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My Reiki Journey - Part 6: Reiki Classes vs. Reiki Practice

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If you've read My Reiki Journey from Part 1 , hopefully it's all starting to feel a little more familiar and less confusing now.  It seems important to emphasize how different taking a Reiki class is from making Reiki a continual practice in your own life.  Just like taking one piano class isn't going to turn you into a piano player and taking one yoga class isn't going to make your body more flexible.  Reiki is a practice that needs to be experienced frequently in order for it to be better understood. I often hear of programs that suggest fast-track progress, but then don't emphasize the importance of self-care or the dedication to the energetic journey after finishing a class.  Based on my own Reiki journey, the work of Reiki is so much more than a methodology and set of tools.  A class is just an introduction.  It's really in the experiencing and practicing regularly that it becomes real and understandable. Without regularly applying it into our own life a

My Reiki Journey - Part 5: Reiki 1 Case Studies

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The most common question after " What is Reiki? " and " How Does Reiki Work? " is "What is the Evidence of Reiki Healing?" Reiki 1: Self-Healing Journey Through the daily self-care practice following the attunement of Reiki 1, I was able to witness a new level healing in myself, and started to witness some additional healing in my family members who received hands-on Reiki healing sessions as well. Faster Recovery from Illness & Better Immunity For my self-healing, I noticed that my recovery times from bruises, cuts, allergies, flu, and cold were much shorter than they had been in the past.  I was able to use Reiki to help relieve minor headaches and to restore my energy after being in an energetically draining environment or interaction.  I became less sensitive to environmental agitators and allergens that had previously knocked me out energetically and became better able to control random surges of anxiety before they had any inhibiting af

My Reiki Journey - Part 4 Observing Outside Energy

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Once I felt like I had mastered my own energy better, and had a better sense of what was and wasn't "mine", it became easier to recognize when things happening in my body were coming from an outside influence.  This is truly the most challenging part of energy work- really recognizing and understanding what energy is originating from within or just visiting during certain circumstances. (Did you already read Part 3 - Managing My Own Energy ?) The big question that everyone asks about Reiki is "HOW does it work?!" While science doesn't have a definitive answer to this question yet, I think the answer lies somewhere in the research behind these kinds of questions... How do  hugs improve blood pressure ? How does staring into a dog's eyes increase oxytocin levels in the blood? How do women who live in the same house sync their menstrual cycles ? How does quantum entanglement work? At a scientific level, we know that these things are observa

My Reiki Journey - Part 3 Managing My Own Energy

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Once Reiki training helped me better manage my own energy and energetic sensitivity, it became much easier for me to distinguish between what energy was actually mine and when I was sensing something from other people.  It's all so confusing at first, because the way energetic sensitivity works (in my body) is that I feel things happening inside my own body even when they have nothing to do with my condition.  So, until we have a very firm grasp on what energy originates in our body and what is actually affecting our body from the outside - it can feel like all energies happening inside our body also completely originate from us.  (Curious about Part 1 & Part 2 of My Reiki Journey?) For someone who is energetically sensitive, "all the feels" can be happening "all the time."  All the icky feelings, all the romantic feelings, all the hurtful feelings, all the health feelings- it's all there, all the time.  Just learning how to manage our own "f

My Reiki Journey - Part 2: Living As A Highly Sensitive Person

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When I signed up for a Reiki 1 class in April 2015, I had no idea what to expect or how I'd be using Reiki in my life.  I felt "called" to be there based on several things that happened to me, even though I didn't exactly know "why."  (If you're interested in Part 1 of My Reiki Journey - Click Here - ) I've always had some interest in how energy works because I've always felt sensitive to energy.  For a long time, I didn't know how to deal with that sensitivity.  Occasionally, my sensitivity to certain places, people, or situations would get the best of me and I'd have a hard time moving through that sensitivity.  Meditation helped me deal at a mental level, and sometimes physically- by at least carving more space out of my life to "recenter"- but there were still periods of time when my sensitivity was so strong that even the most subtle changes in space weather could completely drain my energy during a geomagnetic storm

My Reiki Journey- Part 1: Skeptical Curiosity

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When I first heard about reiki, it sounded pretty "out there", but as I learned more about it, I came to realize it's no more far fetched than meditation or yoga.  The difference is that meditation and yoga are generally recognized as individual practices, and while reiki can also be an individual  practice, many people also experience great benefits when receiving reiki from others. Reiki only came onto my radar after encountering a few different spiritual and energy practitioners along my meditation journey who told me that I had a lot of "energy in my hands" or "healing hands".  Of course I didn't take one person seriously, because I'm pretty skeptical in general, so it took three people mentioning this for me to start exploring what that meant. I've used the "power of three" often in my life to help me sort out what's a fleeting curiosity from something I need to explore more deeply.  I'm naturally curious and n