The Light Revealed!

In the Beginning ...

Sometimes, this climate seems unconscionable, and so difficult to navigate for many, but it will change quickly and hopefully, peacefully. The current political/societal climate has all of us walking on eggshells, afraid of our own responses, reactions, words, etc. Interestingly, either side is fighting about or against their own opinions. The words and phrases we're spewing basically align with our own long-held, personal, conditioned beliefs. 

What if we all began to awaken to the fact that our internal belief system is not really our own? We were all raised this way or that way-and many of us get angry at the thought that others weren't raised ‘with the same values’, beliefs, political background, ethics, morals, etc. as we were. But if we were all the same - homogenous - wouldn't that feel monotonous and bland after a while? Change is our only constant in Life, and for me personally, change keeps me on my toes consistently!

Opening to Listen to One Another

We do need to be willing to listen to one another's opinions, feelings and views using our mature emotional intelligence abilities. None of us has to change his or her personal beliefs or opinions unless he/she wants to explore the deeper aspects of our individual inner workings. When doing so, it helps to have unbiased, neutral people listen to our laments. For me, it helps to have a neutral ear. 

I hear myself talking out loud to her and it's as though I'm observing myself. In that way, my Inner Guide/Higher Self (God, Jesus, Allah, Yaweh, Creator, Great Spirit, etc.) discerns truth from chaff. As I observe my self, my Self discerns the truth.

Collectively, imagine how much more empowered and connected we'd feel as citizens united against those things we abhor: anger, hatred, abuses, bigotry, negativity, chaos, war. How empowered would you feel if those around you felt the same way you did about those same issues? But then, we can stand apart from others and know that we abhor and disown all the negative behaviors without getting caught up in the resistance aspects of each one. We know intrinsically that what we resist continues to persist long and hard, making it difficult to ever come to a place of peace without our Self.

Unfortunately, some of us are incapable of letting go of the Egoic need to be 'right', and also of old conditioning. Therefore, it is difficult to be rigorously honest with our selves. Fear prevents many of us from looking deep within and bringing up those old paradigms and beliefs that no longer serve us individually or serve the greater good. Letting go is a process that takes practice, but there is freedom in knowing that anyone or anything, which no longer serves my higher purpose or the good of humanity can be let go of. 

We are More Similar than we are Different 

Humanity needs to be united for all peoples, no matter their religion, race, color, sexual orientation or other perceived differences. Indeed, for all sentient beings. All the aforementioned extraneous aspects do not and never have mattered. It is the human condition that has made these irrelevant issues relevant. 

In all the disagreeing, hatred, anger, judgment, et al, which is being cycled and recycled around our planet currently, we are not SOLVING anything. We are simply perpetuating problems if we are engaging in banter about ‘differences’. We are perpetuating the dissension if we are remaining silent, as well. Without dissension, changes can not and will not happen, nor has change ever taken place in history without periods of dissension. Logically, we are all acting insanely, yet we are refusing to see exactly how insanely we are behaving.

Today, I am changing my involvement in these processes. Today, I am willing to see that changes can and will happen amidst the dissension. Today, I am willing to BE the change I wish to see in the world. Today, I will see the Light within my brothers and sisters rather than the darkness surrounding them.

I am the beacon of Light that will shine her love on all of humanity!

Blessings ~

Reiki Nurse

Reiki Joy: How Reiki Transformed my Life

This article was previously published HERE

The Reiki Tree

When I was first introduced to Reiki energy, I was a young woman living in a small, albeit cultural city in New England. I was asked over to a friend’s home for tea, and while I was there she shared her knowledge about Reiki with me, which wasn’t very extensive at the time. She had recently been introduced to the healing energy, as well. Our discussion intrigued me at the time, and I remember thinking I must learn more about this mysterious healing energy.

