Cathleen McCauley L.M.T.

By Cathleen McCauley LMT

Imagine for a moment that you feel completely healed. What does that feel like to you? Maybe you feel well, your reproductive system or other body parts functioning healthily. You may feel spiritually whole, filled with understanding and purpose. Or perhaps for you, feeling healed equates to emotional balance and ease.

As you focus your awareness on your personal healing, know in your heart that it is possible. During growth or crisis phases in life, healing takes courage and dedication as you sift through your feelings and sit with them. Oftentimes it requires outside assistance, a trusted companion to help you dig deep into the parts of you that need some attention.  Above all, it calls for gentleness with self and spirit.

Turning to the chakra system to help you find your way through your experiences can be a great first step. Let’s look at how the first and second chakras, known as the lower chakras, can bring healing awareness.

The Root Chakra

The first chakra, known as the Root Chakra or Muladhara in Sanskrit, spins from the base of the spine. It relates to procreation and Mother Earth as well as to birth, receiving unconditional love from your parents and the beginning of your life. Oftentimes it is described as the place where physical energy, instinct and vitality are born.  From the Root Chakra, your kundalini, or pure desire, rises.

Meditation on the first chakra can help you feel safe, secure, grounded and stable as you navigate the fertility journey. When you are rooted, you feel fully alive, joyful, curious and able to trust. This chakra teaches that all is one.

Working with this chakra allows you access to greater self-nourishment should you have healing to do from early childhood. When you spend time nurturing and supporting your inner child, your first chakra blooms.  Healing on this level also plants the seeds for the future. What you do now to heal yourself opens the way for your children to have fulfilling early experiences when they come into the world.

Being disconnected from Root Chakra energy can manifest as high levels of fear or stress, addictions, depression, obsessive disorders or an extreme need for control. Physically, this chakra relates to the spine, kidneys, adrenal glands, immune system, skeletal system and reproductive organs. Cold hands and feet, frequent urination, high-blood pressure, low back pain, difficulties in the feet, legs or hips, low sex drive, and infertility or impotence are common ailments associated with an unbalanced first chakra.

The Sacral Chakra

As the energy of the first chakra opens, it moves up to the lower abdomen two fingers below the navel to closely relate to Swadhisthana or the Sacral Chakra. The center for emotion, desire and passion, the second chakra brings creativity, empowerment, sincerity and sexual energy into your life. Its symbol is a crescent moon, representing femininity and the womb.

As you open awareness to Sacral Chakra energy, you begin to explore your true feminine nature. You embrace your compassionate and nurturing qualities; you trust your intuition. Creativity blossoms and your emotions feel in balance. Relationships, both casual and intimate, are satisfying. You experience and enjoy sensual sexual experiences. Your female reproductive organs function healthfully.

As a child, if you were unable to express your feelings, emotions or desires, your second chakra may need attention. Some characteristics of an unbalanced second chakra include fear of pleasure, being out of touch with your feelings, resistance to change, acting overly emotional or dramatic, sexual addiction or poor boundaries.

In her book Anatomy of the Spirit, The Seven Stages of Power and Healing (Three Rivers Press, 1996) author and medical intuitive Carolyn Myss, Ph.D., explains that many female health problems stem from second chakra issues. “Problems with menstruation, cramps and PMS are classic indications that she is in some kind of conflict with being a woman…,” writes Myss.  Problems with bleeding or irregular periods frequently occur due to emotional stress and the feeling that a woman doesn’t have control over her choices, she says.

Further, Myss’ writes that tubal problems and infertility are centered on a woman’s inner child. The flow of eggs, she writes, can be blocked because the woman’s inner being does not feel nurtured or mature enough to feel fertile.

The Journey

Opening awareness to the parts of you that may need healing attention can be difficult. Take small steps. Remember to treat yourself with gentle care and nurturing commitment. Honor yourself for where you are right now on your journey, and be well in knowing you are whole.

As you ground yourself and connect with your feminine energy, I encourage you to contact me for more information or to make an appointment for the Enhance the Blood massage session. This healing massage treatment focuses on opening circulatory pathways to bathe the reproductive organs in blood and bring regeneration and nourishment to your whole body.

I look forward to assisting you as you connect with the sacredness of your body. You may contact me at Cathleen@pullingdownthemoon.com.

Lisa Espinosa, Reiki Master

Ann Michaels, Reiki Master

Ann Michels and Lisa Espinosa

This past summer Ann and I were fortunate enough to become certified in the Sacred Childbirth with Reiki (SCR) process. Currently there are only eleven SCR practitioners in the country and we are very excited to bring this modality to Pulling Down the Moon. Our teacher, the creator of this process, Cori Nielsen, is a Dar Shem Reiki Master with 15 years experience as a healer. Cori has written numerous articles about SCR and earlier this year she wrote a piece for Reiki News Magazine describing the benefits of this process.

It’s important to explain that this is a powerful and gentle modality that helps bring healing to the reproductive system whether you are trying to conceive or are already pregnant. An important component of our intense training was that each of us experienced an SCR healing. We both experienced deep healing of old emotional wounds that we had been carrying around in our physical body, specifically in the area of the second chakra which houses all of our reproductive organs.  During the training we were also awakened to all the ways that SCR could help women at PDtM.  This process aims to  help heal and harmonize the  reproductive system, potentially enhancing and supporting fertility.  Once pregnant, SCR can be a valuable tool for creating a relaxed and empowered pregnancy and delivery.   Of course this is meant to be a supplement to any medical care that you are receiving, not a replacement.

