Maggie Seaman, LMSW
RYT-200, Reiki Master
Reiki for Anxiety & PTSD
If you or someone close to you suffers from an Anxiety Disorder or PTSD, you know the heartbreaking struggle it can be to live with.
Anxiety disorders are the most common category of psychiatric diagnoses. The umbrella of Anxiety Disorders includes specific phobias, social anxiety, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, and agoraphobia, among others. In all these cases, symptoms can be physical (racing heart,shortness of breath, sweating), emotional (panic, worry, stress), behavioral (nervous habits, compulsions), and cognitive (racing thoughts, worries, obsessions). Many of these signs and symptoms are similar to the body's normal "fight-or-flight" response to danger.
PTSD is a trauma-related disorder that develops in response to severe physical or emotional stress, and manifests in prolonged bouts of depression, anger, sleeplessness, racing thoughts, inability to focus, panic attacks, flashbacks, and a whole slew of physical symptoms. The brain is in a near constant state of “fight or flight.” Such high levels of stress and cortisol production make healing the mind and body difficult. Not surprisingly, there’s a high rate of substance abuse among people suffering from PTSD. Unfortunately this only adds to the condition.
Research is now backing up what those who have practiced and experienced Reiki for themselves have been reporting for many years: that Reiki helps with all of these symptoms, and so much more. Reiki induces a state of deep relaxation, which not only “feels good” but is actually necessary for healing to take place. With Reiki, the benefits are both short term and long term – which research backs up as well. Stress, blood pressure, and cortisol levels are all reduced, as are negative and racing thoughts, muddled thinking, depression, and anxiety. The body’s systems begin to return to a state of balance. There is an improvement in sleep quality, energy levels, addictions, and physical pain.
During a Reiki session, the body shifts from sympathetic (fight-or-flight) mode into parasympathetic (rest and digest) mode. Parasympathetic mode is often referred to as the Relaxation Response; this is the state that your body needs to cultivate to heal. Reiki jumpstarts your body's own self-healing response—assisting the body in releasing deep-seated tensions, aiding in detoxification, and balancing mental and emotional states.
Reiki also allows you to bring about a beneficial shift in your attention. When we're feeling anxious, it's usually all we can focus on. The act of moving out of narrow, stressed attention is like relaxing a fist that's been clenched for years. In fact, we hold tension, emotions, and chronic anxiety in the body's muscles, and these are released during a Reiki session.