Category Archives: Well-being

Reiki or something else

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I am guessing that most of the readers of this blog are interested in having a reiki treatment in Sydney, and found me through a search engine like Google. Some readers will find this through my newsletter, which I send out a few times a year. A few might come from me posting a link to this blog post on Facebook. And some will be generally interested in reiki, rather than in coming for a reiki treatment.

It might surprise you that with this post, I’m not going to try to sell you on the benefits of reiki and convince you to come in for a treatment. My marketing philosophy is to remind people I’m here and be visible (and I’ve heard that writing blog posts occasionally, which marks my website as being active, helps my website come up in search engines). And I will basically trust that if my clients want to have a reiki treatment and can find me that they’ll come for a treatment.

What I am happy to promote though, to anyone, is that we should regularly, continously and actively be taking care of ourselves. Our bodies won’t be able to be healthy unless we take care of them with healthy eating and drinking and exercise. Similarly, our minds and energy are likely not able to naturally be in a positive place unless we put our intentions there.

So, it may be reiki that you find is a practice that helps you feel good or feel better and it may be something else! It could be yoga, meditation, chanting, acupuncture, counselling, therapy, long walks, exercise or time to yourself. It could be reading, getting massages, a flotation tank, making something with your hands, spending time in nature or spending time with friends and family. It won’t be any single thing.

I advise clients not to view a reiki treatment as a one-time cure for your problems. It should be just one of the tools that you use on a regular basis for your well-being, and you may not use the same tools in the same combination forever. Find what works for you and use the tools regularly and an ongoing basis, instead of waiting until you’re in crisis to act. I hope you can take care of yourself and encourage others to do the same.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given over 3,400 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Do you need therapy or counselling?

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Clients often come to me with stress and anxiety, either generally, or in response to a particular situation. So, I often ask if they are seeing a counsellor or therapist. It’s part of my general philosophy about reiki, that a reiki treatment may be a tool that will help you in some way but that you will need a number of tools in your toolbox. One treatment is not going to magically solve a problem or issue. And furthermore, if the issue is primarily one of the mind or emotions, then I think the first place to start with is someone who specialises in these, just like if you are physically injured or sick, a medical doctor would be my first port of call.

I just came across this article in the Washington Post, ‘Not everyone needs therapy‘, by Emily Edlin, and it nudged me to think about how I word my question. As the article says:

‘People need therapy when their mental health symptoms are causing serious impairments in their daily functioning — in close relationships, work performance, sleep or social activities. For instance, if a person’s work stress overwhelms them to the point that they miss work and are subsequently at risk of losing their job.

They don’t need therapy when they are able to manage their symptoms well — if they feel stressed about their work but continue to perform well, have a supportive network of family and friends, engage in meaningful activities outside work and do not have significant levels of depression and anxiety.’

I think this is a good framework and that it is true that sometimes stress and anxiety don’t require therapy, but are a signal that you need to reflect and change the situation. And many of my clients already do some form of therapy, and are coming for a reiki treatment as an alternative way to support what they are already doing.

I’d also add that there are different kinds of therapy and counselling. A number of clients who have had prolonged terrible periods at work could benefit from, I believe, workplace counselling or coaching, as the problems really are specific to work. People who can’t get over a relationship break-up or are suffering from the loss of a loved one could benefit from counsellors that specialise in these areas – relationships, grief – to help them get through this time.

I can sense that sometimes clients just need to be able to talk about how they feel, and I think being able to pay someone, a professional, to listen to you and provide objective guidance, is a wonderful thing. Very occasionally, a client will want to tell me all about the problems they are facing and this tells me that a professional listener would be good for them, rather than telling their problems to friends or family … or a reiki practitioner.

Finally, a number of clients have said that they tried counselling but that it didn’t work. There are many types of counselling available, and it’s not a given that you’ll find the right therapist right away (just as I know that some clients will ‘click’ with other reiki practitioners better than with me). So, if it didn’t work once, it may mean that counselling is not for you, but it may also mean that it wasn’t the right counsellor or type of counselling.

In any case, the important thing is recognising that you want to feel better and that you are doing something about it. If this includes reiki, I’ll see you at your next treatment!

P.S. Some time after I wrote this blog post in March 2024, a client told me about what seems like a terrific service in Australia. It’s an Australian online-based program, so would be particularly useful for you if you’re comfortable with doing counselling online or can’t get to someone in person. Looking through their website, it looks like it has a lot to offer, no matter what your situation, and is inexpensive OR, with a doctor’s prescription, free. Check it out at www.thiswayup.org.au.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 3,500 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Extra benefits of a reiki treatment

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While the practice of reiki and reiki treatments may have a specific shape and form, I’ve been thinking this week about the extra benefits from coming to a reiki treatment, which aren’t about reiki itself.

