Roots That Heal

I have started writing my Celtic Reiki book this week and the first chapter - The Beech (not the first chapter in the book but my favourite tee so my favourite chapter to write!) has just been completed! I’m going to be sharing some excerpts from the book as and when I feel it is appropriate, as the whole process is a great way for me to develop my understanding of each tree to even deeper levels than I have previously. And as it’s been such a long time since I shared a meditation with you I thought I’d post this one here. Stay tuned as I am going to be looking into a way to record and publish it as an actual guided meditation over the coming week, but until then enjoy reading through it and perhaps give it a try with a loved one!

This meditation works best with some music playing softly in the background, as the Beech tree delights in taking those who visit her on a dancing journey to her home. You can just as easily follow this meditation without any music and just dance to the music in your soul, if you feel that this is something you would rather do.

Find somewhere quiet and comfortable where you can sit without being disturbed. Make sure you are nice and warm and then close your eyes and quietly listen to the sound of your own breath as it goes slowly in and out, in and out.

Be aware of your body, focus on first your toes, then your feet and ankles, your calves and knees and then your thighs and hips. Note if you have any tension in any of these areas. If you do, gently direct the breath down to the tense area and allow it to softly blow away the pain. When your legs feel nice and relaxed move your attention further up your body to focus on your abdomen, chest, arms, hands and fingers. Again allow your breath to ease away any tension, slowly but surely. Finally bring your attention to your neck, face and head, breathing out any tension here, until the whole of your body feels warm and relaxed.

Quietly listen to the sound of your breath once more, noticing how slowly and deeply you are now taking breath in and blowing it back out. In and out, like a steady rhythm, beating to the sound of the music you can hear.

As you listen to the music you become aware of a green thread of light, dancing in swirls before you. You watch it, following each dip and swirl and realise that with each movement the colour gets brighter and the trail it leaves longer. Feel the green light dancing around you, inviting you to step into its world and dance with it.

As you begin to sway to the music realise that you are now standing in a beautiful forest, where the sunlight is shining down through a canopy of the most beautiful green you have ever seen. All around you there are trees growing, blissfully dancing in the slight breeze created by your very breath – in and out, in and out. Each tree dances to its own tune, yet together they make a beautifully orchestrated ensemble, dancing as if they have danced this very dance their entire lives.

As you watch this beautiful scene before you, your eyes are drawn into the distance, where a silvery grey presence begins to glow. You know instinctively that this is who you came to see – this is the star of this performance and she is inviting you to join her tonight. You walk along the path, drawn by her graceful moves, and as you draw near you realise that the silvery being is in fact the trunk of the tallest Beech tree you have ever seen.

You hesitate for a moment, wondering what you should do, when you hear a whisper on the breeze, the breeze created by your own breath – in and out. You listen and realise that the whisper is your own voice, this is your higher self speaking to you. Listen to the secrets you hold deep inside yourself – listen to how wise you are!

As you continue to breathe in and out you realise that you are the most important part of this whole dance – you are the star and the Beech is your partner. Knowing this, you reach out your arms and embrace her as you begin to dance along to your own music – the music of life. And as you touch her, the Beech tree begins to move more freely than ever before. Her roots lift up from the ground, trailing behind her like a dancer’s gown. She spins around the forest floor, dancing to the sound of your breath and the beat of your heart. She knows your pain, your joy, your silence and your voice – she knows everything about you and she wants to create a living record of who you are, right now.

As you continue to dance you realise that it is getting dark. Suddenly you find you are no longer in the forest but inside the most beautiful hall you have ever seen. The hall is perfectly round, its ceiling created by layers upon layers of branches, all reaching towards the ground and in its very centre stands the trunk of the oldest tree you could imagine. This, your partner tells you, is the first Beech tree – the mother of all other Beech trees in our world and any other. As you continue to dance around this central pillar of love and wisdom you feel another whisper in the breeze. This whisper is unlike any you’ve ever heard before – it speaks of time itself – whispering sweet words of all the dances that ever were and ever will be. Here all wisdom, knowledge and experience is recorded, so all those who ever visit will be blessed with the whole of existence. This is where the dance of life is created and where it is kept for al eternity. And you are now a part of this.

