REIKI – An Alternative, Healing Practice
REIKI – An Alternative, Self-Care, Healing Practice, is an attempt to bring people closer to energy healing and maybe make them less skeptical about such practices. Through Reiki session workshops, it allowed for people to experience the benefits of Reiki firsthand.
The word Reiki comes from the two Japanese characters, rei; meaning universal spirit, and ki; meaning vital life force or energy. It is an ancient, hands-on healing therapy approach in which the practitioner acts as a medium, helping direct the universal energy to an individual to enhance vitality and promote the body’s innate ability to heal. By placing the hands on various parts of the body it allows for the energy to be received by the individual, where it acts on what needs help.
Even though everyone wants to feel better, responsibilities and modern life do not always allow us the time or energy to do right by ourselves. By doing short Reiki sessions to volunteers, it was possible for them to get a taste of the benefits they could gain and act as a pedestal for their perception on such practices to change. Many believe that if it’s not tangible or measurable, it is not real. Yet, through the workshops, participants got to feel the energy and its effects and went from stressed and tired to a more calm and peaceful state.
I have experimented with various images and techniques as I tried to convey how one can feel during and after a Reiki session. A sense of softness and gentle flow; a comforting warmth. In the end, I opted for soft colors and out of focus or blurred lines to create a calmer atmosphere, connecting Reiki with the peaceful feeling we get in nature. Abstract, as well as nature images were used to convey that feeling in a non-specified way.
The experience of Reiki varies from person to person. Each one receives what is most needed and reacts differently. It is sad to see young people be so stressed and taken over by the weight of responsibilities, chipping away their health so early in life. So, it was fulfilling to see the positive effects on the participants. How they smiled afterwards, and how they felt. Most were reserved before the workshop, but also curious to try it out. Their surprise, as well as their satisfaction afterwards was evident. Among other things, they said that they felt calmer, lighter, certain pains were relieved, and could sleep easier.
To borrow the words of Jordan Kisner, from his article “Reiki can’t possibly work. So why does it?” in The Atlantic:
“Is Reiki real? Does it matter if Reiki is real? And whose definition of real are we talking about: Is it real according to the presiding scientific and medical framework, that says that phenomena need to be measurable to be taken seriously, or is it real in the looser, unquantifiable way of spiritual practices?” (Kisner 2020).
Its positive results have been experienced and felt by many people around the world -me included, helping them improve their wellbeing. Even the more skeptics from my workshops did get a small taste of what is possible, and made them (ever so slightly), doubt their doubts and become a bit more open to explore and learn more about it.
The teaser video below is my attempt to encapsulate that experience, while giving a short introduction to Reiki.
References
The Atlantic, Reiki can’t possibly work. So why does it?, Jordan Kisner, April 2020
https://kvaholisticwellness.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Does-Reiki-Work_-The-Atlantic.pdf
Lauren Del Turco, Greatist, A Skeptic Walks into a Reiki Session… and Comes Out Transformed, October 7, 2019, https://greatist.com/live/i-tried-reiki#Skeptic,-transformed
Pamela Miles, Reiki in Hospitals: an Update
https://reikiinmedicine.org/clinical-practice/reiki-in-hospitals-an-update/
Reiki Online Course
https://www.freereikicourse.com/
