spending the time to nurture that beautiful essence of you and getting to the root of it all. For you deserve a life of joy and happiness, and we all have been gifted the freewill to choose.
 
Lots of Love,
Lisa
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self actualization certification program.

Photo credit: Sarah Richter – Pixabay

As a child I was raised in the Catholic Church, attending service most Sundays. I would put on my Sunday best, make sure my hair was combed, take off any traces of nail polish, and attempt to look my absolute best. I hated it.

Now please don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against religion and have a deep belief system in God as I walk along my own spiritual path respecting all religions and belief systems. What I’m referring to in my opening statement is the feeling of judgement I would personally feel before having even left my home to attend Sunday service.

From the moment the Sunday best clothes had to be worn, the energy of worry, judgement, and fear would creep in. Why did it matter what I wore? Did God not love us all? Did Spirit really care about the wrinkles on my dress or my shoes that still had a trace of dirt on them from just playing like most children do? Was anyone really checking under my fingernails to make sure they were clean before I could enter through the doors of worship?

The pews felt hard to sit on, the image of Jesus nailed to the cross hanging at the front of the church breaking my young heart every time I dared to look in its direction. “Why did they do that?” I would ask, and time after time would hear back from so many, “He died for YOUR sins. You need to repent. You need to confess. You need to be ‘perfect’ or you will burn in hell.”

My young mind may have over exaggerated the messages received, but just like the manipulation at Christmas time, telling young children to behave or Santa would bring them coal, church for me brought the same fear, and it just felt wrong.

Was not God about love and forgiveness? Was church not about acceptance, community, and devotion? Then why were the teachings focused on messages of going to hell, repent your sins, don’t do this, don’t do that. Honestly, it felt like a place of fear and judgement, and the constant reminder that we placed Jesus on the cross in such a horrific display of pain and inhumanity was just too much!

I would find myself closing off my ears to the sermons and instead focusing on the beauty in the stained glass windows. Noticing the way the light would pick up the colors adding a magical sparkle and casting colors down upon surrounding parishioners. Oh how I wanted one of those lights to find me! The beauty of Angels offering protection, Mother Mary holding baby Jesus in her arms with eyes that radiated nothing but love. Ah love. The emotion that was always intended by God to be given freely to all without judgement, without restriction, without having to ‘earn’ it. Pure love.

Today, as I walk my Spiritual path that is what I hold deep within my heart. There is no judgement and no set religion for me, for what ever made my church so right and the others so wrong? There is only acceptance, tolerance, and grace. A respect for multiple belief systems, cultures, and a desire to learn and understand. I have come to see church as not the ultimate authority (the law) but rather as a place of education, where one can observe, listen, take in what ‘feels’ right, seek answers, and disregard information that just doesn’t sit right in the heart.

I now have a healthy curiosity and am hungry for knowledge. I wish to learn about all religions and belief systems. I want to understand another’s point of view and see through their eyes. I honor the diversity that is found in the human race, and choose to focus on the common theme within all – we are all just trying to do our best!

That is love! To work towards being the best version of you, in whatever form that may be. Regardless of race, religion, sexuality – it doesn’t matter, for love does not judge. Love simply accepts us all, wrapping us in its beautiful light.

The more I learn, the more I forget all I have been taught. I am becoming a blank canvas, one with unlimited potential to create and manifest dreams into reality. The slate has been wiped clean for after all God is the essence of unconditional love and forgiveness.

Today, I simply vow to be the best version of me, to open my heart, and let love lead the way.

Namaste,
Lisa Richard
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self actualization certification program.
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Photo credit: S. Hermann & F. Richter – Pixabay
 

Going through a spiritual awakening can be somewhat uncomfortable, and the more I find myself opening up, the more I see some similarities, yet differences with others along the same journey.

For me, I can get really cold, and I’m aware when I experience this sensation now, that a deep healing is taking place. I connect with the ancestors, my human design chart is full of depth – so this makes sense to me, and feels somewhat natural.

What becomes confusing, is that everyone has always told me to look up. Pray to God for help and guidance. Look Up.

I pray, yet I am asking to go down, which is against the mainstream current of all I have been taught by so many in the past. I was afraid at first, as I had been conditioned to believe that hell is down and heaven is up. To look down is bad, evil, sinful. Why would you want to look down?

