How To Heal Your Body

A couple of weeks ago I pulled a muscle in my back. I had had a long day of yoga; 4 classes including karate and I was too tired to reach for the tissues. Being used to twist my body into all sorts of unnatural forms I reached and twisted to get the tissue behind and above me. I felt something start to pull so I decided in my brilliance to stretch and twist just that little bit further to reach the tissue. Have you ever had a moment when you realize you have done something really bad to yourself? I could barely move the rest of the night, I was so sore and worried, it wasn’t going to be easy to teach yoga with a pain like this. I couldn’t sit, I couldn’t lie, I couldn’t turn over, my back screamed at me “how could you do this to me?!!”

I had read someone’s comment on a facebook post about having a cold, he suggested that if you have a cold, to accept that you have a cold, instead of complaining and suffering and wishing that you felt better, take the cold to be part of you, then you will be in the moment, though you will still feel ill, you won’t be suffering because you won’t be trying to be something that you aren’t at that time. I thought that I would try out this theory with my back. I thought to myself, “I have hurt my back, it feels very sore, but I accept that this pain is part of me at the moment and I am going to look after this pain, and I’m going to care for it and nurture it, this is just the way my back has to feel at the moment, I can’t make it not feel sore, but I am going to look after it as best I can”. So I did, my pain became the centre of my world, I gave it cold packs and heat packs, I rubbed it with voltaren, arnica and deep heat, I did the yoga exercises I knew would help it get better. I took anti-inflammatory tablets and pain killers before I went to sleep. It hurt so much to lie in bed, but when the pain tablets kicked in I fell asleep and didn’t move.

The next day it wasn’t much better. I decided the best thing I could do for myself was cancel the morning’s class, I could use the lunch time class to do exercises to help myself and I would only have to get through kid’s karate in the afternoon. I lay perfectly still in my bed, using my meditation to draw the golden healing light into my back and imagined Raphael (the angel of healing) looking after me. I got up and went for a little walk, still telling my sore back, that it was ok to feel like this, I accept the pain as part of my body and that I would take care of it even though it was being a pain in the back.

The next morning it felt like a miracle had happened. I was completely healed, I wouldn’t even have known there had been anything wrong with me at all the previous day. I was seriously amazed and happy. I honestly thought it was going to take time to heal. But I loved my body back to health.

Next time you feel sore and in pain, instead of thinking to yourself “I hate my body, body you make me feel so bad, you are sore and painful, I don’t want to feel like this, go away body, you are my arch nemesis” Try saying nice things to yourself like, ”Dear body, I know I have been hard on you making you do things that have caused you pain, but never mind, I love you anyway, legs you do such a good job of walking me around all day, arms, you carry such heavy loads, I really appreciate everything that you do for me, it is no wonder you feel sore, I make you work so hard. So now I am going to look after you and make you feel better”.

You could notice that your arms don’t feel sore if your legs hurts, you could notice that your knee feels good if your shoulder hurts, and if your whole body is aching, you could notice how nice your hair looks today.

I hope this makes you feel better

Namaste Sarah J

Silence

Being quiet, sitting alone on the bank of a creek in the omnipresent stillness of the heat, where the air is only slightly disturbed as an occasional breeze blows gently, swaying and rustling the golden crowns of silky oak trees. I’m listening intently to the silence.

My mind becomes still, thoughts dissolve into the emptiness of the space inside my mind, finding peace, serenity and the light of my own divinity.

The sounds of my surrounds no longer belong to their makers; the delighted whistles and squeaks of the wrens becomes the sound of their songs; the cry of the black cockatoos as they feast on pine nuts becomes an alarm to make me aware; the cry of the ibis as he wings his way high above on the air currents is the echo of his flight. The plop of a lizard landing in the creek from an overhanging branch causes ripples across the glass-like surface of the waterhole, ripples spreading out as concentric circles of past action lapping at the reeds that grow thickly along the banks of the reedy creek, like a thought rippling through a mind, till the water becomes smoothed by time and stillness is unruffled once again in the silence. A fish swims up from the depths of the creek to swallow an unsuspecting water insect out boating on a hot, still day.

In my silence I am immersed in the world around, my being is absorbed into this creation. My mind is silent; all thoughts are still, I can see them, floating; motionless in the emptiness of space. My spirit has left my mind and body resting in harmony, peace and serenity. There is no longing or desire, no need or want, life is complete in just being. Spirit knows no words to break the silence; it rests in the wisdom of creation.

The Fruit of Knowledge

The story of Adam and Eve isn’t a story about the creation of original sin; it contains the wisdom of the original self and the way to find our way back to the origin of our pure nature.

Humans developed through the creation of evolution, we are constantly improving in mind and body, in knowledge and strength. Also our spiritual self is constantly evolving forward. Over the past millennium it has been only a few special beings who found the way to enlightenment through the special grace of devotion, certain individuals found the way to unite with the universal oneness of creation or “God” as it is commonly called, like the Buddha and Jesus. These beings taught others and passed the wisdom down through their linage and teachings. Now this wisdom has spread across the globe and is readily available for everyone who seeks it.

