Reiki Musings with Reiki Master Kate Jones

Guest Blog by Gulara Vincent: How Reiki Taught Me Trust

183:807257894 (Kate Jones) — Fri, 06 Dec 2024 16:12:49 GMT

In November and December this year I celebrate the 33rd anniversaries of my initiation as a Reiki master and the first Reiki class I taught. This means that many of my students have had Reiki in their lives for many years - in some cases decades! I am always interested to see where Reiki has taken them, how their lives are evolving and growing. So here is an article from one of my students - Gulara Vincent - who has just published her second book

How Reiki Taught Me Trust

by Gulara Vincent

Reiki found me one Tuesday evening in late February 2009. I saw a leaflet on the windowsill of my Tai-chi teacher’s class at the Buddhist Centre in Birmingham. There was a taster session the next evening and on an impulse I decided to attend it.

The next evening, I walked in the vicinity of the Health Centre in King’s Heath without any luck. I couldn’t find the right building in the dark. Disappointed, I came home. Wasn’t meant to be, I decided.

Except when I saw leaflets advertising Reiki 1 a week later, I was drawn to it like a moth to the light. I had no idea what Reiki was, but couldn’t resist signing up for the class anyway.

I remember the night before my Reiki 1 training, a housemate who had Reiki initiation a few years earlier said:

‘Are you sure you’re ready for this?’

‘What is there to be ready for?’ I felt puzzled by her concerns.

It didn’t take me long to find out.

Reiki seemed to have created some energetic sweep clean in my whole system, helping me to release some outdated beliefs and offering comfort and nurture at a time in my life when I often felt lonely and lost.

It also unlocked my gifts as a healer. I was so enthusiastic about sharing the Reiki magic that I wanted to put my hands on anyone who was willing to receive the healing.

One day, I was with my friend in my office. At the time I was a PhD student in law at the University of Birmingham. My friend was a complete non-believer in any alternative therapies. I put my hands on her temples and the energy flowed and pulsed with heat and intensity. After a few minutes, she removed one of my hands and checked its temperature.

‘But your hand is not hot,’ she looked puzzled.

‘I tell you this works!’ I felt so excited that she could feel the flow of energy that when I put my hands back on, I willed even more energy to come through. I was very keen to convince her.

A few days later, I shared this incident with Kate Jones, my Reiki Master.

‘Gulara, you can’t command Reiki to flow stronger,’ she said smiling, ‘whatever needs to be given will be given, and whatever needs to be received will be received.’

Those words have become my mantra for over 15 years now. I apply it to everything I do, including my healing sessions with clients. When I teach healing methods, I always quote Kate to support my students in surrendering and trusting the process. When I write my books and worry about what to include and what to leave out, I often say to myself:

‘Whatever needs to be given will be given. Whatever needs to be received will be received.’

I didn’t know that what this mantra taught me was to trust.

I’m forever grateful for Kate’s teachings and her Reiki treatments, especially in relation to my writing journey. Reiki helped me to heal so many of the stories I have included in my second memoir Fragile Freedom. You can find out more here: www.gularavincent.co.uk/blog/fragile-freedom

Distant Reiki Stories

Sun, 25 Aug 2024 11:22:21 GMT

Some students shared stories of experiences with distant Reiki sessions

Following my blog about arranging a specific time for distant Reiki treatments (which I recommend to my students) I received a couple of lovely sharings from students in response to my question about their experience. They have agreed to me sharing them so here they are...

From Mike Hearn (2nd Degree student)

"When I agree to send reiki in response to a specific request I never tell them when it will come because I am always interested in their response. This year has been particularly interesting as it involved a broken wrist, 2 (palliative) cancers, problems with leg articulation following a knee replacement and a teenager recovering from a tricky leg operation.

In nearly every case (except the cancers) the recipient told me when they experienced unexpected pain relief or easier movement and it always tied in to within the hour of sending.

Also they were often able to say when it wore off. Once I have established that it has been received beneficially, I then confirm that it matched and that I would always send at that time - typically between 6 and 7 am - depending on number of treatments needed on the day. These treatments were all fairly long term over 6 to 8 weeks and ceased only when the recipient felt it was no longer necessary.

Remembering Feona Gray

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 17:54:04 GMT

From a difficult relationship to a lasting friendship

I first met Feona Gray at a Reiki Association gathering at Buckland Hall in Wales. She was one of many people who came that weekend to share Reiki, fun and deeper exploration of our practice. She wasn’t someone I immediately took to, but her enthusiasm for Reiki was clear.

A few years later Feona and I served together on The Reiki Association Council (governing body of the Association). I found her difficult to communicate with and we had many heated discussions! She was passionate, had great energy and could also be very stubborn. She had a background of many years building businesses in the travel industry. With all her experience in editing travel brochures and websites, he had a keen eye for good text and knew how to build a successful website. We initially clashed about these things, because she had strong ideas about what should (and should not) be done and I had similarly strong views that did not match hers.

So when we first worked together I used the Reiki principle of ‘Just for today do not anger’ rather a lot! I just couldn’t see her point of view and felt she was not able to see mine. Over time, however, I began to understand her perspective and to respect her experience. Gradually, although we still often did not agree, we learned to communicate better and together brought about changes in The Reiki Association that were much needed at the time. By the time we both finished our terms on Council we had mutual respect and a strong friendship that lasted to her death last month.

Feona was passionate about seeing Reiki integrated with conventional medicine. She brought her energy and expertise to this field, helping to set up the successful project Connecting Reiki with Medicine at St George’s hospital, through which NHS patients in some wards are able to receive Reiki treatment from professional Reiki practitioners who are paid for their service. I enjoyed visiting a few years ago to see the positive results of this project. I was touched by one of the ward sisters commenting that they know when the Reiki practitioners are on the ward because there’s a feeling of calm and peace that arrives with them.

It wasn’t easy to have Reiki practitioners accepted in this way and Feona was one of the people whose tireless work ensured it would happen. This project also has the aim of producing well-designed case studies, pilot studies and clinical research. An abstract on improving quality of life for cancer patients through Reiki treatments was accepted for presentation at the International Cancer Surgery Conference, in London in 2019 and showed that all patients who received Reiki experienced a reduction in their main difficulties, by 32% on average. Pain, sleep difficulties and anxiety were most frequent symptoms. 10% of patients reported their symptom score reduced to zero. It was noted that the patient evaluation form needed to be adapted to record ‘patient asleep’ as so many were and this was a positive outcome that was not otherwise recorded.

Feona also set up the Reiki Healthcare Research Trust (RHRT) - which I was delighted to become a director of - because she could see that for Reiki to gain trust and understanding in the medical world, more robust research is needed. RHRT also has the aim of education for both Reiki practitioners and the medical profession. For Reiki practitioners she wanted them to understand that you can’t expect to be accepted on hospital wards without good preparation and understanding of what is required of us as practitioners. For the medical profession it’s about helping them to understand the potential benefits of Reiki for their patients and what to look for in a properly prepared practitioner.

