Living with Less - Decluttering

Decluttering ..

I calculated - last month was my 17th move in my life that barley crossed 40!
Somehow, this time the move was tougher, and my husband and I were puzzled.
This is a slightly bigger place, 2 bedroom apartment, with 2 toilets vs my previous place that was 1 bedroom, 1 toilet. So why is it i couldn't find a "home" for everything?

We figured .. this place doesn't have a store room, and that's where we hid the things we didn't want to face, and the things we didn't assign a "home" for.

Now, we have to face it, there is no store room to sweep things under the carpet - so to speak.

Keeping a neat and clean place is so crucial to help the house flow with the right energy. It brings light and brightens the place, raises our energy vibrations.

On my facebook i chanced upon this blogger who writes about living minimally. I think it is something we can subscribe to. As I continue to face my ghosts from the previous house store room, I had to give away things that I thougt once precious - the Osim massage chair, the spiffy new blender that I would be using for the next party, and today, I plan to give up my wedding dresses that I wore 13years ago.

Could I live without them - yes. It wasn't that painful parting with them knowing that living in a uncluttered environment is better for my husband and myself.

But I am still struggling to give away my books, those books that I haven't read, or books I planned to read again. But when the push comes to shove, the moment will come where I really keep the precious few printed paper.

With end of year not too far away, if you feel so inspired to declutter and let go.. here's a blog you can get a few tips from: http://www.becomingminimalist.com/unclutter-books/

Ginger

Power of Ginger

Recently I been advised to take lots of ginger and drink lots of ginger tea. This advise been given to me by my masseuse who felt my body to be very "yin" and has heavy water retention problem, my friends who knew I am trying to have a baby, friends who knew about my painful monthly cramps, etc. In short, ginger seem to be the be all and end all of my problems.

As a Chinese, Ginger or Ginger Root are often recommended to help stimulate organs, bring heat and Chi “气” back to the body, improve blood circulation which will help with our body's natural rejuvenation. When our body shows signs of sore throat, cold hands and feet, joint pains - it is often a manifestation of lack of Chi or blood circulation.

So what exactly is Ginger? 

"Ginger or ginger root is the rhizome of the plant Zingiber officinale, consumed as adelicacy, medicine, or spice. It lends its name to its genus and family (Zingiberaceae). Other notable members of this plant family are turmeric, cardamom, and galangal." - Wikipedia

Old Ginger

In my quest to start drinking ginger regularly, I been advised to go for "Old Ginger". You can tell an old ginger by how fibrous it feels and looks when you cut through it. I find that with old ginger, you can keep it outside the fridge and it will not shrivel up. My mum use to have it handy near the kitchen sink, where she prepares her dishes, cut a few slices from the stem, and put it back near the sink, without keeping it in the fridge.  I've been advised that the old ginger is spicier and works better to rid the body of "wet" 湿, "cold" 寒 and warms up the body. You can tell that your body is in such a state especially through your stools. When your stools are sticky and slimy, it is a sign that there is too much "wet" in your body.Naturally, when there is "Old" ginger, there is also "Young" ginger! The taste is similar to old ginger, but less spicy (Which I find to be more of a myth)

However, in Singapore supermarkets, I also came across "Blue" ginger and "Yellow" ginger (also known as turmeric).  These ginger to have their own unique taste and smell. They are often used in South East Asia cooking.  

Young Ginger

So how can we benefit from Ginger?

There are many ways we can benefit from ginger - the most common way is to include it in our cooking. Very often in dishes and soup, you can put some sliced ginger to enhance taste of the dish or soup.

Here are some therapeutic uses:

• Boiling ginger and making it into a tea - For this method of use, it is best to pound the ginger so it allows the essence of ginger to seep through. Cutting or slicing will not achieve as potent an effect
• Seeping it in hot water - this is just like drinking tea
• Taking ginger powder - in pills or stirring it in water
• Ginger Tinctures - taken straight or with water
• Ginger Essential Oil - use on body for massage or ease muscle ache!
• Ginger Compress - heat it up by steaming, and apply on body aches

What are the top 10 Benefits of Ginger?

