I have been practicing meditation for well over a decade, yoga for nearly as long, and Reiki for about 17 years now. It didn’t take long for me to see some very natural interrelationships between these practices. For example, all three practices incorporate the practice of being present, observing the movement of energy and working with the breath.
It leads me through a beautiful energetic heart-centering movement, where I placed each hand on the side of my head near the ears, gathering the energy (thoughts and sensations that arise in the mind) together and bringing them first to my third eye area and then down to the heart. This allows me to bring the energy into my heart and allows me to live from its center, rather than simply from the thinking/conceptualizing/dualistic energy of mind.
Holding my hands together at the heart is also a practice shared in Reiki, when we meditate with our hands in gassho. The word gassho means “two hands coming together” and represents the union of our ordinary self with our enlightened self. In Yoga it’s Namaskar Mudra.
Being a Reiki practitioner, it felt very natural for me to work with my hands in this manner and sense the energy flow. It’s like a switch that turns on, and I never quite know what might happen, but trust that it will be beneficial. During this meditative movement, I could feel the energy entering my heart and saw a small flame being lit. I also received a message: send your light out into the world. It was a lovely, transformative moment.
During the practice, I saw opportunities for both breath and Reiki hands to do their magic. My upper back/shoulders were very tight, which made holding some of the asanas rather challenging. Just as we can channel Reiki with our hands, we can also send Reiki with the out-breath. In yoga, breath (pranayama) is also a vital component of practice, linking movement, energy and awareness together. The breath also gives us the space to go deeper into asanas. If we hold our breath, we are not oxygenating our tissues and muscles, and are holding tension in the body.
The yogic breath and Reiki breathing allow energy to penetrate and release blocked movement. (Always, always
listen to what your body is telling you!) I also was able at times to place my hand on certain areas of my body, such as my spine when supporting certain asanas, which allowed me to send Reiki to those areas to balance and stimulate energetic movement.
I love these opportunities for discovery because they demonstrate for me so clearly that Reiki and Yoga are not something we “do” – it’s something we are. We become these practices and live them the more we find ways to explore and integrate them more fully into our everyday life. Reiki is not simply something we do when we place our hands on our body or on another’s to channel energy, just as yoga is not merely a series of moves performed on a mat.
They comprise an approach to living for centering and interlinking the mind, body and spirit so they function optimally as one.
The practice of Reiki and Yoga go hand in hand. The practice of Yoga increases the flow of Reiki energy in a persons life. Yoga helps a person understand Reiki in a much deeper way. Reiki helps a person understand the
deeper energies of Yoga.