What Is Reiki
Maybe you have heard of Reiki and you are considering getting a Reiki session, but aren’t quite sure what it is. Very simply Reiki is a form of therapeutic touch that is used to restore physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual balance. It helps you to relax and opens up your innate ability to heal yourself. Reiki is a natural, risk free process for healing that can include hands on touch or can be done with the hands being held over the body or even done at a distance.
Reiki is pronounced “ray-key”. Rei means “Universal” and Ki stands for “Life Force Energy”. The most common definition of Reiki therefore is “Universal life energy”,referring to the vital life force energy that flows through all of us. It was developed in the early 1900’s by Mikao Usui.
Reiki is becoming more widespread and is used in hospitals, treatment centers, addiction rehabilitation centers as well as other places, as a complementary therapy for healing. Reiki supports in physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health, by helping people become energetically balanced.
Benefits Of Reiki
Reiki can be used to speed up healing for any physical issue, to release emotional issues, to balance the chakras, or simply for relaxation. Research studies have shown:
- It speeds up wound healing time
- Lowers blood pressure
- Reduces stress
- Relieves pain and tension
- Can allow people to relax and bring on a meditative state of calm and wellbeing
- Speeds the healing process and minimizes side effects of conventional medical treatments
What Is Reiki Used For
Reiki is used as a complementary therapy in the treatment of;
- Cancer
- Infertility
- Chronic Pain
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Digestive issues
- Emotional distress, such as anxiety and psychological distress from trauma
How Does Reiki Work
The Reiki Practitioner channels the energy or the Universal Life Force through their hands to the recipient. The person receiving the Reiki energy determines how much of the energy to take in.
The Reiki practitioner can also uses intention and may use other resources such as symbols, sound, and crystals for example to help in the process.
What Can You Expect From A Reiki Session
During a Reiki session the client typically lays fully clothed on a massage table and the practitioner will either lay hands gently on the client or hover them above the client. Some Reiki practitioners are guided by intuition for where to place their hands but there are typically 12 to 18 positions on the body that a practitioner will spend some time to send energy to.
A session usually last about 45 minutes to an hour. Although you can get benefit from as short as 15 minutes, or have a longer session up to 90 minutes that includes hand positions on both front and back.
During a session you can expect to feel really relaxed and peaceful. You may experience yawning, burping, your stomach gurgling, this just means that the energy is moving. You may experience visualing colors. You may also just feel relaxed and notice nothing else. That is fine too, it is still working.
My Experience With Reiki
Several years ago I had my first encounter with Reiki. I woke up with a stiff neck and could hardly move my body without it causing me to be in some serious pain. This would happen infrequently and typically cleared up in a few days. This time however, it was persistent, the pain lessened and I was able to get back to functioning but it just wouldn’t go away completely, the movement of turning my head was really limited and still created pain. I had heard about Reiki and decided to give it a try. It was an wonderful experience. It took 2 sessions but the pain was completely gone and so was a lot of emotional pain that I hadn’t even realized that I was carrying around.
I remember asking the practitioner what type of oil she was using because her touch was almost hot and her reply was “none, that is the healing energy coming through my hands”. I have had a few sessions since that time with continued great results. I recently have had a family member come down with a chronic illness, I decided to get trained in Reiki to help work on them and through the training became familiar with the benefits of Reiki on Emotional Healing and Balancing the Chakras, it fits perfectly with my move towards using more alternative therapeutic modalities in my coaching and counseling practice.