Making Reiki Mainstream: How To Explain Reiki To Anyone

This talk is for Reiki practitioners and those who want to understand more about Reiki energy healing. It gives you the chance to explore the ways to talk about this powerful, sacred work for what it is, without tripping on your tongue or freaking people out. Most importantly, no one will judge you as a practitioner of pseudoscience but rather will get just enough clear information to decide if they want to hear more.

Reiki...you practice it, you benefit from it, you love it. You represent Reiki practitioners to the world. Now learn to discuss it in a rational way. Together we can help people understand that it is real, not scary, and good for us all.

Even if you don't practice Reiki, you'll learn ways to explain spiritual work that you can apply to whatever you do in the world.

Transcript

Hello, Everyone. I'm Dr. Alice Langholtz and welcome to Making Reiki Mainstream, How to Explain Reiki to Anyone. This is an essential course for anyone who practices Reiki, Because as you know, If you practice Reiki, You're going to encounter people who don't know what Reiki is. And therefore, We as practitioners represent Reiki to the public. We are the face of Reiki. And whatever we say will sway the public opinion about the legitimacy of Reiki, Understanding what it is clearly, Finding out about the benefits of it. And unfortunately, The way that some people explain Reiki, It can actually influence it for the worse. So I'm here to help you know how to express what Reiki is in a way that will be clear, Comprehensible, And help us upgrade the reputation of Reiki for the general public. It's only to your advantage to learn to talk about Reiki in a coherent way. It will make you seem more credible. It will make Reiki be understood as credible. It will be good for your business. If you have a business, It will be good for you personally because people tend to judge Reiki practitioners as weird or a whole lot of things. And I'm here to help you mitigate that. Reiki is a beautiful, Helpful, Natural practice that can enhance people's health, Well-being, Increase intuition. You know, You practice it. You love it. Let's help people understand that. Okay? So I'm here to help. So let's talk about it. So the first thing that happens, Of course, Is you're going to get asked, What is Reiki? And then your reaction is going to start the whole thing. It's going to be your reaction inside, And then your facial expressions, And then the words that you say are all going to form part of the impression that you're making about Reiki. You might feel a little scared of how people are going to react. You might feel a little nervous about what should I say. That's all right. But if you can instead feel confident and ready, You'll start off on the right foot. So, Again, That's why I'm here. All right? I mean, I've been practicing Reiki for 14 years now, And I love it so much. I've made it a very central part of my life. And as I've gone along, I have encountered people from all walks of life and all experience levels that want to know what this is. And it's super important to tailor the explanation to who's asking. So we'll get to that a little later. But first, I want to talk about some of the challenges that Reiki practitioners face in explaining Reiki so that we can definitely address those things and mitigate the challenges and make them, You know, Not be a thing. So that's what this course is about. All right? So, Pause this for a second. Okay, So here are some of the common reactions that could happen when you tell someone that you practice Reiki. So these are the reactions from the person. And I'm going to help you look at how to help that person come to a place of understanding, If that's possible. So first is confusion. You will probably encounter people who've never heard of Reiki. I was once one of those people, And you probably were too. So the first time somebody mentioned Reiki to me as being a good idea, I said, What's that, Rake the leaves? Because I seriously just did not know. So I was confused, And I just said the closest thing that I could think of to what's the word Reiki might be. And I just thought she was talking about raking the leaves. I just didn't understand. So I know it sounds funny, But like this just shows that I didn't know anything about Reiki. And you may encounter people who are like, What's that? I mean, That's very common. There's really a lot of people that don't know. So that's just confusion, And it comes from ignorance, Like not in a rude way, But just like I don't know what that is. It's not in my wheelhouse. It's not in my range of experience. Fine. There's many ways to deal with answering that question. And so we're going to deal with that soon. I just want to put out there that confusion is one possibility that people will respond to you with if you mention that you practice Reiki. Here's another. Disbelief. Disbelief, Unfortunately, Comes from misinformation. Okay, This person already has an opinion of Reiki, And their opinion is that Reiki is fake. Where did they get that opinion? You know, It's very likely it wasn't from having a Reiki session. Most of the people who think Reiki is fake have never had a Reiki session and just formed the opinion on something they heard, Something they read, Like on Wikipedia, Which is really annoying because Wikipedia says that Reiki is pseudoscience. And whoever took over the Wiki channel for Reiki has definitely gone out of their way to discredit it, Which is very unfortunate. So these people that don't believe in Reiki will try to maybe show you, Hey, Look, See, Reiki is fake, You know, Like to try to convince you that you're wrong. We're not wrong. Okay. We're not wrong. We know how good Reiki can be and how much it can help people and we feel amazing about it. But we are uniquely challenged to provide clarity and correction to somebody's previous misinformation, Even if they will be willing to listen and if they might not. Okay, But we can maybe try to gently challenge their belief while offering a new perspective. It's important to find out first if they're willing to discuss where they got this opinion. Maybe you can, You know, Take that and expand it. Maybe they know someone who had a Reiki session and it didn't work or know someone that said this about Reiki or maybe, You know, Where did this come from? Maybe you can gently challenge that, Find out if they're willing to discuss it or have an open mind about it. That's always nice. One