Clean Up Your Temple – A Poem

If you want to hear, for one moment,
What I would advise
For maximum spiritual development
And embodied transformation
Beyond all the lofty attainment
Of non duality and advaita
It would be this

Clean up all you do
Clean up your body temple
Cleanse and nourish
Often and with vigor
Eat the rainbow and remove the toxins

Attend to the emotional body
Reinforced and supported by bodily habits and addictions
Heal old emotions, shine the light of love
On all that is held in grievance and resentment
Let it go, let it all go, for the sake of peace

Delve into mind’s rigidity and righteous beliefs
Entertain the unknown as your intimate friend
And become loose and relaxed

And seek only spiritual equanimity and love

If you attend to these fours pillars of wisdom
Body, emotion, mind, and spirit
You will see radical and fundamental change
But if you leave one pillar out
Your temple will be lopsided and incomplete.

Nervous System Overload, A Modern Malady

If you discovered that the fear
The anxiety, the grief, the rage
Were your nervous system
Crying out for support and release
For care and understanding

Would you do something about it?

Well it is

You have built an identity
Out of a complex set of responses,
Memories and perceptions
You are more a ‘we’ than a ‘me’
And the ‘we’ is trying to say something
Trying to get some attention

Grief, suppressed anger, rage,
Fear, trauma, shame
When they are denied the full flow
Of their energy
Take up residence in the energetic system
They reside in the nervous system

The nervous system
Is an energy system
Electrical and biological energy
A storage and release system
It is exquisite, but it is designed to release its energy

It is an ultra sensitive and miraculously designed system. It will not be easily overridden. But in our ignorance and our wounding and our fear we make attempts to override it. And it leads to trouble, emotional, mental and physical trouble.

Spiritual understanding alone does not necessarily touch or shift what might be ‘stuck’ in the nervous system. I don’t care whether you call it Kundalini or Nervous System Overload. It needs attending to in some way.
Sometimes simply acknowledging this, or even allowing it fully to rise to the surface, can be enough.
Sometimes full scale body/emotional release work is necessary.

It may take a moment, or a day, or a year, or ten years.

I have rarely seen it fully dissolved and released through a mental understanding or even experience of ‘awakening.’ It is one thing to have an experience of awakening but the work really starts afterwards if the old stuff is still stuck in the nervous system.

Yes, it’s emotional, and it will require voyaging into the murky world of emotions, and of course we don’t want to go there. But one way or another the fact is that if there is anything that has taken up residence in the energetic system we call the nervous system, it must be attended to, and released into freedom.

So many people are walking around with such clear understanding, but on deeper exploration we discover the nervous system is on overload, and that’s where the work is.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Digest Your Experience

The root of great health and vitality
Is great digestion and elimination
It might sound obvious but let me tell you
That digestion and elimination
Must also include life experiences and the past
So many people are digestively compromised
Because they cannot fully digest their past

Or eliminate the waste product
Therefore they cannot gain the necessary nutrition
And there is always some nutrition to be had
From experience, even negative experience

If you want great health and better digestion
Turn attention not just to eating better
But to proper digestion of your life, your past,
Your wounds, those dark areas, the no go areas,
And find a way to transmute them through full digestion

What does that mean?
It means letting them in to your inner world
Eating them, chewing them over, absorbing them,
But not indulging them or creating yet another story
Out of them
But, like food, extracting the goodness from them,
Any nutrients, anything useful, and then eliminating the waste
And then forgetting about them

I have seen hundreds of people
Still carrying around the past
Unable to accept it, unable to digest it
And thus unable to really live here and now
And those same people often express
Digestive issues, or chronic illness
Or constipation, or some other related problem.

This is not as far out as it may sound.

Update on Gut Healing and IBD, Colitis Books

Greetings!

I want to update you about some links to the best books I know for general gut healing and specifically colitis, crohn’s and all things ‘colonic.’

