Michelle Lasley: 00:00:12

My guest today is Lea K. Todd. She uses the pronouns she, her, hers. Lea has found her purpose to be to inspire and heal using art and Reiki. Lea is an artist, a Reiki master, and author of the book Creativity Unstuck, a toolbox for making more art. She makes heart centered, spiritual paintings that explore the divine feminine and are infused with Reiki healing energy. She also gives Reiki healing sessions and teaches Reiki and helps other artists move through creative blocks and blocks in their business. Thank you so much for being here.

Lea K Tawd: 00:00:51

Thank you so much for having me.

Michelle Lasley: 00:00:54

I am so glad you're here because we get to talk about some of my favorite things, like art, and the divine feminine, and maybe learn a little bit about what this, what this Reiki thing is.

Lea K Tawd: 00:01:05

Yeah, Excited to talk about it.

Michelle Lasley: 00:01:08

So, I'm gonna ask you first, so, think of Reiki, I think of Karate Kid, Mr. Miyagi.

Lea K Tawd: 00:01:16

Oh, that's funny. Yeah,

Michelle Lasley: 00:01:20

And so, you know, he hurts his, this is like karate kid one. For those of you, spoiler alert, Daniel makes it to the end. So the champion, and he hurts his knee, I think it was his knee. And then Mr. Miyagi, who's Japanese, right? He, you know, puts his hands together and then magically fixes his knee.

Lea K Tawd: 00:01:42

right. I totally forgot about that.

Michelle Lasley: 00:01:48

So, I'm just curious if you could go kind of, I mean, if we could just start there. What the heck is Reiki? Yeah.

Lea K Tawd: 00:01:57

A lot of people wonder about that. Reiki is a form of energy healing. It was originated in Japan. It's thousands of years old, as far as we know, but was what most people use now was developed by a man named Mikau Usui, or Usui Sensei, in 1922. He did a really intense meditation on Mount Kuruma, and after 21 days, he passed away. Was like hit by this light and it was Frankie and he created a school and started teaching other people, which was something that hadn't really been done before. It was held privately and families. So he created a school and a clinic and started spreading it around. There's a lot more to the history, but that's like a super, super, super brief version. When you think of Reiki, often, like you said, you think of Mr. Miyagi, it's hands on healing. It can also be done virtually, though, and I do all of my sessions virtually right now. What it is, is universal life force energy. So it's the energy that is in everything that's alive channeled from source or God, goddess, the universe, insert your word. It's channeled through the Reiki practitioner to whoever we're working on. And a really cool thing is that we get to receive Reiki while we're also giving it and it can heal all sorts of things. It's great for rest and relaxation and supporting the immune system. It's been used with cancer patients to help with chemotherapy symptoms and a whole range of things, but it always works for your highest good, which isn't always what we think it is. So, so people ask me, what's it, what can I use it for? And it's one of those things where I can send it to you with the intention to treat anything and it might treat, it will treat you for your highest good. So it's not like. It's going to cure everything all the time. That makes sense. Right.

Michelle Lasley: 00:04:13

I'm thinking of Bible stories Job, right, had all these terrible things happen to him, and it was almost like, I don't know the story very well, I always had the disclaimer, I grew up Catholic, so I know the spirit of the Bible. But, you know, there's certain variations of Christianity who, that espouse if you cross off all the tick marks, check all the boxes, then, you know, you've earned your Corvette. Right. But, like, that's not what happened to Job, right? And he, he was very devout and very, very faithful, and he had all this awful stuff. Not to suggest that awful things are going to happen when you use Reiki, I'm not trying to make that analogy. Yeah.

Lea K Tawd: 00:04:53

Not at all.

Michelle Lasley: 00:04:57

But just that openness that, you know, like, if you wanted, you know, go back to Daniel, you wanted that knee cured, but maybe there was something else serving you. Yeah.

Lea K Tawd: 00:05:06

Right. Like the example I always tell people is if you came to me because you broke your ankle. Or even sprained it. I can have the intention of treating your ankle and hopefully it will help. And I've, I've helped people with physical issues before, so it's possible. But the underlying cause of the ankle injury could be that you're literally running around too much. You're not taking care of yourself and you need to slow down. And so, That would be treated instead where the, you're able to slow down and you're able to be more restful and take better care of yourself.

Michelle Lasley: 00:05:42

Which could look like maybe your ankle not healing as fast as you hoped.

Lea K Tawd: 00:05:47

Correct? Yeah.