suggestion, Though, Don't start by telling them that they're wrong. Because nobody likes that. They're not going to be responsive. Oh, I'm wrong. Right. You know, They're going to get all like defensive and stuff and we don't really want to have that kind of conversation. So really, We want to start by hearing about where they got that opinion. And why they just accepted that and then find out if they're open to hearing about your experience with Reiki. Can I tell you about what Reiki has been like in my life and what happened to me? You know, Maybe they'd be willing to listen to you. That'd be nice. That'd be nice. You know, Maybe it will take them some time. And if the case is they are not open right now, But they are someone that's in your family or something like that, Or like in your friend group, You know, You can just leave it there for a while. And sometime in the future, They may become willing because they see so much good coming out of what you're doing and they find that confusing compared to what they thought they knew. And that's lovely when that happens. So I've been through that. I want to tell you, You know, A lot of times people's like resistance to Reiki is rooted in fear. They're afraid of something they don't understand. And that's driving them to be like rejecting. It's okay. You know, They can be in that place if they choose to and decide to stay. But if they, You know, If they could be open a little bit, It's nice to have the opportunity to share what Reiki is in a way that's acceptable to that person. Let me tell you about my former brother-in-law. For years, He was like, Reiki is fake, You know, And it really it bothered me, Of course, Because I know Reiki is not fake. And that means that not only does he think Reiki is fake, He thinks that I'm fake for practicing Reiki and getting paid to do that. And that, You know, Made me feel uncomfortable. But, You know, After trying many ways to convince him to offer him to try and, You know, In him being like at me, I was just like, Okay, Forget it. And I just went about my life, You know. But then one day, We're at dinner and at his house, And he says, And he was having a high blood pressure problem at this point. And he said, Can Reiki bring down blood pressure? And I said, I've seen that happen. And he goes, Well, How long would it take for you to give someone Reiki and their blood pressure would come down? And I said, About 10 minutes, Probably. And he goes, All right, Let's do something. And I'm like, Great. And he said, I have this blood pressure cuff, We'll take my blood pressure, You'll give me Reiki for 10 minutes, And we'll take it again and see if there's any change. And I said, Okay. Because if I would have said, Oh, No, Then it would look like I'm scared, Right? And I, You know, I was willing to try. So I said, The one thing that I need from you is to be open to allowing the energy to work so that we can have like an unbiased experiment. Because if you're going to be sitting there like Reiki's fake, Reiki's fake, It's not going to be a good experiment for you. And the results will be skewed. And he's like, Fine. I'm like, Okay, Fine. So he rests in his, He takes his blood pressure, It's kind of high, He rests in his recliner chair. I give him Reiki for 10 minutes and don't really even say anything at all. Just remind him to just relax and just notice how he feels and not try to do anything at that point. And he comments how relaxed he is. And I'm kind of laughing inside, But okay. And, And then, You know, 10 minutes, Ding, You know, We set a timer, Whatever, He takes his blood pressure again, And it came down 20 points. 20. And that is a very significant change. It's a very significant amount. It's not just a little, It's not like, Well, And he took it again to make sure and it was, And, You know, Relaxing 10 minutes in a recliner on its own probably wouldn't have done that. So, He was, He was like, Oh, Yeah, I guess this does do something. Yeah, Thank you. Great. And I felt like so excited actually but it's fine. Let's move on. Another thing that might happen when you tell somebody that you practice Reiki is they reject, They say, Oh, Oh no. No, Reiki is, Oh that's fake, That's stupid. That's different than, It's different than the previous one. Okay, The previous one was disbelief. This is flat out rejection, Kind of like what my brother-in-law was doing kind of, But this is like, This may come from someone that had a bad experience in some way. Either they had a weird psychic experience that scared the crap out of them which has nothing to do with Reiki, Really, But they're like lumping Reiki in with that. Or they had maybe a mini session from somebody, And they didn't feel anything, They didn't feel better or they felt kind of weird, And that felt unpleasant to them like maybe they felt ungrounded, Maybe they felt kind of dizzy. I got an email from someone who said that they felt nauseous after a Reiki session and floaty, And to that person it was really unpleasant, Like, So don't want to ever do that again was her response, You know, So that's what I'm talking about here, This kind of rejection that they maybe had a negative experience in some way that they are relating to Reiki. And you can address this with the person if you have the opportunity. You can address it by choosing to like attempt to explain that a single experience doesn't represent all Reiki experiences, That there's someone, You know, Another Reiki experience for them might be different, It's really very related to where they are at the time, What's happening with them at the time. You might clarify if they think that Reiki equals psychic, And some experience that they had with a weird whatever happened to them in the middle of the night is related to Reiki and somehow, You can clear that up and separate that for them and that might be helpful. You can assess if they're willing to entertain the idea that another experience with Reiki might be different, Or with a different practitioner, Or a different day, You know, Just kind of like some days you have, If you have a headache Tylenol helps and some days it doesn't. You can try these ideas to see how open minded they are about their viewpoint. But if it comes from some sort of religious upbringing, Some religious teaching that they have internalized, Then that's different than they have like an experience, Oh, It's against my religion. Okay, Um, You can make light inquiries about if they're willing to hear your views about Reiki, And if they're