June 22, 2025 • 55 mins
Michaela Daystar discovered Reiki at a pivotal crossroads in her life—when her marriage had ended and she found herself unsure of who she was outside of that relationship. In this candid conversation, Michaela shares how a chance encounter with the word "Reiki" created a moment of crystal-clear synchronicity that would transform her path forever.
After spending 15 years in social justice leadership development, Michaela founded Heartscapes at the intersection of self-reflection, spiritual practice, and social action. What makes her story so compelling is her journey toward authenticity—from desperately trying to hide her "weirdness" to embracing it as her greatest strength. "Now at almost 50," she reveals, "my job is about 40% just being weird in public and owning it."
We dive deep into the misconceptions surrounding Reiki, particularly the tendency to use it as a catch-all term for all energy work. Michaela eloquently explains why understanding the specific cultural and historical lineage of Reiki matters, both out of respect for its Japanese Shinto and Buddhist roots and for our own effectiveness as practitioners. Her transition from Western Reiki to studying its Japanese origins reveals how much more becomes available when we honor these traditions.
Perhaps most powerful is Michaela's honesty about her greatest healing challenge: the fear of being seen and known. She describes how this manifested as resistance to taking responsibility for her own healing, and how Codependents Anonymous became the foundation that allowed other spiritual practices to take root. This vulnerability extends to her business approach, where she learned that "running a business and being an excellent Reiki practitioner are different skill sets," and that clarity about who you are and who you serve is essential.
Through Soul Collage and Reiki, Michaela now guides others to remember the wholeness of their true selves—particularly those burning themselves out trying to change the world. Her story beautifully illustrates how bringing seemingly disparate parts of ourselves together creates not just healing, but a life that fits us well, even if it looks nothing like what we expected.
Ready to explore your own path to authenticity and healing? Connect with Michaela at heartscapesinsight.com and discover how embracing your unique qualities might be exactly what the world needs.
Ready Set Reiki is a journey
From the curious beginner to the Season Master Teacher
All Energy workers of all systems and all levels.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is Ready Set Reiki, a podcast about Reiki,
the universal energy life force,from the curious beginner to
the seasoned master teacher,welcoming all systems, all
litigations and all levels.
Reiki is a journey and not adestination, and on this Ready
Set Reiki journey, I refer tomyself as a guide rather than a
host.
So I'm Tracy Seawright, andthis is Ready Set Reiki.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello everyone, welcome to another beautiful
episode here of Ready Set Reiki.
Now today, amazing, we haveMichaela Daystar.
Now she founded Heartscapes atthe intersection of
self-reflection, spiritualpractice and social action.
Now, after a 15-year career yes, I said 15-year career in
(01:04):
social justice leadership,development in universities and
organizations, wishing tosupport her clients and students
to make their preciouscontribution to the world from
the inside out, she teaches thesystems of Reiki and soul
collage as pathways toself-development, emotional
resilience and remembering ourtrue self.
(01:25):
Now, among all these wonderfulthings here, you know, she also
teaches trauma-informedprinciples to increase safety,
trust, choice and consent in ourhealing communities.
Now she continues her studiesin Reiki and the Japanese
Buddhist roots of the system andholds a master's degree in
social justice leadership.
So welcome, michaela, to ReadySet.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Reiki.
Thanks so much, Tracy.
It's really fun to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Wonderful, so let's begin our journey together.
So I told our listeners just alittle bit about yourself.
So tell us, in your beautifuleloquent words, a little bit
about yourself.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yeah, it's always such a wide, open question,
right, like what piece do youpick and what kind of rose to
the surface, as I was thinkingabout our time together, is the
fact that I've always been avery weird person.
I've been.
I was a very weird child, I wasa weird teenager, I was a weird
young adult, and so much of mylife was spent trying to hide
(02:26):
that fact, trying to subvertthat fact, trying to fit in,
trying to be normal.
And I I find now that, atalmost 50 years old, I've spent
the last 10 years reallylearning to step into the ways
I'm weird that are actually partof what I have to contribute to
the world.
And so I say right now, my jobis, you know, almost 40% just
(02:49):
being weird in public and justkind of owning it.
And so some of the ways thatthat shows up, you know, not
only in my job, which we'll, youknow, talk more about, but in
my day to day, is that I live onan urban homestead.
I live communally with fiveother people, a mix of friends
(03:10):
and family.
I'm a very introverted person.
I grew up in a very one-on-onehousehold me and my mom, very
quiet household.
So it's astonishing to me thatI live in this way, with gardens
and people and animals.
Both me and my good friend,who's my roommate, run our
businesses out of this space.
We've got clients and communitymembers coming through, so it's
a very vibrant place and inthis place I can really be
(03:34):
myself in all of the ways, whichincludes being an avid gardener
, being a teacher of many thingsfrom herbalism to reiki.
I can be a very quiet personand I can also spend time with
my animals and with my two kids,who are almost 15 and just
turned 27.
So it's a very it's a verylively life and I really value
(03:59):
the journey that got me to thepoint of choosing to kind of
shape my life in a way thatdoesn't look like I thought it
would or like a normal lifemight look, but it fits me well.
And so you know again, atalmost 50, I can tell that
little child from back then it'sokay to be weird.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Just be yourself.
It's the dream for everybody,right?
That sounds like that's whenyou talk to practitioners.
They would love to have thatsense of community and beautiful
.
I love that for you.
Well, let's figure out in thisjourney Reiki.
So that's why we're here andwe're connecting here on this
journey.
So did Reiki find you or didyou find Reiki?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
I love the way you phrased that question.
Reiki definitely found me.
I, you know and this is probablygoing to be familiar to many of
your audience those moments inour life where things have
fallen apart and things havebeen really hard for a long time
and you've hit a breaking point.
For me it was the ending of mymarriage after a really long,
(05:03):
difficult period of time, andcoming through that experience,
feeling like I didn't reallyunderstand myself, I didn't
really know who I was outside ofthis relationship and outside
of the difficulty, the reallyhard times that had been about
six years at that point, and youknow, when you kind of hit that
rock bottom point where you'relike I don't know what else to
(05:23):
do, I don't know where to go, Idon't know how to reclaim my
life, there's an opening thatcan occur and it's an
opportunity for intuition toshow us things that we might not
have sought ourselvesconsciously, or we might have
ignored or not have evenconsidered moving towards, and
so in that time a lot of thingsflooded in and some of those
(05:44):
things were really just for aperiod of time.
You know, they were there tosupport me for one time, or for
six months or a year and otherthings became my life, and the
things that became my life wereSoul Collage and Reiki, and you
know, ultimately became mybusiness and Reiki literally
found me in a moment in a churchoffice.
(06:05):
I was doing some consulting workwith one of my local churches
and a friend of mine worked intheir office part-time and I
heard her in the back of theoffice say oh, I'm getting ready
to teach my Reiki class thisweekend and I had vaguely heard
the term Reiki before A friendof mine who would eventually
(06:26):
become a Reiki teacher teachingpartner.
We taught together for manyyears, you know.
He had told me about it but itwasn't something I was
particularly focused on.
I heard her say it and it wasone of those moments where you
just kind of like everythinggets a little bit more clear,
your senses kind of sharpen up abit.
You know, there's this kind ofweird sense of like hyper
(06:48):
reality that happens and what Inow know is that's like
synchronicity happening and justwithout even thinking about it
at all, I said what did you justsay?
And can I do it?
What is that and can I do?
It was basically the energy.
What is that and can I do?
it was basically the energy.
I ended up studying with thatteacher for three years in you
(07:09):
know what I would understand tobe kind of traditional Western
Reiki, also in Karuna Reiki, andthen at that point I kind of
hit a wall with my studies and Irealized that that structure
wasn't working for me anymorefor a lot of reasons and I
started studying the Japaneseorigins of Reiki and that really
changed my life and that's nowBeautiful.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
And I love how you know.
As you went through, you pausedand then you redirected to
continue to find what works foryou on that path.
It's beautiful.
Now you had said when you heardthat word, reiki, that it was
vaguely familiar and that seemsto be a lot for people, even
though you know this word hasbeen used for how many years.
(07:53):
Right, and as you go out, asyou're navigating into this
field here, between Reiki andeven your business soul collage,
what are you finding are themisconceptions that people bring
up about Reiki.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
That's a big question and there's quite a few, and it
depends a little on whichperspective you're talking about
.
So I think I'll choose toanswer this from the perspective
of other Reiki practitionersand of myself in those first
three years as I was practicing,and I would say that there's
kind of an umbrellamisconception that then holds
(08:30):
many misconceptions that come asa result, and that umbrella
misconception the way I woulddescribe it is that Reiki is a
general term to describe allenergy work.
I hear the word Reiki and Ihear people talking about Reiki
(08:53):
as if it is a catch-all phrasethat contains any type of energy
work, and it's not.
Reiki is a word that comes froma specific culture, a specific
time and place, from a specificlineage that's thousands of
years old.
It describes a phenomenon inthe world that, of course, has
been observed by many peoplesacross time and space up until
now.
And yet if we choose to usethat word, Reiki, that is a
(09:17):
specific word describing thephenomenon of spiritual energy
through a particular culturallens, and then if we extend that
to talk about the system ofReiki, so distinguishing Reiki,
spiritual energy, describing aphenomenon in the world, and
then the system of Reiki, asystem of practice that humans
have developed to attempt tointerface with that phenomenon,
(09:41):
to intentionalize ourrelationship with that
phenomenon, which all of us haveat all times.
So if we look at the system ofpractice again, we see many
layers of specificity.
It was a system of practicedeveloped in a particular time
and place from a particularlineage that was deeply embedded
in the Shinto and Buddhistroots in Japan and that reflect
(10:03):
that in the five elements of thesystem and the many practices.
And so if we misconceive theword Reiki to mean general term
that encompasses all energy work, then we can very easily
disregard that very specificcultural, historical lineage
that is, you know, disrespectfuland appropriative in that kind
(10:30):
of I lost the word disregardingof that tradition.
But it also limits oureffectiveness to work with the
elements that actually existinside the system.
When we bring in elements frommany other systems, as if
they're synonymous with thesystem of Reiki, without
understanding that they'redifferent and why they do or do
(10:53):
not work together.
If we don't know, for example,why those four symbols are what
they are, where they came fromin Japanese history and
spiritual lineage, why they'rein the system of Reiki at all
those symbols versus any numberof others that could be there,
what they mean in context, justto take that one element of
(11:15):
symbols If we don't know thosethings, then we can't be in deep
relationship with them, wecan't be deeply effective with
them and our relationship withthem, we can't be deeply
effective with them and oursystem of practice will have a
disjointed nature, even if itfeels effective and even if it
is good, because my Reikipractice for those first three
years was good and it servedvery well and it was incredibly
(11:37):
important in my personaldevelopment and history, and
there was so much more availablethat I wasn't even aware of
when I didn't understand thathistory.
So I think I'll pause there,because I could go on and on and
on about those submisconceptions, but I think I'll
just umbrella.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I mean, even the word Reiki triggers people at times
and they either say like it'sthis and it's that, and it's
like, take a moment to go alittle deeper with it and
understand that it can be awhole lot more with it.
And you interesting that youmentioned the symbols.
You know, I went to take a TaiChi class and the particular
(12:17):
instructor of this Tai Chi classhe was talking and he was
bringing in the symbols and I'mlike, oh, do you do Reiki?
He said no, this is what Ilearned in my Tai Chi.
