Lets Talk About: Reiki
Photo credit @duffys_photos
Written by Holly Saxton, The Oak House Yoga Instructor and Social Media Manager
What is Reiki? Reiki is an energy based healing practice originating from Japan. The international centre of Reiki states: The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words - Rei which means "God's Wisdom or the Higher Power" and Ki which is "life force energy". So Reiki is actually "spiritually guided life force energy."
The practitioner's hands either lay onto the body or over your body, to encourage energy to slowly shift and move. It's non-invasive and hopes to create a sense of relaxation and maybe even an experience of release, if we are seeking out Reiki to work through certain emotions or difficult periods of life, for example. Reiki is said to support stress reduction and is widely used as a popular complementary healing technique. Either received as a standalone form of therapy or combined with massage, sound healing and sometimes yoga.
If you imagine your wonderful, magical, but often complicated body as a container, that container is filled with a cosmos of energy that is unique to you, that energy, chi, or prana, as it is known in yoga, moves around the container of your body in channels (meridians, or nadis, in yoga) maybe like a pulse, a stream, or maybe sometimes, it gets stuck, because we live in a busy, often tense world. Reiki looks to help move this stuck energy from areas in the body, to bring you back into balance. Energy can't be seen or measured, but it can be felt, even in its silent, subtle ways that we don't notice day to day, or often, the slightly louder felt senses within us, that something might be out of balance. Sometimes we don't realise how stuck we are until we experience healing modalities such as Reiki and observe the sense of clarity, lightness or even just a good, deep sleep, after the treatments.
Even if you're trying Reiki for the first time, and perhaps still unsure whether you will experience any energetic shifts, which is normal, as everyone's bodies and experiences are unique when it comes to alternative and holistic healing modalities, it might just be that your body is craving some self care. Just the gift to yourself to spend time relaxing in a curated, supported environment (like our in house treatment rooms) with blankets, essential oils, maybe even some calming music, can be all the self care we need. Time spent away from the noise of the outside world and the world inside of our phones, is time well spent.
We have monthly sound and reiki sessions with Tia and Joanna, beginning Sunday 6th October and an exciting deep dive into Reiki and yoga with Emma & Bodhini (participants of this retreat will receive their Reiki Level 1 certification), which starts on Friday 11th October and runs until Sunday 13th October. We also have the wonderful Ben who offers his unique Recharge Energy Healing, or a blended treatment with Andreana in their bespoke Luxury Healing Massage and the lovely Olivia from Luna Holistic Healing offering her Reiki treatments, too. There's something on offer for everyone if you're interested in experiencing reiki for yourself.
