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Archive for alternative healing

Moving Through Resistance to Healing

By Misa Hopkins · Comments (6)
Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

You want to heal so much. You are making positive changes in your life. You have decided to be completely committed to your health, but nothing is changing. You are up against some kind of resistance, but you don’t even know how to define it. You just know it is there. What’s happening?

This is one of the most frustrating moments in healing. If you meet that resistance often enough, you might find yourself giving up healing entirely.

I’ve stood next to my own resistance on multiple occasions. I had to if I was truly serious about healing, and with each physical challenge I have faced, I was determined to create complete health.

Resistance comes up for several reasons:

1)    Some need is being met through the illness and subconsciously we are afraid that if the illness is gone the need will no longer get met. Illness can feed true needs to: be seen as special, receive much needed attention, finally get some rest, be able to slow down, experience some introspective time, receive compassion, etc. These needs must be fulfilled, even if illness is required to get the attention of you and those around you.

2)    Beliefs you have adopted as your own that are actually keeping you ill. I address this in my “Beating the Odds” report. These beliefs might include such concepts as: God is punishing me, this is my karma so I just have to deal with it, healing will happen when I find the right treatment, I’m ill because of circumstances beyond my control, and more.

3)    You might be experiencing fear of the unknown. This can easily happen when you have been in pain for prolonged periods of time. Your known reality is defined by pain. To suddenly be living pain free, while tempting, can also be a bit frightening. Subconsciously, you know new challenges will arise when you feel better, that you have been able to avoid while you are ill, and you might be wondering if you want to live up to the new challenges.

4)    There is something about you that can be discovered through the illness. Perhaps you are an empath that has not yet recognized and learned how to live with and be of service through your gift of empathy. Perhaps you are a healer that has not yet accepted you have an energetic healing gift. Or maybe the illness has pushed you far enough to your edge that you will finally slow down and quiet down to discover the truth of who you are and your purpose here on earth.

Any of these causes with their own subtle distinctions could be contributing to on-going illness.  Hopefully, this short list of causes will begin to give you some ideas about why you might be experiencing resistance. But amazingly, you can mentally understand the root cause of your resistance and still remain in resistance. Mental understanding is not enough. In order for the causes to be properly addressed, you will want to find peace at the emotional level.

How do you find peace emotionally? You find access to your self-compassion. You need to find a way to wrap your spiritual arms around yourself with a deep, loving understanding of you. Let those judgmental thoughts slide by. Don’t give them any energy or focus. Rather, become attentive to lovingly understanding you.

There is a legitimate reason you are feeling stuck. Even if your rational mind thinks your reason makes no sense at all, there is another part of you attached to the benefits of the stuckness.

I remember injuring my back when I was shoveling snow. I was angry with my husband for not helping me, so I jammed the shovel into the heavy snow scooping up more than I could comfortably handle, and threw-out my back. My injury got his attention and within minutes he was gently helping me get into the house, but I was blaming him for my injury. What was the benefit? I got to be right about him abandoning me to shoveling and I got attention because I was injured.

In that moment, the benefits of being right and getting attention out-weighed the pain. It was only upon quiet, compassionate reflection that I realized I had created my injury. Nestled in the awareness of self-compassion, being right and getting attention were no longer more important than enjoying wellness and a more loving interaction with my husband.

I could have gotten angry with myself for blaming my husband for my injury, and that would have only delayed the healing. Very little if anything of your injuries or illness can heal in the presence of your own anger, and I knew that. Instead, I chose compassion and in the compassion for myself, and then my husband, I freed myself emotionally and was able to heal very quickly.

Resistance is telling us we are afraid to accept ourselves as we are—with all of our flaws and wonders. Meet the resistance with compassion and the resistance dissolves. You don’t even need to understand the source of the resistance. However, you do need to find compassion for what you are feeling and thinking.

When the resistance is met with adequate compassion, there is an opening for healing to begin working. Find your compassion and you transcend the resistance.

