Have you ever wondered why you instinctually grab your hand or finger with the other hand to soothe the pulsating and crushing feeling after slamming it against the wall; or how you instinctually grasp your foot with both hands after kicking a hard surface?

Well, it turns out that “hands-on” healing is instinctual to the human race and dates thousands of years ago.

But how is this possible?

Keep reading to learn more to discover how this “hands-on” healing has been taken up a notch higher by the Japanese philosophy of Reiki!

What Is Reiki?

Reiki is a Japanese word that loosely translates to “universal life force energy”. According to the Japanese Kanji alphabet, Rei signifies spiritual consciousness, essence, spirit, transcendental or universal. In contrast, Ki means the vital, non-physical life force energy that animates every living creature. Ki is the primary energy of your spiritual life, thoughts, and emotions.

In essence, Reiki is a subtle form of energy therapy generally practiced by layering on of hands or light touching either on or slightly above the patient’s body by placing hands within the various sheaths of the auric field (like the onion layers of a subtle body). 

Reiki is the act of administering prana (unseen energy or ‘life force’) that flows through the crown chakra from the universal life force and out from the portals (your hands) to stream to the person to whom you are administering treatment. 

In so doing, the universal energy, Ki, is said to flow from the practitioner’s hands to the patient’s body to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual healing.

While Reiki is highly effective alone, you can enhance its effectiveness by combining it with Yoga.

But…

Why Do Reiki And Yoga Make A Perfect Combination?

Reiki and Yoga can be used alongside one another to help you experience ultimate transformation. Yoga, for one, is a practice that can be likened to peeling off the layers of an onion. As you shed one layer after the other, the more you unravel and discover about yourself. While this process can be a bit scary, it can be empowering.

Now Reiki comes in at the point where you need to apply that bit of energy in between these sensitive layers. In other words, once you have shed enough layers to the point where you are totally open to receiving, Reiki will penetrate to the area of your spirit, mind, and body where it is most needed, and this response can be life-changing.

The question is…

How Do You Incorporate Reiki Into Yoga?

There are a couple of ways you can combine Yoga and Reiki, even in your personal practice at any time. Suppose you are performing Restorative Yoga or Yin. In that case, you can perform Reiki as you hold your poses by laying hands on your feet or shoulders during Savasana. 

Restorative Yoga is a yoga practice that is primarily focused on slowing down and opening the body through passive stretching. Watch the video below by Yoga With Bird to learn how to perform restorative Yoga.

Savasana entails gradually relaxing one muscle at a time, one body part at a time as well as one thought at a time.

If you are in a Reiki class, you can incorporate universal energy and inhaling light into your body. As you perform the holds and poses, propel your energy towards your spaces. For example, suppose you are performing the Ujjayi breath. In that case, you can incorporate Reiki by sending warm energy towards specific areas of your body when you hold your breath.

There is another way to incorporate Yoga and Reiki…

Yin Reiki Yoga

Yin Yoga with Reiki is a calming practice that brings together some carefully chosen types of gentle Yin Yoga held for about 3 to 5 minutes. A gentle and slow-moving yoga session is the perfect combination for experiencing Reiki. The Reiki is incorporated using the imposition of your hands to boost and support the cleansing processes and natural healing in your body. The long holds of ground asanas in Yin Yoga give you time to spend a moment with yourself in the stillness of your body and mind. All in all, the practice of Yin Reiki Yoga increases the flow of Reiki energy in your life.

Pairing Reiki practice with Yoga amplifies the effects of Reiki based healing. This exclusive and unique combination, a signature of The Yoga Trail, promotes Ki and Prana (the flow of life energy) to remove unbalances and blockages in the chakras while also re-establishing well being and inner peace. 

This experience of Yin Yoga with Reiki is truly unique because it helps bring a restored feeling of well-being, improves your immune function, balances one or more chakras, helps alleviate pain, enhances relaxation, leads to lighter thoughts and intuitive insights.

You can as well give your practice an exciting twist by using Reiki Yoga meditation.

Reiki Yoga Meditation

Reiki Yoga Meditation is a form of meditation that incorporates Reiki practices to help you unleash the universal energy in your body and achieve a quiet and silence in your mind. This meditative energy is loving and healing at the same time. It entails mantras and symbols to facilitate your meditative experience.

Indeed, there is no better way to improve the efficiency of your ‘Ki energy pump’ than with Reiki yoga meditation. Ki energy can be likened to a furnace. If you are to keep the fire burning and generate enough heat, you stoke the fire, add more fuel, and get rid of the ashes that develop from time to time. And this is exactly what Reiki Yoga Meditation does. It builds your Ki energy, then circulates it throughout the different chakras (energy centers) around your body.

Let me briefly explain some of the Reiki Yoga poses that you can use.

