Living with a chronic health condition can take its toll - physically, mentally and emotionally. Physical discomfort, pain and fatigue are common symptoms, and over time they can often lead to feeling stressed, anxious or depressed.  Medications prescribed to treat the symptoms often add to the mix.  Potential side effects such as fatigue, headaches or digestive upsets can be an additional nuisance.  Additionally, your body’s liver and kidneys are under greater strain to metabolize and excrete the medications, which can also add to malaise and potentially decreased functioning over time. 

The degenerative effects of stress

Increased stress levels activate the adrenal glands, producing a constant state of “fight or flight.”  This is necessary when we are in a dangerous situation, as our body is gearing up our bodies to respond quickly to deal with whatever is confronting us.  However, if this response is activated constantly in response to physical or emotional stress, it causes the levels of certain key hormones, such as cortisol, to rise in your body. 

Cortisol is necessary for the regulation of blood pressure, supporting the immune function and raising the body’s inflammatory responses when needed.  Normal secretions of cortisol are healthy, but chronically high secretions of cortisol can cause higher blood pressure, storage of fat around the waistline, increased amounts of insulin in the bloodstream, impaired immune function and elevated inflammatory responses to infection or injury.  The effects of stress over time for healthy people can potentially lead to the development of a chronic health condition.  However, if you’re already living with a chronic health condition, it is especially important to effectively manage stress and seek supportive, healing relief.

How Reiki can help

Reiki supports your body’s relaxation response to keep you feeling grounded and balanced.  We all have “chi” or life-force energy flowing through us.  Stress, illness and emotional turmoil eventually take their toll on our physical and etheric - human energy field - bodies, leading to a perpetual state of unwellness. 

Reiki works to clear blockages in our human energy field that cause imbalances in the way our body operates.  Our chakras are concentrated energy centers in our bodies and are considered the energetic manifestation of the roles played by our major and minor organs.  If your physical functioning is compromised due to blockages, inflammation or disease, your physical capacity is diminished.  Similarly, if your energy centers are blocked, your body will manifest the blockage as a physical or emotional symptom.  A Reiki session is very relaxing.  This is key because when your body is able to rest, your adrenals slow down and cortisol production drops, giving your digestive, respiratory, circulatory and metabolic functions a much-needed break. 

People who experience chronic, or even acute pain benefit from receiving Reiki.  A study published in 2006, entitled, “The Effect of Reiki on Pain and Anxiety in Women With Abdominal Hysterectomies: A Quasi-experimental Pilot Study” describes the use of Reiki in a controlled setting to assist with post-operative pain control.  It concluded that Reiki positively affected the patients’ ability to manage post-operative pain with fewer medications.  Reiki was also given to a control group prior to surgery, and those patients experienced less anxiety regarding their procedure and had shorter surgery times. 

While channeling Reiki, I have seen how much it soothes my clients.  They consistently report feeling calmer, more relaxed and gently energized at the end of their session.  I have worked on people who were in acute pain and seen how it caused relief from their symptoms.  Anyone who has experienced the therapeutic effects of massage therapy can benefit from receiving Reiki.  I have worked on clients with cancer and who are HIV-positive, and they have told me how much better Reiki made them feel.  Reiki is not a cure-all but like all holistic therapies, it helps to facilitate and support the healing process within the body. 

Speaking from my own (healing) experience

While in India on business, I received energy healing that helped me recover from an inflammatory disease called Interstitial Cystitis/Painful Bladder Syndrome. I had been taking four to five different medications a day for several years, and while I do credit them (and some lifestyle changes) with helping heal my bladder, the medications caused side effects such as fatigue, dry eyes/mouth, and memory loss.  At one point, I was prescribed a medication for depression that interacted with one I was taking to combat nerve pain, causing near-toxic levels of the drug to flood through my system.  I had to have my liver function tested periodically.  It was a very difficult, painful and depressing time in my life. 

By the time I went to India, I had gotten to where I was able to reduce the dosages of my medications, but I was still not what I considered ”normal.”  After  returning home, I decided to wean back further to see how I would do - and soon realized I no longer needed the medications.  This was over three years ago and I consider myself to be back to normal.  I even went through my pregnancy with far less discomfort than I had anticipated!

Interestingly enough, I received the energy healing in response to neck pain I was having after being on the plane for so many hours.  I noticed a cessation of pain afterward when I was in the office sitting at my computer - an activity that would normally make me feel worse!  What really cinched it for me was when I returned to the hotel that night and realized my entire back - which had been tight and aching for weeks - was relaxed, supple and ache-free. 

Final thoughts

Reiki is increasingly being used in the clinical setting to provide relaxation and relief for a variety of acute and chronic conditions.  However, it is not meant to be a substitute for examination and care from a qualified medical professional.  If you are living with a chronic illness, I encourage you to partner with your physician or therapist to create a treatment plan that includes allopathic methods if needed, as well as other supportive, holistic approaches.  Please contact me to discover how Reiki can augment your journey towards deep, complete healing. 