It was through RHRT that I had most contact with Feona recently. We came up with the idea of offering regular webinars, both to fulfil the educational aims and to raise funds for the Trust. Feona spent many hours, often late into the night, talking with potential speakers and others who could offer ideas for the webinars. I hosted and also did the background work setting up the registration, Zoom etc. There were again times when Feona and I had differing ideas about how things should be run, but we also had some wonderful (long) conversations about potential topics and about Reiki as an integrative healthcare option, a passion we shared.

Communication with Feona often took a lot of time. She had an amazing mind that could bring in a host of topics. Her emails could be equally long and I had to let her know that if she didn’t write briefly, I would miss the point in the long epistles! This she was able to do, although she still loved a long chat when time allowed.

During the Covid pandemic Feona helped to set up Reiki Medic-Care , which offers 4 free distant Reiki treatments to NHS staff. This is also a research project because the recipients are asked to complete a questionnaire about their experience. Enough useful data has been gathered from this to produce some good research, some of which was published in an Abstract as an ePoster in the Integrative Medicine & Health Symposium 2021.

Feona was committed to Usui Shiki Ryoho Reiki and had a strong ethic of being in service to the Reiki community and people in general. She worked tirelessly, often late into the night so that she could talk with people in other time zones, frequently neglecting her own needs for rest and food. She had great faith in the power of Reiki to heal, having survived a life-threatening illness thanks to Reiki and other complementary therapies earlier in life when conventional medicine offered a poor prognosis. She firmly believed the same was possible again when her final illness was diagnosed, but eventually saw that her life was coming to a close. She continued to work as long as possible while also enjoying planning her funeral (just in case).

During one of our conversations in which she was telling me about the funeral I offered (having become very fond of her) to sing something for her. She was delighted with the idea but wanted a ‘Reiki choir’ rather than me alone. She invited various people for this choir and gave me the list of names, with the understanding that I would bring them together and organise the singing. We also discussed the song and after some research I found ‘ the Iona Boat Song ’ which she had not known, but felt was very appropriate because her family is from that part of Scotland and Iona was a special place for her.

This was a personal challenge because I had not led a choir since I stopped during the Covid pandemic. However, Feona was a great example of how to be determined in the face of resistance, so in her honour I did what I could to prepare everyone to sing at her funeral. Although we only had one brief rehearsal in person, with Reiki supporting us it went well. The funeral was indeed the special day for us all she intended.

I am grateful to have known Feona and for all that she taught me. In her honour I look forward to continuing the work she started. I share her passion for seeing Reiki more accepted and understood, especially by medical professionals, so that it can bring ease and peace to people in hospitals, hospices and other healthcare settings, including the staff themselves.

So although I found Feona difficult initially I came to love her and admire her ability to achieve so much on behalf of Reiki. I miss her and will miss our long conversations!

Making an appointment for Distant Reiki

Wed, 01 May 2024 17:07:29 GMT

Is agreeing a time for sending Reiki to someone important?

I have been glad to receive some distant Reiki treatments from friends and students during my recovery from Covid. In the Reiki community there are several groups I am part of through which you can request Reiki to be sent to you: The Reiki Association, Reiki Alliance and Reiki Home. When you request or participate in sending Reiki in this way you are free to send Reiki when it’s convenient for you and you don’t know when other people are sending to you.

This can result in a wave of Reiki that comes through the day and can be very supportive. However it’s impersonal and some recent experiences made me think about this.

Recently one of my Reiki friends offered to send me Reiki and suggested a specific time. This reminded me that when I took my 2 ^nd degree class I learned that it is good to arrange an appointment time with whoever you are sending to, just as you would if you were giving them Reiki in person. I also had an opportunity to send Reiki to a person who I know only via webinars and an app. So she didn’t really know me. I have very much valued her work and approach to life, so when I saw she was unwell I wanted to help. I could just have said I would send Reiki and done it when I liked, but I suggested we arrange a specific time, which she accepted.

This got me thinking about why an appointed time might be of value. I noticed that when I was being sent Reiki it felt good to have that specific time to stop what I was doing, rest and receive. It made the receiving of Reiki a more conscious activity. With sending I realised that for me as a practitioner I felt able to connect more strongly knowing that the person receiving knew when Reiki was arriving. I was again conscious of making time and felt a higher level of commitment.

I have also learned that it’s good for the person receiving to know when Reiki is being sent because they may experience a surge of energy and use it for some activity, like vacuuming, rather than resting and letting it support their healing. It’s also possible that they may experience unusual sensations, such as heat or tingling, which if they don’t know that Reiki is being sent at that moment may be puzzling or even alarming.

So while it’s convenient to send Reiki to others at whatever time fits with our daily schedule, I also think there is value in having a specific time that both giver and receiver know Reiki is being sent.

What is your experience if you have received distant Reiki or are a 2 ^nd degree Reiki student?

A Reiki Story with a happy outcome

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 17:55:06 GMT

How Reiki helped my husband through a journey with prostate cancer

Thank you for all the good wishes when I shared in December that my husband Alec has been going through treatment for prostate cancer. I realised that I didn’t let you know the latest results, so here is our story, to cheer up the Winter days, about how Reiki helped us achieve a happy outcome!

Over the years of practising Reiki, I have learned that difficulties are inevitable in life and it’s how we think about them that makes a difference. The Reiki Principles invite us ‘Just for today do not worry’. So, when I realised that Alec was getting up several times in the night to pee and that this could be a sign of prostate problems, instead of worrying and doing nothing I suggested he booked a PSA test*. This took courage because he doesn’t like needles!

Initially the GP didn’t think there was anything from the result and his examination that should cause concern. However, he decided to make a referral to a specialist to make sure.

I have often found that when Reiki is present this sort of grace happens (some might call this ‘magical thinking’!). This grace continued in the series of appointments that followed, with an expert nurse practitioner, the MRI and the biopsy. We got cancellations for each of them, so the diagnosis was fast.

Then came the difficult news: prostate cancer was confirmed and was serious enough to require treatment. My daily self-treatments helped me to remain calm and I continued to practice ‘not worrying’. We then had to decide on treatment options: surgery - offering a complete cure but with a long wait and risk of potentially difficult long term after effects, or radiotherapy – also offering a cure and with it’s own potential side effects.

We decided that the less invasive option of radiotherapy was preferable. This was partly influenced by the belief that Reiki would be more likely to be able to heal the side effects from radiotherapy than those of radical surgery. We also found the surgeon had not been honest with us when talking about the radiotherapy option and, following the ‘Earn your living honestly’ principle, honesty is important to us both.

We agreed that I would treat Alec daily during his radiotherapy and keep records of his energy and any side effects, to see if Reiki seemed to be helping. I know that Reiki can help with burns, which can sometimes happen with radiotherapy, so anticipated that it could help with this.

