Category Archives: Reiki Information

A reiki treatment is sharing

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I find it interesting explaining reiki to clients. Some clients have done their own research already (or have had treatments in the past). Some clients don’t really care to know exactly what reiki is: they are just open to trying it and finding out through experience what it means to them. Some clients hear about it from others.

I think the majority of my clients get their ideas of what reiki is by comparing it to other practices or what they’ve heard. So, because some practitioners combine reiki with massage, some call up for reiki massages. Some practitioners use crystals so I’m asked whether reiki is about crystals. And lots of clients (as I’ve written in other blogs) hope for some sort of clairvoyant ability to diagnose a problem and tell them something interesting or what they hope will be useful about them.

I try to gauge the interest of a client and I usually describe a reiki treatment as tapping into and looking for the same healing energy and space that we find in meditation, yoga and other practices, and when the brain is operating at that frequency, it feels good. It heals. In the quiet, present moment, it is different from worrying about the future or past. And the way the mind is connected with the body, clients often (but not always) feel energy and effects throughout their body, as well as usually feeling a deep sense of relaxation.

Bronwen Logan from the International House of Reiki recently wrote a blog post about how she describes reiki to clients: as ‘sharing’. I’d encourage you to read the whole post, since it’s really great and a nice perspective on what a reiki treatment is.

What I’d highlight are her words here:

In non-Reiki terms, you can also see that when we give a gift, for example, we also receive happy endorphins that support our wellbeing. At the same time the other person receives the gift, and they also give their thanks with their endorphins flying high too. So, giving and receiving exist in this same space, they share the space together with neither one dominating or standing out, just being. If you see it this way, then there is neither giving nor receiving, just sharing. And in the sharing space we can let go and just be together without fear or judgement or worry; a true healing space.

It’s such a beautiful, simple description, and I’m not sure all my clients will accept that reiki is or can be as simple as this. Some will hope there is a greater level of expertise or technicality. That I am doing something instead of just trying to be. But if you can accept the simplicity of the concept, that a reiki treatment is a shared experience between client and practitioner, and that simply being in a quiet, present place is healing, I think it is profound.

It also reminds me of another description I read, from a practitioner who was asked what she is doing to a client during a treatment. She said (I’m paraphrasing here, as I don’t remember the exact words) that she was not doing anything but simply loving her client, being there to love.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 1,900 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it brings them. Folks visit from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Chakra Con? I feel for you but do you really know what chakras are?

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You have to be a certain age to understand the joke I made in the title of this blog post. When I was a teenager, Chaka Khan’s most famous song “I feel for you” was released and while I usually didn’t love pop music that sounded like hers, I did like this song. I couldn’t deny how catchy it was, and that she was all kinds of fabulous. But really, she has little to do with this blog post except that her name can be contorted into today’s question. Is the idea of a system of chakras a con?

You see, it’s one of the most common questions that I get as a reiki practitioner. You work with chakras, right? That’s what reiki is, isn’t it? It’s also one of the most common issues that clients come for. They tell me that they feel their chakras are blocked or unbalanced. If I ask them how they know this, they have often been told this by a clairvoyant or psychic, or by a friend or stranger, or they have looked it up themselves on the internet, and their symptoms (lack of energy, not feeling great, romantic problems, not feeling fulfilled) match up to a website that says that the reason may be because their is a blockage at a chakra: at the throat or heart, the third eye, or head, the navel or root.

Someone on one of my reiki Facebook groups posted a link to an article about chakras, written by Christopher Wallis, a scholar and researcher who looks into meditation, yoga, tantra and other practices. The Real Story on the Chakras is honestly not an easy read, as it goes into careful and detailed descriptions of the six most important things that you never knew about the chakras.

But I think this is part of the point. How did a system about the subtle body and energy centres from 1000 CE or earlier from Tantrik Yoga get translated to what is understood or believed today?

