Principles ...

As a Reiki Master and a Munay Ki Initiate, I have two sets of principles that I am to follow. I have both of these printed out and posted on my bulletin board. The Reiki principles are also on my bedroom mirror and I have them posted in my office. I read them daily and I make the attempt to follow them as well. I use the word attempt as like all those out there reading this, I am still human and I have my ups and downs.

So why do I, or anyone else for that matter, need to have a set of principles to follow? What's the big deal, just live your life as you see fit, why write something out? Writing something out, having it posted to look at, does make a difference. It gives you an anchor, something to look at and remind you of the principles that you agreed to live your life by.

The Principles of the Munay Ki are as follows:

Non-violence
Bring no harm to yourself or others

Truthfulness
Be true to your word, and let your word be true

Integrity
Do not steal, not even a glance; walk your talk

Moderation
Use wisely the life force within you

Generosity
Give more than you take, for nothing in the world really belongs to you

The Principles of Reiki are as follows:

Today I am free of Anger

Today I am Free of Worry

Today I work to improve myself with diligence and appreciation

Today I am kind to all Living Things

Today I am Thankful for all of my many blessings

As you can see, there are places where these two sets of principles are the same. The wording is different, but the intent is the same. With the Reiki principles, the word today is used as you only need to take care of today; it isn't intimidating to do something for one day. If they read, for the "rest of my life" I might not have even made the attempt to follow them! One day at a time. One day moves into two days, and then three. Eventually a series of days have gone by and the attempt was made each and every one of those days to follow the principles that I agreed to follow.

It is a good thing, having a set of principles to model your life after. In a situation that would normally become stressful and upsetting it is helpful to take a deep breath and think, "which principle might apply to the situation that I'm facing now?" Just moving your mind to that thought will take you from the trigged "normal" response to the situation and put you in a better place to deal with what is going on.

Principles can be a very individualized thing. You can follow those that come to you through the different paths of your life, or you can model ones that look and feel right to and for you. There can be only one or two, or you can have as many as you'd like. This is something that I am planning on helping others with, finding their own set of principles to live by.

Healed vs. Cured

My sister and I had a very interesting conversation yesterday. I was telling her about my thoughts on healing, that it comes from the heart and that in order for a person to be healed they need to be able to love themselves unconditionally. I should put in at this point that my sister is a Nurse-Practitioner, a very good one at that! She said that there is a difference between being healed and being cured. I agree!

To help you to understand what is meant by this I will give you two examples. The first woman has breast cancer and as part of the treatment, she has a mastectomy. Her breast cancer is cured and it is no longer present anywhere in her system. She never is able to come to terms with the treatment, in this case the mastectomy, and she becomes bitter and broken because she sees herself as broken. Has she been healed? Has she been cured of the disease, but left unhealed and open for new disease and unhappiness to filter into her life?

The second example is of a woman once again with cancer. This time, the woman is at peace with herself, her complete self, even the parts that have cancer. She is enjoying the life that she has, she moves through her life with joy, passing that joy and love to others around her. She eventually dies of the cancer, so it is clear that she was never cured, but was she healed? I believe that she was. She lived a life of peace and joy, even if she was living it with cancer, she never lived as a victim and she brought joy to all around her. It is a fact that all on earth are going to pass on at some point as it is the way of the Universe, we may not be able to control the way that happens but we can be healed at the very core of our being and live life to the fullest.

I have Multiple Sclerosis, I was diagnosed in 1992. I went downhill rather quickly; steroids and I became very good friends. I couldn’t walk without holding on to something; balance was not in my cards at that time. I went blind in my left eye. I have been numb from the waist down with bruising all over my legs and no idea how it happened. I have to laugh at the many, many times I have dropped something to the floor when I was attempting to place it on the counter, I had no depth perception at all. This was in 1992, 20 years ago. I was on IV meds for five days at a time; I came back down on Prednisone. I have had knee surgery as part of my thigh bone broke off and was floating around inside my knee cap. This was due to the large amount of steroids that I have taken in my life.

Most people would have no idea that I have an incurable disease, or a disease that has no cure known to the medical field at this time. I have “healed” myself; I have healed myself in the definition of healing given above. I still have an injection that I give myself every day, I will not stop taking the medicine until I am instructed to do so by my Neurologist, but I have healed.  I embrace the path that I have gone down and there are times that I can see where it has changed my life for the better. I have empathy for those with disease, I can understand the thoughts and feelings that they express in regard to what they are going through. I can honestly tell them that true healing comes from the heart and from the way we handle the disease. I have experienced this myself and I can talk to them from my heart and understand what they are saying with compassion. I also know when it’s time to move forward and not let the disease control them, but to have the Client take control of the disease.

