Category Archives: intention

Can I Do Hatsurei if I Can’t Visualise?

December 9, 2017intention, meditation, reiki energytaggart@reiki-evolution.co.uk

reiki self treatment meditations

Hatsurei ho is one of the basic energy exercises found in Japanese-style Reiki, an extension or elaboration of the original two exercises that Usui Sensei has his students perform at First Degree: Kenyoku and Joshin Kokkyu ho. Part of what you do when you practise Hatsurei ho is to draw energy to your Tanden, which is an energy centre found two fingerbreadths below your tummy button and 1/3rd of the way into your body; it is the centre of your personal energetic universe, the place where your creativity and intuition lie.

Someone contacted me recently wanting to know whether they would be able to do Hatsurei properly because “they couldn’t visualise”, so I thought I would talk about the whole issue of visualising and controlling or directing energy.

The answer is “yes” by the way: you can do Hatsurei ho effectively even though you can’t visualise.

We are visual beings

Firstly, and this is a complete aside, I wanted to say that humans are visual beings. During evolution, there has been a veritable ‘arms race’ between our different senses, battling it out to achieve supremacy, and the visual sense has won that war hands down! We are successful as a species because of our binocular, colour vision and our ability to be a pattern-matching supercomputer.

In fact, 50% of our brain’s immense processing power is dealing with visual information, so even if you are a person who believes that thay aren’t a visual person, or that can’t visualise, in the background your mind is spending half of its capability dealing with visual images! And in fact there are things that you can do to develop that awareness of your visual sense, and become more comfortable with visualising and accessing images internally, but that isn’t really a Reiki topic.

Another point is that visual memory is a bit grainy, rather like the photos that the first mobile phones with cameras used to take, and some people who say that they “aren’t visual” or “can’t visualise” just have too high expectations of their internal visions: they are expecting Panavision or Technicolor, whereas in reality our internal visual ability is decidedly low grade. You may be as ‘visual’ as anyone else, but just don’t think so!

Unfortunate choice of words

When you read instructions about working with Reiki, often they will involve following an exhortation to ‘imagine’ or ‘visualise’ that the energy is doing a particular thing or moving to a particular place. The majority of people can visualise well enough for most practical purposes so it makes sense to use those sort of words, and working visually is quick and easily achievable for most people.

But we do not need to use our visual sense, or imagine anything in our minds, to be able to control or direct the energy. Reiki is a very flexible and adaptible energy and will accommodate many ways of working.

Energy follows intent

The reason for this is that Reiki follows your intent, however you might choose to express or frame that intent. Where you focus your attention is where the energy directs itself, and how you want the energy to move will guide the energy to move in the manner you intend, no matter how that intention is expressed. Certainly if you can “see” the energy moving in a particular way or to a particular place, that will work well, but there are alternatives.

For example, you can:

Have in mind…
Know…
Be aware of…
Feel…
Experience…

… the energy, say, moving down through your crown, down the centre of your body, down to your Tanden.

All these words refer to a way of knowing or experiencing that do not require any visual images and will work just as well.

Move energy without seeing

Let’s try a simple experiment. I want you to become aware of your right hand. Feel energy flowing down your arm into your right hand and notice the energy build there. Now take your attention to your left hand: feel the energy travelling down your left arm into your left hand, where the energy builds in intensity.

You just controlled the movement of energy without visualising anything.

Try this: be aware of the energy flowing down through your body, like a free-flowing river, through your torso and down your right leg, and the energy concentrates itself in your right foot. Experience the energy there for a little while. Now notice how the energy pulls back, so that a strong bubble of energy now sits within your right knee. Experience the energy there for a while.

Again, you directed the flow of energy without visualising anything. What you did was to experience energy in one place and notice it moving; your “noticing” it moving caused it to move because the energy follows your focus and your attention.

Hatsurei ho without seeing

Now let’s try an exercise more directly related to Hatsurei ho: focus your attention on your forehead/third eye, and notice whatever sensation that arises there: maybe some pressure or fizzing or tingling; you’ll probably like this sensation! Now, slowly move that feeling to the very crown of your head; this may take a little while and you’ll need to concentrate. Notice the sensation moving as the energy traces a path to your crown. Let the energy fizz on your crown for a short while. I had you do this so you can see what fine control you can have over the movement and location of the energy.

