Lots of people recognize Reiki as a fantastic tool for healing physical, mental, and emotional issues. It’s even being used in hospitals and hospice to reduce pain and meds, speed recovery, and promote comfort.
And… for those of us who are on a spiritual path, wanting to go deeper and experience belonging and awakening in mystical ways, Reiki can also provide a key for us.
For starters, it can help us be present with whatever is arising. Staying present (vs. distracting, avoiding, numbing or procrastinating) is a necessary skill that is made much easier when our nervous systems are regulated and our minds are calm.
It can highlight what needs to be released, processed or integrated.
It can help us access our inner wisdom and power and sense of innate worthiness.
When we become more grounded, more centered, more aligned with our essence, the way forward becomes clearer. Breadcrumbs appear at just the right time.
When we’re connected to the divine within and to a sense of belonging, it’s easier to surrender to the flow of life and to set boundaries.
When we’re comfortable facing the unknown, we gain tremendous confidence and courage.
When we don’t need to know all the answers or figure it all out, we can show up every day for spiritual practice and allow our awakening to unfold organically without striving, clinging or forcing.
Reiki is a resource that can be woven into your prayers, meditations, spells, and incantations. It’s simply an energy; one that can be used to enhance and deepen that work that you’re doing.
It has been the tool that has been most transformative and nourishing for me on my decades long spiritual healing journey. Devoting time to being with myself and cultivating a soul-lead lifestyle has been a portal for spiritual awakening and connection with the divine.
My clients and students often report mystical experiences without having the vocabulary to describe them. The lack of descriptive words makes them no less real. They express a feeling of time being suspended, going on magical journeys, and feeling more at home than they knew was even possible. I have no way of measuring, but I suspect some people go into a theta brainwave state, which is deeply healing, and/or have pineal gland activations.
If you’re interested in journeying down this path with me, you’d be most welcome in my upcoming Reiki 1 class. We meet online 4 times, beginning May 4. Or, if you prefer a more receptive route, schedule a session and I’ll be the transmitter for you while you can catch up on some rest.
Lots of people recognize Reiki as a fantastic tool for healing physical, mental, and emotional issues.…
While I was on the shiatsu table yesterday, I was astounding how everything hurt. Every spot he touched was sore, achy or tender.
UGH!
I’ve been healing both a shoulder and knee injury over the past several months. Many of my efforts seemed to aggravate one thing or another and I came to the conclusion that they both just needed rest.
However, my spine and hips are not loving this plan! They haven’t been getting the movement they need and stiffness has settled into my joints.
The practitioner helped me to see how I was looking through an “all or nothing” lens. I’d chosen to do nothing since the everything approach wasn’t working.
It’s important to point out that choosing rest is a valid option on any healing journey and often not a challenging task. But I’d conflated rest with sedentary. While I walk frequently, there’s not a whole lot of range of motion involved in that activity.
He suggested one simple exercise. Just one. One that I’ve done for decades because it is so beneficial. But he suggested doing it several times throughout the day. Each and every day.
Each session takes less than three minutes, so there’s absolutely no reason for me to not follow through.
It sounds exactly like the advice I offer to people who suffer neck and shoulder pain from hunching over a computer for hours at a time. In order to off-set the imbalance of a chronic posture, it takes multiple applications of a counter pose.
And by adding in just one exercise, I’d clearly be able to track the results, be they negative or positive.
It’s a great example of how we sometimes can’t see the obvious solutions, evenespecially when we have a degree of expertise in the arena. Getting another’s perspective can help us see what might be hiding in plain view.
It occurred to me that someone else might need to hear this little reminder. What is one baby step you can take today to get you closer to your goals? One simple thing, perhaps mimicking my morning/noon/night self-care schedule that will add up over time.
Rather than getting overwhelmed at ALL the things that could be done and therefore doing none of them, pick the easy thing, or the enjoyable thing and make a commitment to yourself. Maybe even set an alarm or reminder on your phone.
The best self-care is the kind we actually do! Simplifying things helps make it doable and that’s half the battle right there.
While I was on the shiatsu table yesterday, I was astounding how everything hurt. Every spot…
Ooooh! This is fabulous.
