Verve sat down with Nicola to talk about the importance of fully examining all aspects of self – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual, as well as fully aligning ourselves with our inner voice.
If a client comes to you with a specific issue they would like to address, how and why do you encourage them to look at this from a holistic perspective?
A holistic perceptive encourages the patient to understand that nothing works in isolation. When you have a health experience, emotions are created which your mind critiques, in turn setting up beliefs and depending on the mind’s verdict, physical hormones and chemicals are then released. If the experience is positive, then happy hormones such as serotonin are released, and if perceived as negative then cortisol (the stress hormone) is released. All of this has an effect on your energy and spiritual wellbeing. Think of yourself as a four-legged chair. Each leg represents these four aspects. If one leg is broken, ignored or missing, its function as a chair diminishes, leading to an in-balance between all aspects that results in dis-ease in one or more areas of self. If you believe you are only a physical being, you will only look for a physical solution. Looking at all four aspects allows an in-depth, longer lasting, and often more successful healing plan.
What was it that first inspired you to train as a Reiki Master, and then go on to teach students?
I have always believed in God or Source and whilst I do not belong to a religion, I have always felt the energy of others; animals, nature and Source. I feel our spiritual aspect can be thought of as being a wad of cosmic energy that is humming around in our human body creating our unique energy frequency. Each of our individual energies form part of a sea of cosmic energy that is everywhere and all is connected, no one is excluded from this.
As such, I felt Reiki was a great match for me as Reiki means Universal Life Force Energy. I was a Master for many years and had such positive feedback and saw amazing confirmation that whilst I couldn’t see the energy, it was there present and accounted for regardless! It never ceases to amaze me and I felt drawn to becoming a master teacher to share this life changing modality. It’s my total buzz and I just want to share!!
One of the many personal experiences I have had with Reiki is this: when my Golden Retriever (Murphy) had a toe removed, he had to come to my work for 2 months. Every single time I began a Reiki session on a client, he would get up and lie beneath the massage table the client was on to soak up the energy too. One time, a new client came in and just said she was stressed and upset and wanted to give this a go. When I got to her heart, Murphy got up from under the table and leaped up on the other side of the bed facing me, with his front paws on the other side of her heart. Of course, I was mortified and was apologising when, all of a sudden, the client sat up, grabbed him and burst into tears. He was looking at me over her shoulder like, yup I’ve got this. When she stopped crying, she told me she was in an abusive relationship and had to walk out leaving her dog behind and it was killing her emotionally, affecting her heart! He felt the energy force too. It’s palpable!
What is it about the Reiki Healing practice that resonates with your overall philosophy and outlook on life?
Reiki is a natural holistic modality in which the practitioner directs the universal life force energy to the client triggering their innate healing ability on all levels of self. It is also a way of living to ensure your self-healing mechanism is always switched on. Therefore, the founder, Dr Usui, healed his patients and then taught them, along with his students, five principles to help them maintain their own healing. I have listed them below as I believe they are still incredibly important to this day, and I continue to build them into my daily outlook. When I just do it for that day it seems easier to do, less overwhelming. Then tomorrow I start again.
Just For Today Only –
Do not anger
Do not worry
Be with gratitude
Work diligently
Be kind to self and others
Is Reiki Healing for everyone?
Anyone who wishes to receive Reiki healing may receive it regardless of their religious beliefs, health concerns or where they are in the world as it can be sent remotely or in a hands on practice. The practitioner offers the energy and it is the four aspects of the patients own energy that will use what is offered for their greatest good, which they may or may not know about in that moment. For example, they may come to aid their anxiety and notice in the coming days their anxiety feels calmer AND their epilepsy has improved.
Can you talk to us in more detail about the spiritual component of Reiki Healing? What would you say to someone who feels nervous about this?
To be honest, it was the spiritual aspect that I was initially drawn to rather than the healing as I was already working as a qualified Naturopath and Medical Herbalist. I wanted to open my energy to connect with Source with the aim to help my clients by expanding my intuitive abilities more fully. When you learn Reiki, you receive several “initiations” or “attunements.” All Reiki teachings are part of a lineage which passes this ability from teacher to student through these attunements. The student is then able to channel (or direct) the universal life force energy for healing purposes. Universal Life Force Energy I feel, is Source or God, so therefore through these attunements, the student is also opened up to the spiritual aspect. If this makes my clients nervous, I encourage them to simply think of it as energy healing rather than spiritual healing as for some, this seems more acceptable and accessible.
Can you explain what you mean by “using personal language with Source”?
There are hundreds of different spoken and written languages around the world, all looking and sounding different, yet can convey the same message. Source is the same, it may convey the same message, but in a way that you personally understand. And like all conversations, it takes two to participate. Firstly, have an awareness that you may have a dialogue between you and Source. This may happen in a variety of ways and you may find that for you, one way is stronger than another. Source knows what you know so they will use your knowledge and feelings. You may connect with Source through your imagination, thoughts from your gut instincts, as well as through seeing, hearing, sensing, feeling and knowing. Secondly start recognising those aha moments, or those pearls of wisdom that seem to come out of nowhere; and lastly, start acting upon them. The more you trust and act, the more you learn. Awareness, Recognition and Action are your best ways to use and learn your personal language. For example, many feel compelled to change their job when actually its going OK only to discover their dream job awaits, or writing the next big hit song on the back of a napkin, its the energy of inspiration moving through us. When I wrote Whispers of the Soul, I remember sitting at my desk writing it, but when I now look at the published book, I still shake my head and ask myself, “How?” OK, I had a lot of free time during Covid Lockdown, but still, I cannot believe its real when I look at it and that I wrote it… there was a lot of inspiration clearly flowing!!
