Reiki Made Me Cry, And It Was Great

B. Elliott
4 min readDec 2, 2018

I have always thought of myself as being in tune with my inner-being and the universal energies swirling around us. Especially in recent years, I’ve noticed that I’ve become almost hyper-sensitive to the shifting energies and feelings of myself and those around me. That being said, I’ve learned the importance of staying grounded within myself and not taking on other’s stuff. So naturally, I thought I would be the perfect candidate to attend a Reiki treatment­ when a new wellness studio in my area was offering a free healing session. “I’ve got this.” I thought to myself, thinking my awareness of self and the practice gave me some kind of advantage.

I arrived at the class feeling open-hearted and eager to learn more about this positive healing technique. The beginning consisted of him answering all my questions and concerns about energy work in general and how it works. He also explained how we can always feel or acknowledge the effects positive energy and its affects more often than we may know. It all sounded mystical, magical, and relaxing. I was sold.

He instructed me lay face up on a massage table and told me to focus on my breathing, and to set an intention for the session. I told myself it would be best to “let things go I no longer needed to hold on to”, to allow this good energy to flow through me. By this I meant,

Worry, fear, and bad vibes. You know, the usual things we’re all trying to minimize within ourselves on a regular basis as humans.

After a few, therapeutic deep breaths, the practitioner walked around the table hovering his hands over me, with the occasional light compressions on my arms, legs & heart. He told me to envision myself already healed, or already achieving that goal I had set just a few moments prior. He was sending ending pure, healing energy to me. “…it’s like a laser beam of good, universal energy; like a superpower…” is how he kept describing it. After about twenty minutes of this, he ended with a “namaste…” and it was over. I opened my eyes, wondering if anything even happened.

Something did happen. I was calm, yet energized.

I left feeling noticeably more peaceful and lighter on my feet than when I arrived. I slept great. My first good sleep in a while.

The next morning was a different story. I was a wreck. I was emotionally distraught and distracted by everything. It was as if all the piles of stuff that had accumulated in the corners of my life were all of a sudden visible and screaming at my OCD to “handle that sh**!”.

As lava erupts from a volcano, my pent up emotions and insecurities that I had tucked away were suddenly spewing and oozing out into the fresh air to be awed at. Everything little thing was either agitating or saddened me to tears.

Did I somehow do this reiki thing wrong?

I then recalled myself asking for all the negative energies stored away in my body to be replaced by good, healing light energy.

I’m not sure if I was expecting a more subtle or smoother transition, but I got exactly what I asked for. Except, instead of a cool breeze washing over me, it was more like a tidal wave of good, healing energy crashing into me; forcing the bad energies out of my body. By the end of the week, I felt like I had a new electric energy field flowing through and around my body. A golden fire in my belly that wasn’t there before.There were several things I was trying to work through since the beginning of the year; moving to a new city and starting a new job were just the tip of the iceberg.

However, this was the first time all year I felt a clear sense of what I want and what I needed to do to achieve it. It was as if a cool fall breeze had sweet through my head and cleaned out the cobwebs and dust. Of course, I went straight to Google to see this was normal reaction.

It was.

Only to be backed up by my practitioner when I saw him at the studio the following week. I thanked him for the mental clarity he caused, and he just laughed and said “namaste, glad I could help”.

As far as alternative therapies go, I would have to say Reiki, is probably one of the most underrated. Many people think it’s a play on the infamous “placebo affect”, however I beg to differ. While it did not cure my slight tension headache that day, it did allow me a few moments of stillness and positivity to reflect of some inner headaches. Think of it as a one-on-one meditation with someone whose intention is only for you to be happy and well. I can still feel this positive electric energy he gifted me rippling into each day that passes. It’s been months. The negativity really did shift from within me and it resulted in negative, nasty things and thoughts I was holding on being cleared out.

Reiki made me cry, and it was great.

It made me confront my personal shadows with a flashlight of understanding and acceptance. Those were the two keys I was missing to truly be able to move forward and go on to do great things in my life again. Not sure if I can handle that type of emotional disturbance on a regular basis and still sustain a professional life. However, I definitely will keep reiki in mind the next time I need some real me time to accomplish true inner healing.

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B. Elliott

Licensed Massage Therapist - Integrative Health Counselor - Freelance Writer - California, USA