I overheard this conversation recently when I stepped into an elevator after a session with my qigong master. I don’t know what condition was being discussed.

Woman: If you treat, it lasts seven days. If you don’t treat, it lasts seven days.

Man: So you’re saying whether I get treatment or not, it will last seven days.

Woman: Yes, that is what I am saying.

Man: Then why do you offer me all these treatment ideas, if it’s not going to make a difference?

Woman: Because I am a nurse. I like to treat people.

Many Reiki practitioners know how she feels. We, too, like to help.

But unlike that situation, we get used to seeing complaints resolve faster than usual when Reiki treatment is offered.

For example, my clients’ surgeons often comment that their patients are healing from surgery three times faster than the norm.

In what situations have you seen the balancing effects of Reiki treatment help the body — yours or someone else’s –  heal faster than expected? Please share your anecdote in a comment below.

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Until May 20 only! Special fee on package of all three Reiki Best Practices professional webinar recordings. Please click here for details.

Click here to learn more about Fall Spiritual Self-Protection and Medical Reiki classes in Dublin, Ireland and Porto, Portugal in September and October, 2012.

INVITING HAPPINESS: Exploring the Reiki Precepts deepens your experience of the Precepts so you can access them moment to moment. You will leave this workshop feeling refreshed and empowered.
Saturday, July 14, 10 AM to 7 PM
Upper West Side Manhattan location
Special early registration available.
Please click here to learn more.

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Sometimes nature makes it easy to see new growth, announcing it with bright color.

With people, healing and new growth may not be so visible.

We have to be steady and mindful.

Steady enough to practice daily self-treatment. Mindful enough to notice spaciousness as it opens within us.

In spaciousness lies the possibility of choice where before there was only reaction. And we know where reaction takes us…

The next time you feel cramped, reach for self-practice. As your awareness becomes spacious, bring the Reiki Precepts to mind.

Today only,
Do not worry,
Do not anger.

With thankfulness,
Work diligently.

Be kind to others.*

Engaging the Precepts invites new understanding. Reflecting on them clarifies whether to take action in this moment, or refrain from acting.

With steady, mindful practice, we grow true happiness.

What new growth and happiness has your Reiki practice brought you? Click here to share in a comment.

*This is the translation of the Precepts offered by my dear friend and esteemed colleague, Japanese Reiki master and monk Hyakuten Inamoto.

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INVITING HAPPINESS: Exploring the Reiki Precepts deepens your experience of the Precepts so you can access them moment to moment. You will leave this workshop feeling refreshed and empowered.
Saturday, July 14, 10 AM to 7 PM
Upper West Side Manhattan location
Special early registration available.
Please click here to learn more.

Are you part of our Reiki, Medicine and Self-Care community on Facebook? Join our daily conversations about Reiki practice and communication to broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and strengthen your communication skills.

Please click here to to receive the blog in your inbox each weekend. You can unsubscribe instantly if you change your mind, and of course I would never share your information with anyone, any time, any way.

As the students in a recent First degree class introduced themselves, I learned that seven of the 13 students were already practicing First or Second degree Reiki. While it’s not unusual to have even a Reiki master in my First degree classes, I’d never had more than half the class taking First degree for a second time. And most of them traveled from out of state to join us.

Even more interesting, all seven were practicing daily self-treatment and loving their practice. Why had they come, I wondered. The response was unanimous: they lacked the clarity they wanted; they were confused.

After the class, one of the students told me the difference our class had made to her. She said simply, “I came here confused and I am no longer confused. Thank you.” I asked Joan to elaborate, and she let me share her thoughts with you. –

The welcome email I received when I registered for your First degree class suggested I not do additional reading before class, as reading presented an opportunity for confusion.

I had already taken a First degree class elsewhere. That class included talk of sweeping auras, pendulums, balancing chakras and personal messages from spirit guides. With all the extras, I left the class confused about Reiki and with many unanswered questions.

My confusion soon spread to others. When people asked me about Reiki, my attempts to explain were met with confused looks or jokes.

