EPISODE 075: The Holistic Power of Pause with Jackie Duffey

Reflexologist, Energy Medicine Practitioner & Reiki Master, Jackie Duffey, talks to us about the holistic power of pausing in our lives.
She explains the benefits of taking time out to just be. Self-care, Jackie says, is vital, as is caring for the whole of our body, our mind and our spirit so that we can begin to find balance and allow our energy to freely flow.

Jackie discusses how she works from the heart with a holistic approach, to bring about the highest quality of care. She explains some of the techniques she uses, which are always tailored to an individual’s needs, helping her clients achieve relief from chronic pain and stress, and guiding them to open up to their own intuition to receive spiritual direction.

This Week’s Episode

Episode 75 Resources

Here are some resources referred to in Episode 75, which you may find helpful.

Jackie Duffey Website

Jackie Duffey Email

Instagram @JackieDuffey_Medium

Facebook: Jackie Duffey Medium

The Definition of Reflexology:
Reflexology is a method of manual techniques, such as thumb and finger walking, hook and backup, and rotating on a point applied to specific reflex areas involving reflex maps resembling the human body found predominantly on the feet and hands. The techniques applied stimulate the complex neural pathways linking body systems and supporting the body’s efforts to function optimally.

Foot reflexology is based upon the premise that there are Zones and reflexology areas in the feet and hands which correspond to all body parts.

Reflexology’s benefits are that it promotes balance and normalization of the body naturally, reduces stress and brings about relaxation and improves circulation and the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to the cells.

About Psychic Matters Podcasts

Ann Théato, CSNUt, Psychic, Medium and Spiritual Tutor, investigates psychic development, mediumship techniques, and paranormal science, so that you can come to understand your own innate psychic ability and expand your knowledge, whilst learning to develop a curious mind.

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PM 075

Reflexologist, Energy Medicine Practitioner & Reiki Master, Jackie Duffey, talks to us about the holistic power of pausing in our lives.  

She explains the benefits of taking time out to just be.  Self-care, Jackie says, is vital, as is caring for the whole of our body, our mind and our spirit so that we can begin to find balance and allow our energy to freely flow. 

Jackie discusses how she works from the heart with a holistic approach, to bring about the highest quality of care.  She explains some of the techniques she uses, which are always tailored to an individual’s needs, helping her clients achieve relief from chronic pain and stress, and guiding them to open up to their own intuition to receive spiritual direction.

You’ll Learn

• The importance of taking time for yourself
• How to set healthy boundaries
• Why trust is so important
• The benefits of good breathing technique
• Understanding the expansive soul
• The importance of finding balance
• How to look out for signs and symbols
• Why we need a higher energy vibration to heal
• Why saying no is a love vibration
  
  

TRANSCRIPT

Ann

Hello everybody my name is Ann Théato and welcome to Episode 75 of the Psychic Matters podcast!   Don’t forget to subscribe to the show so you don’t miss out on any upcoming episodes and if you could leave me a WRITTEN REVIEW, that would be amazing – you can do that by going to my website anntheato.com and clicking on the podcast tab.

Good news on my leg – I’m out of my walking boot after just 5 and a half weeks!  My medical team were delighted with the way my bone was healing and told me I could leave my walking boot behind.  So, it’s really important for me to extend my gratitude to every single one of you who sent healing my way – I really did feel that calm, that love and the grace of healing energy very often during my 5.5 weeks of lying on my bed with my leg propped up on a pillow.  And, gloriously, your healing has obviously worked, incredibly well, as I am now up and about, hobbling of course still, but healing beautifully.   Thanks also to the amazing healing energy sent to me by my next guest – Jackie Duffey, who very kindly gave me a private healing session – online, just before our podcast interview – and that session was INCREDIBLE.  If you get a chance to book in with her, I can highly highly recommend her.

The title of this podcast is The Holistic Power of Pause – how many times do we pause in our lives?  I baulked at the very thought of pause – horrendous – I like to go full steam ahead, no stopping, 100 miles an hour in all areas, and the only way the spirit world were going to get me to slow down and enforce me to pause in my life was to create a scenario like the one I have just experienced.  I found it hard but very necessary.  A time to take stock, work out what is important and realign with my life’s purpose.

My guest today, Jackie Duffey is here to talk to us about the holistic power of pausing in our lifetime – a time to review all that we have and taking time to just be.

Ann 

I’m very excited to be in the studio today with my next guest. This lady is a certified psychic and evidential medium. She also works with trance mediumship. She’s a soul worker and an energy medicine practitioner as well as a Reiki Master, and a reflexologist. Multi-talented energy healer. Jackie Duffy is with me in the Psychic Matters studio. Jackie, welcome to Psychic Matters.

