every phase #32 - Luteal - the 14th cycle

what is healing?

My Reiki attunement in 2015 was the very humble beginning of me becoming connected to myself, and through knowing myself, I started to know others, becoming connected to the life force between all things.  As a result, I personally could no longer eat meat, so I became vegetarian, which ended up being the final end to an eating disorder that even though I was deemed 'recovered from' for about 4 years, I still had constant urges to relapse, and thought that they would never end--until this experience.  I was told similar to an alcoholic, I would always have these addictive impulses and that it would be my sort of 'cross to bear'.  I learned through my experience this couldn't be further from the truth, and after making these diet changes combined with my newfound spiritual attunement, I felt an unbreakable connection to my body, realizing that I was the one who got to say what healing was for me.

As we continue illustrating the history of how Reiki was (re) revealed, this concept becomes very relevant to where we left off with our story...

Mikao Usui left Mt. Koriyama knowing how to heal as Buddha & Jesus had healed.  As he began to walk down the mountain, he experienced what is known as the four miracles...

First, he stubbed his toe, so he instinctively placed his hands on it, and the toe healed.  Then, he saw a house at the bottom of the mountain, asked for a full meal (he was coming off of his 21-day fast solely on water so this wouldn't normally be wise), and ate it without any issues.  The woman who served him the meal had a toothache, so he placed his hands on the sides of her face and healed her pain.  This was the 3rd miracle.  When he returned to his monastery, the director had an arthritis attack and was in bed, so he also healed the monk--the 4th miracle.

Usui named this energy, Reiki, which means universal life force energy, and he decided to take this method to the places where it was needed most.  He lived in the slums of Kyoto for several years healing in the town's worst quarters. During this time, people with missing limbs, deformities & visible diseases were supported by the community as beggars.  After he would heal each beggar, he asked that they begin a new life, but he kept seeing the same faces returning.

The beggars were actually angry with him because with their dis-eases healed, they couldn't make money as beggars and now had to actually work & make an honest living.  As Usui kept seeing the same faces returning, people he had healed still begging, he became disappointed and left the slums.  These experiences helped to establish some of the boundaries around Reiki today, but more importantly the recognition that physical healing, or curing the outward expression of the symptoms of a disease, does not actually heal the root cause, and it will reappear until that has happened. Usui healed their bodies, not their mind or spirits, reaffirming that sustained healing is actually spiritual.  It is a choice.  Dependent upon the free will of the individual to enter their own unique path of enlightenment, expand, grow & ascend, or choose not to.  

All it takes today is for someone to show up in a lab coat and have "Dr." behind their name for people to completely abandon responsibility for their health, and give up any of their own power, or critical thinking for themselves.  It really is fascinating to watch.  However, talk is cheap (and comparatively speaking, so are lab coats).  The strength and validity of any 'statements' or 'opinions' made by authority figures come not because of the label they have next to their name, but because it is true, and can be felt through your own experience, and trying it out yourself.  True healing doesn't need for you to believe in it or for an authority figure to deem it 'OK' for it to exist and still work.  Only half-truths and lies require your belief in them to have any power at all.

Through my experience of healing endo, as well as my previous eating disorder, I have learned that healing is really about the relationship you have with yourself.  You get to say what healing is for you--how it looks, what a 'healed' person does, how you feel.  It doesn't have to 'fit' an already formed medical box or the opinion of someone else.  For example, being 'healed' for me was when I didn't have to miss days or weeks of my life because of my period.  When I could get out of bed and walk around.  When I felt like I was free to choose what my day would be like.  This kind of discernment is accelerated in the luteal phase of the cycle as estrogen, progesterone & testosterone peak, and then decline just before menstruation.

Just as the beggars in the story, I feel like many people today would rather argue and fight for their disease, their disempowerment, and their limitations, rather than allow themselves their own freedom & healing.  Or, many others think everything has to be 'perfect' and only then they can consider themselves 'healed'.  If I have a few cramps one month, big deal.  A large part of my healing occurred when I gave myself permission to not have it all together all of the time.  I stopped being embarrassed about taking pain meds, or doing whatever I needed to do for me--even now. 

Healing is a journey, not a destination.  There isn't a 'quick-fix' or magic bullet one-time solution.  Spiritual or metaphysical practices aren't magic either. You still do the work, and when you don't, you feel like crap.  Sustained health is a lifestyle.  It grows and changes as you grow and change.  You learn new information and you reach new levels of health you couldn't conceive of before.  You start to feel better and better.  I am reaching new levels of feeling better and better every month, and I will continue to.  But I didn't have to be where I am today to consider myself 'healed'.  It isn't meant to be this quantum leap, and you wouldn't want it to be (because it would be way too much and you would probably die).

What is healing for you?

We uncover the rest of the Reiki history in September. 💌

More info on the Luteal phase here

More info on infradian rhythm + hormonal health: Womancode + In the flo

Speaking of healing...

Help support my Indiegogo funding campaign to help self-publish, print & distribute the first year of the 'Every Phase' art collection in an ongoing printed art book series with visual Augmented Reality (AR) interaction.

The first book I have very appropriately named, Face your Shit, Heal yourself.

However it really is more than a book, it is a movement.

As you know, no one achieves anything alone.  With your help, together we will co-create this book. This is ours.

I would be honored to have your help to raise $7500 by September 14th, 2022.   With your support, our book will be available in Barnes & Noble, on Amazon, and in local bookstores as well as meredithochoa.com by November 2022. 

Your contribution will go towards the: 

- Editors I will work with to revise and polish the manuscript.

- Museum quality custom printing & layout for the interior.

- Augmented Reality hosting with Overly + QR hosting

- Build out a health resources page on my website

- Self-publishing costs & distribution costs.

- Help launch the accompanying Face your shit, heal yourself podcast featuring health & medical resources that promote healing.

- Launch & Promotion Efforts for our book when it's released in November 2022. Woohoo!

I appreciate every contribution regardless of the amount.  For those who are financially able, as a thank-you for your support, I have created some exclusive perks for 3 different patron levels: $55= Receive a personally signed copy of the book & a handwritten thank you note.

$81= Receive everything in the $55 tier &

- An 11x14 signed art print of your choosing from the series. 

$111 or above= Receive everything in the $55 tier & the $81 tier 

PLUS- As part of an exclusive pre-sale campaign, your name will appear in the Acknowledgments section when you donate on or before August 3rd.

- Invitation for you and a guest to attend the launch party in Atlanta this fall.

Whether or not you choose to contribute, I am grateful for you.  However, if you do choose to contribute, please let me know by August 3rd so I can include this information when it goes to print.

Click here to donate on Indiegogo.

*if you are having trouble on this page, feel free to simply reach out or venmo me at @Meredith-Ochoa

And if you are unable to financially contribute, you can still help. Simply share or like/comment on any of my current book posts or even share the youtube video above on the platform(s) of your choice.  It would really help me out in regards to the algorithm, etc. and it's FREE!