Hi – Jerry here. 🙂 I am starting a new feature on my blog of guest posts from Reiki students where they share their experiences with Reiki and how Reiki has impacted their lives. Stacy was in one of my first Reiki attunement classes when I started teaching back in 2013. Stacy is warm, funny and highly inquisitive. She has a wonderful zest for exploring life through travel. She is the one who introduced me to Sedona, Arizona, a magical place with glowing red rocks, vortexes and fresh air that sings to my heart this day. I have so enjoyed seeing her journey with Reiki and spirituality over the years and I’m super flattered that she agreed to write about her Reiki experience for my blog. She currently lives in Melbourne, Australia and I have decided to leave the AUS spellings in place because it is a reflection of who she is now. Enjoy reading!
Stacy and Jerry with Stacy’s brother in Sedona just before Stacy left for her international travels. October 2014.
My Reiki Story: Stacy Armistead
When I heard there was this ‘form of healing’ that didn’t require touching someone, I thought “how can that do anything?” I was so intrigued I had to test the waters myself, so I signed up for a course. That led me to Jerry with whom I have since completed Reiki Level I and II.
In Level I, while other students were seeing colours, feeling heat in their hands or having visions of flowers while practising on classmates, I felt nothing, and quickly came to the conclusion it wasn’t for me. But thankfully I didn’t feel I was walking away empty-handed because at the end, I befriended Jerry.
It was a year later when I shared with her my plans to leave Chicago and go traveling for a few months that she said “it would be so good to do Reiki level 2 before you go backpacking. I’m doing a class before you leave.” I didn’t understand what I would get out of Level 2, and why it would be good to do it before traveling, but I felt a little voice in my head (which I know acknowledge as my higher self) tell me to sign up, so I did.
After Reiki II, my faculties unlocked enough for me to feel energy between my hands. This was equal parts creepy, and cool. Since I could feel the energy this time, I was more compelled to use it. While traveling, I used reiki on myself to relieve menstrual cramps and calm an intense sunburn; after this, I was sold. After traveling and settling in a new city, I joined a Reiki Meetup group to meet new friends and to practise Reiki on others. Through this group, self practise and getting Reiki once a month from a Reiki Master, I began to feel and experience shifts in terms of how I perceived and processed things.
While it’s common for healers to feel heat, cold or tingling, I often feel the energy as a strong pulse or rhythmic wave through different parts of my body when I work on others, and at times have:
- Felt others’ emotions/feelings
- Felt others’ pain in my body where they are experiencing it
- Channeled, meaning I experience my head moving in space or my body rocking like a pendulum, but I’m not initiating it
- Received a message when spirit turns my head to a specific direction so that my gaze falls on objects in the room that help me form a symbolic message for the person I’m working on
I’ve seen others who, upon getting attuned to the Reiki energy, immediately start receiving psychic messages, or sense auras. That made me feel inadequate or not suited for Reiki, but as I’ve learned through my personal experiences, we all have the ability to tap into these powers–the journey and the timeline just looks different for everyone.
For those who are considering exploring Reiki, the advice I can offer is this:
1) Have patience, and practise on regularly–on yourself and others, but especially on yourself.
2) If you find you’re comparing your abilities to others because you feel inferior, hang out with those people. They will open your mind to what’s possible, and you will learn from them.