If you are interested, I do encourage you to read the article yourself, but some of the things that I found particularly interesting are:

  • While most Western sources use a system of seven chakras, there were in fact many systems of chakras, using 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 21 or other counts.
  • While many present the chakra system as an ancient one, the way they are described in the West comes from a more modern time.
  • Rather than the chakras being descriptive (“your root chakra is at the base of your spine and is red”), chakras were envisioned as a focal point for achieving a goal, to meditate on or to visualise something at that place.
  • Most of the way that the West understands chakras seem to come from a 1987 book, Anodea Judith’s Wheels of Life, in which she assigns an association with each chakra to “a certain bodily gland, certain bodily malfunctions, certain foods, a certain metal, a mineral, an herb, a planet, a path of yoga, a suit of the tarot, a sephira of Jewish mysticism, and an archangel of Christianity!”. Others associate each chakra with different crystals, colours, emotions and essential oils. These seem like modern inventions. Now, it may be that there is some truth to these associations. Or they may be completely made up! You might have heard about a writer named Louise Hay who became very popular for her self-affirmations. Her ideas were very widespread that diseases came from bad emotions or attitudes (which meant that you could be at fault for being sick, for not being positive enough). I was shocked to read a number of years ago that she basically made up all of these theories herself, which have no scientific evidence. But, like the ideas of chakras, her ideas are widely believed and popular.

I’m not saying that in order to believe something is true, you need to research it and understand it completely. In fact, that would really be shooting myself in the foot, as I don’t think clients need to know everything or a lot about reiki in order for it to be beneficial for them. But I do think that if you have taken on a set of ideas, like chakras, and you are applying them to your own sense of self and well-being, then you might want to look into where those ideas come from, and whether they really ring true for you or not.

I don’t think it’s useful for clients to believe reiki is about the chakras, nor for clients to believe that they have chakras aligned with their energetic bodies that are “blocked” or “out of balance”. As I’ve said in another blog post, I don’t think your energy is blocked.

I do think that most people can benefit from reiki, and the best way to come to a treatment is with an open mind, without set ideas about what it is, or self-diagnoses of your energetic problems. My aim is for the treatment to bring you what you need at this place and time.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given over 1,800 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it brings them. Folks visit from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Are you cynical about reiki?

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I usually don’t worry about people who don’t believe in reiki or think it’s all a hoax. Nearly all of my clients either believe in reiki, or are open to how it might work. So, it doesn’t seem a good use of energy to worry about those who are cynical.

But at the same time, I think it is useful for me to be able to explain to clients the ways that reiki might work, even though I’m not 100% sure. And what I especially like about this article, ‘Reiki Can’t Possibly Work. So Why Does it?’ from The Atlantic is how balanced, thorough and personal it is.

The author, Jordan Kisner, who writes beautifully, points out:

For decades, experts weren’t precisely sure how acetaminophen (Tylenol) eases pain, but Americans still took billions of doses every year. Many medical treatments are adopted for their efficacy long before their mechanisms are known or understood. Why should this be different?

But while she argues that we don’t need to know precisely how reiki works, there are a lot of reasons why and how it might work. Her approach is very close to mine: the truth is that I’m not exactly sure how reiki works, and I recognise to outsiders there are aspects of reiki that could seem quite unbelievable. But I feel it works and my clients report that it works in different ways. If what I am offering is simply my time, attention and “an act of caring” and that works for my clients, I’m happy to go with that.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given over 1,800 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it brings them. Folks visit from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

Do your research

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I don’t think that someone has to know anything about reiki in order to receive its benefits.

But I do think a person has to be open to the experience and willing to receive healing.

What I think could block being open to a treatment is having particular expectations about what the treatment will be like.

A while ago, two days in a row, I received two different enquiries about reiki treatments. One asked whether I do the seven-level system of reiki. I’ve heard of this but not paid much attention to it. My understanding is that someone created their own version of the traditional three levels of reiki. Why would they do this? A cynic might say that the more levels there are, the more courses you can offer your students, and receive more in tuition fees. And you can claim being better than others, because isn’t seven better than three? But I digress. My webpage and Facebook page are easily available, so if someone wants to know about the kind of reiki that I do (traditional Japanese reiki), I think the information can be found on my page. If you are looking for a particular kind of reiki, do some research and find the right practitioner for you.