Anyway: back to Hatsurei ho: now notice that the sensation starts to move vertically downwards, from your crown, down through the centre of your body. Don’t worry if you can’t feel it every single step of the way because you can reconnect with it as it descends. And be aware as the energy reaches and builds in your Tanden. This is a small part of the Joshin Kokkyu ho stage, where you draw energy from the universe, down through your crown to your Tanden, then having the energy spread through your body and then flood out to infinity. All these stages are accessible to you whether or not you can specifically “visualise” something.

Remember, you can:

Have in mind…
Know…
Be aware of…
Feel…
Experience…

… that the energy moves in a particular way or rests in a particular place.

The energy is accommodating

Reiki is a very accommodating energy. It is happy to flow as it wishes, drawn to areas of need, and it will also follow your focus, however your focus might be achieved. It will follow your intention, moving, behaving, framing itself, in whatever way you intend, however that intention is expressed.

So you don’t have to worry about “not being able to visualise” because Reiki doesn’t need you to.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Liberate Your Reiki!

“Whether you are at Level 1, 2 or Reiki Master Teacher Level (regardless of the Reiki flavour you are trained in), this book is very much for you! Within hours of starting to read this book, it has rejuvenated and enriched my own practices with a wealth of information and useful examples too.

The more you read the more you’ll have those wonderful ‘aha’ moments. I know I am already benefiting personally from the knowledge I’ve gained, but so will all my family, friends and clients too. Thank you Taggart for creating this incredible, uniting, enlightening book.”

Heidi Gaffney-Evans

Liberate Your Reiki!

86 Articles About Reiki: One Inspiring Vision

In this Reiki book you will find 80+ articles about Reiki, written by Reiki Master Teacher Taggart King. You will discover how to set your Reiki free, free from the constraints, dogma, rules and regulations of Western-style Reiki courses. Get back to Reiki’s original Japanese method and embrace simplicity, flexibility, creativity and intuition.

This book is suitable for people at all Reiki levels: beginners, those who are developing their Reiki, and Reiki Masters/Master Teachers. You will find advice about self-treatment meditations, energy exercises to build your ability as a channel, you will discover how to work with your intuition and embrace the power of intent.

Explore different distant healing methods and discover the beauty of Reiki’s original Japanese form. Learn how to use creativity and visualisation to enhance your self-treatments and treatment of others, and ditch all the silly rules and regulations that stifle the practice of Western Reiki in many lineages.

Finally, read Taggart King’s “10 Rules of Reiki”, the essential principles for a powerful and fulfilling Reiki practice.

This professionally-printed Reiki manual has 370 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 370 pages.

Price: £15.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £12.49

How Can Reiki Symbols Unlock Such Power?

November 11, 2017attunements, intention, reiki symboltaggart@reiki-evolution.co.uk

The other day a Reiki person mentioned to me that when people use symbols in Reiki, it just seems ridiculous that they can unlock all this power, and she was a bit embarrassed by it all. It seemed to her to be a bit like “Open Sesame!” or “abracadabra”: just foolish and ridiculous that flailing your fingers in the air could create all this cosmic power.

And it does seem strange, doesn’t it? A bit like wizards and incantations and ancient, mysterious, closely-guarded, power-imbued sigils that initiates can use to control and direct natural forces, in our case for good.

So, how can symbols unlock such power?

They can’t.

Attunements don’t attune

The word “attunement” is a very unfortunate one to use to describe the initiations that Reiki people go through in order to practise Reiki. The word “attune” suggests that you are being attuned to something and, since symbols are involved in most attunement rituals, it is also natural to assume that you are attuned to those symbols and that it is the process of being attuned to a symbol that allows you to do the Reiki thing.

And for a long time in the world of Reiki, where the only way that you could be initiated was by going through an attunement, and basically all attunement rituals involved the use of symbols, it made perfect sense to believe these things.

But here’s the thing: Mikao Usui didn’t attune anyone to anything. No rituals, no putting a symbol in your aura or your head or your palms, or any of that paraphernalia, and most of his students never even got to see a symbol. And while he would have his students practise initiating others using a ritual, no symbols entered into that process either.

[Go here for more Reiki symbol heresies]

Now, you could take the view of one of the UK’s Reiki associations, where their view of Reiki is so narrow that they believe, in effect, that none of Mikao Usui’s students were properly initiated by him and so wouldn’t qualify for membership of their organisation. I don’t think we need to entertain such silliness.

So, where did ‘attunements’ and the use of symbols within them come from?

Enter the Imperial Officers

By the time that Usui Sensei died, the Imperial Officers – Dr Hayashi and his associates – hadn’t trained with him for long enough to have achieved the sort of level of development where they could have initiated people using intent only.

