7 Tips to Develop a Positive Animal Reiki Mindset in Reiki Sessions
An Animal Reiki mindset is our mental attitude and state of mind when we are offering Reiki to animals.
The right Animal Reiki mindset is key to successful sessions.
Why is it important to develop the right mindset during Animal Reiki sessions?
If you’re helping an animal who is sick or who has suffered from abuse or trauma, you naturally feel emotions (like worry or anger) about their current condition or their past. These emotions can cause a spiral of negative thoughts and a pessimistic state of mind. It’s hard to think about holding space for healing if we’re caught up in a negative thought spiral.
According to the Heart Math Institute, “the heart is the most powerful source of electromagnetic energy in the human body…the heart’s electrical field is about 60 times greater in amplitude than the electrical activity generated by the brain.” And, since our heartspace holds all of our emotions, ALL emotions ripple out into our energy field from our heart, where they are picked up by the animals we want to help.
And, as you can imagine, animals can feel uncomfortable when we’re projecting our negative thoughts and emotions outward because they only feel that we are angry or worried, but they don’t understand why.
Our energy can feel scattered and ungrounded when we are emotional or having troublesome thoughts and this can often cause animals to say, “No,” to an Animal Reiki session. Tweet
Animals are much more aware of and sensitive to our energy than other humans, so having a positive mindset and grounding ourselves can make all the difference in the quality of interactions and the connections we can make during Animal Reiki sessions.
My goal for writing this blog is to help you shift more easily into a healthy and positive mindset so that you resonate with positive, grounded energy and you can connect more successfully and deeply with animals during Animal Reiki sessions.
But first, let’s talk about the emotions we often feel around traumatized, abused, sick, or hurt animals.
It’s important to first acknowledge the anger and fear we may be feeling about an animal we are working with. After all, we are human and it’s completely natural!
But it’s important to realize that these emotions are not serving any good purpose for us in our relationships with animals. Remember that our goal is to be a solid and peaceful support for our animals through Animal Reiki sessions, and if our hearts are sending out negative, ungrounded emotions, it will not support our goal.
We can even reflect on past experiences with animals to help us gain clarity around this:
How do they respond to you when we’re angry and worried?
When we’re peaceful and calm?
We’ll soon see that a calm and positive Reiki state of mind is going to support a peaceful Animal Reiki session, and this can help motivate us to shift ourselves out of what is no longer serving us, or our animals!
Following are 7 tips to support the development of a strong and stable, positive Reiki mindset to help us hold space when our animals need us the most!
Let’s start with the physical vessel that is holding all of our thoughts and emotions: our body!
Tip #1: Conscious eating will help you achieve the right mindset when sharing Animal Reiki
Let’s remember, we are what we eat.
See your food as healing medicine that will help your body be the grounded support you need when your animals need you the most:
Buy your food mindfully
Plan your menus mindfully
When you prepare your food, do so as a mindfulness activity.
Stay away from processed and sugary foods and bring lots of fruits and vegetables into all your meals!
When we eat can also be a time to give gratitude and then focus on eating (rather than multi-tasking or being distracted).
Appreciate the health and wellness good food will give you, providing a foundation for all your spiritual work for the good of animals.
Resources for mindful eating:
The rest of these tips will help with developing a more balanced mental-emotional attitude so that animals will feel a positive energy radiating from us.
Tip #2: Mindfulness as part of a positive Reiki mindset when working with animals
It seems so simple, but live in the NOW.
When an animal you love is sick, it’s easy to focus on what the future might hold. We might play through scenarios in our minds about this or that bad outcome. In truth, we can’t know what the future might hold for our animals. All we have is this moment right now, and if we aren’t staying mindful and present, we are losing that very precious resource. Our animals need us to be with them right now, even if it’s during a difficult moment. They want to know we are able to be present with them, so they can lean on us through the difficulty.
Check out these helpful and practical resources to help you stay mindful and present:
Tip #3: Self-compassion is a key component of a grounded mindset
Remember the Reiki precept, “Show compassion to yourself and others.”
It’s easy, as animal caregivers, to give all of our kindness and support to the animals we love. But, we can be so hard on ourselves when health situations get hard for our animals. Even if we have no control over the outcome of a given issue, we can spend days, months, weeks or even years blaming ourselves or lamenting the ways we could have made it better. This looks like self-talk that starts with, “If only I had fill in the blank…” But the truth is that hindsight is always 20/20 and our animals know that everything we do for them, we do with love. They know that we do the best that we can with the knowledge we have in that moment.
