To Your Health - Reiki and Self Care

- by Oriethyia

 

Common sense - and an astounding number of articles in the last several years - remind us of the basics of maintaining and enhancing health. Eat a balanced diet, get regular exercise, avoid excess. With increasing frequency, we have renewed information on the value of certain ancient practices like yoga, qiqong, and Reiki.

 

Reiki is a gentle and natural healing art, rediscovered in Japan in the late 1800s. A form of energy healing, it involves a simple laying on of hands, and the practitioner's ability to act as a conduit for what the Japanese call 'ki' ('chi' or 'qi' in Chinese), or "Universal Life Force Energy". But while I have focused the earlier articles on defining Reiki, how it is learned, and its use by practitioners all over the world, the focus of this article is on Reiki for self care.

 

The very best way to use Reiki is to give yourself a full treatment every day. Some people start or end their day in this way, gently laying hands on their own bodies, letting the energy move into their hands, and then to the areas of the body that need attention as well as the routine positions of the standard treatment.

 

When I self-treat daily, I have more energy, am less stressed, more able to laugh at the things that would otherwise frustrate me. After months of daily self treatment I discovered another benefit: it was as if, after chasing madly after serenity and mindfulness, I suddenly backed into the room where they lived. When I started to react in a less than optimal way to a given situation, some smarter, calmer part of me kicked in, coming up with gentler, more simple solutions and ways of responding. I found that in many ways, daily self-treatment mirrored the benefits of daily meditation.

 

When we take time for ourselves to do healthy things, things we know are good for us, our bodies, minds and spirits respond. So by all means eat a balanced diet. Get gentle, regular exercise. Take a class in yoga, qiqong, or Reiki. And give yourself a treatment every single day.