Lightening the fire within,
A Yushi Self-Reiki meditation for your solar plexus,
For you and your animal companion.
All right,
Let's set up your space.
Find a place where you won't be disturbed,
This doesn't have to be perfect,
A chair,
A floor,
A cushion or lying on your bed.
What matters is that you're comfortable and you've got a few minutes that are actually yours.
Take off your watch,
Your rings if they are bothering you,
Loosen anything tight around the middle because that's exactly where we're heading today.
If your animal companion is nearby,
Brilliant,
Let them choose where they want to be,
Beside you or somewhere in the same room,
They know what they're doing,
They always do.
And then take a breath and set an intention,
Something simple,
Something honest.
Maybe it's,
I'm ready to trust myself again.
Maybe it's just,
I want to feel okay,
Either one works perfectly.
And close your eyes when you're ready,
Let's begin.
Take a real breath in,
The kind that actually reaches your belly and let go all the way out.
Feel where your body meets whatever is holding you right now.
The floor,
The chair,
The earth underneath you,
Of all of it.
You don't have to do anything except be exactly here,
Exactly as you are.
Imagine roots growing from the base of the spine,
From the soles of your feet,
Reaching down through the floor,
Through the earth,
All the way to the hot living core of this planet.
Let yourself be anchored,
Genuinely anchored,
Not politely but deeply,
Like a tree that has been growing for hundreds of years and isn't going anywhere but here.
Feel that,
You're not floating,
You're grounded,
You belong here.
Good.
So before we begin,
We clear with dry bathing,
A Yushi purification practice that washes the energy body the way water washes the physical one.
Think of as it shaking off everything you walked in today.
Bring your palms together in front of your heart,
I guess so,
Just for a moment.
And hold this intention.
I'm clearing the way,
I'm making space.
Good.
Your left hand to your right shoulder,
Sweep across your body and release at the left hip and exhale.
Your right hand to your left shoulder,
Sweep down and release and let it go.
And now extend your left arm,
Palm facing up,
And the right hand sweeps over the shoulder all the way down to the hand,
To the fingertips.
And as it leaves the fingertips,
Flick it away,
Gone.
Your right hand out and your left hand sweeps over from the shoulders to the fingertips and release.
Let it go.
Left arm one more time,
Sweep and release.
And the right arm one more time,
Sweep and release.
And then bring your hands back to the gaso at your heart and take a breath in with thanks.
You're clean and cleared,
So let's go deeper.
Your palms still together at the chest,
Feel them.
They're warm or becoming warm with this warmth of Reiki.
It's not something you manufacture,
It's something that you remember.
And as you breathe in,
Let that light moving from your hands,
Filling up your arms,
Filling up your chest.
And as you breathe out,
Let the light settle lower into your belly,
Into your core.
And then in,
Let the light rises through your arms.
And out,
Let the light rest in the center of you.
Just like that for a few breaths.
Let your hands come alive.
They already know what to do.
Just follow your breath and play with the light.
Coming into your body and settling.
Before we start placing our hands,
Let's speak Yoshi's words,
Not his rules,
As a reminder.
The Goka,
The five precepts.
The backbone of everything that we're about to do.
Speak them with me,
Even silently.
Just for today,
I will not be angry.
Just for today,
I will not worry.
Just for today,
I will be grateful.
Just for today,
I will do my work honestly.
Just for today,
I will be kind to every living thing.
And just notice what lands.
For most people,
At least one of those precepts hits somewhere in the gut.
Which is not coincidentally,
It's exactly where we're going today.
Bring your hands down,
Flat,
Warm,
Unhurried.
Just below your stermen,
On the soft place of your diaphragm.
Right below where your hips meet the middle and let them rest.
You feel that's the right spot there.
It's where your physical feel everything before your brain has caught up.
The flutter before a hard conversation.
The clench before something feels wrong.
The drop when you've been knocked down.
The fire when you know,
Absolutely know,
That you're right.
This is your solar plexus chakra,
The city of jewels,
Your inner sun.
And both your hands now,
Or one hand,
Is resting on it.
Reiki is flowing.
The universe through your crown,
Down through your arms,
And out of your palms,
Directly into this fire center.
And just breathe in and let the warmth move into you.
And breathe out and let everything else that has been smoldering too long,
Begin to soften.
This chakra governs something really important.
Your right to exist on your own terms.
Your confidence.
Your boundaries.
Your ability to look at situation and say,
This is not okay.
Or,
This is exactly right.
The gut instinct that has never actually lied to you,
Even if you didn't listen.
So let's be honest about what might be here.
Maybe there's fear.
The chronic,
Low-level kind that you've almost stopped noticing.
Maybe there's an old shame about being too much or too little or wrong about something fundamental.
Maybe there's unexpressed anger that has turned inwards because it has nowhere else to go.
And maybe there's exhaustion of years of second-guessing yourself.
Whatever it is,
Your hands are on it now.
You don't have to fix it.
You don't have to explain it.
You just have to let Reiki touch it.
Let sunlight on something that has kept you into the dark too long.
And just breathe in.
And let your inner fire receive this warmth from your hands.
And breathe out and let the earth below you take whatever ash there is.
Whatever has already burned out,
Let it go.
Let it go down.
Keep your hands exactly where they are.
But start to think about your animal.
Bring them into your mind like they're right in front of you.
The way they smell,
The weight of them.
The particular way that they look at you when they think you're not paying attention.
Here's something worth knowing.
Your animal carries their own solar plexus energy.
And their own version of confidence and personal power and gut instinct.
And here's the wild,
Beautiful,
Slightly uncomfortable truth.
If you've been carrying chronic anxiety and unexpressed fear or collapsed confidence,
There's a very real chance your animal has been carrying some of it with them.
They feel what you feel.
And they don't have a filter for it.
Which means what you're doing right now,
Tending to your own fire,
Is already an act of love for them.
And as your hands rest on your own solar plexus,
Imagine the warm light,
The warm golden light,
Bright yellow,
Like sunlight on a summer morning.
Radiating outward from your center.
Expanding like a sunrise,
Crossing the room.
Reaching your animal companion as well.
Imagine that the light touches their belly,
Their middle,
Their own center of power.
And your healing is their healing.
And if your animal is there right with you,
You might bring one hand to rest gently on their belly,
Or their back,
While keeping one hand on your own solar plexus.
Two centers of fire connected.
Two beings tending their inner light at the same time.
It's not complicated,
It's just love with intention.
And then start to bring your breath back up.
A little bit fuller,
A little bit more awake.
Feel your hands,
Whether it's your hand or your animal.
Notice the warmth,
Notice what has shifted,
Even slightly.
And then slowly bring both hands back to gustle at your heart and offer a beautiful thank you to Reiki.
To your gut,
Which has been trying to guide you all along.
And to your animal companion,
Who shows up every single day with their whole heart,
Their whole body,
Their whole fire,
And asks nothing except that you show up too.
Take a full breath in,
And let it all the way out.
And when you're ready,
Slowly open your eyes,
Wrinkle your fingers and toes.
And if you feel a bit expensive or ungrounded,
Just press both palms flat on the floor for a moment,
Or stamp your feet,
And come back into the room.
You've done something kind for yourself,
And for your animal who loves you.
This is always,
Always worth doing.
And just for today,
Be kind to everything living thing.
Starting right here,
In this belly,
With this fire,
Yours.
Welcome back,
And welcome home.
Reiki is a complementary practice,
And it's not a substitute for medical or vegetarian care.
