A Healing Shift in Energy

by Johanne Kieffer

A woman I knew, whom I'll call Tina, was a boisterous spinster of 68 years with no partner, no living family or friends. She was diagnosed with inoperable uterine cancer at the end of June. The tumor was blocking her bowels. She wasn't expected to live past August and was told to get her affairs in order.

Tina was always loud, always talking, always right. She lived very simply and had no real money to speak of. She still used a rotary phone, even shared a party-line…unheard of!

Even though she wasn't a massage client of mine, upon hearing the news of her cancer I offered her Reiki. I knew from personal experience this healing energy could help her, on many levels, move through the frightening journey she was about to embark upon.

Research has shown that Reiki, a Japanese energy technique, helps ease the side effects of chemotherapy. Tina was suspect, at first. I produced research on the findings of this technique and explained that it was noninvasive. Reluctantly, she agreed to try a Reiki session. She had nothing to lose, but time.

Tina talked almost non-stop during our initial sessions. She was very guarded with her words, talking about current events, always having a righteous opinion on the topic de jour. As I laid my hands on the area of the growing tumor I realized this was her process. The words flew out of her mouth, session after session, and her guarded wall begin to crumble.

She began talking about her childhood, her mother and father, who had been deceased for many years. She laughed, cried and emotionally unfolded like a flower in the warmth of the sun. It appeared that she was tying up some very old loose ends.

"Everything is energy… What we put in our minds and our bodies manifests in our health and wellbeing, physically and emotionally. Awareness and participation in our own healing is key."

~ Johanne Kieffer, LMT, RM

Tina was an artist so I wondered why this cancer had settled in her second chakra, the place of creation, the place of giving birth to ideas as well as to children. Why was this energy blocked in the creative center, left stagnate, manifesting as an unwanted tumor?

She brought me several beautiful watercolor paintings depicting seascapes of Cape Cod in gratitude for our energy sessions. Painted over the years, they were left to collect dust in her home for no one to see. The stagnant energy was starting to make sense.

We scheduled a one hour Reiki session every day, six days a week, for the first three months. She reported that her C125 test number, which reflects the amount of active cancer within the body, was 1495. After receiving the Reiki her number dropped to 800. By late Fall, it dropped down to 35, which she was told was in the normal range. Amazing! Her tumor had shrunk.

Tina no longer needed a laxative to have a bowel movement. Her energy was up, she was walking and eating, being more social and even making new friends.

During this time, she shared an experience of seeing a lime green grasshopper in her home, sitting on her bathroom mirror. The book "Animal Speaks" defines this animal totem as symbolizing "…uncanny leap forward...one that will probably carry you past the others around you in your life".

There was no entry for this grasshopper, no open window, screen or door and yet it found its way into her home. Perhaps the mirror it sat upon is also symbolic; a reflection of the leap she was in the midst of taking. It made me smile, knowing healing was taking place in many forms.

That Christmas, I gave her a gift from my garden, a red geranium. I retrieve them from my outdoor window boxes every year and pot them up, saving them from the killing winter frost. A friend later told me that geraniums are symbolic of the survivor. Unconsciously I must have known this, making the gift even more meaningful.

Even though the original site of the tumor had decreased in size, the cancer reappeared, metastasizing in Tina's liver. She wasn't expected to live more than two months after her diagnosis, yet she lived another year and three months.

Tina died the night before Thanksgiving. Perhaps her loose ends were finally in order and now she could leave this world in peace.

I look at the red geranium that blooms on my windowsill and the seascape that hangs on my wall and I think of Tina. It confirms my belief that everything is energy and healing comes from within. Healing can be miraculous, like the physical change in her cancer activity, or found in the transformation from isolation to experiencing the joys of living.

Healing allows us to grow and move forward physically and emotionally, it's all connected. It reminds me that life is but a moment in time and a shift in our energy can make all the difference in our choices of how we spend it.

Photgraph by Johanne Kieffer

Soulful Touch
"Healing from within"

Johanne Kieffer, LMT, RM
508-240-0775
soulfultouch.abmp.com

Johanne has been practicing the healing art of Reiki since 1995. She has earned Reiki I, II, III, Master/Teacher certifications.

She is also a licensed massage therapist, practicing massage and energetic bodywork on Cape Cod.

To schedule a session call 508-240-0775 or visit soulfultouch.abmp.com