Have you ever suffered chronic pain? I recently spoke with someone who is really struggling and her story reminded me how hard it is to live with constant, unyielding discomfort.

You try everything and nothing helps. You go to a bunch of different doctors and appointments that eat up all of your time and money.  You eventually feel like you’ve tried everything but a bit of hope stubbornly hangs on that the next thing you try will help. This person told me she is desperate to feel better and willing to do whatever it takes, including examining the emotional and mental contributing factors to her physical pain, but she’s exhausted with the process.

I remember that place so well. Just 5 years ago, the only reality I knew was chronic and debilitating pain every day of my life. I lived with excruciating pain in my head for over 10 years, the kind of pain that should mean you’re dying. But I wasn’t dying, I was just living like this.

And nothing helped. I saw every specialist, tried every drug and even participated in experimental clinical trials for my migraine headaches.

Just like my new friend, I was desperate for relief, willing to do whatever it took and open to exploring non-physical causes of my pain. I’d like to think it was my innate wisdom, strong will and dedication that lead me to embark on a path of growth, transformation and empowered healing as the route out of my incapacitating pain, but to be totally honest, I was steered down this path by sheer desperation – nothing else was working — so I had no other choice.

I poured all of my resources into exploring holistic healing practices and over the course of a few years my health and life dramatically changed.

Of everything that I have explored and tried over the last 5 years I consider the practice of Reiki energy healing to be what was responsible for the speed and depth of my transformative healing.  Learning to practice Reiki on myself was the first thing that gave me any shred of control over my migraines and the first thing that brought me any relief. Over the course of my training to become a Reiki Master Teacher I experienced such physical, emotional, mental and spiritual healing that by the time I completed my training my migraines were completely gone.

Learning to practice Reiki on myself awakened in me the realization that I have the ability to self-heal which was a shift in perspective that would dramatically change the trajectory of my life. Whenever I prepare to lead my next Reiki Level 1 training, I pause to reflect on what Reiki has done in my life and I’m amazed at what has shifted since before I knew this practice.

Before Reiki I felt like a victim of my life and I had no knowledge of how to nurture or care for myself.  I had no context for my spirituality and I felt lost and hopeless.

Since learning Reiki, and many other self-care practices, I am guided and supported, I am more in touch with my intuition and what I am called to do, I am aware of energy and how it affects me, I feel connected to a source beyond myself and most importantly I feel empowered to improve the experience of whatever I am facing no matter the circumstances.

I also healed myself from an incurable neurologic disease, made big changes in my career and consciously shifted the quality of all of my relationships… but that’s for another blog post 🙂

If you’re experiencing chronic pain or hardships, I encourage you to find out more about Reiki, and if you’re ready to take ownership over your health and life, consider taking my Reiki Level 1 Training and Self-Healing Workshop, to give yourself the best life possible.

Want to give Reiki a try? You can start by taking advantage of my new client special; 30 minutes for $30!