What is Energy Work, Anway?

What is Energy Work, Anway?

If you had told me years ago that I would shift my focus from jewelry to energy work, I would have raised my eyebrows, laughed, and silently thought you were a little too "woo" for my taste. That idea was so far from anything I thought about the world that it would have left me speechless. For as long as I can remember, I've built my life around my love of science and the natural world. I felt deeply connected to the stones I worked with, and was fascinated by how they formed in nature. Science just seemed to explain it better than anything else. It's how the world around me made sense. 

Then suddenly it didn't.

Within a matter of months, profound loss arrived in waves. I lost my grandmother, my mother, and my father, alongside other important family members. So many people in my life were incredibly supportive, but others were not. I've grieved a lot of relationships in my life, but I'd never even known anyone who died. 

The compounding losses were beyond anything I'd ever known.

This experience taught one thing: navigating that level of loss forces you to reexamine yourself, your connections, your foundation, and how you think about life.

Awareness & Expansion

Alongside the pain of it all, something was happening that I couldn't ignore. Everywhere I looked, parts of my life were being connected in ways I hadn't noticed before. My whole life was unfolding in the most incredible ways, and I couldn't explain any of it. 

At first, I resisted. I leaned hard into my rational instincts. For four years, I looked for every possible scientific explanation. I read, researched, and consulted with the most logical, science-minded people in my life.

(For the record, this includes most of my closest relationships.)

Then one day, my brother told me something that changed everything: "You know, Zurina. Science knows a lot, but it doesn't know everything."

He was right. 

I didn't have to destroy my whole foundation. I just had to understand that my foundation was lacking and choose to expand.

Once I saw that, things changed.

These moments were shocking and extraordinary, filled with warmth and an undeniable sense of interconnectedness. The sheer convergence of synchronicities, occurring alongside intense heartbreak, worked to expand my awareness. As much as the old me would have tried to write them off as "mere coincidence", the person I was becoming found comfort. At this point, not exploring what was happening was impossible. For years, I was trying to fit an expanding reality into a container that was far too small, and I needed to start doing things differently. 

I began searching for the common thread beneath all of it. The answer that kept presenting itself was simple.

Energy.

Finding the Foundation in Usui Reiki

A funny thing happens when you choose to expand your awareness: things begin to align with remarkable speed. Once I decided to stop fighting what was happening, it seemed like everything began to fall into place.

I can’t pinpoint the exact moment I first heard the word Reiki, but I know it lived in the back of my mind for decades. I had no idea what it actually meant; it was just an unusual word that happened to rhyme with the names of a couple of people I met over the years. Every time an introduction was made, I remember thinking, “Oh, like Reiki.” That was the limit of my understanding. 

Years later, amid profound loss and the inexplicable events that followed, another synchronicity was beginning to make itself clear. An acquaintance I had known for years had become a trusted confidant in the chaos.

And she happened to be a Reiki Master.

She was one of the only people I knew who might have a different perspective on the strange events unfolding around me. When I reached out to ask for her honest perspective, she listened without judgment and offered helpful guidance when I needed it most.

I was still in such a vulnerable place because everything had fallen apart, but I couldn’t have imagined a more grounded place to start. 

What I learned felt natural and fit with what was happening around me.

Reiki is an energy practice developed in Japan by Mikao Usui and is not about superstition or magical thinking. It is an intentional method of channeling energy to offer support. By resting quietly in person or at a distance, the body is given the dedicated space it needs to restore its natural rhythms. In that calm state, accumulated emotional weight and physical tension begin to untangle naturally.

Experiencing Reiki firsthand didn’t abandon my appreciation for structure; it deepened it. After that, the path forward became very clear. 

Expanding into Earth-Based Energy Work

Following that opening, I was invited to join a nine-month Earth Energy Apprenticeship with the same mentor. This training made it clear: I'm an Earth energy intuitive. After looking back at my life through this lens, everything finally felt like it made sense. If Reiki taught me how to direct energy, Earth energy taught me how deeply we can align and connect our energy to the world around us.

Earth-based energy work recognizes that this does not happen in isolation. The rhythms of the soil, seasonal transitions, natural stone frequencies, and subtle environmental shifts constantly interact with our bodies. In our modern, paved, digital lives, we have largely severed the link to ourselves. This leaves our nervous systems floating, unmoored, and easily overstimulated. Earth-centered practice teaches us how to center our awareness back down into the physical body, grounding into the land beneath our feet, and remembering our intrinsic relationship with nature.

Energy Work Is About Attention

At its core, energy work is about attention. What we pay attention to is where our life force goes.

We live in a culture designed to pull our focus outward. Screens, endless to-do lists, and constant external demands. This habitual fragmentation drowns out our body’s internal signals. We fail to notice when our emotional boundaries are compromised or when exhaustion has set in until our bodies force us to stop.

Energy work is the intentional practice of bringing your attention back. It is taking off the blindfold, clearing away chaos, and listening to the quieter currents that inform your physical and emotional well-being. It does not replace medical science or logical thought; rather, it honors the living, breathing reality that sits just beyond what instruments can measure.

When we bring thoughtful attention back to our energy, we restore balance to our minds, our bodies, and the way we move through the world.

Working Together

If you are navigating life transitions, carrying unspoken weight, or feel called to reconnect with your center, here's how I can help:

And if you have any additional questions or considerations, that's what I'm here for. Let's chat. 

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