While it’s hard to generalise about my reiki clients, I can say that everyone comes to support their well-being. So, a first benefit is about a positive mindset. The action of coming to a reiki treatment means that you have decided that you want to take care of yourself. You want to see what reiki will do for you in a positive way or you may hope that it will address a negative situation in your life, such as stress or anxiety, or even a physical issue.

I also think it’s very important to be able to identify how we are feeling and then to say how we want to feel. We’ve all heard stories about how some people won’t admit to themselves how they’re feeling and then that sadness or anger or stress erupts or turns into a bad situation. Moreover, if we’re not feeling at our best, it’s useful to think about how we are feeling when we are good in ourselves. How do you want to feel?

So, some reflection is accomplished, which I think is very positive. Then, reiki clients turn intentions into action by booking and coming in for an appointment. I think this is also a positive gesture. A main challenge for some of my clients is that they know what they need to do (e.g. make time for themselves, work less or think about work less) but they don’t do it. By deciding you want a treatment and coming in for one (and making the time), you are breaking indecision, inertia or a lack of motivation to doing something you want to do.

Basically what I’m saying is that before the reiki treatment has started, you’ve put yourself on a positive course to feeling better. There are other benefits, which could be said to be part of the treatment, but I think of as extra benefits. Being welcomed into a peaceful, quiet and non-judgemental space. Being invited to say your intentions for how you’d like to feel. Being listened to and seen. Listening to music, which I hope you find beautiful. A cup of tea, if you’d like one, and perhaps a different sort than you’re used to.

One of the biggest benefits, I think, is being able to be quiet, in a space all to yourself, with time for yourself, free of obligations of work and family and the need to think about problems and other people, time to not receive phone calls and not be connected to our smartphones. Some clients tell me they never take or get this quiet time for themselves.

So when I say that I think that a reiki treatment is beneficial for almost all of my clients, it is not just the reiki treatment itself, but also the extra benefits!

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given over 3,400 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Come for a treatment

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A night blooming cereus.

I invite you to come for a reiki treatment. If you’d had a treatment before and found it useful or that it felt good, I invite you to consider how often you might want to come. You see, whether it’s meditation, yoga, exercise, eating well or reiki, when you find something that is good for you, I think that you should make it a regular practice. This is much preferable to waiting until a situation is so bad that you feel you need an emergency treatment!

I had a revelation about my practice only recently (and after so many years!). I think that I may have not been as encouraging as I could have been when people asked how often they should come for a treatment. The reason for this is twofold. When I started learning about reiki, it was a widespread practice among some reiki practitioners to tell clients that they needed to have three treatments in order for reiki to work at its best. But when I started giving treatments, it felt to me (and still does) that this was just a way to try to get clients to come more often. I think you should know after ONE treatment whether reiki works for you or not, and it’s no use coming again if it didn’t bring you any benefits. Reiki works for the vast majority of my clients, but not everyone.

And while I think and hope that a reiki treatment will be beneficial each time, it is NOT true that you MUST come more than once. So, I really didn’t want to come across as one of THOSE practitioners. Similarly, during a long period when I had problems with my lower back, it took me a long time to find the right physiotherapist who told me that his goal was NOT to see me again and that he’d do all he could to fix the issue in one session and then give me home exercises to do to support this. This was after I’d had a number of physios and chiros who gave me mediocre (or bad) care and told me that I had to come in again a week after. So, I think quite subconsciously, I have over many years been reticent to tell clients to come on a regular basis though I do tell them that they should come back if it the treatment worked for them and that some of my clients do come on a regular basis.

So, I should make it clear: I think that regular reiki is very beneficial to some clients, and I think that it would benefit quite a few clients (those who felt good effects) if they came more regularly, than say, the night blooming cereus, photo above, that recently bloomed, at night, as it does ONCE A YEAR. 😆

Food for thought, I hope, and I’ll see you when I see you! Hope you’re well.

Andy

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 3,300 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

What might I feel from a reiki treatment?

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I think that one of my most common questions that a reiki client will have for me is: ‘What will I feel?’ Lately, this question comes out in a funny way, when clients ask, ‘Is it normal to feel this way?’ You know, I’ve always hated that idea of ‘normal’ being something that we should aim for. But that’s besides the point. I think in general and specifically related to reiki, we are all very individual. There is no normal. So, while I can tell you that some clients feel the energy in different ways in their body, some clients do not feel it. Some people feel heat and a few people cool, and others experience the energy as like electricity or magnets, sparkling or like it is a pulling sensation.

