What Does Reiki Do?

Sometimes, people ask me “Exactly what does Reiki do?”  I have heard, and used, many of the standard quick answers given by energy workers: it clears negative energy, it aligns the chakras, it balances the body’s natural energy, it relaxes the body, and by so doing allows the body to heal itself.

All these are true.  But I’d like to offer another couple of phrases, that may be useful to those who are trying to understand Reiki, and those who are trying to explain it.

It’s really pretty simple: Reiki both illuminates and empowers the one who receives Reiki. That means for the person who is seeking healing (the client, perhaps), and the one who is supplying the channel for the Reiki to flow, as both are recipients of Reiki.

But what does that mean?

Illumination can mean many things, to different people.  It means, literally, to fill with light. Reiki, the universal life force energy, illuminates us. It fills us with light. That is why so many energy healers who use Reiki, call themselves “Light Workers.” It is easier to find things in a well-lit area, whether you are talking about a child playing hide-and-seek, a hunted rabbit, a spider lurking in your bedroom, or the keys you dropped when you had your hands full coming into your house.

Bringing in Light

The illumination of Reiki helps both the practitioner and the client to reveal things that are troubling the client. Maybe it is an emotional issue that has buried itself deep within the heart, sending out tendrils of pain to different parts of the body. Maybe it is physical damage that is small and well hidden, but still causes trouble at times. Or perhaps it is stress and tension from a job, a family situation, social issues, or some other cause, that masks itself as a headache or digestive issues such as diarrhea or heartburn.

Knowledge

Illumination can also mean giving knowledge. Sometimes, the person who is seeking relief via Reiki has issues that they don’t even know about, that cause problems for them. I recall a client once who had a sore back, and didn’t know why. She had not done anything to strain it; she had a good, comfortable bed to sleep in; her shoes fit well (trust me: bad shoes CAN cause a backache!), and she had no idea why her back had begun aching two weeks before.

When I worked with her, I detected what seemed to be a problem with the energy near her heart chakra, a little above it and close to the thymus. The heart chakra deals with relationships with others, and the upper heart chakra, located near the thymus, also deals with relationships, but with those closer to us: family, spouse, children.

We talked about this, and I discovered that she recently had to take on caring for her aging and infirm mother. She loved her mother, but as we spoke, it became clear that the relationship was becoming strained—her mother was very demanding, and took up a great deal of her time. Plus, she was raising her own two children, caring for her household, and working a job to help pay the bills. She refused at first to say anything about resenting caring for her mother, but eventually she began to cry and revealed how she felt like she had so much to do, that she was losing her own identity, and beginning to dislike her mother.

After we spoke, and she admitted these things, she had to leave—she only had limited time for a Reiki session, because of her caregiving duties.  But when she stood up from the treatment table, the look on her face was priceless. “My back doesn’t hurt now!” she said.

In this case, the Reiki really didn’t “heal” her back. But it did help to reveal to her some of her own feelings, and by dealing with them, her body rid itself of the pain. Oh, she did come back a couple of times, but it was mostly for different issues, because after some more discussion later, she realized that she had to deal with her anger and resentment at carrying the burdens of caregiver, housewife, mother, and employee. It was that burden—not a heavy physical load, but an emotional load—that was causing her back pain.

Empowerment

I am not talking about the empowerment of righteous anger that may drive a protester, or the empowerment of autonomy on the job—although these are valid things. Instead, I am referring to the idea of empowering the body to heal itself.

Our bodies do heal themselves. If people required university-trained physicians and surgeons to heal, the human race would have died out eons ago. I am not discounting the advantage of modern medicine—I have taken advantage of it many times.

But our tissue heals itself. Our cells regenerate. Some regenerate more slowly than others, and we can’t, like some animals, grow back a severed foot. But it does not always require pharmaceuticals or surgery to heal, when the body is given appropriate resources of rest and energy.  In fact, the average human body replaces its ENTIRE covering of skin, about every four weeks or so.

Reiki, by relaxing the body and balancing the energy flow within it (that invisible energy that so infuriates some scientists because it is nearly impossible to measure and quantify), gives your body the resources it needs to heal. Scientists have shown that relaxation can aid the body in healing and becoming healthier, in a variety of ways.

Relaxation may seem to be the opposite of empowerment, but think about it: if you were having some yard work done, and were told, “Hey, you don’t have to worry about it!  Seriously, we are going to take care of it,” by some trusted workmen, wouldn’t that empower you?  Wouldn’t you feel empowered to let go of that worry, of that task, so you could focus on other things?

Reiki also empowers us by helping to balance our own internal energy. Compare it to a shopping cart in a grocery store. Have you ever gotten one of those where the wheels on one side drag and pull?  How maddening to have to deal with that imbalance! The heavier it gets, the more groceries are in it, the more you have to strain and pull to keep from running into other shoppers, or knocking over that display of pineapples in the produce section!

When our own internal energy is out of kilter–out of balance–we often struggle to get through the day. We are required to exert more effort in one direction or another, to keep from running off the rails, whether that means drinking too much coffee (or wine!), yelling at the ones we care about, or being overcome with rage about the person who happened to be in just as much of a hurry as we were, and thus barged in ahead of us on the drive to work.

By balancing our internal energies, we are helped to find better ways to deal with the sometimes unavoidable stresses of life. We are empowered to step back in our minds and say, “Wait a minute–maybe I don’t have to make an obscene gesture at that rude driver–he could be late to work too,” or, “Maybe my angry posting on Facebook really isn’t going to do anything to change things, but only alienate my friends.”

