Category Archives: meditation

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

reiki self treatment meditations

How were you taught to Self-Treat?

Most people who are taught Reiki will have been taught some form of self-treatment, 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’ve been talking 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 #5. In previous articles I have been talking about various approaches to self-treatment, mostly meditative, where you either:

  • Meditate with the intention to heal… and just let it happen
  • Follow the flow of energy during meditation and focus your attention on where the energy is focusing itself
  • Direct the flow of energy during meditation by resting your attention on different areas of the body
  • Rest your hands on your body, but do this intuitively, different for each session as your energy needs vary

This is the final article in the series, so I thought I would finish by a very simple hands-on method…

Just rest your hands on yourself and close your eyes

That’s it.

That’s the method.

Rest your hands on your heart and solar plexus, close your eyes, and let the Reiki flow.

Or rest your hands on your lower abdomen, like in the photo above.

Bliss out on the energy.

Let it go where it wants to go and do what it wants to do.

And when you’re done, open your eyes.

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 downloadIf 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:

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

reiki self treatment meditations

How were you taught to Self-Treat?

Most people who are taught Reiki will have been taught some form of self-treatment, 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’ve been talking 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 #4. In previous articles I have been talking about meditative approaches to self-treatment, where you either:

  • Meditate with the intention to heal… and just let it happen
  • Follow the flow of energy and focus your attention on where the energy is focusing itself
  • Direct the flow of energy by resting your attention on different areas of the body

Now I’m going to turn my attention to hands-on self-treatments, but with a bit of a twist. Out go standard self-treatment hand-positions and in comes…

Taggart’s Intuitive hands-on self-treatment method

  • Make yourself comfortable in a seated or supine position, maybe with your hands folded over each other in front of your chest
  • 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”
  • And allow the energy to flow, to flow to wherever it needs to go to give you just what you need in this moment
  • And start to become aware of the energy and where it’s flowing
  • Where is the Reiki focusing itself, where is it dwelling?
  • Move your hands to rest on, or near, that area
  • Allow your hands to drift to the best place for them to be
  • Stay in that position for as long as you need to
  • If the energy moves on to another area, if your hands want to move on to another area, let that happen
  • Allow the energy to guide you
  • And finally bring yourself back when you feel ready, and open your eyes

Although this method involves resting your hands on your body – whereas in all the previous self-treatment examples I gave you, you were simply meditating – there are no expectations here. You rest your hands, and move your hands, according to your individual energy needs during each session.

Each treatment you carry out will most likely be different in some way, as your energy needs vary from one occasion to another.

You might be following the energy, noticing where it wants to flow, and moving your hands to a suitable nearby area.

Or you might find that the hands start to move and drift by themselves, again guided by the energy, giving you exactly what you need on each occasion.

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 downloadIf 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:

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

usui self treatment meditation reiki

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 downloadIf 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:
Picture credit: L’Ubuesque Boîte à Savon

 

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

reiki self treatment meditations

How were you taught to Self-Treat?

Most people who are taught Reiki will have been taught how to do Reiki on yourself, 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 #2. Last time I described my “simplest Reiki self-treatment method ever” and now we can add some intuition into the mix with a new self-treatment method for you:

Taggart’s “Intuitive self-healing meditation”

This is still a very simple self-treatment method, where you’re not resting your hnads on yourself, but allowing the self-healing to occur through meditating.

What is new in this meditation is that we are going is to notice where the energy is flowing, and we are going to focus our attention on those areas.

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”
  • And allow the energy to flow, to flow to wherever it needs to go to give you just what you need in this moment
  • And start to become aware of the energy and where it’s flowing
  • Where is the Reiki focusing itself, where is it dwelling?
  • Allow your attention to rest on that area; bring your awareness there
  • If the energy moves on to another area, bring your attention to that new area, and notice the energy there
  • Stay in this safe space, allowing the energy to provide balance, and healing
  • And finally bring yourself back when you feel ready, and open your eyes

So this method doesn’t involve hand positions, or symbols, it doesn’t require visualisation, it doesn’t direct the energy in any way. You sit, you merge with the energy and you allow it to flow, to do what it needs to do.

What is different, though, is your attention: you follow the flow of energy and wherever the energy is directing itself, you focus your attention there too.

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 downloadIf you’d like to learn more about how to self-heal with Reiki, if you need 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:
Picture credit: Jeff Kubina

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

reiki self treatment meditations

How were you taught to Self-Treat?

Most people who are taught Reiki will have been taught some form of self-treatment, 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 often detract from the blissfulness of the experience.

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

And I’d like to start with what you might call “The simplest self-treatment method ever”!

Taggart’s “Meditation with the intention to heal”

It is possible to self-treat without resting your hands on your body at all, using your intention or visualisation or pure intent. In this example, what you are doing is, basically, setting a definite intent and letting the energy do what it wants to do.

