In this episode, we introduce four presenters of the Reclaiming Joy: Healing Grief Together virtual series taking place December 12 through 15, 2022. Up first is Annette Rugolo who explains the importance of space clearing in our homes and workplaces to aid in our healing. Too often the sadness, anger, and fear left in the home after a death, divorce, or another difficult life event, stay in the home long after the event, inhibiting our healing process. Space clearing removes this energy allowing for more anabolic energy to enter.

Next, Courtney Burton of Courtney Burton Coaching shares how she uses creativity to assist her clients to process their feelings, find forgiveness, and discover the good in life. As a musician and creative, she speaks from personal experience and professional acumen, utilizing what she has learned in her decades of leading others to help others work with their grief.

Barb Ryan of Wisdom Sister Studio is our third guest who introduces us to Wisdom Listening, a method she uses with her clients that allows them to feel seen, heard, and understood. This powerful, deep listening technique enables the speaker to process their thoughts without interruption or advice – something we all need when we are working through these difficult times.

Rounding out the show is Amy Nesdahl, Reiki Master and energy healer who has helped hundreds of people reduce stress and anxiety while promoting relaxation and healing. She shares how deep healing is possible when a skilled professional delivers energy to your body, improving the flow and balance of your energy. 

To learn about the online event, and to register, visit Grief.NATwinCities.com.


[00:00:07.660] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Welcome to Green Tea Conversations, where we delve into the pages of Natural Awakenings magazine and talk to the professionals who share their expertise on natural health with you. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, and today we're visiting with Annette Rugolo, who is an environmental healer, master, dowser, teacher, and author and Annette has been with us quite a few times before and is always a pleasure to have on the show. Annette, welcome back.

[00:00:38.640] - Annette Rugolo, Guest

Thank you, Candi. It's always wonderful to be here.

[00:00:42.150] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Oh, we are so excited to have you on the show. And I just want to let people know today's show is all about learning about some of the presenters and practitioners who will be a part of our grief conference on December 4 called Reclaiming Joy: Healing Grief Together. And this is going to be held again in December 4th from 09:30 A.m until 04:30 P.m at the Corondolet Center. And so we are called to do this work to help people to be able to kind of work through or be able to really start to do some deep work around grief, especially before the holidays. So whether that grief is something that you're experiencing from the loss of a loved one, perhaps it's a divorce, it's a change in your lifestyle, maybe a loss of a job. There's so many different ways that we grieve, and we just want to be able to really do some deep inner work and give people some tools that they can use to continue that journey after the retreat, and Annette has been very generous in wanting to be a part of this and in being one of our guest presenters, our invited presenters.

[00:02:02.370] - Candi Broeffle, Host

And Annette is going to be talking about Space Clearing and why it's so important for people who are grieving. So, Annette, why don't you tell us a bit about Space Clearing? What is it and how does it work?

[00:02:18.340] - Annette Rugolo, Guest

So, Space Clearing kind of what the title says is about clearing your space. So it's an understanding that in our spaces, in our homes, even our offices where we spend time, there are energies. And some of this energy is uplifting and wonderful, and some of it is not. So everything, there's a saying I really like to use, everything is energy. So everything, including our emotions, our thoughts, all of that, everything we create with our emotions creates an energy. So we can create high vibrational energy with unconditional love and joy and clarity and healing. But we also and based on what this world in this country has been through in the last years, there's also been individual and collective energy creating grief, sadness, this emotional energy of fear, of doubt, of anger. All of that energy that we create with our emotions or our mental body, our thoughts, hangs out once it's created, it's there, it lives, right? So that energy lives in our spaces, in our environment. And I see it or feel it as energetic dust and it's these dust particles as energetic dust particles, or sometimes it's clouds of energy, like this huge black cloud that hangs in the corner or the ceilings of our space.

[00:04:18.940] - Annette Rugolo, Guest

And when enough of this energy collects in our space, it begins to affect us. So we try to raise our vibration, we try to stay hopeful and positive. But in this energy that's been created either by ourselves or by somebody else, or somebody else has brought it into our space, that energy starts affecting us negatively. And it's really difficult to stay in this place of healing and positivity with all of that energy around us.

