Reiki Relaxation Circle Session 1

About three-quarters of the way through 2020, I felt that there was an immense need for healing, of humanity, and of the planet, and began doing a weekly online Reiki Relaxation Circle. This need continues through 2021 and I would love to have more people able to access these healing meditation sessions so I am sharing them here on Insight Timer.

Transcript

Okay, Good evening everybody. I am Arwen from Evenstar Wellbeing and I'm a holistic health and wellbeing coach and also a Reiki master. And I decided at this point, Being September 2020, That I wanted to offer some Reiki sharing and meditation and relaxation time for everybody because I really feel strongly that we are at a point in the history of the world that everybody on this planet really needs some more healing as does the planet herself. So I'm streaming live to Facebook for this evening so that everybody can join in and get a taste of how these circles will work. They are being offered purely on a donation basis only and I'm offering them as my donation to all those people working on the frontline of the COVID-19 situation, To teachers, To anyone working in healthcare and any emergency services personnel. It is my donation back to you. Before I start, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which I practice and also for anyone who's watching for the lands on which you practice, I would like to pay my respects to the elders of the traditional custodians both past, Present and emerging. The land where I'm practicing on today is the land of the Wurundjeri people and if you don't know what land you're viewing from, I'd really encourage you to find that out. It's something really important to all of us in Australia and in fact everywhere in the world who are the Indigenous custodians of the land where you live, Love and work. So I have been practicing Reiki for six years now. I did my Reiki one and two qualifications back in 2014 and then did my Master, Reiki Master in 2016 and it is just a practice that is so useful for everybody and non-invasive and something that is available to everybody. Anybody can learn and within the circles that I am doing every week, I'm offering you the chance to participate to give yourself healing and also to send healing out to the world. So if you are watching this and you want to participate then I'd love you to just make sure you're as comfy as possible, Get whatever pillows, Blankets you need, Make sure you've got a drink of water or a herbal tea nearby and we'll do a couple of meditations. I also just wanted to share with everybody a bit more about Reiki and get people comfortable with the concept of it. So it is an energy healing practice that has been around for almost a hundred years. Reiki comes from the Japanese tradition. However, Pretty much every culture in the world has a traditional practice of energy healing and it may be called many different things but it's really based on the same principles. Reiki itself means universal energy and this is something that is accessible to everybody all the time. It is around us all the time. Reiki practitioners are trained and attuned to tap into that energy and to channel it and send it wherever they want to send it. So because this energy is universal and around us all the time we don't need to have a particular physical thing connecting us to whoever it is or whatever it is that we're sending the energy to. It's not like electricity where we need a physical connection of something conductive. It will travel between everybody because we are all connected and we are all energy. So you can think about it like a radio station. On your favorite radio station the people, The music, They're always there but unless you have a radio turned on and tuned to the right channel you're not going to be able to access that entertainment. So Reiki is very similar. As long as we are tuned into it and turned on to the right channel then we can send it and use it however we wish. So tonight I will send Reiki to you and if you are practicing along or whenever you're watching this and practicing along then that will mean that you're able to give that Reiki energy to yourself and then we will also send it out to the world. It makes sense that because we are energy, Absolutely everything is energy, Even physical things that we don't think of as being made up of tiny little vibrating particles of energy but they all are. So it makes sense because everything is energy, Especially us, That we feel better when energy is channeled and directed to us. So I'm just going to tell you briefly about the principles of Reiki because there's five principles and it's kind of like all these beautiful traditional practices from any culture that it's really a way of life like yoga. Yoga is not just about the asana practice, The poses, It is about a way of life and Reiki is no different. So let me just see if I can share my screen and you can see there, There are five guidelines or often called presets of Reiki. They can be worded in different ways depending on the exact lineage of how they're being taught. So this is the wording that my Reiki master, A wonderful man called Eric