Something I talked about in the class the other day made me feel a need to write this post. It is the problem of the practitioner being married to the outcome of their sessions.
When a client comes to see a massage therapist or Reiki master, they are hoping to achieve a specific goal. This could be something as simple as a sore muscle not hurting or to relieve the pain in the low back. The same is also true for someone wanting Reiki.
But with Reiki, we know that expectations are met if that is what is most needed. As I often teach, Reiki goes where it is needed most. I was taught that it is an intelligent energy that seeks out the object that needs healing the most. Another theory is that the subconscious of the subject is what guides the Reiki where it needs to go. Either way, what it does is what is most needed, but not necessarily what is expected.
There was a lady in England (that I probably talked about in this journal many years ago), who had a sore back, and went to see a Reiki therapist. She had the expectation that the Reiki would help her back. I’m sure the therapist was hoping the same thing. Afterward, she started having nightmares.
Now, I met her on a Reiki chat board, and then talked with her through IM for quite a while. After much digging, I found out that she had been sexually abused by her father from the age of four to the age of 20. At the time we were talking, she was 42. Now, what had happened was that she had walled off these memories and buried them into a dark corner of her mind. The Reiki went into her and decided that this was what needed the most work (as it works on the physical, emotional, and spiritual levels). While it may have helped her back pain, it also started breaking down the walls so that it could work on healing her experiences. (Any psychiatrist will tell you that burying our problems will not solve them. The only way to solve them is to face them and work them out.)
But the key here is that as a practitioner and therapist, I have to not marry myself to the outcome, especially when I am doing Reiki. Now if someone comes in for massage and they have pain, I will work as hard as I can to alleviate it, and admittedly, I am not happy if I can’t ‘fix’ the whole problem. At the same time, I know that some problems can not be fixed in one session. If I return 95% functionality, then I should be happy. But Reiki is yet a different animal.
Since it goes where it needs to go and works on what is needed most, I have to basically let it ‘do its own thing’. As a practitioner, I don’t want to direct it as I am then limiting it. My job is to be there and be as clear and open as possible. This way, the Reiki energy is not blocked or limited.
I will start with a prayer or request that the Reiki do what needs to be done and that it give my client everything that they need. Past that, I am just there. I can hope that it fixes certain problems, but I will accept the outcome no matter what it does. That is a very important key for a Reiki practitioner, or a healer of any type. One does the best they can, even if that means sitting there, letting energy pass through you, and trusting that the outcome is for the higher good. This way I am not married to the outcome. I let the outcome happen that will happen and trust that it is for the highest good.
It is called letting go and trusting. It can even be called having faith.