wellness

We have so much information at our fingertips today that it can be overwhelming. If you’ve ever attended Google University seeking a self-diagnosis and treatment, you’ve likely come up with tons of contradictory information.

How I Healed XYZ in 5 Days

7 Easy Steps to Cure XYZ

The One Thing That Fixed Everything

Headlines like these abound. They often lead to confusion, frustration, and sadly even a worsening of the situation.

Why? Because they are addressing symptoms, not the root cause.

Let’s use insomnia as an example.

There are a gazillion reasons people don’t sleep well. It could be churning thoughts, physical discomfort, a lumpy mattress, a snoring spouse, or excess caffeine.

(Not an Ambien deficiency. You might find relief through a prescription, but the side effects often outweigh the benefits. Please consider exploring the underlying condition while you’re taking the pills so maybe you won’t need them someday in the future.)

Each of these causes will obviously have a different plan of treatment.

So when I read about someone who quit drinking coffee, improved their sleep patterns, and touts this as the number one cure, I’m a bit tetchy. I don’t even drink coffee, so who’s that going to help me?

Whether you’re dealing with insomnia or back pain (two conditions I’m intimately familiar with on a personal and professional level), psoriasis, headaches, or fatigue, there are a few things I can suggest that will always be beneficial as they help uncover the root cause.
1. Stress management. There are countless practices that help the body digest the physiological consequences of chronic stress. They will calm the mind, reduce tension, and support all the body’s systems.
2. Curiosity. Be your own detective and explore what’s going on in your life, in your psyche, in your body. If you’re trying to quit a problematic habit, get curious about what’s underneath and why you reach for the behavior or substance and how you might circumvent that pattern.
3. Compassion. Be kind to yourself! Especially if you’re struggling and suffering. Your inner dialog has a direct impact on your physiology. Berating yourself or stewing in resentment will increase your stress response, cortisol levels, tension, and inflammation.
4. Reduce exposure to toxins. Including emotional toxins in the form of unhealthy relationships, doomscrolling, and the compare and despair dynamic so prevalent on Instagram.
5. Presence. Learn to be with yourself, especially during difficult times. Develop a daily practice of turning inwards, with compassion and curiosity, and check in rather than checking out. This can be uncomfortable, so start small. Three minutes can go a long way.
6. Breathe. Obviously you are breathing or you wouldn’t be reading this. But what is the quality of your breath? Shallow and rapid? Can you drop into presence and cultivate a calming, nourishing pattern? Some people swear by “box” breath; I’m partial to extending the exhales so they’re slightly longer than the inhales.
7. Boost your life-force. This is big. And overlooked completely in our medical system. If you are chronically depleted, running on empty, burning the candle at both ends, taking care of everybody but yourself, your body will try to communicate its distress with you. I recommend listening before the consequences amplify!
Insight Timer is a free app and a wonderful resource for simple, guided practices that will help you do many of these things. I found the yoga nidra (a sort of meditation where you systematically bring attention to areas of the body) to be invaluable.

My all-time favorite and go-to remedy is Reiki. Reiki treatments offer an infusion of spiritually-guided life-force energy that relieves stress, tension, anxiety, and pain and promotes the body’s innate healing abilities.

It won’t, however, address your spouse’s snoring-like-a-chainsaw issue. For that you’re going to need some hefty earplugs or a separate bedroom. I’ve heard about successful elimination of snoring by diffusing sweet marjoram essential oil, or changing pillows or sleeping position.

While Reiki is amazing and can help with a lot of problems, it really depends on the root cause. It won’t make you sleep soundly after a late-night triple espresso, but it can help you build better sleep habits.

There is no such thing as a miracle cure. But there are numerous ways to address the root problem. All of them will require your participation and willingness to make changes.

If you’d like some support in this arena, you can use this button to book a session.

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Getting to the Root

We have so much information at our fingertips today that it can be overwhelming. If you’ve…
This is an amazing article from a therapist on Substack. If you’re overwhelmed by your role as a caregiver in any form, facing burn out, or stuck in an ongoing pattern of over-giving and under-receiving, I hope you’ll find it helpful.

“Remember this: in nature, no single tree holds up the forest alone. Sometimes the strongest roots are the ones that know how to rest.”

I can’t seem to embed it here, so you’ll have to use the link above. I posted the photo for relatability.

