There are 5 Reiki Principles. I’ve known this since 2017 but I only recently started making them a part of my meditation routine and I can’t believe I waited so long to really focus on them!
Back when I took my first Reiki course, I was introduced to them but just very quickly. The instructor really just skimmed over them and didn’t spend much time on them. They seemed very basic to me at the time and honestly, I didn’t give them much thought. It didn’t really seem that important.
I couldn’t have been more wrong.
In a recent course I participated in, we spent an entire hour long lesson on these and were given a meditation on each phrase/principle… one for each day and they started with the first phrase, Just for today, and made that one meditation as well for a total of 6. We walked through each one, fully embodying them, letting them really get into the depths of our souls, our beings, our minds.
I just can’t get over what a difference they have made in my life in just a few short weeks. It’s not that I didn’t know these things and believe them already, but I didn’t take time to really think on them each day, and to really focus on living them each day.
Let’s got through them now. I’ll break them down phrase by phrase.
Just for today… breathe that in… Just for today…
This is our reminder to live in the moment, the right here, right now. It’s a reminder to be fully present.
I don’t know about you, but I am often looking ahead to tomorrow, or looking back at yesterday. I am too often on the computer or my phone and not focusing on what’s right in front of me. It’s a daily struggle sometimes and starting my morning out with the phrase, Just for today, helps bring me back to the present, the gift of each day. When I find myself, thinking back or looking forward too much, I repeat it again, Just for day, I’m instantly brought back to the moment I’m currently living.
Next is the phrase, I am free from anger. Oh, there is so much anger in the world, but as I have begun to recite this phrase regularly throughout my day, I’ve found I am less angry. I can let go, I can move on so much easier. I don’t dwell on past angers. In this moment I am free from anger. It helps me to look at things more objectively.
I am free from worry. What a difference this one has made for me. I have always been a worrier, obsessively so, but now when I feel the worries coming on, I repeat this phrase a few times, and the worries seem less worrisome and less mine. I feel more calm, more at peace which leads me to my more loving self.
I am full of gratitude. I’ve kept a gratitude journal off and on for years, but trying to come up with 5 or even 3 different, every day things to be grateful for was daunting and usually after a week or so and sometimes less, I’d just give up. But I think that way of doing gratitude is too limiting! Saying, I am full of gratitude, changes things. Breathe in that phrase with me, I am full of gratitude. Did you feel your heart swell? Did you feel it feel instantly full to near overflowing? Did a smile come to your lips? Did something you are grateful for come to mind or did you just feel grateful for life? This one also comes to mind regularly throughout my day, usually just when I need it and it softens me, soothes me, and brings me back to the present.
I work diligently and honestly. I’ve kind of changed this one a little. Working this way is wonderful but shouldn’t we just be living diligently and honestly in all things? I have begun to take this to mean living fully, living my best life for myself and others. Living more authentically. I guess it depends on the day whether I say work or live but either way, I strive to do it honestly and fully.
And last, I am kind to myself and all living things. That seems so basic, doesn’t it? Be kind. I love that it starts with being kind to ourselves. Sometimes we really struggle with that. We say terrible things to ourselves sometimes, “you’re so dumb, you’re so fat, you’re getting so old”… the list could probably go on but hopefully we wouldn’t say those things to others so we shouldn’t be saying them to ourselves either. So be kind to yourself! And of course be kind to all living things, always. We need more kindness in the world. We never really know what’s going in someone else’s world and our little act of kindness might just make the world of difference to them.
So…
Just for today…
I am free from anger.
I am free from worry.
I am full of gratitude.
I work diligently and honestly or I live fully and authentically.
I am kind to myself and all living things.
Print them off and put them up somewhere you will see them often and say them everyday and throughout the day and see what a difference they make in your life. I think you’ll be joyfully surprised!
Simply Sherri 
Leave a comment