Displaying items by tag: Reiki

When I took my first Level One Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki Class in February of 2018, I had no idea how much that energetic modality would change my life. It was a curiosity more than anything else honestly.   

As a Feng Shui Consultant, I understood clearly the concept of how energy flowed around us and through our environments. I learned how to manipulate the energy in such a way that those who experienced the changes in their homes felt better physically, had direction they hadn’t had before, and welcomed other positive shifts into their lives as well.   

I did not understand though, and hadn’t been able to grasp the idea of this invisible life force energy called Reiki that flowed through our bodies. Little did I know then the impact it would have on me and the multitude of uses and situations I would be applying it to in my own daily life. 

There is a standard answer most Reiki Practitioners will give when asked what this alternative modality even is. I say alternative because simply put, it is another method anyone can use and integrate into their own healing regimen once they have been attuned to the Reiki energy. You may have heard it described as a hands on, or off, Japanese stress reduction technique that is used for alleviating symptoms associated with pain, depression, anxiety, and more. 

Whenever we experience discomfort in or on our bodies, like a headache, or falling down and getting a scrape, our hands immediately gravitate towards that pain. We do this instinctively because we are all natural born healers, but this is a concept that not many people can seem to grasp or even understand. 

That’s because we live in a world where we were taught that the common way to alleviate our ailments was to go outside of ourselves to seek help instead of going within. 

We end up going to doctors who write us prescriptions that we fill at pharmacies in order to be able to put something foreign into our systems for temporary relief. But taking a pill from a bottle usually doesn’t address the root cause of the problem, and many people are left dealing with chronic conditions that require more medicine. More medicine can then create other health related problems as a result of the first medication’s side effects. (And to be clear, I am not anti-western medicine. In fact, I feel there is a great need and place for our doctors in this world and the medicines that they prescribe.)   

Taking pills is such the norm that even our homes have designated spaces in our bathrooms for all of the medicines we take. But Reiki doesn’t come in a bottle and it certainly doesn’t sit on a shelf. It is a beautiful healing energy that we can access all the time and anytime once we have been attuned to it. 

When people ask me what an attunement is, I explain it like this; “Imagine your favorite song is on the radio, but you can’t hear it until you tune into the radio station that it is playing on. You physically have to use your hand to turn a dial to pick up a signal on a specific station to hear a song. An attunement is a similar process between a Reiki Master Teacher and a Reiki Student. The Reiki Master Teacher is tuning the dial, or rather the Reiki Student, into the station, or rather the Reiki Energy, to be able to hear the favorite song. 

Reiki has allowed me to heal myself in ways I never thought possible. One of my Reiki Teachers, Libby Barnett, said we are our own laboratories and have to have our own experiences before we can attest to something as being true for us. Having said that, I can wholeheartedly say with confidence that the things I have experienced with my own Reiki healing are inexplicable but have yielded results that even I was shocked to see.

Earlier this year I had my Covid Vaccine and one week after my first shot I developed a raised welt that itched just larger than the size of my hand on my right shoulder at the site of the vaccination. After speaking to a medical professional, and then googling of course because that’s the age we are in, I discovered it was a rare side effect, but had already been documented in 30,000 people. I was told it would last approximately 1-3 weeks but would go away on it’s own. This was a great opportunity for me to apply what I knew. 

It was a Sunday morning and my daughter wanted to watch something on Netflix so I sat with her on the couch and took my left hand, crossing my arm over my chest and rested it over to my right shoulder and upper arm area. Hands on with my intention is what turns the Reiki on. 

There I sat, comfortably, not even focusing on what I was doing, because with Reiki, there is no doing, there is only being. I laughed through the funny parts of whatever it was we were watching and even forgot that my hand was resting on the vaccination sight. My feet were comfortably crossed on the foot rest in front of me and I am telling you all of this so you can understand the simplicity of this. You do not even need a Reiki table, you do not need to be lying down, and you do not have to sit rigidly with legs uncrossed or in any certain way for healing to take place. I do however have a Reiki table in my Zen Den where I do Reiki treatments with people lying down, and I have been on a table receiving treatments as well, but for all intents and purposes, you only need to be and do what is comfortable for you. 

An hour later the show was over and I noticed the itching had subsided. I took my hand off my arm and went about my day not paying anymore attention to it. 

