Needing To Pause

Life can be constantly busy and this can become overwhelming.  One of the beautiful gifts I have received from my Reiki practice is a way to pause.

I have learned that pauses are necessary for my well being.  For example last month 3 lovely Reiki friends died, all kind generous people, none of whom were old.  Reiki has taught me that when faced with loss like

Gwen, one of my lovely friends who died recently

this I move through the grief more easily when I pause and allow time to feel the sadness and ponder the memories.

There is a well known saying "Keep calm and carry on" which is a typically English approach to challenging situations.  Perhaps this is why so many of us ignore things that are difficult in our lives and, rather than give ourselves time to allow the feelings, 'carry on regardless'.  However what Reiki teaches me is that those feelings don't disappear because I ignore them.  They are still there and if I don't deal with them may become overwhelming at an inappropriate moment or cause imbalance that results in physical illness.

I know that when I used to go down with the flu it was usually because there was something I was ignoring.  Keeping something out of mind is stressful, which depletes the immune system and makes me more vulnerable to illness.  The resulting flu is nature's way of giving me an enforced pause!

What I try to do these days is to avoid this sort of collapse by making space for pauses in my life, dealing with the causes of difficult feelings if there's something that needs to change, or simply allowing things to be as they are if it isn't.  Pauses are also important for the integration of something new I'm learning.  When I learn a new song I know it will work it's way into my memory after I stop singing it.

Reiki practice offers several ways of having a pause.  For those initiated into Reiki the self treatment can be a daily pause: at the start of the day it can be a useful way of not rushing headlong into everything that I need to do.  Instead I pause, reflect and tune in to my body.  During this time I can become aware of intuitions about what nutritional needs my body has.  A self treatment during the working day is a good way to pause and become calm before carrying on!  As Leonardo De Vinci said: "Every now and then go away and have a little relaxation. For when you come back to your work your judgement will be surer."

Receiving a Reiki treatment from someone else (whether or not you are initiated into Reiki) is also a wonderful way to pause for a while from a busy life.  Like the Japanese Tea Ceremony - where "participants withdraw from the stresses of daily life to the peaceful setting of a special tea room" - a Reiki treatment offers time out where the recipient can experience a state of peaceful relaxation.   In the gentle hands of a good practitioner, you are held in a time of non-doing, a pause from responsibilities, a time to see what is really going on and to let go of what is not helpful.

As the Easter holiday approaches I wish you time for a pause, for reflection and for re-connection with yourself and those closest to you.

Self Care: Mindful Preparation

For many years taking care of myself was never high on my list of priorities, but learning Reiki brought me to the understanding that self care is worth spending time on.  At first I resisted this idea, being more interested in helping other people.  However Reiki would not let me persist in this! 

Eventually I surrendered to this simple practice of daily self care and it has had ripples that have affected the rest of my life.  Recently I saw that in fact the self care I had resisted is important for preparing myself to serve others.

Beginning most days with a self Reiki treatment I remain as present as possible as I hold my hands in each of the positions  – a mindfulness practice that helps me to begin the day centred and calm.  This has led me to be more aware of other aspects of self care as I go through life.

Being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes made me look more carefully at my diet and I now know that eating regularly and with protein at every meal helps me balance my blood glucose.  To achieve this requires mindfulness, however as it’s easy to get distracted and forget to eat.  It also requires preparation and planning to ensure I have the right kind of food to hand at the time I need to eat.  I know this can seem fussy and cranky to some people, but I’ve found that through balancing my blood glucose I have more energy and vitality (not to mention loosing 2 stone!).  What this means is that I can do more to serve others and do it better (more efficiently, more joyfully). 

I was recently selected by the British Lung Foundation to run one of their singing for lung health groups, which involved training in London.  In my previous state of health I think I would have struggled to achieve this and would have worried about whether I had the stamina to run the group every week.  Now I feel positive and excited about the prospect!  So improving my health and well being was good preparation to take on this new project.

Another aspect of my self care has been to improve my sleep.  I have Reiki to help me drift off

once I am in bed, but you won’t find me answering emails late at night unless I’m breaking my self care rules!  When I was less good at self care I’ve experienced poor sleep with all the predicted outcomes: irritability, higher stress levels, lack of co-ordination, reduced immunity, increased frequency of making mistakes etc.  Now I take more care to do and not do the things that will encourage good sleep – such as being in bed by 11pm when possible, not eating or drinking anything after 9pm and limiting carbohydrates in the evening.  As a result I sleep well most nights and have more energy to give my attention to planning and balancing my life, rather than struggling through the day, just longing for my bed!

So Reiki has taught me that self care requires mindfulness and is not something that comes last on the list of priorities, but is good preparation for living my life to the full, able to answer whatever Reiki asks of me each day!

Balancing Rocks

One of my happiest memories from the summer was spending an evening on the beach in

Pembrokeshire with Alec while he balanced rocks.  To make a rock stand on its end takes patience and sensitivity.  The same is true for achieving balance in our own lives and Reiki can be helpful in this.

Daily self treatment with Reiki has increased my sensitivity to what my body needs.  It’s a daily check-in with how my physical and mental balance is doing.  As a result I’ve been able to address a few health challenges before they became more serious. 

Alec needed to be completely present and focused to make the rocks balance – something that’s also necessary when bringing the body and mind into better balance.  Paying attention to what I eat, how much exercise I’m taking and how I’m managing my mind so I don’t get stressed all require presence of mind and attention. Changing the old habits that cause imbalance can also require a lot of consciousness.

I have found that Reiki practice has helped me to be more patient with my body as it changes.  Having discovered something that is out of balance my mind wants things to be different instantly.  In the real world it doesn’t work like that: change in the body and even the mind takes time.  Unhelpful habits can be difficult to let go of, making overnight change impossible.  Once better habits are established, cells need time to divide and grow to create new healthier tissues.  Changes in body rhythms can take a while to get established.  Receiving Reiki helps my mind to slow down, accept reality and gain more patience while changes take place.

The Reiki Principles also help me – reminding me not to worry about any change I’m looking for or how fast it will be achieved.  Not becoming frustrated or angry about how slow change can seem is also essential – if Alec had been annoyed with the rock for not standing up it would have made it even less likely that he would find its point of equilibrium.    Similarly if I get annoyed that my weight has not gone down today it only creates stress, which never helps balance to be restored!

I would say that Alec honoured the rock, being totally present with it to find its true nature and balance-point.  Honesty is also vital when finding balance in myself:  self deception about how much I was exercising, for example, was the cause of unhealthy imbalance.   Taking time to be grateful for Reiki, my food and all the other elements that help me to achieve better balance with the natural world and my place in it, is an essential part of my practice, inspired by the last principle.

Once the rocks were balanced there was a wonderful feeling of achievement and a joy in seeing them stand there in that wonderful environment, balanced between earth and sky.  They were like a wonderful representation of yin and yang.  All the times the rock fell over were forgotten.  There was only the extraordinary miracle of a rock that looks as if it should not stand up, resting in stillness and balance.  Finding balance in my own body and mind feels similar – quite miraculous at times, all the times of falling over forgotten, just the sense of achievement, joy and wonder!