It was an intense four weeks of treatment (radiotherapy and Reiki) and I am pleased to say that not only did Alec have no skin marks of any kind, he has also had no issues with bowel or bladder (which can be affected alongside the damage to cancer cells in the prostate). He did have to get up more in the night as the radiotherapy caused inflammation. Once the radiotherapy stopped I believe Reiki helped this inflammation to resolve quickly, contributing to a reduction in night-time trips to the bathroom soon after the treatment ended.

Many people find radiotherapy tiring, but Alec’s energy stayed good through-out and he never needed me to drive him to the hospital – a 40-minute journey each way.

I’m pleased to say that at the follow-up appointment in November Alec’s PSA score had dropped from 4.8 to 0.01 – the registrar said it couldn’t be any lower and Alec is now in remission.

He’s also getting up less often at night!

*PSA test – prostate-specific antigen test which shows the levels of antibodies that can indicate a problem with the prostate. This is not always cancer and sometimes is slow growing cancer that won’t kill a man. However, as in Alec’s case, it can alert us to more life-threatening cancer and the earlier it is treated the better. So if you are a man over 50: GET TESTED! Please find out more here: https://prostatecanceruk.org/

May You Be Comforted

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 14:23:16 GMT

Wishing you Comfort and Joy at Christmas

I have found 2023 a tough year and I expect there are few people reading this who have not faced challenges and difficulties this year. It might be personal or family health problems, financial stress, loss and bereavement, concern for those struggling in our communities and of course the suffering in the areas of the world where there is war and the effects of climate change. This year more than ever, finding myself struggling, I have learned about the importance of being able to give ourselves comfort in a health way and been grateful for the comfort brought by my Reiki practice.

I have learned through experience this year that when we face difficulties, being comforted helps us to move forwards by restoring a sense of calm and centredness, allowing our bodies to shift from a stressful state to a more comfortable, resting state. People have many ways of finding comfort, some less healthy, such as alcohol, over-eating or screen addiction which are all about numbing to our feelings. Thankfully Reiki is quite the opposite! It helps us to return to a restful state while not avoiding what is being felt.

Difficulties showed up in my life in many ways in the past year. I have been struggling with complex grief following several bereavements and the distruption brought by the Covid pandemic, dealing with probate of mother’s estate and being frustrated with unhelpful solicitors. Then in February my dear husband Alec was diagnosed with prostate cancer, which I will tell you more about next month (and if you are a man I recommend you get a PSA test: the earlier you are diagnosed the better the outcome!)

Dealing with this on top of the other difficulties was certainly challenging and at times I wondered if I could cope: I sought counselling and talked with friends, but struggled to find a sense of ease or comfort. It was the comfort of Reiki that helped most in the end. Suffering from exhaustion and low mood, I had been struggling with self-compassion, so my normal daily practice of giving myself Reiki had lapsed.

Then a student asked for a tutorial about self-Reiki treatment and as we practiced together (via Zoom), I felt again the amazing, soothing quality of Reiki and was reminded why I kept coming back to it over all these years. After this I found it easy to start daily self-Reiki again.

I gave Reiki treatments to Alec each day during his radiotherapy and this was also a sanctuary of peace in those difficult days. In the summer, following a Reiki 1 ^st degree class, I resumed in-person Reiki shares in Ludlow, after several years gap due to the Covid pandemic. I was soon reminded of how wonderfully comforting Reiki feels when received from another people.

Towards the end of this year I attended The Reiki Association gathering and then the OGM Reiki retreat in Spain, both of which were difficult, due to my health, but the sweet experiences of being in Reiki community in person again were further comfort.

So as the year comes to a close, with all it’s difficulties and challenges behind us, I wish you (healthy) comfort in whatever form that comes to you, whether it’s through Reiki, your religion or other spiritual practice, the comfort of family and friends or being in nature. May we find the comfort we need in difficult times for 2024 (and I hope there are less of them for all of us!).

Meet the new chair of Reiki Council!

Sat, 04 Nov 2023 14:14:12 GMT

Following my election as the new chair of Reiki Council I'm sharing my story of involvement with the process of setting standards for practitioners

At the end of October I was elected as the new chair of Reiki Council, an organisation I’ve been involved in since it began. Here’s a bit of history about how I ended up in this role!

When I learned Reiki there were only a few different Reiki styles. In the years that followed, particularly in the early 1990s, there was rapid growth of people teaching Reiki and inevitably this led to many differences in ways of teaching and practising Reiki.

In 1991, the year I became a Reiki master, I joined the newly formed Reiki Association (TRA). One of the things TRA wanted to do was to ensure that, with all this change, people could find reputable Reiki practitioners. It was decided to have a list of practitioners that the organisation could refer people to (the Referral List) when we received enquiries – and following a press article there were a lot people looking for practitioners! I became administrator of TRA in 1992, so was involved in the discussions around this.

TRA’s Council had deep discussions about the qualities a practitioner needed to have to be included on the Referral List. Phyllis Furumoto, Lineage Bearer of Usui Shiki Ryoho, guided us in these discussions. She also organised some conferences about public practice in 2001 - 3, at which a description of the characteristics of three potential levels of Reiki practice were developed.

In 2004 thanks to funding from the present King Charles various complementary therapies, including Reiki, were encouraged to get together to explore voluntary self-regulation. The Reiki Regulatory Working Group was established and I attended meetings on behalf of TRA.

Those early meetings were challenging. There was a high degree of suspicion and a feeling of ‘my system is better than yours’, so that agreement was often difficult to achieve. However, over time we came to realise that we had the same goal at heart: to see Reiki practitioners have a good reputation – whatever style they practiced, so that people had a positive experience of Reiki treatments. The discussions from the Public Practice Conferences and TRA Referral List came in useful as we explored what this meant.

In 2004 it was also agreed to establish National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Reiki and again I represented TRA in the discussions.

RRWG agreed to create a core curriculum based on the NOS, to set out how to deliver this learning. I found myself leading the team for this, although at the time I knew very little about conventional teaching forms and methods – being a Reiki master is (in Usui Shiki Ryoho) very different from Western teaching, being based on oral tradition and sharing of experience. Anyway, the core curriculum was created and became the basis for the Complementary and Natural Healthcare (CNHC) core curriculum.

In 2008 RRWG was deemed to have completed its work and became Reiki Council. By this time the group had established a way of reconciling differences and continues the work to establish and maintain standards for Reiki practitioners that is inclusive of the diverse Reiki systems represented.

When CNHC was established, I was selected to be on their Profession Specific Board (PSB) for Reiki – a post I still hold.

I still have a passion for ensuring people have a good experience when receiving Reiki treatment and encouraging Reiki practitioners to learn and develop, so I am honoured to have been elected to lead Reiki Council.

Celebrating 10 years of Teaching Practitioner Courses

Fri, 06 Oct 2023 14:30:05 GMT

Over the past 10 years my course has continued to develop

It is now 10 years since I taught my first Reiki practitioner course!

Prior to that I had participated in a series of Reiki conferences where a description of the potential developmental path to being a professional Reiki practitioner was created. I was excited by this description and referred to it when I participated in developing the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Reiki. These NOS then became the foundation of the standards Reiki practitioners need to meet to join the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC).

