When you hear the phrase ‘energy healing’, I’d hazard a guess that you’re either ‘team woo’ or hiding in a corner. There’s a lot of chat that goes on around the idea of energy healing, and not all of it is beneficial. Because really, it’s simple. Energy healing is a holistic practice that helps us to heal. And what could be wrong with that?

Is energy healing a spiritual practice or a genuine science? The simple answer is that energy healing is BOTH a spiritual practice and a genuine science. Its proven benefits are rooted in science and bursting with spiritual reflection.

BORN IN A GENDERED SOCIETY

It starts from a young age, when we’re basically little sponges absorbing and interpreting everything we see and hear.

We quickly learn through subtle and not so subtle cues that certain toys are for us and some aren’t. We learn that boys are wild, strong, powerful superheroes, while we are princesses, cute, made of candy floss, saccharine sweet and insubstantial, designed to melt away as if we were never there.

From the moment we take our first breath, we start to get programmed. Imagine your brain is like a computer, your conscious mind is the system that you see, the applications, the folders full of information and memories. But underneath all of it is a series of programmes, all running in the background, automating how well things run, how smoothly, what fires and when. Some of our programming is great and helpful, but some of it slows us down.

As this year of turmoil, uncertainty and (for some of us) trauma comes to a close, we now have the opportunity to reflect and start thinking about what we'd like to be different. What we want to let go of, what we want to shift, what we want to attract.

I'm just back from a proper "switch off your laptop and don't look at emails" kind of break feeling all kinds of refreshed. The kind of break that can be really really hard to get when you have your own business because we can often feel like we can't justify time off, we have to be planning or using our time well, financially it might be harder, or that we just love what we do enough that we're thinking about it all the time.

2020 just isn't getting any better is it?! We're now on the tailwind to the end of the year and back in lockdown so it's only natural for us all to be feeling overwhelmed, anxious, stressed, uncertain, unbalanced, and any other kind of icky discomfort that makes it hard for us to keep a clear head.

One thing that is incredibly helpful in these situations is tapping, or EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), which is a powerful energy therapy I have in my coaching arsenal.

This week I want to share something which comes up for my clients quite regularly, and that's the impact of unresolved childhood traumas on our thoughts, beliefs and behaviours as adults.

Firstly, know that when I say "trauma", I'm talking about anything which causes us to experience the "fight or flight" response. This might be something big that we typically think of when we say trauma, but it could also be a humiliation, playground bullying, divorcing parents, and many more.

To illustrate, I'm going to tell you a (made-up) story so you can see how these seemingly small moments in childhood can impact us into adulthood.

Emotional Intelligence, or EQ, has become more and more important as a skill for leaders in business to motivate, grow, build and drive teams to excellence. In the world of Covid-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, it has never been more important. My prediction is that businesses which have prioritised technical skills and IQ over EQ and empathy, and the ‘mechanising’ of people and processes over understanding the behaviour of individuals are going to find this harder, and over the long-term are those who will struggle to retain talent, motivate teams, and adapt to this new world. Managers who are not trained or equipped for challenging times and difficult conversations, who are not ready to lead (versus manage) are going to be the ones that fall apart. Businesses with leadership, not just management, will be those that thrive.