1. Improve your appetite -  Eat fresh ginger just before meal, will stimulate the digestive juices
2. Improve absorption of nutrients - Ginger improves the absorption and assimilation of essential nutrients
3. Clears Sinuses - Ginger clears the ‘microcirculatory channels’ of the body
4. Stop nauseous and morning sickness
5. Bloatedness - when you letting wind excessively
6. Tummy cramps or Woman suffering monthly cramps 
7. Arthritis and muscle aches - Ginger has anti-inflammatory properties—can bring relief. Float some ginger essential oil into your bath to help aching muscles and joints.
8. Improve blood circulation- When one often has cold hands and feet, or recovering from giving birth or surgery, drinking ginger tea will help improve blood circulation and warm up the body to support natural healing
9. Hair Loss treatment
10. Finally .. Ginger as an Aphrodisiac!

Paintings of Spirit Guides and Energy Bodies/ Soul Paintings

A Painting of our Energy Body

Ever since I've learnt more about our spiritual self, I was intrigued when I came across Toby Ouvry's booth in a spiritual event held in Singapore a few years ago. He has the ability to see one's energy as a picture, and being an artist, he able to put it on a canvas. Being a spiritual teacher, he was also able to give a short description of what the energy imprints mean. 

Combo energy painting of myself and 

my husband

The first time I commissioned a painting from Toby was a combination painting of my energy and my husband's. It was quite an interesting picture! It was completed around July 2006.

The Lower part of the painting depicted my energy, and the Upper part reflects my husband's. 

As you can see in my painting, there is a pair of hands, and green bubbles, along with some plants. And in my hubby's you basically see a Very big impression of a BaQua (八卦).

Ming - Painting of my spiritual guide

Around the sametime when I comissioned a painting of my energy, I also reached out to another artist based in Adelaide to draw both mine and my husband's spiritual guides. As you can see, my spirit guide Ming is also closely related to the colour green and plants (which is similar to the lower part of the energy painting).

Lao Tzu - Painting of my husband's spiritual guide

Lao Tzu is my husband's spirit guide, also the creator of BaQua (八卦), and looking at the upper picture of the energy soul painting, it is a Bagua (八卦). 

All these paintings, led me to a simple conclusion, out energy bodies are for all to see. However, how each person interprets them, could be different based on their own spiritual practice or understanding. I am glad I spent the time and money ordering them as it helped me understand how the energies and our spiritual bodies work. 

So how were the artists able to capture my soul energy or spirit guides?

First, the artists are gifted with clairvoyance (ability to see through their 3rd eye), and 2nd, they must be able to draw. As I didn't have to meet any of them face to face, they basically had to be able to tap into my energy or spiritual energy to be able to produce the paintings. Some of them may need to meditate, some of them may just need a photo.

For my soul energy painting - Toby only asked for my birthday. Helen Barnes who drew the spirit guides, did request for my photos. 

Here's how Toby describes the process on his website:

".. when I sit down and start to focus on creating a soul portrait for someone or for a couple, the first things that I try and tune into is that essential feeling tone as a starting point for the picture. Once I feel I have absorbed the feeling tone, then I will represent that as a basic colour or shape in the central part of the composition."

Where can you get a painting of your own soul energy or spirit guide?

Toby Ouvry is still painting, he is based in Singapore - and you can find some his work and how you can commission him through this website: http://tobyouvry.com/soulportraits/
Details of Prices and sizes are available on Toby's website.

For the spirit guide paintings, I wasn't able to find Helen Barnes anymore through the previous contacts. I know that she was based in Adelaide, South Australia.
However, here is another artist that I thought was interesting, though I haven't commission a work from her yet.

Marie Klement: http://www.marieklement.com.au/pages/SpiritPortraits1.html
Details of prices are available on the website.

