13/01/2011 by positivelycalm.

Well it has been ages since I have managed to find something to write about - Although in all honesty what I have actually wanted to blog about was the birth of miracle reiki baby. And finally through the madness of christmas, I have had chance to sit down and get writing.

He was due on christmas day but because of the complications involved in the entire pregnancy, as well as her diabetes, they decided they wanted to induce and make sure all was well before staff started taking holidays.

So on Monday 13th they set off to the hospital and after a long and arduous attempt at induction, little baby Dylan was born by c-section at lunch time on the 15th.

I had to look back over the initial review she wrote for my website to really get my head around just what a miracle he is. As I wrote about before, she was pretty much told there was only a small amount of chance that she would get pregnant with IVF - never mind with no interventions.

There is no proof that Reiki caused all this - but the reiki treatments she has recieved prior to her pregnancy and during it certainly have helped her to relax and ultimately helped her become a mummy.
I have been lucky to see him twice, the first visit being a very emotional and special occasion. Holding the little man was perfection itself. He has such positive energy and is totally chilled out and happy with his mummy and daddy.

I don’t want anyone to feel I am promising false hope - but in the new year, perhaps you can make a resolution to be good to yourself- to give yourself chance to relax - and no better place than that is with a holistic therapy of any kind - be it yoga, reiki, reflexology, massage or some simple meditation cd’s to do at home. A small amount of time out can have a huge beneficial effect on your mental and physical health.

If you are going through cycles of IVF and taking the emotional journey that goes with it, it is the perfect time to ensure that you are as relaxed as can be. Sometimes there is no getting away from the fact that you do need the medical interventions and benefits of science to help - but getting yourself as relaxed will get you through the roller coaster of emotions and may increase the chances of success in reaching your pregnancy.

Take care of yourself and wishing everyone the best for the new year to come.

Namaste

Posted in Stress & IVf, Stress & Infertility, Stress & Fertility, Reiki, Alternative medicine, doing things differently, Alternative Therapies & Fertility, Stress, Stress relief, Self care, IVF | Print | 2 Comments »

15/11/2010 by positivelycalm.

So, my original plans when I trained with Reiki,  was to use it to help women through all the physical challenges and transitions in their lives and also to work through bereavement and loss.

The bereavement side stemmed from my own experiences and also with the idea that it could help people who have suffered miscarriage and still birth. Then, one of my friends suffered some complications after the birth of her first child, and I felt like I was supposed to help her through the process of living with that. This also featured a lot around loss, trauma and in a lot of ways, without divulging her personal details, a kind of bereavement.

I also wanted to help other women during pregnancy as it had made a massive difference to me. SO I thought well, why not try and roll it all into one, perhaps it could work - but i hadn’t really thought about helping ladies when they were trying to have a baby.
I came across a facebook discussion of a friend’s facebook status. Her friend was having some serious issues and was asking about reiki- I started replying about it - and thought what a shame, I could have given her a treatment - I presumed that, as my friend lived down south, so did hers. Turns out, she was only just a few junctions up the motorway from where I am. So, we arranged that after she had recovered from her surgery, we would meet up and have a treatment. All she was really expecting was that it would help her relax and that in turn would help her give up smoking, something she was going to have to do as a start on her journey to fertility treatment. I also felt that it would help her to emotionally deal with the difficulties she was having, and should it have happened, that if she was not able to have a baby, she would have the mental strength to work through that journey too.

That first time, was a really powerful session. With in that session, somehow she found she didn’t need to smoke anymore and has not smoked more than a couple since. She felt incredibly calm and positive and slept really well that first night.
I came away from it feeling amazingly energised and within 3 days had gone from considering the posibilities of becoming a therapist and maybe one day becoming a yoga teacher for children- to being booked on my next reiki course, booked on a yoga teaching course and having a name for my new company - I had also been given a treatment table that someone else had been wondering what they would do with it. A really powerful sign that I was thinking the right things !

A few weeks later my client suffered a very early miscarriage, major enforced changes on the front at work and at home,  and was really struggling. So, on our journey home from the north, we swung by and I gave her a treatment to help her sleep and relax after the real stresses she was experiencing.

Around about 4 weeks later, she texted and said she was most likely pregnant.