And I'm like, but wait, theseare Azui symbols.
And it was blowing my mindbecause he learned it in a
different way, to mix with hismartial arts, to mix with the
(12:38):
Tai Chi, and it showed there's adifferent way to do this.
Like wow, but he was doingenergy work, he was moving the
energy, but it wasn't colored asReiki for him.
He's like, well, I don't knowwho that person is, but this is
what I learned.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
It's complex.
I have a lot of compassion forall of us, particularly in the
West.
There's a responsibility thatwe have and then there's also
the reality that we grew up in aculture that has a cultural
ethos that says you can pick andchoose elements from different
cultures, mix them together andhave very little responsibility
(13:14):
for that.
And that is a flaw of ourculture.
It is a violence that ourculture perpetrates, to be
perfectly honest, appropriatingthese things from other
countries, most of which are,you know, places that we've
conquested in one way or another, and then kind of mixing them
up as if they it doesn't matterwhere they came from.
(13:35):
And that's a lot to inherit asa person in the West, as an
American, and it's not our faultthat that's how our culture is.
But once we kind of have anawareness of it, we do have a
responsibility to kind ofuntangle it a bit, and it's not
our fault that that's how ourculture is.
But once we kind of have anawareness of it, we do have a
responsibility to kind ofuntangle it a bit.
And there's nothing inherentlywrong with bringing elements
from other cultures together,but we need to understand them.
(13:55):
We need to understand who theyare and what they are in context
.
We need to have a relationshipwith them and then understand
why they might have arelationship with each other.
You know why the Reiki symbolswhich came through Shinto and
Buddhist practice in Japan mightabsolutely have something to do
with you know, chinese martialarts, like Tai Chi?
Of course there's arelationship there.
(14:15):
You know, of course there's arelationship between the chakra
system from India and the threediamonds energy map from Japan,
but they're not the same.
And Japan has its own energymap from Japan, but they're not
the same and Japan has its ownenergy map.
Right and so.
And yet the Chakto system isthe one that we most associate
with Reiki.
They're not the same.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So there's great value in being in deeper
relationship with the origins ofthese things so that we can be
more fluent and respectful withhow they come together in our
practice, right, and that's whyit's important you know to have
that strong teacher to helpguide you you had mentioned you
were with your teacher for threeyears, right, and just learning
and growing.
(14:53):
And having that secrecy onceyou get the symbols, really adds
that little extra layer ofprotection that you're learning
how to use it.
You're learning about thehistory, you're learning what
its purpose is, instead ofwatching a video on YouTube and
saying, okay, I'm ready, worldright, or I'm just going to add
(15:13):
this onto my other modality thatI'm doing, but taking the time
to learn the history.
What's the why in this?
Why was this brought in?
What is its purpose?
You know how are we using thisenergy for the highest good,
best for ourselves and best forthat student or client with the
world?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
So it's very important to really learn that
history instead of saying, ohyeah, I like that like a
smorgasbord and we're soencouraged to look at it that
way, you know, and it can bevery delightful, right, it can
be very abundant to see how muchis out there, and I think it
can be really helpful for us tothink about it in terms of
relationship.
You know, anything that we'redrawn to, that we're like, oh,
(15:54):
that seems really cool or thatreally worked, long as it's
available to you in ways thatare in integrity.
But think about it as arelationship.
You know, how would you want toapproach a dear friend, right?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
How much would you want to know about them in order
to say this is my good friendyou know, yeah, yeah, I always
say to cultivate a relationshipwith the energy, take time to
know it so that you can kind oflearn the language that it's
speaking to you and helpingguide you.
I mean, it's such a personalrelationship, why would you not
want to cultivate that with it?
(16:32):
So you are out there helpingmany people.
You have a beautiful communitybusiness that you have built.
You have the background insocial justice.
As you're out helpingindividuals through their
challenges, through theirstruggles, what has been the
biggest struggle or challengethat you have faced in your own
(16:52):
healing journey?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Yeah, it's like, wow, how do you pick, spin the wheel
right, spin the wheel Right,right, right, right.
I think, uh, yeah, this isanother one of those.
It's like you could, you couldpick any number, um, and call it
the biggest.
But I think what's what'sreally feeling present right now
is, um, my own fear of beingseen and known, and that was a
(17:22):
major challenge, both personallyand in stepping into this work.
You know you can't weak or youknow, whatever the fear is, then
(17:47):
you're not going to be willingto actually show what's
happening to others, certainly,but maybe not even to yourself.
And so I experienced variouslayers of that.
I mean, as I said, I spentabout six years in an incredibly
miserable state, and part ofthat misery, you know, yes, for
the most part, I was focused onthe conditions of my life that
(18:09):
were a struggle, but when I tookthat moment, to be honest, you
know, a significant part of thatchallenge was my unwillingness
to actually be honest about whatwas happening and therefore my
inability to even make change atall.
And so I would say, you know,the biggest challenge of the
healing journey just starting itat all, because I was so
(18:32):
resistant to takingresponsibility for my own part
of my misery.
And it actually, it didn't startwith Reiki.
It didn't start with soulcollage.
It didn't start withspirituality.
It started with codependence,anonymous.
It started with okay, presspause on externalizing my
(18:55):
problems.
This is all because of you.
This is all because of you.
This is because of mycircumstances.
What is actually in my controlthat I am not tending to or
taking responsibility for?
And that year in CodependenceAnonymous absolutely changed my
life and it was after thatgetting that year chip and
(19:16):
making significant changes in myrelationship to my life through
Codependence Anonymous thatthen these other things started
synchronizing and he's like okayyou're willing to take
responsibility, you're willingto do the work, then I'm going
to give you the work.
Here's the work it's meditation,it's dealing with trauma, it's
(19:39):
all of these other things.
But I had to be get to thepoint, spend a year becoming
willing to do the healingjourney before it could even
start.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Beautiful.
Well, thank you for doing thework and taking that first step.
You know many people when theyshow up I also teach yoga and
Reiki and you know they come tothat first class and they've
made every possible excuse andthey're like Well, I'm not sure
I could do this asana, I can'tmove my body here, I'm like, but
you know what you've done, thebiggest thing, you've shown up,
(20:11):
you're here.
You know you've taken thatfirst step.
So I mean, are you taking thataccountability, taking that one
step that led you to here, tothere, and now here you are
helping so many people, right?
And so you'll find on thejourney that people either it's
two choices, one you choose to,you know, say I'm done, or
(20:31):
something happens where it's thecatalyst of change and people
tend to forget that they kind oflabel us as healers, thinking
where are these enlightened ones?
But we had a whole lot of mess.
We had that, okay, brought downto your knees, I get it, and
that resistance where we'redragging.
(20:52):
You know, I'm from, originallyfrom Pittsburgh, pennsylvania,
and circumstances happened in mylife where I needed to come to
El Paso, texas, and I just wasso resistant and everyone around
me, my teachers, were like youhave work to do out there.
I'm like I don't want to go.
No, no, I was kicking, screaming, you name.
(21:14):
It made every kind of mostinsane, ridiculous excuse, like
I can't come there Cause I.
You know A, B, c, d, e, f, g,all the way down to Z, and you
know, sometimes you don't knowthe story, you might have to
wait for it.
Well, you know, here I've comeand I've been here for exactly
three years and my daughter gota job at the zoo here and it's
(21:37):
like, oh well, maybe this is allmaking sense of the connections
and the people.
So now I can stand three yearslater to look, oh, I get it.
I was supposed to be here tohelp this person and to help
that student and to help thatclient and bring her here.
And you know, so be open withit.
You know, you think the world'sagainst you.
(21:58):
It's like, oh, why is this?
Is the worst possible?
That's always at the worstpossible time, right, worst
possible time.
Like, why is this happening?
But trust the process becauseyou will be shown like, oh, I
get it.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Right, there it is there's so much value in doing
even what you just did in youknow a few seconds, but to spend
a little time with that,reflecting back on.
I mean, a three year period isa really great period of time to
reflect back.
You know what were the you know, and or to go back to that
point where that pressure tochange existed, that pressure to
change existed and where thatresistance to change existed,
(22:35):
and the moment when you chose todo the thing anyway and then to
follow the tracks, the threads,what happened, and then what
happened.
That's from where you are now.
Back then, you couldn't havepredicted now, but when you look
back, on it you can see thelogical projection, the logical
progression, even if it wascircuitous and you know like it
(22:58):
was a roller coaster ride.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And then you're like, wow, I get it now.
But it was so resistant, I waskicking and screaming, but the
universe kept getting louder.
I'm like, okay, I don't knowanything else I go because it's
like and I tell my children youknow what?
The universe keeps talking?
It's going to get louder, solisten the first time.
(23:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
I mean when we partner with ourselves and with
you know what we're noticing outin the world, we do make it
easier on ourselves.
Right, resistance to change isa big one, so sometimes we got
to struggle for a while.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Very good.
So you had that teacher forthree years and you can, you
know, use her as an example ifyou'd like.
What are some qualities thatyou look for in a Reiki
practitioner or Reiki teacher orenergy work?
Yeah, yeah, good question.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, so I worked with her for three years, and
then I've been working with aset of other teachers ever since
then.
So for the past, or energy work, yeah, yeah, good question.
Yeah, so I worked with her forthree years and then I've been
working with a set of otherteachers ever since then, so for
the past seven or eight, andthen, in addition to that, I've
worked with Shingon Buddhistteachers to deepen that route.
So I have a lot of teachers andI am very teacher-oriented.
(24:10):
I love a teacher, I am ateacher, and so you know that
question of what makes a goodteacher.
Of course it's very personal,right Like.
So I would say that you know,aside from them having rooted
not only credentials butexperience in the things that
you are interested in, of coursethat's essential.
(24:31):
But you know, making sure thatthere's values alignment, making
sure that the way they talkabout their practice feels
authentic to you, the goals thatthey might state for not only
their practice but for what theywould want for your practice,
are really important.
You know, for example, as ateacher, I primarily work with
(24:53):
people who are looking at Reikias self-practice, and they might
want to work with others, youknow, have a Reiki practice
themselves, but that's not theirprimary motivation.
And so I'm not a good teacherfor people whose primary
motivation is they want to, like, immediately start a Reiki
business and that's their focus.
I wouldn't be the right teacherfor that person.
I also wouldn't be the rightteacher for somebody who wants
(25:20):
to work in Western Reiki forms,who wants to, you know, kind of
blend Reiki with a lot ofdifferent things.
You know, I'm a better teacherfor people who want to learn
those origins and to practicefrom that position and so being
willing and, you know,courageous, to be clear about
what it is that you want, whatyou're drawn to, and asking
those questions of that teacheror that practitioner, and we're
talking about a practitioner,right?
So if we're going for Reikisessions as a client, you know
(25:44):
some of the similar thingsaround values, but it's maybe
more about their process, moreabout how they've created their
space that you're going to bestepping into.
So don't be afraid to ask ifyou can see their space before
you commit, if that's availableto you, even if it's over Zoom.
You know to have a conversationwith them ahead of time because
of course you knowinterpersonal connection is
(26:06):
important when we're talkingabout doing intimate work like
this.
If it matters to you that theperson has some sort of
understanding of traumasensitivity or being trauma
informed in their practice, askthose questions.
Look for that information ontheir website.
I do teach Reiki practitionershow to make their practice
trauma informed.
That's becoming increasinglymore important as we understand
(26:29):
more about just how common it isthat you know we walk through
the world carrying some form oftrauma and how easy it can be to
create a space that minimizesthe risk of antagonizing that
experience.
