What is Reiki?
Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is a holistic healing translating as “universal life energy”. It dates back 2500 years originating from Japanese, Buddhist and Shinto civilisations and was introduced to the West in the 1940s, having been previously captured by the academic Dr Mikao Usui. Reiki is a hands on healing and is now used around the world to ease both physical and psychological symptoms, as well as to invite in spiritual and energetic growth. It works with energetic flow around the body. In Reiki we use the terms energy, life force, divine energy or Universe interchangeably. You may hear the term prana, used within traditional Indian influenced yoga teachings and Qi (or chi) is the Chinese word. It’s all the same thing.
I encourage not getting too bogged down in the terms if you’re new to energy work. Keep an open mind and simply experience a treatment without getting too caught up in your head trying to “understand” or “explain” such a profound healing using Western societal and medical concepts.
The effects of Reiki can be explained scientifically and particle physics can demonstrate the impact of Reiki in creating high frequency energy and it’s impact on anything from a glass of water to human cells.
There is a growing evidence base evolving around Reiki workforce wellbeing post-pandemic.
What do reiki sessions feel like?
Reiki sessions are very individual and each person experiences Reiki differently. Most individuals experience deep relaxation. Some experience Reiki as sensations of heat or coolness, tingling or itching in parts of the body, or experience seeing colours. Others can have an emotional response, indicating that shifts are taking place, allowing balance to be restored.
You may become generally more sensitive to all of your senses with some sounds within, and outside, the room being amplified and some quietened. I have had feedback regarding my Sacred Space that this is particularly the case and I hope you will feel very safe and held within a bubble of nature. You may hear the sound of birds, the wind blowing gently through the trees, the rain on the roof. I invite in Reiki healing and the wonderful elements of earth to ground us, air to fuel us and fill us with life force, water to cleanse up and purify us and fire to bring us home to our hearts, to nurture and soothe us.
How does it work?
Reiki is performed by a practitioner placing their hands on, or slightly above their client in a series of light touch or non contact hand positions. I will typically not make contact from the chest to the upper thighs. During a session, Reiki energy is flows through the hands of the practitioner and into client. Reiki energy will always flow where it is needed most.
What are the benefits of Reiki?
There are many benefits of receiving Reiki, the most immediate being a sense of relaxation, peace and security. I believe it can help us existentially connect with our true purpose and can be a wonderful treatment if you are considering any sort of life or career change. It can improve a sense of psychological wellbeing as well as improve physical health symptoms. I continue to be blow away by what the healing, from the Universe, can bring about.
Examples of benefits
- Release of physical and emotional tension
- Decrease in pain levels
- Decrease in stress and anxiety
- Improved energy levels
- Improved sleep
- Improved concentration
- Restoration of energy balance in the body
- Emotional, mental and spiritual wellbeing
All of these benefits can help us at an individual level and in our interpersonal relationships with loved ones and work colleagues.