It’s been an interesting period for my reiki practice. About a year ago, the rhythm slowed, fairly suddenly from my usual 30 to 35 clients a month to 20 to 25 clients. It was an interesting lesson for me. Since I don’t rely on reiki to make a living, I could ask myself: do I need to be busier? Is it OK to be quieter? I started with doing everything that I normally do to try to get more clients. I sent out a newsletter. I sent out a blast text message through my booking service, Fresha. But nothing changed. So, I realised that I don’t mind being slower, but I am happy to continue to provide this service to people who want a treatment. I also decided to value my time more and that if I have other things that I want to do, or other appointments, I felt more free in blocking off my schedule. For example, my husband and I are going for a walk every Sunday morning, perhaps some place that we’ve never been before, so I’m starting treatments on Sunday from noon onwards.
I also decided to stop sending out newsletters, and that even if I was only sending them out 3 or 4 times a year, it didn’t feel necessary anymore. If old clients want to have a treatment, they know where to find me. And I did get the feeling that people are suffering from information overload these days, with everyone trying to ‘market’ to us; I am annoyed by this too.
And then, as you might have seen in a previous blog post or Facebook, I decided to take Reiki Surry Hills off Instagram and Facebook. However, I had the thought, not long ago, that even while my clients don’t find me through Facebook, it might be a way that the search engines, like Google, know that my business is active and then tell their AI to recommend me. It was one of the reasons that I’ve done this blog, all these years, is that I was told that keeping a regular blog on a website is a way for the search engines to find and recommend you, regardless of the content! I don’t know whether this is true or not, and really, it’s all a mystery these days, how AI and the internet and the social media combine and whether I can influence that. But I decided it’s not a big thing to revive my Facebook profile and so I have. The Instagram account, however, disappears not that long after you’ve first deleted it, so that’s gone.
In the meantime, my practice suddenly jumped up to its old level of activity for May, June and the first half of July. How mysterious! This teaches me to be flexible and adaptable, and it enforces for me to keep my priorities and values clear. For now, I am happy to continue my practice for people who want to come! It doesn’t matter whether I’m busier or quieter, as that’s not the point. And if you’ve read this blog: thanks for paying attention. Even if I’m mainly writing it for the reasons I mentioned above, just to keep some activity going, it’s nice for me when my clients tell me they’ve read my blog posts and my website before coming (or after!).