RWP Episode #185: Getting in Good Relationship with Our Mind with Reiki Women Podcast

In this episode of the Reiki Women podcast, hosts Michaela, Bronwen, and Carrie engage in a deep conversation about the overactivity of the mind and how the practice of Reiki invites us to balance the mind with the body, heart, and energy. 
They explore the concept of 'San Mitsu' or the three diamonds—body, breath, and mind—and how focusing on these elements can help us achieve inner harmony and let go of mental chatter. 
The discussion covers practical techniques, the importance of compassion, and the significance of collaboration between the mind and the body for holistic well-being. 
Join us in discovering how different practices can assist in quieting the mind's distractions and nurturing our spiritual development.

00:00 Introduction to Mindfulness and Focus
01:57 Welcome to the Reiki Women Podcast
02:01 The Overactivity of the Mind
03:03 Integrating Mind, Body, and Heart
04:39 Practical Techniques for Mindfulness
07:20 Balancing the Mind and Body
09:00 The Role of Emotional Turbulence
13:25 Exercise and Physical Practices
14:22 The Concept of the Three Diamonds
18:04 The Importance of Compassion and Balance
30:13 Etymology and Deeper Meanings
39:40 Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Hosts
Bronwen Logan: https://ReikiwithBronwen.com
Carrie Varela: https://www.reikihealingsociety.com
Michaela Daystar: http://HeartscapesInsight.com

Our email: reikiwomenpodcasts@gmail.com

Our own RWP Facebook Group discussion: Embodying Reiki
   / 1564135767437136

Transcript

Speaker 8 0:05

What if it wasn't about shutting the mind up or getting it out of the way, or quieting it or emptying it?

Speaker 2 0:12

Learning to focus really important and it is the basis of any spiritual practice that you'll find anywhere in the world. Because if we can learn to focus, we can then learn to let go.

Speaker 9 0:25

Not trying to change the present moment, but coming into this place where you can observe the thoughts but not be inside of them.

Speaker 8 1:57

Hello friends. Welcome back to the Reiki Women podcast. Today we have been sitting here in conversation for quite some time about what we might talk about, and in a wonderful display of the universe being a trickster, what we need to talk about was chattering at us the whole time, which was the overactivity of the mind, and more specifically, the way in which the practice of the system of reiki really invites us to balance the mind with our other capacities, the other ways of knowing ourselves and the world, specifically through our bodies and through our hearts and our energy. We often experience in meditative practices, in other sorts of, embodiment based practices, that the mind can feel like a hindrance. It can feel like it's in our way, that we literally can't get it to quiet down and get outta the way. But what if it wasn't about shutting the mind up or getting it out of the way, or quieting it or emptying it? What if it was about finding the points of collaboration and connection between this incredible mind that we have that tends to be so forward and so present, and our other ways of knowing? Well, in fact, the system of reiki from its Japanese origins is intended to do just that. Integrate the San Mitsu, the body, the breath, the mind, the heart in ways that bring us into our full capacity. So we wanted to talk about that a bit today, and I look forward to where the conversation takes us. And I'm gonna pass it over to you, Bronwyn, to help set the stage for us.

