My Reiki Story

I’m going to get personal and vulnerable, and share the details of how and why I came to Reiki. Exposing myself publicly is very low on my list of “things I like to do.”  However, Reiki has been transformational for me, and as someone who always likes to keep it real, I feel it’s important to explain why. Buckle up!

After losing our deeply loved and desired third baby, Shiloh, in 2016, my previously mild autoimmune disease became critical.  In less than three years following our loss, I had three long and severe flares that threatened my life.

Over time, the combination of unresolved grief from our loss and the emotional, mental, and physical trauma from my flares created a perfect storm of post traumatic stress. Despite all of my dedicated health practices, my nervous system was spinning out of control.  I wasn’t “me” anymore, and I felt like I was spiraling down a black abyss. It sounds dramatic, I know, but even my physical body was manifesting symptoms that made no sense, and my mind felt like it went right along with it. I didn’t recognize myself, and I felt like I couldn’t go on much longer. 

I had entered my Dark Night of the Soul.

I spent months trying to figure out what was wrong with me. What was my problem?  I’m a yogi!  I practice every day!  I meditate and read spiritual books!  Where did my inner peace go?!  It all seemed strange and superficial at first... until it wasn’t. The layers kept going deeper and deeper. I discovered that the events in my past that I thought I was “over” or “fine with” were still affecting me, deeply. They were stored in my subconscious, and were manifesting themselves in my body, mind, and spirit in a whole myriad of unbearable ways. 

Knowing that was all well and good, but... what was I supposed to do now?  Various mainstream therapies and interventions weren’t helping. 

I felt like I was losing my mind.

I’d been interested in trying reiki for years. I’m not sure why I delayed as long as I did.

When I finally went for my first treatment? WOW.

Originally the reiki session relaxed me some, but I still felt the same. My wonderful healer told me that I would continue to experience energy shifts after I left, as the reiki continued to work in my body. 

Now, for months leading up to my first reiki treatment, I’d been carrying around a constant sense of doom. Nothing was actually “wrong,” but I constantly felt as if something terrible had just happened, or was about to happen. I logically knew everything was fine. I wasn’t a worrier. I didn’t ruminate. I didn’t have anxiety about anything specific. I just always felt a sense of dread and doom. 

That might not sound like much. But it was.

After months of not feeling okay, ever… I felt okay!  It was HUGE.

I continued to feel a little better each day.  I went for a few more reiki sessions, and the transformation was profound.   My yoga practice quickly became the mind/body/soul communion it had been for me before I entered my dark night of the soul.   I could meditate easily again. I began to be able to concentrate again.

The ever-present feeling of dread and doom was gone.  My nervous system was no longer running wild.  I stopped having all the weird skin irritations.  My sleep improved.  I stopped feeling so jittery and shaky.  Even my body temperature stabilized.

Reiki helped me in a profound way.

Reiki did for me what my logical, thinking mind could not do. My subconscious had stored the traumas from past experiences, and wouldn’t let them go. I didn’t even know they were there! I thought I’d processed them just fine. I’d had periods of peace and contentment since the traumas occurred. But still, it was just hanging out in my body, waiting for me to deal with it somehow. Had I “done the work”? Absolutely, but no change had been able to occur up until then. Reiki shifted the energy that was stored in my body and my subconscious mind.