Sana Reiki

Reiki and Self Care Classes and Guided Journal

Reiki Basics

What is a Self Care Plan?

Self Care plans. I talk a lot about self care and self care plans, its true.  But why? I am a Reiki teacher.  This is exactly why believe it or not.  When I teach Reiki, I am showing my students how to embody a healing presence.  How do you do that exactly? Regular self care, meditation and seeking balance are all great ways to reveal your inner healer.

Self care is also a important part of everyone’s life.  It helps us stay grounded and centered as we encounter stress and uncertainty. If you have experienced a traumatic event or manage PTSD, self care is a valuable tool you can use to manage your symptoms.

So, what is self care anyway? Self care are the actions we take to nurture our body, mind and spirit.  Its that simple.  Those actions can range from simple, like brushing your teeth or hair to grand like moving or taking a vacation.  Self care can be free and it is ideal to engage in some form of self care every day.  There are several different categories of self care: physical, emotional, social, psychological and spiritual.

A self care plan is a pre-determined selection of self care activities that helps you manage and recover from stress.  The actions you choose can be tailored to your specific needs and the particular type of stressor you are trying to address.  You can have a daily self care plan that is your go-to and a special plan for when you anticipate or experience a stressful event.

Here is a sample daily self care plan:

  • meditate for 15+ minutes (spiritual)
  • spend time with my partner (social)
  • do at least 20 minutes of exercise (physical)
  • journal for 15+ minutes (emotional)

And if you know I’ll be encountering a stressful time (such as starting a new job, moving etc) this is a sample plan:

  • prepare meals or gather snacks ahead of time
  • identify a friend to talk or text with
  • create a safe space in your living quarters to retreat
  • place an encouraging quote, affirmation or iffirmation in my pocket or wallet

A self care plan adapts to you and your needs and can change whenever you need it to.  And you can use it to encourage and validate yourself.  Have you ever stopped to consider that the little things you do every day like brushing teeth, tidying a space or wearing your favorite socks is self care?  If you haven’t, this is a great time to give yourself credit for that.  This abridged list of self care activities can help you create your own self care plans.

 

New Book Release! Put the Power Here: Your 21-Day Journey of Reiki

A New Multidisciplinary Approach to Practicing Reiki

A 21-day curated workbook to transform your life

 Are you ready to create a different approach to your daily life? Are you ready take concrete steps to build a grounded, mindful, and healing lifestyle? Put the Power Here: Your 21 Day Journey of Reiki is a colorful, engaging journal that builds on Usui Reiki and a variety of mindfulness and intuitive techniques to transform your life from the mundane and stressful to a full, vibrant Reiki-based framework for living.

Usui Reiki, a non-religious healing practice created over 100 years ago in Japan by Mikao Usui offers those who practice the opportunity to live a more mindful, curious, and grounded life. Those who decide to learn to channel Reiki soon discover that it is ideally a practice and not a casual activity.  The Put the Power Here workbook shows you how to build a Reiki practice and guides you with thoughtful activities and space to record what you discover. Each day has a theme that combines regular activities to help you build your own practice along with a curated adventure of self-discovery.  Activities range from creating art to writing poetry to manifesting and so much more.  “The purpose of this (21 day) journey…is to experience how transforming and nourishing a positive daily healing-oriented mindfulness practice can be.” 

Anyone can use this workbook and experience benefits, but it is especially helpful to those who practice any type of Reiki or are thinking of learning Reiki.  There are several schools of Reiki around the world, and although this volume is centered around Usui Reiki, the activities are broad enough to be helpful to any practitioner no matter the training. 

Leitumalo Jessica Irvine is a Reiki teacher, practitioner and writer based in Portland Oregon.  This is her first published volume.  She has been exploring self-development techniques for the past 25 years. She has taught Reiki for the past 7 years and is passionate about sharing what she has learned.

Follow @sana_reiki on Instagram

Reiki at a distance – an in depth look

Every Reiki practitioner is different.  Not every Reiki practitioner does distance healing, some have not received the right attunement for it, others just don’t resonate with it.  This primer will help you understand how different Reiki practitioners might approach their sessions. This is useful not only for you if you are receiving Reiki at a distance; if you are a practitioner interested in adding Reiki at a distance, you should learn about the different ways it can be shared, and see what fits and what you can adapt to work for you.