I wanted to support Reiki students wanting to become more professional in public Reiki treatments and those who wanted to become CNHC registrants, so I began developing a practitioner course, based on the NOS.

The first one, which began in October 2013, focused a lot on what the NOS describe, which I would call the function of being a Reiki practitioner, in other words what we do, including how to set up a treatment space; ensuring client safety; how to carry out the treatment and so on. At the time this it was challenging, because some of these functions as a professional practitioner were on the edge of my experience. Although I had been giving Reiki treatments to the public for over 20 years, I was still more a ‘public practitioner’. Teaching this course over the years, and continuing my own Reiki treatment practice alongside, has given me more understanding through experience of what being a professional practitioner means.

Being

Over the years of teaching the course, I realised that being professional practitioner is about much more than the practical things we do. It is also about quality of being as a practitioner.

This means being conscious of how we hold our role: our ability to show up consistently, with kindness and presence and staying rooted in our Reiki practice, our ability to be in healthy relationships with people; understanding the need for and practising self-care... As a result of this, my practitioner course began to include development of our being as well as the function of being a practitioner.

Will

I also realised, over the years of teaching, that will, a commitment and a sense of purpose, is also important. As a professional Reiki practitioner, I choose to make myself available on a regular basis, to make Reiki central to my livelihood and to am willing to risk ‘putting myself out there’. This aspect has also become an essential part of the course.

Ongoing Course Development

I enjoy continuing to develop this course. I am pleased that my course is now verified by Reiki Council, so anyone successfully completing it will automatically be able to become a CNHC Reiki registrant, but I am even more delighted with the increasing depth of practice and professionalism of the practitioners who engage with it.

During Lockdown I offered some of the modules of the practitioner course online, which was a new development and worked better than I expected, so I still offer some online teaching. My current development is to look at splitting the course modules further so that students can take more time to practice if they wish because I know from experience that it is good to take plenty of time on this path.

I have very much enjoyed this teaching over the past 10 years. Thank you to all the students who have joined me on this adventure of exploration! I look forward to supporting more Reiki students to develop their function, being and will as practitioners.

What I learned from my mother

Tue, 05 Sep 2023 15:44:27 GMT

How the Reiki Principle 'Honour your parents, teachers and elders let me to appreciate her qualities

There is a Reiki principle that teaches us to honour our parents. I’m sometimes asked how we can do this when our parents are in some way unkind or the relationship is difficult. The Reiki Principles are not meant to be easy, so this can be one of the challenges. Last month was the second anniversary of my mother’s death, so I have been thinking about her a lot. Like many mother-daughter relationships we had our differences. However, I have been reflecting on what she taught me through the way she lived her life and see that a lot of it was valuable.

Both my parents were in caring professions, my father as a doctor and my mother as a social worker. She supported many children and also foster carers and through her work I’m sure changed the course of many young lives. I feel I have been inspired by this to want to offer care and support through difficult times and to help people improve their quality of life.

One of the children my mother helped came back into her life after her house was flooded. As an adult, he now works for an insurance company, so was delighted to help my mother with her claim and ensure the house was generously restored to its former glory!

My mother would notice when people around her were in difficulties and often tried to help. Sometimes this was by giving advice or money, but often it was by devising a way to engage others in helping. For example, in her later years she organised for volunteers to work in the village shop in the pub when she realised that the publican and his wife were struggling to find time to spend with their children. She organised the volunteer rota, served in the shop and even learned to pull a pint at the age of 80! Like her, I enjoy creating ways to support people to have better lives and have held many voluntary roles from which I’ve learned a great deal.

My mother was known among her friends for her kindness and generosity. She liked to do things for people that brightened their day, like baking a birthday cake or taking them out for lunch (food often featured!). I value kindness and generosity as qualities that I believe are fundamental to human nature and follow my mother’s example as often as possible. She gave money from the sale of her car to repair the church organ, which was completed just last week in time for the wedding of a former choir member. As she also sang in the choir, I know this would have delighted her.

As you may have gathered my mother put others first, so when she became ill she didn’t share how much pain she was suffering. She didn’t tell friends she was dying and never complained about the physical difficulties she faced. Although I don’t share her belief that you should keep your suffering a secret, I do admire her determination and stoicism in dealing with difficult health issues without complaint. I think I have gained from her some of that stubbornness in keeping going in spite of health challenges.

So I am grateful to have learned from my mother qualities of caring about others, kindness, generosity and gritty determination to keep going through difficulties.

Weeding After Rain

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 16:23:19 GMT

Some advice from a Zen Buddhist monk helped on a rainy day...

As Reiki has its origins partly in Zen Buddhism, I often read books about Zen philosophy to learn more about Reiki philosophy. One of the books, on living a simple, happy life I read advised doing weeding after rain. If you are a gardener you will recognise the wisdom of this counsel: weeds come up much more easily, with more of the roots, when the earth is damp. Earlier this summer the ground was so dry it made weeding very difficult, but at least the lack of rain meant they didn’t grow quickly, but now we’ve had a lot of rain!

Recently I had what might be called a rainy day in my grieving process. There were lots of tears and I felt too exhausted to do much. Grief is exhausting because it is an embodies process, I’ve been learning. Like a day of rain it passed, but the wisdom of the advice to weed after rain was useful: I was able to accept that while it was raining (tears falling) there was nothing much I could (or should) do. Having had a pattern most of my life of pushing onward regardless, which did not lead to good health, I decided to let go and do less (or even nothing!) until the rain stopped. What I also know from experience is that on days like that I need is lots of self-compassion and to do something self-caring. This is often a spiritual practice of some kind. I am fortunate that for my spiritual practice (Reiki) all I have to do is lie down and rest my hands somewhere on my body, so it’s quite easy on days when I feel exhausted, compared to sitting meditation for example. Indeed, that’s what I did: I lay down in the afternoon and gave myself a long Reiki treat.

It helped to lift the dark clouds and I slept better that night, which always makes me feel better about life! My mental exhaustion was eased and the next day I was able to do more weeding – both literal weeding in the garden and mental weeding, exploring and changing the negative thought patterns that had caused the low mood. There was great satisfaction in pulling dandelions up with their entire roots from the soft damp earth. Similarly digging out the unconscious beliefs that caused my negative thoughts, enabling me to challenge and transform them by bringing them into the light of consciousness, bringing feelings of contentment and peace. That day I self-treated in the morning, which helped begin this process.

I know that trying to do this in the exhausted, overwhelmed and tearful state of the day before would only have caused it to continue into the next day. So, weeding after the rain was very good advice for me as a Reiki practitioner. I am grateful to have learned, with the help of Reiki, that sometimes it’s good to do nothing, that with self-compassion the rain will pass and that the next day will be a better day for weeding.

