Paul Lara explains Reiki, energy in the body and the importance of meditation for life in the city

What is Reiki? How does it work? Reiki works by accepting energy from the outside and bringing it into the body where it has a healing effect. The body becomes a channel for universal energy.

Can you explain what that means?Physically, the meridians, the energy pathways within the body, channel energy to the areas that are most in need. When we experience pain, we typically have restricted energy flow.

What does Reiki healing look like?Visually, there is not much that can be seen. Reiki can be channeled in many ways. For a typical healing, the most common way is through the hands. Hands can be placed on the body or slightly above it. However, Reiki can be transmitted through the eyes and even by presence alone.

So how is Reiki beneficial?Through Reiki, our internal makeup can become harmonized and function on a more holistic level with the body, the mind and the spirit working as one. The saying goes, “If you want to heal the body, you must first heal the mind.”

How did you get into Reiki?Once, I was traveling in Vietnam and got horrible food poisoning. To help the terrible abdominal pain, a woman gave me Reiki. It was incredible. It was like a thousand hands all over my body, but the woman hadn’t even touched me. The next day I was completely recovered and knew I had to learn more.

So you were in Kyoto studying. Why come to Beijing? I wanted the opportunity to study Qi Gong and martial arts are on a more in depth level. Here in Beijing, I have the privileged opportunity of studying full time with a Chinese Master.

So Reiki still seems a little out there. Can you bring it down to earth for us? Haha, yeah. There’s a lot of fluff when talking about these things. Talking about energy work is easy. Even demonstrating techniques is easy. Sitting on a quite mountain with incense and robes is not what this is about. Taking a skill like Reiki has to be useful in your daily life. When you are late for work on the bus in the city traffic, in the summer—here is where your skills should make themselves evident. The goal of Reiki practice is learning to maintain a calm and focused mind.

Email Paul for details about Monday Reiki sessions.