A Healing Practice

When we are ill or injured, we can worry a lot about getting well again, particularly if it goes on for a long time. Our fears will hinder our healing! In this practice, we relax first, and just that increases the healing process. We notice our fearful thoughts and tell ourselves it’s gonna be ok. Then we connect with the living Universe and charge ourselves up with prana and direct prana to the part of us that needs healing. Best wishes for your perfect health!

Photo by Mor Shani

Transcript

Let's find a comfortable place for our body then,

Preferably lying down with our arms and legs,

Somewhere they can be relaxed.

Our neck,

A comfortable position,

In line with our spine,

Plenty of room for our hips and our spine.

Let's have a little fidget until everything feels somewhere it can rest.

And when we find that place we can rest,

Let's take a few deeper breaths,

Take our attention inwards.

And we're going to start off by becoming physically a bit more relaxed.

So,

Imagining a wave of relaxation,

Starting at the crown of your head and flowing slowly over your body.

So your forehead and your scalp is softening a little.

The muscles around your eyes and your temples are becoming softer.

Your cheeks and your jaw,

Allow them to fall into neutral.

Your neck,

Somewhere comfortable and allowing it to soften and melt.

Shoulders softening and melting.

Back down to the support beneath you.

Our arms and our hands becoming still and quiet.

Our back,

Softening as best we can.

Our ribs and our belly,

Softening as best we can.

That wave of relaxation flowing down over our hips and they're releasing and softening.

Our thighs,

Our knees,

Becoming softer,

More relaxed.

Shins and our calves,

Our ankles and our feet,

All a bit softer,

Quiet and still.

The whole body then,

Feeling a little more comfortable and more relaxed.

And taking a couple more deep,

Full breaths.

And as you exhale,

Imagining that you are butter on hot toast,

Melting even further.

Whole body feeling a little softer and more relaxed.

Please know,

Even just doing this,

Just allowing your body to stop,

Take deeper breaths,

Is changing your biology.

Shifted you away from stress,

Switched on your parasympathetic nervous system.

And that has huge effects on your body,

Like increasing the energy that goes to your immune system,

Increasing the rates of cell division and reproduction and maintenance,

Improved your digestion.

All those things are turned down under stress and turned back up again when we choose to relax.

So know already that you're helping yourself,

Just by doing nothing and breathing.

Wonderful.

If we have any pain,

We need to know how to address that,

Because otherwise it's going to keep bothering us as we try and relax.

So if we feel any pain as we're practicing,

We need to attend to it.

We can't ignore it.

And for most of our life,

We tend to push it away and ignore it.

But in mindfulness,

We give it some attention.

So if we have any pain,

We can attend to it now.

And if we don't,

We just imagine doing it for when it pops up.

We're going to feel how that pain feels in our body,

Like the raw data of the pain,

Whether it's achy or sharp,

Where it is in our body,

The qualities of the pain.

We feel it,

In other words.

Imagine it's an alarm bell ringing to get attention.

We need to attend to it.

As we attend to the discomfort,

We might find our body tenses up again,

Because that's natural.

So let's notice if that's happened and see if we can soften back down again.

The other thing that will probably happen when we start to pay attention to the pain is our mind will be telling us all sorts of things.

Our fearful thoughts will come up.

It may be saying things like,

Oh,

This is never going to go away.

What if it doesn't get better?

What if it gets worse?

What if I can't move?

What if I can't do this and that and this?

Oh,

My goodness.

And that's exhausting.

So what I want to offer you now is the opportunity to feel any pain or discomfort you have.

At the same time,

Keep your body relaxed.

Keep those slow,

Comfortable breaths going.

And to notice any thoughts you have when you attend to the pain.

Sitting is our observer self,

Observing our relaxed body,

Any discomfort we're experiencing,

And our mind being worried about that pain,

That part of us that needs healing.

And just being able to step back and let go.

And just being able to step back and observe any of those fearful thoughts we have already takes some of the urgency out of them.

Yes,

I'm having those distressed,

Unhappy thoughts,

Worrying about whether it's going to get better and how I'm going to manage.

But my observer self,

The one who notices those fearful thoughts,

Will be able to tell you something different.

Your observer self can tell you it's going to be okay.

That's a very relaxing thought.

It's going to be okay.

Your observer self notices you in your distress.

It feels compassion,

Only compassion for you.

See if you can get a sense of that part of you that feels compassion,

That wants to hold your hand,

Embrace you when you're worried.

Let it do that.

Let it embrace you completely.

Imagine it any way you like,

Like it's your gentle parent.

Even if you didn't have a particularly gentle parent,

Your observer self,

Your soul self can do that for you.

See if you can enjoy it a little bit,

Being held by the part of you that feels compassion,

Feels love for you.

Try telling yourself it's going to be okay and see how it feels.

Because that's the test.

Feel the fearful thoughts,

Feel how they feel,

Decide,

Is that what I want in my head?