Michelle Lasley: 00:05:48

Yeah.

Lea K Tawd: 00:05:48

Yeah.

Michelle Lasley: 00:05:50

Okay. Why were you called to even look at Reiki?

Lea K Tawd: 00:05:56

Well, it's kind of funny because I had heard the word Reiki several times over the years. I kept hearing it and I was like, that's cool. I want to learn it, but I don't know why. I don't know what it is even. I just know that I want to know what it is. But not enough to pursue it. At the time. And then in 2017, my daughter was really little and she was a horrible sleeper. She woke up at 4. 30 in the morning and I was totally exhausted and burnt out and trying to keep my art business afloat and just afloat like Not totally dead, you know, she was in daycare, like two half days a week or something. And someone suggested to me that I start meditating for five minutes a day, because I was like, I had no self care. I was just exhausted. Burnout. Not even like we're not even talking like massages and stuff. I'm talking about like showering and like, just like basic needs being met. So, I started meditating for five minutes a day after she went to bed. it started opening up my being able to take better care of myself. And this, that's not Reiki, but I bring it up because I feel like it led right into the Reiki. Because just a couple months later I had an art opening at a local women's wellness center. They had like an open house night, so they were giving away free massages and I had my art there and it was really fun event. And so I signed up for a massage. And when I went in, the woman was like, Oh, I'm so sorry. It's not a massage. It's Reiki. And I, she's like, let me get you a massage. And I was like, No, no, no. I want Reiki. I don't know what it is, but I know I want it. And it was just a 20 minute session, but it released like this intense grief that I didn't even know I was carrying. So I basically cried the whole session, which doesn't always, like it doesn't usually happen, but it does sometimes if you're holding that, it can help let it go. And it wasn't like crying where you're just like hopelessly crying. It was a release. It felt really good and it brought up stuff that I needed to heal. And I immediately signed up to take Reiki one and which was a couple months later. And during the time between that session and that class, my intuition just was like off the charts. It just was growing so fast and I started having I don't want to say visions, kind of visions. It's my, my meditations became much more visual and I started. Some of my gifts started opening up so I was getting some downloads and things were coming to me and dreams that stuff that wasn't really happening before then. So I knew I was on the right path. And I took Reiki one in early 2018, and I immediately saw that I could use it with my artwork, too. So I started using it before I created art, I would give myself Reiki and I, I still do this, I give Reiki to my art supplies and the substrate that I'm working on and I channel it while I'm painting as well. And then 2018 I also did Reiki two and then master level later that year. So, and then this year, actually I just did my Holy Fire Karuna training, which is just another, it's another level, a little higher vibration version of Reiki.

Michelle Lasley: 00:09:39

could you describe what the difference is between using reiki on yourself and your materials than like say, praying or blessing them?

Lea K Tawd: 00:09:51

Hmm. Yeah. In a way it's similar because energy, I mean, all energy work has to do with intention. So praying like prayer, I would say is a form of energy work and raising your vibration and calling things in. The difference I think is that with Reiki I'm channeling a specific energy. So I'm not using my own energy. There's all kinds of forms of energy healing, and some of them uses the practitioner's own energy, which can be really draining Reiki and channeling energy from source. So I'm not the healer that Reiki is the healer. And it's just coming through me. So, yeah. Does that sound like a difference? I don't really, I haven't really used a lot of prayer actually in my own life. So it's hard to make that connection.

Michelle Lasley: 00:10:46

yeah, that's good. I thank you for that. Do you feel anything in your physical body when you use Reiki?

Lea K Tawd: 00:10:54

Absolutely. Yeah. So as a practitioner, what I feel is a warmth, a heat in my hands, and sometimes it's really, really hot but not painful. I also just from the practitioner side this isn't necessarily a Reiki thing, but a Claire thing is that I feel sometimes other people, what's going on in your body and my body. So I, that happens for me sometimes and just feel it a really relaxed feeling. It's like a, it puts me more easily into a meditative state, which is the, the optimal state for giving and receiving Reiki. And then from the client's side, Reiki can also feel like heat. When I receive Reiki from other people, I feel like I'm wrapped up in a warm blanket. They might feel a tingling feeling. Some people feel cold. I think not very often, but just the movement of energy. If you're sensitive to that, you might feel movements of energy. A lot of people will see colors or imagery that they don't normally see at other times, and then the, the emotional release sometimes.

