I often wonder at what point in life the desire to help children to fall over and fail (encouraging them to walk, ride a bike etc) changes to it is not O.K. to fail. In my counselling experience people talk about their early life, and shame and failure seem to go with their inability to please the significant people in their lives, whether it is parents or teachers etc. Then they begin to work on this idea “I have to do it right”.
However, usually it is not possible to get it right first time, or even each time. Things have to be tried and some things work well and some things don’t. Edison made “1,000 invention steps” in his attempt to produce a working light bulb. He never saw any of these steps as being a failure.
In Reiki as in life, it means we have to try things and we need to find what works for us. Some things will work better and some things need to be laid aside until a future date. It is surprising how much simpler it can be when we have mastered something else.
To become comfortable with experimenting with Reiki exercises and techniques we need to lean into the Gokai, particularly Compassion for oneself. Ask your Heart how it feels and be patient with the time it takes for the Heart to answer, but also Be True to your True Path in terms of what answers are available. If you are acting as your own Guru, then you will be getting a more accurate message than from people who are on their own True Path, but you will get better feedback from those with whom you are engaging in the practice of Reiki.
When you try out something new, then you need to have time to assess its validity for you. Rarely does something fail completely, and you can decide whether you class it as a ‘miss’ rather than a personal failing or be able to celebrate it as something that is beneficial to you and those you work with.
In Sufism there is a saying on the lines of “Each one’s inability to know suffices” which means that we cannot know everything. We know what we know and we can step confidently into the moment without knowing everything. We can do our best and if it doesn’t work this can be the best feedback we can get. Then we can look at what worked and what didn’t; whether it worked a lot or a little. Then we step away from “did I do it right?” which must mean that if you didn’t it was “wrong”.
Photo by Quentin Dr on Unsplash
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