What is Reiki?
by Pamela Miles
http://www.sharecare.com/question/what-reiki-is?partner=droz#cmpid=scw
Reiki is a spiritual healing practice that helps bring you back to balance. Reiki balances the whole system, so people have different experiences, but most find it relaxing and effortlessly meditative (accent on effortlessly). Like meditation, Reiki is not tied to any belief system and can be used by anyone.
Reiki practice can support your health and well-being regardless your state of health. When you are healthy, Reiki practice helps you stay that way. If you are facing a medical condition, Reiki practice supports your conventional medical treatment by optimizing your body’s own self-healing mechanisms. Reiki practice often helps relieve symptoms and side effects of medical treatments.
Since Reiki practice is balancing and doesn‘t involve manipulative touch or ingesting any substance, there are no known medical contraindications. As long as you receive the medical care you and your physician deem necessary, Reiki practice is safe regardless your age or state of health.
The foundation of Reiki practice is self-care. You can easily learn to practice Reiki at the First degree level, which is all that is needed for self-care. Then you can practice on yourself every day, as often as you want or need. If you like, you can offer Reiki treatment informally to your family and friends. Since practicing Reiki supports both you and those in your care, learning to practice is especially useful for parents and caregivers.
You can also receive treatment from someone else, a friend or a professional. Reiki practitioners vary widely in their approaches, but you can expect to lie fully-clothed on a treatment table or sit comfortably supported in a chair while the practitioner rests hands lightly on or just above a series of non-invasive placements on your head and torso.
Because Reiki started as a folk practice for home care, there are no standards for Reiki practice or training. You will find a wide range of options in this buyer-beware market. If you do a little research, and use your common sense to choose carefully, Reiki practice can be an accessible, low-cost, non-invasive support to your health and wellness for the rest of your life.
Reiki practice dates to Mikao Usui in Japan in the mid-1920s. Chujiro Hayashi, one of Usui’s direct students, and Hayashi’s student Hawayo Takata brought Reiki to Hawaii in 1937. The practice has spread around the world, albeit often with changes since Takata's death.
Pamela Miles has more than 20 years experience in Reiki. Her site is
www.ReikiInMedicine.org
