Erica Wallace Moore

Reiki in Minneapolis and St. Paul, MN

Erica Wallace Moore

Today a Caterpillar – Tomorrow…

by   |  Transformation

One of the reasons why transformation is such a hard concept to grasp is because it is just so big.

Think about it.

You want to live your best life and live your highest good. You want to grow and you want to evolve. And that takes transformation.

You want to transform your health, your career, your relationships, your thoughts, your emotions, your beliefs. You want to heal.

Within You is the Power to Transform

“When eating an elephant take one bite at a time.”

This quote might be so overused that it’s become cliche, but I like it. I thought about this often when I was tracking my miles in order to run a marathon. Marathon running is so big that it has become one of my main symbols for life’s greatest challenges. When I work with clients, I love seeing the marathons of the mind and the heart and the opportunities for healing transformation.

Perhaps the image that most comes to mind at the center of transformation is a butterfly.

Mother nature’s butterfly is a beautiful representation for transformation and what’s possible for our lives. 

But before this divine creature morphed into a butterfly it was a caterpillar.

The caterpillar eats through leaves one bite at a time.

David R. Hawkins describes in his book, Power vs. Force the concept of critical point analysis:

“In any highly complex system there is a specific, critical point at which the smallest input will result in the greatest change.”

If you can imagine yourself, your own complex system and the transformation you desire as similar to the caterpillar, then you can break down transformation into critical points. Small inputs of your energy that can result in your greatest change.

Now, once a caterpillar eats through enough small bites, it enters the cocoon stage of its life. Have you considered that this cocoon is a safe space for the caterpillar’s transformation?

A Safe Space is Essential for Transformation

If a cocoon is a safe space for a caterpillar’s metamorphosis into a butterfly, what metaphor for safety is essential to your transformation?

Reiki is a Safe Space

When you set your intentions to heal, to grow, and to evolve take it one small bite at a time and wrap yourself in the safe space of love and protection.

Do you want transformation? Are you ready to set intentions that lead you one small bite at a time to your higher beauty? And do you want a safe and loving space to relax so that your true power and beauty can unfold like the wings of a butterfly? I would love to work with you one small bite at a time and provide you with a safe and loving space. 

Are You Shouldering Your Thoughts?

by   |  Balance

Imagine this with me if you will:

Your shoulders are a shelf, and your thoughts are items you meaningfully place on the shelf. On its surface you begin placing a few items of significance. Maybe a picture or two showing the people you love. A candle to symbolize your light. A crystal that signifies the value you add to yourself and those around you. And a goal-oriented quote for inspiration: I can do all things through the substance of my power which strengthens me.

This shelf in your imagination delightfully reflects the goals and desires emanating from your heart.

Now imagine this same shelf, only this time, you place every single one of your thoughts upon it. One by one, you pile on every goal, desire, worry, doubt, and fear. Really take the time to visualize this shelf. It begins to get heavy and soon becomes so cluttered that you have a hard time deciphering between your goals, desires, worries, doubts and fears. When you try to reach for a goal or a desire, you find it hard to grasp one without also taking into your hands your worries, doubts, and fears.

cluttered-shelfCan’t you just feel weight of it all?

I know it’s hard.You are not alone.

At any given moment we have plenty of pretty big goals we are all striving to reach. We have goals focused on our exercise and eating habits, goals focused surrounding our family, financial goals, and career goals.

We also have desires that we’re trying so hard to manifest. We desire more money, a new home or new car, a promotion, new relationships, new projects, new travel plans and vacations, new causes to give to, new pets, new networks.

And along with all these goals and desires come those nagging worries, doubts, and fears that maybe, just maybe every single one of our big ideas are impossible to reach.

Your shoulders tense up close to your ears. You experience constant tightness in the back of your neck, along the tendons connected to your collarbone, and across your shoulders. You may even experience tension headaches or pockets of knots in your shoulder muscles.

With so much over thinking going on, how can you see or experience the rest of yourself?

Where’s your heart, your core, your creative energy, your feet?

Where’s the connection between your goals and desires, and the rest of yourself?

