10 Ways To Create A Sacred Healing Space

Reiki works no matter how or where it is offered. Reiki doesn’t need a special healing room, or crystals, or incense, or anything. Reiki doesn’t even mind which hand placements are used or in which order they happen. That said, I have always found my own healing experience and those of my clients and students to be greatly enhanced when held in a sacred healing space.

When creating a healing space allow yourself to be guided by your intuition throughout the process, from choosing the location to where to place your crystals and talismans. Here are some guidelines for those who feel a little unsure of how to go about this, but always allow your own personality to shine through while bringing your sacred space into existence.

1. Make sure the space you choose is private, quiet and free from distractions. If you’re in a shared building make sure there will be no interruptions when you are giving sessions. A sign for the door is useful.

2. Natural lighting is wonderful, but avoid direct sunlight. The same goes for fresh air. Too much wind can be unsettling. An A/C might be necessary in hot places, but have a fan as an option for clients who are sensitive to the dryness of air-conditioning. If you don’t have natural lighting, use lamps with soft lightbulbs.

3. If you use music with your sessions, make sure your sound system works well. Skipping CDs are the worst and old crackling speakers just as annoying. Have the necessary adaptors and back-ups and a plan B for technical troubles. Test your music before a client arrives to keep things flowing smoothly and avoid any stress.

4. Candles, aromatherapy oils and incense can be used unless your client feels aggravated by any of these. Always adjust the setting to suit the comfort needs of the Reiki receiver. Electric oil burners are great for a subtle aroma that doesn’t overwhelm or require the monitoring of candles.

5. Make sure your Reiki table is super comfortable. For your comfort, it should be the right height to allow your hands to rest gently on the client without any tension in your body. For the client, there should be enough space on the sides for their arms to rest comfortably alongside the body. Make sure the table is long enough to accommodate taller clients. I prefer to have my own table made from bamboo according to my chosen dimensions, but the standard massage table is usually good enough. I use a portable massage table when I’m travelling.

Use beautiful linen for your table and make sure it is always clean and fresh smelling. Test the pillow for comfort. I like to keep extra pillows and sarongs and a light blanket nearby, incase needed during the session. Some people get quite cold during a Reiki session and some like to have something light covering them to feel safe and nurtured.

6. Have some comfortable chairs for pre and post session talks and a place for clients to leave their bags and stuff. Make the environment one in which the client feels completely loved and nurtured, like you thought of every possible thing to make them feel comfortable, which you did.

7. If your Reiki room is indoors, you may like to decorate the walls with soulful art and images of those who inspire you. Some practitioners display a picture of Mikao Usui or their teachers to honour them and the lineage. I like to hang mandalas in my healing space and art that I find beautiful and soothing. Let your uniqueness come into play here and have fun creating the atmosphere that calls to you. Healing doesn’t have to be serious. Joy is a wonderful healer in itself.

8. If you love crystals, you’ll probably want them in your healing room to support you and give off good vibrations. I enjoy creating an altar for my healing space where I place my crystals, feathers and all kinds of special treasures I’ve collected or been gifted over the years. I have a small framed picture of Mikao Usui which sits with my altar. My singing bowl also goes there, which I sometimes use after a Reiki session, only if the client is open to a bit of sound healing.

Always check with clients before a session starts if they’d like to incorporate crystals, essential oils and other non-Reiki related additions to the healing session. Even better, when you advertise, be very open about all you have to offer and how you offer your Reiki sessions. There’s nothing worse than a client going for a traditional Reiki session and being surprised, or sometimes horrified, with unexpected crystals, oils and angels. Be very clear about these things.

9. Before and after a Reiki session, you may like to burn sage or palo santo in your Reiki room. Besides clearing the space, this ritual also gets you in the right mood for healing. You can also clear your own energy fields while you’re at it. You could have a special box for keeping your sage, incense and other sacred tools and trinkets.

10.Treat everything in your healing room as sacred. Keep a place for a beautiful jug and glasses for water, drape pretty cloths over any tables or cabinets, let every item have a special purpose and place in the room. This creates a noticeable magical energy in the room. Enjoy creating your sacred space as much as you and your clients enjoy being in it. The energy you put into it will be felt and much appreciated by those coming for healing.

---Stay Blessed

Reiki Star Meditation

Reiki Star Meditation:

1. Easily cleanse the meditation space you are in by picturing a Reiki cleansing tornado/cylinder moving gently around the room. It is sucking in all of the negativity and is leaving nothing but love and light behind. Next make a power symbol over every side of the room. Make an extra one on every window and door.
2. Light a candle and sit or lay down in the space you are going to meditate in. If you like music be sure to put something soft and relaxing on.
3. Do you have more people that you would like to send Reiki to than you have the time to do?
4. Picture that each one of these people is a beautiful star in the night sky before you. The sky is lit up by their beautiful majestic white light.
5. Make a power symbol before the night sky and beam Reiki to the beautiful night sky filled with stars for 10-20 minutes. During this time notice how much brighter each star is getting as Reiki is being beamed to it. Each one begins to look shimmery and pure. Reiki is cleansing, healing, and protecting each star.
6. When you feel called to do so end the session with one large grounding symbol before the night sky. Open your eyes and give thanks.

