082: [FEMALE STORIES] The intersection of Acupuncture, Reiki, and Zen with Lara Elliott

This episode takes us on a beautiful journey exploring the deep connections between Buddhism, Reiki, Daoism, and Traditional Chinese Medicine. 

We dive into Lara’s inspiring path—from her beginnings in Europe to working as a designer in NYC, and eventually immersing herself in the study of Chinese Medicine and Reiki, while embracing the practice of Buddhism. 

Together, we explore the essence of Yin and Yang and how energy is at the heart of our experiences, health, and balance. 

Tune in to hear how we can live in harmony with Qi, the life force energy that flows through our bodies, relationships, and minds 

 About Lara: 
Lara is a dedicated Zen Buddhist practitioner who blends Eastern and Western healing modalities, including Reiki, Breathwork, CranioSacral therapy, Herbology, and Holistic Health Coaching. With over a decade of experience, she helps clients achieve balance and well-being by addressing physical and emotional challenges. 

Since 2011, Lara has pursued Chinese Medicine in NYC, earning two Master’s degrees to become a licensed Acupuncturist and Herbalist. As a Reiki Master for seven years, she has trained students worldwide, offering in-person sessions in Southern California and online. 

 
Connect with Lara:
IG: laraelliott1

Chapters

• 0:02 Exploring Buddhism, Reiki, and Chinese Medicine
• 14:49 Following Creative Essence Through Life
• 29:58 Journey Through Buddhism and Reiki
• 43:24 Interconnected Paths of Energy Healing
• 47:47 Interconnected Paths of Energy Healing
• 56:09 Understanding Yin and Yang in Life
• 1:05:54 Promoting Podcast Growth and Offers

Transcript

Kasia: 0:02

Hello and welcome to the Other Way, a lifestyle podcast exploring uncommon, unconventional or otherwise alternative approaches to life, business and health. I'm your host, kasia. I'm the founder of InFlow, a women's wellness brand that designs intentional products to help women reconnect to their unique cyclical rhythm and find a balance between being and doing. This podcast is an extension of my mission within Flow. Here we provide intentional interviews with inspiring humans trailblazers, researchers, spiritual on the journey of doing things the other way.

Kasia: 0:55

Hello, hello and welcome back to the Other Way. I'm your host, kasia, and I hope you're loving this raspy voice because this is how I'm showing up today. I am still on the mend from that cold, but in the theme of impermanence, which is one of the things we are definitely talking about today, we're just going to roll with it because this is how it is today. So welcome Y'all. Today's episode is so unbelievably special. We are diving into the topics that are so near and dear to my heart Buddhism, reiki, traditional Chinese medicine and Taoism and really the intersection between all of them, with our incredible guest, Lara Elliott, who is a Reiki practitioner and teacher, traditional Chinese medicine practitioner and dedicated Buddhist student and Sangha space holder. Now some background context. For those who have been longtime listeners, you'll know that I started the Other Way to accompany me on my journey throughout grad school, where, at the time, I had just enrolled and started studying traditional Chinese medicine. The philosophy behind traditional Chinese medicine really resonated with me deeply. It just opened my mind to this new perspective. That really felt like home, diving into Buddhism for the first time. This was building on my 15 years of meditation and my yoga practice. Now, with all of these insights. Although I found them so fascinating and just the knowledge never ending, I also found myself confused about how do I work through and apply these teachings. They felt so disparate and separate, right Like Buddhism, traditional Chinese medicine, taoism and then Reiki. As I became introduced to it, I found myself asking questions like how does the healing of the body through traditional Chinese medicine, which has some connection to Taoism, how does that relate to Buddhism and Buddhist teachings on duality? Or how does Reiki, which is a energy healing practice, align or not align with traditional Chinese medicine's concept of qi and yin and yang? I mean, I definitely was operating in a world of separation which we learn is really the opposite of, like the core Buddhist teaching. But that's neither here nor there. But these questions were just percolating in my mind as my mind was trying to compartmentalize and rationalize and understand these seemingly separate modalities, philosophies and practices. And it wasn't until I met Lara that these dots truly connected In the spring of 2024,.

Kasia: 3:50

So this past spring I took Lara's Reiki One training in Ojai and I went in expecting to learn about Reiki and Ki and energy healing, and I did. But what I didn't anticipate was a profound, almost psychedelic realization that it's all connected. Lara, who is not only a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner but also Reiki teacher and a dedicated student of Buddhism, brought everything together in such a beautiful, cohesive way, and today's episode is really exploring that connection so you can all experience it as well. So some of what you're going to hear today, you're going to hear about Lara's journey from her beginnings in Europe to her time as a designer in New York City and finally to her studies in Chinese medicine, reiki and Buddhism, and finally to her studies in Chinese medicine, reiki and Buddhism. Lara is going to share her unique perspective on how these practices Buddhist philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, reiki and Taoism are not separate but interconnected and complementary. You'll learn how yin and yang and qi, which is life force energy in TCM or qi in Reiki are at the heart of our health, our experiences and our relationships and really our experience of the world. By the end of this conversation, I hope and believe you'll gain a deeper understanding of the essence of our human experience and the world around us in a way that feels grounding and deeply true. Buddhism teaches that everything is connected and today's conversation beautifully illustrates that idea that everything is everything and yet nothing all at once. So if you're curious to explore these philosophies, modalities or even your own experiences more deeply, this episode is a must listen. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy.

Kasia: 5:52

Lara, welcome to the podcast, hello, welcome. Thank you so much for having me. I was already freaking out before this about how excited I am to have you here, but truly it is such a joy, I'm so excited to dive into this. Your background of Chinese medicine and Zen and Reiki, I mean, it is just so fascinating because you're able to thread together the themes between these seemingly very different worlds, and so there's just so much for us to talk about. But before we do all of that, I need to ask you three questions, or one question with three answers, which is, what are three words that you would use to describe yourself?

Lara Elliott: 6:35

Yes. And now I wonder like, oh, I should have actually thought about this more before. I remember seeing the question and then moving on Okay, three words. Seeing the question and then moving on Okay Three words. I'm curious.