Support for Caregivers

This is an amazing article from a therapist on Substack. If you’re overwhelmed by your role…
If you’ve ever followed someone’s advice for healing an ailment and found yourself disappointed in the results, you aren’t alone.

Lots of people share with me the tricks they use for xyz and often they are things I’ve already tried to no avail.

It’s frustrating.

The thing is, the root of the problem is often hidden. Two people might have frequent headaches, but the same treatment might not be effective for both of them since the causes are different.

If you’re dehydrated and have a headache, a big glass of water can work wonders. You can go on to write a book about water being the miracle healer, yet it will be 100% ineffective for someone with a mold allergy or a tension headache.

No worries, though. Your body knows. There is an innate wisdom within and you can learn to access it. I’m not saying it’s easy, at least not in the beginning, but like any skill, you can hone it with practice.

My suggestion is to be like a cat. They move in ways that feel GOOD! Now, don’t go researching “how to move like a cat”. That’s something I would have done in the past. 🙄

Instead, feel into what movements your body would enjoy. Let pleasure be your guide.

It all starts with an intention to tap in and honor the messages that come from your body. Next, you’ll need to create time and space to listen. Many of us are just running around all day, every day, so that we can’t receive the messages that come through.

Remember the olden days when phones were atttached to the walls of homes? And you had to be at there when the call came through? And then you had to pick it up, at that moment, and listen to the voice on the other side?

It’s a lot like that.

Your body will tell you how it wants to move and rest, what it wants to eat and when, and all sorts of other information- if you pay attention.

But you have to be available to pick up the phone.

Yes, this means forgetting about tons of external rules about how many steps you should take or what your target heart rate is. It might mean shaking things up in your family, workplace, or circle of friends.

But, let’s face it. If you keep on doing what you’re doing, you’ll continue to get what you’ve already got. I’m guessing that if you’re reading this, you’d prefer a different outcome.

Why not go directly to the source of wisdom?

I find Reiki incredibly helpful for increasing my clarity, motivation, and capacity to receive messages from my body. If you want to do the work, it could help you too. Or if you prefer to receive support and let me do the work, that can also help. It’s not the only way by any means. As far as I can tell, it’s the simplest, easiest, and most accessible though.

One of the things I really love about Reiki is that the healing energy sinks beneath the symptoms and addresses the initial imbalance. It might be in the mental, emotional, spiritual, energetic, or circumstantial realm which would have been overlooked by modern medical treatment.

What would your body appreciate today? If it’s Reiki or some gentle bodywork, why not schedule a treatment? Or perhaps you’d like a walk, a bath, some time on your yoga mat, or a nap. Only you know for sure.

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Healing Isn’t One Size Fits All

If you’ve ever followed someone’s advice for healing an ailment and found yourself disappointed in the…
This is a fantastic article on what is generally considered a mysterious and incurable condition. Viewed through a holistic lens, there are many ways to treat the underlying causes of CFS.

I’ll add that Reiki is a safe, simple, and accessible modality for addressing many of the goals (improve gut biome, strengthen immune system, etc) she describes. I love it when someone does the research that supports what I’ve known instinctively for ages!

I hope someone finds this helpful! Even if only to shift perspective away from the modern medicine route as the gold standard. Just because something can’t be seen under a microscope doesn’t mean it won’t have profound impact on health.

I’d love to hear from anyone who has experience in this realm. Is there anything that worked for your recovery?

How to Recover From Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Healing Chronic Fatigue by Sarah Warren

This is a fantastic article on what is generally considered a mysterious and incurable condition. Viewed…
I had a breakthrough last week in a chronic pain pattern. Woohoo! I discovered tension in an adjacent area that was torquing my pelvis and causing discomfort in my lower back, hip, and leg. This awareness is huge as it points my efforts towards the cause of the imbalance rather than chasing the symptoms.

Chasing symptoms never provides lasting results because the source of the problem remains unresolved. A particular symptom might diminish, only to have another appear in its place.

Nearly all of the problems that people bring to my office are symptoms. Despite near- heroic efforts, clients have not been able to resolve issues because they were looking at the superficial problem and not what was underneath.

I don’t say this with any judgment or blame. We don’t know what we don’t know, and we can only do the best with the information that we have at the time. I’m offering some new information that will hopefully be helpful moving forward.

