Topics and techniques to be covered in this one day class include:

• History of Reiki
• Discussion of “Ki” (”chi” or life force energy) and how Reiki practitioners channel it
• Hand positions for Reiki treatments (treating yourself and others)
• Understanding and using Level II symbols
• Distance healing
• Reiki meditations
• Spiritual protection and “grounding” techniques

Students will also have an opportunity to practice their skills in the classroom setting, which is essential for developing sensitivity and confidence in your ability to channel Reiki to yourself and others. 
I also hold free Reiki healing clinics, which students are encouraged to participate in as a way to practice their skills while providing lovingkindness service to the public.

The first class will be held on Saturday, January 17, 2009 from 10 AM - 5 PM. 

For more information about cost and payment options, please visit the Reiki Classes page. 

Please contact me directly if you have additional questions or would like to register for the class.

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On Saturday, November 15 from 12- 3 PM, I will be on hand at Lotus of Life Chiropractic to provide 20 minute Reiki sessions for only $20 in a soothing setting with music and aromatherapy.  Light refreshments will also be available.

It’s recommended that you sign up to ensure a spot, but drop-ins are also welcome! 

To sign up and reserve your place, contact me at danalisayoung@gmail.com or 678-640-6146.

Lotus of Life Chiropractic is located at:

Lotus of Life Chiropractic
103 N. McDonough Street
Decatur, GA 30030

Looking forward to seeing you there!

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Thank you to Tracey, George and Nadine, who volunteered their time and healing talents to provide Reiki to our participants.  I know that I was pleased to not only provide Reiki, but to educate people on how this healing modality can provide benefits on so many levels.  I was very excited by the turnout and plan to do another one in early December.  Stay tuned!

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If you have never received Reiki before and were curious, or financial considerations have made it difficult to afford going to a healer, then please join me and several other Reiki practitioners on Friday, October 24 from 6:30 - 8:30 PM at Lotus of Life Chiropractic in downtown Decatur.  This is a great opportunity for you or a friend to learn more about Reiki and experience energy healing firsthand.   Light refreshments will also be served.

I recently provided several hours’ worth of free Reiki at Lotus of Life’s 2 year anniversary party last week, and received great feedback from the participants.  One woman emailed me to say she didn’t quite know what to expect, but her shoulder pain was much improved afterward.  Another woman told me that the discomfort in her jaw felt better after receiving Reiki. 

If you are a Reiki 1-3 practitioner and are interested in providing your loving service to the public, please contact me to participate.  Your presence would be greatly appreciated!  This is a great opportunity to further develop your skills and confidence as a Reiki healer, and to educate the public on the wellness benefits of Reiki.  You may bring your business cards, if you have them, to promote your respective practices.

Lotus of Life Chiropractic is located at:

103 N. McDonough Street
Decatur, GA 30030

I look forward to seeing you there!

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In addition, there will be a sign-up sheet for 5-10 minute free “mini-sessions” before and after my talk, so if you’ve never had Reiki before, this is your chance to see what it’s all about!  I will also be giving away coupons for $10 off a one-hour Reiki healing session (good for new and existing clients!)

Lotus of Life Chiropractic is located 1.5 miles east of Atlanta, in downtown Decatur.  It is adjacent to Agnes Scott College and Decatur High School.  Their address is:

103 N. McDonough Street
Decatur, GA 30030
404-377-7743

Looking forward to seeing you soon!

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“Change means we’re always beginners in some ways.  We need to ask for wisdom and courage.  We get it by listening, by praying, by meditating.  When we ask, our Higher Power will teach us to be part of good changes.”  - from Keep it Simple,  by James Jennings

As of Friday, September 12, I will be providing Reiki healing sessions at Lotus of Life Chiropractic in downtown Decatur, GA.  The office is only a mile or so outside the Atlanta city limits, adjacent to Agnes Scott College, and within walking distance to MARTA.  Drs. Jamie Galperin, D.C and Liliana Warner, D.C are excited to have me work in their practice office and feel that Reiki is a natural complement to their subluxation-based chiropractic care that incorporates the release and integration of energy through a technique called BGI (Bio-Geometric Integration).

The move to Lotus of Life will allow me more time and flexibility to meet with clients.  It will also allow me to grow in my Reiki journey.  Drs. Jamie and Liliana facilitate regular talks on chiropractic and wellness topics, and I plan to join them to talk about the “energetic body” and health benefits of Reiki.  Sharing knowledge is a passion of mine, and in early 2009, I also plan to provide Usui Levels 1 & 2 Reiki training so that others can learn this healing technique to share with themselves and their loved ones. 

