Can Reiki Help You?
People frequently email asking if Reiki healing can help this, that, or the other problem — everything from cancer to diabetes to insomnia, vertigo, or multiple sclerosis; the list seems endless. Some people want to heal a relationship, bring back a lost love, or improve their bank balance.
We are all looking for solutions for what hurts us, for our specific pain, whether it is life circumstances or symptoms and medical problems. And it doesn’t help that we often suffer from not just one, but many problems, which may or may not seem related, causing us to feel frustrated, depleted, overwhelmed, without hope.
And you wonder, Can Reiki healing help me?
It all starts with feeling better
Yes, Reiki healing can help you, and here’s why.
Even if we can’t solve all your problems with a magic wand (or hand) — and we cannot — wouldn’t it help you to simply feel better?
Feeling better means you think clearly, recognize priorities, feel motivated to do what you can do — and let go of the rest. (Or as the Reiki Precepts advise: Today only.)
We often devalue feeling better, as if it were an optional luxury. But feeling better is where healing begins. The first, most important step in healing is simply feeling better.
When you feel better, you understand that your actions matter, and you make choices to protect your well-being. Feeling better is the domino that starts a chain of healing events and behaviors.
Addressing isolated symptoms is not enough to help you feel better, and pharmaceutical approaches to symptoms and conditions can actually make you feel worse, even when they are helping.
To feel better, you need to step back from the details and bring balance to your overall system.
Reiki healing is balancing
Reiki healing quickly returns you to your natural state, or at least gets your body moving in the right direction.
That means your breathing, heart rate and blood pressure improve (studies document that). An opening of the breath is a common first response to Reiki practice, whether self-practice or treatment received from someone else. Yogis have known for the millenia that when we breath better, our minds naturally settle. Science supports that.
The improvements in respiration, heart rate and blood pressure indicate your body is moving into parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) dominance. That’s a good thing; your body was made to function primarily in the composed PNS state, also known as the rest/digest phase, the counterpart to the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) fight/flight phase.
Why balance matters
Rest/digest doesn’t mean you have to stop being active and productive.
Yes, you will sleep better and digest better — functions critical to maintaining health. But when you’re not sleeping or digesting, you can be active and productive without being stressed.
Under PNS dominance, your body functions optimally, and at a sustainable pace, so you can avoid exhaustion and burnout. It’s like working for a benevolent boss who brings out the best in you and trusts you to take breaks as needed.
Most of us are reacting to a very different, and rather nasty inner boss, one who tells us to run life’s marathon at a sprinter’s pace. We’re smart enough to know that doesn’t make any sense, and informed enough to know it is actually harmful, yet we don’t stop.
In fact, we don’t know how to stop.
We spend so much time in stress-reactive SNS mode that our bodies literally forget how to switch gears and return to balance. Meanwhile, the damage piles up. We may choose healthful food, but we don’t digest it well enough to get the nourishment our cells crave. We fall into bed exhausted, but don’t get the deeply restorative sleep our bodies and minds so desperately need.
And we wonder why we’re not as happy and healthy as we want to be, why we lack a sense of meaning. Enter Reiki practice.
Helping the body remember to heal
Through a mechanism science does not yet understand, Reiki practice reminds our bodies how to shift into PNS self-healing mode. That’s very good news for anyone, no matter what challenges you face.
Because no matter what you have to deal with — even a health condition that is deemed irreversible — keeping your body balanced helps you feel better and function better, which in turn keeps you feeling better. It’s a positive feedback loop.
Of course we can never promise specific results in a rigid time frame — balance requires different self-adjustment for different people at different times — but it all starts with breathing, sleeping, and digesting better (medical science tells us that 70% of our immune system is in our digestive tract).
Here are the most common benefits my clients have reported since I started practicing Reiki professionally in 1986:
- Improved sleep
- Improved digestion
- Less anxiety
- Less pain
- Improved focus and memory
- Improvement in depressive symptoms
- Reduced side effects from medications and medical procedures
- Faster recovery from injuries and surgery
- Mood stabilization
- Enhanced resilience to stress
- Improved self esteem
- Greater social ease and satisfaction
- Greater sense of meaning.
Reiki healing improves your health care
Additionally, many people wanting to reduce medications of various kinds were able to do so, under the supervision of their doctors.
Some of the people who felt improvement with Reiki practice also become aware of other avenues of help that improved the situation further.
If you seem stuck in the diagnostic phase, Reiki practice can help by clarifying the situation, so needed medical treatment can begin sooner.
When medical treatment is arduous and has side effects, Reiki practice helps your body recover balance, softening the discomfort and supporting the even, hopeful state of mind that helps you complete your protocols.
Whatever your medical challenge, Reiki practice can help you, and that help may make the difference in how much your medical care is able to help you.
Reiki may not be all that is needed, but it is a good place to start.