Through Reiki sessions both on myself and with others, I have found that so many of us are living our lives shouldering our thoughts. We spend so much time in our heads, and we end up placing so much weight on our shoulders. After practicing Reiki on my own shoulders, it seems such a necessary area of energy work that allows my awareness to connect to the rest of my body.

Many times while working with clients I can feel the shoulders’ response to Reiki as waves of tension release. I also feel that wonderful moment of relaxation that my clients receive after Reiki on their shoulders.

Here’s what I also know:

When you shoulder your thoughts, your worries, doubts, and fears, you create a shield keeping your goals and desires from flowing through the rest of you.

Your worries, doubts, and fears that pile up on your shoulders choke the natural flow of your goals and desires that are meant to easily pour into every cell of your body.

Have you ever considered what it might feel like, look like, or be like to give your shoulders a break? To let go and let the light of your goals and desires pour through you without any obstacles?

Do you want to remove the clutter from your shoulders and experience the joy of connecting your goals and desires to your heart? Pick one of these activities and start including them in your daily practice.

1. Journal out your thoughts.

With this activity you will be able to physically see that your heart is the real treasure chest full of your goals and desires. First, open up your journal to a blank left page and free write all of your goals, desires, worries, doubts and fears. Second, draw a heart on the right page and write down every goal and desire inside the heart. Lastly, write down your worries, doubts, and fears on the outside of the heart. Keep these journal pages as a reminder to yourself when you begin to feel the weight of your thoughts and need to de-clutter your shoulders and return your goals and desires to your heart.

2. Be still and in the moment with action verbs.

I love action verbs! There’s nothing like a good verb to bring you right to the present moment. In your favorite safe space, sit or lie down and say out loud or silently exactly what you are doing using present-tense verbs. Try to avoid using “I am,” or “I will.”

Example: I sit down in my favorite space feeling safe and protected. The floor underneath me supports and grounds me. The material against my body lightly touches my skin. I close my eyes and I breathe in through my nose. My lungs expand as I take in air. I exhale and my whole body relaxes. I inhale and I give my shoulders the air they desires to relax.

This action-verb exercise truly works as a daily activity to bring your awareness into yourself. Your thoughts slow down from the race as you focus on each verb you feed to it. As you breathe, keep using verbs to give air to different areas of your body.

3. Feel yourself as simply alive head to toe.

Do you know the exuberance that accompanies the act of doing nothing? Truthfully, we are never really doing nothing. Even when you sit still for a few minutes in your favorite space, your office, or even in your car before you embark on your next task, your organs are in constant activity supporting your livelihood. Try pausing for a short period, even if you have two minutes.

Sit still, be quiet, and do nothing.

Close your eyes, let your shoulders drop, feel the easiness of your breathing, and feel your heartbeat send your life supply to every corner of your body.

Do you desire more? Do you want to experience that wonderful moment of relaxation when reiki works upon your shoulders so that you actually feel the warmth and compassion that happens when those waves of tension release from your shoulders?

 

There’s a Crystal for That: Rose Quartz

by   |  Crystals

Are you curious about crystals when it comes to your self care, or in terms of your healing, balance, and transformation?

I know I am! Honestly, I have loved rocks ever since I moved to Minnesota from California when I was eleven. My grandfather introduced me to his rock collection, which, of course, included the Lake Superior Agate. I loved rock collecting and agate hunting so much I even had a rock tumbler.

My love for rocks carried me into my adult years and has expanded into a passion for jewelry making with crystals and stones, and I absolutely love crystals and stones in my healing work.

But what I remember most was how my childhood introduction to the Lake Superior Agate was the divine intervention my energy system needed to ground myself after my family moved from California to Minnesota.

Why are Crystals and Stones So Awesome?

For starters, like everything in the universe, crystals and stones radiate their energy. Even if you don’t have a physicist’s understanding of energy, you can experience the energy of a crystal or stone for yourself.
They reflect and absorb light, and they also reflect and absorb heat.

For instance, if and when you get a Rose Quartz in your grasp, feel how cool it is in the palm of your hands. Hold it for a while then notice how warm it becomes.

