Why I Love Reiki

I'm teaching a Reiki I course on February 3, and I received an email from someone who said, "I think I want to take your Reiki class, but I'm not sure.  What will Reiki do for me?"

Reiki has changed my life.  Literally.  It's opened my eyes to the mystery of healing, of energy, of divine assistance.  Back in 2004, I had no idea what Reiki was -- couldn't even pronounce it.  Then one day, I was at a crystal show with my dad and this woman walked up to me and said, "I am sorry to bother you, but my guides keep telling me that you need to learn Reiki."  I had no idea what she was talking about and so she explained that it's a form of hands on healing.  I still didn't understand but because this woman wasn't even a Reiki teacher herself and wasn't trying to sell me anything, I knew her motivations in approaching me were pure and honest.  So I began to research Reiki.  Even though this was only seven years ago, there was precious little to go on.  I ordered a few books from the library because my Barnes and Noble didn't have one -- not one -- book on Reiki.

A wonderful series of coincidences led me to my first Reiki teacher, Annie Miller, and I felt so blessed to have met her.  We were a small group -- just four of us -- each as new and naive as the next.  We learned the history of Reiki and that we would be attuned to it.  What did that mean? I wondered.  After the attunement process - a moving experience of gentle quiet while my Reiki Master worked over me -- I felt this warmth rush through me and fill up my palms.  We all felt it in the class that day and were amazed.  My Reiki teacher looked nonplussed.  "That's the Reiki.  Now that you're attuned to it, it will be with you always.  Hands on, Reiki on."

She told us to do Reiki on ourselves every day for 21 days.  I learned the hand positions, even buying a large poster and hanging it up on a wall near my meditation spot to help me remember.  Every night I would sit there and do Reiki on myself.  After the first week, I began to see things.  Flickers of light out of the corners of my eye at first and then full on blinking white lights around people.  Sometimes I would see colored lights.  They appeared to me as little flashes of purple or blue or green or pink.  I was told that the white lights were people's loved ones in heaven watching over them and the colored lights were their angels.  I felt honored to see these things.

When I received my Reiki II attunement, I started to see actual people, people I had loved and lost.  The first person I saw was my dear friend George who showed me someone getting shot in the neck.  "Look up," he said.  But I couldn't.  I couldn't look up at the person's face. I was too scared.  How stupid I was, how scared.  If only I had known not to be afraid of my intuition.  Two weeks later my husband was shot in the neck by an escaped criminal he'd tried to apprehend with a taser.

A week after my husband's shooting, he was still in a coma and I discovered I was pregnant with my third daughter.  She was a complete surprise to me, a total blessing.  I couldn't stop throwing up that week.  Whenever I held my husband's cross in my hand that was covered with his blood, I would throw up and so the nurses suggested I take a pregnancy test.  I remember thinking how grateful I was that I had just received the Reiki II attunement.  Even though I was a bit of an emotional mess at that moment, I knew I could send my daughter Reiki the whole time she was growing inside of me.

When my husband finally came home a month later, I learned to set up a crystal Reiki grid and did Reiki on him every single day.  He healed a little bit each month.

A year later, I was led to my Reiki Master teacher, a wonderful, warm hearted woman named Gloria Spackman who has a true love for Reiki and helping others.  She taught us how to heal people with Reiki in the past and present.  We learned how to do Reiki "surgery" and how to pass on the gift of Reiki to others.  And so now I'm a Reiki teacher too, and I could't feel more honored.

Every time one of my children falls and gets a scrape, I put my hands on the cut and think of my teacher's words.  "Hands on, Reiki on."  My husband calls me his electric blanket because the warmth of Reiki energy runs through me all day and night.  It's a wonderful feeling.  Sometimes, I'll be getting ready to do Reiki on someone and I'll feel nervous because it's still cold in my office and my fingers will feel cold.  But then I draw the symbols on my hands and feel the warmth rushing through to my fingers.  It's a truly miraculous feeling.

Most people cry when they are on my table receiving Reiki and they always get embarrassed.  But I tell them not to. Reiki is like the Drano of healing techniques -- it clears us out, gets rid of all the negative "stuff."

I love that Reiki isn't affiliated with any belief system, that anyone -- young or old -- can receive Reiki.  Even babies have received the attunement.  I love that there's no ego in Reiki.  It's never about the healer, you never have to do anything to pass on Reiki.  You just have to be in a position of allowing and let the Reiki energy flow through you.

Reiki has changed my life.  And I hope if you're inspired by this post, you'll consider letting Reiki change your life too.