Reiki is a beautiful self-care practice of simultaneous giving and receiving. Connecting to Source and your Higher Self. Being in the flow of energy. Checking in with your body. Healing yourself. Clearing your own energy field. Charging your own being with light energy.

Reiki began as a gift.

One of my feng shui clients, gifted me a session with her Reiki Master. Knowing the Reiki practitioner was a fellow PAX graduate, I already felt comfortable. When I arrived at her Healing Palms Reiki room in Old Town San Diego, she greeted me warmly and told me she had dreamed for me. A dream about my sister and me. Then, she invited me to lie down, face up on a soft Reiki table and took a seat behind my head.

In a participant award cult-ture, Reiki has become a get spiritual quick scheme for the masses. Today, people seek status through certification without having to put the time and energy into mastering anything. People want to buy their way to enlightenment, the entitled, lazy, Millennial way.

Got hands? Then you can heal yourself. Tap into the stream of energy from your own Higher Self and direct it to wherever you need it. Intend to initiate the flow of healing light energy to your own body and chakras. Place your hands where it hurts, where you feel depleted, where you feel tension. Send universal life energy (Reiki) to yourself.

Recently, I was asked if I wanted to start a Reiki practice and build “a clientele” in another country. I said “no” without a moment’s hesitation. Reiki is a gift that I am happy to give. But it’s not something I encourage people to become dependent on a Reiki Master for. I welcome returning clients, especially those who are healing or clearing or rapidly growing spiritually. What I appreciate even more are referrals so that I can introduce new clients to the wonderful world of Reiki. What makes me the happiest is when clients become students and I get to share with them how to give themselves and others Reiki.

I have been pondering how much our beliefs define us. How much they determine our decisions and destiny. How much they shape our life path. How much the groups we identify with determine who we get to be. How much of our time and energy is devoted to proving to others and ourselves that what we believe is true. How much we need our beliefs, especially the ones we have been coerced into adopting or the ones that connect us with the people we love, admire and respect. How hard we hold onto the ones that we have built an entire career upon, made all of our money from, written books and given speeches about or presented workshops on. How many throngs of people we have converted and convinced to make our beliefs, their beliefs.

I always knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wanted to be a healer. Of course, when I was a little girl I thought being a healer meant going to school to become a doctor or a nurse. I would dress up in my nurse costume for Halloween, ask for a toy doctor's kit for Christmas or wear my candy striper uniform to "play doctor". I would borrow books from my local library about the human body and the medical profession. Later in junior high I would read a book by the McDougalls and was shocked to find out what patenting does to the green plants we were given to use for health and healing. What I learned set me on a path of wellness and holistic living. After high school I began earning my degree in Natural Health Studies.

Clearing energy is an important self care practice. It’s important to clear your energy field and space, especially after interactions with people, even over the phone or through social media.