I have decided that Saturday posts this November will be for poetry. This one is from the collection Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection.

Remember

by Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the
strongest point of time. Remember sundown
and the giving away to night.
Remember your birth, how your mother struggled
to give you form and breath. You are evidence of
her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are:
red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth
brown earth, we are earth.
Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their
tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them,
listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the
origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people
are you.
Remember you are this universe and this
universe is you.
Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.

It’s time for the final post for NaBloPoMo and since it’s a Saturday that means it’s time to talk about self-care again. This week I’m encouraging you to find your people.

Your people are the ones who get you. The ones who are there for you at a moment’s notice. The ones who support you and make you laugh. The ones you want to hang out with, have dinner with, go to the movies with and do all the fun stuff with. Beyond the fun, though, they are also the ones who hold you when you weep, who pull you back when you skate too close to the edge, the ones who have your best interest at heart all the time. And, part of the reason they are your people is because you do all those same things for them when they need you.

Listen. Self care is all about loving yourself, caring for yourself, and improving yourself and while a lot of that can be done alone, there can be real benefits to including friends as part of your self care. Watching your friends grow can help you be inspired to try something new, hanging out with them can increase your trust and help you to become more vulnerable. And if I’ve learned anything this past year it’s that being vulnerable is where the magic happens.

I’m truly fortunate to have a strong inner circle of friends as well as a rich middle circle and a large outer circle. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about, this is a great piece on identifying your circle of friends.) Your circle of friends, and how you choose who is included in that circle, is a critical component to your self care. Do your best to build that circle with the right people and watch how that changes your energy and growth.

I’ve been thinking a lot about what to write this week for Self Care Saturday. I’ve already covered my three favorite self care things: meditating, journaling, and practicing Reiki. So I did what anyone does when they need an idea nowadays . . . I went to Google. And there are all kinds of suggestions for self care, everything from get a pedicure to make yourself a pot of tea to go for a walk. While I agree that those are all excellent suggestions, they weren’t really the types of things I had in mind when I set out to do these posts.

So I thought. And I thought some more. And then I remembered an email I got the other day. It was a response to a thank you that I sent to someone who did some volunteer work for me. In that thank you I said how much it meant for the people he helped to see him there and know he cares about them. And you know what he said? He said, I think it does more for me than it does for them.

Hmmm.

I’m going to propose that volunteering is something that could be considered self care. It’s counter intuitive, I suppose, because generally self care is recognized as something you do strictly for yourself. The very name is self care which definitely implies something for one’s self. But maybe it doesn’t have to be something that’s just for one’s self. Maybe it can be something that you do for others, too.

I don’t think I have to tell you that helping others is rewarding and uplifting and wonderful. It fills you with a sense of purpose and it makes you feel valued in a very unique way. I’ve experienced this over and over again when I volunteer with Kiwanis. Sometimes it’s hard, it takes away from time when I could be doing something else, but even when it’s hard it’s good. It makes me feel better to make a sacrifice, to do something that makes a difference in someone’s life. To work with other volunteers and get something done. It definitely does my heart good to know that I helped someone else. And what’s better for self care than caring for my own heart?

Absolutely nothing.

I’m going to say right up front that I am a Reiki novice. I’ve taken Reiki I and Reiki II classes but I do not consider myself to be a Reiki practitioner – even though technically I have the training and skills to be one.

I know that Reiki is a confusing concept for people and I’ll admit that when I first heard about it – probably almost 20 years ago – I was very skeptical. It just seemed a little . . . out there. But now that I have experienced being treated with Reiki by a Reiki master and now that I have also practiced Reiki on myself and Dale, I can say that I know it works.

So, what is Reiki? The word Reiki means Universal Life Force and it’s a Japanese technique that essentially calls on the healing energy of the entire universe, and when this healing energy enters your body it stimulates your body’s innate healing capability and encourages a return to wellness. It can be used for so many things: to facilitate deep relaxation, to relieve pain, to promote healing and to enhance personal growth and more.

My experiences with Reiki are sort of personal but I can tell you that I tend to pair Reiki with my meditation practice. I don’t always do Reiki when I meditate . . . I meditate much more frequently than I practice Reiki . . . but the two definitely go hand in hand for me. I have a mantra that I say when I want to call on Reiki energy and the moment I start thinking about it my hands start to tingle and they get hot and then I go through the process. This is – and should be – unique for everyone. There’s no script or perfect way to do Reiki, the energy goes where it’s needed and it heals where it can. Sometimes when I’m finished I feel a release or a lightness of being and sometimes I don’t feel anything much at all. I think there’s a tendency, on my part at least, to over analyze the experience and I try hard to not do that, to just be open and relaxed.

Reiki has been around for a very long time but the awareness of it has grown in recent years. You can read about how Reiki is used in medicine here. Pamela Miles is very well known and has pioneered the use of Reiki in hospitals. Libby Barnett is another well known Reiki master who teaches and practices throughout New England, working with hospitals, nurses, yoga centers and more. Finally, Reiki.org is a good resource for articles on Reiki and for finding a practitioner or classes in your area.

Do you have experiences with Reiki? I’d love to hear about them in the comments.