RWP Episode #163: When do Labels Support or Hinder us? with Reiki Women Podcast

Join Bronwen Logan and Michaela Daystar in this episode of the Reiki Women Podcast as they delve into the nuanced topic of labels in the system of Reiki. 
From the profound implications of being called a 'Reiki Master' to the supportive nature of labels like 'beginner's mind,' this discussion covers the utility, limitations, and potential pitfalls of using labels in both practice and teaching. 
Discover how to navigate the labeling of Reiki levels, the importance of self-awareness, and the balance needed for a holistic approach to Reiki. 
Whether you're a practitioner or just curious, this episode will provide valuable insights into embodying the true essence of Reiki.

00:00 Introduction to the Reiki Women Podcast
01:46 Exploring the Concept of Labels in Reiki
02:26 The Power and Limitations of Words
04:40 The Three Levels of Reiki
11:08 The Misuse of Labels in Reiki Practice
16:18 The Journey to Mastery in Reiki
21:12 Reevaluating the Concept of Mastery
29:24 Understanding Attunement in Western Reiki
29:59 The Misconception of Mastery Without Practice
31:44 The Weight of Labels in Reiki Practice
32:28 Real-Life Examples of Mislabeling in Reiki
34:51 The Impact of Being Labeled 'Gifted'
38:55 Integrating Gifts Through Practice
46:25 The Importance of Fluidity in Reiki Learning
50:52 Upcoming Courses and Final Thoughts

Hosts
Bronwen Logan: https://ReikiwithBronwen.com
Carrie Varela: https://www.reikihealingsociety.com
Michaela Daystar: http://HeartscapesInsight.com

We now have our own email! reikiwomenpodcasts@gmail.com
Our own RWP Group discussion: Embodying Reiki
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Transcript

0:01

The point is not to become a master. The point is to embody the precepts in our life and to live in a way that is more true to what we, who and who we really are. I always remember someone saying that their dog was a Reiki Master welcome friends to the Reiki Women Podcast, an exploration into the profound depths of the system of Reiki. From a Japanese spiritual perspective and how that relates to our modern lives, we are keeping it real to Reikis origins, challenging the new age stereotype that things like. Crystals, chakras and angels are authentic aspects of the system. I'm Bronwyn Logan, and when I'm not writing best selling books about the Japanese system of Reiki, 75,000 readers and counting, I'm here debunking, outmoded reiki myths and coaching individuals and groups. Through my website, Reiki with Bronwyn. And I'm Mikayla de star, lead teacher and Weaver of Hardscapes Reiki connecting the dots between reiki and environmental and social justice because our individual healing cannot be extracted from healing relationship with the collective and with the land. And I'm Carrie Rela from the Reiki Healing Society here to help you transform your reiki practice into a thriving, prosperous business. 'cause while passion fuels your purpose, it's time to make it sustainable, authentic, and beautifully used. We're three women diving into the heart of Japanese Reiki. We're building a community that centers women's voices and inspires wellbeing. We're not just for women, we're for everybody. Come join the conversation. Hi and welcome to Reiki Women podcast. It's just two of us today. Carrie's off doing something else and we have a great subject today. Something that I'm sure we can get lots of. I'm gonna say meat. I'm a vegetarian. I find that weird to say, but a lot of meat out of, and it's the subject of labels. Do we find that labels are a helpful thing to have? they might be, they might also not be. And just looking at how we use them within the system of Reiki and, even just in our everyday life and how we can get labels to work for us and not against us. Mikayla, what do you think? Yeah, yeah. This is, um, kind of a conversation about conversations, right? About language, about the power of words, which we talked about, um, in a different context a few weeks ago. Uh, so kind of expanding that conversation around the power of words and the power of words to expand our understanding, to connect us, to help us to investigate our world, um, in some cases, the literal magic power of words. We talked about that a bit on that other episode. In this, in this conversation, we also wanna introduce the limitations of words and language and the ways in which labels. Of course in the context of our reiki practice, um, our roles as reiki practitioners, teachers, however we are labeled, um, and or just people in the world, um, exploring ourselves and our identities, how those labels can help us to understand ourselves better, uh, to be self-reflective about ourselves, to kind of follow pathways of inquiry. You know, sometimes once we have a certain label, a certain name, we kind of have a direction to follow. There's been certainly instances of that for me. On the other side of that, the way in which labels can box us in, can limit us, can give us too much structure, too much rigidity in how we understand ourselves and how we can then project that rigidity onto other people in ways that are not so helpful and not perhaps so in line with the spirit of the system of Reiki. Um, and, you know, this is. Uh, it's, it's a bit of an amorphous topic, but it's one that kind of, as we were chatting before jumping on here, we really were seeing as a subtext in a lot of different kind of challenging conversations that the two of us have found ourselves in inside of Reiki communities. And so it sounded like something that we could unpack a little bit and, you know, unpack from the perspective of, of the messiness of it, right? Like I, you know, it's one of those things where you start interrogating labels and you're like, well, my name is a label. You know, the name of my business is a label. You know, the name of of Reiki classes are labels. Where do we find great value in that? And then where does it become rigid? Um, and so I'd love to just, you know, start with