Part 2: My Second Healing Modality (How I Overcame a Phobia)

During yesterday's post, I spoke about Usui Reiki, a natural form of healing. Today, I am featuring the second healing modality which I experienced. This was powerful for me as I overcame a major fear: my fear of spiders which, believe me, was a HUGE deal, at least it was for me! Would you like to know how I did that?

The first healing modality I actually learned was at a workshop with Dr. Lee Polous, a Vancouver-based psychologist, who was featured as a guest. His teaching was an alternative healing method, Emotional Freedom Technique, (EFT for short).

"EFT draws on various theories of alternative medicine including acupuncture, neuro-linguistic programming, energy medicine, and Thought Field Therapy (TFT)." It involves tapping on meridian points, derived from acupressure, on the body which can release energy blockages that cause negative emotions. "During a typical EFT session, the person will focus on a specific issue while tapping on 'end points of the body's energy meridians'.

According to the EFT manual, the procedure consists of the participant rating the emotional intensity of their reaction on a Subjective Units of Distress Scale (SUDS) (a Likert scale for subjective measures of distress, calibrated 0-10) then repeating an orienting affirmation while rubbing or tapping specific points on the body. Some practitioners incorporate eye movements or other tasks. The emotional intensity is then rescored and repeated until no changes are noted in the emotional intensity."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emotional_Freedom_Techniques)

During the exercise of listening to guided instructions with my eyes closed, I imagined a tarantula while tapping certain energy points on my face, hands, and body. I went from an intense '10' on a scale (of 1 to 10) to about a 1, even a 0. That, to me, was remarkable: how exciting! To this day, I am generally not afraid of spiders, maybe the odd time (like a huge one).

I learned this technique about 15 years ago give or take. The interesting thing is that I seem to forget I have this tool at my disposal until I read or hear about it from someone else. It is a very practical tool for not only dealing with phobias, but also pretty much anything, whether physical, mental, or emotional issues.

Have you experienced (as a recipient) or used any healing modality to overcome any pain (physical/mental/emotional) or any of your fears? How successful was it? Was it a permanent or temporary change? How did you feel before, during, and afterwards?

Part 1: My First Healing Modality

Photo of me with (rare) long hair at a fashion show a number of years ago

Ok, it's almost 9:45 pm, I finished a one-and-a-half-hour phone interview (related to a potential blog post), and follow-up email, and now it's time for my daily blog post. So I'm going to keep this one short!

Since my spiritual awakening over 20 years ago, I have spontaneously become familiar with quite a number of alternative healing modalities. (See post, December 29, 2012 for details, http://xpressyouressence.blogspot.ca/2012/12/well-i-did-it-again-i-cant-believe-it.html)

The first modality which I received and experienced was that of Reiki, a Japanese form of healing, hands-on-healing to be precise. The process involves transferring universal (life) energy known as Reiki in the form of 'ki' in Japanese, 'qi' or 'chi' in Chinese through the palms. Check out the various meanings here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi.

If that seems familiar to some of you, it may be because you recognize them - energy points (known also as 'chakras') - on Jesus' hands and feet; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra. If that freaks (or 'weirds') you out, think of it this way: Jesus Christ and Mother Mary, for example, religious figures were depicted with a circular ring of light around their heads. That is called an "aura" which is essentially a representation of energy (to put it very simply), more commonly known as and referred to in religious iconography as a halo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_%28religious_iconography%29).

Secondly, I recall that Jesus had declared that we as humans could perform miracles such as he did and even more. Here is an one such passage: "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." (Matthew 17:20)

Though I had wanted to learn Reiki years ago after I experienced it, it wasn't until about two years ago that I finally took Level 1 training.

I sometimes use this - for myself only thus far - usually if I awake with pain or go to sleep in pain such as when I experience a headache or tummy ache: it's very effective and can be/feel soothing and comforting.

Do you belief in the power of self-healing? Do you believe you can use healing modalities on yourself?