Reiki and Me

My first encounter with Reiki - or, rather, the first time I even heard the word - was with Dr. Henderson, a kindly older Britsh man who was our kids' first pediatrician when we lived overseas in Hong Kong. He had such an incredible aura - so calm, so tuned in to everything we said, with an extraordinary ability to relax even the most frenetic, outraged infants who, once held in his arms, miraculously ceased all crying and seemed to drift into a lovely, hypnotic, serene and happy trance. Of course, I asked him what magical powers he possessed and he laughed in his gentle way. He told me he never used to be a "baby whisperer" - quite the opposite, he assured me. He then recounted to me meeting a lady many years back who practiced and taught him Reiki, which changed his entire life, certainly his career. I was way too overwhelmed and busy as a new mom at the time to look into this further but I did bookmark it for future pondering.

Sixteen years later, with energy healing becoming more and more mainstream, I finally tried my first session, with a woman I met at my local gym. We started chatting earlier this year and she gave me her info - she is a yoga and qi-gong instructor as well as a Reiki master. She also had a presence about her that drew me in and caused me to hold on to her card for many months while periodically thinking about reaching out to her. When I did at last, I was quite excited! I had heard stories from friends of lights flickering and bulbs short-circuiting during extremely intense moments, of endless and unforeseen tears streaming down faces while the practitioner released a particularly stubborn blockage of energy.

My experience was not so dramatic, to my mild disappointment. It was peaceful and relaxing and I believe I felt tingles up and down my body as she worked on me. But it could have just been peaceful, relaxing and tingly just because I had a rare solid hour to myself to relax, uninterrupted, in a dark room on a soft bed with soothing spa music playing in the background. Whatever the case, I emerged from the hour feeling good. Looser. Reset. Somehow more revived.

What, to me, was far more notable than the actual Reiki part was what my practitioner said to me afterwards, as we chatted about how I felt and what she unearthed in the energy exchange. She said she could see visions in my energy field. She said this was very common as, apparently, one's memories, life experiences and thoughts are all out there, visible to an experienced Reiki master such as herself during these highly personal sessions. She described in detail the people, places, objects and feelings that were, I guess, on full display to her trained eyes. She saw many images of me by the ocean, my mother cradling me as a baby, my grandfather, yellow flowers, etc... All of which were somehow pertinent to my life, some with more significant resonance than others, but none of which she would have known about prior to that day. THIS was not expected. THIS I could get into.

She then had me pick from a deck of Tarot-looking cards and the one I drew was called "New Project." It proceeded to encourage me to throw myself into my new venture, to assure me that God and St Gabriel had my back, that I shouldn't be afraid and shouldn't procrastinate... I was (am!) currently building my health coaching business, so it could not have been more relevant to my life. That one stayed with me for a while, too.

All in all, it was a very interesting experience and I am inclined to see this lady again, for further dives into the deep dark recesses of my soul... or, at least, my aura.