These last months, I have found that the words “Reiki massage” are often displayed on social media and websites. To be honest, I kind of frown a little bit every time I find this couple of words together. This is because I don’t find any solid relationship between Reiki and any massage of any kind. And despite this, I still find them a lot. So maybe I have to look at them from another angle. This is why I decided to do some research on it. And this research had two parts: Wikipedia and Google.
First, I went to Wikipedia, maybe because I knew that I would find something that will meet my expectations. And according to Wikipedia, the term massage involves some kind of pressure on the body, which I expected. But afterward, it states that the general purpose of a massage is the treatment of body stress and/or pain. And here is where Reiki and massage start to entangle.Reiki can be described as many things, to name the first ones that come to my mind are: a biofield therapy, a hands-on energy healing technique, an energy medicine option, an activator of The Relaxation Response, a self-knowledge technique, a well-being tool, and a powerful stress and pain reliever. If Reiki and massage do not share the physical pressure factor, they do share the pain relief and stress reduction factors.Secondly, I did some Google research in incognito mode, and here is where I started to realize how people think and search these terms altogether.
SEARCH INQUIRY #1
I started with the basic stuff, I wanted to know which are the most searches regarding reiki and the letter m. And here I got my first surprise, because “reiki massage” is the second most searched, just after “reiki music”. This was totally unexpected, as it even surpasses “reiki master”, “reiki meditation”, and “reiki master symbol”!
SEARCH INQUIRY #2
Then I put “reiki chakra m”, just to see if anyone relates Reiki as a massage to the chakras, and yes, it came as the third most searched option, just below “reiki chakra meditation” and “reiki chakra music”.
SEARCH INQUIRY #3
I have to acknowledge that popular opinion thinks of Reiki as an energetic massage of the subtle body, because “reiki energy massage” is the first search result when introducing “reiki energy m”. And this is also surprising, because it is even before “reiki energy medicine” and “reiki energy manipulation”.
CONCLUSION
There is a strong popular opinion that relates Reiki with massage. But what I think is more accurate, is describing Reiki as an energetic massage, where subtle energy is channeled towards the chakras, the body, and to the biofield of the patient. And among many goals, two of them are pain relief and stress reduction, as any other massage.This gives me a new way to interpret Reiki energy healing. Now, after doing self-treatment, I can say to myself: You really kneaded those chakras quite well dude.