They had already been taught a variant of Usui’s system that used symbols (because they had approached Usui wanting to be taught a hands-on healing system to use in the Japanese military, whereas Usui was teaching a spiritual/self-development system to the other students) and after Usui’s death they created an initiation ritual that gave them the same sort of energetic experience that they noticed when they were ’empowered’ by Usui.

That constructed ritual used the symbols that they had been taught by Usui, symbols that represented earth ki, heavenly ki and a state of oneness. So Reiki attunements started with, and were invented by, the Imperial Officers.

That ritual passed via Dr Hayashi (who may have altered it) to Mrs Takata, she passed it on to her students, and then the ritual has mutated and altered endlessly as it has been passed from one teacher to another in different lineages, with bits added, bits taken away and parts embellished or simplified. I have seen no mention of Mrs Takata talking about a person having to be ‘attuned’ to a symbol as part of the initiation, nor that one needed to have been attuned to a symbol for it to work for you.

But in any case, from Japan about 20 years ago came details of a ritual that Usui had his trainee Masters use to initiate people into the system. It’s called Reiju, it doesn’t use any symbols, and when that ritual has been used then the recipient can use the Reiki symbols – or any other symbol – to direct and focus the energy.

“Attuning” someone to a symbol is not a necessary step in initiating them into Reiki and does not have to be done to enable a Reiki person to use the Reiki symbols.

So, where does the power of the symbols come from?

It’s all about focus

I don’t know whether you have ever tried this exercise, but if you were to sit at the head of a treatment table and rest your hands on either side of a client’s head, obviously they would most likely feel something happening: usually a sense of heat from your hands, passing into their cheeks or temple. But if you imagine that you have additional pairs of hands cupping behind the person’s head and hovering over the front of their face/forehead, the recipient will usually experience a very different sensation, where the heat increases and envelops their whole head.

If instead you had imagined the extra hands holding onto that person’s ankle, say, then they are likely to experience heat or pressure or some sort of sensation in their foot or lower leg.

What’s going on here?

Well, you are focusing your attention in a particular way and the energy is following your focus and focusing itself where your attention is directed. Where thought goes, energy flows. A gentle but definite, undistracted and mindful focus = increased energy flow.

What’s that got to do with symbols? Well…

Symbols frame your focus

The Reiki symbols are a graphical representation of one aspect of the energy. They provide a visual stimulus that you focus on and which allow you to rest your attention on that aspect of the energy, for example earth ki or heavenly ki.

And just like when you rest your attention on someone’s ankle, and the energy flowed there strongly, when you focus on a symbol you are narrowing the focus of the energy, a bit like focusing a magnifying glass, and things get intense.

If you visit my resources page about Reiki symbols – Focus on the Reiki symbols – you can read more blogs about these issues and discover how any symbol can focus the energy strongly; you can even find out how to create your own, bespoke symbols, to use on yourself and your clients

And if you visit my “Energopsychograms” pages, you can practise experiencing energies derived from abstract drawings too.

You can focus in different ways

Once you are connected to the energy, and now we know how to do that without you having to be “attuned” to a symbol (whatever that means!), there are a whole range of different methods you can use to focus on various aspects of the energy.

Above we spoke about using symbols, bespoke/intuited symbols and other visual images. You can experience the energies of other Reiki systems that use different symbols, without you having to be ‘attuned’ to those symbols. So, for example, my Five Element Reiki system uses five symbols to represent the energies of earth, metal, water, wood and fire.

No-one needs to be attuned to these symbols to use them: you just need to be ‘connected’ to Reiki, and away you go.

In the original system that Usui Sensei taught, most of his students did not see or use symbols. Many were given kotodama – Shinto mantras – to experience different aspects of the energy. They were not “attuned” to these sounds: they just used them as an aid to focus.

The sounds represent different aspects of the energy, you use them, and you elicit a particular energy.

It’s the same with symbols. They represent an aspect of the energy. You focus your attention on them. You elicit that energy.

It’s that simple.

So I agree with the lady who thought it seemed quite nonsensical to imagine that waving your hands about in the air gave you a key to unleash powerful energetic forces. That is ridiculous. When we practise Reiki it’s not about “Open Sesame!” or “acracadabra”. It’s not about learning special, sacred, secret symbols that turn you into some New Age version of Dr Strange from Marvel Comics. We are initiated into a simple and powerful energy healing system that anyone can do, which is based on carrying out meditations and simple energy exercises, it has a long history in Japanese esoteric practices and the symbols are just a useful tool that we can use to aid focus.

