Too busy for Reiki self-healing

Are you a Reiki practitioner who doesn’t practise self-healing regularly?  It’s always good meeting people and finding out that they are Reiki practitioners, but when they find out that I’m a Reiki teacher, some of them get a bit shy and will tell me sheepishly that they enjoy Reiki but that they don’t practise it regularly (if it all).  Okay, let’s get this out of the way first: I’m not the “Reiki police”. and I’m not going to think badly about a practitioner who doesn’t practise.  I’m more concerned with why they aren’t practising, and very often it’s the same reason:  “I just don’t have the time”.

But think about it this way: if someone you cared about asked you for a Reiki treatment, almost undoubtedly you would make time for it.  This is where Reiki can teach us another important lesson: to love and care for ourselves as much as we do for others.

Many people are drawn to Reiki out of the desire to help others, but it’s important to remember that we are often drawn to the thing that we most need ourselves.  By setting aside time regularly for  self-treatments (3 per week is great, even more is fantastic!), we become healthier and more balanced, with a stronger Reiki ability, and in a much better position to help others. There is a very good reason as to why Mikao Usui stressed the importance of self-treatment first!

During my first year of practising Reiki, I found that I was increasingly asked for treatments by friends and acquaintances.  If someone needed my help, I would drop whatever plans I had for a self-treatment in order to assist them. Other times, I would let myself get caught-up in unimportant activities, only to complain to myself that “I don’t have time for my self-treatments, I’m too busy.”.  Obviously, this wasn’t a positive state to be in, so it was time to change myself. I started writing down self-healing appointments for myself in my diary, and kept these appointments. If someone needed my help during these times, rather than my old habit of  “cancelling” my self-treatment, I would just truthfully say “Sorry, I have an appointment at that time, but I can see you afterwards or at another time”.  Making appointments for myself also made me more self-disciplined, as well as better at time-management and prioritising.

The act of making appointments for myself created a quick and healthy change. I got into a good habit of regular self-treatment, and also began to take better care of myself.  I realised that I had some very old issues to heal and release related to helping others, but not helping myself:  feeling guilty or selfish about ever putting myself “first”, discomfort in addressing these old issues, and not expressing myself clearly.

Once you establish a good routine of self-treatments, you’ll find it easier and easier, and you’ll really start looking forward to them.  You’ll love being more energetic, sleeping well, being healthier and happier etc. Make your self-treatments special!  Put on some relaxing background music, light some candles, burn some aromatherapy oils or incense.  Put as much care into preparing for your self-treatment as you would when you treat someone else.

Enjoy this special lesson that Reiki can give us: to set aside time to nurture, care for and love ourselves.