Digging deep- my toolkit

Without a doubt, 'Brave The Shave' was a bit of a significant point in this funny old journey. I remember going upstairs afterwards, looking in the mirror and saying to myself, "Fuckinell you look ill!"
There then followed a Party Political Broadbast on behalf of the 'Don't you dare go into self-pity and tell yourself you're ill' Party!

I knew it was time to dig deep into the toolkit I'd accumulated throughout my life of 30 years in Teaching and the previous ten years of Reiki, NLP, Drumming, Mindfulness Meditation, The Gongs, EFT, Hypnotherapy, IEMT..... It's all very well listing these things on a CV, but how many of them had I really internalised? Each bit of studying, every course, all the books I'd read, everything I've done on my journey has equipped me with 'tools'. Some of these tools are sharp and ready for daily use. Some lurk in the bottom of my toolkit for specific or occasional use. Without a doubt, Reiki is the most powerful, most accessible and most ubiquitous tool in my kit. I might even say (stealing a phrase from my awesome NLP teacher) that it is my Swiss Army knife.

Reiki changed my life. I was intrigued after the first treatment I received. I didn't understand it but something felt so natural, so deep, so ancient and so very right. I craved the calmness that treatments gave me. After a while, someone explained to me that it is possible to do 'self-healing'. So that wonderful peaceful wholeness is possible anytime? How could that be? I went on to learn about the Attunement process. Like a powerful Reiki treatment and the way the Reiki Energy is passed from Master to student. There were some obstacles on my road to Attunement. At the time this was frustrating. My first potential Reiki Master told  me I 'wasn't ready' and must sort my head out before I could be Attuned. My belief was that I needed Reiki to help me sort my head out. That was a 'never the twain' difference that I now give thanks for as it allowed me to be absolutely certain that Reiki was for me. So I found a Reiki Master who would work with me and explained I just wanted this for me. I was adamant I didn't want to be a therapist. I believe my words were 'I don't want to be one of those middle aged women in polyester frocks doing woo woo shit'!  So I spent an emotional but rather wonderful day in Clitheroe learning the History of Reiki, stuff about Chakras, Meditating, learning how to do the self-treatment and receiving the precious Attunement.  My first Reiki certificate has 'Self Healing Only' printed across the middle. This was about my journey, my wellbeing, my healing. And Reiki kick-started me down a new branch of my journey. Or perhaps it brought me back to a personal 'road less travelled'. My spiritual path- one I'd allowed to become overgrown and neglected since being told back in 1981 that I must choose between my sexuality and my spirituality.

I'll talk more about this Toolkit in later blogs I'm sure. There are other tools that have supported my journey massively- not least NLP and Mindfulness  which, combined with Reiki, can I believe change the world. But that's a blog for another day!  

For now, suffice it to say, Reiki changed my life. I am passionate about receiving, sharing and teaching Reiki and feel so good, so calm, so complete whenever I'm working in any way with Reiki. And the day after Brave The Shave I found myself setting off on a long-planned Reiki 2 Retreat.

This weekend up at the Retreat House was beautiful. The weather was glorious, the group were just perfect, the energy in the house was powerful and in Chris and Julie I had the perfect team.





I did start to become aware of my limitations and no way could I do the full-on stuff I normally do on Retreat but Julie and Chris quietly worked around me and gently made allowances when I got frustrated with myself.

One thing this weekend did was help me realise how much I'd missed Drumming and playing the Gongs and it was so good to spend time surrounded by them. By Saturday evening I was physically tired and did something I've never done on Retreat before. I rested! Chris and Julie led the evening session and I could hear from upstairs that folks were loving it. And this absolutely made my heart sing. Though there were a few little 'see, they don't need you' gremlins niggling and gnawing in my head.  

 

All in all, this was a powerful, blissful weekend of Healing supported by the most loving energy with the kindest, most authentic group of folks imaginable! The Retreat weekend was followed by a Reiki Share on the Monday evening and I think its fair to say this was the perfect preparation for surgery two days later. all really was well in my world!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Liz x