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YOUR BODY IS TALKING TO YOU, DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT’S SAYING?

From time to time, we all experience certain physical ailments and body symptoms that can cause us discomfort, pain and distress. When we experience something out of the ordinary in our bodies, we can either ignore it, hoping it will go away on its own, self-diagnose via the internet (which can sometimes provoke fear or worry), or we can go and seek expert diagnosis and treatment through various health care providers. There is however another tool that we have available that is often overlooked, The wisdom of our own body!

Hippocrates the Father of modern medicine said “Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease”, Edward Bach, the founder of homeopathic Bach Flower remedies stated “Disease is in essence, the result of conflict between Soul and Mind and will never be eradicated except by spiritual and mental effort”. If we can communicate with our bodies before we need to seek external feedback and if we learn to interpret the messages that they give us, WE then become the experts of our own bodies. In Michael Browns’ book “Alchemy of the Heart” He poetically admonishes us that “We are still trying to feel better, when we are now being asked to get better at feeling”.

I have long been a follower of the teachings of Louise Hay, who healed herself from cancer and then went on to write the New York Times best seller “You Can Heal Your life”.

In her book, Louise explains the link between the thoughts and beliefs that we have about ourselves and the effect that they have on our emotional health which can then manifest in the physical body causing a wide range of symptoms. Louise also provides within her book, a comprehensive list of physical ailments, their negative emotional counterpart and the positive mantra or affirmation that can be used as an antidote. It was through Louise, that I first became aware of the mind body maps and how to read them.

The following guide is in no way suggesting that the physical component of what we experience is invalid or to be dismissed and ignored; neither is this guide intended to replace traditional and complementary medical consultation. It is intended to offer an initial self-directed holistic approach which expands beyond the physical to include the metaphysical components of various symptoms, (psychological, emotional, and vibrational). If your symptoms persist, do seek the advice of your medical or complementary practitioner.

MIND BODY MAPS

When we experience an ailment or symptom in our body, the first thing that we can do to assist us in discerning the message from our body, is identify the location of the symptom.

The following physical locations of the body and their metaphysical symbolism can provide a guide, allowing us to understand the emotional/psychological and energetic components that have potentially contributed to the physical condition we’re experiencing, thus enabling us to make adjustments to restore balance within our body.

This guide is NOT intended to be prescriptive, instead; I encourage you to keep an open mind and assess what resonates or “lands” for you personally, in regards to your symptom. I equally encourage you to disregard that which doesn’t fit for you. I have used these mind body maps to guide me to heal myself of various symptoms including: dissolving benign nodules, improving my visual prescription, dissolving pre-cancerous and cancerous cells, dissolving joint pain, dissolving eczema as well as eradicating digestive issues.

I share these insights as signposts guiding you towards your innate healing intelligence.

THE RIGHT SIDE

The Right side of the body represents your yang energy, or your doing energy. It is your animus, your animating force, or masculine side, your giving side and it also reflects your relationships with males. Your right side reflects your interaction with the world around you and is influenced by your environment. It symbolizes your conscious mind and it also represents the future.

When you have a symptom on the right side of your body, you may feel hindered in moving forward in an aspect of your life, and you may be holding yourself back by internal fear triggered from an aspect of your perceived future or your present environment. It may also represent challenges in relationships involving males. If your symptom is affecting your right, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE LEFT SIDE

The Left side of the body represents your yin energy, your non-doing energy. It is your anima, your feminine side, your intuition, it is about receiving and surrendering, and it also reflects your relationships with females. Your left side is about your subconscious mind and the hidden parts of yourself that you’d rather not show to the world and it also represents the past.

When you have a symptom on the left side of your body it may be a reflection of your past experiences and deep unacknowledged emotions, and may be indicative of your ability and willingness to receive and surrender. It may also represent challenges in relationships involving females. If your symptom is affecting your left, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE FRONT

The Front of the body represents the part of yourself that you show to the world, your public persona and all aspects of this version of yourself. It also reflects the future and what you’re moving towards. The front of the body is about your conscious mind and what you’re aware of or what you can see in front of you.

