Monday, December 2, 2013

Healing Through the Mind-Body Connection


A healthy soul is a happy soul.  This, of course, doesn’t mean that souls with physical, mental, or emotional ailments are not happy.  It does, however, imply that souls suffering from physical, mental, or emotional ailments or illnesses may have some underlying distress or unhappiness that deserves some attention.   

Louise Hay talks of this very thing in her book, Heal Your Body A-Z.  She talks about her own experience with cancer of the vagina, how her background of rape and physical abuse at a young age could have been the causing factor of the manifestation of the cancer, and also how she healed herself through a process, starting with clearing old patterns.   

Old patterns, thoughts, and behaviors that are so deeply a part of one’s soul may be the root cause of many mental and physical ailments that  manifest.  Anger, resentment, and fear are all emotions that do a great job of festering and eventually erupting, both physically and mentally.   

There are many ways to recognize and overcome these thought patterns that create so much disruption.  The following guideline is simply that – a guideline to be able to recognize patterns.  Always consult a trusted medical physician with any ailments and illnesses, and with the recent surge in holistic healthcare, there may even be a holistic specialist that can be consulted.   

  • Trust your gut.  If your body is telling you that something just isn’t right, trust that feeling.
  • Check-in with yourself on a regular basis.  This could be daily, weekly, or monthly (although the more often and consistent, the better).  When a negative emotion arises, stop and allow that emotion to be FELT.  Holding it back or stuffing it down is what leads to the patterns and behaviors, and often-times illness.  Acknowledge the feeling.  Spend some time with it.  Get to know it.  Understand why it is surfacing and from where.  If it is anger – Is the anger really directed toward the person or situation?  Or is the person or situation reminding you of something from the past and THAT is what is triggering it?  Recognize the source.  
  • Self-Care.  There are many ways to practice self-care (a whole other list could be started for this topic alone).  A few very easy ways to care for oneself are sea salt baths, meditation, yoga, massage, dancing (even if people are watching, but way more fun if done while home alone), sufficient rest, and healthy eating habits. 
  • Enlist help.  Find a trusted friend to talk regularly with.  Hire a life coach.  Go to counseling.  Find healthy outlets that give the repressed emotions and feelings a way out, without hurting anyone, including yourself. 
  •  LOVE yourself.  Love.  Yourself.  For every perfection and imperfection. 

Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.  ~World Health Organization, 1948
 
*published in inSpirit magazine June 2013

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