Takeaway

Practicing Reiki or getting a Reiki session from a practitioner certainly will not make you a perfectly calm and peaceful saint, filled with the light of all understanding. You will not necessarily become a bodhisattva. But Reiki CAN be a part of finding balance and healing, as you allow the light and knowledge to come into you, and allow your body to empower itself to heal.

A New Reiki Research Study, and I’m Part of It

This week I was selected to be part of a study by the Center For Reiki Research, as a Reiki Master delivering Reiki to clients. The study is headed by Dr. Natalie Leigh Trent, a Research Fellow at Harvard University’s Department of Psychology.

The Center for Reiki Research has conducted and/or compiled information from research in a variety of clinical settings, and has promulgated both those that indicate Reiki to be helpful and those that show Reiki to be less than helpful. The Center has shown itself to be very fair-minded in how it performs studies, and how the data from such studies is given to the public.

Why do Reiki research?

For the same sort of reason why research is done to judge the efficacy of a new drug, a particular surgical procedure, a diet, or anything else that affects human health: to see if it is worthwhile. There’s no reason to spend time or money with something that doesn’t work, or even worse, may be harmful to you. That is why I am happy to be part of this research study.

From the Center for Reiki Research website: “The Center for Reiki Research is dedicated to gaining acceptance for the practice of Reiki by the medical community by persistently using rigorous professional and scientific methods. This goal is meaningful to us because those in hospitals or clinics are often people who have the greatest need for the therapeutic value Reiki can offer. In order to maintain our high standards and to achieve our purpose in a healthy and mutually supportive way we focus on the use of Reiki energy and principles in all our activities, both within our group and with all those with whom we work and interact.”

The purpose of this particular research study, is to compile a database of the results of Reiki sessions using a standardized session form that is used to collect data on the condition of the client both before and after a Reiki session. The data will be analyzed to determine the effectiveness of the sessions based on the improvement or lack thereof, for various conditions.

Why is such research important?

Although Energy Healing in general has been used for thousands of years, and the specific modality called “Reiki” has been in use for over 100 years, many people remain skeptical. Almost all of these skeptics are people who have never received Reiki for healing.  This sort of skepticism exists in a vacuum–it’s like telling people that broccoli tastes terrible, when you yourself have never tasted broccoli.

Some people are skeptical because Reiki is outside their frame of reference. In other words, they’ve never heard of it, or perhaps only heard the word in passing.

Others are skeptical because, to them, it is non-quantifiable: they can’t see the Reiki energy, they can’t measure its strength in definite units the way you can a dosage of a drug or the strength of a radiation exposure.

Some people are worried that Reiki is “spiritually dangerous”–in other words, that their soul may be imperiled if they allow something that is “heathen” to be used to help them. (Of course, Reiki is not heathen or devilish, but there are people out there who think anything not specifically endorsed in their scriptures, is wrong. By that yardstick, penicillin is from Satan, and automobiles are sinful.)

A few others are skeptical, or maybe fearful is a better word, because they have the idea that, if Reiki works, their own medical practice or pharmaceutical business is endangered. In other words, “Why would people spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on treatment or pharmaceuticals, when they can obtain relief and healing much more cheaply and easily, without any sort of invasive action or possibility of side effects?” The thing is, Reiki practitioners do NOT try to get people to give up their usual medical care. We try to work in consonance with physicians, surgeons, and so forth.

So… although research can’t do much to change the minds of those who are fearful of imagined spiritual danger, and probably even less to change the minds of those who are focused on their own wallets more than the health and well-being of their patients, it CAN be helpful to those who either don’t know what Reiki is or those who are concerned that Reiki has not been validated by clinical studies.

Scientifically designed clinical research can, and does, help show what Reiki does, whether it works or not, and what it works best to help.

Reiki and Weight Loss — My Own Experiences

Please note the disclaimer in the title: the only thing in this post to which I can swear, is my own experience with weight loss and Reiki.

About 2 years ago, I decided to try something to help reform my shape.  I’ve always been a little heavier than I like–it’s pretty much genetic, having inherited my body shape from my mother’s side of the family (along with the male pattern baldness… *sigh*.)

But I had gotten TOO much heavier, and my jeans had gotten TOO large.  I had arrived at the weight of 240-plus, at 6′ tall, and was comfortable in size 42 jeans.  No, no… that’s not something I wanted to face.

So, being the confirmed Reiki practitioner that I am, I figured that it could not hurt at all to try and use Reiki to help me lose some of these inches and pounds.  (Years ago, when I was in the Navy, I was much more active and fit… but I was also a lot younger.)

I began a concerted practice of two regimens:

1. I started doing self-Reiki every day.  Normally, when I was about to go to sleep at night, I would close my eyes and give myself Reiki to clear myself of negativity and balance my energies. Sure, I missed a few days, but it was pretty regular.

2. I administered Reiki to every meal.  Of course, I always give thanks for my food, but I also (as my wife puts it) “Reiki-fied” the food.  The intention I put behind this Reiki was this: “May this food and drink be cleansed of all negative properties, may it be nutritious and add only to our good health and well-being.”  Very simple, really, to add this Reiki intention along with my thanks for the food and drink.

