Update time - a review of my first year with Reiki!

Well, I've now been using Reiki treatments for family & friends for a whole year, racking up around 60 hours of treatment time (not including personal, shorter than 20 min sessions or first aid treatments). In that time I've managed to help in the recovery or relief from a variety of ailments. Problems have included eczema, asthma, tinnitus, arthritis-related joint pain, burns, scoliosis, digestive issues, headaches, sleeping problems, muscle aches & stiffness, sports injuries and the occasional skin wound!

So, how have things been going for this former skeptic after a year of experience? Pretty darn good! The feedback from my "patients" has been positive. Symptoms don't always seem to disappear straight away... which is to be expected when you consider that this form of healing is meant to work on the cause of the symptoms, rather than just provide the quick symptom-masking "band-aid" solutions that people have learnt to expect from pharmaceutical options.  But, they have definitely been found to reduce or disappear faster than previous experience has shown.

I know what some may be thinking... surely this is just the placebo effect at work? You know, I have considered that myself... I'm not going to lie. However, the big wake-up call for me was during our last trip to BC Children's Hospital for my daughter's scoliosis update. 18 months prior, she was diagnosed with a 30 degree curve and prescribed a plastic body brace, with the warning that the brace was just to stop her getting worse in the hopes of avoiding surgery in her teens. That's all they could offer for now. However, during the 6 months between our last 2 appointments (coincidentally the length of time I had begun to treat her with Reiki), her curve had almost halved! It may be difficult to accurately measure pain levels or frame of mind, but x-rays are clear, physical, measuring tools and (in the words of our Orthopedic Specialist ) x-rays don't lie! 

There are plenty of skeptics still out there, and the multitude of misinformation and poorly-researched articles citing limited or skewed research studies, can get a little overwhelming. I get it. I really do. The initial global spread of Reiki without a form of universal regulation or licensing, meant that much has changed since its origin in Japan... and these modified Western forms make up 90% of the world's practice.  Elements have been added. Elements have been lost. Achieving certain levels of practice with some methods are easier and cheaper than for others and, in some methods, practitioners have even been able to achieve a level of "Master" without ever treating a person! So, I get it... I understand why, when these are your only frames of reference, and there have been so few decent research studies made, you would be a skeptic. But I digress - this is fodder for another post, another time...

Thankfully, I have found a great teacher, and a wonderful form of Reiki in the Jikiden method - a Japanese form of Usui Reiki in its original simplicity, and strongly regulated to maintain its practices from practitioner to practitioner. After a good year of practice and experience, I am looking forward to taking my next course and expanding my Reiki skills further. :-)

Accelerated Healing?

So... I had an "interesting" wound to heal this week... Minion 1 had a little incident at school with a pair of scissors (not her fault!), in which her finger had a small circular chunk of skin removed at the top, next to a decent cut.

Once I got her home, I removed the band aids applied at the school to get a better look at the wound (so I could sort out if this was going to need any stitching or professional help). Honestly, I could barely make out the wound for blood - even though this was an hour after the "incident", the gentle removal of the band aid resulted in immediate bleeding again. (I was told it bled a lot at the time and the band aids were an attempt to stop it.) I redressed it, and gave her about 25 minutes of Reiki that evening.

The next day I was finally able to take a look... removing the dressing did cause it to start bleeding yet again, but nowhere near as bad. It was redressed and given 30 minutes of Reiki.

It is now 2 days later, and I am REALLY pleased with how it has healed! Take a look...

Treating a Squirmy Kid!

My crazy youngest minion...

I primarily learned reiki to treat my older child. Of course, that doesn't mean I won't be using the techniques on my younger minion, but up to now (thankfully... touch wood) I haven't really had the need... and to be brutally honest neither her nor I have had the patience to even attempt it. You see, she is just 5 years old and quite a squirmy, energetic fidget!

This week, she caught a cold with a bit of an annoying cough - nothing major...just the usual kind of thing you see in the autumn - but it was causing her (and us!) some issues at night. We had already tried the usual remedies through 2 nights of disturbed sleep ... kid's cough syrup, vapo-rub, pillow drops, water, homeopathic drops... and weren't overly thrilled with the weak results.