that example of the, the labels that we put on, typically the three levels of reiki, the reiki classes that are most typically taught. Um, so depending on what lineage you follow, how you kind of work with your system, um, you know, most often those classes are simply called reiki, level one, level two, level three, or first degree, second degree. Third degree. For those who are more oriented towards, um, kind of orienting towards the Japanese origins of the system, they might use the Japanese words of den, okin and den the first teachings, the inner teachings, the mystery teachings of the system of reiki, which are labels that would be more traditionally used in Japan, not just for Reiki, but for, uh, a wide variety of spiritual arts and arts and martial arts and all of the things. Um, so, you know, let's just kind of start there. Um, we have these three levels. Um, it's pretty well understood. It's a common language around first degree, second degree, or third degree. And more increasingly a common language around. Um, although as a put a pin in it for a side conversation, those names are not always appropriately applied, right? We take the label of these Japanese names and we put them onto a class that's taught in a very Western tradition that might be a mislabeling, right? A, a, um, a, a misleading labeling of one's classes. So we'll hold that to the side for a sec. But even just that simple labeling of Reiki one, two, and three, that gives us a really, uh, valuable way of organizing information. There's a certain shared understanding, more or less with, you know, variation, uh, certainly, but a certain shared understanding of what sorts of components are taught in lit. Reiki one, Reiki two, Reiki three. What a graduate of those levels should know, should be able to do, what skills they should have. So there's a, a way in which those labels help us to have a shared understanding of this, this world. On the other hand, they are of course, uh, a box, right, that we put our reiki teaching and our reiki practice inside of, and that may or may not well conform to where we as a practitioner are in our practice. Um, the level of value that we receive from those classes, um, and the way in which these topics are not actually silos, right? You know, there's a way in which the whole system of reiki is into this incredible, beautiful, flowing, interconnected system. And when we kind of slice it into these three pieces, that doesn't always create an integrated practice. Is something that I have found. And so, you know, as practitioners, as teachers, we can understand that we can understand the utility of this shared understanding of what happens in these three classes. And we can introduce flexibility into that space. If we, you know, look back at the way that Reiki was taught from its origins and how most things were taught. If we go back in time, a couple hundred years, um, there was much less of this rigidity around, you know, a group of students all in the same box, moving through a system of practice at the same pace in the same way. And there was much more in individualization, much more of a teacher meeting a student where that student is and moving them at the pace that works for them or at the pace that the teacher has determined is the right pace. Much less of this siloing, this like boxing of. Those, um, experiences, that is an incredibly, um, time consuming way of teaching. Doesn't generally tend to work well with a modern, you know, way of doing things. And so we can use that utility with, uh, you know, I guess my question that I'm landing on with that is that where is it functional to bring in flexibility into that system and where is it really better to keep the structure of those particular labels? So I'm gonna pause right there, hand it over to you, see if you have any insights on that particular thing. And then if there are other labels that you would like to investigate. Yeah. Yeah. So interesting, just where you began with names, for example, being labels. I can see the benefit of a label giving you a pathway. For example, if I look at myself, so my name's Bronwyn, my name was spelled in the way that it was often spelled in Australia, which is B-R-O-N-W-Y-N. When I was about, I don't know, maybe 16, 17, uh, I looked at my name and I was doing research as to what it meant. And it turned out that in Wales, that name is actually the male version of my name, and the female version of my name is B-R-O-N-W-E-N. And I changed my name to the female version 'cause I'm a woman. So I was like, yep, okay, I'm gonna change that. I'm gonna be Bronwyn. And I think that this is very normal, in, our cultures as humans all around the world, that we get to a point where we transition from being, a child into an adult and we change something about ourselves. And often it is a name. I know lots of people who've changed their names in some small ways, big ways, all different ways. And it's where we start to choose our paths. And it was me making a stand for myself and feeling it. It helped me feel strong in myself. So this label was beneficial to me. And, I've. Stayed with that label. And I think as I've gotten older, I'm probably a little more flexible about that label, but, and when I was younger, I would've been much more like this is it. I love that I changed that and it set me on the path of being that name weirdly enough. I think that's quite common. Starting off where you left off, Mikayla, how do we know that a label is in its proper place? I think that's just such a great question, right? So how do we know that the label is accurate, that it's actually setting us on a right path? I think these are the things that we need to question in ourselves. So looking at the examples that you used of Reiki one, Reiki two, Reiki three, Auden, oc these labels that we are putting there, are they representative of the thing that they say they are? And I thought that was a great little side note. Yes, people using Japanese names for Western teachings is misleading. so