Episode 6 : Reiki for Trauma Healing

In todays episode, I am talking about the Ancient Art of Reiki and my own personal expeirence with it to help me heal some of my past trauma. It is a great healing modality to add to your tool box of healing trauma. It has been an important part of my spiritual journey as well as having helped me connect not only to my divine feminine energy but to get more connected to my intuition.

Also I have announced the new book for the month, for our book club, and it is Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you would like to join the bookclub then please click on the link below, it will take you to the Facebook group called 'The Phoenix Diaries', I would love to see you over there. I will be doing weekly lives and posting general questions about the books we are covering.

If you are a working mum and find hard to find time to sit and read a book, the why not give audible a go. You can use the link below to a one months free trial. Its a great way to listen while you are getting through your to do list.

Transcript

 Hello and welcome back to the Heal Your Life podcast. If you don't know already, my name is Odelia and I'm your host. Today we're going to be talking about the ancient art of Reiki. That's right, we are going woo woo today. I'm not only going to be talking about what Reiki is, but also what my own experience with this, with it has been, and what some of the benefits are for using it on your healing journey.

So let's get started. On with the show!

So, first things first, happy new year and happy Chinese new year. I know it's a little late, I know, but nonetheless, I still wish you happiness, abundance and healing for this new year. Now, I'm not going to talk too much about New Year's resolutions or intentions, because I feel like this has probably been covered to death in the other shows over the last couple of weeks, and we're already well into January and almost into February, so probably a lot of those New Year's resolutions have fallen to the wayside for whatever reason.

I know that all of mine have. But you know what, here's the good news. There is no time limit on the changes that you want to make. If you fail to stick to something new, That you really want to change in your life, then go back. Reassess where you went wrong and what you can change in order to succeed the next time and just start again.

You know the old saying of insanity. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Now for me, as I said, like most people, I went into the new year wanting to change some habits but failed a few days in. So, I took a step back and reassessed. I realized that I am and have always been terrible with consistency in anything new that I want to start, which I'm sure a lot of people struggle with as well.

It's really hard to start new habits or patterns in general. So I decided I needed to take a step back and reassess where I went wrong, as well as to consider my intentions for the changes that I wanted to make. And I decided that this is a great time for me to get stuck into a book that I have had on my reading list for a while in order to help me.

This book is Atomic Habits. I'm sure you've heard of it. Considering that most of us will tend to struggle with our New Year's resolutions, I thought this would be a great idea to make this book. I thought this would be a great idea to make this book, the book of the month of February. So if you'd like to join me, then you can get a copy of the book from wherever you get your books and You can check out the link in the show notes if you want to give Audible a try.

It's a one month free trial. I like Audible. It really, it's a great option if you are a working mom who has lots of things to do. You just pop in your earphones and away you go. Now I've also started a book club on Facebook which I've talked about before. It's called The Phoenix Diaries. Again, I will leave a link in the show notes, you know where to go.

So I started this book club with the intention to connect. like minded souls on the same journey so that we can connect over some of the most amazing books that we'll be reading this year. I would love for you to join so that we don't feel alone on this journey. I really do believe that we can support our healing with some of the most amazing books out there without having to pay for some expensive course or program.

It's all there between the pages Excuse me, between the pages of these books. I would also love to hear Of any books that you would have read that may have been life changing for you can be shared within the group. And I would love it for you, for you to join me. Please also feel free to share this show or Facebook group with anyone that you think could benefit from it.

This will help the podcast grow and help others to find me and join us on this journey to healing. Now I do need to apologize, um, I have been recovering from some weird bug that I seem to have contracted from my children. So I will be clearing my throats a few times. I'll do my best not to, uh, for sound quality, but please do excuse me if I do.

So, going back to what I said about intention. You will notice that I've used that word a couple of times now. And there's a reason for that. At the end of last year, I was listening to another podcast, uh, which is called The Law of Attraction Changed My Life by Francesca Amber. She's, she's amazing. You need to go and listen to that podcast.

Now she hosted a goal setting party for the new year, which she does every year. And part of the process was to have a theme or affirmation for the new year, which would be the main focus on your vision board. I decided that the big theme for me this year would be going, um, so my big theme for this year was going to be all about intention.

So I want to focus on and check in with my intentions behind everything that I do this year. One of my biggest intentions for this year is to stay committed and consistent, not only with my healing journey, but also with sharing it on this podcast. I do love it and I want to spend more time doing this and connecting with you guys.

Also, with everything that I do this year, I will take a step back and consider what my intention is with it, and whether it's actually in alignment with who I want to be, and if it's not, then I won't be doing it. I'd love to hear in the comments what you are focusing on this year, or if you have a focus word or affirmation this year.

