Reiki, the Chakras – and Everyday Life

Reiki has become quite popular as an accessible, easy to learn healing method. My wife learnt this practice a few years back. I also know a few others who have learnt Reiki. Some vouch for its positive effects, some remain sceptical. 
My interest in Reiki sprouted from the keenness to learn some form of meditation on the Chakras. I have been meditating every day (albeit just around 10 minutes) for over 3 years with the Black Lotus app.  
I had an experience while practicing the Sahaj Marg form of meditation in my college days. During a session with the preceptor, I clearly saw the Chakras inside my body as wonderful light. I had discontinued the practice due to other priorities, but the experience created a faith in the existence of the Chakras. 
When I regularized the practice of daily meditation, the old memory came back and the desire to meditate on the Chakras became stronger. I tried just focussing on the Chakras but I felt a formal practice would be better. With this intent, I decided to try out Reiki. 
Reiki is generally known as a healing technique. The story goes that Master Usui – the founder of Reiki wanted to know how seers like Jesus and Buddha could cure people with the touch of their hands. After intense meditation, the technique dawned upon him and he went on to propagate it amongst common folk. While Reiki works on channelizing the Universal Energy for specific purposes, at the core of it, it is another form of meditation and well connected with day-to-day life. 
The Chakras each represent an aspect of our everyday lives. They are related to important facets of living – and a balanced life has a good sprinkling of each of these in the right measure. Reiki works on balancing the Chakras – building awareness on the dominance or weakness of the aspects they influence and helping regulate them to live a fulfilling life. 
Below are charts which very briefly show (on the right side), the life-aspect governed by each of the Chakras. 

Meditating on each of the them in the way Reiki teaches helps regulate their influence in one’s day-to-day life. While the practice of meditating is for around 45 minutes, the larger impact is the understanding of the influence of the Chakras and an awareness of what one needs to regulate as he or she lives the day. For example, someone keen on acquiring knowledge can relate it to the influence of the Ajna (Third Eye) Chakra while one with poor health can identify it with a weak influence of the Muladhara (Root) Chakra.  
Reiki practitioners also talk about the benefits that Reiki can bring in physical, material and emotional spheres. While this may be true, like any meditative practice, it remains a personal experience. 
For me, the connection of the esoteric concept of Chakras to day-to-day living has been my best benefit and learning. It reiterates my belief that spirituality is an everyday practice and needs to be woven into one’s life as seamlessly as breathing. For common folks, the most apt form of spirituality is that which can be practiced while leading a normal life and Reiki taught me just that. Gratitude to the masters for bringing in this method and making it accessible to so many seekers.