we need to be thoughtful about what we are actually teaching and what we name that and be true to what we are teaching. It's okay to be teaching. Whatever it is that your teacher taught you, right? Instead of thinking, oh no, I should make it sound more like this because maybe it'll sound more, maybe it'll be more competitive in my area, and people might be more interested in it. Maybe it sounds more mysterious, maybe all these things, but is it a truthful label? And these are the things we need to think about when we are especially teaching and practicing a spiritual practice, because something that's spiritual is something that's deep inside of us and it's about finding out who we really are. It's not about putting on other people's caps and pretending to be other things. So finding that truth inside ourselves and that truth inside is often difficult to label. People will put labels on themselves when they're looking at inside of themselves and saying, oh, I'm like this, or I'm like that. And, and that may actually be limiting the, direction that they can flow into in their lives, we try to use words to express what it means to be Reiki, for example, very difficult. And sometimes we just use the words, to be, and we'll put b in capital letters and, we'll try all these different ways or being in the now, now capital letters, all these ways of trying to make us understand or experience what it means to be in the natural flow of the universe. And. That is almost wordless. It's almost label less, isn't it? Because a label in that situation it's almost there, almost like little obstructions along the way that we have to ho ourselves over to get back into the flow of this experience. So looking at the system of Reiki, we know that when USI first started teaching, Roshi, Doy said that he would sit opposite someone and just be Reiki. He's sitting in this energy with this student and there's no labeling happening there. It is just an experience of being in the energy. Then things begin to develop with the system of reiki. So. More students coming in, having to help people in different ways. How do I help someone who's very visual? Well, maybe symbols might help with that. Well, maybe if I do like a, a physical ritual of some sort that might be radio, it might develop into hands-on healing. There's all these different ways that, that we can see that the system developed to support everybody, because there's these different roots, and of course there's the precepts, which is working with the mind and helping the mind start shifting and changing. Just saying to someone don't be angry is not gonna make them not angry, but giving them the words that they can ponder, contemplate, bring into their life again and again and again. These are excellent tools to support us in having greater awareness of ourselves and answering that question, how do we know what a label's proper place is? Is very much about self-awareness. And I think the system of reiki is always drawing us into greater self-awareness. So I'm gonna leave it there for the moment. Yeah, I think that's really, uh, an important place to start with self-awareness in answering this question of when is a label in its proper place and self-awareness, whether that label is a personal label, like a name or a title, or a, an indicator of some kind, or if it's a name that we're using for a class, for example, is that self-awareness of what does this label, this name signify? What does it imply? And do those implica, are those implications true? Are they accurate? Are they, um, hyperbole? Right? Are they, are they, um, implying something that isn't actually true or isn't to the degree. And one of the things that, you know, we've talked about before, and that's come up in other contexts, um, is the label of master, you know, in the system of reiki, um, that third degree class, um, that reiki level three class is often called the masterclass, right? Or the, you know, reiki master level. And the implication there is that if you take this class, you will be a reiki master. And that's, uh, of course, very common within our communities is that once a person has gone through level three, that that's their, that label is bestowed upon them by, by their teacher, by their certificate. And it's very common to self label, self identify and to identify each other as reiki masters. And so if you think about, you know, self-awareness, and, and this is, so let me speak about myself because that was what I did. You know, I went through all three levels of reiki and about a year's time, more or less, um, with my first teacher in the Western tradition. Um, about 10 years ago. And, um, you know, felt very proud, very proudly took on the, the, the label of reiki master after that third degree class. But there was this, you know, this kind of nagging feeling of like, but am I a master of this though? Like, I've been practicing reiki for about a year. I've taken these classes. I've, you know, had clients sort of, you know, I've, I didn't even really have a self-practice at that point because self-practice wasn't emphasized in that original teaching space. Um, and so there was this incongruence for me, between this label that I had been given and that I had earned according to the structures that were commonly accepted in the community. Um, but I didn't actually feel that I had earned it. Right. I didn't feel like I was the master of anything related to reiki. I felt like I was very much a student who had, you know. Learned a variety of things and had been practicing them for about a year. Right? And the incongruence of having that weighty label, right, that heavy label, that label, that implies quite a lot. You know, if I thought about other people, like who would I identify as a master of something? A master of their craft, you know, what are the conditions under which I would say, yeah, that person is a master, certainly practicing for 15, 20 years, you know, consistently having, you know, a certain number of achievements, being recognized