At first, I didn’t really notice things.  There was not a dramatic dropoff in my weight or anything like that.  (Who wants to give themselves the same problem as the protagonist in Stephen King’s novel “Thinner” anyway?)  BUT…

After a few weeks I did begin to notice that my jeans were getting a little looser in the waist.  And in about six months or so, I had to start tightening my belts to the last notch, or my pants would begin sliding off my butt, making me look like a middle-aged white guy trying to be a gangsta, and failing miserably.  In fact, it sort of looked like I didn’t HAVE a butt.

I had to buy some smaller jeans… size 40s this time… and got a couple of new belts, while punching some new holes in a couple others.  This was good… although I had not yet connected it with the Reiki.  Maybe I didn’t want to believe it was the Reiki.  Sometimes humans are like that: they ask God or the Universe for something to happen and when it does, they want to doubt that it’s really happening.

Eventually, even the 40s started sliding down my backside, and I had to get some 38s.  But… wonder of wonders… I found some slacks in the back of my closet that I had abandoned a few years back because “they shrank” *AHEM* and amazingly enough, they now fit!

Now… do I credit the Reiki with this?  YES… I certainly do.  And here’s why.

1.  I did NOT increase my level of physical activity.  Since we are building a house and live on a rural property that requires a good bit of outside stuff like mowing, etc., I obviously had that stuff going on.  But I did not start jogging, or walking, or anything like that. In fact, I probably was doing less of that sort of activity than I was before.

2.  I did not change my eating habits. My wife Lara is a pretty health-conscious lady anyway, and we have always eaten organic whenever possible, about 95% of the breads and such we eat are whole grain, we drink almond milk instead of dairy milk, and so forth.  But I still have two or three cookies after a meal, I still eat buttermilk cornbread, and I still drink sweet tea about half the time.  I still eat cheese and eggs and chicken and ham and real butter.  So, I didn’t suddenly start dieting.

Oh… and my weight has gone from 240-plus, to hovering between 212 and 215, with occasional dips below 210.

So, it’s not a lifestyle change really–unless you count the idea of cleansing and “healing” my food and drink with Reiki, and giving myself self-Reiki every day, a lifestyle change.

I’m continuing to lose weight… slowly, deliberately… and I’m good with that.  I’d love to get down to a 36 waist size, even if it means buying new slacks and jeans, but I’m patient about it.  I’m good with the idea of losing weight gradually and without having to make a big lifestyle change… without having to drink nasty diet milkshakes… without needing surgery… without buying a gym membership and having some 20-something bodybuilder harangue me about “10 more minutes on that Stairmaster!”

Reiki is natural.  It’s something I can do for myself… it’s something anyone can do for themselves, once they are attuned. It’s not something I have to keep going out and buying, like Slimfast or Hydroxycut.  And it’s not some sort of weight loss group where I have to buy special food packets that are shipped to me, at exorbitant prices.

If you are a Reiki practitioner, and feel like you have a weight issue, maybe you would like to try the same sort of thing.  Adapt the intention, if you like, to suit your own tastes and feelings. And let me know how it works for you!

If you are NOT an attuned Reiki practitioner, maybe you could think about becoming one… or failing that, you might be able to attain similar results with regular Reiki treatments.  I have no idea, but it could be worth a try.

What… or rather, HOW MUCH… do you have to lose?

Pain and Complementary/Holistic Therapies, Part II

(Originally published July 16, 2014)

In an earlier entry, I talked about the dangers inherent in the rising over-prescription (and overuse) of opioid painkillers.  Addiction. Abuse. Overdose. Contributing to social ills by migrating into street drug trade.

There are SO many ways to rid yourself of pain, or at least drop it down to a manageable level, without resorting to opioid drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, fentanyl, and others.

Let’s hit one of the standard non-opioid drugs right away: NSAIDs, or non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. These include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, and others. While not perfect, are at least not addictive.  However, if you have problems with ulcers or GERD (reflux disease) maybe NSAIDs are not your best choice, anyway, even if they are better than opioid drugs.  And although it is not an NSAID, it is sold as an over-the-counter (OTC) analgesic. Some people will take acetaminophen for pain, but studies have shown that it is more effective as a febrifuge (fever reducer) than as a pain reliever, for most people.

A word about “rebound headaches.” Many pain relievers, both prescription and non-prescription drugs such as NSAIDs, will cause rebound headaches in some people, if not taken correctly. For example, the back pain that the medicine was taken for may go away, but in a couple of hours, the person may experience a headache as the body “rebounds” from the effects of the pain reliever.

Just a note here: I recently read someone’s online tirade about how “the only thing that works” is opioids, and how “all those alternatives are just a waste of time.”  I beg to differ–alternatives DO work.  But not all alternatives, nor pharmaceuticals, work for everyone.  Case in point: my mother was very, very sick for a long time due to a disabling injury from a fall down concrete stairs. The doctor prescribed oxycontin (a continuous-release form of oxycodone, a heavy-duty opioid) for her.  It didn’t touch her pain, and actually made her sick.  So, sometimes, even the big guns (opioids) don’t do the trick.

So remember: NOT ALL THERAPIES WILL ALWAYS WORK FOR EVERYONE.  If there was one therapy that worked at all times, for all types of pain, for every patient, that’s the only thing people would use and there would not be so many options available. This applies to surgery, conventional pharmaceuticals, herbal medicines, acupuncture, Qi Gong, Reiki, or anything else.

Supplements That Can Help With Pain

Here is a sampling (by no means comprehensive) of three supplements you could try to help with various types of pain. As with ANY supplements you may take to help with a medical condition, it is ALWAYS a good idea to check with your physician first, to make sure there are no contraindications.

