Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Looking Back and Moving Forward with Reiki


Tonight I was reading an article written by Mari Hall and her experience of using Reiki in her life. Daily it seems that we hear of others who are experiencing emotional, physical, mental and spiritual distress. There are many alternative and complimentary modalities that can assist when times are rough.

Tonight on the news they showed a young mother of two children who was diagnosed with colon cancer that had spread to other organs. Her doctors did not give her much hope. She asked about complimentary treatments and found that Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Hospital located in Seattle has a program that does include complimentary treatments to her regular Western medicine regime. They offer yoga, massage, exercise, nutritional counseling and I bet various energy healing techniques. This woman has reported since she has been doing the complimentary practices, the tumors are shrinking and her lungs are now clear.

Here is Mari's story........

Looking Back and Moving Forward with Reiki
by Mari Hall

This is an excerpt from the complete article that appears in the Spring edition of the Reiki News Magazine.

I recently took a few days to reflect on the events of 2007 as well as how my life was before and has been after Reiki. Have you also had thoughts like that or found yourself saying, “Before Reiki I was…, and after Reiki I am…?”

Before Reiki I thought the world was harsh and hard to live in. I had decided it was not safe to show emotions, certainly that love would hurt, and the people in your life would never be there for you. I lived life closed, depressed and isolated. I was an outsider looking in at life and watching other people. I knew it was not safe to participate in life because you could not trust anyone…after all with my track record my mind was firmly made up.

I had few close friends in school and spent much of my time in my room painting or writing in my journal. By the time I was 37 I had two failed marriages and had spent enough time spent in the hospital with various illnesses to know things just did not come easy and that I did not deserve any better. I was told by my doctors that by the time I was forty, I would be totally paralyzed and in a wheelchair.

In 1980, I participated in a Reiki course and started to give myself Reiki. The paralysis in my body disappeared, but most importantly, I felt that I had touched my soul and awakened from a long sleep. I experienced a return to harmony on all levels and a deep peace.

Continuing to use Reiki as a means for inner harmony, I began taking self-development courses to heal my past. This helped me to forgive and move on. Reiki was my constant companion through that period. It still is. Since that first day with Reiki so many opportunities have been given to me, chances to say yes instead of no to life. Life has not always been rosy and all my problems did not cease to exist after Reiki. In fact it seems at some level that the heat was turned up. Reiki continues to help bring things up to heal physically and emotionally. I have been challenged to live my life in the present moment, to be true to myself, honest, and fearless. Fear-less meaning that I have come to realize that what I fear most I bring to myself. Reiki helped me change my belief structure. Feeling the way I did before Reiki became uncomfortable. Fearing shut down my energy; Faith, which is the opposite, opens me up, frees the soul and fans the flame of love in my heart.

Reiki was the beginning of my spiritual journey. There was a time when I thought I had taken that first class only to learn some Reiki techniques that might help heal me, but what actually happened was that Reiki supported me on my return to wholeness of body, mind and spirit. Every step I take with Reiki confirms the truth of this. It is a never-ending process of discovering myself, and indeed, a spiritual journey unlike anything I could ever have imagined. I have heard Grace defined as the outward expression of the inward harmony of the soul. At times I did not even realize that parts of me were not balanced until they were harmonized and I felt different… certainly more alive and filled with grace.

I know without a doubt that if I had not taken that first step with Reiki my life would be very different today. I see parallel lives: on one side “without Reiki” there is a lonely woman in a wheelchair all dried up with no life in her; on the other, “with Reiki”…me as I am. And the two are vastly different. Before Reiki, I would never have quit my job and flown to Europe, much less found myself teaching with the passion of an awakened heart in the UK and throughout Europe. I had been lit from the inside. I now cared not only for myself, I but could see how connected I was to others and how interconnected we all are. I saw and experienced a bigger picture that was beautiful. . . . . .

2 comments:

Lynda Lippin said...

I also saw this article in the Reiki News. In my view Reiki is primarily a tool for self healing that then allows us to then assist the process in others. It is through healing ourselves that we open to the possibility of healing others. And the discovery that we can have a profound affect on our own mental and physical well-being is huge! Thanks for sharing.

Lynda
Pilates & Reiki In Paradise Blog

Kristie said...

Welcome Lynda and thank you for your insights. I enjoyed viewing your YouTube presentation on Pilates and Reiki.

Blessings!
Kristie