What Is Reiki & How Can It Help Me?

I found Reiki exactly when I needed it.... Or should I say.... Reiki found its way to me when I needed it.

I guess I should say when I needed it most because I have always needed it.

But from what I know about Reiki that's not surprising. Reiki is all around us all the time but it makes itself known at just the right time. I think a lot of things do this but we often think everything is just so random.

I find it funny that the world is more willing to believe in random chance and freak accidents than they are to believe that forces in the world happen with intention.

But what is Reiki?

"Reiki is a form of hands on healing" (Reiki Infinite Healer). While its origins stem from India when it was rediscovered the name was created by a Japanese Scholar and monk, Dr. Mikao Usui.

Rei = Universal
Ki = Life Force

It translates to 'universal life force'.

Rei is the spiritual consciousness, it's the wisdom from God or higher self, while Ki is the non-physical energy that gives life to the world.

Reiki is such a beautiful process. It works on the whole body. It's a smart energy and will flow to where it's needed. Reiki actually stimulates a person's natural healing abilities (Reiki Infinite Healer).

Everyone has the ability to use reiki but many don't know how or that it even exists and there are many negative health habits that can weaken the Ki energy. Generally, things we know aren't good for us (such as drugs and alcohol, poor diet, not exercising, high stress, etc.) can weaken this energy within us. Just think about how you feel after you get a terrible sleep after a night of drinking and eating fast food and you didn't get any exercise. You typically wake up with no energy.

I love using reiki on myself, on others, or having others do reiki on me. There are many reasons I started using reiki such as to lower my stress, to connect with myself, to help learn to control all the energy and emotions around me (empath problems) but there is so much more to reiki.

Some of the incredible benefits to reiki are:

1. Helps break down energy blocks 

Energy has a way of getting stuck in the body. There are a number of ways that energy can become stuck in the body. When it does positive energy cannot flow freely around the body and there is no balance between the mind, body and soul.

When energy flows freely around the body the processes within the body are able to optimally function. People experience lower stress, fewer mood swings, better focus, often better sleep, etc.

Reiki practitioners and masters help move the energy that is stuck by tapping into the universal life force. Because of this, it is not uncommon for those receiving reiki to experience a lot of emotion. This is a good thing!

2. Supports an optimal immune system

As mentioned above, Reiki promotes the body's natural self-healing processes. It helps the body move to a rest and repair state. Often because of the high stress and high-speed environments, we find our body always struggles to move to the rest and relaxation state. Because we can't wind down we end up having a bad sleep and we just never come back down. This can lead to burnout, chronic fatigue, and eventually sickness.

Reiki reminds the body how to leave this state and move into that rest and repair state. In that state, the body is able to cleanse all the negative energy and toxins from our body to support a healthy immune system and decrease our stress. 

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3. Pain management

This is a common benefit of Reiki that is currently being studied by western medicine. There have been studies that show that Reiki does have a higher success rate for pain management than placebo tests.

Hundreds of hospitals in the US have Reiki as an option for patients recovering from various procedures.

With the claim that Reiki is a smart energy the practitioner does not need to target body particular body systems (but they can). Experts in the field say that the body directs the energy to go where it is needed and Reiki knows what to do to help. Reiki can help direct someone's attention away from the pain and to something more positive. Mindset plays a big role in pain reduction and Reiki is an excellent way to support a positive mindset.

While I like and use Reiki personally and support the use of it, I am not an expert. I would never claim that Reiki was a be-all-end-all cure, I would never suggest using Reiki instead of getting other treatments for life-threatening illnesses.

I use Reiki personally because I enjoy it. Just the same as I use meditation, yoga, journaling, visualization, EFT, etc.

But I find a lot of people, especially western people dismiss things that don't fit their narrative or what is commonly agreed upon.

Reiki is a well-documented process in the East and has been widely used since ancient times. Just like with the use of crystals as brought up in a previous blog it would be naive to think that just because western science and medicine haven't touched on the subject much that we should dismiss what other cultures believe and have practiced for many years.

There is no one saying you need to believe in Reiki or practice it but I always highly recommend keeping an open mind. We can discover helpful and beautiful things when we just allow ourselves to believe in the possibility of forces we cannot see or things that are new.

Everything in this blog is my opinion from various sources of teaching. I am working on two Reiki certifications and I have taken from them to create opinions on the subject. I am not an expert and don't claim to be.

My personal Reiki use has helped me to connect with myself, helped me relax, helped me manage my mental health symptoms, helped with my pain management, helped reduce my feelings of stress, helped me learn to control the energy and emotions around me, and helped me have a better nights sleep.

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