The below recommendations come from Dr. Mehmet Oz, by the way. (1)

Vitamin B-12: this supplement helps to ease your back pain by encouraging your body to thicken its protective coating (the myelin sheath) around your nerves, so they don’t “short circuit” and cause pain.

Boswellia extract: Boswellia, also known as Indian frankincense, is an herbal extract that alleviates joint pain by reducing cartilage damage. Available at health stores, be sure to purchase boswellia extract with a concentration of at least 40% to get the most benefits.

Powdered ginger: oils contained in ginger reduce inflammation at the site of the joint. Take a half-teaspoon a few times a day for the next 7 days by adding the powdered ginger to hot water in the mornings, stirring it into your lunchtime lemonade, or concocting whatever ginger drink tastes best to you! You can also take a ginger tablet or capsule in doses of 1 to 4 grams every day either all at once or divided into smaller doses.

Topical Applications

Topical applications are things that you apply directly to the painful area.  Think of commercial products such as BenGay™ or Tiger Balm™.

Capsaicin: capsaicin temporarily desensitizes pain-prone skin nerve receptors called C-fibers; soreness is diminished for 3 to 5 weeks while they regain sensation. Capsaicin ointments and creams are sold in pharmacies and health stores.

Arnica: arnica comes from a European flower; although its healing mechanism is still unknown, it does have natural anti-inflammatory properties. Arnica ointment and gel are available in health food stores. Rub arnica preparations on bruises or strained muscles.

The above two are recommended by the Prevention website. (2)

Other Treatment Therapies

One thing that we need to think about is what the substances above, along with opioids, are intended to do.  The focus of all of these analgesics, both conventional medical pharmaceuticals and alternative medicines, is the relief of pain.  Relief of pain, as welcome and desired as it can be, is not the same thing as healing!

Compare an illness or injury to a flat tire.  If you have a flat tire, you may need to get to an important appointment, so you get to an air hose and re-inflate your tire.  This allows you to get on to your appointment on time, but it has not resolved the issue.  Only patching or replacing the tire will fix the real, root issue.

In the same sense, relieving pain, although it provides us with comfort, does not fix the issue.  Only healing the root cause of an illness or injury (when possible) will make a lasting difference to your health.

Complementary therapies such as Reiki and other energy healing techniques work toward both relief of pain AND healing the illness or injury.  And remember–this is a point I always try to drive home–healing is a personal thing.  You work together with Nature to heal yourself, regardless of what doctors, surgeons, Reiki practitioners, acupuncturists or anyone else may do.

That said, Reiki works in multiple modes to help your body deal with pain and speed healing.  First of all, Reiki will help you to relax. Doctors know, and research shows, that relaxing the body–getting rid of tension–helps decrease pain in many instances, even in the case of serious illness. (3)  Further, relaxation helps the body to  heal. (4) (5)

And remember, science shows us that the body is composed entirely of energy, whether we realize it or not. And within our bodies, sometimes the energy flowing through the various pathways (meridians or nadis) and the processing centers (chakras) can get out of kilter. Sometimes it can be at a lower level than it should be for some reason, or maybe a chakra can become unbalanced such that it is processing energy at an excessive rate.  These energy imbalances in the body can cause both physical health and emotional health issues. And sometimes cause-and-effect can get reversed: an emotional health issue may cause energy imbalance in a chakra, for example, and that will in turn produce physical issues in the body. (6)  (Think of ulcers caused by stress.)

Energy healing via Reiki can help to address these energy imbalances, helping to restore good energetic equilibrium to the body, and allow Nature and the body to work together to heal more quickly and thoroughly.

I encourage you to consider adding Reiki to your arsenal of pain-fighting and healing. You can find a local Reiki practitioner, or you can obtain Reiki healing at a distance (yes, it works at a distance!), or even better, you can learn how to heal yourself with Reiki. I practice self-Reiki every day, and my health has continually improved ever since I began doing so! There’s no reason you can’t do the same thing.  If you would like to be trained how to do this, get in contact with me, and I’ll be happy to discuss it with you!

REFERENCES

(1)   The Dr. Oz Show

(2)  Prevention magazine

(3)  The American Cancer Society website

(4)  The New York Times article

(5)  Pamela Miles, Reiki In Medicine 

(6)  Dr. Frank Lipman, website

Balancing the Chakras – Sacral Chakra, or Swadisthana

(Originally published on June 13, 2014)

With the sacral chakra, we’re getting a bit above the pure survival focus of the base chakra.  With the sacral chakra, the focus is more upon intimacy, creativity and creation, although in a sexual sense this also means survival–as in “survival of the species.”  So, while the base chakra is all about “I need!”, the sacral chakra is more about “I want.”

The sacral chakra is located just below the navel, in the area that in Japan is called the tanden (Chinese, Dan Tian). The color associated with the sacral chakra is orange. Its symbol is water, so physically it holds sway over the liquid components of the body: blood, urine, saliva, digestive juices, and so forth.  The sacral chakra influences the sexuality of the individual, and the entirety of the lower abdomen’s physical functions: lower digestion, kidneys, ovaries, testes, and so on.

Because of its influence on this area, it also may have an impact (for good or ill) on such things as sexual dysfunction, bowel dysfunction, urinary tract infections, menopause, prostate cancer, and other problems of the lower abdomen.