Michelle Lasley: 00:12:15

Yeah, yeah. One of my first instances of Reiki was in a weekend retreat and we were in small groups discussing images that came up after meditation. And the gal who was sort of facilitating our group asked if she could use Reiki to help someone who was, so this gal was to my left, and she asked if she could use Reiki on the person to my right to help them with the, whatever they were struggling with with their image. And she held up her hand. So I was right in the middle, it was a small, you know, we were cornered off next to a window, right? And I felt something pass through like my midsection.

Lea K Tawd: 00:13:00

Oh,

Michelle Lasley: 00:13:01

yeah, it was interesting. And it wasn't for me, it was for this other, other person.

Lea K Tawd: 00:13:07

Mm hmm.

Michelle Lasley: 00:13:07

So I just thought that was really interesting.

Lea K Tawd: 00:13:10

Yeah, that is.

Michelle Lasley: 00:13:13

So you use it. With your art as well, so not just, I think it goes beyond, you know, channeling energy to the tools you use. How else do you use Reiki in your art?

Lea K Tawd: 00:13:25

Yeah. So my artwork is was already really spiritual.

Michelle Lasley: 00:13:30

Mm hmm.

Lea K Tawd: 00:13:31

I would say before I learned Reiki I had a really difficult time. Talking about that because I was raised without any. religion which in a lot of ways I'm grateful for, but I didn't have the language and I actually had a really strong bias against organized religion. And so like even using a lot of words that are also used in spirituality, I was like, Ooh, it just was so cringy to me. So, Reiki has helped heal that in me and be more accepting of other belief systems too, which I'm really grateful for. But it so just on a very practical level, it gave me ease with my own spirituality and vocabulary to talk about it and not feel cringy. And then I feel like it connects me to source. To the muse to wherever that source of creativity is that we as artists connect into when we're making art because I know I'm not the only artist who feels more like I'm channeling than than it's my own idea.

Michelle Lasley: 00:14:41

Yeah.

Lea K Tawd: 00:14:42

So, but I feel like my art already just making my art was how I meditated and how I practice my spirituality. And now, definitely. Even more so because when I call in Reiki, it just like plugs me straight in, like flipping a switch.

Michelle Lasley: 00:15:01

Right.

Lea K Tawd: 00:15:02

I'm already in there.

Michelle Lasley: 00:15:04

Okay. One more thing. After you started using and learning Reiki, did you end up using it on your daughter and did those sleep issues correct themselves?

Lea K Tawd: 00:15:15

Oh, that's a good question. I did use it on her initially and it was really cute because she was like three years old and she would walk around the house putting her hands up at things like say that she was giving them Reiki.

Michelle Lasley: 00:15:29

Oh my gosh.

Lea K Tawd: 00:15:30

So cute. I don't think I gave it to her for sleep at first, because I gave it to My teacher said that she had an experience of giving it to her kids and it made them wide awake, just like a lot of medications with kids like have the opposite awake you sleepy effect and so I was worried about that, but I didn't use it with her specifically for. But now I would say I would imagine that would, I would do it. I think it would be slightly later now.

Michelle Lasley: 00:16:06

So, with a lot of my guests this season, we start with the nonlinear path, but we didn't with you. So, Season 3, this is all about nonlinear paths. And what I'm really curious about is you do You do art, and a piece of me is frankly jealous. I've been able to draw or have some semblance of a command of line, since I could put a pen in my hand. But I always thought that, you know, Van Gogh was what we studied, right? And who wants to be a starving artist and, you know, Whatever. So, so, but I also love the headspace and I love thinking and I love writing. And so how the choices I've made, it's fine. I'm like making peace with it. But what I'm super curious about is how did you get to do art? Like, so if you could what I ask people to do is kind of track us back, kind of using high school as a sort of pivotal moment when you're asked to go out in the world and make your mark. What, what did that look like for you?

Lea K Tawd: 00:17:03

Yeah my super short answer is that I decided.

Michelle Lasley: 00:17:09

Great. Let's have a longer answer.