So I guess I would say you knowvalues, alignment, having you
(26:49):
know, feeling good in theperson's presence and having
shared goals are the kind ofoverall topic and then to help
you understand if you share thatwith them.
Don't be afraid to askquestions and, to you know, look
for like if a person'sunwilling to talk to you before
you book a session with them,that's a red flag right there.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
You may not want or need that.
It's totally fine to just picksomeone based on their website
or whatever and just go aheadand book a session If that works
for you.
That's a bonus too, and youwant to ask these questions like
(27:36):
, where's your space?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Is it in a building, right?
Is it in your home?
Because that can make adifference when I was in kind of
transit from you know my space.
I have a little space in myhome here but I also have little
dogs and that could triggersomeone whose trauma.
You know dogs and that couldtrigger someone whose trauma you
(27:58):
know has things going on.
So letting them know, well, I'min between spaces right now I'm
running it out of my home.
I do have a private entrance,but elsewhere on the property
that you won't be near, thereare dogs.
So if you hear a bark, thatmight tend somebody, which is
counterproductive of the of thesession, right?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Or they might be allergic or you know whatever.
And I love that you mentionedhaving little dogs, because my
little dog is right outside thisdoor and she's barking her head
off and so I know we're live,but I'm going to just step right
there, let the dog in, so she'sdone.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Good, very good, and then some of the other things
that are interesting.
That she had mentioned is aboutteachers, and you know my way.
I teach, I'm a teacher'steacher, that if you know you
help, guidance or help orsupport with teaching.
You know I have a background inelementary education and I've
(28:52):
always, since as long as I couldremember, have a heart of a
teacher.
So if you are someone that needshelp being guided within that
starting the business, I tend toget those type of students who,
okay, well, I've been studyingfor quite some time, I'm need a
little bit of that confidence tokind of get me forward so I can
go soar in my business.
(29:13):
And I tend to be that type ofteacher with that, because
you'll see other practitioners,other master teachers and
they'll have like 20, 30 peoplein a room, right.
And then I was just had alittle season where I was like
getting two or three or fourpeople but I was realizing, well
, this is what they need.
You know, instead of me havingthis idea of needs to be grand
(29:35):
and huge, I was getting exactly,or giving and receiving exactly
what needed to be done in thatmoment with those students.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
So I love that perspective.
You know, and I'm, I'm, I also.
I love teaching teachers.
Like teaching teachers isreally my heart work.
I I just graduated my firstteacher training apprentice.
I run them through a year longapprenticeship and bringing two
more on for my next round and Ijust, I just love it so much.
And, and the openness andspaciousness to say if I have 20
(30:07):
students in the room, if I havetwo, you know that's what works
.
And obviously we have differentbusiness models.
We have different.
Sometimes, when I was rentingspace before I had my studio, I
couldn't afford to run a classwith just two people in it
because it just wouldn't workout cost-wise.
But you know, now that I have astudio available to me, I love
(30:28):
the freedom to be able to.
Hey, if one person has signedup for this experience, then
we're going to have a hell of aone-on-one and it's going to be
amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, and that's what people need to look at too.
If you're like this new Reikimaster teacher, why am I not
getting all these people that,whomever is putting on Facebook,
social media, it could be thatmaybe that teacher had to wait
because they're paying for aspace.
Because there's spaces that yourent, you have to pay per month
, or work out some deal or do 7030.
(30:57):
That may be an issue, but youknow, that made me think of like
just two students.
That may not be somethingthat's affordable if you're
renting a space and you have topay x amount of dollars a month.
But there's ways around it.
I've gone to people's homes,I've gone to their offices, so
you get, you get creative youget creative with it.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
That's one of the things I love about this work is
that it is inherently creativeand flexible and we can use
technology in amazing ways tomake it more accessible.
And we live in a time when thetraditional view of an office
job and a nine to five and thatwork has to look a specific way
and fit into a specificstructure and time frame has
(31:37):
just been blown out of the water.
Like we have so much freedom tocreate our own path.
Now, with that freedom can comea lot of overwhelm, confusion,
complication, frustration,absolutely, and as a small
business owner for the lasteight years, I've had my fair
share of that.
But I do, you know, and this isjust part of how I'm wired I
really appreciate theflexibility that we have to make
(31:58):
it our own.
Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So what advice would you give to someone who's just
entering this profession?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
As a Reiki practitioner Could be a.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Reiki practitioner, teacher.
It can be, as a business owner,the pearls of wisdom that you
have to share from yourexperience.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, I mean a couple of things come up.
I mean this can be.
I'm a member of a group thatputs on a Ricky business summit
every year, coming up in thefall that, you know, deep dives
into so many different.
It's like there's so manydifferent directions that this
question could go.
But I think you know part ofwhat rises, you know following
on what we just said, is toallow yourself flexibility,
(32:39):
allow yourself time to manageyour expectations.
We might have the expectationthat, like we get our Reiki
training, we put the sign up,we're open for business and you
know the customers will justcome.
There is work involved and whatI totally did not have enough
(32:59):
respect for when I first startedwas the fact that running a
business and being an excellentReiki practitioner are different
skill sets, and I did not haveany of this one right here, this
bucket here that's called beinga decent business owner.
None, I had none.
That's not true.
I had a lot of skills that arenecessary over here, but I had
(33:21):
no experience in putting themtogether as a.
This amazing thing I'm tryingto do for people is not working
as a business.
It's because business skillsare a separate skill set.
(33:45):
And so I you know, eventuallydid bow to the universe and got
some really great businesstraining with an organization
that specifically works withwomen solo entrepreneurs who
work in healing and artsprofessions so perfectly
tailored it's called Women inCommunity or Wink, if you need
some of that in your life, andthat really was a game changer
(34:07):
for me to just really come intolike humility and respect for
the fact that this is a living,breathing entity and it has to
be approached and worked with,you know, as itself.
Right, it is, it is itself andwe get to be in again
relationship with our businessand and be fluid with it.
So that would be the firstthing.
(34:28):
I would also say that, as muchas you want to and as much as
you probably believe you can,you are not for everybody.
You're not meant to helpeverybody.
We cut many of us come to thiswork at least you know, ideally
we have from a genuine desire tohelp everybody.
Right, reiki can help everybody.
(34:48):
It can, but I am not the rightpractitioner for everybody, and
what that means is that I haveto be really clear about who I
am, who I serve and how, andthat's also something I didn't
understand for a very long time.
I was trying to help everybodyand I was being very generic
about what I was saying, aboutmy practice and about how I
(35:10):
wanted to help, about how Iwanted to help.
And you know again that, backto that fear of really
acknowledging myself and knowingmyself and owning how weird I
am and being my, you know, true,weird self, you know that
played out in my business whereI didn't really want to be seen
for who I truly am.
And I didn't want to really beseen for bringing together the
different parts of myself thatmatter.
(35:31):
I kind of had adopted oursociety's view of humanity that
we have to kind of exist inthese silos, Right?
So there's the the work me thathas all of this experience in
social justice, leadership andhigher education, and that's
different from my gardenerhippie me.
And that's different from myReiki practitioner me.
And the truth is there, hippieme.
(35:53):
And that's different from myReiki practitioner me.
And the truth is there's justme.
And so as I got more willing tobe vulnerable and say who I am
and to say, hey, this is who Iam and this is who I'm for.
You know, this is who I canbest help because of who I am,
my business got much easier.
It got much clearer.
The people who wereself-selecting to come were so
(36:15):
much more aligned.
There was much less tensionwhen I'm working with someone
that like, ah, we're just not agood fit.
You know back to that fit.
You know making sure yourvalues are like.
Know your values and clearlyarticulate them in your
marketing.
It's my best advice to you Knowwho you are, know your values
clearly, articulate that whenyou're communicating about your
(36:37):
business and really be humbleabout the fact that you're not
for everybody, and that's okay.
The people that you're for needto hear you say it so they can
identify you as their people.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Yeah, beautiful.
I mean in trying to helpeveryone, that's what causes the
burnout.
I mean that is something elsetoo.
When you begin to start seeingthat very full schedule and it
gets overwhelming, they're like,oh my goodness you know, and
then your cup gets emptied sothat you cannot be in the best
shape that you can be to helpservice others.
(37:11):
So that self-care is veryimportant and that can come into
the way of being selective,right Saying no.
So what books do you recommend?
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Oh my golly, I'm laughing because I have at least
four videos on my YouTubechannel that are like let's look
at the library.
Here's the bibliography that youshould have.
Okay, so I would put that in afew different categories.
So if I'm thinking about booksthat are essential for me and my
(37:44):
Reiki practice and my business,the first two that come to mind
are really the first two that Ifound when I knew that I needed
to pivot into studying Reikifrom the perspective of its
Japanese origins, that I neededto do that for my integrity, I
needed to do it for myeffectiveness, I needed to do it
for my heart and my soul thatwas longing to be in deeper
relationship with this practice,and I found my way to the
(38:06):
Japanese art of Reiki and theinner heart of Reiki by Bronwyn
Logan and Franz Dina.
Art of Reiki and the InnerHeart of Reiki by Bronwyn Logan
and Franz Dena and they've beenmy teachers ever since then.
That was about eight years ago.
Two of my teachers and thosetwo books, written in incredibly
accessible language, very easyto understand, very bite-sized,
but also very in-depth at thoseorigins, and so they and they
(38:27):
would go in that order.
The Japanese Art of Reiki isreally a more introduction kind
of Reiki, level one, shodenReiki.
Level two, okuden focus, andthen Inner Heart of Reiki is
more advanced and focused onshimpeden, level three.
So those for sure.
And then, if you know, for methat really led to wanting to
(38:47):
understand those origins better,and so I have a collection of
books that you know where I'velearned more about Shinto and
Japanese Buddhist practice, andone of the books that best
bridges those two areas of studythat I will recommend is called
Women in Reiki.
I am totally blanking on theauthors right in this moment.
(39:09):
But Women in Reiki, totallyblanking on the authors right in
this moment.
But women in Reiki, and thattracks the history.
It's really like a biography ofthe Japanese women, so not
coming into the United States,it stops at Takata but the wives
and the daughters and themothers of the men we hear about
in the system of Reiki.
You know Sui and Hayashi andtheir students and their
(39:32):
colleagues.
But, as is so often the case inhistory, the great men that we
hear about are actually buoyedand supported and sometimes led
themselves by great women.
We don't always hear theirstories, and so that book really
goes in depth to thebiographies of the women who
supported the system of Reikibecoming an in-depth practice,
(39:53):
becoming something that is stillat play in Japan.
In its original form and in itsWestern form, Reiki came to be
during a time when many, many,many different little versions
of Japanese spirituality werebeing created, and they didn't
all survive.
Most of them didn't, so Reikiis still there.
Anyway, all of that is to say,you get a really powerful
(40:16):
history of Reiki in Japan aswell as an intimate look at
these women that were soimportant to us.
Having it at all.
I would also recommend havingand this is just my constitution
, so this may or may notresonate for you, but having
books of poetry, books ofphilosophy that don't have
(40:38):
anything to do with Reiki butthat speak to your soul, that
speak to your own personaljourney, your own lineage, that
you can bring in as almost likebibliomancy, as inspiration for
you, but also as these littlepoints of reflection that you
can bring to your students andclients.
