Recently, I went to a talk where Dr David Hamilton (this guy - also featured in Netlflix documentary "heal') who was talking about the power of the mind in the healing process.
When most of the information we hear is focused on the food, there is one thing we often forget: you also feed yourself with thoughts.
So, you might have the cleanest diet ever, if you’re still thinking ‘I’m so sick, I’m feeling so tired, I will never be better’ at each meal, well guess what?
It’s unlikely that you will get better soon.
In yoga, we talk about our 5 koshas, or sheaths/bodies.
The first one is the physical body (annamaya kosha - anna: food, maya: full of), the one that we are really much aware of….. well actually let’s just say, the one that we can visually see. In my practise and teaching, I realised that unless we practise an activity that encourages us to look inward and be fully present in our bodies, we are actually really often disconnected to even our physical body.
You directly affect this kosha with your lifestyle - food, rest, etc.
So, what are the other 4 and how to we affect them?
The 2nd kosha is the energy body (pranamaya kosha - prana: life force, maya: full of), the one that you unconsciously talk about when you say ‘I’m full of energy this morning’.
You nourish it with the breath.
The 3rd one is the mental/emotional body (mamomaya kosha - mano: mind, Maya: full of), it is affected by your thoughts and emotional feelings.
To maintain a healthy mental/emotional kosha, you want to regularly have practises that will help clear your mind and get in touch with your emotions (note: I didn’t say clear your emotions. I believe they are here to teach us and getting rid of the messenger without reading the mail is not the recommended move).
The 4th and 5th bodies are the Vijnanamaya (vijnana: knowledge) and Anandanmaya (ananda: bliss) koshas.
They refer to the intuition and pure joy, I will not develop on them in this post but they are, of course, equally important.
You might have guessed already, the koshas are not independents from each other, but they are really much intertwined.
Which means that your level of energy will affect your mental kosha (as you might have noticed already), but also, your thoughts (mental body) affect your physical health (physical body).
If you know me, you know that I love to talk about healing as a holistic practise. If we take the first 3 doshas, we have a physical, energetic, mental/emotional relationship.
I believe that if you want to heal on a physical level, you have to look at the mental/emotional and energetic levels too (and so on).
So, what is the big revelation?
As I was sitting there, listening to this really funny Scottish guy, I realised that, in my own healing process (and despite the importance I put on my meditation practise), I wasn’t fully taking advantage of the connection between my koshas.
Despite the fact that meditation is utterly important to me and that I love introducing it into the life of my clients, I was not using it as a particular healing tool.
Dr Hamilton provided examples of a creative healing visualisation that we can use when we know that one specific organ is unwell in our body. Here is one that I particularly liked, more examples are available in his book.
After taking a few relaxing breaths, focus your attention on the organ that needs healing/support.
Visualise the unhealthy cells, (no need to know what they actually look like, creative thinking is great here) and see yourself walking to one particular unhealthy cell (you might see it dark, shrank, etc).
With love, give the cell a magic healing syrup that you have with you and see the cell getting better already.
Then, with a specific cleansing potion next to you, start cleansing the cell, giving it love and support as you do that.
Once the cell feels much better, give it a hug and tell it you love it and thank it for all it does for you.
Then, either go to the next one or end the meditation.
The idea is to do this meditation at least once a day, with a different cell each day.
This is quite easy to do anywhere you are, in bed, watching commercials before your TV program, cooking, on the bus, etc.
I practised this meditation several times on my brain (I have suffered from crazy brain fog and nerve spams lately) and I can already feel the relief it brings.
Plus, it is a self-love practise too! You are sending love to your cells, which is a part of yourself!
So, continue to eat as healthy as it is available to you, practise a gentle activity that moves your energies (yoga, chi gong, etc) and send love to your cells! Voilà!
Let me know in the comments section if you would like me to record a guided meditation with that healing method.
Commentaires