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.

As a Reiki practitioner, creating a daily spiritual practice has become my way of life. I have used many techniques to help me keep a balanced life. These include staying in my center and living from my heart to the best of my abilities daily. There are many possibilities for a spiritual practice that work best for each person. Some opportunities are meditation practice, yoga, walking in nature, spiritual readings, guided visualizations, Reiki for oneself, prayers, breath meditation, and journaling, amongst many others. Anything you do with presence, self- love, and spiritual connection makes up a daily spiritual practice.

Self-love journaling with Reiki is one of my favorite ways to have a daily spiritual practice, which I have done consistently for the last fifteen years. It has become a powerful way to practice self-love in a world constantly tempting us to look outside ourselves. Writing my thoughts has brought me home to value going within to acknowledge my feelings safely.

Starting each day after I wake up, before looking at my phone or doing anything besides getting a cup of coffee, I take pen to paper, asking Reiki to come through me as I write my daily journal. I begin most sentences with “I feel…” allowing a place to acknowledge my difficult or joyful emotions. Sometimes it is a place of self-discovery with new ways of seeing things or new feelings wanting to emerge gently. Journaling can create a fun place to explore wishes, desires, and new visions for us and our lives.

A journal can be where we write our spiritual epiphanies and inspirations. We learn from things we read, from others, or from ourselves. We can write our prayers to the Universe, calling in Reiki to ask for what we need help with and to give gratitude for all that we already have. Journaling can be a place of seeking clarity, where we can write things out to ask our highest self for answers and to write what comes forth from our intuition.

To help build self-confidence and self-esteem, I take the time to write lists of self-appreciation for all the things I have done for myself, no matter how small or big—acknowledging the goodness in making a big pot of homemade chicken soup to nurture my body and appreciating the kindness I may have shared with a loved one or taking leadership in the community. Taking time to appreciate our goodness allows us to build self-worth and self-love.

As a Reiki practitioner, I have been supporting my clients with the option of learning the wonderful benefits of journal writing by offering them guidelines on starting their own daily journal practice for self-love and spiritual connection. I first suggest picking a journal that feels comfortable to write in. It can be anything that fits you, from a traditional composition notebook to a unique journal with a beautiful cover. I personally like using colored pens, so all my writings take on special quality with different colors for each day.

It is great to start your morning with a fifteen-minute entry; I suggest fifteen minutes because it is short enough to feel you can do it and isn’t overwhelming. Choose a time that works best for you to create a positive habit at the same time every day. This habit generates self-commitment, checking in with yourself, and connecting to your own heart. One of the most important things we can do daily is to live from our hearts to the best of our abilities.

You might pick a special tea to sip as you write to make this part of your morning ritual. Choose a comfortable location, for example, in your favorite chair. Or you can write near your altar if you have one set up for your spiritual connection. You can light a candle or some incense to set the tone. If you live with your family, let them know these fifteen minutes are your special time.

To start everyone in their journal practice, I ask them to bring a new one to our Reiki session, and I share all the attributes a journal practice provides, assuring the client that everything they write is private. I offer their first journal write at my office with me to ignite this new practice with Reiki light. We prepare with a pen and a new journal. If they wish, I turn on healing music. I suggest writing the date and the time, something I enjoy writing down because it brings us into the present moment. Then I seat myself across from my client, giving distance Reiki for their first entry.

I ask the client to begin thoughts with “I feel…” to support connecting mind and emotions through their writing. Next, I invite the client to write non-stop in a stream of consciousness to allow the ego to relax and flow with whatever needs to come through. After they have finished, I ask them how they feel. Almost everyone says they feel more grounded, lighter, and present.

I invite all my clients who enjoy journaling to continue the practice independently at home every morning. We work together, moving forward and honoring what comes forth. Of course, some people prefer other types of spiritual practices, and I help to support them in whatever works best for each person. I suggest these guidelines, but it is important for everyone to follow their own path to what feels best for their spiritual practice.

I have had positive feedback from the clients who like the self-loving journal practice; they tell me they feel less burdened by their emotions as they have released them onto the page. Also, they feel more in touch with their hearts and highest selves and have more clarity about themselves and their paths. Clients enjoy being more present in their hearts in daily spiritual practice by giving themselves the time they deserve and enjoying their self-discovery.