I routinely, when teaching aclass, will at random grab a
(40:59):
book of poetry off my shelf,take a breath into whatever is
happening in the class in thatmoment, open to a random page,
and what's on that page isexactly what the students need
to hear in that moment.
It's really powerful and verycool practice.
So have a robust library ofpoetry, of stories, of
philosophy that speak to yoursoul, and share them with your
(41:23):
clients and your folks.
And right now, my favorite is abook by Jeff Foster called you
Were Never Broken Poems to Saveyour Life, and that one is a
deep reservoir of incrediblemedicine.
Also, books by Pixie Lighthorse, which are prayers and poetry
brought together from anindigenous perspective.
Lastly, I will recommend thebook when no Thing Works by
(41:47):
Norma Long.
Norma Long is one of my mentors, has deeply influenced my
thinking, both on the socialjustice and spirituality side of
things.
She's a Zen priest in Hawaii, aformer state legislature, a
teacher, a social justicewarrior and a freaking amazing
human being, and one of myteachers.
And she just published herfirst book, when no Thing Works,
(42:08):
and it's specifically designedto guide us through spiritual
and political principles throughtimes of chaos, disruption and
collapse which we are currentlyliving inside of.
So it's a I would callessential reading, not related
to Reiki, but also very muchrelated to Reiki.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Thank you for sharing that.
So what other modalities andservices do you offer and where
can we find you?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Yeah, well, you can find me on the ye olde interwebs
at heartscapesinsightcom.
You can also find me on YouTubeat Heartscapes Reiki.
I have a pretty robust libraryof teaching videos, reflections,
you know, moments of connection.
So my primary modality is Reiki, also the system of soul
(42:54):
collage, which is a practice ofintuitive collaging that comes
through Jungian psychology, verydifferent practice but actually
guiding us to the same place asReiki, which is remembering the
wholeness of our true self,integrating all of the parts of
ourselves so we can be a morefully formed human and more in
our power and our capacity.
So soul collage and Reiki areprimary things that I offer and
(43:17):
then, secondarily to that, I'vedone a lot of work with various
nervous system regulationpractices, primarily emotional
freedom technique or EFT,tapping lots of different
embodiment based practices toregulate the nervous system and
that blend really beautifullywith those other modalities and
so I'll bring those in, you know, as needed.
(43:38):
I do work with EFT withone-on-one clients, but not as a
primary.
You know it's kind of somethingthat comes up if it does, but
those things are kind of justwoven throughout teaching and
practicing with Reiki and SoulClash.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
All right, beautiful.
Well, that ends the first partof our journey.
I'm going to continue to guideyou on to the second part, which
are questions from listenersand from Reiki students.
So here we go.
Number one what inspired you tocreate your business
Heartscapes?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
business HeartScapes.
Yeah, I was inspired to createit out of one of those points of
tension and change.
I, as I mentioned, worked inuniversity for 12 years at a
particular college and thenreally ever since, but more
intensively for the next threeyears, in organizations and
other colleges as a consultant,and that work is dear to me.
I absolutely am passionateabout supporting people to make
change in the world that mattersto them.
(44:39):
I love working with students.
I loved working to a certainextent, I loved working in
university.
There's a lot of things aboutit I did not love, but
ultimately it really wasn'twhere my skills could best be
put to work.
Ultimately it wasn't where Ifit and because I was unwilling
to show who I really was,because I was so scared to be my
true self, there was anincredible amount of pain and
(45:02):
tension in the last few yearsthat I was doing that work and I
actually went to grad schooltrying to resolve that tension
in the direction of doing my jobbetter.
I had this choice point do I godo this one one program in
social justice, leadershipdevelopment, so exactly the work
that I was doing, or do I do,you know, arts and consciousness
(45:23):
and like spirituality and likethe other direction, which,
again, I believed were separateparts right, they were divided
in my mind and I chose to do thepractical thing go get a
master's degree in socialjustice leadership.
And the universe is such atrickster and so funny and
tricks us into getting what weneed.
(45:43):
The particular program that Iwas in was actually at a Jesuit
university oddly, that's a wholeother story Very focused on
spirituality, very focused onleadership from the inside out,
on really getting to terms withwho you are and what your actual
contribution is to the world.
And in doing that I like brokedown in the very first seminar
(46:05):
and was like I there's these two, I can't decide.
This is so important to mespirituality, art, working with
people on their inner landscape,on you know their pains, their
traumas.
But like also social justicework external out in the world.
And they looked at me like Iwas out of my mind and they said
why do you think those are twodifferent things?
Why don't you think that weworking out in the world to make
(46:27):
change don't need to understandourselves real well and deal
with our trauma?
And like come inside and havenervous system regulation, like
could you please come do thisover here with us.
So really it was, you know,what led me to start Heartscapes
was being given permission tobring these two sides of myself
together by a cohort of peoplewho could see me, even though I
(46:50):
was trying to hide Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Well, that goes very nicely into our second question.
After 15 years career in socialjustice leadership development,
why Reiki?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Yeah, right, because I could see that my students,
who desperately wanted to changethe world and were throwing
every piece of themselvesagainst what was wrong with the
world, were coming to it becausethey had been hurt, because
they had been deeply harmed bysystems of oppression, by racism
, by sexism, by government, byyou name it, all the things, and
(47:24):
that there was no capacity inmy job at the time, and really
at the college generally, tohelp them with that internal
experience of harm.
And I watched them flailing andbeating themselves against
these systems of oppressionwithout the internal resilience
and calm and strength that theyneeded to sustain that kind of
(47:47):
work or to rethink.
Should I actually be beatingmyself against these things or
should I be going about this ina different way?
And I deeply wanted to helpthem with that.
And I couldn't in the job thatI had, not only because the
structure wasn't there, like I,that wasn't what I was supposed
to be doing, I was supposed tobe teaching them leadership
skills but also because I myselfdidn't have like, I didn't know
(48:10):
what I was like.
I want to help them and I don'tknow how.
Um, and I did find little wayshere and there.
We did some art stuff.
We did some reflection, we did.
I guided them in meditationonce.
It felt so subversive and scary, um.
But when I found Reiki, youknow again, because my own life
was falling apart and I neededit for my own self I could
(48:32):
finally see a place to help, andso there was that.
Okay, I needed it for myself, Iwant to help them, but I see
these things as separate.
I don't know how to bring themtogether.
And then my cohorts were likejust bring them together, just
do Reiki and do these things forus.
But it still took several years.
(48:54):
Again, back to what I wassaying about articulate who you
are.
It took me several years, fromthat point starting Hardscapes,
to actually say publicly to theworld on my website, on my
YouTube channel hey, changemakers, those of you who are
burning yourself to the groundtrying to change the world, give
yourself a minute to comeinside and I can help you.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
Yeah, thank you for sharing that Cause.
So many people come to this,come to these modalities, and
they went instant, but it wascumulative for you.
It took time, right and in agentle, loving way when you were
ready.
So, yeah, it doesn't alwayshave to be the big bang, boom,
right.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
Yeah, bangs, right Like bang.
And then now I'm existing inthis new reality.
Oh wait, bang, something new.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Number three you teach different systems of Reiki
.
One of the systems that youteach is soul collage.
Can you tell us a little bitabout it?
Speaker 4 (49:51):
Yeah, so I'll make the distinction.
Soul collage is very much adifferent system than Reiki, so
not a Reiki modality at all, but, like I said, synchronistic
with Reiki in some reallybeautiful ways.
So soul collage is a system ofintuitive collaging.
I very much wish I had thoughtto bring a card down here to
(50:11):
show you.
I sure didn't.
But basically you're making adeck of cards.
You can think of it like anOracle deck or a Tarot deck.
The cards are five by eightinches, so about that big, and
each one of them you're making acollage representing a
different aspect of yourself, adifferent aspect of your
personality the roles that youhold, deep, dark fears that you
(50:33):
might have, your belief systems,your values, your strengths,
your community, people that haveinfluenced you, archetypes in
the world that inspire you orthat are at work in your life,
the wisdom in your body, all thedifferent parts of you.
How many parts are there of you?
I haven't gotten to the end ofmy list yet.
(50:54):
It's probably in the millions,but you're making, you're giving
each of these parts that forthe most part live in our
subconscious, they're mostlyunavailable to us consciously.
You're giving them form in theform of an image, a collaged
image and you're giving themvoice in the form of a ritual
way of engaging with that partof yourself by working with the
(51:16):
cards.
And so you end up with a deck ofcards that represent the
landscape of you, that representthe one you that's made up of
many, many, many parts, and thenyou're able to interface with
them, ask them questions, get toknow the motivation, right.
The imposter syndrome was myfirst soul clutch card, because
that part of me was reallymessing me up at work and we
(51:37):
needed to like deal with somestuff like hey, stop making me
hide at work because I need toask for a budget increase.
Like I need, I need you to likestop making me small.
And then that little impostersyndrome was like but you'll get
fired and you'll die if youdon't.
So it gives you a way to be inconscious relationship with your
(51:59):
subconscious, basically, and itwas developed by a union
psychologist named Sina Frost,who really created an elegant,
beautiful system.
And you know, as I came intoReiki from its Japanese origins,
you know we kind of summarizethat healing is remembering the
wholeness of your true self, andthat is also the goal of Soul
Collage to remember thewholeness of your true self.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
Beautiful.
Well, that was our lastquestion and, as we've been
talking, is there anything elseyou might have forgotten about
or something you'd like to share?
Speaker 4 (52:29):
The floor is yours, you might've forgotten about or
something you'd like to share.
The floor is yours.
Um, yeah, well, I would justlove to invite folks to be in
community and to be inconversation about these things.
There's so many different waysto engage with Reiki, to engage
with healing, to engage witheach other around these things,
and I really encourage us to bein conversation.
So, as far as I'm concerned, um, the way that that looks is on
(52:53):
YouTube.
So I mentioned I have a YouTubechannel, hardscapes Reiki,
where I do a lot of teaching.
I do have a Facebook group,reiki Community Practice with
Hardscapes, and then, of course,I teach the system of Reiki
from its Japanese origins.
I teach that in a nine-monthdeep dive program.
I do teach a Reiki one as astandalone class as a way of
(53:13):
kind of connecting and having afirst point of contact.
The next one will be coming upin October.
I also do one-on-one teachingwith folks who want a more
individualized approach, andthen I also teach a number of
kind of continuing educationclasses, special topics, classes
related to Reiki and otherendeavors.
Those happen both live, and Ihave a self-paced course catalog
(53:36):
through Thinkific that can befound on my website.
So lots of different ways todive in.
My primary focus, really overall, is to take these esoteric, you
know, deep, very personalpractices and bring that into
our daily life.
What does this have to do?
What does ancient with today?
(53:59):
What's happening in my life,right and in the special topics
classes, has to do with bringingthis alive in our life, because
if our spiritual practices areonly available to us when we go
on a retreat or we separateourselves from our life or we
take that special time, they'renot available to us in the
moment, in the day to day, thenthey're of limited usefulness.
(54:21):
So I always want to bring itback to what does this have to
do with my life?
And a lot of different ways wecan have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
Beautiful and if anyone wants to connect with you
in person, where are youlocated?
Speaker 4 (54:32):
I'm located in Davis, california, central California,
just outside our state Capitol.
Most of my teaching is eitheronline or it's in a hybrid form,
so you can either come live tothe studio or be with us on Zoom
, and, of course, I do offerReiki sessions here in my studio
as well.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
Perfect, All right.
Thank you, michaela, so muchfor taking this amazing and
wonderful journey with me andtaking you know this time to
share all of the wisdom thatyou've gained in your experience
.