I love my restorative yoga teacher and she agreed to teach me Second degree (distant) Reiki practice. Now I understand that what I needed at that point was to practice more rather than learn more techniques. I clearly wasn’t ready, and became even more confused.

Meanwhile my brother had done a lot of research and has been practicing Reiki for a year. He became my mentor,  sending me your book REIKI: A Comprehensive Guide, and inviting me to follow your Reiki, Medicine and Self-care Facebook page. I got on your mailing list and found your class.

I am confused no more.

Your class allowed me to be comfortable as a beginner. It had none of the add-ons I had found so confusing, just simple practice and lots of it.

Focusing on balance and practice feels like the heart of Reiki. As you suggest, experiencing a period of self-practice seems to be the best way to get the personal clarification and understand the role of Reiki in my life.

Later, I may want to learn more adjunctive practices, but now I understand it is important to build a foundation through daily self-practice.

We have become used to taking an aspirin and getting immediate results. I am learning self growth takes time and patience, and that understanding alone is a lot of growth.

Are you confused about your Reiki practice? Do you have a specific question? Please ask it below, or on the free webinar to celebrate this blog’s third birthday on Tuesday, May 1 at 7PM Eastern US time: Feeling Good about Your Reiki Practice. Click here to register and leave your question for discussion in the comments box.

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Flower buds hold such promise,

And need our protection.

A frost,

Strong wind,

Heavy rain,

Cause irreparable damage.

The buds of practice are fragile,

Vulnerable to

Chilly reception from a friend,

A surge of emotion,

Over thinking.

Protect your practice now;

Soon it will protect you.

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INVITING HAPPINESS: Exploring the Reiki Precepts deepens your experience of the Precepts so you can access them moment to moment. You will leave this workshop feeling refreshed and empowered.
Saturday, July 14, 10 AM to 7 PM
Special early registration available.
Please click here to learn more.

My client emailed, clearly fried and in pain, hoping for a last minute opening.

Once on the table, her deep sigh launched a litany of stresses. It was not time to suggest silence.

Another sigh.

Reaching for resolution, she said, “I know everything is all right. Everything is going to be all right.”

I let her words hang in the air a few moments.

Now, or later?

“Which is it?” I asked.

Her expression turned quizzical.

“You just made two very different statements,” I said. “Is everything all right, or is everything going to be all right?”

She laughed and confirmed, “Everything is all right.”

Today only…

When we are truly present in the moment, Today only, we know everything is all right. We can feel it. The rightness of each moment is palpable, there for us to experience when we give the present moment our full attention.

“Everything is all right” centers us.

“Everything is going to be all right” projects us out of the present into an unattainable future fantasy, leaving us powerless, joyless, lost and vulnerable.

What to do?

Everything-is-all-right doesn’t mean it’s spiritual to be passive. Not at all. There are times that require an active response.

How can we know whether to be still or take action?

Start with the stillness of your practice. Once we connect with:

Today only,

Right now,

Everything is all right,

We are better able to recognize if action is required, and to take action with skill and compassion.

Being present relocates us from a fantasy fixing land into a place of powerful, joyful creativity.

How has connecting with the present transformed your experience of life, and of yourself? Please click here to share with us in a comment.

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Come explore the sweet power of the Reiki Precepts on Saturday, July 14: Inviting Happiness. Click here for more information.

I’m still bubbling with gratitude that Leslie Kaminoff called to invite me to the Breathing Project for a presentation by Philip Goldberg, author of American Veda.

Phil led us on a delightful sprint (for me down Memory Lane), visiting teachers and books — such as Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and Autobiography of a Yogi – that had illumined my spiritual yearning when I was just about the age of the rest of the audience.

Two days later, Phil and I traded stories over Eggs Benedict at San Ambroeus in the West Village. By then I’d read enough of American Veda to admire his journalistic perspective. Spirituality and journalism are not an easy mix, and it takes spiritual maturity to give a balanced overview.

That the book is such a comfortable read — both instructive and fun — is a testament to both the writer’s skill and to the truth of what he documents: the extent to which American culture has been affected by Indian spirituality, starting in the 1800s.

