Knowledge of that which is alive can alone banish terror
Wilhelm Reich
When looking at our emotional life, we can often be daunted by overwhelming feelings of inadequacy and confusion.
Emotional intelligence is not high on the agenda in our schools or our society, and usually, our emotional patterns and ways of relating are restricted to how we were taught by our primary carer and our family of origin.
The fact is that we can't begin to experience happiness if we are so committed to maintaining our current way of relating. It is only though heart felt honest communication that we can relate to each other in any real way.
It makes me wonder what happens when we allow sociopathic and psychopathic (that is, un-empathetic) behaviour to go unchecked. When I considered this at great length, what appears to happen is this: the world is in a state of chaos, run by corporations and governments run by emotionally unevolved men (and some women) all in the name of the Economy. A topic way to big for me to tackle! So hence, I leave it with you...
Back to my speciality- the impact of suppressing/ignoring our emotions and the physical consequences.
The Impact...
The impact on our health can be varied. Recent studies done by Psychologists suggest that many emotional issues are misdiagnosed as physical illness by the medical profession. A study done by Donna E Stewart (Int. Ment. Health, Vol 19, no 3 pp.56-68 1990) suggests that Environmental Hypersensitivity, Candisiasis Hypersensitivity and Chronic Fatigue all have emotional imbalances at their origin.
A thirty five year longitudinal study (Peterson,Christopher,seliman,Martin E,Valliant,George E Journal of Personality and social Psychology, Vol 55 (1) Jul.1988) looked into the attitudes of pessimism and health. The conclusion was that those who were more pessimistic, or who had a pessimistic prognosis appeared to be a risk for poor health at ages 45 through to 60. Pessimistic explanatory styles* in early adult hood seems to be a pre curser for health problems in later life.
If these types of studies are showing this, it surprises me that the information is taking so long to reach the mainstream, where our health professionals need support in understanding these factors.
Treating the cause, not the symptoms...
One of the most useful and powerful healing tools that we use here at herbal treatments is our ability to look beyond the superficial, and delve more deeply into the causal factors of Chronic Illness. This involves knowing the patterns that certain emotional suppression takes. Usually just questioning a person can reveal the stress and emotional issue that has dictated their choices which has led them into a dis-ease pattern.
What's critical in our system of medicine is to feel the client's journey, and help them to see the process. Herbal support is brilliant, as we can strengthen the weakened areas specifically.
I love using heart herbs, and central nervous system herbs to help someone become strong enough to delve into the inner landscape, and help them find the most appropriate emotional support on their journey.
In many cases, if I am seeing a client in the clinic who is not comfortable talking about their feelings, I like to prescribe Bach flower essences which can have an amazing result , and support the herbal mix that I have prescribed.
If you look at any of the articles in this web site, we link all illness back to a suggested emotional pattern, and you will see Bach Flowers that support the resolution of these emotional imbalances.
The Solution...
Herbs are required to build strength in the physical system, and then you are ready to work well with a modality like breath work.
Breath work, in its purest form, is still in my experience the best modality to work with when treating emotional imbalances, depression and anxiety.
One brilliant website to look into is the Heart-Math institute, where studies are being done of heart coherency and health. Wonderful and inspiring to those really interested in understanding how our attitudes, thoughts and of course emotions affect our DNA .
Many of you would be familiar with Louise L Hay, who wrote a book called "you can heal your life". If you not familiar, then I encourage you to consider purchasing this book and browsing her insightful solutions to health concerns.
The conclusion is as Ghandi said "Be the change that you want to see in the world"...
So, if you want better health, believing it is so will help, and taking positive steps will help a lot . A glass half full attitude is good to cultivate, and if this is difficult it's because you need to shed old emotional wounds and look at beliefs about yourself and the world...
What you will find is that as you shed old beliefs, feel stronger and more optimistic, everything starts to change, including your closest and most intimate of friendships.
All of these things can be done, it just requires an open mind, and courage of the soul as well as some genuine heartfelt assistance form those that are skilled in these areas.
In this Newsletter I am featuring an equine Case Study with Bailey, owned by Samantha McCormick.
I hope that you find this information useful!
