I am happy today to present an article by guest columnist Emily Walsh.  Emily is a cancer advocate and freelance writer who is passionate about helping cancer patients discover holistic methods to alleviate the emotional and physical distress that accompanies the diagnosis of a serious illness. As Emily points out, Reiki can help with the physical and emotional consequences of the fight against cancer. Many thanks to Emily for sharing her perspective!

Melissa

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Of course, there is little need to argue about it. There are many reports of how the use of this technique can reduce the pain and nausea associated with cancer and its treatments. As awful as they can be, mainstream treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation have demonstrated real-world effectiveness against cancers. Unfortunately, chemotherapy works by essentially attacking the entire body and hoping that the cancer dies first. It takes little imagination to understand how this can make a person feel. Reiki, by tapping into the life force, allows the individual to cope with and overcome the ordeal, much like a blossom pushing itself up through the snow.

Further, Reiki can also be used to reduce or eliminate the stress and anxiety that is often a part of battling cancer. It is no secret in the world of cancer medicine that those people who have the most positive and calm mindset about the battle tend to do the best. This is true of all healing, but never is it more important than during a fight with cancer. By centering the life force and putting the patient in harmony with the world and themselves, Reiki provides one of the most valuable tools for survival. Reiki can also be used to improve the mindset of the patient's loved ones, and it has been used distantly to send energy to the medical teams involved in treatments.

With this powerful healing tool, it is easy to see how a person battling cancer--even one as frightening as mesothelioma--can travel quickly from a world of shadow and fear into a place of healing and light. Reiki, if administered by a properly trained practitioner, can extend a mesothelioma life expectancy from months into an indefinite and fruitfully extended existence. The world has blessed those battling cancer and their families with a genuine form of magic. There is no good reason not to reach out and use it, literally.



Emily Walsh

I am so blessed and grateful to know that my little shelter dog, Olivia, has survived the dreaded parvovirus. It was an emotional week as I watched this little being struggle with the disease.  She never complained as I gave her twice daily antibiotics and hourly doses of Pedialyte to keep her hydrated.  She refused food for several days, and by yesterday was having trouble regulating her own body temperature.

Throughout the week, I administered Reiki to her with the intention of regulating and balancing her digestive system so she would not suffer from vomiting and diarrhea.  I feel certain that Reiki and a loving home environment enabled her to fight the virus without hospitalization.  I heard and read about horribly severe cases of parvo, and my veterinarian did not believe that home care would be adequate, but Olivia had what turned out to be a very mild case of the disease.  She vomited only twice the entire week--once because I tried to feed her chicken before she was ready.  She had but one incident of diarrhea, and she was able to stay hydrated. 

Last evening, her appetite returned and she ate some chicken.  Today, she has eaten three small meals already.  She is up and bright-eyed, and well on the way to full recovery. 

I have learned a lot already through this precious little dog, but mainly I have learned that you can never give up on the life force.  When I heard the diagnosis and prognosis, I wavered in my faith that she could survive, but she showed me that anything can be overcome with commitment, love, and support.  Reiki helped to strengthen her life force, and the rest she did on her own, supported by her loving new family. 

Let's all show one another faith, love, support, and gratitude. 

Namaste,
Melissa

I wrote last week of a spiritual fast I had begun. I had the idea of setting aside time to recharge and regroup for a new chapter in my life.  My soul, however, had other plans.  On the fourth day of the fast, it became clear that I needed to break it, which I did with an orange.  I spent the remainder of the 7 days (and on into this week) consuming only raw food, mostly fruit, in extremely modest quantities.  The cleansing effects were not substantially altered, and I had enough energy for the challenge that arose last Thursday.

It seems that part of my soul's calling in this life is to care for animals.  Somehow, sick and injured animals find me and adopt me, often because no one else will care for them.  And so I have an epileptic cat, a diabetic cat, and cats who have been seriously injured and turned up--somehow--on my doorstep.  Recently, I acquired a dog, the first dog since my childhood. I went to the shelter to find her, and there was something about the way she looked at me and reached out to me. 

