Our Teachers Are Everywhere

Have you ever had the experience of reading a book, and a sentence grabs your attention – and you know it has great meaning for you? This happened to me recently. The sentence was, “Our Teachers Are Everywhere.” This statement made me stop and think of all the people who “showed up” in my life – those who taught me great lessons.

Frequently, we think of our teachers as those people who taught in a professional capacity – such as schoolteachers, seminar speakers, and Reiki Masters. The next group we may consider are our parents, grandparents and other important people who guided us throughout our lives. We listened to their sage advice, watched how they lived, and we spend our lives upholding the values they imparted to us.

Let us consider those people who taught us important lessons but we may not have thought of them as teachers. These may include friends we have had for many years, coworkers, or a Reiki client who made an important comment we still remember.

Let’s do an exercise to identify who some of your teachers are. It is best to write down some notes as you go through these steps.

• Go to the space where you meditate and connect with the Universal Life Force energy. Giving yourself Reiki will strengthen these energies.
• Think of the three most important values in your life.
• Identify two or three people who were instrumental in sharing these values, either in words or by modeling.
• Now, remember three moments in the past year when someone (not listed in previous step) made a comment that reinforced one of these values, or provided a new insight that you have since embraced.
• Jot down any other important instance when someone taught you something that has made a difference in your life.

This exercise is the first step of naming the important teachers in your life. The next step is to take time to meditate and journal to gain a deeper understanding of what lessons these teachers imparted to you.

One of the greatest benefits of this work is a growing awareness of teaching moments when they occur. When you have a chance, write down the incident and reflect upon it. For example, your Reiki client mentions whenever she hears the word “grace,” she believes it is a sign her deceased mother is watching over her. Her mother’s name is Grace. You wonder if your grandmother watches over you. Later that day, you notice a large monarch butterfly outside your window; you have never seen a monarch butterfly in your yard. Your grandmother loved butterflies, and she chose plants to draw them to her garden. Butterflies now appear in your yard on a frequent basis. Lesson learned! Your grandmother is watching over you.

As our awareness of the teachers in our lives grows, so too do our teaching moments. It becomes yet another way for Spirit to work with us. We become more attuned to our spiritual paths, and we find healing in yet another form. Adding self-treatment Reiki to this process enhances and strengthens this inner…