Hello, thanks for joining Your Body Advocate podcast. I am Ruth Cummings, your host, and today I am interviewing Pamela Miles, who is an internationally renowned reiki master. I’m trying to keep including ways for you to heal your body, and Reiki definitely is one of those. So please enjoy this fun interview with my friend Pamela, and let’s take a deep breath to relax.

Ready?

All right, here we go. You’re listening to your body advocate, telling your body side of the story, the podcast dedicated to supporting and improving your body mind connection so you can live a pain-free, passion filled life. Dissolving one body tension at a. Discover the healing properties of your own body language, and together let’s explore ways to support and improve essential self-talk.

Now here’s your host, master of Encouragement and Body Mind, Life coach Ruth Cummings. Hello. Hello. Thanks for joining us this morning or today, wherever time you’re joining us. He, Hello, Pamela Miles. How are you? I am very well and especially well because I knew I would be talking to you, Ruth. I know we’ve been trying to get this together for months, and I’m so thankful that you’re finally here and I’m so excited to talk to you because you have so much to offer and I am excited to learn from you and to teach our listeners.

All about reiki, all about some of the things that you’ve learned and also about, I would like to talk to you and pick your brain about how to create a healing team for them. But first, let me read your bio so people know who we’re talking to. Pamela Miles is an internationally renowned reiki master and the foremost medical reiki pioneer bringing the practice of conventional medicine in the 90.

Over more than five decades of spiritual practice. She’s collaborated on various projects with academic medical centers, including Yale, Harvard, and the National Institutes of Health. Pamela has been published in peer-reviewed medical journals, including the pre preeminent Journal of American College of Cardiology.

She’s also brought her insight to corporate outlets such as Google and Unilever . Am I saying that right? Unilever? I’ll just, I have not heard that before. Pamela’s expertise in Reiki and integrative health has been featured in mainstream media, including the Dr. Oz show, nbc, cbs, cnn, Fox, the Atlantic, Forbes, US News, and the World Report, New York Magazine, Allure, and.

She is also the author of award-winning book, Reiki, the Comprehensive Guide, the only Reiki book written for the mainstream public and healthcare professionals. Welcome Pamela . Thank you so much. Oh, you’re welcome. Tell me about reiki. What is Reiki? I can tell you that Reiki is not what most people think its, or it can be that.

That’s not all it is. You know that there is really so much more to reiki practice than most people realize because the way that the practice is presented is usually rather new agey and um, and for example, doesn’t appeal to me. You know, I think it’s great. For people that that’s comfortable. But I’ve, uh, besides being a natural Gordon Mystic, I also, um, you know, I am a recovering intellectual.

I like to use all parts of me at the same time. , and I’m a little allergic to belief, you know, So when people start talking about Reiki energy and things like that, you know, and. I. Why? Because just as with meditation, you know, you don’t have to believe in anything to meditate. You also don’t have to believe in anything to practice Reiki and like meditation.

Reiki is a spiritual practice, not religious. Again, no dogma attached to it, but spiritual meaning it helps us to connect with. That core of timelessness that is within all humans, you know, that is really the source of our, um, inner resources. That is how we feel safe, uh, how we discover meaning in our lives, you know, how we get big picture perspective so that we cannot sweat the small.

And any spiritual practice has the same goals, at least initially, which is to help your system be more balanced so that you can access who you really are and and live a life that is informed by that inner experience of oneness or timelessness. But’s also responsible for the choices you make as an individual.

And we make better choices in life when we’re present, you know, when we’re not afraid of what might happen in the future or regretting what did or didn’t happen in the past, but we’re able to be right here, that, that kind of alignment, that’s what spiritual practice is about. It’s not about angels and um, you know, other worldly presences and like that, which again, can be meaningful to some people, but it’s not necessary.

That’s been added on by Americans. Actually, , there’s a Japanese practice and you know, what do we know? Even if people don’t know anything about Japanese culture, they do have this sense of spareness, right? There’s not a lot of curly cues, , there’s a lot of empty space. There’s a lot that is implied, not stated directly the way an American might.

So remembering that can help people Appreci. That’s where this practice started and all the curly cues were added by Americans. , curly cues. I love it. American curly cues. Totally agree. Interesting. I used to live in Japan, actually. Really? Yeah. Love it. I know. The basics of reiki. Someone comes and gets a reiki session from somebody either online or in person.