Reiki Yoga Poses

These powerful Reiki Yoga poses help align and open up your energy centers or the chakras of your body.

1^st Chakra (Sahasrara) – Crown

The crown promotes vastness and humility, and it mainly focuses on service and self-awareness. Yoga exercises include Pranayama, maha bandha, sat kriya, and meditating.

Sitali Pranayama

• Roll your tongue to form a tube-like shape. Breathe in through the mouth and inhale all the air you possibly can.
• Lift your tongue to the roof of your mouth and shut your lips, then breathe out through your nose.

• Repeat 5 to 10 times.

2^nd Chakra (Anja) -Third Eye

The third eye promotes vastness and humility, and it mainly focuses on service and self-awareness. Yoga exercises include all kinds of poses where your forehead rests on the floor, archer pose, and meditating.

Meditation

• Lie down or sit down with your back straight comfortably on a mat.
• Be as calm, relaxed, and composed as possible, with your eyes closed.
• Breathe in deeply and imagine that you are breathing in all the goodness and happiness you need.
• Breathe out deeply a few seconds later with the thought that negative emotions such as anxiety, fear, and depression are exiting your body. Repeat this pattern a couple of times.

3^rd Chakra (Visshuda) – Throat

The throat promotes the projective power of the word, and it mainly focuses on creativity, listening, and communication. Yoga exercises include neck stretches, camel pose, plow pose, and cobra pose.

Cobra Pose

• Lie prone on a mat with the tops of the feet touching the floor and legs stretched back. Stretch your hands behind under your shoulders on the floor.
• Press the tops of your thighs and feet, and pubis into the mat.

• Breathe in and straighten your arms to lift your chest off the floor. Press your tailbone towards your pubis. Lift the pubis towards your navel.
• Puff your side ribs forward as you firmly press your shoulder blades against your back. Distribute the curvature of your back throughout the entire spine. Stay in that posture for about half a minute and then release as you breathe out.

4^th Chakra (Anahata) – Heart

The heart promotes love and compassion, and it mainly focuses on caring for those around you. Yoga exercises include breathing exercises, upper torso twists, and arm-balance poses.

Anulom Vilom

• Sit in a Padmasana position and close your eyes.
• Close the right nostril using your right thumb, then slowly breathe in using the left nostril. Take in as much air as you can to fill your lungs.

• Remove the thumb from your nose and breathe out. As you do so, use your middle finger to close the left nostril. Now breathe in with the right nostril. Remove the thumb from the right nostril, then breathe out. Repeat this for 2 to 5 minutes.

5^th Chakra (Manipura) – Navel

The navel promotes balance and action, and it mainly focuses on logic and thoughts. Yoga exercises include dancers pose, fish pose, bow pose, and movements that strengthen the core.

Fish pose

• Lie down on your back.
• With your forearms flat on the mat, come up to your elbows and ensure that your upper arms are perpendicular to the floor.
• Move your body towards the back of the mat and maintain your forearms in place. Puff your chest up by tucking your shoulder blades and rolling your shoulders back.

• Press your palms against the mat and lower the (crown) top of your head back until it makes contact with the floor.
• Keep your toes active and your legs engaged throughout.
• To end the pose, strongly press into your forearms and lift your head off the floor, then lift your upper body off the mat.

6^th Chakra (Svathistana) – Sacral

The sacral promotes creativity, and it mainly focuses on empathy, feelings and emotions. Yoga exercises include maha mudra, sat lriya, butterfly and cobra pose.

Butterfly pose

• In a seated position, bring the soles of your feet together. Keep your abs tightly pulled in and spine tall.
• Grab each foot with your hands. Place your elbows against your inner thighs.

• Elongate your spine, then breathe in. As you begin to slowly breathe out, lower your torso and hold for half a minute when you feel the stretch.

7^th Chakra (Muladhara) – Root

The root promotes survival and security, and it mainly focuses on speed of action. Yoga exercises include chair pose, cat pose, crow pose, and front body stretches. 

Chair pose

• Stand tall with your feet hip-distance apart.
• Breathe out as you move your hips back and bend your knees as though you are sitting on a chair. Move your lower abdomen inwards and upwards to support the lower back.
• Move your hips back instead of sending your knees forward.

• Raise your hands up around your ears as you breathe in.
• Try to reach as high as you can while sitting as low as possible. Hold in that position for 5 to 10 breaths.
• Now breathe out as you press your feet firmly against the floor to straighten your legs. Bring your hands back down.

Conclusion

Now that you are equipped with the basics of how Yoga and Reiki help unblock and awaken your life force energy, you can see the good it can do to you when both are combined. Targeting Reiki on specific areas of your body while breathing and holding through Yoga poses to also target those problem areas summons power that generates a potent surge of prana that can veritably catapult your spirit, body, and mind to a more invigorating and enlightened plane.