I need a drink of cool cool rain

I took Reiki I with Dana of Dragonfly Reiki on Saturday. It was an intense 6 hour workshop. The first thing I noticed about Dana was how present she seemed. I’ve been battling with presence all my life. I’m a daydreamer. I love to get carried away on a whim. I respect a person who can find the moment and commit to it. We started the workshop with introductions. There were 4 of us besides Dana. We dove into Dana’s presentation on the history, philosophy and use of Reiki. After a great amount of information retained, we had our attunement. I’m sure people do them in different ways but I was blessed with a teacher who has a respect for ritual. The actual attunement process is just an initiation to the Reiki Practice. It formally introduces and connects you to the Reiki energy. We sat together with hands pressed together at the heart chakra marking the oneness of our lower and higher Self, the joining of the poles, Ida and Pingala, Male and Female, right and left. Dana spent time on each of us, opening us up and giving blessings. It was a psycadelic experience to be attuned. During the time I worked to keep myself present and grounded in the experience. It reminded me of Yoga Teacher Training, how I was told that you think of your practice while on the mat. Otherwise you create duality and cease to be practicing yoga. Yoga is union. That doesn’t mean practice asanas while recapping your grocery list. In yoga and in Reiki, I have found that it is imperative to surrender to the process. To the act, energy and moment. After we were attuned…and after the group found their ground again, we did a session on ourselves. Have you ever done drugs? Smoked a cigarette? Had a caffeine or sugar high? Eaten "the best cheese cake ever"? During that unforgettable post attunement session, I found out that nothing I can ingest can touch the massive openness of Reiki healing. I experienced a fullness and satisfaction that I’ve been looking for in my meals during the self healing session. We did all of the hand positions on ourselves with Dana’s instruction. When I attempted to pull energy from outside of me before it was just that. PULLING. I felt like I was pulling a rope of prana into myself and then pushing it into someone else and instructing it to heal them. It always relied on how strongly I was able to pull. Reiki’s different. I placed my hand on a chakra then asked the energy to flow through me. Usually before the words are even formed, my intention has linked me to the source of Reiki energy. Where I once felt like I was pulling energy in like a rope attached to a rock, I now felt the energy pouring into me like I as standing under a showerhead with amazing pressure. And this is how I experienced the energy through all of the practice I had during the remainder of the afternoon. Flowing water. When 4 of us worked on the 5th, laying on the massage table I felt like water was pouring into all of our crowns and flowing out of our hands into our temporary patient. When we all got so hot in the hands, toward the end of that person’s session, the energy was bubbling like boiling water under our hands.

I hope that what I’m saying is not taken as “Reiki changed me”. I don’t feel like that at all. I feel that the energy came through me and helped me focus. Yesterday afternoon I rushed to Kashi in the rain with my long time buddy, Dante. I was to teach the 4:30 class. Usually it takes me 15-30 minutes to take my seat as a teacher during each class. I’m a good and natural teacher no matter what my class conditions are but yesterday, when I sat on my mat I was ON. I spoke from my heart and only used my note cards as a suggestion of where the class should go. The focus I experienced was great. Never have I been this comfortable improvisational teaching a class.

Last night before bed, I did a full session on myself. It was lovely and I fell asleep quickly despite the video games being played in the living room. Woke up with incredible peace this morning. Instead of dragging myself through an workout, I decided to sit on the couch and turn myself over to the beast that is creativity.

My advice to anyone thinking of taking a Reiki workshop of any level is to follow your heart, meditate on it and find the right teacher for you. Above all, stay connected to the moment and to your breath. Quality breath makes any moment all the better.

The entire time I was practicing, I kept hearing the following song in my head. I’m just going to go with it and let myself have a Reiki theme song for as long as it makes me smile.