Speaker 2 3:39

Thanks, Michaela. I, I do love this subject. I think that for almost every, every one of us when we start practicing that we have this idea of, when we talk about the mind, how do we actually get out of the mind? It just seems like such an impossible thing because, we are mindd in a way, aren't we? It feels like we are mindd, And, thankfully we have this concept of, sun mitsu, so the three diamonds where we can actually use different practices to help us move beyond the mind. Or, how can I say? I had a student say it, the other, what did they say? Mm. Something like release to let go. I think might've been it. just trying to find your in as to how you are gonna get out of your mind and into other parts of yourself. Now, when we talk about getting out of your mind, it really is the chatter that we're talking about. if we think about meditation, we know that the first, form of meditation, of any meditation that you'll ever do is going to be about focus. You can always relate it back to that. So focus, and that might seem like we are not getting out of our mind if we're talking about focus, it almost sounds like they're, yeah, they don't work together. But what we're doing is we're actually training the mind. So all that chatter. We are training the mind to listen to us and to respond to us. And when we say, okay, now we are going to do blah, blah, blah, that the mind goes, okay, I'm here. I'm gonna do what is required at this moment. Instead of going, Hmm, there's cheese and toast in the, oh, I was gonna say toast in the fridge. No, but I was just, had cheese toasty on the brain. Right? whatever it is. See, that was my mind going off in a weird tangent. So learning to focus really important. And it is the basis of any spiritual practice that you'll find anywhere in the world. Because if we can learn to focus, we can then learn to let go. So the mind is an incredibly important part of this. if I'm thinking about, the mind, I'm thinking of as a teacher and trying to help students with this idea of, getting out of your mind, I guess I would go to practices there's a lot of different ways of seeing this. I mentioned sun Mitsu, the three diamonds. So practices with that are probably, for me, I would consider them probably the most helpful ones because if we think of the three diamonds, we have the body, we have the heart or the breath. we have the mind. we have these three areas. And it sounds like they're separate, but they're absolutely not because not one of these could exist without the others. So if we have the mind, then. What we wanna do is we want it to come into balance with the other two elements. So we want it to come into a balance with the heart and with the body. So getting these three elements working together and finding a balance that actually helps us to feel whole and complete instead of feeling massively outta balance. And that is a state that, in all honesty, I think most of us are in 99.9% of the time. So we are looking for ways to try to find that balance. And using those three elements will be, a fantastic starting place for us. getting the mind into the body. getting the mind into the breath. One of the really easy ways of doing this that I use for my clients, for example, if they're having a treatment, is that when they lie down on a table, I get them to put their hands on their ter. So just below the belly button, and that is representative of the body. So that's the first one. And then we've still got the other two to go. somehow we're gonna try to get out of the head. And then I say to them to breathe in. So that's the breath. To breathe in down into their heart three times. I just used three. Three's a great number, it's giving them a, a boundary, something to work within. So if I just said, breathe, they wouldn't know when to stop, start, whatever, I'm helping them with some instructions so that they don't have to think about it, and they know exactly what they're doing. So they're breathing in and down into the huta, into their hands. what does this do? It's such a simple practice. It gets them out of their head, it gets their mind into their huta. for me, you can do this yourself anytime, any place, anywhere. If you find that your, your brain is going on the fritz, placing your hands at the huta. And breathing gently and deeply, naturally don't force it down into the hotter. And I think for me, that is probably the best practice that I've got for getting out of your head. How about you, Carrie?

