What is Reiki…Really?
What is Reiki
So, Reiki is energy healing, eh? What the heck is that?
Reiki, in simple terms, is a practice to help with stress reduction and promote calmness through the body. But, it can go further when one understands that a state of calm and being without stress is the best environment to promote healing within!
We can define reiki in a few different ways, but I’ll give you two.
Scientifically, reiki is a complementary healing method that provides the individual stress release and a calm inner state.
Spiritually, it is a form of energetic healing. It provides healing to the individual on their 4 planes or levels of existence: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual.
At Authentic Alignment, it’s important that we allow the spiritual and the tangible to work together to explain how things work, and how they are utilized to help anyone reach their desired state of health. Our bodies are energy systems, just like the earth is an energy system. We have neurons, the world has roots and underground communication systems. We have synapse, the earth has lightning and energetic bursts. If we can see and know the energy in the world around us, we can learn to understand and work with the energy in ourselves.
The word “reiki” itself can be split into two - rei and ki. “Rei” stands for “universal” or “universal spirit”. This is what is inside of you - this is the spirit you came into this world with and the one that keeps you connected to the Oneness. “Ki” stands for “vital life force” or “energy”. Ki is what your soul is connected to - it is the Oneness.
What reiki does is use the energy around us to connect with the energy within us. This is done by allowing overarching energy (God, Universe, One), or Universal Life Force Energy (Qui, Chi, etc.) to work its magic. Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only altered. This statement is known as the law of conservation of energy. It tells us that energy exists as a constant. It never wavers, it never halts - it’s always moving in and around us. When we give this energy purpose, it is then that it can be used for healing. When we tell this constant energy that we require its use for the highest benefit, healing becomes powerful.
How Reiki Works
Back to the breakdown of the word and the connection to the Oneness is how we can understand how reiki works spiritually. The Oneness is what connects to us in a Reiki session - connecting ki to our rei - connects us back to the Oneness so our energy can re-align with universal energy. This is what provides the healing benefits of Reiki: the reconnection or alignment to the Oneness. This reconnection of energy allows the healing frequencies that are higher vibration to flow through us and somewhat reset our energy to help it flow in ways that are most beneficial to our bodies and minds.
When the body is in a state of calm and homeostasis, we are able to reach the ultimate space of healing. This is typically a philosophy that is unpopular in the west, to feel optimal, we consume: We take pills, or drink caffeine (I am a coffee lover, no judgment), or we feel we must exhaust ourselves to the point of passing out. While pills, caffeine and exercise have their place, stillness, breathing and rest are the best medicine for a body that is constantly inflamed, a mind that is constantly busy and an emotional state that is maybe in high flux. When our bodies, minds and emotions are governed by what we consume, we are not really in a healing state - we are not truly at rest.
More scientifically (or biologically), reiki directly impacts the nervous system in our body (the thing that connects to our Chakras) - the main integrator of ourselves to our environment and what provides internal response based on this input. Our nervous system is the roots of our tree - the underground communication system that connects all parts of ourselves. The nervous system runs on electrical current of messages that move throughout the body, including the brain, that elicit a learned response. I say learned because our nervous system is our memory house of experience. It is the part of our body that holds onto the trauma and the joy. It is our physical memory bank, and a very evolved one at that. Reiki directly impacting the nervous system means every part of our bodies are impacted when receiving universal life force energy.
Types of Reiki
There are many types of Reiki, but the most common and most utilized was discovered by a man named Mikao Usui. Usui was a Japanese Monk, Priest and Doctor who was on a life quest to learn how Jesus and the Buddah healed those around them with just their hands. These prophets were highly attuned to God-like, or Universal Oneness energy, the singular thing that binds us together, and the thing that Reiki is guided by through the form of a set intention or purpose.
Usui discovered the method of healing with energy not too long ago, and since then, his teachings and methods have made it all around the world. Currently, more forms of reiki are being uncovered. We won’t discuss those in this article, but stay tuned for more education around that.
How/ Why to use Reiki
Reiki is seen as a complementary medicine or therapy to more tangible or western ideas of medicine. Oftentimes when proving the effects of reiki, it’s compared to placebo when treating more common ailments. The use of reiki for a cure is not the purpose of healing - rather it allows the person receiving the healing to access higher vibrations that elevate the body, mind and emotions, providing deep relaxation and release.
Some situations that Reiki has been used for at Authentic Alignment are for mental health support, fertility support, panic attacks, physical discomfort, generalized inflammation, migraines... just to name a few.
The full use cases of reiki are still being identified. The use of it is becoming more and more like a practice, meaning it can be tested through science and reasoning (which is helpful and moving in the right direction). Research for its use has been stagnant for some time and research methodology has been tested and questioned deeply. This means reiki is only seen as complementary to more western and scientifically measurable methods of “medicine”... for now. Overall, the method of reiki - using energy to help heal - is not something that can currently be measured by our medical systems, but rather, something that can be measured by our own bodies.
Often, western medicine expects us to look outside of ourselves for healing (a pill being most common) - but reiki asks us to trust our bodies to do the work. We just need to provide the space and environment within to engage in our healing. We cannot be a third party to our own ailments - we must be a first-party and actively participate in the healing process.
How Authentic Alignment Uses Reiki
As lightly mentioned above, Authentic Alignment works with many different common ailments, and continues to pursue working with more and more to help grow understanding and practical applications of reiki on many forms of dis-ease and un-wellness.
For more specifics, contact Maribeth with questions. More information regarding reiki helping with certain ailments will be shared over time, as well as client testimonials.
Always reach out with questions.
Stay Aligned
-Maribeth