What would, what would it be? Even if you don't have one, have a think about it. What would it be? And share it. Please share it. I'd love to hear. Now, that being said, let's talk about Reiki. Now, I know a lot of people think that Reiki is a load of nonsense. That it's just people taking your money and waving their arms over you, nothing actually happening.

If this is you, I'm not here to debate with you or win you over. I'm just going to be talking about my own personal experience with it and I would always encourage you to at least try it before you criticize it. You may be surprised. And if you do, if you do decide to give it a go, then you need to do two things before you do.

Number one, go with an open mind. You are not going to get any benefit if you go and you are not receptive to the energy. And that's true with anything really. And number two, if it is your first time, I would strongly suggest that you go to someone that has been highly recommended to you by someone else, you know, that has used that practitioner.

Now, that said, let's talk now about what it actually is. So, Reiki is a form of energy healing that is delivered to you by the hands of a practitioner. The word Reiki is derived from two Japanese words, Rei, which means universal, and Ki, which means life force. So when you put them together, it simply means universal life force, or, if you'd like, you could call it god energy.

Now, when I say that it is energy healing, this is energy that flows through you and not from you, okay? So let's talk a little bit about the benefits of using Reiki to heal from past trauma. So, our esoteric body, so think about your chakras, your aura, etc., can hold, can hold onto energy when we experience trauma.

If it's not processed, it can lead to mental, emotional, and sometimes even physical blockages and discomfort. During Reiki, the ki, or life force, helps move this stagnant energy out of our energetic system, replacing it with pure source energy. Qi or life force can be healthy or unhealthy. If it is flowing and unblocked, it is considered healthy, and Qi is the primary energy of our emotions.

It flows within our physical body through pathways called chakras. If you're not familiar with the concept of chakras, then not to worry, I'll be doing a show on this in the future. Just know that, just know for now that it is the seven energy centers of the body, starting at the base of your spine, known as the root chakra, and it moves all the way up to the top of your head, known as the crown chakra.

You can also go have a look on Google, um, if you'd like to understand more about what the chakras are. Now, when healthy key When healthy qi or healthy life force is flowing freely in our bodies and our chakras are balanced, we experience well being. So, by clearing stuck energy, people with trauma release blockages and feel lighter.

During a Reiki treatment, Um, as this deep seeded key energy is released, it may cause some reactions like crying, involuntary twitching, changes in your body temperature and tingling. These reactions are beneficial, are a beneficial part of the releasing process. There is no need to try to control or stop the release, especially if you're in a safe and supportive, supportive environment.

Even if it feels strange or unfamiliar. Discharging emotions in this way is a natural part of the recovery process and trauma treatment. Um, I always tend, when I go for Reiki, I always tend to feel a very heavy energy moving down into my legs. They then feel like extremely heavy, like logs, until the energy is moved completely out.

I always feel more in touch with my intuition after a session. I definitely do feel lighter and I can definitely feel a difference in my energy flow after a session.

So thinking back to when I had my very first Reiki session, it was in February, 2016, and at that time I had just finished, um, studying for my exams and it was, I had sta and I had studied for quite a number of years. So , this was a treat for me to not have to be studying anymore. And so this was my first time in my life not having to study.

I started looking. into various metaphysical topics, because that always sort of interested me. Um, and now I had the time to, to look into them. So, Reiki was one of the first things that I looked into. Uh, so at that time, my partner, he had lost his job and was struggling with that, so I didn't know how to, how to help him or support him to work through it.

There was a lot of tension between him and my mom, they don't really, they didn't really get along. They both wanted attention from me, and so I felt like I was being pulled in different directions. Seeing as this was the first time since leaving school that I was not busy with a crazy study schedule, I also had time to start reflecting on various things that I'd experienced in my childhood that was toxic and abusive.

Up until this point, I'd pushed it aside and ignored it because I was focused on my studies. I say focused in inverted commas because it was more like a distraction technique to avoid the mess and not delve into it. My very first session was with a lovely lady that had just started off. She had just started offering Reiki sessions to clients.

So we started off the session with a very lovely conversation about why I was there and what I had to get out, what I wanted to get out of the session. She was very empathetic and compassionate. Easy to talk to. It was almost the same as like going to a therapist. I felt very safe and very comfortable in her presence.

I felt like I could open up to her about a couple of things that I was struggling with at the time. Once we finished the conversation and she sort of had an idea of what I wanted to work on and where my struggles were, she did some dousing to check my chakras. So this is where the practitioner will take a crystal that is hanging on a chain and hover it around the chakra points to see if they're if they're in alignment or not.

