During one of my regular massage sessions, my therapist and all around spiritual journey guide suggested that, given the details of how I want to help people and how I want to connect better with my energies and the energies of others, I might benefit from a Reiki attunement. Clearly I was flowing with my river as I found (through her recommendation) a Reiki Master Teacher just ten minutes away with decades of experience.
Our first meeting was simply to let me experience a Reiki session as I had not experienced one before. I have to admit that I arrived at her studio a complete emotional wreck (due to my own inability to let go of my children’s choices). I was rather ashamed as I cried it out in her sitting area pre-session.
But simply being in her presence made me feel at peace. She seemed to radiate a sort of universal compassion. I was disappointed in myself as I had planned to arrive in a much more blissful and meditative state. She said that I had arrived in the state that I was and that is exactly where I need to be. A true Reiki master is the embodiment of compassion, of letting go and letting be, and of universal brotherly love and insight. She offered insight and perspective on my situation and then suggested we move to the table for the Reiki session itself. Within the hour I went from an emotional wreck to feeling completely balanced, at peace and in the moment. An overwhelming feeling that it is all going to be OK flooded every corner of my being. I could not fathom how she had done that. But I wanted to be able to do that too.
After a couple of days, she called to ask about my experience and to see what I was guided to as a next step. I very much wanted to learn to help others in the way she helped me. I wanted to exude peace and balance and compassion for anyone in my presence and I wanted to be able to bring the concept of healing touch into my toolbox of skills to help accelerate self-development for people around the world. She agreed to teach me Reiki levels one and two. And then we would see what makes sense from there.
Being an academic, I wanted to do well but this is not a subject based on wrote memorization. Reiki is about being cognizant of the energy flowing through you and connecting to a healing energy that I can only describe as universal compassion; a light of peace and balance that descends on you through the crown chakra, down to the heart and out your hands to heal both you and those your seek to help. This is a practice, not a test-focused university course. There was a manual, and the A student in me was very excited to devour it. But the true learning came from practice, both on myself and on my teacher.
Level one focused on hands-on Reiki for healing of myself and others. Once I understood the hand positions and the concept, the attunement process was the key. Part mediation, part prayer, part ritual, the attunement was an intense experience that connected me to the Reiki energy in a way that surprised me. I had been nervous that morning, wondering if I would feel it at all, and all the usual negative self talk that comes with any kind of self-growth or important move towards your purpose. I laugh at that now. I felt the divine light cascade into me with a message that we are all worthy. I can feel it now as I write about it. Of course it would be. I had nothing to worry about. Practicing on my teacher, I was able to get instant feedback as to whether I was doing it “right.” The A-Student in me was delighted to find that I was a natural. But of course, we all are. It is such a natural and ancient art. To be human is to be a natural at Reiki. There was never a need to worry.
At home, I decided to try it on Max, my French Bulldog. I found that even just a quick minute of Reiki was able to put him in such a state of peace and balance that he would relax and often sleep, or just relax and play quietly on the floor. I found him coming back to me and placing himself into my hands specifically as if to ask for more. He loves it. In one particularly funny incident, it was just about seven in the evening. This was traditionally his “naughty hour.” This hour of the evening always seem to bring out the worst in him – stealing items off the shelves, play-biting (on dad), and generally being a bit of a brat. As soon at it started, I put my hands on him and flowed a bit of Reiki energy into him. He quickly laid down and prepared for more. After a minute or two of three different hand positions, he was so completely at ease that the rest of the hour passed with him gently chewing on one of his toys or relaxing at our feet. He was transformed.
With that, my amazing husband was sold and became my next test subject. He is arguably the most skeptical as he had previously had a bad experience in which he was ambushed with Reiki by a novice practitioner during what was supposed to be an athletic massage session. Not only was he not impressed, he did not feel anything through the hands-off technique and was annoyed to have paid for it when he had shown up for a serious massage. Could I show him a better experience? A little wine helped and he asked me if I would give him a treatment. My hands were guided to flow Reiki into his solar plexus and third eye chakras and it seems that is exactly where he needed it. He could feel the energy flowing through my hands into him and described it as feeling very peaceful and relaxing. Afterwords, he described feeling balanced and relaxed and at peace. Mission accomplished.
Earlier in the day, I had done Reiki on myself, and flowed Reiki energy into my favorite necklace so that it could act as a pendulum. Pendulums can show you which chakras are active or blocked/imbalanced and therefore need the most attention. I was rather skeptical of the pendulum concept so I devised an experiment. I held my hand against the cabinets to ensure that it could not move the pendulum through some subconscious means. Surely enough, when the pendulum approached my various chakras, it would start to move. Sometimes in little circles (active), sometimes in large circles (very active), and sometimes in straight lines (imbalanced). I focused Reiki into areas where chakras were imbalanced and found this to be a quick method for achieving balance in the chakras. More interestingly, I noticed, not surprisingly, that when a particular chakra is blocked or out of balanced, it can cause a feeling of frustration centered around the elements of that chakra. For example, I was perfectly safe but did not necessarily feel completely safe because my root chakra (which governs safety, trust and grounding) was blocked. Reiki focused on the root chakra was able to give me a feeling of safety, trust in myself and grounding.
Meanwhile, my husband has become a converted believer and asks for Reiki nearly every night. He says that he can feel his mind go from a tornado of thoughts to calm and relaxed and ready for an amazing night’s sleep. I am thrilled to oblige as the daily connection, practice and affirmation are wonderful. I have been able to relieve his headaches, the occasional tummy ache and his mind alike.
I love the idea of being able to help people in many different ways – of having a pallet of tools, techniques and methods – to help people find the peace they desire. I can see that Reiki will be a great addition to that tool set.
Going into level two, I was scientifically skeptical of the concept of sending Reiki energy at a distance without touch, even possibly to the other side of the world. Given the way that level one had blown my mind wide open, I was anxious to see what level two would bring.
Level two’s attunement was another powerful experience. I connected more deeply with the energy and felt that the channels became physically wider. I was able to flow Reiki energy in larger amounts and with specific intended purposes such as healing emotional or mental issues. Sending Reiki at a distance was an interesting experience. My husband, willing guinea pig, has enjoyed happier and more peaceful days at work on days when I send him Reiki. Perhaps more interestingly, sending reiki to a distant situation that bothered me was at minimum able to help me accept the reality of the situation. Time will tell if balance came to the situation or not.
The results of attaining Level II Reiki Practitioner have been surprising, confounding, exciting, perplexing, and everything between. I find myself now with the power to help people find peace nearly instantly, and to help them accelerate their personal journeys. It is a power that I cannot scientifically explain. It is nice to have something that you cannot explain but yet the results are undeniable. You do not have to believe in it for it to work, just like you do not have to believe that if you drop an object, it will hit the ground. It just works. This bit of wonder in the world is cause for us all to pause and question whether we really understand anything at all. The world is so much more amazing and wondrous than we realize. Trapped in our bubbles of everyday life and schedules, we can lose sight of what is important. Reiki can bring us back to it.
Meanwhile, I credit Reiki for accelerating my husband’s evolution through the stages and for helping me spend more and more time in later stages 10 and 11. This is truly a pragmatic and yet deeply soul-stirring technique. The fact that it employs connection (as gentle touch or virtual connection) is likely a large part of why it works so well.
So what is next? In a few months, I will take the Master and Master Teacher training and learn even more. I can see that Reiki will be a very useful color in my pallet of techniques over the coming decades. I am so grateful that my river brought me to this place and guided me to gain this skill. I cannot wait to use it more!