Because I am a Reiki Teacher, I feel it’s important to take before and after pictures to show students as this helps them understand the magnitude of what we can do for ourselves alone with this beautiful gift. I had taken a picture that morning to keep track of it and have something to compare it to. Well that night, after my shower I checked it again and was in awe of what I saw. The welt, just 10 hours after I did Reiki, was almost completely healed. The even more amazing thing is you can see where my left hand was directing the Reiki. Because the welt was slightly larger than my hand, my hand was centered over it. The area where my hand rested received direct intensive healing and the wound cleared up from the center outward. You can even see the outline of some of my fingers. It was completely cleared up by the next morning. That was a great example of how Reiki speeds up the recovery process and reduces symptoms. 

Another incidence where I used Reiki and it amazed me happened just this past July of 2021. On a 90˚ degree hotter-than-hot kind of day, I took my daughter Arianna and her friends to the beach for some summer fun. The girls decided to take a walk along the shallow part of the shoreline and Arianna stepped on a broken shell cutting the bottom right heel of her foot. Not much of a concern, she cleaned it when she got home. The next morning however she was limping around telling me it hurt to put weight on it. When I looked at it, I saw a tell tale sign of infection. She had a streak that had started to develop coming out of the wound site. Even though I practice Reiki, I also practice common sense and know when not to play the waiting game. I called her pediatrician and made an appointment knowing she would most likely need antibiotics to kick what was brewing. I still sat her down at 9 o’clock that morning and had her put her feet in my lap. She watched tv and I put my hands on her foot and turned on the Reiki. We cleaned and bandaged the wound and put a sock on her foot to keep it protected.

Five hours later we were in the doctors office and explained what happened. The doctor asked Arianna to pull off her sock so she could examine it and the streak was GONE. I couldn’t believe my eyes. And I LOVE that I STILL get that excitement and amazement when I am witness to this kind of healing. The pediatrician said, “If there was a streak, then I would say start the antibiotics immediately, but I don’t see a streak.” I had to take out my phone to show her the picture from just 5 hours before to prove I wasn’t crazy. She told me if she had seen my daughter’s foot looking the way it did in the picture just 5 hours earlier that she would definitely be taking the antibiotics. We were given a prescription to take just in case the streak came back, but it didn’t. And her foot healed just fine on it’s own. That’s another example of how Reiki helped with a speedy recovery and reduction of symptoms.

Aside from those examples I just gave of how I’ve used Reiki in the past, I truly do use it in my life daily. I turn it on in my morning meditations to start my day on the right foot. I send Reiki to my plants, my family, my pets, my friends, and I love it so much that I teach it. I also send it distantly to situations and for world healing. I belong to many social media groups where people request Reiki and we send it to each other distantly. There are so many ways to apply it and integrate it into your own life and for your own healing.   

If you have ever been curious about learning more about Reiki or becoming a practitioner, I strongly encourage you to do so. Especially in times like we are in now, the world could use more healers and we can always always use a little more healing. 

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What if I told you that as a Reiki Master Teacher, I couldn’t whole heartedly explain to you in words exactly what Reiki was and how it worked, but that it has yielded results that sometimes have taken even me by surprise.

The truth is, I’m not here to fix, heal, change or improve anyone. I am only here to help YOU restore balance to your own body, one session at a time; and that looks like different things to different people. 

I think one of the biggest misconceptions that holds people back from trying Reiki is that they think it is “woo woo” or some sort of a religious practice or cult, which I can assure you, it is not. Typically, the people (that I have come across) who believe this have not done their own research, but have taken someone else’s word for what they believe it to be, without ever learning or trying it for themselves.

If you were to ask Google to define Reiki, you might find something along the lines of it being a Japanese form of energy healing or type of alternative medicine, where Reiki practitioners use a hands-on healing method to connect to “universal energy” that moves from the practitioner to the client to facilitate healing on some level.

My opinion? I find most definitions of Reiki to be limiting, and barely scratch the surface of what it truly is and can do for people. But I can tell you it’s not a pill with a possible side effect, that society has taught most of us to seek out first.

I think many of us consciously or unconsciously bury traumatic events from our pasts that are too painful to deal with on a physical, mental, and or emotional level. And in those deep down  unhealed places where things go unaddressed, unseen, and unresolved, our bodies become weakened, and then start speaking to us through physical discomfort and dis ease, begging us to address what we have ignored our whole lives.

We are so quick to go outside of ourselves looking for help yet haven’t really learned how to be aware enough to go within. Reiki helps us do that. Reiki helps me pay deeper attention to what my body is saying with a much greater awareness. 

When asked if I can help them with something specific through a Reiki session, my standard answer, (which I was taught to say by one of my many wonderful Reiki teachers, “Libby Barnett,”) was, “Don’t know. It can’t hurt, but it might help.”