What’s that like? Okay, so , before I can answer such a basic question, I just have to create the context. Yes. Reiki is a, um, folk spiritual practice. It’s grassroots, you know, it’s a hundred years old. Um, In a hundred years, especially once the practice got to the US and the 1930s, a lot of things can happen.

And so there are no standards for Reiki practice. I mean, Na a Zil, none whatsoever. For example, many people who consider themselves to be Reiki masters. Actually have less training and experience than my entry level beginning students. So it’s mind boggling to the public and even more so to medicine and military medicine really can’t imagine how there could be credentials that don’t mean anything, but that’s the case.

It’s a buyer beware. And I’m not saying that Reiki practitioners are out to swindle anybody. What I’m saying is that you have to be an informed buyer because each person has their own understanding of what Reiki practice is. That’s why I can’t say, Well, this is how it will be, but I can share. My practice and I was fortunate to be trained in the practice as it was taught by Kata, the woman, the firstborn Japanese American woman who brought the practice from Japan to the US in the 1930s.

I didn’t learn it in the 1930s , but uh, that’s the practice I learned. Because I was already a, uh, a long time, like 25 year yoga and meditation practitioner and, uh, a meditation teacher, I knew better than to mess with the practice. You know, I, I understood that if you’re fortunate enough to learn a spiritual practice that you think is valid, Then your job is to actually practice it because that’s how it keeps paying dividends for life.

You know, once you start changing it around, you can’t be sure that you’re getting the same benefits. So that said, when somebody comes to me for a hands on session, I get them on the table right away. Um, they’re lying there fully clothed. Lying on their back and I move my hands, I place them lightly on a sequence of placements at the head, down the front of the torso.

Then I ask them to turn over and place my hands on their back. And, um, Very often I hear snoring , and it’s not that annoying kind of snoring that your significant other makes . It’s a particular kind of snoring that people who have meditated in large groups, We’ll recognize there’s a different quality.

Ruth, you may very well know what I’m talking about. Yes. It’s a very different quality to it. There. It’s, there’s no pathology attached to it. It’s an extreme relaxation. You know that. Yes. Uh, so yeah, I get that for massage too, like, you know. Yes. It’s just kind of a, it’s almost a pur. Yes. Exactly. Yeah. And so, um, I know, you know, this is a good thing.

I mean, sometimes people per very loudly and wake themselves up , Right? But I don’t think they’re asleep. I think they’ve gone into, um, what I recognize from my yoga training, it’s called Yoga Nira or yogic sleep. And it is a state that is more refresh. To your nervous system than physiologic sleep. In fact, your physiologic sleep will improve because your nervous system has let down that deeply and, and then you know, when the system lets down like that, it can start to reorder itself in a more harmonious way.

But to get back to the reiki session, you know, that’s it. And then I tell them that, you know, I’ll leave them lying. For a couple of minutes, and at some point I, I asked them how they’re feeling. And we have a, a short conversation because I don’t wanna send them out. I’m in New York City, I’m right in Manhattan, and I don’t want to send people out onto the street too quickly because even though they have changed, New York City hasn’t changed.

You know, I just wanna make sure that their attention is fully present in their physical body. But when I, uh, work with clients with. Sessions. Uh, we don’t have to worry about that. And, and that’s the reason why I actually encourage people to do a distance session rather than to find their way, you know, to, um, to have a hands on session because sometimes people sleep for hours, you know, And I don’t, I, my understanding is that as I practice, the practice evoke.

A profound self-healing response from deep within the person’s own system. So I’m actually not doing anything to them in the way you as a massage therapist are. You know, you’re actually doing something and it’s a good something. It’s just different. What I’m doing is evoking their own self-healing response.

That maybe has been kind of out to lunch for a while, you know, if, if they’ve been having a really hard time or they’ve been undergoing chemotherapy or something like that, you know, and their system is really, a lot of it has been offline. So it’s, it’s, uh, it’s as if my hands remind the body of its own capacity to self heal and when.

The hands on or the distant part of the session is finished, that self healing response continues and we don’t know how long it will respond, but that’s why I actually favor distant sessions because I like to let the system do what it knows best how to do. I wanted to address spirituality and. And those people who are very religious and feel like this might be somehow a threat to that or, um, might be blasphemous.

