Heal me with all the woo woo | Jabbering Journo column

Of course a healthy dose of cynicism, laced with reality, is a reporter and editor’s friend.

It forms part of our antennae for utter nonsense and, yes, is great for sniffing out attempts at fake news often circulated by the online algorithms (and politicians) because people want to believe it.

But it also transfers into every day life.

Which is unfortunate for my ‘work wife’ aka my radio partner in crime, co-presenter Gemma.

She has discovered that while she has an open mind, always keen to explore new life hacks, self-care tricks and theories plus every manner of innovative solution - I’m a sceptical old witch.

I’m trying to be more open-minded, honest, but faced with what I have heard labelled ‘woo-woo’ I tend to break out into hysteria or slouch off sulkily for a coffee.

My standard self-healing rituals usually tends to involve a gin and tonic and some crisps (salt n’vinegar).

So maybe it was the full moon talking but during Sunday’s show (Grin and Tonic, BBC Lancashire, Sundays 4-6pm, ahem) I decided to try and put aside my natural desire to run and instead, allowed a guest to perform ‘Reiki’ on me live on air.

Now Reiki (I’ll save you the Googling) is a form of alternative medicine using energy healing.

Basically our lovely guest hovered her hands over me to promote healing of both the physical and emotional variety.

I needed it as I was attempting to run the desk technically on my own, so I tried to behave and allow the healing forces to keep me calm and help me remember to put the faders up.

Gemma floating about filming didn’t help, nor did the fact that I was counting down remaining seconds of Robbie Williams ‘Angels’, while simultaneously checking the traffic and travel feed had dropped in.

Despite this, I did feel strangely calm, even a touch warm , although that may have been the coffee - or the cynicism.