From Passion to Practice: Building a Reiki Business.

From Passion to Practice: Building a Reiki Business.
With Mary Riposo and Samia Bano

Struggling to start or grow your #ReikiHealing or other #holistichealing business?

Listen now to this interview with Mary Riposo, #ReikiCoach, to learn what you need to do the work you love with fun and ease!

Turning Reiki, or another #HolisticWellness practice, into a #thrivingbusiness takes more than just skill—it requires a #MindsetShift, #marketingstrategy , and #communitysupport. Mary shares her insights on helping Reiki practitioners (and holistic healers) confidently grow their practice.

About Mary:

Mary Riposo found Reiki while suffering from a number of mystery illnesses that didn’t respond to Western medicine. As a Reiki Master teacher, Mary particularly enjoys helping Reiki practitioners get their healing work out into the world. Mary is the author of the Reiki Journals and the best-selling Grow Your Reiki Business book, available on Amazon.

Learn more and connect with Mary at: www.InfiniteLightCenter.com.

Plus, grab an amazing free gift from Mary now, i.e. her free Guided Reiki sequence. It will melt away your stress and help you come back into balance!

https://mailchi.mp/infinitelightcenter/grs

To Book your Free HAPPINESS 101 EXPLORATION CALL with Samia, click: https://my.timetrade.com/book/JX9XJ

#EnergyWork #SpiritualGrowth #EnergyHealing #HolisticWellness #MindBodySpirit #RemoteHealing #reikiexpert #reikimaster #reikipractitioner #makemoneydoingwhatyoulove

Here's the audio version of this episode:

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Full Video Transcript

SAMIA: Hello, Salaam, Shalom, Namaste, Sat Sri Akal, Aloha, Holah, Ciao, Bonjour, Buna, Privet, Mabuhay, and Dzień Dobry! It's really, really good to be with you again. And I know you'll be so happy you've joined us today because we have a very special cool guest with us, and that is Mary Riposo, who is a Reiki coach. I'm so excited and happy to have you with us, Mary. Welcome…

MARY: Thank you so much. I'm happy to be here.

SAMIA: And Mary, please tell us more about who you are and what you do.

MARY: Okay, sure. Like you said, I'm a Reiki coach. I have a Reiki practice where I do kind of all of the Reiki things, which are I see people for Reiki sessions, for healing sessions. I also teach a whole bunch of Reiki classes, and I do a lot of mentoring. So I love to help. Especially lately, I love to help Reiki practitioners feel confident enough and give them the tools they need to really bring their healing work to more people. Because so many Reiki practitioners, you know, we are in it for helping people, right. And so just like myself, a lot of us that are Reiki practitioners have a hard time kind of getting started, going, doing a little bit more, and making it into either a business or a bigger practice. So I do a lot of that.

SAMIA: I love it. I love it. You know, it's been a little while since we have discussed anything about Reiki on this show, so just in case some of our listeners are unfamiliar with that, can you give us a quick sense of what Reiki is?

MARY: Sure... Well, Reiki originated in Japan, and it's a practice that really is about helping people to relax and to connect with all that is really to just feel in that connection with the universal life force energy that's running through everything. So we feel really connected to... We don't feel separate anymore if we practice Reiki. And we can receive a Reiki session. And you can also practice self-Reiki, which means that if you are trained even at the first level, and you know this because you're a Reiki practitioner, even if you're trained at the very first level, you can begin to practice Reiki on for self healing.

SAMIA: Yeah.

MARY: Which is cool.

SAMIA: It is, it is. And, you know, when I first started practicing, Reiki was a little bit by accident in the sense that it wasn't something that I was looking for. I had actually joined a training program to get trained in how to teach people how to be happy skills and my teacher was actually a master, happened to be a Master Reiki practitioner.  And I had read that about her in her bio and so forth, but I had no idea what that actually meant. The reason I actually signed up for her program is because she had a PhD in positive psychology and had developed this really amazing program that taught you, or teaches us how to use applied positive psychology to sort of teach people how to be happy skills from that applied positive psychology perspective. And that was something that I was, like, actually interested in. But once she had us in her world, she was like, so I'm also going to, first of all, have you experienced the Reiki healing? And then guess what? You're going to get an attunement, and then you'll be able to do Reiki yourself and incorporate that in your practice for when you teach other people and start coaching and other people and how to be happy skills. And this is a great addition into your tool belt to help people and all with all of that. So it's like, okay, we'll see what it is, right. And it's just the very first time I experienced receiving a Reiki healing, I was like, wow, I feel so awesome. It feels amazing... So relaxed, you know. And so I was like, okay, I don't know what this is. I don't know how this really works, but I'm in.

