The Soul Medicine Podcast

Qualities of A Great Reiki Practitioner

Online reiki training with Liz Nerland https://soulmedicineyoga.mykajabi.com/

Connect on IG https://www.instagram.com/liznerland/?hl=en

Reiki Training

What makes a good reiki practitioner?

Intention, Practice and Skills.

First is the intention/cocreation.  You have to hold the intention to be a channel for Ki/Chi/Prana/God.  If someone comes in to this work with the intention to be the healer, to fix other people, to be the saviour, and they aren’t humbly stepping in as a servant of God,  the session will be limited to that human’s physical capabilities.  In Reiki, we always hold ourselves as the channel and as the servant.  We are calling in a miracle… we are calling in something beyond our ordinary human powers.  We are asking God to move through us.  In striving to be the healer we limit ourselves.  IN softening to allow life to move through us, we call in a power beyond our own.  We have to take ourselves to zero in order to merge with the One/ the infinite.  

 

Second is simply practice.  How committed is this person to the lifestyle of Reiki.  Do they live and breathe it to the best of their ability both in and out of sessions?  Have they experienced the ups and downs of a consistent practice?  Have they developed a strong enough foundation that they can stop overthinking their sessions and start being moved by something greater.   You can literally pay $20 and do an online reiki course in a day and call yourself a reiki master.  But you’re still in the thinking phase and have literally mastered nothing.  You are a beginner.Joe Dispenza speaks of a formula for mastery - with any skill we move from thinking to doing to being.  First we think about what we are creating - learn the theory, read the books, gather info, create a vision.  Then we move into doing… this is where we put the theories into practice.  We do the thing.  In this case, you engage purposely in self reiki and start seeing clients.  You will still need to be very much in your thinking brain to remember what to do, what’s next, how do I do this thing, how to I support a client with certain condition etc.  

 

The next phase you start to move into a state of being… you have practiced so much that the skill becomes automatic.  You don’t have to use your thinking mind to remember what to do, you don’t even consciously think about what you do, it just happens.  Your awareness is then free to focus on something else, because you don’t need to focus on physical task.  As a reiki practitioner, this means that your awareness and energy can shift from doing to perceiving… from acting to noticing… this is when you start to pick up the subtle energy shifts, you start to see the shifting of their breath or the restlessness in their body, or tune in to clairs… you are able to shift into a receptive intuitive state because you aren’t stuck in your head trying to do it right. 

 

Finally - experience/skill sets.  This builds off the previous.  Have you practiced enough to develop your skills as a reiki practitioner.  And when you feel confident and effortless in your reiki skills, have you expanded your other skills and knowledge base to further help your client?  Example - nervous system… do you understand how the nervous system works?  Do you know how you can use guided breath or meditation to shift a client out of the physiology of anxiety?  Do you know how to use sound to shift stubborn energetic holding patterns?  Have you developed your intuitive capabilities so that you understand the subtle messages coming through?  Do you know how to use touch and breath and sound and imagery and scent etc to better meet your client’s needs at that moment?  Do you have a level of mastery that allows you to adapt your treatment plan when what comes up is totally different than what was expected?

 

Those are my top 3 differentiators between amazing reiki practitioners and not. 

 

#reiki #reikitraining #onlinereikitraining #reikimasterteacher #usuireiki

 

Guided Meditation to Transform the Energy of Stress

This guided meditation is designed to move you out of the biochemistry of stress and into the physiology of rest, renewal and creation.

Cultivate peace and bring that peace into the chaos of the world, instead of absorbing the chaos of the world into yourself.

 

Background meditation music:

"The Inner Calling" composed by Music Of Wisdom - Licensed from: 'https://meditationmusiclibrary.com/

Connecting to the Spirit Realm

My spirit guide is trying to connect… how can i pick up their message>

 

5 Clairs - our intuitive senses

 

Energy and information is all around us.  While this may sound woo woo, ask yourself how radios work, or how your phone works… information is carried on invisible waves of energy.  Tuning in to the spirit world is no different, we just have to practice tuning in - adjusting our psychic antennae to perceive what is there.  In a world full of flashing lights and intense flavours and smells… most of us need to learn to pay attention to what is subtle.