One last note, as we continue to grow spiritually, and circumstance around us change - our energy and spirit guides change too. I commissioned an updated soul energy painting in 2013 it is currently posted on Toby's website.

Healing through Past Life Regression

Recently I been guided to explore Past Life Regression (PLR). The journey was an interesting one for me and left me without a doubt that we do come back to this life, and a chance to learn and live well again. 

A short introduction on how I embarked on this journey

I've always been looking out for Paulo Coelho's new books as I read nearly all of them already, and there were some that resonated with me, and others that didn't. He recently published a book titled Aleph. I chanced upon it on discount on my iBook store for 0.99USD, and downloaded it immediately.

A few days later, a gf of mine, Dee, told me how her sister went to attend Brian Weiss session on Past Life healing. 

Move forward 2 months, I was waiting for my mum at the KLIA airport when I sauntered into a bookshop. I gravitated towards Paulo Coelho's book and decided to purchase Aleph. By this time I've already forgotten I've  the book on iPad already. When i returned from KL and met up with Dee, she told me about her sister's experience with Brian Weiss again. 

hmm.... time for me to take action. I spent one day finishing the book Aleph, and started to look for books from Brian Weiss. I was intrigued. Brian described the healing and positive changes to each of his patient. 

For many years, I've been trying to get pregnant, and somehow I had many difficulties. Perhaps this PLR could be the answer to help me heal. I researched around Singapore, and made appointments with them.

Origins Arising - Wendy Yeung 

http://www.originsarising.com/

Session conducted: 8th May, 5pm - 7.45pm

Cost: $360.00
Healing: Past Life Regression

I first booked an appointment with Wendy Yeung, and the session was held at her home. It was a beautiful and soothing environment, and even though I just got off the plane (returning from Ho Chi Min), I was able to ease into the session quickly. Before I met her, I was a little concerned if I could be hypnotized. I was a psychology student before, and during the class about Hypnosis, I was not able to get into it. But she let me know that since I been meditating, it will be much easier. 

Before the session, she sent me a form to be completed. The form requested for information about myself, my relationships with parents and siblings and also what is my intention set for the healing. 

During the session - I was able to visit three past lives. While i had my initial doubts whether the visions were really my recollection of past lives, or just figment of my imagination - I was able to reassure myself that the pain I experienced  during some the lives were real, and emotions I felt were real. 

When I returned to office the next day, everyone could see a difference in my eyes and facial expression. 

My recommendation - Wendy is good at what she does,  and her methods are different from both of the other therapists.  She is a little reserved, and I didn't feel that she wanted to talk about my experience after the session. I am not sure if that was part of the procedure in her training. But I felt that I needed a little more closure after the session. 

Living Light Universe - Adrian Ng

http://www.livinglightuniverse.com/

Session Conducted: 18th May, 10am - 1pm
Cost: $400.00
Healing: Quantum Healing Hypnosis Therapy (QHHT - PLR and Accessing Higher Consciousness)

After my session with Wendy, I was more intrigued, and really liked the changes that came over me. I have a calmer look on my face, and people around me reacted differently too. More friendly and more approachable. So I decided to try another healer and through a quick research I found Adrian Ng. 

What attracted me to both Adrian and Wendy, is their ability to work in the other fields and modalities of healing. Both of them also work with spiritual guides and angels, which I logically felt more akin to. In session with Adrian, he does cross into this form of healing, which is why his healing methodology is named QHHT.

Before the session, Adrian also sent me a form to be completed before our meeting. During our meeting, he spent some time clarifying things I've completed in the form. I was able to connect a little more with Adrian and opened up slightly more about my fears and challenges in life, which he took notes, and addressed them during the session. Just before we go into session, he shifted my energy so that i could go into session more easily.

During the session, I visited two lives, and spent significant amount of time communicating with my Higher Consciousness. Given my first experience with Wendy, I no longer try and debate if it was a real recollection of my past lives, but spending time with my guides in the realm of Higher Consciousness was new to me, and while there were interesting information revealed to me, I am more intrigued if they were truly guides (I met Athena, Jesus and Venus) or just my consciousness.