Some old links will no longer work from tomorrow, August 1st. Those links are to Jini Patel Thompson’s ‘Listen To Your Gut’ book on my site. And to her website in general, which has lots of products and information about healing IBD, colitis and crohn’s.

This is the new link to her shop:
Listen To Your Gut Shop

Her book has been downloaded and bought many times and it seems to help. At the very least it provides a springboard to new ideas. At best it gives very detailed and practical knowledge of what to do during acute episodes of colitis and crohn’s, what probiotics to take, how and what to eat, and the emotional side of IBD.

It is worth a look if you are still lost and wondering what to do.

 

Click on the book picture to check out the book itself.

Thanks, and have a great day.

Kavi

Sympathy for Suffering

The last few days, in fact in recent weeks, and particularly since we visited Santa Fe which is at 7000 feet, I have been revisiting some old symptoms associated with my ulcerative colitis. It is quite an unpleasant shock I can tell you. There is no blood, which is always pretty scary, but I have had mucus and irregular bowel movement and that feeling in the belly of discomfort and distress. (Sorry for the graphic detail!)

I am not trying to get any sympathy here, this short blog is about something else.

It is about the difference between feeing well and feeling ill.

I spent almost ten long years carrying illness and slow recovery. At times both Amoda (my wife) and I thought I was either going to die, slowly, or else carry sickness around for the rest of my life. It was bad, at times it was utterly demoralizing and I have spent time in despair and depression. I have been to the edge with my body and come back to tell the tale.

And my healing journey worked. It took such a long time, and so much patience and persistence. By the time I did my long water fast I still carried some remnants of scarring and discomfort in my colon, but after the water fast that disappeared. Since then I have had various issues, including a mysterious full body rash that lasted two years, and a borderline hashimotos diagnosis (thyroid malfunction and auto immune problem), but on the whole I have been getting stronger and healthier, to the point where people remark on my vitality and glow.

And every so often something happens and I get dragged back into stuff, and I remember.

I remember how tough it is to be ill. I think it’s real tough when the cause is mysterious and vague, labelled ‘auto immune’ without saying or knowing where it has come from or what to really do with it. Without knowing how to heal and how long it might take, it’s pretty daunting. That’s not to say acute illness is any better. In fact it’s all suffering.

It is tough. And that’s my point here. It is simple. It is very hard to function fully and brightly when there is illness. I am sorry. If it’s you who has something, I am sorry and I wish you great healing, or compassion and empathy, depending on where you are at.

Not everyone heals their body.

But everyone can heal their heart.

I came to the conclusion many years ago, when I was facing ‘the ‘illness for life’ thoughts, that it was more important for me to heal my wounded and broken heart than to be obsessed with healing my body. So I endeavored to do exactly that, and I remember one night I had what now seems like a deeply spiritual experience. Let me tell you.

I went out to the local woods and I lay down, fed up with pain and hardship, and desperate for some relief. I gave myself to the ground and it felt like a fell into a hole (kind of like a grave) and I realized I had reached the end of my tether. I came face to face with my mortality, and thus with God.

I remember saying (Inwardly), ‘God, you can take this body if you wan it, I no longer care and I am sick of holding on to desperation, but please help me heal this wounded heart. Give me some peace and love, and do what you want.’

I was so willing to let go of this body something changed. I actually became aware that life is vast and mysterious, much bigger than the smallness of ‘me and my body’ and how everything that we do, think, feel and experience is held in a love more exquisite and beautiful than anything we can ever imagine. If we could taste that love, what we might call God’s Love, for a moment, we may well not be able to do anything ever again, it may render everything else meaningless.

I have never forgotten this and whenever I slip back into anxiety or fear about illness, or death, or suffering, I remember it. It brings relief and great compassion, both for myself and for others who suffer. I know, through personal experience, that suffering is temporary and is not the truth of who we are.

But it is a challenge. And I feel for those who are ill, those who are at the end, those who are scared and those children who get ill so early in life. I have no explanations but I have an open heart that longs to hold suffering close and help carry it a little when it is too heavy.

Thank you for reading, may you be blessed.

