Reiki from the Farm™
Reiki from the Farm™
Heart Healing and Self-Love with Reiki (from the share)
Let’s be Valentines!
This Valentine’s season, let’s focus inward and explore the power of self-love and heart healing with Reiki.
We will dive into the energy of the heart chakra, looking at how Reiki can nurture our self-love and help us radiate love to others.
Learn how to open and balance your heart chakra, get rid of heart walls, practice self-care, and share love with the world around you.
The episode concludes with a guided meditation to awaken the energy of the heart and expand love both within and beyond.
Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day with a partner, loved ones, or yourself, this episode is the perfect way to connect with the energy of love.
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Pam Allen-LeBlanc is a scientist, businesswoman, and Licensed Reiki Master Teacher (LRMT) with the International Center for Reiki Training.
Get in Touch with Pam:
pam@reikifromthefarm.com
www.reikifromthefarm.com
Newsletter & invitation to Reiki Shares: http://eepurl.com/dFm-19
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Hi and welcome to the Reiki from the Farm podcast brought to you by me, Pam Allen LeBlanc from Hidden Brook Farm. I am a scientist, a businesswoman, and a licensed Reiki master teacher with the International Center for Reiki Training. Each week in this podcast you'll be entertained as you learn about a wide variety of relevant Reiki topics, helping you become a more knowledgeable and effective Reiki practitioner. We caution you, though, this podcast may also dramatically improve your life, and we are so happy that you're here. On this Month's Reiki share and this week's podcast, we're talking about the heart chakra and all the things that can go right and all the things that can go wrong and how to really balance and strengthen and be in a place of. self love. And I just felt that with February being Valentine's Day, it was a really good time to get into that topic. So welcome everyone. I'm so glad that you're here, both those that are here with me in real time and those that are listening afterward. I just wanted to start by letting everybody know some of the classes that we have coming up. We have an Animal Reiki Masterclass, February 10th to 13th. That's evenings through the week. Just trying to make it a little bit easier for people to fit into their schedules for evenings. We also have, this is the time of year for the animal communication classes. And I don't think I'm going to be able to fit them in again until next November. So if you are thinking of it, Come and join us. We've got Animal Communication for Reiki Practitioners Level 1 and 2, the Introductory Workshop, February 15th and 16th, which is online in an Eastern time zone, and that's a weekend. We've got Animal Communication for Reiki Practitioners Level 3, which is the Professional Practitioner Workshop, takes you into becoming an animal, a professional animal communicator. And that. is February 17th, which is a long weekend, both in the U. S. and Canada. So it's a Monday. And then through the evenings that week February 18th to 20th is three evenings of my very first, and so far it's the only one that I have scheduled, Animal Communication Master Teacher. Believe that course is finally ready for that level of energy to pass on so that More of you can get out there and start teaching this system. People tell me that this animal communication class is very, is much more spiritual than others that they have attended and that it's so effective and so I'd really love to get more and more people. teaching it. And also in big news is just this week Tracy Sullivan and I, many of you know that we've been working on a new healthcare Reiki course. And this is a course that will help us bridge the gap in formal healthcare settings. And we used healthcare rather than medical because we're very aware that. It is complementary. It's a complementary therapy for so many things that it can be complementary for holistic health care, for hospice, for, surgeries in emergency rooms, and oncology wards, and pretty much anywhere people are unhealthy and are looking to come back to a place of health. It's going to be a wonderful course with protocols and Information, new symbols new experiences and we've been just listening around it for since just a little over a year now. I guess it was a year ago, October that we started and we meet every week and listen in the energy. And I'm excited to say that we're ready to teach the pilot class April 30th and May 1st in person in New York at Silver Bay, New York, just ahead of the Northeast Reiki retreat. And then online, May 17th and 18th, we are going to limit the size of those classes to 12 just until we get our feet under us and see what the flow is. And we both will be teaching the courses. Although I may have to be online for the New York course. And anyway we're pretty excited to get that started. So before we begin, let's just go ahead and activate Reiki. Today, we're looking at heart healing and self love with Reiki. So go ahead and place your hands over your heart, and just activate your Reiki energy and move it into your heart chakra. So many of us experience heartache, heartbreak, heartburn, so