The Role of Professional Reiki Practitioner

Wed, 05 Jul 2023 09:20:18 GMT

How our role and responsibilities change when we treat the public

By coincidence in the past month, we came to the module on being a professional in my practitioner course at the same time as one of my tutorial students was doing the same session. This also came up in the webinar I did for the Reiki Healthcare Research Trust last month, where we explored the three potential phases of Reiki treatment practice, the last one being the professional phase.

Many people learn Reiki not to become public or professional practitioners giving Reiki to people they don’t know, but for their own healing and personal development. Indeed, this is how Reiki was introduced to countries outside Japan by Hawayo Takata. She did not teach people to be practitioners as a therapy, but as a spiritual healing practice, although for her it was both. She is the longest serving Reiki practitioner we know of, giving daily treatments to people with a wide variety of health issues for over 40 years.

In the years since Reiki has spread more widely in the world, more people, experiencing the wonderful benefit receiving Reiki offers, have wanted to either include it alongside other complementary therapies they practise, such as reflexology or massage, or as a stand-alone therapy.

Those who have gone through a training in another therapy will have learned about qualities needed when we step into a professional role, such as the importance of our relationship with clients. Many Reiki practitioners do not learn about the professional role when they learn Reiki initially – and rightly so, because Reiki is first of all for our own growth, development and healing. This also remains at the core of what we do if we choose to become professional practitioners. So it is important for those who begin to offer Reiki as practitioners working with the public to have an understanding of what this role means and what is expected of us as professionals.

For some, the definition of being a professional is that you are paid for your work. While this may be true it is only part of what it means to be professional. Also in Reiki we have the tradition of exchange which might include money, but this does not make people into professional practitioners. Likewise, some practitioners work in hospices or other settings as volunteers, without payment, but have all the qualities of being professional which is appropriate for such sensitive settings.

This is perhaps why people have found some Reiki practitioners less than professional in their approach. They do not realise that when you are a professional your responsibilities and the expectations of you change. For example, while in an informal Reiki treatment setting you might both chat about things that are going on in your lives, when you are providing a professional service this would be inappropriate.

I was fortunate to attend a workshop many years ago about just such issues, paid for by The Reiki Association. It was run by an organisation called Witness (which I believe no longer exists) and was designed to address the lack of understanding of some qualities that are required when we are in professional relationships, such as appropriate boundaries. I came away with a sheet comparing the personal and professional relationships that I find very useful to share with my students in the teaching I offer Reiki practitioners on being professional.

I am looking forward to exploring this subject again later this month in an online seminar, where Reiki students will be invited to explore the issues with each other as well as learning from my experience as a professional Reiki practitioner.

Head, Heart, Hands

Thu, 25 May 2023 16:15:05 GMT

How the anointing of King Charles III had similarities to Reiki initiations

I was interested to hear about some aspects of King Charles III’s Coronation that had similarities to Reiki initiation. In particular the anointing part of the ceremony which, like Reiki initiations, was held privately, out of public view, because it was a sacred moment for him. By the way I loved the screens they used that incorporated the reassuring words from Julian of Norwich (All shall be well and all manner of things shall be well), the tree covered with leaves mentioning the names of many lands, embroidered by many hands, both experienced and novice. This reminded me of the Reiki Alliance, whose members are Reiki masters from all over the world. Here’s a song I learned from my friend and fellow Reiki master Plinio Cutait called Many Hands, Many Lands .

I always ensure Reiki initiations happen in a way that they cannot be observed by anyone else. It’s not that it has to be secret – Queen Camilla’s anointing happened in public view. It’s more about making the moment sacred and personal. During my theatre training we were shown some masks from around the world that belonged to our teacher, Jaques Lecoq. The Noh mask from Japan was kept in a silk bag and he told us that in Japan the most sacred (and powerful) things are kept hidden. When I became a Reiki master seven years later, this helped me understand why the Reiki initiations and symbols are ‘kept hidden’.

Another thing that resonated with me about the anointing was that the oil was placed on the King Charles’ head, chest and hands. In a similar way these three places are also addressed during the Reiki initiation, through touch or breath, as they are on other sacred ceremonies around the world. The inter-relation of these three places is explored in many spiritual traditions, including Buddhism and Christianity that Reiki evolved from. The kanji (Chinese/Japanese calligraphy) for heart is more accurately translated as heart-mind, suggesting the balance between intellect and emotion, or mind and body, that leads to a happy and healthy life.

So where do the hands come in? It’s through our hands that we do things in the world, like giving Reiki or me typing this article. This can also be a symbol for service to others, another aspect found in many spiritual traditions. I found the Coronation ceremony full or references to King Charles’ commitment to being in service, such as the beautiful recognition of this by representatives of different faiths at the end of the ceremony as he was leaving the cathedral.

I enjoyed the way different faiths and races were integrated in the Coronation, in a similar way to what happens in Reiki community. There’s a lovely book and programme with the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu talking about Joy and they are in agreement that the greatest source of joy is when we act kindly towards others, especially by doing some form of service. In the film each clearly represents his own spiritual practice, but they find a great deal in common and their inspiring mutual respect and sense of fun is clear.

So perhaps both the anointing and Reiki initiations invite the receiver to remember that the head needs to work in balance with the heart and that both can benefit our world by being in service through our hands to connect with and support others.

You can see me chatting about the quality of 'Service' with Swiss Reiki master René René Vögtli here

Zen, Reiki and the Individual Self

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 14:13:32 GMT

Learning about Japanese culture through teaching from a Zen Buddhist priest led me to thinking about how this relates to our Reiki practice

When I was fortunate enough to visit Japan with Phyllis Furumoto , she arranged for us to visit several Zen temples, to help us understand some of the cultural origins of our Reiki practice. I remember standing with her outside a meditation hall at once such temple and she remarked on the special energy that came from that room, the result of all the many hours of meditation that the monks practiced together there. You may have noticed a similar energy in a room where people practice Reiki together.

Recently I came across a course which caught my attention, taught by Zen priest Rev.Takafumi Kawakam from the Shunkoin Temple in Kyoto. Although I don’t think we visited this particular temple, the buildings and rock garden were like some we did visit. Perhaps Usui visited Shunkoin when he researched the sutras that led him to develop Reiki. Keen to learn more about Zen as it is taught and practiced in Kyoto, I signed up for the course.

I soon learned something interesting: before the Meiji period (1868 onwards), which was when Mikao Usui lived, there was no Japanese word for ‘individual’. This concept simply did not exist in Japanese culture until contact with the West around that time. I learned that a man named Yukichi Fukizawa was translating a book by John Locke. He had difficulty translating the word “individual” because the time there was no directly equivalent word for this: the concept simply did not exist in Japanese life. He looked at the Latin root of the word and came up with a translation that means refers to a person ‘existing in isolation’, so the translation can be interpreted as “a single complete entity without interference from others”. This led to the concept of ‘living your own life, being true to yourself’ being born in Japan. In traditional Japanese culture people are seen, and see themselves, as part of a greater whole or collective.