by their peers, by their teachers, by the people that they serve. Um, over time, you know, these are some of the qualities I would look to, to other people to say, yeah, that that is a master. I, I will happily put that label on that person. And I didn't have any of those things at that time. I still don't have most of those things, you know, even though people often will identify me as a reiki master and, and like, more and more I feel like I'm growing into that title. And when it is bestowed on me by other people who have, you know, who are in a position to have some sort of assessment about that, I accept it from them. I don't reject it. I don't say no, no, no. But um, you know, that was one of the first places that I really had to be in self-awareness around a label that was very commonly used within reiki. And I asked myself like, what is the utility of using this label for people who are so new? You know, for people who have, I mean, you know, of course many, uh, wide variety and how people offer their classes and you know, how long the classes are, whether they require a certain amount of practice time in between levels, you know, before they'll do the next one. But generally speaking, you know, it's, it's fairly easy to have gone through all three of those levels in reiki in a pretty short period of time. Right. Uh, as little as a single weekend, you know, in some cases. Um, and, you know, really we're beginners often, many of us are beginners when we take that on, even if we have been practicing for some years, or oftentimes. I was in a conversation with someone recently who had done, you know, their level one and two a long time ago. They hadn't really been practicing for a number of years. They're like, I'd like I'm, you know, would like to get my master level now. And you know, so we had that conversation about like, well, you know, if you have been out of practice, you have not been practicing for these number of years. Would it best serve you to seek a level three and to get this LA label of master, or would it serve you to spend a little bit of time rebuilding the relationship with your practice inherent in that? I think, and part of, I think what I really started to feel uncomfortable about is the imposition of a very goal-driven linear, like outcomes driven way in which Western society views learning anything, right? The point is to move through the whole thing, to get to the end, to get, to get to the best thing, the highest level that you can get, to get there as quickly as possible so that you have arrived The system of Reiki and other spiritual systems. Simply don't operate like that, right? It's not a linear get to the goal as soon as possible type of thing. And I really do think that part of what's challenging about the landscape of Reiki professionals now is that there are a number of us who do view it that way and who are viewing it with a more transactional, um, perspective. That the point is to get that master label so that then you can do X, Y, Z, or you can view yourself X, Y, Z or you can represent yourself in a certain way. Versus the point is to spiral through a learning and experiential process that changes fundamentally my experience of myself and my life and my relationships. That deepens my experience of life. That gets me to the outcomes described in the precepts and in other places inside of the system of Reiki, which is the point. The point is not to become a master. The point is to embody the precepts in our life and to live in a way that is more true to what we, who and who we really are. And so if we take that self-assessment, you know, and that assessment of the purpose of the system, of Reiki itself, and then look at the utility of the labels, does this actually serve me? We may come to a different conclusion. And for me, in terms of the, the title of master, the label of master, I, I determined it did not serve me to take on that label. Um, that it much better served me in terms of how it helps me focus my attention, how it helps me talk about my practice, how it helps me feel a sense of duty to the diligence of my practice, a sense of of. You know, self-awareness around it to, you know, describe myself with labels, like practitioner, like teacher, things that are more utility like. The thing that I am doing is practicing reiki. The thing I am doing is teaching reiki. Uh, therefore I am a reiki practitioner, Reiki teacher. And to leave mastery, not as a label, but as a potential outcome of being diligent in my practice over time, something that I may grow into that I may explore into, I might, you know, expand into over time, you know, and probably in a way that I'm not super even aware of, right? If mastery comes upon us quietly and gently when we're not even noticing it. What a beautiful way to become a master, right. To live into it rather than having it be a label that has been put on us. Um, so yeah, I will pause there. That's, uh, that's, that's where that question took me. The question of self responsibility. I'm so into this, I have met so many people in my life who've said, oh yeah, I'm a reiki master. And they've never practiced on themselves. They've never maybe even had a client. They've maybe never taught a class, but they did a class. They took a class somewhere along the line and they got something that said that they were a reiki master. They're just words. That in itself is misleading and, I think it's misleading for themselves as well. It's like, oh, I've been handed something, now I am this and I never have to do anything about it ever. And I am, which to me seems very much at odds with the actual practice. I do find that, something that I thought might have changed years ago, but still happening. I think people love this idea of being handed something that's so special and, and wonderful and, sounds like special. Wonderful. Right. But the problem is you said it yourself, Mikayla, it's quite a weighty title. Right. When we have such a weighty title on us and we can't live up to that