Do Not Worry

Posted on 9 August, 20269 August, 2026 by Edward Howell

The Habit of Living Ahead of Ourselves

I have been a Reiki Ryoho practitioner for the better part of three decades, and if there is one thing I have learned in that time, it is this: worry is stubborn. It does not respond to logic. It does not respect how much you know, how long you have practiced, or how deeply you understand the precepts. It shows up anyway, pulling your attention away from the present moment and into imagined outcomes, rehearsed disappointments, and futures that may never arrive.

You probably know the feeling. Your shoulders creep up toward your ears. Your breath goes shallow. Your mind starts looping through scenarios, each one worse than the last. And the strangest part? It feels useful. It feels like staying mentally busy is the same thing as being prepared, like running through every possible outcome is a form of responsibility.

But it is not. Most of the time, worry does not create clarity. It creates contraction. It narrows your field of awareness until you lose the context of what is actually happening right now, in this moment, right in front of you.

This is where the second precept of the Gokai meets us. “Do not worry.” In Japanese, the phrase is shinpai suna — and it is not a scolding. It is a compassionate instruction to set down the burden of anxious anticipation. It does not pretend that life is free of uncertainty. It offers a way to stand peacefully inside that uncertainty without letting it consume you.

“Just for Today” as the Method

Each of the five precepts of the Gokai — given by Usui Mikao, the founder of Usui Reiki Ryoho — begins with the same two words: kyo dake wa, “just for today.” I have always found that framing remarkable. It does not say “forever.” It does not say “never worry again.” It says just for today.

That small phrase keeps the teaching grounded and human. You are not being asked to master all of life at once. You are not being asked to eliminate every anxious thought for the rest of your days. You are being asked to return to the present moment — just for today — where clarity is possible and peace can actually be felt.

In my practice, I recite the Gokai each morning and evening in gassho, hands held together before the heart. It is not memorization for its own sake. It is a practice of return. Every time I place my hands together and speak those words, I am anchoring myself in the present and reminding myself of what matters most. The power of the precepts does not come from admiring them. It comes from repetition, reflection, and application — from living them, day after day.

“Just for today” tells us we only need to practice this for one day. Tomorrow, we begin again. And honestly, I find that deeply reassuring.

What “Do Not Worry” Is Not

Before I talk about what this precept invites, I want to be clear about what it does not ask of us, because I have seen these misunderstandings trip up students more times than I can count.

It is not denial. “Do not worry” does not mean pretending that difficulties do not exist or that challenges will never come. Life contains genuine hardship. Recognizing that is not a failure of your practice — it is honesty.

It is not suppression. The precept does not ask you to push anxious thoughts underground or to shame yourself when worry shows up. I have tried that approach, and I suspect you have too. It does not work. Suppressed emotion does not disappear. It waits, and it comes back with more force.

It is not passivity. “Do not worry” is not an instruction to stop caring, stop planning, or stop acting. It is not resignation. It does not ask you to become emotionally flat or indifferent to your life.

What it does ask is something more subtle and, I think, more courageous: to notice when your mind has wandered off into imagined futures, and to gently bring it back. That is all. Not to banish the thought, but to notice it and return.

Worry Versus Wise Concern

This is the distinction I come back to most often in my own practice and in my teaching, and it is the one I want you to take away from this article if you take away nothing else.

Worry loops. It rehearses outcomes you cannot control. It replays conversations that have not happened yet. It keeps your mind busy without moving you a single step toward action. Worry feels productive, but it produces nothing except tension. It narrows your awareness until the present moment disappears entirely beneath layers of anticipation.

“The mind is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master.”

Wise concern is different. It recognizes a situation that needs attention and actually responds to it. It asks a simple question: is there something I can do about this right now? If the answer is yes, it moves into action. If the answer is no, it lets the thought rest. It trusts that the right moment to act will reveal itself when it arrives. Wise concern is grounded and present. It does not spiral. It does not contract. It meets the situation and responds.

