Guest Post by Greta Bates
Enhancing Your Reiki Practice
My background is in dance and the healing arts, but my first love was music. As a young child, I studied piano and took ballet lessons. I didn’t think I could sing so I was drawn to dance thinking I could do with my body what I couldn’t do with my voice. As an adult, I’ve overcome the fear of singing and it’s become something that brings me great joy.
Music moves us. It motivates the body, soothes the soul, and calms the mind. There are notes that can make your heart swell or certain strains that elicit deep feelings, eyes welling with tears. Almost everyone feels this, even if you can only catch them tapping their toes in rhythm to the beat.
My playlists range from instrumental yoga music to New Orleans jazz to rock and a little Sinatra and Gershwin along with The Clash and The Ramones thrown in for good measure. I come up with quirky titles of these lists like Jazzy Brunch Radio, 80’s Angst, Rain, A Girl’s Gotta Yell, and Tiki Lounge, each list created to suit my mood for the flavor of the day.
Playlists for Reiki Practice
Since I so love and am inspired by music, it was a natural transition to incorporate playlists into my Reiki practice. When teaching or meeting with clients, I always speak of Bells and Whistles. I know what I like: music, soft lighting, pleasing scents-I want it all. And I want to provide that experience for my patrons.
Creating playlists has helped to breathe new life into my Reiki practice as well as my meditation offerings. I begin each month selecting a theme I’d like to work on, pairing it with a particular chakra perhaps, and then I put a playlist together, my soundtrack for the month if you will. Some of my musical go-to’s are George Winston, Xumantra, and binaural beats. This concept proves helpful in several ways. One, it sets the mood for the client and provides a warm, welcoming environment. Two, it helps me as a practitioner and guide in that I know where I am in the session or class depending on what song is playing. And three, it adds to and helps create a unifying theme as well as inspiration for my work, tying my ventures together. My work becomes a song.
~ Greta Bates
“Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.” ~ George Eliot
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