title 'cause we have no idea what it really means, what is that? It is just words, two words, reiki master. It could lead us to doing or being inauthentic in our lives because we are trying to be that thing, which we have no idea what that actually might mean. And I think with that question, how do we know what a label's proper place is, is is in that story and it's not the proper place for that label. And when we do something inauthentic, it's not a part of a spiritual path because it's not about actually finding out about who we are. I was thinking, you know, as you get older. This idea of like, when a baby is born, a baby doesn't have labels. Yeah. But is learning labels. And then we go through life, all of this stuff happens. Lots of labels, good and bad labels. And then when we get old, we start to lose our labels as well. And we start to release things and realize that we don't need to hold onto all of these things that we've held onto quite preciously, possibly in our lives. And we are letting go. And it's this cycle of life in our lives, when we are in the middle of our lives and we are taking on all these labels, we need to think about what the labels are. And the thing is that we've been taught that everything is very linear as well. I have to do a reiki one, then I can go on, do a reiki two, then I can go on and do a Reiki three. But, as I get older, okay, I'm not that old. I'm not near death, but I have in the last couple of years realized in my reiki practice that I don't really wanna teach Reiki one, two, and three. So I'm much more interested in meeting people wherever they're at and. Bringing in whatever is needed into that environment to support people with getting the most out of the system of reiki in their lives. So it's this letting go of needing to hold onto these elements that I think can hold us back. when I first started, I also, like a lot of other people were like, oh, I wanna learn the next level, and it's got symbols and it's got mantras and can I do distance healing when I do level two? Or what happens in level three, is there, is there something magical that happens? And, it's this whole thing. Very linear thinking. But something that I've learned from practicing is that. Wherever I am, that's where I am. And it doesn't matter whether I've done reiki one, two, or three, what I've learned, it's how I am living in this moment that makes my life. I'm gonna leave it there for the moment, Mikayla. Yeah. Yeah, there's, there was a couple of, um, kinda anecdotes that were like coming through my mind, like examples as you were talking and kind of all kind of around this, this question that you're posing of, like, where's the label in its right place and where it is not. And one of the things that, you know, kind of staying with the, the master label message, uh, or example is that the, the. Easy application of that label to one who has completed. Level three is very much tied into the Western conception of attunement and the misunderstanding of that practice from its original form of reju. Wherein in the Western form, really attunement is all you need. Like you, once you're attuned to level one, you can do all the level one stuff. Once you're attuned to level two, you can do all the level two stuff. Once you're attuned to level three, you can do all the level three stuff. Obviously there's techniques that are typically taught at those three levels, but in extreme examples, I mean many of us have heard of, you know, that teacher who like literally the entire class is you got your attunement, you're good to go off, you go, you know, you're a master. Now you've been attuned, right? This, which is an extreme example, a rare and extreme example, but it definitely does happen. But even when techniques are taught the, the idea that once you are attuned to level three. You are a master because that energy has been given to you and that is divorced from diligent practice of techniques over time. That yes, you learn these techniques. Now you can do these techniques 'cause you memorize them. But really the point is you have been attuned to level three. And so you have this energy that flows through you without your effort. And that is simply not what the system of Reiki originally taught. That is not the worldview of what reiki is from its intended place in Japanese culture. Um, the word reiki attached to that concept that what it takes to be spiritual, to have spiritual mastery is for a teacher to attune you to that energy that doesn't exist in the original form. And you know, it is my extreme position that the label of reiki really shouldn't be put on that belief system. I'm not saying that that's a, there's anything wrong with that belief system. It's not the one that I have anymore, but it's not reiki. And so we, we misunderstand this, uh, way in which how we even access reiki is understood. It's through attunement. Therefore practice is almost secondary auxiliary in your mastery. You can go years without having practiced any reiki and then get your level three attunement. There you go, your master, right? As in the example that I gave before. And what that does is it shifts our attention away from practice, diligent practice. It's right there in the precepts. Just for today, I will practice diligently or I will be true to my way and my being, which is part and parcel of practicing diligently. Um. It separates out mastery from practice in a way that does us all a profound disservice because our, the, the benefits, the deep, profound life-changing benefits of the system of reiki comes through practice and it comes through diligent, humble practice. The, some of the outcomes of that, I've, a couple of examples came to mind. Um, I was, I, I offered a distance reiki session for something that was happening in the world. Some I think, natural disaster that was happening in the world. Called for a gathering of folks to come and, you know, be in reiki meditation on behalf of this situation. And, uh, a colleague came, she brought her teenage daughter. And she said, my daughter, you know, wants to participate. She's also a reiki master. I've attuned her to reiki master so you know she can do this. And I was like, okay, cool. You know, come on in. Um, and so then I, you know, described we're gonna spend about 20 minutes, you know, in distance reiki, and then we will, you know, have a conversation or whatever it is. And the, the woman said, um, you know, could you give some directions for my daughter? 