Speaker 9 9:01

such an interesting topic, I think there's so much emphasis sometimes about getting out of the head, getting into the body, getting into the heart. It's also really important to allow our practice to nourish our mind as well. So, not neglecting the mind, not bypassing it or, um, you know, ignoring it, but you saw some of the signs. I think when we're in our head, is inside of our mind as we might be meditating or doing reiki or whatever we're doing. is this rolling commentary? I wonder what this person would think about me doing this. Or in the reiki session, it's you're talking with your friend about your experience of the reiki session, but you're not in the session, There's this dialogue that's happening, there's this conversation that's going on in the head, distracting you from the present moment. And if you've never experienced this or if you've never dealt with this, try thinking about a time where you've been in conflict with somebody, really in conflict with somebody. And there is this diatribe of conversation that tends to happen in the mind whenever that's happening in our life. Right? So, uh. And if, if that Conflict or that dialogue is very intense and heated, I think it shifts us into maybe a more traumatized place and a mental reaction coming from trauma. And what I'm thinking of when I'm in that space, or, or what might be happening for somebody in that space is they're not feeling safe for some reason or the other, or, um, I know for myself, when I, in terms of what I am choosing to focus on my reptilian and a million brain wants to focus on the things that I feel will help me feel more safe, And so sometimes I know for me it's like these most more emotionally charged things that are happening in my life tend to take up more resources, in my brain and my day. Then maybe the more lighthearted things. I also need to do and accomplish in any given day, right? So I think that's some of the questioning we should have when we're talking about what's going on in my mind today. And so some of the journey of getting out of the mind and into the heart, or into the body should be about getting out of that dialogue. stepping into the present moment and experiencing it for what it is. Not trying to change the present moment, but coming into this place where you can observe the thoughts but not be inside of them, not be inside of the dialogue that's happening. And if the mind is super overactive, it's hard to feel the body, it's hard to feel anything that's going on, internally or externally, right? these practices from Reiki that can help us, they help us first of all, soften and relax the mind, help us enter a deeper state of rest and relaxation. So whether or not we're experiencing reiki through hands-on healing or through reiki meditation, ultimately that, I think that goal is to calm the mind, to relax the mind, and depending on the individual and the circumstances that might be challenging for them. I had this experience of a specific type of meditation at a yoga festival recently, and I wish I could say the lineage it was from, but I think it was a form of Tibetan meditation. But in that meditation, the person who led the practice, talked about how the mind is also a reflection of our heart. And it's actually as much as we think it's all this mind, mind, mind going on, that inner turbulence can also be this emotional turbulence that sits underneath the mind and the thoughts. And so some of that journey from moving from the head to the heart is to acknowledge and sit with and be with that emotional turbulence. Mm-hmm. And that emotional turbulence is, is actually what is flaring up. The mind is activating the mind. Now for me, I think one of the best ways to get out of my head is probably not a practice from reiki so much as it is exercise and Being in the body and sitting in a plank for 30 seconds and you're like, it's really hard to think about all these things I'm fucking worried about right now, or the things that are stressing me out. I just have to be with my breath. I have to be with my strength. I am, I can feel how, oh, if I'm not activating my core, that's hurting my low back. And it immediately brings us into the body. And I think the longer we exercise, the more, endorphins we get, the more, we're able to separate from that drama and see it a little bit more deeply be truly focused on the body. I think that all fits well within what you're saying, Bronwyn, sometimes we need different things to help us get out of that, especially if, we're really stuck in a groove. something I've learned recently, which I absolutely adore, is what, my teacher calls a four part check-in and where we are intentional about checking into the body. How does my body feel now that we can do that with the horror breathing exercises? I think Bronwyn, a lot of times when I've experienced yours, you're, you, the way you cue it is bring your mind down into the horror. inviting the mind deep down into the belly and to be in that space and to give it that focal point. to feel the body and experience the body purely for what it is. And then the next level is checking in with the emotional body and then the mental body, and then the spiritual body. And there's four layers. We, we get into this deeper awareness of how all of these things are either in a weaving for us. how they might be impacting our nervous system. I know I've talked a lot about all of the, I think, really fascinating topics. I think all things that we all have experienced and, have different methods, to support ourselves and others in this. But I wanna say that recently I got, I have a, an account that I've been following on Instagram, and I forget what her name is. I think it starts with Stephanie. But she is a Qigong practitioner, she did, she's a really accomplished Qigong practitioner, does some really incredible reels, and she talks about how, a DD, how you'd see it through the lens of Qigong. Mm-hmm. And from the Qigong perspective, the key, the heavenly key, which is the key of the mind, is it's very, fast moving and excitable. And when we work on cultivating that, we can cultivate it through imagination, through creativity or if you've ever had the experience where you're, you catch a creative thought and then that's all you wanna put your energy and time into. She calls that the heavenly key. And that if we have a DD, we have tends to have an abundance of that. And it, is so excitable and fast moving, and especially if we're using energy practices and bringing it down into the heart, it can lead to an, an anxious feeling over, over excitement. she was just sharing some practices to help calm, the high vibration or the high energy vibration of the, which I thought was just so fascinating. Yeah. So a lot of me talking, I'm gonna pass it on to you, Mikayla. Tell us what you think about this.

