My lungs and I spent many years battling: I had asthma as a child and smoked in my 20s. When I practiced yoga, I was the person in the room who teachers addressed when they said, "Remember to breathe!"
When I started practicing Reiki, this changed. First, during my meditation practice—I had to work with my breath to build qi, which then translated into my sessions. Being aware of my breath really transformed my practice. How? 

1) Being one with my breath keeps me centered. No more, "Is this the right position? Is the person feeling it? What does that sensation in my left hand means? Is this a weird place to put my hand?" When you are one with your breath, it's almost like white noise: you create a peaceful space in which doubts have a tougher time disrupting your session. 

2) Clearer boundaries. When you are aware of your breath, it's easier to maintain healthy boundaries between client and practitioner, reducing (and with practice) eliminating that feeling of being drained or exhausted after a session. (Keeping your eyes open is also key!)

3) No labeling. When practicing a Reiki session, you follow the sensations but are not supposed to label or judge them. When you are busy breathing with awareness, it's a lot easier to let go of that instinct to classify.

4) Your session becomes more intense (in a good way). In many spiritual practices, breathing builds life energy (prana/chi/qi). The same happens in Reiki, where the ki part stands for life force. Try taking a deep breath all the way into your diaphragm/hara and then exhale slowly through your mouth: feel what happens to your hands. Notice the difference? That's what I mean.

5) Breathing keeps the little Napoleon inside at bay. During my practice, especially at the beginning, I had this little Napoleon that would pop out (hey, I was born in Europe.) He would say stuff like, "Way to go, girl, you are good, look how warm your hands are!" The shame I felt after these thoughts was so intense it disrupted my whole practice. I tried fighting my inner Napoleon, but it only made him sneakier. Breathing, however, brought calm and acceptance. As soon as he starts talking, I breathe deeply and remain centered in the now and connected to the right kind of oneness. 

Nathalie Jaspar is the co-founder at Natky927 Wellness Collective, a group of professional Reiki practitioners supported by life coaches, clinical herbalists and yoga teachers in New York City and Miami.  

You slept 8 hours and woke up tired. Your digestion is playing tricks, your mood swings are taking you on a bumpy ride, and—no matter what you do—those dreadful black circles under your eyes won’t fade.
You may be suffering from early stages of what experts are calling Burnout Syndrome, a state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged stress.

 But worry not; here are 7 tips to help you get back to your radiant, bubbly self:

 1) Forget meditation, just breathe: Sit on a chair with a straight back and your feet on the floor. Inhale deeply to the count of 4, retain your breath to the count of 4, and exhale to the count of 8. Repeat this 5 times.  Breathing patterns can help reduce stress and provide a nice boost of oxygen to your brain (and skin!).

2) Try Reiki: A 60 minute session can help you relax deeply. It’s like a natural reboot. It makes most people feel renewed, recharged, balanced and hopeful. And the best part: you don’t need to do anything, just lay down on a lovely massage table.

3) Give a clinical herbalist a quick visit to fight digestive troubles that can be ruining your mood and your skin: Herbal supplements and tinctures help balance stress hormones and support your digestive system. Do make sure your herbalist has a clinical background, especially if you take medications, to avoid any kind of negative interaction.

4) Don’t try to outrun your problems on the treadmill: Running like a madwoman will keep you from chocking those pesky colleagues that are making your life miserable and keep you fit. But it will also drain you from valuable energy at a time when, let’s be honest, you don’t have a lot to go around. Stick to gentler exercise like stretching, walking or Hatha yoga.

 5) Pave the way to a good night sleep with a Restorative yoga class: Try it on Friday evening to relax and disconnect from the workweek and get a full night of repairing sleep.

6) Try something old, something borrowed, something new: Reconnect with yourself. What small things do you enjoy? Ask your close friends what makes them tick in a good way, and borrow their secret happy routines. They may work for you. And lastly, try something new. Step our of your comfort zone and do something opposite of what you usually go for. If you always use pink lipstick, try red. If you always go jogging, try a cycling class. It will feed your brain with new stimuli and keep it active.

7) And the most important one, GO EASY ON YOURSELF: You are suffering from burnout because of driving yourself too hard. Give yourself permission to slow down a little bit and smell the roses this spring.

Nathalie Jaspar is the co-founder at Natky927 Wellness Collective, a group of professional Reiki practitioners supported by life coaches, clinical herbalists and yoga teachers in New York City and Miami. 

Photo credit: YSL Touche Eclat advertising.

