Meditation has annoyed me

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I am trying. Seriously. I've determined to allow 30 minutes per day to meditate. I know it would benefit my intuitive development to do this. I also know that a person who does this sort of work should have a regular meditative practice. Otherwise, it's like getting personal training from someone who doesn't exercise.

Sure, I do self-Reiki daily. That's a given. It also truly helps me stay healthy and balanced. I can feel the difference and know that it's working.

But meditation, that's another story.

So I decided to take this seriously and really give it a try. At first, I was meditating just sitting quietly and closing my eyes. That was okay. I could stop whenever I wanted to, and usually found myself sitting there pretty peacefully for about 20 minutes.

Then I got this Holosync CD. It promises to help one meditate at a much deeper level, by listening to the sounds that have some kind of binaural waves that are supposed to engage some kind of deeper brain waves into the process. Cool, I thought. I can sort of fast-track my meditation practice. This is a good idea.

So I put it on, sitting with my earphones in as instructed. Waterfalls and bells are played. Hmm hmmm hmmm...what am I making for dinner?...oops....meditating now.......ding ding.....oops I forgot to call the kids' school to remind them that I'm picking up today....oops...meditating! Stop thinking!....ooh, I need to email this person and put that event on my calendar, and I should make that call, and ....ugh I'm doing it again....dang. How long until this is over?

This is about how it's gone now for a few days running. This is not enjoyable. Instead of peaceful, I left my meditation time frustrated and feeling like I'd wasted 30 minutes trying to listen to waterfall and bell sounds and getting some benefit from trying not to think.

I have to rethink this.

I know that there are benefits to meditation. Of course. Meditation is the number one way to increase one's intuition. I know this. I think, actually, for myself, that Reiki is better for me because I am able to do this much more when I'm working with Reiki.

But I should also try to have a regular meditative practice, and I'm not doing so well at it so far.

Just thought I'd share.

Kinda funny to rant about meditating.

I'm not giving up. I'll keep you posted.

I've Been Promoted

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This has been a very eventful summer!





I wrote a book about Reiki. Over 100 copies have been sold in the first month.

Now I've launched the next step in my practice - a school of intuitive development, The Reiki Awakening Academy. It felt right - to make more classes available to more people, in an organized way. The pieces lined up - my teachers, colleagues, and students showed up ready to help others learn. I know it will grow - I look forward to selecting more teachers and offering more classes to those who are looking for learning and support.

I've been told that this is a time of great change - an awakening, not only for me (Reiki Awakening!), but around the planet, people are becoming aware of their intuition and powers for healing. They are seeking answers, methods, and information about how to harness, nurture, and use these abilities to help others and themselves. A consciousness is rising - I think I feel it too.

This journey I've been on since I started this blog seems to reflect this change. I hope that my school can become a resource for those seeking guidance, learning, and support. I'm offering what I have learned, and as I learn more, I will offer more. I'm also bringing on board those who have passion to do the same.

And now I've inherited a new title. I'm the founder, the leader, the head teacher, the big cheese of this school. I tried on all of those (well not the cheese - that's a joke), to see if they felt right. I guess, in order to express in business terms my role in the process, that I have become an Executive Director. Funny how businesslike and a little stuffy it sounds. Funny how I picture an Executive Director sitting in a suit behind a big desk in a large office with a door. And funny how that image doesn't really fit me here in my t-shirt and jeans shorts, typing on my laptop in its docking station in my basement.

But it's what I am I guess!

I am organizing and posting all classes, setting up the virtual classroom for my teachers, training the teachers on how to conduct their classes, taking registration, keeping track of students, rosters, enrollment, payroll, answering emails, teaching a large number of classes and programs myself (it's my passion and my true calling!), and recruiting students. So I guess that title fits.

But I still feel like the person who started this blog, amazed at the tingles in my hands, dying to find others to share this amazement with.

Well, the universe has promoted me. Thank you, Universe! I am so glad to be here. I look forward to the next steps.

Come on over and have a look. Try a class. Choose a program that will help you become who you are too. We're here to help.

Practical Reiki is READY!

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Hello everyone! It's funny, but a year ago I was told that I'd write a book about Reiki and I laughed and said that was silly, that there wasn't anything to say about Reiki that wasn't already in a book. I stand corrected.

Recently, I was at The Cleveland Clinic, where I volunteer with the Healing Services Department giving Reiki to patients, family and staff. I was talking with the head of the department, telling her that I'd love to teach Kundalini Reiki to staff there. She told me that people feel that the word "Kundalini" is too mysterious and has negative or strange connotations. So I said I could change the name and take out the word "Kundalini" and the method would still work and have the same effectiveness.

