You Took a Reiki Class. Now What?

You took the Reiki class. You got the manual. You practiced. You left feeling excited. And then you got home.

Now what?

This is the part of Reiki training I think we need to talk about more.

A class gives you a foundation. It doesn’t magically turn everything you learned into a confident, comfortable, easy-to-implement practice by Monday morning.

First: use it

That sounds obvious, but this is where most get stuck. They mean to. They want to. They will. Just as soon as… [insert laundry, dishes or grocery shopping here] is done.

Too many wait until they have the perfect quiet room. The right music. Enough time. The right mindset. A complete sequence they can remember without checking their notes.

And suddenly three weeks have passed.

Reiki doesn’t need a production.

Put your hands on yourself for a few minutes. Use Reiki before bed. Give yourself Reiki while you’re sitting on the couch.

Practice makes it familiar.

Your manual is supposed to look used and might even be a little disheveled. That’s okay. It shows it’s been used in a meaningful way.

A reminder that you don’t have to remember everything from class. That’s why you have notes and a manual.

Go back to them. Highlight things. Write questions in the margins. Add what you notice now that you’ve had some time away from the classroom.

Learning doesn’t end because the class did.

Keep noticing

You may notice more with practice. You may notice different things.

Maybe your hands feel warmer one day and nothing much the next. Maybe one hand position feels natural and another feels awkward. Maybe you keep wanting to stay in one area longer.

Notice.

You don’t need to attach a grand meaning to every sensation. You’re learning your own experience.

Use Reiki in real life

Reiki doesn’t have to live only on a treatment table.

Use it before a difficult conversation. While you’re sitting quietly with someone. With your own meditation. At the end of a long day. When you want a few minutes to come back to yourself.

The more Reiki becomes part of ordinary life, the less it feels intimidating.

Ask the questions that show up because most times the best questions don’t arrive during class.

They arrive three days later when you’re practicing and think, “Wait. What am I supposed to do here?”

Good. That’s what continued learning is for.

Write the question down. Bring it to a Reiki Share. Ask your teacher. Talk it through with other practitioners. Keep learning instead of deciding you should already know everything because you finished the course.

Resist the urge to compare your practice to somebody else’s

Comparison kills. If you’re going to compare (it’s human to do so), compare where you started to where you are now, so you can see and feel the progress you’ve made.

Maybe your practice right now is ten quiet minutes before bed. And someone else may practice every morning for forty-five minutes. Great. Both are right. Both mean progress. And both mean Reiki is being used.

With your Reiki practice, structure can help and perfection is never required.

Confidence comes with practice

A certificate proves that you completed a class. It doesn’t come with confidence.

Confidence grows when you use what you learned, have questions, find answers, practice again and realize you know more than you did before.

And eventually, you stop checking to see whether you’re doing Reiki right. You start trusting yourself.

So what do you do now?

Just start.

Use Reiki. Keep your manual nearby. Notice what you notice. Write down your questions. Find opportunities to practice. Stay connected to people you can learn with.

And give yourself permission to still be learning.

You finished the class.

That wasn’t the end.

That was the beginning.

Start where you are.