Reiki Day 4

My first two posts highlighted spiritual growth. This growth is not the result of Reiki attunement. Continual growth on many fronts is a core part of being a Jeanne-Anne. The Reiki attunement has clearly influenced the direction and intensity of the growth already in progress and this brings to mind something I think needs to be made explicit.

It is easy to talk about attunement changing us because we see influences where something seems different, but I think this is a misnomer. We do not become different, merely more completely ourselves. We lose nothing in the process.

My experiences are not all on a spiritual level. I have had trouble to varying degrees over this past year with itching from hives. I haven't been able to identify an allergy causing them, though they are mostly controllable with antihistamines.

I have had increasing trouble with it again the past few days, to the point that I was up in the middle of last night taking an oatmeal bath trying to calm it enough to go back to sleep (and today am paying the consequences for broken sleep).

I didn't notice whether this bout started before or after Reiki attunement, but I have been interested to note that Reiki seems to do nothing for it. I have also noted that there is one stressor in my life with intensity seeming to correlate to the hives, and I think this is the cause. It may have always been the cause, but I've had so many stressors the past 4-5 years that this one has been difficult to isolate.

Reiki has seemed to have no effect on the hives. It is tempting to be discouraged by that, but I'm not. This stressor has been an issue for me for about 25 years, with numerous significant negative impacts in several areas of my life. 4 days of Reiki is not going to make all that go away, even with the Reiki I've received in the past.

Maybe Reiki over time will influence a final resolution to the stressor. Maybe it will help me more comfortably accept something I can't change. Maybe my brain will find some seemingly beneficial pattern to attribute to Reiki whether or not the pattern is a true correlation. Maybe Reiki really is nothing more than conditioned responses releasing endorphins to make us feel better. I haven't seen a compelling argument on whether or not it even matters which, if any, is true.

The fact that Reiki is probably not a silver bullet to fix all the ills in my life does not make it useless junk to be discarded. I use baking soda for an amazing number of things, from a leaven in cooking to a cleanser to a skin soother to a deodorizer to a tooth powder to an additive for the sewer or septic tank. That I can't use it to pay my bills, become better able to sit for an hour in church pews, or even ease the itch from these hives doesn't prompt me to toss it all away.

So it doesn't bother me that Reiki won't do everything. I never expected it would. I am grateful and joyous in what it has done and is doing in this present moment.