It is really important to understand that no matter what method a Reiki Therapist uses, if this method resonates for them, you will feel Reiki energy during your session. They vary in terms of how they work, how much intake they do, how long they work and how the after-session transition is handled.

 

HOW DOES YOUR PRACTITIONER WORK

  1. The “chalk outline” method: The most space efficient way to practice Reiki at a distance is by using a sheet of paper with the outline of a human body printed on it. This allows the practitioner to sit at a desk, take notes and do Reiki at a distance.

2. Use your own body: Another method to share distance Reiki is for the practitioner to use their thighs, arms, abdomen as “stand ins” for your physical body. It can be a great method if you are a tactile healer or you get a lot of information from touch. When I describe this method to my students, I usually caution them to first be very clear in intention that the Reiki is not for themself, and to check in throughout the work to keep that channel clear.

 

3. Guided Imagery and Directing The Receiver: This is an interesting and interactive method where the practitioner speaks on a phone or video link to the receiver and guides them with meditation to place their own hands on different areas of their own physical body. At the same time, the Reiki practitioner is visualizing and tuning in to the receiver’s energy, sharing Reiki as they guide the receiver. This is a wonderful practice because you receive the benefit of meditation and Reiki in the same session. In addiiton, it is also a good somatic exercise to help you get more comfortable feeling your own body, you body’s energy and the more subtle flow of life and sensation in your body, and be empowered by using your own “healing hands”

4. Stuffed animals: Yes, this is a thing, and yes, it works. Using a teddy bear or any other stuffed toy or doll that has a head, arms legs and a torso can be used in place of your receiver. It gives the practitioner a 3 dimensional experience, allowing for placement of hands under the receiver, for example.

5. Laying Out Clothing: This is the method that I use. That said, it involves laying out clothing, say a pair of pants, socks and a long sleeve shirt and perhaps a small pillow to approximate the shape of a person. It can be done on a massage table, couch, bed or the floor. The advantage is that the practitioner is working to scale, and although it is a fairly 2 dimensional experience, there is the ability to hold fabric between the hands and to feel very specific areas of the body. As I have a massage table and the room to set up, and I work best when I can feel and see a shape, I have found this to resonate most with me as a practitioner.

Session Length

Remote sessions can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 90 minutes. In my experience, 20 minutes is sufficient but the ideal length is about 45 minutes. Most people “pop out” of the meditative space at that point, unless something unusual happens in a session, that is about the length of time needed to share Reiki effectively. Sometimes, a session can go longer than this, but it is usually when there is an unusual situation, or if your practitioner uses multiple methods like channeling, journeying or shamanic healing.

Degree of Interaction

This varies greatly, and there are advantages to each way:

  1. How much intake does your practitioner do and what does it mean.
    • Little or no intake or contact before the session: some practitioners do not require much in the way of intake or personal contact with a receiver. Their reasons vary but from what I have personally experienced, it can be that the practitioner actually connects better when they have less information to fill in gaps, as the human mind tends to do. As a receiver, you may also wish to have some degree of anonymity for your distance session. You may only wish to experience Reiki and do not wish to form a therapeutic relationship at this point. Working with a practitioner that does sessions with little contact might be a good fit in this case.
    • Intake, informed consent and perhaps even a pre-meeting: many practitioners are committed to working with their clients to support them for more than a single session, and for this purpose, completing and intake form is appropriate. In addition, responsible practitioners carry insurance and participate in professional associations, and therefore have an obligation to share their code of conduct and seek informed consent before working with a receiver. Although Reiki can never do harm, any time you work with any wellness professional from personal trainer to massage therapist to psychologist, you are interacting with another human and there should be boundaries. If you are seeking the support of a Reiki therapist on a more ongoing basis to support you as you go through transition, be sure to keep an eye out for this level of engagement.
  2. How long do sessions last
    • A distance Reiki session can last anywhere from 20 minutes to 1 hour. If you include conversation before and after, the session could last as long as 90 minutes.
    • Expect shorter sessions to have little interaction before or after.
    • “Standard” length Reiki sessions are usually 45 minutes. Most of the time, this is sufficient time for the practitioner to share Reiki thoroughly and address any additional energetic blocks or attachments they may notice. It is not unusual for a Reiki practitioner to offer to share impressions with their client, and to elicit any feedback the reciever wishes to share afterward. The purpose of this is to help the receiver understand the dynamics of the session and to anchor that into their memory
    • Some practitioners also offer a channeled reading, an oracle card reading or some other add on to the session which could extend the length of the session beyond an hour. If time is ever an issue, let your practitioner know at the beginning so you can decide together what to do.
  3. What do you do during the session?
    • Some practitioners tell you that you can do anything you like. While Reiki at a distance would work in any circumstance, I see this as a missed opportunity, and possibly counterproductive. In person Reiki sessions afford the receiver the opportunity to stop the usual pace, spend some time engaged in nourishing self-care and receive the benefit of human empathy and touch in addition to Reiki. Reiki at a distance can offer nearly all these benefits. If your practitioner doesn’t encourage or require you to lay down and receive, that could be counterproductive. Can you ever imagine receiving a massage while at the grocery store or driving to the post office? The same can be said of Reiki in any form.
    • I recommend laying down, getting comfortable and warm, use the restroom before the session and take the opportunity to relax your body mind and spirit. I also work with my clients by video link so they can see me before hand and can “check” any time during the session to see what I am doing. I also spend about 10 minutes at the beginning of the session leading my clients in a guided imagery meditation to help them get relaxed and grounded. The more relaxed you are in your Reiki session, the more you benefit.
  4. After your session: So afterwards, there is a also some variation in what your practitioner will offer. Some offer very little follow up. The true value in Reiki happens during the session, in your own body and experience. Discussing what happened may not be enlightening or helpful for some. In addition, any feedback your practitioner shares must be delivered mindfully – anything we notice or feel during a session is an impression not an absolute truth. It is filtered through your practitioner’s nervous system and subconscious mind and will carry their own meaning-making. If a practitioner is unaware of this inherent bias, there is the risk of unintentionally misleading or misinforming a receiver about the experience they just had. When dealing with trauma, it’s important to learn to articulate and understand your experience. A trauma informed Reiki practitioner can help you understand the experience without injecting their own “story” or bias. Oracle cards or some other form of divination can be a useful tool. These cards are subjective images that you can interpret for yourself.

Reiki at a distance can be a fulfilling, nourishing and balancing self-care option. Whenever you work with a practitioner of any kind, you are engaging in a relationship on some level. Understanding broadly how different practitioners work will help you choose the right one for you and your goals.

5 Ways Reiki Supports You in Healing from Trauma

Trauma is an injury and PTSD is a condition that arises from that injury. So with any injury, there are best practices around healing from an injury.

First, let’s understand the nature of trauma, traumatic stress and PTSD/C-PTSD.

Trauma: current thinking differentiates 3 types of trauma

  • Acute trauma results from a single incident.
  • Chronic trauma is repeated and prolonged such as domestic violence or abuse.
  • Complex trauma is exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature.

Traumatic Stress: The DSM V defines traumatic stress as

Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence in one (or more) of the following ways:

  • Directly experiencing the traumatic event
  • Witnessing, in person, the traumatic event
  • Learning that the traumatic event occurred to a close family member or close friend. In cases of actual or threatened death of a family member or friend, the event must have been violent or accidental

PTSD: You may want to read this article, but according to the American Psychological Association, PTSD is a psychiatric disorder that can occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a natural disaster, a serious accident, a terrorist act, war/combat, rape or other violent personal assault.

C-PTSD: This form of PTSD results from prolonged trauma, usually experienced in childhood. C-PTSD has all the sumptoms of PTSD (traumatic intrusions, avoidance, negative alterations in cognition and mood, and alterations in arousal and reactivity) plus distorted perceptions of the victim’s perpetrator (such as feeling positively towards an abuser, viewing them as all-powerful, or being obsessed with “getting even” with them), and the negative alterations in cognition and mood are much more extreme.