As you begin to understand the great significance of this you realise that the hall is slowly fading and you no longer feel the powerful pull of your partner’s enchanting dance. Yet a soft whisper still lies upon your breath – it tells you that this is not the end – in fact this is merely the beginning of a beautiful dance that will continue until time itself no longer exists.

Slowly but surely become aware of your breathing once more as you slowly breathe in and out, in and out. Say a silent prayer of thanks to your partner for sharing in your dance and showing you the knowledge and power held within your very breath.

Gradually become aware of your body, first your head and then your neck, shoulders, arms, torso, legs and feet. Wriggle your toes and fingers and open your eyes.

Be blessed by the energy of the Beech.

Having spent several years looking for a book on Celtic Reiki and finding none I have finally decided the time is right to write my own. Whether this book is published in print or simply online is yet to be determined but it has been begun and now is the time for asking for your help.

I am currently in the research part of the whole thing, having set out a basic framework and knowing which areas I still need to work on. And for the purpose of making sure the book is accessible to all I’d like to ask for your assistance in sharing with me what you already know and feel about several areas I shall be covering.

Every person who comments on our Roots That Heal forum under one of the research headings will then be placed into a prize draw which will be drawn on Friday 1st August - that gives you about 4 weeks to get writing to me! By commenting on the forum you agree that your words may be used as part of my research (although no exact words or names will be used without further permission from you).

The prizes you could win are as follows:

First prize - A copy of Diana Cooper’s new book Angel Answers (which I have bought and read and now wish to pass on) along with a free distance healing session from myself and T.

Second Prize - A copy of an inspirational giftbook I received several years ago and wish to pass on plus 3 small crystal gemstones (as chosen by T and myself and imbued with Reiki energy).

Third Prize - 3 small crystal gemstones (as chosen by T and myself and imbued with Reiki energy).

So, happy posting and we look forward to reading some of your comments on topics such as Nature, Animals, Faeries, Celtic Reiki, The Seasons, The Trees, Flowers etc. And oncer you are there, why not have a look around the rest of the forum - perhaps posting something you are interested in to share with our other readers!

With much Love and many Blessings
Amanda and T xx

I have recently been attuned to Usui Reiki First and Second Degree. This is something I have been considering for quite some time - in fact I was considering being attuned to Usui Reiki several years before I was even attuned to Celtic Reiki, but ufortunately finances and time did not allow me to do this.

However since meeting T and especially since attuning him to Celtic Reiki First Degree (and yesterday to Second Degree) I have felt an increased desire to be attuned to this earlier form of Reiki if nothing more than as a comparison to Celtic Reiki. By that I mean it is allowing me to see how Celtic Reiki differs from Usui Reiki, enabling me to answer questions such as “why choose Celtic Reiki?” and “what is the difference between Usui Reiki and Celtic Reiki?”

Indeed, what is the difference? As I have only recently been attuned to Usui Reiki this can by no means be taken as a be-all-and-end-all discussion of the differences between the two. Furthermore, each individual will experience Reiki in a different way so it cannot stand for everybody - just my own individual experience of the two. Having said that I have felt a great difference in the power of the two. Neither one is stronger nor weaker than the other but the power is definately different! Usui Reiki is much stronger in a physical sense - it is hotter, more intense and much more perceptible. Celtic Reiki on the other hand is a much more subtle and gentle power, one that trickles like a stream as opposed to a raging river! Each form takes the water to its destination, only one is much more direct, encasing a wider area and much faster whereas the other one ambles along, taking a few twists and turns to the most beautiful and hard to reach places along its path.

Neither one of these is better than the other and it is entirely up to your own individual preferences as to which one you might choose. Personally I have always felt very attracted to Celtic Reiki and never hesitated to put myself out there to be attuned to it, yet I shied away from the intensity of Usui Reiki for many years. Yet now I have been attuned to the First and Second Degrees I am looking forward to using a combination of the two - utilising the individual values of each one as my intuition guides me.

