Chapter 3

Attuning to the Language of Nature

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Since we are part of nature, like the plants and the animal kingdom, we have the capacity for learning the subtle whispers of nature and communicating with the natural world that surrounds us. We each have the innate ability to perceive the language of nature but for most of us it is a very quiet voice, vibration, feeling or colour that’s trying to speak to us in a very noisy world! We’ve not generally been taught or encouraged to pay these whispers attention, and as a result we often find it hard to identify these signals and fail to take action. It’s a skill we need to relearn and refine. As reiki practitioners we also have the assistance of reiki flowing through us while we are outside in nature to help with this reconnection and heal any resistance that may appear. Those trained to reiki Level 2 can also invoke the energy of the distance symbol to help bridge the gap between us and the green world. The more you practise, the more clearly the stillness will emerge—it is then when you need to pause and pay attention. I now invite you to slow down, take the time to remember and realign with the frequency of nature.

The principal skills that will help you understand the language of nature are: self-awareness, presence (meaning the ability to be present), mindset, compassion, gratitude, sensory awareness, intuition, trust, intention, curiosity and openness. In this chapter I’m going to show you how your reiki practice has already provided you with the skills that you need to help you perceive the language of nature and re-weave the green thread of plant medicine, guidance and support into your life. You will also be able to identify those skills which might need further attention, and connect with reiki further to assist you.

Ritual and Practice

Daily practice is at the core of reiki. I can almost feel my students’ eyes roll when I say that. Our schedules today are so strained that the moment anyone suggests that you need to add something, no matter how small, to your daily routine, the defences come up and the suggestion seems doomed to fail. However, the more I have become absorbed in the flow of reiki along my path—or you could say surrendered to the love and light of my being—the easier and more natural daily reiki in its varied forms has become. Do I always repeat the five reiki principles daily, kneeling in gassho before I start my day? No. Do I live the reiki principles in practice? Yes. Do I invite reiki to flow through me every day in everything that I do? Yes. When a situation causes me distress, worry or concern, do I send reiki? Yes. Do I find myself chanting or scribing a symbol without thinking, just because it feels like the right thing to do? Yes. My advice to my students is to “reiki the sh** out of everything”!

The flow of reiki becomes us and flows out into our lives to touch our environment and those around us. In the same way, the whispers and the wisdom medicine of the green world grow around us, interweaving with our lives, waiting for us to let them in. We talk about attunement in reiki and for each level of training we receive an attunement to the energy of reiki from our reiki Master. This was first described to me as being like tuning a radio so that I could receive the frequency of reiki more clearly.

I believe the same is true for our connections with the green world. We need to fine-tune our radio receivers to truly listen to the guidance and feel the frequency of nature. It’s not that we need a special tool; we simply need to retrain ourselves, turn on our innate receivers and make nature connection part of our daily routine. This can be as simple as feeling the sun on your skin and expressing your gratitude, or noticing the trees in bloom on your way to the superstore and giving them a smile. It’s about practising this acknowledgement of the natural world until it becomes second nature. Which is ironic since this is our innate nature! If you don’t already, think about how you can weave an acknowledgement or gratitude to the natural world into your daily ritual.

Reiki, Self-Awareness and Presence

Your reiki practice will already have been a great help for cultivating a sense of self-awareness and presence. I remember when I first learnt reiki and started to practise at reiki shares and with friends. I don’t mind admitting how hard I found it to stand still for so long in silence. It was alien to me not to be talking or doing something with my hands. Placing my hands onto someone’s body, being fairly still and allowing the energy to flow was a new and quite odd experience. I battled for a while with thoughts going around in my head, and found it a challenge to be fully present for a full hour of treatment. I hadn’t come from a background of regular meditation practice. I was a lively and stressedout twenty-something who found this new calm state of being an often uncomfortable experience. I don’t think this is unusual! We are so overstimulated these days that even for clients to come and lie down for a full treatment can be challenging as the chitter-chatter of the monkey mind goes on, thinking of to-do lists and what to cook for dinner.

