This was one of my first blogs in 2016- I edited just a bit here to share with you especially if you are considering the BE ROOTED program this September!
“I’m interested in taking a Reiki class, but I’m feeling a bit skeptical”.
If you’re someone who doesn’t have much experience with body work or doesn’t have a strong experience and understanding of energy work, the skeptical and data focused mind can make it seem as though Reiki is a questionable or unreliable practice. I find though, that people are often drawn to learn about Reiki with very little exposure to it or knowledge of what it is. I trust this process deeply because it is how it worked for me as well.
I came from a science background: doing science, teaching science. My training was all about data, facts, and double blind studies. What I found in my reiki classes, is that the weekends of Reiki classes are a time of self-care, of letting go of ideas about data, and of focusing on internal information and intuition. And truly, science is showing more and more that everything is energy and everything is connected- there doesn’t have to be a divide between “science” and “energy healing” like Reiki.
Students can enter a weekend completely skeptical and can still notice energetic shifts. One classmate I studied with started a weekend and saying, “I don’t see anything….I did see colors”. Her words reflected her doubt that she was even able to experience something she lacked language for or experience with. It is always so powerful to see a class of freshly attuned students to practice Reiki on themselves and others, with awe and surprise, “I can feel heat!” or “It felt like your hands were still there after they left!” Even the most skeptical students notice something, in some form.
Reiki is a self-care practice that gives the student a way to become more connected with their own energy and somatic body, to be able to ground and set energetic boundaries. Learning and practicing Reiki is a bit magical, and I can still say that even as a true scientist and lover of scientific thinking myself. Students don’t have to go out into the world and share Reiki or practice on clients. Practice can be personal and there is no need to share it with others in order to reap the benefits of this type of awareness and openness. Tools gained in class can help with everyday little ailments and things that come up as self-care practice.
At the very least, anyone who has even a small inkling of attraction to Reiki would be well served by a day to be still and practice noticing and being aware of themselves. Anyone can study Reiki, it is useful an beneficial regardless of professional or personal roles. It will certainly not hurt anyone to sit, build awareness, and experience having the time to be in tune with one’s own thoughts and mind without kids or partners or coworkers around to distract.
Whether you’re a parent or a teacher, a massage therapist or a doula, a cashier or a dentist, Reiki classes can help you gain awareness of yourself and your energy in a way that will be helpful to everyone you come in contact with.
I now teach Reiki only in my 9-month program, Be Rooted in Your Truest Self- If you are interested in learning the practice of Reiki in community, to dive into your own healing journey, please attend a Q+A information session- the program begins this September 2023.