I was recently asked to answer some questions about being a caregiver for eCareDiary.com.
Not only do I comment on being a Parkinson’s disease carepartner/caregiver but I also share some comments about Reiki in my life. I hope you enjoy the article – here’s the link:
When Your Partner is Diagnosed with Parkinson’s: A Caregiver’s Story
Source: When Your Partner is Diagnosed with Parkinson’s: A Caregiver’s Story
Filed under Parkinson's, Reiki, Self-care
Karl and I had the pleasure of hosting Sunday Connections recently and our topic for discussion was Reiki for Parkinson’s Disease.
All the webcasts/shows are archived and can be listened to for free. We cover what is Reiki, how Reiki can help Parkinson’s and other chronic illnesses, and how you can learn to do Reiki for yourself.
You can listen to the show by visiting this website: http://instantteleseminar.com/?eventid=57021897
Angela & Karl
Filed under Parkinson's, Self-care, Sunday Connections
I hope you can join us today for this exciting event!
Join Karl and Angela Robb this Sunday at 5pm EST/2pm PST as they host Sunday Connections http://www.sundays.parkinsonsrecovery.com/ with guest Megumi Abiko, Reiki Master Teacher of Reiki Jin Kei Do.
Here is Megumi’s bio: Having gone through a spinal injury and being told my prognosis was being paraplegic was a HUGE wakeup call! I was fortunate to have a friend who introduced me to essential oils that stopped the swelling in my spine so that I regained full mobility! With that experience, it fired my interest to learn more about Holistic health. Each day I realize how powerful Essential Oils and Reiki is in my life! Through my practice, I’ve seen firsthand how the combination of the modalities can benefit all aspects of your life: Mental (behavior modification, stress management, emotional release, depression), Physical (backaches, allergies, and other diseases) and spiritual. I feel lucky to have been taught great gifts to add to my tool box that will help me, help others, become empowered one person at a time.
You can submit questions online ahead of the event by using this link: http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=51628782 . Click the “Ask a Question” link and complete the information in the box that appears below the button.
Here’s the Link for listening online for Sunday Connections. Listeners online can listen to the live event and can submit questions.
http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=51628782
Or if you would like to call in, in which you can ask the hosts and guest questions live and listen to the event.
Primary dial in number: (425) 440-5100
Secondary dial in number: (323) 476-3997
Guest pin code: 200414#
Filed under Parkinson's, Reiki, Self-care, Sunday Connections
Karl and Angela recently hosted Parkinson’s Recovery – Sunday Connections online webcast and radio show. They discussed their experiences with Reiki, how Reiki can help one improve their well-being and healing process, how Reiki can help Parkinson’s disease, and how positive thinking can benefit everyone.
Use this link to reach the replay of the webcast. http://InstantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=40845387
When you reach this page, click the link and type in the password: karl2012
We hope you enjoy listening.
Angela & Karl
Filed under Parkinson's, Reiki, Sunday Connections
Dear Friends – We are excited to announce that today/Wednesday 12/12/12, Karl is officially launching his first book: A Soft Voice in a Noisy World: A Guide to Dealing and Healing with Parkinson’s Disease.
Whether you are newly diagnosed or have had Parkinson’s disease for many years, younger or older, the lessons that Karl Robb offers in this book will apply to your situation. A culmination of over twenty years of personal experience, in A Soft Voice in a Noisy World, Karl Robb provides an assortment of tips and suggestions that have made a difference in his life and benefited him in his personal struggle with PD. This guide shows how one man successfully navigated the medical gauntlet with the support of his wife and care partner, and found his answers, often in the unlikeliest of places.
Drawn from the pages of the popular Parkinson’s blog, ASoftVoice.com, this once-skeptic turned Reiki master describes the importance of complementary therapies to “Parkinsonians” through his personal mind, body, and spirit journey, detailing the role these have played in the course of his personal healing. In this book you will learn how through maintaining a positive attitude and utilizing Reiki and other complementary therapies, Karl has kept his Parkinson’s in check, slowed the disease’s progression, and amazingly seen signs of improvement, even after over two decades of dealing with PD.
This book is a compilation of hundreds of insights and practical tools intended to add inspiration and ease to your daily life, including suggestions and resources for bettering your patient-doctor experience, living a productive and happy life, staying fit and active, traveling, participating in support groups, being a PD advocate, improving your mind-body connection, and empowering yourself to heal.
Filed under News, Parkinson's, Reiki, Self-care
By Karl Robb
There is little doubt that human touch is of benefit to our well-being. When I speak of touch I mean it in the most caring and compassionate of ways and not just in a sensory manner. Touch is therapeutic and I have great confidence that it is the highway to relief and possible healing.