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MARY: It's so cool. I love that story, and I think it's still true. We don't really know exactly how it works, but it's amazing what the results are, right?

SAMIA: Yeah.

MARY: I love how you found it accidentally, almost…

SAMIA: Yes…

MARY: Because Reiki finds us, I think, right. Don't you think? Have. Have you talked to other Reiki people and you think, wow, you know, Reiki finds us kind of when we need it into our lives at the right time.

SAMIA: Yeah. I think certainly here in the west, it's something that you need to be a little bit open to in terms of just receiving in your life, having something like it show up in your life because it's not that commonly known or practiced. And, you know, with our very sciencey, focused minds and education, a lot of people even tend to be skeptical about, what is it? How can an even work? And, I mean, that brings me to what you do in terms of the mentoring aspect of helping other Reiki practitioners if they want to set up their own practice around doing Reiki work. I bet that's one of the hurdles that you see us facing, right.

MARY: Definitely do. And it really goes back to my own story, too, because that's exactly what was happening when I first found Reiki. I was somebody who... I was sick when I was a kid, a lot. I had a lot of respiratory things, viruses. I was out of school a lot and, you know, kind of never really realized or found out why, what was kind of underneath it all. So by the time I was in my early 30s, I think I had. I was working as... Here's another connection of our psychology. I was working as a psychologist in private, in a hospital practice, sorry. And our building was undergoing a big renovation, so there was a lot of stuff going on, like painting and, you know, new carpeting and lots of chemicals and, you know, dust and things like that. And I... They basically wanted us to work through it. And I think for some people, they could do it. For me, I was getting sicker and sicker every single day, and I ended up being out of work because of it. And I was so sick. I was out for more than a month and could not seem to get any leverage on getting better. I was seeing one doctor after another, allergy allergists, and even up to a neurologist. I mean, I was just really, really sick and I couldn't get out of bed. The way that I found or the way that Reiki found me was, you know, they weren't going to hold my job for me. They said, you know, basically, you have to let us know when you are ready to come back and we'll see what we have for you. So I was in a really bad situation and I... During my recovery, I ended up going to a wellness fair. And, you know, there were things that kind of, most people knew about, like, you know, books and music CD's and presentations about crystals and stuff like that. But there ended up being this one person that was offering Reiki. And I ended up walking around, kind of looking at everything and just, you know, getting my bearings. And I was drawn to her booth for some reason. And I ended up just going to get like a try it, maybe five or ten-minute session. And during that time, I felt kind of the same way that you did. I felt like, oh my gosh, this is so relaxing. And I feel good. I have no idea why, and I don't know how this works, but I've been feeling sick for so long and I felt like for the first time in a long, long time, what the heck was this? And I think I probably want more of it. So that was my first real introduction to Reiki. And I eventually, over time, started to receive Reiki sessions and then get training and things like that. But for me, going back to your point about people being skeptical and things like that and not really knowing about it, when I was, I'm going to say, just starting my Reiki training, I remember telling my family about it, and they were more than skeptical. They thought I had joined a cult or something. They were afraid for me. They're like, we don't know what this stuff is... We don't know what you've gotten yourself into. You know, we were afraid, and we don't even know the questions to ask about it.

SAMIA: Right.

MARY: So it really was something that in my area, people were not practicing, so I was kind of alone in it. And I really felt strongly about leaving my really stressful job and having a practice. And I wanted it to be a practice where I was able to help others, because really, I was helped so much by it. I was able to recover from a lot of what was going on with me. I was still super sensitive and things like that. But the illness part was really, I was helped, and I was helped in a lot of other ways. Like, I felt more comfortable talking to people and a little bit less sensitive around other people, and, you know, a little bit, a little bit less shy, even I guess. I kind of came into myself a little bit more. But it was really something that people were skeptical about. And so when I wanted to do it as a business, I didn't have anyone to help me because there were really no other Reiki practitioners around. And so I kind of had to figure it out the whole thing by myself. And that's kind of where my mission comes from now, to really help other Reiki practitioners that are kind of in the same boat. They have had this transformation from it. It's helped them so much, and they want to offer to other people, but they kind of are shyer, they're more introverted, they're more sensitive, and they're kind of afraid to put themselves out there for a lot of different fears, right. So I help them a lot of times with just with the basics, but also with mindset stuff, with getting over kind of being visible, you know, and putting themselves out there. Like, I am a Reiki practitioner... I'm a Reiki master, you know, and I do this, offer this work as a service, and it can be hard.