Speaker 8 16:59

Oh yeah, it's such good stuff. There's so many directions to take it. My mind is going in so many directions. I'd love to know that creator 'cause I definitely have all kinds of a DHD going on in my mind. And, working with the Huda and working with the Three Diamonds system has, really helped me a lot to be able to really enjoy and take advantage of the, the superpower of the mind, the heavenly key to be able to be so activated and to do, hold onto so many thoughts at once and. leverage those thoughts. But when they're untethered, when they're dissociated from the body, then it's the spinning out, it's the hyperactivity. It's the inability to focus, the inability to make a decision and take action on all of the mental activity. And so these practices have been hugely impactful in my life, really. for a lot of ways. But in this realm in particular, because I really do experience that a DHD like mental paralysis, that happens when there's too many thoughts vying for attention. And it's really easy when one is, chronically experiencing something like that, or chronically experiencing anxiety, or these other, representations of an untethered mind to kind of vilify the mind and to see the mind as a source of suffering and a source of, of dissatisfaction and a almost as an enemy sometimes. That's a real shame because her mind is, an incredibly important part of ourselves that has, incredible capacities to it. And I loved the way that you spoke about practices that nurture the mind, Carrie, not, shunting the mind and getting it out of the way, or shutting it up, or, making it, not active or conversely not practices that have us go so far into our mind that now we're dissociated out into space. Right? But it's really, truly about that into integration and practices that bring the capacities of the mind, the incredible capacities of the mind into relationship and collaboration with the incredible capacities of the body and the heart and the breath. And so we see that, in the structure of the system of Reiki and the intention of the system of Reiki, and I love Bronwyn the way that you described, the way that I was kind of interpreting part of what you were saying was giving the mind assignments, giving the mind something to do, you said, all right, put your hands on your belly. That helps bring the attention there. breathe in. And it, it's funny how susceptible to instruction we can get because as you were saying, yes ma'am, I was breathing in, I was following your instructions. And it's giving the mind something useful to do and something that matters and something that, helps. And that's something that I often do as well to help work with my overactive mind. to hold that with curiosity, different, there's so many different practices in part because we're gonna need different things on different days, different things are gonna work for different people. So we wanna hold all of these practices with some curiosity with some lightness and with some playfulness, um, and to, to experiment. and if one thing doesn't work, let that be an interesting point of reference and trying something else. But one of the things that sometimes works for me that I share with students, a student recently who had a similar question is to really give our mind something to do when we're in those moments. And so she was having the experience of when she was in Josh and Coho and in these med meditations, she was really wanting to purely feel the sensation of the meditation without her mind narrating and giving her instructions and all of this. And it was Not possible. The mind, her mind was like, I am going to tell you what to do. I know how to do this practice, I'm gonna tell you. And she was in this contention between wanting to feel the experience and having her mind be very active. So I said, what if we give your mind an assignment in that meditation, and let's be playful and curious about that. So we, you know, went into Josh and Kojo and in that space, I said, all right, mind, ask the body what. Is it that only, what is it that can only be known through the body? Ask that question and be open to noticing whatever comes through, whether that is an answer, whether it's a sensation, whether it's nothing. noticing what it is. And that was really helpful because it allowed her mind to have a job to do something important that mattered in the context of this practice and to do what it does best, which is to ask a question and be in a data collecting space. Right now we can get hyper fixated on having an answer. So there's a whole process that I do with my students around, living the questions and being open to answers coming in forms that are not words. So there's context there as well. But it was fun to play with what if the mind and the body were in this conversation and they were in collaboration with each other. There's