Thursday I was carrying a batch of freshly picked raspberries to the garage freezer when a wasp flew up my sleeve and bit me twice. It hurt like heck and I immediately put my hand on the spot and reiki-ed it. Of course, this made it hurt all the more, but after about ten minutes the pain was gone and that was the end of that. This is a pretty common response among people who’ve learned Reiki. Once you experience the way Reiki takes away acute pain, it makes an impression, and you know this is the best first-aid you’ve got. But I know a lot of people whose use of Reiki stops with first-aid.

Why is that? In every First Degree class, the teacher explains that self-treatment is the foundation and starting point for the practice. You report on your self-treatment experience each day of class, and you’re encouraged to make self-treatment a part of your daily routine “from this moment forward.”

So what happens? If you can take away a burn, a bite, or a sprain within minutes, something pretty potent and unusual must be at work here, right? I’d venture to guess that the “something” is so potent that you and I have a hard time comprehending what we’re working with.

You’re using the very essence of life, the “something” that animates every single living thing, when you do Reiki. Just think about it. This is infinite, unlimited, life-giving power flowing through you whenever you put your hands on yourself or somebody else.

No wonder we don’t get it. This is hard to get. This is mind-boggling. This is true. This really deserves thinking about.

And you’re not “doing” anything to make it happen. You don’t need to be born smart, or spend years studying and training, or be highly spiritual and intuitive. You just have to use it. That’s how the light, the understanding, grows brighter inside you. That’s how you learn what’s going on–with practice, with familiarity, with watching what you feel when you treat yourself.

But it takes time. And most of us are busy–sometimes crazy busy–so the fact that we know how to directly access the very essence of life kind of falls off our radar. We just forget. It helps if we stop and reflect on what we’ve been told about Reiki.

As Takata said, “This power is unfathomable, immeasurable, and being a

universal life force, it is incomprehensible to man. Yet, every single living being is receiving its blessings daily . . . It is an unseen spiritual power that vibrates and all other powers fade into insignificance beside it.”

That’s what you’ve got. Who wouldn’t want to put their hands on themselves? Right now. Tonight. Tomorrow morning. Every day from now on.