Modern medicine is finally starting to recognize the detrimental effects that chronic stress has on our health. Physiologically, it’s clear that living under a cloud of too much to do, too many to care for, too little support and too few resources is a recipe for illness.
We know that the fight or flight response helps in an emergency situation, but when triggered 10 times each day before breakfast, it inhibits the immune system. It reroutes energy that would ideally be used for detoxification, digestion, assimilation of nutrients, cellular repair, creativity and focus and leaves us feeling fatigued, anxious, tense and stuck.
Activating the relaxation response is the foundation of the work I do. The number one thing clients say to me after a session is, “I feel so relaxed.” Or some variation of that. Sometimes it’s, “I didn’t know it was possible to feel so relaxed.”
Fantastic!
And then people generally return to their default patterns which generally do not preserve this relaxation.
I’m not pointing fingers here. We live in a world that promotes stress and busyness as markers of value and dismisses rest, relaxation and listening to the body’s cries for help as weakness. It’s totally understandable that most of us never learned how to relax, why it’s so important or how to keep it once we’ve gotten a taste.
If you get your car detailed, it will look great at first. How long will it last? Well, that’s up to you, isn’t it? It could be a minute or a month, maybe even two, depending on how you use it and your habits.
Same goes with relaxation. There is no one application that is permanent. It’s something that needs to be cultivated. There isn’t a “one size fits all” way to do that, though.
For those who are primed to change their habits and commit to a different way of interacting with the world, a treatment can be a jumpstart into their new routines.
Others will need consistent treatment until they find their footing and can build and maintain their routines.
Others will see a monthly treatment as ongoing support for themselves and all the care they offer to the world.
Others don’t even know where to begin. If this is you, I commend you for reading this far and being willing to consider what might be very much out of your comfort zone.
If your comfort zone has gotten too restrictive and you’re ready to expand it, I’d suggest trying my Reiki + coaching treatment and we can have a chat about small, simple actions you can take as well as fill up your tank with healing life-force energy.
Wherever you are, I’m here to help. There’s no need to worry that you’re too stressed or too anything or not enough of some other thing. We all have to begin our healing journey from where we are. Rather than bemoaning our starting point we can instead use that energy to step in the direction we’d like to go.
Today’s a good day to take that first step, don’t you think?