Here are 5 easy steps to practice self-compassion when you find yourself facing difficulty
Tip #4: Acceptance is a big component of successful Animal Reiki sessions
Remind yourself to accept each moment you face with your animal, whatever it looks like.
Our animals need to know we’ll stay by their side, even when the going gets tough. We won’t run from difficulty, rather, we’ll stay faithfully with them, just as they do for us! Even when our animals face difficult moments, we can take comfort in the fact that things are always changing, nothing ever stays the same. We will come through this moment of difficulty; we just need to stay patient and open to the possibilities.
Here is a blog that reminds us of the power of accepting things as they are.
I have learned that senior animals are some of the best teachers for helping us learn acceptance. Check out this blog for more about how senior animals teach us to be better people.
Tip #5: Practicing gratitude as a way to improve our Reiki mindset
When our animals are sick or ailing, it’s easy to focus on all the negatives.
As humans, our genetic history has programmed us to look at the world with a negativity bias.
Basically, way back when we were first making our way on earth, we HAD to look at everything as dangerous, suspicious or threatening or we’d be eaten by something or hurt or killed. Unfortunately, this genetic predisposition has followed us through all the generations of humankind, causing us to focus on the negative aspects of everything, unless we consciously choose to look for the upside. It can be tough, at first, but with practice, it becomes a well-toned muscle that flexes automatically when we need it.
Gratitude helps us to remember that there’s always an upside and regularly practicing gratitude helps us focus on our blessings, rather than seeing through a lens of everything that is “wrong.” When we regularly choose to practice gratitude, especially in difficult moments, our perspective gradually changes and shifts toward the positive. And that is extremely helpful when we are sharing Reiki with animals.
This free gratitude meditation will help you tune into the good all around you.
Here are some ways to see gratitude as an action word to help animals.
And, here are some Let Animals Lead® affirmations to help you bring in the gratitude!
Tip #6: Finding balance to create a successful attitude for Reiki sessions with animals
It’s tough to keep a sense of balance when it feels like life is pulling the rug out from under us.
If our animals are sick, we can feel a lot of fear and uncertainty, so I believe the best way to bring balance back to our lives is by spending time meditating with our animals. Meditation brings stillness. Stillness helps us find clarity. Clarity assists us in knowing the best way forward in supporting our animals when they are facing health challenges. Meditating with our animals can also help us feel a sense of grounding and peace in the most difficult moments. Meditation can be our anchor during rough times!
The Reiki Precepts are all about creating balance in our lives and we have so many resources for finding balance with your animals through the precepts:
Tip #7: Seeing with our “Reiki Eyes” leads to the ultimate positive shift in our mindset
If we choose look deeper, we can see an animal’s inner heart—the light of their essence and the true core of their spirit.
When we’re looking at our animal who may be sick or struggling, it’s easy to see only the physical symptoms on the outside. The problem with this, though, is that we can very easily fall into a pattern of defining them by their diagnosis or struggle.
But we know, deep in our heart of hearts, that our animals are SO MUCH MORE than what is “wrong” with them. To see with our Reiki Eyes (aka through our hearts not our eyes), we’ve got to shift our perspective—widen it—so that we can see more than just the problems they are facing. We have to be able to see their inner light.
This light is the energy that is connected to the universe. It’s the light that reminds us that we are all One. We could also say it’s their “inner Reiki.” Look with your Reiki eyes at your animal and see that they are perfect in this moment.
No illness or trauma can ever dim an animal’s beautiful inner light! It shines through everything.
When we can see things from this wider perspective, the problems our animals face will become much less troublesome to our state of mind. It’s easier for us to remember that All is Well in this very moment, and that is an important spiritual message for us to hold for our animals, especially when they are struggling.
Learning to shift your Animal Reiki mindset to a more positive, supportive one where we can let go of the external (and focus on being in the moment with the beautiful light of our animal) will create successful sessions. Our mindset during Animal Reiki sessions makes a huge difference in the quality of the space we can hold to support animals in their healing process.
Be patient with yourself as you practice all these positive-mindset methods we’ve talked about today and begin working through troublesome thoughts and emotions; it’s natural to be deeply affected by the difficulties your beloved animals may face! An added positive side effect of cultivating these 7 tips for a positive mindset when sharing Reiki with animals is that it will also transform our ability to handle all the challenges life may bring our way.
If you’re ready to take your knowledge and practice of Animal Reiki to a whole new level and learn more tips and tricks for sharing Animal Reiki with animals, please join us for our Animal Reiki talk podcast the first Tuesday of each month.