Symbols do not bestow mighty cosmic power on us; to think otherwise is fantasy.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Liberate Your Reiki!

Heidi Gaffney-Evans

Liberate Your Reiki!

86 Articles About Reiki: One Inspiring Vision

Finally, read Taggart King’s “10 Rules of Reiki”, the essential principles for a powerful and fulfilling Reiki practice.

This professionally-printed Reiki manual has 370 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 370 pages.

Price: £15.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £12.49

Picture credit: Miriam Espacio

Using Reiki for Dog Training – by Sarah Berrisford

October 14, 2015animal reiki, intentiontaggart@reiki-evolution.co.uk

In my last blog – Reiki for Dogs – I spoke about a simple basic approach that you can use when working with Dogs using Reiki.

In this blog I wanted to talk about using Reiki when you are training your dog, since this is a topic that comes up frequently on my Animal Reiki Practitioner courses.

It’s all about Intent

One of the easiest ways to use Reiki with dog training is to use intent.

You can carry out this exercise in person or distantly.

Sit comfortably
Connect to Reiki
Feel the connection with your dog
Let Reiki flow
When you feel that the time is right, begin to picture how you would like your dog to act. Say your dog becomes anxious when left alone. You would picture him lying happily and content when on his own.
Once you have visualised your preferred scenario, smile to yourself, feel happy, see the picture and follow it with happy thoughts.

You may find that when you try to picture your dog being happy and content, when left on his own, you keep thinking of him being anxious again. Don’t worry this is quite normal.

If this does happen you can slowly erase the anxious picture and replace it with the contented image. Keep doing this until it is easy to ‘see’ your dog being content.

Carry out this exercise whenever you can, preferably a few times a day.

Visualising good behaviour

When you greet your dog, let your first thought be of him being happy and content when on his own, followed by a smile from you – letting your dog know that this behaviour also makes you happy.

Next, it is important to become aware of your own thoughts, every time you think of your dog behaving in a way that you hope to change, replace that thought with the desired image.

If you are fretting about your dog whilst away, thinking of him tearing around the house causing havoc and destruction, your dog will pick up on this. Animals read these pictures and energy that we put across to them, so we do need to be careful that once an issue has started we aren’t ‘feeding’ the problem further.

So keep those happy thoughts and enjoy the moments that make you smile.

Interested in learning more about Animal Reiki?

Sarah Berrisford specialises in writing about and teaching Equine and Animal Reiki. If you’re interested in learning more about how to treat dogs and other animals, then follow these links:

Animal Reiki book or Animal Reiki eBook

Animal Reiki practitioner live training course

Animal Reiki home study course

Photo credit: stonnie and friends

How to do a Reiki Self-Treatment (Part III)

September 10, 2015intention, meditation, self healing, simplicitytaggart@reiki-evolution.co.uk

How were you taught to Self-Treat?

Most people who are taught Reiki will have been taught how to heal yourself using Reiki, a way of focusing the energy on yourself, for your own benefit, and the most common form of self-treatment is what I would refer to as a “Standard Western hands-on” self-treatment method. This is where you rest your hands in a series of positions covering the head and torso and maybe beyond, and let the energy flow out of your hands into your body.

It works well, though some of the positions can often be uncomfortable to get to, or hold for any amount of time, and that can sometimes detract from the blissfulness of the experience.

So what I’m going to talk about in a series of articles are a number of different ways that you could self-treat, perhaps different from what you have been taught.

This is article #3. Last time I described my “intuitive Reiki self-healing meditation” where you followed the flow of energy and focused your attention on the areas where the energy wanted to go. This was a beneficial practice because resting your attention somewhere helps to boost the flow of Reiki, making the treatment more intense and focused in the areas that your attention is dwelling on.

So now we can build on the idea of the energy focusing itself where your attention is dwelling, by carrying out a meditation where you allow your attention to rest on five different areas of the head, spending a few minutes focusing on each position. This is a self-treatment method taught by Reiki’s founder, Mikao Usui.

The Usui self-treatment meditation

Here’s what to do.

