Our self-membranes should not be too tightly sealed, because we require constant inflow from the ground to renew and sustain our vitality. The infinitely abundant ground is our life force”. -John E. Nelson
Our mental and physical states are intimately linked. Illness and imbalances experienced in our culture today are epidemic. These imbalances develop through a combination of a frailty between the body- mind connection as well as a culmination of negative collective and personal imprints on the psyche and spirit, throughout this life time and lifetimes past. Carolyn Myss in “Anatomy of the spirit” has profound things to say about the effects our thoughts have on our physical well-being. Some of this can be attributed to the disassociation we’ve acquired to our ecosystem, which we all have a bond to, and the cycles that are inherent in nature. With the onset of the scientific revolution, and our technological advance, we no longer have a relationship with nature. There is this separateness that permeates our lives. With this type of discord, how in tune are we really with our bodies? This concept is reminiscent of a book called Shabono written by Florinda-Donner-Grau, a sorcerer and an archeologist. In this book she recounts a time spent with tribal people in a remote jungle of South America. These people were completely reliant on nature and expressed this through every aspect of their existence from food and shelter to ritual and sacrifice. There was a profound characteristic in the woman of these tribes. There was no such thing as cramps, menstraul dysfunction or labor difficulty. The tribal woman said that in our culture (which they happen to find quite brutal and uncivilized) babies were reluctant to come into the world. It’s interesting to think about. As woman in our society throughout the ages we have been taught to fear and discount the importance of our reproductive bodies and moon cycles. This creates a lack of understanding and respect for our bodies as well as the inability to express ourselves. Thus, negative emotions and the inability to express love for ourselves manifests dis-ease and imbalance in the body.
Susan Weed, earth mother and herbal guru, in all her eloquence and wisdom speaks of the wise woman ways where; substance, thought, feeling, and spirit is an inseparable spiral of energy that permeates our beings and “ our self healing options are diverse as the human imagination and as complex as the human psyche” where, “good health is flexibility, openness to change, and grounded ness”. She talks about that invisible thread flowing through the ethers that bond all beings together and runs from our earliest foremothers to us…. “This thread of love and nurturance leads us out of the maze of planetary destruction, war and self-hatred”.
Again, the first path to healing is recognizing that our bodies and minds are intimately linked and experiencing the bond we have to mother nature and every person on the planet. When we see ourselves as separate, connection is lost and our personal power and strength comes from manipulation rather than connection. Secondly, learning to love and validate our bodies so we can use our instinct to heal and nourish plays another important role. Notice the physical response your body has to the way you feel inside. “My shoulders are aching and tense, and my knees can no longer support me.” These are very valid physical responses that manifest from internal fears, frustration, and stress. In fact every physical illness has its root in the energy of a thought and manifests from that thought. Finally, the desire to be healed is another facet as well as recognizing that we have created our suffering, on a very subtle, subconscious level. Taking the responsibility for nourishing and healing our bodies and thus our minds is a very good place to start!!! For many people it’s very difficult to come to terms with the fact that on a very subconscious level we need our illnesses. This is a very tough thing to come to terms with because it means a lot of self- reflection and looking at things within ourselves that we may be reluctant to look at. It means being brutally honest with ourselves and our motives. Our illnesses can be providing us with something that we may not be able to get in any other way. It can be a way of getting around something we really do not want to face like a fear of success or responsibility, a way to receive love and attention, deep indecision, or fear of confronting issues in childhood. Despite our professed claim to be well and heal ourselves, there are actually hidden reasons for not getting well. There are a number of questions we can ask ourselves to see if our illnesses are perhaps a manipulation to acquire something or avoid something. If we have a true intention to really heal it is a lot of work. True health will not come to one who harbors resentment and anger, lives a life full of stress and works for the sake of avoiding other emotional issues, and most importantly not giving our physical bodies the proper nourishment to keep the mind strong. If we smoke a pack of cigarettes a day, drink coffee and alcohol, refuse to educate and change our diets and do not exercise… WE ARE GOING TO BE UNHEALTHY!!! PHYSICALLY AND MENTALLY! We should stop continually relying on the doctor gods of allopathic methods for answers to our illness, when the real answers are within. Educate yourself…. Heal yourself. Don’t wait till your doctor catches up with minds like Deepak Chopra, Andrew Weil, and Bernie Siegel (to name a few).
The next part will give suggestions for body-mind mending, as well as specific herbal and nutritional remedies to help with the imbalance we sometimes feel. Take the steps to create a change in your life, little by little. Remember we have taken year’s maybe lifetimes cultivating certain perceptions of ourselves, and certain facets of our personalities and habits. Change will not come overnight it is a constant path of evolution, growing, and learning. We need to acknowledge the things we want to change; be tenacious and willful, and also patient.
to be continued…
Tags: imbalances, mental, nature, physical states