Now, not all practitioners will do this. But there, um, but this was her method, but each practitioner will have their own method. I then moved on to the therapy table, which is the same as you would have if you were going for beauty treatments. You lay on your back and then you get covered up nice and cozy and comfortable.

She puts an eye bag on your eyes and we'll start to play some beautiful, relaxing music and this is when the session will start. At first I didn't feel much, but I felt really relaxed and comfortable, that I was quite happy to lie there for an hour or so just to detach from the world. Even if nothing happened for me, you know what, I would have been happy with just that.

But then after a few minutes, maybe ten or so, I started to feel the energy from her hands in certain areas. I just stayed relaxed and, uh, I let her do what she needed to do. It wasn't scary or awful, it was relaxing. And for me, it's tingles. When I feel the energy, I sort of just feel this tingling everywhere and then I know that the energy is working.

So after the session was over, I got up and we sat down and we had another chat about what the messages that she got while she was working on me. She told me that Mother Mary had come through for me and this would ring true for me in all my subsequent sessions with different practitioners. She always comes through for me and I feel very, very connected to her.

Um, it would have, it would be a couple of years before I would have another session. The next one was a remote session. And again, I felt the energies. I was really surprised by this. I didn't know because I didn't understand how it worked remotely. So I wasn't really sure how, you know, if I would actually feel anything, but I did.

And I sort of had the same sensations as I had in the one to one session. Um, this was a remote session because it was during COVID. So we weren't allowed to meet up. And yeah, I was just really impressed that it worked remotely. She was also a really good practitioner. I didn't have a bad experience, it was a really good experience again.

This time I had a lot of stuff come up in my throats, which was released, and I felt a lot lighter afterwards. Another year or so would pass before I would find another amazing practitioner that would not only have a session with her, but I would also go ahead and train my first level of Reiki with her.

Yes, you heard me. I have done my level one of Reiki training. Now, I was supposed to do my second level this past weekend, but unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, I was not able to. But it's definitely on my list for the new year. Um, hopefully the universe will align this time for me to be able to do it.

Now, doing my Level 1 training was a life changing experience, not just because of the Reiki, but because it was an experience of connecting with myself on a different level, getting to connect with the most amazing group of ladies that I hope to stay connected to for a long time. We started out the session by having some ceremonial cacao.

Which, when I had it, I had never heard of before. Or, why it was so good to start the day. And, so I had to do a little bit of asking about that, a little bit of research. So, for those of you that Cacao is basically a cacao drink that helps you connect with your heart space. It's nothing psychedelic, it's quite gentle, and it just puts you in sort of like a loving energy.

The training was, we had the training over two days. And, the two days were split between 21 days. They were 21 days apart. So the first day I did struggle to get out of my head and into the flow of the energy because I am a person that is constantly stuck in my head, so I really do struggle getting out of my head.

So, I really feel like the cacao helped me do that.

Now as part of the training on the first day, you would receive the energy codes in your hands via what is called an attunement by the Reiki master. And this is the person that is training you. Now the attunement is, um, the attunement happens through like a meditation and the practitioner sending the codes.

into your hands, so she does, you get, both do this sort of meditation, you'll go into this deep meditation, and she'll send the codes into your hands. So when I had my attunement done, again, Mother Mary came through for me, but this time I could see her, and she gave me a message, and it was so comforting to receive, and it just sort of validated all those previous experiences that I had, where she had come through for me.

Now, after you complete the first day, you go off and you will do an energy healing meditation daily for the next 21 days until your second day of training. Now, the energy clearing meditation that we had to do daily was an amazing meditation to do during that time. I really, really enjoyed it. I had some family drama happening during that time and I found the meditation to be invaluable in terms of helping me deal with it.

I also got a lot of messages during that time to focus on getting in touch with my intuition. I started listening and taking notes of how to identify what my intuition sounds like versus my ego. Generally, I found that my intuition is a gentle, calm voice. And a feeling, a feeling about something. You know, it's a very subtle and usually something that I was about to do instinctively anyway.

Whereas my ego is much louder, more anxious. If I could compare my ego to anything, it would be the character from that movie, uh, inside out to the character anxiety. That is usually what my ego sounds like. It's, you know, it interrupts me. From acting instinctively, from acting from my intuition, it's sort of like, you know, just Bombards me and takes over.

So I'm still learning that it's, you know, it's a process. We all struggle with it But I want to learn to tap into it more. So it was very clear to me That this is an important part of my journey and so I've been trying to listen more to my intuition as opposed to giving into my fear and anxiety of my ego that wants me to control and understand everything.

So taking this into my second day of training, I had the most amazing day. I went with the flow and I really immersed myself into the feminine energy, feminine energy and it was divine. We did some healing on each other and then we did a meditation where we used our intuition to guard our hands over ourselves for self healing.