When you have a symptom on the front of your body, it may reflect a disparity or imbalance between your public external self and your private internal self. It may also represent an unwillingness or trepidation in moving forward towards your future. If your symptom is affecting your front, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE BACK

The Back of your body represents the part of yourself that is private and not seen by the world. It also reflects the past and what you’re moving away from. The back of the body is about your subconscious mind and aspects of yourself that are either ignored or yet undiscovered.

When you have a symptom on the back of your body, it may reflect aspects of your hidden self that you’d rather not acknowledge or deal with. It may also represent a feeling of being held back by unresolved emotions, experiences and memories from the past that you’ve accumulated in your physical body. If your symptom is affecting your back, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE LEGS

The Legs take you forward in your life, They also represent standing in your own strength. They reflect both your past as well as your future.

When you experience symptoms in your legs, this can be indicative of feeling stuck and restricted by the past, or fearful of stepping forward into your future. It can also be a reflection of feeling that you struggle to stand in your own strength. If your symptom is affecting your legs, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE ARMS AND HANDS

The Arms represent what you’ve got hold of, or what you have got a grip on and also represent what you can control. The arms and hands also represent giving and receiving

When you experience a symptom in your arms and/or hands it may reflect the inability or unwillingness to leg go of something or conversely take hold of something in your life. It may also represent a lack in being able or willing to give, or to receive. Symptoms in your arms and hands can also indicate things in your life that you need to take control of, or conversely, things that you have no control over and are therefore invited to surrender to. If your symptom is affecting your arms, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE EYES

The Eyes represent what you can understand and foresee. They reflect what you are aware of and perceive both within yourself as well as the world around you. The eyes govern your perspective and focus of the present and the future.

When you experience symptoms that affect your eyes, there may be something that you do not want to see or acknowledge, or you may be pained by what you do see or have seen. It can also represent being too focused on the future or stuck in a narrow perspective. If your symptom is affecting your eyes, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE EARS

The Ears represent what you know, or hear inside yourself, or in your environment.

When you experience symptoms that affect the ears this may represent something that you don’t want to know or hear, or it may reflect your inability or unwillingness to really listen. If your symptom is affecting your ears, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE THROAT

The Throat represents what you need to express, literally or creatively. It is symbolic of your soul expression. It reflects your power to speak your truth, and communicate with the world around you. The throat also allows you to literally take in food and air, so symbolically it also represents what we “take in” or swallow…figuratively or emotionally.

When you experience symptoms that affect the throat, it may symbolize that which you are not expressing or not saying and a lack of confidence in speaking your truth. It may also reflect misuse of your words, gossiping or lying. If your symptom is affecting your throat, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE LUNGS

The Lungs represent your ability to take in life, to be inspired. They also represent your ability to receive energy in all its forms, your openness to new ideas, and having clarity of thought.

When you experience symptoms affecting the lungs, it can represent grief, sadness and depression and may reflect a tendency to hold onto pain, like holding your breath, instead of letting it go, in order to breathe in again. It may also reflect fear or trepidation. If your symptom is affecting your lungs, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE HEART

The Heart is like a knot that binds together all of your energy systems and represents the centre of your sense of love and security. The heart represents your passion for life and your feeling of connection to the world around you. Its also linked to your vocational contribution, your sense of purpose and meaning in life and what you give.

When you experience symptoms affecting the heart this may also be reflected in a lack of joy, fear of being alone, feelings of disconnection and a lack of purpose or meaning in life. It may also reflect an imbalance or unwillingness to love yourself, which may get projected as self pity, resentment or hatred in its various forms. If your symptom is affecting your heart, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE DIGESTIVE SYSTEM (STOMACH, SMALL AND LARGE INTESTINES)

The Digestive system allows you to “digest” and assimilate your experiences. It allows you to draw the positive from your life in order to absorb and nourish your entire system.

When you experience symptoms that affect your digestive system, this may reflect in an inability to process what you may have experienced. It may also represent fear, or an inner knowing, a deep guttural sense of something being out of balance in your life. If your symptom is affecting your digestive system, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE URINARY SYSTEM

The Urinary system represents your ability to eliminate toxicity from yourself and your environment and to release that which you have processed and no longer need.

