I taught a Reiki for Self-Care class this weekend. It was a great joy to attune three new practitioners to this powerful healing art. I’ve condensed my Reiki 1 curriculum down to the bare essentials of what students need to treat themselves in order to be active participants in their own well-being. In two and a half hours I cover the basics of what Reiki is, where it comes from, and how we can use it in our daily lives to boost our immune systems and relieve stress. It truly is so simple that one afternoon can change our lives.

I saw a friend afterwards who was surprised that the class was so brief. “How do you teach people to feel energy?” she wanted to know. I was stunned for a moment, as I have absolutely no idea how to do that! Practicing Reiki over more than a decade has opened up my receptivity to feeling energy, but no one ever taught me this skill. I realized that she thought sensing energy , blockages, and auras was necessary to practice Reiki. Luckily it isn’t.

I was grateful to address this misperception because it gave me insight as to why some people might feel unwilling to take my class. It had never occurred to me that someone might be worried that they couldn’t feel energy and would therefore not be a successful Reiki practitioner. Since Reiki energy is spiritually guided, practitioners need not worry about how it is distributed. I teach a series of hand positions that targets all organs, glands, and chakras to cover all the bases. Once students have been initiated through the attunement process, they simply follow the series to tune-up the whole system, or place their hands on or near an area of discomfort for minor first aid treatment.

It really is that simple! We don’t need to detect any negative energy or blocked energy or weak energy. We don’t need to investigate anatomy or physiology or pathology. We don’t need to speak with our inner children or higher selves. We just turn on the juice and let it flow where it’s needed. The hand positions are actually just suggestions that give our minds something to hold onto. The mere intention to flood ourselves with healing energy turns on the tap. The Reiki takes over from there, allowing us to sit back and soak it up. It’s sometimes hard to imagine that something so powerful can be so simple. And that, my friends, is the beauty of this miraculous technique!