Mind, Body, Soul
Our content in this section deals with real life issues that affect mind, body and soul. We recognise the role of Spirit in healing and the importance off a well-balanced body and mind.
The Art of Extreme Self-Care
Too many of my relationships were one-way streets. I was a good girl, and it was sucking the life out of me. It was during our work together that Thomas introduced me to the concept of Extreme Self-Care.
Fall and Rise
We are stubborn creatures. If we refuse to learn in bliss, we most certainly will learn by amiss. Each trial is a potential stepping-stone to greatness, just as passing each test in school allows a student to graduate to more difficult grades, with increasing rewards for each success. Logically, the student then becomes the teacher for those below, as these lessons are mastered.
The Alchemical Power of Acceptance
For much of my life I have been on a path of self-discovery and personal transformation. I have explored the magical and intense alchemy of the shamanic plant medicine, Ayahuasca, in the jungles of South America; the powerful transformation of Ka Huna massage; and the deep insights gained from psychotherapy and imagework. All these journeys have revealed aspects of who I am, like parts of a jigsaw puzzle. However, real integration has only come recently through the powerful alchemy of acceptance. This is my story ...
Bad and Good
A stone rolling down a hill will continue downward. A cloud rising upward will continue up. Is the one good and the other bad? Thoughts moving away from Divine order are increasingly chaotic over time and distance, introducing elements of disorder to our lives.
The Sacredness of Life
When she left and I had a few moments to myself, I recalled the time I had to bury my first child, who had died during birth. I dug the hole and placed the beautiful body of my son into it, and listened to the heavy thuds of the earth falling on the body. It was such a moment of sacredness.
Coma Care – the patient as teacher
I am very grateful to my many teachers, most of whom are young unemployed men who engage in high-risk behaviours (such as violence, road accidents etc.) that have left them traumatised. Hardly teacher material one would think. Yet these teachers may be the very people to open up the bottleneck that is evident in medicine today – where solutions are sought from experts using generic tools for a condition, rather than empowering individuals to find inner solutions.
The Edges of The Known
I would like to move our attention constantly to the edges of the known and explore this space which is the creative edge of reality. The focus will be on the nature of ill health, why we become ill and how to manage ill health from the perspective of that edge. That edge is the place where the known meets the unknown and therefore that exploration will often transcend what conventional science can offer and allows new ideas to emerge.
As we Think, so we Become
What are you feeling right now? Our emotions have a dramatic effect on our energy field, positive emotions being energising and uplifting, and negative ones draining us and even causing physical pain. Being mindful will help you to become aware of your emotions with a certain amount of detachment, so you don’t become overwhelmed by them.
Illness – Past and Future
Understanding the phenomenon of illness in the human being requires a willingness to view the human being as more than only a biological (mammal) entity. In fact, it can be said that where his biology stops, the human being begins.
Root & Fruit
Pain has the lesson of pleasure at its core, and pleasure also speaks intimately of pain. One cannot exist without the other, just as ‘hot’ cannot be without ‘cold.’
Disease and Health
Any perceived excess generates imbalance, with a resulting stress upon the system as a whole. Excessive eating, worry, stimulation or sloth will cause ‘defects’ in our body structure. ‘Dis-ease’ itself is a process of too much and too little – function out of time with need – like a tyre out of balance that wobbles as it spins.
Finding Happiness
Finding happiness can be a life-long quest of enquiry, discovery and ultimately bliss. However, it is a journey and often a state that feels elusive, but by making the right choices it is very possible. One minute we are happy, the next we are not – that is life. One minute we are riding the wave and the next we feel we are drowning.
Mindfulness Meditation and Addiction
Mindfulness meditation can free us from the negative emotions that hold us prisoner, thereby helping us overcome addictions. One of the first steps in dealing with addiction is to discover the emotional cause of it, whether it is fear, depression, anxiety, or pessimism. Many times these unwholesome thoughts and beliefs come from what I call the ‘wanting mind’.
Chronic Illness: A 4 Phase Journey to a New Life
One of the most difficult psychological and emotional challenges facing the chronically ill person is the loss of identity they often feel. Many things you once did with ease, you can no longer do. Over time, the reality settles in — the person you once were is gone. There is no going back. Now what?
Midlife – a Crisis of the Spirit
This quote above quote offers an insight into the state of mind that can overcome a person during the midlife crisis. ‘Midway this way of life we’re bound upon, I woke to find myself in a dark wood, where the right road was wholly lost and gone.’ ~Dante’s Inferno. For many it is a long, dark night of the soul, a plunge into regions of feeling and experience that often surprise us with their intensity and nature.
An Attitude of Gratitude
I was born on Thanksgiving Day — my mother, it would seem, wanted me to be a grateful person. One day, when I was about four years old, she sat on my bed, leaned over to me and said, ‘Son, you must always count your blessings because those who count their blessings and are grateful for their life, receive more to be grateful for.’
Crossing the Threshold
Treating terminal cancer patients in an integrative way can have enormous value for the patient as well as for the partner, family and caregivers.
Our Dominant Thought Becomes Who We Are
Our private and public experiences enter our lives through the gate of our ‘dominant thought’, even though this connection may be invisible to us.
From Victim to Master – the power of perception
While we were taught that our genes (which we do not control) determine our lives, i.e. our behaviour, emotions, character, health and biology, we were disempowered. We are not victims or prisoners of our heredity after all. Instead we have the ability, through the power of perception, to free ourselves and evolve into who we truly are – masters of our own lives.
Finding One's Passion Again
Judy had suffered from depression for many years and was taking antidepressants when she came to see me. She had got used to the effects – feeling less excitable, but less anxious, less negative and dark – and felt good about at last being able to handle stress, even if she did so with the feeling that she did not really care what happened.