Reiki for Relaxation and Stress Relief
Reiki is a
healing art and spiritual practice that promotes healing in body, mind and
spirit. When we experience stress, pain, illness or worry, our energy becomes
unbalanced, impeding the natural flow of energy throughout the body. Reiki
practitioners facilitate a flow of loving energy through them to the recipient,
using gentle hand placements either on or slightly off the body.
According
to Holistic Nursing Practice, a study completed by A.T. Vitale and P.C.
O’Connor found that reiki helps to rebalance the energy of the body, enhancing
its natural ability to heal itself. It is hypothesized that reiki helps to
stimulate the relaxation response, helping to return the body’s flow of energy
to its intended state of harmony.
While it
has been practiced for nearly 100 years, we have only recently begun to have a
clear understanding of the benefits of this very gentle, holistic, hands-on
healing practice through evidence-based research. In Anticancer Research,
a study done by A. Chirico demonstrated that reiki helps with improving general
well-being, coping skills and anxiety.
Featured
in the Journal of Complementary Medicine,
a large-scale effectiveness trial supporting previous studies was conducted in
2019 by N.L. Dyer, A. L. Baldwin and W.L. Rand. It indicated that reiki is
beneficial for relieving emotional stress, anxiety, pain relief and depression.
While we
often think of reiki as a hands-on healing practice for others, it is also a
system that incorporates self-healing practices for the practitioner, making it
just as beneficial for the giver as the receiver. Whether learning reiki for
self-care or scheduling regular sessions to enhance healing, promoting
relaxation or decreasing stress, setting aside time for ourselves routinely helps
our mind to unwind, creating a quiet space for rejuvenation to occur.
Resource: Helene Williams, BSN, RN,
owner of Helene Williams Reiki LLC, located at 313 West Liberty Street, Ste.
203, in Lancaster. For more information, call 717-269-6084 or visit HeleneWilliamsReiki.com.
