Note: If you’re seeking craniosacral therapy or TMJ Relief in Austin or Wimberley, TX, please allow me to redirect you to my professional website, maryannreynolds.com.

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 us 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/or spirits were not well.

Who’s the healthiest person in every way that you know? Chances are, that didn’t just happen.

Having physical health, emotional intelligence, resilience, mental capabilities (not necessarily academic or related to IQ— there are many kinds of intelligence, and common sense and good judgment count for more, in my opinion), social good will, interest and skills that make the world a better place, the ability to manage the everydayness of your life, a spiritual understanding that we’re connected…and there’s still a lot of mystery…

Maybe you can think of 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 in the office 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…at the time.

I became aware that what I had believed was possible for me was quite limited, and I was ready for a bigger life.

Touching people therapeutically with my hands 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 had released 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 some of their healing energies to help others move toward greater health.

I made that leap, and here I am, 12 years later, 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 stress and well-being and to adjust their lives in favor of greater well-being.

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:

• trauma resides in the body and keeps us from reaching our full potential and we can do a lot to recover from it,
• 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’ health and renewal,
• too much stress can affect our genes,
• energy flows through our bodies and we can address imbalances,
• our beliefs are powerful in shaping our lives,
• healing is an ongoing living process that we can support and augment,
• meditation or inner quiet is a worthwhile practice and an important part of healing,
• Mystery and Love are always present in healing.

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

I love trees (I’ve planted ten since 2011) and wish to share that I am continually awed by 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 the West Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado landscapes while listening to a carefully curated majestic playlist — or sometimes in silence — is one of my 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, beginning to explore Vajrayana), practitioner of NLP, Reiki, HeartMath, MBTI, Enneagram, dreamwork, breathwork, movement, anatomy and physiology, trauma recovery and post-traumatic growth, qi gong, as well as a cook, gardener, mother, grandmother, sister, lover, 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…

n=1. Self-experimenter.

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.

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 8 billion human beings on Planet Earth.

Unfaithful to my sorrows.

JUST ANOTHER VERSION OF YOU.

~~~

Copyright 2009–2024.