Jackie 

Oh, hello. And it’s lovely to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Ann 

It’s such a pleasure, Jackie, it’s really great to see you. I saw you a couple of days ago on Zoom, where we had our little pre-interview chit chat about the podcast and what we might cover. And you were so kind because you gave me a most beautiful energy healing. And I have benefited so much from that because, a lot of my listeners know that I broke my leg a couple of weeks ago, and and I’m, I was so grateful for that healing. And one of the things you said to me, before you gave me that healing, was that you yourself had been rather ill. And we spoke about the importance of looking after ourselves when we’re working in this field. So, maybe you could take that up and explain to us why you feel it’s so important that we look after ourselves.

Jackie 

Yes, Ann, thanks for that question. Yes, the last year for me, has been a real journey. You know, I’m a full-time psychic medium, I have my own wellness practice, here in Cape Cod. And it’s very busy practice. And I’m also a mother, I have a family. I’m a mother of a 10-year-old, so very busy at all times. And at the end of last year, I got extremely sick with an unknown illness, I was very, very busy with my work. And one night, I just basically felt like I was in a puddle. And I said to spirit, I said, I can’t work like this, I need to figure this out, I need to find the balance in my life. I was just absolutely exhausted at all parts and feeling very rundown. And then the next day went and got a flu shot. And within a few hours, I was in the ER. And with excruciating head pain, like my, my head was totally on fire. And this was a real start of a journey for me, that I feel like I’ve finally come full circle with. Through many, many tests and MRIs on my brain and on my neck for many, many months, still, nobody could find out what was causing the pain. And this pain continued on for three or four months, until I was very fortunate to meet with a nurse practitioner, who accidentally by the way, came up to my office while I was sitting in there. And I had cancelled all my clients for three months but happened to be in my office and I hadn’t cancelled her appointment. And she’d actually showed up for her appointment. And I’d actually asked for an angel that morning to help me out, because there was no dissipation in this pain, but nobody could figure out what was going on. And she came in and she said, well, you’re in my care now, I’m going to help you. And she got me into a great neurologist. And it was there that I was finally sort of diagnosed with a form of meningitis. And I started getting the care I needed. But through this whole process, I started having a real deeper connection with spirit on a very different level. I thanked Spirit every day for what I was going through, because I really felt within myself that it was supposed to happen, to show me something. I’d asked and I’d received. And unfortunately, I was like really? This?  I didn’t ask for this. So, I started going on this journey with spirit to where I am today, feeling much better. And part of this journey was a realisation of how important it is as a medium to take care of ourselves to not burn out. Because if we don’t take care of ourselves, how can we truly be in the flow of spirit. And that goes both ways, not just connecting the spirit for those who come and seek us. But to connect with spirit within ourselves in our daily life in our family life in our school runs, in our being a human, and it’s finding the balance between the two. And I feel that I wasn’t finding that balance. And now I’ve come in through full circle. I’ve definitely started to find the balance within myself and my work, as busy as it is on both ends.

Ann 

How have you found that balance then Jackie, because I feel quite envious. I find it difficult, you know, because many of us are self-employed. And we’re so on the go all the time. And there’s so much to do always. And with someone like yourself, who’s a parent of a young child, you’ve got your family commitments as well, on top of that, where are you finding time to connect with spirit? And how are you doing that? So, give us some inspiration, how we might follow in your footsteps.

Jackie 

I’m finding the balance with really self-care. And when I talk about self-care, I talk about this with my clients. And everyone that I see, it’s important to take care of our own inner being our soul, our light, our energy. And there are many ways to do this. But it’s really important to find that time. Now, I actually just did a meditation course just recently. And the instructor was very helpful in mentioning about, it takes five minutes, just five minutes of your day, to go inward, five minutes to just close your eyes. And take a moment just to focus on breath. And it’s very true. And if I don’t, if I do anything in my day, I definitely do that. But what I also found was that I’m very lucky, I live in Cape Cod, I’m surrounded by nature, even if I just sit outside first thing in the morning and have my coffee. And just to take a moment to bring in that energy, that frequency of nature, it sets me right for the whole day. If I have extra time, I’ll go for a walk. But I find I have to find that quiet time in the day within myself and my surroundings. And it is hard because you can’t guarantee each day is going to be the same. There’s always something new, I’m gonna have a quiet time right now. And then all of a sudden, you know, the dog’s falling down the stairs or, you know, I’m running late for the school, and there’s extra things to get, but I do find it. So, I’ve allocated that time for me.  Meditation has been key for me, even if it’s at nighttime in bed, I’ll meditate before going to sleep, I am eating better, I am drinking more water, I have taken time for myself to read. Instead of watching TV or going on to Facebook, all these things were winding down. So, it’s about being quite strict with myself, and recognising what serves me better. And with that I do feel more in the flow of things. I feel more in the flow in my whole body. And I feel better for it.

Ann 

Yeah, lovely. It sounds like you’re talking about finding moments of stillness and making sure that we are not overstimulated.