My reiki practice has helped me develop a better sense of selfawareness and it has also inspired me to begin a meditation practice. This may also be your experience. The more we practise with reiki the more we become accustomed to being in the space of stillness and are able to focus our attention elsewhere, rather than on all the niggling thoughts that seek to distract us.

I also feel that as reiki practitioners we develop the ability to listen to what is really being said and be mindfully present not just with ourselves, but also with our clients. Sitting in gassho focusing on the tips of your fingers, sensing your breath, chanting symbols, working with some of the reiki techniques such as Joshin Kokyu Ho (see appendix) or even reciting the reiki principles are all beautiful ways to meditate and cultivate your presence.

When we are interacting with plants (or anyone for that matter), being fully present is key. It’s especially important for plant communication because the nuances of nature are so subtle that if we are not paying attention, lost in a train of thought or distracted by our mobile device, we will miss or misinterpret the message. It helps to develop self-awareness through meditation and mindfulness practices, and the simple reiki practice of sitting in gassho, working with the reiki symbols or mantras or repeating the reiki principles are great examples of such practices within the system of reiki. As we become more mindful of the thoughts that occur in our minds and able to push the inner dialogue to one side, a sense of stillness may arise It’s from the still place that we begin to receive messages from the natural world, the spirit realms and our higher self.

Eyes of the Heart—A Pathway of Compassion

For me, when I started looking at the green kingdom through the eyes of my heart I noticed a shift in my perception, as if I had stepped through a magical portal into a landscape that was alive and communicating. Feeling your way rather than thinking your way as you navigate the language of nature is a key part of the path. In this way you open yourself up to exploring a landscape that is alive and full of conscious beings with intelligence and wisdom, and can attune to a vibration that connects in with your heart and the knowing of your ancestors.

For reiki practitioners, accessing this heart space comes naturally as we enter the reiki space. Reiki helps us connect with our hearts and as it flows it helps us open, soften and look at the world through eyes of compassion. This essence of compassion is in fact embodied in one of the reiki principles, the wording of which can be translated as: “I will be kind to myself and others.” It’s in this compassionate state of being, looking at others, the world and ourselves through eyes of compassion, listening deeply with empathy, that we bridge the separation between us and the natural world, which is in any case only an illusion. This is the doorway that helps us to enter the world of plant communication and connection.

I find that when I am in this heart space my perception becomes more intuitive, less logical and calculated, softer and more open. You might experience this also, for example during a reiki treatment. Many of us are given flashes of intuition, guidance and insight as reiki flows through us, not just when we are working with clients but also when we are healing ourselves with self-treatments. We are often gifted information when we are in this space. Imagine your heart as a key organ of perception, a muscle, a unique kind of brain that helps you connect with the world intuitively. Your heart is both a cognitive and a perceptual organ, and has an electromagnetic field that radiates two and a half to three metres beyond your body, which makes it a powerful electromagnetic generator and receiver. The plant world is very sensitive and it will be picking up on whatever vibration you are carrying in your heart. In order to connect and be a magnetizing force, it helps to carry the vibration of joy and gratitude. When it comes to intention, the plant and spirit worlds will be reading your heart, not your words, so the heart is key.

You will already have a sense of what the heart field feels like, especially if you practise reiki on others. It’s that feeling of being in someone’s personal space when you are standing too close, say 30–45 cm away. You may often feel your heart field touching that of a client during a treatment. With practice you can use your heart field as an extension of your senses to touch and feel the world around you. Herbalist and teacher Stephen Harrod Buhner has written extensively on the heart as our primary organ of perception.

Personally I find that, as I expand my awareness and connect through my heart space with the consciousness of plants around me, I become more aware of something very much greater than myself. It triggers a deep remembering, a sense that we are not alone, that we are part of a much larger and greater complex system of a living, breathing organism that supports and nourishes us. I find this rather comforting!

In my experience, the more time we spend looking at the natural world from this heart space of expanded perspective, the more compassion we feel towards it and the more we hold it dear to us, respect and strive to protect it. The natural world shifts from being a mere resource at our disposal to being a spiritual ally for support, guidance and wisdom. Imagine how different the world would be if we all spent more time in our heart space!