Crystals and stones are beautiful and behold a certain mystique. The beautiful pink color of a Rose Quartz is so fascinating. In fact, its pink hue brings certain thoughts and emotions to the surface.

You can’t help to feel good about the pink in a Rose Quartz.

And lastly, crystals and stones have certain healing properties that help bring awareness, alignment, balance, and transformation.

Rose Quartz helps you to heal your heart, helps you to become aware of your lavish unconditional love, helps to align your heart with love, helps you to balance the energy of love within you, and helps you to transform into a more loving person.

My Rose Quartz Story

The first Rose Quartz I received was given to me with the intention that I use it to open my heart, and that I also give it away to someone I felt intuitively guided to give it to.

It was a sphere and I slept with it every night. It’s warmth was the hug I needed when so much of my energy was going to raising my young 3 children and I had little energy for myself.

I also meditated with it a lot.

I’d imagine that I was inside of the Rose Quartz surrounded by a pink cave of light and in this way I loved myself from the inside of the crystal.

In a way, that Rose Quartz became my friend even if really I was opening up and transforming myself into my own best friend.

When the time was right, I eventually gave the Rose Quartz to my teenaged daughter, who I knew at the time could use some light and love from the same crystal that gave me so much.

How to Begin Working With Crystals

1. When you’re ready to begin working with crystals in your self care routine, Rose Quartz is a perfect stone to begin with. (Of course, you can begin with any crystal or stone that resonates with you, and I will write future posts about other stones.)

Rose Quartz is gentle and protective yet emanates noticeable energy. And it’s beautiful!

You can shop online for a Rose Quartz, but you may prefer to visit a local store.

The Enchanted Rose Garden in Richfield, MN as well as ZRS Fossils in Minneapolis, MN are two locals stores that stock an abundance of Rose Quartz.

2. Because many hands have likely touched the crystal now in your possession, it’s best to cleanse it so it can shine and sparkle for its highest good.

Some ways to do this are to:

  • place it under running water
  • place it in a bowl of water
  • place it in a bowl of salt
  • bury it in the earth for a day
  • smudge it with sage
  • leave it outside underneath the moonlight for a night.

Any of these work fine. Choose one that works well for you. When I purchase a new crystal, I place it under running water for a short time, then I charge it with Reiki.

3. Now that you have cleansed the crystal, it’s important that you charge it. I am a believer that you have the power to manifest all of your intentions, and so your power can also charge your crystal. Simply hold it in your hands and set an intention for it.

I’d love to help you with this. As a Reiki practitioner, I am able to charge your crystal with Reiki energy. Bring your crystal to your next session, and I’ll charge it with energy, power, and your intention.

Now What?

So you have a crystal, have cleansed it, and have powered it. Now what? Well, you can begin working with it, and by working with it, I mean that is up to you!

You can meditate with it, sleep with it, bring it with you to your Reiki sessions. Set it in a highly visible place to raise your awareness or to let its energy radiate into your space. Carry it in your purse or briefcase. Keep it in your car. Ask it to help you heal, place it in your garden, add it to your workspace to help you with increased productivity. Or create your own rituals with your crystal.

And that’s it. You’re on your way to including crystal and stones in your treasure box of self care. Please, please, please feel free to ask any questions.

Are you now totally curious about how crystals can be a match to what you desire? Receive my free Chakra Guide, a set of 7 cards—one for each chakra. Each card includes a list of associated crystals for your balance and healing. Download it directly; no sign up is necessary.

Free Chakra Guide

If you’re curious about crystals and Reiki and want to add some shine and sparkle to your self care, and perhaps cleanse and recharge it,

Book a Session

Restoring Balance Journal Prompt

by   |  Journal Prompts

Somewhere out there is a really caring person who is burned out and experiencing low energy. Her life is focused on caring for others and though she loves what she does, she feels out of sorts, off balance, and not grounded. She can hardly get her bearings.

Oh no! What’s going on with this caring person?