Spirituality, science and methodology

American Veda turns again and again to the theme of spirituality and science, a theme of particular interest to Reiki practitioners, yoga enthusiasts, and spiritual seekers who are also critical thinkers. Whereas spirituality and journalism are antithetical, spirituality and science definitely are not.

The Indian spiritual teachers who found a large following in the United States — Swami Vivekananda, Paramanhansa Yogananda, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, etc. — all reached out to scientists (as does His Holiness the Dalai Lama, originally from Tibet and currently in residence in exile in Dharamasala, India).

Their message is clear: spirituality and science are compatible. (Religion is another matter entirely. Its affinity for science depends on religious dogma and how that dogma is interpreted by a particular sect.)

The Transcendental Meditation (TM) movement set out to quickly make meditation a household word, and succeeded. American Veda outlines and documents the process. This sentence from page 163 is particularly instructive:

He [Maharishi] trained his representatives to make logical presentations in language suitable for their audiences, and he equipped them with a methodical procedure for imparting meditation instructions.

Speaking to people in language relevant to them is Communication 101.

It’s not just a matter of eschewing jargon. Relevant language makes connections that have immediate meaning to the listener.

For example, people today often live less-than-joyful, spiritually isolated, stressful lives. Thanks to TM, most of us know that meditation is a simple, non-dogmatic practice to connect more deeply to ourselves and counter the daily onslaught of stress. People are ripe to know that Reiki is another option, and a practice that many find even easier than meditation.

Practice, not just preaching

The passage above continues, noting that methodical instructions ensured that meditation “would be practiced, not just preached.”

Using a method to teach meditation is not unlike imparting a simple protocol that beginning Reiki students can take home and practice with confidence, and practice for life.

It’s true that the Maharishi had celebrities like the Beatles, Mia Farrow, and popular talk show host Merv Griffin to catch the public’s attention.

It’s also true that, thanks to TM, when Reiki practice is presented in a straightforward manner, it is not as far from today’s culture as meditation was when TM came to the US.

And ironically, given the current celebrity obsession and the glut of media that feeds it, what celebrities do today likely has less impact on mass awareness than it did 40 years ago..

We don’t need celebrities to walk the path mapped out by those who have succeeded before us. And the more of us who walk and communicate that path, the more Reiki practice reaches the mainstream public.

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Want to communicate Reiki in a straightforward way that is meaningful to doctors? I’m coming to Atlanta to share what I’ve learned over 20 years collaborating in conventional health care, including presenting Reiki at Harvard Medical School and teaching Reiki at Yale Medical School. Join us in Philadelphia for Top 3 Secrets of A Medical Reiki Master Friday, June 22, 6:30 – 8 PM. Click here to register.

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Guestblogger Paul Selk and I have corresponded over the past year and I’ve appreciated his informed perspective on Japanese language, culture and history. Paul supported Colin Powell’s recent guestblogs on the translation of the Reiki kanji, and here he offers more perspective on how much is lost when we translate Asian culture and language into American English. –

Is Reiki healing spooky?

Having read several times about the issue of using the original kanji in Japan — that they don’t even use the simplified kanji to write Reiki, due to rei being spooky — I wanted to find out how the Chinese felt about the old hanzi (Chinese equivalent of kanji), to see if the same spooky feeling was there.

I sought the help of some Chinese friends, immigrants who know English pretty well, but still have some trouble with it. Tony is in his 30s and Wei is in her 50s.

I thought it would be an interesting experiment, since Chinese people have the same psycholinguistic processing as Japanese people and for the most part use the same pictograms. Neither of my friends know anything about Reiki practice, so that wouldn’t influence their responses.

When I showed them the old and new hanzi for ling (rei), they nodded and said, “Oh, ling.” I asked, “These two hanzi mean the same thing, but do you feel anything different with them?”

Kanji that are translated the same, actually have different meanings

Tony looked at the paper and said, “They translate same, but not mean same.”

I questioned him to make sure I understood this point correctly, and he was quite clear that although the old and new hanzi are translated into English the same, the old and new hanzi have different meanings to Chinese people.

He pointed to the new hanzi and said, “This is for smart people.” Wei said the other hanzi is “for old people.”