like, Nope, Can't, Then just don't don't push it, We don't want to push, Because then we seem pushy. And that's not a good, That's not a good way to represent Reiki by being pushy nobody likes pushy person pushing at them, You know, Give them space, Let them have it. But if they are open. I'm going to give you some tips in a little bit about how to address somebody that has a religious objection to Reiki. If they are open to that, To listening. Okay. Again, We're not proselytizing and we're not pushing that is not a good, It's not a good look. We don't want to do that. Okay, Let's go to the next one. The next possible reaction to somebody who says that we practice Reiki laughter. They laugh at you, They dismiss Reiki as a joke. Are you kidding? Oh my god that's ridiculous you're playing with invisible energy, Energy, You know like really like that kind of obnoxiousness but it what is that it comes from fear usually. If they laugh at you or they just dismiss Reiki as a joke, It's likely that you're not going to be able to change their mind. I will tell you a story about when I did this badly. Some years ago, Somebody on Twitter challenged me and told me that what I was doing was ridiculous. So I wanted to change their mind. So I offered to send that person distance Reiki so they could experience it. Why I thought they would have an open mind was like totally a mistake on my part, Don't do this. Anyways, I offered to send him a distance and I can tell you this was a very bad idea because he used my offer as a chance to ridicule me and make a joke of my sincere attempts to help educate him. And he then several did many rude tweets at me and a snide blog post that he tagged me in. And later I was the one who learned something here. Yeah. So people that are, You know, Laughing at you or totally have decided that what you're doing is stupid or fake are not really worth playing with. I mean, You can consider if it's worth it to offer a new perspective, But if you're going to be mocked, You know, And that's how they're going to reinforce that they're right, You're just not going to be in a, You know, Feeling good about that. So it's, You know, If they're just, If it's coming from a place of, They don't know, You can make a lighthearted approach to show them, But make sure that you think that they're sincerely willing to hear you if you move forward beyond that. Because results can be a very powerful way to learn. And if you actually did give someone, This is not skeptical. Okay. This is derisive. There's a difference. Someone's skeptical. It's like, Well, I don't know. I've never heard of that, But I'll try. Totally awesome. Those are some of the best people to give Reiki to. Because they are interested in feeling something, Experience something, Experiencing something. They haven't made up their minds. Okay. So if you encounter somebody that's skeptical, That's cool. But if you encounter someone that's laughing at you and like, What a joke and stuff, Then it's probably best to let them be and continue doing what you do with quiet confidence over there, Like, You know, In the rest of your life. If this person is someone in your friend circle or someone that you, You know, Run into often or in your family or whatever, They may start to notice that the work that you're doing is having results, That people are happy with it, That you have like amazing stories to report and people are listening and they may start to question their own state of mind about this. I love it when that happens. But we can't count on that. And we, Again, Can't push people into trying it. Just try it. Let me do that for you. Please don't do that. Please don't. Please, Please don't. It's not going to be good for anybody. And like I said, I learned that the hard way some years ago, Many years ago. All right, Here's another thing. This is similar. Okay, This is judgment as illegitimate. I mean, I know I'm presenting several things that sound similar, But they are, They're different because judgment of Reiki and by association, You, Us, As illegitimate, Like it comes from ignorance, Maybe fear, Like my brother-in-law, Former brother-in-law. But we don't want that to spread. So if we can get somebody to, If we can offer someone the opportunity to hear a different point of view, To hear about our experiences with Reiki, That can, That can help. Because remember, We're practitioners, We're experts in energy healing. We are experts in Reiki. People that are coming from that side of things are not. They're people that have only transitioned, Transcendently heard of it or, Or, You know, We don't know. They definitely don't have the experience that we have. That makes us an expert compared to them. Okay. And as an expert, As a practitioner of this wonderful healing therapy, We have the opportunity to present a new, A new way of seeing what we do, A new perspective. Okay. Okay. And so remember also that it's not about us. If they are having some opinion that what we do is a sham and everything, It's about them. It really reflects them and their like step inside their mind, Their mindset. It's, It's, We know what we're doing is legit. No one can like make you feel illegitimate when you know what you're doing is legitimate. So please remember that. Believe in yourself and what you're doing and someone else's opinion isn't about you and all the things that you do. It's really about them and their filters and their perspective. And it doesn't change anything about you and what you do. Okay. So please don't ever own that. So, And definitely we don't want to give someone like that, Like more reason to feel that they're right. And we can accidentally do that by the way we come across. If we come across as insecure or anxious when talking about Reiki, We will make them think that Reiki is shameful or weird and that we feel weird about it. That's like, Seriously, Having quiet confidence is way better. Having a confident way of expressing yourself, Talking in a down to earth way, Rather than incorporating words that come across as woo woo, Like, You know, Don't jump into a conversation about Reiki with like chakras and angels and whatever. Unless you know that the person you're talking to can respond to that and has some background in that. Okay. Because we don't generally assume that people that you meet randomly, Like, Know this stuff or, You know, And so it's best to keep the vocabulary down to earth and simple. Okay. So we're going to talk about examples of success stories that you've had, Sources