“Thought you weren’t going to answer” June said to me looking mildly unimpressed as she waited on my doorstep. June is my reiki tutor, this is our first meeting, and my inner HSP was a little surprised by her dollop of blunt dialogue. “I’m June” she said warmly, before giving me a hug. HSP is happier now.
The reiki sessions I had experienced were so effective in reducing my nervous energy, calming my mind, especially when combined with the chakra meditations and breath work that Sian had suggested doing at home. I knew by now that reiki was something I wanted to explore for myself and so I embarked on my reiki level 1, “Shoden” as it is referred to. June spent the day talking me through the origins of Japanese Usui Reiki, how to live the precepts which essentially focus on living in the moment, gratitude and letting go of anger and worry, and giving me my reiki empowerments and attunement. The empowerments and attunement were so strong that I felt ill-equipped to describe them, all I can recall is feeling that gravity had departed and I was connecting to another place that was showered in golden light.
Reiki Shoden enables you to “do” reiki on yourself, which is ultimately how reiki came to being; it was only in later years that it extended into being a treatment for other people. I was elated to be able to tune into reiki whenever I wanted and rebalance my energy, and very quickly it became a part of my routine. If ever I let a week or so go past without reiki, I felt like something was missing. One evening after my reiki meditations I decided to set aside some time to do something that Sian had suggested to me a few weeks earlier, which was to meditate with a candle in front of a mirror. To be completely honest, I was nervous about doing this having heard people say that mirrors are portals, I just wasn’t sure what I was inviting in.
I settled on the floor and tried to empty my mind. Deep breath…..stare at the candle, breathe slowly, focus on the breath, I didn’t unload the washing machine, shut up Jay, focus on the breath, let go of thoughts, focus on the rise and fall of the abdomen and then look up at the mirror.
Nothing.
I tried again a few days later. Still nothing. Realising that glaring at myself head-on, eyes bulging, was probably not helping so I returned to my gentle breathing and tried again. In….freshness. Out….thoughts gone. In….freshness. Out……thoughts gone. And as I slowly looked up to the mirror in a soft gaze, there he was.
Starting to see, aged 43 
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