My First Reiki Appointment

When I walked into my first Reiki appointment, I had no idea what to expect. If you search Reiki Near Me, what does it tell you? Not much! It can be hard to define. Was I going to get stretched on a plank? Was I going to be quizzed on my emotional state? Was my body going to be physically jostled or worse – judged? I was filled with a foreboding reluctance to let go of my self preservation. What is Reiki anyway, I wondered.

I had no idea what a gentle, calm and loving experience it was going to be – or maybe I’d been told that it was going to be calm, gentle and loving, but I had put up my guard and steeled my heart so I wouldn’t have to get deeply involved in some sort of diagnosis or self journey into the depths of my broken spirit. I didn’t have the energy, and I was just doing this because I had made a commitment to it.

It turned out that I had nothing to fear. I just relaxed, fully clothed on the table, made comfortable with a bolster under my knees and a pillow under my head. I actually fell asleep shortly after the session began. The practitioner’s hands were warm and still, just laid gently on my head, on my heart, my solar plexus. It was non-invasive, and supremely comforting. 

A stillness. 

Over an hour of quietude – something I hadn’t experienced in a long time. There was no expectation from the practitioner. I didn’t have to explain myself. I didn’t have to describe what I felt. I went back two weeks later, because it had felt, somehow, so beneficial. I asked what I was supposed to have experienced. The practitioner asked me what I did experience. I told her, “Well, I fell asleep” and we laughed. She said, “I bet you needed sleep”. I told her that it made me feel calm. She just nodded. I told her, “I felt as if I had been given some sort of…energy?” She took that in for a moment. “Me too,” she said.

I kept going back. My 75 minutes on the table was a chance to detox, to rest deeply, to be cared for, to quietly accept a gentle energy that felt healing. Eventually, I took classes, and became attuned as a Reiki practitioner. I learned that the energy of Reiki Shiki Ryoho is what some people call the “Universal Field”, and what others might call “Divine Spirit”, and still others might call “Life Force” or “Energy Healing”.  It brings a sense of Wellness; Reiki Therapy is simple, but with each session, I still don’t necessarily know what to expect, other than the gentle, calm and loving experience that flows from the Universe through one body toward another.  

Mo