Throughout time altars have been used as a place of honoring spiritual connection. I have created Reiki altars as a beautiful way to connect with the Divine
for healing and inspiration. They are a sacred place to ask Reiki for support and to focus an intention of love, healing and feeling uplifted, and a way for everyone to offer prayer, chanting, meditation or devotion regardless of religious or spiritual practice.

Reiki altars are a big part of my healing practice because they offer me a way to center myself with my highest self and with spiritual empowerment. I have a Reiki altar in my home for personal healing, two where I work as a Reiki and shamanic practitioner, and many natural ones created at Mount Shasta for healing on different levels. These Reiki altars help me to stay grounded in my spiritual practices, and I would like to share my discoveries with you.

Creating your Reiki altar is a personal expression of your inspired ideas and intuition. The first step is to find an item that best symbolizes Reiki Universal Love to you for the center of your Reiki altar. You can have a beautiful candle as the center, a crystal, a personal deity or angel to represent the Reiki light—whatever you wish. The center is the focal point to help you stay connected to Reiki Universal Love as the dominant force in your life. The pieces you choose for the center of your Reiki altar are to support any intentions you set for healing or manifestation. All you need to do is open your heart and let the ideas come. There are no set rules; this is a vision of your creativity. If you feel you need help with the basics of making your altar, I recommend the book, Altars, by Denise Linn.

The center of my home altar has a beautiful statue of a goddess to honoring divine feminine energy. I have placed fresh flowers next to it, and as a symbol for the Reiki light, I have a golden hand with a rose quartz crystal ball. Between the goddess statue and the golden hand, I have placed a prayer bowl containing small pieces of paper with written prayers asking Reiki for help in my life and my healing practice. There are also gratitude statements expressing appreciation for what has come to fruition from Reiki Universal Love. I place my hands over the prayer bowl and send Reiki to all my requests and notes of gratitude until I feel my prayers are received. While doing this, I feel very connected to my heart, Reiki and goddess energy.

I have two Reiki altars in my office that continually give me Reiki inspiration and empowerment. The first Reiki altar has a centerpiece of Mother Earth. She is beautiful and helps me remember I am never alone in my healing practice and also helps me feel gratitude for my life on earth. I have a quartz crystal ball in the center as a symbol of the Reiki light to continually keep me in my highest self as well as many other crystals to strengthen me in my Reiki practice. I have a Redtail hawk feather as one of my many power animals, as well as a lion, an eagle and a whale to represent all my power animals and provide support for my shamanic practices. I meditate with my Reiki hands over the entire altar and create an energy grid with Reiki to awaken the essence of each symbol’s distinctive powers and send energy for every healing session. Everything on this altar fills me with strength, uplifts me and provides guidance in my Reiki healing work. It is amazing.

The second Reiki altar at my office has a Buddha to assist me in practicing compassion and detachment. To hold Reiki light and for grounding, I have added a standing smoky quartz crystal. I say prayers with this alter, asking the Reiki energy and Buddha to oversee all my work and support me in always being my highest self for my clients. I look to my Reiki Buddha altar, it instantly reminds me that my task is only to offer Reiki and then let go and that compassion combined with Reiki is one of the greatest healers. So, I feel gratitude.

Mount Shasta, in California, has provided many opportunities for creating Reiki earth altars in nature using all-natural things available at the locations, such as fallen leaves and branches or stones that I collect in the area. I have created a “circle of life” altar and with other community members, created a sacred geometry altar, and a labyrinth Reiki altar with circles for walking in prayer and meditation. I also created a pillar of rocks altar for grounding and centering in the present moment.

To create my earth altar, I found round tree branches to make a circle representing the circle of life, which is always continuous. I placed four rocks as symbols for the four directions—East, South, West, North—as well as for representing the four elements of air, fire, water and earth. I did this is to honor the four elements without which we cannot live.

Each element corresponds to one of the cardinal points on a compass—Air to the East, Fire to the South, Earth to the West, Water to the North. In this altar, I honored the East for the air that we breathe to live and the South for the fire that is the sun that gives us light and warmth. I honored the West for the water of our oceans, lakes, streams and raindrops that replenish all of us and the North for the earth that provides food every day and gives us the beauty of nature to enjoy.

