Reiki is a natural tool that works to heal the mind and body in a safe environment. To not only understand your feelings, but to realign your physical energy. Reiki has been around for decades and is used to this day to heal emotional pain due to life circumstances. Something must be special about it for people to keep getting it done.
According to Reiki Master Karen Armstrong, reiki helps you tune into yourself in a better way, by learning about your emotional-energetic being. It helps you to learn how to tap into messages and language to remove any emotional blockages to express how you are feeling. Karen encourages her patients to express a thought that comes up or to share a life situation that’s affecting them emotionally – as more people are being affected negatively due to COVID crisis. This encouragement is influenced by the healing energy that flows through the patient’s body.
Karen Armstrong is a reiki master teacher at ‘Inside Out’ located in Newmarket, Ontario. She loves learning from her students and empowering them by understanding their gifts. For Karen, she believes we all have a unique set of skills we come into this life with, where no one else can fill this role. In this sense, reiki can be very therapeutic.
What is Reiki? What does it Aim to Do?
“Reiki is a healing energy modality, that brings you into more presence and awareness in your whole being.” Says Karen. It is a Japanese form of an alternate medicine referred to as energy healing. Karen Armstrong uses the form of hands-on healing with natural healing energy. This energy is transmitted through her hands to the client to enable all types of healing. Reiki is focused on creating emotional and physical well-being since they are linked together.
The Process of Reiki
Karen describes the process of reiki by channeling healing energy through her hands to her client – where that energy moves through their body.
“Energy needs to flow and move as we go along. I’ll feel where it’s not flowing well and allow my hands to stay a little longer at that place to see what energy is getting out”, Karen says.
The reiki master will sense the flowing or non-flowing energy and channel it through the chakras. This will enable the master to infer what you are feeling during the practice, based on energy.
Chakra Alignment
There are 7 “chakras” which refer to energy points in your body. When these chakras are out of alignment or are blocked, it is believed that the person will go through emotional or physical distress. To treat each chakra, the reiki master will rub their hands together until they are energized and place their hands slightly above each chakra. More time spent on the blocked ones where the person feels discomfort.
Reiki isn’t for Everyone
There are some biases in the practice of reiki, as it isn’t scientifically proven. However, Karen believes it should work for everyone, but only if they are open to it.
“It’s okay if they don’t believe in reiki. I never try to talk them into anything, rather it’s an opportunity to experience it rather than to write it off, to see if they are open to trying it. Then, they can let their experience decide for themselves if it’s for them or not.” Karen states.
If she finds someone questioning reiki or is skeptical about it, she doesn’t try to talk them into anything. Rather she will ask, “where is it coming from or how do you really know your truth?” and try and challenge their perspective on it.
Reiki Heals Emotional Distress
Many people distract themselves with work, hobbies, music, hanging out with friends, or anything else to not be alone with their thoughts. With reiki, it puts you in the present moment to feel and acknowledge the emotions you’re suppressing.
“Reiki heals by assisting you and your relationship your body is experiencing. Once we can identify that, we can have the power to shift our presence and awareness, as we don’t take much time in presence. Were scared to feel things so we try to be present.” Karen says.
During a practice I had with Karen, she put on a meditation while guiding her hands above my body. Not talking is fine too if you don’t feel like it. It’s all about being aware of how you feel because that’s what Reiki aims to accomplish – present moment awareness of your emotions.
Positive Patient Experiences
“Many patients will share that they feel lighter. That they feel more centered, more connected, and not so anxious”. Karen proclaims. One client told Karen that she’s had a heavy, dark space in her heart for a long time, and then it was gone.
Another lady had an asthma attack during reiki. She didn’t have an epi-pen, so she panicked. Karen asked for three more minutes to allow her to worry and talk about what thought came in when it started. Then, she worked right through it – never in a million years would she think reiki would help without her epi-pen, she told Karen. It all came from the thought that triggered her into a panic.
The power of thought directly affects the body, which is a key component in understanding mind-body healing.
Origins of Reiki
According to Karen, reiki was originated through following the Usui system. The Usui system is named after Dr. Usui, who was born in the early 1900s in Japan. He was responsible for being on a life-long searching journey written in the story about Jesus. He wanted to understand what would work to heal people that other scriptures would understand; as people would do things more if it was something everyone wanted to do.
“His life journey was to read and discover the healing secrets and leaning on his hands, just as Jesus did,” Karen adds.
“From there, he taught others the hands-on healing practice, then it left Japan in 1965 with Hawio Katata by bringing it out to Hawaii. Katata practiced and taught Reiki in Hawaii and the United States, and it expanded globally from there.” Karen explains.
There are many other styles and forms of reiki that are from Dr. Kattiow. Karen performs natural hands-on healing, the same system as Dr. Usui.
My Experiences of Reiki
I was lying down with my hands to my sides, with my eyes closed. The practitioner guided her hands above my body. She didn’t know how I was feeling or where the feeling was physically. She began to set her hands above her chest and cupped her hands in the motion of pouring out water – I was feeling anxiety there as I was waiting for a health test result during that time. In the moment, my chest was tight, and my breathing was short.
After about thirty minutes I felt relieved of stress, calmer, and happier.
Another time I had reiki done I was feeling depressed and anxious. This was due to life circumstances from my experience of loneliness from my living situation. During the appointment, I noticed Karen putting her hands above my heart chakra. When the heart chakra is out of alignment, the negative effects include feeling lonely, isolated, or insecure.
After about ten minutes I felt peace of mind – the reiki wasn’t a cure-all, but I noticed my physical body was calmer. I shifted my thinking to more hopeful thoughts. Karen guided me through this by discovering my gift of sensitivity and said it’s a positive thing. That I value deep human connections. Also, that I am intuitive, meaning I get affected by other people’s energy. The more I understood my gift, the more solutions I could think of to resolve the problem. Then my anxiety naturally decreased from that thought.
