Grounding and Centering

You've probably heard the term "grounding"  or "earthing" before and wondered what it means and why is it necessary to ground.  "Grounding is a process that helps the body to connect to life sustaining earth energies via its root chakra. Because we are first and foremost spiritual beings the physical body sometimes is ignored or gets neglected. It is important to respect and care for the "container" that houses our spirit during our incarnate lifetime. " (from About.com Holistic Healing).   In many books on to ground  and center before doing any healing work.  In a dowsing class I took recently, we were taught to ground and center before dowsing (as well as connect to Father Sky).  There are many ways to ground, and I'll give you a few examples,  I suggest you experiment with several or all of them, check out other forms of grounding and see which ones feels the best for you!.

Grounding can be as simple as wearing or carrying in your pocket, a particular crystal/stone that is known for it's grounding properties like hematite (hematite has poverty consciousness according to my Crystal Healing teacher Ashley Leavy so I am not a fan of it) or black tourmaline, jet or smoky quartz.

Or you can try sitting in yoga lotus position on the floor and imagining a large root growing out of the base of your spine and going down into the earth about 250 feet (how far varies from book to book, teacher to teacher). I have included a picture of the seated position you would need to be in if lotus position doesn't work for you.  Spine straight, sitting bones on chair, chin parallel to the floor, and hands facing up in your lap or on your thighs.  I have also given you an image of what Mother Earth looks like inside so you can visualize your root/s going down past the crust, etc.  Some people say you should not send your root into the molten, hot lava-like center of the earth, but instead imagine some cool, quiet place in her center, like a crystal cave or an area of large boulders to wrap your roots around.   Send your consciousness down the root and into the earth, asking Mother Earth to take all that is not serving you and transform it into whatever she needs it for.  Breathe in earth energy up from your root/s and breathe out and release negative, stagnant, dirty energy down the root/s and into Mother Earth, who is always ready and willing to assist us in this way.  Do this until you feel fresh and clear and don't forget to thank Mother Earth for this service before you get up.   Get up slowly and drink some water, before returning to normal activities.

In her book "Reiki For Children" Kytka Hilmar-Jesek, ND has a whole section called "Grounding to the Earth" on page 51-53.  "Grounding and centering are probably the most important exercixes you will ever learn.  Grounding allows you to connect with Universal Life Force Energy and to find your own center. It as at your own center where you connect directly with the spirit and the Universal Life Force Energies. "   Kytka first walks you through a whole body relaxation meditation, similar to the one I do in my Reiki classes before I give the attunements.  I instruct the students to sit as I have described above, close their eyes and breathe in relaxation into the body starting at the toes and working your way up to the crown, and breathe out any stress, tension, tightness, discomfort or pain out through the bottom of the feet (soles of the feet where the minor chakras are) and release it into Mother Earth, where she will transform it for her purposes.

There are also foods you can eat, clothes you can wear and exercises you can do to ground.

Scanning the Body Before a Reiki Session

Scanning the aura or energy field before a Reiki session was actually a very big part of the original system as created by Usui.  Neither of my teachers taught us this.  It appears to have become lost in the Western way of doing things.  Intuitively letting your hands guide you to work on areas of need was much more the norm in Japan, not just going through a system of rote hand positions, although doing so will cover whatever areas are in the most  need and will bring about a very real sense of balance to the client, but will take longer and waste a lot of time.  Time better spent on concentrating on the areas of most need.  

To start with, you'll need to learn a few simple techniques to sensitize  and open your palm chakras.  One method is using a T'ai Chi and Qigong technique called "pulling taffy".  Bring your hands up in front of you, palms facing each other about 3-4" apart and begin bringing the palms closer (but never touching) and then away (about 4-5") going out too far does something called "drops the ball" in T'ai chi/Qigong.  Do this for a couple of minutes until you clearly feel energy between your hands, similar to what it feels like when you have two magnets and you push them together or pull them apart.

Another method is to take your right thumb and push it into your left palm and turn it clockwise with gentle force several times.  This opens up the minor palm chakra.  Repeat on right hand using the left thumb. The last method is to put a drop of lavender oil into the palm of each hand - again this opens the palm chakras.  After doing this, you can starting scanning or do the "pulling taffy" technique for a minute or two until you feel the sensations as I described above.  Now you are ready to scan.

