Do you catch yourself bored out of your wits with your mundane and monotonous way of life? Have you ever felt like there is something more for you out there? If your answer is yes, then you’ll find this episode relatable and inspirational. Tess Baum interviews Reiki Master Practitioner, certified in both Usui and Karuna Reiki, Amy Kaufman to share her Zig-Zag story that took her from living a life of boredom to a life of fulfillment and excitement, doing healing work as a Reiki master and empowering others in the process. She then lets us in on her experiences and the stories of how she is helping women heal with intuitive work and more.
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There is More Out There With Reiki Master Amy Kaufman
In this episode, I’m excited to introduce you to my new friend and colleague Amy Kaufman. She is a Reiki Master Practitioner, certified in both Usui and Karuna Reiki. I’m honored to be co-leading Reiki training with her. For over many years, she has worked in the field of education, but has consistently been drawn to healing work. As a wife and mother, she’s a natural giver. A giver of love, support, and a giver of herself. Following her path in becoming a Reiki master has allowed her to continue to give love and support to many in need of healing. I’m happy that you can read her Zig-Zag story. Enjoy.
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Amy, how are you?
I’m well. How are you?
I’m good. I wanted to start off by asking you where you are. Everyone is in their homes, most likely, still reading but they don’t exactly know what we’re looking at and where we are in our home. Where are you so I can get a perspective.
I’m in my living room in a big comfy chair. There used to be a TV show called The Comfy Couch. This is my comfy chair, the one that you could sit on and fall asleep in a second, but right to the right of me is a beautiful bay window. I’m looking outside at greenery and it’s beautiful because it’s always quiet and it’s peaceful. This is a nice spot.
I’m in my tent and luckily, there’s a window. I’m looking directly out and then there are lots of trees. I also see my big barn that my kids are renovating. It’s a nice perspective. I’m happy that you’re here and we’re going to have this great conversation and share it with others. I wanted to start it out by asking you, what was your most impactful zig-zag story or something that you would want to share from your heart?
What changed me from being the regular mom and having the regular job was boredom. I knew there was something more. My kids at that time, I had two 8-year-olds and a 10-year-old. I did the mom and the soccer thing. I love my children, but I was bored out of my mind. I was working, but not in the capacity that I thought I could work, not in the capacity that I had before I had kids. That wasn’t who I was. I used to get up, I loved my job and I loved what I was doing. This was ten steps back, maybe more. I realized I wasn’t going anywhere, but for necessity, for getting out of the house and to do something more than washing dishes, I thought, “I’ll stick with what it is.” I came into acceptance. It is what it is. I never thought beyond that, but I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t fulfilled in any sense of the word.
One day I took off. I had a sick day and I took a yoga class with Harriet Trigger. Nobody showed up to the class. It was Harriet and I. We were talking. It was the best conversation because we talked about lots of stuff, lots of things and then she said, “Women like you at a certain point in their lives are bored and want more.” That’s not for everybody, but you have to know this woman and the way I was. She saw it on my face and in my soul.
I said, “You’re right. It was boredom that spurred me to think about what. I don’t know what.” I went for a tarot reading, which I had done pretty often. A lot of it was, “You’re going to get married. You’re going to have kids.” Way back when those kinds of things. Now, we’re getting into the more serious things about, “What is my life going to be like?” I have this wonderful reading and the woman is reading. She looks at me out of nowhere, “Do you want to be a Reiki healer?” I looked at her and I go, “What?” I never heard of Reiki. I didn’t know what she was talking about, but I know that I’ve gone to healers in my life. I knew about healers. Without even thinking, I said, “Yes, that’s what I want to do.”
What year was this?
This was in 2009. She said, “I have the person for you. I’m sending you to my friend Suzanne.” I’m a good listener and I follow along. I’m very good at following instructions. She gives me the number of this woman and I called her, “I was told because I was very meek and shy.” She said, “Come on over.” I go to Suzanne’s house. I’m sitting across from her table and she says, “Hold your hands out.” I hold my hands out again because I’m a good listener. I do whatever you tell me to do. She looked at me and held her hands around me.
