How did Reiki begin?

Mikao Usui was born in 1865. He came from a wealthy family and studied and travelled to the US, Europe and China multiple times before he became a Buddhist monk. He meditated for 21 days several times. At one point, Mikao Usui chose Mount Kurama outside Kyoto in Japan where he got the revelation of an intense light on the top of his head, followed by healing symbols transmitted as light images. Mount Kurama is considered the birthplace of Reiki.

What is Reiki?

Reiki is a Japanese word meaning Universal Life Force Energy. It is the energy which is found in all things. It is a hands-on healing system, provided by a practitioner who has received one or several Reiki attunements. These attunements open up their energy channels and connect them to the universal life force energy, also called Chi or Prana.

What can Reiki heal?

Reiki can be preventive and curative. Each Reiki therapy will help you getting closer to a balanced self. No matter what it is, physical, mental or spiritual, our body can only self-heal when our nervous system is in balance. Reiki can:

• Release trapped emotions
• Calm the mind
• Reduce stress
• Balance the chakras
• Heal the physical body
• Clear space
• Reiki energy is always supportive and protective

What is the Shadow Self

All of us have a shadow self. It is a side of our personality that is in the unconscious mind. It acts completely opposite to our outward, conscious belief of who and what we are.

It happens to us all that we encounter a situation that a person or a group of people angers us, disappoints us, maybe we feel jealousy or rejection. Most of the time we cannot really explain why these feelings come up. However, the cause of these negative feelings come from our unconscious mind.

We are all born pure, like blank canvases.  But at some point, during our childhood development, we learn knowledge that teaches us to separate things into good and evil. We were taught that anger was bad, maybe the way we acted was embarrassing: our shadows are born and we begin to divide ourselves. As a result, we are no longer free to be who we truly are. We begin to sort out those sides within us that are acceptable in society, and those unacceptable sides that aren’t. Furthermore, we start projecting our shadow unconsciously onto others who aren’t suppressing them. We are the very thing we criticize in others: however, we don’t recognize them in ourselves at all.

How can Reiki help?

First of all, we have to try to recognize our shadow, try to be aware of it. Look deeply, be honest, don’t be judgmental, this could become brutal, but we need to try to face our shadow self. What we don’t have power has power over us. When we accept and try to understand our shadow, we no longer project their qualities onto others and we no longer resist it.

Reiki can help to embrace our shadow. All of us including our shadow is stored in our energy field. When Reiki flows through it, it raises the vibration, helping to dissolve the negative emotions and blocks. Reiki helps us heal at all levels, clearing and balancing our Life Force Energy, helping us heal the origin of the shadow, transforming our negative beliefs and the physical symptoms they might have manifested, before they become “dis-ease”.