Looking back to the idea of the sacral chakra’s connection to water, it’s important to remember that this chakra influences our flexibility with new situations, our abliity to “go with the flow.”  An imbalance here can cause angst when confronting new situations or changes in an existing situation, or may result in problems with intimacy, shyness, or blocked creativity.  An over-energetic sacral chakra may influence the individual to be flighty and changeable in the extreme, or may influence those desires for intimacy to be changed to shallow feelings of lust or feeling that sexual overtures are the only way to achieve intimacy.

The sacral chakra is important to our desires for intimacy, abundance, and creativity.  Look at how this differs from the base chakra:

*** Base: I need SEX, SEX, SEX or I will die!!

*** Sacral: I want to feel love and affection.

*** Base: I need enough food (money, shelter, etc.) to survive.

*** Sacral: I want enough food and other resources to be comfortable and secure.

*** Base: I need to create enough for myself so I can survive.

*** Sacral: I want to create so I can share what I have created with others.

Drinking plenty of healthy liquids (pure water, fruit juices, vegetable juices) is very good for helping to keep the sacral chakra in balance. As might be thought, the color orange will positively influence the sacral chakra, as will the sight and/or sound of flowing water.  Keeping a little desk waterfall may help with creativity, for example.  Listening to smoothly flowing music with water sounds integrated into it will also help.  And just as with the root chakra, there are exercises, yoga poses, crystals, and other things that can help keep your sacral chakra in balance.  (Self-Reiki is a AWESOME way to keep all your chakras clear and balanced!)

Here is a YouTube video (a little over six minutes) that may help to balance your sacral chakra if you use it during your meditation time:  Swadisthana Balance Meditation.

And as always, if you feel you may need help with your chakras–clearing, cleansing, or balancing–you can always contact us at Hillside Holistic Health.

Pain and Holistic/Complementary Therapies, Part I

(Originally published June 28, 2014)

Pain.

No one enjoys it. Not really.  Even masochists don’t enjoy the pain.  They enjoy the sexual excitement it engenders.

But when the pain is chronic and debilitating, it can seem like the world becomes one long, dark tunnel, filled with demons laughing at your suffering.

OK, that was purple prose.  But I’ve known people, people I loved, who dealt with chronic pain every hour of every day, and the despair I have seen in their eyes and heard in their voices, made it seem like that purple prose was pretty accurate.

Sadly, the treatment of pain in the United States, or pain management and palliative care as it is called, has taken a turn down the road of opioid drugs, and this is causing massive problems both for those who take the opioids and for those around them.

For example, two reports by addiction researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine show some startling data.  These reports, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, show an astounding increase in opioid prescriptions, while prescriptions for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs (i.e., ibuprofen and naproxen) have decreased. Hydrocodone and oxycodone made up about 85% of those prescriptions, and over the ten years of the study there was a 500% increase in admission to substance abuse programs for opioid addiction.  According to statistics, one in four adults aged 18 to 25 will abuse prescription pain killers in their lifetime.

There were 202 MILLION (202,000,000!) prescriptions written for opioids during 2009. Of those about 12% were prescribed for adolescents and young adults.

“The scope of the problem is vast — opioid overdose is now the second leading cause of accidental death in the United States and the prevalence is second only to marijuana,” said Thomas McLellan, PhD, co-author of the studies and director of the new Center for Substance Abuse Solutions. (1)

And in December 2012, another article published in JAMA discussed how the over-prescribing of opioid drugs for pain management is having a negative impact on the health of patients who take them, but that diversion of those drugs to the street is causing social and public health issues. “More people in the U.S. die from a drug overdose than they do from motor vehicle accidents and more of those deaths are caused by prescription opioids than those attributable to cocaine and heroin combined,” said Alexander, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Bloomberg School and co-director of the new Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness. (2)

And according to the Pain Physician Journal, there is now an “opioid epidemic” in the United States. A recent study by the Institute of Medicine stated that there are more than 116 million Americans with pain persisting from weeks to years, with financial costs ranging from $560 billion to $635 billion per year. (3) The “treatment of choice” in millions of those cases is opioids, including hydrocodone, oxycodone, and fentanyl.

Another, later study said much the same thing. In a study published in September 2013 in the online journal Medical Care. ““There is an epidemic of prescription opioid addiction and abuse in the United States,” notes G. Caleb Alexander, MD, MS, associate professor of Epidemology and Medicine and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness. “We felt it was important to examine whether or not this epidemic has coincided with improved identification and treatment of pain.”(4)  Essentially, what they found was that, even though all these addictive drugs were being prescribed, the actual rates of pain reduction were not improved. Plus, the use of safer alternatives (such as NSAIDS) was declining.

All right, that’s enough for the depressing information.  But in a nutshell, Americans are being prescribed addictive pain medications at an astonishing rate, and this is impacting not only the patients who take them, but also public health.

Why am I telling you all this?

Because there are complementary and alternative treatments for pain, both chronic and acute pain, that are non-addictive, non-lethal, effective and available.  But since the big pharmaceutical companies don’t make a dime from them, they don’t get a lot of exposure.

In a later installment, we’ll talk about some of those alternatives.

REFERENCES

(1) Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/04/110405161906.htm

(2) Science Daily http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/12/121204145702.htm

(3) Pain Physician http://www.painphysicianjournal.com/2012/july/2012;15;ES9-ES38.pdf

(4)  Johns Hopkins School of Public Health website http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2013/alexander-opiod-pain-use.html

Reiki, and the Aged and Infirm

(Originally published March 15, 2014)

My mother passed away this past November, at the age of 76.  She had been disabled for over 16 years. She dealt with constant pain for all those years, but I honestly never recall her complaining about it. Even with that, though, I wish I had known about Reiki way back when she was first injured. I feel like I could have offered her so much more, if I had, and could have made her life more bearable.

