Luminous Heart Reiki & Massage

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body-mind-spirit healing

  • Lately, I’ve become increasingly aware of how my Reiki practice helps me align with my integrity. For the purposes of this article, I’m using the word “integrity” to indicate when my body, mind, and spirit are working together. Thoughts, feelings, sensations, circumstances, and goals are all taken into account and inform my decision making when I’m in integrity.

    This requires honesty about where I am starting from, where I wish to go, and the resources I have at my disposal. I need to slog through layers of conditioning that tell me who I should be and what I should desire as well as the stories I tell myself about who I imagine myself to be. I need to have accurate coordinates to get accurate directions to my desired destination. If I wish I was in Phoenix, but really I’m in LA, and society tells me I ought to go to Seattle, but my heart chooses Buffalo, it’s pretty simple to see how my GPS could help or hinder me.

    Today I’m feeling the need to get out of my apartment, where I’ve been holed up pretty consistently when not treating clients. I’ve had a series of long days and just want to go home after work. Yet… my soul needs time in nature. My normal plan is a hike in the nearby woods. However, I’m feeling pretty low energy, and not exactly up for a hike. My morning Reiki ritual helped me to understand that both these facts are important. It would be easy to neglect or override one or the other, but integrity requires me to consider both the need to be outside and to minimize exertion. Once I acknowledged this, it was easy to arrive at a solution to visit a neighborhood park and sit in the grass under a tree.

    Of course not all compromises are as simple as this one, but Reiki always helps me find my way. If you’re interesting in learning how to get all aspects of yourself connected and collaborating, consider taking a Reiki class. It’s much more affordable than getting consistent treatments from a professional, and super-easy to learn. You can have healing energy at your fingertips wherever you are.

    Using Reiki for Internal Integrity

    Lately, I’ve become increasingly aware of how my Reiki practice helps me align with my integrity.…

  • I’m really enjoying this free 40 day mindfulness meditation course with Jack and Tara. I’m finding it to be a good review, and it’s also beginner friendly. In the episode I received today, Tara shared an essay. She didn’t reveal the author and I haven’t been able to find it via my search engine. I don’t know who deserves the credit, but it’s so wonderful that I want to share it anyway. It’s a love note from the body and accurately reflects what I see daily in my Reiki practice. I hope it encourages folks to heed the messages our bodies are constantly trying deliver.

    I am the pain in your head, the knot in your stomach, the unspoken grief in your smile.
    I’m your hot flashes, your fragile low back, your agitation, and your fatigue.
    I’m your high blood pressure, your elevated blood pressure, your fear of challenge, your
    lack of trust.
    You tend to disown me, suppress me, ignore me, inflate me, coddle me, condemn me.
    You usually want me to go away immediately, to disappear, just back into obscurity.
    More times than not, I’m only the most recent notes of a long symphony, the most
    evident branches of roots that have been challenged for seasons.
    So, I implore you. I am a messenger with good news, as disturbing as I can be at times.
    I am wanting to guide you back to those tender places in yourself, the place where you
    can hold yourself with compassion and honesty. I may ask you to alter your diet, get
    more sleep, exercise regularly, breathe more consciously.
    I might encourage you to seek a vaster reality and worry less about the day-to-day
    fluctuations of life. I may ask you to explore the bonds and the wounds of your
    relationship. Wherever I lead you, my hope is that you will realize that success will not
    be measured by my eradication, but by the shift in the internal landscape from which I
    emerge.
    I am your friend, not your enemy. I belong. I have no desire to bring pain and suffering
    into your life. I’m simply tugging at your sleeve, too long immune to gentle nudges. I
    desire for you to allow me to speak to you in a way that enlivens your higher instincts for
    self-care.
    My charge is to energize you, to listen to me with the sensitive ear and heart of a
    mother attending to her precious baby. You are a being so vast, so complex with
    amazing capacities for self-regulation and healing.
    Let me be one of the harbingers that lead you to the mysterious core of your being,
    where insight and wisdom are naturally available when called upon with a sincere heart.

    Felt Sense Prayer

    I’m really enjoying this free 40 day mindfulness meditation course with Jack and Tara. I’m finding…

  • Who wants to experience more wellness, wholeness, creativity, peace, love, and joy in the new year? Kick 2022 off with a bang by learning an amazing practice for self-care and self-empowerment to optimize your health and support your goals.

