Receiving a Reiki session is a helpful tool to have in your holistic well-being toolkit.
I would often be asked the simple question, “What is Reiki?” and I’d launch into this explanation:
Reiki is a relaxing hands-on energy practice that promotes balance on all levels. The subtle Reiki vibrations pass through the hands of the practitioner to be directed by the needs of the recipient encouraging healing and overall well-being.
Treatments are known to bring calm and balance to the body and the energy that mobilizes the body’s own natural healing mechanisms.
The word Reiki is Japanese for Universal Life Energy. Ray means universal and refers to spiritual energy. Ki means the vital life force that flows through all that is alive. A session provides the opportunity for the recipient to tap into and receive the balancing benefits of that energy through the trained Reiki professional.
This usually resulted in a deer in the headlights look and no further conversation or booking of appointments! It is a textbook description based on the metaphysical understanding of energy. For some, this is a bit too much woo-woo mumbo jumbo!
So let’s look at Reiki more pragmatically from each level of your holistic well-being and the benefits you might experience from a Reiki session.
On the physical level, the calm and quiet setting of a Reiki session allows your body to slow down, relax, and be still. During this time your nervous system responds by shifting out of the sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight), into the parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest).
The marvel of the human body is that it is designed to heal itself given the proper conditions. A Reiki session is set up with those conditions. Pamela Miles, Reiki Master and author of Reiki: A Comprehensive Guide, states “I’ve been collaborating with conventional medicine since the ’90s, and what we know, without making you believe any odd theories, is that the touch of a Reiki practitioner’s hands, through an unknown mechanism, seems to remind the receiver’s system of its own capacity to self-heal.”
On a mental level, a Reiki session helps quiet the inner chatter.
The never ending To Do list or the negative self-talk that can cause self-doubt or lack of worthiness moves to the back ground of your mind. This allows your mind the opportunity to release unwanted stress, worry, lack, and other negative thought forms. Over time these thought forms create a physical heaviness. Common feedback from a Reiki recipient is “I feel lighter”.
On an emotional level, a Reiki session can help shift the focus of your feelings.
By scheduling a Reiki session, you are choosing an hour of self-care. Not an easy task in today’s busy world. This act puts you in a space to receive the care, kindness, and love coming through the hands of the trained Reiki professional. These positive emotions help to flush out and can replace negative feelings such as doubt, fear, anxiety, etc.
As the body stills, the mind quiets and loving kindness enters, you as the Reiki recipient are consciously creating the space to connect with your soul which is the spiritual benefit of Reiki. From the place of soul connection you have the opportunity to objectively observe what is out of balance and receive guidance to come back into homeostasis.
One of my earliest clients described Reiki as “a massage for the soul”. I couldn’t agree more.
Celeste Pichette is a Reiki and Pranic Healing trained professional and author of Conscious Choices: What I Choose to BE as I Create Me. She is available for appointments at RHA on Tuesday and occasionally on Thursday or Friday.
She resides in Macomb Township and participates in the weekly Tuesday evening meditation and conversation groups at RHA. Follow her on FB at Being Using Divinity.
The print version of her book can be purchased at RHA or online at Amazon. The ebook version is available at Smashwords and other e-reader platforms like Barnes and Noble, Apple, and Overdrive.