In creating the center of my Reiki earth altar, I placed red leaves with vibrant green moss on top as a symbol for Reiki Universal Love. I spent time praying, and I sang a song with my hands held high. From this Reiki earth altar, I asked Reiki to heal the whole planet. I felt uplifted and knew in my heart that healing occurred.

It was great fun working together with many people on Mount Shasta to create a Reiki sacred geometry earth altar using a six-pointed star that represents the Merkabah—the union of the mind, spirit and body integrated into light. The six-pointed star opens all things to embody the light. Among many other meanings, it represents unity. It opens cosmic gateways to the earth making connections with the Divine.

So much intention, love and healing were woven into this Reiki earth altar by many loving people that when I touched the center of the star, I felt charged with light energies. I held my hands over the center of the star adding Reiki light. I said a prayer, asking for all the Divine energies from the cosmos to come to our planet and bring spiritual awakening to all people, the opening of all our hearts to the Reiki light. I felt charged and enlivened by the sacred geometry six-pointed Reiki earth altar. I could feel the Reiki light emanate from of all six points out into the world. It was incredibly beautiful!

The Mount Shasta community also created a labyrinth Reiki altar, with circles for walking around in prayer and meditation, to open to our deeper hearts and spiritual connections. A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It is a path to bring us to our center and back out into the world. I walked the labyrinth doing Reiki the entire time and could feel an unwinding of tension in my body. There was a lessening of worry I had been carrying, a surrendering of what I was holding onto when I reached the center. I stood there with my Reiki hands on my heart and asked the Reiki to help me feel the oneness, self-compassion, self-forgiveness that I often give to others. I felt a rush of energy run through my whole body as I started to walk back out of the labyrinth feeling the Reiki still emitting from my hands, only now, I was having feelings and visions of renewal.

A Reiki earth altar I recently created was made of a pillar of rocks. Starting with the foundation being a boulder already there for strength and moving upward I balanced smaller rocks one on top of another. I touched each one beginning at the bottom placing my Reiki hands on each one saying a prayer for spreading joy, abundance, compassion, serenity, happiness, and peace into each rock. I felt very much in the presence of the Reiki light as I finished giving Reiki to the very top one. This Reiki earth altar has the intention of being present. The one central pillar of rocks moving from earth to the heavens becomes a path to enlightenment. There is a feeling of reverence coming from this Reiki rock altar as it is amazingly simple but profoundly grounding and centering and helps one be present and balanced within our Reiki energy.

As nature works with the land, winds will move all the Reiki earth altars, and leaves will fall upon them and one day they will no longer be seen but instead will have become incorporated back into the natural landscape as each Reiki earth altar’s healing work is completed. Returning to nature is the beauty of the Reiki earth altars for we create them with natural resources found on site and belonging to the land itself.

I encourage you to create your own Reiki altars in any way you feel guided. It can be a small alter at home or one where you work or a Reiki earth altar outside in your backyard. If you decide to do this, I am certain that your altars will become spaces of inspiration, strength, creativity and spiritual replenishment. May you be blessed with Reiki Universal Love in all you do.

Prayers can be a beautiful way to establish a deep connection with the Divine, seeking help, and expressing gratitude for our blessings. Through prayers, we are reminded of our connection to the sacred and can incorporate spirituality into our daily existence. Each person’s prayers are a deeply personal expression of their individual spiritual journey, connecting them to whomever or whatever they choose to pray to.

I enjoy praying because it reminds me I am never alone, knowing I can release whatever upsets me anytime, anywhere, into Universal Love. By praying, I shift the energy from feeling alone to being a participant with All-That-Is and also receive healing or guidance. I also say “thank you” for the beautiful things I might receive as simple as the sun being out to make me happy. Prayers are a gentle, creative way to stay connected to the All-That-Is in our everyday lives.

There are many ways one can offer prayers. But one thing that enhances my prayers is sending Reiki to them while I pray. To do this, I draw the Holy Fire® symbol on my hands before placing them together. This act starts my Reiki flowing, and I say my prayers during this time.

