When Fear Gets in The Way of Practicing Reiki

Experiencing fear practicing Reiki can manifest in many forms. You may fear whether your Reiki practice will be financially successful. You may fear that your clients will benefit from your services. Many practitioners in service industries often experience impostor syndrome where you doubt your abilities and feel like a fraud. This feeling of doubt can develop into fears about your skillset and whether you have a place as a Reiki practitioner.

These fears are common and very normal as we undertake the complicated task of running a successful Reiki practice that is based on our efforts involving both business skills and Reiki practice skills. Running a Reiki practice requires the culmination of various skillsets to meet the variety of needs that a private practice demands.

The feeling of fear may not be evident to you in the first instance. Often we connect feelings of fear with wanting to hide under the blanket and not get out of bed in the morning. However, fear can manifest in many other ways include:

• Physical symptoms including pain, irritable stomach, sweating etc.
• Feeling nervous or restless
• Difficulty concentrating
• Problems interacting with friends and family
• Sleep disturbance
• Anger outbursts
• Avoidance of tasks and responsibilities
• Having a sense of dread or panic
• Developing perfectionist behaviors
• High expectations of ourselves and others

The list above is only a small list of how fear can manifest when we are practicing Reiki or work on our Reiki business. Fear can show up in many ways and is usually connected to how we decide on the best way we can distract ourselves from acknowledging the fear.

It should be noted that fear is not a bad emotion and should not be avoided. Avoiding emotions often does not remove the perceived threat from our lives, but instead only serves as a delay tactic. Eventually, we will need to face our fears to overcome them and work towards personal growth.

From an evolutionary perspective, fear has always provided us with a message that we need to protect ourselves from imminent physical danger. In a modern day era, we now have to decide whether that desire to protect ourselves is linked to a situation where we are in danger of being hurt, or whether our fears are based on our perceived inadequacies to achieve something we desire.

Fear is a complex reaction that is rooted in physical, psychological, and emotional experiences.

Fear is an emotion that we commonly experience and is arises when we perceive the threat of harm. This harm can be physical, emotional, or psychological. The threat can also be real or simply a perception based on our interpretation of what we see around us.

Fear is a reaction from ourselves based on what we are absorbing from our environment and experiences. We take in clues from all around us using our senses and then determine whether a person or situation is safe. These clues that we interpret are largely based on our past experiences when we learned how to cope with other potentially dangerous experiences.

Below are common situations that initiate a fear response:

• Past experiences of attempting new things
• Belief systems about ourselves
• Perceived barriers to success
• Previous failures
• Previous experiences of shame
• Threats to our ability to survive – both physical and financial safety

Each of us has a personal history of experiences that inform how we perceive future experiences. If we are experiencing fear that interferes with practicing Reiki, this can prompt us to explore our Reiki pathway and identify any issues in our practice or understanding of Reiki.

We already understand that not all fear is considered ‘bad’ and that sometimes fear serves as a useful tool to protect us from physical or emotional danger.

However, fear can also be disruptive and interfere with our daily functioning as well as our desire to achieve important future goals. In these situations, it’s useful if we can develop a few strategies to help us cope with fear and not let it hinder our ability to undertake personal growth. This is also important when we want to keep developing our personal Reiki practice as well as provide services to Reiki clients.

Below are several useful strategies to help you cope with fear:

• Establish a network of friends and colleagues who can provide support
• Develop a network of role models for developing your Reiki skills as well as your business skills
• Set up a system of educational resources and tools to help you become successful as a Reiki practitioner and business owner
• Regularly engage in self-care practices that aim to encourage you as well as provide rest and relaxation
• Understand the basis of your fear and learn to identify when your fear is working against you
• Engage in therapy to help you work through any mental health issues you may be experiencing
• Identify any barriers you initiate or behaviors that sabotage your ability to achieve success.

To combat your fears, it is helpful to have an inquisitive mindset that enables you to identify how fear may be detrimental in your life. This includes the negative impact it may have on your ability to practice Reiki.

Below are some suggestions for additional reading on this topic including practicing Reiki:

• Acceptance & Commitment Principles with Reiki
• Can Reiki Help with Perfectionism
• Detach from Fear, Connect to Love
• Empower Yourself with Reiki
• Healing the Past with Reiki
• Managing Stress with Reiki
• Using Reiki for a Client with Anxiety
• Using Reiki For Your Own Self-Care
• Using Reiki to Make Difficult Choices