The second precept does not ask you to stop caring. It asks you to notice the difference between caring wisely and spiraling mentally — and to choose the former whenever you can.

How Reiki Ryoho Helps Us Practice It

One of the things I treasure about Reiki Ryoho is that it does not just hand you a precept and walk away. It gives you tools to practice it.

The daily recitation of the Gokai in gassho is one of those tools. Each morning and evening, when I place my hands together and speak the precepts, I am not performing a ritual. I am practicing return. I am anchoring myself in the present and reminding myself of what matters. Over the years, that practice has become a kind of anchor I can drop at any moment, not just morning and evening.

The body is a teacher too. When worry takes hold, the body responds before the mind catches up. Your shoulders tighten. Your breath goes shallow. Your jaw may clench. Through Reiki Ryoho, we learn to notice these signals. We learn to feel the difference between a mind at rest and a mind in contraction. That awareness is the first step toward release. When you notice the physical signs of worry, you can pause. You can breathe. You can return — not by forcing the thought away, but by letting it pass through without taking root.

Over time, something builds. Think of it as a kind of internal muscle. The gap between a worrisome thought and your reaction to it grows a little wider. In that gap, you find something precious: choice. You find the space to ask whether this thought deserves your attention, or whether it is just your mind doing what minds do when left unsupervised.

A Practice for the Day

When I teach this precept, I give students a simple question to carry with them. When you notice worry creeping in, ask yourself:

Is this something I can act on right now?

If there is a clear next step, take it. Send the email. Make the call. Have the conversation. Action dissolves worry more effectively than any amount of mental rehearsal ever could.

If there is no clear next step — if the concern is about something outside your control, or something that has not happened yet — let the thought rest. I do not mean dismiss it. I mean acknowledge it, set it down, and bring your attention back to the present. You can return to it later if you need to. Most of the time, you will find it has lost its urgency by then.

I also want to encourage you to have a gentle relationship with this precept. “Do not worry” is not a command to be perfect. It is an invitation to return, again and again, to the present moment. Every return strengthens your practice. Every pause creates a little more space between fear and reaction.

A Daily Practice of Freedom

What I appreciate most about “just for today” is its realism. It does not ask for a lifetime of certainty. It asks for one day. That is all. And that is what makes it both attainable and wise. We are given permission to meet the day as it is, rather than as our fear imagines it to be.

In that way, “Do not worry” can give us something unexpected: a sense of freedom. It reminds us that peace is not the absence of challenge, but the refusal to let challenge occupy the whole of our awareness. Trust, in this context, does not mean everything will unfold exactly as we want. It means we no longer need to carry tomorrow in our hands today.

When the mind is not overwhelmed by imagined futures, it becomes easier to respond to what is right in front of us. Intuition, presence, and appropriate action become available again. “Do not worry” is not passive. It is active, disciplined, and quietly courageous.

When I recite, “Just for today, I do not worry,” I hear an instruction and a blessing at the same time. I am reminded that today is enough, and that the present moment is where healing begins.

Just for Today, Do Not Anger

Posted on 22 July, 202622 July, 2026 by Edward Howell

Just for Today, Do Not Anger: Reflections from Our June Reiki Ryoho Share Circle

Online Group Sharing — June 24, 2026

Each month, this group of Reiki Ryoho practitioners gathers to inform and strengthen our practice of Usui Sensei’s teaching — not as affirmations to recite quickly and forget, but as a living practice of seishin kaizen, spiritual improvement, held with respect across a shared session of breath, contemplation, and self-treatment. I wanted to share how our evening unfolded, along with the fuller teaching we sat with together, for those who joined us and for those unable to attend.

How We Gathered

Our time together followed the rhythm Usui Sensei describes in the Usui Reiki Ryoho Hikkei: initially settling the mind through breath, then turning to contemplation, then as we ran out of time for self-treatment, we closed with community reflection and Q&A.

