Energetic Alchemy and Learning Reiki with Yolanda Williams

This week, we have a serene and gorgeous soul, Yolanda Williams, Self-Mastery Mentor, certified Reiki Master, and host of the Reiki Radio podcast.

Like many people, Yolanda found Reiki because she was seeking a way to alleviate her stress and anxiety from transitioning out of the financial corporate sector.

Her natural confidence, a great sense of self-worth, and self-esteem didn’t waver too much as her Reiki practice organically began to form as she joyfully practiced on family and friends. She started the Reiki Radio podcast, (now it’s in its ninth year), to discuss her experiences with Reiki in hopes to help other Reiki practitioners because she couldn't find enough information about what happens after you take a Reiki class and start to practice on yourself and others.  She also interviews other spiritual healers about their work and self-improvement.  Check out her new deck coming soon, The Energetic Alchemist oracle deck a blend of Tarot and oracle with beautiful original art. You can purchase those on her website, www.energeticalchemist.com

Show Notes:

-Introduction to the guest, Yolanda Williams, Self-Mastery Mentor, certified Reiki Master, and host of Reiki Radio podcast. -Discussion of Yolanda podcasting for 9 years, why she started, and how it’s grown -Yolanda started podcasting because she wanted to create a community to discuss how Reiki works and to answer questions. -Are clients different now during the pandemic, and coming out of it discussion -Yolanda notices clients are hungry to self-soothe, self-heal to navigate the enormous changes -prior to the pandemic people came to her to heal others, to start their own Reiki practice. -Most clients come to her to learn Reiki to focus on their own well-being and self-care. -Yolanda’s tools to get through lockdown were to be with her family, she became bi-coastal after family and friends passed away that lived in the East coast. -Yolanda’s Alchemy Circle, a community for Reiki practitioners to offer support, and guided meditations was borne from being in the pandemic lockdown. -Serendipity played a big part for Yolanda after being laid off from the corporate sector -She started to feel very stressed and anxious, and an astrologer recommended she take a meditation class and get Reiki sessions. -She started to take Reiki classes and started to practice on friends and family, and organically, her friends started to refer people to her. -She was detached from the results so she didn’t feel any pressure, and didn’t feel the need to convince people about Reiki.

-Yolanda was sharing from her direct experience, she thought Reiki was amazing, and other people thought Reiki was amazing, too. -As her Reiki practice grew into a more formal practice, she made sure to NOT put pressure on herself. -She went through her own dark night of the soul in the beginning of her practice. -She would work on people, and she was also going through her “ick” and she started to feel resentful. -Realized she was holding space for others and realized her self-healing practice wasn’t enough, she needed someone to hold space for her. -Her goal was never to be a healer, and she still doesn’t put that pressure on herself or label herself a healer. -She studied with different 8 Reiki teachers, to get different perspectives, and spent a lot of money on Reiki classes, and retreats. -Realized that many people in the healing communities struggle with charging money for their work. -She came from a corporate background and understood that your time is valuable, you invested a lot of time and money to develop your healing abilities, why wouldn’t you charge for that exchange. -How long did it take from taking her first Reiki classes to formally charge money for Reiki? -Understands that in the spiritual community people struggle to take money in exchange for providing services. -She instills to her listeners and Reiki students to honor their time, their training, the financial investment they made to hone their craft. -It’s all mindset, if it’s valuable to you, act like it, how long are you going to hold on to that story of not charging money in exchange for providing healing services.  -Yolanda stated that she invested in building a website, making the podcast, and newsletters. -If she is investing that, she needs to have an exchange of monies in order to continue sharing her love of Reiki. -Sharmila explains her view of self-worth and self-esteem in terms of an economic chart, there is a baseline, anything below, to her, is the poverty level--very little to no sense of self-worth or self-esteem, anything above the baseline is good to a high sense of self-esteem and self-worth.  -Yolanda answers that she did have a healthy sense of self-esteem and self-worth and that it’s true that low self-worth and self-esteem attributes to struggles with money with spiritual services. -Yolanda talks about how people have a certain idea of what you are expected