November 2025 Rachel Glaser – Part II

Rachel Glaser – Part II

Since sharing my story in 2019, I have had a lot of healing and spiritual growth. When Covid arrived in Maine, I ceased my pet sitting business. I became trained as a Reiki Master and opened my own reiki practice in October of 2020.  Shortly afterwards, I met a man who I fell in love with and got engaged to. We bought a home together in 2021, and I took a break from practicing reiki.

Sadly, the man I thought I was madly in love with triggered all my past traumas and my anger would show its ugly head when I drank wine. He, on the other hand, was the silent type. That was a new thing for me!  I learned that my relationship was unhealthy and for my own well-being, the relationship needed to end. We split up and he moved out of the home that we purchased together.

I have always been close to God, and I knew God would not put me in this home and then have me leave it.  I was very overwhelmed with the massive number of boxes that I still had to go through. I told my two sons that I never want to move again. It was too much to handle with my lack of executive functioning. 

I went to a Love Your Brain retreat a few summers ago for brain injury survivors and there I found my smile!!!  Since suffering a brain injury, spinal cord injury, and an ischemic stroke which left me unable to push through anymore, I had been angry and longing for my old self. My previous self-worked full time, socialized and handled chores all while raising a child on my own with little help from anyone besides daycare, which broke my heart in two. 

Now, I had two children and the only things I could stay on top off were the laundry and the dishes because I would shut down if they were piled up. So, unpacking my bag in the bunk at the retreat, a young man smiles at me and says hello. That man’s name was Aidan and his story was heartbreaking but inspirational. His mother is an amazing human as well!!  I figured, if Aidan, who suffered and physically lost more than I did, could smile and be happy, then I have no right to be angry and self-loathing.

I learned Transcendental Meditation (TM) and I felt my irritability go away. If I did not practice TM in the morning, I would feel my irritability go up. Then, someone told me about hemi-sync music which balances the left and right hemispheres in the brain. I did an online retreat with The Monroe Institute and I was deep in meditation where I found my divine connection within myself! I continue to listen to the meditations daily, and they bring me peace, divine connection, and self-love.

Yoga has always helped my body relax and feel empowered. I need to do more and that is a work in progress. I tried a different ADD medicine, and that has helped me start chores. I am grateful for that and I laugh at myself as I start numerous things and go in circles, but I am going.  I learned that there is a term for why I am productive if another person is with me. It is called body doubling and there is a website called add.org where they offer support groups over zoom so people with ADD can be productive.   

Two years ago, I closed my reiki business. It was heartbreaking, but I was physically and emotionally wiped out. As an empath, I have always felt other people’s problems as if they were my own. That is what I was doing with my reiki clients, but with my PTSD caused from being assaulted and having that same man break into my condo in CT while I was sleeping and my infant and six-year-old were at his disposal while he walked around my home and then my six- year-old woke up and told him to get out, which he did, I am too fragile to take others trauma on as my own. 

A big part of my healing has been focusing on my faith. I did Sozo healing twice, and it was transformational! When I converted to Catholicism in my twenties, the only difficult thing for me was believing that Jesus was the Messiah. After I saw him in my mind during the healing, it made me believe in Jesus as a healer for me. I have since seen images of him in my third eye when I meditate. The next time I went to church and received the host, I felt so emotional and was teary eyed as I walked back to my seat. I literally saw Jesus with me when I was on the floor paralyzed after being strangled all those years ago. I believe that he stepped in just before I was dead.

We are to put ourselves first. What a foreign concept! I have been working diligently to heal more and learn self-protection exercises. Writing, however, has always been a part of who I am and it has given me a sense of purpose. I am planning on self-publishing my story so that it may help others on their journey in life. Not being able to work full-time in a high paying career had destroyed my self-esteem. Today, I am focusing more on God, my soul, and remembering my true essence! 

Animals and nature bring me so much joy, which has always been true, but I feel so grateful that I am able to be present and enjoy rather than wish I was working in the corporate environments that have given me a strong sense of self-worth. Like my neurologist says, “we are human beings not human doings.” Sharing what has helped me love myself for who I am and not for what I do has been a painful journey, but with God, there is always a beacon of light.

You can find Rachel’s 2019 story here.