Alternative Methods of Healing That Help You Physically and Mentally

While I have been focusing my writing on my other blog, Luminous Blue, about the healing journey I’ve been on through my daughter’s illness and transition from cancer, I am delighted to welcome back guest blogger Marcela De Vivo.  Today she writes about the benefits of alternative methods for healing mind, body and spirit, including Reiki, aromatherapy, yoga, meditation and nutrition.

Alternative Methods of Healing That Help You Physically and Mentally

While traditional medicine does have its place in terms of health care, real healing often takes place outside of a doctor’s office. Whether you have a physical ailment or a mental block, or a combination of both, prescription drugs, people in white coats, and a dizzying array of tests often don’t provide the healing you seek.

Healing, within and without, requires more than modern medicine can provide. Often people recover from a major illness, but suffer psychologically after the trauma of the experience. Whole body healing requires time, good health care, and occasionally, alternative methods of healing.

The methods suggested below have demonstrated some healing benefit, regardless of the physical or mental complaint. If you find that your doctor’s care, while good, is incomplete, consider trying some of the alternative options to support your current healing practices.

Reiki. Reiki is often lumped in with other forms of body work like massage therapy. However, Reiki involves very little physical touching, if any at all, and you remained fully clothed throughout the session. It induces deep relaxation through the help of a Reiki practitioner, who will help channel life force healing energy to aid in your healing by holding their hands over specific positions over the body, and treats the whole body, mind, and spirit. If you have a particular area of weakness, the Reiki practitioner may spend more time channeling Universal Reiki Energy into that area. Reiki has seen some success with treating Post-Traumatic Stress syndrome in soldiers.

Reiki, Lucia Maya, Reiki treatment,

Reiki Session

Aromatherapy. Linked with increased feelings of relaxation and well-being, essential oils aromatherapy is an easy and inexpensive way to immediately improve your mood. Certain oils like chamomile and lavender are associated with stress relief, going so far as to slow down brain waves. Grapefruit is considered an uplifting scent, and can help improve anxiety and depression. Peppermint, tea tree, and eucalyptus are antiviral and antibacterial, so using these essential oils can bolster your immune system in warding off illness while you’re in the process of healing.

Young Living, essential oils, aromatherapy, Lucia Maya,

Essential Oils used in aromatherapy

Yoga and Meditation. While these two are separate practices, they are so inexorably linked (yoga is sometimes considered a moving meditation) that they should both be practiced for best results. Depending on the type of yoga you choose, you can improve heart health, muscle strength, while gaining clarity of mind, improved focus, and reduced levels of stress. Healing requires a lot of mental energy—yoga and meditation helps you learn to channel that energy, while also giving you a much-needed mental break. Meditation is proven to reduce stress and can be used to help your body heal itself.

Lucia Maya, heart center, meditation, Reiki,

In a heart-centered meditation

Nutrition. What you eat during the healing process can have a major effect on the outcome. To ensure that your body has all the necessary nutrients in the best possible form, focus on whole, minimally processed or cooked foods. Getting plenty of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants helps boost your immune system and provides your body with the building blocks it needs to improve. Plus, what you eat can affect your mood and energy levels. Too much sugar and refined carbs and you may suffer from mood swings and energy crashes, neither of which is good for you mental well-being.

These are just a few of the alternative methods of healing that can help support your current practices, or fill in the gaps that modern medicine leaves. If you’re looking for a holistic healing experience, consider adding alternative healing options to what you’re already doing.

Marcela De Vivo is a freelance writer from Los Angeles and longtime Reiki and yoga enthusiast. As a mother of three children, one of whom suffers from Cerebral Palsy, she knows how alternative therapies can help with healing your body as well as your mind. You can follow more of her journey on PrayforNathan.org.

{ Email Lucia Maya to schedule a Reiki Healing Session with essential oils }

Out of the Blue

{This is a post from my new blogsite. See Luminous Blue if you’d like to read more of my experiences from this past year’s journey with my daughter, interwoven with Elizabeth’s memoir and poetry.}

On Friday, November 4, 2011, my world completely changed. My older daughter Elizabeth, 21 at that time, called me as I was finishing a qi gong class at home.  She was in tears, having trouble breathing and said something was wrong, she was in so much pain she was headed to the Student Health Center again.  I knew it was serious, as this girl doesn’t cry, and has a very high pain threshold. I immediately said I’d meet her there, jumped in the car and tried to center and calm myself as I drove.  As I walked in to find her, the kind doctor was telling her to go to the ER at UMC.  We asked if she could go home, drop off her car and pick up a few things, and he said yes, but not to delay.  He also called ahead and made sure she knew to tell them she was having chest pain, so she’d be seen quickly.  Apparently he had a very good idea that she had mediastinal non-Hodgkins lymphoma from looking at her, as her face and neck were quite swollen, and that a large tumor wrapped around a vein was causing the swelling. She’d been having pain in her right upper chest for weeks that another doctor had been dismissing as allergies, and treating her with prednisone.

We didn’t learn the exact diagnosis until after her biopsy on Monday. However within hours of arriving at the ER, her chest x-ray showed us a large mass in her chest, about the size of her heart, just to the right of it. It was shocking to see. Elizabeth was healthy – she’d rarely been sick, had been treated with homeopathic remedies most of her childhood, ate organic whole foods, was a vegetarian since age 14 and had been a dedicated yoga student much of her life. How could she have a mass the size of her fist in her chest? How could she have cancer?!

Our dear friend Ann Marie, Elizabeth’s doctor, came to sit with us as we waited hours for her be admitted.  I walked outside with her at some point, and started sobbing on her shoulder, “no, no, no, no, no….!” I was worried about all kinds of things, from the cost of the yet unknown treatment and her limited insurance cap, to her being able to complete her semester as a junior at the U of A, to how she would cope emotionally with the diagnosis of cancer, but I did NOT think she would die. That was not in my world of possibilities yet. I couldn’t even imagine my world without Elizabeth.

We were moved very slowly and gently into that reality, and for that I am deeply grateful. For the eleven months we had after this day, nine of them believing and trusting that she would have a full recovery and live a long, healthy life, and the last two months knowing she would die, I am grateful. Every moment was a blessing. She and I did a lifetime of healing in that time, she lived fully and richly, and in the end, she became love itself, showering us all with love, and in a state of grace that I’m blessed to have experienced in this lifetime.

Transitions and Acceptance

Dear Ones,
My older daughter, Elizabeth Blue, made her transition September 23, after a year long journey with cancer, and she did so while being showered with love and in a radiant state of grace. It is heartbreaking and we are finding moments of joy in this time of grieving.

Lucia Maya with Elizabeth Blue

Elizabeth Blue and Lucia Maya

It feels overwhelmingly sad, and when I’m present in each moment I come to a place of peace and acceptance of what is. We are truly blessed to have had this time of graceful passage with her, and for so many of our family and friends to be close by. It does feel like she is at peace, making her way in the realms of those who have recently left this earthly plain.

I will not be scheduling individual clients or classes for the time being.  I have been on hiatus while caring for my daughter, and am now taking some time for my own healing, being with friends and family, and doing some travel.  I have been writing and will be creating a new blog that will incorporate my process over the last year with my daughter, and Elizabeth Blue’s writing as well.

I will begin seeing clients again in November, starting on a part-time basis.

If you are interested in attending our Hawaii retreat, the dates are set for December 6 to 11, and promises to be a deep journey into the Hawaiian healing energies.

I send you all a radiance of love and wish for you a showering of divine grace at this time of collective and personal growth.

blessings and love,

Lucia