SAMIA: Yes, yes, yes. I mean, it's, you know, one thing that you get a skill, you develop some kind of passion for doing something, and, you know, even if you're really, really good at it, that's still just one part of the picture in terms of if you're going to make money doing what you love, as we say, you know, because then you have to contend with and learn about the whole other side of how am I going to set up, set it up as a business... How am I going to manage it as a business? And a lot of us, we have no training on that side of things. I know, like, for even myself, I spent like maybe to the training that I was referring to earlier where I accidentally ran into and learned about Reiki. That was like a year long program, but it was primarily focusing on teaching me how to be a coach and a trainer and a Reiki practitioner also, as it turns out. But at that time, the way my it was being taught, it didn't actually have any particularly strong component to teach you about the business side of it. I mean, there's... So what I had to do was I actually ended up interning with my teacher mentor and I was like, let me intern with you so I can learn more about the business side of how you are, you have set up your practice and how you manage those things. And so that how I started got my business side of the education for it. And I must say I'm so glad that I did it because otherwise I was feeling really lost about how do I do this for myself in terms of setting it up as a business and so forth.

MARY: Oh, I can so relate to that. I think, you know, when we learn how to practice Reiki, that's like the greatest thing so many of my mentoring clients say to me, you know, I just want to do the work. I don't want to have to now learn how to run a business. I don't want to learn how to do all the things like, you know, marketing and promote myself and payments and all that stuff. It's just those are totally, they're kind of really different skills like you said. They're completely different skills. And I don't know any programs where people can intern like you did. I think that's amazing. I love that, you know. So I think, you know, now you're seeing a little bit more of like things popping up where we have little programs to help you start and run a Reiki business and build a Reiki business and things like that, or you know, coaching packages and things like that to help. Because it is something that's needed in the world now. I mean, it's just, it's an honor to be able to have a business like that. But it does have to be... If it's a business, it does have to be set up that way so that you actually can make money and be able to support yourself doing it, whether it's part time or full-time or whatever.

SAMIA: Yeah, that's right. That's right. And you know, it's interesting that like, for a lot of Reiki practitioners, like people who are open, like you said, they tend, they can tend to be on a more introvert side and the shier side or another way that I think about something that's very common among a lot of us. So we're very heart-centered people. You know, it's like very, very, yeah, just, you know, very heart-centered... And so for us, you know, we don't like being aggressive because being aggressive and heart-centered doesn't go together. And also, like a lot of times being very heart-centered means that you're not so materialistically oriented. You know, you're more spiritually connected. And I mean, just practicing Reiki makes you more spiritually aware and spiritually connected. And so, you know, when it comes to like money, a lot of us can have a little bit of unhappy relationship with like, you know, we don't want to deal with money and you know, those kinds of things. And I mean, that's something, you know, I mean that's, I think its own sort of challenge for us to work on our relationship with money. But yeah, like just these kinds of things do come up. And then on top of that, then, you know, the learning... Even after like I intern there was like still the technology aspect of, you know, like learning to manage your social media and you know, the at a technical aspect and like when you run into tech issues, you're like, oh no, I need help... And so at some point, I suppose you do just have to realize that you cannot do everything on your own. And you do end up recognizing that you need some help and you, you know, hopefully, are able to receive that help. But in terms of the basics, like what do you guide people are the basics that they need to set up a Reiki practice?

