Declutter your treatment rituals

declutter reiki treatment rituals

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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23 thoughts on “Declutter your treatment rituals

  1. Your words are a joy to read, Taggart. They are an excellent reminder of the absolute simplicity of Reiki for those of us who really do like to keep it simple. It exhausts me, sometimes, listening to how some practitioners work and their rationale for all their complexities. Of course, one mustn’t judge, and if it works for them, it works for them. But occasionally I feel like that person you describe in one of your manuals who sits in the corner keeping quiet because they haven’t had a ‘whistles and bells’ experience. So it’s always timely to be reminded that simplicity is key. Thank you.

      1. Me too! I just send Reiki, simple and pure, and…it always works! So glad I trained with Taggart as he has the right message-simplicity 🙂

  2. I’m not sure why Reiki treatments (on self and family) work only sometimes for me. I put it down to lack of concentration or lack of practice. The last two professional treatments I received didn’t seem to benefit me either. I do have a ‘ritual’ (referred to above) when practicing it, but I’m not obsessed with it and don’t always use it. I used to see colours during self-treatments, but don’t any more.

    1. Hi Patricia, people’s experience of the energy (in terms of seeing colours, for example) can change and alter as you progress with your Reiki. Other people have noticed taht too. W ecan’t expect a particular outcome from Reiki treatments: they will do what they do, and that may not coincide with what the recipient might want as a priority. Over time, though, they move you in the right direction on many levels. I recommend a good basic Reiki practice, including Hatsurei ho and the Self-treatment meditation, plus the practice of mindfulness and a regular dwelling on the precepts and how they can affect the way that you behave and respond 🙂

  3. Thank you for this reminder. I always go for the more simple the better and dislike complexity so I am happy to hear this.

  4. I thoroughly enjoy reading all your posts about Reiki….and I find it so important to keep Reiki as simply and uncluttered as possible…so I couldn’t agree more with all your suggestions above. Thank you…as always Taggart for your guidance!
    xx

  5. I definitely take the intuitive approach as that is what I have been supported to do by Taggart – and I always resonated with that. My issue with my practice, is that I do not do it enough on others, as I work full time and take on very few clients. To ground myself and connect with the teachings I get out my books and immerse myself in the Japanese symbols. I will write them out and meditate on them. This pulls me back with delight to reiki, even if there is no one to focus the energy upon upon directly. I do distant healing, but not enough.

  6. Good, common sense. I am doing something right then. Sometimes just a human touch gives you a head start with clients. I do a little grounding at the start, otherwise I may be enveloped in the client’s problems myself which would be counterproductive.

    1. Hi Yvonne, I find that sometimes practitioners’ bodies can ‘echo’ what’s going on with the recipient, temporarily, during the treatment, almost by way of a form of intuition, but then leave/dissipate subsequently. The best grounding practice that I have found is Hatsurei ho, actually x

  7. As you say, Taggart, loving intention to help in whatever way is needed is everything. For me, that is enough, although I do have a prayer ritual of a few simple words that I begin every session with as a cue to my subconscious.

  8. I agree there is no need to clutter up your treatment with complected rituals. I try and keep mine as simple as possible.I have practiced the tree meditation bringing in earth energy first as roots. then the universal life energy into the crown. During a treatment i think about Earth energy and can feel energy moving up my legs into my core. During Reiki shares we tried it as a group, the recipient could feel the extra energy almost immediately.
    When it comes to grounding I think it’s a matter of balancing Earth energy and the universal life that flows into every one. probable keeps in touch with reality as well.

  9. Good evening thankyou for all your emails. Since i completed my 1 and 2..iv not done many clients only one friend occasionally..and my son and myself sometimes..wil i need to be attuned again if i wanted to do more of this healing on people? Thankyou
    Michelle…xx

    1. To get your Reiki up and running well again, make sure that you have a good background practice of working on yourself using Hatsurei ho and the Self-treatment meditation, tune into my weekly distant Reiju empowerments, embrace mindfulness (I recommend “The Miracle of Mindfulness” by Thich Nhat Hanh) and ponder the precepts and how your behaviour and responses to people would best display them in your daily life. That gives you a really solid foundation to build on.

  10. I like to follow the KISS Principal! Keep it simple stupid. I pretty much agree with what you say. I do ask my Healing Guides to help too! Different ones come to help depending on who and what I am treating. As a male practitioner, I use avatars to help when It would be inappropriate for me to physically work on some problem areas. I suppose you could call this “intent”. So regularly combine hands-on and off in a treatment!
    With regards to the Earthing issue, I simply use the Fire Dragon and Spirit Column at the end of a treatment, which in my mind covers the issue! I did, when first using them, check with my pendulum to ensure they worked and have not been let down by these two symbols.

    1. Also, Kenyoku/Joshin Kokkyu ho are a good grounding practice. And real life usually grounds you: going for a walk, doing the washing up, having to earn a living!

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