We opened by settling in — phone notifications silenced, comfortable in our seating, hands resting on the lap, three natural breaths, a brief return to Usui Sensei’s original intention that Reiki Ryoho is, first, a path of inner development, with healing arising naturally out of that practice.

From there we moved into a component of Hatsurei Ho, specifically Joshin Kokyu Ho — a cleansing breath meditation. This practice quiets the analytical mind deliberately before we turn to the precepts, so that when we do sit with them, the contemplation has room to be personal rather than merely intellectual. The Joshin Kokyu Ho practice was experienced via a 20 minute guided meditation.

Joshin Kokyu Ho Guided Meditation

On completing Joshin Kokyu Ho, we turned our attention to the Gokai.

The Gokai — Just for Today

We recited the five precepts together, in English and/or in Japanese for those who carry it that way:

Just for today,I do not anger.I do not worry.I am grateful.I fulfill my duties.I have compassion for myself and others.

Each month one precept is chosen to sit with more deeply, rotating through the five over time. This month, we turned to the first precept: Ikaru na — Do not anger.

Why “Do Not Anger” Comes First

Usui Sensei lived through the Meiji and Taisho eras — decades of extraordinary upheaval, loss, and social transformation in Japan. The Gokai was never written for a comfortable life. It was written for people, like us, living through real difficulty and needing something sturdy to return to daily.

It’s worth contemplating why this precept was placed first. Not, I’d suggest, because anger is the worst of our failings — but because of all our inner disturbances, it is the one that most immediately disrupts the flow of Reiki. Ikaru na is not a call to suppress feeling. It’s an invitation to witness anger as it rises, rather than be governed by it.
Inner witnessing, not inner policing.
There’s an important difference between the energy of anger — which can be a genuine signal that an important boundary has been crossed — and the habit of anger, which clouds judgment, creates resentment and contracts our energetic field. Usui Sensei was pointing us toward the latter.

The Linguistic Layer

“Ikaru na” carries more weight than the simple English translation of “do not get irritated” or “do not anger.” In certain contexts it edges toward held resentment, grudge-holding, or wishing ill on another — territory that may overlap with the phrase, Norou na (“do not harbor deep-seated resentment”). This precept addresses the poison we marinate in over time, not the fleeting irritations of an ordinary day.

The Energetic Layer

In Reiki Ryoho, energy follows intention and attention. Anger and resentment are among the densest, slowest-vibrating energies we carry, and they tend to stagnate Ki (Qi, Chi, Prana) in the body — particularly along the (TCM) liver and gallbladder meridians:

Liver — anger, bitterness, resentment, competitiveness, defensiveness, jealousy, possessiveness, relationship stress, desire for revenge.
Gallbladder — fear of loss, abandonment, poverty, hunger, insecurity around support (emotional and material), and fear of aging. (reference: Rita McNamara, Energetic Bodywork)

A practitioner carrying anger struggles to hold the neutral, observant presence that Reiki Ryoho asks of us — the energy can become discordant, or simply weakened. Resentment has a way of tethering us energetically to whoever or whatever we’re resenting; we hand over our life force (Ki) every time we replay the grievance in our mind. Usui Sensei’s teaching was to release the situation immediately — not for the other person’s sake, but for our own. As Usui Sensei reminds us in his Hikkei: if you cannot heal yourself, how can you heal others?

The Spiritual Layer

Usui Sensei wasn’t a moralist instructing us to “be good” — he was a healer offering practical tools for living. Ikaru na, placed first, likely draws on Mikkyo (esoteric Buddhist) philosophy: anger as the root of suffering, born of attachment and a grasping ego. Anger, left unaddressed, reveals our spiritual practice to be built on sand.

Anger is also, perhaps, the fastest way to disconnect from Rei. The moment we take up anger/resentment, we place ourselves in a victim position and hand away our own power. Usui Sensei’s message here might be read as: take radical responsibility for your own mind. No one can make you angry — you choose whether or not to hold the resentment. Take your power back immediately.

