How To Prepare Before A Reiki Session
There are many ways to prepare for a session and I would certainly encourage you to find your way. Here is a list of ideas to take into consideration based on my own experience and training received.
It is important to know how you can best prepare for a Reiki session so that you are grounded, centered and your client can receive the most benefits. This preparation involves your own preparation as well the preparation of the space where you are going to have the Reiki treatment.
Your Own Preparation
Give yourself at least 30 minutes prior to the session to sit, meditate, give yourself healing and prepare the room.
If you are the beginning of your working day and you are getting ready for your first Reiki treatment, you probably need more time, perhaps one hour or even more.
In between session you still need time to make notes in relation to your previous session, to clear your energy and the energy of the space, and to prepare for your next client.
Check in with how your body is feeling and take note of any emotions, thoughts, or physical sensations you are experiencing.
Take some time to breathe and tend to whatever your body’s needs might be on that given day. You may also want to reflect on any intentions you want to set for the session, and anything you want to share with your practitioner before you begin.
You’ll want to be sure you’ve eaten and hydrated a few hours before the session—mostly so you will be comfortable and not distracted by hunger or thirst.
Avoid eating a heavy meal beforehand, however, as you don’t want all of your body’s energy to be directed toward digesting while you’re giving the Reiki treatment.
Be sure you are wearing loose and breathable clothes. Adjust the bodywork table to a comfortable height.
Give Yourself Reiki
Takata Sensei always taught her students to start their healing practice with themselves, providing Reiki self-treatments daily. Before you can help others to heal, you must first heal yourself.
Even if you only have five minutes per day, use that time to place your hands on yourself and allow the Reiki energy to flow. This will not only help you master the skills needed for Reiki, but it will help to keep your energy flowing freely and improve the health of your body, mind, and spirit
Whenever possible, perform a full Reiki self-treatment, which includes 16 hand positions. Hold each hand position for three to five minutes. This is why Reiki is a discipline – because to help others heal you must have the discipline to put in the time and practice to heal yourself.
Think about Reiki self-healing sessions as just another form of personal hygiene – like bathing or brushing your teeth. When you combine it with daily meditation, you’ll find you can make Reiki a part of your daily life, no matter how busy you are.
Gassho Meditation
Gassho meditation is a crucial part of any Reiki practice. The word Gassho literally means “two hands coming together”. It clears the mind, opens the heart and strengthens one’s connection to Reiki energy.
Mikao Usui practiced Gassho each time at the beginning of his Reiki workshops/meetings. It is meant to be practiced for 20-30 minutes after getting up and/or in the evening before going to sleep.
There are many transforming secrets hidden within the Gassho posture that can have a powerfully positive effect on your spiritual practice of Reiki.
Gassho helps you calm and soothe your nervous system, quiet and focus your mind and centre yourself in the flow of Reiki energy through the core of your being. It is a meditative technique that provides a simple focal point by focusing on one thing, recognising when your mind drifts.
It helps to grow your sense of inner peace, spiritual connection and life purpose.
> How To Practice Gassho Meditation
Grounding
Grounding is a very simple and natural way to connect ourselves back to Earth. We often hear people talking about grounding and telling us to ground ourselves, but why do we need to do it and how we do it?
Some of us are more prone than others to live in the clouds, with the result that we do not feel deeply rooted in our bodies. If this happens occasionally is fine, however if this becomes a permanent state of being can lead to some problems.
There are many simple ways to ground ourselves:
– Concentrate on our breathing.
– Pay attention to the body.
– Walking in a mindful way.
– Being in nature.
– Eating healthy food.
Anything that brings us back into our body is basically grounding, but it’s also smart to know and practice grounding exercises that we can do really quickly. At first you should practice them with care, attention and intention for a few minutes, though after a while you will be able to instantly ground.
There are many grounding exercises. You could imagine yourself as a tree, with roots going down deep into the Earth below you, with your legs and body as the trunk and arms and head as the branches.
PROTECTION
Once you are fully grounded is then advisable to start using some form of psychic protection.
One example of such a technique is the following:
– Imagine yourself in a “Bubble” of golden or white light that surrounds your aura (you don’t have to see your aura for this to be effective; you just need to have an openness and acceptance of the process for it to work).
– Breathe into your bubble and intend that it is completely filled with Reiki and intend that the Reiki is energising and protecting you.
– Make sure that the boundary of your bubble is strong and secure (again rely on your feelings about this) and be clear in your intention. Breathe Reiki into any areas that do not feel right and intend to strengthen them with Reiki.
