Reiki course in Panama – obtaining the certificate of Reiki level I
When I visited Bocas del Toro islands for the second time, I had a Reiki session together with other techniques at Danuta’s Holistic Healing Center. I loved it so much that when I got back, I decided to get more things there. It was there where I had my first Reiki session done on me, and also there where I decided to do a Reiki course in Panama – level I.
Iliana Cabañas, a friend of Danuta’s from Costa Rica, was visiting and teaching a Brain Yoga class one Friday afternoon, and the following weekend a Reiki Level I course. And because there’s never enough of learning about these things, I decided to do both courses with Lila at Danuta’s Genesis Creativity House :)
I’ve always wanted to learn more about Reiki and ”healing” with energy and this was the right time and the right place.
Lila welcomed us first with some brain yoga exercises to heat us up and a seated meditation. Lila is also a yoga teacher so we had more in common than I first thought :)
Lila started the Reiki course telling us about her own experience when many things opened for her after she started practicing. She has even seen a lot of miracles.
Reiki gives us powerful, gentle and loving energy.
First, we learned more about the Reiki history and the first Reiki masters. A Japanese Doctor Mikao Usui was the first one who developed the healing practice of Reiki and then taught it t 26 new Reiki teachers.
Then, as traditionally it was only men who were trained Reiki, in the war period Dr. Hayashi, who developed a certain sequence of hands in Reiki, trained also 4 women with Mrs. Hawayo Takata among them. Mrs Takata became one of the most important Reiki teachers who managed to spread the benefits around the world.
5 main principles of Reiki taught by Dr. Usui:
”Just for today, I will let go of anger.
Just for today, I will let go of worry.
Just for today, I will give thanks for my many blessings.
Just for today, I will do my work honestly.
Just for today, I will be kind to my neighbor and every living thing.”
Rei = Universe + Ki = energy in Japanese (ki in Japan = chi in China = prana in India)
Reiki = vital energy of the Universe
Reiki gives calm and tranquil energy as it activates the parasympathetic nervous system. It balances the personal energy and creates well being on physical, mental, emotional and spiritual level.
Then, the energy knows what to do in the body as the body chooses where it needs the energy most (if there’s any problems or health issues, it’s where the body sends the energy to deal with it.)
3 important Reiki principles:
1. The Reiki master works just as a channel through which the energy flows, he does not heal anything himself. It’s the person receiving a Reiki session who ”heals” his body sending the energy where it is needed.
2. The Reiki masters listen to the persons receiving the Reiki, but do not give their opinions. The Therapeutic Listening when the person speaks about their problems is sometimes enough to help.
3. The person receiving Reiki should be open to receive the energy and believe in positive changes. If they do not want it, it’s better not to convince them.
Then Lila taught us more about the 7 Chakras we have – the 7 most important energy centers in our body out of the many. The energy centers don’t stop vibrating, they are always active like aerials giving us some information. We meditated visualizing the colors of all the 7 chakras and also using different one-word mantras to clean and activate our own chakras. Lila guided us together with a manual we had with us (Lila brought us one English and one Spanish Reiki manual.)
Then we did a tiger pose I kind of hated – you lie down on your back with your both hands and legs up straight. In the middle of the hands and feet there’s a spot Lila pressed and thus activated us the kidneys – the fountain of life. We had to stay in the pose for a few minutes which hurt a lot!
Then we learned the self-healing Reiki hand positions – 9 used on the front of the body and another 5 on the back. Lila asked us to do all the 14 positions, with each for 2 or 3 minutes, for the following 21 days in a row, or after waking up in the morning or before going to sleep. Once we do the 14 important ones, we can go back to the place where we feel we need it today the most once again. We also tried them all on the Reiki course.
Lila told us something about aura the people have around them. If there’s something happening inside the body, the aura gets smaller; versus strong people have a nice strong aura. We can clean our aura also with the sea water or the sand.
Reiki on others:
Later, we learned also how to do Reiki on other people, where to put our hands, for how long and why.
The person receiving Reiki should lie down on their back first. We make them as comfortable as possible, play nice music, maybe turn a candle on, use essential oils that are not very strong.
We start breathing together when I put a hand on his/her forehead.
Then I join my both hands together touching my forehead and ask the Universe for help.
The person closes his eyes and I sort of open his energetic body from the head down to his feet as if opening a zipper to let the healing energy enter.
I kneel a bit down and hold the pose for the whole Reiki session.
First the head, then all the way down to the feet. It depends on the time we have but try to do at least the most important body parts or those where the person has problems with, or where we feel the most negative energy at.
Once we are done with the front, we slowly wake up the person and let them turn face down. Then we follow with our hands on the back and legs. We finish with one hand on the lower back and the other one on the neck, then stretch right side of the body with the left leg and the other side too,
We try not to use any metal nor leather things during the Reiki sessions and only instrumental relaxing music should be played.
Some things can be ”healed” already during the Reiki session but for many it takes more time as the energy has to go through the austral, emotional and mental body finally to the physical one where we can see the obvious results.
Some Reiki masters or even shamans, wear a red girdle around their belly to protect their own energy as on the left side of our body, next to the pancreas, there’s a channel through which we connect to others. When it is covered, or when at least we visualize it cut, or cut it with our hands, our own energy is protected when we are doing Reiki. I have started to use this visualization technique each time I feel negative energy from people around me, and trust me, it helps, at least mentally, to cut my pancreatic tube which enables the energetic connection with other people.
During a Reiki session, the people can scream, cry, move, shake, sweat, feel pain, cold or too hot, or even have visions from the previous life. I try to stay there and show them I am there, maybe give them a tissue if they need it. If the pain seems unbearable, I remove my hands for a while.
The last thing we do is to zip the person’s energy from the bottom up to the head, nicely wake them up and bring them water/herbal tea.
Once we are done with the Reiki session, the Reiki masters clean themselves energetically – or we clean our hands and forearms with salt water, move them around a candle using the fire to clean them, or cut the pancreatic energetic tube and send the energy from there to the sea or Sun/air.
We learned all these things when practicing Reiki with Lila and the other girls at the Reiki course. It was fun and for the first time I could really feel the energy between my hands and the other person’s body parts.
I was so happy to have achieved the Reiki level I with Lila in Bocas del Toro. Getting the certificate was such a sweet moment :)
Many thanks to Danuta from Danuta’s Healing and Lila for this opportunity. If Reiki is of your interest, I highly recommend doing the Reiki course in Panama or Costa Rica with Lila. Check out her Facebook Coloreando Auras.
***It took me 5 hours to write this post.
