When we talk about healing, we are not referring to some miraculous recovery from an illness, or taking a magic pill and all of our woes go away. Healing as we refer to it here, in our yoga classes and in the context of our esoteric therapy sessions, is about getting to the bottom of the underlying root cause of what is going on for us in our body or with those thought patterns, reactions or behaviours that we know are not conducive to our health and wellbeing.

Healing is not about reducing the symptoms of an illness or disease, nor about making a situation or a reaction more manageable. There are many quick “fixes” and a myriad of “solutions” offered out there these days but healing is not about fixing or temporarily relieving either.

Healing, in its true meaning, is about bringing honesty and truth to what is coming up to the surface and clearing what is underneath the manifesting issues/symptoms so that these issues/symptoms are not repeated (fuelled) anymore.

So how do we go about true healing? Here are some simple steps.

1) Put your HONESTY cap on

Be honest about what is there in the body, the mind and what might currently be going on in your life (relationship wise, at work, sleep rhythm, eating patterns etc). It is easy for us to put on a happy face and say it’s all OK, but really, is it? With honesty comes a surrender and an openness to the truth of what is there underneath our issues or symptoms. It is from this place that we can begin to truly look at and address them.

2) Tune into your body

What can you feel? There will be some tension, emotions, aches & pains, stress, heaviness etc somewhere in the body. All of those, along with anxiousness, bad quality sleep, emotional eating, dis-functional body systems etc are all ways for our body to communicate with us. Are you listening? Be open to feeling your body as “ The body is the marker of all truth”  – Serge Benhayon.

3) Take responsibility & deepen your expression

If someone has done or said something that makes you feel hurt, sad, annoyed, upset, angry, go into jealousy or comparison, or brought up any other form of reaction – look at your part in this. Could it be that your reaction comes from an underlying hurt in your body being triggered? This is worth considering as if you heal the underlying hurt, you won’t react anymore. What are the particular circumstances reflecting to you? Are you allowing whatever is hurting you to happen? If what has been said or done did not feel like it was coming from a loving or caring place, consider that this may need to be expressed.

4) No intense analysis – come back to surrender and feeling

DON’T try to work it out from your mind especially if you are in reaction – it won’t work! When we lose our inner-connection, we can quickly get stuck or lost with repetitive thoughts and go nowhere. It is very difficult to get a true feeling of what is going on for us from our mind when we are in reaction. From steps 1, 2 and 3 – clarity will gradually and naturally come.

5) Be open to support – from you and others

This may come in the form of talking and sharing what is happening and how you feel with a trusted friend, creating space for some “me time”, re-connecting with yourself with the Gentle Breath Meditation, enjoying a gentle yoga practise or maybe seeing a practitioner for a healing session. When we open up to support it is always there. It may not always come in the form we expect it, but it will be there.

As we return to a greater level of connection with our body and inner presence, our ability to hear and listen to the messages from the body increases and our understanding deepens. With this we can address more easily the root cause of our symptoms and ways of life that cause us harm and suffering – either mentally or physically. As we heal and clear the underlying causes of the symptoms/issues, those symptoms/issues will NOT resurface anymore because there will be nothing (no source) to create them in the first place – this is the key.

The process of true healing goes hand in hand with developing self-love.

As we start to deepen how we relate with ourself, applying basic self-care routines, refining our rhythm and exploring self-nurturing, we gradually open up to self-love. It is during this process that the underlying root causes of all our ”ills and woes” (held in our bodies) become exposed for what they are and a choice to heal them is being offered.

Ultimately, healing is a natural part of a way of life where we leave no rock unturned and choose to open up to true health and wellbeing.

Written by Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane. Contact them

The post What is Healing? appeared first on Yoga & Healing | Therapies Massage Exercise Corporate Wellbeing | Sydney, Balmain & Northern Rivers.

1) Rest and relax

Your body needs to recover. There is a lot going on in the body with all of the various drugs doing their thing. The part you play in the treatment is just as important, so rest as much as you can. Don’t push yourself to do all of the things that you normally do.

If you have never nurtured yourself before, now is the time to start

You will experience fatigue from the treatment and therefore stopping and taking a break to recover is super important. Ask family and friends for support during this time to assist you in what needs to be done day-to-day (refer to point 5).

2) Listen to what you body needs at any given time, moment to moment

This point follows on from the above one. Listen to what your body is telling you. Listen to it intently and honour your body in this delicate process. If it is telling you that you are tired then rest. Listen to what it wants to eat, what it doesn’t want to eat. Notice what zaps your energy and do less of this.