I always wondered why when I gave Celtic Reiki I often felt very little in forms of hot hands, hot body, energy flow (even though I believed entirely in the process) yet when I received Usui Reiki the hands of my healer were hot, sometimes burning to touch. At the beginning I questioned whether I was doing something wrong, but then I began to trust and my faith grew stronger and I began to know the energy I was healing with. Since my attunements I understand why there was such a difference - whereas Usui Reiki is an overall, universal energy, Celtic Reiki focuses solely on the beautiful energies of nature. It’s as if Celtic Reiki brings forth a specific aspect that is encompassed within Usui Reiki - yet Celtic Reiki comes from exactly the same place that Usui Reiki does. A good analogy would be that Usui Reiki is like white light - it is made from all the colours of the rainbow and Celtic Reiki is like the green ray - soft, gentle and soothing - a part without which white light could not exist but which can exist on its own and work well alongside any other colour of the spectrum.

If you want to know what Celtic Reiki feels like imagine walking through a quiet woodland, with the sunlight filtered through the green canopy, spreading a beautiful glow on everything. The birds are chirping in the distance and you hear the shuffling of squirrels searching for food. There are bluebells along the path and shadows dancing everywhere. What you feel when in this place away from the harsh, mechanical side of modern day life, that is what Celtic Reiki is like.

I hope that this post has helped you to understand more about Celtic Reiki and I hope to post much more about Reiki as a whole alongside our usual posts on Celtic Reiki and nature in the near future. Many changes are occuring in our lives right now and T and I are standing at a crossroads. Fear has held us both back but my recent attunement has made me remember the Reiki precepts and I now know that to live in fear, to go to work and get angry at the injustice I see and having to battle each day to change that is not living in harmony with my beliefs. Changes are afoot and we both want them to bring us closer to our beliefs. Essentially - we want our lives to become our work - not the other way around. By doing this we hope to have much more time to live Reiki rather than just turning to it for instant healing in times of crisis. More and more we are realising that Reiki should be a way of life, not just a way of healing. Bear with us as we make these changes!

With many Blessings
Amanda and T xx

Thanks to all of you who are following this journey with T and myself and special thanks for all the good thoughts sent our way. After several days of feeling rather sorry for myself, my body decided it was well enough to carry out the attunement last Sunday. I have been meaning to post the pictures all week, but work has simply been so busy my evenings have been taken up with sleeping!!

So, only a week late, here is how the attunement went.

Please be aware that the photos are snapshots taken from a video we took on my laptop, so the quality is not brilliant. We chose to film the process as this meant we could forget about the camera and focus on what we were doing. The photos are also taken during our run-through prior to the actual attunement - something we chose to do so that T would know what to expect. The photos and comments in this blog post are shared with you in order to show how an attunement works - there are no instructions on how to do an attunement nor no symbols shared. They are not meant to be used in order to try attuning yourself or others - although Celtic Reiki is available to all, I strongly suggest you follow a proper manual and are attuned by a Reiki Master. This is to help you understand the energies and how to use Reiki most effectively, rather than the desire to hold information back.  I would love to think that these posts may inspire some of you to practise Reiki, but practising Reiki means honouring and respecting the process and this means following a dedicated path. If you have any questions or would like to contact me about how to have an attunement yourself then please do not hesitate to contact me at rootsthatheal@live.co.uk I would be happy to help you find a Celtic Reiki Master in your own area or discuss the possibility of setting up a distance attunement at a time convenient for us both.