I had already completed Reiki I and II when I became pregnant in 2006.  Once I found out I was pregnant, I felt very strongly that it was the right time for me to undergo Reiki III/ART (Master) training.  One reason for this was simply that I knew once the baby was born, I’d have little time to pursue further training for at least a year or so.  The other reason was that I wanted to be physically, emotionally and spiritually centered in order to support my pregnancy, my impending role as a mother and my developing baby. 

Reiki definitely helped me with some of the physical discomforts of pregnancy.  I was one of the fortunate ones who got to feel my baby kicking early on, somewhere around Week 15 or 16.  However, because of that I also experienced regular and often intense Braxton-Hicks contractions.  One night in particular, I recall having a lot of Braxton-Hicks and both the baby and I were very agitated.  It occurred to me finally to lay my hands on my solar plexus and sacral chakras and channel Reiki.  Soon enough, the Braxton-Hicks stopped, the baby settled down and I was able to fall into a relaxing sleep. 

Reiki can help women who experience morning sickness as well.  The hormones associated with pregnancy - human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) and estrogen — contributes to gastric distress. Reiki facilitates deep relaxation and can help reduce the sensation of nausea. 

Pregnancy is exciting and stressful for expectant mothers but our culture generally does not often do a good job of supporting women during this time.  Many women are juggling demands associated with careers, expectations from their families, changes in their relationships with their partners and of course, in their bodies. These factors can exacerbate existing fatigue, discomfort and mood swings.  Reiki can help expectant mothers to reduce stress and remain more grounded emotionally.  A Reiki treatment is, first and foremost, time to honor yourself and your body during a time when you may no longer feel like it belongs to you.  Reiki sessions can be so deeply relaxing that clients can often drift off into asleep - and as any pregnant woman knows, sleep is a valuable commodity!  Reiki, along with other supportive practices such as chiropractic, prenatal massage and prenatal yoga, can have great benefits for you and your developing baby.

Reiki was also instrumental in my post-partum recovery.  I had a post-partum hemmorhage and the recovery from that and my unscheduled C-section took several months before I regained my strength completely.  I could not have forseen any of these complications, but I was fortunate to receive deeply healing treatments from both my teacher, Brad Dixon, and my close friend, Tracey Gagné.  They helped me get strong and centered so that I could fully embrace motherhood and my beautiful little girl. 

One of the things I valued so much about being a Reiki practitioner during my pregnancy was the depth of connection I felt with my baby during that time. Consequently, I think that early connection also helped me become more attuned to her needs.  My daughter received Reiki in utero often enough that even now, there have been times where she seems to naturally draw the energy when she’s in my arms without me even having to actively channel it. Maybe on some level, I intuit that she needs it and Reiki just flows to her.  Just the other night, she was having trouble settling down into sleep, which is unusual for her.  I sat with her in the glider and did some Reiki to ground her, because an overabundance of energy can cause restlessness.  She soon began to relax in my arms and was able to sleep for the rest of the night. 

Reiki honors the women we are: our bodies, our emotions and the spirit within that gives us strength and purpose.  Please contact me if you are expecting a baby and would like to find out more how Reiki can help support you in a healthy, happy and centered pregnancy.  I also recommend reading Reiki and the Birth Experience, which is a good article describing how Reiki has been used in a clinical setting in Canada during pregnancy and to facilitate healing during post-partum. 

Due to some scheduling issues, I’ve decided to move the Open House at Candler Park Chiropractic to Friday, August 15 from 7:00 - 9:00 PM.  I’m looking forward to meeting people and talking about what Reiki is and how beneficial it is for our health and well-being. 

In addition, Kerry Higgs, a certified Rolfer and owner of Wingspan Rolfing, will also be on hand to discuss what Rolfing is and how it releases blockages and provides greater freedom of movement in the body. 

We’re both very excited to have the opportunity to talk about “R&R” and how they both can do the body, mind and spirit good!

Candler Park Chiropractic is located at:

1522 DeKalb Ave NE; Atlanta GA 30307
Phone #: 404-377-1032

I love this quote from Pema Chödrön:

We cling to a fixed idea of who we are and it cripples us.  Nothing and no one is fixed.  Whether the reality of change is a source of freedom for us or a source of horrific anxiety makes a significant difference.  Do the days of our lives add up to further suffering or to increased capacity for joy?  That’s an important question.

I read this passage in The Places That Scare You: A Guide to Fearlessness in Difficult Times  several days ago.  I keep coming back to it because her message is so simple, yet often so difficult to affirm deep in our heart. 

