Janet Dagley Dagley is editor of The Reiki Digest, a free weekly online publication serving the global Reiki community, and founder of The Reiki Dojo in New York City. Janet has generously offered us a sneak peak at this week’s Digest, and shares her thoughts–and Usui’s–on personal practice:
(Typing very softly, so as not to disturb those in deep meditation. . .)
Welcome back to the 21-day global Usui Virtual Retreat. I hope you’re enjoying your own daily personal Reiki practice even more than usual during the retreat — I know I am. Many thanks to virtual retreat founder Mari Hall for starting and keeping the retreat going for the past 13 years, and to this year’s host, Pamela Miles, for the lovely meditations and guidance she’s provided to enhance the experience for us, as well as the discussion forum available here on her blog. And thanks, Pamela, for inviting me to contribute a guest post!
This week as we focus on the topic of “Reiki as a Healing Practice,” my own emphasis is on the foundation: personal practice, or self-care. To me, that is the most important component of the system of Reiki. Our personal practice helps keep us grounded and balanced, and that is what makes it possible for us to help others. Yet I find that many practitioners have difficulty establishing and maintaining a daily personal practice. They say they can’t find a way to work a regular self-care session into their busy (and irregular) schedules, or they’re so focused on taking care of others that the idea of taking a few minutes for themselves feels unfamiliar, even uncomfortable.
Frankly, I think that tendency to put ourselves at the bottom of our priority lists is more likely to be the reason: many people who learn Reiki are already caregiver types, whether by personality, circumstances, or both. Yes, it does seem that life gets more hectic and unpredictable all the time, but that’s all the more reason to maintain a regular personal practice.
Please click here to continue reading Janet’s article.
Thank you for these thoughts Janet. I do agree that taking care of oneself in terms of Reiki is vitally important. It would be both arrogant and naive to say that we don’t have time or to think that we couldn’t benefit from daily self-treatment. In fact the busier the life the more likely the person is to require and derive benefit from Reiki. Even if we were 100% balanced and blissed out surely we owe it to the people we treat to remind ourselves what Reiki feels like and to ensure that we are in the best possible condition we can be in before we offer a treatment to someone else. A self-treatment might be the last thing you do before falling asleep or something else you do whilst watching TV, so if you accept that Reiki will give you what you need then not only is it a personal treat but it is also a reinforcement of belief and a commitment to well-being which in turn will support others.
Here endeth the esoteric sales pitch! xx
Thank you Janet for the lovely encouragement to take care of ourselves first and often! It can be difficult with deadlines and daily pressures, but this is exactly when we need it most. Self-care can immediately impact the body and mind, while reminding us that we are much much more.
Thank you Janet for encouraging us to remember the Usui principles as we go about our day and not just when we are giving a session or doing self care. I took time today to create a new display of the Reiki precepts for myself that I can look at each morning before I begin my day. Living Reiki helps us to radiate the love of Reiki energy to others as we go about our day. It is wonderful being part of a virtual Reiki community. Thanks for hosting this year, Pamela!.
That’s a great idea to keep the Precepts visible, Anne. The more often we see them, the easier it is to keep them in mind.
Janet, it’s good to know I’m not the only one practicing self-treatment on the subway.:) Whenever I’m lucky enough to have a seat and a free hand, I place that hand on my leg for the duration of the ride, and reach my destination feeling a little more composed. Added to my regular nightly self-treatment at home, it’s just a little extra dose of Reiki in my day.