I like to start my day at my altar, asking Spirit to help me with what challenges may come and to give thanks for prayers that have already been answered. I may pray for Reiki energy to flow and heal those who need it, including my family, friends, and the earth.

Saying prayers is a regular practice for me, serving as a meaningful way to connect with my spirituality throughout the day. As an example, while preparing a meal, I will spontaneously thank Mother Earth for the beautiful vegetables. When I cut a cabbage in half, and it shows the shape of a tree with branches at its core, I find this so beautiful, and I give thanks. As I prepare the chicken, I offer gratitude, for it has given its life so mine may continue. If I bite into a sweet peach, I express gratitude as I can taste the sun that has warmed it to its ripeness.

There are other ways I practice Reiki prayer throughout my day. If anger or judgment towards myself or others comes up, I will ask Reiki to fill my heart, to help me open to compassion and a place of forgiveness. Reiki helps my energy to let go of resentments so I can return to love.

As I enjoy ecstatic dancing in which you move freely to where the music takes you, combining prayers in motion with my dancing, I can create a fun experience. I open to the Divine and invite Reiki to flow through me to shift and uplift my energy to a heightened state, connecting with the Universal Life Force. I pray in celebration and gratitude for joy as I dance.

Sometimes at night, if I can’t sleep or have fears, I pray to the archangels using my Reiki-empowered hands, asking them to protect me and help me feel safe and loved. I ask them to hold me so I can embody their angel love and be soothed back to sleep.

In my Reiki practice, I pray at the beginning of the day before seeing clients at my office; I ask Reiki to flow through me to help heal and support everyone who comes in for Reiki healing. Recently, I have been creating beautiful prayer bowls for interested clients, helping them with prayer. First, I gift them a special colorful bowl and then ask them to address the prayers to whomever or whatever they hold most sacred to them. Then I ask them to write on pieces of paper each thing they wish to ask the All-That-Is and place the prayers into the prayer bowl. I ignite their prayers with Reiki light by placing my hands over the prayer bowl.

I suggest the client take the Reiki-filled prayer bowl home and place it on their altar. They can pull a different prayer from the bowl each day and place it in a special spot to highlight it on their altar. When the prayer bowl is full, I suggest taking it out into nature during a full moon and offering the whole bowl up to the All-That-Is as a loving ritual.

When all the prayers have been offered, the next step is receiving the answers to our prayers. It is important to ask Reiki to open our hearts to receive what we have prayed for to let the loving answers or healing in. There are infinite ways the All-That-Is will answer prayers. These are examples of answers to some of my prayers.

I experienced a difficult breakup and felt sad and lonely. I prayed to Universal Love to bring me support in any way possible as fast as possible. Nine people called me within forty-eight hours to see how I was doing. Two people were from out of state, and one of them I had not seen in many years. I felt the love coming from many friends and was very grateful.

When my father passed away, I used my Reiki hands and prayed to All-That-Is to heal the heavy grief I was experiencing. I felt vulnerable during this period, but kept my heart open. Every morning, I went to my prayer bowl and asked Spirit to help heal my heart. One day, as I looked out the window, a little hummingbird sat singing to me. I felt uplifted by this precious bird. The next day, I went to the window again and saw the hummingbird sitting on the same perch. It happened almost every morning for one month. The little hummingbird felt like a messenger from the angels, singing to soothe and heal my grieving heart. I cried many times, receiving the love from Spirit through this beautiful hummingbird—I felt loved, seen, and held.

After twenty years of companionship, my kitty passed away, and I prayed for my heart to heal from the loss of this sweet kitty. My prayer was answered with a butterfly that landed on my front door that day, staying on that spot for three days, never leaving. I felt it was a sign that all was well and I was loved. I was so grateful for this extraordinary butterfly. Often, Spirit answers my prayers in unexpected ways, but I have learned the more open I can be, the more ways Spirit can be there for me.

Prayer has become a way of life for me, a way to connect spiritually through Reiki and feel loved by All-That-Is. I have learned through prayer that I do matter, that the Divine sees and loves me, and that I am never alone. My practice of Reiki prayer is my spiritual path to stay connected to the Divine, and my greatest hope is that my whole life becomes a prayer, to be present and connected to Spirit in every moment.