A Journey Into Conscious Energy
I am writing this post in response to a friend who inquired about reiki and how I first experienced it.
It started when I began my post-college journey. After being denied twice into a college teaching program for social studies I started to look elsewhere for my next life journey. I was in a relationship at the time but looking for the next thing, and not our next best thing, was on my mind. Or maybe it was but my partner at the time, which I called a girlfriend, was not interested in hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). She did support me though and did a wonderful job in doing so. It was very hard for her to see me go and be gone so long but we made it through and we made the effort to see each other along the way.
My first entry into the world of the AT was through Bill Bryson who wrote the popular book A Walk In The Woods. Most hikers know this book. This time period was in 2002/3. I was hooked when I started to read it. The AT was the thing for me. I researched all the gear, read more books including the one by Earl Shaffer who was the first person to solo hike the trail. That book is called Walking with Spring. I had grown up playing, camping, and being in the woods. So spending an inordinate amount of time hiking through it sure sounded appealing and an adventure of a lifetime.
I learned about Benton Mackaye too. A co-founder behind the idea of the trail. Essentially, Benton saw a trail that would pass through rural lands where people would hike and experience rural culture. It did not quite turn out that way in that it is more of a nature experience (yet, plenty or people to meet!) but I still hold to Benton's original vision. I would love to live alongside a trail in the woods in community. Somewhere where you have to walk to away from modern day invention, particularly cars and traffic.
During this time, I found another book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. It is partly about meditation and reincarnation. I remember reincarnation scaring me. The idea of coming back and doing this "thing called life" again was not appealing. Later on I would read this book in its entirety when I stewarded at the Arrow River Forest Hermitage in Ontario, Canada near Thunder Bay Lake Superior, the west side, and about an hour north of the northern border of Minnesota. Now, reincarnation does not sound so bad.
I had driven my car up there, and some belongings, and stayed for two months in the mid of winter. Cold, cold, sometimes zero-degrees upon waking in the morning in my little kuti hut.
I had experienced an awakening of sorts. My whole life was opened up before me and I could see all the connections in it up to that point. I stayed awake for three days after meeting the monk, Ajahn Punnadhammo, and discussing karma. I met him at a retreat in Knoxville when he came to visit and lead it. After a series of synchronicities before and after our meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, led me to steward at the Hermitage in which Ajahn, I later called him, resided.
Hiking the AT was transformational. For one, I lost about fifty pounds. For two, I gained an experience that will stay with me forever. Six months on the trail carrying everything you need on your back is quite something. Some may say that the benefits of hiking the Trail are about the people you meet. It's the whole thing- the alone time, the tears, the stays in town, the rain, the climbs up and down, being away from home, all of it.
After the AT, things had changed with the girlfriend, it seemed, but we still stayed together for six more years.
I learned metaphysics, meditation, sixth sense exercises, channelling at this time. Another book I discovered called the Parables of Kryon by Lee Carroll at a chain bookstore in Buffalo, New York, where I was born, changed me. I started to learn about Spirit in a way that made sense to me. I became a Kryon fan and I could not stop talking about it. Everyone had to know.
This did not do good for my relationship since she was a skeptic and my pushing this new way of life for me was pushing her away. But that was really just the beginning of the end. It ended when I took a job on the weekends where I was gone for three and a half days at a time working teens in treatment. To her, I think, it was if I was taking time away from her again all over. About six months or so later we broke up.
Back to the story:
We were living in DC. I was substitute teaching and delivering pizzas, playing music, writing songs and singing them at open mikes. She was working for FEMA as a GIS/GPS specialist.
Writing, singing songs and performing them was a new challenge. Getting up on stage and singing your own songs, memorized, "all by your lonesome", was transformational. I loved my time exploring song writing and relaying my new experiences with the inner and outer world, and still do.
I was not lonesome though. I was searching and learning. It was fascinating. I loved hearing what Kryon had to say and where the Earth and humanity was going- not at all to a dark place. We had passed the marker and we would stay on the planet. The end times meant new beginnings.
The Mayan peoples predicted the end of a cycle but not the end of time. They saw a new time. Revelations from the bible was over, in that it didn't happen, and was not going to happen, and here were are. Here I am.
Humanity was starting to go from living in a fear-based world to one of love. Our souls collectively decided to stay on Earth and transition to a higher form of conscious living while in body, something never done before on Earth.
This is what I was learning along with a bunch of other things like DNA, the sentient earth, worthiness, energy, meditation, tai chi, crystals, later on, and reiki.