Here’s the gem if you don’t want to spend 7 minutes watching this video: “Oppositional energy strengthens the problem.”
Meaning if I can soften my response to someone who isn’t behaving the way I want them to, they don’t need to be as committed to their course of action.
Tosha uses gratitude, which can be a big step in certain situations. Perhaps acceptance or neutrality might be an easier entrance point until gratitude muscles get built up.
Either way, it’s a big change from the inner fuming that is so popular in our culture!
I have a bit of an issue with labeling people as “difficult”. Really it’s just behavior that doesn’t conform to my preferences. I’d prefer this was called “How to Deal with Difficult Situations.” Does that make me difficult?
Ooooh! This is fabulous. Here’s the gem if you don’t want to spend 7 minutes watching…
Healing is an alchemical practice of transformation. We dream of what we want to create without being attached to it while simultaneously making space for our current situation and being willing to release that which stands in the way.
If we’re particularly intrepid and devoted, we might choose to surrender entirely to our soul’s plan and simply follow the breadcrumbs.
The plan is essentially the same, no matter if I’m working on a knee injury, an auto-immune condition, wonky hormones, anxiety, accessing inner strength and guidance, spiritual awakening, or cultivating peace, joy, and prosperity. (I know this because I AM working on all these things!)
It’s rarely (if ever!) a linear path where 2+2=4. It’s more like M.C. Escher’s “Relativity”.
I have developed a basic recipe that captures the complexity of this equation. (Yes, a recipe for an equation, because that’s how un-logical healing is!)
Each of these elements varies from moment to moment and person to person.
Optimal wellness for me is built on the foundation of my lineage, history, constitution, beliefs, circumstances and resources. Yours will likely be very different from mine.
If we break it down into segments, it can be easier to approach. These segments aren’t actually separate stages of the journey as everything is intertwined, but it can be helpful to look at it this way for easier understanding.
Compassion. The basic art of being kind to ourselves, no matter what. Easier said than done!
Intention. What is the destination of this healing journey? It might take some time and effort to sort through the “shoulds” of what society, family, religion, school, and the advertising industry have led you to believe are the necessary accomplishments of a successful human.
Non-attachment. Allow yourself to want what you want without clinging to it. Goals tend to change slightly (or entirely!) as you begin to move towards them. Often we gain insight and wisdom along the way, perhaps acceptance or forgiveness, and maybe a good dash of humor or humility that changes our perspective. This is why it’s important to hold the vision loosely and allow it to unfold organically.
Nourishment. I’m not talking about eating delicious home cooked meals, although that could certainly be a factor. I’m talking about spiritual nourishment.
For me this can look like sitting by the creek, reading a good book on the porch, lingering in bed when I don’t have to get up right away, laughing with my niece and nephews, meditating, or a playful hour with colored markers. The common factor here is that none of these activities can be labeled as “productive” or “profitable” outside of my healing journey and require a devoted mindset to carving out the time to make them happen.
Prioritize the journey. This means I need to keep my intention in mind when making decisions and say no to things that would derail me. There are a thousand reasons to deviate from the plan, but very few of them are as important as the healing journey itself. It helps to remind myself frequently about the original desire, or to put it another way, why I’m on this path in the first place.
Navigate the obstacles. They will present themselves without any effort on your part- all you need to do is make a plan to move towards your preferred destination and see what emerges. I call them the “yeah, buts”. Yeah, I want that, but… xyz. They often expose limiting beliefs about scarcity and unworthiness.
They will be tasks, relationships and thoughts that drain your energy and block your progress. AND they are another form of breadcrumbs, showing you what needs your compassionate attention.
Some of these things might be easy to release. Many of them will require some introspection and TLC as they are actually wounds coming to the surface for healing. If we push them away or try to skip over them, we miss an opportunity to alchemize coagulated emotions or integrate fragmented parts of ourselves.
All of this requires not only the willingness to stay put and face the seeming obstacles attached to our desires and abilities to nourish ourselves, but also the skill to interrupt survival and coping mechanisms. This is where nervous system regulation comes in handy. It’s the key that makes the other steps manageable. It’s practically impossible to do any of the above work if your mind is screaming “DANGER! EVACUATE! DANGER!” at top volume.