 

The clairs are channels of perceiving the subtle information of spirit.  You are using your normal five senses but you are attuning them to what is typically wayyyyyy more subtle.

 

Clairvoyance means clear seeing. This is where information comes as visuals, most often in the mind’s eye, but occasionally people see flickers or flashes or light or energy. I once had the walls turn pink.  I’ve seen a letter in the fluff of a blanket, i will get a vision like i’m looking at a sunset.  Flash of vision, much like a day dream.

 

 

Clairaudience means clear hearing. When we tune in to this clair we often hear things - typically again we hear it internally.  What often throws people off is that what we hear comes in our own inner voice. A song lyric may pop into your head, or a name, or a sound like a dog barking… I have rarely heard audible sounds that have literally turned my head because it is physically striking my inner ear, but this is very rare. 

 

 

Clairsentience means clear feeling. This is when you start to FEEL what another person feels.  Most highly sensitive people are very clairsentient and don’t even know it.  When you go out and start to take on what others are experiencing - anxiety, birthing pains, stress, grief etc.  If we don’t recognize that we are feeling something that belongs to someone else then we may attach to it and keep it alive. As someone who is very clairsentient I find the best way to support myself is to have a morning ritual of tuning in to what is mine, getting clear on how i feel, then any inexplicable deviations I can be fairly sure i’m taking something else on.

 

 

 

Clairalience means clear smelling. This is when we start to notice scents but cannot trace a physical source. roses, cigarettes, vitamin c

 

 

Clairgustance means clear tasting. 

This is the ability to taste something that isn't actually there. I have never experienced this.  But it can be a sudden taste flash of your grandmothers soup, or fresh bread etc. Something that would connect you. 

 

Claircognizance means clear knowing. You just KNOW.  Best way to describe this is information that just pops into your mind.  There is not rational reason for you to know or think or suggest something but it’s just there. I saw an eagle and knew it was someone who passed on

 

So circling back to the original questions - how do I know what my guides are telling me, how do i know if something is a sign…. you practice paying attention and you practice trusting what comes through.  It is always always incredibly subtle.  Answer this - what would I think they were trying to communicate if i didn’t allow spade for doubt and fear and etc

 

You don’t need someone to do this for you.  Most of what i bring through is a reminder or affirmation of what you already know but don’t feel confident affirming to yourself.

#reikimaster #reikimasterteacher #reikihealing #onlinereiki #onlinereikitraining #mediumship #psychic development

The Key to Healing

The most important part of your healing is a vision of who you are becoming… of what you are moving towards. You must start to imagine what your life looks like to be healed - who would you be, what would you do, how would you serve?

When we think of healing a broken bone we think of it returning back to it’s pre-broken state, we get a cough and we think we want to return to who we were before the cough. this is only true for superficial physical healing.   But deeper healing is not linear.  You aren’t returning to a former state of being - you are evolving, growing, and changing.

If your goal is to just heal this one particular thing - your insomnia, your recurrent infection, your relationship - without changing anything else, you will likely not succeed in the long term. Your current circumstance - especially if it’s something repetitive - is a result of your physical, mental and emotional habits.

The expression of you that fell into a state of dis-ease is not the expression of you that will heal.  An evolution of Being needs to happen.  Introspection, reflection, adjusting, integrating and moving forward in a way that is more aligned with your Truth.

Even if we can fix something momentarily through surgery or a drug, if you fall back into the exact same patterns  - if your life, habits and tendencies to stay the same, you’re not going to experience profound healing, merely a temporary relief of symptoms.

When we enter into a state of dis-ease it is an invitation to look at our life and where we are operating in unsustainable ways or in ways not aligned with the truth of who we are. 

When you look at healing - whether it’s a physical, mental or emotional healing - the question is not how can you fix this, the questions is how can I become the person who is healed?  Am I willing to do the things required to obtain and maintain a new state of being?  