Another enquiry, from someone who booked a session and then didn’t show up, was from someone who was very excited about reiki because a friend had told him to try it out, but he didn’t know anything about it. ‘Does it have hot rocks?’ he asked. In this case, I did ask him to do some research and look at my website, because I think if you really know nothing about what a reiki treatment entails, and then show up and wonder if you’ll have hot rocks (no) or have to take off your clothes (no) or expect particular results, I think that confusion or any expectations could interfere with relaxing into a treatment and being open to receive what it brings.

So, I hope that clients will do a little more than just google “reiki in Sydney” and contact me right away.

Those who want only a female practitioner, or who want two treatments at the same time, or who are hoping that I combine reiki with clairvoyance or chakra cleansing, will save themselves some time. But I do have a friend who does shamanic healing, if that’s what you’re after! I can send you to her. At the same time, with a little understanding of what reiki is and a treatment involves, you can arrive at a treatment feeling open and relaxed.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given over 1,700 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney. A recent client told me she found me by googling ‘Best Reiki Sydney’. Come see for yourself. 

I’m not sure your energy is blocked

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If you type into Google ‘energy blocked’, depending on the day, it comes up with between 350 and 499 million results. Seriously.

A typical website, as from Integral Psychology, will tell you that people suffer trauma and the trauma gets stuck in the body. It comes from the field of Somatic Therapy, which ‘looks at the connection of mind and body and uses both psychotherapy and physical therapies for holistic healing’.

Many more websites will tell you how to find out why your chakras are blocked. How can you tell? A typical answer:

You may feel more tired or lacking energy, you may feel unmotivated or experiencing more anxiety 
and stress, dealing with digestive issues and just not feeling like your true self mentally, 
physically and spiritually.

I have to admit that when I first put up this website, and was trying to explain reiki, I explained reiki in this way too. I said that that we gather stress or blockages with time, and so reiki works to get rid of those blocks and help our energy move more freely.

I don’t know where I got that explanation from because I don’t believe it anymore!

I think my doubt started with so many of my clients coming for treatments for energy blockages and blocks in their chakras. But when asked how they were, the answers were much more simple. Rather than their heart chakra being blocked, preventing them from finding a good relationship or because they were hurt, it felt more true to me that they had been through a bad relationship, and that finding good relationships is difficult and needs work! Or that they were hurt, in a romantic or family relationship. When people said they are tired, it was likely that they live a busy life, or have young children to look after, or aren’t getting enough sleep. And the idea of ‘not feeling like oneself’? The older that I’ve gotten, the more I realise that we have many selves, and that it is a mistake to create a story about how we are always the same.

I feel a great fault of the new age movement and new age language is convincing so many people (and so many of my clients) that something is wrong with them: their chakras are blocked or not aligned; they have accumulated negative energy and they need a clearing. A few clients say they have negative energy and need it cleared, but this is a lesson, not necessarily easy, that we can learn for ourselves. If someone is angry at us, we can both see if there are valid reasons for it, and if there are not, to see that their anger is their issue, it is about them, not us, and try to not be affected by it.

What I also take issue with is the story that the older we get, that we accumulate pain and trauma and blocks: life is dangerous and we need to be healed from it. What if we told ourselves a different story, a more positive story? What if the older we are, and the more wise, the more we learn to be less stressed, less blocked and less troubled? I think that’s as good a theory as any. As my reiki teacher, Frans Stiene, says, if the energy in our body was truly blocked, we’d be … dead.

I should clarify what I’m saying. I don’t discount the idea that we can suffer trauma and that it can affect our bodies, and therefore our energy. But I don’t think it’s useful for most people to believe that we have suffered trauma and that it has affected our bodies. If you think this might be the case for you, DO see a somatic therapist or a psychotherapist or another counsellor, and uncover and define what trauma you might have suffered and address the issue directly. But don’t self-diagnose yourself and believe without questioning that you have something blocked in your body, which is the reason for not feeling great.

It’s just not healthy to walk around believing that there’s something wrong with us. There are a lot of good reasons why we might not feel great in our lives. Convincing people that our mysterious energy system is malfunctioning, I believe, takes away the power from people to address why we might not feel great. Many of the websites that tell people their chakras are blocked advise buying crystals or visiting someone who can clear their chakras. Has this all been invented as a commercial scam? I think it’s a terrible thing to convince people they are walking around with their chakras blocked and trauma stuck in their body. If you believe this, ask yourself why. How did you come to believe this?