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Sound Healing Tip #2 — Releasing Stressed Muscles

By Misa Hopkins · Comments (9)
Wednesday, January 19th, 2011

Muscular pains or tension have sounds. When you know the physical pain is associated with emotional pain, the physical pain can release when you honor the physical stress with sound. This can be very challenging for those of us taught to only make “nice” sounds.  But discomfort is not particularly nice, and like most things in life, it likes to be recognized as it is, without being forced to change.

By sounding the physical pain within your body, you are essentially naming it. In naming it, you know it and understand it so completely, that the discomfort itself no longer needs to exist as pain in order to be understood. Once understood, the muscular pain or stress very often softens or releases.

Muscles can take a beating with our over-stressed lives, are often forgotten, and in need of attention.  Stressed muscles can indicate stressed emotions, so making sounds that release the tension can provide relief physically and emotionally. I do not recommend sounding the pain for every physical challenge, and especially not for headaches. However, because muscle tension can be so frequently associated with stress and frustration, tense muscles can be served well by making releasing sounds.

Begin by sitting quietly with the muscle in your body wanting attention. Breathe quietly into muscle, inviting the cells to open and expand with every breath.  Continue to quiet your mind by focusing on the muscle and the expansion of the cells. You may find it helpful to direct your attention by placing your hand on the stressed area, if you are able.

Being present to the muscle, inhale and exhale with an audible sound as you exhale. Do this again, staying with the sound a little longer. Sound as though the sound was actually coming from that part of the body and moving out. You may notice that parts of the muscle begin relaxing bit by bit. You may feel inclined to stretch, move a little bit or shake off the energy. Follow your natural inclinations.

Allow the sounds to emerge freely, without judgment from you.  Some of the sounds may seem a little strange because you are not used to hearing them. The more freely you make the sounds, with sincere energy, and the more you make the sound as if it were in the center of the muscle, the greater the release. Repeat this as many times as you feel you need.

When you feel complete for the moment, quietly flex and stretch the muscle, noticing if it moves more freely and with less tension and restriction. Notice if the discomfort has reduced or is gone. You may find that you are now more aware of tension in another area of your body.  Feel free to focus on the new area and repeat the process.

You might discover that when you sound it is as though:

1)    you are pushing weight out of your muscles,
2)    like you are blowing, burning, washing or scraping off stress,
3)    rattling apart the density of the stress,
4)    deeply massaging the area with sounds, or
5)    you are expelling sorrow, anger or frustration.

If you have emotional stress related to the physical stress, you are likely to find greater release by honoring the pent-up emotions. For more insights about emotional release, see this earlier Sound Healing Tip #1 article at: http://self-healingsecrets.com/tag/sound-healing/.

While I was writing this article, I released some shoulder tension I had been carrying for days. Within minutes, the muscles relaxed and the range of motion in my neck has improved. Of course, it helps that I’m in a completely private office, where I feel free to express myself out loud. You may also discover that you need to create safe space to explore sounds freely.

The shower is a safe place for many people, as are cars parked in private areas. Or grab a few minutes alone in your bedroom and give yourself a sound massage. If you are a person that enjoys therapeutic massage, consider talking with your massage therapist about doing your own sound healing while your muscles are receiving physical attention. I’ve known more than one massage therapist that welcomed my vocal releases. If tense muscles are relaxing faster or more deeply, it provides your massage therapist with greater opportunity to bring more attention to other parts of your body.

If you are a dancer, I’ve seen this sound healing technique used quite effectively in combination with dance to free and relax the muscles, and ultimately your movement through life. Once you get past your initial inhibitions, this combination is actually a lovely and natural way to enjoy greater freedom and ease in your body.

Once you have done it a few times, you are likely to discover how fun it is to release through sound. Rather than trying to fix yourself, pretend the discomfort is not there, or make it go away–honoring the tension through sound healing allows you to be present to what is really happening in your body right now. Muscular pain or discomfort naturally shifts to freedom when it has been acknowledged, loved and addressed honestly.

