Establishing Your Daily Reiki Practice

A Reiki daily practice is a personal routine of engaging in Reiki each day. It is similar to how you may have a daily exercise routine or a daily piano practice. It is the act of undertaking a specific activity each day so that you may benefit from regularly engaging in that practice. Additionally, you work on a daily practice to develop your skills over time.

A daily practice is created based on your personal preferences. Many will adhere to a daily practice that starts with Reiki at the beginning of the day. This helps you to start your day in a motivated and engaged mindset. Others may prefer their daily practice performed at the end of the day so that it can help you reset the events of the day and help create a calm mindset for a good night’s sleep.

However, a daily practice doesn’t need to only include one session of Reiki. Your preference may be to use Reiki at the start and the end of the day. You may even add other sessions throughout the day. Your daily routine is entirely up to you and how you can manage your day.

Alternatively, the concept of ‘daily’ practice may be interpreted loosely and you may undertake your practice a few times a week instead of every day. The goal in this context is to engage in Reiki regularly while remaining flexible to the demands of each day.

A daily practice of any new skill has ongoing benefits in the short term and the long term.

In the short term, you will gain benefits from the immediate practice of Reiki including relaxation, and physical and emotional healing.

Over the long term, you will gain strength and confidence in your Reiki practice skills. You will begin to explore the personal connections you have with Reiki and what this practice means to you specifically. This helps you learn more about yourself including how you respond to Reiki as well as how you want to incorporate Reiki in your life.

A daily practice of Reiki can accelerate the benefits from Reiki from regular engagement compared to irregular sessions. By engaging in a daily practice you begin each day adding a layer of healing and wellbeing to the Reiki work that you did the day before. Because you are using Reiki daily, you are recharging positive energy. Comparatively, if you have a long period of time between Reiki sessions, it may take you some time to rebuild your momentum and ability to center and focus your attention on Reiki.

Our body and mind appreciate regular maintenance so that they can function. Any disruption to this regular maintenance may result in feeling disconnected from ourselves along with a lack of awareness of the negative impact that an irregular Reiki practice may have on our wellbeing.

As with any mind body healing practice, you may find over time that your commitment and desire to undertake Reiki can wane. This is a common experience that we all have and should not be viewed as a personal failure. As humans, we are prone to curiosity and spontaneity. These aspects can sometimes impede our ability to be consistent in developing habits.

Conversely, humans also benefit from routines and consistency, and these aspects will help us overcome moments of distraction and return to a regular Reiki practice.

At the beginning of this post we discussed what your idea of a ‘daily’ practice might look like:

• Each day in the morning
• Each day at night
• Daily morning and night sessions
• A few sessions each week

The frequency of your practice depends on your circumstances. These circumstances may also change over time, so it’s important to remain flexible to the changing seasons in your life. Some months you may find a daily practice is easy to undertake, whereas other months may entail less regular practice.

Once you’ve decided on the frequency of your practice, you can then decide on the duration of your practice. Ideally, 20-30 minutes each session is beneficial, however, 10-15 minutes can also provide benefits. Most self-care activities take a few minutes to settle into the intention of the practice, so it’s important to allow yourself enough time to filter out any start up distractions when you undertake a Reiki session.

Now that you have decided on the frequency and duration of your sessions, you can focus on the content of each session.

You may decide to bring an intention to your Reiki practice, or you may decide to sit and let the sessions evolve naturally. It’s important to remember again, that flexibility is key to your success. If you develop a practice that is created based on rigid rules and expectations, this can negatively impact the flow of your session.

Expecting yourself to follow set rules for each Reiki session can result in feeling disappointed in yourself if your session doesn’t go as expected. This negative feeling will start to impact your perception of your Reiki practice and ultimately may influence your thoughts on how beneficial your practice is to you.

You may like to follow the below steps as a general guideline to developing your Reiki practice:

• Start hydrated with a drink of water
• Center your physical presence by regulating your breathing through 4-7-8 breathing. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, and breathe out for 8 seconds.
• Notice any physical sensations that you may have in your body. You might notice the tension that you are holding in specific areas of your body.
• Perform the Reiki session through hand positions.
• End with regulating your breathing through 4-7-8 breathing.
• End the session with another drink of water.

You may like to use the following hand positions as part of your Reiki practice:

These hand positions are taken from your product in the store: Reiki Guidebook to Self-care

As with any Reiki session, remember to make your Reiki space comfortable and inviting so that you encourage a peaceful frame of mind as you engage in your Reiki practice.

Below are some suggestions for additional reading on the topic of Reiki practice:

• Create a Soothing Spiritual Practice
• Creating a Reiki Practice