Protecting your peace🤍

💛Summer of Healing with Donna Marie

✨A gentle journey back to yourself✨

Summer Reflection | Week Three - Protecting your peace🤍

I have been pondering about this all week… There are moments in life when protecting your peace becomes more important than anything else.

I am not talking about shutting yourself away from the world forever or pretending everything is fine. What I mean is recognising those times when life feels overwhelming, when your mind is racing, your emotions are all over the place and your energy feels as though it's leaking away faster than you can replenish it.

You all know how I like to keep it real with my writing and if I'm totally honest, that's exactly where I am myself at the moment.  I'm in limbo waiting for more appointments to come through, living with uncertainty and at the same time trying to manage a body that isn’t always cooperating with the plans I’ve made (or want to make!).

Over the past few years I have learnt that uncertainty and overwhelm is just exhausting. It's not always the physical symptoms that drain you the most, it's the constant wondering, the waiting, the overthinking and the endless "what ifs" that are sitting there quietly in the background, taking up space in your mind - whether you invite them in or not!

When I feel like this, I will be honest my first instinct isn't always the healthiest one. 🫣 I often withdraw and become quiet, I find myself reacting to the slightest thing because my nervous system is in complete overdrive. I tell myself I'll go for a walk later or I will spend some time in the garden once I've finished everything else that needs doing.

I know exactly what can help me, yet when I'm completely exhausted even those simple things that I know will help can feel like another job on an already overwhelming list of things to do.

✨Perhaps you've found yourself feeling like that too (I know by talking to many of my clients that I am not alone in feeling this way).

But… then something inside me usually reminds me to stop… 

A few days ago I made myself take a mug of herbal tea into the garden, kicked off my shoes, stood barefoot on the grass and just... stopped. With no phone, no to-do list, no thinking about appointments or work or everything else that needed my attention - I just listened to the birds singing around me,  I watched the bees moving from flower to flower and felt the warmth of the sun on my face.

It was only a few minutes, but for those few minutes my mind became quiet. Nothing had changed as such, the uncertainty was still there - but I felt different in myself.

Peace hadn't arrived because my circumstances had changed. It arrived because I'd finally allowed myself to be present instead of trying to solve and do everything.

That was exactly what this week's Energy Whisper, Dove Spirit🕊️ – Be peace, reminded me of. (I so often need to see these cards as a little reminder as much as you do!)

Peace isn't something we find once life becomes easier, it's something we choose to create, even in the middle of uncertainty and sometimes chaos.

Protecting our peace also means listening to our bodies. Mine has become very good at telling me when I've reached my limit. Sometimes it’s a gentle whispers through tiredness. Other times it shouts through pain, overwhelm or tears that seem to come from nowhere. I've learnt that these aren't signs of weakness; they're messages asking me (or should I say telling me!)  to slow down and pay attention.

One of the greatest gifts Reiki has given me is the ability and awareness to check back in with myself. My self-Reiki practice is where I can have a quiet conversation with my own body and see what is going on. It doesn't magically make everything disappear, but it helps me soften, breathe and remember that healing isn't about fighting against myself – it’s about being kind and supportive to myself.

After doing a crystal energy healing session on a client at the weekend, I have found myself being pulled back into my crystals too. Sometimes I simply sit holding one whilst I breathe or I take one to bed with me and place it under my pillow. There's something incredibly comforting about creating that little ritual, almost like saying to myself, "You've got this. One breath at a time."

And then of course there is dancing.  If you've followed me for a while, you'll know how much I love to dance. Not because I'm any good at it, but because it makes me feel alive.

Nobody ever tells us as we are growing up (or even as an adult) that it's okay to shake our bodies, to move the emotions that have become trapped inside us, or even to scream into a cushion if that's what we need. We spend so much time trying to hold everything together so tight that we forget our bodies need a release. Emotion is energy in motion, and if we never allow it to move, it often settles somewhere within us instead.

I love to put my favourite songs on, dance around the garden with the birds as my audience and don't give a second thought to what anyone else might think. I might cry, laugh or sometimes even do both in the space of one song. 😊

But I have to say that every single time, I feel so much lighter afterwards, alive and that's what protecting my peace looks like.  It doesn’t have to be perfect or even done every day - it’s the doing that matters. Even years later on this healing journey  of mine I am learning and I still have to remind myself to practise what I so often encourage my clients to do.

But I suppose that's the real lesson - healing isn't about getting it right all the time. It's about noticing when you've wandered away from yourself and then gently finding your way back again.

☀️As we continue our Summer of Healing, I'd love to leave you with this question...

✨What brings you back to yourself?✨

✖️Not what social media says you should do.

✖️Not what works for somebody else.

✔️What genuinely helps you feel calmer, lighter and more like yourself again?

This week is your invitation to protect your own peace.

Not because the world will suddenly become quieter, but because you deserve to feel at home within yourself, whatever life is asking of you.

💛Donna Marie’s Summer Soul Practice

This week, choose one thing that helps you reconnect with yourself. It might be sitting in the sunshine with a cup of tea, dancing around your kitchen, spending five minutes barefoot on the grass or simply placing your hands on your heart and taking three slow breaths.

There is no right or wrong way - only your own way💚

✏️ Journal Prompt

➡️When do I feel most like myself?

➡️What is my body trying to tell me that I haven't been listening to?

🌈 Crystal Companions

Blue Lace Agate 🩵 bringing calm, peaceful communication and emotional balance.

Selenite🤍 helping to clear your energy and create space for stillness and clarity.

✨Affirmation

"I honour my energy, protect my peace and trust that I already carry everything I need within me."

Love & light,

Donna Marie💚✨