Reiki Energy

 “Reiki is energy channeling.  A learned technique to reach into the heavens and connect with lifeforce energy and focus it with intention.  Using the Chakra system, the Reiki Master has the ability to feel the energy flow through the human body and remove the blockages in the flow of that energy, thus giving the body the ability to heal.  Reiki Energy not only supports the physical body, but also the spiritual and psychological.” For most people, this is a general definition of Reiki.  But it is so much more.

I really didn’t think anything about “Reiki energy” 5 years ago.  I was busy going to work, taking care of my family and spending the weekends doing house chores, with the occasional “date night” with my husband when possible.  With the bustle, I was just trying to keep up.

I had been introduced to Reiki in the early 1990’s, before my son was born, while attending a class where each new week we explored another aspect of spirituality.  I thought Reiki was interesting, and believed it possible, but didn’t give it much more thought after that evening.

Skipping ahead 25+ years, after raising my son, and nearing 60 years old, my husband and I moved across country.  In 2019, I found myself living in Florida, in the midst of the most amazing spiritual community with the desire to grow, heal and make new friends.  I began to learn and practice REIKI. After two years of study and practice, I obtained my Reiki Master Certification. 

The reason that I am “blogging” about my Reiki journey today is that it played an important role in my creation of my Buddha Paintings.  Although I had read a number of books on the Buddhist Path and attended a Buddhist Temple for Sunday service on many occasions, I didn’t really sit down to meditate and sit the energy that meditation can bring.  My recent Reiki training gave me a glimpse into that type of focus and evolution.

For years I told my husband that I was an artist on the inside and wanted to paint and create.  But I really didn’t do it, I dabbled.  It seemed that I had a certain amount of performance anxiety.  I was spending so much time judging the potential outcome of my art that I was frozen to the point that I couldn’t finish a painting.

In 2019, after my move to a new place, I connected with the spiritual community, started making friends and learning Reiki.   Then in 2020, the world changed.  An unanticipated gift of solitude and self-reflection. 

I picked up my watercolors and started to dabble in my painting again.  Having dabbled in watercolor off and on for the last 20 years, I could create, but I found it very unsatisfying.  I needed something new in my life.  In December of 2020, I decided to learn a new medium, acrylic painting, and painted by first Buddha. 

Before painting each of the Buddha Nature Paintings, I sat down in meditation and connected to myself and to the energy.  I focused my intention on sending Reiki Energy to the canvas, to the room, to myself.  By using this energy, I could relax and just have fun in the act of creating.  The fear and self-judgement was gone, I was just “playing”. 

I felt such satisfaction in creating something so different from anything that I had done before, in a medium that I was unfamiliar with, and I was having fun doing it.  This was one gift that Reiki gave me.  I was momentarily free from judgement.

I encourage you to look at what you are fearful of doing, then do something to get out of your own way.  Step into the energy and create something fun.