Tip 6 For Staying Happy, Healthy and Peaceful In Crazy Times

This weeks tip is perhaps the most radical and simple of all:

TIP 6- Be Real: Don't pretend you are feeling happy, healthy and peaceful when you're not.

Being a good or a spiritual person does not mean being happy, smiley and nice all of the time. This line of thinking is incredibly dangerous. It sounds strikingly similar to the thought that a truly healthy person is a skinny vegan who always wears flowy yoga clothes. I call bullshit on this. Bullshit. BULLSHIT!

Spiritual practice brings you home to yourself. It helps you reset, restore, get in touch with your feelings, physical and emotionally, and it creates space to see things a little more clearly. It doesn't guarantee, or ask you to be happy all of the time. It creates space for you to be real.

In my experience, getting real is incredibly healing.

There are many practices that help us to come home to our true selves. Meditation, yoga, and Reiki are just a few. I have been giving myself a Reiki session nearly every day for the past 18 years. It's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning. 10-60 minutes every day, I spend quiet time with myself. When I'm stressed at work, I take a few minutes to stop and practice Reiki. And later in the day or in the evening, I also make time to practice yoga or to meditate. I use these practices to come back to myself, resetting, quieting, checking in, making time and space to feel, to reset, relax, and just be. George Barrick, who co-founded the Reiki School with me, used to always say, " Just be yourself. To become more human is to become more divine."

Reiki self-practice changed my life. It helps me be myself, to embrace and move through my feelings, even when they are not happy or pleasant. Feelings arise, they indicate areas that need attention, and they serve as a guide to investigate my inner landscape. And guess what? Then they move. It's like the classic metaphor of likening one's feelings to a sky full of clouds. Eventually the clouds pass and the sun shines again. So that's how I stay sane, happy and peaceful in crazy times. I cultivate spiritual practices like Reiki, that help me stay true to myself.

If you'd like to take a beginner Reiki class, or learn more, be my guest at my free Reiki Intro next week, or sign up for a beginning level training here. Anyone can learn to practice; it's incredibly easy, and it can be a game changer.

My name is Kim Fleisher and I’m the director of The Reiki School + Clinic and I have a scholarly geek brain that is intensely organized and learning-driven. I’m a teacher at heart and that’s why our Reiki classes are so long – because real learning takes place over time, by DOING.I’m going to give you one tip a week with the invitation to try it for a week and let me know if it helps! Feel free to share any tweaks you make to the process (making it your own helps seal the deal of learning/integrating any new skill), or share your own tips for staying healthy (the ability to explain what you know is a key step to mastery). Email me directly at kim@thereikischool.com or post your feedback/tips as a comment here.