Worrying about things that don’t happen – is catastrophic for the body

I just wrote this post on Facebook and it was my most popular! Is everyone suffering from this?

Worrying about things that don’t happen is one of the chief causes of adrenal stress, immune compromise and nervous system meltdown.
It is not only a spiritual issue. It is a mental and emotional issue, and very much a physical one.
There you have it, a truly holistic experience!
I know this syndrome intimately as I have been very vulnerable to it most of my life and have now largely ‘tamed’ it. It comes with a ‘vata’ disposition, according to Ayurveda. (The vata dosa, or body type, is prone to anxiety and fear)

Worrying about things that don’t happen is a fixation that must be met with openness and willingness to face the fear. We feed it the fuel it wants by turning away from it or being overly reactive to it. We lose our discernment and become hyper anxious.

That hyper anxiety hits the body hard, and is ultimately useless and destructive.

I recently returned from a trip to the east coast of USA. We accidentally got my name wrong on the flight booking, and that caused me considerable anxiety. I imagined they wouldn’t let me on the flight. I actually became quite stressed about the whole thing. Add to that I thought our luggage was over weight, and we didn’t have enough time to get everything done and I was all over the place!

Guess what? It was a big lesson.
a. They didn’t care about the name and changed it in a moment.
b. The luggage was fine.
c. We had loads of time and were still at the airport early.
d. I stressed over absolutely nothing.

Luckily I have learned not to take out this anxiety on anyone else, particularly loved ones. I keep it to myself as much as possible.

But the point I’m making is I worried about things that didn’t happen. And it began to screw around with my body.
Acute anxiety or chronic anxiety, it doesn’t matter, it still degrades the body integrity and must be met with softness and love.

The effect of this unnecessary worry on the body can be catastrophic. From adrenal fatigue to ramped up immune system, to liver tightness, high cortisol levels, risk of heart attack, rashes, and serious digestive problems, this is not some minor issue. Even cancer may be fueled by major worry.

It is a chronic and societal problem that must be faced individually and collectively. 

What can you do?

You can do so much to reduce this heavyweight problem.

All endeavors will help. Here are some ideas that I use.

Meditation. Spending time in nature. Exercise. Relaxation.Visualization. 
Spiritual inquiry. Healing old wounds and traumas. Understanding one’s mind and belief systems.
Magnesium. Detoxification. Nourishment with healthy and organic vegetables and salads.
Decreasing acidic and stimulating foods and drinks. NO COCA COLA!
Love.

Let me know what you think, or whether you worry about things that don’t happen and what strategies you employ, if any, to help reduce it’s damaging effects.

And thanks for reading!

DETOXIFICATION Brings us Face to Face with Ourselves.

Today is the final day of our new year cleanse. A big pot of Kitchari.

Tonight we take Epsom salts (or Prune Juice in my case as I’m sensitive to Epsom) and then tomorrow we may get rid of old toxins.

It hasn’t been very difficult but its always better to go somewhere neutral to do cleansing I find.
There are too many distractions and work related issues at home. It pulls you into the world, and a big part of detoxifying is to drop the world for a while and go inside.

That inner space doesn’t always have to be peaceful, it is more just a turning in another direction, inside instead of outside, and that turning attention within seems to do something, allowing the nervous system to relax, and allowing all old thoughts, beliefs and emotions to rise to the surface for healing.

The mind and the body follow each other, sometimes one leads and sometimes the other.

The point of holistic health is to get the relationship between these two apparently separate things (in truth they are not separate) as harmonious and fluid, as natural and relaxed, as possible.

When they are out of whack there is a disconnect between mind and body and between emotions and body, and between spirit and body, and that disconnect can become chronic and dangerous to the whole organism.
Much of illness has its roots in this disconnect. All chronic illness has its roots in this disconnection.

Healing it can seriously help restore connection and harmony. But to restore connection we may need to attend to the body and it’s stored ‘stuff,’ and by stuff I mean real life toxins from chemicals to heavy metals to pharmaceutical drugs etc etc AND old and toxic emotions that hurt and strain the system like pent up rage or guilt, old trauma and grievances.