other ways to give our mind assignments or to assure the mind that we're gonna get back to that important thing that you're trying to tell me while I'm trying to do this other thing. Those intrusive thoughts that come in and say, Hey, hey, you need to be doing this. You need to be focused on this. you're like, yeah, but I'm doing this right now, so stop it. it becomes this battle inside of our, practice, which then feels like a failure of a practice as opposed to I practiced and I worked with the tension that was there. working with finding creative ways of giving our mind reassurance that what it is saying to us matters. we will attend to that at another time, or we'll attend to it in a different way. we were. Doing some meditating. Earlier when I was working with my teaching apprentices and I had quoted the first half of the introduction to a print song earlier in our conversation, anytime I say we are gathered here, I just have to go into the preamble to let's go crazy. Some of y'all know what I'm talking about and it's this, this kind of preamble to the song. I'd said half of it. we went into our meditation and all my mind wanted to tell me was, you didn't say the other half of the preamble to Let's Go Crazy. it's disrespectful to Prince. Okay. You and my mind's like, you gotta remember the words it's chatter, chatter, chatter. I'm like, what a dumb thing to be bothering me about what I'm trying to be in my meditation. But there's some part of my mind that really it mattered. I said, okay, thank you for showing me. Thank you for reminding me that I forgot to do that. at some point in the rest of this class, I am gonna say the other half of the preamble. I promise thank you for bringing that to my attention. that part of my mind was like, cool. Got it. And went away. It was amazing just giving that reassurance. Yes, I hear you. I will respond to that right now. I'm not gonna say it right now while we're meditating, So that's a silly thing, but it, it's, it's a, it's a playful way to be curious about what our mind needs, what will nourish our mind. And sometimes that's reassurance that what it's telling us matters. Sometimes that's giving it something to focus on that is in the body, is in the heart. That brings us into these other places. It's so beautiful when our mind can really focus on our physical sensations because that is such a beautiful collaboration. And of course the breath really helps to facilitate that as a physical sensation that can draw our attention. It's such an elegant, practice, Josh Joshin Kojo, and the related practices that use the breath as this intermediary between the body and the mind. Bringing that point of harmony together and bringing our attention, through the heart and into the body. So I think that's where this is really leading me is reminding myself and us to be creative, curious, playful, lighthearted about these tensions that can show up with the mind. to remember that so many of the ways in which our mind causes us suffering, at least in the Day to day. there are ways that the mind can be out of balance and ways that go beyond what we're discussing today, but things like anxiety, things like a DHD, things like, an overactive analysis, analytical mind, that a lot of these things can really be soothed by playing with, bringing the mind into alignment with the body and the heart and to, respect what the mind is trying to do for us. Trying so hard to do for us, even when the mind simply does not have everything that we need. The last thing I wanna say, another thing that has been helpful for me and for my students in this is to remember that. We're learning more and more about our bodies all the time, Science is advancing in ways that allow us to measure things and know things that we couldn't know before. And so we now know that we literally have three brains that of course we have a brain, but there's also neurological cells and activity in the heart and in the gut. And lo and behold, that is the three diamonds, right? of course we have, right? It's amazing. It's like we have observed as people that there is this knowing that exists not just in the mind, but in the heart and in the gut. And now science is there's neurons there, there's brain activity there. But one of the things that's fascinating for this conversation is that more data, more information flows upstream than downstream. More information is going from our gut and our heart up to our mind than our mind down to our heart and our gut. And so part of learning to focus the mind is focusing its attention on receiving. Wisdom and information and data and sensation from downstream, from the body, from the heart, and allowing receptivity to be part of the mind superpower, not a constant down flow of information from the mind. That's been a really helpful piece of information for me. lovely. And for you.

