Reiki: an alternative resource to relieve stress.

Nowadays, there's a wide variety of types of reiki.

As a teacher and facilitator, I'll focus on telling you about Usui Reiki, the technique I've learned and that I teach, with honour and love, to anyone who wants to apply it in their own life and in the lives of others.

Reiki is a union of two Japanese kanji. Kanji writing is ideographic. This means the characters aren't letters or sounds — each kanji represents an idea.

The word Reiki comes from two kanji:

REI: meaning "Universal", "Void" or "Cosmos".

KI: meaning "Energy".

Together, they translate as universal, void, or cosmic energy.

This energy is present and available to everything the universe contains. From a bacterium to a star. Everything, absolutely everything, has the capacity to connect with this energy — and so do we.

The channelling technique known as Usui Reiki was created by Mikao Usui in the early 20th century. Master Usui offered and taught it in Japan until his death, and it spread to the West through one of his Hawaiian disciples, teacher Hawayo Takata.

People trained to facilitate reiki are simply a channel that allows the flow of cosmic energy toward the client, working on very subtle, energetic fields of their body and supporting the improvement of symptoms of all kinds.

For reiki, physical illness is the materialisation of a distortion that began much earlier on subtler planes: mental, emotional and energetic. That's why, even when the physical illness is already established, reiki works on those subtler, less tangible planes of the person.

Because it works on subtle fields, it's a complementary technique that effectively supports any treatment of a nervous nature — from stress, insomnia and anxiety to exhaustion and much more. This is because it's a deeply calming technique that supports the relaxation of the nervous system.

When the nervous system relaxes and shifts from sympathetic to parasympathetic, the physical body experiences fluctuations and expresses them through crying, laughing or yawning. In this way, it releases tension and restores harmony and calm.

It's not unusual for a person to experience these physical expressions during a reiki session, as their nervous system regulates itself. For the facilitator, it's not unusual at all, and they're prepared to accompany these energetic releases with love and calm.

In my particular case, as a channel of energy while giving reiki, I can also receive intuitive messages in the form of words, images, songs and colours. Whatever messages I receive, I share them with great respect and love so my client can use the information in their own healing process.

That's why I consider reiki a therapeutic resource that can support the process of self-knowledge and healing, since the information that arrives in a session can be a loose thread, or clarifying information that sheds light on aspects of life the client is ready to address as they continue growing and evolving.

So, have you ever tried reiki?