Before Eve ate the fruit from the tree of knowledge she didn’t know anything, she lived in the bliss of wisdom, accepting the environment around her as it was, perceiving her world in its total purity, there was no perception of good nor evil, no knowledge of right or wrong, everything just existed as it was, as creation. Then she was persuaded by the serpent to taste the fruit, which she thoughtfully shared with Adam. When they tasted the fruit of knowledge, they became like God, they knew the difference between good and evil, they could judge what was right and wrong.

Before Adam and Eve ate the fruit their minds were completely still, no thought rippled through their minds, they didn’t know anything, everything was purely calm and peacefully still. They had no judgement because there was no need to know right from wrong because everything was perfect, everything was just the way it is was meant to be. Nothing appeared as either positive or negative, they accepted life in its pure state, they didn’t question anything, and they lived in the perfect state of harmony with everything that existed.

The way to reach primordial purity is to see everything as it purely is, to find the true essence of everything as it is created, neither good nor bad, to see everything just as it is. It is possible to obtain this state of pure perception, you just have to recognize it; it wasn’t taken away, it was covered over by knowledge, by thoughts and emotions. When thoughts and emotions are kept still your mind becomes free to see clearly. Everything you know is still in your mind, thought is suspended, motionless and mind is clear.

I have a lot of problems with the story of Adam and Eve. By planting a glorious fruit tree in the middle of the garden of Eden and then telling the inhabitants not to eat the fruit, it seems to me that God put temptation in the way of Adam and Eve, not the serpent, the serpent told Eve the truth, that she would become wise like God. God had lied to them and told them that they would die the day they ate the fruit. God judged them and condemned them when he discovered what they had done. It is not good to judge people, though I suppose that is God’s prerogative.

I think what they gave up when they ate the fruit was their faith in God. He had told them not to eat it and expected them to have blind faith and do what he said. When they went against His word, God lost faith in people. When they ate the fruit, knowledge came into their minds, thoughts formed; they started to think, to question, to ask why it is so? Their minds were no longer in the pure state of stillness that is the state of grace. The wonderful thing is that it is quite possible to get that grace back, by believing in yourself, finding faith in yourself, believe that the divine is inside you. Have faith in the belief of your own divinity.

If God is all knowing, he must have known they would eat the fruit. And why didn’t he know they had? He came looking for them on a walk through the garden and found them hiding behind a tree because they were ashamed of being naked. I am not sure where they got the idea that being naked was shameful and their sex had to be hidden behind fig leaves? May be they could see that it was their sex that made them different from each other. And what’s with this original sin? That Adam’s sin is passed on through sex to his sons? God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, he didn’t say sex was sinful. The idea of original sin was invented by St Paul and expanded by St Augustine.

If Eve hadn’t shared knowledge with Adam we wouldn’t have had civilization, humans wouldn’t have created all the wonderful works of art and inventions nor had all the amazing thoughts that we have had, are having and will have. I wouldn’t have the knowledge to find my way back to how we were before we had knowledge. And now I have both – the pure serenity of stillness and peace AND all the knowledge of the ages.

So thanks Eve for giving Adam an apple, I think you started us out on an amazing journey of discovery.

I’ve been in that garden with Eve and the snake – the snake gave her the energy. Wow! Imagine what happened in Eve’s brain when the power of thought went into it, it must have blown her mind! Like how I felt when the snake revealed to me the power of faith.

Change negative to positive

Shining Darkness

If the sun didn’t shine on the earth then the other side of the world wouldn’t have night. Think how many wonderful things there are in the darkness of night…? There are nocturnal animals and stars, city lights and cool air; the moon reflected in still ponds and nightingale’s song, there is rest and sleep and dreams. Imagine freshly fallen raindrops hanging from the tip of every leaf of a tree and in every drop is the reflection of the moon. Without the dark of night we wouldn’t have many wonderful and beautiful things. The night also is full of shadows and lurking fears, of things that can’t be seen, of howling wolves and spider webs, slimy slugs and shrieking bats.

Life is made up of experiences, some that make us feel glad and others that make us feel bad. Sometimes something happens in life that feels so bad it feels like your heart is going to crack and your body wants to die. But guess what? If you can teach your mind to look at negative experiences in the right way you will not only get over them but they will make you a stronger and better person.

We all have bad experiences in life but we can use them as a catalyst to change life into something brighter. Start small, in the midst of a calamity, find a tiny thing of beauty, a butterfly or an interesting leaf, a sunny sky and puffy clouds, the sound of rain or someone’s smile. Let it bring you into the moment, each moment is easier to deal with than the stories created in your mind of what might be or what may have happened.

