46- My Birthday Tattoo

Posted on by Alice Langholt

It’s my birthday!

Today also marks 8 years of blogging. 

Every year, I blog on my birthday. It helps me look back over the past birthday posts to see where I was, and realize what an amazing year it’s been – and then I think about how I’ll look back next year and be even more amazed.

In year 45, these things happened:
  • I published 5 books.
  • I started and completed the first part (Bachelor’s degree) of a Metaphysical Ph. D program with the University of Sedona.
  • I started an author website for myself (AliceLangholt.com).
  • I became certified to officiate weddings (I’m booked for two weddings in 2016!)
  • I created a new idea to make 2016 more meaningful for everyone.
  • One daughter became a Bat Mitzvah (I threw the party – that was a lot of planning!)
  • Another daughter spent a month at Brandeis University over the summer.
  • I made it through a season as a Marching Band Mom.
  • My son started going to a magnet middle school for the highly gifted student.
  • I went to Iowa on a Transcendental Meditation Retreat.
  • I was in a musical with all four kids and my husband.
  • And lots, lots more. What an amazing year!!

I also started realizing some deep, spiritual things about life. That’s the biggest part for me. My studies, and introspection, have led me to understand that there is a true essence of who we are. This true essence is not our thoughts, not our feelings, not our bodies. It’s not our experiences, or even our gifts and talents. All of those are like clouds- they pass along. What stays? What is underneath all of that? The part that’s left is the part that I am when I’m offering Reiki to another person – because that’s the part that connects us all to each other. It’s not a part, really, it’s the real me. Bigger than any perception of individuality.


And so, I ask myself, what IS this real me made of? What characteristics does it have? It is not emotions, thoughts, or matter. What IS it? 

Love. It’s love. 

I know this because from a deep, spiritual place of knowing, comes the understanding that Love is what heals. Love is what soothes. Love is what we are when we’re doing and being our very best selves. 

A few months ago, I woke in the morning with the words, “Live Love” in my mind. I turned those words over and over. The real me is Love, so that’s who should live AS me. This Love, it’s infinite. 

I started to think of a design. An infinity sign, with the words Live Love entwined at the “v”. I sketched it out, and sent it to a graphic artist.

And… 
Yesterday, I got my first (and probably my only) tattoo. I did this because I want to wear my biggest, strongest insight and value. I want it to remind me daily, in its beauty and message, of who I am, so I can always come back to BEing Love.

Here it is (this is a real picture of my arm, with fresh tattoo):
My first tattoo.
It stung a bit, but didn’t hurt as much as I was afraid it might. I have also been applying Reiki liberally to help it heal, along with the other care instructions my artist gave me.

Something even nicer is that my husband, Evan, got his first tattoo too. He got an OM symbol, chosen for the same basic reason – because he meditates, and the word OM represents the sound that is all things – the infinite. This is his own way of expressing it. We both got tattoos placed a couple inches below the wrist. And we did it together. So we’re sharing another bonding experience – and I love that.

Immediately after getting the tattoo, I met a new Reiki client at my office for a session. It was wonderful for us both. Last night, I took my daughters out to dinner (the guys were volunteering for the Salvation Army Angels and then at the basketball game at Verizon Center). Right before I paid the tab, an amount just more than my tab arrived in my paypal account. I was blessed, at the perfect time, with the opportunity to send a distance healing. 

So far, 46 is turning out to be an epic year. 
Reiki Awakening Reiki blog by Alice Langholt

We are all God

Posted on by Alice Langholt

I made this video to express how I feel about spirituality – the Big Picture, so to speak, and all of the thoughts that I have about how things fit together – life, its meaning, our connection to each other, God, and the Universe, time, and otherworldly beings. It’s pretty packed. 

I think that I could probably make more videos that expand on ideas presented here, but I wanted to ask your opinion about this, and how this video strikes you.

Thank you, Namaste.
Peace. Love.

Reiki Awakening Reiki blog by Alice Langholt

This Blessed Life

Posted on by Alice Langholt

Recently, I watched this most incredible video:

I absolutely love this. And, I guess it stuck with me. Because I found myself applying this perspective to my so-called problems. If you have four minutes now or after reading this post, watch it. You’ll be so glad you did.