Lara Elliott: 6:54

I want to say kind, but what I'm going to say, and I think it's connected to it, because I wish I would be kind 48 hours continuously, 24 hours of the day and night, but maybe some people would say that's not true, but I am smile, smiley. So I think the smile and it has always been like this my whole life and that smile, I think, comes from a place that over time and the years and the decades and my life so far, I've realized that it is connected to, to a softness within my heart and a connectedness within my heart, or like an openness that I really appreciate and continue to allow to be open. So well, kylie, what did I say before? Curious. And then what is the third one? Such a pressure, gosh, I almost would like for you to say what do you think, what do you feel from that? And then I'll just receive that.

Kasia: 7:51

You know, the word that immediately came to me was very authentic. Oh yeah, I take it.

Lara Elliott: 8:00

I actually agree. I agree because, it's true, to a fault sometimes and I say this also with a big smile on my face I do. I actually feel that about myself and you know, and authenticity. I am also pretty honest and transparent person, but it doesn't always mean completely saying everything about yourself in any given moment. But I feel connected to my authenticity and because I have experienced myself in that space and now it's becoming really aware and a lot of healing, well-being, right worlds and realms, and then also in the practices that I study and teach and you know, in different ways, I have put a different lens on like, oh, I actually have felt connected to that authentic self, that authentic self.

Lara Elliott: 9:05

But then I've been kind of wondering, like I was kind of like looking at this, like how has that made me move through my life? And maybe in different ways, that people who are where there's a little bit of a hesitation or block or you know what, what people still, you know, opening up to and wanting to open up to. So it's an interesting way of feeling open up to. So it's an interesting way of feeling. Did I come out like this for my mom, you know, or what? What caused the no filter. That's why I said at the beginning to no fault, and it's not always about what we say, but how we show up. So, yes, thank you for reflecting this, because it's true and and and I actually feel it's something like that I love about myself, and and so I appreciate that and yeah, I take that.

Kasia: 9:54

Well, I will say that as somebody who was first introduced to you online and you have, you know, quite a presence as a healer, and you will not say this, but I must say this for you In many ways, you are a teacher.

Kasia: 10:09

You're a teacher of Reiki, but also you lead our beautiful Zen Sangha group and there you're also, of course, working with your patients and your clients directly. You have such an influence on the community and you have this presence that radiates even further online, but it has always felt very, very real, both online and then offline, when I finally met you and I think that that is quite rare, I would say I think that things feel very curated online, and I mentioned this because I do know that you even speak to this in some of your beautiful pictures or your messages. You communicate that this is really beautiful, but I want to be very real, that it doesn't always look like this, and I think that is just so powerful and so needed, especially in the wellness industry. So I love that you receive it and I love to see it frankly, yeah.

Lara Elliott: 11:07

Thank you. Thank you for reflecting that.

Kasia: 11:10

So your story is very, very interesting. Not only are you authentic, but also I think you're very unique in that you came from Europe. You worked as a designer in your past life, if I got that right, and then you got your master's in Chinese medicine two times. Can you share with our audience a bit of your professional journey, Because a lot of what I think you are drawn to that really makes up how you present yourself today.

Lara Elliott: 11:38

Thank you. I like circling that back to the part of, maybe, curiosity. So the things that make me me or that I like that are traits of my, of my personality. We just had a whole little previous blurb about self and and none you, ourselves, the traits and how we move through the world, how we perceive ourselves, what the energies we're getting out and then getting reflected. That's why I like to say reflecting, you know, because we are such mirrors of one another and so on. So, and sometimes we perceive ourselves differently than other people, right, feel. So it's nice if there's a resonance in how people perceive us and and and if that's the same we perceive ourselves, observe ourselves. So I have my, my curiosity and kind of a, a way of moving being guided by my, my heart. So curiosity in the heart to me are very connected and the word, even the etymology, I think, comes from the curl in French and probably from the maybe Latin stem, but it's curiosity. So to me, following my heart and simpler versions has brought me, and following that, you know, just like a pull has led me, definitely just inspired my move from Europe to the United States, to New York in my mid twenties.

Lara Elliott: 13:12

I was always, I felt really creative, or, you know, been creative, and that's obviously some term that we could discuss here what that means Also to me. I do think a lot, a lot about it, because creativity is, it's an energy, it's something that we're opening up to, it's nothing unique to one person. I do not feel one person has more creativity than another, because the same as love or all these frequencies, you know, spiritual essence, it's just something. How open are we to this? And I don't think think of them as sources inside of a person. There's no limitation. But also the physical is not a limitation of the mind or any of that which makes ourselves up. So to me, there are these portals within our being and creativity, creative essence in its form, in its pure form, is really the same as spiritual essence. So, you know, like a musician, a writer or a designer designing clothes, whatever it might have a different form in how it sounds and looks and so on, but where it comes from, that's the same, and I think that this is a gift. This is part of what we are born with and, again, it's not limited to that, but we are, that's what we're here to experience. So creativity I just want to bring this in for a second, totally branching out. But to me, we are then finding ways, depending on our personality or all the you know, the things that shape ourselves, we bringing them into different forms into the world. And for me this was for a while design. But I really feel at this point on my little journey that creative, that essence that I was just mentioning, that pure essence, is actually given to us humans. Maybe some animals would have it too, or all to out-create challenges in life and obstacles, because what creative essence really helps us with?

Lara Elliott: 15:10

If you think about the artist and the thinking outside of a box, right, it's also interesting that I mean, there's whole schools, programs, degrees for artists, but does an artist really need to go to school for five years and pay? But does an artist really need to go to school for five years and pay, you know, multiple hundred thousand dollars? But what is taught oftentimes in school is the support of thinking outside the box. So that is something that's actually gifted to every human. And I look at the caveman times that you know, the caveman had the cave and in wintertime maybe put like anyways, let's say, there was a rock, a big rock, in front of the door of the cave and then the cavemen had to, or women had to, feel like, okay, how are we going to get out of here? That's where the creative essence comes in. How are we going to solve this problem? That sometimes seems unsolvable and I like this idea that that's actually where our creative essence comes from. Not to be artists in this life, but that's how we now in these centuries, and you know how it moves through us. But if we sometimes remember our creative essence, that can come out as art, it can be expressed as art, as artists in life, but it actually is given to all of us to outcreate our challenges and problems.