Some clients go into a place very similar to meditation, and others cannot stop their minds from racing. Many have both happening during a treatment: relaxation AND busy thoughts. A few people see colours. Some people have very interesting images and visuals of things they’ve never seen before, while others have memories which may be significant and may not be! Some clients describe the thoughts and memories as ‘really random’. Occasionally, clients have images of relatives, loved ones and friends, sometimes those who have passed. And others don’t feel anything or think anything special at all, though hopefully they feel relaxed. Rarely, clients feel unpleasant sensations: pain, perhaps in a place where they have had an injury, anxiety (sometimes because it is a new experience) and one client even reported a prolonged feeling of fear and darkness.

There is also a difference between clients who have reiki regularly with some who say that treatments are nearly always the same (with some variation) and others who report that the treatment are different every time!

A similar variation would apply to how clients feel afterwards and for how long. Very occasionally, clients say they feel the effects for a long time! More often, it’s just the day or two afterwards, or maybe a day or two after that. And others say they don’t feel much different right afterwards. I also try to warn clients that they might feel worse before they feel better, as some clients feel really tired, or even like they are catching a flu. A recent client told me they broke out in some acne on their face, which doesn’t happen to them.

I wanted to share a few recent reports with you. One client who was suffering from depression reported after the treatment:

‘I took some time over the past week to pay attention to the way I was feeling and I have to say I am amazed … Right off the bat right after I left the session I felt as if my senses were renewed, my senses felt sharper and much clearer. Admittedly I was a bit skeptical that the deep pain I’d been experiencing in my chest would go away with one session so I gave it some time. I’m happy to say that that pain has been lifted significantly. I still can feel upset, but that aching physical sensation is nearly gone – which is just incredible because previously it held me down so much ..
I’m thinking to come in again in a few weeks – I’m not sure how long this lifted effect will last, but for now it feels great.’

On the other hand, a client who came because they feel they cannot be focused and are always daydreaming and distracted reported:

‘No, I did notice any difference in me. My mind is always distracted.’

If there are messages from this, for me, it is that it’s worthwhile to try out reiki and see what it does for you. Then, it’s useful to not have any expectations but to simply be open to what happens (or what does not happen). If you are hoping to feel like someone else has felt, or are expecting to feel a certain way, you may be disappointed and you may not notice what is actually happening, with your expectations in the way. And finally: nothing is normal! You will feel how you feel and that is all good. Comparing ourselves to other people is usually not very useful.

Good wishes to all!

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given more than 3,000 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Is that it?

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What if a reiki treatment is just relaxing to quiet music in a room for 50 minutes?

A person standing next to you who wants you to feel better?

Time when you’re not thinking?

Or time when you’re only thinking about yourself instead of other people?

The only time in the day (or week) that you’re not thinking about what you’ll do next?

Or worrying about a problem or hurting because of something that happened?

What if a reiki treatment is just making a decision to try something new, or to feel better, and then actively making the time to do so, and then going to do it?

One of the only times that you’re awake but not checking your phone?

A conscious act to take care of yourself?

What if that’s all reiki is? Would you find it helpful?

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given more than 2,100 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Is that relationship really toxic?

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I’ve had many clients visit over the years who have talked about being in a toxic relationship as a reason for coming for a treatment. It could be a romantic relationship or just a friendship, or used to describe a workplace. And it got me wondering about the word ‘toxic’ and what’s it all about?

Lillian Glass is a specialist in communication, who had a private practice in Beverly Hills, first helping those with voice and speech disorders, and then working on self-confidence and communication skills to the stars. She’s the author of 12 books, including the 1995 book Toxic People. Glass describes a toxic relationships as one in which people ‘don’t support each other, where there’s conflict and one seeks to undermine the other, where there’s competition, where there’s disrespect and a lack of cohesiveness.’

So, I can see how the expression can be useful. If someone is trying to make a relationship work or is ignoring how it is not working, defining the relationship as ‘toxic’ could be the push the person needs to get out of the relationship. It can be used to say, ‘I’m going to stop pretending this is good, and I need to find ways out of it.’

But I do worry that this idea and language has been spreading far and wide for over two decades now and that in some cases, it might not be accurate or true.

People are complicated. Relationships and friendships are complicated. The differences between us can cause friction and misunderstanding.