MARY: Yeah. Oh my gosh. So everything that you've said is so, so true and I can relate to it. Yeah, I definitely help people set up the basic stuff. And you know, a lot of, because I'm a psychotherapist first, a lot of what I work with in terms of helping them is, is with mindset stuff and goal setting and you know, if you have a really strong mission as far as why you want to practice this and bring it to the world, I think that's your North Star. And you'll be able to work with all of the other technical things and get over the money aspects and the social media stuff and all of that because you'll have a reason for it. Like, you'll be aware of your reason for it, you know. So for me, because I had the transformation through Reiki and I really feel like, you know, it could support so many other people and you know, in helping them get healthier in different ways, wellness in general. And also because I had such a steep learning curve in terms of like bringing it into the business part, I really feel for people in that way too. So I really, I can always come back to that. If I'm wondering like, why am I doing this, it's so hard or whatever. I always go back to my mission. But yeah, just basically setting things up in terms of doing it right legally. Because I know so many times people are like, I don't really have the help and I don't really want to go to the Small Business association because they don't really understand my type of business or something like that. And so they kind of try to do it on their own. I think that so many of us in this field, we do try to do all of it ourselves, right. We really do... And one of the biggest lessons that I learned is, like you said, asking for help and receiving the help, which was super, super hard because I'm more of like an independent person. I kind of do things a lot on my own and, you know, just work through them without asking. But I really, really talk to people a lot about the benefits of working with others, just sharing what you do with others, collaborating, being in a community. Like I set up a Reiki community in my area, it's called the Central New York Reiki Association. And so many people in that group over the years, I think it's been like close to 15 years that we've had it and they have said, you know, this is something that  I find the most valuable because I can. I feel like it's a like-minded group. People get it. You know, people like, around them, they may not know about Reiki, they may not understand it and they may seem skeptical or they, their families might just kind of not be on board even. So they feel different. You know, a lot of us feel different. So having a community is huge. So just helping them to set up, you know, thinking about what kind of entity, what kind of structure, putting systems into your business, putting policies in, how are you going to, you know, what is your actual goal and how do you put those strategies in to meet the goal that all can be worked through with somebody. But probably most of us don't have it on our own, right. We don't know that we don't have business skills... I definitely didn't.

SAMIA: Exactly, exactly. And I mean, you know, like when, especially when you're first starting out, there can be so many expenses. Like if you're trying to do things very professionally and you know, you want to have a nice space where you can invite people in to come do sessions with you. I mean, like, for me it's been kind of a little bit like, I went through a bit of a journey where, you know, I was like, well, I don't have any space in my home. I mean I have a little home office, but it's not appropriate to bring people into for Reiki fashions. And I was like, yeah, I cannot afford the overhead of renting some place like some office all by myself certainly because like, you know, when I first started my practice, I like zero, I like zero money to back me up. I had, yeah, like no experience in the business. I actually went to some workshops offered by the Small Business Administration in the area and stuff. And they were like, well, you know, you can't even, it's really hard to even get a loan like if you don't have relevant experience in your area of business and stuff because you're a huge risk. You know, 98% of new businesses fail within the first year or so. And so like no one's going to want to really lend you money like in terms of like a proper bank and stuff. So you may have to go to friends and family and get loans that way. I was just like, no, no, no, I don't even want to get into that... And so one of the models that I found, and it sounds like maybe you have started something like that is like I actually found this lady who, she was multi-talented herself. So among other things she first of all also did Reiki, but she was also, she also practiced like homeopathic medicine and she also did massage and like all these different modalities. And one cool thing that she had done was that she actually had managed to set up a physical location through which she practiced. And what she did was that the place that she got, she said when she got it was really run down and stuff. And she happened, she fixed it up and so forth and so she had like extra rooms actually in that building. And so then she started renting out the rooms to other holistic practitioners. So some of them were like, nutritionists. Some of them, like, one of them was a yoga teacher. They, like, you know, just different people with and like, but everyone in this, like, holistic healing kind of arena. And so then they all got together and so they... And then they shared in terms of their rent and those kinds of overhead costs and stuff. And you could even, like, put yourself down on a schedule for, like, you didn't have to rent for the whole month. You could just rent for certain hours, certain days. And, you know, they, like, had a schedule you could sign up on for when space was available in their facility. So then you could book your appointments that you wanted to do, like in person appointments. You could just invite people to meet you over there. And so I was like, oh, this is really cool and helpful…

