What to do When Your Life Begins to Unravel Around the Edges
What bodywork does for you when your life unravels around you:
Years ago, I took a reiki class in Reston, Virginia, in Reiki Jinkei Do, taught by Gilbert Gallego. This was at a time when I was taking Reiki classes from anyone and everyone who taught one. I learned something wonderful at each class. I remember each and every class fondly.
Giving my memory one takeaway, it is this: Bodywork in general works in our best interest, supporting health and healing on a physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual level. Reiki and Reflexology are in this mix.
I write a lot about Reflexology and Reiki because I spent the most time studying those two modalities. I teach both of them and I know the good they can do for a person.
Bodywork in general is cumulative, whatever the modality, which means that the more sessions someone has, the greater effect they will have on that body.
So far, the only modality I’ve found without contraindications is Reiki therapy. This means you can use it on anyone, anytime, anyhow, anywhere. Reiki is a soft touch on a clothed body so that it can be used in a private healing space, a bus station, airport waiting area, ICU, or accident scene.
Bodywork of all kinds have reactions. They depend on the modality, the client, the healer, and what is happening in the life of people on the day and time they receive help.
When clients receive Reflexology and/or Reiki, their reactions are different each time they receive a session. One of the reasons we don’t think about is the fact that our bodies are different each and every day.
I’m discussing this now because I’m seeing more and more people whose lives are unraveling. Stress and uncertainty over a long period of time have a way of untethering a person from those things that ground us.
There are many things you can do. The first of these is to recognize your situation for what it is.
The second is to list the things you can do. You want to know what you can choose from. The options are, possibly, many. Which ones are more realistic and which ones are less realistic?
Make your healing list. .
Be prepared to change your list several times, at least. Maybe you should be prepared to change your list more times.
What is practical?
What is affordable?
What is the option that you prefer?
Work this list through as you winnow it down to fewer and fewer options. Finally, this list will be short – possibly only 1 or 2 items.
Until you get down to the final option, there is one thing you can do now. There is one thing which will help you. It probably won’t interfere with your life.
It can change your daily life for the better.
And, what is that? BODYWORK!
There are many modalities that ground the person receiving the work. A good thing to do when the “going gets tough” is to schedule and receive regular grounding bodywork.
Your body will be grateful for the attention.
One example of this is sleep. Both Reflexology and Reiki sessions can help restore disturbed sleep patterns.
The effects of a bodywork session are often experienced immediately after a treatment. For example, a client may notice that a headache has disappeared or a frozen shoulder may has become much more mobile. Other symptoms may take three or more sessions to improve a condition or complaint.
Generally, a disorder that has been around for a long time may take a longer time to improve.
The problem with this is that we live in a society that wants instant results.
Schedule regular bodywork sessions as part of your life. These regular sessions will stimulate your body’s own healing processes over time as you have regular visits.
If you find regular sessions to be challenging, take some classes and learn to give sessions. That way, you can exchange sessions with others.
Ask a friend to join you in a learning adventure. The two of you can learn together and exchange sessions. This is self-care which is extremely important in these times.
With blogs, books, classes and sessions, I am not here to change your story. Instead, I am here to be a conduit for your own healing.
For healers everywhere, thank you for reading this blog post. Share this article with friends and relatives. Forward this post to your preferred social media network.
Check out my books on www.thurmangreco.com.
“Healer’s Handbook” is in its third edition. So far, this book has gone out to three dozen different countries. The best way to buy a book is to contact me at thurmangreco@gmail.com. The books are listed on thurmangreco.com but the website is undergoing repairs and upgrades.
“But for Gabriel” is available as both ebook and paperback at thurmangreco@gmail.com. Until the repairs are completed, email thurmangreco@gmail.com
I host “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco” a program aired weekly on Woodstock, New York’s own educational TV channel 23. This show is an informative, upbeat hour with no rehearsals.
My guests are various people whose lives have brought them to Woodstock for a day, a week, an hour, a decade, or more.
Let’s Live has been running for over 15 years with an occasional intermission, now and then. You can find some programs on YOUTUBE “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco”. My assistant, Renee, adds new programs weekly.
I look forward to our show each week. And, I look forward to hearing from you at thurmangreco@gmail.com or 845-399-3967.
THANKS!
Thurman Greco
Learning as Self-Care With 3 Stories Featuring Maria Talamantez and Sister Athenasius
As we grow up and experience adolescence, or adulthood, many of us leave our religious beliefs behind. Or maybe we never had a childhood religion to leave behind. This can create the experience of having no beliefs at all.
