Month: November 2024

As a Reiki practitioner, I have been offering reiki sessions for clients with my understand- ing of the Buddhist concept of suffering and how surrendering allows flow into the present moment. In Buddhism, the Four Noble Truths say that we are in a constant state of wanting, longing, suffering, pain, and sorrow due to desire, and suffering will end if we stop clinging to desire.1 Many of us have goals, desires, and intentions for ourselves and our futures, but not all will come to fruition. Some of these goals and desires will need to be surrendered out for many reasons. Some goals we thought were so important and right at the time be- come obsolete in the present. Things are always changing in our lives, and there will always be something we need to release. Often this surrendering to what we have out- grown, or that which is no longer for our highest good, allows for the birthing of something new.

Most of us love having goals and being able to work towards them. Goals give us a purpose and a direction to move in, but when that goal no longer aligns with our highest truth, it no longer serves us. Unfortunate- ly, sometimes our ego gets in the way and can become attached to the goal or desire valuing it more than our highest truth. This situation often creates disharmony and anxiety for us. Reiki works as a soothing balm in the scary moments where we are afraid to let go of the known path and surrender to the unknown—that place where the next step is not clear, and we don’t know what will happen. This fear often keeps many people stuck in a rut, not moving forward, or able to live their fullest potential. Being human means growth and change, but we can often be stubborn, wanting things to stay the same and forfeit growth for security.

Surrender, in the Buddhist sense for me, means al- lowing a higher truth to reveal itself by letting go of the known. Often this means having faith and trust in our highest selves, God, All-That-Is, or Universal Love. Reiki contains Universal Love. Reiki calms me back into my heart in those moments when I don’t know what to do. It bridges the space and time before I know the next step to take after surrendering. Reiki feels like that part of faith that glues me back together when I feel like I have broken down.

When I got the calling from my highest self and All- That-Is to become a Reiki practitioner as my sole career, my ego resisted. I had been an artist and hairstylist for twenty years. At age thirty-nine, I felt the inner call- ing to surrender to a new career as a Reiki practitioner. Fear about financially supporting myself with this new career rose. My life went into disarray as I hesitantly accepted this healing modality of Reiki as a way of life. My relationship of thirteen years was no longer serving me and fell apart; I found myself so scared as I surrendered everything I had known, including our home together and my old career.

I found Reiki to be my loving, healing balm. I gave myself Reiki every morning and prayed for help in this transition to have the strength to face the unknown. I gave myself Reiki in the evenings, grateful for the new opportunities that appeared. I found an office to rent part-time from a friend to start my practice and found a new apartment I shared with someone in San Francisco. I realized that only in surrendering everything I had known could I begin the life I was meant to live. I was birthing a new me, a new career, and a new home in which to live. All of this was meant to happen, and I was meant to surrender the old ways to birth a new me. I love my life now, and I am a stronger person from going through this life change.

Many of my Reiki clients often need to release old ways and surrender to seeking new ways within them- selves for personal growth or sometimes surrender old forms of their lives. One client I was offering Reiki to was holding on to a partner that had broken up with her. She wanted to get back together and had much anger and blame. Reiki helped bring forgiveness to her heart and power chakra where she was holding onto her ex-boyfriend. Reiki helped soothe her through the fear of being alone. It filled her up with Universal Love in the places where she wanted the love from the old partner. After many sessions, she could surrender to let him go and move through the fear with the help of Reiki as the healing balm. I urged my client to do creative things to engage some joy in her life, and she started taking dance classes. She was smiling again and was finding a new sense of herself.

Another client had a goal to work in the business world. She went to business school and graduated with a degree. But as she tried working in the field for over two years, she became very unhappy. Then she came to get Reiki sessions to help her heal all the anxiety she had when going to work. During our Reiki sessions, her anxiety was released. She realized her heart wanted a job helping people more directly and needed to let go of the goal she had worked so hard for. Reiki helped bring compassion and forgiveness so her ego could surrender the old goal and see she was not a failure by leaving the business world. Reiki helped bring the loving balm to accept that she was meant to follow her heart. She realized she wanted to become a life coach to support people in finding a true path, a career that made others happy.