I have long hair. It often gets caught in my coat zipper in the winter. It’s obvious that the problem is coming from the zipper, but I feel it in my scalp. There’s no amount of intervention at the level of my scalp that is going to yield relief.

The same is often true for that crick in the neck, the burning in the shoulder blade, the ache in the elbow.

My massage teacher used an analogy of a schoolyard. He said that the complaining muscle was like the nerd, but if you looked closely, you could find the bully lurking nearby. The bully is the source of the pain, the nerd is the one that suffers. (I pretty nerdy myself, so please don’t let this word cause offense. It’s just an illustration.)

OK, so now what?

It’s possible to work with a pain pattern on your own if you have the capacity to bring compassionate awareness to what you’re feeling and remain present through the discomfort.

Sadly, few of us have any training in how to do that. These are skills that can be learned and I’d fully encourage you to begin today. Can you be with yourself for two full minutes, or 15 deep breaths, with 100% of your attention turned inward? Start there and build up your tolerance over time.

See if you can separate out the emotions that may be stored in this area clamoring for your care. Or the stories about previous experiences and concerns about the future. If you have been raised in the western world, you mostly likely have been conditioned by society, Saturday morning cartoons, magazine ads, pop culture, and Instagram to have certain beliefs about your body and how it is “supposed” to look and function.

Then there’s the way you use your body, such as repetitive movement patterns, your posture, and the way your body has adapted to your environment. Perhaps the most disruptive, hidden influence is how the nervous system responds to anything unfamiliar as if it were a threat and causes muscles to tense. When this happens over and over again, the muscles sometimes get locked in their contracted positions, perpetually ready for a threat that never comes.

We could also look at causes for systemic inflammation such as allergens in our foods, toxins we’re exposed to daily, latent viruses, chronic stress, inadequate sleep, and mold spores in the walls.

Let’s not forget about the energy body. When life-force is depleted, our systems don’t have the juice they need to function optimally. When energy flow is blocked, chakras are underutilized. When the flow is clogged, often the backlog feels painful and we unknowingly look for ways to discharge this pent up energy that can have detrimental effects.

To be thorough, I’ll add that the soul also plays a role. Not that it needs healing, as it’s eternal and whole by nature, but because we can become separate from it through trauma and programming. When we’re aligned with our essence and purpose, the other elements of healing are more easily accessible.

In short, our body, mind, emotions, instincts, and soul are all intricately woven together and need to be addressed fully to heal. If you’ve been working with an issue to no avail, try switching your focus to one of the other realms.

Or try Reiki. It works wonders as it addresses all the parts, striving to bring them all into harmony. You can learn to give yourself daily doses of healing energy or book yourself a session. You don’t even need to leave home.

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Chasing Symptoms

I had a breakthrough last week in a chronic pain pattern. Woohoo! I discovered tension in…
In this day and age, most of us live lifestyles that are deficient in life-force.

We spend most of our time indoors, in climate control and recycled air, under artificial lighting. So we’re not absorbing energy from nature much of the time.

We’re inundated with chemicals that our poor bodies must consistently detox. From the food we eat to personal care products to downright toxic cleaning supplies, air pollution, water pollution, electronic radiation, and crops that need to be genetically modified to withstand the pesticides that would otherwise kill them… Well, it’s a lot and our systems utilize a ton of energy processing this junk.

Chronic stress and busyness further depleted our coffers, draining our energy tanks, and leaving us floundering.

Repressed and suppressed emotions are stored in the body and disrupt the flow of life-force. Same goes for unprocessed trauma and wounds from childhood.

In short, we spend more vitality than we accumulate. We’re in life-force debt. Most of us, most of the time.

I make considerable effort to minimize wasted life-force, to generate internal life-force and maximize my exposure to Nature, and still I would be in the red if it weren’t for Reiki.

Reiki is a natural form of life-force energy and practitioners are able to tap into it and use it for healing and to support goals such as creativity, connection, freedom, joy, resilience, and peace.

I suspect that our ancestors lived in the flow of this energy.

And then we got civilized and industrialized. We disconnected from Nature and began to honor the intellect over the body and the emotions.

People began to live longer, but with poor quality of life because they didn’t have any vitality in reserve.

Reiki is the easiest way I know to fill up your batteries and give the body what it needs to do what it knows how to do.

