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What happens when you combine a gentle restorative yoga practice with energy healing?
You experience the perfect union of two Eastern modalities that benefit self-care, self-love, and self-improvement.
When you practice Yoga, you are uniting your body, mind, and spirit. This combination of physical movements, breathwork, and meditation has many beneficial effects. Yoga supports an increase in flexibility, muscle strength, weight reduction, and cardiovascular health. It is also known to promote relaxation, alleviate stress, reduce depression, and decrease anxiety. According to research, yoga has proven helpful as an alternative to antiemetic therapy (nausea medication), in the management of menopausal symptoms; and in diminishing acute and persistent cancer related fatigue, diarrhea, and shortness of breath. There have also been significant results related to an improved quality-of-life and feelings of serenity, joy, and relaxation. Reiki is an ancient Japanese energy technique used to help reduce stress, promote relaxation, and the Reiki energy places the body in an optimum state for physical healing. According to research, findings indicate that Reiki has potential for relieving pain from a variety of medical and psychiatric conditions including cancer, surgical pain, chronic back pain, arthritis, depression, and anxiety. Reiki has also shown positive results in people receiving chemotherapy and radiation treatments in many different types of cancer; including, relieving cancer-related fatigue, pain, anxiety, depression, and it also contributes to the overall quality of life.
Both, Reiki and Yoga, are known to encourage relaxation, reduce stress, lessen anxiety, and can contribute to physical healing.
Now, when you interweave the different styles of yoga with Reiki, you can allow the body to experience a deeper and more intense experience of both practices. A restorative yoga and Reiki practice can allow the Reiki to be performed on specific body parts while in relaxing restorative poses. The body remains in a state of calm, thus allowing the energy to have time to flow between each changing pose. Yoga poses that focus on specific chakra openings, such as the heart chakra, combined with Reiki can lead to feelings of deeper inner peace and love towards yourself and towards others. Reiki is always given from the Heart Chakra because it is unconditional LOVE. Another research article observed twenty-six cancer survivors to study the relaxation effects after they received a combination of restorative yoga with Reiki therapy. The yoga and Reiki combination group indicated a greater feeling of meaning and peace in their lives than the subjects that only received restorative yoga. The group that received both modalities also experienced a deeper sense of relaxation. In addition, the non-Reiki participants also displayed more difficulty with ignoring fearful thoughts than the combination group. There are countless ways to combine these two Eastern Practices to improve ourselves mentally, spiritually, and physically. Going into each practice or a combination of the two with an open heart can enhance the endless benefits of both yoga and Reiki.
Citations: DiScipio WJ. Perceived relaxation as a function of restorative yoga combined with Reiki for cancer survivors. Complement Ther Clin Pract. 2016 Aug;24:116-22. doi: 10.1016/j.ctcp.2016.05.003. Epub 2016 May 8. PMID: 27502811. Effects of Reiki, Yoga, or Meditation on the Physical and Psychological Symptoms of Chemotherapy-Induced Peripheral Neuropathy: A Randomized Pilot Study. Paul G. Clark, PhD, LCSW1 , Geronima Cortese-Jimenez, MPH, RN2 , and Eric Cohen, BSN, RN. Journal of Evidence-Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine 17(3) 161-171. 2012