When you experience symptoms affecting your urinary system, it may represent an inability or inefficiency in how you process negative emotions and trauma. If your symptom is affecting your urinary system, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE LIVER

The Liver represents the storehouse of your life force energy and also your ability to restore and replenish.

When you experience symptoms affecting your liver, it may reflect the storing up of negative emotions that then deplete your energy. This energetic “fermentation” may create anger, resentment and irritability. If your symptom is affecting your liver, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE SPLEEN

The Spleen represents joy of living and passion for life. It also processes and absorbs nourishment from our emotional experiences in life and digests information from our thought processes.

When you experience symptoms affecting your spleen, it can be indicative of obsessiveness that may be reflected in mental instability and depression. It may also reflect a difficulty in processing thoughts and emotions and a reduced capacity for receiving emotional nourishment. If your symptom is affecting your spleen, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

THE REPRODUCTIVE SYSTEM

The Reproductive system represents your self identity, creativity, and ability to experience pleasure. Its also a reflection of how you relate to yourself in relation to others. It represents your sense of security and your ability to survive.

When you experience symptoms that affect the reproductive system it may reflect a sense of insecurity, vulnerability or fear. It can also indicate a perceived threat to your sense of survival. Issues experienced in your reproductive system can also represent distortions in your self identity, resulting in thwarted creativity. They can highlight an inability to receive pleasure that can result in a sense of self punishment and guilt. If your symptom is affecting your reproductive system, ask yourself: Does anything here specifically resonate with me?

WHAT’S THE ANTIDOTE?

So after identifying the location and corresponding metaphysical aspects of your symptom, sometimes the awareness itself can bring about a natural healing, at other times, unpacking your newfound insights with a qualified therapist can assist with addressing the emotional component of your symptom. Further intervention may still be required such as seeking the advice of a health practitioner, talking a course of supplementation or medication if required, making adjustments to your diet or implementing a new physical regimen.

Sometimes the antidote is reducing stress, quitting a negative relationship, learning different ways to express yourself, building in relaxation or meditative processes to your life, reducing screen time or getting out into nature more. Learning emotional tools to assist in dealing with negative emotions or traumas can also be the required antidote. Gaining some teaching on how to release fear, anger, grief or shame can be vital to restoring emotional balance, that then allows for your natural states of healing, love, peace and joy to emerge.

All the best with your health and wellness

Chrissy

At the beginning of each new year we often resolve to change aspects about ourselves that we’d like to improve on and all too often, as soon as we slip back into our routines, those annoying old habits resurface again. I recently read a gem of a book called “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself” written by Dr Joe Dispenza which discusses the neurophysiology associated with those outdated habits/patterns that we want to change and gives a very specific guide to actually creating the changes that we dearly want. Part of this guide highlights an important aspect of the LAW OF ATTRACTION that is often overlooked.

Firstly, let me explain the basic premise of the law of attraction which essentially states that whatever we think, feel and do, subconsciously, creates what we experience in life.

According to findings in neuroscience that Dr Joe Dispenza details, our subconscious mind controls 95% of our thoughts, feelings and actions, and only 5% is controlled by our conscious mind. This means that most of us are thinking, feeling and acting out of subconscious patterns that we aren’t even aware of.

These subconscious patterns are formed from historical experiences that have become embedded within us through memories that we’ve played over and over in our minds and bodies so many times that our responses become automatic.

These automatic responses have several components

Thought processes: judgements, assumptions and decisions we made about ourselves and our environment

Feelings/Emotions: a felt emotion triggered by the thoughts e.g. fear, grief, anger, shame

Physical response: biochemical changes resulting in a variety of physical reactions e.g. contracted muscles causing tension/pain, sleeplessness, anxiety, nausea, digestive issues, lowered immune system leading to physical illnesses etc

Behavioural response: e.g. drinking too much, emotional eating, drug dependencies, violent outbursts, reclusiveness, overspending, irresponsibility, self pity, hopelessness, apathy, fixed psychological positions, obsessive compulsive disorders, snapping at your partner/kids, being overly critical, being overly competitive, being overly controlling…and the list goes on

These thoughts, feelings and physical responses have been so well memorized by us, that they then become subconscious. An example of this given by Dr Dispenza is getting into your car and driving from “A to B” and upon arriving at “B”, you have no recollection of the journey…you’ve done it so many times before you no longer have to methodically go through all of the steps involved in driving, it is now an automatic/subconscious memorized behaviour.