But earlier today, I had the pleasure of speaking to a small group of residents at the Morning Pointe Assisted Living facility in Calhoun, Georgia. I have been a visitor at a few assisted living facilities and rest homes in my life, and I have to say, Morning Pointe in Calhoun is one of the finest, cleanest, and most pleasant places I have ever visited. I went by there a couple of weeks ago to speak with their Life Enrichment Director, Sharyn Petryczanko, and see if there might be any interest in having me to come by and volunteer some of my time with any of the residents there, to give Reiki.

Her idea was a better one: to come by and give a short talk on what Reiki is, and what it can do to help the residents, and then come by at another time to offer Reiki.  I agreed that this was wise, and the title of the event was “Relaxation and Health with Tony.”  The event was planned (perhaps unwisely) for right after lunch, but we still had 8 or 9 residents who showed up to listen and ask questions.  All the attendees were very sweet and attentive, but I have to give kudos to Ruth, who is a little over 102 years old!  She was totally present in the moment, and contributed nicely to the discussion.  I am not sure how eager I would be to hear someone come in and natter at me right after lunch, if I were over 102 years old.

I’m terrible with names, especially the first time after meeting someone, but I do remember that Alma and Jessie were also in attendance. (Sorry, ladies!  My memory for names is awful.) A couple of the ladies came in after introductions had been made, so I never got their names anyway.

It was intriguing to get the viewpoint of these folks on the idea of energy healing and how it could be of help to them. Most of the residents there are Christian, I believe, so they related the idea of Reiki energy to the energy of the Creator, and this connection helped them to understand Reiki.

Another serendipitous part of the presentation was when one of the caregivers there stopped by for a while.  When we got to the point of discussion, and Q & A, she spoke up to tell the group about her experience with Reiki.  About 8 years before, she had been dealing with breast cancer, and while she was at Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga, TN, she received Reiki there. She told us how it helped her with her pain, anxiety, and self-image, and how it had made her healing process faster and easier.  It was so great to see such a thing happen, and to be totally unplanned!

I was at Morning Pointe for about an hour, and this was pretty much the limit for the residents to sit, plus they had other activities to do, so I didn’t get the chance to offer Reiki to anyone there. But they were very open, and took all the brochures I had with me, to share with their friends who didn’t make it to the presentation. One lady said that her sister had a lot of hip pain, and had been unable to receive any help from pain clinics and other conventional treatments, so she was going to share the information I gave her, and the brochure, with her sister and encourage her to contact me.

Even though I didn’t get to “treat” anyone with Reiki today, I feel like I have planted good seeds there. Next week, I’ll contact the Life Enrichment Director (herself a Naturopath) and arrange for times to go by and offer actual Reiki therapy.  These ladies, bless their hearts, said they weren’t in pain, but they would tell their friends who they think might need Reiki!

I am always a little leery of saying too much about what Reiki can do, for people who are very old. As wonderful as Reiki is, I don’t know that it can reverse the effects of aging, and sometimes we are simply dealing with the normal, natural and ultimate failure of the machinery of the human body. Our bodies are not designed to last forever.

But I DO believe that Reiki can benefit the aged and infirm. Often people who have reached a certain age will have problems with things like digestion, blood pressure, sleeping, and general relaxation. Often they may feel like they have been abandoned, or that they have become a burden on their families. Besides help with physical ailments, Reiki can help with emotional issues. One thing I discussed with the group today, and that they agreed with, is that being tense or anxious is bad for the human body, and can hinder healing. While it is important to stay active when we get up in years, it is also important to be able to relax when we need to do so.

Our bodies can heal. Our bodies can cope with a lot more than we give them credit for, if we give them the chance, and one way to do that is to RELAX.  Relaxation doesn’t mean sitting on the couch and watching TV for twelve hours a day. Relaxation is a mindset. I remember when I was in the Navy, I ran three or four times each week, and even though that was very exertive, I felt both relaxed and energized after finishing a run. On the flip side, there have been a few too many times when I have gotten up in the morning after seven or eight hours of sleep, and felt tense and unrested.

Having trouble with tension or anxiety? Ulcers acting up? Not sleeping well? Feeling uptight? Your body isn’t going to heal well or quickly with that sort of thing going on.  Maybe you need to give the relaxing power of Reiki a try! You may be surprised at the results.

What Has Reiki Done For Me?

(Originally published February 17, 2014, but just today this same question came up in a Reiki discussion group.)

Sometimes people sort of sneer at anything that seems to be outside the mainstream, when it comes to medicine or healing. One of the first questions I get asked is, “So, does this work?  Have you SEEN it work?”  In my case, the answer to both questions is, “Yes!”

My first exposure to Reiki was when I had an accident and broke three ribs, along with the radius bone of my right arm. There was a nurse who helped me to relax and go to sleep, without drugs, using Reiki.

Years ago, I dislocated my shoulder during a judo workout. The shoulder healed, but as I got older, I began to experience problems with the shoulder: pain, limited range of motion, etc. (I couldn’t put a belt through my belt loops in the back. I couldn’t put on a jacket or long-sleeved shirt without assistance.) I went to an orthopedic surgeon about it, and he said it was a rotator cuff injury.  At first he tried cortisone shots. This gave me some temporary relief, but did not fix anything permanently. He gave me a list of flexibility and strengthening exercises to do, along with some elastic bands to do them. I’ll be honest–I was a terrible patient, and although I was supposed to do the exercises daily, I might do them once a week, and often not even then. So the pain and limited range of motion stayed with me. But during my first Reiki class, my teacher treated me with Reiki and within minutes the shoulder was less painful and freer to move. Over the next day or so, the pain totally left and I regained full range of motion (after a second and third Reiki treatment.) Today, that shoulder works just fine, and unless I stress it unnecessarily (hey, I am in my late 50s!), it is pain free.

