I just found ‘the secret’ video online for free viewing for those that are interested you can check it out —> here

This has pretty much nothing to do with Reiki, except that Reiki should be fun, too (as well as serious and all-about-the-healing).

Donyo and I are just about to have a baby (due in 2-3 weeks) and so kids are pretty much in the forefront of our minds at the moment.. this just cracked me up, and I hope it gives you a smile today, too.

One of the dilemmas we face as Reiki healers is what to say and what not to say to our clients.

Here are 10 tips that hopefully might help you navigate these murky waters a little easily.

1. Do not offer advice

You do not need, nor perhaps should you try to solve your clients problems or questions for them. Insights and “ah-ha” moments come from inner inspiration. From the persons own innate wisdom. We cannot “give” anyone the answers. My advice would be to study and learn as much as you can, increase your own understanding, so that if someone asks you a question you can give them good information, but, never an action plan.

2. Active Listening

What we can do, while not giving someone answers or tell them what action to follow, is to support them. We can do this by having strong attention and concentration when we are listening to them.

We need to be there with the person. Not off on lunch plans, or thinking about whether we need to buy more carrots. We need to be present and actively listening to the person.

And the active part of active listening is the concentration we put into processing what the person is saying, following and identifying the important themes.

3. Mindfulness

Mindfulness is almost the same thing as the active part of active listening. Except in the case of mindfulness it is a hovering inner attention energy that allows you to become aware of your own reactions and prejudices to what is being said. And, therefore (hopefully) better able to maintain a professional, objective and loving atmosphere.

4. Paraphrase

One very helpful tool to facilitate the person coming up with their own action plan is to paraphrase. Using both mindfulness and active listening you reflect back to the person an objective summary of the key points they have covered when talking to you.

5. Comfortable Silence

To help someone to come to their own natural conclusions, it is very good to become more and more comfortable with silence.

Silence gives the person space.

Space to think. Space to feel. Space to experience their own reality. It is most effective (allowing silence to happen, if it does) when we are able to maintain a loving atmosphere within ourselves. Which, thankfully for Reiki people is not so difficult. We just need to keep the energy (Reiki energy) flowing. Simply returning our minds to Reiki.

6. Understand yourself and your biases

It is tempting to want to “help” someone get clearer about their issue. Offer our “two pennies” worth. And, this only becomes more challenging as our intuition grows stronger and stronger.

We should always believe in our own feelings (as part of training in intuition), but this should be tempered so that we do not feel so confident as to tell other people what to do. We need to trust others inner wisdom and the wisdom of the universe.. even when our intuition may be telling us their are making a mistake.

7. Be down to earth

Having said that though, I also think it is important for us to be down to earth. To live in the “real world”. If someone comes to you and says they are going to leave their husband, kids, job and everything they previously held dear and were responsible to in life, to go and live on an ashram in india, I think we need to feel it is okay to say “You Idiot”.

Not everything is okay. Particularly when people get caught up in the “magic” and romance of a spiritual path. I think it is our responsibility to be clear and down to earth.

8. Always finish sessions with grounding

Personally, I find that if a session ends with 5-10 minutes of giving Reiki to the persons feet, rather than say, the heart chakra, the person finds themselves more grounded at the end of the session.

All emotionally charged subjects are easier to cope with, and are reflected more clearly upon, when our energy is grounded.

9. Go slowly with sessions

Reiki is a gentle healing energy. It is not designed to clear away a persons energy blocks quickly. It is far more effective when done slowly over a period of time. (Which is why self-treatment is great..)

Taking it slow, for example like having a break between Reiki 1 and 2 of at least 3 months, makes it easier for the person to remain grounded.

10. Let them decide the action plan

The most important point in dealing with client issues that may arise during reiki training and healing is to let the person decide their own action plan. We should never decide for the person, nor should we allow ourselves to be coaxed into providing the person with an action plan.

We should actively listen to the person, remaining mindful of our own biases, paraphrase the key points for the person, be comfortable with silence and not feel that we need to offer opinions or talk, always remain grounded and down to earth ourselves, use grounding hand positions in our sessions to facilitate the grounding of our clients, always take the healing process slowly and encourage our clients to do the same, and always always let the person decide their own action plan.

I really want to apologize to Phyl at the Carnival of Healing for yesterday. We had some really BIG problems with our wordpress template, and the whole site was affected for pretty much the whole day yesterday.

I managed to come up with a solution (at 2am). That has at least got the site back up and running again. But, we are still not able to get the comments working.

Please feel free to drop me an email if there is something you would like to discuss with me personally. Otherwise, please enjoy the Reiki posting we have here at Reiki Blogger. And wish us luck to clear our energy blockages that have manifested with such colourful results!

Again, Sorry to all the carnies that submitted posts and lost a day of readers. Hopefully, people will be able to search through the posts during this week and spend lots of time at your sites.