Feel Your Way

To understand the many forms of plant communication, it’s essential to drop your awareness down from your head into your heart. As a reiki practitioner, connecting to this heart space will be easy for you. Simply ask that reiki flows through you and if it helps to stay focused, place your hands on your heart. Take a deep breath in and focus on breathing into and out of your heart, sending reiki to your heart for five minutes. Consciously bring your awareness down from your head into your heart. In this way you start to open up your doorways of perception, as if you were aligning your heartbeat with the heartbeat of nature.

I recommend feeling your way from this heart space when working intuitively for plant healing and leaving the thinking until later. Follow what speaks to your heart and allow yourself to be guided by feeling, not just following the logical mind or what you think you know.

You are likely to be already doing this as part of your reiki practice. In reiki Level 1 you were probably taught the hand positions and it’s possible that, like me, over time you have opened and allowed the flow of reiki to guide you so that rather than adhere strictly to specific hand positions, you intuitively place your hands where you feel healing is required.

As we instinctively feel in our body or our heart where the reiki is needed, it feels like something greater than us is working through us. For me, when I allow myself to be guided it feels like the reiki treatment has more power in its authenticity, as I am more relaxed feeling my way rather than thinking about hand positions. This is also the guidance and rhythm for working with plants intuitively.

Shift Your Mindset

Many would agree that the right mindset is key for our success in life. Indeed, many of us are working on a positive mindset with affirmations to help us achieve goals and heal from past wounds or release old habits that, for example, sabotage our success. reiki certainly helps us with this too and as you look to working with plants intuitively it’s essential that you also expand your mindset to include your sacred relationship with nature, nature beings and plants. When we shift from having dominion over nature to working in partnership with it, we open up new possibilities that explore the natural world as a vibrant and conscious landscape from which we can learn. (Remember—plants have been around on this planet for billions of years before us; they might know a thing or two about life!)

As you shift your mindset to a place of gratitude, honour and respect for the green world, this is when you will start to feel a sense of connection that will provide you with new insight and a fresh way to look at the world. As your heart is touched by the natural world, it starts to have more meaning and purpose for you. This in turn provides it with more value and it then becomes more special and unique for you. You may even become more sensitive to the energies of the Earth, the landscape and certain plants, for example, as they come forward to work with you, perhaps as special plant allies or guides.

In order to do this effectively, it helps to put your judgements, preconceived ideas and previous knowledge of plants to one side. Forget what you think you know about plants and their properties to see them and feel them with a fresh perspective.

You will also need to start trusting your first response to plants and work through any resistance that comes up for you during this process. For many this often appears as a critical voice that starts telling you how silly all this is or how you are making all of this up. It’s not common for us to go around conversing with plants or engaging with them in any way. Be prepared to step out of your comfort zone and face this resistance that might appear.

Fortunately, as part of your self-reiki practice you can work with reiki to assist you with overcoming any blocks or resistance that appear to be preventing you from experiencing plant connections in the way that you were hoping. Also I highly recommend surrounding yourself with a network of like-minded plant-loving friends with whom you can share you spiritual journey and who will be accepting and understanding of your intuitive plant healing path.

You may need to unlearn the social conditioning and collective consciousness that gives plants a certain (low) status and importance. The key is starting with an open and willing heart and a childlike curious mind that wants to explore and ask questions. Ditch the ego that might consider plants as inferior or that might judge plants to be growing incorrectly or in the “wrong” place. Get ready to expand your consciousness and interact with plants on all levels; use both your physical and your intuitive senses.

It doesn’t matter that you may not know the scientific names of plants or their medicinal uses. In fact it can be easier to not know anything at all because then you truly are meeting a plant with fresh eyes and no previous experience or judgement to hinder you. What creates the relationship is the willingness and heart-centred intention to connect and interact.

