Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Waking Other People to Reiki

I had the fortune of spreading the word about Reiki some more. (There I go again - can't seem to help myself!)

One reader who stumbled upon my blog emailed and asked me to send her distance Reiki, as she was curious about what it would feel like, or if she would even feel it. She admitted to some doubts, although she had some experience with chi through working with yoga. I was happy to set up a time, and I'm glad to report that the energy was felt as she received it. She also felt energized and positive, even when facing a stress-inducing day.

The other nice experience I had was that a student of mine was curious about what Reiki would feel like, and asked me to give her a little hands-on Reiki during break from class last night. I did, and it turns out that she is VERY sensitive to energy. She felt tingles, heat, and felt the energy move through her body to places I wasn't even near with my hands. Even after I stopped, she felt tingles continue for the next few minutes. She was thrilled, amazed, and is very interested in learning more. Maybe I'll have the chance to teach her once I'm ready for that huge step.

I find that I'm good at spreading enthusiasm about Reiki, and generating interest in it. I'm glad, because it is so very beneficial on many levels that I wish everyone knew about it. It really feels good when I can show someone a little about Reiki, and they appreciate it and want to learn more. This feels very natural to me. Maybe it's taking me in a direction.

My Master Level class is in two days!! I'm excited and a little nervous. I know throughout my lifetime I intend to continue to learn about and practice energy healing. This is another step in my journey. It came along fast, but I know I have time to go at my own pace from here.

Thanks again to my RMT who started me along this path.

Peace.

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Reiki Master Training in One Week!

It's official!! I'm going to take the Reiki Master course - the whole thing - ART and Reiki Master Teacher together next weekend!!!! I can hardly believe it is going to happen. I did speak with Sister Ann Winters of the Sophia Wellness Center at Ursuline College, who is teaching the course there. (By the way, Google her, and you'll see praises up and down from people all over the world who have taken the Reiki Master training with her!). She was gracious enough to let me do a project - creating a Reiki hand position manual - in exchange for a reduction in tuition. That, plus the unexpected increase in article compensation I received notice about on Wednesday (see my previous post), will make the class affordable for me. The timing is too perfect to ignore its implications. I also was careful to ask her about my rehearsal on Sunday, from 12-2, and it's not a problem, because most of the rehearsal will fall during lunch break, and the afternoon is for hands-on practice, so there's flexibility. My mom wonderfully offered to watch the kiddies while my husband is at school, and so I'm free to do this. (Thank you, Mom!)

My mind is already brainstorming the possibilities of what I could do as a Reiki Master. Could I feel ready to teach a class this summer? For kids? Teens? Maybe so! Maybe I could team up with another Reiki practitioner who is renting studio space and offer hands-on treatments. I wouldn't be surprised if opportunities present themselves through the other Reiki people I'll meet in the class, or as a result of taking the class itself. I'm going to be as in tune and open to the possibilities as I can be.

Meanwhile, I continue to experiment with using Theta Healing techniques combined with Reiki when sending distance Reiki, and I'm still working on seeing energy.

It's a process!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Hands on Feet

On Tuesday, a friend who wanted to learn more about Reiki came over so I could have the welcome opportunity to talk about Reiki to someone who actually wanted to hear me talk about it. I talked all about how I came to learn about Reiki, and how it's become such a large and involved journey in my life. Before she left, I gave her a short hands-on treatment. That was interesting. I started with one hand on top of her head, and the other in the center of her shoulder blades, just below her neck. I felt lots of tingles there, but she didn't feel much. Then I moved my hand on her back lower, and my hand that was on her head hovered lightly over her stomach. She reported that she felt tingles in her feet and up to her knees. I stayed that way for a while, and then put my hands on her knees, and finally on her feet. She felt the Reiki very strongly there, and was very interested in the sensations she was feeling. I was glad to have had the chance to introduce her to Reiki. She works with patients, and may be interested in having Reiki attunement as a tool to help comfort her patients.

Also, Tuesday night I was teaching my class, and my previously skeptical student, the one I sent distance Reiki and he was astonished to have felt it, asked me to give him hands-on Reiki during break. So I did give him Reiki on his head and shoulders, while he sat in a chair. He, too, exclaimed that he felt lots of energy in his feet. He had sore feet and legs from running on his treadmill at home earlier. I think I've made my point.

I have been posting about taking the Reiki ART level next weekend, the 29th. I may have the opportunity to take the whole Reiki Master Level, offered all three days of the weekend. I asked the teacher about doing any kind of barter of writing/editing services to offset some of the tuition cost, and she is open to it, and wants to speak with me. Probably tomorrow we'll figure it out. Also, I have to deal with a small Sunday conflict as I have to lead a rehearsal from 12-2 pm that day, but I hear that she gives a long lunch break, so it might still be ok. I'm going to ask all my questions when I talk to her. But I think if I have the chance to do the whole level, I should go for it.

