When Reiki is Unwanted

Article by Taryn Walker

A lot of lovely Reiki practitioners have shared with me their frustration with friends and family who are not interested in receiving Reiki through them. Based on my own experiences, and I have been terribly self-righteous at times, I’d like to share some thoughts on dealing with this.

When we feel that something will benefit someone we care about we have the tendency to become a little preachy and try to push what we believe on them. Friends and family tend to offer the most resistance when it comes to being offered healing and this pushy attitude really doesn’t help. What can help is being mindful of the way we speak about Reiki. Try to use as little jargon as possible and speak to people in a way that they could understand Reiki according to their own beliefs and concepts of reality. Make an effort to understand the way others perceive the world and use their understanding to pass on your Reiki knowledge and experiences. Reiki is often spoken about in a very fluffy new age way and this makes many run a mile. It’s not easy but it’s totally worth it to practice talking about Reiki in different ways depending on who’s listening.

Despite your best efforts to communicate Reiki in a suitable manner, there will always be people who are just not interested and that’s okay. The best advice is just to let it go. Take a good look at yourself and contemplate your real reasons for offering Reiki or any healing for that matter. Why are you frustrated when people refuse to receive Reiki or even talk about it? Are you wanting to receive acknowledgment? Do you need some kind of validation? Are you trying to change people because you think you know what’s best for them? Are you projecting your own issues onto others? Or do you really care and want them to feel better too? Be honest with yourself about your motives.

Never push Reiki on anyone. Let people come to you for healing. You don’t see doctors going around trying to convince friends and family to make an appointment with them. That would be ridiculous. If someone feels a resonance with you and what you have to offer they will naturally be drawn to you and that’s what makes healing seem magical. I am astounded by the synchronicities involved in my practice. The people I connect with arrive seemingly out of the blue and so often it feels just right, like it was meant to be. These auspicious meetings almost never arise from trying to force something to happen.

Let go of the desire to convince everyone to try Reiki. Let Reiki speak for itself through you. Being a living example is always going to be better than driving everyone nuts with your preaching. As much as you’d like others to benefit from being more relaxed and patient, experiencing more self love, having less pain, stress and anxiety and feeling a deeper connection to our true nature, Reiki isn’t for everyone. If you’ve experienced an amazing transformation in your own life through Reiki, instead of trying so hard to entice others onto your path, practice being content with what Reiki has done for you and appreciate the positive ripple effect of your own connection to Reiki. Let your daily life be a testament to the benefits of Reiki practice. When you live authentically and those around you see that you are content and happy, that’s when they might become curious and more inclined to ask you about Reiki. This would be the perfect opening to present Reiki in a way that doesn’t scare anyone off.

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Taryn Walker is a traveling Reiki Master Teacher who wishes to inspire people to realise that they are miraculous! She believes that Reiki can reveal our natural ability to heal ourselves and this empowers us to take responsibility for our lives. She works a lot with distant Reiki and loves the way it allows people to experience the illusion of separation. Taryn is grateful for being able to connect with her Reiki clients even while traveling. She usually lives on a little island in Thailand, where she practices and teaches Reiki, but finds ‘home’ wherever she is. Taryn enjoys yoga, nature, creating art, cooking and finding magic in “ordinary” places. Follow her here: reiki-alchemy.com, and alchemyhealing.