Can Reiki and yoga be part of the same wellness routine?
Answered by Vanessa Chugani · Updated October 2026
Yes. Yoga works through breath and movement, and Reiki works through stillness and rest, so they cover different ground rather than compete for the same slot in your week. Many people practise yoga for strength and mobility, then book a Reiki session when what the body needs is to stop moving and switch off instead.
People ask this a lot, usually because they already have a yoga practice and want to know if Reiki fits alongside it or competes with it. It doesn't compete. Yoga moves the body and works the breath. Reiki asks nothing of the body at all: you lie down, stay still, and the session happens around you. Put the two together and you get a fuller answer to the same question, which is how to calm a nervous system that has been running hot for a while.
Different doors into the same system
Yoga works through effort and breath. You build strength, you hold a pose, you move through discomfort on purpose, and the nervous system settles as a result of what you just did. Reiki works the other way round. There's no pose, no breath count, nothing to get right. You arrive stressed, exhausted, wired at 2am or carrying grief, and the session gives the nervous system a chance to settle without asking anything of you first. Neither approach is more serious than the other. They just start from opposite ends.
What changes when you add Reiki to a yoga practice
People who already do yoga regularly and then try Reiki tend to notice it reaches places the mat didn't. Sleep that still wasn't coming back, even after a strong practice. A jaw or a set of shoulders that stayed tight no matter how much stretching went into them, because the tightness was stress sitting in the body rather than a muscle that needed lengthening. Reiki works with exactly that kind of tension: the kind that comes from stress, exhaustion or grief rather than from an injury or a mechanical problem. If something is actually strained or pulled, a physio or a massage is still the better first call. If it's tension that won't let go no matter what you do with your body, that's the part Reiki tends to reach.
How this tends to work in practice, in Canggu
Vanessa trained as a yoga teacher in 2015, in Chiang Mai, before she trained as a Reiki Master Teacher, so she's taught both sides of this question from the inside. Most people who combine them keep yoga as a regular, several-times-a-week practice for movement and strength, and bring in a Reiki session when something specific needs attention: a stretch of bad sleep, a loss, a period that has been harder than normal. Others train in Reiki itself, so they have a tool they can use on themselves between yoga classes rather than needing to book a session every time. Either way works, and there's no required order or ratio between the two.
This suits someone who already trusts what a body-based practice can do and wants a second option for the days a stretch or a flow won't reach. If you're not sure where to start, this is a good place to see what tends to bring people in.
Related questions
Should I do yoga before or after a Reiki session?
There's no fixed order. Some people do a yoga class earlier in the day and come to a Reiki session in the evening when they want to switch off completely. Others keep the two on separate days. Either way is fine: Reiki doesn't need the body prepared in any particular way, so there's nothing to get wrong.
Does Vanessa's Reiki training include any yoga?
No. Reiki training runs from Level 1 to Master Teacher and covers the Reiki practice itself, in groups of no more than six, in Canggu or live online. Vanessa's own background as a yoga teacher shapes how she explains the body and the breath, but the training itself is Reiki, not a yoga course.
Can I book one Reiki session without committing to a whole routine?
Yes. A single private session in Canggu is EUR 188, or EUR 138 for a distance session, with no requirement to book again or to be doing yoga at all. The three and five session packages (EUR 388 and EUR 588) suit people who already know they want more than one, but a one-off is just as normal a way to start.