The past two weekends I have spent my days sitting with groups of people who are interested in learning the art of energy healing, in the lineage we call Reiki. It is a class that can completely transform lives, not only because of the energetic healing that takes place during these trainings but also because of the shift in perspective that comes along with it.
One of the reasons why Reiki is so effective is because it goes to the root cause of one’s issues and heals directly at the source. This is much different from our culture’s current outlook on healing.
When we have a headache we are offered pain relievers. If we are suffering from anxiety we are put on SSRIs. You’re too tired? Well there is a caffeine beverage for that.
This isn’t to say that all of the above methods aren’t valuable to some extent, but they won’t exactly heal us either.
An ibuprofen will not solve the issue of tension headaches which stem from work stress. The SSRIs do not remedy the inundation of deadlines and information into our brains and bodies. Caffeine masks tiredness, it does not give energy, leading us to more depletion along the way.
If you have a great team of healers, and yes I am including traditional doctors in this, then they may understand that these tools can serve as a bridge to healing but ultimately are not the remedy.
Clients come to see me most often for help releasing fear, stress, anxiety, depression, pain, insomnia, and lack of direction. What I end up finding during our sessions is repressed anger, unloved parts, hurts from childhood, and damaging societal norms.
These are just to name a few.
What my clients and students come to learn is that our health is more complex than we have been told. That our lives are manifestations of the collective experience. None of us are harmed or healed in isolation. And the symptoms we seek relief from are signs of something deeper going on.
Once I had a woman in her 60s who was coming to see me as a supportive modality in addition to the other treatments she was receiving at the hospital for her diverticulitis. In the first session I saw in her lower belly area an old anger, it was related to her place in society as a young woman and the ways people would treat her. What I also discovered was that there was no appropriate release for this anger in her youth, so that energy had been turned inward.
Over the next many months we would continue to uncover hurts in this area related to betrayal and unjust circumstances. Each time we would release whatever was stored there and discuss ways to work with the anger as it came up in the present moment.
After about a year we had moved much of what was stored in the lower belly out of the body. The sessions started to help maintain her health and deal with whatever was presently arising.
Although she had been seeing doctors for years for her diverticulitis, it was after her sessions with me that she was cured. She has said that she credits Reiki with curing her; unfortunately we don’t have a way to measure these results but they do seem connected.
This happens time and time again with the people I see, and it happened for me too. When we uncover the energetic patterns that have led to our current situation we can actually change the inputs which will then radically change our whole life. Instead of covering up the symptoms with a metaphorical band-aid, we free ourselves of needing relief all together.
More energy is liberated into the system and then whole new realities are born.
Reiki has this really beautiful way of both moving out energetic blockages while also revealing where the original hurt came from, without additional story and without shame. We can look at what is coming up in a non-judgemental way, accept it, and then release it.
What is incredible to me is that we can be holding a hurt for our whole lives, but the moment it is held up in the light of awareness, with compassion, it starts to dissolve immediately. Healing tends to occur at a much more rapid rate than we could imagine.
It’s like having a splinter in our foot but instead of taking it out we take pain killers, put neosporin on it, and a band-aid over it. Regardless of what else we put on top of it the splinter persists and begins to fester. But the moment it is removed the body starts to heal itself.
A lot of our health is like this too.
We are not actually built for illness, although the greater society would like to have you think that way. Instead, we are built for health. Our bodies are always moving toward healing, that is why we have symptoms to begin with. This is the body’s way of trying to restore balance and alert us that something deeper is going on.
There is much more I will write on this topic, but for now I will invite you to start becoming curious about the places of imbalance in your life.
Whether it be chronic stress, a lack of motivation, insomnia, or unhealthy relationship patterns — instead of rushing to alleviate the symptom can you look a little deeper into what is going on? Can you ask what might be causing the difficulty? Is there a thread that you can trace back?
Some questions you can use for further inquiry:
What beliefs did you inherit from your family / society?
Which of those patterns still have authority but are no longer valid?
Are you able to express your feelings in a healthy way?
How often do you direct your energy into unhealthy paths of expression?
Do you speak lovingly to yourself?
Do you allow yourself grace and space to make mistakes?
What emotional memories do you still need to heal?
What relationships in your life require healing?
The body-mind’s natural inclination is toward healing and it will be healthy within the appropriate environment. Once we uncover the blocks to health and remove them, we can begin to flourish. We have more energy, more hope, more stamina, more drive.
Without needing to add anything at all.