When I was seven, I stole a book from the Juanita Elementary Library. When I checked it out, I didn’t know it would stay with me for half a century. For years, I hid it under my bed, and whenever I moved, I secretly pushed it into a box, hoping no one would see the library stamp on the back cover. But I loved that book, I was glad I had it, and this dissonance of fear and love stayed with me, playing out in many secret fearful ways in my life.
I hold that book in my hands now, with kindness for that little girl. No more shame, blame, or need for lies. I know she did what was comforting in that moment, and I can release the constricting energy around that book, and fully appreciate the folk tale truths inside. No longer a secret, now sacred.
I think this issue of sacred and secret shows up, not only in Reiki and energetic healing traditions, but in every traditional, cultural or religious structure. I believe that when a tradition arises within a group of people, in a particular geography, within a cultural and ancestral setting— there is an energetic resonance for those people in that particular setting. Which is why I think every religious structure honors the ancestral path; the lineage of that particular tradition. The people who practice those rituals and beliefs, energetically harmonize with each other, creating health and well-being, in the whole community.
When an energetically magnetic individual — guru, shaman, priest — with all good intention of sharing, and healing with love, and compassion — offer a way to take that practice out of its traditional setting and bring it to the larger global community, it’s not a bad thing, but there is an energetic affect on those that drop in to that lineage who don’t come to the practices and rituals culturally, historically, and/or geographically.
The result is energetic disharmony. And that dissonance has a result in the human structure — it is fear, when we feel fear, we need to create value outside of ourselves, to justify, to explain, to help us settle that fear. The fear expresses itself in the brain as:
- What I have obtained is special,
- I was gifted this practice, spiritual tool or symbol,
- I have special permission
- I was granted lineage or acceptance into a tribal or cultural belief
- I performed some sort of energetic exchange; I spent seven years in Tibet, or a month on a mountain.
- I paid $2000 for this training, attunement, symbols.
This exchange is what helps to calm the fear, which is simply the very basic fear of not belonging.
Whatever exchange an individual performs must resonate and resolve the innate dissonance of fear. So there is no competition, no need to say my exchange is better or more valuable than yours; if we feel that this competitive anxiety arises — then our fear is not resolved, and we must find a way to bring harmony to our own energetic systems.
Ultimately, we cannot control, manage, or force anyone or anything. We are absolutely servants to the law of the Universe; that whatever force is exerted, there will be an opposite and equal force. So if I can tune in honestly to that energetic dissonance, which is fear that all humans feel at one point or another, and I hold it with kindness, with love, then the force I am exerting on my own energetic system is the cosmic Big Love.
Then, I feel no need to compete, to protect, keep secrets, justify, explain, get irritated at what anyone else is doing. I know that my value is simply in my act of being and whatever practice I choose — I will use authentically to bring more energetic harmony to myself, first, then to others, and to the planet. If I do this, over and over and over, I can rest in a state of infinite honor, gratitude, and humility.
So, I send a prayer of kindness, of healing energy, in whatever form, symbol or structure resonates with my own healing, to that little afraid seven year-old me, clutching a book of fairytales and hiding it under the bed. I feel the rays of loving energy enfold us, and together, we rise, in loving harmony.
Article by Terra Lea Dennis
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Terra Lea is a yoga/movement teacher, meditation leader, and energy healer. Since 2010, she’s distilled the ‘ethereal’ into everyday life with practical tools for vitality and harmony. She has Reiki Level II certification, Eden Energy Medicine Level 2 certification, and Yoga 500RYT. She teaches in person in the Pacific Northwest, online, and offers healing work. Clients appreciate her popular online content, including the video series Five Mindful Minutes on YouTube, Patreon, and Instagram. Since 2020, she’s featured several times as an editor’s pick on Elephant Journal.
Terra Lea offers clients a joyful embodied healing practice, creatively tailored for each individual. She gratefully offers free content to all, and welcomes all to her online community. Find more on her website: https://tlyogatogo.org
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