Thanks, Elaine. That's really interesting. It's interesting that you mention the energy from the workshop -- I have experienced the same thing at yoga retreat. The energy from group practice can be amazing; it's remarkable to walk away from a day of intense yoga at all, much less energized!
It was really my Ashtanga practice that brought my awareness around to energy, even though I took it on as a purely physical practice. (That mentality lasted all of two months.) I added japa meditation to experiment with matntras, and felt it boost my energy even higher, but more interesting was the awareness of different phases of energy. I started to become aware of energy underlying emotional states, and tried japa as a way of discharging or re-routing the energy in response to stress, for example. And it worked.
Then I started looking at moving energy through the chakras using the seed mantras connected to each chakra. This opened a floodgate of energy, including powerful physical sensations. But even more interesting was how this seemed to affect my state of consciousness. I noticed a distinctly different sense of awareness when focused on each chakra. Plus, getting energy moving seemed to "loosen up" my awareness in general, making it easier to start exploring meditative states.
So I can build up massive amounts of energy and ground it back out, I can balance the energy across my chakras and get it moving through my subtle body, and I can use that to enhance and direct my meditative experience. I can't complain -- it's well beyond what I set out to experience. But I'm not sure where to go from there. Or more to the point, I haven't decided where I want to go from there. I guess it's time to pick my next question/experiment to explore.
Please keep us posted on your experiences as you continue to work with Reiki.
Best,
Andy