Intentions

Do you fly by the seat of your pants and take your life as it comes? Or do you set intentions for how you want your life to play out?

What is an intention? Webster's dictionary says: “the thing that you plan to do or achieve: an aim or purpose".

Without intention, we can often stray without meaning or direction. But with intention, the forces of the universe can align and make the impossible possible!

People set intentions/goals all the time ~ get married, have children, get a job, write a book, lose weight, or move to a foreign country. When you set an intention and then act on it amazing things happen. 

Goal Setting vs Intentions

Setting intention, according to Buddhist teachings, is quite different than setting goals. Intention is not oriented toward a future outcome. Instead, it is a path or practice that is focused on how you are "being" in the present moment. Your attention is on the "now" in the constantly changing flow of life. You set intentions based on understanding what means the most to you and making a commitment.

As you gain insight through the use of meditation and reflection, your ability to act on your intentions will manifest. It is called a practice because it is a never ending process. You don't just set your intentions and then forget about them ~ you must live them every day.

For example:

• Before you get out of bed, set an intention to have a good day.
• Before you leave the house, set an intention to spend quality time with your family.
• Before you start your car, set an intention to have a safe outing.

Goals help achieve your effectiveness in this world. But being grounded in intention is what provides integrity and unity in your life.

Four Steps to Setting Intentions

1. Be clear about something you want and write it down.
2. Share your intention with someone. That will keep you accountable.
3. Do something right now to demonstrate your commitment.
4. Acknowledge that you did what you said you would and take the next step.

By setting an intention, you make it clear to yourself and to others, what you plan to do. Set an intention to redefine your seriousness.


Cultivating right intention does not mean you should abandon your goals. Everything that happens in the universe begins with intention. If I decide to buy a birthday present, wiggle my toes, or make a phone call ~ it all starts with intention.

Deepak Chopra gives five steps to setting powerful intentions.

1.  Slip into the Gap

Most of the time our mind is caught up in thoughts, emotions, and memories. Beyond this noisy internal dialogue is a state of pure awareness that is sometimes referred to as “the gap.” One of the most effective tools we have for entering the gap is meditation. Meditation takes you beyond the ego-mind into the silence and stillness of pure consciousness. This is the ideal state in which to plant your seeds of intention.

2.  Release Your Intentions and Desires

Once you’re established in a state of restful awareness, release your intentions and desires. The best time to plant your intentions is during the period after meditation, while your awareness remains centered in the quiet field of all possibilities. After you set an intention, let it go – simply stop thinking about it. Continue this process for a few minutes after your meditation period each day.

3.  Remain Centered in a State of Restful Awareness

Intention is much more powerful when it comes from a place of contentment than if it arises from a sense of lack or need. Stay centered and refuse to be influenced by other people’s doubts or criticisms. Your higher self knows that everything is all right and will be all right, even without knowing the timing or the details of what will happen.

4.  Detach from the Outcome

Relinquish your rigid attachment to a specific result and live in the wisdom of uncertainty. Attachment is based on fear and insecurity, while detachment is based on the unquestioning belief in the power of your true Self. Intend for everything to work out as it should, then let go and allow opportunities and openings to come your way.

5.  Let the Universe Handle the Details

Your focused intentions set the infinite organizing power of the universe in motion. Trust that infinite organizing power to orchestrate the complete fulfillment of your desires. Don’t listen to the voice that says that you have to be in charge, that obsessive vigilance is the only way to get anything done. The outcome that you try so hard to force may not be as good for you as the one that comes naturally. You have released your intentions into the fertile ground of pure potentiality, and they will bloom when the season is right. Live your dreams today by setting your intentions and watching them manifest into reality...

Do We Really Need Scientific Evidence

As Reiki practitioners we often feel the need for scientific evidence to back up our claims of how Reiki is beneficial. But do we really need studies to back up it's' efficacy.

