5 principles of Reiki
I’d like to preface this by noticing how each of these principles starts with the phrase, “just for today”. It may mean something differently for each person who reads these principles, but for me, it is a reminder to take every situation, every feeling, every little thing, one day at a time. It’s so easy to get caught up in the past or future. Maybe we’re upset about what we did some time ago, feeling sorry for how other people treated us, or feeling sadness because maybe we believe that the past was better than where we are now. Just for today is a reminder to stay in the present moment. When we worry about the future, we give power to things that are either beyond our control or situations that may not even occur. (And honestly, probably won’t even happen….) When I first started therapy some years back, my counselor told me that I liked to do this thing called “catastrophizing”. Let me give you an example. When I was in high school and college, I worried about my performance way more than one should. Let’s say I got an 85% on an exam or essay.
I’d think to myself:
“Oh my god, I got an 85% on this test. That’s literally a B.”
“A B on this essay is going to drop my A in the class to a B+”
“If I get a B+ in this class, how will I be able to apply to top colleges in the state?”
“If I can’t apply to top colleges in the state, I’ll never get a good paying job.”
“If I don’t get a good paying job, I won’t be able to have financial freedom and live the life I really want.”
Okay, do you see where I’m going with this? I used a very basic example as I don’t want to overshare my deepest life traumas, but the fact of the matter is that I catastrophized because I was constantly thinking about the future. I worried about what could happen instead of what was in front of me in that very moment. The funniest part of all of this is that I went to a very basic 4 year college, got the 9-5 I thought was going to fulfill me, and realized that it was but a means to an end. My personal story will unfold more in the following blogs, (so stay tuned) but ultimately, the phrase “just for today” is incredibly grounding. It reminds us not to worry about being the perfect version of ourselves for the next week, month, or year, but to slow down. To remember that right here, right now, do not worry, do not anger, do your work honestly, be grateful, and be kind. It eliminates the worry about how we need to act tomorrow and how we may have acted in the past. The only defining characteristic of who we really are is who we are today. And you know what is super cool? WE GET TO DEFINE WHO WE ARE. In each moment that we are gifted, we get to choose whether we want to be kind, whether we want to worry, or whether we allow anger to control us.