One woman came to me with so much anger towards her mother, who had recently passed away. Her mother had been a difficult person and had emotionally abused her, especially when she was younger. In our Reiki sessions, I worked on my client’s heart chakra. I asked Reiki to help her surrender to forgiveness for her moth- er. Reiki soothed her pain and hurt and softened the anger. Reiki helped her heart feel compassion towards her mother by understanding her mother had also experienced a hard life. My client cried when she surrendered out all the anger because it was then that she could feel the love she had for her mother. Reiki helped her to start the grieving process so that she could move forward in her life. Surrendering allowed all the blocked emotions to release through tears, and Reiki flowed through her.

Sometimes, the things that made us happy in the past need to be surrendered and released. If we get attached to something in our past that was wonderful and want to keep it with us as we grow, it might block us from new things that are meant to come into our lives. For example, I was in a spiritual circle of women I absolutely loved. The group lasted for about four years. We shared lots of dancing, drumming, singing, and creating ceremonies to honor Mother Earth. Unfortunately, I became attached to this group. As we all grew and changed, people went their separate ways, and the group naturally ended. I often found myself wishing we were still meeting.

I realized I needed to accept the truth that this amazing group was in the past, and I needed to surrender to being in the present. So, I asked Reiki to help me let go of my attachment to this spiritual circle of women. When I surrendered to Reiki, I soon found a new group to fit where I am now. I met writers who wanted to start a writing group with me to support and expand our work. My current writing group is helping me grow in many ways, and I am so grateful.

Surrendering with Reiki allows us to gently move into being more present in our highest truth. When we surrender, we find a humbleness that allows us to open to a loving path more easily. Letting go is often an important part of the life process that allows the journey of creating a new self and a new future to take place. I am so grateful to have Reiki as a healing, loving balm to assist my clients and me through the path of surrendering into the unknown so that a new self can be born.

 

Photos courtesy of Shekhina von Recklinghausen

Endnote
1 “The Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path Explained,” Teachings of the Buddha, https://teachingsofthebuddha.com/the-four-noble-truths-and-the- eightfold-path-explained/.

Reiki is Life Force guided by Divine Wisdom, which supports our connection and alignment to our highest selves. Our highest self is our light being part of us, which may also be called our soul. The heart is most thought of as the home for the soul.

Our highest self can be seen as our wisest self that knows all our past lives, who we are in our present moment, and is guiding us to the most loving future. Our highest self speaks to us through the voice of our intuition, that spiritual part of us that just knows in our hearts what is the most loving path to take.

When we can see moments in our lives from an elevated perspective that is guiding us to the highest vibrational choice in any given moment, we are in soul alignment. There are many ways to create this centering with highest self for example, through meditation, yoga, connecting to nature, gratitude prayers, sound healing, self-love journaling, and my favorite of all, Reiki healing energy.

When I offer Reiki healing to my clients, it helps them to relax back into their hearts where the soul is best felt. We all have so much going on in our every day lives, going to work, bills to pay, shopping for dinner, taking care of loved ones and so on. It is easy to slip out of our heart space and rely only on our minds. But this is not who we really are. We are in our truest form when we are connecting to our highest self, that part of us that is our most authentic and loving self.

Reiki is Life Force guided by Divine Wisdom that reminds our egos that we are not separate, but a part of the Universal Love. Reiki allows our ego to come back to alignment with our light being self. During a Reiki session, the Reiki energy sooths the mind, helps the mind to let go of the details of the day and energetically relaxes back into the heart in a gentle way. Reiki is so amazing because it meets each person exactly where they are. It organically flows to wherever the person needs it most.

Sometimes emotional blockages can inhibit our connection to our highest self, when we aren’t able to hear our intuition or be in touch with our hearts. We can feel separated from our souls because of fear, anger, grief or anxiety for example. Sometimes in a Reiki session the energy blockage can feel constricted in the area where the flow has stopped. As the Reiki Practitioner, I experience Reiki feeling like the sun melting the ice so that the energy may flow freely again.

