A few comments from clients lately made me think of how we use metaphors.

I think because the effects of reiki and the feelings experienced during a treatment are so unusual that it’s quite hard to articulate what exactly is happening.

And metaphors, using something unrelated to refer to something else, can be useful in life and reiki, proving us with more clarity or useful understanding.

When I have my hands on different parts of a client’s body, I know what it feels like, but when trying to describe it, I often come up short. Usually, I feel warmth, but sometimes that warmth is hot, or light, or has a bit of electricity and charge mixed in. And when a client says it felt hot, and I think it felt hot, I still don’t know if we’re describing the same energy.

The woman who a regular client, E., used to get reiki treatments from used the metaphor of our lives as cups that are overfilled with thoughts and activities and worries. Reiki, she said, is like punching a hole in the cup so that you let out enough so that instead of overflowing, you can manage on a day-to-day basis what’s in your cup!

Meanwhile, a recent client told me that he felt his vision was like a dirty windscreen, but after the treatment, it was clear.

Sometimes, when I’ve had a treatment, what it feels like most of all is like sitting in a nice, warm bath!

One of my favourite reiki metaphors comes from my teacher Frans Steine which is advice on how, as a reiki practitioner, I should give treatments. He said that we should like a sheet of clean white paper. As soon as you write on it, or just put the smallest mark or dot, it is not longer the same. So, instead of putting an expectation on how the treatment should be, or imagining in advance what healing I want to occur or what will occur, I should be like that clean sheet of paper to have the best effects for a treatment.

Even if both I and a client set the intention that the client should receive what it is that she or he needs at this time, I think that still allows the paper to be pretty blank!

In any case, metaphors are useful for reiki but more important is how you feel during the treatment and what effects you notice afterwards.

What are your favourite reiki metaphors? Feel free to share them here!

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