Along with these problems, I was taking a lot analgesics. Along with the occasional percocet and/or muscle relaxer, I had been taking ibuprofen or other NSAID drugs, two or three times each day. Although I don’t abandon everyday medicine, since I have started Reiki, and since I now do self-Reiki for a few minutes each day, I might take ibuprofen or the equivalent once or twice each month. That’s a big change: from minimally 120 capsules per month, to 2 to 4 capsules in a month. And I don’t have to take the stronger stuff any more at all.

Common ailments such as minor headaches, stomach upsets, etc., I now treat with Reiki instead of reaching for the medicine cabinet. (I have to say, I sometimes have trouble remembering to “Reiki first” and my wife often reminds me, “Did you do Reiki yet?” if I complain of some pain or other. Shamefaced, I usually shook my head “No” but I am remembering more often now.

Lastly, my blood pressure. I have been on blood pressure medicine for about a year now. A lot of guys with my build, and at my age, are doing that. But I have been able to reduce the amount of medication I take for hypertension by 50%, only taking a half-dose each day, and maintain a healthy blood pressure. Again, I attribute this to self-Reiki, since I have not made a lot of other changes that would impact my blood pressure.

(UPDATE 1/15/15:  I now only take my blood pressure medicine to treat “flare ups” instead of every day–maybe once a month, if that often.)

Reiki works.

It would be silly for me to say that, and then be the kind of person who takes drugs all the time, who complains of lots of aches and pains. How much credibility would an obese person have, leading a class on how to lose weight? How credible would that be? But that’s not how it is.

Since I began my practice of Reiki, my health has improved. And yes, I have treated other people with Reiki. But what I have written here is not about what Reiki has done for others–it’s about how it has helped me, the difference it has made in my health and well-being. I can’t really speak for those other people, but I know what it has done for me.

Maybe Reiki could help you, too. No guarantees, ever. Even your regular physician won’t give you a guarantee. But I can say this: there are NO bad effects of Reiki. No one has ever overdosed on Reiki, or had a bad reaction to Reiki. Reiki won’t mess up your liver like acetaminophen. Reiki won’t aggravate your stomach lining like aspirin, ibuprofen, or naproxen. You can’t get addicted to Reiki. (Well, maybe you can fall in love with the relaxed feeling it gives you, but that’s not the same thing!)

If you have problems with pain or your health in general, I encourage you to find a Reiki practitioner to work with you. It may be a local practitioner, or failing that, a Reiki practitioner who will perform distant Reiki therapy. (I do that for some people, quite often.) Reiki is not limited by distance.

What do you have to lose, other than pain?

Charging for Reiki?

(Originally published February 15, 2014)

Recently we have had some discussion in a Reiki group to which I belong, concerning whether or not Reiki healers should charge for their services.  Interestingly, the same question came up with one of my relatives, as I was telling him about my Reiki practice.

He said, “If this healing energy actually comes from God/the Divine, how can you charge for helping people?”

I admit, his question made me pause… for about five seconds.

Who heals us, anyway?

I have a question for you.  If you go to a doctor and you get better after treatment, do you think the doctor healed you?  If so, I’m afraid you are wrong.  If doctors actually PERFORMED healing, we’d all be happy and healthy, and never have any physical ailments that lasted more than a day or so, because all we would need to do, would be to go to a doctor.  But it’s not that way.

The other side of that coin would be, for all those years when we did NOT have doctors with degrees hanging on the walls, and full waiting rooms, everyone would have been dying off, since they would have had no one to heal them.

Our bodies heal themselves.  It’s simple.

Sure, doctors, nurses, chiropractors, acupuncturists, energy workers, Reiki practitioners, and all the others can HELP us to heal.  But in the end, it’s up to our bodies to heal… or not.

Here’s another point: our bodies heal faster when they are helped along by God.

Now, some people who read this blog may not be believers in God.  That’s your prerogative.  But there IS a force, an Energy in the Universe.*  It is in us and around us. (No, this will NOT be the speech given by Obi Wan Kenobi.)  So, if you want, you can just say God, the Universe, or Nature, or even the Force.  Doesn’t matter to me.

So, why do we pay doctors?

We pay doctors for their expertise, for one thing. They know (usually) what they are doing, and the right thing to do to help us to heal.

We pay them for their actions… the things they do to help our bodies to heal themselves.

And, honestly, we pay them so they can afford to do what they do.  It takes money to run a clinic.  It took money to pay for medical school.  It takes money to pay for the liability insurance they have to carry.  In short, though we may snarl about paying a doctor bill that looks outrageous, it’s not cheap to be a physician.  (I won’t be an apologist for hospital bills, though… that’s a WHOLE other story!)

And there’s the rub.

These same things apply to nurses, chiropractors, acupuncturists, and all the others who may help us to heal.  Training is not cheap.  Office space is not cheap, and if they are coming to you, the travel is not cheap either.

Reiki practitioners, even though they are merely helping your body to heal by channeling energy to the right places to allow you to relax, to balance the energies in your system, deserve to be paid for their expertise, their time, and all the other things that they had to do in order to be practitioners.

