Happy Valentine’s Day, animal lovers! While this holiday is often thought of in terms of romantic love, I’d like to celebrate it this year by reflecting on the ways our practice with animals and Reiki helps us experience the truest and most beautiful kind of love each and every day! Here are five of my favorite quotes that help illustrate how Animal Reiki is love!
“Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” ― Lao Tzu
In Reiki practice, we learn the precept, “for today only, do not worry.” The most beautiful expression of letting go of worry is when we can harness our inner courage. And when an animal we love is facing a difficult health challenge, we will always rise to meet the challenge, because the most important thing is helping our animal. In this way, our love for our animals helps us find inner strength that we never knew we had!
“Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye.” – H. Jackson Brown Jr.
When we connect with animals through Reiki, we learn to see with what I call our “Reiki eyes.” In other words, we learn to see with our hearts. Although our animals may have a serious physical ailment or challenging emotional issue, because we love them so much, it’s possible for us to see more deeply than what’s wrong with them. Reiki helps us see clearly that they are always perfect, beautiful and whole in this very moment. When we see deeply to this truth, they can sense it in us. In a way, they can see themselves through our heart’s eyes. This can help them remember their inner strength so that they can heal themselves. This is one of Reiki’s most amazing powers!
“True love stories never have endings.” – Richard Bach
The animals we love never live long enough! But one of the gifts of connecting with them through Reiki is that we can sense the energetic essence inside. This essence does not stop when the physical body dies, but goes on in a new form. How beautiful to realize that death is simply a changing of form: a graduation into the fullness of spiritual potential. Like a caterpillar shedding his cocoon and becoming a beautiful butterfly, our loved ones’ energy continues, and truly, they will always live in our hearts.
“If I know what love is, it is because of you.” — Herman Hesse
Another of the Reiki precepts is “be grateful.” Some of the most powerful moments of gratitude I’ve felt in my life have happened when I’m with the animals I love. Because they are so full of unconditional love and because they excel in the “power of presence,” they have taught me so much about what it means to love. If I can learn to be here now in this moment with an open heart, to just truly “show up” with all my being, I can practice the purest and most healing kind of love.
“The more one judges, the less one loves.” — Honore de Balzac
The last Reiki precept says, “Be compassionate to yourself and others.” It seems to be a human trait, to always be judging the things around us. We’re so hard on ourselves especially, but also we often focus on what’s “wrong” with the ones we love. And we worry and worry about it. Thankfully, this is a trait our animals lack, and because they are so open and accepting, if we allow ourselves to be influenced by their good examples, they can help us to let go of our own judgmental natures and see the good, the joy in this moment.
This Valentine’s Day, I hope you’ll take a few moments to sit with your animals and reflect on the ways they have brought more love into your life, and the lessons you have learned from them in how to love and live with more joy and happiness!