So thank you so much, thank youso much.
Speaker 4 (55:00):
Tracy, I appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (55:01):
Wonderful.
So, my wonderful listeners, ifyou would like your question
featured on Ready Set Reiki,reach out wwwreadysetreikicom.
I'm Tracy Seawright and thishas been Ready Set Reiki.
Thank you.
This is Ready Set Reiki, a podcast about Reiki,
the universal energy life force,from the curious beginner to
the seasoned master teacher,welcoming all systems, all
litigations and all levels.
Reiki is a journey and not adestination, and on this Ready
Set Reiki journey, I refer tomyself as a guide rather than a
host.
So I'm Tracy Seawright, andthis is Ready Set Reiki.
Speaker 3 (00:42):
Hello everyone, welcome to another beautiful
episode here of Ready Set Reiki.
Now today, amazing, we haveMichaela Daystar.
Now she founded Heartscapes atthe intersection of
self-reflection, spiritualpractice and social action.
Now, after a 15-year career yes, I said 15-year career in
(01:04):
social justice leadership,development in universities and
organizations, wishing tosupport her clients and students
to make their preciouscontribution to the world from
the inside out, she teaches thesystems of Reiki and soul
collage as pathways toself-development, emotional
resilience and remembering ourtrue self.
(01:25):
Now, among all these wonderfulthings here, you know, she also
teaches trauma-informedprinciples to increase safety,
trust, choice and consent in ourhealing communities.
Now she continues her studiesin Reiki and the Japanese
Buddhist roots of the system andholds a master's degree in
social justice leadership.
So welcome, michaela, to ReadySet.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
Reiki.
Thanks so much, Tracy.
It's really fun to be here.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Wonderful, so let's begin our journey together.
So I told our listeners just alittle bit about yourself.
So tell us, in your beautifuleloquent words, a little bit
about yourself.
Speaker 4 (02:03):
Yeah, it's always such a wide, open question,
right, like what piece do youpick and what kind of rose to
the surface, as I was thinkingabout our time together, is the
fact that I've always been avery weird person.
I've been.
I was a very weird child, I wasa weird teenager, I was a weird
young adult, and so much of mylife was spent trying to hide
(02:26):
that fact, trying to subvertthat fact, trying to fit in,
trying to be normal.
And I I find now that, atalmost 50 years old, I've spent
the last 10 years reallylearning to step into the ways
I'm weird that are actually partof what I have to contribute to
the world.
And so I say right now, my jobis, you know, almost 40% just
(02:49):
being weird in public and justkind of owning it.
And so some of the ways thatthat shows up, you know, not
only in my job, which we'll, youknow, talk more about, but in
my day to day, is that I live onan urban homestead.
I live communally with fiveother people, a mix of friends
(03:10):
and family.
I'm a very introverted person.
I grew up in a very one-on-onehousehold me and my mom, very
quiet household.
So it's astonishing to me thatI live in this way, with gardens
and people and animals.
Both me and my good friend,who's my roommate, run our
businesses out of this space.
We've got clients and communitymembers coming through, so it's
a very vibrant place and inthis place I can really be
(03:34):
myself in all of the ways, whichincludes being an avid gardener
, being a teacher of many thingsfrom herbalism to reiki.
I can be a very quiet personand I can also spend time with
my animals and with my two kids,who are almost 15 and just
turned 27.
So it's a very it's a verylively life and I really value
(03:59):
the journey that got me to thepoint of choosing to kind of
shape my life in a way thatdoesn't look like I thought it
would or like a normal lifemight look, but it fits me well.
And so you know again, atalmost 50, I can tell that
little child from back then it'sokay to be weird.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Just be yourself.
It's the dream for everybody,right?
That sounds like that's whenyou talk to practitioners.
They would love to have thatsense of community and beautiful
.
I love that for you.
Well, let's figure out in thisjourney Reiki.
So that's why we're here andwe're connecting here on this
journey.
So did Reiki find you or didyou find Reiki?
Speaker 4 (04:43):
I love the way you phrased that question.
Reiki definitely found me.
I, you know and this is probablygoing to be familiar to many of
your audience those moments inour life where things have
fallen apart and things havebeen really hard for a long time
and you've hit a breaking point.
For me it was the ending of mymarriage after a really long,
(05:03):
difficult period of time, andcoming through that experience,
feeling like I didn't reallyunderstand myself, I didn't
really know who I was outside ofthis relationship and outside
of the difficulty, the reallyhard times that had been about
six years at that point, and youknow, when you kind of hit that
rock bottom point where you'relike I don't know what else to
(05:23):
do, I don't know where to go, Idon't know how to reclaim my
life, there's an opening thatcan occur and it's an
opportunity for intuition toshow us things that we might not
have sought ourselvesconsciously, or we might have
ignored or not have evenconsidered moving towards, and
so in that time a lot of thingsflooded in and some of those
(05:44):
things were really just for aperiod of time.
You know, they were there tosupport me for one time, or for
six months or a year and otherthings became my life, and the
things that became my life wereSoul Collage and Reiki, and you
know, ultimately became mybusiness and Reiki literally
found me in a moment in a churchoffice.
(06:05):
I was doing some consulting workwith one of my local churches
and a friend of mine worked intheir office part-time and I
heard her in the back of theoffice say oh, I'm getting ready
to teach my Reiki class thisweekend and I had vaguely heard
the term Reiki before A friendof mine who would eventually
(06:26):
become a Reiki teacher teachingpartner.
We taught together for manyyears, you know.
He had told me about it but itwasn't something I was
particularly focused on.
I heard her say it and it wasone of those moments where you
just kind of like everythinggets a little bit more clear,
your senses kind of sharpen up abit.
You know, there's this kind ofweird sense of like hyper
(06:48):
reality that happens and what Inow know is that's like
synchronicity happening and justwithout even thinking about it
at all, I said what did you justsay?
And can I do it?
What is that and can I do?
It was basically the energy.
What is that and can I do?
it was basically the energy.
I ended up studying with thatteacher for three years in you
(07:09):
know what I would understand tobe kind of traditional Western
Reiki, also in Karuna Reiki, andthen at that point I kind of
hit a wall with my studies and Irealized that that structure
wasn't working for me anymorefor a lot of reasons and I
started studying the Japaneseorigins of Reiki and that really
changed my life and that's nowBeautiful.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
And I love how you know.
As you went through, you pausedand then you redirected to
continue to find what works foryou on that path.
It's beautiful.
Now you had said when you heardthat word, reiki, that it was
vaguely familiar and that seemsto be a lot for people, even
though you know this word hasbeen used for how many years.
(07:53):
Right, and as you go out, asyou're navigating into this
field here, between Reiki andeven your business soul collage,
what are you finding are themisconceptions that people bring
up about Reiki.
Speaker 4 (08:10):
That's a big question and there's quite a few, and it
depends a little on whichperspective you're talking about
.
So I think I'll choose toanswer this from the perspective
of other Reiki practitionersand of myself in those first
three years as I was practicing,and I would say that there's
kind of an umbrellamisconception that then holds
(08:30):
many misconceptions that come asa result, and that umbrella
misconception the way I woulddescribe it is that Reiki is a
general term to describe allenergy work.
I hear the word Reiki and Ihear people talking about Reiki
(08:53):
as if it is a catch-all phrasethat contains any type of energy
work, and it's not.
Reiki is a word that comes froma specific culture, a specific
time and place, from a specificlineage that's thousands of
years old.
It describes a phenomenon inthe world that, of course, has
been observed by many peoplesacross time and space up until
now.
And yet if we choose to usethat word, Reiki, that is a
(09:17):
specific word describing thephenomenon of spiritual energy
through a particular culturallens, and then if we extend that
to talk about the system ofReiki, so distinguishing Reiki,
spiritual energy, describing aphenomenon in the world, and
then the system of Reiki, asystem of practice that humans
have developed to attempt tointerface with that phenomenon,
(09:41):
to intentionalize ourrelationship with that
phenomenon, which all of us haveat all times.
So if we look at the system ofpractice again, we see many
layers of specificity.
It was a system of practicedeveloped in a particular time
and place from a particularlineage that was deeply embedded
in the Shinto and Buddhistroots in Japan and that reflect
(10:03):
that in the five elements of thesystem and the many practices.
And so if we misconceive theword Reiki to mean general term
that encompasses all energy work, then we can very easily
disregard that very specificcultural, historical lineage
that is, you know, disrespectfuland appropriative in that kind
(10:30):
of I lost the word disregardingof that tradition.
But it also limits oureffectiveness to work with the
elements that actually existinside the system.
When we bring in elements frommany other systems, as if
they're synonymous with thesystem of Reiki, without
understanding that they'redifferent and why they do or do
(10:53):
not work together.
If we don't know, for example,why those four symbols are what
they are, where they came fromin Japanese history and
spiritual lineage, why they'rein the system of Reiki at all
those symbols versus any numberof others that could be there,
what they mean in context, justto take that one element of
(11:15):
symbols If we don't know thosethings, then we can't be in deep
relationship with them, wecan't be deeply effective with
them and our relationship withthem, we can't be deeply
effective with them and oursystem of practice will have a
disjointed nature, even if itfeels effective and even if it
is good, because my Reikipractice for those first three
years was good and it servedvery well and it was incredibly
(11:37):
important in my personaldevelopment and history, and
there was so much more availablethat I wasn't even aware of
when I didn't understand thathistory.
So I think I'll pause there,because I could go on and on and
on about those submisconceptions, but I think I'll
just umbrella.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I mean, even the word Reiki triggers people at times
and they either say like it'sthis and it's that, and it's
like, take a moment to go alittle deeper with it and
understand that it can be awhole lot more with it.
And you interesting that youmentioned the symbols.
You know, I went to take a TaiChi class and the particular
(12:17):
instructor of this Tai Chi classhe was talking and he was
bringing in the symbols and I'mlike, oh, do you do Reiki?
He said no, this is what Ilearned in my Tai Chi.
And I'm like, but wait, theseare Azui symbols.
And it was blowing my mindbecause he learned it in a
different way, to mix with hismartial arts, to mix with the
(12:38):
Tai Chi, and it showed there's adifferent way to do this.
Like wow, but he was doingenergy work, he was moving the
energy, but it wasn't colored asReiki for him.
He's like, well, I don't knowwho that person is, but this is
what I learned.
Speaker 4 (12:54):
It's complex.
I have a lot of compassion forall of us, particularly in the
West.
There's a responsibility thatwe have and then there's also
the reality that we grew up in aculture that has a cultural
ethos that says you can pick andchoose elements from different
cultures, mix them together andhave very little responsibility
(13:14):
for that.
And that is a flaw of ourculture.
It is a violence that ourculture perpetrates, to be
perfectly honest, appropriatingthese things from other
countries, most of which are,you know, places that we've
conquested in one way or another, and then kind of mixing them
up as if they it doesn't matterwhere they came from.
(13:35):
And that's a lot to inherit asa person in the West, as an
American, and it's not our faultthat that's how our culture is.
But once we kind of have anawareness of it, we do have a
responsibility to kind ofuntangle it a bit, and it's not
our fault that that's how ourculture is.
But once we kind of have anawareness of it, we do have a
responsibility to kind ofuntangle it a bit.
And there's nothing inherentlywrong with bringing elements
from other cultures together,but we need to understand them.
(13:55):
We need to understand who theyare and what they are in context
.