Make yourself comfortable in a seated position, maybe with your hands resting in your lap, and close your eyes
Start to become aware of your connection to the energy, your connection to Reiki
Notice how that connection feels, with the energy engulfing you and building within you in just the right way for you in this moment
As the energy flows, just remind yourself that your intention now is to heal, to heal on all levels, to rejuvenate, to rebalance
Just say to yourself, “this is my time to heal now”
Allow your attention to focus on your forehead, by the hairline, and allow the energy to dwell there, building, intensifying
Move your attention so you focus on your temples, on both sides of your head at the same time
Move your attention so that you focus on the back of the head, and on the forehead, those two areas at the same time
Move your focus so your attention comes to rest on the back of your neck, the base of your skull
Move your attention to the crown, the crown of your head, focus your attention there
And finally bring yourself back when you feel ready, and open your eyes

So this method doesn’t involve physical hand positions, or symbols, and it doesn’t necessarily require visualisation either, because while you might choose to imagine that there are hands treating those areas, you can just as simple allow your attention to rest on those areas and the energy will flow there.

In each position, you merge with the energy and you allow it to flow, to do what it needs to do.

What is different about this meditation, though, is your attention: you direct the flow of energy by focus your attention on a particular area. This is a powerful thing to do because where you focus your attention is where the energy focuses itself.

By allowing your attention to rest on the areas of need, you intensify and boost the flow of energy because “where thought goes, energy flows”.

And you can just be there as a bystander in the process, observing, experiencing, in a neutral way: merged with the energy and following the flow of energy.

Over to you

If this self-treatment method is new to you, why not give it a try?

And post a message below to let us all know how you got on with it, how it felt, what you experienced, what it did for you.

Some more self-treatment ideas

reiki self treatment mp3 download If you’d like to learn more about how to heal yourself using Reiki, if you’d like some help with your self-treatments, or if you’d like some new ideas to experiment with or pass on to your students, why not download my “Reiki Self-Treatment Meditations” collection of MP3s.

They are suitable for all Reiki levels.

In these five meditations, I talk you through the most simple approach ever… and interesting variations like an intuitive healing meditation, a self-healing meditation that was actually taught by Usui Sensei, a “Standard Western hands-on” method and an Intuitive hands-on method.

Price: £13.49. Click to order via PayPal:

Author: Taggart King
Picture credit: L’Ubuesque Boîte à Savon

Reiki for Horse Riding: Increasing Confidence

January 19, 2013animal reiki, equine reiki, intention, meditationSarah Berrisford

I have recently received many enquiries from people asking if there are ways to increase their confidence whilst riding. Simple ways that they can use at home everyday.

I’d like to share with you an extract from my book ‘Reiki in the Saddle’, the following exercise can be used by anyone – you don’t actually need to practice Reiki for this to work. It is also useful for improving other areas of our riding, so please do give it a try.

Riding with confidence is something a lot of people find hard. There are always situations that may challenge us, but being brave isn’t being without fear, being brave is learning to recognise the fear, accept the fear and master your fear.

Visualisation is an important tool not only in horse riding but also in life. Visualising how you will react to a situation will begin to train your body and mind how you wish it to react, putting you in control.

1) Find somewhere quiet to sit where you won’t be disturbed.
2) Make yourself comfortable
3) Close your eyes and take three deep breaths, in and out; feel the oxygen filling your lungs, and feel your body relax further as you breathe out.
4) Let your mind become clear, if any images come into your mind just gently usher them away.
5) Practice just relaxing and keeping your mind clear for a few minutes.
6) Visualise yourself grooming your horse, putting his tack on, leading him to the mounting area. Now see yourself getting on your horse and riding.
7) See yourself walking around on your horse, perhaps doing some circles and changes of rein. Be aware of how your body feels; see yourself relaxed and happy, riding with confidence.
8) Now proceed to working trot; ride some 20m circles, perhaps a figure of 8 and any other school movement you wish; see yourself relaxed and happy, riding with confidence.
9) Proceed to canter; again ride some 20m circles and change the rein. See yourself relaxed and happy, riding with confidence.

Don’t worry if you find it hard to visualise at first; this will become easier with practice. Once you feel confident using this exercise you can tailor make it to fit the area where you need more confidence; for example, if you have worries regarding going into canter, you can visualise the canter transition and riding in canter over and over again, in all places in the arena. Or you may have worries regarding mounting your horse; if this is so you can visualise yourself mounting over and over again.

If your horse is spooky, bucks or naps you can visualise how you will cope with the situation; sitting up and keeping calm.

Begin to use visualisation in your everyday life; where thought goes energy flows.

