Reiki is a lovely healing modality that reduces stress and improves quality of life. During the laying on of hands, or even in distance transmission, people often feel significantly more relaxed and inspired about their lives. I have laid hands on believers and non-believers and it doesn't make a difference; Reiki works. I can't force people to believe even when miracles are happening in front of them, but years of personal practice and clients results have convinced me to keep going!
Healing Practitioners like to say that Reiki is only a feel-good combo of rainbows, unicorns, and cotton candy farts, but it isn't true. Healing is an intense inner experience. In order for us to significantly heal, something has to change in either our physical body, emotional process, mindset, or spiritual beliefs. These changes can be initiated in many different ways, with Reiki being just one way. Change is fantastic, but when it upsets old beliefs or old emotional patterns, it can be uncomfortable. That upset is what we call the "Reiki Detox ."
Energetic Detoxification
Most prominent when new students are attuned to the energy of Reiki so as to flow it themselves, the Reiki Detox is a process by which our bodies (physical, mental, emotional and spiritual) clear old energy patterns. During a detox, people may feel tired, agitated, emotional, or even physically ill. This phenomenon is not unique to Reiki, and happens frequently in many other energy healing modalities. It is most common when the body receives a much more intense influx in energy than it is prepared to handle, but it's not a bad thing.
To understand the idea of the detox better, let's look at this through the example of weight lifting. When we lift weights at the gym and create new muscles, at first it feels exhaustive because our old muscles have to tear a little bit in order for new muscles to build. We are tired, and then we feel a little high off of adrenaline from working out. Then the next day we ache. The ache is caused by a buildup of lactic acid and other natural body chemicals as a result of our muscles healing and rebuilding. We are literally changing shape. It is only when our body flushes those acids out that we discover we are stronger, and more capable of exercise. We feel great, now back at a happy neutral and ready to work out again.
We also go through this when we heal. When Reiki flows, it transforms subtle energy. As a result, a client may feel a little tired after a session, or even more emotional as their body tries to recalibrate its equilibrium from the healing and clearing.
I love to tell clients that a detox might happen so that they feel prepared, but the truth it that it doesn't have to be felt. There are ways to prepare, to lessen the impact of detox so that the healing really does feel like unicorns, rainbows, and cotton candy farts.
How to Get Rid of Heavy Detox in Reiki
Let's return to the example of weight lifting at the gym. Regular weight lifters know that their body is going to hurt if they overextend themselves, so they consciously choose their approach. To bulk out, they may choose to lift more and "feel the burn." To develop core strength, they may lift less weight, but do more repetitions.
Likewise with Reiki, to lesson detox, we help our clients develop core strength and resilience; in other words we can do more sessions, at shorter lengths of time.
I've found this especially helpful when working with clients who have long standing physical ailments or deeply ingrained mindsets that need time to shift. If we do a series of treatments, offering gentle flow, that is going to feel great as they heal. If we want fast transformation we can do one or two deeply targeted sessions with an intention we set together. The client may have to detail with the detox from that amplified influx of energy.
As a practitioner and/or healing person, you can think about your intentions. Do you want a heavy detox period or would you like to gently grow into deeper alignment? Work with session length and frequency for the perfect flow.
Another thing weight lifters do is that they feed their bodies the right ingredients to support the body's natural burning process. Drinking water, amino acids, and protein can lessen the burn in recovering muscles. The muscles are still being created, but the body is so nourished, it can't be felt.
Prior to your Reiki session, make sure that both practitioner and client are well hydrated. Your body needs water and nutrition in order to actually move out old stress because it is a physiological process in the body, requiring healthy flowing blood and organs to be completed. As a practitioner, I always remind clients to:
❤️ drink extra water before and after session
❤️ get extra hours of rest in the week so their body has healing time
❤️ fully allow themselves space and time to process whatever emotions have come up.
Allowing this flow reduces any potential detox. When going through an extended stressful life period or detox period, I have personally found for myself that drinking up a little bit of extra vitamin C (I like Emergen-C drink!) after Reiki sessions, and taking a weekly epsom salts bath also helps the body process high amounts of energy flow due to the magnesium salts. Most people are deficient in magnesium but it helps our bodies cope with stress. Magnesium and many vitamins are relatively safe, but I still encourage clients to check with a doctor before taking heavy epsom salts baths, as I am not a certified doctor and do not know their full health history. Connecting the energy healing to taking personal responsibility in health is often very powerful for my clients, and has also been magical for me as a practitioner.
As energy healers, we need to remember and teach our clients that detoxification is a good thing. It doesn't need to be heavy. The more we create a permissive, highly nourished space for healing within our lives, the less we will experience heavy detoxification processes.
DAILEY LITTLE is a healing practitioner, transformational life coach, ordained Priestess, and teacher who founded Healing Heart Reiki to help others navigate life with joy. She offers private sessions, and teaches classes in healing and mindset from a magical peaceful corner of the world in Northern California. For more info see: www.SantaRosaReiki.com