13 Oct On resistance to heal
Many of you probably know that when I was in my mid-thirties, I was found to have a cyst on my ovary, and this prompted me to embark on my own healing journey. On that journey, I discovered many things about myself; including my own stumbling blocks, which were preventing my own healing.
As a healer and yoga teacher, I have found that many people also have these same ‘stumbling blocks’. The biggest one is our ‘attachment’ to our pain. People sometimes delay their own healing processes due to their unconscious and inner resistance.
Many ‘look for pain,’ and therefore constantly re-awaken that pain; many also do the same thing with their emotional pain, which can also affect the way their body works, and how they feel about themselves, life, love, and the universe.
Some people, knowing that they have pain, and that it can be a constant thing in an otherwise uncertain world, prevent themselves from ‘letting go’ of that pain, as it is familiar to them. Many people like the familiar, even though it may be unpleasant. Much in the same way that a child who is being abused will not want to be separated from their abusers, (don’t take me away from Mommy/Daddy’), many are unwilling to be separated from that which causes their problem.
Some people actually define themselves by their illness or condition. It becomes a part of their ‘identity,’ and therefore they are reluctant to ‘let go.’ Carolyne Myss in her book ‘Why People Don’t Heal and How They Can’ refers to this as ‘woundology’.
Many doubt that they have the ability to get better, and this doubt is yet another hindrance in their quest for healing. Some may even become doubtful when they are healed, and still look for the pain, which may have been a part of their life for a very long time. I have often heard my beloved teacher Tjokorda Rai saying this person suffers from the “illness of doubt”.
Impatience can be another threat to healing. Some people don’t want to wait to be healed, they want it now, and as a result, they sabotage the very thing that they are attempting to achieve. Remember the story of the rice farmer. “There was a farmer who was impatient by nature. He thought his rice shoots were growing too slowly, so he decided to help them by pulling them. One day at dusk, he went back home dog-tired and said to his family: “I helped the rice shoots grow today.” Hearing this, his son hurried to the field, only to find that all the plants had withered.”
For some, there is the need to maintain control; this control can be the ability to get their families or people in their environment to do what we want them to, because they are ‘ill or have a disability.’ Many do not wish to let go of that control.
Other barriers that prevent people from healing are fear and denial. When we feel fear, we produce adrenaline, (the ‘fight or flight’ hormone,) and the production of this makes us feel scared so we shy away from it; ‘there is nothing to fear, but fear itself.’
Denial of something that we cannot necessarily ‘see’ can also prevent people from seeing the reality, which is there, all around them. If only they could stop being scared, and take the time to actually look and be willing to see the truth and allow the veil of illusion to dissolve.
I have found that yoga is an amazing powerful way to overcome such blockages as it teaches us to free ourselves from this resistance and gives us the key ability to re-connect with our essence, healing the mind, body and spirit. The mat is a microcosm of the world where we train ourselves to change our behaviour.
Western psychology often makes us keep re-examining our wounds, whether they are physical, or emotional. We all know what happens if we keep on picking at a scab: it does not heal; it will keep on recurring time after time, until we learn to leave it alone. The same is true of an emotional wound; we need to look at it, examine it, disinfect it, and then let it be. Healing can happen in an instant, if only we would allow it; a wonderful affirmation is ‘I am healed; so be it.
Yoga teaches us that our true self is the soul, and that our identity is but an illusion to be overcome. In yoga we learn how to become the witness within, and to observe with detachment our mind, emotion and body. We understand that a thought is born, and then emotion follows, and then a sensation in the body. In yoga we learn how to discriminate our thoughts to enable us to allow our healing processes to start.
Yoga teaches us to live in the present moment. There is a time in everyone’s life when we learn to love ourselves; we need to look at ourselves, and appreciate all the beauty both inside and out; accept our imperfections, and just stop. Say ‘I am healed; I let go of my past; I am whole, perfect and complete; I do not need any further healing.’
‘I am healed, so be it.’
Do you recognize yourself in one the above! Are you ready to make the shift; Join me on next Yoga Retreat 2-8 December 2012.
Yoga Pranala Healing and Spiritual Development Yoga Retreat in Bali
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