Death of the Ego (A Gift from My Son)

On June 6th I welcomed my son into this world, and within one week’s time I had broken a toe, chopped off the tip of a finger, and fell into a depression the depths of which I had only experienced twice in my life before (and those two experiences were doozies… life-changers). This was my big entrance into the world of parenthood.

The first few days were nice while the three of us were huddled together in the hospital room getting to know each other, but the decline started when we got home. I guess the mix of hormones running through my system kept me going during the hospital stay, but once they wore off my experience started to change. The exhaustion started to set in and my clarity and coordination started to head out.

It was the day after we arrived home that I tripped in my backyard and broke my toe. A simple accident that could’ve happened at any time, but it was my first warning…

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Reiki during Pregnancy

With our son’s expected due date coming up on June 6th, I thought I’d share with you a little bit about how reiki has been a big part of the pregnancy. For starters I would say that it was after a reiki session last summer that we conceived him.

Once a month my partner Joei and I get together with a friend and practice Shu Chu Reiki on each other. (Shu Chu Reiki is the Japanese term for multiple practitioners giving reiki to one person at the same time.) For several months Joei would ask for reproductive health in hopes that she and I would conceive a child. We had already talked about trying to get pregnant and were open to the possibility if we were lucky enough to win that jackpot, however it wasn’t until the reiki trade in August 2017 that I realized I was still a little hesitant. She had been all in for almost a year, and although I said I was, I was still afraid of taking that next step in life and becoming a father. During that day of reiki I truly felt her intention and desire to go through the challenging and traumatic experience of pregnancy and delivery and most importantly that she wanted to do this with me.

I felt honored to be the guy she wanted to have a child with and from that point on I was all in. Months later after learning the due date and doing a little back-calculation I discovered that we must have conceived shortly after that day.

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Reiki Healing Summit Spring 2018

I'm happy to tell you all about the Reiki Healing Summit Spring 2018 put on by Reiki Rays University featuring interviews with Reiki Practitioners from all over the world including Pamela Miles, Walter Lubeck, and yours truly. This FREE online event will run from May 21-26 with topics including Reiki Research, Reiki Drumming, Distant Reiki, Reiki as a Spiritual Practice, and Reiki in Cancer Treatments. Over 30 leading Reiki Practitioners offer their knowledge and expertise to the worldwide Reiki community to help us develop ourselves and deepen our practice.

I am deeply honored to be a part of this global event as I share about my experience working with “Reiki and the Cancer Community.” Register now and tune in on May 24th to listen to my interview or UPGRADE and listen to it at anytime along with all of the other insightful interviews.

I registered for the Full Access Pass for the Winter 2018 Summit and thoroughly enjoyed listening the interviews at my leisure, and I even had the option to download the mp3’s and transcripts of each of the sessions. Choose which option suits you best and enjoy the summit.

Read more about the Reiki Healing Summit HERE.


Aside from the summit, I have a few other things going on this month that I’d like to share. The first weekend of the month is jam packed full of goodness. On Friday May 4th I’ll be playing bass for the Atma Bhajan and the Sounds of Truth Kirtan Soundbath Experience at The Yogi Tree. It’s been a while since I’ve played a Kirtan in SoCal, so I’m looking forward to sharing in the vibe with you all there. (Sign up for it here.)

On Saturday May 5th, I will be presenting a talk on “Implementing Mindfulness in Schools” for the Burbank Unified School District’s First Annual Wellness Symposium which is open to all staff, parents, and community partners in Burbank. The event runs from 8:30am-12:30pm at John Burroughs High School and has a wide variety of topics ranging from “Addressing Bullying and Cyberbullying” to “Zumba!” If you’re a parent in Burbank or know someone that is, please pass on this information to them. There’s something for everyone there, plus they’re giving away prizes. :-)

I also have a Reiki I class on Friday May 25th for anyone that wants to get their certification at the start of Memorial Day Weekend.


With the birth of my son expected at the beginning of next month I will be cutting back on seeing private clients in June and I won’t be teaching any other classes until mid-July at the earliest. If he decides to join us early I may even have to cancel the May 25th class, but one thing is for sure. I will be focusing on his and his mother’s health after he arrives so if you reach out and don’t hear from me that is why.

I wish you all a wonderful month and hope to see you at one of the events in May.

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Channeling Money

With tax day coming up this month we all seem to have money on our minds this time of year, and I thought I’d share with you my journey though navigating my finances once I decided to pursue a career in the healing arts.

After I resigned from my teaching career I knew I had to be very careful with money because I did not have the stability of a steady paycheck anymore and needed to make sure I had enough money to pay my bills each month. I watched a financial prosperity workshop with Edwene Gaines online where she talked about the importance of tithing and how by removing 10% of your income off the top to be given to the people and organizations where you are spiritually fed you create space for more money to flow into.

Imagine that you have a jar that contains all of your money. If you try to hold on to all of your money then your jar is full and there’s no room for more money to flow into it. But, by consciously creating the space for more money by giving it away you keep the energetic flow of money in your direction to fill the void in your jar.

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Death is a part of Life

Two-thousand eighteen was already looking to be one of the most memorable years of my life with the upcoming birth of my son in June, and in addition the universe conspired to add tragedy to this year ensuring that 2018 will forever be tattooed onto my heart. On February 7th at 3:49pm EST my father, Bob Kukan, passed away in a Pittsburgh hospital surrounded by his children and siblings. No one saw this coming, and it was only a little more than a month ago that we all got together along with his closest friends to celebrate his 70th birthday.

This is one event in my life that I could never have prepared for. Similarly to becoming a parent (so I hear), the feelings associated with losing a parent are only understood once you experience it, and now that I’ve experienced the latter I’m even more curious to experience the former.

You can listen to other people’s stories and read up on grieving the loss of a parent, but until you’ve gone through it, it’s all a mental exercise. The emotional and physical pains that were present for me were overwhelming at times and still tend to come and go, and from what I hear they will continue to come and go for a long time.

Through this loss however, I see a silver lining. I am reminded of the fragility of this precious human life that we have and the finite quality of it.

The truth is that we are all going to die one day, and we must not turn away from that truth. Many of us fear it and never want to talk or think about it which prevents us from ever truly accepting and embracing it. By doing so we may be holding ourselves back from saying the things we want to say and doing the things we want to do with the expectation that we will live another day and get to do those things sometime in the future. Without exploring and accepting this truth how can we ever truly live our life to its fullest potential?

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