 So what's your name? Tiffany Monroe. And what do you do for a living? For a living, I teach chemistry, biology, genetics, anatomy, physiology during the day. And I am also the founder of Healing Hands Reiki and Spiritual Development Incorporated. We are a Georgia 501c3 where we help others to participate in their own healing. We do so through yoga, meditation, as well as Reiki, another conscious living classes. So if you break the word down Reiki, Re, meaning universal key, meaning energy, it's the universal life force energy that exists around us every day. We've just forgotten how to type into it for healing. And so what I help others do is to tap into that natural healing energy, that Reiki energy that surrounds us every day. People can also get what's called a Reiki treatment where their energy is balanced and they're placed in a very relaxed state, a relaxing state that actually helps to assist that body in its natural healing process. During a Reiki treatment, you may feel tingling sensations or warm sensations, cooling sensations, but ultimately you know that energy is flowing. Stagnant energy is being moved out of the body and it's replaced by healing Reiki energy to assist one's healing. It's universal and it's never ending. Energy is never created nor destroyed. It's only transformed. And this energy was rediscovered by Dr. Yusui and he is of Japanese origin on a spiritual retreat for three weeks. He fasted for three weeks and out towards the end of this fast, he had a spiritual encounter on top of a mountain and he actually experienced this healing Reiki energy and brought this energy down to the community in Japan and actually trained others as Reiki practitioners. This energy has changed throughout many centuries. There are many different forms of Reiki right now or 1,200 different forms of Reiki. I am attuned in three different lineages of Reiki and I kind of couple them all together to give an ultimate experience for clients. Long story, so when I was younger, just going through life and realizing that what I was doing was not working in terms of learning about my own peace, my own spiritual development. And I actually attended a Catholic university and I can remember this one class was a very pivotal class. It was called Alternative Religions and it was taught by a female Lutheran pastor and she taught us how to meditate, how to access our spirit guides and our spirit animals and I thought, huh, this is something different than my Baptist upbringing. They didn't teach us this in vacation viral school and I became intrigued about other things that were available to me to help in my spiritual development. In 2012, I was introduced to my first Reiki master, Sandra Frazier, and her husband, Jerry Miller and she attuned me to levels one, two and master level three Reiki, a sechmic lineage. And after that in 2007, I was led along with my husband, Kevin Monroe to actually start a non-profit, a healing non-profit that can help others participate in their own healing. Reiki has really changed my life, actually experiences with my family. I grew up with a lot of death around me, people dying of diseases and I always felt like there was something else that I could do to help but I didn't know what that was until I was introduced to Reiki and I really dove really into it and I was really intrigued by it. It helped me to center myself after my mother passed away of cancer and it helped me to center myself after my grandparents passed away of cancer shortly before she passed away. That was a very pivotal time in my life where very important people had to leave. Their mission on earth was complete and they had to join the spirit realm which I understand now but going through that back in my 20s I can remember I was filled with a lot of anxiety, a lot of sadness, a lot of stress. I was not at peace, I was not at ease and Reiki came into my life at just the right moment. It helped me to relax, it helped me to participate in my own healing and that's something that I would like to help others to do as well. So a lot of people in the United States come from Christian upbrings as you have and it's always been my understanding that Reiki was a form of healing that Jesus used as the laying of hands. Can you go a little deeper into that for our Christian viewers? Absolutely, absolutely. So being born and raised in a Baptist church actually I was a former church musician and we would always hear about laying on of hands during altar call or during prayer or holding your hands up to the pastor sending him healing energy and never really clicked of course when I was younger okay that's just something that we do but in my research of learning the different lineages and their actual hand positions to deliver a Reiki treatment those are some of the hand positions that we were using during altar call and during prayer. Reiki is not a religion. It is an act that you can engage in to help you find your divine self just like meditation and just like prayer. Reiki helps you to connect with your inner self. It helps you to participate in your own healing. You're placed in a relaxing state. Different hand positions are used over chakra areas and that's ultimately to help balance stagnant energy or unbalanced energy in your body and thinking back and vacation Bible school and Sunday school and different stories that you hear in church about how Jesus used his hands to heal. It was a connection. I made a connection to my upbringing. It wasn't like I threw the baby out with the bath water. It made things more clear to me in my spiritual development. Chakras are spinning wheels of energy. You have seven main chakras in your body from your crown chakra which governs your head, your mind, your ori, your connection to the divine to your third eye or brow chakra which governs the energy behind how you manifest how you perceive yourself to be, your inner vision to the energy behind your throat chakra which helps to govern are your words truly aligned with what's on your heart? Your heart chakra which governs unconditional love and happiness as we breathe in and out. We inhale and exhale. We're expanding and contracting. So should our unconditional love and compassion and forgiveness should be for