When you move throughout life, the goal isn’t to cling to original versions of you.  When you move through job loss, miscarriage, divorce… you are supposed to be changed.  You are supposed to feel, to express emotion, to integrate lessons, to crack open and discover deeper layers of your humanness.  Let life change you.  We really see this as women transition into motherhood - the term bounce back.  No.  Just hard no.  You aren’t meant to bounce back, you are meant to evolve, to become reborn yourself.  You are not the same as you were - life has changed dramatically, the initiation of the birthing process brings you more deeply into life.  Do not for a minute try to cling to who you were before.  Your capacity to understand life has exploded, and with it come strong emotions and huge changes.  

What is this dis-ease opening you to?

What are your triggers and symptoms bringing into your awareness?

What if you just stopped to feel and express what is true in this moment?

 

#reiki #reikihealing #reikihealer #usuireiki #onlinereiki #onlinereikitraining #energyhealing #energyhealer

 

Working with Reiki Symbols

In this episode I discuss how to unlock the power of reiki symbols.

In the West most Usui Reiki schools Typically teach 3 reiki symbols in levels 1 & 2, and an additional one or two symbols in mastery training.  We are also taught that they each have names, though what most people think of as names are actually mantras that go along with each symbol.

 

So we are taught symbol 1, cho ku rei, is the power symbol, used to increase or decrease power, depending on how it is drawn.

 

Symbol 2 sei hei ki emotional and mental - often activated and or sealed by the first

 

symbol 3 hon sha ze show nen - distance healing symbol.

 

We take these as locks and keys - taught to use each symbol as the key to unlock certain doors.  Want to increase your healing power just trace symbol 1 in your hand, heal addiction… a cool 1-2-1 symbol over the power chakra ought to do it.

 

This has definitely not been my experience.  I actually had an aversion to using symbols initially, as they seemed like hocus focus.

 

But as i work with this healing system, I am learning to use the symbols as symbols.  By it’s very nature a symbol does not align with a single definition or use.  It is open for interpretation.

 

It is said that historically the symbols were not just given ton students in a broad blanket teaching approach as they are now.  A symbol would be gifted to a student to assist them in deepening their understanding of the energy they are working with.

 

It is more fruitful to sit with the sacred geometry of the symbols and to chant their mantras and allow the meaning to be revealed.  

 

For example with symbol one what does the sacred spiral mean to you?  What does it teach us about life and about our own true nature?  What you are using this symbol in what exactly are you invoking? 

 

encoded in these symbols and mantras are profound teachings around life and our place in it.  These symbols are sign posts that are guiding us to Truth.  

 

#reiki #reikihealing #onlinereiki #reikisymbols #chokurei #seiheiki #honshazeshonen #usureiki 

 

The Pain of Rebirth.

We have all heard that change is uncomfortable.  But there is a difference between the discomfort of enduring change, and the complete anhiliation of rebirth.  When we are going through profound change, it’s not uncomfortable… its a pain so wild and unimaginable that it feels it is consuming us.  And indeed the fires of these kind of changes are burning away any illusion, delusion that keep us from really moving forward. 

 

Some change is uncomfortable.  We are putting ourselves through a new routine, learning something new, interacting in a new way… there is a challenge. With these kind of challenges usually we see them coming,. 

 We sign up, we dive in…  They are hard, we struggle, we suffer, we sometimes fall short. These challenges may change us in small or temporary ways, but often, because we are prepared for them, we muscle our way through while maintaining who we are in the process.  We come out with something new - a promotion, a degree, a wedding ring - but we are not new. We come through it carrying all the baggage we started with.

 

This is uncomfortable in the same way that a workout is uncomfortable… you push your comfort zone but at the end you don’t look or feel a while lot different.

 

But then there are  the profound changes - the ones that transform you, the ones that reshape you.  These changes that don’t just change your life, they fundamentally change who you are and how you view and interact with the world.  These changes are not discomfort, these changes are re-births.  These are the moments that tear us open… that strip us of our baggage, our illusions, our old patterns  no matter how we cling to it (and side note the longer and harder we cling the harder it becomes).

