As the years go by I have been noticing the ebb and flow of energy in my clients. Sometimes as a client enters my studio I will be wholly taken by their energy and how it is passing through their body and inhibiting their movements and indeed their emotions. These two things are intrinsically linked and often the release of tension in the body can bring about all sorts of emotions with clients feeling lighter as they leave the studio. So, yes Pilates is an amazing practice of getting people moving in a connected way creating strength in the body and this is what drew me into the practice which I have been teaching in for 22 years now! But what if that Energy needs healing all on its own? I was at a loss until I started to go to Reiki for myself and realised that I could use the energy healing for my own clients working to restore the body's natural energy flow.
Reiki can help to release emotions so you feel lighter and gives you a boost of positive energy leaving you calmer and more able to cope with life. In turn, feeling less daunted by discomfort in the physical body and can help speed up recovery. I know if I am in pain it makes me feel stressed, confused sometimes upset....but when I had Reiki it lifted those feelings making me feel calmer clearing those blockages and imbalances so energy healing could take place. This continues long after you have left the couch! The whole experience is so comforting and relaxing.
I have been training with the wonderful Dorothy Winter in all aspects of Reiki healing and from the end of January 2024 will be able to extend my Pilates practice to include Reiki. I am so excited to start this new journey, I will be continuing to train and learn throughout 2024 in both Reiki and Pilates and look forward to bringing these two practices to you.
Exciting times!
Photo by Katherine Hanlon on Unsplash
SBP - Book Club Bookshop UK
I read The Mermaid of Black Conch by Monique Jeffrey only recently, it had been on my list to read for ages. I cannot believe I waited so long, its haunting and deeply moving like stepping into a whole different world. I could not put it down reading long into the night – I absolutely loved it.
Magical books grounded in realism like this do not come around often enough for me its my favourite kind of book. Folklore, fables, imaginary Islands and wild seas, what is not to love? It follows the tale of Aycayia a mermaid, not a silver haired Disney temptress but a wild, huge, staggering creature. Being caught by holiday makers on a fishing trip, and after a long battle being dragged from her watery confines. Aycayia is strung up and poked and prodded, cigarettes stubbed out on her and left hanging for the night. Aycayia is rescued by a local Fisherman named David. He carts her back to his house in a wheelbarrow and keeps her in his bath, which sees the beginning of her transformation. The rotting of her tail was written so vividly, it made me feel like I could smell and see it all.
“Her ears dripped seawater and small sea insects climbed out. Her nostrils bled all kinds of molluscs and tiny crabs. She’d been a home to all kinda small sea creatures, and they were slowly, over days, abandoning her, moving out. Small piles appeared by the side of the tub and these piles were active. Crab’s scuttled away sideways.”
The novel’s main characters are so interesting and interwoven with love and rivalry going back years I was intrigued by them all. The whole community was bought to life by the telling of David and Aycayias love story. The story is peppered with rough strewn poetry from Aycayia, with her own thoughts and sacrifices she would make.
To write about a Mermaid convincingly takes huge skill a ‘legend drawn from the sea’, returned to land, to survive, heal and live again, as a real woman in modern times.
I use this recipe from Chowhound. I can never find the salted shrimp so tend to leave it out! I am sure that's probably frowned on but when I have found the shrimp I didn't really like the flavour so much so I guess its personal taste!
