It's Natural

Published Sunday, March 15, 2009 Live Well (Daily Herald)
By Rachel Baruch Yackley

Tense? Overwhelmed? Not feeling well?
Whatever you may be facing, Reiki can bring relaxation, balance, and relief back into your life.

What is Reiki?
Reiki (pronounced “ray-key”) is an ancient noninvasive practice that facilitates stress reduction and relaxation, and promotes the body’s natural ability to heal. This occurs by increasing the flow of energy, what some call Life Force Energy or
Qi, by laying on of the hands.

“Reiki is a hands-on healing modality which balances everyone from the inside out,” said JR Carmany, Reiki master and co-owner of Soup to Nuts in Geneva.

Reiki is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. Although similar to Therapeutic Touch, Reiki is unique in that it can incorporate elements of other alternative healing practices such as spiritual healing, auras, crystals, chakra balancing,
meditation, aromatherapy, naturopathy and homeopathy.

Jeff Stibal, an engineer from West Chicago, is a Reiki practitioner who regularly attends a monthly gathering at the Unitarian Universalist Society of Geneva called a Reiki Share, at which practitioners learn from each other.

Humorously referring to Reiki as “the height of weirdness,” Stibal said, “This is on the other side of logical,” but conveyed that he has been impressed by the positive responses he has received from those he has treated with Reiki.

Benefits of Reiki
Children and adults can experience relief, relaxation, and enhanced healing from Reiki treatments. You don’t have to believe in it, as Carmany points out: “Something just happens, and people feel better.”

Reiki puts the recipient in a state of deep relaxation. It promotes self healing, strengthens the immune system, enhances detoxification, and more. Post surgical issues; injuries, headaches, intestinal disorders, chronic illnesses, stress and a host of
other issues can all be addressed through Reiki.

One friend whom Stibal treated, came to him after being treated for breast cancer.

“After the Reiki treatment, she felt very relaxed and said it recharged her batteries,” he said. “I don’t heal, but whatever energy is there may help her heal, or relaxes her so her body can heal.”

Stibal has also found Reiki to be a beneficial treatment for pain amelioration.

When a friend came to him soon after a double knee replacement surgery, “I gave her a treatment, and she said it was like a breath of fresh air blew the (residual) anesthesia out of her system.”

Barb Baran, Reiki Master and owner of Blue Violet Bodyworks in Elgin, said Reiki treatments have been gaining in popularity.

“I have had people who’ve lost loved ones come in for help, as well as people looking for alternative health treatments, and people who want to open things up and figure out what they need to do for their bodies,” Baran said.

Reiki makes no diagnosis, and is intended to be a complementary form of healing.

How it works
Reiki opens up energy channels located throughout the body, to promote healing. Balance is achieved by channeling energy or by facilitating the movement of
energy through the body.

“It’s more like rearranging energy. We help the body to heal itself; the individual heals herself,” said Carmany, who refers to herself as a “facilitator for free flowing, balancing energy.”

The client typically remains fully clothed, and lays down on a massage table or sits in a chair.

The practitioner may turn down the lights and play soft music. Using her hands — sometimes resting them on the client, and sometimes letting them hover just above the client — the practitioner draws energy from the universe and directs it,
through her hands, to where it is needed. There’s no pain, no rubbing, cracking, bending; just a very gentle, relaxing treatment.

The Reiki experience
Each person experiences Reiki differently.

“I tell people they don’t have to believe in anything; the proof is in the pudding,” Carmany said. “It’s an individual experience.”

Reiki is offered in a variety of settings, including hospitals, outpatient clinics, spas, health centers, massage therapy businesses, practitioners’ homes and even in
clients’ homes.

Reiki practitioners encourage everyone interested to schedule a treatment, even if someone is just plain curious and wants to learn more about this alternative healing modality.

Reiki classes are offered by Reiki Master Teachers in many community colleges, health centers, and businesses throughout the area.

Although many attribute a spiritual component to Reiki, Reiki does not challenge, nor conflict with any belief system, and you don’t have to believe in anything. The experience differs for each person and everyone benefits — even the person providing the Reiki treatment.

Certified Reiki practitioners
Of primary importance is to find a qualified Reiki practitioner. This person is not a healer. He or she does not actually do any healing, but works as a channel or facilitator of Reiki energy, to assist others in cultivating their own healing.

Reiki is learned in three stages. The first stage involves an attunement that permits physical healing. Typically, a Reiki I practitioner mainly works on him or herself, but may begin to work on others. The second stage enables one to
carry out healing over a distance, and provides more training for treating others. The third stage allows practitioners to give attunements to their own students. Reiki III is the Reiki Master degree. A certificate of completion is presented
at each level.