Why? Because the Ancestors are buried within mother earth and I’m on a quest for knowledge.

I wish to learn, to observe, to play witness, and most of all offer my gratitude. We are a species rich in culture, history, and diversity, and there is so much to learn from the past.

To look down is not bad or evil, and it certainly is not “going to hell.” It is a sacred place of honour, where one can trace the foot steps of those who walked before.

It is easy to judge others for being “different” but before you do, I ask you to consider this simple verse “As above, so below.” There is as much beauty in the past, as there can be in the future, what’s important is living in the now. This exact moment in time where you draw in your breath, and have the ability to ask, “What can I do to help?”
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We are all part of a past-present-future. Change starts from within and often through seeking to understand, instead of trying to be right.

Personally, I will be a life long student. Curious, seeking, playing witness, and always offering gratitude.

I vow to be different, to just be me, and accept the beautiful journey as it unfolds. I will look down, and up, and consider all angles, for I seek a win-win solution and welcome diversity with open arms.

Namaste,
Lisa Richard
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self actualization certification program.
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Photo credit: Free-photos – Pixabay  

I have waited so very long,
For another to hear my heart song.
To see all the things that I have done,
To see the woman I have become.
To smile at me with eyes so bright,
To hold me close and hug me tight.
To acknowledge all the work that I have done,
Working through the days and into the setting sun.
Alas, the praise is just not there,
Inside only an emptiness, a feeling of despair.
What is it that I have done wrong?
Why is no one hearing my heart song?
“Oh my child” I hear loud and clear,
“Take a moment and come over here,
Look into the mirror and see what I see,
I’ll show you the secret and hand you the key.
Love and appreciation starts from within,
Have you taken the time to celebrate your wins?
Do you smile at the kindness that you’ve shown?
Does your heart fill with love at how much you’ve grown?
Acceptance starts from deep within,
Appreciation is whispered with the wind.
Love rains down from heaven above,
Peace is heard in the cooing of a dove.
It does not matter what others see,
For your great deeds are known by you and me.”
- Whispers from God

Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self actualization certification program.
Photo credit: Anastasia Gepp - Pixabay

Love does not need a fancy title. 
Love does not seek a name in lights.
Love flows gently from the heart centre.
Loves whispers softly in the night.
Love reminds you that there is no deed too small.
Love reminds you to always stand tall.
To always remember why you are here.
To never shy away out of fear.
To be the one that steps oh so light.
To be the one that tries with all their might.
To hold strong to faith and those dreams that you chase.
To never give up on the human race.
To love all as equals, for you see, 
We are all one. You and me.

- Lisa Richard 

Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self-actualization coaching certification program. 

I am 43 years old, married for close to 24 years to my soulmate, and have three beautiful daughters who are now grown women, yet it wasn’t until yesterday that I finally understood what it means to receive, to truly receive.

You may be able to relate to my story as I feel many of us often over look this very important act of giving and receiving. It feels so good to give! So wonderful to lend a hand, make another smile, feel the joy that comes in celebrating another’s success. Giving is truly an essential part of being human and co-existing with others.

But how often do you allow yourself to receive back in the same way? How many times do you brush off a “thank you” proclaiming, “It was nothing, I’m happy to help. Really, it’s no big deal.” How often do you receive a complement and push it away, making a joke out of it? How often do you receive praise for your work yet are still nit picking at all the little things you think are wrong with it, or again just brush the praise right off, “It’s no big deal, happy to help.”

Yesterday, for the first time in 43 years I finally understood what it means to receive, by making the energetic connection.

As an Emotion Code Practitioner and Energy Healer, I help others (and myself) all the time by guiding through the release of trapped emotions (energy) stored within the body. This removal is so important for our body to function properly and allow the natural energy flow required for our overall well-being, health and prosperity.

Removing blockages provides a beautiful opportunity to replace the energy within the body with positive Chi or Prana, those higher vibrations of love that assist the body in its healing ability and overall state of well-being. As a Healer this channel of energy flows from a higher power through us as a vessel and into the other, healing both at the same time, but one of the most common mistakes that Healers tend to make is to continue to give before remembering to connect and receive.

