The Power of Reiki

Reading back over my blog entries so far this year, I can see I have already made a lot of changes in my life. Moving in with my parents, quitting alcohol and travelling to Fiji to meet like-minded writers and renew my passion for storytelling, have all been big milestones for me.

And then came reiki. A week after my trip to Fiji, I did a 2 day intensive Reiki 1 course with my wonderful meditation teacher and guru, Sara Brooke, from the Space in Between. Sara had just completed her reiki mastership and was buzzed about passing on her knowledge to some new recruits.

I have to admit that I was pretty skeptical and unsure about reiki. I've had reiki before from a few people, including Sara, and I knew that it made me feel relaxed and in a meditative state. But I guess I didn't really think that I had the power to heal others. I didn't really believe that simply laying my hands on someone would actually do anything. All I knew was that I was curious and wanted to learn more but I didn't expect any concrete outcomes from the course.

Boy was I wrong. At the end of Day 1, I was a converted woman. Leaving the workshop, I was on a high, not knowing whether I wanted to socialise or to be by myself to absorb what I had learnt that day. But getting into my car, I decided to go visit my sister and her beautiful twin girls.

Sara had mentioned to us that we may notice people or animals acting differently towards us because of a shift in our vibrational energy. The first thing I noticed when landing at my sister's front door was that her cheeky little toy poodle that normally jumps all over me and scraps his nails on my bare legs with excitement, was totally chilled out. It was incredible. Rather than having a conniption, Link calmly rubbed on my legs and then came to sit on my lap on the couch. I was very grateful because although I love the little bugger, the leg scraping and face licking does get a bit too much sometimes.

Then I went to visit Mum. She was having a very bad day. When I walked in the room, I could see the clouds on her face straight away. She told me how the family don't love her anymore and have shoved her into a nursing home because she's too much bother. I tried my usual tactic of listening, then subtly trying to change her thinking to being more positive or simply changing the topic. Then suddenly, I realised I now had a new tool in my kit.

"Mum, do you want me to do some reiki on you?"

She hardly looked at me. "Ok" she said like a stubborn teenager finally giving in to their parent's wishes.

I set my intention for a great healing session by placing my hands on her chest in a T position, allowing me to connect with her heart chakra. I then moved to her head, cradling it in my hands and closing my eyes to enter into the zone myself.

Within seconds Mum's breathing slowed, her muscles relaxed, and most importantly, SHE STOPPED TALKING. Which is always an amazing occurrence where my Mum is concerned. Normally the only things that stop her from speaking is sleeping or eating ;)

I worked on her whole body moving from her crown chakra, down to her root chakra and then below to her knees and ankles. When we were finished, I gently touched Mum on the shoulder and told her to open her eyes when she felt ready. She opened her eyes, looked at me and said, "That was amazing, love."

It was such a relief to see her calm again, smiling and zen-like. I couldn't believe that the reiki energy had brought her back to earth, allowing her some space in between the fear and anxiety.

Next, I went to visit my best friend, who has been having a hard time lately with various stresses in her life. We chatted a bit, nothing really deep or meaningful, just the usual shit we chat about. TV shows, our family, our cats. Then out it came...

"I'd love you to give me reiki sometime," she said coyly.

"What about right now?" I asked.

So then I proceeded to give my best friend reiki and all the while, her cat was chewing her hair and walking over her body, and she didn't move a muscle. She was gone. Totally in the zone.

When we finished, she could hardly open her eyes. It was like I had drugged her. "Dude, that was so good," she said. "You are so good at this."

"Nah, it wasn't me. Sara told us not to let our ego get in the way. All we are is a vessel to allow the reiki energy to flow through us and heal others. And ourselves in the process."

She laughed. I guess she's not used to me being so humble...

