Connected

Connected.

One of my core beliefs in life, the subtle undercurrent of it all – is our mind body connection.

It rumbles underneath us, quietly weaving in and out of our consciousness and sometimes VERY LOUDLY PULLING at our conscious to remind us all is entwined.

One of the simplest ways of looking at the body mind connection is observing a common feeling like nervousness. When we are nervous about an impending adventure we often talk about having ‘butterflies in our stomachs’ or get jittery feet or hands. So let’s break it down – we have a thought or an emotional response to something, and our brain turns that into an actual physical sensation we can feel in the present.

To me it feels like a way of working through things. If we let something linger too long in our thoughts or repeat a line of perception regularly our mind becomes overwhelmed and in order to release these patterns a little seed plants in our physical body and if we continue to feed this with the same patterns of thinking this seed will grow roots and manifest in a physical sensation – usually of pain, tightness, causing injury or illness. Our body is fluid and can move with grace and beauty so when this pain comes along we have the opportunity to recognise it, trace it back to its conception in order to release and relax it, or we can choose to battle through, ignore it, and those roots will grow stronger and deeper still.

One of my other favourites is a cold/flu. Both are a build up of fluid and mucous in the body (stuffy nose and head, runny eyes, throat). Water is linked to our emotions and is naturally moving. We may be working long hours at work, feeling like no one is giving us a break, and that we are stuck against a wall. We often say ‘I just need some time out!’ It is in those times that we end up with a cold or flu because we feel that we cannot justify time out for ourselves unless we are ill. The extra fluid in our bodies allows us to cry and release all those pent up frustrations and also when we are sick we are more likely to allow ourselves to be nurtured instead of battling through.

Our bodies are so much smarter than we give them credit for – they recognise diseased thoughts in our mind often long before we do and decide to bring them to our attention so we can learn and grow and continue to be awesome in this life. So listen to your body, it will always give you all the information you need. It does not judge or act out of malice, it merely responses to the food and fuel you give it- mental and physical food.

Sometimes our bodies just need to be recognised. All they want is for us to stop, take a moment to send them some lurve, and acknowledge all that they provide for us as we travel through life. If you are feeling pain or illness, instead of beating yourself up about it, thinking how you could have prevented it, or pretending it is invisible - take some big deep beautiful breaths and reconnect. To you. To all that you are right now. Let go of the fight and love yourself :) 

 If you are interested I highly recommend the work of Louise L. Hay. ALL of her work :) One of my other favourites is a book called ‘The Secret Language of Your Body’ by Inna Segal.

Listen, take time for yourself to go within, and love your body and all its pain because it is showing you the path to healing!

Namaste wonderful people

A feeling of… what exactly?

The word ‘balance’ is thrown around a lot. Most of us spend our lives constantly striving for a state of balance. How would you define balance? The perfect point where we are able to juggle our family, friends, relationships, me time, creative outlets, physical outlets… goodness me, the list could go on and on!

But what exactly is that point? If I asked you the same question again in 1 weeks time you would probably have a different answer, right?

I know for me the world not only around me but WITHIN me is constantly changing and what brings me peace and balance one day could throw me off the next… There is no constant answer. The only thing we know for sure is that we are and will continue to constantly change. We can fight and argue against it but as the world flows around us and as we are affected by our and others comings and goings we are changing and evolving. Ebbing and Flowing. So the only thing we can do is change and evolve with it right?

If there is a strong wind blowing, it is much easier on our bodies to walk with the wind than against it. Same as the current of the ocean.  Once again, nature shows us the simplest way- gotta love it!

I am one hundred percent still learning this, as I expect we all will for our whole lives! Because we are always encountering new things, people, and experiences, our bodies and psyches are having to always check back in and recalibrate. And it’s important to give ourselves the space, freedom, and time to do that. If you have gone through a big life change recently (and it could be in any area – relationship, home, work, travel, lifestyle – anything!) make sure you acknowledge that your balance has shifted and that it will take time to recalibrate and for your emotional body to process your discoveries. We are so much more than just our physical encasing and the surroundings that we can literally see. There are so many layers to our beings and experiences and they can very easily lose track of one another. Give credit to your emotional and energetic bodies too!

