Health and Disease by Lance and Susan Schuler
This extract was written by Lance Schuler and his wife Susan. Lance taught me how to teach yoga back in 2005 in Byron Bay. It wasn’t just yoga he was teaching me, but helping to re-inforce and validate how I felt about health and healing and yet didn’t have the confidence to voice it back then, or to truly understand it. I know it a lot better now having worked with health and healing since then. I still can’t voice it as well as Lance and Susan however, which is the reason I share their words here for you, for anyone who is interested in living a life free from the fear and from dis-ease, who truly wants to come to know themselves and live in a way that is harmonious with nature and with their own innate wisdom. Lance inspired me then as he inspires me now, and I miss being in that environment where I can be surrounded by those who know and feel the same way. There is so much fear in our beautiful planet at the moment, and so many suffering, and yet to know thyself, you are free, so free. Love Emma x
“HOW OUR UNDERSTANDING OF HEALTH AND DISEASE IS ESSENTIAL TO ACCEPTING AND MOVING FORWARD THROUGH THIS PANDEMIC
For the first time in recorded history our youngest generation of children are now expected to live shorter and sicker lives than their parents, even though medical technology continues to advance and we know more about the impact of poor diet and lack of activity than ever before.
It is as if humanity is at war with nature.
If all of us were to simultaneously jump of the Sydney Centrepoint Tower, we would each fall 10m/sec/squared and we would hit the ground at the same time at a very predictable velocity because we are all subject to Natural Laws - because we are Nature.
Disease is because of the violation of Natural Laws.
If Doctors wish to use the word Dr before their names then they should be teaching. So if teaching, they need to teach people how to stop building disease –that’s what doctors’ real roles are, otherwise they need to call themselves Physicians.
The only way Doctor’s can teach to not build disease is to know it, the only way they can know it is to live it and the only way they can live it is if they have learned it.
Doctors spend over 16,000 hours during their residency and have less than 20 hrs of nutrition instruction.
Doctors have a nutritional deficiency in their education.
Our exiting healthcare system is based on treatments, even though 80% of illness is preventable. Lifestyle disease needs lifestyle medicine.
Poor diet is the number one cause of death and disability. If most deaths and disability are related to nutrition, then, obviously, nutrition is the number one thing taught in medical school; right? Obviously, it’s the number one thing your doctor talks to you about at every visit; right? Drugs don’t cure dietary diseases.
Doctors mean well, but they are generally just working with methods that don’t work. (Cut, burn, poison – come on!). The body takes care of itself – it cannot do it wrong. It is always working in your best interest. It is programmed for survival. We are not talking about accidental and emergency care here – this is where medicine and surgery can have a life saving role.
Our bodies are so complex that we will never work it out and you don’t have to. Do we have to explain it to a dog, possum, or elephant? NO! Instinctively they know. They are plugged into the wisdom of nature called instinct. Medicine as we know it has only been around for about 150yrs – instinct has been around since the beginning of time – listen to it!
All culture and “cures” take us away from nature and that’s an abomination because we are nature. That’s the beginning of the lie that leads us down the path of looking for a cure. Is it not better to stop building disease? Of course it is! Does anything else work? NO!
Why is it that those animals that have no interference from humans die from less than 10 diseases?
One out of every 2.5 people will now get cancer. There are 4,000 rare diseases and over 80 auto immune diseases alone.
Heart disease and cancer are the number one and two leading causes of death and medical error is the third!... Iatrogenic - look it up!!
So what do we use to treat these leading causes of death? We use medicine – but medicine is the third leading cause of death – does this make sense to you? This is data.
The reason this has happened is because we have strayed from nature. We live in boxes, drive around in machines and eat foods that are made by machines.
We are living in a way that we were not evolved to live.
How many of us know how to take care of our body?
Paracelsus said “anyone who is not their own physician by the age of 40 is a fool” and that “health depended on the harmony between man and nature”. To be healthy in today’s world we need to cultivate a reliance on ourselves.
Our dietary and lifestyle choices and the way we think and emote are affecting our health, our environment and the animals we share this planet with. How we think, eat and act are a choice – to either improve the world or make it less… to either sustain the conditions that are supportive to life or worsen them…..
SO WHAT IS HEALTH AND DISEASE
Health is life in balance – disease is life out of balance.
Disease is a body instigated process for healing and repair; to re-establish homeostasis. If you treat a symptom 99.9% of the time it’s going to make the disease worse. The symptom is there as your body’s attempt to self-regulate and heal itself. Symptoms are a manifestation of something out of balance – you and your soul, you and your emotions, you and your body, and you and nature. The symptoms are the medicine.
When we take drugs for the disease we are telling the body that we are not listening. When we treat the disease we halt the body’s attempt to heal and repair. The symptoms are the body’s attempt to remove excess waste and when we treat the symptom we increase the body’s toxic load. Even though you will experience pain and uncomfortable symptoms these are signs of the body’s attempts to heal itself and restore balance.
When we treat disease we separate from ourselves.
The only way to address disease is to address the cause. Every action in the body, in disease, as in health, is towards the preservation and improvement of life. What is commonly called disease is in reality, a beneficial and remedial process. Dr Herbert Shelton (Human Life) says, “Health and disease are the same thing – vital action intended to preserve, and protect the body and there is no more reason for treating disease than there is for treating health. The body slides easily into disease when conditions warrant and glides as easily back into health when conditions justify.”
Convincing people to alter their behaviour to remove the causes is an unprofitable business. People quite naturally, want to feel better with as little effort as possible and their natural psychology equates feeling better with getting better. However, when drugs are taken to relieve symptoms and reduce pain, feeling better does not mean getting better.
Modalities, treatments or therapies that involve drugs, herbs, supplements, manipulations etc may be useful predominantly in the short term to assist with any imbalances and allow time for the person to somewhat recover until they make the lifestyle changes necessary for true recovery to occur. However, if used continuously they really only act as a band-aid unless the underlying causes are addressed.
When we use drugs, remedies and therapies to eliminate symptoms, and do nothing to address their cause, we do nothing to create health, nothing to motivate change, no reconnection with nature, no evolvement, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual and does nothing to protect us from further disease. Treatments and so called cures take us away from the journey of healing.
THE BEST KEPT SECRET IS THE BODY CAN HEAL ITSELF.
The same innate wisdom that made the body, can heal the body. This is known as – vitalism. And it doesn’t make mistakes; it doesn’t mess up. Everything the body does is a wise response to a perceived stimulus – without exception.
Most acute diseases are self-limiting and resolve with the passage of time.
Now that we know about our microbiomes and viromes can we really believe that "germs" are predominantly the main cause of disease?