Jackie 

Yes, we are living in a world that is constantly on the go. We’re constantly accessible. It’s about setting healthy boundaries as well, which I wasn’t really doing before all this happened. I’ve always wanted to help people. It’s like the emails are going crazy, with my text they never stop. It’s either to do with school and family or it’s to do with work. And I always felt a need that had to get back in that moment to somebody, or what would they do if I haven’t got back to them within a couple of days. And I started building that anxiety within myself. And all these things piling up to do, organisation, organising my papers, organising everything around me, to feel organised, throwing things away that I don’t need. So yeah, so going back to that, I started to just focus on the present moment and not overwhelm myself with everything that was piling up, everything that I have to do. And I really became to realise that everything doesn’t have to be done in that moment, at that exact time. Because if I’m constantly on the go, how can I create space, to allow spirit to communicate, to allow spirit to connect with me, to guide me in like my own path of how I can help people, how I can be of service to spirit, to people and give fully of myself. So, setting healthy boundaries is key. And I always used to worry about that in case I would offend some somebody. But I found that actually, it doesn’t offend anyone at all. Once you set a healthy boundary in place, about times to be contacted, even on my email, and when people contact me, I do in a very nice way, I’m so busy, but your email is really important to me, but I will get back to you, but it might not be right away. So just writing that in itself was key to me. I also started online booking, which I wasn’t doing, so I was making all my appointments, one on one, but there were I realised I couldn’t do that anymore, because I didn’t have the time to organise that, and also getting people to help giving up the control. I found a lovely person who did my website and set up my online booking, finding a bookkeeper, finding other people, I’m still on search for maybe somebody else to help me. So, you know, opening up to others and asking for help. And I really felt that that’s not something I’ve done most of my life, is ask for help. I always try and do things by myself. But it’s about community and working with others and trusting in others. And so, trust is key as well. And it opens up so much more within myself and my relationships with people.  My mother had passed as well. And I hadn’t dealt with that grief. So, I never gave time for myself for my own healing as a medium to go through my own grief of losing my mum. So, I was holding so much in. And then by getting sick, I had that time to focus on healing, to focus on myself. And to release as it were things that I was keeping tight to myself energy wise. And by releasing that and going through this whole process, and realising that things take time, you don’t get healed on one day, I was hoping that maybe I would be better in a week or two, but it’s taken nearly a year. And if you told me when I was going through that back a year ago, but it would be a year, I don’t think I could have got through it. So, it’s taking each day at a time and realising it’s okay to pause. It’s okay to take a step back. There’s nothing wrong with that it’s so beneficial. It’s so good for the whole being the whole of you. And as a medium, it’s really important to take care of your vessel, your whole body, your energy body, your physical body, because then you can truly flow in that energy, and find the balance to be present for those families that we may have around us friends, have time for friends. And I really make time for my friends now. I really take a lot more time for my family. And I feel that I’m starting to find the flow between the two between work. And my human self. My human life, as I call it, I always say human self, because I always feel like my soul self is one half and my human self is the other so that you can cut me in half.

Ann 

That’s so lovely. I love that things take time because we do, we live in a very fast world where things, everybody wants something yesterday or immediately. And we we try to keep up the pace. So, I really love the fact that you said very clearly there, things take time. And they do. And it sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of restructuring your thinking over the past year, which must have been incredibly beneficial for you, and for for the way that you’re approaching your life. So, Jackie, you are an evidential medium, how did mediumship begin to manifest in your life?

