Reiki Blog Hop: Reiki New Year!

Welcome to the Reiki Blog Hop! A group of Reiki practitioners from around the world are all writing on the same topic, and linking to each other so you can hop around from blog to blog, reading all the different stories they have to share! Karen Sealey of The Pure & Blessed Way suggested we celebrate the New Year Reiki style.

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Reiki New Year!

As I considered this topic, at first I thought about my personal and business Reiki goals for the year. But then I thought, what would it be like if I could set some resolutions for the art of Reiki itself?

Reiki Resolutions for the New Year:

1. Reiki, this year please stay true to yourself.

I’ve learned to ask subtle questions of my Reiki clients to find out not only if they’ve had a session labeled as Reiki before, but what that session consisted of. One time I asked a new client, “What did you like best about your session with your previous practitioner?” “The Egyptian Healing Rods!” She exclaimed. I had to let her know I had never heard of those and that it wasn’t a part of Reiki. Reiki is like a sensitive, quiet child for whom everyone knows best what it should be, instead of listening to it and letting it be itself.

2. Reiki, this year please help people recognize the strength in your simplicity.

I know a lot of amazing Reiki practitioners, but sometimes we forget that we don’t decide what Reiki does, Reiki decides. There is a corollary to this: Reiki can perform miracles. I heard a highly trained practitioner, who like many of us is adept at several modalities, say recently that when she comes to a block, she tells her client that a Reiki practitioner will not remove a block, but if they want she can use shamanic techniques to remove it. Both statements are essentially true, and I greatly value that she clearly distinguishes during a session what is Reiki and what is not.

However, thinking about it from the perspective of the client, it’s possible that what they are hearing is that Reiki can’t remove the block. A Reiki practitioner does not exert their will in a session, but when variations in the free flow of energy are encountered, a practitioner will stay at that spot until the recipient’s body chooses to accept the Reiki or not. There are reports of Japanese practitioners from earlier in the history of Reiki (early 20th century) who would stay working on a diseased area for hours or even days, usually working with multiple practitioners on a single recipient. They were able to cure disease this way that medical doctors were unable to treat.

No, the practitioner will not remove the block, but they will wait with you until you decide to release it. The end result is that your body has been empowered to heal itself, an invaluable experience for it to have.

3. Reiki, this year please help your practitioners provide only solutions.

It is almost inevitable where I come from for a client to ask after a session, “So, what did you get?” So many Reiki practitioners include an evaluation of the recipient and share all the psychic impressions they received during the session. I don’t know that this is particularly helpful, first because Reiki practitioners are not to make medical diagnoses and second, because, based on the stories I’ve heard, the practitioners tend to only relate negative information. I have so many clients who come in reporting that their previous practitioner told them they had a block in this or that energy center. On the other hand, one of my regular clients once said to me, “I feel so balanced and relaxed after a session I know I can get through a tough day.” Perhaps it’s partly because I don’t cloud her confidence with reports of intangible diseases undermining her.

On the other hand, that same client came in one time after getting a new job and I found that her feet were really sore. We talked about different shoes for her, and after a few sessions, and trying a few kinds of shoes, she was able to work all day on her feet without pain–and that showed up in subsequent sessions. This is an example of a practical problem with an achievable remedy. Oddly, the answer came from a comment that I made, but which she misheard. (This is how Reiki works! The recipient receives what they most need despite any bumbling efforts on the part of the practitioner!) I asked at one session if she had changed her shoes, meaning did she get different shoes. She heard, did you change shoes during the day. She discovered that if she brought two pairs of shoes to work and changed at lunchtime she could go through the day without pain. She credited me but I credit Reiki! Reiki provides solutions, not nebulous threats.

4. Reiki, this year please empower everyone in the world to heal themselves.

Reiki is easy to learn, anyone can do it, and astonishing results can be achieved. A dedicated daily practice brings balance and healing to all areas of life. Reiki strengthens our energy so that disease is less likely to hit, or when it does, is milder, shorter lived, and less likely to interfere with our life. Reiki can be done on yourself, friends, family, pets, plants, food, your car, the copier that never works, absolutely anything. It always helps!

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Joy Vernon has been studying energetic and esoteric modalities for more than twenty years and has been practicing Reiki since 2003. She is a Reiki Practitioner and Teacher in the traditional Japanese Usui Reiki Ryôhô lineage through the International House of Reiki, first learning this lineage in 2008 and later studying under the IHR Founder Frans Stiene in 2015. She is also a certified Komyo Reiki Shihan (Teacher) and studied under Komyo Reiki Kai Founder Hyakuten Inamoto in 2011 and 2013. She leads the Denver Traditional Reiki Meetup and is a member of Shibumi International Reiki Association and the Healing Touch Professional Association. Joy is also a Certified Professional Tarot Reader. For more information, please see her website.

© 2017 by Joy Vernon. All rights reserved.