Reiki Running Meditation
By Jill Thiel, LRMT
We often wonder what to do about negative or troubling emotions. During meditation, you can view your thoughts and emotions with an unbiased attitude. With this attitude, the whole atmosphere of your mind changes for the better.
Over the years Reiki has guided me to different activities, which I combine with Reiki and meditation: art, music, gardening, and most recently, running. By combining Reiki, running, and meditation, I’ve been able to let go of toxic emotions, heal my physical body, and channel stronger Reiki.
“Reiki is a versatile healing method that has a wide range of applications. It’s able to promote healing and rejuvenation in every area of our lives. It’s also able to enhance creativity, improve motivation and increase productivity. Its use in exercise and sports activities is an area that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves. Reiki can definitely improve the results you get from your exercise program and can enhance sports performance.” -William Lee Rand ¹
In 2014 I traveled to California to take Holy Fire Karuna Reiki from William Lee Rand. Looking back, I realize that my life started to change in a positive way as soon as I put down the deposit for the class. Holy Fire Reiki played a crucial role in my healing journey.
At the time leading up to receiving Holy Fire, I was suffering from Lyme’s disease, severe autoimmune conditions, chronic stomach pain, headaches, hives, swollen lymph nodes, gallbladder pain, muscle spasms, and a frozen shoulder. I went to several doctors, spent thousands of dollars, and had no diagnoses, insight, or cure.
Thankfully I had Holy Fire Reiki to guide me through this ordeal. By listening to Reiki, I was led to people who could help me. With complimentary holistic practices like acupuncture, massage, naturalpathic care, sound healing, hydrotherapy, biophoton therapy, and chiropractic, I was able to reverse the majority of my conditions.
However, I was still dealing with a frozen shoulder and minor stomach pain. Then, while teaching a winter Reiki class, I saw mental images of myself running. I heard a voice say that if I were to run, my health would improve. I immediately rejected it. “I don’t have enough energy to run,” I thought. “I don’t like to run, it’s hard, and boring,” I complained.
After the long winter ended, I was feeling more energetic than I’d felt in years. That spring I went running for the first time in over a decade. I ran three miles my first time out- mostly it was a run-walk. It felt good, and also hurt. Every painful area in my body was now exposed, and I knew I had a lot of work ahead of me. Each time I ran, the pain reduced as Reiki-oxygenated blood traveled throughout my body. Some days were definitely easier than others, mentally and physically, but overall I was now using my headspace for a different purpose.
Shortly after I started running, I went to Portland to complete my Master co-teach as a Licensed Teacher with Colleen Benelli. I stayed longer to review Holy Fire III Karuna Reiki with Colleen. Over six days I received eight ignitions, one being on my birthday, at my exact time of birth. In the Karuna class I experienced deep feelings of being loved, and the unloved parts of me began to heal. A wonderful shift was happening during class, and I was convinced the Reiki Running Meditation was helping to move out the toxic emotions and alleviate the pain.
All of my physical conditions have improved by seventy-five percent over six months of running. I now run twelve miles a week and no longer need to walk during my run. I’ve started to think about what else I might be able to do. Previously I had limited myself in my thinking, but Reiki Running Meditation is helping me to change my story.
Here are some tips for engaging in Reiki Running Meditation:
When you exercise, let your thoughts surface without judging them, and then simply let them go with the exhaling of your breath. Do this with each breath, each thought.
I’ve discovered over the years that people often think meditation means sitting around, thinking about nothing. When thoughts and feelings arise, they’re viewed as an annoying distraction. However, as long as you have a mind, you’ll have thoughts and emotions. You can’t change that. What you can change is your reaction to them. When you have this understanding, the rising and subsiding thoughts can enhance your mediation practice, because you no longer judge them. Thoughts and breath are your tools of meditation, bringing you into focus.
“Just as the ocean has waves, or sun has rays, so the mind’s own radiance is its thoughts and emotions. The ocean has waves, yet is not particular disturbed by them. The waves are the very nature of the ocean. Waves will rise, but where do they go? Back into the ocean.” And where do waves come from? The ocean. In the same manner, thoughts and emotions are the radiance and expression of the very nature of mind. They rise from the mind, but where do they dissolve? Back into the mind. Whatever rises, do not see it as a particular problem. If you do not impulsively react, if you to are only patient, it will once again settle into its essential nature.” -Sogyal Rinpoche ²
Connect to Reiki by calling it and setting your intention. Ask for Reiki to flow throughout your body, guiding you and healing you. Activate through visualization of the Reiki symbols.
When you run, focus on breath, visualization, and mantra. With your breath, as you exhale, let go of any negative thoughts that come up. Manifest positive outcomes by visualizing and having gratitude for them. Chant Holy Fire Reiki mantra and other symbols to stop the negative thoughts from coming in. The movement and breathing, combined with Reiki, provide a powerful vehicle to heal and manifest.
Reiki travels through the aura, chakras, and meridians in your body. When you raise your heart rate through exercise, you increase the flow of ki throughout your body. All your cells become nourished with fresh oxygen, and life force energy. I’ve noticed my auric felid has gotten clearer because of it, and my ability to channel Reiki physically has gotten stronger.
In the last year since Holy Fire III, I’ve started hearing from many clients that their physical ailments are being healed. They report feeling Reiki energy going to a location on their body that needs healing, regardless of where my hands are located. They also say they can feel the Reiki flowing to them for up to a week after the treatment.
Some clients ask for healing in specific problem areas, some don’t. Those who don’t are sometimes surprised when Reiki finds a problem area they never revealed. During these sessions, the clients all report feeling the Reiki intensely, commonly with heat and strong electrical sensations.
In addition to physical healings, clients and students are experiencing a much deeper connection to Reiki during our sessions and classes. As the Reiki flows, they experience it working with them directly to provide the spiritual guidance they need to heal.
My physical and emotional health has dramatically improved through Reiki Running Meditation, and it’s given me the ability to channel stronger Reiki and provide amazing results for my clients.
Jill Thiel is an ICRT Licensed Reiki Master Teacher, the owner of The Minnesota Reiki Center for Healing and Training and has been teaching Reiki since 2007. She is also a licensed massage therapist, certified foot reflexologist, and sound healer. Jill lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota where she is a skilled gardener and expert on sustainability and winter food growing. Reach Jill by email at jthiel@mnreikicenter.com or through her website at www.mnreikicenter.com.
End Notes
1 William Lee Rand, “Reiki for Exercise and Sports”, (International Center for Reiki Training Online Newsletter). August 2008.
2 Sogyal Rinpoche, Tibetan Book of the Living and Dying (San Francisco: Harper Collins Publications, 1992). 74.