In order to explain (for lack of words in English), Wei described the types of people who still use the old hanzi by acting them out. She rolled her eyes up, eyelids fluttering, held her hands out like a zombie and started talking about spirits coming and telling her what to do, walking around the restaurant like Frankenstein. It was very humorous.

Wei got serious when she mentioned the palm reader, and said, “She look at your finger, and she tell you, ‘you have lucky day,’ or she look at your finger and say to you, ‘you going to be sick.’ Then she say, ‘that will be 50 dollar,’ but you no get nothing from her. You save your money!” Wei said that the old people who use that hanzi talk about spirits.

By this time I was laughing, but I stopped when Tony said the old hanzi for ling was “bad.” Tony explained that the old hanzi has this negative connotation because it is connected to people who believe in ghosts.

What it came down to is that with the old hanzi there is a feeling of superstition. By “smart people,” they meant people who are rational, who don’t believe in superstitions.

I did mention practicing Reiki to my Japanese neighbor once, she looked at me cautiously and seemed to move back a little, so I haven’t mentioned it to her again.

Do you speak Japanese? If so, please click here to add your comments, especially if you are a native speaker.

Cassia Beck’s Chinese Lanterns print is available on Etsy.

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Click here to subscribe and receive the blog as an email each weekend. You can unsubscribe instantly if you change your mind, and of course I would never share your information with anyone, any time, any way.

Bringing the healing art of Reiki into conventional health care relieves the suffering of so many patients, families and staff. There are spaces in the 4-day Medical Reiki intensives in both NYC (March 29-April 1) and Atlanta (April 11-15). Please click here for details.

Are you part of our Reiki, Medicine and Self-Care community on Facebook? Join our daily conversations about Reiki practice and communication to broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and strengthen your communication skills.

I rounded the corner, colliding with a woman who had come for Reiki healing a couple of years ago. She looked radiant and ageless.

We laughed and hugged, sputtering apologies and greetings. Her ebullience and joy were infectious. Nothing about her presence belied the frenzy with which she was packing up her apartment to swap Manhattan’s breathtaking skyline and bright lights for acres of quiet unspoiled forest, diving into a new life with the man she mentioned at our first session.

They’d had just a handful of dates at that point, but she was cautiously sensing this might break a string of heartaches.

She moved easily from Reiki treatment to a seat in my next First degree Reiki class. A savvy New York shopper, she quickly recognized daily Reiki self-practice as a sensible investment in her health and well-being.

This time, as her relationship became more day-to-day, it also deepened. Respect and love grew hand-in-hand. She reorganized her business to free her geographically.

The secret method for inviting happiness

“I can’t believe how wonderful my life is,” she said. “Every morning I wake up next to the man I love, surrounded by the beauty of nature that feeds me so deeply. I’m actually living the life I dreamed of.”

“Do you think this would have happened without your daily Reiki self-treatment?” I asked.

She looked startled, as if considering this connection for the first time.

Reflecting a moment, she shook her head. “No.”

“Can you let the life of your dreams be good enough?” I asked.

Another startled look. I knew I was being cheeky but I was willing to push a little to offer a parting gift.

“Yes, I can,” she said with conviction, “as long as I keep practicing Reiki.”

What unexpected happiness has Reiki practice brought to your life, or enabled you to sustain? Please click here to share in a comment.

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Click here to subscribe and receive the blog as an email each weekend. You can unsubscribe instantly if you change your mind, and of course I would never share your information with anyone, any time, any way.

Bringing the healing art of Reiki into conventional health care relieves the suffering of so many patients, families and staff. There are spaces in the 4-day Medical Reiki intensives in both NYC (March 29-April 1) and Atlanta (April 11-15). Please click here for details.

Are you part of our Reiki, Medicine and Self-Care community on Facebook? Join our daily conversations about Reiki practice and communication to broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and strengthen your communication skills.

This weekend starts Asia Week here in the Big Apple, with galleries around town sharing Asian Art collections in special weekend open houses. Five galleries have Japanese exhibits.