It is never ethical for Reiki practitioners to take credit for healing, said Reiki Master Teacher Lori Lane, who periodically teaches Reiki classes and gives attunements to practitioners. Clients are encouraged to consult with licensed medical professionals
regarding all medical issues, she added.

Learning and using Reiki is not dependent on one’s intellectual capacity nor spiritual development, and is available to everyone. It has been successfully taught to thousands of people of all ages and backgrounds.

For more information
To receive Reiki treatments, or for more information, contact an area Reiki Master Practitioner:
JR Carmany
Soup to Nuts, 716 W State St., Geneva
(630) 232-6646
souptonutsgeneva.com

Dr. Karyn Mitchell
The Haven, 603 Geneva Road,
St. Charles
(630) 443-9930
drmitchelind.com

Barb Baran
Blue Violet Bodyworks,
2000 Larkin Ave., Ste. 301, Elgin
(847) 697-5522
bluevioletbodyworks.com

The Light Heart Center
165 S. Church St., Winfield
thelightheartcenter.org

Good Samaritan Health and
Wellness Center
3551 Highland Ave., Downers Grove
(630) 275-2640
advocatehealth.com/gsam/services/wellness/center.html
See Reiki under “specialty massage"

Northwest Community Hospital
The Wellness Center
900 W. Central Road, Arlington Heights
(847) 618-3500
nch.org/wellness/comprehensive.shtml

Edward Hospital & Health Services
801 S. Washington, Naperville
(630) 527-3000
edward.org/body.cfm?id=252
Reiki Clinic at the Cancer Center:
Reiki sessions are offered to cancer patients and their support person, the first Thursday of every month.

Provena St. Joseph Hospital
77 N. Airlite St., Elgin
(847) 695-3200, ext. 5767
provena.org/saintjoseph/body.cfm?id=190

Find more at:
illinoisreiki.com
reikicouncil.com

A personal experience
A few years ago, I had my first Reiki treatment. We were visiting my husband’s brother, Lee, and his wife, Joy, who is a Reiki
practitioner.

During the course of the week, Joy gave me several Reiki treatments. She played soft music in the background, and
applied a scented oil to her hands. After each treatment I felt calm and relaxed, and experienced quite a bit of relief from a
chronic migraine and intestinal problems. The treatments also left me feeling refreshed, as if I’d just had a great nap.

Inspired to learn more, I took a Reiki I class, offered at the Delnor Health and Wellness Center in Geneva, and taught by Reiki
Master Teacher Lori Lane. A few months later I took the Reiki II class at the same location.

I am a certified Level II Reiki Practitioner, but I don’t do Reiki for a living. My daughter and my husband sometimes request
Reiki treatments for a variety of ailments and discomforts. I do Reiki on myself, for anything from a stuffed nose to pain in my
lower back. I’ve bartered Reiki treatments for massages from professional massage therapists, and I work on friends and
relatives when asked.

During my Reiki training, Lane said that while Reiki energy flows through the practitioner during a treatment, it benefits
the practitioner as well as the receiver. So, every time I work on someone else, I feel a bit better, too.

Reiki promotes and provides assistance to all aspects of healing. It’s easy to give and to receive, and it works!

Goodbye, Bear

(Note: This is an older story, but the one story which I continue to receive comments about. As there have been requests to see this story again, I decided to post it, here. I actually don't think it's one of my best written pieces, and out of the 1500 or so articles I've written over the past 10+ years, it's one of the very few first person stories I've told. Feel free to comment. Thank you - RY)

by Rachel Baruch Yackley
February 26, 2005
Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL)

A couple of weeks ago we took our dog Bear to the vet for the last time.

This final appointment was made after months of watching our old friend's health rapidly decline, due to old age. Although it was a predictable end, it was a hard decision for my husband, our daughter, and myself to make.

Understood among pet owners is the sense that any creature which has lived with you for years becomes part of the family. The dog or cat, bird or hamster is incorporated into your daily lives.

Just as with humans, dogs who live long, healthy lives, as ours did, eventually start showing signs of old age.

During the last few months of Bear's life, his descent into old age became more noticeable, and more rapid. We gave him aspirin every day for his arthritis and he loved it when I massaged his hips. He began napping through most of the day, after his morning walk - sometimes not waking until 3 p.m.

My anxiety level perceptibly rose as I would check on him throughout the day to see if he was breathing.

His hearing was gone, a loss that was most obvious when we would approach him and he would startle. He'd even been getting gray hair. His thick black coat, that of a chow-huskie mix, was filling in with gray, all around his muzzle, and on his chest. Then he had problems with incontinence.

At this point, our veterinarian, Thomas Favale at the St. Charles Veterinary Clinic, counseled Mike that it was up to us to decide how long we wanted to continue with this. Obviously Bear was not going to get better, and at over 13 years old, he was not only old, but obviously in failing health.


