5 Ways to Stress Less

Stress by definition is ‘A state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances.’ Oxford Dictionary.

Stress is a part of everyday life for most of us in the world we live in right now, with 75% of the general population experiencing at least ‘some stress’ every two weeks according to the National Health Interview Survey.

So what triggers stress? Well it is different for each individual, something that completely stresses out one person may not even effect another. The key is working out your triggers. If you know what stresses you out then you have a starting point to stress less. Interestingly, although triggers are very personal, ways of calming stress should work on some level for everyone. So why not give some or all of these a try and see what works for you?

1. GET UP EARLIER

Now just go with me on this one, it has taken me over 37 years to get it. I love sleeping in and going to bed late and have had this routine for as long as I remember. 3 alarms all on snooze was my thing. 7.30 or 8am was my get up time, giving me less than an hour to get ready. This meant I got some extra broken sleep but was then rushed to be ready in time. This also meant the kids were flustered getting themselves ready for school. We all looked like we’d been dragged through a hedge, not a good look. Pretty sure we got a few sideways glances from the parents who always look like they’ve stepped out of a salon too, how is that even possible by the way?!

Anyway, I have implemented  ‘one simple change’ (it’s a Juice Plus thing) and have started getting up at 6am every morning – 5am was far too overwhelming for me – and the changes have been amazing. Simply amazing! In the extra hour and a half in the mornings I make time for myself and my self development, write blogs, read anything positive and empowering, listen to pod casts or watch videos by people who inspire me. Then after this I am fresh and awake and ready to get my girls ready for the day in a relaxed manner and we actually leave the house looking presentable now instead of looking like the hedge family. I also find that I am now sleeping much better at night in this routine and have more energy throughout the day. This in turn means my stress levels are automatically lower but when they do arise I am better equipped at dealing with them than when I was constantly rushed and tired.

I know it sounds crazy (to those who are like I was before embarking on this change) but trust me when I say getting up earlier has a profound effect so please give it a go. From one ‘I’m not a morning person’ to another, the change is phenomenal.

2. BREATHE

Yeah yeah I know, you already do breathe otherwise you wouldn’t be alive. But I mean really breathe, breathing with purpose not just to move air in and out of the lungs but to fill the lungs to the brim with air.

Breathing changes as a response to your emotions, when you are stressed your breath can become shallow, when you are scared you can breathe too fast. Both of these mean you are not getting enough oxygen into your system, but you can use your mind to change the way you breathe.Choose to breathe for health and vitality not just survival. Breathe deep into the pit of your stomach and all the way up into your shoulders, so you can get no more air in and then slowly release.

Schedule five times in your day, starting before you get out of bed in the morning, to sit and do five full deep breaths. Breathe in positivity and breathe out any negativity or stress you are feeling. Swap good for bad. Within a few days you should start to feel calmer from being consistent with your breath work.

3. GET OUTSIDE

No matter what time of the day, it doesn’t matter, get your butt outside. The fresh air and natural elements will automatically start to ground you and reduce stress. Get back to nature, sit in the park in your lunch break, go for a walk along the beach, go exploring in the bush or even just sit quietly in your garden.

Take time to clear your mind of worry whilst outside, concentrate on the nature around you, listen to the birds, waves or crickets, count the butterflies, study the flowers or trees. Focus your mind on what is around you not on what is worrying you. Then, for at least half an hour, your body will relax which in turn will calm your mind.

4. MEDITATE

Meditation is a practice where an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realise some benefit or for the mind to simply acknowledge its content without becoming identified with that contact or as an end in itself. Wikipedia.

DO NOT be scared of meditation. As you can see from the definition you do not need to empty your mind completely. You just need to take time to sit in the quiet so you can then quiet your mind, acknowledge your thoughts, but do not hold onto them. You can literally meditate anywhere, your house the garden, in the car, a park, the beach, anywhere.

Something you can do is find guided meditations that resonate with you, The Honest Guys on YouTube are a good place to start, and do as much as you can. Even five minutes a day is good. You can also use your meditation time to set your intentions for that day. Stating one intention to be a day free from stress or the impact it has on you. Once you start with meditation in your routine you will find you can do it for longer and longer at a time.

5. LIST YOUR BLESSINGS

Sit down every day and list your blessings or what you are grateful for. Doing this will automatically lower your stress levels because you are listing and focusing on things that make you feel good. Showing gratitude has a profound effect on your life. The more you are grateful, the more the universe gives you to be grateful for.

