The fields of health and wellness are ever-expanding, and this includes a resurgence in the western world of alternative modes of healing that move beyond the physical body and into less tactile areas of the human condition.
Sara Monk is a practitioner of reiki and crystal healing. Her Niverville-based business, Awakened Soul Perspective, seeks to help people connect with the areas of their existence that can’t be seen through a microscope: the spiritual and the energetic.
Reiki is a practice first developed in Japan in the early twentieth century. Its practitioners place their hands in a series of positions over the body, channelling energy into the body’s energy centres to assist in re-establishing a normal flow on every level—spiritual, mental, and physical.
Crystal healing is the art of placing crystals on various parts of the body. Crystals are said to have the capability to help balance the body on a deep level. This practice dates back to the early Hopi Native Americans and ancient Chinese medicine.
“I know it works from my experience,” says Monk. “It’s difficult to have faith in the unseen and people are often afraid of things that they don’t understand. In order to overcome that fear, you need to learn about it.”
Dr. Richard Gerber, in his book Vibrational Medicine, says that the physical body is a complex network of interwoven energy fields, and these create the life-force. These energy systems are powerfully affected by our emotions, spiritual balance, and nutritional and environmental factors.
Monk explains that we have seven main energetic body centres, called chakras. Each chakra corresponds with a different gland in your body.
“If you have a blockage in one of these chakras, it can work itself into the physical body and cause illness, which is why you need to release the blockage,” says Monk.
Her primary focus is to help realign the spiritual, energetic, and physical bodies with each other. The process helps to bolster the body’s natural ability to heal itself. She also makes use of music and essential oils to assist in healing.
While her business is relatively new, Monk says she’s been aware of her special abilities since she was a young child. She’d shut it off in order to get by in a society where such differences aren’t readily embraced.
Her change of heart didn’t come about without some struggle. A number of years ago, Monk was involved in two car accidents, one leaving her with near fatal injuries. It took her doctors months to discover the reason for her declining health and many more months to successfully treat it. At her lowest point, she was weak and wheelchair-bound.
While in hospital, she received a visit from a spiritual counsellor. Through this counsellor, she learned about meditation and moved to a place of peace within herself. Reiki was also performed on her weak and ailing body.
“This whole experience allowed me to open up to my energetic and spiritual self and realize I’m not a victim,” says Monk. “It started me on this new path. I started swallowing knowledge.”
She began training in reiki and crystal healing, and in February 2016 she opened her own business. In November of this year, she began practicing from her home.
“Everything I do has a spiritual and energetic aspect to it,” Monk says. “There is no way around that. That’s who I am.”
Today, Monk works with clients in person or remotely. Sessions vary between 30 to 50 minutes in length. She says energy healing is complementary to chemotherapy or any other mainstream medical treatments.
“I have a huge textbook written by a doctor who dreamed of a centre with true holistic healing,” Monk says. “A centre with practitioners and doctors of all different modalities. I dream of that centre as well. So often doctors focus on just the physical. We need more of a prevention system that looks at every aspect of life. One in which people are empowered and are taught methods to take care of themselves.”