If you know that work and life is busy, too busy for you, then you can consider finding ways of carving out time for yourself, of treating yourself well, and finding ways to slow down. If you feel tired, would taking time to yourself, or going for a walk, or doing some exercise, help you? It could be a physical issue that you should chat with a doctor or nutritionist about. If your heart is broken, perhaps talking to friends, or a counsellor, or treating yourself nicely, and also recognising that you are hurt and that there are good reasons for it, will probably help more than a rose quartz crystal for your heart. I believe that looking to ourselves to understand why we might be feeling low (or happy) is a way to give the power and responsibility back to ourselves to be able to do something about it.

A reiki treatment could be part of this. But rather than seeing a reiki practitioner to clear your blocks and align your chakras, I think the real healing comes in being proactive about wanting to feel better, gathering tools for your toolbox so you know what works for you in feeling better, and seeing your issues as something that, while they might not be easy to heal, can be healed with you taking an active part in making it happen.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 1,700 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney. A recent client told me she found me by googling ‘Best Reiki Sydney’. Come see for yourself. 

How often should I get reiki?

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One of the most common questions that I get after a treatment is ‘how often should I have a reiki treatment?’

The easy answer is: it’s up to you.

The longer answer is:

After your treatment, pay attention to how you felt afterwards, and that night, and the next day. And if you can, continue to try to notice what changes – energetically, emotionally, physically, spiritually – might have taken place.

Some clients just ‘feel’ the treatment during the treatment itself, and that is enough for them, to feel quiet and relaxed in the midst of their busy lives. Some feel the effects for the rest of the day, and into the next day. Others report feeling the effects for a few days, and a few have told me that a treatment creates a long-term change that can last for a week or longer.

Then there’s the question of why you came for the treatment, and if the treatment had a good effect. If you came in to be more relaxed and centred before a job interview, then unless you have another job interview right away, perhaps your intention can be met in one treatment. If it’s a long-term issue, then perhaps regular reiki is a good way to heal if you found the treatment helpful. If you’ve had anxiety for many months or many years, it’s not realistic to think that just one reiki treatment is going to be a cure.

Then there’s the practical issues which shouldn’t be ignored. Is it convenient for you to come regularly? How can you make the time to do things you want to do? Can you afford the cost and the time?

But I know that people have read online or heard that people should come for multiple reiki treatments. Why is this?

There is one very prominent reiki teacher who advised all of his students to tell clients that if they really want to address an issue, they should have a minimum of three reiki treatments (in about three weeks). He taught a lot of people, so I’ve seen this repeated on many reiki websites.

But unfortunately, I suspect that this was as much about marketing and convincing clients to return than it was about actually finding out from each client what’s best for them. I personally disagree with the idea of telling a client that they need to come back or must come more than once. I think it really should be up to you.

  • Some clients are really interested in what reiki can do for them so come back multiple times.
  • Some clients find that reiki feels good and that they find it useful and helpful to have regular treatments.
  • Some clients find that reiki helps support their other practices, like meditation.

So, there’s a huge variation of how often clients come.

  • I’ve had a few clients who have come every week or two, for a period of time (maybe a few months), and then take a break or stop.
  • I have some semi-regular clients who come about every month.
  • I have one client now who tries to come up to three times a week.
  • Many clients I see once, and then not again for another six months or year.
  • Lots of clients I see once and never again (though maybe they will try reiki with someone else).

The only however that I have is that I have heard back from clients who know that a reiki treatment was beneficial to them but then get caught up in their busy lives or stress and anxiety, and don’t make the time to come in for a treatment. I hope that by keeping in touch with my clients by newsletter that I can remind them to come back sometime! If you know that it helps you, especially at times when you’re feeling low energy, anxious, sad or not quite in balance, do try to make the time. You’re worth it!

Anyways, if you’re still reading (I do go on, sometimes, don’t I?), as I said, it’s up to you how often you come for reiki treatments. I’d really prefer you to practise asking yourself, ‘When would I like another treatment?’ and then listening to yourself!  And when you’d like another treatment, I’m here! I look forward to seeing you.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given more than 1,500 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

 

Learning reiki

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This is ‘Reiki’ in traditional Japanese characters.

