Natsumi has taken a complete turn from her days working as a nurse and set out on a journey to find her own "comfort." She now lives in Australia, a place where she can breathe in harmony with nature.
Ocean and mountains. Animals live freely, and plants and insects come to life. Australia is a country where living in harmony with nature is a natural part of everyday life.
We had the pleasure of interviewing Natsumi, who lives in close proximity to nature in New South Wales, a state rich in beach lifestyles. She showed up in her car with her surfboard still loaded on the board, and told us that she had just returned from a surfing competition called "The Single Fin Mingle" held in New Zealand.
During this trip, he showed me to a cafe and said, "This is my favorite place." The terrace, surrounded by greenery, was very pleasant and I was enveloped in a truly Australian atmosphere.
"Yay!"
The first greeting instantly brightens your mood. Her natural and relaxed demeanor is surely one of Natsumi's charms.
"My life story is super long, lol."
He smiled and began to talk.
Natsumi is 33 years old and originally from Mie Prefecture. After graduating from high school, she majored in nursing at a nursing college in Nagoya, and after graduation, she worked at a neurosurgery/neurology hospital. After about two years as a nurse, she quit her job and set out on a journey. She visited the Philippines, Bali, Kamakura, Amami Oshima, Miyazaki, and New Zealand... Her travels to various places, where she discovered surfing, Reiki, and meditation techniques, have shaped her into who she is today.
She has now set up a Reiki school called Alignment Reiki®, where she teaches many people how to live a healthy mind and body through meditation while healing others. She is also gradually preparing to move to Australia permanently.
"I've always been a sensitive person who gets overwhelmed by trivial comments or other people's energy."
When Natsumi talks like this, it seems a little different from the relaxed impression she gives off today.
"When I was working at the hospital, I was constantly subjected to blatant harassment from my superiors and seniors...every day was really tough."
"I was living my life based on other people's standards," she said, and those words stuck with me.
"At that time, I was so concerned about what other people thought of me, and looking back, I realize that I wasn't really listening to my own voice.
Eventually, I reached my limit and quit my job, but strangely enough, I was crying out in my heart at that moment, "I want to live with purer feelings, for someone else." And before I knew it, I had booked a ticket to the Philippines."
So he decided to take a step into a new environment by volunteering, and after completing his volunteer work, the natural progression was to go on a working holiday to Australia.
"Self-inquiry"
Natsumi flew to Australia, a country she had visited briefly, full of dreams, but what awaited her there was an unexpected rock bottom.
"The host at the host place I was staying at at the time was pretty strict, and the pressure and language barrier really took a toll on me, and my mental health started to deteriorate..."
She says that life in a foreign country, which she entered without having fully healed from the emotional wounds she had suffered in the past, was more difficult than she had imagined.
"Every little thing seemed so big, and there were days when I woke up crying, I couldn't even leave the house, and I often said, 'I just want to disappear.' Looking back, I think I was crushed by stress at that time."
In the midst of this deep darkness, the then 24-year-old discovered meditation.
"I thought I really needed to go back to Japan and get things back on track. In the end, I ended up returning to Japan less than six months after moving here."
After returning to Japan, I started meditating, which had been recommended to me by a friend in Australia, and made it a daily habit. I decided to just "start with what I could do," and quietly began taking time to get myself in order.
Meditation is a practice that calms the mind and body, regulates breathing, and focuses attention on the present moment. Taking time to distance oneself from thoughts and emotions has become a source of mental support for her and a tool for self-regulation.
"Be your own best ally"
As I listened to her words, a thought suddenly came to mind.
When you feel like you're about to break down, when you want to cry, when you're happy... No matter what the moment, "you" will always be there for you.
Perhaps deepening our bonds with such precious beings is a major theme in life, so that we can always tell the people who will be closest to us for the longest time in our lives, "Everything will be okay."
