Let’s talk about Reiki
Maybe you’ve heard of Reiki but don’t quite know what it is. Maybe you’re considering Reiki but aren’t sure whether it’s right for you. Or maybe your doctor has suggested Reiki as a form of therapy complementary to your existing medical treatments.
Where it comes from
Reiki is a form of energy healing that originated in Japan in the early 20th century and is considered a simple, natural and safe method of spiritual healing and self-improvement that everyone can use.
How its done
Reiki practitioners use their hands to deliver energy to your body, improving the flow and balance of your energy to support healing. Reiki promotes relaxation, reduces stress and anxiety through gentle touch.
When you receive reiki, the energy assesses where you have blockages and then flows to the area where the healing is required. It is extremely powerful, yet gentle energy. The Reiki practitioner doesn’t cause the healing, nor are they the source of that healing energy; they’re a channel for the energy — similar to the way a garden hose acts as a channel for water.
What does it do?
Studies show that Reiki treatment may create feelings of: Peace. Relaxation. Security. Wellness.
A main benefit of Reiki (that leads to a lot of other benefits) is the reduction of stress. Our bodies cannot heal when they’re in a stressed state all the time. Reiki gives your body a break from the stresses of daily life, helping your body return to a state of relaxation.
Once in this state, your body is able to heal any damage brought on by stress, injury, or disease.
How?
By helping you experience deep relaxation, Reiki can enhance and accelerate your own natural healing process, because your body can stop being stressed and focus on healing itself.
Research shows that a single Reiki session may help your autonomic nervous system, the primitive part of your nervous system that you don’t need to consciously control (it's responsible for things like heartbeat and breathing), move from a sympathetic-dominant, or “fight-or-flight” state, to a parasympathetic-dominant, or “rest-and-digest” state.
Whoa, tell me more!?
Your brain is constantly processing information in a region called the hypothalamus, which then sends signals through your autonomic nervous system to the rest of your body to either stimulate or relax different functions, such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion.
When you experience stressors like poor sleep, a confrontation with a friend, or even exercise, your sympathetic nervous system reacts, releasing the hormone epinephrine and increasing heart rate and blood pressure (the fight-or-flight response that gets the body ready to deal with potential dangers).
But when your body is constantly under stress, this response can shift into overdrive, which can lead to problems.
The parasympathetic-dominant state, the rest and digest component of the autonomic nervous system, is the state we are meant to live in, and Reiki helps keep your autonomic nervous system in that state.
Additional benefits of Reiki include:
Increased energy and clarity
Reduction in anxiety
Improved sleep
Boost in body’s natural healing processes
Improved physical performance
Relief of pain and tension.
Stimulation of your body’s immune system.
Improved overall well-being
Reiki complements other types of medical and therapeutic treatments and can increase the efficacy of other types of healing. If you’re already in good health, regular Reiki sessions can enhance your ability to respond to stress and serve as a form of preventive medicine.
Beyond the magic of feeling peaceful in the moment, one of the most exciting effects of energy healing is what happens after the session. Reiki has a way of aligning us with the people we need to meet, engineering situations in our outside lives that help us clear old patterns or fears, or helping guide us to changes in our lives that align us with our purpose, or why we came here.
In short, everyone benefits from Reiki, which fills us with a deep sense of well-being and peace – no matter who we are, what we’re working on, or what’s happening!
Reiki is an integral component of the Integrative sessions at TULA.
Have questions, please contact me. If you’d like to schedule an Integrative session, please click here.