And you know what, say you on that. Like I, I have my own, the ways I explain it to my, my close people who are. Either Episcopalian, Catholic, Lutheran, and how, um, sometimes when they hear this is spiritual or a spiritual practice, that there is a, um, an almost automatic, uh, eye or hand to the, to this healing.

And I feel like it’s, it’s a disservice and that it could be explained in a way that doesn’t, um, take them into that space. Say you. I have quite a lot to say about this, and I’m going to keep it as short as I can, but first of all, I respect people’s beliefs and when it comes to beliefs, it’s not about right or wrong, it’s what they’ve decided is true for them.

And I’m never going to mess with that or try to talk people out of it. Uh, or, you know, be disrespectful in any way. Um, there’s nothing that is the right thing, the best thing for everybody all the time. And, and all of us are finding our own way. So that’s what, to me, spirituality is about. It’s about us finding our own way.

Because even if someone has a strong religious affiliation, that is very supportive to. There are still places where they have to connect the dots. You know, there are places where they’re alone with themselves and, and to me, that’s what spirituality is. How comfortable am I being myself? How willing am I to make amends when I make a mistake and then forgive myself?

You know how. Open, Am I to the possibilities that exist within me and may manifest in my life, or am I just always going to, you know, try to keep life in a box? So spirituality, I think, is about our relationship with ourselves, with the invisible parts of life and, um, and the how we feel about being. You know, I know many people who are very religious, who aren’t very happy, and people who are religious and are happy and people who have no religious affiliation but are joyful.

You know, so the, the joy to me, the moment by moment living in. Tending to your state. This is something I, I say to my students, Um, a infinitum and maybe ad nauseum is, take care of your state and your state takes care of everything else. Take care of your state because your state takes care of everything else.

So that tending to your state, Maintaining myself on an even keel. It’s not that I don’t feel anything. It’s that my emotions don’t overwhelm me. I’m able to maintain my poise, you know, even when I’m, I’m having big feelings as the kids say now. So that’s spiritual skill. It, it’s about kind of a self hygiene that is so much more profound than psychology.

Although sometimes, you know, we’ll, we’ll hear the term psychospiritual because there certainly isn’t a hard, fast boundary there. Is that helpful? Yeah. I mean, the same thing, you know, I was brought up Episcopalian and now I, I was, I’m Catholic because of my husband’s, uh, family, and there’ve just been questions even in massage of how it.

Affect belief, and I’ve always been shocked by that. I feel like God is in everything and I am, I was, in my opinion, trained to love everyone and everything, and that comes from, for me, from God. And so I, I find it. I, I, I also am never disrespectful to anything or anybody’s religion or belief system. And I’m sad.

And sometimes if they won’t try something based on that, somehow, um, defiling or disrespecting what they believe. And I don’t think those go together, but I can. I hear it here and there often, not often, less often than I, than it used to be, but where, um, it, it’s taken as a threat or as something that someone can’t do because it doesn’t, um, align in their opinion with their beliefs.

So I just, I, I agree with what you say and I, I’m. I think that you can be religious, you could be Catholic and still use reiki. You can be Catholic and still use homeopathy or acupuncture or massage or, and I think that they’re all created by God. That’s how I see it. And I like, um, I don’t see a threat, but I’m just wondering, you know, I, I like what you said and I agree with it, and I’m.

I’m just trying to make it more accessible to those who may feel it’s inaccessible for some reason. Yeah, yeah. Because, um, people who are anti Reiki, for example, their understanding of what Reiki practice is, is very different. From my understanding, and I can appreciate how they got to that conclusion because of the way that Reiki practice is often talked about.

You know, like calling true, people will call in the, the ancestors or spirit or, or something like that, you know? And for me, I’m placing my hands now. I’m practicing reiki. I remove my hands. Now I’m not, It’s that simple. Hands on. I’m practicing Reiki. Hands off. I’m not. So the practice is carried in my hands at the beginning level.

And, um, when I place hands, I’m not secretly doing something in my mind, you know, calling in anything. The practice is light touch and, and it goes from there for people who, you know, feel a desire to do more. But for most people, that light touch practice, which is an expansion of, um, What we know. I mean, is it genetic to touch something that hurts or to touch, to comfort ourselves or someone else?

