While meditation is an important part of the original Reiki tradition, the traditional techniques are not always shared by Reiki Master Teachers with their students. In this blog post I want to explain why integrating any meditation practice with Reiki is not only beneficial for the reiki practitioners’ own practice but also the people they give Reiki to. Mindfulness meditation worked well for me with Reiki.
Reiki is Universal Life Force Energy that is present in everything alive, within and around us and openly available to anyone. To learn more about what Reiki is, you can read a quick overview here or under Reiki FAQ. I just would like to focus in this blog on the connection of Reiki and meditation. Meditation, in simple terms, is being present with what IS. To listen deeply. Both meditation and Reiki help with stress reduction and usually have a relaxing effect on body, mind and spirit which helps the body’s self healing abilities to unfold.
The practice of Reiki is a form of energy healing . One of the precepts for the Reiki energy to actually work is the recipients’ openness for the healing to take place and his/her desire to change. The Reiki is assisting in the balancing and healing process, it is up to recipient how much he/she allows the Reiki facilitated healing process to be integrated. So it is most helpful if the recipient is present mentally, emotionally and physically during a Reiki session to help facilitate the healing process. The fight-or-flight response talks about how our body reacts to stressful situations, it contracts to conserve energy to use the extremities to fight and run. Think of how you experience stress in your body. If you want to go further, notice where you feel it in your body when you are thinking of a traumatic experience in your life. Notice the sensation without judgment. It usually feels like a contracted feeling, that is an energetic block. What happens if we breathe love into this area and expand to dissolve the contraction?
The Reiki practitioner may use a simple guided meditation to ground the client and bringing his/her awareness into the body. I encourage the client during sessions to arrive in the here and now, and breathe deeply, focusing the mind on the breathing,and notice where the body touches either the table or chair or pillow. Just noticing without judgment. The expansion through deep breathing allows the energy to spread and start the process of releasing energy blocks and tension. In summary, it helps when the recipient is able to tune into the body, being present and listen to the body during a Reiki session.
The Reiki practitioner has gone through his/her own self healing experience with Reiki and is learning to “BE PRESENT” with the flow of the energy, detecting with practice subtle changes of how the Reiki energy feels. To tune into those subtle energy sensations, we have to be aware and use our intuition. But often the mind’s noise drones out the whispers of our intuition. As beginning Reiki practitioners, we have to learn to detect new impressions of energetic sensations and impressions, and process them with our mind. We have to train our mind to trust in what we are experiencing. So centering, through breathing or other meditation techniques, helps to shut down the mind chatter and allows us to be open to and present with what we experience.
A short centering practice such as mindfulness meditation (or any of the traditional Reiki meditations techniques) helps to be really present with what is happening in the moment and allows our human energy field to expand enough to allow the Reiki energy to do its job. We could compare it to tuning out the static from a radio station to get a better reception.
