The Spiritual Path after Reiki

Article by Angie Webster

Many people have a lot of expectations about themselves and what will happen with their lives after they take a Reiki class and become attuned to Reiki. Some of these expectations are not realistic or healthy and lead to them holding themselves to extremely high levels of perfectionism. Reiki training does not make you or your life perfect. It teaches you a method of energy healing. For many, it is also an opening or an expansion of their spiritual path.

Being on a spiritual path or intensifying your spiritual seeking can become a very trying time for many. This opens the doors to all the issues that need to be examined and healed and in some people it does so quite suddenly. This can be shocking and overwhelming at the beginning. Walking a spiritual path requires being truthful with ourselves over and over, accepting our reality as it is without slipping into denial or a reactive state. This is a practice, every single day. It requires compassion, with ourselves, others and life itself.

It can help if you approach all of life as an opportunity to learn, with each person you meet and each situation as a potential lesson. When you seek to find what you can learn and grow from in each encounter, then everyday events have purpose. It is possible to acknowledge that even difficult events in life have meaning. Looking back over your life, you can likely see that each event, difficult or otherwise, brought you to the place and the possibilities you have now. Without any one of those, you would change important features of your life, perhaps not meeting the loved ones or the gaining the knowledge that you have now. Each event serves you and the world in some way that you aren’t always able to see in the moment. Some events allow for us to be in the right place to assist others in their growth or healing, even if we don’t know it.

There is no need to beat yourself up if you are not doing some particular thing or other that you envisioned you would be doing once you were attuned to Reiki or once you started on your spiritual path. There is no specific “place” or destination you are meant to achieve. There is no state of mind you are meant to maintain. You are still human after learning Reiki. Be kind to yourself. Relax and enjoy life.

The best thing you can do to assist yourself as a healer and to help yourself on your path of spiritual growth is to keep it simple. There is no need to complicate matters. The following list may be oversimplifying things and each person is an individual, but adjust it to yourself and go with the flow.

1.  Practice Reiki. Especially on yourself. Even if you aren’t practicing on anyone else, practicing on yourself keeps you in tune with the energy and helps keep you in balance mentally, emotionally, spiritually and physically.
2.  Meditate. This doesn’t have to be complicated either! Just notice your breathing for at least a few minutes a day. No need to get in any particular position, just be comfortable. No need for visualizing anything or for having a blank mind. Guide your mind back to your breath when it wanders away. That’s exactly the process! Even 3-5 minutes is beneficial, but do it for whatever length of time works for you.
3.  Learn to trust your inner voice. When you have a strong intuition, practice acting on it. Write these instances down to keep track of what happens. Also record those times when your intuition is more subtle or when you are afraid to act on it. Notice the results of that as well.
4.  Don’t get caught up in your intuition or your healing abilities. We all have these skills. You are simply opening yourself to them and making use of them. You are not doing yourself a service if you feel “gifted” or superior.
5.  Be loving with yourself and others. Remember to play, laugh and love! That is key to everything else. Relax. This is what the 5 precepts are teaching you. Spend 5 minutes or so thinking of them each day to tune in to these reminders of peaceful living.

Try to accept life as it comes. Notice that the “good” comes in and flows out and so does the “bad”. In the end they all serve a purpose somehow. They can each cause pain if we get overly caught up in them, judging them, trying to make them go away or trying to cling to them. Let life be like a flowing river that you observe and participate in lovingly.

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Angie Webster made a significant contribution to the Reiki community, with a particular focus on Animal Reiki, which she had a deep affection for. As a knowledgeable Reiki Master Teacher and Author, she conducted online courses on energy healing, herbalism, flower essences, and personal growth.
She is the author of “Animal Reiki: How it Heals, Teaches & Reconnects Us with Nature” and “Reiki from A to Z”. Currently, Angie has decided to retire from her professional life to devote more time to her health, family, and the little joys of life.