The Five Principles of Reiki are often described as simple affirmations for daily living. Reiki itself was my first love in the therapeutic world—a practice that shaped how I understand healing, presence, and regulation. While I may not work with Reiki as a primary professional modality anymore, its principles continue to inform how I approach therapeutic change.
At first glance, these principles can seem almost disarmingly modest: short phrases, repeated “just for today,” with no demand for perfection or lifelong discipline. Yet it is precisely this simplicity that gives them their power.
When viewed through the lens of trauma-informed transformational therapy, neuroscience, and nervous system regulation, the principles reveal themselves as a practical framework for deep healing. They align with how the brain encodes experience, how the body holds stress and trauma, and how sustainable change occurs—not through force or willpower, but through safety, repetition, and presence.
This article explores each principle not as a moral rule or spiritual ideal, but as a regulating orientation—one that gently guides the mind, body, and nervous system back toward balance and wholeness.
Why “Just for Today” Matters in Trauma Healing
Trauma fragments time. For a traumatised nervous system, the past does not feel finished and the future does not feel safe. This is why long-term promises—“I will never feel anxious again” or “I must always be calm”—often backfire. They activate pressure, threat, and inevitable failure.
“Just for today” is neurologically intelligent. It reduces time to something the nervous system can tolerate.
The brain perceives less demand, the body softens, and change becomes possible. In psychological terms, this creates a window of tolerance—a state in which learning, integration, and emotional processing can occur without overwhelm.
Positive Reframing and the Language of the Mind
Some of the original Reiki principles are traditionally phrased in the negative: “I will not worry,” “I will not get angry.” While meaningful, modern therapeutic approaches—particularly NLP, trauma therapy, and somatic psychology—recognise that the unconscious mind processes language literally and associatively.
When we say “do not worry,” the brain must first access the neural network for worry in order to negate it. The same is true for anger. From a neurological perspective, this can unintentionally reinforce the very state we are trying to move away from.
Positive reframing gives the nervous system a clear direction rather than a prohibition. It offers the brain a state to organise around. This is why the reframed versions below are more therapeutic and more effective in trauma recovery.
Principle One: From Worry to Trust
“Just for today I will not worry.”
Positive reframing: “Just for today, I will trust.“
Worry is not a character flaw. It is a protective strategy. From the brain’s point of view, worrying is an attempt to anticipate danger and prevent future harm. For someone with trauma or chronic stress, the amygdala—the brain’s threat detector—has learned that vigilance equals survival.
The problem is that worry keeps the nervous system locked in sympathetic activation: elevated heart rate, shallow breathing, muscular tension, and mental looping. Over time, this state exhausts the body and impairs memory, digestion, immunity, and emotional regulation.
Trust is not blind optimism. Therapeutically, trust means allowing the present moment to be as it is, without rehearsing catastrophe. When someone practices “just for today, I will trust,” they are signalling safety to the nervous system. This supports activation of the parasympathetic system, particularly the ventral vagal pathway associated with social engagement and calm presence.
In Reiki and energy healing terms, trust allows energy to move rather than contract. In psychological terms, it reduces predictive threat modelling in the brain. Both describe the same phenomenon from different languages.
Principle Two: From Anger to Patience and Understanding
“Just for today I will not get angry.”
Positive reframing: “Just for today, I will be patient and understanding.“
Anger is often misunderstood. In trauma work, anger is frequently a secondary emotion—a mobilisation response that arises when boundaries were crossed or needs were unmet, often without the possibility of escape or expression.
Suppressing anger does not heal trauma. In fact, suppression often leads to dissociation, chronic tension, or depression. What heals trauma is choice—the ability to feel activation without being overtaken by it.
Patience and understanding are not passive states. They reflect a regulated nervous system that can stay present with sensation and emotion without escalating. Neurologically, this involves improved communication between the prefrontal cortex (meaning-making, perspective) and the limbic system (emotion and threat).
