The true nature of healing is about generating optimum energy in
order to fully enjoy living your life. Healing is much more than a
technique of doing, it is a state of Being; Being at peace with
ourselves, our bodies, our relationships and our lives. Let's explore
how to create more healing energy to improve your health and the quality
of your life.
Healing
is a return to wholeness by achieving balance in your life. To get
started, we need to explore the nature of health and let go of some
outdated concepts. During childhood, were taught that healing is only a
means to fix and cure. We learned that healing happens as a reaction to
illness or something to focus on when we're sick. Many traditional
methods of healing in our culture are about fighting and conquering
illness and disease. However, the fundamental flaw with these approaches
is that they consider healing a static, something to "do" once you're
already sick.
There is a saying,"a person is alive, but not really living."
Traditional healing is about keeping the body alive, sometimes at all
costs. In the medical field, death is seen as failure. There are many
souls trapped in physical bodies due to the advancement of medicine.
There are even machines that will keep your lungs breathing for you.
Just keeping a body alive, doesn't produce a state of healing.
Wholeness
honors and respects all four levels of your being. It begins by owning
and respecting your physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies.
These four levels of being or "bodies" are the foundation to wholeness
that leads to creating optimum health. Genuine healing is a return to
wholeness by achieving balance in your life.
The Four Levels of Your Being that Produce Health and Wellness.
The
first level of healing is with your physical body. It's the most
visible aspect of our being. We can easily identify and see the symptoms
of illness physically. However, the lack of illness doesn't define a
state of health and wellness. Unfortunately, many people use their body
as the only barometer to determine if they are healthy or ill. If there
are no symptoms or pain in my body, then I must be healthy. Right? That like saying, well if we aren't at war... then we must be at peace! Right? Wrong! You'll soon see that the physical body is only the first of four bodies to evaluate your state of health and wellness.
Healing begins by making choices to care for your body. Ask yourself these questions to evaluate your relationship to your body.
Do
you appreciate your physical body? Do you find it easy to accept or do
you constantly criticize your body? Are you ashamed of your body? Are
you measuring it against standards of perfection that are impossible to
achieve? If so, then ask yourself why and write down your answers in
a journal. Writing it down helps you reflect deeper. These four
questions will help determine your current relationship with your
physical body and can be a catalyst to jump start your healing process.
Be honest with your answers and write them down.
You may discover
you have been in a very dysfunctional relationship with your body. If
so, forgive yourself and begin to accept, appreciate and respect your
body, just as it is. Acceptance, appreciation and respect will quickly
change the dysfunctional relationship with your body. It can also help
develop positive habits to care for your body and nuture it toward
health.
A Few Suggestions to Appreciate and Respect Your Body;
o Exercise daily to provide stimulation to your internal organs.
o Eat nourishing foods with live energy such as fruit and vegtables.
o Breathe oxygen filled air to continually renew your energy.
o Expose your body to sunlight in small doses on a regular basis.
o Sleep well and allow for plenty of time to rest and revitalize.
o Discover new ways to experience pleasure and comfort.
o Accept any physical limitations and love your body as it is.
The Second Level of Healing is with Your Emotional Body.
The
next level of healing is within your emotional nature. Many people
experience a dysfunctional relationship with their emotional body. This
is due to a lack of understanding about the nature of emotions. We were
never taught how to keep our emotions healthy. Instead, we were
encouraged to devalue and repress them producing emotional negativity.
This unhealthy relationship leads to emotional stress and can be the
source of many physical health problems.
Science is now
discovering how emotions have a direct and immediate effect on the
physical body. It is almost instantaneous and is the basis of the body
mind connection. For example fear triggers adrenoline and causes the
fight or flight response in a millisecond of that feeling being
triggered. Mental emotional stress influences your physical health, by
changing your chemistry, immune system and blood pressure.
What
constitutes a positive emotion versus a negative one? Many people get
stuck when it comes to dealing with their emotional body. The most
common reason is that we divide our emotions into categories of "good"
and "bad" feelings. The "good" ones we have deemed worthy of feeling. On
the other hand, the "bad" emotions are deemed unacceptable, and we tend
to ignore, deny or repress them. It is our judgement of our emotional
nature that creates the dysfunction on this level of our being.