I hope you enjoy working with the above exercise, if you have any questions please feel free to contact to me

Love, Light & Warm Wishes
Sarah Berrisford
www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk

The Right Time

March 10, 2012animal reiki, commitment, intention, intuition, mindfulnessSarah Berrisford

A question often asked of me is: When is the right time? This relates to lots of aspects – When is the right time to start practising Reiki as a profession? When is the right time to meditate? When is the right time to start competing my horse? When is the right time to move on to the next chapter or level?

Unfortunately this is a question for the person asking, not the teacher. It is a question that you can ask as many times as you would like to – and usually the answer doesn’t appear in Big Red Ink infront of you – never say never though!

Inside of us everyone knows the right time, however, we put things off, we make excuses, we’ll promise to make time to sort things out or put more effort in, and then the time will be right for us to make a change or better ourselves.

We all need to remember that: we can’t make time, we can only choose to use the time we have wisely.

So my answer is this: if you are thinking of doing something new, making a change for the better and you’re asking or thinking, when is the right time?…

Then it is time to Go For It! The simple fact that you are thinking about it, shows that your subconscious is hinting at you!

The aspect of making a change may seem scary, but hey, fear is an illusion – fear is the monster that lives in the cupboard and becomes scarier and scarier, until one day, you open the cupboard door and realise there’s nothing there!

The right time is now!

____________________________________________

Sarah Berrisford Reiki Master Teacher, author or the popular books ‘The Handbook of Equine Reiki’ & ‘The Complete Guide to Animal Reiki’. Sarah is based on the Lincolnshire/ Cambridgeshire border, where she teaches Reiki, Equine Reiki Courses and Distant Learning Equine Reiki Courses.

www.epona-equine-reiki.co.uk

Declutter your treatment rituals

November 24, 2011intention, reiki energy, reiki treatments, simplicityhand positions, reiki, reiki treatments, simplicitytaggart@reiki-evolution.co.uk

Time for a Reiki spring clean?

Reiki treatments are carried out in a lot of different ways and many rituals have been developed and passed on in different lineages.

Reiki has also been affected by the belief systems of people who are involved in other energy practices and it’s natural for Reiki teachings to become ‘coloured’ by a teacher’s personal quirks and idiosyncrasies too.

Trouble is, these practices end up turning into “this is the way that you have to do it” as they are passed on from teacher to student, teacher to new teacher, and that’s unfortunate since some people end up lumbered with quite complex rituals that they feel they have to carry out for a treatment to be done ‘properly’.

Reiki is greater than that.

Reiki works simply and intuitively and doesn’t need to be accompanied by a lot of dogma. There will be Reiki practitioners out there who treat their clients using a lot of rituals that other effective Reiki practitioners do not use, and there will be people out there using Reiki effectively while not carrying out stages and rituals that other practitioners regard as essential.

Let’s look at a few examples of ideas and practices that I regard as unnecessary.

If you were taught to do these things, why not experiment and find your own approach.

Keep at least one hand on the body at all times for fear of losing your connection

I have written about this one before, and if we can send Reiki from one side of the planet to the other just by thinking of someone, there will be no problem in ‘losing’ your connection to a client on a treatment table in front of you should your hands stray a few inches from their body.

‘Connection’ is a state of mind and comes through focusing your attention on the recipient. If you’re doing a Reiki treatment on someone then you are connected to them!

Treat from head to toe and then you must go back up the body from feet to head

Seems a bit clumsy to me, and is sometimes combined with the previous paragraph, so you end up with “always keep at least one hand on the body at all times and work from head to foot, and then back to the head again”.

The general approach within Reiki seems to be to work from head to feet, though working the other way might be the right thing to do sometimes.

My approach is to work intuitively so I don’t follow a set of rules that have to be applied to every client in the same way. Why should every client receive the same format of treatment? They have different problems, different energy needs.

‘One size fits all’ doesn’t fit very well with me.

Always throw out ‘negative’ energy at the end of treatment

If you believe that there is negative energy and if you believe that it will stay with the client (and presumably cause them problems) if you don’t throw it away, then I suppose you’d better throw it away.

And if you’ve got it on you before you throw it away then presumably you don’t want that stuff hanging around on you either, so you really need to throw it away.

But not everyone is taught that and not everyone does that, and some people believe that Reiki is a pure healing energy that is drawn by the recipient’s need, and gives the recipient what they need on that occasion, balancing and transforming in a way that is right for them.

And in that case, we wouldn’t need to think in terms of accumulating stuff that Reiki couldn’t get rid of, and dealing with it ourselves.