"After I returned, I spent all my time on self-discovery. What do I like, what do I want to do, what excites me? Where do I want to go in life? I think that self-analysis and self-understanding were the keys to making a big change in my life. Of course, I also meditated every day without fail."
"To improve your mental health, you must first know yourself and focus on what you love!"
True to her words, she has always valued the time she spends reflecting on herself.
She opens her notebook and writes down whatever comes to mind. She listens to the voice deep within her heart and focuses her attention on the present, not the past or the future. Through these small accumulations, the keywords that come out of her become guideposts, and little by little, the outline of Natsumi becomes clearer.
"I also went to meet people who I thought were living a great lifestyle. Regardless of the number of followers they had on Instagram, I would contact people who caught my eye in magazines or articles and ask them about their backgrounds and lifestyles. Learning about the lives and values these people had led made me excited, and I naturally began to think, 'Maybe I can do that too.'"
This drive to act steadily raised the energy within her.
She then started making jewelry as a way to calm her mind.
"Just moving my hands and clearing my mind was what saved me. As I continued, my mind gradually calmed down and I started to feel like it was fun."
For Natsumi, this time to carefully reflect on herself was the most important form of "mental care" she could take. Increasing the number of "tools" she had to rebuild herself in this way led to a calmer mind.
"A major turning point"
She moved to Kamakura at the age of 25. While spending time here facing herself, the scenery and encounters she encountered every day in Kamakura gradually began to illuminate her path forward.
"From that time on, I felt like things were starting to change for the better. I tried my hand at a jewelry pop-up, and before I knew it, I had started surfing and doing Reiki. Before I knew it, I was surrounded by more spiritual people, and I was beginning to make connections with the spiritual world."
The time I spent quietly facing myself was moving forward.
"Neither surfing nor Reiki came about because I thought, 'I want to do this!' It was just a natural progression. With Reiki, I happened to be at a pop-up and the person at the booth next to me was a teacher. I was surrounded by more and more spiritual people, so I was able to accept that encounter right away."
As if guided by this "inevitability that seemed like chance," things began to point in her direction. People can change for better or worse depending on their environment and the people they meet. Natsumi, who attracted only good things, said, "It was because I was truly excited about it."
She says she tried to find things that made her feel alive and to take in as many of them as possible each day. A year later, at the age of 26, she used Workaway to travel to Bali for a month.
The trip deepened my relationship with Reiki.
" The Beginnings of Alignment Reiki® "
Natsumi's current focus is on Alignment Reiki®. Founded in 2022, this Reiki school has become an important base for her to deeply align herself.
"While I was in Bali, I volunteered at a yoga studio and did yoga and meditated every day. And while I was meditating as usual, I suddenly had the feeling that I had to do Reiki."
"The words came to me out of nowhere, but the feeling was so strong that I decided to learn it as soon as I returned to Japan. Even though I didn't really believe in Reiki at first," she says with a smile.
Looking back, when I was living in Kamakura, I met a woman teaching Reiki at a pop-up. At that time, too, I was guided by nature to that encounter. After that, I learned Reiki in earnest from that woman and obtained a qualification.
After moving to Amami Oshima and Miyazaki, she was blessed with the opportunity to deliver Reiki to a total of over 300 people. With her uniquely sharp sensitivity, she first healed herself, and then quietly but surely passed on the technique to many others.
"When I was at my lowest, I felt like there were too few tools available to help me improve my mental health. If there were more tools, more people could be saved."
In a world where relying on hospitals and medicine has become the norm, there should be a more everyday way to take care of oneself. This thought quietly supports the energy at the core of Natsumi.
"This is a technique I want to remain even after I die. I'm convinced that it will definitely be useful to someone. That's why I feel I need to train people who can pass it on even when I'm gone."
She wants to use this method that saved her to help others. She has compiled the essence of it and is devoting her efforts to training teachers. Students who have actually studied under her unanimously say, "I've learned to trust my own instincts," and "My life has changed."