Well indeed there have been studies conducted on the effectiveness of Reiki and how it affects the autonomic system. New York Presbyterian hospital/Columbia University campus conducted a random blind study using three groups ~ a placebo group, a Reiki group and a control group. It was noted after the sessions that the Reiki group participants realized a lowering of their heart rate, respiration and blood pressure.

William Rand, founder and president of The international Centre for Reiki Research developed what is known as The Touchstone Process. This is a peer review method for analyzing the current state of scientific studies being conducted in hospitals, clinics and hospice facilities throughout the US. Dr. Mehmet Oz brought tremendous attention to Reiki when he invited Reiki practitioners to treat patients during open heart surgeries and transplant surgeries. He is quoted as saying, "Reiki has become a sought after healing art among patients and mainstream medical professionals."

In a press release dated September 15th, 2008, president and CEO of the The American Hospital Association stated, "complementary and alternative medicine has shown great promise in supporting and stimulating healing. It is one of the many tools hospitals look to as they continue to create optimal healing environments for the patients they serve." Presently, there are 65 hospitals in the US taking part in these studies.

So with all this evidence before us, I wonder, as practitioners do we really need to back up our claims of Reiki's healing ability with scientific evidence? Ask yourself – how do you decide what matters?

Do you believe what you feel and experience? If you feel it, notice a difference, does that make it real enough for you? If Reiki could help you feel better when something was wrong, would that be enough? Or do you need scientific data to convince you to try it? Do you trust yourself enough to discern the truth in your own life?

Either way, you will find what you need. Reiki is real...

You Give ~ You Receive

As I continue my journey with Reiki, I am constantly amazed by the healing beauty revealed to me each and every time I give or receive. As Reiki energies flow between the practitioner and the recipient during the Reiki session, the two bodies may respond or react with particular sensations. Those sensations are nearly always pleasant. There may heat, warmth, cold, subtleness, steadfastness, or forcefulness.

Reiki is gaining more and more mainstream acceptance. It is being used in hospitals and hospices. In fact many nurses and doctors are learning Reiki.

Some hospitals have implemented Reiki teams to provide Reiki to patients and there have been clinical studies proving that Reiki is an effective pain management too, improving healing pre and post surgery.

 When we give reiki, we also receive reiki, because as a channel the reiki energy flows through us to the client. Therefore it does make sense that on its journey through our bodies we receive as well.

 But as reiki channels, do we experience the pain of the client on our table?

 If a practitioner is empathic touching other people may cause them to develop mirrored illnesses. However, having empathic abilities is not a requirement of Reiki, nor does it enhance Reiki’s effectiveness. Empaths need to learn that the ability to “take on” or “feel” another person’s pain or emotions is best used as a diagnostic tool. Don’t hold on to the empathetic feelings, they must be released as soon as possible. People with empathic natures are also known as highly sensitive people, ultrasensitive people, or people with “overexcitabilities.”

* A recent discovery in brain science may shed light on one way practitioners become influenced by the negative energy of a client. It’s been discovered that there are specialized cells in the brain called mirror neurons. These neurons are located in the premotor cortex and the inferior parietal cortex and are thought to assist in the learning process by helping us to mimic what others are doing. It is also thought that they play an important role in helping us understand how others are thinking and feeling, and because of this, may play a role in the experience of empathy. Some Reiki practitioners who take on the symptoms of their clients also report that they are highly emphatic. It is thought that empathy is usually stimulated through sensory impressions, but the descriptions some practitioners give of their experiences indicate that their empathy may be stimulated by input directly from the client’s energy field.

 On a recent Reiki session, for the first time as I gave Reiki to a friend who recently lost his mother, I felt overwhelmed by his grief, I felt his loss, I felt his mother slip away from him and was suddenly unable to control my tears which slipped down my cheeks as I lovingly cradled his head in my hands.

 When occurrences such as these happen during reiki it helps to take some gentle, deep breaths and also have the client take a few deep breaths as well. This will help break up the blocked energy so that you can continue the treatment without continued discomfort.