Or are these so called pathogenic ones just co-existing with us - whose roles are to "clean up the mess"
And just like the flies do not cause the compost - are these "pathogenic germs" inside us to restore balance?
And our jobs therefore would be as simple as to stop building disease inside and outside us.
Address the cause, learn the tools, do the work, then live the solution yourself.
Health comes from healthful living.
The secret to recovery: Stop the repeated injuries
Acute disease or accidents are generally from single or less frequent injuries such as food poisoning, infection, insect bites, car accident etc. Whereas chronic disease is the result of thousands of injuries - to the arteries, joints, and other tissues over prolonged periods of time. Even though the force, frequency, and means of impact differ; the mechanisms of repair are still the same, whether the injuries occur once or a million times.
If your health is getting worse it is not because your body is failing you - efforts to heal never stop - not for a moment. Again your body is always working in your best interest. It is programmed for survival. The reason for your continued distress is because the damage is ongoing. FOR DISEASE TO PROGRESS, INJURY MUST OUTPACE HEALING. Reversing disease is simply a matter of STOPPING THE ONGOING INJURY, which is usually self-induced. Greater recovery is expected the sooner the repeated injury is stopped. (There is a point reached where disease can become irreversible, because the injury is too severe and/or the body is too worn out to recover however, even than spontaneous healing can still occur – don’t underestimate the miraculous healing powers of the body).
4 APPROACHES TO HEALTH
(Comparison between Medical, Alternative, Natural Hygiene)
1) Does this approach teach people that they can take responsibility for their health, resulting in them feeling empowered, and in control of their lives or does it led them to feeling victims of their fate?
2) Does this approach focus on identifying and removing the cause or does it just focus on removing the symptoms?
3) Does this approach respect the fact that all physical healing can only be done by the body itself?
4) Does this approach take into consideration every aspect of an individual, including their psychological and emotional health or does it just focus on a particular organ or body part?
SO WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN
We need to educate ourselves about the causes of health not the treatment of disease.
Our bodies know what to do – we need to relearn how to listen to it and trust it.
Health sovereignty – self responsibility, not farming out our responsibility to others. We have lost how to care for ourselves. We have been programmed that the governments and doctors can make us healthy, better and heal us. They do not know how to do this, nor are they healthy themselves.
Doctors study disease not health. We go to doctors like priests to be absolved from our disease, not to learn about health.
You need to know that your health is largely in your own hands and no one else’s. Especially not to those who have invested interests. Health is the natural spontaneous consequence of healthy living. Become your own doctor. The more conscious you are the less support you need.
This doesn’t mean you don’t ask for help or accept opinions. It means that we need to be responsible for our own health, to care for our own being and that of others and the earth.
We are constantly in healing and recovery, what if it was about living? That’s the goal. Healing now is recovery from our artificial living.
We don’t mind dying – we just don’t want to be the cause.
Our current model is outdated and disempowering.
Dr Michael Greger calls the leading cause of disease as, “not telling the truth.”
The food and medical industries have been manipulated for profit and control. Today the masses no longer think for themselves and have lost trust in their innate and instinctive healing ability. They turn to an industry and governments that have no interest in keeping them healthy. According to independent reports by the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, a wing of the American Congress, and the World Health Organization (WHO), 85-90% of all medical procedures used by today’s medical establishment are unproved and not backed up by scientific research.
To discover and understand the cause of disease, you will first need to let go of the idea that disease is something that must be fought. Healing is accepting, allowing and supporting, not fighting or resisting. Healing can occur when the body can use its innate healing capacity and is not overrun with a fight (treat) or flight (ignore) response situation.
There is something to be learned from every situation, including disease. A person’s willingness to face, accept and grow from the issues that dis-ease brings up turns disease into a purposeful and potentially uplifting experience. There is an underlying cause of every situation, even if it seems unrelated. You as consciousness, are the only true source of that energy and information that runs your body. Your presence in all things including your body, what you do, eat, drink, feel and think determine how well on a physical level your cells are able to control and sustain your physical existence. Disease is a provider of new life. Disease only “strikes” when a part or parts of us are not alive anymore, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
The wound is where the light enters – means that grief, pain, suffering is where you grow.
The Cosmic Intelligence is holding us responsible for our universal health - both body and planet.
With loving kindness Susan and Lance”
Feeling gratitude
As if this time of pause and reflection was not a blessing in itself, the universe bestows upon us too this most incredible weather! I’m just grateful that here on Guernsey we are permitted two hours of exercise per day, and us Es have certainly been making the most of this. We’ve enjoyed every moment of our time in the great outdoors both within the garden and beyond. Spring is most definitely sprung and the land herself is a blessing. The colours of the flowers!
I haven’t used the car for a good old while now, favouring the bike, and we’ve been heading out to the cliffs and to Petit Port mainly, down those 300 odd steps. The tide has been super low so we fulfilled a dream of walking/swimming between Petit Port and Moulin Huet, which was great. We’ve enjoyed running on the beach and swimming in the sea and I’m only grateful for the electric bike on the way back home, after traipsing up those steps!
We’ve managed swims at Saints and Fermain too, early morning, when the tide has been at its highest after that full moon, it was a 10.2m on Thursday, which was super high and ever so peaceful. There’s nothing better than having the beach to ourselves for a quick run around and then back home again, refreshed, ready to ‘stay home’ until we need a run around (or run off) again.
Staying at home hasn’t been particularly challenging though, we’re lucky to have a garden and I was excited to establish our raised bed so that we could plant on the waxing moon, literally hours before the full moon peaked. So far so good, with this sun the plants have been growing well. Even some of my medicinal plants have started sprouting, and I’ve had to re-pot the marigolds already.
I’ve said it before but as Mother Earth is allowed to re-wild herself, so too we have been re-wilding, not that we even realised we needed to. Eben removes his clothes at every available opportunity, he even pooed in the garden today, like it was the most natural thing in the world, and I suppose it is really. Goodness knows how we might try and tame him for pre-school, although I think it might be a while until the children return to school, but who knows.
If there’s one thing we are continuously reminded, it is that all life is uncertain. I’m reading a book called The House of Glass by Hadley Freeman about her Jewish grandmother and her grandmother’s siblings, and their life as Polish Jewish immigrants in the 1930s and 1940s in Paris, France. If ever there were people who had to live with uncertainty then these were European Jews in the 1940s, never sure when their life might be taken away from them, just for being born Jewish. But don’t get me started on that.
People are constantly persecuted aren’t they, for being born a certain way, or in a certain place. Just as people are always dying, regardless of Covid-19. I wonder if sometimes the media might have forgotten that. Children continue to starve to death on a daily basis. Refugees also die because no one cares and no one will accept them into their countries for fear of…presumably the same fear that found the Jewish people being refused entry into other countries all those years ago too. Who knows. I’m no expert.