If you’ve never heard of Reiki, then I hope that this posting will intrigue you enough to learn more about what it is and what it does. In the end, I hope I can encourage you to experience the power of Reiki. I think it best to get an understanding of what Reiki is from my dear friend and Reiki Master Teacher, Gilbert Gallego, who over 12 years ago showed me how Reiki could improve all aspects of my life. I have seen Reiki greatly reduce my symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, lower my stress, give me peace and calming, and provided me with a greater understanding of who I am and what I am capable of achieving. First, learn what Reiki is and where it came from and then I will tell you some amazing but true stories of what I have seen Reiki do:
This text comes from http://www.reikijinkeido.org and Gilbert Gallego, a Reiki Master Teacher in Fairfax, VA.
Reiki is a Japanese word. The Kanji Rei means spirit, and Ki means energy or life force. In essence, Reiki can be interpreted as spiritual or universal life force energy. Reiki is also known as the Usui System of Natural Healing, a very simple technique to aid in the process of healing and many believe that it leads to a path of self-transformation. Reiki was initially brought to the United States by Mrs. Hawayo Takata, a Japanese American who studied it in Japan in the 1930’s. Reiki has since become the fast-moving energy modality in the West during the past 30 years.
Reiki was developed in the early 1900’s by a Japanese Shingon Buddhist named Mikao Usui. Master Usui was a well-known scholar and respected healer in Kyoto who undertook an extensive study of healing phenomena as taught through history’s greatest spiritual leaders. Through his travels, research, and meditation, he was led to an ancient healing method based on a combination of Buddhist practices performed only by monks and kept as secret knowledge. It is believed that Dr. Usui learned part of this method and received special empowerments and a meditation through which he expanded his understanding of the energy of healing. He spent the rest of his life practicing and teaching this knowledge. One of his students, a medical practitioner named Dr. Chujiro Hayashi, gave this method a proper structure, which lay people, could practice. Today, this method is now known as “Reiki”. From www.reikijinkeido.org
Twelve years ago, I knew nothing about Reiki. By total coincidence, if you believe in them, I met Gilbert, my teacher. I had heard of a therapy called Trager (which is very different than Reiki) and found that he was the nearest practitioner in my area. I went for Trager but found Reiki. My wife, Angela, who suffers from migraines came along with me to the appointment. Gilbert explained Reiki to us and we both had doubts and were wondering why we were even in his office? We were true skeptics. I was reluctant to get on the massage table (fully clothed by the way) and Angela agreed to watch but that would be the full extent of her participation–that didn’t happen!
A little over an hour later, after coming in stiff in the legs and a bit tired, I felt refreshed and rejuvenated. I felt wonderful and it showed! My face beamed and seeing this, Angela, with no hesitancy, decided to go next. She too experienced the power of Reiki.
This was the first step on our eleven year Reiki journey. Twelve years later, my wife and I just completed our one year training as Reiki Masters. I have seen Reiki do some wonderful and unexplainable results for me, my wife, my animals, and friends.
Here is just a brief list of what I have experienced with Reiki:
These are just a few of my experiences with Reiki. If you would like to learn more, please contact me for more information.
Filed under Parkinson's, Reiki, Self-care
Importance of Self-Care
For many years, as I visited with other carepartners, I stressed the fact that carepartners “needed to take care of themselves so, they could care for their loved one with Parkinson’s”. Last year, I had a personal realization about this phrase. What I should have said is: “I need to take care of myself for me first, my loved one second”.
It’s so easy for us in today’s world to put ourselves last on the “care list”. We put our children, spouses, family, home, work, pets, and so on way before we take care of ourselves. When a chronic illness such as Parkinson’s is also part of the equation, there’s even more of a tendency for carepartners to rush their loved one into the top spot for care.
If Not YOU, WHO?
It is vitally important that the carepartner have a depth of self-knowledge and be willing to ask one’s self “How are you doing today?” or “How am I doing in this moment?”. My realization of this fact came from my study of Reiki and mindfulness meditation. The first level of Reiki is about self-care. Mindfulness Meditation is about being still and focusing on the self, specifically one’s breath. My self-knowledge evolved over time and I’m so happy that it did. I only wish that I had a grasp of this self-awareness sooner! I find myself checking in on my mental, emotional and physical awareness. This really is a practice that you have to do yourself. As much as your loved one, family, or friend ask you “How you are doing?”, they may not be prepared for your true answer. Most of us will not give the true answer, anyway. The true answer is being with yourself and looking honestly at the whole package. I find the following questions are helpful for me. These are just a few examples to help someone to get started. Once you begin an internal dialog with yourself, you will find questions that are best suited to you.
Filed under Carepartners/Caregivers, Parkinson's, Self-care
GiveReiki.com - Reiki practitioners Karl and Angela Robb 
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