Pretty heavy stuff, but it’s important to understand the nuances when we talk about these terms. If you have not received a diagnosis, but resonate with any of the above, I strongly urge you to seek support. These are difficult and complex issues to navigate, and its not anything you should do alone. I should know: I have PTSD and C-PTSD, which I manage with mindfulness, exercise, many years of therapy, anti-depressants (in the past), loving relationships, neurofeedback and Reiki.

So how can Reiki help? Absolutely. But it isn’t the single solution to the challenge. First, if you have a diagnosed condition, that’s a great start. Find a therapist who works with evidence-based treatments for trauma like: CBT, DBT, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing or Hypnosis to name the major ones. Reiki can support any and all these modalities.

Five ways Reiki helps:

  1. Reiki can produce lower levels of anxiety. A study of cancer patients where participants received distant reiki experienced lower levels of anxiety. Anxious feelings are almost always present in tthose with PTSD due to the prevalence of hypervigilance and hyperarousal.
  2. Reiki can reduce pain levels: a study conducted on women who had just gotten c-sections, those who received reiki experienced significantly less pain than those who did not receive it. PTSD and traumatic stress are often accompanied by persistent pain.
  3. Reiki boosts mood and may relieve depression. Trauma can cause depression as a direct consequence of the traumatic experience, or as a consequence of the health or behavior effects of PTSD. Reiki can relieve feelings of depression.
  4. Reiki allows you to receive some of the benefits of touch at a safe distance. One symptom of PTSD/Traumatic Stress is dissociation and a discomfort with touch from others. Reiki can be done remotely if touch is impossible to tolerate (and during Shelter in Place) while still giving the receiver the benefits of touch – a felt sense of compassionate presence. In addition, Reiki assists you in becoming more aware of your own body sensations as the Reiki therapist shares Reiki with you. Over time this can help you be more comfortable in your own skin and enjoy safe, nurturing human touch once again.
  5. Reiki tends to improve sleep because it encourages the parasympathetic nervous system. When you can improve sleep duration and or quality, this benefits you in multiple ways, but especially to relieve PTSD/trauma symptoms.

There is tremendous wisdom, depth of experience and beauty on the other side of your trauma, and the trauma in your past gives you the advantage of gratitude and appreciation for every iota of beauty that you experience. This isn’t just me talking: its well documented as Post Traumatic Growth. The main features of PTG are:

  • Appreciation of life.
  • Relationships with others.
  • New possibilities in life.
  • Personal strength.
  • Spiritual change

15 Ways that Reiki Helps You

Reiki is the gentle Japanese healing art of healing with universal life force energy. Laying on hands lightly, or even working remotely, a Reiki practitioner facilitates the flow of Reiki energy to and through your physical and non-physical body. Practitioners have undertaken study, practice and a special ceremony called attunement . Reiki practitioners are encouraged to mantain a robust self-healing and meditation practice to enhance their ability to encourage Reiki flow, but we are facilitators, and this is not a “special power” that we have. We do not direct energy because your body has an innate knowledge of how to work with Reiki energy, and it knows where to go, we simply help it flow. It is because of this inherent equality between the practitioner and receiver that our clients feel empowered and seen.

Receiving Reiki sessions has many benefits:

Physical Benefits

  • Creates deep relaxation and aids in relieving stress and tension.
  • Gives you a high level of energy
  • Helps you sleep better and more deeply
  • Reduces blood pressure
  • Relieves pain from acute injuries (does not heal them!)
  • Brings the body in to correct balance and harmony

Emotional Benefits

  • Minimizes emotional stress, anxiety, depression, and insomnia
  • Raises self-esteem and improves confidence levels
  • Improves memory
  • Enhances creativity and intuition
  • Helps in the grieving process
  • Spiritual Benefits
  • Connects you with a higher consciousness
  • Raises your vibrational level
  • Conducts and enhances spiritual awakening
  • Inspires guidance in questionable situations

Whether you are embarking on a journey of healing from trauma, or you are investing in a self care routine for long term benefit, Reiki can play a central and important role. What’s more, you can learn Reiki for Self Care and receive the benefits of Reiki every day.