My Story - How Reiki Found Me
Reiki found its way into my life in late 2016. My friend, at the time, offered to do a trade. I was going to share with her a yoga session and she would offer me a reiki session. In the cool Autumn, I offered her a yoga class in a warm dance studio that we both grew up dancing in. At this time, I had been teaching yoga full time for over a year while also completing my bachelors in Biology. After the yoga session, I remember asking “so…. what is reiki?” I had no idea what I agreed to, but I was open to receiving. We then went over to my house and I received my first reiki session. I felt a deep peace. The only way I could explain it at the time was that it felt as if I was in the deepest rest of savasana while my body was being infused with love, light, and joy. I saw flashes of violet , blue and green and geometrical patterns dancing. After that first session, I asked where she received her training and within a few months I was at the door step to the home of my Reiki Master, Natalie Imbier.
At this time it was early spring of 2017. I drove through the winding roads of western, MA enjoying the hour-long travel to Natalie’s home. I was a month away from graduating College, almost two years into teaching yoga, beginning my relationship with my RJ, who is my husband now, and was ready for adventure! My training with Natalie was held in the comfort of her sweet home and I had the immense joy of receiving private training with her. I was overfilled with awe when I felt the heat emmanating out of my hands after I received my attunement and was practicing reiki on myself. I truly felt so grateful that this healing gift of reiki was a part of me, and of course, still is.
I started practicing everyday before bed, in college or on anyone who would let me! I deeply cherish those trusting yoga students who allowed me to practice reiki on them in the early days of my practice. I didn’t know how much reiki would become my life and how much I enjoyed serving others through this powerful, yet simple healing technique. Ever since my first training with reiki, this loving Source energy has been guiding me along my journey to help align my consciousness with who I truly am.
2017 passes by and it was the exact adventure I was calling in. It was the first year of RJ and I’s relationshp and we really go to know each other through going on a 7 week road trip journey across the US and living for a month at an Ashram in Virginia. We came back to Massachusetts after our travels and stayed for a few more months. RJ had decided he wanted to move back home to New Jersey and so I decided I was going to move with him. Before I moved to NJ, I wanted to receive my 2nd degree training. So almost 1 year later after my 1st degree training, I found myself again at the door step of Natalie’s home in the winter of January 2018. Looking back, I can see now that this 2nd degree training solidified my path as a healer.
After my second degree training I wanted to give reiki to as many people, in MA, as I possibly could until I moved to NJ at the end of February 2018. I noticed that I could feel a stronger current of energy flowing through me as I offered these healing sessions. I also started receiving images and picking up on the emotions and thoughts of the clients I was working with. I didn’t know at the time, but I was beginning my journey as an Intuitive Healer. During one session I began thinking about death and I thought to myself “oh, why are you thinking about that now? Not during this reiki session” And I tried to remove the thought from my mind and continue on with the healing session. Afterwards, she said to me “you know, I can’t help but think that reiki would have be so helpful for my sister who had passed away.” I realized in that moment that I am truly picking up on my clients thoughts and emotions and much of what I experience during these sessions aren’t my own thoughts and emotions. This began my journey of fine-tuning my intuitive abilities.
After moving to NJ, I needed to build up a community. I applied to over 20 different yoga studios. I was able to find a few studios that hired me and this began my introduction into this new culture of New Jersey. Through yoga, I was able to intimately connect with students who were also interested in Reiki. I was able to travel to people’s home and continue to share this beautiful and nurturing reiki practice.
Now, early in 2018 I decided to buy my plane ticket to Peru for my 300 hour Yoga Teach Training. As I was developing community in NJ, I was also planning to embark on this wild journey. I had never traveled out of the country by myself and I was definitely nervous! My car also broke down a few week before I planned to travel and cost me $2,400 to fix which was all my savings and any money I was going to use to travel. Thankfully, I had so much support from friends and family and was financially able to go. This journey forever changed my life. It awakened, within me, deep remembrance of my ancestors and my own lineage of healers. I felt like I came home in the mountains of Peru. That trip birthed a new understanding of myself and my place in the world. I was then able to travel to Peru 4 times in one year from July 2018 - May 2019 teaching teacher training for School Yoga Institute. Each journey unraveled another layer of who I truly am.
<<I will share my story about how my travels to Peru initiated my awakening to my Purpose in the Lifetime. I will also explain more in another story about my connection with Holy Fire III Reiki and how it came into my life. For now I will skip ahead and briefly explain my next two trainings of Holy Fire III Reiki Master & Karuna Holy Fire III Reiki Master. >>
The reason I had to stop traveling to Peru after May 2019 was because I found out I was pregnant, while in Peru! It was May 8th (my birthday) and my cycle was a week late. There are no stores you can run to and just grab a pregnancy test so I had a friend at the retreat center travel with me to a clinic where they were able to take a blood test. When the results came back “positivo” I was shocked, happy, afraid, out of my body, unsure, excited and all of the emotions. I spent another more week in Peru, finishing the training, and then was very excited to come back home to RJ.
A few month before I became pregnant I had reached out to Natalie and asked if we could do the Master Training, I was ready. She said “Yes! But it will be with Holy Fire III Reiki which is different than the Usui Light Reiki” ( Usui Light Reiki is what I had been attuned to for my Level 1 & 2 Training). I can’t explain the full feeling of hearing this news besides a feeling of being blessed. I felt so grateful that I was able to receive this Holy Fire III energy. although I had learned nothing about it at the time.
My Master training was planned for August of 2019. I traveled back up North to MA and spent a lovely 3-days in the beautiful New England Summer at the home of my Reiki Master. I received my training. which included ignitions, placements, and healing experiences, as a private training with my dear Reiki Master. This truly changed my life. I found a gift, a true treasure. Holy Fire III Reiki healed parts of myself that I was holding onto for so long! It was profound. During that training, I also felt a kick from my daughter, Lila for the first time!
After this Master Training I began working out of my first office space in Red Bank, New Jersey! It was such an exciting time to have a professional, sacred space that I could host these private session. I started teaching trainings within the first month of receiving my certification and have since trained over 40 students and 8 students have worked with me all the way through Master Level . I am so honored and so blessed to be on this journey. My life shifted from focusing on yoga to healing through reiki, ceremony, guided meditations, guided visualizations, crystals, chakra balancing and intuitive messages.
The more I worked with Holy Fire III Reiki the more my intuition developed. I began offering intuitive readings after all my reiki sessions that would last anywhere between 15-30 minutes. The intuitive messages I was receiving were related directly to the root cause of an imbalance that was showing up in the individual’s energetic or physical body. These intuitive readings were so helpful for the people I worked with that I continued to develop this ability to offer clearer messages.
After Lila was born and the pandemic limited physical connection, I started to shift my business online. I now host most of my trainings, sessions and programs online so that I can full time care for Lila and connect to people all over the world. My family and I have since moved to Indiana and so I continue to connect with my clients and community through distant healing sessions.
I received my Karuna Holy Fire III Reiki Master Training online with William Lee Rand in August 2020. This training opened my intuitive abilities to an even greater extent. I now separate the reiki healing sessions from the intuitive reading. When I work with someone, I first offer them the healing session on one day and then the next day they receive the reading so that they can integrate the healing experience and then receive the messages that came through.
Reiki has profoundly changed my life and will continue to do so. This energy is with me always. It is a direct connection to Source and through this connection I remembered my purpose, can connect to my Higher Self, Intuition, Spirit Guides and Source. I know I am always guided and that is something that can never be lost. One of my greatest joys is sharing these trainings with others so that my students can witness the magic of who they truly are and be guided by the truth of Spirit, always.
Lots of love,
Ashley