I personally like to use this method - I am right handed, I bring my hand into a this position - palm facing out to the left vertically over the body at the feet. My left hand is palm up  to my left side and out just a little ways from my body.  Then you begin running your right hand through the person's energy field starting about a foot away from the soles of their feet.  Only scan up the top most part of the thigh first on each leg.  You are looking for feelings of heat, tingling, or resistance. 

Areas of resistance can be explained ascongestion in the energy field - grey, brown or black smoke (this is what a clairvoyant would see).  Congestion in the energy field is indicative of pain, blockage or dis-ease in the area.  When I encounter resistance in the energy field of my client when scanning, I ask them "what is going on here , is there pain here, did you hurt yourself here or does anything else come to mind that could be going on in this area."  Nine times out of ten, they tell me about an old energy, pain in the area or possible having had surgery of some kind there, or just a feeling of being blocked there. After you have scanned both legs, begin scanning the torso, starting at the root/base chakra, and move up past the crown to about a foot away from the top of the head.  Make note of any areas of resistance, checking in with your client about each one (sometimes I receive information about what stuck, negative emotion is in that area).  Then begin the session, focusing on these areas first.  Treat the area and then re-scan.  If after you've treated the area with Reiki for several minutes, you re-scan and still find the resistance, continue to treat and repeat the scanning, until you no longer feel the resistance. If, after you've treated all the areas you found congestion in, you still have some time left in the session, focus on the remaining chakras and all the hand positions for the head.

Using Mantra Meditation to Improve you Intuition

I have always wondered why I only seem to bring in information for people and messages from their departed loved ones when I am channeling Reiki.   I recently signed up to take a course to become an Intuitive Life Coach after someone suggested that I would make a good one and I was searching for something new to get my teeth into.   I had no idea that the answer to that very long wondered about question would be answered in this course when I signed up for it.  When you are channeling Reiki for someone, you are sitting in the stillness and focusing your mind deeply on your hands and any sensations in them, and in the body of the receiver under your hands and listening!  Listening for guidance, listening for direction - do I stay here, do I move to the next position, do I change the position I'm in slightly because I am just getting a feeling, a nudge that if I just shifted to the right or left or even changed which hand is on top or whatever, then the energy would really start to flow even stronger. Some people like to repeat the Reiki Precepts when channeling (which is a form of mantra mediation - did you know that?).  Others like to do Japa while channeling Reiki (repeating the name of a particular God/Goddess - Krishna, Shiva, Jesus Christ, Buddha, Mohammed).  Others just like to be still, and focus on their breath and what's going on in their hands and under their hands.  There is no "right way", there is just your way, do what you feel like doing at the time.  But we all know that we need to quiet the mind and focus on the task at hand - channeling the energy, not on our laundry list of "to dos" after the session, what happened to us before the session, what the client revealed to us before the session and on and on.  Mind chatter or talking during Reiki interrupts the flow the energy and also, how are you going to hear guidance and direction if you're off having a conversation in your head with someone you just got off the phone with?     My teacher, Sue Fredrick, author of  "I See Your Dream Job" and "Bridges to Heaven" (and several other books) says "do mantra meditation to heighten your intuition".   So what is mantra meditation?   It is simple sitting (on the floor or in a chair) quietly and repeating mentally a phrase like "Om Namah Shivaya (I bow to the divine self or God and I are One) or repeating the Lords Prayer (or whatever else you want to use like "Om Mani Padme Hum" or "Hail Mary" and so on, for 20 minutes in the morning and 20 minutes in the evening (also known as Transcendental Meditation).  Then sit quietly in the stillness after you meditate and ask a question and wait for an answer.  You can also meditate right before going to sleep and when you've finished, ask that an answer to a question come to you in a dream. When you are sitting in meditation and repeating your mantra (fast, slow, varying the speed, timing it with your breath or not - doesn't matter) you will start to notice that one part of your mind is repeating the mantra but another part of your mind is suddenly talking about a recent conversation and how you should have responded but didn't, thinking of what you are going to do after you meditate, a TV show you just watched or a song is going through your mind (all monkey mind stuff).  And another part of your mind is observing both of the other parts.  So what do you do?  Bring your attention back to your mantra, let go of the chatter and relax.  Do not beat yourself up about wandering off (that is attaching to the thought) simply bring your focus back to repeating your mantra.  Thich Knat Hanh (the Thai Buddhist monk made famous from his books, C's and DVD's on mindfulness meditation) said bringing your mind back to your mediation a 1,000 times is mediation, so no worries. Another benefit of doing mantra meditation is that it raises your vibration!  So if you are feeling out of sorts, unbalanced, down in the dumps and focusing on the negative, sit in mediation and repeat "Om Namah Shivaya".  It is also said to erase all our sins!  http://www.chopra.com/community/online-library/terms/mantra

More on Reiki and Ethics

  REIKI AND ETHICS

                                    Patricia Penner, Usui & Karuna Reiki® Master Teacher

So you are probably asking yourself, what ethics?   Well how about the fact that a Reiki practitioner AND their client are required by law to be fully clothed throughout a Reiki treatment or that is unethical for someone who is Reiki Level  One or Two to treat the public and charge for it, for starters.