We moved back to Tennessee after a year and a half stint in Virginia. We loved our time there, especially getting to know her sister and husband better.
We both enrolled in grad programs, me Special Education, and her Geography.
At some point, maybe while I was learning a new tai chi style, reiki showed up on my radar. I think I noticed an ad for a reiki class in the Natural Awakenings magazine. I really did not know what reiki was but it sounded like something I wanted to learn.
I took the class and took the next, and the next and next, and became a Reiki Master Teacher within a span of four to five months. I remember my teacher asking why I felt drawn to learning reiki. I remember saying that I thought the capacity to heal was there within me. I am not sure how sure I felt about saying that but I said it and today I know it.
I have had lots of opportunities come my way (and not all seized) through learning reiki. I have experienced energy and the transference of it. Each time I work with myself, others or in groups, I learn something new. During a reiki circle once, I remember the experience being so powerful. There were at least twenty of us (and probably more in the non-physical) in the room. Most of us had some experience with reiki. The energy being moved in the room from one hand to the next, one heart to another, was palpable. I will never forget that. Thank you Theresa for teaching me reiki.
Reiki helped me to release the relationship I was in that was probably not serving our best interests though painful it was.
There was a lot of emotional clearing that happened during the level one and two reiki classes which helped me to release old patterns. It took a long time to release these patterns. I am still releasing them. Today, mostly, I feel that I am in a open and clear space.
I later went on to learn Holy Fire and Karuna Reiki, the next step in the reiki and evolution of this tradition.
I continue to meet people who want to learn and I continue to share. The people who do want to learn, something magic happens. I great connection is formed. Reiki is a hands-on healing modality that exists outside of any religion. It is simply the connection of a healing energy passed on from teacher to student that allows one to access it in a systematic and gentle way. If you have not experienced reiki I would recommend it!
That is how I got my start into reiki. I hope it is helpful for you in understanding it, or at least understanding me and how I encountered it.
In this wondrous universe, there is a force called reiki. It means conscious universal light energy. It is gentle and loving. It is intelligent and knows where to go to heal the body, the mind and emotions, and the soul. It is a unique confluence of energy- a confluence of light, intention and power. If one is open to the potential and vastness that the universe has to offer you just might be changed.
Thank you for reading!
It started when I began my post-college journey. After being denied twice into a college teaching program for social studies I started to look elsewhere for my next life journey. I was in a relationship at the time but looking for the next thing, and not our next best thing, was on my mind. Or maybe it was but my partner at the time, which I called a girlfriend, was not interested in hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT). She did support me though and did a wonderful job in doing so. It was very hard for her to see me go and be gone so long but we made it through and we made the effort to see each other along the way.
My first entry into the world of the AT was through Bill Bryson who wrote the popular book A Walk In The Woods. Most hikers know this book. This time period was in 2002/3. I was hooked when I started to read it. The AT was the thing for me. I researched all the gear, read more books including the one by Earl Shaffer who was the first person to solo hike the trail. That book is called Walking with Spring. I had grown up playing, camping, and being in the woods. So spending an inordinate amount of time hiking through it sure sounded appealing and an adventure of a lifetime.
I learned about Benton Mackaye too. A co-founder behind the idea of the trail. Essentially, Benton saw a trail that would pass through rural lands where people would hike and experience rural culture. It did not quite turn out that way in that it is more of a nature experience (yet, plenty or people to meet!) but I still hold to Benton's original vision. I would love to live alongside a trail in the woods in community. Somewhere where you have to walk to away from modern day invention, particularly cars and traffic.
During this time, I found another book, The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying. It is partly about meditation and reincarnation. I remember reincarnation scaring me. The idea of coming back and doing this "thing called life" again was not appealing. Later on I would read this book in its entirety when I stewarded at the Arrow River Forest Hermitage in Ontario, Canada near Thunder Bay Lake Superior, the west side, and about an hour north of the northern border of Minnesota. Now, reincarnation does not sound so bad.
I had driven my car up there, and some belongings, and stayed for two months in the mid of winter. Cold, cold, sometimes zero-degrees upon waking in the morning in my little kuti hut.
I had experienced an awakening of sorts. My whole life was opened up before me and I could see all the connections in it up to that point. I stayed awake for three days after meeting the monk, Ajahn Punnadhammo, and discussing karma. I met him at a retreat in Knoxville when he came to visit and lead it. After a series of synchronicities before and after our meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee, led me to steward at the Hermitage in which Ajahn, I later called him, resided.
