If you do Reiki or you’ve had a treatment, you know how hard it can be to describe what you feel, what happens, and what keeps you practicing or coming back.
Sometimes there are dramatic physical shifts, but often the
source of what ails you is subtle and elusive and only shows itself clearly over time. And the subtleness can sometimes lead to doubt and not using Reiki.
A new friend of mine recently came to the office for a Reiki treatment.
She was thinking about taking a class but wanted to have an experience of Reiki before deciding. She had a few aches and pains–her shoulder, some chronic low back pain. So she lay down and I started the treatment.
She told me afterward that when she was first lying there with my hands over her eyes, she was thinking “Well, it’s okay, it’s nice, but there’s not much going on. I guess this is it.”
The next thing she knew, I asked her to turn over. And then, suddenly, the hour and a half was over. As she “came back” to the room, she said “Wow, I don’t know where I’ve been. Somewhere else. I feel more relaxed than . . . than . . . I’ve felt in years.
The next day when we talked, my friend said that on the drive home she felt an “incredible sense of well-being” which continued into the evening, although the shoulder pain remained. The next morning when she woke, the pain was gone as well.
That same morning she also found herself in a difficult situation with someone.
Her normal response would have been to defend herself and mount a strong argument (at least, internally) about why her viewpoint was right. Instead she remained calm, her mind relaxed, and she simply looked at the situation for what it was, with no need for defensiveness. She said there was no other explanation for this change in her but Reiki.
My friend’s story shines a light on what calls us back and what discourages us. It captures the healing–the pain is gone; I feel so at peace; I’m different! And the doubt: there’s nothing happening. You can experience all of this in a single treatment or any one of these. And the one single element might even be “nothing happened.” Yet tomorrow’s treatment or a series of treatments could bring startling change.
Through its effects, Reiki shows you what’s true, what’s possible.
Everyone who’s done Reiki for a while has stories of physical healing. It’s one of the ways Reiki works. Chronic pain goes away, you get better faster, your body more easily handles a medical treatment you’re going through.
You also see that healing happens over time on many levels. Whatever the initial change may look like–physical, mental, emotional, spiritual–the change ripples out and affects the whole of who you are.
Sometimes what’s true sneaks up on you.
You’re using Reiki to care for an ailing body, a broken heart, an overload of stress, and you unexpectedly experience a sense of your place in the larger scheme of life. Your heart softens, you surrender to the physical limitations, you see what’s important. The change may not be permanent, but it gives you a base to build on.
And, this experience is more than an idea. It’s visceral and tangible, even if hard to put in words. You experience your own interconnectedness with all of life. And you know, in that moment, that deep peace is not only possible but achievable.
All of this is what keeps me coming back. How about you?