"Each doctor has a different style. None would tell a client (that euthanasia) is what they have to do," said Marty Strauss, the office manager at the St. Charles Veterinary Clinic. "Each person has different thresholds. What could be comfortable with one person might be way too early for another. Everyone has their own definition of when enough is enough."

In an article, "The Hardest Decision a Pet Owner Has to Make," by Krista Mifflin (About.com), the author directs pet owners to ask the hard questions, like is your pet still with you because it's best for it, or because you want to keep her here? If medical treatments are involved, are they "adding quantity of life without adding quality? Does the pleasure of living outweigh the pain?

Strauss, who has many pets of her own, is aware that this situation is evolving with her family's oldest dog.

Her own children, ages 17, 13, and 8, "asked me, when the dog urinated in the house, and struggles going up and down stairs, if we are going to do this. I personally feel if I'm keeping my dog alive for me and not for her, that's not right."

It was obvious to us, as time went on, that Bear was in pain, probably most of the time.

Part of what makes the decision to put a dog to sleep difficult is that they are very stoic animals, and do not show they are in pain. This is an inherent survival skill for these animals.

But, as Strauss said, "By the time you see the symptoms of discomfort, they've probably been in pain a long time," and so it is important to pay close attention to your dog, especially to any changes in his or her behavior.

Several years back, we had our cat put to sleep after months of giving him insulin shots for diabetes. Our daughter, Rebecca, was probably around 7 years old at the time, and had such a close relationship with this cat that he would snuggle under blankets with her, sit next to her when she read or watched TV, and even let her dress him up in doll clothes.

At her young age, we decided to keep the conversation to a minimum, making sure she knew the cat was very sick and that we were doing everything we could. When the time came for me to take the cat to the vet that last time, I didn't tell Rebecca ahead of time. She mourned the loss of the cat for months, crying at the drop of a hat, and was very angry with me for a long time.

So, this time, we decided that there would be a lot more discussion with her beforehand, about what was happening with Bear. For about two weeks, amid many tears, we talked about how the dog's body was failing, and how it was time to talk about letting him go. When the time came, the three of us talked about when we wanted to make the dog's final appointment with the vet, and who would go.

Strauss said that there are several great books available which are especially helpful for families with children, who are experiencing the loss of a pet. One which she recommends is "Dog Heaven," written by Cynthia Rylant, as well as "Cat Heaven," by the same author.

Rebecca decided that she wanted to do a few special, favorite things with the dog during his last few days, so we took him to the forest preserve, and we took him for a long ride in the car. His energy seemed pretty high and he was obviously smiling, which all made the decision so much harder. But looking at all the factors, we knew we were making the right decision for Bear.

We all went to the final appointment, and Mike went in with Bear. The parking lot is as far as Rebecca could go. She was crying, and one thing she kept saying over and over, which I'll never forget, was how every time the dog went into the vet's, "he always came out." But not this time.

It felt like Mike was gone a long time, but he eventually came out alone, and got into the truck. Looking very pale, he said he decided not to stay while Bear was put to sleep.

When we got home from the vet that night, I saw something sticking out of our mailbox. Taking it out, I found it was a condolence card from one of our neighbors. It was such a thoughtful and touching thing to do and it still makes me cry.

Then the next morning, there was another condolence card stuck in our mailbox from another neighbor. The day after that, we got a condolence card from my sister, Lisa, in Chicago. And a few days later, we received a lovely condolence card with a personal note from vet Favale, who had taken care of Bear for all of his 13 years.

The St. Charles Veterinary Clinic also makes follow-up condolence telephone calls, when the doctor feels it is needed. These calls were initiated about nine years ago, and are made by a clinic employee who has a unique ability to understand and connect with the clients.

"Everybody around you, when you lose a human companion, recognizes the loss. But not everyone does when you lose a pet," Strauss said.

I feel like I should have sent the vet a condolence card, too.

A Do-It-Yourself Bat Mitzvah

A Do-It-Yourself Bat Mitzvah
By Rachel Baruch Yackley
from www.interfaithfamily.com, July 2008

About four months before our daughter Rebecca turned 13, she announced that she wanted to have a bat mitzvah. Music to my ears!

My response was actually something like this: "Well, that sounds like a great idea. Let me think about it for a while. Let me think about how and where we would do this."

You see, we were an interfaith, albeit practicing, Jewish family without a home. We had no current membership with any of the synagogues in the area, and Rebecca hadn't attended religious school, nor had she had any Hebrew education, in over two years. Her desire to celebrate becoming a bat mitzvah--an adult in the Jewish community--came about two years after we stopped attending Congregation Etz Chaim, a Reform synagogue in Lombard, Ill. Many a family talk took place the summer between fourth and fifth grade (when she became adamant about not attending religious school), including, "If you stop going now, you won't be able to have a bat mitzvah at this synagogue."

