Reiki Healing
“Reiki is love. Love is wholeness. Wholeness is balance. Balance is well being. Well-being is freedom from disease.”
What is Reiki & How Does it Work?
Reiki Healing is an alternative medicine practice that involves channeling universal healing energy (Reiki) into a person’s body via the practitioner’s hands. Reiki energy is considered to be all around us. Those who practice this healing art have been attuned and trained by a Reiki Master Teacher in order to channel the Reiki energy and utilize its healing power.
Over the course of a standard Reiki Healing session the practitioner’s hands are placed on various parts of the person’s body, in line with the seven Chakras. Depending on the person and the person’s healing goals, time spent on each Chakra and energy point will vary. It is important to remember that Reiki energy has a mind of its own and will go where it is needed most. For instance, a person may come in seeking treatment for knee pain but has also been experiencing great sadness due to a recent life event. After the Reiki treatment, the person’s knee may only feel slightly better but their emotional discomfort has significantly decreased. This is because the Reiki energy believed healing the emotional distress was more important.
In Reiki, it is believed that a person’s emotional, physical, and spiritual being are linked via different energy points, centres (Chakras), fields (auras), and lines (Meridians). This means that any ailment or discomfort a person is experiencing may manifest in different ways and at different levels of their being. It is also believed that energy blocks can occur causing emotional discomfort, physical pain, and spiritual waywardness. For instance, a client experiencing an energy blockage in her Solar Plexus Chakra might experience stomach aches and indigestion (physical pain), and find she struggles with willpower and confidence (emotional discomfort). By receiving a few Reiki Healing treatments, the energy block can be cleared, helping the client feel more confident and relieving her stomach pains. Reiki Energy approaches any ailment or discomfort by healing the client at the energetic level, by cleansing energy centres, clearing energy blocks, clearing negative energies, and by recharging the client’s energetic being.*
It is important to remember that everyone and every healing experience is unique, and not every physical pain or emotional discomfort can be healed in one treatment. Furthermore, Reiki is meant to be a complementary healing practice.* It is always advised that clients work with their family doctors and medical professionals, while also seeking Reiki treatment.
A Brief History
Reiki is an ancient healing practice that dates back to 500 B.C.E. The word Reiki (ray-key) is believed to mean “universal life-force-energy,” and is considered to be a positive healing energy that surrounds all life. It was rediscovered within the ancient 7th-century Buddhist texts, known as the Tantra of the Lightening Flesh, by Dr. Mikao Usui (1865-1926), a Japanese monk, in the 1890s. It is said, that when Dr.Usui first discovered the healing practice and symbols, he immediately went to his superiors in hopes of spreading the word. He believed that it was every person’s right to be able to access this ancient healing art. No matter their sex or status, he felt that everyone should be able to heal themselves and each other. Unfortunately, his fellow monks disagreed with his inclusive philosophy and Dr.Usui was dismissed from the monastery.
Dr.Usui spent his life healing, attuning, and training others in the healing art of Usui Reiki Ryoho. Two of his students, in particular, kept this beautiful healing practice alive after his passing. Every currently qualified Reiki practitioner can trace back their training lineage to Dr. Usui via his students Toshihiro Eguchi and Chujiro Hayashi. Mrs. Hawayo Takata, a direct student of Hayashi, was the first person to bring Reiki to North America in the 1930s.
* Disclaimer - I am not a medical doctor, licensed counselor or therapist, psychologist or psychiatrist. The healing art described above is meant to compliment conventional medicine, therapy, counseling and psychiatry.