I checked it out with Ole Gabrielsen, the founder of Kundalini Reiki, because I wanted to be sure it was okay with him that I'd make adaptations to the method he channeled. He told me that it would be just fine. Green light!

So instead of revising the Kundalini Reiki manual, I decided to put everything I say when I'm teaching into a book. There's a lot that I have been adding when teaching in person - information on clairs, chakras, intention -all important stuff!

My family went on vacation to Virgina Beach - a 10 hour drive each way - and so I took my laptop in the car and typed the first five chapters on the drive. It was a good start! Now the book has 10 chapters, includes FAQs, recommended books, and two Appendixes (a quick guide for teachers at the end, and articles on using a pendulum and Master Kuthumi). The cover is absolutely gorgeous, thanks to a talented graphic designer who was able to beautifully recreate my attempt to express a design!

So here it is!


Practical Reiki ^TM
for balance, well-being, and vibrant health. A guide to a simple, revolutionary energy healing method.
by Alice Langholt

If you’ve never heard of Reiki, this book will explain it in plain, clear language.

Reading the book will help you understand what Reiki is, how it works, how it helps, and how it can be learned. This book presents a down-to-earth, “woo-woo-free” approach that’s easy to understand whether you’ve had any experience with intuition or none at all. Anyone who wants to learn to connect with the innate, natural power for healing is capable of doing so.

If you already practice Reiki, this book will show you the true essence of working with energy, beneath the ritual, symbols, and mystery surrounding the practice.
It will widen your knowledge and strengthen your connection.

Practical Reiki ^TM is a new, revolutionary Reiki modality for everyone who wishes to quickly and easily learn to practice Reiki energy healing for themselves and others. It is simple, strong, and will change your life. The entire method through Master level can be learned in just three weeks.

Order Practical Reiki here.

If you'd like to save $3 off the list price (because you are such awesome blog readers!), you can enter the code: FBSBD4JN

For an autographed copy of Practical Reiki, use this link to order directly from me! Just let me know how to inscribe it!

Who knew, when I started this blog as a Reiki level 2 practitioner, that I'd be writing this post today?! Not me for sure!! Thank you all for being here for this journey with me, and for the path ahead!

Follow Up

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I want to thank again all who helped me with paying forward the Random Act of Kindness (see previous post) for my friend who needed help. She has emailed me a response to share with all of you. I'm so proud to have been part of a beautiful effort to make a difference.

To all who have graciously contributed!

During our time of need and with so many changes and hardships going on we thank you immensely for the gracious donations that you have made to help our family. These things have helped decrease some of the stress we've been dealing with and made life infinitely easier! While I myself have heard of such wonderful things being done for people I never thought to have it happen to myself and I am stunned and astounded to tears that so many people - none of which I know personally - were kind enough to be so generous! You have my eternal gratitude!

Love,
The Williams Family

Random Acts of Kindness and Paying it Forward

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We went on a family vacation! It's the first time we've had the chance to really get away for a full week all together in six years. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that the last couple of years have been hard for my family. But we put some money aside and were able to rent a beach house in the Virginia Beach area for a week of R&R and sunshine. It was really needed. It was wonderful.

One night on our trip we went out to a little crab shack for dinner. We ordered food for our crew of six and dug into a delicious repast. The kids were (happily) well behaved and even sang a little bit together, just having fun. The restaurant was a social atmosphere- not quiet or fancy. When we finished, we asked the server for our check. Evan, my husband, went to the bathroom. Before he came back, the server came back to our table and informed me and the kids that the gentleman at the table behind us had paid for our meal. Surprised, I turned around. He was sitting with his back to our table. He had not spoken to us or acknowledged us in any way during the meal.

I said to him, "Excuse me, but did you just pay for my family's dinner?" He replied, "Yes." Shocked, I said, "Wow. Thank you so much! That was incredibly nice of you!" He said, "Ok." My kids asked him, "Why did you pay for our dinner?" He shrugged and replied, "I don't know." So I just responded that we were on vacation and this was a super wonderful thing for him to do and thanked him again.

Evan came out of the bathroom and we left. I told him what had happened and he was surprised and taken aback also. It was a wonderful lesson for our kids (and us) about random acts of kindness.

