Gem, I agree with you there.  Most meditations I've read about say it's best to start with your Earth Star, then your root.  Basically, you're counting up as you go up with your chakras.

Jennifer, that worries me a lot for some reason.  Did you shield yourself before you started grounding?  You tend to be vunerable when meditating, because of the state you're in.  Without protection, any spirit with an evil intention can come to you.  I've known mediums who ask their spirit relatives to guard them, even.  And what kind of pain was it?  I've had severe pains when I forgot to shield myself properly.  Some have felt like they were stabbed.

We were taught during the Reekhja/Reiki course to work through the chakra's - left hand over right - 6th down to 1st (not the crown chakra).
I know of a Reiki master though who does teach her students to give energy to the crown chakra.
Just over a year ago I had a Shambhala initiation and with Shambhala you don't work on any particular parts or in any particular order, just go where you feel you need energy, though the master stressed never to give energy to the crown chakra! I'm definitely going to work on my chakras from the root upwards see if it helps me to be more earthed, but just to clarify: the earth chakra I thought was the 8th one, so shouldn't we start with the root, work upwards and then go back to the earth chakra (that is the one that covers the soles of the feet , half & half - right?)
Also, I'm still not sure about energising the crown chakra, if that is the case with me that it's too open wouldn't it be best to leave that?

For quite a while after my husband passed I felt a kind of knot in my solar plexus which was also quite painful sometimes.

On a couple of occasions I've experienced what I can only describe as pins shooting at me through my aura, (has anyone else ever experienced this?) and I felt like the energy was sucked out of me, a terrible feeling. This happened one time when I was talking on the telephone with my daughter and we were in conflict about something and probably both feeling annoyed with each other - negative vibes obviously. Though only the other day I sat with my neighbours telling them I was maybe going to move house and I know they weren't happy about this, but were putting on a good face when suddenly as I was conversing with the husband I felt these prickly sensations in my aura and felt like my breath was stuck in my chest. When his wife distracted my attention to look at a present she'd been given the awful feeling started to subside. I was pretty upset about it though when I returned home. There'd been no conflict, nothing upsetting said and yet I picked up on bad vibes. Don't get me wrong, this man is a lovely person and has done so much to help me since my husband passed, and he himself has cancer now, so I expect there's a lot of fear there and I can only think that he was more upset than he let show and it was his negative thoughts, emotions that caused the bad vibes.
I just don't know how to deal with this, I've told myself when I start to pick up on bad vibes or tension from someone to imagine a screen between us with the words "stop" on it, but it's remembering to do this at the time.

Sometimes I wish I'd never embarked on this spiritual journey and energy healing, being open to subtle energies seems to be making life more difficult for myself. It's a path though where there seems to be no way back. I just hope that eventually I can learn to deal with this kind of situation. (Hopefully as Gem suggests, working on my chakras from the root upwards may help, time will tell!)

Reiki is a much different thing. If you're working with someone else's chakras, it would make sense if you're altering your body to help be a healing instrument.  From what I've learned, your Earth Star is what helps you connect better with the Earth.  Kind of think of it as a root.  When I was reading my book, it's combined with the Root chakra.

I was in the process of shielding, or attempting to shield, when it was happening... the harder I concentrated on shielding, the harder the pain got.  It's almost indescribable.. not like a knife or a throbbing or anything I can think of to relate it to.  Was just PAIN in that spot. I suppose it could be compared to a cramp type of pain. I tried to breathe through it and continue shielding, but couldn't. it got more and more until i stopped my visualizations and concentrated entirely on breathing through that pain. I fell asleep, and woke up two hours later with no pain of course.
Naturally it scared the shlack out of me. Maybe I need a new technique for shielding, or a new order of doing things? I start to meditate, start with my breathing, then I ground and shield, not quite simultaneously, but rather seemlessly.
And I need to figure out what the message was in that.
I am extremely vulnerable emotionally right now. I think that is directly related. Marital problems. My husband has been away since August. He's coming back for good, and Im not happy about that one bit.
He's coming back in about four days.  I know that's kinda personal but I think it's entirely related.  Within two weeks I have had suicidal thoughts twice and then this pain thing.
I've read a bit last night about that chakra, relates to self esteem and personal power too.

I just don't know what to do. At this point I feel like I'm trying to protect myself from myself!!!

~ Jennifer

(i haven't quite figured out the formatting of this so bear with me!)