ourselves first and also for others so that energy connects with that heart chakra. Down to your solar plexus chakra, your will, your personal will, your confidence, your power that fire within you that pushes through that helps you to achieve your goals. That energy is an energy of transformation just like your digestive system is in that area and it transforms energy, transforms food into energy. So as above so below that chakra transforms your lower energies into higher energies. Down to your sacral chakra which is right below your belly button which governs your emotions. Are you truly living in harmony with mine, your body and your emotions? Are they balanced? Do you allow yourself to feel pleasure and desire? Down to your root chakra. Your root chakra is your foundation which grounds you to this physical earth, your connection to your ancestors. And so those seven main chakras and you have hundreds of chakras that run throughout of your body. When you are tuned to Reiki those other chakras in your hands, in your head, in your feet, your arms, your legs are activated and you really feel that energy coursing through you as a Reiki practitioner not only are we balancing our chakra energies of a client but we're also working as a conduit. We harness that Reiki energy, that life force energy that exists around us into a client so they can participate in their own healing. You said you were a chemistry teacher so you're obviously very smart and you're in the science world. And a lot of people I've noticed are shocked when they hear a Reiki practitioner as a chemistry teacher too but to me they're exactly the same. Exactly the same. Can you explain to people? Absolutely, absolutely. So in chemistry we learn and we teach that the smallest unit of matter is the atom and the atom is made up of protons, electrons and neutrons. It's the protons that give the identity of the atom but it's the electrons that give that atom its behavior. And sometimes electrons can be gained or lost. Energy can be put into an atom or taken out of an atom and ultimately if you think about it we as physical bodies on this dimension we're ultimately made up of cells that are made up of atoms. These atoms are made up of subatomic particles like protons, neutrons and electrons. And those electrons help to determine energy of that atom. And those electrons move, energy is created. So if we can harness ultimately our electronic or energetic body, if we can understand that, then we can understand our physical body, our emotional body. So it's all the same. Science, chemistry, biology, anatomy, along with these spiritual practices, it's all the same. Back in ancient times, and we've talked about esoteric Atlanta before, but the priests were also the doctors. They were all together and it's just recently they started to separate the two but it also kind of mimics the universe as well, the stars and the planets and the solar, I see that energy within that. It's just everywhere. It's all around us. So if somebody is watching and wants to get in touch with you but they live in another state or another country, can they still get in touch with you? Absolutely. You can reach me on my website www.healinghandsrakeatl.org I can also be reached on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter same name, healinghandsrakeatl and also a number, 404-907-1482 And if someone can get a treatment from you from afar too, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. There are three different levels of becoming a Reiki practitioner. The first level, you're learning how to balance your physical energy and in yourself and others. Level two, you begin to learn the different symbols and the mantras so that you can give a Reiki treatment distantly. A person doesn't have to be in the same room. They can be in a different country, across the world and they can still receive this Reiki energy for healing. Level three, the master level of Reiki. One is trained to become a Reiki master teacher so they're teaching others to become Reiki practitioners as well. And you do teach. So if somebody's close to Atlanta and wants to take courses from you and learn how to do this themselves, they can do that, right? Absolutely. We have a level one class coming up December 5th from two to nine here at Ashtanga Yoga Atlanta and we have a level three class December the 17th, 18th and 19th. It's a three-day loan workshop, seven hours each day. And you learn hands-on application. You also learn about your chakras. You learn about protection rituals that you can do for yourself and for others, manifestation rituals as well. You learn about various spiritual baths you can do for spiritual cleaning. And also you learn how to make them for yourself and these classes. And you do receive a certificate for your training and as being a Reiki practitioner. And you have some soaps that we love that you create that are donation-based for your non-profit. Do you want to talk a little bit about those? Absolutely. So actually I have to give this credit to my husband, Kevin Monroe. He encouraged me to start making different products, spiritual products. Natural bath, salts and bars and whipped shea butters as well as body washes for others to help them engage in their healing practice. And so one of my number one sellers is my detoxifying charcoal and lavender. So it's made with eight different natural organic oils and butters and lavender essential oil and lavender petals. And the number two best seller is actually the turmeric, golden honey. It has organic turmeric and organic honey in it. So it's wonderful for the skin. I also have a line of Ifa Orisha soaps that I've made with my Babalao, Victor Jones. Are those available on your website for people to see? Absolutely. They're also available on the website. The Chakra soap bars and oils. The Orisha soap bars and oils. The Ancestor soap bars and oils and the different fragrance soap bars and oils along with bath salts and pendulums, incense, body washes and shea butters. And if somebody doesn't know what kind of soap they would need, they could ask you right and you would have a better idea of what they need. Absolutely. We can do that. Well thank you Tiffany. That was awesome. Thank you so much.