In preparation for the attunement I had shown T the first degree manual. We had looked together at the nature of energy healing and then gone through the 6 first degree symbols, the trees that they represented and the ways in which we could use them to help ourselves in our own lives. Using Fred Hageneder’s Tree Angel Oracle we found the cards relating to these symbols and placed them on our coffee table, ready to aid us in the attunement. This was a personal choice and not something that has to be done by any means. The whole beauty of Reiki is that it can be adapted to suit those using it. Next to these cards I placed my own cards, portraying the symbols in gold, a small pencil drawing of the tree or plant itself and notes on what the energy is used for in healing sessions. We completed our table with a candle, some crystals and the manual (open for my own reference during the run-through as it was my first attunement and I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss anything!)

As you can see, we closed our curtains to ensure the room was dark and calm. Although the sun was shining beautifully, we felt the desire to have candles and incense burning as we carried out the attunement. It felt more sacred to us both this way - but again this is a preference that each Reiki master and student can choose for themselves. The attunement begins with a prayer and blessing, followed by the opening of the master’s chakras using a master symbol. The room is infused with the master symbols and then rapport is built between student and master by placing the hands on the student’s shoulders, preparing the student for the first degree symbols to be given to him/her.

The first degree symbols are now given to the student in three stages - first they are drawn above the crown chakra and then directed down through the head.

This involves sending the symbols through the student’s hands into the crown chakra.

The hands are then placed on the heart centre, whilst the master moves to kneel in front of the student. This is an excellent time for the student and master to both take a moment to reflect on what they are both doing!

The symbols are then “tapped” into the Third Eye. This involves drawing the symbols before the chakra and then tapping in, whilst intoning the symbol name.

Finally, the symbols are drawn above the hands and then “blown” through the body - up the spine, round the crown and down again into the hands. After this, the master moves once more behind the student to “seal” the energies into the student using a master symbol. A final blessing and prayer of gratitude is given before the master moves to stand once more in front of the student to release the Reiki energy and complete the attunement.

I hope that this post has helped to ease any fears or concerns of anyone new to Reiki, and perhaps inspired some of you to explore further. It has been a pleasure sharing this moment with you all and we shall be updating the blog further with T’s impressions of the attunement and how he felt post attunement, how Celtic Reiki feels in comparison to his Usui Reiki training and of course I shall be posting more about Celtic Reiki, the trees, nature and life itself.

But for now I leave you with bright wishes for a beautiful Sunday, a peaceful week and many blessings.
Amanda xx

Before my first attunement to Celtic Reiki I spent a lot of time getting to know the trees near my home. I was very priviledged to live near a beautiful university campus where I studied. This meant that each day, on my way home from lectures, I could walk around the lake, find a quiet spot and meditate surrounded by nature. In fact, the photos that create the banner to this blog were taken on one such walk!

So, in preparation for the coming attunement, T and I drove out to a nearby wood to connect to the great outdoors. We are very lucky in that even though we live in a city there are many, many green spaces still within walking distance of our home. In fact I walk across a common and the beautiful Cam river (upon which invariably there is a rowing team practising!!) each day on my journey to and from work. But however beautiful these spaces are, they are always full of people.

Now I love people, don’t get me wrong, but when you want to sit in silence and meditate you cannot do so as easily as when you are in a secluded spot. And in preparation for an attunement we both felt that this is what we needed to do. Our decision was well-founded and we walked in awe of the beauty and silence of the area we were in (once we moved away from the main areas of the woods). The photo in the previous post was taken as T meditated to by the old Oak tree that he felt drawn to. Although I will not be attuning him to the energy of the Oak in the first level of Reiki, I do know how powerful the Oak’s energy is and T obviously felt that too as he walked through the woods straight to this particular tree and felt the need to sit at its base and absorb some of its energy.

We saw many trees and flowers that day which really connected us to nature, reminding us to listen to the breeze and enjoy the moment. In fact, that day I realised how hard I work and how I forget to enjoy my life. I realised how imbalanced I was and how much I needed to take these moments in order to connect fully and live in harmony and balance. I realised just how little I respected the beautiful gift I had been given and I knew right then that I needed to reclaim the sacred and bring it back into my life.

