Experiences

Day 3 of Reiki was interesting. I was a water consuming machine! I have this water bottle I carry around with me, and each day I try to drink at least 2, ideally 3 bottles full of water. Yesterday I couldn't get enough of it! I drank 5 of them, and I still felt thirsty and dehydrated when I went to bed.

I shared some reiki with my little sister, who's 12 and really looks up to me. She was very eager to try it without even knowing much about it. All I basically told her was that it was healing energy that flows through my hands and into her. She seemed to feel very calm and relaxed afterward and reported feeling warm and tingly. It was really interesting to experience the difference between her and James. She was very twitchy. I figured that was just her body relaxing—releasing tension and what-not.

I also shared some reiki with my step-dad, who generally is someone who doesn't really believe in things he can't see. He recently had his knee operated on, and is now in the recovery process. He seemed very eager to see what this stuff was all about.

I gave him a relatively short healing session—longer than my sister, but shorter than a *full* session—because I had just finished with my sister, and my back was aching. I guess my body will get used to giving the sessions the more I practice them.

At the end of the session, I form my hands into a rake, and sweep over the body, removing any unwanted, unnecessary leftover energy, then release it back into the universe to be transmuted into something else. My step-dad reported that he visualized a black cloud over him, and when I did the sweeping, he felt a white cloud roll in and dissipate the black cloud. He seemed really amazed by the whole thing & seemed very grateful. From the outside, it appeared as though a thick wall that he generally has around him had been broken down a little. He seemed softer and more accepting of himself and others. Truly a beautiful sight to see.

He and my mom were aware that Reiki existed, but were uncomfortable with the idea of some stranger touching them, and unaware of what it really did. When it was requested that my mom try reiki treatments for her cancer, she was very unsure about it, and so avoided it at the time. I believe my mom has always been psychically sensitive, and has the innate ability to pick up on things, but she's never really learned anything about it, and doesn't know how to recognize when she's experiencing something on that level. I was so happy to hear from her, that when I began working on my sister that my mom FELT something. She was sincerely overwhelmed by the concept that she felt it. She even now has an interest in learning how to do reiki herself. Wouldn't that be awesome? I think she'd be a natural!

This morning (day 4) I awoke around 5:30, laid in bed for a bit to decide whether I was really awake for the day or if I could fall back to sleep for another hour or so... I was indeed awake, so I decided I'd use the time for some meditation and reiki. Since I had the time, I decided to give myself a full session, during which I tried to stay as focused as possible on the moment, without drifting into thoughts of yesterday and later today. It was a challenge, but something happened that seemed to be helpful. My body began swaying side to side. Occasionally it would pull one direction more than the other. I could only relate it to the swing I've experienced from a pendulum. It intrigued me, so I began asking questions, like should I water fast today, and should I eat only fruit today. I established that pulling to the right meant yes, and pulling to the left meant no. It was really interesting to witness this phenomenon.

So begins my life with Reiki

Saturday I was attuned to Level 1 Usui by a very experienced and knowledgable, intuitive master. I'm honored to have had the experience with her. It was an all day class. She taught us about the fundamentals and history of Usui Reiki, taught us the principles in Japanese and then attuned us. We practiced self healing, then after lunch had a second attunement.

There were 4 of us in the class—we were taught how to do a reiki session on another person, then there was time for a third attunement. With each attunement the energy flowed more and more strongly through me.

During the attunements, I felt as though my hands were cupping energy—it was a really beautiful experience. It was a gift. I felt honored.

I also noticed the area around my kidneys would ache as I was being attuned. With each attunement the ache was more painful. I asked Starr (the reiki master) about this, and she said the kidneys are the power-house of our cleansing system, and they may be in heavy detox, causing the pain. I've been drinking lots of water to help flush them, and thankfully the pain in that area has subsided.

In the last self healing session we had, I noticed that when I was giving reiki to my crown chakra my head began aching. I read someplace, that during the first 21 days after an attunement that it's possible for our bodies to experience pains such as headaches from detox.

Today is day 3 since the attunement. On Day 1 (Sunday), the headache kept me from doing much except relaxing and Reiki. I did a full self-healing session that night that really helped the headache to lessen. On Day 2 I did a quick self healing in the evening, and gave lots of reiki to my plants and food throughout the day. I woke up about 45 minutes early this morning to do some meditating and reiki before beginning my day. I’m so happy that I did, I feel very centered and peaceful—much more so than I did when I crawled out of bed.

I’m so excited that this process has begun. It’s the first thing I think of in the morning when I get up. To me, that’s a sure-fire sign that I’m heading in the right direction. I’ve memorized the 5 principles in Japanese, and often wake up at night to find them repeating in my head.

