Unattachment. Maybe one of the most challenging concepts to grasp.

• We buy a new car. A small spot on the fender starts to rust. We go ballistic; this tiny spot irritates us daily.
• An 89 year grandparent develops congestive heart failure. Their illness progresses quickly and in no time they are on life support. We sit in the room, hoping that they do not pass away.
• Holding on to old clothes, knick knacks and baby toys. Garages, basements and attics getting overridden with ‘stuff’. On my block, as I walk the dog, I count the number of households that don’t use their garage for their cars!

Are we all a bunch of low-level hoarders? Or is it just hard to detach?

[Tweet “As a Reiki Nurse, I get asked a lot of questions about Reiki Practice.”]

What is it? How do you do it? Are your hands healing people or is it your energy that you are giving to them?

What is interesting is that Reiki Practice is tricky to articulate in words or phrases. I often tell nurses that the best way to understand Reiki is to experience it.

However, reflecting on Reiki Practice and attempting to answer this question of ‘how are you doing it’ brings to mind this concept of unattachment.

When I am offering Reiki to a client, there are a few things happening:

• When practicing Reiki, we are to remain unattached to the outcome. Reiki Practice is about intention, not outcome. We can offer healing, share unconditional love and be present with practice. However we cannot hope for what we want to happen. We must remain unattached to the result of Reiki therapy.
• When we engage in Reiki Practice, we must remain fully present. Reiki can be viewed as a mutual meditation between practitioner and client. Both are mindful of the healing intention and keep that at the forefront of the mind during therapy. If we notice that we become distracted, as with meditation, we let go of thought- releasing the mental chatter in the moment and coming back to the here-and-now.

I think the trickiest thing for us nurses to get used to is the fact that Reiki isn’t about what we are doing or how we can help. As nurses, we look to ease our patient’s pain and help them get well so they can be discharged from our care. With Reiki Practice it isn’t about us doing what we want; it’s about the natural balance coming into order.

What questions do you have? Have you practiced Reiki or any other healing modality that asks for us to remain unattached? Thanks for reading and feel free to leave a comment or question below.