'cause she's not that she hasn't really practiced distance reiki and, which is fine. But what stood out to me was that she had already labeled this child as a master. And when I looked at the child's face, both when she said, this is my daughter, she's a master. And when she said, oh, could you give her instruction? 'cause she doesn't actually know how to do that, even though she's a master. The girl's face was so. I'm not gonna label the emotion, but there was a lot of emotion there, there was a lot, there was tension in her face. It seemed, um, at this incongruence right of being, of stepping into an adult space, being given this label of master and then being outed as not actually knowing the practices that mastery implies. Right? And so that, that came to mind. It was a painful moment for me. Um, and, and I could just, I could see the weight again, the weight of that label on this child, um, in a way that didn't serve her and, and didn't serve the group in that moment. And so this divorce of this label of master from practice, like what it actually takes to gain mastery, I think does us all a, a tremendous disservice. You know, this, this weightiness of labels and the way that they can weigh us down, but on the other hand, they can, they can, as we said before, help to, to guide us, help us to, you know, focus our attention and therefore, you know, can be helpful. Um, you know, another one that kind of shows up in our communities a lot, um, that we are chatting about is the label. Like something like gifted, you know, an idea that we have been bestowed spiritual gifts and that those are inherent. And again, a label that can sometimes divorce us from practice and can, can kind of give us an opportunity to like set ourselves aside from, from other people. Now, in a healthy expression of that, it's a way for us to identify where we're strong, where we feel inclined, where we're drawn, you know, what direction towards what type of practice we might be called. Um, identifying our strengths and owning them and naming them and saying, Hey, I am actually strong in this area. Um, I have, um, inclination towards this area that I would like to grow and develop, but the, the slippery slope there is the, you know, way in which we can separate ourselves out from other people if we. Take on or bestow on other people, this idea of being gifted, uh, and divorce that from practice. You know, again, separate that out from what you know it takes. And I have seen that label also become a weight for people, um, when they may have strength in a particular, uh, area, a particular type of sensitivity, a particular type of mental focus, a particular type of skill, artistry. And the emphasis is on that natural gifting without practice and containment and diligence coming alongside that. Uh, and there can be a, a way in which that can leave us enough flailing. Like, oh, I have this inclination. I have this, this thing that's maybe even very distracting because it's like more present for me than, than maybe for others. But I don't know what to do with it. I don't know where to put it. I don't know how to, how to work with it, how to embody it, how to make it more useful for me. I'm just gifted. Um, of course other expressions of that can go into really serving ego and like having us separate ourselves out as better than that is certainly, you know, a common thing that, that many of us have gone through. I have had my own versions of that, you know, throughout my life of wanting to, you know, needing to feel acknowledged for specialness and kind of taking on that sort of label. But I think the more interesting challenge to pay attention to with something like being labeled gifted is the weight that it puts on us. Um, there's, you know. Kind of a cliche that often is true that children who were labeled as academically gifted or put in like the gifted and talented program, gate program, um, is what it's called in the United States as kids. You know, that kind of puts you on this track of being academically gifted. Oftentimes those kids find themselves not well supported in integrating that gift, whatever that giftedness is, um, into their lives and don't, aren't given support in the ways in which they might struggle, right? Because anytime we have a gifting, like a something in ourselves that's grown, there's gonna be something else that's challenged, right? There's gonna be some other aspect of ourself that we are gonna need some more support. We're gonna need, um, some more study. Um, and if we're just simply labeled as gifted, or we take on the label as of gifted or special in some way. We can neglect the need for self-development and self-reflection, and others might also neglect that in us. And it's, it's tragic when a child who's been identified as gifted is then expected to just be an exceptional person without really fully developing themselves. In terms of reiki, we can see similar things. If we have a particular spiritual sensitivity or we have, uh, a particularly high empathy, or we have psychic abilities, you know, our intuition is so strong that it's kind of tipping into more of the realm of psychic abilities or, you know, we have a particularly powerful ability to focus. Um, for example, uh, that's a really amazing place to start. That's a breadcrumb to follow. That's something that we can focus our practice on. But we always wanna come back to that label is not the, is not the experience itself. And to integrate whatever that gifting is into our full self requires practice. It requires diligence, and it