Meditation Or Medication?

Meditation or Medication - which one are you choosing? In the West, we are often taught to reach for the medication as soon as physical ailments show up in the body - how about we took some wisdom from the East and ancient ways, sat in meditation and took a more holistic approach to our own health and wellbeing?

In this opening episode, Joanna talks about her own journey of self-healing disease in her body and shares ways in which you can listen to your own body for deeper healing too.

Transcript

Hello,

And welcome to the Wisdom Well.

I am your host,

Joanna,

And I will be sharing and talking about subjects that I feel really passionate about.

I love to talk about how we can take a more holistic approach to our own health and wellbeing.

I love to talk about conscious relating,

Plant medicines,

Travel,

Community,

Shamanism,

Love,

And so much more.

And no doubt more topics will rise as we move through these huge times we're going through.

I really hope you enjoy the show and I look forward to hearing your feedback.

Enjoy.

So here we are,

Episode one of the Wisdom Well.

Thank you so much for joining me.

In today's episode,

I will be talking about meditation or medication.

Which one are you choosing?

Now as this is episode one,

I'm going to share a little bit more about myself and my background so you know who's talking to you.

And it also really ties into today's topic.

Now,

As I said in the intro,

I will be covering topics that I feel really passionate about and that feel quite timely given this huge time we're moving through.

And I'm sure you can all resonate with the fact that we have been going through huge changes,

That a lot of us are awakening to a new way of being and the old ways are really crumbling around us.

So which are you choosing?

What is your path?

Which way are you heading?

Big questions to ask,

But today I will keep it with meditation or medication.

Now about me,

I am a wanderer and adventure seeker.

I have traveled far and wide.

I am born and bred in the UK and have also lived in Arizona,

All over Europe.

I have lived in Bali,

Australia,

Thailand,

India.

I am pretty well traveled.

It's been an honor to be able to travel so far and to experience different cultures and different ways of living.

And it's been a huge part of my evolution of becoming who I am today.

And it also really ties into my work and my offerings.

So I created my healing brand Love Yogi about seven years ago after I had spent seven or eight years in London working in the creative industry as an art director.

So alongside my career,

I always had my head in some spiritual or self-help book.

I was doing evening and weekend courses in topics such as aromatherapy,

Massage,

Anatomy,

Physiology.

I was always studying something to do with the body.

I was just so fascinated by these human vessels that we're in and how we can look after our mind,

Body,

And soul as one.

So these were subjects that I felt very drawn to for some reason.

I certainly hadn't learned about any of it at school.

There was a whispering in my heart and in my soul.

And so I followed those whispers.

And so alongside my creative career,

I was studying until eventually I broke out of the nest and I flew to Ibiza to start my new life.

So to be honest,

I didn't really know what I was doing at the time.

I just knew that I had a whole load of qualifications behind me and I was going to start as a reiki therapist and I was going to help people on their healing journeys.

So I hear you ask,

How did I end up in Ibiza doing what I'm doing?

It's a good question.

So I remember age 23,

I had just moved to London.

I was working at GQ magazine on a placement and I started to have pain in my womb and in my uterus.

And after about three months of having this pain,

I figured,

Okay,

There's something that I need to look at here.

I can't ignore this anymore.

So off I went to the GP to find out what was going on and they ran some tests,

But what happened was they all came back negative.

So I left feeling really deflated and feeling like I must be making this up in my head and maybe I'm not really in pain.

And so I just continued on and kept going to work and another few months would pass until eventually I would feel the need to go again.

Now this cycle went on for three years.

Can you believe it?

Three whole years where I was going to the doctors,

They were doing tests,

They were all coming back negative and I would leave and then I would continue to be in pain until I would return again.

Now having the education that I do now,

I definitely would have moved through that way quicker than I did back then,

But I was only 23.

I hadn't been educated in all the subjects that I am now.

And so I had to learn as I went.

And so after three years,

I was chatting to a friend who had actually just read a book about something called endometriosis.

So I read the symptoms and I read a bit about it and I ticked every single box and I was in shock.

I thought,

How can the doctors not know that this is something that could be going on for three years?

I've been turned away.

I've been told it's in my head.

I've been told it must just be about my period.

And all the while there was this disease called endometriosis that I felt I had.

I had a full body resonance with what I was reading.

And so I took myself back to the GP and I said,

I think I have this,

How can I test for it?

Now for those that have had endometriosis or know about it,

You'll know that the only way to find it is to go through keyhole surgery.

It's called a laparoscopy and that enables them to go in with a camera and actually see what's going on.

I went through the process of having the keyhole surgery and of course they found widespread endometriosis.

So there I was after three years finally having the explanation for what had been going on in my body.

I wasn't going mad.

I knew there was something wrong yet it took me three years to get to this point.