Special note to Reiki Bloggers.. we should be back to our regular scheduled posting tonight. Thanks for your patience.

We are very excited to bring you the 75th Carnival of Healing.

Thanks to Mind Mart for such a great carnival last week!

I am constantly amazed at the quality of the articles and posts, and the wide variety of writing that comes through the Carnival of Healing. And this week is certainly no exception!

I had intentionally not set limits on the carnival this time around, except of course that the posts needed, as always, to relate to healing. I was hoping that would leave it wide open for us to receive lots of posts. And we sure have!

First off is a Reiki Blogger regular, and a bit of a pen pal of mine these days, Meredith, from reiki4ever who sent us a great post on sound healing. Meredith goes into great detail and writes with her natural authenticity, flair and clarity, making this a very interesting article and a must read!

how to survive a panic attack from finding your marbles. I think this could prove to be quite a special blog. Scott writes in such an open and honest style, and from personal experience not just on this submission’s theme of panic attacks, but other important mental health issues.

aging does not imply decline from good things happen to me: allowing well being to flow. Do you really need to age? Can you turn back the clock on aging. Is aging a concept we just accept without question? Food for thought, well digested in this post.

Book review - healthy at 100 from passion for health. Some interesting points in this overview of an interesting book on aging. Studies of cultures that successfully age with good health.

can blogging reduce depression from center for emotional well being. Now this post definitely caught my attention. I have a personal interest in depression, and we see quite a number of people coming through our little Reiki House with depression. Sometimes I even wonder if it is “the” disease of our time. But, that would not do justice to the struggle many people face with the mulitplicity of illnesses in our modern world. But, anything that contributes to the depression discussion is worth investigating. In my day job, we talk about the importance of community and fulfilling valued social roles, within those communities, to promote self esteem and self worth. Both antidotes to depression. And both things that blogging offers, potentially. Worth reading, is this post. (Did I just regress into Yoga language?)

self improvement terminology: do affirmations really work? from today is that day. Picking up on the “secret” and its momentum, Aaron writes (I think) this inaugural post to launch his new blog.

centered by a miracle from north star mental fitness blog. Dr Hal is a Life and Mental Fitness Coach and has alot of training to provide the advice he does on this blog. “If you need an angel in your life, open your heart to a friend”

the in-laws from a guide to raising great kids. Some interesting comments and observations. Our in-laws come “as a present with your beloved husband or wife”

does god feel sad when she sees us struggling? from evolving times. Ed is a favorite of Reiki Blogger and writes another interesting and easy to read post here. Everyone interested in the law of attraction should stop by Ed’s blog and give themselves a present by spending some time reading through his archives. There is alot of great stuff in there.

gremlins in the garden from Living by design. Personal ecology, respecting yourself, cherishing your values and nourishing yourself.

connect to inner self from success step. Very deep post. But clear and simple. Deep does not have to be complicated. This is a must read for the serious spiritual reader.

the WHY of clutter from its not about your stuff. Another great post! I think we hit the”purple” patch (Australian for “in form” or “in the zone”) around about here in the carnival! Very good detail, lots of insightful things to consider, and ways of deconstructing the why of clutter.

how to heal yourself from Zen Chill, Power Tools for Mind, Body and Soul. Another of our favourites here at Reiki Blogger Zen Chill delivers again with another clear, easy to read, detailed healing post. Just brilliant!

Benefits of music for personal development from Tupelo Kenyon. Quite a long post, but some interesting stories and insights to be found in this post. Another good post in this carnival about music. Some great mind(s) thinking alike, perhaps..

the sun stuck in the mud from candleday. This was an interesting submission. The only photo submission. To be honest I must confess I do not understand it. But, I am grateful for the post. Something different.

keep your eyes in a good conditions with these habits from beauty and personality grooming. Some tips in this post you might not guess.. like rubbing your feet over wet tiles to induce better sleep.. intrigued?

the art of completion from renovate your life with craig. An entertaining post.. the art of completion.. or shall we be honest.. “getting shit done”.. The title (now resident funny man) craig really wanted to call his post. But, as he says in the post “not nearly as mystical, sophisticated or clever as “The Art of Completion”.

5 steps to overcome fear of failure from a better you blog. This is a special post. No doubt about it. If you only read one post in this carnival make it this one.

The doc worries from everyone needs therapy? lessons from a family therapist. And to finish off a great carnival, with some, in my humble opinion, particularly outstanding contributions is an entertaining and funny post (with authority) about worry.

Thanks to everyone that took the time to write a post for the carnival. There was lots of great stuff in there. And for those new “carnies” the carnival of healing will be featured next week at wisdom of healing, it goes up every Saturday, and will be back again at Reiki Blogger on April 14.

Be well!
TC