Since Mikao Usui created the system of reiki in Japan in the early 1900s, reiki spread to North America and then around the world, and different reiki practitioners have created their own schools and styles of reiki. Many different forms and styles of reiki are found around the world now.

It is also taught in many different ways. While traditionally, it was taught in three levels, shoden (level 1), okuden (level 2) and shinpiden (level 3), it is now also taught in community colleges, and even at a distance in online courses. I’ve heard of reiki teaching retreats in Bali, I believe, where teachers have found it easy to attract students by teaching level 1 and level 2 without a break in between, during the same week. I’ve heard of reiki schools that have 7 levels, or is it 9? My gut feeling is that this is a way to get students to pay a lot more for a lot more courses!

My teachers were my brother, Walter Quan, in Canada, and Frans Stiene, who taught in Sydney and the Blue Mountains, and now teaches all around the world, from his home base in the Netherlands. Frans is renowned for researching reiki to try to follow its traditional origins (the traditional form is known as Usui Reiki Ryoho) which is different than newer creations of reiki styles where teachers focus on the chakras, or combine reiki with other practices, like crystal healing, or have even created their own new symbols and levels.

I enjoy giving reiki treatments, but I’ve made the choice to not teach reiki.

If you are in Sydney, I have two recommendations. They’re both a little far away from the centre, but it can be nice to get away! So, I’d recommend that you study reiki with the International House of Reiki in the Blue Mountains. Bronwen Logan is a good teacher, and Mount Tomah is a beautiful place to learn.

A fellow student of Frans Stiene and the International House of Reiki (IHR) is Vicki Huston who teaches reiki in Avalon in the Northern Beaches at Northern Beaches Reiki. Vicki is a wonderful person so she’s my other recommendation. If you happen to be in Melbourne, look up Deborah at the Melbourne Reiki Centre and if you’re in Cairns, you should study with Julie at Rainforest Reiki.

I don’t know and won’t say that the traditional Japanese system of reiki is better than other forms, just that I personally like it and it’s what I do. So, if you are interested in learning reiki, you should do some reading about the teachers available around you and what kind of reiki they practice and how their courses are structured. Level 1 is a really good way to find out whether reiki resonates with you as a practice. The course is short and affordable and focuses on you learning how to treat yourself, rather than on other people. It’s often two days long. I don’t recommend taking Level 2 (often a day long) right away after Level 1,  or Level 3 (often 2.5 or 3 days) right after that. After each course, I think it’s best to practice what you’ve learned and let the learnings settle into yourself rather than rushing to do more learning.

Finally, I recommend doing your own research. I was quite surprised lately, getting calls from people wanting to learn reiki and then have me explain as much as I could to them. Part of the joy of learning something is to start learning and to do your own research. Start now. Read about reiki on the web. There is lots of information available, including on my own website and that of IHR. Find out which teachers are available for you. Then look at their websites to see what kind of reiki they do, and whether the way they talk about reiki resonates for you. Do you like the way they present themselves on their websites? Do you like what you are reading about reiki? If you do, you can always get in contact with them and ask some questions before you decide to study with them. Also, if you are interested in studying reiki, please book yourself in for a treatment, with me or any other reiki practitioner that you find and like the sound of. If you can book in for a treatment with your possible teacher, that would be really great. Why jump into studying something if you don’t have an experience of it already?

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 1,500 reiki treatments.
Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

I try to be open

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The Pantheon, Rome

Clients often ask me what I am doing exactly during a treatment.

Basically, I’m trying to be open.

As I’ve explained elsewhere, I see reiki as the same healing energy or vibration that we might look for in tai chi, qi gong, acupuncture, yoga, meditation or other practices.

Particular frequencies of the brain’s vibration are found to bring us healing. Through my training and practice, I tune into those vibrations and facilitate a client to do the same.

So my aim during a treatment is to be open to that energy, healing and vibrations.

In contrast, I think that the part of our brains used for analysis and thinking are useful for our survival, but planning for the future or pondering something in the past is not particularly healing.

So during a treatment, I’m not aiming to think. I’m not trying to diagnose a blockage or analyse why an arm might feel warmer than a leg. I’m not trying to remember what I feel so I can report it back to you at the end of your treatment.