I do know that it saddens me that no one cares, as if we do not have the capacity in our hearts to care for so many. One of my swimming friend’s made it quite clear to me that really no one does care at the moment about all the other suffering, about children starving and refugees dying from neglect, because Covid-19 has taken centre stage. This made me sad too. That lives are not equal. There is still so much inequality, still ethnic cleansing, and so much harm done. It’s out of sight and out of mind and I am only sorry to those charities trying to help, but now not receiving so much funding.
It was a defining moment for me though, being told this, as if some lives are worth more than others. We’ve certainly been there before, history is full of such stories. We’re just lucky some of us to have been born in Guernsey, where we don’t have to worry about our safety beyond the current Covid-19 risk. I suppose this is the reason it grips us. It’s the closest we’ve gotten to having everything taken away from us, not least our freedom but our life and the lives of our loved ones. I do understand the fear and panic this has created.
However that doesn’t excuse the blame culture, and the tale telling that we have seen, with some sending photos and videos of people on the beaches to senior politicians, who thankfully had the sense to say that they couldn’t understand the problem. It’s about being responsible isn’t it. Taking responsibility. Doing what is asked of us and leaving the authorities to manage it. I appreciate that underlying the tale telling is fear, and I feel huge compassion for those who are suffering with this, the fear that is, and the sense of being out of control, and worried for their lives, and therefore needing to blame everyone else.
But really, better to just enjoy what we can of this time, to shift the perspective, find the positives and focus on those. Life is always uncertain. It always has been and it always will be, we need to just settle into that, because we never truly know what tomorrow might bring. Thus me being sad serves no one. It certainly doesn’t serve my family. Me worrying absolutely isn’t going to help anyone either, it’s just going to waste my energy. This is the time to step into the uncomfortableness of the unknown and live in the moment.
Getting on with things and having fun where I can, doesn’t mean I don’t still feel compassion though, for those directly affected by Covid-19, who are losing loved ones and in the most traumatic circumstances. I am also sorry for the many other millions currently suffering, not only because Covid-19 has locked down the world making their lives increasingly difficult – Refuge reported a 25% increase in calls from those suffering domestic abuse last week in the UK, for example.
I’m forever hopeful that this disease will make us more compassionate, collectively. That the world will come together, not separate. That we might care for all beings, regardless of where they were born and when. That we might still learn to find the joy in the uncertainty, that we give each other a break and acknowledge that we’re all doing our best. Perhaps it is bold of me to ask this, but if there is a time to seek new beginnings, then it is now, in our own lives, that might feed into the collective.
This is what spurs me on at this time. To live life to the full within the guidelines given to us by those who know best at this time. No one really knows how this will unfold. But what we do know is that we have a choice in how we experience this time. Whether we focus only on the negatives and the potential for dying, or whether we embrace the positives and get on with living.
I’ve become increasingly thankful for my life and for all it brings with it, that I get to enjoy this weather and this island and my beautiful wild family, there is much for me to be grateful about and I am grateful, truly. I’m especially grateful that my children get to be wild, because I have never seen them happier. The wild suits them, it reflects their inner spirit, they are uninhibited and innocent; this too is a gift.
I know others are grateful too. Covid-19 might be dividing but it is also providing people with an opportunity to consider their lives, the before-Covid-19 and how they might like it to be following Covid-19. Some will no doubt be keen to get back to ‘normal’, while others will be happy to settle into a new normal, with some lessons learned from this pause. That too will be fascinating to observe, whether we soon forget or manage to maintain our gratitude.
Shifting from fear
We began lockdown here in Guernsey on the new moon and here we are now on the full moon, and with lockdown being extended for a further 10 days.
I’ll be honest, I’m in no hurry for lockdown to end. Admittedly I miss being able to be in the same room and touch students when I teach, and I long for a proper long swim and to hang out with my parents, but there have been many positives to come out of this last two weeks. I have a raised bed all of my own for example! This is a dream come true, it’s been on the list for years, but the opportunity just never presented itself until now.
There are so many other positives that I blogged about recently, even getting to spend all this time with the children has been such a gift. So there will be many things to miss when lockdown has finished, but the one thing I absolutely won’t miss is the fear that Covid-19 has brought with it. I was always taught that fear represents ‘false evidence appearing real’. Fear feels very real, but it is just an emotion, just a state of mind, just something that we have chosen to buy into, that will create our reality, because of the manner in which we allow it to control our thinking and the decisions that we then make.
It’s very difficult when you’re ‘in it’ to recognise that you have a choice, that it is your mind that is allowing fear to take up residence, that only you can actually decide how you might react to any given situation. Do you come from a place of love, or a place of fear? Because the outcome will be very different depending upon your perspective, and your suffering will be greater one way more than the other too.
It’s not dissimilar from the glass is half full/glass is half empty scenario. We get to choose. But like I say, sometimes we are so ‘in it’ that we don’t recognise this. We’re also so conditioned to respond a certain way that we are not even conscious of the manner in which we have reacted until much later, when something or someone makes us conscious of it and by then it’s too late.
Media doesn’t help. We are fed the negative constantly. I’ve had to stop looking at Facebook beyond yoga, because the negativity, albeit from many well-meaning, was becoming so draining. In this too, you see, we have a choice. We always have a choice about what we allow into our lives, from media, to people, to experiences.
E says Covid-19 has made me very opinionated and he’s right. I’ve had to look at that. Perhaps that’s my underlying fear, not of Covid-19 but of the detrimental changes to society because of the fear that has accompanied Covid-19 and the manner in which it has changed behaviour. I don’t like that people don’t want to breathe fresh air, that people virtually throw themselves into hedges when you run past them, and that others feel it’s their place to judge and criticise what people are doing with their two hours of exercising.
I’ve had to pull myself up on that, because in many respects that makes me judgmental and closes my heart to the world. I have had to reframe this, so that I don’t lose myself in it, to have compassion for the fact others’ fear is so great that they literally see you as the enemy in disguise. Perhaps it is this that I’m having to come to terms with. Perhaps this is my underlying angst with this whole situation.
Because I have recognised that there is some angst and it is this that feeds in to me being opinionated, as much as the extra yoga classes I am taking are taking me deep into the anger that has been stored deep in my hips all these years. None of this helped, or perhaps actually all of this has absolutely helped by the full moon that has shone a light into the shadows, that has highlighted the internal angst that has probably always been there but is now standing out.
Sometimes I feel sad, because I don’t want to live in a world like this, where I might be seen as the enemy. And then on the other hand, I feel incredibly happy because I see so much beauty in the world around me as I run around the lanes. All of this is OK. I know that. If there is one thing the Scaravelli-inspired yoga is teaching me, is the being OK with uncertainty, so that things are neither black nor white any more than they are right nor wrong.