I made this video outlining some very simple steps to turn off those alarms when they aren’t needed. Let’s face it, most of the time we aren’t in mortal danger. Yet biology stimulates this overblown response and it’s crucial to have a plan for dealing with it.
By far, the easiest way I know (and believe me, I’ve spent 30 years looking for the easiest, simplest, most effective solution to my own struggle with chronic pain and anxiety) to support us on our healing journeys is Reiki. That’s why I’m offering a Reiki 1, Healing for Yourself and Your Loved Ones class that begins May 4. If you’re interested in the way of self-empowerment in order to maximize your wellbeing and connect with your inner strength and wisdom, I’d be delighted to have you aboard.
Healing is an alchemical practice of transformation. We dream of what we want to create without…
Understanding the difference between coping and healing is important for those of us on the holistic path. We don’t often see folks modeling a balanced, integrated approach to dealing with challenges. Coping is very popular in our culture- just turn on the TV for a few minutes and you’re sure to see an example. Or ten.
In my experience, coping comes in a variety of flavors, all of which lean towards checking out of difficult or unpleasant situations. Numbing, distracting, and suppressing are all members of the coping family. If you’re anything like me, you have a wide array of options to choose from, many of which have been perfected over the years.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there is definitely a time and place for coping. If you’re in over your head and need a break from overwhelming emotions, sensations, or circumstances, checking out might be the healthiest option available to you in that moment. Sometimes our sanity or survival relies on our ability to put our heads down and slog through whatever crisis lies ahead. There’s absolutely no shame in doing what you need to do to get through the day.
And… coping doesn’t address the source of the problem, so its effects are, at best, temporary and unsatisfying, and often come with undesirable consequences. Reserve coping strategies for the times when there are no other options. Do what you need to do and let’s talk about a plan for treating the root of the problem when the resources to do so become available.
Healing, or treating a symptom, disease, disorder, malady, or pattern means correcting any imbalance that contributes to its existence. This means looking at belief systems, thought patterns, unexpressed emotions, habits, repetitive movements, and energy flow to see what can be adjusted to support the healing process.
Not nearly as much fun as frozen margaritas and brownies, I know! But immensely more effective and with no queasy regrets the next morning.
OK, great. But now what? How do we actually go about it? I have a lot of ideas, some of which will resonate and others that will likely evoke a … meh… reaction. Depending on your personality and constitution, you’ll either be drawn to the deep end or the gently sloping end of the pool. There is no wrong way to approach healing. The right way is the one that works for you.
Becoming more mindful of what’s actually going on under the surface is a crucial step on the journey. For those of us with unprocessed trauma in our systems, this can stir up some messy, sometimes overwhelming feelings. It is wise to enlist the support of a professional before poking around in your darkest corners if you have difficult, violent, or upsetting experiences in your past that have not been assimilated. Get yourself some guidance before you begin exploring the inner labyrinth.
Efforts that can be applied to healing include, but are not limited to:
Self-compassion
Prioritize your needs and desires in order to make space for them
Make space for your emotions and the accompanying energy
Move your body in a way that feels good
Slow down/do less
Practice being present with yourself no matter what
Minimize multitasking
Explore and inventory your limiting beliefs and decide which are keepers and which need to be released.
Meet every seeming obstacle as an opportunity to heal what lies beneath it.
Get lots of support
Reiki is an amazing tool that can help with all of the above activities. It regulates the nervous system and provides an infusion of healing life-force energy, giving us the motivation and capacity to face whatever comes up and deal with it accordingly.
If that sounds like something you’d like to have available at you very fingertips, I’d be delighted to have you in my upcoming beginners Reiki class: Reiki 1, Healing Yourself and Your Loved Ones. We gather online for four sessions, starting on May 4.
Understanding the difference between coping and healing is important for those of us on the holistic…
Why am I always talking about the nervous system?
Because I see it as an important key to being healthy and happy. A lot of us spend a lot of time in the disregulated state where it’s nearly impossible to feel good or get anything meaningful accomplished.
If you’re exploring your inner world through meditation or any of the healing arts, you’re likely going to run into some protective mechanisms that will activate your survival response, AKA sympathetic nervous system.
This is a very useful response if you need to lift a car off someone trapped underneath or run away from an attacker.
