energy healing: my story

If you’ve followed me for a long time, you will probably know that I’m very into energy healing as a way of reconnecting to self and healing the mind, body and spirit. If you’ve only followed along recently, then this post is to explain what energy healing is and why it so important to me and my well-being.

From a very young age, I’ve been exposed to alternative medicine and ways of healing. Our family GP for many years was also a registered homeopath, and I remember going to my first kinesiology session at the tender age of fourteen. I still remember my older cousin, Jenny, practising reiki on me at Sunday family lunches. I went to yoga with my mom for the first time in high school and one of my fondest memories is taking a towel and one of my mom’s yoga books to the bottom of the garden and practising the poses in the sunshine. So, as you can imagine, this stuff is not new to me and I often fail to remember that not everyone has been lucky enough to be exposed to this way of living for as long as I have. I have been seeing Colleen Van Heerden, my little energy-healing, reiki-doing, massage-giving, spiritual-healer since 2011 and a couple of readers have reached out asking me to elaborate more on this and it’s benefits.

What is energy healing?

In a nutshell, energy healing involves working on the field of energy around our body, to heal our mind and body. We all know that everything is made up of energy. Every physical body has its own energy field. When that energy field is in flow, we function at optimal levels. We sleep better, feel better, are more in touch with our intuition, and we are more likely to take better care of ourselves and those around us when we’re in this state of flux. Due to a number of factors, namely past traumas, triggers and interactions with others, blockages often occur in these energy fields. The energy field, or the aura, that each physical body exists in, is made up of different energy centers, or chakras. Each chakra is usually associated with a specific area of the body and its organs. For example, the throat chakra system, located around the area of the neck, is physically associated with the throat, teeth, respiratory system, vocal cords and thyroid.

Each energy center or chakra, usually has an emotional aspect to it too – the throat center is associated with speaking your truth, communicating, and the self-expression of your feelings. Often when we have a sore throat, this is usually something to do with the way we are communicating or not speaking our truth. For example, a few weeks ago, after attending the march against gender-based violence, I got a sore throat. And it wasn’t because I was shouting in the crowd. Truth is, that entire week I had been sharing online, and engaging in conversations about the #menaretrash movement – something I have been talking about for years, but which still makes me feel nervous to share. It’s a deep, guttural truth for me, one so far invested in the very cells of my being, that it is hard to explain. So when I speak up about this issue, it opens up a well of emotions relating to speaking my truth and the truth of other women. This comes with a fear of being attacked, shut down, or ignored – fears that stem from certain events in my childhood and also from ancestral traumas that reside in my cells. Did you know that we, as women, can carry the physical and emotional trauma of our mothers, grandmothers and other ancestors? Every action or thought we experience as humans, creates neurological pathways in our cells, and through conception and birth, we carry the cells of our parents and grandparents. It’s not only our ancestor’s physical attributes we inherit (oh you have your grandfather’s blue eyes!), but also their emotional attributes. Crazy, huh?

When we experience a blockage in our energy fields, due to any of the afore-mentioned factors (sometimes it can just be the mere interaction with a particular person who may trigger your emotional traumas), that blockage can cause us to feel ill, tired, listless, and sometimes it will even cause physical trauma or injury in our bodies. Remember when I injured my back in June and could barely walk for weeks? Without going into it in too much detail, think motherhood, marriage, career, survival, keeping up appearances etc etc and you can understand why I had to suffer an actual injury to get me to slow down. My sacral center, the seat of all these things – sexuality, creativity, self-esteem, survival – was not in flow and guess what one of the primary physical ailments of a blocked sacral is? Yup you guessed it – lower back pain! Everything is connected. Think of your body’s energy field as a spider web – if someone (and that someone could even be yourself) causes harm to the web and breaks a thread in one part of it, the whole web is compromised and become vulnerable to breaking. We need to repair that thread to make the web whole and complete and functioning again.

And this is where energy healing comes in to play. Or, more specifically, reiki. The word rei-ki in Japanese means “god’s wisdom” and “life force energy”. Practically, reiki involves the “laying on of hands” over a person’s body and energetic field. Reiki is non-physical – the healer will place their hands above the body of the patient and use the energy of their own body and hands to channel and direct the energy of the patient to a place of flow. Massage and reflexology is physical and the healer will use their hands directly on the patient’s body to promote and stimulate the movement of energy.

My favourite form of energy healing is a combination of reiki and massage, which I receive from my healer, Colleen. It combines the natural “high” of reiki with the bliss of physical touch – resulting in a delicious synergy that leaves me feeling both energised and relaxed. My time and sessions with Colleen are non-negotiable – it’s a self care ritual I stick to religiously, every month. Noma kunganjani. And if I can’t physically see Colleen, I make sure I receive distant healing from her. (Yes, energy healing can be done from a distance too!)

So how do you know if your chakras are blocked or if you need energy healing? For me, I know I need to see Colleen whenever I start feeling anxious, overly tired, hopeless, or physically ill. After I’ve been for energy healing, I instantly feel lighter, calmer and more positive. I’m “in flow”. And everything in my life is in flux too – my relationships with my partner and child; my relationship with myself, my relationship with my work and my creative self, and even my relationship with my bank account! Money literally flows into my account when I’m in this state. This is why I make it a habit to see Colleen every three to four weeks – to maintain this flow and to not let my mind and body get into a really deep, dark place of neglect and, ultimately, dis-ease. Of course, there are always things to work on every visit – life is life, after all, and we are constantly interacting and dealing with other people, their own energy fields and the stuff it can bring up within us. Healing is life-long journey, not an Engen 1 Stop.

For me, energy healing is like coming home – a stripping away of all the accumulated “filth”, a repairing of my body’s cogs and wheels, and a return to the polished and shiny little soul beneath it all. It’s a reminder of who I really am and a deep acceptance of all the parts of me that make me me. It’s as close to giving my heart and soul a big hug as I can get in human form. 

{To get the chance to give your own heart and soul a hug, contact Colleen of @healingyourspirit.}