 

Rebirth is the best way to describe it because it so closely parallels the birthing process.  The changes starts as an idea. Spark in your eye, an idea you nurture over time. You may have been moving toward a change for a while… this evolution has been ripening inside you for a while.  You gestate the change. You may have felt the flutters of it in your life, even though you couldn’t see it.  You keep saying yes to this new life you’re moving towards… and then there comes a moment of no return.  The birthing process begins and it intensifies until a point of transition a force beyond anything you’ve ever known moves through you.  Wave after wave of intensity pounds against you.  Most people at this point want to quit, they want to go back but that option does not even exist anymore.  The only way through is forward.  And the only way through is total surrender to this other worldly force 

 

These are the challenges that don’t even afford us the option to give up but demand that we give in… to give in to the invisible hand of the Divine, give in to the invisible forces moving through us.  These ,moments demand we  pray for guidance becaus there is no certainty anywhere.  we give in because even to give up just creates more of the same.  There is only one way out but you’re not consciously in control of it… nob amount of doing will fix it, and it often makes it worse.  And so you must sit in the refining flames of this moment in life and wait for a miracle.

 

In these moments you feel torn apart by the constant push pull of breaking down and breaking through.

 

When you feel you cannot go further, when you feel you can’t do it, when you geel like you want to give up, that is your invitation to give in,.

 

 

These are the pain of being reborn, 

 

A pain that burns away all illusions… this is how Truth is born in you. 

 

A pain so intense that it softens your heart towards others… this is how compassion is born. 

 

A pain that shakes you to your core so that all that is left to do is reach for the only sturdy thing left - God… and in this process Faith is being born.

 

I lean in to the practices that bring insight and ease… I cut out the things that I know lead to more pain.  I move my body, nourish my body, i take rest.  Discipline is being born.

 

A pain so bewildering that you questions everything you once believed, you start to question, and start to witness your own conditioning… this is how discernment is born.  

 

A pain so humbling that you lay your heart in the hands of God… and a true sense of service to something greater than yourself is born.

 

A pain so profound that you cannot manage to move forward alone, so you deepen your connection to others, and Love is born.

 

And as with any birth, the transition phase is hardest.  Wave after wave hits you until you think you cannot go any further.   This is the sign.  This is the moment where if you can just hold on a tiny bit longer, you will be delivered.

Seasons of Life

Life flows in seasons… and there are no exceptions to this rule.

Your health, your wealth, your career, your relationships…. everything flows through seasons.  Through cycles of expansion and contraction, activity and rest, light and darkness. 

Humans suffer tremendously because we try to live in a state of constant growth, harvest and abundance, and this defies the laws of the universe.

This simple teaching saved my marriage.  I poured my heart out to one of my yoga teachers about how challenging and bleak my marriage was, and she simply posed the question, what if this is a winter?  What if it’s part of a cycle?  What if beyond these challenges, spring is waiting, ready to explode into color and warmth and renewal? 

When the natural world moves into winter, we do not despair that it’s the end of the world.  We get cozy.  We bundle up.  We rest more.  We reflect.  And if we follow the teaching of the trees we draw inwards, we drop what is not essential trusting that what we release will fertilizer future growth and we divert attention and energy towards our core - we focus on what matters most, on what is essential.

But when our relationship moves into a season of winter - when what once was bright and beautiful has fallen away and starts to decay, we mourn the loss deeply, and often leave the relationship.  We don’t believe in the spring that will follow, so we leave to look for a summer somewhere else.  But that next relationship will also hit winter, and if we can’t weather the season, we leave again and never get to experience the rebirth of spring and the joy and expansiveness of seeing life burst forth from darkness.

Our career will similarly move  between seasons.  When winter hits, and things feel contracted and dark, can we take the invitation to draw inward and get clarity on what matters most?  Can we drop what’s not essential? Can we trust in the process, in the evolution?  Can we lean into the mystery that exists in fertile darkness?  Or do we freak out, panic and start to abandon ship in search of greener grass and sunnier skies?

These winter seasons are a necessary time of rest and reflection.  These are times for deep nourishment, and stillness.  It is a season to deepen your trust… a season to rest for the explosion of creativity, blossoming and rising that will inevitably happen in the spring.

Robert H Schuller says “never cut a tree down in the wintertime.  Never make a negative decision in the low time.  Never make your most important decisions when you are in your worst moods.  Wait.  Be patient.  The storm will pass.  The spring will come."

So Sweet One, if you are in a winter, I am here to remind you that it will not go on forever.  That you can soften your body, soften your belly, and unclench your jaw.  

