Luminous Heart Reiki & Massage

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alternative medicine

  • I am a firm believer in the power of healing touch. So it seems only natural to me to get as much massage as I can to support the healing of the torn meniscus in my knee. For some, it might seem like a far stretch that massaging the soft tissue can help with an internal cartilage injury. Over the past 15 years of giving approximately 10,000 massages, I’ve witnessed time and time again my clients experiencing pain relief from a wide variety of issues. My respect for this holistic modality continues to deepen each time I observe it stimulating the body’s innate healing ability.

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    Swedish massage is my favorite! The soothing nature of the strokes stimulates the relaxation response and releases the happy chemicals in my brain. You know; serotonin, oxytocin, and dopamine. It’s quite magical! When I’m on the massage table, I feel like everything is going to be just fine, and I find myself breathing deeply, and while my muscles simply melt.

    Stimulating circulation is another important factor in the healing process. Unlike muscles, connective tissue isn’t particularly vascular and this can lengthen the duration of cartilage injuries. The manual manipulation of tissues around the knee increases circulation to the area, which supports the removal of any cellular waste and toxins as well as brings oxygen to the area. This provides the body with the conditions it needs to repair the damage from the inside out.

    Perhaps most importantly, the muscles supporting an injured joint and those on the opposite side that must compensate for limited range of motion get tense, stiff, and achy. This contributes to a cycle of pain, more tension, less circulation, more pain… Massage helps to break this cycle and encourages muscles to lengthen and relax. Triggering the relaxation response also reduces the secretion of  the stress hormone, cortisol, which has been shown to contribute to inflammation.

    Over time, feeling relaxed and the resulting physiological and neurochemical responses, along with increased circulation, and decreased inflammatory response will speed the healing on most any injury. Given that the side effects of massage include a good mood, nourished skin, and a sense of body-mind connection, I’m delighted to be able to include it in my recovery program. As with most, if not all, holistic and alternative treatments, massage promotes overall health and wellness without the dangers of more invasive procedures. Sign me up!

    Healer, Heal Thyself Part 4: Massage

    I am a firm believer in the power of healing touch. So it seems only natural…

  • Welcome to my journey of healing a torn meniscus using holistic, alternative therapies that align with my belief system. I recently explored body-mind-spirit healing, and next up is the ancient sacred practice of yoga. I’m not talking about the fast-paced, “work-out” style of yoga that seems to be popular in the U.S. these days. I don’t like to feel like I’m doing jumping jacks in my yoga practice! That seems like an invitation to injury (or re-injury) which is most definitely NOT part of my plan.

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    First of all, I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. In addition to following the suggestions of your medical practitioner, you might consider consulting a yoga therapist.

    Yoga therapists are trained to help people adapt poses and develop a practice that is safe for any body type or physical limitation. This would be my recommendation for most people wishing to use yoga to support the healing of any injury. Find a trained teacher who can guide you through the practice.

    Having been a student of yoga for the past 25 years, I have loads of experience at accepting what my body can and cannot do. I’ve given up the idea of trying to look like the person on the mat next to me. I have no idealized version of how my practice should look and I feel quite comfortable doing what I can, no matter how restricted it may seem. This acquired humbleness and authenticity combined with 15 years of practicing massage therapy allows me to feel confident guiding my own practice safely.

    For me, yoga is an exercise of the mind; of bringing my awareness into my body to focus on softening the areas that hold tension. It helps me to inhabit my body rather than just using it as a vehicle to carry me from place to place. Bringing compassionate awareness into the painful areas brings prana (the Sanskrit word for life- force energy that we call ki in Reiki healing) to the tissues that need it- the very tissues that I tend to ignore and numb out.

    For me the combination of breathing deeply, infusing my cells with prana, focusing my mind, becoming fully present, and mindful (and in this case slow and gentle) movement is extraordinarily healing. Plus it stimulates the Relaxation Response; a physiological reaction that releases feel-good, calming chemicals in my brain.  It’s like getting the benefits of a two week vacation rolled into an hour. Seriously, what could be better than that? Maybe a massage… but that’s for the next installment. 🙂

    Healer, Heal Thyself Part 3: Yoga

    Welcome to my journey of healing a torn meniscus using holistic, alternative therapies that align with…

  • Recently I announced my intention to chronicle my exploration of holistic healing therapies for a meniscus tear in my knee. Given my belief system (see Part 1), the infrequency of intense pain, and my knowledge of complementary and alternative medicine (especially Reiki), it is clearly the right path for me. Also, I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice.

    Pain is often a message from my spirit or psyche telling me I am off track, misaligned with my True Self or life purpose, or exposing myself to negativity, toxins, or some sort of abuse, misuse or neglect that is taking its toll on my body. I view it as a cry for help. As such, I do my best to welcome it and get curious about the wisdom that this message intends to reveal.

    I’m not a masochist by any means. I value pleasure and comfort a lot! However pain seems to be a warning ding (or DING!) that I need to change course. For this reason, I’m not relying on pain killers. I want to notice the dings before they become DINGS! and to do so, I need to be fully aware of what I’m feeling. I do keep a CBD creme on hand for soothing the DINGS! that occasionally reveal themselves, while simultaneously exploring what they are trying to tell me.

    Disclaimer: I do believe that thoughts and words have an impact on my health. Holding resentment or anger within me eventually causes pain in my body. Ignoring my spirit’s cries for change will also lead to discomfort. AND I’m certain there are other contributors to pain as well- karma and soul contracts and other mysterious factors which I do not claim to understand. So while I believe that all negative thoughts contribute to pain, the reverse does not follow: not all pain is caused by negative thoughts.

    In body-mind-spirit healing, I at least want to explore the possibility that my spirit or psyche is offering me valuable information. In this case, I noticed that twice I tweaked my knee on a Sunday while running for public transit on my way to the spa where I work part time. Aha! This, my friends is a clue!

    Stop rushing is the most obvious message. I KNOW this! Rushing creates anxiety, stress, a fight or flight hormonal reaction, and apparently knee pain. Now I must actually HEED this by allowing myself more time to get where I’m going or do what I’m doing in order to create a peaceful mode of being.

    When I dig deeper, I recognize that I’m working too much, I don’t want to work on Sundays (that’s when all the fun things happen!), and that the spa isn’t my ideal work environment. It’s pretty obvious that I need to make a change in my life. Of course, fear and scarcity thinking try to creep in and remind me that Sundays at the spa provide a substantial and reliable income; but that’s the type of thinking that got me into this mess! When I dig even deeper still, I become aware that I need the energy that I expend on Sundays to invest in my passion, my life purpose, my own business of offering deeply healing work to clients at my office.

    What follows is a leap of faith. Well, I’m not actually leaping these days, so more like a big, carefully aligned step in the direction my spirit sets for me. I’ve told the manager that I will work two more Sundays while she tries to find a replacement, and then no more. It was an uncomfortable conversation. She was clearly disappointed, but I was feeling an amazing sense of liberation as I KNEW I was making the right choice for my health, well-being, and happiness. Nothing means more to me than that.

     

    Healer, Heal Thyself Part 2. Body-mind-spirit Healing

    Recently I announced my intention to chronicle my exploration of holistic healing therapies for a meniscus…