HOW TO HANDLE UNHELPFUL THOUGHTS DURING A REIKI TREATMENT
“Oh how wonderful it is when your mind rides on the blissful waves of Reiki energy.
When you go, deeply…
…Journeying into an awareness that is filled with awe inspiring bursts and swirls of colours. When, by turning your focus inwards, paradoxically you sense an outward-reaching expansiveness that makes the room you are working in, and even the client you are working with, fade.
When you have somehow drifted into an expression of yourself that has become engaged by the magic of simply ‘being’, whilst bathing in the beautifully comforting sensations holding you in their unconditionally loving ways.
However, I am sure I am not alone in experiencing those greatly unwelcome (and definitely unrequested moments), when one’s mind decides to invade the tender tranquillity of your Reiki treatment, with the random and insistent demand that you remember to bleach the toilet and apply scotch tape to remove the dog hair from the cushions before your friends arrive for dinner.
Such is the life of a Reiki Practitioner.
We are only human after all. And that consideration is surely one of the most appropriate responses for any of us when facing a similar predicament. As humans, we are rarely able to control our thoughts, ensuring only the most relevant and earnest come our way. There are going to be times when we are faced with unsuitable notions that we would have liked to keep well away from the therapy room.
I know earlier on in my Reiki career, that I was far too hard on myself for such lapses. Believing that I was somehow failing in my duty of care to have any thoughts that I wouldn’t have wanted to be known by my client.
But neither you nor I are able to police our minds to the extent that we can barricade them from the arrival of a hope that the packet of chocolate digestive biscuits still remains as intact as when it was optimistically placed in the dark recesses of the kitchen cupboard yesterday afternoon.
We are going to have to go with the understanding that to err is human; to forgive, divine. And so we need to view any failure on our part, not as the act of having an unfitting thought surface, rather only if we beat ourselves up about having it when it does. Because it couldn’t be helped. If it could, we would have prevented it.
Having established therefore that wayward, and sometimes, let’s be honest, totally unbefitting ideas or comments are likely to be our companion on occasion, how can we best handle such an event?
• Firstly, be gentle on yourself. As discussed, you are not alone, and I am willing to bet that every Reiki Practitioner in the land has been faced with this predicament at some point.
• Secondly, a little humour goes a long way. Lighten things up and smile at your own humanity. That will, in my opinion, raise your vibration, actually aiding the Reiki flow. Changing your emotional state in this way can also help prevent these thoughts continuing, since trying to avoid or resist them, can unintentionally give them greater power over you. If we smile in acknowledgement that they have turned up at a completely inopportune moment, they will have much less effect.
To help yourself achieve this, you may like to imagine how you would feel if a friend of yours was telling you that they were in the middle of a Reiki session and experiencing the exact thoughts you are now having. It’s different isn’t it? We generally treat others much more kindly than ourselves. The tendency would be to laugh with them at the sheer inappropriateness of the situation. Better energetically, don’t you think?
• Concentrate a little more on what you are feeling rather than what you are thinking. In the same way you would be advised to bring your attention to the present moment in any mindfulness exercise, stop your mind from time-travelling to the past or the future. Instead engaging your mind in the physical sensations of the here and now. Such as noticing the pattern of your fingers as you work.
Recognising in your hands the warmth or tingling, or the soft feel of the blanket covering your recipient. Immersing yourself in the sounds of birdsong outside the window and so on. This moves your focus into more comfortable territory.
• It can be helpful to inwardly ask how the Reiki is flowing/working. This can result in feedback such as perhaps ‘seeing’ the energy as a shaft of light, or maybe receiving another symbolic or possibly even anatomical vision of the energy changes taking place. Some may hear the resonance of the energy, others may feel its essence as physical sensations or possibly the main emotional vibration such as ‘release’, ‘peace’ or ‘love’. However it is for you, you will be giving yourself a new focus.
• Silently repeating the word ‘Reiki’ or any mantra of your choosing.
• Affirm to yourself that you are creating a conduit for the Reiki to flow, and are neither creating nor directing it. The Reiki can and will happen whatever is going through your mind, because it isn’t your mind that is generating it. This allows you to disconnect your thoughts from your Reiki abilities. To help, imagine that you are standing on a platform at a railway station, observing the rattle of your unhelpful thoughts as if you were watching a train passing through that station. The train (your thought) is real because it is there and you can notice it (no need to deny its existence), but you are not getting on it, and so you know it will pass. In this way you also realise that you are not the train. You are noticing the motion of the train, but detached from it because you are remaining on the platform, on solid ground.
Ultimately, the light will get through.
Do you have any tips for over-coming the distraction of unwanted thoughts during a treatment? Please share with us by leaving a comment if you do.
Until next time, be well and happy,
Sarah x
Sarah Cooper is the author of “Working with Reiki”, available on Amazon at: https://www.amazon.com/Working-Reiki-essential-successful-practice-ebook/dp/B07TXWJHC3
Reviews for “Working with Reiki” on Amazon:
“I have about 30 Reiki books, all giving roughly the same content but in the authors own flavour.
This book is the only one that I have come across that has page to page sound practical advice about running a Reiki practice. Sarah Cooper, the author has produced a really great book, a definite must read for any professional Reiki practitioner!” SR
“Highly recommended for Reiki Practitioners Just the book I have been looking for! Lots of books cover the history of Reiki and hand positions but don’t give much information regarding actually being a practitioner, working with clients etc. This book is well written easy to read and full of advice that I know I will come back to and re-read. I love how the author is so open about her own experiences with Reiki and her Reiki business. Personally having 100% confidence in Reiki but not so much in myself I feel empowered and much more confident to move forward with my Reiki business after reading this. Highly recommended for anyone who works with Reiki.”
