Reiki natural healing may trump man-made antidepressants

"Life's not easy."

I am not immune to this cliché. Lately, bad memories from the past surfaced with the help of corporate job stress, a car accident involving a semi-truck, adapting to a new town and never-ending family responsibilities. The result is a terrible sickness: stress. 

Even good things have added stress. For the past few months, I have been helping small, locally owned businesses grow their social media presence. It's been rewarding. But it also was one more to-do on my to-do list.

I've helped my yoga studio by advising on better Facebook exposure and placing them in the local newspaper. I also have been coaching its yoga teachers by setting up and educating them on how social media grows businesses. As part of this work, I met Tonya, a 30-something woman who does Reiki massage.

While Reiki sounded familiar, it was the first time I had met a practitioner.Tonya explained that Reiki is a Japanese technique for stress reduction that promotes healing. It is administered by laying hands and is based on a life force energy. It has been given the thumbs up by Dr. Oz and used by more than 800 U.S. hospitals.

I have to admit, after Googling the term, I was pretty skeptical.  It sounds weird, right? If you break down the word, Rei means "God's wisdom or the higher power" and Ki is "life force energy." I am a spiritual person who believes in God. Yet I never put a lot of faith in healing arts besides yoga, which I’ve taken for years on and off to cure mental alignments and get stronger physically. Luckily I have an open mind, and Tonya's just a regular mother and wife with a contagious laugh who happens to be a Reiki  practitioner. Because if it wasn't for her inherent normalcy, I swear I would never have tried it.

Tonya applies Reiki techniques on one of my yoga studio's teachers, Margaret. 

The treatment starts in a quiet room. I laid on my back on a massage table. Tonya placed her hands on my head, while my mind spun with appointment dates, chore lists, hurt feelings and a visual snapshot of getting rear-ended and spun like a top by a semi.

After a few deep breaths, it felt like a black cloth was—inch-by-inch—cloaking the negative images that were racing through my mind.

Tonya kept moving throughout my body, including the neck, the shoulders and the arms. Then she placed her hands at the end of my rib cage. I almost lost my breath. It felt like shock waves moved through the rib cage upward and also towards my abdomen. It was such a strange sensation that I felt a little scared.

When the session was complete a little over an hour later, Tonya smiled and asked, “Stressed out much?”

That was an understatement. She also asked if I got headaches—something I had been suffering from in the mornings for the last 10 months. On some days, the pain was downright debilitating. "I have too much on my plate," I said.

While I didn’t feel like my entire life changed that day, I knew instantly that I left a lot of unresolved feelings and stress with Tonya. I am not sure how it works, but if you are going through tough times, try Reiki. At least “Like” Tonya’s Reiki for Healing Facebook page to learn more about it.