Threshold Notes -- Affirmations and Visualisation

In modern times the concept of affirmations is pretty much accepted as a valid tool in everyday life.  It can even be improved upon as we come to understand the "Law of Attraction" and the "Art of Allowing," two ideas fostered by Abraham-Hicks and other new age teachers.  The use of affirmations for personal development has also been part of some Reiki schools for 2 decades or more. Early in my Reiki training I learned about the idea of writing an affirmation on a piece of paper and having the healing subject hold it while receiving Reiki.

In a way, Usui's original concepts (the Usui Gainen) are a form of affirmations, suggesting we shift our thoughts away from worry and anger, to that of gratitude and appreciation, as well as empathy and compassion for ourselves and others.  In my Gendai Reiki Ho training I learned that the original Reiki society, the URR Gakkai, used a technique called Nentatsu Ho or Sei Heki Chiryo Ho, to mentally send an affirmation to a healing subject.  In the book "Everyone Can Do Reiki" written by Fumio Ogawa, a former branch leader in the Gakkai, he wrote that at the beginning of every treatment one should use this technique.  Nentatsu Ho is a form of mentally sending a positive thought or affirmation to the healing subject, while performing the first hand placement in Traditional style (or once Reiki begins flowing.) 

Affirmations can also be a part of your daily routine, using something like the "Reiki and Affirmations" technique I wrote about at this web site.  They can be included in your meditations.  In my Reiki 3 class I present an idea that supports this.  Basically you can hold the affirmations (printed on paper) and flow Reiki into them as you meditate, perhaps even thinking the affirmation for a time as you do so. Affirmations can also be a part of your Reiki crystal grid work, activating them each day as you charge your crystal grid.

Possibly a more effective form of affirmations is the process of visualising the desired outcome, as in an image or a scene in your mind;  perhaps something thought of as occurring in the present time frame, together with a feeling of strong emotion as you imagine experiencing the result or supporting it.   Visualising along these lines has long been a very successful technique used to improve the performance of athletes.

In modern times we have discovered that imagining or visualizing the person improving their condition during or after the healing session, can be a very useful technique as well.  While you are working with the healing subject, or once their session is complete, they can also use visualization methods to improve their state of health.   In the 1980's, well before my Reiki training, I learned of a man named Martin Brofman who had healed his own terminal cancer through the use of such visualisation methods.  He went on to improve his own eyesight and that of others, and then to create a healing system he called "The Body Mirror System of Healing."

I feel that affirmation and visualisation ideas like these can be of great benefit to all, whether in or out of a state of balanced health.