My intuition felt very strong that day. We did, at the end of the day, we did a card pool with a set of oracle cards that we had been using over both sessions. I love these cards so much that I bought my own deck and have been using them ever since. I feel extremely connected to them now and every now and again I will do a card pull at the end, at the end of the day or the beginning of the day just to give me some guidance for that day.

Um, I might do a card pull at the end of the show. I don't know. Let's see how it goes. Um, yeah, maybe we'll do that. Um, okay, we'll get to the show and we'll see how I feel about that. So, um, yeah, so that second day went really, really well. And it's such a special day for me because it was a day where I was just in my feminine.

And for the longest time I have been operating from just my masculine energy. Every single day, all day. And it's exhausting. And, you know, I feel I feel out of balance. I felt out of balance and I really, you know, really became apparent that day about how out of balance I am, you know, and just trying to control everything in my life so that I don't get hurt or that I don't get traumatized or that, you know, other people can't do things to me, you know.

So I just didn't realize up until that point how out of balance I was. So, since then, since I've completed my training, I have been using Reiki at home, wherever I can. Um, I use it on my family, on my plants, on my food, before I eat it, sort of like to like bless the food. I use it to cleanse the rooms, if I feel that the energy is off, and I also use it on myself.

Um, to help my healing as part of my sort of daily practices. Now, I'm not saying that you need to go and do Reiki training. This was just my experience and it was so impactful on my life that it was something that I wanted to pursue further. So, for me, I will continue to not only use it on myself every day, but to also go back to my Reiki master for help, uh, for more deeper healing.

You know, I would still go to her and see her on a one to one basis. And um, yeah, so that's the art of Reiki. Uh, I really hope that that was informative and that you enjoyed that. Um, that's all I have for you today on the topic of Reiki, um, if you have any questions or you have any experiences that you'd like to share in the comments, please do.

I would love, love, love, love to hear from you. If you think the show is something that you, your, you, if you think that the show is something your friends or your family would enjoy, please share it. Or if you could please rate the show, subscribe. Like, you know, do what you got to do to help a girl out to get this podcast out there so that I can, you know, reach more people.

That would be so amazing. Um, I would love more of us on this journey together. Um, I'd love this, for this to become more visible to others so that they can find a safe space and we can create a safe space for us. And you know what, let's create this community of hardworking, hardworking moms. Um, you know, whether you're working at home or you're, you know, with you, with the kids all day, or you're working in a job.

You know, it's tough, man. It's tough. You know, we're trying to juggle these demands of life and trying to heal at the same time so that we can make sure that the next generation doesn't carry this trauma that we carry. And, um, it's tough and we need to help each other and connection is so important. So, please join me on this journey.

And if you don't want to, hey, that's cool too, you know, uh, I'll still send you love and light. If you have a suggestion for the show that would make, that you would like me to do in the future, please let me know too. And uh, let's do that card pool. Yeah. Okay. So the. Deck of cards that I'm gonna be using is called The Feminine Oracle, the F, the Feminine Wisdom Oracle Deck, and it's by Leah Andro.

I hope I'm saying that correctly. They are just the most beautiful cards that I've ever seen. Okay, hold on. I'm gonna shuffle, right? So think about close your eyes, have a think about what you would like to hear from. The universe, from source, from God, wherever it is that you believe in, the higher power, your higher self.

We'll pull something for the collective group that's listening today.

Oh, right. So, um, the card that I've pulled is called Forgiveness. So if we read about that, because it also comes with this cute little booklet. So it is. Forgiveness and it has sort of like a little affirmation at the bottom. It says releasing anger and resentment a conscious decision to release feelings of resentment Invite peace into your life.

Ask your heart to release the anger that is slowing your growth and causing you your suffering Liberate yourself from the poison of resentment. Forgiving oneself is a challenging but necessary process towards healing. Write a letter to yourself and do your best to be compassionate and kind. Notice how mistakes you made were created out of fear.

Put your hands over your heart and forgive yourself. The affirmation for this card is, I will stop being so hard on myself. I deserve forgiveness. I am worthy of my own empathy. Beautiful. I absolutely love these cards. So take that message away with you today. We'll be talking about forgiveness at some point in the show when I decide to do some forgiving.

Maybe that's the card telling me that that's the next content that I should be working on for the show. Anyway, I'm gonna let you go. Have a beautiful day. Have a wonderful week and I will speak to you next week. Here is to the I always get this wrong. I'm going to get this right one day and I'm going to get it consistently right.

That is my goal by the end of this year. So until next week, here is to the trauma that we didn't deserve but that we are determined to heal together. Love you guys. Bye.