Peacock Reiki

05/09/2025

I don’t just love my sister, I’m so proud of her & I admire her greatly. You see, there are lots of people who stand in the shower and have an idea for a business, or even an invention. There are people who day dream or talk a good talk.

Then there are the people take a leap and who do it.

The difference between having your own business or not… is as simple as choosing to begin.

There’s never a perfect moment, no set of circumstances where everything neatly aligns. Life doesn’t work like that.

I remember the last business my sister started, she was heavily pregnant and had a ‘seed fund’ of just a few hundred pounds…by no means the ideal time! At the beginning she ran that business out of the back bedroom, her pushing a pram backwards and forwards to the post office to fulfil orders - she soon needed to out source production to a social enterprise & a few years later she got an MBE at Buckingham Palace. And - she had employed me full time!

In life we often wait, hoping the ‘right time’ will appear. Or, worse still, waiting for a ‘sign’.

But that waiting keeps most people standing still.

Clarity doesn’t come first. Action does. When you take the first step, the path reveals itself. The idea WAS the sign.

And I couldn’t be prouder of my sister, for very many reasons, but today as she launches this new business I’m proud as a peacock 🦚😁

Take a look and see what you think - I think it’s a great idea 💡 😊

Sending love,

Ali x

Simply Collars

05/09/2025

Yesterday I re-learned a valuable life lesson while taking delivery of my new ‘Bird’s Custard’ yellow car. Or the ‘bananamobile’ as my nephew called it.

The thing is, when it arrived, I searched & searched and couldn’t find the wheel locking nut anywhere.

Now, I’ve never had a car without one and I was quite sure it must be missing. Certain in fact.

And I felt my blood pressure rise in righteous annoyance that they had made such a stupid mistake, and rise still further as I hung on waiting an eternity to speak to customer service. The tinny repetitively annoying holding music didn’t help.

So by the time I finally got through, I wasn’t rude or aggressive but I was regrettably firm in what I saw as a problem. I mean, a car is worthless if you can’t get the wheels off. Right?

The lady in customer services cheerfully explained that this model didn’t come with a wheel locking nut. In fact, many new cars don’t. People don’t steel tyres anymore.

I had been wrong. Wrong about the locking nut. But wrong to get my knickers in a twist - all because I was sure I was right.

Now, I know it’s one of my many human flaws. I’m too often certain that I’m right - usually because I mostly am 😉.

But there are inevitably times when I’m wrong. And, like almost everyone else, I would do well to walk through life with the phrase ‘I may be wrong’ carried in my pocket.

Because in a world full of fixed opinions and hardened stances, of attacking and judging just on the basis of believing we’re right, this simple phrase would unlock alternative possibilities.

It would soften the ego. Allow curiosity. It would quiet the need to be right. It would encourage humility and openness. And very likely reduce blood pressure too!

Imagine how different our conversations, our relationships, and even our world could be if we all more often thought: you know what…I may be wrong.

Sending love
Ali

04/09/2025

I’ll let you in on a secret, I’m well known to my family and friends for having next to no recall of things that happened in our shared past. I’m actually the butt of jokes about it 🙂 My sister always joking that I often ask, like a doddery old lady, ‘Have we been here before?’

My memory, like everyone’s, isn’t a perfect recording device. Far from it. It is highly unreliable, creative, and prone to errors! And yours is too. Though you may not know it.

Nobody’s historical memories are ‘real’ in the way we think they are - they’re narratives, a story we tell ourselves with us as the main protagonist.

Each time we recall something, we don’t replay an accurate recording - we rebuild it, influenced by our present emotions, beliefs, and perceptions. Your memories are always an act of creation. They are not at all factual - they are stories our minds construct and reconstruct.

In this way, a memory is more like a dream than a photograph.

But the more often we repeat our stories, the more convinced we become that what we are recalling is the absolute truth.

We often treat the stories we tell as unquestionable reality. We often re-live old wounds & replay painful scenes. I’m sure you have many unhappy memories you can go back to. The question is, not just are they real…but why would you?

For most people, rehashing old memories creates unnecessary suffering - suffering caused not by what is happening now, but by what our mind insists really did happen back then.