Mother sent me as a young child to local Vacation Bible Schools every summer. That meant I spent a week each with Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, and the Church of Christers when I was quite young. The Catholics didn’t have Vacation Bible School and I never quite understood why.
I absorbed different things taught by different Christian Sunday School teachers in an unsophisticated format intended for preschool and elementary school children.
Elementary school influenced my religious beliefs, but not how you might think. This was the American Bible Belt in the early 1950’s. In the classroom each morning, right after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, a student recited a prayer.
For some of my classmates, this experience may not have been so bad. For others, it was excruciating.
Standing in front of the class is hard on a lot of little kids. Standing in front of the class and reciting a prayer can be excruciating, especially if they don’t really know a prayer. It was hardest on the Catholics because they began and ended each session with the sign of the cross.
My memory always brings up Maria Talamantez when I recall the morning prayer. Standing at the head of the class, Maria appeared embarrassed, flustered, frightened. And, while she struggled with the Sign of the Cross and the Our Father, I was over at my desk praying quietly and fervently to God and Jesus and anyone else I could think of just thanking them that my name hadn’t been called that morning.
Meanwhile, Maria prayed as fast as she could and so quietly that she couldn’t be heard by most of us in the room. I don’t think the teacher cared, really. She was simply filling a slot required every morning and looked forward to escaping into a math exercise or reading a story.
For me, this was a time of pure torture. And I was so grateful that I was an Episcopalian because I didn’t use the Sign of the Cross. And the Episcopalian Lord’s Prayer seemed shorter and faster than Maria’s Roman Catholic version.
This is part of my journey into adulthood.
Both adolescents and adults spend time thinking and rethinking things they read, heard, and believed as children.
To dismiss these experiences as part of the move into adulthood is a gross oversimplification.
Abandoning our childhood beliefs can be difficult. It’s challenging to move beyond the childhood religious stories we either grew up with or didn’t experience at all.
As a pre-adolescent, I attended a Catholic School in my middle-school years. (The Sisters didn’t call it middle school.) Sister Athanasius had a whole list of books we weren’t supposed to read. And, since I wasn’t from a Catholic family, Sister suspected every book she saw me carry.
Several years later, as a student at St. Mary’s University, I found all of those books she was looking for in my book bag. They were in the university library, sitting on those shelves for the students. Amazing! Forbidden fruit in middle school became the main course in college.
Later in life, my best Reiki therapy and Reflexology students admitted to me that they were struggling with their meaning-of-life path.
Now, as an octogenarian, I find myself smitten with Mother Mary and the birth of Jesus Christ.
If you find yourself at a moment in time where you are taking a look at your life, now can be a good opportunity to explore your childhood teachings. They may be holding you back from focusing on things you otherwise might be interested in.
This place in time opens an opportunity for self-care.
As an adult, you can slow down, seek the solitude, and listen to the silence. Allow your intuition and life experiences to guide you along your path.
The answers you seek may not come immediately but they are there. As you journey on your path, you may encounter changes to your lifestyle which help you connect with your own truth.
You can develop an understanding of your own experience.
Thanks for reading this article. Please share it with your friends and family and forward it to your preferred social media network.
You can find out more at www.thurmangreco.com.
Want more information on self-care? Check out some older articles on this blog.
You may also enjoy my YOUTUBE shows: “Let’s Live with Thurman Greco”
Thanks again!
Thurman Greco
www.thurmangreco.com
Subscribe today!
Visit the website and see what books might interest you. The first edition of “But for Gabriel” is available as an eBook.
Finally, include a Reiki therapy or reflexology session this week.
Interested in Self-Care? Try Self-Forgiveness
Let me start this article this way: Self-forgiveness is never easy.
I’ve written about self-forgiveness before. It’s a theme for me – even though I didn’t realize it when I began writing. It’s definitely a part of my books and essays on wellness and hunger.
I have forgiveness chapters in all of my books. My two favorite chapters are in “The Ketchup Sandwiches Chronicles” beginning on page 103 and 145.
These two chapters focus on two real people and the voyages they traveled while seeking self-forgiveness.
Begin self-care with a few questions:
Who am I in this community? In this country? On this planet?
Remember: My community, my country, and my planet have value. I believe the value is greater than the sum of all of us combined.
Self-care means joining the community of the planet. Everyone, without exception, has value and a role to play.
No one, not even the least of us, is irrelevant. No one, not even the greatest of us, is above it all. Being rich or poor simply isn’t part of the equation.