[00:04:57.260] - Candi Broeffle, Host

And I just want to say for people who might be thinking, wow, this sounds really kind of woo woo and this goes back to thinking positively and that type of thing, it really doesn't. And if we are honest with ourselves, there are spaces that we walk into and it just doesn't feel right. It just feels, for lack of better word, yucky. Right. You just feel like heavy and dark and it just and it might not, I mean, hopefully it's not in your home, but it might be. But it could be when you walk into a conference room after somebody has had an argument or a debate about something and it feels like you could feel that energy as you walk in. And so this is really talking about if you are grieving a loss or you are grieving a life change that is happening to you and you are already in kind of that darker space or kind of lower vibrational energy. And then if your home or your work space also has leftover energy, dust of lower vibration energy, it's really going to be hard for you to be able to kind of heal and be able to start your journey toward healing.

[00:06:21.860] - Annette Rugolo, Guest

Exactly. I do consultations, I'm an environmental healer. So one of the things I do is go into people's spaces. And once we have a healed environment, a healed home, that home energetically can then support us in our own healing. It's the inner and outer. And so when you work with both, so I love what you're doing with this event is healing aspects from all levels, all ways of healing. So there's a lot of internal healing that we can do and focus on. But when we have the support, the energetic support of our homes, it's that connection with the inner outer. And our homes can then support what the inner work is, what we're trying to do on the inner levels.

[00:07:28.090] - Candi Broeffle, Host

It is. And I know people have heard us have our conversations before, but you've done a lot of space clearing and environmental healing in my homes and it is nothing short of miraculous how different it feels when after you have done your work with us and even to the level. I mean, my husband is kind of a skeptic, of all things, and he has felt the difference immediately after you have left. And it supports us better throughout the years, right? It's just kind of this amazing thing that happens. So let's talk a little bit about the retreat itself and what you will be presenting on. So you're going to be talking about space clearing.

[00:08:18.810] - Annette Rugolo, Guest

Yes. So healing the energy of your space. So one of the things I love to do is guided meditations, visualizations. So one of the things that will happen during my presentation is I'll be introducing helping people connect with the quantum field on a conscious level, where we have access to these beautiful high vibrational frequencies, these light frequencies, quantum colors. And so I've been working with light frequencies for over 20 years, and I bring them into a space to help uplift and transform the energy of a space. So one of the things that I will be leading, guiding people into is a visualization where they can energetically connect to their own homes. And we're going to actually do space clearing on everybody's homes. So they're going to basically tap into the energy of their home from the quantum field and access these beautiful light frequencies, quantum colors, to help them release the energy that has built up in their homes. And I call it creating a container. So our homes are these beautiful containers that either hold these lower vibrational energies or hold the late. So we're going to release all of this stored energy or that the energy that has collected over the years could be last six months, last year, could be 20 years of energy that has collected.

[00:10:15.940] - Annette Rugolo, Guest

We're going to release all of that through a process that I use and learn how to fill our homes with higher vibrational frequencies of joy, unconditional love, healing. So now our homes will then support us. So that's what I'll be teaching and guiding people into.

[00:10:41.740] - Candi Broeffle, Host

I mean, I'm so excited for this part of our workshop as well. I just can't wait for people to be able to experience this because it really is transformational and it's really so needed. If the energy in our home is not supporting us as we're grieving and as we're healing, it's really going to be that much harder. It's going to be that much harder in order for us to go through this journey, which we all have to go through. So this is really a time for us to come together and to be able to heal together and be able to do some really good, deep work. And I just so appreciate the fact that you're going to be with us on this journey. Annette, thank you so much.

[00:11:28.800] - Annette Rugolo, Guest

Yes, I am so excited. I'm looking forward to seeing everybody there.

[00:11:33.270] - Candi Broeffle, Host

So for people who want to learn more about the work that Annette does, visit AnnetteRugolo.com, and again, that is Annette Rugolo R-U-G-O-L-O.com. You're listening to green tea conversations on AM950, the Progressive Voice of Minnesota. And we will be right back.

