What is Reiki?
Hello friends!
I get a lot of questions from people when I tell them what I do. So, I thought I'd write a series of blog posts to address each one. Today I'm sharing a bit about how I got into Reiki, what it is, my understanding of how it works. Check out the next blog in the series to read about the amazing benefits I have seen and experienced in my clients and loved ones as a result of Reiki. Let's dig in...
What brought you to Reiki?
I read about it well over 20 years ago in a lovely little book series called 'Don't Sweat the Small Stuff - and it's all Small Stuff!' I must've read that book 20 times or more. I just love it as a reminder to not take life too seriously and instead to focus on the things that really are important in life. If you haven't read it yet, I recommend it!
At the time I read about it, Reiki really wasn't something that was as available to me as it is now. It sounded cool and mysterious but I didn't really know anything about it and to be honest, I didn't really think about it too much until I came across it again almost 20 years later.
What I did do around the time I first read that book 20 or so years ago, was start practicing yoga. A daily yoga practice led me to meditation. Meditation led me to mindfulness. Mindfulness led me to explore other ways to achieve alignment. I got really into personal development. I read many many books and attended many seminars that taught me more about myself and how the mind works - and how the universe works. They are pretty much the only books I read these days! As well as studying personal development, I also tried out other modalities like Tai Chi and Qi Gong. In each of these practices I noticed a feeling of holding energy in my hands. A sort of tingling feeling, like when you're holding a balloon or holding the wrong end of magnets together and you feel that sort of push or bounce-back. There was nothing physical 'there' but I could feel it in my hands anyway somehow.
I did some online research to try to understand what that feeling was - and when I say I did 'online research', I mean I opened my laptop and typed something like 'feeling energy in hands' into Google. That Google search brought up multiple references to Reiki and one of these mentioned a course to learn more about it. So, I signed up!
I still hadn't ever experienced Reiki for myself and I still didn't really know much about it, so I was really excited to join the course and learn more. My goal in attending the course was really just to expand my knowledge, I went prepared to take a lot of notes and ask a lot of questions (which I did). What I hadn't really considered was that we would be learning to do Reiki on each other! I did not feel ready by any means when we were asked to stand up and practice this amazing healing modality on each other in class, but I did it anyway and I was just blown away by how simple and yet how powerful it was.
So, what is Reiki?
The Japanese word ‘Reiki’ (ray-key) literally translates as ‘universal life force energy’. Reiki is a non-invasive complementary therapy, which promotes healing, relaxation and balance of the mind, body and spirit.
I understood what that meant but I couldn't really grasp how it could help heal, relax and balance you. I mean, I experienced it in class and it was amazing (I think experiencing Reiki - or anything you want to learn more about - is the best way to understand it!).
It wasn't until we learned about energy, that I really started to grasp how it worked.
What is energy?
We've all studied this at school at some level but it was nowhere near to being fresh in my mind when I signed up for the course. I knew about energy and the chakras in yogic terms and I knew from my own experience that I felt better in myself and more energised after yoga. I recognised that I felt more calm, balanced and ready to face whatever life threw at me after a yoga session or a meditation - and even better after both!
It was the scientific explanation that I was missing and the reminder we got in class really helped me to understand more about how Reiki works.
Science tells us that energy is the building block of all matter. So everything is made up of energy, including us! At the microscopic level, we are made up of vibrating sub-atomic particles that emit energy. In fact, everything vibrates, nothing rests, even objects that appear to be still are moving at some level. Not only does everything vibrate, but everything vibrates at different speeds - or frequencies.
To put it very simply, when our cells are vibrating at a higher frequency, we feel better, when they’re vibrating at a lower frequency, we feel worse. Reiki is energy at a very high frequency and so it works at an energetic level to raise your vibration and thereby enhance your wellbeing.
That sounds logical to me, but how does the Reiki practitioner help?
Attunements
When you study Reiki, you receive multiple in-person 'attunements'. The more levels of Reiki you study, the more attunements you receive.
Attunements happen in-person and must be carried out by a Reiki Master Teacher. I like to think of the attunements as a sort of tuning in/ clearing process. The Reiki Master 'tunes you in' to the Reiki radio station (as it were) and makes sure you have a clear reception.
Every attunement makes the reception clearer and clearer.
You could also liken the Reiki practitioner to a tube, a hose or a 'channel'.
Through the attunements, the Reiki Master Teacher hooks the practitioner's 'tube' up to Reiki energy and clears it out to make sure the Reiki energy can flow through the practitioner to the recipient.
Every time you have an attunement, your tube/ hose/ channel gets wider and clearer, so the energy that flows through it becomes more and more powerful. Therefore, Reiki from a Reiki Master will be more powerful than from a level one Reiki student.
The important thing to note here is that Reiki does not come from the Reiki Practitioner, but flows through them. When I give you Reiki, it is not my own energy, it's 'Reiki' (universal life force energy) flowing through me to you. I am literally just a hose that's hooked up the Reiki source, spraying you with beautiful loving energy!
What's great about this? Well, firstly, it means that when I give a Reiki treatment, I also receive a Reiki treatment, as the energy is passing through me. It's a win-win!
Secondly, it means that absolutely anyone can do Reiki - yes, even you! Cool, right?
If you'd like to learn a bit more about what Reiki can do for you and hear examples of what it has done for others, take a look at the next blog in this series.
Have a wonderful day!
Amy 💜🤟