It’s nerve-wracking preparing for your first Reiki course, isn’t it? You’re taking a step into the unknown and you are going to be guiding a group of people who are trusting you to do a good job. You probably feel that you don’t know enough and that you’re not ready yet. I know how that feels.
I this article I thought I would just pass on a few pieces of advice that might be of help to you, to ease some of your anxiety. Here goes…
It’s OK to teach differently from how you were taught
I’m sure that the First Degree course you went on was great and gave you everything you needed. But the course may be a bit hazy now, given that you have gone on to take Second Degree and your Master Teacher course.
Maybe you have a sense that you would like to do things a bit differently from the way that your teacher taught you: you are a different person, you have a different personality, you approach things in different ways.
And that’s ok: you should not feel that you have to exactly replicate the way that they taught or the content of their course. You can be yourself and find your own distinctive way, so long as you pass on the essentials, which you can read about in this blog: Back to basics: all about Reiki First Degree. So if you think you can explain things better, provide better course materials, or think the course would flow more logically if you did things differently, go right ahead.
Teach Reiki, not stuff that has nothing to do with Reiki
This is a bit of a bug-bear of mine, but I shall say it anyway: make sure that when you teach Reiki, you just teach Reiki, rather than a whole load of New-Age add-ons that have very little or nothing to do with Usui Reiki but have crept into Reiki over the years, and here I am thinking about smudging, crystal healing, chakra balancing, tarot cards, clairvoyance. When you run a Reiki course I recommend that you teach Reiki, just Reiki.
Make sure that you have practised your attunements well
No matter what lineage you have, you are going to carry out some initiations with your students, whether that be Reiju empowerments or some other variety of attunement ritual. You need to be comfortable in giving these initiations because you don’t want to have to keep flicking through your notes half way through the attunements. That would be so unprofessional.
So practise, practise and practise some more! Attune a teddy bear, attune an empty chair, sit in your lounge on a sofa with your eyes closed and imagine in your mind’s eye you giving an attunement, see yourself going through the movements, explain out loud what you are doing (as if you were explaining to someone else how to do it), gesticulate so you get used to the hand movements, walk up and down like a mad person, talking yourself through the stages you have learned, draw little stick-figure diagrams to summarise the stages, rap a little rhyme to remind your mind! Be creative!
Once you have the attunements sorted you will feel a lot more confident.
You don’t need to have all the answers
You are probably worrying about what people might ask you on your course and whether you will know the answer to all their questions. You probably think that you don’t know enough. To be honest, so long as you know more than they do then you will be fine, and you know far more than you think. Your students don’t really know anything about Reiki and you have been using it for some time now, so you have a wealth of experience to draw upon.
But there’s more to say about questions because you do not have to have the answer to every question; I know I don’t. Some questions do not have an answer, or nobody knows, or nobody knows and it doesn’t matter anyway. Don’t waffle or try to make up an answer: people can tell if you’re bullshitting, and if you’re honest with your students then they will take more notice of you when you do have something to say.
Remember that Reiki is a practical art
Remember that Reiki is a practical art and that when you teach Reiki you are passing on what you have learned and noticed during your personal experience of working with the energy. You are not passing on high-blown academic theories that you have to revise and might get wrong: you have personal experience of doing all the things that you will be guiding your students through, so you are on very solid ground.
You have given yourself a lot of self-treatments and if you learned Japanese-style Reiki then you will also have experience of using Hatsurei ho most days, and working with the Reiki precepts. You have given Reiki treatments to other people and you have become comfortable with this, learning from your experiences and finding your own comfortable way with the process, making it your own.
You know far, far more about all this stuff than they do, you know far more than you realise, and you have personal experience of doing all the things that you will be guiding your students through… so you can chill, be yourself, and enjoy the day.
And I am sure that you will have a wonderful time on your course.
Need some help with your course materials?
I have put together comprehensive and detailed course manuals and easy-to-listen-to audio CDs with commentaries and guided meditations. All these are available for you to use on your own courses (no matter what lineage you have) and you can order them in packs of four at greatly discounted prices. Reiki teachers all over the world are using them. Find out more by clicking here:
Reiki Evolution Manuals and audio CDs.
Did you like this blog?
If so, you are going to love this book…
“Spot on! I’ve been teaching reiki for many years and I must say I wish this book had landed back then!
I’ve put together courses and really would have loved a book like this to refer back to, it’s concise, clear, laid out really well and is informative and a mini support system to boot.
If you’re entering the Reiki world with an aim to become Master/Teacher then having this book in your armoury will benefit you.”
S J Price
Teaching Reiki
A Comprehensive Guide to Running Great Courses
This is the book I really wish had been available when I started running Reiki courses in 1997. And it would have helped me greatly in my journey as a Reiki teacher thereafter.
You’ll find a wealth of advice about how to set up and run your Reiki courses: read articles about planning and structuring your courses; find out how to explain things to students in a way that honours their learning preferences and personality types; discover how to create top quality course materials and how to support your students long-term.
We look at the differences between ‘Western’ and Original Japanese Reiki and I explain how I created “Reiki Evolution” courses, which pass on the essence of Reiki’s original form. Read this book and you’ll know how to teach “Reiki Evolution” style: what to say, what to teach, and even how to teach Reiki in a ten-week ‘Evening Class’ format.
This book will be of interest to anyone who is about to start teaching Reiki, or to established Reiki teachers who are interested in enhancing the quality of their courses.
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
