Reiki

I wanted to put my thoughts in writing after my recent experience with an Energy Healer who works out of Toronto, Ann Phillips, http://www.earthspiritdojo.ca/w-ann_phillips.htm. 

I've never had Reiki done before and I wasn't exactly skeptical, but I also didn't know what to expect or what I'd get out of it. When I met Ann, and began going through my health, ailments, injuries, etc. I started to feel like my energy was really wound up and while it likely was, due to a pretty intense work week, the fact that her demeanour and energy were so grounded, only intensified where I was at. Since I've, knock on wood, been without any chronic pain or ailments since my yoga teacher training (conscious ones anyway) due to shifting the balance of running and yoga, I asked that the session re-balance and re-energize me, given the juggling I've been doing with my schedule trying to fit in the teaching with the marathon training, work, and life and the tiredness I've been feeling.

Ann suggested some acupuncture to open energy pathways, some foot work, some energy work on my head/scalp, and a guided meditation. It all sounded pretty straightforward and relatively 'normal'. We started with the acupuncture using the concept of the Indigenous four directions (needles in feet, hands and forehead). The foot work was light but deliberate... it felt like what I imagine reflexology feeling like. I focused on my breathing a lot. When she began working on my head and talked me through the guided meditation, things got strange. Good strange. I started having a very vivid vision. For someone who doesn't remember dreams very often, this was neat to experience. I was able to follow the meditation and view my surroundings so clearly and accurately and 'consciously'. Then, when the guided part of the medidation got more subtle and it was just left to my imagination, the visions got weirder -- non-descript, symbolic images, hallucination-type symbols and shapes, not at all what rational-Alice is used to.

At the end of the session, Ann asked if I'd had any visions. I was like "OH MY GOD! How did you, oh wait, right, you're used to this..." She offered interesting perspectives on how I might investigate meaning and offered a ritual to try to get rid of some emotional blockage. It was a really unique experience, and I'm all for continuing working with her and would absolutely refer her, even if I'm still not sure what to make of it all. But I'm definitely curious and searching for meaning in what I experienced and saw.