Lara Elliott: 16:24

So, circling back to my first, you know, like teenager years, and then into early 20s, design was what I was curious about, design photography also. You know some movies, film but there wasn't a lot of that in a good way, I mean to me personally in Europe and Germany, where I'm from. So design was the thing I studied, then moved after I finished a four-year program of fashion journalism, media communications in Germany, I felt first of all the call to New York and to the United States and to leave Germany. I was done. I was like I had my time here in this country. Thank you very much. I love you. Family and my parents are super supportive and still are and have always been. They're big travelers. They showed us the world when we were young and they were like, okay, go, so amazing and inspiring.

Lara Elliott: 17:20

And then I had already started feeling well, I learned all of this creative stuff that is connected to the mind, but I was also limited in my language skills, right. So if you're a journalist and you come from a different country, it is even a little harder to find a job or to express yourself if the language is not fully mastered. And at that time I was 25. It wasn't anyway, and at that time was 25. It wasn't anyway, but that, and then, mixed with other things, I felt the beginning steerings of this feeling that I want to do something with my hands. And so, from the more abstract fashion design, journalism, I was then signed up into fashion, actually design. So learning the draping, the pattern making and I'm only bringing this up because, you know, fast forward, 20 years later, I, next to my deep love of the philosophies of Eastern you know, eastern medicine and Taoism, buddhism and then Chinese medicine. I work with my hands. I literally. That's one of the big parts with my clients and patients acupuncture, reiki, body work, sometimes hands off right, but also I do love, love, touch, and so that really already manifested itself that in a very, very subtle way.

Lara Elliott: 18:44

So fashion design in New York studied it a bit, worked for different companies and then asked myself one day, by myself inspired, what would it be if it wasn't fashion design that I would like to do? I just walked down the block in Brooklyn and that question came to mind and not an immediate answer. And that question came to mind and not an immediate answer, but the answer came passively. A few weeks later, when I was sitting at breakfast and reading an article about vitamin B12 deficiency and I was really curious about that and realized in that moment, caught myself, basically, and I was like wait, Lara, that's not normal that you're so, that this is like yummy, like reading this stuff is like really nourishing and interesting, which is why this is what we need to listen to, to be mindful of these things Like what is it that we're reading about that, we're studying about that, we're hearing about that? We really feel so nurtured by and inspired by. Those are the things we want, especially if they're good, if they have like some health benefits for self or the world or the earth. So that brought me to holistic health coaching and then eventually Chinese medicine.

Lara Elliott: 19:57

And there's a longer story of how the Chinese medicine came up the acupuncture but it was insured. I think inspired by a trip with my design colleague, the woman that owned the company I worked for to Los Angeles and we went to here a very known market that has a lot of health foods and herbs and they had a tonic bar that was from a Chinese medicine known Chinese medicine practitioner. It's basically dragon herbs and he's an herbalist and we had some of these tonics and I believe it was the herbs that brought me that opened something up inside of me because literally my friend and I went back every day. We loved this tonic. It was like a. Of course it had reishi in it and some you know that we call Shen tonics that open the spirit and the heart and within I mean we got obsessed. Basically we wanted to. She wanted to open a tonic bar Chinese, like there was those tonics and I ordered all the books on Chinese medicine, then signed up to acupuncture school within a few weeks.

Lara Elliott: 21:06

I know this is a longer little story, but it is, you know just how, from fashion design into that. And I do have to say fashion design was fun for a while and I, you know, I worked for smaller companies that were more creatively working and I learned so much. But there was so clearly more deeper sense and fulfillment in that other world of well-being and holistic health. And then when the Chinese medicine came up and the herbs, that was just felt like there was no more clear thought in it, but just this following of, I mean my friend Lacey Phillips would say the ping, but just this following of, I mean my friend Lacey Phillips would say the ping, it's just that following the, I mean just being connected to that path. You know that intuitive hit.

Kasia: 21:53

Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow. I mean I absolutely love. I love sharing these stories. I don't know if you know, but a lot of this podcast actually came about from my own personal pivot, from working in tech for about 10 years to when I started studying Chinese medicine myself. I never ended up finishing the program. I studied two years. I absolutely loved it, but it kind of created this almost like ripple effect into this podcast and really exploring my curiosity in these other ways.

Kasia: 22:24

But the reason why I share that is because so many of our listeners really are women who are going through those transitions. And it's interesting because a lot of the stories that I hear on the podcast typically start with women sharing how misaligned they were on their journey, and so it's so refreshing actually to hear you share your story from the perspective of really following your heart from the beginning and how that evolved and how it's okay that that changed over time and how it still feels so connected to be working with your hands, but in this very different capacity. And I think it is really important to hear stories like that, because a lot of the stories tend to be. I was so burnt out I was going against my nature. You spoke to this even yourself, about how important it is to listen to the things that light you up, but to also have an example of actually just following these things, these pings, step after step. It doesn't necessarily have to come from this like massive upheaval or from a massive misalignment. I think that's so powerful.

Lara Elliott: 23:31

Yeah, that deeply resonates. Yeah, Because in hindsight, I actually believe that everything we've ever done before is A. We've learned, learned something, whether it's folding things alphabetically, that will in some way be helpful later on in certain ways, like focusing. But to me, looking back at all the things, all the jobs I've ever done, in some ways they taught me something, you know, in a way that maybe I didn't appreciate it, didn't feel good even. I mean, look at this, it's not only chinese medicine and using the needles to move, a lot of in the healing arts.