We are so tied up with thinking that we have dominion over the natural world—imagine what a shift it would be if we all viewed plants as conscious intelligent beings. Imagine the learning, healing and possibilities that might open up if we were to shift towards co-creating with plants and dive deeper into the web that interconnects us all!

I find it interesting that even in the reiki community, although it has expanded so much in the twenty years I have been practising, we still focus on animal reiki or equine reiki, crystal reiki and so forth, but very few practitioners are looking at reiki for the Earth, reiki for Gaia, which is the source of our health.

I feel that, as reiki practitioners, healers and light workers, as well as healing ourselves we have a responsibility to be helping to heal our home, ourselves, our families and the landscapes around us to help raise the vibration of the world.

Fortunately we have begun to change our view of plants and you wouldn’t be reading this book if you didn’t already have a broader mindset towards working in partnership with nature. We are shown by plant neurobiology that plants are sensitive and dynamic organisms that live in community, competitively forage for resources, accurately compute their circumstances and make decisions. Despite not having a brain like we do, plants recognize self and non-self, have memory and demonstrate territorial behaviour. Nature is alive and responsive, rather than an inanimate colourful background to our lives.

Gratitude

One of the easiest and simplest ways to communicate with nature is to express your thanks and show your gratitude. Actions, thoughts and words that come from our heart with kindness, compassion, respect and appreciation are a universal language. We can do this to the plants in our homes through regular watering and care. It’s not unusual for people who like to grow a garden to be found talking to their garden plants with encouragement or with delight. Simple words of appreciation whispered to plants or spoken out loud may create a response. Try it and see how the plants respond! A simple way to show your appreciation to the trees and plants in your neighbourhood is to reach out with your physical touch, or even give them a hug, and as a reiki practitioner you always have the greatest gift of all—that of giving reiki, love and light. You can also show plants your gratitude with your actions, like picking up litter, respecting pathways and leaving the area as untouched as you found it. Show the natural world the joy that it inspires in you.

Showing gratitude to every living thing is one of the reiki principles, so I feel that as reiki practitioners we are actually in the vibration of gratitude and it is reflected back to us from the world around us as we practise gratitude. What we bless blesses us in return. If you are radiating back to the plant the joy that it gives you, it will create a response from the plant. So, for example, thank the trees for their shade and strength, thank the flowers for their beauty, thank the grass for its softness and the lavender for its magical fragrance.

Reiki and Sensory Awareness

Most reiki practitioners sense reiki energy flowing through their hands and it’s not unusual for practitioners to feel changes of temperature in their hands or even sense pain or other twinges physically in their bodies during a treatment. This sensitivity and self-awareness, both physical and emotional, is also a key skill in helping us discern the language of plants.

Often when I am connecting with plants I might feel a sensation in my body, like an intense heat or cold, just like when I am giving reiki. I also sense changes in pressure and my ears often pop. Over time I have begun to know what’s normal for me and I can more easily recognize any sensations that are unusual and different and may be caused by a plant or the spirit world. Consider what is normal for you to feel when you are in your body. How can you tell when your body is picking up energy from somewhere else that does not belong to you? Some of us might feel hot or cold or prickling sensations, emotions such as anxiety, pain or tugging in certain areas of the body. Tune in to your body and start becoming more aware of the messages that the radar in your body is picking up from your environment and subtly communicating to you. You will have to figure out what sensations feel normal for you so that you can distinguish between those that belong to you and those that you are picking up on from outside of you.

Reiki practitioners may already be aware of when this happens. When I first started practising reiki I noticed a few times that I was overcome with feelings of anxiety or nervous worry. It took me a while to realize that these emotions were not mine and that I was empathetically picking up on the feelings of my client during the treatment (and clearly needed to put up better boundaries).

The same may happen when you connect to the energy of different spaces or plants out in the natural landscape. It takes practice to attune the radar of your body, especially if you have a constant chattering mind running a lively script of thoughts to distract you.

For many of us, being grounded in our body, aware of its sensations, is a new experience. It can be helpful to practise listening to your body and tuning in to its different areas, starting at your head and working down through the major organs and asking reiki to flow, sending reiki and asking yourself what feels normal for you. Notice where you have tension or pain and if this is normal for you and your body.