many different conditions. Around the heart through the course of our lives and all healing comes through the heart. In fact, it's said that there's really only two emotions, love and fear. And so in order to be in a place of love in our lives, the majority of the time, it's important to have a healthy heart chakra. And so today we. nurture our own dear hearts and we take a moment to reflect on the fact that our hearts beat in the same rhythm as the heartbeat of the earth and creation. Our hearts beat in the same rhythm as the animals. and of each other. And so instead of noticing what might be different about us, let's focus for a moment on that unification consciousness that all of our hearts beat together at the same time, the heartbeat of the earth, we are truly one. And so it is. Thank you. Guys, it really made sense to focus on the heart this month, this week, because Valentine's Day is just around the corner. And on February 14th, it's recognized over many cultures as a day dedicated to love and affection. And if, as they say, duality means that there's only two emotions, love and fear, then Doesn't it make sense to do everything possible to cultivate love and cultivate the heart? Because that's truly where the enjoyment is in living life. History and significance, though, of this day are both rooted in ancient times and also have evolved. So let's just have a look at Valentine's Day. Was, is and has been. We believe that it probably came from ancient origins from the Roman festival of Lupercalia, which is an ancient Roman festival celebrated from February 13th to 15th. It was a pagan fertility festival dedicated to Phonus. the Roman god of agriculture, and to Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome. Of course, as was normal in those times, there were, there was feasting and ceremonies and sacri animal sacrifices to purify the community and encourage fertility. But du during this time, du during in Lupercalia, men and women were actually paired to through a lottery system. And some historians believe this may be the precursor to modern romantic celebrations. But then Valentine's Day takes a twist with Christian roots and the St. Valentine's legend. And this is around the martyrdom of St. Valentine. And the name Valentine is, comes from One, or more likely more than one, Christian martyrs who were named Valentine or Valentinus. And one popular legend is about a priest named Valentine who defied Emperor Claudius II in the 3rd century. Claudius had banned marriages to ensure that soldiers remained committed to their duty, but Valentine secretly performed marriages. Eventually, that led to his imprisonment and execution on February 14th. We don't know if that's all true, but that's how the legend has lined up. Another story talks about Valentine, that Valentine fell in love with the jailer's daughter and wrote her a letter signed, From Your Valentine. which then became a precursor to modern Valentine's Day cards. Also in medieval times, it was an association with love by the Middle Ages. It was associated with romantic love, especially in England and France. And in fact, February 14th was believed in those countries to be the beginnings of the birds mating season. So love and courtship. And Geoffrey Chaucer's poem Parliament of Fowls in 1382 is one of the first known works to link Valentine's Day with romantic love. He was writing about a day when every bird cometh there to choose his mate. Then in the Renaissance, in the 15th century, We started having Valentine's messages. Individuals began exchanging handwritten notes and poems to express their affection on Valentine's Day. And in the 18th century the tradition went further with the creation of printed cards, especially in England. And they often included like a romantic verse and symbols of love like Cupid and hearts. And, of course, in the 19th and 20th centuries, saw the commercialization of it, particularly with mass greeting cards, and Esther A. Howland is actually known as the mother of the American Valentine. popularizing the holiday in the U. S. with her elaborate handmade cards in the mid 19th century. Today it's celebrated with gifts, flowers, roses, chocolates, jewelry, dinners, and the heart, cupid, and the color red are. are symbols of our holiday. But around the globe it can be a bit different. In Japan, women give chocolates to men, with a reciprocal gift tradition, White Day on March 24th. In South Korea, Valentine's Day and White Day are celebrated, but there's also a Black Day on April 14th for singles. Which I think is brilliant. In India and China, the holiday has become popular with localized traditions blending with the global customs. And in Scandinavian countries, it's often connected with celebrating friendship and affection rather than only romantic love. So because this is a time of heart connection and the expression of love. I thought it was a great time to really focus. In on our heart chakra, the focus on love aligns with the energy of the heart chakra and spiritual traditions. So really great time to reflect on things like compassion and gratitude and relationships. So it's evolved from ancient fertility rites and Christian martyrdom to a global celebration of love. And so this is a really great opportunity for us