    Reiki is an ancient healing energy that can easily be used by anyone to boost the body’s innate healing abilities, remove obstacles, and clear the way for that which you desire. Side effects include reduced stress, an improved mood, greater productivity, and access to your inner wisdom.

    This online beginners’ course is for anyone interested in taking proactive steps to maximize well-being, happiness, pleasure, and tranquility. Yes, I said tranquility. It’s available, even in today’s world. I live there most of the time and would love to have more company! It does take effort, but the rewards are totally worth it.

    Four Wednesday evenings, beginning January 5, from 6-8pm EST, we will gather together to begin a journey into the realm of healing. For an investment of only $225, you can have lifetime access to healing energy at your very fingertips.

    Contact me to apply. No experience or mystical powers are necessary.

    Online Reiki 1 Certification Coming in January!

    Who wants to experience more wellness, wholeness, creativity, peace, love, and joy in the new year?…

  • I spend a lot of time thinking about what “healing” means. I have physical issues that remain unresolved, but feel “healed”. Likely because I’ve come to terms with these issues and have opened to receive any and all messages they carry. I’ve seen other issues supposedly cured, but not “healed”. The symptoms disappeared, but the underlying condition remained unresolved, allowing other issues to pop up as a result. I would not call this chronic chasing of symptoms “healing” even though it might appear to be so on a superficial level.

    So, what then is healing?

    The current understanding I have on this complex topic is… (drum roll please!) Healing is the integration of body, mind, and spirit.

    It is the recognition that while I have, appreciate, and care for this body; I am not my body. Likewise, I am not my mind. Nor am I my thoughts or my aspirations. I am most definitely not my history, the wounds of my past, the failures or successes I’ve experienced, or my genetic blueprint. I am not my status, my career, my possessions, or any of the other labels I have become attached to or identified with.

    I am an extension of the divine, here to have a human experience. The more fully I awaken to this reality, the more fully I embody this truth, the more fully I align my thoughts, words, and actions with this concept, the more fully I am healed.

    It seems the key to embracing healing is being present in each moment with a loving heart. Being willing to feel all the feelings and speak the sometimes difficult truth. Making choices that reflect my values and taking leaps of faith when my intuition guides me to do so. Quieting my thoughts and taking care of my body so that I am not distracted by their demands. Honoring my tender heart and nurturing the spirit within. Revealing the inner light and sharing it with the world.

    In short, the path to healing is remembering that I’m not separate from anyone else or from the divine. And when I forget, I remember again. And again. And again…

     

     

     

    Body-Mind-Spirit Integration

    I spend a lot of time thinking about what “healing” means. I have physical issues that…

  • 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…

  • Occasionally I have the distinct honor of introducing someone to the body-mind-spirit healing realm. While many of my students have an established meditation, yoga, or spiritual practice, some of them find Reiki as their introduction into the metaphysical world. I attribute this to the wave of awakening that seems to be prevailing on this planet.

    Last week a student looked at me with bright eyes and asked, “You mean my thoughts affect my health?”; I could practically see the light bulb over her head! We had been talking about Ki (life-force energy) and how we can expand or diminish it in normal, everyday life. While Reiki is a tremendously easy and effective way to boost Ki, our lifestyles, habits, thoughts, and beliefs also have a huge impact on our health by either draining or building Ki.

    Becoming aware that my thoughts, notably the persistent and recurring type thoughts that I engage in constantly, affect my well-being shifted my life more than any other lesson in this lifetime. Recognizing that I have so much control (and eek! responsibility) was truly empowering. To offer this medicine to another young woman beginning her healing journey was such a blessing! As much for me as it was for her.

    Of course I appreciate all my students’ questions. Many of them keep me on my toes with deep and insightful queries. I enjoy all the challenges they bring and every discussion about Reiki and healing is valuable to me. In fact I learn just as much from my students as they do from me. I love it when an unusual question activates a level of thinking that I hadn’t accessed before. I am on a lifetime journey myself and every student and client contributes to my map.

    Likewise, I enjoy cheering them on for their individual journeys; from those taking their first steps to those in the midst of a marathon. Each of them brightens my life with their curiosity and willingness to learn. Knowing that I have such amazing company on my journey is truly inspiring. I’m feeling both deeply humbled and extremely blessed to allow Reiki to teach through me. It’s quite possibly the best job ever!

     

    A Reiki Teacher’s Dream!

    Occasionally I have the distinct honor of introducing someone to the body-mind-spirit healing realm. While many…