Your body responds not only to its internal environment but also to its surroundings. When a plant or place in nature comes into contact with your body, it will respond. For example, your breath may change, or your gait or the way you hold your body as you walk may alter slightly. The thoughts and feelings that are running through your being will be affected.

As an example of this in action, think of being in an open field on a warm summer’s day. Imagine being in that warm field and how that might feel in your body as your body reacts to it. Compare this to you being in a cool, dark, shady woodland. There is a subtle difference that you will feel in your being as you stand in these two contrasting places. Personally, in the warm sunny meadow I might feel open, expanded, joyful, possibly relaxed (which would show in the way I hold my shoulders and relax my digestive system) and more alive and vibrant in my being.

In contrast, in the shaded woodland I might feel very grounded and held, but also possibly quite contracted and heavier. It makes me sink into my centre and feel cooler. I might also feel prickles up my shoulders and my back as I sense trees all around me observing me.

Experiment by tuning in and asking yourself how you feel in your body in different landscapes. Become more familiar with how the different places and elements in nature affect your being.

Every thought, feeling, word, action, experience, tree, plant, land, flower, person, object in your home and elsewhere has a vibrating energy field. Each energy field attracts energy of the same vibrating frequency. Like attracts like, as demonstrated by the much-popularized Law of Attraction. You give out what you get. What you believe you receive.

When we start to work intuitively with plants and the natural world, we will find that there are naturally plants that we are attracted to or drawn towards; this is because there is a vibrational match with our own vibratory frequency. Likewise there may be certain plants or places that we feel repelled by, due to a vibrational mismatch.

When you are confident that you know how your body is responding to the energies and communication from the natural world, you can cultivate this knowing and listen on a deeper level to the subtle nudges and twinges you receive. It goes back to that need to find stillness. Reiki gives us this practice from which to do this and find the centre within ourselves.

If you are still not convinced that you can understand how your body talks to you when affected by plants and places, think of coffee. Imagine that you had never drunk a coffee before. What might you notice in your body when you had your first one? You might imagine your heart rate speeding up, that your mind starts racing, or maybe you experience a laxative effect on your digestive system.

So we all know how bodies respond, and we can cultivate this and listen on a deeper level to the subtle nudges and twinges we receive.

How present are you in your body and how aware are you of how it feels? What can help you ground in your body? (Hint—the reiki power symbol Cho Ku Rei, CKR!)

Reiki, Intuition, and Trust

Reiki often helps us to open to our intuition and find a deeper understanding of the guidance and messages we may receive during a treatment. Beyond our five physical senses we have special senses that sadly most of us are not encouraged to develop or trust. I often hear from reiki students that as children they were very sensitive to energy or could see auras, but this was not “allowed” or approved of in their family, so their special senses have fallen out of use and they have been conditioned not to trust them; they are not used to working with these special senses anymore. By the time we are adults we have usually fully suppressed this connection. We live in a world that is full of fear and most of us have shut down our intuitive senses. I often see this with clients who feel like they are navigating life without a rudder because they are not fully grounded in who they are and so don’t feel able to trust the choices they make or the gut reactions they experience.

Reiki helps us to reconnect to our intuition and intuitive senses. We all have a self-critic who likes to judge our actions or tell us we are being ridiculous or making things up. In order to truly start responding to the flow of your intuition, you have to start trusting your intuition and the guidance you receive as you work with reiki and travel your spiritual path.

I always suggest that students trust their first feeling, trust the first impression that comes from connecting with a plant. We are not taught to do this. We like to refer to experts or compare ourselves to others. We are taught to doubt; but what I want to encourage you to do here is to embrace your sensitivity and trust in it!

From the first moment that you become attuned to reiki, you trust that reiki is flowing through you and each and every time that you ask reiki to flow, you trust and you know that reiki is flowing through you for the highest good. This is exactly the trusting space and attitude that is required for working with the spirit of plants and nature beings.