* William Rand

Balance and Reiki Healing

Reiki addresses the balance of our mind, body and spirit. We are disconnected when we are not in balance. The truth and beauty around us is not seen and is taken for granted because we are preoccupied with trappings that are not in alignment of our true soul’s purpose. Reiki re-connects us to that truth. Reiki encompasses the great wisdom of balance, connection, and compassion. Reiki will bring us closer to health and healing. This individual healing can lead to an overall well-being and in turn help to heal the planet. We must first begin with ourselves and our own balance. Reiki can help us towards balance. Energy work can clear the blockages in your body and allow life’s energy force to freely flow, enhancing your own natural healing powers. An understanding of these direct relationships between the mental, emotional and physical bodies can greatly enhance the healing process

Because of life’s stresses we need to continue on a constant pursuit of balance and wellness. The practice of Reiki is a way to remember our true self in our authentic state of balance. The Buddhist practice of pursuing present moment consciousness is about truth and helps us to return to that truth and balance. Our awareness helps us in re-assessing what may be out of balance. Without this awareness, balance is unachievable as we will have a fog over the truth of what is out of whack.

 Reiki is universal truth. Reiki is a path to compassion within ourselves and others.

 Balance, Harmony, Authenticity ~ These words evoke a sense of radiance and joy.

By balancing the bodies systems we are helping it to achieve greater health and longevity. Healing takes time, focus and commitment in a restful way. We are crippled in many ways in that we are taught to forget our authentic self. We need to be reminded of our bodies brilliant ability to self~heal. Reiki can bring awareness back to our gentle, calm and brilliant “human-being” that we are. This is the way to true happiness.

 When we begin on a peaceful path towards balance we are in effect moving towards self healing. Our wants and desires take a back seat to our gratitude and present moment consciousness. We focus on what we have and not on what we need.

We must know that our voice matters and that by bringing our self back to truth and love we are beginning the process of healing the earth. Our balance is a mirror for others. Balance and Reiki can be a practical tool in helping ourselves and the world heal on many levels.

Perhaps we may counterbalance some of the ills in the world by helping create positive vibrations instead of negative ones.

Clearing Emotional Blocks

Do you feel stuck? Are you inhibited and unable to initiate change in your life?

Emotional blockages are caused by negative experiences, unresolved emotions, self-defeating behaviours and self limiting beliefs which are counter-intuitive intentions that contribute to self sabotage. They also act as a defence mechanism to deal with deep emotional pain experienced in traumatic, destructive and dysfunctional situations ranging from the loss of a loved one, betrayal, abuse, rejection, etc...

 Suppressed emotions like anger, resentment and guilt are dense emotions that block our energies. Unless you can release these blocked emotions, they hinder you from raising your vibrational frequencies resulting in physical illness like chronic pain, anxiety and disease. Emotional blocks can affect all areas of your life ~ relationships, finance, career, health.

 Let us look at a child who has a loving and close relationship with a beloved grandfather. He makes this child feel safe and secure with his kindness, love and affection. Then grandfather dies creating feelings of loneliness, insecurity abandonment and grief. These feelings are planted in the subconscious only to manifest later in life and may even hinder the development of close relationships.

 Regular treatment with Reiki will help gently clear these emotional blocks. The Universal Life Force energy known as Reiki is a very effective modality to clear these emotional blocks that keep us from our truest potential. It involves the very light laying on of hands over or on specific areas of the body depending on your unique circumstances. The channeled energy affects at a subtle level where the blueprint for our interpretation of our outer reality is stored. It has numerous applications for physical and emotional issues and can be used on everyone including children with no contraindications. This therapy is perfect for reminding the cells in the body of source energy and correct organization.

 When you clear these emotional blocks you will resolve past negative experiences, break habits, behaviours and beliefs, overcome anxiety and fear, transform your relationships, stop negative thinking and self talk and improve the mind-body connection.

 The regular use of Reiki promotes and accelerates the bodies own natural ability to heal. It aids in deep, restful, peaceful sleep. It balances the chakras in the body and strengthens the immune system allowing it to better deal with daily stress and viruses. Pain is relieved: headaches, backaches, muscle relaxation. It can clear toxins from the body, relax and reduce stress.

