The "Heart of Being" Facilitators
Mark Ruge
My story is on the About page. This is my opportumity to introduce my partner and co-facilitator of the Heart of Being series workshops, Annabel Muis.
When I first began to contemplate this series of workshops it was clear that a partner to co-facilitate would bring an additional and different perspective, would add another dimension to what was able to be presented.
Annabel has proven to have the qualities and skills I had in mind, and I am grateful for her contribution and encouragement. The space of being we create, the interplay of experience and understandings is an in the moment, essential element of our workshops. We don't always perceive things in the same way ...and that's part of the magic.
Annabel Muis
There is a cartoon by Michael Leunig titled “How to get there”. The words are:
“Go to the end of the path until you get to the gate.
Go through the gate and head straight out towards the horizon.
Keep going towards the horizon.
Sit down and have a rest every now and again.
But keep going. Just keep on with it.
Keep on going as far as you can. That’s how you get there.”
The path has so far taken me through many different terrains: childhood on a sheep station in outback South Australia; schooling and university in Adelaide; thirty years of marriage and two divorces – life as an Army wife involving physical re-location at least every second year, and a second marriage to a rural General Practitioner in the Northern Territory – the birth of two children and gradual advent of five grand-children; and several career changes.
Along the way there have been many intensely joyful experiences, as well as a few periods of acute pain and grief. If I think back to earlier times I can recognise how much I have changed / been changed through the experiences along the way, most often in peeling away unnecessary and unhelpful conditioning and enabling the expression of a more “real” self. This has been a progressive and continuing experience of healing.
The path is of course ongoing, and will be so until I get there. The present “here”, for me is far north Queensland, and a significant part of this “here” is my Reiki practice, including the workshops with Mark.
Throughout my working life there has been a recurring theme of supporting other people (and in the process, myself) to discover and express themselves more and more fully. For twenty years I worked as a social worker, providing individual and family counselling, conducting personal growth groups and supervising social work students during their practical training. I then made a shift into corporate life where my professional focus was on individual, management and team effectiveness.
In 1989 I came across a brochure about a Reiki class. Reiki was little known in Australia at that time, but I was drawn to the description because of the author’s dual emphasis on healing and spiritual growth. I completed the First Degree class and my immediate response was that I wanted to continue to the stage at which I could teach others. I discussed this with my teacher and with her commenced my “apprenticeship”, to be initiated as a master in 1991.
I discovered during this period that initiation as a Reiki master wasn’t an ending, but the continuation of a many-faceted journey of growth and discovery – ongoing steps along the path.
From 1991 onwards I maintained a small Reiki teaching and treatment practice alongside my other work, and in 2004 I retired from the paid workforce. I continue to hold Reiki classes and to provide hands-on treatments in far north Queensland. I am currently a director of Reiki Australia, a national Reiki membership organisation, and a member of The Reiki Alliance, an international body of Reiki masters who share a common form of practice.
I enjoy writing, am co-author of a book, “Turning Points, Regaining Joy after Loss”, on the topic of recovering from unsought life changes, and I help to edit and produce the monthly "Connect" community magazine in Cairns.
Mark first approached me a few years ago about developing workshops together for Reiki practitioners, but for various reasons no progress happened with this until around the time I left the workforce and began to dedicate myself more fully to my Reiki practice. Over time we discussed the many and varied experiences we have had through our Reiki practice, and played with ways that we might bring others to share in an awareness of the potential of the Usui System for ongoing deepening and expansion.
The workshops we facilitate together are in a continuing state of evolution, as the synergy of our working together develops, and as our own experience continues to grow through our interaction with those who attend.
When I first began to contemplate this series of workshops it was clear that a partner to co-facilitate would bring an additional and different perspective, would add another dimension to what was able to be presented.
Annabel has proven to have the qualities and skills I had in mind, and I am grateful for her contribution and encouragement. The space of being we create, the interplay of experience and understandings is an in the moment, essential element of our workshops. We don't always perceive things in the same way ...and that's part of the magic.
Annabel Muis
“Go to the end of the path until you get to the gate.
Go through the gate and head straight out towards the horizon.
Keep going towards the horizon.
Sit down and have a rest every now and again.
But keep going. Just keep on with it.
Keep on going as far as you can. That’s how you get there.”
The path has so far taken me through many different terrains: childhood on a sheep station in outback South Australia; schooling and university in Adelaide; thirty years of marriage and two divorces – life as an Army wife involving physical re-location at least every second year, and a second marriage to a rural General Practitioner in the Northern Territory – the birth of two children and gradual advent of five grand-children; and several career changes.
Along the way there have been many intensely joyful experiences, as well as a few periods of acute pain and grief. If I think back to earlier times I can recognise how much I have changed / been changed through the experiences along the way, most often in peeling away unnecessary and unhelpful conditioning and enabling the expression of a more “real” self. This has been a progressive and continuing experience of healing.
The path is of course ongoing, and will be so until I get there. The present “here”, for me is far north Queensland, and a significant part of this “here” is my Reiki practice, including the workshops with Mark.
Throughout my working life there has been a recurring theme of supporting other people (and in the process, myself) to discover and express themselves more and more fully. For twenty years I worked as a social worker, providing individual and family counselling, conducting personal growth groups and supervising social work students during their practical training. I then made a shift into corporate life where my professional focus was on individual, management and team effectiveness.
In 1989 I came across a brochure about a Reiki class. Reiki was little known in Australia at that time, but I was drawn to the description because of the author’s dual emphasis on healing and spiritual growth. I completed the First Degree class and my immediate response was that I wanted to continue to the stage at which I could teach others. I discussed this with my teacher and with her commenced my “apprenticeship”, to be initiated as a master in 1991.
I discovered during this period that initiation as a Reiki master wasn’t an ending, but the continuation of a many-faceted journey of growth and discovery – ongoing steps along the path.
From 1991 onwards I maintained a small Reiki teaching and treatment practice alongside my other work, and in 2004 I retired from the paid workforce. I continue to hold Reiki classes and to provide hands-on treatments in far north Queensland. I am currently a director of Reiki Australia, a national Reiki membership organisation, and a member of The Reiki Alliance, an international body of Reiki masters who share a common form of practice.
I enjoy writing, am co-author of a book, “Turning Points, Regaining Joy after Loss”, on the topic of recovering from unsought life changes, and I help to edit and produce the monthly "Connect" community magazine in Cairns.
Mark first approached me a few years ago about developing workshops together for Reiki practitioners, but for various reasons no progress happened with this until around the time I left the workforce and began to dedicate myself more fully to my Reiki practice. Over time we discussed the many and varied experiences we have had through our Reiki practice, and played with ways that we might bring others to share in an awareness of the potential of the Usui System for ongoing deepening and expansion.
The workshops we facilitate together are in a continuing state of evolution, as the synergy of our working together develops, and as our own experience continues to grow through our interaction with those who attend.