Jackie 

I was working in a hospital in Chicago as a reflexologist. And I had many different clients would come and see me with many different ailments or sicknesses. And I started to see lights coming off people outside of myself, not in my mind. And I started to really tune into, shall we say, a feeling within myself that there was something else beyond myself that was helping these people. And then when I actually moved from Chicago moved to The Cape, I set up my own practice here for reflexology and massage and energy healing. And I had a woman started to come and see me who was going through radiation and chemotherapy, and she had stage four cancer, and she came to see me for reflexology just to help her go through these treatments. And we went on a real journey together for two years. She used to come once a week, I started to see colours, I started to see more images in my mind. I’d see so much in the sessions with her just by touching her feet. But I wouldn’t relay this to her. It was just something I would work with while doing her sessions. And she found the sessions very beneficial. And she started to say I see these colours. I see these visions, she started to see what I was seeing, while we started to work together. And she loved to come to the sessions because she used to get excited about what might come about today. So, she started to open up with her own life her own journey and her own fight against cancer. And as she did, I started to open up more to the voices, the feelings, the tingles, everything that started to happen when I was in her presence. And one day, I heard a voice in my head that told me it was her mother. And she gave me her name. And I really questioned it. Because I thought maybe I was just making it up. And I said, okay, well, you’ve got to give me more than that. For if I’m going to say this to my client, I’m really going to have to know something else. So, she said, tell her I know, she lost her wedding ring yesterday. So, I was like, okay, so I plucked up the courage at the end of the session and said, asked her permission, would you mind? I feel like I have somebody here for you. Would you be open to it? She said, she’d absolutely be open to it. So, I said, I feel like I have a mother in spirit. She gave me her name. And that was a mother’s name. She had her mother in spirit. And they said, she said, you lost your wedding ring yesterday. Well, she jumped off the table. She’s like, Oh, my God. I did, I did. And I was like, oh, my God, this is really something. So, in that moment, we both knew that we were both dealing with something else. And as she journeyed towards, sadly, she passed in that journey, up to the moment she passed, I was with her every step of the way. And in that journey leading up to her death, it gave her comfort to know that her mom was with her. But there is something else. And she used to say to me, promise me that when I go, you’ll hear me and I was like, you’ll find a way. I’ll hear you don’t worry. And I said, and she said, I’m going to send you a sign. And I said, well, you better do, and she said I don’t know what it is yet, but I’m going to send it to you. And it was January, and I was on my way to the hospital. And I was with a most nights that week just to give her some reflexology, some comfort. And I heard her voice in my head, say, can you hear me? And I said, I was driving the car and I pulled over because I was like, yes, I hear you. And I could feel her soul go right through me. And she was laughing. And she was excited to say, oh, my God, you can hear me, and I was like, I can hear you. And within a minute my phone went, and it was her husband and said she just passed. And that connection stayed with me. So, I knew then that I had to move forward with this. What next? How, how do I go about this, because she was really the only person I opened up to about my connection with spirit. But I knew I had to do more with it. So then I went on my own journey of reading, finding books, then finding there were other mediums and lucky that I’m on the East Coast, there seems to be a lot of us here, and found some courses to go on, and started opening up to spirit, not only in mediumship, but also in working with healing and energy work and Reiki, everything seems to amplify more, the more that I’ve been on this journey. And I see mediumship is such a huge aspect of healing work. It’s everything. It’s that beautiful energy that transmits through us whether it’s coming through us with energy through our bodies and our hands. And it’s also coming through with our connection to spirit, when you do readings or psychic work. And I feel so honoured and humbled to be able to do this work.  I couldn’t think of anything else to do. But I always in my heart, I’m grateful to the journey that I had with my client. And I feel her presence around me often, as I keep on my journey and my learning. Because it’s really important to keep learning, to keep going through things. And I think we’re all on our own individual personal journeys with this with mediumship. And there isn’t one rule fits all. So, it’s really important to go with your instincts and how you connect, and how spirit connects with you. And to really trust, trust is key. And I always trust spirit. There was a time when I thought I wouldn’t be able to do a reading how could I possibly do a reading if I wasn’t touching someone’s feet? Because I used to feel messages would come through when I would touch somebody. So, it took a while for me to break away from that because I trusted spirit and took myself out of the picture as it were, what anyone else would think or what if I get it wrong. Things started to flow even more. So now I just sit, and I relax, and I trust, and I really enjoy it. I know that I’m finally on the right path in my life to be of service to spirit to those who come and find me, and I really enjoy it. If you told me even 10 years ago that I’d be a psychic medium right now I would have laughed, I would have gone, what?!

Ann 

I love the story. And thank you for sharing it with us about that very touching relationship you had with your client. And I’m sure that was hard to speak about, in some ways, because it feels like that the pair of you made a very, very special bond there. So, thank you for sharing that story with everybody. And when you spoke about her saying, you will hear me, you will hear me, I will I will let you know once I’ve gone. I understand that because I had an aunt who was absolutely like my mother to me. She was absolutely beautiful. And, well she hated absolutely everybody in the world actually, including her husband, but she liked me. And I liked her. But when she passed away, she lived on her own. And I used to say to her, how will I know when you’ve gone? I’ll never know. She said, I’ll let you know, I’ll let you know. And sure enough on the morning that she passed away, I woke up something like four in the morning, I could hear her just calling my name. Ann, but it was like she was standing right the way down the other end of the road. And I could barely hear my name being called. And I thought she’s gone. That’s how she’s letting me know. It was barely there. But it was there.  It was very specific. So yeah, very interesting. It brought that to my mind. So, Jackie, going back to your childhood, then you, did you ever have any, anything happen as psychically as a child or mediumistically as a child? Or would, did that only come to you later in life?