 In a dark room if you turn on a light the darkness is gone and the room is filled with light, if it wasn’t dark in the first place you would have no need to turn on a light because you would already be able to see. If we didn’t have dark times in our lives, we wouldn’t recognize the bright times. There is a comparison for us in experiences that cause us pain with experiences that bring us happiness. Search for the positive in the negative experience then the negative experience can have a positive reaction. If you can learn a positive lesson from a negative experience then the negative experience isn’t really negative at all, it’s positive because it has taught you a valuable lesson. If you don’t learn from a negative experience, if you can’t find some positive reason for its happening, then it can only remain negative, you won’t grow or learn and will probably repeat the same mistake over again till you eventually learn, if you never learn you will stay on the treadmill of negative existence.

Don’t try to deny hurt and pain, pushing it away will only make it stronger. We naturally gravitate to what makes us feel good and repel what makes us feel bad.  Try the opposite, embrace it. It isn’t a good idea to smack a crying child in an effort to sooth them, you would cuddle them, nurture them, say comforting things. That is what you need to do to feelings that make you feel bad. Say a loved one has died and you are feeling grief, loss and sadness. These emotions don’t make you feel good and it seems that the natural thing to do is to try and push them away or block them out because you don’t like feeling bad. Instead of looking at the event and thinking about the loved one, look at how you are feeling, look at your grief. By looking at the emotion objectively it looses its power and fades away. It takes practice. Look at the emotion, not the event that has caused the pain. It is natural to feel pain and grief, so embrace it, notice the feeling and be kind to it, be kind to yourself.  You can try imagining the feeling as an object or a colour or as a bubble with the feeling inside, look at it. Say to yourself that it is ok to feel this way, accept the emotion, don’t try to stifle it, just let it be. After a little while, tell the feeling that you acknowledge its existence, put it in a container, a bubble, a box, whatever you visualize and put it away till later. Next time the feeling rises, bring it out of its container, look at it, acknowledge that it is there, accept it and put it away again. If you have made the emotion into a colour, change the colour.

You don’t need to hold onto emotions that hurt, you don’t need to push them away; you just need to accept them.

What if you are in a bad situation? Is there anything you can do to change the situation? If there is then do it! Do whatever you can to fix it. If there is nothing you can do, there is no use worrying about it, worrying and obsessing over it isn’t going to change the problem nor is it going to provide a solution, it is only going to cause you the grief of worrying, there is no point, so stop worrying about it. If you are worried about something that might happen in the future, there is no point as we can’t know what the future may bring, circumstances may change and bring a favourable outcome and then you will have wasted all that time and energy worrying about nothing. If you do everything in your power to fix a situation and things don’t work out the way you envisaged, then they probably weren’t meant to, but you will have the knowledge that you have done your best, that you took action instead of wasting energy on pointless worry, accept that the universe has made life this way for reasons you may not understand, you have to trust that the universe works the way it does for a reason. It’s really strange, but once you stop fighting against the tide and go with the flow, things have a way of working out for the best, differently to what you hopes, but ultimately for the good. It takes trust and faith.

Turn the light on in the darkness of your mind. Turn suffering into happiness, embrace the suffering, look at it, learn from it, and transform it into something positive. Without negative experiences we wouldn’t have the catalyst or the opportunity for the growth it offers, so they aren’t really negative at all, they are positive means for us to grow into happy light-filled life participants.  Look at life’s experiences this way and everything you thought was bad in your life turns into something good, negative is transformed into positive.

You can’t be enlightened if you haven’t been endarkened.

Yin Yang, The Way through Martial Arts and Yoga

The way is by becoming one with the universal energy.

Martial Arts gives one the confidence and ability to know that you can do anything.
Finding your true self by giving up ego also gives one the confidence to know you can do anything.
One path is violent, the other path is peace.
One path leads you to want to be the one - the best above everyone else
The other path leads you to want everyone to have peace.

Martial arts has its origins in India, the basic stances are the same as yoga. The requirement of discipline of the body and mind are the same as yoga. The orient isolated itself from the rest of the world and developed its own way. The first emperor wanted to unify the states to make them into ONE county with ONE ruler.
The ONE in Buddhism and Yoga is the divine force.

Yang - The Orient developed meditation and yogic practices to come up the martial arts which is all about control of you mind and your body. It is also about subjugation and defeat of everyone else to be the best.
China forces its people to think and behave as the top leader decrees they must - the people work together as one. They don't allow religion and feel they must destroy Tibet because of its beliefs.

Yin - Yoga from India is the search for enlightenment, perfected by the Buddha to relieve the suffering of mankind through loving kindness and compassion.

The methods of martial arts and Yoga are the same - discipline, practice, shaping the body and mind, one pointed focus but the outcomes are opposing. One is about creating the ego, the other is about loosing the ego.

Buzzing along here, here is my second blog haha

Hi, it's Sarah. This is my first post on blogger and as I don't know how it really works I'm not going to say anything till I work it out