I’ll summarize and interpret some of the points that sunk into my soul here:

  • We are all part of the same energetic source, with our own individual strand of energy inside us which lets us experience everything, and also allows us to be part of the collective whole and an individual personality at the same time. (I love this so freaking much).
  • We’ve lived before, and will again, because that’s what it is – what we are – individual experiences of the full ONEness of everything. As time is a relative concept, and not really linear at all, we might come back next time in what we think of as the past, or the present, or the future.
  • Since we are each a light strand of the Great Light, everyone else is us too in that same way. 
These three ideas were with me. Then, last night, they took me to a further point. No doubt I’ve lived before in a less ideal life circumstance. Maybe I lived in a country with less food, resources, or violence. Maybe I was sick, or in pain, or injured. Maybe I died young or lost a loved one early. Doubtless some incarnation of me had experiences like this. They are too common throughout history for me to not to have lived them. 

I thought about this. And I thought about my life now. 

I’m living in a really nice house, in a very nice neighborhood near a park, good schools, and good people. There is plentiful food, running water, electricity, and a car for my use. My husband has a good job, I love my work, and our four kids are healthy and intelligent. 

In light of all of the possible lifetimes I could have been living in right now, this one is on the fantastic side.

At this point, a big sigh of relief and gratitude came over me. 

Last night, my husband and I had been discussing money allocations – you know, paying bills – the dreaded and often stressful juggle that happens to many families like us. I saw my husband’s frown, the one he’s been wearing all too often lately. The one that says that besides this, he’s thinking about stresses at work, deadlines, issues, and the things that the person in charge (him) has to solve. I felt the weight of his worry. 

And then I remembered this video. 

And, suddenly, I couldn’t worry about anything. All I can do is to be so freaking grateful for my problems right now. Because, this lifetime is a relief. It’s a wonderful blessing. It’s fantastic. 

I’m feeling different now. Like everything is vibrating with a reason to be grateful. I can’t even go into the bathroom without being grateful for flush toilets and toilet paper. I can’t look at my kids without being amazed that they are so perfect in every way (even when they’re messing up, yelling at each other, or being generally loud). I can’t look at the fruit on the counter, the cushions on the couch, the shoes carelessly tossed on the kitchen floor, without just being grateful that I have them. 

And every time I see a stranger, I see something different now- I see a light inside their eyes. Beyond our differences in appearance, I feel a strange recognition. Because we’re all living this experience. 

And now, my experience is illuminated. It’s shining and shimmering with gratitude, with love, and with knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that I’ve got to enjoy every second of this blessed life. 
Reiki Awakening Reiki blog by Alice Langholt

Is Mercury Making Things Backwards, or Do I Have that in Reverse?

Posted on by Alice Langholt

It’s here again. I’m talking about Mercury Retrograde. Within the past year, I’ve learned about Mercury Retrograde, having never heard of it before that. Since I’ve known about it… I’m pausing here to give you the scoop in case this is your first time hearing about it! Mercury Retrograde is a 3-week period that happens a few times a year in which it looks as if Mercury is moving “backwards” in its celestial path. During the time that this happens, there seem to be a higher incidence of delays, technical glitches, and slowdowns in communication. Now back to your regularly scheduled blog post… 