When someone practises this principle, they are not denying anger. They are cultivating the capacity to respond rather than react. In energetic terms, this supports balance in the solar plexus and heart centres—agency without aggression, strength without collapse.
Principle Three: Honesty as Internal Coherence
“Just for today I will be honest.”
In trauma-informed therapy, honesty is less about morality and more about congruence. Trauma teaches people to override internal signals—to ignore discomfort, minimise pain, or perform safety for others. Over time, this creates fragmentation between thoughts, emotions, and bodily sensations.
Honesty, in this context, means being truthful with oneself first.
Neuroscience shows that healing requires integration: the linking of sensation, emotion, memory, and narrative into a coherent whole. When someone allows themselves to acknowledge what they actually feel, need, or remember, previously isolated neural networks begin to connect.
Energetically, honesty restores flow. Psychologically, it reduces internal conflict. This is one of the most quietly transformational principles, especially for those who learned early on that authenticity was unsafe.
Principle Four: Gratitude as Nervous System Training
“Just for today I will be grateful.”
Gratitude is often misunderstood as forced positivity. In trauma work, forced gratitude can feel invalidating. But genuine gratitude is not about denying pain—it is about training attention.
The brain has a well-documented negativity bias. Threat information is prioritised for survival. Trauma amplifies this bias, making neutral or positive experiences harder to register and remember.
Practised gently, gratitude helps strengthen neural pathways associated with safety, connection, and meaning. Research in affective neuroscience suggests that gratitude activates brain regions linked to dopamine and serotonin, supporting emotional regulation and resilience.
In energetic language, gratitude raises coherence. In somatic terms, it softens defensive posture. Over time, it helps rebalance a system that learned to scan for danger instead of nourishment.
Principle Five: Kindness as Relational Repair
“Just for today I will be kind to every living being”.
Inclusive Reframing: “Just for today I will be kind to myself and every living being.”
Kindness toward others is often easier than kindness toward oneself—especially for trauma survivors. Self-criticism is frequently internalised from early environments where compassion was absent or conditional.
From a nervous system perspective, kindness activates social safety circuits. The body responds to kindness—received or offered—as evidence that connection is possible without threat. This directly supports trauma repair, which is fundamentally relational.
Self-kindness is not indulgence. It is corrective experience. Each moment of self-compassion provides new data to the brain: I can be with myself without harm.
In Reiki, kindness aligns the system with universal life energy. In psychology, it restores attachment security. Different languages, same direction.
Healing at the Root, Not the Symptom
The Five Principles of Reiki do not aim to control behaviour. They gently reshape the internal conditions from which behaviour arises. This is why they integrate so naturally with transformational therapy and trauma healing.
True transformation does not come from managing symptoms. It comes from addressing the root causes: dysregulated nervous systems, fragmented memory, conditioned threat responses, and disrupted self-relationship.
Practised consistently and compassionately, these principles help create the internal safety required for deep healing. They are not affirmations to force belief, but orientations that invite the system back into balance—just for today.
References and scientific foundations
- McManus, D. E. (2017). Reiki Is Better Than Placebo and Has Broad Potential as a Complementary Health Therapy. Journal of Evidence‑Based Complementary & Alternative Medicine. Review of controlled trials suggesting Reiki effects on heart rate, blood pressure and parasympathetic activation.
- Liu, K. et al. (2025). Effects of Reiki Therapy on Quality of Life: A Meta‑Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials.
- Therapeutic effects of Reiki on anxiety: Therapeutic effects of Reiki on interventions for anxiety: a meta‑analysis (systematic review showing significant anxiety reduction).
- Autonomic Nervous System studies of Reiki: preliminary research on heart rate, vagal tone, blood pressure changes during Reiki vs control conditions (Reiki Council summary).
- Bessel van der Kolk – The Body Keeps the Score
- Porges, S. W. – Polyvagal Theory
- Psychology Today article on Neuroscience of Gratitude and Trauma — how present‑moment awareness and self‑compassion expand regulation capacity.