Luminous Heart Reiki & Massage

Check out this interesting article! Some of the action steps are oversimplified, IMO, but there’s still a whole lot of good info here about psychological stress and how it impacts the body in a way that cultivates anxiety.

In my work with hundreds of clients experiencing anxiety over the past 20 years, I’ve seen how stress amplifies anxiety. When people learn to mitigate the physiological effects of stress, very often anxiety diminishes greatly or even disappears altogether. Imagine a garden in which you stop watering the weeds. Only the most tenacious, deeply rooted buggers will persist.

It’s amazing to me how non-invasive, safe, gentle and natural treatments such as massage, Reiki and movement education can so profoundly impact a condition that is so disruptive to so many people and so very poorly treated by the medical system. (I’ll spare you my rant about that! Hint: follow the money.)

When the nervous system is regulated and we’re not constantly receiving “DANGER” messages and flooded with adrenaline, it’s easier to access clarity, cognitive abilities and inner power making many seemingly overwhelming challenges much more manageable.

Holistic treatments look at the whole being, including the mental and emotional components, as well as the physical and bio-chemical factors. Those of us in the healing arts are well aware of how complex health is because of the seeming illogical responses people may have to circumstances that trigger the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response. Deactivating the triggers requires us to first uncover them and treat them with compassion rather than attempting to suppress or atack them.

Back to the article… From this same website, “Clinical somatics is neuromuscular education… to retrain muscle memory and relieve pain.” It’s a practice of noticing where muscles are chronically and unnecessarily contracted and teaching them to release. Easier said than done, it’s true! But effective for those who have the determination to stick with it.

If building new neural pathways and learning how to use your body more efficiently just seems like too much work, consider booking a Reiki-massage if you’re in the Philly area or a remote Reiki session, wherever you may be. I’ll do all the work and you can just lay back and soak it up. Sometimes healing is more about undoing than doing.