Clothing – unless a Reiki Practitioner is also a licensed massage therapist and is giving someone a massage and has their permission to also “run” or “channel” Reiki during the massage, then it is illegal for the client to be in any state of undress. 

If a Reiki practitioner, who is not a licensed massage therapist, asked you to undress, get out of their office immediately and report them to the authorities.  If they aren’t fully clothed or come on to you sexually in any way, again, get out of their office and report them.   They’re a sexual predator!

Treating the public with Reiki having only the lower levels of training: Reiki Level One is all about your own self-healing.  It does not authorize or certify you  to go out and practice Reiki on the public and charge for it  in anyway.  A  Level One Practitioner is only channeling one third of the amount of Reiki energy that a Reiki Master Practitioner can channel and, unless they have been practicing non-stop on their family, friends, co-workers and neighbors for quite awhile (something you can do at Reiki One but only for free or for barter), then they are also grossly under experienced to handle giving the public Reiki sessions and charging for it.

Reiki Level Two is what as known as the “Distant Healing” level, where the Reiki practitioner is given the Reiki Distant Healing symbol (a symbol that opens a doorway for the energy to be able to be sent out to any place, person, or thing -  past, present or future) along with several other symbols that all have different focuses or healing purposes.  They are also opened up to another one third of the amount of Reiki energy they can channel, but are still not considered qualified nor certified to go out and treat the public.

At Reiki Level IIIa (Reiki Master Practitioner)  one is opened up to channel the full flow of the Reiki energy one can channel and are now certified and qualified to go out and open up a Reiki business and  treat the public.  (The lineage of Reiki that I am from (how we trace back our connection to the creator of Reiki, Dr. Makao Usui) breaks Reiki training up into four levels,  Reiki I, Reiki II, Reiki IIIa (Master Practitioner) and Reiki Level IIIb (Reiki Master Teacher).  Some lineages group the IIIa and IIIb together.)

Unfortunately, there are people working on the public at the lower levels of training and charging if not very close to , exactly what an experienced Reiki Master charges, which is, in my book, VERY unethical. 

Another unethical practice in Reiki is people claiming to be Reiki Master Teachers and giving very poor classes:  little or no manuals, and little or no “ hands on” training, still spreading the old story of the origins of Reiki (the Christian version), not giving out certificates, etc.  Many students come to me from other teachers who have done all the above and worse.  If you’re thinking of taking a Reiki class and becoming attuned to Reiki (connected to the energy) I highly advise that you interview several teachers in your area and ask them the following questions:  Do they provide an adequate manual that includes the history of Reiki (not the old Christian version, the newer version, the truth – Usui  was a Buddhist, from a Samurai background), What Reiki is and what it does, What are the health benefits of Reiki, The Reiki Precepts, How to give yourself a full Reiki self-treatment, How to give someone else a short Reiki treatment in a chair, and How to give someone else a full Reiki session and so on.

Does it have a bibliography, suggested reading list, music list, website list, and much more.   Do they hold monthly Reiki shares for their students? 

I also highly suggest that you have a Reiki session with your perspective teacher prior to signing up for a class also, to see if you feel comfortable with them.  When you’re connected to the Reiki energy, you are connected for life.  Make sure that the person who connects you is someone you feel is trustworthy and knows their stuff.  

This article is intended to educate the public on these issues.  I recommend that you ask what level  of training your Reiki practitioner is before scheduling an appointment and/or ask to see their certification. 

REIKI AND ETHICS

I understand that in massage school, there are hours and hours of class time spent on talking about ethical practices while performing massage.  There are ethical practices involved in doing Reiki also, although I would make a bet that very few Reiki Master Teachers are actually giving much class time to this topic or even bringing it up or so I've heard through the grapevine.  

