August Birthdays

Phyllis in Kazakhstan

This morning I was out in my garden picking raspberries and remembered that the person who taught me to pick the ones that are past their best as well as the good ones, so that more will ripen, was Phyllis Lei Furumoto.  I was visiting her in Idaho for a Reiki conference and she kindly let me stay with her.  In return for this one of my tasks was picking raspberries!

It was Phyllis’ birthday on the 22^nd August, so I have been thinking about her.  She loved to teach and
share what she learned from her grandmother about Reiki.  She also travelled a lot to spend time with Reiki people all over the world.  When staying with her in Idaho I realised that she had spent very little time actually living in that house because she travelled so much.

After learning Reiki and becoming a Reiki master, she had travelled with her grandmother, Hawayo Takata, which is no doubt where she learned so much about Reiki and the particular way of teaching it that her grandmother held.  It was therefore no surprise to many that she became Takata’s successor in holding the practice.

Mikao Usui

August is also the month Mikao Usui, the founder of the healing system now known world-wide as ‘Reiki’.  He was born on 15^th August 1865 in Japan, at an interesting time in Japan’s history when the rule of the Shoguns came to an end and the emperor was reinstated.  After many decades closed to the outside world, Japan opened up once more, enabling exchanges of ideas with the wider world.  Usui clearly made the most of this, like Phyllis he also travelled to many places, including the USA, to study.  He spent many years exploring various spiritual texts to try to find out how healing could be
given in the way it was described in the Bible and in Buddhist texts.  He struggled to find the answer, until he spent 21 days on Mount Kurama near Kyoto, meditating without food.  On the final day he experienced something that showed him how to heal himself.  He discovered shortly after that he could also use this healing for others and eventually that he could also pass on this gift of healing.  Reiki energy was already well known in Japan, but this particular method of using and passing it on through initiation is something unique to Usui and it is this that has enabled it to be shared around the world.  After developing the Usui system of Reiki Healing he travelled around Japan to teach and give healing.

We honour both of these people for their dedication to the exploration and practice of the healing art we know as Reiki and for their willingness to go wherever they needed to, to share what they understood.   So in August we celebrate two important birthdays!

What a Difference An Hour Can Make

This month theatre director Peter Brook died at the age of 97.  I first encountered his work way back in the 1980s and found it a deeply moving experience.  He had a way of bringing forth performances from the actors and telling stories that touch my soul.  I feel that seeing the production he directed all those years ago was a significant moment in my spiritual growth.  I started my own theatre company, influenced by his work and had Reiki not come into my life some while later, I might still be doing it.

In fact, I can see that Peter Brook’s work was a part of my Reiki path and I learned the importance of lineage from him.  He was talking about martial arts, but I realised it also applied to Reiki once I encountered it – not that I was looking to learn a Reiki style with lineage, it just happened, but when I did, I appreciated the way lineage is also held as important in the form of Reiki I learned.

 

While I was down in London for a CNHC meeting a few years ago I took the opportunity to go to the National Theatre to see “The Prisoner” a play he co- wrote and directed.   Knowing what wonderful work he created, I was keen to see it and was not disappointed.  It only lasted just over an hour and I felt different when I came out to how I was when I went in.  It struck me that this is what a Reiki treatment can be like – it too only lasts an hour but it can be an hour that changes my outlook on life, restores peace of mind and gives me a similar deep sense that ‘all is well’.  Somehow this hour watching the play also gave me a re-connection with my soul and as a result a feeling of deep contentment and safety.  It also reflected some of my understanding about my Reiki path.

The play spoke about themes that I am familiar with through my Reiki practice: the need to take responsibility for our actions, the struggle to be the best person we can be and the need to keep doing the practice.  In the story a man is told he must sit in front of a prison to atone for his crime – nothing is keeping him there except his own conscience.  It is difficult because he has little to live on and people keep telling him to go away.  After 10 years his Uncle, who told him to stay there, comes and says that he can see that he’s established a life for himself and managed to survive, but that now the work really begins: he must go deeper.

This reminds me of how I began my Reiki practice, needing to have the self-discipline to treat myself daily and receive treatments from others.  It was sometimes difficult and uncomfortable as well as pleasant.  After a number of years, however, it became easier because I got into a routine, it’s almost automatic.  It’s at that point that the work really started because that’s when I needed to go deeper with the exploration.  Perhaps this is why it is recommended in our system that masters should wait 10 years before beginning to initiate masters and that similarly that it may take 10 years for students to prepare for mastery.

At the end of the play the ‘prisoner’ knows that he is free to leave, just as at the time of the initiation as a master, both the student and their master know that this is the right time.

The play was just 1 hour and 10 minutes, a Reiki treatment can be the same time: what a difference such a small amount of time can make!