Consequently I went to work the following day and fell ill!! I have been off work the rest of this week, with a blocked chest, blocked sinuses and upset stomach. I have been unable to eat anything but the plainest food and drink. I have been made to stop and listen. I have found the time to really focus on the Reiki symbols, the meaning of Reiki itself and the way in which I want my life to develop. In essence, I am clearing away a lot of old habits and convalescing in a way I wouldn’t have had I been at work. I’d rather not feel this ill, but if I felt better I know I would be running around trying to fit as much into my life as possible - so I know it is meant to be.

This does mean that we may postpone the attunement until a later date, dependent upon how ready we both feel tomorrow evening. However we will let you know and the attunement will definitely occur within the next two weeks. In that time I hope to introduce more to this site (and I hope you are already enjoying some of the new additions I have already made). It is my hope that Roots That Heal will finally grow into the vision I had for it at the beginning - a true resource for all those wishing to know more about the trees, sea, nature and Celtic Reiki as a whole.

With many Blessings,
Amanda xx

My partner T and I have long discussed my attuning him to Celtic Reiki and this weekend, in an attempt to think of ways to boost the energy I put into this blog, decided to set a date. On T’s suggestion we have chosen to attune him to level one next weekend. This is something we are both very excited about.

But even more exciting is the fact we have both agreed it would be a wonderful opportunity for sharing the world of Reiki on this blog. It will be my first attunement (even though I have been a master for quite some time now) and so it will be a new stage in both my journey as well as T’s. In light of this we thought we would document the process in pictures and share them with you.

The thought behind this was two-fold - first it would invite you into our lives and involve you in our Reiki journey and secondly it will give those of you who have no experience with Reiki the chance to see what occurs in an attunement. More and more T is becoming an integral part of my posts on this blog and I am hoping to involve him even further by asking him to post a few thoughts about how he feels during and after the attunement. We both hope that this will add even more insight into the energy of Reiki, perhaps for those of you who may be apprehensive about becoming attuned yourself.

We’d like to ask you to think of us both next Saturday evening (about 8pm GMT) and look forward to posting the photos during the following week. There will also be additions to the blog as I add more pages and meditations to improve the ways in which Roots That Heal may assist and support you on your own journey.

With many Blessings,
Amanda xx

When I first starting using Reiki I found it incredibly difficult, however exciting, to remain calm and focussed for up to an hour. If I were giving healing to someone else it was far easier than giving myself a treatment, but I still found it hard work. I preferred sending short bursts, five minutes long or so, because I knew I could remain in a space of love and connection for that time.

The more I practised, however, the easier it became to remain in that space. In fact a lot of things became easier… it was easier to calm myself, shut out worries and centre my whole being on the thought and spirit of healing and connecting. I began to look forward to offering Reiki to friends and family, and in return I began to open up spiritually and gain insights I might never have seen from my previous 3D state of thinking. I seem to go through these cycles, where I am very intensely aware of and eager to connect followed by periods of time when I let life get on top of me and I close myself down again. Each time it seems harder to reconnect, like now. Although I am eager to pick up my Reiki practise more regularly (as I have let it slip in recent months), I find myself reluctant to put aside what I consider “precious time” to sit and meditate and channel healing energy. I could be reading, or contacting all those people I have neglected to reply to or… or… The list of excuses goes on, but each one, however important, would actually be easier to do from a point of relaxation and serenity.

My work at the moment is incredibly taxing and by the end of a working day all I want to do is sit and do nothing. But I am so wound up with energy that I find this hard work. This week I had a stinking cold and my partner decided what I really needed was a full Reiki treatment. So I lay in peace, my favourite piece of music playing in the background and let go. Next thing I knew I was waking from a sleep with just enough energy to climb into bed and fall into a deep slumber. We repeated the treatment the following day and the same thing happened. Then the next night, in an attempt to return the favour to my partner, I offered him a treatment. I found it incredibly difficult to connect, I honestly wondered for a few moments if I’d have to postpone the treatment for another day. But eventually I felt the energy flowing and we started the treatment. And again, I had the best night’s sleep!

