Reiki Healing and Grief
When we hear the word GRIEF, we usually, automatically think of the loss of a loved one. This is probably the most common way we know of, learn and experience grief. Often round Christmas and other milestone times in the year we feel an even greater sense of loss. At times when families and friends are gathering together, a loved one’s absence can be felt even more profoundly.
My first real experience I recall was over 15 years ago, when a friend and colleague I had worked with completed a suicide. He was the life and soul of the party, smart, attractive, funny, kind. He had his whole life ahead of him and he was 22 yrs old. The shock and grief from his passing had an immediate impact on me. This was a life changing experience for me and in many ways was a blessing to me.
It made me come to terms with my own mortality. It made me question how I was living MY life. It made me question myself in so many ways about so many things. I was alive, yet for so long I wasn’t really ‘living’. I am grateful to say I took that experience of grief and used it as a catalyst for me to live my best life. It has taken a long time and many other life experiences, mindset changes and therapeutic treatments, but I sit here today, forever changed from that experience but at peace with myself and my life.
We will all experience grief in our life-times. Every one of us will undoubtedly experience the loss of a loved one, yet we also experience grief in so many other ways.
Consider the following definitions of grief
Grief –
Intense sorrow, especially caused by someone’s death.
Grief – (Cambridge Dictionary) – very great sadness, especially at the death of someone.
Grief – heartache, heartbreak, broken heartedness, intense sorrow, caused by the loss of a loved one (especially by death)
The definitions of grief are not just through the passing of a loved one. It is that feeling of intense sadness, sorrow or heartbreak. We can ‘lose’ people in various ways along with other things in our life, including our own sense of self and this too is grief.
Breaking up with a long-term partner / spouse is a form of grief. We grieve for the life we thought we had ahead of us with this person and we may also grieve for ourselves and who we thought we were, and where our lives were going.
Losing a job can bring on grief, especially if you have worked there for a long time, or even if you have worked there a short time but loved being there, We grieve for our security, stability, for the future we thought we had all planned along with the finances, security and stability to support it.
Perhaps you or a loved one loses a limb, their hearing, their vision, their mental faculties, their ability to walk or move in a certain way. When a partner or family member develops the likes of Dementia etc, that person can change so much that they are unrecognisable as their former self. You grieve for the person they used to be, that has gone away or who is merely a shadow of their former self. You also grieve for your own life and the relationship that you used to have with them. These are just a few examples of the various ways in which we experience grief in our lives.
Grief can affect us physically with symptoms including the likes of difficulty falling asleep, insomnia, headaches, inability to relax mentally, emotionally or physically, feeling weak, tired, having unexplained aches and pains , feeling you are on a rollercoaster of emotion and feelings of heaviness. Grief is a process and it is something we have to go through. However when an individual is stuck in the sadness, day in day out and cannot seem to get any relief from it at all, energy healing can help to shift the grief through the body and outwards so relief can be found.
Reiki healing can help to reduce all of the above symptoms. It can help you to relax deeper, ease stress and tension, alleviate symptoms of physical pain, reduce anxiety, improve sleep. Reiki will not magically take the sadness and grief away. What It can do, is to help you come to a calmer and more balanced place within yourself, thereby enabling you to tackle your journey through grief and the ups and downs that come with that journey.
If you are grieving or are affected by any of the symptoms above and feel that Reiki healing is something that would benefit you or if you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment or get in touch.
Deborah-King 