We have been trained to avoid #fear, to hide it under other feelings or shop it away, drink it away and even Rx-it away. The thing with fear is that the more we hide from it, the bigger it grows. This week try to make friends with your fears. Let them come up, don't fight them, just observe them. It's amazing how quickly they subside, like a wave (ok, sort of a scary one), letting you ebb into #calmness and #acceptance. If you have a #Reiki practice, try meditating on the first symbol, and notice the small changes: the grounding, the acceptance... and let us know how it goes.

How do you choose a #Reiki practitioner among dozens that are offering their services. Here are 5 questions that can help you make a decision.

1) How can Reiki help me?
Beware of miracle claims or sentences involving power. Although Reiki promotes relaxation and balance and can provide you with many benefits, it won’t fix your life in one or two sessions. The answer will also give you a peek of the practitioner’s personality and view on wellness.

 2) Do you practice Reiki on yourself every day?
It may seem like an odd question to ask, but #Reiki practice is based on the principle that a practioner has to take care of himself first in order to take care of others… Think of it like the oxygen mask policy on airplanes. 

3) Do you practice Reiki full time? For how long?
Most Reiki sessions are relaxing and lovely, but practitioners who have practiced longer do have more experience, like when it comes to treat people who have difficulty moving or positioning themselves on the massage table, or on how to handle emotional releases. Additionaly, hours of experience are more important than the master title, which implies rather the capacity to teach others than to a higher quality of sessions.

4) What’s your “Touch” policy?
Some practitioners let their hands hover, others prefer to touch or are open to adjust their touch according to your sensitivities. Find out what you can expect from their treatments and how to communicate during the session if the touch is in anyway uncomfortable.

5) Do you offer packages or multiple session discount?
Most practitioners are open to negotiation if you commit to multiple sessions or to a monthly/bi-weekly treatment schedule. Ask them. You have nothing to loose and everything to gain!

What to answer when people ask, ‘Did you get any messages?’ after a Reiki Session?

 When you take a Reiki class in one day like I did, you learn very fast—so fast that thousands of details fall through the cracks. Among them, what to do with the so-called “messages” given by spirit guides.

I’ve been practicing for close to five years and handling sessions has become easier. Handling my clients’ expectations when it comes to messages however became tougher and tougher.  

 While practicing at the JCC Reiki clinic with Reiki Master #PamelaMiles, her ‘No-Message Policy’ was easy to execute. Even when people asked we barely had time to answer, “It was our pleasure to offer you a Reiki session,” before they were ushered to the exit.

For a long time,  I tried to guide my clients' attention to what they felt, but I didn’t totally grasp the why, grasp it not only with my mind, but with guts and heart. And that probably affected my confidence when handling the matter.

It took a really awkward situation (a client literally kicked me out and refused to pay the session for lack of what she called “guidance”) to realize that I needed to understand why sharing these messages didn't feel right and communicate it clearly.

So, I did some digging.

According to Reiki masters and authors #FransStiene and #BronwenStiene, ‘hibiki’ or the sensation we feel during a "hands-on" healing session/meditation literally “means an echo. The reason why these sensations are called ‘hibiki’/echo is because they are not real—an echo is empty, like a reflection or an illusion.”

How then do we know that messages are real if ‘hibikis’ are not? Worse, what if messages are not only echoes, but also echoes that have been distorted further by our own experiences and emotions?

If, as Stiene explains, we are to experience Hibiki without labeling it, shouldn’t we do the same with messages? Experience them and then let them go, trusting the session to do its work?

Later, talking to Reiki Master #DeborahFlanagan, she mentioned that #Reiki practice was all about reconnecting with yourself. It seemed to me then that by giving messages, a practitioner may actually be getting in the way of his client’s best interest.

I gave it some thought. And what came to me was very simple.

When my clients ask for messages or guidance, they are—knowingly or not—shifting the responsibility of their own healing into my hands.  And that’s why it’s so important to gently shift it back into theirs—because, after all, they are the ones doing the work.

I’m not claiming this is a universal truth. But this works for me, for now. It doesn’t have to work for you. But I do believe that as we progress in our practice, it’s important to ask ourselves questions—even if they have been answered a hundred times—meditate on them, and come up with our own unique answer.

What’s your POV about messages*, would love to hear it.

* When I talk about messages in this post, I am not referring to the "there is a lot going on in your back" kind, but more to the "that person who hurt you recently? Not worth it" kind of messages.

Photo credit: http://purpleturtles.muzy.com/#lightbox_post_93097755

Next Thursday April 18: Join our R&R Yoga class: Reiki touch and Restorative Yoga for maximum relaxation, maximum renewal. Sign up early as they are only 5 slots!