The Ultimate Intention

At the deepest level, this precept points toward Misogi — ritual purification. Usui Sensei seems to have created his Gokai as a form of daily spiritual cleansing. We cannot be fully attentive while we’re internally holding resentment toward a boss, a partner, ourselves, or our circumstances. “Do not anger” isn’t a command. It’s an invitation to inner peace — a reminder that our resentment doesn’t protect us; it only binds us. We’re always being offered another choice.

In practice: when anger rises, pause. If you’re able, bring your hands into Gassho. Take three calming breaths. Whisper, “I do not anger” — not to suppress what you feel, but to observe it, accept it, and choose not to let it take root.

Sitting With It Ourselves

A few reflection prompts we carried into our group discussion — you’re welcome to sit with them too:

Where did anger visit you this past month — in a situation, a relationship, or toward yourself?
What does anger feel like in your body before it becomes words or action?
What would it mean to simply observe that energy, without acting on it?

For self-treatment, we can bring quiet awareness to the liver area (right side of the abdomen), traditionally associated with anger in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), holding the intention of softening and releasing. As the familiar phrase goes — attributed to James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy (1993) — “where attention goes, energy flows”.

For the Level 2 and above students: an invitation to reflect on how your Reiki Ryoho practice shifts on days you’ve been moved by anger, and what Joshin Kokyu Ho and the recitation of the Gokai have offered you as a practice of re-calibration.

Group Reflection

We closed our circle with light, non-analytical sharing — what people noticed in their body or mind during the practice, whether the precept surfaced during self-treatment, and what each person might want to carry forward into the coming month. We hold space in these circles for every kind of experience: a busy mind, physical sensation, or seemingly nothing at all. All of it is valid.

Carrying This Forward

Our shared home practice for the month ahead: recite the Gokai each morning in Gassho for five minutes, or practice Joshin Kokyu Ho before your daily self-treatment. As Usui Sensei reminded us — the secret to inviting happiness is to count our blessings and work on ourselves, and that work continues quietly between our meetings.

If you’d like to join our next online gathering, or explore this month’s precept further in your own practice, please reach out. In gratitude and Gassho.

Setting Anchors

Posted on 23 May, 202623 May, 2026 by Edward Howell

From the moment we draw our first breath, we begin dropping anchors. The first and most deeply set is the mother-child bond — driven into the bedrock of our being before we even have words to describe it. It holds us when storms come, orients us when we are lost, and shapes the very way we interact with every person who comes after. Some anchors are set just as deeply by fathers, siblings, and grandparents — the early architecture of our relational world.

As we grow and move outward into life, we cast anchors with every interaction. The childhood friendship that was a significant part of our world at that time. The teacher who saw something in us that only time and experience would reveal. The mentor who handed us a torch. Each of these connections, at the moment of their making, drove something into the ocean floor of our experience — a fixed point we could return to, measure ourselves against, and find our bearings by.

But not all anchors hold equally. Some, like deep friendships and profound loves, are set in solid rock — tested by time, conflict, distance, and change, and found to be immovable. These are the relationships that define us. Even if the person is no longer present in our daily lives, or has passed from this world entirely, the anchor remains. We still feel the tension of the line.

Others are set in sand. The acquaintance whose name we struggle to recall. The colleague we swore we’d keep in touch with. The neighbor we waved to for years without ever truly knowing. These anchors drag and shift with the tides of circumstance, and eventually, quietly, they let go — slipping into the soft sediment of distant memory without ceremony or grief.

What is remarkable is that we rarely know, in the moment of meeting someone, how deeply their anchor will be set. The stranger in a coffee shop who says exactly the right thing at exactly the right moment may set a mark in us that never fully lifts, while someone we have known for decades remains curiously weightless in our world. Life has a way of surprising us with who stays and who drifts.

And as we age, we begin to feel the full constellation of those anchor points — some pulling with the strength they always had, others faint and far away like stars at the very edge of visibility. Together they form a kind of map of who we have been, who we have loved, and who in turn has loved us. To look at that map honestly is to understand that we are not solitary creatures navigating life alone, but deeply relational beings, shaped at every turn by the anchors we have set and the ones others have set in us.

