The 3 'A's for helping empower you to move through a difficult situation

I genuinely feel honoured to be able to share in my clients' healing journeys and feel so blessed to receive the wisdom offered to my clients by spirit. I worked with a wonderful lady recently who is going through some hormonal shifts in life at the moment, and it has been a tough time for her physically, mentally and emotionally, so she booked herself a Reiki session to offer herself kindness and a healing space.

What unfolded within the session was some super simple, but super powerful and, I hope, empowering advice that was just as relevant to me as it was to her. The parts of her body that I was holding when the advice came through also held particular relevance, so I wanted to document it and share it with any who may find it helpful in their own journey through the hardships of life.

The basics of the spiritual guidance were: ACCEPT, ALLOW, ADJUST.

In order to really understand how this is helpful, here is a little more detail. In a Reiki treatment, I often start by placing my hands at positions around the head and move down the body to the feet. The energies felt somewhat emotional and colourful in the upper parts of the body. When I held her right hand, I heard the word ACCEPT. Now in my experience, the hands (in particular the right hand) often speak of our need and ability to control or manipulate our lives. When, as females, we go through a hormonal change such as the perimenopause, we often find ourselves feeling out of control, as if the body has a mind of its own and takes no account of our needs and wishes, and it simply goes through a tumultuous process before (ideally) a new norm and balance alight. So the message ACCEPT, given at the hand, seemed to say: accept that you have no direct control over the physical process at the moment, so surrender to the process and accept the phase as it is in the moment. Of course, this is not easy at all. It can feel like an endless initiation period in which there is challenge after challenge. However, taking time for quiet contemplation, meditation or receiving a healing treatment can most certainly help work towards achieving the state of acceptance. We cannot control the physical process, but we can work on controlling and changing our response to it.

When I held my client's abdomen, that area where the womb, reproductive organs and parts of the digestive and urinary system lie, I heard the word ALLOW. Given the state of flux the reproductive system is going through, this seemed to be another form of indicating the need for acceptance, but specific to the physical process and the efforts and energy we may be expending in resisting the inevitable. If we resist something immovable or stronger than ourselves, we work harder in resisting for the same outcome anyway. The only difference is that we feel more exhausted, frustrated, angry or resentful towards ourselves, our bodies and our minds. To allow is not defeatist. It simply avoids more internal conflict and over-expenditure of precious energy resources and peace. In the Buddhist way of thinking, it is simply allowing ourselves and our bodies to come into flow with what is occurring in the present moment.

The word ADJUST came when I was holding the lower body. The lower part of the body and the legs represent that secure base, the bodily strength and vitality, and the connection to the Earth. So here, with reference to the prior two As, we can interpret the message as: adjust your mindset and your way of being, doing and engaging in life, activities and relationships to suit your mind and body's current capacity and functioning. Sometimes this means cancelling work commitments or social commitments, taking time out for yourself, letting someone help you, asking for support, and seeking out different activities that nurture and nourish how you are in this phase of life. My client is already doing several of these things, listening to herself and her body, so this came as a welcome confirmation that she is on the right path.

If these three words speak to you in whatever you are moving through right now, I hope they bring you the same sense of gentle empowerment they brought to us both that day.