Reiki also helps our minds let go of anxious thoughts so we can relax more and merge with highest self. When we are in alignment with our highest self, we are operating from our center in harmony with our heart, mind, body and emotions, like a symphony of many musical notes working together for a beautiful song to be expressed. This song is our soul essence shining forth in our own special ways.

In my Reiki practice I offer my clients the possibility of meeting their highest self through a guided visualization if they are interested. First I allow the Reiki to bring the client into a deep relaxation where their mind and all their chakras have opened to the flow of Reiki. I ask them to close their eyes and visualize a place in nature where they have felt calm, safe and inspired. I tell the client to see themselves there and to place a blanket down on the earth to sit upon for grounding in the vision. Next I suggest that the person invite their highest self to sit on the blanket with them. Most people see their highest self as looking like themselves, but with a bright light glowing in and all around them or wearing something like a white robe. It varies to each person and to what their relationship is to their highest self.

I ask the client to hug their highest self and receive their unconditional love for them. Often the person will have tears of joy feeling that they have really come back home. I suggest the person ask their highest self for a message at this time for healing or guidance. The answers may come through a feeling, a symbol, a revealing, or hearing something through their intuition. This is an opportunity to receive the wisdom from their soul in the ways that work best for each person. After they receive a message or healing, I ask them to hug their highest self in thankfulness and to remember their highest self lives within their hearts and they can access this connection anytime they wish. At the end of the session, clients often have a feeling of inner calm, deep self-love and oneness within their hearts.

When I open to my highest self I make time usually in the morning or evening where I place one hand on my heart chakra and one hand on my power chakra to allow the flow of Reiki through my body. Depending on the day if my mind is active I might place a hand on my crown chakra and heart chakra for calming of my mind. Next I use the same visualization I offer to my clients.

Sometimes my highest self will pick the location for our visualization. Recently my soul self invited me to the beautiful Yosemite waterfalls I had visited before. My highest self was wearing a long, white flowing dress that glistened everywhere. She held my hands and asked me to stand with her inside the waterfalls. I opened my heart and we walked deeper into the falls where the water became silver steams and droplets of healing moonlight. The silver water washed through the inside of my body and I felt elated, filled with an effervescent energy. I felt renewed within and my mind optimistic about life. Highest self told me I could come here anytime I needed to replenish myself. She then placed her hand on my heart and told me that I am never alone she is always with me. We hugged and she merged back into my heart.

While having a visualization is wonderful, it is not the only way to experience our highest selves. The heart is the place to access our soul essence. The most important way to connect with the highest self is to open our heart. Self-love connects us inward and allows us to open to our divine self. To feel the essence of our soul is to feel the unconditional love for ourselves or another. Trusting our intuition is also how we experience our highest self to guide us in our lives. There are many more ways to explore how our souls choose to connect with us. Everyone’s experiences with their soul self will be unique because we are all different.

To honor an experience with our highest self I often suggest to my clients the possibility of painting a picture of what your highest self looks like, or taking a picture of yourself dressed as your highest self, writing in your journal to capture the experience or writing a poem. It is wonderful to place this honoring symbol on your altar to be reminded of this beautiful connection.

The ultimate desire is to live aligned with our soul self every day. But, the truth is that it is sometimes difficult when we get knocked off our center, when things can catch us unexpectedly in our lives. We drop a dish that shatters, the car has a flat tire, we forgot to pay a bill or we just have a bad day. This is being human and it is so important that we have compassion for ourselves as a human being. A bit of loving humor can definitely help as well.

This is why I love Reiki so very much, it does not judge, it does not have us do more than what we can in the moment. Reiki meets us exactly where we are and gives us unconditional love and divine wisdom. Reiki is a beautiful way for growth on the spiritual path and seeking balance and oneness with our highest selves. Reiki is the glue that binds all with Universal Light and Divine Wisdom as we are all made of light.