Deepak Chopra’s three daily questions – which I ask myself in the mirror as I brush my teeth – are: Who am I? Why am I here? What do I really want? Sounds pretty simple yes? I’ve followed this morning ritual for many years. Some days I come up with convincing answers. Archie usually winds himself around my ankles as I’m doing this. If I’m too focused on the mirror he even gives me a little love bite. (I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt here.) But on other days, I actually don’t have a clue about the answers!

I’ve added some more rituals to my morning ablutions. Under the shower I say, “I love you.” Now I don’t know about you, but I was brought up not to love myself overly. It wasn’t done to be too confident or think you were worthy of much. So liking and even loving myself was something I had to learn. Don’t get me wrong. I was loved. Just not by myself. Why is this important? Well here’s the thing. If you don’t love yourself, you tend to give away all your power to the people around you, especially the ones who enjoy a bit of control. When you learn to love and trust yourself, you also begin to take back your magic wand.  It may come as a bit of a surprise to some people, but boy is it fun!

Another spin off of this is that once you love yourself enough, you start recognising your tribe, the people who do care about you. Of course the downside is that you also begin to notice the ones who don’t. Not really. There’s no need to shout these revelations from the rooftops. It’s enough to simply note your observations and quietly adjust your life accordingly. No one needs to get hurt. There are inner circles and outer circles.

So what’s brought on all these ruminations? Healing. Ways of healing on all levels. In order to heal myself, I need to explore not only the outward symptoms, but also the inner workings of who I am and what makes me tick. There are so many ways of exploring this. I plan to become a master.

Reiki is an energy healing method I have been a fan of for ages. It is also one I plan to learn and practise on myself. The last Reiki session I had, (with Caron – 0833004789) left me so energised that I was ready to Tango the night away…if I’d only I’d had a partner. It’s one of those therapies that you need to experience for yourself. I can only describe it as being massaged and loved from head to toe, without anyone’s hands actually touching your body. The therapist works with their energy and yours, to balance all the chakra centres. We are all bundles of energy, so it isn’t really that strange. After the session closes, you’ll learn so much about what your body is really trying to tell you, it will blow your mind. The angelic Caron’s revelations blew mine anyway, and her number is engraved in my little pink book.

I parked my car at home and then pushed the gate open to find Xena wagging her tail and Archie pretending not to notice my arrival. As soon as I bent to stroke him, he clawed into the fir tree, scaled it to the very top, climbed into the owl box and peered down at us. Xena looked to me for an explanation. “My girl, if this is a competition in energy levels, Archie has just won, claws down!”