If you don’t need heroic strength or speed, it can cause very uncomfortable sensations in the body, such as anxiety, tension, or even panic attacks. It absolutely erodes your health over time.
For those of us who live in the modern world, stress is unavoidable. However, we can learn to navigate it so that it doesn’t derail our peace of mind or transformational endeavors.
I’ve assembled some simple and doable tools can help you stay present when your inner judge, perfectionist or bully, suppressed emotions, or unprocessed trauma come to the surface. Staying present is the key to healing and integrating these energies. The alternative is avoiding them, which only delays their emergence, usually until a stressful moment causes a very inconvenient eruption and/or meltdown.
Haven’t we all “been there, done that” enough already?!
I made this <10 minute video to demonstrate some super-easy ways to deactivate the alarm bells and impending panic when things get stirred up. They work wonders! No Reiki is required to utilize these techniques, but they do pair quite nicely with Reiki if you’ve been initiated.
And if your brain is going to explode if you have to learn one more thing and all of this seems just too much, consider booking a Reiki session. Let me and the healing energy do all the work while you lie back and rest.
It’s possible to cultivate a different way of being. It requires some consistent effort to reprogram your operating/nervous system. I can’t imagine any other effort that is more important than taking good care of yourself and cultivating the greatest possible wellness.
Why am I always talking about the nervous system? Because I see it as an important…
I use dry brushing as a simple practice to keep my lymph system healthy. I love it! It’s easy, quick, and feels great. I credit this technique as a vital piece of my wellness program. Managing stress, cultivating life-force, minimizing toxins, and boosting the lymph system is my recipe for vitality and healthy aging and dry brushing is a crucial ingredient.
This video does a nice job of clearly explaining the process. This is something anyone can do on a daily or weekly basis. I do it several times per week before bathing. Those with lymph issues will want to check out her other video (linked in this one) for a different routine. My philosophy is do the maintenance work and prevent issues whenever possible.
For a one-time cost of about $20 for a brush, and about 10 minutes per session, you can take action to promote greater immune system function and overall health. It doesn’t get easier than this, folks! Give it a try.
I use dry brushing as a simple practice to keep my lymph system healthy. I love…
I’ve joined this wonderful 21 day meditation challenge led by my dear friend Becky. Today was our second day of meeting online and being guided into a silent meditation and then serenaded with lovely poetry. It’s not too late to join this very doable practice- just 15 minutes, and it’s recorded if you can’t make it live.
It’s been a wonderful addition to my day. Join us! There’s something extra special about meditating in community. Becky makes it super-accessible by offering her gifts on a donation basis.
I just had to share the beautiful poem she read this morning. Such wise and compassionate words by Orion Mountain Dreamer. I felt tingles all over simply from listening.
What if There’s No Need to Change?
What if there is no need to change? No need to transform yourself Into someone who is more compassionate, more present, more loving, or wise? How would this affect all the places in your life where you are endlessly trying to be better, or different? What if the task is simply to unfold To become who you already are in your essential nature – Gentle, compassionate, and capable of living fully and passionately present? What if the question is not, Why am I so infrequently the person I really want to be? But ‘why do i so infrequently want to be the person i really am?’ How would this change what you think you have to learn? What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying But by recognising and receiving the people and places and practices That are for us the warmth of encouragement we need to unfold? How would this shape the choices you make about how to spend today? What if you know that the impulse to move in a way that creates beauty in the world Will arise from deep within And guide you every time you simply pay attention And wait. How would this shape your stillness, your movement, Your willingness to follow this impulse To just let go And dance?
I’ve joined this wonderful 21 day meditation challenge led by my dear friend Becky. Today was…
Managing stress is my number one strategy for being happy, healthy, and creative. It’s my long-term plan for healthy aging and what keeps me sane in a chaotic world.
Let’s start with what I actually mean by “managing” stress. I’m not talking about avoiding it altogether. As if! While I do make targeted efforts to minimize external stressors (by saying no to voluntary tasks that don’t bring me joy and being mindful about the amount of sensory stimulation I expose myself to), it’s not possible to avoid it completely. Certain kinds of stress, such as some challenges and physical exercise are even beneficial.