Lara Elliott: 24:08

What is it? We hold space, we're creating a safe space to be with someone in their story, and oftentimes the best, most natural way of creating and holding that space is because of relating and not to always say, yeah, I've been there, I've done this. But even the energy of that and so even like this is like what you just described, and this is probably why we connect and met. This is what we all go through, so similar journeys, and so the healing even comes in when we realize wait, it wasn't, it was out of alignment, because we've already realized something that was true in our heart, that it, that there was some. Well, because what makes it out of alignment is not our fault that we had chose the wrong thing. We chose the wrong thing quote unquote because this is the society, the way the society is built, and we are just finding our way through this and then all of a sudden waking up and realizing this doesn't really feel true to my nature and and that is right, whether that's a job in accounting and advertising and tech in any of the ways.

Lara Elliott: 25:21

And this is where, because you realize, wait, this is not serving my health, this is too stressful. Why are people fighting? Why is there this weird tension? Why is it life and death? Why is there a word called deadline? Why is there a word called deadline? Of course, that stresses everybody out. You know what I mean. I mean this is. I mean there's so many funny things. This is fun for me because I'm between languages, so some words are very literal and that one is just. It literally is I'm seeing the sign. I'm like do I want to drive into that dead end?

Lara Elliott: 25:54

But anyways, so that part about looking in hindsight, oh, this was actually helpful and for me, even with the journey of Zen and my love for Japanese culture, I even did this random quote unquote job for I don't know, some months have a year for a Japanese fabric company and part of the healing journey was, or the journey was, that I said I need to shift my schedule to more space and not this pressure. But I chose something that wasn't as cool as being a designer quote unquote but it was a choice for myself and I actually had that like Japanese part in it and it was just incredible. Yeah, it was for like a company and and the gentleman was, most gentlemen were all Jewish and even Hasidics and it was like such a sweet energy, you know, receiving me as this German girl in there. It was. There was so much healing that we don't, right, we think in different ways.

Lara Elliott: 27:00

But I just in hindsight, like there's like so much to to honor about our journeys and I think sometimes it's my takes a few years or decades. So the misalignment it's good if we feel that because there is something that we want to shift, but to not also beat ourselves up for it, because in the end of the day, something will be helpful from this later on with what we, what we then continue to do. That's, that's just a point that I want to make because it feels, yeah, if we can allow it to be a transition, because I think it's not only in my case. It's just if we can open ourselves up to that. There's a reason why even we have chosen something, maybe under pressure, right From the family, from the society, but still there's something that has to do with parts of ourselves and later on we might realize and appreciate them all of a sudden, if that makes any sense.

Kasia: 27:56

Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that for anyone out there listening, just even reflecting on your journey up until this point, I'm sure that there are common threads that you can pull together to kind of see how all those things are connected. And speaking about common threads, one of the things that really just has really drawn me to you and your knowledge base is that you sit in this very unique position of having insight into seemingly different philosophical systems in the form of Reiki, your study of Zen practice and Buddhism, and then, of course, Chinese Chinese medicine. Yet you very frequently talk about how there is this common thread between them, which I think is so beautiful. And I'll just speak from my point of view, Of course.

Kasia: 28:49

I had studied for a couple of years Chinese medicine. I was familiar with Reiki, kind of at a high level. I was studying Buddhism and to me I felt like I was studying three different worlds, Yet the way that you view it, it's actually very interconnected. And so for the listener out there that would love to start to get an entry point into A, the common theme between all three of these philosophies and also very different practices, how would you define each of them? And then, what do you see as like a common thread? I know that's like a very loaded question, but I just had to go there because that is something that in your Reiki training, for example, you spoke to so beautifully. I felt like I could kind of experience almost the link between Buddhist philosophy and meditation, as well as Reiki and the healing energy there, and then also Taoist theory and Chinese medicine. So what are each of them individually, just in your own words? And then how do you see them interconnected? If I summarize that so beautiful.

Lara Elliott: 29:55

Okay, I'll try my best. So let's start with Buddhism and Zen Buddhism and I'm going to try to make it a little chronologically maybe even from my journey, because Buddhism is something I have been exposed to, probably from early childhood because of my parents' travels and because of our house in Germany filled with artifacts and Buddhas and statues and paintings on the wall, but also from the Hindu tradition, because my father used to be a mountaineer and my parents both loved traveling and so there were from them a lot of travels. Before we came, four children came in to India, nepal and and different places and Tibet or the Himalayas, and that's where a lot of these artifacts came that that basically were filling our home. And you know, there's something, especially if these come from sacred places and not not necessarily only souvenir. I mean, or you know, 40, 50 years, 60 years, that was maybe different because they do carry certain energy. So in hindsight I even wonder was there a transmission happening through the energy of these things? Walking at night and looking at the painting of the stupa, that always was their eyes like follow you wherever you go, and I was like, oh, but basically, you know it's kind of a joke, but not At some point, I feel like, in my and I wasn't the person who started yoga with 17.

Lara Elliott: 31:26

With 17, I was in a house club dancing. That was my teenager years. Real truth. I love it. Experiencing the party, drugs and my curiosity led me there at this point in life, so I can relate and have no judgments and it's actually well, okay, I'm just going to say it because it's hilarious to me. When I see Burning man pictures I'm like oh okay, I can't, I don't have to have shame for what I did and I know people love Burning man so much and I begin to appreciate it. But this is funny because, like the way people dress there, I did that when I was, I mean, and only in a few occasions, when we went partying on Ibiza and I had so much shame around it and then I healed that. But now I'm seeing people in my age doing it. I was like, wow, I could have like just cut all of that out of my journey and embraced it all along. You were ahead of your time. Yeah, so Buddhism.

Lara Elliott: 32:27

So again, not the yoga person in my teenagers yet, but I did have some curiosity, I think, about meditation. I ordered like my first little guided meditation CD or listen to that, I think in my early 20 twenties, then moved to New York and I remember there was a CD from Jack Kornfield that I got in some bookstore. So and you know a lot of people who've you know have been around me are I love that. Jack Kornfield is one of my most beloved teachers and I haven't even ever met him in person, but he has been a huge influence to my met him in person, but he has been a huge influence to my path and my love for Buddhism and understanding of the Dharma. So my point is that I was actually, and then also Tibetan Buddhism. There was a book on Tibetan Buddhism and again I have sorry, I've also been to India and Nepal when I was young, so my parents took us. So not only the artifacts in the house, but at the age of nine or eight I was there for the first time and we did travels to the Himalayas, trekking. So there might have been other transmissions even more palpable, to the sacred sites and so on. So I think there was a little bit of an imprint there, pretty sure, and also my father's way of moving through the world. That has a little bit more like bringing us to the you know, the exposure of the cremation centers and his way of being definitely more Buddhist, in some ways at least. And then so I had that curiosity and a little bit of like playful studies.

