What is Reiki?

Introducing Reiki: How Reiki Balances Energies and Facilitates Healing

Reiki is a gentle, hands-on (or hands-above) healing practice that helps your body relax, reset, and restore itself. It works with your natural energy—what some call life force or “vibe”—to support your overall well-being.

Think of it like plugging in your phone when the battery's low. Your body runs on energy too, and sometimes that energy gets drained, scattered, or stuck. Reiki helps recharge you—calming your nervous system, easing stress, and giving your body space to reset and heal.

You don’t have to understand energy work to benefit from it. Reiki helps calm your nervous system, ease stress, and create space in the body for healing to happen—physically, emotionally, and energetically. It’s not about fixing you—it’s about supporting your body’s own ability to come back into balance.

4 Key Takeaways of this blog:

1. Universal Energy Flow: Reiki harnesses a Universal Life Force Energy, known as Ki/Chi/Prana, and directs it to any areas of imbalance within the body. Disruptions in this energy flow can lead to physical illnesses and emotional imbalances.

2. Channeling Energy: During a Reiki session, a practitioner acts as a conduit for this universal energy, by gently placing their hands on or above the recipient's body. This process makes it possible for the flow of energy to happen which helps restore harmony and healing within the individual.

3. Recipient-Directed Healing: Reiki focuses on recipient-directed energy flow. The practitioner does not impose energy onto the recipient but rather allows the individual's body to draw in the energy it needs for healing and restoration. This is especially important when working with animals.

4. Balancing and Aligning: The primary goal of Reiki is to achieve energetic balance and alignment for the individual who is receiving it. Along with providing healing energy flow for all of the layers of energies that we hold and by harmonizing the body's energy centers, or chakras, Reiki aims to support the body's innate healing abilities.

Universal Energy Flow:

Reiki revolves around the concept of Universal Life Force Energy that permeates every living being. Energy can be subtle or it can be strong, but it is all around us and we are susceptible to it frequency and vibration. You know, your vibe. This energy corresponds to the electromagnetic fields linked to Earth's Schumann Resonance (known as the tuning fork of the Earth), and is super important for our well-being. Disruptions in this energy flow, from either physical ailments, mental overwhlem or emotional distress, can lead to various forms of discomfort or illness.

Many people are familiar with the body's response to stress: the sympathetic nervous system triggers the "fight or flight" reaction, and that leads to increased heart rates and muscle tension and often anxiety. It can take a toll on you and if you are always in this state, it can be harmful for your body, mind and energy. The good news is that Reiki stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system which promotes calmness and relaxation, and initiates the "rest and digest" response. This leads to feeling rested, calm and balanced.

Channeling Energy:

During a Reiki session, practitioners work to realign and balance the body's energies, promoting harmony and well-being. By using gentle touch or holding their hands above the recipient's body, they channel Universal Life Force Energy to where it's needed most. This personalized approach makes sure that individuals receive the support they need for their specific healing requirements, resulting in a deeply relaxing experience that activates the body's own healing mechanisms.

Recipient-Directed Healing:

In Reiki, healing revolves around the recipient's energy and needs. Reiki can do no harm. In Reiki, the practitioner asks the recipient what their intention is for asking to receive Reiki and then uses the power of that intention with channeling the energy flow to acts as a conduit for Universal Life Force Energy to do its highest good. This allows the recipient's body to draw in what it requires for healing. This approach is based on the principle that the body possesses its own intelligence and knows how to heal itself. By trusting the body's wisdom, Reiki empowers individuals to play an active role in their healing process, promoting a sense of trust in their innate ability to heal. This principle also extends to animals as it recognizes them as sentient beings who can decide to accept the energy or not - acknowledging and respecting their capacity to receive and benefit from energy healing, if they so choose to.

Balancing and Aligning:

An integral aspect of Reiki is the focus on the body's chakras, which are energy centers associated with major glands and organs. Reiki works to clear and energize these chakras, with the goal of restoring balance on physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels. This process of energetic alignment that Reiki provides, leaves you feeling deeply relaxed and with a profound sense of well-being, balance and peace. It is so comforting, it makes you feel like you are whole again.

As energies align and the parasympathetic nervous system becomes active, you are left with a deep sense of balance. Stress fades away, and your body finds peace in the present moment. The effects of Reiki are evident and palpable to those who have experienced it, providing a sense of calm and centeredness for those looking for relief from physical, mental or emotional discomfort and overwhelm.

Conclusion:

In the relationship between energy and healing, Reiki highlights the resilience of the human spirit. Through gentle touch and focused intention, Reiki helps us tap into our natural ability to heal and renew ourselves. By balancing energies and engaging the parasympathetic nervous system, Reiki invites us to appreciate the value of balance and the importance of letting go.

Many people who try Reiki say they feel more grounded, calm, and centered—even after just one session. It’s a gentle but powerful way to reconnect with yourself and feel more at ease in your body and mind.

Reiki works on all levels—physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual—because everything is connected. When your energy is balanced, it’s easier to handle stress, make clear decisions, and feel more like yourself again.

It’s not dramatic or forceful. It’s subtle, supportive, and deeply nourishing—often just what you didn’t know you needed.

I hope that this blog, What is Reiki?, serves as a good introduction for you or answers some questions you may have had about how to explain how it works. If you have any questions or would like to book a session, please contact me through my website, www.momentousreiki.ca or email me at momentousreiki@gmail.com.