Reiki Retreat and Thoughts on Kindness

Interview on MysticMag.com

Very grateful for this thoughtful interview with MysticMag that came out today. It feels synchronistic because today marks one month before I take off for our Reiki Retreat and Healing Holiday in Barbados. And then afterwards, I'll fly north to meet with more students, in New York City!

Even though it's a relatively short trip, it still feels surreal just thinking about leaving this deeply nurturing island I've been rooting into these past years. It feels like a baby bird leaving its nest for the first time, to take some flying lessons.

The clock is ticking now in that good slightly pressurized way that makes my heart beat faster. It's good, cheek-warming, my step is a little swifter, my jokes a little funnier. It's like being in love again. Not with a person but with creativity itself. I can't express how long I've waited to feel this way again. It's a gift to my soul after an intense training I never thought would end, to be honest. The last test was walking through a fire.

Not a literal fire, but an emotional one. It was a fire of my own suffering, a painful one to even think about, that I wanted to avoid at all costs.

This quote from my Buddhist mentor, Dr. Daisaku Ikeda sums it up perfectly:

"I’m sure quite a few among you have had your hearts broken or been badly hurt, and perhaps feel unable to go on, your self-esteem in tatters. But you must never believe that you are worthless. There is no substitute for you who are more precious than all the treasures in the universe gathered together. . . . It is important for you to become strong. For if you are strong, even your sadness will become a source of nourishment, and the things that make you suffer will purify your life."

Reiki practice smiles in Okinawa

It's the hardest lesson to believe that our life is a treasure to the magnitude Dr. Ikeda mentions. And also that sadness can somehow fortify us emotionally, and that our suffering can be like a fire purifying our lives. Who can believe such things? But after going through a deep test I understood his words even more, in the core of my being. To come into a belief like this is a showing of true strength of heart and mind. And this strength becomes evident in our energetic and physical bodies too. Becoming strong is becoming healthier.

Surely with this kind of inner strength, and honoring, our sadness and suffering become our greatest treasures too. They are what makes us kind. Kindness isn't even something you can teach, it's something that you become, it has to be cultivated.

My time in Okinawa has been all about cultivating kindness, from the root up. Being here has helped me to understand the last of the Reiki principles with more clarity. In Reiki, the last of the Reiki principles states: Just for today I will be kind to every living being. We are also a living being so this principle, and Okinawa, has taught me that we must begin and end with ourselves. If we can be kind to ourselves our outward expression becomes naturally kind, all on its own. Learning how to be kind to ourselves is challenging because it begins in our minds. How we talk to ourselves and how we decide which thoughts to entertain and which to let go of makes learning how to "be kind to every living being" a dynamic and constantly interactive process.

When I give a healing session, which I call Mystic Medicine Healing, this particular Reiki principle remains in the back of my mind. I ask myself before I meet with the client: How can I be kind to this person? How can I help this person be kind or kinder to themselves? I share more about my process of giving Mystic Medicine Healing sessions to others and also how preparing for the session is just as important if not more important than the session itself. You can read the full interview on the MysticMag website here.

I'm looking forward to what's to come on this trip and also all the beautiful people I'll get to hug and share Reiki with in real life! Wow, real life Reiki hugs, imagine that! :)