When a client comes to me requesting a Reiki treatment, it can be for a number of reasons. Many as of late are seeking holistic methods to support them with pain, stress and anxiety that they are experiencing in their lives. They are desperate for some kind of relief. The pain, stress and anxiety could be manifesting in physical, emotional, mental or spiritual challenges or a combination, which is causing discomfort. I understand that taking the step to do an alternative route can be a very courageous act for my future client. Let’s face it, we have become a society that has become conditioned to take a pill for any kind of pain including stress and anxiety but seeing a Reiki Energy Healer isn’t exactly being broadcast and endorsed by the drug companies. Although, Reiki Energy Healers are now in over 800 U.S. hospitals to provide complementary support of healing to patients. So, we are progressing in a more collective union on some fronts. But, many of my clients need help now and for some reason pills are no longer answering the call to mute the pain so they are now seeking ways to really heal. They want to unleash themselves from bondage of how pain, stress and anxiety has debilitated their lives.

STRESS AND HOW IT CAN HELP US
Stress has a terrible reputation but not all of it is bad. The “good” kind of stress takes care of us. For instance, the “good kind” can get you across the street quickly when you see an oncoming vehicle, or it motivates you to complete tasks for work or school deadlines. Your body enters self-protection mode and propels you to action: your immune system, heart rate, attention and memory all gear up to do what it needs to do to survive.

WHAT HAPPENS WITH CHRONIC STRESS
However, when stress is chronic (think of pulling all-nighters more than once a week or working on a constant deadline for 3 months straight like in content production where every week a new episode has to be delivered to air otherwise what will fill the programming time?), it can turn into bad stress, which then goes into being in constant "distress".  It can impact your whole health in a lot of ways where you literally feel under attack - physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. It’s not just a feeling, either. Your body physically and automatically reacts as if it is under a real threat of attack.

When your body is constantly (rather than for just a moment) geared up for self-protection, your systems fatigue and start to decline. Then your immunity will drop (happened to me), inflammation will begin to happen (this isn't comfortable to live with. Again, I know cause it happened to me), attention and memory will start to fail and sleeping problems can arise. Other physical changes can also occur, like shallow breathing, muscles tensing, anxiety and the release of stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline.

It’s easy to feel powerless against this type of stress, pain and anxiety, but research has shown there is something that you can do. The solution, it turns out, is not to escape the pain, stress, anxiety or any of the other negative emotions. Rather, it is to change the way you are reacting to what is happening. Science suggests that there are ways to literally retrain the brain to work to support to heal the physical, mental and emotional pain. That calming the nervous system with a relaxation response can support to heal the stress, tension and pain. 

REIKI CAN HELP WITH PAIN, STRESS AND ANXIETY
Reiki is an energy healing technique that uses “hands-on” healing. This technique can assist in relieving or reducing pain and discomfort by balancing the body’s energy centers. It is a natural process that supports relaxation and healing by removing blocks to the flow of energy in your body and facilitates balance and support on all levels.
 
DOES REIKI REALLY WORK?
I have a deep understanding of pain, stress and anxiety because my chosen career before being a Life Coach and a Reiki Practitioner  was an Executive Producer in Reality TV. In Reality TV, we often live on the edge of fast-paced deadlines with a heavy dose of daily stress and anxiety that looms over us. Stress had become an everyday norm for me. When in full production or on a delivery deadline, everyone around you, is also running on stress so it's a constant anxious energy that is floating around and absorbed by all. Working in Reality TV is not for the faint of heart but I did have a lot of amazing experiences and times.

From my unhealthy relationship with work, I ended up with a low immune system from a bout of pneumonia (I was on the a road show that traveled every 3 days for 3 months and we were on and off planes so I ended up getting super sick), inflammation, anxiety, depression, insomnia and all kinds of problems from living a stress-induced life. I didn't want to go on any medication but to find the root of the problem, change my way of living and ultimately find whole health healing. I tried all kinds of things. Eventually, I made my way to more consistent acupuncture appointments, mindfulness meditation classes, Somatic Experiencing Therapy and doing Energy Healing work. They all helped for a short time but I needed to break the mental and emotional patterns that was causing the actual pain. So for me, Reiki Energy Healing, the loss and grief programs, the cognitive behavior courses that I took ended helping me on all these levels. I had to deconstruct my life to reconstruct it in a healthy way. The Reiki helped to alleviate the pain and stress but also supported me in breaking unhealthy patterns by giving me added clarity and motivation. I was addicted to the "go, go and go and the do, do and do." I love creating inspiring shows but with budgets being cut, less staff to support and more expectations for faster with high quality was causing inhumane work conditions of sometimes 18 hour days, 7 days a week for months at a time. I was prizing myself as this road warrior in production life that could deliver all the story goods yet I was creating intense pain for my future. It's just so unhealthy to live this way in a constant and consistent way. The burnt out factor is real.

