08/09/2025
15-year-old me
Always had 10 B&H in my pocket and only walked into rooms if I could figure out the exit first. I never asked for anything. Everything I wanted, I worked for — dog walking, babysitting, Saturdays in the flower shop.
People often ask me, “Why Reiki?” And honestly, I don’t really know. I think I’ve always had it.
I didn’t find it through ayahuasca in the jungle or a Bali retreat. I found it through growing up in Luton — a controversial town, a council estate in the 80s, a place that made the headlines for crime and poverty.
I was a child with undiagnosed autism and ADHD. Always being told I was wrong, that something was missing in me. That was the same message people gave about where I was from. You’d say “I’m from Luton” and watch their lip curl.
But why? Yes, my town had problems. But it also had truth. Nothing-to-lose honesty. A sense of humour I’ve never found anywhere else.
It’s no accident — the good and the terrible I went through there shaped me. I love it. I’m proud to be from there. I’ve lived in places all over the world, and every one of them has problems. They’re just not as honest as a Lutonian trauma-dumping the realness.
That’s the gift: when you’re already written off, you’ve got nothing to lose. You can work with the truth, find solutions, and turn negatives into positives.
I’m proud of myself, proud of my town, and proud of how it prepared me for what I do now. Reiki softened my Luton edges, but it never took them away. The smell of chicken shop food, the sound of drum and bass rattling from a passing car — to me, that’s as soothing as the ocean. I see love in it all. And I’m grateful.
Laura
