How can Reiki help pregnancy and beyond I hear you say?
In a multitude of ways, I say! As with most Reiki related topics, the possibilities are endless, but for the sake of reading efficiency, and to avoid the risk of boring you, we’ll stick to the most relevant and easy to use applications of Reiki.
Having received my calling to Reiki before I even knew I was pregnant was a blessing, this is because I had already taken the decision to trust in an energy I couldn’t see to help heal past traumas effecting my present.
When we practiced hand positions on our fellow Reiki students, my partner asked, “are you pregnant, I can feel a heartbeat in your belly?”
“No!” I replied, “I have a strong pulse, that must be my vena cava you can feel.” And thought no more about it.
A number of weeks later I had inexplicable nausea and headaches, you can guess the rest.
I share this tiny tale because I believe there are no coincidences and learning Reiki before learning I was pregnant is definitely one of them. The traumas I mentioned are relevant here because any first-time parent will tell you, the emotional challenges are accentuated by the physical challenges and vice versa. In my learnings and teachings; Reiki helps to unlearn the unhelpful conditioning and behaviours we accumulate and heals the accompanying pains to allow our journey to feel more enjoyable and flow with ease and harmony. Raising a child, minus the unhelpful habits can only be a good thing!
Enough digressing and back on topic!
Reiki becomes an incredibly helpful tool to use, it is calming, soothing and practical. Pregnancy welcomes sooo many changes, here are a few ways I used Reiki to help:
Calming:
It is easy to feel overwhelmed by the countless changes occurring. The thought of taking these things on, as well as growing a human is daunting. Reiki brings us back into the now, the action of laying our hands and practicing Reiki brings a very clear intention of feeling well, and whatever form that takes, we will feel better than we did before. The practice is also helping s dedicate time to us, something that will run away from us if we allow it. Every minute we practice reiki with set intentions, we are confirming that we are the most important person in our lives, we need to feel good and well in order to look after others in our lives. And this includes our children. Feeling good about looking after ourselves is one of the most common opposing conditions most people need to heal and will continue to serve us well.
Soothing:
One word; hormones. These essential natural chemicals are responsible for most of your pregnancy gripes, physical and mental. Recognising the reason can help us accept the discomforts, and by injecting some Reiki love allows us to think clearly enough to recognise this. It also helps remind us what these hormones are for and the wonder that is currently occurring. Welcoming these changes, there to serve the higher purpose of creating life gives perspective, something I often achieved when practicing Reiki. This acknowledgement offered relaxation, and soothed anxieties leaving me feeling altogether better prepared.
Practical:
From headaches and morning sickness (or as it should be called, the all-and-any-time-of-the-day-sickness). When you have eaten all the ginger and tied peppermint around your neck, Reiki helps to set the intention for our lotions and potions to take effect. And even if the relief is minor and short lived, Reiki helps remind us that nothing is permanent, and this too will pass. Also, Reiki helps us sleep and we feel no nausea when sleeping 😉
When you have made it through the first few months and, if like me, your symptoms ease off – thanks to good decision making, thanks to Reiki – Reiki will help us to continue making good decisions.
The greater the intention we apply to our daily Reiki, the easier it feels to create balance in the four prominent aspect of our life. Maintaining balance in these areas will reduce the discomforts, or at least our resilience to them 😉
The aspects I refer to are:
Physical:
Eating well
Staying hydrated
Taking a good natural prenatal supplement
Regular exercise
Intentional relaxation
Mental:
Taking regular walks outside
Remembering to belly breath
Limiting screen time
Allow change to occur
Intentional relaxation
Emotional:
Staying connected to loved ones
Be honest – with self
Talk candidly with friends and family
Acknowledge new feelings as the come up – the good ones too!
Intentional relaxation
As a pregnant woman’s sleep begins to evade her, this offers a wonderful opportunity to engage in a different kind of Reiki. Aside from giving us something useful to do in the middle of the night, it is helping to heal our past that may restrict us, our present with it’s change and challenges and our future with unknowns and excitement. Again, we are brought to the now and the wonder of the human body, we can float in a quiet space of wonder, peace and appreciation. We can send Reiki to labour and delivery, ensuring the best possible experience for us, this in itself is priceless!
I promise you will wake feeling empowered, maybe still tired, but definitely empowered!
We never know what is going to happen, no matter how much planning, preparation, lists and affirmations we do. All of these things are wonderful props to give us a sense of control and will definitely help at some point, but sometimes things just happen.
Practicing Reiki throughout pregnancy prepares us for the unexpected, we are more likely to engage the thinking part of our brain. We can engage our emotions enough to feel and hear our intuition, but not too much that they control our actions and behaviours.