We need to have a relationshipwith them and then understand
why they might have arelationship with each other.
You know why the Reiki symbolswhich came through Shinto and
Buddhist practice in Japan mightabsolutely have something to do
with you know, chinese martialarts, like Tai Chi?
Of course there's arelationship there.
(14:15):
You know, of course there's arelationship between the chakra
system from India and the threediamonds energy map from Japan,
but they're not the same.
And Japan has its own energymap from Japan, but they're not
the same and Japan has its ownenergy map.
Right and so.
And yet the Chakto system isthe one that we most associate
with Reiki.
They're not the same.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
So there's great value in being in deeper
relationship with the origins ofthese things so that we can be
more fluent and respectful withhow they come together in our
practice, right, and that's whyit's important you know to have
that strong teacher to helpguide you you had mentioned you
were with your teacher for threeyears, right, and just learning
and growing.
(14:53):
And having that secrecy onceyou get the symbols, really adds
that little extra layer ofprotection that you're learning
how to use it.
You're learning about thehistory, you're learning what
its purpose is, instead ofwatching a video on YouTube and
saying, okay, I'm ready, worldright, or I'm just going to add
(15:13):
this onto my other modality thatI'm doing, but taking the time
to learn the history.
What's the why in this?
Why was this brought in?
What is its purpose?
You know how are we using thisenergy for the highest good,
best for ourselves and best forthat student or client with the
world?
Speaker 4 (15:32):
So it's very important to really learn that
history instead of saying, ohyeah, I like that like a
smorgasbord and we're soencouraged to look at it that
way, you know, and it can bevery delightful, right, it can
be very abundant to see how muchis out there, and I think it
can be really helpful for us tothink about it in terms of
relationship.
You know, anything that we'redrawn to, that we're like, oh,
(15:54):
that seems really cool or thatreally worked, long as it's
available to you in ways thatare in integrity.
But think about it as arelationship.
You know, how would you want toapproach a dear friend, right?
Speaker 3 (16:10):
How much would you want to know about them in order
to say this is my good friendyou know, yeah, yeah, I always
say to cultivate a relationshipwith the energy, take time to
know it so that you can kind oflearn the language that it's
speaking to you and helpingguide you.
I mean, it's such a personalrelationship, why would you not
want to cultivate that with it?
(16:32):
So you are out there helpingmany people.
You have a beautiful communitybusiness that you have built.
You have the background insocial justice.
As you're out helpingindividuals through their
challenges, through theirstruggles, what has been the
biggest struggle or challengethat you have faced in your own
(16:52):
healing journey?
Speaker 4 (16:56):
Yeah, it's like, wow, how do you pick, spin the wheel
right, spin the wheel Right,right, right, right.
I think, uh, yeah, this isanother one of those.
It's like you could, you couldpick any number, um, and call it
the biggest.
But I think what's what'sreally feeling present right now
is, um, my own fear of beingseen and known, and that was a
(17:22):
major challenge, both personallyand in stepping into this work.
You know you can't weak or youknow, whatever the fear is, then
(17:47):
you're not going to be willingto actually show what's
happening to others, certainly,but maybe not even to yourself.
And so I experienced variouslayers of that.
I mean, as I said, I spentabout six years in an incredibly
miserable state, and part ofthat misery, you know, yes, for
the most part, I was focused onthe conditions of my life that
(18:09):
were a struggle, but when I tookthat moment, to be honest, you
know, a significant part of thatchallenge was my unwillingness
to actually be honest about whatwas happening and therefore my
inability to even make change atall.
And so I would say, you know,the biggest challenge of the
healing journey just starting itat all, because I was so
(18:32):
resistant to takingresponsibility for my own part
of my misery.
And it actually, it didn't startwith Reiki.
It didn't start with soulcollage.
It didn't start withspirituality.
It started with codependence,anonymous.
It started with okay, presspause on externalizing my
(18:55):
problems.
This is all because of you.
This is all because of you.
This is because of mycircumstances.
What is actually in my controlthat I am not tending to or
taking responsibility for?
And that year in CodependenceAnonymous absolutely changed my
life and it was after thatgetting that year chip and
(19:16):
making significant changes in myrelationship to my life through
Codependence Anonymous thatthen these other things started
synchronizing and he's like okayyou're willing to take
responsibility, you're willingto do the work, then I'm going
to give you the work.
Here's the work it's meditation,it's dealing with trauma, it's
(19:39):
all of these other things.
But I had to be get to thepoint, spend a year becoming
willing to do the healingjourney before it could even
start.
Speaker 3 (19:47):
Beautiful.
Well, thank you for doing thework and taking that first step.
You know many people when theyshow up I also teach yoga and
Reiki and you know they come tothat first class and they've
made every possible excuse andthey're like Well, I'm not sure
I could do this asana, I can'tmove my body here, I'm like, but
you know what you've done, thebiggest thing, you've shown up,
(20:11):
you're here.
You know you've taken thatfirst step.
So I mean, are you taking thataccountability, taking that one
step that led you to here, tothere, and now here you are
helping so many people, right?
And so you'll find on thejourney that people either it's
two choices, one you choose to,you know, say I'm done, or
(20:31):
something happens where it's thecatalyst of change and people
tend to forget that they kind oflabel us as healers, thinking
where are these enlightened ones?
But we had a whole lot of mess.
We had that, okay, brought downto your knees, I get it, and
that resistance where we'redragging.
(20:52):
You know, I'm from, originallyfrom Pittsburgh, pennsylvania,
and circumstances happened in mylife where I needed to come to
El Paso, texas, and I just wasso resistant and everyone around
me, my teachers, were like youhave work to do out there.
I'm like I don't want to go.
No, no, I was kicking, screaming, you name.
(21:14):
It made every kind of mostinsane, ridiculous excuse, like
I can't come there Cause I.
You know A, B, c, d, e, f, g,all the way down to Z, and you
know, sometimes you don't knowthe story, you might have to
wait for it.
Well, you know, here I've comeand I've been here for exactly
three years and my daughter gota job at the zoo here and it's
(21:37):
like, oh well, maybe this is allmaking sense of the connections
and the people.
So now I can stand three yearslater to look, oh, I get it.
I was supposed to be here tohelp this person and to help
that student and to help thatclient and bring her here.
And you know, so be open withit.
You know, you think the world'sagainst you.
(21:58):
It's like, oh, why is this?
Is the worst possible?
That's always at the worstpossible time, right, worst
possible time.
Like, why is this happening?
But trust the process becauseyou will be shown like, oh, I
get it.
Speaker 4 (22:12):
Right, there it is there's so much value in doing
even what you just did in youknow a few seconds, but to spend
a little time with that,reflecting back on.
I mean, a three year period isa really great period of time to
reflect back.
You know what were the you know, and or to go back to that
point where that pressure tochange existed, that pressure to
change existed and where thatresistance to change existed,
(22:35):
and the moment when you chose todo the thing anyway and then to
follow the tracks, the threads,what happened, and then what
happened.
That's from where you are now.
Back then, you couldn't havepredicted now, but when you look
back, on it you can see thelogical projection, the logical
progression, even if it wascircuitous and you know like it
(22:58):
was a roller coaster ride.
Speaker 3 (23:00):
And then you're like, wow, I get it now.
But it was so resistant, I waskicking and screaming, but the
universe kept getting louder.
I'm like, okay, I don't knowanything else I go because it's
like and I tell my children youknow what?
The universe keeps talking?
It's going to get louder, solisten the first time.
(23:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (23:23):
I mean when we partner with ourselves and with
you know what we're noticing outin the world, we do make it
easier on ourselves.
Right, resistance to change isa big one, so sometimes we got
to struggle for a while.
Speaker 3 (23:38):
Very good.
So you had that teacher forthree years and you can, you
know, use her as an example ifyou'd like.
What are some qualities thatyou look for in a Reiki
practitioner or Reiki teacher orenergy work?
Yeah, yeah, good question.
Speaker 4 (23:50):
Yeah, so I worked with her for three years, and
then I've been working with aset of other teachers ever since
then.
So for the past, or energy work, yeah, yeah, good question.
Yeah, so I worked with her forthree years and then I've been
working with a set of otherteachers ever since then, so for
the past seven or eight, andthen, in addition to that, I've
worked with Shingon Buddhistteachers to deepen that route.
So I have a lot of teachers andI am very teacher-oriented.
(24:10):
I love a teacher, I am ateacher, and so you know that
question of what makes a goodteacher.
Of course it's very personal,right Like.
So I would say that you know,aside from them having rooted
not only credentials butexperience in the things that
you are interested in, of coursethat's essential.
(24:31):
But you know, making sure thatthere's values alignment, making
sure that the way they talkabout their practice feels
authentic to you, the goals thatthey might state for not only
their practice but for what theywould want for your practice,
are really important.
You know, for example, as ateacher, I primarily work with
(24:53):
people who are looking at Reikias self-practice, and they might
want to work with others, youknow, have a Reiki practice
themselves, but that's not theirprimary motivation.
And so I'm not a good teacherfor people whose primary
motivation is they want to, like, immediately start a Reiki
business and that's their focus.
I wouldn't be the right teacherfor that person.
I also wouldn't be the rightteacher for somebody who wants
(25:20):
to work in Western Reiki forms,who wants to, you know, kind of
blend Reiki with a lot ofdifferent things.
You know, I'm a better teacherfor people who want to learn
those origins and to practicefrom that position and so being
willing and, you know,courageous, to be clear about
what it is that you want, whatyou're drawn to, and asking
those questions of that teacheror that practitioner, and we're
talking about a practitioner,right?
So if we're going for Reikisessions as a client, you know
(25:44):
some of the similar thingsaround values, but it's maybe
more about their process, moreabout how they've created their
space that you're going to bestepping into.
So don't be afraid to ask ifyou can see their space before
you commit, if that's availableto you, even if it's over Zoom.
You know to have a conversationwith them ahead of time because
of course you knowinterpersonal connection is
(26:06):
important when we're talkingabout doing intimate work like
this.
If it matters to you that theperson has some sort of
understanding of traumasensitivity or being trauma
informed in their practice, askthose questions.
Look for that information ontheir website.
I do teach Reiki practitionershow to make their practice
trauma informed.
That's becoming increasinglymore important as we understand
(26:29):
more about just how common it isthat you know we walk through
the world carrying some form oftrauma and how easy it can be to
create a space that minimizesthe risk of antagonizing that
experience.
So I guess I would say you knowvalues, alignment, having you
(26:49):
know, feeling good in theperson's presence and having
shared goals are the kind ofoverall topic and then to help
you understand if you share thatwith them.
Don't be afraid to askquestions and, to you know, look
for like if a person'sunwilling to talk to you before
you book a session with them,that's a red flag right there.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (27:10):
You may not want or need that.
It's totally fine to just picksomeone based on their website
or whatever and just go aheadand book a session If that works
for you.
That's a bonus too, and youwant to ask these questions like
(27:36):
, where's your space?
Speaker 3 (27:38):
Is it in a building, right?
Is it in your home?
Because that can make adifference when I was in kind of
transit from you know my space.
I have a little space in myhome here but I also have little
dogs and that could triggersomeone whose trauma.
You know dogs and that couldtrigger someone whose trauma you
(27:58):
know has things going on.
So letting them know, well, I'min between spaces right now I'm
running it out of my home.
I do have a private entrance,but elsewhere on the property
that you won't be near, thereare dogs.
So if you hear a bark, thatmight tend somebody, which is
counterproductive of the of thesession, right?