I’m also not talking about tropical vacations or spa days. These may or may not be helpful in managing stress, but they are too few and far in between to be relied upon. If you experience stress on a daily basis, you need a tool in your back pocket ready to go at all times.
What I am talking about is working with the stress that occurs in your life to prevent the potential damaging effects on your body and psyche. It’s not so much the stress itself that’s the problem, but the way your body instinctively responds to it, specifically via the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn (or the 4 Fs) mechanism. When you get stuck in a perpetual state of hyperawareness and survival, you’ve got all the ingredients necessary for chronic pain, fatigue, tension, anxiety, depression, illness, and burnout.
Why? When your primitive brain perceives a threat, it responds by preparing to run away, attack, hide, or … (insert other survival strategy that would have made sense to a cave dweller, but is not so much helpful to a modern day person) to survive. It deliberately shunts life force energy to the extremities, the heart and lungs, and senses. Digestion, detoxification, cellular repair, elimination, fertility, sexuality, focus, clarity, creativity, and all systems that are not essential in a crisis go offline. It’s not a problem when this happens occasionally, but many of us live in this state of having nearly all our energy usurped for action that never actually occurs.
Learning how to activate your body’s natural antidote to the 4Fs will allow you to experience more ease, vitality, joy, and peace despite outer circumstances. You can learn to become the eye of the hurricane rather than reacting to every dumpster fire that those around you might be starting, fanning, or lamenting. (I’d enjoy having more company here in the eye of the hurricane! There’s plenty of room for you in here.)
Popular culture would have us believe that turning to alcohol, comfort foods or social media is such a remedy. This is a myth. While there’s nothing wrong with mashed potatoes, wine or Instagram, in general, these are tools for distracting ourselves and have absolutely zero impact (make that zero positive impact) on how your body metabolizes stress hormones. They might make you feel better for a quick minute, but the 4Fs remain unchanged.
Instead, I’m inviting you to try something different. Something somewhat radical. Something that will actually help you feel better, not just feel less.
Notice. The first step is paying attention to your inner landscape, so that you can recognize when one of the 4Fs gets activated. This means slowing down, tuning in, and developing a relationship with yourself so that you can recognize when the survival urges kick in. I’ve yet to meet anyone who learned this growing up, so it will take a bit of practice. Believe me, having access to this early warning system is immensely beneficial.
Breathe. Breathing into your belly and gently extending your exhales sends a signal to the nervous system that you are safe. Adding an audible sigh is even more potent. Unless you’re in a business meeting, that is! Getting fired is unlikely to help your stress level.
Shake. This is what animals do in nature, but generally we humans are too self-conscious to allow this impulse to manifest. It might not be appropriate in the situation you find yourself in, but as soon as possible, make your way to a private space, such as the restroom, and shake it out. Start with jazz hands, turn it up, let that movement spread to your arms, into your shoulders, neck and head. Let it flow down into the hips, let your knees jiggle, and and maybe lift and lower your heels, letting them thump on the floor. Keep breathing and keep shaking as long as time allows or until you feel a shift in your body.
Once you’ve turned off the alarm bells, it’s much easier to move to the next stage: prevention. Now that you have a strategy in place for dealing with stress in urgent situations, I’d suggest a follow-up; creating a daily practice to build up your resilience, a preventative strategy to minimize the amount of time you need to recover from an activated 4F situation. There are lots of ways to do this, and the only “right” way is the one that works for you and is enjoyable enough to keep you coming back.
Massage, Reiki, meditation, mantra, yoga and nature are tools that give me tremendous benefit. You might already have some tools ready to go or a list of things in your head that you’ve heard about and would like to try. Once you get out of the chronic survival mode that 21st century living seems to inspire, you’ll have a much better chance of following through and implementing any plan you make.
If your plate is overflowing and you just want to lie back and receive some nourishment and healing, that’s exactly what I do for my clients. Reiki and gentle massage are both incredible remedies for chronic 4F activation. You could schedule a remote Reiki treatment from anywhere in the world or a Reiki-massage or in-person Reiki in Philadelphia if you’d like some support managing stress and moving beyond survival mode. Or get on the mailing list to be informed about upcoming classes and learn how to heal yourself with Reiki.
Luminous Heart Reiki & Massage 