Setting Your Intentions Before each Reiki Session

Intentions are statements of purpose that we make to help us derive a specific course of action. Spontaneity is also a positive aspect and can provide benefits, however, setting intentions can also help us develop and maintain a specific purpose that we can direct our focus towards.

In a Reiki session that involves a client, we can actually develop different intentions. Our intention as a practitioner may be to provide excellent client care. We can also work with our clients to identify and develop intentions for their sessions.

Setting an intention helps us develop a mindful attitude towards the way we provide Reiki to our clients. On a broader scale, setting intentions can also help us as a Reiki practitioner by helping us to align our goals within our practice as a practitioner and as a business operator.

In this respect, intentions are often interchangeably used to describe our goals and what we choose to focus on at that point in time. Our intentions can be held over the long term (provide excellent client care every session) or can be held short term (help a client with a specific short term ailment).

While intentions can be viewed as goals, they should also be held less rigidly. An intention primarily focuses on what we set out to do but shouldn’t be so rigid that our behavior becomes fixated on achieving that intention. Intentions embrace imperfection and encourage us to seek alternative pathways if those different pathways also connect with our intentions.

Intentions should not be used as wishes or manifestations that we wish to ‘will’ into our life. Instead, intentions can be set in our mindset and then followed through using our choices and actions.

As Reiki is about energy and life force, our intentions should always support those important tenets of our Reiki practice.

Identifying your intentions can occur either through spontaneously listening to what comes to mind, or it can be through deeper contemplation. Setting intentions spontaneously can be useful when we want to tap into how we feel in the moment and what immediate needs we or our clients may need.

Thoughtful intentions can be set and adjusted over time. Long term intentions can incorporate larger goals that we or our clients may have and wish to work on over time.

This is a very similar process to how we deal with our ongoing health issues. We seek immediate treatment for acute conditions, and we also set longer goals for improving and maintaining our overall health and wellbeing.

Intentions could be broken down into the following categories:

• Healing mindset intentions
• Short term intentions
• Long term intentions

Some examples within each of these categories are listed below. It’s worth noting that some intentions can belong to multiple categories:

HEALING MINDSET

• I am an open vessel for the good of Reiki
• I release resistance and embrace acceptance
• I trust the healing process of Reiki

SHORT TERM INTENTIONS

• I embrace healing for my <insert short term issue>
• I am grateful for the healing Reiki provides me today
• I invoke calmness and purpose from Reiki to cope with <insert issue causing stress today>

LONG TERM INTENTIONS

• I let love into my life on a daily basis
• The peace and calm of Reiki energy supports me
• The healing energy of Reiki nourishes me

Setting your intentions can be as simple or as complex as you make it. If you or your client has immediate needs that are obvious to you including physical or emotional issues then you can pay attention to those issues and focus your intentions on improving how they impact you.

Alternatively, you or your client may feel there are areas in your life that can be improved, however, you may not be as aware of the pathway you can undertake to improve these areas in your life.

This may involve you or your client taking time to explore your understanding of an issue in your life and the subsequent impact this issue has on your wellbeing. This exploration can take time and an open mind to reveal deeper truths about beliefs you may hold. Often these beliefs may not be obvious to us until we do deeper work on how our past has affected us.

With this in mind, your intentions can be very specific or they can also be more generic to embrace the overall benefits of applying Reiki in your life.

Before a Reiki session, you may benefit from undertaking the following steps to help you set your intentions. This process can be undertaken by yourself or you can guide your clients through a similar process:

• Find a quiet place so you can sit without distraction or interruption
• Close your eyes and breathe using the 4-7-8 method (breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds)
• Sit quietly for 5 minutes to see what thoughts come into your mind. These thoughts may be fleeting at first while your mind filters through the current activity in your life. If you notice your mind focusing on a specific problem you have in your life, use that to guide your mind through the specifics of what bothers you most about that issue.
• Be inquisitive about the thoughts that are passing through your mind, however, also remain open to letting some thoughts pass by without any deeper consideration. Our brain is always working to distract and process many thoughts we hold about the current occurrences in our life.
• If you find yourself getting caught up in thoughts such as shopping lists or to-do lists, take time to regroup and reset your breathing again using the 4-7-8 breathing method.
• If too many thoughts are running through your mind at that time, ask yourself some questions to focus on:
  • What makes me happy today?
  • What is upsetting me today?
  • Do I feel physical or emotional pain?
  • Is something bothering me persistently at night when I try to sleep?
• You may benefit from compassionately asking yourself ‘how are you doing?’, or ‘how are you feeling?’
• As you begin to undertake this process, your mind will start to decipher what is important to you.
• If you feel you have identified different intentions, write them down and see if one stands out to you that you wish to focus on today. You can leave the others on your list and revisit them another day to see if they still hold any importance for you.
• Once you have decided on your intention, use it to guide you through your next Reiki session.

Pay attention to how you feel before your session and after your session. Use this to guide whether you want to undertake any actions or activities after your session. This might involve talking to a friend, a therapist, or a doctor if the issues could benefit from more help.

You may also benefit from undertaking some self-care activities to help boost your energy and provide yourself with gentle support to go back into your day-to-day activities.