My longer-term dream is to provide a once-monthly Reiki “clinic”, where I can gather my Reiki colleagues to provide 10-15 minute “mini” treatments to the public for free. The local and global mission work I’ve done has exposed me to the ongoing suffering in the world.  I don’t dare to presume that world peace is literally in my hands, but Reiki can help people become more relaxed, emotionally centered and increase physical comfort, which is a pretty good start if you ask me! 

Many thanks to Dr. Lynn for allowing me to use her treatment room for the past few months at Candler Park Chiropractic.  If it was not for her asking me to provide Reiki to one of her clients because she felt so strongly it would help, Dragonfly Reiki may never have unfurled its wings.  Dr. Lynn and I look forward to partnering together on Reiki-related events in the future.

Onward and upward!

 *Dragonfly photo taken by me at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, May 2008. Please do not copy or reuse without permission.  Thanks!

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I was glad to see the article, “Reiki: Hype or Help?” on the Discovery Health site, because I believe the increased research and interest in Reiki points to a similar trend that chiropractic went through about 10-15 years ago.  I remember when chiropractors were often dismissed by the medical community as “quacks” because of their assertion that subluxations created dysfunction in the nervous system, leading to symptoms of dis-ease.  Since then, studies have exonerated chiropractic and it is increasingly being used in conjunction with traditional allopathic treatment.  Insurance now routinely covers chiropractic.  We are also seeing more widespread acceptance of acupuncture in the West too, which had also been viewed with skepticism for a long time in the allopathic medical community.

The article describes how Reiki is increasingly being utilized in the health care community.  There are some hospitals that allow Reiki practitioners to come in to provide treatments to patients, and a number of nurses and doctors are beginning to practice it because they see how it promotes relaxation and a sense of well-being that is beneficial for recovery. However, there are many people who still view Reiki practitioners as being another type of “quack.” 

As Ann Ameling, a professor of Psychiatric Nursing at Yale University, points out, “Many medical practitioners are troubled by the fact that no one has a clue of the mechanism. It’s energy healing, but that sometimes infuriates people with a scientifically oriented mind.”  Lack of scientific evidence for why a treatment works has never stopped medical doctors before.  For example, “off-label” prescribing is done when doctors realize a potential health benefit but don’t always have the scientific “authority” at the time to back up the efficacy they are seeing in the clinical setting.  The best known example is that of aspirin.  Its off-label prescription as an anti-coagulant to reduce arterial plaque is relatively new in its history as a prescribed medication. 

The science of healing energy

James Oschman, Ph.D. is an academic scientist who has written two books exploring the scientific understanding of hands-on healing (Energy Medicine and Energy Medicine in Therapeutics and Human Performance.) One article, “Science and the Human Energy Field,” featured in the Reiki News Magazine discusses the science behind energy healing, and his work is doing much to bridge the gap so that doctors, nurses and other medical scientists understand Reiki and accept it within the clinical setting.  Here is an excerpt from the article that I found to be particularly helpful at providing context for how “energy” is used in various diagnostic equipment and treatments:

When physicians and scientists react negatively to the term energy medicine, they are forgetting that there are many medical technologies using different forms of energy for diagnosis and treatment.  X-rays and MRIs fall into the diagnostic category. Passive measures of the fields produced by the body are also important in diagnosis: electrocardiograms, electroencephalograms, electroretinograms, and electromyograms. Each of these diagnostic tools has a recently developed biomagnetic counterpart: magnetocardiograms, magnetoencephalograms, magnetoretinograms, magnetomyograms, and so on. Every doctor has used an electrocardiogram, an energy medicine diagnostic tool we have had for nearly a century.

Modern researchers have developed the magnetic biopsy, the electrical biopsy, and the optical biopsy. Transcutaneous nerve stimulators, cardiac pacemakers and defibrillators, lasers, electrocautery, and pulsing magnetic field therapy are examples of energy treatment modalities that are part of conventional medicine. Controversial or not, energy medicine based on the use of medical equipment is alive and well in hospitals, clinics, and medical research centers. Reiki and other forms of hands-on healing are another form of energy medicine based on scientifically measurable energy fields emitted from the healer’s hands.

Regarding other skepticism

I was amused by the comment made by Eric Krieg with the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking, who asserts that “Reiki seems to be a cult, and its practitioners are way out there in la-la land.”  First of all, Reiki is not a “cult.”  Cults have specific exclusionary and destructive patterns of behavior ranging from isolationism, emotional manipulation and mind control that are designed to benefit only the leader or members of the leader’s inner circle.  (See Fight Against Coercive Tactics Network for an in-depth description of how cults work.) 