 You alone have the ability to take charge or your life and the tools for creating those changes are closer than you think.

 You are capable of living a fuller, richer life. Reach out for it with Reiki ...

My Story

I came to Reiki after many, many years of searching for answers to a myriad of health problems along with chronic depression.

Following the stress of the loss of my best friend, my mother and my beloved pet of nearly fifteen years, I fell into a terrible depression which I could see no way out of. Then my health which I had dramatically improved through diet change, regular exercise and weight loss started to deteriorate as well. I started to experience terrible digestive problems, ultimately diagnosed as IBS. My right shoulder had locked and I was scheduled for shoulder surgery in February. I felt that all my problems were stress related following the terrible year I had endured.

Then a dear friend invited my husband and I to her home just before Christmas to celebrate winter solstice. While there I was seated at her kitchen table beside a lovely lady named Patricia. This woman oozed comfort, peace and love. She encouraged me to talk and so I told her of my struggles throughout the year. It wasn't long before the tears started flowing and she placed her hand on back, just below my shoulder. I instantly felt a flowing of something peaceful from her hand which infused in me a sense of peace and calmness. During our sharing, I discovered she was a Reiki Master. This information was like a lightening bolt. I instantly knew she was placed in my life for a specific purpose. We made arrangements for me to see her for treatment. Due to unforeseen circumstances though over the next couple of months, we were unable to get together, but Reiki was whispering to me that I needed to look into it much more deeply.

 So, I started researching online. I came across a few websites that offered training via distance. At the time I really had no idea how Reiki worked and wasn't even sure if I could do it. So, I enrolled in a level I course, received my lesson on DVD and one attunement. This is where I learned that one is opened to Reiki ~ anyone can do it. During my attunement, I felt a tingling which started at the top of my head and then work its way down through my body. Then I experienced a sense of being bigger than I actually was, almost an out-of-body experience.

 A couple of weeks after this distance attunement, I finally connected with Patricia and she invited me to my first healing circle. When I arrived at her home, she instantly commented on how different my energy was from December. She said it was lighter and so was I. I received my very first Reiki treatment this night. I had been self healing, but had never experienced a treatment with someone else. It was incredible, I was treated by two channels ~ a level II channel and Patricia, a Reiki master. I continued to attend these weekly healing circles. I was growing as well as experiencing healing every week through the giving and receiving of Reiki.

 After approximately two months of working with this group, Patty gave me four level I attunements. What an incredible difference in my ability to channel following these attunements. The palms of my hands which sparked after the distant attunement were now alive with energy, singing a beautiful song. Even the soles of my feet were humming. Over the next month I experienced a major healing crisis every time I was on the table and I was able to go deeper and deeper when I gave Reiki.

As I work with Reiki, I feel old habits, thought processes and patterns, negativity, anger, resentments and criticisms fall away like leaves from a tree as winter encroaches. These negative patterns that no longer serve my higher purpose have dropped away as a water droplet that once released from a flower petal is gone forever. Negative emotions once bound to my heart are stripped away revealing a heart lightened with love. The energy now flows in and through my entire body, chakras are no longer blocked, they are spinning in perfect harmony, chi ~ the very essence of me is beautifully flowing like a river free of encumbrances.

I have witnessed these miraculous changes in myself and also in others through this universal energy called Reiki.

Every time I receive Reiki, I experience more and more healing. The voice of Reiki speaks louder and louder, calling to me to continue moving forward in my journey. Level II is in my very near future and then I will begin to prepare myself to hold the position of Master so that I too may share this miraculous gift with others, mentoring and nurturing students of Reiki the way my Master mentors and nurtures me.

I am so grateful that I listened when Reiki whispered my name and grateful that I answered the call. I have finally emerged and I like who I am becoming ~ the butterfly that had been ensconced in a chrysalis for a lifetime has finally broken free. Like an eagle, I am soaring to new heights, heights I never dreamt possible.