MARY: I love that. And I kind of had the same start. I worked out of a massage therapist's office for a while. The massage therapist worked, I think, Monday through Thursday. And so I had some time on weekends where I would just pay her by the hour and I bring my stuff in and I would meet my clients there and that kind of thing. And then it ended up. I ended up being able to, after a while, get my own place. And then just similar to what you're talking about a minute ago, my husband is a yoga teacher, and he not only taught classes, he also was teaching people how to teach yoga. So he had a teacher training program that he was doing out of a church. And we decided to just come together and we found a building that was. That really needed renovation. It was really like a warehouse when we first got it, but it was huge. It was 11,000 square feet, and it had been sitting there for a while. And it turned out that we were able to rent that place and he was able to renovate it himself because he does have those qualifications too. So he spent some time renovating. And then we were able to. It was only the two of us, so we said, "Hey, we have a lot of space. We are going to end up needing to fill this in in order to make ends meet anyway." So we started bringing in acupuncture and massage and nutrition and Pilates and all kinds of things, right. And they were people that could rent out rooms, but also they could rent out the bigger studio spaces, too, for classes and bigger things. So we ended up learning how to do bigger events and to coordinate things and to build a bigger community through that. So it was all this really great teaching or, you know, learning experience for me and for us to really come to open a business together and to also just really learn how to work with other people doing different modalities and how it all works together and how we're all really kind of wanting to do the same thing and to offer something to the community, to really make it more, you know, help people to learn what things were and to help them to just be able to kind of try things in a safe environment. And our space, our physical space was open until the end of 2021. We had lockdowns and everything else, and it turned out that we could not maintain it. And a lot of the people that were there were like, I'm just going to do online now or I'm going to not do this anymore. So we ended up closing our physical space, and so I went online altogether. So I'm doing all of my practice online or over the phone, of course. But yeah, and he's back to working out of a church, doing all of his stuff. But anyway, we kind of, like, went a little smaller in terms of, like, our business, but it was a really, for like the 13, 14 years that we did was a really great experience too. Yeah. Just learning about business, right? In a bigger way.

SAMIA: Yes. And I think one of my key takeaways in this is whether, you know, you're going to do something, like, physically, like in person, or even if you're doing something online. The idea of, you know, creating some collaborations with other practitioners, whether they're Reiki practitioners, but don't just limit yourself to just other Reiki practitioners or whatever other, you know, it's like, be open to collaborating with people who are working other modalities, because people who are open to, let's say, receiving acupuncture or massage or practicing yoga, they're much more likely to be open to try something like Reiki, also, actually. So it can actually be very helpful that you work in collaboration with other practitioners in this way.

MARY: Yeah, I agree. We were able to, even when we're in physical. In the physical location. It was so much of, like, cross referrals because someone would come in for one thing, and then they'll be like, oh, I didn't know you had this and this and this, and they would try that out. And then, you know, maybe I might see someone and think, wow, you could really benefit from this other thing. I'm going to make a suggestion to you, and then you can do it or not. But people really were able to, like, expand their awareness and their knowledge and experience. With lots of different things and learn about the ones that would maybe work for them. Maybe they came in for one thing and they ended up really buying something else once they found it there.

SAMIA: Yeah, yeah.

MARY: Collaboration is really, really big.

SAMIA: Yes. And, you know, I'm curious now that you are basically shifted online and I should, you know, here's another similarity and experience, and I don't think that, you know, this is by accident because we are all part of the larger environments and things happening in the world that you end up impacting us all. And I had a similar experience where when COVID hit, I ended up shifting my practice pretty much all online as well. And in some ways it's been... And I wonder what your experience experience have been. I mean, for you, obviously, you know, you feel a sense of things have become smaller in some ways for you since going online. For me, it was like I never actually did establish my own independent physical office and stuff. I was always sort of like whenever I did in person things, it was always in collaboration with someone else. Mostly I was going to other people offices and stuff. But more and more I'd also started working just organizations that were inviting me in, and so they already had their physical locations, right. And all I had to do was show up in their spaces and do what I was going to do. So, like, for me, what happened was that people's physical spaces closed down, and so I didn't have so many physical spaces to go to. So then I shifted online in terms of, okay, you know, we'll just do everything online. But that's like, one of the really cool things about Reiki especially, is that it is something you can do online at a distance. Like, you don't actually have to be in person and so forth. But like, when you think about it in the context of someone who's setting up a business, and especially if they're new at it, to just do it at an online context, is it more or less challenging to set it up that way? I mean, I'm like, yeah, just anything you can share in context of.

MARY: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think it's interesting, my experience, when I was saying things got smaller, we cut... My husband kind of downsized in terms of like the...

