Five Tips for May 2026

reiki, royalty and why your phone can wait until breakfast

My dear reader, please forgive me for a slight delay in publishing this monthly post, but I have just completed my Reiki Okuden training and my body, energy and head have been adjusting to the new knowledge and experience. My immersion and training in reiki since the beginning of this year has been both a whirlwind and a slow process, learning and experiencing treatments, by giving and receiving, working alongside other practitioners has been the most humbling and gratifying process. I also feel that reiki has already impacted how I see and feel things, who I want to work or collaborate with and to who I have to simply just say goodbye. I now see people differently, my senses much more tuned to both my intuition and the world around me and I feel immense sense of gratitude for this new - and surprising - chapter of my life. My writing and my reiki practise now walking hand, like a glass sand watch, in close proximity and working harmoniously together. Can you feel it in my posts yet, I would be curious to hear if you noticed any changes in my writing?

1. It is always wonderful to be surprised and thanks to my friend Nicholas and Sotheby’s London, I recently got to experience an evening of music and modernism. Ahead of Sotheby’s NY sale in May, the storied auction house invited Fantasia Orchestra to collaborate on a cross-genre program of music and art, with three paintings colliding with the music in an intimate setting. Picasso’s ‘Arlequin’ swayed with Bach and Stravinsky, Kandinsky’s ‘Red Depth’ walked hand in hand with Mussorgsky, while Rothko’s ‘Brown and Blacks in Red’ nodded to Mozart. Both art and music feeding the senses in a surprising and unexpected way.

2. We often are quick with criticism, but slow with praise, it’s a common affliction actually. Constructive criticism is important, it helps us grow and improve, but genuine praise or compliment help us blossom and come into our own space of gentle confidence. Praise, given sincerely, is one of the most underrated acts of kindness. Give it meaningfully, but freely.

3. In one of recent interviews Elizabeth Hurley was remembering her friend, late fashion designer Valentino and something she said about him resonated deeply with me. “He has been cut from the cloth that has long been discontinued” she told the interviewer, with a note of deep sadness and it made me think how we treat our elders. Society is obsessed with age and continues to diminish the elders, while beauty and wellbeing marketing is trying to replace ‘anti-ageing’ with longevity marketing. I was always fascinated by people who were older and wiser and more experienced than me, loving to be allowed to linger when my parents or grandparents gathered their friends for big lunches and dinners that extended late into the night. We should obsess less with the lines emerging on our faces, but instead spend more time with the elders when we get a chance, whether through volunteering or making sure we spend enough time with our parents and grandparents, because as my mother says ‘nothing in life repeats itself’.

4. On the subject of wise elders, given a chance, do go and see the exhibition “Queen Elizabeth II: her life in style”. I couldn't help but notice that the gallery that once bore Her Majesty's name has since been quietly renamed the King's Gallery — a change that felt, to me, both unnecessary and a little ungracious to her memory, but maybe it is part of the change that is implemented naturally, in the way that new bank notes now carry the face of the King and not his late mother, Queen Elizabeth…It is an exhibition that resonates particularly with the true elders, who don't mind queuing, but the exhibition itself - be prepared to walk slowly, as many visitors use walking sticks or have limited mobility due to age - is a beautiful eye-opener with a lot of historical & political context. From Lanvin dresses that Queen Mother favoured for her daughters, to Her Majesty’s favourite tweeds that she wore for what turned out to be her last public appearance in person, her exquisite wedding dress and her London Olympic dress, alongside that of her stunt double, which Her Majesty The Queen wore for her sketch meeting with a certain Mr. Bond. You will marvel at Her Majesty’s tiny waist and her gowns that each had a story and a deep meaning behind it, so many occasions, a language of silent diplomacy and a skillset of people who were part of her reign in a truly meaningful way.

5. I have written about it before and I am sure I will mention it in the future, but please try NOT to reach out for your phone first thing in the morning. Instead stretch for a minute or two, brush your teeth, drink a glass of water, do your skincare routine. Can you stretch the absence of your phone till you have breakfast and only then open it? I have been doing this more and more and even one of my teen children recently acknowledged how good time off the screen actually feels. Unless your morning e-mails and messages are full of positive news and reasons to be grateful for, delay the inevitable and make sure you start the day with the little steps and habits that are actually good for you, rather than bad for your nervous system. Are you up to the challenge?

With my reiki training I try to start each day with my five ‘just for today’ reiki mantras that I think help to make me a better human. I choose to view every day as an opportunity for something new, exciting, a chance to get better at something that I have been doing for a while, like writing or working out. A chance to learn and evolve, to correct an annoying habit, to meet new people, to tell those I know well that I value or love them. Whatever it is that you need to improve or focus on, maybe start the day with the mantra related to that and see if you notice any gradual, positive changes by the time my Five Tips for June come along. Until then my dear reader, stay well.