Reiki Healing with People and Animals – are there Differences?

When a loved one is sick, what do you do? Ask where it’s hurting, then ask what you can do to help make it better: maybe offer soup, quiet, or some Reiki?

Depending on the response, together you decide what the best option is, one or ALL of the above. Perfect!

Now say that your loved one is not a human but an animal friend. Even just trying to ask where it hurts adds a level of difficulty to the situation. So often I hear the frustration of people who aren’t sure what’s wrong with their animal friend. Everyone can see that all is not well, but why?

The next level of difficulty is working out what to do. All is not well, sometimes we know why and other times not, but how can we help? How do you ask what your animal friend needs?

As you can see, helping an unwell animal can create a lot of uncertainty for us “head heavy” humans. But it can also teach us a lot about ourselves and our place in the world.

When we remember that this animal is a loved one we relinquish our human fears and judgements, knowing that at the base of all of our relationships, human and non-human, exists pure energy.

BEing pure energy is a homecoming, In this space we are moved by our love, our compassion for life, and allow this love to fill us so completely that we cannot help but overflow with our generosity of spirit. This process can also be understood as the remembrance of our true self; Reiki. And this is how we connect energetically to everyone and everything, supporting the healing of the world by coming home to its natural rhythm of balance.

Commonly, this energetic relationship between ourselves and everything else is an unconscious one. We can, however, choose to make this connection conscious and thus feed it with the power of our intent.

To remember this purity of connection, I recommend the following when sharing a space with a loved-one who is sick, either human or animal:

1. Stop worrying.
2. In fact, close your eyes and stop “thinking” altogether.
3. Let go of everything that you are mentally holding onto. Empty yourself, and as you do this feel your scalp, face, shoulders, arms, torso, and back relax.
4. Begin breathing down into your hara (deep into your belly). Feel the energy build as you focus on your hara. You are breathing in the perfection of the universe.
5. Breathe into your whole body now as you feel your entire self filling with the tingling energy of love.
6. Keep breathing in tune with the universe, in and out.
7. You can no longer hold the energy within your physical self. Let it stream from every pore of your body out into the world. Don’t direct it, don’t force it, just consciously let its power overwhelm your human distinctions until you disappear into its majesty.
8. Keep breathing. Don’t stop.
9. You may feel this energy being drawn in by those around you. Let it flow through you as if you were a never-ending tunnel of love, don’t hold back.
10. After time, when you are ready to complete the practice, begin to sense your physical form again. Consciously breathe down into your hara and centre yourself knowing that the fullness of love and compassion of your true self always resides within.

Together, you and your loved one have touched each other in a way that has required ho hands, no breaths, no thoughts. You have merely held each other in a healing space and taken from it whatever you have needed at that exact moment in time. This is the healing balance of pure energy.

And so you see, at the very base of what we do when we work with the system of Reiki, animals or humans are no different. We are merely remembering the pure connection that is often lost in the fog of life’s judgements and discernments.

Recently, I heard a comedian being interviewed about his family life. He was asked, “I hear you own a pig, is this true?” The comedian answered, “No, I don’t own a pig, but I live with one.” And he was dead serious.

We all live together on this planet, we all share life together. And we all have the opportunity to connect with one another without status or ownership, sharing our true selves with one another to create a circle of healing through the balance of purity.

PS: Some of you may have recognized the above practice as a variation (or a bastardization if you prefer:-)) on Joshin Kokyu ho, a foundation Reiki practice.

Bronwen Logan

Based in Australia, Bronwen Logan (Stiene) teaches the system of Reiki is co-founder of the International House of Reiki and Shibumi International Reiki Association as well as co-author of the critically acclaimed books The Reiki Sourcebook, The Japanese Art of Reiki, A-Z of Reiki Pocketbook, Reiki Techniques Card Deck and Your Reiki Treatment. Bronwen is also the voice of their audiobooks and of the Reiki meditations available in the shop.

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