When I learned about Reiki, I was a mess in every sense of the word.

I was physically trashed with chronic health issues, depressed and anxious much of the time. I couldn’t sleep well and relied on sleeping pills to help me glean what little sleep I did get. I was in so much chronic pain for years that I had a hard time walking and for about a year I used a cane to get around.

That was all before I turned forty.

I also never felt comfortable with myself internally. On a spiritual level, I had sought everywhere I could think to look, never feeling comfortable with the “me” that I was seeking. I couldn’t figure out how to make myself fit into the life I felt I was supposed to fit into, so I felt spiritually broken. I thought I didn’t belong here.

All my life I had been intuitively aware that there is more to the body than we can see.

We can’t see emotion, but we can surely feel it and it’s effects. We can’t see thoughts, but we feel them coursing through us and through others in a room, especially when the thoughts are harsh.

When a person approaches you from behind, you feel them, even if you have ear buds in and can’t hear them. You can feel someone looking at you from the other side of the room.

When you walk into a room where an argument has happened moments before, you can sense it, even if all of the evidence is gone.

These are all clear examples of energy working through and around us.

So when I learned there were forms of energy healing that worked with this notion, I was interested. What amazed me was that the friend who was telling me about it worked with a group that sent the energy at long distances!

She offered to add my name to the list of people they treated once a week. Yet I would be over an hour away from where they met. She explained that it didn’t matter and that they even treated people that were not in the country, with great success.

I accepted, though skeptically. Yet, I was amazed that each week, at the appointed time, I would feel warmth come over my entire body and a feeling of ease and peace that pervaded my mind and spirit. All pain would leave my body for the rest of the evening. Some weeks I would forget that the session was coming, yet I would still feel the wave of warmth and peace at 7 p.m. each Wednesday.

Soon changes in my life began. My health improved, seemingly on its own. I began making better choices, without really trying or thinking about it.

I ate better, began finding exercise that worked for me, quit smoking. My sleep improved and I was able to wean off many medications. I became more tuned in to the “voice” inside, that gut feeling that knows what’s right or wrong for me. I began meditating. I felt more at home in my own skin. I had a sense of wonder and curiosity about my spirituality and I began to lose the sense of urgency to fit a mold.

Within a few years, my life had completely turned around. I sought out how to become a Reiki practitioner and teacher. That decision was very empowering as well, giving me the tool to always have the healing energy at my fingertips, whenever I needed it. I have gone from feeling like a victim of life, getting tossed around by every incoming wave or storm, to knowing that I am part of the process and one with all of life.

It has been amazing to know I now have a tool that truly works, which I can call on wherever I am, day or night by simply placing my hands on myself and letting the loving Reiki energy flow. I am at no one’s mercy. I still have pain sometimes and I still get sick sometimes. But Reiki brings the pain to a manageable level and it brings me peace. It has balanced my overall health and given me my life back. I think this was partly due to Reiki, and partly because I no longer feel out of control. I have something I can do to help myself.

It took me awhile to understand how Reiki works, especially from a distance.

I still feel that the physical experience of Reiki says more than words ever could. Think of the way we turn on our computers or cell phones. We click on an app or enter a web address to go to a website so that we “tune in” to what we want to see on the Internet. In the same way, the Reiki practitioner, “turns on” Reiki, asking it to flow. Then s/he “tunes in” to whomever s/he is directing healing to, in-person or far away, and the energy flows to them.

My distant clients have the same experience I had with it. Warmth, tingling, deep peace, relief of pain and stress, feeling my hands on them, feeling me in the room with them, even hearing my voice! All from across the globe.

Having a way to help can be such an important part of healing, in and of itself, whether you are the person who is ill, or the caretaker. Caretakers can become very stressed because they want to feel relief for their loved one and don’t know what to do. I saw it in those who loved me.

At the basic level, Reiki training offers strength and empowerment, literally in your own hands, relieving that stress and opening doors. What a relief to gently lay your hands on your loved ones and see and feel the distress and pain ease within minutes!

I have come to believe Reiki can be another useful tool for us as we walk the path to spiritual, physical and mental wholeness. It is such a lovely compliment to other tools, such as yoga and meditation, and as it helps people heal, it often leads people to these other tools. Reiki continues to open me to what is ideal for my path in each moment.

Author: Angie Webster

Editor: Emma Ruffin

Photo: Flickr