We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Taylor Griffith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Taylor below.
Taylor, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
For the last ten years, I have been interested in diving deeper into self and exploring what it means to be a soul in a physical body. Since I was young, I was sensitive to energy, especially through my hands. I could communicate through touch and intention further than my words could go. Through my background as an artist in theatre, I was trained to be conscious of how to interact with other’s energies. If it was to tap into a character, scene partner, or ensemble exercise, I learned how to feel another soul and story beyond my own. During vigorous hours of training, there were many times when classmates would come to me in need of emotional regulation and I felt drawn to help by using my hands and words to bring blessings into the body and try to break up anything clouding the mind. Looking back, at the time, I didn’t know exactly what I was doing but I was following an intuition into something that felt like a past life. The feminine in me ignited to care for other’s spirits and to help others access their truth. I had a movement teacher who I reached out to experience a Reiki session for the first time a couple of months later. All I knew about Reiki was that it was a life force energy that could help me balance my energy centers and I had a curious hunger to explore it. The next thing I know, I am lying in her quaint Chicago apartment on her massage table and feeling a warm opening around my heart and a wave of tears overcame me. Vulnerable, held, and being spoken through beyond myself. I took the experience with gratitude and a year later, I continued seeing signs that led me to train as a Reiki practitioner. Training to become a practitioner was an intimate journey with days of meditations, readings, implementation, and attunement. I was attuned to the energy of Reiki and could start sharing this beautiful gift I experienced for myself. I learned how to truly hold space for others to come back home to themselves.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I have been acting since I was eight years old. I started in community theatre and moved into high school theatre where I was always engulfed in learning the craft, juggling a role in a play, while spending my weekends competing around my state and country with my pieces, winning second place at Nationals and then receiving a scholarship to studying acting in college. That is really where I felt that my training seriously began. I studied for my degree in Chicago and half a year on the outskirts of London. When training to become an actor, we spent years learning different ways to connect to our minds, bodies, and souls. I believe that the knowledge I gained through my degree transfers into how I show up as a Reiki practitioner and especially an artist. Through my time in college, I assisted taught, Feldenkrais: Awareness Through Movement, for four years. The easiest way to explain this practice is by using slow, mindful movements to achieve powerful effects in terms of strength, flexibility, and holistic integration of body and mind. Through helping teach these classes and watching my student’s growth through the semester, we became close and I helped create a safe space for connecting with self and healing. This is the work that I became passionate about. I find this similar feeling when I practice Reiki but it is a whole different concept. I am only a vessel for the energy to pass through. Yet, I always tailor sessions specific to what my client needs in their journey. I lead my sessions as a joyous ritual with how I set up my space and altar, guide a beginning meditation, cleanse their aura, and give Reiki while my clients float into relaxation. The Reiki energy flows through my hands while I focus on each of the chakras. When the session is finished, we speak of our shared experience, and messages that came through to me and I guide my clients with tools to integrate what was learned into their daily lives. It is quite a beautiful thing and makes me simply excited to see people be touched by what I offer. Especially people who are not very open to spirituality or these types of concepts, often are who have the deepest experience with Reiki. That is where I have been finding my purpose having that calling to bring people together and help guide them through the daily dive into my craft. It feels like I am home, back to the root of me.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
No matter what country or city I have lived in, my true dream has always stuck with me to create spaces for women to come together to learn about themselves and create deeper relationships with themselves. Whether that is through creating ritual spaces to connect with the Divine Feminine, holding Reiki sessions and helping people find peace and healing, or creating art around womanhood, it is a path back to my truth. I have a passion for seeing how my clients begin and where they can transform through a session and expand that into the world they live in.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Supporting community! When we find community resources and build up from within we create thriving ecosystems. This can be as simple as going to your peers shows! Being a presence in people sharing their art is so impactful. Show up and attend small events that allow new and upcoming artists to spotlight their talent. Or it can be as simple as buying gifts for loved ones from small artists instead of buying from corporations. Our little choices matter and affect how our world and communities will look in the future. Tell people about artists you know and help them shine, often this is how connections are made and collaborators find people they have been looking for for a long time. The most magic I have seen unfold is through word of mouth and lifting each other up.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: reiki.withtaylor
- Other: my personal instagram account is: taylorgriffith.16
Image Credits
Anna Hansford
Sarah Baniak
Madison Kesselring