When I started practicing Reiki in 2003, I had just taken up candle making. During the Reiki 2 Class my teacher said that I could infuse the candles with Reiki and share that on the label. At the time, I remember believing this was way too radical and people would think I was crazy. What I didn’t realize then was that my teacher was seeing the candles as another outlet through which Reiki can be a healing presence.
As my personal Reiki practice developed in the months that followed, I did find myself using Reiki while making candles and it became a beautiful process. Making them felt like a meditation in motion. Whenever I was feeling ungrounded, I turned to candle making with Reiki to get centered and more present in my life.
By the following spring I started casually talking about Reiki to customers at the craft market and discovered that more people had heard about it than I thought, and some had even experienced it. By the time I became a Reiki master the following year, the word Reiki finally made it onto my labels. Today, Reiki has become the most important part of my product because the candles are indeed an extension of my healing work just as my teacher envisioned all those years ago.
Last Sunday I presented my line of Chakra candles at a special event for healers and coaches. One of the attendees shared with me that she had been admiring the aroma of the candle I was burning all day. Even better though, before she got to my table to check it out, she had stopped to talk to someone and suddenly felt a wave of energy move through her abdomen that felt nourishing and warm. When she finally made it to my table, she couldn’t believe that the candle I was burning was for the 2nd Chakra which is located at the navel area of the body.
I smiled to myself and offered up a little prayer of gratitude for my teacher seeing the gift of healing in my creativity before I could.
A few clients have recently said to me that they feel their mission in life is to bring more beauty into the world through their creativity, and then in the next sentence they are down playing it as something superficial. I’ve worked with them on changing their relationship to this mission so they can see how their work is crucial to making the world a better place.
Creativity in all its genres is a radical form of healing. Creativity ignites new ideas and perspectives. It invites us to explore what inspires us and what triggers us, what we see and don’t see, what we like and don’t like in contrast to the world around us. Without creativity we couldn’t evolve as a civilization. It is healing for both the creator and those experiencing the creation, just as Reiki is healing for both the healer and the one receiving the healing.
Merce Cunningham, a choreographer whose work could at times take one’s imagination out of its comfort zone, once said that a dance piece is not complete without an audience to observe it.
No matter what is currently being created in your life, don’t stop the flow of its expression with self-judgment or be afraid to ever share it with others. Trust that its purpose will be revealed in right timing even if it’s not clear to you now. The process and the flow of energy around it is what is most important. Allow it to carry you into unknown territory because that is where deep healing and transformation take place.
This is where you discover your own unique magic, so enjoy the ride and where it takes you.
As my personal Reiki practice developed in the months that followed, I did find myself using Reiki while making candles and it became a beautiful process. Making them felt like a meditation in motion. Whenever I was feeling ungrounded, I turned to candle making with Reiki to get centered and more present in my life.
By the following spring I started casually talking about Reiki to customers at the craft market and discovered that more people had heard about it than I thought, and some had even experienced it. By the time I became a Reiki master the following year, the word Reiki finally made it onto my labels. Today, Reiki has become the most important part of my product because the candles are indeed an extension of my healing work just as my teacher envisioned all those years ago.
Last Sunday I presented my line of Chakra candles at a special event for healers and coaches. One of the attendees shared with me that she had been admiring the aroma of the candle I was burning all day. Even better though, before she got to my table to check it out, she had stopped to talk to someone and suddenly felt a wave of energy move through her abdomen that felt nourishing and warm. When she finally made it to my table, she couldn’t believe that the candle I was burning was for the 2nd Chakra which is located at the navel area of the body.
I smiled to myself and offered up a little prayer of gratitude for my teacher seeing the gift of healing in my creativity before I could.
A few clients have recently said to me that they feel their mission in life is to bring more beauty into the world through their creativity, and then in the next sentence they are down playing it as something superficial. I’ve worked with them on changing their relationship to this mission so they can see how their work is crucial to making the world a better place.
Creativity in all its genres is a radical form of healing. Creativity ignites new ideas and perspectives. It invites us to explore what inspires us and what triggers us, what we see and don’t see, what we like and don’t like in contrast to the world around us. Without creativity we couldn’t evolve as a civilization. It is healing for both the creator and those experiencing the creation, just as Reiki is healing for both the healer and the one receiving the healing.
Merce Cunningham, a choreographer whose work could at times take one’s imagination out of its comfort zone, once said that a dance piece is not complete without an audience to observe it.
No matter what is currently being created in your life, don’t stop the flow of its expression with self-judgment or be afraid to ever share it with others. Trust that its purpose will be revealed in right timing even if it’s not clear to you now. The process and the flow of energy around it is what is most important. Allow it to carry you into unknown territory because that is where deep healing and transformation take place.
This is where you discover your own unique magic, so enjoy the ride and where it takes you.