A great article from the #NYTimes on how employees are all too often expected to work long hours and then be on call nights and weekends. The result? Employees running in empty, lower productivity and increasing rates of #Burnout syndrome. If you feel identified, we invite you to try a #Reiki treatment to help bring back balance and fight the symptoms (believe us, we know, we have been there!)

When I tell people I am a multicultural mutt, 99% say “how exciting!”

And it’s true. Being born in Europe, growing up in Latin America, and then spending over a decade and a half in New York has enriched my life in unbelievable ways. For that that I am forever grateful.

But every pro has a con, and in this case, not a small one: I never ever felt like I truly fitted—too cold for Latin Americans, too warm for Europeans and too passionate for Americans. Even in a city like New York, I’ve met with people who—when they hear my thick Spanish accent—start speaking slower or smile condescendingly.

Not fitting didn’t affect my self-esteem, but it did affect my sense of self-worth. I spent most of my life trying to prove I belonged, starved for approval. It drove me to become a type A personality (under the cover of a sweet, goofy persona) and a perfectionist. I never cried and was proud of my so-called-strength.

For years I worked at different jobs in journalism and advertising, raising fast through the ranks, giving the famous %110 percent and more. Deep inside, I was always fretting about what I said, about what people were thinking of me, or even about the distant future. My needs, feelings, and body’s health were no concern of mine.

I was so disconnected from myself, that one day I heard a Mozart aria and it hit me: an Austrian dude dead for over 200 years had more inkling about a woman’s heart than I did. I ignored this insight—I actually became a type-A opera freak. But there was something else I could not ignore so easily: breakdowns.

They started very mildly in my early 20s, but grew in strength in my early 30s as my body stopped keeping up with my drive. Panic attacks became more frequent and would paralyze me for weeks at a time. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was suffering from what is now called Burn Out syndrome, or exhaustion of the adrenal glands due to prolonged stress exposure.

I started to look for a way out. Anti-depressives were not an option—as a writer I could not function while medicated. Yoga helped… a little. I tried meditation but could not concentrate. And then I heard of Reiki. I don’t remember where or how. I just remember googling “Reiki classes” and choosing the nearest available. The class was a total disappointment. I had unrealistic, almost magical expectations and got a teacher who was boring, uninspired and probably not prepared to teach a lifelong spiritual practice.

But Reiki kept showing in my life, so I decided to give it another go. I got more enthusiastic teachers, great mentorship and practiced at Reiki clinics. But most of all, I committed to the practice with respect and humbleness. It was a totally different experience.

Reiki practice has helped me find balance, harmony, patience, and—above all—acceptance: of who I am. Of my good side and not so good side.

Is my life perfect? No. But it’s actually pretty good and I am grateful for it.

Am I enlightened yet? Not really. I am still very much myself. Actually more so than before: more loving, more hopeful, more empowered. It feels great.

And yes, I still say goofy jokes.

My clients don’t seem to mind. They seem to share my appreciation for the peacefulness and wellbeing that comes from Reiki practice.

 Do you have a similar story? I would love to hear about it. Send it to me here.

I was discussing with a group of colleagues from other healing modalities and we agreed on coming up with one-liners for each other’s specialty in terms to understand what we did and be able to communicate it to other in case we wanted to do a referral. It was a great exercise, because it made me focus on the benefit I love the most about Reiki practice: BRINGING BACK #HOPE. So if you are feeling exhausted, powerless and totally hopeless right now, get yourself to a #Reikiclinic, call a #reikipractitioner or even consider taking a Level 1 class and start connecting back to the feeling of hope (OK, OK…it doesn’t have to be a #Reiki treatment, but do something: go dancing, laugh, hug someone you love, and get your feed of joy and lust for life!)

The other day I had an interesting session. I was practicing on a new client.  We focused on her back, which was very tense, and she could feel the warmth of the hands and how the tension was literally melting. Yet when the session was over, she looked at me with questioning eyes, and said: “I need to ask you something: ‘What am I supposed to feel during and after a #Reiki session?'” I told her people experiment different things, bust mostly a feeling of relaxation and wellbeing, probably some warmth and tingling as well. She looked at me again and asked: “So I am not supposed to have this big spiritual awakening or vision?” When I said, ‘Not really’, she looked relieved. She actually enjoyed the treatment and was feeling quite good, but because of what people had told her, she had other expectations.
Walking back to my house I started thinking on how the expectations people set for Reiki treatments and meditation sometimes hinder these modalities. How people may give them up after a few tries because they didn’t feel a “life-changing energetic shift” or a “mystical experience.”
It’s so easy to forget that contentment and peacefulness, as well as relaxation and balance, are gifts both rare and precious, even if they come without fanfare.
When you are centered you can think straight, and make decisions that will alter your life in a positive way. When you are content, you appreciate what you have and feel grateful. Your life makes sense. You get distance from craziness and become less reactive.
As a Reiki practitioner, working from a place of gratefulness has worked way better for me than working from great expectations.
So, next time you try a #Reiki session, be gentle with yourself: allow your body and mind to relax, let go of the need to meddle or control, offer it with simplicity and humility, and notice if your practice feels different.

