what is reiki?

Reiki is a form of spiritual practice that was established and developed by Mikao Usui in Japan in the early 20th century. Derived from the words Rei for “spirit” and Ki for “energy”, Reiki embodies the universal life force that flows around us and through us.

Reiki in that sense is also a healing system taught to create balance in our emotional, physical and spiritual lives. A trained practitioner will use hands-on healing, mantras, their intuition and other techniques to balance the flow of energies. They are also here to hold a safe space for our bodies to heal and to encourage transcending our notion of separateness to find our way home to our True Self. The rest is in your hands!

Mikao Usui left us with five core Reiki principles that help us heal and find our way back to our magical selves. There are many different translations, here is one version:

Just for today,
Do not be angry
Do not worry
Be thankful
Do what you are meant to do
Be kind to others

different aspects of reiki

There are many different aspects of Reiki practice. The treatment aspect of Reiki revolves around laying-on-of-hands as healing practice on yourself or on others. This encourages energy blocks to be released and can contribute to bringing back a balance to your body.

It is not unusual for Reiki to stir up a certain curiosity about the understanding of our bodies and its relationship with nature and the wider cosmos. Barriers and limits that we set ourselves may be questioned and challenged, and the engagement with this new-found knowledge may allow for an expansion of ourselves and the world around us. We begin to re-develop and more actively construct the world we want to live in. On the journeys along your borders and during the practice, you will inevitably come in contact with Source and your spirit will engage in conversations with any energy body around. For many, Reiki is the stepping stone to wander further along their spiritual path - it carves the space for connection and healing to start.

benefits of reiki

Every journey is different and Reiki is just one way to enhance spiritual connection - isn’t that the beauty of it all? Spiritual practices are the pillars across all religions and faiths. Think of martial arts like Aikido, Jujutsu or T'ai chi ch'üan (the ‘Chi’ being the ‘Ki’ in Reiki), meditation and breath-work, any form of prayer, tea ceremonies, fasting, yoga, anything that is an expression of your creativity (and everybody is creative) be that writing, chanting, singing, playing an instrument, dancing (think of the wonderful whirling Dervish) – there are endless ways for us to develop an environment of self-care and self-love, to foster a state of relaxation for our bodies and our minds to find connection with the Divine and ultimately our True Selves.

Connecting to Reiki can help with balancing the energies in our body, which will awaken its natural self-healing functions. It can help increase a state of relaxation and meditative state which will reduce stress and anxiety. Reiki will inevitably promote personal awareness – isn’t now the best time to wake up and realise the power that is slumbering patiently within us?