[00:12:06.640] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Welcome back to green tea conversations. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle. And we are now welcoming into our studio Courtney Burton of Courtney Burton Coaching. Welcome to the show, Courtney.

[00:12:18.550] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Oh, well, thank you so much, Candi, for inviting me. I'm just thrilled to be here.

[00:12:23.220] - Candi Broeffle, Host

And we are thrilled to have you. Courtney is going to be one of our guest speakers at the event on December 4th, and again, called Reclaiming Joy: Healing Grief Together. And Courtney is going to be helping us look at how we can process through grief by using creativity. Before we get into that, I want people to learn more about you and how you incorporate creativity into your coaching and why it's important to you. So give us a little bit of a background about who you are and how you got into coaching.

[00:13:01.020] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Always happy to talk about creativity, that's for sure. It's been an interval part of my life since I was a little kid. I was an only child for nine years, and so I was my best playmate. So always fantasy world, making up things, keeping myself quite occupied as an introvert, quite happy about doing that. And then that morphed into. In my later years, I discovered my voice quite literally as a vocalist, and using that creative expression, it was my rocket fuel during my corporate career. It helped keep me balanced. It helped keep me calm. It gave me doing something that was in the moment, regular basis, practicing, being present, because that's what happens when music is good, and you experience that as an audience member, you realize that, well, there's something magical happening up there. It's because everybody in that space is in the moment, and that's what creating creativity, whatever your creative expression is, can provide for you. And how that morphed into my coaching practice is. First of all, I've had two very significant life changes due to the power of being coached. So I someone who's seeing the benefit of it and thought, oh, my gosh, other people need to understand the power of having someone listening for your greatness that you can go through the messy middle of whatever process or transition you're going through, including the grief process.

[00:14:39.490] - Courtney Burton, Guest

And what I have found is that ironically, or coincidentally, almost everyone who has thought me out to be their coach also has a latent creative expression. So they either put it in the corner or never really thought of it as a tool to help them navigate transitions that they're going through, no matter what those transitions look like. And the thing about using your creativity to help you to go through what you need to go through that learning through joy versus learning through struggle is that it is a way for the grief to actually work its way out. Not to hide it, but to honor it. Nobody has to see the outcome of it, right? I love this phrase of writing for the trash can. If you're a writer, naturally, you can write letters to your grief. You can write love odes to your grief, because there's lessons in that grief. Right. And when we honor our grief, and in my world, using your creativity, what's beautiful about that is that it clears the space for you to move powerfully into the next phase of your life. That grieft is providing a lesson for.

[00:16:00.040] - Candi Broeffle, Host

I love what you do. And I know you and I have talked before about how important creativity is. And I am somebody who I don't feel like I have a creative bone of my body. Right. My husband is an artist. I'm surrounded by writers and people who have all these beautiful gifts. And I don't feel like I have any of those kind of things, but it takes a little bit longer sometimes for people to really be able to identify what their creativity outlet is or how many different ones they might have.

[00:16:32.970] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Absolutely. It's like people I'm not a leader. Everybody is a leader.

[00:16:38.250] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Yes. Amen.

[00:16:40.460] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Guess what? You get to create. You create your life every day.

[00:16:44.550] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Yes.

[00:16:45.310] - Courtney Burton, Guest

So we create all the time. But we have this notion in our head that it has to look a certain way. It's in the arts of some sort. I don't know about you, but when you get a really amazing piece of hot homemade bread that somebody made with their hands, that's very powerful stuff. Right. Or that ideal bowl of soup on a cold winter day, right. That was created by another person. That's their creative outlet. People that have amazing gardens, people who can read to children in a way that opens up a whole different world for them, that's all part of your creativity. People who are really good project managers, that is creativity. Because that person is there in the moment trying to put pieces of all this big puzzle together so it works for everybody involved. That's creativity.

