One aspect of one’s Reiki Practice lies in making the best possible use of the Reiki skills one has. I refer to this as Strategic Reiki, and although not so difficult, I find it quite invaluable when considering the big picture. I know the idea of Strategic Reiki rings forth with a military and/or business sound, and this might definitely be a turn-off for some, but I do believe that, even though these are seemingly quite removed from Reiki, they do have some worthwhile contributions to make.

One of the most useful business heuristics is known as the SWOT Analysis, which is used in different forms in many areas of business. In a simple SWOT Analysis, you makes a chart listing the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to and/or of your Reiki Practice.

Strengths and Weakness are internal (part of you) while Opportunities and Threats are external (outside forces).

Some examples of strengths of your Reiki Practice are:

• good natural healing abilities
• plenty of time for daily meditation
• highly motivated to develop energetic skills
• good teaching ability
• etc.

Some examples of weaknesses in your Reiki Practice are:

• no time to practice
• little understanding of Reiki energy
• no ability to sense Reiki energies
• don’t care about people
• etc.

Some examples of opportunities for your Reiki Practice are:

• local Reiki share
• well known teacher coming to your area
• good location
• connection to local hospital
• etc.

Some examples of threats to your Reiki Practice are:

• no access to teachers
• no access to regular Reiki Shares
• family/friends against Reiki
• laws against various forms of therapy
  
• etc.

These examples are just a few out of the hundreds or thousands of possibilities that make your Reiki Practice truly unique. A good understanding of these 4 Quadrants is quite helpful in putting things in their proper perspective and lets you know where you should be focusing your energies.

In Reiki on the Run and Reiki Writing I discussed the importance of proper time management. Organizing your time so that you are getting the most out of each day is not only important for Reiki, but for virtually every aspect of your life. Having regular practice times set aside for your Reiki Practice will not only help you to be mentally prepared for upcoming sessions, but will also help to make your practice a habit… and hopefully one that you will have a hard time breaking.

Another important aspect of Strategic Reiki is found in testing, testing, and more testing. Continuously comparing your results against previous results is the only way to know how you are progressing. Its not possible (or wise) to compare your Reiki against anyone else’s and the only true measure is found within. Can you sense the energetic difference between the different Reiki symbols? Can you sense energy blocks in someone else’s aura? Have you tried? Recently? Try again and see if there isn’t a hint of something that wasn’t there before.

The final area I’d like to mention is one I’ve also hinted at in the past (see Reiki for Beginners and The Three Pillars of Reiki, for example) and that is a clear determination of your Reiki goals. What is it you hope to accomplish with Reiki. Or, to put it more dramatically, when you’re dead and gone, how do you hope to be remembered by others in reference to your Reiki Practice? Only through the proper creation of clear, reachable, practical, desirable and realistic goals (did I mention attainable?) can you (A) know where you’re going and (B) know when you’ve arrived.

The aspects of Reiki I’ve discussed here are all basically business approaches to ones personal Reiki Practice. I don’t consider business approaches to one business Reiki Practice to fall under the scope of Strategic Reiki, (rather in Strategic Marketing, Strategic Management, etc.) and so I won’t be going there. On the militaristic side of Reiki I find a tremendous amount of application and will be addressing it in a future post on Reiki & Bushido or Reiki & The Art of War or Reiki Samurai or Reiki Ninja… but I’m going to have to wait until the muse strikes… so stay tuned. 😆

For further explanation or discussion, your thoughts are most welcome and highly encouraged, please feel free to comment below!!!