Reiki (Rei Ki, 霊気) is a form of hands-on spiritual, natural energy healing. The word Reiki is made of two Japanese words, Rei meaning “Universal” and Ki is "life energy.” Together, these two words stand for “Universal Life Energy.” The name was given my Dr. Mikao Usui, a Japanese scholar and monk who received the sacred Reiki symbols through his meditation practices in the mountains. He developed Reiki natural healing system in the 1920s and used it as an alternative therapy for the treatment of physical, emotional, and mental diseases. The Usui Ryoho natural energy healing system addresses the whole person on the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual levels.

Reiki is a form of energy healing, a type of alternative medicine. Reiki practitioners use a technique called palm healing or hands-on healing through (where the Reiki practitioner places their hands either above the person or lightly touching them), the universal life energy is transferred through the palms of the practitioner to the client, to encourage emotional or physical healing by stimulating their body’s natural healing abilities. It helps to balance a person’s energy, removes energy blockages, and release negative energy.

Energy therapies are based on the concept that energy imbalances in the body’s energy field result in illness, and that improving the flow and balance of energy can improve health and wellbeing.

Reiki is however not tied to a religion or part of a religious practice; it is not a belief or type of suggestion.

Most common benefits of Reiki treatments are:

• Deep relaxation

• Feeling calm and aligned

• Feeling grounded

• Reduces or takes away pain completely

• Reduces tension

• Helps to let go of unwanted emotions

• Highlights unresolved matters needing attention

• Helps to reduce stress, anxiety, and fatigue

• Dissolves energy blockages

• Can help to reach, accomplish your goals

• Energizes the body

• Helps to get a restful sleep

• Promotes harmony and balance

• Helps to promote spiritual growth

• Deep sense of wellbeing.

Yes, Reiki treatment is welcomed by developing babies. They usually move to the hand gently placed on the mother’ tummy and they become quite active.

Extreme caution or denial to treatment can occur to individuals with pacemaker and Type 1 and 2 diabetes. Reiki is balancing the body’s functions including heart rhythm and insulin production. You should consult your doctor with the mentioned conditions prior booking a Reiki treatment and you need close monitoring of your insulin levels after the treatment. You should always declare your conditions to your Reiki practitioner prior treatment. Failing to do so can lead to life threatening situation.

Sometimes the experience of Reiki is profound, while for some people, the first session may be uneventful, although they feel somehow better afterward. The most common experience is an almost immediate release of stress and a feeling of deep relaxation. People can be affected up to a week after treatment. Some people benefit from a one-off treatment and return only monthly to promote their wellbeing while others might start off with more frequent treatments to help with healing, pain relief or for other reasons. Every person is different and have different ways of healing.

The most common effects of Reiki after treatments:

• You feel balanced and being in harmony

• Feeling relaxed, grounded, and aligned

• Energized

• Sleepy

• Thirsty

• Lethargy, feeling tired (usually when you have lots of emotional release)

• You can feel dizziness and nausea (due to negative energy release and detox of the body),

• Light headache

• Itchiness

• Feeling happy, content

• Free of pain which was present at beginning of treatment.

Depending if you are a client visiting a practitioner or are a practitioner there are many ways of utilizing this beautiful energy. Most people use Reiki for healing, emotional release, detox, spiritual awakening and achieving one’s goals. However, you can use it for a variety of many other things, the list is endless and open to your imagination. Here are some of them listed below

• Unblocking stagnant energy within body

• Pain relief

• Emotional release

• Chakra clearing and balancing

• Support wellbeing

• Body and mind detox

• Spiritual growth

• You can treat mummy and baby during pregnancy (baby usually moves where the hand is placed to administer Reiki)

• Achieve desired goals

• Animal wellbeing (You can give Reiki treatment to your fur babies)

• Use it to start up your flat car battery, (I used it for my lawn mower and to fix our Keurig coffee machine too)

• Boost the wellbeing of your house plants

• Send Reiki to future events (Like job interview)

• Clear spaces and blessing them

• Send Reiki to people on the other side of the world

• Send Reiki to your past to heal / resolve a situation

• To feel balanced and in harmony with inner self

• Meditate and get a deeper connection to your inner self

• And the list goes on.