So what are the ethical practices involved in being Reiki Practitioners?  Going back to the five Reiki Precepts "Just for today, do your work honestly" (depending on which translation you're reading".  One unethical practice involving Reiki would be for a Level I  or Level II Reiki Practitioner to, first all do Reiki on the public and charge for it at all, but if they do, to charge the public the same amount for their doing a Reiki session on someone that a Level IIIa (Reiki Master - the level at which you are certified to actually treat the public) or a Reiki Master Teacher would charge (Level IIIb). Because you are not opened up to the full flow of Reiki energy at the levels below IIIa and because of lack of experience, it is unethical for you to do Reiki on the public and to charge what someone who is fully open and experienced would charge.

Other ethical practices include never treating someone who is not fully clothed.  Why?  Unless you are licensed massage therapist, acupuncturist, or doctor, it is illegal for you to be working on someone who is not fully clothed.  Wisconsin is a "no touch" state therefore as Reiki practitioners, we cannot touch another persons naked body.  If you plan on doing Reiki on the public and are not a licensed massage therapist, etc., you would be wise to become a minister as Wisconsin allows you to "touch" under the heading of "spiritual healing" if you are.

There are many people out there practicing "Reiki" who have never taken a class and have no certification.  The claim they have been "self-attuned" (not possible) or that they just it naturally, so make sure when you go to someone for Reiki that their certificates are displayed out in the open where the public can see them (another requirement by the State of Wisconsin).

One last obvious ethically topic, if a Reiki practitioner comes on to you in a sexual way RUN and report them!  If your client asks you to perform sexual services during a Reiki session - boot him/her out and report them to police. This occurs more often with massage therapists (I've heard many stories from my massage therapist friends about this) because prostitutes often advertise under the guise of massage therapist so the public has some misconceptions about massage therapy.  Working in a spa or wellness center gives you more protection especially if you're female.  

We need the public to know that Reiki is an ethical, safe, service, just like all the other healing modalities our there, so educate the public by your actions and behavior and if you know someone who is not acting in these ethical ways and doing Reiki either talk to them, or report them.  

Massage VS Reiki

I have worked in several "spas" or wellness centers over the past few years and find that they tend to be very much more centered around massage and either acupuncture or skin work then Reiki.  It is hard for massage therapists or acupuncturists to understand that Reiki  is as equal in value to someone sufferings as what they do. I've had tons of massage and acupuncture and, obviously, tons of Reiki.  I am here to tell you that Reiki works just as good or better in some cases, than both.

The massage therapy world touts that we need a massage every week or twice a month or monthly, cajoling their clients  to book their next appointment, convincing them that continued massage  is just a given.

What massage therapists and other healing modalities and the public don't understand is that Reiki should be done weekly, biweekly or once a month also just like a massage, unless you have a chronic or severe condition which should treated more aggressively - like 3 treatments a week for two weeks, tapering down to two a week for 2-3 weeks, then once a week, etc and then maintenance treatments until the condition is gone or greatly reduced and manageable.

We need to educate the public and the massage therapists and other alternative healing professionals that Reiki is just as valuable, just as effective (if not more so) as what they do - hey we're already charging what they do.  I find that there is a belief out there by these professionals that because Reiki training is quick, easy and relatively inexpensive compared to the time and money one has to spend to becoming a massage therapist or acupuncturist, etc., that they equate that to the efficacy of Reiki treatments or the efficacy or abilities of Reiki Practitioners.   You can spend $10,000 on massage school and still come out a poor massage therapist or a egotistical, "bad bed side mannered" acupuncturist - believe me - I know from experience.

So the answer is to blog, write articles and educate the public about the benefits and healing properties of Reiki.

Using Symbols

How much do you actually use symbols when treating others or yourself?   Many people do experiment them and use them more when they first get them at Level II, but I find that many people fall away from using them and I'm told by others you really don't need to after awhile (?).  

I am asking my FB Reiki page group to join me in doing an experiment with the symbols. If you'd like to get in on the fun, try working extensively with them and report back your findings.  Like when your self-treating, intuit which symbol you should put in in each hand position and see what happens.  The next time you do your self-treating session, change it up and use different ones (make some notes afterwords about which ones you used so you know for next time).

When you're doing sessions on others do the same - intuit which symbol should go in each hand position and see what happens (ask their permission first of course).  If you are not intuitive, just pick one at random and when you work on that person again, change it up ( again probably good to keep some notes about which ones you used where then). 

If you are Karuna this probably doesn't apply because we use the Karuna symbols extensively when doing Karuna.