Breaking up my relationship with constantly being stressed took time and patience. From working on location shows on the road, I had a to-go lifestyle that kept me out of the grocery store for years. Don't get me wrong, I love some hotel living but I was living a very unhealthy adulting life. Once, I got off the stress merry-go-around, I had to start at the beginning and relearn how to take time to do self-care which included grocery shopping and cooking healthy meals to support a healthier lifestyle. Doing Self-Reiki Energy Healing and doing basic things like this eventually broke my habit of everything "To Go it; it literally slowed me down and brought me back into balance. It wasn't easy but took consistent work but I was tired of feeling aweful so what choice did I really have? I was ready for whole health healing. Reiki energy healing ended up being my saving grace but everyone is different so what worked for me may not work for you. But, if you are at the end of your rope, why not give it a go?

THE JOURNEY OF WHOLE HEALTH HEALING 
So now when clients choose to do Reiki with me, I understand that they maybe ready to really find healing from the pain, stress, anxiety while also releasing old energy, patterns, and/or beliefs that no longer are serving them and looking for whole health. My client, may be fully aware of this, or just know on a subconscious level that whatever they have been doing has not been working. The idea of experiencing a Reiki session to balance their mind, body and spirit seems to “feel” right so they made an appointment. Whatever the case, I am excited to begin the journey of whole health healing with them.

WHY CAN REIKI WORK?
The reason why Reiki energy healing can be so powerful and effective is because it infuses your body with Universal life force energy. We all have life force energy flowing through us.  If one’s “life force energy” is low then we are more likely to get sick or feel stress, and if it is high we are more capable of being happy and healthy. As a practitioner, my responsibility is to simply act as a conduit for Universal life force energy in order to help healing take place, optimally, so that your body can heal itself.
 
 WHAT HAPPENS DURING A REIKI SESSION?
During a Reiki session, you will feel relaxed, and be able to take full, deep and easy breaths. Your muscles start to release tension, your heart rate will become moderate and adrenals will be put at ease. There's a deep sense that everything will be okay and that brings you feeling of peace and a sense of new-found clarity that benefits you upon leaving a Reiki session. Most people benefit from their first Reiki treatment, while others work through deeper issues with additional treatments. Everyone’s needs are different because everyone’s healing is unique to them.
 
Since Reiki helps us clear energy blocks, it is no surprise that a client feels much more grounded, calm and relaxed after a session. Some even fall asleep during treatments. Whether awake or sleeping, Reiki always works for the client’s highest good for the client’s overall highest health in body, mind and soul.
 
For those of us who live in the city dwellings, it can be amazing yet it is also full of stimulation! For those of us, who are highly sensitive or empaths, can easily pick up on the energy of others then living in a big city can sometimes overwhelm our sympathetic nervous system. If we don’t understand how to protect and clear ourselves then we can easily get depleted and exhaust our systems.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ARE TAXED AND OVERLOADED
What happens when our sympathetic nervous system is taxed and overloaded? As I mentioned, I know firsthand how this feels. It is not fun. Luckily, I had several healers on speed dial that would do 911 energy-healing sessions for me. Our bodies can go into fight-or-flight-or-freeze mode, and our survival instincts can be set into motion. When this happens, our heart rate can increase while maybe experiencing shortness of breath, maybe having difficulty taking in full breaths, our muscles contract. We may break into a sweat, and our adrenal glands get activated which increases our cortisol (the “stress hormone”) to move in and help us handle the stress. Adrenaline is our fight-or-flight-freeze hormone, which also gets activated by our adrenal glands, and helps give us the extra energy we need to deal with the stress situation or run away from it or even freeze from it. Imagine what happens to our bodies when we are in survival mode on a regular basis. Our adrenals get taxed, our system feels depleted, we get fatigued, we may hyper-react in situations or we may even develop physical pains and strains that are not due to physical trauma but emotional and mental health stress challenges that are affecting our physical body. I went through all of that again and again until finally my body delivered a bout of pneumonia to me. That was my wake up call. 
 
ARE YOU HAVING MELTDOWNS BY OVER-REACTING, SLEEPING A LOT OR LIVING LIKE A ZOMBIE? 
If you find yourself having meltdowns by over-reacting, sleeping a lot or moving through life like a zombie then it is a clear indication that what you have been dealing with energetically, has now manifested itself into the physical and has zapped you from your life force energy. If you prolong taking care of your emotional and mental health then this can possibly eventually create physical pain in the body.
 