Feel into the earth beneath you.  And let your body and mind soften into a state of faith.  

The spring will always return.  Spring will always return.  Spring will always return.

Place a hand on your heart, a hand on your belly.  Draw inwards with some deep breaths and ask yourself, what can I do to support myself in this moment? How would i show up, how would i carry myself, how would i speak to myself if for this moment I allowed myself to trust that even in the darkest day I can know wholeheartedly that spring is stirring within me and all around me?  And for just this moment, just this hour, just for today, can I allow myself to move into a state of faith, into a state of trust.  Can I surrender to the rhythms of life, to the pulsing of the cosmos, to the eternal cycling of seasons?

 

Opening to Grace

In today's podcast episode I am sharing an entry from my journal that was inspired by a state of surrender. I went to a coffee shop with the intention of doing writing, but when i arrived I was STUCK.  Nothing was flowing.  So I decided to surrender to the moment and enter some free writing instead.  What I share in this episode is what poured through me.  The big take-away? To soften the ego and open to grace.  When we become rigid we block the flow of Spirit.

 

Softening the rigidity and opening to the moment

 

Let’s be serious 

this isn’t flowing, and I can’t make it.

I’ve showed up

Ready to create

And yet i feel blocked

like what i’ve planned 

is not what needs to come through.

 

So i simply write

whatever needs to be expressed in this moment.

 

My God… the world is beautiful.

these humans around me

the sun

the light

the warmth

the earth

the dirt and rocks and sand

the plants

the bugs

the intricate interweaving of life

so fucking awe inspiring. 

 

When we get rigid in our thoughts & practices

we become rigid in how we are willing to show up

When we become rigid we can only serve ego

rigidity makes us deaf to the word of God

rigidity makes us unable to hear the whisper of the soul

it makes us unable to show up for our life purpose

 

Spirit requires us to live in a state of adaptability, suppleness, flow. 

Spirit asks us to embrace a state of ease and trust

 

Lighten up

Celebrate life

this breath

this pulse

this moment

This life is as sacred as we make it

 

How would this moment change if you paused to feel and experience what is actually here instead of living in the illusion of your thoughts & the delusion of your repetitive stories.

 

What if this moment you felt the sun on your skin, the pulse of the heart, the breeze of the breath, listened to the sounds around you.  What if in this moment instead of focusing on productivity, you focused on being alive.  

 

Drop in to your sensual nature and indulge your senses in what is alive and real in this moment of grace that if gifted to your Now

 

3 Pillars of Reiki Treatment - Moving from Theory to Practice

The three pillars of reiki practice are known as 

Gassho - 2 hands coming together

Reiji - Ho - indication of the spirit

Chiryo - treatment

 

Gassho - 2 hands coming together.

To begin your session start by bringing your hands into prayer position at heart or throat, attention landing on the spot where middle finger tips touch.  

 

The intention here is to open yourself to reiki energy.  We are setting aside ego and control, and opening to something greater, something Beyond the ordinary, something beyond ordinary perception to move through us.  You may trace or visualize a symbol 3 while intoning mantra "hon sha ze sho nen". May this healing energy that moves through me transcend time, space and rationality.  Then trace or visualize symbol 2 while intoning mantra Sei He Ki ("say-hey-key") with the intention 'may this energy recalibrate mental and emotional bodies, bringing this client into full alignment with their highest expression.'  Then trace symbol 1 Cho-Ku-Rei, inviting the power of the universe into the space (or more accurately, you are simply attuning yourself to be aware of the universal energy that is ever-present).

 

Reiji - ho  Induction of spirit.  This is an invitation to make your session a spiritual ceremony.  To soften to the grace of the Divine and allow yourself to become an instrument, letting go of control/outcome.  This is your opportunity to amplify your own spirit and intuition.  A few reiki breaths (joshin kokkyu ho)breathing in to the tanden point, holding, breathing out through mouth hands and feet (golden light).  See yourself flooded with this divine universal energy, and trust in the perfect unfolding of God’s plan.

 

CHIRYO - treatment methods

Ask for your hands to be guided by spirit.  

READ the energy before responding.  Scanning the energetic field (byosen reikan ho).