He's not doing his teacher training anymore, but he's doing a few smaller classes. For me, everything exploded into much bigger. I've been able to do so much more since going online, and it's helped me to even teach Reiki in a way that helps people to understand that it doesn't require physical touch. Like when you first start out, you're just doing it physically. You may think that's kind of the only way I can work, but really now, like my Reiki circles that I do, I do a free Reiki circle every month. I have global attendees, right. And I would never be able to connect with people across the world in different time zones and everything else if I was just in my physical location. So I absolutely love that. And as far as working with people who are starting their business, I have to say, more and more of my mentoring clients are starting out remote because it takes so much less as a startup, right. You don't have to buy the Reiki tables and all the supplies and have the overhead costs of the, like you said, an office or something like that. And it is so easy to do a Reiki session with someone face to face on Zoom or on FaceTime or on Skype or over the phone, right. It's so easy... And the energy is experienced sometimes even more profoundly. And oh, I love this part. I will get on Zoom with like a client of mine and this happens all the time. And once I see see their face on the screen, they're laying in their bed or they're on the recliner with, you know, a big blanket over them and they have a soft pillow and they have a candle lit and they are in like this beautiful healing space already they've created and they are just ready to receive. And I just love that, you know, it's like they are experiencing that whole thing. And like, we'll talk a little bit in the beginning and then we'll go through the session and I'll kind of lead them through the session. Some of them at the end, they'll say, don't bring me back because I want to continue on after. So I'll just kind of let the music be going in the background and then I'll tell them that I'm just going to go off of the session and they absolutely love it. I can do sessions any time of the day or night, really, right. So if I'm free, you know, and it's 9:00 at night, I'll do a session for someone that's having trouble sleeping. That will help them to go right into sleep and then they'll sleep all night. I'm noticing my mentoring clients really start to respond to this and they thought maybe they had to start in person, but so many more of them are not doing that now. And so many more of them. I have a lot of... I have to say, a lot of my mentoring students are younger than me, right. And so they're technological anyway. They grew up with Zoom. Now they're just like, oh, this is so cool. And it's... My startup costs are almost nothing.

SAMIA: Yes.

MARY: I can do this. I can really easily jump into this. So, yeah, I'm finding that that is... I think it's working really well and I think it's helping us as far as, like, our mission of, like, being able to bring Reiki to others across the world without really any difficulty. I live... I know you're on the west coast, I'm on the east coast. We're having a snowstorm today, probably today. If I had in person clients, most of them would be canceling because there are school closings and all kinds of things. None of my clients have to cancel because all we have to do is pick up the phone or get on Zoom. And that's pretty great, too. Yeah.

SAMIA: Yeah, yeah. You know, I agree with you. I agree with you because, like, when we were... We would do things in person, like you said, you know, you would as a practitioner or as the business person. You know, again, as someone who didn't have my own space, who was collaborating with other people to be like, okay, I'm going to show up in your space at this time to do this with this client. But then if the client cancels, then, you know, it's not just you that, you know, it's like, okay, but I mean, I've just made arrangements with this other person in this other space, and it just creates complications, you know, and so, you know, like, for me, that this was one of the beautiful things about Reiki as a practice that, you know, when I did have a situation like that crop up, I always gave my people the option. I was like, okay, look, I hear you. We have to cancel the in person thingy. But just so you know, we don't have to meet in person. You can do a distance healing, and so let me know if that helps and so forth. So because I had that experience already when we did shift online, or I should say when I shifted things online, I was sort of like. Like, it wasn't like something that took me totally by surprise or something totally new. It was something that I'd already started doing in my practice. And so it was. It was a much easier transition, I must say, than I might have anticipated otherwise. And like you said, yeah, one of my great joys now is actually connecting with people across the world.

MARY: I love that. You know, that reminds me too, that since I had this in person practice for so long, when I shifted to when we were locked down, and pretty much the next week I decided we're gonna... I'm gonna do some online stuff because I had done it before we opened our business in the first place, so I was pretty comfortable with it. Some of my clients had a really hard time doing that. They're like, oh, I don't think I want to do anything online. It's not going to be the same. I just don't know how we could do it. And then of course, the technology was making them really nervous. Like they didn't know how to use Zoom and they didn't really want to use the phone. They thought it was less of a session.

SAMIA: Yeah.

