~What is Reiki?~

Reiki is one of the Eastern healing modalities used for relaxation, stress-relief, and to stimulate your body’s ability to heal itself. Originally from ancient Tibet, and re-discovered by Dr. Mikao Usui in Japan in the late 1800′s. Let’s first define the word “Reiki” itself. The word is actually two: Rei (pronounced “ray”) and ki (pronounced “key”).

You have undoubtedly heard of “chi”, which is the Chinese word meaning “life force energy”; Chi is what acupuncture physicians work with when doing their healing work. Chi is that essence within each of us, without which we would not be alive! That energy that runs through the body promoting health and vitality that is our natural state. Chi also is all around us. The art of Feng Shui works with the chi energy of buildings, water, plants, etc. to create a harmonious place to live and/or work. So, the word “Ki” is just the Japanese translation of the Chinese word “chi”; meaning life force energy.

Rei translates to “spiritually guided”, meaning something that is guided or directed by a higher power, your own higher self, etc. So to put the two words together, Reiki means “spiritually guided life force energy”. Because this healing energy is spiritually guided, it knows just where to go, just where it is needed. The higher self of the practitioner works with the higher self of the person receiving the treatment and the Reiki energy always flows to where it is needed.

Many of the energy healing techniques such as Reiki and acupuncture are based on the belief that our illnesses begin first as a disruption to our chi or ki or life force energy. Science has now confirmed that we, along with everything else, are not solid as we appear, but are actually 99% vibrating energy! Our molecules contain 99% space (energy) and just 1% matter. So it makes sense that a disruption of our energy flow can cause illness. For more information on this, read about the Chakras. When a disruption of our life force energy occurs and is maintained over time, symptoms will begin to present in the physical body. Remember, our natural state is vibrant health! Soon I will post a list on what types of things disrupt our ki; you may be surprised!

Often, when we have aches and pains or become ill, we find medicines or methods to relieve the symptoms. While this may help us to feel better short term, it will not address the actual cause of the illness. By working with the actual the chi or ki, Reiki (and acupuncture and other modalities) addresses the root of the problem to allow blockages to be removed so that healing may begin!
The Gong and Reiki also work very nicely together!