It’s always the case that I don’t know. I never know. And no one should ever claim to know. We are all so extremely different physically, mentally, emotionally, and energetically.

I’ve had different situations where people have approached me after events where I had given mini Reiki sessions in small groups, that were in awe of their own experiences. One woman came up to me and told me her sciatic pain was completely gone in that moment and that she hadn’t experienced relief like that after sitting for that long in years. 

I had another woman tell me her wrist pain had melted away after her session, making her curious enough to want to learn how to perform it on herself and others. When she took one of my classes, she shared this with me 4 days later; 

“I also wanted to let you know directly that my knee pain has been GONE ever since you performed the Reiki session on me after the class on Saturday. It’s slowly starting to come back, as is expected as it is chronic pain having to do with weight gain, but the few days of relief was HUGE and much needed. Thank you truly for helping me!”

All types of people from many different professions and backgrounds have come to me for sessions. I’ve had stay at home moms, chiropractors, business owners, insurance brokers, therapists, teachers, social workers, other energy healers, martial artists, physical trainers, expecting moms, retirees, salesman, students and more. And it’s important to mention the fur babies who have benefitted from Reiki as well, such as guinea pigs, cats, dogs, chipmunks, squirrels, birds, and even horses.

How often do people come to me for Reiki sessions? That depends on a lot of things. Some come once a month, and some come once a year as a treat for themselves. I have other clients who come weekly for a period of time depending on what they are going through. And I’ve had many people gift their loved ones a Reiki session after experiencing it for themselves. I also have distant clients that book sessions for themselves who live in other countries seeking alternative ways to find balance in their own busy lives.

I can’t speak to what it may or may not do for you, but I can share with you, different types of things that people have come to me for when booking their own sessions; 

• They want to boost their body’s ability to better handle and recover from an upcoming surgery
• They just had surgery and want to help speed up their recovery
• They want to reduce their side effects to the meds they are taking
• They are seeking relief from anxiety or depression and have tried everything else and nothing has worked
• They are trying to quit or get a better handle on some sort of a habit
• They have sciatic pain, or back pain and are seeking some sort of relief 
• They suffer from headaches
• They want their chakras (energy systems) balanced
• They have a lot of self judgement and are trying to lose weight
• They have trouble relaxing or sleeping
• They are stressed out in general and on the verge of a burn out or have already reached their burn out point.
• They are just looking for something that will bring a sense of peace into their chaotic lives and want to tame their monkey mind
• They are going through a divorce and seeking self care
• They are grieving the loss of a loved one

For some, the level of relaxation reached during a Reiki session has been so deep that they have fallen asleep on the table or in the zero gravity chair. A few of my students who were once clients had such a moving Reiki experience of their own during a session, that they wanted to learn how to do it for themselves. I’ve had a few go through all the different levels of training with me because of how it has enhanced their own lives. 

For me, Reiki has become part of who I am and interwoven into the fabric of my daily life. I bring it into my daily mediations each morning to help start my day with a clear mind and sense of balance. I use the Reiki symbols, which I acquired in my Level 2 course in 2018, when I cook or eat a meal to enhance vitality, or when I drink a glass of water to invite cleansing energy, or when I get dressed in the morning for daily empowerment,  or when I prepare a room for a Reiki client for the highest healing, or when I have a situation in my life that I am trying to bring peace to. 

I have even used it to help heal events from my own childhood.  

In case you find that odd, let me explain further.  When you are a Level 2 practitioner, you can use the distant symbol, not only to send Reiki to someone across the world or anywhere that is not where you are, but you can send Reiki to a situation, any situation, to any point in time in your life. 

Time and space simply does not exist when you use the Distant Symbol. Some people use it to send Reiki to future things like job interviews they have a few days out, or upcoming surgeries, or upcoming exams to help affect the best possible outcomes. And in the same context, others use it to go backwards. 

Distant Reiki has helped me go back to those points of trauma in my own childhood to help me help the little girl that I was, which is the same little girl who lives deep down inside of the woman I am today.   

How amazing is it, to be given the opportunity to be who you are today, and go back to the little child you once were and look them in the eyes, giving them/yourself all the healing you needed and deserved?  I have been able to hug her, hold her, comfort her, love her, and make her feel safe again, validating her as a human being, and empowering her to confidently go after her dreams. 

There is no rule book for how to use Reiki, and how I use it, may not be how another practitioner uses it. There may never be any distant Reiki or inner child work done at all. Some people may use it to simply bring peace to family members or friends or even their pets who are going through a hard time. 