The gift here is awareness: when we see that memories aren’t solid, we realise we have the power to soften them, reinterpret them. We can ask ourselves if that is the only way to recall that event. Are there other perspectives missing from our account (there always are!). And why are we pulling ourselves back to an unhappy memory anyway?

The present moment doesn’t need to be ruined by the ghost of a made up story.

And that realisation can actually be liberating — because if memory is not real then neither is the self that remembers. We are not bound to our past stories.

We are all free to release them, and to create anew, again and again.

Sending love
Ali x

02/09/2025

💫ATTENTION NEW OFFERING 💫

As the nights grow darker, I feel called to host a small, safe, and welcoming circle here in No55.

To offer you an opportunity to connect more deeply with yourself, with the divine, and with other like minded people.

We’ll come together in the warmth & safety of circle to share in the power of Reiki healing, guided meditation, and other supportive practices.

Those of you who come as clients will already have a fair idea of the sort of meditations I do.

You won’t need any previous experience in Reiki or energy work - only a willingness to arrive with an open heart, to sit together and to allow the energy & healing to flow. 💫

There will, as my clients all know, be herbal tea. But for this - also biscuits!

By demand a second date has now been added!!

📅 Fri 10th Oct - Fully Booked
📅 Mon 27th Oct - 1 space left

🕖 7:00pm – 8:30pm

💷 £15

📍 No.55

Spaces are limited to 10 to keep the gathering intimate.

If you feel called to join then message me to book your place 💕💫✨

Sending love
Ali x

If there’s the demand, I’ll run more in November & December 🙏

02/09/2025

Everything is sacred. Whether you’re doing the shopping in Sainsbury’s or putting the rubbish out, whether you’re peeling potatoes, driving to work or giving someone a lift – it’s all sacred.

We are spiritual beings first and foremost, so there can be no experience that isn’t spiritual. Our spirit experiences everything. That’s what it’s here for. When we divide life into ‘spiritual’ and ‘non-spiritual’ into ‘sacred’ and ‘ordinary’ we actually divide ourselves.

The truth is, we are whole. We are sacred. And everything we touch, everything we do, everything we say, every interaction we have and any work that we do, can become an act of service. An offering to the Divine. A prayer. A blessing.

When we live with this awareness we remember not just who we are, but who we all are.

Sending love
Ali x

01/09/2025

As I was watching the news last night, one of my favourite parables came to mind. Perhaps you know it?

It’s the parable of how six blind men were asked to describe an elephant - they each put out a hand and touched the animal, and each sought to describe the part they felt.

One touched the ear and confidently said “It is a great fan.”

Another the leg, “It is a pillar.”

Another the flank, “It is a wall.”

Another the tusk, “It is a spear.”

Another the tail, “It is a rope.”

Each believed they were right. And in a way, each of them were. But none of them could see the whole.

Life, truth, and even each other can be like this. We grasp only a fragment of a topic, and sometimes we argue, forgetting that the bigger picture is far greater than the one we hold in our hands. We readily judge other people’s actions, forgetting that we never know enough about that person’s life to draw any conclusions.

Truth is vast, shimmering, and cannot be contained by any single grasp.

And it is therefore often wrong to believe that we are wholly right.

The elephant & 6 blind men reminds all of us to stay humble, curious, and open-hearted. To listen to others, because they, to keep using the metaphor, may be touching a part of the elephant that we aren’t.

A mind that is open to everything and closed to nothing, as Wayne Dyer often said is a spiritual mind. It allows us to approach one another with curiosity instead of judgment.

Remembering that the mystery of life is much much bigger than we think we know.

Or indeed can ever fathom.

Sending love
Ali x

28/08/2025

Lots of people who have come to No55 will have heard me say this at some point:

‘We become really good at what we practice.’

And this doesn’t just apply to our skills & hobbies - it includes the way we think.

If we habitually practice negative or anxious thinking, it doesn’t just become familiar - it becomes automatic. We get really good at it. And it becomes who we are.

But you, most likely, haven’t been born an anxious person or a negative thinker - you’ve just become really really good at what you’ve been practicing.

