Have you ever noticed that the more you try to fix yourself, the further away from yourself you sometimes feel?
We live in a culture of doing. We analyse, improve, plan, exercise, meditate, read books, go to therapy, set intentions and look for the next thing that might make us feel better. All of these things can be valuable. Reiki offers a very different kind of experience. In learning Reiki you are invited to become quiet, open, and notice what happens when you stop trying to make something happen.
What is Reiki?
Reiki is a Japanese healing tradition that developed in the early twentieth century through Mikao Usui. The word Reiki refers to a universal or spiritual form of ki, often understood as life energy.
In the Usui tradition, practitioners learn hand positions, principles and symbols. These support the open awareness. During a treatment, the hands are placed gently on the body or just above it. The practitioner is not trying to use their own energy or direct the person’s energy. Rather, they become a kind of intermediary, creating the conditions for Reiki, or life energy, to flow.
This idea of ki belongs to a traditional Japanese and spiritual framework. The proposed energy field has not been scientifically established. Research into Reiki has nevertheless explored experiences such as relaxation, anxiety, pain and quality of life, with some promising findings but evidence that remains inconclusive. Reiki does not need to be presented as a miracle cure to be meaningful. At its heart is a simple idea: sometimes we create space for something to happen by doing less.
The power of doing less
One of the things that distinguishes Reiki from many other practices is the absence of effort. You don’t have to concentrate. You don’t have to breathe in a particular way or visualise anything. You don’t have to try to release something. You don’t even have to stay awake.
The practitioner isn’t trying to make something happen either. There is a particular quality to this kind of presence: being attentive without constantly directing, correcting or controlling. In Reiki, this is sometimes described as getting out of the way, allowing rather than doing. And perhaps this is something many of us are not very familiar with.
Reiki at Sharanam
At Sharanam, you can choose between a massage and a Reiki treatment. During Reiki, you remain fully clothed and lie comfortably while Doby works with very little instruction or conversation. There is nothing you need to do, and you are welcome to fall asleep.
People consistently describe the treatments as deeply restful. Within that rest, experiences can be very different. Some notice a softening of pain or physical tension. Others describe a sense of energy moving, a feeling of becoming lighter, or a different experience of their body. Some see colours or images. Each experience is personal.
Doby’s role is not to interpret or direct what happens. Perhaps what he does best is simply getting out of his own way.
He becomes the intermediary rather than the maker, creating the space for life energy to move, and allowing the treatment to unfold in its own way. And that may be the most curious thing about Reiki: when there is very little to do, you may discover that something is happening.