Judging emotions as "good" and "bad", creates emotional negativity. Traditionally we're taught to feel the "good" or as I prefer to call them, "expanding emotions", then we are being positive. However, if we feel the "bad" or "contracting emotions", we are being negative. This division of good and bad with your emotions produces negativity that leads to dysfunction.
You'll
begin to create healing on this level rapidly, by changing how you
define your emotions. Begin by letting go of the judgments of good and bad. Instead, think of them as expanding and contracting. Then think about breathing and ask your self, "Is inhaling good and exhaling bad?"
No... you need to do both to breathe properly, and so it is with your
emotions, they work together expanding and contracting to guide and
protect you through your life. When you let go of the conditioned
judgments from your childhood you will take a major step toward
emotional health and wellbeing.
Honesty is the most positive
emotional state of being. Being emotionally aware of your feelings
regardless if they are expanding or contracting is being honest about
how you really feel. Simply being honest, is the most positive
relationship you can have with your thoughts and feelings, so drop the
judgments of good and bad, and just be honest. Self respect is not
having to apologize for how you honestly feel, it is a state of honoring
your thoughts and feelings. This is one way to develop self respect.
All
emotions have purpose and offers feedback about your life. Every
emotion is a natural feedback mechanism to gain greater understanding of
how you're doing in your life. They are meant to provide guidance on
your journey through life. To fully respect yourself is to be honest
with how you feel emotionally so that you can change it. Denying
emotions keep them alive and can haunt you for years. When you think
about an area of your life that isn't working the way you want, you will
naturally feel constricting emotions and likewise, the areas that are
working well will feel expansive.
If you feel anger, then be
angry! Don't try to convince yourself that your not. Feel it, express it
(responsibly) and release it (forgiveness) and then get back to feeling
happy and free again. Emotional honesty is the most powerful and
positive way to be. However, if you deny your anger, you can attract all
kinds of negative experiences, all in the name of trying to "be
positive". It never works to deny what you are honestly feeling. Honesty
is the best policy and will set you free especially on an emotional
level.
How to Develop a Healthy Relationship with Your Emotional Body.
It
begins with honesty and a willingness to feel and express your emotions
and then release them. Whether its anger, hurt, love, or joy, the
emotions need to be felt and released. This creates a positive emotional
state of being. How we relate to our emotions determines their positive
or negative impact in our lives.
Can Love be Negative and Anger
be Positive? Yes, they both have the potential of being either positive
or negative depending upon how you relate to them. When you express your
emotions, they become a positive influence in your life. Likewise, when
you repress them, they turn negative and can wreck havoc on your
health.
Unexpressed love can be tremendously negative. Repressed
love can change the chemistry of your body, your blood pressure and
eventually contribute to heart disease. Love on an emotional level is
energy. When we refuse to let energy flow, it becomes repressed and can
cause many physical complications.
How to turn anger into a
positive experience: Anger that you feel (honestly), express
(responsibly) and release through forgiveness, can create positive
changes in your life. Anger holds a part of your will power. When you
feel your anger and express it constructively, you can access this
trapped will power to create discipline and positive changes.
How
to begin honoring your emotional nature. Begin to give yourself
permission to feel all of your emotions without judgment and to express
them constructively. You can best do this, by journaling. Write down
your feelings on a regular basis is a great way to express this energy
and release it from your emotional body. It may take some practice, but
it will ultimately lead to a healthier state of being.
The Third Level of Healing is on the Mental Level
The
power of our mind is limitless. How do you relate to this God given
gift, called your human mind? Do you recognize the value of it to change
your life or do you disregard your mental power? Most people have never
been taught to appreciate the power of their minds.
Mental
empowerment begins by making a personal choice. Understanding how the
mind works and how to use the mental tools that are available to you,
begins mental empowerment. The four mental tools to create wellness (as
well as any other change in your life) are:
1. Imagination 2. Thoughts 3. Beliefs 4. Choice
These
four mental tools contain the power to improve or destroy your life.