Here are some instructions:

  • Make yourself comfortable in a seated position, maybe with your hands resting in your lap
  • 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”
  • And allow the energy to flow, to flow to wherever it needs to go to give you just what you need in this moment
  • Stay in this safe space, allowing the energy to provide balance, and healing
  • And finally bring yourself back when you feel ready, and open your eyes

So this method doesn’t involve hand positions, or symbols, it doesn’t require visualisation, it doesn’t direct the energy in any way. You sit, you merge with the energy and you allow it to flow, to do what it needs to do.

And you can just be there as a bystander in the process, observing, experiencing, in a neutral way: merged with the 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 downloadIf you’d like to learn more about how to self-heal with Reiki, if you need 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:
Picture credit: Tony Armstrong

 

Reiki for Horse Riding: Increasing Confidence

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.

sarah pancho bb

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

manRiS

New Self-treatment meditations on MP3

Hi,

I have been beavering away again with my recording equipment, and I have put together a collection of self treatment meditations that you might like to try out. At Reiki Evolution we like to give our students choices when it comes to things like self-treatments, so they can experiment and find the approach that works best for them, so I thought it might be useful to put together a series of guided meditations to make it a bit easier to get into the groove of a particular approach.

These are the approaches that I recorded for you:

(1) Meditation with the intent to heal – just about the simplest approach you can take!
(2) Intuitive self-treatment meditation
(3) Mikao Usui’s meditative approach to self-treatment
(4) Western hands-on self-treatment
(5) Intuitive hands-on approach

You can order these tracks in an MP3 collection now and be using them in minutes if you like.

Click here to order your meditations now. I hope you find them useful.

Best wishes,

Taggart

 

 

Author:

A simple way with Reiki symbols

simple reiki symbol method

Why so complicated?

In the West we like to make things complicated, and the way that most of us now use symbols is a world away from the simple approach that Usui used.

So how can we work with symbols in a way that echoes more the way that Usui taught his students?

Well firstly, Usui taught symbols to a very small number of people, just in the last few years of his life. The vast majority of his students were taught in a very different way.

Most of his students were given meditations to use so that they could, over a long period of time, become more and more familiar with the three energies taught at second-degree level, for example. Once they were thoroughly familiar with the energies, once they had *become* the energies again and again, then they were given a shortcut – a trigger – to connect them to those energies.

The triggers that they used were mostly ancient Shinto mantras called kotodama or jumon, not symbols.

In the West we do it backwards by comparison: we are given a trigger (a symbol) to connect us to an energy that we are not familiar with, and with which we may never become familiar, depending on how we have been taught to use the symbols. Usui had his students become the three energies again and again and again, and when they were ingrained, when they were innate, only then would you be given a way of connecting to the energies that were already within you and thoroughly familiar to you.

The symbols’ energies were viewed quite differently

The first energy was not seen as some sort of ‘Power’ energy, in the way that the first symbol is seen as the ‘Power’ symbol in the West.

The first energy was simply earth energy, energy of the physical body, a physical healing energy. The second energy was seen as heavenly energy and the third energy was said to produce ‘oneness’. Usui’s students learned to get to grips with these energies through meditation, so how can we learn to experience earth energy and celestial energy?

Well, we can do this by using the symbols.

Try this Reiki symbol meditation

Sit comfortably in a chair with your eyes closed and your hands resting in your lap palms uppermost.

In your mind’s eye, visualise the first symbol up in the air above you, and say its name silently to yourself three times.

Now imagine that cascades of energy are flooding down onto you from that symbol, cascading into your head, your torso, your hands; endless cascades of energy or light keep on flooding into your body, flowing over you and flooding through you. Do this for several minutes.

  • How does that feel?
  • What impressions do you get of the energy?
  • Where was your attention focused?
  • What were your thoughts?

Now repeat this exercise using the second symbol, again visualising it up in the air above you, saying its name three times, and drawing down endless cascades of energy into your body.

How does this feel by comparison? What impressions do you get of the second energy? Where is your attention focused? What is going on in your head?

Try this with a Reiki friend

reiki symbol channel energy othersIf you have a Reiki friend to hand, you can do this exercise together: one person sits comfortably in a chair and the other stands behind. The person standing up is going to send energy from the first or second symbol in quite an intense way.

What they do is this: ‘charge’ your hands with the energy of the first symbol, say, by drawing the symbol over your palm, saying the name three times, and press your hands together to ‘transfer the effect across’ to he other hand.

Now in your mind’s eye draw out the first symbol up in the air above you and say the name three times.

Move your hands so that they are hovering alongside the recipient’s temples, and imagine that you are drawing down cascades of energy from the symbol above you, which flood into your crown, through your arms and out of your hands into the recipient. Keep on visualising.

  • How does the energy feel as it comes through your hands?
  • What impressions do you get in your body?
  • How does it feel for the recipient?
  • What adjectives can they use to describe the essence of the energy that they have received?

Now repeat this exercise using the second symbol.

How does this differ from the first energy?

Having carried out this exercise countless times and with many, many students, I can generalise about the sort of impression that most people tend to get from the two symbols, the two energies. Maybe you will notice some, though not all, of these experiences.