Since I’ve known about Mercury Retrograde, it seems that a spotlight is shining on all of the delays, technical glitches, and communication gaps that happen during this period every time. And I’m wondering about it. Here’s what I’m wondering.
  • The slight over-sensitivity to all things wonky is making these incidents memorable. What I mean is, because I know it’s Mercury Retrograde, does that make me more aware of their existence, and subsequently more annoyed by them? Last Mercury Retrograde, I felt like my life was completely kicked around. My computer had issues, my website had issues, my phone had issues, payments were delayed…and I was exhausted from it all. Everything that happened, I remember blaming on Mercury Retrograde. When it was over, things seemed to be back to normal. But back to normal doesn’t preclude some things going wrong. That happens. But they don’t seem to have as much of an impact when I’m not so hyper aware of them.
  • Is my awareness that it’s Mercury Retrograde, and I know that things could go extra-glitchy, actually manifesting these extra glitches? I have learned that the energy of expectation is a powerful creator. I know that first hand. So if I’m expecting glitches, does that logically mean of course that’s what I’ll be getting?
  • Our minds are naturally prone to trying to make sense out of life. We look for patterns and derive meaning from them. When things are consistent or predictable, we feel safe and like the world has order. So wrapping a lot of chaos into a package labeled “Mercury Retrograde Strikes Again” is somehow reassuring. But are these things really happening because of the shift in planetary motion, or are we just organizing them that way in our little insecure brains?
  • When I lived in my blissfully ignorant about all things Mercury Retrograde state, I don’t recall having such intense 3 weeks of wonky. Maybe I should try ignoring astrological warnings for a change. My husband reads the daily horoscope in the paper. He used to get kinda discouraged at the start of the day if the horoscope predicted a mediocre or unpleasant day. I would tell him to not read it, because it would set him up for that kind of day. It’s a cause and effect idea, or maybe the chicken and the egg. Is the planetary placement setting us up for a problematic day, or is knowing about it setting us up? Or if we have a strangely glitchy day, should we read the horoscope then to try to make sense of the seeming randomness?

I welcome any input on this possibly backward reasoning.

Reiki Awakening Reiki blog by Alice Langholt

Everything is Here

Posted on by Alice Langholt

Last month, I went to a training in Controlled Remote Viewing. CRV is a technique that was developed and used by the military to get information about classified things by using the intuition in a very controlled, structured way. It’s also been known as “psychic spying.” I was trained in CRV with a group that was interested in its applications for healing. 


I learned basic CRV, yes. But the real lesson that came from the training is much more meaningful to me. Here’s what I have realized:


1) All of the information about everything -really EVERYTHING- that there is to know about everything is here, right around us. 
2) We can find out everything we want to know by learning to ask and learning to translate the information we receive.
3) Scanning someone’s energy, psychic channeling, giving tarot or card readings, CRV, tuning in—these are all methods of asking for information and receiving that information.
4) Translating is how we bring the information we want to know into our conscious mind through our intuition. (From the right brain to the left).
5) There are many ways of learning to sense and translate this information into understandable answers. All we need to do is decide which method to learn and practice. 


When I work with Reiki, I use my hands. My intuition gives me messages through my tactile senses – called being clairsentient – which comes in the form of physical sensations of tingles, warmth, prickles, etc. Each sensation has a meaning, and through experience, I’m learning to understand what each one means. For example, one sort of tingle means a person is experiencing grief. One sort of prickle means there is pain in the area. Moving my hand over someone while Reiki is flowing allows me to receive these messages via my tingles – and I translate the messages into meaning that I can understand and discuss with my Reiki client. The tingles are the language of my intuition, and I’m learning it as a baby learns to talk -by being immersed in it and learning to discern the different nuances and attach meaning to them. 


When I’m scanning someone’s energy, I’m asking for information about the state of the person’s energy. Where is there pain, blockages, overactivity, etc.? This information comes to me, I translate it, and can dialogue with my client about what I sense. I feel the sensations change during the session and I know that the recipient has received what was needed for this session.


CRV is a process of asking for information too. There is a Target, which represents the information the viewer wants to receive details about. The viewer doesn’t know much, if anything about the Target at the start, and so all information received via the intuition is written down, and through the process of relaxing, tuning in, and writing, lots of information comes forth about the target. It’s a very structured way of doing the same thing – asking for information and bringing it onto the paper. It’s not psychic training – it’s learning a language. They call it a martial art. But it’s still the same idea – the information is out there and we can retrieve it.


Try asking a question at the start of the day, and ask for the answer to become apparent to you by the end of the day. Don’t ask the BIG question – don’t ask for The Meaning of Life, for example – but something simple as “Should we have chicken or fish for dinner?” and don’t forget to add that you’d like to have signs showing you the best answer by the late afternoon. Then just go about your day. At some point, you’ll notice something. Either a chicken or a fish reference will pop into your mind or experience. For example, a chicken restaurant commercial will come on the radio as soon as you turn it on. Or someone with a fish symbol on his car will be driving directly in front of you. And you’ll notice. That’s the important part. This is just another way of asking for specific information and receiving it. (And it’s fun!)