To truly receive, is to really fill one’s cup to overflowing and hold on to it, allowing the excess to pour out in service to others, not to take from your own cup. There is no limit to the amount of energy that is available to us all, therefore you do not need to deplete yourself by giving all your energy away to the point of exhaustion, sadness, or even anger.

So how did I learn to receive? I connected with its energy, felt it, and experienced it by first creating it for another. It is only in understanding the true measurement of a substance that we then learn its amount. I can fill up a measuring cup to see exactly how much the object can contain, the same basic principle applies with energy, although we must remember to not create limitations to the size of the vessel as we are limitless, but it’s a starting point to create an understanding of just how much one needs to take in to truly understand receiving, and then continue to grow from there.

My experience started by sharing with another my love and joy for my daughters. How proud I am of their accomplishments, proud of the women they are today, and proud of how much they are finding their voices, declaring their worth, and being their authentic self. I felt so much love and pride in my heart and could feel my heart overflowing with this energy as I spoke, then in a quick flash I heard loud and clear, “Others love you and are just as proud of you Lisa.”

That energy created as I spoke of my daughters, that is the energy that has been trying so hard to come back towards me, only I have created a filter of sorts allowing only a small percentage of that energy to be received back. It was blocked by my humbleness, making excuses, finding fault in myself, and numerous other barriers.
Yesterday, I allowed the energy to pour in, straight into the heart, and believe me when I say love is unconditional and available to us all.

All you need to do is sit in gratitude, allow that energy to pour forth and then allow it to circle back from the universe, this is the balance of giving and receiving.

I truly hope you spend time each and every day allowing yourself to truly receive, filling up your heart and continuing to share the love of helping another while holding onto your full cup.
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Namaste,
Lisa Richard
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self-actualization certification program.
Photo credit: Okan Caliskan – Pixaby

This morning I awoke at 5:55 am and looked at my phone only to land my eyes on an email from Hay House “Be the change you wish to see.”

For those that study numerology 555 represents a time of change, and we are certainly in the midst of one right now. As we start to adapt to a new normal within our lives one thing remains constant, and that is change.

We are constantly in a state of change as our emotions fluctuate, our energy levels go up and down, our bodies change. When we think of change we often look to the outside world, and forget to look at our human.

We have no control over what is happening out in the world, and as much as we wish for peace and equality for all that’s just not going to happen unless we start by going within, and I mean deep within to that place of acceptance.

Detaching from the mind and connecting to the heart, feeling the pulse of existence. Taking a deep breath and filling up the lungs with life sustaining air. There, right there, is the root of change.

Peace starts within each of us and is felt in the calm steady beat of the heart, and long deep breath. It is a conscious decision to detach from trying to control what is going on and instead going within and listening.

As a Kundalini student, I’m focusing on my Dharma, my energy, values, feeding my auric field from the inside out. I can not control what’s happening in the world or even within my close circle of friends and family, but I can release all need for control and work instead on myself, caring for the human and nurturing my soul.

Be the change you wish to see, and feed the light inside. Take care of your body, your health, your spirit. Take in good energy that stimulates joy, laughter, and love. Take in the energy of the world directly to the heart, surround it with love and let it flow back out again.

Hold fast to your desire to focus on the positive and see the beauty in the world. Do not be drawn in by another’s anger, despair, or sadness, for you can do nothing with an empty cup, but everything through filling up your spirit.
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Be the change you wish to see and led by example.

Lots of Love,
Lisa Richard
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self actualization certification program.
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Photo Credit: MBatty - Pixaby

I have decided that it is OK to be sad. Last night the tears started falling, this morning they have continued and my failed attempts at trying to put contacts into eyes half swollen, have me reaching for my glasses instead.

The difference for me this time is in the action steps for I had a choice, I could go back to bed, which I’ve already done twice, succumbing to tears and pulling the covers over my head to hide, or I can choose to get up and allow the words to flow into form, allowing a healing to take place through the simple admission of those few words, “It’s OK to be sad.”