Yet that’s so difficult when we have been conditioned to think that things have to be one way or the other, and that if they are not the way we want them to be then we automatically and quickly need to fix them or react to them or -tra la la- become opinionated about! This too I have had to work on and it has not been easy and is an ongoing process of letting go…
In our asana practice we thrive on a posture being practiced this way or that, we are attached to the form of it. Letting this go has not been easy. It’s also been totally mind-blowing to be guided to practice a posture in a completely different way to how I may have practiced it previously. I have been so conditioned over the years that I have to be so incredibly attentive to not move automatically and unconsciously in a way that I might have done so many times over the years.
I have been astounded time and time again to find that the very way I have always moved my body in postures has not only limited the range of movement and freedom of my spine in any posture, but has limited my mind too, made me stuck, fixed.. So now, my teacher showing me another way, has not only impacted on my body, but has impacted on my mind too, it’s been blown away. At times I’ve had to just lie there and let it settle in, thinking to myself, ‘my goodness, so in drawing the hand and foot together rather than pushing away from each other, I’ve actually experienced more ease and depth in that pose etc etc’.
It’s this perhaps that has been so mind blowing. The opposite of what we might have thought. How humbling is that to recognise that there are other ways than what we had fixed in our mind as being ‘the way’, and all this just from the way that we might practice a yoga posture. Again it comes back to perspective. Love or Fear. Do we practice lovingly, in towards the self, or do we push/pull away with fear outside of the self? I know which one has brought me the most contentment.
But oh so tricky to let go of what has always been and settle into the unknown territory that my teacher is taking me. And yet, I have recognised that the timing for this additional training has been a true gift, because if ever there was a time in life where we might need to settle into unknown territory then it is now. It’s not easy, it brings up all sorts of things, but what I have recognised is that it is a dance, a balance, a being OK with all the ranges and movements within it that helps us to step further into the heart and to compassion for self and others and to contentment.
I suspect compassion and contentment might be an antidote to fear. It might help to centre us and make us recognise that we have a choice about how we feel. I always remember someone telling me that even in prison, people cannot take away your freedom of mind, your freedom to choose the perspective that you adopt to approach your life. It’s not always easy, it’s very difficult at times, but it is insightful when we start to recognise the manner in which we are thrown off our balance, lose our centre and close down our hearts, so that we can become better at recognising it (the triggers) earlier the next time. Life is never certain.
I’m hopeful that as the sun continues to shine and nature continues to astound us in her beauty (now we have the time to recognise) the more comfortably we will be able to settle into the uncertainty that Covid-19 has brought with it, so that we may find our collective centre and let go of the fear that has been pervading society in recent weeks. Perhaps then we might find greater contentment. Personally I think reducing exposure to media, especially social media helps enormously with this!
The Blessings in the Curse
Now I’ve found my flow within this new reality that we find ourselves in, I have to admit that I am loving it. I appreciate that people are dying and are losing their jobs and others are unwell and separated from their families, yet I am grateful for this opportunity to shift how we are living and align to something slower paced instead.
In many respects I have been quite lucky as our lives were already lived relatively simply. I wasn’t going to an office and I wasn’t working full time, so being at home with the boys has not been a shock to my system as it would understandably have been for others – I am in awe at those attempting to work full time from home and school children all at the same time. It helps too that my parents are on hand by FaceTime to help with Elijah’s learning, and I have been grateful for their support.
But more than that, over the years of practising yoga, aspects of how my life used to be lived have dropped away, I don’t go out for dinner, or socialise with the girls beyond meeting for a sea swim, for example. I don’t go to the hairdresser regularly, or have my nails done. I don’t go shopping for clothes or for anything else beyond food if I can help it! I don’t go to the cinema or to the gym. I don’t really do very much when I think about it, beyond yoga, writing, cycling, going to the beach, and being with the children!
Of course there are things I miss, but the missing doesn’t feel as great as it did at the beginning, as I have let go a little of those attachments too. No doubt there will be more to let go of as this lockdown continues, but I’ve started to recognise more of the positives than the negatives and long may this continue! To be honest I have felt much more gratitude for all I have in my life, now, than I ever did previously and this in itself has been a positive, as are these:
· There is less rushing and for this I am eternally grateful! I have known for a while that I needed to slow my life down and stop with the rushing, especially rushing the children in and out of the door, and lockdown has achieved this for me. We no longer need to rush and life is so much easier!
· Time has taken on a whole new meaning. Aside from being on time for the yoga classes that I have scheduled, and the FaceTime sessions with my parents for Elijah’s home schooling, there is no need to be on time for anything else because we have no plans, we are able to just literally flow with where the energy takes us and that is extremely liberating.
· This means that we are able to drop more into the notion of there being no time or space, as we learn in Reiki Level Two, and I feel that this lockdown has allowed a greater lived sense of that. Time and space seems less of an obstacle as we connect over the internet regardless of space and time – one of my friends, Lottie, has been able to join some of the Facebook Live sessions with us from Australia, which is just wonderful.
· There has been greater connecting with people who are on my wave length, who I hadn’t had the opportunity to connect with previously. It’s as if a whole new world has opened up bringing with it lovely new connections. There’s also been a deepening in established connections, which has been wonderful too.
· The reduction in noise from the roads and the skies is a true joy and I can hear the bird song much clearer than previously and I’m slowly learning to recognise which bird song comes from which bird type!
· I also feel that I can see more clearly too, without all the traffic, and I actually stopped my bike the other day, when I was out cycling, to stare at the wonder which was someone else’s garden full of beautiful flowers blossoming.
· I feel like I can breathe more easily too, especially when I am out on my bike, the air just feels cleaner, like its filled with more prana, perhaps because it is spring and nature is abundant in energy.
· At times it feels as if the flowers on the hedgerows and cliffs and in the gardens are from another world as they look so stunning and so vibrant, with their bright colours, reminding me that nature is abundant in her beauty and is not scared to share with it others, so that we too can delight in it.
· Being more aware of what I am buying, and trying to make as many snacks as I can as well as cooking from scratch twice a day and having the time to be a little more adventurous than I might be normally.
· The opportunity to write - not least a little more time without the regular trips backwards and forwards to the school each day, but also the creative impulse, as if the time and the space and the extra yoga lessons that I have taken with my teacher have allowed me the opportunity to drop deeper into the creative.
· Extra yoga lessons with my teacher have been a joy as both of our schedules have eased and E is at home to help with the children.
· The time spent as a family. We were lucky as our lives allowed us a lot of family time previously, but now we have even more time together, and while this certainly brings with it its challenges (how can it not!), it has also been wonderful to be more involved in Elijah’s education, and witness more fully the mania of Eben!