After my session, my whole body of being changed that people could hardly recognize me when I walked past them. Some thought I lost weight and others just couldn't place a hand on the difference, but just different.

My recommendation: Adrian is a gentle soul, genuine in his healing methods. I believe  I benefited much from his session, and some level of healing must had happened. The session was recorded, and while I don't think I want to go through the recorded session again, I might just do so in case something crops up. Adrian was trained by Dolores Cannon. I've not read her books yet, but have them downloaded on my iPad and will be reading them soon!

Past Life Regression with Jorva (update 30July2020) - Jorva has since retired - 

http://www.reikicentre.com.sg/private-past-life-regression-therapy/

Session Conducted: 17th June, 8.45am - 11am
Cost: $150.00
Healing: Past Life Regression

What started me on this PLR journey was really Brian Weiss, but no matter how i searched, I couldn't find any of his healers in Sg. When I chanced upon the ReikiCentre's blog site, and listed Jorva visiting Sg, I was very clear that I needed a session with her. 

Unlike the other healers, Jorva didn't send any forms for me to be completed, and during our meeting, she was able to talk me through the important areas that I might want to explore. I was also assured that whatever comes up, there was no pressure to see or feel. It was very obvious that she had many experience and could handle any situations that came up. And I felt very comfortable expressing my inner most fears and concerns without barriers of being judged. 

The method to guide me into regression was exactly the same as the one Brian had in his CD, so it was something I was familiar with. But through her prompting of asking the appropriate questions at each of the past life that helped elicited more relevant information.

After the session, I have new level of understanding of myself. If I may say, I am most relaxed and grateful for the time spent with Jorva. 

When I returned to office in the afternoon, my colleagues were wondering if I've restyled my hair or had a great night sleep! I do sense less hardness around my face and feel a bit more kind towards myself! a journey great for Self Love!

My recommendation: If you are familiar with Brian Weiss through his books, a chance to experience his healing method is just amazing and beautiful. I was able to peel away areas that were lurking in my subconscious and a chance to address them through PLR is really quite effective and quick! I've the little write up about Jorva here as she lives in Penang, Malaysia and only visits Singapore occasionally.

In my future posts, I will share what i saw in each of my past life journey and how it relates to this life. I am blessed to discover this healing modality, and will recommend it to people who needs help overcoming block energy, and another way of learning more about oneself. PLR given me great tremendous help, and I hope in sharing of my experience, I've help provided more insight to a valuable way of healing.


About Jorva
Jorva is a certified hypnotherapist and a member of the National Guild of Hypnotists, Inc. In 2005 she completed her training with Dr Brian Weiss in the USA and provides Past Life Therapy to anyone who is interested in finding answers to life issues, relationship problems, unexplained negative emotions and patterns, or simply curious about re-visiting a past life. 

Lavender spray and Eucalyptus and Citrus Multipurpose spray

During a recent trip to Melbourne, Australia, I wondered down the Household aisle in Woolworth and noticed these 2 products - Lavender Spray and Eucalyptus and Citrus Multipurpose spray. I bought them and started to try them at home. 

1st - they smell 'clean'. Not chemically, just naturally. and they smell Fresh!

2nd - naturally I feel safe with them! And not afraid of bringing more carcinogens and poison to my home. 

I use the Lavender spray around my bed and clothes. It helps disinfect and also puts me I the mood for a good night sleep. The Eucalyptus and Citrus multipurpose spray is great to clean the kitchen and the toilet! Both sprays can be used directly on cuts and wounds to disinfect!

Now that I am back in Singapore, I have to look to buy them online - the Lavender spray is listed between 9.99 AUD - 12.99 AUD depending in the site you use or the promotion the site is running. Don't forget to cost in shipping. 

Eucalyptus and Citrus Multipurpose spray is around 11.75AUD - 14.00AUD (before shipping) online.  

Clean house, clean health!