If I had been told 10 years ago that I would leave my well paid, successful, but highly stressful career in the City to teach hands-on healing, I would have laughed out loud! But that was me all over then – never taking life, or it transpires, my health seriously. I was living life in the fast lane, squeezing as many hours out of a day as I could. I was one of the first people in the office and one of the last to leave. My work mobile was constantly switched on – meaning I was available at all times. And when you work for an international parent company on a different time zone, that means your offices have different working hours. Depending on which international office was contacting you, it was either before your working day started, or after your working day had finished. To keep on top of my Board level job, I was up at 05:30 hrs and generally never home much before 20:30 hrs. And yet still my phone kept pinging. One day, during a particularly difficult period for the company, my CEO and I worked a 19-hour day – and were still back in the office early the next morning...
My diet was appalling: a protein bar and coffee on the morning train, a pre-packaged sandwich at my desk and something quick and dirty (processed) when I got home, albeit “Finest”! And that’s without the numerous coffees and chocolatey treats that were always on offer around the office.
Because I got home so late in the day, my mind had no time to slow down, nor did I have any time for myself. Much to my husband’s annoyance, I would kick back at going to bed at a sensible time. Instead, I would typically have a glass of wine and watch something crappy on Netflix before I felt ready to go down for the night. I simply could not get in at 20:30, eat, then be in bed by 22:00 hrs.
So, my working day was long, my sleeping hours were short, my diet was awful, I did little/no exercise and I drank alcohol every night.
Is it any wonder, therefore, that one day – completely out of the blue – my world came crashing down! I woke up and literally could not move my body out of bed. I was in pain from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. I could not even pull myself up, the pain was so severe. Following an emergency appointment with the doctor I was given a mix of narcotic strength painkillers and steroids. They had no idea what the root cause was, nor did they offer a suggestion, or even ask me what had been going on in my life leading up to the moment of impact. But the tablets dulled the pain to the point where I could function (and still go to work), but my body no longer felt like mine. I was in constant pain and had to steady myself every time I got up from a chair and wiggle my knees to get my legs going. I walked with a strange gait and my back constantly hurt.
After a few months of this, the NHS added liquid morphine to the rest of the pills I was taking. My kitchen cupboard had enough strong drugs to kill someone. My husband and I called it "the cupboard of death", which, although it was said in jest, quietly, I always had it in the back of my mind that if it all got too much, I had a way out. Shocking as that may sound.
Eventually, I decided to self-fund and see a private consultant. The rheumatologist diagnosed me within a week of going through all manner of expensive tests: I had an auto-immune condition called Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) and Rheumatoid Arthritis. He also said that I was the worst presenting case of AS he had ever seen. I asked what I had done to cause this condition to come on and he said “Nothing”. He also said “There is nothing you can do to get rid of it, all you can do is manage it with drugs. You won’t die of it, but you will die with it.” I burst into tears - he had completely taken away all hope of ever getting back to the woman I once was. With a label given to my condition, I was then handed back into the care of the NHS.
There is more to this story – the misery and pain went on for almost 3 years and includes being prescribed biologics (which costs the NHS £10,000 per year). Despite all this, I remained sick, in pain, overweight from all the pills and my hair falling out by the handful. But I will summarise it all in one sentence: One day I woke up and said to myself “That’s enough! I’m not doing this anymore. It’s time to take responsibility for my health back into my own hands.”
And that’s exactly what I did. I researched and studied anything and everything I could get my hands on about health and well-being. I no longer believed my condition was "just one of those things", but had to be caused by something I did - and was possibly still doing. I dived into absolutely every area of my life: stress, diet, exercise, gut health, restorative sleep, vitamin D, unresolved and buried traumas. I went down a few cul-de-sacs on my journey, but eventually found my way back home to me...to my husband...my children...and my precious grandchildren. I was back!
From the moment I took a stand against relying on prescription drugs to being fully fit, was just 6 months. To this day, I no longer take a single prescription pill. I am fighting fit, back to my normal weight and the thickness of my hair has returned. My rheumatologist said he has NEVER seen anyone recover from Ankylosing Spondylitis and I still have the discharge letter in which he states that my case is nothing short of miraculous.
So, what’s all this got to do with Reiki? Well, I had 4 Reiki treatments about half-way into my 6-month healing journey. and, not only did my joint pain lessen after each session, the energy surging through my body was the catalyst to nudging and releasing a number of different, deeply buried and trapped energetic blockages.
The tears that arose during my Reiki session made me realise that it isn’t only the obvious, physical, things that we humans do that damages our health, it is the emotional issues that we don’t deal with properly at the time and simply bury. Whilst we cannot get rid of a specific memory (if I say "don’t think about X", you immediately picture X in your mind's eye), we can certainly unlink the memory from the negative emotion that is attached to it.
Once my health was fully restored, I found myself drawn toward studying Reiki and I am now a qualified Usui Reiki Master Practitioner & Teacher. Whilst I still offer 1:1 Reiki treatments, I have come to realise that I simply do not have time to treat everyone who wants, or needs, a healing session. There are just too many people who need help and it’s not a nice feeling having to turn someone down for a treatment – who you know is desperate. Especially when you have been there yourself – you can literally feel their pain.
I had been thinking of how to use my time more efficiently and get Reiki healing to more people, when I overhead someone say “every home should have a healer”. Those words jumped out and resonated with me. That was it!
So now, in addition to giving in-person Reiki treatments, I teach people to channel Reiki for themselves. You too can learn how to release energy blockages with Reiki and regain vitality by attending my in person training in South London.
I'm my family's healer. Are you ready to be yours?
I am legal obliged to point out that Reiki is not a substitute for allopathic mainstream medicine. It should only be considered as a complementary healing modality.
BR4 0AL, south london, United Kingdom
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