I have been thinking about how this relates to our Reiki practice . On the one hand Reiki teaches us self-responsibility through our practice of giving ourselves Reiki regularly. The relaxation and peace of mind it brings can support us in finding our true path in life. I recall Phyllis saying her goal was to ‘celebrate the individual’, by which she meant empowering people to be their true selves.

And yet, as the Covid lockdowns showed us, we don’t do well when completely isolated from others. It was the connections with others that helped us get through those difficult days.

Connectedness with others also comes through Reiki practice . Giving Reiki to another person we connect through touch and shared energy. Reiki also invites us to be in community with others who also practice this healing art. There is an Aspect of Reiki that Phyllis named as Mystic Order and she used the word ‘order’ with the same meaning as the orders of monks and nuns who live together, sharing a spiritual practice. Although most Reiki practitioners don’t live together in this way there is a feeling of connection through our shared experiences and practice that can feel like a spiritual community when we meet at classes, gatherings and workshops.

This also made sense of what I have heard about how Hawayo Takata, when she began teaching people who were not from the Japanese culture, realised that the sense connectedness so embedded in Japanese life was missing from their culture. She therefore included the Reiki Principle “Honour your parents, teachers and elders” to encourage people to think about this.

So our Reiki practice can lead us to truly understand ourselves as individuals , while at the same time encouraging us to connect with those around us, so that we can also let go of our need to be “without interference from others” to be part of a greater whole, in the service of life.

Witnessing the Succession

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 14:06:39 GMT

My journey in the process of Succession in the Spiritual Lineage of Usui Shiki Ryoho

When I received my initiations into 1st degree Reiki, my master had placed pictures of four people in the room where the ceremony took place. I didn’t really know who they were or why she had those pictures there, but I felt intuitively that they were significant. I came to learn that these were the four people of the Spiritual Lineage of Usui Shiki Ryoho. When I became a master myself a few years later, my connection with and understanding about the significance of these people grew.

I came to understand that they had each in their turn, during their lifetime, held a special role in the practice: Mikao Usui who developed the Reiki healing system, one of his students, Chujiro Hayashi who developed the practice and recognised a Japanese-American woman Hawayo Takata to carry on the teachings. She brought Reiki from Japan to the rest of the world. Phyllis Lei Furumoto, her grand-daughter, became her successor when her grandmother died in 1980. Phyllis held a still-point for the practice she had received from Takata, during a time of immense change in how Reiki was practiced.

From that first experience of the pictures present during my initiation I have felt a connection with this line of teachers and experience this not simply from intellectual teaching, but an energetic experience of connection back to the source through them.

My curiosity about who would succeed Phyllis was piqued in around 1995 when she was driving us to receive a massage and failed to stop at a junction, just avoiding being hit by an oncoming lorry. Having narrowly escaped death, I asked her if she had made any plans about who might succeed her! At the time she said she did, although it was not the plan that eventually took place.

So when she became ill and it was clear she needed to make a decision about her successor fairly soon, I was glad to support her by organising a weekend retreat to explore the question of Succession. This was the first of several such weekends, which were followed by the formation of the Succession Core Team, a group who met online for 3 years to explore the question of succession using Regenerative Thinking. We explored the whole question of succession deeply, including asking whether there should be a successor at all. We recognised that on a level that is difficult to put into words that the role of Lineage Bearer is significant for those who follow this practice.

In March 2019 I was in Arizona to attend some courses to develop my mastery and learn more about Regenerative Thinking. Phyllis was clearly nearing the end of her life and the question of whether she would choose a successor, and who it would be, was in everyone’s minds. Having been something I’d cared about since that near-miss all those years ago, I felt deeply involved in this process. I anticipated that there would not just be the recognition of a person to carry on the teaching, but an energetic transfer of some kind, like an initiation.

On 15 ^th March we were working on our Regenerative Development tasks in Phyllis’ home. During a break I popped to the loo and found Phyllis dressed in a beautiful Japanese jacket. She was choosing some incense and I knew, having been there that she chose the very best incense from the temple on mount Kurama close to where Usui did his 21 day meditation. I knew that the time had come: that she was about to choose her successor. She came into the room where we were working, the incense was lit and we all chatted informally for a while.

Phyllis then began to talk about succession. I remember sitting on the floor in front of her, my heart beating hard, giving myself Reiki in the knowledge that it would also support her in this significant moment. And yes there was a voice in my head, having walked this path of succession for so many years, that said “Will it be me?” when she looked at me.

Then she turned to Johannes Reindl and said “Johannes, you’re it”.

He was stunned, never having anticipated this. There was a sense of relief in the room that the choice had been made and gratitude that we were there to witness it.

Phyllis had entered the room in wheelchair because she was too weak to walk. However, she stood up in front of Johannes, said some beautiful words of recognition and gifted him some special things, including a Native American medicine pouch that had belonged to her grandmother. As she spoke her voice was strong and clear, there was no doubt in my mind that Reiki was supporting her in this moment.

On 15 ^th March this year those of us who were there that day met to remember what we witnessed. Johannes shared how it has been for him holding this role and I was interested to hear that in the early days after the recognition he experienced intense ‘light’, which I feel was the energetic transmission I had anticipated. It reminded me of my own experience of Reiki light when receiving my first initiations, while I was learning the second-degree symbols and in the first days after I was initiated as a master.

I am grateful and honoured to have been witness to the process of succession, not just on 15 ^th March, but from the days when Reiki practice was still fairly new in the UK.

Why can a person feel worse after Reiki?

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 17:13:30 GMT

This question came from a student on my Professional Reiki Practitioner Course. So why can we feel worse before we feel better?

I was delighted when one of the students on the current professional Reiki practitioner courseasked this question recently. What my student is referring to is that when people come to us for a Reiki session it is always advisable to let them know that there may be some uncomfortable responses to the treatment (as well as some good ones), sometimes known as a healing response. This is commonly experienced in many healing modalities, such as massage, homeopathy or acupuncture.

Reiki master Susan Mitchell told a story told about how she felt really sick after receiving Reiki from her master Hawayo Takata. She felt unable to eat the fish dinner that Takata had cooked for her. As she rushed to the bathroom Takata commented: “Not sick: healing crisis” and sure enough the nausea passed after few hours and Susan felt able to eat dinner.

Uncomfortable symptoms are a common result of the body’s healing process. We are all familiar with the way our noses run if we have a cold, with the flu you may have a fever and of course if you have food poisoning you may have vomiting and/or diarrhoea. Your body’s immune system is activated and is trying to get rid of invading organisms, be it virus, bacteria or other.

When we receive Reiki, it supports our body to go into the ‘rest and heal’ state, which allows the immune system to activate. The immune system is supressed when we are stressed, because this state evolved to help us stay alive in physically threatening situations, such as being chased by a bear. Your immune system is not needed in that moment, you just need to be able to fight, run fast or freeze so that the bear doesn’t see you.

Once the bear has gone you can relax again and your immune system re-activates to heal any wounds. However, in modern life, especially with the constant attention-demands of technology (like a bear that never leaves), it can be more difficult to relax and get back to the rest and heal state. Most people find that when they receive Reiki they do relax – indeed it can be so deeply relaxing in spite of other demands going on in our lives that people fall asleep in spite of themselves!