Lara Elliott: 33:53

But then I met a friend in New York and we shared, you know. I shared like, oh yeah, I really would like to start a meditation practice, and he made me aware that because we both lived in the same place in Brooklyn, that right around the corner was a Zen center, a Zen meditation temple, and so we ended up going together. He introduced me to it and that was a big love. It was what I needed after living for a few years in New York City, in my prime, you know, mid twenties probably set in return time and fashion design and, yeah, and I ended up going for a while every morning and if I could make it to the evening, zazens, and then on on the Sundays to the, to the dharma talks and zazen, and it was really, really a very transformative time for me. I uh very grounding in a city like New York and for a person like myself that is usually more like vata querying upwards. So it really helped me to come a little bit more into, you know, a more grounded part of myself.

Lara Elliott: 35:05

So Zen was a very powerful, pivot point, that Sangha, the temple, the practice, and coming to something again and again, you know, at five or 5.30 in the morning for me in that point in my life. So that was first. Then came what I mentioned earlier, that exploration with my because I was still working as a designer to Los Angeles and the herbs, and then signing up for my first acupuncture school, and through this, so what is then? I mean, buddhism right is god. This is my definition, because it is in the eastern world and you know. Buddhism so one buddhism is coming is originated in india and you know, but shakyamuni, we just read about it who found enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, in short, and then brought the teachings of Buddhism to China and then from China Buddhism traveled to Japan. So that's just a very big summary of how these countries are connected through Buddhism, Gosh really, that's almost like your journey.

Kasia: 36:14

By the way, right Like crazy. Oh my gosh, from ohio originally.

Lara Elliott: 36:18

Um who, is teaching tea that I've also, like, felt so in love with immediately, but then took a moment to like, or a few years to really start entering into, beginning it as a more serious practice, and I realized, wow, this is his path too. He was. He went from america to india and then japan and then china and into taiwan and he and then I found the same Dharma in the practice. So it's really beautiful and this is sorry, the tea I should have brought up at the very end of this little Okay.

Kasia: 37:07

So you kind of went from Zen and kind of having that exposure in New York City through to LA and having that exposure to Chinese medicine and that healing practice which kind of propelled you on this whole path. How did Reiki fit into all of this?

Lara Elliott: 37:25

Yeah, exactly. So I just want to say to me, buddhism is the teaching of compassion. But there's so much more to say about Buddhism, because there's a million branches, of thousand branches of Buddhism and, if people are from a culture like, whether it's Korean or you know, there's many, many, many forms of Buddhism. So the Buddhism that I had my exposure was was more Tibetan, and then Zen Buddhism, and that's what I know a little bit about, but I don't want to come across. I mean, I'm in no way anybody who really should even talk about Buddhism, but I do know or feel connected to the heart of Buddha and that is the heart of compassion, and that is the heart or the concepts of oneness, of loving, awareness, of interconnectedness, and that which we're going to come back to are also the teachings of the system of Reiki. So, because there's Buddhism as a religion, because it's a religion, but then there's also the core of the teaching of the Buddha. So just wanted to bring that up.

Lara Elliott: 38:27

Yeah, and maybe we go back to Zen, but Zen is the Japanese form of Buddhism, but it was also had a connection in China before and then it came into the Western world and it's called Zen because of the different practices in, like the practice of Zazen and then the practice of Kuan, and there's three different kinds of Zen and the one that I was exposed to through the temple was the Rinzai, and Rinzai and Soto are the two known ones, but anyways, and they're very similar, but okay, so that briefly to the to Zen, but it was really my main experience with Zen was Zazen, so sitting in stillness for extended periods of time and basically focusing on the breath. So now and then Chinese medicine, while I was still in New York and maybe already for half a year, a year in along the journey of my acupuncture program there. If you hear a cat in the background, you might not, but it's our almost 19 year old Reiki master cat and um she's so sweet.

Kasia: 39:34

She sounds like an infant, but she's definitely a cat.

Lara Elliott: 39:38

That's what everybody says. And yeah, she's already. She's between worlds at this point. So you get a little bit of a blessing hearing her. Basically, reiki I did my first Reiki training, reiki level one, with my teacher and back then friend I mean, she's still a friend Lisa Levine. She had a beautiful healing center in Brooklyn, maharose, and was also in the same acupuncture school. So Lisa was a Reiki practitioner, opened a healing center in Brooklyn very ahead of of the time really in some ways, and yeah, and she was a Reiki practitioner. And when was that? It was a year after my beginning of the Chinese medicine program, I think. So in my second year that I got my first Reiki session with Lisa and immediately it was with a breakup. I just went through a breakup. So my heart was like, or my being was, my nervous system was a little shattered and my heart was broken open. I thought it was broken. But then through Reiki I realized it was just broken, breaking open to the true love and like the love all around. But the first Reiki, tenohira session.

Kasia: 40:56

Actually, to what you just said. In our sangha we just read, I think in the very first couple of sentences, how death, illness, old age, grieving, those are the moments that like kind of push us to some sort of breakthrough or awakening. So I mean, a breakup would be a very perfect kind of segue for that.

