Sarah: The healing energy we call Reiki been around since the beginning of time. We trace our Reiki lineage back to Usui. He was born the year that Lincoln died. And I find that just to be so amazing from the standpoint that in American history, I think of the American Civil War as being so long ago. And yet when I look at his life, I think “that wasn’t that long ago”. Usui wanted to make a lasting impact. There were already four Reiki schools in Japan when he had his spiritual epiphany. So, was Usui the first person to share or do Reiki?
Sarah: No. One of the conditions of World War II was anything practice they were doing in Japan needed to come forward and register it. Acupuncture came forward. It why you can go to any strip mall in America and, if it’s not there, it’s in the next one down. But Reiki didn’t, they went underground.
Sarah: The way you become connected to Source of Reiki is through an attunement. This experience is similar in concept to having my baby grand piano tuned. The tuner assists the strings of the piano to match the preexisting vibration. As a Reiki Master Teacher, I lead meditations that allow your healing skills to vibrate at Reiki’s preexisting vibration. You need a Reiki Master to assist.
Sarah: Usui’s original method of attuning someone to Reiki was hands on. Later, a Spirit-led, hands-off attunement was developed. And having been trained with the hands-on way first, and then later on with hands-off, I much prefer the hands-off. All the teachers were well qualified. The education was fabulous, but the experience with Spirit-led was deeper. Spirit knew all about me and knew what the next best step was for me. And so, when I teach, I choose hands off, Spirit-led attunements.
JC: Know, what else do you learn in life? Like probably when you were a little girl, what do you learn back then that still applies today that you use either in business, in your relationships in your health, whatever it was that you still today, you go back to that.
Sarah: I have this memory of maybe being three years old, living in a Congolese village, and dancing barefoot on a hot day in a white cotton dress on grass. I can fully see where it was. It was next to a cinder block house that was another missionary’s house. And just being in that space and being able to dance. But I wasn’t dancing because there was an internal sound necessarily. I was dancing to the African drums. The African drums’ sound that was taking place, of this joy, of this beat of life. I could hear it internally as well, but that I was able to balance out the two of those things. My physical expression then became the balance of the internal and external. And, I’ve never said it like that before, but I really think that that has been one of the pieces that really has helped drive forward for me what I want to do and how I want to do it.
Sarah: The longer I’m in Reiki, the more lives that I get the privilege of touching. When the Sony executive comes to me for Reiki, what she wants to hear are the words that come out based on that kid, dancing on the grass. Her heart wants to hear the words of life authentically shared in this moment for what she’s going through, what she’s experiencing.
Sarah: As Reiki practitioners, I think that one of the cutting-edge pieces that’s so important is two-fold. One, when you’re working with a healer or you’re working with a Reiki master and they say, “I’m not taking any clients for today or for this week”, they are literally saying that they need to have some downtime in order to release and let go of some of the things that they hear. Because when you are in this space of a healer, you get to hear so much. Even though the experiences didn’t happen to you, as you attentively listen, there’s still something that happens inside of our own physical being, just being human and walking along. And so, if your Reiki practitioner asks for some time off, respect that, allow that. The second part also is to be working with a Reiki practitioner who is authentic on their own journey. Every day is not a day of roses and flowers and rainbows and unicorns. Some days are just one foot in front of the other.
JC: So, do you have any last-minute tips or suggestions?
Sarah: When we are feeling anxious, we naturally don’t breathe as deeply. And we have de-oxygenated blood in our toes because toes are farthest away from the heart and the lungs. So, getting the heels above our heart just naturally allows gravity to bring that back.
Sarah: Another thing is lingering on the exhale and accessing the Vagus nerve. When we breathe in, through the nose and out through the mouth and linger on the exhale part of it, we’re allowing our intuitive gut and our emotional heart and our thinking brain to align. When we do that, we frequently move to a much better place of decision making. And then take a salt bath, or even just get your feet in some salt water, because largest spores on our body are at the bottom of our feet. Always rinse the salt off afterwards because our skin is a two-way barrier. Everything in our body is connected to our feet. Yet, we don’t, never learned how to take care of our feet and they affect the rest of our bodies.