I teach my students to learn to identify and then tune in to their clairs – their own naturally strong way of receiving intuitive information. Because it’s here. 


It’s all here.

Reiki Awakening Reiki blog by Alice Langholt

42 – The Meaning of Life

Posted on by Alice Langholt

In the first novel and radio series, a group of hyper-intelligent pan-dimensional beings demand to learn the Ultimate Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, The Universe, and Everything from the supercomputer, Deep Thought, specially built for this purpose. It takes Deep Thought 7½ million years to compute and check the answer, which turns out to be 42. The Ultimate Question itself is unknown. ~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrases_from_The_Hitchhiker’s_Guide_to_the_Galaxy



Today is my birthday. I’m 42. According to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, 42 is the answer to the question of the meaning of life. In the series, the reader finds out that once the answer was discovered, a supercomputer was then developed to find out what the question is. That supercomputer is called Earth, and humans are part of the program. I think that’s a pretty spiritual concept, for all its sci-fi-ness. What’s the meaning of life? We’re here to discover it. Not alone, but collectively, through our interactions – a complex series of bopping in and out of each other’s fields, lives, events and stuff.


Well, I guess this is my year.


It’s also the fourth anniversary of the start of this blog. I’m so proud to have kept a record of my journey for this long, and pretty glad to be able to go back and remember what was going through my head at various times over the past four years. My Reiki journey began four years ago, and it continues today. Thank you all for being a part of it through reading, commenting, and sharing my posts.


When my birthday’s coming, I tend to assess my life from as objective a viewpoint as I can. I think a lot of people do this around birthday time. It’s a pretty weird experience. Objectively speaking, over the last four years, I’ve centered my career more and more around sharing and teaching Reiki.


So from an outside perspective, I:

  • claim and truly believe that an invisible energy flows through me upon request
  • feel warm, soothing tingles, relief from discomfort, and emotional calm when I direct this energy towards myself
  • claim and truly believe that I can offer this invisible energy to anyone, anywhere in the world
  • demonstrate, discuss, and teach others how to work with this invisible energy
  • volunteer and get paid for offering this energy to others, who report that it helps them
am completely and utterly a passionate weirdo. At least, I would have thought so if the person I was 5 years ago met the person I am today. 

It gives me pause.

But then I consider that I also:
  • have a great husband and four fascinating and adorable kids with lots of quality family time
  • work, shop, clean, do laundry, pick up from school, make dinner
  • run an academy, which I started, and manage the business side of things along with teaching
  • wrote a book and promote it
have a semblance of a grounded, regular life. And then I breathe again, returned to feeling like I’m still a “normal” human in some respects, still the me I’ve always been, with a few super powers thrown in here and there.

Are there things I’d like to improve? Of course, doesn’t everyone have those? On my list this year, I would like:
  • to drop a few or ten pounds
  • to take more time for myself for meditation, exercise (see above), and relaxing
  • to dance more, sing more, play the piano more
  • to attract 1,000+ more students to my school
  • to have all the money my family needs to not worry about having the money we need (see above)
And of course, my blessings, for which I am very grateful:
  • Good health
  • Family nearby (my parents, my grandma, aunt and uncle who we have dinner with weekly)
  • My wonderful supportive husband and our kids who amaze us daily
  • My students who express gratitude, enthusiasm and love for their learning
  • My staff, colleagues and friends who make the Academy possible (Connie, Yancey, Amber especially)
  • My friends who help me keep things in perspective
  • The opportunity to follow this path, which as crazy as it feels sometimes when I try to see it from the outside, is exactly what I feel aligned with doing in every way possible.
And I’m also fascinated with the things I’m continuing to learn, which I’m sure will bring about more and more weird and wonderful moments this year and moving ahead:
  • noticing angels at work in my life
  • sensing and responding to guidance
  • learning new tools and techniques to strengthen my intuition
  • ways to build and grow a business that’s successful and thriving
  • making the most of these gifts – the grounded and the superhero stuff – in gratitude and humility
So…I guess that’s the 42 report – my 4th anniversary of writing this blog. 

Universe, my door is open. Welcome.

May this year move us all ever closer to finding the elusive question and enjoying the process of discovery.

