Note: If you’re seeking biodynamic craniosacral therapy or TMJ Relief in Austin, TX (or a Self-Treatment for TMJ Issues session on Zoom from anywhere), please allow me to redirect you to my work website, maryannreynolds.com. If you’re interested in Biodynamic Meditation, please follow me on Instagram, where I’m @mareynolds.

One of my friends calls me an “aliveness blogger.” I like that a lot. I’d like this blog to be a resource in offering information and inspiration to help people live healthier and more authentic lives that overflow with well-being.

Here’s my story to back it up.

For years I worked in office jobs. In my free time, I practiced yoga. I meditated. I danced. I trained in NLP. I learned how to eat more healthfully. I explored Buddhism. I saw healers of various kinds. I worked on healing myself from past trauma, unhealthy habits and relationships, poor decisions, addiction, sedentary work, stress, the culture’s excesses, my own particular issues.

Deep down inside, I was not well. I may have appeared to be relatively healthy, but with hindsight, I was not.

One day, it became clear that I’d had enough of the office lifestyle. I saw colleagues who were good people, doing the best they could, but whose hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits were not well.

Who’s the healthiest person in every way that you know?

Having physical health, emotional intelligence, range, and resilience, mental capabilities (not necessarily academic or related to IQ— common sense and wisdom count for more, in my opinion), social good will, a skill or skills that are needed and that make the world a better place, an ability to manage the everydayness of life, a spiritual belief that we’re part of something bigger and we’re in it together…

Maybe there are other characteristics of comprehensive health and well-being that come to mind. These are what I came up with.

I questioned what I was doing with my one-and-only life as far as I know, especially after several good people I worked with died.

It sure looked to me like the stress of the workplace had something to do with it.

Because of my affinity for ecstatic dance, I also happened to know some people who didn’t do office work, who radiated health, well-being, and happiness, who felt alive and free, were loved and loving, living mindful lives of contribution, teaching, healing, being of service, building, playing, enjoying, offering solutions.

I wanted my life to be more like that.

My child was grown. My house had appreciated in value. I was overdue for a major change. I gave notice at my job, sold my house, bought a vintage trailer, remodeled it, and moved in.

After being accepted into an acupuncture graduate school, I instead decided to become a massage therapist after a friend who was a gifted healer asked me to work on him. He told me afterward that I needed to get a license to touch people.

I tried on the belief that I was a healer using my hands, and I liked how it felt, even though it was bigger than I customarily saw myself.

I was becoming aware of how I had limited what I believed was possible for me.

It felt like a blessed calling and also one in which I would constantly grow and learn — important qualities in a profession.

I knew that I had nurtured healing processes within myself that resolved issues from the past and steered me to make healthier choices, and that I would continue on that path.

I knew that gifted healers had often healed themselves and somehow were able to transmit their healing energies to help move others toward greater health.

I made the leap, and here I am, learning every day and being of service to others.

~~~

Sixty to 90 percent of doctor visits are attributed to stress-related illnesses and symptoms (Humana, 2009). 

I don’t know why more is not being done in our culture about addressing stress as the root of illness and dis-ease.

It appears to me that since business, government, traditional health care institutions, the media, schools and universities, churches, and most parents aren’t adequately addressing the amount of excess stress so many Americans live with and aren’t understanding the cost to individuals, families, and society, it’s pretty much up to each person and family to understand the connection between their choices and their well-being and to adjust their lives accordingly.

What kind of life do you want? Who can guide you on your path to wellness? How does life teach you to live better?

~~~

I’ve learned some important components of healing first-hand:

• for instance, that trauma resides in the body and keeps us from reaching our full potential and we can help it release,
• that the quality of food we eat and the soil it’s grown on and water we drink literally provide the building blocks for our bodies’ renewal,
• that too much stress can affect our genes,
• that energy flows through our bodies and we can address imbalances,
• that our beliefs are powerful in shaping our lives,
• that healing is a ongoing living process that we can support and augment,
• that meditation or inner quiet is a worthwhile practice and an important part of healing,
• that Mystery and Love are always present in healing.

I live frugally in a 1959 Spartan Carousel trailer in Manchaca, Texas, a quiet unincorporated village just south of Austin, Texas.

I eat a clean diet that I tweak to work for me better. I am fascinated by the new research being published about the our microbiome’s influence on our health. It’s such a great new paradigm! Hence I’ve added posts about making fermented foods teeming with probiotics.

I love trees (I’ve planted ten since 2011) and wish to share that I am continually amazed at the astonishing sight of our planet’s blue sky and clouds and the star-spangled night sky, how day and night forever chase each other, the phases of the moon, the seasons, the living soil, the living planet, and human life. What a gift to be part of it.

Driving through West Texas and New Mexico while listening to a carefully curated majestic soundtrack is one of life’s most restorative experiences.

Nature isn’t separate from us. We are nature. Living in harmony is important.

I wish I was taller. I wish I had done some things in my young life differently. I dislike sudden loud noises and sudden bad news, and I appreciate wholeness, authenticity, health, wellness, kindness, laughter. Oh, and curiosity!!!

Other stuff about me: long time yoga practitioner (previously a teacher), ecstatic dancer, meditator, Buddhist (vipassana and Zen experience, currently beginning to explore Vajrayana), student of NLP, Reiki, HeartMath, MBTI, Enneagram, dreamwork, breathwork, movement, trauma recovery and post-traumatic growth, qi gong, as well as a cook, gardener, mother, grandmother, sister, friend, and giver of love.

I have close to perfect pitch and think musically (well, according to an online quiz, anyway — I do experience an auditory/kinesthetic synesthesia when I dance sometimes).

I am a social creature who appreciates solitude daily, aka “an extroverted introvert”.

For what it’s worth…

MBTI type: INFJ.

Enneagram: I’m a Five (curious investigator) with a Four wing. I go to Seven (the magic child) in stress and to Eight (the embodied challenger) in security. I like to say I’m Five going on Eight — and sometimes you’ll see that playful Seven.

Horoscope: Sun in Aquarius. Moon in Scorpio. Ascendant in Virgo.

Life purpose: being of service (from Lifeprints: Deciphering Your Life Purpose Through Your Fingerprints)

One of more than 7.5 billion human beings on Planet Earth.

Unfaithful to my sorrows.

JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU.

~~~

Copyright 2009–2022.