I do ask clients how they are before the treatment and if there are particular issues they’d like to address. I don’t believe that we can achieve something just by setting our attention on it (like the book The Secret promoted years ago, in an update of The Power of Positive Thinking, and stealing the ‘Law of Attraction’ idea from Esther and Jerry Hicks), but I think it’s a good idea to be aware of our intentions and to say them aloud.

But during a treatment, I do not think ‘Now, I am healing this person’s broken heart’ or ‘I am pouring reiki energy into my client’. Who knows what really needs healing? A client might talk about wanting to get pregnant, but before that happens they may have to learn to relax. Someone might need to let go of a feeling of being hurt in the past before their shoulders can feel less tense and painful. If I decide that a client needs to be healed in a particular way, it is not being open, it is putting my own beliefs or assumptions onto a blank page, so it is not blank anymore. You can’t write your own story on it.

Reiki is about unity, wholeness, and being one. It is not about separation. So, during the treatment, I am not thinking of my client and me as separate, that I, as a reiki master, is giving reiki, or doing reiki, on a client.

I’m just trying to be open. I may, at times, lose my concentration, and wonder what the noise is outside the apartment or wonder what I am going to have for dinner. And when I notice this happening, I try to set those thoughts aside.

And be open.

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given over 1,400 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

What do I feel? (What do you feel?)

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I am trying to teach my cat to give me reiki…

*

One of the common questions that I get after I give a reiki treatment to a client is: ‘What did you feel?’ or ‘What did you pick up?’

In fact, I think almost half of my last clients asked this.

My answer these days is that it’s not important what I feel, it’s important what you feel, during and after a treatment.

I do know that there are many reiki practitioners and other clairvoyants and healers who give lots of specific advice. I had a client come because a random stranger came up to her and told her she had bad energy. I’ve had many clients come because someone has told them that they have a blocked chakra that needs clearing.

But now that I’ve been doing this for a long time, I really question how useful it is to tell clients something of the sort. The thing is, I’m not sure whether people really feel these different types of energy, or if it’s their egos talking. And more importantly, what does it mean? Is it useful information? The very first reiki treatment I had, a proper session rather than a ‘taster’ at a psychic fair, was in Rarotonga of all places. I asked my healer after the treatment what he felt, and he said that I was imbalanced and had more energy on one side of my body. I think I probably leaned to one side for the next few days! But seriously, what use was that information? What did it tell me in a way that helped me? Nothing. Sorry.

Similarly, if someone tells you that your heart chakra is blocked, unless you are committed to researching to find meditations or visualisations that might help with this, what are you going to do about it? You might end up going to a healer who says they can fix it! Or buy a crystal! Or wander around worrying that your heart chakra is blocked. And then: how do you know that what the person told you is true?

I also feel that the analysis mode of our brain is a different mode than the healing part. My work is to tune into the healing energy of reiki and facilitate you to do so as well. I would do a poorer job if I am trying to analyse what I’m feeling from you and then remember to tell you. And what my reiki teacher would remind me is that the real aim is oneness, to be at one with the energy and at one with my client. Giving an analysis of what *I* feel from doing a reiki treatment on *you* actually emphasises a division between us, rather than a oneness.

I really believe that our body’s energy is mysterious. Who knows if a bit of energy at your knee is actually a way to help you feel more focused at work! Or if your broken heart will feel better not by having my hands near your physical heart but at your shoulders or the top of your head. Often, what I feel is not what you feel during a treatment. So, what use is it to tell you that I felt warmth at your stomach and you didn’t? You may think that something is wrong with you that you didn’t feel the same, and spend too much time wondering about what it means to have warmth at your stomach.

I get it though! It’s a part of our human nature, to want to know something about yourselves, to try to get some useful insight. And as I said, I used to ask my reiki healers what they felt too! But these days, I tell clients that I don’t tell them what I feel during a treatment.

If you really, really want to know what I felt during your treatment,  and I have to give an answer, it will be this:

It’s different for every person, and it’s different each time, even if it’s the same person. Sometimes my hands are drawn more strongly to a position or a body part. Often it feels warm, but there are so many variations of warmth: a gentle heat, a light warmth, a more intense, hot sensation. Sometimes I’ll feel a sensation that’s tingly and a little electric. Other times, I might feel something larger, not just in my hands, but a general feeling of peace or relaxation.

