The Reiki Digest

Carnival of Healing #214: Victory through surrender

2009-11-07T06:42:00.007-05:00

Welcome to Carnival of Healing #214! And welcome, carnival-goers, to The Reiki Digest!

Last week's Carnival was hosted by Astrid Lee at Therapeutic Reiki, and next week the show moves on down the road to Rose de Dan's Wild Reiki and Shamanic Healing Blog. Wow! That's three Reiki sites in a row. And of course, Carnival organizer Phylameana lila Desy, About.com's Guide to Holistic Healing, is also (among other things) a Reiki practitioner. Just in case any carnival visitors are unfamiliar with the natural healing practice of Reiki, click here to find out more from the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

You can become even more familiar with Reiki by subscribing to The Reiki Digest email edition (it's free). And if you're already a Reiki practitioner and you'd like to freshen up your knowledge of the subject, you might be interested in our Reiki Update Training course. And we invite you to stand up and be counted in our Global Reiki Census, and add your events to our Reiki Events Calendar. Those are just a few of the ways we've been serving the world Reiki community since 2006.

And for those who may be unfamiliar with the Carnival of Healing, a brief explanation: the Carnival is a weekly round-up of personal blog posts on the topics of holistic health, wellness, spirituality, and self empowerment that travels through cyberspace, setting up its virtual tents at a different site each week.

The great football coach Vince Lombardi often said that "Winning isn't everything: it's the only thing." Coach Lombardi may have won many games, awards, and even the distinction of having a New Jersey Turnpike rest area named after him, but he did not contribute to this week's carnival. Just as well, since our theme this week is the power of winning through surrender.

So if you're hoping to be immortalized on a plaque alongside a highway somewhere, go ahead and keep pushing for victory at all costs. If you're looking for a different kind of win, however, keep reading.

At Life Optimizer, Donald Latumahina kicks us off with The Importance of Giving Up. And Carole Gold at Gold Post-it scores a field gold (sorry, couldn't resist that one) with The Law of Surrender: Giving Up That Which You Desire. At Grace in Gravity, Gina Loree' Marks discusses a different kind of giving up -- letting go -- in Brace Yourselves, a post about how and where we hold onto tension in our bodies.

Health Blogger found victory in defeat in his first attempt to run a marathon. And at Healthcare Hacks, Amy B. Scher never gave up in her fight to overcome paralysis from Lyme Disease -- though sometimes circumstances required her to give in -- and now she's Running Toward Forgiveness.

At X-Ray Tech Schools, Carolyn Friedman urges us to let go of 10 Common Myths About Bipolar Disorder, and at Glowing Face Man, Sam Alexander tells us that letting go of negative thinking has an abundance of positive benefits.

Kaushik Chokshi at beyond karma has something in common with Coach Lombardi: approaching life as a game. But in Kaushik's case, it's not about winning or losing: it's all about playing.

This week's Carnival also includes a couple of great Reiki-related posts: Rose de Dan tells us how she happily gave up the chance to respond in kind to an unexpected outburst in Building Bridges with Animal Reiki. And Sherri Lane gives up her own resistance to sharing her healing gifts in Seeing Miracles Every Day: Following the Healing Light.

All in all, a winning combination! We hope you enjoy this special edition, and we'll be back next week with all our regular Reiki Digest features, including the Celeb-Reiki Report, the Reiki Roundup, and a Reiki sports update.

Stay tuned for the Carnival of Healing

2009-11-07T06:38:00.002-05:00

Watch this space! Carnival of Healing #214 will be published here in a few hours, and this week's email edition will follow soon after. Stay tuned!

Listen free to Celeb-Reiki Lisa Williams on Hay House Radio

2009-11-06T15:28:00.003-05:00

This week's Celeb-Reiki is Lisa Williams, both a Reiki master and a medium, best known for her Lifetime TV shows Life Among the Dead and Voices from the Other Side. She now has a new show at Hay House Radio, and it's free to listen (Click on the image above to find out more).

Please note: Reiki and mediumship are two distinct and different practices. Not all Reiki practitioners are mediums, and vice versa. Ms. Williams combines the two practices in her own unique way.