In the end, the richness of a life may be measured not in what we accumulated, but in how many anchors held — and in how many lives we became an anchor.

The Essence and the Path, Spirit vs. Spirituality

Posted on 11 January, 202611 January, 2026 by Edward Howell

Distinguishing Spirit from Spirituality in the Healing Arts

In the journey of holistic and energy healing, few questions are as fundamental as the distinction between “spirit” and “spiritual.” While often used interchangeably in common parlance, these terms represent two profoundly different, yet intrinsically linked, dimensions of the human experience. For a healing arts practitioner, clarity on this distinction is not merely academic; it is the bedrock of effective and compassionate practice. To put it simply, spirit is the essential, non-physical core of our being, while spiritual refers to the active process of nurturing and connecting with that core. One is the noun of our existence; the other is the verb that gives that existence meaning and direction.

Spirit: The Innate Essence of Being

At its heart, “spirit” refers to the non-physical, animating principle within a person or being. It is the seat of our deepest consciousness, character, and vitality. As the provided definitions note, it is “the essence that connects individuals to what is perceived as higher consciousness or divine entities,” often considered the eternal part of a being. This concept of an indwelling, essential life force is a universal constant across healing traditions.

In Shamanism, the world is perceived as being alive with individual spirits. Every tree, river, and person possesses a unique spirit—a core consciousness. The shamanic view of illness often involves a fragmentation or loss of part of this vital spirit due to trauma, and the healing process is one of retrieval and restoration. Here, spirit is the fundamental substance of identity and life itself.

The practice of Reiki Ryoho operates directly with this concept, though it frames it as an impersonal universal force. The “Ki” in Reiki is the Japanese term for this universal life force energy (akin to “Qi” in Taoism or “Prana” in Yoga). It is the subtle, intelligent energy that animates all living things. A Reiki Ryoho practitioner serves as a conduit or focal point for this universal spirit energy, allowing it to flow to a recipient to restore balance and vitality. In this context, the client’s individual spirit is a localized expression of this greater universal spirit.

Taoism offers a refined model through its “Three Treasures.” Here, Jing (essence) is refined into Qi (energy), which is further refined into Shen (spirit). Shen represents the highest, most luminous aspect of a human being—our conscious awareness and connection to the divine, ineffable Tao. It is the radiant core of our being that, when cultivated, can align with the cosmic order.

Even Buddhism, which carefully deconstructs the idea of a permanent soul, points to a foundational quality of pure, luminous awareness—the Buddha-nature inherent in all sentient beings. This potential for awakening and purity, unobscured by defilements, functions as the Buddhist conception of our fundamental spirit.

Across these traditions, the consensus is clear: spirit is our birthright. It is the inherent, eternal, and essential “what” of our being. It does not need to be created, only recognized, honored, and healed.

Spiritual: The Conscious Path of Connection

If “spirit” is the core, then “spiritual” describes the path one walks to relate to that core. It encompasses the beliefs, practices, and experiences dedicated to personal growth, inner peace, and a deeper understanding of life’s purpose. As outlined, being spiritual “involves a focus on personal growth, inner peace, and a deeper understanding of life’s purpose.” It is the active cultivation of a relationship with the essence of life.

In Shamanism, the spiritual path is one of rigorous practice and relationship-building. It involves the disciplined use of journeying, drumming, and ceremony to communicate with the spirit world. A shaman’s life is spiritual not because they possess a spirit, but because they actively cultivate relationships with spirits for the healing and guidance of their community.

For the Reiki Ryoho practitioner, the spiritual dimension is embodied in the Reiki Precepts: “Just for today, do not anger, do not worry, be grateful, do your duties (work), and be compassionate to yourself and others.” These are not healing techniques but guidelines for living a spiritual life. By working to reduce ego, anger, fear, and embody gratitude and compassionate living, the practitioner becomes more and more attuned to the essence that is Reiki. Their spirituality is measured by their daily commitment to this personal growth and compassionate service.