But mostly, I try not to notice what I feel. As advised by my reiki teacher Frans, I aim to just keep my mind open and not analyse or interpret.

What’s important is not how I feel but how you feel, both at the time of the treatment and as the effects unfold afterwards, the same day, that evening, the next day and into the next week. If you feel positive or energised, or if you feel that the treatment addressed the reason you came: that’s the important thing.

If you really are looking for answers, then there are other types of practices – kinesiology, clairvoyance, counsellors, therapists and medical doctors – that might be able give you what you want.

If this blog felt familiar, I wrote a version of it in February 2017. But it was time for an update!

*

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and text, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given nearly 1,400 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.

 

Be true to your way and being

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The five precepts of reiki are:

For today only:

Do not be angry.
Do not be worried.
Be humble.
Be true to your way and being.
Show compassion to yourself and others.

Together, they are a philosophy for living and for every day.

While they seem simple, I think they’re quite profound, and cover all the bases for a content life pretty well.

To tell the truth, however, I’ve always been a bit murky with ‘Be true to your way and being’. The others seem simpler to me, and make more sense. Let go of anger. Let go of worry. Be humble. Show compassion to yourself and others. I can do all of these, and I can picture myself doing them. But I’m not as sure with the other precept.

So, I went back to my teacher Frans Stiene’s blog from a few years ago:

Be True To Your Way and Your True Self

He wrote about this precept, though applied it more to how we teach reiki to others. It’s a good read, particularly if you are teaching reiki yourself or studying reiki.

He also explained in the post that this precept is closely linked to the others. So, not only in teaching or learning about reiki, but in our daily lives, what would it be like to live, do and make decisions without anger and without worry? And then, by being humble, can we act without ego: the ideas of who we think we are or the ways we worry about how others perceive us?

Would this be the way to act according to our true self, our inner self, the great, bright light that is inside of us, that we are?

It also helps me to think about this precept in the contrary. Not being true to myself would be to act to try to please or not offend others, or to do something because I think someone else wants me to do it, or that I’ll look better in their eyes. Or it would be to react to a situation, because of anger or worry that would block my clarity. So, perhaps it’s easier for me to think about this precept from this perspective. As there is no one ‘truth’ or ‘true self’ nor one way to be ‘true’ to oneself, I can start by making sure I am not false with myself and act accordingly.

Appropriately, after I wrote this blog a few weeks ago, I’m suddenly finding myself in a situation where the precept feels much clearer. All of a sudden, a lot of clients are calling, and asking for treatments immediately, in the next hours or the same day.

So I’ve set myself a limit of three treatments a day. I’ll have a write a blog about it sometime. I have my other professional work to balance with reiki, and I can’t do it if I do more than three treatments a day (I have to limit myself to two treatments on certain busy days). I also find that three treatments is a good limit for me. It’s not that the treatments are draining, exactly, but to be in that healing space, and try not to let my thoughts wander (to dinner, to whether I’ve fed the cats, to my other work) – this does require intention, and three hours of intention a day is a good limit for me, especially since I offer treatments seven days a week.

So, what I’ve been finding is that I do have to be true to myself and my way, and that when people are begging for a treatment (‘Please, can you fit me in?’), while I have a natural inclination to want to please them, and want to help them, and want to say ‘yes’, that it is being true to myself to ask them if they can come another time, and explain that, no, others have booked in treatments before them (or I have other commitments). And in any case, while I don’t say this, there shouldn’t be a situation where sometime needs emergency reiki!

Discover the gifts and benefits of a session of Japanese reiki therapy, healing energy from an experienced practitioner. Visit my website or Facebook page for more information and SMS, email, call me or book online if you’d like to make an appointment. Since 2011, I’ve given over 1,200 reiki treatments.

Clients come to relieve stress, anxiety and for many other issues, or to just give reiki a try to see what it does for them. Folks come from all over Sydney and elsewhere to see me. While it’s easiest to get to me from the CBD, Darlinghurst, Paddington, Kings Cross, Redfern and Potts Point, I’m pretty easy to get to from anywhere in Sydney.