I am light ~ I am love ~ I am Reiki ~

A Little Reiki History

Mikao Usui, or Usui-Sensei as he is called by his students in Japan, was born August 15, 1865 in the village of Taniai. It is thought that he entered a Tendai Buddhist school on or near Mt. Kurama at age four. He also studied kiko, the Japanese version of qigong, which is a health and healing discipline based on the development and use of life energy. The young Usui found that these healing methods required the practitioner to build up and then deplete his own life energy when giving treatments. He wondered if it were possible to do healing work without depleting one’s own energy.

 Usui-Sensei had an avid interest in learning and worked hard at his studies. He traveled to Europe and China to further his education. His curriculum included medicine, psychology, and religion as well as the art of divination, which Asians have long considered to be a worthy skill. Some believe that he was from a wealthy family, as in Japan only the wealthy could afford to send their children to school although others think this was not the case. He eventually became the secretary to Shinpei Goto, head of the department of health and welfare who later became the Mayor of Tokyo. The connections Usui-Sensei made at this job helped him to become a successful businessman. Usui-Sensei was also a member of the Rei Jyutu Ka, a metaphysical group dedicated to developing psychic abilities. In March 1922 Usui-Sensei with his personal and business life failing, he decided to spend some time on Mt. Kuruma to see if he could discover a solution to his personal problems; he was not seeking to discover a method of healing as some have said. He enrolled in Isyu Guo, a twenty-one-day training course at the Tendai Buddhist Temple located there. It is likely that fasting, meditation, chanting, and prayers were part of the practice. In addition, we know there is a small waterfall on Mt. Kurama where even today people go to meditate. This meditation involves standing under the waterfall and allowing the water to strike and flow over the top of the head, a practice that is said to activate the crown chakra. Japanese Reiki Masters think that Usui-Sensei may have used this meditation as part of his practice. In any case, it was during the Isyu Guo training that the Reiki energy entered his crown chakra. This filled him with tremendous spiritual enlightenment. When this happened, he was filled with excitement and went running down the mountain. On his way down he stubbed his toe on a rock and fell down. And in the same way anyone would do, he placed his hands over the toe, which was in pain. As he did this, healing energy began flowing from his hands all by itself. The pain in his toe went away and the toe was healed. Usui-Sensei was amazed by this. Usui-Sensei practiced this new ability with his family and developed his healing system through experimentation and by using skills and information based on his previous studies. He called his system of healing Shin-Shin Kai-Zen Usui Reiki Ryo-Ho or in its simplified form Usui Reiki Ryoho (Usui Reiki Healing Method).

 In April 1922, he moved to Tokyo and started a healing society that he named Usui Reiki Ryoho Gakkai (Usui Reiki Healing Method Society). He also opened a Reiki clinic in Harajuku, Aoyama, Tokyo. There he taught classes and gave treatments. Contrary to previous understanding, Usui-Sensei had only three symbols, the same three we use in the West in Reiki II. He did not use a master symbol. (This fact has been verified by Hiroshi Doi and by research done by Hyakuten Inamoto, Arjava Petter and Tadao Yamaguchi.)

 In 1923, the great Kanto earthquake devastated Tokyo. More than 140,000 people died and over half of the houses and buildings were shaken down or burned. An overwhelming number of people were left homeless, injured, sick and grieving. Usui-Sensei felt great compassion for the people and began treating as many as he could with Reiki. This was a tremendous amount of work, and it was at this time that he began training other teachers. It was also at this time that he developed methods including a more formal attunement process.

 Demand for Reiki became so great that he outgrew his clinic, so in 1925 he built a bigger one in Nakano, Tokyo. Because of this, his reputation as a healer spread all over Japan. He began to travel
so he could teach and treat more people. During his travels across Japan he directly taught more than 2,000 students and initiated twenty Shihan, each approved to teach in the same way he did.