to to explore this. So I wanted to spend a little bit of time just going into the qualities of the heart chakra and the energy things like love, compassion, forgiveness and balance. And I'm probably not going to say this right, but the heart chakra is also known as Anahata in Sanskrit. This is the fourth chakra in the body's energy system, located at the center of our chest. And this chakra governs love, compassion. Balance and connection. It's a bridge between our lower physical chakras and the upper spiritual chakras. The heart chakra then integrates our earthly experiences. with our spiritual aspirations. What are some of the key characteristics of the heart chakra? We know it's located in the center of the chest, in and around the heart. The element that it represents is air. which is lightness, openness, and freedom. The color is usually green, symbolizing growth, healing, and renewing. It also can be associated with pink for unconditional love, but I also believe that there are three heart chakras the thymus and ascending heart and a heart chakra. It's such an important chakra, such an important area. The mantra around the heart chakra is YAM. The vibrational sound for the heart chakra and the symbol is a beautiful lotus flower with 12 petals that encloses a downward pointing triangle intersected by an upward pointing triangle creating a six pointed star. Now many of you are familiar with that symbol because that is the shape of the world peace grids. Now physically the heart chakra. is associated with the heart, the lungs, the circulatory system, the shoulders, the arms. And the hands, it's the center of love and compassion. It's about radiating kindness and acceptance. And many of us don't have any trouble doing that for others. Where we sometimes get stuck is radiating that kindness and acceptance back onto ourselves. This chakra, chakra governs relationships, forgiveness, the ability to give and receive love. So it can be difficult to receive. This isn't balanced, a balanced heart chakra allows for deep emotional connections and a sense of harmony with the world. So how do you know if your heart chakra is balanced? You feel connected to others and you practice. Balanced empathy and compassion. You can forgive yourself and others easily. You experience unconditional love for yourself and those around you. And you maintain balance in relationships, giving and receiving love equally. You also probably feel very peaceful, calm, and emotionally stable. So that's great, but how do we know if our heart chakra is imbalanced? Interestingly, it could be underactive. or overactive. So let's look at that. An underactive heart chakra sometimes causes us to have difficulty opening up or trusting others. You may have feelings of loneliness, isolation, or fear of rejection. An underactive heart chakra also impacts us with an inability to forgive or let go of grudges holding onto resentments. It can also be associated with low self esteem, a lack of self love, and difficulty both giving and receiving love. We can also have an overactive heart chakra. And when that happens, we might be overly giving to the point of self sacrifice. We might become overly dependent in relationships. We may experience jealousy, possessiveness, or codependency. And we may struggle to maintain personal boundaries. Now, we can also experience physical symptoms of imbalance, and when that shows up, we might have like heart issues, circulatory issues, respiratory problems, things like asthma, bronchitis, long COVID, tightness, or pain in the chest. And we can also have shoulder, arm, or hand discomfort. If we have a heart chakra that's out of balance, what are some of the things we can do? We're going to go into a meditation, but there's other things as well that you can do on a fairly regular basis. The first thing I'm going to mention, of course, is Reiki for the Heart Chakra. Just placing your hands over your heart center during a self Reiki session. Something like what we did to begin tonight. You can also imagine or visualize a warm green light filling your chest and just dissolving any blockages. Sometimes, when I'm working on a client who has had a broken heart, It actually, the Reiki actually forms gold and it fills in the broken, the sort of the cracks and the fissures in the heart, much like that ancient Asian pottery method, which takes broken pottery and makes it more valuable by putting it together with gold. And so these are, you can also, if you have any issues like that, just imagine that as well. You can also think about that mantra, yam, while you're meditating. There's a neat app that I've downloaded from Jonathan Goldman, and it's just a chakra tuner. It's some short meditations that you can do with some background music as they chant. The mantra for each chakra and it was only a few dollars. So it's something that I really like doing my Reiki sessions with sometimes, whenever I'm guided. You can also imagine a beautiful lotus flower, maybe a green one blooming from your chest, radiating love and compassion, and all of these during your meditation would be helpful. You can include breathing exercises as well. To just connect with that air element and just breathe into the heart space. It's especially effective if you do this when you're