Reiki and healing touch are two of many forms of energy healing. The wonderful thing about these types of healing is that there are no adverse side effects. There’s no need to worry about them increasing the odds for kidney disease, liver damage, suicidal thoughts, etc., and we don’t have to worry about how they interact with medications. The worst case scenario is that nothing happens, while the best case is that you truly heal.

The sad part about energy healing is that it scares some people. Because there’s a tendency to be afraid of things we don’t understand, I’ll attempt to shed some light on this subject.

Energy is all around us. It’s in the air, it’s in plants and animals, it’s in dirt and rocks, it’s in everything. Have you noticed that different places affect your mood differently? Walking along the beach has a different feel than walking into an accounting office. The desert has a different energetic feel than being at a baseball game or a shopping mall. This is because everything we see and feel is a different form of energy. Some makes us feel good and others, not so much.

Even thoughts and feelings are energetic. Just notice what happens to your temperament when you think of someone smiling at you, then notice how it changes when you think of someone angrily glaring at you, and pointing their finger in your face. We can feel the other person’s intentions.

We are affected by, and affect, energy all the time. Energy healing, or “hands on” healing is something we can all do. It’s a natural gift. Like art, some people are more gifted than others, but we all have the capability.

Here’s an experiment to try: Start by rubbing your hands together, quickly, to warm them up. Once they’re warm, rest them on your lap, palms facing up, and imagine what it might feel like if you could let energy move from your heart, down your arms and out your hands. To begin with, pretending is good enough. Then imagine holding a light bulb in each hand, and feeling what it might be like if you could light them up with the energy from your heart.

You may feel little pins and needles in your hands, you may feel them get even warmer, you may feel like you can’t feel the boundary between your hands and the air, and you may feel like sand is pouring out of them.

Next, bring the palms of your hands slowly toward each other, noticing if you can feel the energy of your hands as they get close. Stop when you can feel it, and stay there. That is your energy. Notice how it feels. If you practice, you’ll be able to feel it with your hands farther away. The next step is to do the above, without rubbing your hands together, to remove the element of heat from friction.

As I mentioned earlier, thoughts have energy. Prayer is a beautiful example of this. If someone has good intentions to heal, it’s much like a prayer. If they have this intention while they use beautiful energies, amazing things can happen. I’ve seen it many times.

Energy healing is not something to be afraid of. It’s been practiced for thousands of years. Many Christians, Catholics, Jews and Mormons use a form called, “laying on of hands.”

Skeptics often times claim that any healing that may occur, is simply a placebo effect. To that I say, so what? If I’m feeling bad, and a placebo makes me feel better, it doesn’t change the fact I’m better. If it works, and it comes from good intentions and beautiful energy, isn’t that wonderful?

I’m amazed at the number of energy healers we have in this Valley. If you don’t know of any, start asking around. Chances are, you know someone who does it.

When we think of strength, the first thing that may come to mind is working out with weights. As a personal trainer, I applaud all those who pump iron! Wonderful! Watch your form, challenge yourself and make sure to stretch afterwards.

Today I’m writing about another form of strength: Inner strength. Just like weight training, it takes commitment and practice to get better, stronger, more powerful. Just like weight training, we have good days, challenging days, and days when we feel we have no strength at all. Just like weight training, the more we practice, the better we’ll be, and the easier it becomes.

Inner strength is not aggression. It isn’t the ability to overpower someone or something, and it isn’t about muscling through a bad situation. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. True power is rising above negativity, to feel okay no matter what’s happening around you. This enables you to calmly face challenges, and focus on appropriate solutions for problems without stressing out, raising our heart rate and blood pressure.

When life presents you with a difficult situation, remaining calm may seem near impossible. It may feel as though we can’t be alright until after we make our way through the difficulty. Truly, we need to be okay first, then work the issue. This is not the same as giving up and accepting bad situations, or stuffing feelings deep inside and not fixing what’s wrong. It’s having fortitude to simply, somehow remain peaceful no matter what, to keep the sympathetic (fight or flight) system from kicking in.

The Optimist Creed, written by Christian Larson in 1922 put it so succinctly: “I promise myself to be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.”

We all have the ability to do this. We’re stronger than we think. The difficulty comes because we forget our innate power. Things happen as we grow up that trigger decisions about ourselves that keep us from realizing the strength we have.

