Mikao Usui did not just develop a healing technique. He created a system for living. At the foundation of that system are five principles, called the Gokai in Japanese, that Usui considered essential for anyone practicing Reiki. He titled them “The Secret Art of Inviting Happiness” and “The Miraculous Medicine of All Diseases.”
That double title is not poetic exaggeration. Usui believed that how you think directly affects your health. Mental turmoil creates physical tension. Chronic worry disrupts the body. Anger poisons from the inside out. The principles address these patterns at their root.
Here is the thing about the Gokai: they sound simple. Deceptively so. Five short statements. A child could memorize them. But living them, actually applying them when your subway is delayed, when your boss sends that email, when your rent increases again, requires practice. Daily practice. The kind that changes not just what you do, but who you become.
The Five Principles
The traditional phrasing, translated from Usui’s original Japanese:
Just for today, do not anger.
Just for today, do not worry.
Just for today, be grateful.
Just for today, work honestly.
Just for today, be kind to every living thing.
Some translations vary slightly. You might see “do not be angry” or “I will not anger.” The meaning remains consistent across versions. What matters is not the exact wording but the daily application, the “just for today” that makes these principles accessible rather than overwhelming.
Why “Just for Today”
The phrase “kyo dake wa” opens each principle. It means “just for today” or “today only.”
This framing is not accidental. Usui understood that promising to never feel anger again is impossible. Committing to eliminate worry from your entire life sets you up for failure. But today? You can manage today. You can choose, for these next twenty-four hours, to respond differently.
Paradoxically, this constraint creates freedom. You are not signing a lifetime contract. You are making a choice that expires at midnight. Tomorrow, you choose again. And again. And again. Eventually, the daily choice becomes a pattern. The pattern becomes character.
For New Yorkers, this framing is particularly useful. The city throws challenges at you constantly, a packed 4 train at rush hour, a hostile interaction with a stranger, rent that consumes half your paycheck. The principles do not ask you to transcend these realities permanently. They ask you to navigate them differently, just for today.
Principle One: Do Not Anger
The Japanese “okoru na” is sometimes translated as “do not be angry” or “let go of anger.” Neither translation asks you to suppress anger or pretend it does not exist. Anger is a natural human emotion. It signals that something is wrong, that a boundary has been crossed, that injustice has occurred.
What matters is what you do with anger once it arises. Do you hold it? Feed it? Let it dictate your actions? Or do you acknowledge it, examine it, and release it before it causes harm, to yourself or others?
Chronic anger is corrosive. It raises blood pressure, disrupts sleep, damages relationships. It keeps you in a state of physiological stress even when the triggering event is long past. The body does not distinguish between anger at a present threat and anger at something that happened three weeks ago. Both produce the same stress response.
Applying this in NYC:
NYC provides endless opportunities to practice. Someone cuts you off on the sidewalk. Your landlord ignores your maintenance request. A tourist stops dead in the middle of Times Square. Your coworker takes credit for your idea.
Practice here is not pretending these things do not bother you. It is noticing the anger, feeling it fully, then letting it pass through rather than taking up residence. One technique: when anger rises, pause. Take three breaths. Ask yourself whether this will matter in a year. Usually, it will not. Act from that perspective rather than from the heat of the moment.
Principle Two: Do Not Worry
“Shinpai suna”, do not worry, addresses the mental habit of projecting fear into the future. Worry is rehearsing disaster. It is experiencing pain for events that have not happened and may never happen.
This does not mean ignoring real problems. Planning is not worrying. Preparing is not worrying. Taking action on genuine concerns is not worrying. Worry is the repetitive mental loop that produces anxiety without producing solutions.
Consider how much of what you worried about last year actually occurred. For most people, the answer is very little. The mind generates threats that never materialize, and the body responds as if they were real. Cortisol rises. Sleep suffers. Health deteriorates. All for events that existed only in imagination.
In New York City:
Financial anxiety is endemic here. Will I make rent? Can I afford to stay? What if I lose my job? These concerns are valid. The cost of living is genuinely challenging. But there is a difference between addressing financial reality and spiraling into catastrophic thinking at 2 AM.
When worry arises, ask what action you can take right now. If there is an action, take it. If there is no action available at this moment, release the thought and return to the present. When you catch yourself worrying, ask: is this the future I want to create with my mental energy?
Principle Three: Be Grateful
“Kansha shite” means to feel or express gratitude. This principle appears in almost every wisdom tradition worldwide. Gratitude practices have been studied extensively by psychologists and consistently show benefits for mental health, relationships, and overall wellbeing.
But gratitude is easy when life is good. The deeper practice is finding something to appreciate when circumstances are difficult. Not toxic positivity, not pretending bad things are good. Rather, the discipline of noticing what remains even when something has been lost.
Usui placed this principle at the center of the five. It functions as a pivot point. Releasing anger and worry creates space. Gratitude fills that space with something constructive rather than leaving a vacuum.
Applying this in NYC:
The city makes gratitude simultaneously easy and hard. Easy because of the abundance available, restaurants from every cuisine, museums housing centuries of art, performances every night of the week, parks in every borough, people from every culture on earth, all within subway distance. Hard because the pace makes it easy to take everything for granted, always chasing the next thing.
Try this: before getting out of bed, identify three specific things you are grateful for today. Not abstractions. Specifics. The coffee shop on your corner that knows your order. The friend who texted to check in. The fact that your body carried you through another day. This takes sixty seconds. The effect compounds over time.
Some practitioners in Brooklyn and the Upper West Side keep gratitude journals, writing down three to five items each night. Research suggests this simple habit can measurably improve mood within a few weeks of consistent practice.
