More Than Words. What the 5 Reiki Principles Mean to Me.

I was in my early 20s when Tony Robbins changed the way I used words.

I found a copy of his book, Awaken the Giant Within, and one of the ideas that stayed with me was what Robbins calls Transformational Vocabulary. This is the idea that the words we repeatedly use to describe our lives can influence how we experience them.

“Simply by changing your habitual vocabulary, you can instantaneously change how you think, how you feel, and how you live.” - Tony Robbins

That has stuck with me for more than 30 years.

So, when I was introduced to the Five Reiki Principles, this was the wording that caught my attention.

Just for Today

I will not anger.

I will not worry.

I will be grateful.

I will do my work honestly.

I will be kind to every living thing.

I understood what the principles were asking of me. I loved the spirit of them.

The wording? That was harder for me to take in.

I had already learned to pay attention to what my words were pointing toward

I had spent years thinking about words differently.

My words upgraded over time. For example, instead of I have to or I might, I upgraded to I choose to.

Instead of I’m trying, I upgraded to I’m in the process of, or I’m working toward.

Instead of focusing only on the words that describe where I don’t want to be, I instead ask, “Where am I choosing to go instead?”

That’s what happened when I looked at the Reiki Principles.

If I say, I will not worry, my attention is still sitting on worry.

So, I asked myself, if I’m not choosing worry, what am I choosing?

Peace.

And if I’m focused on not becoming angry, what would I rather bring myself back toward?

Again, peace.

Words matter because they point us somewhere

In my Living on Purpose mentoring work, I talk about words as carrying an emotional vibration. Some words feel heavy. Others open something up. Gratitude, love, possibility, choice. These words feel very different in the body than fear, anger, failure or hopelessness.

Researchers have studied the difference between goals focused on what we want to move toward and goals focused on what we want to avoid. In two studies, people with more avoidance-focused goals reported lower well-being over a semester.

That research wasn’t about Reiki or changing a few words. For me, it raised a logical question. Am I giving my attention to what I want, or only to what I don’t want?

The Reiki Principles are very important to me.

I’m not saying the wording I learned was wrong. I want words that I can live and feel into every day.

So I looked at the spirit of the principles, rather than the exact wording, and asked myself, what am I choosing?

For me, both anger and worry bring me back to peace. Happiness has a place here too. It reminds me to make room for what is good without pretending the difficult stuff isn’t happening.

I’m not translating each principle word for word. I’m choosing words that help me put their meaning into practice.

Just for Today

I am at peace.

I am happy.

I am thankful for my many blessings.

I work honestly.

I show gratitude, compassion, and love.

These words give me a direction

I am at peace gives me somewhere to return when anger or worry comes up.

I am happy reminds me to make room for what is good without pretending the difficult stuff isn’t happening.

I’m thankful for my many blessings brings my attention back to gratitude.

I work honestly keeps integrity in the conversation, all the time.

And I show gratitude, compassion, and love gives me something I can choose in the way I treat myself and other people.

Just for Today is really important.

Not forever. Not for the rest of your life.

Good luck with that.

Just today.

Today you can notice your words. Today you can notice where your attention has gone. Today you can make another choice.

And if today is messy? Tomorrow you begin again.

You don’t have to be perfectly peaceful. You don’t have to feel happy every minute. You don’t have to manufacture gratitude while something genuinely hurts.

Notice where you are. Then ask, “Where do I choose to go from here?”

For me, that is the spirit of the Reiki Principles.

And that’s why I enhanced the words to hold meaning for where I choose to go.

The Reiki Principles fit so naturally with something else I believe in deeply and you may have heard me say once or twice:

Start where you are.