And here we are 33 weeks later and still going strong. There have been lots of stresses for her and she has been closely monitored after no end of problems.

I am absolutely not able to say that it was definately Reiki that enabled her to get pregnant - but she was expecting fully to have to go through fertility treatment and take clomid, which was only going to be a short term chance due to advanced endometriosis, in addition to a number of other complications.
At twelve weeks she wrote a review for my feedback page. I won’t put it all on here but the full story is available through the website. http://positivelycalmyoga.co.uk/index.php?url=feedback.html

And here we are 33 weeks later and still going strong. There have been lots of stresses for her and she has been closely monitored after no end of problems, trips to hospitals and worrying moments- but she has had lots of scans and baby is in there and doing well.

I have seen her several times over the last few months, and “little reiki baby” as he has been nicknamed for now, is kicking hard and rocking around. I know the arrival of this baby will be a very special moment for her, her husband and all of her family and friends and it is amazing for me to see how things have helped. I found her original information form that suggested she would be beginning fertility treatment in september 2010 - obviously, she hasn’t needed it.

I am not sure how to explain, really, how I feel that Reiki has helped her because really, there is no proof. However, her consultant has said he didn’t expect her to conceive on her own. He performed an operation at the start of the year but it was really with the plan that it should help her with the fertility treatment. He can’t say it was reiki - but he knows he didn’t think she would get pregnant. I am only guessing but I suppose it is something he has done many times before, and hasn’t usually resulted in an un assisted conception.

What I do know is that the Reiki energy balances the chakras ( energy points) in the body. It also assists the body to heal itself, to release negative energies and as these things happen, then the body can balance itself, allowing it to function as it should. It is a complementary therapy and I would always suggest it is used along side the advice of qualified doctors and medical advice.

It also aids relaxation and that is certainly something that has been proven as being a big facilitator in conception. It is also very gentle and non invasive. It simply goes where it needs to in the body, and does what is required. It can result in a feeling of calm, needing sleep or even being full of energy. I have had clients who have had a strong emotional release - either sudden needs to cry, scream or shout - and can also help with a physical release, often like suddenly need to go to the toilet. My reiki teacher has always described it as “new plumbing” because it releases blockages and clears out your energy pathways and allows your body to physically balance out.

I need to emphasise strongly that I am not claiming that if I - or any therapist- give a treatment to someone who is struggling with fertility, they will then definately get pregnant within a few weeks or months. However, I do feel that there are lots of positive points to suggest that it is worth looking after yourself when trying and the nature of reiki and its healing qualities, may aid relaxation and put your body into a more positive place when trying. What it can’t do is hurt you. The energy is gentle, natural and will help you work through the emotional stresses of the fertility journey. I believe that everyone is on a life journey, and the reiki can also assist in helping you to deal with the ups and down of that. It may be the case that you will experience miscarriage during your attempts, or may ultimately be unable to conceive even with help - but i also feel that the reiki treatments can help women - and men - to deal with this devastating situation and to find a positive way of dealing with it as an individual and, hopefully then, as a couple.

The beauty of the reiki is that it knows what each person needs and will guide them along their journey.  So far I have only worked with one person who was undergoing a fertility issue, along with several ladies during their pregnancies (  a future blog!) but I sincerely hope that I can work with other couples, as in fact it has turned out to be, and help them through in what ever way they need support.

In addition, I have found that Reiki pulls people towards it when they need it and usually gives you a good sign that it is right for you. If you feel that you want to investigate it, it will probably be worth your while - whether with me or any other therapist. Listen to your own body, and let it look after you.

Namaste

xxx

Posted in Fertility & stress, Fertility Blogger, Support for infertility, doing things differently, Stress relief, Alternative Therapies & Fertility, female fertility, Fertility | Print | 2 Comments »

03/11/2010 by positivelycalm.

Hi

Going on from what I was saying about yoga for fertility in my earlier post, I thought this might interest people as I literally just stumbled upon it on a yoga website.

” This integrated and harmonious approach to hatha yoga is especially developed to bring comfort and joy to women. It is suited to all women, with or without previous experience of yoga. Women of all ages are welcome, whether you are complete beginners or super-experienced yoginis or yoga teachers. In fact, any woman who would like a feminine, nourishing and fluid practice with elegant movement flows, delicious breath work, resonant sound, and deep healing relaxation is invited to join her sisters for this women-only class.”

