What's the #1 question clients ask me about Reiki?
By Deborah Flanagan
Editor's note: This article was featured in Deborah Flanagan's August 17 newsletter.
What did you pick up during my session?
This is a very juicy question! I mean, who doesn't want to get deep insight and wisdom after a session? Especially because we live in such a world of uncertainty, it would be wonderful to receive guidance and a feeling of reassurance.
I get asked this question from clients at least once a week. Unfortunately, it's not quite that straightforward.
“Be patient towards all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now.”
--Rainer Maria Rilke
Trust Yourself
I don't answer this question for many reasons. In response to clients' questions, "what did you pick up or notice?" I respond with, "Well, it's not about me, what did you feel?"
I explain that sometimes my intuition isn't always correct, and in fact, it can limit and sidetrack you from connecting with the Reiki energy. Connecting to this is far more powerful than anything I could say.
Reiki helps engage our inner resources; the answers we seek already lie within: we don't need to go outside ourselves. It's more enlightening to hear what you discover during a session--you have the answers you're asking me.
This ties in with the system of Reiki's five precepts (or rules to live by): the third one is "Be true to your way and your being." Being true to your way happens when you start trusting yourself.
I know it's not always easy to trust yourself. Believe me, I can relate to wanting to get answers. For 12 years, I've been going to see one of my long-time teachers once a month. I think it's onlybeen in the past few years that I've stopped hanging on her every word, wanting to get some kind of divine guidance. It took me 7 or 8 years to realize that I need to connect to my own inner wisdom for answers. (Ok, so I was a slow learner!)
Try This
For the next week or so, notice times when you aren't trusting yourself. Seize the day and take the plunge! And let me know if you want to focus on this in your next session.
3 Comments:
Absolutely LOVE this post! It's so true that it probably is one of the more common questions from clients and I also see it pop up during practitioner Reiki shares too. I have to admit, that I too have looked forward to learning what others have picked up when it's my turn on the table. A few times, it has been helpful to confirm something I was already thinking of, but sometimes others have picked up what I had turned a "blind eye" to. I am very inspired by this post to further connect to my own wisdom and to the wisdom of the Reiki energy. THANK YOU!
I think there's a continuum it's not an "either or" thing here, in terms of share it or don't. I've found that many people are looking for affirmation of their own "inner" feelings...and that kind of affirmation can help lead to them trusting their own intuition and higher self much more in the long run. Just "trust your intuition" is a big leap for many people. They need a little help. Gently giving impressions in a way that helps to guide them toward their OWN knowledge can be extremely helpful. It certainly was for me. You say your own intuition "isn't always correct" so perhaps it's a matter of knowing when ego is in the way...and discerning between true intuition and other things (like a need to fix, etc) Just my thoughts!
Doing volunteer work in a hospital setting, we have to be careful NOT to share anything that we pick up. And, yes, people frequently ask. Thank you for your response - it is perfect.
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