In the first installment of this series on my personal journey, we left off with the amazingness that is lomi lomi.
I shared this transformational bodywork with a few clients over the period of a few years. Helping others to heal their self with lomi was a gift and a learning ground for me. During this time, I had a full-time job and massage was purely on the side for fun. I accepted a promotion at my day job that was phenomenally more stressful and with a lot more responsibilities. This caused massage to be on a VERY LIMITED back burner. Add in the stress of personal relationships changing, and not always for the better, and I had gotten away from lomi.
Depression and me have a long and complicated relationship. Additionally, my healer nature is a double edged sword. I tend to put my own needs as secondary to everyone else, especially in relationships, and this ends up fueling my depression in a sneaky, underhanded way. I don't recognize it until I'm in the trenches of it. I want to say I'm a lot better about it now, but still not proficient. I'm a work in progress.
More life happened, my second daughter was born thus ending my day job, we relocated to a more rural area where my job was to be mom and wife. When my youngest was a little over 1, I started looking for an avenue to resume massage. Part of this journey "forced" me to find an in-person continuing education course. This path led me to discovering the healing power of Usui Reiki.
I do not ignore the initial reaction I had when I first heard of reiki. It was the same time I learned about lomi lomi. Another student in my class did their modality presentation on reiki. When I first heard about it, I though reiki sounded like a bunch of hooey. Imagine my surprise when I ended up in a Reiki I class. I was more receptive to energy work at this point in my journey. When I first learned about lomi, I didn't really know or understand the energy aspect of that modality.
Reiki took me by surprise. The first level includes 4 attunements, after which we wrote down our initial thoughts and feelings. The surprise came during the second attunement (possibly the third as I don't have my notes here with me to verify this fact). During this attunement, I was sitting in a chair with my eyes closed while the reiki master did his part behind me. No one was touching me AT ALL during this experience. I began feeling an intense pain in the middle of my back. The intensity was so severe that I began to cry and tears were streaming down my face. It was hard to sit up straight. I remember slumping forward slightly to relieve some of the pain and pressure. Afterwards, as we were discussing our thoughts and feelings, I shared my experience. The reiki master told me to stick with it, the next attunement would be better, that before we can pour from our cup of light, we must first empty that cup of the dark/stuff that is already there.
I can attest that the other attunements were much better. The process was solidified in my mind as being 'worth the benefits that I received' and I finished the course and still practice this work today. Some of the most moving healing sessions I have completed have involved reiki. I plan to further my training in this area as time and money allows. SPOILER ALERT: I'm a reiki master in a different type of reiki that I will discuss in the next installment.
Reiki opened my soul up to this higher level of thinking and feeling. I have a hard time describing reiki to my clients because I feel so strongly about it and I don't want people to discredit the benefit energy work, such as reiki, can bring to a session.
In closing, reiki is a type of energy healing that brings universal healing energy in. Your body is capable of so much. I merely act as a vessel/conduit to help my clients receive this universal healing energy. I do not claim to be a medical doctor, the energy work I do and describe in this blog are a COMPLEMENTARY method and are not a replacement for traditional medical care. I dislike disclaimers, but felt I needed to include it in this post.
Next up: My love affair with rocks. (FYI: This is shaping up to be a 4 or 5 part journey. I'm leaning more towards 5. )
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