doing your self Reiki and that brings lightness and calm into the heart chakra. There's even some other breathing techniques that you could look up like alternate nostril breathing, Nadi Shodhana for balance, things like this. But I just like to imagine breathing. into that heart whenever it feels heavy as I do Reiki and listen to my chakra app and it just really tends to bring some lightness. You can also add some affirmations. Try some of these on for size and see what you think of them. I'm open to giving and receiving love. I easily forgive myself and others. Love is my truth, my guiding truth. There can also be yoga poses that open the chest and shoulders like camel pose, Cobra pose, bridge pose. These can open the heart chakra and you can also spend time in nature, especially in green spaces that helps you connect to the heart chakra. And finally, we can use crystals and essential oils, green and pink crystals like rose quartz for unconditional love, green adventurine for emotional balance, jade for harmony and nurturing energy. If you place them near your heart during a meditation or wear them as jewelry, They're going to work with you always, and you could even imbue those crystals with Reiki energy so that in addition to the beautiful balancing energy of the crystals, You can receive Reiki from the crystal at the same time and some of the essential oils. I've actually been guided to create a few essential oils, live in love to really allow you to experience that love on a regular basis and joy and inner peace. There's a number that I've been guided to create that just help us connect with that. the beautiful energy of the heart emotions and just rise above the frequency of the base, the lower, the fear based emotions and the chaos that sometimes feels like. So some of the oils that can be helpful for the heart are rose oil, geranium, jasmine, lavender. These all support emotional balance and they can open the heart chakra. I also I also did, I think I did create one called open, open my heart for somebody who asked for some help with that. And so when we think about the heart chakra, in addition to the many other things that it does I'm going to just focus on a few of the areas of our lives now that it touches on. The first one is obvious, the heart chakra in relationships. It's plays a central role in our healthy, meaningful relationships. It encourages things like self love because Self love is the foundation. For loving others. It encourages balanced empathy, which is that ability to observe or see and then understand another person's perspective, which is very different from sympathy. Sympathy is putting your spin, your perspective the way you would feel in that situation. It's imagining yourself in that situation. Empathy is observing and understanding the other person's perspective without putting yourself in their shoes. It's also central in forgiveness and forgiveness has been shown to be the key to let go of any past injuries, hurts, and to help us foster connection. And also surprisingly, a balanced heart chakra, this surprised me, is that it helps us maintain boundaries. While still staying open to connection, I never associate, somehow, I don't know why, I never associated maintaining boundaries and that balance that the heart chakra can bring with the heart chakra, but it is very much a part of it. Now, In addition to being involved in relationships, the heart chakra is also part of our spiritual growth because it bridges the physical and spiritual realms. When we have a balanced heart chakra, it supports inner peace where we simply accept ourselves and the world. As it is, not as we want it to be, not as it should be, as it is. And that's the kind of the key to inner peace. It also supports higher consciousness. Opening the heart chakra allows for spiritual awakening and it lets us connect to universal love and it connects us and supports us in service to others. And one of the fastest ways to change your mood. Is to do something kind for someone else. That's if you're ever feeling low or down go and do an act of kindness for another that comes from an authentic place and that will just turn everything around. It's so it's actually, I believe an essential part of our spiritual growth. So that service to others, that kindness and compassion from an authentic place. That's part of it too, but see, here's something that I think is really important at this moment in time. I think that right now, if you, for instance, I was talking with Colleen today, and we were talking about the fact that if you watch a movie that's even five years old, she brought up the movie Notting Hill, it's not that old. And yet in the movie, people were still reading newspapers. And the pace was so much slower, the pace has picked up and we're being, really deluged with information. But when you, if you do look at a movie or something that's that old, just notice the difference in the cinematography and the pace of life and so on. And the pace has gone so quickly now that it leads to a lot of chaos and in that chaos. I'm not sure that it's not deliberate on, that some people can benefit sometimes from creating chaos. And in that chaos, it tends to have us focus on our differences and what makes each of us other to someone else rather