Yes, absolutely, the body has innate healing abilities. It has tremendous wisdom and incredible power. But it can’t function optimally on an empty tank.

If you’re in need of a jumpstart, consider a Reiki treatment. It’s a safe, gentle, yet powerful technique for giving yourself the juice you need to carry on.

If you’re in need of consistent life-force deposits, consider learning how to give yourself Reiki. It’s easy and anyone can do it. The capacity to tap into this universal energy is transferred from teacher to student in a Reiki 1 training- it’s not a skill that needs to be learned or a gift that comes naturally.

Anyone can learn Reiki and can use this healing energy to bolster well-being, heal core wounds and trauma, to break free from ancestral cycles, to tend to the inner child, to support all the body’s systems, to regulate the nervous system, to cultivate peace and joy and freedom.

I’m offering an in-person class in Philly, beginning February 27. I’m also open to teaching online; if that’s what you need, let me know.

And if you don’t have the capacity to learn how to do this for yourself, know that you can schedule a remote Reiki session, and receive the myriad of benefits from your home, in your pajamas, without needing to lift a finger.

If you have zero interest in Reiki, get yourself outside and start absorbing some of the life-force that is freely offered from the earth, the stones, the rain and snow, the trees, the wind, and the sun.

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Why is Reiki so Important?

In this day and age, most of us live lifestyles that are deficient in life-force. We…
Good question! It’s one I get a lot.

It’s a Reiki treatment for someone who’s in a different location than the practitioner. It’s something taught to students in a level 2 Reiki class.

I sometimes call it “remote” Reiki, but in the last few years, “remote” has come to mean “virtual” or a video meeting, and this is not at all what I mean.

The practice of Reiki is over a hundred years old; it does not rely on modern technology. There is no video chat. No Google Meet invitation. No Zoom link.

It is Zoomless. 🤪

Sure, some practitioners offer sessions by video. Not because they need the internet to do a Reiki session, though. I imagine they do it because they think people want to see them. Idk why, though, cuz I’m just sitting there with my eyes closed, keeping my focus on the energy and the client. There’s nothing to see, and I find the screen to be distracting.

So how does it work then, if the healing energy isn’t magically traveling over the internet?

Good question!

I don’t exactly know how it works. It’s quantum physics, folks, and I’m not going to try to bluff my way through this.

Something about collapsing all time and space to here and now on the energetic level. It makes my head hurt to try and grok that.

I have learned sacred symbols that allow me to connect this universal energy to anyone, anywhere. Don’t ask me how the symbols work! I don’t know. I don’t need to know. It’s above my pay grade.

I don’t know how my car works, how my furnace works, how my laptop works. But I know how to use them. Turn the key, set the thermostat, power up.

My Reiki teacher taught me a technique that she learned from her Reiki teacher who learned it from his Reiki teacher… all the way back to the founder of this amazing system, Usui Sensei. He knew how it worked! He also knew that since Reiki is innately intelligent and always working in the highest good and establishing energetic balance that we don’t need to understand it intellectually.

Trust me, if I had to learn the science, my prices would be much, much higher to compensate me for that suffering!

You don’t need to understand to get the full benefits. Really, it’s true. I have done this countless times with tremendous effectiveness.

Distance Reiki, or remote Reiki, Zoomless Reiki, is the perfect remedy if you’re in an isolated location, too ill to travel, snowed in, or just don’t want to put pants on.

I love doing distance sessions because it feels like I plug right into the energetic blueprint of the client and observe the healing happen at the root cause.

It’s pretty darn amazing. It makes treatment convenient for folks who couldn’t otherwise get to a session for any number of reasons.

If you’ve been thinking of distance Reiki as a sad, sorry second place alternative for the “real” thing, I assure you, it is not. The energy transferred is just as real as in an in-person session. And you needn’t to get dressed or slog through traffic afterwards.

Ready to sign up?

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Want to learn how to practice Reiki so you can offer distance treatments? I’ve got a level 1 training coming up. That’s your starting point.

Reiki 1 Training

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What the Heck is Distance Reiki, Anyway?

Good question! It’s one I get a lot. It’s a Reiki treatment for someone who’s in…
I often imagine a world in which children are taught important life skills in kindergarten.

Things like meditation. Nervous system regulation. Reiki.