Self-forgiveness in the context of self-care is a journey where we become a part of something greater. We don’t write off people and situations. We challenge, encourage, love.
Self-forgiveness allows us to not always be at our best.
Self-forgiveness includes renewal and support.
Self-forgiveness can be a calling.
When you sign onto the journey of self-forgiveness, you’ll travel to places you’ve never been before. You may find yourself involved in activities and events for which you may not be quite prepared.
You can’t complete a self-forgiveness journey with an isolated incident like you would complete a puzzle or word game. It is a part of a process.
Forgiveness is always a challenge. Everyone seeks forgiveness and self-forgiveness is the hardest part.
How does it work? Well, do what you can with what you have. Work where you are. A good starting point is to sketch your community.
Really, what you’re doing is muddling through. Frankly, I think that’s how self-forgiveness works. This journey is not going to be perfect. At times, it may seem overwhelming. Other times, it may seem simply like a blank page. Self-forgiveness comes with very few maps. Certainly, there is no GPS.
Forgiveness is a journey with its own timetable. There may be surprise stops along the way. That’s because forgiveness has its own messages and meaning.
A bottom line is this: Forgiveness is for you and you alone. When you forgive someone, you are not forgiving them for them. You are forgiving them for you.
And, that’s what self-care is all about: YOU.
Self-forgiveness happens when you move beyond your thoughts and memories to a new place. At that moment, you see things differently. Sometimes this new place can be a sort of miracle.
This happens when you see your open heart and embrace new hopes and blessings. After a few moments, you may also hear things in a new way.
This is true change. True change, and self-forgiveness, happens when you face the same condition that caused you to behave in a way unacceptable to yourself and now you see things differently.
You break out of your past.
You’ve changed. You are a different person.
You wake up and claim your self-forgiven reality.
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please forward it to your preferred social media network. Share it with your friends and family.
To hear stories of healing and of hunger, tune into YouTube. There are several segments where I read the stories. It is one thing to read the stories and another thing entirely to hear them. ENJOY
When traveling on your self-forgiveness journey, I recommend you include regular reflexology and Reiki sessions. Spiritual journeys include physical, mental, and emotional changes as well. Your feet are a command center of your body. They need consideration and attention during this time.
If you have questions, contact me at thurmangreco@gmail.com
THANKS AGAIN!
Self-Care: Choose You
Are you fried?
Have you nothing left to give?
Does your energetic body (which usually feels wondrous and fluffy), feel dried and flat like crushed cotton candy?
It doesn’t have to be that way.
There’s more in your soul – you just can’t find it right now because you’re running on empty.
It’s time to choose YOU – your whole you. Honor your entire body – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, energetic.
Your balanced whole body is ready for you to claim it. It’s waiting. Everything is connected. Nothing operates independently. Authentic balance comes from within and is different for everyone.
Your entire body has a shaggy footprint which includes everything – physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and energetic.
This includes your memories also. Include your muscle memories, your mental memories, your past-life memories, your emotional memories – everything.
When you discuss caring for your body, include diet, exercise, sleep. Include choices, thought patterns, stress management, drugs.
Include meditation on your balance journey. Focus on experiencing your self – your whole, entire self, which wants you to get to know it better.
Read this meditation as often as you want. Allow your self to enjoy it.
Find a quiet, safe, and comfortable place to sit where you won’t be interrupted for a few minutes or so. Allow your body to be supported by the chair, bed, or floor you have chosen.
Drink a glass of water.
Quiet your mind and check in with your self.
When thoughts enter your mind, encourage them to comfortably come and go.
Notice how you breathe for the moment. Are your breaths shallow or deep? It doesn’t matter, really. Just notice your breath. – Notice how each each breath brings in a pure white light.
This white light is perfect and healing. It will stay with you. It’s job is to heal and nurture.
This white light knows where the need is greatest. It knows where to go.
As you breathe in, feel the healing energy riding on each breath. Feel this energy spreading out from your lungs to every artery and vein in your body. This white light is healing and regenerating every cell in your entire body.
Now, take a deep breath. Inhale and feel yourself relaxing. Notice whether you are becoming quiet. Are you becoming still?
Where is your body tight?
What’s happening with your energy level? Continue breathing in and out. Allow your self to become relaxed, still.
Now, move your hands along your body, beginning at the crown of your your head. Hold your hands several inches above your body. What do you feel as you move your hands along your body? Heat. Cool. Quickly moving energy. Slowly moving energy. Stuck energy.