MARY: Without giving it a try. They were... Those were the people that had a hard time. But all some of them did, I would say maybe 50, 50 ended up transitioning with me and really loving it and sticking with it. And then all of my new clients were like, of course, this is great. You know, I don't know what any other way and I love this. But yeah, some of the people that, especially I would say the people that were my age or a little bit older were like, "Oh, yeah, I, this, this is probably not going to work for me". But some of them got on board with it. I did like little tutorials about how would you use Zoom? And you know, how do you, how could we do it over the phone? Would it be the same? Would it be similar? Would it be effective? You know, all of those kinds of things... Yeah, there's a lot of challenges too. I mean, we were under so much stress during that time, right. We needed Reiki so badly. I just started to teach a Reiki for self-care class and I was like, you know what? Throw everything else out the window and let's just focus on getting through the pandemic. Let's just focus on giving people the tools, like to practice self Reiki and just go into, let's do this together every single day, you know?

SAMIA: Yeah.

MARY: It was so important.

SAMIA: Yes. Yes. Yeah, and I mean, that's also like, I mean, ultimately, you know, any successful business will identify a problem people are facing and figure out a good, great solution for it. And that's exactly what you're saying you did. It's like self care is like so critical. And it was like, especially during the first year or so of the pandemic. I mean, because, you know, we kept hoping, "Oh, it'll just be over in the next two weeks and the next three weeks in the next month." But it just kept dragging out. And so, you know, you had to like, initially you were like short term strategies of, you know, just coping with whatever was going on. But then as it dragged out longer and longer, we had to shift and just figure out a completely different way of doing things. And in that context, self-care was so important. And so yay... I'm so happy that you did what you did.

MARY: I'm so happy that I had Reiki, because I think that was coming back to the practices of the system of Reiki every single day, every single moment, maybe through the pandemic when people around me were just freaking out and any, you know, news that you would watch or media, it was like just scary, scary, scary stuff. I remember, you know, seeing every single day the number of deaths going up and up and up. It was terrifying... So just coming back to that system of Reiki, the practices, the meditations, just the hands on healing, I don't know what I would have done without that. It was amazing to just have that beautiful practice just to come back to.

SAMIA: I agree, I agree. Because that's one of the things about Reiki that I love the most, is that, you know, whatever it is that you need healing, Reiki can heal it. So, you know, of course, like, for me, there's been like so much that I've experienced in terms of healing and things like when fears come up, actually, you know, those kind, the fears, insecurities underlying the fears or that accompany the fears, we can use Reiki to heal us, you know, the, the negative mindset and other ways that, you know, can crop up and affect us. We can use Reiki to help us heal those. And so much of it, you know, so it's like it just sort of, and it just... The change happens so gently, you know, and so like naturally in the sense that like, there's no one preaching at you, there's no one like saying, okay, change this belief to that belief. It's just, you just feel yourself getting more mellow, getting more relaxed, and then just different thoughts naturally pop up that are more happiness promoting, that are more, you know, like the kinds of thoughts that come to you when you are more mellow and relaxed.

MARY: Yeah. And just, I mean, I'm thinking about your business, about making change fun and easy. Right? Reiki just helps with that because it brings us back to this neutral place so that we can have that resilience and that we can tap into the joy, right. So that we don't have to be so scared and so serious and so anything, right? We can just be flexible and be resilient about whatever comes to us, we can handle.

SAMIA: Yeah.

MARY: Yeah, I love that.

SAMIA: Ah, it's amazing, you know, because one of the things that happens so often with me when I'm working with clients that come into sessions feeling kind of agitated or, you know, other difficult emotions or feelings. And oftentimes I'll be like, okay, we'll train on the positive psychology stuff later. Let's first of all, just take some time and do a little healing and just, you know, you just. And you have to do nothing... You just get to sit and relax. There's one of the people that I worked with recently, she had gone... She had actually a family member who did some use some other modalities. There weren't a Reiki practitioner. They did some other modalities of healing work. I think there were hypnotherapists, if I remember correctly. And so in any case, her experience with her family member giving them hypnotherapy sessions was that she was like, "Oh, I'm so bad at this." Like, my relative, she had great success with so many other people, but I can never even, like, really get into the hypnotic state. And she was, like, really concerned that when we would do our healing session, that she wouldn't be able to do what she had to do to receive the healing and stuff. And I was like, don't even worry about it. You don't have to do anything at all. Just sit here. Because she didn't want to lie down. She was like, that stressed out. Like, yeah, no worries. You can just sit in this chair and just lean back into it and don't have to do anything…

MARY: That is so true.

