Reiki: A Self-Practice To Live in Peace with Self and Others Paperback – February 1, 2022

For those of us lucky enough to have learned under Elise Brenner we read her kind and wise voice in this.

As a passionate Reiki practitioner & teacher the benefits of a Reiki practice are well appreciated, and the desire to share this body-mind-spirit healing and meditation practice is great. This sweet book is a gift of Reiki that can accomplish that. The messages, analogies, and practices are suitable for everyone, and the effects are far reaching. “Reiki, A Self Practice to Live in Peace with Self and Others” will be required reading for all my students. It is my hope and recommendation that when you decide to purchase, you buy extra copies to give away; because we all could use a little more love and support. I keep my copy on my night stand.

As a Reiki teacher who is devoted to living and teaching Reiki as a powerful way of being, I was thrilled to find Reiki: A Self-Practice to Live in Peace with Self and Others. The simplicity in which Elise Brenner and Nancy Spatz have shared the teachings and practices makes them relatable to everyone...Reiki-attuned or not! Thank you for ushering us more deeply into this new time in the Reiki world of Oneness, feminine wisdom, and compassionate action.

This book is a brilliant edition to your Reiki library. Full of insight and wisdom that is grounded through practice, every page is teeming with wonder.

With “Reiki - A Self Practice” Elise Brenner, PhD, and her co-author Nancy Spatz, MD, present a slim guide to Reiki as a practical, functional tool for daily, 21st century living.Breath, thoughtful pause, traditional meditation techniques, basic hand positions, and Reiki’s philosophical foundations (precepts) are clearly and succinctly presented. The authors answer the question “how does it work?’ scientifically, with layperson-friendly neurophysiology lesson on the calm mind and body.There are sections on tailoring Reiki for different groups: children, adolescents, the elderly, sleepless, chronically ill, acutely in pain, new to parenting, burned out at work. There’s a full appendix of Reiki research papers, compiled by Dr. Brenner.“Reiki - A Self Practice” is a primer in Reiki-inspired small acts of kindness. Every section offers examples of how living in Reiki improves personal interactions and self esteem. For example: a tech support hell day becomes manageable with a hara (belly) breathing. A parking lot fender-bended that might have gone better had the victim transformed anger into the presence of mind to record the offender’s plate.Chapter 11 takes this manual from the personal to the global. “The Social Suffering: Reiki Practice & Social Justice” projects Reiki into the realm of repairing the world for all people. “Looking inward all by itself cannot be the sole solution to social, economic, and political forces beyond the control of individuals…Larger structural forces, polices and institutions limit and constrain an individual’s capacity to exercise resilience and reach for wellness… There is [though] encouraging news. The Reiki self-practices described in this book support a state of mindful and heartful compassion and courage, propelling us to go out there and take action to overcome social suffering as we transcend the confines of the conditioned self… We move beyond self-growth to collective growth embedded in compassion… When we bring together mindful stillness and compassionate action, we can contribute to dismantling the ways of thinking and organizing society that have resulted in oppression, causing deep suffering and pain.”It is the beautifully-written guide that we Reiki practitioners have been seeking. Thank you Elise and Nancy, for writing and living this work.

I found out about this book by watching Dive Into Reiki Round Table: The Art of Writing Reiki Books, where Elise Brenner was one of the authors interviewed. After years of taking multiple Reiki classes with some of the best practitioners in the world, and reading dozens of books on the topic, I continued to get mired in all the details about the meanings of Japanese words, how to correctly do the different meditations, and even how to explain the benefits of Reiki. This lovely book should be given out in all classes. It's brief and to the point. The instructions for the meditations were easy to follow. The descriptions of the benefits of Reiki were my own thoughts and feelings of Reiki but put into words so much more beautifully and fully, that I can now explain them to others more clearly. Highly recommend.