As a Reiki grand master/teacher with 20 years of experience, I cannot emphasize enough how beneficial Reiki practice is for all of us. Reiki is such an amazing tool for self-healing. Anyone can learn this simple healing technique, which can be applied any time, anywhere, without any preparation or material supply. It is an ancient healing utilizing hand placement that you can apply simply to your own body. It supports the body, mind and soul.

Reiki training can be offered to lay people as self-healing protocol for those who don’t have access to a master healer. Many have testified that this simple self-healing technique has literally changed their lives, bringing in calmness and balance, self-awareness, peacefulness, self-love, and compassion to others, even in an otherwise hectic life.

In the self-healing reiki workshops I teach, I consistently notice seven indications that someone could benefit from practicing their own Reiki protocols. Though many people turn to Reiki when their bodies are suffering from an acute illness, there are other signs and symptoms that a person’s energy is awry, and could use a little self-love, and Universal energy to realign.

1. Anxiety

You don’t have to be a master Reiki healer to affect a profound change in your anxiety levels. Even Dr. Mehmet Oz, famous for his television appearances on Oprah has said that our ‘qi,’ or vital force can be influenced positively. So many people deal with severe anxiety, never realizing that this is one of the body’s signals that our energy is not in harmony. This can even be seen with advanced energy photography.

Negative emotions appear just as clearly as physical pathologies. During any Reiki session, one practiced with a master healer, or practiced on oneself as part of a personal self-healing ritual, the body shifts away from the fight or flight mode ruled by the sympathetic nervous system into a rest and digest mode, ruled by the parasympathetic nervous system. This is referred to by Dr. Herbert Benson and others as the ‘relaxation response.’ It is when we are in this relaxed state that our bodies can begin to heal from emotional trauma that causes constant anxiety.

2. Poor Sleep

Poor sleep is another indication that our energy bodies are not well. What we learn in a beginning Reiki self-mastery class is that all treatments we receive are for the healing of our deep physical, mental, and emotional scars. We live in a sleep-deprived nation, yet we rarely see this as a symptom of a deeper physiological and psychological issue. Even a shift to a pure, open breath learned in Reiki can facilitate better sleep, as this habit helps to induce relaxation which then leads to complete rest.

Reiki also addresses the ‘monkey mind’ that makes it difficult for us to fall asleep at night. By learning how to relax, and balance our energy, we can get the deep sleep which our bodies need so much for healing.

3. Physical and Emotional Pain

This may seem like a no brainer, but you’d be surprised how many people just live with their constant physical or emotional discomfort and think of it as normal (100 million of them). Physical and emotional pain alike are little signals sent out by your body’s intelligent life force, indicating that something needs attention.

They start small. But they grow larger if we ignore them. Practicing reiki learned from a qualified master, if only a few minutes every day, can help you listen to those signals before they are blaring alarm bells going off in the form of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, clinical depression, and other serious health concerns.

Moreover, while chronic pain can have an obvious physical connection which allopathic medicine can diagnose, many people turn to Reiki because this pain is not relieved with traditional methods. Why not start your own self-healing practice now, so that that level of chronic pain never has a chance to develop?

4. Daily Stress

In ancient civilization we were ‘stressed’ only when we really needed to. If we were running from a tiger to prevent becoming its next meal, or if we were about to fall off a cliff, we needed the stress response to stay alive. Somehow, our nervous systems didn’t get the memo that every-day life would be a big wash of stress – every day, relentless stress, that can seem almost impossible to escape from. In the process, our adrenals pump out cortisol and adrenaline in overabundance, causing obesity, sleep issues, depression, and an inflammation, known to cause a whole host of health issues.

A self-healing Reiki protocol can help to reduce this constant stress, or at least our reaction to deadlines, family illnesses, child rearing, relationships, and more so that we aren’t flooding our bodies with stress hormones. This holistic medicine offers a profound way to reduce our physiological reactions to the crazy world we live in.

5. Worry

Do we worry because we are stressed or stress because we are worried? Low energy levels are like a chicken and egg conundrum. If we are vibrating at a low energy level, we are more likely to have all-consuming thoughts, over-analyze everything, and fear future outcomes. When we raise our energetic vibration, though practices like Reiki, we are less likely to worry because we can more easily stay present in the here and now. Excessive worry can also cause physiological changes that lead to disease. It’s best to stop worry before it starts, and Reiki can teach us how.

6. A Lack of Focus and Feeling Ungrounded

If you have the attention span of a fruit fly, it may be time for a Reiki session. Often we feel unfocused because there seems to be so much to focus on. Deadlines, requests, and responsibilities begin to get jumbled when our energies are leaking, blocked, or clouded. Aside from making a list, delegating tasks to others, asking for help, and taking frequent breaks in a hectically paced life, we can also practice Reiki.

What normally happens for many people after a Reiki session, is that they realize how many tasks they can simply let go. Some responsibilities simply dissipate, as others in our lives start taking responsibility where they were lacking. We also become one with Universal flow which is never hurried distracted or ungrounded, yet all things are done in the perfect time.

7. Self-Esteem Issues

Reiki is so effective at dealing with self-esteem issues it has been adopted by mainstream psychology. Though researchers are still trying to understand how Reiki positively affects the bioelectric field of the body, they see significant changes in a persons’ self-love and self-compassion after Reiki treatments.

The increase in self-esteem is likely due to a reconnection of the soul, body and mind with the ever-present, life force energy. This connection overrides negative self-talk and other tools used by the egoic or “monkey mind” to derail a positive view of the Self.

There is a reason that Zen Buddhists described the mind like a drunken monkey. It likes to swing from tree to tree, with no direction, often bumping itself on the noggin’, but self-healing with Reiki helps to calm the monkey, sober him up, and make self-love possible again.

Sign up for a Reiki level I, self-healing workshop today.

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Mika Ichihara is an integrative master practitioner, master teacher, and the founder/owner of Love & Compassion Integrative Healing Center located in Manhattan, NY. Her Center offers unique quality holistic care and total body – mind medicine. Built on her 18 years of experience, she developed integrative programs that incorporate Eastern Medicine/Japanese-style acupuncture, Reiki Energy – Soul Healing, and Conscious Medicine for physical, emotional and spiritual issues, self-awareness and life style changes for transformation. For more information on her practice and the Center, please visit www.loveandcompassion.com.

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This article “7 Indications for Reiki: Why You’ll Want to Practice Self-Healing After Seeing This” was originally created and published by LoveandCompassion.com under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Mika Ichihara, M.S., L.Ac., LL.M., B.Phar., Founder Owner and Grand Master in Eastern Medicine and Energy Soul Medicine. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution and author bio.