HEKLER ANTI FEAR GROUP REIKI & MEDITATION WORKSHOP

Workshop Welcome

Right now we are collectively witnessing a very uncertain period, the whole world is facing it in some shape and form and is being affected. It does not matter what your particular circumstances are, one thing that binds us all is that no one has control over most things that are happening right now around us. 

We would like to ask you to share out loud what kind of words and feelings come to your mind in these unpredictable times we are currently experiencing. The two of us will start and then we can go popcorn style whoever wishes to jump in, one person after another.

Whatever you are experiencing the only thing we are able to control right now is how we respond to these feelings and the uncharted territory that we are all facing at the moment. 

As we are experiencing constant shifts, collapses and uncertainties  the themes of surrender are emerging. There is a sense of something new and unknown appearing as a result of surrender even though at this very moment we are not fully able to comprehend what exactly this new thing is. The notion of surrender is very pertinent in the practice of Reiki since both the practitioner and the person receiving it need to be open to an experience that both parties do not know the outcome until the end of the session. So we are entering a situation where we are willing to open ourselves to an unknown experience.

Intro To Reiki & History 

Reiki is a system for healing that was developed in Japan by a man called Mikao Usui in the 1920s. Usui was thought to be a spiritual man who was influenced by Buddhism, Shintoism and martial arts. Reiki is not a religion, but it is a healing practice that can be used for or by anyone that’s gone through training. Reiki reached the West in the late 1930s when Hawayo Takata, a Japanese woman who grew up in Hawaii, brought the practice from Japan and began doing Reiki sessions and teaching the practice in Hawaii. Over the decades, Reiki increased its popularity in the West particularly in the 1980s following Takata’s death when many different branches and styles of Reiki practice spread across the globe. Most Reiki practitioners around the world trace their lineage through Takata and its evolution has seen it increase its accessibility as a wellness practice even though how it works is still not widely understood. 

Distance Reiki allows us to send Reiki energy to your body without us being in the same physical space. In Japanese, "rei" means spirit or spiritual and "ki" means universal life force energy. We act as conduits by tapping into the Reiki energy and transmitting its healing properties to your body through our hands. This practice utilizes a methodology of specific hand positions on different body parts to enhance the body’s natural healing abilities. During an in person Reiki session we place our palms on the receiver’s head, shoulders, above the throat, front & back of the torso as well as hips, knees and feet. This process helps release physical and emotional constraints, improving health and wellness. During an individual Remote Reiki session, we may use a proxy (cushion, a photograph, our own body, etc.) instead of the receiver’s body and visualize in our mind different body parts where we send the Reiki.

During the session you may feel physical sensations such as: warmth, tingling, muscle relaxation, alleviation of physical discomforts -- or you might fall asleep. Or you might not experience much, we can not determine how your body reacts. What we typically  say is that you will be in a more relaxed state after the session. On our end, we focus on you by directing Reiki to different parts of your body, as we would in an in-person session. Distance Reiki shows we can transmit healing beyond physical touch reminding us that we are all interconnected.

Overview of Workshop

• Short introductory exercise that grounds us in the purpose of this workshop and what it’s going to address. 

• Short overview where we introduce Reiki, talk briefly about its history

• 10-minute guided meditation to help prepare us for Reiki. 

• 25 minutes of Reiki where Boshko and Ashley facilitate distant healing to the group. 

• After the Reiki session, short writing prompt where everyone takes a few minutes to write about their experience,

• At the end, anyone who feels compelled to share can and we can chat about our experiences. 

Meditation on Surrender 

1. Begin by finding a comfortable position. Feel free to sit down or lie down if that feels good to you.  

1. When you feel like you’re comfortable, you can go ahead and close your eyes drawing your attention inward.  

1. Bring yourself into your body and just notice how it feels right now. Are there any areas that are tense? Is there any discomfort? Whatever sensations are there, just allow yourself to notice them as they are and then gently release any pain, tension or discomfort where necessary. Starting with the top of your head, your scalp, forehead, cheeks, notice any sensations you might be feeling and simply release what you no longer need so that you can feel fully present and relaxed. When you get to your jaw, take extra care to loosen it, allowing it to hang slightly and the back of your tongue to sink into your mouth. Moving on to your neck and shoulders (Continue until feet)… 

1. Feel free to quickly recheck your body to make sure that it is completely relaxed and any tension is released. Then, draw your awareness to your breathing. Notice it’s quality, it’s depth. You’re not trying to change it, you’re simply noticing it.  

