Welcome to my very first blog post!
A question I’m asked quite a bit is how did I get into energy healing and become a Reiki Master?? So I thought this would be the perfect topic for my first post! I never would have imagined myself as a healer, but when you let go of the expectations you have for yourself, you can live the life you were meant to live!
I’ve spent the past 7 years doing an incredible amount of healing and growing in all areas – physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. But first I think it would be helpful to explain how I got to this point, and what were the events leading up to it.
Back in University I started out in Science and in my second year I specialized in Biological and Developmental Science because I was fascinated by the human body and what it could do! But on my first day of my second year, I was sitting in class.. I think it was bio-chem or something like that and I was like what I am doing?!! Not this! And I walked out. I dropped all my classes and then went home crying to my mom because I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life! Haha! Who really does at the age of 19?!!
My mom suggested I go into Business, and that made sense to me at the time.. I couldn’t picture what kind of job I would get with a Bachelor of Science degree, but I knew that with a Business degree, I would work in an office. Both my parents went to work in an office, so I could do that too! I laugh now, but at the time it seemed like a good plan, so I went into Business (I should probably mention that my mom was a professional accountant at the time!)
I did my major in Accounting because math was easy for me, but I realized before I was done my degree that I did not love it, or even like it. But I figured I was so far gone I may as well graduate and figure it out later. But as soon as I graduated, within a month I was on a plane to Australia, the first of many backpacking trips.
I spent a year overseas and when I got home I did get a job in accounting, but for less than a year, as once I had saved up enough money I was off traveling again, this time to SE Asia for a few months!
When I returned from that trip, I moved to Calgary to work in oil and gas where the real money was. I was pretty happy to work for a while at a job I didn’t like, while I saved money to go on my next trip! And working as an accountant in oil and gas allowed me to do that. I worked for another year and then was off again, to backpack/work in Europe.
When I came home over a year and a half later, I returned to Calgary, and it became permanent as that is where I still am today!
I spent the next 7 years working as an accountant in oil and gas, basically hating my life, but at the same time, happy because it allowed me to travel. Although I was no longer going away for a year at a time, I continued to take 1 or 2 weeks’ vacation several times a year.. I’ve been to 6 continents and nearly 50 countries? I stopped keeping track!
Sure, traveling made me happy, but I felt so empty inside. It sounds dramatic, but I felt like my soul was slowly dying, and now I know how much that was actually true.
I kept thinking things would get better.. That a different company would be better.. Or maybe a different position would make me happier.. But the truth was, as well as it paid, accounting was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life!
And then, in July 2013, my mom passed away unexpectedly in her sleep one night.
I’ve never experienced such deep loss, and unrelenting grief. It was like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was unrelenting. I could barely function.. I wasn’t eating. I wasn’t sleeping. So I finally surrendered to the grief and my priorities started to come into focus. Why was I dragging myself to a job every day that made me feel even worse, when I was already going through so much!? So I quit my job.
I loved quitting jobs! The high and the euphoria I felt after quitting a job was incredible!!! But I now know, that’s because I was never meant to be an accountant, and this feeling was my soul coming back to life!
My plan was to go travel for a bit, continue to work through my grief, and figure something out career wise. So I went to Bali for a month and came home for Christmas. But I didn’t figure anything out during my time away. And although I had quit my job, I was feeling even worse. I was partying way too much, drinking way too much, and dating questionable guys.. Basically trying to escape life in any way that I could.
After a few months, my savings started to run out and I still hadn’t figured what I wanted to do with my life, never mind a new job!
Around that time, a friend had reached out as the company he was at was looking for a contract accountant for one month. He knew I didn’t want to go back into accounting, but I figured it’s only for a month and I need money, I can do that.
However the contract kept getting extended and eventually they offered me a permanent position, for a lot of money (do we see a pattern here?!). My gut was screaming at me to not take the job, but I was in such a place of lack, that the security of oil and gas money lured me back once more.
It was comfortable, I liked the security, and before I knew it I was back to living life on autopilot. Which hadn’t served me before, but it was familiar and that was comforting.
Less than 3 weeks later, I got a concussion playing soccer that knocked me unconscious. They say if you don’t pay attention to the little, subtle signs from the universe, they keep getting bigger and louder until you can longer ignore them.. This concussion was the universe screaming at me, but I didn’t make the realization until much later.
I was off work initially for a few months, and then returned to work part-time, slowly increasing my hours. However each time I tried to increase my hours, my post-concussion symptoms would always get so much worse. Eventually I stopped working altogether, and never returned to my job.
Most people recover from a concussion after a few weeks, but 10-15% take much longer to recover, as was my situation. My main symptoms at that time were:
Brain fog
Fatigue – physical and mental
Dizziness
Depression
Headaches, extreme noise sensitivity
Difficulty remembering and concentrating
The first two years post-concussion were the most challenging. I could barely leave my apartment except for appointments, most of the day I just spent resting in bed or on the couch. I was angry, upset and frustrated.. Why wasn’t I getting better? Would I ever get better?
It was a really dark time in my life, and I really didn’t have a lot of support from friends and my family lived in a different city, which made it even more difficult, but as a result I became very resilient.
The feeling of uncertainty was so uncomfortable for me, and being a type A personality I was so used to always being on the go, getting stuff done. So it was really hard to do nothing, even though in reality, I wasn’t actually capable of doing anything at that time.
But then I had a visit with one of my therapists and she was like “but you aren’t doing anything. You’re resting. You’re healing and those are very important things, and this is what you need to be doing right now”. And that changed everything for me. It just clicked. I was healing. I WAS doing something.
I was finally able to accept where I was and surrender to it, instead of constantly fighting it and wishing I was somewhere else.
