By Josslyn Streett of Rain Shadow Reiki

This information is NOT for medical use and should never take the place of medical care.  If you suffer from depression or symptoms of depression please see a Licensed Naturopathic Doctor (or your doctor) as soon as possible.  Naturopathic Doctors are medical doctors who use only natural medicines to heal.

Reiki for Depression

Something I have difficulty writing about and therefore do it rarely is my history of depression.  I’m very open with people in person, with friends and clients alike, but putting it into the written word in a blog is a whole other thing for me.  I feel much more vulnerable writing to people I don’t know out in cyber space.  Where some people may feel safer doing it this way, faceless to some extent, I don’t.  My fear of judgement comes up and reminds me that I’m still working on that particular issue.  I’ve written a bit about me having depression in the ‘My Story’ section of my website.   And that was quite difficult for me to write about then and took the longest of all the sections for me to finish.  Divine Spirit helped me with that just as they are helping me with this one today.

Writing Because I’m Guided to Do So

For some reason Spirit is guiding me at this time to write more about it.  Maybe because it’s the holiday season which is often very difficult for many people who suffer from depression, maybe because it’s been a particularly difficult week for me needing to cry very badly and not being able to until today when it all came pouring out rather quickly.  And then I suddenly felt the need to write about it for the first time, and then cry some more.  Divine Source always has a plan and I have found, even though I am quite rebellious, it’s best to simply trust and have faith that there is a divine reason and just go with it.  So here goes, me going with the flow once again, despite my fears and possible consequences, writing about my personal history of depression and how to heal yourself with the help of Reiki.

A Bit O History

I’ve ‘suffered’ through depression most of my life although it wasn’t recognized until I was an adult.   I’m the kind of person that always tries to put on a happy face in public or I don’t go out.  So rarely do people really know what is going on with me, unless they pointedly ask.  This is common I have found with a lot of people with depression, the “suffer in silence” routine.  We get very good at acting when we don’t believe ourselves to be actors at all.  It’s important to know this about people with depression in case you know someone, love someone who has it.  I’m not going to go into why we do this right now, this blog isn’t about that.  But, it is sometimes hard to tell when people you love are suffering when they don’t feel safe to discuss it.  I’m grateful that I have so many people I do feel safe with whom I can talk with.  Those friends and my husband and kids have literally gotten me thorough this alive and will continue to because they not only love me, they understand me and take the time to do that.  They take the time, a whole lot of time to listen, not give advice, not judge, just listen and love me.  They are amazing and I’m so incredibly grateful for them.

Stigma of Depression

I’d like to get something straight.  Something that medical doctors will not talk about because most of them do not know or acknowledge.  Depression is NOT just a mental or emotional disease.  There should be no stigma to it.  It is not just someone who is way too sensitive and can’t control themselves emotionally.  Depression exists on all levels of the body, emotional yes, mental yes, but it is also a disease of spirit, therefore it also exists on the spiritual AND the physical level too.  Pretty much like any other disease someone could have, like for instance diabetes or heart disease.  They are all disease of the spirit first and foremost, then they work their way into our other spiritual body levels from there.  All disease works this way so there is no reason to judge (there’s that word again) anyone who has disease of any kind because we are all struggling with something.   We are the same in that we are all spiritual beings in human form working hard at learning difficult lessons of the spirit.  Quite often, disease is a very fast way for us to learn these lessons.  That is it’s purpose.  (Plus, sometimes it helps burn off old karma.  But that’s another blog.)

