If you are struggling to perceive & trust your own ability to do Reiki

Something I notice when people are at the beginning of their Reiki journey is they are struggling to feel their own Reiki energy. They question whether it is really working, and if they are making this all up. They may begin to think that if they can’t feel it themselves then how is there client? They think their client must be experiencing some sort of placebo effect. They also tend to struggle with believing that they should be able to see energetically what is going on with their client or feel it very strongly and when they are not able to perceive it in this way, they struggle with unworthiness or feeling like they are doing something wrong. If any of these things sound like you, I encourage you to stay until the end. I hope this will clear up any confusion for you and encourage you to keep walking this path. I also hope this will help you see that you may have been perceiving this energy all along. 

Lean into your gifts

For this topic in particular, I want to speak in terms of psychic abilities. I don’t mean psychic as its portrayed in scary movies like you are about to see how someone is going to die soon, I mean your God given gifts, the gifts that you were born with that allow you to know things, sense things, and feel deeply connected to others. Everyone has their own strengths when it comes to their psychic abilities. Some people can see things (clairvoyance), some people can hear things (clairaudience), some people can smell things (clairalience), some people just know things (claircognizance), some people can see across the veil (medium ship), some people can feel others emotions in their own body (clairempathy). Some people have one of these gifts, some have multiple, some have all. I completely understand wanting to feel things and see things when working with a client or a loved one. This would be the easiest way to know that what you are doing is indeed working. But I encourage you to lean into your own gifts. When we are doing something like Reiki or meditating or some other spiritual work and we are trying hard to perceive things in a certain way because we believe this should be the way, we can end up missing a lot. It’s important that we can work to push our egos to the side for the sake of service for the person in front of us. This person trusted you enough to seek you out for this type of intimate work so it's important to push expectations to the side and work on trust. 

If you can’t “see” things now, that ability could come in time as you build this muscle of using your Reiki energy. But it is possible that it could never come at all. Wanting to see, or hear things clearly is a very 3D way of going about this practice, and I say this without judgement. I understand because I still fall into this sometimes during meditation. I’m sometimes yelling at my Spirit guides like can you just tell me? Why are you speaking in riddles and showing me weird images? In this 3D world, we are used to seeing and hearing so clearly, so it's only natural to want this in our Reiki practice as well. How can we trust this process otherwise? 

That is all apart of the journey though. Trust. Trust this energy. Trust yourself. Trust in your abilities. Trust that your path led you here for a reason. I know its easier said than done. Once again, this is a muscle you have to build as well. So be patient with yourself. And ask yourself, what are the natural abilities that you have right now? Strong intuition? Smelling things that aren’t actually there? Or maybe you can indeed see things like auras, attachments, spirit guides, etc. Lean into this because the things you pick up on are important. They are pieces of the puzzle. They are a part of the story of what is going on with the person in front of you and possibly solutions to their problems. 

What have you noticed?

While you were doing your session, did you notice a pain in your body? Is this your own pain or is it theirs? This could be an indication of where you need to focus the Reiki. Do you feel heaviness in your body all of the sudden? This could be an indication of energy getting trapped somewhere in your client. You may need to help them breathe through this and assure them that they are safe because this is a clear indication that there is something they are scared of letting go of. As the Practitioner, you do not need to know what this is, but you should at least try to help them breathe through it if they are willing because of course we don’t want to cause a traumatic reaction. 

While you were doing Reiki over their head, did you catch an image of an ocean? Maybe they feel like they are barely holding their head above water. Ask them about it. And if they affirm this is true, I personally would speak to them about this and try to offer some advice about incorporating self care into their daily or weekly routine, even if it’s only for 5 minutes. While you were working on someone, did a song pop into your head? This song could be important to them. It could be symbolic of their childhood. This could be a clear indication that they need to connect with their inner child. Or maybe it reminds them of a bad time. This could be a clear indication that there is some type of trauma or heavy emotion that they need to work on letting go of. It's a signal that those stored memories are causing some trouble in their current reality. Or maybe that is the client and their crossed over husband song that they danced to at their wedding. Maybe he is there reassuring her that he never left her side. 

While you were working on your client, did you catch a scent of vanilla out of no where and then it dissipated as quickly as it came? Well maybe their favorite grandmother that passed away always smelled like vanilla and she is there to say hi. Or maybe the vanilla is symbolic. Vanilla is very calming and its also an aphrodisiac. Are they struggling with their sexuality? Do they need to incorporate vanilla into their spiritual life or for emotional aromatherapy? Even if it doesn’t make sense to you in the moment, make a mental note of it because it could mean everything to them. And if it doesn’t make sense to them in the moment either, try to not get hung up on this. It could mean something to them later and the fact is, that the more you trust your intuition and say exactly what you picked up on, the stronger your intuition will grow. This is how you relay the message to yourself that you trust this process. 

If you read all of this and are thinking I have no idea what my natural gift is, maybe I don’t have one. I disagree. I truly believe that everyone has a gift. Some peoples gift have become such a natural part of their daily life that they don’t even realize that its a psychic ability. Or for some people its so subtle that they aren’t aware enough yet to know their gift is right there, waiting to be cultivated. On the other hand, some people shut off their gifts long ago, most likely during childhood when their parents and society started telling them that what they were seeing and experiencing wasn’t real. In this case, there is most likely a block that needs to be worked through and this could take time. Once again, I encourage you to be gentle with yourself, be patient, and trust the process. It will make things that much more exciting when these things begin to unlock. 

If you went through your session and still felt and sensed nothing, then ask them. What did you feel? What did you notice? You may be surprised that they say things like “Well oddly enough I’ve been having pain in my right shoulder and you went their immediately and now the pain is gone”. Or “I was actually starting to feel this heaviness in my chest and as soon as I felt that, you went to my chest, it was so crazy!” Or “Well I thought you had your hand on my stomach but when I opened my eyes, you were actually at my feet.” With this last example this is a clear sign that you had a spirit guide there assisting the process but all of these examples are clear indications that what you are doing is indeed working. 

So what can you do from here?

Keep practicing, keep saying what you are picking up on, and keep a journal. Write about your experiences, even if you think they might not have been real. Take note of the things your clients are saying to you. Do Reiki on yourself as consistently as you can, do your energy clearing practices, connect with the earth, and eat clean when possible to detox your physical body and keep your vibration high. You can also do some practices to develop your physic abilities. If you stick to this path, I promise that things will start to become more clear for you. And remember to trust and enjoy the process.

Written by Selenia Rodriguez

Selenia is a certified Sound Healer and Holy Fire III Karuna Reiki Master