[00:17:38.290] - Candi Broeffle, Host

And in the type of coaching that you do and the type of coaching that I do, creativity is the highest level of energy. And so it's when we really just lose track of time and we lose like you said, we're in the moment and we're just living in that moment. We're not worried about the past or thinking about the future. It is just really being able to be in that moment and when we can get moments of that. And I do think that in a lot of ways, we have lost that over the last decade. I'm excited to hear so much more about it today. I think I've heard more about creativity since COVID started than I ever had before.

[00:18:24.150] - Courtney Burton, Guest

I think a lot of people had took the opportunity of that quiet Earth time to actually process our collective grief through that. Because if you think about everything that's happened in the world since, I'm going to say March 2020, it's been pretty remarkable. Collective time and grief has been a major player through all that. We are grieving what was used to, and we are not sure what's really going to happen in the future. Not that we really never are, but we'd like to think we have some certainty about that. And I think the fact that artists like me, musicians, we got shut down completely. But then the Internet, creativity, I still need to play and people need to hear my music. How am I going to do this? Yes, concerts, people figuring out all new platforms and things we're supposed to use access to, musicians the world would have never had because of that.

[00:19:26.360] - Candi Broeffle, Host

And I'm really glad that you brought that up too, because that is one of the things when we talked about putting together this retreat is we talked about grief that people experience when they lose a loved one, when they lose a job, when they are going through a divorce, when there's something that has happened that is personal and big like that. But there's also all of this grief that we've experienced from what has happened in the last three years. The grief that we've experienced from COVID, the grief that we've experienced from all of the strife, political strife and social strife that has been happening. And I think there's a lot of people who just really feel like, my world has been turned upside down and nothing is what I thought it was. And we grieved that as well. So you are going to be really helping our participants of the retreat in your workshop to really be able to use their creativity to start looking at their grief in a different way.

[00:20:33.940] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Exactly. And the thing about grief, I learned over the years is that it shows up when you least expect it, and it doesn't always show up the same way. And I think if there are major life experiences that grieving process did not get completely fulfilled during, it will show up in ways that don't appear to be grief. So the grief, like the muse, needs to be honored. Yes, because otherwise you'll just stay in that same cycle somehow, some way, until it is.

[00:21:09.370] - Candi Broeffle, Host

And I know a lot of people understand the seven levels of Griefs and the seven different things that we go through, but I don't think you really understand it when you're going through it. Like, why am I so angry right now? Why am I feeling all of these things that are not really about feeling sad or shut down, but really coming out in a different way?

[00:21:33.390] - Courtney Burton, Guest

It's like peeling the layers off of it. Right. And it's a process. It has to go through its own process cycle. It's pretty remarkable, actually. Some of the most amazing life lessons can happen through that process, if you allow it.

[00:21:49.380] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Now, you also work in your practice. You work a lot in the corporate world with corporate leaders. So tell us a bit about that.

[00:21:58.480] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Well, it's fascinating. A lot of the work I do is to help really, humans, people in organizations remember, "Hey, I'm dealing with humans first." I love the quote, "What if people were subjects to be studied, not objects to be workaround?" That's from Claire Zammit, who did who is the founder of Evolving Wisdom. I love that quote.

[00:22:21.900] - Candi Broeffle, Host

That is beautiful.

[00:22:23.290] - Courtney Burton, Guest

And it's really all about reconnecting with the other people that I'm working with on a level where I get what they need and they get what I need. So we can collectively communicate in a way that we can reach our collective goals. Simple, not easy.

[00:22:41.890] - Candi Broeffle, Host

I love that term. I love that phrase. I use it often. It's simple but not easy. Yes. So you really are able to help people in the corporate world be able to work in with team building, with leadership development, that type of thing. And you're able to also incorporate in that creative aspect of it.

[00:23:03.660] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Exactly. Team building, exercises, icebreaker exercises, play. We freaking out.

[00:23:11.440] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Play how important it is.

[00:23:14.410] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Yes, it is.

[00:23:16.310] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Well, Courtney, thank you so much for being with us. We're going to have to go into our next break, but we sure appreciate you stopping by.

[00:23:24.010] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Thank you so much. I'm looking forward to next week.

[00:23:26.910] - Courtney Burton, Guest

Thank you.