I’ve scheduled my Level 2 Usui training to happen mid-October with Starr. It’s about a month from Level 1, so I feel that should be about enough time.

Reiki Reading material

I've become really excited about my Reiki attunement. So much so that I can't find enough information online to read—in an attempt to prepare... It's slightly frustrating to *think* about reiki and not really understand its potential. A lot of what I read explains that reiki cannot be described with words, and it's through experience that we learn the most.

So I realize that this is a test of my patience and a tool through which I can learn how to be patient and accept the moment as it is. Though, it's a challenge when I'm filled with so much excitement and anticipation for something I *know* so little about, yet trust so fully in my heart.

Anyway, here is a collection of some things I have found useful.

Doven Star (the whole website)
Preparing for an attunement
The attunement ceremony
The first 21 days.
Reiki Self-Treatment
A reiki forum

My Second Reiki Healing Session

Wow. Last night's reiki session was pretty amazing.

Moments after Starr put her hands on my head my eyelids began vibrating—similar to what I've seen of people during REM sleep, but I was awake. Afterward I mentioned this to Starr, and she said she'd heard of that happening before, and said it may have something to do with the third eye opening. That makes sense to me, because it felt as though my 2 regular eyes were turning themselves off. I was resistant at first because it was so sudden, and the resistance is what caused the vibrations. But as I relaxed and allowed my body to do what it wanted with the energy, my eyes slowly stopped vibrating and calmly closed.

It lasted about an hour, and each time Starr moved her hands I had to readjust. She'd place her hands, I'd feel a moment of resistance, my mind would wander then I'd come back, breathe and let go. This happened over and over again. I enjoyed the process of sitting back and watching. Whenever I began having expectations of how something should be happening, I'd remind myself to just relax and let things happen as they willed.

There were lots of really interesting moments, like when she was near my left shoulder, I felt something in there DEEP—something emotional that was trying to remain hidden. It did a pretty good job at staying hidden, but it was wiggled loose. Later, when I was back at home unloading groceries, etc… from my car, I loaded everything up onto my left shoulder, and noticed a correlation—my left shoulder carries heavy things for me. So it only makes sense that that might be where I subconsciously carry heavy emotions. I'm really interested in watching this further.

When Star had her hands on my left foot, I felt energy slowly slipping up my body, in what I can only describe as Kundalini. I can't say I'd ever felt it like this before, but now I can understand why Kundalini is described as snake-like—the energy slowly crept along, weaving around my chakras like a snake—. A very cool sensation.

Afterward I felt light and airy, but also slightly dizzy, dehydrated and ravenously hungry. The dizziness went away pretty quickly, and the dehydration and hunger were easily fixed—the lightness and airiness are still lingering.

I was able to avoid eating any bad-for-me foods yesterday! At the beginning of the session, Starr asked for any spirit guides who work with me to help me to eat the foods that are best for me. I'm hoping someone was listening, I could really use any help I can get!

Starr said that there's nothing I *have* to do to prepare for the attunement, but she said that if I wanted to, I could work on lightening by avoiding red meats (which I do anyway), and eating lots of fruits & veggies, drinking lots of water, meditating, doing yoga... so basically the things I strive toward doing on a regular basis. I'm happy she told me these things—it's motivating for me to eat well and really take care of myself until the attunement. Baby steps.

Just for today, don't get angry, don't worry, be grateful, work hard, and be kind to others.

Letting go

THE LIFESTYLE:
I've realized that in the long term… (I guess 2 weeks seems long term) keeping track of daily goals just doesn't work for me. I get antsy, resistant and irritated with myself whenever I don't meet one of them, and that sends me into a downward spiral until none of the goals are met and I'm just not caring about any of it anymore—enter self-destructive eating habits!

This lead me toward letting go of my daily goals, and concentrating more on the long term goal of being the healthiest I can be, in my entirety. There are always hills and valleys on the road toward any long-term goal, so when concentrating on each day, I would get stuck in the valleys, dwelling there, unable to move up toward the peak.

I'm letting it all go, and just allowing myself to be as I am—to listen to my body, respect it in each moment and to be okay with whatever choices I decide to make.

THE SPIRIT
I have a private reiki session scheduled for tonight with Starr. I'm eager to experience the reiki energy as it comes through her before the attunement (which will be happening soon!)

I feel like the reiki attunement is happening at the perfect time. It's the time of year that I've always felt closest to the spirit world, and this year the spirit world is really strongly directing me toward reiki… I'm sorry if that's all I seem to be able to talk about lately—but it's something really exciting to me. I'm trying not to have many expectations for what I'll be able to do after the attunement… as it's relatively uncharted territory for me, and everything I've read is only words, and descriptions, and completely unfathomable to me. I've almost been feeling like I can already heal with energy through my hands, and that since I've become more interested in Reiki, that I've been more consciously aware of this ability… but I'm also not sure if it's just in my head, or if it's actually doing anything… I guess if I believe it's doing something than it is, but I'm glad to have the opportunity to go to the attunement class in order to understand it better, be more efficient and protected while practicing.