Balance is a process, it is not an achievement. Even as you physically balance on one foot, all your muscles in your foot, leg, and core are fine tuning the movement and subtly changing to find the most stable position. The one where your thoughts are at peace and all you feel is grounded in your physical body holding that pose.
So I guess we could look at balance as the process of finding the mental ‘pose’ in which we can carry out our tasks with ease, focus, confidence, and clarity…

One of the most beautiful ways to allow your true self to take over and shine through while your thinking mind takes a back seat is through sound – music, chanting, mantras, singing – and allowing the vibrations of that to work with you to retune your own vibrational body.

You can do it by yourself, in a group, if you can get outside near the ocean or near dense trees woo hoo for you :)

Follow your own rhythm and sounds if you feel confident, or otherwise you can choose to chant a mantra, which is simply a repeated phrase used as an instrument to focus our thoughts. Listening to a Tibetan Singing bowl is also a HEAVENLY way of experiencing the healing and balancing nature of sound as well mmmmmmmm!

Love and Light to you all

What will we choose?

Sometimes it seems like new things are being discovered and uncovered everyday. 

There is always a new scientific discovery, a new way of eating or living, a new promise to help you become the best you… And that's all wonderful and no doubt the people behind them are incredibly intelligent and have worked hard to make these discoveries, however I can't help but wonder- that with all of this intelligence that we have in this wonderful world, why is so much of it put to use in creating dispensable ideals?

Scientists spend so much time and money researching the latest flavour craze, the one missing ingredient to banish wrinkles forever, the quickest way to get from A to B…

And they do it because we support and feed these 'needs' and 'desires'. Yes they are major corporations that seem to spoon feed us what to do and think and say, but there has to be a market for them to continue right? We have a choice. We can choose not to follow. To find our own way. 

Have you stopped and thought about how manipulated we are by not only social trends, but also by the food industry? Do you know how much time and money goes into creating exactly the right balance of salt and sugar (in mammoth amounts mind you), in a potato chip that creates the perfect saturation of flavour in your mouth so it actually overrides your neurological programming and forces you to consume an entire bag in one sitting? It's actually mind-blowing.

This is cleverly thought out by the powers that be. There is a reason junk food is so widely consumed and that is that it is completely manufactured to be incredibly addictive! We can't wait until the governments make rulings and changes to overthrow this, they are too tied in with where the money comes from - and that unfortunately is the food and pharmaceutical industries that are creating all of these addictive foods and drugs in the first place!

It's up to us. We need to show that we are no longer interested in mindlessly sabotaging our beautiful bodies that we only have for this one life. We need to educate ourselves, not wait until we are told what to do. We need to DEMAND change, by DEMONSTRATING that we are capable of that change. It starts with us =) 

Imagine if all of the funding that is used to research and concoct the 110 varieties of sugary cereal on your supermarket shelf was funnelled into helping this world become a habitable place for each and every person? Or instead of using some of our brightest minds to create yet another weight loss pill we harnessed their brain power to ensure our grandchildren's children will have a planet to live in that is plentiful and brimming with life...

In the Western world we are so fortunate to have access to beautiful land and produce and the ability to create almost anything we need - we are just so conditioned to believe we don't have the power, that we need to look outside ourselves to have a good life. 

BUT WE ARE ALL WE NEED!

Please, be proactive and research exactly what is in the food you are buying and feeding your loved ones with. Is it full of man made processed chemicals which will only continue to strip our earth of its resources? Wherever you can, please make it yourself. Get inspired about your life, and get inspired about this world we live in. Because it goes hand in hand and we can't have one without the other. 

If we continue to fuel and feed this highly processed junk food industry, we continue to show to others and the world that we don't believe we are worthy enough to make our own choices for a happy, long, and easy life. 

Don't wait. Get online, buy books, listen to Ted talks, visit your local Co-op, and make a change with you. No matter what those around you think =)

Shortly after I wrote this article, a serendipitous email popped into my inbox, so if you have time have a read through of this:

http://www.hungryforchange.tv/article/the-secret-engineering-of-junk-food

Namaste lovely people!