My Father was a Healer

As it was Father’s Day this month, I thought I would write about my father, who was an NHS GP and psychiatrist working in Coventry.  In many ways he was ahead of his time in his
approach.  He knew that people’s thinking affects their health generally.  He would have approved of the movement for Social Prescribing, started by another GP, Dr Michael Dixon, who saw that those who repeatedly attend the GPs surgery often have some social need, such as loneliness or poor diet, so that other solutions are needed to support them, rather than the pill they are asking for. 

My Dad also knew that medication was not always the answer.  Sometimes he would prescribe Smarties – to be taken 3 times a day – because he understood that the ritual of taking ‘medication’ could be as powerful as the actual medication.   He also foresaw the danger of antibiotic misuse and has been proved right, with anti-biotic resistant bacteria and the potential damage to the gut bacteria, the general health consequences of which are only now being fully understood.

Dr Dixon has written² about his concerns about the decline in a human approach to medicine as technology has increased and doctors and nurses have become busier and forced to follow systems that reduce time spent with patients, impacting how they can care for them as individuals.  There is research that shows the benefit of this listening and care to patients¹ and current NHS systems often don’t allow time for this. 

My Dad certainly understood the need for listening to people and that’s why I think he was more than a doctor, he was a healer.  He was famously late for family appointments – if he was supposed to be somewhere at a certain time you could add half an hour before he would get there.  The reason for this was his care for patients.  He found the 10 minutes allocated for surgery consultations too short and, in those days, doctors still frequently did home visits to their own patients after hours.  A friend recently commented that he was asked why he still needed to visit when the patient had died, his response being that the family still needed support.

He had a particular interest in helping people recover from drug addiction, helped to set up medical services for students in Coventry and did training for the Samaritans, in particular the Festival Branch which was one of the ways of getting in touch with people having drug problems.

Sadly, he died before I learned Reiki.  I asked my mother what he would have thought about it.  She said he would have been interested, because he sometimes went to a spiritualist church where they did healing.  I agree with her, not just for that reason, but also because he was a doctor who did more than analyse symptoms and dispense treatment.  He tried to understand the needs of each person, taking a holistic rather than mechanical view.  He understood, as we do in Reiki, that the underlying cause of physical illness lies on the mental and emotional levels and that effective healing addresses these as well.  He also understood the importance of touch and spirituality.  I think he would have been supportive of the movement towards integrative health which Dr Dixon is at the forefront of and which I hope Reiki will be part of.  

¹ Neurophysiology of human touch and eye gaze in therapeutic relationships and healing: a scoping review https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6382052/

² The Human Effect in Medicine: Theory, Research and Practice by Dr Michael Dixon

Honouring 70 Years of Service

As we celebrate the Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, I have been touched by hearing how she saw her role as one of sacred service from the start.  My understanding of what it means to serve has grown over my years of Reiki practice, so I honour the Queen’s 70-year commitment.

Service, doing work that is for the benefit of others rather than for personal gain, is a core principle in many spiritual practices.  It is a way to surrender our ego to something greater than ourselves.  According to the Dalai Lama it is essential in finding our joy.  It has certainly been my experience that there is joy in serving others, in doing something that helps people to connect, eases pain, brings comfort and lifts the heart.  

Just over 12 years ago I visited Phyllis Furumoto, the late Lineage Bearer of Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki, shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer.  This had expedited her exploration of how to choose a successor for the lineage she represented.  As part of this exploration, she interviewed me for one of the radio shows she was doing at the time, as someone who had a perspective on lineage through living in a culture with a monarchy.

I could see the similarities in Phyllis’ role to that of our queen: like Queen Elizabeth, she became her grandmother’s successor at a young age, in her early 30s.  She also felt that she did not have a choice in taking on this responsibility.  I know that Phyllis also saw this role as being in service to something greater than herself: Reiki, the Usui Shiki Ryoho System and the Reiki community.

I was also quite young when I began my Reiki service at just 30, serving the Reiki community through the newly founded Reiki Association.  This led to many other opportunities to explore service over the years, including service to Phyllis.   As my Reiki master Martha Sylvester said when she left her day job to work full time as a Reiki master: it was like working for the ‘cosmic civil service’ instead of the civil service!  As a Reiki master I have often found myself doing things in service to the Reiki community that I never imagined I would and, like Martha (and perhaps the Queen), was called on to travel to many places in carrying out my Reiki work.

The recent events in my life have reminded me that it's also important that our service is not at the cost of our own health.  Queen Elizabeth’s long life and reign would suggest that she is able to balance her commitment to serve the public time with family and self-care.  Those who do not get this balance right often end up burnt out and unwell, making further service impossible.

Phyllis’ successor, Johannes Reindl, was chosen by her partly because he is young.  He too has recognised that he has been asked to serve the Reiki community and the Usui Shiki Ryoho system in a particular way that means his role is not a job he can simply give up.  He has given his commitment, as Elizabeth Windsor did, to serve for his lifetime and in doing so to support the practice of Reiki people all over the world.

I offer a bow of gratitude for the commitment of those who serve in this way, surrendering their own life plans to serve for the benefit of the world and I wish them the wisdom to balance their work with time for family and self-care.

