A valiant battle with the common cold!

I am now on day 3 of a dreaded "Man-Cold". (Reference: http://www.the-postillon.com/2016/12/world-first-specialist.html lol)

Actually, I can admit that this is a little milder than most of the colds I remember... but it's still annoying.

I had been getting a little overconfident lately with my health routines. I didn't think I was invincible but I started to wonder after a few colds passed through my home but I didn't get them.

I guess I was due.

I am taking care of myself and should be fine soon.


All I can do is keep washing my hands and try to prevent spreading it...

How to share with the world...

I live in Connecticut in the United States. I am fortunate to get to work with many great patients and this has helped me to learn some very interesting and unique things about healing.

But I can only reach the people I can reach.

Usually that means the people who can come to me. But this is the age of YouTube, so, the game has changed.

I have been posting useful videos on the Functional Therapy Magazine YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCM_KHCakSpsz7eS7JBH_QfQ). This has some tremendous reach.

But, it competes with a lot of information out there. Some of that information is not as good as other information.

I'm actually dazzled by the spectacular marketing for medications and 'six-pack-abs' myself. It looks so possible.

I guess the best way to get the word out there is to keep showing up. And keep sharing...

Going with the flow...

In my last post I spoke about my exploration of Reiki. Let me take you back a few steps so you know where I'm coming from.

In 2013 a friend recommended I get in touch with Berta Prevosti... she ended up writing articles for Functional Therapy Magazine. She is a very healthy and beautiful person and she just happens to be a Reiki Master.

We were then 'Facebook Friends' which means I would see her invitations to come and become certified as a Reiki I. It was a snowy day here in Stratford but 2 students came. I took the training (which is really just a personal training for your own development) and I found it interesting.

Rewind to my age 17... starting Tai Chi. With Tai Chi there is this idea of energy flowing through us, if you work at it you can really feel something. I have continued to practice Tai Chi for almost 3 decades.

Then more recently John F. Barnes was teaching therapists to sometimes work 'off the body'. Now, to the uninitiated (and even to the initiated) that just seems strange. But when I did it and I used my Chi Gong hands I was able to zoom right in and find an area of trouble for the therapist I was working with.

This and a few other little experiences drove me on to finally take my Reiki II certification. This is the certification that allows practitioners to work with other people and take clients. It also introduces a concept of distance healing... even stranger.

I may tell you about my first distance work sometime soon. Interesting story...

Now, fast forward to that series of courses in the Summer of 2016 where I dropped a lot of my ego about this... at that time I asked John Barnes about the kind of vibration I felt in my body after doing treatment in the intensive courses. He suggested it might be 'trapped energy'.

So, that rattled around in my head a little. Here was this energy idea again... so I treated myself with hands off Reiki... and the vibration stopped.

Huh?

So, here is this thing, that's not supposed to work... and it's the only thing that seems to work (other than time - about 6 months of vibration after my first Intensive JFB Myofascial Release Training.)

This time it was gone instantly.

So, when a scientist is confronted with something like this, what do they do? They explore it.

Mysteries need answers.

So, I retook my Reiki I and II courses... now I've started my Reiki Mastership.

The fun thing about this is that you can only really go with the flow with it. If you try too hard you might miss what's really going on.

I'll share more about these ideas in the coming posts.

Yours,
Ed

Letting go and doing what you know...

John F. Barnes talks about 'being in Channel 3'. In our 2014 interview for Functional Therapy Magazine he told me he 'made it up'. Essentially it's a shorthand for being in that mode that just flows.

Channel 3 is your instinctive / intuitive mode.

The opposite is Channel 5 - the thinking and forcing mode. The rational and intellectual might hold us back.

So, how do I get there.

I have been immersing myself in the moment with mindfulness practices and with being in the moment and letting my intuition guide me.

A great trick for this has been my study of Reiki.

In Reiki you are applying a rather strange idea of 'energy healing' to a person. There are a lot of formalized ideas behind it... but ultimately it's a feeling.

So, imagine learning this feeling with other Reiki Students. There doesn't really have to be a goal when you are working with other students so you can explore.

This is such a new idea... therapy practice is so goal driven that if you aren't making specific progress towards specific goals you thought of when you first met your client then you are not successful.

(I think this goal focus is good in general but it might prevent us from seeking the source of the problem.) (A compromise is to be open to progress being made in other areas.)

For now we have to compromise and do what the goal says...

More on this next time.

Yours,
Ed

Losing the Ego, not so sad of a loss.

So, yesterday I confessed that I had this little epiphany.

In a moment of acceptance I realized that I was an expert and also that I suddenly had very little ego about it.

In this post I want to explain what that means to me.

First off, just a little of my understanding of what ego means. Without too much research here, this comes from a Freudian idea that there is an Id, an Ego, and a SuperEgo. (Check it out:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id,_ego_and_super-ego if you're more interested.)