We don’t get to choose who we are (at least not on a fundamental level.)  We don’t always get to choose circumstances in life that have an effect on us.  But we do get to choose how we accept ourselves, our lives and the decision to be joyful in the midst of all of life’s uncertainty.

In the beginning, it takes mindfulness.  It takes a gentle reminder or corrective action to recalibrate how our mind perceives the way we feel about ourselves, the situations we find ourselves in or certain life-changing circumstances. 

One of the gifts I appreciate most about Reiki is that first and foremost, it is an affirmative practice.  When doing Reiki, I affirm my connection to divine, positive energy.  I express gratitude for the healing and lessons I’ve learned, even when the circumstances have been painful or I had to confront and accept certain truths about myself.  I used to be afraid of allowing myself to feel joy, because I would think, “What if it doesn’t last?”  I thought I was protecting myself from suffering, but I was actually manifesting it.

I realized recently that even though those life experiences are not persistent phenomena, it’s OK.  What matters is my ability to be truly open and present to them, rather than anticipating loss and expressing anxiety.  The other thing I realized recently is that I want to give my daughter the gifts of joy and affirmation.  Life is more rewarding when you can recognize something about each day as inherently wonderful, rather than as a series of moments you need to just “get through.” 

Meister Eckhart, the German theologian and mystic, said, “If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, “thank you,” that would suffice.”

Look!  There’s a wonderful moment!

Thank you. 

I wanted to get the word out that kirtan singer Krishna Das will be playing at the Variety Playhouse in Little 5 Points on Monday, June 30 at 8 pm.  This show is sponsored by Jai Shanti Yoga, the yoga studio where I’ve been a student for the past few years.

For those who are not familiar with kirtan, it is a form of “call and response” devotional chanting that originated in India. It is spiritually uplifting and also a lot of fun! The added bonus for us Reiki practitioners is that the music is of a high vibrational quality, spiritually speaking, so you can often experience some wonderful things during a kirtan concert.

Krishna Das is one of the American pioneers of the art, and learned it while spending several years in India in the late ’60s/early ’70s. He infuses other world beat and even Blues rhythms into his kirtans, and his presence is very warm and down-to-earth. I saw him in San Francisco last November and it was a great show. He is an absolutely lovely person.  I asked him to come to Atlanta…and here he is!

Tickets are $25 in advance/$30 at the door and can be ordered online. 

Hope to see you there!

I’m holding an open house at Candler Park Chiropractic on Friday, July 25 to promote Dragonfly Reiki.  I’ll be on hand to explain what Reiki is and its many benefits for healing and wellness.  For those who are interested, I can provide free 5-10 mini Reiki treatments so they can experience energy healing firsthand. 

Dr. Lynn and I are also hoping to include several other holistic practitioners since we would like to broaden the exposure her chiropractic clients have to treatment methods such as Rolfing and reflexology. 

I’ll provide more details as we get closer to the event.  Please mark your calendars!

I was sitting at my desk today working, lifted my arms up overhead to stretch…and wrenched my neck.  The pain was - and still is - rather excruciating.  For the past 15 years, I’ve had cervical spine problems that flare up from time to time.  I credit chiropractic and massage therapy with keeping me pain-free most of the time and with reducing my recovery time if my neck does somehow get whacked out of alignment. 

As a Reiki master, it’s tempting to think you can always heal yourself when you get hurt.  “I’ll just put my hands on the area, send some Reiki and be good to go.”  Sometimes that does happen with immediate and comforting results.  No such luck today.  Anything involving raising my shoulders or arms up to do hand placements on or near my neck is like being stabbed with a hot poker, especially since the radiculopathy (nerve pain) extends all the way down to my elbow at times.  So, I ice my neck, pop a couple of ibuprofin and make an appointment with my chiropractor.  I will continue to channel Reiki to myself regardless because I know it will help facilitate recovery, but instant pain relief seems futile today. 

This is one of the many lessons of Reiki - that healing may sometimes require the assistance of others, even for those Reiki masters who are skilled in channeling healing energy and have been witness to some fairly miraculous healing episodes.  It is necessary to receive nurturing and care from others.  We can fool ourselves into thinking we are self-sufficient, when really, we are all interconnected socially and spiritually and need to receive as much as we need to give. 

An interesting thing happened during my massage therapy session this afternoon.  I noticed my masseuse’s hands suddenly felt quite warm as she worked on my neck.  I thought it was unusual, but was far too engrossed in how good it felt to have that spasm in my neck attended to in order to mull it over further.  Afterwards, she and I got to talking about some other things and I found out that several months ago, she had received her Reiki I attunements.  That explains the hot hands!  She said she feels unsure as to whether or not she can really channel Reiki, which is not unusual for new practitioners.  I told her, “You just did!” 