Night 3 came, and the cough was ramping up for yet another evening of fun. It was almost bedtime and as I was finishing up one of her sister's regular little reiki sessions, I thought "what the heck... let's give the little one a go!". Using the TV for some distraction, I managed to keep her moderately still for 20 minutes, while I worked on her head and bronchi/lung areas. In fact, I only had to endure a few "are we done yet?" whinings around the 17/18 minute mark. Success!

That evening, she slept straight through the night with no cough interruptions... and that was with no other remedies to help. I call that a double success!

Mosquito experiments

A few weeks ago, I experienced the feeling of being an "all-you-can-eat" buffet for a little cluster of mosquitoes. Well, I assume it was a cluster, since I found multiple bites over my legs, but I guess that it could've been just one greedy, indecisive one!

Well, as a little experiment, I decided to just treat one of these bites with Reiki, and let the others heal by themselves (I'm not a fan of that after-bite ammonia stuff). Next day, after just one short treatment, the treated bite had stopped itching, but I still felt itching or discomfort from the other bites.

Now, no good scientist relies on the results of one case study to form a definitive conclusion. So, when the buffet opened for business again, three days ago,  I had the chance to run another test! This time, I decided to heal the left leg and leave my right leg alone. Once again, Reiki seemed to ease the itching. The left leg eased for the rest of that evening and the following day. The right leg, meanwhile, drove me nuts! (In fact, it still does occasionally, three days later!!) The only sensation in the left leg came the following day, when the lowest bite on the left leg did seem to start itching again, but a little repeated treatment has helped.

As I sit here, still itching, I have decided that mosquito experiment #3 will be performed on EVERY bite... because these things are driving me crazy right now!!!!

Feeling the burn!

OK... it's confession time. I am a klutz! Yup... a totally clumsy goof, and as the designated family cook, this comes with it's own perils and challenges. I honestly cannot count the number of burns and cuts I have received over the years, dating right back to my university years, when I first learned (badly) how to tackle an electric stove and its elements of torture! Well, it was only a matter of time before my kitchen minefield would find me yet another daily use for my new Reiki skills. In fact, it only took a few days...

I distinctly recall Jan teaching me a method for treating a fresh burn. (I even remember thinking at the time "Oh, this one is SO for me!") So, when I gave myself a nasty steam burn on a finger, that week, I figured it was time to give it a try. Honestly, I felt pretty silly at the time. As I sat there monotonously blowing away in the method we had been taught, I could not help thinking to myself "I don't think this is going to work... I should've put it under the tap straight away. I feel silly. I wonder if it is too late to try the cold water now??"

Doing this for 5 minutes felt, at the time, like an eternity. I had the dinner to finish cooking and this was taking FOR-EV-EEEERRRRR.... and then I crossed the 5 minute barrier... and the burning sensation stopped. "Hmmm... interesting... maybe it is actually working?" My patience and the awaiting dinner preparation could not wait any longer, so I stopped and continued with cooking.

Now, I don't know what your experience of burns are, but mine (and remember, I have extensive practical research in this field!) are that the initial cooling of the burn helps at first, but you will experience a little re-heating of the wound a few times over the coming hours. The next day, you will often meet Mr Blister (and maybe a few of his friends) who don't take kindly to any contact with warm or hot water. Well, the follow-up from THIS burn was very different. I had no residual sensation in the hours that followed, no blistering, and you could barely see any indication of the original burn the next day. Result!!

A photo taken the day after the steam burn - can you spot the injured finger??

My First Success - Fixing a Child's Sleep Routine

I was amazed at how fast after training I was able to put my new Reiki skills to use and see results... in fact, my first success was the very first day after my course!

The prime reason I begin to learn Reiki was to help my eldest daughter with a few medical issues, and since these issues are chronic ones, I hadn't expected to see any change in her straight away. This is normal. You see, Reiki is not a quick "Band-Aid solution" - it is something that helps the root of an issue, rather than being a quick fix to mask the symptoms. Our society is constantly in a rush, and we typically take any solution that will work the fastest. However, in our rush to return to normal as fast as possible, we rarely address the actual cause. Knowing this, I expected a couple of treatments before my first problem was fixed... this was actually not the case...

