- Andrea Kennedy
How Emotions have Ruled your Life
Are all our problems rooted to our emotions? Here's the case for "Yes!"
Our earliest interactions with parents, family and others elicit emotions and then beliefs which create patterns that dictate how we cope and navigate life. In particular, these patterns also shape our perceptions of who we are including our sense of worthiness and how flawed we believe ourselves to be. As a result, what began as emotion leads each of us to create a unique sort of computer-like operating system based on these early experiences. How we relate to others and function in the world largely depends on the operating system and shapes our lives in unlimited ways. This is mostly unconscious because our operating system is camouflaged and intertwined with who we are at our core but we can't separate it out and most don't know where to start. It really feels like us!
When we are under stress, the default to the operating system is enforced and we can react with great speed. Think of an argument you had. In the heat of the moment, how did you do? After it was over and you were in the review phase of what occurred, did you ask yourself why you said certain things? I bet you were so wise and could think of many higher options you wish you said or did instead of saying what flew out of your mouth. Furthermore, it's probably quite true that you have reacted and said very similar things before. But if we know better when we are calm, why do we default back to the old stuff? Simply put, we haven't dismantled the patterns that make up our current operating system.
With increased awareness, we begin to wake up to the fact that the operating system is outdated and no longer supports us in who we want to be now. Our spirits and minds evolve but the system doesn't keep up. The discord between who we want to be now versus the person we are hearing inside our heads and witnessing through interactions with others becomes uncomfortable. As that gap widens, we often begin to feel anxious, disconnected, confused and perhaps lost. We very much want to reconcile the two ways of being but aren't sure what to do.
Reiki has been the bedrock and foundation of my own progress in dismantling my personal operating system and I see it work with clients, too. Somehow, without even knowing all the programming that makes up someone's patterns and the originating emotions behind them, Reiki has a way. Reiki helps us relax into new ways of perceiving ourselves and opens our systems up to new, more balanced ways to be. As we allow an easing to take place, possibilities are there which had previously been unrecognized. Nothing really changes except our own state of being. Did you catch that? It sounded pretty mundane and boring as I typed it. But let me repeat that... Through Reiki our state of being changes.
That's pretty big. You see, Reiki isn't about changing your family and life to fit what you think they need to be. After all, that is prescribed by your own operating system. Reiki is about you. It's about addressing that operating system that keeps you limited in your perceptions and experiences which also effects those you interact with. But don't worry. We all do it. It's who we've been. Reiki is inviting us to close the gap between who we choose to be in the present with who we have been as a result of our operating system. Through Reiki, we can make progress in living in accordance with our evolving self. As a result, we feel more at ease, more connected to life, more authentic and relaxed--and from this place, more joy rushes in.
Andrea Kennedy began practicing Reiki in 1995. She sees clients and teaches all levels of Reiki in Saline, Michigan. Visit www.MainstreamReiki.com for more information or to contact her.