What is Reiki?
Many people reach out and ask me, “What is Reiki?” Reiki is beautiful, divine, and intelligent energy that activates your own energy system’s ability to heal. It is high vibration and connects with the wisdom of your own energy, so that it can flow where it needs to in order to give you exactly what you need on a physical, psychological, and spiritual level. It also gives a deep sense of peace and wellbeing.
The experience of a Reiki healing session is like that of a massage or acupuncture, where you just relax and receive the Reiki healing. You may feel warmth or tingly sensations. People may see colors, fall asleep, or experience an emotional release. The most common results of Reiki healing include an increased sense of calm and relaxation as well as a reduction in perceived stress.
It is divinely channeled through the Reiki practitioner to you. The Reiki practitioner initiates the flow of Reiki for your highest good. The practitioner is not giving you their energy, rather they are a conduit for the Reiki healing energy. You simply have to be open to receiving it.
How can Reiki maximize my healing?
We tend to think of addressing physical ailments physically (i.e. take a medicine, have a surgery, etc.) and psychological struggles psychologically (i.e. seek out psychotherapy, reading self-help books). However, the physical and psychological are interconnected. We can utilize both methods for healing. In addition, using energy healing further accelerates healing on the physical and psychological level.
All healing actually takes place at the energetic level first, just as all ailments take place at the energetic level first. Energy shifts more easily than something that is physical, so it is more transmutable, more malleable. When we become sick, it is because our energy has been out of balance and manifested at the physical level. By addressing the energy underneath the psychological or physical expression, we can make faster changes and also more sustainable changes. Addressing our symptoms from an energetic perspective, through Reiki for example, can amplify our healing results. When our energy is healthy and balanced over time, then that balance manifests psychologically and physically so that we no longer experience physical and psychological discomforts. This is not to say that Reiki healing should be our only modality, but it is absolutely combinable with traditional approaches and can improve outcomes.
How did my Reiki healing journey begin?
Reiki found me and it changed my life. Years ago, I began going to a weekly yoga class. I had just finished graduate school and was early in my career working in the school system and I needed an outlet to get the energy moving in my body. My body ached as I was overworked and agitated. The yoga class was my reset. Not wanting to leave, I found myself hanging around the studio a bit after class. I often saw signs posted for Reiki healing trainings. They always caught my eye, but I didn’t know what Reiki healing was, so didn’t sign up. I received a gift certificate to the yoga studio as a birthday gift. But before I could utilize my certificate, the yoga studio changed locations. It was far away enough that I felt I needed a new studio for my weekly classes, but didn’t want to waste the certificate. I decided to finally sign up for one of those Reiki healing trainings, which didn’t cost much more than the certificate I had been given. Without really knowing what Reiki healing was, and never having experienced it myself, I found myself in a class learning how to channel it. From that day forward, I have given myself Reiki every single day. It just clicked for me. Soon after, I found myself no longer experiencing physical discomfort in my body, and I went through a spiritual awakening. I was empowered to heal myself and evolve. I went on to take Reiki Level II, then became a Reiki Master, and finally a Reiki Master Teacher so that I could train people to channel Reiki themselves. It is an indispensable part of my healing repertoire.
Is Reiki Scientifically Supported?
I highly recommend Reiki in Clinical Practice: A science-based guide by Ann Baldwin, if you are interested in the field of Reiki Research. According to her scientific review, Baldwin indicates that the most rigorous data suggest Reiki’s positive effects in four areas which include acute and chronic pain, pain and well-being during cancer treatment, stress/anxiety and depression, and practitioner well-being (Baldwin, 2020).
In terms of the research around pain, Baldwin concludes that even two Reiki sessions can provide a large degree of pain relief for an acute or a chronic condition (Baldwin, 2020). She also indicates that there is strong evidence to recommend the use of Reiki as an adjunct to analgesics in order to reduce pain and anxiety in patients undergoing surgery (Baldwin, 2020). In my personal experience, I have found Reiki to be very helpful in relieving headaches, migraines, general achiness, and provides immediate relief after experiencing an injury.
In Baldwin’s literature review, “all five published research studies on the effects of Reiki on cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy gave positive results with regard to reducing pain, fatigue, anxiety, depression, distress, and to increasing quality of life, comfort, and well-being.” She highlights that Reiki is an included therapy among the three most prestigious cancer hospitals in the USA, which further supports that it is embraced as a beneficial therapy (Baldwin, 2020).
I believe that Reiki helps cancer patients to not only work through the experience of having cancer, but also may help to address the underlying energy that may have manifested into the expression of cancer to begin with. I believe this is foundational in staying cancer free.
Reiki can help in providing a sense of calm and centeredness. A review of Reiki research shows that Reiki feels relaxing and is physiologically calming, as indicated by an increase of Heart Rate Variability (HRV) in Reiki recipients (Baldwin, 2020). HRV shows how well the heart adapts to the body’s needs. The higher the HRV, the better a patient is in a position to be resilient to stress. The fact that Reiki can increase a client’s HRV, indicates that Reiki can help improve a client’s overall resilience to stress. In a study by Baldwin et al. (2017), only the patients that received Reiki showed a significant reduction in anxiety, when compared to the control group (as cited in Baldwin, 2020). In terms of depression, in one study (Dressen and Singg, 1998 as cited in Baldwin, 2020) found that “the decrease in depression was ‘dramatic’ and was greater in men than in women, possibly because the men on average, started off with a greater degree of depression than women.” In addition, two of the studies in the literature review, provide evidence that Reiki is most effective at reducing depression the more severe the depression (Baldwin, 2020). In a study by Mackay et al., 2004, as cited in Baldwin, 2020) Reiki itself has a significant relaxation effect that goes beyond the placebo response one might have in response to another person offering their attention and gentle touch.
In my personal experience, Reiki has helped me to overcome my own anxiety and depression. I believe it shifts our energy and raises our vibration which helps us to see through illusions and overcome thought patterns that are no longer serving us. I believe that Reiki ultimately helps us to change our lens of the world, so that it is more aligned with our higher self, freeing us from the shackles of the ego.
There has been research around nurses who use self-administered Reiki to address stress and burnout associated with their jobs. Evidence shows that nurses who were taught to use Reiki on themselves experienced, “immediate stress relief and relaxation” with self-administered Reiki while at work (Brathovde, 2006, 2017; Cuneo et al., 2011, as cited in Baldwin, 2020). I think that learning to administer Reiki to ourselves is incredibly empowering, and I believe it is beneficial to integrate into the self-care practices at hospitals and other high-stress workplaces.
You can book a Reiki session with me.
If you are interested in experiencing Reiki healing, let’s connect! When looking for a Reiki practitioner, you don’t have to limit yourself to “Reiki near me” as I am able to connect through distance Reiki with impactful results. Whenever you are in the world, we can set up a session.