Last August I received my reiki level one attunement. The attunement was a profound experience and I am so happy that I decided to embark on the journey of reiki healing.

The class was taught by the Reiki Master I have been getting reiki treatments from for a year and a half now. While I felt totally comfortable and safe with her, I was also slightly nervous about what the day would entail! Every instructor’s process for teaching reiki and passing attunements is different, but I thought that sharing my experience would be beneficial.

If you’re considering a reiki attunement, I hope that my experience will help guide you on your journey. Reiki has been an incredibly powerful tool in my spiritual path and I highly recommend it to everyone who is remotely interested.

One important thing to note is that my reiki instructor practices an intuition based form of reiki, so her methods do vary from what traditional reiki practitioners might use. Her class covered much more than just the basics of reiki, which I greatly appreciated. Neither form of reiki is superior to the other. It all comes down to personal preference and what both the practitioner and recipient feel most comfortable with.

What is Reiki?

Before we get into the nitty gritty of my reiki level one attunement, I want to give a brief history of what reiki actually is.

Reiki is a form of energy healing that originated in Japan in 1922. It was first discovered by Mikao Usui during a period of meditation. While the exact story of how he discovered it is not certain, we do know he used his knowledge to teach others the healing power of reiki.

Reiki comes from two words: rei, meaning spiritual wisdom and ki, meaning life energy. Combined, these two words represent how reiki works. Spiritual guidance enables the healer to use the universal life energy (ki) to promote spiritual, emotional, and physical healing.

During a healing session, reiki energy flows through the reiki practitioner and into the person receiving the treatment. The healer can direct the energy, but it will go where it is most needed. Reiki healing is an incredibly powerful experience that touches a person’s body, mind, and soul.

The fact that reiki relies on divine spiritual guidance means that an individual must have an attunement given to them from a reiki master to tap into the universal ki. There are three levels of attunements that can loosely be defined as follows: healing yourself, healing others, and teaching others.

Reiki level one is the first attunement one receives when starting out with reiki.

What to expect in your reiki level one attunement

My reiki level one training was a one-day class with three other people. Some reiki classes are taught with 10-20 people or even as big conference center events, but I much preferred the intimacy of a smaller class. However, regardless of the class size you will still get the same experience!

We started out the class by explaining our experiences with reiki and other forms of energy healing, where we are along our spiritual journey, and what we were hoping to learn from the day’s events. She then led us in a five minute guided meditation. This helped to put us in a relaxed and focused state of mind. It was a great way to get to know the others in the class and put us at ease with each other.

Once introductions were out of the way, we learned about the basics of energy work. She taught us how to ground, center, and shield (which I have a great post on here), as well as walked us through the process of doing that ourselves. We also covered the chakras and learned how to clear them. Finally, we learned about crystals, essential oils, and sound as tools for energy balancing and spiritual support.

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Next, the instructor gave us a history of what reiki is all about. Imagine the brief overview I gave earlier, but fully fleshed out. She covered how Usui Sensei discovered reiki energy, how the practice of reiki has transformed over the years, and the belief system behind reiki. She also covered in depth the reiki principles, ethics, and symbols. Some reiki masters choose not to teach the reiki symbols to reiki level one classes but my instructor believes that the sooner an individual learns and becomes comfortable with the symbols, the better.

Once we were familiar with the concept of reiki, she decided it was time for some hands-on practice. Each of us took a turn laying on her massage table while the others used their hands to sense energy. While none of us had our attunement yet, we were still able to feel the energy coming off of each other and use our intuition to interpret what the energy meant.

This was a super cool part of the class and it definitely made everyone excited to actually receive our attunement!

Following our lunch break we participated in a burning ceremony. This was a very emotionally cathartic experience that I highly recommend everyone try at least once. It’s essentially just writing down things you want to let go of in your life and then burning the paper. It’s super easy and can be made as ceremonial or simple as you would like.

After the emotional release of the burning ceremony, we were all in a calm and centered head space, which was perfect for the next part of the class: meeting our spirit guides.