And if you’d like to change your thought patterns and way of thinking then that too will take practice.

Do you remember when you first learned to drive? It took absolutely all of your attention to get the biting point, to change gears….but you didn’t stall it a few times and say ‘that’s it, I give up, I’m just not a driver’.

No, you expected it to be a learning process. You stuck at it - and now you don’t even think about it. It’s become automatic. That’s what practice does.

That’s the same for changing the way you think. It’s going to take consistent practice - but if we consistently practice gratitude, optimism, compassion, and hope, then those too become second nature. They become our own nature.

The first step to changing your negative thinking patterns into more positive ones is noticing them.

Every time you catch a negative thought jump on it and redirect it. You might even want to say ‘change, change, change’ just before you replace that negative thought with a more positive one. If you can’t think of a positive thought then go to a happy memory. We all have at least a few of those.

Every time you do this you re-wire your brain towards the positive and you reshape your inner world.

Notice your thoughts, be vigilant, and only lean into the ones that lift you. Replace the negative with positive. Use every chance you can to be grateful and to appreciate your world.

This isn’t about pretending to be happy or positive, this isn’t about dismissing valid emotions in a ‘toxic positivity’ way. This is about taking control of your habitual thoughts instead of letting them control you day in and day out. It’s about becoming aware that you have a choice.

You are not your worries. You are not your doubts. You are the awareness behind them - and can always make a choice what to believe and what to release.

Lean toward the thoughts that lift you, and trust that with dedicated practice you can and will change the way you think.

And you’ll become a happier and more peaceful person as a result.

Sending love

Ali x

27/08/2025

It looked like I was going to get caught in an absolute deluge this afternoon.

And I wasn’t dressed for it at all! After all, ‘there’s no such thing as bad weather - just the wrong clothes’.

Life is a bit like that too…each of us will hit stormy weather and get caught in a deluge - illness, death, unforeseen events, loss are all an inescapable part of a human existence.

But just like having the right clothes for stormy weather, we can wear our well-being wellies and a spiritual cagoule during the inevitable storms.

‘Numbing’ mechanisms like alcohol, drugs, s*x, comfort food, shopping etc are all really flimsy umbrellas…and won’t help in a deluge. You’ve maybe already discovered that for yourself. I know I did!

So that leaves the spiritual sou’westers of:

- meditation
- being in the present
- connecting to nature
- gratitude practice
- trusting in a higher power
- trusting in a higher purpose
- moving your body
- breathing well
- sleeping well
- eating healthily (I’m still a REAL work in progress on this one!)
- communicating honestly & authentically,
- cultivating a growth mindset
- and of course…reiki 😊

All of these things I’ve found help weather the storms of life….what about you?

Sending love
Ali x

26/08/2025

How often do you look at someone else’s body, belongings, character, path, achievements, or blessings and find yourself jealous or lacking. Fairly often?

I know I do. And every time we do it we quietly let a thief slip through the back door of our hearts. Before we even notice, our peace is stolen, our joy is robbed, and our sense of worth feels shaken, sometimes to the core.

Comparison tells all of us: You are not enough. You don’t have enough. You’re not as good as they are. You’ll never be.

But here’s the secret—your body, your character, your life was never meant to look like anyone else’s. It was never meant to be compared in the first place.

But if comparison is the thief of joy, then I’ve found gratitude is the best burglar alarm!

Gratitude rings out like an alarm & reminds us of what is already good, already abundant, already shimmering in our lives.

When we pause and say, thank you, we slam the door firmly in the thief’s face.

Suddenly, the energy shifts: what looked like lack is revealed as fullness. What felt like emptiness becomes overflowing.

Gratitude doesn’t mean we complacently stop striving or dreaming - but it does mean we celebrate all that we already have, all that we already are - while welcoming what is still on the way.

It lets us see our life not through the lens of scarcity, but through the lens of blessing. And when you see your life this way, comparison loses all its power.

So the next time you feel joy slipping away because you’re caught staring in comparison at someone else’s body, belongings or their way of being - activate your burglar alarm. List three things, right there & then, that you are grateful for.

Breathe them in, let them fill your heart, and watch how quickly you scare away the thief of comparison.