I have tested “normal” for an eye test (I don’t remember if it is an EEG for sure) that I should not have tested normal on. I have MS and I have Optical Neuritis. These two together should make it to where I never test normal on this. They say it’s impossible; I have had more than one Doctor comment on my normal results. Does this mean that I am cured of Optical Neuritis? I think that I might be cured and I know that I am healed.

I hope to one day be cured of MS, as I heal more and more each day and get closer to that level of total unconditional love of self I know that the cure of this disease is getting closer.

I work to heal people and in their healing I hope that they are cured. It is a team effort, the Client, myself, the energy, and their Doctor or Therapist.  Healing comes from the level of the heart and unconditional love. I do not claim to cure people, but I do claim to help them to heal. There is a difference.

Healing from the Heart ...

I have a very firm belief that true, lasting healing comes from the heart. The Institute of Heart Math has done several studies on the power of the heart and I find them to be very interesting. Are you aware that the electromagnetic field of the brain can be measured up to a four foot circumference around the brain? Let's compare that to the electromagnetic field of the heart. The heart has a circumference of twelve feet around the heart! I wonder which one has more influence on things, the brain or the heart?

I have written that I work with my Client as a team effort. It takes a team at times to accomplish the goals that we wish to accomplish in our lives. Healing is no different. Lasting healing comes from a place in the heart center. I can help to clear your aura, balance your chakras, send energy to assist with a multitude of things, and we will see great progress. We will see a complete disappearance of the original conditions that you, the Client wished to clear up. I've seen this over and over again. It truly is a wonderful thing to follow the progress that is made as the team works together.

I will return to my first statement "lasting healing comes from the heart". As a Reiki Practitioner, I use pure love from my heart center to begin each and every treatment. It has to come from that place to be as strong and as effective as I wish the energy to be. My focus is on my Client, on what I sense and see, and for the time that they are in my office, they are my world. The treatments are amazing and my Clients have amazing experiences as well.

The one thing that I really want to get through to everyone is that until you can learn to love yourself, unconditionally love and respect yourself, things will still slip in and cause you new types of dis-ease. You will be back to see me with a different set of things that the "team" needs to work on. It isn't an easy thing, this learning to love yourself unconditionally. To love yourself beyond the level of words and have it be something that you know, deep within your own heart center, that it is the truth.

To heal completely you have to get to the point that you can look into the mirror at any given moment and love the person that you see looking back at you. This is not an easy thing to do by any means. I work myself not to cringe at that "baby belly" that I see in the mirror. It is part of me and to be healthy in all aspects of my life, I need to love that part just as much as I do my little feet!

I call this "Heart Magick ... Where Healing Begins". It's a team effort to get to this point of unconditional love, but we can all get there. When you love yourself unconditionally, the rest will start to fall into place.

Catching up

It's been a bit since I've written, am I getting a bit rusty in the writing arena? I hope not! I have been busy, though I'm not sure that's the main reason that I haven't written in a while. I'll work on the reasoning behind the action, it's somewhere floating around in my head and I will find it one of these days.

There is a new, revamped website up and running for Ethereal Touch. I will get all the quirks figured out sooner or later. I am also getting my classes set up to teach on the Internet as well as live in my office. The classes are fun and I've discovered that I love to teach!

I am on the "Faculty" of The Ohio Nursing League and am teaching Practical Reiki (8 CE's for Nurses) through the Reiki Awakening Academy. It was a bit of a smiling moment to see the OK come through and realize that my name is on this list. Who would have thought?

Where do I go from here? What direction do I continue in? I love what I do, I love the people that I meet and interact with on this path that I am on. It is something that is both humbling and rewarding as I listen to the words of appreciation and know that I've made a difference in someones life. I've been looked at and simply told "fix me".

Energy work is a powerful thing, it's an empowering thing. Working with energy and a Client is a team effort, the Client helps themselves as the energy moves through their own systems. It is empowering to know that you are helping to bring your body back into balance so that it can heal as it was meant to do.

I can give Reiki all day long to a person that doesn't want to get better, for whatever reason that might be, and while they may or may not improve, they won't stay that way. Give me another person that is ready for things to be better, the energy is received and the progress is truly amazing. It is a team effort, and the team is comprised of myself, the Client, and the energy that flows all around us.

I read a short statement the other day. It read "Empowerment through Knowledge". I like that statement. I completely agree, knowledge is empowering. Having an open mind to new ideas and understanding helps in gaining that empowerment. I encourage everyone to be like a sponge and soak up all the information that they can. Don't take things at face value that you are told, research what interests you, find the truth behind it for yourself and make it your truth as well.