Wishing you Rest this Festive Season

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Wishing you Rest this Festive Season

Kate Jones • 22 December 2022

We all need some rest...

As we pass the Solstice, the darkness begins to gradually recede and the light returns little by little. For thousands of years human beings have held festivals to cheer these dark months. For many it is Christmas and for those celebrating this festival I wish you a happy time. However, it can be a busy time, looking after guests, shopping for gifts and going to parties: potentially an exhausting holiday!

Hopefully once the Christmas parties are over and the main festivities are done, you will have some time to rest. This year my husband Alec and I are on our own for the first time, having spent most previous Christmases with my mother and sister’s family. We do not anticipate being bored, but having – like many – had a challenging year, we are looking forward to the quiet, un-stressful time and a chance to rest and catch up with ourselves.

Have you ever had to take your car to be fixed by a mechanic? In order to achieve the repair did the mechanic need the car to be still or could it be done while driving along? Although a test drive might be needed, most repairs need the car to be at rest. The human body and mind are so much more complex than a car and also need constant repair, so we also need to be at rest to heal. A self-Reiki or receiving Reiki from another is one way to spend some time in stillness, resting and healing.

We have two potential states of being: the stressed state, ready to fight or run in which many of our body’s systems are shut down to prioritise those needed for survival. The other state is the rest, digest and heal state, in which all the necessary physical and emotional functions to digest our experiences and food and heal from any injuries takes place. So rest is vital for our health and well-being. The sleep we have each night helps our bodies to regenerate and heal.

Yet in our busy modern world we often do not take the time to rest and recover. The past few years have been particularly difficult for many people with many worries affecting nearly all of us. How many of us have really taken the time to rest and recover from this?

I believe that Reiki helps us to drop out of the stressful state and back into the resting state. Many people fall asleep during Reiki, because at last their minds are able to relax and stop looking for the next problem. Muscles relax, breathing deepens and there is a feeling of being at peace. This often lasts many hours, often leading to good sleep, until something triggers the stress response again.

The Reiki philosophy also encourages the resting state, such as the Reiki principles that invite us just for today to not worry or anger – both of which are stressful states. Once we have rested, we can be more resilient to stressful things and are less likely to worry or get angry.

So I wish you the blessing of a restful time over the Christmas holiday, if this is possible for you. If you have Reiki, I encourage you to take time for longer self-Reiki daily through the holiday. I thnk you’ll feel better for it!

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Guest Blog by Gulara Vincent: How Reiki Taught Me Trust

by Kate Jones • 6 December 2024

How Reiki Taught Me Trust by Gulara Vincent Reiki found me one Tuesday evening in late February 2009. I saw a leaflet on the windowsill of my Tai-chi teacher’s class at the Buddhist Centre in Birmingham. There was a taster session the next evening and on an impulse I decided to attend it. The next evening, I walked in the vicinity of the Health Centre in King’s Heath without any luck. I couldn’t find the right building in the dark. Disappointed, I came home. Wasn’t meant to be, I decided. Except when I saw leaflets advertising Reiki 1 a week later, I was drawn to it like a moth to the light. I had no idea what Reiki was, but couldn’t resist signing up for the class anyway. I remember the night before my Reiki 1 training, a housemate who had Reiki initiation a few years earlier said: ‘Are you sure you’re ready for this?’ ‘What is there to be ready for?’ I felt puzzled by her concerns. It didn’t take me long to find out. Reiki seemed to have created some energetic sweep clean in my whole system, helping me to release some outdated beliefs and offering comfort and nurture at a time in my life when I often felt lonely and lost. It also unlocked my gifts as a healer. I was so enthusiastic about sharing the Reiki magic that I wanted to put my hands on anyone who was willing to receive the healing. One day, I was with my friend in my office. At the time I was a PhD student in law at the University of Birmingham. My friend was a complete non-believer in any alternative therapies. I put my hands on her temples and the energy flowed and pulsed with heat and intensity. After a few minutes, she removed one of my hands and checked its temperature. ‘But your hand is not hot,’ she looked puzzled. ‘I tell you this works!’ I felt so excited that she could feel the flow of energy that when I put my hands back on, I willed even more energy to come through. I was very keen to convince her. A few days later, I shared this incident with Kate Jones, my Reiki Master. ‘Gulara, you can’t command Reiki to flow stronger,’ she said smiling, ‘whatever needs to be given will be given, and whatever needs to be received will be received.’ Those words have become my mantra for over 15 years now. I apply it to everything I do, including my healing sessions with clients. When I teach healing methods, I always quote Kate to support my students in surrendering and trusting the process. When I write my books and worry about what to include and what to leave out, I often say to myself: ‘Whatever needs to be given will be given. Whatever needs to be received will be received.’ I didn’t know that what this mantra taught me was to trust. I’m forever grateful for Kate’s teachings and her Reiki treatments, especially in relation to my writing journey. Reiki helped me to heal so many of the stories I have included in my second memoir Fragile Freedom. You can find out more here: www.gularavincent.co.uk/blog/fragile-freedom