Reiki and Gratitude Practice

 Here is an article I wrote in January 2007...

I have often found January a tough month with the anti-climax after all the busyness and festivities of Christmas.  Once the New Year arrives, I am usually exhausted and often ill. 

I have also learned that I am affected by the lack of light during the winter, so in the past have regularly been quite miserable as a result and January is usually the worst month of all: it is cold, dull, there is nothing special to look forward to in the near future and money is tight due to the Christmas spending. 
Oh, and then there's the taxman who needs to be paid at the end of the month!

In recent years I’ve found things improving, however.  Giving myself Reiki on a daily basis has improved my health, including my mental and spiritual health.  I have also found other practices that help me and I would like to share one of them with you as a gift to welcome the New Year... Keeping a Gratitude Journal.

All you need to do is find a lovely notebook that gives you pleasure to handle and a good pen you enjoy writing with.  A simple notebook will do, but if it is a thing of beauty, it will encourage you to pick it up each day.  Then simply write down in the book, at the end of each day, 5 things that you are grateful for.  You need to write 5 different things, but you can write the same things again the next day if you want to.

You could write down people you are grateful to have in your life, your home, your animal friends or the food you eat.  You could write about something of beauty you have seen or experienced during the day, such as waking up after a good sleep, being free from pain or meeting an old friend.

I made a commitment to keeping a Gratitude Journal for a year and ended up doing it every single day for 2 years.  As I don’t find it easy to practice anything on a daily basis this was truly amazing!  After a bad day it was difficult to think of 5 things; but on those days it helped me to refocus on the blessings in my life.  Then I was able to go to sleep with those positive thoughts in my head, instead of staying awake and worrying about the bad things.  Also, I was able to look back at previous days and see how much good there is in my life.

Sometimes I had more than 5 things to write and this brought home to me the wonderful abundance of my life.  Writing the gratitude journal each day seemed to allow more abundance to come into my life too.  I attended a workshop on the Reiki Principles only 6 months after starting this practice and we were asked to spend a 10 minutes writing down things we were grateful for. I wrote for the whole time without stopping and still could have written more, thanks to being so much in touch with gratitude in my life.  And I noted that the Reiki Principles encourage us to SHOW gratitude, in other words make it an action, not just a thought.  Keeping a gratitude journal does just that!

So why not resolve for this year to keep a gratitude journal?  It is a simple thing to do that will help to improve the quality of your life.

This article, along with many others, will be included in my forthcoming book "Musings of a Reiki Master (volume 1)" which contains articles I wrote for my newsletters from 2007 - 2011.

The Reiki Principles In Challenging Times

The Reiki Principles, which you can ponder whether or not you are initiated into Reiki, were   developed by Mikao Usui to encourage us to become more conscious in our thinking to extend the practice of Reiki beyond a simple hands-on healing technique. I find they are particularly helpful during challenging times such as the one we are currently experiencing.  

Just for today do not worry – When I worry, I find that it separates me from other people.  Lost in my own thoughts and feelings, I am less aware of what is going on around me.  I don’t notice the needs of others because I am so preoccupied with my own inner drama.  So this invitation to let go of my worry just for today is a useful practice that helps me to re-connect with those around me and often this leads to me offering or receiving the support that’s needed. 

Just for today do not anger – Being in a state of anger also separates me from other people.  I am in opposition, ready to fight.  This is a normal response to stress, but not a state that helps me feel good.  I experience temporary release of my feelings by having good shout or bashing a pillow, but what transforms it into better feelings is acceptance.  When I accept what is ‘just so’, I re-connect with reality and my kinder self, which is much more effective at creating change.  The changes I make may only be very small and might not be what I wanted to happen when I became angry, but I can feel less helpless when I start to do something, especially if it is some kindness for another person.

Honour your parents, teachers and elders – I have been fortunate to be able to stay in close contact with my mother during the lockdowns.  Many people have found themselves unexpectedly separated from parents and grandparents during the pandemic.  Teachers have also been separated from their students.  Many people have found creative new ways to connect with loved ones and students.  Perhaps we are all more aware of how we honour our parents, teachers and elders by remaining connected with them in whatever way we can.

Earn your living honestly – Not being able to teach in person raised the question of whether I would teach 1^st and 2^nd degree classes online.  For me this would not be earning my living honestly, because the way I teach Reiki is in the Oral Tradition and giving initiations without being physically present with the student is not in integrity with this.  However, I have discovered new ways to connect with people who have already learned Reiki via the internet.  I’ve discovered there are different ways to help Reiki students develop with a creative approach to online sessions.

Show gratitude to every living thing –Walking in nature every day, no matter what else is happening, I give my grateful attention to the trees, birds, flowers and insects that surround me.  And reptiles!  To my complete surprise I encountered a lizard in my garden this summer and we spent several minutes watching each other.  I was grateful for the beauty of this encounter, which lifted my spirits.  Connection with living things through gratitude is healing and supportive in these challenging times.  Remembering not just to be grateful, but also to show my gratitude I find a useful practice as it takes me out of my busy head and reconnects me with something much greater than myself and offers the perspective that ‘this too shall pass’.

Reiki Principles at Christmas

Dr Usui, founder Reiki, offered us some principles to assist living a happy, healthy life.  I find them especially useful at Christmas!

Just for today do not worry   There can be lots of worries at Christmas: who to spend the Christmas holiday with, what presents to buy, what food to eat, if the weather will be OK for travelling.  All this at a time of year when what I feel most like doing is hibernating!  So how do I not worry about all these things?  I have found the solution is in my Reiki practice.  Treating myself or receiving treatment reduces the stressful feelings and in a more relaxed state of mind I am able to find creative solutions to the apparent problems more easily.  With a calm mind I can think of the perfect gift for my loved ones.  Self-treatment also helps me to tune into the needs of my body, helping to make food decisions.

Just for today do not anger – While it is often lovely to spend time with people at Christmas it can also be frustrating and irritating.   It can also be a time when we confront our history.  Each family has its own culture, with unspoken assumptions and rituals.  These Christmas rituals can be comforting but they can also be difficult when they do not fit with the person I have become.  My Reiki practice has helped me to become more conscious and aware of my responses and rather than behave according to unconscious programming I have a choice about how I respond.    So when someone makes a comment that angers me, I take a deep breath, give myself Reiki and look for the underlying causes of my pain.  More peaceful relationships are often the result!  

Honour your parents, teachers and elders Putting the needs of others first to show respect to elders is imbued in Japanese culture.  Takata saw that this was not a cultural understanding when she started teaching Westerners, so added this principle.  As I come together with older people in my family this principle reminds me to show them respect – and also to be deserving of the respect of those who are younger by respecting them too!

Earn your living honestly has been useful around the question of money.  Buying Christmas gifts, I have often gone into of debt because I wanted to buy more than my financial situation could really support.  I have realised that this was a kind of dishonesty – pretending to myself that I had more income than I had because I didn’t want to look bad in front of others.  However, some of the most appreciated gifts I have given were not the most expensive, but the ones that were the result of recognising the need of another and finding something that would address that.  

Show gratitude to every living thing is a particularly relevant principle at a time of growing consciousness about the effect we are having on our planet.  I spend a moment before eating the Christmas feast being grateful for the living things that provided the meal.   I am also grateful for the living things that surround me: the people who are important in my life.  

Thank you for being connected with me through Reiki.  I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful time at Christmas and for the year to come.