What's a reiki session like?

Preparing for your session:

As I mentioned in my previous article What is Energy Healing?, it’s beneficial to every person embarking on their own healing journey to have some idea of what they’d like to accomplish, even if it’s the shapeless and lumpy inward cry to feel better or have more life energy. We know the simple act of writing down our goals, or even sharing them with a friend, increases the likelihood of our actually accomplishing them. Sometimes vocalizing your own needs is the hardest part of taking care of you. You’ll get the most out of your session if you spend at least a few minutes thinking about what you’d like to heal or boost before your appointment, whether it’s in the car driving to your practitioner or waiting for a distance session to begin over the phone.

Settling in and checking in:

Whether you’re in person or on a distance call, your Reiki session should always begin with your healer making you comfy and checking in to see how you’re feeling and what you’d like to focus on. This is a great time to share any thoughts you’ve had between sessions, no matter how random they may seem. Reiki, especially Shamanic Reiki, is an intuitive, empathic practice. Your healer is experienced in listening to and sensing what you’re communicating, verbally and non verbally. Perhaps you’ve knocked your shoulder out of whack lifting heavy boxes, but you’re not sure that’s the kind of pain an energy healer is trained to deal with. It’s important to mention whatever pain you’re in, great or small, because in the energy world we believe in the mind, body, spirit connection. Which means all the information our bodies are giving us is useful and we’re best healed as a whole. Maybe you pulled your shoulder out of whack because you were lifting heavy boxes in the garage while you were stress cleaning in an effort to find some shred of control in your chaotic life. Maybe you hurt yourself purely on accident. All this information is important to share. I always make sure clients know they not only have my permission, but my blessing to remove the sensors from what they’re thinking, feeling and expressing.

Calming the mind, body, spirit:

After I hear what my health seeker is seeking, I lead them through a breathing and visualization exercise to calm and re-center their mind, body, spirit connection. We live in such fast paced life-highways, most of us don’t take time for stress reduction to let go of the stress we're carrying and constantly adding to. Reiki, at its very basic core, is a relaxation technique that works like a guided meditation. You’ll begin to notice here in this quieting practice you may have not been breathing into the full capacity of your lungs--you may also notice areas of your body that are holding onto to stress like an old hermit of a hoarder. The goal in this portion of the session is to get your imagination to leave your body sitting or laying where it’s nice and cozy, and hover above it like an observant onlooker. Then, your healer and you can pretend your skin is made of beautiful, clear, crystal glass and you can both look into it to see where any energetic clutter might be stashed. You can place your hand or one of your practitioner’s healing gemstones on the places you sense the stress hiding and hanging out. This is you getting quiet with yourself and listening to what your body is trying to communicate with you. Your healer is listening too.

Clearing unwanted energy:

Energy itself is not good or bad. For many reasons we’ll regularly discover energy that’s no longer serving our benefit. Maybe it’s from an old wound, an unhealthy relationship, or a traumatic experience. Unwanted energy can even come pre-loaded into our bodies at birth, especially if there was unhappiness or painful events for your mother while she carried you. Her blood, but also her energy, coursed through you while every part of you was being formed. And she most likely passed on the energy of her mother, and her mother’s mother and so on, while she grew you as well. That’s only a small portion of the energy that influenced you before you were even able to identify that you were you! Once you and your healer have got an idea of where any unwanted energy is lodged, you can work to release it. Sometimes this is an easy process and the simple act of becoming aware of it sends it on it’s way back to the source. Other times, the energy seems to wind around all your organs in a dark vine-like form and takes a little more convincing that it’s no longer needed. Your healer will use her intuition heavily during this phase to know how to best assist the energy to move out of your body and back into the earth where it can be neutralized and freed of any ill effects. Often we can feel guilty about letting this energy out of our bodies. Maybe it’s connected to something dark and horribly painful for us, and we fear in letting it go it may leave us only to go infect someone else. We forget that our bodies expel waste, that which we no longer need, constantly, and that the earth is designed to receive it, and is ultimately able to use it to fertilize herself and grow from it. Energetic waste is the same. It goes back into the earth and she transforms it into something useful again, adding to the unending source of life force that’s always around us, at the ready, for our benefit. One way or another, you will use your imagination to see this energy leaving your body. Perhaps you can imagine gentle, salty, ocean waves washing over you and cleansing you. Maybe you can feel the wind blowing away your cares, or the warm sun melting them away. Somehow, you and your healer will visualize a way to help you release and let go.

Sharing what you’ve experienced:

At the end of your session, which can last anywhere from 50 minutes to several hours, depending on your healer’s methods, you’ll be invited to share what you’ve experienced during the session. This is your chance to process what you’ve felt and ask questions that may have come up during your time. It can be emotional as you attempt to put into words what it felt like to let go of something that’s been weighing you down. The full weight of our stress is sometimes not felt until we let it go and feel how light we are without it. Your practitioner will also share her thoughts with you as well. Often this is the most beautiful time as the two of you get a chance to stand back and look at the work that was just accomplished through your partnership. Your Reiki master is trained to be a conduit for you to reach another frequency of life force energy. We know energy travels like sound waves creating high and low vibrations--for the duration of your session, you’ll have felt the flow of a higher vibration of energy whose soul purpose is to heal you and fill you with love and light.

Continuing the work:

When you’re session has ended, you’ll most likely feel sedated and relaxed, much like you would after a massage. It’s important to gently ease yourself back into your day, taking care to drink extra water and treat yourself like an outpatient whose had a small medical procedure. Letting go is hard work on the body, mind, spirit, and you should give yourself permission and space for self-care. You’re on this journey because you’ve identified your own fatigue and illness, so take good care as you work with yourself to create new habits of healthy thinking and living. The healing will continue to work in you after you leave your appointment. You may even find more of your health concerns becoming uncovered before you can get back in to see your healer again. If you feel overwhelmed or have questions, you should always be welcome to reach out to your practitioner between sessions. The beginning of your healing journey will most likely be the hardest part, but once you learn the skills of checking in with yourself, listening to your body, calming your body, mind, spirit, and learning how to visualize your unwanted energy leaving you, you’ll have a collection of skills with which you can promote your own healing indefinitely.

Working with an energy healer is like working with a coach or teacher. Her ultimate goal is to show you you have the ability to heal yourself.

May the force be with you,

Julian Blue

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