Self-Healing Reiki: A Beginner's Guide
- Bronwyn Ayla
- May 3
- 3 min read
Updated: May 4
Self-healing reiki is the practice of placing your hands on your own body, with intention, for a felt period of time. That's it. There's no special equipment. There's no perfect place. There's nothing you can do wrong if you're being kind to yourself.
If you've never been formally attuned to reiki, you can still do this. Hand-on-body presence is medicine in itself. Attunement deepens what's already real, but it doesn't gatekeep the basic practice.
Why I keep coming back to it
There's a specific quality of rest that comes from your own hands resting on your own body that nothing else gives me. It's quieter than meditation. It's slower than yoga. It's the kind of regulation that you can do in fifteen minutes before bed and feel different in the morning.
It doesn't replace clinical care. It doesn't replace therapy. It doesn't replace human contact. But for the daily work of returning to yourself, it's hard to beat.
Hand positions — the basics
You don't have to memorize anything. The simplest version is to start at the head and move down, pausing at each position for two to five minutes:
Crown — both hands lightly resting on the top of the head.
Eyes — palms over closed eyes, fingertips at the hairline.
Throat — one hand at the front of the throat, one at the back of the neck (or both lightly at the throat if that's more comfortable).
Heart — one hand on the upper chest, one below it between the breasts.
Solar plexus — both hands above the belly button, below the ribs.
Belly — both hands at the navel.
Lower belly — both hands below the navel, near the pubic bone.
Knees, ankles, feet, or wherever your body is asking. Trust it.
You can shorten this. Three positions is enough. One position is enough. Your hands belong on your body.
How long to practice
Twenty minutes is a beautiful self-treatment. Five minutes counts. Sixty seconds with a hand on the heart while you wait at a red light counts. The dose is whatever you can sustain, not what's ideal.
If you're starting from zero, try five minutes a day for a week. Notice what happens. Then decide what's next.
What you might notice
Your hands warming, sometimes dramatically
Tingling or buzzing under the hands
Sleepiness — sometimes immediate
Old emotion arising — let it
Nothing — and then something shifts later
A felt sense of homecoming
None of these are required. Some people feel everything. Some people feel calm. Both are reiki working. Don't let the absence of dramatic sensation convince you it's not happening.
Common questions
Do I have to be a reiki practitioner?
No. Hands-on-body practice with intention is medicine for anyone. If you've been formally attuned, the practice deepens and you'll start to feel the difference. But you don't need permission to put your hands on your own body.
What if my hands fall asleep?
Move them. The practice is more important than the perfect position.
Should I do this lying down or sitting?
Either. If you're using it for sleep, lying down. If you're trying not to fall asleep, sit.
Can I do this on someone else?
Yes — though working on others is where formal training matters more, both for skill and for the felt-sense of professional containment. For now, start with yourself.
A short video walkthrough
[VIDEO TO EMBED — Bronwyn to add YouTube/Vimeo link to the existing self-healing tutorial. If recording fresh, this is the right post for it.]
If you watched the video and want to keep going, the next step is formal training. The Reiki Mystery School teaches the full system online, with a global cohort and ongoing community.
By Bronwyn Ayla, LAc, founder of the Reiki Mystery School. Bronwyn teaches in the Usui Reiki Ryōhō lineage descending from Mikao Usui through Chujiro Hayashi and Hawayo Takata.
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