allergies and burns and cats, oh my

I've always believed that your mental and emotional health have an impact on your physical health. After I started practicing reiki on myself, I realized just how large of an impact they can actually have.

I was allergic to cats. Horribly allergic. Throat began to close up within minutes allergic. Given that two sisters have cats, this presented a problem. I had to use steroids to survive each visit and I just hated it; I never felt like myself, my breathing was still impaired, and the taper never went well. With one sister, the visits were easier - because I could stay at a nearby B&B. With the other sister, it was harder - because my parents thought that if they just cleaned thoroughly, I would be fine. After I returned home from a visit, I would always have a few days of coughing fits where it felt like the cat hair was coming out of my lungs.

I worked with a naturopath for a year and it helped a little bit, but I still wound up in the clinic for steroids to survive the rest of that visit to my parents. I did start allergy shots twice but, since I was doing it under duress ("this is what will get rid of your allergies - you need to do this"), I doubt they would have worked even if I had completed them.

Then, I started reiki. After my Reiki II class, when I started clearing at the mental and emotional level, I began having those same coughing fits after the more intense sessions. They'd occur in the middle of the night (my neighbor even asked about them because he could hear me though the walls) or I'd spend my morning walk with Atlas doubled over, coughing as if my lungs would come out. That was when I realized that perhaps my cat allergies stemmed from something, and if I could clear it, perhaps the allergies would leave too.

Eventually, I realized that the cat allergies were connected to a burn I received when I was little. I was in the sauna, and someone accidentally poured boiling water on me. Recovery was long and painful. But .. my grandparents had a sauna. Every Saturday, we'd visit them for a sauna. Except now I was terrified of saunas. I remember sitting inside that sauna every week - staring at the hot water and the flames under the stove - watching and waiting for something bad to happen. But I never told anyone - I didn't want to be a bother or make them feel worse about my burn. I held all that fear inside. But repressed emotions will make themselves known somehow, and mine did so in the form of allergies.

I'm afraid that I don't know how to explain how I know that. It just came to me in a flash of intuition - and I trust my intuition. What I can tell you is that my cat allergies are nearly gone. And in the end, that is really all that matters to me.

Comments

[Julie M]

I'm sorry you went through that scary experience. :(

I've heard that there can be connections between thoughts and illness, I find it interesting that you personally found one!

[Elizabeth]

what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. ;-)

and yes, I think I needed something that big and crazy to really believe it.