I was diagnosed with Severe Spondylosis of the Spine and left with crippling back pain. My main medical option was a lifetime of prescribed pain-killers and eventually spinal surgery at a later date.
I resigned myself to my condition and tried to adjust my life around it. The main thing I had to change was my training routine - kick-boxing four days a week and weight-training on the other three days had to stop! The other thing I had to give up was a good night's sleep. I could never find a way of sleeping that didn't cause me pain, so I just slept less and felt tired all day, every day.
I lived like this for a couple of years and actually got quite used to it. One day, a friend of mine called me to say that there was a healing tent with a really good shiatsu therapist at the jazz festival in Ealing he was attending. He asked me to come along and try the shiatsu treatment for my back (he had a treatment and found it amazing). I refused saying it was a waste of time as the doctor and hospital told me there was nothing that could help my spine, it was a degenerative condition and would only get worse.
That was on a Thursday afternoon, I was off work because my back was particularly bad that week and I could hardly walk. The following Saturday I got up and somehow went to the jazz festival on my own. I do not remember why I chose to go, or even how I got there, it was almost like an unconscious decision. I felt like I was in a daze really. Anyway, I got there and met with the shiatsu practitioner. She was incredibly helpful and optimistic about treating my spine. I had a treatment there and then and felt a little better. I booked more treatments and the improvement in my spine was undeniable.
This gave me new hope and opened my eyes to the fact that there was something other than Western medicine available to me. I asked about learning shiatsu for my self so she suggested I go to the 'mind, body, spirit' exhibition at Victoria where her school were exhibiting. I persuaded some friends to come with me and we went on a Sunday afternoon. One of my friends suggested we take a Reiki course and we dutifully paid our deposits and booked onto a Reiki level 1 and 2 course. I really did not want to learn Reiki and regretted paying a £50 deposit. I even thought about going back to the Reiki stand and asking for my money back!
The next evening I got a 'phone call from the Reiki teacher telling me he had taken my credit card details incorrectly and wanted the right details to take the deposit. I had the perfect opportunity to cancel my Reiki course, but for some reason I didn't - I don't know why to this day.
As the weekend of the Reiki course approached my back became much more painful and I doubted I could attend. On the actual day of the Reiki course I was in agony. I managed to get to the Reiki course and endure a day of sitting down in pain.
On the journey home I was standing on the underground train holding onto the overhead hand rail and it suddenly dawned on me that I wasn't in pain!
The funny thing is I didn't even notice the pain stopping. I don't know when the pain stopped but it did. I slept all night without pain. I went to the second day of the course and I qualified as a Reiki practitioner.
A week after I had qualified, my sister was diagnosed with breast cancer. I knew Reiki would help her, but I didn't feel able or experienced enough to treat her myself and looked for another Reiki practitioner to treat her. This was around Christmas so I found it hard to find anywhere open. In the end I knew I had to treat her myself. I tried to believe in myself and appear confident, but it was a struggle. When the time came to treat my sister I sort of relaxed and just did it. I concentrated and focused my thoughts and I could feel the energy flowing from my hands. I had a feeling that the treatment had helped and had acted on the tumour to reduce it in size. I treated my sister over Christmas and then once I could teach Reiki I taught her to level 2 so she could treat herself.
The Reiki helped her incredibly and the scan she had before surgery showed the tumour was 1cm smaller. She had no other treatment apart from Reiki up to that point.
I knew then that I had found what I was looking for in life. I took my next course (Reiki Healing Mastership) a month later and my Master Teacher course a month after that. I worked hard to improve my understanding and awareness of Reiki and the energy I was working with. I developed my abilities as a practitioner and teacher through study and research and through using the Reiki to heal myself and to heal others. I was determined to be the best Reiki practitioner and teacher and I wanted to share this amazing gift called Reiki with everyone
I used Reiki to treat myself every day, as much as I could, usually between 3 - 5 hours each day. I still use Reiki to treat myself every day as much as I can (work permitting!)
I could not imagine a day without self-healing with Reiki, the benefits are incredible in every area of my life. I feel healthier and so much more alive and in touch with myself. I feel connected to my higher, spiritual intuitive self and more connected to God (or the Universe or the Creative Energy or whatever terms you use to describe our creator)
© Copyright Andy Chrysostomou 2007
