Reiki Party!
Posted by lisa on Aug 29, 2008
I give a discount for dog/owner Reiki sessions, and some of my dog owners decided to team up and get Reiki for themselves and their dogs all in one night. I’d never given Reiki for hours straight, but figured it was worth a try as long as I could take a break for food now and again. Reiki isn’t supposed to drain you, since the energy you give is not from your personal store of energy, but I thought that just keeping mental focus for that long might be tiring. There were three dogs and four people, and we stopped for a nice dinner, so the whole night took about five hours.
I alternated humans and dogs to take it easy on my back. Even with my table set to the proper height, standing for an hour can be tough. Rolling around on the floor with pups is hard on the back in a different way, but the alternating helped. In case anyone is considering trying this, my energy level was fine at the end, but my hips were very sore the next few days. In massage school they taught us to mind our body mechanics and not strain ourselves helping the client. This is easier said than done, especially with dogs. When you finally get the dog settled and allowing you to do what your need to do, you’d to anything to avoid causing the dog to stand up. It’s tempting to just lean over a little farther in your current position than move and unsettle the dog.
I did find that after five hours of Reiki I was pretty electrified. I kept shaking my arms because they were very tingly. I also had trouble quieting myself for sleep, the opposite of being mentally drained.
I loved the pups, of course, but the people were also very interesting. One man was a bit of a skeptic but was willing to try. I do hands-on Reiki whenever possible, but when I did the position where I hold my hands over his eyes, I tried not to touch him. I thought that if I were in his position and thought the whole thing was a little weird, I wouldn’t want some strange lady to put her hands on my face. So, I only touched him if my hands shook. He said it was like having his face “massaged by clouds.” I thought that was very poetic.
Another client gave me my first experience with a healing reaction (sometimes called “crisis”). I always explain to my new clients that sometimes the condition I’m treating will get worse before it gets better as the body heals itself, and not to be overly alarmed. On the party night her foot was in pain and felt a little better after her first treatment. After I checked up with her this week, she said that it had in fact gotten much worse before getting much better. A feel a little bad contributing to someone’s pain, even in the service of healing, but she was fine with it since she knew it might be coming.
When I was attuned, the concept of learning more about Reiki on my own seemed a little strange. After all, an attunement is essentially something that is “done to” you, after which you can suddenly do this wonderful thing, with very little formal training. And being a scientist, I am used to formal training. I’m used to knowing why things work and how they look underneath. But the longer I do Reiki, the more nuances I pick up, the more confident I become in my skills, without anyone teaching me. All I have to do is pay very close attention to my senses. Which, I suppose, was part of my formal science training, though it feels very, very different.
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Tail Up!
Posted by lisa on Aug 20, 2008
Fergus had his first long walk in three weeks today. It was too cold for cicadas to sing, so the boys and I met their friend Sally at the conservation land and went for a long walk through the fields and a swim in the river. With no Mutt Muffs. He’s out of shape now, so I didn’t really throw the ball, just let him run with the other two dogs and swim. Fergus had his happy trot on display, and was so very happy. It did my heart good. When Fergus is happy he shares it with everyone around.
He’ll probably be sore tomorrow from all the exertion. Last time he overdid it he had a temporary limp. Luckily I know massage.
The Mutt Muffs have been a savior, but I’m very glad to set them aside now and then.
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This is ridiculous
Posted by lisa on Aug 10, 2008
This year in New England, I feel like I’m under siege by summer. My dog Fergus, is a nervous wreck. He’s lived five years without being afraid of thunderstorms, but this year, we’ve had one every other day . All summer. Sometimes every day.
He goes from room to room with every thunderclap, like he’s thinking, “Damn, it’s in this room, too, I’ll try the kitchen. Nope, here, too, I’ll try the bathtub.”
It may have something to do with his ear being extra sensitive. I say this only because he has another sudden-onset phobia: he won’t go outside. As soon as he goes out, his tail sneaks below his belly, his ears go down and he pulls like a sled dog to get back inside. Panic, is how one friend described it.
This is the dog that never smiles in the house… he’s only happy outside. Now I can’t get him to go out to go potty. It was John that figured it out. He got Fergus into the backyard, and he was okay at first. Then he’d dive under a table and tremble. He’d come out for awhile, then dive under and tremble. John linked it to the off-and-on singing of the cicadas. You know, these guys:
They make an infernal racket sounding like this:
Cidaca M. cassini making my life hard
I remember last year it bugged him, but not like this. Meanwhile, I can only get my dog to do his business when it rains (provided there is no thunder), or in the early morning before they start singing. Reiki, massage, T-touch help a bit with the thunder fear but not with the cicadas. I began to think it may have more to do with ear pain than fear.
In the end, it came to this: aviation ear muffs for my dog. I ordered a pair of Mutt Muffs for Fergus. The other dogs make fun of him, but now he will go outside.
His tail stays up; he has a happy trot. He does his business. I can’t let him run off leash, because he can’t hear my call. Still, a thousand times better. I was starting to worry about his kidneys.
I use them, too, during thunderstorms (on Fergus. They’re too small for me.). Some dogs hate more than the noise; they sense the pressure changes or the static in the air. Ferg seems to only react to the noise so far, so I thought it was worth a try. It helps, a little. The quieter claps he can’t hear at all (no jump in his muscles); the louder ones must sound not so loud. He’ll lay in bed with me until the really big ones come. I would take a picture of him in his Mutt Muffs for you, but this storm is pretty bad. Fergus is in the closet. Sigh.
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