Music we love to practice Reiki by: Jia Peng-Fang

2009-11-06T13:18:00.002-05:00

This week's featured artist is erhu player Jia Peng-Fang. The erhu, or Chinese two-string violin, dates back more than a thousand years, although it didn't become a solo instrument until the 20th century. If you travel the New York City subway system, you may frequently hear the erhu being played by buskers in between trains. The plaintive yet hopeful sound of the erhu can work well for a client with a lot of sadness to be released, so keep the tissues handy and leave a little extra time at the end of the session in case your client wants to talk.

Click on the button to listen for free, and remember that every purchase you make at iTunes via our links helps support The Reiki Digest. Thanks, iTunes!

The weekly waka

2009-11-05T15:55:00.002-05:00

the leaves are turning
to gold, or to flame, or dust
each of them perfect
have compassion for yourself
have compassion for others

(By Beth Lowell)

(Waka wanted: If you'd like to contribute a waka to our regular series, check out these guidelines, write your waka, and email it to editor @ thereikidigest.com.)

This week's specials

2009-11-05T15:06:00.002-05:00

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Other specials this week include:

A musical Reiki session

2009-11-02T07:37:00.005-05:00

Editor's note: Some readers have had trouble listening to the audio. If you're one of them, click here to download the recording to your computer.

Featured Practitioner: Cymber Lily Conn
Hakalau, Hawaii

Reiki practitioner and harpist Cymber Lily Conn

By Janet Dagley Dagley

Editor

I received a delightful and unexpected healing gift the other day: a distance Reiki session in the form of a musical recording from our first-ever Featured Practitioner: Cymber Lily Conn of the big island of Hawaii. Cymber was a student in our first Reiki Update Training class, and one of the first to pass the final exam. While she was waiting for her test results, Cymber decided to do a little extra credit project for the teacher. Cymber not only practices Reiki, she's also a harpist, and she combines both to offer Reiki to clients via her music. For clients in her local area, she offers live Reiki healing harp sessions. Those who aren't nearby can get live sessions via phone or Skype, or even recorded sessions. Since I'm not in Hawaii (alas!), Cymber did a Reiki harp healing session for me, converted the recording to handy mp3 form, and emailed it to me.

I've been able to listen to it again and again over the past week or so, and now I'd like to share it with you as well. Just click on the pink button on the mp3 player below -- but to get the most from the experience, you might want to prepare by setting up a comfortable place to sit or lie down while you listen.

Cymber explains that she began the session by focusing herself as usual for a distance Reiki session, and then:

"I allowed the Reiki to begin to flow through my hands, as though I were in a regular session with a client on a table. I then brought Janet to mind, and began to get a sense of how her energy was moving and how she was feeling. It's important to remember that someone in a different time zone (there are five hours between Janet and me) is in a different part of their day, and their energy will be different from mine.

Then I begin playing the harp. Reiki vibrates like musical notes only much higher, and is infused into the music.

In most musical sessions, I begin with a grounding improvisation. However, Janet was already quite grounded, so this was not needed. Her musical Reiki session starts with music to help balance energy and prepare to release blockages. The second section creates a safe place to look a little deeper at the shadow side, the rich, dark, loamy place we don't like to look. Reiki energy will help release stuck places in the shadow. The third section brings you into a cheerier mood, and returns to a brighter place than the one you left.

Once I had finished the recording (using GarageBand), then I tidied up the usual little noises at the beginning and end of the recording, turned it into an mp3, and emailed it to Janet. She can listen to the recording as often as she needs. And when the recording is no longer useful, she can request a new recording that better matches her energy-balancing needs at the time."

Thanks so much, Cymber! I've never been able to share a Reiki session I received with anyone else before, or relive it the way I can when listening to this recording. And thanks for becoming our first Featured Practitioner.

About Reiki Digest Featured Practitioners: From time to time we'll be introducing you to selected Reiki practitioners from around the world who have demonstrated their knowledge and skill by passing the Reiki Update Certification Exam -- practitioners we feel confident in recommending to clients and students. Click here for more information about Reiki Update Certification.