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When Healing Doesn’t Happen

By Misa Hopkins · Comments (9)
Thursday, August 5th, 2010

This morning, as I was meditating, I had one of those special moments of awakening. As I was in the moment, I remembered that the last time I had a profound experience of awakening, I tried to cling to it, thinking, “I want life to be like this forever.” The moment I attached to the experience, it stopped.

I have found the same to be true in regard to healing. I remember times when I would suddenly feel completely well. I would attempt to attach to it as though I could squeeze that feeling into my body forever. Then minutes later, I would be uncomfortable again and wondering why nothing ever worked.

In reality, something was working. I could feel my wellness. It would have been appropriate to acknowledge how I was feeling and give thanks for it. Where I created an impediment was when I tried to grab on to it and make my body and mind submit to wellness, rather than allow it to simply be.

Energetically this is similar to cupping water in your hand and then squeezing your hand. Of course, the water immediately runs out of your hand. However, if you keep your hand cupped, the water lingers. When you are in a true state of acceptance, the water stays in your hand.

Attempting to make healing happen or hanging on to those moments of wellness doesn’t work. It must be allowed to simply become you. You surrender to the wellness and invite it in openly to have its way with you.

Getting overly excited doesn’t work very well either. Some years ago, I was healing a cut finger—eyes closed, singing to the cut to seal it. At one point I opened my eyes and saw that my sound healing was working. I got very excited and thought, “Oh, this is easy!” From that moment on nothing happened.

I asked my elder and teacher what had happened, and she explained that the moment I got excited, I was basically expressing my disbelief and doubt. She told me that you don’t get excited when you know it is going to work; you just do it. Healing is a matter-of-fact reality when you know, without doubt, that it will happen.

Dr. Artistotle describes the phenomena of excitement and ego quite well in this article: http://www.selfgrowth.com/articles/how-does-perception-affect-healing. As he suggests, sometimes even positive thinking isn’t the kind of positive thinking that helps you become well. He suggests letting go of the “emotional roller-coaster” of being extremely excited or extremely depressed will help accelerate healing.

If you find yourself attempting by matter of will to grab on to healing, impressing it into your being forever; or getting excited and over-confident at the first signs of actual wellness, like me, you are probably going to discover these approaches don’t work, and your healing process actually slows down or can even come to a complete halt.

It is far better to open your heart and body to being well. Then graciously notice when you are feeling better with gratitude. You can feel pleased and grateful, enjoying the moment of your wellness, without trying to grab hold of it or becoming overly excited by it. When you can simply allow wellness to be fully accepted in the moment—letting it settle into your bones—you will discover moments of wellness occurring more and more frequently, until that is your natural state.

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Discover The Natural Healing Gift of Negative Ions

By Misa Hopkins · Comments (5)
Thursday, April 15th, 2010

wave1By Misa Hopkins

To date, I haven’t met anyone that has told me they can see them, taste them or smell negative ions. Yet, in nature, they are there all around us.

Visit the ocean and you are in the company of negative ions. Visit the mountains, splash around in a stream, or take a walk in the woods and you’ll be breathing in negative ions.

How do you know when you are in the presence of negative ions? You feel better. You relax and you feel more at ease with yourself and with life. That’s because negative ions increase the levels of serotonin in your body. Serotonin affects your moods, and you may find it lifting stress and even, depression. Some people become energized in the presence of negative ions.

Consider this excerpt about negative ions from The Root of All Healing:

“… quite a bit of medical research has been done demonstrating that negative
ions help us simultaneously relax, reduce stress and energize us. Ecstatic, Ltd. in the United Kingdom commissioned a review of literature on the effects of air ions and concluded: ‘The consensus of the literature reviewed is that environmental air ion concentration levels and balance can affect a wide range of biological organisms, including humans. Elevated negative air ion levels are widely reported to have beneficial effects on humans including enhanced feeling of relaxation, and reduced tiredness, stress levels, irritability, depression, and tenseness.’”

http://www.webmd.com/balance/features/negative-ions-create-positive-vibes

If you are having difficulty sleeping, concentrating, feeling energized, relaxing, enjoying life, and opening up to your greatest healing—one of the simplest, sweetest ways to enhance your healing is to spend more time with Mother Earth.