1. Then when you’re ready, you can breathe in deeply, through your stomach, feeling it expand completely with air and then release it. Moving up to your heart, breathe in deeply through your heart and release. Finally, moving to your head, breathe in through your forehead and release sinking deeper into where you are. 

1. See your breathing becoming slower, your exhales lengthening with each breath.  

1. Surrendering allows us to be present for what is. Not judging or trying to change our environments, we can allow our own inner brilliance and the wisdom of our subconscious mind to emerge. In this relaxed and open state, know that you will be in a safe space, and that whatever emerges will be for your highest good. 

1. I’m now going to count from 10 to 1. You’re going to visualize yourself walking down a flight of stairs. When I reach one you’re going to enter a safe, comfortable space. A place of your choosing where you feel totally relaxed and at ease. 10- you can imagine yourself walking down a flight of stairs, 9, 8- where you are is your choice, maybe it’s a garden with a nice bench, the beach or another place where you feel relaxed, 7, 6, your breathing is slow and your exhales are lengthening, 5, 4- if you don’t have an environment in mind you can also keep relaxed awareness of your breathing, 3, 2- preparing to enter your special, safe place, 1- you've reached the bottom of the stairs and are opening the door to your own, special place. Whatever emerges is for you and you alone.  

Giving Reiki to group (25 min)

We will now transition to the Distance Reiki part of the workshop. Stay in your comfortable position and Ashley and I will start sending Reiki to you in about a minute and it will last for the next 20-25 minutes. We will let you know when the session is over. 

Writing their experience (3-5  min)

If you could please take about 3- 5 minutes to write  what you experienced and how you are feeling right now after receiving Reiki. Also if there are any feelings that came up during the session that you would like to share with us. 

• What did you feel during the session physically?

• What did you experience mentally or emotionally during the session?

• Do you feel differently than you did at the beginning of the workshop? If so, how?

When you are finished  please write in the chat box done so we can have an indication how the group is doing.

If you’re still writing that’s fine, you can also continue to write on you are own but we are going to go ahead and transition into sharing for those who are interested. We will take about 10-15 minutes to read who ever would like about the experience they had during the Reiki session. We would like to invite whoever would like to start first and as one person ends who ever is compelled to go next is free to go afterwards. For whoever feels comfortable sharing: What came up for you during the session? Did anything surprise you? Startle you? Did you learn something you didn’t expect to?

ABOUT HOSTS 

A.F. began her journey as a Reiki practitioner trained in the Usui Shiki Ryoho lineage in 2011. While she's completed master level training, she considers Reiki practice a lifelong journey in which she'll always be a student. She's lived in Brooklyn, New York for several years and provides private remote Reiki and guided meditation sessions on request-- (@energeticsource ).

Boshko Boskovic is the founder of Let’s Heal NYC, a private practice specializing in Reiki treatments. He is a 2nd degree Reiki practitioner trained & certified in the lineage of Dr. Mikao Usui. He trained with Minka Brooklyn founder Aki Hirata & Manu del Prete.  Boshko lives in Brooklyn, New York and provides individual & group remote Reiki sessions on request @letshealnyc and https://letshealnyc.com/. He spent 15 years implementing contemporary visual art programs for cultural institutions in New York City and internationally.

ABOUT HEKLER ASSEMBLY

HEKLER ASSEMBLY is a transnational space for art and cultural workers to share, discuss and collectively imagine new ways of instituting based on the principles of self-organizing, community care, critical thinking, political education, distribution of resources, and healing. With alternating hosts, we share practical, historical, and theoretical knowledge about collaborative, pedagogical, and governing models established in response to shifting regimes, colonial and neoliberal violence. We question and learn about radical hospitality and conviviality, eco-centered community organizing, instituting, and art practices that showcase the symptoms we need to transform. Most importantly we continue asking what can be the role of arts now and in the future. Assembly is envisioned as an open collaborative process that includes reading groups, conversations with practitioners, and the ANTI FEAR series. 

ANTI FEAR series are initiated in collaboration with New York-based artist and neurologist Sonja Blum. It is an evolving collective practice aiming in this time of crisis and change for a space decidedly between cultural/theoretical dialogue and therapeutic discourse. It is envisioned as a space in which we bring privately held fears into community with others' fears to embrace vulnerability and open collective experiments in community-building, trust, reciprocal care, and reimagining the commons. This work is explored through poetry, movement/body work, breathing exercises and meditations, readings, lectures and other practices that untie repressive knots and make us feel empowered, imaginative and hopeful.