I’m not exactly anxious about my appointment with the dentist today, but I know that once I’m in that chair, my primitive brain will take over. It senses danger in this semi-reclined, seemingly restrained, and rather helpless position. The very act of dentistry is invasive by nature- foreign tools and hands in the mouth, and is even potentially traumatic if the fight-flight-or-freeze response gets stimulated. I aim to avoid that.
So I’m spending extra time this morning getting grounded, filling up with nature ki, and strengthening my presence and peace of mind. While I’m not expecting any discomfort physically, I know myself well enough to realize there will be some emotional discomfort and I have no desire to allow it to blossom or fester.
The urge I felt upon waking this morning was to distract myself from the unease I felt rising up within me. While it’s too early for whiskey, Netflix is always available as a means to avoid emotions. Very tempting! But deep down I know that ignoring my feelings doesn’t actually heal them or even eradicate them, so I’m going with a more holistic approach.
Prayer, meditation, journaling, and nature are the remedies that truly feed my soul and help me find balance within myself, increasing my natural resilience. I find I need all the resilience I can muster when dealing with medical professionals who always seem so eager to expose me to toxic chemicals, radiation, and well… trauma.
So in preparation, I’ve been to the creek to fill up on life-force energy and have arranged for a friend and fellow practitioner to send me Reiki for support. I had the good sense to schedule a gentle yoga class followed by a sound healing session for tonight. I’m feeling confident that I’ve done all I can to minimize the potential damage and pave the way for a positive outcome.
It might seem like a lot of effort for a checkup! I’ve come to recognize the importance of prevention vs. cleaning up the mess afterwards as well as the logic of using tools and techniques that actually help me feel better rather than temporarily escaping. Oh my goodness, I think I’m really adulting!
I’m not exactly anxious about my appointment with the dentist today, but I know that once…
Allow me to introduce Karen, a Reiki student whose contagious enthusiasm, fascination, and curiosity inspired me to invite her to collaborate on a Q&A series. We are hoping that sharing the experience of how Reiki has affected her in such a relatively short period of time will validate others who are having similar experiences that seem far-fetched.
Karen: What’s a healing crisis and how do I know if I’m having one?
Pamela: Great question! A healing crisis can happen after a holistic health treatment or Reiki attunement. As the body adjusts to a new energy level, it begins to release stored toxins and/or emotions. This is a necessary part of the healing process but can feel… uncomfortable.
For instance, I tend to hold unexpressed anger in my left hip. When I receive work on that area, afterwards I sometimes sense that old and seemingly irrelevant anger rises to the surface. Sometimes there can be a flu-like response as toxins that had been stuck in that stagnant anger are being processed. Knowing that these are symptoms of healing, I’m able to support the process by drinking extra water or herbal teas, doing gentle stretches and movement, or taking an Epsom salt bath rather than sinking into despair or taking OTC meds. The awareness that I’m letting go of the very source of the pain in my hip encourages me to stick with it and be gentle and kind with myself rather than examining where I went wrong or why I’m feeling sick.
As for knowing if you’re having a healing reaction, I’m not sure you can ever really know. There’s not a blood test or any way to measure this. If your intuition is telling you this is a meaningful response, then most likely it is! If you recently had a treatment or an attunement, the chances are good that you are. The mind wants to know and define and label, but the truth is it doesn’t really matter for the healing. Just like any other symptoms; we notice, accept, get present with a loving heart, and use whatever tools we have to help ourselves.
Karen: It was interesting to experience the healing crisis and as time has passed, I’ve definitely realized that is what I was going through. The symptoms that led me to Reiki in the first place – a chronic back problem, anxiety, and depression – were suddenly acute! My back went into spasm, I was feeling overwhelmed and sad, and had a respiratory virus all of a sudden. But through this process, I continued to do my Reiki practice and gained perspective that enabled me to observe it without getting caught up in the experience. And it passed quickly, leaving me refreshed and with a renewed sense of possibility. Ordinarily a back spasm takes about six weeks to fully heal, but this healing crisis lasted less than a week and my back has been nearly pain-free since it occurred.