The first energy seems thick, dark, heavy, dense, solid, maybe oppressive or claustrophobic sometimes, hot, fierce, coarse, penetrating, with pressure and slow pulsation, your focus is on your physical body. The second energy seems soft, light, gentle, ethereal, like soft fluffy clouds or marshmallows, cool, blue, expansive, exhilarating, and uplifting.

What you have experienced is the essence of earth energy and the essence of heavenly energy, and these are two energies that you have available to you when treating others.

These energies are the essence of Usui’s system at second-degree level.

The first energy focuses on the physical body, and the second focuses on thoughts and emotions and our spiritual nature. They are so different, so distinctive.

Try using them on their own, just one energy, just one focus, without mixing symbols together. Keep things simple and uncluttered by focusing like a laser beam on one thing at a time, and see what happens.

And with time, and with familiarity with the two energies, try producing those energies directly, using intent, and see what happens.

Over to you

Carry out the meditations and exercises I’ve suggested above.

How did you get on?

Is it new to you to experience the energy of a symbol on its own, rather than mixing the symbol with others all the time?

How did the energies of CKR and SHK feel to you, or your Reiki friend?

Need help with your Symbol meditations?

reiki meditation audio cds musicIf you’d like some help with your Reiki symbol meditations, I have just what you need!

On my “Reiki Meditations” CD (or MP3 collection) I have these helpful meditations, which can be carried out by people at all Reiki Levels:

  • Hatsurei ho (daily energy exercises)
  • Self-treatment meditation
  • Symbol meditation
  • Distant Healing meditation

My “Reiki Meditations” CD is by far my most popular CD and is used by Reiki teachers all over the world.

Here are the links that you need:

Order the CD now for £15.49 + p&p


Download the MP3s now for £13.49

 

 

Author:
Photo credit: zeevveez

The Kaizen of Reiki

If you have come across the word ‘kaizen’ before it will probably have been in the context of industrial quality control or personal development. “Kaizen” is a Japanese word that is usually translated as ‘improvement’, but it means more than that. The word has connotations of continuous, gradual, orderly and never-ending improvement, the willingness to constantly, relentlessly pursue improvement a small step at a time. The application of the kaizen principle is the reason why Japan’s economy was transformed after the Second World War. All workers were encouraged to make suggestions as to how quality and production could be improved, even by tiny, tiny percentages, but over time the effect of these tiny percentage improvements, applied consistently and built upon, transformed Japanese industry.

So what has this to do with Reiki? Well the word kaizen actually appears towards the end of the Reiki precepts. The line in Japanese is “Shin shin kaizen, Usui Reiki Ryoho”, which could be loosely translated as “Mind body change it for better Usui Reiki method”. So when Usui was talking about using his system to improve the body and mind, I get the impression that we are looking at a lifelong commitment to work with the system, to focus the energy on ourselves again and again, long-term, in order to produce small incremental improvements within ourselves, to dedicate ourselves to developing our effectiveness as a channel. But small changes build on previous small changes, an enhancement upon an enhancement leads to amazing development over time. And Usui’s original system gives us the solid, concrete techniques that we can use to develop ourselves: as channels, in terms of spirituality and in terms of intuition, to produce our own individual Reiki Evolution!

So how do we pursue our own kaizen of Reiki? How do we apply the concept of continuous and never-ending improvement to our practice of Reiki? Here are a few suggestions…

Root your practice of Reiki in daily energy work.

If you are serious about wanting to obtain the many benefits that are available to you through the Reiki system then you are going to have to work on yourself most days, ideally every day, and by doing so you will build up the beneficial effects of Reiki within you. It is not sufficient to use Reiki on yourself once a week, or to assume that if you treat other people occasionally then this is enough to give you the Reiki you need.

Your first priority should be yourself, and this means daily energy work. This does not need to be an onerous task, nor does it need to take a long time to carry out. Sometimes we decline to use Reiki on ourselves because we do not have the perfect opportunity, perhaps because we do not have, say, 30 minutes to work on ourselves. Yet even 10 minutes of energy work, when carried out consistently each day, would be far better and produce much better results than doing nothing for days, and then a great big blitz for a big chunk of time on a weekend to try and ‘catch up’. Spending even a small chunk of time working on ourselves each day builds up a momentum and stirs changes which build and build. Sporadic practice leads to some beneficial changes, but you are not maximising your Reiki potential.

So, how can we work on ourselves? Well, a good place to start would be to practise Hatsurei ho, a series of energy exercises taught in the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (the ‘Gakkai), an association set up after Usui’s death by the Imperial Officers who had trained with him for a while. ‘Hatsurei ho’ means something like ‘start up Reiki technique’ and consists of a series of energy meditations/ visualisations that focus on your Tanden (Dantien in Chinese) and which are designed to be carried out every day. The effects of Hatsurei ho are to:

    Clear and cleanse your energy system
    Help to move your energy system more into a state of balance
    Help to ground you
    Help to build up your personal energy reserves
    Allows you to grow spiritually
    Develop your ability as a channel for Reiki
    Help to develop your sensitivity to the flow of energy
    Help to develop your intuitive side

The exercises take perhaps 12-15 minutes to carry out each day, and can be fitted into the busiest of schedules if the will is there. We can all make this time for our Reiki practice.

