The Energy You Can't See...But Feel Every Day w/Jessica Howard

0:00 Coming up on Paratruth Reborn, we will talk to Jessica Howard about her book Energy Healing for Modern Life, Embrace your energetic self and find your well being. Welcome to Paratruth Truth.

0:45 How's it go on Paratruthers. Welcome to another episode of Paratruth Reborn. Jessica Howard, Welcome to Paratruth Reborn. Thanks justin. Great to be here. So, before we dig into a lot of what's in the book, what got you started with Energy Healing? We'll be honest, it was almost kind of a I suppose an evolution of my spiritual path without wanting to sound too cheesy, as opposed to kind of a deliberate decision. So I'm sure, like a lot of people listening to this podcast, I was kind of one of those children who, you know, I could sense energy, I could see spirits and sort of things beyond the physical world. And I remember being probably about twelve or thirteen and reading one of those you know, chashy teenage girl magazines and reading an article on witchcraft and it wasn't something I'd heard of before, and it just really resonated with me, and I was like, oh, great, there's you know, there's kind of a term or a path for the sorts of things that I'm feeling and that resonate with me. And so that kind of began my journey. And very early on in that journey, I encountered the chakras. This was this was all way before the internet, so kind of everything that you had access to was just very much kind of books, TV, so you know, you didn't really have access to or at least easy access to a

2:16 wealth of things. But then from then it kind of it began to build and build and build. And the more that I kind of studied and encountered, the more I thought that energy healing sounded really interesting and kind of a you know, something that I quite I felt quite called to. And what I find quite interesting is that when I made the conscious decision to start studying energy healing, I realized that actually I've been practicing energy healing without realizing that what I've been doing was energy healing in a sense. And I do imagine that's probably true for a lot of people. So yeah, for me, it wasn't really a conscious decision to get into energy healing. It was more of a I suppose a culmination of the path that I was already on. But yeah, I've been practicing it, I suppose since I was in my early teens, So that's been over twenty years now, and during that time, it's been really interesting to kind of see how things have developed. Even though twenty years doesn't sound like a long amount of time, so much can change in twenty years, I've said, when I first started studying, no internet, and now you know, we're dealing with AI and all other challenges that come with that. And I suppose that's where the modern element of the book comes in.

3:34 It's not just about energy healing, but it's how we take all of those practices and traditions and can adapt them to our very different way of life without losing any of their sacredness. Yeah, and I mean that's actually why I was really interested in this, because you know, the practices that you hear about for energy work are practices that have been done over a millennia of human history, and so I was really really drawn to this book, and same with you.

4:14 You know, I had done massage therapy like almost right out of high school. I was around twenty one when I started taking classes for it and stuff but although you are manipulating the physical in that you are also doing energy work at the same time, you just don't even realize it. And it's come to, you know, to today where I've kind of realized that as well. Yeah, and I think for a lot of people, I mean, you know, especially when we're thinking about energy healing, you know, sound healing is also a really powerful form of energy healing. And that could even be as something as simple as just having a specific playlist that you listen to when you need to be cheered up or when you're feeling a bit down or you're feeling a bit interesting active, and yeah, even going you know, just cultivating a playlist to suit a specific mood that you're in or trying to shift your your mood set, that in itself is a form of energy healing. And so I think, yeah, there's there's a lot of of that that goes on that people don't realize that they're doing, which yeah, I personally find very interesting. Kind of similar to you know, as you said with the massage, and you're you're actually engaging with energy healing without realizing it. Like I think a lot of people think that energy healing is this kind of big, you know, almost kind of unattainable and mystical sort of practice, whereas actually it's it's a lot simpler, and it's it's probably it's a lot more intuitive than

5:49 we realize. And yeah, that's that's another aspect that I find really interesting, which was one of the reasons that I decided to to kind of write the book was to try and just just help people realize that actually, energy healing is really accessible. And again, as I said, you're probably doing it without realizing it. Right now for someone who's just kind of starting or showing interest in this type of stuff. What is energy healing at the simplest terms. So always a really interesting question because there's no one kind of universally agreed definition of what energy is, let alone what energy healing is. So I supposed to kind of start off with what energy healing is or what energy is apologies, So there is a I mean, science has proven that everything is made of energy, and this energy is constantly emotion, it's constantly interacting with kind of each other, and it cannot be created, it cannot be destroyed, but it is priced in everything everyone of everything we touch, in everything we experience, Now, there is a belief in theosophopy.