Spirit guides are the spiritual mentors and protectors that we all have in our lives. They follow us and give us the guidance and answers we are seeking. Once again, we did a guided meditation to meet our spirit guides. I was able to sense two of my guides and got some simple answers about who they are and their message to me. It was a really cool experience and spirit guide communication is definitely something that I want to spend more time doing.

Once we had learned all of this information about reiki, intuition, and energy work it was time for our attunement.

Our instructor took us one by one into her private treatment room to pass the attunements. I’m not going to go into a ton of details about the actual attunement process, but I will provide a brief overview.

I sat in a chair and my instructor placed the first three reiki symbols into various parts of my body — my crown chakra, my hands, etc. Between each step of the attunement she shared various messages and images she was receiving. These were from both my spirit guides and her own. These messages resonated with me and it was a very profound experience. Once she had completed the attunement, we spent a couple of minutes discussing what she had seen and allowed me to process the whole experience.

The way I felt following the attunement is very difficult to put into words. The best way I can describe it is calm and at peace. It wasn’t an immediate, overwhelming change. I definitely didn’t have a sudden shift or moment of clarity, or even a huge emotional release. However, this is a very personal experience that varies among individuals. Some people in our group did have an extremely emotional experience. It really depends on your body and spirit!

After the reiki attunement

The biggest changes happened in the weeks following the attunement. I did my best to practice reiki everyday and to follow the hand positions when working on myself. I also made a conscious effort to tap into my intuitive abilities and really hone in on my awareness of the world around me.

The most immediate change that I felt was the sensation of energy running through my body at random points throughout the day. If my thoughts ever strayed to reiki or energy work of any kind I would immediately notice this happening. It’s been around seven months since my attunement at the time of writing this and I’m noticing it happening right now!

It’s not an unpleasant sensation by any means, but I definitely never experienced anything like it prior to my attunement.

I also began to notice my intuition becoming much stronger. I’ve always been fairly in-tune with my intuitive self and trusted my ability to interpret any “signs” or feelings that might come my way. However, this amplified considerably after the attunement.

My primary intuitive ability or “clair” has always been clairsentience, or clear knowing. Since getting the attunement, I find myself receiving messages from my guides that I simply know are from them and what they are supposed to mean. I know this sounds a bit crazy, but my ability to discern these messages has greatly improved and I’ve been able to rely on my intuition more heavily as a result.

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The final “side effect” is one that I wish I had been more prepared for: spiritual purging.

A reiki attunement raises your vibration, meaning you are operating a higher frequency than before. While this is a wonderful thing and helps to promote overall emotional, spiritual, and physical wellness, it also forces you to let go of things that are bringing your vibration down.

Oftentimes, the things that you “let go” of aren’t even on your radar as issues that need to be dealt with! Whether its dissatisfaction with your job, a toxic relationship, or unresolved issues with your family members, there’s a very good chance that these negative feelings will be pushed to the surface and demand to be dealt with right now thank you very much.

I was not prepared for this emotional upheaval in the slightest. While I’m very thankful that I was able to confront the issues head-on and acknowledge how much they had been bringing me down, in the moment it was extremely overwhelming.

Be prepared for the emergence of these issues. Don’t resist them or dread them coming up, simply work through them as they come. There’s a reason that they’re being released and you’ll feel much better afterwards.

In closing, I highly encourage you to pursue reiki if it interests you. Getting my reiki level one attunement is one of the greatest decisions I have made and it has had a profound impact on my life. Every reiki attunement is different, but if you find a Reiki master who resonates with you it’ll be a wonderful experience. Heck, even if you don’t totally vibe with the instructor of the class you take, the reiki level one attunement is still a wonderful experience that will change your life.

I’m only able to highlight my own experiences, but I guarantee you won’t regret getting your reiki level one certification.

What has your experience with reiki been like? Have you received the level one attunement? Are you considering it? Be sure to comment below with your experiences!