But we should also focus the energy more specifically on ourselves, on our own self-healing, by carrying out a self-treatment each day. Whether you carry out the Western ‘hands-on’ method of treating yourself, or use the self-treatment meditation that Usui Sensei taught, you should focus the energy on yourself on a regular basis to help bring things into balance for you on all levels, and to help you to release things that no longer serve you: mental states, emotions, physical things. The energy will deal with many aspects of your body/mind, many deeply-embedded imbalances, if we give the energy the opportunity to do its work on us, digging deep and chipping away at the ‘baggage’ that we carry, over time.

We prefer to use Usui Sensei’s self-treatment meditation because it seems more intense and versatile, but all self-treatment approaches are valid. Usui’s Sensei’s system was all about spiritual development and self-healing, so Hatsurei Ho and self-treatment can lie at the very heart of your Reiki practice. You need to put yourself first, and the principle of kaizen means that by working on yourself consistently, great transformations are possible. You owe it to yourself to allow yourself to obtain the benefits that are available to you through Reiki.

Receive spiritual empowerments throughout your training and beyond.

Training with Usui was rather like martial arts training, where you were in ongoing contact with your teacher over an extended period of time. Part of your training involved receiving simple spiritual empowerments from Usui Sensei, repeatedly, at all levels. Each empowerment reinforced your connection to the source, cleared your channel for the energy, allowed you to develop spiritually and enhanced your intuitive potential. To echo this practice, Taggart sends out a distant Reiju empowerment every week, on a Monday, which can be ‘tuned in to’ by any Reiki person. You can find out about this, and what to do, by visiting this page of the Reiki Evolution web site:

Reiju Broadcast

On each occasion that you receive Reiju you are given what you need, and as your needs change from one occasion to another, this simple spiritual ‘blessing’ helps you to develop. A one-off attunement or empowerment does of course give you something permanent, and when you learn Reiki for the first time the attunements or empowerments that you receive provide you with the ability to use Reiki permanently, but it does not stop there: by receiving empowerments on a regular basis you are building momentum and allowing the energy to penetrate more deeply within you.

If we are committed to ongoing improvements within ourselves then we should make the time to receive an empowerment weekly. And again it is the regular commitment which is the key, the key to deepening your experience of the energy and its beneficial effects on you.

Work on developing your intuitive potential.

Mikao Usui’s original system did not focus very much on the treatment of others, and any instruction on treatments would not have involved slavishly following a set of ‘standard’ hand positions that you had to apply to everyone you treated. Usui’s method was simpler and more elegant. You allowed the energy to guide your hands to the right place to treat, different from one person to another, and different within the same person from one treatment to another. The way we have been taught to do this is through a ‘technique’ called ‘Reiji Ho’ (indication of the spirit technique’), a way of emptying your mind and merging with the energy, getting your head out of the way to allow intuition to bubble to the surface. The exciting thing about Reiji Ho is that it works for everyone, and with time – we come back to kaizen’s small incremental improvements – your hands will move more quickly, more consistently, more effortlessly, and you will start to attract more intuitive information. So every time we treat someone we should spend time cultivating our ‘Reiji’ state of mind, and gradually, gradually, we develop.

Learn to become the energies.

…that you are introduced to at Second Degree and Master levels. Usui’s system didn’t involve symbols as far as most of his students were concerned. Students were expected to carry out meditations over an extended period of time in order to learn to experience different energies and, at Second Degree, students were introduced to the energies of “earth ki” and “heavenly ki”, which represent two fundamental aspects of our being. By practising ‘becoming’ earth ki and heavenly ki again and again – a powerful self-healing practice – these energies became so familiar to the students that they could ‘connect’ to the energy direct without having to use a prop like a symbol. Usui provided some Shinto mantras for some of his students to use to invoke the energies, but it was possible to move beyond these mantras with time, too. In my article ‘A Simple Way with Symbols’ I describe a meditation that you can use to ‘become’ these energies.

But again we see that to obtain the greatest benefit, to enhance self-healing, to free up our practice and move beyond symbols, takes time and commitment. A quick meditation carried out a few times is not enough: Usui Sensei’s students spent 6-9 months meditating on just one energy, and this was done because the principle of kaizen – plugging away and developing by small amounts again and again – led to deep changes over time.

Live your life according to Usui’s guiding principles.

Usui’s simple principles to live by offer perhaps the best example of the principle of kaizen in our Reiki practice: Usui Sensei’s precepts are a work in progress. They are not something that you read through and think “OK, got that”: the precepts are simple to read and understand but they are something that you drip-feed into your daily life over time, more and more over time.

We may begin by thinking about the precepts when we first come across them on a First Degree course: we reflect on how they might impinge on our lives, our thoughts and emotions, our behaviour; we might imagine situations from that past that might have proceeded better had we exemplified the precepts, and we might imagine situations in the future and see ourselves behaving in a way that demonstrates that we are living the precepts.