How different things would be if everyone had the capacity to nurture calmness, vitality, and presence in themselves. I get goosebumps just thinking about it.

Which is why I just love teaching Reiki classes! There’s something magical that happens in Reiki 1 after the attunement, when students open their eyes and recognize that they now have lifetime access to this amazing healing energy.

I was telling my mother recently how excited I am about the upcoming training I’m offering.

Her response? “But then they won’t need you.” As if teaching people how to use Reiki for themselves was going to put me out of business.

I guess that’s one way of looking at it.

In my experience, though, it’s not usually the case.

Giving yourself a Reiki treatment every day is a profoundly healing experience. It is the fuel that allows long-standing problems to begin to shift gradually.

It’s not the same thing as leaving your home and the chores that need doing, coming to my cozy office which smells yummy and has soft music playing, and being the recipient of 100% of my attention.

We can all benefit from doing our work and cultivating a self-care routine. That doesn’t necessarily take the place of receiving support from a professional. It often does allow folks to go longer in between appointments, but most people continue to see me while doing their own thing too.

Taking a Reiki training doesn’t mean that you need to shoulder the entire burden for your healing journey. It just means that you’re willing to do your part and be on the team. It means you can have blasts of healing energy any time you want and share it with your friends and family.

And if the budget is super tight, yes, it does mean you can take the Reiki ball and run with it, taking full responsibility for your healing life-force energy deposits.

I want everyone to have access to Reiki in the way that works best for them. If you’re in the Philly area, check out my upcoming class. If you’re elsewhere in the world, send me a message and we’ll see if we can pull together a virtual training that suits your schedule. If you already have too much on your plate, schedule a session, in-person or remote, and I’ll do all the work.

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winter beauty

I Wish I Could Teach Everyone Reiki

I often imagine a world in which children are taught important life skills in kindergarten. Things…
Got stress? Fatigue? Anxiety? Overwhelm?

Don’t we all?! 21st century living isn’t for wimps. Between the toxins, the perpetual busyness, and the information overload, wellness requires some effort these days.

It doesn’t help that our nervous systems respond to deadlines, traffic, and emails from the boss with the same physiological response as if we were being chased by a tiger. All that adrenaline pumping in our veins and nowhere to go. We wonder why we feel anxious when we try to sit still and act normal, but our body is screaming for us to punch, kick, run, or hide under the table.

Yeesh. It’s exhausting.

For most of us, chronic stress and go-go-go lifestyles are here to stay. Rather than bemoaning that fact or hiding our heads in the sand, we can acknowledge that this is less than ideal and take action to mitigate the damage.

That’s where Reiki comes in. It’s a holistic healing technique that calms the nerves, relieves stress and pain, and stimulates the body’s innate healing abilities. It’s powerful, safe, effective, and…

wait for it…

Anyone can learn how to do Reiki.

Even better- you can use it for yourself anywhere, anytime.

While Reiki can indeed be shared with others, I see its most important use as a self-empowerment practice that allows you to actively contribute to your own wellness.

By “practice”, I mean it’s something that needs to be utilized consistently for the best results, like brushing your teeth or exercise. What better way to get daily deposits of universal life-force energy than to tap into the infinite supply and saturate yourself from top to toe?

Which is why I’m excited to announce my next Reiki 1 Certification course. This is an in-person training in my Mt. Airy (that’s a neighborhood in Philly) studio.

Four Thursdays, noon- 2pm

Feb 27, March 6, 13 & 20

(alternate date in case a class is cancelled because of snow- March 27)

This training does include how to give sessions to friends and family, but the foundation is using it as a self-care practice. You know, put your own oxygen mask on first.

You needn’t be psychic or spiritual. You don’t need to know anything about chakras or crystals or own a meditation cushion or yoga mat.

What it takes is curiosity, an open mind, and a willingness to follow through. The benefits come from the doing, not the learning. The class itself won’t change your life, but if you engage the tools I teach, well, get ready for the magic to unfold.

Investment = $300 with a $25 early bird discount if registered by January 31, 2025. Seats are limited. Literally- I only have 6 chairs, so if you want to join us, claim your spot now.

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Reiki 1 Certification: Healing for Yourself and Your Loved Ones

Got stress? Fatigue? Anxiety? Overwhelm? Don’t we all?! 21st century living isn’t for wimps. Between the…

wellness

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