Daily Practice

Reiki and meditation are the foundation of my daily practice.  In fact meditation, is a part of a practitioner's and eventually a Master's suggested daily reiki practice. Luckily, I had been practicing Transcendental Meditation for over 40 years when I started doing Reiki so the two seemed to complement and dovetail with each other perfectly. Practice seems to be an odd word to give something that I do automatically and miss when I can't do it and that I enjoy so much. The way it goes is, I wake up in the morning and while still in bed I do self-Reiki for 20 to 45 minutes depending on how much time I have and how much I decide I want to do.  Once I've done this I sit up in bed and do 20 minutes of TM. I then do another TM Session in the afternoon around 3:30 or 4 depending on my schedule. I do this consistently, every day.  If I miss a morning reiki session I try to do it at some other point in the day, or do it in bed before I fall asleep.  I can count on one hand the number of times I have missed a self reiki session over the past five years if I have missed any at all. 

When I first got involved with reiki I had no idea there was a daily practice involved.  I thought it was simply about working with people to help them address their personal issues.  I was secretly thrilled to discover this because it gave the modality a larger role in my life and gave it a stronger foundation.  It is nice because it is a practice that you can do quietly and intimately.  One of the things that happened when I was initiated into reiki by my master was that my intuition began to improve.  I had heard that this would happen and I welcomed this, at first, subtle change. Daily reiki practice as well as working with others helps to further develop this in a quiet and unforced manner. Self-reiki involves sitting or lying down, initiating the flow of reiki and going through a series of set and improvised hand positions. There are many different protocols for the hand positions and I follow the one that my master taught me.  Of course, one can also do positions that address areas where they feel they need reiki energy with the improvised positions.

In the quiet space of a self reiki session things happen.  Not really things that you can identify clearly or describe but things that you can identify as insightful and profound.  You get to be quiet with yourself and a universal healing energy that you can feel and that guides you subtly to direct energy where you need it.  In addition to this you are aware of the fact that the energy is going to go to where you need it the most - this is a humbling discovery.  It is also comforting because you recognize that you are not alone - that there is a greater intelligence out there that you can actually have access to and experience first hand.  For me its comforting because I realized that I am not alone on a cosmic level.  There is a carryover of this into daily life - it affects how you interact with others on a daily basis, how you perceive the world and your level of gratitude for this life as difficult as it may be at times.  It also affects and develops your practice on others.

I am grateful for reiki and for my daily practice as it gives me clarity and a sense of experience that I had not had in my life before. Many people have the benefit of a daily practice in their life which brings them tranquility and the ability to experience life in a different way.  Some practices are prescribed and some are just a personal approach, perhaps through prayer, physical activity or quiet contemplation.  From my perspective, life is enriched by this practice no matter what form it takes.