But this initial surge of interest in the precepts is not sufficient to produce the beneficial changes that the precepts can produce in our lives.

To fully embrace Usui Sensei’s spiritual principles takes regular reflection and ongoing thought. On an ongoing basis we consider our thoughts and our behaviour, we reflect on the principles and what they mean to us. If we do this then over time we will find that living the precepts becomes easier, that our behaviour is modifying itself, that there are more permanent changes in the way that we react and behave and relate to other people. But this will only happen if we ‘chip away’ at our current behaviour patterns, using the precepts as our guiding light. There are no quick fixes: the precepts are not just for First Degree. The precepts are the essence of our Reiki practice.

Now, we do not need to be perfect, we do not need to beat ourselves up for not applying each and every principle on all occasions, but by dedicating ourselves, and by forgiving ourselves, and by trying to do a little better each day than we did the day before, we transform ourselves.

That is the key to our kaizen of Reiki: dedication and commitment, patience and forgiveness, and openness to the source. Long term.

Mindfulness and compassion

In this article I want to talk about Mindfulness and Compassion, which I believe are two essential components of Reiki practice. Whether we are treating others, working on ourselves, empowering others or living our lives with Reiki, we should grow to embody those two states, the essence of the Reiki precepts.

Mindfulness

According to Usui Sensei’s surviving students, Mikao Usui introduced his students to the practice of mindfulness at First Degree level, and emphasised this more at Second Degree level. According to the Concise Oxford Dictionary (9th Edition), to be mindful is to take heed or care, to be conscious. Mindfulness or being mindful is being aware of your present moment. You are not judging, reflecting or thinking. You are simply observing the moment in which you find yourself, fully aware. Moments are like a breath. Each breath is replaced by the next breath. You are there with no other purpose than being awake and aware of that moment.

So mindfulness is a state of living in the moment, of being relaxed, calm and fully engaged in what we are doing. Mindfulness is being fully aware of what is happening right now and giving ourselves completely to our task without distraction. By learning how to enjoy and be in the present moment we can find peace within ourselves.

Like precepts, mindfulness is largely associated with Buddhism and it is a meditative practice that is not reserved for special meditation sessions: it is a practice that you can embrace as part of your daily life and when carrying out routine and mundane tasks.

The best guide that I have found to the use of mindfulness as part of your daily life is the following book, written by Thich Nhat Hanh: “The Miracle of Mindfulness” and I recommend that all Reiki practitioners and teachers obtain a copy and practise being mindful during their daily activities.

I believe that Mikao Usui’s precepts are all about mindfulness, and that when we are exhorted by the precepts to “just for today” release anger and worry, we are being guided to exist as far as we can in a mindful state. Anger and worry are distractions, you see, and if we can exist in the moment by being mindful then we will not dwell on the past and beat ourselves up for things that did not go the way we wanted, and we will not dwell on the future, perhaps worrying about things that have not yet happened. We can learn to release our attachments to the past and the future and just “be” now, content and accepting in the moment, by learning to be mindful.

Compassion

The final precept, that of being “compassionate towards ourselves and others” is for me an exhortation to be gentle with ourselves, to be patient, to be light-hearted, to not take ourselves quite so seriously and above all to be forgiving – first of all of ourselves but also of others. By accepting and forgiving ourselves we start to release our anger and our worry, and move towards a state of contentment in the moment.

The original system was a spiritual path, a path to enlightenment, and the precepts were what Usui Sensei’s system was all about. These principles are a foundation for everything we do with Reiki: the states of mindfulness and compassion arise from following the precepts and from working with Reiki.

For example, how do we feel when we carry out a Reiki treatment? Treating someone with Reiki is a special, special gift. We feel a closeness, an intimacy, a merging with the recipient; we receive trust and we experience compassion. Ideally we should just be there in the moment, with the energy, with the recipient, with no expectations. We do not treat someone with the intention to resolve their health problem or eliminate their headache. We just merge with the energy and allow Reiki to do its work; we create a sacred space for healing to occur. If our mind wanders, as it may do, then we notice this and gently but firmly bring our attention back to the present and what we are doing. We become one with the energy as it flows through us, we become one with the recipient, and we experience that blissful contentment in the moment. When we treat we are mindful: we are an observer, not a participant.

Though some are taught that you can hold a conversation with someone as you treat, or watch television at the same time, this really will not lead to the best being given to the recipient. To be the most effective channel we can be, we need to be there with the energy, fully and gently engaged in our work, giving ourselves fully to the task without distraction.

Those same principles apply when working on ourselves, whether carrying out Hatsurei ho or self-treating. The state we should seek to achieve is that of being fully engaged in the endeavour, of being with the energy without distraction, merged, aware and simply existing in the moment, with a gentle feeling of forgiveness, love and compassion towards ourselves.