7:09 I can never pronounce it correctly, but essentially that there is I suppose, different bodies. And this may be something that people are familiar with. We quite often talk about the physical body and the mental body and the emotional body. And the idea is that you know, you have your physical self, which is obviously kind of you know, your body, what you can see and touch and smell, et cetera. And you have your emotional body in this is very much kind of yet your emotional self and responses, and your mental body, and this is very much kind of your your intellect and the way that your brain process is information. And these three bodies essentially work together to form the self. So essentially, there is a belief throughout many different cultures, many different traditions throughout you know, hundreds and thousands of years, that there's actually another body, and that is your energetic body. And you can kind of think about this as your spiritual body. So the idea is that our body is made of energy, and we have these energetic pathways throughout our body, and as well as the energetic pathways, we also have energy centers throughout our body. Now, it is worth saying that there are many different ways that these different cultures and traditions believe that our energetic body is structured. The energetic pathways and

8:41 kind of energetic sectors. War Texts is quite a popular one. We see it with the chakras. We see it in ancient Chinese medicine where they work with the meridians, again very similar to the chakras. But essentially it's there seems to be a lot of evidence throughout these different cultures and traditions that we all have these energetic pathways running through our body and these various energy centers, and these various energy centers are often associated with different emotional and mental and physical aspects. So, for example, if we look at the chakras, so it's generally kind of believed that there are seven main chakras throughout the body, and you can have one that is associated with our physical selves, a stability and security, and then we have one that's associated with creativity, another one that's associated with emotions, another one that's associated with our confidence and our sense of self belief. And essentially, when this energy is running freely and it's perfectly balanced within our bodies, then everything works great and it's perfect and we're in alignment. But if the any point we experience any sort of blockages in our energetic pathways, then these can lead to kind of unwanted or difficult symptoms. And the reason that I speak

10:14 about the different bodies, the physical, the mental, the emotional, and the energetic, is because we can see how an imbalance or an issue in one of those bodies can also affect the other body. So if, for example, you think about what happens when you have a cold. So let's say you know you have a common cold, and you experience the physical symptoms, so you get the running nose and you get the sore throat, but you'll also experience mental symptoms such as you know, the brain fog and not being able to concentrate. And I know from me personally, when I'm feeling quite under the weather, I also experience certain emotional responses, especially feeling kind of very overwhelmed, very easily, and you know, even the tiniest of inconveniences can kind of set me off. So we can see there how all of our different bodies are interlinked. And it's exactly the same with the energetic body. When we experience blockages within our energetic body. They can have physical effects.

11:19 We can feel certain kind of physical I suppose apes, pains, illnesses. We can experience mental issues such as problems concentrating, sleeping, etc. And it can also affect our emotions. So ensure energy healing is just making sure that we are paying attention to our energetic body and taking steps to ensure that we are keeping that healthy and balanced, and we're focusing on removing blockages so that we can ensure that our energetic healths is one hundred percent, which in turn will affect our physical selves, our mental selves, and our emotional selves.

12:11 So you can kind of think of energy healing as just another part of kind of health and well being. Okay, now can anybody do this or is it something that you should be learning to do before you start doing it? So anybody can do it. And I am going to apologize in advance because this is a subject that I can talk for absolute hours on, so I do tend to ramble on, so to apologize if some of my answers come across a little bit rambly. But absolutely anybody can do this. And again going back to what I said at the start, you know, there's a lot of people who are probably practicing energy healing without even realizing it.

12:58 And the thing is that it is so intuitive, and the number of people that I've spoken to who practice energy healing or maybe don't even practice energy healing, but they are quite sensitive to energies. Especially when you start talking about things such as cleansing or energetic protection and different ways that you can do these, you will find that a lot of people were actually practicing these things without being taught them or realizing that, you know, what they were doing was actually a chined and tested method of doing these things. And even though it is so innate within us, I think a lot of us have we've kind of just switched it off. And I think that that is in part due to the environment that we live in. So we live in a very kind of science focus world. It's very busy. We tend to with logic, and you know, we focus on what our physical senses tell us, and that's what we use to make all of our decisions, and our intuition is quite often forgotten or ignored. And I'm sure we've all had those cases where we felt that something is off and we just we couldn't explain why we just felt that something wasn't quite right. And in those instances, we're often told it's all in your head. Just ignore it. Like you know, you can see, there's no danger, you can hear,