More information on these two websites.

http://www.yogamatters.com/pages/event.aspx?id=1245&referrer=http%3a%2f%2fwww.yogamatters.com%2fpages%2fliveyoga.aspx

http://www.sitaram.org/sitaram/womens-health/menstrual-yoga/

Probably a bit far for anyone in Nottingham -but figured it might help some one

Posted in doing things differently, Fertility & stress, Loving yourself, female fertility, Womens Health, Positive Living, Alternative Therapies & Fertility | Print | 1 Comment »

13/10/2010 by positivelycalm.

Hi - this is my first post, so figured the best place for me to start was with my own journey.

Which in itself is a little bit scary, as in a place that is helping people who are finding it hard, I don’t want to be seen as a bit smug and insensitive to say that we caught the first time we started trying. Which we did.

However, our ttc was subject to quite a delay.

We planned to start ttc July 07  and felt that we were ready to see where we ended up.

However, in the January, I was signed off work due to infections and stress related to a family situation. Just as I was then about to go back to work, my sister took her own life and I was thrown into a world that before I had only seen in films.  Between march and may, I attended 3 funeral of close relatives.  I was working as a teacher, which of course is not known for being a stress free job, and with feeling isolated by friends, some of whom thought I would be “over it” by now, I found that I was in a constant state of stress and was also starting to lose my hair. It was definately no way to begin pregnancy so we decided to hold off, even though we really wanted to start our family. I knew my body - and mind- were just not up to it.  There was little available in terms of GP or councelling support, so in the end I started investigating alternative means of help.  I decided to have some Reiki treatments as a friend had previously practised on me in her training and found a local practitioner. ( I will blog more about this later). This really did help me relax -I had time to myself, to allow the positive energies involved in the Reiki to help me release the negative emotions that I needed to release. Through this, I started becoming aware of my own need to change. That I needed to do more exercise and to over all improve my physical and mental health. I had also been considering starting yoga classes, so when a children’s yoga teacher came to work with the children at school, I took my chance to give it a try.

After one session, I felt so energised and positive, I decided i wanted to join an adult class and really start finding out how good I could feel. I joined in with the class for a few more weeks and found i just felt better- more relaxed yet energised-each time.

In the mean time, I was feeling a lot brighter in myself, and for the want of a better word, human again, so we decided to ditch the contraception and start trying. I did check out where I was in my cycle, having been tracking it monthly and then using an online calculator to find out roughly when I was fertile but thought well, it could take a while so lets live for today and see what happens.

And, yes, we caught probably first or second time. I was convinced that it couldn’t be, having been so stressed for so long, yet there was the line on the stick telling me it was a bfp.

So I investigated antenatal yoga instead. When I got chatting to my yoga teachers, it turned out that yoga is often linked to the idea of helping with pregnancy. It is known to balance the mind, body and spirit, so perhaps adjusts the body internally too and gets parts set that things can just naturally “fall into place”. It also appears to be a common occurence that females who are training to be antenatal yoga teachers fall pregnant during the course, probably due to learning all the best practises to assist the body during pregnancy. Either way, I felt very strongly that the yoga really made a big difference, not least because i was so relaxed.

This is my little story, one that I am convinced was aided by the alternative paths I went down. I hope one day I  will become an adult yoga teacher as well and will be able to help  others on their path with yoga.

I have  been drawn to using Reiki in the fertility field as i feel that this too can make a remarkable difference, something i have already witnessed happen with a client. I am not saying that Reiki gets you pregnant, but it can definately help you relax.  And the relaxation part is something that comes up time and time again in relation to fertility.

I will continue to blog at another time and explain more about how I feel Reiki can help with fertility, with the aim that others will benefit from what I have experienced and what Reiki has to offer. And if neither of these things actually does help with the physical act of getting pregnant, it certainly doesn’t do the mental health of the mummy to be - or daddy to be- for that matter, any harm at all.

Namaste

Posted in Guest blogger, Fertility & stress, Fertility Blogger, doing things differently, female fertility, Fertility, Alternative Therapies & Fertility, Getting Pregnant, Trying to Conceive | Print | 1 Comment »