She said she didn't care. She said she didn't want to have a bat mitzvah.

I was a bit bummed out, but she was, and still is (at 15 years old) unwavering and very open about her identity as a Jew. That was good enough for me, especially as she was growing up with a Jewish mother and a Catholic father.

Then seemingly out of the blue she changed her mind. Tears came to my eyes. My heart trembled when I thought of how thrilled my mother was going to be when I gave her this wonderful news!

Even though we weren't part of Congregation Etz Chaim, Rebecca did feel she had a religious home--the one that we formed when she was about 10 years old. A small group of people in our community in Geneva, Ill. formed Fox Valley Jewish Neighbors. We have Jewish and interfaith participants of all ages, and host Sabbath services as well as religious, educational and fundraising events at least once a month. I lead most of our Shabbat and Havdalah services and am usually the song leader. Rebecca helps with services from time to time, too. Through this intimate community of Jewish and interfaith families, Rebecca' s interest in proclaiming her entrance into Jewish adulthood was ignited. It was this group with whom she wanted to share her special event.

It meant I had to organize a bat mitzvah with no congregation, no rabbi and no organizing committees. Everything was open, even what kind of service we would do and where we would hold it.

Rebecca determined that she wanted to stick with familiar prayers like those in our homemade prayer books we used on Friday nights at FVJN. She also wanted to include a Torah service, mostly because she wanted to honor close relatives by calling them up to the bima to recite the aliyot, the prayers said before and after each section of the Torah readings. From the Humanistic Jewish tradition, she chose to do a research project and she also wanted to do a mitzvah project--a social action effort, which is typically done when preparing to become a bat mitzvah.

The prayers in the service were mostly the same prayers we recite on Friday nights, which Rebecca already knew. We started meeting at the kitchen table once a week in March, five months before her bat mitzvah to go through the service prayer by prayer, page by page with me playing the guitar. By the time school got out the beginning of June, we upped that to twice a week, and by July, we were focusing on the more challenging parts, about three times a week. By the first week of August, she knew the service inside and out.

I have to admit that it wasn't all a bed of roses. I distinctly remember yelling something like, "If I were a rabbi, you wouldn't be struggling with me like this," when she didn't feel like practicing, or was getting frustrated and tired, then distracted or argumentative. But for the most part, we worked surprisingly well together.

The Torah portion for Rebecca's bat mitzvah was Shoftim (Deuteronomy 16:18 - 21:9). Rebecca' s Hebrew education was limited and I knew I couldn't teach her enough Hebrew to read the Torah. Instead we asked a favor of a family friend, Beth Kaplan, who had been studying Torah cantillation and could borrow a small Torah scroll from her synagogue, Congregation Sinai, in Wisconsin. For the service, Beth chanted the Torah portion, and Rebecca read the English. They alternated, providing the congregation with a coherent, cohesive translation of each section of the reading.

"I kind of wish I could have read the Torah," Rebecca recently said, "and I wish I hadn't had to read the transliterations in the prayer book."

Part of me feels badly that that piece was sacrificed, but when I responded with an offer to teach her to read Hebrew, she adamantly declined.

Along with sacrifices came the opportunity to do a significant piece we wouldn't have been able to do at our old synagogue: just before the Torah service, my husband Mike, who has always been involved with and supportive of Rebecca's Jewish education, got to participate in the handing down of the Torah. This was almost inexpressibly important to all three of us, and was one of the many emotional parts of the service.

For her research project, Rebecca researched and wrote a paper on the Girls' Orchestra of Auschwitz, which she shared with the congregation at the end of her service. For her mitzvah project, she volunteered at the Anderson Animal Shelter in South Elgin, Ill., where she helped take care of cats and dogs for several weeks. We also made centerpieces of cat treats and toys to decorate the tables at the afternoon's luncheon. These were later donated to the shelter.

All in all, the bat mitzvah was a success."I felt more accomplished for having done it," Rebecca said. "Now, after seeing other people's bar and bat mitzvahs, I led a lot more of the service. I really enjoyed doing it, and I really liked it that Grandma and Papa (my husband's father who died nine months later) were there."

For me, as her mother, her teacher and the service leader, there was a moment before the service which set the tone and carried us through the entire day. Just before we started the service, I took Rebecca aside and we sat on a couch in the hall behind the sanctuary. I held her hand and choking over my words, told her how very proud I was of her taking all this on, and working so hard to make it happen. She too got choked up, gave me a hug, and said, "I'm proud of you, too, mom."