  • Well, she’s stressed out because she just received a large bill in the mail from the mature adult facility where her mother lives.
  • She’s been the financial caretaker for her mother since her father passed away two years ago. She has deep periods of grief that make her heart heavy.
  • Her work supervisor is micro-managing her every move and she’s uncomfortable at work all the time.
  • She recently ended a relationship during a season that is the toughest for her to get through.
  • She’s been unable to exercise because she’s been experiencing shooting pain in her ankle.

Let’s take a moment and offer our compassion to this person who is obviously experiencing an intense cycle of imbalance.

Have you ever experienced any one of these things in your own life?

Have you ever been off balance in a way that you could have used some compassion and self care?

I know I have! Just to name one such experience… almost seven years ago, I experienced a major life change. I gave birth to twin boys, and boy-oh-boy did I experience major imbalance! My boys spent the first 3 weeks of their lives in the special care unit of the hospital. I was so lost not being able to take them home right away, but when I did, I realized very quickly that my life and my body would never be the same again. My chest tripled in size to nourish the livelihood of two lives. My sleep pattern was completely off. And I spent most of the daytime alone without adult interaction. Looking back, I was in need of some seriously intense self care that I did not give to myself.

What did I do? Well, I survived and I also learned that with any period of imbalance, it’s a must for me to take care of myself.

Fourteen months after the birth of my twins, a surprise came into our family. We were blessed with another child. Three children in fourteen months!

You bet I got the message. Six weeks after my daughter was born, I began running to take care of myself. Because I needed to breathe. I needed to hear my feet slap the pavement. I needed to be inside of my body.

What about you? Are you feeling out of sorts or off balance in some way and want some self care?

journal writing

I don’t run as much as I used to, but I do have a self care routine. Reiki is my favorite self care tool. Second to that comes writing. Writing in my journal is a way to pull out the energy of my thoughts and emotions and put them down into words on paper.

There are so many situations that threaten to throw me overboard and though I may not be able to change the situation, I can control my energy.

When I journal I know that I am scheduling a meeting with the divine mind within me and I know that I am giving my power to the situation at hand and therefore I am claiming my power.

How about it?

Here’s a journal prompt.

Use it anytime you are feeling out of sorts or off balance…

Think of something that is happening or has happened to you or someone else that is causing or has caused you to experience internal or physical imbalance.

This could be a tough work situation, a relationship issue, a financial concern, an accident or injury, an uncomfortable encounter, a major life change (marriage, death of a loved one, retirement, new child), seasonal changes, or some other thing that is or has caused you to feel off.

Choose one thing, recall the details, and write it all down in your journal including your thoughts, feelings, and physical responses about the situation.

Be as clear with the details as you can be because the more clear you are the more power you bring to the situation.

Now, imagine that you are the hero of this situation and that you bring your own personal power to realize the full beauty and potential of this situation.

Owning this situation automatically brings you power.

Next, ask yourself these questions and answer them in your journal…

  • How am I letting this situation control my thoughts, emotions, and physical response?
  • How am I taking responsibility for how I see myself in this situation or how have I given my power away?
  • How is this situation really a matter of divine intervention for my own healing?
  • What am I learning about myself from this imbalance?
  • In what ways can I reclaim my power from this situation?
  • How can I acknowledge all the beauty that is or has resulted from this situation?

Once you have finished answering these questions, write this statement down in your journal:

Though I feel off balance, this situation is creating my transformation.

Do you desire more? Are you feeling so off balance that you realize you are in need of some seriously intense self care? If you believe that Reiki is a self care tool that you will value from,

Book a Session

7 Affirmations to Give Your 2017 Intentions a Boost

by   |  Affirmations

So there was a time when I decided to run a marathon. Affirmations gave to me the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs I needed to push beyond a knee injury and still cross the finish line.

It all happened in 2013. I trained all year in preparation for the Twin Cities Marathon, which occurs in October. Everything was going great until I ran the furthest of all my training runs. I ran 17 miles, then boom! That was it. My IT band gave out on me. I had intense pain upon every subsequent training run. Not even 3 miles into a run, and I had to stop because of the shooting pain into my knee. The pain was so bad that I had to stop training completely. You can imagine my thinking—how was I going to be able to accomplish a 26.2 mile marathon?