So both Mindfulness and Compassion are fundamental to our life with Reiki, fundamental to the Reiki precepts, to working on others and working on ourselves. Not surprisingly they are also an essential component of the transmission of Reiki to another person through carrying out Reiju empowerments. Reiju is the ‘connection ritual’ that Usui Sensei used, and taught to his surviving students. It is simple, elegant and powerful, free from the clutter and detail that surrounds most Western attunement styles. When we perform Reiju we have no expectations: we are there in the moment with the energy, following the prescribed movements. We are relaxed and fully engaged in what we are doing, aware of what is happening right now, and we give ourselves completely to our task without distraction. That is the essence of Reiju, the essence of treatments, the essence of the precepts, and the essence of our life with Reiki.

The breath of earth and heaven

In this article I would like to talk about the energy that we work with when we practise Reiki: when we work on ourselves and when we share Reiki with others. The energy that we channel is described in various ways: we are said to be working with universal energy, we are passing on unconditional love, or chi, or prana. But there are aspects of the energy that are not being explained through this use of words, and in this article I want to talk about the essence of Reiki energy. In doing this we will touch on Taoism, QiGong, Shintoism, meditation, breathing, chanting and the use of the Reiki symbols.

Now many people reading this article will be practising something called “Joshin Kokkyu Ho”, an energy breathing method taught in the Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai, the Usui Memorial Society in Japan – part of a longer sequence of exercises referred to as “Hatsurei ho”. It was also used in Mikao Usui’s original system, according to a group of Usui Sensei’s surviving students who are in contact with one or two people in the West. Joshin Kokkyu Ho translates as something like ‘technique for purification of the spirit’ or ‘soul cleansing breathing method’, and on its own ‘Kokkyu Ho’ means ‘the way of breathing’. When we use this method we are moving energy in time with our breath, into and out of our Tanden (Dantien in Chinese), it is a way of achieving balance, but there is more significance to this technique than simply moving energy through our bodies.

With each in-breath we are filling the body with ki. This ki is yin in nature, it is the breath of earth, of physicality and the power of separation. By contrast the out-breath distributes ki throughout our bodies. This is yang in nature, it is the breath of heaven, of spirituality and the power of unification. So from the moment that we practise Joshin Kokkyu Ho we are experiencing earth ki and heavenly ki.

In fact, earth ki and heavenly ki are what we are: we are physical reality and we are spiritual essence. In Taoist philosophy, Earth and Heaven – along with Humanity – are known as the “Three Powers”. Humanity is in a pivotal position between the cosmic powers of heaven and the natural forces of earth, covered by heaven above and supported by earth below. Qi Gong, the energy cultivation technique which is practised in Japan as ‘kiko’, allows us to work with these two energies and bring them into balance. Shinto practices also refer to these two basic energies, these two essential aspects of what we really are.

It is not surprising, then, that these two energies are the basis of Usui Sensei’s spiritual system, and latterly his healing system. When we practise Reiki we are working with earth ki and heavenly ki, in a conscious or unconscious fashion; when we channel Reiki, we are channelling either the ki of earth or heaven, because that is what we are.

But Usui Sensei’s system goes further than just acknowledging our true nature, our physical and spiritual nature, because Reiki allows us to fully experience our physical reality, and fully experience our spiritual essence. This is a powerful method for achieving balance. We can return to that state of perfection we enjoyed at birth, before life corrupted us; we can be reborn. How this was achieved is as follows: At second degree in the original system the student would be shown how to experience earth ki and heavenly ki, they would learn to ‘become’ the energies of earth and heaven. How this was achieved very much depended on the student’s background, since Usui Sensei varied his teachings and methods according to the needs of his students. If the student had a Buddhist background then they would have used meditations, and if they had a Shinto background then they would have chanted sacred sounds called ‘kotodama’. Later on in Usui’s system, symbols were introduced for the Imperial Officers, but all these approaches had the same end in mind: to fully assimilate, to fully experience or become the energies of earth and heaven, the essence of what we are. The meditations, the kotodama, and the symbols are all tools used to trigger, to invoke within us, to allow us to experience an energy or a state. Second degree is all about getting to grips with earth ki and heavenly ki, to fully assimilate those energies, to reconnect to what is within and realise our true nature.

CKR and SHK represent earth ki and heavenly ki respectively, but they do not represent something new: these two energies are already within us. They do not represent something additional that we are connected to: they emphasise or flag up something that is already there.

Now, Usui Sensei’s students worked long and hard to assimilate or integrate these energies. The might have spent 6-9 months just meditating on one energy, before moving on, so there were no short-cuts and it was a long process. They started with the energy of earth and moved on to work with the energy of heaven. We can echo that original practice by working with the energies of CKR and SHK. It is not enough to be ‘attuned’ to a symbol – whatever that means – and it is not enough to use a symbol in practice when treating someone. To fully get to grips with an energy we need to meditate on the symbol, using its energy individually, not combined with others, and we need to commit ourselves to doing this regularly if we are going to fully experience the benefits that are available through Usui Sensei’s simple spiritual system.

The 10 Rules of Reiki


In this article I thought I would set down ten things that you can do – ten principles to take account of – to benefit your practice of Reiki. This is not something that has come from Japan, or from early practitioners of Reiki: it is just something that I have put together myself. I hope that this article will be of interest to people at all Reiki levels.