As it happened, Life got in the way, and the Internet wasn’t quite as accessible back then (1990) as it is today, so I got sidetracked with every day, mundane situations; and nearly forgot about Reiki until a few years later. While attending a group meeting for work, Reiki was brought up in a conversation with another person. I remember thinking at that moment that God must be trying to tell me something, because Reiki was once again the highlight of a random conversation for me.

It was 7 years from that first encounter with Reiki ~ in January of 1997 ~ that I was Attuned in First and Second Degree Reiki in the Usui Rhoyo System of Natural Healing, or Reiki. My Reiki teacher explained to me she had been attuned by John Harvey Gray, who had been attuned by Hawaya Takata, the woman responsible for bringing Reiki to the Western World. She stated that she was considered a “2^nd generation Reiki practitioner”, and that I would be “3^rd generation”, for whatever that meant. She also told me that it was important to treat myself every day, as well as treating my friends and family, pets, cars, plants, etc. She told me that Reiki would go where it was meant to go, and even though she’d taught me formal hand positions, she encouraged me to use my Intuition whilst treating clients. After practicing Reiki for a few years here and there, I decided to obtain my Third Degree Attunement, my Master level in Reiki.  

For many days, perhaps even weeks after that first attunement, my hands felt hot most of the time. I dreamt of the Reiki symbols, and when I closed my eyes to meditate or to relax, the symbols danced behind my eyelids. There was a sense of peace within me, and it seemed I couldn’t get enough Reiki energy. I began seeking out other practitioners to trade sessions with, and considered forming a Reiki support group, in which practitioners of all levels could meet and share Reiki with each other. Unfortunately, I was sidetracked by Life’s demands once again, and Reiki took a back seat to raising my children as a single mother, working at a mental health facility, and balancing Life on Life’s terms. (I must mention here that I capitalize the term ‘Life’ because it is of utmost importance to me, and deserves capitalization in my eyes, as it is honored by me on a daily basis).

Fast forward fourteen years: After a traumatic, emergent, and extensive surgical procedure on my heart in 2011, I sank into a deep, dark depression. It was during that time that Reiki became the most prevalent for me than it had been in my Life thus far. It was as though I was discovering it again for the first time; and I began to eat, sleep, and breathe Reiki, treating my heart and myself nearly every day.

 

This Kanji represents: REIKI

At night, I would lie awake with visions of the symbols twirling and doing pirouettes in my mind’s eye, and all the while I talked to Archangel Raphael, pleading with him to heal me from the inside out. I began to use Reiki on my food, water, my vehicle, and even sent it into future situations that I would be involved in at work. Consequently, my depression lifted, and my heart and Life became filled with the Joy of Living once again. Even in the face of many tragedies that occurred during that year after my heart surgery ~ the death of my Mother-in-Law, and then two months later to the day the death of a woman I’d called ‘Ma’ since I was 11 years young ~ I remained calm and forged ahead.

No longer did I feel as though things were happening to me, but that I was strong enough to get through anything that happened around me, no matter how difficult. I felt like a new woman! The Joy of Reiki had assisted in lifting me out of the worst darkness I’d experienced in my Life: a face-to-face encounter with Death itself! Reiki has transformed my Life thus far, as I use it when I’m traveling for my profession as travel nurse, when I’m going to be in situations that I know will be stressful, when I’m meeting up with new patients and clients, and in so many other situations in my daily Life.

Reiki has transformed, and continues to transform my Life, even though I seemingly abandoned it at one time. It is almost as though Reiki was waiting for me to access it once again, simply hanging out in the background of my Life. When I needed its healing energy most, it was right there waiting for me to open to it once again.

Today, it’s not unusual for me to discuss Reiki with people who have no clue what energy healing is, and it has also opened many doors to discussions with my patients that might otherwise have never occurred. I realize that as far as Reiki goes, I am extremely blessed to have had that very first encounter with it 25 years ago, and now I understand that it wasn’t me who was searching for Reiki, Reiki did indeed find ME! I am so blessed and honored for that fact. Thank you, Reiki Grandmasters, Reiki Angels, Reiki Beings, and Reiki Energies.