The other thing is that friendships and relationships may not last forever, and nor do they need do. We have different reasons for being in each other’s lives, and sometimes what worked for a while, doesn’t work any longer. Instead of sounding like I’m preaching, I should admit that it’s been one of my great weaknesses in life to hang onto friendships for dear life, to fret and worry about their maintenance and being in contact, and to focus too much on them. I have left friendships behind. Others have left me behind. But I have learned, over time, to accept that. As one of my friends told me long ago, ‘Doors open, doors close’.

If it truly does help you to recognise a relationship as toxic, because it prompts you to action to do something about it, then by all means, do so. But otherwise, I invite you to do some reflection. While I understand that there are some people who act in really negative ways and treat others badly, my worry is that based on my many clients, quite a few people classify every negative relationship as ‘toxic’, rather than a more objective understanding that relationships and friendships don’t always last and that they may require work and effort. I also think that it may be really hard to let go of relationships and move on if you’ve classified them in your mind as being, literally, poisonous.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given more than 2,100 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Reiki, sleep and remote healing

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One of my regular clients, let’s call her Anita to keep her confidentiality, switched to remote reiki treatments during the lockdown. In case you haven’t heard of it, reiki practitioners can give treatments at a distance, to a client in another room, neighbourhood or even country. It is often called ‘distance’ healing, though, as my teacher, Frans Stiene, points out, the whole idea is to ‘be one’, and to share the energetic space, the opposite of distance. I usually use the expression ‘remote reiki’ instead.

If I wasn’t a reiki practitioner myself, I think I might find the concept hard to believe. But at the same time, when we talk to each other by phone, or see each other on the computer using Zoom or Skype, we may not physically be in the same space, but we feel each other. Most of us have had the experience too, of feeling someone we are close to, a family member or partner or friend, thinking about us, even when they are far away. The biggest reason that I believe in remote reiki though is because of my personal experience having them, and the experience of my clients.

In the treatments that I’ve given, I think 100% of my clients have reported ‘feeling’ the treatment and having good results. Because it is a bit more ‘out there’ than a treatment in person, I do check, before someone books for a remote treatment, that they’ve had reiki before and are open to it. I think if you are inexperienced with reiki and don’t know what to expect, or if you’re cynical in any way about it, it would be possible to not feel or block out the effects, perhaps like when you’re supposed to be on a Zoom work call, and instead you’ve turned off the screen and are checking your Facebook!

Anyways, for Anita, what I was excited to learn was that while she didn’t find the remote treatments as strong as in-person ones, she still felt effects. And the proof was in her health monitor, which she later showed me: an inobtrusive rather pretty ring, called an Oura ring, which monitors your heart rate, sleep and relaxation. Her ring told her that when she was having reiki, it was like having a nap: her heart rate slowed down, and her ring thought she was asleep.

More recently, Anita shared with me a screenshot of her Oura ring results, during an in-person treatment, and she gave permission to me to share it with you. I was very excited to see it, as it showed that not only during the treatment did the ring think she was asleep, but that the majority of the sleep (60%) was deep sleep, rather than light sleep. And that out of the 50 minute treatment, she was able to go into that sleep-like state for 43 minutes of it, which seems pretty good to me.

To me, this is a very good explanation of one of the ways that reiki works. It allows your brain to tune into the brain waves of deep relaxation and sleep, rather than the day-to-day brain functioning which helps us get to appointments and not bump into things when we’re walking!

And that place of relaxation is healing. I’ve read that sleep it is when repair and healing takes place. Some people believe dreams are the brain’s way of healing and reordering. When we don’t get enough sleep, we feel bad, and if we don’t get enough sleep over long periods, it can have really detrimental effects on our health.

Many clients say after a treatment, ‘I think I fell asleep’, and I think this is a good thing. Some might ask, why not just get some sleep instead of doing reiki? But I think a reiki treatment is intentional relaxation. It is rest with purpose and the best kind of sleep rather than sleep because you are too tired to stay awake, or because you have to.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given more than 2,100 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Getting lost

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Once, during a time I was lucky enough to live in Paris, someone asked me my favourite thing to do in the city. ‘Get lost,’ I replied. I hadn’t thought of that before; the answer just came out. And it was true. When I was exploring, I didn’t have a schedule or appointments. Wandering down a small street, on purpose or by accident, and ending up not quite sure where I was: it was a great way to see the city. It filled me with wonder and delight.