Acceptance and surrender didn’t happen overnight, that’s for sure. But little by little, I was able to stop wishing I was somewhere else or feeling better and letting go of how I thought my life would be at that point.
I began to accept that this is where I am now, and where I am is EXACTLY where I need to be.
With this new mindset, I was inspired to start meditating again, and I began reading spiritual books, repeating affirmations, and most importantly, practiced self-care like my life depended on it – because it did!
Self-care became my lifeline.
I had such a bad memory and couldn’t remember the littlest things unless I wrote them down, so I started keeping a list of things that I could do to help me feel better, such as:
Drink enough water
Meditate
Do some Qi-gong or yoga
Talk to my dad on the phone
Walk for 5 minutes outside
Start to knit again
They may sound like such simple things, but they made such a huge difference in my day and I started to slowly move through the darkness that had consumed me for so long.
At this point I had seen so many doctors and specialists, but none of them could tell me what was wrong, why I wasn’t getting better yet, or when I might get better, which was extremely frustrating!
I had a deep knowing that I was going to get better; I was not going to be like this for the rest of my life. I wouldn’t accept it. And this really empowered me to take my health into my own hands and to advocate for myself, because no one else was.
Back then I wasn’t able to read or have much screen time as it made my post-concussion symptoms worse. But then one day a friend told me about podcasts, which I hadn’t heard of before!
And so I started listening to all the podcasts about health and wellness! And the more I learned, the more I realized that I could help myself to feel better! I made very simple changes to my diet and nutrition, and started taking certain supplements. Immediately I started feeling so much better, it was amazing!
I was surprised because they were such simple changes, but none of the doctors ever suggested that nutrition could make such a difference in how I was feeling!
I was so inspired by how much better I was doing, that I wanted to learn even more so I just became a sponge and learned as much I as I could. I even went back to school, this time to study holistic nutrition here in Calgary and loved every moment of it! Holistic health and wellness became my passion, and I decided that I wanted to support others on their healing journey!
In December, 2017, while I was in school, I went to Banff for a weekend event with Sonia Choquette and Carmel Joy Baird about developing your intuition and connecting with your higher self.
Throughout the weekend we did a bunch of different activities and practiced our intuitive abilities. For one of the activities, a lady was standing in front of me blind folded and used her intuition to give me a reading.
She said that her hands started to get hot and burn and she asked if I do Reiki and I said no, to which she said “yes, you do. You are a very powerful healer!”
And in that moment, I remembered. I AM a healer, that’s what I’m here to do!
So she had planted the seed, I was going to check out Reiki, but I didn’t know where I should go for training, etc, so I just put it aside on my never ending to do list!
Then less than a month later in January, our new instructor at school was also a Reiki Master and had arranged to teach Reiki to those of us who were interested! The synchronicity of it all!
I did level 1 and 2, and I liked it, but it wasn’t really life changing.. I had heard stories from others how it changed their life, etc, but I didn’t really notice much personally, plus I was so busy with school and that was my focus right then.
Fast forward to the end of the summer, 2018 - I had just graduated from school and was getting ready to start my holistic nutrition practice. But once again life had other plans for me.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
Treatment became my focus, and as a result, I put starting my business on hold for a few months.
I don’t actually do monthly breast exams, so I feel that I was divinely guided to find it. It was quite random, I remember getting dressed one morning, and for some reason I just felt my right breast. And in that very spot, was a lump, about the size of a pea.
As it would happen, I had a doctor appointment the very next day, and so I mentioned it to her, and she sent me off for ultrasound.
Thankfully because I had caught it early, it was quite small and I only needed a lumpectomy to remove it, and then a few months later I had radiation treatment for the affected breast.
I had a really bad skin reaction to the radiation treatment, which was quite traumatic both physically and emotionally.
Halfway through treatment, out of the blue, I felt like I needed to do my Reiki Master training. Which was interesting because I wasn’t doing any Reiki on myself at this point, which probably would have helped. So several days after my treatment finished, I completed the Reiki Master training.
And honest to god, overnight - my skin had 99% healed!!! It was a miracle, and I don’t use that word lightly. My skin was in such horrific shape, I actually didn’t know how it would ever look normal again. And that morning, I realized how powerful energy healing is, how it helps to bring you back into balance, and how I could use it to continue to help myself, as well as others.
Initially my plan was going to offer holistic nutrition consulting and Reiki treatments together, however the cancer treatment had made my lingering post-concussion symptoms worse again. I had such brain fog and mental fatigue, I didn’t think I would be able to sit with a client and be able to serve them to the best of my ability.
I couldn’t remember things and it was hard for me to concentrate.
So I started my business with just Reiki treatments, with the intention of adding in holistic nutrition consultations later once my brain felt better.
But the more I did Reiki, the more I loved it and decided that it would be my sole offering for now!
I currently see Reiki clients in person out of my home here in Calgary, as well as at Healing Tree Wellness Centre in the NW. And I also offer distance Reiki sessions, which take place from the comfort of your own home!
So over the past 7 years there has definitely been a lot of healing and growth for me, and now I realize that this healing and growth is a life long journey, you don’t ever reach a point where you are “finished”. Looking back it’s easy to see that the concussion was the universe’s way of giving me a break and telling me to slow down and re-evaluate my decisions.. Life isn’t meant to be lived on auto-pilot. I’m now committed to living my life consciously and with intention, each and every day!
I hope you’ve enjoyed hearing about my story and I would love to hear from you! Let me know what topics you would like to hear about in future blog posts!
In the meantime, you can find me in the following places:
Instagram: @briannecarterholistic
Facebook: @briannecarterholistic
Website: www. briannecarter.com
Email: info@briannecarter.com
With love and gratitude,
Brianne