Does Reiki work? Developing trust in Reiki.

Have you learnt Reiki? If you have are you confident in your self-Reiki practice? Are you confident to share Reiki with your friends and family? Or do you experience doubt and hesitation?

Although learning Reiki if often a life changing experience, once you’re at home you can experience Reiki doubt. You can wonder if Reiki is still effective when you practice on yourself and your friends and family. Read more about my Reiki doubts below, and how I (and you can) vanquish them:

My Reiki students know that learning Reiki changed my life.

I experienced Reiki once before enrolling in Reiki Level One. It was a short seated treatment. I felt heat emanating from the Reiki practitioner’s hands when she placed them on my shoulders but I soon forgot about the experience.

I didn’t think about Reiki again until months later. I was standing in Brunswick Street bookstore, and told a friend I wanted to learn how to send healing energy to the patients I was supporting in The Alfred Hospital. She suggested that I learn Reiki.

I was planning a trip to India to do volunteer work at Alice Project, a school that incorporates meditation and yoga into a standard school curriculum. I had some time before the placement started, and felt that would be an opportune time to start Reiki training.

Once in India, I followed my intuition and travelled to McLeod Ganj, home of the Dalai Lama, to enrol in a Reiki course.

Learning Reiki changed my life and I learnt that the system of Reiki included more than sending positive, healing energy to others.

What I experienced during my Reiki treatments and training:

When I received Reiki treatments and throughout my Reiki training I was astounded by the incredible:

– emotional,
– mental and
– spiritual changes that I experienced.

I was delighted by the physical sensations, such as heat and tingling, I experienced in my hands when I gave Reiki to other students. I loved the peace, mental shifts and deep relaxation I experienced when I practiced Reiki on myself.

I telephoned my mum. I excitedly told her what was happening, that I had learnt an amazing healing technique called Reiki. When I shared my Reiki experiences with her, her response was: “Sarah do you really believe in this? How can that be happening?” I remember saying “Yes Mum, I really believe it because it is happening. Reiki is amazing!”. That was in 2002. Now, my conservative family are more open to Reiki and have benefited from numerous Reiki treatments.

Reiki changed my life but I experienced Reiki doubt

My passion for sharing Reiki with others and developing a daily self-Reiki practice was strong, but so too was the doubt that entered my mind, months later, when I started practising in the U.K.

Thoughts such as:

1.”How is Reiki working”,
2. “Is Reiki really working?”
3. “How does Reiki work if I can’t see it”,
4. “How and why are people feeling better after Reiki treatments?”,

regularly entered my mind.

How I managed Reiki doubt, and so can you:

I acknowledge the doubt that entered my mind and shifted my focus to four main things:

1. Be present to what was happening under my hands as I practised Reiki on myself and others.

2. Write down the benefits I experienced after daily self-Reiki practice.

3. Write down the emotional, spiritual, mental and physical changes that took place in those I treated and taught.

4. Trust the changes in myself and others after receiving Reiki.

After almost two decades of professional practice and treating over 2000 patients and students with Reiki, I have zero doubt that Reiki works

Reiki students write to me, or book a Reiki treatment after their training, and sometimes share that they’re not sure if they are doing Reiki correctly. My advice is always the same: “just start practising”. They receive these tips, and I then often receive a thank you email a week or two later. Once students start practising on themselves, their doubt subsides, and they’re more connected to Reiki.