My daughter was suffering from a dreadful break in her sleep patterns that was affecting her behaviour as a whole. Normally, both of my kids are in bed by 7.30pm, and usually asleep by 8.30 at the latest (especially during the school week). However, for no apparent reason, my eldest could not get to sleep before at least 11pm (some nights much later), and would repeatedly wake throughout the night. This had been the case for a good couple of weeks, and we had tried everything.

So, fresh from my course (and armed with "the spot" to work on, thanks to a chat with my Shihan, Jan) I gave Minion #1 her first treatment. That night she was asleep by 9.30pm and stayed asleep all night! I continued to treat her every day that week and the erratic sleep pattern did not return. I was impressed (and relieved to finally get some sleep back myself!!). I officially call that success number 1!

How it started...

My journey to becoming a Reiki Practitioner is not exactly a quick one... in fact, it has taken me 15 years to get where I am now! (What can I say? I was young... and ignorant... and pre-occupied with "cool stuff"!) Well, I'll try to keep this as brief as I can (not a fan of War and Peace myself), so flashback to 15 years ago... 

Having fun with
that radio station "cool stuff"
in my early 20's...

I was in my early 20's and working for a cool radio station, doing cool "stuff". I was surrounded by cool, but often cynical people, who told it like it was. At this time, my Big Sis (who is 12 years my senior) was looking at alternative medicines and healing, and first came across Reiki. I distinctly recall her telling me all about this new thing she was learning and how freaky it was when her hands got hot healing another student's head. I chalked it up to another one of her hippy obsessions (she was also starting Tai Chi, at the time) and forgot all about it.

A few years later, I moved to Canada. I wasn't able to keep so up-to-date with the family (no Facebook back then!), but did hear of my one niece training to be an Occupational Therapist and learning Reiki as one of her therapies. Hmm... that Reiki thing again, hey?

A few years later, my beloved father passed on - the stress of which caused my mother to develop a severe case of arthritis - both Osteo and Rheumatoid versions. She has tried many treatments, ranging from various standard prescribed drugs and joint replacement surgeries, to acupuncture and eventually... yes... you've guessed it...Reiki. I'm not sure when exactly she first started receiving Reiki, but it is the one treatment that she still uses today and loves.

The "Minions"

Well, I grew up... and grew a teensy bit wiser. I got married and had 2 gorgeous kids (aka "the Minions"). Both Minions are smart and fabulous, but at the age of 3, Minion 1 was diagnosed with Asthma. A short while after, our teeny Minion 2 developed horrendous eczema. It was at this time that I met Mari. I was selling Epicure products at our local "Party in the Park" street market, and she was promoting her Jikiden Reiki practice next to me. We chatted, and I learned all about how she had started - to help her family with their ailments, and specifically for her 1 child's severe eczema. It struck a chord, but then life just "got in the way" again.

Fast forward a couple of years, and we were told that Minion 1 had a rare form of Juvenile Idiopathic Scoliosis. The only treatment was to wear a rigid piece of plastic for 22 hours a day to help stop it get worse!! It was then that I thought I should look at alternative medicines myself. It was also then that I met Jan - a pupil of Mari's and the lovely lady (also of English origin) who would become my Shihan (Teacher). We only met briefly at a networking lunch, but she rekindled my curiosity for Reiki again.

So we jump to March of this year, and I booked a booth at the Fraser Valley Women's Show for my Photography business. Surprise, surprise... Jan was in the booth next to me! Was this a sign?? It was day 1 of the show and I was stressed... REALLY stressed... the result being extreme neck pain which was creeping maliciously into my head. Jan came to my rescue - there and then I received my first Reiki treatment. Only 10 minutes and my pain was gone! I was intrigued...

I signed up for Jan's April class. I will be honest... I still wasn't 100% convinced of how this Reiki thing worked, but figured I couldn't knock what I hadn't tried. The weekend was an eye-opener, and the rest...as they say... is history...