---Stay Blessed

The Chakras Of Planet Earth

The chakras of the earth are perfectly aligned with our own. As she awakens, so do we. In the same way we have energy bubbling up from the lowest chakra, called Mooladhara in Sanskrit, or simply the root chakra in each of us which is striving to reach the crown, so that all of humanity can become “enlightened” – so too, the earth herself is participating in this process of awakening.

Though these vortexes of energy have changed over time, depending on planetary cycles, they are generally understood to be in the following places and correspond to our awakening based on the energy they help to refine:

1st Chakra – the Root or Mooladhara Chakra
Mt. Shasta in California (Some also believe this vortex is 5th chakra of the planet.)
The energy of Mt. Shasta is considered primal and base. This is where the universal life force accumulates before it becomes life – and is representative of the geysers which rush to the surface with energy the same way that kundalini energy is thought to rush to the crown to enliven the pineal gland – where all-seeing spiritual vision thus ensues.

2nd Chakra – the Sexual Chakra or Swadhistana
Lake Titicaca Peru/Bolivia
The Plumed Serpent – found in many South American myths, it is representative of the kundalini energy rising to the sexual chakra of the planet. Also called the rainbow serpent, this center has some of the most ley crossroads or ley lines on the planet, second only to Bali. It is where our primal energy starts to ‘birth’ itself, quite literally into form. Some say that it is through this chakra that the earth overcomes entropy.

3rd Chakra – the Manipura or the Solar Plexus Chakra 
Uluru, otherwise known as Ayers rock in Australia along with Kata Tjuta
This huge, monolithic rock is in the Northern Territory of Australia. This is where dreamtime legends arise from the Aboriginal peoples. Anangu life revolves around the Tjukurpa (sometimes wrongly referred to as the Dreamtime). To the Aboriginal people, this is the ancestral period of when the world was being formed. Kata Tjuta is considered Uluru’s sister rock formation. In us, the solar plexus is where we digest emotion – on the planet, it is where we will one day realize a legend told by the Aborigines from the ‘umbilical chord’ of the planet.

4th Chakra – the Heart Chakra, also called Anahata       
Glastonbury, Somerset and Shaftesbury, Dorset
This is the home of the holy grail. It is perhaps also our greatest contribution to ourselves and our fellow sentient beings on this planet – to open our hearts to heal the earth and allow her to embody her rightful place as a peaceful, loving satellite in space. Interestingly, this is an area known for high levels of crop-circle sightings which exhibit magnetic abnormalities.

5th Chakra – the Throat or Vissuddha Chakra    
Great Pyramids near Mt. Sanai and Mt. Olives in the Middle East
This is the one chakra that does not exist at a ley line. It is the exact center of the earth’s land mass as it currently is configured. Modern day turmoil in the Middle East is considered to be “the cries of the mother” or the voice of the planet calling for help.

6th Chakra – the Pineal Gland or Third Eye Chakra       
This chakra can shift – it is called the Aeon activation Center. Now it is considered to be in Western Europe, but will likely move over the next several thousand years.
This chakra is the one that opens portals and allows extra-dimensional energy to enter this world. Just like our pineal gland allows us to recognize other dimensions and realities, so too does the 6th chakra of the earth.

7th Chakra – the Crown Chakra or Sahasrara, the Thousand Petaled Lotus, the Highest Energy Center    
Mt. Kailas in the Himalayas in Tibet, also known as the “Roof of the World”
The highly developed consciousness of Tibetan people, as evidenced through the Dalai Lama’s teachings, is indicative of the energy that resides at the crown chakra of the planet. Just as our own crown connects our will with Divine will, so does Mt. Kailas connect the planet with her spiritual destiny.

----Stay Blessed

Yoga - The Science of Healthy Living

What is Yoga?
 
