In honor of my approaching ten years of reiki practice this year, I wanted to make a list of ten things I didn’t know when I began my reiki journey.
My purpose for learning reiki was for self-healing, but ten years ago, I didn’t know what that would like. I imagined I’d learn reiki and then all my perceived problems would disappear. (The big life lesson was that nothing outside of the self can ever do this.) I also wanted to learn to help ‘heal’ others. I didn’t realize that was the wounded woman in me avoiding all my deepest pains to focus on ‘fixing’ others as a distraction from myself. Ten years of continued learning about myself, the world, spirituality, and reiki energy, and so much has changed. Why wouldn’t it? Below I reflect on ten insights from my Reiki practice, hoping they may illuminate your path as they have mine.
- The misconception of healing others: I thought it was my job to heal others. Growing up, I was used to taking on other’s emotions, problems, and situations, that this took a lot of time and boundary setting to integrate change. I now know that you can’t heal anyone. It’s their work. All you can do is illuminate the path to healing and hold the most precious space, but they must want it for themselves.
- The power of boundaries: I didn’t realize how important boundaries are in every part of life. From an early age, boundaries were mostly non-existent in my world. But goodness, good boundaries change a lot and make life so much easier to manage! While I was taught to set up boundaries before reiki sessions and trainings, owning and strengthening boundaries in your every day is just as important. This is especially important when channeling energy for clients, too. In reiki, we hold space for others, we don’t go looking to do the work for the client.
- The gift of energy (with permission): I thought I could freely give energy to others. Yes, you can give the energy to others, but not without their permission. You also must understand that you can only illuminate the healing path for others as much as you’ve done so for yourself.
- The journey of mastery: I thought I could learn reiki and become a practitioner and teacher instantaneously. Listen, this one was a little difficult to adjust expectations for. I’m a military spouse, and I thought I’d be on a healing tour to help everyone in every place we moved. I chuckle at this now because that’s the furthest thing from what happened. This path has shown me the work I’ve needed to do for my soul, and in the work, I certainly didn’t have the time or space to run reiki sessions and trainings nonstop. What I did discover is that my curious mind led me to learn all levels of various reiki lineages. While none of us will ever have all of life figured out, or even reiki figured out, I take pride in always being the student. It’s with this mindset that curiosity allows me to further grow and expand in my awareness and spiritual practice. This allows me to be a better human, practitioner, and teacher.
- The universality of healing: I thought you had to be born with the gift of healing or be worthy or chosen for healing. Every single one of you has access to healing energy. It is innate within us all. We only need to find those who can help guide us to this realization and remembering. This can be in the form of human or spiritual interaction, books, movies, etc. Downloads of information come from many sources and are available as long as we tap into the information. Know how to distinguish between the noise and the knowledge.
- The sanctity of free will: I didn’t fully understand free will/soul sovereignty when it came to energy work. I was raised sort of Catholic, and, sure, in religion class we discussed free will. It was usually regarding sin. However, the understanding of the soul’s sovereignty goes beyond the idea of our choices leading to ‘sin’. This takes us back to the subject of boundaries. One of the reasons boundaries are important is to declare your free will. No one can impose anything on you unless you give them the authority to do so. This includes giving and receiving reiki.
- Reiki and religion: I thought reiki went against my religion. This was difficult for me. I always felt something was missing from my religion as I grew older. Instead, I choose no religion now. Reiki is a spiritual practice, and cultures for millennia have had their version of healing energy/touch. A bonus I didn’t expect is that I feel closer to God in my practice than ever before and am filled with so much gratitude for it.
- The alchemy of energy: I didn’t realize that not only can dense energy be neutralized, but it can also be alchemized into the positive polarity. This was a huge realization to me a few years ago, and one I am so glad I’ve begun learning.
- Embracing imperfection: I thought I had to practice perfectly for the reiki to work. I think this comes down to having unrealistic expectations about being human and having a rigid nervous system. It took many years of healing to trust in the energy and the flow of reiki.
- The commitment to growth: Committing to a reiki practice takes dedication and is necessary for the energy and your abilities to grow in depth and strength. This includes having a daily reiki and meditation practice. You owe it to yourself, your clients, and your students to remain in growth and expansion.
While these reflections are personal, they speak to the universal journey of growth through Reiki. As practitioners, our dedication to this path not only facilitates our own healing, but also lights the way for others. As I celebrate nearly a decade of practice, I am in gratitude to Reiki—not just for the lessons learned, but for the countless ways it enriches my life and ripples out to the lives of those around me.