that you can offer as references, And a willingness to communicate without defensiveness. And we're going to talk about exact kinds of words that are good to use shortly. So, Reiki. There are some inherent challenges in describing Reiki and, Yeah, So we do have our work cut out for us here. And one, Of course, The first challenge is that Reiki is invisible and pretty much immeasurable. Yeah, That's a challenge because everybody else can say, Oh, I'm a dentist. Here's my dentist tools. I'm a Reiki practitioner. Yeah. Okay. Yay. We got to really believe in what we're doing to be able to do this work. Um, No, I mean, But we have amazing experiences that validate our work and help us feel confident that what we're doing is real, Right? But that's the thing. Just believe me is not a good philosophy for expressing what Reiki is about. Just believe me is like, You're going to be rejected. People are going to, Yeah, Sure, Whatever lady, You know, We don't, We don't want that. It doesn't convince people that something's real if they can't see or experience it. And that's what's important here. Experience is a really powerful way to learn. It's a powerful teacher. And, You know, Reiki's reality and effectiveness is best, Best understood through experience. So, A willingness to try is totally great. If you say, Can I show you, Can I give you a little bit of Reiki energy and see what, So you can see what it's like. Sometimes people will be open to that and there you have a wonderful opening to do that. But remember, People are like, No, You know, They're afraid, Or, You know, They're trying to make you feel bad. Don't push it. Don't push it. Okay. Don't try to give them a whole lot of websites and stuff to look at if they're not willing. Okay, If they're not just even willing to discuss it with you. That said, There are some quantitative ways that you might have the opportunity to show the effects of Reiki in the body. Some measurable things like a blood pressure monitor. It is very possible that if you give someone Reiki and they're willing to receive it that their blood pressure will change. It'll come down to a relaxed state. That's possible. I definitely have seen it many times. A heart rate variability monitor. Also, It shows a balance in the autonomic nervous system. If you have this kind of technology or you're interested in that, Check out a company called HeartMath. HeartMath. Com. Okay, Check out them. They have these really cool monitors for sale. And actually, It's a wonderful biofeedback device for teaching yourself to get into a balanced state, Which is really good for healing. I did a very extensive research project for my PhD dissertation using their equipment. And it was really very, Very significant and valuable. An EEG headset. Again, Like I'm sort of a technology freak in a lot of ways about this stuff. I love to see results, You know, Since Reiki is invisible, But I can see what it's doing, You know, In the brain and the body by using technology. So an EEG headset, There's interesting variations of those things out there by a company I recommend called NeuroSky, For example. I think Muse also has something like that. Works syncs up with an app. You can see what changes in the brain when a person's receiving Reiki. And it's something that can be actually kind of noticed. Okay. Now, If you can show them a naysayer when they're willing to look at some of like technology measuring the changes in the body, You know, It might be a way to help them understand. I wouldn't like lead with that necessarily, But if you have the opportunity, Might be fun to try. Okay. Another challenge besides the invisibility of Reiki is that some websites, As I mentioned briefly about Wiki, They represent Reiki as pseudoscience and that is very frustrating. Because the reason this is frustrating, Of course, Is because if somebody types into Google, What is Reiki? Because they're curious and want to learn about it. They heard about it. Maybe it could help them. They're wondering. And they get, Oh, There's Wikipedia. Quick way to learn about something. Sure. It's on page one of Google. Click. And they read this. Somebody has taken over the Wikipedia page and made it very bad. It made it very, Very one-sided in a negative way about Reiki. Go ahead and look it up. I looked it up yesterday and it's still there and it just sucks. Misinformation is going to feed the ignorance. It's going to feed that and give us stronger challenges to expressing the legitimacy of Reiki. I'm sorry. I really hate that, Honestly. But you know what? What that means is we just have to be stronger, More grounded, More clear, More powerful in the way that we are sharing the results that we get, That we are proud of what we do, And that we are living examples of the goodness that Reiki can bring to somebody's life. So I want to say that it's very important for us as practitioners to know what's out there. So go ahead. Google what is Reiki. Read some stuff. Read that Wikipedia page. But it's not only that one. Because unfortunately, Wording can screw up some of the most highly regarded websites. And when I say screw up, I mean their websites are fine, But the wording that they're using to describe Reiki can set their opinion in the wrong direction in a way that's maybe not what we want, Even the best websites. And that's really another challenge for us. If you have a website, Don't just copy stuff and paste it as far as what is Reiki. Kind of look at every word and what somebody that doesn't know about Reiki might be thinking when they read that particular phrase. So I'm going to call out a very, Very big Reiki website, Probably the most well-known. And I'm going to point out something that's problematic about their Reiki description. And I went to their page yesterday just to make sure, And it's on their front page and also in their FAQ. And it's Reiki. Org. William Rand, The king of Usui Reiki in North America. I definitely think he's got a lot of good things going. And I'm not trying to discredit him at all, But I think that his definition of Reiki is problematic because the wording that he uses can turn somebody off very quickly. And I don't think he really realizes that, Unfortunately. And the other problem is people think, Well, He's the main source on Usui Reiki. I'm just going to copy his definition and put it on my website. And then it gets like multiplied. And let me explain. Okay, I have his definition here. I'm going to just go over a few key points in his main definition of what is