Difficult Times
Reiki came into my life at a difficult juncture. At that time, we were trying to have children and children did not materialise. It is funny how one takes certain things for granted and when life takes a different turn, you can in hindsight realise that it was the best thing that happened. Of course, in those days, I was not aware of so many spiritual truths, as I have come to realise over the years. I now know, that what happened, happened according to my deepest beliefs. I did not attract children into my life for very specific reasons that are completely known to me, today. My life was meant to move in a different direction…
So, leading up to discovering Reiki I was very sad, depressed and lost and I did not know how to heal myself from this.
Discovering Reiki
One day in 1997 I went to a mind, body and soul festival in London and there was a stall there with people offering mini Reiki treatments, to try it. I was attracted to the stall. It seemed like a good idea, as I was so sad and felt so helpless. I sat down to have my treatment. The treatment brought up so many of my emotions, yet it felt very calming, soothing and healing at the same time. That was the start of my interest in Reiki. I wanted to learn it for my self. The only thing was, that I had a feeling that it would occupy a great space in my life and I was at that time on a 9 month Reflexology course and decided with this intuition that I would wait until I finished the course or else I may never complete it. I qualified in Reflexology on the 14th of February 1998 and I booked my self on a Reiki 1, on the 28th of February. The course of my life had been set in that moment…
Reiki healing and Reiki courses at Living in the Light, in Little Clacton, near Colchester, Ipswich and Chelmsford, in Essex.. Image from www.pixabay.com
Reiki 1
As the Reiki course date arrived, I felt excited and yet nervous at the same time. The course was held in a venue, in Colchester, Essex. There were several of us on the course and the Reiki Master, Peter was very nice. He proceeded to tell us about Dr Usui, the founder of Reiki, the history of Reiki, how it worked and we also did meditation. We learned that Reiki works through intention and that energy follows thought. We were all nervous and excited when the time came to receive our initiation into Reiki. Peter gave us 4 attunements. During the initiations I had many feelings and had some psychic visions. We learned how to do self-healing and we did partner healing and many relevant things pertaining to Reiki. We all really enjoyed the course. Peter explained the 21 day cleansing process to us, whereby the lower energy gets replaced by the higher Reiki energy and it would take a little time to settle and that it may bring on flu-like symptoms, we may cleanse through the bladder and the bowel, we may feel more emotional than usual, feel like being on our own for a while in nature. All those things were normal during the cleansing process, he said.
I felt I had received a beautiful gift. I left the 2 day course on a high. It felt as if I was walking on air. As I came out of the course, I noticed the clouds and felt very connected to them, bizarrely, as if we we were one. I was in a state of interconnectedness, that I years later realised, is the state of enlightenment, only I had received a glimpse of that state. A new world was opening up to me…
The cleansing process started immediately but it had a more powerful effect than I could ever have imagined. From the day of leaving the class, I did not drink alcohol or coffee ever again. The same happened to tea, except for many years later, on the rare occasion when I was somewhere where there were no herbal teas, then I would have weak black tea. Reiki also made me lose the taste for eating red meat, and I subsequently became vegetarian for 6 years. The taste for all those things literally fell away upon being initiated into Reiki. I have no explanation for this, other than it was a cleansing process. I had never thought of giving any of those things up prior to Reiki.
Peter had told us to not get out of bed until we had done a 1 hour Reiki treatment and I followed his advice. He told us that there was no need to set the alarm for 1 hour because if we intended it, he said that we would naturally finish within the hour. When I did my first self-treatment that was exactly what happened. I marvelled at how this could be so. Best of all, it was lovely to feel so peaceful. Reiki also helped my back, I have mild scoliosis and my back was aching also from stress, whilst in my previous job. One day when I looked down at my feet, I realised that my bunions had disappeared. It also had a tremendously positive effect on my mind and my emotions.
As time went by, I became fascinated with Reiki. I became calmer, less emotional, more balanced and harmonious. Gradually Reiki had also awaked me to spirituality. I connected with Reiki at a very deep level. After 3 months, I learned Reiki 2, on a one-to-one basis, with Peter and the mental/emotional energy within Reiki 2, became my best friend. It really helped me to keep my emotions balanced and together with meditation, it was the start of becoming much more peaceful. Many people perhaps don’t value peace above other things but I do, due to the household I grew up in. I seeked peace above all else. In fact since my teens, being peaceful, has been my ambition in life. Now I had the tools with meditation that I had been and still practice since 1996 and with Reiki. I was well on the way to become my inspired vision of a peaceful person.