I recommend getting out in nature every day. That’s right. Every day. That’s how beneficial nature is in the healing journey. It is one of the most over-looked prescriptions for healing, and it can be among the most powerful.

Nature slows down those hurried paces we think we have to keep up. Those rushed speeds and stressful lives are contributing to our discomfort and preventing us from relaxing enough for healing to occur.

As I share in my book, “You don’t get to physical health, inner peace or joy through stress and tension.” In order to heal you have to slow down and getting out there in those negative ions is one of the best ways to relax and discover a greater natural source for balanced energy.

You can read more about the benefits of spending time in nature in my book, The Root of All Healing: 7 Steps to Healing Anything— http://misahopkins.com/therootofallhealing/

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Are You Feeling Emotionally Numb?

By Misa Hopkins · Comments (5)
Monday, March 22nd, 2010

winterbirdAre you feeling emotionally numb, but your body is in tremendous pain?

When someone asks you how you are feeling, do you shrug your shoulders, not really having a clue about what you are feeling?

It is very likely that because you are not feeling and acknowledging your emotions, they are screaming through your body as pain.

Fear, sorrow and anger simply need proper channels of recognition, and sometimes—expression. If your healing journey is anything like mine, I learned to suppress my feelings in order to protect myself from the intensity of what I was experiencing. I found my true emotions too overwhelming, and in my need to be in control, I did my best not to notice them, until they boiled out of me uncontrollably .

I’ve met people that didn’t think it was spiritually proper to feel angry, jealous or sad, and because those feelings were actually occurring, they suppressed them as a way to live a better spiritual life. What happens in this case is that because the person is not being completely truthful with themselves, the underlying feelings that long to be acknowledged become powerful motivators for unconscious and conscious self-sabotage. This plays out as—I’m doing all the right things, but nothing is working.

I’ve also met people having intense feelings like a deep under-current, but weren’t willing to acknowledge them. This can be a reaction to parents or loved ones that expressed their intense emotions without regard for the people around them—such as a parent lashing out at their child without considering the harm and damage they are doing. However, ignoring the feelings is like swimming in the ocean and ignoring that there is an under-tow. Eventually, the under-tow is going to pull you down.

Unfortunately, so many of us have had such negative experiences with emotions that we become afraid of them and attempt to conduct our lives around them. And yet, there is nothing spiritually or physically healthy about suppressing emotions.

Pent up, unexpressed feelings eventually break out—in bursts of anger, lengthy bouts of depression, and long-term physical illness.

As we discussed in the last article, emotions tell stories about our wounds and our beliefs. They are part of who we are. When we find healthy ways to honor them, we can release years of pent up angst and hurt, along with belief systems that may be limiting our capacity to heal.

There are all kinds of emotional release techniques available today, designed to support you in honoring your emotions, along with the beliefs and stories of our past that accompany them.

This does not mean, you will suddenly start lashing out at everyone around you. That is what happens when you are not honoring your emotions. When you acknowledge your feelings properly, you can then find appropriate ways to release without hurting people around you and without becoming overwhelmed.

You may have discovered that the more you pray for and intend healing, the more emotionally uncomfortable you feel or the more numb you become. These are clues that your illness has a strong footing in emotional trauma.

If you are feeling numb, or you know you are suppressing intense feeling, I suggest you do some research to find a healer or therapist that can support you in doing some emotional release work.

While you are looking for the right healer or therapist, I’d like to suggest you become acquainted with a Creation Meditation that is all about honoring all feelings; allowing difficult feelings to transform naturally in the embrace of your compassion. It is one of the most soothing meditations I’ve ever experienced for calming intense emotions. http://newdreamfoundation.com/forums/index.php/topic,75.0.html

Let me encourage you, to honor your emotional numbness and become acquainted with the emotions running beneath it. Very likely, your emotions are a major key in your healing journey.

Reverend Misa is the author of The Root of All Healing: 7 Steps to Healing Anything.

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