Hi everyone –

I just wanted to give a little update on what’s been going on with me! It’s been two weeks since I got my first reiki treatment, and I’ve had another one since. I’m still planning to get two more sessions.

As you may know, I decided to get reiki to see if this form of energy healing could help me to get over my reoccurring anxiety that pops up whenever I break out in mild acne. I wanted to try something new to help me with this problem.

Now, this is the first time I have paid for any kind of energy healing and I will say that both sessions have been a very positive experience. Just talking with the lady who is my practitioner has been amazing, if nothing else. However, I didn’t know if there would be any significant changes in my anxiety and well being until my usual anxiety triggers hit.

Well, it’s now been triggered – I’ve been having a mild acne breakout for the past few days after a good bout of clearness – and at the same time, I’ve also had a bit of a trigger in the form of money, and wondering if we’ll have enough to pay all the bills without getting into debt. Money is another thing that I like to get all anxious about if I don’t feel secure and abundant with it.

Unfortunately, the anxiety did not just magically disappear. It’s still here! And I’ve been very anxious.

Part of me is disappointed, but part of me wonders if I really should have been expecting that anyway – that it was going to magically disappear (also, I should probably wait until after all of my session before I make that call…). Since I’ve never done this before, I don’t know what to expect. 

She did say that my cyclical acne is just blocked emotions coming through to the surface and my body purging itself of that – so there is no need to be afraid of the breakouts. They can be used instead to observe my response to them and learn about myself through that.

So that kind of makes me think that his reiki thing isn’t going to just make the anxiety go *POOF*, but it will align my body and mind to deal with it and learn from it better until I have finally learned everything I can from it. And then acne and the fear it brings will finally be a thing of the past.

Either way, as I said – it’s been extremely worthwhile just talking to her. Here are some of the tools she has recommended I use in my day to day struggles with acne, anxiety, and low energy:

1) The Affirmation

As I mentioned in the last article about reiki, I said that she recommended I use a certain affirmation whenever my fear crops up. That affirmation was “Up until this moment, I felt fear and anxiety about my skin. From this moment forward, I do not feel afraid. I choose to allow everything to be easy and effortless”.

Over the past few days, whenever I notice that I’m feeling anxious, I have said the affirmation in my head. And you know what – it does instantly make me feel a lot better. That’s because it reminds me that – oh yeah. This doom I feel over acne (and money) is my imagination simply running out of hand. I CAN choose to make everything easy and effortless by just allowing myself to let it go.

2) Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type

During my second session, we had a long conversation about my low energy levels and sleepiness during the day when I’m home by myself (which I find really frustrating). She asked me if I had figured out maybe if there were certain foods that disagree with me that could be contributing. I said that it seems like concentrated carbs (something like a bowl of oatmeal) in the morning will do it, but over all, I am still a bit confused about exactly which foods work with my body and which ones don’t.

She said that it took her 15 years of trial and error to find the way of eating that made her feel good all of the time. She finally had it all figured out, and then that book “Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type” came out, and it matched exactly with what she had already discovered for herself. So she suggested I could maybe look into that as something to try.

If you don’t know what “Eat Right 4 Your Blood Type” is, it’s a book that theorizes different foods and ways of eating work really well with certain blood types, but not others. Don’t ask me if the science is legit or if it’s really accurate for most people (I haven’t even read it yet), but it is an interesting possible explanation as to why it is that, for example, some people do amazingly well on a paleo style diet, while others thrive on mostly vegetarian diets. Perhaps the difference is in the blood!

Anyway, I’ve heard of this book before and some great success stories with it – but, you see, I don’t know what my blood type is, so I never read it. Now I’m feeling motivated to go to the doctor and ask just so I could try out my recommended blood type diet and see if it actually makes any difference or not.

So if you are like me – you eat a healthy diet, and feel pretty good, but know you could feel even better (either energy wise, skin wise, or else wise) – maybe this is something you could look into as a sort of starting point for exploring which way of eating jives with you best?

3) Jump Rope!

Something else she brought up was that she thought I could benefit from improving my lymphatic system – as skin health has a lot to do with the lymphatic system. I said “hey! Cool! I just wrote a blog post about that!”

She said that one of the best exercises for lymph health was jumping, that I should get a skipping rope, and every hour, get up and skip for a while. Not only will it help to improve my skin, but it will also help me with my energy levels – one reason I’m likely sleepy while at home by myself is because I do spend a lot of time sitting down all day at my computer!!

Not only that – “it’s fun”, she said. “Just like when you were a kid”. She was right – I loved skipping rope as a child.

So, I bought a skipping rope, and I am now getting up to jump along to a favourite song every once in a while throughout my day. And yes – it is fun 🙂

4) Breathing Exercise

She also taught me a breathing exercise. You breathe as deep as you can through your nose into your belly and fill your chest up to the point where your ribs separate. Then you breathe out of your mouth and say a big “Ahhhhh”

Try it! It really makes you feel like you’re just letting go of everything.

Another thing she said was to try the “4 Breath” when I get anxious, which is breathe in for the count of 4. Then you hold the breath for a count of 4. Then you breathe out for the count of 8.

She said that this particular breath was so effective for anxiety because it immediately brings your brain wave from the beta wave to the alpha wave. The beta brain wave is what is going on as you go about your daily business, thinking your usual thoughts. The alpha brain wave is a slower, meditative, and very calm brain state.

5) Accepting the Anxiety

This isn’t something that she told me, but it’s something that I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I’ve heard numerous times over the years that the one truly effective way to get rid of anxiety naturally is to stop trying to get rid of it and just accept it. Paradoxically, this gets rid of it. I know – sounds crazy, but this coming from people who have suffered from severe anxiety disorders.

Of course, the idea of just accepting something unpleasant makes people squirm. It conjures up images of a lot of horrible things happening if we stop trying to fight our anxieties and fears and just accept them and the uncomfortable feelings they bring. It takes a lot of guts to do that and have faith that by doing so, it will make it better. And this is why it’s something that I tend to push out of my mind and never practice…. ever.

So perhaps this is the reason why the anxiety remains. It’s because I haven’t accepted it. The truth is that I don’t want to accept that I have any problems at all – that I have acne, that I have anxiety, that I don’t feel incredibly energized all day. I guess it goes back to what I discussed with my reiki master – and that is that I want to be perfect and have perfection in my life all the time!

And frankly, we all know perfection isn’t realistic. Everyone has problems, and problems are a part of life. But it’s so easy to forget that a perfect life isn’t just right beyond your little fingertips if you could just eat better, live better, think better, be better….

Recently I read a book called “The Happiness Trap“, which is all about this concept of acceptance as a strategy for well being, and it’s very interesting. I’m going to save this for next post though, because there is a lot to explain on this topic (and you’re probably wondering right now how exactly you practice acceptance! Well I will tell you!)

Watch This Article in Video Form

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hxy_NaO9C2Y

I love you. All of you. Thanks for being Love Vitamin readers 🙂 

photo by sinderella and deflam