They create the nature of your attitude and your self image. You can not
fully understand your inner power without owning these tools and using
them to create the life you desire.
Mental healing begins by making a choice to use the power of your mind.
THE
CHOICE: To believe your thoughts are powerful and attract and create
your experiences... or, to believe that it doesn't matter what you
think. Life isn't a choice, it is only an experience that you have no
control over.
If we deny our thinking and imagination, we are out
of alignment with our mental power on this third level of our being.
Thus, disempowered on the mental level of our being; leading to illness
rather than wellness.
When you believe your mind holds the key to
your personal power, you become more conscious of your thoughts and
choices. You understand that your imagination is where all change
begins; First in your mind and then in your life. Make the choice to
understand these tools, learn about them and use them to lead you closer
toward healing and wholeness.
"Imagination is more powerful than knowledge." -Albert Einstein
Disempowered
individuals believe that the imagination is just "pretend" and has no
power, it is only make believe. When we engage our imagination and
visualize the healthy expression of ourselves in our minds, we will
create the blueprint of our future. Your imagination is a preview or
your lifes experiences. Use it!
How to Access the Power of Your
Imagination to Change Your Life. The quickest way I know is to practice
visualization and guided imagery techniques. You can discover how to
focus your attention and use your imagination by learning to meditate.
This is the quickest method I know to gain access to the power of your
mind. (See my guided meditations)
The Forth Level is Spiritual Healing: Your Relationship to the Divine.
Your
spiritual nature, regardless of your religion or lack of it, is about a
personal and private relationship with the Divine, with God. What is
God? Most simply put, God is Love. To honor God is to honor your
relationship with love.
Beyond the emotional expression of human
love is divine love. A love that begins by being understanding,
compassionate and forgiving. Divine love is so much more than emotional
love. It is the ultimate state of being. Being a loving person, becomes
the foundation through which you establish permanent healing and
activate your life-force energy to create wholeness that leads to
mental, emotional and physical healing.
Spirituality is your
personal relationship with God. If God created... all-that-is, then
everything is a creation of God (love). Spirituality is the way we
relate to our lives with love or without it. Spirituality is not a
ritual we do on Sunday and it's not a book with rules and regulations,
that's religion. Spirituality's only rule is love. Love is the way you
relate to living your life.
Spirituality is your personal
relationship to everything in your life. Spirituality is your
relationship with your body, emotions, and mind. Spirituality is your
relationship to your work, money, family and friends and it all hinges
upon wether those relationships are based on love and understanding or
judgement and separation. Being loving is the most healing and powerful
experience to change the nature of your life. It is the ultimate healing
energy.
When we honor our relationship with God we recognize that
our free-will choice to love God is really about choosing to love
ourselves and everything and everybody in our lives.
The true nature of healing is focused on loving yourself enough to:
o Nurture your body by meeting its needs for health
o Honor your emotions and handle them honestly
o Value the power of your mind to overcome resistance to change
o Knowing that spirituality is simply about choosing to love
o Ask God for healing and strength to reach your full potential
o Remember that God isn't separate from the physical world.
The
purpose of holistic healing is to create heaven on earth by becoming
whole and at one with all that is. Only then can wholeness and healing
become as natural as breathing. The true nature of health becomes the
way we live our lives, not just a quick and temporary cure to fix or
keep our body alive!
Aliveness is the natural way to increase your
energy. Aliveness emerges from a healthy relationship with all four
levels of your being, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.
Aliveness is being physically energized, emotionally free,
mentally clear and spiritually connected to life. Spirituality healing
is a choice available to everyone. The choice to access the power within
whenever we choose and to remember we are loved by God and the way to
love God is to love our lives and create a healthy wholeness with
all-that-is. Applying these secrets will increase your healing energy
and create positive changes on all levels of your life
Michaiel Patrick Bovenes is a personal empowerment teacher,
professional speaker, healer and author. Since 1994, he's been the
author of a popular series of guided visualization meditations, he
calls, Soul-utions. He offers classes and writes articles for various
magazines and ezines worldwide. He currently resides in San Francisco,
CA.