Anyway, the following day was Day 2 of the course, where we received our attunements and a certificate of completion. I wasn't sure if I felt as though I deserved that certificate, having only been practising reiki for two days and still feeling like a complete novice. But Sara explained that we were now about to embark on 21 days of self-healing. We had to focus on healing ourselves, before we would be ready to heal others.

That said, she encouraged us to practice on friends and family but advised that we weren't allowed to receive payment for giving reiki until we had more experience and had completed our Reiki II. I felt comforted by this, knowing that there was a right of passage and the proper guidance for practising this ancient healing modality.

So since the weekend, I have been giving myself reiki almost every day. I think I missed 3 days in total out of the 21. Two days when I was sick with a cold and one day when I was super anxious...looking back those were probably the times I needed it the most but I guess this is all part of the journey of realisation.

The 21 days are now over, so I can look back and reflect on what changes have occurred since that weekend. And they have been numerous. It is so weird but I feel as though things are starting to click into place. I've identified what's important to me and what doesn't justify my attention, such as silly confrontations at work. Or the opposite, learning to stand up for myself with people I normally let walk over me. Setting boundaries and embracing my personal power.

I have brought more balance into my life, creating more 'me time'. And I say creating because people who say they are too busy to make time for themselves or call themselves time poor, are just making excuses and in my view, being extremely arrogant. WE ALL HAVE 24 HOURS IN A DAY. WE ALL CHOOSE HOW TO SPEND THOSE HOURS.

There is no-one whose time is more important than the next person's. Saying you don't have time for something is bullshit. What you are really saying is that you don't value that activity or yourself, enough to make time.

Too busy to exercise? Get up earlier.
Too busy to eat properly? Buy some fucking carrots in your lunch hour.
Too busy to spend time with your family? Stop working so much.

Ok, I'm kind of ranting now but what I mean is, life is about choices. The world is our oyster. We can do anything we want. Be anything we want. There is no set model or formula that we have to live buy. You are only limited by your own imagination. So dream a little and let your imagination soar.

Anyway, I guess I should get more specific and actually tell you what has changed for me. Sara did tell us that there might be drastic changes after doing Reiki I and I wasn't sure if anything would happen to me, and whilst my changes haven't been drastic (eg. getting married to a guy I've known for 24 hours in a Vegas chapel), they have been big lifestyle changes.

1) I suddenly decided that I want to get up earlier and truly become a morning person. I was already getting up early for boot camp on Mondays and Wednesdays (5.30am) and Saturdays (6.30am) but I decided that what was really killing me wasn't the occasional early start, it was the fact that when I didn't have to get up early, I was playing snooze roulette with my alarm. And it was causing me to be late for work on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, not to mention feeling like utter shit on those days! To the point were I was having to increase my caffeine intake to cope.

So after googling 'how to get up early', I read one blog post from this guy who reckons that the key to getting up early is not going to bed at the same time each night. The key is getting up at the same time each morning. Even if your tired. And NOT PRESSING SNOOZE.

He recommended practising getting up in the morning during the day. Literally drawing the curtains, getting into bed, hearing the alarm going off, then turning it off and getting out of bed in one fluid motion. In your pyjamas. With your favourite teddy bar. And clean teeth.

So I thought this was kinda extreme. I didn't fancy this daytime trickery. I knew I was tough enough to do the real thing. So I decided my new getup time would be 5.15am. Every morning. Regardless of what I was doing that day. Even on Sundays.

And surprisingly, for the most part it's worked. I've refined the process after a bit of trial and error. I decided that getting up at 5.15am on the mornings that I didn't have to was a bit ridiculous, after I got up last Saturday at 5.15am, got into my workout gear, ate an apple, starting writing my novel and then became so drowsy, that I went back to sleep for 30 mins till my best friend picked me up for boot camp at 6.45am!

So now I get up at 5.15am during the week if I have boot camp or yoga and 6.30am on the other days...which brings me onto change number 2.

