How Reiki Found Me
Eden here, founder of Roaring Fork Reiki. I figured it was time to dive into something a little more personal than just Reiki, so here I am. I wanted to share today about how Reiki found me.
I graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with Bachelor’s in Science coupled with no clue what I actually wanted to do with it. I knew many things I could do with it, but nothing sounded actually enjoyable anymore. So just like any other lucky-enough dumb-enough millennial would do, I took a road trip.
My best friend and I lived in my Subaru Outback for 4 months, traveling all over the United States. Hiking all the National Parks we could find, soaking in the sun, meeting new people, and successfully avoiding the question of “what are you doing after college?”. During this journey, we met a friend who mentioned Telluride, CO and its unmatched beauty. I had never heard of it but figured we had all the time and space in the world to make our way down there, and so we did.
One day in, and we decided we just had to move there. The stunning mountains, the fresh yet thin air, the kids playing outside and the kind people walking down the 5 blocks of Main Street had us hooked. Since I studied Environmental Science, I made an excuse to say this was a perfect place to finally start thinking about a career again.
Well as it was, Telluride has 1,500 people, and even fewer options for professional work. So I embraced the “ski bum” life by working at a restaurant, learning how to ski in the winters and mountain bike in the summers, and just generally having a really delightful time.
But often I’d find my Type-A self would creep in, and one day I decided to pacify her with a promise: To only stay in Telluride so long as I kept learning new things. This meant I now have my Group Exercise Instructor Certification, 200 hour Yoga Teacher Certification, and Integrative Health Coach Certification. Right as I finished my health coaching cert that honestly was its own gamechanger (IIN is an incredible school!!), I opened up the Telluride local newspaper to find a one-sentence ad for a Reiki level 1 & 2 class 45 minutes away.
My science brain that had once worked in an EPA lab, studied hard for a Chemistry minor and whose go-to fun fact is about the efficiency of solar panels just needed to know what Reiki was. I didn’t understand it, I’d never experienced “energywork”, and I was going to pay someone to tell me all about it to demystify it.
Well, long story short, that did not happen. Like any great mentor, my Master Julie Dew created many more questions than answers. Turns out this wonderful soul was just not like me. She stayed in the metaphysical realms, almost seeming to float away at times, whereas I needed a piece of reality to ground me into this energywork exploration. I left this training a little confused yet still curious: I could feel there was just something more that my brain needed to piece together this Reiki puzzle.
So for months I dove into different books, podcasts, articles and mentors that all taught me about the science of energy. The quantum physics, the brain chemistry, the details of the nervous system and the brain, all about trauma, and so much more. I needed this grounded lens to show my science side that energywork is real. It is all around us and is so apparent so long as we have the tools to understand and discern it amongst all of the noise.
But there was an important element I could not receive from science and understanding, and that was the piece of surrender. At the end of the day, we will not know exactly how the world works. At least not in this lifetime, or the next. So no matter how much you learn about energy, there will always be a CRUCIAL point of surrender in this journey. Surrendering to your gifts, to deep and true trust, to your own innate knowing that goes beyond understanding, and to the flow of the world around us.
Without this surrender, there will always still be a veil between you and the present moment. Between you and your intuition. Between you and your Self. This is where the real magic is, and I just needed to first ground in Science to be able to reach the point where Surrender felt informed and necessary, not lazy and naïve.
And once I pieced all of this together, the universe told me in many different ways (via a download during a session and a real live person, namely) that I needed to teach this way of being. That more people crave this grounded approach. That the “woowoo” of energywork is beautiful and important, but can also feel scary and run people off who are still meant for this work.
Enter: Roaring Fork Reiki’s Level 1 & 2 Class.
This was a completely virtual experience for the last 2 years, with some of the most profound relationships and revelatory moments of not only my students’ lives but my own as well. It is my passion, and I will never stop sharing this beautiful modality with the world.
If you find yourself curious, reach out. There’s nothing more I love than connecting over the phone with someone who is right where I’ve been: curious yet skeptical. Both are important to be in life, and I invite it in with open arms and full transparency because I wish I had had the same.
If you find yourself ready, I’m here. You can subscribe to my mailing list to stay in the loop about future trainings, or apply for the next cohort on the Trainings Tab here.
Wishing you love, light and bouts of laughter,
Eden of RFR