Anyway, I mean ego in the more common sense of a feeling of 'self-importance' and 'confident in your excellence'. But in a kind of negative way (like 'fake it till you make it') as if you have to constantly prove it, rather than just being.

So, in that moment I seem to have accepted that I have been trying to hard to prove something (my expertise) and not just letting myself be the healer that I really am.

Since that moment I am an even better therapist... but I feel very little ego.

Does that sound counter-intuitive?

I just want to share this little insight and it may help jog something free in you. You can accept that you are pretty special, and not have to worry too much about it.

Yours,
Ed

Not Being Perfect...

Yesterday, I noted about not having so much ego about my ability to do therapy... I'll comment more here later today on that. I wanted to share one of the insights about perfection.

It doesn't exist.

Every person you meet will be better at something (their thing) than you are. 

Whoa... think about that.

Whether they're really great at a certain game... you never really played that game. Or, they are great at doing their eye makeup... I haven't really worn much eye make-up (though I have done some theater work... not the best.) 

Maybe they excel at a skill you'd really like to have.

You might be jealous...

Maybe they are wildly successful and financially doing well.

You might wish for their wealth or success...

But, let's face it, we each have our strengths. 

Me, feeling confident as a therapist and healer doesn't make me perfect in other areas of life.

So, do you want to focus your life around your weaknesses or around your strengths? You can still learn and grow in those other areas.

No one's perfect!

The person you just met is better at something than you are. You can engage them in something that requires that talent... you could learn from them... you could appreciate and admire them...

The reverse of this is also true... you are better at something than every other person you meet. Even someone excelling in your current field of study might not be as good as you are singing.

It's not a competition.

So, go and be excellent.

An Expert... but with less Ego than before.

Imagine my surprise...

In the Summer of 2016 I was taking a course with John F. Barnes. Actually, I took 3 that week.

The thing about learning from John is that one of his points is to stop trying so hard.

Now, yesterday I listed out a little of my resume type highlights... I actually have more than that going on... and I am passably good at many things outside of therapy too.

But when it comes to therapy... I'm really very good.

Sorry, it sounds like bragging... but you're here because I promised some self revelation. (Or at least you might be looking for that...)

So, I'm sitting there, listening to John and suddenly I realize 'I've been trying too hard.' Sure, it only took a lot.

So, at that moment (Summer 2016) I knew this - "Up to this time I am really very good... even great at thinking about, problem solving and performing therapy..."

I realized I don't really need to chalk up any more accomplishments to be great... (Even though I have taken on 4+ more really intense educational projects since then. Hey, I'm having fun.)

But, even though, I feel like I'm even better at doing therapy, I suddenly had so much less ego about it. (That is, ego about doing therapy... it didn't make me perfect.)

More about this next time.

An Expert. Really? Yeah, Really!

I have been a therapist since my Graduation from Occupational Therapy School in April 1996. I have worked in Orthopedic Rehab, Neuro Rehab, Pediatrics, Skilled Nursing Facilities, Subacute Rehab, Acute Care Rehab, Burn Center Care and Trauma, ICUs, and Outpatient. I have also done some OT/PT management in there. Currently, I'm working in a very busy Outpatient Rehabilitation Facility and I own a small Private Clinic.

Then I've written a couple of books and I've published over 30 issues of Functional Therapy Magazine on iTunes and Google Play.

Oh boy, insert resume here...

Let me say that I stay busy with many things. (I'm also a husband and a Dad and a person living a pretty full life.)

The funny part of this whole career, it's just touchstones.

On a day to day basis I am constantly learning. I learn from my patients. I learn from the challenges of work.

Then I go off and want to learn something more.

When I'm at my best, I'm a scientist applying the latest of my understanding to complex problems and helping people get back to a functional life.

At my worst, I am doing a pretty good job and helping people get better... it's similar to the above... but with paperwork.

So, imagine my surprise when I started really feeling like an expert...

I'll tell you more about that tomorrow.

Yours,
Ed

A Challenge to Document My Journey

A few messages have been hitting me recently...

"No one ever got anywhere except through hard work."

"Fake it till you make it... cuz we're all faking it."

"Don't just write... Document"

These come in different forms and from different speakers... I am kinda paraphrasing and the sources are actually marketers... Gary Vee and Mitch Miller. The message underlying this note is that there is a benefit to the world if I just acknowledge that I am who I am and what I'm going through.

Whether it's interesting to anyone else is up to them.

So, this is my 'no apologies - apology': I am going to be myself for a little here. You may like it or not, you may feel free to disagree, or agree.

Oh, and I certainly do care... but I think there's something worth doing here so I will.

Thanks for stumbling on this.

Yours,
Ed Kaine, OT, RFT

P.S. Just because it is going to be me documenting this process, don't worry, it's still going to be useful... at least in some way to some people.

P.P.S. I imagine that it will have a certain level of self censorship... but that's a part of me too.