You know? And then with reiki practice, there is an expansion of the, the spiritual aspect of that. But I find that even when people don’t take the proper training, so they’re not. Strictly speaking, practicing reiki. If they mimic the placements and they, uh, place their hands and let them rest for a while and, and give themselves a, a timeout or a time in more accurately, they feel a benefit.

There’s so much more that we can access in terms of support, so simp. Than what is taught to us. And, and this was, I don’t know if I dare go here, but this was never more apparent to me than during the pandemic because besides whatever, medical and hand washing and all of that, you know, all of those things.

It’s fine, but we still have to take good care of ourselves, right? We can’t just, you know, sit on the couch all day worrying and think we’re going to be healthy. Our bodies don’t work like that. Our minds don’t work like that. And touch is important period, like throughout life. And if it’s reiki or massage or just hugging, uh, those, those kind of went away, especially in crowds and it went away in families.

I think families were afraid of touching each other for sure. The people that I was working on. They were afraid of touching each other even in their own family. And, and I think the kids of course, missed it the most when they, in the younger years where they communicate mostly by bumping into each other and you know, just kind of, that’s how they communicate.

And that was missing. And I think that it’s, for me, it definitely showed the importance of touch in a, you know, times a thousand. And I was really saddened by all the people that were. Away from that and away from their loved ones and had to look through them, look at them through windows if they were sick.

That type of, those stories are heart wrenching and yeah. So I mean, Reiki touch, you know, any touch is very important. And um, I just wanted to touch on that, like the spiritual practice and how people may not even try reiki because they hear that and how it’s, it’s mainly about touch. It’s mainly about, Um, Loving through touch or healing through touch.

Is that, is that, am I saying that accurately? Yeah. You know, care, it, it’s like improving our spirit through. Appropriate human touch. And there are are stacks of research studies that show that appropriate human touch is beneficial across a wide range of populations and, and situations. And, you know, we, we would say, Oh, She’s in good spirits today and we don’t think of spirits, right?

you know, it’s the point how we use that word. Oh, she’s very spirited. You know, I like her. She’s very spirited. Um, that’s the spirit that I’m talking about, you know, that, that gumption, that, that, uh, willingness to engage in life and, um, you know, not, not this kind. Confusion with metaphysics or a, a faux passivity Lego, there’s no sense me even trying, I’m not gonna win anyway.

Well, you’re certainly not going to win if you don’t even try . Right? Yeah, that’s, that’s a good point. Well, how, how do you think that reiki improves your relationship with your.

You know, it, So many people have told me that they feel like it’s enabled them to make friends with their body, that it was at first odd for them, you know, to place their hands on themselves and just be there. Uh, and it was a gentle kind of confrontation in a sense of like, Oh, yes. This is the body. And then they started becoming aware of how down on their bodies they are, you know, And that changed to a sense of gratitude.

Like, wow, I can feel my heart breath beating, you know, I can feel my lungs breathing and this happens day in and day out. And, you know, and, and moving into a sense of, um, It’s the magnificence that is the human body. I mean, it’s quite extraordinary. It’s beyond any spaceship we have, you know, or, or any mega computer.

And the, the gazillions of processes that are happening that are so beautifully orchestrated in a healthy body, you know, this is quite extraordinary and worth being present for. So people develop a, a sense of. For their bodies and gratitude and then patience and they stop pitting themselves against their body.

You know, Instead of like, this is my will and I’ve gotta beat my body into submission. There a whole way of being with their body and, and with life and with other people starts to change. And there’s a neuroscience. To support this because we move from, um, being combative to being collaborative as the nervous system settles itself, and when we’re, um, unsettled, when we’re upset, when we’re frightened, when we’re angry.

You know, we’re, we’re. We’re walking around looking to have a fight, or we’re passive and we’re just looking to get outta dodge, you know, whatever it is, it’s not important enough for us to stay here. So it’s hard to create good relationships or get anything done really when you’re, you’re vacillating, uh, you know, between those two states and then something happens and your nervous system.

It’s like your nervous system exhales. If it’s upregulated, it’s like, all right, . You know, you’re walking around scanning the horizon and then you realize, Oh, I’m safe. I don’t have to do that. And what we know now that we didn’t know, you know, 30, 50 years ago is. That changes your awareness because when you’re frightened or angry, your awareness zeros in.