She said, “You need to do this.” From that, I studied Reiki with this woman, Suzanne Roth, who is a master in Usui and Karuna. I continued studying with her. First, it was the Usui Reiki many months and overtime and then continuing. We would have Reiki circles every first Monday of every month, which was wonderful because what it did was it had all of us. She was teaching everybody, different tables and we would work on each other for hours.
[bctt tweet=”It’s important for everybody to be in the present time.” via=”no”]
It also builds your intuition. It’s a special experience. It empowers you in different ways that you think. It doesn’t matter if you have been studying it for so long.
Suzanne was in my life for years. It slowly started because I’m also big by intention. Every new moon, I would write down my intentions. I want clients and I want to do Reiki. It was like, “It wasn’t happening.” That was many years ago. Also, timing has to be right. It’s like what you said before, timing is everything. There was no way I could do what I do now when I had three children scampering around upstairs screaming, fighting, and then running off to wherever I needed to go. It was a slow start. Finally, the youngest of my two, shout off to college, that’s when my room was transferred.
The best thing also was the room where I work was like a children’s playroom. There was a flood in that room. I was getting carpeting. I had my house measured for carpeting on a Sunday. I went downstairs Monday morning to get something and my feet are squishing. What happens is that room is beneath the ground. Water was surging up. It was a disastrous mess, but that disastrous mess turned out to be the best blessing and a gift because from there, we had to rip up all the carpet, and then I thought, “Let me change this room.” I got rid of the Legos, blocks, and video games. That room became mine. That was a necessary change to make this my Reiki space.
The whole symbol of this flood is cool. You’re opening up the flood gates now. You’re like, “It’s time.” That’s beautiful. It’s also the balance of motherhood, and even a lot of people that are healers, they’ll have to balance other full-time jobs. We’re in a time where people are interested in this and learning how to do it so much more, which I think is wonderful because there’s more to what we think heals us. I love that we all work with our hands now and people feel that. I learned about Reiki in the ‘90s and I was in my twenties at that time. A lot of people hadn’t heard of it. People always thought I was out there or woo-woo, and I’m like, “Experience it.” I’d have to say that my mom and sister at that time were skeptical and mocked me. I had them go to Reiki people and one Reiki practitioner at Equinox. It was based in the Upper Eastside.
They worked on my mother and said to her, “Your cells are changing and that is not a good thing.” My mother was a smoker and she was afraid to go to the doctor. I heard that message from that Reiki person. I’m like, “I wanted her to see her doctor and she was terrified.” Two years later, she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer. I know that practitioner felt something and it was only to cause good and only to bring the healing forward. It also is a great way to match both types of natural healing and medicine that’s here because it is our intuition and our healing hands that can sense so much. I think it’s great that this is available to us now. I think that more people should use it as a maintenance in their life and to open their lives up because I agree with you, so much changed in my life when I discovered energy healing.
Your mom discovered that she was sick and was afraid to move on. I went to my healer because my mom was always into healers, psychics and tarot readings, but she had gone to the same healer, yet she stopped because it was too emotionally painful for her. She would have been able to change completely, but she refused. She went to a couple of sessions and then that was it. I followed Suzanne because this energy can help with physical healing, especially emotional healing.
It’s the physical, emotional, spiritual and many levels of us because we are multi-level dimensional beings. We’re not just healing the physical. I felt when I experienced Reiki for the first time an expansion that I never felt before. I understood at that moment that we are more than just our bodies. I sense what they called your “aura.” I’m like, “I would love to feel my aura,” but I literally remember giving the analogy of, I was opening like aluminum foil. I felt like I was coming out of aluminum foil. That was the analogy that came to my mind and I felt my whole self rise up. My posture came up, my whole being rose. I felt a sensation. It’s more of just like in your mind, it’s more than any physical sensation. It was like, “I now knew.” It was such a wonderful thing. I also feel it’s very meditative because I wasn’t able to meditate before I experienced Reiki. How about you? Did you start meditating first and then the energy came?