Detoxification brings us face to face with ourselves. I guess that’s why so many people don’t like it.

The process is simple. As you go further into detoxification, through whichever method suits you (fasting, panchakarma, juicing, or specific diet) so old toxins and impurities that have hidden in your system for ages, become dislodged and begin to circulate, hopefully in readiness for elimination through various channels. This dislodging and circulating creates discomfort, both physically and emotionally, and creates a certain energetic invitation to revisit old memories and sometimes painful experiences. It brings up your stuff.

The task is to be able to allow all of these to be released, both physically AND mentally/emotionally. If you can’t release them emotionally they may well end up being re-stored in the body until you are ready. There is no ‘right or wrong’ about this, there is only readiness or unreadiness. So we do what we can, we prepare ourselves emotionally for the detoxification experience, support the body to release on the physical level and attend to our emotional and mental wellbeing by not getting too caught up in old triggers or dramas and becoming more equanimous.

That is not always easy. And it really doesn’t mean putting on a brave face or pretending it didn’t hurt or it doesn’t still hurt. Of course not. It means being real, and if it means crying or being angry then that’s what must happen. But it does mean not getting stuck anywhere with stories or righteousness or justification. It means FEELING IT FULLY AND LETTING IT GO.

Detoxification is the time to turn one’s love inwards and to take care and nurture oneself, physically and emotionally. If we want lightness and freedom to flow in our lives, we have to give that lightness and freedom to our own bodies, our own cells and our own emotional wellbeing. It is a valuable time for restoration and is a wonderful antidote to the world that constantly pulls us outwards into forever doing. Everything about the modern world is based on activity, on doing things, on the speed we move at, on time itself, of which there never seems to be enough.

Detoxification turns all that on its head and invites us to drop it, at least for a while. No wonder its challenging.

HAPPY NEW HEALING!

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Being ‘Triggered’ and How It Affects Health

One of the links between the body and the emotions, between emotions and health and illness is the nervous system and ‘triggers.’

Most people these days have heard the term ‘triggered.’ It’s a term used to describe a largely unconscious response mechanism activated by some event, or thought or experience. Something ‘triggers’ you and in a flash you have gone to a different place within yourself and might suddenly feel emotional rage, stress, anxiety, or any negative sensation. It is rather like, and can be associated with PTSD. There is an element of PTSD in it.

Something triggers you and bam! You are jettisoned into a different reality and you lose perspective and balance and might become irrational and emotional, or feel like a trapped child, or anything. Triggers are individual because they come from our individual experience. In most people they have their roots in childhood trauma and stress, situations of powerlessness and lost innocence, experiences that have never been processed but been ‘lived with’ or even denied. They are extremely powerful and should never be underestimated.

But here is the point. The triggers are not just in emotions but in the body, held within the nervous system. These triggers activate the ‘fight or flight’ mechanism and have the power to instantly release cortisol and adrenalin, necessary for survival in the face of great danger but destructive in times of peace.

So the more you get triggered, the more the nervous system is activated, until, left unchecked and unacknowledged, it starts to create chronic patterns that easily run down the adrenal gland, and contribute to thyroid degradation and immune system overload. The nervous system is fundamental to health, and a huge contributor to illness. Thus emotional life is hard wired to body health.

For true health to be realized these triggers have to be fully met and understood, and at some point they must be released from their stranglehold over the organism. This process of moving beyond the triggers is one of the great liberators I have seen in many people, and in itself can cause a cascade of transformation that is profound.

I have also seen the damage triggers create when left un investigated. They can run rampant and cause chaos. And the worst thing is they will almost definitely cause illness.

Dig Deep on the Mysterious Path of Healing

If you have chosen the path of natural healing, for whatever reason, and you have found yourself stumbling in the dark, getting lost, going up blind alleys, being scared, or being disappointed, thinking you have found an answer only to be foiled, I have some news for that will challenge you and support you.