[00:23:27.600] - Candi Broeffle, Host

So am I. So for people who want to learn more about Courtney Burton, go to CourtneyBurtonCoaching.com. And again, to register for the Reclaiming Joy Healing Grief Together retreat on December 4th, visit Grief.NATwinCities.com. You're listening to green tea conversations. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, and we are now welcoming into our studio Barb Ryan of Wisdom Sister Studio. Barb is our featured practitioner at the event and she will be offering Wisdom listening sessions to our participants. So, Barb, it has been a while since you've been with us. You were with us once before, just before COVID, so it's been a few years now, but we want to welcome you back and thank you for being with us today.

[00:24:38.730] - Barb Ryan, Guest

Thank you for having me, Candi.

[00:24:40.500] - Candi Broeffle, Host

To get us started, just start off by telling us a little bit about what is a Wisdom listening session?

[00:24:47.620] - Barb Ryan, Guest

A session involves oddly or not listening, and it's very focused on what my client is presenting with. So the distinction between this and chatting with your friends is there are no introductions of advice or similar life experiences. I will hold a presence for you to talk about whatever is on your mind or in your heart or something you're wrestling with. I'll ask questions that help you deepen your understanding of what's going on inside you about the issue, provide some reflections that hopefully yield some insight that help you work with what's going on, whether it's a relational issue or a decision that you need to make or just a painful life experience that you're working your way through.

[00:25:43.990] - Candi Broeffle, Host

It sounds just exactly what people would need when they are traveling a journey of grief. And just to I'm sure there's so many of us that have been through this. We've lost a loved one, we've lost a job, we've lost something in our lives that's causing us to really have deep grief. And when you try to talk to your friends about it, where people say they want to listen, it's really hard to be able to listen so openly, especially as a friend, without wanting to try to fix it for the other person, like helping them to feel better. Right, right.

[00:26:23.410] - Barb Ryan, Guest

The common theme I hear from people who are traveling a grief journey is that their close friends or family are eager for them to move on, eager for them to get over it. And it's a real challenge because everybody's journey is different. And often what they will express is when someone gives them that feedback, they don't talk to them anymore about it. So they lose their connection with their friend or family member and they still have more to talk about. So they need a resource to continue the conversation until they feel finished with the grieving process. It's really never finished it's how do I move forward with this in my life now, with this grief, with this loss in my life?

[00:27:14.810] - Candi Broeffle, Host

That is really powerful when you think about it. What a gift to be able to give somebody who is having that time and needing that time. And you just never know. I mean, I think when the situation first happened, people are able to listen a little bit, a little bit better perhaps. But over time, it's really hard for our friends to be able to sit with us in that pain because they don't like feeling that pain. And so it's like not wanting to stay in that pain with you, even though it's important to be able to do that as we grieve.

[00:27:57.640] - Barb Ryan, Guest

Indeed. And as I said earlier, it's just everyone's journey is different and you don't want to hustle it. You want to be able to step it out in a meaningful, heart-filled, self-connected way. And that takes conversation, that takes support and the presence of loving ears and a loving heart.

[00:28:23.590] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Indeed. And also just to be able to have somebody who you can talk to who doesn't really know the situation. You don't have anything invested in this. So it's not like you're bringing in your opinion of the person or the situation or whatever it is that happened. You can just listen from the space of hearing that person's perspective and not have to take into effect another person's perspective.

[00:28:54.260] - Barb Ryan, Guest

That's right. And the listening takes a broad range of forms. One of my friends mentioned that she missed her mother so much, notably because her mother loved to hear story about her kids. And there is no one who can listen endlessly to stories about her children like her mom can. And she's right.

[00:29:19.690] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Yes.

[00:29:20.200] - Barb Ryan, Guest

Her mother was delighted to hear tale upon tale upon tale about the kids and when her mother passed, no one could fill those shoes. So how does she move forward with that longing and really no place to go with it?

[00:29:35.200] - Candi Broeffle, Host

So wisdom listening is really about helping the other person be able to process their thoughts, allowing them the space to be able to do that without providing any kind of advice or next steps or what are your goals in those?