Yoga means union. Etymologically, it is connected to the English word, yoke. Yoga means union with God, or, union of the little, ego-self with the divine Self, the infinite Spirit.
Most people in the West, and also many in India, confuse yoga with Hatha Yoga, the system of bodily postures. But yoga is primarily a spiritual discipline.
Not that there’s anything wrong with practicing Hatha Yoga. The body is a part of our human nature, and must be kept fit so it doesn’t obstruct our spiritual efforts. However, those who are focused on self-realization do not necessarily have to practice it as much or at all.
Hatha Yoga is the physical branch of Raja Yoga, the true science of yoga. Raja Yoga is a system of meditation techniques that help to harmonize human consciousness with the divine consciousness.
Yoga is an art as well as a science. It is a science, because it offers practical methods for controlling body and mind, thereby making deep meditation possible. And it is an art, for unless it is practiced intuitively and sensitively it will yield only superficial results.
Yoga is not a system of beliefs. It takes into account the influence on each other of body and mind, and brings them into mutual harmony. So often, for instance, the mind cannot concentrate simply because of tension or illness in the body, which prevent the energy from flowing to the brain. So often, too, the energy in the body is weakened because the will is dispirited, or paralyzed by harmful emotions.
Yoga works primarily with the energy in the body, through the science of pranayama, or energy-control. Prana means also ‘breath.’ Yoga teaches how, through breath-control, to still the mind and attain higher states of awareness.
The higher teachings of yoga take one beyond techniques, and show the yogi, or yoga practitioner, how to direct his energy in such a way as not only to harmonize human with divine consciousness, but to merge his consciousness in the Infinite.
The ordinary person’s energy is locked in his body. The lack of availability of that energy to his will prevents him from loving the Lord one-pointedly with any of the three other aspects of his nature: heart, mind, or soul. Only when the energy can be withdrawn from the body and directed upward in deep meditation is true inner communion possible.
Yoga is a very ancient science; it is thousands of years old. The perceptions derived from its practice form the backbone of the greatness of India, which for centuries has been legendary. The truths espoused in the yoga teachings, however, are not limited to India, nor to those who consciously practice yoga techniques. Many saints of other religions also have discovered aspects of the spiritual path that are intrinsic to the teachings of yoga.

Health Benefits of Yoga :

We must understand what we can gain out of this wonderful practice At the physical level, yoga and its cleansing practices have proven to be extremely effective for various disorders.More importantly, yoga is extremely effective in:

• Increasing Flexibility – yoga has positions that act upon the various joints of the body including those joints that are never really on the ‘radar screen’ let alone exercised.
• Increasing lubrication of the joints, ligaments and tendons – likewise, the well-researched yoga positions exercise the different tendons and ligaments of the body.
  Surprisingly it has been found that the body which may have been quite rigid starts experiencing a remarkable flexibility in even those parts which have not been consciously work upon. Why? It is here that the remarkable research behind yoga positions proves its mettle. Seemingly unrelated “non strenuous” yoga positions act upon certain parts of the body in an interrelated manner. When done together, they work in harmony to create a situation where flexibility is attained relatively easily.
• Massaging of all organs in the body– Yoga is perhaps the only form of activity which massages all the internal glands and organs of the body in a thorough manner, including those – such as the prostate - that hardly get externally stimulated during our entire lifetime. Yoga acts in a wholesome manner on the various body parts. This stimulation and massage of the organs in turn benefits us by keeping away disease and providing a forewarning at the first possible instance of a likely onset of disease or disorder.
• Complete Detoxification – By gently stretching muscles and joints as well as massaging the various organs, yoga ensures the optimum blood supply to various parts of the body. This helps in the flushing out of toxins from every nook and cranny as well as providing nourishment up to the last point. This leads to benefits such as delayed ageing, energy and a remarkable zest for life.
• Excellent toning of the muscles – Muscles that have become flaccid, weak or slothy are stimulated repeatedly to shed excess flab and flaccidity. 

 

But these enormous physical benefits are just a “side effect” of this powerful practice. What yoga does is harmonize the mind with the body and this results in real quantum benefits. It is now an open secret that the will of the mind has enabled people to achieve extraordinary physical feats, which proves beyond doubtthe mind and body connection. Yoga through meditation works remarkably to achieve this harmony and helps the mind work in sync with the body. How often do we find that we are unable to perform our activities properly and in a satisfying manner because of the confusions and conflicts in our mind weigh down heavily upon us? Moreover, stress which in reality is the #1 killer affecting all parts of our physical, endocrinal and emotional systems can be corrected through the wonderful yoga practice of meditation.
In fact yoga = meditation, because both work together in achieving the common goal of unity of mind, body and spirit – a state of eternal bliss.
The meditative practices through yoga help in achieving an emotional balance through detachment. What it means is that meditation creates conditions, where you are not affected by the happenings around you. This in turn creates a remarkable calmness and a positive outlook, which also has tremendous benefits on the physical health of the body.
These are just some of the tangible benefits that can be achieved through yoga.
Having seen this, it is educative to note why the ancient yogis performed yoga and the interdependence of yoga and meditation. The ultimate goal of the yogis was “self realization” or “enlightenment”, a concept, which perhaps is quite esoteric to you and me.
But what is interesting is that for this they had to meditate for extensive spells of time – days,weeks and much more. This required tremendous physical fitness, energy and the capacity to subsist on next to nothing. Yoga positions or asanas provided them the fullest fitness with the least metabolism or stress and meditation in turn provided them the strength and will to perform these asanas effectively – a virtuous cycle of cause and effect. This mutually symbiotic relationship helped them in their path.

---Stay Blessed