Reiki and Trauma

Fast asleep I was one night when something awoke me. I opened my eyes and there was my broom flailing through the window towards me. In a flash the lamp was knocked over and my cat flew off the bed swiftly followed by me in an uncharacteristic balletic leap accompanied by the loudest scream that has ever come out of my mouth. I screamed and screamed until the broom dropped and the guy who lives in the other cottage on the property called my name. I had screamed so much because in that split section I had realised my cell phone was nowhere to be seen (it’s usually on the bed side table which is between the bed and the window) and the only thing I could do was scream as loudly as I can to scare this intruder off.

Yup, a version of what has happened to so many of us had happened to me. Someone broke into the property. Luckily all he could do, and did, was take my phone. This happened at five in the morning so I didn’t lose a whole night of sleep. I went to work and did a sim swap back into my old phone. Sorted right? I thought so. But I couldn’t sleep; I would lie in bed seeing this broom coming through the window and feel that fear sensation in the pit of my stomach all over again. “Come on Dom!” I told myself. “Potential death by broom? Stop being so dramatic!” Slowly it faded and sleep got a bit better. I was a bit jumpy, but hey.

Then a week later I had a car accident. I won’t go into the whole story but it was bad enough that I couldn’t drive my car and ended up with a sore arm, sore shoulder, bruised chest and ankle. Again, I just dealt with it practically. I sorted a rental car from insurance, made all the necessary arrangements and gave myself some Reiki for the pain. A couple of days later I started feeling panicky for no reason. Fear would hit my stomach with no provocation. I felt fuzzy headed and I just couldn’t shake any of this.

There is an old saying: “I got such a fright I jumped out of my skin!” We have all said it or heard it. So many of these sayings have a root in some truth and even though I had learnt about this in my Reiki training I had forgotten about it. What am I talking about you wonder? When we have a shock or a trauma, our spirit literally lifts from our body for a split second. And some of it gets stuck in that experience.

We are not just our mind, or our body, or our spirit. We are all three. If something happens to us it happens on every level of our being. We operate on the practical or more physical plain because that’s what we humans have learnt. Something happens and we deal with it. We make practical arrangements to get our lives back in order, go to the doctor if we need to, make our insurance claims and get back to life. These are all actions based in the physical reality of our lives.

But our emotions and our spiritual well being are also impacted by everything we experience, yet we tend to discount this. I know for a fact that when things like this happen to us we tend to resist the emotional and spiritual healing we need. I did. “It was just a broom!” I said. “It could have been worse! My car can be fixed, I am insured, its fine!” I said. I gave myself Reiki for the pain, not for how I was feeling emotionally or spiritually.

A couple of days after starting to feel so freaked out I went to a Reiki exchange that a fellow Reiki practitioner and I had set up. Our Reiki teacher, and friend, decided to be present because she knew what had happened and I think she knew that I had forgotten to do the very thing for myself that we do for others as healers, focus on the balance of mind, body and spirit.

During my Reiki session the two of them worked on bringing forth the parts of me that were still stuck in the experiences of the last two weeks and healing them, then integrating them back into the full expression of my being. It was a beautiful experience and I got off that table feeling like myself again. I hadn’t realised how truly bad I had been feeling until just before the session ended I wanted to jump off the bed and leap back into my life with my old joy, energy and laughter. I was back.

There is so much more to say on why we resist the emotional and spiritual healing needed in such circumstances. There is also much more to say on how shock and trauma impacts us but for this article I want to outline how important it is to remember that we are body, mind and soul. When something happens that is traumatic, shocking or stressful we need to care for the whole expression of our being; go to the doctor, fix the car or the window or whatever, but also deal with the emotional and spiritual impact of what has happened or is happening.

I learnt a valuable lesson. Immediately after each event I could have focused on all of me. Perhaps I could have circumvented that awful feeling of losing control if I had remembered this. However, it was also an awesome reminder of why I was so drawn to learning Reiki. I was reminded of the powerful relief and healing that Reiki can bring to our lives.