No, meditation came later.
Many people think it’s more in the mind and I think Reiki helps you understand that you can let go. Once you do, then things start to come out, and then you don’t have to worry that you don’t know how to do anything. You feel like, “I’m not going to know how to meditate. I’m not going to understand,” but here you’re finally in the receiving place and that’s hard for us in this modern day to open up to receive. I was curious because I see that that was a pivotal time for you and it was beautiful. Obviously, you must’ve had many other twists and turns in your life to become a mother. Isn’t that happening all the time in our life like we intend to move on to the next? We’re excited to get there and then maybe when you get there, you’re like, “Is that all there is?”
It’s soccer, but there’s something else.
What were you like as a teenager? Were you like, “I can’t wait to get to that point of understanding how my life is going to unfold?” That question in our early years of the unknown causes a lot of anxiety for a lot of people. I love the theme of this because I want us all to appreciate every part of it. It’s not always about the destination. You begin to feel that flow of life and not worry so much that it’s not going to work out. My goal is to inspire people to understand that what you create begins to manifest. It begins to happen. If you set your achievement, it may not happen tomorrow, but it shuts off that power. I’m sure you understand that so much even more so when you learned about energy.
More so now, it continues because it’s believing in the whole process and how it happens. I’m much more in the moment too, which I never was because having kids and doing this, it’s always looking at the next step to accomplish something and then what’s next. When I got there, it was, “Now, what?” It wasn’t as exciting as I thought. To be in the present time, it’s important for everybody.
We have a similar passion for this work and this experience because it puts you in that present moment. As a practitioner and as the person that is receiving the energy, both are at present moment and there’s nothing like it. It’s not so much helping to get to the goal. I don’t even think goals are necessary in life. If we could set our objectives.
Goals change and I don’t even think it should be goals. I think it should be steps if we’re going to the next step. There are no more goals.
You’re evolving. There’s the golden hour where you’re finally there, but that’s what I love about Reiki, other energy healing and other ways to be mindful, whether or not it’s breathing exercises, anything that’s out there now. It’s become so much more mainstream. People are understanding and experiencing it. The more we experienced those moments, we can have that stillness in us. Wouldn’t it be great to always have that, because life happens. Any gems that you can share because we are human? It’s not like you’re always in that peaceful mode. We go from our everyday life and we know how to get into the zone. Anything that you want to share or any funny story where you can shift into gear because you hold a lot of classes and you do so much.
It’s part of life. That’s what I want to say. Although, I never want to get there. If that’s a message, I don’t want to get there and I don’t want anyone else to get there. I want everybody to know that there is no there, it’s an evolution. We’re always moving where if you get there, that means you know it all. I could not be that arrogant to think that I know it all and nobody.
I feel the same way. Many times, you and I are thinking of similar things. At the time, whatever comes through. I was thinking about that as well. I love that I don’t know it all. The curiosity of life and that’s what makes us more expansive. The more we want to know and it’s not thinking, “I don’t know anything.” That’s coming from that limited place like, “I don’t know that much.” It’s not looking at it.
You can learn. My goal is no goals. I don’t want to be a guru. I don’t want somebody to hang onto my every word because people do that. They need something, but I want to be needed to help expand. I don’t want to be a crutch and I don’t want to be an addiction. I want to share that we can all do this and grow together. Do I want to be there to help people? Absolutely. It’s in a different phase than a lot of things. I know Brené Brown, she’s very big and somebody who is in the healing industry said, “My guru,” and I’m like, “Why is she your guru? Can you not think on your own?” You can get an idea from another person. She espouses good things, but be your own individual person.
I think putting people on pedestals and its hierarchy of things are shifting out. Especially, in our community of healers or everyone that is in this wellness community, we are creating more circles versus looking at these leaders as knowing so much. That goes back to what you and I have studied like more of a tribal, more of the indigenous cultures. They support circles although they have leaders in their tribe that are respected and for the good reason they’re respected. It also impacts the whole community and not looking at anybody that thought that because we all have that divinity within us. It’s giving people that understanding that they have it too.