SAMIA: Yeah. And then I was like, okay, so just focus on relaxing your body, and don't have to do anything. And then, you know, I just gave her a healing. And at the end, you know, I could not even at the end, like, through the session, I could feel her getting more relaxed and so forth. And at the end, you know, when we do a little debrief about, okay, how are you feeling now? What was your experience like? She was like, "Huh... Yes, I am feeling a lot more relaxed. I don't know, did it work if that worked, but I can feel that I'm more relaxed". I was like, that's it. You're feeling more relaxed. That means it works and it's continuing…

MARY: It's as simple as that.

SAMIA: Yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it's just like take the pressure off. You don't have to do anything.

MARY: I think that's is such a gift with Reiki too, is that it can really help us to decondition our minds from all of the stuff that we think should be happening or how we should be or any of that. All the comparison and all the judgment that we have toward ourselves, that self judgment, it can really start to heal that. And so that we really can come into a place of I'm okay just the way I am…

SAMIA: Yeah.

MARY: I remember a client came to me. She was brand new to me, and she said she just found me online and for some reason she felt like she clicked. And she said, I think I just have to go to this person and receive a session. I don't know what it is. And at the end of the session, she said something that will probably always stay with me... We did the healing session. We did a little debrief at the end, and I said, how are you feeling? And she was quiet for a moment. And then she said, I feel like for the first time, maybe the first time in my life, that it's okay to be me... And I was like, oh my gosh, like I almost burst out crying because that is so profound in terms of just having like one Reiki session and the energy really helping you, you know, just going deep and really having her become more aligned with her true self and just being able to feel that you're okay just the way you are. And I think that's what we try to promote in a session. Like, we take the pressure off. You don't have to do anything, just like you said, you don't have to be a certain way. You just have to be here and just receive and everything is okay, no matter what your experience is. And this woman just, just felt that and she was able to put it into words. And I always think of that in terms of, like, what's possible for a Reiki session? What's possible for you to receive in a Reiki session. And a lot of times that takes a long, long time to come, for us to practice every single day for years and years. But it can happen in a moment too.

SAMIA: Yeah.

MARY: So cool.

SAMIA: Yeah, that is so cool... Ah, Mary, I could keep talking to you the whole day, and I'm like, oh, gosh, we've been talking for almost an hour. Almost at an hour, but almost an hour... But I'm like, ah, you should probably start wrapping up at least for today. Ah, geez... Do you have any... I'm like, seriously. I'm like, I don't want to stop talking to Mary, but…

MARY: It's been fun.

SAMIA: Yes. Do you have any last thoughts you would like to share with the audience?

MARY: Well, I think that, you know, Reiki, if you're not familiar with it and you feel like you've been listening to us and you feel like maybe you want to give it a try, I think that, you know, just checking out Reiki near you, it doesn't have to be an in-person session where you go to somebody you can really like, for me, I have lots of free resources on my website for people to kind of just check out maybe what Reiki is, what it's like before you even take that step into actually maybe working with someone as a practitioner. So I'll just tell people my website is infinitelightcenter.com and I'm sure we'll put it near the video. And I know we were talking about me putting a link for a free gift for people and I think that the one that we were talking about maybe is not as relevant as what I'm thinking of right now, but I do have a nice little Reiki for self-care kind of sequence, a guided sequence that maybe people might be interested in if they liked what we were talking about today. So maybe we'll put that near the video too so that people can maybe listen and just kind of go along with a beautiful self-care session and see if that's something that might help them. I mean, I feel like Reiki is for everyone and so just being able to, you know, hear about it and then maybe experience it a little bit might give people a little bit more healing too and that ripples out into the world…

SAMIA: Yeah, I love that. Thank you so much for sharing that free gift and the information about your website so people can connect with you. And absolutely, yes, we will add all of those links in the show notes for our audience who's watching us on video, but also for our podcast listeners or just listening to us. However it is and wherever it is that you have found us, just check the show notes because for sure we're dropping those links in there. And yeah, until we connect next time, I just wish you lots and lots of peace and joy... :)