14:29 there's no danger. Everything's fine. Ignore that little voice and just just kind of go for it. But actually, when it comes to working with energy and especially energy healing, it's that little voice that you want to listen to, because it's that voice that listens to those those subtle clues in your energy and your body and can let you know when issues are arising before they actually manifest into physical issues or mental issues or emotional issues. So it is something that a lot, I mean, everyone can do it, but it is something that can feel difficult to reconnect with because we just live in a world where rather than listening to our intuition, we need to listen to our logic. And yes, we need to just take that step back and take that time to just stop and breathe and focus on listening to our intuition again.

15:28 And once you do that, then you'll be really really surprised at how quickly and easily working with energy and energy healing comes to you but absolutely anybody can do it. Now, this is something I've asked a couple of people, and I feel that it does have correlation. But how does energy affect our physical and emotional health? So for me personally, I would kind of go back to the example of, you know, the various different bodies that we have, and again using the example of getting a common cold, you can see how even though we tend to associate a common cold as being a physical ailment in the sense that you know, the sore throat and the runny nose, when you think about it, you can also see those emotional aspects, the mental aspects such as the brainfall or the you know, kind of breaking down every little inconvenience. And in the same way, issues with your energetic body can have an impact on your physical, your mental and emotional self And actually a lot of the time, especially if you're not attuned to energy, it's going to be those physical symptoms or the mental and emotional symptoms that you're going to notice first rather than anything in your energetic body. So this can manifest in

17:00 a number of different ways. And I will preface this by saying that if you are experiencing any symptoms that are physical or mental and they're prolonged or they're causing you pain, then absolutely one hundred percent please do kind of see a doctor or seek how a medical professional, just to be on the safe side. But there are many different ways that these can manifest. So for example, if we're thinking about the chapras again, personally, I started working with the chapras quite early on. It's still a framework that I go back to when I'm thinking about energy and the body and how that works, and it is quite a popular one. But again, going back to that notion of there being seven main chakras in the body and each of them having different associations, that can kind of help narrow it down, especially when you think about the physical symptoms. So you know, for example, if you've got a sore throat and you know there's no real reason for it, so you know, let's say you know you have it been in a very smoky environment, or you're not suffering from a cold, for example, any kind of issues that you might have with your throat could represent a blockage in your throat chakra, which could internally to issues with communication. Similarly, you can flip that around and if you feel like you're struggling to speak up footwork or at school, or if you're struggling to

18:34 be honest with yourself or be honest with other people, then you could say, oh, okay, I'm clearly having an issue with communication, which if my energy centers is associated with communication, that's the throat chakra. Therefore I should work on my throat chakra. So it's in that everything is very interconnected, and you will find that issues in your energetic body can manifest themselves in physical ways, just as physical issues if they're not kind of dealt with, can affect your your energetic field. And saying with kind of emotional and mental issues that you your difficulties that you may be experiencing.

19:19 Now, is there a way to kind of tell when when your body is like out of balance with your energy? Is it just like the physical ill once that you're talking about, or is there other things that we can be looking for. Yeah, there's and honestly, it's one of those that and this is this is kind of both the blessing and the curse of energy healing, is that everybody experiences energy differently, and so it's very difficult for me to say, oh, okay, well, you will feel X, and you will feel Y, and you will feel Z. If you're feeling out of balance or when you're working with energy, you should feel a, B and C. Because there's so many different ways that people experience energy and connect with energy. That Yeah, so first off, it's very difficult to say you will definitely feel this. You will definitely feel that. Once you start to work with energy and really get an understanding as to how you personally connect with it and experience that, it will feel much easier to be able to understand. Okay, you know, I've got an issue here, I've got an issue there. I think one of the best things that you can do to help you understand where there may be imbalances in your energy is just to stop and check in with your body. And it's really surprising how little that we do this, because I think, especially in this modern day and age, kind of we're we're taught that, you know, just taking some time out for yourself is

20:51 it's lazy. You know, you were kind of taught that just taking an evening to sit down and watch some TV is you know, it's lazy. No, you should be doing the dishes or you should be doing the washing, and you'll even see it with the rise of hustle culture, which you know, essentially every hobby has to be monetized. Now, you know, it's very difficult to just enjoy something for the sake of enjoying something. But all this does is just it keeps people so constantly on the go that we feel guilty when we take that step back and just do nothing. And actually doing nothing is a fantastic way to just just stop and reevaluate kind of how you're doing. And it is absolutely incredible, how you know.