Lara Elliott: 41:18

So it was perfect and it gave way to my first Reiki palm healing treatment experience that I immediately loved because I love the touch, I loved how it made me feel and and another little thing just for people who are interested in this, because it is a important part of my journey was I also started with that breakup every day Kundalini yoga, just as a side note because that is a part of my little meditation journey, because I did that too for many years like almost like every single day, like Kundalini and breath practice with that. But basically Reiki was an immediate love because of the touch, because of the way it opened my heart. And then Lisa was such a beautiful embodiment of that energy and so when I, when I was done with the session, I said, oh, my God, your hands were so warm. She said that was Reiki and I was like, oh gosh, got to learn it. So signed up for Reiki one, and maybe the one thing I want to say that back then it was we learned about the precepts, we we read the history of Reiki from one of the books that were out back then and then we practice palm healing. So it was very simple and that is then how I also eventually, after taking Reiki two when I was in LA and then doing the Reiki Masters with Lisa, again in Mexico, when I already moved to Los Angeles years later, I then started teaching Reiki in the same way, like a pause for another, but basically I'm just expressing that when I, after I taught for some years in this more simplified version that had the focus on the palm healing, and I you know, through my Chinese medicine program that was alongside for three and a half years in New York and then I finished my program with Chinese medicine, you're also learning about Taoism, because these two are like two rivers that are flowing alongside each other, parallel, and they're crossing each other. So there's there's a lot of connection to that.

Lara Elliott: 43:28

It's not that I used to even think for a while that Taoism is the root of Chinese medicine, but that's not what it is. Like Chinese medicine, the essence from it is yin and yang and the five phases, the five elements. But Taoist practices have a lot to do with these studies too. So there's connections, but it's not one and the same. But because of Chinese medicine and my acupuncture journey, I learned I was exposed to Taoism and Qigong, tai Chi. This is all important because the chi is the same as the ki in reiki, and that's basically what I started to understand over time. But not even understand, but just what became so clear while teaching or practicing, while going through a second journey of Chinese medicine because I moved to California and that's because of license requirements. I basically that was my journey.

Lara Elliott: 44:26

And then diving deeper into Chinese medicine, diving deeper into the studies of Taoism and yin and yang, which, again, qi is like it's driven by yin and yang, by the two polar opposites. Without polar opposites there wouldn't be any movement and the nature of chi is movement and you know. And ki again being the same as chi, but in japanese. That's how I realized this is all completely interconnected. And then in taoism and tai Chi, qigong, we have the three dantians and the lower dantian, which is an energetic center below the navel, then the middle dantian, which is the heart, and then the upper dantian, which is between the third eye and the crown. And then that was the hara, which is the Japanese word for the lower Dan Tien, that I was exposed to through the Zen temple and Zen Buddhism and Zen practice, the focus on the Hara that came back in Reiki. Then through eventually meeting my second teacher, his books, and then him and his ex-partner, who have researched more of the roots of Japanese Reiki from Japan.

Lara Elliott: 45:39

Okay, I'm going to take a little pause here because we maybe quickly summarize so, basically, the exposure to Zen and then the meditation there, and then some concepts, especially of the Hara, that lower energy center, and then, of course, the breath, and then Chinese medicine has been a continuous journey at this point from 2011, and then just keep going, counting for eight, nine, 10, you know, and so on years and with that Taoism and a little bit Tai Chi and Qigong, and then Reiki has basically been a practice, but then also continuous practice. And for me to teach, when we start teaching something, we really begin to engage with the practices and to be right in continuously studying them. And through this, and because we're talking about an energy healing practice but also philosophy, I realized, wow, the philosophy here is from Mikau Sui, the founder, who is a Buddhist, circling me back to Buddhism and the teachings, and it's an energy healing practice with Chinese medicine, acupuncture that moves the chi. I have been a student of energy, of chi for whatever seven, eight, nine years. And reiki, that ki is energy, so it's spiritual energy and it's actually here behind me Nobody sees this, but like there's a painting of the chi. So I could obviously talk about this forever.

Lara Elliott: 47:06

I don't want to make this too long right now, but that is just to kind of take you on a little journey, and even if it feels a little, you know, not like blurry or, but this is also how it's felt for me.

Lara Elliott: 47:18

But then there was actually the clarity about whoa there is, it's all interconnected. But because Reiki was the thing that I focused on more and I want to explain this for a second because it feels very kismet Because when I moved from New York as a licensed acupuncturist to California, I wasn't allowed to practice Chinese medicine because I had to go first back for my second master's degree and finish that school before I could get the license. That's why I was like, oh, I have. I'm a holistic health practitioner but I also have a Reiki certificate, so I can and I have the knowledge about the meridians, so I'm just going to offer integrative Reiki, and that's how the journey started. That's how I then did my Reiki sessions and people started asking me if I would teach what I would do, and that's how I became a Reiki teacher.

Kasia: 48:11

It is wild to hear this story so connected, because I will share that. Lara, when I came to your Reiki One training, I really felt as though Buddhist philosophy and Chinese medicine and Reiki perhaps had some parallel paths, but I didn't really see that common thread that I think you spoke to so well and you started at the very beginning. So, of course, tell me if this is correct. But first of all, I find it wild to witness that your kind of journey from the influences found within India, the spiritual influences of Buddhism, took you to then China and then took you to Japan, which is just such a crazy path to witness as we kind of look at how Buddhism came to the West as well. I mean, that's just wild in and of itself.

Kasia: 49:01

But you spoke to the fact that Buddhism is a philosophy of compassion, really right, like the practice of compassion and in many ways Reiki feels like the energetic practice of compassion, right. And that connection between chi and ki, both of which mean energy, and the way that a practitioner of Chinese medicine or acupuncturist influences energy using needles and some of the other practices of herbs, and how a Reiki practitioner kind of also works with energy, but in a very different way right, like it feels almost like a spiritual energy. I feel like a very good student, thank you. I learned that from you. It just kind of all comes together, so like the heart of compassion at the very center and then the physical being being influenced by some of what you kind of speak of with Chinese medicine and the spiritual being being influenced by some of the Reiki practices. It is just so crazy to have you reflect your journey because To me, hearing it now, I'm like whoa, like this is all starting to make more sense.