You’re looking for the next threat, and that’s all you can see or imagine, because some part of you believes you’re in. And as soon as your nervous system gets the message that you’re safe, which I think is a spiritual situation, especially in the world today, you know, to be able to feel safe amidst everything that’s happening in our world and to feel safe and be able to be.

You know, to do things like Vote for example, you know, simple things to engage and, and help create a better world. When you feel safe and you’re active, then your experience of yourself and your life is really very different. It’s much more rewarding and creative. That’s well said, rewarding. It’s interesting what we want out of life and how.

We don’t even, a lot of people don’t recognize that they are living a life that is creating lack of happiness and it’s creating anxiety and, but the, the theme that we’ve been taught of what is success doesn’t always equate calm. Happiness, Um, no anxiety and just general love. It’s more of a go, go, go. And it’s really interesting how it’s just across the, all right.

Now in our world, like all, I guess not all, but most, especially in America, you know, we don’t, um, we don’t value quiet as much as other cultures and. I, I really value quiet now, especially, you know, being a mom and just having constant go-go. It is precious to be quiet and to have that time of not being pulled at, and it, you can really utilize that then to calm your body.

And with reiki, with reiki practice and with tapping from friends of ours that we know and some other, just other practices that you can do in. Literally for me, five or 10 minutes that I only have of being quiet and not pulled on to calm my body. Because if you are grounded and you see the preciousness of the life and time around you, then it’s just so much more, uh, like you said, it’s, it’s, it’s worth living and it’s.

Recognizing what you have in, in, in the go, go, go world. There’s no time for that. And it’s funny that we just, we keep going, going, so we don’t even know that we’re not noticing it. It’s that silence. It’s such an important word that you brought up, Ruth. Silence and stillness. Um, and that’s what I was referring to before as timelessness or some people will refer to it as oneness or all that is, I mean, or that which has no other.

There’s so many ways we can conceptualize it, but really we know it when we feel it and we feel this sweet surrender to that, which is. Us as something greater than us. You know, it’s not like we lose our sense of ourselves, but our sense of ourselves is supported by something that is dimensionless, you know, beyond measuring.

And that shifts us from that combative. It’s me against the world to collaborative like. Well, I didn’t see that coming, but how can I work with this? You know, where we, I mean, what is a collaborative spirit but an empathic spirit? You know, a person who can say, Yeah, you know, this person is struggling at times just like I am, and right now I’m feeling good so I can be patient.

You know, I can, I can give her a little more of my time. I can stop and smile. Here in New York City, we have so many opportunities to be kind to other people cause there are so many of us around. I can’t imagine like, you know, there are, I live in New Mexico. There are 2 million people in our state. And so it’s way, way different, Right.

In our entire state, we’re one of the biggest states. Yeah. 9 million in our town, . Yeah. I mean, there’s a lot of, there’s a lot of space here. It’s really, it’s really nice to have that space. So I agree. And then, yeah, I hear, you know, I’ve only spent a little bit of time in New York where I, um, I, I, I don’t know it well.

Um, It’s different than New Mexico is. Also, there’s a, we’re called the, the, the land of manana. It’s very calming, right? If people are late to appointments, eh, Um, it’s a little bit better than that, but still, um, there’s not this though. It’s, it’s, you know, there’s, there’s plenty of super moms around here, um, and plenty of people that won’t slow down, including myself, where we have too many irons in the fire and, um, too many balls to juggle.

But, um, you know, it seems like the norm. Um, you know, when we’re looking outward yeah. There are lots of things that are going to grab our attention. Yes. And most people’s minds don’t naturally settle down. And, and again, to go back to spiritual practice, that’s what it is. It’s a discipline about, okay, now I’m going to be still, I’m going to be.

And not do anything, you know, just let my gaze fall within, not looking for anything, just paying attention to what’s inside of me to my inner experience. And that’s so important because that’s where meaning and gratitude and love and you know, all of these wonderful qualities that. Life worth living.

That’s where they reside. They don’t reside in that new Porsche or you know, these season tickets to the Met or whatever it is. How did you start your meditation practice? Well, I must have been a strange child because I started as a kid, you know, and. I, my, my mother was going off to a bookstore and I asked her, I think it was like 10 years old.

