Reiki Stories: How I Found Reiki

Ever since joining the Reiki World, over a decade ago, I’ve loved sharing my Reiki story with others in my tight-knit Reiki communities, both my local crowd and those I’ve met in the many online Reiki groups that I'm a member of. And, I love hearing all the different and fascinating stories of how my friends found Reiki. Or, as it seems more often than not – how Reiki found them.

I’ve heard plenty of Reiki stories over the years and none of them were boring.

They are different to the stories you hear of how most people find their calling or their hobbies (“….I’ve always wanted to play the guitar/learn to knit/grow my own cucumbers…”).

For most people that I know, finding Reiki came as an out of the blue surprise. Reiki does tend to catch people off guard - it quickly becomes a new way of life, bringing with it positive changes in almost every area of your life.

From my experience with Reiki, or any other kind of energy healing for that matter, if it wants to find you, it will. I’ve seen believers in energy healing and former skeptics hanging out together at Reiki shares. Reiki is certainly not something you have to believe in for it to work, but once you feel the energy it is really convincing.

My story is not dramatic, nor even really exciting, but I still love how I found my way to learning about Reiki healing.

I was volunteering with a local organization and we were preparing to hold a fundraiser fair. I was tasked with finding prizes for the raffle. We thought that a massage would be a great prize to offer and would sell lots of tickets, so off I went to find a masseuse in my town who would be willing to donate their time and work to our cause. Of course the easiest way to do that is by Googling, and when searching for massage therapists I came across an ad for the woman who was to become my future Reiki master.

I don’t know why exactly, but I called her first and she agreed to donate a Reiki treatment. I asked if I could meet her and have her sign the voucher for the winner (it was a while ago, before online vouchers were a thing) and we set a time to meet. She gave me her address which was coincidentally only 2 houses away from my son’s childcare – so it worked out perfectly me for me.

The day of our meeting arrived and the moment she opened the door I felt it. An amazing strong energy. We sat in her sitting room, which doubles as a classroom and treatment room, and I have never felt like I belong anywhere more than I did in that room. The energy was terrific. On my way out I reflected on our conversation. I had gone there to have her sign a voucher and ended up staying to chat for over an hour.

She asked me what I knew about Reiki and I said ‘nothing’. She described it and I started to have a feeling that this was the thing that I’d been looking for all my life. Before I left she told me that she was starting a Reiki 1 course soon and invited me to join. I signed up on the spot.

I couldn’t wait for the course to start, I wanted to learn more! At that time there wasn’t as much information on the internet as there is today so I didn’t Google ‘Reiki ’ right away.

Later that same day I suddenly remembered that I owned a book about Reiki that I had totally forgotten about until that moment.

A few years earlier I had been on a trip with my husband and we'd stopped at a mall where we visited a bookshop. I had noticed the book on Reiki and had a strong feeling that I had to buy it. I bought it and never got around to opening it, it had just sat there gathering dust on my bookshelf ever since. I don’t know why I hadn’t read it until then, but I immediately took it out from where it had been waiting for me, gave it a dust, and read it through.

This is the book that I'd picked up years before my first real Reiki encounter, after reading it my desire to learn Reiki was even more piqued!

The next week I started Reiki 1 and the rest, as they say, is history.

How about you? How did you find Reiki ? I hope you’ll share your story because I’d love to hear it.