'Strong evidence' Reiki & other biofield therapies help reduce pain

2009-11-01T21:41:00.002-05:00

Encouraging breaking news from the scientific community: A review of 66 clinical studies by researchers at UCLA found "strong evidence" that Reiki and other biofield therapies help reduce pain, according to an article published last week in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

The review found "moderate evidence" of the effectiveness of biofield therapies in decreasing negative behavior in dementia patients as well as decreasing anxiety for hospitalized patients, and "equivocal evidence" that biofield therapies can help with fatigue and quality of life for cancer patients and decreased anxiety for cardivascular patients.

The authors, researchers Shamini Jain and Paul J. Mills of the University of California at Los Angeles, say there is a need for further high-quality studies.

The studies reviewed were of average quality by scientific standards, the researchers wrote in the article, titled "Biofield Therapies: Helpful or Full of Hype? A Best Evidence Synthesis."

"In order to better inform patients of the potential benefits or non-benefits of these biofield-based interventions, clinicians and scientists within behavioral medicine should familiarize themselves with current theory, practice and research of such techniques," they concluded.

Insurance coverage for Reiki, other complementary therapies could lower costs

2009-11-01T18:54:00.005-05:00

Health insurance plans don't usually cover Reiki treatments -- not even plans that offer coverage for other complementary therapies such as acupuncture. But one company in Wisconsin has been including coverage for Reiki, massage, craniosacral therapy, naturopathy and acupuncture as part of its standard plan for the past four years, and a company spokesperson says the policy may actually be saving money.

The Group Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin pays up to $375 per member per year for complementary therapies, and currently has 45 practitioners working in four different clinics. The services were added at the suggestion of a local doctor who had herself benefited from alternative treatments for fibromyalgia.

While most insurance companies consider complementary and alternative therapies to be unaffordable luxuries, GHC's marketing manager says officials believe the policy will reduce the amount it spends on prescription drugs. The numbers aren't in on that yet, but meanwhile, GHC made the top 10 health plans in U.S. News & World Report's annual survey of consumer satisfaction and success in preventing and treating illness.

Update training now available for all levels

2009-11-01T18:30:00.000-05:00

The next round of Reiki Update Training begins on Tuesday, November 3, but if you're not registered yet, don't worry: we've revised our training so that you can study at your convenience, so you can start anytime. We've also added a separate update class for Level 1 practitioners -- that will begin December 8. Click here for more information on why you should update your training, and how to sign up.

Happy holiday!

2009-10-31T14:02:00.003-04:00

Whether you're celebrating this day as Halloween, Samhain, or in some other way, we hope you enjoy the festivities! We're taking the rest of the day off, so look for this week's edition of The Reiki Digest here and in your inbox by Monday.

The Celeb-Reiki Report

2009-10-31T09:09:00.003-04:00

It may seem silly to even suggest that the tabloid gossips have stepped over the line in their dogged pursuit of certain celebrities. Of course they do -- that's their job. But we can't help thinking that those who are criticizing this week's Celeb-Reiki, Jennifer Aniston for spending money on the care of her ailing dog Norman. Far beyond Hollywood, from Ireland to India to China, in Polish, Spanish, Japanese and German -- just to mention a few of the reports we've seen -- tongues are wagging about the $250 the actress reportedly spends each week on Reiki, massage, and acupuncture for 14-year-old Norman. Hey -- he's 112 in dog years, he's ailing, she loves him and can easily afford the treatments. So what's the big deal?

Calendar glitch

2009-10-31T09:00:00.004-04:00

We have a slight glitch with our Reiki Events Calendar -- all the times are supposed to be local, but for some reason the only time zone it recognizes is Greenwich Mean Time. So if it appears that an event is scheduled for 2 a.m. or some other odd hour, please read the listings more closely to find the correct local time. We hope to have the problem solved soon. Meanwhile, please include the event time near the beginning of your listings.

To become eligible to list your Reiki circles, clinics, classes, and other events, send an email to editor @ thereikidigest.com with your name, address, telephone number, and email address for our files. You can choose the contact information that goes into your listings.

Submissions wanted for the Carnival of Healing

2009-10-31T08:59:00.003-04:00

Time to fire up the old calliope once more and spin some cyber cotton candy: Next Saturday the Carnival of Healing will pitch its virtual tents once again here at The Reiki Digest, and that means we're inviting our readers to join the fun by submitting a post from your web site or blog to the Carnival.