21:39 And again going back to that, everybody thinks that energy healing is this big practice that must be studied for years and years before you can actually kind of use it or engage with it, whereas it can just be as simple as saying, you know what, I'm going to sit down for ten minutes and I'm going to turn off the TV. I'm just gonna sit here and I'm just gonna ask myself, how am I what is going on with me? Kind of you know, how am I feeling? And that in itself is really really powerful And there are other things that you can do if you want to get more into the energy healing side of things. So you know, we have things such as body scans, and a body scan is essentially an exercise where you, as it sounds, you scan your energy and you just kind of, yeah, connect with it and see if there's any places in your energy where there may be blockages and things. Or you could use a pendulum, for example, a pendulum is a really great tool to help you understand where there may be blockages in your body. Essentially, you can use a if you're just doing it on yourself, then you can use a representation of yourself. This may be you know, a person drawn on a piece of paper, or it could be a stuffed animal, and you just swing the pendulum over the representation and if at any point the pendulum starts to swing erratically, then you know that there is an energy blockage there. So there are yeah,

23:13 countless ways to kind of check in with your energy and just see where the imbalances are. I mean, there's also you know, various meditations and things that you can do. You could go as far as to visit a healer and ask them to kind of, you know, work on your energy and give you a bit of an mot But honestly, one of the simplest ways, especially if you've never practiced energy healing before, is just to take that time to just sit down and say, Okay, how am I feeling. Is there anywhere in my body that just feels a bit a bit heavy, or a bit sluggish or a bit achey. Yeah, it's it's And this is one of the things I love about energy healing as well. It can be so simple and effective that it just makes it so easy for people to really engage with well.

24:05 And I'm glad you bring up the pendulum and other tools that you can use, because I think it's something that you could probably do without the tools, but it's always good to have those tools there just to kind of reinforce that. And I know there's going to be those people on one side or the other, but I feel, you know, and I love your opinion on this, you should probably start out with tools so you know that you are feeling what you're feeling compared to not. Would you agree with that definitely? Yeah, And I personally still use tools. I really enjoy using tools generally. I'm quite a physical person anyway, and you know, I do enjoy using crystals and stones and incorporating things like tarot into my energy healing practices, and I do find that it's it's a just kind of a way to almost get like an unbiased second opinion and make sure that you're on the right track. But it's a really great way to just build your confidence as well. And I think that the more you do that kind of the lass that you rely on the tools and it is it is a really really great step.

25:22 I mean, I have quite a few different tools that I use. I've got crystals that have the reiki symbols carved into them. I'll quite often use them when I'm doing reiki healings. I have various different grids with different sacred geometry configurations on them that I'll use in my crystal healing. I have, you know, I use the pendulum again, I use divination in my energy healing. So one of the things that I have is a lithomatsy set that is based around the chakras and the elements, and I can kind of use that to basically do readings for people to get an idea as to where there may be energy blockages and you know what needs to be done to be able to heal those energy blockages without necessarily needing to tap into anyone's energy, and I find that that's really really useful. Again, a for beginners who may be a bit nervous and maybe aren't sure what they're supposed to be feeling and just kind of need that that reassurance. But also even for you know, myself who's been practicing for a while, there's there's just some times where I'm just feeling a bit tired, and you know, I just kind of want want something that's not so draining on my own energy to be able to perform.

26:43 And also, you know, you know, it's times where you are a little bit unsure, perhaps you getting mixed messages or you're you're not entirely sure of which direction to take the healing, where yeah, tools can be an absolutely fantastic guide. You know, we all know the saying that you know, it's it's the healer, not the tools. The tools don't actually do the healing. It's all about you and your intent. But yeah, I personally love using tools and things in my practice, and yeah, I definitely encourage anybody to give them a go because there's so many you can use, and it also just give you a chance to be kind of really creative and just just find something that resonates with you that, Yeah, it's a lot of fun as well to just play around with. Well.