(1) Reiki is all about you

Although Reiki is sometimes presented in the West as a sort of complementary therapy, a hands-on treatment technique, or a form of Japanese spiritual healing, that is not what Reiki is all about. If your practice of Reiki consists mainly of treating other people then you are missing the point because Reiki is all about you! Reiki is a personal practice for your self-healing and your spiritual and self-development. You are the priority here.

In Usui’s time the treatment of others was not focused upon or emphasised, in fact treatments were a bit of a distraction from the main thrust of his teachings, which Usui Sensei referred to as a “system to achieve personal perfection”. Right from the start, the system was about personal development, not working on others.

So to gain the greatest benefits for yourself through Reiki, you need to establish a decent routine of working on yourself in whatever way that you were taught. If you were taught Western-style then do your hands-on self-treatment regularly, if you know about Japanese-style Reiki then practise your Hatsurei ho; if you know about Usui Sensei’s original system then add his self-treatment meditation to your regular Hatsurei.

I know that some people seem to have the view that working on yourself is in some way ‘selfish’, but if you cannot look after yourself properly then how can you help other people? By working on yourself regularly you make yourself a better channel and more effective at what you do in terms of treatments, so there are plus points all round for those who make themselves their Reiki priority.

(2) Base your practice on the precepts

Usui Sensei established a simple spiritual system that was rooted in his precepts, his ‘rules to live by’. Rather than being an interesting set of instructions to read on a course and put to one side, Usui’s precepts are at the very heart of his system, and it was said that as much spiritual development could come through following the precepts as would come through doing any of the energy work. If we are consider ourselves as ‘practising Reiki’ then we will follow the precepts.

So we need to think deeply about the precepts and how they affect our lives. We need to consider each precept in turn and reflect on how that precept might impinge upon and guide our thoughts and behaviour and relationships and priorities. And we need to do this regularly, using the precepts as an ongoing source of guidance, the effects of which will make a real difference to us, and the people around us, over time.

The precepts are something that you we drip-feed into our lives, something that we refer to regularly and reflect on regularly, for our own benefit and for the benefit of the people with whom we come into contact.

(3) Practise mindfulness

Although not referred to on most Reiki courses, the practise of mindfulness was as important part of Usui Sensei’s system as were the precepts, and in fact mindfulness is hidden in the precepts! Mindfulness is a form of meditation that one can perform at any time, when carrying out ordinary, mundane activities like walking somewhere or washing dishes or sipping tea, and involves becoming consciously and fully aware of your thoughts and actions in the present moment, non-judgmentally, existing in the moment.

When you are living ‘in the moment’, fully engaged in what you are doing, fully aware of the present moment, then you are existing in a state where there is no anger and there is no worry. By not dwelling on the past or speculating about the future, by embracing fully the present moment, you are living the precepts, and mindfulness brings with it humility, honesty, compassion and forgiveness.

So mindfulness is a way of experiencing Mikao Usui’s spiritual principles.

(4) Work on yourself daily

Reiki isn’t something that you can pick up once in a while, play around with for a bit, and then drop again… not if you are looking to receive the many benefits that are available from the system, anyway. If you are looking for consistent benefits then you need a consistent practice. The precepts say “just for today”, and that is a good starting point: just do something with Reiki today. You can manage that. It doesn’t have to be hours and hour’s worth. Just do something for 10 minutes: you have ten minutes. Do something for 20 minutes. And if you don’t have ten minutes, get up 10 minutes earlier: problem solved.

Don’t worry about what you will do tomorrow: just focus on today.

When tomorrow comes, do the same. Just do something with Reiki, even for ten minutes. Don’t worry about tomorrow: just do something today.

(5) Commitment is the key

There are spectacular benefits to be enjoyed through practising Reiki, and all you need to do is to work with the energy consistently, focus on the precepts and practise mindfulness. The benefits build up cumulatively, you see, and sporadic and occasional practice isn’t enough if you want the very best out of your Reiki. You will get out of the system what you are prepared to put into it, so Reiki deserves a little of your time each day. You need to plug away at a few simple things, a few simple exercises or routines, and make them a regular part of your day, as regular a part of your routine as brushing your teeth or your hair.

And once you have established a regular habit of working on yourself with Reiki then you will find that it is difficult to stop: you will find that you really miss your hatsurei session or your self-treatment if you miss a day. That is the sort of position you are looking to get yourself into and by committing yourself to working with Reiki each day, even if it is a little inconvenient, you will reach that point.

(6) Don’t try too hard

While we do need to commit ourselves and establish a decent routine of working on ourselves in order to obtain the many benefits that are available to us through Reiki, we should at the same time make sure that we do not try too hard, work for too long, or take our practice too seriously. Reiki is best enjoyed in a gentle, laid-back and light-hearted fashion rather than in a fists-clenched, furrowed-brow, tense, ‘ready for a lot of hard work’ sort of way. We do not force Reiki and we do not force a fierce practice on ourselves.