Jackie 

Well, I grew up in a family, my mum was an atheist. My dad was somewhat of a Christian. And I went to a very religious school. And I was actually fascinated with the Bible, at a young age, and all the miracles and everything in the Bible. And something resonated with me about you know, visions, and I used to get a lot of visions about things where, you know, I would think of somebody that would show up at the house, or I knew when my uncle had passed before he as he passed, if you recall the space shuttle going up, I remember the day before I’d I’d had a vision where I said to my mum, like, I’m feeling really scared, I feel like a rocket’s going to blow up. And the next day the space shuttle blew up. And I remember when that happened, because I was watching that on TV. And I was young, I was so upset, not only with what happened, I watched it live. But the fact that I’d known something the day before. So, there was all these things going on. And my mum and dad were very shut off from it, I would talk about things, and they would just you know, like, oh, stop being silly, stop making things up. But there was always things going on in the house. And even my parents experienced those things. Yeah, I remember when my uncle died, I’d woken up in the night and started crying. And I said to my mum, I really miss Uncle Fred and we haven’t spoken to him, it’s like three in the morning. She’s like, just go back to bed. I said but I, I don’t know why I really miss him. And I was crying my eyes out. And she said just go back to bed. It’s okay, we’ll give him a call. And the phone went the next morning. And then she got the call that he passed in the night. So things like that. But I think you know; I was always open to things. But to be honest with you, I think sometimes I felt a little scared of it. So, like most people that I know, we were quite spiritual, and there’s a time in our lives where we seem to shut it down. And but I feel as children and I know, even my own daughter is very open to things. And I think we are vibrating on such a high vibration as children naturally, that we are somewhat closer to the world of spirits, the spiritual realms. And then as we get older, maybe you know we go through life, we go through our own life experiences that can affect us or we shut down a little, so I do feel there was a good 15-to-20-year period where I really felt like I had no connection. But then by leaving my career and going on a journey to do something else. And in my old job, and the agency I worked in in London, they had a lady who did reflexology she used to in the stairs in the office. And God, I used to look forward to Wednesdays because she would come on a Wednesday and I was first on the list every time, it was like, I just, I don’t know what she did to my feet. But even if I had a headache, I actually slipped a disc in my back as well. And whenever she touched my feet, you know, a warm feeling would come over me and I started to drift in those sessions and go somewhere else, and it always stayed with me. So, when I decided to take a little break from my career, I went and learned about reflexology. And then that sort of led me on to learning about massage therapy and then learning about energy work and realise that it is about quieting your mind, it’s about, I started to go into a field where I would be in a quiet space working with people setting an intention to help somebody, setting an intention to hold space for somebody for their own healing. And by doing that, that’s when the connection started to open up again, in my previous busy life of go, go, go, go, go, go, go, go go. I wasn’t really connected to anything other than my work. In all honesty, you know, I married later in life, I had a child at 43. Everything sort of happened later in life. And I think these, I’m in my 50s now really, in the last sort of 15 years, is where I re-started my journey of my own healing. And I think, if you met me 15 years ago, I was a completely different person. I think many mediums, you either lose somebody, many mediums will open up to spirits after a great loss or trauma of some kind, or illness. I think when I look back on my own journey, I really started to open up to my own healing practices in studying other holistic therapies, and then doing them for myself as well. And it really opened the door up to something else. And it reopened that door that I was very connected to, as a child, I lived in the countryside, I was connected to nature, you know, my brother and sister are a lot older. So, it’s almost like an only child. So, I used to have a very wild imagination, I used to go on walks and, you know, hang out with the cows and the horses, very connected to that vibration, and very connected to another world that was around me, you know, call it an imaginary friend, as it were, you know, all those things. But to me, it was very real. And then for somebody else to sort of come along and say, oh, what you’re talking about that for, that’s not real, stop making things up, then you start to believe that and then you shut it down. But going on this journey over the years, so things recollections of my childhood have come up. And so his healing. So, I think I as a person had to go through my own healing journey, not just in my sickness last year, but also in all those years leading up to it. After leaving my old job, I really shifted and changed as a person, for the better. And in doing so, I feel now in my life, I’ve, I’m really sitting in that power of mediumship, and of service, because I’ve already gone through my own journey with it. So, I feel I can empathise with those who are at the beginning of that journey. I’m going through losses and grief. And I really enjoy this work. And I’m, and I’m still on the journey, and always will be. And things are always coming up through my work with spirit, whether it’s on doing reflexology, or Reiki or sound healing, or whether it’s doing readings, I’m always learning something from the sessions, you know, because it’s channeling in from another source. And I’m just a vessel for that.

Ann 

And you have a beautiful practice out there in Cape Cod. And it’s got a very distinct name, perhaps you’d like to tell us what the name of your practice is, and how it came about?