27:27 I think a lot of people say the same thing about medium Chip too, like that if you're a true medium, you shouldn't need tools. But I honestly feel, yeah, that whether you're using tools or not using tools, yes it is you. But again, those tools are just kind of a reinforcement that it's not your ID that's talking to you or you know whatever. They I feel they really do help. Yeah. Yeah, as I said, I personally really enjoy using the and it's it's just again it's quite fun as well. Like one of the reasons that I really love energy healing, and it's part of that is the community, because there is such a nice community around energy healing and people that heal, and you know, half of that is just kind of getting together with other people and talking about the different methods that they use and the different tools that they use, and you know, trying out these things for yourself and sharing that knowledge and yeah, it just it just I think it's really important for progress as well.

28:33 And I know we kind of touched on that whole being able to take things and make them more adaptable and relevant to the modern world. But you kind of see it, and I think Reikie's a fantastic example of this. So you know, reiki was discovered in nineteen twenty nine, I want to say, but yeah, it's in the ground scheme of things. It's one of the more the more recent forms of energy healing. But if you just look at how it was taught when it was first discovered, you know, about one hundred years ago, to how it's taught now, and there's been so many additions and different ways of practicing it that have kind of ensured that it remains relevant. And even just thinking the past kind of three years, five years, I'm seeing kind of new and innovative ways that people are using reiki. And half of that is, like, you know, the different tools that they're using. And yeah, it's not only interesting, but I feel in a sense it's kind of necessary to keep these things relevant and keep people interested and ensure that they're remaining kind of within our consciousness.

29:48 Now, I've been practicing meditation for a while, but how does meditation fit into doing energy work? And on top of that, in our modern lives, which I feel are much more busy lives than in the past, maybe not. How how can you incorporate meditation into your work? I love meditation, yeah, and meditation is I mean, you can say it goes hand in hand with a lot of spiritual pursuits, but especially energy healing. And again, one of the main reasons is because you know, as we've already talked about, we tend to switch ourselves off from our intuition and the kind of ability within ourselves to be able to connect with and understand energy because we are constantly so busy, We're constantly you know, bombarded with information, and we're constantly trying to rely on our logic and our physical senses to interpret this information. And you know, we don't all our selves the time to just sit down and stop and listen. And that's where meditation for me personally comes in. Meditation is a deliberate kind of I suppose it's it's a deliberate promise to yourself that you know, okay, just for five minutes, ten minutes, twenty minutes,

31:20 an hour, I'm going to sit here and I'm just going to focus on myself, and I'm going to listen, and I'm going to put my needs first. Meditation is again one of those things that I think people think is a lot more difficult than it is, or they assume that it's something that is more difficult than it needs to be. I personally have always said that just spending five minutes a day in meditation is much more benefit beneficial than trying to spend an hour in meditation once a week, you know, little and often is definitely the best approach. And when you start to practice things such as meditation, I mean, there's there's so many benefits outside of energy healing, just the fact that it grounds you to the present, It helps you kind of focus, and you know, especially if you're incorporating breathwork into it, you know, it can really help improve your general kind of physical health and well being, as well as kind of how you deal with stress and difficult situations. But in terms of the energy healing, meditation is a really great first step to just help you just stop and lessen and connect with the energy that you have inside of you and be present in the moment, because I

32:51 think that is again another reason that things such as energy healing can feel very difficult is because a lot of us we're constantly thinking about the future, whether that's you know, what we're going to have for dinner tonight, or you know, trying to remind ourselves put the washing on when we get home, or you know, we find ourselves thinking about the past, like you know that that really silly thing that we said in a conversation last week, And it can be very difficult to feel present in the moment, and especially for energy healing, being present in the moment is extremely important. So, yeah, meditation is a great way to just a make sure that you're taking that break and you're listening to yourself and be ensuring that you're grounded in the present moment so you have that awareness of how you're feeling in that present moment.

33:47 Now, there's always going to be those skeptics out there, for those that are going to say, you know, energy healing isn't real. It's a lot of bubb gusts, Like how would you respond to something like that? Honestly, I kind of get it. Like. One of the reasons that energy healing is known as as an alternative practice or a non mainstream practice is because there isn't any hardcore or like you know, definitive scientific study that says one hundred percent. Yes, reiki works or crystal healing works. And again, because we live in a society that is governed by by logic and science, it's you know, we're taught to just completely disregard anything that doesn't have that scientific stamp of approval. So, you know, I completely get it, and I also completely get some people saying, you know, it's it's probably a placebo effect, or you know, it's just basic psychology. And you know, if you if you tell yourself that you're more confident, then you're going to become more confident. But my argument is if it helps, then like does it really matter if it works in a sense, And I'm trying to think about the best way to kind of explain this, but energy healing is it is something that we use to improve our health