I’m still in pain, but believe it or not, I feel fine.  Usually when I’m in this kind of pain, I am irritable and unhappy, but I’m actually in a pretty good mood.  I think it’s because I know and trust that recovery is happening aready even though the signs have not yet manifested in my physical body.  That’s what a set of healing hands can do. 

I wanted to honor the memory of the Rev. Dr. Mary Crist Brown, who passed away on May 20 after an inspiring and all-too-brief fight against lymphoma.  I met Mary Crist about a month before she was scheduled to undergo a bone marrow transplant.  She was referred to me by our chiropractor, who felt she would benefit from Reiki.  I immediately liked Mary Crist the moment I met her - she was self-effacing, direct and emanated warm, caring energy.  Sometimes you don’t have to know people for very long to realize they are going to affect your life in a positive way. 

Mary Crist was an active participant and I don’t think she would mind me sharing some of the things that came out of our Reiki sessions.  We both learned a lot from the experiences about letting go of control and allowing spiritual energy manifest itself within both of us.  She told me she would pray during much of the sessions and at some point, she realized she needed to “let go and let God.”  You hear a lot of people throw that phrase around, but for Mary Crist, an ordained minister and hospital chaplain, letting God in and allowing the Spirit to manifest within was her calling and vocation.  Her life was devoted to the service of soothing and healing people spiritually.  She felt she still had much life in her and work to do, and like any of us, wanted to cure the cancer and get on with things.  Letting go of the urge to try to control or direct that process takes courage, insight and faith.  For my part, I of course wanted to help heal her, and although I felt privileged that Reiki could allow me to assist in some way, I had to also realize I couldn’t control the process or results either.  I had to “let go and let Reiki.” 

We both felt the Reiki sessions were beneficial and I know I looked forward to working with her.  Just being in her presence was soothing and uplifting to me, even though she was there to receive treatment from me!  However, she underwent the bone marrow transplant in early April and I was unable to continue to treat her in person.  I continued to send Reiki to her whenever I could during her hospital stay.

Our spirits often exceed the limits of the human body.  I’m sad that we have lost Mary Crist, the woman, as I wish I had had more time to get to know her better.  However, I’m grateful for the fact that we did meet, because I learned from her how we can walk in the path of God in our daily life, and it is our sessions together that really motivated me to start a Reiki practice.  

My deepest sympathies and prayers to her steadfast and loving partner, Mary Margaret, their families and friends, as it is never easy to let go of the physical presence of the ones we love.  I do feel comforted knowing that Mary Crist is still among us somehow, continuing her call to be in the service of God. 

Thank you for taking the time to visit my site. After two years of practicing Reiki on myself, family and friends, I felt guided to pursue it professionally. For a long time, I have felt a calling to help people, which has manifested in different ways - volunteer work with non-profit boards, mission work (local and international), and various hands-on projects. All of these were educational, eye-opening and advanced my spiritual awakening. However, the first time I received energy healing and experienced profound improvement in my health, I had a moment of sudden insight that this was the direction I needed to pursue further. I followed my instincts and here I am.

Becoming attuned to Reiki and receiving/practicing it has changed my life on physical, emotional and spiritual levels. Reiki has connected me more deeply to those around me, because it has heightened my natural empathic abilities. It has sharpened my intuition and confirmed my spiritual beliefs. I have more emotional clarity and have experienced healing - or at least acceptance - from old hurts. I no longer experience symptoms of a painful inflammatory disease that required several medications each day as well as regular doctor’s visits. Reiki also helped me recuperate from a near-fatal post-partum hemmorhage after my daughter was born last year.

Reiki has also led me to some incredibly gifted and spiritually inspiring people - other Reiki practitioners and teachers I’ve worked with, other energy healers, and more importantly, some of the people I’ve treated. Even though I’m a Level III (Reiki Master) practitioner, I feel I’m really at the beginning of my journey as an energy healer and appreciate all that I learn from the people I encounter along the way.

The reason I chose the dragonfly to represent my practice is that they symbolize powers of light and transformation. The dragonfly represents our ability to see beyond self-created illusions that limit our ability to grow and change. In the last two or so years, I have had dragonflies spontaneously appear in front of me at times when something significant was evolving in my life (whether or not I was immediately aware those changes were occurring) and Reiki helped guide me through those transformative events.

A local shaman, Tom Lake, told me that I had “praying mantis energy” - in other words, the mantis was my spirit guide or perhaps a totem. I seem to attract the insect realm! The praying mantis represents meditation, contemplation, stillness and patience (see What’s Your Sign.) These are complementary qualities for a Reiki practitioner, but the mantis seems representative of my basic nature or inclination, whereas I was drawn to the dragonfly as a way to represent the evolution of one’s highest self - for both me and those who receive Reiki through me.

Please feel free to contact me or leave a comment on my site if you have any questions or wish to share your experiences with Reiki.