Always ‘ground’ the energy at the end of a treatment by putting your hands on the floor

Some people do seem to have quite a bee in their bonnet on the issue of grounding.

They put almost every malady down to not being grounded, and have their students frantically grounding themselves.

On a personal level, grounding is easy: go for a walk, do the washing up, breathe in some fresh air and you’re grounded. Hatsurei ho – daily energy exercises – grounds you.

I believe that giving a Reiki treatment is a grounding exercise.

So what is this ungrounded energy that you have to deal with when you put your hands on the floor – is it your energy, is it the client’s “ungrounded” energy, and what would happen if you didn’t crouch down and touch the floorboards?

Isn’t Reiki a bit more effective than that?

Does it really need us to come along and sort out stuff that it hasn’t dealt with properly?

Recite a set of words at the start of a treatment that ‘have’ to be said

Many people have a set form of words that they say to themselves to get them in the right frame of mind for carrying out a Reiki treatment, and I have no problem with that.

This can be useful and helpful.

But some people are taught that “these words are THE words” that you have to say at the start of the treatment, with the corollary that if you haven’t said them, or if you mess up the words, then the treatment’s not going to go properly.

If you’ve said a set of words time and again before starting a treatment, don’t you think your subconscious mind knows what it’s all about, and that you have that intention ‘programmed’ into you already?

Intention is a very important thing with Reiki and I don’t think you need to keep on reminding and re-reminding yourself about what you want to happen.

Over to you

I hope the above comments have provided some food for thought and if you are currently using the practices described above, why not try a different approach, see what happens, and come to your own conclusions about what’s the best way for you to approach treating others.

Have you altered your own approach compared to what you were originally taught, and have you found that leaving behind some of those rules and restrictions has been fine?

Post a message below to let me know how your practice has become simpler over time.

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How to send Distant Healing (Part 4)

September 22, 2011distant healing, intentiondistant healing, reikitaggart@reiki-evolution.co.uk

Using some sort of a prop for distant healing

Distant healing is a very important part of Reiki practice, of course, and is something that is not unique to Reiki. Distant healing (DH for short) is carried out in different Reiki lineages in different ways and there is no one ‘right’ way to perform this process.

How to do distance healing with Reiki

The important thing when carrying out DH is your underlying intent, and the details of the ritual that you use are unimportant.

What I would like to share with you today are some methods that use ‘props’ to represent the recipient.

As a prop, you can use a teddy bear or other cuddly toy, and by sending Reiki into the teddy bear’s head, or chest, or arm etc you are directing the energy to that part of the recipient, at a distance.

Some choose to use a pillow to represent the person, with one end of the pillow representing the recipient’s head and the other end representing their feet.

Some people are taught to use their upper leg or legs to represent the person to whom distant healing is being sent, with your knee representing their head, and the part of your leg next to your hip representing their feet.

Some people use both legs, with one leg representing the front of the recipient, and the other leg representing the back of the recipient’s body.

Props can help you focus

These props are there to help you to focus your attention, to focus your intent, and are not a necessary part of the process: distant healing can be carried out simply ‘in your head’, in a meditative state, but for those who like to have something tangible to work on, they can work very well, with the practitioner resting or hovering their hands over the different parts of the prop’s ‘body’ and imagining that energy is flowing into that area, directing the energy into that part of the recipient’s body at a distance.

Over to you

If these approaches are new to you, why not try them out and see how you get on, and let us know by posting a message below.

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Author: Taggart King
Picture Credit: Björn Láczay

Intention in Reiki work

June 21, 2011attunements, intention, intuition, reiju empowermentsintuition, Margaret Craig, reiju empowerments, reiki, reiki precepts, reiki principles, reiki sensationsMargaret Craig

do reiki attunements work

It never fails to inspire me how this word *intention* can be so subtle, yet so powerful.

Apparently, in the non-physical realms, (for use of a better word), as we think , we are there, as we intend, it happens etc. etc………………

I have worked with the Universal energies for many years and I can still be absolutely amazed at how powerful our intentions can be.

It is us who make it complicated and complex.

At times sometimes we can feel very much on our own, especially if you are like myself, and don’t experience any whistles and bells with angels floating around the room!

Initially it is wonderful to get proof when we first start to work with Reiki, but like most things, it balances out and starts to calm down. The *honeymoon phase* may be over for a while, but rest assured, it will return when you are least expecting it.

This is what I love about channelling this energy, it surprises us time and time again.