Principle Four: Work Honestly
“Gyo o hageme” is sometimes translated as “do your work honestly” or “work diligently” or “devote yourself to your work.” The meaning encompasses all of these: approach your responsibilities with integrity, full presence, and genuine effort.
This principle applies to professional work but extends beyond it. Your work includes how you show up in relationships. How you maintain your home. How you care for your health. Any responsibility you have accepted becomes your work.
Honest work means giving your best effort rather than cutting corners. It means being present with the task rather than mentally elsewhere. It also means honesty in the ethical sense, not deceiving, not manipulating, not taking credit that belongs to others.
The NYC context:
The city runs on ambition. That ambition can push you toward excellence or toward shortcuts. The pressure to perform, to climb, to keep pace with everyone around you creates temptation to compromise integrity for advancement.
Focus on your own standards rather than external comparison. Are you doing work you can be proud of? Are you treating colleagues fairly? Are you present with your tasks or constantly distracted? A consultant in Midtown described her approach: “I ask myself at the end of each day, did I earn my salary today? Not did I get praised, not did I get ahead, but did I contribute real value?”
This principle also addresses work-life balance, though not in the way modern wellness culture might expect. Usui was not advocating overwork. The invitation is to be fully engaged with whatever you are doing, whether that is a presentation or a walk in Central Park. Half-presence in everything is its own form of dishonesty.
Principle Five: Be Kind to Every Living Thing
“Hito ni shinsetsu ni” is sometimes translated as “be kind to others” or “be compassionate.” The broader interpretation includes all living beings, humans, animals, plants, and by extension, yourself.
Kindness in the Reiki context is not passive niceness. It is active compassion. It recognizes the shared experience of suffering that connects all life and responds with care rather than indifference.
Notice the phrase “every living thing.” Not just people you like. Not just people who are kind to you. Every living thing. The rude cashier. The difficult family member. The stranger who bumps you without apologizing. Even them. Especially them, because kindness toward the easy cases requires no practice.
Living this in the city:
Eight million people sharing limited space creates friction. The default urban mode is often defensive, headphones in, eyes forward, avoid engagement. This is understandable. It is also isolating.
You do not need to become everyone’s friend. Small kindnesses count. Holding a door. Giving directions to someone who looks lost. Letting someone merge in traffic. Saying thank you to service workers and meaning it. These micro-interactions shape the texture of city life.
One practitioner in Astoria describes her approach: “I try to see everyone I encounter as someone with their own struggles, their own hopes, their own bad days. That person who just snapped at me might be dealing with something I know nothing about. It does not excuse the behavior, but it helps me not add to the negativity.”
Kindness to yourself matters equally. The person who beats themselves up over every mistake, who never rests, who refuses self-compassion, is not practicing this principle fully.
How to Practice the Principles Daily
Usui instructed his students to recite the principles morning and evening, hands in gassho (palms together at chest level). This was not empty ritual. The recitation keeps the principles present in mind so they arise naturally when needed throughout the day.
Morning practice:
Upon waking, before checking your phone, place your hands together and recite the five principles. Say them aloud if possible. This takes under a minute. The act sets an intention for the day.
Evening practice:
Before sleep, recite the principles again. This time, reflect briefly on how you applied or failed to apply each one. Not as self-judgment, just observation. What triggered anger today? Where did worry arise? What are you grateful for? Did you work honestly? Were you kind?
Throughout the day:
Think of the principles as reference points when challenges arise. Someone cuts you off in conversation, the first principle. Your mind spirals about a deadline, the second principle. You feel envious of a peer’s success, the third principle. You are tempted to half-effort a task, the fourth principle. You encounter someone frustrating, the fifth principle.
These are not rules to follow perfectly. They are directions to face. You will fail at them regularly. Returning to them again and again, just for today, that is the practice.
The Principles Are Not About Perfection
A common misunderstanding: the principles describe an ideal state you should achieve. They do not. They describe a direction for daily effort.
You will feel anger. You will worry. You will forget gratitude. You will cut corners occasionally. You will be unkind. This is human. The principles do not ask you to stop being human.
What they ask is that you notice. That you choose, when you can, to respond differently. That you keep returning to these touchstones even after you drift away from them.
Usui reportedly told his students that as much spiritual development comes from living the principles as from any energy work. The hands-on practice and the ethical practice are not separate. They reinforce each other. The person who cultivates inner peace through the principles becomes a clearer channel for healing energy. The person who practices energy healing regularly finds it easier to embody the principles.
Common Questions
Do I need to practice Reiki to benefit from the principles?
No. The principles are a framework for mindful living that anyone can apply. Many people who have never received Reiki training use them as daily guidelines.
Should I recite the principles in Japanese or English?
Either works. Some practitioners prefer Japanese because the original phrasing has a rhythmic, mantra-like quality. Others prefer English for clearer understanding. What matters is engagement with the meaning, not the language.
What if I fail to follow a principle during the day?
That is expected. The principles are aspirational, not rules you can break. When you notice you have drifted, you held onto anger, you spiraled into worry, simply return to the intention. The evening recitation is a reset point.
How do the principles relate to receiving Reiki sessions?
The principles prepare you to receive more fully. Chronic anger and worry create energetic blockages. Cultivating gratitude, integrity, and kindness opens you to the flow of healing energy. Many practitioners notice deeper effects from sessions when they are actively working with the principles.
Are the five principles religious?
They originated in early 20th century Japan. The principles themselves are ethical guidelines with no requirement for any particular belief system. People of all backgrounds practice them.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical or mental health advice. The Reiki principles are ethical guidelines and mindfulness practices, not treatments for medical or psychological conditions. If you are experiencing mental health challenges, consult a licensed healthcare provider or mental health professional.