The Carnival of Healing is a weekly round-up of blogs across the Internet featuring information about healing, self empowerment, and spirituality, coordinated by Phylameana lila Desy, About.com's guide to Holistic Healing. It travels constantly through cyberspace, landing at a different blog each week.

Click here to submit a post.

Participating in the Carnival is a great way to draw new readers to your web site, make yourself more visible online, and find other natural healing practitioners you might never have encountered otherwise.

To get a better idea of what the Carnival is all about, check out this week's special Halloween edition at Therapeutic Reiki.

The weekly waka

2009-10-29T17:06:00.001-04:00

A shiny jawbone,
with six smooth teeth still attached -
the weather’s turning
- I put it in my pocket,
a heron rose in silence

(By Beth Lowell)

(Waka wanted: If you'd like to contribute a waka to our regular series, check out these guidelines, write your waka, and email it to editor @ thereikidigest.com.)

This week's specials

2009-10-29T11:02:00.003-04:00

Many thanks to this week's featured advertiser, Gaiam.com, for their support of this publication.

Gaiam.com is the leading source for natural living products on the web. There are many, many things we like about Gaiam: great eco-friendly products, efficient and friendly service, the easy-to-use web site, and especially the philosophy behind the company. Here's how they put it: "At Gaiam, we believe that all of the Earth's living matter, air, oceans and land form an interconnected system that can be seen as a single entity." Reiki practitioners everywhere are familiar with that concept.

Speaking of interconnected systems, Gaiam and other advertisers help make it possible for us to bring you The Reiki Digest free of charge each week -- and they offer some great specials for our readers. You can keep the energy flowing by taking advantage of those specials and shopping with our advertisers. Thanks for your support!

Just in time for the holiday shopping season, Gaiam is offering shipping for only 99 cents through December 9:

And through November 11, you can get $20 off a purchase of $100 or more:

Gaiam's interconnected system includes the Gaiam Yoga Club, which brings acclaimed teachers Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman into your home via online classes to help you create and maintain your own home yoga practice. And if you click below, you can get a free trial to decide if it's right for you:

But that's just the beginning of the learning opportunities Gaiam offers. There's also Gaia Illumination University, offering more than 75 transformational online self-paced classes:

Then there's Gaiam's Earth Cinema Circle, a DVD club with an earth-friendly difference:

Gaiam also has an "As seen on TV" division, offering such fitness products as The Firm and The Wave:

Many thanks to Gaiam, and to our readers!

Recommended listening: Reiki at a medical conference

2009-10-25T19:07:00.002-04:00

Several months ago, I had the privilege of attending a presentation on Reiki by Pamela Miles (author of Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide) and Dr. James Dillard at the Integrative Heathcare Symposium in New York. I wish all our readers could have been there to hear the presentation, too, and in order to share the experience with you, I wrote an article about it back in April that has since become one of our all-time most popular posts.

Now, Pamela has made arrangements with the symposium organizers to make a recording of that presentation available free online. Previously, this recording was only available as a CD for $15, and as one who bought it, I feel that money was well-spent. How wonderful that the recording is now free to anyone who wants to hear it. I recommend it to all Reiki practitioners, especially those who practice (or would like to practice) in a medical environment.

Click here to find out more and listen to the presentation.

Keep in mind that this is a presentation not to Reiki practitioners about medicine, but to doctors, nurses, chiropractors, and other medical professionals about Reiki.

Many Reiki practitioners have also taken Pamela's Medical Reiki training in New York, Baltimore, and other locations. Now she is now working on a plan to make that training available online as a distance learning course for Reiki practitioners everywhere. For more information, visit her Reiki in Medicine web site and click on "Contact Pamela."

What a great gift to the global Reiki community!

Reiki Update Training: At your convenience, and for any level

2009-10-25T13:19:00.003-04:00

By popular demand, we are expanding our Reiki Update Training classes!

The first class sold out, and our mailbox is filling with registrations for the second round of training beginning Nov. 3.

Meanwhile, we'll be offering a separate Reiki Update Training program for Level 1 practitioners as well. The first Level 1 Reiki Update Training class will begin December 8.