than connected with and the same as someone else. So in a world that can feel divided like that. All we really need to do is bring our focus back to the heart chakra, run Reiki, send love from our heart out, and that actually connects and contributes to collective healing. Sending love to others, it just ripples outward. It creates a wave of harmony and compassion, and I believe it can lead to global healing. I think this is a big part of it, those acts of service to others and so on. So when we think about it, the heart chakra is the essence of who we are, and I'm not sure I'm still working through it. But I'm actually seeing that the seed of our soul is in this region and is also connected with the heart chakra. If we pay attention and nurture and balance this energy center, it can only help us to open to the full experience of love and self love. Love of others, connection to the divine, living life through love. And so by going into our Reiki meditations, mindfulness, it has the opportunity to become that source of joy and peace that brings us into harmony and connection. These are just a few of the things that I wanted to bring up today before we move into our meditation, I noticed I left out one of the affirmations and I'd like us to think about that as we get ready to move into our meditation. I am worthy of love and compassion because I've noticed over the years that for so many of us worthiness comes up. As we move forward, just remembering that daily self Reiki and that we can focus on the heart, even if we don't only focus on the heart, just making sure we get there each day, affirmations, and you can even do some journaling and self reflection. On self love and on gratitude, you can journal on things like how does love expand when we share it? I can remember when I had my first baby, Kathleen, and I was a little nervous. I don't know if any of the rest of you experienced this. I was a little nervous to have my second child because I just loved Kathleen. So much. And I was worried that the second child was going to take away from that love. And so what a shock to have a second child and find out that no, your love just expands. You have the capacity to love each child with that incredible volume of love and intensity. And eventually we had three and every single one of them I often tell them, I tell my oldest daughter, you're my favorite because you're my oldest. And I tell my son, you're my favorite because you're my son. And and I usually add in you're funny and you're my, and my daughter and you're smart and my youngest, I'll say, and you're my favorite because you're my youngest, you're my baby. And you were always so spunky or something like that. So they all know that they're my favorite. But in Reiki, we don't believe in competition, so it's all good. And so today I'd like to move us into a meditation. I'm just wondering if anybody has any questions before we move into that today. Okay. So I just wanted to say something that I noticed when you're speaking about romance and when you say said that Valentine's Day started in Rome. I wonder if that's the romance comes from that the word romance. You know what I mean? I never once thought of that. What a brilliant observation. Maybe it does. Who knows? I think you're on to something. Yes, you're absolutely right. So that's probably the root of the word romance. So now we're all going to have to look that up after after we're done meeting tonight. Thank you for pointing that out. I love that fun fact. Anything else? Anyone that has any questions? Okay, guys, as we always do, I'm going to invite you to go ahead and make yourselves comfortable in this meditation. We're actually going to journey into the energy of the heart chakra to cultivate self love. and expand love for others. Now, I was actually doing a session several years ago with a client and I was shown that many of us disconnect from self love in and around adolescence when the world's messages have made their way through to us. When you ask a child, there's something fun we can do. Lynn said you were right, Nancy. That is where the word romance comes from. Brilliant. Have you ever noticed that when you ask a child, what do you like about yourself? And that used to be part of one of the things that we did when we would go into a Reiki. a Reiki class for children and for adults, so what do you like about yourself? And the children would just, they'd have such a long list of what they loved about themselves and liked about themselves. I love that I love pink. I love that I have red hair. I love. I love my freckles, they just, I love my dog, I love just everything and that kind of, we disconnect from that wonderful and intense and extreme self love in and around adolescence. So if that might have happened for you and even if you've reconnected with it, if you would like to reconnect with it. more strongly, if you would like to have a better ability to give and receive love, expand your love for others. We're actually going to be going into this meditation that I've called awakening the heart with Reiki. So I'm just going to invite you to make yourselves comfortable. Go ahead and close your eyes now and take a deep breath in. And when you let it out, just letting it out slowly. And just let yourself settle into