I recommend reading The Magic by Rhonda Byrne (the same author who wrote The Secret) to really understand the immense power of gratitude. Anyway, you can make this list in any way you choose. Speak them out loud before you get out of bed in the morning or write them in a journal before you go to bed at night, it doesn’t matter as long as you take the time to do it. I suggest listing 10 blessings per day. By doing this you are focusing on the good in your life, your stress levels will therefore begin to lower and be replaced with feelings of gratitude and joy.

So there you have it, my 5 tips for helping you to stress less. I am not a Doctor, Psychologist or Stress Expert (if there is such a thing), just a person who has had experience with stress who is keen to share her coping methods with others. I hope you find some benefit from trying one or all of my tips and if you have any tips of your own, please share. How do you stress less?

Thank you for reading and have a great day.

 

 

P.S If you are really struggling with your stress and cannot seem to get a handle on it then please talk to a professional.

What is Spiritual Healing?

As a psychic I am often asked the question ‘What is Spiritual Healing?’ and ‘How does it work?’. So I thought I would write this blog in answer to that question.

The Wikipedia definition comes under Energy Medicine. Energy medicine, energy therapy, energy healing, or spiritual healing are branches of alternative medicine. The most controversial claim in this general area of pseudoscience is the belief healers can channel healing energy into a patient and effect positive results. This idea itself contains several methods: hands-on,^[1] hands-off,^[1] and distant^[1][2] (or absent) where the patient and healer are in different locations.

I think the term ‘controversial’ is used due to the fact it is not understood.

Even though I conduct healing every week I still struggle to explain what it is that I actually do and what is meant by spiritual healing. This type of healing is so personal to the healer that I can only recount what it is I do. This is not to mean other methods are wrong, it is just the way I am led to heal.

I am fully aware that it is not in fact me that does the healing, rather the team of spirits I have around me, channelling through me. These spirits show me into the body to the parts where the healing is needed and I often feel on myself where a person is feeling pain or discomfort.

I always start healing by looking at the persons aura (the energy field around the person, the ethereal body which houses the chakras). I feel where the aura is sitting and if it is not central I move it to where it should be. By doing this the person is starting the session with balance. Whilst working on the aura I am automatically told where healing is needed, whether physically or emotionally.

So once I am led to the area where the healing is needed I start the process. I stand about a foot away from the person and place my hands over the area, my method is hands off so I do no in fact touch the person with my hands, although many feel my touch, I keep my hands about ten centimetres away. This is when I channel spirit to come in and take over with the healing. The only way I can describe it is that my team of spirits channel through me, it’s as if their hands are coming through mine and into the person who needs help. This is why some people think I am touching them, it is in fact spirit they can feel. At this point spirit often shows me into the person to what is going on. For example I can see the point where the tumour is in the brain of a man I work with, this was confirmed by his scans.

I usually do short sessions of around 20 to 30 minutes, sometimes longer, depending on the person and the reason for the healing. I also ask the spirits to continue working after I have finished. Whilst healing I am given messages to give to the person or their parents on what is happening, why and what else needs to be done to assist. Sometimes I am also told why this is happening, is it a past life problem that has been brought back for example.

The really important thing to understand is that, although it is always my intention to heal the person and make them completely well again, I cannot actually ask for this directly. I must ask for what is best for the person, whatever that may be, and only spirit really knows the answer to that.

I do not claim to perform miracles, I simply claim to be able to help the person in some way. To have spiritual healing you need to be open to the concept and ready to receive it with your arms open. Healing is conducted with love and you will receive an abundance of love and healing energy should you choose to accept it.

People often ask  why healers charge money, the reason is that they are giving their time, energy and healing to the person in need. An exchange of energy is needed and most reasonable request for this is payment. You cannot go and see a Naturopath or Physio for free and this is the same concept. You may find however, that sometimes healers offer free remote/distance healing for those who cannot get to sessions or who are struggling financially.

Spiritual healing is a fantastic way of getting a different pair of eyes onto an issue, looking at it from a different angle. I do not claim to take the place of Doctors and conventional medicine but can offer an additional service to help people in their time of need.

Have you experienced the benefit of spiritual healing?

Organic Dynamic!

So this subject is huge at the moment and is something very close to my heart. Let’s start with a couple of definitions:

Organic Food: Organic foods are foods produced by organic farming. While the standards differ worldwide, organic farming in general features cultural, biological, and mechanical practices that foster cycling of resources, promote ecological balance, and conserve biodiversity. Synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers are not allowed, although certain organically approved pesticides may be used under limited conditions. In general, organic foods are also not processed using irradiation, industrial solvents, or synthetic food additives. Wikipedia.

