Why Reiki?

So here I am at the start of my Reiki journey. I’m none too clear as to the reasons for starting this blog; in part as my own record of my discoveries, partly as a (I hope) ‘told you so’ to all those sceptics who think I’m barking mad and in part because I have a feeling very deep inside me that this is something to be shared.

I had been suffering quite badly with carpel tunnel syndrome, a kind of blocked nerve in the wrist, which was making it very difficult for me to hold small objects (not ideal as I was working with horses at the time and had to use needles to plait several times a week). I had been on the waiting list for an operation for nearly two years when Beryl told me she would pray for me at a group meeting that evening.  I thought it completely ridiculous, but my carpel tunnel disappeared immediately, and, more than twenty years down the line, I have never been troubled with it since.  I recall my mum suffering from chronic back pain. Every year the whole family went to the pub before Christmas lunch and mum had to be helped in. Beryl was there with us and offered to help. There was no hint of showing off but nevertheless we were mortified at what she was doing in the middle of the pub and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one cringing. But my mum walked out of there unaided, and I still remember the heat that was coming from her back when I touched it. So, I’ve always wished I could do the same thing for people but up until recently I believed it was something that was a gift that was only available to a chosen few.  I’ve also used homeopathy successfully in the past, on babies with conjunctivitis, to treat a thyroid problem, post-natal depression, and to treat animals, and I have always had a deep respect for complementary therapies that channel energy in various ways and the view that you don’t have to be a believer or even aware of the treatment for them to be effective.

2010 was a particularly difficult period in my life involving in a year of operations, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy to treat breast cancer and was accompanied by all the stresses and family complications that go hand-in-hand with being self-employed and unable to work. I found myself starting, partly in desperation I’m sure, to read books on the law of attraction. Whilst they made sense to me I didn’t feel that they were giving the whole picture. Then I discovered Deepak Chopra’s ‘The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success’  and many of the pieces slotted into place. There was something in what he wrote that fitted comfortably with what I had always believed deep inside of me, it all made huge sense. I started to meditate (not very well I hasten to add, I’m sure there are monkeys inside my head!) each morning. What a blessing to find a quiet place where I was justified in pushing all the worries to one side. And how much energy I felt afterwards to get through the day.  I started sleeping better at night, me who usually lay awake from 2am onwards & gave up and started working by 4 or 5am.

The turning point came for me three weeks ago when I was at a particularly low point in my life with overwhelming challenges coming from every direction. During this time I became friends with a very lovely lady who suggested I should pray. So, feeling somewhat foolish, that is exactly what I did. I got down on my knees and I asked for whatever higher power that existed to give me help to turn all the horribly difficult times I had been experiencing over the past few years into something positive and constructive that could benefit other people.  




Several days later, I was at a conference for businesswomen in London, where 12 inspirational multi-millionaire women gave three days of presentations. One of the speakers was Jennifer Hough who created one of the biggest holistic clinics in Canada. She blew me away. She asked the three or four hundred women present to silently find a partner that we had never met before. I was paired with a black woman (who I later found to come from the same area of France that am living). We had to hold hands with them and look into their eyes. It felt a bit flakey if I’m being honest. After several uncomfortable minutes I realised that there was a real connection, not between our bodies but between what was inside both of us. We then had to hug each other and breathe into each other. Oh my god. Just what you’d intended to be doing at a business conference. Not. But we did, and I just can’t describe the energy that filled that room. I felt a physical change in the area beneath my heart and an incredible lightness of spirit and a profound understanding that we are part of something far, far bigger. Not everyone in the room ‘got it’, but there were several women in the room who were moved to tears.  I can’t explain what has changed in me, I guess you might call it a ‘spiritual awakening’ but I have held onto that feeling ever since. It has put a spring in my step and given real joy, a sense of peace and a meaning to my day. I feel incredibly grateful for everything around me and, not wanting to sound too anoraky, feel a real compulsion, a drive, to learn more, to share it with those around me and to help others. What a gift Jennifer has been given, how wonderful would it be to make even the tiniest impact on other people’s lives in return. That day has truly changed my life, I need to give something back.