 While traveling to Fukuyama to teach, he suffered a stroke and died March 9, 1926. His grave is at Saihoji Temple, in Suginami, Tokyo, although some claim that his ashes are located elsewhere. One of the teachers initiated by Usui-Sensei was Chujiro Hayashi. Before his passing, Usui-Sensei asked Hayashi-Sensei to open his own Reiki clinic, to expand and develop Reiki Ryoho. Motivated by this request, Hayashi-Sensei started a school and clinic called Hayashi Reiki Kenkyukai (Institute). At his clinic he kept careful records of all the illnesses and conditions of patients who came to see him. He also kept records of which Reiki hand positions worked best to treat each patient. Based on these records he created the Reiki Ryoho Shinshin. This healing guide was part of a class manual he gave to his students. Many of his students received their Reiki training in return for working in his clinic. Hayashi-Sensei also changed the way Reiki sessions are given. Rather than have the client seated in a chair and treated by one practitioner as Usui-Sensei had done, Hayashi-Sensei had the client lie on a treatment table and receive treatment from several practitioners at a time. He also created a new more effective system for giving Reiju (attunements). In addition, he developed a new method of teaching Reiki that he used when he traveled. In this method, he taught both Shoden and Okuden (Reiki I&II) together in one five-day seminar. Each day included two to three hours of instruction and one attunement. During a trip to Hawaii in 1937–38 prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, he was asked by the Japanese military to provide information about the location of warehouses and other military targets in Honolulu. He refused to do so and was declared a traitor. This caused him to lose face. The only solution was seppuku (ritual suicide), which he carried out. He died honorably on May 11, 1940. Mrs. Hawayo Takata was born on December 24th, 1900, on the island of Kauai, Hawaii. She married Saichi Takata and they had two daughters. In October 1930 Saichi died at the age of 34, leaving Mrs. Takata to raise their two children. In order to provide for her family, she had to work very hard with little rest. After five years she developed severe abdominal pain and a lung condition and suffered a nervous breakdown. Soon after this one of her sisters died and it was Mrs. Takata’s responsibility to travel to Japan to tell her parents. She also felt she could receive help for her health in Japan. While in Japan she went to Chujiro Hayashi's clinic. She was unfamiliar with Reiki but was impressed that the diagnosis of Reiki practitioners at the clinic closely matched the doctor’s at the hospital. She began receiving treatments. Two Reiki practitioners would treat her each day. Mrs. Takata got progressively better and in four months was completely healed. She wanted to learn Reiki for herself. In the spring of 1936 she received First Degree Reiki from Hayashi-Sensei. She then worked with him for a year and received Second Degree Reiki. Mrs. Takata returned to Hawaii in 1937, followed shortly thereafter by Hayashi-Sensei and his daughter who came to help establish Reiki there. In February of 1938 Hayashi-Sensei initiated Hawayo Takata as a Reiki Master. Takata-Sensei practiced Reiki in Hawaii, establishing several clinics, one of which was located in Hilo on the Big Island. She gave treatments and initiated students up to Reiki II. She became a well-known healer and traveled to the U.S. mainland and other parts of the world teaching and giving treatments. She was a powerful healer who attributed her success to the fact that she gave a lot of Reiki to each client. She would often do multiple treatments, each sometimes lasting hours, and she often initiated members of a client’s family so they could give Reiki to the client as well. It was not until after 1970 that Takata-Sensei began initiating Reiki Masters. She charged a fee of $10,000 for Mastership even though the training took only a weekend. This high fee was not part of the Usui system, and she may have charged this fee as her way of creating a feeling of respect for Reiki. She said that one should never do treatments or provide training for free, but should always charge a fee or get something in return. She also said that one must study with just one Reiki teacher and stay with that teacher the rest of one’s life. In addition, she did not provide written instruction or allow her students to take notes or to tape record the classes and students were not allowed to make any written copies of the Reiki symbols. She said that Reiki is an oral tradition and that everything had to be memorized. While this is generally true, she didn’t always teach the same way and in at least one class she allowed her students to take notes and gave them handouts. Before Mrs. Takata made her transition on December 11, 1980, she had initiated twenty-two Reiki Masters.