During a Reiki energy healing session, the practitioner releases the blockages and promotes the healthy flow of energy in the body. During treatment you are fully clothed and covered with a sheet / blanket and have a pillow under your head and bolster under your knees for your extra comfort. We request to remove all jewelry, crystals for the time of treatment as they can absorb and store both negative and positive energies. The practitioner makes swooping movements to comb the aura, scan the body by moving hand above it to feel energy blockages from head to toe, placing hands slightly above the body or gently on the body at certain points to establish the energy flow during the treatment. The practitioner might place crystals on body prior treatment to enhance benefits.

At Mixed-Reiki treatments we also use / place weighted solfeggio tuning forks on the body (actually, on the crystals) at the chakra points to enhance the treatment along spinning Crystal pyramid above the body, followed by some sound healing tools such as 528Hz crystal singing bowl, Koshi chimes, bar chimes and Tingsha Bells. You can feel the powerful vibration of these tools and energy pulsation through your body.

Everyone experiences different things. These are some but not the only experiences you might come across during treatment.

• Deep relaxation

• Seeing colors against closed eyelids during a Reiki session is common when the person is highly relaxed. The colors themselves are an indication that you are letting go and you are aware of the energy flowing through your body. These colors are associated with the 'Chakras' which are the energy centers of the body;

• Warm or cold feeling where the Reiki practitioner places hands (can get hot when you are pulling lots of energy)

• Relief from pain

• Feeling a rush of energy to move in / through your body

• Tummy might make sounds

• You might feel emotional and sometimes cry

• Falling asleep

• Might settle emotional outstanding matters with peace and understanding within yourself

• You might not feel anything during treatment (very rare) as Reiki is a very subtle, gentle energy

In my experience those people have more health or emotional issues usually have more vivid experiences during and or after Reiki treatment.

The below three are the most common Reiki treatments in use:

• In person treatment, one to one with practitioner. Client laying on a treatment table fully clothed and covered with sheet or blanket, pillow under head.

• Long distance treatment where the client is physically not present (other side of the world, in hospital, child who is not able to stay still, contagious at home, etc.) and the practitioner conducts the treatment through a surrogate (mostly used a teddy bear method)

• Paper method, where the practitioner writes sacred symbols with the client’s name and intention on a paper and sends Reiki through that to the client or situation.

There are some more methods out there like several Reiki masters administering healing to one client at same time in person. This is mainly used for people with terminal or other serious illnesses in hospitals. This either will help to get better or helps to gain peace within to be able to join the spirit realm. There is also a method used through visualization.

Yes, pets love the soothing energy of Reiki. They usually fidget around until the practitioner’s hand is at the most needed position (mainly speaking about cats and dogs). Some animals are not suitable for one-to-one Reiki like fish, snakes, aggressive animals but they can benefit from long-distance Reiki treatment.

Yes, you certainly can! If you run out of ideas of how to help your plant, you can do Reiki for them. E.g.: I had a three-tier bush where one tier dried out and lost all leaves. I put my hands around it to send Reiki a few times and a week later I had new leaves started growing. You need to be attuned to Reiki level 2 to be able to channel the Reiki, unless you are naturally gifted.

Yes, Reiki naturally unblocks stagnant energy and promotes energy flow within all chakras. During your Reiki treatment this naturally happens. Reiki practitioners can pick up on blocked chakras while scanning your aura at the beginning of your treatment. This can be just running their hand above your body or with a use of a crystal pendulum. They might give Reiki to the blocked chakras before starting the full treatment.

Sound bowl healing is often practiced in the form of sound baths. A sound bath is a healing ritual using instruments from around the world. The sound waves released by the bowls induce a feeling of deep relaxation and healing. Some healers also add drums, other instruments, and their own voices into the mix. Many different sound bowls can be used like brass or metal alloy but increasingly popular and very beneficial is to use crystal singing bowls. The special healing energies in these crystals are released when the bowls are played.