In addition, when we are in a vulnerable place of being depleted like this we may be more open to absorb energies that do not belong to us. This can leave some of us feeling even more irritated, fatigued, drained, and possibly even frazzled, stressed out and overly anxious.

ARE YOU LIVING WITH BACK PAIN  YET YOU CAN'T SEEM TO FIND RELIEF?
One of my clients, when they were stressed at work their back would hurt from all the tension of being anxious about deadlines and disliking the work environment. Everyday the pain increased as the stress heightened. Instead of dealing with healing the stress first, the client had been dealing with trying to heal the back pain by going to see all kinds of specialists with promises of relief but it wasn’t getting better. My client had been living with back pain for 2 years and had tried everything and was desperate enough to give me a call. My client started out with, “I don’t believe in this kind of thing. It’s really weird but I am out of options.” I love working with all walks of life but the skeptics have a special place in my heart. The athlete in me triggers to wanting to bring and deliver the best and optimal results for my client. Sometimes, Reiki energy healing isn’t the right fit but I love a chance to give it a go to see if we can get whole healing for a person living in pain, stress and anxiety.
 
Once, I started working with this client, the Reiki energy began healing the emotional and mental stress then worked its way to heal the back pain. It took 6 sessions but my client hasn’t had back pain for 2 months and now has some tools in the toolbox to help them through other challenges that may come up in their lives. Along the way, my clients learn meditation, receive information on loss and grief and other tools that could possibly be helpful in this game we call life.
 
But, if you are also an empath or a highly sensitive person experiencing a stress reaction then you could also be affected even more because you are possibly feeling what is happening around you. So if you don’t understand how to set up healthy boundaries then you can send out your energy without realizing it, which can cause even more depletion. Or you could feel someone else’s anxiety and not understand how to clear the energy from you.

DO YOU FEEL OVERWHELMED, ANXIOUS AND STRESSED?
When I began in working with another one of my clients, the client was often feeling really overwhelmed, anxious and drained. In our first session, the client was working through old patterns of self-sabotage and low self-esteem, which was keeping my client from enjoying a fulfilling love life, from moving forward in career and afraid to stand up for self. My client felt stuck, overwhelmed, anxious and really stressed. Since, my client is an empath or a highly sensitive person, my client was feeling and taking on the energy of everyone around without realizing how to set up healthy boundaries. Because of this my client regularly felt off, depleted of energy on all levels, scattered, and fearful. Often, when an incident happened my client would be mentally and emotionally spinning story after story, trying to explain away what was happening and sometimes going into the blame game of others. The spinning mind and blaming game can be even more taxing, stressful and cause even more pain. When we go into blaming others, we can disconnect ourselves from others and at times, if the hurt and pain aren’t addressed then this can spiral further into the negative emotions that we are already feeling like anger, resentment or frustration. If they continue to fester under the surface without being acknowledged to heal then this can create even more pain, stress and anxiety. Our negative emotions are letting us know what is happening but often we lean away from them because it can be overwhelming or uncomfortable. Look at it as an opportunity for healing. 
 
Since my client had such severe anxiety, it took my client at least 10 minutes to calm down during the first Reiki treatment. My dog happened to be in the first session and was pacing the entire 10 minutes until finally the Reiki released the anxiety energy. My dog has been in sessions before but usually sleeps through the session so this indicated me the level of the stress and anxiety that my client felt. By the end of the first session, I could feel that my client had released some of the old energy through the hands and feet, and the body was infused with Universal life force energy. My client had shifted to a more grounded and relaxed state with an aliveness and the Qi was back in full force. My client said to me, “Wow. I feel so incredibly relaxed and centered. No more spinning mind.”
 
Sometimes, clients only need one Reiki Energy Healing session but when healing deep layers like this then the healing can take time. After 3 sessions, my client’s wounded child started to heal which allowed my client to start to create awareness around self-sabotaging patterns. My client began to shift them, creating new and more productive habits that included compassion and self-love, starting to trust intuition, and take better care of body, mind and soul. All together it took 3 months of work with 15 Reiki energy sessions and several coaching calls for my client to feel like they found a new lease on life and armed with tools to support themselves for the future. They are still healing other aspects but for now feel healthy enough to stand on their own two feet which is what I want for each of my client’s. Each person’s healing is different and unique to them so some take more or less time. The important thing is to not compare but to understand to focus on your own healing to take care of you.
 
Being able to hold space for a client’s transformation is really a humbling experience and such an honor. I am awed at having a front row seat in the game of someone else life to see them reconnect to find #wholehealth healing. Truly awe-inspiring.
 
So, what do you do to help yourself relieve pain, stress and anxiety? Let me know! I am always interested in learning about other techniques to pass on. May we all find our way to Whole Health Healing so we can vibrantly be living each day to its fullest! 

Much Gratitude & Love,
H