Speaker 4 (28:14):
Or they might be allergic or you know whatever.
And I love that you mentionedhaving little dogs, because my
little dog is right outside thisdoor and she's barking her head
off and so I know we're live,but I'm going to just step right
there, let the dog in, so she'sdone.
Speaker 3 (28:31):
Good, very good, and then some of the other things
that are interesting.
That she had mentioned is aboutteachers, and you know my way.
I teach, I'm a teacher'steacher, that if you know you
help, guidance or help orsupport with teaching.
You know I have a background inelementary education and I've
(28:52):
always, since as long as I couldremember, have a heart of a
teacher.
So if you are someone that needshelp being guided within that
starting the business, I tend toget those type of students who,
okay, well, I've been studyingfor quite some time, I'm need a
little bit of that confidence tokind of get me forward so I can
go soar in my business.
(29:13):
And I tend to be that type ofteacher with that, because
you'll see other practitioners,other master teachers and
they'll have like 20, 30 peoplein a room, right.
And then I was just had alittle season where I was like
getting two or three or fourpeople but I was realizing, well
, this is what they need.
You know, instead of me havingthis idea of needs to be grand
(29:35):
and huge, I was getting exactly,or giving and receiving exactly
what needed to be done in thatmoment with those students.
Speaker 4 (29:44):
So I love that perspective.
You know, and I'm, I'm, I also.
I love teaching teachers.
Like teaching teachers isreally my heart work.
I I just graduated my firstteacher training apprentice.
I run them through a year longapprenticeship and bringing two
more on for my next round and Ijust, I just love it so much.
And, and the openness andspaciousness to say if I have 20
(30:07):
students in the room, if I havetwo, you know that's what works
.
And obviously we have differentbusiness models.
We have different.
Sometimes, when I was rentingspace before I had my studio, I
couldn't afford to run a classwith just two people in it
because it just wouldn't workout cost-wise.
But you know, now that I have astudio available to me, I love
(30:28):
the freedom to be able to.
Hey, if one person has signedup for this experience, then
we're going to have a hell of aone-on-one and it's going to be
amazing.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
Yeah, and that's what people need to look at too.
If you're like this new Reikimaster teacher, why am I not
getting all these people that,whomever is putting on Facebook,
social media, it could be thatmaybe that teacher had to wait
because they're paying for aspace.
Because there's spaces that yourent, you have to pay per month
, or work out some deal or do 7030.
(30:57):
That may be an issue, but youknow, that made me think of like
just two students.
That may not be somethingthat's affordable if you're
renting a space and you have topay x amount of dollars a month.
But there's ways around it.
I've gone to people's homes,I've gone to their offices, so
you get, you get creative youget creative with it.
Speaker 4 (31:15):
That's one of the things I love about this work is
that it is inherently creativeand flexible and we can use
technology in amazing ways tomake it more accessible.
And we live in a time when thetraditional view of an office
job and a nine to five and thatwork has to look a specific way
and fit into a specificstructure and time frame has
(31:37):
just been blown out of the water.
Like we have so much freedom tocreate our own path.
Now, with that freedom can comea lot of overwhelm, confusion,
complication, frustration,absolutely, and as a small
business owner for the lasteight years, I've had my fair
share of that.
But I do, you know, and this isjust part of how I'm wired I
really appreciate theflexibility that we have to make
(31:58):
it our own.
Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (32:00):
So what advice would you give to someone who's just
entering this profession?
Speaker 4 (32:07):
As a Reiki practitioner Could be a.
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Reiki practitioner, teacher.
It can be, as a business owner,the pearls of wisdom that you
have to share from yourexperience.
Speaker 4 (32:19):
Yeah, I mean a couple of things come up.
I mean this can be.
I'm a member of a group thatputs on a Ricky business summit
every year, coming up in thefall that, you know, deep dives
into so many different.
It's like there's so manydifferent directions that this
question could go.
But I think you know part ofwhat rises, you know following
on what we just said, is toallow yourself flexibility,
(32:39):
allow yourself time to manageyour expectations.
We might have the expectationthat, like we get our Reiki
training, we put the sign up,we're open for business and you
know the customers will justcome.
There is work involved and whatI totally did not have enough
(32:59):
respect for when I first startedwas the fact that running a
business and being an excellentReiki practitioner are different
skill sets, and I did not haveany of this one right here, this
bucket here that's called beinga decent business owner.
None, I had none.
That's not true.
I had a lot of skills that arenecessary over here, but I had
(33:21):
no experience in putting themtogether as a.
This amazing thing I'm tryingto do for people is not working
as a business.
It's because business skillsare a separate skill set.
(33:45):
And so I you know, eventuallydid bow to the universe and got
some really great businesstraining with an organization
that specifically works withwomen solo entrepreneurs who
work in healing and artsprofessions so perfectly
tailored it's called Women inCommunity or Wink, if you need
some of that in your life, andthat really was a game changer
(34:07):
for me to just really come intolike humility and respect for
the fact that this is a living,breathing entity and it has to
be approached and worked with,you know, as itself.
Right, it is, it is itself andwe get to be in again
relationship with our businessand and be fluid with it.
So that would be the firstthing.
(34:28):
I would also say that, as muchas you want to and as much as
you probably believe you can,you are not for everybody.
You're not meant to helpeverybody.
We cut many of us come to thiswork at least you know, ideally
we have from a genuine desire tohelp everybody.
Right, reiki can help everybody.
(34:48):
It can, but I am not the rightpractitioner for everybody, and
what that means is that I haveto be really clear about who I
am, who I serve and how, andthat's also something I didn't
understand for a very long time.
I was trying to help everybodyand I was being very generic
about what I was saying, aboutmy practice and about how I
(35:10):
wanted to help, about how Iwanted to help.
And you know again that, backto that fear of really
acknowledging myself and knowingmyself and owning how weird I
am and being my, you know, true,weird self, you know that
played out in my business whereI didn't really want to be seen
for who I truly am.
And I didn't want to really beseen for bringing together the
different parts of myself thatmatter.
(35:31):
I kind of had adopted oursociety's view of humanity that
we have to kind of exist inthese silos, Right?
So there's the the work me thathas all of this experience in
social justice, leadership andhigher education, and that's
different from my gardenerhippie me.
And that's different from myReiki practitioner me.
And the truth is there, hippieme.
(35:53):
And that's different from myReiki practitioner me.
And the truth is there's justme.
And so as I got more willing tobe vulnerable and say who I am
and to say, hey, this is who Iam and this is who I'm for.
You know, this is who I canbest help because of who I am,
my business got much easier.
It got much clearer.
The people who wereself-selecting to come were so
(36:15):
much more aligned.
There was much less tensionwhen I'm working with someone
that like, ah, we're just not agood fit.
You know back to that fit.
You know making sure yourvalues are like.
Know your values and clearlyarticulate them in your
marketing.
It's my best advice to you Knowwho you are, know your values
clearly, articulate that whenyou're communicating about your
(36:37):
business and really be humbleabout the fact that you're not
for everybody, and that's okay.
The people that you're for needto hear you say it so they can
identify you as their people.
Speaker 3 (36:50):
Yeah, beautiful.
I mean in trying to helpeveryone, that's what causes the
burnout.
I mean that is something elsetoo.
When you begin to start seeingthat very full schedule and it
gets overwhelming, they're like,oh my goodness you know, and
then your cup gets emptied sothat you cannot be in the best
shape that you can be to helpservice others.
(37:11):
So that self-care is veryimportant and that can come into
the way of being selective,right Saying no.
So what books do you recommend?
Speaker 4 (37:22):
Oh my golly, I'm laughing because I have at least
four videos on my YouTubechannel that are like let's look
at the library.
Here's the bibliography that youshould have.
Okay, so I would put that in afew different categories.
So if I'm thinking about booksthat are essential for me and my
(37:44):
Reiki practice and my business,the first two that come to mind
are really the first two that Ifound when I knew that I needed
to pivot into studying Reikifrom the perspective of its
Japanese origins, that I neededto do that for my integrity, I
needed to do it for myeffectiveness, I needed to do it
for my heart and my soul thatwas longing to be in deeper
relationship with this practice,and I found my way to the
(38:06):
Japanese art of Reiki and theinner heart of Reiki by Bronwyn
Logan and Franz Dina.
Art of Reiki and the InnerHeart of Reiki by Bronwyn Logan
and Franz Dena and they've beenmy teachers ever since then.
That was about eight years ago.
Two of my teachers and thosetwo books, written in incredibly
accessible language, very easyto understand, very bite-sized,
but also very in-depth at thoseorigins, and so they and they
(38:27):
would go in that order.
The Japanese Art of Reiki isreally a more introduction kind
of Reiki, level one, shodenReiki.
Level two, okuden focus, andthen Inner Heart of Reiki is
more advanced and focused onshimpeden, level three.
So those for sure.
And then, if you know, for methat really led to wanting to
(38:47):
understand those origins better,and so I have a collection of
books that you know where I'velearned more about Shinto and
Japanese Buddhist practice, andone of the books that best
bridges those two areas of studythat I will recommend is called
Women in Reiki.
I am totally blanking on theauthors right in this moment.
(39:09):
But Women in Reiki, totallyblanking on the authors right in
this moment.
But women in Reiki, and thattracks the history.
It's really like a biography ofthe Japanese women, so not
coming into the United States,it stops at Takata but the wives
and the daughters and themothers of the men we hear about
in the system of Reiki.
You know Sui and Hayashi andtheir students and their
(39:32):
colleagues.
But, as is so often the case inhistory, the great men that we
hear about are actually buoyedand supported and sometimes led
themselves by great women.
We don't always hear theirstories, and so that book really
goes in depth to thebiographies of the women who
supported the system of Reikibecoming an in-depth practice,
(39:53):
becoming something that is stillat play in Japan.
In its original form and in itsWestern form, Reiki came to be
during a time when many, many,many different little versions
of Japanese spirituality werebeing created, and they didn't
all survive.
Most of them didn't, so Reikiis still there.
Anyway, all of that is to say,you get a really powerful
(40:16):
history of Reiki in Japan aswell as an intimate look at
these women that were soimportant to us.
Having it at all.
I would also recommend havingand this is just my constitution
, so this may or may notresonate for you, but having
books of poetry, books ofphilosophy that don't have
(40:38):
anything to do with Reiki butthat speak to your soul, that
speak to your own personaljourney, your own lineage, that
you can bring in as almost likebibliomancy, as inspiration for
you, but also as these littlepoints of reflection that you
can bring to your students andclients.
I routinely, when teaching aclass, will at random grab a
(40:59):
book of poetry off my shelf,take a breath into whatever is
happening in the class in thatmoment, open to a random page,
and what's on that page isexactly what the students need
to hear in that moment.
It's really powerful and verycool practice.
So have a robust library ofpoetry, of stories, of
philosophy that speak to yoursoul, and share them with your
(41:23):
clients and your folks.
And right now, my favorite is abook by Jeff Foster called you
Were Never Broken Poems to Saveyour Life, and that one is a
deep reservoir of incrediblemedicine.
Also, books by Pixie Lighthorse, which are prayers and poetry
brought together from anindigenous perspective.
Lastly, I will recommend thebook when no Thing Works by
(41:47):
Norma Long.
Norma Long is one of my mentors, has deeply influenced my
thinking, both on the socialjustice and spirituality side of
things.