I also think that there is great power in trusting in the force of nature that you are. We are all born of this Earth and connected to the source of life itself, just like the plants and trees that grow up around us. Deep within each of us is a knowing, an understanding of the ancient bonds between us and the natural world. The more time you spend connecting to nature or with plants that you feel drawn to, the more this intuitive knowing will flow and the more the language of nature will reveal itself to you. Find the way that best speaks to you, whether it’s taking a walk in the park, hugging a tree, growing a garden or caring for a house plant, and the language of nature will reveal itself to you.

In the same way that your reiki practice continues to develop over time, your relationship with nature and plant allies deepens with familiarity, trust and practice.

Being a Receiving Channel

What about the way you receive information and your receptiveness to life in general?

Maybe you are already aware of one or more senses that you have that are better developed and easier to work with than others? How do you receive your most trusted information—is it through your eyes, or ears? Or maybe you might have a feeling or an inner knowing? Do you feel energy or emotions or receive messages that feel like downloads?

I am a highly visual person; I often experience very vivid and colourful dreams or shamanic journeys, and even when I am sending reiki to a client it can seem like a movie is playing out in front of me. In fact, this was quite confusing at first. It took a lot of focus and control for me to glean useful and empowering information from it. However, when I am tuning in to plants, it is another sense completely that takes over, one which I can’t describe. I might physically sense the presence of a plant, like a crackle in the atmosphere at a certain frequency. One of the key indicators for me is that I can get very emotional and burst into tears when a plant has a clear and important message to communicate to me.

However, my connections don’t necessarily come with clear downloads of useful information! Often I find the power of words is taken away from me and I simply have to open my energy field up to receive the vibration of what is being transmitted to me. I often find myself swaying from side to side to allow it to flow through me. I simply allow myself to be in the receiving space and then perhaps afterwards I might journal and answer the question, “What do I think it means?” When you are in the receiving space with plants, rather like when you are with a client sending reiki, you are not in your head space, which makes clear judgements and analyses. Instead you are in the heart space, in which you feel, transmit, connect and receive love. So don’t try to seek out meaning when you are with plants, simply receive and allow.

Intuitive Senses

There are many ways of receiving communication from subtle realms using your intuitive senses. You may already have started working in some of these ways intuitively within your reiki practice.

These are more unusual ways to connect with our intuitive senses:

You will most likely find that one of those appeals to you most or feels like your strongest and most reliable way of receiving information. As part of my reiki and shamanic practice I am continually refining my channels that receive and my place of knowing. I’m referring to that still point inside of you, that connection with your higher self, that voice, feeling, sensation or sound that simply knows. It’s a feeling of authority and trust that comes from our soul. We can all access this space through the reiki practices, shamanic journeying, meditation and grounding into the earth.

As we go through life we can get pulled off course by experiences, events, trauma and the drama of life, and as a result we might not know where our centre is, we might not feel grounded, we might not feel connected to our sense of self and knowing. Fortunately, working with plants is a very healing process, so as you go deeper into your journey you will find that the plants are working to help you shift those layers that have pulled you off-centre and help you to realign with your true sense of self and purpose in life.

What practices can you put in place to help you start trusting your intuitive senses and stay centred in your place of knowing?

Your “default” or preferred way of communicating or sensing doesn’t mean the other forms of communication aren’t open to you, but it does mean that this method comes easiest and the other forms might take some work in order for you to use them. All of your intuitive senses can be honed with your reiki practice. If there is a part of you that feels disconnected, that feels your intuitive senses are blocked, then lean into that resistance; seize the opportunity for healing and growth with reiki and the plants as you work through the exercises in the following chapters.

Pausing when insights come is the most valuable advice I can give. Often on our spiritual path we are so desperate for answers that when that lightbulb moment comes, when we sense the presence of spirit or a guide, we can automatically rush in with our questions and excitement. So instead of doing that, fight that impulse and simply pause, open up your being and receive. Be fully present to the energetic transmission and experience. Feel for the sensations in your body, your mind, your heart and fully receive the resonance of what is there, the full transmission.