[00:29:53.290] - Barb Ryan, Guest

Right? It's really reflection and questions for self connection and most people find their way and they'll take their time. The timing can be short or long. With that presence and that level of compassion, lack of judgment, it's fertile ground for reorienting the being again, how will I move forward with this experience now?

[00:30:21.910] - Candi Broeffle, Host

So how else do people use wisdom listing? I mean, I see how this is so applicable in what we're doing with the grief retreat, but how do other people use it as well besides with grief?

[00:30:34.260] - Barb Ryan, Guest

Yeah, the listening sessions are helpful in any sort of transition where changes the foot and grief is an example of that something has happened, someone has left some, something has changed, or your health has changed. All of that can involve grief. So people will come in for relational issues and they might need to just have a safe place to say, I think I went out of my marriage and they may never leave their marriage, but they need a safe place to say it and then explore what comes after that. So I call those kinds of confessions or truth telling in a safe place to work with it. No one's going to say, when are you getting that divorce? What the response is, is what's going on and what are your needs and how can you get your needs met as one example? So it can be as small as, gee, I have this job offer, it's really going to affect my family and everybody has a vested interest in the outcome. I don't have an objective other who can help me sort it out to something as major as a relational shift like a divorce or a separation from parents.

[00:31:45.250] - Barb Ryan, Guest

I myself am in recovery, so I work with a lot of folks in recovery as they sort out their new world order and become familiar with what is life without this substance of choice or behavior of choice.

[00:32:01.460] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Wow, I think everyone needs a Barb Ryan in our lives because this really is as you're saying that, I'm thinking, wow, how nice is it to have someone who you can go to and say things like that what you were just saying about saying, I think I want out of my marriage. If you said that to a friend, everything you say about your husband after that is going to have a different connotation to your friend. So to be able to say, even if you never plan to do it, but maybe you're just angry at the moment, you need to just be able to say that that is really important. And it's also not you're not giving them advice or, you know, making them make some kind of decision to move forward or something with that that is really powerful. So tell us a little bit about how did you get into this?

[00:32:55.010] - Barb Ryan, Guest

Well, I mentioned that I was in recovery and that journey can be intense for those who've gone through it, they'll know what I'm talking about. For those who haven't, it's just a significant change and a significant facing of the self. And I've always been a listener. I have done client work, corporate client work, in sales and service for years. And in those roles you're really listening. To be successful, you need to be a good listener. But once I was about 15 years ago that I got sober and that really launched me on a journey of spiritual development, I would say. And because in the twelve step programs you are supposed to sponsor people and I felt ill equipped. So I went in search of some training and I joined a circle of women and we were trained as spiritual directors. And in this training we learned this listening model. And there are a lot of training for there is a lot of training out there for listening. But this is the quality of listening that's very interpersonal, that's very integrative, that's extremely client-focused. And once you experience it, you will want it for the rest of your life.

[00:34:15.100] - Barb Ryan, Guest

It's so hard to explain. It's definitely an experience to be had. It's just exquisite to have someone to know that you can say anything, to know that the conversation won't get hijacked. There's a safety that you find in yourself being able to talk without those kinds of interruptions and know that it's confidential and you don't have to have in fact, you wouldn't have a diagnosis of mental health issues. It's just life wrestling that you're working through. And I shouldn't say just because they can be significant. So once I experienced that quality in the training, I have shifted how I work with a lot of clients and I am also a body worker. The nature of the body work I do is very intuitive attuned and requires listening in that way too.

[00:35:14.220] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Well, Barb, I really appreciate your being with us. We are going to have to go into a break, so this is going to end our session together, but I want to let people know if you are interested in learning more about the work that Barb does and how you can make an appointment, visit WisdomSisterStudio.com or you can call her at 612-92-2389. And again, that number is 612-92-2389. Thanks for being with us, Barb. And we will be right back.

Welcome back to Green Tea Conversations. I'm your host, Candi Broeffle, and we are now visiting with Amy Nesdahl. Amy is a Reiki practitioner and an invited practitioner for our Grief Conference on December 4th. Welcome to the show, Amy.