We don’t always get what we want though. It can manifest in many different guises, and that is why it is very helpful to be open, to be alert and to surrender to what the energy is presenting to us.

Live the 5 Reiki Precepts. Be mindful. It is all happening NOW1

Be childlike and trusting and put no conditions on anything!

When something does manifest, for heavens sake *trust* what you are being shown or given. Your intuition is never wrong. It is the language of the Soul basically!

Sometimes we think it is wishful thinking, we are imagining things, or it’s my mind playing tricks.

Our Western chattering minds can tell us all sorts of untruths about ourselves, that we are not developed enough, that we cannot sense anything, and that everyone else is getting something except little old me!!!

Getting our heads out of the way for a start is a good thing, asking Reik to assist us to be more open and trusting helps.

You know, we are Light Beings having a human experience while in body. So why, as a Spiritual Being can’t you believe in yourselves? You come from Light and you will go back to Light.

{You have just forgotten this temporarily}

You are part of the whole Universal Cosmos. And it is awesome, is it not? You are Reiki, (and Reiki is just a word which came up later in Usui’s time on earth) but now you know this *consciously* due to the courses we offer at Reiki-Evolution.

O.K. I have went off track and twittered on a bit, and I want to keep my message simple and uncomplicated.

Reiki is meant to enjoyed, not endured!

My students are very precious lovely Souls, who yearn for deeper and further knowledge, and I always talk a lot about Intention at the courses I host.

What I put out, comes back to me. I am very much aware of these Universal Laws, therefore it is important to keep our thinking as kind and loving as we can. Example if we put out aggression, if we are judgemental of others etc, then that’s what we’ll come up against.

Intolerant and unkind people! Usually with unbalanced egos!

But yes, they are learning too and have a right to be here

We are all playing out a drama prior to an agreement we made at some point!.

For some it is challenging and painful, while others seem to skate through life. Who said life would be fair anyway? We create our experiences, consciously or unconsciously.

A number of years ago, I had a student who completed all of her Reiki training with myself. This lady was paralysed from the waist down, due to a major road accident years before.

She gets around very capably in her *jet set buggy* and has the most beautiful and positive attitude to life. Nothing is a problem she can’t overcome. She has walked the road of the *suffering* so to speak, and life’s challenges will not hold her back from what she has to do.

She runs Reiki courses on a regular basis.

Now, remembering that this lady cannot stand, has no physical power from the waist down, manages to transmit the most powerful Western Reiki attunements at her Master classes, purely by *Intention*

She also transmits the Reiju Empowerments very beautifully, while sitting in her chair, all by *Intention* (And Usui Sensei did this also!) Without any rituals. All pure Intention!!!

I have received from her and have experienced her transmissions, and have been witness to the uplifting and wonderful energies when she is working.

This is *Intention* at work. She believes, *no she knows who she is* . A Lightworker!, following her inner guidance.

And can I say that this Soul could teach us all about *humility*

She works quietly and powerfully.

Another example I would like to share with you is about a student of mine who came along to do her Reiki Two with me a few months ago.

In the afternoon when we were going through the level 2 techniques etc, I was explaining to her the *many hands* method.

She brought in her ethereal hands and was being gently guided by the energies. She then asked me if it was O.K. to direct some of these energy hands to *her own back* which was painful and uncomfortable. I noticed that she had been stooping a bit.

“Well, why not, I said, “we are all working as one, we are one, we are connected together as one energy, yes bring some of these hands around to your own back, and intend that the Reiki energy flows into your own back.

(I was very tempted to put my own hands on her back, but wanted to see what would happen)

Lo and behold, after a few moments she started to feel a warmth coming in, like a soft soothing balm being applied to the affected area, just being in the moment and experiencing this was a very powerful revelation for her and the other students.

Yes, we are all one!

This is the power of *Intention*

No doubting, just trusting and being open to what is. It. may not always be what we would expect, but Reiki only works for the greater good of all concerned.

I wish each of you a magical and transforming Reiki journey.

May your path be strewn with opportunity and growth, and of course much joy!

Like the Angels, lets take ourselves *lightly*

Warm Wishes

Margaret Craig

glasgow reiki course scotland Margaret Craig is one of the Reiki-Evolution team of teachers offering Reiki training at all levels in and around Glasgow and beyond since 2001.

Margaret has a nursing background which she discontinued a number of years ago. She is trained in many of the Complementary Therapies which she also practices. Hypnotherapy and Past Life Regression work also keep Margaret very busy in her Holistic practice.

Glasgow Reiki courses