Is something stressing you? What does this smell like? How does it feel? Do you hear stress? Where does this stress feel comfortable?
How do your senses react to your stress. What do you feel as you move your hands along your body?
(You can repeat this meditation many times as your hands become comfortable with what they find.)
When you notice a stressed or stuck area of energy, communicate with this particular place using nurturing feelings, and thoughts.
Speak directly with this stressed place. Tell this place that you love it, that you want it to be perfect.
Breathe in an extra breath of white light and focus it directly on the stressed place.
This process of sending white light to stress points and communicating with specific points using nurturing feelings and thoughts changes much. When you do this, you encourage your total self to release blockages, erace mistakes, and create perfect images.
See your self in perfection. Your breaths, sending white light to your whole body, release feelings of health, alertness, and relaxation.
Etch this feeling in your mind now so you can return to this feeling whenever you want.
It is time to return to your room now. Gently bring your awareness back to your day. Remember that you can return to this place any time you want.
Thank you for including this journey in your day.
Thank you for reading this blog article. Please forward it to your favorite social media network. Share it with friends and family.
You can connect with me on Facebook and also on YOUTUBE.
You will find other meditations on earlier blog posts. You can also find more wellness information on my books.
www.Thurmangreco.com.
7 Self-Care Tips to Boost your Diet
This post gives you a week’s worth of life-changing tools to help you boost your diet. Try them if they attract you in some way. If something feels good to you, then it probably is good for you.
The timing has to be right. Maybe you’ve tried one or two (or even all) of them in the past and they didn’t seem to work for you. That was then and this is now. Don’t go for them unless they attract you for some reason.
These tools will boost your energy, calm your mind, and help prevent or minimize some health problems.
TIP 1
Go for homeostasis! This means reiki or reflexology.
Include one or both of these modalities in your schedule this week…and every week. I suggest distance reiki. Self-reflexology is a good option.
Hand reflexology is easy to use. Does the thought of hand reflexology seem challenging to you? Your library should have hand reflexology books on its shelves.
To simplify your hand reflexology journey, I’ll send you a hand chart and detailed instructions for reflexing your own hands.
Just send me your mailing address to thurmangreco@gmail.com and I’ll return them to you. There is no charge or obligation for this chart and instruction list.
TIP 2
Eat whole, fresh, locally-grown food.
Whatever diet plan you’ve chosen, this is a good tip for you and your diet. When you say “Yes!” to fresh foods, you minimize processed, packaged, shipped products.
When you eat fresh, your food will taste better. Your calories will not be so empty. Your food will be authentic.
You’ll find authentic food on the outer perimeter of your local food store or at a nearby farmers market.
TIP 3
Don’t skip your breakfast.
This meal can be anything from a serving of yogurt to a platter of eggs, bacon, and a hearty whole grain bagel.
Whatever you choose for your breakfast, include powerful berries. Their antioxidents can’t be overemphasized. Let a banana give you the potassium you need.
TIP 4
Skip the sugar. This doesn’t have to be a shock to your system. Begin sugar avoidance by skipping it one day a week. On this day, instead of sugar, include a sugar substitute on any food or in any beverage you would ordinarily use sugar.
There are many brands available. Try several until you find one you like.
If you feel weird without sugar, snack on some chocolate.
TIP 5
Water! Water! Water!
I know. My message is stuck when it comes to water. But, I mean it. Water gives you energy, moves toxins out, and makes your skin look younger. It also has 0 calories.
What more can we ask for?
If you’re not accustomed to water, I suggest this:
When you feel tired, drink a glass of water. No, don’t drink a glass of water. Instead, chug it right down. Now, wait a few minutes to see if you feel better.
When your lips feel dry, drink a glass of water.
What about your urine? What color is it? Concentrated urine has a murky color you don’t need. Drinking more water will get rid of the murky color.
TIP 6
Go Nuts
Daytime snacks are an essential taste treat between meals. They boost your energy midmorning and midafternoon. They are a welcome break from the day’s activities.
One snack which is good for your diet boost is nuts.
Walnuts, almonds, cashews, macadamia nuts give you energy, satisfy your appetite, and are high in anti-inflammatory fatty acids.
They do lots of other things too. Each nut is different and unique. Take a moment to read about all the wonderful things they do .
Instead of reaching for a sugary food, go for the nuts.
Thanks for reading this article, the first of several to help you boost your diet.
