Maybe you’re wondering, What’s the difference?

If you approach your Reiki self-treatment as a technique, then you likely have some concern–anxiety even–about doing it correctly, or well, or even–perfectly.

Then on any day that your Reiki self-treatment doesn’t meet your expectations, you struggle with that internal yardstick of praise&blame, looking so hard for evidence that you’re doing it right and so sure that you’re doing it wrong–that you miss the big picture: the all important fact that you’re doing it, you are giving yourself a treatment.

This approach leads many students to stop self-treatment, because in their minds, they can’t do it “good enough” to make it worth doing.

If, however, you approach Reiki self-treatment as a practice, then the goal is simply to do it. On days when your experience doesn’t match your expectations (these days happen), instead of assuming some variation of failure, you recognize your expectations as just that–expectations–and direct your awareness to exploring your current experience, or to simply being with it.

In Reikiville, instead of practice makes perfect, practice makes present.

Welcome to Reikiville.

Any of this sound familiar? If so, please tell us how you’re discovering your present, or ask a question in the comment box below.

Some days I just want to mainline chocolate and practice Reiki self-treatment.

And then there are the tough days…

Seriously, I realized long ago that life doesn’t get easier on its own. It needs my help.

Retreat. The word says it all. Treat, and Treat again. Yes, treat as in treatment. But also treat, as in delight. And savor. Like chocolate melting slowly in your mouth.

It’s true that my daily self-treatment is a mini-retreat everyday, but from time to time, I want more; I want to go deeper.

Just as the waves of my desire for retreat were crashing into the rocky demands of work/life, longtime Reiki master Mari Hall invited me to lead the 2009 Usui Virtual Retreat. Perfect! Instead of squeezing life aside to make room for retreat, here is a retreat I can add to my life as it is, right now.

And so can you.

All Reiki students, practitioners, and masters are invited to participate. The retreat starts on Usui’s birthday, Saturday, August 15. There is no fee, and you can engage from where you are, as you are able to. Shall we call it Retreat a la Mode?

I’ll post a weekly meditation, and we’ll use my blog as a forum to share experiences. I’ll blog more often during the retreat, and I hope you will join in by writing comments. And if I’m not writing about what you’re experiencing, email me directly to request a guest post.

Stop by the Retreat page on my website any time, or sign up at www.wisechoices.com and Mari will email you as each weekly meditation is posted.

In retreat we simplify, clarify, and deepen. And now we can do it together. Please join us.