Pesticides: Pesticides are substances meant for attracting, seducing, and then destroying, or mitigating any pest. They are a class of biocide. The most common use of pesticides is as plant protection products (also known as crop protection products), which in general protect plants from damaging influences such as weeds, plant diseases or insects. This use of pesticides is so common that the term pesticide is often treated as synonymous with plant protection product, although it is in fact a broader term, as pesticides are also used for non-agricultural purposes. The term pesticide includes all of the following: herbicide, insecticide, insect growth regulator, nematicide, termiticide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, predacide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, antimicrobial, fungicide, disinfectant (antimicrobial), and sanitizer. In general, a pesticide is a chemical or biological agent (such as a virus, bacterium, antimicrobial, or disinfectant) that deters, incapacitates, kills, or otherwise discourages pests. Target pests can include insects, plant pathogens, weeds, molluscs, birds, mammals, fish, nematodes (roundworms), and microbes that destroy property, cause nuisance, or spread disease, or are disease vectors. Although pesticides have benefits, some also have drawbacks, such as potential toxicity to humans and other species. According to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants, 9 of the 12 most dangerous and persistent organic chemicals are organochlorine pesticides. Wikipedia.

So it seems organic food, or as I like to call it, food, is simply food that is free of poison, chemicals and synthetics. Before I started to look at what I was ingesting in my food, I had no idea of the process food went through to get into my fridge and then my body. I was naïve to the fact that the food I was eating was FULL, literally full of harmful chemical components that were potentially harming myself and my family. I started looking at food additives around the same time I started taking Juice Plus (a whole food supplement) and gradually eliminated these from my diet, however I still didn’t stop to think that essentially additives were also in the fresh fruit and vegetables that I was eating. What was the point in cancelling out foods that contained additives if I was still eating fruit and veg that were grown using harmful pesticides? Pesticides that seep into the body of the fruit and veg and simply cannot be washed away using vinegar water. Think about it, the chemicals are in the soil and sprayed onto the fruit and veg while it is growing, there is no way of washing that shit off.

Anyway I spent a few years putting this to back of my mind, trying not to think about all the chemicals I was consuming with my fruit and veg. Food that is supposed to be good for us, food that was created specifically to aid the human body, food that the body recognises and uses accordingly to where it is needed. I ignored the fact that by consuming these foods whilst covered in chemicals I was potentially making it harder for my body to recognise as the food they really are. After all I don’t eat processed food, so it’s fine to eat fresh food covered in chemicals right?

Right?

Not right!

Anyway it wasn’t until I saw a video on Facebook about a family who had their urine tested before and after going organic for just two weeks. A huge amount of pesticides and chemicals were found in the urine before going organic. After just two weeks on organic food these numbers went down to nearly zero! You can watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB6fUqmyKC8

So after watching this, I have now been inspired to go organic and I hope to inspire others to do the same. I understand that my food bill is going to increase, which is very sad. Good chemical free food should be available to everyone but just people who can afford it. But it doesn’t have to increase to ridiculous levels, I am going to shop sensibly, eat what is in season, grow what I can in my suburban front garden and not worry about buying food when it is on offer as long as it is organic. I honestly now believe that we cannot afford not to eat organic food. We need to become aware of what we are eating and what it might be doing to us. My salad and herb patch is going great guns, I just changed a flower bed in the front garden to a veggie patch.

This patch contains kale, rocket, lettuce, parsley, mint and coriander. I harvest the food as I need it and it continues to grow. I also take and am a distributor of Juice Plus which is a whole food supplement to increase the amount of fruit and veg I am ingesting on a daily basis.

You can find more information on this great product here: http://luciedixon.juiceplus.com

Have you changed to an organic diet? If so what changes have you noticed happing to your body since doing so? If you would like to start a health journey with me, feel free to message me.

That Gut Feeling

Do you think you are intuitive? Do you get the gut feeling you hear about? And more importantly, do you listen to it?

Intuition is the first sign you get when something is wrong or right. You may get it as a feeling in your gut, hence the saying ‘gut feeling”.

Everyone is born intuitive, however a vast number of people choose to hide it as they don’t truly believe. As long as you are not living too much in your own head and don’t ask too many questions you can use your intuition in all scenarios.

The Google dictionary meaning of intuition is ‘the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning’. This means if your conscious mind takes over, the intuition is redundant.