As your energy levels drop due to chemotherapy, learning how to conserve the energy that you have is paramount in your healing process. This can be developed by being aware of how you are with your body and being super gentle and tender with yourself.  For example, when walking, feel your legs and your hips, as you pick up a glass, feel your hands on the glass. By choosing to be with your body in a gentle way you can begin to develop a loving relationship with your body.

3) Introduce gentle exercise into your day  

If you have followed the above two points, you may end up spending quite a bit of time in bed or on the couch. It is also important that when you do feel well enough to, to bring some gentle exercise into your day. Some days it may be plenty to get up and walk from room to room, other days you may make it to the mail box, other days it may be several kilometres. Listen to your body and what you are capable of on any given day.

Gentle stretching and strengthening exercises are important to support you and your body through the treatment. Seek out a qualified practitioner to help develop a program specifically for you.

4) Look after your organs

Chemotherapy not only affects the cancer cells but it also affects the good cells – which is why you can feel unwell through the treatment. Your kidneys and liver are two vital organs that have a lot of work to do whilst you are going through treatment. The kidneys are like your battery pack and your liver is what helps you to detox the chemicals.

You can assist your organs during chemotherapy by; not drinking alcohol as any drop of alcohol will give the liver even more work to do, eating nourishing food, not drinking caffeine and limiting your sugar intake.

5) Allow people to support you. You deserve it

Chemotherapy is a tough time – you don’t have to do it alone. If you have always gotten on and done things by yourself, now is the time to change this pattern.  Ask family and friends for help, they will want to know how to assist you. Get in touch with what you are feeling and learn to express without holding back how they could be of useful.

If at times you don’t feel up for visitors, that’s OK too. Tell them that you prefer to have some time alone to rest but you would appreciate them dropping off a meal (which they could leave at the front door). Accept that others are there to help you if you let them – it is a win win situation. Learn to receive back from others.

Donna Nolan was diagnosed at the age of 33 with breast cancer in 2008 and underwent surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.

At Yoga & Healing we offer Cancer Support sessions, Yoga, Meditation, Esoteric Healing, Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy, Yoga retreats and Counselling.  Sessions available at the Yoga & Healing Cammeray, Balgowlah and Balmain clinics. Contact Us to book a session or for more information.

The post Top 5 Tips for supporting you through chemotherapy appeared first on Yoga & Healing | Therapies Massage Exercise Corporate Wellbeing | Sydney, Balmain & Northern Rivers.

The word ‘esoteric’ refers to our inner-most or inner-heart, a place within that when re-connected to naturally unfolds us back towards a way of life that is based on love and harmony with all.

As such the Esoteric Healing sessions were a hands on healing support for people to re-connect to that which they already are – an offer for them to deeply feel themselves and their inner-heart.

This connection with self for some may had not been felt in their bodies for a very long time (perhaps since being a child).

We witnessed people getting on the table with a certain energy: nervousness, anxiousness, sleeplessness, back pain, shoulder pain, adrenal fatigue – you name it, people had it.  And after their 20 minute Esoteric Healing session it was incredible to see the difference in those same people as they got off the table. The look in their eyes, how they moved their body (the quality of their movements), the sense of connection with self, their feedback – all was a gift for us to receive.

Comments from people coming off the tables were made such as “I feel amazing, I could go home now” or “wow, what was that? I feel incredible”.

Our response to that being “that is feeling you – reconnecting to you.  That loveliness is always there, it is often covered up because of the things we take on in our days – whether that be getting too racy, becoming emotional, feeling stressed or simply having too much to do. When you begin to bring gentleness back into your life, then there is an opportunity for you to feel and bring the real you, gradually more and more, into all aspects of your life”.

The 20 minute hands on healing sessions allowed people to experience a very real marker in their body as to what life can feel like, going forward, when making the choice to live in connection with self.

We are looking forward to as a group to offering Esoteric Healing sessions again as part of the Esoteric Therapies stand at the next Mind Body Spirit Festival at Home Bush in April next year.

For further information about Esoteric Healing visit our Esoteric Healing page. To book an Esoteric Healing session with us, please visit our Contact Us page.

Donna Nolan and Alexandra Plane offer Esoteric Healing sessions in Balmain (Sydney Inner West), Cammeray and Balgowlah. Contact us info@yogaandhealing.com.au

The post The Mind Body Spirit Festival – Esoteric Healing appeared first on Yoga & Healing | Therapies Massage Exercise Corporate Wellbeing | Sydney, Balmain & Northern Rivers.