I dint belive in Reiki until I accidentally tried it!
I never meant to try Reiki
If someone had told me 20 years ago that I would one day become a Reiki teacher, I would have thought they had completely lost the plot. At the time, I was working as the General Manager of a law firm, I came from a family with plenty of doctors, and I was firmly in the camp of believing in things that could be explained, measured and scientifically proven. I certainly wasn't someone who would have knowingly booked a Reiki session. In fact, I would have been one of those people quietly rolling my eyes when someone started talking about energy.
My first Reiki experience happened completely by accident.
I had bought a GrabOne voucher for a massage. When I arrived for my session the lovely practitioner showed me her menu of treatments and asked what I would like. I skimmed through the options and spotted Reiki. The description mentioned that it was Japanese, so thats what I selected. The practitioner then asked me whether I had experienced Reiki before. I told her I went regularly, thinking it was a deep tissue massage like Shiatsu.
I lay down, fully clothed, and the session began. I soon discovered that Reiki was not a massage at all and completely unlike anything I had experienced before - even now I find it difficult to describe properly. That is one of the interesting things about Reiki. You can explain what happens during a session, you can talk about the history and traditions behind it, but none of that really tells you what it feels like. In the end, it is something you have to experience for yourself.
For me, the most remarkable part was what happened to my mind. I have a very busy, overactive ADHD brain with a constant stream of thoughts, ideas, etc. My mind rarely seems to stop. Yet during that Reiki session, it became quiet. Not just a little quieter, but genuinely still.
The best way I can describe the feeling is that it was as though someone had reached inside my head, taken everything out, given it a really good dust and clean, and then put it all back where it belonged. Like a super-efficient librarian who knows exactly where everything goes. Afterwards I felt calm, centred and organised in a way that was completely unfamiliar to me. I remember walking out and thinking wow this is what normal people must feel like!
The feeling stayed with me for days afterwards. That was probably the point at which my curiosity really kicked in. I wanted to know exactly what happened and how it all worked. So I booked in for a Reiki course, Needless to say it didnt answer all my questions, but it did put me on the path and over time Reiki became a much bigger part of my life than I could ever have imagined. I began teaching it, researching its history and traditions, even travelling to Japan .
I certainly never set out to become a Reiki teacher. I didn't even set out to have a Reiki treatment. But I'm rather glad I did!
Sirpa Gunn
Reiki Master Teacher