Teichmann, This is the wording that he gave. So the five principles are for today only let go of anger, For today only let go of worry, For today only live with gratitude, For today only work hard on yourself, For today only be kind to all people. Beautiful principles, Beautiful guidelines for a way to live your life as I'm sure you will agree. So what I wanted to then show you is this is the guidelines in Japanese and there is a practice of chanting these guidelines which in itself is a really grounding, Relaxing practice. Now personally I am really not much of a chanter, I don't find that it's something that generally resonates with me but for some reason and to be completely honest with you I was only reminded of this a few weeks ago, The chanting of the Reiki principles and I just really wanted to do it. So I'm going to do that here with you, I'm going to chant them three times so absolutely of course feel free to practice along doesn't matter what you sound like because I can't hear you. So taking a big deep breath in to start with. Kiyo dake wa ikaru na shinpai suna kansha shite kyo hage me hito ni shinsutsu ni kyo dake wa ikaru na shinpai suna kansha shite kyo hage me hito ni shinsetsu ni kyo dake wa ikaru na shinpai suna kansha shite kyo hage me hito ni shinsetsu ni So I hope that resonated with you in some way and feel free to practice that if you would like to. So I will stop that screen share now. So what I thought we'd do for our first meditation was to actually meditate on the second guideline of for today only or just for today I will let go of worry. So it just so happens that today the second of September is the full moon so it was either the first or the second depending on where you are. Today in Melbourne it was full at exactly 3 22 p. M. And a full moon will always support you to let go of what doesn't serve you to surrender and to let go especially of things that have happened in the last two weeks so since the new moon which is always around about two weeks before the full moon. This full moon is in the watery sign of Pisces and that means that it can be extra emotional a lot of people do respond to the full moon with feeling an intensity of emotion but this one I think will be more like a nice release like when you have a really good cry that you need to have. The influence of the other planets at this time as well should really support us to accept what we need to let go of. It will help you to not be you know holding on to things in desperation but to release them with grace and make room for whatever change is needed. Again I feel that this is just so timely with what we've been going through at the moment especially where I am in Melbourne it's been a very tough long winter. So with that energy of the full moon supporting you you really do need to carefully look after your higher self and honor your spirituality this week and this practice that we're doing tonight is the perfect way to do that. So let's use that principle of letting go of worry. The beautiful thing about it is it's for today only we're not saying you can never worry we're saying for today only. So what I would invite you to do is to close your eyes down and start to pay attention to your breath and place your hands on yourself somewhere that's comfortable. So the most important thing is that you're comfortable so it's often comfortable to put them on your lower belly you may want to put one hand on your heart one on your solar plexus which is your upper abdomen. If you have a particular physical ache or pain then I'd encourage you where it's comfortable to do so and move you know lie down or stand up or whatever it might be so that you can place your hands on where you are feeling that pain at the moment. So shutting down your eyes and breathing for a few moments and I'm just going to prepare the energy. So really slowing the breath down and knowing that I am sending you energy now it doesn't matter what time when how much later than me directing this energy in the recording it doesn't matter when you're doing it know that you are receiving universal energy. Breathing really slowly really deeply right into your belly feeling the release of the exhalation as that leaves your body feeling everything that you need to let go supported by that beautiful full moon leaving your body. You may begin to feel the flow of energy through your hands you may not it doesn't matter it's working. So what we're going to do is I'm going to invite you to use the letting go of worry principle as a mantra for a meditation and mantra means mind vehicle. So it is these words that are actually going to carry your mind for this short time not anything else not any distractions or worries or anything on your to-do list. So allow your mind to be filled with only these words and your breath. Every 30 seconds I'll bring your attention back to the mantra. Remember that meditation is about refocusing the wandering mind it is not about having an empty mind because that is literally impossible. So I'm going to set my timer we're going to just do this for five minutes. Taking another big deep breath in and out. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. For today only I will let go of worry. Well done. I'd love for you to let me know how that went for you. If you'd like to put some comments on the Facebook page or contact me in any way I'd love to hear how you found that. So now that we've topped up your energy we're going to use your connection to everybody else in the ever widening circles that spread out from you like ripples in a pond when we've thrown a beautiful rock into it. I will still be sending Reiki to you so I'm using you to spread the healing network. So this time I'd invite you to place your hands palm upwards. If you're lying down you might like to do this in the full Shavasana position if you practice yoga so really moving your arms a little bit away from the body spreading your feet apart as well but really whatever is comfortable for you is the most important thing. If you're sitting then your hands can just be with your palms facing up in your lap. So focusing on the breath once more shutting down your eyes again if you open them up and really feeling into the expansion of the belly as you breathe. Feeling the connection between yourself and the earth so regardless of where you actually are situated in relation to the physical earth even if you're ten stories up in an apartment you are still connected through all the little bits of energy that are vibrating between your body and the body of the planet. Feel the energy from the earth entering you as you breathe in so really starting to feel and visualize your breath as energy. So breathing in belly expanding carrying the breath to all the different parts of your body and again as you're breathing out releasing everything that needs to be let go. Breathing in the energy from the earth and breathing out energy to the universe. Focusing now on your heart space so on the physical chest the area of your body where your heart lies and feeling the breath and how it moves in this area so feeling the chest rise and fall. You might even be able to feel your heart beat within your chest and this is also where the energetic center of our heart energy our love energy lies. We're going to use that energy to help us to connect to everybody else. The best way to extend and expand your heart energy is by using gratitude so bringing something to mind that you're grateful for it can be something very small it might be the fact that you've got a guided meditation available at your fingertips here today that someone else made you dinner that it was beautiful warm day if you're in Melbourne like me. Carrying that gratitude that grateful thought into your heart and feeling how that makes your heart expand how the energy from your heart from you moves outwards in ever greater radiating circles. Now picture that gratitude that love spreading out from you to anybody else who's in the room or in the house with you right now including any pets you're extending your love to them sending them energy and then sending with the next breath out that energy out to everybody in your neighborhood regardless of whether you know them or not sending them love sending them energy and then on your next out breath you're sending love to everybody in your city or your town or your region and then with your next exhalation you're sending love energy out to everyone in your state or your province and then with your next out breath sending energy out to everybody in your country visualizing that spreading of energy out from you that healing energy reaching everyone and everything in its path and then with the next out breath it's going even further and that energy that healing energy that loving energy is going out from you to everyone to every living creature on the planet and it is also being absorbed back into the planet and sending your love and your gratitude to Mother Earth staying with that sensation of energy traveling through and out of you I'm going to do a reading and this is something that I thought was really timely at this point in the year with this Pisces Full Moon it's a piece that is an excerpt from a book called To Bless the Space Between Us by the late Irish poet, Philosopher, Author and priest John O'Donoghue. I think these words are so resonant with a time when we're moving from one season to another from one phase of the moon to another from one stage of living to another. Fingers crossed for all of us in Melbourne and at any time at all of transition which really in human existence is happening continually if we're to grow into our full potential and our true purpose in this lifetime. So just continuing to loosely focus on the energy traveling outwards from you, Your breath and this reading goes on for a little while and at the end I'll just play my Tibetan singing bowl so you'll know that it's finished and I'll take this opportunity to thank you so much for joining me. I hope it has been a healing experience for you and know that you have helped to extend healing throughout the world and to the world. Within the grip of winter it is almost impossible to imagine the spring. The grey perished landscape is shorn of colour. Only bleakness meets the eye. Everything seems severe and edged. Winter is the oldest season. It has some quality