Lara Elliott: 50:15

But it's almost like you lived it, like you could not connect the dots until you can look back at this point, which is just wild too, and it continues to unfold in this way Because for a while I said, like I always said, reiki is the golden thread to me. That makes me see how everything is interwoven, how all my spiritual curiosities and healing modalities that I've been interested in and studied, how they're all interconnected. And, yeah, it's been so wild I mean it continues while I'm teaching Reiki and then, over the years, have even understand more of so. For example, okuden, which is what I'm about to teach this weekend.

Lara Elliott: 50:59

Reiki, quote unquote Reiki level two, which means the inner teachings, through my second teacher, francina, who has again explored more of the inner teachings through teachers in Japan and then passed on this information to understand.

Lara Elliott: 51:15

I mean because, then, where these symbols come from and where the mantras are coming from, that is all connected again to the, the origin, like whether that's the some like a shan that we do SU, which is the Japanese form of OM, so you know, or the symbol for Shen spirit that of course I know from Chinese medicine, because that's, you know, that's the spirit of the heart.

Lara Elliott: 51:46

It's just wild, it continues to fascinate me, but it also continuously shows me how much of a well, how passionate I am about this, how much of a non-chosen but path. This is of mine. I mean, you're not mentally like, oh, I want to study Chinese medicine because I have a connection to this, which is like I'm going to do this and it continues to show me. So at some point I said I now understand why I'm a Reiki teacher, because of my chinese medicine journey and everybody. I mean you don't have to have that to be a reiki teacher, but to to really, because now I'm teaching about the three dantians and reiki in the older books from from reiki from the well and the three dantians are the energy centers in Taoist theory right, and in Chinese medicine as well.

Kasia: 52:40

Exactly.

Lara Elliott: 52:41

Yeah, and this is where it kind of combines, like exactly in Taoism, and that's how I learned about them first. And then all of a sudden, after having taught Reiki in a more simplified version, then through my second teacher, all of a sudden finding the same energy centers. But then, you know, with the different names, or he called them the three diamonds. I was like wait, a second, that's the three dantians and the tantan in Japanese. I was like wait, I've been engaging with that, I've known what the so it's just so fascinating. So I'm I can source from just and you know, and I feel like I just scratching the surface after these years because I have some, you know, teachers or colleagues that have really driven into the studies of Taoism and so on and so forth. But I one thing that I and this is also not a competition just because for me it's just amazing, because I was like I never chose this, this is all just happening to me. I mean, I say this in a fun way because it's like a really cool just finding myself in this. I was like sure, and I love it. I have this deep, deep, deep, deep love for these practices and these philosophies that just make sense. The first day in acupuncture school in New York, when I started hearing about the yin and yang and the five phases, the five elements, I literally had the words come to my whole, being like I am home, these are my people, this is my tribe. And so, looking at the world in every day through the lens of because it's not a looking, but perceiving every day through the lens of qi, it's not a looking, but perceiving every day through the lens of cheer, through the five elements, through these philosophies make sense and to me they actually there is a sense of empowerment, not to feel more powerful, but to feel more in alignment. Right, that things make sense beyond the mind, which is kind of the idea of Tao. So, and that's why I'm such a passionate teacher, because I sit there, and whether it is about the meditations that we find in Reiki again, where it's just like meditating and my teacher is all about, right, the discipline and the focal point, which is what I know from Zazen, from Zen. Right, and again, this is Japanese. Mikawa Sui was a Japanese Buddhist. There's many different branches and we can't necessarily say he was a Zen Buddhist, but there's a lot of, because the Japanese are really eclectic and also, zen is known to be a little bit of a mix of Buddhism and Taoism.

Lara Elliott: 55:10

It's just wild, and I not only that. It's, you know, wonderful and and but it actually, whether it's the philosophy or like the teaching of, of compassion, of the heart, or the chi and energy, and we're quote unquote understanding the two polar opposites of yin and yang, and and through that, you know the fact that everything is and has chi and we are chi and it's moving through us and it's connecting us to everything and connects everything in nature, in the whole cosmos. And when we actually connect to how this feels and how this feels in us and and why that would be a healing practice, when we connect to the qi of another person and then, in the space of open heartedness, of connecting to our spiritual qi, that this can be a healing practice. It's just something that is so fun to share and I know it maybe is a little bit of a journey to have deeper realizations about this.

Lara Elliott: 56:09

But the beautiful thing about reiki is it's very simple Chinese medicine we need to study for years and years and it's so I mean you know it. But Reiki. Reiki is really something with the spiritual energy and it's the compassion that we are basically remembering within ourselves. But then the Qi practice with hands, without hands, that is something that you can teach to a child because it's also something that we're just opening ourselves up to. So children would be a completely different story for us grown up humans. We are just learning focusing techniques and breathing techniques, meditation techniques that are helping us to basically to allow, to open the mind and let go of the thoughts that are limiting us from being these open vessels for that spiritual chi and free flow of chi.

Kasia: 57:07

Lara, that is so beautiful. I want to ask you one more question before we kind of I could talk to you for hours, but I have to be mindful. You talk about seeing the world through the lens or through the perspective of qi. How does that shape your day, like, practically speaking, right, like, because what you're saying is like so beautiful. And, of course, for those listeners who have listened to many episodes about Chinese medicine and yin and yang and perhaps some of Buddhist philosophy right, we're just getting a taste of Reiki here. But practically, how do you adjust Like? What does that look like?

Lara Elliott: 57:46

Yeah, I think it really boils down to because it sounds so ethereal, right To say everything is and has energy, but it's so true, it's just so true, there's nothing more true than it, and it becomes. It's actually really scientific at this point to me. But also, energy is a big word. And then chi. As a chinese, like we know, chi comes in many different forms. You know there's there's evil chi, there's, but there's reiki, right, reichi, basically I'm like ling chi, which is that spiritual chi. There's damp chi, cold chi, rei-chi, basically I'm like ling-chi, which is that spiritual chi. There's damp-chi, cold-chi, warm-chi, but that aside.