In a typical sound bowl healing session, you will be asked to lie down or sit in a comfortable position. The instructor will play the instruments while asking you to keep your eyes closed. Sound bowls are usually made from brass, metal alloys, or quartz crystal. They will strike the bowl first. Then, they will run their mallet around its rim to release the soothing sounds.

While doing this, they may also heighten your relaxed state through guided meditation or visualizations. Different healers often combine sound bowl healing with other alternative healing techniques, like Reiki and or tuning forks. Along using crystal bowls, they may use essential oils in a diffuser to enhance the experience.

Singing crystal bowls are mostly made of a natural element: pure quartz. These crystals are molded to shape at 4000 degrees, which is a temperature at which most impurities are burned away. Different methods of manufacturing are used for different kinds of quartz singing bowls. For example, to make frosted bowls, the mold is spun into shape, whereas to make clear bowls, quartz tubing is used. Singing bowls may also be manufactured using different kinds of quartz. For example, rose quartz singing bowls are a popular variation.

During the manufacturing process, it is very important to consider the tone of the sound that will be produced by the end product. Frosted bowls have an octave higher tone when compared to clear quartz singing bowls.

Each quartz singing bowl is digitally matched to the musical scale - C, D, E, F, G, A, B - which relates to different chakras of your body. Bigger bowls produce deeper sounds which have a more grounding effect and resonate more strongly with the physical aspect. Smaller bowls have a higher pitch which stimulates higher chakras and resonates more with the spiritual aspect.

Just about anyone can benefit from sound bowl healing. It is recommended for

• People who would like to deepen their mediation experience

• Relaxation

• Those suffering from chronic pain

• People with sleep disorders like insomnia

• Those with a high-stress lifestyle or anxiety

• Chakra alignment, balancing

• Releasing emotional blockages

• Connecting to inner self.

In addition to relaxation, people say singing bowl sound therapy can help:

• Lessen chronic pain

• Improve sleep

• Reduce anger

• Improve blood pressure

• Improve respiratory rate

• Reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression

• Promotes feeling of wellbeing

• Feeling more balanced

• Improve symptoms of some neurological disorders such as fibromyalgia and Parkinson's disease

• Receive intuitive thoughts / downloads

• Connect to inner self

• Release emotional blockages

• and many more.

The natural origins of quartz crystal are fascinating. Two well-known elements, silica (Si02) and water (H20), join naturally under heat and pressure to create the crystalline structure we call “quartz crystal". This creation of nature can also be easily manufactured under controlled conditions, which is where many of the crystal singing bowls we see today come from, as well as the microchips that enable all our modern technology to work. Quartz crystal has a piezoelectric quality that enables it, when placed under pressure, to amplify, transform, store, and transfer energy. This is why quartz crystal is the most integral and necessary component in electronics that allows computers, phones, and other electronics to work. Without the unique structure of quartz crystal these modern advancements would not be possible. The crystalline elements of quartz crystal are also present within our bodies. In this way the resonant vibration of crystal singing bowls has a powerful and impactful effect on the resonant frequency of our physical bodies. Generating resonant tones from quartz crystal singing bowls enables the crystalline structure within our bodies to resonate at the same frequency, thus re-establishing balance, and harmony at a vibrational and energetic level.

A Paper Reiki Intention is a form of focused, Long-Distance Reiki and can be used for many intentions from improving health to aiding with financial improvements, the limit is your imagination.

Long-Distance Reiki is widely used for healing for those that cannot be present, however, Paper Reiki Intentions can be used for the same reasons (among many others) but instead of one-off full treatment, you are able to channel Reiki energy in smaller doses daily for your intention, which is also more cost-effective.

First you discuss your intention with the Reiki practitioner, she/he writes it on a paper along with some sacred Reiki symbols. (Usually there are 3 sub-intentions, however they need to be related to the main intention). The paper is held in the palm and sent Reiki to for three days to set the intentions. From the fourth day the paper is placed into a box along with other intentions, each read out once a day and sent Reiki to collectively through the box. This treatment can continue for as long as you wish.