Luminous Heart Reiki & Massage

I had an epiphany last week, spurred by a bagel of all things.

Not a “the earth revolves around the sun” kind of epiphany, yet still pretty fascinating. To me at least. 🙂

It will sound silly at first, but hang with me. In truth, it really has nothing to do with the bagel; just as gravity has nothing to do with apple trees. It’s really about the message, not the messenger.

For the first time ever in my 52nd journey around the sun, it occurred to me that I could (perhaps should!) put the bagel’s cut surface down in the toaster oven. You might already know that this produces a much improved end result.

Not exactly groundbreaking news, I know.

But what it points to is the questioning of autopilot behavior. I consider myself to be a reasonably intelligent and self-aware person. But somehow I live for decades without even considering a simple alternative way of doing something so very basic.

I was reminded of a transformative lightbulb moment I had in college. Sitting in the dorm lobby one day, I met a girl who blew my mind.

Melinda. She was a good friend of a good friend, a self-proclaimed Dead Head who dressed the part. Melinda’s leg were unshaven. She’s probably telling the story of this weirdo girl who stared at her legs in disbelief so many years ago. But until that fateful day, it never ever, not ever, occurred to me that it was possible for women to simply not shave their legs.

Shocking, right?! Liberating too. My inner rebel had a field day.

That was my introduction to the concept of how cultural programming shapes our minds and limits what we believe to be real about the world.

But the bagel was different. We didn’t have bagels when I was growing up. Or a toaster oven for that matter. I never watched anyone in my family or community, or TV for that matter, toast a bagel.

Curiously, I discovered bagels’ crispy delightfulness about the same time as I met Melinda in the NYU dorm. And now these two seemingly unrelated events are forever linked in my mind as exposing my assumptions about “this is how we do things”.

Not a big deal in and of itself. But consider the implications! How much of my life is run on autopilot? A lot, and mostly that’s a good thing. Imagine needing to use the same level of concentration every day that you did as a kid when you were learning to tie your shoes. Or write a sentence with legible penmanship or drive a car. We’d be so focused on the simple, everyday tasks that nothing important would get done!

Autopilot isn’t a bad thing. Neural network grooves help us concentrate on the trickier, more advanced aspects of adulting.

Yet, somewhere in between mechanical compliance and re-inventing the wheel, there lives a middle ground.

I’d like to spend more time there, questioning the limiting beliefs and behaviors that I’ve adopted, often without query. It seems to me that these are the potentially pivotal moments when transformation is truly possible.

Having a daily Reiki practice is what has helped develop my sense of clarity and wonder. If you’re wanting to have Reiki superpowers to use for getting out of your own ruts, join my mailing list to be informed of future classes, both online and in-person in the Philly area. Or sign up for a session and let’s see what we can shake loose together.