Reiki

I am excited by the news that I will be learning the mystics of Reiki. I have had Reiki twice now and both times I have come away feeling blown away by the feelings that surge throughout me afterwards - as well as feeling better and healthier.
The Royal Day Spa in Tunbridge Wells will be my centre of learning, but as I know so little at the moment, I am offering you a little insight into the world of Reiki, via one of the senior therapists at the spa.

Reiki - What is it?

Reiki is a hands on healing method, used to channel life force energy. The practitioner giving reiki, channels the energy through the body and out of the hands to treat the recipient or themselves.

The main benefits of Reiki:

Encourages the bodies natural ability to self heal

Functions on a mental, spiritual, physical and emotional level

Helps to balance the bodies energy

Strengthens the body and soul

Helps to rid the body of accumulated toxins

Reiki has a logic of its own, knowing where and to what extent it is required.

It works with not only people but animals and plants

Is an extremely pleasant and safe healing method

It can help with depression and any physical or mental illnesses

Can help grieving family members and to release past emotional pain

The history of Reiki:
It is believed that a man called Mikao Usui who was born back in August 15th 1865 in the Yamagata of Gifu prefecture Japan. Usui was looking for a way of knowing one's life purpose and to be content, and despite all his exhaustive research, he could not find away to achieve this state. The monks advice, promoted him to go to mount Kurama and carry out a 21 day tendai Buddhist meditation and fast called the lotus repentance. According his memorial stone, he experienced an enlightenment or 'satori' that led to the development of reiki. So it is said that reiki is represented in Japan in the early part of the last century.
For a long time in the west, people thought reiki had died out in japan and that the reiki that was left was to a lady called Mrs Takata. Mrs Takata was a very strict reiki master, who taught reiki to her students, but made the burn all information and symbols taught to them after they had spent years studying them. This was to stop anyone from stealing and corrupting the reiki teaching.
The information we now have about the original version of reiki comes from a number of different sources, and two of the mot well known of these are frank Arjava Petter and Hiroshi Doi. Arava Petter is a WWestern reiki master who lives and works in japan and has published 3 books based on his research there. However more detailed information has been made available in the west by a Japanese man called Hiroshi Doi.
What you might call the original reiki from Japan is very different from western reiki. The basis Of Japanese reiki combines three activities: daily energy exercises, hand scanning and intuitive techniques and regular spiritual empowerment. Reiki trainees would have to practice daily exercises called Hatsu-Rei-Ho which is designed to strengthen and purify there reiki empowerment, increasing their effectiveness of reiki channelling.
The western form of reiki is almost a copy from Japanese reiki, but is just snippets of information that has slipped out of the Japanese masters hands. However because the information the western reiki is a small amount, it has allowed us to develop the and play with the reiki energy and is just as effective as the Japanese style reiki.
There is a lot more to reiki than we have yet experienced. Reiki that is being used, has produced amazing results and changed many peoples lives in incredible ways. There is a lot more information that we have yet to learn, so this is a very exciting time to be involved in reiki blessings!

I look forward to keeping you updated with my progress. K

Wellbeing at The Royal Day Spa

Breathing in the sweet smell of tranquillity as I walk into the Royal Day in Tunbridge Wells, I am overwhelmed by the immediate feeling of calm. Greeted by two immaculate therapists and handed a pair of ‘indoor flip-flops,’ I know I am about to be transported to a world of absolute serenity.
White walls, slate and ivory tiles paving the way to paradise and discreet low lighting, set the scene of this once Victorian Sorting Office. Owner Shelly has transformed the shabby, decrepit building and transformed it into an open plan haven, with nooks and crannies leading off the trail waiting to be discovered. I have reviewed a vast number of spas over the years and am yet to find a spa in the South East that offers such a perfect, dedicated package. From the minute you enter, you are blown away by the sheer dedication that has gone into creating a space that is not only perfect for dead-on-their-feet commuters who favour the historic spa town, but for expectant mother’s, hen-parties and often clients who have a vast array of conditions, searching for the cure in alternative therapy.
I am one such explorer, having suffered from a bereavement earlier in the year and dealing with hereditary condition Ehlers Danlos Syndrome* and arthritis, I was desperately seeking some sort of solace in a spa I know I can trust. I was not disappointed.
Meandering into the bedroom where I reclined on a Hagrid-sized Tempra mattress and sipped mint tea, I waited for my therapist to take me into one of the side rooms behind the enormous salt-water pool, hot tub infused with Moor Mud and Sauna and Steam rooms.
Every room is decorated in an Eastern theme and as Senior Therapist and Spa Manager Hayley guides me in, she asks me a series of questions about my health and wellbeing. As Hayley begins the treatment, I am swept into such a relaxed state, I am surprised when she wakes me up to turn over – an hour of bliss has already passed!
Hayley, a trained Reiki master confides that

she would like to change my treatment and focus on a particular area for the last hour and half of my treatment. Although surprised, I trust her implicitly and ask her why she feels such a strong need to change my treatment.
I am told, quite honestly, that I have a huge black cloud of angst held in my stomach – so much so that she feels compelled to start eradicating the trouble, stress and worry from me immediately.
She gets to work, using a practiced Reiki treatment, whereby she kneads the bad energy out via my colon, focusing on incoming energy, present energy outgoing energy. Hayley tells me very seriously that I am holding onto a lot of baggage and that this distress is having a detrimental affect on my life.
I feel the need to cry and confess all of my worries to this lovely girl, but hold back and nod obediently. She proceeds to pummel my stomach with such force that I was having to breathe through the pain. When I say pain, I mean a force that I am obviously not used to on my tummy – in a weird way it felt so cathartic and I enjoyed the feeling of her pressure on my depressed little tummy. As she worked her magic, she explained that we store our emotions in our stomach and that she was getting such strong negative waves from me, it was all she could do not to flip me over and start on my stomach as soon as I walked into the room. Her explanation led to the ‘bad’ energy I was storing in my ‘present’ place. I had not got over recent, life changing events and these events had such a dramatic affect on me that I would be changed forever and it was this period of change that was causing me so many problems.

As the session began to draw to a close, Hayley recommended I start on a course of treatments and think about working on myself at home; perhaps even learning art of Reiki myself. She tells me as we part ways that she felt a lot of good energy coming my way and she felt sure that I would soon be in the right frame of mind to move on from my demons and fill my life with positive thoughts and outcomes.
I mull over her comments over a beautiful champagne lunch, complete with fresh salmon, pancetta, mozzarella, cous-cous and more and come to the conclusion that she is right.
Not having ventured near a swimming pool since 2005 (I hate, hate, hate them) I decided to take the plunge in the most flattering pool ever invented!
Black slate tiles, salt water and dimly lit, no one will see a) the lumps and bumps and b) that I cannot swim…but hey, that’s another story…
I can only describe the next few moments as…mmmmmmmm, ahhhhhhhhh
Lush.
After ample time floating, ahem, swimming, I decided to venture into the Sauna. Another blissful experience that left me floating on cloud nine.
So, in light of these discoveries I will now be writing a weekly diary – highlighting my process with Reiki, the power of the mind, healing and how places like the Royal Day Spa can make you a better person.
For further information, contact reception@royal-dayspa.co.uk
Royal Day Spa, Post Office Square
12 Vale Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1BP
01892 616191 or visit their beautiful website: www.royal-dayspa.co.uk