How does a reiki treatment work?
Reiki can be described as a form of hands-on healing. Reiki energy is channelled from the practitioner’s hands, placed gently upon or around the client’s body.
Many practitioners, including myself, work intuitively with the client - hands can be on the body or further away in the client’s aura / energy field as the energy is called to flow to where it needs to. The body is made up of many energetic channels and circuitry (called meridians, nadis, chakras in Eastern medical systems). So for example, discomfort in the gut may require Reiki in the energy field around the knees or feet.
How does reiki feel?
Many clients report a sense of calm, peace and rejuvenation during and following a Reiki treatment. It can be a very relaxing experience and you may drift in and out of sleep, or feel close to drifting off. You may feel heat or cold from the practitioner’s hands, tingling, see colours, or feel ‘waves’ of energy wash over you.
These sensations can be experienced during in-person and remote Reiki treatments. Sometimes you may not feel very much, or the mind may be busy, and that is perfectly normal too.
Benefits of reiki
Eases mental tension & stress
Emotional release & regulation
Elevates mood, generating calm & peace
Restores, centres & grounds energy within the body when feeling scattered
Reduces physical aches & pains
Improves mental clarity & self-awareness
Helps clear energetic blocks to facilitate inner work / shadow work
Everything is energy
We are more than solely physical beings. We are energetic beings. We all have a natural energy field flowing within and around our bodies. Reiki is an art of healing that works with this energy field (in a similar way to how acupuncture or reflexology works with meridians and energy points of the body).
As we move through life, we gather many experiences, some positive and some not so positive. These experiences can exist in our body and in our energy field, sometimes long after they have occurred, thereby disrupting the natural and easeful flow of our energy. This hinders our innate state of wellness.
The goal of a Reiki treatment is to enable this energy to flow more optimally and towards its natural state. Reiki allows the body & mind to enter a deep state of rest, activating the parasympathetic nervous system to boost the body’s own self-healing capability.
Reiki can help with both short-term and chronic conditions, and is a harmonious complement to other modalities, both conventional and alternative. Reiki is beneficial for an array of physical and mental health conditions, such as autoimmune disease, pain, depression, anxiety, cancer, trauma, and mental and spiritual blocks.
Reiki is often offereds in hospices to soothe patients at the end of life and in cancer wards at larger hospitals to help patients relax and lessen the side effects of chemotherapy. It is safe during pregnancy.
History of reiki
The system of Reiki was founded in Japan in the early 1920s by Mikao Usui, a scholar and an adept within the Shungendo, Zen and Tendai Buddhist spiritual traditions.
Reiki is first and foremost a spiritual practice for self-healing and development,
Rei translates as ‘spiritual’ or ‘Universal’ and Ki means ‘energy’.
This Universal energy is known as ‘prana’ in India and ‘chi’ in China. This energy can also be called ‘life force energy’, the energy that is everywhere, around us, within us and vital to all life.