Balancing Corporate & Homesteading Lifestyles
Reiki & Animals
Reiki as a supportive healing technique is best known for people, however it is becoming more popular as a healing support for animals as well.
As a Reiki practitioner, working with animals is very different than working with people. Animals are very in tune with our (human) energy and attitude/emotions and these will affect the animals willingness to accept the offered healing energy.
Just like people, when animals sick, stressed or injured, they are energetically imbalanced. Through Reiki, the practitioner offers an energetic connection that the animal can use to relax, self-heal and re-balance themself.
Reiki is NOT a substitute for medical diagnosis and treatment but is a compliment to conventional and alternative therapies.
In the Let Animals Lead method, animals "are the leaders in the process, taking only the amount of energy they wish to receive." (Source: The Animal Reiki Handbook)
Benefits of Reiki for Animals:
- Maintain health & well-being on physical, mental & emotional levels.
- Induce relaxation and stress-relief.
- Accelerate healing.
- Help Reduce behavior problems & aggression.
- Help abused animals heal from past mental/physical trauma.
- Compliment conventional & alternative therapies.
- Lessen the side effects of other medical treatments.
- Supports the dying process.
(Source: The Animal Reiki Handbook)
Why is Reiki Good For Animals:
- It is gentle, noninvasive, painless and stress-free.
- It goes to the issues that need it most, even when the issue is unknown to the practitioner.
- It can be given hands-on or from a distance.
- It can do no harm to either the practitioner or animal recipient.
- Animals can control their participation in the treatment thus becoming leaders in their own healing process.
(Source: The Animal Reiki handbook)
Although Reiki for people is typically a hands-on treatment, the approach with animals is very different.
With the Let Animals Lead method, practitioners usually start treatment several feet away from the animal and allow them to approach for hands-on treatment if they choose. Often animals will come forward and place certain areas of their body in the hands of the practitioner to show where they need healing the most. Other animals will lie down several feet away and fall asleep.
Animal Reiki treatments do not require physical contact for success. This makes Reiki an ideal treatment for animals who are fearful, skittish, abused, aggressive and even wild animals.
What You Can Expect:
Reiki offers a healing possibility for the animal. What she decides to do with the possibility is up to her. We cannot predict what happens next because balance and healing are not always apparent and may have different meanings for the individual animal.
You can look for "healing shifts" in the animal. This means changes in the physical, mental, or spiritual levels. This could mean:
- reduction in swelling or pain
- improvement in mobility
- improvement in mood/attitude
Reiki with animals is an amazing way to add animals into your daily meditative practices and is a natural healing practice for you and all animals.
If you'd like to learn more check out my resource page.
or Let Animals Lead & Animal Reiki Source page.
If you know an animal shelter or sanctuary that might benefit from Reiki, visit the Shelter Animal Reiki Association (SARA) page.
Feel free to email me with any questions or if you have an Animal Reiki experience that you'd like to share with us. [email protected]