A word of caution
You can receive Reiki treatment from someone else — a professional or a friend who has been trained — or you can learn to practice Reiki self-treatment. In order to benefit from Reiki healing, it’s important to choose your Reiki practitioner or teacher carefully.
If you are new to Reiki practice, it may be hard to appreciate that because it is primarily a home self-care practice, there are no regulations for Reiki practice or training. That means some First degree practitioners have more training than others who consider themselves to be Reiki masters.
There is no “best” school or lineage. Take the time to find a well trained, experienced Reiki professional who is a good fit for you. Let common sense and your sense of rapport guide you, and ask questions about the person’s training and experience.
The most important question to ask a Reiki professional is: “Do you practice daily hands-on self-treatment?” If the practitioner says, “No,” move on.
Reiki healing can help YOU
Reiki healing can help you, and it can help you help yourself. Just how much can Reiki practice help you?
There’s only one way to find out. Take the advice of renowned cardiac surgeon Mehmet Oz. After having me demonstrate Reiki practice on The Dr. Oz Show in January 2010, he told his TV audience, “Try Reiki!”
If you are already practicing Reiki self-treatment, please share how your practice has helped you in a comment below.
RELATED READING:
How Does Reiki Help?
Reiki Healing and Surgery
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Hello.
Can I start learning Reiki without a teacher/master?
Gediminas
No, Gediminas, you cannot. It’s necessary to learn to practice from a qualified Reiki master. This article will help you find a good teacher http://reikiinmedicine.org/popular/reiki-classes-right-for-you.
Feel better, heal better…shifting from SNS to PNS…Pamela, thank you for this great expansion on your last post!
Pamela, today I overslept and didn’t get to do my regular reiki practice. But I was able to grab just 8 minutes between two clients. That 8 minute reiki practice reminded me to stop and take stock of my day. It gave me a chance to calm down and engage in essential self nurturing.
Blessings,
Rose
Giving myself Reiki every day keeps me calm and centered. I rarely get sick and when I do, it moves through me very quickly. I also find that I do not seem to need as much sleep (although I spend the same amount of time in bed because I use that extra hour to do self Reiki.).
I hear this many times, Sandy, people sleeping less once they start practicing self-Reiki. It seems they are sleeping less hours but sleeping better, due to their daily practice.
I have had two Reiki sessions so far with two different practioners. My first experience was at a hospital prior to surgery out of state and the experience was wonderful and I feel it dramatically improved my healing time. My only instruction was to keep my eyes closed and to relax – then the practioner began the session. She did not speak during it other than to let me know I would feel her hands pressing gently on certain areas of my body and to just relax and keep my eyes closed. That was about a year ago. Very recently, I went to a local practitioner and the experience was quite different. She placed something over my eyes which caused me to be a little anxious as I could have just closed my eyes and she had some dramatic music playing and I could hear her rushing around the table and it sounded like she was rubbing her hands before placing them on me. Her hands felt very warm and I kept thinking that from the sounds, maybe she was putting something on her hands to warm them. This was a bit distracting for me. At some points, she was addressing spirits/angels and thanking them. I just found this all a bit disconcerting because I wasn’t expecting it and did not get the same feeling of relaxation as my Reiki first experience. I am still very much interested in Reiki but am unsure if all these “distractions” prevented me from fully relaxing in order to accept the Reiki treatment. I believe both practitioners were well intentioned, but I prefered the simplicity of my first experience — just the laying on of hands in a quiet atmosphere. Is it common for Reiki to differ so dramatically from practitioner to practitioner? Also, is it harmful to try various practitioners until one finds a good fit?
Adrienne, Reiki is a completely unregulated practice and there is endless variation among practitioners. Some people believe themselves to be Reiki practitioners without ever having taken any training with a Reiki master.
It is a buyer-beware market, and that is why I have written some articles to make the public aware of the need to do some research, and to help Reiki practitioners who want be credible. You might want to take a look at:
http://reikiinmedicine.org/popular/reiki-classes-right-for-you
http://reikiinmedicine.org/clinical-practice/recipe-for-reiki-credibility.
I agree with your preference for a simpler, more traditional approach and I encourage you to ask questions before scheduling so that you know more in advance about an individual practitioner’s approach and values.
I wonder if Adrienne would have had the same reaction of the practitioner had better communicated with the client beforehand what to expect during the treatment. Your webinar on communication helped me to realize how important this step is.
Juanita, I am so happy to know that the Talking Reiki recorded webinar was helpful to you. Most Reiki practitioners are goodhearted, well intentioned people who simply have not had training in clinical skills (maintaining a therapeutic relationship) or business (when we receive payment for service, we are professionals in business).
I am trying to help Reiki practitioners get the information and support they need to be the quality professionals they strive to be. Thank you for your comment.