Reiki & The Inner Critic
Weird subject, huh?
I’ve been experimenting with stuff I never thought I’d experiment with,… like sound bowls, tarot cards, and… buttons. I’ve also received some Reiki at some of these events as well as watched some live streamers doing Reiki.
Now,… Reiki practitioners, so far in my experience, seem to Believe in Reiki being a spiritual energy you can funnel into yourself just by intending to do so. There are lots of very specific claims about how this energy works and how to use it. I don’t feel very compelled to tow the line in terms of their description of WHY Reiki is.
For me, I experience Reiki as something I am not very tempted to describe, enumerate, or articulate (yet here I am attempting to articulate it nonetheless). I do get something out of Reiki. Is it because I’m pulling in spiritual energy into my blocked chakras? Or is it more likely, in my opinion, because Reiki gives you a framework for having an action to do to process emotion from your body? Or that Reiki helps you tune your attention? Or that Reiki may involve kind, non-demanding touch? Or… there are a lot of other explanations I have for the benefits I feel from Reiki. I was just thinking last night about the power of Pretend to influence your perspective and psychological health.
Pretending doesn’t mean it’s not real. If you PRETEND to be an all powerful CEO during a "scene”, you are potentially rehearsing to become that all power CEO in the “real world”. Plus the power of attention and intention aimed at the body and mind is very transformative in terms of our internal experience and peace. I am not sure that the term “spiritual energies” is necessary in all of this, but I’m enjoying fucking around and finding out.
So I think I’ll keep on dabbling, though, you won’t hear me preaching about chakras, auras, or reiki as the new gospel. For example, this morning I was driving the kiddo to school and we were talking about ADHD. She said as a passing comment that ADHD is something you’re born with. I’ve read a bit of Gabor Maté and I’m convinced otherwise. I think it can be caused by trauma and life experiences. I challenged the kiddo and said that I’ve been reading up on it and have heard others talk about it being something that happens in childhood. I barely finished my sentence and she says, “NO!” I’m like, “no, really, I’ve been reading up on it.” “NO. HA!” It concerned me how close minded she was for identifying with a disenfranchised and pathologized community like the neurodivergents. I pushed back and said, “I understand your opinion; however, you haven’t read this book and are being very quick to say NO which isn’t very open-minded.” She backed off and so, whatever.
However, after that, I was ruminating and upset inside. After I dropped her off at school, I paused and tried to find my anger in my body. I found it on the left side of my diaphragm. So I put my hand there and imagined I was sending understanding and compassion to my anger. I then put my other hand over my heart, a place I’ve symbolically placed my source of compassion. And I imagined that compassion from my heart was pouring into my anger. And it was helpful. And I think that was Reiki. Was it the touch that worked? Or was it that I had something to do to process my emotions and my reactions that wasn’t just to swallow it up? I’m guessing the latter.
Anyways, I got a ways into that Reiki book before I got mentally exhausted from having to trim out the parts that I found to be utterly underexplained claims of supernatural things. So I switched to another book called “How to Tame the Inner Critic”. Boy, that was a good pick! I began devouring it and plan to read a bunch more today! It’s PERFECT. It’s really aiming at this thing I’ve been slowly identifying in my mind… this constant pessimism, depression, anxiety, fear, hopelessness, hate, frustration, gaslighting, second-guessing. This book really is laying out a great way to understand and interact with it. Now I’m not opposed to Eastern philosophies but parts of it I get and parts of it I don’t. To some extent, I think I’ll always rely a bit on Western philosophy. So this book really was just more upfront and plain about the issue, invoking less spiritual terminology and unsubstantiated metaphysical claims. Very excited to read more!