And, regarding the jobs that came after I sent Reiki asking for them: out of the blue, one of them offered me 50% more money per article than originally agreed, and I even asked if it was a mistake, and they said no, it's correct. So I'm getting a great rate for writing Internet articles, and there should be a steady stream of assignments coming through at least June. This could add up to half the income I need to make in a month - a sizable contribution!

I decided that after I take the Reiki class, I'll see how I feel, and take some time to adjust to the new level of Reiki. Then I'll sign up for the Chios healing distance class, which should take about 6 weeks. I think Chios will be a very strong compliment to Reiki. I also plan, a year from now, to take Karuna. I want to have the ability to channel different energy frequencies for the strongest, most effective healing possible.

I've tried using some Theta Healing techniques, and the person I tried it on remarked on the difference in the Reiki this time - like she was under a heavy, warm, comforting blanket of energy. I'm going to continue to experiment. I like having different techniques to try to make the energy healing process as effective as it can be.

Peace, Love & Light.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Reiki Serendipity

As a freelance writer, work (and therefore, income) comes in project by project. And sometimes things come in stressfully slowly. This month fit into that category. So yesterday in the late morning, I sat and sent distance Reiki to the "wish" or intention to open the pathways for more work to be offered to me as immediately as possible. At 3:30 pm, I had three new projects in my inbox. None were things I hadn't applied for, but one was from someone I worked with a few months ago, and he was asking me to do two more projects for him, and one was an editor/proofer position I had applied for on a freelance job board - always a long shot. The third was a list of articles to write that I had been waiting for all week. So, thanks Reiki. (Now I had better get organized!)

Rayna and I gave my mom hands-0n Reiki last night, because Mom's back was sore. In less than 15 minutes, my mom's back felt all better. She wowed the whole time about how hot our hands were and how good the Reiki felt. I didn't notice my hands being hot, but I felt lots of tingle. My RMT told me that the recipient of hands-on often feels sensations that the practitioner doesn't feel. So true. When I started, I had a picture flash in my mind of the beach by the ocean. That was the first time I've ever had a random picture occur to me as I was channeling Reiki, but I have only a small number (I was going to type "handful") of hands-on Reiki experiences compared to my daily distance sendings and self treatment. My mom was in Florida for about two weeks last month.

Peace.

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Reiki Power!

Here's the update from yesterday's post about my student who was testing me by having me send him Reiki last night. I sent him a good half-hour session and felt quite connected to his energy, and figured the rest was up to him. He sent me an instant message after school today saying that he feels certain that he felt the Reiki I sent, heat in his stomach. Very likely, though I did ask if he felt anything in his head, since I sent him quite a bit there. But I did also send Reiki where he felt it and the important thing is...he felt it at all! He, who was ready to dismiss Reiki, but decided to try it, has actually felt the energy. I wonder what will happen now. I bet he'll do a bit of thinking, maybe research. It's quite validating for a skeptical person to have an experience somewhat outside the realm of his normal set of beliefs about reality.

And another Reiki-charged meeting...In my professional life, one of my latest freelance projects was to edit a guidebook about buying a house. I was assigned this project, though I had actually requested a different manuscript because it was about parenting, and I did the editing and emailed the author to let her know it was done. She, it turns out, "googled" me and found out that I am a Reiki person. And so, it turns out, is she. So it feels more than random that we ended up working together. I mean, can one consider the odds, with so relatively few Reiki people out there, that we would end up working together in this way? My mind is reeling. I told her by email that we had to talk Reiki and talk about our Reiki experiences and all, to see if there is more of a reason our paths have been brought together in this way. Geez, don't I sound like a person who believes in divine intervention? Never thought I'd feel like there was a reason for things happening, but since I've been involved with Reiki, sometimes opportunities seem to present themselves RIGHT IN FRONT OF MY FACE, and in case this is one of them, I don't want to dismiss it.

Love & Light.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Believing What I See

I want to thank Susan, who commented on my post "The Aura of a Chair", and suggested a visual energy exercise to try. She said to hold my index fingers together and then move them about a half and inch apart, and with relaxed gaze, look slightly above them for the aura of energy. I did, and it worked! Not only did I see a white hazy outline, but I also could see it connecting my fingers, and I saw a flicker of blue-green that was only visible for a second, but I feel sure it was there. I was very excited, and consider it an indication that I should keep believing that I can develop the color awareness of energy, and keep trying. (Her advice too!)

Along these lines, I am exploring the possibility of getting attuned to Chios Healing , which is an energy healing modality associated with developing and using color energy awareness to get information about where someone needs healing. The attunements and practice exercises (training manuals are free on their website), are designed to help the practitioner develop this visual sensitivity - exactly what I've been hoping for. Many Chios practitioners also use Reiki, and consider them close siblings. So I am looking into getting attuned to the second level, and I'll post when things are decided about that. But last night's exercise, and my meditation last night when I was doing a Reiki self-treatment, seemed to give me encouragement in this direction.