Feel the compassion,

Feel the observer self,

The love,

And decide if that's something I want to feel more of.

So when our pain pops up,

When the worrying thoughts appear,

Because they will,

Because they will,

It's probably a habit,

We take a relaxed breath,

We soften our shoulders,

We let our observer self notice and feel compassion for ourselves in our difficulty.

Our observer self doesn't always believe the thoughts in our head.

Like our gentle parent,

It looks upon those fearful thoughts like maybe we would a young child.

It might not believe all those fearful thoughts.

It's a bit wiser.

It says,

No,

It's going to be okay.

We don't have to believe the fearful thoughts and we can replace them if we wish.

We have that freedom.

So we're feeling more relaxed.

We know what to do if we feel discomfort or pain.

We're a bit less bought into our worries around our illness.

So we're feeling more relaxed and our biology is already working to support us better.

Let's charge ourselves up a little bit.

So,

Living universe around us,

It's full of energy.

Imagine the sea of energy that we exist in.

Those atoms,

They're not solid.

They're made of energy.

The spaces in between the atoms,

More energy.

And these energy concentrations,

These atoms are all connected.

They're all conscious.

They have some type of consciousness,

Maybe not exactly the same as yours.

But imagine you lie in a sea of conscious energy,

In a web of conscious energy,

The living universe.

And of course,

You are made of this stuff too.

This sea of energy is not separate from you.

You are made of it.

It is the same as you.

You cannot be separate.

You are part of this web.

And as such,

Part of that web of consciousness,

This energy responds to your thoughts,

To your direction,

To your intention.

What a crazy idea,

Huh?

But what if it does?

And what if it did?

And each time you inhale,

A relaxed,

Comfortable inhalation,

We invite this energy into our chest and our heart space.

So let's do that now.

Inhaling in golden light,

Love,

Truth,

Prana,

However you want to think about it.

Qi,

Universal energy,

It's all the same stuff.

Holy Spirit,

It's all the same stuff.

With a comfortable breath,

We invite it to our heart,

Into our lungs,

Starting to flow around our body.

Imagine that any way you wish.

But that energy is flowing to each and every cell of our body.

Our cell biology is becoming a little more energized and harmonious.

Imagine it happening.

Imagine the coherence,

All that cell chemistry falling beautifully into place.

All those systems start to work perfectly,

Allow it to be so.

Our body's becoming a little bit luminous.

So we get a choice now.

If we wish,

We can just imagine that prana flowing to the bits of us we would like to heal.

Invite the prana there,

Silently in your mind,

Or you can speak it out loud.

You can hear your intention.

Ask for the healing,

Ask for the prana to flow there and help your biology.

If you wish,

You can place your hands upon that part of you where you'd like the healing to become.

If you're going to use your hands,

You can inhale the energy into your heart.

And as you exhale,

Imagine it running down your arms,

Out of your palms and into that part of you that would like to be healed further.

Directing that healing energy into part of your body.

Inhale that energy flows in from all around you.

And we exhale and direct it to that part of us for healing.

The breath is still comfortable.

Our body's soft.

You may even be able to feel the energy in your palms or your hands.

Imagine it happening.

Imagine your immune system becoming activated.

All the cells doing whatever it is they do.

Infections are being removed.

Inflammation is flowing away and returning to the body.

Cells are repairing,

Reproducing.

Tissues are rebuilding.

Perfect health is being created.

I am perfect health.

And if I want you to say that to yourself,

In the sense that you can imagine what it would be like to have that perfect health,

I want you to say that to yourself.

That you can imagine what it would be like to have that perfect health.

So not to imagine your imperfect state of health,

But how joyful and how beautiful it would be to have that perfect body that does exactly what it needs to do to maintain itself and how wonderful that would feel.

And that is the direction.

That is the sense in which we state,

I am perfect health.

A joyful sense of wouldn't it be wonderful.

If you're feeling joy as you think it,

That's exactly right.

We're pointing ourselves in that direction.

We know we don't have it yet,

But we're facing that direction.

We're drawing it in.

We're creating it.

Resting for a few moments.

Imagining still all those tissues,

Systems,

Operating harmoniously.

Your biology knows exactly what to do to heal itself.

And it's all starting to happen.

A few more restful breaths,

Allowing yourself to be just as you are.

Knowing you've given yourself a boost in the right direction.

You've used the placebo effect,

The mind over matter,

It's so powerful.

And the more you work with it,

The more powerful it becomes.

So we're slowly going to transition back into our waking state.

Or you can just go to sleep if you want to.

If you want to wake up,

We're going to take a few deeper energising breaths.

Imagine that energy running into our arms and legs,

Our fingers and toes getting the urge to move.

Wiggling our fingers and toes,

Our wrists and our ankles,

Our arms and legs and we're having a little stretch.

Whatever feels right for you.

When you're ready,

Noticing the room around you and how you feel now.

Thank you for practicing with me.