Jackie 

Oh, yes. Okay. So, the name of my business is The Holistic Swan. And it actually used to be called Swan Heart Wellness before that. So it sort of evolved with my work. But I really came to this name through my beautiful client who I just mentioned before, so after she passed a week have gone by, and it was the day before her funeral. And it was one of those days where the snows on the ground, but it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful sunny day. And I took my daughter who was probably about three back then. And my dog, Mildred, and I miss her too. We went for a walk and there’s this beautiful lake and it was all ice, and the sky was bright pink. And I just had a moment of reflection about her. Just looking at this beautiful evening and just feeling into it. And then all of a sudden, I started hearing the strangest noise It was like an echo. And I couldn’t work out whether it was a truck in the distance or what, but it was a real, it was so quiet where we were. It was just like a whoom whoom noise and I couldn’t see anything, and I was looking around and then out of nowhere, a swan came at eye level around the corner at us. So, I pushed my daughter on the ground, literally sat on the dog, and literally got down to close on the ground and the swan swooped and almost touched us. And then, as we turned around, we could see it going up, never went up so high in the sky, and the sky was so pink. I really felt in that moment, though it was her. I felt she’d always said she would show me a sign. And when you look into the meaning of a swan, you know, animals will come to us in many different ways to give us messages. And I’m always looking you know, if an animal crosses my path or an insect, I’m always looking for the true meaning of it. And if we look back at Swan, it really is looking at that sort of ending and a new beginning. It’s about the angelic realms, it’s about peace and transformation. And it really resonated with me that that was her saying, hello. But also, she always told me to believe in my gifts, and she made me promise. She said, promise me you’ll do this work. Promise me, you’ll keep on doing it. Because at the time I was shy about speaking about him, I was shy to use my voice as it were, you know, I was thinking, well, maybe I could just do readings in a tree and you knock three times, and then I’ll give you a reading, you know, I think many of us can get in our own ways about mediumship. But in that moment, I knew it was a sign from her. And I also knew that I had to walk on this path of mediumship. So, the swan to me, really represents that. And then also, I used to, following that, I started meditating. And I had this woman would come to me, she looked like an Indian deity. And she would always come into my meditations to work with me. And I’d always feel like my third eye and my crown open. And then I plucked up the courage to do a mediumship demonstration, my first ever one with another medium. And I was so nervous.  And then the day, we have a beautiful crystal store right down the road from us. And it’s like, it’s like a snow-white cottage. And I walked into the crystal store to go get the other medium a little gift for doing this demonstration with me and making me do it. So, as I walked in the lady in a crystal store, and I hadn’t been in there for months, she said, oh, Jackie, I’ve been waiting for you to come in. And I said, oh, really? And she said, yes, I got you something. And she brought out a crystal swan. Now I hadn’t even named my business at this point. And with the swan, she said I saw this and for some reason I thought of you. And then with that swan was a postcard, and it was Saraswathi. And Saraswathi sits on a swan. And she’s an Indian deity. And I realised in that moment that that was the image of the of the Indian deity that had been seen in all my meditations. So, in that moment, I felt that Saraswati the swan, I knew again, that it was another sign that this is what I’m supposed to do. So, this one has a real meaning to me and Ann, I know you can see me but I have swans all over my office here. And, and I live right by a lake with a lot of swans. And I find them just very peaceful beings, even though I know they have the opposite to them. But to me, it represents so much more. So that’s where my name comes from. And also, The Holistic Swan really is looking at the whole being of us, the whole of us. And it’s really important to take care of the whole of us both physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. And to be in that flow of spirit and in the work that we do. We have to take care of ourselves of a whole being to be effective.

Ann 

That’s so beautiful. I love the name of your spiritual practice and how it came about, what a wonderful story that is. It’s just beautiful. And I can see all the pictures of your swans on this Zoom call, although others can’t. She is very much surrounded by swans. So, Jackie, a lot of us carry our own grief, our own sadness, our own exhaustion from our lives. And many of us obviously don’t live near Cape Cod where you are so we can’t book an appointment with you. But is there something that we can do at home to help us to heal ourselves? Because you speak a lot a lot of your things you’ve said today have been talking about holistic, and it’s even the name of your practice The holistic Swan, the Mind, Body Spirit. So, what can we do at home, that might be a small exercise or something that we could do to help channel that healing?

