Sheri went to the doctor and found out that she had something in her body causing a problem. It was a lump. The doctor called it a name, something long and Latin.



At home, she pondered the doctor's words: ?possibly malignant?, ?operate?, and ?chemotherapy?. These words did not seem to relate to her life. She didn't tell anyone ? she didn't want a fuss. At first she totally ignored it, but deep within, Sheri was racking her brain for ways to get herself out of this mess. Her life felt as if it was hanging together by a thread. One evening on the news, as she sat with her family, she heard that stress might be the cause of many cancer related diseases. This triggered something in her and she began to think more clearly about her situation.

She'd certainly experienced a great deal of stress last year when she'd been retrenched and they'd had to take the kids out of their private school, away from their friends. Well, it was that or sell the house?

Sheri started to think ? if what was happening to her body was a result of something she'd experienced then perhaps there was something she could do to help herself.

Reiki attracted Sheri immediately. It was something she could learn to do for herself and was said to be good for stress. Still unable to discuss it, she told her family she was visiting her mother for the weekend. She did sleep at her mothers but during the day she attended a Reiki course. She felt she couldn't reveal her reason for coming to the course to the other participants or even the teacher.

During the two days many things began to fall into place for Sheri. It was great that she gained a better understanding of her own energy and ways to strengthen it. This was sure to benefit her in any situation that she found herself in in the future - either physically or mentally. Her reward, though, was the new perception of the life she led.

That Sunday evening after the course she sat on the steps of her house. She knew the kids and her husband were inside eagerly awaiting her ? it wasn't often that she took time away from them. The moon was bright and Sheri felt life coursing through her.

Over the weekend she had a taste of what it meant to experience life ? now. Not with the future hanging dimly in the air or with the past jumping out at her ? but right now. She let go, just for a moment and realized in that instant her body was not physically ?perfect? and that was okay. She let go of the need to create the perfect situation, instead acknowledging a connection inside herself that was, and always will be, perfect.

To remember being at One with everything that pulsed with energy in this world, to flow in the rhythm of the universe - perfect.

She didn't need to ask the teacher if Reiki would cure her as that was no longer the point. She knew the place where she needed to be in her life as she had touched it. Not physically touched it: that wasn't possible.

This place was in her spiritual heart.

This was the beginning of her self-healing journey. She knew she had yet to develop a routine of daily practice to continue this work. She also knew that by self-healing it didn't mean that she would cure herself of whatever was wrong with her but that she could approach life from a different perspective.

Sheri stood up, took a deep breath and gracefully entered her home. Tonight she would talk to her family and tomorrow she'd make an appointment to see if she could get a better grip on what that doctor had been telling her.

The answer is inside but the question is different.

Reiki is not a cure but a way of life. It can be used in conjunction with any form of allopathic or conventional western medicine. It is not an alternative to allopathic or conventional western medicine.