[00:36:19.660] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

Thank you so much for having me.

[00:36:22.090] - Candi Broeffle, Host

It is so good to see you. So you have never been on the show before, so this is kind of exciting for me. As full disclosure for everyone, I go to Amy for Reiki sessions and love the work that she does, which is why I wanted to invite her to be a part of the Grace Conference because I know what she does is so healing for people. But for people who might not know what Reiki is, why don't you give us kind of a description about what it is and how it works?

[00:36:54.990] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

I will try to do that. So just yesterday, I was recording, videoing, some videos for my first launch of online reiki courses. I have never taught them online before. It's usually in person, but because of the way the world is today, it's time to expand to the technology world. But one of the videos that I was making was, what is Reiki and how does it work? And one thing that I explained to everyone is it's really hard to explain. Even for people who practiced Reiki, even for people who've had Reiki, it's really hard to explain because it is such an experience, an overall mind, body, spirit experience, and it's not really like a thing you think about in your head. But I will proceed because I have been doing Reiki and teaching. I've been practicing reiki for almost 20 years and teaching reiki for like 13 years or something like that. So I finally have a handle on it. That's what I'm trying to say is you can explain it in two different ways. There is Reiki the energy and Reiki the modality. And I think that's where people get messed up. So Reiki the modality is generally, you would lay on a massage table, fully clothed, warm, comfy, all the things, the mood, the atmosphere.

[00:38:10.530] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

And the practitioner gently lays their hands on your body and flows Reiki energy. To you, Reiki is universal life force energy. So it's like universal energy. It's where we're from, it's what we're made of. It's god energy. And so what happens is the Reiki practitioner has been attuned to Reiki. So their energy centers, their chakras, have been opened and aligned with this frequency, with this vibration, which is the highest vibration we know, life energy. And some people call it cheat. So the practitioner channels that energy through them and it comes out their hands. Now, the person who is receiving the Reiki, their body, mind or spirit will pull in what it wants. So we could talk about like, the law of attraction. So like attracts like. Reiki is a very high vibrating energy. It is perfect health, it is unconditional love. It's all the good things you ever could think of. And then there's us in our meat suit. We're not vibrating super high. So if you're having a physical illness, or any emotions that are low vibrating kind of bring us down, you know, they keep us down. So, like grief, anger, disappointment, all of those things, it's hard to pull that by back up.

[00:39:36.750] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

So as the practitioner is working on the person, the high frequency, the high-vibrating Reiki energy is presented, and it's not pushed into the person or anything like that. It's just presented to this lower-vibrating person. And we're all lower-vibrating than Reiki, I promise. And so then the body, minder, spirit, if we're lucky, even for just a moment, if that part of the person can recognize that high vibration, the vibration that we come from, and just pull up to that vibration for just a second, it reminds the person's body, mind, or spirit where it came from. It reminds a lonely, grieving person what unconditional love and support feels like. It reminds a sick body what perfect health feels like. And so that body, mind, or spirit that moment to remember, and it doesn't stay at that vibration for a long time, but it remembers. And so Reiki healing or energy healing isn't really like a medicine. It's like providing the atmosphere, the vibrational atmosphere for the person's body mind, spirit to pull up out of where they're at and remember where they came from so that they can remember how to heal themselves. That is I hope that makes sense.

[00:41:05.060] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

Okay, good. I hope that makes sense.

[00:41:07.720] - Candi Broeffle, Host

It does make sense, and it's very beautiful the way that you described it. And I can attest to what you're saying. I guess I never looked at it that way. I just know when I have Reiki done, it is an amazing experience for me. I always leave feeling lighter and brighter and relaxed and just in a space of possibilities.

[00:41:34.020] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

Right. And I do want to add that as you're laying on the table, you don't have to do anything. You don't have to like, try to let it in or anything like that. You just a lot of people sleep.

[00:41:44.820] - Candi Broeffle, Host

I was going to say. Most of the time I'm on either sleeping or on the verge of sleeping.

