EldersBloom - Elders Healing with Reiki

by inju

Article by Jeffrey Hotchkiss

In the last column, you learned about Reiki hands-on healing. This week, we'll share a vision for how Reiki can help elders to help the world around them.

You know that elder living facility you drive by every day as you go about your business? During the holiday season, it has a sign out front: "Xmas sale". Imagine, now, that one day the sign says: "Reiki Clinic".

You've heard of Reiki and always wanted to try it. You pull into the parking lot and get out. Walking in the front door, you don't know quite what to expect.

An elder woman in a wheelchair greets you -- "Thank you for coming!", she says. Her radiant smile warms your heart. She gives you a flyer and directs you down the hall to the activities room.

The activities room is divided by privacy screens into a few spaces with massage tables and chairs. You can see a little bit around the edges of the screens -- elders have their hands gently placed on the people who are lying on the tables and sitting in the chairs. The people are deeply relaxed and breathing easily. Quiet, meditative music plays in the background. An elder man takes your name, and tells you you're in luck - there's a table opening in a few minutes.

When your turn comes, you meet the two elders who'll be treating you. They tell you to take your shoes off, lie down, relax and breathe; they'll do the rest. As you lie on the table, they cover you with a warm blanket. You're still not sure what to expect, but all is peaceful and open, and you trust. You start to feel your body relax and sink into the softness of the table.

Standing on each side of you, the elders hold their hands briefly in prayer position. Then, they put their hands on you, gently, respectfully, lovingly, settling softly onto your shoulders and hips. A strange and wonderful warmth blooms throughout your body. It feels like taking a warm bath from the inside out. Without even thinking about it, you take a deep breath, and suddenly you feel as if you're floating. Stress and mu! scle ten sion is just gone. You don't remember when you last felt so relaxed.

The session is over all too soon. When you get up off the table, you feel completely renewed and amazed. You gladly pay the requested fee. On the way out, you notice a wheelchair-bound elder treating a young woman in a chair. The young woman has the most beatific smile on her face.

The next day, a chronic pain you've lived with is suddenly far less painful. You have new energy to get through your day, and noticeably less stress and worry. The feeling continues for several days. You stop in the elder facility to thank them all, and ask, when is the next Reiki clinic?

In a healthy society, elders are revered, listened to, and are invaluable teachers of the young. It feels like we have drifted away from that in our youth-worshipping culture. So many elders live out their years in isolation from the rest of society.

The EldersBloom program introduces Reiki to elders, so that they may improve their quality of life, have more energy to share healing from their life wisdom, and thus enable a joyful reconnecting with their surrounding communities.

Many aspects of Reiki, such as its gentleness, ease of learning, and flexibility around physical limitations, make it ideal for elders. EldersBloom makes Reiki treatment available to elders where they live, offers them Reiki training, and ultimately assists them to provide Reiki healing services to the public.

Today, EldersBloom is in its infancy, with Reiki talks given and scheduled at elder communities in the Portland, Maine area. Tomorrow, we dream it will embody the vision told above. To quote from the original program description:

"Sharing Reiki with our elders, we give them the means to let the treasures in their hearts bloom for all our sakes. Reiki teaches them to heal by awakening their true selves. The beauty of their lives lights them up from within, and we, their children, come to see, sit at their feet, and learn."

brJeff's web sites can ! be viewe d at:jeffreiki.com squidoo.com/eldersbloom squidoo.com/aronaya zazzle.com/aronaya.

About the Author

Jeffrey Hotchkiss is a Reiki Master Teacher. He teaches and practices in Yarmouth, Maine, and travels to bring Reiki to elder communities.