The Reiki Way to Ease Difficult Conversations

“The most important thing is that we need to be understood. We need someone to be able to listen to us and to understand us. Then we will suffer less.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

On a cold monsoon morning, keow–keow–keow, the peacock’s call and distant responses to this call, keeeow–keeeow made me sit up. Half-asleep, I wondered, how do they manage to listen and then communicate accordingly. Maybe, distance doesn’t matter to birds.

Slowly, waking up fully as I heard more bird chirps and still wondering about how the birds manage, I noticed myself drifting away into my childhood home, watching sparrows, all sitting and swinging along on the electric wire in the evening twilight, sharing their stories.

Have there been moments when you wanted to talk, share your story, but found yourself tongue-tied? You have been yearning to share so much with someone, but some words get stuck in your throat and some dissolve in your mouth as you start to talk, and all that remains is a silent sigh.

I have been in such situations and found it difficult to express and communicate easily with my loved ones. I would overthink and end up with questions: What if I say something wrong? What would be their response if I say this? And so is it okay to say this? and so on.

However, when I muster some courage to talk, I would find that the person would interpret it differently and I would feel lost and upset.

After being attuned to Reiki and practicing regularly, Reiki became a part of me and my everyday life. I felt safe when I invoked Reiki, as if I had someone holding me gracefully and so I could relax.

This led me to invoke Reiki for many little things, even before writing messages that were difficult to communicate. It felt like Reiki flowed along with the words and landed softly in the readers’ inbox and chat window.

Then I started inviting Reiki to hold me through difficult conversations.

“Listening is a very deep practice. You have to empty yourself. You have to leave space in order to listen especially to people we think are our enemies – the ones we believe are making our situation worse. When you have shown your capacity for listening and understanding, the other person will begin to listen to you, and you have a chance to tell him or her of your pain, and it’s your turn to be healed. This is the practice of peace.” – Thich Nhat Hanh

Here’s how I have been infusing Reiki and the power of listening at times when the thought of having a difficult conversation stresses me out.

As I am someone who loves stories and tends to create stories in my head, I love playing out the entire conversation with real characters. This process helps me prepare for the real conversation.

• Choose a quiet space, a small corner beside my altar.
• Invoked Reiki and the divine grace (angels, gods, masters, and anyone with whom you feel safe) to prepare the space.
• Marked 3 positions on the floor, A, B, C and placed the entire space in a golden Reiki ball.

• Stepping in at position A, connecting to Amrita (at position B), I invited my mentor and guide to stand at position C.
• Invoking Reiki, I shared everything with Amrita that I wished to communicate
  • Note: I used symbols (If you are not attuned to using symbols, just invoke Reiki and give yourself a voice, allow Reiki to speak through you.)
    • HSZSN to form a bridge or a channel of connection between us
    • CKR to clear any blocks in the channel of communication between us, and
    • SHK to bring in energies of ease and harmony during the conversation.
• I stepped into position B and gave Amrita a voice to share everything she wished to.
• Both of us spoke our hearts out and listened to each other consciously.

• After completing our conversation, I stepped into C as the mentor and allowed Reiki to share any guidance.
• Thanking everybody and Reiki, I closed the conversation.

Now, with all the guidance and having heard what Amrita had shared, I was in a better space to talk to her. My mantra was to invoke and allow Reiki to let the words flow through me.

“Every single one of us has the potential to change someone’s life by just taking time to listen to them.” Steven Aitchison

Hearing the peacock’s distant keow again, I offered a silent prayer to the divine – to bring ease in conversations for everyone who finds it difficult to have a heart-to-heart conversation.

Article by Vani Radhakrishnan

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Vani Radhakrishnan is a Reiki grandmaster, certified practitioner of Magnified Healing®, NLP, Inner Child Healing, and Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), dedicated to helping individuals achieve emotional healing, balance, and spiritual growth. Based in Bangalore, she combines her expertise in energy healing, NLP, and other transformative tools to guide individuals—particularly women—on their transformative journeys.
After more than a decade in the corporate world, a life-changing experience led her to embrace Reiki, bringing deep healing and transformation to all areas of her life. Reiki has been more than just a practice to her—it’s a close, trusted companion that has supported and guided her through every phase of life.
You can contact her through her Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/niva.sathya) or by email at vani.r.voice@gmail.com.