Because we work within the medical community, it is important for us to say that there is no current clinical evidence looking at the efficacy of reiki for fertility.  It is, in fact, difficult to “prove” healing on a cellular level.  There are, however, numerous studies that support the use of reiki for different medical conditions.  Our commitment to this process is based upon our own personal experience and the feedback of the women who have come to us for reiki treatments and reported extensive benefits.

1. Healing the Reproductive System
Sacred Childbirth with Reiki clears cellular memory of pain and trauma to our reproductive organs bringing balance and harmony to our overall system. In addition, it helps you process emotions that may be locked in your body and blocking prana from flowing.

Possible traumatic experiences that can affect a woman’s well-being, include:

• miscarriages and other birth terminations
• diseases and disorders of sacred organs (for example, cysts, cervical cancer, endometriosis)
• all forms of sexual trauma (child abuse, harassment, rape)

How the SCR process can help:

• Helps you connect with a deep relaxed state
• Clears the cellular memory of the traumatic event
• Helps blocked emotions from trauma to get processed in a safe and gentle way
• Helps you embody a feeling of empowerment and wholeness
• Helps release blockages connected to speaking your truth in this way supporting you to express yourself clearly and lovingly
• Helps release deep-rooted beliefs of inferiority and worthlessness
• Helps you tap into your inner wisdom and intuition
• Helps you regain trust in yourself

2. Empowered Childbirth
Below are some of the tools Sacred Childbirth with Reiki can equip you with so you can  have a beautiful, empowered childbirth.

• Deep relaxation at the core of your being
• Clearing of fear, trauma and negativity about birth
• Practice assessing your body’s knowledge on how to birth with ease
• Visualize your dream birth
• Specific tools for building partner involvement

*Please note that Sacred Childbirth with Reiki is meant to be a complement, not a replacement, for your prenatal care.

Please look at PDM’s website for upcoming free Reiki seminars where we will describe more about Reiki, the SCR process and offer you a mini sample Reiki session. Also, if you’re interested in hearing more details about our experiences with SCR or Reiki in general please call either one of us or send us an email.  We’d love to hear from you.

by Beth Heller, M.S.

I got reiki yesterday – and I liked it so much I woke up today determined to write about it.  In fact, I left the treatment thinking that this is a something I should probably do more often.  I’ve written about reiki and fertility previously – I received reiki sessions throughout my fertility journey – but I had forgotten how gosh-darn good it feels to lay down on a table and have someone move life energy into my body.   Okay – so I read that last sentence and admittedly it sounded kind of weird.  You had what channeled into your body?  And how, exactly, did that work?

I feel I should now attempt to answer these questions in a way that doesn’t sound too woo-woo.

Q:  What was channeled into your body????

A:  Life energy.  Reiki is an ancient Japanese form of Natural Healing.  Rei is the Japanese word for Universal (the Energy that is available for everyone) and Ki (chi in Chinese) is the Japanese word for energy. Reiki moves  the Ki that is abundantly available in the universe into the body for health and wellbeing.

Q:  And how exactly did does this happen?

A:  A reiki practitioner, in this case Ann Michaels at PDtM, has been attuned to reiki energy and can direct this energy through her hands.  During the treatment I was fully clothed and lay on a massage bed.  As I rested with my eyes closed, Ann would rest her hands very lightly on different parts of my body (head, shoulders, belly, feet, etc.).  Unlike massage there was no body manipulation, just a sort of gentle touch.  Often Ann would remain very still as she worked, other times I could feel her hands moving above the surface of my body, not touching at all.

Q:  How did you know that it “worked”?

A:  As I mentioned previously, unlike massage reiki does not involve rubbing, stretching or other manipulation.  However, in my own experience with reiki I have felt physical and mental release both during and after the session similar to (and often deeper than) the release I get from massage. I also find my “mind’s eye” is very active during reiki.  I see colors, flash back to memories, faces and my body will feel rushes, tingling and sensations of release, hot and cold.  I also experience waves of emotion.   Sometimes I fall asleep or slip into a deeply relaxed twilight space that I find to be incredibly enjoyable.

At the Moon we are lucky to have two wonderful reiki practitioners – Ann Michaels and Lisa Espinosa.  Ann and Lisa are two of only eleven practitioners in the US trained in Sacred Childbirth with Reiki (SCR) a reiki program aimed specifically at fertility, pregnancy and childbirth (stay tuned for an upcoming blog about SCR).  There is a body of clinical studies that support the efficacy of reiki for different medical conditions and for stress reduction.  However, no specific studies to date look at reiki and infertility.

Now, to wrap up this blog I also wanted to share a bit about my experience with the practitioner, Ann.  She started my session by asking me to set a short term goal and a long term goal for the work; and these goals were something I could choose to share with her or not.  After the session Ann shared feedback from her perspective and related what she felt from my body during the session.   The setting of goals was very helpful.   For the fertility journey the answer of the long-term goal is usually pretty easy – a baby.  But the short-term goals (whether to do another cycle, to make it through the 2ww without a melt-down, to let go of needle phobia during the injection phase of an ART cycle, become less stressed, eat better) are also very valuable and can greatly improve day-to-day life.  The act of setting these intentions prompts self-study.  What is it that we want to create right now?  What do we want our lives to look like in six months?

As a yoga teacher I have a strong belief in life energy and its relationship to stress, fertility and disease.  Reiki really works for me – and I will often recommend it for women who, like me, experienced a lot of grief, failure and loss in the fertility arena.   If you are interested in reiki and would like to learn more about it, we are offering a free Patient Education seminar at PDtM in Chicago this Sunday, October 31 from 1-2:30.   You can click here to register.