Something Starr said last week at my reiki session has had me wondering—she was talking with me about the spiritual benefits of learning reiki, and she popped out something about past lives... just casually mentioning it. At the time I didn't think much of it, but as I was reading through her website, I've learned that she's a medium, and knows a lot more than she may say. So, I'm wondering just how casual the mentioning of past lives is… since it's the only thing she mentioned, and there are MANY other benefits of opening up to the spirit world in addition to that. Like, might she know something about a past life instance that may be leading me into reiki… I dunno if she does or not, but I feel like there is.

I really hate the term past life, because I see it more as just another life that has a similar energetic pattern to mine, that I can identify with… and that time really has nothing to do with it, since time doesn't exist on the spiritual plane and since we're all one, and we've all experienced everything… and what-not. Similar to yoga, I've always felt drawn toward being able to heal with my hands. When I was little I pretended that I could. Until I really started looking into Reiki and understanding that it's actually possible, I never imagined really being able to do it… that it was all make-believe. Ever since James & I have been together, I've tried using touch to help heal his stomach upsets… and it seemed to help. It excites me to think of being able to help things heal themselves in this way—plants, animals, people, everything.

One of the things I absolutely love about reiki is that it can NEVER do any harm. Reiki energy is always pure, unconditional loving energy, and a healer doesn't receive any backwash from the people they work with, nor does the "patient" ever receive any energy directly from the healer. The healer is just used as a conduit through which the energy flows. It heals the healer, then heals the patient—so to speak. So for that reason, Reiki itself feels entirely safe. However, I understand that opening myself up to different energy levels also leaves me open to more psychic attack by beings who reside on other planes, and I'll need to become more adept at psychic protection.

Lately I've been imagining myself stepping into a bag of brilliant white light, pulling it up over myself and tying it at the top, from the inside. I may need to knit something like this... hmmm...

My First Reiki Healing Session

Reiki seems to be continuously on my mind lately.

I went to a healing session locally, performed by students of the reiki master Starr. Carol and Dawn were the practitioners who worked with my energies. I noticed that Carol seemed to be the more experienced one, as she seemed to take the lead. I also noticed that I could feel more heat and pulsing from her hands than from Dawns. Both however, were very professional, peaceful and comforting. I would definitely work with both, or either of them again.

After the healing, Starr talked with me a bit about the healing session, and I found out that Carol is indeed more experienced. She is attuned to Usui Level 3 and Jikiden level 1. Dawn is attuned to Usui Level 2 and Jikiden Level 1.

From what I understood from our conversation, Usui Reiki is more of a universal energy healing, that works on the over-all body, while Jikiden is more generalized, concentrating more on one part of the body or another. Starr recommends that people learn Usui Reiki first, which makes sense.

When I arrived, I had felt very, and I mean VERY anxious... it was more anxiety than I usually allow myself to have in situations... and it's only a more-sure sign to me showing that I'm really meant to head down this path since I went despite the anxiety. I'll usually freak out and not do it whenever anxiety gets to be so high.

So, why was I so nervous? I think it had a lot to do with the uncertainty of what was actually going to happen during the healing, and that I was going to allow people I'd never met before to futz around with my delicate energy.

When they called me in, I removed my shoes and got onto the massage table. Dawn covered me with a blanket. I lay on my back, closed my eyes and breathed. In addition to the energy work that was being done, the time was a great meditation session—lots of breathing.

Afterwards, when I sat up I felt light and airy—calm, peaceful and soft. Soft was the best word I could come up with at the time to describe the way I felt. Everything was soft—inside and out. The back pain I had from moving recently was gone and the anxiety was absolutely no where to be found. A great experience all around. I'm definitely confident that it's a healthy path for me.

I just clicked a link I found on Twitter, and found a few questions that are commonly asked to new Reiki students. I figured I'd take a few minutes to figure out how I answer them:

Are you ready?
Yes! More than ever.

Do you have a working knowledge?
I was hoping I'd learn how it works exactly during the attunement class, but I think I have an idea of what happens.

What are your expectations?
I'm expecting to feel similar to how I felt after the reiki session, and have the ability to help ease physical ailments by touch.

What is your motivation?
I want to help heal myself and the world. I want to tell people that I'm sending them healing thoughts and actually be able to send something. I want to feel as though my intentions can help the world be a more peaceful place.