I said, If there is a book about yoga on the sales table, I knew it would have to be on the sales table, or I wouldn’t get it, you know, , would you get it from me? And sure enough, one of Richard Hitman’s books was on sale and she brought it home. I started practicing from a book, and it was a relief to discover that my natural inclination, because I’m somebody who has a harder time staying out of meditation than going into meditation.

Uh, you know, and I always thought this was a problem, and I realized, no, it’s not a problem. You know, it, this, this is, this can be a good thing and, and everything has to be balance. But I started then, and of course it was a while before I could find a teacher and, and, uh, I lived in India in a monastery for a couple of years, and then I didn’t come upon Reiki practice until 1986 when I, uh, his majesty was five years old and her highness was in my belly.

And, um, I, I don’t like to go a day without spiritual practice. I, I don’t think I’m capable of it. And I was remembering, you know, how challenging, I mean those days, weeks, sometimes months after a birth, it life is all, uh, askew and, and delightfully. So, but a friend of mine said, um, you know, I just learned.

Practice Reiki practice and I think you would like it. Do you wanna try it? And I’d heard of it and I was interested, but um, I hadn’t found a connection that I felt comfortable with. So I laid down, she put her hands on the crown of my head, and um, and I felt almost immediately drawn into a deep meditative state, which.

I loved, you know, and I also became aware of a lot of sensations, which were very familiar to me. And this is a difference between me and most Americans experiencing reiki because these sensations were things that I felt in meditation, you know? And I, um, at that point I was a professional healer. I was working with people, with clients in what would probably now be called mind body medicine.

You know, and, um, and I’d experience all kinds of natural approaches to healing. So the subtle experiences, those sensations were not new. That’s why I never got on board the Reiki energy coming through and, you know, going where needed. I knew that this was my own subtle being reorganizing itself in the direction of greater health and, and balance.

And what I liked about Reiki practice, which was kind of unusual for me, was that it was fast and easy most of the time. Fast and easy is not what I’m after, but you know, when you have a five year old and are about to have another child, fast and easy sounds really good and so. Called her teacher and, um, learned to practice and quickly brought it into my professional work as, as well, um, which I don’t advise people doing, but I was kind of in an unusual situation, you know, and, and I saw how effective.

The response to Reiki practice was, so I basically let go of everything else I was doing, with the exception of my intuition. You know, I, there’s no letting go of intuition, right? Um, but I loved that I didn’t have to do something to the. You know, I, I’m never quite comfortable being that authority figure who decides the way it’s gonna be.

I really have always loved to empower people. So that very much appealed to me and I practiced on myself every day. I understood that from my meditation and yoga practice. Um, and then four years later, I started a year long training to become a reiki master teacher so that I could empower other. To practice instead of just having to come to me to get treatments.

Did that, There’s a word you use that really resonates with me. Yeah. Yeah. Is that when you said that our, When our body can reorganize itself and for sure, that’s what I do and I try to support people to reorganize what’s happening inside. I love that word. I might steal it, if that’s all right, or use it as well.

Stealing some better, but like that, That does seem to. Really, um, explain what happens because there’s this, either, either the body is completely. Um, ignored by the, by the mind or they’re fighting. I’d say that the mind is angry with the body for not losing weight or getting rid of pain, or being able to focus or whatever the, the mind is mad with the body about, and then the body starts to say, I can’t trust you and I’m going to block myself from you.

And also there’s a way that the body says, Here’s some hints on what’s going on inside here, and we really need your support instead of being, instead of ignoring us completely. And then that conversation is so, uh, can be very , very, very complicated and very simple. And so the, the reorganization that just, I love that word because.

That’s what I see when people like you said, they, they go, Wow. Like this is, this is my body. I can feel, I’ve never felt my heart beating. Like I’ve never appreciated my own heart, like how much work it’s doing. And then it does that for an entire lifetime without us doing anything at all. That’s, that’s amazing.

And, and then, but how the heart could, could be stressed because of, you know, watching the news or the, you know, something else that percolates in. In your life and how it then affects the body. And, um, but I love your, your word of reorganizing because that. It’s very important that it’s, it’s not, I agree with you.

