This past weekend I attended a Reiki level one training. Offered at Yoga Loft studio, led by the lovely Jen Nicol. Initially what had attracted me to the training was the mere fact that it was a training of some sort, and the price made it a killer deal. You see, when I was going through my 200-hr yoga teacher training, despite the long hours, I enjoyed every minute and absorbed every bit of information that I could. Seeing as I do not have the time nor the funding to take another extensive teacher training, small ones such as this will suffice. As for previous my Reiki knowledge, it was minimal to say the least. I knew it involved healing via energy through the means of touch, and that was about it.
The training began with a true and honest testimony from facilitator, Jen. Appreciating the fact that Jen was the type of teacher that was down-to-earth and relayed her knowledge in a practical, easy to relate to way, gave her all the more credibility in my eyes. As esoteric as Reiki seems to be, Jen gave concrete personal examples of its validity. Though I would not consider myself to be very Type A, needing facts and figures in order to believe something to be true, Jen’s honesty and pure zeal for the practice, aided in my belief efforts. And then there was to be the experience that I shared at the end of class……please read on to find out. So what the Reiki is going on? If Reiki is as unfamiliar to you as it was to me prior to this weekend, allow me to offer a brief insight. Mind you much more could be said on this topic and if this post stokes your curiosity I highly encourage more education on your part. Straight from the manual, a brief quote, “Reiki is a safe, gentle, non-intrusive hands-on healing technique…based on the principal that the practitioner can channel energy into the client by means of touch, to activate the active healing process of the patient’s body and restore physical and emotional well-being.” There are three levels of a Reiki practitioner, level one, two, and three. At level three you become Reiki master and then can attune, or pass down the gift of Reiki to someone that wishes to possess the gift. Once you have a Reiki attunement you will have it for life, it will not wear off. Have I lost you yet? No? Great! Let’s keep going. Let me ask you this, have you ever met someone and were instantly drawn to them? Like lost friends whose paths have finally crossed. Or on the opposite end, met someone and try as you might to be pono, yogi, nice, there was just something about them inhibiting you from doing so? The big word here is energy. There is energy in LITERALLY everything and EVERYTHING is energy. The desk that I am working at contains energy. The cup next to me holding water, energy and more energy. The details of this are vast but I will relate this in a way that hopefully makes sense – take the desk for example – the tree that was cut down and used for lumber to build the desk contains energy from the sun, water and dirt, that energy is not lost just because the tree is cut down and then reassembled into a different form. Reincarnation anyone? Did I really lose you there? Yes? That’s okay! Just keep reading and ask questions to Google later. One more quick quote from the manual to try and offer any bit of clarity you may still be looking for; “Reiki is universally guided healing. This energy is infinite, wise, and ‘knows’ precisely what we need to relax, release stress, and activate the healing power within all of us. A beautiful characteristic of Reiki is that it has the ability to harmonize energies. Therefore, Reiki enhances anything we do.” As aforementioned, this is but a brief explanation of the subject so if this is unclear there is probably an explanation that will make sense to you on the ever growing Internet. For now, onto the mysterious and solidifying event I experienced at the training. After we got through the manual it was time to begin the attunement process. We began with a lovely grounding mediation. Lying on my yoga mat with a blanket rolled up under my knees, another across my hips for just a little more grounding, and a soft smile of anticipation across my lips, I began watching my breath and waiting for my turn. As I felt my neighbor gently tap my shoulder, the signifier that it was your turn, I slowly reawakened my body and began to glide across the room to the chair which we were instructed to sit upon. The attunement process was brief yet still beautiful. I saw bits of white and gold when Jen gently pressed onto my third eye center, six chakra location, the center of intuition and an overall sense of well-being and comfort. When the process was complete I did not float off of the chair and levitate across the room back to my mat as a small part of me would love to have done. Still yet, more magic was to come. The training had roughly ten to twelve attendees and after we all became attuned it was time to partner up and give one another a Reiki session. My partner, we will call her Kim, and I have not known each other for more than the five hours which we sat next to each other. Truthfully, I did not even get a look at her face until I had asked if she wanted to be partners. The point I am stressing here is that Kim and I were strangers at best. I went first to receive the Reiki from her. As I lay on my mat the familiar sensation of tingling numbness begins to ensue throughout my ankles and feet, as I said familiar, it is not unusual for those spots of my body to act up when in meditation in times past. What was different about this sensation however, was that it was not as bothersome as it normally ends up being. There were times during the session that Kim would have her two hands on one spot of my body and as she would move to another spot I would still feel the warmth from where she just was, a common experience as Jen would later clarify. Then as Kim reached my feet I felt for sure I would jump or jerk as a natural reaction to the numbness. Rather, when she touched the top of my foot, as if I could see it clear as day, her touch rippled out like a water drop across the rest of my foot and then all awareness of her hands on my feet floated off like a cloud in the sky. A closing prayer is said by Kim and I sit up in a foggy yet still alert, haze. Almost immediately Kim asks me if I am on my feet a lot or if I was a ballerina; a shudder down my spine quickly brings me out of my haze. On my feet a lot, yes, but a ballerina?! See the ballerina comment was not all that far off. I explained that I am on my feet to some extent, being a yoga teacher and enjoying my fair share of physical activity I use my legs and feet quite often. Then confessing things I had only up until now shared with my fiancé, I explained to Kim that I had in my childhood years had been a dancer for quite some time, ballet mostly, and that for about the past six months or so have been strangely missing my time at the dance studio. Then there was the peculiar desire that recently formulated to strike up a career as a ballet instructor to young girls. Kim and I were struck with disbelief. She then goes on to say as soon as she began to work with my feet she felt them to be very warm and heavy, and as her hands were held there an image flashed in her mind of a plush red curtain, and as it parts down the middle there is me in a full ballerina costume, tutu and all, leaping and dancing across the stage. My mouth hung open in pure amazement and awe. As I pointedly stressed, Kim and I were strangers in all sense of the word. There is no way and I mean NO WAY for her to have known anything at all of my recent longings to take up dance once again. So this, is my testimony of faith to the Reiki practice. Jen eagerly began the training off by saying the word of the day was ‘trust’; boy do I now have trust. Chances are I will not renounce my yoga teacher life and enroll myself into Juilliard. However, I will more seriously entertain the idea of adult ballet classes and pray that a studio miraculously opens in Waianae. It’s not far off to say that I am a firm believer in miracles.
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