Reiki is like anything, the more you practise the easier it becomes. I remember years back going to yoga classes with my father and really wishing I didn’t have to give up my Thursday evening to go out. Yet each session, as we closed with a meditation, I felt the most relaxed I had ever been and the following day was quite blissful. I loved the result, but getting there in the first place was so hard. It’s the same with Reiki - I love how it feels and I love channelling the energy once I get started, but when I am out of the habit it can be so hard to start.

I wonder if any of you feel this way too? I’m sure I can’t be the only one, so I thought I would share some of the “tips” I have discovered both since being first attuned and then quite recently.

• Have a Reiki partner (this doesn’t have to be someone you live with, just someone who you can see regularly, who will encourage you to practise regularly). Having a Reiki partner means that when you are feeling like you really can’t be bothered, they are more likely to realise/remember that this is perhaps the time when you need to practise the most and they will be able to remind you of this and sit with you in silence (or singing, dancing, whatever works for you) and help you to connect
• Practise regularly, even if just for a few minutes a day. A few minutes per day is far better than half an hour or more once a week. I find connecting is the hardest part as it requires me to truly stop and remove myself from whatever is bothering me long enough to do so.
• Set aside a specific time to practise and turn off all electrical equipment, especially telephones. I find that once I start channelling the energy I don’t want to stop, even if I have decided only to sit for five minutes. If I have set aside half an hour it means I do not have to worry about stopping the flow to go check on the dinner or worrying about whether my mum is going to ring etc.
• Make your space sacred to you. This may mean playing a cd that you reserve purely for Reiki or burning some incense you save just for healing sessions. Lower the lights and make yourself warm and comfortable. Often, when we devote sounds, smells and images to the practise of something, just hearing, smelling, seeing these things can help us enter that space far easier than if we just tried to meditate or heal in a busy, noisy, strange atmosphere.

I am sure there are many more ways in which you can make your Reiki practise easier to keep up, and I would welcome any suggestions you’d like to share in the comments.

Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy your Reiki journey
With Blessings
Amanda xx

I thought I would take this moment to introduce you to the Birch…

I was wondering what to post about this week and I looked up at my bookshelf and saw The Tree Angel Oracle sitting there. Within it are a mass of beautifully painted images of all the trees I love (and some I never even knew about!!) I have done several readings for people using these cards and each time my heart has filled with love as I looked upon each card. I have even used them as a focus when practising Reiki - picking out however many I feel guided to choose and placing them somewhere nearby. This is a special action I enjoy doing when I give Reiki in a place where my Oracle happens to be as well - it is not always possible, however. 

The Birch is the first card in the deck, yet is numbered as zero, something I find positively perfect in all ways. The Birch is a tree of birth, youth and nurture and a zero embraces everything within it’s arms, just as the Birch does. The Birch is a slim tree, in comparison to othes such as the oak, yet it holds strong throughout even the greatest storms. If you look closely you will be able to see the feminine beauty of this tree and imagine an Angel sat between its branches, reaching out to hug you.

I remember the Silver Birch that stood in my garden as a child with many fond memories of seeing her beautiful golden green leaves appearing with the Spring. Her catkins were a joy to see and held my attention from the moment they began dancing in the breeze to the time when they drifted to the floor and I could twist them in my fingers and watch them break and drift once more along with the wind. I used to know them as lambs’ tails, another reason why the Birch reminds me so strongly of Spring.

The Silver Birch that stands in my garden no longer blossoms and grows, yet still it stands tall, an anchor for the ivy that grows up and almost completely hides the bird box where each year a family of blue-tits nest (or as happened one year, a hive of bees!!) She is like a member of my family and it is my pleasure to introduce you to her own kind this January day as I eagerly await the beginning of another Spring.

For more information on the Birch please refer back to my Tree Spotlight and for a Springtime meditation please pop back here.

To my shame I have to admit that in recent months I have allowed myself to become so overwhelmed by life’s little intricacies and all that I have tried to fit into my life that I never found time to meditate or heal regularly.