[00:41:49.330] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

Yeah, you don't have to do anything. It's all good. And it is so relaxing. And if nothing else, you will feel relaxed and lighter. Every single person reports that.

[00:42:01.780] - Candi Broeffle, Host

Yeah, it is so healing. So what got you into Reiki? What made you kind of interested in it?

[00:42:08.830] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

Well, 20 years ago well, my whole life I've been a little bit different, will say. And about 20 years ago, I was really in a real hard place. I had a little kid, a toddler, I had a dog house, bad marriage, all the things, and I was just stressed out beyond my capacity. I am intuitive, psychic, medium, all those things as well, and have been my whole life. And that was kind of getting after me as well. At that time, I was having dreams that were just exhausting and I took a Community Ed class called Intro to Metaphysics. And from there I was referred to go have my first Reiki session. And after 1 hour on the table, I was like, I'm not sure what this is, but everybody needs this. And it was like my mission from that moment on. And that's what I've been doing ever since.

[00:43:08.080] - Candi Broeffle, Host

And now you're teaching. I mean, you've been teaching classes, you said, for 13 years, and now you're going to be offering an online course with a component. So tell us a little bit about that, because for people who might be interested in learning how to be a Reiki practitioner, they could take this course.

[00:43:27.430] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

Perfect. So I really have this dream that everyone learns Reiki. Everyone. Just like CPR, just like anything, any life skill, it is like, so powerful. You can use it on yourself. You can use it on your pets, your children, your water, your food, everything that you want to help increase the vibration of. I honestly can't believe that I'm teaching online because when I learned, way back when I learned, like, we were taught, for instance, there's sacred symbols that you learn in Reiki Two and beyond. And we were taught you don't ever display these symbols anywhere. You don't even write them down. You learn them in the air, you trace them, whatever, but you don't ever write them down. And I took that really seriously. And my Reiki practice is very sacred to me. But then come Google and whatever, Pinterest, and now, like, Reiki stuff is everywhere. And then a few years ago, people start teaching online Reiki. I'm like, no, this is blast on me. I can't believe this. What are we doing? And now I'm like, okay, Amy, just relax. This is the way it's going to be. And so what I've developed is online course.

[00:44:43.560] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

So there's video modules, the manual and worksheets are all sent to you prior to a Zoom live meeting. So the live meeting is a very small component of learning. There's still learning in it. But what I've found over the years is one of the most crucial parts of learning Reiki, especially Reiki one to me is finding community, finding kinship, and other people who are interested in the same thing. And drawn people are always in the class they're supposed to be in with the people they're supposed to be in. It's just very lovely. And I have over COVID learned that absolutely the attunements can be done remotely. Everything is totally possible. And this is because we have been working on increasing our vibration globally for a long time, and we are much higher vibrating beings than we used to be. And so it's much easier to learn things this way. And I've learned to take this not so seriously. Like, this is truly a tool that everyone can have.

[00:45:58.210] - Candi Broeffle, Host

So when does the class start?

[00:46:01.610] - Amy Nesdahl, Guest

I've got a few scheduled out. I've got one coming up next Tuesday, which it's not too late to sign up for that one. And then I've got I'm going to be having a Reiki 1 every month for I don't know how long. And then I always ask people to wait like 30 days before they take Reiki 2, because it helps you get aligned to that energy and you want to just simmer in that for a minute and then you can keep taking your courses.

[00:46:33.340] - Candi Broeffle, Host

So for people who want to be able to experience what Reiki is, if you are signed up for the grief conference on December 4th, which is Reclaiming Joy: Healing Grief Together, which you can find at Grief.NATwinCities.com. You are going to be able to experience a mini session with Amy and be able to see how that can help in your practices that you are going to be building around you to help you start to move through your grief. So, Amy, thank you so much for being with us today. I want people to know that they can go to your website to set up an appointment with you for an amazing Reiki session or to sign up for your online course, which is AmyNesdahl.com. And that's A-M-Y-N-E-S-D-A-H-L.com. You're listening to Green Tea Conversations on AM950 and I am wishing for you a lovely day!