This is not like a, you know, someone touches you and all of a sudden you’re better. This, you have to do the work where you, there’s a, there’s a, um, a reconciliation and there is a, um, a recognizing or acknowledgement of what’s not working and what is working, and then if that can grow together. And, um, start to work together instead of against one another, then magic happens.

And you’ve seen the magic. And I’ve seen the magic too, and I say it’s magic and people get upset with that word, but it is interesting. Once it’s aligned, things can happen very quickly, and it does seem almost supernatural at times because five minutes before that it wasn’t possible. But it’s not because of magic, it’s because all of a sudden.

The, you know, it was, it was trying to hit itself and now it just flows completely. It’s like something was oiled or, you know, all of a sudden the square peg becomes a round peg, or, you know, there’s different ways to explain it, but reorganization. Is, uh, my favorite word of, of our interview so far? . Oh, good.

And, and so I, I have to say something about magic . Okay. Cause I’m one of those people who Yes, I totally understand what you’re talking about. And the word makes me a little squeamish too, because it’s actually natural. You know, why don’t we, why don’t we, uh, acknowledge that, that what we’re seeing in response to, in this case, a reiki treatment, the how healing is expedited, but gently expedited.

We’re just getting out of the way, getting the mind, as you were saying, out of the way so that the body can do. What it knows how to do better than anyone. You know, even with the marvels of, uh, conventional medicine, they don’t know what is needed in any individual, but that individual system knows, and as we practice reiki and we feel that.

From our hands, and we feel ourselves moving into alignment and we make friends with ourselves, like to say we make friends with ourselves is too active. We start feeling that that ence, you know, and we feel it towards ourselves and we feel it towards the people around us because that magnificence is a.

That exists within us that we just are usually too busy to notice. And so as we continue practicing, we anchor ourselves in our deepest being, that part of us that isn’t born and doesn’t die. So it has nothing to be worried about. , right? it. It doesn’t have a problem with change, you know? Um, It’s natural.

The response to reiki practice, the speeding up of the healing is natural. That’s the way our bodies were meant, were designed to function and all of this other stuff. We could almost call it black magic, if you wanna use the word magic, You know, like our minds can really gunk up the works, but let’s not blame it on our minds because if we just took some time for awareness, we would see, and, and this is one of the most revolutionary things that people learn in my first degree reiki classes, is that they.

Oh, you mean I’m not, My thoughts ? I was like, No, that’s a thought. You’re having a thought. You’re whatever it is the awareness that is living this life that is witnessing those thoughts, and you don’t have to believe everything you think . You know? I think that what we are experiencing when. Use the word magic is actually a sense of wonder.

And I encourage people to back up into what they’re feeling, um, because I’m a bit of a wordsmith. And also I love, there’s a, a quote by the, um, Sufi poet, Saint Coffees. The words you choose become the house you live. So, um, words are an important part of, uh, our understanding and especially being a reiki professional.

You know, reiki is so much easier to practice than it is to talk about, you know, even if I’m being interviewed by the Atlantic, for example, you know, by a, a world class journalist, I still ask, please, would you just run the quotes by. You know, for a fact check, because I know how you can be saying something poetically, but when it’s, you know, taken out of context, not maliciously, but just in putting an article together, it sounds like, Oh no, you know, sounds like Reiki flaky.

So, um, I’m always breaky, flay. That cracks me up. . I’ve heard you say that before and it’s so funny. Okay, Sorry, go ahead. Oh, it’s okay. Uh, but, but backing up and asking myself, what am I really feeling right now? You know, uh, and also not getting sucked into a need to explain, but being willing to describe.

Know, this is another place where Reiki practitioners trip themselves up. They’re, they’re so enthusiastic, you know, because learning to practice self reiki is a life changer. You know, you now have the capacity to manage your state, which you didn’t have before, you know, And being able to manage your state.

You’re like, Wow, I’m really getting upregulated. You know, and you just place a hand. I mean, I practice on myself every morning before I’m out of bed, but then I also place a hand some days more than others, depending upon what’s happening. But you become more aware of monitoring your state and living with that sense of wonder and just living with it and not having to.

Explain it, which comes back to where we started about spirit. You know, because that, that living with wonder, isn’t that a mark of somebody who is spirited, who’s in good spirits? I, yeah, I agree with that. I, um, I have to end our interview today, but I wanted to say, can we do this again sometime? First of.