We’re not the source for you to feel the energy, we are opening up. When you had the flood, we’re helping you open up that nodule so your energy could start flowing. It’s beautiful, but anything that you have experienced because I feel that it is changing. I think that people did seek out healers, gurus and people have that sense of power. That’s why I love that you don’t seek that out either, that you’re not looking to be that at all even though you do have so much to share. Do you have any experience that you want to share? Any hidden gem that you could think of all these years of doing this work that you would like to share from somebody that came in that had an experience.
I get blown away by certain things that happen because part of it is being intuitive with people. That’s another thing that I don’t walk around saying, “I’m intuitive and I’m an empath.” Of course, I am, because why would I do this kind of work? You have to be. I don’t have to wear a label that says, “I’m an empath and I’m intuitive.” The fun part is that when things happen to me, to other people, I’m blown away. I’ll give you an example. I have a client who I hadn’t heard from in a while and during this pandemic time, I’ve been reaching out to a lot of people, but different people, different days.
All of a sudden, I’ll feel like I need to talk to Rhonda. I sent Rhonda a heart. One Monday she called me, she said, “My father died Saturday.” I knew her father was sick, but she said, “You knew that.” I said, “I guess I did,” because there was a reason why I hadn’t gotten in touch with Rhonda in months, but why did I choose that particular day? I had another client and she was pregnant. I knew when she was due. I also texted her on a Tuesday, “How is it going? When is the day?” She said, “I knew I was going to hear from you today. It’s Friday.” It’s things like that. When I do my recordings, which I shared with you, I will do a recording and all of a sudden, there is a flash of light above my head and that happened more than once.
I almost have to redo my videos because I’m blown away that I see this presence around me. As much as people are blown away by things, I am too and I get excited when it works. I still sometimes have that, “Is this real?” I have a friend that we talk about the fraud effect, but it’s not a fraud. This is real. It works and it’s magical. I accept it and I think it’s amazing. When those things happen, I know it’s not because it’s a coincidence. There are guides in me saying, “Reach out to this person, call this one, text this one. We’re with you.” When I see that, they’re with me.
We’re all connected energetically. It’s not a matter of just being connected when we see each other. When you have a heart connection, which I’m sure you have from many of your clients, it’s pretty much timeless. You get your instinct with them even after they leave your space. You know when you feel a little tighter and when they need their space, but it’s interesting that you’re so in tune. That’s beautiful. I love to hear that. Any suggestions or anything that you’ve seen because of the intuition, it does open up so much. For me, I see things more in a metaphor. I may see something not literal. There were times when I don’t even want to share it because the person feels maybe when I’m seeing. You feel that people in the beginning or even now are coming to you because they want to get a message as well and how do you handle that. Are they looking for your intuitive skill?
[bctt tweet=”Reiki helps people move through fear.” via=”no”]
It happens. I’ve also learned over time, just say it because there will be times I’d be working on someone and not hear, but I feel it. I feel like, “Was there a sadness?” I’ll give you another example. I’m working on a woman. I’m working around her neck, which has her throat center. It felt sad and I got teary. I’m thinking, “Should I say something? I don’t know.” I’m doubting myself. I said, “After the sessions, how was it?” She said, “I was fine.” I said, “Is there anything going on?” She said, “No, everything’s great.” I said, “I felt sadness from you,” and then she proceeds to tell me about a party that she’d gone to. She’s a mom. She hardly gets out.
She went to this party and was sitting next to her friend who’s going through a terrible time and was talking about the horrible time that she was having. This woman said, “I was so upset all night long.” I said, “Yes because it’s right here.” That she felt that she couldn’t speak. I said, “That’s where it’s coming from because you can’t speak, you’re holding back.” She had that a-ha moment. I will tell you that most people right away are like, “How is everything?” “Great.” It’s not great because that’s why you’re here. They don’t even realize what to say and I trust my instincts now so much more that if I’m feeling something, “I know you told me you’re fine, but you’re not fine,” and then I bring it out. That’s what starts the healing process.