This is a pattern that keep occuring in my life - I find it far easier to shut out the spiritual practises in my life in order to complete the million little (and big) tasks I have set myself. I know I do this because I trust that whatever happens the spiritual aspect of my life will always survive and the finances I need to find, the friends I need to meet up with and the work I need to do might not. But within this equation there is one major flaw - although the spiritual stuff will always be there, I won’t always be able to access and beneift from it if I neglect it.

Too often in my life I get stressed beyond all reason. I make myself ill from excessive worrying and cutting back on the “essentials” I deem to be “less important” such as sleep, time to sit and eat properly (rather than eating on the go) and taking care of my body. As I become more and more stressed my body suffers, my emotions suffer and in an attempt to make everything “better” I fill my life with even more “useless” activities.

Now I’m sure I’m not the only person to do this - but I do know I am worse than most. I am a chronic multi-tasker and achiever… the more I can achieve in the shortest time the better - because it means I can do more and help more people. I am a chronic do-gooder, always wanting to help everybody but never helping myself. In essence, I let my low-self-esteem spur me on and on until I can go no more. And only when I hit rock bottom do I stop and think “this isn’t how it should be”.

This happened to me this weekend. My new boyfriend came to stay and as we moved our relationship from friendship to a deeper level I panicked. My fears, which I had repressed, came rushing to the surface and because I did not allow myself the time and space to heal them I ended up sick in a big way. My body reacted to the fear in a last ditch attempt to get me to pay attention - my hand flared up with eczema (in a way it has never done before) and I threw up.

My body was finally saying “make time” and I finally listened. Last night I set up a meditation and healing schedule to make sure I devote at least half an hour morning and night to just being. I started a diary and wrote within it how hard I found it to just be and I hope to see the development of this practise finding me back in a state where I could enjoy taking the time to stop, meditate and heal. I miss my regular healing sessions - I used to make time every Wednesday evening to join up with a group of friends and send Reiki to friends, family and the world. This stopped when I chose to allow my “human dramas” to overtake my “spiritual peace”.

Had I remembered to stop, connect, heal, and pray I might have found my fears dissolving as I allowed myself to feel, release and invite new and more beneficial energies into my life. Instead I made myself miserable. I do that a lot.

I may be a Reiki master but I am also a very typical human and there are times when I just find my spiritual practises slipping. However, since first being attuned to Reiki and having been on a spiritual journey I see in far greater detail just how much of a difference there is between the times when I stop to connect and those when I don’t. This is why I am now making time… time for me, time for spirit and time for Reiki… and in reality, time is something I have in abundance!

Recently I decided I really wanted to explore Christianity in more depth. Having turned my back away from religion several years ago I felt it was time I opened my heart and allow myself to look at life in another way. It was scary stuff! My whole world was rocked because the whole experience required me to look at myself and the world with an honest and seeking heart. It is a terrible thing to question and doubt but sometimes it is only by allowing such occurences to happen that we discover the strength of our own Faith.

It didn’t take long for me to realise that the truth I held within my heart was the truth I felt within the whole of my soul. The experience of opening up to another Faith taught me a lot but did not sway me from my path. And I knew, without a doubt, that the whole experience had been created to allow me to realise the power of my own Faith.

Healing with Reiki can take similar routes - when we first begin we are often aware of such strong energies running through us we cannot ever doubt the power we have tapped into. And yet, the more comfortable we become with our abilities to heal the less indicators we seem to notice. It’s not that the energy is any less powerful, just that we no longer need those indications. And yet, even the most confident healer will at times question whether the healing is taking place when, for several sessions, they are unable to feel any change within themselves during the healing - no hot hands or awareness of the places in the recipient which require intense healing. These are the times when we need to act on Faith and are also the times we might need to look outside of our usual experience(s) to find that Faith. Sometimes it is only through questioning and doubting that we find the proof we are looking for!

So, if you find yourself doubting your ability to heal, try opening your heart and viewing the world from a different viewpoint. You never know how it might affect your healing practise.