• My Own Journey to Peace •
My name is Christa Gates, and I am so honored to be able to fulfill my calling of helping others find and live a life full of authentic peace and joy. I am a grateful believer in God, and strive to live my life spreading the love and light of God in all of my ways. I am also a certified Quantum Reiki Practitioner and Hypnotherapist, specializing in many areas of wellness. The knowledge and experience I have gained during my own healing journey, lit a fire within my soul to learn and grow in these holistic modalities, that I may be able to help others feel good again. Because I know peace is possible, I am determined to share with others how to achieve that peace!
My own wellness journey has not always been peaceful or joyful. In fact, my own authentic peace and joy came not too long ago, when I began my healing process testing various holistic methods. The 20+ years prior were spent utilizing traditional medicine in search of relief from anxiety and mild depression that always seemed to lurk just beneath the surface. It never felt so extreme that I experienced panic attacks or thoughts of self-harm, yet it was a relentless veil of fog that just hovered there keeping me from truly enjoying and engaging in my life. No matter how much I wanted and desired it, it felt like that wasn’t up to me.
There was something preventing me from it.
As a child, I suffered from tremendous insecurities regarding my physical appearance. I had crooked front teeth that I was dead set on making sure nobody saw, and I have always had bad skin as well. This combination was enough to ensure that I never opened my mouth to speak, and that I never left the house without makeup on. My fear of judgment from others and that possibility of embarrassment and rejection ruled my life. Because I couldn’t and wouldn’t open up, Iittle by little, I shut myself off from the world. And in an attempt to protect myself moving forward, I put on the label of shy, quiet, and introverted.
You can imagine this insecurity and fear made my school years difficult, and my ability to put myself out there near impossible. Freshman year in high school, I developed severe digestive system issues, that I now know were the result of my anxieties. I had no choice but to be pulled out of public schooI and finish the remaining years of high school at home. Around that same time, I received my diagnosis of social anxiety and mild depression. Thus began my decades long journey with my mental health and trying to find the medication that would do the trick.
As soon as I was old enough, I got my first job at Round Table Pizza. I was able to open up a bit and make some new friends, but I really was just there to make some money to put gas into my 1992 Chevy Camaro. Those were the days of a brand new driver’s license and new found freedom. It was there at Round Table where I met my boss James, my future husband. I felt relief that somebody could see past my insecurities and to the heart of me. I felt safe, secure, and that may have been the first time I had ever let my guard down. I could breathe.
Life quickly took off and at 19 years old, I gave birth to my first child. I had heard of post-partum depression, but had no idea how silent and sneaky it could be. It seemed to be like a rolling stone that got bigger and bigger, gathering more and more momentum throughout the years with the birth of each child (4 more blessings followed). The post-partum didn’t go away like I thought it would, like I heard it should.
With the many different antidepressants I’d tried over the years, I wasn’t getting the results I was seeking and was so desperate for. Out of this desperation, an addiction to opiates was born. Finally, the relief and “joy” I was looking for! I found the thing that made me feel better. I spent the next few years numbing my emotions and masking the anxiety and depression, and it seemed to be working…until it wasn’t. My attempt to escape my own pain, was creating pain in others. With the push from my family, and my love for them, I got into a program and began my 10 year long recovery journey. However, the anxiety and depression I was numbing with opiates was still there and I was right back to the search for relief. The road to find the perfect medication continued, yielding no results, and I had come to the conclusion that my brain was broken.
My destiny is this feeling, and I have to just accept it.
Though I had been in my sobriety for years, it wasn’t until I reconnected with God and found holistic wellness that I began my real recovery and true healing journey. I was going through some really significant life challenges and shifts a couple of years back, so I began going to church again, growing my faith, and deepening my relationship with God through prayer and meditation. I was also searching for some sort of self-care routine because it was clear I needed to fill up my cup and start taking better care of myself, so that I could give my family a healthier me. I wanted to be able to give them a pure love coming from a healed heart, not a resentful and cold heart.
So I started googling several types of activities in town, and stumbled upon a holistic wellness center offering yoga classes. Yoga was something I was curious about trying, but they were also offering something called Reiki. I didn’t know exactly what it was, yet somehow that didn’t seem to matter, because I immediately booked a session. It was as if I was being drawn to it, like I was supposed to go, like it was already in the plans for my life. My practitioner Jodi, an absolute angel and bright light in this world, helped to open my eyes and heart to what life could feel like. I latched on to the hope that I could have true peace and joy, and that everything I needed I already had within. If I could release all the junk I was holding onto, then I would unearth everything I’d been wanting my whole life.
I already had it, it was just buried beneath the accumulated suppressed emotions.
So that is exactly what I did. I went on a hunt and excavation of the buried treasure within, a true self-recovery journey! I could see and feel the little changes and shifts happening each day. After 3 months of Reiki sessions, fostering my faith, and deepening my connection with myself, I was experiencing the life I never thought possible. Though my outside circumstances were still challenging, somehow my mind, body, and soul were at peace. I couldn’t believe that through decades of medication after medication, and getting absolutely nowhere, that it was as simple as deepening my faith, releasing trapped emotions, and balancing my energy system. I wasn’t broken. There was just a lot of baggage that I needed to set down. Turns out there was more than social anxiety and post-partum, and that I had accumulated and suppressed a lot throughout my lifetime. But, it also turns out that my destiny was not going to be anxiety and depression.
It was a literal miracle. It became clear to me that I had to tell others about this amazing and life-changing healing modality. It was as if I didn’t have a choice and that this was a calling God placed on my life. My soul was meant to go through what I went through, and heal the way I healed, so that I could be a light in the darkness for others too. My pain was transformed into my purpose, and having this practice is such a blessing. My greatest desire is to let others know that they can feel good again. Peace is possible.