Lara Elliott: 58:19

So maybe what really is easier to understand and really what it comes down to, is to have been a student or to study yin and yang, yin-yang, tai-ji-tu, the symbol that everybody knows, with the white and the black and the little dot and the bigger dot. And that symbol is not two-dimensional, it is a sphere that is constantly moving and shifting and these two colors are also just symbolically for opposing right, light and darkness, really. And yin yang, the light and darkness, the yin yang, the light and darkness. The word comes from the sun shining upon a mountain and the mountain on one side is sunny and on the other side, it's shady. So that's actually what it is, not the dark, whatever. That means. Right, light and darkness. It's actually the actual right, the light and then the shade. So, and that also makes us understand, if there is light and this goes back to the four novel truth or I don't know back or forth, or it's if there is light, there is darkness. Right, so yin, yang seem to be the two opposing forces and in that way, duality, right and sorry. This is literally the teachings of this upcoming training this weekend, but because there's duality that we as human beings with eyes and ears, and right, we can't. Right now the sun is shining and that makes the daylight or day. Later on the sun is gonna be gone and it's nighttime. So day and night are also signifying yin and yang. So basically, yin and yang.

Lara Elliott: 59:57

Taiji 2 shows that everything in this universe and the cosmos is dividable into yin and yang. But yin and yang can never stand A without each other, because if there's yin, there must be yang. We can only know warm, because we know cold, and they're constantly, they're transforming into one another. Daytime turns into nighttime, turns into daytime Again. Here, like the sun in the mountain and the shade in the night. It's also not that the sun is ever gone. It's daytime and nighttime for us, but the sun is just circulating around the earth. Just another way to look at.

Lara Elliott: 1:00:33

Well, there's duality, but there's also non-duality. Actually, the study of duality, which is the study of yin and yang, or the concept, is also non-duality, because without yin and yang, like they can't exist without one another. So they're one, but they're seemingly duality. So this can go forever. But the point is, this is our life, this is the expression of our being, this is our body Front of the body yin, back of the body yang. But lower body yin, upper body yang, yin, can be connected to earth, yang, to heaven. We are the link between heaven and earth. That's why I always say this when we do the qigong or tai chi Like feminine, masculine, but more right, we have both of these forces within us, because we all have yin and yang within us. It can be infinite, dividable. I mean even the body parts right Within the face. There can be yin and yang and so on and so forth Fire, yang, water, yin, and so if you have studied because first you really study it, like this, like, oh, what is like earth to, you know, feminine yin, masculine yang, and so on. So you have these things that make sense, the restorative.

Lara Elliott: 1:01:50

Then the intellect is more connected to yang, the creative, the nourishing, what to yin. And when you study it, all of a sudden this becomes. It's almost like a formula. But you will, once you learn the formula, you look through everyday life and you're like, oh my god, this is more yin, this is more yang. But again, these two are never divided, like actually dividable, and that's to make it like to kind of cut it off here. But basically, this is maybe this makes sense now.

Lara Elliott: 1:02:19

So you're well, and then eventually it doesn't become an actual feeling, thinking of this is yin, this is yang, because warm is more yang, cold is more yin. But this is how we're moving through our day with the senses, and the senses are distinguishing right, judging good and bad is yin and yang. So this is going to come into the emotional, the mental realm that really we are engaging. This is what makes our experience of the day right. If we would just move through the day floating in yin and yang, that would be the Tao. But then we have our thoughts and the thoughts are connected to our emotions and then they connect our organs and so on and so forth, and that's where healing comes in and the organs, but basically, and then every organ has a yin and yang, organ, right, and there's a pair like the gallbladder and the liver and the spleen and the stomach. It's just so fascinating.

Lara Elliott: 1:03:10

So, as a Chinese medicine practitioner, once you write these systems, you basically program. I mean, program is such a funny word but it's imprinted, right, it's. It's like a way of looking at the world, or wind, and like the elements. Right, this medicine is founded in the five elements and the organ systems are connected to it. And the sound of the voice, the different you said raspy that will be connected to the water element, and water is connected to wintertime and wintertime is connected to water, is connected to sadness and no, sorry to fear. But then the elements are all connected to another and so are the emotions and so are the organ systems. So it's a continuum, a complete interconnection. Where do we know that? From Buddhism. So it's all weaving.

Lara Elliott: 1:04:01

So this is why I'm saying it feels like an empower, because once we find these concepts not only as abstract concept, but they're actually the fabric of this life and our experiences, it's not that it makes challenges less challenging. But you don't wonder anymore why it is challenging or why they're here. You also don't wonder that there is death. It's like, yes, of course there must be death because we were born, but we're not celebrating that we were born. I mean, we're celebrating it for a moment and then we're taking it for granted. So I mean, so I mean, you know, I could continue because it's exciting, it's exciting, it's everywhere and it's everything. And then the Zen Buddhists would say and it's nothing.

Kasia: 1:04:43

Lara, this was so good. I mean, I could just keep speaking with you for hours, but we are now over time. Please, please, please, share with this audience. Where can people find you? What do you have coming up? I will link everything below so you don't need to spell it out, but just give everyone a taste of where can they get more of this?

Lara Elliott: 1:05:04

Sweet, oh my God, if you didn't already have enough and your mind's feeling blurry which is a good thing, yeah, you find me here in Ojai in person, in Southern California. I have my healing practice from home really beautiful healing space here on a little flower farm, and then I also do my Reiki trainings here, usually on weekends, and then one yearly master retreat that's for six days and that is in a beautiful spiritual center here on a mountain, and then obviously online and I'll just let you link that. But yeah, just um, I'm here and you, you, you will find me if you, if you look for me.

Kasia: 1:05:47

Lara, thank you so much.

Lara Elliott: 1:05:50

Thank you so much.

Kasia: 1:05:51

Thank you.

Kasia: 1:05:53

Thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much for tuning into the Other Way. If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a five-star review. It really helps the podcast grow and I'm ever so grateful. If you want to stay connected, you can find information on how in our show notes. And finally, if you're curious about inflow and want free resources around cyclical living or moon cycles, check out inflowplannercom. And, of course, for all my listeners, you can use the code podcast10, and that's all lowercase podcast10, for 10% off any purchase. All right, that's all for today. See you next time.