Our immune systems take this opportunity to get working, sometimes resulting in uncomfortable symptoms such as headaches, flu-like symptoms (though not usually actual fever) and even vomiting and diarrhoea. Sometimes we feel very tired which can be about realising how tired we really are after a stressful or busy time when we haven’t had enough rest.

What Reiki also teaches is that the underlying cause of physical disease mostly lies at the non-physical level of mind/emotions/spirit. Reiki, perhaps because it is a time of restful pause, allows uncomfortable thoughts and feelings we have been pushing aside to float into consciousness. Sometimes we may not be able to process them completely during the Reiki session and it can take a while longer and we need some caring attention to the emotional wounds or negative thought patterns we carry.

Not every Reiki treatment will result in uncomfortable symptoms. Sometimes we work through the emotional or mental issue during the session, so we leave feeling lighter and more joyful. If more time is needed for processing, these good feelings will just come later. If we have uncomfortable physical symptoms these too will pass and we find ourselves in a better state of health and well-being.

The Value of Practice

Fri, 27 Jan 2023 12:33:25 GMT

Do you have a practice that supports yoiu in challenging times?

How are you in these challenging times? Do you have a practice that supports you?

As we start a New Year many people take the opportunity to start a new self-care practice, or re-connect with an old one. After the pause of the festive season and with the ending of the old year and the beginning of the new it is a good time to reflect on what went well and what can be improved on in the coming months.

Last year was a difficult one for me, with health issues that prevented me from returning to my usual work. However, this has also been a great gift. I’ve learned a lot about the value of rest and it has emphasised for me the value of one simple life choice: a daily self-care practice.

For me this is firstly my Reiki self-treatment practice, for others it might be taiji, yoga or meditation. It might be practising an instrument or drawing. It might be practising mindfulness through the day or doing a gratitude journal before sleep.

Whatever you practice, if you’re anything like me it can sometimes be easy to forget about it or find it uncomfortable to do every single day. I encourage you to do it anyway. Reiki master Takata told her students to “Practice, practice, practice” to which she added “then you will know”. Know what you may ask?

In my experience you will know the value of practice, it will lead you to deeper self-knowledge, which is one of the gifts of Reiki, and you will be better prepared for what life throws at us. You will also know more about Reiki!

I’ve also learned that practice is good preparation for when life is more difficult. My self-reiki practice was quite well established, I treated myself almost every day until, during Covid, things got turned upside down and during this difficult time, caring for my dying mother, I let my practice slip. I don’t mean I didn’t do any Reiki, but I didn’t take that precious time every day to rest and re-connect with myself and the greater one-ness.

I now see that it would have been better for me if I had somehow kept my self care Reiki practice going. I believe that I would have then been better prepared for that challenging time and my health might not have suffered as much (although I know a grieving process always has its own timing and simply needs to be got through).
Resuming my self-Reiki practice has undoubtably helped in my recovery and having practiced a lot in the past I have been able to resume easily because it was previously an established habit, so comes naturally again now.

So I encourage you, whether or not your practice is Reiki, to find some daily time for yourself to practice something that is relaxing, comforting and will support you when life gets more difficult. Be compassionate with yourself if you don’t manage daily practice at first. It will come with practice! I encourage rewarding yourself with a gift or treat for successful daily practice over 21 days or so (the time it takes to develop a habit) and then just carry on (it will be easier).

“Practice, practice, practice: then you will know…”

Wishing you Rest this Festive Season

183:807257894 (Kate Jones) — Thu, 22 Dec 2022 15:53:33 GMT

We all need some rest...

As we pass the Solstice, the darkness begins to gradually recede and the light returns little by little. For thousands of years human beings have held festivals to cheer these dark months. For many it is Christmas and for those celebrating this festival I wish you a happy time. However, it can be a busy time, looking after guests, shopping for gifts and going to parties: potentially an exhausting holiday!

Hopefully once the Christmas parties are over and the main festivities are done, you will have some time to rest. This year my husband Alec and I are on our own for the first time, having spent most previous Christmases with my mother and sister’s family. We do not anticipate being bored, but having – like many – had a challenging year, we are looking forward to the quiet, un-stressful time and a chance to rest and catch up with ourselves.

Have you ever had to take your car to be fixed by a mechanic? In order to achieve the repair did the mechanic need the car to be still or could it be done while driving along? Although a test drive might be needed, most repairs need the car to be at rest. The human body and mind are so much more complex than a car and also need constant repair, so we also need to be at rest to heal. A self-Reiki or receiving Reiki from another is one way to spend some time in stillness, resting and healing.

We have two potential states of being: the stressed state, ready to fight or run in which many of our body’s systems are shut down to prioritise those needed for survival. The other state is the rest, digest and heal state, in which all the necessary physical and emotional functions to digest our experiences and food and heal from any injuries takes place. So rest is vital for our health and well-being. The sleep we have each night helps our bodies to regenerate and heal.

Yet in our busy modern world we often do not take the time to rest and recover. The past few years have been particularly difficult for many people with many worries affecting nearly all of us. How many of us have really taken the time to rest and recover from this?

I believe that Reiki helps us to drop out of the stressful state and back into the resting state. Many people fall asleep during Reiki, because at last their minds are able to relax and stop looking for the next problem. Muscles relax, breathing deepens and there is a feeling of being at peace. This often lasts many hours, often leading to good sleep, until something triggers the stress response again.

The Reiki philosophy also encourages the resting state, such as the Reiki principles that invite us just for today to not worry or anger – both of which are stressful states. Once we have rested, we can be more resilient to stressful things and are less likely to worry or get angry.

So I wish you the blessing of a restful time over the Christmas holiday, if this is possible for you. If you have Reiki, I encourage you to take time for longer self-Reiki daily through the holiday. I thnk you’ll feel better for it!

Honouring Our Elders

183:807257894 (Kate Jones) — Mon, 28 Nov 2022 17:54:22 GMT

How can we honour elders who are unkind?

November is the anniversary of my initiation as a Reiki master, which is now 31 years ago! Thank you dear Martha. I remember Phyllis Furumoto recognising that by reaching 10 years as a Reiki master, my Reiki master had reached a new stage in her mastery. At the time there were few masters with so long experience. Now there are many who, like me have been teaching and practising Reiki for decades. I suppose you might call us ‘Elders’!

I had an interesting question about the Reiki principle ‘Honour your parents, teachers and elders’ from one of my students recently. She questioned whether we should still honour these people if they were unkind.

In my response I first gave some cultural context for where this principle originated: in Japanese culture, where honouring older people and ancestors is implicit in all social interactions. In fact, this Reiki principle was not stated in this way by Mikao Usui which is why you may not see it in some of the translated versions of the Principles. Hawayo Takata added these words because she saw that the Westerners she was teaching did not have this important understanding in their culture.