But how does the Reiki work?

You know, I have heard and read a lot of different statements about “How Reiki Works.” Some of them are similar, some are in conflict.  But the truth is, there is NO scientific proof of how Reiki works… only theories, sometimes supported by research.  But there is a LOT of evidence that Reiki does work… some would say proof.

And here is another truth: I don’t need to know exactly, scientifically, how Reiki works, in order to make use of it.

A lot of us drive cars that we have NO CLUE about how the internals work.  How many of us could explain in detail exactly how the computer they are using this moment, to read this blog, actually work?  But the people who are clueless about how their car actually works, how their computer actually works, or their cell phone, or tablet, or air conditioner, usually are not willing to give them up simply because they don’t have exact knowledge of the intricacies of how they work.

Doctors don’t know everything about how the brain works, either, but they still perform operations on them.

And as long as the Reiki works (and believe me, it does!) I will continue to use it to help bodies to heal.

Pro bono publico?

That’s not to say that I do not do Reiki therapy without a fee, or pro bono.  Sometimes it’s someone who  CANNOT pay.  Sometimes it’s someone who needs a simple introduction to Reiki, so I may offer to help with a headache or something.  Sometimes it is someone who is a close friend or a relative, and I know they are not “mooching” from me.  Also, I belong to the Distant Healing Network, where each week I send healing to someone who has asked for Reiki healing for a problem of some sort.

The laborer is worthy of her hire

I worked in the electronics field for a very long time.  It’s a complex, difficult and abstruse field of expertise, with things constantly changing.  Sometimes the repair is easy (if you know what you are doing.)  Other times, it’s maddeningly difficult and frustrating.

There was a comical story where a repairman went to someone’s house to repair their television (it’s an old story, okay?)  The repairman arrived and the TV had only a vague, fuzzy, staticky picture.  He opened up the back and within five minutes or so, he had found the problem and made the adjustment.  He handed the owner a bill for $60.00.

The owner was outraged.  “That’s too much money!  You weren’t back there long enough to earn that!”  So, the technician calmly went back behind the TV and put the television back into the state it was in before he arrived.

“You fix it, then.” he said to the owner.

While I would never try to put the client back into the state he/she was when the client came to me, we need to understand that, if the client is capable of paying, there is an obligation on both sides: the Reiki practitioner does the best she or he can do to help the client, and the client pays for the time, training, equipment and all the other things that allow the Reiki practitioner to be able to do what they do.  The lights have to be kept on, the car payment has to be made, and so forth.

Otherwise, how can the Reiki practitioner afford to continue helping their client’s bodies to heal?

Well, Here We Go!

(Originally posted February 1, 2014)

I am coming out of the Reiki closet.

Yes, my friends and relatives, I am a Reiki practitioner.  A Reiki Master, in fact.

My first experience with Reiki was when I fell from a ladder and broke three ribs and snapped the end off my right radius bone, right where it joins the wrist.  Hurt like heck, let me tell you.  I am SO VERY LUCKY that (1) my wife is an experienced nurse, and (2), she had not yet left for her shift that night.  So, she splinted my wrist, bundled me up, grabbed her nurse’s uniform, and we headed off on the nearly 50-mile trip to the hospital where she works.

They set the bone at the hospital, and as Lara works at the hospital and had taken me there on her way to work, I stayed overnight.  I’m glad I did, because I was one hurtin’ puppy.  Pain meds were good, but they will only give you so many, and besides, you DON’T want to take too many of those things.  They’re not good for you, no matter how good it may feel to be in La-La Land and far away from the pain.

One of the nurses at the hospital where Lara works is a Reiki practitioner, and she had compassion on me, coming into the room with Lara when I was hurting.  Without touching me, she seemed to be holding her hands over me in a blessing, for 3 or 4 minutes.  And a blessing it was… the pain in my ribs and arm eased.  Did the pain go completely away?  Nope.  But it eased enough for me to relax and get some rest.  And that is what I needed.

At the time, I had no idea what Reiki really was.  Oh, I had heard of it, but just figured it was some sort of New-Agey mumbo-jumbo stuff.  The experience in the hospital cured me of that misconception, but I still wanted to know more.  So, I began to research it, read more about it, and think about it.

The next year I engaged with someone to teach me about Reiki, and I learned a good bit, but didn’t get to complete the training and attunements. I still continued my study, convinced now more than ever, that this was something I wanted to learn–not only for myself, but to use to help others.

Finally, I was able to find other instructors and complete my training.  So, I am now fully trained and attuned in both Usui/Tibetan Reiki Ryoho as a Master, and in Practical Reiki TM as a Master.  In the middle of that journey, I have seen and experienced Reiki healing and energy both for myself and for others.  I can’t get enough of it!

Here’s the deal, though.  I have a lot of very religiously conservative friends and relatives.  I have this idea that some of them… maybe many of them… may consider Reiki to be something to avoid because it is not specifically mentioned in the Bible.

So, since this is my “coming out of the Reiki closet” post, I wish to tell you all:

• Reiki comes from God, the One who created the cosmos and each cell within us

• Reiki is NOT from the Devil, Satan, or any other nasty hellish creature you may wish to name

• Reiki will not harm your body, your mind, or your soul

• Reiki has a scientific basis, has been researched and is used in over 800 hospitals across the U.S.

If you are a Christian, I encourage you to check out this website for more information regarding Reiki, as well as taking a look at the page on this site, Reiki and Religion.