Reiki 2
Reiki 2 inspired me to set up a Reiki healing practice, which I did. There were so many mystical things that I began to experience, in connection with Reiki, that made me reflect deeply on the Universal Energy, we call God. I witnessed so many wonderful healings in my clients, including healing from a life threatening condition, worked with people who had severe mental trauma, to back pains, shoulder injuries and all the range of psychosomatically symptoms. I could not get enough of Reiki, I needed to do more courses and learn more. I really wanted to understand deeply how it worked.
Reiki Masters
The next step was Reiki Masters but I did not feel I knew enough to become a Reiki Master. I began to seek out other Reiki masters and came across another course, which was an advanced course in Reiki, with another Reiki Master, who had helped me with a pertinent question early on. I booked myself on the course. When I got there, this Reiki master’s style was very different from Peter’s. I never expected that Allan’s teachings would be so different from Peter’s. He imparted a huge amount of information that helped me to understand healing on a deeper level but at the same time it caused confusion, as they almost seemed like two different topics. I thought if I do his Reiki 1 and 2 then perhaps everything would make more sense. I did these courses and I decided to stay with Allan as my Reiki master and continued to the Reiki Masters course, which I did and also Karuna Reiki. Following all these courses, my clients experienced very good results.
Original Usui Reiki Training
As I was still confused by the differences in the two Reiki styles, in February 2000. I attended Japanese Reiki Training, near Scotland. This course helped enormously because this Reiki master had learned with Allan’s Reiki master and also understood Peter’s ways. In truth, this course bridged the gap and enabled me to understand both sides and led to the setting myself up, as a Reiki teacher. I started teaching Reiki and loved and still love every minute of it. In October 2002, I learned ‘Original Usui Reiki’ and thus completed my Reiki learning. This course opened up insight into Usui’s original form of Reiki, which is very different from Western Reiki. Since then I teach both styles, on my 2 day Reiki courses.
The Impact of Reiki
In my 22 years of involvement with Reiki (at the time of writing), I have met many lovely students and clients. It is a privilege and joy to put students on the spiritual path and to see them grow spiritually, get strong mentally and emotionally. Some stay with Reiki and some use it as a stepping stone to something else. Reiki can be helpful towards your spiritual evolution. In either case, it is lovely to see the impact of Reiki in people’s lives and I am still in contact with some of my early students, which is lovely, as it has enabled me to witness their life unfold in marvellous ways. Reiki has also empowered me to listen deeply to peoples’s energy field and has along with meditation contributed to my deep insight and intuition. Insight and intuition allows me tailor the courses to my students’ needs and in addition it facilitates the service I can give to clients. What is marvellous is that the courses that I run enable me to play a small part in people’s life journey and help them towards their self-healing.
Reiki made me increasingly interested in spirituality and subsequently led me to my spiritual teacher Amma, and from there to my authentic Self and to the embodying of love, peace and joy. I am very aware that one has in truth, no idea where things will lead, when one starts out with something. Often it has far reaching effects…The thing that I know for sure is, that if you hold a clear vision of your heart’s desire consistently for a long period of time, then it will begin to manifest your vision.
Today I am delighted to say that I am the person, I seeked to be. Today I am a peaceful being, thanks to meditation, Reiki, Amma, all the consistent application of the teachings and thanks to my diligence, in adhering to my vision. I wanted to be peaceful so fervently, that I never lost sight of this vision, since my teenage years and gradually worked towards it and here we are…
Reiki is a lovely healing art that is very nurturing, gentle and balancing to your entire being. If you have never tried Reiki, then you may just have missed something that could benefit your entire being. Reiki works on all levels of a person’s being and can be of great benefit to release stress - the precursor for many diseases. I offer Reiki treatments and Reiki courses, for the good of your entire being at Living in the Light, Little Clacton, near Colchester, Ipswich and Chelmsford, Essex.
For more information about Reiki healing and Reiki courses, please click here www.katarinatilley.co.uk/reiki