Students in both levels of training can participate at their convenience, with five hours of class recordings and a private class web site for assignments, discussion, and resources.

Both levels include a final exam. If you pass it, you'll be eligible for referrals from The Reiki Digest and The Reiki Dojo, as well as listing in our forthcoming directory. And you'll get a certificate of updated training to attest to your achievement and demonstrate that you've met standards over and above your original certification.

Why update your Reiki training?

If you were trained back in the 20th Century, or studied with a teacher who was, it's likely that some of what you learned has since been supplanted by more recently discovered information. Were you taught that Reiki founder Mikao Usui was a Christian medical doctor and university president? It turns out that wasn't the case after all. Or did you learn that Reiki was an ancient Tibetan Buddhist technique that Usui "rediscovered"? That, too, is misinformation (for one thing, Tibetan Buddhism isn't ancient).

Updating your training will also help you better represent Reiki to your clients, students, and community.

In this class, you'll learn:

* The documented history of Reiki
* The truth about the most common Reiki myths
* How to find credible information
* How to keep yourself informed on further developments
* Highlights of the latest Reiki medical research
* Traditional Reiki meditation techniques
* How to get the most out of your personal practice

. . . and much more.

You'll learn ways to breathe new life into your personal Reiki self-care practice, and you'll find out what makes a person a Reiki practitioner (hint: it's not the certificate).

The class is taught by multi-certified Reiki Master Teacher Janet Dagley Dagley, editor of The Reiki Digest and founder of The Reiki Dojo.

The Reiki Update Training is open to all Reiki lineages. We will need to see a copy of your certificate to enroll you.

Only $65

Click here to download the registration form

For more information, email editor @ thereikidigest.com or call 917-512-1330 or
toll-free (in the USA): (888) 316-5853.

Our census continues

2009-10-24T18:04:00.002-04:00

How many Reiki practitioners are there in the world? That's what we'd like to know! That's why we're asking all of you to stand up and be counted in our Global Reiki Census. So far we have hundreds, but we know we've only begun to count. Click here to enter your information and be counted today. And don't worry, you can choose not to share your information publicly if you prefer.

The Celeb-Reiki Report: The Reikettes

2009-10-24T11:24:00.001-04:00

The famous Rockettes won't begin their annual performances in New York City until mid-November, but the precision dancing-and-singing troupe is not really our focus here anyway.

We're more interested in the Reikettes, who'll be performing in New York on Sunday, November 1, at Sweet Blazing Grace, the annual yoga healing benefit for the Institute for the Advancement of Complementary Therapies (I*ACT). The Reikettes won't be singing or dancing, however. They'll be performing Reiki on each participant as the calming conclusion to an all-level Anusara yoga class accompanied by live music. We hope all involved get a kick out of the experience, and we're happy to dub the Reikettes this week's Celeb-Reikies.

Reiki Events Calendar: it's free, but do-it-yourself

2009-10-24T11:13:00.001-04:00

Our Reiki Events Calendar is getting livelier with a growing number of listings, and we're hoping more teachers and practitioners will join in to make it the most comprehensive Reiki Events Calendar in the world.

To become eligible to list your Reiki circles, clinics, classes, and other events, send an email to editor @ thereikidigest.com with your name, address, telephone number, and email address for our files. You can choose the contact information that goes into your listings.

And remember: we can authorize you to add listings to the calendar, but while it's a free service, the calendar is strictly do-it-yourself. Please don't send us your events listings by email -- we don't have any staff to post them for you.

Also keep in mind that no qualitative statements (such as: "This is a great Reiki Circle" or "This is the most authentic Reiki lineage") are allowed in listings. Save those for your own web site, and link to it in the listing.

Thanks for your help!

Music we love to practice Reiki by: Jonn Serrie

2009-10-23T18:15:00.003-04:00

If your client needs a stronger connection to heavenly energy, if you feel like reaching for the stars, or if it's just a matter of needing a little space, may we suggest the universally popular sounds of Jonn Serrie, who has composed music for such diverse clients as NASA, the U.S. Navy, the Hayden Planetarium and Lucasfilm, not to mention jamming with Native American elders, among many other adventures. Just click on the button to give it a listen!