– With your out breath, intend to release anything from inside the bubble which is negative, discordant or inappropriate for you.
– Intend that the bubble will continue to keep you safe and protected throughout the day and night and during the Reiki treatments.
Instead of a bubble, some people might use a golden dome of protection and then fill that with Reiki. (The gold reflects any negative or inappropriate energy back to the Universe or the Earth for recycling.
Other people use eggs, pyramids or other shapes, and some put mirrors on the outside of their bubbles or eggs to automatically reflect any unwanted energies back to the Earth or the Universe. It is all down to personal preference of course, and with techniques like these you are only limited (or not) by your imagination.
Preparing The Space
Creating the right atmosphere in which to give Reiki does help to enhance the experience. Ideally, when you are giving someone else a Reiki treatment you should have a quiet, comfortable and soothing environment in a designated room or area and find somewhere you will not be disturbed.
Clearing the energy of a room or a space is about clearing out any inappropriate or discordant energy that may interfere with us performing at our best. Once the space is energetically clear, we can then introduce a fresh and supportive energy (using the Reiki grid for example) which enhances our ability to do what it is what we want to do.
“Space clearing” is essentially “space healing” and the principles for healing a space are the same as for healing a body. Blocked and/or inappropriate energy is being helped to get back into a natural flow and good health is the result.
To clear a space energetically, bring in new energy of a high vibrational frequency such as Reiki. Any energies present that have an incompatible frequency will generally be transformed or cleared. The new energy of a high vibrational frequency (Reiki) is used to remove inappropriate energies and to clear blocks.
In a healthy space, supportive energy is able to move about freely and inappropriate energy is being filtered out or transformed (this is essentially what Feng Shui is about).
The use of the Power Symbol is a very simple and effective method for room clearing. However there are other techniques that use other Reiki symbols, such as the Sei He Ki, Tibetan and Holy Fire symbols.
You might want to make the experience special by having a candle burning there, and playing appropriate music to suit the mood. Some people like to burn incense or use essential oils, but it’s probably best to make sure that your client actually likes the smell of the fragrance before you fill the room with it.
Using a space clearing spray before a Reiki treatment is also recommended and it’s a good, easy way to improve the energetic quality of the space in which you are working.
Bringing in High Vibrational Frequencies
As Reiki practitioners, we have tools available for bringing in new energy of a high vibrational frequency. Allow your choice to depend on your intuition at the time and always come from a place of love and compassion and act with a sense of respect.
Some powerful tools are:
– The Reiki symbols: flow Reiki into the space, each corner, the walls, floor and ceiling. Use every Reiki symbol that you feel guided to on as many times as it takes. You can draw the Power symbol clockwise to help stuck energy become unstuck, and use the Distance symbol to track down energies within a space.
– Sound: you can use toning, chanting, bells, chimes, gongs, drums, and most forms of musical instrument.
– Smells: you can smudge, use essential oils or quintessences. You can also burn sage, cedar, oils, frankincense or other resins and wood powders.
– Air and sunlight: open all doors and windows, create currents of fresh air and allow sunlight to cleanse the room.
– Colours: use coloured light or visualise colours and light, paint the walls or use colourful paintings and drapes.
– Aura Soma: is a combination of colours, smells and a few other things and there are several space clearing options within the range.
– Room sprays: are also very effective.
– Certain plants and crystals: spider plants are apparently very effective, and there are many different types of crystals that work extremely well.
Tuning Into Your Client’s Energy
After having cleansed and grounded your energy, placed a protection around you, and cleansed and protected the space, you are now ready to welcome your client for a Reiki treatment.
If you have time (and it may be a good idea to spare some time for this in your preparation) it is advisable that you ‘tune into’ your client’s energy before he/she arrives.
You can do this by using the Distant Symbol to connect to your client and send distant healing for his/her greatest good. Healing works in magnificent ways and it gets your client ready for the session. Reiki get your client’s energy ready, releasing anything that is not needed and anything that may interfere with the treatment.
You may also start receiving insights of what you need to do in the session. This is a very useful and beneficial procedure that can save you and your client some valuable time. In addition, your client will arrive for the session in a relaxed state, open and ready to receive the Reiki treatment.
Giancarlo is a fully qualified Hypnotherapist and Past Life Regression Therapist. He is a registered with the Complementary & Natural Healthcare Council, the Federation of Holistic Therapists, the Spiritual Regression Therapy Association and the General Hypnotherapy Register. Read more.