So, as Dr Dispenza instructs: we can either create our experiences by default, assuming a powerless state of ignorance about our own negative patterns and let our subconscious automatic thoughts, feelings and actions run the show, resulting in a haphazard, luck of the draw kind of life; or we can  create our thoughts, feelings
and experiences consciously and deliberately by accessing our mysterious subconscious mind and changing our negative internalized programs and patterns to ones that serve us, thereby using the law of attraction to our benefit.

Coming back to THE FLAW WITH THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

(Well it’s actually a flaw with a misperception regarding the Law of Attraction).

Many readings and teachings on the Law of attraction emphasize focusing our thoughts, words, feelings and behaviors on the positive and not the negative experience, e.g. what we DO want,and NOT what we DON’T want to create.

THE FLAW with this perception, is that it disguises the problem with false positivity.  Colouring everything positive is not only inauthentic, it also ignores and distracts us from the very thing that we want to change, thereby making it less conscious to us  which is exactly what allows it to continue.

I was surprised to read that Dr Dispenza’s instruction for changing the habitual pattern of our choice begins by emphasizing the need to identify and memorize what the individual DOES NOT WANT! This vital step is often omitted from teachings on the LAW OF ATTRACTION.

It dawned on me that the reason for identifying and memorizing the negative state is for the purpose of alerting the CONSCIOUS MIND. The subconscious mind needs the CONSCIOUS MIND to wake it up from its trance-like slumber of automatic thoughts, feelings and behaviors. They’re automatic because we don’t realize what we’re doing until we’re already acting out the same old pattern, just like the example of the journey of driving from “A to B”, and this is why the negative pattern cannot be bypassed by
the conscious mind.

This bypassing of the conscious mind is potentially why, despite much focusing on positively framed thoughts, beliefs, intentions, emotions, feeling states and actions, it’s still easy to get tripped up by that old bad habit, that old way of being, and before you know it, self doubt creeps back in and it feels so impossible to change, it’s easier to just identify with that limited old version of ourselves as who we really are.

What we fail to recognize, is that limited version of ourselves is just an older generation model of us, based upon old neural networks that we keep acting out time and time again despite our best of intentions and desire to be different. If any of this is sounding familiar to you, then perhaps it’s time to give yourself an update

So, speaking from personal application of Dr Dispenza’s teachings, by first identifying and memorizing the negative thing that I want to change, I can bring it into my conscious mind. Then, it takes a good level of self-honestly to acknowledge all of the ways those negative patterns play out; an example could be:

Thought: No one understands me

Feeling: fear, anger or sadness

Physical response: breathlessness, abdominal tension, fatigue, feeling tired and lackluster

Behaviour: Sighing, speaking sharply or rudely, isolating self by either pushing people away with abrasiveness or retreating and sulking, being overly controlling, critical or judging of others, crying, numbing the feelings through drinking alcohol or overeating

By then memorizing those various negative patterns, whatever they may be
for me, I can catch myself the very moment I start thinking, feeling, physically responding to or behaving in any of those familiar old ways and thereby interrupt my own automatic behaviour. Once the pattern is interrupted, I can then employ the change techniques that I’ve learnt (Dr Dispenza gives a thorough instruction
of this in his book) in order to experience a new outcome. Repeating this process through moment to moment awareness, has allowed me to begin to disrupt those old automatic habits and then activate the memorized thoughts, feelings, physical responses and behaviours that I WANT to experience. I am now observing this process play out in real time, having deliberate experiences that are allowing me to emerge into a better version of myself

HOPE

When all else fails, including us, when we fail despite the best of our intentions, hope can be a sustaining force. Hope gives us the ability to try again and again…and again,  to be the best version of ourselves we can be in any given moment, and why settle
for anything less?

Tomorrow is a new day and we’ve just started a new year so wishing you all
the very best for becoming all that you can be in 2019!

CHRISSY DIAMOND