I would welcome any input from someone who has experience in Chios, and especially distance attunement and the training guide. Has it been effective for you? Did it help strengthen your Reiki practice, and if so, how? The Chios healing website seems extremely well-written, which appeals to me.

And, a challenge that I'm (maybe foolishly) undertaking:
One of my high school students, a very scientific and analytical, thoughtful young man, has listened with some skepticism to me talk about Reiki a few times in class. He wants to experience it for himself, and do some kind of experiment involving getting Reiki, and then having me send him Reiki again at an unspecified later date during the week, to see if he can tell when he is receiving the energy. We scheduled the first part of this for tonight at 10. Will he feel anything? The answer to that is as individual as the individual himself. There is no way to predict - it all is a factor of his sensitivity to energy, and whether he can overcome his skepticism enough to be open to do the experiment objectively. He's pretty mature overall, so I guess we will see. He promised to email me feedback later tonight or tomorrow. I know I'll be wondering until I hear from him. I think it's as much an experiment for him as it is for me, though I don't need validation or proof that Reiki is real. For me it's more of an experiment on how Reiki is perceived by a skeptical person trying to objectively determine its validity, with me as the sender. Now, that's a challenge.

I'm always learning from Reiki.
Peace.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Trying New Things

First, an update, as I have received the distance Ketsueki-Kokan treatment that I described in my most recent blog entry. (I promised that I would update afterward.)

On Thursday night, at the appointed time, I knew that the treatment would happen in a one hour window, so for that whole hour I relaxed in bed, my hands in Gassho position (that means with middle fingertips touching, hands held at the heart level), as tuned-in and receptive to energy as I could possibly be. I did feel some "energetic activity" going on during the first and last quarters of the hour. Whether some of that was due to my sense of expectation, and tuning-in, well, it's highly likely. I don't know if the treatment happened during either time, or in between. I have now received feedback from Peter, who sent the treatment. His feedback was interesting, saying that I had responded well to his attempts to balance my energy, and that he noticed that I had higher levels of energy at my root and crown chakras, and also in the feeling, rather than "doing" side of my yin/yang energy. Interesting, though I can't say that I understand it too much. Still, I'm determined to make the most of my "cleared" state, and do what I can to develop my sensitivity to energy, both sensory and visual. I don't know how long it will last, and neither do I feel very "different" at the moment.

I will say that I think that Reiki has helped me stay calm when I would otherwise feel angry or upset as reactions to things that happen during my day. I also sent Reiki to a "wish" for more creative writing work to be offered to me, and the next morning, out of the blue, I was asked in an email to write two one-woman skits. Nice.

Also, I mentioned in a previous post that I'm interested in learning more about Theta Healing. I have the book about it and last night, I spent some time reading and even tried a bit of it. The things that I find problematic about it are: it is said that the practitioner is REQUIRED to believe in God. The author says that repeatedly. I'm a person who has wrestled with that concept, at least until I started channeling Reiki. I feel the Reiki energy going through me to another person, and that is the closest I've felt to a Source outside myself. It's a very spiritual kind of energy. So, I tried to use that as my basis.

Next, the process involves visualizing yourself traveling in a ball of energy up through your crown chakra, up into space, and passing 6 levels of energy, white, dark, globulous, pink, and ending up in the 7th level with God. Then, you command (yes, command - another difficulty for me because it seems so presumptuous to command the Creator of Everything...) God to heal (someone) of their (problem). Then you say thank you, and repeat "it is done" three times, to solidify that this is a done deal. You are then supposed to "go into" the person's body with your visualization, and "witness" the healing taking place (visualize again). Cool idea, but very detailed. She has many testimonials and anecdotes that are very impressive. This can also be done via distance, which of course, appeals to me especially because I am very involved in distance Reiki right now.

The hard part for me, and I'm a creative, imaginative person by nature, is all this visualization. I just couldn't seem to picture all those etherial levels, and the rest. Plus, the commanding part was rather strong for me. Still, I'm adventuresome and want to learn. So I attempted to heal a kind of chronic eye virus or infection that I've been having which is a little uncomfortable. I tried, rather unsuccessfully, to visualize, command, and visualize, all that I was directed to do. I do think that I felt some relief in my eyes afterward, though I followed-up by applying Reiki to my eyes. But the slight discomfort symptoms returned, maybe less though - by the morning. I emailed Vianna to ask for advice. (I have chutzpa, I know, to email the source of this method, but why not? I'll let you know if she replies.) I want to take this seriously and really find a way for this kind of healing to compliment my Reiki practice. By the way, I do find it interesting that one need not be "attuned" in order to do Theta Healing, nor is it required to take a class with Vianna, the coiner of the process, though many do. Just reading her book and practicing her methods are said to be enough.