· This has been another benefit, watching the children coming into their own, in their own ways. Elijah has never passionate about school and he is enjoying not having the pressure of that and he’s now stopped counting down to the weekend! He has enjoyed learning from home, and I have enjoyed being more involved in his learning so that we can celebrate his achievements together.
· While Eben has been a challenge at times because he just doesn’t understand the reason he can’t see my parents, and he misses his friends and pre-school, it has been lovely to see him thriving and wilding himself even more than usual.
· Watching the boys’ relationship develop. They are forced together for most of the day and they have thrived on this, playing in a way they have never played previously, and we are laughing more together as a family because of this. We’ve been grateful for the opportunity to walk a dog for another family, we love this dog and she has brought much joy to us as a family.
· This is the other thing, this wilding. The boys have always been a little wild and E and I too really, but now we can truly embrace this aspect of self, getting out into nature, wearing the same clothes more than once, and embracing the dirt!
· I’ve stopped being so obsessive about the cleanliness of the house. This is a big one for me as I am a bit OCD with cleaning as those who know me will agree, but I’ve let this go a little too, as I have re-prioritised my time, I’d rather be writing or playing outside with the boys than cleaning for the sake of it, hoorah for that!
· Creating a Reiki community, which is something I have always wanted to do but never had the time nor the idea of how I might make this happen. But it has happened all by itself and I look forward to the weekly Tuesday evening sessions so that we can connect through Zoom.
· Creating an online yoga community has been wonderful too, to stay connected and share yoga with others during this tricky time felt by many, especially those juggling a working schedule and home schooling children. It is a joy for me to teach yoga and I am grateful that I have been able to continue to do this and to share my passion to help and support others as yoga has helped and supported me enormously over the years and continues to do so.
· A depending connection to the Earth and to her ancient wisdom. I have even started planting seeds to attempt to grow medicinal herbs, something that has been on my mind for a while now, and I am hoping that they will be kind and grow for me and for me to share with you. A whole new world potentially awaits, let us see.
· Getting out running. I’m not a runner, I prefer swimming and cycling, but running has helped me to process my thoughts and all that is happening, it has given me the space to think about the book I am writing, it has helped me to notice the beauty of nature around me and to clear my head and enjoy some solitude away from the family.
· Having to face my long-held fear of IT and learning how to do online videos for myself, let alone sending out newsletters and doing minor updates to the website. It has been a teeny bit empowering and I hope I can continue to build on it. I am very grateful to Katie Bisson, my brother and Nicky Jenkins who have all helped in the background.
· I have had to face my fear of seeing myself on the screen! I employed Steph to film the videos on my website professionally, and so I have never watched them as she kindly did all the editing without needing my input, so I have avoided thus far seeing myself on them. However with Facebook Live and Zoom I get to see myself on the screen as they are recording and I have to admit that really it is no big deal, I wonder what all the fuss was about!
· I have had to look a little at my fear of my family getting ill or dying. I suspect I am still very much in denial about this as I comfort myself very quickly with thoughts of karma and our souls having their own journey. It’s a fear that I will one day have to overcome, but I’m hoping that now is not that time.
· I’m extremely grateful for my family and for my home, and for the land on which we live, and this beautiful Island on which I was born and the wonderful community we have. We are truly blessed.
· While it might sound as if it is all about me if my ramblings above are anything to go by, It is extremely humbling to recognise those who are deemed essential workers and those who are not. As a yoga teacher and Reiki practitioner, I am not deemed an essential worker, and nor would I have been if I had continued to work as a company secretary in the finance industry. There is a humility that accompanies this and it is my hope that greater respect is given for those key workers post-Covid, the ones who ensure that there is minimal disruption to the fundamentals of our ability to live, from those working at the docks, to those filling the shelves, from those caring for the elderly to those working in hospitals. Let us not forget.
· What I am loving the most is that this period is unprecedented, there is no guideline, no societal expectation on how we as a society or individually should behave or feel. I doubt there is a business model that can help guide businesses through this time with any certainty, we are all having to find a new way. This is extremely liberating not only in the moment, but also for the future of our society. We each have our own role to play in this, as part of the collective, to determine the kind of life we want to live post-Covid.
· My soul feels more at ease, it enjoys this gentler rhythm, the time to observe my breath, to feel a part of nature, and to be in the flow of it – helped enormously because it is spring time.
There are many other benefits too, in the wider world:
· Councils in the UK have been told to house homeless people, some are now even being housed at Heathrow.
· The population has renewed respect for health workers and those on the front line.
· Around the world, Seismologists are observing a lot less ambient seismic noise – meaning the vibrations generated by cars, trains, buses and people going about their daily lives has decreased. This means that the Earth’s upper crust is moving a little less and overall the Earth is currently a much quieter place to live than it was.
· There has already been a noticeable decrease in air pollution in some of the world’s most polluted cities.
· I read that even the Ganges is looking a little bit cleaner!
· People are coming together and helping their communities and especially the vulnerable within them.
· People are connecting across the internet, there is a sense of global solidarity.
I appreciate that there are many suffering because of fear about poor health and losing those they love, others fearful for the loss of the life they had previously enjoyed as more are made redundant or otherwise lose their jobs. Yet I know that every burden carries with it a blessing, it is the natural lore. So while it might feel chaotic and mad, once the turmoil has eased, the bigger picture will become much clearer.
We each have the opportunity now to re-assess our priorities and to really live and embody them, not just think about them, and then put the list back into the drawer until we have more time in our lives. That time is now. If ever there was a time. It might still feel crazy and messy, but every ending feels this way, and we should take comfort in the thought of the peaceful and more aligned new beginnings ahead, we just have to trust and keep letting go into the flow.
I hope that this time is kind to you and that you are able to be kind to yourself too. If ever there was a time for kindness and compassion then it is also now. Every now. But especially this now.
Lots of love xxx
A poem about Mother Earth and Love
Once upon a time
There was a beautiful planet
With bright blue skies
And bright blue seas
Tall crisp mountains and
A whole heap of deep green
Forests
Stunning rivers and the
Most awe inspiring
Lakes.
This was a world of joy
And magic and ancient wisdom.
Then man arrived and tried
To tame the planet.
He cluttered her skies and
Clogged her seas with plastic.
He conquered the mountains
Leaving his debris
And he stripped her bare
Of forest.
He manipulated
The rivers and lakes
As he tried to exert his control
On the beautiful planet.
Love is all the planet knows, and
She was keen for man to know love too.
She did what she could to get his attention
To make him recognise
The love and the beauty that
Lay within him; the mirror.
But it was too late by then.
He was already too distracted by
The idea of controlling things.