Mind you, this was all before reiki entered into my life. I knew my body needed rest and I knew I couldn’t force myself past my physical resistance.

But there was something else…

Running a marathon is a pretty big deal, right? In fact, most people do not run marathons. It takes a lot of training (six months worth), but the hardest work required to complete a marathon is mental. It takes a lot of mental effort to decide to run a marathon, a lot of mental effort to want to run a marathon, and a lot of mental effort to believe you can run a marathon.

That’s where I was. I wanted the action and results of a marathon, and though I decided to run when I registered for the Twin Cities Marathon, I had not checked into my emotions or beliefs. And when I got to the 17-mile mark, my body decided enough was enough and sent a signal of protest to my IT band.

Pause here… let’s think about this for a moment. When you have a big idea, a big change, or a big intention, have you ever checked in with yourself to ensure your legs are strong enough to hold up and carry you forward? Are your emotions and beliefs grounded in a way so that energy flows through your entire body?

Consider your symbolic marathons…

I realized that though I was training correctly, I had never taken the time to encourage myself or even become aware of my limiting emotions and beliefs.

So here’s what I did: I opened my journal and wrote down every running affirmation that came to mind. Affirmations like:

“I run 26.2 miles with ease.”
“All of the organs within my body cheer me on when I run.”
“I make running look sexy.”

By the time I finished writing, I had enough affirmations written that I decided to say them out loud while recording them into a nifty app on my phone. Then every morning and every night, I listened to those affirmations.

When the marathon was a week away, I decided to give running a try after taking a 3-week break. I started easy with 3 miles, and the next day I tried 6 miles. Guess what?

I had no more knee pain. 3 weeks of rest and affirmations seemed to have worked.

Waiting in my assigned starting corral on the morning of the race, I felt so completely energized by the crowd of runners who all had the same “finish this marathon” intention. I plugged my earbuds into my phone and listened to my affirmations one last time. This time, I focused on sending them out to every runner in the race.

With each affirmation, I felt peace and safety wash over me, and I knew I would cross the finish line.

Why do affirmations work?

Because:

Manifesting your intentions and what you want begins with your mindset.

And…

All actions and results depend on your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs.

Once I realized that the desire to accomplish finishing a marathon requires a mindset shift, I also realized that I need to charge my thoughts, emotions, and beliefs with positive personal power.

“So, how do I create powerful affirmations?”

  • Because you attract what you place your focus on, begin by focusing on what you want.
  • Be clear with details and concise language. Clarity adds light to the full potential of your desires.
  • Use “I” statements, strong action verbs, and write affirmations grounded in the present moment.
  • While it’s true that affirmations replace negative thoughts with positive ones, it’s essential to know that the negative thoughts are untrue. Replacing negative thoughts with positive affirmations does benefit with statements that you believe are true. For example, in my running affirmations, it would have been positive albeit impossible for my energy system to believe if I had written, “I run marathons in 2 hours and 30 minutes.” Be positive and realistic with your affirmations.

“What do I do with affirmations?”

  • Read them daily.
  • Meditate with one affirmation at a time.
  • Record them and listen to them on your phone app.
  • Post them everywhere and in highly visible locations.

Creating affirmations can be hard work.

I get it. I get busy too. Though you want an affirmation, you don’t always have time to create them.

That’s why I’ve created 7 affirmations for you to begin using right now. I hope these affirmations will be of value to you.

  • I ground myself in love and grace.
  • I love myself more than I could possible fear anything.
  • Sunlight pours down life-giving energy into my personal power. My source of personal power is pure, divine light.
  • I gently and unconditionally love myself.
  • I surrender my will to my divine purpose and truth.
  • I unconditionally trust my intuition.
  • In every moment of everyday, grace fills my spirit.

Perhaps none of these affirmations resonate with you, or maybe you’re challenged by creating and believing in affirmations for your self care? One thing I love to give after Reiki sessions with clients are individualized affirmations that I feel may be beneficial.

Book a Session