Hiking the AT was transformational. For one, I lost about fifty pounds. For two, I gained an experience that will stay with me forever. Six months on the trail carrying everything you need on your back is quite something. Some may say that the benefits of hiking the Trail are about the people you meet. It's the whole thing- the alone time, the tears, the stays in town, the rain, the climbs up and down, being away from home, all of it.
After the AT, things had changed with the girlfriend, it seemed, but we still stayed together for six more years.
I learned metaphysics, meditation, sixth sense exercises, channelling at this time. Another book I discovered called the Parables of Kryon by Lee Carroll at a chain bookstore in Buffalo, New York, where I was born, changed me. I started to learn about Spirit in a way that made sense to me. I became a Kryon fan and I could not stop talking about it. Everyone had to know.
This did not do good for my relationship since she was a skeptic and my pushing this new way of life for me was pushing her away. But that was really just the beginning of the end. It ended when I took a job on the weekends where I was gone for three and a half days at a time working teens in treatment. To her, I think, it was if I was taking time away from her again all over. About six months or so later we broke up.
Back to the story:
We were living in DC. I was substitute teaching and delivering pizzas, playing music, writing songs and singing them at open mikes. She was working for FEMA as a GIS/GPS specialist.
Writing, singing songs and performing them was a new challenge. Getting up on stage and singing your own songs, memorized, "all by your lonesome", was transformational. I loved my time exploring song writing and relaying my new experiences with the inner and outer world, and still do.
I was not lonesome though. I was searching and learning. It was fascinating. I loved hearing what Kryon had to say and where the Earth and humanity was going- not at all to a dark place. We had passed the marker and we would stay on the planet. The end times meant new beginnings.
The Mayan peoples predicted the end of a cycle but not the end of time. They saw a new time. Revelations from the bible was over, in that it didn't happen, and was not going to happen, and here were are. Here I am.
Humanity was starting to go from living in a fear-based world to one of love. Our souls collectively decided to stay on Earth and transition to a higher form of conscious living while in body, something never done before on Earth.
This is what I was learning along with a bunch of other things like DNA, the sentient earth, worthiness, energy, meditation, tai chi, crystals, later on, and reiki.
We moved back to Tennessee after a year and a half stint in Virginia. We loved our time there, especially getting to know her sister and husband better.
We both enrolled in grad programs, me Special Education, and her Geography.
At some point, maybe while I was learning a new tai chi style, reiki showed up on my radar. I think I noticed an ad for a reiki class in the Natural Awakenings magazine. I really did not know what reiki was but it sounded like something I wanted to learn.
I took the class and took the next, and the next and next, and became a Reiki Master Teacher within a span of four to five months. I remember my teacher asking why I felt drawn to learning reiki. I remember saying that I thought the capacity to heal was there within me. I am not sure how sure I felt about saying that but I said it and today I know it.
I have had lots of opportunities come my way (and not all seized) through learning reiki. I have experienced energy and the transference of it. Each time I work with myself, others or in groups, I learn something new. During a reiki circle once, I remember the experience being so powerful. There were at least twenty of us (and probably more in the non-physical) in the room. Most of us had some experience with reiki. The energy being moved in the room from one hand to the next, one heart to another, was palpable. I will never forget that. Thank you Theresa for teaching me reiki.
Reiki helped me to release the relationship I was in that was probably not serving our best interests though painful it was.
There was a lot of emotional clearing that happened during the level one and two reiki classes which helped me to release old patterns. It took a long time to release these patterns. I am still releasing them. Today, mostly, I feel that I am in a open and clear space.
I later went on to learn Holy Fire and Karuna Reiki, the next step in the reiki and evolution of this tradition.
I continue to meet people who want to learn and I continue to share. The people who do want to learn, something magic happens. I great connection is formed. Reiki is a hands-on healing modality that exists outside of any religion. It is simply the connection of a healing energy passed on from teacher to student that allows one to access it in a systematic and gentle way. If you have not experienced reiki I would recommend it!
That is how I got my start into reiki. I hope it is helpful for you in understanding it, or at least understanding me and how I encountered it.
In this wondrous universe, there is a force called reiki. It means conscious universal light energy. It is gentle and loving. It is intelligent and knows where to go to heal the body, the mind and emotions, and the soul. It is a unique confluence of energy- a confluence of light, intention and power. If one is open to the potential and vastness that the universe has to offer you just might be changed.
Thank you for reading!
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