I was like,

Hallelujah.

Now what can I do to remove it?

So back then my focus was purely on the physical.

I got them to remove the endometriosis and for quite some time I was pain-free.

Now living in London,

Working a stressful job,

Being in a relationship that probably wasn't serving me at the time,

Putting all sorts of toxins in my body,

On my body,

Inevitably the endometriosis grew back.

Now my focus was very much on the physical and now I know that I had to look much deeper at what was going on in order for myself to heal at a much deeper level.

So fast forward to 2012.

I'd had two operations to remove the endometriosis and it was like a light bulb went off in my head and I just thought,

You know what?

I need to sort this out on my own.

Medical intervention just isn't cutting it.

It's not going to get rid of it for the long term and I need to look at this from a more holistic viewpoint.

I need to look at my environment,

My relationship,

My work,

My stress levels,

The food I'm putting into my body,

The toxins I'm putting into my body,

The toxins I'm putting onto my body.

I had to take a very holistic approach to what was going on and start to look at the energetics of my subtle body as well.

So I went online,

Started looking at alternative therapies and there I found Reiki.

Now you know when you read something or hear something and your whole body just vibrates and you get goosebumps everywhere?

Well that for me is a sign that it is a yes to explore whatever that is and that's exactly how I felt when I saw Reiki.

And there and then I decided to book on to the level one and level two and I just went for it.

Now I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

I did a full weekend's training and for those that know about Reiki,

The level one is about self-healing and for 21 days you do a self-healing process where you sit and you work with your energy body and you go into meditation and see what comes up.

And for 21 days I went through quite a process.

At the time I didn't really have any friends that was going through the same journey.

I was very much in London mentality,

In London world and it was quite a lonely journey.

And for the first five or six days of this process I went through what's called a healing crisis.

Now the teacher that I had for level one and two at the time hadn't actually shared with me about a healing crisis.

So when it was happening I was like,

What is going on?

All the pain in my body was growing tenfold.

I was having memories from the past surface that I thought that I dealt with and it was all quite intense as you can imagine.

Luckily I was reading an amazing book called Reiki for Life by Penelope Quest and she talks about the healing crisis.

So I found some comfort in her words and I knew that I was doing something good even though the process felt uncomfortable in the meantime.

I continued to work with my self-healing and organically I noticed that I was becoming more aware of what I was eating,

Who I was spending my time with and it was almost like this gateway of consciousness just opened and I started to see and feel and sense things that I hadn't before.

It was like my tunnel vision that I'd previously had suddenly just blew wide open and I had a full periphery view of my entire life.

And I went through this whole physical purge as well in my space.

I was getting rid of clothes,

I was getting rid of old stuff that was just carrying stagnant and stuck energy and I cleared out the whole flat and left myself with just the bare minimum and it felt really good.

And that was just the start of my healing journey.

So this was the end of 2012 and as we went into 2013 I just continued on this path of self-healing,

Of self-discovery.

I was doing yoga,

I was meditating,

I was reading more books,

I was going to reiki shares,

You name it I probably tried it.

And after two and a half months of self-healing with my own bare hands I completely rid myself of all pain in my body.

It was like I didn't even have endometriosis anymore and I was so in awe.

I was like I need to share this work.

This is so epic and amazing.

Now it took me a couple of years to get to that point because there were some huge changes that I needed to make in my life because everything that wasn't in alignment had to go.

So after a few months my relationship ended,

My work shifted,

I moved to a new place and everything just started to unravel and fall into a new ground.

I realized that in the West we're so taught to reach for the medication as soon as something physical is going on in the body.

Now I'm going to just paint a picture for you.

Imagine you're looking at an iceberg and the ice cap that you see above the sea level is the top 9% of the entire iceberg.

So there's a whole other 91% that's going on underneath the surface level of what you can see.

So this is really similar to what actually goes on in our bodies.

When you receive physical pain or disease in the body that's usually the top 9% as an indicator of what is going on at a much deeper level.

So there's a whole of the 91% that's been brewing over time to then manifest in the body in physical illness.

Yet what we fail to recognize often in the West is that there's this other stuff going on underneath.

So we treat the physical ailment without addressing the more deeper layers,

The subtle layers,

The energetics.

And when we go into the energetics,

We are able to really heal things at a root level,

Which means that deeper healing occurs.

So of course I realized I was just fixing the physical problem.

The physical pain was coming up.

I got them to remove the physical aspect and inevitably over time it grew back because I wasn't addressing any of the other aspects.

So by working with Reiki,

I was able to tap into the subtle body and the energetics and I was able to clear through stuck and stagnant energy that was stuck in my body.

And this process has been going on since then.

I don't feel like our healing journeys ever end.

They just continue to unravel and unfold.

And as we go on this journey,

We just discover more.

