How to find happiness

Lifestyle – Working towards a better future is the theme of New Beginnings, a day-long holistic event in Galway this month. Judy Murphy talks to the organisers.

New Beginnings, a day-long event offering people an opportunity to re-evaluate their lives and work towards a better future, will take place in the Galway Bay Hotel on Sunday, January 28, from 10.15am to 4pm.  Speakers will include seven women, all practising across a range of complementary therapies, who will share their stories and explain how each one overcame personal difficulties to live happier and more fulfilled lives.

They will explore a range of topics including anxiety, grief, depression, addictions, childhood trauma, bullying, isolation, confidence issues and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.

The event is being organised by Noreen Kiely, a life coach, hypnotherapist and reiki/energy therapist from Cork, who runs a practice on Dominick Street in Galway City.

“I was drawn to Galway to launch New Beginnings and we’ll see how it goes from here,” she says.

Living a life of focus rather than fear is one of Noreen’s mottos, and was born out of her own experience. Her daughter developed a serious auto-immune illness nine years ago and Noreen, who worked in a bank, in customer services, gave up her job to care for the 14-year-old.

“We went to different people for treatment and ended up going down the holistic route,” she explains. “That addressed the physical as well as the mental side of the illness which isn’t often addressed.”

That difficult period “was a challenge then, but now it’s a gift”. Her daughter, who has since recovered, now lives in Australia and Noreen has embarked on a new life.

She’s based in Cork, but felt drawn to work in Galway and about a year ago, rented rooms in Dominick Street from nutritionist Niamh Burke.

A complementary practitioner that Noreen had visited during her daughter’s illness had advised that she needed to heal herself before her daughter could recover. Noreen recognised the wisdom in that counsel.

“You can’t control another person’s life; you have to live your own life as well,” she remarks. So, she began a journey into herself, “into who I was and what I wanted; understanding why and how things happen”.

Her training included past-life regression therapy as well as Life-Coaching, Integrated-Energy Therapy, Reiki and, most recently, Future-Life Progression Therapy, “a dynamic waking dream therapy that allows people to tap into the future to bring back knowledge and insight that can be used to make progress”. For Noreen it makes sense.

“When we bog ourselves down in the past, we can’t move forward. Future-Life Therapy is about going into your subconscious mind, tapping into your higher or better self and it will provide the answers.”

It uses similar techniques as past-life regression but brings the person forward, rather than back, she says. It’s relatively new in Ireland and Noreen was among the first group to qualify, just over a year ago.

“Everyone’s journey is different,” she says about using it. “Some people have stuff in the past that needs clearing. Other people have done a lot already but are stuck. So many people are stuck and this can help them to move forward.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.