the sacred space of healing. And now I invite you to bring your attention to your breath. And with each inhale, just to breathe into the heart and the heart space, bringing air. And slowly breathe out anything that is less than love. And we're going to breathe here together for about 12 breaths. And on your exhale, you're releasing tension, heaviness, anything at all. And now just imagine, as you place your hands over your heart, with your Reiki activated, that roots are extending from your body deeply into the earth, going all the way down to the groundwater and the bedrock beneath. Just bringing stability and grounding you in the balance, anchoring you to the earth. And now imagine that the Reiki energy has surrounded you with a beautiful, soft green light of healing, and that it's flowing into your body from above and below and all around you. It's filling you with feelings of peace, and it's grounding you here in the present moment. We'll spend a few moments here today. And now bring your awareness to your heart space in the middle of your chest, and just notice the light that's glowing there. What color is it? Is it green? Is it another color? This is the energy of your heart chakra. And now with each breath. Just notice that this light grows brighter, bigger, filling your chest with warmth and compassion. And we'll breathe here for a few moments together. Now with the Reiki energy flowing into your heart space, I invite you to repeat after me, either silently or out loud, I am worthy of love. I give and receive love freely. I am love. And if there's any tension or blockages in your heart, just feel those softening now. And just allowing the love to flow more easily. I am worthy of love. I give and receive love freely. I am love. And let's just let those settle into the heart space for a few moments. We're going to spend a few moments practicing self love. I invite you to imagine the light, if it's green, turning into a soft pink glow, representing unconditional love. And if that's something you've never received, know that it is your birthright. And it comes from source and just imagine this beautiful pink glow filling your entire body, enveloping you, wrapping you in a warm hug. And I'd like you to think about one thing, the thing that you appreciate about yourself. Maybe it's your strength, your kindness, your uniqueness, whatever it might be. Think about something you appreciate about yourself and let it fill your heart with gratitude now and we'll stay here as it does. Now I invite you once again to repeat the following affirmation. I honor and cherish myself. I am deserving of love and compassion. I honor and cherish myself. I am deserving of love and compassion. And we'll just remain here and allow that to settle in. For the balance of our meditation together, we'll send love to others. As your heart overflows with this love, I invite you to allow the pink light to expand outward now. Surrounding first your loved ones, then your friends, and just let it move out into your community. There is so much love here. Just watch as the tendrils reach out and begin to grow, and then just allow it to radiate even further, touching the collective energy of the world. Trust that it will reach All of those who need it the most right now. And I invite you to repeat silently in the bulk of our time together here today. May love and compassion flow freely. To all beings, including myself, and we're going to remain here together today. If you'd you can also connect with the world peace grids, the North Pole, the South Pole in Israel, in Southfield, Michigan, Hawaii, and on Mount Kurama that are the shape of the heart chakra, the shape of the ICRT logo. And you might even bring into your consciousness. The inscription on the world peace grids made the followers of all the world's religions and spiritual paths work together to create peace among all people on earth. And we combine that with our affirmation may love and compassion flow freely to all beings. including myself. I'd like to thank you for being here with me today for this collective broadcast of peace and love and for having the courage to step into a place of worthiness and self love. It's not something that many of us were taught. You can stay here as long as you'd like. When you're ready, I'd like you to Open your eyes and take a moment to thank yourself for taking this time for connection and reflection and I'd like you to bring that energy of love and self love and compassion back with you and keep it with you as you move throughout your day. When we can stay in this collective place of high vibration. The chaos and the denser emotions simply cannot connect with us. They cannot take us over. And so I invite you to revisit here as often as you need to be focused in your self Reiki on self love and on heart healing. I'd like to thank you all for being here with us today. I'd like to thank you for how deeply you love and how deeply you care. And I'd like to encourage you to focus that huge depth of love on yourself sometimes too. Thank you for the difference that you're making in the world. Be sure to join us next month. Be coming to you from Portugal. And looking forward to taking you there with me and showing you around a little bit. Keep shining your light. Namaste.