reiki

Reiki for Joie: Spiritual Energy to Heal and Vitalize

Posted by Barbara Techel

joie with quote 1200In my last newseltter I wrote about the animal reading I had done for Joie with Dawn of Animal Voices.

I contacted Dawn because I was concerned and frustrated with what seems to be reactive barking with Joie, especially out in public when we visited our local farmer’s market earlier this month.  Joie is not aggressive with other dogs, but her reactive barking, to me, feels out of control. I say this because I couldn’t seem to distract her or calm her down when she saw another dog, of which there were plenty at the market. We both got home and were exhausted. I wanted to cry.

Part of my reason in having her experience the market was to see if she was ready to be there with me a few Saturday’s this summer that I’ve signed up to be there with a booth to sell my books.

Having evolved spiritually myself (and still doing so) and understanding that issues in life can’t be dealt with if the core of a challenge is not first dealt with, I feel the same way in regards to animals. Contacting Dawn to give me some insight for Joie felt like the right thing to do.

From the reading, Dawn felt Joie has some trauma from when she was younger along with some emotional issues that seem to be lodged. We aren’t sure if it has to do with her paralysis or not. The plane ride to come live with us when she flew with the rescue volunteer was traumatic for her. She is also still adjusting to us and she is not quite sure how to be a dog.  She feels nervous at times and needs to feel more grounded. My heart ached hearing all of what she was sharing.

Dawn suggested more silly play with Joie to establish a connection. She also suggested meditation, and perhaps inviting Frankie to join us in the meditation. Joie shared that she knows I’m still holding onto Frankie. When Dawn said this I couldn’t speak because hot tears came to my eyes and my throat tightened. While I’ve made great progress moving through the loss of her, a part of me holds on to what was. Joie senses that.

As the conversation came to an end, along with giving thought to Dawns suggestions, I  thought of my Reiki training which I became attuned to a little over a year ago.  I haven’t practiced it since then. Part of the reason being my own lack of self-confidence in believing I could do this for animals.

As I moved through feeling sad and realizing Joie won’t be joining me at the farmer’s market, of which Frankie was so pivotal, I began to open up to realizing Joie is going to teach me new things. My Reiki book, Reiki for Dogs by Kathleen Prasad called out to me once again, so I refreshed myself on how to practice.

It is suggested to start with four consecutive days of 30-60 minutes.  Our first session was yesterday and I just finished up another one with her today. Yesterday she laid at my feet the whole time and at one point I felt compelled to gently and lightly place one hand on her upper back and one on her lower back.

Today she laid off to the side, but like yesterday, took many sighs and closed her eyes often. About half way through the session I asked Frankie if she wanted to join us. Nothing at first. Then I saw in my mind a warm, white light move down Joie’s body, then back up again and then Frankie was there, nose to nose with Joie as if she was greeting her. I felt hot tears come to my eyes.

Frankie then lay down beside Joie and I felt myself wanting to cry. Not out of sadness, but out of joy for the deep compassion and love Frankie has for others. I could feel her comforting Joie in her own way, letting her know all will be okay. I was there, with both of them, smiling, and felt my heart overflowing with love.

Like yesterday and today, at the beginning of our Reiki session, and at the end, Joie and I looked into each other’s eyes and held our gaze for a good minute. It makes my heart tingle once again thinking about it.

Tomorrow is another day of Reiki and then again Friday, so I’ll keep you posted on what continues to transpire. But as I said in my newsletter, tuning into our dogs is also tuning into ourselves. It is reaffirming for me that our pets really do mirror us.

REIKI:  Meaning “spiritual energy,” Reiki is used worldwide to support physical, emotional and spiritual healing, and is the perfect complement to traditional veterinary medicine.

Letting Go of Expectations

Posted by Barbara Techel

Kylie

This past weekend I completed my Reiki II training. It was fascinating and intriguing. For those of you unfamiliar with Reiki it is a Japanese method of energy healing. Rei means universal (or higher source, God, etc) while ki means energy. I took my Reiki II training from Ann Noyce who studied with Kathleen Praasad, founder of Animal Reiki Source.

Kathleen’s book Animal Reiki has many wonderful stories of how Reiki has helped animals with anxiety, healing from injuries, and transitioning.  Ann shared the beautiful story of how Reiki helped her when her dog, Amanda was dying. Though a challenge at first, Ann was able to focus on being there for Amanda recalling all the joy she had brought to her life, instead of getting lost in the sorrow of the impending death of Amanda.

One thing I found so intriguing about Reiki is letting go of expectations. Reiki knows where to send the energy to a person or animal and goes where it is needed most. As someone who just trained in Reiki, I can tell you letting go of expectations is something I’m going to have to work hard on. For those of us who love animals so deeply, we want the very best for them and will do all we can to make sure they are happy.  Reiki teaches us to let go of what we think the animal may need and trust that Reiki will do the healing.  I especially found this difficult when thinking about Reiki for my dog, Kylie.

We learned how to do remote Reiki healing and I chose Kylie to do this with. I had a picture of her with me as we began the remote healing. Letting go of what my expectations were that I thought she needs healing on was hard. For a long time I’ve felt guilt on and off for the abrupt change in our relationship when I had to care for Frankie. I’ve felt like the bond we had been developing broke then. Little by little I’ve been trying to rebuild that with her.  But I still see signs that I think contribute to us not being as close as Frankie and I are. I’ve thought a lot about his since the weekend and I keep going back to accepting what is with Kylie and letting go of what I think should come of the Reiki healing with her.

When I took my Reiki I training, I was told that Reiki is truly all about your own healing. I couldn’t grasp that. Now I get it. It is about my own healing. How often in life do we have all these expectations of ourselves, or family, or friends, or our pets?  I’ve been better at letting go of expectations of others and learned some great lessons of that this past holiday season – but now realize I must also apply that to Kylie.

When I think about the pets in our lives, I feel concerned for them and the expectations we have put on them. They often endure a heavy stress load, which is really our very own stress that we put on them. I don’t think most of mean to do this – but Reiki, as well as what I’ve learned the past few years from my own pets, has taught me to be more aware – and when we are aware we can give them a better life – and let go of expecations – which in turn deepens our bond with them.

Helping Our Animal Friends with Reiki Healing

Posted by Barbara Techel

Photo: Flickr Creative Commons

This weekend I’ll be taking my Reiki II training. My Reiki I training I took with Reiki Master, Jay and enjoyed it very much. For Reiki II I will be training with a woman who trained with the founder of Animal Reiki, Kathleen Praasad. While Reiki is Reiki whether you practice on humans or pets, I’m looking forward to more hands on experience with animals— so I chose to train with someone who has had those particular experiences. At this point I’m not sure where this is going to lead me, but I’m staying open to the possibilities!

For our training on Sunday we’ve been asked to bring a photo of a human or pet we’d like to practice sending remote Reiki to. That was such a toss up for me whether to choose Kylie or Frankie – but I decided for this training to practice on Kylie. She is still in recovery mode from her recent knee surgery, so I’d love to help her with that with some Reiki healing.

To learn more about Reiki I invite you to check out this wonderful article from a fellow writing friend of mine, author Ingrid King who is also a Reiki practitioner for pets and humans.  I especially love her success story about Reiki she did for a cat.