I do this: receive first—that means pausing, getting curious to what is happening, allowing, listening, feeling, seeing, sensing, opening my heart and exploring what is there.

Then when I sense the connection is over I write down or speak the experience into my phone and later allow myself to put the logical mind to work at finding meaning or a way to integrate the experience into my life.

When I was running the flower farm, plants used to wake me up while I was sleeping. I would usually know that they were “in the room” because I would feel their presence as a shift in energy. Sometimes, more rarely, I would hear a voice talking to me.

Up until recently I rarely experienced very visual interactions with plants; however, this has shifted and I now often catch glimpses of the invisible world out of the corner of my eye or in my inner vision.

Divination Tools

I also enjoy using tools to help me connect to guidance in a different way. These can act as a bridge between my mind and my higher self and are especially useful for adding an extra layer of reassurance and confirmation to a hunch or feeling.

Common tools for divination that you may or may not use already as part of your reiki practice or spiritual path to help you interpret messages and guidance are:

You can also learn to interpret and intuitively read the physical landscape for signs and omens. An example of doing this is taking an intuitive walk in nature, as in the exercise that follows at the end of this chapter. Ask reiki to flow through you as you walk, and hold in your heart the issue for which you are seeking guidance. As you walk notice what you are drawn to and what catches your eye: birds, animals, trees, particular occurrences and so on. Every aspect of nature is revealing information to you, so pay attention. After your walk feels complete, revisit the issue for which you seek guidance and notice what has shifted.

Dream interpretation is another way that our subconscious communicates the wisdom of our higher self to us. Don’t discount your dreams or think that you don’t have any. I like to write mine down. This is a practice that takes time and focus, so once again, pick and choose those practices that you are drawn to and the skills that you wish to develop and work on these.

You can also practise monitoring your energy levels and feelings in different places. Ask yourself, how do I feel? For example, do you feel differently when you are in your reiki space than when you are in your garden? Do you feel differently when you are at a friend’s place or in a busy shopping centre? Differences in energy do not mean that the place is bad, it just might be a mismatch. Stay tuned to when and where your energy may be drained and how that shows up for you, and keep track of what energizes you and which places in the landscape deplete you. You can work with reiki to help you set and maintain healthy boundaries and protect yourself so that you can stay well and energized. Reiki healing can also be sent to bring love and light into those places and shift their vibration.

Reiki and Intention

Reiki is activated by and flows with our intention. This is why it helps focus a session if you set a healing intention before a treatment or for a goal that you might be trying to manifest. Healing intentions can be as simple as “May I relax and receive the healing that I most need right now for my highest good.” The same is true for connecting intuitively with plants. When we hold a clear intention it helps to laser-focus our energy and attention, so holding the intention in your heart to connect with a plant or an aspect of nature gives off a clear vibration to the natural world around you. Spirit always reads your vibration and energy rather than your words, so once again it is all about feeling your way from your heart rather than thinking your way.

Explore with Curiosity and Openness

A final tip to help you explore nature beings, the spirit of nature and plant allies is to explore with openness and curiosity and find peace with not really knowing what you may find or what it might mean.

You may already be used to this as part of your reiki practice. Reiki invites us to open to the flow of what may come and sit and feel what is there. When you describe a reiki treatment to a new client or friend you may find yourself explaining that the experience is unique to everyone and may even feel different each time they receive reiki. We understand that reiki flows to where it needs to go for our highest good and will give us what we need; we can’t direct it or control it. Reiki invites us to have this trust and sense of childlike curiosity towards our experience and to discover things about energy, about healing and about ourselves. Working with plants intuitively asks the same of you. There is an invitation to go slowly and experience rather than analyze. While you are giving reiki to a client, you may receive intuitive guidance about where to place your hands or other information, and rather than analyze or judge it while you are in that reiki space, you simply receive, allow yourself to be guided and remember any guidance to feed it back to your client after the treatment has finished. In the same way that we are guided by reiki and open ourselves up to potentiality during a treatment, we do this too when we step out into the plant world with the intention in our hearts to connect. We allow ourselves to be guided, to open and receive with no judgement.

