Sharing the Wonder

Receiving Reiki treatments after my father's death inspired in me a desire to offer the same experience to other people.  I had never thought of being a practitioner of any kind: at the time I was running a theatre company, directing and secretly still wishing to be an actor!  However there was something about Reiki that touched me deeply and I wanted to share it.

So I was delighted to be giving my first full Reiki treatment to someone outside my immediate circle of family and friends just a couple of weeks after taking the 1st degree class and  I have been giving Reiki treatments ever since.  In those early days I didn't know how much I didn't know!  I naively thought that having completed 2nd degree I was fully prepared for working with the public.  Now, after over 25 years of experience, I have a different perspective.  However my fundamental wish to share the wonder of Reiki with others hasn't changed.

Reiki Master Kate Jones giving Reiki treatment

Giving Reiki treatments, I have found, can bring much joy.  I have recently been reading "The Book of Joy" which is based on conversations between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Bishop Desmond Tutu.  They express the belief that humans are fundamentally good and that showing our compassion for others is the best way to a happy life.  Seeing Reiki treatments as a way to offer service, one of the fundamentals of a spiritual life in many traditions, has taken my practice deeper and brought more happiness and satisfaction to my life.

Treating family and friends can offer this sort of practice, but I have found that offering Reiki treatments to people I don't know is even more profound.  In the early days, treating strangers for the first time, I discovered that although I didn't like everyone who came for Reiki, something happened during the Reiki treatment that resulted in me having compassion for them no matter who they were.  I believe that Reiki creates a field of grace, in which there is no judgement and where connection in our essential humanity is natural.  This grace creates a space for their physical, mental and spiritual healing.  To be a part of this miracle still moves me.

I have been involved for many years in helping to set standards for Reiki practitioners who wish to offer public treatments.  I am interested in seeing other practitioners be successful in offering Reiki treatments, so that more people can benefit from Reiki.  This means ensuring that those receiving Reiki treatment are honoured and respected, that practitioners maintain their integrity and can offer Reiki in a supportive and comforting way.  Although this may seem to impose restrictions, I see this as a way for practitioners to explore their practice more deeply, because challenges can inspire personal and spiritual growth.

So if you have learned Reiki and would like to deepen your Reiki practice I would suggest that there is nothing better than becoming a public practitioner.  Sharing the wonder of Reiki in a way that will be recognised by wider society as being responsible and ideally professional can benefit you and those you treat.  It can be a wonderful way to give service in the world that can enhance our quality of life: offering comfort and kindness to strangers can bring joy to the giver as well as the recipient.

"Only service heals"

At a Reiki masters’ retreat with Phyllis Furumoto in April, she read an article “In the Service of Life” by Rachel Remen, a medical doctor who believes in “re-integrating the heart and soul into contemporary medicine”.  In this article she talks about the differences between fixing, helping and serving.  I found it inspiring and have been looking at my Reiki practice in this context.

In my early Reiki practice I realise I was a fixer: I wanted to be able to sort out people’s health problems.  I saw Reiki as a powerful tool to that could enable me to make people feel better.  When I started working publicly as a practitioner I was presented with a range of conditions that people wanted me to fix.  However, although people I treated received benefit from Reiki, it was rarely what needed ‘fixing’.  Rachel Ramen describes fixing as a form of judgement, because we see the person we are treating as ‘broken’ and in need of sorting out.  I began to realise that I could not fix people, that I could not make anything happen with Reiki.  

My practice then shifted more into being a helper, which Rachel Ramen describes as “using your own strength to help those of lesser strength”.  I can see that helping others with Reiki treatments made me feel stronger myself, that I gained satisfaction based on being able to use my Reiki strength to help.  However this was an un-equal relationship which ultimately could not be truly healing as it kept the person being treated in a place of weakness.

Through teaching Reiki I began to understand the quality of service.  I saw that although I performed the initiations and taught the hand positions, it was the students themselves who joined with this process, gave their commitment and enthusiasm, who were equal partners in the learning and that Reiki itself gave them the healing ability.   The more I taught, and the deeper my Reiki practice became, the stronger this understanding grew, so that now I see everything I do in teaching Reiki as calling forth different elements of service.

This has also changed how I feel about giving Reiki treatments.  When someone asks me for Reiki treatment for health problem they have, I hold the request from the point of view of service rather than fixing or helping.  I know I cannot fix their problem.  I may want to help, but I’m now aware that this creates an unequal relationship and that lasting healing will only happen when the person themselves is as engaged in the journey towards wholeness as I am – then, with the grace of Reiki, there is the potential for change. 

I now gain most satisfaction from treatments which are based on this mutual seeking for wholeness, rather than being a fixer or helper.  I no longer want to be in the place of judgement or inequality, even if it pleases my ego!  This only creates separation and through my Reiki teaching and practice I have come to value connection.  I have experienced the difference between the discomfort created by disconnection, compared to the joy that comes from connection.  I know that as I move deeper into my exploration of serving people on their path to the place of healing they seek, I will experience greater peace, fulfillment and balance in my life.

So I’m grateful to Phyllis for introducing me to this thought provoking article!

How may I serve you?