The Importance of Self-Care

This post was first published here: Reiki Rays

Healers are usually focused on helping others heal ...Finding a Balance

Finding a Balance

Healers are usually focused on healing others and/or on helping others find their center, their place of Zen, their balance. Sometimes, healers are helping others to the exclusion of helping themselves. In my time on this Earth plane, I’ve learned that it’s just as important (or even more important!) to care for myself before I can assist others effectively. Often, that means hibernating or isolating from others for an extended period of time to regroup, recharge and renew my own Being. 

When I find myself in that space of needing to be alone to recharge, I withdraw into my own personal space quietly. There is no need to announce my withdrawal to anyone. I simply retreat into my own personal healing vortex, where I can recharge, relax and renew. I’m no stranger to being alone or to enjoying solitude peacefully. I know when it’s important and when I need alone time to collect myself (and connectmy Self!) and take some slow, deep, cleansing breaths. 

Creating a Sacred Space 

I create my own ‘spa days’ that are tailored to my specifications and what my needs might be on any given day. Sometimes, that may mean simply enjoying a cup of tea in the stillness of the early morning, whilst basking in the early morning sunshine. Or maybe it’s sitting on the deck in the backyard, listening to the birds awakening as the sun climbs slowly over the horizon.

At other times, my self-care rituals may be more involved. I might schedule time at a local spa, where I’ll indulge in two or more services, allowing myself to relax and receive all the good vibrations that other healers have to offer. I love those times when I can relax enough to simply enjoy another’s healing techniques without judgment. Those are some of the most effective self-care days for me.

Self-Care is paramount in order to help others heal ...

Surrendering totally to the Present moment always has a way of healing one’s energy on a quantum level.

Of course, Reiki is at the center of every thing I do for my own self-care. Its gentle, powerful & healing energy infuses into every second of the rituals I create for my own peace of mind. For instance, I make a cup of tea and infuse Reiki into the tea. I draw a bath with essential oils and/or sea salt and infuse Reiki into the deliciously warm and welcoming waters. I make a nourishing, comforting soup and infuse Reiki into the tasty broth.

Every moment I spend alone and focused on self-care is important for me. I thrive on healing my own maladies and connecting deeply with Source and Nature. It helps me to reconnect and center my spirit. Spending time nurturing myself, recharging my own battery, connecting with who I truly am and meditating in the stillness of Nature is imperative for my own peace of mind, my own physical and mental wellness. It is also helpful in bringing my Soul and my Life back into balance.

Physician, Heal Yourself 

We can only give to others that which we have to give ...

It’s important to remember that while assisting others to heal, we mustn’t forget to care for ourselves in the process. We can only give as much as we have and if we’ve depleted our energy significantly, we won’t have much to offer anyone who is seeking solace or healing in our presence. Self-care isn’t about being selfish, but about being selfless. Our vessels, our bodies and souls require consistent nourishment in order to effectively help others nourish themselves. It is imperative that I take time frequently to focus on self-care and healing myself. 

It is my hope that practitioners from all walks of Life realize that they are as important as those they assist, and learn to care for themselves as well as they care for their clients. We are all in need of deep and cleansing healing on multiple levels. 

Walk in Light ~ 

Reiki Nurse 

Divine Feminine & Sacred Masculine Revealed ...

The Full Moon has inspired for millennia ...

The Full Moon

Looking at the Full Moon has always produced in me a sense of deep stillness, inner knowing & an overall feeling of well being. Ever since I was a small child lying on my back on the front lawn on Mathews Avenue with my Aunt Diane watching the stars, I’ve been drawn to the Cosmos. The Full Moon, Luna, she’s the brightest reflective body in the entire Cosmos. I love Her and have had multiple experiences involving her over this incarnation (timeline). 

Those experiences stem from my previous incarnations as an herbalist/healer ~ they called us 'witches' back then. When they called us a witch, and pointed and shrieked hysterically, it became an extremely derogatory term that was used against us so that they could justify murdering us ~ by the millions. They hunted us down during the Inquisition & they burned us at the stake or drowned us or maimed & murdered us in some other inhuman, disgusting, amoral way ~ all in the name of God. But the real reason they came after us was in an attempt to shut us down, shut us up & terminate our knowledge once & for all. 

We Returned!

The Divine Feminine & The Sacred Masculine: Powerful Energy

Lo & behold: We returned!

Millions of us! We are back to stay and to help break down the social & religious conditioning, the old ways of thinking & the old paradigms. We’re here to shatter the old Draconian ways, ‘rules’, ‘laws’ & all the other rhetoric and bullshit that simply is no longer working for humanity’s highest good. 

 We are women on a mission. A mission to Heal. Heal ourselves, heal Our Mother (Earth) & heal those who inhabit Her ~ we are here to eradicate the toxic, noxious poison of the patriarchal paradigms. The patriarchal 'church’ does not want us interfering with their methods of brainwashing the masses. ’They’ wish to keep the Divine Feminine & the Sacred Masculine principles quashed, clandestine, hidden from the masses as they've kept the truth hidden for ages.

The Truth: Divine Feminine & Sacred Masculine

They know that if Humanity discovers  the truth, that we are all aspects of the Divine Feminine & the Sacred Masculine, the Yin & Yang, the Dark & Light, we will each know our True Self. In turn, we will each take our personal power back. 