He needed to understand,
To dissect and to make sense.
He wanted to know so that he
Could better control.
The planet knows that man
Can never truly understand her
and know her as well as she knows
Herself. That she cannot be controlled.
That she is filled with magic and grace
And beauty that knows no boundaries,
That cannot be defined, collected,
Analysed. That cannot be controlled.
This is freedom and this is all she knows.
The freedom that comes with a life
Lived on love.
So she tries to show man what he is missing.
Her beauty and in springtime too,
When she is abundant in fertility, and all
Of her is awash with new beginnings,
Potent with energy and potential.
That she has a rhythm, and that if
Man allows himself to flow with her rhythm
That he too will be nourished and
energised, and spellbound.
That he will recognise that all this time
He has been seeking to control
What is actually inside himself;
The wildness that makes him feel alive
If he turns towards it rather than
Trying to control or deny it.
So the planet gently shows him,
Guides him, with love, for remember
This is all she knows.
To rewild the men and make them see
All that they have missed inside of
Themselves, in their quest to
Control all things, to make them feel
Safe and secure within the world
They live in, yet not appreciating
That they can never control
That which can never be truly known.
For one can never dissect nor analyse
Nor truly understand grace and ancient wisdom.
Just as intuition and the heart can never
Be truly known either, not really.
For the great mystery knows no boundaries,
It cannot be limited, nor defined in
Black and white, nor used to control or
Exploit.
Is has its own truth. And truth will
Always have a way of expressing itself, of finding a way
To be all it can be, for living its potential
Just as planet earth also lives her truth.
She will shake her very foundation to know
Herself over and over again
To drop deeper into her heart
And realise yet more of her potential
As part of the whole, of the vast inter-connected
Nature of the universe.
She awakens us in her shaking
To remember the fullness of who we are
And our own potential.
To remind us that we are simply
A reflection of her. That as we allow her to
Wild again, so we can wild ourselves
And be comfortable with the
Not knowing and appreciate instead
The sheer joy that comes with
Being with our true selves.
That all that cannot be known is the blessing
And the magic that
Makes us feel truly alive.
That love is enough and
Knows no bounds.
By Emma Després 2 April 2020
The letting go into the flow
It’s funny the things that tip you over an edge that you didn’t even realise was there.
A few days before the Sark retreat, which was a week before we started social distancing, which was a few days before lock-down (funny how dates have lost all significance, I just think of life in chunks now, this chunk before this happened and that chunk before that happened…) the boiler overheated and boiling hot water burst through the system and caused some hot water pipes to split.
There we were, the boys and I eating breakfast, aware of Ewan moving upstairs when all of a sudden there was a tremendous noise and steam coming down the stairs and through the ceiling in the hallway, closely followed by a whole heap of water pouring out too. This set the smoke alarms off and all this, the noise, the steam and the water before 7.30am on a Wednesday morning.
A few hours later, the plumber trying to fix the problem, the water switched off, the last of the water now trickling down one of the kitchen’s walls, and stuff everywhere, I escaped into our small wing to make a cup of tea and try and get some peace. Here I opened the door to one of the cupboards to get a cup only to find myself staring at a mouse. I don’t think I have moved so quickly in my life!
I leapt onto the sofa and screamed for Ewan. A mouse! Our lodger who stays in the wing from time to time had told us only days earlier that she thought she’d heard mice. We had tentatively placed some humane traps in the wing, hopeful that she was confusing the noise of mice, for the noise of seagulls on the roof. But alas not. We really did have mice. This on top of the ants which move in each equinox, twice a year, for a few weeks of distraction, before they totter off again.
There was a lesson in all this though, one of preparing us for what lay ahead, with the ability to live within chaos (and me with my OCD for cleaning!) and go with the flow. Also, to reflect on killing, which makes me so uncomfortable with the whole non-harming, ahimsa thing, and having to face this, and embrace the aspect of self that is OK with killing, when it comes to not having mice and ants living in the cottage, and yet knowing that ideally I’d live to find a way to live harmoniously.
This followed a few days later by the Sark retreat, which was wonderful in its usual way, Sark holds us so gently and energises us and makes us feel whole again. Yet this retreat challenged a little by all the last minute cancellations, as people quite understandably explored what felt right for them with the Coronavirus looming over us, and the fear so great. If ever there is a time to respect other’s decisions then it is now, only we can ever know what feels right for us, our families and our interaction with society – it’s a shame that our opinion is challenged though.
The fear felt very real that first night, it was hanging in the yoga room, and yet this eased enormously as the weekend continued and we connected increasingly so with the heart and the self, deep inside, and the sense that ultimately, on some level we might never truly understand, all is well. That was, until the Sunday morning and the preparations to return to Guernsey and the fear returned as word came that we might have school closures and lock down ahead. We, as a family, decided to stay on, to make the most of the freedom of Sark and I’m delighted we did.
Back home, life was a different normal, both boys had runny noses so no school, and just as I was about to teach the Friday morning class, word came that the schools were closing so with that the decision was made. It was time to adjust. I couldn’t face the thought of not teaching at all, I wondered how that might affect my sanity, being that teaching yoga is one of my favourite things in the whole wide world, beyond my family and swimming and lying in a bath. So I adjusted and went online and hoped that this may help others as much as it might help me, to just keep going.
All was well. The home schooling. The steep learning curve of how to run online classes and make people aware that they are happening. The embracing of the fear of IT and doing it anyway. The adjusting to life lived mainly at home and more time with the children without parental help, which is lovely on the one hand and slightly maddening on the other. The getting used to never having quite what you need in the house and no longer being able to just nip to the shops. Longing for a swim at the Grande Mare but knowing that summer is not far away and more sea swimming ahead, and yet it’s not quite the same.
It was all going OK. I was doing OK. A few wobbles. Shopping has become uncomfortable, not for me the risk of contracting Covid-19 but the manner in which people are so edgy and some friendly and others just really unpleasant. Then the time away from home and the exercising being OK, the children needing to run off some steam, but should we be on the beach, but knowing we might all go mad otherwise without the sea energy cleansing us. Not being able to see my parents and explaining to the children the reason they can’t see Ganny and Baba either (“will we have the bug for long” my 3-year old asked, which almost broke my heart. “It’s not you sweetie”, I tried to explain, “there’s nothing wrong with you…”).
The sleep deprivation and wilful moments continue anon with the 3-year old, while the 6-year old is enjoying the break from school and trying to get him to do any school work is tough, but it’s like this normally, we’re used to it. This all carries on. The washing, the cleaning, the shopping, the endless requests for snacks, the endless tidying of the house (why do we bother?). It’s all just going on. But there’s something going on out there too. In the bigger sphere, beyond our cottage that had me a little edgy on Saturday.