The Taoist spiritual path (Xiu Dao) is the dedicated practice of internal alchemy—through meditation, Qigong, and ethical living—to refine one’s essence and energy, ultimately to merge with the Tao. It is a conscious, lifelong process of alignment and harmonization with the natural flow of existence.

In Buddhism, the spiritual life is explicitly codified in the Noble Eightfold Path, which encompasses ethical conduct, mental discipline, and wisdom. Spirituality here is the active engagement in meditation, mindfulness, and compassionate action to purify the mind and realize the true nature of reality.

Synthesis in the Healing Arts

For a healing arts instructor and practitioner, this distinction is operational. We are working with the client’s spirit—their core life force, which may be weakened, imbalanced, or disconnected. We interact with this essence through our intuitive senses and the modalities we employ.

Simultaneously, we must be engaged in our own spiritual practice. This is the commitment to our own personal growth, inner peace, and ethical conduct. It is our ongoing work to clear our own channels of perception and energy so that we do not project our own “unfinished business” onto the client. A healer with a vibrant personal spirit but no spiritual discipline may be powerful but lack wisdom and grounding. A healer with spiritual knowledge but a disconnected spirit may be theoretically sound but lack the authentic, embodied presence required for deep healing.

Conclusion

Ultimately, the journey in the healing arts is a dance between the noun and the verb, the essence and the path. Our spirit is the untouched canvas and the vibrant paints—the inherent potential for wholeness and connection within every client and ourselves. Our spirituality is the skill of the painter, the dedicated practice, the choice of subject, and the humility to be a vessel for a creativity greater than ourselves. By honoring both—by tending to our own spiritual development to better serve the spirit of another—we participate in the most sacred of arts: the art of facilitating remembrance, wholeness, and the return to one’s own essential, luminous nature.

Bibliography

Harner, M. (1980). The Way of the Shaman: A Guide to Power and Healing. Harper & Row.

Lubeck, W. (1998). The Complete Reiki Handbook. Lotus Press.

The Dalai Lama. (2001). Ethics for the New Millennium. Riverhead Books.

Wong, E. (1997). The Shambhala Guide to Taoism. Shambhala Publications.

Christianity.com “Difference Between a Soul and a Spirit.” Retrieved from:
https://www.christianity.com/wiki/salvation/difference-between-a-soul-and-a-spirit.html

BibleChat.ai “What is the difference between soul, spirit, and heart according to the Bible?” Retrieved from:
https://biblechat.ai/knowledgebase/theological- concepts/pneumatology/what-difference-between-soul-spirit-heart-according-bible/

Zen & the Art of Living Deeply

Posted on 30 August, 202530 August, 2025 by Edward Howell

Zen & the Art of Living Deeply

Important Information, Please Read!!

Posted on 29 August, 20257 September, 2025 by Edward Howell

updated 30 August 2025

To All My Clients
As I slowly transition my practice to hopefully retire,…sometime, I am making some changes to facilitate and ease that transition. Hence the following notice(s).

IMPORTANT NOTICES !!

Effective 1 November 2025

The fees for Massage Treatments will increase by $5.00 plus HST per treatment.

Effective 15 August 2023

To better serve existing clientele, I am no longer taking new clients.
Also to note, if you have been a client in previous years, and your last visit was more than five years preceding the current date, please consider reaching out to one of the dedicated massage therapists on the South Shore for your massage therapy needs.

Effective 1 October 2022

My practice location will be moved to our residence (again!) It is only a short distance from my current location, so should pose few traffic/travel changes.

Effective 1 March 2022

Direct Billing to all Group Insurance Companies will be discontinued.

This means you pay for the treatment at time of treatment, a receipt of payment is issued and you as client will need to submit the claim to your group insurance company for reimbursement.

Effective 1 January 2022

I will no longer offer massage therapy treatment for liability insurance claims.

