I first became aware of Reiki while living and working in Boulder, Colorado. I had a coworker who frequently had it done and would often tell me about her experiences. I held off on trying it myself because I was well, broke, and didn’t think it would be wise to spend money on such frivolous extracurricular activities – which is exactly what I thought it to be at the time.
Fast forward six years – I’m still broke – dang! But I’m more into the spiritual and healing arts than ever, often rushing home from work just so I can immerse myself in another book or video on any subject from NDE’s to UFO’s to law of attraction and creative visualization.
I came across the Youtube channel Spirit Science and during a video on chakras, Reiki was toted as “the best way to open your chakras” and is “equivalent to spiritual surgery”. I hadn’t thought much of Reiki since my time in Boulder, so I thought: ‘hey, I’m in LA now, there’s got to be some Reiki around here, and Groupon’s got to have a coupon!’
One Groupon coupon later, I found myself at the House of Intuition in Echo Park/Silverlake receiving my very first Reiki session. I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into or what to expect, but soon I was lying on my back on a masseuse table while the practitioner Aimee, who was graceful and light and simply had that “air” about her, circled around me while strategically placing crystals on my body before beginning our hour long session.
Reiki is not a massage. Instead the practitioner uses very light systematic hand placements thought to transfer energy and healing, and it feels amazing. In fact, once the session was over and Aimee asked how I felt, I had a one word answer: lighter. She said many people say the same. Before finishing there were a few things she had supposedly felt or visualized during the session – some spiritual some practical – and she shared them with me. For example, I’m dehydrated and my kidneys are crying out to be a flushed and a dancing panda bear is one of my spirit animals, (yeah, I laughed, too). I then slipped on my shoes, thanked her, and walked back out into the LA sunshine.
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Would I do it again? In a heartbeat, yes. But the greatest take-away from the session was nothing very spiritual or enlightening, instead it was the realization of how touched deprived I am. After all, human touch is so important. I know it’s not just me; is it a wonder that massage therapy is such a thriving multi-million dollar business? We’re all touch deprived to some extent.
But who wants to end on such a sad note? My spirit animal is a friggin’ dancing panda bear! Go try Reiki for yourself, and do let me know what cool spirit animal you have inside yourself. :)
