Reiki Bear

A few days ago, I’m lying in bed with a teddy bear sitting on my chest. But this is not just any teddy bear. It’s the Reiki-infused teddy bear that my cousin Jonathan sent to me 13 years ago, when I was in the hospital. For the past 10 years, Reiki Bear has lived on a shelf in the closet of my old bedroom in my parents’ house. Last weekend I brought him home with me.

An energyworker I’d been seeing suggested I use a stuffed animal to represent my inner child. Something about giving it all the love and nurturing it needs whenever I’m feeling my needs aren’t being met. Something like that.

She suggested that months ago.

I liked the idea, but what I liked even more was the idea of not needing to use something like a teddy bear.

But the other night, with this teddy bear on my chest, something happened. I felt my heart and my core filling with energy. A low, slow buzz.

Was it from the bear? Was he still infused with Reiki? My hands that were holding him felt a slight buzz, so maybe. OR maybe the teddy bear is a powerful conduit. A powerful tool.

Whatever it was doesn’t really matter. What matters is that whatever it was helped.

I cried and cried and cried, and it felt so good to sob like that, after a recent fairly dry spell. And it felt so good to cradle that bear and talk to it as if I were talking to myself as a child. I woke up the next day feeling surprisingly better. Emotionally cleansed. Soothed. Nurtured. Content.

It’s amazing what heals us, when we believe it can. Or at least when we don’t disbelieve it. When we’re open. Open to the possibility of healing. Regardless of why, what, or how. Just opening up and trusting. Allowing healing to occur in its own way, in its own time. And knowing when to reach out for help. Or a teddy bear. Or both.