If you are in need of Reiki please call me on 073 613 7615 or email me on flutterbyd@live.com. More information is available on my website: http://earthstarza.webs.com

Spending the Gift of Life

There is only one success--to be able to spend your life in your own way. ~ Christopher Morley

Recently I had a very interesting discussion with a friend of mine. It was an old and rehashed discussion except that this time we had an injection of inspiration in the form of a rather tough yet enlightening conversation she had with a friend she hadn’t seen in nearly 10 years.

This conversation revolves around an issue that so many women seem to carry with them, literally and metaphorically. This issue is weight. At some stage of our lives most of us have wanted to, or still want to, lose weight. Some want to gain weight. Those of us that want to lose it often think “I would give an arm to be in a position to want to gain weight!” However, whether we want to gain or lose it all comes down to the same thing; the way we perceive our bodies and the importance we place on having the perfect body.

I know I have spent years with this inner and outer battle. Mainly I battle with the silly fact that what I take in from the outer to the inner in the form of “nourishment” reflects on the ever expanding outer surface of my body. Sigh. But I digress. I know that I have spent many a moment thinking “when I am thin I will... when I am thin then I will be...” You fill in the blanks.

There are so many excuses we have as to why we are not there yet. “I have no time for gym. I am single; it’s hard to cook for one. I am so busy that I eat on the go. I have emotional issues.” The list is endless. And yes, emotional issues need time and work before any healthy plan will be effective in the long run. However, there are three points I want to explore.

One, all the excuses are just that: excuses. When the hard question is asked, as was asked to my friend, and then to me by her, and the answer is honest, that answer is: I do not live the healthiest lifestyle that I could. The hard question of course was why are you overweight? When we took an honest look at things we both realised that if we really wanted to we could make being healthy the number one priority in our lives. Yes, it would take discipline and some hard work but the benefits start immediately and just get better and better. The biggest challenge is to overcome the instant gratification culture that we live in, but it can be done as so many people have proved.

Two, battling the bulge is not the primary concern. The primary concern is living life at an optimum level. When we are unhealthy in any way, we are not living our best life. I use the weight issue as this was our conversation. It could apply just as easily to that niggling cold, that niggling back pain, the regular headaches or migraines that we attribute to stress, financial problems or just that feeling of being not quite happy and knowing that there is more to life. When we are brimming with vitality anything is possible. We are then poised, ready to leap in any direction that brings our lives joy and meaning.

This leads me to the third point. Life, and the time we have to live it really is a gift. Think of it as the biggest gift voucher ever. Each of us gets an allotted amount of time to spend. What we spend it on has no limits. But the amount of time does. This little connection happened when researching quotes for a workshop I am holding. As soon as I read the words of the quote that open this article something clicked. How many years have I spent in the space of “if, when, then”? The answer is too many. How many years have you spent in this same space?

How do we change this?

Firstly, it’s time to stop saying if, when and then. It’s time to say “Now!” It’s time to define “What”. It’s time to ask “What do I want my life to be? What do I need to do to live that life? What does it mean to spend my life in my own way?” I know for me, part of that answer is not to spend another minute of my life wanting to be healthier and more energetic, wanting to have the perfect body so that I can then live a full life with a husband, children, adventure and exploration. There is no action in wanting. There is action in being. If I am healthy then I am energetic. If I am energetic then my life is adventurous. If I am adventurous then my path will lead me to every opportunity that I might have missed by staying in the grey space of when, and it will inform every choice I make going forward. And while all this healthy adventurous energy is swirling around I know that my body will return to its own perfect state as I spend my life in my own way.

What will return to its perfect state, what will you create, when you spend your life in your way? So its five months in to 2010, but it’s a fraction into the rest of the time on the gift voucher of life. Let’s spend the currency of life on what we want!