People often think intuition or gut feelings only occur with the negative, but when you really learn to listen to your inner voice it can also be used for the positive. You can actually use your intuition to guide you through all areas of your life.

If you think about something you want to do and the gut feels heavy and scared then your inner voice is telling you it’s not a great idea. However if the gut feels happy, excited and fluttery then your inner voice is telling you the idea is a good one. As you make decisions throughout your life use your gut to help guide you along.

With regards to your gut telling you when something is not right, there is no need for politeness, you must listen and go with it, no need for apologies or explanations. Oprah Winfrey dedicated a whole episode of show to the importance of trusting your gut, going with it and what can happen if you don’t.

Oprah says “Learning to trust your instincts, using your intuitive sense of what’s best for you, is paramount for any lasting success. I’ve trusted the still, small voice of intuition my entire life. And the only time I’ve made mistakes is when I didn’t listen. It’s really more a feeling than a voice – a whispery sensation that pulsates just beneath the surface of your being. All animals have it. We’re the only creatures that deny and ignore it.”

This coming from one of the most successful women on the planet, is surely worth taking note of.

You were given this radar for free to use to help create success, get you out of trouble or warn you of both good and bad situations. Why would you choose not to use it? This could just be the most important and beneficial tool you have and I urge you to use it. Like anything in the life, the more you use it the better it will be. You don’t just need to use your inner voice for big decisions or situations, it can also be used for smaller things, such as  where to cross the road or whether to answer the unknown number calling you.

Have you used your intuition today? If not, have you asked yourself why?

Alcoholics, how can we help?

In my job as a psychic I come across a huge amount of people who suffer with alcoholism. Some are in a worse state than others but essentially they are all sick and slowly committing suicide. The problem being that the alcohol is always there, it doesn’t answer back or judge, it is readily available and it becomes a friend. Unfortunately it is the most dangerous substance to withdraw from, due to the seizures that can occur when someone goes through the ‘DT’s’ (delirium tremens).

Apparently around 3,000 people a year die as a result of alcohol in Perth, however even when they get to the point of it being a mental heath issue, if they have dt’s and are delusional and having hallucinations, you cannot get them sectioned under the mental health act because the cause of the mental health issue is alcohol. There are no facilities that can take someone like this, even if they are about to die if they don’t check themselves in. You can get someone sectioned if you think they are a danger to themselves, as long as the initial cause of that is not drug or alcohol related. This really doesn’t sit right with me and I am sure is infuruating to the families of people in this very situation. Their hands are tied and there is nothing they can do to help. I understand that alcoholics agree to drink and not get help but there must be a deeper level of mental health issue going on to have caused the alcoholism in the first place.

There are issues at hand with this subject, one being the fact that nobody wants to talk about it openly, it is taboo. Also alcohol is so socially acceptable and a huge number of people partake in drinking on a regular basis, they do not want to think that it can actually cause so much damage. Another problem is that mental health facilities are so over stretched and underfunded that people who choose to drink are at the bottom of the pile when it comes to getting help, people who so desperately need the help in order to survive. People who have frontal lobe damage, liver damage, who’s organs are failing one by one, people who hallucinate, who think people are out to get them rather than help them.

If my child was going through this I would be beside myself and feel so helpless, not to mention the frustration and lack of faith in our world and Government knowing that the help is there but is simple not accessible. I just cannot understand why the law is the way it is with this and why there is no cover under the mental health act for this type of thing? The only way to get someone help admitted involuntarily and so they cannot leave is to get them admitted in the midst of an episode, which is near on impossible. By the next day the person is compos mentis again and showing less signs of mental illness.

I am keen to get a better understanding so I can help my clients get the help they so desperately need but have no idea where to start. I am also convinced that there needs to be a change in the law, we need to have the ability to section people who are going to die otherwise, people who at times want the help but then feel that they don’t need it, part of the way this disease works and what makes it so dangerous.

If anyone out there can help me in this quest I really would appreciate it.

If you are struggling with your alcohol consumption or you know someone who is please talk to someone, if you don’t know who to talk to you can start with me and message me directly.

Hello and nice to meet you!

Hello,

Thanks for coming over to my blog to have a nose, I really appreciate it. This first post is not really blog but more of an introduction to me and my site. My name is Lucie and I am a psychic, as well as Mum to three girls, a wife and friend.

I am going to use this site to post blogs about all things spiritual, as well some posts about life in general in a mad house full of kids and pets.

You can find testimonials and crystals and jewellery that are available to purchase.

I look forward to posting my first blog soon.

L x