Reiki is spiritually-derived, but it does not adhere to any specific religion or doctrine.  There is no leader or guru, although Reiki practitioners do acknowledge the work and contributions of Dr. Mikao Usui, who founded this particular system of energy healing.  Reiki practitioners are encouraged to adhere to set of ethics governing their use of Reiki, which are fundamentally no different than what you’d expect from any practitioner that is given access to help heal your physical, emotional and spiritual issues. 

The vast majority of the Reiki practitioners I’ve met are also well-established professionals in other fields, hardly people who would be considered “out there” with regard to their intelligence or personal behavior.  For the record, I have over 10 years’ experience in corporate knowledge management.  I oversee a corporate intranet, and my areas of expertise are enterprise content management, site architecture and taxonomy.  That’s a very linear, rational, “left-brained” sort of occupation.  The clients who come to see me come from all walks of life and often tend to be career professionals.  Yet they feel and appreciate the benefits they receive from Reiki. 

Reiki’s future - and yours

The Discovery Health article also goes into some detail about the results of a study that demonstrated the physiological results on 23 participants who received a 30-minute Reiki session:

The results showed that a person’s skin temperature increased, indicating relaxation. “When a person is stressed, the circulation goes to major organs instead of the skin. If a person’s skin is warm, that indicates relaxation,” says Wordell.  In addition, participants experienced a significant drop in blood pressure; saliva levels also rose significantly, indicating good immune functioning and anxiety levels dropped.

More studies done at the clinical level will continue to validate Reiki’s benefits as time goes on, and I believe it will be increasingly prescribed - much like chiropractic, acupuncture and therapeutic massage are - to aid in recovery and wellness, promote relaxation and reduce discomfort. 

Reiki is not meant to be a “cure-all.”  It is one of many tools available to help you down the path to wellness and personal growth.  Reiki is not going to be much benefit to you if you abuse your body, refuse to make healthy life choices and are incapable of embracing change.  Western medicine can’t cure you of any of those issues either!  Reiki helps facilitate and support the healing process on a physical, emotional - and yes, spiritual - levels. 

The rest of the healing journey is still in your hands.  

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“Do we merely assume we are taking good care of ourselves? It’s perhaps a good idea to list all the ways we think this is true. Do we get enough exercise? What is enough, anyway? Are we eating the right foods and enough of them? How about rest? Do we take naps when needed, as well as get a good night’s sleep? What about laughter? Some would say there’s no better elixir than a good laugh. Of course, we have to be willing to laugh at ourselves, on occasion, to make the most of it.

Taking good care of ourselves is much more in our control than we might have imagined. While it’s true that some of us need a devoted caregiver because of our infirmities, we are able to laugh at will and to eat what’s good for us. We are also very much in control of how we feel about the circumstances of our lives. Whether we think we have it good or bad has a great deal to do with the details of each day.

The best thing I can do for me today is smile at my life, my friends, my remaining dreams. I can show I care.” 

– Karen Casey, Keepers of the Wisdom

My husband forwarded this quote to me last week, and I appreciated its message, because it encouraged me to reflect on the difference between taking care of and taking responsibility for ourselves.  I think many people use the concepts interchangeably, but in practice, some very important distinctions are borne out.

What’s the difference?

Caring for oneself is an act of nurturing, perhaps no different than what you might do or advise for a loved one.  It can mean something as simple as taking that 20 minute walk with your dog or sitting in a quiet place with a book and cup of tea.  It might mean going to sleep earlier, taking a “mental health day” or choosing to eat more nourishing foods.  It may also include getting healing work such as Reiki or a massage.  For some people, taking five to ten minutes to sit in reflection and prayer is a way to reconnect with the source of Divine wisdom and love. 

Caring for oneself fosters self-love.  By making the effort to engage in practices that are comforting and sustaining on a physical, emotional or spiritual level, you are validating your worth as someone who deserves to be treated with consideration for your basic needs.  It is a practice that encourages mindfulness with regard to what your body, mind and spirit needs in order to remain balanced, grounded and function optimally.

Taking responsibility for oneself is a much more complex process.  It requires a deep, honest look at yourself and choosing consciously to recalibrate your responses to stress or certain emotional triggers.  The goal is to ultimately obtain greater control, peace and stability over the circumstances of your life. 

There is a difference between feeling as if you are going through a stressful, though manageable, time in your life and feeling as if everything is careening out of control.  The former state should encourage you to seek out care-giving moments to alleviate some of the stress and keep your life in its proper perspective.  The latter state is a warning sign to stop, step back and take stock of the ways you may be subconsciously contributing to the suffering you’re experiencing. 

