Caring for ourselves is caring for others

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Caring for ourselves is caring for others

Kate Jones • 27 October 2022

Self care can sometimes be neglected by those in caring professions

In our session of the Professional Reiki Practitioner Course this month, the students and I were exploring the important question of self care. We noted that receiving treatment is a fundamental characteristic of our Reiki practice, whether we only have a ‘home’ treatment practice, offering Reiki to family and friends, or are a full-on professional Reiki practitioner working regularly giving Reiki to people we don’t know.

I have noticed over the years many Reiki and other complementary therapists are givers, who will prioritise the care of others over caring for themselves. In Ludlow a herbalist recently died in her treatment room, leaving everyone shocked and saddened. In our discussions one of the students shared how she had become ill after some treatments, which I assured her is not necessary or desirable when working as a practitioner!

When we give treatments to others as a professional we need to be consistently there for them. This means that it is important to keep ourselves in the best possible health, so that we don’t fall ill and have to cancel sessions. This means ensuring rest and nourishment for body mind and spirit.

When I first learned Reiki I remember finding the teaching on self-care through daily self-Reiki quite challenging. Like many people I was brought up to believe that it is better to care for others than to look after our own needs. However my Reiki practice and life experiences have taught me that in order to really care for others we need to care for ourselves! If we don’t, our own health and well-being suffers and we are eventually unable to offer our gifts.

Good self-care is not easy. It requires willingness to take time out, to listen to our bodies and take action when something is off balance. We can be so busy doing things for others that we completely ignore the discomfort or pain in our bodies that is trying to tell us something. Sometimes we mistakenly assume that nothing can be done to improve it or worse that there is something noble about sacrificing ourselves.

When we show up to do a Reiki treatment for someone feeling stressed, tired or ill we are not serving them in the best way. There is an expectation that those working professionally are ‘fit to practice’, which includes mental as well as physical health. I think most of us would know that if we had flu or tested positive for Covid we would not be ‘fit to practice’ due to the risk of passing on the virus. However, would we think about not being fit to practice due to a mental condition such as grief if our beloved cat had just died? I heard of a practitioner who spent the whole treatment crying and talking the client about her cat. She was clearly not in a state to listen to the person she was giving Reiki to and the client found the treatment less than relaxing to say the least! So, it’s important that we don’t bring our own issues into the treatment.

So when we care for ourselves we also care for those we give Reiki to.

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Guest Blog by Gulara Vincent: How Reiki Taught Me Trust

by Kate Jones • 6 December 2024

How Reiki Taught Me Trust by Gulara Vincent Reiki found me one Tuesday evening in late February 2009. I saw a leaflet on the windowsill of my Tai-chi teacher’s class at the Buddhist Centre in Birmingham. There was a taster session the next evening and on an impulse I decided to attend it. The next evening, I walked in the vicinity of the Health Centre in King’s Heath without any luck. I couldn’t find the right building in the dark. Disappointed, I came home. Wasn’t meant to be, I decided. Except when I saw leaflets advertising Reiki 1 a week later, I was drawn to it like a moth to the light. I had no idea what Reiki was, but couldn’t resist signing up for the class anyway. I remember the night before my Reiki 1 training, a housemate who had Reiki initiation a few years earlier said: ‘Are you sure you’re ready for this?’ ‘What is there to be ready for?’ I felt puzzled by her concerns. It didn’t take me long to find out. Reiki seemed to have created some energetic sweep clean in my whole system, helping me to release some outdated beliefs and offering comfort and nurture at a time in my life when I often felt lonely and lost. It also unlocked my gifts as a healer. I was so enthusiastic about sharing the Reiki magic that I wanted to put my hands on anyone who was willing to receive the healing. One day, I was with my friend in my office. At the time I was a PhD student in law at the University of Birmingham. My friend was a complete non-believer in any alternative therapies. I put my hands on her temples and the energy flowed and pulsed with heat and intensity. After a few minutes, she removed one of my hands and checked its temperature. ‘But your hand is not hot,’ she looked puzzled. ‘I tell you this works!’ I felt so excited that she could feel the flow of energy that when I put my hands back on, I willed even more energy to come through. I was very keen to convince her. A few days later, I shared this incident with Kate Jones, my Reiki Master. ‘Gulara, you can’t command Reiki to flow stronger,’ she said smiling, ‘whatever needs to be given will be given, and whatever needs to be received will be received.’ Those words have become my mantra for over 15 years now. I apply it to everything I do, including my healing sessions with clients. When I teach healing methods, I always quote Kate to support my students in surrendering and trusting the process. When I write my books and worry about what to include and what to leave out, I often say to myself: ‘Whatever needs to be given will be given. Whatever needs to be received will be received.’ I didn’t know that what this mantra taught me was to trust. I’m forever grateful for Kate’s teachings and her Reiki treatments, especially in relation to my writing journey. Reiki helped me to heal so many of the stories I have included in my second memoir Fragile Freedom. You can find out more here: www.gularavincent.co.uk/blog/fragile-freedom