Any of the Reiki Principles can be challenging: they are designed to help us develop and grow by facing up to these challenges. So should we honour parents, teachers and elders even if they are unkind? I would say yes. By doing so we shift from a state of reactivity and potential conflict to one of greater compassion and healing. What does it take to honour someone when you don't agree with how they behave? I would suggest, based on personal experience of elders who hurt me, that it takes compassion and forgiveness.

This principle invites us to hold the 'good' and 'bad' with equanimity. It invites us to see beyond the behaviour of the personality to see the suffering of the human being beyond. In my experience unkind behaviour is almost always is caused by unkindness received by that person. Often there is some way in which they have been treated as less than human and the pain of that gets passed on, unless there is awareness to heal it. One of my Reiki master friends does a series of workshops on healing the family tree, based on the understanding that these hurts can be unconsciously passed on, from generation to generation (she has one coming up next year – ask me for details if you’re interested).

So this principle, in my view, invites us to have compassion for the unkind elder and also for ourselves. It invites us not to take the unkindness personally, because it's really about that person, not you. It invites us to learn from their behaviour, forgive and move on, instead of feeling angry, which the principle ‘Just for today do not anger’ guides us to avoid where possible. Anger, resentment, feeling aggrieved are all stressful emotions, which of course are not good for our health!

So in my day-to-day human life I try to remember, as prompted by the Principles, to respect others, especially those of an older generation and see beyond any unkindness. When I perceive someone as doing wrong, I try to have compassion for the spiritual being in human form who has their own struggles and pain that may cause them to act in a way that is unkind or even cruel. It isn't easy and that is what the Principles are for: to challenge us to do what isn't necessarily the easiest or most comfortable thing, but will help us grow and contribute to the evolution of humanity.

Caring for ourselves is caring for others

183:807257894 (Kate Jones) — Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:12:09 GMT

Self care can sometimes be neglected by those in caring professions

In our session of the Professional Reiki Practitioner Course this month, the students and I were exploring the important question of self care. We noted that receiving treatment is a fundamental characteristic of our Reiki practice, whether we only have a ‘home’ treatment practice, offering Reiki to family and friends, or are a full-on professional Reiki practitioner working regularly giving Reiki to people we don’t know.

I have noticed over the years many Reiki and other complementary therapists are givers, who will prioritise the care of others over caring for themselves. In Ludlow a herbalist recently died in her treatment room, leaving everyone shocked and saddened. In our discussions one of the students shared how she had become ill after some treatments, which I assured her is not necessary or desirable when working as a practitioner!

When we give treatments to others as a professional we need to be consistently there for them. This means that it is important to keep ourselves in the best possible health, so that we don’t fall ill and have to cancel sessions. This means ensuring rest and nourishment for body mind and spirit.

When I first learned Reiki I remember finding the teaching on self-care through daily self-Reiki quite challenging. Like many people I was brought up to believe that it is better to care for others than to look after our own needs. However my Reiki practice and life experiences have taught me that in order to really care for others we need to care for ourselves! If we don’t, our own health and well-being suffers and we are eventually unable to offer our gifts.

Good self-care is not easy. It requires willingness to take time out, to listen to our bodies and take action when something is off balance. We can be so busy doing things for others that we completely ignore the discomfort or pain in our bodies that is trying to tell us something. Sometimes we mistakenly assume that nothing can be done to improve it or worse that there is something noble about sacrificing ourselves.

When we show up to do a Reiki treatment for someone feeling stressed, tired or ill we are not serving them in the best way. There is an expectation that those working professionally are ‘fit to practice’, which includes mental as well as physical health. I think most of us would know that if we had flu or tested positive for Covid we would not be ‘fit to practice’ due to the risk of passing on the virus. However, would we think about not being fit to practice due to a mental condition such as grief if our beloved cat had just died? I heard of a practitioner who spent the whole treatment crying and talking the client about her cat. She was clearly not in a state to listen to the person she was giving Reiki to and the client found the treatment less than relaxing to say the least! So, it’s important that we don’t bring our own issues into the treatment.

So when we care for ourselves we also care for those we give Reiki to.

How King Charles has supported Reiki practice in the UK

Fri, 30 Sep 2022 14:12:56 GMT

Musings from Kate Jones Reiki Master September 2022

Few of us have been unaffected by the death of Queen Elizabeth this month. Like others it had resonances for me having lost my own mother a year ago, so I felt for her family. Although I hadn’t been listening to the news, I had an intuition about the Queen’s imminent death. I listened with interest to the many people tributes to her years of service, which I wrote about in an article earlier this year (you can read it here if you missed it).

So now we have King Charles III, who I am pleased to say knows about Reiki! It was reported in an article in The Times (24 April 2005) that the future King Charles received Reiki to help with the stress of his forthcoming wedding and persuaded Camilla to have a session too. I hope he has been receiving more in the current difficult time.

I also happen to know that he received Reiki long before that, because when I learned 2 ^nd degree Reiki in 1989, we were asked to choose a famous person to send Reiki to. Normally it’s important to ask people for their permission before sending, but the understanding was that this was for practice and people in the public eye have so much negative energy sent towards them there would be no harm in sending some positive energy. The person we chose was Prince Charles.

A few years later, in 1993, the Prince created the Prince's Foundation for Integrated Health. This organisation supported various complementary therapies to explore self-regulation, including Reiki. The Reiki Regulatory Working Group (RRWG), which I attended on behalf of The Reiki Association, brought together representatives of various Reiki disciplines for the first time to explore ways that Reiki could contribute to the emerging world of integrated medicine. RRWG representatives (including me) were the main participants in developing the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Reiki. The Foundation closed in 2010, but not before it had established the Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC). The NOS were revised to support the work of this new organisation (I was also at those meetings!).

Meanwhile the RRWG became Reiki Council which continues to work to support Reiki practitioners working with the public and liaises with CNHC.

Work on the Reiki NOS and the broader complementary therapies NOS had the benefit of bringing together people who would not otherwise have met. Working together towards a common goal, a great deal of mutual understanding was achieved. It was also observed by someone outside the Reiki community that RRWG was one of the most harmonious in dealing with our differences, compared to other therapies!

The existence of Reiki Council and the NOS for Reiki enabled CNHC to open a register for Reiki, which now has over 300 registrants, a couple of whom are students who completed my practitioner course! CNHC is now an accredited register, which means that NHS doctors can make referrals to listed practitioners.

King Charles has continued to be involved with supporting the use of complementary therapies alongside conventional medicine, including being patron of the College of Medicine and Integrated Health. In May this year he met with members of the new Integrated Medicine Alliance , which aims to bring together a range of organisations “ for the purpose of encouraging and optimising the best use of complementary therapies alongside conventional healthcare for the benefit of all”. Reiki Council is to join this Alliance.

I'm grateful for the role King Charles III has played in supporting Reiki to become more publicly recognised. Now that he is king, I’m not sure how much Charles can continue to have influence in this field, but I am certainly pleased to have a king who knows about the benefits of Reiki!