To get your free hand reflexology chart and instruction sheet, please email your mailing address to thurmangreco@gmail.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Thurman Greco
thurmangreco.com
Please share this article with your preferred social media network. And please send it along to a friend.
Thanks again for reading this article.
Reflexology, Reiki, and Your Self-Care Diet Journey
Your diet is a life-changing self-care journey.
A successful diet begins with a plan . For many, this plan begins and ends with the diet itself. Nobody gets past whether the diet is Keto or low carbohydrate or low calorie diet or any one of hundreds of weight-loss diets.
The diet itself is only a part of the total package. A diet is a time when you embark on a spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical self-care journey. And, surprisingly, it’s not really about getting to a certain body size. The quest for a body with perfect proportions is doomed before it even starts.
Your total diet package is a quest for a healthy body that functions, not just window dressing.
These upcoming blog posts are keys focused on helping you achieve your goal. They offer you tools to change your life so that you achieve your own goals. There is no authority here telling you what is best for you.
Except you. You are your own authority. No one is going to challenge what is right or wrong for you.
This is your ultimate self-care manual. As you read these blog posts, use whatever tools work best for you, your health and your well-being.
They help you achieve your self-care goals as they share ways to boost your energy, enliven and calm your mind, balance your emotions, and prevent, control, and reverse health problems you experience.
Your life-changing, self-care journey begins with reflexology and reiki sessions. My hope is that you will schedule at least one session each week.
Keep a journal describing your feelings and reactions after each session:
Are you sleeping better?
Are you calmer?
Maybe you are more excitable.
What about your bowel movements?
What does your skin look like?
Whatever happens to you, write down what you observe. It may take several sessions before you feel and observe differences. Or, you may see changes from the first session.
There is no wrong or right way to experience reflexology and Reiki. Each person is different.
Regular sessions are important for your self-care diet journey.
You may perceive some obstacles here. Now is a good time to overcome them. Find a Reiki master teacher and learn Reiki 1 if you don’t know where to get the sessions. A Reiki 1 class will teach you everything you need to help yourself in a successful journey.
Is $$$ an obstacle? Offer an exchange of some kind.
Regular foot reflexology sessions are ideal. if you don’t know a reflexologist, get a book and chart on hand reflexology and give yourself a session.
Thank you for reading this blog post. It’s the beginning of several articles written with you and your successful diet in mind. The things I suggest in them are not listed by how important they are.
Each suggestion is equally important. More important is how they interest you. And how each item motivates you to progress on your journey. I’m hoping you will see each change you make as an achievement toward your goal.
As you continue down your diet path, I’m hoping you will let each change be a new habit you can live with for the rest of your life.
Please post this article on your favorite social media network. Share it with a friend.
I’m looking forward to joining you on your journey.
Thurman greco
reflexologyforthespirit.com
thurmangreco.com
Reflexology, Homeostasis, and Your Diet. 9 Ways They Help
Your body continually changes throughout your daily activities. Sleeping, dancing, or taking out the trash, your body tries to maintain a healthy balance – homeostasis.
When you visit a reflexologist, other bodyworker, or healthcare professional, you may be trying to address one or more ongoing, persistent, health problems in addition to your diet. You seek solutions while saying to yourself “I may have to learn to live with fatigue ( insomnia, constipation, headaches)”. A reflexology session does much for you.
Sleep comes easier as patterns change.
More regular bowel movements emerge.
Your body begins a mild detox.
Your tensions relax.
Your overactive or underactive glands and organs begin to normalize.
Your nerve and blood supply improve.
You begin to feel refreshed, relaxed, and energetic.
Pain and discomfort disappear.
The truth is, we don’t know how a person’s body will respond to or react to a particular reflexology session. Whatever the reaction, it is a sign that the therapy is working.
Things happen after a reflexology session because they need to happen – whether it’s sleep, relaxation, tension reduction, or pain loss.
These reactions and responses are important when you diet because of changes brought about by your weight loss as you change the foods you eat and you move more.
These reactions are also important because they tell you that you are self-healing.
One thing people don’t really mention is that both reflexology and your diet encourages you to tune in to your own feelings and your body to see what feels best for you.
This is a major change. I hope this sensitivity will stay with you long after the diet and extra pounds have moved on.
Thank you for reading this blog post. Please refer it to your preferred social media network.
Thurman Greco
www.thurmangreco.com
Beginning with the next post, I will be blogging about self-care during a diet. I feel that a diet is the ultimate self-care experience. It is your opportunity to care for yourself spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
Go for it!