Yes, we’ll become both empowered & knowledgeable. When individuals become empowered & knowledgeable, they realize that fighting against each other is futile, wasted and ignorant. They begin to realize that their individual power, when combined with others' personal power becomes a Force, an Entity to be reckoned with. In that way we have overcome the forces of Evil & darkness that have kept humans in bondage for eons.
 
We’ll know our Divine Self and we will know that we are not separate from God, but an intricate aspect of God. We will know that we are not separate from each other but intricate aspects of each other. 

We will then rise up & shed Light on the darkness and the truth will be revealed to all. We will know the truth that has kept us from being set free, the truth that ’they’ have kept the cloaked & shrouded in darkness for millennia in order to control, manipulate and own us. 

When that darkness is transmuted by the Light of our Collective Consciousness, we will all know true Freedom ...

Blessings, Love & Light, my Friends ~

Reiki Nurse 

Visit me on the WEB at Ascending Light 

My first book is available now! Reiki's Book

Healing Professions and Integration ...

At times it's difficult to imagine me doing any other work than what it is I do, which is not only my 'job' but my Calling. I was thinking about this the other day on my drive to work, which currently is only approximately 20 minutes away (my last assignment was about an hour and a half drive each way). This assignment is another mental health R.N. assignment at a psychiatric facility in West Palm Beach. My last assignment was a telemetry/ICU one. I love variety. You could say I'm an eclectic nurse, in that regard. Anyway, I digress.

When I was a young child, perhaps no older than 4 years young,  I remember a deep and pervasive connection with Nature and all living beings. I said to any adult who took the time to ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up: "I want to be a nurse like my Aunt Nan." Aunt Nancy was my father's sister, and my Godmother. I always felt a special bond with her, and she encouraged me always to pursue my dream of being a nurse. I started young and during my senior year in high school, I took a vocational course for a few credits. When I graduated, I had a Certificate of Nursing and worked as a C.N.A. at the same small facility in my hometown that I'd procured my first job as a dietary aide.

Basically, I've always been attracted to and working in the medical field, even as a volunteer Candy Striper in my early teenage years. I knew what my calling was from a very young age, and I pursued it into adulthood. When I finally graduated from nursing school, my son wrote to me: "Congratulations on graduating nursing school, even though you've been a nurse all your Life" I paraphrased what he really wrote, but that was the gist of it. What he wrote touched my heart, but when I really thought about it, he was right.

Being a nurse, and being connected to my patients and their needs during each of my shifts is so important to me. Developing compassion for each of my patients, and getting to know each one as a person individually has always been one of my priorities as a nurse. On the days when I have time to spend with each patient getting to know them as a person, I feel most like the nurse I dreamt of being as a young child.

I simply wanted to post about some of the reasons I'm in this profession, or how I came to be in this calling. When I was a child, I was an animal healer. I was connected to horses, cats, dogs, birds, snakes, Nature, turtles ... any living thing. It seemed I'd find injured animals (mostly birds), take them in until they were able to fly away on their own again, and nurse them back to health. (Well, mother permitting, that is!)

When I was pregnant with my first child (my son), I worked as a C.N.A. (again at the very facility that I began my initial career in the medical field in my hometown!) and Aunt Nancy happened to be my Charge Nurse on the night shift. It was the early 1980's, and 'managed care' (what we in the nursing profession dubbed 'mangled care') was becoming the norm in the health care field. Corporations were taking over healthcare, and the field was changing (not necessarily for the better, mind you!). I remember my aunt saying to me one evening: "I didn't become a nurse to push a pencil" as she was endlessly charting at the desk in the nursing station. Mind you, that was pre-computers, so all the charting that was required was done by hand. I didn't understand completely what she meant by that, but as I matured ~ (and after I graduated from nursing school!) ~ I fully understood her lament! The first year I was working as an R.N.,  I wanted to turn the clock back and go back to being a C.N.A. again! I'd been a C.N.A. for more than 20 years, off and on, and becoming an R.N. was like culture shock, and extremely traumatic for me. (More about that another time).

Nursing is like second nature to me. It's innate, it's my Calling. It's my Profession. It is never, nor has it ever been, just a job. Being a nurse is certainly not about the money, nor is it about anything other than healing and health. Since I've been a nurse, I've become more conscious of my own health and well-being. I was a Reiki Master/Teacher and LMT (licensed massage therapist) before I was a nurse, but for some reason I wasn't as conscious of my health as I am now. Nursing has opened my Mind, my Heart, and my Soul (body-mind-spirit) to Life, to health, and to the flow of energy daily. I'm more conscious of the flow of energy between living beings, more adept at sensing things, more Intuitive now than I've ever been! It's as though my own being, the healer in me, was waiting for the exact moment when I became professionally licensed as a registered nurse. It's as though I was always meant to be a nurse. (I was!) It's as though I was always a nurse, I just needed that piece of paper to appropriately and professionally practice.

Integrating these professions: nursing, massage, and Reiki has become a focus for me. Someday, all three will be equally important in my Life and in my profession. I continually feel an urgent need to integrate the medical and the alternative or complementary medicine. I know it's coming. Perhaps, it's already here ...

Thanks for letting me ramble on, my friends :)

Blessings, Light, and Love ~

Reiki RN