35:19 and well being. We use it to improve our confidence. We can use it to ensure that we are feeling grounded and balanced and present and confident. And by working with energy, it encourages us to also make changes in other parts of our lives. So you know, let's say, for example, that you you know you want to improve your your communication style. You know, perhaps you know that you really struggle to communicate effectively because you're quite shy and you're quite timid, and so, you know, the more that you work with let's say, you know it's a throape chakra, going back to the chakras, and you know, you do, you start to feel more confident, and you start to put yourself out there, and you know, you start to stand up for yourself, and you start to be more confident in what it is that you're you're communicating with people. You know, perhaps that means that you finally get that promotion at work because you're being a bit more you know, to the point and forward. And I personally think that so long as it is something that is helping you and improving your well being, then it works. We don't need to talk about the you know, the scientific breast principles behind it. We don't need to strap someone to a table and you know for various wires across them and measure electrical impulses or anything like that.

36:47 Like the main purpose of energy healing is to improve your health and your well being and your your sense of self. And if practicing energy healing does that, whether because it's a pacebo effects something psychological or you know, maybe it is energy, and you know that that is kind of the diving force there. Then as long as it's not harming anyone, then just give it a go. And I genuinely think as well that again going back to that concept that we very rarely take time for ourselves because we tend to feel guilty, we tend to feel lazy. Like energy healing is basically us telling ourselves that, no, I'm putting myself first. I'm going to take fifteen twenty minutes an hour out of my time and I'm just going to focus on my own health and well being, and that in itself is such a necessary step to yeah, really kind of managing our own health and well being.

37:53 That even if that is all you get out of it, even if at the end of it you say, actually, I don't believe in shakra and you know, I don't believe in reiki, even if at the end of it you have still gotten into the habit of feeling allowed to take that time out for yourself, then absolutely, it's you know, it's it's done his job. Energy healing is doneished job. So yeah, so appreciate I've probably rambled a little bit there, but whilst I can understand the skepticism. I would personally say that there's just so many benefits to giving it a go that you you can't really lose.

38:34 Right well, and you've already mentioned it too, that science has proven that energy, we are made of energy, that we have a bioethereal field around us. So if we have that, or even if you think of it as bioelectrical field, same difference. If you think of it as that, then how could you not realize that you have to heal that field sometimes, just like you have to repair an electrical outlet or repair your electronics because sometimes they break down. So I mean, yes, healthy skepticism is good, but for me just to say it's outright not real kind of borders on your being cynical more than skeptical.

39:26 Definitely, Yeah, And that's why I say just just give it a go. Like even if you think it's something that you know you're gonna foo foo the idea of and you don't believe in it, then yeah, just just give it a go, because at the end of the day, Yeah, if if you're still determined not to believe in it, but you have at least taken some time out to focus on yourself. Then that's that's probably better than you were doing before given your attitude. So, now, have you ever seen any results from doing this energy work where you're just like, wow, you know that kind of reinforces why I do what I do. Yeah, And to be honest, most of those are I've had this question a few times, and I think people kind of expect me to give this like big life changing epiphany sort of moment, you know, the breakthrough sort of moment, and actually most of the time it's been a culmination of smaller instances that you kind of have this awakening isn't the right word, but just this sudden realization of kind of oh, no, this is right, this is exactly where where I'm meant to be. I think, I think one of the most powerful kind of effects that I felt from it. And it is very interesting

40:58 when I kind of think about, you know, because I've kind of on this path for like over twenty years now, and it is very very interesting when I look at kind of certain things that have happened throughout my life and think, oh, okay, well, you know, if I'd reacted to that completely differently, because I, you know, had no concept of energy or anything, then you know, I could see things taking a very very different path. But for me personally, it's it's all about those those little changes that you make. And again, this is this is kind of where that that idea of it being for modern life comes into because we we all we all want to be the best version of ourselves. And you know, we're I'm sure that we've all been there many many times where we say, you know, we're going to start this new diet or we're going to give up this particular advice, and you know, we're going to do X, Y and Z, and we we're going to go to the gym five mornings a week. And you know, we start and we're full of energy for all of about two or three days, and then we do it for like two weeks and we realized that, oh that was way too much, and we just kind of give up.