Pamela: First of all, I’m sorry to hear that the symptoms went acute. Ugh! Overall, I think it’s a good sign, but I empathize nonetheless. Secondly, let me commend you for continuing to give yourself Reiki and not getting caught up in the story about this discomfort! This is an important piece of healing: awareness and taking care of yourself. Recognizing that symptoms are a message of a deeper imbalance can point us toward addressing the underlying causes. Keep with it! I’ve been practicing for over 15 years now, and I still have episodes. Yesterday as I was preparing for a new client, my low back seized up. I met this woman for the very first time while I was bent over and unable to stand up straight. I was mortified to have to cancel a session at the last minute, but it was quite clear that I urgently needed to tend to my own needs. This was a resurgence of the original back pain I experienced as an adolescent, and a powerful reminder that there is still healing to be done and emotions to be released. Recognizing this, I dug into processing and self-care and less than 24 hours later I am 95% better. I don’t think I would have recovered so quickly without the awareness of healing crises. Which points to synchronicity- which will be our next topic!
Note to Karen: if I’m to be personally experiencing the topics we discuss here, let’s be sure to cover some joyful and pleasurable questions soon!
Allow me to introduce Karen, a Reiki student whose contagious enthusiasm, fascination, and curiosity inspired me…
“This is the first time I really understood what it means to be kind to my body.”
A client said this to me after a massage. We might have been sitting, but I was totally jumping for joy on the inside. Also the Hallelujah Chorus was playing in my head.
Before the session, we had discussed my kinder, gentler approach to bodywork. I had explained how my goal is to activate the physiological relaxation response that triggers all the feel-good body chemistry and can help break the pain cycle. She understood that I planned to use a moderate pressure to coax the muscles into releasing tension while stimulating circulation, detoxification, and dare I say? Pleasure.
She knew that was the plan, but had no idea how very healing this approach could be. “But you didn’t even attack the knots!” No, I certainly did not! There is no benefit from attacking. Those knots are a symptom of imbalance. I’m much more interested in relieving the root cause of the imbalance, which so very often is… stress. Treating the stress lessens tension and often knots evaporate on their own.
Relaxation is a remedy for stress and pain. Creating more pain through aggressive massage is not a recipe for relaxation. Even intense work that falls just short of pain can stimulate the fight, flight, or freeze response which then triggers… muscle tension. Just like you can’t get carrots by planting cucumber seeds, you cannot cultivate relaxation through pain.
She left feeling considerable relief from the chronic pain that had been plaguing her almost constantly. The next week she reported that she’d had much less discomfort following her treatment, and that it was the first time massage had ever had any noticeable effect. What a victory! I have a feeling this new perspective on being kind to her body will continue to have helpful results as well.
I could have brushed off my hands right there and then and retired happily.
But of course I didn’t because I love my work and there’s so much more of it to be done.
While inherently true, it’s a most unsatisfying response; so let’s dig deeper.
I find it helpful to compare life-force energy to a bank account. The equivalent question would be: how long until I am free from debt? It’s easy to see how “it depends” is the only possible answer. It depends on how indebted someone is, how much they earn, how much they spend, and what the return is on investments they’ve collected.
This same thinking can be applied to healing. While Reiki and massage can indeed be counted on as deposits to one’s energetic bank, there are numerous other factors involved. How long has energy been leaking? What other investments in health have been made, and are one’s daily habits and lifestyle contributing to or depleting the account?
If I continue to cultivate anger and resentment from an event 20 years ago, I am draining my reserves. It would be like an online shopping addiction increasing my debt. If I do the hard work of releasing that anger and resentment and choosing forgiveness, it would be like getting a part time job to boost my income.
The more I build my energy savings through mindfulness, loving-kindness, movement, breath, creativity, eating real foods, spending time in nature, resting, presence, and authenticity; the more likely I am to experience the optimal level of health and vitality available to me. The more I drag my energy down with suppressed emotions, unhealed trauma, processed food, binge watching TV, criticism, incessant complaining, gossip, and judgement; the more difficult it is to reach my peak wellness.
As I tell my clients, healing is facilitated greatly when we stop engaging in the behaviors, thoughts, and beliefs that contribute to dis-ease. In my own life, I experience low back pain when I eat half a bag of hard pretzels, sit for too long, repress anger or anxiety, wallow in feelings of unworthiness, or overdo it. Reiki and massage definitely help my back feel better; but minimizing the cause of the pain in addition to receiving treatment is infinitely more effective.