Once during a shoot, I was in the dressing-room of a well-known model. We talked about meditation, thankfulness and life’s mission. A refreshing topic amidst the beauty world. When we ended the chat, she urged all of us to be careful with our thoughts as “in these times, everything manifests quickly!”

Later I got some news that could hinder my plans for a long-planned, much desired sabbatical, which is supposed to start in a month. It was just a scare, a problem that may go away easily, bad news that may never happen, yet I got a huge panic attack. And then… I went into a guilt trip. It felt that I should spend more time meditating on the wanted outcome instead. I also felt like I was unable to control my fears (so they were manifesting and derailing my dreams) and that made me feel totally worthless.

I was on the verge of drawing a list of what I wanted and sit for hours to visualize it with a feeling of stubborn purpose… and I stopped. One thing is manifesting, the other is trying to control destiny. So instead I extended my #Reiki self-practice and meditation time for the day. So I would calm down. So I would be able to let go of my fears. So energy would flow where I really needed it. So I would learn to accept with equanimity challenges. After all, without them, there is no growth.

Sometimes we talk about something we want to do for so long, we get it out of our system and never do it.
But others, we go for it overzealously, with a full checklist of steps and goals that leaves us exhausted. We work at it 24/7. We push the door so hard in order to open it, and yet it remains locked.
What we seldom do is create the space in our lives for the thing we want to come, to happen.
An empty space in our calendar and our soul.
A space of quiet, of emptiness and calm.
A void that by law of nature has to be filled.
Today in your #Reiki practice connect with this space, feel it. Acknowledge it. Appreciate it. Feel content to leave it as it is. Do not try to fill it or control it. For it is the space where your hopes and dreams can finally start to grow.

Image: http://jamesturrell.com/

“Only those who do not move, do not die… But are they not already dead?"
—French Racing Driver Jean Behra.

Every second counts.
The only thing you need to die, it is being alive.
The only thing that it is true it is change.
Those were my “mantras” for years. I still take them with me wherever I go.

 I grew-up with two obsessions. The first one was racing cars.
The second one, everything related to vibration and energy.  

 Formula 1, IndyCar, Rally, NASCAR… What-Ever-Racing-Fast….The world of high-speed sports always seduced me. And although I studied Psychology–guided by my interest in the mind and in human behavior—and I explored the spiritual world via yoga, meditation and world religions, I actually ended up as a journalist and PR agent specializing in motorsports.

 You see, language and, most specifically the power of words, bewitched me. Adding the PR element allowed me to indulge in another passion: connecting with people and connecting them among each other. It allowed me to become a free agent, setting up my own shop and enjoying the rare gift of freedom and independence.

Immersed in motorsports, I worked with people living on the edge every day, and with corporations seeking "that" ultimate advantage that differentiates and puts them in front of the competition. I was—albeit in a structured, corporate world—an advisor, a consultant and a coach.

 Sounds glamorous and exciting, right?

 It was. But every story has two sides. When many of your friends and coworkers race above 150 miles per hour, looking to gain hundredths of a second per lap, death is a constant companion. You know it’s there. You can feel it. You flirt with it and it’s what keeps you on the edge. Alive. With all your senses awakened. It ends up being like a good friend who reminds you that the time “to be” and “to do” is NOW. Today. We do not have “always”. We may not even have tomorrow.

 So, one day I walked off the racing tracks.

 I decided to spend time with a beloved friend who was dying. The nights by his side were populated with silences, many questions and a few but meaningful answers. After he passed away, I decided to do a training called "Dying Consciously," reconnecting my earlier spiritual quest. And just like that, a new door opened towards a new roadmap: Life Coaching.

After years in the racetracks, I knew every second counted. So I shortly became a Certified Coach (International Coaching Community) & Leadership Life Coach (by Sura Center.) I now have the blessing to work with people from all over the world, helping them to manifest their passions, mission and purpose.  I support their transitions while expanding through their consciousness and awareness. 

I thank you for your time reading my story.
Welcome to this space and community!

 Niky P.