I awoke that morning with an underlying feeling of anxiety, which comes only occasionally, when something is shifting and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Even a swim in the sea wouldn’t clear it, so I concluded that it must be in the collective, that others would likely be feeling the same. So I decided I would teach an impromptu short class because if there’s one thing I need when I feel like this, it’s yoga!
Before then I had a class by zoom with my teacher, which was stressful initially because the WIFI kept dropping out, but we found a way, using my phone, which worked. And it was reassuring and beautiful and eased some of the agitation, as we dropped into the breath and into the idea of contentment, that is neither happiness or sadness but something really rather different. This was a spin though, the practice itself affected me, made me think about things differently. The idea that we should find contentment in everything, is this part of the lesson, the awakening, the shift occurring?
I’m pretty sure it is, because as if to test it, I was forced only a few hours later to see if I could find contentment when things didn’t go the way I intended. During the impromptu class that I desperately wanted to teach, to connect with others and come together energetically, the WIFI kept dropping out making me realise that I had no control over anything, not the WIFI certainly and therefore not the ability to teach either.
This saddened me and tipped me to an edge. If there’s one thing that triggers me it is IT and it is feeling out of control with it. My response is always to get angry at myself for not understanding the world of IT better, and yet I know too that this is such an old pattern that it is laughable, as it achieves nothing. But triggered I was anyway. I desperately searched my mind for another way, how could I overcome this obstacle of the WIFI dropping out all the time. There was some grasping that’s for sure, I just couldn’t let it go, there had to be a way.
But this was just the test of the awakening that we are all being forced to go through. The patterns are popping up left, right and centre. We are being encouraged to let go, and let go all over again. Let go of the life we were living, let go of the idea of the life we want to be living, let go of dreams, let go of plans, let go of knowing what lies ahead, let go of any sense of being in control of our destiny and our day to day reality.
It wasn’t until later though, that I saw the bigger picture and recognised what I had been doing. That in my effort to maintain some semblance of normality and in my quest to do what I felt I could to help people, and to help myself in the process, I was holding on very tightly to the idea of teaching, having found a way to continue doing this. The trouble was I was holding on too tightly, as if my very happiness depended on it, and in the process, when things didn’t go my way, like with the WIFI, I was suffering.
There is only one way and that is to go with the flow of things. I learned this with both of my boys’ births. There is no other way, because to try and push against the flow is just futile and exhausting. And yet letting go into the flow of things is always so tricky, because it involved a surrendering of everything that’s been and a trust that the flow will take us where we need to go instead. I’ve no idea why we doubt this though, because where else can it take us?
Yet it wasn’t this that caused me to lose it, not really. It was the bit that led me to the edge so that later I might see my patterns more clearly, of the pattern I create around not feeling in control and not getting my own way. The manner in which this allows me to buy into feelings of hopelessness and helplessness and gives rise to a momentary depression.
It also wasn’t my youngest’s manic behaviour that found him uncontrollable and E and I resigned to it, triggered in our own ways, it wasn’t even realising that I had given the humous I had intended to eat for dinner away to my Mum in error and that I couldn’t just nip to the shop to buy a new one, it wasn’t even the weather and the fact I was so cold because this really does feel like the never ending winter. If truth be told it was the bath. Yes, the bath.
The bath tipped me over an edge that everything else had helped prod me towards the moment where I just gave up and just felt desperately sorry for myself! I wanted a bath! More than anything else. I’m sorry that this makes me sound really selfish when people are dying and others are making huge sacrifices to look after those in hospital, and there are those putting themselves on the front line to serve us in shops and make sure that we don’t go hungry (I do get a lump in my throat every time I thank them when I have finished my shopping).
But the truth is, sometimes it’s the little things. I love a bath. I love lying in the bath reading a book, lying in the bath to warm up after a swim, lying in the bath with the children at the end of the day, just lying in a bath to process things. It was like the final straw and I can’t even really blame it on Coronavirus, other than the fact the plumber needs some parts to re-install it post flood, and the virus has complicated that. It’s just the simple fact that having a bath makes me feel better and I really miss it.
It was this that caused me to finally succumb to all the holding of, of not letting go of what had been and of trying to control things. It was the little old bath that helped me to release all that I had been unable to release and to see more clearly patterns that no longer served me. Phew.
But I know this is not just about me and it is for this reason that I am sharing. I am aware that we are all going through this. We are all being triggered and asked to dig deeper and see more clearly that which we no longer need. We are all feeling the loss of the life we lived, all missing something, however small and seemingly insignificant. We are right in it. In the shift. Where it is desperately uncomfortable as the old has to drop away and yet we don’t know where we are headed or what the new life might offer us in terms of security and protection.
It’s like the leap of faith, we are all being asked to make. Without any future certainty. It’s scary, and yet those of us who have leapt previously, know that it is always lighter on the other side. But the process, the surrendering is always messy and there will always come a tipping point that will cause us to – finally – surrender into it.
I don’t know where it is all going, or when I will next get a bath, or whether I will be able to continue teaching yoga online with the WIFI as it currently is, but today I’m OK with that. Today I feel as I have weathered a storm and come through the other side, less attached to trying to control the outcome or control which direction life may unfold. Because none of us are in control and more fool us for thinking – ever thinking – that we are.
This is a time to stay strong in our faith that everything happens for a reason, that we need to just keep on keeping on with the being, come what may. That it is OK to feel whatever we are feeling, to embrace all the range of emotions as they move through us because this too is part of the collective awakening. There is a bigger picture. We are not in this alone. We each have a role to play, and we will find a way. It is in our hearts. We already know this.
My beautiful friend sent me this poem today that is absolutely appropriate:
Always we hope
Someone else has the answer…
At the center of your being
You have the answer,
You know who you are
And you know what you want.
There is no need
To run outside
For better seeing.
Nor to peer from a window.
Rather abide at the center of your being;
For the more you leave it, the less you learn.
Search your heart
And see
The way to do
Is to be.
- Lao Tzu
We are creating a Beinspired Reiki community finally!
I really appreciated all you lovely souls joining me on Zoom this evening for our first Beinspired Reiki share with guided meditation and some breath awareness. It was certainly a potent, grounding, powerful and connecting experience for me. I am going to make it a weekly thing for however long...sending Reiki and love to each other, to the universe and to the coronavirus, to find some harmony...I think it might be the only way, find a way to live together, and Reiki tends to help with relationships, so keep sending Reiki to it.
There's a beautiful poem that might help make sense of this:
Anything that annoys you is for teaching you patience.
Anyone who abandons you is for
teaching you how to stand up
on your own two feet.
Anything that angers you is for teaching you forgiveness and compassion.
Anything that has power over you is for teaching you hot to take your power back.