That is how it is, both in healing the body AND in transformation. 

Welcome to the mysterious world, the real world, the natural world. I know its frustrating and confusing and I know most of us want our answers to be straightforward and logical, because thats the world we have grown up in, but you are entering a different world now, and it doesn’t work the same.

Science, society, doctors, the whole shebang, would have us all believe its all scientific and even superficial. We so desperately want life to be straightforward. But here is the thing.

The basic model upon which all this thinking is based, IS A FLAWED WORLD VIEW. Yup. It is, sadly, a world view that has divorced itself from the natural movement of life, from nature itself. And I am delighted and sorry to tell them (and you) that the human being is still NATURAL. whether we like it or not. 

We have been heavily socialized, and industrialized and modernized, for only the last 100-200 years. For the previous thousands, even millions, of years, we have had to adapt to nature. Add to that truth the fact that we are highly complex beings who have emotions, hormones that relate to emotions, immune systems that relate to our thoughts and feelings, and nervous systems that are super conductor highways of vast intelligence, AND we have a profound spiritual side that connects us to the divine, and you have a seriously deep and complex person!

So cut yourself some slack and start digging. Dig deep, deep, deep. Dig into the roots of who you are, where you come from, what you have inherited and your entire belief system. Find out where you turned away from love because of fear, when you were young, and heal that wound. Search for all your old grievances and vengeance and commit yourself to releasing yourself from the prison. You wont heal or transform until you let go and really love yourself fully.

You have to dig to heal. When the tree is suffering, you can try and fix the branches, the leaves, or even the trunk, but you probably wont see much difference. But if you attend to the roots and get them nourished and flowing, pretty soon the leaves, the trunk, and the branches are going to grow strong and healthy. Whats the difference between us and the tree?

Nothing, except our beliefs systems. It is our belief systems that stand in our way. Don’t be a victim of a belief system that doesn’t serve you. Find one that serves you, or better still, go so deep into consciousness that you transcend belief systems altogether, and then you are free to play and dance and feel love and joy.

The one who has transcended his own belief system is free, and at peace with himself and the world.

Check out this HEALING HASHIMOTOS SUMMIT COMING UP IN NOVEMBER

The Warrior’s Path of Healing Auto Immune – OPENING THE HEART

HEALING the WOUNDED HEART and its impact on the Auto Immune illness.

 

There is a basis for my work. It is pretty deep and only for those who want to dive into the essence of their being and unravel all those stories that have held them captive for years.

The bottom line I work from is this: It is all about the relationship between ‘us’ and the ‘outside world.’

 

That all things are about our perceived relationship to the apparent outside world, from conception, through utero and upon and beyond birth.

 

This fragile and vulnerable relationship is mirrored in our immune system, itself in ‘relationship’ to the apparent outside world.

 

When the heart gets wounded early in life and withdraws into ‘self protection’ it seems to impact the immune system and the whole of the relationship we have with the outside world.

 

It can create a radical sensitivity, a vulnerability, or a fear and hostility. All these affect the delicate balance in our gut, and in our entire digestive tract.

 

It can set up an unconscious ‘fight or flight’ mechanism that will run the entirety of our lives, or it can trigger unresolved and unexpressed anger and rage that creates heat and inflammation in the delicate system we have.

 

None of this is good in the long term, because all these suppressions of our energy, or build up of unexpressed anger and heat, eventually wear down the struggling auto immune system and leave it open and vulnerable to all sorts of issues.

 

If you put enough pressure on a system eventually it will collapse, thats the same with our inner systems.

 

And so, part of the response to ‘symptoms’ that present in all auto immune, as well as taking care of the physical needs, is to take a true and authentic look inside at what the heart is hiding, or what the heart is hiding from.

 

Releasing that energy, that vulnerability, that anger or fear, or disappointment, may not be the ‘magic bullet,’ but it is going to contribute to the healing of the whole organism.

 

The Warrior’s Path of Healing Auto Immune.