Enough for me? Not sure yet....gotta learn more.

Peace.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Increasing the Connection

Today I tried something new - Hatsurei Ho. It's a Reiki meditation, intended to connect one more with the Reiki energy, and it has been referred to as "the Jewel of Reiki," a metaphor I like a lot. My experience with trying it was to really feel the energy moving through me, and I enjoyed the peace of sitting quietly and still, focused on the energetic experience. It reminded me a lot of when I send distance Reiki, yet it was just inside myself. I am going to incorporate it into my practice as close to daily as I can. It is also supposed to increase the strength of one's Reiki, as it helps one be more aware and in touch with the energy.
Here's a connection to the link which has a very nice description of how it's done. http://www.aetw.org/d_hatsurei_ho.html

And, a friend on the Reiki Cafe message board has been developing a distance version of Ketsueki-Kokan, a distance clearing practice Intended for clearing of the Astral and Mental and Emotional energy bodies. The practice of Ketsueki-Kokan is usually hands-on, and is used at the end of a hands-on Reiki treatment to clear any "leftover" or trapped negative energy from the aura and body. It has a scary name in English - blood exchange, (yuck!) but it is more properly called a blood cleansing technique, though no actual blood is involved (of course! yuck again!).
Here is a link to a better explanation of the hands-on version: http://www.aetw.org/d_ketsueki_kokan_ho.htm
Okay, so this person at the Reiki Cafe has developed a distance version of this "cleansing" technique, and he offers individual (and group - though I signed-up for the individual) treatments of this kind, with feedback afterward. I am going to be on his list tomorrow night between 9 and 10 pm. I'm intrigued, and feel that I could use some aura clearing, as I've been a little stressed lately. The "cleared" state reportedly could bring about effects such as "enhancement of gifts, awareness of the seedlings of other gifts, increased effective use of existing gifts, increased resistance to stress and anxiety, clearer meditations, etc." (quoted from the description of feedback received from those who have experienced this distance process). So, I'm game, definately! It's possible that feeling effects could take a while, but I'm open to the experience, and the possibility of the positive effects whenever!

I'll post afterward about my experience, and update once I receive feedback from the person doing the session. Here is a link to the offer on Reiki Cafe, in case someone reading this wants to get more information from the source, or even try it too: http://www.nexuscafe.com/bin/bbs.cgi/ShowMessages/reiki/10/15981/0 (If you do, feel free to email me or post a comment here, and we could compare experiences a little!)

I'm taking my 4 and 6 year old kids to my RMT for Reiki I attunement today, and I'm going to teach them the hand positions. I think it is wonderful for them to have the opportunity to use Reiki when they want to, to soothe themselves, or each other, reduce stress, relax, and it empowers them with a way to help themselves deal with powerful emotions and stress. They both have experienced Reiki from me, and want to be able to channel Reiki.

Peace, Love, Light & Gratitude.

Monday, February 4, 2008

White Sparkles & Reiki Rules

Last night I sent Reiki to a person who sees white sparkling light when I send to him. It was the third time I've sent distance Reiki to him, and this time, when sending the energy, I saw white light behind my eyes, and had strong energetic sensations tingling on my face, and particularly my right eye (not sure why there). It was particularly cool. Maybe our energetic connection is increasing from repeated Reiki, or maybe my sensitivity is increasing. Reiki is always interesting!

His feedback said that again he saw the same white light, and that his stomach ache, which he had when we started, got better during the session.

And, over the weekend, my daughter, Rayna, who is 8 and attuned to Reiki II, and I sent distance Reiki together to my friend who sends to us sometimes in the morning. I held Rayna's hand and did the distance symbol, and we each concentrated our Reiki on a different part of our friend - Rayna did the knees, I did the head and chest. Our recipient had a bad cold and a sore knee, and we both felt the tingling and heat of the Reiki in our hands as we did the sending. It was a nice mother-daughter bonding experience for us too.

It was the first time that Rayna had experienced sending distance Reiki, and so I layed down some "Reiki Rules" for her. Reiki Rule #1: Never give or send Reiki energy without permission of the recipient. Reiki Rule #2: Only send distance Reiki from home. (That rule applies to Rayna because I don't want her playing around with it at school. She should be concentrating on learning and playing with her friends there, and it might weird out or annoy her teacher if she is busy trying to send Reiki to someone. Plus, it lets me help her, so it puts the distance Reiki in a more structured, controlled environment). Rayna doesn't know the distance symbol, but I taught her that if she focused her intent on sending the Reiki to a specific person, that it would go there. She was very accepting of the rules, so I feel good about this.

Peace.