Healing begins with presence

How I found my path to Reiki

Looking back, I think the signs were always there. Even as a child, I was drawn to the occult sciences — the mysterious, the unseen, the things that couldn't quite be explained but somehow made sense to me anyway. I read about them, wondered about them, felt pulled toward them. But like most childhood fascinations, I never imagined it would one day become my path.

It was only after going through the ups and downs of life that something shifted. Somewhere in the middle of chasing the next milestone, I found myself circling back to spirituality — not as an escape, but as a homecoming. I started meditating on my own, sitting with myself in silence, learning to listen inward. From there, I taught myself tarot reading. Then hypnotherapy. Each one felt like another piece of a puzzle I didn't know I was solving.

Reiki, though, came to me differently. I remember the moment clearly — my mind was doing what minds do best, overthinking, spinning, refusing to settle. And in the middle of that noise, the word 'Reiki' simply arrived in my thoughts. Not as a plan, but almost like a whisper. Somewhere underneath all that mental chatter, I knew something quietly true about myself: I am a healer. I can be a good healer.

So I began the way I'd started everything else — alone, with whatever I could find. YouTube became my classroom. I read Self-Healing with Reiki by Penelope Quest the way you read something that feels like it's speaking directly to you. For two months, I practiced quietly, patiently, with no one watching. And then one day, I felt it — warmth, a pulse of energy in my hands that hadn't been there before. Or maybe it had always been there, and I was only now still enough to notice it.

That was the turning point. I made the trip to Rishikesh, Uttarakhand — a place that has called seekers home for centuries — to learn from a master. That's where I met Mr. Praveen Badoni, my Reiki teacher, who trained me in the technique developed by Grandmaster Dr. Mikao Usui. In the process of learning to heal others, I ended up healing myself first. He taught me more than technique. He taught me presence, humility, and what it truly means to be a channel for healing energy rather than its source.

Today, I'm a certified Reiki Level 2 practitioner — and honestly, this feels less like an achievement and more like a beginning. If you're reading this and something in you is quietly whispering the way Reiki once whispered to me, I'd love to help you listen to it too.