Speaker 2 27:03

Yeah, that reminds me of, I did an article this week, in it, I put in this little thing about, one of those horror sayings that they have in Japan about the, and it's read the Hara. Okay. So that's the saying. to read the horror, and that is about that our horror. So my horror reads Your horror. And your horror reads My horror. And we have this communication happening. And it's like what you're saying, it's this whole thing. We think that, all this stuff is happening in the mind, but it's actually throughout us because it's totally interconnected within us. And so whatever is going on in this ha that it can actually think right? So it can think and work stuff out and then it tells us what's going on. And that is so beautiful. And it is one of the main reasons why we work so much with the horror because it is this, area of, wisdom that, that informs us in so many ways. And I often talk about the posture, we talk about physical posture, always physical posture. But we know that if we have good physical posture, try to sit upright. It helps me have a good posture in my mind, for example, So my mind becomes upright. And what does that mean, I love the sense of having an upright mind. It means that I'm thinking ethically, I'm thinking clearly straight focused, all these beautiful things. But also then posture of the heart. So we, we are thinking about using words to, delve into these areas of ourselves in ways that, as you say, Michaela, curiosity, it's lovely. And, be curious about ourselves and find ways to bring more balance into our lives. And I think, Carrie, you're so right that, the terminology of get out of your brain, it doesn't work because it's telling us to do something that actually isn't correct, because we are not getting out of our brain. but we are finding the balance between our mind, our heart, and our hara, and finding this balance and sitting into this beautiful complete posture. Very beautiful. and I think for me, that when I do rejo. The practice. and you've both referred to to ideas about this, but that really is where we are working with these three elements, where we are working at finding balance between these three elements. So Josh Inco, I'm purifying the mind and heart with the breath. I think this is what people forget, The translation, it can be focus or purifying, But whichever you use, I'll use purifying for the moment. So when, Chinese Buddhism came across to Japan in 600 AD they brought kanji with them. And they had this kanji for the word shin. and when they explained to the Japanese what that kgi was, the Japanese said, oh, we already have that word. But it's not shin, it's ko. And they said, okay, well that's the KGI for Koro, but it's also the kanji for shin, right? So Jo Shin is actually, it's a Japanese word, you can only use Koro on its own. You can't put other things with, you couldn't say Joe Koro. All right. In Japanese, you'd have to say Joe Shin. So shin is koro and Koro is heart and mind. But when we, when we talk about this practice, we never talk about heart and mind, do we? We always say mind, right? But actually means heart and mind. So purifying the heart and mind using the breath technique. So what are we doing? We are breathing in. that's the breath part of it. And we are taking the heart and the mind to the heart. So it's exactly that, purifying through the hara, finding that strength in the hara, allowing that purity of reasoning to come through the hara. these practices are they're telling us exactly what they are and they are helping us to clear the mind, to focus the mind, and that the mind does not work on its own. It works with the heart and it works with the heart. And then we have ation, tsu, where we breathe in through the hands. Where are we doing? We are breathing into the, through the hands, into the heart, and then down into the ra. once again, we're using the mind to focus, to bring the breath to the heart down into the ra. So it's again and again, and, these, they're not getting rid of the mind. They're just, um, yes, giving them assignments. I like that. I'm all into homework. allowing these three elements to work together in harmony. I think that's a really beautiful thing and it's really special about our practice that we have these techniques to help us

Speaker 9 32:38

just love what you were saying. Wyn and it was so cool. to talk, to, talk more about the, the, the migration of Shin to from China to Japan. it's been 10 years as a practitioner of reiki before I even learned the word koro. maybe even longer than that. So it's been a new word that I've been working with, but that whole notion of the heart, mind, I think sits well within the concept that we, I was mentioning earlier, is that the mind is the reflection of the heart, right? Yeah. we haven't yet broke into the conversation about ego, which I think sits well within a conversation about the mind. that can be another thing that's going on inside of our head, I'm thinking about as a practitioner, working with a client maybe for the first time or even many times, noticing how, how we regard ourselves and how we want to be reflected back to our clients. sometimes, our ego has a certain idea of how we wanna be presenting ourselves. it can get in the way in the process of healing, but more than likely whether it be ego in the way or this anxious RA racing thoughts, underneath some of that is some emotional resistance or residue, with, with the ego in the way, it's we can really sit with that long enough, maybe what we want to, what's really there is that we want our client to respect what we do or to see the value in what we do. Or don't, we don't want to be judged by our client, right? But all of that is something that's beyond our control. sometimes the way our mind works is that we're in this self-protective place instead of being open to the experience. I hope that makes sense, but a lot of times when there is a lot of emotional turmoil or mental disturbance, there might be, there's this emotional key to that that I think is so helpful. And once we figure, unpack that I think gives us such, so much greater clarity about what's going on in our mind. Okay. I'm gonna pass it over to you, Mikayla.

