I’m not sure exactly when it came to me, but I already have a name for my business.  It just popped into my head.  “Blossom Reiki”.  I looked online, and there’s only one other business by that name that I could find, and she’s in the U.K.

Cherry blossoms have their origin in Japan, as does Reiki, so there is an obvious symbolism to the name.  It has additional significance, however, if you will pardon a bit of corniness.  When I pull this off and am running a Reiki business, I will FINALLY have come into my own and be in alignment with my ideas about the kind of life I want to have – I will have blossomed.

I spent some time looking for another practitioner to book with and came across Michelle Garnier Winkler: http://www.createhealingreiki.com/.

I found her web site very informative, and I felt like I got a sense of her as a person from reading it as well.  She seemed very positive and friendly and down-to-earth, and I liked that.  We exchanged e-mails, the content of which continued my initial impressions, and I booked a session with her for Saturday, April 2.

Her studio is at Healing Waters & Sacred Spaces (eye roll).  I’m finding that I am resistant to some of the aesthetics of the Reiki profession.  It may seem contradictory that I accept as fact, with no personal experience, that life force energy is all around us and may be accessed and balanced by a skilled practitioner, and the notion of healing crystals and flower essences is a bit too foo-foo for me, but there you have it.

I arrived at Awakenings Wellness Center for my appointment on time at 5:30pm.  I waited in the lobby, and Deborah came and got me and took me to her room.  I filled out my personal info, and we talked about my expectations.  I didn’t mention I was exploring Reiki as my own path, as I wanted to interact with her as a client.

She said the first part of the session would be intuitive counseling and the rest would consist of Reiki energy work.  She explained that she would open herself to receive messages from my guides, but she wouldn’t know how to interpret them without my help, so I would need to acknowledge what was being received as true for me or not. Continue reading →

I had breakfast this morning with my friend, former business partner, and current massage therapist Ana.  She’s been attuned to Reiki and uses it in her massage practice.  She is of the opinion that it is difficult to make a living doing Reiki alone.

I can see why this would be the case, but I don’t feel that it necessarily has to be my experience.  So in taking in this information, I can sabotage myself before I get started or I can recognize that the future is wide open and making up a future I don’t want is ludicrous.

I am of both minds.  I acknowledge my fears and doubts about building a Reiki practice, and I believe that it is absolutely within the realm of possibility for me to do so successfully.

I called and spoke with Deborah Romero today.

My first Reiki appointment will be with her, one week from today after work.  Deborah combines intuitive counseling with her Reiki sessions, so I’m looking forward to seeing how that goes.

Truth be told, I’ve had Reiki twice before.  In 1999 or so, I saw a friend of a friend for an intuitive counseling session.  She gave me Reiki in the last 15 minutes of the appointment, but it wasn’t the focus of the session, and I don’t remember any particular impressions I had of it.

Then in 2003, I was offered a free Reiki session by a member of a spirituality group I was meeting with occasionally around that time.  I had a full hour-long session with him, and again, I felt relaxed afterward but couldn’t say one way or another whether I’d received any energy.  It’s not that I didn’t believe I did, just that I didn’t feel anything.

This is both a cause for concern and of no importance at all.  A part of me worries – despite that I’m a million miles from building a practice – that I won’t have anyone to perform Reiki on for not being able to explain the benefit of it.  Another part of me believes on pure faith that I will indeed feel the energy when I receive my attunements, and that it will not be my job to convince anyone that they need or want Reiki.

After a particularly shitty day at my really good but unwanted job, I once again took to the Interwebs to look for something else I could do.

But it couldn’t be just anything.  It couldn’t be just another job.  I need to do something I love.  I need what I do to not feel like work.  I want meaning and purpose and fulfillment.  Who doesn’t, right?  But if I’m starting over, I might as well create what I want from scratch.

Tonight, I found it.  After more than 10 years of ‘what the fuck am I doing?’, I found it.

Reiki.

I want to be a Reiki practitioner.

I’ve looked at Reiki before.  I’ve been interested, curious, intrigued… and tonight I am inspired.  Something shifted.  I felt pulled to it.  It was my ‘A-HA’ moment.

I decided right away what my next few steps would be.  I would need to get Reiki myself so I could experience what it was like to be a client and see what it might look like to be a practitioner.  I would get Reiki from different practitioners for both diversity of experience and to evaluate potential teachers.  I browsed for practitioners in Portland and found one that I wanted to see first.

And then I went to sleep with a feeling of peace that I haven’t had in a very long time.