Reiki, Which is on the front page. Go see it yourself. The first sentence is fine. It's a method of stress reduction, Relaxation, Promotes healing. Fine. Then he says, It's administered by the laying on of hands. Laying on of hands is a term that comes from religion. Okay, This is a laying on of hands got evangelical connotations that many people would recognize. Oh, Laying on of hands. I personally find that I would veer away myself if I had seen that and didn't know what Reiki was. Laying on of hands. Oh, We're going there. Okay, So that I don't like. Then he has the phrase, It is based on the idea. Based on the idea. Okay, Like, Like, Well, It's kind of like that. That's, That's a little like based on a true story. Like, You know, It's not real. You know, I have trouble with those words. And then he says, Life force energy, And he has the words life force energy in quotation marks. First of all, When you put something in quotation marks, It means you're being like ironic, Or maybe like, You know, Like, It doesn't seem real. Like, Oh, Why are we putting it in quotes? Who are we quoting? It doesn't make sense. But yeah, He's got it in quotation marks. Then he's got a problem with like grammar. And he says, When you're, Oh, He says, When one's life force energy is high, Then we're more likely to feel well. Okay, That's confusing, Because he's using two different kinds of, Of first person, Third person, Whatever, Plural and singular. And so when you say one, You're talking about one person, We talk about we now we're in the now it's second person, Plural. And so like, It means that that sounds like if one person over there's energy is high, Whatever that means high, It should be in balance, But he says And he uses low also, Which also confusing, It should be balanced or imbalanced or depleted or something like that. Okay. But then he says, And we're likely to feel some sort of a way. But that means that that person over there feels this way, And the rest of us are affected. And that is also not really not clear. It's very ambiguous. It's a little confusing. It's inaccurate. Okay, So you get it. Somebody, We know what Reiki is, We read this and we go, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, That's what it is. Sure. But that's the wording choices are problematic. Somebody else that doesn't know about Reiki and would read this and try to read carefully to understand it could become very confused. So, These are some things that we have to think really hard about. Because we are presenting Reiki to someone that doesn't know what it is. And so all right. Moving on another inherent challenge is religious objections. I mentioned that before. Sometimes people think that they're stepping into the we must be stepping into the role that God is supposed to play or Jesus is supposed to play or something else we are out we are we are outside of our, What do you say get out of your get into your lane, You know, Stepping into someone else's lane here God's lane or something by doing this work and calling ourselves a healer and It's a challenge to confront this if a person holds it very dear. However, It's good to avoid argument with someone who's like extremely sure that this is wrong for them. Fine, Let them be. However, If they are at all open to learning how learning how Reiki can be, You know, Learning how could Reiki possibly be acceptable if I'm a religious person. You can, And they're Christian, You can send them to christianreiki. Org. Because that's a beautiful website. I know that they I did notice when I went to it again yesterday to show it to somebody I noticed that they were paraphrasing William Rand's definition, But they do go on and they embellish better and fine. It's still a really good website, But christianreiki. Org is a really good resource. So I really would encourage if you have the opportunity to share with someone, How is Reiki not against religion. That's a really awesome resource, And definitely geared towards help towards, You know, Explaining this somebody from their perspective that Reiki is safe and okay, And at least giving them the opportunity to think about it. Because the sources are religious people that write that website. I also believe, You know, Personally, And I have said this to people that spirit God is working through me to help people. I'm working with my connection with my spirituality not against it. And that basically I don't really feel in alignment with the idea that if I have something that I can do to help somebody, My job is just to stand back and wait for God to do it. Like, Maybe God would want me to be a vehicle of helping. So that to me that's a blessing and not a sin. And I'm, You know, Comfortable saying that and letting somebody think about it. Possibly, If they're like, That's it against it. Let them go on their way. Here's another challenge. Consistent results. Inconsistent results. So that's the thing Reiki doesn't work the same way for everyone, It's, That's tough, Because people come in with all different levels of need and different kinds of imbalance and Reiki. You know, Isn't guaranteed. We don't know how it's going to help exactly we have goals we have intentions. But we can't promise that it's going to do any of this or that, You know, But then again you know medicine is sort of the same way doctors will say here, Try this and let's see if it works and if it doesn't work come back and we'll try something else. Nobody's going to tell the doctor, You told me this work, You know, And the doctor be like, I'm sorry. And then you're a fake, Like, No, The doctor will just be like well we tried this and it really wasn't for you let's try something else you know Reiki can be like you can think about it like that, You know, It's not really fair that that someone be like well I tried Reiki and it didn't work you know like, Or, Or, You know, It might help and you just, You know, So I just say Reiki always helps. How it's going to help you. I'd love to give this a try. Let's talk about how you felt before how you feel after, You know, Let's look at that I mean everybody's body is sensitive to healing interventions in different ways. Everyone's in energy is made up of many aspects that respond differently to different approaches and so maybe Reiki is great for them or maybe maybe acupuncture is better or a chiropractor or maybe they need surgery I mean obviously I would never give someone Reiki in lieu of them having surgery but if they were already. They wanted to try it. I'm not going to say no