Who did you want to heal when you were first called to Reiki?
It’s interesting to hear how Reiki turns up in peoples lives, and what it reveals to them. Joyfulness and suffering happen in tandem over the course of a lifetime, but some years we can feel like that suffering is relentless – leaving us wondering when good times will return. Our strength gets tested and often during these challenging chapters we dig deep for something wholesome to sustain us.
I often notice that the need to seek-out energy healing, arrives along the way, for some of us. This experience doesn’t always land with a ‘wow factor’ and transform us into mindfulness gurus overnight! Often it’s a whisper of an invitiation to pause, the invitation can repeat until we notice we are called. Or maybe in retrospect, that ‘knowing’ that it was a calling, came later.
It’s very common that people choose to learn Reiki so that they can help allievate the suffering of someone they love. One of the main reasons I set up KindLight Reiki Academy, was to help reach those who are parent carers to disabled children, at all ages and stages. I wondered if it would happen for them, like it did for me, that they need to use Reiki to help themselves meet the challenges of such a daily life (but actually they wanted it to heal their loved one before they even thought of themselves!)
Looking back at my own journey, this is my story…
I first felt I wanted a Reiki treatment when I was pregnant with my first child. I felt so precious about this little life within me, that I wanted to do everything I could to make sure it survived and thrived. So I went for some Reiki. I guess that was a whisper… but nothing remarkable happened other than feeling a presence near my left hand side at one point. The healing was gentle and relaxing but I didn’t feel drawn to more Reiki at the time.
The years went by and the topic of Reiki healing didn’t speak to me in practical terms, the western wellness world has done a great job of putting people off Reiki by adding such new-age sprituality and a mixed-up approach. If I’d heard more about the Zen roots of Reiki, or the frequency healing and energetic side of it, I’d have been more easily drawn back in. So it took me a while – 15 years and 3 children (one disabled) later and I was reminded to look again at Reiki.
My son is an adult in his 20’s now, but will forever be childlike and vulnerable. He needs 1:1 care for life as he has severe learning difficulties with Autism. Having been born typical, then regressing into his eventual diganosis, life for me was very full of ‘doing.’ I was working hard with all the practical tasks involved in bringing him back into his body again after the regression took him to a wildly disregulated and painfully withdrawn, place of suffering. I was busy delivering practical, tangible, measurable therapies. I had not sat still to tune into the frequency of the life I was living.
When Reiki called me again, I thought, ‘maybe I can help my Son, perhaps this gentle therapy can reach his suffering.’
As soon as I was attuned at Level 1, my palms started to itch. This physical bond to the energy grew a faith within me, to use it. I gave him lots of Reiki, straight away. He was unusually quiet, still and receptive to its vibration. Reiki feels like the purest love is enveloping you – this does not go unoticed by the energy sensitive beings that our disabled young loved ones are. It also made him laugh out loud, as it tickled his aura to be healed with hands-off! This sort of reaction to energy healing was very affirmative to me.
This was my why… why I was sitting with my practice every day. Why I had to allow myself to be enveloped in love too. Because his life and energy depended on me for his basic survival. He can’t live a safe life without continued care and the energy of others. My energy is EVERYTHING to him, therefore it has to be everything to me too. I had to begin healing myself with these loving frequencies, the 24/7 care was becoming so demanding that it would have altered my health and longevity profile, if I didn’t care for myself in the right way. Carers of disabled adult children are so vulnerable to burn-out and they can’t help putting themselves and their own needs last. A small healing every day can be miraculous.
Reiki helped me to pause on my parent/carer journey and stop the endless ‘doing,’ and accept the hard days as just one step on the path. Every day I’d re-calibrate, by sitting still, closing my eyes and going within, where the energy reliably still flowed. The true self and our intuition is revealed gently and lovingly. Down there in the pit of despair, there is always gold to be found – and there’s way more space and light within us, than we think.
Reiki practice has literally been a life saver and improved my health, happiness, patience and faith in a life that looked different to other peoples. It has also helped my son to feel held in a space beyond words and chaos, to access a therapy that addresses what his ego cannot name; where energy helps him to process what he feels and experiences, through light in the aura. The magic of Reiki never ceases to amaze me and I hope we can inspire other parent carers to take up the practice too!
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