42:05 So those kind of big gestures very rarely work. And I've always kind of found that just integrating smaller aspects kind of yet little and often and then just building on those has a much more prolonged and powerful effect than those you know, what we'd assume would be a big kind of gesture or a big I don't know, you know, meditating on a mountain top for seven days and fasting kind of thing. I think for me, one of the biggest results that I've seen has been more to do with kind of my own mindset and my own outlook than anything else. So I think, especially when you're looking at energy healing, it comes from place or it kind of helps you cultivate a mindset of gratitude and compassion, and it sounds like one of those things that shouldn't be that's uh, that rare, but especially in this age, and I think you know, a lot of people have commented on it that you know, we're seeing a lot of this, especially since COVID, where we seem to have moved very much from a community vibe to quite an individualistic vibe. You know, it's very me me me rather than us US now. And I think for

43:40 a lot of people having that that kind of individual me, me me mindset, if you've got, like you know a lot of people that have that mindset, then obviously you're going to have a very siloed and secluded kind of community or environment around you, and it can be very easy to respond to that in kind. If everyone's being a bit kind of rude and a bit kind of standoffish. Then yeah, it's very easy to think, well, I'm going to be rude and standoffish as well, and you know that's that's not great for your mindset. So, you know, I started kind of deliberately when I was in situations that were causing me frustration or stress or you know, especially living in a big city. I live in one of the big city, the biggest city in the UK, and even just trying to get from point A to point B it can be extremely frustrating sometimes. But just kind of taking a step back and rather than reacting to those inconveniences with annoyance or anger, just trying and actually appreciate, you know, kind of taking a step back and approaching them from a place of compassion and understanding really did a lot to change my mindset and just kind of generally make me a lot more grateful and able to kind of see the positives and things. And I do think that if a lot of people did that then we would be in a much better place.

45:09 And especially once you've kind of you've shifted your mindset like that, you start to notice all of those those tiny instances and it can be something really small, like you know, the traffic lights turning green as you're you're about to cross the road and kind of feeling genuine gratitude for that, like and I think it's it's those small instances that have made more of a difference than any kind of one big aha moment during a meditation session or a rape session, if that makes sense. I know that was quite the question that you were asking, but yeah, for me personally, I think that that the small actions that you can do constantly and build upon are probably more important, more attainable, and more impactful than just kind of that that one big moment. Sir.

46:06 Yeah, Now, in your opinion, what is the biggest or a couple of the biggest misconceptions people have about energy work. It's definitely one that I know we've touched on a couple of times, which is that, yeah, energy work is this this big kind of spiritual, difficult to obtain sort of practice that you know, if you want to become an energy healing then you have to make a pulgrimage across a desert and into the mountains and then fast and meditate for twenty days before you're you're blessed with the sacred knowledge of energy healing. Yeah, I think that is It's definitely one of the biggest misconceptions that I hear, because again, as we said, you know, energy, it's within everyone, It connects us all. We all have the ability to connect with this energy and use this energy and heal this energy. And it is really quite simple as long as you kind of put the effort into doing it, and you don't need any fantcy rituals or big ceremonies.

47:23 It can just be as simple as you know, taking five minutes out to meditate and just just focus on your energy and how you're feeling. So I think for me, that is definitely the biggest misconception that it's this yeah, big kind of unattainable or unapproachable practice. I would say. The other one for me is, oh, again kind of similar to that that you know, you need to spend a lot of money to do it, and I know in reiki we have the concept of lineage, so essentially it used to be the case and it is still the case actually in some instances that you need to be able to trace your lineage back to the founder of reiki. And you know, if you can't do that, then essentially you know you're in some circles your looks down upon if you can't trace your lineage back. And I think that there is this this misconception that that stuff matters, because to be honest, that that stuff doesn't really matter. I mean, there can be a lot of gatekeeping, and I do understand again thinking about that, you know, try how do we adapt these sacred techniques into modern day without losing that sacredness. And you know, obviously there's

48:53 been many conversations over the years around appropriation versus appreciation, and that does absolutely apply in energy healing as well. But I do find that there is this misconception, and it's probably one that does grind my gills a little bit, which is that you know that notion of you you need to be able to prove your lineage and prove your training and yeah, proof that you've done things in a very specific way that may not be compatible or even that relevant to kind of how things are today. So I think for me personally, those are my two biggest bug bears in terms of misconceptions that people have.