The other day during my meditation I witnessed people coming together of every faith, race, nationality, gender, a true diversity of humanity in its purest form. I could hear loud and clear, “What is wrong with this picture?” My eyes searched and searched trying to find what didn’t belong, and after scanning through the vision of color I finally found what didn’t fit into this image. In this beautiful sea of diversity, some had lost their smile. You could see the pain in their eyes, the harshness of life evident on their face, their smile no longer there because there was no more strength left to pretend.

The awareness in that moment, was a beauty like no other for the simple fact that it was real and completely authentic. We become so focused on outside appearances and trying to fit in that we completely lose ourselves along the way, and just start walking the motions, one foot in front of the other, plastering on a smile for the world to see, while under that mask the heart is breaking.

What if you allowed your heart to break? For the flood gates to burst open, the tears to fall, and the feelings that you have held for so long allowed to break forward into the light. Will you then finally see the pain you have been carrying and honour yourself by recognizing that it is real, it hurts, and you are after all only human? To feel is a beautiful thing as it is the heart expressing itself in the purest of form.

Anger are words spoken most often from the depths of sadness, where language and the ability to communicate have become distorted in pain and flow lashing out at the world in an attempt to cover up and hide the truth. Tears are the heart overflowing and allowing the humanness of us to truly feel, to allow those emotions buried deep within the body to rise up and out, pouring forth once again to nourish the earth and allow the seeds of change to begin to take root.

It is OK to be sad and not smile today. It is OK to feel all that you feel and to allow it to come forth freely. It is OK for you to notice where there is injustice, suffering, discrimination, anger, and pain within the world. It is OK to feel that those things are not OK, just as it is OK to remember things that have also happened to you over the course of your life that were also not OK.

Allowing yourself to feel and release is where the healing can finally take place, and in that healing ask yourself, “Does anyone else feel like I feel? Does anyone else notice the lack of a smile in another’s face? Does anyone else recognize that what is happening out in the world is not OK?”

This is what I refer to as entering the eye of the storm. The place of acknowledging your pain and understanding that you are not alone, that there are in fact millions of others feeling and hurting at this very moment, and this is where we are presented with a choice to enter directly into the eye of the storm, that place of calm at the center of it all, a place deep within the very heart of you.

Entering into the eye of the storm is a return to peace, a place of accepting you for who you are, a perfectly imperfect human. A human full of struggles and pain, but also of beauty and grace, and just searching and longing for a place to put those burdens down, to close your eyes and rest. Peace comes through the acceptance of your tears and releasing them over to a higher power. Whether you believe in a god consciousness, creator, the universe, it truly doesn’t matter, what matters is that you have come to this place to lay the burdens down and make piece with being OK with not being OK.

I plan on spending the majority of my day within the eye of the storm, in this place of peace, sending love to all those broken pieces of me and drawing on the strength of Source to mend it back together with love. I honour myself today, by acknowledging that I need to refill my cup and release the energy that has been weighing me down.
When I am ready, I will emerge from this place and venture out once more to focus on all the beauty within the world, the diversity, the color, the celebrations of life. And when I find one with no smile, I will willingly share some of mine in the hopes that it is reflected back, for what I truly understand is that we are all in this together and love is what will pull us through.

Today, if you are able, be a smile for one that may need it, or if you feel like I do the need to cry, allow your tears to freely water the earth in a desire to release and let go, planting the seeds for a better tomorrow. But always remember that the eye of the storm is temporary, for the real world exists out there and your smile is needed to help another when you are once again strong enough to share.

We stand together in solidarity and strength, and love will pull us through.
 
Lots of Love,
Lisa Richard
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ self-actualization coaching certification program. 

Photo Credit: Stefan Keller - Pixaby

The rain is pouring down steadily here on the island, its sound soothing to the soul.
 
Water is a purification, a ritual one could say, naturally granted to provide Mother Earth with an essential element needed to stimulate new life, and foster existing.
 
We are nothing without water. It is essential to our survival, and as our bodies are made up of close to 80% water it is vital that the quality remain as pure as possible.
 
As an Emotion Code Practitioner, I have been trained to understand how much trapped emotional energy we truly hold within our bodies, and how damaging it is to our health and well-being to continue holding onto.
 
We experience another lashing out at us and we take that emotional energy in. Someone is upset – we take it in. We watch and witness, or experience, injustice, racism, physical or emotional abuse – and we take it in.
 