More than the Reiki techniques, the time spent carefully facing one's own heart is the greatest gift. The smiles that emerge from this transformation are a source of strength for Natsumi.
"Right now, I'm really happy to see everyone on my team grow. I've realized that what's most important to me is for everyone to move in the right direction. That's why I'm glad I found colleagues in Japan who share the same passion and want to teach me the methods I hold dear."
"There is a limit to how much you can make yourself happy by just healing yourself."
I felt that this was a phrase that could only be said by someone who has seen many different worlds and gone through many different phases.
"At the same time that I had the feeling that it was Reiki in Bali, I also had a strong feeling that I wanted to go to New Zealand. So I decided then and there that I would go there after returning from Bali."
Natsumi's senses were becoming sharper through meditation. At the time, she was 27 years old and immediately began preparing to head to New Zealand after returning to Japan.
"Experience Wellness in New Zealand"
"I think my core is in New Zealand right now."
As she speaks, Natsumi's expression is somehow clear and light.
A life where he could fully engage in surfing, which was his passion at the time, and a simple life in harmony with the sea - New Zealand offered all of these.
"I had always wondered what 'wellness' meant, but coming here, I feel like I was able to learn about it firsthand. It's all really simple."
The local people Natsumi met lived in harmony with nature, without pushing themselves too hard, and cherished life as it was. It was natural for them to say "no" to things they didn't like, to rest when they were tired, and to be kind to themselves. As Natsumi came into contact with these people, she herself began to think, "It's okay to be like this," and gradually began to relax.
Making jewelry, which she started as a way to calm her mind, became an important part of her life, and before she knew it, those moments of "mindlessness" had turned into passion.
"I just wanted to surf. I didn't want to give up my life of surfing, so I decided to make jewelry and make a living from it. I didn't want to go back to the days when I was tied down by time and place, and I was serious about "living my life doing only what I love."
There was an unwavering determination in her eyes as she spoke.
"I've set up a table on the side of the road and sold my products, and I've also approached stores and asked them if they would stock my products."
Natsumi smiles as she speaks.
"I think it was because I was determined to make a living from this. Gradually, more and more people started buying my work, and I found shops that would carry my work. At first, I struggled, but before I knew it, I was able to make a living from it."
She says that people who buy her jewelry are strangely on the same wavelength as her. The people she meets through her jewelry are warm. Living in harmony with nature, she says, her connections with people are somehow natural, and she is able to connect with them without even thinking about it.
To live life based on your ideals, sometimes you have to let go of something. But if you stay true to yourself, the scenery you've always dreamed of will appear before your eyes.
"Attraction" is not something you just wait for, but something that is shaped by your will and actions. Natsumi's way of life teaches us this.
"I think it's rare for dreams to not come true. If you take action, they will definitely come true."
Dreams may seem far away, but they are actually right there. People who make their dreams come true always take action.
For Natsumi, living in New Zealand was a time to let go of the idea that things "must be a certain way" and accept that "it's fine the way it is." It also gently brought her back to the origin of simply "living."
No matter where she is or what she is doing, the most important thing to Natsumi is whether or not she feels comfortable.
She has carefully built her own lifestyle, turning all her doubts and conflicts into nourishment, and her story quietly contains hints about what it means to live and work.
Living in harmony with nature. Trusting your instincts. These aren't special things at all, but rather choices that are closer to us and simpler than we think.
Natsumi will continue to be someone who gently passes on light.
Instagram
Founder of ALIGNMENT REIKI® / Aroha Community Leader Activities: Reiki classes and sessions, readings, coaching, meditation classes, retreat and event hosting, writing
After graduating from nursing school in 2014, she worked as a nurse. She left the profession due to poor health and began studying meditation and spirituality, discovering Reiki in 2018. Through surfing and travel, she explored well-being, asking herself, "How can we live a happy life with a healthy mind and body?" and is currently working in Australia to spread the message of well-being and a rich way of life.
Article and photos by Hinako Kanda