As adults we tend to automatically experience an event or feeling and then ask immediately, “I wonder what this means?” We then might Google for answers, or ask friends their opinion, or journal, in an attempt to analyze and work out a meaning. Children, by contrast, find it easier to sit with an experience and move on to the next and the next with no judgement or analysis. Their inner dialogue might sound more like, “Wow that’s amazing, that’s funny, that feels so soft I love that, that’s a bit weird.” And so on.

Connect with your inner child, ask her to play the intuitive plant game with you and leave your judgements, preconceptions and what you think you know to one side and resist the temptation to analyze everything. I get that this is really hard if you are a gardener or a herbalist or someone who has a lot of knowledge of the plant world; but try to allow your heart to take the lead rather than your mind. Come to a place of peace with that part of you that might be judging your actions, thinking that you are silly or making the whole thing up.

Your willing open heart, childlike curious mind and a willingness to meet a companion on a level playing field are the tools that you are going to need for these plant connections. It’s a case of feeling your way with the touch of your heart as if you are really waking up and coming to your senses.

Allow yourself to explore, without preconceived ideas about which plant you think should appear to you, how you think it should appear and what you think it should be healing! Be totally present to what shows up, who shows up and how it shows up. You can turn on your logical mind at a later time when you are not in that space!

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Opening to the Spirit of Plants

EXERCISE

Intuitive Reiki Nature Walk

Take yourself outside to a place in nature that you know well. When you feel ready, from gassho, connect with reiki and ask reiki to flow in the way that you have been taught.

Begin to walk slowly with your hands down at your sides, allowing yourself to relax and feeling the reiki energy flow through you.

Allow yourself to be intuitively led by reiki and by the plants themselves. don’t think your way, just follow where your body and spirit want to take you. Notice what parts of the landscape or plants seem to be calling out to you. Notice how you feel emotionally and physically as you walk slowly through the natural landscape. open to experience how your body reacts to the elements.

It may feel more comfortable to place your hands on your heart as you walk to feel the reiki flowing into your heart. As you feel your hands on your heart, relax further and allow your heart to open a little more. Feel your heart softening and helping you shift your perspective. Feel your way, sensing each one of the plants in the landscape around you as a conscious being with an energy body just like you.

If a particular plant, place or rock seems to be really pulling your attention then take yourself there. It may feel like something is calling to you, calling to your reiki hands. If so, then reach out and place your hands where you feel the reiki is needed. If this doesn’t feel right then simply remove your hands; your presence and acknowledgement may be all that is needed. Stay like this for as long as feels right and then continue your walk.

When you feel the time has come to end your walk, end your reiki flow and take out your journal. Note down any insight that you intuitively feel you are being given from the environment that surrounds you. Sit and contemplate what that felt like.

Before you leave your space, give thanks to the environment for holding you in that healing space and for any healing or guidance you feel that you have received.

Questions for Self-Reflection

1 What feels significant about this exercise for you today?

2 How did you feel about the objects, plants or areas of the landscape that seemed to be calling to you?

3 What was the main feeling or message that you could intuit from the landscape around you?

Learnings and Blessings

Developing your intuitive senses and perceiving the language of nature takes time and practice. Just like when you were first learning reiki and getting accustomed to the flow of the energy, you will find that connecting with the natural world, intuitively understanding the subtle messages, becomes second nature to you—after all, it is your nature!

Here’s a recap of the key tools that you already possess and which will help you understand the language of nature. These are:

It’s also essential to observe plants in their natural habitat and spend time getting to know a plant fully in its home where it grows. You will learn a great deal by noticing the way that the plant grows throughout the seasons of the year and how it expresses itself. Allow yourself to work with reiki in the landscape to tune in to the cycles of life and the flow of energy throughout the year. This will help you find and express your own unique rhythm. Reiki will assist you to attune both to the language of nature outside of you and to your own unique frequency within.