Chi is the life force, the natural source of energy. It's what makes the difference between being alive, and being dead. It's hard to describe it without it sounding abstract or ungraspable, but it's about the most concrete things there is. We certainly notice when it's no longer there!
Reiki is a gentle practice of channeling this energy through the hands, and when the energy comes through, it has the natural ability to heal. The Reiki system and practice comes from Mikao Usui, who studied and practiced Taoist martial arts and energy practices, Buddhist meditation and ethical principles, and the traditional Japanese chanting of the 'kotodama' or word spirits, in Japan in the 1920s. After an extended spell of meditation, Usui suddenly found himself experiencing a huge flow of energy, flowing through his whole body, a state of illumination, of understanding how things really are, and a side effect of this energy, as it flowed through his hands, eyes, and mouth - the ability to heal himself and others.
Access to this energy as a healing resource has been transmitted to people in an unbroken line to the present day. But the energy is really nothing separate from what we are, right now and all the time.
So we all have the power to heal actually at our fingertips, and the power to resource ourselves, to fill our own cups with calmness, strength and focus. This is extremely important right now, when times are pressurised, people are scared, old systems seem to be failing in front of our eyes and survival concerns are first and foremost. Also, a relatively new rapacious form of capitalism is thriving on our very attention, keeping us scattered, distracted, passive, anxious and dissociated from what's really going on in our lives, and our own capacity to act.
Right now having a source of inner strength and focused attention is a real super-power, a luxury and a necessity if we're to get ourselves out of the present environmental, economic and political mess we're in, not to mention a global pandemic.
Reiki, simple and freely available, seems like a good place to start. If you're up for liberating and cultivating your own chi, or simply curious about how I liberated and cultivated mine, I wrote a book about it. It's pretty short and to the point - and you can buy it in e book formats of all kinds direct from the publishers at Wayward Publications or in paperback from Amazon, Book Depository or other online booksellers.