Jackie 

And when we talk about mind, body, and spirit, I feel like there’s different things for each one, what I can only tell you from my own experience. So, when I was going through this journey that I was recently on, I was pretty stuck inside, couldn’t go anywhere. And I was in an immense lot of pain. But I realised that I had within myself the ability to use the practices that I use on others, for myself at home. Like, why it seems so hard, I don’t know. But I, I would sit, I would lie down, I would put my own hands on myself and ask for healing. And just allow myself to relax and focus on my breath. I really feel the breath is such an expression of who we are. So many of us, when we go through our day-to-day life, how many of us truly breathe, I mean, we go around, like in a shallow breath all day long. And particularly if we’re stressed. Truly breathing in, taking a deep inhale in, and then holding, counting, maybe to four, and then releasing.  And as you start to do this, close your eyes and imagine some imagery that feels good to you, whether it be a colour or an element, say like water or fire, whatever comes to you. Because we can tune into that language of our soul. Our soul is so expansive, it’s not just within us, it’s surrounds us. It’s part of spirits, we are spirit. So, trusting in that is key, and then let your mind go. So, your mind is then focusing not on what perhaps, is if you have physical pain, or you’re worrying about something, your mind then focuses on something else. And when our mind focuses on something else, it’s taking the mind off the issue. It’s creating space to allow healing to come in. And breath is key with this. So even if you just have a moment, just to focus on breath, or have an image of a square, say and then take an inhale on one side and exhale on the other and inhale. And then exhale, find something that helps you with breath. If it’s music, put on some music, I always recommend sound balls, because I use crystal balls and sound balls in healing sessions. And they have such a wonderful vibration. Even if it’s just something on iTunes, what really helps me and I’ll tell you the story really quick, was connecting with the Language of Spirit outside of yourself connecting with nature, even if it’s looking out of a window and softly gazing at a tree, and then imagining yourself bringing in that energy of that tree. I love trees and they find them really grounding. And it’s really important to ground and healing. Because if we’re to vibrate at a higher vibration, we need to have our energy vibrate at a higher vibration to heal. And nature has a very high vibration. And we can just connect even visually with our eyes close to a tree, that can bring in that vibration higher. But it’s about grounding ourselves. You know, it’s, it’s our foundation is the root to us. It’s the foundation in life. It’s where we if we’re grounded in, we’re able to withstand any challenges and feel secure and stable. It’s about having our basic needs met. So be aware of that. Be aware of taking time with people who make you feel happy and joyful. Be aware of the foods that you’re eating. I started to change my diet when I was sick try to nourish my body getting rest when needed. If you’re tired, it’s okay to set healthy boundaries and say no, no is a love vibration. So, if you’re busy take a minute to say no to something. It’s okay. I felt that oh gosh. You know, I haven’t worked for three months. Oh no, what will happen? Well, nothing happened. I got better and life still moves forward, and it evolves, and it gets better. Stay hopeful, stay positive. One thing that helped me was a plant. I was feeling really, really rotten. And it was after Christmas, everything seemed to be going pear-shaped actually Ann, my dog was very sick and passed away. Everything was going on. My own daughter was nine at the time. I’d gone into the dining room, and I’ve realised, and I’d had an amaryllis bulb in there. Now. I love Amaryllis plants, and I love them at Christmas time. And if you don’t know what an amaryllis is, it’s a beautiful plant, you get a bulb, it doesn’t take much work, give it a bit of water and it starts to sprout, and it has a beautiful flower. And during me being ill, I’d obviously forgot to water it. And then January, it was after Christmas, and I’ve been sick for a couple of months, still in pain. I looked at the bulb, and I thought, God, that bulb is me, it was all shriveled up, it was completely gone. And so, I should just put it in the rubbish. And my daughter was with me, and she looked at me with tears in her eyes, and she said, Mummy, are you ever going to get better? And I was holding this bulb. I just looked at her. And I said, do you know what, see this bulb? And she was like, yeah, and I said, well, I feel like this bulb right now. But you know what, I bet we can get this bulb to grow. I’m not gonna throw it away. And she looks at the bulb as if to say, well, that’s never gonna happen. So, I put some water on it. And even me, I was like, I hope this bulb grows, because if it doesn’t, you know, she’s gonna be devastated. So, I’ve gave it some water, and I put intention into the plant, I said, I am getting better, I am better. It’s using that I am, not I will, I am, I am better, I am healthy. And I put this intention into the plan. And the next day, my my daughter’s screaming and she’s going, mummy you’ve got to come down. And there was a little green sprout. And every day, that sprout got taller and taller.  And during this time, we’d seen the number two, we saw it in the clouds, it was on number plates, numbers speak to us, two kept showing up. And because my dog was sick, I was thinking, oh, God, I hope I’m not number two.  And the dog passed away, I was like, please don’t make me number two. But we kept seeing number two. And on February 2, 2022, the plant bloomed. And then it sprouted the second Sprout on that day as well. And then on February 22, 2022, the second plant bloomed. And when the first plant bloomed, the pain started to dissipate out of my head. When the second plant bloomed, it came out of my head and was just in my neck. And I knew, that through connecting with intention, through changing, I hope I will to, I am healthy, it changed my vibration within my body, it changed my way of thinking, I trusted, I didn’t have a doubt in my mind that I was going to get better. And it took still some fair few months to really truly get there. But I really feel I’ve come full circle. But it really was, you know, intention is key, focusing on something else other than what you’re going through, focusing on something positive. And trusting. I will also add with that, using a mantra really helpful. And I started writing as well through this process, expressing myself. I think a lot of what was going on with me is I kept things in so tightly, and now it needed to be released. And I feel so much lighter. And being able to express myself on paper was something I’d always always held back on. But I started to do that too. And I started to write down my mantras and they were always positive affirmations. And I really feel that the energy shifted in my body and working with the feet as a reflexologist I’m so connected to the feet. I actually love feet. Everyone’s always like, oh, I’m sorry about my feet. And I’m like, no, I love any kind of feet. Just give them to me. You know the worse the foot, the more interesting is for me actually, but the feet to me, they keep us grounded. They’re like our roots per se to the Earth where we walk on. You know, if you have pain in your foot, there really is a connection to pain in the body. And if we can stay grounded in our feet, they are like little keypads, they are taking in messages all day long. But I really feel like our energy does come through our body. And I’ve seen this when my own mother passed, was the energy as a soul started to leave her body. It gradually left through the feet and as a Reiki practitioner, I would feel the energy move up from her feet and then out through the crown of her head. And so, feel that, you know, even if anything you can do, keep your feet grounded, get in the earth get outside. And nature is really key. So, if you can even just do that, if you have a park or a garden, anything, just breathe in that energy, breathe in the birds breathing wherever you can. But it’s about shifting your vibration. If we’re in a lower vibration, and we have negative thoughts, or we feel in pain, it’s we have to trust and shift that vibration. And you can do that from your own home. And you know, surrounding yourself with things that bring you joy, the smallest things, even if it’s a good book, or a good movie, do something to lift yourself.