Medical Doctors, Don’t Get Me Started

I saw many, many different medical experts who could not figure me out.  One after another they would pass me around trying to figure out why I wouldn’t respond to the drugs they were peddling.  Why they couldn’t FIX me.  They tried me on each and every depression med they had including bipolar medications. “Hey I didn’t respond to the depression meds,  I must be bipolar right?”  I was their guinea pig and I didn’t, at the time, know any better.  ALL of the medications gave me such severe side effects that I couldn’t safely take them.  My body was simply too sensitive for any man-made medications, but I didn’t know that at the time.  Plus, their drugs were only treating one symptom, , one level of my body, not getting close to treating the cause.  Truly no one seemed at all worried about finding the cause.  Those doctors gave up on me. I didn’t fit in their box. They said I was permanently disabled and could not work or be of use to society, and I believed them and sometimes still do.  Some days, on days like today, I feel like they were right.  But, they aren’t.  I know that deep down.  And, it’s up to me (and my soul mate friends and family) to remind me of that, over and over again until my subconscious mind believes it one day.

A Gift

Those doctors giving up on me was the best thing that ever happened to me.   Although at the time I felt totally left alone on the edge of a cliff.  When I felt I had no other options, no other alternatives at all, I was then able to open up to concepts I had never considered.  This is when most clients come to me as a Reiki practitioner too, when nothing else has worked and they feel they are out of possibilities.  Suddenly healing with hands isn’t so crazy any more.  Right?  I’m chuckling here because I was no different.  It is part of the process that we must go through in order to open our “box”, our mind to new possibilities, new beliefs.  Through the process I found alternative medicine.  Alternative doctors who listened and were willing to experiment and try new things with me.  And I found Reiki.

Sensitivities Can Be Blessings in Disguise

In my case, my body is still so challenging that it takes a pretty large team of alternative practitioners to work with me on a monthly basis to keep me balanced and functioning.  I sometimes forget that this way of life is not normal for some because I’ve been doing it for so long.  But for me listening to and working with my body on a daily, sometimes hourly basis is normal and a must.  Yes, part of my sensitivities also give me my wonderful gifts of intuitive ability, compassion and understand, and my ability to run a whole lot of Reiki energy to heal others.

Hang in There We Are Almost There……….

Reiki for Depression

I have no studies to show you to prove what I’m going to say but only my own personal experience.  These are my opinions from what I’ve learned though my years of working with Reiki for my depression.

When I first started seeing natural doctors, Naturopaths, they did all sorts of tests on me too, just like the medical doctors.  I had one tell me that my serotonin levels were non-existent.  She was amazed I was functioning at all, and told me this.  I could see the shock on her face that I was sitting in front of her and her knowing that I had an active, a mom, a healer and rewarding life much of the time.  She came right out and said that she was literally shocked that I wasn’t in an insane asylum with levels so low.  “Do they still have those?  Damn I thought, seriously?!”  At the time I didn’t consider myself very functioning, although I was a full-time mom at this point with two very young little boys and doing my best.  (I have very high expectations) She asked what I did to keep myself so healthy considering what I was dealing with physically.  I told her besides my overtly healthy diet, that I also did a lot of meditation and Reiki.  She told me to keep it up and put me on some natural neurotransmitters to help support my brain function.  They help so much.

Puzzle Pieces to Healing Depression

Since then my naturopaths have pieced together different puzzle pieces that contribute to the physical portion of the depression.  I tell you here only in case it helps someone out there to look at their depression puzzle pieces.  Maybe you have a similar one to me that no doctor has looked at yet.  Also, I tell you simply so you know without a doubt that I have been through this and can help you though the process as well.  Here is a great book on the subject, “feeling fat, fuzzy, or frazzled?” by Richard Shames, M.D. and Karilee Shames, Ph.D., R.N. also authors of “Thyroid Power.”

The Physical Run Down

I have severe hormone imbalances that I’ve had all my life, not at all connected to menopause, a thyroid disease called Hashimoto’s where your body basically attacks itself and of course my body produces very little if any of its own serotonin and other neurotransmitters.  Oh yeah, lets not forget the adrenal fatigue from the stress of it all.  That is a simplistic look at it.  There’s more but that’s the basic gist.  My body is in a constant state of change, like anyones, but mine seems to be much more sensitive and can get out of balance at the slightest tilt.  I feel like I’m standing on a board, on top of a ball and I have to stay balanced there like that every day juggling kids, pets, husband, work/hobby, public school, crazy diet, housework, neighbors and so much, so much more.

