Reiki Principles for Collective Change

Over the last decades, each time I offered myself Reiki, I also incorporated what is known as the Reiki principles or precepts.  They could be considered a point of view and have permitted me to achieve both personal and collective change.  

The Reiki principles all begin with “Just for today…”  The first one is “Just for today, do not worry”.  This begins to assist the practitioner in rooting into the present.  Worry is a preoccupation with something in the future.  If I worry, I am not affecting the future, I’m simply stuck there.  The guidance of “Just for today” offers an alternative.  How about I don’t worry today?  What might that be like?

Likewise, the second Reiki principle is “Just for today, do not anger”.  Instead of projecting the mind into the future, in anger, we get stuck in the past.  Maybe it’s the recent past, as in it just happened, maybe it’s many years ago and we haven’t resolved the issue.  Again, what might it be like if I didn’t get angry today?  How might that affect me and my world?

The way to becoming present is suggested in the third Reiki principle, “Just for today, be filled with gratitude”.  When you practice gratitude, you are being with what is real and what is right in front of you.  It makes you focus on your blessings.  It’s almost impossible to be worried and angry when you are in gratitude!

With the third principle beginning to shift the mind, now a practitioner is encouraged to shift in body and begin to move in a more conscious way in the world.  The fourth principle is “Just for today, I will do my work honestly.”  What does it mean to be honest?  Transparent?  Present in how you carry yourself and how you show up.  How does that concept change you?

Then lastly, in the fifth principle, “Just for today, I will be kind to others”.  This is movement in action that takes gratitude out of the personal and into the global.  The last two principles together begin to shift a practitioner’s mind off themselves and into the service of others, which is really the greater calling of what Reiki practice is. 

As I set aside my own ego during the decades of doing this practice, I was able to be a channel and be of service to thousands of students over many years who have taken these concepts and in their own way, spread out across the state and the country to bring energy healing and wisdom to their own communities.  It’s humbling to think how this practice transformed so many people I had the honor to work with.

Copyright 2021 Eileen Dey Wurst

Image credit