What is Reiki?

Reiki is a form of healing that works through a person's energy system to reduce stress, bring balance and wellbeing, and promote self-healing.

"Energy system"?

Your energy system is the animating energy that is part of your make up as a living being. It connects to and through all parts of your body through meridians, as well as flowing through your emotions, and connecting to your Higher Self.

Meridians can be thought of as "energetic highways" carrying this animating energy (also known as Life Force Energy) to all parts of your body - including the layers of energy surrounding your body. When unobstructed, our energies flow naturally - and we feel well and healthy physically, confident, present, productive, worthy and happy.

But this energy can get blocked (just like a highway can come to a standstill because of an accident or something blocking up one of the lanes), become stagnant, shift or get stuck. This can be caused by anything from negative self-beliefs, and lack of faith in ourselves, to deep-seated fears rooted in past experiences. A painful life experience or situation can also cause our energies to become blocked up. And so we feel fearful, withdrawn, unworthy, unable to function properly, and unhappy.

Un-layering your blocks

Many schools of thought believe that every living creature has the ability to heal itself with the right knowledge and understanding of Self, Circumstance, and Higher Purpose. So in other words, you wouldn't be able to activate healing if you don't understand where and what the actual cause is within yourself, and what the higher purpose of the circumstance may be.

Let's take a practical example. You become physically ill because of high cholesterol. Take a step back, and you realise its because you eat a lot of bad-fat foods. Another step back, and you observe that bad-fat foods are a tool that you use to deal with emotional pain. Another step back and you can pinpoint that that emotional pain comes from instances in your life where you felt ashamed and bullied by peers. Another step back (and we're going a little deeper here), and you'll find that you were ending up in situations where you felt ashamed of a heavy lack of self-worth. 

This un-layering can go on and on, into past lives where you kept on being faced with the same types of situations, in your journey of learning and growth. It's not always as clear-cut as this example, but you get the idea.

Self-healing: medical, emotional and energetic

This is where the support of a Reiki Practitioner is so valuable. He or she has studied and developed the skills and techniques that enable him or her to locate blocks, and help with the restoration of the flow of a person's energies. This can happen through a variety of ways, depending on the individual's needs. So if a block is removed from one part of a person's energy system, the Practitioner can channel additional Life Force Energy into that area to accelerate healing so flow and balance can be restored.

Just as a doctor can't magically heal a fractured toe, but supports your body's incredible self-healing process by identifying the wounded area with X-Rays etc, applying the support needed to help the bones heal, and give you the necessary medicines - so a Reiki Practitioner can't magically heal an emotional wound from childhood, for example, that causes you to doubt your self worth, and fear relationships as an adult. Your Practitioner supports your own healing process by helping to identify the areas where energy is blocked and stopping your progress and growth in that area, and channel the necessary "energy medicine" to support your healing process.

So actually, Reiki ISN'T all that mystical...

This is a very simplified explanation, but I think it gives a good idea of how UNmystical Reiki really is, and that it is just a healing practice for a different part of you, like doctors are for the body, and psychologists are for the psyche.