Healing Past Karma with Reiki

When one is faced with difficulties that don’t make any sense, one is often prompted to ask where the trigger of such a problem might lie. Today, many people find themselves asking if these problems are due to previous karma and if this is the case, how can such karma be resolved.

What is Past Karma?

There are two types of karmic baggage that we bring with us from the past. One is the type where we have hurt others in some way, and this is coming back to haunt us. The other is where someone has hurt us, and we have refused to forgive, thereby carrying a conscious or subconscious desire to hurt the other, or see the other ‘learn a lesson’.

While the first type might be impacting our present, the second type more likely impacts our future.

How Does Karma Work?

Karma is nothing but attachment, and the circumstances around it propagate a continuation of this attachment. For instance, if a person A loves some object, say a vintage pot, and person B breaks this pot in a fit of anger, karma is created. Not so much due to the breakage of the item, but because of the person’s attachment to it. Person A now wants to teach the other a lesson. So eventually, they exchange roles, and just for the sake of the example, let us assume that again, a pot is broken – this time by person A. Now person B wants to teach A a lesson, and the story continues.

These things get further complicated when we want to punish ourselves. When we are very attached to our sense of right and wrong, we not only want others to be punished, but we are also much harsher on ourselves. At the time of death, many of us review our mistakes and decide to punish ourselves. The healing of this aspect is of prime importance with regards to healing ones past lives.

Will this Make my Problems Go Away?

People very commonly mistake karma for problems. They are not the same thing. Every action has a set consequence, and nothing can change that. For example, if one is trying to come to the USA from Australia, there is going to be an ocean to cross. It is absolutely impossible to drive all the way. Every journey has its share of obstacles, and if anything, these obstacles only help us grow, evolve and mature. Taking away our problems will take away our potential to grow.

Karma does not bring problems. It brings suffering. Suffering distracts, and prevents us from seeing clearly and finding an easy solution. Healing your past karma may or may not clear your problem entirely, but it will help you come to terms with what is going on, and deal with it the best you possibly can.

How Can I Let it Go?

Karma, as I mentioned, is nothing but a continuation of attachment. Unless we let go of our own attachments – either attachments to certain people or objects or the attachment to the idea of seeing someone else learn a lesson and improve, the karma cannot be completely cleared.

The Process

Bringing oneself in complete acceptance of the present situation along with the emotions that are being triggered is the most effective way to dissolve all karma. However this is not always easy, so here’s a process that you can follow to reduce your karmic impact on a difficult current situation.

Deepen your Insight: The first step would be to obtain a deeper insight into what impact the situation is having on us. Writing helps tremendously with this process, and I suggest spending some time writing for a few days, about what your feelings about your current situation are. Write only about your own feelings, and not about what others should or should not be doing. As you write about your feelings, ask yourself if there is another emotion hiding underneath what you are feeling. For example, one might be angry at first, but on further investigation, might realize that it was actually humiliation or helplessness that was being masked by the anger. A little time spent in investigation everyday can take you very deep and greatly enhance your healing.

Embrace your Feelings: Once you are clear what feelings this situation invokes, the next step is relaxing in these feelings. It is when we try to escape feeling a certain way that we get deeper into trouble. So, although it may sound counter intuitive, think about your current situation, feel the way it makes you feel, and allow this to happen. I would suggest not trying to rush through the process – it may take you a few days of practice to be able to relax into the feeling. By this, I mean that you will be comfortable with the feelings that come up, without a desire to make the feeling go away by doing or saying something to somebody.

You could also combine this process with your self-healing, allowing the feeling to come up just before you begin, and then going through your Reiki self-healing, so that Reiki can help with your process.

Dissolve the Past: Once you are comfortable in the feeling, it is time to heal the past. Bring your energy to your Heart chakra, and request Reiki to:

1. Connect you with all events that are contributing to the current situation in your life (and then draw the distant healing symbol if you have completed level 2).
2. Heal all emotions associated with these situations and people (and then draw the emotional healing symbol if you have completed level 2).
3. And to help to retain your focus in your heart, so that you can view everything through the perspective of love, faith and compassion (and then draw the physical healing symbols if you have completed level 2).
4. If other people are also involved in your situation, imagine them all sitting in front of you and flood them with love and energy.
5. Sit quietly for some time, allowing your body to settle into the new energies.

The deepest healing does not occur in a sudden burst, but is the result of continuous dedication. Done over a period of time, this process will help you release much of the karma that is holding you back in life.

Article by Ashwita Goel, Reiki Master

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Having learned Meditation as a child, Ashwita incorporated Reiki into her life during her early teens. After a decade of witnessing the magic Reiki, she felt compelled to take up Reiki professionally, and ended her corporate career in 2007, taking up Reiki full-time. She eventually incorporated EFT, hypnotherapy and past life therapy into her work. Apart from her healing work, she teaches Reiki and meditation, and her book ‘Healing Through Reiki’ is available on Amazon. She holds regular full moon and new moon meditations at @AshwitaGoel. Her website is www.reiki-bangalore.com and her blog www.ashwita.com