Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Reiki and Seals

Last week, I decided to treat myself to an afternoon stroll on the beach.  It's one of the best ways for me to recharge my batteries and as luck would have it, it was about 70 degrees that day - perfect weather for walking along the ocean.

Shortly after I started out, I came across a young seal who obviously wasn't feeling well as he could barely hold himself up.  I sat down on the sand a little ways away from him and began sending him Reiki.  I wasn't sure what else to do and I hoped it would help him feel better.

A lady wandered over to me and inquired about the seal, wondering what we could do to help him. She asked if I thought we should call the Marine Mammal Center to get their help.  I asked her if she was familiar with energy healing and she said, "Yes, I am a Reiki master"  I smiled knowing I wouldn't have to explain what I was doing, and told her I was sending him Reiki. She said, "What a wonderful idea, I can tell he is soaking it up."  We decided it would still be a good idea to call the Marine Mammal Center.

About twenty minutes into his Reiki treatment, my new Reiki master friend, Christy, was attempting to take a picture of him so the Marine Mammal folks would know where he was and all of the sudden he sat up, looked around and then jumped in the water and began to swim.  We were both so happy - hoping the energy had assisted him. Since she was still on the phone with the Marine Mammal folks, she let them know that we didn't need them after all.

We said goodbye and I continued on my walk.  I hadn't made it very far . . . long enough to find a couple pieces of sea glass but not long enough to get more than ten yards down the beach . . . when I noticed two other gals we had met earlier trying to flag me down.  As I got closer to them, I saw our little seal friend, back up on the beach.

I ran back to Christy and asked her to call the Marine Mammal center again.  Then, for the next few hours, Christy and I stood on guard, one of us on either side of our little seal, protecting him from dogs, runners and walkers, and sending him additional Reiki.  After several hours, I had to go.  It broke my heart to leave without knowing if he was going to be ok but I couldn't wait any longer for the Marine Mammal folks to show up.  I met a nice gal as I was about to leave and asked her if she would be willing to keep watch over him and keep dogs away and she said she would.  Interestingly, her name was Christy also.

After saying goodbye to my two new friends named Christy, I headed back down the beach.  It made me sad to leave, but I held out hope that the energy assisted him.  If nothing else, I felt honored to be able to connect with him that way, even if it only resulted in giving him a little peace and comfort.




Wednesday, March 4, 2015

Reiki and Shingles

A few weeks ago, I noticed a strange rash on my right hip.  While it didn't itch, the skin did feel a bit tender.  I wasn't sure what it was.  The next day, I noticed the rash wasn't just on my hip anymore, it had moved around to the front of my thigh and around to my back and the bumps looked a little more like blisters.  By that night, I started to feel stabbing pain in every area where the rash was and that was when I knew for sure that I had shingles.

I was not happy with that realization.  I had shingles before, about nineteen years ago and I remember that it was a miserable experience.  Even though I went to the doctor right away and got the anti-viral medication, as well as medication for pain, I was still out of commission for weeks.

The nerve pain is awful.  If you've never had shingles before, it feels like you are being stung over and over and over again by a wasp.  Honestly, it is a horrible experience and one I wasn't looking forward to going through again.

I knew I wasn't going to see a doctor this time because my beliefs about western medicine have changed quite a bit in the last nineteen years.  I decided that this time, I would treat it with Reiki  (ok, I also broke down and took some advil those first few nights so that I could get some sleep, so I am not totally against taking some sort of medicine) but I wanted to try a different approach this time.

I gave myself Reiki treatments every day.  I wasn't sure exactly what it would do or how it would help, but I was wiling to give it a try and see what happened.

Much to my delight, seven days later, the pain was completely gone, the blisters had dried up and were forming scabs.  As I type this, eleven days after the initial onset, all evidence of my bout with shingles is almost gone.

Last time I went through it, it was several weeks before I could handle clothes touching my skin and several more weeks after that before the blisters healed.  I was excited to see how much the Reiki helped and incredibly grateful that the whole ordeal was over so quickly.  It has inspired me even more than before to rely on Reiki to assist with medical issues when they arise.