What is Reiki?
Shortly said, Reiki is energy healing. But in practice, it’s much more than that. Depending of course how each of us defines healing and what it means for everyone uniquely. I personally am not too keen on using the word healing. But to me in this context it means something in the lines of taking responsibility to look at and work through trauma that has accumulated or stayed with me until now. Taking responsibility of becoming the person I want to be, or who I am destined to be - finding the possible reasons and birthplace of trauma through the mind, feeling it through the body, setting an intention how I want to be from now on, and integrating it all into my everyday life piece by piece. One big part of this responsibility is also searching for the ways that suits the journey, and the people who can support and help on the way - by no means do I mean it’s a journey to be done alone! Quite the opposite. I also want to mention, that I do not believe that we need to fix ourselves in any way. We are in our core already enough, and what we need to be in this life. As we start this journey of becoming our authentic selves again, it’s more about peeling layer after layer the conditioning we learned during life until now. And underneath all of that is the pure core of us - but it is already there, so we are not a project to be fixed <3
Okay, now that we got that settled, let’s get into the actual topic.
What is Reiki?
As per my experience, Reiki is Universal Love energy. An energy that deeply nourishes and supports our own Ki (life-force-energy) & our body’s ability to heal/support itself and its functions. As our choices have a lot of influence on our body’s functioning, it’s not just Reiki that can support and make you better. But Reiki can definitely make you see the surrounding world and your choices in a new light.
The word Reiki itself consists of two parts. Rei, which means “universal”, or “sacred”, and ki, which means life-force energy (also known as prana or chi). Therefore, Reiki is Universal life-force energy. We all have ki flowing in our body, through energetic channels (often known as meridians & nadis). Sometimes, due to multiple reasons, the flow of our ki can become disrupted, and as a result, our ki flows less freely. Reiki can support to dissolve these disruptions, and help the ki flow more freely again.
Reiki promotes wellbeing, in a way that is for the highest good for the person receiving it. It works holistically on all (physical/body, emotional, mental/mind, spiritual/spirit) levels.
Most of all, Reiki is an experience. Because of our unique constellation of experiences we’ve had in our life and the unique make up of us as human beings, every experience with Reiki is different.
A few words about the history of Reiki
The Reiki that I have learned and teach and which I am talking about, is called Usui Reiki Ryoho (which translates to Usui Spiritual Energy Healing Method). It originates from Japan, & it was discovered by Dr. Mikao Usui, in the beginning of 1900’s, after a life-long search for the purpose of life. After taking on an extreme challenge of meditating and fasting until he finds enlightenment or dies, after 21 days of fasting and meditating on Mount Kurama, he experienced a great, powerful light (Reiki) over his head. He became enlightened - he felt vitalized, whereas he had before felt very weak and close to death from fasting, & a high-level frequency spiritual energy had displaced his usual consciousness & replaced it with a new level of awareness. Later, when coming down from the mountain, he discovered that he had also received the gift of healing.
I feel it’s important to notice, that Dr. Mikao Usui that his aim was a deeply spiritual one, and that what he received first - spiritual awareness. And later he discovered the gift of healing. To me, this means that Reiki is first and foremost a tool & support for spiritual and personal growth.
I feel also important to mention, that Usui Reiki is not the only Reiki - as we learned earlier, the word (& Kanji) of Reiki means Universal Life-force energy. It has been around & used before Dr. Mikao Usui. However, because of some fortunate circumstances in history, Usui Reiki spread all over the world or at least outside of Japan in the Western world. This is the reason why Usui Reiki is nowadays the most know system of Reiki.
What is Reiki used for?
Reiki can be used for a vast variety of things, themes and issues! There’s growing interest and research about the effects of Reiki as complementary method next to medical support. Reiki is even used in some hospitals nowadays as a complementary therapy as a part of the hospital’s patient services.
Reiki is often reported to enhance relaxation and reduce stress. It can also help relieve physical pain & aches. Other reasons people look for in Reiki are emotional balance, personal healing & self-awareness, and spiritual connection & inner harmony.
I personally use Reiki as a way to expand my consciousness & awareness and support myself on my spiritual & personal growth journey. In times of extreme stress or when there’s a lot going on, Reiki supports me by calming my nervous system and bringing me peace. In times of “boredom” or heaviness and unflowiness, Reiki supports me by giving me energy and a flow of inspiration. Of course, Reiki doesn’t always give me exactly what I want, but always what I need - so even if I would be hoping for a flood of inspiration, could be that what I need is actually rest and stillness. Reiki helps & supports me to peel the layers of conditioning, layer after layer, in a gentle way, by balancing the energies so I can take the necessary steps. Or it supports me to balance the energies after I’ve taken the scary steps :)
Can Reiki be learned?
Yes, Reiki can be learned! Reiki is differentiated into 3 or 4 levels. Some lineages offer Reiki Master level as one level, whereas some have divided the Master level in two levels (Master Student & Master teacher). I will write a blog post with more detail about the levels soon!
If you’d like to know more before I get into writing the blog post, you can always contact me for more details. If you’d like to learn Reiki, you’ll find more about the courses and my upcoming course dates here.
Conclusion
Reiki is a wonderful method to use to support oneself on the journey, especially on the spiritual and personal growth path. Besides that, Reiki can support to bring ease & balance to emotional issues, clarity and peacefulness to a busy mind and relief to an aching body. Reiki is not something that will “fix” anyone - just like I think no tool can do that (on top of the thought that I don’t believe we need to be fixed).
I hope this post has given you some clarity on what Reiki is! I will soon write more posts about Reiki sessions, the Reiki levels (also known as Reiki journey), Reiki principles and more.