Integrative Health Blog

Stress, Trauma, and Epigenetic Markers of Your Well-Being

Posted by on Wed, Aug 10, 2016

If you’ve ever experienced stress affecting how you feel physically, whether through feeling nervous and physically jittery, feeling anxious and physically tense, or feeling exhausted and foggy-minded, you may have wondered how all of that stress affects your health in the long-term.

Scientists have repeatedly found that stress affects our physical well-being. More recently, however, scientists have also found that stress and trauma can cause epigenetic changes, or switching on and off of genes that regulate body functions such as stress responses.

The impact of stress can be passed to future generations

Beyond even these alarming individual epigenetic changes, scientists have also begun to find that epigenetic changes due to stress and trauma can also be passed down to offspring. In a study of Holocaust survivors and their children, Rachel Yehuda and a team of researchers at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York discovered just such a phenomenon.

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Tags: methylation, reiki, stress

Why Do We Really Love the Holidays?

Posted by on Mon, Dec 14, 2015

What’s the real reason that we love the holidays like Christmas and Hanukkah so much?  Why do we love holidays and holy days in general so much? 

How do we keep that sense of peace and joy in everyday life?  What does truly make us happy in a lasting sense in life?

 

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Tags: reiki, life coaching

What is Subtle Energy and How Does it Affect My Body?

Posted by on Mon, Sep 14, 2015

You are already an expert in subtle energy, but you probably do not yet know it.

Have you ever attended a ball game or sporting event and “felt the excitement in the air?”

Most people have felt that feeling of excitement in the air somewhere. Interestingly, no one had to tell you that what you were feeling was “excitement,” because the energy itself sends the message, and you are intuitively programmed to feel it and to know what that it is “excitement in the air.”

Have you ever been in a room, perhaps at a meeting, in which the tension was so thick, that as the very old saying goes, “You could have cut the tension with a knife?” No one had to tell you that this was tension that you were feeling. No one had to explain the difference between how excitement feels and how tension feels. You just knew it, and could feel it in your body.

Have you ever experienced someone standing in front of you who was so angry, you could literally feel the anger coming from them? Most people have also experienced this feeling of the subtle energy of anger, and again, no one has to explain to anyone “Hey, guess what: this is anger energy – watch out!” The subtle energy of anger (not so subtle, perhaps) actually sends a message that we understand intuitively is anger, and we know to be cautious.

Can you feel the love?

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Tags: reiki, energy therapies, health coach

What is Reiki?

Posted by on Sat, Dec 27, 2014

Reiki is an ancient healing tradition brought to light in the early 1900s by Mikao Usui of Japan.  The word “Reiki” has deep meanings, which can be summed up most simply by the concept “universal life force.”  Everyone benefits from being alive with energy – that is what Reiki is about.

In Asia, for thousands of years, people have understood that these subtle energies of life exist within us and around us.  As a result, spiritual practices were developed long ago to cultivate these life energies within the human body.  Such practices include Tai Chi, Qi Gong, and in yoga, pranayama breathing.  The words “chi,” “qi,” and “prana” all refer to this same life force energy with which all living things are filled and which permeates all levels of being. 

As a practice, Reiki involves the practitioner placing her or his hands on or near the body, and allowing the flow of Reiki energy to come through to fill the person’s body and energy field (aura) with fresh, relaxing, restorative energy.  Reiki usually includes aura clearing and chakra balancing as part of the process. 

A person receiving Reiki usually gets to relax, lying comfortably on a massage table.

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Tags: reiki, energy therapies