Speaker 8 34:54

I love it. I love that we have all three at various points in this conversation. Had some distraction happening in our environment that then we get to practice bringing our focus back while also tending to life, To allow the world to happen, to be, while we practice being with ourselves. I love, I loved your explanation, the deeper layers of the etymology of Josh and Coho. I'm gonna share that with my students. I loved those, nuances and adding in the, interpretation of purification alongside focus as being, these dual intentions for that practice. That really definitely tracks, to my experience with it. And, bringing in the ego as well. There's a tenderness there. And the, all the ways in which. One of the ways that our mind can cause suffering is in these self-consciously, self-protective mindsets and mental habits that we can have. And the, the ones that you described, Carrie, and I have a couple of people in my life who, need a lot of affirmation and validation and to be told that they're okay and that they're good. And, a lot more than I'm accustomed to. And, it's a practice for ourselves and for the people in our lives who maybe have one of those ego things or those, we all have some form of our mind trying to protect ourselves in ways that become problematic and become, difficult mental patterns to work with. The system of reiki so generous, so gentle has an answer for that. It has the precept of being compassionate for ourselves, That when when all else fails, when the mind is doing what the mind is doing and it's in its most intractable patterns and it's causing us the most suffering, that we can come back to compassion for that part of ourself that's trying so hard to keep us safe, and to keep us oriented, and to keep us relevant, and to keep us, resourced in the way that we need to be. I love that. And then of course that brings the heart, subtly into the conversation. And I love that concept of Kokoro the invitation to view our heart and our mind as a unified energy. And that if we're feeling one or the other out of balance Oversized in our awareness that there's some balancing that needs to happen there. I spent a lot of time inside of a spiritual tra tradition before I started working with reiki in this way. during the time I was working with Western Reiki and then also in this other practice that was incredibly heart-centered, which was beautiful, it was, lots of beautiful experiences and learnings, A lot of tender, generous, ways of practicing and thinking that it was very healing for a lot of the women in this organization. But I did come to notice the, pendulum swinging in the other direction of overemphasizing the energy of the heart. And, there was language around putting the mind in its place, putting the mind behind the heart, that the mind's rightful place is in the back. And, um, you know, and I, and I can understand that. overcorrection of the heart gets, disrespected it, it gets vilified in society. It gets associated with weakness in all of these things. And so we wanna emphasize and nourish the strength of the heart, the passion of the heart, the courage of the heart, all of the incredible parts of the heart. And to get the mind out of the way to put the mind in its proper place. And working with reiki in the way that we talk about here helped to heal what almost became an overcorrection. That was, that became very difficult for me to sustain. And, it was almost the mind was, yeah, it was, it wasn't kind, to the capacities of the mind ultimately. So I think all of that is to say I love the kindness, the gentleness, the. Compassion, the gracefulness of this practice, which all then amounts to great power and great strength, not weakness at all. Incredible strengthening capacity. When we bring all of these parts of ourselves into collaboration and connection with each other, each of them taking their rightful place as, part of the rulers of our being. and none of them being subservient to the others, none of them being better or worse than the others, but having them really unified. It's, it's really an incredible way of practicing, of living our life and of relating to each other, and to, to relate to the ways in which an imbalance in any of these areas truly does cause us dissatisfaction and suffering. Then there's a path out of that. Thank goodness. friends, we are coming to the end of our conversation. obviously these are themes that work their way into a lot of our conversations, I've loved this opportunity to really. Important aspect of the system of Reiki. One of the incredible benefits of this practice and to continue centering this topic and this conversation in, our further conversations. And folks, we'd love to hear what came up for you, experiences that you have had with the incredible capacities of the mind, including the capacity to be incredibly distracting and challenging. we'd love to hear what has worked for you, what has been frustrating for you, and what insights this conversation might have caused you to think about and leave you curious about. Please leave those in the comments below. Share this episode with those you think would benefit from the conversation, would have a lot to say about it. And be sure you're subscribed to this channel so that you can stay up to date with this conversation as it continues to move forward. Thanks so much for being with us. We will be back with you next week with another conversation. And until then, we love you. Bye.