Many thanks to iTunes for being a sponsor of The Reiki Digest, and many thanks to our readers as well. We get a small percentage of the proceeds from the music you purchase by clicking on our links.

The weekly waka

2009-10-23T07:54:00.003-04:00

Autumn

Colours of autumn:
The trees still shine red and gold,
Despite the greyness
Of the clouds and all the rain
Glowing, warm and comforting.

(By Colin Powell)

Click here to read some of Colin's other waka.

(Waka wanted: If you'd like to contribute a waka to our regular series, check out these guidelines, write your waka, and email it to editor @ thereikidigest.com.)

This week's specials

2009-10-22T15:59:00.005-04:00

Many thanks to our advertisers for helping make this free publication possible, and many thanks to our readers for patronizing our advertisers. Thanks for keeping the energy flowing!

This week's special offers:

The Usui Method of Dog Training

2009-10-17T11:56:00.002-04:00

By Beth Lowell

There’s no place quite like the woods for quiet reflection. I’ve been spending several hours a day there over the past couple of weeks, walking for miles along the deserted trails with my dogs. I’ve been thinking about a lot of things since Nicole the dog trainer came to see us (see Beth's October 3 article, Walking Meditation).

The fact that her advice boiled down to little more than following the precepts was an eye opener. I started to discover more and more ways in which her dog training methods dovetailed with the practice of Reiki. For one, not concentrating so much on outcomes helped me to enjoy being in the moment with my dogs, whether we were making progress or not, which in turn, helped them start to blossom.

But one of the things Nicole told me to do challenged some of my deepest convictions about dog training. Getting my dogs to walk with me when they refused called for a bit of tough love, which came in the form of coercion. My dogs were not going to get over their fear if they didn’t face whatever it was that was scaring them. If they were unwilling to venture past their comfort zone on their own, I had to make them do it. The theory was that in the process, they would learn that there was really nothing to fear at all.

This conflicted directly with the school of thought I followed that says the best and most humane way to teach dogs and other animals is using positive reinforcement to help them make decisions on their own. Although this method had obviously not been 100% effective for me, I still clung to the belief that there simply was no other option.

I’ve been practicing Reiki for a while, and over time I’ve come to see how certain things have changed through a process so gradual that it has been practically imperceptible, until the day arrives when I notice that things are different than they used to be. Despite my resolve in sticking to my method of training, I had prepared myself to keep an open mind when I met Nicole. After all, I didn’t have to do anything she said if I didn’t agree with it.

The level of coercion involved turned out to be far less traumatic than I’d come to expect based on past experiences with trainers who used punishment to train dogs. It required about the same amount of pressure that a parent might use in insisting that their shy child board the bus alone on that first scary day of school. And like the children who soon adapt to getting on the bus and learn that it can actually be fun, my dogs started to learn that they, too, would survive and could actually enjoy themselves. I could see their hesitation lessen and their willingness to strike out on their own in new directions increase. This result turned any notion about what I thought was right and wrong in dog training on its ear.

It was both a humbling and a frightening experience that created an immediate shift within me as opposed to the more gentle ones that had taken place quietly over time. It wasn’t pleasant to learn how closed minded I’d become despite my best intentions. By thinking that there could be only one way of training, the one that I knew, I had unwittingly eliminated the possibility for something else to exist that might be just as useful, or more so.

I also recognized that despite practicing the precepts (or attempting to) that it’s possible to have an Achilles heel, or two. Life can’t really be separated into different compartments where different rules apply. I think sometimes it’s easy to do this without realizing it. The precepts are useful in every aspect of life, just as I learned, from of all people, a dog trainer.

Since then, I’ve given myself a good dose of compassion and decided to move ahead rather than continuing to blame myself for not seeing so clearly what now seems like little more than common sense. Despite the painful lesson, I’m celebrating how something as unlikely as dog training could come together so perfectly with Reiki to give me exactly what I needed (and much more than I expected) at just the right moment.

New Jersey-based Reiki Master Teacher Beth Lowell works with animals and Reiki, and is a frequent contributor to The Reiki Digest.

Share your Reiki story with our global Reiki community! Just email it to editor @ thereikidigest.com.