and I've given Reiki to people that have had surgery afterwards to help them recover I mean there's a lot of ways to utilize Reiki. One is that you can't base your own health decisions about what worked for other people. That's the other thing where individuals in our bodies are in our energy systems are individual based on so many factors. So, To say, Well it didn't work for her doesn't mean it isn't going to work for you, You know, So that's the thing that you can try to remind people about. And maybe it's just a thing about right time right place. Okay, So we're not in charge of how Reiki is received but like I said I just say Reiki changes things Reiki always helps in some way. Even if it's just going to, And then I say just like in quotes because if Reiki is going to help you feel relaxed. That's not a small thing that relaxation, Then directs the body to heal itself. It puts the body in an optimal state for healing. And so, If you can get relaxed at a rate during a Reiki session, Your body is going to start to be in the state of healing. And that's, You know, The, If you were stressed, Then our bodies can't heal they're too busy trying to save our lives, Like fight or flight, Like that kind of savior to survive, Not heal, They put healing aside to survive, You know, That's the stress state, But you get into relaxation state and rest and digest and heal is part of that. So, You know, Realistic expectations are also very important when it comes to this, Because people often will come to us as practitioners after they've tried every medical intervention possible, And then they're in just a state of humongous imbalance, And so to be of Reiki and I'm not better is kind of, You know, Maybe an expectation that's unrealistic. So, Important for us to help people have a willingness to try five sessions or some number that may, You know, And how close together, Not a month apart, But like, You know, Come a couple times a week, Come once a week, Depending on their state of being, Like several doses of medication, Right, You take one antibiotic if you have a terrible infection and then think it's like all better, Like not usually. So, The other thing about Reiki and this is why we're here is that it can be difficult to define, There is no one translation from Japanese there's a lot of different translations of those words Reiki. Mysterious spiritual spirit, Life force energy, Vital energy, Living energy. And if you say it means mysterious life force energy that already makes people be like, Yeah, You know, Like I try to tweak the definition a little bit to sound normal. So what I just say is Reiki is an energy therapy. I definitely use the word energy there are people out there big Reiki people out there with their websites that don't even use the word energy and I think that that's misrepresenting what Reiki is, It is an energy healing practice. I call it energy therapy to try to like contrast it with physical therapy. People like oh I know what physical therapy is energy therapy is how you're the rest of you integrates with your physical body and getting therapy for that will help your physical body to then have an easier time with healing like that's something that sounds very reasonable doesn't it. So, We want to be clear and mainstream and tailor our explanations to meet the needs of the audience. So I don't tell a child it's an energy therapy, You know, A child can be like but you know, I say to a child, It's a warm energy that feels good and makes you feel better when something's wrong, Because that's things that a kid can relate to. Oh, I want to feel better when something's wrong. I don't like to feel bad, You know that oh Reiki can help me with that. Cool. And that's enough for them. You know, But I'm not going to say that to a doctor or a scientist, I'll use different words, When I speak to someone who practices a different energy healing method, Like, Like quantum touch or Qigong or something like that I'll use different words I'm going to talk to them on a different level because they're, They share some vocabulary with us. So, A total stranger I'm going to just go to like Reiki is an energy therapy for and I give like a few benefits stress relief pain relief and increased well being, Or, You know, Better health. Because those are things that a regular person can relate to immediately. Oh, And their benefits that most people want. So, Then, You know, From there, Let them ask me questions and I will respond to them in a way that's again appropriately geared toward the person I'm talking to. Here's another challenge. Different methods, Different practices. So Reiki has developed over the years and taken on different flavors different ways of practicing and different additions, Then the way that Mikawa Usui was, You know, Teaching it though he himself did teach it in different ways to meet the needs of who he was Mrs Takada codified a curriculum that became known as the Usui Reiki method. And so standardized modernized whatever she made it as a thing, You know that. Anyways, It's, It's, It's developed and there's nothing wrong with that. And it's funny because you learn Reiki, People learn Reiki from different teachers and those teachers teach the way they were taught. And it's passed down in many different iterations, Even if everyone thinks that they are teaching the same thing. My original Reiki teacher came from Israel, The way she was taught is that the practitioner needs to start the Reiki energy by going Reiki, Reiki I'm calling the Reiki energy, Like, I'm not kidding I know that sounds hilarious but I'm not kidding. And she also told me that you can't send distance healing to someone without knowing their full name, Their location and their mother's name. And she wasn't trying to confuse me. This is what she was taught. She came from Israel, It's a highly like matrilineal like descent oriented society. And it made sense then but I know now that you don't need that stuff. You just need your idea the idea of who that person is so that you can send them. So that makes the connection meaning like that lady with red hair at the grocery store that asked me for Reiki like that's fine. But there's no correct way to practice. She had said their way is the correct way and other ways are the incorrect way. And then in fighting among different practitioners 10 different practitioners practicing 10 different ways and everyone thinking that their way is the right way makes a mess. Okay, Of describing Reiki because they're going to describe it so