requires, uh, nurturing the other parts of ourselves that maybe aren't labeled as gifted. And to allow those things to be just as important to us. So, um, yeah, just, uh, another, another place where labeling can help us to focus our attention. And at the same time, if we're not careful, it might become too heavy of a weight and stunt us in other parts of ourselves. In the system of reiki. On the memorial stone for Macau issuing it said that he had quite a few setbacks and that he practiced suyo, which actually the translation of suyo is, chu is master and girl can mean a practice or to go to something. It's like practicing to become a master, right? That's what he was doing. And in martial arts, they use the term ug to mean austere training, but we know that he did a lot of training. It wasn't actually just like, even though often stories about him sound like that, that he just sort of became this thing not at all. So definitely. A long path to that. And that is acknowledged by his students on the memorial stone. He does say that anyone can do reiki,, hands on healing and, and meditations. And it's true, we, everybody can do it from whether you're a kid to an old person, but it doesn't preclude the fact that you don't have to do anything to do that. He's not saying you don't have to do anything. He's just saying that it's something that anyone can do. Just because you're you are a child doesn't mean that you can't learn a meditation practice. Or place your hands on yourself with intention and the same if you're an old person or you whatever. I think that's a good thing to remember because I think that this, idea of something magical happening with Zui, has put people also on a different path with that labeling and the idea of a reiki master. And just on the terms of reiki master, just going back to that for a moment, I always remember someone saying that their dog was a Reiki Master Maybe that dog is a ster. I dunno. But what I can say is that what they were actually meaning was that someone didn't attune on their dog. It sort of does, magnify that idea that you were talking about McKayla, that apparently an attunement meant to make you something. that's actually not the way that it works. And I think that dog was probably way smarter. Anyway. Right. Dogs don't need attunement. They don't need practices. You know, animals just are so much more of their natural inherent reiki than we are because there's much less in the way of them just being, they're not going around labeling themselves. They're not, we don't need to call them a master, they're just, they're a dog. And a dog is a spiritually evolved being. I love this idea that we sometimes forget about, I was talking about going inside, being, finding spiritual path, but you took it into that place of being whole. And I think being whole is what we are working towards, right? And we can call it whatever, balanced, whatever, you know, I love the idea of this being whole. In reality, we are whole right now, but we have a lot of stuff that's sort of in our way from seeing, feeling, experiencing that and being gifted, could very possibly take us away from being whole because it could be an imbalance. And it can be a weight, which can mean that, oh, I have to be whatever this thing is. And then we forget these other aspects of ourselves. And if we are very much into the intuitive, are we grounded? I always say, how many psychics have I seen who are fantastic, but really ungrounded their lives are, are shit. Right? And, and yet they're out there really helping people intuitively and it's just bringing it home to the self and on a totally different way. I can see that with, there is this person in politics at the moment that everyone's going, oh, he's such a genius. Yeah. And yet I heard him actually say, I don't believe in empathy. Now tell me that that's balanced. That is not balanced. And to be a genius does not mean that you are a whole person. That you are a person who has an understanding or self-awareness of themselves and others. If you're a talking about the person, I think you are. He also said that empathy is an epidemic. Yeah. Right. It's a, it's a, it's an epidemic that must be stopped. Yeah. Too much empathy in the world. Yeah. So being kind to others, It's a very natural, state that we have. But if we have a lot of pain in our lives, it's very hard for us to connect with that thought. And, we need to work on that pain. Finding this whole balance, we might think we are really great at something, which is fantastic, as you were saying, but thinking about how do we find balance and self-awareness in our lives? And by using labeling, maybe gifted whatever special, can actually take us away from finding that balance, in our lives. Because we move into this ego driven, plays that we start to identify with and. That becomes who we are in truth. You know, I mean, everybody's different and we've all got different qualities and skills and I don't believe that makes any one of us better than another. Absolutely. I wanted to circle back to, um, you know, this idea that labels have a healthy, balanced place in our communication. They, they are necessary for the way that humans communicate as we're gonna dramatically change how we communicate with each other and stop using words altogether. We're going to continue to have labels and they are useful, necessary, but then they have these. Limitations, you know, they can, they can, uh, be applied too broadly as we were just discussing with the label of master, and they can be applied too rigidly. And I wanted to circle back to that idea of it being rigid, the way in which labels can stifle us in addition to kind of making us too loose and, and open. Um, you know, and if we go back to the, the labels of Reiki one, two, and three, and the idea that these buckets, you know, these boxes kind of have their contents, right? And reiki one, you learn these things and reiki two these things and they don't blend, right? You don't learn these things until you have gotten