Over the last few years, lots of people have asked me "What is Reiki?".
I wish there was a straightforward and short answer!
I often find it easier to allow people to FEEL the energy, rather than trying to explain it in words. But as you're sitting at a computer and not with me right now, let me try and explain...
I can 'channel' Reiki. I can do this because I have been 'attuned' to Reiki by a Reiki Master; I went on a Reiki First Degree course and as a result am now permanently connected to the Reiki source. This means that, amongst a whole host of other things, I can make energy come out of my hands. And I can send it through my hands into myself. I can also allow it to flow through me and into other people.
The energy of Reiki can heal people, and this often happens in remarkable, beautiful, and unexpected ways. However, I don't consider myself to be a healer - I can no more heal anyone than digest their dinner for them. The clever stuff is done by the person who is receiving the Reiki. The energy knows where to flow, because the person's innate wisdom draws it in as necessary. The innate healing ability is a healing process we all have, hard-wired into our system. It's a piece of standard equipment we were all born with, and is designed to keep us healthy and balanced. If you cut your finger, the body knows how to tackle the healing process - it happens automatically - immune cells are mobilised to deal with the situation. There are millions of amazing processes going on inside our bodies every second of the day (can you name the many and diverse activities the kidneys get up to all day long? Neither can I! Nor can I make them happen or not happen, they just do.)
Sometimes, for many and varied reasons, our bodies and minds get out of a perfect state of balance to a degree where an illness may result.
So when I am giving a Reiki treatment, the innate healing mechanism of the recipient draws any available Reiki to where it is needed, and does with it what is sees fit. So all I have to do as a Reiki practitioner is to provide the Reiki. And by practising my daily energy exercises and by using Reiki a lot, I can channel far greater amounts of Reiki - a good strong dose of it, compared to if I didn't work with the energy very often, where it would still flow, but to a lesser degree.
One of the fun things about Reiki is that people can FEEL it for themselves. Even if they are not spiritually minded, even if they don't think they are sensitive, even if they are sceptical and think I am perhaps a bit of a fruitcake. They can usually FEEL SOMETHING.
This might be heat - lots and lots of heat; sometimes an unfeasible amount of heat can seem to come from my hands. Other people experience it in other ways - tingling, pressure, fizzing, coldness. People report seeing colours with their eyes closed - as if on the insides of their eyelids. I LOVE seeing colours when I do Reiki - I can't MAKE it happen, it just does from time to time. So it's always a treat when it comes along 'out of the blue' so to speak. And it's great when it happens to other people for the first time - as I say, working with Reiki is fun.
I use Reiki on myself. Every day. It's part of who I am and part of my life. I use it to meditate, following a formal set series of meditations and visualisations to make me a stronger, clearer channel for the energy. I do self treatments as a matter of course, as a 'top up' if you like. I use it to help me relax and to heal myself if I'm not feeling quite the ticket. I use it on my seven year old son a lot too - sometimes to get him to sleep at night, other times to help his body heal itself, to comfort him or simply to help him relax.
I also do a lot of other stuff with Reiki, things I've learned over the last 4 years, working through Reiki 1, 2 and the Masters Levels of the system. There is so much to learn and to explore. Reiki, like life, is really a journey, not a destination. And it teaches it's own lessons. If you want to learn about Reiki, get connected to it and start working with it. No amount of reading about it can replace working directly with the energy.
So to me, working with Reiki, and particularly teaching Reiki to others is really rather enjoyable. And it can open the mind to an amazing new world of possibilities. Reiki can literally change your life. It's certainly changed mine.
Mikao Usui was born in Japan in 1865 and died in 1926. He founded Reiki in the early part of the last century. Usui grew up in a Tendai Buddhist family, was a highly respected Samurai swordsman, and a talented and hard working student of many subjects and disciplines; he gained a vast knowledge of medicine, psychology, fortune telling and the theology of religions from around the world. His 'system' was rooted in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism. It wasn't called Reiki until some time later. Usui's students were taught his system to help them to develop their own self healing and spirituality.
The Reiki Precepts were at the centre of Usui's teachings:
It was considered that as much spiritual development could be achieved by living in accordance with the precepts as by working with the meditations and energy exercises that Usui encouraged his students to undertake every day. The precepts were central to Usui's Reiki teachings.
I can 'channel' Reiki. I can do this because I have been 'attuned' to Reiki by a Reiki Master; I went on a Reiki First Degree course and as a result am now permanently connected to the Reiki source. This means that, amongst a whole host of other things, I can make energy come out of my hands. And I can send it through my hands into myself. I can also allow it to flow through me and into other people.
This might be heat - lots and lots of heat; sometimes an unfeasible amount of heat can seem to come from my hands. Other people experience it in other ways - tingling, pressure, fizzing, coldness. People report seeing colours with their eyes closed - as if on the insides of their eyelids. I LOVE seeing colours when I do Reiki - I can't MAKE it happen, it just does from time to time. So it's always a treat when it comes along 'out of the blue' so to speak. And it's great when it happens to other people for the first time - as I say, working with Reiki is fun.
I also do a lot of other stuff with Reiki, things I've learned over the last 4 years, working through Reiki 1, 2 and the Masters Levels of the system. There is so much to learn and to explore. Reiki, like life, is really a journey, not a destination. And it teaches it's own lessons. If you want to learn about Reiki, get connected to it and start working with it. No amount of reading about it can replace working directly with the energy.
Mikao Usui was born in Japan in 1865 and died in 1926. He founded Reiki in the early part of the last century. Usui grew up in a Tendai Buddhist family, was a highly respected Samurai swordsman, and a talented and hard working student of many subjects and disciplines; he gained a vast knowledge of medicine, psychology, fortune telling and the theology of religions from around the world. His 'system' was rooted in Tendai Buddhism and Shintoism. It wasn't called Reiki until some time later. Usui's students were taught his system to help them to develop their own self healing and spirituality. 
