Do you struggle with sleep? Then you need to read Matt's story.

Following on from last week’s Mintaka Reiki in Sandbach Blog, which noted that November is men’s mental health awareness month, one of my lovely clients very kindly offered to be my guest Blogger this week, to highlight how much Reiki has helped him on his journey.

If you missed last week's Blog, you can read it here:

Calling All Men!

To respect his privacy, I’m going to call this lovely man, Matt. Matt first came for Reiki back in early 2024 and has had regular treatments ever since. He's also taken Reiki Training with me, so he can now give himself Reiki on a daily basis (always the best way to tackle any issue!)

But let me now hand over to Matt, in his own words:

“For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a problem with sleep. But as of today, I am sleeping really well each night. Not the same amount each night, but no problems at all.

A few years ago, it was a different story.

I would attempt to go to sleep at our usual time, but I would be bombarded with trains of thought which triggered a stressful reaction, causing me to be agitated and unable to sleep.

If you struggle to sleep, your entire day can be a struggle, too.

The pattern would be, I would try to get to sleep, feel progressively more agitated, then I’d get up and go downstairs and either watch television or read a book into the early hours, until I was exhausted, and then I’d go upstairs to sleep for a few hours. Of course, I was constantly tired, and this added to the stress I felt. A vicious cycle.

Why did this pattern happen? 

I put it down to my job before I retired. I was a project manager and team leader for decades. The role required the management of multiple projects, and hence multiple teams, not to mention demanding customers.

Often, I was responsible for delivery, but did not have complete control of manpower. It was very demanding, but more importantly, I was constantly anticipating all the project deliveries, problems, issues both technical, customer, and personnel-related.

I believe, over the years, this put me in a state of constant alertness, both at work and away from work. The human body fight-or-flight modes were always set to fight, as delivery was always the priority.

This is not a unique problem, as large corporations (which I was employed by) are constantly demanding every last drop of effort and time out of employees. There are exceptions, but really, they are just that, exceptions.

I retired early from my last job, as my body and mind could no longer cope with the stress. It took me years to recover, and I tried everything: meditation, counselling, online mental health approaches. Cooking was good for me.

But when I finally took Reiki sessions, I noticed an almost immediate improvement.

They were subtle at first, but I began to notice significant improvements in my approach to life. For example, I would always be anxious about social events, even family gatherings, but after a few months I suddenly noticed I was no longer anxious.

My sleep patterns gradually improved, and I would say, after about a year or so, I was sleeping better and no longer felt so agitated as I began to fall asleep.

I am finding that meditation and Reiki go hand-in-hand. Each improves the experience of the other, and particularly after Reiki 2 training, I am feeling my progress is speeding up.

I believe not all people who were in my position would seek help, or get the help they need. I am lucky, I don’t give in easily, and I have a natural problem-solving approach to issues - and Reiki has definitely played its part in that.”

Until next week.

Much love,

Denise - and Matt