Reiki refers to the popular stress reduction technique as well as relaxation method that originated from Japan. Reiki literally means “God’s wisdom” and “life force energy” because the process of Reiki is more of a spiritual healing process. In other words, it means relying on a higher power to acquire higher life force energy to keep a person happy and healthy. In Reiki, there is the laying on of hands to allow life force energy to flow into the body and prevent it from getting sick and tired easily. Reiki is considered natural since there are no other medications and procedures required except for the laying on of hands.
Now, Reiki has been said to give lots of health benefits to the body, also to cancer patients who are currently enduring cancer-related fatigue. Cancer patients who have undergone therapy are likely to feel very tired as if energy is being drained from their bodies. With this, cancer patients are required to take complete rest. However, rest may not be enough to easily and quickly reduce cancer-related fatigue and this can be annoying and may hinder happiness to flow to a caner patient’s life even after he or she has taken therapy already. This is why the Reiki technique has been considered.
Image by Old Fogey 1942
According to a study on Reiki conducted by the Department of Psychology at the University of Calgary in Alberta Canada, it contributes a lot to faster reduction of cancer-related fatigue as well as faster healing process to cancer patients. The study divided patients into two groups wherein one group will undergo Reiki technique for five consecutive days. Another group of patients will simply take their natural rest for five consecutive days as well. The study was also divided into two parts. In the first part, they will try to determine the effects of Reiki on reducing cancer-related fatigue and the second part is to determine how Reiki affected the quality of life of cancer patients.
After the testing days that consist of Reiki and rest sessions as well as according to the data gathered when the patients were told to answer questions about their condition, the study team came to a conclusion. For part one, on the effects of Reiki in the reduction of cancer-related fatigue, there is a significant decrease of cancer-related fatigue for patients who have undergone Reiki than patients who simply rested. When it comes to fatigue reduction, pain and anxiety reduction, Reiki was found to be effective. For the second part of the study which is to determine the effects of Reiki on the quality of life of cancer patients; since cancer-related fatigue has been greatly reduced, the quality of life was also seen to have significant improvements among cancer patients. There is a higher percentage of stress reduction and quality life improvement observed from patients who have undergone Reiki than those patients who have simply rested.
With the results of this study, Reiki is now being considered as an interesting subject of study for other ailments and other areas of medical research. And it has also been recommended by most medical institutions to most cancer patients likely to experience cancer-related fatigue.
