Thursday, July 3, 2008

Healing You


My friend Shelly pointed out that I haven't blogged in awhile. She's right. I love how she stays on me about this stuff! Creatively speaking, I always have a lot that wants to come out. I actually colored tonight in a coloring book. It was a favorite childhood activity of mine and I felt comforted as I carefully chose the colors and colored in and outside the lines.

If you don't already know, I'm currently in the process of working on a master of arts degree in Holistic Wellness. I'm concentrating specifically on nutrition and healthy lifestyles which is a personal interest of mine. I started a little over a year ago and I'm just over halfway done. The program is offered through Clayton College of Natural Health (http://www.ccnh.edu)

Natural health is a non-traditional approach to illness that is becoming more and more accepted, recogized and brought into the mainstream. The realm of natural health includes chiropracters, accupuncturists, massage therapists, naturopaths, herbalists, nutrition consultants, yoga teachers and much more. At this point, I am not sure what my exact path will be but I do know that I am very passionate about what I am learning and I am excited and hopeful about the possiblity of making it a full-time career.

In one of my classes Wellness and Belief there is a lecture called Why People Don't Heal by Caroline Myss, P.H.D. I'd like to share some strong points she makes. She focuses on the links between personal power, illness, toxic connections to the past, and hidden blocks to wellness. Hopefully these excerpts make sense, since they are taken out of context:

On the dangers of holding onto your past:

"The phsycial body closes it's wounds up very quickly, doesn't it? Where would the body be if it kept a wound open for 20 years? Festering with Gangrene. We need to learn from this. I think every emotional wound deserves a period of grieving but you must be careful when you take that wound and turn it into a power to disempower yourself".

"Is it okay to talk about your past? Yes, but you can't keep leaving your spirit there to recreate the past".

"The point of meditation is to notice where your spirit goes when you aren't paying attention. What do you dwell on? Who are you thinking about? As you observe these things, you then need to learn to call your spirit back. It will be very stubborn at first".

"Instead of thinking you control your destiny or you create your reality (because that's a huge burden to hold) just say to yourself I am responsible for the quality of my journey. Not the places I go or the people I meet along the way but for the way I respond to them".

"We age because we live in the perception that 'if only I could understand why this happened, then I could move on and let go', and in doing so we leave a peice of our soul in every one of those experiences".

"It doesn't matter how much your mind knows. What matters is the journey between what your mind knows and forcing the rest of yourself to become congruent with it".

"Give up the past and the need to understand and control, give up blame, the need to be comfortable, to have an agenda and to control others".

"The best thing you can do is live one day at a time, keep your attention in present time. Have no expectations, make no judgements, and give up the need to know why things happen as they do. It's lethal and it's costing you your cell tissue".

With that, I bid you good night!