Reiki is rather like a flowing stream of water, and we are a rough rock sitting in that stream. The rock will become smooth, of course, but this will be achieved gently, through having the water flow consistently, and this will be done in its own time.

We might read about some of the experiences that other Reiki people might have when working on themselves, or receiving attunements/empowerments, or treating others (seeing colours, feeling particular things) and we may not notice all these things ourselves; we may notice very little. We may then think that if only we tried a bit harder then we would notice these things and then we would then be ‘doing it properly’.

But trying hard and trying to force things is the best way there is to put a great big block on your progress. You will progress fastest when you give up trying and just be. Stand aside (metaphorically), do the exercises, treat people, and don’t think or worry about what you do or do not experience. Be a bystander, be neutral and empty, have no expectations. That is the best approach, the approach that will lead you to progress at the right speed for you.

(7) You don’t need to be perfect

Along with the need to be relaxed and laid-back and light-hearted about your practice, you should also make sure that you are not beating yourself up for not being perfect! You do not have to be perfect in order to obtain benefits for yourself through Reiki, or to treat other people successfully. No-one else is perfect, so you don’t have to be either.

So perhaps your mind wanders when you do a treatment or work on yourself. So what? This happens to everybody else. Don’t worry about it (there is something in the precepts about worrying). It you make a big thing about it and try through ‘force of will’ to have an empty mind, you have just made things worse: now you have two lots of thoughts… the first thoughts and then all the new thoughts about getting rid of the first lot of thoughts! Don’t worry. Pay the thoughts no attention. Let them go. Bring your attention gently back to what you were doing. Feel the energy flowing through you; imagine yourself merging with the person on the treatment table. Over time your mind will settle, and you’ll spend more of your time in a nice empty meditative state, but thoughts may well intrude again, and some days will probably be better than others. That’s ok. You’re human. It will sort itself out with time.

(8) Don’t keep trying to puzzle out ‘why’

To get the best out of your Reiki I recommend that you don’t spend too much time trying to puzzle out why you are – or are not – experiencing a particular thing. Don’t keep trying to work out what a particular colour that you or the recipient saw during a treatment means, or ponder the significance of a colour that you saw when self-treating. Don’t keep wondering what a particular sensation in your hand means or why you felt a lot of energy flowing into a particular area of someone’s body, or why you didn’t feel any energy flowing into a particular place. It doesn’t matter.

Your head can really mess up your experience of Reiki if you keep on frantically thinking about, analysing and questioning things. Don’t think! Just be. Empty your mind, merge with the energy, if you are treating someone then merge with the recipient, and let it happen. Follow the flow of energy when you are treating, yes, and allow your hands to stay for longer in areas where more energy is coming through, but don’t start frantically trying to puzzle out what is going on: Reiki works on lots of levels and you won’t know what’s happening so you may as well give up thinking about it and let go: enjoy the process, enjoy your treatments and give up the mental effort! It makes it so much easier that way!

(9) Trust your intuition

Along with not questioning everything that you feel or don’t feel, you should also not keep on doubting the things that you are feeling and noticing. If you feel something, you feel it: you are not making it up. You cannot make yourself feel something.

So if you notice that energy is flowing into you more strongly in a particular area when you are self-treating, accept that and go with it, self-treating for longer there than in other positions. The same applies when treating someone else: if you feel that there is a ‘hot spot’ or ‘fizzy area’ then accept the sensations and treat for longer there. You are not making it up.

Neither are you making it up if you feel strangely drawn to a particular area of the body. You are intuitive and you can work intuitively straight away. All you need to do is to stop second-guessing and doubting yourself, be still, and simply accept what comes to you. It doesn’t need to make sense. Don’t try and puzzle it out: just accept it and treat in the way that feels appropriate.

(10) Ignore silly rules and restrictions

While we are making sure that we are not cluttering our practice with endless thoughts, questions and doubts, we should also thrown out as unnecessary the various rules, regulations and restrictions that we may have been taught. Reiki does not need to be controlled, blunted and restricted by man-made rules that have no basis. Reiki is safe and Reiki is simple, and simple approaches are usually the most effective.

So we do not have to slavishly follow a prescribed set of hand positions when treating ourselves or other people and we do not need to say a set form of words for our Reiki to work. We do not need to follow ritualised sets of hand and body movements in a particular sequence to be able to treat someone and we do not need to refrain from treating people with various medical conditions. Reiki is safe and Reiki is adaptable. It allows many different ways of working that are all valid. There is no ‘one’ way that Reiki has to be used, and we should ignore admonitions that we should ‘always’, or ‘never’, do a particular thing.

So, to get the most out of your Reiki, I recommend that you make a commitment to yourself to work on yourself each day as your top priority, but not beating yourself up if you miss the occasional day. Use Hatsurei ho and self-treat, focus on the precepts and drip-feed mindfulness into more and more of your daily activities. Don’t try too hard though: be light-hearted and forgiving towards yourself because you don’t have to be perfect. Try not to clutter your mind with lots of thoughts and doubts and questions: just be neutral, have no expectations, be empty and content. And make sure you keep it simple.