We continue. Never ask . I know. Finally we got it done. But my second, I I, I love what you’re talking about and I think it would help people to hear more, but how do people get ahold of you and tell me about your, um, your, on November 8th. And this is time sensitive. So if you’re listening to this after November 8th, 2022, then um, you can just go to Pamela’s, uh, website and other ways to get ahold of her.

But tell us about what’s happening on November 8th, and after that, please, The Shift Network has asked me to do an depth course on Reiki practice. So I’m very, very excited about that. And we’re starting off with a free event that is, um, first aired on November 8th, and then there will be some replays. So, um, you can always reach out to me, uh, if, if you miss that first one.

Um, in which I’ll be talking about the, the practice, the, the title of that event and of the course is re. It’s not what you think , you know, so dispelling some of the myths and also helping people understand, and we’ve touched on this a little bit from a physiologic perspective, why? It makes such a difference, you know, because there’s really quite a lot of neuroscience that supports what we see happening in response to Reiki practice.

But also, and this is important to me, very true to the practice and the origins of the practice, that this is a spiritual practice. We’re drawing from the deepest part of ourselves. It’s not energy medicine. Energy medicine is good. You know, I have nothing against. But it’s just different than, uh, spiritual practice has a different com component to it that is harder for most people to access, and that’s why this simple, effective PR practice that is so very accessible.

I think is, is a real gift in the world today. We need more people with, uh, balanced nervous systems. Right? Amen. Isn’t that the truth? miss that. Yeah. Yeah. I also host global self-practice sessions and they’re open for anybody. You don’t have to have training. It’s not a reiki class, but it’s an opportunity to experie.

Um, this kind of self care and, um, you know, you can find that out up on my website, which is, well, for one thing, if you just Google Pamela Miles, m i l e s and Reiki, r e i k i, you’ll come to my website, but it’s reiki in i n medicine.org and there’s a, a. You know, under events where you can go right to the, the free global self-practice sessions that I started as the pandemic was, uh, about to break here in New York City because of what you were talking about before, Ruth and I knew that people would be isolated and frightened and that’s terrible combination for, uh, immunity and, and we’ve continued.

Oh yeah, the pandemic has just been, um, hard on anybody that needs touch and reiki could really help them. So, um, alright, I’m gonna have all of these links, um, down below our show notes guys, if you want to get ahold of Pamela. So it’s reiki in medicine.org, right? Yes. I’m gonna start that again. Pamela, thank you so much for being here.

We have all of your links below and, um, If people need to get ahold of you, it’s reiki in medicine.com and I’ll have all that below for people. And is there, can they get ahold of you on Instagram, uh, email, anything like that? Or would you rather them go to your, to your website? It’s dot org and sorry, right.org.

Good correction on Instagram. I’m Pamela, move. And I actually enjoy Instagram because I’m a pretty visual person, so feel free to reach out there. Uh, or there’s a contact form on my website, um, that, that’s better to use than my email actually, because those emails, it’s easier for me to trace. They’re less likely to get lost in the avalanche.

That is my inbox. Yes, the avalanche of the inbox. Okay, great. Thank you so much Pamela. And um, I will have you on as soon as I can again pretty soon, maybe right in January, um, or somewhere around there. But thanks so much for being here today. I really appreciate you and I loved our conversation. Me too, Ruth.

Thank you. All right. Have a great day. Talk to you soon.

Thanks for joining us today for this interview with Pamela Miles. And if you have any questions about Reiki or Pamela, you can go to her website, pamela miles.com. She also has reiki in medicine. Dot org. She’s on Instagram at Pamela Moves and Facebook is Pamela Miles, Reiki Medicine and Self. Have a wonderful day, you guys, and I will see you next time.

Thanks a lot. Thank you for listening to Your Body Advocate with Ruth Cummings. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today, and truly believe you can live a pain-free, passion filled life. To connect with Ruth, work with Ruth, or to grab your free ebook, go to ruth cummings.com. We’d love to hear from you. Don’t forget to rate, review, and subscribe so you don’t miss our next episode.

Until next time, friends, be open. Include the unin included, think outside the box, and spread love and kindness. One smile at a.