Congratulations and the CNHC Reiki Register

Congratulations to Cheryl Devall who completed my Professional Practitioner Course last year and is now a Verified Practitioner and on the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council Reiki register!

She went through the verification process as an individual, which many people find challenging due to the paperwork and case studies required.  Many practitioners have not followed a course that prepares them for the standards required, so struggle to answer some of the questions.  As a verifier for The Reiki Association I have frequently seen questionnaires that demonstrate a lack of understanding of the role of professional practitioner.

Now that my Professional Reiki Practitioner Course is verified by Reiki Council it means that I can support people through this process.  Students on my course will have my support and guidance in completing the verification process: I will be providing the required questionnaires and ensuring the case studies are completed adequately.  This means that at the end of the course, for those who complete everything successfully, verification will be quick and easy and they will then be fast-tracked for CNHC registration.

So why join the CNHC Reiki register?  Firstly it is public recognition of your role as a professional practitioner, ready to support the public towards better health.  As CNHC themselves say: “A joint report from the Royal Society for Public Health and the Professional Standards Authority, Untapped Resources: Accredited Registers in the Wider Workforce, highlighted that “Practitioners registered with CNHC support public health by encouraging their clients to make a range of lifestyle changes. These include improvements to diet and nutrition, support with giving up smoking and losing weight, support with reducing stress, improving sleep, managing pain and other symptoms, as well as overall enhancements to wellbeing. All CNHC registrants are committed to enhancing the UK public’s health and wellbeing.””

As a CNHC registrant you are able to use a logo that identifies you as a professional practitioner who cares about the public receiving a high standard of care.  As CNHC is an Accredited Register approved by the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care, a body that is accountable to parliament, this means that anyone registered with CNHC is recognised as meeting UK-wide standards of quality of service and safety.
Another benefit is that some Private Healthcare Plans will cover complementary therapies if the practitioner is CNHC registered, meaning that the client can claim back the cost if they have such a healthcare plan.

When I began giving Reiki treatments no such recognition was available.  It has been amazing to see Reiki receive the trust to be included by CNHC as a reputable treatment option.  It creates the potential for Reiki to be more available and accepted alongside mainstream medicine, offering the comfort and support of human touch at difficult times, in a way that conventional medicine is struggling to do in many places.

What is needed for this to happen, however, is more people like Cheryl who would like to commit their life to working as Reiki practitioners, to meeting the standards expected of us in a professional role and to take Reiki into places it is only just beginning to reach in a solid and trustworthy way, so that more people can benefit from what we know can be so helpful at times of distress and pain.

The Challenge of Being Healthy

Tidying my office last week, I came across a definition of health as:

•         Good functioning of organ with flow rather than congestion
•         Energy to do what you want in life
•         Not being limited by pain
•         Feeling positive 
•         A state of balance in body, mind and spirit
•         State of resilience

I find this a really good definition and can recognise that I have felt like this.  However, I find that
being in a healthy state like this is a daily challenge!  We humans are so good at challenging our bodies, minds and spirits with things that cause imbalance, such as poor nutrition, exposure to toxins, negative thinking, stress and disconnection from Nature.  One of the things I observed when nursing my mother was the way her body had an amazing ability to try to maintain healthy balance, even when her cancer was very advanced.  In her last weeks of life, she even managed to fight off an infection.  This showed me that given the right support, our bodies, minds and spirits are constantly trying to achieve and maintain balance, if we allow them. 

Covid-19 has made most of us more aware of the challenge to stay healthy and that certain conditions of poor health make further illness more likely.  Many people are struggling with Long Covid which, as with many other health conditions, requires rest for recovery.

I have been exploring rest deeply in the past months, having been completely exhausted in body, mind and soul.  With my body still preferring to be in a ‘fight or flight’ state than a ‘rest and digest’ phase I have not found it easy relax or rest.  Deepening the connection to my spiritual self has been the key to this.  Also, self-care is one of the things we often don’t prioritise in the belief that the needs of others should come first.  I am experiencing the truth of the teaching that without that self-care we end up not being able to help anyone.  It is no accident that self-Reiki, which is restful, quiet and reconnects with body and soul, is the foundation of our practice.

I hope soon to restore my health, so that I will feel more positive, resilient and have the energy to do what I want in life, which is to support others in having all the benefits of being healthy.  I am doing what I feel able to do, gently and gradually.  It’s not easy to take this time because although I know it is necessary, there is so much I want to do!  I am grateful for the Reiki healing I have received to help my recovery so far.

With my sabbatical over, I am making a phased return to work.  It has been good to have time to catch up on some projects that have been waiting for a space like this, including creating the e-book ‘Musings of a Reiki Master’, having my Professional Reiki Practitioner Course verified through The Reiki Association and completing my Nutrition Coaching course.  I do not feel ready to return to face-to-face teaching or treatments yet, but am starting with a few online mentoring sessions and preparing for further teaching later in the year. 

So I have a few more things to offer you this month…

Wishing you good health.