Something that a few Reiki people have mentioned to me is that they never seem to feel too much happening when they are self-treating, certainly not compared to the stronger sensations that they might experience when treating other people. They might feel something happening in their hands when they use a hands-on self-treatment method, but it’s all a bit gentle and unremarkable. So what is going on here? Are Reiki self-treatments weak and ineffective, a thin and weedy version of the powerhouse of treating someone else, or is there something else happening here?

Here’s my take on this…

You self-treat a lot

So, you go on a Reiki course and what do you do? You self-treat. Maybe you “do your 21 days” (though if you take my advice about self-treating, you’ll just self-treat endlessly forever!) so you’re working with the energy a lot. You’ve been attuned or empowered and you may experience your “Reiki cold” or some sort of a healing crisis as a result of that, and when you treat other people, you’ll also receive a benefit from the energy that you’re channelling, or the ‘healing space’ that you are creating, as you merge with the energy and the recipient and find that empty, mindful space.

If you tune into my weekly distant Reiju empowerment you’ll also experience a repeated putting-you-back-to-factory-settings, taking you back to that simpler, still state, which you were in before life messed you up!

So you’re receiving the benefits of the energy a lot, in different ways, so when you self-treat regularly, a lot of the work has already been done, and is being done as you go along, with little adjustments here and there, little tweaks, small releases of things. That doesn’t sound like it’s going to give you a big bells-and-whistles experience, does it?

That’s not to say that Reiki can’t reach deep down, working on deep-seated stuff, which may at some stage come to the surface and give you a surprising clear-out further down the line, but from day to day, how much intense energy work really needs to be done? It doesn’t, so your self-treatments feel suitably mild. That’s all they need to be. We should remember that Reiki will give you what you need on that occasion, and since the last time you self-treated, which may have been only a day or so ago, you may not need very much!

Recirculating and balancing

And when you self-treat, of course you are already ‘connected’ to Reiki. The energy is flowing through you, and this is very apparent for most people who you treat other people: you can feel the energy flowing from you into the other person. But when you treat yourself, the energy comes into you, is in you, and then is directed… into you.

It’s already there!

So self-treatments, unless you have a big, great need for energy to rush in and clear things, is just recirculating itself to a large extent, just re-balancing, changing the emphasis: moving from one part of you to another part of you. Rather like pressing the ‘recirculate the air’ button in your car, you’re largely taking what’s there and redistributing it, rather than receiving shedloads of energy from elsewhere. And what do your hands feel… well they will probably tell you *something* as the energy redistributes itself and tweaks things, but it probably won’t feel earth-shattering!

The great divide

Let’s compare this with the situation where someone comes to you for a Reiki treatment. Perhaps they have never been to see a Reiki practitioner before. There will probably be quite a lot that needs resolving. The energy is going to rush in and start working on that. You will feel this happening as a big flow of energy in your hands, if you’re reasonably sensitive to the flow of energy.

You may well see them again a week later or a fortnight later. They haven’t been receiving Reiki treatments every day, with the energy tweaking and adjusting things: they received Reiki once and it did what it could on that occasion. Now you see them again and there will still be a fair amount that needs adjusting. Again you’ll feel this happening as the energy flows quite strongly.

And instead of your familiar energy being mostly recirculated within you, as happens when you self-treat, when you treat someone else your personal ‘universe of energy’ comes into contact with the recipient’s quite separate galaxy of energy and, as you create that healing space, as you merge with the energy and the recipient, neutral and empty, it’s rather like two galaxies coming into contact and alignment: you’re going to notice that happening!

And what would happen if you keep on treating this person: will their tenth Reiki session be as powerful as their first? It’s unlikely, isn;’t it? Later sessions are more likely to be gentle, just mild adjustments or tweaking, because all the heavy work was achieved earlier on.

And what if you had treated them every day… do you really think you’d notice quite powerful Reiki sensations after treating them for 30 consecutive days? Of course not. And that’s just what is happening when you self-treat: the heavy work is achieve earlier in your journey with Reiki, and later on it’s more a case of gentle tweaking.

And that’s why self-treatments can often feel quite mild when compared to what you might experience when treating others.

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