Today we’d like to introduce you to Aiyana Fraley.
Hi Aiyana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstories with our readers?
I was first introduced to reiki in 1998 while in massage school. I had some meditation experience but to learn that applying that meditative state with light touch could bring about a healing response in the body was something I had to experience to understand. My first reiki treatment was otherworldly. It made me relaxed and more present, and most of all I had a glimpse of me, the light of me, in a way I never experienced myself before. From then on, I continued to learn about it and apply it while working on clients. There was less information about it back then, so I had to dig to find books and teachers. In those 24 years, I had a lot of ups and downs personally and it was at my lowest point where I really was able to experience the power of reiki as a spiritual practice. I remember I sat down to meditate and pray. Sobbing and feeling completely broken, I asked for help. I felt this immediate warm and loving presence come over me. I was able to sleep that night and the next morning when I woke up, I knew I had to make dramatic changes to my life. I felt empowered and I immediately started giving myself reiki and calling in that light. The month that followed, I was flooded with miracle after miracle. From the people I met, to the friends who showed up, to the opportunities that came. It was like the Universe was waiting for me to ask for help to shower me with all of these blessings. And they kept coming. My transformation was so great that I started sharing it with others in my massage practice and among my friends and family. Soon, I was teaching them how to do it. That was the beginning of me teaching reiki and I have continued to study and learn reiki. It is a lifelong journey and a beautiful one.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I’d say it has been the right amount of smooth and rough. I used to be hard on myself for not being as consistent with my spiritual practice as I wanted to be. But I realized that noticing the excuses that kept me from doing the inner work was part of the practice itself. I had to see for myself that I had a choice. As a teacher, I hear this from many students and because I have my own experience I am better able to help them through it. We will always be distracted. It is in those moments we are faced with the choice. Do I continue on with this behavior that doesn’t serve me or do I stop myself from reacting and connect to the light? It’s called a practice because we do it every day, moment by moment. Reiki itself is pure unconditional love. It is the creative force of the Universe, the light that brings life to all existence and experiences. Connecting to this light is not difficult, what is challenging at times is to actually do it. The consistency and inner work, in the beginning, can be challenging. The reason I have found is that we have so many distractions in our lives. We have TV, phones, food, and poor habits that keep us busy enough to not feel deeply into ourselves and then we don’t have that curiosity that pushes us to want to know more and experience life more deeply. The challenge is to train our minds to focus and that is why meditation is so important in the practice of reiki. When we meditate, we focus our minds so we can see from a higher perspective all the distractions and our own reactivity to situations in our lives. We can start to notice patterns of behavior that keep us in the lower self. Noticing them is the first breakthrough, then we use our inner strength to meditate and connect to that light of the Universe. The intention and that moment in which we choose to do so is very powerful in opening our awareness and connecting us to our higher selves. This is when spiritual wisdom unfolds within us.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Hand to Soul School of Reiki & Healing Arts?
Hand to Soul was born from my passion about reiki and the healing modalities I learned and practiced over two decades in the field. Everything I teach comes rooted from my healing experience and helping others through theirs. The school is about personal transformation and re-learning the innate skills of self-healing and healing others. I offer reiki training from level 1 to master level and also teach meditation, aromatherapy, crystal healing, and chakra balancing classes. I love to study and learn and have been studying and learning about healing for most of my life. I teach in a way that makes abstract concepts easy to understand and practical to life. This is what I would say is my gift. I spend hundreds of hours researching, studying, and practicing my craft and adjusting it so that when it is time to teach, the information I am sharing is relatable to everyday life and simple to do. What I teach is that these skills are natural and we have already been doing them. With some focused awareness, we can be more effective at our own self-healing and that of others. The courses I teach are for people interested in their self-healing and for those who feel called to be practitioners. I offer continuing education (CE) credits for Florida massage therapists and yoga instructors. What I would like for readers to know about Hand to Soul School of Reiki & Healing Arts is that our mission is to offer quality education in the healing arts and set a standard for professionalism in reiki education. The courses are thorough, well organized, have hands-on practice, and cater to multiple learning styles. I want people to leave feeling empowered that they can do this because I know they can.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
There is a lot of growth in the reiki field particularly among people of other professions such as nursing, medicine, mental health counseling, coaching, and yoga learning reiki and integrating it into their profession. I think that will continue to expand and other fields not related to healing will become interested. Because as more and more people learn or experience reiki, they discover it helps them be a better person, and that eventually translates to what they do for work as they spend a large part of their day there. I see more people being drawn to reiki during a health crisis and I am seeing a lot of this during these pandemic times.
Contact Info:
- Website: dropsofyoga.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aiyanafraley/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/handtosoulschool
Image Credits
Savannah Levell Photography