A side note: in the Hitchhiker’s Guide series, the question gets discovered and it turns out to be What is six times nine? Of course mathematically, that is incorrect. The explanation given for that is: “There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.”

Indeed.


Reiki Awakening Reiki blog by Alice Langholt

Transitions and Connections

Posted on by Alice Langholt

I’d like to begin by thanking all of you for reading, and especially those who posted supportive and sympathetic comments regarding my mother-in-law’s battle with cancer. Your words were comforting and I appreciate all of you for taking the time to offer love and caring.

My mother-in-law, Lillian Langholt, passed last Saturday, August 21. She died at home, with family nearby. My mom, dad, husband, and children were at her side constantly for her last three days while she struggled with the process. We gave her love, soothing words, and Reiki as much as we could. Hospice was brought in to offer additional support. It was very hard to tell the kids that Nana was going to die. We held each other and cried after we told them. When she passed, it was somewhat of a relief because she was not actively struggling anymore. The funeral and the rest of the week happened quickly, but felt like time was moving slowly also. I guess that is the nature of such things.

My kids are doing well. They are grieving in their own ways. My oldest has been a little short-tempered lately. My son had been chewing the inside of his lip and it got swollen and infected. I took him to the dentist. He also cried in his sleep one night and I held him in my bed, giving Reiki to help him. He didn’t remember it in the morning. My youngest daughter had some potty issues – some accidents that were uncharacteristic of her. We understand. We know it’s a process that will take time to heal.

One thing that I know has been most powerful from the experience is that my kids will always know the value of what you do for family. No matter how little or much my mother-in-law needed us, we were there for her. There were no questions. We were there. Every day, as long as she needed, until it was round-the-clock and even then. We were there. My kids didn’t want to leave her side, even when she couldn’t acknowledge their presence for more than a few seconds at a time. They saw, lived, and understood that this is how a family cares for each other. I am moved and grateful for the opportunity to instill this value through our actions.

There is yet much to do in terms of logistical follow-up that will take probably close to a year. The house, all the stuff in it, leftover bills and accounts, paperwork. Many projects await, and we are dedicating a portion of each day to starting to work on it.

We are also grateful that Evan had this time to be able to devote to caring for his mom, as I mentioned in previous posts. Perhaps now he will be in the right alignment for the perfect job and him to connect. Divine timing. He will never have the guilt that would have come from needing to work, not having vacation time, while his mom needed him. He was there. It’s a blessing.

Interesting was that the night before her funeral, I was online and a friend who I hadn’t talked to in a while suddenly intiated a chat with me to tell me that she was in labor. I wished her blessings on her birth experience (she had a healthy and beautiful baby boy later that evening), and was truly thankful that the perfect timing of her chat was there to remind me that life begins anew, even as one life is over.

And due to the series of events this past week, I’ve had the opportunity to do some thinking about life, death and transition. I’ve come to some conclusions that I would like to share. As always, it’s a work in progress, as life is a journey of learning. This is where my thoughts have landed me:

The soul is a part of Source – we are ONE – our soul is our God aspect. It is housed in the body so we can experience life, but not separate – ever -from Source.

The feeling of being separate is an illusion so we can experience life in physical form. It’s a gift.

Meditative practices tune us into the awareness of ourselves as One, but we have to be grounded also, so we can experience life in this body we are gifted with as long as we can.

Physical sensations are not available to the spiritual aspect of ourselves. This is the gift of life:
to feel
to experience
to sense,taste, touch, love,
relate to others.

Embrace this gift and you show appreciation for it.
live, learn, love
this is the meaning of life (in my humble opinion.)

So LIVE. Embrace the gift of life in this physical form. Death is a separation from the physical form. It is not the end, but it is a separation from the chance to live in this physical world. One can live a balanced life by experiencing and appreciating the beauty of life we feel through our earth-bound five senses, and also sensing and appreciating our Source-selves through meditative practices that help us renew our awareness of this connection. For me, Reiki does this and is even more profoundly meaningful for me because it allows me to help others feel it too, and I can facilitate their opportunity to receive healing energy when they are receptive.

Life ends, life begins, God bless life. Amen.

Reiki Awakening Reiki blog by Alice Langholt