More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles
What Can Reiki Do For You?
Imagine yourself on a stressful day at work or home. Feel how the stress manifests itself for you. Back and neck muscles are tense, aching for relief. Your heart races and blood pressure rises. Digestive issues may result and restful sleep slips away from us. All of this can contribute to higher anxiety levels. These are the kinds of issues that, repeated over time, may cause serious health problems. The negative impact of stress on our bodies, minds and spirits can be diminished and avoided.
Now imagine yourself on a day of sunshine and blue skies doing your favorite things with family. Do you feel relaxed? When we address the stress in our lives by including regular exercise, relaxation, getting adequate sleep, eating well, and getting preventive medical exams we are mitigating negative stress.
Alternative methods of reducing stress and its affects on our health are being sought out more often, in addition to the resources commonly used in our current medical system. These approaches to health and wellness are being used in a way that complements traditional medicine. Reiki is an alternative approach to wellness.
The definition of energy work is “a healing technique based on the principle that the therapist can channel energy into the patient by means of touch, to activate the natural healing processes of the patient's body and restore physical and emotional well-being.” The International Center for Reiki Training describes Reiki as “…a Japanese technique for stress reduction and relaxation that also promotes healing.” This energy is often described as coming from a Higher Power. We experience that energy when we have stressful days, as well as when we feel relaxed.
It can be recognized by the difference between how we feel when we are in the best of health and when we are in the worst of health; when we are depressed and when we are cheerful; when we feel spiritually charged and when we don't. These are some of the forms of energy in and around us that we are most familiar with. Reiki works on a cellular level. Every cell in our body is charged with a spark of life that allows it to do it's particular job as part of the whole. Reiki works on our physical self, our mental and emotional selves and our spiritual self.