I notice that my clients who are pro-active in creating healthy lifestyles, pursuing personal or spiritual growth, and who are willing to surrender the harmful habits that contribute to their discomfort have exponential returns on their healing investments. Clients who are more passive and leave all the work to me often progress more slowly.
It’s important to acknowledge that none of them are wrong or bad or lazy. Everyone is doing the best they can with the resources they have. I enjoy working with the client whose only act of self-care is showing up at my office just as much as devoted yogis. But it’s important to note that if you’re interested in experiencing the maximum results in the minimum time, you have to save more life-force energy than you spend.
This is a question clients often ask me. How long will it take to heal my…
When I was 13, I was blessed with the onset on chronic pain.
Wait, what?
Yup. Of course I didn’t see it as a blessing till much, much later. But from that young age I was exposed to the limits of western medicine. The doctor offered me some stretches and suggested I spend this time of crisis lying on my back on the floor. While that helped to some small degree, it certainly was no remedy for the suppression of emotions and crushed first chakra energy that plagued me. There is no remedy for the spinal malformation that creates a weak link in my low back, except for perhaps surgery, which fortunately was never recommended.
The blessing lies in the shift of my life trajectory which led me to the chiropractor, yoga class, applied kinesiology and resulting dietary changes, homeopathy, massage, Reiki, meditation, affirmations, and spiritual exploration. Not only did holistic health become my path for finding comfort in my body, but eventually my career and passion. Before this pain, I was destined for a future seeking fortune and happiness outside of myself and very likely some soul-sucking job that drained my life- force and health gradually.
Over the decades I’ve learned much about healing. Some key points are that pain is a message that imbalance is present and ignoring or suppressing the message is not helpful; pills don’t cure; my thoughts, beliefs, and emotions affect my health; and the biggie: I’m the only one responsible for my well-being. I feel blessed that I began these lessons at such a young age and have had so many opportunities to expand my understanding. Rather than waiting for everything to fall apart at 50 as I see so many of my peers doing, I’ve been perfecting my practice of self-care and well-being. I anticipate turning 50 in a few years and feeling better than ever!
I was overjoyed to find this movie online, featuring many of the healers and teachers I’ve come to admire over the years. People with the courage to step out of the mainstream way of thinking and follow their hearts and intuition to share gifts; gifts which are often beyond the comprehension of the general public. Not only have they helped so many people find health and happiness, but they helped pave the way for the likes of me. This documentary is quite comprehensive in content and heartwarming in essence.
If you’re curious about alternative medicine, dissatisfied with the results of conventional medicine, or yearn to go deeper into the metaphysical realm you might find some understanding or perhaps even inspiration here. For me it brought a sense of belonging to a bigger community of believers; a bit of healing in itself as I often find myself confused and struggling in a world that makes no sense to me.
If nothing else, it might plant a seed that healing is a way of being and relating to yourself with love and kindness. From there, miracles are possible.
When I was 13, I was blessed with the onset on chronic pain. Wait, what? Yup.…
Tomorrow I go back to the dentist for a filling and a crown. After a two part root canal, I’m feeling quite confident that it will be a smooth and easy procedure. I’ve been paving the way with Reiki. One of the most amazing things about this healing energy is that it isn’t limited by time or space; so I’ve been sending Reiki to this appointment since I scheduled it. It will be there waiting for me, filling the office, and creating a safe and harmonious space for all of us.
I’m prepared with arnica, propolis, and aromatherapy for any inflammation. Soup and smoothies are ready to blend. Hours have been cleared for recuperation. My favorite comfy sweatshirt is clean. Yoga and meditation will be practiced in preparation. Rescue Remedy, the Bach flower essence for trauma, is on hand. My Kindle is stocked. Intentions and visualizations are ongoing.
Best of all, I have an appointment next week with my Reiki practitioner, who also does cranial-sacral therapy. She did some amazing, gentle intra-oral work for me after the root canal and I had the good sense to reschedule. Yes, intra-oral. Translation: fingers in the mouth. It really helped to relieve the tension in my jaw and realign the joint. It’s now an essential part of my master plan!
