I wonder how often, as a child, you were told to “cheer up”, “to be a good girl or a good boy”, to “forget about it” or something along those lines? These comments are often very well intentioned and, whilst they may have their place at times, might well have left you feeling dismissed, wrong to feel the way you did, ridiculed even and certainly that your feelings were not very important.

As a human it is natural for you to have emotional responses to things and the better you get at supressing your feelings the more you can end up storing up trouble for later. The busyness of modern life only serves to encourage this as we move at high speed from one experience to the next.
 

Today I ran a half marathon, although, to be truthful, there was quite a bit of walking involved. This is the fourth time I have run this distance, (and my third at an official event), and it was my slowest time so far! Interestingly, it was also the most enjoyable. 

I began running back in March 2020, at the beginning of the first lockdown. Like many people, not being able to work and moving into such a strange world of extreme restrictions was rather an adjustment. I'd never run before; I hated running at school and I never imagined that I even could run further than a quick jog for a bus. I will never be breaking any speed records but it has become something I very much enjoy. I love heading out on the trails with a friend, and sometimes with our dogs. We plod along at a steady pace whilst we chat away and put the world to rights.
 

Many people who come to me for Reiki aren’t aware that you can learn it to use on yourself, or that in fact pretty much anyone can learn it! Before I delve more into the benefits of these two ways to receive Reiki, I will take a few steps back and briefly explain what Reiki is, in case you’re new to it!

What is Reiki?
Reiki is a particular vibration of healing energy, of which there are many, that we can learn to use on ourselves or on other people. It exists in the world around us and is natural to our planet, not unlike water or oxygen. It isn’t a spiritual practice or a type of meditation but more something we can think of as a type of energy medicine. Following what we call an attunement, the student of Reiki is able to place their hands on their own or someone else’s body and allow the Reiki energy to flow through.
 

I was recently interviewed for an online magazine about some of the wonderful things that energy healing can help us with. You can have a read here.