The good news is that we can reclaim our strength. We can get it back without spending money, without exhausting ourselves, without spending a lot of time. We reclaim our strength by making a decision: A decision to be all right.

We have a choice as to how we feel about a situation, a person, our surroundings, our life. We also have a choice about how much energy we put into positive and negative thoughts.

If someone says something hurtful, we can choose how much attention to give it. We can choose to hold on to it for a day, a year, a decade or a lifetime, or we can choose to let it roll off of us, as my father says, “Like water off a duck’s back.”

How others act is their choice, how we react is our choice. Letting others bring you down gives them power. Being okay within yourself, gives you power.

When given bad news, we can choose to shut down, muddle through, get angry, hurt, etc., or focus on positivity. Focusing on the positive aspects of things, is a large part of our strength training routine that will make us stronger.

You may want to memorize this excerpt from the optimist creed, “I promise myself to be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.” How do we accomplish this? Practice. Notice your reactions when you get hurt, upset, offended, etc., and examine them. Then do what you can to somehow be okay. You may be surprised at just how strong you truly are. And if you feel like picking up a pair of weights and pumping a little iron to make your outside strong too, then good for you!

Inner strength, as well as outer strength, creates more happiness and better health.

Years ago, while receiving a massage, the therapist stopped, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Diane, if you don’t start stretching, your career as an exercise instructor is limited!”

Wow, I always knew I should stretch, but I considered it boring. My exercise consisted of dancing, skipping and hopping around a room to the beat of the music, because that was fun. I liked to crank up the music and go. I didn’t want to be bored just stretching. But these words from my masseur truly resonated in my body, and was the beginning of my journey toward yoga.

Yoga was the way I chose to stretch, because of all the other benefits it provides, but it’s certainly not the only way to do it. Simple, non-yogic stretches can be done in many different ways. Some require a partner, others are a bit dangerous, and some should only be done when the body has had a sufficient warmup.

Safely stretching is very important because tight muscles can wreak havoc on the body. They can pull bones out of proper alignment, cause bone spurs, increase your risk of injury, limit movement, make you feel rigid, worsen your posture and create pain. Of course, there are many reasons backs, necks, hips and knees can hurt. But muscle tightness, which can be caused by inactivity, too much sitting, age, injury, poor posture, intense workouts, lack of stretching, stress, and more, is common.

The interesting thing is, muscles have memory. If they are repeatedly contracted, or shortened, they actually remember, and will stay in a shortened state. If they are stretched often enough, they will remember that, and stay lengthened.

Here’s an example: We have a muscle called the “psoas.” It attaches to the vertebrae of the low back (lumbar spine), moves down and forward through the body, attaching to the front of the upper end of the thigh bone. When this muscle contracts, it either lifts the thigh up, or bends the body forward. While seated, this muscle is in a naturally shortened state. Because of muscle memory, if one sits for extended periods of time, this muscle remains shortened even upon standing. If it’s not stretched periodically, it will eventually shorten so much it will pull the lumbar vertebrae forward, causing stress in the low back, creating pain.

Another commonly tight muscle group is the pectorals, located in the chest. When these become tight, they pull on the shoulders, rounding them forward. This creates poor posture, and possibly neck, upper back and/or shoulder pain.

If you don’t have a stretching routine, and yoga isn’t for you, here’s what I recommend to gain flexibility, and help stay, or move, out of pain.

Choose a muscle and stretch it to a point where you feel a pull that is uncomfortable, but not painful. Come out of the stretch, releasing the muscle, just a little as you inhale for a slow count of three. On the exhale, press carefully back into the stretch to a slow count of three. Repeat this six to 10 times. You may notice that each exhale allows you to move deeper into the stretch. Challenge yourself, without hurting yourself and be satisfied no matter how far you go.

Make sure you move with your breath. This gentle movement will help pump blood to the stretched muscle so it won’t get sore, and the breath will give you an opportunity to connect your mind with your body, creating a calming effect.

Of course, another wonderful option is to join a yoga class. I have done many types of exercise throughout my life, and yoga is the one that has provided my body with the most benefits.

If you don’t want the enjoyment in your life to be limited by pain or less than optimal range of motion, choose to take care of yourself by increasing your flexibility. Your body may just surprise you with how much better you feel.