49:42 And again, I think the other misconception that people tend to have is that you need to be a kind of spiritual whacko or whatever to believe in energy healing. I mean, I know a Christian woman who practices reiki. She's absolutely fantastic with it, you know, very very kind of you know, Catholic lady, but still practices reiki. I know people in you know, the science kind of careers who practice energy healing, sound healing, crystals, et cetera. So I think as well that you know, another misconception is that you need to be the stereotypical hippie to practice energy healing, because actually, you know, it's so accessible to everyone, and you really do experience people from all walks of life that are engaged with and practicing energy healing that it truly is something again that anybody can do.

50:44 All right, now, we are a getting close to the end, but I wanted to ask you this this last question before we wrap up. What is your hope that people get from energy healing from modern life? Oh that's a really good question. So when I when I wrote the book, my main I suppose my main goal around all. The reason that I wrote the book was because I mean, there's there's loads of books out there on chakras. There's loads of books out there on crystal healing, there's loads of books out there on auras, But for somebody who's just getting into energy healing for the first time, I personally had never really been able to find a resource that was kind of like an overall beginner's guide that kind of said, you know, here, here are the various different things that you should look into, and would give a enough information that you could kind of say, oh, okay, I'm interested in reiki or you know, I want to learn more about cleansing, and then be able to go off and you know, research more about those things. So the idea behind writing the book was very much to just kind of give a bit of a one stop shop for beginners coming into energy healing, to give them a complete overview of energy healing and what's involved in it, so they could kind of go off and then you know, choose the things that really resonated with them and go and do more research. So

52:14 I suppose what I'm hoping to achieve with the book is just giving people who are a little bit interested a place to start, because I think energy healing is becoming a bit more popular and a bit more mainstream, and you know, we're kind of seeing it with you know, phrases such as, you know, good vibes only, and you know, you'll see on the front of magazines things like, you know, headlines around removing toxic people from your life. So I think it is something that is becoming a bit more mainstream. But yeah, it can be difficult to know where to start, especially because it is such a huge subject. So I'm hoping that it will provide people with a starting point to just get the the basics that they need to then be able to pinpoint two or three things that they're interested in and go on and kind of continue their journey, but also to kind of show people that, yeah, energy healing is not this this big, unattainable practice that you need to spend hours every single day practicing before you can actually use it. You know, it is something that can so easily be incorporated into our everyday lives and the benefits can be so profound that honestly everybody and anybody can try it should try it. And yeah, I hope that it just breaks down some of those misconceptions and yeah, gives gives more people. I suppose that

53:48 yet that platform to get involved in it from. All right, well, thank you so much for being on Pear Truth Reborn before I as you go, tell everybody where they can find you and find your work. Yeah, so the book is available via most big kind of publishing companies and bookstores. I have to admit I'm not too familiar with the booksellers out in America, so I can't recommend any specific ones. But yeah, Otherwise, I have a couple of websites, so I am actually a practicing pagan as well as an energy healer. I've had a couple of books published previously which are more around subjects to do with paganism. But I do keep my paganism and my energy healing quite separate because, as I said, you know, energy healing is so accessible that I don't want it to kind of be, you know, tied up with the paganism sort of things. So I have one website for the pagan side of things, which is www dot The Cottage Mystic dot tom, and then for the energy healing I have www dot Modern Energyhealing dot co dot UK. I'm also quite active on Instagram. It's basically the only social media that I use, but my handle there is the Cottage Mystic, which I also have my own YouTube channel where I release guided meditations, so I

55:21 quite often release two guided meditations a month, all for free. So yet to check out the YouTube channel as well. But yeah, I'm always As you may have realized from this interview, I talk a lot and I am more than happy to answer any questions and spend some time babbling around energy healing and things. So yeah, if you do have any questions or anything that you want a bit more clarity on, then do just contact me via the websites or via Instagram and I will happily talk your ear off on all manner of subjects. Well, thank you for being on all right, folks? Is it for us this week? Make sure you check out Jessica Howard's Energy Healing for Modern Life. The full Para Truth World lives on our channel's YouTube, Spotify, Facebook, where you can join the Paratruthers community on Facebook, jump into our polls and be a part of the conversation. The Cheap Future episodes, we give you the opportunity to chime in on questions for guests if you're not able to make it to our live shows or if we're doing a pre record and yeah, just be a part of our world until next week folks, where you'll find us, same time, same channel. My name is Justin. Talk to you guys later