Forward to Reiki book –
Turn Around Your Life Around with Reiki
by Anil Bhatnagar

Reiki is a powerful catalyst for personal growth and transformation. The title of this book « Turn Around Your Life with Reiki » is highly appropriate and has inspired me to share with you how Reiki changed my own life.

My first contact with Reiki was motivated by curiosity. I had heard of energy before, but did not really know what it meant. One evening as I was receiving a violin lesson from a dear old friend, I happened to mention that I was thinking of taking a workshop in energy work, although I hadn’t a clue what it entailed. As synchronicity would have it, his wife had just taken a Reiki course and gave me the information for the workshop. The introductory course took only 2 days and the cost was very affordable. « I can do this, » I said to myself, and decided to register. That weekend, I had a profound experience that changed the course of my life.

I had been working as an engineer and project manager for over 20 years. While I found the work challenging and fulfilling, there was something missing that I could not put my finger on. I had noticed that my two boys were inheriting from me much of the negativity I had experienced as a child growing up I needed to make changes, but did not know how or where to begin. The weekend opened the doors for me. With the help of several therapies I learned to look at and work on myself. I experimented with distance treatments on close family and friends living in another city. The results were surprising even though Reiki was deceptively simple. This was enough to keep me interested and I continued over the next few years to deepen my experience and to take more advance Reiki levels. I eventually took the Master initiation and realized that I longed to share this experience with others. I began to teach, although I had never imagined I would do this.

One of the students in the first course I gave as a Reiki Master had showed me a book by Dr. Barbara Brennan entitled Hands of Light. Everything fell easily into place to allow me, six months later, to enrol in the 4-year course at her school in the USA. For three years I continued to work full-time as an engineer, perform as a musician, stay very involved in my family’s activities and attend the five intensive weeks each year at the school. In 2002, after graduating from the Barbara Brennan School, I left my full-time job in engineering management and opened a private healing practice, while I continued to study and integrate other healing modalities.

I gave that first Reiki course 11 years ago. To this day I continue to teach because I can see the amazing transformation that this simple modality brings to the students, whether they take one or more levels of Reiki. I still do about two weeks or so a year of technical writing related to engineering, but the rest of my time is devoted to my healing and teaching practice, helping people move towards healing and well-being. I know I am now doing the work that I came here to do, and I continue to be nourished by my clients and students as they embark and continue on their healing journeys.

People from all walks of life come to me to experience Reiki and/or to take the course. Many come out of curiosity, having heard about if from a friend or relative but not knowing exactly what to expect. Others come to the course with a sense they have a gift of hands-on healing that they do not know what to do with. After the course, they begin to treat themselves and others around them, take better care of themselves and move toward courses, activities and work that are more in line with what they long to create in their lives. As the students begin to integrate the five simple principles into their lives, develop gratitude and identify obstacles to the things they truly desire, they learn a new way of being. Reiki has given them a framework in which to use their gifts effectively. Some simply use it as a life tool and continue to do the same work they have always done. Others make radical changes in their orientation and their daily work.

Reiki has no religious affiliation. It is not a sect. There is no obligation or pressure to continue once you have started. It is a tool for connecting with universal energy (chi, prana) – an energy that has Divine Consciousness and promotes healing and well-being at the physical, emotional, mental, psychic and spiritual levels. The technique is simple and easy to learn. Courses are generally short, one to two days per level except for the Master level which can be more involved depending on the presiding Reiki Master. The cost is minimal. All of this makes it easily accessible to the general public. As creator of the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Gary Craig puts it, « It Works Through You, and not By You. » In Reiki, you learn to allow the energy to do the work simply by being present with the client and getting your own Self out of the way.

In addition to transforming our lives, Reiki has great potential to complement traditional and non-traditional healing modalities. Many hospitals and wellness centers in America and around the world integrate Reiki into patient care. A Reiki treatment helps people to relax before, during and after medical interventions. It speeds up healing and in some cases dramatically reduces side effects of medication. I am convinced that this will continue to expand as the medical community continues to open to alternative therapies.

 

Reiki can be used in many contexts: with animals, plants and foods. Your imagination is the limit. I encourage people to try it on anything and observe the results.

I am pleased that Anil has written a book emphasizing many of my own values concerning the practice of Reiki. He emphasizes living the principles as a way of life. Reiki is primarily a self-growth tool with which you learn to treat yourself and others. Its guiding principles are simple, but powerful, centred on the present moment. As you continue to apply Reiki to yourself and integrate these principles, you begin to transform your relationship with yourself and with life in general. This, of course, affects your relationships with others, which in turn affects them and their relationship with themselves and those around them. A web of transformation is spun, beginning with one’s Self. As Anil says, « Reiki helps to return to One’s Self, and to One-Ness. »

The book addresses all aspects of Reiki, including finding a Reiki Master. The Epilogue offers valuable tools for staying on the Path of Self-Discovery and Mastery should you get discouraged and feel like giving up. Anil addresses many questions a skeptic might have about the subject.

I invite you to approach Reiki in a spirit of openness and curiosity. It may be just the key you have been searching for to a happier life that will put you in touch with the gift of who you are so you can share this with the world.

 

If you cannot share your gifts, the world will be deprived. Your gifts are unique to you. Offer the gift of you that your soul longs to share. Take the risk. You have everything to gain from the experience.

Roland Bérard
Reiki Master Teacher