someone has come to you for a Reiki session and they've previously gone to someone else who did it different. Differently and they come to you with an expectation that you're going to do what they did, Or they come to you with an expectation, A hope that you're going to do it differently, Because they didn't like that experience you know you you don't know what their expectation is but you don't know how that person gave them a Reiki session, Maybe that person used crystals maybe that person did symbols around them maybe it's that person used some other tools, You know, Or, Or, Or made them pray I mean gosh, You know, There's a whole bunch of ways that people practice Reiki. And that's a challenge for us. It's important to be able to clearly explain what you do in your practice and what to expect from your work. That's the solution to that. So the person can decide if they want to try that or not, Or they'd prefer the person who does the other thing. All right. Here's another one. Oh my goodness, I'm so I hope you're feeling okay right now because I know I'm throwing a lot at you. Another challenge is there are different, Different explanations conflict in news sources. So, In 2014, I was one of a few experts interviewed by us news. Com in their health section for an article called what is Reiki. You know, Let me be part of like someone like clarifying this for the public and I was very excited and everything. And here's the subtitle of the article. It's not meditation massage or prayer, But practitioners and clients say Reiki heals in ways that are hard to explain. I mean, That subtitle already sets it up for a confusion, Because, First of all, Giving us three things that isn't, And then saying it's hard to explain already makes the article like you already kind of get the flavor that it's going to be difficult. And it is the article is difficult. There's a lot of difficulties in that article. So, Different people in the article that were interviewed had different things to say about it and they also interviewed somebody that was a retired lawyer. And it just, There's many things in there, Including somebody saying that you can't explain it you have to feel it. That was not me I promise you. And, And people saying there's actually no proof that Reiki actually does anything, Which was that lawyer and that kind of sucked also so, You know, Oh the and the and even the person who wrote the article commented that Reiki is complicated hard to describe and hard to prove. And, And, You know, That article was sad to me, Because here I was trying to represent Reiki in an incredible way and this article was already sort of pushing the idea that it's pretty complicated and you're not going to understand it anyway. And even practitioners can't understand it and then one of the people interviewed in the article said Reiki certificates are a sham because they can just be, You could get certified on a website that doesn't make you do anything, You know, In a weekend in a, In 48 hours, And unfortunately that's really true, Which is my next point okay I'm not going to go into the depths of that article right here. But I'll tell you if you, You know, It's, You could look it up. Okay, So the other another challenges that programs to learn Reiki very, Very, Very, Very sorry very quite widely in cost and quality. Some courses are taught online, I have definitely I'm a fan of online teaching. But some are not taught well online and I'm not a fan of that some are also not taught well in person. I even received an email with a subject line become a Reiki master in hours and the whole program was $47 and no live support at all. And you get a certificate immediately. And that doesn't make us feel like we have a legitimate practice if a doctor could get certified like that, We would not have faith in our doctors that they went through the same kind of training as other doctors right. Reiki is not regulated, And that's true. And so anybody can say that they're doing a program that makes you a Reiki master. I think that it's really important to emphasize to anyone that we might be talking to about Reiki that a Reiki master is someone who's like deeply committed to the practice themselves, And a teacher of Reiki should be committed to their students success and confidence in learning Reiki. Those are the success factors. I do not believe that Reiki should be regulated, Because it's not able to be measured. And because there are different ways to teach it which appeal to different people's learning styles. I teach practical Reiki it doesn't use hand positions or symbols it's extremely effective and people feel like it's easy to learn and so they're willing to practice because they get results right away. Other people are drawn to structure and learning Usui Reiki is a good method for them, Or they can learn more than one method and compare and start to really think about the practice itself and what's happened. So, Um, So. All right, I mean, You just, Whoo. And I this this really riles me up guys. So here's an essential list for you, I have an essential list for you. Reiki practitioner master's essential list. In order to represent Reiki well, Here it is. Number one, You need a clear single sentence definition, Your own. Okay. But avoid ambiguity, Avoid religious connotations, Avoid weirdness, Or words that people don't understand, And start with a single simple sentence with some benefits that most people can understand. So like what I say is Reiki is an energy therapy for pain relief stress relief and better health. I already explained that why I taught use the word therapy, And why I use the word energy, And why I use benefits because if a person can understand what's in it for them, They may be more curious about learning more about it. So, If, If instead I had said Reiki healing balances the chakras and clenches the aura of negative energy that could do a lot of things on the range of confusing and freaking people out. People who are unfamiliar with the word chakra and aura would feel like I'm speaking some other language that they aren't privy to and if I said the word negative energy they might feel afraid and start thinking about ghosts or demons or God forbid, You know, Something like that, You know, So I don't want to give people that I want to sound as coherent and normal as possible. It doesn't mean that Reiki doesn't do those things but it's about what does a person need to hear right now. And then, Please craft an energy and a Reiki elevator speech sorry. Okay. And