Reiki, Resistance, and Rewiring the Body:

Right now, I am in a season of profound pause. I am in the messy, beautiful, exhausting middle of moving to a new place. And while my spirit is completely ready for this transition, my physical body has been dragging its feet the entire way.

Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

I had done the mindset work. I had grieved the old identities. I had decided to step into this new, healthier, more aligned version of my life. My mind was chanting affirmations, packing boxes, and looking forward to the new space. But my body felt like it was encased in concrete. My chest was tight. My breathing was shallow. My stomach carried a constant, low-grade hum of anxiety.

I couldn’t understand why I was still struggling. If my spirit was ready to move, why did my body feel so heavy?

And then, right in the middle of the packing and the planning and the pushing forward, my body made the decision for me. I came down with a cold. The allergies flared. My throat was raw, my eyes were streaming, and I had no choice but to stop.

At first, I resisted it. I had too much to do. There was no time to be sick. But as I lay still and let the body do what it needed to do, I began to understand something profound: the illness was not an interruption of the shapeshifting process. It was the shapeshifting process.

In many healing traditions, a cold or an allergy flare during a major transition is understood as the body’s way of releasing what the mind cannot. The congestion, the tears, the rawness, these are not just physical symptoms. They are the body purging the old energy, clearing the pathways so that the new life force can move in. The body, in its infinite wisdom, was doing exactly what I had been asking it to do. It was letting go.

The truth I had to learn the hard way is that you cannot positive-think your way out of a dysregulated nervous system.

When we spend years living in survival mode, whether that is from trauma, chronic stress, emotional eating, or simply the relentless pace of staying in a place we have outgrown, our bodies adapt. We start running on cortisol and adrenaline. And eventually, our nervous system becomes addicted to the stress of the struggle.

Even when the crisis has passed, the body continues to brace for impact. It associates peace with vulnerability. It interprets stillness as a threat. So, when you finally try to pause, when you finally start packing up the old life to move into the new one, your body throws up a wall of physical resistance. It literally does not know how to exist without the cortisol it used to survive the old room.

Your prana … your ki … your life force energy, hits that wall of fear, and it stops flowing.

This is where the profound, quiet power of Reiki enters the healing journey.

Reiki is often described simply as “energy healing,” but part of its true magic lies in its relationship with the nervous system. Reiki energy bypasses the frantic chatter of the conscious mind and speaks directly to the body. It invites the nervous system out of the sympathetic “fight or flight” state and gently guides it into the parasympathetic “rest and digest” state.

In that parasympathetic state, the body finally realizes it is safe in the new space. The tight chest softens. The shallow breath deepens. The cortisol addiction begins to break.

Reiki untangles the deep-rooted physical resistance that words alone cannot reach, allowing your life force to flow freely once again.

Healing is not just a spiritual shift; it is a physical rewiring.

If you are in a season of transition right now, whether you are physically moving to a new place, or emotionally stepping into a new version of yourself, and you are feeling that heavy, physical resistance in your body, I invite you to stop fighting it. If your body has come down with a cold, or your allergies have flared, or you are simply exhausted in a way that sleep does not seem to fix, honor it.

Your body is not betraying you. It is releasing for you. It is shapeshifting on your behalf. Do not try to force your body to relax. Instead, acknowledge the addiction to the struggle and give the release permission to happen.

Run some Reiki on yourself.

Step into the shower. Let the warm water run over your shoulders, mimicking the gentle, clearing energy of a Reiki session. Focus entirely on the physical sensations in your body.

And just tap.

Even though I am sick and my body is struggling, I trust that it is releasing what no longer serves me, and I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though my chest feels tight and my breathing is shallow, I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though my body is addicted to the stress of the struggle, I give my nervous system permission to rest, and I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Even though it feels vulnerable to finally put down the weight in this new place, I am safe to be still, and I deeply and completely love and accept myself.

Allow the physical resistance to wash down the drain. Your spirit has already done the heavy lifting. It is time to let your body catch up.

To your Spirit,

Terri

PS.. Yes, sometimes it takes more than one technique when it comes to healing. Healing is a big process after all!