2) Yoga. I have signed up to do Kozen Yoga. It's amazing. Yoga is bloody hard. I'm so grateful that I already have a reasonably strong core because it is such a strenuous workout. But a peaceful one at that. I'm used to grunting and groaning and laughing hysterically at boot camp, to get through the pain but at yoga, everyone is calm and apart from the odd audible exhalation of air (from people's mouths, don't be foul!), the class is pretty much silent.

So now I am doing yoga 3 times a week which compliments boot camp because it allows me to really stretch my aching muscles. Well at the moment its making them even sorer but hopefully that will pass once my strength increases!

I have also signed up for a 28 day detox program at the yoga studio. I will do an intensive 2 hour session every Saturday in May for 5 weeks and also be given nutritional advice and smoothie recipes. I will also need to practice yoga 6 days a week...with the chance to win a 12 month membership if I do this! Bring it on baby! I love a challenge!

3) Writing almost every day. I have started carrying my laptop to and from work, writing my novel on the bus, tram and at lunchtimes when its quiet enough to take a break (which is not that often actually!) I'm only writing 2-3 pages a day but it is an amazing achievement in my mind because I am starting to conquer my negative critic, that little germ of self-doubt and sabotage, that loves to fuel my procrastinating.

I've nipped that bastard in the bud now because when I get on the bus, I play on my phone for a bit (ok, so I still procrastinate somewhat) and then I open my laptop, read myself back into the scene and start writing. I am lucky enough that my characters write the story themselves (a bit similar to the reiki energy, us writers can't afford to let our egos get in the way of creating art), so I don't really suffer from writer's block. The only block I have is when I allow myself to procrastinate.

And I have been the queen of it up until now. Actually no, the queen would be my Mum. (But I aint no princess, so let's not give me a title!) Here are some things I used to do instead of writing, which kind of takes me into point 4...

4) Reclaiming my balance in how I spend my time. Before reiki, I was aware of my lack of balance and competing priorities but I felt trapped in a cycle of commitment and lifestyle envy. I felt there was all these things I HAD TO DO FOR OTHERS and that due to my lifestyle (single, childless), I was obligated to spend my free time helping my family. And that would then reinforce my own emptiness because I didn't have my own family unit like they did.

So here's the stuff I've given up. A tiny part of me still wonders if I'm a selfish bitch, but for the most part I know I'm not. I now feel more empowered to do what I love to do, knowing that I am spreading positive energy and FOCUSING MY TIME SPENT WITH OTHERS ON QUALITY RATHER THAN QUANTITY.

ARE THE CAPLOCKS GETTING ANNOYING YET? Sorry. I'm not shouting really, I promise.

Stuff I've given up (some of which I started giving up a while ago)

- Spending most of my weekend helping my sister with her twin girls
- Visiting my Mum most weeknights after work and also on weekends
- Lots of overtime at work
- Planning lots of socialising on the weekends so I was never home
- Drinking
- Hangovers resulting from said drinking
- Smoking
- Staying up to crazy o'clock on the weekends talking to my UK friends on Skype
- Eating unhealthy food to fill an emotional void or because it was a certain day of the week
- Commercial television and Foxtel
- Watching the news

Stuff I've embraced (recently and over the last few years)

- Quality time with my Mum on the weekends
- Shorter visits with my sister and her beautiful girls
- Meditation
- Boot camp
- Yoga
- Reiki
- My creativity
- Spending time and sharing information with other writers (in person and online)
- Downloading and then watching quality TV shows and movies when I want
- Reading widely: fiction, non-fiction, blogs, literary magazines, newspapers
- Travel
- Literary events, courses, tutorials
- Donating plasma once a month

I hope this blog post hasn't been too preachy. I guess I'm just feeling excited and passionate about life. I'm starting to feel normal again. Well balanced even. I might even try coming off my anti-depressants in the next few months. I'm feeling less like a failure. When I look in the mirror, I'm not seeing a victim anymore. I'm seeing a survivor. A winner. A writer.

That's what reiki gave me...