Meanwhile I continue with my new Boka electric brush, natural toothpaste, and floss. Remineralization is happening as I type through nutritional choices. Reiki is being used daily for reestablishing healthy flow of life-force energy to the teeth and jaw as well as for accepting what is happening and releasing any negative associations with the procedures.
All hands are on deck for maximum oral health and I’m totally crushing it!
Tomorrow I go back to the dentist for a filling and a crown. After a two…
Tomorrow I’m scheduled for a root canal. I’ve been preparing for weeks. (See part 1 and part 2 of this dental journey if you wish.) My motivation is two-fold: for the procedure to go as smoothly as possible, and to avoid having to go through this ever again. I’m enlisting all the holistic tools at my disposal to make this a reality.
I continue to use Reiki daily, both for my teeth and jaws, as well as sending it to the procedure itself. Given what I know about trauma, the body’s fight-flight-freeze mechanism, and its physiological responses; my strategy is to promote calmness. Reiki, breathing practices, and yoga are the techniques that come to mind.
I’m also interested in minimizing inflammation, for which I’m using diet, herbs, and aromatherapy. I have propolis and arnica tablets standing by for after the procedure and ibuprofen as a last resort. Rescue Remedy, a Bach flower essence for stress and trauma, will no doubt be a huge help as well.
I was delighted to discover askthedentist.com during my research of holistic support for a root canal. This sight is devoted to functional dentistry. I didn’t even know such a thing existed! There’s tons of information about how to maximize oral health that extends way beyond brushing, flushing, and trips to the dentist. Nutrition is a prime focus as a preventative measure. I ordered a new electric toothbrush and natural toothpaste based on the thorough product research provided.
I’m feeling quite well prepared. My doctor comes with the highest recommendations and I’m doing everything possible on my end to ensure a positive outcome. Naturally massage, plenty of rest, green smoothies and other soft foods, and several book and video distractions will all have a place in my recovery. Taking an active role in my wellness plan (which now thoroughly includes preventing future invasive dental interventions!) has been an empowering process.
I’m ready for my first and last root canal. Bring it on Dr. Lim!
It seems appropriate that I’m writing this while swishing coconut oil in my mouth as part of my complementary, holistic campaign for maximum dental health. Oil pulling is an ancient Ayurvedic technique with tons of anecdotal support, but it hasn’t been subjected to rigorous scientific experimentation. I suspect this is because there’s no money to be made from exposing the benefits of simple self-care practices. I’m willing to give it a try as I see no possible harmful effects and have greater trust in folk medicine than western medicine when it comes to promoting wellness.
After 20 minutes, I’ll brush with baking soda and then again with a mostly natural toothpaste, containing flouride. I still believe that flouride is toxic, but I’m using it on a temporary basis, as my intuition is telling me to use all the tools I can right now in this crisis period, and to take extra steps to support detoxification along the way. I should also mention that I’m doing tongue scraping (another revered Ayurvedic recommendation), first thing every morning too.
Yesterday I went in for the root canal. The doctor was very compassionate and took the time to explain the process to me and answer my questions. He was a referral from my dentist, and that referral was independently verified by a client who is also a dentist, so I was feeling quite good about the choices that led me to be reclining in his chair.
I’d been Reiki’ing myself and the procedure for days. I was as prepared as I possibly could have been. But holy hell! Talk about triggering the fight-flight-or-freeze reflex! It was invasive, scary, and I don’t mind sharing- traumatic. I’m not sure how I would have gotten through it without flowing Reiki and deep breathing. While there was very little pain, the threat of it was overpowering and I could feel my body respond physiologically as if I were in actual danger.
As it turns out, he was unable to complete the process and I have to go back in two weeks for the final round! Apparently the alternative was allowing saliva and bacteria to be introduced into the canal, creating the possibility of “big problems” a few years down the line. No thank you! Now that I know what to expect and that I can indeed survive the experience, I’m feeling less anxious. We’ll see if that calm holds when I go in for the next appointment!
I left the office with instructions for aftercare. They did not cover the emotional distress I was feeling, nor the adrenaline that was pumping through me. I felt the familiar compulsion to suppress uncomfortable emotions using the potent distractions of food, drink, and electronics. I resisted, knowing that I needed to release the energy and emotions and not stuff them down inside of myself.
