How Do You Feel vs. Think When Using Reiki?

Quick Answer: When you are truly channeling Reiki, you are not using your mind to manufacture the energy or force a visualization to happen. You are allowing Reiki to flow while using your natural way of feeling energy to guide the process. Some people feel energy most strongly through their Heart Chakra, others through their Solar Plexus, and others through different parts of the body. Learning where you naturally feel energy can help you stop thinking Reiki and begin actually feeling and channeling it.

One of the most common things I see with Reiki students is the tendency to think Reiki instead of channeling Reiki.

This recently came up during one of my guided meditations in Psychic Development class.

As I guided my students through cleaning and clearing their chakras and the surrounding astral body, I repeatedly experienced cranial pressure.

For me, this is a very clear signal that someone is trying to perform the exercise primarily through the mind instead of allowing the Reiki energy to do the work.

They are thinking the visualization.

They are trying to make it happen.

They are concentrating on doing it correctly.

But Reiki isn't something you create with your thoughts.

You channel it.

One Student Was Trying to Do Everything From Her Head

After the meditation was complete, one of my students shared that she had been struggling to get out of her head.

She wanted to know:

How do I visualize something and actually feel it at the same time?

Rather than trying to explain it intellectually, I asked her a question.

I asked her to think about a pet she had lost and notice where she felt its astral form around her body.

Immediately, she smiled.

Her Heart Chakra.

There was our answer.

For her, the easiest way to stop channeling everything through her mind is to move through the visualizations while simultaneously remaining connected to the feeling in her Heart Chakra.

Instead of simply seeing a chakra being cleaned, cleared or filled with Reiki, she can engage her Heart Chakra while she does it.

Now the visualization isn't only occurring in her mind.

She is feeling it.

For someone who is naturally guarded, this can take practice. Opening and using the Heart Chakra can initially feel unfamiliar or even vulnerable.

But when you learn how to work through your Heart Chakra—your love center—the power that can emerge is phenomenal.

I have no doubt that she will master this.

She simply needed to discover where her body naturally speaks energy to her.

Another Student Feels Everything Through Her Solar Plexus

Another student had a completely different experience.

She repeatedly felt nauseous during the visualizations.

When I asked her where she tends to feel everything in her body, she immediately said:

Her stomach.

I wasn't surprised.

For her, the Solar Plexus Chakra is an extremely important energetic center.

Rather than trying to experience Reiki the same way as the student who naturally works through her Heart Chakra, she needs to learn how to use what her body is already showing her.

Her Solar Plexus can become a primary funnel for channeling Reiki and working through the visualizations we use during Energy Hygiene.

Her stomach isn't something she needs to ignore so that she can "do Reiki correctly."

It is giving her information.

The goal is to learn how to work with it.

Where Do You Feel Energy?

This is one reason I don't believe every Reiki student should expect to experience energy in exactly the same way.

Ask yourself:

When you experience love, where do you feel it?

When you become nervous, where does your body react?

When you suddenly know something intuitively, where do you notice it first?

When someone walks into a room with strong energy, what changes inside your body?

When you sense the astral form or energy of someone you love, where do you feel it around or within your body?

Your answer can give you an enormous clue about how your energetic system naturally communicates with you.

For one person, it may be the Heart Chakra.

For another, the Solar Plexus.

Someone else may experience pressure, tingling, temperature changes, emotion, movement or another physical sensation.

The important thing is not to imitate someone else's experience.

Learn your own.

Reiki Is Not Coming From Your Personal Energy

This distinction is extremely important.

Your own personal energy is like a tiny cup.

Reiki is like a universe-sized ocean of energy available for you to tap into.

You do not want to continually pour healing out of your tiny cup.

That would mean using your own energy.

Instead, you learn to channel Reiki.

As Reiki moves through you, it can replenish your own energetic system while allowing you to channel an enormous amount of healing energy to someone else.

You are not personally manufacturing the healing.

You are the channel.

That is why learning to feel rather than mentally force Reiki matters so much.

If you are concentrating intensely, trying to push energy somewhere, mentally constructing every movement or attempting to make something happen through sheer thought, you may be relying too heavily on your own energy and mind.

Come back to Reiki.

Allow it to flow.

Then use your natural energetic center to help you stay connected to what you are doing.

Sometimes You Need to Change the Visualization

Many of the students who come into my Psychic Development classes did not originally learn their Reiki practice directly from me.

I am endlessly fascinated by the different versions of Reiki practice I encounter.

Sometimes a student simply needs a little tweaking.

A visualization that works perfectly for one person may need to be adjusted slightly for another person's energetic system.

That doesn't mean abandoning the intention of the exercise.

It means learning how to perform it in a way that allows your body to participate instead of leaving everything inside your head.

If your Heart Chakra is your strongest center, use it.

If your Solar Plexus is where you feel everything, work with it.

If you naturally experience energy somewhere else, begin paying attention to that.

Reiki doesn't require every practitioner to experience energy identically.

The goal is to learn the difference between thinking about energy and actually feeling and channeling it.

Once you begin recognizing that difference, both Reiki healing and Energy Hygiene can become dramatically more powerful.

Feeling Reiki Takes Practice

If you are still thinking your way through Reiki, don't assume that means you can't channel energy.

It means you need more practice feeling it.

Practice Reiki on yourself.

Pay attention to your body.

Notice where energy naturally registers.

Notice the difference between a visualization you are mentally forcing and one in which you can actually feel the energy moving with you.

The more familiar you become with your own energetic language, the less you will have to think about what you are doing.

Eventually, you won't need to ask yourself:

"Am I doing this correctly?"

You will recognize the feeling of Reiki flowing.

And once you know that feeling, you can return to it again and again.

A Note About Energy Hygiene

I currently guide students through my complete Energy Hygiene process both one-on-one and in groups.

I also intend to create a guided meditation and an online training specifically designed to help people master this Energy Hygiene process independently.

Learning to channel Reiki rather than relying on your own mental or personal energy is an important part of that work.

Protecting yourself energetically is not only about knowing which visualization comes next.

You need to learn how to fuel those visualizations with Reiki.

That is where the real power comes from.