We are already “good people”

Making the decision to take responsibility is a lifetime commitment.  It is about taking control of our thought processes and our emotional responses and setting the intention to see through them to the essence of who we are and what motivates us.  Taking responsibility encourages us to let go of self-destructive patterns of behavior by setting healthier habits and practices.  It inspires us to stop feeling and acting like a victim in our relationships with others.  This is not an easy process by any means.  It requires courage to sit with the aspects of our nature that make us feel uneasy or vulnerable and learn to understand their origins.  It requires honesty and a measure of self-acceptance to look deep within and say, “I am all these things and I am also a good person.” This is your Divine nature expressing Itself.  Only then can you begin to feel like you can manage the circumstances of your life and engage in behaviors that lead to positive benefits. 

The practice of gratitude

The secret to both caring of and taking responsibility for yourself is developing the ability to see the good aspects of every situation – even the unwanted, stressful and painful ones.  This is a practice that can help keep you grounded and positive even in the face of challenges. 

Earlier this year, I was put in the position of having to re-evaluate the tendency I had to respond in a negative way to different stressors coming at me.  It wasn’t necessarily that I believed all these stressors were negative (after all, you can have good stress too) but my way of framing and containing them was to express myself by kvetching about it.  “Kvetching” is a Yiddish phrase for complaining or griping.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it had become a habitual way of dealing with my life circumstances.  The perception from several people was that I seemed unhappy, which I fundamentally am not.  So, I did some soul-searching and realized that a good counter-balance would be to practice expressing gratitude on a daily basis.  It could be gratitude for something small someone did for me, or it could be meditative, prayerful gratitude for all of the wonderful things I have, the people in my life and the challenges I face from time to time that allow me to grow emotionally and spiritually.  I’ve been doing some work getting in touch with my spirit guides/guardian angels and that has also helped develop my gratitude practice, because the more I work with them, the more aware I am of their presence and influence.  Reiki also has an important place in this process because it is fundamentally a practice that embraces gratitude in its basic ideals*.  I do Reiki on myself daily and participate in monthly Reiki circles to receive healing energy from other practitioners. 

Life still has its moments, but I’ve noticed that since I’ve made the change to express gratitude that I’ve been able to find solutions for problems more easily, see the bigger picture – and also take greater responsibility for the things going on in my life that are within my control.  Learning to let go of what’s out of my control is one of the ways I’m learning to take care of myself too. 

Reiki as a tool for life transformation

Reiki works on the emotional aspects of our energetic bodies to release blockages that make it difficult for us to let go of pain, trauma and ingrained responses to those “triggers.” It is excellent for promoting mental clarity and physical relaxation.  People often feel that they can focus more clearly after receiving a Reiki treatment and that they are less burdened by whatever issues they’re facing.  They feel inspired to make small changes – even temporary ones – that allow them to nurture their bodies and souls, which helps facilitate greater change in their lives as a whole.  When I work with my clients, I encourage different types of supportive practices, based on individual needs, to supplement process.   Every little thing that we can do for ourselves leads to deeper healing and sparks a transformation that will manifest the greatness that lies within each of us.

 
*The Five Reiki Ideals, as developed by Dr. Mikao Usui, the founder of Reiki:

The secret of inviting happiness
The miraculous medicine of all diseases
Just for today, do not anger
Do not worry and be filled with gratitude
Devote yourself to your work and be kind to people

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Reiki and Rolfing!

Open House: 7 - 9 PM

I will give a basic introduction to Reiki and how this energy healing technique is beneficial
to your health and well-being.  You will learn about your chakras and how Reiki can unblock and balance them during a healing session.

Kerry Higgs, Certified Rolfer and owner of Wingspan Rolfing(R) also will talk/answer questions about
Rolfing, how your body can benefit from regular sessions…what it means to “increase your wingspan!”
and more.

Enter your name in our raffle for free or discounted sessions! Light refreshments will be served.

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Unlike other types of Reiki candles you can buy in stores, these are customized to provide Reiki for the individual and issue(s) specified.  I spend about 15 minutes channeling Reiki to the candle, utilizing traditional Usui Reiki distance healing techniques. 

The candles are especially useful for sustained healing following a Reiki session, but I’m often asked by clients to provide them for friends and family who may be ill or recovering.  In fact, the reason I decided to start offering these as an additional service was because they have been so popular with the friends, family and clients who have received them from me. 

If you’re interested in ordering a Reiki healing candle for yourself or a loved one, please visit the Services page for more information. 

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