 

Calm the impulse to jump into action.  Take a moment to feel into the space, to energetically scan the person’s body, to notice where you are drawn to work.

 

Surrender your ego and open to God - as many times as it takes! 

 

When used in your sessions, the 3 pillars of practice set the energetic stage for a spiritual and profound experience.

Empathy - Superpower or Burden?

Empathy

In a world grown numb, the ability to feel deeply is a super power.

 

In a world grown distant the ability to connect with and understand another human is a super power.

 

These people who are able to feel and connect deeply are #empaths.

 

#Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

 

If you are highly empathic or #highlysensitive, you may be having a hard time regulating your own mental, emotional and energetic state.  

 

As we move through intensity of our own personal challenges AND navigate relationships and current events where we are exposed to other people’s challenges and strong emotions, it can quickly feel like too much.  When we are overloaded with heavy emotion, this super power can quickly feel like a curse.  Sometimes something as simple as walking through a grocery store can feel overwhelming when the overall vibe is heavy, fearful or negative.

 

So how can we leverage this super power without carrying the burden of feeling it all?  Working with your empathic gifts is a practice, and only you will know what works best for you.  But here are some things I have found tremendously helpful.

 

Most important thing for me is to have a #morningpractice or #ritual of some kind.  It is an opportunity for you to feel what is yours - before relating with others, before turning on your socials, before taking outward action in your life, there is a pause in the morning to breathe and feel and notice - what is mine?  How am I feeling emotionally, energetically, physically, mentally? 

 

This check in sets the baseline for your day.  Any inexplicable deviations from this baseline as you move through your day are probably not yours.  

 

So if you are heading to the gym, or about to see a client, and you are inexplicably hit with a wave of rage, butterflies or anxiety or sadness, it’s likely not yours.  Likely you are picking up on the electromagnetic signature of the people around you.  

 

This simple recognition - ah this isn’t mine, I must be feeling what’s present for someone else - is enough to break you free from feeding in to the emotional state.

 

You see, feelings/emotions are a result of thought.  We have a thought that creates a feeling… but it also is true that as we have a feeling we start to look for the reasons we feel that way and then reinforce the feeling… and it cycles.

 

When you notice that what you are carrying is not YOURS you consciously dis-identify with it.  Then instead of looking for reasons to feel this way, often our attention turns to the other person and our inner state can shift to one of love, concern and curiosity.

 

This leads to the second skill of managing empathy.  When we see someone struggling, we often want to jump right in there and make it better.  We have an urge to save them, and we are willing to sacrifice ourselves to do so (especially if we are feeling their pain in our own systems).  

 

This desire to “save” creates an unhealthy and delusional power dynamic - one of you being the saviour and the other person being the victim.  

 

In truth we are all eternal souls who are always connected to God.

 

the most powerful thing you can do for someone who is struggling is the remember you are both infinite divine beings.  You can validate their current experience while still regarding them, speaking to them and reflecting back to them that they are powerful, resilient, resourceful infinite beings.

 

So instead of plunging ourselves into the other person’s pit of darkness and despair and suffering there together, you can shine your flashlight into the pit and support them in finding their own light so that they can find their way out. 

 

And finally, when you find that you are stuck in an emotional state, regardless of whether its yours or something you picked up along your travels, there are things you can do to shift your state.

 

Move your body - notice how your body is feeling, how you are carrying yourself, what activities you are engaging in and avoiding - and then consciously shake things up.  What you are drawn to do during these states will result in more of the same.  If you want to shift state, CHANGE something.  Breathe more deeply, vocalize, carry yourself with strength, lift your heart, life your gaze.  Go outside.  Climb a mountain.  Jump in cold water.  Go to a yoga or gym class.  Turn on your fav song and dance and sing.

 

Change what you are reading/listening to/watching.

 

Put down your phone.  Take a social media detox.

 

Do something that makes you feel alive.  When you are in a good state, make a list of things you can do that always make you feel better - something you can refer to when you’re in a dark place.  

 

#reiki #reikimaster #reikimasterteacher #onlinereiki #onlinereikitraining #psychicreiki

 

Background music credit:

Deep Into Nature composed by Music Of Wisdom - Licensed from: 'https://meditationmusiclibrary.com/'.