of the absolute. Yet beneath the surface of winter the miracle of spring is already in preparation. The cold is relenting, Seeds are waking up, Colours are beginning to imagine how they will return. Then imperceptibly somewhere one bud opens and the symphony of renewal is no longer reversible. From the black heart of winter a miraculous breathing plenitude of colour emerges. The beauty of nature insists on taking its time. Everything is prepared, Nothing is rushed. The rhythm of emergence is a gradual slow beat, Always inching its way forward. Change remains faithful to itself until the new unfolds in the full confidence of true arrival. Because nothing is abrupt the beginning of spring nearly always catches us unawares. It is there before we see it and then we can look nowhere without seeing it. Change arrives in nature when time has ripened. There are no jagged transitions or crude discontinuities. This accounts for the sureness with which one season succeeds another. It is as though they were moving forward in a rhythm set from within a continuum. To change is one of the great dreams of every heart. To change the limitations, The sameness, The banality or the pain. So often we look back on patterns of behaviour, The kind of decisions we make repeatedly and that have failed to serve us well and we aim for a new and more successful path or way of living. But change is difficult for us. So often we ought to continue the old pattern rather than risking the danger of difficulties. We are also often surprised by change that seems to arrive out of nowhere. We find ourselves crossing some new threshold we had never anticipated. Like spring secretly at work within the heart of winter, Below the surface of our lives huge changes are in fermentation. We never suspect a thing. Then when the grip of some long enduring winter mentality begins to loosen we find ourselves vulnerable to a flourish of possibility and we are suddenly negotiating the challenge of a threshold. At any time you can ask yourself at which threshold am I now standing? At this time in my life what am I leaving? Where am I about to enter? What is preventing me from crossing my next threshold? What gift would enable me to do it? A threshold is not a simple boundary. It is a frontier that divides two different territories, Rhythms and atmospheres. Indeed it is a lovely testimony to the fullness and integrity of an experience or a stage of life that it intensifies towards the end into a real frontier that cannot be crossed without the heart being passionately engaged and woken up. At this threshold a great complexity of emotions comes alive. Confusion, Fear, Excitement, Sadness, Hope. This is one of the reasons such vital crossings were always clothed in ritual. It is wise in your own life to be able to recognize and acknowledge the key thresholds, To take your time, To feel all the varieties of presence that accrue there, To listen inward with complete attention until you hear the inner voice calling you forward. The time has come to cross. To acknowledge and cross a new threshold is always a challenge. It demands courage and also a sense of trust in whatever is emerging. This becomes essential when a threshold opens suddenly in front of you, One for which you had no preparation. This could be illness, Suffering or loss. Because we are so engaged with the world we usually forget how fragile life can be and how vulnerable we always are. It takes only a second for a life to change irreversibly. Suddenly you stand on completely strange ground and a new course of life has to be embraced. Especially at such times we desperately need blessing and protection. You look back at the life you have lived up to a few hours before and it suddenly seems so far away. Think for a moment how across the world someone's life has just changed, Irrevocably, Permanently and not necessarily for the better. And everything that was once so steady, So reliable, Must now find a new way of unfolding. Though we know one another's names and recognise one another's faces, We never know what destiny shapes each life. The script of individual destiny is secret. It is hidden behind and beneath the sequence of happenings that is continually unfolding for us. Each life is a mystery that is never finally available to the mind's light or questions. That we are here is a huge affirmation, Somehow life needed us and wanted us to be. To sense and trust this primeval acceptance can open a vast spring of trust within the heart. It can free us into a natural courage that casts out fear and opens up our lives to become voyages of discovery, Creativity and compassion. No threshold need be a threat but rather an invitation and a promise. Whatever comes, The great sacrament of life will remain faithful to us, Blessing us always with visible signs of invisible grace. We merely need to trust. So once again that was from To Bless the Space Between Us by John O'Donoghue. Namaste. Blessings to you.

Reviews

Thanks Arwen. Helped me tune in and release what I knew was blocking me. Will keep working in this.

Nice! I am just exploring Reiki and this was a good practice. Looking forward to trying your others. Many thanks. ☮️💖🙏