On the other hand, when you do have a schedule or an appointment, getting lost is not so great. Reiki Surry Hills can be tricky to find. Surry Hills is filled with small streets and alleys. The entrance to our apartment building is on a different street to the address. The closest intersection to the entry is at Little Riley Street and Mackey Street. But Little Riley Street has two parts, the one near me, and another section that begins on the other side of Albion Street, after being interrupted by Frog Hollow Park. Mackey Street, which looks more like an alley to me, is also in two parts, interrupted by a block. If you’re on the wrong part of it, you have to walk around the block to get to the right part!

Clients will know that’s why I give detailed instructions by text for how to find me.

But even then, it doesn’t work for some clients. The majority of these who are lost don’t use Google Maps, or they use it to find the general area, and then stop using it before actually finding me. Some clients tell me that Google Maps doesn’t work and delivers them to the wrong place. A few people have had their phones run out of battery, or are almost about to, which can be a bigger problem if they can’t call me to tell me they’re lost! And a fair number of lost clients don’t actually read the instructions carefully: they read one part and not the other.

The majority of my lost clients don’t make it easier for themselves by calling me when they’re lost. Some wander around for a while before I call them to see where they are, and even manage to get themselves quite upset from being lost.

This makes me wonder. Most of my clients come because of stress and anxiety. But doesn’t always being lost cause stress and anxiety? I also imagine that some of these clients, in their daily lives, constantly encounter bad energy from other people but not know why, though the reason is because they’re late for an appointment or have inconvenienced someone else or haven’t followed instructions or a request. It’s hard to live with your head in the clouds.

So, while I recommend getting lost if you have the time for it, most of the time I would recommend not being lost. Taking the time to pay attention to where you are, and the directions that people give you, could eliminate stress and getting bad reactions from other people. If you need help finding somewhere, ask for help! People like to help others find their way. I do! And in the long run, being mindful and paying attention could certainly help you as much as a reiki treatment could.

Discover the benefits of a reiki treatment. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Over the last 10 years, I’ve given over 1,900 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it brings them. Folks visit from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Farewell, my reiki cat

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I don’t know if Thor knew, in the last weeks of his too-short life, that he would die soon, because he really was especially affectionate and friendly with my reiki clients. Freyja, his sister, who thankfully is distracting us from our grief, will only sometimes say hello to clients (particularly if it’s close to dinner time) but she’s very coquettish and cat-like: to pet her you really have to offer her your hand in a gentle way, and then wait for her to decide you can touch her.

But Thor! He would often sit, right in the centre of the reiki table, or else on the couch, where a client is supposed to sit, especially on sunny days, but lots of other times as well. It sometimes seemed like it was his favourite place in the apartment. He would often leap from the reiki table to sit next to a client, and then nuzzle up to them and say hello.

While he seemed to be especially attentive to cat-lovers and lovers of animals in general, he would also say hello to those who were not quite as convinced. He was really a wonderful bonus part of a reiki treatment: for clients who were new to Reiki Surry Hills and to reiki, he provided a lovely, disarming burst of cuteness, and then sprawling down in relaxation showed us a model of how to be in the world: relaxed, chilled out and in the moment. I let him stay in the room most times, and I think he only jumped on clients during treatments three times in all! Very few clients were allergic to cats though the first one who was badly allergic (he became so congested that he couldn’t really relax and enjoy his treatment) led me to try to warn clients on my website that we have cats. But this had the unexpected benefit of attracting some cat lovers who would hope to meet Thor during their treatment.

I was also surprised to see cat-phobia in action, as it was hard for me to believe that someone could be scared of that cute face, but I’ve had at least two clients who really were scared of the cats and couldn’t bear the sight of them. It was fun to hear from clients who had had a Russian Blue or knew them through their friends or family. They really are a special breed. One story that I remember vividly was a client who seemed very attached to a story of her being sick with a mysterious ailment. As she was leaving her treatment, her body was hunched over as if she was too exhausted and in pain to get to the door. But then she saw Thor and seemed to forget she was sick, her whole energy changed as she leaned down to pat him. But then she remembered she was sick so adjusted her body back to the way it was. But Thor showed me the truth.

Many of my reiki clients got to meet Thor, and many fell for his charms, so I’m sorry to let my clients know that a few weeks ago, he laid down and died in our apartment, not even six years old, and we don’t know why. But even in those moments of grief, I was hearing lessons clearly from my reiki practice. Just for today. Be grateful. Do not anger. Do not worry. Be compassionate. We’re sad, of course, but so grateful to have enjoyed his wonderful presence and personality and energy. I’m surprised and also so grateful the way he became a part of Reiki Surry Hills, and also surprised to discover how much I fell in love with him. Farewell, my reiki cat. Thank you for everything.