Anything you hate is for
teaching you unconditional love.
Anything you fear is for
teaching you courage to
overcome your fear.
Anything you cannot control is for teaching you how to let go and trust the universe.
Jackson Kiddard.
Those of you who are Reiki attuned and would like to join the community and receive emails with Zoom sign-in details for our weekly group then please email me at emma@beinspiredby.co.uk. You don’t need to have been attuned by me. All are welcome!
Love and Reiki.
Health Is Your Wealth
‘Health is your Wealth’ as we say in Ayurveda. If ever there was a time for recognising this, then it is now. We cannot buy good health, it is something we have to cultivate ourselves to the best of our ability.
One of the things I love about Ayurveda, other than the fact it is from the Vedas, which makes it ancient, and it focuses on not just the body and the mind but also…ta da da…the soul...is that it helps to promote good immunity, which is fundamental to the prevention of disease.
In fact one of the main objectives of Ayurveda is the prevention of disease through strengthening the immune system, which makes the immune system a significant element of Ayurveda. As we all know, our wellbeing is dependent on the body’s resistance to dis-ease, and the immune system plays a significant role in the prevention of, and recovery from, disease.
What we also know is that some are more prone to disease than others. For example, among persons living in infected surroundings, only some of them are found to be affected, while others are left without any effect. It shows that the pathogenic (bacterium, virus or other microorganism) causes require particular favourable conditions and susceptibility of the individual in order for disease to form. Without these conditions, they will be destroyed by themselves. Thus the stronger our immunity, the safer we are from disease.
In Ayurveda, the focus is not on the prevention of disease, per se, but on strengthening the immune system as a whole. In this way we can maximise ‘ojas’. Ojas is a Sanskrit term which can be translated as ‘vigor’ or ‘essence of vitality’. Essentially, ojas is the vital energy that governs our immunity, strength and happiness – three things we want in abundance. If our ojas is weak, then our health, our spirits and our energy, decrease.
Like any hereditary characteristics, immunity is also inherited and greatly influenced by several other factors such as diet, environment, way of living, age, mental state, development or growth and pathological conditions of the individuals. In Ayurveda, factors affecting the immunity are classified as follows:
Factors that lessen immunity:
· Mental stress such as fear, anxiety, anger, grief
· Poor diet and nutritional disturbances
· Lack of sleep
· Excessive physical exertion/exercise
· Alcohol, drugs and smoking
· Severe infection
· Injury, accidental or surgical
· Excessive loss of bodily fluids
· Wasting
· Season, environment and age
· Severe constitution derangement
Factors that enhance immunity
· Balanced diet appropriate for constitution
· Mental peace
· Proper exercise
· Favourable climate
· Characteristics of race and generation in which birth took place
· Genetics of parents
· Constitutional characteristics (vata, pitta, kapha)
· Adolescence
· Proper mental stimulation
In the ancient Ayurvedic texts (of Charaka and Vaghbhata), we are told the features of a healthy person include the following:
Dosha (one of three biological energies circulating within the body) – the doshas that are present in the body and the mind (vata, pitta and kapha) must be in a balanced state in order to keep a person healthy. When the balance of the doshas is disturbed, then this can lead to a state of disease and impact on the immune system.
Agni (fire) – in order for an individual to stay healthy, their digestive fire (‘agni’) must be balanced and effective. When the digestive fire is weak, this can cause many diseases. It is well known that the health of an individual is dependent on the strength of their digestion.
Waste products – the excretion of faeces, urine and sweat must be balanced.
Tissues – the seven tissues of the body must be in a balanced state and able to function properly.
Senses – the sensory and motor organs and mind must be in equilibrium and able to discharge do their duties properly.
Mind – the state of mental health is more important than physical health. Look after your mental state!
Soul – awakened consciousness, unifying body and mind for eternal health and happiness – hoorah for that!
So how can this be achieved?
· Eating for your constitution, being aware of the impact various foods/drinks have on your digestive capability, and resulting mental, emotional and physical wellbeing. Avoiding foods/drinks that don’t support your wellbeing on all those levels. Lots of vegetables and fruits. Avoiding cold or raw as can be difficult to digest properly unless your digestive function is brilliant! Nourishing soups using coconut milk and light spices, white rice, chicken, white fish, pulses, cereals, soft cheese, pitta bread that sort of thing. Think nourishing and warming (but not spicy).
· Those who are pitta (fire and water) inclined, being mindful of excess heat in the body, especially if you’re suffering with stress, migraines, infections, acidity, stomach ulcers, inflammatory conditions and loose stools, tendency to anger easily, avoiding tomatoes, chilli and red wine.
· Those who are kapha (water and earth) inclined, being mindful of excess mucus, especially if you’re feeling sluggish, lazy, sticky, heavy and cold and digestion is slow, feeling unforgiving and avoiding dairy products and heavy foods if so.
· Those who are vata inclined (air and ether), being mindful of feelings of anxiety, insomnia, nervousness, suffering with cold hands and feet and constipation (rabbit droppings) avoiding ‘bird’ foods such as nuts, seeds and dried fruits.
· By maintaining the proper functioning of your digestive system, only eating when hungry and avoiding too much snacking.
· Yoga for promoting mental, emotional, spiritual and physical wellbeing. Practising gently to nourish and support constitution, not create imbalance or exhaust you.
· Taking adequate rest – use Yoga Nidra where you can.
· Appropriate exercising such as walking and swimming.
· Socialising with friends and family (in light of social distancing this will need to be done at a distance for now).
· Avoid ingesting anything that depletes you such as alcohol, smoking, drugs, junk food, screen time.
· A clean and clear environment – spring clean and get rid of the junk and clutter.
· Getting out into nature where you can. Walking on the beach or the cliffs. Noticing the sun and moon cycle, noticing the stars at night. Listening to the birds.
· A positive outlook. Reducing exposure to negativity from the news and social media. Mixing with positive people where you can.
· Surrounding yourself with colour. Avoiding black, for example, which can sap energy.
· Wearing/holding crystals.
· Ayurvedic medicine where necessary (you can talk to me about this).
· Doing things which make you happy such as reading, writing, art work, singing, watching happy films.
· Smile and laugh as much as you can.
· Connect into your heart.
· Giving yourself Reiki if you are Reiki attuned.
It seems so important to me that instead of focusing on the fear and anxiety that the Coronavirus has caused for many, that we focus on the positives, and doing what we can to promote our immunity and our health and wellbeing. Every cloud has a silver lining, and taking responsibility for our health and wellbeing should be up there, with recognising the simplicity in life again. I hope this article helps, let me know if I can help through Ayurveda or otherwise! [Happy to shop for anyone who can’t get out!].
Love Emma x