There's always deeper layers for us to access and to uncover.

I mean,

The good thing is I feel that as time goes on,

We get quicker at accessing them and clearing them.

But the beginning of the process of opening up Pandora's box can for sure be uncomfortable.

I know it all too well.

So I began to blend Eastern and Western philosophies with myself and then with people that I began to work with because I realized that so many of us only look at the top 9% and it's so important for us to look deeper.

If we want to be more vital and if we want to heal on a deeper level,

Then this absolutely needs to happen.

So that is why I am here now and doing what I do and why I'm sharing this in the first subject because I feel if all of us looked at meditation over medication,

We would probably be a much healthier society.

So how do we do this?

Well,

When something physical is rising in the body,

I invite you to look at the metaphysical.

The metaphysical aspects are those we cannot see.

So the emotions that are attached to traumas that are stuck in the body,

The things in the unseen realm,

Our thoughts,

Our feelings,

Our emotions all play a role in what manifests in our physical body.

When we begin to work with the metaphysical,

We start to work with the things that we cannot see.

So our thoughts,

Our emotions,

Our feelings and this helps us to get a bigger picture of what is actually going on.

So just to give you an example,

My endometriosis was a physical pain that was coming,

A physical disease that was showing itself because there was something at a much deeper level that was going on that was then manifesting as the endometriosis.

So what I had to do was dive deeper into my past,

Into my thoughts and my emotions and look at where I was suppressing energy or not feeling energy or feeling emotions that were wanting to be seen and to be felt.

A lot of the work I was able to do on my own.

However,

I did go on a journey with plant medicines and I have worked with different types of therapists and healers to unravel the deeper layers of what was going on with my endometriosis.

And honestly,

I can say since seven years ago,

I also just told myself I don't have endometriosis anymore.

It's that classic mind over matter.

Bruce Lipton talks about this a lot,

The biology of belief.

That was a huge piece for me on this journey.

And just by meditating on myself having a healthy body,

I felt I was able to clear the endometriosis completely from my system.

Now,

Don't get me wrong.

There were many layers to what was actually going on in my body.

And I won't go into all the details in this first podcast.

I feel that this subject will be one that I talk about in more depth in further episodes.

I just wanted to share a bit about my journey with how I got here and how looking outside of just the physical aspect,

I've been able to heal my body on such a deep level.

And now every time something physical comes up in my body,

I actually sit with it and do some self-inquiry and ask what is going on?

We have this deep inner wisdom within our bodies and we often have the answers within.

We just need to trust ourselves.

We need to listen more deeply to our bodies and what it's saying to us because the physical body is always speaking to us.

It's just whether we're listening.

And this is very much how I work with clients and students.

It's this invitation to deeper self-inquiry and to trusting the innate wisdom that lays within.

So just by meditating before reaching for the medication,

There's so much healing that can be done.

We don't need to reach straight for the medication to numb the pain,

To take away the uncomfortability.

We need to meditate on what is going on and find the truth for ourselves.

And I really believe that in doing this,

We would be a much healthier,

Happier society.

And let's face it,

We all need a bit more of that,

Especially now,

Especially in these times.

So this is just a little intro to myself and a little bit about my journey and the topic of meditation or medication.

I invite you to bring this into your life and bring more awareness to the choices that you're making when these things happen for you.

If you would like to know more about the work that I do,

You can check me out at loveyogi.

Co.

That's L-O-V-E-Y-O-G-I.

Co.

I will put the link in the bio below.

And this is how I work with people to access themselves on a deeper level and to heal in a much more holistic way.

I will be talking much more about this in following episodes alongside many other subjects,

Because honestly,

I feel like I have so much to talk about and I'm just going to keep sharing.

And just to touch on the name of the podcast,

This came through just as I was sitting with a sister in Ibiza and this name literally just dropped in through from the ethers,

The Wisdom Well.

And honestly,

My ego was like,

Really?

You're going to call your podcast The Wisdom Well,

Because you're so full of wisdom.

And I just had to laugh at myself and just go,

Okay,

Well,

I'm just going to put it out there.

And I spoke to a few friends before I did and they loved the name and I just thought,

You know what?

I'm just going to go for it.

So I really hope you found some nuggets of wisdom in today's conversation.

I would love to hear your thoughts and your feedback.

I am really excited to hear from you and I look forward to sharing more with you really soon.

And in the meantime,

Be happy,

Be well and have courage in your hearts,

Dear ones.

And that's it for today.

Thank you so much for listening.

Really hope you enjoyed the show.

All the links that you need are in the copy below.

And also a big thank you to my beautiful sister Rachel,

Who creates the music to accompany the show,

Also known as Veda Ray.

You can check her out on SoundCloud.

Listen to her music.

She is amazing.

Thank you so much and see you next time.