From Quick-Tempered to Calmer After Level 1

Key Takeaways

The change one of my students described after learning Reiki was neither dramatic nor sudden. He simply found that he could look at setbacks more positively than before.
Reiki is not medical care and it does not fix a temperament. What a daily practice seems to offer is a small pause between something happening and your reaction to it, which is a much more modest claim than most introductions make.
One person's experience is one person's experience. I share this story because it is real, not because it is what will happen to you.

Key Terms Explained

靈氣 (Reiki) / Universal Energy — The practice of connecting with universal energy through light touch or the hands held just above the body.
靈授 (Reiju) / Attunement — The transmission given in person by a teacher, which is how the practice is passed on in the traditional lineage.
五戒 (Gokai) / The Five Precepts — Usui's daily principles, closer to a set of reminders for how to live than to a doctrine.
師範 (Shihan) / Master Teacher — The teaching level in the traditional Japanese structure, which is the level I trained to.

The Student Who Took Every Setback Badly

One of my students used to be quick-tempered and took every setback badly. That is how he described himself when he came to me. He was not looking for anything spiritual; he was simply aware that his reactions were costing him something.

After learning Reiki, he told me he had become able to see things positively. Then he did something I did not expect: he recommended it to his own mother.

I want to be careful about how I tell this, because this is exactly the kind of story that gets inflated. He did not become a different person. He did not describe a transformation. What he described was a change in how he met the things that used to set him off. That is a smaller claim, and it is the true one.

Watching a student become the person who passes the practice on is what I treasure most. It is also why I trained all the way to 師範 (Shihan) rather than stopping earlier. As a teacher, I can help more people explore whether Reiki can influence their lives as it influenced mine. Remaining only a recipient felt like keeping to myself something that was meant to be shared.

Related: How a Successful Businessman First Introduced Me to Reiki explains this in detail.

What Level 1 Actually Gives You, and What It Does Not

The attunement is a beginning, not an event

I should say plainly what my own start looked like, because it sets a realistic expectation.

After my first attunement, the Level 1 靈授 (Reiju), I kept the simple daily routine — about twenty minutes — for two weeks without missing a day. Honestly, I didn't feel much at first. I say this plainly because so many introductions promise instant heat or tingling. For me, nothing dramatic happened in those early weeks.

If you are the kind of person who takes setbacks badly, that first stretch is where most people quit. Nothing is happening, and you have no evidence that anything will. My only honest advice is that the practice is short enough that continuing costs you very little.

Related: An Engineer's Honest Take on Reiki explains this in detail.

The daily practice is the actual content

Level 1 is often described as though the attunement is the product and the practice is homework. In the traditional Japanese approach, it is closer to the reverse. The attunement opens the door; the substance lies in returning to the practice each day afterward.

For someone working with a short temper, the mechanism — if I can use that word for something this simple — seems to be repetition rather than insight. Twenty quiet minutes a day does not teach you anything about your anger. It just gives you daily practice at sitting with yourself without doing anything about it. Over months, some people find that a small gap appears between an irritation and their response to it.

The Five Precepts do more work than people expect

五戒 (Gokai), the Five Precepts, are the part of Reiki that a rational person can engage with immediately, because there is nothing energetic about them at all. They are daily reminders: for today only, do not be angry, do not worry, be grateful, work diligently, be kind to others.

"For today only" is the important part. It is not a demand to become a calm person. It is a request to try for one day, which is a scale a quick-tempered person can actually work with.

I have a small habit of my own that comes from the last precept. When I pass someone on the street, I silently offer them one line: may all good things come to you like an avalanche. It costs nothing and nobody knows it happened. It is my own small way of living that precept rather than just reading it.

What I Cannot Tell You About This

I spent my working life as an engineer and a founder before any of this, and I have not stopped thinking that way. So let me be direct about the limits of the story I just told you.

I cannot tell you that Reiki made my student calmer. I can tell you that he learned Reiki and later described himself as seeing things more positively. Those are two facts in sequence, and sequence is not proof. By his own account, he had also decided that he wanted to change. People who make that decision often do change, with or without a particular practice.

I also cannot point you to strong research. The US National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health is clear that Reiki has not been clearly shown to be effective for any health-related purpose, that most of the studies have not been high quality, and that there is no scientific evidence for the energy field the practice is built around. They also note it has not been shown to cause harm. I would rather you hear that from me than discover it later and wonder what else I left out.

What I am left with, after twenty years of daily practice, is my own life and what students tell me. That is not evidence in the scientific sense and I will not dress it up as such. It is the honest basis on which I teach.

If you are reading this because your temper is costing you something, Reiki is one option among many, and it is not a substitute for medical or psychological care if that is what you need. There is a right time for everything. If this is not it, that is completely fine.

FAQ

Q: Will Reiki fix my temper? A: No, and I would be cautious about anyone who says it will. Reiki is not medical care and it does not treat any condition. What some people describe is feeling a little more settled, and finding a small pause before reacting. That is a modest thing, and it is what I am comfortable claiming.

Q: How long before I notice anything after Level 1? A: It varies, and the first weeks can be uneventful. Mine were. I kept a twenty-minute daily routine for two weeks and felt very little. If you begin expecting heat or tingling on the first day, you may be disappointed. A quiet start does not mean that you are doing anything wrong.

Q: Can I learn Reiki if I am skeptical about energy? A: Yes. Several of the students I value most arrived skeptical, and I came to this myself through a businessperson rather than through the spiritual scene. You do not need to believe anything in advance. The Five Precepts alone can be practised by someone who never accepts the energetic side at all.

Key Insights to Remember

The most useful thing about my student's account is how unremarkable it is. He did not report a transformation; he reported seeing things differently than before. Small, honest descriptions like that are far more trustworthy than the dramatic ones, and they are also the ones that tend to last.
"For today only" is the design feature of the Five Precepts that makes them workable for a short-tempered person. A demand to stop being angry is unmeetable and produces guilt. A request to try for one day can be repeated tomorrow after a failure, which is the only way a daily practice survives contact with a real life.
I hold two things at once and see no conflict between them. My practice has been the centre of my life for twenty years, and the research base for Reiki is weak and I will say so out loud. Anyone who teaches this and cannot say the second part is not giving you enough to decide with.