I've been looking for an opportunity to pay it forward. An opportunity has recently presented itself and I'm requesting the help of anyone who would like to participate with me. I know that I can be exponentially more powerful if I have support. Here's what I'm asking:

I have a good friend who I know from Twitter and Facebook. She just (6/10/11) had her first baby. (A little boy). She and her partner have been struggling very hard financially and she has decided she needs to go back to work as soon as she can - planning on two weeks or less - despite the healing she really needs to do instead, and the time she needs with her newborn son.


I see my friend now, who is really in need of making ends meet until she is well enough to start work again. They can barely make rent and food, let alone utilities. And I know she might be embarrassed if I put her name here, or if money started flowing to her from a lot of different people.

So I'm looking for a way to "pay it forward."

Here's my idea.

I've created a special paypal button.

If you feel like doing a similar random act of kindness for someone you don't know, click and put in whatever amount, however small, even $1, that you want.

In three days, (on 6/17), I'll send the full amount to my friend, include my own contribution, and tell her that it is a gift from her friends on Twitter.

I'll let you be anonymous like the guy in the restaurant. And we'll all feel great knowing that this generous act of his was paid forward.

Also, I'll send each person who donates an amount $10 or more a gift certificate for a full Distance Healing session, to use or pay forward to someone else. Just my way of expressing thanks to you for your support in this.

Thanks so much. Blessings and love, Alice

Donation to help a mom in need. Any amount is welcome.

Thank you for helping me pay a gift forward.

Water Energy

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I've been thinking deeply lately (oops no pun intended) about water.

I've posted before about water and the work of Masaro Emotu, which very much impresses me. Click here to see my post on intention and water.

I'm also embedding here one of a large number of very well done videos illustrating the Rice Experiment, this one done with Reiki energy, showing the difference that Reiki can make on water, visually presented through cooked rice.

Okay. Now here's what I've been thinking lately, and I'd love to hear your thoughts as well.

I've been teaching Reiki, as you all know by now. :)

When I'm teaching, I offer many analogies to help people understand things about energy. One of the analogies I've been using lately to describe life force energy is water.

Water is:

• a high percentage of our bodies
• in the earth
• in the sky
• in the air around us (humidity)
• in our breath
• interactive, reactive to heat, cold, and intention
• a finite, replenishing quantity, here on the planet for millenia
• vital for all life

The truth is, the more I compared life force energy with water, the more they seemed...intimately related. Every analogy I could think of for water also applies to life force energy (except for the physicality of water, I suppose, verses the etheric quality of energy).

But everything else applies, and that's really got me thinking right now.

I think that there is a link here. Energy and water. Reiki energy affects water. It creates a molecular change, purifies, realigns the essence. I can also, and I know that anyone who has Reiki can, cause a small cloud to "melt away" by intending Reiki towards that particular cloud. The other clouds around the chosen cloud stay the same. I've done it dozens of times. (A note here that I have friends who say this is not a nice thing to do because it may affect the weather patterns in some other place in the world. I have also been told one should ask permission of the cloud spirit before doing such a thing. I offer these notes for your opinion also. For me, they sit in my "I don't know" file.)

I also have a teacher who says that water is a conscious Being - a living energy. Whatever form its in, it is ONE with itself, running through all life, part of the planet, changing, moving, and replenishing itself. There is, I believe, great wisdom in this idea.

So I'm offering this idea out there to all of you lovely readers.

Life Force Energy - All That Is - the energy that gives us consciousness; makes up our emotions; is integrated with our physical bodies; is between us all, allowing us to offer Reiki to any person, living thing or idea, anywhere in the world; which responds to intention by affecting healing...could this be integrated with the living energy of water?

Is the living energy of water the same energy of Life Force Energy? Perhaps this is the way to relate to it.

This idea is still one in development for me, but I would very much like your opinion on the subject as it marinates further in my thoughts.

Soak it in! :D

Peace.

Growth

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Lately, I've had the feeling that I need to learn more.

My main goal is to be the best resource I can for my students. I want to know things, yes, but most important, I want to be able to teach from experience. This is my highest goal, because it's not about giving instruction, it's about being able to teach authentically. I have learned that anything that I can do, I can teach to others. That's because I know that any abilities I may have are those I learned - I am not one of those "naturally psychic" or "highly intuitive" people from childhood. I didn't "suddenly discover psychic abilities" like many, either. I'm coming from the place of a muggle (to use a well-known literary reference) - someone who didn't know anything before, and learned everything I know deliberately and on purpose. The advantage that this gives me as a teacher is that I have been very aware of how I learned the things I can do, and so I can guide others to the same outcome via my path. As part of my teaching skills, (some of which are my natural "talents" if you will), I am able to see ways to help people get from here to there. Have a goal? I can put together steps for you to reach it, and explain them clearly to you.