Lea K Tawd: 00:17:13

Could have quit so many times. When I was in high school, I did a lot more writing than art. I kind of always made art. I took a lot of art classes and theater classes and but I really was into writing in high school and I loved creative writing and I always had a backpack with me so that I could keep my notebook in there and all my markers and pens and everything. I, you know, I would go to coffee shops with my friends and spend the evening writing and do like poetry readings, which is hilarious to me because I was so shy. I mean, I did do the drama classes, but I did them because I was really painfully shy and I was tired of that. It probably, it probably helped with the poetry readings, but thank God, YouTube was not a thing back then. That's all I have to say. I'm so, so glad. I don't know how, no, there's still poetry readings, but I don't know about high schoolers, like at a coffee shop. I don't know if that is the thing anymore. So then I wanted to, I wanted to be a writer and I went to the University of Iowa, thinking I would do their famous international writers workshop, which you definitely cannot do as a freshman. And I was frustrated, taking freshman classes and I don't know, a bunch of. Random 18 year old's life stuff happened. And I ended up moving back to Denver, which is where I'm from originally. And I went to community college there a little bit. And then I moved to Portland with my best friend 20, I want to say 27 hours in a U Haul with two cats. It's an adventure. And I eventually got residency here and went to the to Portland State. And they did not have a writing, you couldn't get a degree in writing at that time. I think you can now, but then you couldn't. And I had already, I was double majoring in art and writing before. So when I first started college, I just wanted, I just added the major so that I could take art classes. I didn't really want to get the major. But that's how it was at the University of Iowa, you had to have that. So at Portland State, they just didn't have writing. So I did, I was like, okay, I'm just going to major in art then. And I did. I had my son when I was in 2002. So that was when I was a sophomore, like end of sophomore year ish. So I graduated with a two year old. And after eight years of taking little bits of college here and there yeah. And then shortly after that, I became a single mom and I was working a lot of jobs. I think I was catering and I had an office job part time where I started in the mailroom. And there was a third thing. But I can't, I don't remember what it was. I had so many weird jobs.

Michelle Lasley: 00:20:38

You made mention of working in a grain elevator.

Lea K Tawd: 00:20:41

Yeah, so that's where I started in the mail room. And then I moved to the elevator like so they had an office downtown and then they had an office at the grain elevator and I went and worked there and I had to be there at six o'clock in the morning. So I had to wake my son up, bring him to his dad, put him back to bed and then go to work. It was totally crazy. And then there was this, I was the inventory clerk, so I had to basically all the trains and barges and everything that comes in, they weigh the grain. And so I had to like enter all that and put out a report by like eight or 9am. So I was always like frantically typing and I got really bad tendinitis. And tried physical therapy, tried a bunch of stuff, but as soon as I went back to work, it just got really bad again. So. Luckily, a friend of mine had an eBay business and she had hit a wall, like she couldn't really grow anymore by herself, so I went into business with her and quit my job, and it allowed me to heal my hand and work from home and start working on my art. So I was able to just slowly grow it. I just kept taking opportunities as they came and putting myself out there. I joined Etsy in like 2006 and did that. Yeah. Early adopter. There were like, you know, a couple thousand people or something.

Michelle Lasley: 00:22:12

Are you still on Etsy?

Lea K Tawd: 00:22:14

no, no, I left a few years ago. I decided it was worth my time to just focus on my own website.

Michelle Lasley: 00:22:22

Yeah.

Lea K Tawd: 00:22:23

So it was a great start. It was a great place to start. Yeah.

Michelle Lasley: 00:22:28

Okay, so you were given this opportunity to do more flexible work and dedicate on your, on your art. At one point, at what point were you able to let go of some of these other things and just do your art and then, and then Reiki?

Lea K Tawd: 00:22:46

Well, I know everything happens for a reason, but I still wish I had done it earlier. It actually wasn't until last year until 2020. So I, I mean, I quit doing the eBay years and years and years ago, but after that, I did a lot of side gigs where I was working for other artists and artisans and helping them do repeatable things in their business. And then when COVID started and everyone was home and the person I was working for,

Michelle Lasley: 00:23:22

One moment.

Lea K Tawd: 00:23:33

The person that I was working for made all of her art on plexiglass and you couldn't get plexiglass anymore because of all the barriers and things that they were putting up in the stores and stuff. So she had to pivot her business. And didn't have work for me anymore. And she was fantastic to work for. I love her. But I always knew that when I quit, I would finally be able to focus on my business because she wouldn't have work for me. And then she would have a lot of work for me. And I just dropped everything. And did her work. And then I came back and I was like, what was I doing? I have no idea. I couldn't focus. I could never focus on my business or like maintain. So that's what happened. I wrote a book. I joined the mob, the mom owned business group and met a lot of great people who've supported me a ton. And made as much money in 2020 as I was making before that without, without any extra jobs.

Michelle Lasley: 00:24:36

Congratulations.

Lea K Tawd: 00:24:37

Thank you.

Michelle Lasley: 00:24:38

That's really great. So tell me about this book.