This means I will not longer be handling any treatments required as a result of accidents involving insurance claims.

Effective 5 April 2021 Re: Late Cancellations and appointment No Show fees

A client not showing up for their appointment leaves me no time to contact another client to take the appointment. In so doing, not only am I deprived of income, but another person is deprived of the opportunity to obtain the treatment they desire or need.

As I have an extensive list of clients on a cancellation list, and to facilitate their receiving treatment in a timely manner, the following conditions are now applicable:

A client not showing up for their appointment will be invoiced the full treatment fee plus HST, to be paid prior to any further treatments.
A client rendering a Late Cancellation notice (less than 24 hours before appointment time) will be invoiced for 50% of the full treatment fee plus HST, to be paid prior to any further treatments.
3 Strikes – any client accruing 3 appointment No Shows will be required to receive their massage therapy treatments from another therapist.

Need to cancel your appointment?
Please DO NOT email me – phone or text only! (902) 514-3459

Accepted Methods of Payment

Visa, Mastercard, Debit/Interac, Cash, Cheque, or e-transfer
PayPal invoice in advance (allows payment by PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, American Express or Discover)

The Feet Have It.

Posted on 30 January, 202130 August, 2025 by Edward Howell

Originally posted on 08/12/2013 by Edward

Interesting that at this time of year we (seemingly) take the stresses enjoyed in our daily lives and multiply them exponentially in the celebrations of the holiday season. Additional social gatherings to attend, gifts to be purchased, additional cooking and cleaning to attend to, for some the joys of crowded airports and airplanes, for others readying the home for guests, and so on….

While these situations are for some enjoyable, for many others the additional stresses are overwhelming, resulting in body aches, headaches, difficulty breathing, feeling anxious, feeling worried, difficulty sleeping, the list of stress-induced symptoms is a long one. And while short term stress can be beneficial, long term stress (unattended to) can have significant debilitating effects on our body and our life.

Much information can be found on the internet about stress, its mental, emotional and physical effects on the human system, and myriad means to address those effects. Some more effective than others.

One of the methods I recommend to my clients and I use when I feel that chest tightening, shortness of breath sense of anxiety or worry making itself known:

is to immediately (unless operating equipment, then stop if you can, and take a 10 minute break):

Find a place to be seated, chair, bench, rock, log, on the ground or floor…
Remove foot wear, and socks if you wish…
Take a DEEP breath…and keep breathing…
Bring one foot up where you can massage the foot with your hands…
Start giving yourself a foot massage, minimum 5 minutes per foot,…time it! This is no time for the old ‘lick and a promise’. Your situation demands more of you than that.
While massaging your feet, use the thumb and fingers (or knuckles) to find those sore spots (YES, you DO have them), and apply enough pressure to those points to elicit an ‘Ouch!’ from you.
Keep massaging,… I didn’t say you could stop yet!
Spread the front of the foot with your hands, pull on the toes, and at the end of the 5 minutes on the first foot, vigorously rub the foot between your hands.
Now repeat (from step 3) with the other foot, no shortcuts!

What is accomplished with the foot massage applied per above instruction?

You have made a conscious decision to put yourself first on your list of priorities. This may also be termed as determined self-love.
When you hit those sore (okay, painful) points in your feet, your mind and body suddenly find themselves together in the best possible place to deal with stress, in the immediate here and NOW.
This will ground you into the present moment, so that you can experience the effect of not being in the ‘Anxiety Gap¹’, and offer you the opportunity to deal with your situation(s) from a different state of being.
This different state of being will last well beyond the point of returning to whatever activity you were engaged in before you made time for yourself.

This is just one of many means of addressing stress, anxiety and worry, and it is my personal favorite.
Why?
Because it’s easy, can be implemented immediately and is effective.
Also recommended is that you do this in the morning upon rising and at night before going to bed. You could incorporate into your foot massage the essential oils of either lavender or peppermint mixed into a neutral skin/foot care cream base (increases the sense of self-love).
For an even more grounding experience, massage into your feet a little of the essential oil blend known as Earth from The Apothecary in Calgary. (I usually have some in stock, or you can order direct from the good folks at The Apothecary.