She's a Zen priest in Hawaii, aformer state legislature, a
teacher, a social justicewarrior and a freaking amazing
human being, and one of myteachers.
And she just published herfirst book, when no Thing Works,
(42:08):
and it's specifically designedto guide us through spiritual
and political principles throughtimes of chaos, disruption and
collapse which we are currentlyliving inside of.
So it's a I would callessential reading, not related
to Reiki, but also very muchrelated to Reiki.
Speaker 3 (42:24):
Thank you for sharing that.
So what other modalities andservices do you offer and where
can we find you?
Speaker 4 (42:32):
Yeah, well, you can find me on the ye olde interwebs
at heartscapesinsightcom.
You can also find me on YouTubeat Heartscapes Reiki.
I have a pretty robust libraryof teaching videos, reflections,
you know, moments of connection.
So my primary modality is Reiki, also the system of soul
(42:54):
collage, which is a practice ofintuitive collaging that comes
through Jungian psychology, verydifferent practice but actually
guiding us to the same place asReiki, which is remembering the
wholeness of our true self,integrating all of the parts of
ourselves so we can be a morefully formed human and more in
our power and our capacity.
So soul collage and Reiki areprimary things that I offer and
(43:17):
then, secondarily to that, I'vedone a lot of work with various
nervous system regulationpractices, primarily emotional
freedom technique or EFT,tapping lots of different
embodiment based practices toregulate the nervous system and
that blend really beautifullywith those other modalities and
so I'll bring those in, you know, as needed.
(43:38):
I do work with EFT withone-on-one clients, but not as a
primary.
You know it's kind of somethingthat comes up if it does, but
those things are kind of justwoven throughout teaching and
practicing with Reiki and SoulClash.
Speaker 3 (43:52):
All right, beautiful.
Well, that ends the first partof our journey.
I'm going to continue to guideyou on to the second part, which
are questions from listenersand from Reiki students.
So here we go.
Number one what inspired you tocreate your business
Heartscapes?
Speaker 4 (44:18):
business HeartScapes.
Yeah, I was inspired to createit out of one of those points of
tension and change.
I, as I mentioned, worked inuniversity for 12 years at a
particular college and thenreally ever since, but more
intensively for the next threeyears, in organizations and
other colleges as a consultant,and that work is dear to me.
I absolutely am passionateabout supporting people to make
change in the world that mattersto them.
(44:39):
I love working with students.
I loved working to a certainextent, I loved working in
university.
There's a lot of things aboutit I did not love, but
ultimately it really wasn'twhere my skills could best be
put to work.
Ultimately it wasn't where Ifit and because I was unwilling
to show who I really was,because I was so scared to be my
true self, there was anincredible amount of pain and
(45:02):
tension in the last few yearsthat I was doing that work and I
actually went to grad schooltrying to resolve that tension
in the direction of doing my jobbetter.
I had this choice point do I godo this one one program in
social justice, leadershipdevelopment, so exactly the work
that I was doing, or do I do,you know, arts and consciousness
(45:23):
and like spirituality and likethe other direction, which,
again, I believed were separateparts right, they were divided
in my mind and I chose to do thepractical thing go get a
master's degree in socialjustice leadership.
And the universe is such atrickster and so funny and
tricks us into getting what weneed.
(45:43):
The particular program that Iwas in was actually at a Jesuit
university oddly, that's a wholeother story Very focused on
spirituality, very focused onleadership from the inside out,
on really getting to terms withwho you are and what your actual
contribution is to the world.
And in doing that I like brokedown in the very first seminar
(46:05):
and was like I there's these two, I can't decide.
This is so important to mespirituality, art, working with
people on their inner landscape,on you know their pains, their
traumas.
But like also social justicework external out in the world.
And they looked at me like Iwas out of my mind and they said
why do you think those are twodifferent things?
Why don't you think that weworking out in the world to make
(46:27):
change don't need to understandourselves real well and deal
with our trauma?
And like come inside and havenervous system regulation, like
could you please come do thisover here with us.
So really it was, you know,what led me to start Heartscapes
was being given permission tobring these two sides of myself
together by a cohort of peoplewho could see me, even though I
(46:50):
was trying to hide Beautiful.
Speaker 3 (46:53):
Well, that goes very nicely into our second question.
After 15 years career in socialjustice leadership development,
why Reiki?
Speaker 4 (47:01):
Yeah, right, because I could see that my students,
who desperately wanted to changethe world and were throwing
every piece of themselvesagainst what was wrong with the
world, were coming to it becausethey had been hurt, because
they had been deeply harmed bysystems of oppression, by racism
, by sexism, by government, byyou name it, all the things, and
(47:24):
that there was no capacity inmy job at the time, and really
at the college generally, tohelp them with that internal
experience of harm.
And I watched them flailing andbeating themselves against
these systems of oppressionwithout the internal resilience
and calm and strength that theyneeded to sustain that kind of
(47:47):
work or to rethink.
Should I actually be beatingmyself against these things or
should I be going about this ina different way?
And I deeply wanted to helpthem with that.
And I couldn't in the job thatI had, not only because the
structure wasn't there, like I,that wasn't what I was supposed
to be doing, I was supposed tobe teaching them leadership
skills but also because I myselfdidn't have like, I didn't know
(48:10):
what I was like.
I want to help them and I don'tknow how.
Um, and I did find little wayshere and there.
We did some art stuff.
We did some reflection, we did.
I guided them in meditationonce.
It felt so subversive and scary, um.
But when I found Reiki, youknow again, because my own life
was falling apart and I neededit for my own self I could
(48:32):
finally see a place to help, andso there was that.
Okay, I needed it for myself, Iwant to help them, but I see
these things as separate.
I don't know how to bring themtogether.
And then my cohorts were likejust bring them together, just
do Reiki and do these things forus.
But it still took several years.
(48:54):
Again, back to what I wassaying about articulate who you
are.
It took me several years, fromthat point starting Hardscapes,
to actually say publicly to theworld on my website, on my
YouTube channel hey, changemakers, those of you who are
burning yourself to the groundtrying to change the world, give
yourself a minute to comeinside and I can help you.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (49:15):
Yeah, thank you for sharing that Cause.
So many people come to this,come to these modalities, and
they went instant, but it wascumulative for you.
It took time, right and in agentle, loving way when you were
ready.
So, yeah, it doesn't alwayshave to be the big bang, boom,
right.
Speaker 4 (49:34):
Yeah, bangs, right Like bang.
And then now I'm existing inthis new reality.
Oh wait, bang, something new.
Speaker 3 (49:43):
Number three you teach different systems of Reiki
.
One of the systems that youteach is soul collage.
Can you tell us a little bitabout it?
Speaker 4 (49:51):
Yeah, so I'll make the distinction.
Soul collage is very much adifferent system than Reiki, so
not a Reiki modality at all, but, like I said, synchronistic
with Reiki in some reallybeautiful ways.
So soul collage is a system ofintuitive collaging.
I very much wish I had thoughtto bring a card down here to
(50:11):
show you.
I sure didn't.
But basically you're making adeck of cards.
You can think of it like anOracle deck or a Tarot deck.
The cards are five by eightinches, so about that big, and
each one of them you're making acollage representing a
different aspect of yourself, adifferent aspect of your
personality the roles that youhold, deep, dark fears that you
(50:33):
might have, your belief systems,your values, your strengths,
your community, people that haveinfluenced you, archetypes in
the world that inspire you orthat are at work in your life,
the wisdom in your body, all thedifferent parts of you.
How many parts are there of you?
I haven't gotten to the end ofmy list yet.
(50:54):
It's probably in the millions,but you're making, you're giving
each of these parts that forthe most part live in our
subconscious, they're mostlyunavailable to us consciously.
You're giving them form in theform of an image, a collaged
image and you're giving themvoice in the form of a ritual
way of engaging with that partof yourself by working with the
(51:16):
cards.
And so you end up with a deck ofcards that represent the
landscape of you, that representthe one you that's made up of
many, many, many parts, and thenyou're able to interface with
them, ask them questions, get toknow the motivation, right.
The imposter syndrome was myfirst soul clutch card, because
that part of me was reallymessing me up at work and we
(51:37):
needed to like deal with somestuff like hey, stop making me
hide at work because I need toask for a budget increase.
Like I need, I need you to likestop making me small.
And then that little impostersyndrome was like but you'll get
fired and you'll die if youdon't.
So it gives you a way to be inconscious relationship with your
(51:59):
subconscious, basically, and itwas developed by a union
psychologist named Sina Frost,who really created an elegant,
beautiful system.
And you know, as I came intoReiki from its Japanese origins,
you know we kind of summarizethat healing is remembering the
wholeness of your true self, andthat is also the goal of Soul
Collage to remember thewholeness of your true self.
Speaker 3 (52:21):
Beautiful.
Well, that was our lastquestion and, as we've been
talking, is there anything elseyou might have forgotten about
or something you'd like to share?
Speaker 4 (52:29):
The floor is yours, you might've forgotten about or
something you'd like to share.
The floor is yours.
Um, yeah, well, I would justlove to invite folks to be in
community and to be inconversation about these things.
There's so many different waysto engage with Reiki, to engage
with healing, to engage witheach other around these things,
and I really encourage us to bein conversation.
So, as far as I'm concerned, um, the way that that looks is on
(52:53):
YouTube.
So I mentioned I have a YouTubechannel, hardscapes Reiki,
where I do a lot of teaching.
I do have a Facebook group,reiki Community Practice with
Hardscapes, and then, of course,I teach the system of Reiki
from its Japanese origins.
I teach that in a nine-monthdeep dive program.
I do teach a Reiki one as astandalone class as a way of
(53:13):
kind of connecting and having afirst point of contact.
The next one will be coming upin October.
I also do one-on-one teachingwith folks who want a more
individualized approach, andthen I also teach a number of
kind of continuing educationclasses, special topics, classes
related to Reiki and otherendeavors.
Those happen both live, and Ihave a self-paced course catalog
(53:36):
through Thinkific that can befound on my website.
So lots of different ways todive in.
My primary focus, really overall, is to take these esoteric, you
know, deep, very personalpractices and bring that into
our daily life.
What does this have to do?
What does ancient with today?
(53:59):
What's happening in my life,right and in the special topics
classes, has to do with bringingthis alive in our life, because
if our spiritual practices areonly available to us when we go
on a retreat or we separateourselves from our life or we
take that special time, they'renot available to us in the
moment, in the day to day, thenthey're of limited usefulness.
(54:21):
So I always want to bring itback to what does this have to
do with my life?
And a lot of different ways wecan have that conversation.
Speaker 3 (54:27):
Beautiful and if anyone wants to connect with you
in person, where are youlocated?
Speaker 4 (54:32):
I'm located in Davis, california, central California,
just outside our state Capitol.
Most of my teaching is eitheronline or it's in a hybrid form,
so you can either come live tothe studio or be with us on Zoom
, and, of course, I do offerReiki sessions here in my studio
as well.
Speaker 3 (54:47):
Perfect, All right.
Thank you, michaela, so muchfor taking this amazing and
wonderful journey with me andtaking you know this time to
share all of the wisdom thatyou've gained in your experience
.
So thank you so much, thank youso much.
Speaker 4 (55:00):
Tracy, I appreciate this.
Speaker 3 (55:01):
Wonderful.
So, my wonderful listeners, ifyou would like your question
featured on Ready Set Reiki,reach out wwwreadysetreikicom.
I'm Tracy Seawright and thishas been Ready Set Reiki.
Thank you.
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