Lea K Tawd: 00:24:43

Yeah, it's called Creativity Unstuck, a toolbox for making more art, and it's a little workbook. I just wrote it. I really wanted to write something that was different and just based on my own experience. So I've read other books on creativity. There's tons of really great ones. But I've been an artist since, you know, before I went to college and I have a lot of experience with creative blocks and with having a strong creative habit because I've made art all this time, even with a kid and even being really poor at times and having a kid and working for myself on other things and, you know, all the excuses that you can come up with. I've been in those situations and I still have had a strong creative practice throughout almost all of that. So that's partly because I just am so passionate and dedicated to my artwork,

Michelle Lasley: 00:25:44

I

Lea K Tawd: 00:26:11

and space to, to journal it out and, and to make a promise to yourself that you'll start doing it.

Michelle Lasley: 00:26:18

love that. Where can people get your book? Okay.

Lea K Tawd: 00:26:30

So they, you can get it on my website, a signed copy or you can get it on Amazon. Bye. I'm hoping to have it on some alternative booksellers soon, too.

Michelle Lasley: 00:26:40

Oh, that sounds great. Oh my gosh. Okay. I am a visual person and I like to invite some of my guests to sort of share a vision. So if we could go back to your purpose to inspire and heal using art and Reiki. If we had more people in the world, Being on stuck with their creativity and maybe, you know, using art and maybe it's just very personal, like they're decorating a pot that they're going to plant, but a plant in, or maybe they're creating art journals as a way to organize their day and it never gets shown to anybody else. Or maybe they're doing something big and flashy and glamorous. And they're also, and then we also have more people using Reiki as this healing modality. What do you think our world would look like?

Lea K Tawd: 00:27:29

I think it would be a much calmer, happier, peaceful place.

Michelle Lasley: 00:27:36

Yeah.

Lea K Tawd: 00:27:37

Yeah, people, I mean, a lot of issues, big issues could be boiled down to people not, you know, doing their own healing in their own lives. And it just ripples out to the world. And so having that self expression through the artwork and doing healing, doing the healing work.

Michelle Lasley: 00:28:04

okay. One thing we haven't talked about, and we have like two minutes left, maybe so as much as we can cram it in this little bit of time, how does your artwork explore the divine feminine? Okay.

Lea K Tawd: 00:28:27

features some feminine figure. And for me, that was really, it started as exploring my own Womanhood and like I was someone who didn't really get along with very many girls when I was younger and didn't feel particularly feminine in a lot of ways. And as I've gotten older. So it's my art started as an exploration of that and myself, and I quickly saw how that actually was something that a lot of other people felt. And over the years it's changed because I do feel very feminine now and I feel really connected with that energy. And so, it's kind of like what I was saying before, like each of my paintings is a meditation. So I don't necessarily have the image before I get started. It comes to me as I'm working, as I'm connecting in with the Muse and with the Divine Feminine. Those, the imagery comes forward.

Michelle Lasley: 00:29:30

What's your favorite piece you've done? Oh,

Lea K Tawd: 00:29:35

I actually, I really, I really don't know. I, I like my artwork. I don't think I have a favorite.

Michelle Lasley: 00:29:44

that's good.

Lea K Tawd: 00:29:45

It's usually whatever the newest one is my favorite.

Michelle Lasley: 00:29:48

Would you describe the newest piece then?

Lea K Tawd: 00:29:52

I just finished a commission, and it's a Woman in pink, she has sort of this amorphous body sitting in a meditative position on a hill and there's lavender and rosemary growing around her. And then there's a moon, a crescent moon over her head with roses around the moon. And then there's energy. Well I paint energy with dot. So there's like energy emanating from the moon out the light of the moon, but it's also energy.

Michelle Lasley: 00:30:27

So if you follow Lea on her Instagram, you can see sometimes her doing, doing that. She'll put videos on. So can you tell us what your Instagram handle is?

Lea K Tawd: 00:30:38

Yeah, it's at Lea K. Todd artist, L E A K T A W D artist.

Michelle Lasley: 00:30:45

And where else can people find you?

Lea K Tawd: 00:30:47

You can find me on my website, Leakarts. com. And I am on Facebook, but I don't really use it as much. So

Michelle Lasley: 00:30:55

Yeah. Thank you so much for being here today and sharing about your I dare say magic.

Lea K Tawd: 00:31:03

thank you so much, Michelle.

Michelle Lasley: 00:31:06

You're welcome.