You’re not doing this on a surface level. It’s something coming from the root. You’ll know intuitively where maybe there’s something blocked or something held up. I feel often, you don’t need to even know the story, but it’s good for people to share their stories because then they could figure it out. A lot of what I got from this woman that you were sharing, we can pick each other’s energy up. Maybe she picked up this other woman’s energy probably too so you helped clear that out for her. It wasn’t anything that maybe she thought it was a big deal mentally. We speak to people all the time, but we don’t realize that we are picking up their stuff and maybe we’re holding it in our bodies and we don’t even realize it. That’s cool. You helped her understand that like, “You picked that up for sure and now we’re moving it out.”
I helped to release it and she was so much better, but that’s what it is. It’s that understanding. That’s why you want to come because I will always ask a client, “Why are you here?” It’s because I don’t want people to get the impression that I’m a mind reader. I want to talk to you. Yes, I’ll feel something if you don’t tell me, but I have a right to ask. If you don’t want to tell me, you don’t have to, but I find that people do want to unload.
That’s key with the fact that you’re saying you’re not a mind reader. A lot of people, at least in the past, seek out energy workers because they wanted a psychic. It’s good to clarify that you’re not a mind reader, but it is an energy thing so we can talk about it. That’s such an important thing because that is also an older mindset to explain exactly what you’re doing so people can understand.
They want to test you. They want to see how good you are.
I love how everything unfolded for you. Anything you would like to offer people because we are all in this time where we’re still pretty stuck in our own spaces and talking about energy being stuck. Anything you want to share with the world that you see happening as we are all unfolding?
I feel like people want more. I do distance healings and those are as powerful. For the skeptics in people, I do a free Reiki share on Fridays. I will get people telling me they cry, they felt better, they felt a release. I do distance healings because it works. The intention is there and that’s what you need.
It does and that goes back to what we were talking about how we’re more than being physical and how we connect to each other energetically. It’s a beautiful thing. I feel like there’s so much change happening to everybody. We all feel similar things now because we are still in this stuck place. Anything that you can see changing for people now? Anything that you’re noticing in your practice and personally?
For me, I notice the feeling of the world. Honestly, I feel the tension and scaredness of a lot of people. I feel people are wanting something more, not just a new sweater after all this. It’s great to have your hair done, but I think we’re realizing that you can let your hair go a little bit. I loved getting my nails done, but it’s fine if they’re not done for now, as long as I have clean hands. We’re realizing that it’s nice, but it’s not the core of who we are. We can live without those things, but we can’t live without peace of mind. We can’t live without inner peace. We can’t live without the inability to move forward out of fear.
To me, it’s unbelievable how it is a test in how powerful we are also because we can get through this with support with one another, talking things through, doing all of these other things that we can do for each other, we can move past our own immediate sense of fear.
That’s what this does. It helps people move through fear and that’s why I’m here and that’s why I feel I was given this gift because it is a gift. They say that everybody can do Reiki and they can, not everybody chooses to go that path. I chose it. I’m here to help.
Thank you. I love your story and sharing all this wonderful wisdom, light and magic. Enjoy your day and I can’t wait to speak to you soon. I can’t wait to see you.
Thanks, Tesa.
Important Links
About Amy Kaufman
I am a Reiki Master, Guided Meditation leader and author here to help heal and inspire you with love, compassion and humor. My work allows you to cast aside your stress while replacing it with calm, soothing energy.
To me, being a Reiki Master, leader of Guided Meditations and author is not a profession, but rather a path I followed. As a wife and mother, I am a natural giver. A giver of love, support and a giver of myself. Following my path in becoming a Reiki Master allowed me to continue to give love and support to many in need. Being a Reiki Master was the first accomplishment on my journey. Guided Meditation and Chakra Therapy is another form of healing that is equally natural to me and came about while I was running a Reiki workshop.
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