that speech needs to include some things like the benefits of Reiki. How can Reiki help you. Okay. How it's given, Like I say, Reiki is often given with a gentle touch or hands hovered above or around your body in certain places. Because people want to know what what might it feel like to have Reiki is it going to hurt, You know, Is it going to, Is it going to scare me and and so you can talk about these things, And you don't need me to give you the words for that but I usually say most people report feelings of very deep relaxation, Peaceful bliss they might see colors or feel tingles or heat, And as stress dissolves and pain decreases, You might have an emotionally lighter feeling and have a good sense that everything feels all right, You know, That's, That's very desirable, And also very true. So, Figure out your Reiki elevator speech and memorize it. Something you'll use for the basic person, Someone who doesn't you don't know well the mainstream public, You want to avoid confusing terms and then from here you can you can tweak definitions or write new definitions for different people that you might address I already mentioned that one, A practitioner of a different healing method a different holistic method. You can say something like Reiki is an energy healing modality that uses intention, Facilitated by the practitioner to aid the recipient in replenishing depleted energy and balancing the energy system, You can talk to somebody about life force energy chakras because a holistic practitioner already understands these things and you don't have to. You don't have to use very basic language with them, But you don't use that language, If you're going to talk to a religious person for a religious person you might say something like, Similar to meditation or prayer Reiki is a natural tool for assisting people in becoming and staying healthy. And so, You know, That's a nice thing, And that sounds fine and it's good like I said to familiarize yourself with websites that would be good resources for people religious who are curious about Reiki. A medical professional. Okay, They don't want to hear any woo woo language and the word energy can sometimes be weird for them. They weren't trained in Reiki in medical school, Unfortunately, Except for maybe holistic nurses, If we're lucky. So, We want to say something that speaks to them, And what I say when it comes to that is Reiki is complimentary to medical treatment, Because it helps involve the patient in his or her own healing processes. Their relaxation that Reiki provides helps the person focus on healing rather than anxiety which blocks healing being relaxed produces advantages in the healing process reduces pain. You know, So these are things pain management, Anxiety management, Optimism. These are things that a doctor would want their patient to have to help support their body's ability to heal. So if you talk to a doctor about Reiki, You can use words like that. So finally, Okay, Let me give you a few more tips before we conclude this class. Other ways to represent Reiki as a professional include having a decent website where you use clear language and avoid connotations that again, You know, Make people confused, That give people a way to contact you to get more information or sign up for whatever you offer, And a page about you. So, These are, Remember, Ways that we are representing Reiki to the public. And so, We're the frontline. So we have to be coherent, Personable, Knowledgeable, And not seem confused or afraid ourselves. Here's another tip, Please have a consistent self healing practice. You're a role model, You love Reiki, You need Reiki, Just like everyone. And so the more you use it in your daily life, The easier it is to talk about. Represent Reiki as an expert, And this means online and in public. Use social media to share your love for Reiki genuinely and sincerely. Because people who are ashamed to talk about it or embarrassed, Oh, They'll think I'm weird, Or people that make Reiki look weird. Somebody, What do you do? And they go, You'll think it's weird. Yeah, You're gonna think it's weird. You're all ready to think it's weird. You're primed for that. Don't do that. We don't want that. Oh, I do this really cool thing. I don't know, Have you ever heard of Reiki? Let me tell you about it. Isn't that nice? Okay, See the difference? I know you do. And maybe this means that you'll gain some respect. If you're talking on podcasts, Maybe publishing blogs, Articles, The more that you are talking about your love for Reiki in an enthusiastic, Articulate way, The more you're going to gain respect and help support the image of Reiki. And it'll be good for your business. So, Again, Confidence, Clarity, Coherence, The three C's. I just threw that out there. I don't know. Get some, I think a Google business listing is very helpful if you have a practice. Get some testimonials, Get some reviews, Encourage people to do that for you because that helps to secure legitimacy for your practice. And it serves you well. It shows up in searches. It looks good for you. It helps support you and people that are going to be interested in trying it will be looking for if you have reviews. Does anybody think that she's any good or he's any good? That's what the reviews will say. That's a good thing to have. So, That is all of the information I have for you right now. But feel free to contact me or you can buy my book, Making Reiki Mainstream. It's an ebook on Amazon. Or you can get the book, The Lightworker's Compendium, Volume Two, Professional Edition, Which includes this ebook in it as well as two other very helpful ebooks that are also about helping to support your practice. So, I'm Dr. Alice Langholt and I really thank you for joining me today and I would love to hear from you about if you found this course helpful. Feel free to reach out. Thank you.

Reviews

Thank you so much for this talk . I am excited about Reiki. I just got certified in level 2 and will start practicing on myself first, my family and friends . Your experienced is very valuable as it showed me what kind of issues people might have when I tell them about Reiki.
Much love and gratitude to you for sharing !❤️❤️❤️🙏🙏🙏

I really appreciate your talk! Great advice all around and a reminder to be aware of your audience. I'd love to take a class from you! 😃 Thank you. Reiki blessing. P. S. Thanks for the response. 🙏

Fabulous, thank you. Lots of ideas both for me and my business, and for passing onto my students. Sending love and light 🙏