But back to the topic.

I've been feeling that I need to know more to be a better resource - not just know-intellectually, but know-experientially. A funny thing happens when I feel guided. Guidance doesn't come to the surface of my conscious mind on a straight path. It tends to manifest itself through my actions until I become aware of what I'm doing and think it over.

So I realized that I've been buying books lately. In the past month, whenever I'm at a book store, I'm walking out with three or four. At one of the expos I went to, I saw a book I wanted, and I took a picture of it on my phone, and later ordered it through Alibris.com (a discount online book store), along with another book. My bookshelf has gained about 10 new friends, all about psychic experiences, intuition, grounding, Higher Beings, Angels, and energy healing. "Oh," I thought, "I need to learn more."

But it's not just book learning I need. I need to get a handle on what I'm capable of, so I can be a better teacher and stronger lightworker altogether. I need a teacher.

So I started thinking about what I need from a teacher. Do I need to take a class? Do I need to go to a workshop? Do I need tutoring? I came to the conclusion that I need a teacher who will take me one-on-one, for a weekend or a long day, sit me down, present me with a task, and say "do this" with a little instruction. I learn by doing. I try things, they work, I realize I can do them. I need someone who will show me what I can do by simply expecting me to do it. And there are so many things I think I could do if I only knew a little bit more about how, and had someone to take me through it.

I've thought that I can interpret angel cards well. But every time I think of buying a deck of angel cards or the like, I feel overwhelmed and unsure. I've had the feeling that I could sense the energy of objects, but I've never done that before and don't know exactly how. I've thought that I'd like to hear guidance and angels and earthbound spirits more clearly, but I need a little push in order to fine tune my connection. And probably more stuff that I'm not even aware that I can do, that I'd like to know how to try.

So I figured out what I need. Then I asked the Universe to show me who should teach me, and indicated that I'd be willing to travel if that were needed. Then I dropped it and waited. I've learned not to "oatmeal the Universe." That's a little phrase I coined based on what one of my kids sometimes does to me. "Mom, can you make me some oatmeal?" "Okay, honey." I get started making oatmeal. She interrupts, "Mom! Are you making me some oatmeal?" "Yes, dear, I'm getting it." I continue to prepare the oatmeal. "Mom? Can I have raisins?" "Yes, honey, I know you like raisins." "Mom? Is it ready yet?" "No, not yet." "Mom? Can I have cinnamon?" "Yes, dear, I'm getting the cinnamon..." By now, I wish she would just quiet down and let me do what she asked me to do without interrupting me a dozen times while I'm getting it for her. If she'd look, she'd see that I'm setting up her place settings, getting the ingredients into the bowl, stirring and preparing what she asked for. She doesn't have to keep asking me. It's being done.

This translates to me continuing to ask the Universe over and over again for what I want, what I need, please please please, blahblahblah while the Universe is, the entire time, putting things into place for my highest good, and if I would just shut up and look around, I might notice that things seem to be getting there. The little details that indicate that something is happening would be more obvious if I would just quiet down, observe, and be patient. Don't oatmeal the Universe. It's a nice little reminder for me. Go ahead and adopt it if you feel it would work for you too.

And so...
Last night, my mentor, friend, and teacher, Connie, emailed me. In the middle of our email conversation, she suddenly wrote, "I hope you don’t mind me saying, you are at the point where you need some further instruction in order to prosper both inside & outside family & the business" and she invited me to her house in Columbus for a day and overnight so she could help me move forward. We chose a date. I feel answered.

I love it when that happens.

Oh, and regarding the books I bought, two things:
1. A friend reminded me recently that having all those books and no time to read them isn't a waste. Just picking up a book and turning to a page and reading where my eye falls can be the right advice at the right time.

2. I'm going to soon add a section to my website called "Alice Recommends" where I'll list and link to products, services, and programs that I fully endorse for their value, all of which will have been useful to me at some point in my own growth. A number of these books, as well as some of the most amazing teachers I've met and learned from, will be featured on this list for you to choose from also if you're drawn to them.

So again, I am thankful for the opportunity to recognize my guidance, follow it, and excited to find out what will happen next. May this work for you too. I'm glad for the chance to share my experiences with you all, in hopes that they can be of help to you.

Thanks for reading and being along for the journey.