Reiki master Susan Mitchell and I had a sneak preview of the luscious Sacred Sutras and Profane Pledges exhibit at Scholten Gallery.

We left feeling refreshed and uplifted, much as we feel after a Reiki treatment.

Art stops the mind

Japanese art is of special interest to non-Asian Reiki practitioners. It can save us from our minds, reminding us that Reiki practice arose from a cultural perspective quite different from our own.

The goal of spiritual practice is to live in the open space of the present moment (Today only). But the mind — and perhaps particularly the Western mind — abhors open space.

The mind plasters our practice with assumptions and clutter that can keep us from dropping into the spaciousness revealed by simple, dedicated practice. The busyness and ambition of Western culture has generated many benefits, but simplicity — that magnificent spiritual gem — is not among them.

Making time for healing pleasure

Please take the time to enjoy these images, perhaps with your hand on your heart.

Savor the beauty. Let its pure pleasure stop your mind and uplift your state.

The poem in the Zen scroll above left reads:

If you want this moon
I will give it to you
try to capture it

The poem at right reads:

I have forgotten
it is time to leave
intoxicated by the flowers

The reality of healing is supported by science, but healing remains, after all, an art.

And art is also healing.

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Bringing the healing art of Reiki into conventional health care relieves the suffering of so many patients, families and staff. There are spaces in the 4-day Medical Reiki intensives in both NYC (March 29-April 1) and Atlanta (April 11-15). Please click here for details.

Please click here to receive the blog in your inbox each weekend. You can unsubscribe instantly if you change your mind, and of course I would never share your information with anyone, any time, any way.

From a conventional health care perspective, primary health care happens outside the home. In the US, primary care providers (PCPs) are physicians (usually family physicians or internists), physician assistants, or nurse practitioners.

PCPs provide basic health care, both routine prevention (typically screening and lifestyle counseling) and treatment of illness that does not require a specialist. When a patient requires care from a specialist, the PCP makes referrals and remains on board to coordinate care.

True health care reform

But how can primary health care be given outside the home? Isn’t real primary health care what happens at home? Why can’t a responsible adult be her own primary health care provider, and think of her doctor as a resource to use as needed — and likely needed less?

Given the dire condition of the health care industry, that would seem to be a primary place to refocus.

How can we orchestrate such a turnaround, from people neglecting their health for years and then expecting  doctors to put Humpty-Dumpty back together, to people engaging in their own care day by day, protecting their health and well-being while they still have them?

Information is not enough

It’s not enough for people to be informed, they have to feel empowered, to know that their efforts will bring benefit. And many people have to feel better before they can feel empowered.

That’s where Reiki practice can make a difference, and often make a difference quickly.

People start feeling better when they start practicing Reiki self-treatment. When people feel better, they make better choices. It’s that simple. Reiki practice opens the door to many other health-promoting choices.

Take an hour of Reiki and call me in the morning

How can we help the mainstream public take Reiki practice seriously? Since most people take health care advice most seriously when given by their doctors, let’s reach the mainstream public through conventional health care.

That may sound far-fetched, but I have a plan, one that can be easily implemented by credible, well spoken Reiki practitioners.

Are you with me?

There are so many instances in which Reiki treatment can help patients whose health, for a variety of reasons, isn’t well managed by conventional care. Having a Reiki practitioner available in those situations makes it easy to demonstrate the effectiveness of Reiki practice.

First things first

First we have to get more Reiki practitioners in the health care door. It might be the door to the hospital, or it could be the door to your own doctor’s office.

Extending the scope of health care is in everyone’s best interest. Let’s do it.

How has your Reiki practice improved your health care? Please share in a comment below.

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Are you part of our Reiki, Medicine and Self-Care community on Facebook? Join our daily conversations about Reiki practice and communication to broaden your perspective, deepen your understanding, and strengthen your communication skills.

Join me for the Medical Reiki 4-day intensives in New York City March 29-April 1 and Atlanta April 12-15. This will be an intimate time of learning practical skills and strategies to bring Reiki practice mainstream without whitewashing its inherent spirituality. You’ll leave with deeper conviction and understanding, and knowledge that will inform your personal health care choices.

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