I was curled in the fetal position under my comforter. Too many emotions. Too many thoughts racked through my body with far too many hysterical sobs. I was pretty sure I was having a nervous breakdown, but didn’t understand why. The past month had been torturous with a 50% massage sale my job had launched. I had been touching bodies six hours a day for the past 30 days and now was curled in a ball, unable to stop crying and completely unsure why. It made no sense. It was weird, strange, stupid, goofy and completely unnecessary.
After a few weeks, I realized that my little parlor trick had gotten the better of me. Hi, my name is Krista and I’m very energetically sensitive. It isn’t difficult for me to feel emotions that don’t belong to me. Things that a lot of people take for granted can be extremely tough to manage, bars, concerts, large crowds, New York City, dating.
It also came in handy. After becoming a massage therapist, my little parlor trick was useful. I could “feel” and “see” places energetically where people felt stagnant, blank or clogged and then could physically feel with my hands, knots, and low blood in the muscle. It gave me a real edge at my job and clients constantly commented on my intuition and skill in finding the places
I could tell when someone was undergoing an emotionally difficult time, at times even breaking down in tears when I touched their bodies and felt their pain.
So 30 days, 6 hours of day of touching bodies was too much energy and I kinda sorta blew a gasket. My job fired me for “being a brilliant massage therapist, but a round peg in a square hole,” and freed me to study precisely what went wrong that month. Four years, thousands of miles, dollars, memories, amazing experiences, down right scary experiences and I
suppose I kinda have the equivalent to a Masters in Energy Medicine. I’ve studied under some of the best energy medicine teachers in the country. I know a lot of the Japanese stuff. The Indian Stuff. I’ve sat under a Taoist master and learned how to move energy through my body. For the past two years, I’ve followed a naturopathic doctor around the country to learn how to control my sensitivity and hopefully, use it to help others.
It didn’t matter who I studied under or what I studied, it all boiled down to the same thing. Taking care of the body is how the body can take care of you. Some people need to do a lot, like me. Some people don’t. To paraphrase a teacher, “Some people are just naturally strong and don’t need to pay attention to world around them. Some people are sensitive and need more tools to take care of themselves.
So I was pretty much herded like a cow into living a holistic and spiritual lifestyle.
My world has completely changed. I am not a pinnacle of rad spiritual, holistic living, but I am not curled under my comforter a hot smelly mess either. I can manage to go out and be around people without feeling paralyzed by the energies around me and most importantly, I am learning how to use my sensitivities instead of being barraged by them. Its a lot of work. I’ve had to say good-
-bye to a lot of people. A lot of old habits have needed to die, but its made room for so many others and other experiences. It is a real, true gift that I am grateful for everyday!
And now time for a kind of bummer note. There is no replacement for a good diet, hydration or exercise. You can be the supreme energy pumba of your community, but you will still be an energetic weakling if living off of Cheetos and pizza. There is no magic bullet cure to living a holistic life based on natural remedies. In my experience, the more “natural” something is, the longer it is going to take. It is a lifestyle. Not a vacation. Chances are any change is going to take a lot of time and effort, hours out of a week for months and maybe years. Its a commitment. For example, I spend two to five hours a week just highlighting my hair with lemon juice and sometimes up to 40 minutes a day detoxing my teeth. It was totally a pain in the butt at first, but I got used to it, then figured out how to combine it. Right now I am talking to you, highlighting my hair and detoxing my teeth.
For deeper work, for I want my organs to heal, or this pain to disappear, or want my relationships to be better, or be overall more healthy. That requires more work. At least an hour a day. I’ve studied the “quick” stuff. The quantum instant manifestation, and don’t get me wrong, the stuff CAN work and I have personally instantly manifested my fair share of weird physical experiences, but its also a easy come, easy go scenario and easy blow up in your face.
It can require a lot of what can be perceived as sacrifice as well. I spend a lot less on the computer or watching television and a lot more time working on my body. It was a slow process, but as soon as I realized how much better I was feeling and how much easier it was to manage my sensitivity, those other activities seemed extremely vapid.
This can be a decent formula for a holistic, spiritual lifestyle
Exercise 3-6 days a week. Holistic care is essentially giving the body boosters so it can heal and strengthen itself. If the body is already strong, then it will easily be able to be of service to you. Yoga, strength training, Tai Chi, any exercise with a mindful nod to
being meditative and centered will supercharge your world. I personally practice a combination of yoga, Barre, pilates, chi kung, and circuit weight resistance training along with Feldenkrais and somatic modalities in my routine.
Medication is Medication- Famous medium Edgar Cayce recommended at least 30 minutes of meditation a day. I personally try for one hour to three hours a day. It is amazing how one can squeeze these moments in the day, while driving, exercising, walking the dog, etc. It really is a practice in mindfulness, and the junk that can fill the mind can recede and open to what is authentically within. Within is where one can find one’s true self, not what the world says one should be.
Eat Local, Eat something that was very recently alive, Eat in Season.- Less chemicals the better. Eating local and within season also boosts the body’s immune system and ties it closer to the surrounding earth. Farmer’s markets and locally owned grocery stores tend to be the better bets for this.
Unplug- Twitter, Facebook and Youtube have all hyperlinked us together, but have also taken us away from our bodies. When I detoxed myself from Electric Lady Land, I found myself free to accomplish of lot of other goals and found it took me directly away from the body. I killed my smart phone and got a simple flip phone, only logged onto my Facebook one a week and narrowed my youtube searches to something educational and in line with my business or personal practice. After two months, the urges to compulsively log on have mostly vanished. It wasn’t easy, but personally find not knowing whats going on in people’s lives that have little to do with mine is a load off me. Not knowing what is going on with the world, leaves me free to tend to about my own world.
The to-do list is your friend- just makes the energetic routines I’m adding to my day to be more useful and fulfilling. Makes these seeming non-physical actions to be more physical.
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