There is an expression commonly used by Reiki Practitioners that says’ each person comes to Reiki at the right time for them’ and this was indeed true for me. When a friend first gave me Reiki back in 1999, I was in a very dark place in my life. I had recently given birth to a beautiful baby girl but all was not well. My first daughter had experienced severe birth trauma and was stillborn. Due to the heroic efforts of the medical staff she was resuscitated after 5 minutes and then immediately whisked off to Neo Natal Intensive Care. We were informed that she was very poorly and might not live but thankfully she survived the night. Her health continued to improve and after 3 weeks we left hospital. We had been warned that our daughter Shelina would need a lot of help and we would also need support. We were of course devastated from all the trauma and still coming to terms that our precious daughter was going to be severely disabled. Of course at that stage nobody knew exactly how disabled she would be but she had epilepsy, all of her limbs were spastic and she couldn’t swallow to feed. We knew it was going to be tough and even though it was lovely to be home, I cried every day for months. I felt emotionally, mentally and physically battered.
My kind friend and colleague Pete offered to give me some Reflexology massage treatments to soothe my mind and my spirit. I was also a Reflexologist so I knew how deeply relaxing and uplifting the treatments could be and I gratefully accepted his kind offer. At the end of the first treatment he asked ‘would you like to try some Reiki?’ and I agreed to have a short Reiki treatment. Pete explained that Reiki was an energy healing system which was originally from Japan. He told me that the Reiki practitioner acted as a channel for energy to come through them and into the receiver of the treatment. I was already very relaxed from the reflexology treatment and my feet felt like they were walking on clouds so I was curious as to how Reiki could improve on how I was feeling.
Pete put the palms of his hands on the soles of my feet and closed his eyes. I followed suit letting my eyelids fall and I immediately felt immense warmth from Pete’s hands. Then I felt tingling sensations moving up my legs and around my lower back. It began to feel so warm under my back that it felt like I was lying on an electric blanket. During the treatment I experienced a deep sense of peace, a lightness in my mind and a sense of expansion where there had been contraction. I think the short taster treatment lasted about 15 minutes and when Pete gently removed his hands from my feet it felt like his hands were still there. I opened my eyes and said ‘wow!’ and told him that I had this uplifting feeling that things were going to be alright. Pete encouraged me to train as a Reiki Master so that I could give myself and my baby Reiki treatments because he felt it would greatly help us both. I left his practice room knowing that I had to learn how to give Reiki treatments.
Two days after I had received my Reiki treatment a letter landed on the doormat. The envelope it was in contained a catalogue and a letter from a Natural Health company that I knew. They were writing to me to tell me that they had recently started running Reiki courses! Within minutes I was on the phone to them booking my place on the Reiki First Degree Training course. After that I never looked back and eventually I went on to become a Reiki Teacher.
I can honestly say that learning Reiki was one of the best things I have ever done in my life and I have used it every day on either myself, my children, pets and of course my students and clients. It helped Shelina to deeply relax and after giving her treatments the frequency of her seizures reduced. I also used Reiki to help her recover from serious respiratory infections. If my energy is low then I can give myself a short treatment and it quickly raises my energy levels. I believe that the deep relaxation that most people experience with Reiki helps strengthen the healing effect. Dr Mikao Tsui, the founder of the Reiki system, believed that if everyone on the planet received Reiki people would be so relaxed and happy that it would create peace on Earth.
