My journey with reiki and multiple sclerosis

Angela Tyrrell credits reiki with getting her health back on track, and now wants to teach others to do the same

My symptoms began nearly 30 years ago. I had extreme dizziness – every time I got out of bed in the morning, before I started making my breakfast, I couldn’t stand without holding on to the kitchen counter until the swirling had passed.

It was also at this point that I started to have intense fatigue. I found that if I went out shopping, I would become so tired I would have to return home and have a lay down before I could continue with the rest of my day or evening. I knew something wasn’t right, because I also started feeling so cold. The coldness I felt was unlike anything I had felt before – it felt like a chill to the bone. I remember being at work and whilst I was sat next to a heater, my colleagues in the same office were complaining because they were so hot! Very slowly also, my hands and feet became tingly, and I just couldn’t understand why I was feeling like this.

My first symptoms to diagnosis were, as my MS nurse worded it, catastrophic! I was 21 years of age and had visited my GP at the time for an explanation as to why I was so cold and so tired, and he had told me I was just drained. I was carrying on with daily life and my boyfriend at the time and I travelled to Mexico for a one-in-a-lifetime trip.

 A frightening flight

Whilst I was on the flight, I found I couldn’t sit still. I couldn’t stop moving my legs. I was so scared and when I landed in Mexico hours later, I found my walking was slow and weak and the tingling had worsened.

The Mexican doctor I visited thought I had either MS or a slipped disc, but that I needed to fly home immediately. I was so frightened. An ambulance met me at the airport when I returned, arranged by my travel insurance company.

In Mexico and continuing in the UK, I was given steroid tablets and I was taken into hospital for one week where tests were carried out, including an MRI and a lumbar puncture.

I was hospitalised five times over this six-month period. Each time I received intravenous steroids along with more tests and intense physiotherapy before I could go home. When I as diagnosed, I was devastated and in shock. I felt that my life had ended, which it had as I knew it.

After studying travel and tourism, I had worked hard to obtain my dream job working for a tour operator and I had to leave my perfect role while watch my friends carry on with their lives and do all the other fun things you do in your youth as a normal 21-year-old. I was so depressed and after so many significant relapses I was prescribed antidepressants and beta interferon weekly injections.

I found reiki exactly ten years ago. I had been extremely well for 25 years, living a healthy and rewarding balanced life with MS until once again in 2015 I pushed myself and had another really terrible relapse. I wasn’t hospitalised, but my nerves had been so damaged I couldn’t stand for more than thirty seconds, and I was so tired I couldn’t even read or watch television. I had to take a few months’ leave from my job as a credit controller for a cruise company whilst I rested and waited slowly whilst the nerves healed again. I looked into the natural foods and supplements which could speed this process up. I was becoming severely depressed again being at home on my own struggling with looking after myself. Then a friend suggested I try reiki. I found a practitioner who I visited weekly, then monthly, and I found it gave me such an amazing boost of energy, peacefulness, and contentment.

 Positive discovery

Reiki is positive energy that surrounds all of us and when it is transferred to you by a practitioner, your body absorbs it and it goes to the areas you need it most. It helps you physically, mentally and spiritually. It gave me more energy, positivity, clarity of mind, and it calmed my despair and anxiety. I also found meditation at this point.

It took me over three years to heal and recover from the nerve damage that had been caused by this last relapse ten years ago. I had so much time at home on my own, so along with reiki, I read as many books as I could and learned about what else I could do to help myself.

I learnt about the foods that had been hindering my healing, and those that would help, along with natural supplements I could take. Over the years I have got back to being able to go for regular walks and the most important to me for staying strong – swimming!

I now combine regular exercise as many times a week as I can. I’ve eliminated processed foods and grains, and added in supplements such as B12, zinc and spirulina.

 Helping others

My life has changed so much since finding reiki. I studied for my reiki level 1 and gave myself the treatment every single day for a year. I then learned reiki level 2. I opened my own reiki practice at two different locations in the New Forest and offered the therapy to anyone needing to ease their anxiety, those who want to boost their mood, need pain relief, as well as others who live with chronic illness. I even treat animals now!

After another year, I completed my reiki level 3 which means I can now teach the practice. I’ve found it to be so amazing for me, so I want to teach this to others who are living with a chronic illness, as well as to those who are newly diagnosed. It took me ten years to get over my MS diagnosis, and I wish I’d known about reiki 30 years ago!