Remember: you will always find someone better off and will always find someone worse off - someone better looking & someone less, someone more talented & someone less, but you will never find another you.

Out of the 117 billion people who have lived on this earth, you are the only one like you.

You are a unique expression of creation - you are completely beyond comparison!

And that’s something to be immensely grateful for.

Sending love
Ali x

25/08/2025

To me, each session we have here isn’t just energy work; it is a meeting of spirits, and a reminder that authentic connection, healing and transformation are all possible when we open ourselves to the flow of universal love.

I don’t believe in coincidence. I believe that everyone who comes to No55 is meant to be here. Not just for their healing but for mine.

Every story, every confidence, every tear shed, every visit from an ancestor becomes part of my journey and my healing. Because we are all one.

Your trust, your openness, and your willingness to ‘step into trust’ with me means more to me than you know.

I trust the energy we’ve shared continues to ripple through your lives and mine - bringing peace, balance, and meaningful transformation where it’s needed. For your and my highest good.

May we all be blessed by our coming together.

Sending love and gratitude always,
Ali x

24/08/2025

I might occasionally be at home, sitting in my living room, feeling a bit flat or low, and I step outside, paying attention to the plants, the trees, the sea and the sky and within 10-20 minutes I am restored. Or at least improved!

I love going into a church. After all, I was raised the daughter of a minister but to me nature is also the cathedral, the hymn, and the prayer. I know that when I draw close to nature I draw close to God.

When I place myself, with all of my senses and all of my presence in nature, I find that God has been speaking to me through the earth all along.

Speaking words of hope, of encouragement, of clarity, of comfort and peace.

And if I’m on a beach, in the woods or on a mountain I don’t just hear the voice of God - I hear the voice of my own spirit.

And I understand they have always been one and the same voice.

So if you are feeling stuck, angry, lost, or low, do what I do, and step outside and listen.

And see if that helps…
(It will)

Sending love
Ali x

24/08/2025

Today, as I walked the dog, I stood in wonder at the candy floss nature of these fluffy seed heads - and when I came home I googled them & discovered that the plant is called ‘bomb-w**d’. A name given to it in the 1940’s when it seeded itself in the blitz bombed waste ground of London.

It took me back to my days living in Moscow when, at the height of summer, the streets used to look as if they were covered in deep drifts of snow. It was all Stalin’s fault.

lt was the Soviet dictator's idea to plant around 500,000 poplar trees around the city - unfortunately almost all of them were female. And so every summer they release an abundance of fluffy, dandelion-like, seed heads.

It’s such a phenomenon that Russian pop songs have even been written about it. And these seed heads are called пух or pooch (with the ‘ch’ sounding like the Scottish word ‘loch’). Roughly translated as fluff or down.

Now, when my husband died I was fairly fluent in Russian but I was baffled when dozens of people finished their vodka toasts at the funeral by saying ‘ пусть земля будет как пух’. I recognised all the words but in my Temazepam induced state, it took me a bit to work out - ‘May the earth be like fluff’.

In other words they were wishing him a comfortable, cozy, restful lie down in his grave -lying on a bed of fluffy down for eternity.

An equivalent I suppose to ‘may he rest in peace’.

And as I looked at the bomb-w**d today I doubted very much that Vladick was lazing around on a bed of fluff or floating about on a cloud for that matter.

When our physical bodies return to the earth, our bodies might well lie resting on a bed of fluffy down in a velvet lined box. But our essence and energy, which is most definitely what we all are, doesn’t.

It can’t.

Because we know, as a fact, that energy cannot be destroyed; it can shift, flow, and can take new form.

It can transform but it can’t end.

It can’t disappear.

It can only be accepted back into creation, from whence it came.

And there’s one thing about creation…it never stops either. It’s not lying about on fluffy down.

It is always growing, always expanding or always contributing.

As I believe we are all called to do - both on this side and on the next.

The only difference being that on this earthly plane, as energetic beings we are called to grow, expand and contribute to creation within a body.

Which I imagine is much harder!

- And all of those thoughts from some fluffy bomb w**d!

Sending love
Ali x