If you’re not sure when you should give Reiki a try, then I offer you some things to think about; 

Do you have a sense of just feeling “off” and want to restore balance and bring a sense of peace into your life? When was the last time you tried something new for yourself as a form of self-care? Have you tried other things that haven’t helped you in the past and are looking for an alternative way to try to help yourself? Or might Reiki be a complement to what you are already doing that could help enhance your own healing? 

If you are Reiki curious, and want to seek out your own Reiki Practitioner and/or even a teacher, I encourage you to do some homework first. Research the background of the person you are interested in having a session with. They should be more than happy to share their credentials and trainings with you. I also encourage you to read their reviews whether on a platform like google or their own website.   Being able to read what other people’s experiences have been with a practitioner is invaluable. Word of mouth is another great way to discover new people to try, so don’t be shy to ask around either. Ideally you want to feel comfortable with the practitioner with whom you are entrusting your energy.

I think it’s healthy and wise to be skeptical of anything you don’t understand, but before knocking it, I would encourage you to give it a try. We have to be our own laboratories before we can truly attest to something as being helpful to ourselves or not. 

Whatever your healing journey may entail in the future, or even the distant past, I hope it involves Reiki in some way or another. It can’t hurt and it just might help you too. 

For more information on how to schedule a Reiki session with Angela from Loving Karma, please click the following link below:

https://lovingkarma.com/work-with-angela/reiki-services

I sat on the floor of my daughter’s room and  held his little frail body in between my hands. There wasn’t much warmth radiating from him and I knew he was dying. Wanting to ease his pain, I turned on the Reiki and felt the slightest bit of static emanating from his little body. Normally when I do Reiki on a healthy person or animal, I can sense a vitality that is palpable, strong and expansive, but with Keebler, it was hard to even sense. 

When I was little, my (typical) brothers used to use me as their 9 volt battery tester. The sensation from touching a new battery to my tongue would send me through the roof, but a 9 volt battery that was weak, would barely give a zing. Keebler had no zing.

I remember adopting him from the Humane Society when he was just six weeks old for my daughter. It was just days after her last guinea pig Rita had passed and she was devastated. Since the day we brought him home, he had such a presence and aliveness. Guinea pigs do this thing called “popcorning” where they bounce and jump and squeak when they are happy and excited. He was such a love bug.  I would listen from my bedroom while he and my daughter would have conversations through piggy squealing back and forth. And in the mornings when I would wake up my daughter and he would see me, he would get so excited and race around his cage making his little piggy sounds because he knew he was about to get carrots. It was our little morning ritual. 

As we sat with him feeling heavy and sad knowing he was transitioning, I remembered one of my Reiki teachers, Kathleen Prasad, who taught me, and is the founder of, the “Let Animals Lead” method. We are all energetic beings and can feel one another’s emotions and state of mind. And the greatest gift we could give to Keebler in that moment was to put our feelings of sadness aside. The depths of pain we felt were likely overwhelming his already heavily and very little burdened body. 

“See him as a beautiful, radiating, ball of light Arianna.”That little baby we adopted almost five years ago was still the same soul whose energy filled our hearts and our home all that time. As we shifted into this new vibration of love and light, I began to feel what he was feeling. As a Reiki practitioner, this is a common occurrence for me. I tend to connect to the energies of those around me and start to sense things. I began to feel immense pain in my head and lower back. 

“You are so beautiful and handsome Keebler. We love you so so so much!  It’s okay to go honey. You are so safe and loved.” We repeatedly said these things to him until it was late into the night. I felt the energy flow like a river from my hands into his body. We placed him back into his cage with such grace and ease. He used to leap like superman into his cage and now couldn’t even see where he was. He waited until he felt the floor of his cage before he moved out of our hands. 

Later that night, I woke up to an electric buzzing sound in my head that also felt like harsh static in my body. At the same time my breathing became labored and I began have tiny fits of coughing spells. Within one minute I heard a loud pop, like a fuse being blown and I felt the release happen in my own body. At the same time in my minds eye, I saw and heard a violet flame flicker and go out. It was like the sound of a sterno can being covered. I knew immediately he was gone. 

As I went into Arianna’s room, my eyes confirmed what my soul already knew. Our sweet boy had transitioned and was finally at peace.   

I don’t think there is anything more humbling than to be part of someone’s transition in life. Reiki is forever my teacher and I am so grateful to have been part of, and witness to Keebler’s passing. I know that our ability to hold space for him emotionally, allowed for him to relax into the receiving of the Reiki energy. 

It’s a beautiful thing to be able to do that for anyone, whether they are in transition or not. Thank you Dr. Mikao Usui, for bringing Reiki into my life.