into this label of Reiki two. As opposed to a more fluid experience that, again, this is a very integrated system. All of these elements that are in these different labels, um, are entirely connected to each other, which means that in a student's experience and a practitioner's experience. If one is diligently practicing and is really paying attention to our practice, things from this box are going to bleed in to this one. Right? They're gonna happen sooner than they should potentially. Um, or they things that you're supposed to, you know, have in this box might not actually show up for you until you're over here. Right? And that, that is part of our natural diversity as learners and as practitioners. And also a reflection of how engaged we are in our learning and practice process. And that a really poignant example came through as you were talking from, you know, my current, uh, cohort of students. You know, one of the reasons that I shifted to this nine month program version where we do still have reiki one, Reiki two, Reiki three, but it's the same group of students over this longer container to work through those. So there is much more flexibility, there's more fluidity. And if, I know, I observe from my group of students that they're ready for something. From Reiki three when we're in Reiki two, then that's gonna come in because they're ready. Right. And that happened for us early on in, showed in reiki one, one of our students, um, was having a health crisis and wasn't in class that week. And then the rest of the students were really concerned about her and they're like, huh, I wish we could share Reiki with her, but we haven't learned distance reiki yet. And I was like, no, no, no, no, no. Come on, circle up. Let's, you know, let's do this. Right. You absolutely can do that. I was like, do you feel connected to her? Yeah, absolutely. Do you, you know, are, are, are we feeling in our reiki practice right now? Yep. We've been at it for two hours today. They have all been practicing very diligently, so it was very easeful, very fluid, you know, really a no-brainer that we would circle up and do a distance session for this person. And I told them like, we're gonna learn some explicit technique for this in Openin and reiki too. But you don't need that technique. Really what you need is what you already have. The ability to drop into your center, to get grounded, spacious, and connected, to feel your connection with this other person. And to meditate for a period of time in a way that I'm gonna guide you. Y'all can already do that very well. And I know that about you. And then we had this beautiful, you know, distant session. And so it was this really lovely moment of allowing the labels to guide the curriculum. 'cause that's helpful for me as a teacher, but not allowing those labels to be a rigid box that prevented us from doing something that felt important, that felt powerful. And that did accelerate that group of students, uh, from then on, right? Because then when we circled back to those techniques in Koden, it wasn't new to them, it was familiar. They were like, oh, right, I remember this. Now I have a little more context, I have more technique, but this is familiar. I already know this. I already have confidence in this. It was a really beautiful moment. Yeah. And you know what? There's a step further then, and that is 'cause I've done the same thing with students and with myself possibly as well. You know? So I think that thing of first knowing something, becoming familiar with something, learning then the ritual for that, giving us the possibly more confidence, and structure. And then the next step is then losing that again and going back to that beginning. Exactly. It's this cycle and we, so we need things at different times in our lives and for everybody that's going be different how that works for us. Is there anything you'd like to mention before we. Well, I, I would love to mention that this podcast is sponsored by us and, uh, give us an opportunity to just share anything that's coming up, if that feels good to you. Um, I will, let's see. I will mention that my course on the book, on the book of Joy is starting this weekend, um, embodying Joy and there is still time to jump in on that class. It'll be a deep dive through the practices and principles presented in the Book of Joy. Uh, a lot of overlap with the system of reiki and also other systems involved in that. Um, and I am, um, adding new classes to my self-study, uh, classroom and library, uh, which is over on my website. So a fun place to check out, um, easily accessible, shorter classes that you can sit down and cozy up with on your own time. That's a little bit of what's coming up for me. What's coming up for you, Bronwyn? Hmm. Well, um, yeah, I've just been adding to my own classes too that are there on my website. You can do classes on animal reiki. These are on demand classes, if you want your dog to be a Reiki master, no. Is that what it is? Attuning dogs? Not at all. But, um, it might, it might help you understand why you might not wanna attune your dog. That's probably a good one to have a look at. So a lovely class on that. Just to finish off today, I was thinking about labels, and I did say at the very beginning that, there are some labels that really support us. They're not all bad, right? It's not like, oh, a label means a bad thing. Labels can help us. Just like we were talking about ritual. You know, things can help us along our way, on our path. And I thought of one word that is a label that I think is beneficial to most everyone, especially in the system of reiki. And that's beginner's mind. So labeling ourselves as beginners, having that beginner's mind with everything that we come to, and, that leaves us open to learn, to find, curiosity, joy, potential. It's all there in beginner's mind. Thanks for sharing with us today. It's been fun. Thanks McKayla. See you, Carrie, wherever you are and we'll see you all next week. Lots of love. Alright. See you next time.