When I was a young nurse, I wanted to be a podiatrist. I was working with older women and their feet were misshaped and painful because of the shoes that they wore when younger. Narrow toed shoes that now years later had resulted in crippled and painful feet.
To become apodiatrist, I needed to do further years of study and to get into the study, I needed to have a certain, (high) level of mathematics. Anyone who knows me knows that I was highly unlikely to have even a low level of mathematical skill. But I was determined. I enrolled in a Bridging Maths class for women. When I got there I was told that I was the only person who had enrolled so they moved me into a maths course for firemen who needed to upgrade their skills. It didn’t help…
I spoke to a number of advisors about my lack of maths competency and the expectations of the course and reaslised that I had to let the dream go. The course had a focus on maths and I was never going to master.
Move on about 30 years and as many of you will know I have opened a ‘pop up shop’ in Ararat where I provide Reiki and other energy healing to people and animals.
For Reiki Awareness Week, I offered 15 minute Reiki sessions for free. I was surprised and thrilled to see several older women attend, (women in their 70’s, 80’s and one in her 90’s!) attend. It was then that Irealised that Reiki was an effective way for older people to relax and get some relief from chronic pain.
This has resulted in Self Care for Seniors – a group reiki session for people on age pensions.Our first is on December 7 and if there is enough interest, it will become a regular feature at Heart Inspired Wellness in Ararat in 2024.