There are certainly many other means of addressing stress, anxiety, worry, etc., (see: http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-11847/7-ways-to-control-your-anxiety-so-it-doesnt-control-you.html) and I recommend educating oneself as to what they are, how to implement them and their effectiveness. Some methods will be more effective than others, depending on the person and their circumstance(s).

A practice I find most effective for me (as do many, many others), is incorporating the practice of Reiki Ryoho into my daily routine of self-care. The calming, grounding, centering and healing I experience in this self-caring practice is a gift I give to myself, so that the best of who I am is available to those I engage with during my day. I have studied and practiced Reiki Ryoho since 1997, teaching it since 2001 and currently offer Reiki Ryoho courses to those interested in becoming responsible for their own health and well-being.

Our best wishes that you and your family enjoy a safe and a more stress-free holiday.

Edward Howell, RMT
December 2013

“You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection — you cannot cope with the future.” ~ Eckhart Tolle, Practicing the Power of Now

A Journey to Finding Peace

Posted on 4 July, 20184 July, 2018 by Edward Howell

Several years ago, well, about 42 years ago, I was a hard-driving (and driven) young man working hard to support myself, my wife, and 2 sons. I worked for an international oilfield services company (beginning my employment as a truck driver) that would periodically send some of the more promising employees to its engineering training facility in Oklahoma. It was there that I had what seemed at the time a rather innocuous encounter with another company employee. I was seated at one of the dining tables in the large dining room when an older fellow approached me and asked if he could have a seat at the table. I responded, “Sure, glad to have the company. “
As we chatted over breakfast, I learned that he was one of the truck drivers for the manufacturing centre next door to the training facility and that he had been so for the previous 26 years. I was stunned. I could not fathom anyone driving trucks for that period of time without trying to “move up the ladder”. When I asked him if he was ever interested in moving into a supervisory capacity, he said “No, all I’ve ever wanted was to be a truck driver. I get up each morning, go to work and I more often than not get to have dinner with my wife and family. I get most weekends off now, as the younger drivers want the overtime, so life is pretty good for me.”
My youthful judgment kicked in and I labeled him as having a mediocre life, one which I could not condone in myself and was loathe to accept in others. I didn’t mention my inner thoughts to him, just continued to make the easy chat of two people who have a working knowledge of each others place in “the company”. I never did see him again, and in the course of time and living, forgot about our interaction. Until I was in the midst of Reiki Ryoho master/teacher training, when during a self-exploration exercise facilitated by my teacher I brought up the memory of that conversation and my hardline judgment of the truck driver. New thoughts came in about him from my new perspective of having experienced another 20 years of living. I came to see him not as mediocre, but as one who is content with who he is, where he is, and with what he has. I now saw him not as a second-or-third best, but as wise beyond my understanding at the time. He embodied a peace and contentment of life that I didn’t recognize, and I’ve often wondered if I had acknowledged it then, if I had changed my perspective then, how different my life would have been.
I have told this story to a few people during the intervening years, but I have never written about it. It is worthy of serious contemplation, as I have experienced the competitive stresses I’ve placed on myself in trying to “get ahead”, all the while struggling to find peace and contentment with myself and whatever situation I had created for myself. And now, I find myself more and more modeling that place of peace with the world and contentment with who, what, and where I am.
I was asked some time back how I would define a master, and my considered reply was that whoever embodies the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gokai (5 Principles or Precepts), I would consider being a master. Not a master of Reiki, but of themselves, at peace with who they are, where they are, and with what they are.
I encourage you (if you have received training in any style of Reiki Ryoho you will have been taught the 5 Principles) to re-visit those principles, and let the practice of integrating them into your life show you a path to knowing contentment and being at peace, with yourself, and with the world.