I continued to flood myself with Reiki on the train ride home while practicing deep breathing with extended exhales. I came home and used aromatherapy, yoga, EFT, and meditation to release the excess energy from my system and to engage the relaxation response. I added propolis to the recommended warm water salt rinse. Several hours later, the numbness had worn off and a mild pain kicked in. I took one ibuprofen, thinking that a good night’s sleep was of utmost importance.
Today I’m feeling fine. I already had a Reiki treatment scheduled for myself, and I’ve switched it to a long-distance session so I can stay home and comfortable (it’s cold and rainy here today) and still receive the full benefits of divinely guided life-force energy. I will continue to treat myself frequently, but there is something magical about receiving treatment from another practitioner.
While I’m waiting for the next appointment, along with the extra dental self-care, I’ll explore nutrition for re-mineralizing teeth. My dentist is skeptical, but I personally know someone who succeeded with this approach and avoided multiple fillings. It’s seems obvious that the body needs certain building blocks to maintain healthy teeth and that the food I choose will be able to supply them.
Overall, I’m able to look at this as adventure of exploring the relationship between modern medicine and complementary medicine. The goal is to use all the tools possible to create the greatest, most optimal outcome. I’m the captain on this journey; investigating all the options, receiving advice from various professionals, and making decisions based on my personal value system. While I can’t truthfully say that I’m glad to be here, I’m going to make the best of it, and do my best to prevent booking a return trip.
…update of original post… It seems appropriate that I’m writing this while swishing coconut oil in…
Well this is certainly a topic I never imagined writing about! I’m no expert on teeth or dentistry, but I am committed to living a life based in body-mind-spirit integration, and that includes my oral cavity. When a filling fell out 6 months ago, and I chose to ignore it, perhaps that was a mistake? OK, it was absolutely a mistake! I recognize now that it was a message that something was out of balance. Sheesh, this is the foundation of my belief system! Moving forward… So when part of a tooth (that was attached to the former filling) fell out, I chose more wisely.
So what to do when you believe in holistic healing and there is no holistic dentist in your area, when you have no dental insurance or excess cash, when you’re not in pain but are aware that it’s a distinct possibility in the near future? You do the best you can to stay aligned with your values and take immediate action.
So I did. I’ll share the journey here with the hopes that it might be of assistance to someone else on a similar path.
For starters, I turn to my primary tool: Reiki. I used Reiki for clarity and intuition when choosing a dentist. I wanted someone who would be compassionate and understanding of my alternative views about healthcare, and open to working with me in this regard. I sent Reiki ahead to the appointment for the best possible outcome, to calm my nerves, and to attract the means with which to pay. (For now, that’s my credit card, but I’m confident the means to pay that bill will follow!)
Being devoted to holistic healing does not prevent me from getting help when I’m out of my league. A decaying tooth with a nerve that is apparently quite nearly exposed is way out of my league. And preventing pain is a top priority in my book. So, off I go for a root canal tomorrow. I’m already sending Reiki to the appointment for a smooth, painless procedure and speedy healing.
I’m also going to pick up some propolis, which I’ve been told by a bee-loving friend, is an excellent choice for healing gums. I’m preparing soft foods for aftercare and creating as much space as possible in my schedule for a restful recovery. I have herbs and essential oils on hand for managing inflammation through stimulating the body’s innate healing ability, rather than using OTC meds to suppress it. Meds are on hand, just in case, as I don’t believe in suffering needlessly.
As for the other issues that the dentist found… well I’ll be working on them in the meantime. She can have this urgent intervention. But this does not mean that I’m giving away my power as the primary medical expert of myself; I will be doing my magic as well. The very same tools I use as preventative and alternative medicine on a daily basis can also be used as complementary medicine.
It seems that teeth have simply not been on my radar beyond the basics. I don’t recall ever having sent Reiki to my teeth. That’s weird because I Reiki everything! Outside of minimizing sugar, I haven’t thought at all about what foods support healthy teeth. I have avoided fluoride, but not considered what the most helpful toothpaste ingredients are.
Those days are over. Dental health in now on my radar. I’m getting involved and applying every trick I’ve ever learned from nutrition to stress management to sound healing, plant medicine, and ancient Ayurvedic techniques. And dental reflexology. What?! It’s a thing! New to me, but I’m going to check it out. All holistic remedies will be explored.
Luminous Heart Reiki & Massage 