All of this energy of suppressed emotions changes the quality of our life sustaining water flowing through our bodies because we forgot to let it go in healthy ways, and instead continue to suppress and hold onto the stories and emotional baggage.
 
I remember very clearly being teased as a child. Being called names, being left out, hearing whispers and noticing eyes looking in my direction amongst snickers and giggles. As a child it is hard to understand, why is this happening, and that experience starts to change who you think you are. I became very quiet, and held everything inside. In a world where I felt that I didn’t fit in, it was so much easier to pretend to be shy.  
 
People accept that. “Oh, she’s just shy”, would become the words spoken by my parents, my teachers, and others in my close circle. What happened as a result is that I gave away my voice and my power. I lost my confidence, I lost my identity, I drifted so far off course that I forgot who I truly am. I became so consumed in holding silently onto my pain and protecting myself from the outside world that I built energetic walls so high, so thick, and so tall around me that very few people could get in to see who I truly was.
 
I wore the camouflage mask of putting a smile on my face and pretending that everything was ok. I worked hard at trying to be the image of the perfect child, perfect friend, perfect mother, perfect spouse, perfect employee. I became perfectly exhausted!
 
Like most things in life, when you are standing in the middle of chaos and pain, you cannot see the whole picture. You are blind in seeing other people within your stories or looking at things from other perspectives. Everything feels personal and it feels like you are drowning.
 
It’s when you reach the point of having enough, that you begin to step back and seek out change. This is where the healing begins and you start to take back your life.
 
It starts with the free flow of tears, the acknowledgement of pain, the hurt, and the injustice. The tears are needed to release what the body just can’t hold onto anymore. It is not a sign of weakness, for those tears bring hope and new perspective.
 
I have cried a lot along my healing journey, and when the tears slow and I acknowledge that I am ok and am no longer in that same place, or same story, then I begin to notice the beautiful lessons the experience taught me or in strengthening my conviction within myself of how others should not be treated.
 
Healing is walking me around the outside of the personal story and as I heal, the circle gets larger and larger. I have sat back in that childhood classroom and saw the groups of giggling girls. I remember how they were also on the receiving end at different times. I remember how names were called out to others in the class, how emotions were felt as children and young adults struggle with their own insecurities and carry their own personal experiences.
 
I learnt to see that it wasn’t all about me. It was a moment in time, an experience and they are responsible for their behaviour as I am for mine.
 
I am responsible in finding my voice, in speaking up for myself and establishing boundaries. I am no longer a “shy” voiceless child, I am a woman who has learned the power of compassion, understanding, the need for inclusiveness and equality, acceptance and love. I have learned to look beyond the masks of pain we all wear and look instead at the purity of the soul where we all desire to love and be loved.
 
As a woman I walk a healing journey because I do not wish for the generations after me to carry the pain. I come from a long line of women who have huge hearts, suffered tremendously, and remained silent through it all. No more!
 
I have stood up as a healer to declare my worth, to find my voice, to let go of the past, and to shape a beautiful future in which I let down those walls and invite in the right individuals by establishing healthy boundaries.
 
My journey ventures down a path of value and self worth, knowing full well that only I can walk this personal journey and lay my burdens down, and boy have I traveled far!
 
As a mother of three daughters, I am fueled by a desire to stop the cycle of being silent, and empower them to embrace their authentic selves, whatever that may be. I understand that actions speak so much louder than words, so inspiration starts by walking the talk.
 
I have been blessed on my journey to find a tribe of like minded women and an empowering guide to hold space as we walk towards self empowerment and self discovery. We walk hand and hand in a desire to more than exist, and we welcome all those that wish to declare, “I am done!” and walk towards their own healing.
 
When the time is right and your ready to walk your journey, the door is open and we welcome you in to a life of More Than Existing™.
 
 
Lots of Love,
Lisa Richard
 
Lisa is the owner of Loving Energy Recharge, a Level 3 Reiki Master, Emotion Code Practitioner, Human Design Guide, Business/Life Coach, and current Level 3 student within the More Than Existing™ transformational coaching certification program.

Photo credit: Mylene2401 - Pixaby