Ann 

Thank you, Jackie. That’s absolutely brilliant, brilliant advice. And you know, you’ve got such a compassion and a kindness about you just being in your presence is healing in itself, I feel. So, if people listening to this podcast, if somebody wanted to book a reading with you, Jackie, are you offering private readings? Are you offering courses? What have you got on offer?

Jackie 

Yes, Ann absolutely. I offer psychic mediumship readings and soul to soul guidance via Zoom. And I’ll also be announcing a selection of online courses in January. And I also do groups and individual readings. So, it doesn’t matter the size of the group, just email me, so you can email me at Jackie, at the holistic swan.com. And you can go to my website, which is www.jackieduffy.com. And let’s Duffy with an E y,

Ann 

and Jackie Jack i e,

Jackie 

That’s correct. Feel free to sign up for my newsletter and or just email me and I’ll be happy to get back to you.

Ann 

That’s fantastic. And at the beginning of our podcast interview today, Jackie I said to everybody that you gave them this beautiful healing online, if they want to experience what I experienced, which was so beautiful, and, and healing and gorgeous and a highly recommend everybody does. But are you offering that Jackie?

Jackie 

Yes, absolutely Ann, go to my website, and um, you’ll be able to sign up there. So yes, absolutely. If you wish to have that kind of session.

Ann 

Ah that’s so lovely. I do recommend everybody do that. I highly recommend everybody does that it was so, it just made me feel so calm in the moment and so loved and held. And, of course, the healing isn’t just for that moment. It carries on and it’s really enabled me to get up out of my sick bed, stop feeling sorry for myself, get my clothes back on and crack on with life. So, it’s been really, really helpful. Jackie, thank you for that.

Jackie 

I’m so pleased about that. And thank you.

Ann 

Pleasure, pleasure.  So, Jackie, we come to the end of our chit chat today. What are you doing next? You’ve got all these wonderful modalities that you work in, where is your focus now over the next six to 12 months? Where do you, where do you personally want to take your work?

Jackie 

Great question, Ann. Where I do see myself going more is in teaching. And I’m starting to write up some teaching programmes. I feel very guided with this. And I feel like working closely with spirits and just bringing in whatever Spirit brings to me each day, something else may open up. I feel that we may have our own ideas about where we’re headed. But staying open and creating space within, and I really trust in spirit and where Spirit will guide me, I’m also, I’m doing more services within the spiritualist church, and I have some spiritualist church services coming up very shortly at the end of this year and next year. And yes, I’m just going wherever spirit takes me.

Ann 

Yeah, because I think you said to me, you’re a member of the National Spiritualist Network. Is that right? And you’ve got two more services to do until you’re a qualified or recognised or certificated spiritualist medium.  Say a little bit more about that then.

Jackie 

Okay, so I’ve really been on a course for like four years with my local spiritualist church. And it’s been an amazing course and learning about all the history of spiritualism or the pioneers of spiritualism, really going into depth about healing and all aspects of this work and I found it very fascinating. And then part of this journey is to become a speaker within the spiritualist church. So, I’ve done a couple of services already. I’ve got two, no, I’ve done three and then I’ve got two more to go. And then yes, so part of my path is to be a speaker within the spiritualist church. And if you’re not familiar with that, it’s really about speaking, whatever comes through from spirit, and bringing that into the congregation, and then connecting with spirit and giving readings. And I love that aspect of this work too, because public speaking was never my forte. And I think part of this journey of healing that I’ve been on, is to find my voice. And it’s quite comforting to know that the voice that comes out, I’m being supported by that beautiful divine guidance. And that it’s really, I’m, they are using my voice to speak for them. And when I think about it that way, I’ve sort of let go of that fear of speaking in front of people. So, I’m thankful to spirit for that. It’s part another part of this journey, I think,

Ann 

Fantastic, Jackie, it has been so lovely talking to you today. Thank you so much for sharing all these aspects of your life and your work. And I know, I just know that everyone’s going to really, really enjoy this episode. Thank you so much, Jackie Duffy.

Well, I loved our conversation, and it was divine timing to be able to meet up with Jackie at this time, when I too, am experiencing in my life, the amazing benefits and Holistic Power of Pause. 

The show notes for this episode are up on my website anntheato.com along with the links and URLs mentioned – with a direct link to Jackie’s website, where you can go and book in with her for a treatment, a healing, a mediumship session or one of her amazing classes that she has got coming up in 2023. 

I will be back in two weeks’ time, until then, remember Jackie Duffey’s advice, to take care of your whole being in mind, body and spirit, set your healthy boundaries, and say no when you need to, because no is a love vibration.

My name is Ann Théato and thank you for listening to Psychic Matters.