I brought her home, this dachsund-chihuahua mix, no bigger than my cats.  Her sweet personality allowed her to pretty easily slide into the mostly feline group, and as I fasted last week, she seemed to revel in the atmosphere of calm and simplicity.  And then she began to be sick, very, very sick.  As I grew weaker physically, so did she.  I finally made the decision to break my fast in order to have energy to care for her. 

A visit to the vet brought the diagnosis of parvo--not uncommon in a stray at the shelter.  I couldn't afford the hospital stay, and so I brought her home with medication and Pedialyte, and we have been trying to ride out this illness ever since.  I channel Reiki to her each day, and I think that this has helped her to have a relatively mild case of the disease.  Only one bout of diarrhea and vomiting.  She has been able to stay hydrated, but has not eaten now in over 2 days. 
And so I continue to nurse her, hoping for the best outcome.

Namaste,
Melissa

My father died eight months ago, inspiring a new chapter in my spiritual journey. It was in the subsequent months that I was led to the wonderful world of Reiki.  Becoming attuned to Reiki has been an enormous gift--and it has felt like a culmination of spiritual searching, for nothing else has ever allowed me to feel so intimately connected to the divine.  It intensified the intuitive gift I already possessed, and I discovered that channeling Reiki across time and space is something I seemed able to do well.  This was a way in which my attunement to Reiki and my intuitive ability coalesced, and it is something that blesses me at the deepest soul level.  This is largely why I have followed the call to bring Reiki to people via this website.  Not everyone can see a Reiki practitioner in person; not everyone can afford to pay for Reiki.  Everyone can, however, set aside 30 minutes to receive Reiki in their own home, and everyone can pay it forward by returning the blessing to someone else in some meaningful way.

In the wake of the most intense period of mourning for my father, in gratitude for the gift of Reiki, and in support of the launch of this experiment, I decided to embark upon a spiritual fast.  I knew that I wanted it to encompass the week of the summer solstice, but wasn't sure if it should begin or end on that day.  My body and spirit guides gave me the answer when my menstrual period began on Monday, the day before solstice.  As I meditated that morning, I had the inspiration of a seven-day fast in which each day would focus on healing and balancing one of the chakras.

Day 1 - As my body eliminated at the macro level, I channeled Reiki to my first chakra and settled into the fast itself.  I had quite a bit of energy this day, and used it intentionally to take a nice, long walk and to do a bit of gentle hatha yoga.

Day 2 - This was Solstice, and my focus was the second chakra, the sacral. This is the site of creativity and creation, and I found myself meditating on the fullness of the summer solstice day and its pirouette back toward winter. Here on earth, we are children of these cycles and seasons, and our bodies, minds, and spirits often reflect this. As a writer, I have certainly experienced times of oceanic creativity and dry river beds of nothingness. Neither is a permanent state.

Day 3 - Today, I focus on my third chakra, the solar plexus. This is the first day that I have felt marked weakness, and I have had to allow my body the time and patience to move more slowly.  I have also felt some queasiness in my stomach, just at the site of the third chakra, and so I have channeled Reiki there both to clear and balance the chakra and to support and heal the sick feeling.  As the day progresses, I have felt better and stronger, but this will be a day of stillness for sure--a day of meditation and gratitude for the deeper, cellular, processes of cleansing and attuning.

I will write more as the week continues.  Until then, Namaste.

Melissa

We live on a planet that is constantly in motion--turning and tilting and orbiting its star. As it tilts back and forth, we experience the seasons, and at each of the solstices we seem to pause at the extreme edge of the tilt before we realize that we are being pulled back toward the other extreme. Here in the northern hemisphere, we experience the longest day of the year, we relax into the heat of summer, and we bask in sunshine. 

Ah, but we mustn't become too complacent in our summer reverie, for as soon as the summer solstice has arrived, the days begin to shorten once again.  Solstice marks the beginning of summer, but it is actually the culmination of lengthening days.  Each summer day contracts and takes us inexorably toward autumn and winter. 

Isn't this a beautiful metaphor for life?  Our experience of Reiki--the universal life energy--ebbs and flows as our bodies, minds, and spirits encounter different situations and environments.  We can support a greater flow of this energy by engaging in self-care that optimizes the health of our whole beings.  We can eat properly, exercise, meditate, cultivate gratitude, enjoy the world and its people, and treat others with respect and kindness.

Namaste,
Melissa