How does Reiki help these?  How can Reiki help your depression or that of someone you love?  Stay with me a bit longer, we are getting to that most important of answers.

HOW Can Reiki Help Depression?

Reiki for me has helped me in every way it can.  Reiki heals on all levels, all at once; spiritual, emotional, mental and physical.  Reiki is Divinely Guided Life Force Energy so it has intelligence and knows where it needs to go to help you the most AND at a pace you can handle.  It never works on anything you aren’t ready to work on.

Spiritual

On the spiritual level Reiki is working on my past lives, healing those that may have created the karma that causes me to have depression in this life.  Reiki has also helped me to heal my issues that I had with God and Jesus and other religious figures that have been contributing to my fears in this life.  One at a time, a little at a time, Reiki helps dissolve the fears, the karma that I brought with me into this life in order to learn from it.  This is very powerful and deep healing work that gets to the SOURCE and takes time.  Stick with it.  Never give up.

Physical

On the physical levels Reiki lowers my blood pressure, calms me down and supports my body in any way that it may need it.  It can’t make serotonin for me but it helps my body to function better without it or function better so that my body can make serotonin for itself.  This I truly believe.  I have no proof, it’s just something I feel happening.  If my body is too stressed in other areas it won’t have the energy to finish all the building blocks in my brain that I need.  Reiki also helps my body to handle the sensitivities that my physical body has, allergies to new things like electromagnetic energy.  Reiki also helps me to cleanse and detoxify my quite often toxic system, letting go of what doesn’t serve me.  Letting go for some people is harder than others.  The people who have a hard time letting go tend to be more stressed, more over weight and more likely to get disease sooner.  Reiki helps to keep your physical body in balance so these are less likely to happen.

Mental

On the mental level Reiki helps me to reframe the old recordings that are playing in my head that contribute to the depression, such as, “I’m not worthy of being healthy or a healer” or “It’s safer if I’m sick”, “It’s not safe to let go of stuff” or “I’m not lovable.”  There are thousands of scripts in our head that we either learn from childhood or even bring with us from other life times until we learn what we need to learn from them and change them.  Reiki can help us first to identify them and second to change them into healthier scripts.

Emotional

On this level Reiki has helped me to feel calmer when I need it.  Reiki helps me to feel more balanced at times like today when I needed to balance out the emotions that were being created inside of me by the physical imbalance.  Reiki supports you in whatever way you need to get that balance back in your bodies.  Today I needed to cry, a lot, to get the emotions and chemicals out of my physical body.  I also needed to write about it, to share it or not.  I needed to get it out into words so Reiki is helping me to do that as well.  Reiki has become such an integral part of my life that it’s pretty much automatic for me to invite in the Reiki energy to help me when I’m upset, just like praying is for religious people.  This is my way of talking to my Divine and inviting the healing energy in to help me.  And it comes in exactly the way I need it most.  It comes and heals me.  And then, I say Thank You God!  Thank you Reiki!

“Patience is a Virtue, but darn does it have to take so long!”

Be patient.  Reiki helps me with this a great deal because patience does not come easy to me.  The healing process for many is a journey of discovery and learning.  A journey can take a long time.  Enjoy life as much as you can while you are going through the healing process.  Live your life as much as you can in between the difficult days.  If I waited until I was completely healed of depression before becoming a ‘healer’ I’d never be a healer.  You do your best, every day.  Do your meditation and Reiki every day and live your life in between and NEVER, NEVER, NEVER give up searching for your puzzle pieces to health and wellbeing. And when you need a friend to talk to, be your own best friend, call a friend who will listen or call a Reiki healer like me and let us help you.  You know I will understand.  I’ve been though much the same and can relate and be compassionate.  But, I can also see your beautiful and healthy soul and help you to know how to get to that place.

This life is a gift no matter what.  Never give up.

Love and Light to you all,

Josslyn